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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Claverings, by Anthony Trollope,
+Illustrated by Mary Ellen Edwards
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Claverings
+
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 3, 2005  [eBook #15766]
+This revision released July 23, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLAVERINGS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Mike Mariano from page images generously made available
+by the Making of America Collection of the Cornell University Library
+(http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/)
+and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D., using illustrations generously
+made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org).
+
+
+
+Editorial note:
+
+      _The Claverings_ was published first in serial form in _The
+      Cornhill Magazine_ from February, 1866, to May, 1867, and
+      then in book form by Smith, Elder and Co. in 1867.
+
+      The _Cornhill_ version contained 16 full-page illustrations
+      and 16 quarter-page vignettes by Mary Ellen Edwards, a
+      respected and successful illustrator. The Smith, Elder first
+      edition contained only the full-page illustrations. Both the
+      full-page illustrations and the vignettes are included in
+      this e-book. They can be seen by viewing the HTML version of
+      this file. See 15766-h.htm or 15766-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15766/15766-h/15766-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15766/15766-h.zip)
+
+      Images of the original illustrations are available through
+      Internet Archive.
+      For Chapters I-XV see
+      https://archive.org/details/claverings01trolrich
+      Chapters XVI-XXXIII see
+      https://archive.org/details/claverings02trolrich
+      and Chapters XXXIV-XLVIII see
+      https://archive.org/details/claverings03trolrich
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CLAVERINGS
+
+by
+
+ANTHONY TROLLOPE
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+         I. JULIA BRABAZON.
+        II. HARRY CLAVERING CHOOSES HIS PROFESSION.
+       III. LORD ONGAR.
+        IV. FLORENCE BURTON.
+         V. LADY ONGAR'S RETURN.
+        VI. THE REV. SAMUEL SAUL.
+       VII. SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A COUNTESS.
+      VIII. THE HOUSE IN ONSLOW CRESCENT.
+        IX. TOO PRUDENT BY HALF.
+         X. FLORENCE BURTON AT THE RECTORY.
+        XI. SIR HUGH AND HIS BROTHER ARCHIE.
+       XII. LADY ONGAR TAKES POSSESSION.
+      XIII. A VISITOR CALLS AT ONGAR PARK.
+       XIV. COUNT PATEROFF AND HIS SISTER.
+        XV. AN EVENING IN BOLTON STREET.
+       XVI. THE RIVALS.
+      XVII. "LET HER KNOW THAT YOU'RE THERE."
+     XVIII. CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.
+       XIX. THE BLUE POSTS.
+        XX. DESOLATION.
+       XXI. YES; WRONG;--CERTAINLY WRONG.
+      XXII. THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL.
+     XXIII. CUMBERLY LANE WITHOUT THE MUD.
+      XXIV. THE RUSSIAN SPY.
+       XXV. "WHAT WOULD MEN SAY OF YOU?"
+      XXVI. THE MAN WHO DUSTED HIS BOOTS WITH HIS HANDKERCHIEF.
+     XXVII. FRESHWATER GATE.
+    XXVIII. WHAT CECILIA BURTON DID FOR HER SISTER-IN-LAW.
+      XXIX. HOW DAMON PARTED FROM PYTHIAS.
+       XXX. DOODLES IN MOUNT STREET.
+      XXXI. HARRY CLAVERING'S CONFESSION.
+     XXXII. FLORENCE BURTON PACKS UP A PACKET.
+    XXXIII. SHOWING WHY HARRY CLAVERING WAS WANTED AT THE RECTORY.
+     XXXIV. MR. SAUL'S ABODE.
+      XXXV. PARTING.
+     XXXVI. CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS LAST ATTEMPT.
+    XXXVII. WHAT LADY ONGAR THOUGHT ABOUT IT.
+   XXXVIII. HOW TO DISPOSE OF A WIFE.
+     XXXIX. FAREWELL TO DOODLES.
+        XL. SHEWING HOW MRS. BURTON FOUGHT HER BATTLE.
+       XLI. THE SHEEP RETURNS TO THE FOLD.
+      XLII. RESTITUTION.
+     XLIII. LADY ONGAR'S REVENGE.
+      XLIV. SHEWING WHAT HAPPENED OFF HELIGOLAND.
+       XLV. IS SHE MAD?
+      XLVI. MADAME GORDELOUP RETIRES FROM BRITISH DIPLOMACY.
+     XLVII. SHOWING HOW THINGS SETTLED THEMSELVES AT THE RECTORY.
+    XLVIII. CONCLUSION.
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+   "A PUIR FECKLESS THING, TOTTERING ALONG LIKE,--"   CHAPTER III.
+   MR. SAUL PROPOSES.                                 CHAPTER VI.
+   A FRIENDLY TALK.                                   CHAPTER VII.
+   WAS NOT THE PRICE IN HER HAND?                     CHAPTER XII.
+   "DID HE NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST HER?"       CHAPTER XIV.
+   CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.         CHAPTER XVIII.
+   "THE LORD GIVETH, AND THE LORD TAKETH AWAY."       CHAPTER XX.
+   "HARRY," SHE SAID, "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG
+      BETWEEN YOU AND FLORENCE?"                      CHAPTER XXII.
+   "LADY ONGAR, ARE YOU NOT RATHER NEAR THE EDGE?"    CHAPTER XXVII.
+   HOW DAMON PARTED FROM PYTHIAS.                     CHAPTER XXIX.
+   FLORENCE BURTON MAKES UP A PACKET.                 CHAPTER XXXII.
+   HUSBAND AND WIFE.                                  CHAPTER XXXV.
+   A PLEA FOR MERCY.                                  CHAPTER XXXVII.
+   THE SHEEP RETURNS TO THE FOLD.                     CHAPTER XLI.
+   HARRY SAT BETWEEN THEM, LIKE A SHEEP AS HE WAS,
+      VERY MEEKLY.                                    CHAPTER XLIII.
+   LADY ONGAR AND FLORENCE.                           CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+JULIA BRABAZON.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+The gardens of Clavering Park were removed some three hundred yards
+from the large, square, sombre-looking stone mansion which was
+the country-house of Sir Hugh Clavering, the eleventh baronet of
+that name; and in these gardens, which had but little of beauty to
+recommend them, I will introduce my readers to two of the personages
+with whom I wish to make them acquainted in the following story. It
+was now the end of August, and the parterres, beds, and bits of lawn
+were dry, disfigured, and almost ugly, from the effects of a long
+drought. In gardens to which care and labour are given abundantly,
+flower-beds will be pretty, and grass will be green, let the weather
+be what it may; but care and labour were but scantily bestowed on the
+Clavering Gardens, and everything was yellow, adust, harsh, and dry.
+Over the burnt turf towards a gate that led to the house, a lady was
+walking, and by her side there walked a gentleman.
+
+"You are going in, then, Miss Brabazon," said the gentleman, and it
+was very manifest from his tone that he intended to convey some deep
+reproach in his words.
+
+"Of course I am going in," said the lady. "You asked me to walk with
+you, and I refused. You have now waylaid me, and therefore I shall
+escape,--unless I am prevented by violence." As she spoke she stood
+still for a moment, and looked into his face with a smile which
+seemed to indicate that if such violence were used, within rational
+bounds, she would not feel herself driven to great anger.
+
+But though she might be inclined to be playful, he was by no means in
+that mood. "And why did you refuse me when I asked you?" said he.
+
+"For two reasons, partly because I thought it better to avoid any
+conversation with you."
+
+"That is civil to an old friend."
+
+"But chiefly,"--and now as she spoke she drew herself up, and
+dismissed the smile from her face, and allowed her eyes to fall upon
+the ground;--"but chiefly because I thought that Lord Ongar would
+prefer that I should not roam alone about Clavering Park with any
+young gentleman while I am down here; and that he might specially
+object to my roaming with you, were he to know that you and I
+were--old acquaintances. Now I have been very frank, Mr. Clavering,
+and I think that that ought to be enough."
+
+"You are afraid of him already, then?"
+
+"I am afraid of offending any one whom I love, and especially any one
+to whom I owe any duty."
+
+"Enough! Indeed it is not. From what you know of me do you think it
+likely that that will be enough?" He was now standing in front of
+her, between her and the gate, and she made no effort to leave him.
+
+"And what is it you want? I suppose you do not mean to fight Lord
+Ongar, and that if you did you would not come to me."
+
+"Fight him! No; I have no quarrel with him. Fighting him would do no
+good."
+
+"None in the least; and he would not fight if you were to ask him;
+and you could not ask him without being false to me."
+
+"I should have had an example for that, at any rate."
+
+"That's nonsense, Mr. Clavering. My falsehood, if you should choose
+to call me false, is of a very different nature, and is pardonable by
+all laws known to the world."
+
+"You are a jilt,--that is all."
+
+"Come, Harry, don't use hard words,"--and she put her hand kindly
+upon his arm. "Look at me, such as I am, and at yourself, and then
+say whether anything but misery could come of a match between you
+and me. Our ages by the register are the same, but I am ten years
+older than you by the world. I have two hundred a year, and I owe at
+this moment six hundred pounds. You have, perhaps, double as much,
+and would lose half of that if you married. You are an usher at a
+school."
+
+"No, madam, I am not an usher at a school."
+
+"Well, well, you know I don't mean to make you angry."
+
+"At the present moment, I am a schoolmaster, and if I remained so, I
+might fairly look forward to a liberal income. But I am going to give
+that up."
+
+"You will not be more fit for matrimony because you are going to give
+up your profession. Now Lord Ongar has--heaven knows what;--perhaps
+sixty thousand a year."
+
+"In all my life I never heard such effrontery,--such barefaced,
+shameless worldliness!"
+
+"Why should I not love a man with a large income?"
+
+"He is old enough to be your father."
+
+"He is thirty-six, and I am twenty-four."
+
+"Thirty-six!"
+
+"There is the Peerage for you to look at. But, my dear Harry, do you
+not know that you are perplexing me and yourself too, for nothing?
+I was fool enough when I came here from Nice, after papa's death, to
+let you talk nonsense to me for a month or two."
+
+"Did you or did you not swear that you loved me?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Clavering, I did not imagine that your strength would have
+condescended to take such advantage over the weakness of a woman.
+I remember no oaths of any kind, and what foolish assertions I may
+have made, I am not going to repeat. It must have become manifest to
+you during these two years that all that was a romance. If it be a
+pleasure to you to look back to it, of that pleasure I cannot deprive
+you. Perhaps I also may sometimes look back. But I shall never speak
+of that time again; and you, if you are as noble as I take you to be,
+will not speak of it either. I know you would not wish to injure me."
+
+"I would wish to save you from the misery you are bringing on
+yourself."
+
+"In that you must allow me to look after myself. Lord Ongar certainly
+wants a wife, and I intend to be true to him,--and useful."
+
+"How about love?"
+
+"And to love him, sir. Do you think that no man can win a woman's
+love, unless he is filled to the brim with poetry, and has a neck
+like Lord Byron, and is handsome like your worship? You are very
+handsome, Harry, and you, too, should go into the market and make the
+best of yourself. Why should you not learn to love some nice girl
+that has money to assist you?"
+
+"Julia!"
+
+"No, sir; I will not be called Julia. If you do, I will be insulted,
+and leave you instantly. I may call you Harry, as being so much
+younger,--though we were born in the same month,--and as a sort of
+cousin. But I shall never do that after to-day."
+
+"You have courage enough, then, to tell me that you have not ill-used
+me?"
+
+"Certainly I have. Why, what a fool you would have me be! Look at me,
+and tell me whether I am fit to be the wife of such a one as you. By
+the time you are entering the world, I shall be an old woman, and
+shall have lived my life. Even if I were fit to be your mate when
+we were living here together, am I fit, after what I have done and
+seen during the last two years? Do you think it would really do
+any good to any one if I were to jilt, as you call it, Lord Ongar,
+and tell them all,--your cousin, Sir Hugh, and my sister, and your
+father,--that I was going to keep myself up, and marry you when you
+were ready for me?"
+
+"You mean to say that the evil is done."
+
+"No, indeed. At the present moment I owe six hundred pounds, and I
+don't know where to turn for it, so that my husband may not be dunned
+for my debts as soon as he has married me. What a wife I should have
+been for you;--should I not?"
+
+"I could pay the six hundred pounds for you with money that I have
+earned myself,--though you do call me an usher;--and perhaps would
+ask fewer questions about it than Lord Ongar will do with all his
+thousands."
+
+"Dear Harry, I beg your pardon about the usher. Of course, I know
+that you are a fellow of your college, and that St. Cuthbert's, where
+you teach the boys, is one of the grandest schools in England; and I
+hope you'll be a bishop; nay,--I think you will, if you make up your
+mind to try for it."
+
+"I have given up all idea of going into the church."
+
+"Then you'll be a judge. I know you'll be great and distinguished,
+and that you'll do it all yourself. You are distinguished already. If
+you could only know how infinitely I should prefer your lot to mine!
+Oh, Harry, I envy you! I do envy you! You have got the ball at your
+feet, and the world before you, and can win everything for yourself."
+
+"But nothing is anything without your love."
+
+"Psha! Love, indeed. What could I do for you but ruin you? You know
+it as well as I do; but you are selfish enough to wish to continue a
+romance which would be absolutely destructive to me, though for a
+while it might afford a pleasant relaxation to your graver studies.
+Harry, you can choose in the world. You have divinity, and law, and
+literature, and art. And if debarred from love now by the exigencies
+of labour, you will be as fit for love in ten years' time as you are
+at present."
+
+"But I do love now."
+
+"Be a man, then, and keep it to yourself. Love is not to be our
+master. You can choose, as I say; but I have had no choice,--no
+choice but to be married well, or to go out like a snuff of a candle.
+I don't like the snuff of a candle, and, therefore, I am going to be
+married well."
+
+"And that suffices?"
+
+"It must suffice. And why should it not suffice? You are very
+uncivil, cousin, and very unlike the rest of the world. Everybody
+compliments me on my marriage. Lord Ongar is not only rich, but he is
+a man of fashion, and a man of talent."
+
+"Are you fond of race-horses yourself?"
+
+"Very fond of them."
+
+"And of that kind of life?"
+
+"Very fond of it. I mean to be fond of everything that Lord Ongar
+likes. I know that I can't change him, and, therefore, I shall not
+try."
+
+"You are right there, Miss Brabazon."
+
+"You mean to be impertinent, sir; but I will not take it so. This is
+to be our last meeting in private, and I won't acknowledge that I am
+insulted. But it must be over now, Harry; and here I have been pacing
+round and round the garden with you, in spite of my refusal just now.
+It must not be repeated, or things will be said which I do not mean
+to have ever said of me. Good-by, Harry."
+
+"Good-by, Julia."
+
+"Well, for that once let it pass. And remember this: I have told you
+all my hopes, and my one trouble. I have been thus open with you
+because I thought it might serve to make you look at things in a
+right light. I trust to your honour as a gentleman to repeat nothing
+that I have said to you."
+
+"I am not given to repeat such things as those."
+
+"I'm sure you are not. And I hope you will not misunderstand the
+spirit in which they have been spoken. I shall never regret what I
+have told you now, if it tends to make you perceive that we must both
+regard our past acquaintance as a romance, which must, from the stern
+necessity of things, be treated as a dream which we have dreamt, or a
+poem which we have read."
+
+"You can treat it as you please."
+
+"God bless you, Harry; and I will always hope for your welfare, and
+hear of your success with joy. Will you come up and shoot with them
+on Thursday?"
+
+"What, with Hugh? No; Hugh and I do not hit it off together. If I
+shot at Clavering I should have to do it as a sort of head-keeper.
+It's a higher position, I know, than that of an usher, but it doesn't
+suit me."
+
+"Oh, Harry! that is so cruel! But you will come up to the house. Lord
+Ongar will be there on the thirty-first; the day after to-morrow, you
+know."
+
+"I must decline even that temptation. I never go into the house when
+Hugh is there, except about twice a year on solemn invitation--just
+to prevent there being a family quarrel."
+
+"Good-by, then," and she offered him her hand.
+
+"Good-by, if it must be so."
+
+"I don't know whether you mean to grace my marriage?"
+
+"Certainly not. I shall be away from Clavering, so that the marriage
+bells may not wound my ears. For the matter of that, I shall be at
+the school."
+
+"I suppose we shall meet some day in town."
+
+"Most probably not. My ways and Lord Ongar's will be altogether
+different, even if I should succeed in getting up to London. If you
+ever come to see Hermione here, I may chance to meet you in the
+house. But you will not do that often, the place is so dull and
+unattractive."
+
+"It is the dearest old park."
+
+"You won't care much for old parks as Lady Ongar."
+
+"You don't know what I may care about as Lady Ongar; but as Julia
+Brabazon I will now say good-by for the last time." Then they parted,
+and the lady returned to the great house, while Harry Clavering made
+his way across the park towards the rectory.
+
+Three years before this scene in the gardens at Clavering Park, Lord
+Brabazon had died at Nice, leaving one unmarried daughter, the lady
+to whom the reader has just been introduced. One other daughter he
+had, who was then already married to Sir Hugh Clavering, and Lady
+Clavering was the Hermione of whom mention has already been made.
+Lord Brabazon, whose peerage had descended to him in a direct line
+from the time of the Plantagenets, was one of those unfortunate
+nobles of whom England is burdened with but few, who have no means
+equal to their rank. He had married late in life, and had died
+without a male heir. The title which had come from the Plantagenets
+was now lapsed; and when the last lord died, about four hundred a
+year was divided between his two daughters. The elder had already
+made an excellent match, as regarded fortune, in marrying Sir Hugh
+Clavering; and the younger was now about to make a much more splendid
+match in her alliance with Lord Ongar. Of them I do not know that it
+is necessary to say much more at present.
+
+And of Harry Clavering it perhaps may not be necessary to say much
+in the way of description. The attentive reader will have already
+gathered nearly all that should be known of him before he makes
+himself known by his own deeds. He was the only son of the Reverend
+Henry Clavering, rector of Clavering, uncle of the present Sir Hugh
+Clavering, and brother of the last Sir Hugh. The Reverend Henry
+Clavering, and Mrs. Clavering his wife, and his two daughters, Mary
+and Fanny Clavering, lived always at Clavering Rectory, on the
+outskirts of Clavering Park, at a full mile's distance from the
+house. The church stood in the park, about midway between the two
+residences. When I have named one more Clavering, Captain Clavering,
+Captain Archibald Clavering, Sir Hugh's brother, and when I shall
+have said also that both Sir Hugh and Captain Clavering were men fond
+of pleasure and fond of money, I shall have said all that I need now
+say about the Clavering family at large.
+
+Julia Brabazon had indulged in some reminiscence of the romance of
+her past poetic life when she talked of cousinship between her and
+Harry Clavering. Her sister was the wife of Harry Clavering's first
+cousin, but between her and Harry there was no relationship whatever.
+When old Lord Brabazon had died at Nice she had come to Clavering
+Park, and had created some astonishment among those who knew Sir
+Hugh by making good her footing in his establishment. He was not
+the man to take up a wife's sister, and make his house her home,
+out of charity or from domestic love. Lady Clavering, who had been
+a handsome woman and fashionable withal, no doubt may have had some
+influence; but Sir Hugh was a man much prone to follow his own
+courses. It must be presumed that Julia Brabazon had made herself
+agreeable in the house, and also probably useful. She had been taken
+to London through two seasons, and had there held up her head among
+the bravest. And she had been taken abroad,--for Sir Hugh did not
+love Clavering Park, except during six weeks of partridge shooting;
+and she had been at Newmarket with them, and at the house of a
+certain fast hunting duke with whom Sir Hugh was intimate; and at
+Brighton with her sister, when it suited Sir Hugh to remain alone at
+the duke's; and then again up in London, where she finally arranged
+matters with Lord Ongar. It was acknowledged by all the friends
+of the two families, and indeed I may say of the three families
+now--among the Brabazon people, and the Clavering people, and the
+Courton people,--Lord Ongar's family name was Courton,--that Julia
+Brabazon had been very clever. Of her and Harry Clavering together no
+one had ever said a word. If any words had been spoken between her
+and Hermione on the subject, the two sisters had been discreet enough
+to manage that they should go no further. In those short months of
+Julia's romance Sir Hugh had been away from Clavering, and Hermione
+had been much occupied in giving birth to an heir. Julia had now
+lived past her one short spell of poetry, had written her one sonnet,
+and was prepared for the business of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+HARRY CLAVERING CHOOSES HIS PROFESSION.
+
+
+Harry Clavering might not be an usher, but, nevertheless, he was
+home for the holidays. And who can say where the usher ends and the
+schoolmaster begins? He, perhaps, may properly be called an usher,
+who is hired by a private schoolmaster to assist himself in his
+private occupation, whereas Harry Clavering had been selected by a
+public body out of a hundred candidates, with much real or pretended
+reference to certificates of qualification. He was certainly not an
+usher, as he was paid three hundred a year for his work,--which is
+quite beyond the mark of ushers. So much was certain; but yet the
+word stuck in his throat and made him uncomfortable. He did not like
+to reflect that he was home for the holidays.
+
+But he had determined that he would never come home for the holidays
+again. At Christmas he would leave the school at which he had won
+his appointment with so much trouble, and go into an open profession.
+Indeed he had chosen his profession, and his mode of entering it. He
+would become a civil engineer, and perhaps a land surveyor, and with
+this view he would enter himself as a pupil in the great house of
+Beilby and Burton. The terms even had been settled. He was to pay a
+premium of five hundred pounds and join Mr. Burton, who was settled
+in the town of Stratton, for twelve months before he placed himself
+in Mr. Beilby's office in London. Stratton was less than twenty miles
+from Clavering. It was a comfort to him to think that he could pay
+this five hundred pounds out of his own earnings, without troubling
+his father. It was a comfort, even though he had earned that money by
+"ushering" for the last two years.
+
+When he left Julia Brabazon in the garden, Harry Clavering did not
+go at once home to the rectory, but sauntered out all alone into the
+park, intending to indulge in reminiscences of his past romance. It
+was all over, that idea of having Julia Brabazon for his love; and
+now he had to ask himself whether he intended to be made permanently
+miserable by her worldly falseness, or whether he would borrow
+something of her worldly wisdom, and agree with himself to look back
+on what was past as a pleasurable excitement in his boyhood. Of
+course we all know that really permanent misery was in truth out of
+the question. Nature had not made him physically or mentally so poor
+a creature as to be incapable of a cure. But on this occasion he
+decided on permanent misery. There was about his heart,--about his
+actual anatomical heart, with its internal arrangement of valves
+and blood-vessels,--a heavy dragging feeling that almost amounted
+to corporeal pain, and which he described to himself as agony. Why
+should this rich, debauched, disreputable lord have the power of
+taking the cup from his lip, the one morsel of bread which he coveted
+from his mouth, his one ingot of treasure out of his coffer? Fight
+him! No, he knew he could not fight Lord Ongar. The world was against
+such an arrangement. And in truth Harry Clavering had so much
+contempt for Lord Ongar, that he had no wish to fight so poor a
+creature. The man had had delirium tremens, and was a worn-out
+miserable object. So at least Harry Clavering was only too ready to
+believe. He did not care much for Lord Ongar in the matter. His anger
+was against her;--that she should have deserted him for a miserable
+creature, who had nothing to back him but wealth and rank!
+
+There was wretchedness in every view of the matter. He loved her so
+well, and yet he could do nothing! He could take no step towards
+saving her or assisting himself. The marriage bells would ring within
+a month from the present time, and his own father would go to the
+church and marry them. Unless Lord Ongar were to die before then
+by God's hand, there could be no escape,--and of such escape Harry
+Clavering had no thought. He felt a weary, dragging soreness at his
+heart, and told himself that he must be miserable for ever,--not so
+miserable but what he would work, but so wretched that the world
+could have for him no satisfaction.
+
+What could he do? What thing could he achieve so that she should
+know that he did not let her go from him without more thought than
+his poor words had expressed? He was perfectly aware that in their
+conversation she had had the best of the argument,--that he had
+talked almost like a boy, while she had talked quite like a woman.
+She had treated him de haut en bas with all that superiority which
+youth and beauty give to a young woman over a very young man. What
+could he do? Before he returned to the rectory, he had made up his
+mind what he would do, and on the following morning Julia Brabazon
+received by the hands of her maid the following note:--
+
+"I think I understood all that you said to me yesterday. At any
+rate, I understand that you have one trouble left, and that I have
+the means of curing it." In the first draft of his letter he said
+something about ushering, but that he omitted afterwards. "You may be
+assured that the enclosed is all my own, and that it is entirely at
+my own disposal. You may also be quite sure of good faith on the part
+of the lender.--H. C." And in this letter he enclosed a cheque for
+six hundred pounds. It was the money which he had saved since he
+took his degree, and had been intended for Messrs. Beilby and Burton.
+But he would wait another two years,--continuing to do his ushering
+for her sake. What did it matter to a man who must, under any
+circumstances, be permanently miserable?
+
+Sir Hugh was not yet at Clavering. He was to come with Lord Ongar
+on the eve of the partridge-shooting. The two sisters, therefore,
+had the house all to themselves. At about twelve they sat down to
+breakfast together in a little upstairs chamber adjoining Lady
+Clavering's own room, Julia Brabazon at that time having her lover's
+generous letter in her pocket. She knew that it was as improper as it
+was generous, and that, moreover, it was very dangerous. There was no
+knowing what might be the result of such a letter should Lord Ongar
+even know that she had received it. She was not absolutely angry
+with Harry, but had, to herself, twenty times called him a foolish,
+indiscreet, dear generous boy. But what was she to do with the
+cheque? As to that, she had hardly as yet made up her mind when she
+joined her sister on the morning in question. Even to Hermione she
+did not dare to tell the fact that such a letter had been received by
+her.
+
+But in truth her debts were a great torment to her; and yet how
+trifling they were when compared with the wealth of the man who
+was to become her husband in six weeks! Let her marry him, and not
+pay them, and he probably would never be the wiser. They would get
+themselves paid almost without his knowledge, perhaps altogether
+without his hearing of them. But yet she feared him, knowing him to
+be greedy about money; and, to give her such merit as was due to
+her, she felt the meanness of going to her husband with debts on
+her shoulder. She had five thousand pounds of her own; but the very
+settlement which gave her a noble dower, and which made the marriage
+so brilliant, made over this small sum in its entirety to her lord.
+She had been wrong not to tell the lawyer of her trouble when he had
+brought the paper for her to sign; but she had not told him. If Sir
+Hugh Clavering had been her own brother there would have been no
+difficulty, but he was only her brother-in-law, and she feared to
+speak to him. Her sister, however, knew that there were debts, and on
+that subject she was not afraid to speak to Hermione.
+
+"Hermy," said she, "what am I to do about this money that I owe? I
+got a bill from Colclugh's this morning."
+
+"Just because he knows you're going to be married; that's all."
+
+"But how am I to pay him?"
+
+"Take no notice of it till next spring. I don't know what else you
+can do. You'll be sure to have money when you come back from the
+Continent."
+
+"You couldn't lend it me; could you?"
+
+"Who? I? Did you ever know me have any money in hand since I was
+married? I have the name of an allowance, but it is always spent
+before it comes to me, and I am always in debt."
+
+"Would Hugh--let me have it?"
+
+"What, give it you?"
+
+"Well, it wouldn't be so very much for him. I never asked him for a
+pound yet."
+
+"I think he would say something you wouldn't like if you were to ask
+him; but, of course, you can try it if you please."
+
+"Then what am I to do?"
+
+"Lord Ongar should have let you keep your own fortune. It would have
+been nothing to him."
+
+"Hugh didn't let you keep your own fortune."
+
+"But the money which will be nothing to Lord Ongar was a good deal to
+Hugh. You're going to have sixty thousand a year, while we have to
+do with seven or eight. Besides, I hadn't been out in London, and it
+wasn't likely I should owe much in Nice. He did ask me, and there was
+something."
+
+"What am I to do, Hermy?"
+
+"Write and ask Lord Ongar to let you have what you want out of your
+own money. Write to-day, so that he may get your letter before he
+comes."
+
+"Oh, dear! oh, dear! I never wrote a word to him yet, and to begin
+with asking him for money!"
+
+"I don't think he can be angry with you for that."
+
+"I shouldn't know what to say. Would you write it for me, and let me
+see how it looks?"
+
+This Lady Clavering did; and had she refused to do it, I think that
+poor Harry Clavering's cheque would have been used. As it was, Lady
+Clavering wrote the letter to "My dear Lord Ongar," and it was copied
+and signed by "Yours most affectionately, Julia Brabazon." The effect
+of this was the receipt of a cheque for a thousand pounds in a very
+pretty note from Lord Ongar, which the lord brought with him to
+Clavering, and sent up to Julia as he was dressing for dinner. It was
+an extremely comfortable arrangement, and Julia was very glad of the
+money,--feeling it to be a portion of that which was her own. And
+Harry's cheque had been returned to him on the day of its receipt.
+"Of course I cannot take it, and of course you should not have sent
+it." These words were written on the morsel of paper in which the
+money was returned. But Miss Brabazon had torn the signature off the
+cheque, so that it might be safe, whereas Harry Clavering had taken
+no precaution with it whatever. But then Harry Clavering had not
+lived two years in London.
+
+During the hours that the cheque was away from him, Harry had told
+his father that perhaps, even yet, he might change his purpose as to
+going to Messrs. Beilby and Burton. He did not know, he said, but he
+was still in doubt. This had sprung from some chance question which
+his father had asked, and which had seemed to demand an answer. Mr.
+Clavering greatly disliked the scheme of life which his son had made.
+Harry's life hitherto had been prosperous and very creditable. He had
+gone early to Cambridge, and at twenty-two had become a fellow of his
+college. This fellowship he could hold for five or six years without
+going into orders. It would then lead to a living, and would in the
+meantime afford a livelihood. But, beyond this, Harry, with an energy
+which he certainly had not inherited from his father, had become a
+schoolmaster, and was already a rich man. He had done more than well,
+and there was a great probability that between them they might be
+able to buy the next presentation to Clavering, when the time should
+come in which Sir Hugh should determine on selling it. That Sir
+Hugh should give the family living to his cousin was never thought
+probable by any of the family at the rectory; but he might perhaps
+part with it under such circumstances on favourable terms. For all
+these reasons the father was very anxious that his son should follow
+out the course for which he had been intended; but that he, being
+unenergetic and having hitherto done little for his son, should
+dictate to a young man who had been energetic, and who had done much
+for himself, was out of the question. Harry, therefore, was to be the
+arbiter of his own fate. But when Harry received back the cheque from
+Julia Brabazon, then he again returned to his resolution respecting
+Messrs. Beilby and Burton, and took the first opportunity of telling
+his father that such was the case.
+
+After breakfast he followed his father into his study, and there,
+sitting in two easy-chairs opposite to each other, they lit each a
+cigar. Such was the reverend gentleman's custom in the afternoon,
+and such also in the morning. I do not know whether the smoking of
+four or five cigars daily by the parson of a parish may now-a-day be
+considered as a vice in him, but if so, it was the only vice with
+which Mr. Clavering could be charged. He was a kind, soft-hearted,
+gracious man, tender to his wife, whom he ever regarded as the
+angel of his house, indulgent to his daughters, whom he idolized,
+ever patient with his parishioners, and awake,--though not widely
+awake,--to the responsibilities of his calling. The world had been
+too comfortable for him, and also too narrow; so that he had sunk
+into idleness. The world had given him much to eat and drink, but it
+had given him little to do, and thus he had gradually fallen away
+from his early purposes, till his energy hardly sufficed for the
+doing of that little. His living gave him eight hundred a year; his
+wife's fortune nearly doubled that. He had married early, and had
+got his living early, and had been very prosperous. But he was not
+a happy man. He knew that he had put off the day of action till
+the power of action had passed away from him. His library was well
+furnished, but he rarely read much else than novels and poetry; and
+of late years the reading even of poetry had given way to the reading
+of novels. Till within ten years of the hour of which I speak, he had
+been a hunting parson,--not hunting loudly, but following his sport
+as it is followed by moderate sportsmen. Then there had come a new
+bishop, and the new bishop had sent for him,--nay, finally had come
+to him, and had lectured him with blatant authority. "My lord," said
+the parson of Clavering, plucking up something of his past energy,
+as the colour rose to his face, "I think you are wrong in this. I
+think you are specially wrong to interfere with me in this way on
+your first coming among us. You feel it to be your duty, no doubt;
+but to me it seems that you mistake your duty. But, as the matter
+is one simply of my own pleasure, I shall give it up." After that
+Mr. Clavering hunted no more, and never spoke a good word to any one
+of the bishop of his diocese. For myself, I think it as well that
+clergymen should not hunt; but had I been the parson of Clavering,
+I should, under those circumstances, have hunted double.
+
+Mr. Clavering hunted no more, and probably smoked a greater number
+of cigars in consequence. He had an increased amount of time at his
+disposal, but did not, therefore, give more time to his duties. Alas!
+what time did he give to his duties? He kept a most energetic curate,
+whom he allowed to do almost what he would with the parish. Every-day
+services he did prohibit, declaring that he would not have the parish
+church made ridiculous; but in other respects his curate was the
+pastor. Once every Sunday he read the service, and once every Sunday
+he preached, and he resided in his parsonage ten months every year.
+His wife and daughters went among the poor,--and he smoked cigars
+in his library. Though not yet fifty, he was becoming fat and
+idle,--unwilling to walk, and not caring much even for such riding as
+the bishop had left to him. And, to make matters worse,--far worse,
+he knew all this of himself, and understood it thoroughly. "I see a
+better path, and know how good it is, but I follow ever the worse."
+He was saying that to himself daily, and was saying it always without
+hope.
+
+And his wife had given him up. She had given him up, not with
+disdainful rejection, nor with contempt in her eye, or censure in her
+voice, not with diminution of love or of outward respect. She had
+given him up as a man abandons his attempts to make his favourite dog
+take the water. He would fain that the dog he loves should dash into
+the stream as other dogs will do. It is, to his thinking, a noble
+instinct in a dog. But his dog dreads the water. As, however, he
+has learned to love the beast, he puts up with this mischance, and
+never dreams of banishing poor Ponto from his hearth because of this
+failure. And so it was with Mrs. Clavering and her husband at the
+rectory. He understood it all. He knew that he was so far rejected;
+and he acknowledged to himself the necessity for such rejection.
+
+"It is a very serious thing to decide upon," he said, when his son
+had spoken to him.
+
+"Yes; it is serious,--about as serious a thing as a man can think of;
+but a man cannot put it off on that account. If I mean to make such a
+change in my plans, the sooner I do it the better."
+
+"But yesterday you were in another mind."
+
+"No, father, not in another mind. I did not tell you then, nor can
+I tell you all now. I had thought that I should want my money for
+another purpose for a year or two; but that I have abandoned."
+
+"Is the purpose a secret, Harry?"
+
+"It is a secret, because it concerns another person."
+
+"You were going to lend your money to some one?"
+
+"I must keep it a secret, though you know I seldom have any secrets
+from you. That idea, however, is abandoned, and I mean to go over to
+Stratton to-morrow, and tell Mr. Burton that I shall be there after
+Christmas. I must be at St. Cuthbert's on Tuesday."
+
+Then they both sat silent for a while, silently blowing out their
+clouds of smoke. The son had said all that he cared to say, and would
+have wished that there might then be an end of it; but he knew that
+his father had much on his mind, and would fain express, if he could
+express it without too much trouble, or without too evident a need
+of self-reproach, his own thoughts on the subject. "You have made
+up your mind, then, altogether that you do not like the church as a
+profession," he said at last.
+
+"I think I have, father."
+
+"And on what grounds? The grounds which recommend it to you are very
+strong. Your education has adapted you for it. Your success in it
+is already ensured by your fellowship. In a great degree you have
+entered it as a profession already, by taking a fellowship. What you
+are doing is not choosing a line in life, but changing one already
+chosen. You are making of yourself a rolling stone."
+
+"A stone should roll till it has come to the spot that suits it."
+
+"Why not give up the school if it irks you?"
+
+"And become a Cambridge Don, and practise deportment among the
+undergraduates."
+
+"I don't see that you need do that. You need not even live at
+Cambridge. Take a church in London. You would be sure to get one
+by holding up your hand. If that, with your fellowship, is not
+sufficient, I will give you what more you want."
+
+"No, father--no. By God's blessing I will never ask you for a pound.
+I can hold my fellowship for four years longer without orders, and in
+four years' time I think I can earn my bread."
+
+"I don't doubt that, Harry."
+
+"Then why should I not follow my wishes in this matter? The truth is,
+I do not feel myself qualified to be a good clergyman."
+
+"It is not that you have doubts, is it?"
+
+"I might have them if I came to think much about it,--as I must do if
+I took orders. And I do not wish to be crippled in doing what I think
+lawful by conventional rules. A rebellious clergyman is, I think, a
+sorry object. It seems to me that he is a bird fouling his own nest.
+Now, I know I should be a rebellious clergyman."
+
+"In our church the life of a clergyman is as the life of any other
+gentleman,--within very broad limits."
+
+"Then why did Bishop Proudie interfere with your hunting?"
+
+"Limits may be very broad, Harry, and yet exclude hunting. Bishop
+Proudie was vulgar and intrusive, such being the nature of his wife,
+who instructs him; but if you were in orders I should be very sorry
+to see you take to hunting."
+
+"It seems to me that a clergyman has nothing to do in life unless
+he is always preaching and teaching. Look at Saul,"--Mr. Saul was
+the curate of Clavering--"he is always preaching and teaching. He is
+doing the best he can; and what a life of it he has. He has literally
+thrown off all worldly cares,--and consequently everybody laughs at
+him, and nobody loves him. I don't believe a better man breathes, but
+I shouldn't like his life."
+
+At this point there was another pause, which lasted till the cigars
+had come to an end. Then, as he threw the stump into the fire, Mr.
+Clavering spoke again. "The truth is, Harry, that you have had, all
+your life, a bad example before you."
+
+"No, father."
+
+"Yes, my son;--let me speak on to the end, and then you can say what
+you please. In me you have had a bad example on one side, and now, in
+poor Saul, you have a bad example on the other side. Can you fancy no
+life between the two, which would fit your physical nature, which is
+larger than his, and your mental wants, which are higher than mine?
+Yes, they are, Harry. It is my duty to say this, but it would be
+unseemly that there should be any controversy between us on the
+subject."
+
+"If you choose to stop me in that way--"
+
+"I do choose to stop you in that way. As for Saul, it is impossible
+that you should become such a man as he. It is not that he mortifies
+his flesh, but that he has no flesh to mortify. He is unconscious
+of the flavour of venison, or the scent of roses, or the beauty of
+women. He is an exceptional specimen of a man, and you need no more
+fear, than you should venture to hope, that you could become such as
+he is."
+
+At this point they were interrupted by the entrance of Fanny
+Clavering, who came to say that Mr. Saul was in the drawing-room.
+"What does he want, Fanny?" This question Mr. Clavering asked half in
+a whisper, but with something of comic humour in his face, as though
+partly afraid that Mr. Saul should hear it, and partly intending to
+convey a wish that he might escape Mr. Saul, if it were possible.
+
+"It's about the iron church, papa. He says it is come,--or part of
+it has come,--and he wants you to go out to Cumberly Green about the
+site."
+
+"I thought that was all settled."
+
+"He says not."
+
+"What does it matter where it is? He can put it anywhere he likes on
+the Green. However, I had better go to him." So Mr. Clavering went.
+Cumberly Green was a hamlet in the parish of Clavering, three miles
+distant from the church, the people of which had got into a wicked
+habit of going to a dissenting chapel near to them. By Mr. Saul's
+energy, but chiefly out of Mr. Clavering's purse, an iron chapel had
+been purchased for a hundred and fifty pounds, and Mr. Saul proposed
+to add to his own duties the pleasing occupation of walking to
+Cumberly Green every Sunday morning before breakfast, and every
+Wednesday evening after dinner, to perform a service and bring back
+to the true flock as many of the erring sheep of Cumberly Green as he
+might be able to catch. Towards the purchase of this iron church Mr.
+Clavering had at first given a hundred pounds. Sir Hugh, in answer to
+the fifth application, had very ungraciously, through his steward,
+bestowed ten pounds. Among the farmers one pound nine and eightpence
+had been collected. Mr. Saul had given two pounds; Mrs. Clavering
+gave five pounds; the girls gave ten shillings each; Henry Clavering
+gave five pounds;--and then the parson made up the remainder. But Mr.
+Saul had journeyed thrice painfully to Bristol, making the bargain
+for the church, going and coming each time by third-class, and he had
+written all the letters; but Mrs. Clavering had paid the postage,
+and she and the girls between them were making the covering for the
+little altar.
+
+"Is it all settled, Harry?" said Fanny, stopping with her brother,
+and hanging over his chair. She was a pretty, gay-spirited girl, with
+bright eyes and dark brown hair, which fell in two curls behind her
+ears.
+
+"He has said nothing to unsettle it."
+
+"I know it makes him very unhappy."
+
+"No, Fanny, not very unhappy. He would rather that I should go into
+the church, but that is about all."
+
+"I think you are quite right."
+
+"And Mary thinks I am quite wrong."
+
+"Mary thinks so, of course. So should I too, perhaps, if I were
+engaged to a clergyman. That's the old story of the fox who had lost
+his tail."
+
+"And your tail isn't gone yet?"
+
+"No, my tail isn't gone yet. Mary thinks that no life is like a
+clergyman's life. But, Harry, though mamma hasn't said so, I'm sure
+she thinks you are right. She won't say so as long as it may seem to
+interfere with anything papa may choose to say; but I'm sure she's
+glad in her heart."
+
+"And I am glad in my heart, Fanny. And as I'm the person most
+concerned, I suppose that's the most material thing." Then they
+followed their father into the drawing-room.
+
+"Couldn't you drive Mrs. Clavering over in the pony chair, and settle
+it between you," said Mr. Clavering to his curate. Mr. Saul looked
+disappointed. In the first place, he hated driving the pony, which
+was a rapid-footed little beast, that had a will of his own; and in
+the next place, he thought the rector ought to visit the spot on such
+an occasion. "Or Mrs. Clavering will drive you," said the rector,
+remembering Mr. Saul's objection to the pony. Still Mr. Saul looked
+unhappy. Mr. Saul was very tall and very thin, with a tall thin head,
+and weak eyes, and a sharp, well-cut nose, and, so to say, no lips,
+and very white teeth, with no beard, and a well-cut chin. His face
+was so thin that his cheekbones obtruded themselves unpleasantly.
+He wore a long rusty black coat, and a high rusty black waistcoat,
+and trousers that were brown with dirty roads and general ill-usage.
+Nevertheless, it never occurred to any one that Mr. Saul did not look
+like a gentleman, not even to himself, to whom no ideas whatever on
+that subject ever presented themselves. But that he was a gentleman
+I think he knew well enough, and was able to carry himself before
+Sir Hugh and his wife with quite as much ease as he could do in the
+rectory. Once or twice he had dined at the great house; but Lady
+Clavering had declared him to be a bore, and Sir Hugh had called
+him "that most offensive of all animals, a clerical prig." It had
+therefore been decided that he was not to be asked to the great
+house any more. It may be as well to state here, as elsewhere, that
+Mr. Clavering very rarely went to his nephew's table. On certain
+occasions he did do so, so that there might be no recognized quarrel
+between him and Sir Hugh; but such visits were few and far between.
+
+After a few more words from Mr. Saul, and a glance from his wife's
+eye, Mr. Clavering consented to go to Cumberly Green, though there
+was nothing he liked so little as a morning spent with his curate.
+When he had started, Harry told his mother also of his final
+decision. "I shall go to Stratton to-morrow and settle it all."
+
+"And what does papa say?" asked the mother.
+
+"Just what he has said before. It is not so much that he wishes me to
+be a clergyman, as that he does not wish me to have lost all my time
+up to this."
+
+"It is more than that, I think, Harry," said his elder sister, a tall
+girl, less pretty than her sister, apparently less careful of her
+prettiness, very quiet, or, as some said, demure, but known to be
+good as gold by all who knew her well.
+
+"I doubt it," said Harry, stoutly. "But, however that may be, a man
+must choose for himself."
+
+"We all thought you had chosen," said Mary.
+
+"If it is settled," said the mother, "I suppose we shall do no good
+by opposing it."
+
+"Would you wish to oppose it, mamma?" said Harry.
+
+"No, my dear. I think you should judge for yourself."
+
+"You see I could have no scope in the church for that sort of
+ambition which would satisfy me. Look at such men as Locke, and
+Stephenson, and Brassey. They are the men who seem to me to do most
+in the world. They were all self-educated, but surely a man can't
+have a worse chance because he has learned something. Look at old
+Beilby with a seat in Parliament, and a property worth two or three
+hundred thousand pounds! When he was my age he had nothing but his
+weekly wages."
+
+"I don't know whether Mr. Beilby is a very happy man or a very good
+man," said Mary.
+
+"I don't know, either," said Harry; "but I do know that he has thrown
+a single arch over a wider span of water than ever was done before,
+and that ought to make him happy." After saying this in a tone of
+high authority, befitting his dignity as a fellow of his college,
+Harry Clavering went out, leaving his mother and sisters to discuss
+the subject which to two of them was all-important. As to Mary,
+she had hopes of her own, vested in the clerical concerns of a
+neighbouring parish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LORD ONGAR.
+
+
+On the next morning Harry Clavering rode over to Stratton, thinking
+much of his misery as he went. It was all very well for him, in the
+presence of his own family to talk of his profession as the one
+subject which was to him of any importance; but he knew very well
+himself that he was only beguiling them in doing so. This question
+of a profession was, after all, but dead leaves to him,--to him who
+had a canker at his heart, a perpetual thorn in his bosom, a misery
+within him which no profession could mitigate! Those dear ones at
+home guessed nothing of this, and he would take care that they should
+guess nothing. Why should they have the pain of knowing that he had
+been made wretched for ever by blighted hopes? His mother, indeed,
+had suspected something in those sweet days of his roaming with Julia
+through the park. She had once or twice said a word to warn him. But
+of the very truth of his deep love,--so he told himself,--she had
+been happily ignorant. Let her be ignorant. Why should he make his
+mother unhappy? As these thoughts passed through his mind, I think
+that he revelled in his wretchedness, and made much to himself of his
+misery. He sucked in his sorrow greedily, and was somewhat proud to
+have had occasion to break his heart. But not the less, because he
+was thus early blighted, would he struggle for success in the world.
+He would show her that, as his wife, she might have had a worthier
+position than Lord Ongar could give her. He, too, might probably rise
+the quicker in the world, as now he would have no impediment of wife
+or family. Then, as he rode along, he composed a sonnet, fitting to
+his case, the strength and rhythm of which seemed to him, as he sat
+on horseback, to be almost perfect. Unfortunately, when he was back
+at Clavering, and sat in his room with the pen in his hand, the turn
+of the words had escaped him.
+
+He found Mr. Burton at home, and was not long in concluding his
+business. Messrs. Beilby and Burton were not only civil engineers,
+but were land surveyors also, and land valuers on a great scale. They
+were employed much by Government upon public buildings, and if not
+architects themselves, were supposed to know all that architects
+should do and should not do. In the purchase of great properties
+Mr. Burton's opinion was supposed to be, or to have been, as good as
+any in the kingdom, and therefore there was very much to be learned
+in the office at Stratton. But Mr. Burton was not a rich man like
+his partner, Mr. Beilby, nor an ambitious man. He had never soared
+Parliamentwards, had never speculated, had never invented, and never
+been great. He had been the father of a very large family, all of
+whom were doing as well in the world, and some of them perhaps
+better, than their father. Indeed, there were many who said that Mr.
+Burton would have been a richer man if he had not joined himself
+in partnership with Mr. Beilby. Mr. Beilby had the reputation of
+swallowing more than his share wherever he went.
+
+When the business part of the arrangement was finished Mr. Burton
+talked to his future pupil about lodgings, and went out with him into
+the town to look for rooms. The old man found that Harry Clavering
+was rather nice in this respect, and in his own mind formed an idea
+that this new beginner might have been a more auspicious pupil, had
+he not already become a fellow of a college. Indeed, Harry talked
+to him quite as though they two were on an equality together; and,
+before they had parted, Mr. Burton was not sure that Harry did not
+patronize him. He asked the young man, however, to join them at their
+early dinner, and then introduced him to Mrs. Burton, and to their
+youngest daughter, the only child who was still living with them.
+"All my other girls are married, Mr. Clavering; and all of them
+married to men connected with my own profession." The colour came
+slightly to Florence Burton's cheeks as she heard her father's words,
+and Harry asked himself whether the old man expected that he should
+go through the same ordeal; but Mr. Burton himself was quite unaware
+that he had said anything wrong, and then went on to speak of the
+successes of his sons. "But they began early, Mr. Clavering; and
+worked hard,--very hard indeed." He was a good, kindly, garrulous
+old man; but Harry began to doubt whether he would learn much at
+Stratton. It was, however, too late to think of that now, and
+everything was fixed.
+
+Harry, when he looked at Florence Burton, at once declared to himself
+that she was plain. Anything more unlike Julia Brabazon never
+appeared in the guise of a young lady. Julia was tall, with a high
+brow, a glorious complexion, a nose as finely modelled as though a
+Grecian sculptor had cut it, a small mouth, but lovely in its curves,
+and a chin that finished and made perfect the symmetry of her face.
+Her neck was long, but graceful as a swan's, her bust was full, and
+her whole figure like that of a goddess. Added to this, when he
+had first known her, had been all the charm of youth. When she had
+returned to Clavering the other day, the affianced bride of Lord
+Ongar, he had hardly known whether to admire or to deplore the
+settled air of established womanhood which she had assumed. Her
+large eyes had always lacked something of rapid glancing sparkling
+brightness. They had been glorious eyes to him, and in those early
+days he had not known that they lacked aught; but he had perceived,
+or perhaps fancied, that now, in her present condition, they were
+often cold, and sometimes almost cruel. Nevertheless he was ready to
+swear that she was perfect in her beauty.
+
+Poor Florence Burton was short of stature, was brown, meagre, and
+poor-looking. So said Harry Clavering to himself. Her small hand,
+though soft, lacked that wondrous charm of touch which Julia's
+possessed. Her face was short, and her forehead, though it was broad
+and open, had none of that feminine command which Julia's look
+conveyed. That Florence's eyes were very bright,--bright and soft as
+well, he allowed; and her dark brown hair was very glossy; but she
+was, on the whole, a mean-looking little thing. He could not, as he
+said to himself on his return home, avoid the comparison, as she was
+the first girl he had seen since he had parted from Julia Brabazon.
+
+"I hope you'll find yourself comfortable at Stratton, sir," said old
+Mrs. Burton.
+
+"Thank you," said Harry, "but I want very little myself in that way.
+Anything does for me."
+
+"One young gentleman we had took a bedroom at Mrs. Pott's, and did
+very nicely without any second room at all. Don't you remember, Mr.
+B.? it was young Granger."
+
+"Young Granger had a very short allowance," said Mr. Burton. "He
+lived upon fifty pounds a year all the time he was here."
+
+"And I don't think Scarness had more when he began," said Mrs.
+Burton. "Mr. Scarness married one of my girls, Mr. Clavering, when he
+started himself at Liverpool. He has pretty nigh all the Liverpool
+docks under him now. I have heard him say that butcher's meat did not
+cost him four shillings a week all the time he was here. I've always
+thought Stratton one of the reasonablest places anywhere for a young
+man to do for himself in."
+
+"I don't know, my dear," said the husband, "that Mr. Clavering will
+care very much for that."
+
+"Perhaps not, Mr. B.; but I do like to see young men careful about
+their spendings. What's the use of spending a shilling when sixpence
+will do as well; and sixpence saved when a man has nothing but
+himself, becomes pounds and pounds by the time he has a family about
+him."
+
+During all this time Miss Burton said little or nothing, and Harry
+Clavering himself did not say much. He could not express any
+intention of rivalling Mr. Scarness's economy in the article of
+butcher's meat, nor could he promise to content himself with
+Granger's solitary bedroom. But as he rode home he almost began to
+fear that he had made a mistake. He was not wedded to the joys of
+his college hall, or the college common room. He did not like the
+narrowness of college life. But he doubted whether the change from
+that to the oft-repeated hospitalities of Mrs. Burton might not be
+too much for him. Scarness's four shillings'-worth of butcher's meat
+had already made him half sick of his new profession, and though
+Stratton might be the "reasonablest place anywhere for a young man,"
+he could not look forward to living there for a year with much
+delight. As for Miss Burton, it might be quite as well that she was
+plain, as he wished for none of the delights which beauty affords to
+young men.
+
+On his return home, however, he made no complaint of Stratton. He was
+too strong-willed to own that he had been in any way wrong, and when
+early in the following week he started for St. Cuthbert's, he was
+able to speak with cheerful hope of his new prospects. If ultimately
+he should find life in Stratton to be unendurable, he would cut that
+part of his career short, and contrive to get up to London at an
+earlier time than he had intended.
+
+On the 31st of August Lord Ongar and Sir Hugh Clavering reached
+Clavering Park, and, as has been already told, a pretty little note
+was at once sent up to Miss Brabazon in her bedroom. When she met
+Lord Ongar in the drawing-room, about an hour afterwards, she had
+instructed herself that it would be best to say nothing of the note;
+but she could not refrain from a word. "I am much obliged, my lord,
+by your kindness and generosity," she said, as she gave him her hand.
+He merely bowed and smiled, and muttered something as to his hoping
+that he might always find it as easy to gratify her. He was a little
+man, on whose behalf it certainly appeared that the Peerage must have
+told a falsehood; it seemed so at least to those who judged of his
+years from his appearance. The Peerage said that he was thirty-six,
+and that, no doubt, was in truth his age, but any one would have
+declared him to be ten years older. This look was produced chiefly
+by the effect of an elaborately dressed jet black wig which he wore.
+What misfortune had made him bald so early,--if to be bald early in
+life be a misfortune,--I cannot say; but he had lost the hair from
+the crown of his head, and had preferred wiggery to baldness. No
+doubt an effort was made to hide the wiggishness of his wigs, but
+what effect in that direction was ever made successfully? He was,
+moreover, weak, thin, and physically poor, and had, no doubt,
+increased this weakness and poorness by hard living. Though others
+thought him old, time had gone swiftly with him, and he still thought
+himself a young man. He hunted, though he could not ride. He shot,
+though he could not walk. And, unfortunately, he drank, though he
+had no capacity for drinking! His friends at last had taught him to
+believe that his only chance of saving himself lay in marriage, and
+therefore he had engaged himself to Julia Brabazon, purchasing her at
+the price of a brilliant settlement. If Lord Ongar should die before
+her, Ongar Park was to be hers for life, with thousands a year to
+maintain it. Courton Castle, the great family seat, would of course
+go to the heir; but Ongar Park was supposed to be the most delightful
+small country-seat anywhere within thirty miles of London. It lay
+among the Surrey hills, and all the world had heard of the charms of
+Ongar Park. If Julia were to survive her lord, Ongar Park was to be
+hers; and they who saw them both together had but little doubt that
+she would come to the enjoyment of this clause in her settlement.
+Lady Clavering had been clever in arranging the match; and Sir Hugh,
+though he might have been unwilling to give his sister-in-law money
+out of his own pocket, had performed his duty as a brother-in-law in
+looking to her future welfare. Julia Brabazon had no doubt that she
+was doing well. Poor Harry Clavering! She had loved him in the days
+of her romance. She, too, had written her sonnets. But she had grown
+old earlier in life than he had done, and had taught herself that
+romance could not be allowed to a woman in her position. She was
+highly born, the daughter of a peer, without money, and even without
+a home to which she had any claim. Of course she had accepted Lord
+Ongar, but she had not put out her hand to take all these good things
+without resolving that she would do her duty to her future lord. The
+duty would be doubtless disagreeable, but she would do it with all
+the more diligence on that account.
+
+September passed by, hecatombs of partridges were slaughtered, and
+the day of the wedding drew nigh. It was pretty to see Lord Ongar and
+the self-satisfaction which he enjoyed at this time. The world was
+becoming young with him again, and he thought that he rather liked
+the respectability of his present mode of life. He gave himself but
+scanty allowances of wine, and no allowance of anything stronger than
+wine, and did not dislike his temperance. There was about him at all
+hours an air which seemed to say, "There; I told you all that I could
+do it as soon as there was any necessity." And in these halcyon days
+he could shoot for an hour without his pony, and he liked the gentle
+courteous badinage which was bestowed upon his courtship, and he
+liked also Julia's beauty. Her conduct to him was perfect. She was
+never pert, never exigeant, never romantic, and never humble. She
+never bored him, and yet was always ready to be with him when he
+wished it. She was never exalted; and yet she bore her high place as
+became a woman nobly born and acknowledged to be beautiful.
+
+"I declare you have quite made a lover of him," said Lady Clavering
+to her sister. When a thought of the match had first arisen in Sir
+Hugh's London house, Lady Clavering had been eager in praise of Lord
+Ongar, or eager in praise rather of the position which the future
+Lady Ongar might hold; but since the prize had been secured, since it
+had become plain that Julia was to be the greater woman of the two,
+she had harped sometimes on the other string. As a sister she had
+striven for a sister's welfare, but as a woman she could not keep
+herself from comparisons which might tend to show that after all,
+well as Julia was doing, she was not doing better than her elder
+sister had done. Hermione had married simply a baronet, and not the
+richest or the most amiable among baronets; but she had married a
+man suitable in age and wealth, with whom any girl might have been
+in love. She had not sold herself to be the nurse, or not to be the
+nurse, as it might turn out, of a worn-out debauché. She would have
+hinted nothing of this, perhaps have thought nothing of this, had not
+Julia and Lord Ongar walked together through the Clavering groves
+as though they were two young people. She owed it as a duty to her
+sister to point out that Lord Ongar could not be a romantic young
+person, and ought not to be encouraged to play that part.
+
+"I don't know that I have made anything of him," answered Julia. "I
+suppose he's much like other men when they're going to be married."
+Julia quite understood the ideas that were passing through her
+sister's mind, and did not feel them to be unnatural.
+
+"What I mean is, that he has come out so strong in the Romeo line,
+which we hardly expected, you know. We shall have him under your
+bedroom window with a guitar like Don Giovanni."
+
+"I hope not, because it's so cold. I don't think it likely, as he
+seems fond of going to bed early."
+
+"And it's the best thing for him," said Lady Clavering, becoming
+serious and carefully benevolent. "It's quite a wonder what good
+hours and quiet living have done for him in so short a time. I was
+observing him as he walked yesterday, and he put his feet to the
+ground as firmly almost as Hugh does."
+
+"Did he indeed? I hope he won't have the habit of putting his hand
+down firmly as Hugh does sometimes."
+
+"As for that," said Lady Clavering, with a little tremor, "I don't
+think there's much difference between them. They all say that when
+Lord Ongar means a thing he does mean it."
+
+"I think a man ought to have a way of his own."
+
+"And a woman also, don't you, my dear? But, as I was saying, if Lord
+Ongar will continue to take care of himself he may become quite a
+different man. Hugh says that he drinks next to nothing now, and
+though he sometimes lights a cigar in the smoking-room at night, he
+hardly ever smokes it. You must do what you can to keep him from
+tobacco. I happen to know that Sir Charles Poddy said that so many
+cigars were worse for him even than brandy."
+
+All this Julia bore with an even temper. She was determined to bear
+everything till her time should come. Indeed she had made herself
+understand that the hearing of such things as these was a part of the
+price which she was to be called upon to pay. It was not pleasant for
+her to hear what Sir Charles Poddy had said about the tobacco and
+brandy of the man she was just going to marry. She would sooner have
+heard of his riding sixty miles a day, or dancing all night, as she
+might have heard had she been contented to take Harry Clavering. But
+she had made her selection with her eyes open, and was not disposed
+to quarrel with her bargain, because that which she had bought was
+no better than the article which she had known it to be when she was
+making her purchase. Nor was she even angry with her sister. "I will
+do the best I can, Hermy; you may be sure of that. But there are some
+things which it is useless to talk about."
+
+"But it was as well you should know what Sir Charles said."
+
+"I know quite enough of what he says, Hermy,--quite as much, I
+daresay, as you do. But, never mind. If Lord Ongar has given up
+smoking, I quite agree with you that it's a good thing. I wish they'd
+all give it up, for I hate the smell of it. Hugh has got worse and
+worse. He never cares about changing his clothes now."
+
+"I'll tell you what it is," said Sir Hugh to his wife that night;
+"sixty thousand a year is a very fine income, but Julia will find she
+has caught a Tartar."
+
+"I suppose he'll hardly live long; will he?"
+
+"I don't know or care when he lives or when he dies; but, by heaven,
+he is the most overbearing fellow I ever had in the house with me. I
+wouldn't stand him here for another fortnight,--not even to make her
+all safe."
+
+"It will soon be over. They'll be gone on Thursday."
+
+"What do you think of his having the impudence to tell
+Cunliffe,"--Cunliffe was the head keeper,--"before my face, that he
+didn't know anything about pheasants! 'Well, my lord, I think we've
+got a few about the place,' said Cunliffe. 'Very few,' said Ongar,
+with a sneer. Now, if I haven't a better head of game here than he
+has at Courton, I'll eat him. But the impudence of his saying that
+before me!"
+
+"Did you make him any answer?"
+
+"'There's about enough to suit me,' I said. Then he skulked away,
+knocked off his pins. I shouldn't like to be his wife; I can tell
+Julia that."
+
+"Julia is very clever," said the sister.
+
+The day of the marriage came, and everything at Clavering was done
+with much splendour. Four bridesmaids came down from London on the
+preceding day; two were already staying in the house, and the two
+cousins came as two more from the rectory. Julia Brabazon had never
+been really intimate with Mary and Fanny Clavering, but she had known
+them well enough to make it odd if she did not ask them to come to
+her wedding and to take a part in the ceremony. And, moreover, she
+had thought of Harry and her little romance of other days. Harry,
+perhaps, might be glad to know that she had shown this courtesy to
+his sisters. Harry, she knew, would be away at his school. Though she
+had asked him whether he meant to come to her wedding, she had been
+better pleased that he should be absent. She had not many regrets
+herself, but it pleased her to think that he should have them. So
+Mary and Fanny Clavering were asked to attend her at the altar. Mary
+and Fanny would both have preferred to decline, but their mother had
+told them that they could not do so. "It would make ill-feeling,"
+said Mrs. Clavering; "and that is what your papa particularly wishes
+to avoid."
+
+"When you say papa particularly wishes anything, mamma, you always
+mean that you wish it particularly yourself," said Fanny. "But if
+it must be done, it must; and then I shall know how to behave when
+Mary's time comes."
+
+The bells were rung lustily all the morning, and all the parish was
+there, round about the church, to see. There was no record of a lord
+ever having been married in Clavering church before; and now this
+lord was going to marry my lady's sister. It was all one as though
+she were a Clavering herself. But there was no ecstatic joy in the
+parish. There were to be no bonfires, and no eating and drinking at
+Sir Hugh's expense,--no comforts provided for any of the poor by Lady
+Clavering on that special occasion. Indeed, there was never much of
+such kindnesses between the lord of the soil and his dependants.
+A certain stipulated dole was given at Christmas for coals and
+blankets; but even for that there was generally some wrangle between
+the rector and the steward. "If there's to be all this row about it,"
+the rector had said to the steward, "I'll never ask for it again." "I
+wish my uncle would only be as good as his word," Sir Hugh had said,
+when the rector's speech was repeated to him. Therefore, there was
+not much of real rejoicing in the parish on this occasion, though the
+bells were rung loudly, and though the people, young and old, did
+cluster round the churchyard to see the lord lead his bride out of
+the church. "A puir feckless thing, tottering along like,--not half
+the makings of a man. A stout lass like she could a'most blow him
+away wi' a puff of her mouth." That was the verdict which an old
+farmer's wife passed upon him, and that verdict was made good by the
+general opinion of the parish.
+
+
+[Illustration: "A puir feckless thing, tottering along like,--"]
+
+
+But though the lord might be only half a man, Julia Brabazon walked
+out from the church every inch a countess. Whatever price she might
+have paid, she had at any rate got the thing which she had intended
+to buy. And as she stepped into the chariot which carried her away to
+the railway station on her way to Dover, she told herself that she
+had done right. She had chosen her profession, as Harry Clavering
+had chosen his; and having so far succeeded, she would do her best
+to make her success perfect. Mercenary! Of course she had been
+mercenary. Were not all men and women mercenary upon whom devolved
+the necessity of earning their bread?
+
+Then there was a great breakfast at the park,--for the quality,--and
+the rector on this occasion submitted himself to become the guest of
+the nephew whom he thoroughly disliked.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+FLORENCE BURTON.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+It was now Christmas time at Stratton, or rather Christmas time was
+near at hand; not the Christmas next after the autumn of Lord Ongar's
+marriage, but the following Christmas, and Harry Clavering had
+finished his studies in Mr. Burton's office. He flattered himself
+that he had not been idle while he was there, and was now about to
+commence his more advanced stage of pupilage, under the great Mr.
+Beilby in London, with hopes which were still good, if they were not
+so magnificent as they once had been. When he first saw Mr. Burton
+in his office, and beheld the dusty pigeon-holes with dusty papers,
+and caught the first glimpse of things as they really were in the
+workshop of that man of business, he had, to say the truth, been
+disgusted. And Mrs. Burton's early dinner, and Florence Burton's
+"plain face" and plain ways, had disconcerted him. On that day he had
+repented of his intention with regard to Stratton; but he had carried
+out his purpose like a man, and now he rejoiced greatly that he had
+done so. He rejoiced greatly, though his hopes were somewhat sobered,
+and his views of life less grand than they had been. He was to start
+for Clavering early on the following morning, intending to spend his
+Christmas at home, and we will see him and listen to him as he bade
+farewell to one of the members of Mr. Burton's family.
+
+He was sitting in a small back parlour in Mr. Burton's house, and on
+the table of the room there was burning a single candle. It was a
+dull, dingy, brown room, furnished with horsehair-covered chairs, an
+old horsehair sofa, and heavy rusty curtains. I don't know that there
+was in the room any attempt at ornament, as certainly there was no
+evidence of wealth. It was now about seven o'clock in the evening,
+and tea was over in Mrs. Burton's establishment. Harry Clavering had
+had his tea, and had eaten his hot muffin, at the further side from
+the fire of the family table, while Florence had poured out the tea,
+and Mrs. Burton had sat by the fire on one side with a handkerchief
+over her lap, and Mr. Burton had been comfortable with his arm-chair
+and his slippers on the other side. When tea was over, Harry had made
+his parting speech to Mrs. Burton, and that lady had kissed him, and
+bade God bless him. "I'll see you for a moment before you go, in my
+office, Harry," Mr. Burton had said. Then Harry had gone downstairs,
+and some one else had gone boldly with him, and they two were sitting
+together in the dingy brown room. After that I need hardly tell my
+reader what had become of Harry Clavering's perpetual life-enduring
+heart's misery.
+
+He and Florence were sitting on the old horsehair sofa, and
+Florence's hand was in his. "My darling," he said, "how am I to live
+for the next two years?"
+
+"You mean five years, Harry."
+
+"No; I mean two,--that is two, unless I can make the time less. I
+believe you'd be better pleased to think it was ten."
+
+"Much better pleased to think it was ten than to have no such hope at
+all. Of course we shall see each other. It's not as though you were
+going to New Zealand."
+
+"I almost wish I were. One would agree then as to the necessity of
+this cursed delay."
+
+"Harry, Harry!"
+
+"It is accursed. The prudence of the world in these latter days seems
+to me to be more abominable than all its other iniquities."
+
+"But, Harry, we should have no income."
+
+"Income is a word that I hate."
+
+"Now you are getting on to your high horse, and you know I always go
+out of the way when you begin to prance on that beast. As for me,
+I don't want to leave papa's house where I'm sure of my bread and
+butter, till I'm sure of it in another."
+
+"You say that, Florence, on purpose to torment me."
+
+"Dear Harry, do you think I want to torment you on your last night?
+The truth is, I love you so well that I can afford to be patient for
+you."
+
+"I hate patience, and always did. Patience is one of the worst vices
+I know. It's almost as bad as humility. You'll tell me you're 'umble
+next. If you'll only add that you're contented, you'll describe
+yourself as one of the lowest of God's creatures."
+
+"I don't know about being 'umble, but I am contented. Are not you
+contented with me, sir?"
+
+"No,--because you're not in a hurry to be married."
+
+"What a goose you are. Do you know I'm not sure that if you really
+love a person, and are quite confident about him,--as I am of
+you,--that having to look forward to being married is not the best
+part of it all. I suppose you'll like to get my letters now, but I
+don't know that you'll care for them much when we've been man and
+wife for ten years."
+
+"But one can't live upon letters."
+
+"I shall expect you to live upon mine, and to grow fat on them.
+There;--I heard papa's step on the stairs. He said you were to go to
+him. Good-by, Harry;--dearest Harry! What a blessed wind it was that
+blew you here."
+
+"Stop a moment;--about your getting to Clavering. I shall come for
+you on Easter-eve."
+
+"Oh, no;--why should you have so much trouble and expense?"
+
+"I tell you I shall come for you,--unless, indeed, you decline to
+travel with me."
+
+"It will be so nice! And then I shall be sure to have you with me the
+first moment I see them. I shall think it very awful when I first
+meet your father."
+
+"He's the most good-natured man, I should say, in England."
+
+"But he'll think me so plain. You did at first, you know. But he
+won't be uncivil enough to tell me so, as you did. And Mary is to be
+married in Easter week? Oh, dear, oh, dear; I shall be so shy among
+them all."
+
+"You shy! I never saw you shy in my life. I don't suppose you were
+ever really put out yet."
+
+"But I must really put you out, because papa is waiting for you.
+Dear, dear, dearest Harry. Though I am so patient I shall count
+the hours till you come for me. Dearest Harry!" Then she bore with
+him, as he pressed her close to his bosom, and kissed her lips, and
+her forehead, and her glossy hair. When he was gone she sat down
+alone for a few minutes on the old sofa, and hugged herself in her
+happiness. What a happy wind that had been which had blown such a
+lover as that for her to Stratton!
+
+"I think he's a good young man," said Mrs. Burton, as soon as she was
+left with her old husband upstairs.
+
+"Yes, he's a good young man. He means very well."
+
+"But he is not idle; is he?"
+
+"No--no; he's not idle. And he's very clever;--too clever, I'm
+afraid. But I think he'll do well, though it may take him some time
+to settle."
+
+"It seems so natural his taking to Flo; doesn't it? They've all taken
+one when they went away, and they've all done very well. Deary me;
+how sad the house will be when Flo has gone."
+
+"Yes,--it'll make a difference that way. But what then? I wouldn't
+wish to keep one of 'em at home for that reason."
+
+"No, indeed. I think I'd feel ashamed of myself to have a daughter
+not married, or not in the way to be married afore she's thirty. I
+couldn't bear to think that no young man should take a fancy to a
+girl of mine. But Flo's not twenty yet, and Carry, who was the oldest
+to go, wasn't four-and-twenty when Scarness took her." Thereupon the
+old lady put her handkerchief to the corner of her eyes, and wept
+gently.
+
+"Flo isn't gone yet," said Mr. Burton.
+
+"But I hope, B., it's not to be a long engagement. I don't like long
+engagements. It ain't good,--not for the girl; it ain't, indeed."
+
+"We were engaged for seven years."
+
+"People weren't so much in a hurry then at anything; but I ain't sure
+it was very good for me. And though we weren't just married, we were
+living next door and saw each other. What'll come to Flo if she's to
+be here and he's to be up in London, pleasuring himself?"
+
+"Flo must bear it as other girls do," said the father, as he got up
+from his chair.
+
+"I think he's a good young man; I think he is," said the mother. "But
+don't stand out for too much for 'em to begin upon. What matters?
+Sure if they were to be a little short you could help 'em." To such
+a suggestion as this Mr. Burton thought it as well to make no answer,
+but with ponderous steps descended to his office.
+
+"Well, Harry," said Mr. Burton, "so you're to be off in the morning?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I shall breakfast at home to-morrow."
+
+"Ah,--when I was your age I always used to make an early start. Three
+hours before breakfast never does any hurt. But it shouldn't be more
+than that. The wind gets into the stomach." Harry had no remark to
+make on this, and waited, therefore, till Mr. Burton went on. "And
+you'll be up in London by the 10th of next month?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I intend to be at Mr. Beilby's office on the 11th."
+
+"That's right. Never lose a day. In losing a day now, you don't lose
+what you might earn now in a day, but what you might be earning when
+you're at your best. A young man should always remember that. You
+can't dispense with a round in the ladder going up. You only make
+your time at the top so much the shorter."
+
+"I hope you'll find that I'm all right, sir. I don't mean to be
+idle."
+
+"Pray don't. Of course, you know, I speak to you very differently
+from what I should do if you were simply going away from my office.
+What I shall have to give Florence will be very little,--that is,
+comparatively little. She shall have a hundred a year, when she
+marries, till I die; and after my death and her mother's she will
+share with the others. But a hundred a year will be nothing to you."
+
+"Won't it, sir? I think a very great deal of a hundred a year. I'm to
+have a hundred and fifty from the office; and I should be ready to
+marry on that to-morrow."
+
+"You couldn't live on such an income,--unless you were to alter your
+habits very much."
+
+"But I will alter them."
+
+"We shall see. You are so placed that by marrying you would lose a
+considerable income; and I would advise you to put off thinking of it
+for the next two years."
+
+"My belief is, that settling down would be the best thing in the
+world to make me work."
+
+"We'll try what a year will do. So Florence is to go to your father's
+house at Easter?"
+
+"Yes, sir; she has been good enough to promise to come, if you have
+no objection."
+
+"It is quite as well that they should know her early. I only
+hope they will like her as well as we like you. Now I'll say
+good-night,--and good-by." Then Harry went, and walking up and down
+the High Street of Stratton, thought of all that he had done during
+the past year.
+
+On his arrival at Stratton that idea of perpetual misery arising from
+blighted affection was still strong within his breast. He had given
+all his heart to a false woman who had betrayed him. He had risked
+all his fortune on one cast of the die, and, gambler-like, had lost
+everything. On the day of Julia's marriage he had shut himself up at
+the school,--luckily it was a holiday,--and had flattered himself
+that he had gone through some hours of intense agony. No doubt he
+did suffer somewhat, for in truth he had loved the woman; but such
+sufferings are seldom perpetual, and with him they had been as easy
+of cure as with most others. A little more than a year had passed,
+and now he was already engaged to another woman. As he thought of
+this he did not by any means accuse himself of inconstancy or of
+weakness of heart. It appeared to him now the most natural thing in
+the world that he should love Florence Burton. In those old days
+he had never seen Florence, and had hardly thought seriously of
+what qualities a man really wants in a wife. As he walked up and
+down the hill of Stratton Street with the kiss of the dear, modest,
+affectionate girl still warm upon his lips, he told himself that a
+marriage with such a one as Julia Brabazon would have been altogether
+fatal to his chance of happiness.
+
+And things had occurred and rumours had reached him which assisted
+him much in adopting this view of the subject. It was known to
+all the Claverings,--and even to all others who cared about such
+things,--that Lord and Lady Ongar were not happy together, and it
+had been already said that Lady Ongar had misconducted herself.
+There was a certain count whose name had come to be mingled with
+hers in a way that was, to say the least of it, very unfortunate.
+Sir Hugh Clavering had declared, in Mrs. Clavering's hearing, though
+but little disposed in general to make many revelations to any of
+the family at the rectory, "that he did not intend to take his
+sister-in-law's part. She had made her own bed, and she must lie upon
+it. She had known what Lord Ongar was before she had married him, and
+the fault was her own." So much Sir Hugh had said, and, in saying
+it, had done all that in him lay to damn his sister-in-law's fair
+fame. Harry Clavering, little as he had lived in the world during
+the last twelve months, still knew that some people told a different
+story. The earl too and his wife had not been in England since their
+marriage;--so that these rumours had been filtered to them at home
+through a foreign medium. During most of their time they had been in
+Italy, and now, as Harry knew, they were at Florence. He had heard
+that Lord Ongar had declared his intention of suing for a divorce;
+but that he supposed to be erroneous, as the two were still living
+under the same roof. Then he heard that Lord Ongar was ill; and
+whispers were spread abroad darkly and doubtingly, as though great
+misfortunes were apprehended.
+
+Harry could not fail to tell himself that had Julia become his wife,
+as she had once promised, these whispers and this darkness would
+hardly have come to pass. But not on that account did he now regret
+that her early vows had not been kept. Living at Stratton, he had
+taught himself to think much of the quiet domesticities of life, and
+to believe that Florence Burton was fitter to be his wife than Julia
+Brabazon. He told himself that he had done well to find this out,
+and that he had been wise to act upon it. His wisdom had in truth
+consisted in his capacity to feel that Florence was a nice girl,
+clever, well-minded, high-principled, and full of spirit,--and in
+falling in love with her as a consequence. All his regard for the
+quiet domesticities had come from his love, and had had no share in
+producing it. Florence was bright-eyed. No eyes were ever brighter,
+either in tears or in laughter. And when he came to look at her well
+he found that he had been an idiot to think her plain. "There are
+things that grow to beauty as you look at them,--to exquisite beauty;
+and you are one of them," he had said to her. "And there are men,"
+she had answered, "who grow to flattery as you listen to them,--to
+impudent flattery; and you are one of them." "I thought you plain
+the first day I saw you. That's not flattery." "Yes, sir, it is; and
+you mean it for flattery. But after all, Harry, it comes only to
+this, that you want to tell me that you have learned to love me." He
+repeated all this to himself as he walked up and down Stratton, and
+declared to himself that she was very lovely. It had been given to
+him to ascertain this, and he was rather proud of himself. But he was
+a little diffident about his father. He thought that, perhaps, his
+father might see Florence as he himself had first seen her, and might
+not have discernment enough to ascertain his mistake as he had done.
+But Florence was not going to Clavering at once, and he would be able
+to give beforehand his own account of her. He had not been home since
+his engagement had been a thing settled; but his position with regard
+to Florence had been declared by letter, and his mother had written
+to the young lady asking her to come to Clavering.
+
+When Harry got home all the family received him with congratulations.
+"I am so glad to think that you should marry early," his mother
+said to him in a whisper. "But I am not married yet, mother," he
+answered.
+
+"Do show me a lock of her hair," said Fanny, laughing. "It's twice
+prettier hair than yours, though she doesn't think half so much about
+it as you do," said her brother, pinching Fanny's arm. "But you'll
+show me a lock, won't you?" said Fanny.
+
+"I'm so glad she's to be here at my marriage," said Mary, "because
+then Edward will know her. I'm so glad that he will see her." "Edward
+will have other fish to fry, and won't care much about her," said
+Harry.
+
+"It seems you're going to do the regular thing," said his father,
+"like all the good apprentices. Marry your master's daughter,
+and then become Lord Mayor of London." This was not the view in
+which it had pleased Harry to regard his engagement. All the other
+"young men" that had gone to Mr. Burton's had married Mr. Burton's
+daughters,--or, at least, enough had done so to justify the Stratton
+assertion that all had fallen into the same trap. The Burtons, with
+their five girls, were supposed in Stratton to have managed their
+affairs very well, and something of these hints had reached Harry's
+ears. He would have preferred that the thing should not have been
+made so common, but he was not fool enough to make himself really
+unhappy on that head. "I don't know much about becoming Lord Mayor,"
+he replied. "That promotion doesn't lie exactly in our line." "But
+marrying your master's daughter does, it seems," said the Rector.
+Harry thought that this, as coming from his father, was almost
+ill-natured, and therefore dropped the conversation.
+
+"I'm sure we shall like her," said Fanny.
+
+"I think that I shall like Harry's choice," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"I do hope Edward will like her," said Mary.
+
+"Mary," said her sister, "I do wish you were once married. When you
+are, you'll begin to have a self of your own again. Now you're no
+better than an unconscious echo."
+
+"Wait for your own turn, my dear," said the mother.
+
+Harry had reached home on a Saturday, and the following Monday was
+Christmas-day. Lady Clavering, he was told, was at home at the
+park, and Sir Hugh had been there lately. No one from the house
+except the servants were seen at church either on the Sunday or on
+Christmas-day. "But that shows nothing," said the Rector, speaking
+in anger. "He very rarely does come, and when he does, it would be
+better that he should be away. I think that he likes to insult me
+by misconducting himself. They say that she is not well, and I can
+easily believe that all this about her sister makes her unhappy. If I
+were you I would go up and call. Your mother was there the other day,
+but did not see them. I think you'll find that he's away, hunting
+somewhere. I saw the groom going off with three horses on Sunday
+afternoon. He always sends them by the church gate just as we're
+coming out."
+
+So Harry went up to the house, and found Lady Clavering at home. She
+was looking old and careworn, but she was glad to see him. Harry was
+the only one of the rectory family who had been liked at the great
+house since Sir Hugh's marriage, and he, had he cared to do so, would
+have been made welcome there. But, as he had once said to Sir Hugh's
+sister-in-law, if he shot the Clavering game, he would be expected
+to do so in the guise of a head gamekeeper, and he did not choose to
+play that part. It would not suit him to drink Sir Hugh's claret, and
+be bidden to ring the bell, and to be asked to step into the stable
+for this or that. He was a fellow of his college, and quite as big
+a man, he thought, as Sir Hugh. He would not be a hanger-on at the
+park, and, to tell the truth, he disliked his cousin quite as much as
+his father did. But there had even been a sort of friendship,--nay,
+occasionally almost a confidence, between him and Lady Clavering, and
+he believed that by her he was really liked.
+
+Lady Clavering had heard of his engagement, and of course
+congratulated him. "Who told you?" he asked,--"was it my mother?"
+
+"No; I have not seen your mother I don't know when. I think it was
+my maid told me. Though we somehow don't see much of you all at the
+rectory, our servants are no doubt more gracious with the rectory
+servants. I'm sure she must be nice, Harry, or you would not have
+chosen her. I hope she has got some money."
+
+"Yes, I think she is nice. She is coming here at Easter."
+
+"Ah, we shall be away then, you know; and about the money?"
+
+"She will have a little, but very little;--a hundred a year."
+
+"Oh, Harry, is not that rash of you? Younger brothers should always
+get money. You're the same as a younger brother, you know."
+
+"My idea is to earn my own bread. It's not very aristocratic, but,
+after all, there are a great many more in the same boat with me."
+
+"Of course you will earn your bread, but having a wife with money
+would not hinder that. A girl is not the worse because she can bring
+some help. However, I'm sure I hope you'll be happy."
+
+"What I meant was that I think it best when the money comes from the
+husband."
+
+"I'm sure I ought to agree with you, because we never had any." Then
+there was a pause. "I suppose you've heard about Lord Ongar," she
+said.
+
+"I have heard that he is very ill."
+
+"Very ill. I believe there was no hope when we heard last; but Julia
+never writes now."
+
+"I'm sorry that it is so bad as that," said Harry, not well knowing
+what else to say.
+
+"As regards Julia, I do not know whether it may not be for the best.
+It seems to be a cruel thing to say, but of course I cannot but think
+most of her. You have heard, perhaps, that they have not been happy?"
+
+"Yes; I had heard that."
+
+"Of course; and what is the use of pretending anything with you? You
+know what people have said of her."
+
+"I have never believed it."
+
+"You always loved her, Harry. Oh, dear, I remember how unhappy that
+made me once, and I was so afraid that Hugh would suspect it. She
+would never have done for you;--would she, Harry?"
+
+"She did a great deal better for herself," said Harry.
+
+"If you mean that ironically, you shouldn't say it now. If he dies,
+she will be well off, of course, and people will in time forget what
+has been said,--that is, if she will live quietly. The worst of it is
+that she fears nothing."
+
+"But you speak as though you thought she had been--been--"
+
+"I think she was probably imprudent, but I believe nothing worse
+than that. But who can say what is absolutely wrong, and what only
+imprudent? I think she was too proud to go really astray. And then
+with such a man as that, so difficult and so ill-tempered--! Sir Hugh
+thinks--" But at that moment the door was opened and Sir Hugh came
+in.
+
+"What does Sir Hugh think?" said he.
+
+"We were speaking of Lord Ongar," said Harry, sitting up and shaking
+hands with his cousin.
+
+"Then, Harry, you were speaking on a subject that I would rather
+not have discussed in this house. Do you understand that, Hermione?
+I will have no talking about Lord Ongar or his wife. We know very
+little, and what we hear is simply uncomfortable. Will you dine here
+to-day, Harry?"
+
+"Thank you, no; I have only just come home."
+
+"And I am just going away. That is, I go to-morrow. I cannot stand
+this place. I think it the dullest neighbourhood in all England, and
+the most gloomy house I ever saw. Hermione likes it."
+
+To this last assertion Lady Clavering expressed no assent; nor did
+she venture to contradict him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LADY ONGAR'S RETURN.
+
+
+But Sir Hugh did not get away from Clavering Park on the next morning
+as he had intended. There came to him that same afternoon a message
+by telegraph, to say that Lord Ongar was dead. He had died at
+Florence on the afternoon of Christmas-day, and Lady Ongar had
+expressed her intention of coming at once to England.
+
+"Why the devil doesn't she stay where she is?" said Sir Hugh, to his
+wife. "People would forget her there, and in twelve months time the
+row would be all over."
+
+"Perhaps she does not want to be forgotten," said Lady Clavering.
+
+"Then she should want it. I don't care whether she has been guilty or
+not. When a woman gets her name into such a mess as that, she should
+keep in the background."
+
+"I think you are unjust to her, Hugh."
+
+"Of course you do. You don't suppose that I expect anything else. But
+if you mean to tell me that there would have been all this row if she
+had been decently prudent, I tell you that you're mistaken."
+
+"Only think what a man he was."
+
+"She knew that when she took him, and should have borne with him
+while he lasted. A woman isn't to have seven thousand a year for
+nothing."
+
+"But you forget that not a syllable has been proved against her, or
+been attempted to be proved. She has never left him, and now she has
+been with him in his last moments. I don't think you ought to be the
+first to turn against her."
+
+"If she would remain abroad, I would do the best I could for her.
+She chooses to return home; and as I think she's wrong, I won't have
+her here;--that's all. You don't suppose that I go about the world
+accusing her?"
+
+"I think you might do something to fight her battle for her."
+
+"I will do nothing,--unless she takes my advice and remains abroad.
+You must write to her now, and you will tell her what I say. It's an
+infernal bore, his dying at this moment; but I suppose people won't
+expect that I'm to shut myself up."
+
+For one day only did the baronet shut himself up, and on the
+following he went whither he had before intended.
+
+Lady Clavering thought it proper to write a line to the rectory,
+informing the family there that Lord Ongar was no more. This she
+did in a note to Mrs. Clavering; and when it was received, there
+came over the faces of them all that lugubrious look, which is, as a
+matter of course, assumed by decorous people when tidings come of the
+death of any one who has been known to them, even in the most distant
+way. With the exception of Harry, all the rectory Claverings had been
+introduced to Lord Ongar, and were now bound to express something
+approaching to sorrow. Will any one dare to call this hypocrisy? If
+it be so called, who in the world is not a hypocrite? Where is the
+man or woman who has not a special face for sorrow before company?
+The man or woman who has no such face, would at once be accused of
+heartless impropriety.
+
+"It is very sad," said Mrs. Clavering; "only think, it is but little
+more than a year since you married them!"
+
+"And twelve such months as they have been for her!" said the Rector,
+shaking his head. His face was very lugubrious, for though as
+a parson he was essentially a kindly, easy man, to whom humbug
+was odious, and who dealt little in the austerities of clerical
+denunciation, still he had his face of pulpit sorrow for the sins of
+the people,--what I may perhaps call his clerical knack of gentle
+condemnation,--and could therefore assume a solemn look, and a little
+saddened motion of his head, with more ease than people who are not
+often called upon for such action.
+
+"Poor woman!" said Fanny, thinking of the woman's married sorrows,
+and her early widowhood.
+
+"Poor man," said Mary, shuddering as she thought of the husband's
+fate.
+
+"I hope," said Harry, almost sententiously, "that no one in this
+house will condemn her upon such mere rumours as have been heard."
+
+"Why should any one in this house condemn her," said the Rector,
+"even if there were more than rumours? My dears, judge not, lest ye
+be judged. As regards her, we are bound by close ties not to speak
+ill of her--or even to think ill, unless we cannot avoid it. As far
+as I know, we have not even any reason for thinking ill." Then he
+went out, changed the tone of his countenance among the rectory
+stables, and lit his cigar.
+
+Three days after that a second note was brought down from the great
+house to the rectory, and this was from Lady Clavering to Harry.
+"Dear Harry," ran the note,--"Could you find time to come up to me
+this morning? Sir Hugh has gone to North Priory.--Ever yours, H. C."
+Harry, of course, went, and as he went, he wondered how Sir Hugh
+could have had the heart to go to North Priory at such a moment.
+North Priory was a hunting seat some thirty miles from Clavering,
+belonging to a great nobleman with whom Sir Hugh much consorted.
+Harry was grieved that his cousin had not resisted the temptation of
+going at such a time, but he was quick enough to perceive that Lady
+Clavering alluded to the absence of her lord as a reason why Harry
+might pay his visit to the house with satisfaction.
+
+"I'm so much obliged to you for coming," said Lady Clavering. "I want
+to know if you can do something for me." As she spoke, she had a
+paper in her hand which he immediately perceived to be a letter from
+Italy.
+
+"I'll do anything I can, of course, Lady Clavering."
+
+"But I must tell you, that I hardly know whether I ought to ask you.
+I'm doing what would make Hugh very angry. But he is so unreasonable,
+and so cruel about Julia. He condemns her simply because, as he says,
+there is no smoke without fire. That is such a cruel thing to say
+about a woman;--is it not?"
+
+Harry thought that it was a cruel thing, but as he did not wish to
+speak evil of Sir Hugh before Lady Clavering, he held his tongue.
+
+"When we got the first news by telegraph, Julia said that she
+intended to come home at once. Hugh thinks that she should remain
+abroad for some time, and indeed I am not sure but that would be
+best. At any rate he made me write to her, and advise her to stay. He
+declared that if she came at once he would do nothing for her. The
+truth is, he does not want to have her here, for if she were again in
+the house he would have to take her part, if ill-natured things were
+said."
+
+"That's cowardly," said Harry, stoutly.
+
+"Don't say that, Harry, till you have heard it all. If he believes
+these things, he is right not to wish to meddle. He is very hard,
+and always believes evil. But he is not a coward. If she were here,
+living with him as my sister, he would take her part, whatever he
+might himself think."
+
+"But why should he think ill of his own sister-in-law? I have never
+thought ill of her."
+
+"You loved her, and he never did;--though I think he liked her too in
+his way. But that's what he told me to do, and I did it. I wrote to
+her, advising her to remain at Florence till the warm weather comes,
+saying that as she could not specially wish to be in London for the
+season, I thought she would be more comfortable there than here;--and
+then I added that Hugh also advised her to stay. Of course I did not
+say that he would not have her here,--but that was his threat."
+
+"She is not likely to press herself where she is not wanted."
+
+"No,--and she will not forget her rank and her money;--for that must
+now be hers. Julia can be quite as hard and as stubborn as he can.
+But I did write as I say, and I think that if she had got my letter
+before she had written herself, she would perhaps have stayed. But
+here is a letter from her, declaring that she will come at once. She
+will be starting almost as soon as my letter gets there, and I am
+sure she will not alter her purpose now."
+
+"I don't see why she should not come if she likes it."
+
+"Only that she might be more comfortable there. But read what she
+says. You need not read the first part. Not that there is any secret;
+but it is about him and his last moments, and it would only pain
+you."
+
+Harry longed to read the whole, but he did as he was bid, and began
+the letter at the spot which Lady Clavering marked for him with her
+finger. "I have to start on the third, and as I shall stay nowhere
+except to sleep at Turin and Paris, I shall be home by the eighth;--I
+think on the evening of the eighth. I shall bring only my own maid,
+and one of his men who desires to come back with me. I wish to have
+apartments taken for me in London. I suppose Hugh will do as much as
+this for me?"
+
+"I am quite sure Hugh won't," said Lady Clavering, who was watching
+his eye as he read.
+
+Harry said nothing, but went on reading. "I shall only want two
+sitting-rooms and two bedrooms,--one for myself and one for
+Clara,--and should like to have them somewhere near Piccadilly,--in
+Clarges Street, or about there. You can write me a line, or send me a
+message to the Hotel Bristol, at Paris. If anything fails, so that I
+should not hear, I shall go to the Palace Hotel; and, in that case,
+should telegraph for rooms from Paris."
+
+"Is that all I'm to read?" Harry asked.
+
+"You can go on and see what she says as to her reason for coming." So
+Harry went on reading. "I have suffered much, and of course I know
+that I must suffer more; but I am determined that I will face the
+worst of it at once. It has been hinted to me that an attempt will be
+made to interfere with the settlement--" "Who can have hinted that?"
+said Harry. Lady Clavering suspected who might have done so, but she
+made no answer. "I can hardly think it possible; but, if it is done,
+I will not be out of the way. I have done my duty as best I could,
+and have done it under circumstances that I may truly say were
+terrible;--and I will go on doing it. No one shall say that I am
+ashamed to show my face and claim my own. You will be surprised when
+you see me. I have aged so much;--"
+
+"You need not go on," said Lady Clavering. "The rest is about nothing
+that signifies."
+
+Then Harry refolded the letter and gave it back to his companion.
+
+"Sir Hugh is gone, and therefore I could not show him that in time to
+do anything; but if I were to do so, he would simply do nothing, and
+let her go to the hotel in London. Now that would be unkind;--would
+it not?"
+
+"Very unkind, I think."
+
+"It would seem so cold to her on her return."
+
+"Very cold. Will you not go and meet her?"
+
+Lady Clavering blushed as she answered. Though Sir Hugh was a tyrant
+to his wife, and known to be such, and though she knew that this was
+known, she had never said that it was so to any of the Claverings;
+but now she was driven to confess it. "He would not let me go, Harry.
+I could not go without telling him, and if I told him he would forbid
+it."
+
+"And she is to be all alone in London, without any friend?"
+
+"I shall go to her as soon as he will let me. I don't think he will
+forbid my going to her, perhaps after a day or two; but I know he
+would not let me go on purpose to meet her."
+
+"It does seem hard."
+
+"But about the apartments, Harry? I thought that perhaps you would
+see about them. After all that has passed I could not have asked you,
+only that now, as you are engaged yourself, it is nearly the same as
+though you were married. I would ask Archibald, only then there would
+be a fuss between Archibald and Hugh; and somehow I look on you more
+as a brother-in-law than I do Archibald."
+
+"Is Archie in London?"
+
+"His address is at his club, but I daresay he is at North Priory
+also. At any rate, I shall say nothing to him."
+
+"I was thinking he might have met her."
+
+"Julia never liked him. And, indeed, I don't think she will care so
+much about being met. She was always independent in that way, and
+would go over the world alone better than many men. But couldn't you
+run up and manage about the apartments? A woman coming home as a
+widow,--and in her position,--feels an hotel to be so public."
+
+"I will see about the apartments."
+
+"I knew you would. And there will be time for you to send to me, so
+that I can write to Paris;--will there not? There is more than a
+week, you know."
+
+But Henry did not wish to go to London on this business immediately.
+He had made up his mind that he would not only take the rooms, but
+that he would also meet Lady Ongar at the station. He said nothing of
+this to Lady Clavering, as, perhaps, she might not approve; but such
+was his intention. He was wrong no doubt. A man in such cases should
+do what he is asked to do, and do no more. But he repeated to himself
+the excuse that Lady Clavering had made,--namely, that he was already
+the same as a married man, and that, therefore, no harm could come of
+his courtesy to his cousin's wife's sister. But he did not wish to
+make two journeys to London, nor did he desire to be away for a full
+week out of his holidays. Lady Clavering could not press him to go at
+once, and, therefore, it was settled as he proposed. She would write
+to Paris immediately, and he would go up to London after three or
+four days. "If we only knew of any apartments, we could write," said
+Lady Clavering. "You could not know that they were comfortable," said
+Harry; "and you will find that I will do it in plenty of time." Then
+he took his leave; but Lady Clavering had still one other word to
+say to him. "You had better not say anything about all this at the
+rectory; had you?" Harry, without considering much about it, said
+that he would not mention it.
+
+Then he went away and walked again about the park, thinking of it
+all. He had not seen her since he had walked round the park, in his
+misery, after parting with her in the garden. How much had happened
+since then! She had been married in her glory, had become a countess,
+and then a widow, and was now returning with a tarnished name, almost
+repudiated by those who had been her dearest friends; but with rank
+and fortune at her command,--and again a free woman. He could not
+but think what might have been his chance were it not for Florence
+Burton! But much had happened to him also. He had almost perished
+in his misery;--so he told himself;--but had once more "tricked his
+beams,"--that was his expression to himself,--and was now "flaming in
+the forehead" of a glorious love. And even if there had been no such
+love, would a widowed countess with a damaged name have suited his
+ambition, simply because she had the rich dower of the poor wretch
+to whom she had sold herself? No, indeed. There could be no question
+of renewed vows between them now;--there could have been no such
+question even had there been no "glorious love," which had accrued
+to him almost as his normal privilege in right of his pupilage in Mr.
+Burton's office. No;--there could be, there could have been, nothing
+now between him and the widowed Countess of Ongar. But, nevertheless,
+he liked the idea of meeting her in London. He felt some triumph in
+the thought that he should be the first to touch her hand on her
+return after all that she had suffered. He would be very courteous to
+her, and would spare no trouble that would give her any ease. As for
+her rooms, he would see to everything of which he could think that
+might add to her comfort; and a wish crept upon him, uninvited, that
+she might be conscious of what he had done for her.
+
+Would she be aware, he wondered, that he was engaged? Lady Clavering
+had known it for the last three months, and would probably have
+mentioned the circumstance in a letter. But perhaps not. The sisters,
+he knew, had not been good correspondents; and he almost wished that
+she might not know it. "I should not care to be talking to her about
+Florence," he said to himself.
+
+It was very strange that they should come to meet in such a way,
+after all that had passed between them in former days. Would it occur
+to her that he was the only man she had ever loved?--for, of course,
+as he well knew, she had never loved her husband. Or would she now be
+too callous to everything but the outer world to think at all of such
+a subject? She had said that she was aged, and he could well believe
+it. Then he pictured her to himself in her weeds, worn, sad, thin,
+but still proud and handsome. He had told Florence of his early love
+for the woman whom Lord Ongar had married, and had described with
+rapture his joy that that early passion had come to nothing. Now he
+would have to tell Florence of this meeting; and he thought of the
+comparison he would make between her bright young charms and the
+shipwrecked beauty of the widow. On the whole, he was proud that he
+had been selected for the commission, as he liked to think of himself
+as one to whom things happened which were out of the ordinary course.
+His only objection to Florence was that she had come to him so much
+in the ordinary course.
+
+"I suppose the truth is you are tired of our dulness," said his
+father to him, when he declared his purpose of going up to London,
+and, in answer to certain questions that were asked him, had
+hesitated to tell his business.
+
+"Indeed, it is not so," said Harry, earnestly; "but I have a
+commission to execute for a certain person, and I cannot explain what
+it is."
+
+"Another secret;--eh, Harry?"
+
+"I am very sorry,--but it is a secret. It is not one of my own
+seeking; that is all I can say." His mother and sisters also asked
+him a question or two; but when he became mysterious, they did not
+persevere. "Of course it is something about Florence," said Fanny.
+"I'll be bound he is going to meet her. What will you bet me, Harry,
+you don't go to the play with Florence before you come home?" To this
+Henry deigned no answer; and after that no more questions were asked.
+
+He went up to London and took rooms in Bolton Street. There
+was a pretty fresh-looking light drawing-room, or, indeed, two
+drawing-rooms, and a small dining-room, and a large bed-room looking
+over upon the trees of some great nobleman's garden. As Harry stood
+at the window it seemed so odd to him that he should be there. And he
+was busy about everything in the chamber, seeing that all things were
+clean and well ordered. Was the woman of the house sure of her cook?
+Sure; of course she was sure. Had not old Lady Dimdaff lived there
+for two years, and nobody ever was so particular about her victuals
+as Lady Dimdaff. "And would Lady Ongar keep her own carriage?" As to
+this Harry could say nothing. Then came the question of price, and
+Harry found his commission very difficult. The sum asked seemed to
+be enormous. "Seven guineas a week at that time of the year!" Lady
+Dimdaff had always paid seven guineas. "But that was in the season,"
+suggested Harry. To this the woman replied that it was the season
+now. Harry felt that he did not like to drive a bargain for the
+Countess, who would probably care very little what she paid, and
+therefore assented. But a guinea a day for lodgings did seem a great
+deal of money. He was prepared to marry and commence housekeeping
+upon a less sum for all his expenses. However, he had done his
+commission, had written to Lady Clavering, and had telegraphed to
+Paris. He had almost brought himself to write to Lady Ongar, but when
+the moment came he abstained. He had sent the telegram as from H.
+Clavering. She might think that it came from Hugh if she pleased.
+
+He was unable not to attend specially to his dress when he went to
+meet her at the Victoria Station. He told himself that he was an
+ass,--but still he went on being an ass. During the whole afternoon
+he could do nothing but think of what he had in hand. He was to tell
+Florence everything, but had Florence known the actual state of his
+mind, I doubt whether she would have been satisfied with him. The
+train was due at 8 P.M. He dined at the Oxford and Cambridge Club at
+six, and then went to his lodgings to take one last look at his outer
+man. The evening was very fine, but he went down to the station in a
+cab, because he would not meet Lady Ongar in soiled boots. He told
+himself again that he was an ass; and then tried to console himself
+by thinking that such an occasion as this seldom happened once to any
+man,--could hardly happen more than once to any man. He had hired
+a carriage for her, not thinking it fit that Lady Ongar should be
+taken to her new home in a cab; and when he was at the station, half
+an hour before the proper time, was very fidgety because it had not
+come. Ten minutes before eight he might have been seen standing at
+the entrance to the station looking out anxiously for the vehicle.
+The man was there, of course, in time, but Harry made himself angry
+because he could not get the carriage so placed that Lady Ongar might
+be sure of stepping into it without leaving the platform. Punctually
+to the moment the coming train announced itself by its whistle, and
+Harry Clavering felt himself to be in a flutter.
+
+The train came up along the platform, and Harry stood there expecting
+to see Julia Brabazon's head projected from the first window that
+caught his eye. It was of Julia Brabazon's head, and not of Lady
+Ongar's, that he was thinking. But he saw no sign of her presence
+while the carriages were coming to a stand-still, and the platform
+was covered with passengers before he discovered her whom he was
+seeking. At last he encountered in the crowd a man in livery, and
+found from him that he was Lady Ongar's servant. "I have come to meet
+Lady Ongar," said Harry, "and have got a carriage for her." Then the
+servant found his mistress, and Harry offered his hand to a tall
+woman in black. She wore a black straw hat with a veil, but the veil
+was so thick that Harry could not at all see her face.
+
+"Is that Mr. Clavering?" said she.
+
+"Yes," said Harry, "it is I. Your sister asked me to take rooms for
+you, and as I was in town I thought I might as well meet you to see
+if you wanted anything. Can I get the luggage?"
+
+"Thank you;--the man will do that. He knows where the things are."
+
+"I ordered a carriage;--shall I show him where it is? Perhaps you
+will let me take you to it? They are so stupid here. They would not
+let me bring it up."
+
+"It will do very well I'm sure. It's very kind of you. The rooms are
+in Bolton Street. I have the number here. Oh! thank you." But she
+would not take his arm. So he led the way, and stood at the door
+while she got into the carriage with her maid. "I'd better show the
+man where you are now." This he did, and afterwards shook hands with
+her through the carriage window. This was all he saw of her, and the
+words which have been repeated were all that were spoken. Of her face
+he had not caught a glimpse.
+
+As he went home to his lodgings he was conscious that the interview
+had not been satisfactory. He could not say what more he wanted, but
+he felt that there was something amiss. He consoled himself, however,
+by reminding himself that Florence Burton was the girl whom he had
+really loved, and not Julia Brabazon. Lady Ongar had given him no
+invitation to come and see her, and therefore he determined that he
+would return home on the following day without going near Bolton
+Street. He had pictured to himself beforehand the sort of description
+he would give to Lady Clavering of her sister; but, seeing how things
+had turned out, he made up his mind that he would say nothing of the
+meeting. Indeed, he would not go up to the great house at all. He had
+done Lady Clavering's commission,--at some little trouble and expense
+to himself, and there should be an end of it. Lady Ongar would not
+mention that she had seen him. He doubted, indeed, whether she would
+remember whom she had seen. For any good that he had done, or for
+any sentiment that there had been, his cousin Hugh's butler might as
+well have gone to the train. In this mood he returned home, consoling
+himself with the fitness of things which had given him Florence
+Burton instead of Julia Brabazon for a wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE REV. SAMUEL SAUL.
+
+
+During Harry's absence in London, a circumstance had occurred at the
+rectory which had surprised some of them and annoyed others a good
+deal. Mr. Saul, the curate, had made an offer to Fanny. The Rector
+and Fanny declared themselves to be both surprised and annoyed. That
+the Rector was in truth troubled by the thing was very evident. Mrs.
+Clavering said that she had almost suspected it,--that she was at any
+rate not surprised; as to the offer itself, of course she was sorry
+that it should have been made, as it could not suit Fanny to accept
+it. Mary was surprised, as she had thought Mr. Saul to be wholly
+intent on other things; but she could not see any reason why the
+offer should be regarded as being on his part unreasonable.
+
+"How can you say so, mamma?" Such had been Fanny's indignant
+exclamation when Mrs. Clavering had hinted that Mr. Saul's proceeding
+had been expected by her.
+
+"Simply because I saw that he liked you, my dear. Men under such
+circumstances have different ways of showing their liking."
+
+Fanny, who had seen all of Mary's love-affair from the beginning to
+the end, and who had watched the Reverend Edward Fielding in all
+his very conspicuous manoeuvres, would not agree to this. Edward
+Fielding from the first moment of his intimate acquaintance with Mary
+had left no doubt of his intentions on the mind of any one. He had
+talked to Mary and walked with Mary whenever he was allowed or found
+it possible to do so. When driven to talk to Fanny, he had always
+talked about Mary. He had been a lover of the good, old, plainspoken
+stamp, about whom there had been no mistake. From the first moment of
+his coming much about Clavering Rectory the only question had been
+about his income. "I don't think Mr. Saul ever said a word to me
+except about the poor people and the church-services," said Fanny.
+"That was merely his way," said Mrs. Clavering. "Then he must be a
+goose," said Fanny. "I am very sorry if I have made him unhappy, but
+he had no business to come to me in that way."
+
+"I suppose I shall have to look for another curate," said the Rector.
+But this was said in private to his wife.
+
+"I don't see that at all," said Mrs. Clavering. "With many men it
+would be so; but I think you will find that he will take an answer,
+and that there will be an end of it."
+
+Fanny, perhaps, had a right to be indignant, for certainly Mr. Saul
+had given her no fair warning of his intention. Mary had for some
+months been intent rather on Mr. Fielding's church matters than
+on those going on in her own parish, and therefore there had been
+nothing singular in the fact that Mr. Saul had said more on such
+matters to Fanny than to her sister. Fanny was eager and active, and
+as Mr. Saul was very eager and very active, it was natural that they
+should have had some interests in common. But there had been no
+private walkings, and no talkings that could properly be called
+private. There was a certain book which Fanny kept, containing the
+names of all the poor people in the parish, to which Mr. Saul had
+access equally with herself; but its contents were of a most prosaic
+nature, and when she had sat over it in the rectory drawing-room,
+with Mr. Saul by her side, striving to extract more than twelve
+pennies out of charity shillings, she had never thought that it would
+lead to a declaration of love.
+
+He had never called her Fanny in his life,--not up to the moment
+when she declined the honour of becoming Mrs. Saul. The offer itself
+was made in this wise. She had been at the house of old Widow Tubb,
+half-way between Cumberly Green and the little village of Clavering,
+striving to make that rheumatic old woman believe that she had not
+been cheated by a general conspiracy of the parish in the matter of
+a distribution of coal, when, just as she was about to leave the
+cottage, Mr. Saul came up. It was then past four, and the evening was
+becoming dark, and there was, moreover, a slight drizzle of rain. It
+was not a tempting evening for a walk of a mile and a half through
+a very dirty lane; but Fanny Clavering did not care much for such
+things, and was just stepping out into the mud and moisture, with her
+dress well looped up, when Mr. Saul accosted her.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll be very wet, Miss Clavering."
+
+"That will be better than going without my cup of tea, Mr. Saul,
+which I should have to do if I stayed any longer with Mrs. Tubb. And
+I have got an umbrella."
+
+"But it is so dark and dirty," said he.
+
+"I'm used to that, as you ought to know."
+
+"Yes; I do know it," said he, walking on with her. "I do know that
+nothing ever turns you away from the good work."
+
+There was something in the tone of his voice which Fanny did not
+like. He had never complimented her before. They had been very
+intimate and had often scolded each other. Fanny would accuse him of
+exacting too much from the people, and he would retort upon her that
+she coddled them. Fanny would often decline to obey him, and he would
+make angry hints as to his clerical authority. In this way they had
+worked together pleasantly, without any of the awkwardness which on
+other terms would have arisen between a young man and a young woman.
+But now that he began to praise her with some peculiar intention of
+meaning in his tone, she was confounded. She had made no immediate
+answer to him, but walked on rapidly through the mud and slush.
+
+"You are very constant," said he; "I have not been two years at
+Clavering without finding that out." It was becoming worse and worse.
+It was not so much his words which provoked her as the tone in which
+they were uttered. And yet she had not the slightest idea of what
+was coming. If, thoroughly admiring her devotion and mistaken as to
+her character, he were to ask her to become a Protestant nun, or
+suggest to her that she should leave her home and go as nurse into a
+hospital, then there would have occurred the sort of folly of which
+she believed him to be capable. Of the folly which he now committed,
+she had not believed him to be capable.
+
+It had come on to rain hard, and she held her umbrella low over her
+head. He also was walking with an open umbrella in his hand, so that
+they were not very close to each other. Fanny, as she stepped on
+impetuously, put her foot into the depth of a pool, and splashed
+herself thoroughly.
+
+"Oh dear, oh dear," said she; "this is very disagreeable."
+
+"Miss Clavering," said he, "I have been looking for an opportunity to
+speak to you, and I do not know when I may find another so suitable
+as this." She still believed that some proposition was to be made to
+her which would be disagreeable, and perhaps impertinent,--but it
+never occurred to her that Mr. Saul was in want of a wife.
+
+"Doesn't it rain too hard for talking?" she said.
+
+"As I have begun I must go on with it now," he replied, raising his
+voice a little, as though it were necessary that he should do so to
+make her hear him through the rain and darkness. She moved a little
+further away from him with unthinking irritation; but still he went
+on with his purpose. "Miss Clavering, I know that I am ill-suited to
+play the part of a lover;--very ill suited." Then she gave a start
+and again splashed herself sadly. "I have never read how it is done
+in books, and have not allowed my imagination to dwell much on such
+things."
+
+"Mr. Saul, don't go on; pray don't." Now she did understand what was
+coming.
+
+"Yes, Miss Clavering, I must go on now; but not on that account would
+I press you to give me an answer to-day. I have learned to love you,
+and if you can love me in return, I will take you by the hand, and
+you shall be my wife. I have found that in you which I have been
+unable not to love,--not to covet that I may bind it to myself as my
+own for ever. Will you think of this, and give me an answer when you
+have considered it fully?"
+
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Saul proposes.]
+
+
+He had not spoken altogether amiss, and Fanny, though she was very
+angry with him, was conscious of this. The time he had chosen might
+not be considered suitable for a declaration of love, nor the place;
+but having chosen them, he had, perhaps, made the best of them. There
+had been no hesitation in his voice, and his words had been perfectly
+audible.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Saul, of course I can assure you at once," said Fanny.
+"There need not be any consideration. I really have never thought--"
+Fanny, who knew her own mind on the matter thoroughly, was hardly
+able to express herself plainly and without incivility. As soon as
+that phrase "of course" had passed her lips, she felt that it should
+not have been spoken. There was no need that she should insult him
+by telling him that such a proposition from him could have but one
+answer.
+
+"No, Miss Clavering; I know you have never thought of it, and
+therefore it would be well that you should take time. I have not been
+able to make manifest to you by little signs, as men do who are less
+awkward, all the love that I have felt for you. Indeed, could I have
+done so, I should still have hesitated till I had thoroughly resolved
+that I might be better with a wife than without one; and had resolved
+also, as far as that might be possible for me, that you also would be
+better with a husband."
+
+"Mr. Saul, really that should be for me to think of."
+
+"And for me also. Can any man offer to marry a woman,--to bind a
+woman for life to certain duties, and to so close an obligation,
+without thinking whether such bonds would be good for her as well as
+for himself? Of course you must think for yourself;--and so have I
+thought for you. You should think for yourself, and you should think
+also for me."
+
+Fanny was quite aware that as regarded herself, the matter was one
+which required no more thinking. Mr. Saul was not a man with whom she
+could bring herself to be in love. She had her own ideas as to what
+was loveable in men, and the eager curate, splashing through the
+rain by her side, by no means came up to her standard of excellence.
+She was unconsciously aware that he had altogether mistaken her
+character, and given her credit for more abnegation of the world
+than she pretended to possess, or was desirous of possessing. Fanny
+Clavering was in no hurry to get married. I do not know that she
+had even made up her mind that marriage would be a good thing for
+her; but she had an untroubled conviction that if she did marry, her
+husband should have a house and an income. She had no reliance on her
+own power of living on a potato, and with one new dress every year.
+A comfortable home, with nice, comfortable things around her, ease
+in money matters, and elegance in life, were charms with which she
+had not quarrelled, and, though she did not wish to be hard upon
+Mr. Saul on account of his mistake, she did feel that in making his
+proposition he had blundered. Because she chose to do her duty as a
+parish clergyman's daughter, he thought himself entitled to regard
+her as devotée, who would be willing to resign everything to become
+the wife of a clergyman, who was active, indeed, but who had not one
+shilling of income beyond his curacy. "Mr. Saul," she said, "I can
+assure you I need take no time for further thinking. It cannot be as
+you would have it."
+
+"Perhaps I have been abrupt. Indeed, I feel that it is so, though I
+did not know how to avoid it."
+
+"It would have made no difference. Indeed, indeed, Mr. Saul, nothing
+of that kind could have made a difference."
+
+"Will you grant me this;--that I may speak to you again on the same
+subject after six months?"
+
+"It cannot do any good."
+
+"It will do this good;--that for so much time you will have had the
+idea before you." Fanny thought that she would have Mr. Saul himself
+before her, and that that would be enough. Mr. Saul, with his rusty
+clothes and his thick, dirty shoes, and his weak, blinking eyes,
+and his mind always set upon the one wish of his life, could not be
+made to present himself to her in the guise of a lover. He was one
+of those men of whom women become very fond with the fondness of
+friendship, but from whom young women seem to be as far removed in
+the way of love as though they belonged to some other species. "I
+will not press you further," said he, "as I gather by your tone that
+it distresses you."
+
+"I am so sorry if I distress you, but really, Mr. Saul, I could give
+you,--I never could give you any other answer."
+
+Then they walked on silently through the rain,--silently, without
+a single word,--for more than half a mile, till they reached the
+rectory gate. Here it was necessary that they should, at any rate,
+speak to each other, and for the last three hundred yards Fanny had
+been trying to find the words which would be suitable. But he was the
+first to break the silence. "Good-night, Miss Clavering," he said,
+stopping and putting out his hand.
+
+"Good-night, Mr. Saul."
+
+"I hope that there may be no difference in our bearing to each other,
+because of what I have to-day said to you?"
+
+"Not on my part;--that is, if you will forget it."
+
+"No, Miss Clavering; I shall not forget it. If it had been a thing to
+be forgotten, I should not have spoken. I certainly shall not forget
+it."
+
+"You know what I mean, Mr. Saul."
+
+"I shall not forget it even in the way that you mean. But still I
+think you need not fear me, because you know that I love you. I think
+I can promise that you need not withdraw yourself from me, because of
+what has passed. But you will tell your father and your mother, and
+of course will be guided by them. And now, good-night." Then he went,
+and she was astonished at finding that he had had much the best of it
+in his manner of speaking and conducting himself. She had refused him
+very curtly, and he had borne it well. He had not been abashed, nor
+had he become sulky, nor had he tried to melt her by mention of his
+own misery. In truth he had done it very well,--only that he should
+have known better than to make any such attempt at all.
+
+Mr. Saul had been right in one thing. Of course she told her mother,
+and of course her mother told her father. Before dinner that evening
+the whole affair was being debated in the family conclave. They
+all agreed that Fanny had had no alternative but to reject the
+proposition at once. That, indeed, was so thoroughly taken for
+granted, that the point was not discussed. But there came to be
+a difference between the Rector and Fanny on one side, and Mrs.
+Clavering and Mary on the other. "Upon my word," said the Rector,
+"I think it was very impertinent." Fanny would not have liked to use
+that word herself, but she loved her father for using it.
+
+"I do not see that," said Mrs. Clavering. "He could not know what
+Fanny's views in life might be. Curates very often marry out of the
+houses of the clergymen with whom they are placed, and I do not see
+why Mr. Saul should be debarred from the privilege of trying."
+
+"If he had got to like Fanny what else was he to do?" said Mary.
+
+"Oh, Mary, don't talk such nonsense," said Fanny. "Got to like!
+People shouldn't get to like people unless there's some reason for
+it."
+
+"What on earth did he intend to live on?" demanded the Rector.
+
+"Edward had nothing to live on, when you first allowed him to come
+here," said Mary.
+
+"But Edward had prospects, and Saul, as far as I know, has none. He
+had given no one the slightest notice. If the man in the moon had
+come to Fanny I don't suppose she would have been more surprised."
+
+"Not half so much, papa."
+
+Then it was that Mrs. Clavering had declared that she was not
+surprised,--that she had suspected it, and had almost made Fanny
+angry by saying so. When Harry came back two days afterwards, the
+family news was imparted to him, and he immediately ranged himself
+on his father's side. "Upon my word I think that he ought to be
+forbidden the house," said Harry. "He has forgotten himself in making
+such a proposition."
+
+"That's nonsense, Harry," said his mother. "If he can be comfortable
+coming here, there can be no reason why he should be uncomfortable.
+It would be an injustice to him to ask him to go, and a great trouble
+to your father to find another curate that would suit him so well."
+There could be no doubt whatever as to the latter proposition, and
+therefore it was quietly argued that Mr. Saul's fault, if there had
+been a fault, should be condoned. On the next day he came to the
+rectory, and they were all astonished at the ease with which he bore
+himself. It was not that he affected any special freedom of manner,
+or that he altogether avoided any change in his mode of speaking to
+them. A slight blush came upon his sallow face as he first spoke to
+Mrs. Clavering, and he hardly did more than say a single word to
+Fanny. But he carried himself as though conscious of what he had
+done, but in no degree ashamed of the doing it. The Rector's manner
+to him was stiff and formal;--seeing which Mrs. Clavering spoke to
+him gently, and with a smile. "I saw you were a little hard on him,
+and therefore I tried to make up for it," said she afterwards. "You
+were quite right," said the husband. "You always are. But I wish he
+had not made such a fool of himself. It will never be the same thing
+with him again." Harry hardly spoke to Mr. Saul the first time he met
+him, all of which Mr. Saul understood perfectly.
+
+"Clavering," he said to Harry, a day or two after this, "I hope there
+is to be no difference between you and me."
+
+"Difference! I don't know what you mean by difference."
+
+"We were good friends, and I hope that we are to remain so. No doubt
+you know what has taken place between me and your sister."
+
+"Oh, yes;--I have been told, of course."
+
+"What I mean is, that I hope you are not going to quarrel with me on
+that account? What I did, is it not what you would have done in my
+position?--only you would have done it successfully?"
+
+"I think a fellow should have some income, you know."
+
+"Can you say that you would have waited for income before you spoke
+of marriage?"
+
+"I think it might have been better that you should have gone to my
+father."
+
+"It may be that that is the rule in such things, but if so I do not
+know it. Would she have liked that better?"
+
+"Well;--I can't say."
+
+"You are engaged? Did you go to the young lady's family first?"
+
+"I can't say I did; but I think I had given them some ground to
+expect it. I fancy they all knew what I was about. But it's over now,
+and I don't know that we need say anything more about it."
+
+"Certainly not. Nothing can be said that would be of any use; but I
+do not think I have done anything that you should resent."
+
+"Resent is a strong word. I don't resent it, or, at any rate, I
+won't; and there may be an end of it." After this, Harry was more
+gracious with Mr. Saul, having an idea that the curate had made some
+sort of apology for what he had done. But that, I fancy, was by
+no means Mr. Saul's view of the case. Had he offered to marry the
+daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury, instead of the daughter of
+the Rector of Clavering, he would not have imagined that his doing so
+needed an apology.
+
+The day after his return from London Lady Clavering sent for Harry up
+to the house. "So you saw my sister in London?" she said.
+
+"Yes," said Harry blushing; "as I was in town, I thought that I might
+as well meet her. But, as you said, Lady Ongar is able to do without
+much assistance of that kind. I only just saw her."
+
+"Julia took it so kindly of you; but she seems surprised that you
+did not come to her the following day. She thought you would have
+called."
+
+"Oh, dear, no. I fancied that she would be too tired and too busy to
+wish to see any mere acquaintance."
+
+"Ah, Harry, I see that she has angered you," said Lady Clavering;
+"otherwise you would not talk about mere acquaintance."
+
+"Not in the least. Angered me! How could she anger me? What I meant
+was that at such a time she would probably wish to see no one but
+people on business,--unless it was some one near to her, like
+yourself or Hugh."
+
+"Hugh will not go to her."
+
+"But you will do so; will you not?"
+
+"Before long I will. You don't seem to understand, Harry,--and,
+perhaps, it would be odd if you did,--that I can't run up to town and
+back as I please. I ought not to tell you this, I dare say, but one
+feels as though one wanted to talk to some one about one's affairs.
+At the present moment, I have not the money to go,--even if there
+were no other reason." These last words she said almost in a whisper,
+and then she looked up into the young man's face, to see what he
+thought of the communication she had made him.
+
+"Oh, money!" he said. "You could soon get money. But I hope it won't
+be long before you go."
+
+On the next morning but one a letter came by the post for him from
+Lady Ongar. When he saw the handwriting, which he knew, his heart
+was at once in his mouth, and he hesitated to open his letter at the
+breakfast-table. He did open it and read it, but, in truth, he hardly
+understood it or digested it till he had taken it away with him up to
+his own room. The letter, which was very short, was as follows:--
+
+
+   DEAR FRIEND,
+
+   I felt your kindness in coming to me at the station so
+   much!--the more, perhaps, because others, who owed me more
+   kindness, have paid me less. Don't suppose that I allude
+   to poor Hermione, for, in truth, I have no intention to
+   complain of her. I thought, perhaps, you would have come
+   to see me before you left London; but I suppose you were
+   hurried. I hear from Clavering that you are to be up about
+   your new profession in a day or two. Pray come and see
+   me before you have been many days in London. I shall
+   have so much to say to you! The rooms you have taken are
+   everything that I wanted, and I am so grateful!
+
+   Yours ever,
+
+   J. O.
+
+
+When Harry had read and had digested this, he became aware that he
+was again fluttered. "Poor creature!" he said to himself; "it is sad
+to think how much she is in want of a friend."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A COUNTESS.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+About the middle of January Harry Clavering went up to London, and
+settled himself to work at Mr. Beilby's office. Mr. Beilby's office
+consisted of four or five large chambers, overlooking the river from
+the bottom of Adam Street in the Adelphi, and here Harry found a
+table for himself in the same apartment with three other pupils. It
+was a fine old room, lofty, and with large windows, ornamented on the
+ceiling with Italian scrollwork, and a flying goddess in the centre.
+In days gone by the house had been the habitation of some great
+rich man, who had there enjoyed the sweet breezes from the river
+before London had become the London of the present days, and when no
+embankment had been needed for the Thames. Nothing could be nicer
+than this room, or more pleasant than the table and seat which he was
+to occupy near a window; but there was something in the tone of the
+other men towards him which did not quite satisfy him. They probably
+did not know that he was a fellow of a college, and treated him
+almost as they might have done had he come to them direct from King's
+College, in the Strand, or from the London University. Down at
+Stratton, a certain amount of honour had been paid to him. They had
+known there who he was, and had felt some deference for him. They had
+not slapped him on the back, or poked him in the ribs, or even called
+him old fellow, before some length of acquaintance justified such
+appellation. But up at Mr. Beilby's, in the Adelphi, one young man,
+who was certainly his junior in age, and who did not seem as yet
+to have attained any high position in the science of engineering,
+manifestly thought that he was acting in a friendly and becoming way
+by declaring the stranger to be a lad of wax on the second day of his
+appearance. Harry Clavering was not disinclined to believe that he
+was a "lad of wax," or "a brick," or "a trump," or "no small beer."
+But he desired that such complimentary and endearing appellations
+should be used to him only by those who had known him long enough to
+be aware that he deserved them. Mr. Joseph Walliker certainly was not
+as yet among this number.
+
+There was a man at Mr. Beilby's who was entitled to greet him with
+endearing terms, and to be so greeted himself, although Harry had
+never seen him till he attended for the first time at the Adelphi.
+This was Theodore Burton, his future brother-in-law, who was now
+the leading man in the London house;--the leading man as regarded
+business, though he was not as yet a partner. It was understood that
+this Mr. Burton was to come in when his father went out; and in
+the meantime he received a salary of a thousand a year as managing
+clerk. A very hard-working, steady, intelligent man was Mr. Theodore
+Burton, with a bald head, a high forehead, and that look of constant
+work about him which such men obtain. Harry Clavering could not
+bring himself to take a liking to him, because he wore cotton
+gloves and had an odious habit of dusting his shoes with his
+pocket-handkerchief. Twice Harry saw him do this on the first day
+of their acquaintance, and he regretted it exceedingly. The cotton
+gloves too were offensive, as were also the thick shoes which had
+been dusted; but the dusting was the great sin.
+
+And there was something which did not quite please Harry in Mr.
+Theodore Burton's manner, though the gentleman had manifestly
+intended to be very kind to him. When Burton had been speaking to him
+for a minute or two, it flashed across Harry's mind that he had not
+bound himself to marry the whole Burton family, and that, perhaps,
+he must take some means to let that fact be known. "Theodore," as
+he had so often heard the younger Mr. Burton called by loving lips,
+seemed to claim him as his own, called him Harry, and upbraided
+him with friendly warmth for not having come direct to his,--Mr.
+Burton's,--house in Onslow Crescent. "Pray feel yourself at home
+there," said Mr. Burton. "I hope you'll like my wife. You needn't be
+afraid of being made to be idle if you spend your evenings there, for
+we are all reading people. Will you come and dine to-day?" Florence
+had told him that she was her brother Theodore's favourite sister,
+and that Theodore as a husband and a brother, and a man, was perfect.
+But Theodore had dusted his boots with his handkerchief, and Harry
+Clavering would not dine with him on that day.
+
+And then it was painfully manifest to him that every one in the
+office knew his destiny with reference to old Burton's daughter. He
+had been one of the Stratton men, and no more than any other had he
+gone unscathed through the Stratton fire. He had been made to do the
+regular thing, as Granger, Scarness, and others had done it. Stratton
+would be safer ground now, as Clavering had taken the last. That was
+the feeling on the matter which seemed to belong to others. It was
+not that Harry thought in this way of his own Florence. He knew well
+enough what a lucky fellow he was to have won such a girl. He was
+well aware how widely his Florence differed from Carry Scarness. He
+denied to himself indignantly that he had any notion of repenting
+what he had done. But he did wish that these private matters might
+have remained private, and that all the men at Beilby's had not
+known of his engagement. When Walliker, on the fourth day of their
+acquaintance, asked him if it was all right at Stratton, he made up
+his mind that he hated Walliker, and that he would hate Walliker to
+the last day of his life. He had declined the first invitation given
+to him by Theodore Burton; but he could not altogether avoid his
+future brother-in-law, and had agreed to dine with him on this day.
+
+On that same afternoon Harry, when he left Mr. Beilby's office, went
+direct to Bolton Street, that he might call on Lady Ongar. As he went
+thither he bethought himself that these Wallikers and the like had
+had no such events in life as had befallen him! They laughed at him
+about Florence Burton, little guessing that it had been his lot to
+love, and to be loved by such a one as Julia Brabazon had been,--such
+a one as Lady Ongar now was. But things had gone well with him. Julia
+Brabazon could have made no man happy, but Florence Burton would be
+the sweetest, dearest, truest little wife that ever man took to his
+home. He was thinking of this, and determined to think of it more and
+more daily, as he knocked at Lady Ongar's door. "Yes; her ladyship
+was at home," said the servant whom he had seen on the railway
+platform; and in a few moments' time he found himself in the
+drawing-room which he had criticized so carefully when he was taking
+it for its present occupant.
+
+He was left in the room for five or six minutes, and was able to make
+a full mental inventory of its contents. It was very different in its
+present aspect from the room which he had seen not yet a month since.
+She had told him that the apartments had been all that she desired;
+but since then everything had been altered, at least in appearance.
+A new piano had been brought in, and the chintz on the furniture was
+surely new. And the room was crowded with small feminine belongings,
+indicative of wealth and luxury. There were ornaments about, and
+pretty toys, and a thousand knickknacks which none but the rich can
+possess, and which none can possess even among the rich unless they
+can give taste as well as money to their acquisition. Then he heard a
+light step; the door opened, and Lady Ongar was there.
+
+He expected to see the same figure that he had seen on the railway
+platform, the same gloomy drapery, the same quiet, almost deathlike
+demeanour, nay, almost the same veil over her features; but the Lady
+Ongar whom he now saw was as unlike that Lady Ongar as she was unlike
+that Julia Brabazon whom he had known in old days at Clavering Park.
+She was dressed, no doubt, in black; nay, no doubt, she was dressed
+in weeds; but in spite of the black and in spite of the weeds there
+was nothing about her of the weariness or of the solemnity of woe.
+He hardly saw that her dress was made of crape, or that long white
+pendants were hanging down from the cap which sat so prettily upon
+her head. But it was her face at which he gazed. At first he thought
+that she could hardly be the same woman, she was to his eyes so much
+older than she had been! And yet as he looked at her, he found that
+she was as handsome as ever,--more handsome than she had ever been
+before. There was a dignity about her face and figure which became
+her well, and which she carried as though she knew herself to be in
+very truth a countess. It was a face which bore well such signs of
+age as those which had come upon it. She seemed to be a woman fitter
+for womanhood than for girlhood. Her eyes were brighter than of yore,
+and, as Harry thought, larger; and her high forehead and noble stamp
+of countenance seemed fitted for the dress and headgear which she
+wore.
+
+"I have been expecting you," said she, stepping up to him. "Hermione
+wrote me word that you were to come up on Monday. Why did you not
+come sooner?" There was a smile on her face as she spoke, and a
+confidence in her tone which almost confounded him.
+
+"I have had so many things to do," said he lamely.
+
+"About your new profession. Yes, I can understand that. And so you
+are settled in London now? Where are you living;--that is, if you are
+settled yet?" In answer to this, Harry told her that he had taken
+lodgings in Bloomsbury Square, blushing somewhat as he named so
+unfashionable a locality. Old Mrs. Burton had recommended him to the
+house in which he was located, but he did not find it necessary to
+explain that fact to Lady Ongar.
+
+"I have to thank you for what you did for me," continued she. "You
+ran away from me in such a hurry on that night that I was unable to
+speak to you. But to tell the truth, Harry, I was in no mood then to
+speak to any one. Of course you thought that I treated you ill."
+
+"Oh, no," said he.
+
+"Of course you did. If I thought you did not, I should be angry with
+you now. But had it been to save my life I could not have helped
+it. Why did not Sir Hugh Clavering come to meet me? Why did not my
+sister's husband come to me?" To this question Harry could make no
+answer. He was still standing with his hat in his hand, and now
+turned his face away from her and shook his head.
+
+"Sit down, Harry," she said, "and let me talk to you like a
+friend;--unless you are in a hurry to go away."
+
+"Oh, no," said he, seating himself.
+
+"Or unless you, too, are afraid of me."
+
+"Afraid of you, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Yes, afraid; but I don't mean you. I don't believe that you are
+coward enough to desert a woman who was once your friend because
+misfortune has overtaken her, and calumny has been at work with her
+name."
+
+"I hope not," said he.
+
+"No, Harry; I do not think it of you. But if Sir Hugh be not a
+coward, why did he not come and meet me? Why has he left me to stand
+alone, now that he could be of service to me? I knew that money was
+his god, but I have never asked him for a shilling and should not
+have done so now. Oh, Harry, how wicked you were about that cheque!
+Do you remember?"
+
+"Yes; I remember."
+
+"So shall I; always, always. If I had taken that money how often
+should I have heard of it since?"
+
+"Heard of it?" he asked. "Do you mean from me?"
+
+"Yes; how often from you? Would you have dunned me, and told me of it
+once a week? Upon my word, Harry, I was told of it more nearly every
+day. Is it not wonderful that men should be so mean?"
+
+It was clear to him now that she was talking of her husband who was
+dead, and on that subject he felt himself at present unable to speak
+a word. He little dreamed at that moment how openly she would soon
+speak to him of Lord Ongar and of Lord Ongar's faults!
+
+"Oh, how I have wished that I had taken your money! But never mind
+about that now, Harry. Wretched as such taunts were, they soon became
+a small thing. But it has been cowardly in your cousin, Hugh; has it
+not? If I had not lived with him as one of his family, it would not
+have mattered. People would not have expected it. It was as though my
+own brother had cast me forth."
+
+"Lady Clavering has been with you; has she not?"
+
+"Once, for half-an-hour. She came up for one day, and came here by
+herself, cowering as though she were afraid of me. Poor Hermy! She
+has not a good time of it either. You lords of creation lead your
+slaves sad lives when it pleases you to change your billing and
+cooing for matter-of-fact masterdom and rule. I don't blame Hermy.
+I suppose she did all she could, and I did not utter one word of
+reproach of her. Nor should I to him. Indeed, if he came now the
+servant would deny me to him. He has insulted me, and I shall
+remember the insult."
+
+Harry Clavering did not clearly understand what it was that Lady
+Ongar had desired of her brother-in-law,--what aid she had required;
+nor did he know whether it would be fitting for him to offer to act
+in Sir Hugh's place. Anything that he could do, he felt himself at
+that moment willing to do, even though the necessary service should
+demand some sacrifice greater than prudence could approve. "If I had
+thought that anything was wanted, I should have come to you sooner,"
+said he.
+
+"Everything is wanted, Harry. Everything is wanted;--except that
+cheque for six hundred pounds which you sent me so treacherously. Did
+you ever think what might have happened if a certain person had heard
+of that? All the world would have declared that you had done it for
+your own private purposes;--all the world, except one."
+
+Harry, as he heard this, felt that he was blushing. Did Lady Ongar
+know of his engagement with Florence Burton? Lady Clavering knew it,
+and might probably have told the tidings; but then, again, she might
+not have told them. Harry at this moment wished that he knew how it
+was. All that Lady Ongar said to him would come with so different
+a meaning according as she did, or did not know that fact. But he
+had no mind to tell her of the fact himself. He declared to himself
+that he hoped she knew it, as it would serve to make them both more
+comfortable together; but he did not think that it would do for him
+to bring forward the subject, neck and heels as it were. The proper
+thing would be that she should congratulate him, but this she did not
+do. "I certainly meant no ill," he said, in answer to the last words
+she had spoken.
+
+"You have never meant ill to me, Harry; though you know you have
+abused me dreadfully before now. I daresay you forget the hard names
+you have called me. You men do forget such things."
+
+"I remember calling you one name."
+
+"Do not repeat it now, if you please. If I deserved it, it would
+shame me; and if I did not, it should shame you."
+
+"No; I will not repeat it."
+
+"Does it not seem odd, Harry, that you and I should be sitting,
+talking together in this way?" She was leaning now towards him,
+across the table, and one hand was raised to her forehead while her
+eyes were fixed intently upon his. The attitude was one which he
+felt to express extreme intimacy. She would not have sat in that
+way, pressing back her hair from her brow, with all appearance of
+widowhood banished from her face, in the presence of any but a dear
+and close friend. He did not think of this, but he felt that it was
+so, almost by instinct. "I have such a tale to tell you," she said;
+"such a tale!"
+
+
+[Illustration: A friendly talk.]
+
+
+Why should she tell it to him? Of course he asked himself this
+question. Then he remembered that she had no brother,--remembered
+also that her brother-in-law had deserted her, and he declared to
+himself that, if necessary, he would be her brother. "I fear that you
+have not been happy," said he, "since I saw you last."
+
+"Happy!" she replied. "I have lived such a life as I did not think
+any man or woman could be made to live on this side the grave. I will
+be honest with you, Harry. Nothing but the conviction that it could
+not be for long has saved me from destroying myself. I knew that he
+must die!"
+
+"Oh, Lady Ongar!"
+
+"Yes, indeed; that is the name he gave me; and because I consented to
+take it from him, he treated me;--O heavens! how am I to find words
+to tell you what he did, and the way in which he treated me. A woman
+could not tell it to a man. Harry, I have no friend that I trust but
+you, but to you I cannot tell it. When he found that he had been
+wrong in marrying me, that he did not want the thing which he had
+thought would suit him, that I was a drag upon him rather than a
+comfort,--what was his mode, do you think, of ridding himself of the
+burden?" Clavering sat silent looking at her. Both her hands were now
+up to her forehead, and her large eyes were gazing at him till he
+found himself unable to withdraw his own for a moment from her face.
+"He strove to get another man to take me off his hands; and when he
+found that he was failing,--he charged me with the guilt which he
+himself had contrived for me."
+
+"Lady Ongar!"
+
+"Yes; you may well stare at me. You may well speak hoarsely and look
+like that. It may be that even you will not believe me;--but by the
+God in whom we both believe, I tell you nothing but the truth. He
+attempted that and he failed,--and then he accused me of the crime
+which he could not bring me to commit."
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"Yes; what then? Harry, I had a thing to do, and a life to live,
+that would have tried the bravest; but I went through it. I stuck to
+him to the last! He told me before he was dying,--before that last
+frightful illness, that I was staying with him for his money. 'For
+your money, my lord,' I said, 'and for my own name.' And so it was.
+Would it have been wise in me, after all that I had gone through, to
+have given up that for which I had sold myself? I had been very poor,
+and had been so placed that poverty, even such poverty as mine, was
+a curse to me. You know what I gave up because I feared that curse.
+Was I to be foiled at last, because such a creature as that wanted
+to shirk out of his bargain? I knew there were some who would say I
+had been false. Hugh Clavering says so now, I suppose. But they never
+should say I had left him to die alone in a foreign land."
+
+"Did he ask you to leave him?"
+
+"No;--but he called me that name which no woman should hear and stay.
+No woman should do so unless she had a purpose such as mine. He
+wanted back the price that he had paid, and I was determined to do
+nothing that should assist him in his meanness! And then, Harry, his
+last illness! Oh, Harry, you would pity me if you could know all!"
+
+"It was his own intemperance!"
+
+"Intemperance! It was brandy,--sheer brandy. He brought himself to
+such a state that nothing but brandy would keep him alive, and in
+which brandy was sure to kill him;--and it did kill him. Did you ever
+hear of the horrors of drink?"
+
+"Yes; I have heard of such a state."
+
+"I hope you may never live to see it. It is a sight that would stick
+by you for ever. But I saw it, and tended him through the whole, as
+though I had been his servant. I remained with him when that man who
+opened the door for you could no longer endure the room. I was with
+him when the strong woman from the hospital, though she could not
+understand his words, almost fainted at what she saw and heard. He
+was punished, Harry. I need wish no farther vengeance on him, even
+for all his cruelty, his injustice, his unmanly treachery. Is it
+not fearful to think that any man should have the power of bringing
+himself to such an end as that?"
+
+Harry was thinking rather how fearful it was that a man should have
+it in his power to drag any woman through such a Gehenna as that
+which this lord had created. He felt that had Julia Brabazon been
+his, as she had once promised him, he never would have allowed
+himself to speak a harsh word to her, to have looked at her except
+with loving eyes. But she had chosen to join herself to a man who had
+treated her with a cruelty exceeding all that his imagination could
+have conceived. "It is a mercy that he has gone," said he at last.
+
+"It is a mercy for both. Perhaps you can understand now something of
+my married life. And through it all I had but one friend;--if I may
+call him a friend who had come to terms with my husband, and was to
+have been his agent in destroying me. But when this man understood
+from me that I was not what he had been taught to think me,--which my
+husband had told him I was,--he relented."
+
+"May I ask what was that man's name?"
+
+"His name is Pateroff. He is a Pole, but he speaks English like an
+Englishman. In my presence he told Lord Ongar that he was false and
+brutal. Lord Ongar laughed, with that little, low, sneering laughter
+which was his nearest approach to merriment, and told Count Pateroff
+that that was of course his game before me. There, Harry,--I will
+tell you nothing more of it. You will understand enough to know what
+I have suffered; and if you can believe that I have not sinned--"
+
+"Oh, Lady Ongar!"
+
+"Well, I will not doubt you again. But as far as I can learn you are
+nearly alone in your belief. What Hermy thinks I cannot tell, but she
+will soon come to think as Hugh may bid her. And I shall not blame
+her. What else can she do, poor creature?"
+
+"I am sure she believes no ill of you."
+
+"I have one advantage, Harry,--one advantage over her and some
+others. I am free. The chains have hurt me sorely during my slavery;
+but I am free, and the price of my servitude remains. He had written
+home,--would you believe that?--while I was living with him he had
+written home to say that evidence should be collected for getting rid
+of me. And yet he would sometimes be civil, hoping to cheat me into
+inadvertencies. He would ask that man to dine, and then of a sudden
+would be absent; and during this he was ordering that evidence should
+be collected! Evidence, indeed! The same servants have lived with me
+through it all. If I could now bring forward evidence I could make it
+all clear as the day. But there needs no care for a woman's honour,
+though a man may have to guard his by collecting evidence!"
+
+"But what he did cannot injure you."
+
+"Yes, Harry, it has injured me; it has all but destroyed me. Have not
+reports reached even you? Speak out like a man, and say whether it is
+not so?"
+
+"I have heard something."
+
+"Yes, you have heard something! If you heard something of your sister
+where would you be? All the world would be a chaos to you till you
+had pulled out somebody's tongue by the roots. Not injured me! For
+two years your cousin Hugh's house was my home. I met Lord Ongar in
+his house. I was married from his house. He is my brother-in-law, and
+it so happens that of all men he is the nearest to me. He stands well
+before the world, and at this time could have done me real service.
+How is it that he did not welcome me home;--that I am not now at his
+house with my sister; that he did not meet me so that the world might
+know that I was received back among my own people? Why is it, Harry,
+that I am telling this to you;--to you, who are nothing to me; my
+sister's husband's cousin; a young man, from your position not fit to
+be my confidant? Why am I telling this to you, Harry?"
+
+"Because we are old friends," said he, wondering again at this moment
+whether she knew of his engagement with Florence Burton.
+
+"Yes, we are old friends, and we have always liked each other; but
+you must know that, as the world judges, I am wrong to tell all this
+to you. I should be wrong,--only that the world has cast me out,
+so that I am no longer bound to regard it. I am Lady Ongar, and I
+have my share of that man's money. They have given me up Ongar Park,
+having satisfied themselves that it is mine by right, and must be
+mine by law. But he has robbed me of every friend I had in the world,
+and yet you tell me he has not injured me!"
+
+"Not every friend."
+
+"No, Harry, I will not forget you, though I spoke so slightingly
+of you just now. But your vanity need not be hurt. It is only the
+world,--Mrs. Grundy, you know, that would deny me such friendship
+as yours; not my own taste or choice. Mrs. Grundy always denies us
+exactly those things which we ourselves like best. You are clever
+enough to understand that."
+
+He smiled and looked foolish, and declared that he only offered his
+assistance because perhaps it might be convenient at the present
+moment. What could he do for her? How could he show his friendship
+for her now at once?
+
+"You have done it, Harry, in listening to me and giving me your
+sympathy. It is seldom that we want any great thing from our friends.
+I want nothing of that kind. No one can hurt me much further now. My
+money and my rank are safe; and, perhaps, by degrees, acquaintances,
+if not friends, will form themselves round me again. At present, of
+course, I see no one; but because I see no one, I wanted some one to
+whom I could speak. Poor Hermy is worse than no one. Good-by, Harry;
+you look surprised and bewildered now, but you will soon get over
+that. Don't be long before I see you again."
+
+Then, feeling that he was bidden to go, he wished her good-by, and
+went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE HOUSE IN ONSLOW CRESCENT.
+
+
+Harry, as he walked away from the house in Bolton Street, hardly knew
+whether he was on his heels or his head. Burton had told him not to
+dress--"We don't give dress dinner parties, you know. It's all in the
+family way with us,"--and Harry, therefore, went direct from Bolton
+Street to Onslow Crescent. But, though he managed to keep the proper
+course down Piccadilly, he was in such confusion of mind that he
+hardly knew whither he was going. It seemed as though a new form of
+life had been opened to him, and that it had been opened in such a
+way as almost necessarily to engulf him. It was not only that Lady
+Ongar's history was so terrible, and her life so strange, but that he
+himself was called upon to form a part of that history, and to join
+himself in some sort to that life. This countess with her wealth, her
+rank, her beauty, and her bright intellect had called him to her, and
+told him that he was her only friend. Of course he had promised his
+friendship. How could he have failed to give such a promise to one
+whom he had loved so well? But to what must such a promise lead, or
+rather to what must it not have led had it not been for Florence
+Burton? She was young, free, and rich. She made no pretence of regret
+for the husband she had lost, speaking of him as though in truth she
+hardly regarded herself as his wife. And she was the same Julia whom
+he had loved, who had loved him, who had jilted him, and in regret
+for whom he had once resolved to lead a wretched, lonely life! Of
+course she must expect that he would renew it all;--unless, indeed,
+she knew of his engagement. But if she knew it, why had she not
+spoken of it?
+
+And could it be that she had no friends,--that everybody had deserted
+her, that she was all alone in the world? As he thought of it all,
+the whole thing seemed to him to be too terrible for reality. What a
+tragedy was that she had told him! He thought of the man's insolence
+to the woman whom he had married and sworn to love, then of his
+cruelty, his fiendish, hellish cruelty,--and lastly of his terrible
+punishment. "I stuck to him through it all," she had said to him;
+and then he endeavoured to picture to himself that bedside by which
+Julia Brabazon, his Julia Brabazon, had remained firm, when hospital
+attendants had been scared by the horrors they had witnessed, and the
+nerves of a strong man,--of a man paid for such work, had failed him!
+
+The truth of her word throughout he never doubted; and, indeed, no
+man or woman who heard her could have doubted. One hears stories told
+that to oneself, the hearer, are manifestly false; and one hears
+stories as to the truth or falsehood of which one is in doubt; and
+stories again which seem to be partly true and partly untrue. But one
+also hears that of the truth of which no doubt seems to be possible.
+So it had been with the tale which Lady Ongar had told. It had been
+all as she had said; and had Sir Hugh heard it,--even Sir Hugh,
+who doubted all men and regarded all women as being false beyond
+doubt,--even he, I think, would have believed it.
+
+But she had deserved the sufferings which had come upon her. Even
+Harry, whose heart was very tender towards her, owned as much as
+that. She had sold herself, as she had said of herself more than
+once. She had given herself to a man whom she regarded not at all,
+even when her heart belonged to another,--to a man whom she must have
+loathed and despised when she was putting her hand into his before
+the altar. What scorn had there been upon her face when she spoke
+of the beginning of their married miseries! With what eloquence of
+expression had she pronounced him to be vile, worthless, unmanly; a
+thing from which a woman must turn with speechless contempt! She had
+now his name, his rank, and his money, but she was friendless and
+alone. Harry Clavering declared to himself that she had deserved
+it,--and, having so declared, forgave her all her faults. She
+had sinned, and then had suffered; and, therefore, should now be
+forgiven. If he could do aught to ease her troubles, he would do
+it,--as a brother would for a sister.
+
+But it would be well that she should know of his engagement. Then he
+thought of the whole interview, and felt sure that she must know it.
+At any rate he told himself that he was sure. She could hardly have
+spoken to him as she had done, unless she had known. When last they
+had been together, sauntering round the gardens at Clavering, he had
+rebuked her for her treachery to him. Now she came to him almost
+open-armed, free, full of her cares, swearing to him that he was her
+only friend! All this could mean but one thing,--unless she knew that
+that one thing was barred by his altered position.
+
+But it gratified him to think that she had chosen him for the
+repository of her tale; that she had told her terrible history to
+him. I fear that some small part of this gratification was owing
+to her rank and wealth. To be the one friend of a widowed countess,
+young, rich, and beautiful, was something much out of the common way.
+Such confidence lifted him far above the Wallikers of the world. That
+he was pleased to be so trusted by one that was beautiful, was, I
+think, no disgrace to him;--although I bear in mind his condition
+as a man engaged. It might be dangerous, but that danger in such
+case it would be his duty to overcome. But in order that it might
+be overcome, it would certainly be well that she should know his
+position.
+
+I fear he speculated as he went along as to what might have been his
+condition in the world had he never seen Florence Burton. First he
+asked himself, whether, under any circumstances, he would have wished
+to marry a widow, and especially a widow by whom he had already been
+jilted. Yes; he thought that he could have forgiven her even that, if
+his own heart had not changed; but he did not forget to tell himself
+again how lucky it was for him that his heart was changed. What
+countess in the world, let her have what park she might, and any
+imaginable number of thousands a year, could be so sweet, so nice,
+so good, so fitting for him as his own Florence Burton? Then he
+endeavoured to reflect what happened when a commoner married the
+widow of a peer. She was still called, he believed, by her old title,
+unless she should choose to abandon it. Any such arrangement was now
+out of the question; but he thought that he would prefer that she
+should have been called Mrs. Clavering, if such a state of things had
+come about. I do not know that he pictured to himself any necessity,
+either on her part or on his, of abandoning anything else that came
+to her from her late husband.
+
+At half-past six, the time named by Theodore Burton, he found himself
+at the door in Onslow Crescent, and was at once shown up into the
+drawing-room. He knew that Mr. Burton had a family, and he had
+pictured to himself an untidy, ugly house, with an untidy, motherly
+woman going about with a baby in her arms. Such would naturally be
+the home of a man who dusted his shoes with his pocket-handkerchief.
+But to his surprise he found himself in as pretty a drawing-room
+as he remembered to have seen; and seated on a sofa, was almost as
+pretty a woman as he remembered. She was tall and slight, with large
+brown eyes and well-defined eyebrows, with an oval face, and the
+sweetest, kindest mouth that ever graced a woman. Her dark brown
+hair was quite plain, having been brushed simply smooth across the
+forehead, and then collected in a knot behind. Close beside her, on
+a low chair, sat a little fair-haired girl, about seven years old,
+who was going through some pretence at needlework; and kneeling
+on a higher chair, while she sprawled over the drawing-room table,
+was another girl, some three years younger, who was engaged with a
+puzzle-box.
+
+"Mr. Clavering," said she, rising from her chair; "I am so glad to
+see you, though I am almost angry with you for not coming to us
+sooner. I have heard so much about you; of course you know that."
+Harry explained that he had only been a few days in town, and
+declared that he was happy to learn that he had been considered worth
+talking about.
+
+"If you were worth accepting you were worth talking about."
+
+"Perhaps I was neither," said he.
+
+"Well; I am not going to flatter you yet. Only as I think our Flo is
+without exception the most perfect girl I ever saw, I don't suppose
+she would be guilty of making a bad choice. Cissy, dear, this is Mr.
+Clavering."
+
+Cissy got up from her chair, and came up to him. "Mamma says I am to
+love you very much," said Cissy, putting up her face to be kissed.
+
+"But I did not tell you to say I had told you," said Mrs. Burton,
+laughing.
+
+"And I will love you very much," said Harry, taking her up in his
+arms.
+
+"But not so much as Aunt Florence,--will you?"
+
+They all knew it. It was clear to him that everybody connected with
+the Burtons had been told of the engagement, and that they all spoke
+of it openly, as they did of any other everyday family occurrence.
+There was not much reticence among the Burtons. He could not but feel
+this, though now, at the present moment, he was disposed to think
+specially well of the family because Mrs. Burton and her children
+were so nice.
+
+"And this is another daughter?"
+
+"Yes; another future niece, Mr. Clavering. But I suppose I may call
+you Harry; may I not? My name is Cecilia. Yes, that is Miss Pert."
+
+"I'm not Miss Pert," said the little soft round ball of a girl from
+the chair. "I'm Sophy Burton. Oh! you musn't tittle."
+
+Harry found himself quite at home in ten minutes; and before Mr.
+Burton had returned, had been taken upstairs into the nursery to see
+Theodore Burton Junior in his cradle, Theodore Burton Junior being
+as yet only some few months old. "Now you've seen us all," said Mrs.
+Burton, "and we'll go downstairs and wait for my husband. I must
+let you into a secret, too. We don't dine till past seven; you may
+as well remember that for the future. But I wanted to have you for
+half-an-hour to myself before dinner, so that I might look at you,
+and make up my mind about Flo's choice. I hope you won't be angry
+with me?"
+
+"And how have you made up your mind?"
+
+"If you want to find that out, you must get it through Florence. You
+may be quite sure I shall tell her; and, I suppose, I may be quite
+sure she will tell you. Does she tell you everything?"
+
+"I tell her everything," said Harry, feeling himself, however, to
+be a little conscience-smitten at the moment, as he remembered his
+interview with Lady Ongar. Things had occurred this very day which he
+certainly could not tell her.
+
+"Do;--do; always do that," said Mrs. Burton, laying her hand
+affectionately on his arm. "There is no way so certain to bind a
+woman to you, heart and soul, as to show her that you trust her in
+everything. Theodore tells me everything. I don't think there's a
+drain planned under a railway-bank, but that he shows it me in some
+way; and I feel so grateful for it. It makes me know that I can never
+do enough for him. I hope you'll be as good to Flo as he is to me."
+
+"We can't both be perfect, you know."
+
+"Ah, well! of course you'll laugh at me. Theodore always laughs at me
+when I get on what he calls a high horse. I wonder whether you are as
+sensible as he is?"
+
+Harry reflected that he never wore cotton gloves. "I don't think I am
+very sensible," said he. "I do a great many foolish things, and the
+worst is, that I like them."
+
+"So do I. I like so many foolish things."
+
+"Oh, mamma!" said Cissy.
+
+"I shall have that quoted against me, now, for the next six months,
+whenever I am preaching wisdom in the nursery. But Florence is nearly
+as sensible as her brother."
+
+"Much more so than I am."
+
+"All the Burtons are full up to their eyes with good sense. And what
+a good thing it is! Who ever heard of any of them coming to sorrow?
+Whatever they have to live on, they always have enough. Did you ever
+know a woman who has done better with her children, or has known how
+to do better, than Theodore's mother? She is the dearest old woman."
+Harry had heard her called a very clever old woman by certain persons
+in Stratton, and could not but think of her matrimonial successes as
+her praises were thus sung by her daughter-in-law.
+
+They went on talking, while Sophy sat in Harry's lap, till there was
+heard the sound of the key in the latch of the front-door, and the
+master of the house was known to be there. "It's Theodore," said his
+wife, jumping up and going out to meet him. "I'm so glad that you
+have been here a little before him, because now I feel that I know
+you. When he's here I shan't get in a word." Then she went down to
+her husband, and Harry was left to speculate how so very charming
+a woman could ever have been brought to love a man who cleaned his
+boots with his pocket-handkerchief.
+
+There were soon steps again upon the stairs, and Burton returned
+bringing with him another man whom he introduced to Harry as Mr.
+Jones. "I didn't know my brother was coming," said Mrs. Burton, "but
+it will be very pleasant, as of course I shall want you to know
+him." Harry became a little perplexed. How far might these family
+ramifications be supposed to go? Would he be welcomed, as one of
+the household, to the hearth of Mrs. Jones; and if of Mrs. Jones,
+then of Mrs. Jones's brother? His mental inquiries, however, in
+this direction, were soon ended by his finding that Mr. Jones was a
+bachelor.
+
+Jones, it appeared, was the editor, or sub-editor, or co-editor, of
+some influential daily newspaper. "He is a night bird, Harry--," said
+Mrs. Burton. She had fallen into the way of calling him Harry at
+once, but he could not on that occasion bring himself to call her
+Cecilia. He might have done so had not her husband been present, but
+he was ashamed to do it before him. "He is a night bird, Harry," said
+she, speaking of her brother, "and flies away at nine o'clock, that
+he may go and hoot like an owl in some dark city haunt that he has.
+Then, when he is himself asleep at breakfast-time, his hootings are
+being heard round the town."
+
+Harry rather liked the idea of knowing an editor. Editors were, he
+thought, influential people, who had the world very much under their
+feet,--being, as he conceived, afraid of no men, while other men are
+very much afraid of them. He was glad enough to shake Jones by the
+hand, when he found that Jones was an editor. But Jones, though he
+had the face and forehead of a clever man, was very quiet, and seemed
+almost submissive to his sister and brother-in-law.
+
+The dinner was plain, but good, and Harry after a while became happy
+and satisfied, although he had come to the house with something
+almost like a resolution to find fault. Men, and women also, do
+frequently go about in such a mood, having unconscionably from some
+small circumstance, prejudged their acquaintances, and made up their
+mind that their acquaintances should be condemned. Influenced in this
+way, Harry had not intended to pass a pleasant evening, and would
+have stood aloof and been cold, had it been possible to him; but
+he found that it was not possible; and after a little while he was
+friendly and joyous, and the dinner went off very well. There was
+some wild-fowl, and he was agreeably surprised as he watched the
+mental anxiety and gastronomic skill with which Burton went through
+the process of preparing the gravy, with lemon and pepper, having
+in the room a little silver-pot and an apparatus of fire for the
+occasion. He would as soon have expected the Archbishop of Canterbury
+himself to go through such an operation in the dining-room at Lambeth
+as the hard-working man of business whom he had known in the chambers
+at the Adelphi.
+
+"Does he always do that, Mrs. Burton?" Harry asked.
+
+"Always," said Burton, "when I can get the materials. One doesn't
+bother oneself about a cold leg of mutton, you know, which is my
+usual dinner when we are alone. The children have it hot in the
+middle of the day."
+
+"Such a thing never happened to him yet, Harry," said Mrs. Burton.
+
+"Gently with the pepper," said the editor. It was the first word he
+had spoken for some time.
+
+"Be good enough to remember that, yourself, when you are writing your
+article to-night."
+
+"No, none for me, Theodore," said Mrs. Burton.
+
+"Cissy!"
+
+"I have dined really. If I had remembered that you were going to
+display your cookery, I would have kept some of my energy, but I
+forgot it."
+
+"As a rule," said Burton, "I don't think women recognize any
+difference in flavours. I believe wild duck and hashed mutton would
+be quite the same to my wife if her eyes were blinded. I should
+not mind this, if it were not that they are generally proud of the
+deficiency. They think it grand."
+
+"Just as men think it grand not to know one tune from another," said
+his wife.
+
+When dinner was over, Burton got up from his seat. "Harry," said he,
+"do you like good wine?" Harry said that he did. Whatever women may
+say about wild-fowl, men never profess an indifference to good wine,
+although there is a theory about the world, quite as incorrect as it
+is general, that they have given up drinking it. "Indeed, I do," said
+Harry. "Then I'll give you a bottle of port," said Burton, and so
+saying he left the room.
+
+"I'm very glad you have come to-day," said Jones, with much gravity.
+"He never gives me any of that when I'm alone with him; and he never,
+by any means, brings it out for company."
+
+"You don't mean to accuse him of drinking it alone, Tom?" said his
+sister, laughing.
+
+"I don't know when he drinks it; I only know when he doesn't."
+
+The wine was decanted with as much care as had been given to the
+concoction of the gravy, and the clearness of the dark liquid was
+scrutinized with an eye that was full of anxious care. "Now, Cissy,
+what do you think of that? She knows a glass of good wine when she
+gets it, as well as you do, Harry; in spite of her contempt for the
+duck."
+
+As they sipped the old port they sat round the dining-room fire, and
+Harry Clavering was forced to own to himself that he had never been
+more comfortable.
+
+"Ah," said Burton, stretching out his slippered feet, "why can't it
+all be after-dinner, instead of that weary room at the Adelphi?"
+
+"And all old port?" said Jones.
+
+"Yes, and all old port. You are not such an ass as to suppose that a
+man in suggesting to himself a continuance of pleasure suggests to
+himself also the evils which are supposed to accompany such pleasure.
+If I took much of the stuff I should get cross and sick, and make a
+beast of myself; but then what a pity it is that it should be so."
+
+"You wouldn't like much of it, I think," said his wife.
+
+"That is it," said he. "We are driven to work because work never
+palls on us, whereas pleasure always does. What a wonderful scheme
+it is when one looks at it all. No man can follow pleasure long
+continually. When a man strives to do so, he turns his pleasure at
+once into business, and works at that. Come, Harry, we mustn't have
+another bottle, as Jones would go to sleep among the type." Then they
+all went upstairs together. Harry, before he went away, was taken
+again up into the nursery, and there kissed the two little girls in
+their cots. When he was outside the nursery door, on the top of the
+stairs, Mrs. Burton took him by the hand. "You'll come to us often,"
+said she, "and make yourself at home here, will you not?" Harry
+could not but say that he would. Indeed he did so without hesitation,
+almost with eagerness, for he had liked her and had liked her
+house. "We think of you, you know," she continued, "quite as one of
+ourselves. How could it be otherwise when Flo is the dearest to us of
+all beyond our own?"
+
+"It makes me so happy to hear you say so," said he.
+
+"Then come here and talk about her. I want Theodore to feel that you
+are his brother; it will be so important to you in the business that
+it should be so." After that he went away, and as he walked back
+along Piccadilly, and then up through the regions of St. Giles to
+his home in Bloomsbury Square, he satisfied himself that the life
+of Onslow Crescent was a better manner of life than that which was
+likely to prevail in Bolton Street.
+
+When he was gone his character was of course discussed between the
+husband and wife in Onslow Crescent. "What do you think of him?" said
+the husband.
+
+"I like him so much! He is so much nicer than you told me,--so much
+pleasanter and easier; and I have no doubt he is as clever, though I
+don't think he shows that at once."
+
+"He is clever enough; there's no doubt about that."
+
+"And did you not think he was pleasant?"
+
+"Yes; he was pleasant here. He is one of those men who get on best
+with women. You'll make much more of him for awhile than I shall.
+He'll gossip with you and sit idling with you for the hour together,
+if you'll let him. There's nothing wrong about him, and he'd like
+nothing better than that."
+
+"You don't believe that he's idle by disposition? Think of all that
+he has done already."
+
+"That's just what is most against him. He might do very well with us
+if he had not got that confounded fellowship; but having got that, he
+thinks the hard work of life is pretty well over with him."
+
+"I don't suppose he can be so foolish as that, Theodore."
+
+"I know well what such men are, and I know the evil that is done
+to them by the cramming they endure. They learn many names of
+things,--high-sounding names, and they come to understand a great
+deal about words. It is a knowledge that requires no experience
+and very little real thought. But it demands much memory; and when
+they have loaded themselves in this way, they think that they are
+instructed in all things. After all, what can they do that is of real
+use to mankind? What can they create?"
+
+"I suppose they are of use."
+
+"I don't know it. A man will tell you, or pretend to tell you,--for
+the chances are ten to one that he is wrong,--what sort of lingo was
+spoken in some particular island or province six hundred years before
+Christ. What good will that do any one, even if he were right? And
+then see the effect upon the men themselves! At four-and-twenty a
+young fellow has achieved some wonderful success, and calls himself
+by some outlandish and conceited name--a double first, or something
+of the kind. Then he thinks he has completed everything, and is too
+vain to learn anything afterwards. The truth is, that at twenty-four
+no man has done more than acquire the rudiments of his education. The
+system is bad from beginning to end. All that competition makes false
+and imperfect growth. Come, I'll go to bed."
+
+What would Harry have said if he had heard all this from the man who
+dusted his boots with his handkerchief?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+TOO PRUDENT BY HALF.
+
+
+Florence Burton thought herself the happiest girl in the world.
+There was nothing wanting to the perfection of her bliss. She could
+perceive, though she never allowed her mind to dwell upon the fact,
+that her lover was superior in many respects to the men whom her
+sisters had married. He was better educated, better looking, in fact
+more fully a gentleman at all points than either Scarness or any of
+the others. She liked her sisters' husbands very well, and in former
+days, before Harry Clavering had come to Stratton, she had never
+taught herself to think that she, if she married, would want anything
+different from that which Providence had given to them. She had never
+thrown up her head, or even thrown up her nose, and told herself that
+she would demand something better than that. But not the less was she
+alive to the knowledge that something better had come in her way, and
+that that something better was now her own. She was very proud of her
+lover, and, no doubt, in some gently feminine way showed that she was
+so as she made her way about among her friends at Stratton. Any idea
+that she herself was better educated, better looking, or more clever
+than her elder sisters, and that, therefore, she was deserving of a
+higher order of husband, had never entered her mind. The Burtons in
+London,--Theodore Burton and his wife,--who knew her well, and who,
+of all the family, were best able to appreciate her worth, had long
+been of opinion that she deserved some specially favoured lot in
+life. The question with them would be, whether Harry Clavering was
+good enough for her.
+
+Everybody at Stratton knew that she was engaged, and when they wished
+her joy she made no coy denials. Her sisters had all been engaged in
+the same way, and their marriages had gone off in regular sequence to
+their engagements. There had never been any secret with them about
+their affairs. On this matter the practice is very various among
+different people. There are families who think it almost indelicate
+to talk about marriage as a thing actually in prospect for any of
+their own community. An ordinary acquaintance would be considered to
+be impertinent in even hinting at such a thing, although the thing
+were an established fact. The engaged young ladies only whisper
+the news through the very depths of their pink note-paper, and are
+supposed to blush as they communicate the tidings by their pens, even
+in the retirement of their own rooms. But there are other families in
+which there is no vestige of such mystery, in which an engaged couple
+are spoken of together as openly as though they were already bound in
+some sort of public partnership. In these families the young ladies
+talk openly of their lovers, and generally prefer that subject of
+conversation to any other. Such a family,--so little mysterious,--so
+open in their arrangements, was that of the Burtons at Stratton.
+The reserve in the reserved families is usually atoned for by the
+magnificence of the bridal arrangements, when the marriage is at last
+solemnized; whereas, among the other set,--the people who have no
+reserve,--the marriage, when it comes, is customarily an affair
+of much less outward ceremony. They are married without blast of
+trumpet, with very little profit to the confectioner, and do their
+honeymoon, if they do it at all, with prosaic simplicity.
+
+Florence had made up her mind that she would be in no hurry about
+it. Harry was in a hurry; but that was a matter of course. He was a
+quick-blooded, impatient, restless being. She was slower, and more
+given to consideration. It would be better that they should wait,
+even if it were for five or six years. She had no fear of poverty
+for herself. She had lived always in a house in which money was
+much regarded, and among people who were of inexpensive habits.
+But such had not been his lot, and it was her duty to think of the
+mode of life which might suit him. He would not be happy as a poor
+man,--without comforts around him, which would simply be comforts to
+him though they would be luxuries to her. When her mother told her,
+shaking her head rather sorrowfully as she heard Florence talk, that
+she did not like long engagements, Florence would shake hers too, in
+playful derision, and tell her mother not to be so suspicious. "It is
+not you that are going to marry him, mamma."
+
+"No, my dear; I know that. But long engagements never are good. And
+I can't think why young people should want so many things, now, that
+they used to do without very well when I was married. When I went
+into housekeeping, we only had one girl of fifteen to do everything;
+and we hadn't a nursemaid regular till Theodore was born; and there
+were three before him."
+
+Florence could not say how many maid-servants Harry might wish to
+have under similar circumstances, but she was very confident that he
+would want much more attendance than her father and mother had done,
+or even than some of her brothers and sisters. Her father, when he
+first married, would not have objected, on returning home, to find
+his wife in the kitchen, looking after the progress of the dinner;
+nor even would her brother Theodore have been made unhappy by such a
+circumstance. But Harry, she knew, would not like it; and therefore
+Harry must wait. "It will do him good, mamma," said Florence. "You
+can't think that I mean to find fault with him; but I know that he is
+young in his ways. He is one of those men who should not marry till
+they are twenty-eight, or thereabouts."
+
+"You mean that he is unsteady?"
+
+"No,--not unsteady. I don't think him a bit unsteady; but he will be
+happier single for a year or two. He hasn't settled down to like his
+tea and toast when he is tired of his work, as a married man should
+do. Do you know that I am not sure that a little flirtation would not
+be very good for him?"
+
+"Oh, my dear!"
+
+"It should be very moderate, you know."
+
+"But then, suppose it wasn't moderate. I don't like to see engaged
+young men going on in that way. I suppose I'm very old-fashioned; but
+I think when a young man is engaged, he ought to remember it and to
+show it. It ought to make him a little serious, and he shouldn't be
+going about like a butterfly, that may do just as it pleases in the
+sunshine."
+
+During the three months which Harry remained in town before the
+Easter holidays he wrote more than once to Florence, pressing her to
+name an early day for their marriage. These letters were written, I
+think, after certain evenings spent under favourable circumstances in
+Onslow Crescent, when he was full of the merits of domestic comfort,
+and perhaps also owed some of their inspiration to the fact that Lady
+Ongar had left London without seeing him. He had called repeatedly in
+Bolton Street, having been specially pressed to do so by Lady Ongar,
+but he had only once found her at home, and then a third person
+had been present. This third person had been a lady who was not
+introduced to him, but he had learned from her speech that she was
+a foreigner. On that occasion Lady Ongar had made herself gracious
+and pleasant, but nothing had passed which interested him, and, most
+unreasonably, he had felt himself to be provoked. When next he went
+to Bolton Street he found that Lady Ongar had left London. She had
+gone down to Ongar Park, and, as far as the woman at the house knew,
+intended to remain there till after Easter. Harry had some undefined
+idea that she should not have taken such a step without telling
+him. Had she not declared to him that he was her only friend?
+When a friend is going out of town, leaving an only friend behind,
+that friend ought to tell her only friend what she is going to do,
+otherwise such a declaration of only-friendship means nothing. Such
+was Harry Clavering's reasoning, and having so reasoned, he declared
+to himself that it did mean nothing, and was very pressing to
+Florence Burton to name an early day. He had been with Cecilia,
+he told her,--he had learned to call Mrs. Burton Cecilia in his
+letters,--and she quite agreed with him that their income would be
+enough. He was to have two hundred a year from his father, having
+brought himself to abandon that high-toned resolve which he had made
+some time since that he would never draw any part of his income from
+the parental coffers. His father had again offered it, and he had
+accepted it. Old Mr. Burton was to add a hundred, and Harry was of
+opinion that they could do very well. Cecilia thought the same, he
+said, and therefore Florence surely would not refuse. But Florence
+received, direct from Onslow Crescent, Cecilia's own version of her
+thoughts, and did refuse. It may be surmised that she would have
+refused even without assistance from Cecilia, for she was a young
+lady not of a fickle or changing disposition. So she wrote to Harry
+with much care, and as her letter had some influence on the story to
+be told, the reader shall read it,--if the reader so pleases.
+
+
+   Stratton. March, 186--.
+
+   DEAR HARRY,--
+
+   I received your letter this morning, and answer it at
+   once, because I know you will be impatient for an answer.
+   You are impatient about things,--are you not? But it was
+   a kind, sweet, dear, generous letter, and I need not tell
+   you now that I love the writer of it with all my heart. I
+   am so glad you like Cecilia. I think she is the perfection
+   of a woman. And Theodore is every bit as good as Cecilia,
+   though I know you don't think so, because you don't say
+   so. I am always happy when I am in Onslow Crescent. I
+   should have been there this spring, only that a certain
+   person who chooses to think that his claims on me are
+   stronger than those of any other person wishes me to go
+   elsewhere. Mamma wishes me to go to London also for a
+   week, but I don't want to be away from the old house too
+   much before the final parting comes at last.
+
+   And now about the final parting; for I may as well rush at
+   it at once. I need hardly tell you that no care for father
+   or mother shall make me put off my marriage. Of course I
+   owe everything to you now; and as they have approved it,
+   I have no right to think of them in opposition to you.
+   And you must not suppose that they ask me to stay. On the
+   contrary, mamma is always telling me that early marriages
+   are best. She has sent all the birds out of the nest but
+   one; and is impatient to see that one fly away, that
+   she may be sure that there is no lame one in the brood.
+   You must not therefore think that it is mamma; nor is it
+   papa, as regards himself,--though papa agrees with me in
+   thinking that we ought to wait a little.
+
+   Dear Harry, you must not be angry, but I am sure that we
+   ought to wait. We are, both of us, young, and why should
+   we be in a hurry? I know what you will say, and of course
+   I love you the more because you love me so well; but I
+   fancy that I can be quite happy if I can see you two or
+   three times in the year, and hear from you constantly.
+   It is so good of you to write such nice letters, and the
+   longer they are the better I like them. Whatever you put
+   in them, I like them to be full. I know I can't write nice
+   letters myself, and it makes me unhappy. Unless I have got
+   something special to say, I am dumb.
+
+   But now I have something special to say. In spite of all
+   that you tell me about Cecilia, I do not think it would do
+   for us to venture upon marrying yet. I know that you are
+   willing to sacrifice everything, but I ought not on that
+   account to accept a sacrifice. I could not bear to see
+   you poor and uncomfortable; and we should be very poor in
+   London now-a-days with such an income as we should have.
+   If we were going to live here at Stratton perhaps we might
+   manage, but I feel sure that it would be imprudent in
+   London. You ought not to be angry with me for saying
+   this, for I am quite as anxious to be with you as you
+   can possibly be to be with me; only I can bear to look
+   forward, and have a pleasure in feeling that all my
+   happiness is to come. I know I am right in this. Do write
+   me one little line to say that you are not angry with your
+   little girl.
+
+   I shall be quite ready for you by the 29th. I got such a
+   dear little note from Fanny the other day. She says that
+   you never write to them, and she supposes that I have the
+   advantage of all your energy in that way. I have told her
+   that I do get a good deal. My brother writes to me very
+   seldom, I know; and I get twenty letters from Cecilia for
+   one scrap that Theodore ever sends me. Perhaps some of
+   these days I shall be the chief correspondent with the
+   rectory. Fanny told me all about the dresses, and I have
+   my own quite ready. I've been bridesmaid to four of my own
+   sisters, so I ought to know what I'm about. I'll never
+   be bridesmaid to anybody again, after Fanny; but whom on
+   earth shall I have for myself? I think we must wait till
+   Cissy and Sophy are ready. Cissy wrote me word that you
+   were a darling man. I don't know how much of that came
+   directly from Cissy, or how much from Cecilia.
+
+   God bless you, dear, dearest Harry. Let me have one letter
+   before you come to fetch me, and acknowledge that I am
+   right, even if you say that I am disagreeable. Of course
+   I like to think that you want to have me; but, you see,
+   one has to pay the penalty of being civilized.--Ever and
+   always your own affectionate
+
+   FLORENCE BURTON.
+
+
+Harry Clavering was very angry when he got this letter. The primary
+cause of his anger was the fact that Florence should pretend to know
+what was better for him than he knew himself. If he was willing to
+encounter life in London on less than four hundred a year, surely
+she might be contented to try the same experiment. He did not for a
+moment suspect that she feared for herself, but he was indignant with
+her because of her fear for him. What right had she to accuse him
+of wanting to be comfortable? Had he not for her sake consented to
+be very uncomfortable at that old house at Stratton? Was he not
+willing to give up his fellowship, and the society of Lady Ongar,
+and everything else, for her sake? Had he not shown himself to be
+such a lover as there is not one in a hundred? And yet she wrote and
+told him that it wouldn't do for him to be poor and uncomfortable!
+After all that he had done in the world, after all that he had gone
+through, it would be odd if, at this time of day, he did not know
+what was good for himself! It was in that way that he regarded
+Florence's pertinacity.
+
+He was rather unhappy at this period. It seemed to him that he was
+somewhat slighted on both sides,--or, if I may say so, less thought
+of on both sides than he deserved. Had Lady Ongar remained in town,
+as she ought to have done, he would have solaced himself, and at the
+same time have revenged himself upon Florence, by devoting some of
+his spare hours to that lady. It was Lady Ongar's sudden departure
+that had made him feel that he ought to rush at once into marriage.
+Now he had no consolation, except that of complaining to Mrs. Burton,
+and going frequently to the theatre. To Mrs. Burton he did complain a
+great deal, pulling her worsteds and threads about the while, sitting
+in idleness while she was working, just as Theodore Burton had
+predicted that he would do.
+
+"I won't have you so idle, Harry," Mrs. Burton said to him one day.
+"You know you ought to be at your office now." It must be admitted
+on behalf of Harry Clavering, that they who liked him, especially
+women, were able to become intimate with him very easily. He had
+comfortable, homely ways about him, and did not habitually give
+himself airs. He had become quite domesticated at the Burtons' house
+during the ten weeks that he had been in London, and knew his way
+to Onslow Crescent almost too well. It may, perhaps, be surmised
+correctly that he would not have gone there so frequently if Mrs.
+Theodore Burton had been an ugly woman.
+
+"It's all her fault," said he, continuing to snip a piece of worsted
+with a pair of scissors as he spoke. "She's too prudent by half."
+
+"Poor Florence!"
+
+"You can't but know that I should work three times as much if she had
+given me a different answer. It stands to reason any man would work
+under such circumstances as that. Not that I am idle, I believe. I do
+as much as any other man about the place."
+
+"I won't have my worsted destroyed all the same. Theodore says that
+Florence is right."
+
+"Of course he does; of course he'll say I'm wrong. I won't ask her
+again,--that's all."
+
+"Oh, Harry! don't say that. You know you'll ask her. You would
+to-morrow, if she were here."
+
+"You don't know me, Cecilia, or you would not say so. When I have
+made up my mind to a thing, I am generally firm about it. She said
+something about two years, and I will not say a word to alter that
+decision. If it be altered, it shall be altered by her."
+
+In the meantime he punished Florence by sending her no special answer
+to her letter. He wrote to her as usual; but he made no reference to
+his last proposal, nor to her refusal. She had asked him to tell her
+that he was not angry, but he would tell her nothing of the kind. He
+told her when and where and how he would meet her, and convey her
+from Stratton to Clavering; gave her some account of a play he had
+seen; described a little dinner-party in Onslow Crescent; and told
+her a funny story about Mr. Walliker and the office at the Adelphi.
+But he said no word, even in rebuke, as to her decision about their
+marriage. He intended that this should be felt to be severe, and took
+pleasure in the pain that he would be giving. Florence, when she
+received her letter, knew that he was sore, and understood thoroughly
+the working of his mind. "I will comfort him when we are together,"
+she said to herself. "I will make him reasonable when I see him."
+It was not the way in which he expected that his anger would be
+received.
+
+One day on his return home he found a card on his table which
+surprised him very much. It contained a name but no address, but over
+the name there was a pencil memorandum, stating that the owner of the
+card would call again on his return to London after Easter. The name
+on the card was that of Count Pateroff. He remembered the name well
+as soon as he saw it, though he had never thought of it since the
+solitary occasion on which it had been mentioned to him. Count
+Pateroff was the man who had been Lord Ongar's friend, and respecting
+whom Lord Ongar had brought a false charge against his wife. Why
+should Count Pateroff call on him? Why was he in England? Whence had
+he learned the address in Bloomsbury Square? To that last question he
+had no difficulty in finding an answer. Of course he must have heard
+it from Lady Ongar. Count Pateroff had now left London! Had he gone
+to Ongar Park? Harry Clavering's mind was instantly filled with
+suspicion, and he became jealous in spite of Florence Burton. Could
+it be that Lady Ongar, not yet four months a widow, was receiving at
+her house in the country this man with whose name her own had been so
+fatally joined? If so, what could he think of such behaviour? He was
+very angry. He knew that he was angry, but he did not at all know
+that he was jealous. Was he not, by her own declaration to him, her
+only friend; and as such could he entertain such a suspicion without
+anger? "Her friend!" he said to himself. "Not if she has any dealings
+whatever with that man after what she has told me of him!" He
+remembered at last that perhaps the count might not be at Ongar Park;
+but he must, at any rate, have had some dealing with Lady Ongar or
+he would not have known the address in Bloomsbury Square. "Count
+Pateroff!" he said, repeating the name, "I shouldn't wonder if I
+have to quarrel with that man." During the whole of that night he
+was thinking of Lady Ongar. As regarded himself, he knew that he
+had nothing to offer to Lady Ongar but a brotherly friendship; but,
+nevertheless, it was an injury to him that she should be acquainted
+intimately with any unmarried man but himself.
+
+On the next day he was to go to Stratton, and in the morning a letter
+was brought to him by the postman; a letter, or rather a very short
+note. Guildford was the postmark, and he knew at once that it was
+from Lady Ongar.
+
+
+   DEAR MR. CLAVERING [the note said],--
+
+   I was so sorry to leave London without seeing you; I shall
+   be back by the end of April, and am keeping on the same
+   rooms. Come to me, if you can, on the evening of the 30th,
+   after dinner. He at last bade Hermy to write and ask me
+   to go to Clavering for the Easter week. Such a note! I'll
+   show it you when we meet. Of course I declined.
+
+   But I write on purpose to tell you that I have begged
+   Count Pateroff to see you. I have not seen him, but I
+   have had to write to him about things that happened in
+   Florence. He has come to England chiefly with reference to
+   the affairs of Lord Ongar. I want you to hear his story.
+   As far as I have known him he is a truth-telling man,
+   though I do not know that I am able to say much more in
+   his favour.
+
+   Ever yours, J. O.
+
+
+When he had read this he was quite an altered man. See Count
+Pateroff! Of course he would see him. What task could be more
+fitting for a friend than this, of seeing such a man under such
+circumstances. Before he left London he wrote a note for Count
+Pateroff, to be given to the count by the people at the lodgings
+should he call during Harry's absence from London. In this he
+explained that he would be at Clavering for a fortnight, but
+expressed himself ready to come up to London at a day's notice should
+Count Pateroff be necessitated again to leave London before the day
+named.
+
+As he went about his business that day, and as he journeyed down to
+Stratton, he entertained much kinder ideas about Lady Ongar than he
+had previously done since seeing Count Pateroff's card.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FLORENCE BURTON AT THE RECTORY.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Harry Clavering went down to Stratton, slept one night at old Mr.
+Burton's house, and drove Florence over to Clavering,--twenty miles
+across the country,--on the following day. This journey together
+had been looked forward to with great delight by both of them, and
+Florence, in spite of the snubbing which she had received from her
+lover because of her prudence, was very happy as she seated herself
+alongside of him in the vehicle which had been sent over from the
+rectory, and which he called a trap. Not a word had as yet been said
+between them as to that snubbing, nor was Harry minded that anything
+should be said. He meant to carry on his revenge by being dumb on
+that subject. But such was not Florence's intention. She desired not
+only to have her own way in this matter, but desired also that he
+should assent to her arrangements.
+
+It was a charming day for such a journey. It was cold, but not cold
+enough to make them uncomfortable. There was a wind, but not wind
+enough to torment them. Once there came on a little shower, which
+just sufficed to give Harry an opportunity of wrapping his companion
+very closely, but he had hardly completed the ceremony before the
+necessity for it was over. They both agreed that this mode of
+travelling was infinitely preferable to a journey by railroad, and I
+myself should be of the same opinion if one could always make one's
+journeys under the same circumstances. And it must be understood that
+Harry, though no doubt he was still taking his revenge on Florence by
+abstaining from all allusion to her letter, was not disposed to make
+himself otherwise disagreeable. He played his part of lover very
+well, and Florence was supremely happy.
+
+"Harry," she said, when the journey was more than half completed,
+"you never told me what you thought of my letter."
+
+"Which letter?" But he knew very well which was the letter in
+question.
+
+"My prudent letter,--written in answer to yours that was very
+imprudent."
+
+"I thought there was nothing more to be said about it."
+
+"Come, Harry, don't let there be any subject between us that we
+don't care to think about and discuss. I know what you meant by not
+answering me. You meant to punish me,--did you not, for having an
+opinion different from yours? Is not that true, Harry?"
+
+"Punish you,--no; I did not want to punish you. It was I that was
+punished, I think."
+
+"But you know I was right. Was I not right?"
+
+"I think you were wrong, but I don't want to say anything more about
+it now."
+
+"Ah, but, Harry, I want you to talk about it. Is it not everything
+to me,--everything in this world,--that you and I should agree about
+this? I have nothing else to think of but you. I have nothing to hope
+for but that I may live to be your wife. My only care in the world is
+my care for you! Come, Harry, don't be glum with me."
+
+"I am not glum."
+
+"Speak a nice word to me. Tell me that you believe me when I say that
+it is not of myself I am thinking, but of you."
+
+"Why can't you let me think for myself in this?"
+
+"Because you have got to think for me."
+
+"And I think you'd do very well on the income we've got. If you'll
+consent to marry, this summer, I won't be glum, as you call it, a
+moment longer."
+
+"No, Harry; I must not do that. I should be false to my duty to you
+if I did."
+
+"Then it's no use saying anything more about it."
+
+"Look here, Harry, if an engagement for two years is tedious to
+you--"
+
+"Of course it is tedious. Is not waiting for anything always tedious?
+There's nothing I hate so much as waiting."
+
+"But listen to me," said she, gravely. "If it is too tedious, if it
+is more than you think you can bear without being unhappy, I will
+release you from your engagement."
+
+"Florence!"
+
+"Hear me to the end. It will make no change in me; and then if you
+like to come to me again at the end of the two years, you may be sure
+of the way in which I shall receive you."
+
+"And what good would that do?"
+
+"Simply this good, that you would not be bound in a manner that makes
+you unhappy. If you did not intend that when you asked me to be your
+wife-- Oh, Harry, all I want is to make you happy. That is all that I
+care for, all that I think about!"
+
+Harry swore to her with ten thousand oaths that he would not release
+her from any part of her engagement with him, that he would give
+her no loophole of escape from him, that he intended to hold her so
+firmly that if she divided herself from him, she should be accounted
+among women a paragon of falseness. He was ready, he said, to marry
+her to-morrow. That was his wish, his idea of what would be best for
+both of them;--and after that, if not to-morrow, then on the next
+day, and so on till the day should come on which she should consent
+to become his wife. He went on also to say that he should continue to
+torment her on the subject about once a week till he had induced her
+to give way; and then he quoted a Latin line to show that a constant
+dropping of water will hollow a stone. This was somewhat at variance
+with a declaration he had made to Mrs. Burton, in Onslow Crescent,
+to the effect that he would never speak to Florence again upon the
+subject; but then men do occasionally change their minds, and Harry
+Clavering was a man who often changed his.
+
+Florence, as he made the declaration above described, thought that
+he played his part of lover very well, and drew herself a little
+closer to him as she thanked him for his warmth. "Dear Harry, you are
+so good and so kind, and I do love you so truly!" In this way the
+journey was made very pleasantly, and when Florence was driven up to
+the rectory door she was quite contented with her coachman.
+
+Harry Clavering, who is the hero of our story, will not, I fear, have
+hitherto presented himself to the reader as having much of the heroic
+nature in his character. It will, perhaps, be complained of him that
+he is fickle, vain, easily led, and almost as easily led to evil as
+to good. But it should be remembered that hitherto he has been rather
+hardly dealt with in these pages, and that his faults and weaknesses
+have been exposed almost unfairly. That he had such faults and was
+subject to such weaknesses may be believed of him; but there may be
+a question whether as much evil would not be known of most men, let
+them be heroes or not be heroes, if their characters were, so to
+say, turned inside out before our eyes. Harry Clavering, fellow of
+his college, six feet high, with handsome face and person, and with
+plenty to say for himself on all subjects, was esteemed highly and
+regarded much by those who knew him, in spite of those little foibles
+which marred his character; and I must beg the reader to take the
+world's opinion about him, and not to estimate him too meanly thus
+early in this history of his adventures.
+
+If this tale should ever be read by any lady who, in the course of
+her career, has entered a house under circumstances similar to those
+which had brought Florence Burton to Clavering rectory, she will
+understand how anxious must have been that young lady when she
+encountered the whole Clavering family in the hall. She had been
+blown about by the wind, and her cloaks and shawls were heavy on her,
+and her hat was a little out of shape,--from some fault on the part
+of Harry, as I believe,--and she felt herself to be a dowdy as she
+appeared among them. What would they think of her, and what would
+they think of Harry in that he had chosen such an one to be his wife?
+Mrs. Clavering had kissed her before she had seen that lady's face;
+and Mary and Fanny had kissed her before she knew which was which;
+and then a stout, clerical gentleman kissed her who, no doubt, was
+Mr. Clavering, senior. After that, another clerical gentleman, very
+much younger and very much slighter, shook hands with her. He might
+have kissed her, too, had he been so minded, for Florence was too
+confused to be capable of making any exact reckoning in the matter.
+He might have done so--that is, as far as Florence was concerned. It
+may be a question whether Mary Clavering would not have objected;
+for this clerical gentleman was the Rev. Edward Fielding, who was to
+become her husband in three days' time.
+
+"Now, Florence," said Fanny, "come upstairs into mamma's room and
+have some tea, and we'll look at you. Harry, you needn't come. You've
+had her to yourself for a long time, and can have her again in the
+evening."
+
+Florence, in this way, was taken upstairs and found herself seated by
+a fire, while three pairs of hands were taking from her her shawls
+and hat and cloak, almost before she knew where she was.
+
+"It is so odd to have you here," said Fanny. "We have only one
+brother, so, of course, we shall make very much of you. Isn't she
+nice, mamma?"
+
+"I'm sure she is; very nice. But I shouldn't have told her so before
+her face, if you hadn't asked the question."
+
+"That's nonsense, mamma. You mustn't believe mamma when she pretends
+to be grand and sententious. It's only put on as a sort of company
+air, but we don't mean to make company of you."
+
+"Pray don't," said Florence.
+
+"I'm so glad you are come just at this time," said Mary. "I think so
+much of having Harry's future wife at my wedding. I wish we were both
+going to be married the same day."
+
+"But we are not going to be married for ever so long. Two years hence
+has been the shortest time named."
+
+"Don't be sure of that, Florence," said Fanny. "We have all of us
+received a special commission from Harry to talk you out of that
+heresy; have we not, mamma?"
+
+"I think you had better not tease Florence about that immediately on
+her arrival. It's hardly fair." Then, when they had drunk their tea,
+Florence was taken away to her own room, and before she was allowed
+to go downstairs she was intimate with both the girls, and had so
+far overcome her awe of Harry's mother as to be able to answer her
+without confusion.
+
+"Well, sir, what do you think of her?" said Harry to his father, as
+soon as they were alone.
+
+"I have not had time to think much of her yet. She seems to be very
+pretty. She isn't so tall as I thought she would be."
+
+"No; she's not tall," said Harry, in a voice of disappointment.
+
+"I've no doubt we shall like her very much. What money is she to
+have?"
+
+"A hundred a year while her father lives."
+
+"That's not much."
+
+"Much or little, it made no difference with me. I should never have
+thought of marrying a girl for her money. It's a kind of thing that
+I hate. I almost wish she was to have nothing."
+
+"I shouldn't refuse it if I were you."
+
+"Of course, I shan't refuse it; but what I mean is that I never
+thought about it when I asked her to have me; and I shouldn't have
+been a bit more likely to ask her if she had ten times as much."
+
+"A fortune with one's wife isn't a bad thing for a poor man, Harry."
+
+"But a poor man must be poor in more senses than one when he looks
+about to get a fortune in that way."
+
+"I suppose you won't marry just yet," said the father. "Including
+everything, you would not have five hundred a year, and that would be
+very close work in London."
+
+"It's not quite decided yet, sir. As far as I am myself concerned, I
+think that people are a great deal too prudent about money. I believe
+I could live as a married man on a hundred a year, if I had no more;
+and as for London, I don't see why London should be more expensive
+than any other place. You can get exactly what you want in London,
+and make your halfpence go farther there than anywhere else."
+
+"And your sovereigns go quicker," said the rector.
+
+"All that is wanted," said Harry, "is the will to live on your
+income, and a little firmness in carrying out your plans."
+
+The rector of Clavering, as he heard all this wisdom fall from his
+son's lips, looked at Harry's expensive clothes, at the ring on his
+finger, at the gold chain on his waistcoat, at the studs in his
+shirt, and smiled gently. He was by no means so clever a man as his
+son, but he knew something more of the world, and though not much
+given to general reading, he had read his son's character. "A great
+deal of firmness and of fortitude also is wanted for that kind
+of life," he said. "There are men who can go through it without
+suffering, but I would not advise any young man to commence it in a
+hurry. If I were you I should wait a year or two. Come, let's have a
+walk; that is, if you can tear yourself away from your lady-love for
+an hour. If there is not Saul coming up the avenue! Take your hat,
+Harry, and we'll get out the other way. He only wants to see the
+girls about the school, but if he catches us he'll keep us for an
+hour." Then Harry asked after Mr. Saul's love-affairs. "I've not
+heard one single word about it since you went away," said the rector.
+"It seems to have passed off like a dream. He and Fanny go on the
+same as ever, and I suppose he knows that he made a fool of himself."
+But in this matter the rector of Clavering was mistaken. Mr. Saul did
+not by any means think that he had made a fool of himself.
+
+"He has never spoken a word to me since," said Fanny to her brother
+that evening; "that is, not a word as to what occurred then. Of
+course it was very embarrassing at first, though I don't think he
+minded it much. He came after a day or two just the same as ever, and
+he almost made me think that he had forgotten it."
+
+"And he wasn't confused?"
+
+"Not at all. He never is. The only difference is that I think he
+scolds me more than he used to do."
+
+"Scold you!"
+
+"Oh dear, yes; he always scolded me if he thought there was anything
+wrong, especially about giving the children holidays. But he does it
+now more than ever."
+
+"And how do you bear it?"
+
+"In a half-and-half sort of way. I laugh at him, and then do as I'm
+bid. He makes everybody do what he bids them at Clavering,--except
+papa, sometimes. But he scolds him, too. I heard him the other day in
+the library."
+
+"And did my father take it from him?"
+
+"He did, in a sort of a way. I don't think papa likes him; but then
+he knows, and we all know, that he is so good. He never spares
+himself in anything. He has nothing but his curacy, and what he gives
+away is wonderful."
+
+"I hope he won't take to scolding me," said Harry, proudly.
+
+"As you don't concern yourself about the parish, I should say that
+you're safe. I suppose he thinks mamma does everything right, for he
+never scolds her."
+
+"There is no talk of his going away."
+
+"None at all. I think we should all be sorry, because he does so much
+good."
+
+Florence reigned supreme in the estimation of the rectory family all
+the evening of her arrival and till after breakfast the next morning,
+but then the bride elect was restored to her natural pre-eminence.
+This, however, lasted only for two days, after which the bride was
+taken away. The wedding was very nice, and pretty, and comfortable;
+and the people of Clavering were much better satisfied with it than
+they had been with that other marriage which has been mentioned as
+having been celebrated in Clavering Church. The rectory family was
+generally popular, and everybody wished well to the daughter who
+was being given away. When they were gone there was a breakfast at
+the rectory, and speeches were made with much volubility. On such
+an occasion the rector was a great man, and Harry also shone in
+conspicuous rivalry with his father. But Mr. Saul's spirit was not so
+well tuned to the occasion as that of the rector or his son, and when
+he got upon his legs, and mournfully expressed a hope that his friend
+Mr. Fielding might be enabled to bear the trials of this life with
+fortitude, it was felt by them all that the speaking had better be
+brought to an end.
+
+"You shouldn't laugh at him, Harry," Fanny said to her brother
+afterwards, almost seriously. "One man can do one thing and one
+another. You can make a speech better than he can, but I don't think
+you could preach so good a sermon."
+
+"I declare I think you're getting fond of him after all," said Harry.
+Upon hearing this Fanny turned away with a look of great offence. "No
+one but a brother," said she, "would say such a thing as that to me,
+because I don't like to hear the poor man ridiculed without cause."
+That evening, when they were alone, Fanny told Florence the whole
+story about Mr. Saul. "I tell you, you know, because you're like one
+of ourselves now. It has never been mentioned to any one out of the
+family."
+
+Florence declared that the story would be sacred with her.
+
+"I'm sure of that, dear, and therefore I like you to know it. Of
+course such a thing was quite out of the question. The poor fellow
+has no means at all,--literally none. And then, independently of
+that--"
+
+"I don't think I should ever bring myself to think of that as the
+first thing," said Florence.
+
+"No, nor would I. If I really were attached to a man, I think I would
+tell him so, and agree to wait, either with hope or without it."
+
+"Just so, Fanny."
+
+"But there was nothing of that kind; and, indeed, he's the sort of
+man that no girl would think of being in love with,--isn't he? You
+see he will hardly take the trouble to dress himself decently."
+
+"I have only seen him at a wedding, you know."
+
+"And for him he was quite bright. But you will see plenty of him if
+you will go to the schools with me. And indeed he comes here a great
+deal, quite as much as he did before that happened. He is so good,
+Florence!"
+
+"Poor man!"
+
+"I can't in the least make out from his manner whether he has given
+up thinking about it. I suppose he has. Indeed, of course he has,
+because he must know that it would be of no sort of use. But he is
+one of those men of whom you can never say whether they are happy or
+not; and you never can be quite sure what may be in his mind."
+
+"He is not bound to the place at all,--not like your father?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Fanny, thinking perhaps that Mr. Saul might find
+himself to be bound to the place, though not exactly with bonds
+similar to those which kept her father there.
+
+"If he found himself to be unhappy, he could go," said Florence.
+
+"Oh, yes; he could go if he were unhappy," said Fanny. "That is, he
+could go if he pleased."
+
+Lady Clavering had come to the wedding; but no one else had been
+present from the great house. Sir Hugh, indeed, was not at home; but,
+as the rector truly observed, he might have been at home if he had so
+pleased. "But he is a man," said the father to the son, "who always
+does a rude thing if it be in his power. For myself, I care nothing
+for him, as he knows. But he thinks that Mary would have liked to
+have seen him as the head of the family, and therefore he does not
+come. He has greater skill in making himself odious than any man I
+ever knew. As for her, they say he's leading her a terrible life. And
+he's becoming so stingy about money, too!"
+
+"I hear that Archie is very heavy on him."
+
+"I don't believe that he would allow any man to be heavy on him, as
+you call it. Archie has means of his own, and I suppose has not run
+through them yet. If Hugh has advanced him money, you may be sure
+that he has security. As for Archie, he will come to an end very
+soon, if what I hear is true. They tell me he is always at Newmarket,
+and that he always loses."
+
+But though Sir Hugh was thus uncourteous to the rector and to the
+rector's daughter, he was so far prepared to be civil to his cousin
+Harry, that he allowed his wife to ask all the rectory family to dine
+up at the house, in honour of Harry's sweetheart. Florence Burton
+was specially invited with Lady Clavering's sweetest smile. Florence,
+of course, referred the matter to her hostess, but it was decided
+that they should all accept the invitation. It was given, personally,
+after the breakfast, and it is not always easy to decline invitations
+so given. It may, I think, be doubted whether any man or woman has a
+right to give an invitation in this way, and whether all invitations
+so given should not be null and void, from the fact of the unfair
+advantage that has been taken. The man who fires at a sitting bird is
+known to be no sportsman. Now, the dinner-giver who catches his guest
+in an unguarded moment, and bags him when he has had no chance to
+rise upon his wing, does fire at a sitting bird. In this instance,
+however, Lady Clavering's little speeches were made only to Mrs.
+Clavering and to Florence. She said nothing personally to the rector,
+and he therefore might have escaped. But his wife talked him over.
+
+"I think you should go for Harry's sake," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"I don't see what good it will do Harry."
+
+"It will show that you approve of the match."
+
+"I don't approve or disapprove of it. He's his own master."
+
+"But you do approve, you know, as you countenance it; and there
+cannot possibly be a sweeter girl than Florence Burton. We all like
+her, and I'm sure you seem to take to her thoroughly."
+
+"Take to her; yes, I take to her very well. She's ladylike, and
+though she's no beauty, she looks pretty, and is spirited. And I
+daresay she's clever."
+
+"And so good."
+
+"If she's good, that's better than all. Only I don't see what they're
+to live on."
+
+"But as she is here, you will go with us to the great house?"
+
+Mrs. Clavering never asked her husband anything in vain, and the
+rector agreed to go. He apologized for this afterwards to his son by
+explaining that he did it as a duty. "It will serve for six months,"
+he said. "If I did not go there about once in six months, there would
+be supposed to be a family quarrel, and that would be bad for the
+parish."
+
+Harry was to remain only a week at Clavering, and the dinner was to
+take place the evening before he went away. On that morning he walked
+all round the park with Florence,--as he had before often walked with
+Julia,--and took that occasion of giving her a full history of the
+Clavering family. "We none of us like my cousin Hugh," he had said.
+"But she is at least harmless, and she means to be good-natured. She
+is very unlike her sister, Lady Ongar."
+
+"So I should suppose, from what you have told me."
+
+"Altogether an inferior being."
+
+"And she has only one child."
+
+"Only one,--a boy now two years old. They say he's anything but
+strong."
+
+"And Sir Hugh has one brother."
+
+"Yes; Archie Clavering. I think Archie is a worse fellow even than
+Hugh. He makes more attempts to be agreeable, but there is something
+in his eye which I always distrust. And then he is a man who does no
+good in the world to anybody."
+
+"He's not married?"
+
+"No; he's not married, and I don't suppose he ever will marry. It's
+on the cards, Florence, that the future baronet may be--" Then she
+frowned on him, walked on quickly, and changed the conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+SIR HUGH AND HIS BROTHER ARCHIE.
+
+
+There was a numerous gathering of Claverings in the drawing-room of
+the Great House when the family from the rectory arrived comprising
+three generations; for the nurse was in the room holding the heir
+in her arms. Mrs. Clavering and Fanny of course inspected the child
+at once, as they were bound to do, while Lady Clavering welcomed
+Florence Burton. Archie spoke a word or two to his uncle, and Sir
+Hugh vouchsafed to give one finger to his cousin Harry by way
+of shaking hands with him. Then there came a feeble squeak from
+the infant, and there was a cloud at once upon Sir Hugh's brow.
+"Hermione," he said, "I wish you wouldn't have the child in here.
+It's not the place for him. He's always cross. I've said a dozen
+times I wouldn't have him down here just before dinner." Then a sign
+was made to the nurse, and she walked off with her burden. It was a
+poor, rickety, unalluring bairn, but it was all that Lady Clavering
+had, and she would fain have been allowed to show it to her
+relatives, as other mothers are allowed to do.
+
+"Hugh," said his wife, "shall I introduce you to Miss Burton?"
+
+Then Sir Hugh came forward and shook hands with his new guest, with
+some sort of apology for his remissness, while Harry stood by,
+glowering at him, with offence in his eye. "My father is right,"
+he had said to himself when his cousin failed to notice Florence
+on her first entrance into the room; "he is impertinent as well as
+disagreeable. I don't care for quarrels in the parish, and so I shall
+let him know."
+
+"Upon my word she's a doosed good-looking little thing," said Archie,
+coming up to him, after having also shaken hands with her;--"doosed
+good-looking, I call her."
+
+"I'm glad you think so," said Harry, drily.
+
+"Let's see; where was it you picked her up? I did hear, but I
+forget."
+
+"I picked her up, as you call it, at Stratton, where her father
+lives."
+
+"Oh, yes; I know. He's the fellow that coached you in your new
+business, isn't he? By-the-by, Harry, I think you've made a mess of
+it in changing your line. I'd have stuck to my governor's shop if I'd
+been you. You'd got through all the d----d fag of it, and there's the
+living that has always belonged to a Clavering."
+
+"What would your brother have said if I had asked him to give it to
+me?"
+
+"He wouldn't have given it of course. Nobody does give anything to
+anybody now-a-days. Livings are a sort of thing that people buy. But
+you'd have got it under favourable circumstances."
+
+"The fact is, Archie, I'm not very fond of the church, as a
+profession."
+
+"I should have thought it easy work. Look at your father. He keeps
+a curate and doesn't take any trouble himself. Upon my word, if I'd
+known as much then as I do now, I'd have had a shy for it myself.
+Hugh couldn't have refused it to me."
+
+"But Hugh can't give it while his uncle holds it."
+
+"That would have been against me to be sure, and your governor's life
+is pretty nearly as good as mine. I shouldn't have liked waiting; so
+I suppose it's as well as it is."
+
+There may perhaps have been other reasons why Archie Clavering's
+regrets that he did not take holy orders were needless. He had never
+succeeded in learning anything that any master had ever attempted to
+teach him, although he had shown considerable aptitude in picking up
+acquirements for which no regular masters are appointed. He knew the
+fathers and mothers,--sires and dams I ought perhaps to say,--and
+grandfathers and grandmothers, and so back for some generations,
+of all the horses of note living in his day. He knew also the
+circumstances of all races,--what horses would run at them, and at
+what ages, what were the stakes, the periods of running, and the
+special interests of each affair. But not, on that account, should it
+be thought that the turf had been profitable to him. That it might
+become profitable at some future time, was possible; but Captain
+Archibald Clavering had not yet reached the profitable stage in
+the career of a betting man, though perhaps he was beginning to
+qualify himself for it. He was not bad-looking, though his face was
+unprepossessing to a judge of character. He was slight and well made,
+about five feet nine in height, with light brown hair, which had
+already left the top of his head bald, with slight whiskers, and a
+well-formed moustache. But the peculiarity of his face was in his
+eyes. His eyebrows were light-coloured and very slight, and this was
+made more apparent by the skin above the eyes, which was loose and
+hung down over the outside corners of them, giving him a look of
+cunning which was disagreeable. He seemed always to be speculating,
+counting up the odds, and calculating whether anything could be done
+with the events then present before him. And he was always ready to
+make a bet, being ever provided with a book for that purpose. He
+would take the odds that the sun did not rise on the morrow, and
+would either win the bet or wrangle in the losing of it. He would
+wrangle, but would do so noiselessly, never on such occasions
+damaging his cause by a loud voice. He was now about thirty-three
+years of age, and was two years younger than the baronet. Sir Hugh
+was not a gambler like his brother, but I do not know that he
+was therefore a more estimable man. He was greedy and anxious to
+increase his store, never willing to lose that which he possessed,
+fond of pleasure, but very careful of himself in the enjoyment of
+it, handsome, every inch an English gentleman in appearance, and
+therefore popular with men and women of his own class who were not
+near enough to him to know him well, given to but few words, proud
+of his name, and rank, and place, well versed in the business of the
+world, a match for most men in money matters, not ignorant, though he
+rarely opened a book, selfish, and utterly regardless of the feelings
+of all those with whom he came in contact. Such were Sir Hugh
+Clavering and his brother the captain.
+
+Sir Hugh took Florence in to dinner, and when the soup had been eaten
+made an attempt to talk to her. "How long have you been here, Miss
+Burton?"
+
+"Nearly a week," said Florence.
+
+"Ah;--you came to the wedding; I was sorry I couldn't be here. It
+went off very well, I suppose?"
+
+"Very well indeed, I think."
+
+"They're tiresome things in general,--weddings. Don't you think so?"
+
+"Oh dear, no,--except that some person one loves is always being
+taken away."
+
+"You'll be the next person to be taken away yourself, I suppose?"
+
+"I must be the next person at home, because I am the last that is
+left. All my sisters are married."
+
+"And how many are there?"
+
+"There are five married."
+
+"Good heavens--five!"
+
+"And they are all married to men in the same profession as Harry."
+
+"Quite a family affair," said Sir Hugh. Harry, who was sitting on
+the other side of Florence, heard this, and would have preferred
+that Florence should have said nothing about her sisters. "Why,
+Harry," said the baronet, "if you will go into partnership with your
+father-in-law and all your brothers-in-law you could stand against
+the world."
+
+"You might add my four brothers," said Florence, who saw no shame in
+the fact that they were all engaged in the same business.
+
+"Good heaven!" exclaimed Sir Hugh, and after that he did not say much
+more to Florence.
+
+The rector had taken Lady Clavering in to dinner, and they two did
+manage to carry on between them some conversation respecting the
+parish affairs. Lady Clavering was not active among the poor,--nor
+was the rector himself, and perhaps neither of them knew how little
+the other did; but they could talk Clavering talk, and the parson was
+willing to take for granted his neighbour's good will to make herself
+agreeable. But Mrs. Clavering, who sat between Sir Hugh and Archie,
+had a very bad time of it. Sir Hugh spoke to her once during the
+dinner, saying that he hoped she was satisfied with her daughter's
+marriage; but even this he said in a tone that seemed to imply that
+any such satisfaction must rest on very poor grounds. "Thoroughly
+satisfied," said Mrs. Clavering, drawing herself up and looking very
+unlike the usual Mrs. Clavering of the rectory. After that there was
+no further conversation between her and Sir Hugh. "The worst of him
+to me is always this," she said that evening to her husband, "that he
+puts me so much out of conceit with myself. If I were with him long I
+should begin to find myself the most disagreeable woman in England!"
+"Then pray don't be with him long," said the rector.
+
+But Archie made conversation throughout dinner, and added greatly to
+Mrs. Clavering's troubles by doing so. There was nothing in common
+between them, but still Archie went on laboriously with his work.
+It was a duty which he recognized, and at which he would work hard.
+When he had used up Mary's marriage, a subject which he economized
+carefully, so that he brought it down to the roast saddle of mutton,
+he began upon Harry's match. When was it to be? Where were they to
+live? Was there any money? What manner of people were the Burtons?
+Perhaps he might get over it? This he whispered very lowly, and it
+was the question next in sequence to that about the money. When, in
+answer to this, Mrs. Clavering with considerable energy declared that
+anything of that kind would be a misfortune of which there seemed
+to be no chance whatever, he recovered himself as he thought very
+skilfully. "Oh, yes; of course; that's just what I meant;--a doosed
+nice girl I think her;--a doosed nice girl, all round." Archie's
+questions were very laborious to his fellow-labourer in his
+conversation because he never allowed one of them to pass without an
+answer. He always recognized the fact that he was working hard on
+behalf of society, and, as he used to say himself, that he had no
+idea of pulling all the coach up the hill by his own shoulders.
+Whenever therefore he had made his effort he waited for his
+companion's, looking closely into her face, cunningly driving her on,
+so that she also should pull her share of the coach. Before dinner
+was over Mrs. Clavering found the hill to be very steep, and the
+coach to be very heavy. "I'll bet you seven to one," said he,--and
+this was his parting speech as Mrs. Clavering rose up at Lady
+Clavering's nod,--"I'll bet you seven to one, that the whole box and
+dice of them are married before me,--or at any rate as soon; and I
+don't mean to remain single much longer, I can tell you." The "box
+and dice of them" was supposed to comprise Harry, Florence, Fanny,
+and Lady Ongar, of all of whom mention had been made, and that saving
+clause,--"at any rate as soon,"--was cunningly put in, as it had
+occurred to Archie that he perhaps might be married on the same day
+as one of those other persons. But Mrs. Clavering was not compelled
+either to accept or reject the bet, as she was already moving before
+the terms had been fully explained to her.
+
+Lady Clavering as she went out of the room stopped a moment behind
+Harry's chair and whispered a word to him. "I want to speak to you
+before you go to-night." Then she passed on.
+
+"What's that Hermione was saying?" asked Sir Hugh, when he had shut
+the door.
+
+"She only told me that she wanted to speak to me."
+
+"She has always got some cursed secret," said Sir Hugh. "If there is
+anything I hate, it's a secret." Now this was hardly fair, for Sir
+Hugh was a man very secret in his own affairs, never telling his
+wife anything about them. He kept two banker's accounts so that no
+banker's clerk might know how he stood as regarded ready money, and
+hardly treated even his lawyer with confidence.
+
+He did not move from his own chair, so that, after dinner, his uncle
+was not next to him. The places left by the ladies were not closed
+up, and the table was very uncomfortable.
+
+"I see they're going to have another week after this with the
+Pytchley," said Sir Hugh to his brother.
+
+"I suppose they will,--or ten days. Things ain't very early this
+year."
+
+"I think I shall go down. It's never any use trying to hunt here
+after the middle of March."
+
+"You're rather short of foxes, are you not?" said the rector, making
+an attempt to join the conversation.
+
+"Upon my word I don't know anything about it," said Sir Hugh.
+
+"There are foxes at Clavering," said Archie, recommencing his duty.
+"The hounds will be here on Saturday, and I'll bet three to one I
+find a fox before twelve o'clock, or, say, half-past twelve,--that
+is, if they'll draw punctually and let me do as I like with the pack.
+I'll bet a guinea we find, and a guinea we run, and a guinea we kill;
+that is, you know, if they'll really look for a fox."
+
+The rector had been willing to fall into a little hunting talk for
+the sake of society, but he was not prepared to go the length that
+Archie proposed to take him, and therefore the subject dropped.
+
+"At any rate I shan't stay here after to-morrow," said Sir Hugh,
+still addressing himself to his brother. "Pass the wine, will you,
+Harry; that is, if your father is drinking any."
+
+"No more wine for me," said the rector, almost angrily.
+
+"Liberty Hall," said Sir Hugh; "everybody does as they like about
+that. I mean to have another bottle of claret. Archie, ring the bell,
+will you?" Captain Clavering, though he was further from the bell
+than his elder brother, got up and did as he was bid. The claret
+came, and was drunk almost in silence. The rector, though he had a
+high opinion of the cellar of the great house, would take none of
+the new bottle, because he was angry. Harry filled his glass, and
+attempted to say something. Sir Hugh answered him by a monosyllable,
+and Archie offered to bet him two to one that he was wrong.
+
+"I'll go into the drawing-room," said the rector, getting up.
+
+"All right," said Sir Hugh; "you'll find coffee there, I daresay. Has
+your father given up wine?" he asked, as soon as the door was closed.
+
+"Not that I know of," said Harry.
+
+"He used to take as good a whack as any man I know. The bishop hasn't
+put his embargo on that as well as the hunting, I hope?" To this
+Harry made no answer.
+
+"He's in the blues, I think," said Archie. "Is there anything the
+matter with him, Harry?"
+
+"Nothing as far as I know."
+
+"If I were left at Clavering all the year, with nothing to do, as
+he is, I think I should drink a good deal of wine," said Sir Hugh.
+"I don't know what it is,--something in the air, I suppose,--but
+everybody always seems to me to be dreadfully dull here. You ain't
+taking any wine either. Don't stop here out of ceremony, you know,
+if you want to go after Miss Burton." Harry took him at his word,
+and went after Miss Burton, leaving the brothers together over their
+claret.
+
+The two brothers remained drinking their wine, but they drank it in
+an uncomfortable fashion, not saying much to each other for the first
+ten minutes after the other Claverings were gone. Archie was in some
+degree afraid of his brother, and never offered to make any bets with
+him. Hugh had once put a stop to this altogether. "Archie," he had
+said, "pray understand that there is no money to be made out of me,
+at any rate not by you. If you lost money to me, you wouldn't think
+it necessary to pay; and I certainly shall lose none to you." The
+habit of proposing to bet had become with Archie so much a matter of
+course, that he did not generally intend any real speculation by his
+offers; but with his brother he had dropped even the habit. And he
+seldom began any conversation with Hugh unless he had some point
+to gain,--an advance of money to ask, or some favour to beg in the
+way of shooting, or the loan of a horse. On such occasions he would
+commence the negotiation with his usual diplomacy, not knowing any
+other mode of expressing his wishes; but he was aware that his
+brother would always detect his manoeuvres, and expose them before
+he had got through his first preface; and, therefore, as I have said,
+he was afraid of Hugh.
+
+"I don't know what's come to my uncle of late," said Hugh, after a
+while. "I think I shall have to drop them at the rectory altogether."
+
+"He never had much to say for himself."
+
+"But he has a mode of expressing himself without speaking, which I
+do not choose to put up with at my table. The fact is they are going
+to the mischief at the rectory. His eldest girl has just married a
+curate."
+
+"Fielding has got a living."
+
+"It's something very small then, and I suppose Fanny will marry that
+prig they have here. My uncle himself never does any of his own work,
+and now Harry is going to make a fool of himself. I used to think he
+would fall on his legs."
+
+"He is a clever fellow."
+
+"Then why is he such a fool as to marry such a girl as this, without
+money, good looks, or breeding? It's well for you he is such a fool,
+or else you wouldn't have a chance."
+
+"I don't see that at all," said Archie.
+
+"Julia always had a sneaking fondness for Harry, and if he had waited
+would have taken him now. She was very near making a fool of herself
+with him once, before Lord Ongar turned up."
+
+To this Archie said nothing, but he changed colour, and it may almost
+be said of him that he blushed. Why he was affected in so singular a
+manner by his brother's words will be best explained by a statement
+of what took place in the back drawing-room a little later in the
+evening.
+
+When Harry reached the drawing-room he went up to Lady Clavering, but
+she said nothing to him then of especial notice. She was talking
+to Mrs. Clavering while the rector was reading,--or pretending to
+read,--a review, and the two girls were chattering together in
+another part of the room. Then they had coffee, and after awhile the
+two other men came in from their wine. Lady Clavering did not move at
+once, but she took the first opportunity of doing so, when Sir Hugh
+came up to Mrs. Clavering and spoke a word to her. A few minutes
+after that Harry found himself closeted with Lady Clavering, in a
+little room detached from the others, though the doors between the
+two were open.
+
+"Do you know," said Lady Clavering, "that Sir Hugh has asked Julia to
+come here?" Harry paused a moment, and then acknowledged that he did
+know it.
+
+"I hope you did not advise her to refuse."
+
+"I advise her! Oh dear, no. She did not ask me anything about it."
+
+"But she has refused. Don't you think she has been very wrong?"
+
+"It is hard to say," said Harry. "You know I thought it very cruel
+that Hugh did not receive her immediately on her return. If I had
+been him I should have gone to Paris to meet her."
+
+"It's no good talking of that now, Harry. Hugh is hard, and we all
+know that. Who feels it most, do you think; Julia or I? But as he has
+come round, what can she gain by standing off? Will it not be the
+best thing for her to come here?"
+
+"I don't know that she has much to gain by it."
+
+"Harry,--do you know that we have a plan?" "Who is we?" Harry asked;
+but she went on without noticing his question. "I tell you, because I
+believe you can help us more than any one, if you will. Only for your
+engagement with Miss Burton I should not mention it to you; and, but
+for that, the plan would, I daresay, be of no use."
+
+"What is the plan?" said Harry, very gravely. A vague idea of
+what the plan might be had come across Harry's mind during Lady
+Clavering's last speech.
+
+"Would it not be a good thing if Julia and Archie were to be
+married?" She asked the question in a quick, hesitating voice,
+looking at first eagerly up into his face, and then turning away her
+eyes, as though she were afraid of the answer she might read there.
+"Of course I know that you were fond of her, but all that can be
+nothing now."
+
+"No," said Harry, "that can be nothing now."
+
+"Then why shouldn't Archie have her? It would make us all so much
+more comfortable together. I told Archie that I should speak to you,
+because I know that you have more weight with her than any of us; but
+Hugh doesn't know that I mean it."
+
+"Does Sir Hugh know of the,--the plan?"
+
+"It was he who proposed it. Archie will be very badly off when he has
+settled with Hugh about all their money dealings. Of course Julia's
+money would be left in her own hands; there would be no intention to
+interfere with that. But the position would be so good for him; and
+it would, you know, put him on his legs."
+
+"Yes," said Harry, "it would put him on his legs, I daresay."
+
+"And why shouldn't it be so? She can't live alone by herself always.
+Of course she never could have really loved Lord Ongar."
+
+"Never, I should think," said Harry.
+
+"And Archie is good-natured, and good-tempered,
+and--and--and--good-looking. Don't you think so? I think it would
+just do for her. She'd have her own way, for he's not a bit like
+Hugh, you know. He's not so clever as Hugh, but he is much more
+good-natured. Don't you think it would be a good arrangement, Harry?"
+Then again she looked up into his face anxiously.
+
+Nothing in the whole matter surprised him more than her eagerness in
+advocating the proposal. Why should she desire that her sister should
+be sacrificed in this way? But in so thinking of it he forgot her own
+position, and the need that there was to her for some friend to be
+near to her,--for some comfort and assistance. She had spoken truly
+in saying that the plan had originated with her husband; but since it
+had been suggested to her, she had not ceased to think of it, and to
+wish for it.
+
+"Well, Harry, what do you say?" she asked.
+
+"I don't see that I have anything to say."
+
+"But I know you can help us. When I was with her the last time she
+declared that you were the only one of us she ever wished to see
+again. She meant to include me then especially, but of course she was
+not thinking of Archie. I know you can help us if you will."
+
+"Am I to ask her to marry him?"
+
+"Not exactly that; I don't think that would do any good. But you
+might persuade her to come here. I think she would come if you
+advised her; and then, after a bit, you might say a good word for
+Archie."
+
+"Upon my word I could not."
+
+"Why not, Harry?"
+
+"Because I know he would not make her happy. What good would such a
+marriage do her?"
+
+"Think of her position. No one will visit her unless she is first
+received here, or at any rate unless she comes to us in town. And
+then it would be up-hill work. Do you know Lord Ongar had absolutely
+determined at one time to--to get a divorce?"
+
+"And do you believe that she was guilty?"
+
+"I don't say that. No; why should I believe anything against my own
+sister when nothing is proved. But that makes no difference, if the
+world believes it. They say now that if he had lived three months
+longer she never would have got the money."
+
+"Then they say lies. Who is it says so? A parcel of old women who
+delight in having some one to run down and backbite. It is all false,
+Lady Clavering."
+
+"But what does it signify, Harry? There she is, and you know how
+people are talking. Of course it would be best for her to marry
+again; and if she would take Archie,--Sir Hugh's brother, my
+brother-in-law, nothing further would be said. She might go anywhere
+then. As her sister, I feel sure that it is the best thing she could
+do."
+
+Harry's brow became clouded, and there was a look of anger on his
+face as he answered her.
+
+"Lady Clavering," he said, "your sister will never marry my cousin
+Archie. I look upon the thing as impossible."
+
+"Perhaps it is, Harry, that you,--you yourself would not wish it."
+
+"Why should I wish it?"
+
+"He is your own cousin."
+
+"Cousin indeed! Why should I wish it, or why should I not wish it?
+They are neither of them anything to me."
+
+"She ought not to be anything to you."
+
+"And she is nothing. She may marry Archie, if she pleases, for me. I
+shall not set her against him. But, Lady Clavering, you might as well
+tell him to get one of the stars. I don't think you can know your
+sister when you suppose such a match to be possible."
+
+"Hermione!" shouted Sir Hugh,--and the shout was uttered in a voice
+that always caused Lady Clavering to tremble.
+
+"I am coming," she said, rising from her chair. "Don't set yourself
+against it, Harry," and then, without waiting to hear him further,
+she obeyed her husband's summons. "What the mischief keeps you in
+there?" he said. It seemed that things had not been going well in the
+larger room. The rector had stuck to his review, taking no notice of
+Sir Hugh when he entered. "You seem to be very fond of your book, all
+of a sudden," Sir Hugh had said, after standing silent on the rug for
+a few minutes.
+
+"Yes, I am," said the rector,--"just at present."
+
+"It's quite new with you, then," said Sir Hugh, "or else you're very
+much belied."
+
+"Hugh," said Mr. Clavering, rising slowly from his chair, "I don't
+often come into my father's house, but when I do, I wish to be
+treated with respect. You are the only person in this parish that
+ever omits to do so."
+
+"Bosh!" said Sir Hugh.
+
+The two girls sat cowering in their seats, and poor Florence
+must have begun to entertain an uncomfortable idea of her future
+connexions. Archie made a frantic attempt to raise some conversation
+with Mrs. Clavering about the weather. Mrs. Clavering, paying no
+attention to Archie whatever, looked at her husband with beseeching
+eyes. "Henry," she said, "do not allow yourself to be angry; pray do
+not. What is the use?"
+
+"None on earth," he said, returning to his book. "No use on
+earth;--and worse than none in showing it."
+
+Then it was that Sir Hugh had made a diversion by calling to his
+wife. "I wish you'd stay with us, and not go off alone with one
+person in particular, in that way." Lady Clavering looked round and
+immediately saw that things were unpleasant. "Archie," she said,
+"will you ring for tea?" And Archie did ring. The tea was brought,
+and a cup was taken all round, almost in silence.
+
+Harry in the meantime remained by himself thinking of what he had
+heard from Lady Clavering. Archie Clavering marry Lady Ongar,--marry
+his Julia! It was impossible. He could not bring himself even to
+think of such an arrangement with equanimity. He was almost frantic
+with anger as he thought of this proposition to restore Lady Ongar to
+the position in the world's repute which she had a right to claim, by
+such a marriage as that. "She would indeed be disgraced then," said
+Harry to himself. But he knew that it was impossible. He could see
+what would be the nature of Julia's countenance if Archie should ever
+get near enough to her to make his proposal! Archie indeed! There
+was no one for whom, at that moment, he entertained so thorough a
+contempt as he did for his cousin, Archie Clavering.
+
+Let us hope that he was no dog in the manger;--that the feelings
+which he now entertained for poor Archie would not have been roused
+against any other possible suitor who might have been named as a
+fitting husband for Lady Ongar. Lady Ongar could be nothing to him!
+
+But I fear that he was a dog in the manger, and that any marriage
+contemplated for Lady Ongar, either by herself or by others for her,
+would have been distasteful to him,--unnaturally distasteful. He knew
+that Lady Ongar could be nothing to him; and yet, as he came out of
+the small room into the larger room, there was something sore about
+his heart, and the soreness was occasioned by the thought that any
+second marriage should be thought possible for Lady Ongar. Florence
+smiled on him as he went up to her, but I doubt whether she would
+have smiled had she known all his heart.
+
+Soon after that Mrs. Clavering rose to return home, having swallowed
+a peace-offering in the shape of a cup of tea. But though the tea
+had quieted the storm then on the waters, there was no true peace in
+the rector's breast. He shook hands cordially with Lady Clavering,
+without animosity with Archie, and then held out three fingers to the
+baronet. The baronet held out one finger. Each nodded at the other,
+and so they parted. Harry, who knew nothing of what had happened, and
+who was still thinking of Lady Ongar, busied himself with Florence,
+and they were soon out of the house, walking down the broad road from
+the front door.
+
+"I will never enter that house again, when I know that Hugh Clavering
+is in it," said the rector.
+
+"Don't make rash assertions, Henry," said his wife.
+
+"I hope it is not rash, but I make that assertion," he said. "I will
+never again enter that house as my nephew's guest. I have borne a
+great deal for the sake of peace, but there are things which a man
+cannot bear."
+
+Then, as they walked home, the two girls explained to Harry what had
+occurred in the larger room, while he was talking to Lady Clavering
+in the smaller one. But he said nothing to them of the subject of
+that conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+LADY ONGAR TAKES POSSESSION.
+
+
+I do not know that there is in England a more complete gentleman's
+residence than Ongar Park, nor could there be one in better repair,
+or more fit for immediate habitation than was that house when it came
+into the hands of the young widow. The park was not large, containing
+about sixty or seventy acres. But there was a home-farm attached to
+the place, which also now belonged to Lady Ongar for her life, and
+which gave to the park itself an appearance of extent which it would
+otherwise have wanted. The house, regarded as a nobleman's mansion,
+was moderate in size, but it was ample for the requirements of any
+ordinarily wealthy family. The dining-room, library, drawing-rooms,
+and breakfast-room, were all large and well-arranged. The hall was
+handsome and spacious, and the bed-rooms were sufficiently numerous
+to make an auctioneer's mouth water. But the great charm of Ongar
+Park lay in the grounds immediately round the house, which sloped
+down from the terrace before the windows to a fast-running stream
+which was almost hidden,--but was not hidden,--by the shrubs on its
+bank. Though the domain itself was small, the shrubberies and walks
+were extensive. It was a place costly to maintain in its present
+perfect condition, but when that was said against it, all was said
+against it which its bitterest enemies could allege.
+
+But Lady Ongar, with her large jointure, and with no external
+expenses whatever, could afford this delight without imprudence.
+Everything in and about the place was her own, and she might live
+there happily, even in the face of the world's frowns, if she could
+teach herself to find happiness in rural luxuries. On her immediate
+return to England, her lawyer had told her that he found there would
+be opposition to her claim, and that an attempt would be made to keep
+the house out of her hands. Lord Ongar's people would, he said, bribe
+her to submit to this by immediate acquiescence as to her income.
+But she had declared that she would not submit,--that she would
+have house and income and all; and she had been successful. "Why
+should I surrender what is my own?" she had said, looking the lawyer
+full in the face. The lawyer had not dared to tell her that her
+opponents,--Lord Ongar's heirs,--had calculated on her anxiety to
+avoid exposure; but she knew that that was meant. "I have nothing to
+fear from them," she said, "and mean to claim what is my own by my
+settlement." There had, in truth, been no ground for disputing her
+right, and the place was given up to her before she had been three
+months in England. She at once went down and took possession, and
+there she was, alone, when her sister was communicating to Harry
+Clavering her plan about Captain Archie.
+
+She had never seen the place till she reached it on this occasion;
+nor had she ever seen, nor would she now probably ever see, Lord
+Ongar's larger house, Courton Castle. She had gone abroad with him
+immediately on their marriage, and now she had returned a widow to
+take possession of his house. There she was in possession of it all.
+The furniture in the rooms, the books in the cases, the gilded clocks
+and grand mirrors about the house, all the implements of wealthy
+care about the gardens, the corn in the granaries and the ricks
+in the hay-yard, the horses in the stable, and the cows lowing in
+the fields,--they were all hers. She had performed her part of the
+bargain, and now the price was paid to her into her hands. When she
+arrived she did not know what was the extent of her riches in this
+world's goods; nor, in truth, had she at once the courage to ask
+questions on the subject. She saw cows, and was told of horses; and
+words came to her gradually of sheep and oxen, of poultry, pigs, and
+growing calves. It was as though a new world had opened itself before
+her eyes, full of interest, and as though all that world were her
+own. She looked at it, and knew that it was the price of her bargain.
+Upon the whole she had been very lucky. She had, indeed, passed
+through a sharp agony,--an agony sharp almost to death; but the agony
+had been short, and the price was in her hand.
+
+A close carriage had met her at the station, and taken her with her
+maid to the house. She had so arranged that she had reached the
+station after dark, and even then had felt that the eyes of many were
+upon her as she went out to her carriage, with her face covered by
+a veil. She was all alone, and there would be no one at the house
+to whom she could speak;--but the knowledge that the carriage was
+her own perhaps consoled her. The housekeeper who received her was a
+stout, elderly, comfortable body, to whom she could perhaps say a few
+words beyond those which might be spoken to an ordinary servant; but
+she fancied at once that the housekeeper was cold to her, and solemn
+in her demeanour. "I hope you have good fires, Mrs. Button." "Yes,
+my lady." "I think I will have some tea; I don't want anything else
+to-night." "Very well, my lady." Mrs. Button, maintaining a solemn
+countenance, would not go beyond this; and yet Mrs. Button looked
+like a woman who could have enjoyed a gossip, had the lady been a
+lady to her mind. Perhaps Mrs. Button did not like serving a lady as
+to whom such sad stories were told. Lady Ongar, as she thought of
+this, drew herself up unconsciously, and sent Mrs. Button away from
+her.
+
+The next morning, after an early breakfast, Lady Ongar went out. She
+was determined that she would work hard; that she would understand
+the farm; that she would know the labourers; that she would assist
+the poor; that she would have a school; and, above all, that she
+would make all the privileges of ownership her own. Was not the price
+in her hand, and would she not use it? She felt that it was very good
+that something of the price had come to her thus in the shape of
+land, and beeves, and wide, heavy outside garniture. From them she
+would pluck an interest which mere money could not have given her.
+She was out early, therefore, that she might look round upon the
+things that were her own.
+
+And there came upon her a feeling that she would not empty this sweet
+cup at one draught, that she would dally somewhat with the rich
+banquet that was spread for her. She had many griefs to overcome,
+much sorrow to conquer, perhaps a long period of desolation to
+assuage, and she would not be prodigal of her resources. As she
+looked around her while she walked, almost furtively, lest some
+gardener as he spied her might guess her thoughts and tell how my
+lady was revelling in her pride of possession,--it appeared to her
+that those novelties in which she was to find her new interest were
+without end. There was not a tree there, not a shrub, not a turn in
+the walks, which should not become her friend. She did not go far
+from the house, not even down to the water. She was husbanding her
+resources. But yet she lost herself amidst the paths, and tried to
+find a joy in feeling that she had done so. It was all her own. It
+was the price of what she had done; and the price was even now being
+paid into her hand,--paid with current coin and of full weight.
+
+As she sat down alone to her breakfast, she declared to herself that
+this should be enough for her,--that it should satisfy her. She had
+made her bargain with her eyes open, and would not now ask for things
+which had not been stipulated in the contract. She was alone, and all
+the world was turning its back on her. The relatives of her late
+husband would, as a matter of course, be her enemies. Them she had
+never seen, and that they should speak evil of her seemed to be only
+natural. But her own relatives were removed from her by a gulf nearly
+equally wide. Of Brabazon cousins she had none nearer than the third
+or fourth degree of cousinship, and of them she had never taken heed,
+and expected no heed from them. Her set of friends would naturally
+have been the same as her sister's, and would have been made up of
+those she had known when she was one of Sir Hugh's family. But from
+Sir Hugh she was divided now as widely as from the Ongar people,
+and,--for any purposes of society,--from her sister also. Sir Hugh
+had allowed his wife to invite her to Clavering, but to this she
+would not submit after Sir Hugh's treatment to her on her return.
+Though she had suffered much, her spirit was unbroken. Sir Hugh was,
+in truth, responsible for her reception in England. Had he come
+forward like a brother, all might have been well. But it was too late
+now for Sir Hugh Clavering to remedy the evil he had done, and he
+should be made to understand that Lady Ongar would not become a
+suppliant to him for mercy. She was striving to think how "rich she
+was in horses, how rich in broidered garments and in gold," as she
+sat solitary over her breakfast; but her mind would run off to other
+things, cumbering itself with unnecessary miseries and useless
+indignation. Had she not her price in her hand?
+
+Would she see the steward that morning? No,--not that morning. Things
+outside could go on for a while in their course as heretofore. She
+feared to seem to take possession with pride, and then there was that
+conviction that it would be well to husband her resources. So she
+sent for Mrs. Button, and asked Mrs. Button to walk through the rooms
+with her. Mrs. Button came, but again declined to accept her lady's
+condescension. Every spot about the house, every room, closet, and
+wardrobe, she was ready to open with zeal; the furniture she was
+prepared to describe, if Lady Ongar would listen to her; but every
+word was spoken in a solemn voice, very far removed from gossiping.
+Only once was Mrs. Button moved to betray any emotion. "That, my
+lady, was my lord's mother's room, after my lord died,--my lord's
+father that was; may God bless her." Then Lady Ongar reflected that
+from her husband she had never heard a word either of his father or
+his mother. She wished that she could seat herself with that woman in
+some small upstairs room, and then ask question after question about
+the family. But she did not dare to make the attempt. She could not
+bring herself to explain to Mrs. Button that she had never known
+anything of the belongings of her own husband.
+
+When she had seen the upper part of the house, Mrs. Button offered to
+convoy her through the kitchens and servants' apartments, but she
+declined this for the present. She had done enough for the day. So
+she dismissed Mrs. Button, and took herself to the library. How often
+had she heard that books afforded the surest consolation to the
+desolate. She would take to reading; not on this special day, but as
+the resource for many days and months, and years to come. But this
+idea had faded and become faint, before she had left the gloomy,
+damp-feeling, chill room, in which some former Lord Ongar had stored
+the musty volumes which he had thought fit to purchase. The library
+gave her no ease, so she went out again among the lawns and shrubs.
+For some time to come her best resources must be those which she
+could find outside the house.
+
+Peering about, she made her way behind the stables, which were
+attached to the house, to a farmyard gate, through which the way led
+to the head-quarters of the live-stock. She did not go through, but
+she looked over the gate, telling herself that those barns and sheds,
+that wealth of straw-yard, those sleeping pigs and idle dreaming
+calves, were all her own. As she did so, her eye fell upon an old
+labourer, who was sitting close to her, on a felled tree, under the
+shelter of a paling, eating his dinner. A little girl, some six years
+old, who had brought him his meal tied up in a handkerchief, was
+crouching near his feet. They had both seen her before she had seen
+them, and when she noticed them, were staring at her with all their
+eyes. She and they were on the same side of the farmyard paling, and
+so she could reach them and speak to them without difficulty. There
+was apparently no other person near enough to listen, and it occurred
+to her that she might at any rate make a friend of this old man. His
+name, he said, was Enoch Gubby, and the girl was his grandchild. Her
+name was Patty Gubby. Then Patty got up and had her head patted by
+her ladyship and received sixpence. They neither of them, however,
+knew who her ladyship was, and, as far as Lady Ongar could ascertain
+without a question too direct to be asked, had never heard of her.
+Enoch Gubby said he worked for Mr. Giles, the steward,--that was for
+my lord, and as he was old and stiff with rheumatism he only got
+eight shillings a week. He had a daughter, the mother of Patty, who
+worked in the fields, and got six shillings a week. Everything about
+the poor Gubbys seemed to be very wretched and miserable. Sometimes
+he could hardly drag himself about, he was so bad with the
+rheumatics. Then she thought that she would make one person happy,
+and told him that his wages should be raised to ten shillings a week.
+No matter whether he earned it or not, or what Mr. Giles might say,
+he should have ten shillings a week. Enoch Gubby bowed, and rubbed
+his head, and stared, and was in truth thankful because of the
+sixpence in ready money; but he believed nothing about the ten
+shillings. He did not especially disbelieve, but simply felt
+confident that he understood nothing that was said to him. That
+kindness was intended, and that the sixpence was there, he did
+understand.
+
+
+[Illustration: Was not the price in her hand?]
+
+
+But Enoch Gubby got his weekly ten shillings, though Lady Ongar
+hardly realized the pleasure that she had expected from the
+transaction. She sent that afternoon for Mr. Giles, the steward, and
+told him what she had done. Mr. Giles did not at all approve, and
+spoke his disapproval very plainly, though he garnished his rebuke
+with a great many "my lady's." The old man was a hanger-on about the
+place, and for years had received eight shillings a week, which he
+had not half earned. "Now he will have ten, that is all," said Lady
+Ongar. Mr. Giles acknowledged that if her ladyship pleased, Enoch
+Gubby must have the ten shillings, but declared that the business
+could not be carried on in that way. Everybody about the place would
+expect an addition, and those people who did earn what they received,
+would think themselves cruelly used in being worse treated than Enoch
+Gubby, who, according to Mr. Giles, was by no means the most worthy
+old man in the parish. And as for his daughter--oh! Mr. Giles could
+not trust himself to talk about the daughter to her ladyship. Before
+he left her, Lady Ongar was convinced that she had made a mistake.
+Not even from charity will pleasure come, if charity be taken up
+simply to appease remorse.
+
+The price was in her hand. For a fortnight the idea clung to her,
+that gradually she would realize the joys of possession; but there
+was no moment in which she could tell herself that the joy was hers.
+She was now mistress of the geography of the place. There was no more
+losing herself amidst the shrubberies, no thought of economizing her
+resources. Of Mr. Giles and his doings she still knew very little,
+but the desire of knowing much had faded. The ownership of the
+haystacks had become a thing tame to her, and the great cart-horses,
+as to every one of which she had intended to feel an interest, were
+matters of indifference to her. She observed that since her arrival a
+new name in new paint,--her own name,--was attached to the carts, and
+that the letters were big and glaring. She wished that this had not
+been done, or, at any rate, that the letters had been smaller. Then
+she began to think that it might be well for her to let the farm to
+a tenant; not that she might thus get more money, but because she
+felt that the farm would be a trouble. The apples had indeed quickly
+turned to ashes between her teeth!
+
+On the first Sunday that she was at Ongar Park she went to the parish
+church. She had resolved strongly that she would do this, and she did
+it; but when the moment for starting came, her courage almost failed
+her. The church was but a few yards from her own gate, and she walked
+there without any attendant. She had, however, sent word to the
+sexton to say that she would be there, and the old man was ready to
+show her into the family pew. She wore a thick veil, and was dressed,
+of course, in all the deep ceremonious woe of widowhood. As she
+walked up the centre of the church she thought of her dress, and told
+herself that all there would know how it had been between her and her
+husband. She was pretending to mourn for the man to whom she had sold
+herself; for the man who through happy chance had died so quickly,
+leaving her with the price in her hand! All of course knew that, and
+all thought that they knew, moreover, that she had been foully false
+to her bargain, and had not earned the price! That, also, she told
+herself. But she went through it, and walked out of the church among
+the village crowd with her head on high.
+
+Three days afterwards she wrote to the clergyman, asking him to call
+on her. She had come, she said, to live in the parish, and hoped to
+be able, with his assistance, to be of some use among the people.
+She would hardly know how to act without some counsel from him. The
+schools might be all that was excellent, but if there was anything
+required she hoped he would tell her. On the following morning the
+clergyman called, and, with many thanks for her generosity, listened
+to her plans, and accepted her subsidies. But he was a married man,
+and he said nothing of his wife, nor during the next week did his
+wife come to call on her. She was to be left desolate by all, because
+men had told lies of her!
+
+She had the price in her hands, but she felt herself tempted to do as
+Judas did,--to go out and hang herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A VISITOR CALLS AT ONGAR PARK.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+It will be remembered that Harry Clavering, on returning one evening
+to his lodgings in Bloomsbury Square, had been much astonished at
+finding there the card of Count Pateroff, a man of whom he had only
+heard, up to that moment, as the friend of the late Lord Ongar. At
+first he had been very angry with Lady Ongar, thinking that she and
+this count were in some league together, some league of which he
+would greatly disapprove; but his anger had given place to a new
+interest when he learned direct from herself that she had not seen
+the count, and that she was simply anxious that he, as her friend,
+should have an interview with the man. He had then become very
+eager in the matter, offering to subject himself to any amount of
+inconvenience so that he might effect that which Lady Ongar asked of
+him. He was not, however, called upon to endure any special trouble
+or expense, as he heard nothing more from Count Pateroff till he had
+been back in London for two or three weeks.
+
+Lady Ongar's statement to him had been quite true. It had been even
+more than true; for when she had written she had not even heard
+directly from the count. She had learned by letter from another
+person that Count Pateroff was in London, and had then communicated
+the fact to her friend. This other person was a sister of the
+count's, who was now living in London, one Madame Gordeloup,--Sophie
+Gordeloup,--a lady whom Harry had found sitting in Lady Ongar's room
+when last he had seen her in Bolton Street. He had not then heard her
+name; nor was he aware then, or for some time subsequently, that
+Count Pateroff had any relative in London.
+
+Lady Ongar had been a fortnight in the country before she received
+Madame Gordeloup's letter. In that letter the sister had declared
+herself to be most anxious that her brother should see Lady Ongar.
+The letter had been in French, and had been very eloquent,--more
+eloquent in its cause than any letter with the same object could have
+been if written by an Englishwoman in English; and the eloquence was
+less offensive than it might, under all concurrent circumstances,
+have been had it reached Lady Ongar in English. The reader must not,
+however, suppose that the letter contained a word that was intended
+to support a lover's suit. It was very far indeed from that, and
+spoke of the count simply as a friend; but its eloquence went to show
+that nothing that had passed should be construed by Lady Ongar as
+offering any bar to a fair friendship. What the world said!--Bah! Did
+not she know,--she, Sophie,--and did not her friend know,--her friend
+Julie,--that the world was a great liar? Was it not even now telling
+wicked venomous lies about her friend Julie? Why mind what the world
+said, seeing that the world could not be brought to speak one word of
+truth? The world indeed! Bah!
+
+But Lady Ongar, though she was not as yet more than half as old as
+Madame Gordeloup, knew what she was about almost as well as that
+lady knew what Sophie Gordeloup was doing. Lady Ongar had known
+the count's sister in France and Italy, having seen much of her
+in one of those sudden intimacies to which English people are
+subject when abroad; and she had been glad to see Madame Gordeloup
+in London,--much more glad than she would have been had she been
+received there on her return by a crowd of loving native friends.
+But not on that account was she prepared to shape her conduct in
+accordance with her friend Sophie's advice, and especially not
+so when that advice had reference to Sophie's brother. She had,
+therefore, said very little in return to the lady's eloquence,
+answering the letter on that matter very vaguely; but, having a
+purpose of her own, had begged that Count Pateroff might be asked to
+call upon Harry Clavering. Count Pateroff did not feel himself to
+care very much about Harry Clavering, but wishing to do as he was
+bidden, did leave his card in Bloomsbury Square.
+
+And why was Lady Ongar anxious that the young man who was her friend
+should see the man who had been her husband's friend, and whose name
+had been mixed with her own in so grievous a manner? She had called
+Harry her friend, and it might be that she desired to give this
+friend every possible means of testing the truth of that story which
+she herself had told. The reader, perhaps, will hardly have believed
+in Lady Ongar's friendship;--will, perhaps, have believed neither
+the friendship nor the story. If so, the reader will have done her
+wrong, and will not have read her character aright. The woman was
+not heartless because she had once, in one great epoch of her life,
+betrayed her own heart; nor was she altogether false because she had
+once lied; nor altogether vile, because she had once taught herself
+that, for such an one as her, riches were a necessity. It might be
+that the punishment of her sin could meet with no remission in this
+world, but not on that account should it be presumed that there was
+no place for repentance left to her.
+
+As she walked alone through the shrubberies at Ongar Park she thought
+much of those other paths at Clavering, and of the walks in which
+she had not been alone; and she thought of that interview in the
+garden when she had explained to Harry,--as she had then thought so
+successfully,--that they two, each being poor, were not fit to love
+and marry each other. She had brooded over all that, too, during the
+long hours of her sad journey home to England. She was thinking of
+it still when she had met him, and had been so cold to him on the
+platform of the railway station, when she had sent him away angry
+because she had seemed to slight him. She had thought of it as she
+had sat in her London room, telling him the terrible tale of her
+married life, while her eyes were fixed on his and her head was
+resting on her hands. Even then, at that moment, she was asking
+herself whether he believed her story, or whether, within his breast,
+he was saying that she was vile and false. She knew that she had been
+false to him, and that he must have despised her when, with her easy
+philosophy, she had made the best of her own mercenary perfidy. He
+had called her a jilt to her face, and she had been able to receive
+the accusation with a smile. Would he now call her something worse,
+and with a louder voice, within his own bosom? And if she could
+convince him that to that accusation she was not fairly subject,
+might the old thing come back again? Would he walk with her again,
+and look into her eyes as though he only wanted her commands to show
+himself ready to be her slave? She was a widow, and had seen many
+things, but even now she had not reached her six-and-twentieth year.
+
+The apples at her rich country-seat had quickly become ashes between
+her teeth, but something of the juice of the fruit might yet reach
+her palate if he would come and sit with her at the table. As she
+complained to herself of the coldness of the world, she thought that
+she would not care how cold might be all the world if there might be
+but one whom she could love, and who would love her. And him she had
+loved. To him, in old days,--in days which now seemed to her to be
+very old,--she had made confession of her love. Old as were those
+days, it could not be but he should still remember them. She had
+loved him, and him only. To none other had she ever pretended love.
+From none other had love been offered to her. Between her and that
+wretched being to whom she had sold herself, who had been half dead
+before she had seen him, there had been no pretence of love. But
+Harry Clavering she had loved. Harry Clavering was a man, with all
+those qualities which she valued, and also with those foibles which
+saved him from being too perfect for so slight a creature as herself.
+Harry had been offended to the quick, and had called her a jilt; but
+yet it might be possible that he would return to her.
+
+It should not be supposed that since her return to England she had
+had one settled, definite object before her eyes with regard to
+this renewal of her love. There had been times in which she had
+thought that she would go on with the life which she had prepared
+for herself, and that she would make herself contented, if not happy,
+with the price which had been paid to her. And there were other
+times, in which her spirits sank low within her, and she told herself
+that no contentment was any longer possible to her. She looked at
+herself in the glass, and found herself to be old and haggard. Harry,
+she said, was the last man in the world to sell himself for wealth,
+when there was no love remaining. Harry would never do as she
+had done with herself! Not for all the wealth that woman ever
+inherited,--so she told herself,--would he link himself to one who
+had made herself vile and tainted among women! In this, I think, she
+did him no more than justice, though it may be that in some other
+matters she rated his character too highly. Of Florence Burton she
+had as yet heard nothing, though had she heard of her, it may well
+be that she would not on that account have desisted. Such being her
+thoughts and her hopes, she had written to Harry, begging him to see
+this man who had followed her,--she knew not why,--from Italy; and
+had told the sister simply that she could not do as she was asked,
+because she was away from London, alone in a country house.
+
+And quite alone she was sitting one morning, counting up her misery,
+feeling that the apples were, in truth, ashes, when a servant came to
+her, telling her that there was a gentleman in the hall desirous of
+seeing her. The man had the visitor's card in his hand, but before
+she could read the name, the blood had mounted into her face as she
+told herself that it was Harry Clavering. There was joy for a moment
+at her heart; but she must not show it,--not as yet. She had been
+but four months a widow, and he should not have come to her in
+the country. She must see him and in some way make him understand
+this,--but she would be very gentle with him. Then her eye fell upon
+the card, and she saw, with grievous disappointment, that it bore
+the name of Count Pateroff. No;--she was not going to be caught in
+that way. Let the result be what it might, she would not let Sophie
+Gordeloup, or Sophie's brother, get the better of her by such a ruse
+as that! "Tell the gentleman, with my compliments," she said, as she
+handed back the card, "that I regret it greatly, but I can see no
+one now." Then the servant went away, and she sat wondering whether
+the count would be able to make his way into her presence. She felt
+rather than knew that she had some reason to fear him. All that had
+been told of him and of her had been false. No accusation brought
+against her had contained one spark of truth. But there had been
+things between Lord Ongar and this man which she would not care to
+have told openly in England. And though, in his conduct to her,
+he had been customarily courteous, and on one occasion had been
+generous, still she feared him. She would much rather that he should
+have remained in Italy. And though, when all alone in Bolton Street,
+she had in her desolation welcomed his sister Sophie, she would have
+preferred that Sophie should not have come to her, claiming to renew
+their friendship. But with the count she would hold no communion now,
+even though he should find his way into the room.
+
+A few minutes passed before the servant returned, and then he brought
+a note with him. As the door opened Lady Ongar rose, ready to leave
+the room by another passage; but she took the note and read it. It
+was as follows:--"I cannot understand why you should refuse to see
+me, and I feel aggrieved. My present purpose is to say a few words to
+you on private matters connected with papers that belonged to Lord
+Ongar. I still hope that you will admit me.--P." Having read these
+words while standing, she made an effort to think what might be
+the best course for her to follow. As for Lord Ongar's papers, she
+did not believe in the plea. Lord Ongar could have had no papers
+interesting to her in such a manner as to make her desirous of seeing
+this man or of hearing of them in private. Lord Ongar, though she had
+nursed him to the hour of his death, earning her price, had been her
+bitterest enemy; and though there had been something about this count
+that she had respected, she had known him to be a man of intrigue and
+afraid of no falsehoods in his intrigues,--a dangerous man, who might
+perhaps now and again do a generous thing, but one who would expect
+payment for his generosity. Besides, had he not been named openly
+as her lover? She wrote to him, therefore, as follows:--"Lady Ongar
+presents her compliments to Count Pateroff, and finds it to be out
+of her power to see him at present." This answer the visitor took
+and walked away from the front door without showing any disgust
+to the servant, either by his demeanour or in his countenance. On
+that evening she received from him a long letter, written at the
+neighbouring inn, expostulating with her as to her conduct towards
+him, and saying in the last line, that it was "impossible now that
+they should be strangers to each other." "Impossible that we should
+be strangers," she said almost out loud. "Why impossible? I know no
+such impossibility." After that she carefully burned both the letter
+and the note.
+
+She remained at Ongar Park something over six weeks, and then, about
+the beginning of May, she went back to London. No one had been to see
+her, except Mr. Sturm, the clergyman of the parish; and he, though
+something almost approaching to an intimacy had sprung up between
+them, had never yet spoken to her of his wife. She was not quite
+sure whether her rank might not deter him,--whether under such
+circumstances as those now in question, the ordinary social rules
+were not ordinarily broken,--whether a countess should not call on a
+clergyman's wife first, although the countess might be the stranger;
+but she did not dare to do as she would have done, had no blight
+attached itself to her name. She gave, therefore, no hint; she said
+no word of Mrs. Sturm, though her heart was longing for a kind word
+from some woman's mouth. But she allowed herself to feel no anger
+against the husband, and went through her parish work, thanking him
+for his assistance.
+
+Of Mr. Giles she had seen very little, and since her misfortune with
+Enoch Gubby, she had made no further attempt to interfere with the
+wages of the persons employed. Into the houses of some of the poor
+she had made her way, but she fancied that they were not glad to
+see her. They might, perhaps, have all heard of her reputation,
+and Gubby's daughter may have congratulated herself that there was
+another in the parish as bad as herself, or perhaps, happily, worse.
+The owner of all the wealth around strove to make Mrs. Button become
+a messenger of charity between herself and some of the poor; but Mrs.
+Button altogether declined the employment, although, as her mistress
+had ascertained, she herself performed her own little missions of
+charity with zeal. Before the fortnight was over, Lady Ongar was sick
+of her house and her park, utterly disregardful of her horses and
+oxen, and unmindful even of the pleasant stream which in these spring
+days rippled softly at the bottom of her gardens.
+
+She had undertaken to be back in London early in May, by appointment
+with her lawyer, and had unfortunately communicated the fact to
+Madame Gordeloup. Four or five days before she was due in Bolton
+Street, her mindful Sophie, with unerring memory, wrote to her,
+declaring her readiness to do all and anything that the most diligent
+friendship could prompt. Should she meet her dear Julie at the
+station in London? Should she bring any special carriage? Should
+she order any special dinner in Bolton Street? She herself would of
+course come to Bolton Street, if not allowed to be present at the
+station. It was still chilly in the evenings, and she would have
+fires lit. Might she suggest a roast fowl and some bread sauce, and
+perhaps a sweetbread,--and just one glass of champagne? And might she
+share the banquet? There was not a word in the note about the too
+obtrusive brother, either as to the offence committed by him, or the
+offence felt by him.
+
+The little Franco-Polish woman was there in Bolton Street, of
+course,--for Lady Ongar had not dared to refuse her. A little, dry,
+bright woman she was, with quick eyes, and thin lips, and small nose,
+and mean forehead, and scanty hair drawn back quite tightly from her
+face and head; very dry, but still almost pretty with her quickness
+and her brightness. She was fifty, was Sophie Gordeloup, but she had
+so managed her years that she was as active on her limbs as most
+women are at twenty-five. And the chicken, and the bread-sauce, and
+the sweetbread, and the champagne were there, all very good of their
+kind; for Sophie Gordeloup liked such things to be good, and knew how
+to indulge her own appetite, and to coax that of another person.
+
+Some little satisfaction Lady Ongar received from the fact that she
+was not alone; but the satisfaction was not satisfactory. When Sophie
+had left her at ten o'clock, running off by herself to her lodgings
+in Mount Street, Lady Ongar, after but one moment's thought, sat down
+and wrote a note to Harry Clavering.
+
+
+   DEAR HARRY,--I am back in town. Pray come and see me to-morrow
+   evening. Yours ever,
+
+   J. O.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+COUNT PATEROFF AND HIS SISTER.
+
+
+After an interval of some weeks, during which Harry had been down
+at Clavering and had returned again to his work at the Adelphi,
+Count Pateroff called again in Bloomsbury Square;--but Harry was
+at Mr. Beilby's office. Harry at once returned the count's visit
+at the address given in Mount Street. Madame was at home, said the
+servant-girl, from which Harry was led to suppose that the count was
+a married man; but Harry felt that he had no right to intrude upon
+madame, so he simply left his card. Wishing, however, really to
+have this interview, and having been lately elected at a club of
+which he was rather proud, he wrote to the count asking him to dine
+with him at the Beaufort. He explained that there was a strangers'
+room,--which Pateroff knew very well, having often dined at the
+Beaufort,--and said something as to a private little dinner for two,
+thereby apologizing for proposing to the count to dine without other
+guests. Pateroff accepted the invitation, and Harry, never having
+done such a thing before, ordered his dinner with much nervousness.
+
+The count was punctual, and the two men introduced themselves.
+Harry had expected to see a handsome foreigner, with black hair,
+polished whiskers, and probably a hook nose,--forty years of age or
+thereabouts, but so got up as to look not much more than thirty.
+But his guest was by no means a man of that stamp. Excepting that
+the count's age was altogether uncertain, no correctness of guess
+on that matter being possible by means of his appearance, Harry's
+preconceived notion was wrong in every point. He was a fair man, with
+a broad fair face, and very light blue eyes; his forehead was low,
+but broad; he wore no whiskers, but bore on his lip a heavy moustache
+which was not grey, but perfectly white--white it was with years of
+course, but yet it gave no sign of age to his face. He was well made,
+active, and somewhat broad in the shoulders, though rather below the
+middle height. But for a certain ease of manner which he possessed,
+accompanied by something of restlessness in his eye, any one would
+have taken him for an Englishman. And his speech hardly betrayed that
+he was not English. Harry, knowing that he was a foreigner, noticed
+now and again some little acquired distinctness of speech which is
+hardly natural to a native; but otherwise there was nothing in his
+tongue to betray him.
+
+"I am sorry that you should have had so much trouble," he said,
+shaking hands with Harry. Clavering declared that he had incurred no
+trouble, and declared also that he would be only too happy to have
+taken any trouble in obeying a behest from his friend Lady Ongar. Had
+he been a Pole as was the count, he would not have forgotten to add
+that he would have been equally willing to exert himself with the
+view of making the count's acquaintance; but being simply a young
+Englishman, he was much too awkward for any such courtesy as that.
+The count observed the omission, smiled, and bowed. Then he spoke of
+the weather, and said that London was a magnificent city. Oh, yes,
+he knew London well,--had known it these twenty years;--had been
+for fifteen years a member of the Travellers';--he liked everything
+English, except hunting. English hunting he had found to be dull
+work. But he liked shooting for an hour or two. He could not rival,
+he said, the intense energy of an Englishman, who would work all day
+with his guns harder than ploughmen with their ploughs. Englishmen
+sported, he said, as though more than their bread,--as though their
+honour, their wives, their souls, depended on it. It was very fine!
+He often wished that he was an Englishman. Then he shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+Harry was very anxious to commence a conversation about Lady Ongar,
+but he did not know how at first to introduce her name. Count
+Pateroff had come to him at Lady Ongar's request, and therefore, as
+he thought, the count should have been the first to mention her. But
+the count seemed to be enjoying his dinner without any thought either
+of Lady Ongar or of her late husband. At this time he had been down
+to Ongar Park, on that mission which had been, as we know, futile;
+but he said no word of that to Harry. He seemed to enjoy his dinner
+thoroughly, and made himself very agreeable. When the wine was
+discussed he told Harry that a certain vintage of Moselle was very
+famous at the Beaufort. Harry ordered the wine of course, and was
+delighted to give his guest the best of everything; but he was a
+little annoyed at finding that the stranger knew his club better than
+he knew it himself. Slowly the count ate his dinner, enjoying every
+morsel that he took with that thoughtful, conscious pleasure which
+young men never attain in eating and drinking, and which men as they
+grow older so often forget to acquire. But the count never forgot any
+of his own capacities for pleasure, and in all things made the most
+of his own resources. To be rich is not to have one or ten thousand a
+year, but to be able to get out of that one or ten thousand all that
+every pound, and every shilling, and every penny will give you. After
+this fashion the count was a rich man.
+
+"You don't sit after dinner here, I suppose," said the count, when
+he had completed an elaborate washing of his mouth and moustache. "I
+like this club because we who are strangers have so charming a room
+for our smoking. It is the best club in London for men who do not
+belong to it."
+
+It occurred to Harry that in the smoking-room there could be no
+privacy. Three or four men had already spoken to the count, showing
+that he was well known, giving notice, as it were, that Pateroff
+would become a public man when once he was placed in a public circle.
+To have given a dinner to the count, and to have spoken no word
+to him about Lady Ongar, would be by no means satisfactory to
+Harry's feelings, though, as it appeared, it might be sufficiently
+satisfactory to the guest. Harry therefore suggested one bottle of
+claret. The count agreed, expressing an opinion that the 51 Lafitte
+was unexceptional. The 51 Lafitte was ordered, and Harry, as he
+filled his glass, considered the way in which his subject should be
+introduced.
+
+"You knew Lord Ongar, I think, abroad?"
+
+"Lord Ongar,--abroad! Oh, yes, very well; and for many years here in
+London; and at Vienna; and very early in life at St. Petersburg. I
+knew Lord Ongar first in Russia when he was attached to the embassy
+as Frederic Courton. His father, Lord Courton, was then alive, as was
+also his grandfather. He was a nice, good-looking lad then."
+
+"As regards his being nice, he seems to have changed a good deal
+before he died." This the count noticed by simply shrugging his
+shoulders and smiling as he sipped his wine. "By all that I can hear
+he became a horrid brute when he married," said Harry, energetically.
+
+"He was not pleasant when he was ill at Florence," said the count.
+
+"She must have had a terrible time with him," said Harry.
+
+The count put up his hands, again shrugged his shoulders, and then
+shook his head. "She knew he was no longer an Adonis when he married
+her."
+
+"An Adonis! No; she did not expect an Adonis; but she thought he
+would have something of the honour and feelings of a man."
+
+"She found it uncomfortable, no doubt. He did too much of this, you
+know," said the count, raising his glass to his lips; "and he didn't
+do it with 51 Lafitte. That was Ongar's fault. All the world knew it
+for the last ten years. No one knew it better than Hugh Clavering."
+
+"But--" said Harry, and then he stopped. He hardly knew what it was
+that he wished to learn from the man, though he certainly did wish
+to learn something. He had thought that the count would himself have
+talked about Lady Ongar and those Florentine days, but this he did
+not seem disposed to do. "Shall we have our cigars now?" said Count
+Pateroff.
+
+"One moment, if you don't mind."
+
+"Certainly, certainly. There is no hurry."
+
+"You will take no more wine?"
+
+"No more wine. I take my wine at dinner, as you saw."
+
+"I want to ask you one special question,--about Lady Ongar."
+
+"I will say anything in her favour that you please. I am always ready
+to say anything in the favour of any lady, and, if needs be, to swear
+it. But anything against any lady nobody ever heard me say."
+
+Harry was sharp enough to perceive that any assertion made under
+such a stipulation was worse than nothing. It was as when a man, in
+denying the truth of a statement, does so with an assurance that on
+that subject he should consider himself justified in telling any
+number of lies. "I did not write the book,--but you have no right to
+ask the question; and I should say that I had not, even if I had."
+Pateroff was speaking of Lady Ongar in this way, and Harry hated him
+for doing so.
+
+"I don't want you to say any good of her," said he, "or any evil."
+
+"I certainly shall say no evil of her."
+
+"But I think you know that she has been most cruelly treated."
+
+"Well, there is about seven--thousand--pounds a year, I think!
+Seven--thousand--a year! Not francs, but pounds! We poor foreigners
+lose ourselves in amazement when we hear about your English fortunes.
+Seven thousand pounds a year for a lady all alone, and a beau-tiful
+house! A house so beautiful, they tell me!"
+
+"What has that to do with it?" said Harry; whereupon the count again
+shrugged his shoulders. "What has that to do with it? Because the man
+was rich he was not justified in ill-treating his wife. Did he not
+bring false accusations against her, in order that he might rob her
+after his death of all that of which you think so much? Did he not
+bear false witness against her, to his own dishonour?"
+
+
+[Illustration: "Did he not bear false witness against her?"]
+
+
+"She has got the money, I think,--and the beautiful house."
+
+"But her name has been covered with lies."
+
+"What can I do? Why do you ask me? I know nothing. Look here, Mr.
+Clavering, if you want to make any inquiry you had better go to my
+sister. I don't see what good it will do, but she will talk to you by
+the hour together, if you wish it. Let us smoke."
+
+"Your sister?"
+
+"Yes, my sister. Madame Gordeloup is her name. Has not Lady Ongar
+mentioned my sister? They are inseparables. My sister lives in Mount
+Street."
+
+"With you?"
+
+"No, not with me; I do not live in Mount Street. I have my address
+sometimes at her house."
+
+"Madame Gordeloup?"
+
+"Yes, Madame Gordeloup. She is Lady Ongar's friend. She will talk to
+you."
+
+"Will you introduce me, Count Pateroff?"
+
+"Oh, no; it is not necessary. You can go to Mount Street, and she
+will be delighted. There is the card. And now we will smoke." Harry
+felt that he could not, with good-breeding, detain the count any
+longer, and, therefore, rising from his chair, led the way into the
+smoking-room. When there, the man of the world separated himself from
+his young friend, of whose enthusiasm he had perhaps had enough, and
+was soon engaged in conversation with sundry other men of his own
+standing. Harry soon perceived that his guest had no further need
+of his countenance, and went home to Bloomsbury Square by no means
+satisfied with his new acquaintance.
+
+On the next day he dined in Onslow Crescent with the Burtons, and
+when there he said nothing about Lady Ongar or Count Pateroff. He
+was not aware that he had any special reason for being silent on the
+subject, but he made up his mind that the Burtons were people so far
+removed in their sphere of life from Lady Ongar, that the subject
+would not be suitable in Onslow Crescent. It was his lot in life to
+be concerned with people of the two classes. He did not at all mean
+to say,--even to himself,--that he liked the Ongar class the better;
+but still, as such was his lot, he must take it as it came, and
+entertain both subjects of interest, without any commingling of them
+one with another. Of Lady Ongar and his early love he had spoken to
+Florence at some length, but he did not find it necessary in his
+letters to tell her anything of Count Pateroff and his dinner at the
+Beaufort. Nor did he mention the dinner to his dear friend Cecilia.
+On this occasion he made himself very happy in Onslow Crescent,
+playing with the children, chatting with his friend, and enduring,
+with a good grace, Theodore Burton's sarcasm, when that ever-studious
+gentleman told him that he was only fit to go about tied to a woman's
+apron-string.
+
+On the following day, about five o'clock, he called in Mount Street.
+He had doubted much as to this, thinking that at any rate he ought,
+in the first place, to write and ask permission. But at last he
+resolved that he would take the count at his word, and presenting
+himself at the door, he sent up his name. Madame Gordeloup was at
+home, and in a few moments he found himself in the room in which the
+lady was sitting, and recognized her whom he had seen with Lady Ongar
+in Bolton Street. She got up at once, having glanced at the name upon
+the card, and seemed to know all about him. She shook hands with him
+cordially, almost squeezing his hand, and bade him sit down near
+her on the sofa. "She was so glad to see him, for her dear Julie's
+sake. Julie, as of course he knew, was at 'Ongere' Park. Oh! so
+happy,"--which, by the by, he did not know,--"and would be up in the
+course of next week. So many things to do, of course, Mr. Clavering.
+The house, and the servants, and the park, and the beautiful things
+of a large country establishment! But it was delightful, and Julie
+was quite happy!"
+
+No people could be more unlike to each other than this brother and
+his sister. No human being could have taken Madame Gordeloup for an
+Englishwoman, though it might be difficult to judge, either from her
+language or her appearance, of the nationality to which she belonged.
+She spoke English with great fluency, but every word uttered declared
+her not to be English. And when she was most fluent she was most
+incorrect in her language. She was small, eager, and quick, and
+appeared quite as anxious to talk as her brother had been to hold
+his tongue. She lived in a small room on the first floor of a small
+house; and it seemed to Harry that she lived alone. But he had
+not been long there before she had told him all her history, and
+explained to him most of her circumstances. That she kept back
+something is probable; but how many are there who can afford to tell
+everything?
+
+Her husband was still living, but he was at St. Petersburg. He was
+a Frenchman by family, but had been born in Russia. He had been
+attached to the Russian embassy in London, but was now attached to
+diplomacy in general in Russia. She did not join him because she
+loved England,--oh, so much! And, perhaps, her husband might come
+back again some day. She did not say that she had not seen him for
+ten years, and was not quite sure whether he was dead or alive; but
+had she made a clean breast in all things, she might have done so.
+She said that she was a good deal still at the Russian embassy; but
+she did not say that she herself was a paid spy. Nor do I say so now,
+positively; but that was the character given to her by many who knew
+her. She called her brother Edouard, as though Harry had known the
+count all his life; and always spoke of Lady Ongar as Julie. She
+uttered one or two little hints which seemed to imply that she knew
+everything that had passed between "Julie" and Harry Clavering in
+early days; and never mentioned Lord Ongar without some term of
+violent abuse.
+
+"Horrid wretch!" she said, pausing over all the _r's_ in the name she
+had called him. "It began, you know, from the very first. Of course
+he had been a fool. An old roué is always a fool to marry. What does
+he get, you know, for his money? A pretty face. He's tired of that
+as soon as it's his own. Is it not so, Mr. Clavering? But other
+people ain't tired of it, and then he becomes jealous. But Lord Ongar
+was not jealous. He was not man enough to be jealous. Hor-r-rid
+wr-retch!" She then went on telling many things which, as he
+listened, almost made Harry Clavering's hair stand on end, and which
+must not be repeated here. She herself had met her brother in Paris,
+and had been with him when they encountered the Ongars in that
+capital. According to her showing, they had, all of them, been
+together nearly from that time to the day of Lord Ongar's death. But
+Harry soon learned to feel that he could not believe all that the
+little lady told him.
+
+"Edouard was always with him. Poor Edouard!" she said. "There was
+some money matter between them about écarté. When that wr-retch got
+to be so bad, he did not like parting with his money,--not even when
+he had lost it! And Julie had been so good always! Julie and Edouard
+had done everything for the nasty wr-retch." Harry did not at all
+like this mingling of the name of Julie and Edouard, though it did
+not for a moment fill his mind with any suspicion as to Lady Ongar.
+It made him feel, however, that this woman was dangerous, and that
+her tongue might be very mischievous if she talked to others as she
+did to him. As he looked at her,--and being now in her own room she
+was not dressed with scrupulous care,--and as he listened to her, he
+could not conceive what Lady Ongar had seen in her that she should
+have made a friend of her. Her brother, the count, was undoubtedly
+a gentleman in his manners and way of life, but he did not know by
+what name to call this woman, who called Lady Ongar Julie. She was
+altogether unlike any ladies whom he had known.
+
+"You know that Julie will be in town next week?"
+
+"No; I did not know when she was to return."
+
+"Oh, yes; she has business with those people in South Audley Street
+on Thursday. Poor dear! Those lawyers are so harassing! But when
+people have seven--thousand--pounds a year, they must put up with
+lawyers." As she pronounced those talismanic words, which to her were
+almost celestial, Harry perceived for the first time that there was
+some sort of resemblance between her and the count. He could see that
+they were brother and sister. "I shall go to her directly she comes,
+and of course I will tell her how good you have been to come to
+me. And Edouard has been dining with you? How good of you. He told
+me how charming you are,"--Harry was quite sure then that she was
+fibbing,--"and that it was so pleasant! Edouard is very much attached
+to Julie; very much. Though, of course, all that was mere nonsense;
+just lies told by that wicked lord. Bah! what did he know?" Harry by
+this time was beginning to wish that he had never found his way to
+Mount Street.
+
+"Of course they were lies," he said roughly.
+
+"Of course, mon cher. Those things always are lies, and so wicked!
+What good do they do?"
+
+"Lies never do any good," said Harry.
+
+To so wide a proposition as this madame was not prepared to give an
+unconditional assent; she therefore shrugged her shoulders and once
+again looked like her brother.
+
+"Ah!" she said. "Julie is a happy woman now. Seven--thousand--pounds
+a year! One does not know how to believe it; does one?"
+
+"I never heard the amount of her income," said Harry.
+
+"It is all that," said the Franco-Pole, energetically, "every franc
+of it, besides the house! I know it. She told me herself. Yes. What
+woman would risk that, you know; and his life, you may say, as good
+as gone? Of course they were lies."
+
+"I don't think you understand her, Madame Gordeloup."
+
+"Oh, yes; I know her, so well. And love her--oh, Mr. Clavering, I
+love her so dearly! Is she not charming? So beautiful you know, and
+grand. Such a will, too! That is what I like in a woman. Such a
+courage! She never flinched in those horrid days, never. And when he
+called her,--you know what,--she only looked at him, just looked at
+him, miserable object. Oh, it was beautiful!" And Madame Gordeloup,
+rising in her energy from her seat for the purpose, strove to throw
+upon Harry such another glance as the injured, insulted wife had
+thrown upon her foul-tongued, dying lord.
+
+"She will marry," said Madame Gordeloup, changing her tone with a
+suddenness that made Harry start; "yes, she will marry of course.
+Your English widows always marry if they have money. They are wrong,
+and she will be wrong; but she will marry."
+
+"I do not know how that may be," said Harry, looking foolish.
+
+"I tell you I know she will marry, Mr. Clavering; I told Edouard so
+yesterday. He merely smiled. It would hardly do for him, she has so
+much will. Edouard has a will also."
+
+"All men have, I suppose."
+
+"Ah, yes; but there is a difference. A sum of money down, if a man is
+to marry, is better than a widow's dower. If she dies, you know, he
+looks so foolish. And she is grand and will want to spend everything.
+Is she much older than you, Mr. Clavering? Of course I know Julie's
+age, though perhaps you do not. What will you give me to tell?" And
+the woman leered at him with a smile which made Harry think that she
+was almost more than mortal. He found himself quite unable to cope
+with her in conversation, and soon after this got up to take his
+leave. "You will come again," she said. "Do. I like you so much. And
+when Julie is in town, we shall be able to see her together, and I
+will be your friend. Believe me."
+
+Harry was very far from believing her, and did not in the least
+require her friendship. Her friendship indeed! How could any decent
+English man or woman wish for the friendship of such a creature as
+that? It was thus that he thought of her as he walked away from Mount
+Street, making heavy accusations, within his own breast, against Lady
+Ongar as he did so. Julia! He repeated the name over to himself a
+dozen times, thinking that the flavour of it was lost since it had
+been contaminated so often by that vile tongue. But what concern was
+it of his? Let her be Julia to whom she would, she could never be
+Julia again to him. But she was his friend--Lady Ongar, and he told
+himself plainly that his friend had been wrong in having permitted
+herself to hold any intimacy with such a woman as that. No doubt Lady
+Ongar had been subjected to very trying troubles in the last months
+of her husband's life, but no circumstances could justify her, if she
+continued to endorse the false cordiality of that horribly vulgar
+and evil-minded little woman. As regarded the grave charges brought
+against Lady Ongar, Harry still gave no credit to them, still looked
+upon them as calumnies, in spite of the damning advocacy of Sophie
+and her brother; but he felt that she must have dabbled in very
+dirty water to have returned to England with such claimants on her
+friendship as these. He had not much admired the count, but the
+count's sister had been odious to him. "I will be your friend.
+Believe me." Harry Clavering stamped upon the pavement as he
+thought of the little Pole's offer to him. She be his friend! No,
+indeed;--not if there were no other friend for him in all London.
+
+Sophie, too, had her thoughts about him. Sophie was very anxious
+in this matter, and was resolved to stick as close to her Julie as
+possible. "I will be his friend or his enemy;--let him choose." That
+had been Sophie's reflection on the matter when she was left alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+AN EVENING IN BOLTON STREET.
+
+
+Ten days after his visit in Mount Street, Harry received the note
+which Lady Ongar had written to him on the night of her arrival in
+London. It was brought to Mr. Beilby's office by her own footman
+early in the morning; but Harry was there at the time, and was thus
+able to answer it, telling Lady Ongar that he would come as she had
+desired. She had commenced her letter "Dear Harry," and he well
+remembered that when she had before written she had called him "Dear
+Mr. Clavering." And though the note contained only half-a-dozen
+ordinary words, it seemed to him to be affectionate, and almost
+loving. Had she not been eager to see him, she would hardly thus have
+written to him on the very instant of her return. "Dear Lady Ongar,"
+he wrote, "I shall dine at my club, and be with you about eight.
+Yours always, H. C." After that he could hardly bring himself to work
+satisfactorily during the whole day. Since his interview with the
+Franco-Polish lady he had thought a good deal about himself, and had
+resolved to work harder and to love Florence Burton more devotedly
+than ever. The nasty little woman had said certain words to him
+which had caused him to look into his own breast and to tell himself
+that this was necessary. As the love was easier than the work, he
+began his new tasks on the following morning by writing a long and
+very affectionate letter to his own Flo, who was still staying
+at Clavering rectory;--a letter so long and so affectionate that
+Florence, in her ecstasy of delight, made Fanny read it, and confess
+that, as a love-letter, it was perfect.
+
+"It's great nonsense, all the same," said Fanny.
+
+"It isn't nonsense at all," said Florence; "and if it were, it would
+not signify. Is it true? That's the question."
+
+"I'm sure it's true," said Fanny.
+
+"And so am I," said Florence. "I don't want any one to tell me that."
+
+"Then why did you ask, you simpleton?" Florence indeed was having
+a happy time of it at Clavering rectory. When Fanny called her a
+simpleton, she threw her arms round Fanny's neck and kissed her.
+
+And Harry kept his resolve about the work too, investigating plans
+with a resolution to understand them which was almost successful.
+During those days he would remain at his office till past four
+o'clock, and would then walk away with Theodore Burton, dining
+sometimes in Onslow Crescent, and going there sometimes in the
+evening after dinner. And when there he would sit and read; and
+once when Cecilia essayed to talk to him, he told her to keep her
+apron-strings to herself. Then Theodore laughed and apologized,
+and Cecilia said that too much work made Jack a dull boy; and then
+Theodore laughed again, stretching out his legs and arms as he
+rested a moment from his own study, and declared that, under those
+circumstances, Harry never would be dull. And Harry, on those
+evenings, would be taken upstairs to see the bairns in their cots;
+and as he stood with their mother looking down upon the children,
+pretty words would be said about Florence and his future life; and
+all was going merry as a marriage bell. But on that morning, when
+the note had come from Lady Ongar, Harry could work no more to his
+satisfaction. He scrawled upon his blotting-paper, and made no
+progress whatsoever towards the understanding of anything. It was
+the day on which, in due course, he would write to Florence; and he
+did write to her. But Florence did not show this letter to Fanny,
+claiming for it any meed of godlike perfection. It was a stupid,
+short letter, in which he declared that he was very busy, and that
+his head ached. In a postscript he told her that he was going to see
+Lady Ongar that evening. This he communicated to her under an idea
+that by doing so he made everything right. And I think that the
+telling of it did relieve his conscience.
+
+He left the office soon after three, having brought himself to
+believe in the headache, and sauntered down to his club. He found men
+playing whist there, and, as whist might be good for his head, he
+joined them. They won his money, and scolded him for playing badly
+till he was angry, and then he went out for a walk by himself. As he
+went along Piccadilly, he saw Sophie Gordeloup coming towards him,
+trotting along, with her dress held well up over her ankles, eager,
+quick, and, as he said to himself, clearly intent upon some mischief.
+He endeavoured to avoid her by turning up the Burlington Arcade, but
+she was too quick for him, and was walking up the arcade by his side
+before he had been able to make up his mind as to the best mode of
+ridding himself of such a companion.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Clavering, I am so glad to see you. I was with Julie last
+night. She was fagged, very much fagged; the journey, you know, and
+the business. But yet so handsome! And we talked of you. Yes, Mr.
+Clavering; and I told her how good you had been in coming to me. She
+said you were always good; yes, she did. When shall you see her?"
+
+Harry Clavering was a bad hand at fibbing, and a bad hand also at
+leaving a question unanswered. When questioned in this way he did not
+know what to do but to answer the truth. He would much rather not
+have said that he was going to Bolton Street that evening, but he
+could find no alternative. "I believe I shall see her this evening,"
+he said, simply venturing to mitigate the evil of making the
+communication by rendering it falsely doubtful. There are men who fib
+with so bad a grace and with so little tact that they might as well
+not fib at all. They not only never arrive at success, but never even
+venture to expect it.
+
+"Ah, this evening. Let me see. I don't think I can be there to-night;
+Madame Berenstoff receives at the embassy."
+
+"Good afternoon," said Harry, turning into Truefit's, the
+hairdresser's, shop.
+
+"Ah, very well," said Sophie to herself; "just so. It will be better,
+much better. He is simply one lout, and why should he have it all? My
+God, what fools, what louts, are these Englishmen!" Now having read
+Sophie's thoughts so far, we will leave her to walk up the remainder
+of the arcade by herself.
+
+I do not know that Harry's visit to Truefit's establishment had been
+in any degree caused by his engagement for the evening. I fancy that
+he had simply taken to ground at the first hole, as does a hunted
+fox. But now that he was there he had his head put in order, and
+thought that he looked the better for the operation. He then went
+back to his club, and when he sauntered into the card-room one old
+gentleman looked askance at him, as though inquiring angrily whether
+he had come there to make fresh misery. "Thank you; no,--I won't play
+again," said Harry. Then the old gentleman was appeased, and offered
+him a pinch of snuff. "Have you seen the new book about whist?" said
+the old gentleman. "It is very useful,--very useful. I'll send you a
+copy if you will allow me." Then Harry left the room, and went down
+to dinner.
+
+It was a little past eight when he knocked at Lady Ongar's door.
+I fear he had calculated that if he were punctual to the moment,
+she would think that he thought the matter to be important. It was
+important to him, and he was willing that she should know that it was
+so. But there are degrees in everything, and therefore he was twenty
+minutes late. He was not the first man who has weighed the diplomatic
+advantage of being after his time. But all those ideas went from him
+at once when she met him almost at the door of the room, and, taking
+him by the hand, said that she was "so glad to see him,--so very
+glad. Fancy, Harry, I haven't seen an old friend since I saw you
+last. You don't know how hard all that seems."
+
+"It is hard," said he; and when he felt the pressure of her hand, and
+saw the brightness of her eye, and when her dress rustled against
+him as he followed her to her seat, and he became sensible of the
+influence of her presence, all his diplomacy vanished, and he was
+simply desirous of devoting himself to her service. Of course,
+any such devotion was to be given without detriment to that other
+devotion which he owed to Florence Burton. But this stipulation,
+though it was made, was made quickly, and with a confused brain.
+
+"Yes,--it is hard," she said. "Harry, sometimes I think I shall go
+mad. It is more than I can bear. I could bear it if it hadn't been my
+own fault,--all my own fault."
+
+There was a suddenness about this which took him quite by surprise.
+No doubt it had been her own fault. He also had told himself that;
+though, of course, he would make no such charge to her. "You have not
+recovered yet," he said, "from what you have suffered lately. Things
+will look brighter to you after a while."
+
+"Will they? Ah,--I do not know. But come, Harry; come and sit down,
+and let me get you some tea. There is no harm, I suppose, in having
+you here,--is there?"
+
+"Harm, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Yes,--harm, Lady Ongar." As she repeated her own name after him,
+nearly in his tone, she smiled once again; and then she looked as she
+used to look in the old days, when she would be merry with him. "It
+is hard to know what a woman may do, and what she may not. When my
+husband was ill and dying, I never left his bedside. From the moment
+of my marrying him till his death, I hardly spoke to a man but in his
+presence; and when once I did, it was he that had sent him. And for
+all that people have turned their backs upon me. You and I were old
+friends, Harry, and something more once,--were we not? But I jilted
+you, as you were man enough to tell me. How I did respect you when
+you dared to speak the truth to me. Men don't know women, or they
+would be harder to them."
+
+"I did not mean to be hard to you."
+
+"If you had taken me by the shoulders and shaken me, and have
+declared that before God you would not allow such wickedness, I
+should have obeyed you. I know I should." Harry thought of Florence,
+and could not bring himself to say that he wished it had been so.
+"But where would you have been then, Harry? I was wrong and false and
+a beast to marry that man; but I should not, therefore, have been
+right to marry you and ruin you. It would have been ruin, you know,
+and we should simply have been fools."
+
+"The folly was very pleasant," said he.
+
+"Yes, yes; I will not deny that. But then the wisdom and the prudence
+afterwards! Oh, Harry, that was not pleasant. That was not pleasant!
+But what was I saying? Oh! about the propriety of your being here. It
+is so hard to know what is proper. As I have been married, I suppose
+I may receive whom I please. Is not that the law?"
+
+"You may receive me, I should think. Your sister is my cousin's
+wife." Harry's matter-of-fact argument did as well as anything else,
+for it turned her thought at the moment.
+
+"My sister, Harry! If there was nothing to make us friends but our
+connection through Sir Hugh Clavering, I do not know that I should be
+particularly anxious to see you. How unmanly he has been, and how
+cruel."
+
+"Very cruel," said Harry. Then he thought of Archie and Archie's
+suit. "But he is willing to change all that now. Hermione asked me
+the other day to persuade you to go to Clavering."
+
+"And have you come here to use your eloquence for that purpose? I
+will never go to Clavering again, Harry, unless it should be yours
+and your wife should offer to receive me. Then I'd pack up for the
+dear, dull, solemn old place though I was on the other side of
+Europe."
+
+"It will never be mine."
+
+"Probably not, and probably, therefore, I shall never be there again.
+No; I can forgive an injury, but not an insult,--not an insult such
+as that. I will not go to Clavering; so, Harry, you may save your
+eloquence. Hermione I shall be glad to see whenever she will come
+to me. If you can persuade her to that, you will persuade her to a
+charity."
+
+"She goes nowhere, I think, without his--his--"
+
+"Without his permission. Of course she does not. That, I suppose, is
+all as it should be. And he is such a tyrant that he will give no
+such permission. He would tell her, I suppose, that her sister was no
+fit companion for her."
+
+"He could not say that now, as he has asked you there."
+
+"Ah, I don't know that. He would say one thing first and another
+after, just as it would suit him. He has some object in wishing
+that I should go there, I suppose." Harry, who knew the object, and
+who was too faithful to betray Lady Clavering, even though he was
+altogether hostile to his cousin Archie's suit, felt a little proud
+of his position, but said nothing in answer to this. "But I shall
+not go; nor will I see him, or go to his house when he comes up to
+London. When do they come, Harry?"
+
+"He is in town now."
+
+"What a nice husband, is he not? And when does Hermione come?"
+
+"I do not know; she did not say. Little Hughy is ill, and that may
+keep her."
+
+"After all, Harry, I may have to pack up and go to Clavering even
+yet,--that is, if the mistress of the house will have me."
+
+"Never in the way you mean, Lady Ongar. Do not propose to kill all my
+relations in order that I might have their property. Archie intends
+to marry, and have a dozen children."
+
+"Archie marry! Who will have him? But such men as he are often in the
+way by marrying some cookmaid at last. Archie is Hugh's body-slave.
+Fancy being body-slave to Hugh Clavering! He has two, and poor Hermy
+is the other; only he prefers not to have Hermy near him, which is
+lucky for her. Here is some tea. Let us sit down and be comfortable,
+and talk no more about our horrid relations. I don't know what made
+me speak of them. I did not mean it."
+
+Harry sat down and took the cup from her hand, as she had bidden the
+servant to leave the tray upon the table.
+
+"So you saw Count Pateroff," she said.
+
+"Yes, and his sister."
+
+"So she told me. What do you think of them?" To this question Harry
+made no immediate answer. "You may speak out. Though I lived abroad
+with such as them for twelve months, I have not forgotten the sweet
+scent of our English hedgerows, nor the wholesomeness of English
+household manners. What do you think of them?"
+
+"They are not sweet or wholesome," said he.
+
+"Oh, Harry, you are so honest! Your honesty is beautiful. A spade
+will ever be a spade with you."
+
+He thought that she was laughing at him, and coloured.
+
+"You pressed me to speak," he said, "and I did but use your own
+words."
+
+"Yes, but you used them with such straightforward violence! Well, you
+shall use what words you please, and how you please, because a word
+of truth is so pleasant after living in a world of lies. I know you
+will not lie to me, Harry. You never did."
+
+He felt that now was the moment in which he should tell her of his
+engagement, but he let the moment pass without using it. And, indeed,
+it would have been hard for him to tell. In telling such a story he
+would have been cautioning her that it was useless for her to love
+him,--and this he could not bring himself to do. And he was not sure
+even now that she had not learned the fact from her sister. "I hope
+not," he said. In all that he was saying he knew that his words were
+tame and impotent in comparison with hers, which seemed to him to
+mean so much. But then his position was so unfortunate! Had it not
+been for Florence Burton he would have been long since at her feet;
+for, to give Harry Clavering his due, he could be quick enough at
+swearing to a passion. He was one of those men to whom love-making
+comes so readily that it is a pity that they should ever marry. He
+was ever making love to women, usually meaning no harm. He made
+love to Cecilia Burton over her children's beds, and that discreet
+matron liked it. But it was a love-making without danger. It simply
+signified on his part the pleasure he had in being on good terms with
+a pretty woman. He would have liked to have made love in the same
+way to Lady Ongar; but that was impossible, and in all love-making
+with Lady Ongar there must be danger. There was a pause after the
+expression of his last hopes, during which he finished his tea, and
+then looked at his boots.
+
+"You do not ask me what I have been doing at my country-house."
+
+"And what have you been doing there?"
+
+"Hating it."
+
+"That is wrong."
+
+"Everything is wrong that I do; everything must be wrong. That is the
+nature of the curse upon me."
+
+"You think too much of all that now."
+
+"Ah, Harry, that is so easily said. People do not think of such
+things if they can help themselves. The place is full of him and his
+memories; full of him, though I do not as yet know whether he ever
+put his foot in it. Do you know, I have a plan, a scheme, which
+would, I think, make me happy for one half-hour. It is to give
+everything back to the family. Everything! money, house, and name;
+to call myself Julia Brabazon, and let the world call me what it
+pleases. Then I would walk out into the streets, and beg some one
+to give me my bread. Is there one in all the wide world that would
+give me a crust? Is there one, except yourself, Harry--one, except
+yourself?"
+
+Poor Florence! I fear it fared badly with her cause at this moment.
+How was it possible that he should not regret, that he should not
+look back upon Stratton with something akin to sorrow? Julia had been
+his first love, and to her he could have been always true. I fear he
+thought of this now. I fear that it was a grief to him that he could
+not place himself close at her side, bid her do as she had planned,
+and then come to him, and share all his crusts. Had it been open to
+him to play that part, he would have played it well, and would have
+gloried in the thoughts of her poverty. The position would have
+suited him exactly. But Florence was in the way, and he could not do
+it. How was he to answer Lady Ongar? It was more difficult now than
+ever to tell her of Florence Burton.
+
+His eyes were full of tears, and she accepted that as his excuse for
+not answering her. "I suppose they would say that I was a romantic
+fool. When the price has been taken one cannot cleanse oneself of the
+stain. With Judas, you know, it was not sufficient that he gave back
+the money. Life was too heavy for him, and so he went out and hanged
+himself."
+
+"Julia," he said, getting up from his chair, and going over to where
+she sat on a sofa, "Julia, it is horrid to hear you speak of yourself
+in that way. I will not have it. You are not such a one as the
+Iscariot." And as he spoke to her, he found her hand in his.
+
+"I wish you had my burden, Harry, for one half day, so that you might
+know its weight."
+
+"I wish I could bear it for you--for life."
+
+"To be always alone, Harry; to have none that come to me and scold
+me, and love me, and sometimes make me smile! You will scold me at
+any rate; will you not? It is terrible to have no one near one that
+will speak to one with the old easiness of familiar affection. And
+then the pretence of it where it does not, cannot, could not, exist!
+Oh, that woman, Harry;--that woman who comes here and calls me Julie!
+And she has got me to promise too that I would call her Sophie! I
+know that you despise me because she comes here. Yes; I can see it.
+You said at once that she was not wholesome, with your dear outspoken
+honesty."
+
+"It was your word."
+
+"And she is not wholesome, whosever word it was. She was there,
+hanging about him when he was so bad, before the worst came. She read
+novels to him,--books that I never saw, and played écarté with him
+for what she called gloves. I believe in my heart she was spying me,
+and I let her come and go as she would, because I would not seem to
+be afraid of her. So it grew. And once or twice she was useful to
+me. A woman, Harry, wants to have a woman near her sometimes,--even
+though it be such an unwholesome creature as Sophie Gordeloup. You
+must not think too badly of me on her account."
+
+"I will not;--I will not think badly of you at all."
+
+"He is better, is he not? I know little of him or nothing, but he has
+a more reputable outside than she has. Indeed I liked him. He had
+known Lord Ongar well; and though he did not toady him nor was afraid
+of him, yet he was gentle and considerate. Once to me he said words
+that I was called on to resent;--but he never repeated them, and I
+know that he was prompted by him who should have protected me. It is
+too bad, Harry, is it not? Too bad almost to be believed by such as
+you."
+
+"It is very bad," said Harry.
+
+"After that he was always courteous; and when the end came and things
+were very terrible, he behaved well and kindly. He went in and out
+quietly, and like an old friend. He paid for everything, and was
+useful. I know that even this made people talk;--yes, Harry, even at
+such a moment as that! But in spite of the talking I did better with
+him then than I could have done without him."
+
+"He looks like a man who could be kind if he chooses."
+
+"He is one of those, Harry, who find it easy to be good-natured,
+and who are soft by nature, as cats are,--not from their heart, but
+through instinctive propensity to softness. When it suits them,
+they scratch, even though they have been ever so soft before. Count
+Pateroff is a cat. You, Harry, I think are a dog." She perhaps
+expected that he would promise to her that he would be her dog,--a
+dog in constancy and affection; but he was still mindful in part of
+Florence, and restrained himself.
+
+"I must tell you something further," she said. "And indeed it is this
+that I particularly want to tell you. I have not seen him, you know,
+since I parted with him at Florence."
+
+"I did not know," said Harry.
+
+"I thought I had told you. However, so it is. And now, listen:--He
+came down to Ongar Park the other day while I was there, and sent
+in his card. When I refused to receive him, he wrote to me pressing
+his visit. I still declined, and he wrote again. I burned his note,
+because I did not choose that anything from him should be in my
+possession. He told some story about papers of Lord Ongar. I have
+nothing to do with Lord Ongar's papers. Everything of which I knew
+was sealed up in the count's presence and in mine, and was sent to
+the lawyers for the executors. I looked at nothing; not at one word
+in a single letter. What could he have to say to me of Lord Ongar's
+papers?"
+
+"Or he might have written?"
+
+"At any rate he should not have come there, Harry. I would not see
+him, nor, if I can help it, will I see him here. I will be open with
+you, Harry. I think that perhaps it might suit him to make me his
+wife. Such an arrangement, however, would not suit me. I am not going
+to be frightened into marrying a man, because he has been falsely
+called my lover. If I cannot escape the calumny in any other way, I
+will not escape it in that way."
+
+"Has he said anything?"
+
+"No; not a word. I have not seen him since the day after Lord Ongar's
+funeral. But I have seen his sister."
+
+"And has she proposed such a thing?"
+
+"No, she has not proposed it. But she talks of it, saying that it
+would not do. Then, when I tell her that of course it would not do,
+she shows me all that would make it expedient. She is so sly and so
+false, that with all my eyes open I cannot quite understand her, or
+quite know what she is doing. I do not feel sure that she wishes it
+herself."
+
+"She told me that it would not do."
+
+"She did, did she? If she speaks of it again, tell her that she is
+right, that it will never do. Had he not come down to Ongar Park, I
+should not have mentioned this to you. I should not have thought that
+he had in truth any such scheme in his head. He did not tell you that
+he had been there?"
+
+"He did not mention it. Indeed, he said very little about you at
+all."
+
+"No, he would not. He is cautious. He never talks of anybody to
+anybody. He speaks only of the outward things of the world. Now,
+Harry, what you must do for me is this." As she was speaking to him
+she was leaning again upon the table, with her forehead resting upon
+her hands. Her small widow's cap had become thus thrust back, and was
+now nearly off her head, so that her rich brown hair was to be seen
+in its full luxuriance, rich and lovely as it had ever been. Could it
+be that she felt,--half thought, half felt, without knowing that she
+thought it,--that while the signs of her widowhood were about her,
+telling in their too plain language the tale of what she had been, he
+could not dare to speak to her of his love? She was indeed a widow,
+but not as are other widows. She had confessed, did hourly confess to
+herself, the guilt which she had committed in marrying that man; but
+the very fact of such confessions, of such acknowledgment, absolved
+her from the necessity of any show of sorrow. When she declared how
+she had despised and hated her late lord, she threw off mentally
+all her weeds. Mourning, the appearance even of mourning, became
+impossible to her, and the cap upon her head was declared openly to
+be a sacrifice to the world's requirements. It was now pushed back,
+but I fancy that nothing like a thought on the matter had made itself
+plain to her mind. "What you must do for me is this," she continued.
+"You must see Count Pateroff again, and tell him from me,--as my
+friend,--that I cannot consent to see him. Tell him that if he will
+think of it, he must know the reason why."
+
+"Of course he will know."
+
+"Tell him what I say, all the same; and tell him that as I have
+hitherto had cause to be grateful to him for his kindness, so also
+I hope he will not put an end to that feeling by anything now, that
+would not be kind. If there be papers of Lord Ongar's, he can take
+them either to my lawyers, if that be fit, or to those of the family.
+You can tell him that, can you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I can tell him."
+
+"And have you any objection?"
+
+"None for myself. The question is,--would it not come better from
+some one else?"
+
+"Because you are a young man, you mean? Whom else can I trust, Harry?
+To whom can I go? Would you have me ask Hugh to do this? Or, perhaps
+you think Archie Clavering would be a proper messenger. Who else have
+I got?"
+
+"Would not his sister be better?"
+
+"How should I know that she had told him? She would tell him her own
+story,--what she herself wished. And whatever story she told, he
+would not believe it. They know each other better than you and I know
+them. It must be you, Harry, if you will do it."
+
+"Of course I will do it. I will try and see him to-morrow. Where does
+he live?"
+
+"How should I know? Perhaps nobody knows; no one, perhaps, of all
+those with whom he associates constantly. They do not live after our
+fashion, do they, these foreigners? But you will find him at his
+club, or hear of him at the house in Mount Street. You will do it;
+eh, Harry?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"That is my good Harry. But I suppose you would do anything I asked
+you. Ah, well; it is good to have one friend, if one has no more.
+Look, Harry! if it is not near eleven o'clock! Did you know that you
+had been here nearly three hours? And I have given you nothing but a
+cup of tea!"
+
+"What else do you think I have wanted?"
+
+"At your club you would have had cigars and brandy-and-water, and
+billiards, and broiled bones, and oysters, and tankards of beer.
+I know all about it. You have been very patient with me. If you go
+quick perhaps you will not be too late for the tankards and the
+oysters."
+
+"I never have any tankards or any oysters."
+
+"Then it is cigars and brandy-and-water. Go quick, and perhaps you
+may not be too late."
+
+"I will go, but not there. One cannot change one's thoughts so
+suddenly."
+
+"Go, then; and do not change your thoughts. Go and think of me, and
+pity me. Pity me for what I have got, but pity me most for what I
+have lost." Harry did not say another word, but took her hand, and
+kissed it, and then left her.
+
+Pity her for what she had lost! What had she lost? What did she mean
+by that? He knew well what she meant by pitying her for what she had
+got. What had she lost? She had lost him. Did she intend to evoke his
+pity for that loss? She had lost him. Yes, indeed. Whether or no the
+loss was one to regret, he would not say to himself; or rather, he,
+of course, declared that it was not; but such as it was, it had been
+incurred. He was now the property of Florence Burton, and, whatever
+happened, he would be true to her.
+
+Perhaps he pitied himself also. If so, it is to be hoped that
+Florence may never know of such pity. Before he went to bed, when
+he was praying on his knees, he inserted it in his prayers that the
+God in whom he believed might make him true in his faith to Florence
+Burton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE RIVALS.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Lady Ongar sat alone, long into the night, when Harry Clavering had
+left her. She sat there long, getting up occasionally from her seat,
+once or twice attempting to write at her desk, looking now and then
+at a paper or two, and then at a small picture which she had, but
+passing the long hours in thinking,--in long, sad, solitary thoughts.
+What should she do with herself,--with herself, her title, and her
+money? Would it be still well that she should do something, that she
+should make some attempt; or should she, in truth, abandon all, as
+the arch-traitor did, and acknowledge that for her foot there could
+no longer be a resting-place on the earth? At six-and-twenty, with
+youth, beauty, and wealth at her command, must she despair? But her
+youth had been stained, her beauty had lost its freshness; and as
+for her wealth, had she not stolen it? Did not the weight of the
+theft sit so heavy on her, that her brightest thought was one which
+prompted her to abandon it?
+
+As to that idea of giving up her income and her house, and calling
+herself again Julia Brabazon, though there was something in the
+poetry of it which would now and again for half an hour relieve her,
+yet she hardly proposed such a course to herself as a reality. The
+world in which she had lived had taught her to laugh at romance,
+to laugh at it even while she liked its beauty; and she would tell
+herself that for such a one as her to do such a thing as this, would
+be to insure for herself the ridicule of all who knew her name. What
+would Sir Hugh say, and her sister? What Count Pateroff and the
+faithful Sophie? What all the Ongar tribe, who would reap the rich
+harvest of her insanity? These latter would offer to provide her a
+place in some convenient asylum, and the others would all agree that
+such would be her fitting destiny. She could bear the idea of walking
+forth, as she had said, penniless into the street, without a crust;
+but she could not bear the idea of being laughed at when she got
+there.
+
+To her, in her position, her only escape was by marriage. It was the
+solitude of her position which maddened her;--its solitude, or the
+necessity of breaking that solitude by the presence of those who were
+odious to her. Whether it were better to be alone, feeding on the
+bitterness of her own thoughts, or to be comforted by the fulsome
+flatteries and odious falsenesses of Sophie Gordeloup, she could
+not tell. She hated herself for her loneliness, but she hated
+herself almost worse for submitting herself to the society of
+Sophie Gordeloup. Why not give all that she possessed to Harry
+Clavering--herself, her income, her rich pastures and horses and
+oxen, and try whether the world would not be better to her when she
+had done so?
+
+She had learned to laugh at romance, but still she believed in
+love. While that bargain was going on as to her settlement, she had
+laughed at romance, and had told herself that in this world worldly
+prosperity was everything. Sir Hugh then had stood by her with truth,
+for he had well understood the matter, and could enter into it with
+zest. Lord Ongar, in his state of health, had not been in a position
+to make close stipulations as to the dower in the event of his
+proposed wife becoming a widow. "No, no; we won't stand that," Sir
+Hugh had said to the lawyers. "We all hope, of course, that Lord
+Ongar may live long; no doubt he'll turn over a new leaf, and die at
+ninety. But in such a case as this the widow must not be fettered."
+The widow had not been fettered, and Julia had been made to
+understand the full advantage of such an arrangement. But still she
+had believed in love when she had bade farewell to Harry in the
+garden. She had told herself then, even then, that she would have
+better liked to have taken him and his love,--if only she could have
+afforded it. He had not dreamed that on leaving him she had gone
+from him to her room, and taken out his picture,--the same that she
+had with her now in Bolton Street,--and had kissed it, bidding him
+farewell there with a passion which she could not display in his
+presence. And she had thought of his offer about the money over and
+over again. "Yes," she would say; "that man loved me. He would have
+given me all he had to relieve me, though nothing was to come to him
+in return." She had, at any rate, been loved once; and she almost
+wished that she had taken the money, that she might now have an
+opportunity of repaying it.
+
+And she was again free, and her old lover was again by her side. Had
+that fatal episode in her life been so fatal that she must now regard
+herself as tainted and unfit for him? There was no longer anything to
+separate them,--anything of which she was aware, unless it was that.
+And as for his love,--did he not look and speak as though he loved
+her still? Had he not pressed her hand passionately, and kissed it,
+and once more called her Julia? How should it be that he should not
+love her? In such a case as his, love might have been turned to
+hatred or to enmity; but it was not so with him. He called himself
+her friend. How could there be friendship between them without love?
+
+And then she thought how much with her wealth she might do for him.
+With all his early studies and his talent Harry Clavering was not
+the man, she thought, to make his way in the world by hard work; but
+with such an income as she could give him, he might shine among the
+proud ones of his nation. He should go into Parliament, and do great
+things. He should be lord of all. It should all be his without a word
+of reserve. She had been mercenary once, but she would atone for that
+now by open-handed, undoubting generosity. She herself had learned to
+hate the house and fields and widespread comforts of Ongar Park. She
+had walked among it all alone, and despised. But it would be a glory
+to her to see him go forth, with Giles at his heels, boldly giving
+his orders, changing this and improving that. He would be rebuked for
+no errors, let him do with Enoch Gubby and the rest of them what he
+pleased! And then the parson's wife would be glad enough to come to
+her, and the house would be full of smiling faces. And it might be
+that God would be good to her, and that she would have treasures, as
+other women had them, and that the flavour would come back to the
+apples, and that the ashes would cease to grate between her teeth.
+
+She loved him, and why should it not be so? She could go before God's
+altar with him without disgracing herself with a lie. She could put
+her hand in his, and swear honestly that she would worship him and
+obey him. She had been dishonest;--but if he would pardon her for
+that, could she not reward him richly for such pardon? And it seemed
+to her that he had pardoned her. He had forgiven it all and was
+gracious to her,--coming at her beck and call, and sitting with her
+as though he liked her presence. She was woman enough to understand
+this, and she knew that he liked it. Of course he loved her. How
+could it be otherwise?
+
+But yet he spoke nothing to her of his love. In the old days there
+had been with him no bashfulness of that kind. He was not a man to
+tremble and doubt before a woman. In those old days he had been ready
+enough,--so ready, that she had wondered that one who had just come
+from his books should know so well how to make himself master of a
+girl's heart. Nature had given him that art, as she does give it to
+some, withholding it from many. But now he sat near her, dropping
+once and again half words of love, hearing her references to the old
+times;--and yet he said nothing.
+
+But how was he to speak of love to one who was a widow but of four
+months' standing? And with what face could he now again ask for her
+hand, knowing that it had been filled so full since last it was
+refused to him? It was thus she argued to herself when she excused
+him in that he did not speak to her. As to her widowhood, to herself
+it was a thing of scorn. Thinking of it, she cast her weepers from
+her, and walked about the room, scorning the hypocrisy of her dress.
+It needed that she should submit herself to this hypocrisy before
+the world; but he might know,--for had she not told him?--that the
+clothes she wore were no index of her feeling or of her heart. She
+had been mean enough, base enough, vile enough, to sell herself
+to that wretched lord. Mean, base, and vile she had been, and she
+now confessed it; but she was not false enough to pretend that she
+mourned the man as a wife mourns. Harry might have seen enough to
+know, have understood enough to perceive, that he need not regard her
+widowhood.
+
+And as to her money! If that were the stumbling-block, might it not
+be well that the first overture should come from her? Could she not
+find words to tell him that it might all be his? Could she not say to
+him, "Harry Clavering, all this is nothing in my hands. Take it into
+your hands, and it will prosper." Then it was that she went to her
+desk, and attempted to write to him. She did write to him a completed
+note, offering herself and all that was hers for his acceptance. In
+doing so, she strove hard to be honest and yet not over bold; to be
+affectionate and yet not unfeminine. Long she sat, holding her head
+with one hand, while the other attempted to use the pen which would
+not move over the paper. At length, quickly it flew across the sheet,
+and a few lines were there for her to peruse.
+
+"Harry Clavering," she had written,
+
+
+   I know I am doing what men and women say no woman should
+   do. You may, perhaps, say so of me now; but if you do,
+   I know you so well, that I do not fear that others will
+   be able to repeat it. Harry, I have never loved any one
+   but you. Will you be my husband? You well know that I
+   should not make you this offer if I did not intend that
+   everything I have should be yours. It will be pleasant to
+   me to feel that I can make some reparation for the evil
+   I have done. As for love, I have never loved any one but
+   you. You yourself must know that well. Yours, altogether
+   if you will have it so,--JULIA.
+
+
+She took the letter with her, back across the room to her seat by the
+fire, and took with her at the same time the little portrait; and
+there she sat, looking at the one and reading the other. At last she
+slowly folded the note up into a thin wisp of paper, and, lighting
+the end of it, watched it till every shred of it was burnt to an ash.
+"If he wants me," she said, "he can come and take me,--as other men
+do." It was a fearful attempt, that which she had thought of making.
+How could she have looked him in the face again had his answer to her
+been a refusal?
+
+Another hour went by before she took herself to her bed, during
+which her cruelly-used maiden was waiting for her half asleep in
+the chamber above; and during that time she tried to bring herself
+to some steady resolve. She would remain in London for the coming
+months, so that he might come to her if he pleased. She would remain
+there, even though she were subject to the daily attacks of Sophie
+Gordeloup. She hardly knew why, but in part she was afraid of Sophie.
+She had done nothing of which Sophie knew the secret. She had no
+cause to tremble because Sophie might be offended. The woman had
+seen her in some of her saddest moments, and could indeed tell
+of indignities which would have killed some women. But these she
+had borne, and had not disgraced herself in the bearing of them.
+But still she was afraid of Sophie, and felt that she could not
+bring herself absolutely to dismiss her friend from her house.
+Nevertheless, she would remain;--because Harry Clavering was in
+London and could come to her there. To her house at Ongar Park she
+would never go again, unless she went as his wife. The place had
+become odious to her. Bad as was her solitude in London, with Sophie
+Gordeloup to break it,--and perhaps with Sophie's brother to attack
+her, it was not so bad as the silent desolation of Ongar Park. Never
+again would she go there, unless she went there, in triumph,--as
+Harry's wife. Having so far resolved she took herself at last to her
+room, and dismissed her drowsy Phoebe to her rest.
+
+And now the reader must be asked to travel down at once into the
+country, that he may see how Florence Burton passed the same evening
+at Clavering Rectory. It was Florence's last night there, and on
+the following morning she was to return to her father's house at
+Stratton. Florence had not as yet received her unsatisfactory letter
+from Harry. That was to arrive on the following morning. At present
+she was, as regarded her letters, under the influence of that one
+which had been satisfactory in so especial a degree. Not that the
+coming letter,--the one now on its route,--was of a nature to disturb
+her comfort permanently, or to make her in any degree unhappy. "Dear
+fellow; he must be careful, he is overworking himself." Even the
+unsatisfactory letter would produce nothing worse than this from her;
+but now, at the moment of which I am writing, she was in a paradise
+of happy thoughts.
+
+Her visit to Clavering had been in every respect successful. She had
+been liked by every one, and every one in return had been liked by
+her. Mrs. Clavering had treated her as though she were a daughter.
+The rector had made her pretty presents, had kissed her, and called
+her his child. With Fanny she had formed a friendship which was to
+endure for ever, let destiny separate them how it might. Dear Fanny!
+She had had a wonderful interview respecting Fanny on this very day,
+and was at this moment disquieting her mind because she could not
+tell her friend what had happened without a breach of confidence!
+She had learned a great deal at Clavering, though in most matters
+of learning she was a better instructed woman than they were whom
+she had met. In general knowledge and in intellect she was Fanny's
+superior, though Fanny Clavering was no fool; but Florence, when she
+came thither, had lacked something which living in such a house had
+given to her;--or, I should rather say, something had been given to
+her of which she would greatly feel the want, if it could be again
+taken from her. Her mother was as excellent a woman as had ever sent
+forth a family of daughters into the world, and I do not know that
+any one ever objected to her as being ignorant, or specially vulgar;
+but the house in Stratton was not like Clavering Rectory in the
+little ways of living, and this Florence Burton had been clever
+enough to understand. She knew that a sojourn under such a roof, with
+such a woman as Mrs. Clavering, must make her fitter to be Harry's
+wife; and, therefore, when they pressed her to come again in the
+autumn, she said that she thought she would. She could understand,
+too, that Harry was different in many things from the men who had
+married her sisters, and she rejoiced that it was so. Poor Florence!
+Had he been more like them it might have been safer for her.
+
+But we must return for a moment to the wonderful interview which
+has been mentioned. Florence, during her sojourn at Clavering, had
+become intimate with Mr. Saul, as well as with Fanny. She had given
+herself for the time heartily to the schools, and matters had so far
+progressed with her that Mr. Saul had on one occasion scolded her
+soundly. "It's a great sign that he thinks well of you," Fanny had
+said. "It was the only sign he ever gave me, before he spoke to
+me in that sad strain." On the afternoon of this, her last day at
+Clavering, she had gone over to Cumberly Green with Fanny, to say
+farewell to the children, and walked back by herself, as Fanny had
+not finished her work. When she was still about half a mile from the
+rectory, she met Mr. Saul, who was on his way out to the Green. "I
+knew I should meet you," he said, "so that I might say good-by."
+
+"Yes, indeed, Mr. Saul,--for I am going in truth, to-morrow."
+
+"I wish you were staying. I wish you were going to remain with us.
+Having you here is very pleasant, and you do more good here, perhaps,
+than you will elsewhere."
+
+"I will not allow that. You forget that I have a father and mother."
+
+"Yes; and you will have a husband soon."
+
+"No, not soon; some day, perhaps, if all goes well. But I mean to be
+back here often before that. I mean to be here in October, just for a
+little visit, if mamma can spare me."
+
+"Miss Burton," he said, speaking in a very serious tone--. All his
+tones were serious, but that which he now adopted was more solemn
+than usual. "I wish to consult you on a certain matter, if you can
+give me five minutes of your time."
+
+"To consult me, Mr. Saul?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Burton. I am hard pressed at present, and I know no one
+else of whom I can ask a certain question, if I cannot ask it of you.
+I think that you will answer me truly, if you answer me at all. I do
+not think you would flatter me, or tell me an untruth."
+
+"Flatter you! how could I flatter you?"
+
+"By telling me--; but I must ask you my question first. You and Fanny
+Clavering are dear friends now. You tell each other everything."
+
+"I do not know," said Florence, doubting as to what she might best
+say, but guessing something of that which was coming.
+
+"She will have told you, perhaps, that I asked her to be my wife.
+Did she ever tell you that?" Florence looked into his face for a
+few moments without answering him, not knowing how to answer such a
+question. "I know that she has told you," said he. "I can see that it
+is so."
+
+"She has told me," said Florence.
+
+"Why should she not? How could she be with you so many hours, and not
+tell you that of which she could hardly fail to have the remembrance
+often present with her. If I were gone from here, if I were not
+before her eyes daily, it might be otherwise; but seeing me as she
+does from day to day, of course she has spoken of me to her friend."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Saul; she has told me of it."
+
+"And now, will you tell me whether I may hope."
+
+"Mr. Saul!"
+
+"I want you to betray no secret, but I ask you for your advice. Can I
+hope that she will ever return my love?"
+
+"How am I to answer you?"
+
+"With the truth. Only with the truth."
+
+"I should say that she thinks that you have forgotten it."
+
+"Forgotten it! No, Miss Burton; she cannot think that. Do you believe
+that men or women can forget such things as that? Can you ever forget
+her brother? Do you think people ever forget when they have loved?
+No, I have not forgotten her. I have not forgotten that walk which
+we had down this lane together. There are things which men never
+forget." Then he paused for an answer.
+
+Florence was by nature steady and self-collected, and she at once
+felt that she was bound to be wary before she gave him any answer.
+She had half fancied once or twice that Fanny thought more of Mr.
+Saul than she allowed even herself to know. And Fanny, when she had
+spoken of the impossibility of such a marriage, had always based the
+impossibility on the fact that people should not marry without the
+means of living,--a reason which to Florence, with all her prudence,
+was not sufficient. Fanny might wait as she also intended to wait.
+Latterly, too, Fanny had declared more than once to Florence her
+conviction that Mr. Saul's passion had been a momentary insanity
+which had altogether passed away; and in these declarations Florence
+had half fancied that she discovered some tinge of regret. If it were
+so, what was she now to say to Mr. Saul?
+
+"You think then, Miss Burton," he continued, "that I have no chance
+of success? I ask the question because if I felt certain that this
+was so,--quite certain, I should be wrong to remain here. It has been
+my first and only parish, and I could not leave it without bitter
+sorrow. But if I were to remain here hopelessly, I should become
+unfit for my work. I am becoming so, and shall be better away."
+
+"But why ask me, Mr. Saul?"
+
+"Because I think that you can tell me."
+
+"But why not ask herself? Who can tell you so truly as she can do?"
+
+"You would not advise me to do that if you were sure that she would
+reject me?"
+
+"That is what I would advise."
+
+"I will take your advice, Miss Burton. Now, good-by, and may God
+bless you. You say you will be here in the autumn; but before the
+autumn I shall probably have left Clavering. If so our farewells
+will be for very long, but I shall always remember our pleasant
+intercourse here." Then he went on towards Cumberly Green; and
+Florence, as she walked into the vicarage grounds, was thinking that
+no girl had ever been loved by a more single-hearted, pure-minded
+gentleman than Mr. Saul.
+
+As she sat alone in her bed-room, five or six hours after this
+interview, she felt some regret that she should leave Clavering
+without a word to Fanny on the subject. Mr. Saul had exacted no
+promise of secrecy from her; he was not a man to exact such promises.
+But she felt not the less that she would be betraying confidence to
+speak, and it might even be that her speaking on the matter would do
+more harm than good. Her sympathies were doubtless with Mr. Saul, but
+she could not therefore say that she thought Fanny ought to accept
+his love. It would be best to say nothing of the matter, and to allow
+Mr. Saul to fight his own battle.
+
+Then she turned to her own matters, and there she found that
+everything was pleasant. How good the world had been to her to give
+her such a lover as Harry Clavering! She owned with all her heart the
+excellence of being in love, when a girl might be allowed to call
+such a man her own. She could not but make comparisons between him
+and Mr. Saul, though she knew that she was making them on points that
+were hardly worthy of her thoughts. Mr. Saul was plain, uncouth, with
+little that was bright about him except the brightness of his piety.
+Harry was like the morning star. He looked and walked and spoke as
+though he were something more godlike than common men. His very
+voice created joy, and the ring of his laughter was to Florence
+as the music of the heavens. What woman would not have loved Harry
+Clavering? Even Julia Brabazon,--a creature so base that she had sold
+herself to such a thing as Lord Ongar for money and a title, but
+so grand in her gait and ways, so Florence had been told, that she
+seemed to despise the earth on which she trod,--even she had loved
+him. Then as Florence thought of what Julia Brabazon might have had
+and of what she had lost, she wondered that there could be women born
+so sadly vicious.
+
+But that woman's vice had given her her success, her joy, her great
+triumph! It was surely not for her to deal hardly with the faults of
+Julia Brabazon,--for her who was enjoying all the blessings of which
+those faults had robbed the other! Julia Brabazon had been her very
+good friend.
+
+But why had this perfect lover come to her, to one so small, so
+trifling, so little in the world's account as she, and given to her
+all the treasure of his love? Oh, Harry,--dear Harry! what could
+she do for him that would be a return good enough for such great
+goodness? Then she took out his last letter, that satisfactory
+letter, that letter that had been declared to be perfect, and read it
+and read it again. No; she did not want Fanny or any one else to tell
+her that he was true. Honesty and truth were written on every line of
+his face, were to be heard in every tone of his voice, could be seen
+in every sentence that came from his hand. Dear Harry; dearest Harry!
+She knew well that he was true.
+
+Then she also sat down and wrote to him, on that her last night
+beneath his father's roof,--wrote to him when she had nearly prepared
+herself for her bed; and honestly, out of her full heart, thanked him
+for his love. There was no need that she should be coy with him now,
+for she was his own. "Dear Harry, when I think of all that you have
+done for me in loving me and choosing me for your wife, I know that
+I can never pay you all that I owe you."
+
+Such were the two rival claimants for the hand of Harry Clavering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"LET HER KNOW THAT YOU'RE THERE."
+
+
+A week had passed since the evening which Harry had spent in Bolton
+Street, and he had not again seen Lady Ongar. He had professed to
+himself that his reason for not going there was the non-performance
+of the commission which Lady Ongar had given him with reference
+to Count Pateroff. He had not yet succeeded in catching the count,
+though he had twice asked for him in Mount Street and twice at the
+club in Pall Mall. It appeared that the count never went to Mount
+Street, and was very rarely seen at the club. There was some other
+club which he frequented, and Harry did not know what club. On both
+the occasions of Harry's calling in Mount Street, the servant had
+asked him to go up and see madame; but he had declined to do so,
+pleading that he was hurried. He was, however, driven to resolve that
+he must go direct to Sophie, as otherwise he could find no means of
+doing as he had promised. She probably might put him on the scent of
+her brother.
+
+But there had been another reason why Harry had not gone to Bolton
+Street, though he had not acknowledged it to himself. He did not
+dare to trust himself with Lady Ongar. He feared that he would be
+led on to betray himself and to betray Florence,--to throw himself
+at Julia's feet and sacrifice his honesty, in spite of all his
+resolutions to the contrary. He felt when there as the accustomed but
+repentant dram-drinker might feel, when having resolved to abstain,
+he is called upon to sit with the full glass offered before his lips.
+From such temptation as that the repentant dram-drinker knows that
+he must fly. But though he did not go after the fire-water of Bolton
+Street, neither was he able to satisfy himself with the cool fountain
+of Onslow Crescent. He was wretched at this time,--ill-satisfied with
+himself and others, and was no fitting companion for Cecilia Burton.
+The world, he thought, had used him ill. He could have been true to
+Julia Brabazon when she was well-nigh penniless. It was not for her
+money that he had regarded her. Had he been now a free man,--free
+from those chains with which he had fettered himself at Stratton,--he
+would again have asked this woman for her love, in spite of her past
+treachery; but it would have been for her love and not for her money
+that he would have sought her. Was it his fault that he had loved
+her, that she had been false to him, and that she had now come back
+and thrown herself before him? Or had he been wrong because he had
+ventured to think that he loved another when Julia had deserted him?
+Or could he help himself if he now found that his love in truth
+belonged to her whom he had known first? The world had been very
+cruel to him, and he could not go to Onslow Crescent and behave there
+prettily, hearing the praises of Florence with all the ardour of a
+discreet lover.
+
+He knew well what would have been his right course, and yet he did
+not follow it. Let him but once communicate to Lady Ongar the fact of
+his engagement, and the danger would be over, though much, perhaps,
+of the misery might remain. Let him write to her and mention the
+fact, bringing it up as some little immaterial accident, and she
+would understand what he meant. But this he abstained from doing.
+Though he swore to himself that he would not touch the dram, he would
+not dash down the full glass that was held to his lips. He went
+about the town very wretchedly, looking for the count, and regarding
+himself as a man specially marked out for sorrow by the cruel hand of
+misfortune. Lady Ongar, in the meantime, was expecting him, and was
+waxing angry and becoming bitter towards him because he came not.
+
+Sir Hugh Clavering was now up in London, and with him was his brother
+Archie. Sir Hugh was a man who strained an income, that was handsome
+and sufficient for a country gentleman, to the very utmost, wanting
+to get out of it more than it could be made to give. He was not a man
+to be in debt, or indulge himself with present pleasures to be paid
+for out of the funds of future years. He was possessed of a worldly
+wisdom which kept him from that folly, and taught him to appreciate
+fully the value of independence. But he was ever remembering how many
+shillings there are in a pound, and how many pence in a shilling. He
+had a great eye to discount, and looked very closely into his bills.
+He searched for cheap shops;--and some men began to say of him that
+he had found a cheap establishment for such wines as he did not drink
+himself! In playing cards and in betting he was very careful, never
+playing high, never risking much, but hoping to turn something by the
+end of the year, and angry with himself if he had not done so. An
+unamiable man he was, but one whose heir would probably not quarrel
+with him,--if only he would die soon enough. He had always had a
+house in town, a moderate house in Berkeley Square, which belonged
+to him and had belonged to his father before him. Lady Clavering
+had usually lived there during the season; or, as had latterly been
+the case, during only a part of the season. And now it had come to
+pass, in this year, that Lady Clavering was not to come to London at
+all, and that Sir Hugh was meditating whether the house in Berkeley
+Square might not be let. The arrangement would make the difference
+of considerably more than a thousand a year to him. For himself, he
+would take lodgings. He had no idea of giving up London in the spring
+and early summer. But why keep up a house in Berkeley Square, as Lady
+Clavering did not use it?
+
+He was partly driven to this by a desire to shake off the burden of
+his brother. When Archie chose to go to Clavering the house was open
+to him. That was the necessity of Sir Hugh's position, and he could
+not avoid it unless he made it worth his while to quarrel with his
+brother. Archie was obedient, ringing the bell when he was told,
+looking after the horses, spying about, and perhaps saving as much
+money as he cost. But the matter was very different in Berkeley
+Square. No elder brother is bound to find breakfast and bed for a
+younger brother in London. And yet from his boyhood upwards Archie
+had made good his footing in Berkeley Square. In the matter of the
+breakfast, Sir Hugh had indeed of late got the better of him. The
+servants were kept on board wages, and there were no household
+accounts. But there was Archie's room, and Sir Hugh felt this to be a
+hardship.
+
+The present was not the moment for actually driving forth the
+intruder, for Archie was now up in London, especially under his
+brother's auspices. And if the business on which Captain Clavering
+was now intent could be brought to a successful issue, the standing
+in the world of that young man would be very much altered. Then he
+would be a brother of whom Sir Hugh might be proud; a brother who
+would pay his way, and settle his points at whist if he lost them,
+even to a brother. If Archie could induce Lady Ongar to marry him, he
+would not be called upon any longer to ring the bells and look after
+the stable. He would have bells of his own, and stables too, and
+perhaps some captain of his own to ring them and look after them. The
+expulsion, therefore, was not to take place till Archie should have
+made his attempt upon Lady Ongar.
+
+But Sir Hugh would admit of no delay, whereas Archie himself seemed
+to think that the iron was not yet quite hot enough for striking. It
+would be better, he had suggested, to postpone the work till Julia
+could be coaxed down to Clavering in the autumn. He could do the work
+better, he thought, down at Clavering than in London. But Sir Hugh
+was altogether of a different opinion. Though he had already asked
+his sister-in-law to Clavering, when the idea had first come up, he
+was glad that she had declined the visit. Her coming might be very
+well if she accepted Archie; but he did not want to be troubled with
+any renewal of his responsibility respecting her, if, as was more
+probable, she should reject him. The world still looked askance at
+Lady Ongar, and Hugh did not wish to take up the armour of a paladin
+in her favour. If Archie married her, Archie would be the paladin;
+though, indeed, in that case, no paladin would be needed.
+
+"She has only been a widow, you know, four months," said Archie,
+pleading for delay. "It won't be delicate, will it?"
+
+"Delicate!" said Sir Hugh. "I don't know whether there is much of
+delicacy in it at all."
+
+"I don't see why she isn't to be treated like any other woman. If you
+were to die, you'd think it very odd if any fellow came up to Hermy
+before the season was over."
+
+"Archie, you are a fool," said Sir Hugh; and Archie could see by his
+brother's brow that Hugh was angry. "You say things that for folly
+and absurdity are beyond belief. If you can't see the peculiarities
+of Julia's position, I am not going to point them out to you."
+
+"She is peculiar, of course,--having so much money, and that place
+near Guildford, all her own for her life. Of course it's peculiar.
+But four months, Hugh!"
+
+"If it had been four days it need have made no difference. A home,
+with some one to support her, is everything to her. If you wait till
+lots of fellows are buzzing round her you won't have a chance. You'll
+find that by this time next year she'll be the top of the fashion;
+and if not engaged to you, she will be to some one else. I shouldn't
+be surprised if Harry were after her again."
+
+"He's engaged to that girl we saw down at Clavering."
+
+"What matters that? Engagements can be broken as well as made. You
+have this great advantage over every one, except him, that you can go
+to her at once without doing anything out of the way. That girl that
+Harry has in tow may perhaps keep him away for some time."
+
+"I tell you what, Hugh, you might as well call with me the first
+time."
+
+"So that I may quarrel with her, which I certainly should do,--or,
+rather, she with me. No, Archie; if you're afraid to go alone, you'd
+better give it up."
+
+"Afraid! I'm not afraid!"
+
+"She can't eat you. Remember that with her you needn't stand on your
+p's and q's, as you would with another woman. She knows what she is
+about, and will understand what she has to get as well as what she is
+expected to give. All I can say is, that if she accepts you, Hermy
+will consent that she shall go to Clavering as much as she pleases
+till the marriage takes place. It couldn't be done, I suppose, till
+after a year; and in that case she shall be married at Clavering."
+
+Here was a prospect for Julia Brabazon;--to be led to the same altar,
+at which she had married Lord Ongar, by Archie Clavering, twelve
+months after her first husband's death, and little more than two
+years after her first wedding! The peculiarity of the position did
+not quite make itself apparent either to Hugh or to Archie; but there
+was one point which did suggest itself to the younger brother at that
+moment.
+
+"I don't suppose there was anything really wrong, eh?"
+
+"Can't say, I'm sure," said Sir Hugh.
+
+"Because I shouldn't like--"
+
+"If I were you I wouldn't trouble myself about that. Judge not, that
+you be not judged."
+
+"Yes, that's true, to be sure," said Archie; and on that point he
+went forth satisfied.
+
+But the job before him was a peculiar job, and that Archie well
+knew. In some inexplicable manner he put himself into the scales and
+weighed himself, and discovered his own weight with fair accuracy.
+And he put her into the scales, and he found that she was much
+the heavier of the two. How he did this,--how such men as Archie
+Clavering do do it,--I cannot say; but they do weigh themselves, and
+know their own weight, and shove themselves aside as being too light
+for any real service in the world. This they do, though they may
+fluster with their voices, and walk about with their noses in the
+air, and swing their canes, and try to look as large as they may.
+They do not look large, and they know it; and consequently they ring
+the bells, and look after the horses, and shove themselves on one
+side, so that the heavier weights may come forth and do the work.
+Archie Clavering, who had duly weighed himself, could hardly bring
+himself to believe that Lady Ongar would be fool enough to marry him!
+Seven thousand a year, with a park and farm in Surrey, and give it
+all to him,--him, Archie Clavering, who had, so to say, no weight at
+all! Archie Clavering, for one, could not bring himself to believe
+it.
+
+But yet Hermy, her sister, thought it possible; and though Hermy was,
+as Archie had found out by his invisible scales, lighter than Julia,
+still she must know something of her sister's nature. And Hugh, who
+was by no means light,--who was a man of weight, with money and
+position and firm ground beneath his feet,--he also thought that
+it might be so. "Faint heart never won a fair lady," said Archie
+to himself a dozen times, as he walked down to the Rag. The Rag
+was his club, and there was a friend there whom he could consult
+confidentially. No; faint heart never won a fair lady; but they
+who repeat to themselves that adage, trying thereby to get courage,
+always have faint hearts for such work. Harry Clavering never thought
+of the proverb when he went a-wooing.
+
+But Captain Boodle of the Rag,--for Captain Boodle always lived at
+the Rag when he was not at Newmarket, or at other racecourses, or in
+the neighbourhood of Market Harborough,--Captain Boodle knew a thing
+or two, and Captain Boodle was his fast friend. He would go to Boodle
+and arrange the campaign with him. Boodle had none of that hectoring,
+domineering way which Hugh never quite threw off in his intercourse
+with his brother. And Archie, as he went along, resolved that when
+Lady Ongar's money was his, and when he had a countess for his wife,
+he would give his elder brother a cold shoulder.
+
+Boodle was playing pool at the Rag, and Archie joined him; but
+pool is a game which hardly admits of confidential intercourse as
+to proposed wives, and Archie was obliged to remain quiet on that
+subject all the afternoon. He cunningly, however, lost a little money
+to Boodle, for Boodle liked to win,--and engaged himself to dine
+at the same table with his friend. Their dinner they ate almost
+in silence,--unless when they abused the cook, or made to each
+other some pithy suggestion as to the expediency of this or that
+delicacy,--bearing always steadily in view the cost as well as
+desirability of the viands. Boodle had no shame in not having this
+or that because it was dear. To dine with the utmost luxury at the
+smallest expense was a proficiency belonging to him, and of which he
+was very proud.
+
+But after a while the cloth was gone, and the heads of the two men
+were brought near together over the small table. Boodle did not speak
+a word till his brother captain had told his story, had pointed out
+all the advantages to be gained, explained in what peculiar way the
+course lay open to himself, and made the whole thing clear to his
+friend's eye.
+
+"They say she's been a little queer, don't they?" said the friendly
+counsellor.
+
+"Of course people talk, you know."
+
+"Talk, yes; they're talking a doosed sight, I should say. There's no
+mistake about the money, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, none," said Archie, shaking his head vigorously. "Hugh managed
+all that for her, so I know it."
+
+"She don't lose any of it because she enters herself for running
+again, does she?"
+
+"Not a shilling. That's the beauty of it."
+
+"Was you ever sweet on her before?"
+
+"What! before Ongar took her? O laws, no. She hadn't a rap, you
+know;--and knew how to spend money as well as any girl in London."
+
+"It's all to begin then, Clavvy; all the up-hill work to be done?"
+
+"Well, yes; I don't know about up-hill, Doodles. What do you mean by
+up-hill?"
+
+"I mean that seven thousand a year ain't usually to be picked up
+merely by trotting easy along the flat. And this sort of work is
+very up-hill generally, I take it;--unless, you know, a fellow has a
+fancy for it. If a fellow is really sweet on a girl, he likes it, I
+suppose."
+
+"She's a doosed handsome woman, you know, Doodles."
+
+"I don't know anything about it, except that I suppose Ongar wouldn't
+have taken her if she hadn't stood well on her pasterns, and had
+some breeding about her. I never thought much of her sister,--your
+brother's wife, you know,--that is in the way of looks. No doubt she
+runs straight, and that's a great thing. She won't go the wrong side
+of the post."
+
+"As for running straight, let me alone for that."
+
+"Well, now, Clavvy, I'll tell you what my ideas are. When a man's
+trying a young filly, his hands can't be too light. A touch too much
+will bring her on her haunches, or throw her out of her step. She
+should hardly feel the iron in her mouth. That's the sort of work
+which requires a man to know well what he's about. But when I've got
+to do with a trained mare, I always choose that she shall know that
+I'm there! Do you understand me?"
+
+"Yes; I understand you, Doodles."
+
+"I always choose that she shall know that I'm there." And Captain
+Boodle, as he repeated these manly words with a firm voice, put out
+his hands as though he were handling the horse's rein. "Their mouths
+are never so fine then, and they generally want to be brought up
+to the bit, d'ye see?--up to the bit. When a mare has been trained
+to her work, and knows what she's at in her running, she's all the
+better for feeling a fellow's hands as she's going. She likes it
+rather. It gives her confidence, and makes her know where she is. And
+look here, Clavvy, when she comes to her fences, give her her head;
+but steady her first, and make her know that you're there. Damme;
+whatever you do, let her know that you're there. There's nothing like
+it. She'll think all the more of the fellow that's piloting her. And
+look here, Clavvy; ride her with spurs. Always ride a trained mare
+with spurs. Let her know that they're on; and if she tries to get her
+head, give 'em her. Yes, by George, give 'em her." And Captain Boodle
+in his energy twisted himself in his chair, and brought his heel
+round, so that it could be seen by Archie. Then he produced a sharp
+click with his tongue, and made the peculiar jerk with the muscle
+of his legs, whereby he was accustomed to evoke the agility of his
+horses. After that he looked triumphantly at his friend. "Give 'em
+her, Clavvy, and she'll like you the better for it. She'll know then
+that you mean it."
+
+It was thus that Captain Boodle instructed his friend Archie
+Clavering how to woo Lady Ongar; and Archie, as he listened to his
+friend's words of wisdom, felt that he had learned a great deal.
+"That's the way I'll do it, Doodles," he said, "and upon my word I'm
+very much obliged to you."
+
+"That's the way, you may depend on it. Let her know that you're
+there.--Let her know that you're there. She's done the filly work
+before, you see; and it's no good trying that again."
+
+Captain Clavering really believed that he had learned a good deal,
+and that he now knew the way to set about the work before him. What
+sort of spurs he was to use, and how he was to put them on, I don't
+think he did know; but that was a detail as to which he did not think
+it necessary to consult his adviser. He sat the whole evening in the
+smoking-room, very silent, drinking slowly iced gin-and-water; and
+the more he drank the more assured he felt that he now understood the
+way in which he was to attempt the work before him. "Let her know
+I'm there," he said to himself, shaking his head gently, so that no
+one should observe him; "yes, let her know I'm there." At this time
+Captain Boodle, or Doodles as he was familiarly called, had again
+ascended to the billiard-room and was hard at work. "Let her know
+that I'm there," repeated Archie, mentally. Everything was contained
+in that precept. And he, with his hands before him on his knees, went
+through the process of steadying a horse with the snaffle-rein, just
+touching the curb, as he did so, for security. It was but a motion of
+his fingers and no one could see it, but it made him confident that
+he had learned his lesson. "Up to the bit," he repeated; "by George,
+yes; up to the bit. There's nothing like it for a trained mare. Give
+her head, but steady her." And Archie, as the words passed across his
+memory and were almost pronounced, seemed to be flying successfully
+over some prodigious fence. He leaned himself back a little in the
+saddle, and seemed to hold firm with his legs. That was the way to
+do it. And then the spurs! He would not forget the spurs. She should
+know that he wore a spur, and that, if necessary, he would use it.
+Then he, too, gave a little click with his tongue, and an acute
+observer might have seen the motion of his heel.
+
+Two hours after that he was still sitting in the smoking-room,
+chewing the end of a cigar, when Doodles came down victorious from
+the billiard-room. Archie was half asleep, and did not notice the
+entrance of his friend. "Let her know that you're there," said
+Doodles, close into Archie Clavering's ear,--"damme, let her know
+that you're there." Archie started and did not like the surprise, or
+the warm breath in his ear; but he forgave the offence for the wisdom
+of the words that had been spoken.
+
+Then he walked home by himself, repeating again and again the
+invaluable teachings of his friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.
+
+
+During breakfast on the following day,--which means from the hour
+of one till two, for the glasses of iced gin-and-water had been
+many,--Archie Clavering was making up his mind that he would begin at
+once. He would go to Bolton Street on that day, and make an attempt
+to be admitted. If not admitted to-day he would make another attempt
+to-morrow, and, if still unsuccessful, he would write a letter; not a
+letter containing an offer, which according to Archie's ideas would
+not be letting her know that he was there in a manner sufficiently
+potential,--but a letter in which he would explain that he had
+very grave reasons for wishing to see his near and dear connexion,
+Lady Ongar. Soon after two he sallied out, and he also went to a
+hairdresser's. He was aware that in doing so he was hardly obeying
+his friend to the letter, as this sort of operation would come rather
+under the head of handling a filly with a light touch; but he thought
+that he could in this way, at any rate, do no harm, if he would only
+remember the instructions he had received when in the presence of the
+trained mare. It was nearly three when he found himself in Bolton
+Street, having calculated that Lady Ongar might be more probably
+found at home then than at a later hour. But when he came to the
+door, instead of knocking, he passed by it. He began to remember that
+he had not yet made up his mind by what means he would bring it about
+that she should certainly know that he was there. So he took a little
+turn up the street, away from Piccadilly, through a narrow passage
+that there is in those parts, and by some stables, and down into
+Piccadilly, and again to Bolton Street; during which little tour
+he had made up his mind that it could hardly become his duty to
+teach her that great lesson on this occasion. She must undoubtedly
+be taught to know that he was there, but not so taught on this, his
+first visit. That lesson should quickly precede his offer; and,
+although he had almost hoped in the interval between two of his
+beakers of gin-and-water on the preceding evening that he might ride
+the race and win it altogether during this very morning visit he was
+about to make, in his cooler moments he had begun to reflect that
+that would hardly be practicable. The mare must get a gallop before
+she would be in a condition to be brought out. So Archie knocked at
+the door, intending merely to give the mare a gallop if he should
+find her in to-day.
+
+He gave his name, and was shown at once up into Lady Ongar's
+drawing-room. Lady Ongar was not there, but she soon came down, and
+entered the room with a smile on her face and with an outstretched
+hand. Between the man-servant who took the captain's name, and the
+maid-servant who carried it up to her mistress,--but who did not see
+the gentleman before she did so, there had arisen some mistake, and
+Lady Ongar, as she came down from her chamber above expected that
+she was to meet another man. Harry Clavering, she thought, had
+come to her at last. "I'll be down at once," Lady Ongar had said,
+dismissing the girl and then standing for a moment before her mirror
+as she smoothed her hair, obliterated as far as it might be possible
+the ugliness of her cap, and shook out the folds of her dress. A
+countess, a widow, a woman of the world who had seen enough to make
+her composed under all circumstances, one would say,--a trained mare
+as Doodles had called her,--she stood before her glass doubting
+and trembling like a girl, when she heard that Harry Clavering was
+waiting for her below. We may surmise that she would have spared
+herself some of this trouble had she known the real name of her
+visitor. Then, as she came slowly down the stairs, she reflected how
+she would receive him. He had stayed away from her, and she would
+be cold to him,--cold and formal as she had been on the railway
+platform. She knew well how to play that part. Yes; it was his turn
+now to show some eagerness of friendship, if there was ever to be
+anything more than friendship between them. But she changed all this
+as she put her hand upon the lock of the door. She would be honest
+to him,--honest and true. She was in truth glad to see him, and he
+should know it. What cared she now for the common ways of women and
+the usual coynesses of feminine coquetry? She told herself also, in
+language somewhat differing from that which Doodles had used, that
+her filly days were gone by, and that she was now a trained mare. All
+this passed through her mind as her hand was on the door; and then
+she opened it, with a smiling face and ready hand, to find herself in
+the presence of--Captain Archie Clavering.
+
+The captain was sharp-sighted enough to observe the change in her
+manner. The change, indeed, was visible enough, and was such that it
+at once knocked out of Archie's breast some portion of the courage
+with which his friend's lessons had inspired him. The outstretched
+hand fell slowly to her side, the smile gave place to a look of
+composed dignity which made Archie at once feel that the fate which
+called upon him to woo a countess was in itself hard. And she walked
+slowly into the room before she spoke to him, or he to her.
+
+"Captain Clavering!" she said at last, and there was much more of
+surprise than of welcome in her words as she uttered them.
+
+"Yes, Lady On--, Julia, that is; I thought I might as well come and
+call, as I found we weren't to see you at Clavering when we were all
+there at Easter." When she had been living in his brother's house
+as one of the family he had called her Julia, as Hugh had done. The
+connection between them had been close, and it had come naturally to
+him to do so. He had thought much of this since his present project
+had been initiated, and had strongly resolved not to lose the
+advantage of his former familiarity. He had very nearly broken down
+at the onset, but, as the reader will have observed, had recovered
+himself.
+
+"You are very good," she said; and then as he had been some time
+standing with his right hand presented to her, she just touched it
+with her own.
+
+"There's nothing I hate so much as stuff and nonsense," said Archie.
+To this remark she simply bowed, remaining awfully quiet. Captain
+Clavering felt that her silence was in truth awful. She had always
+been good at talking, and he had paused for her to say something; but
+when she bowed to him in that stiff manner,--"doosed stiff she was;
+doosed stiff, and impudent too," he told Doodles afterwards;--he knew
+that he must go on himself. "Stuff and nonsense is the mischief, you
+know." Then she bowed again. "There's been something the matter with
+them all down at Clavering since you came home, Julia; but hang me if
+I can find out what it is!" Still she was silent. "It ain't Hermy;
+that I must say. Hermy always speaks of you as though there had never
+been anything wrong." This assurance, we may say, must have been
+flattering to the lady whom he was about to court.
+
+"Hermy was always too good to me," said Lady Ongar, smiling.
+
+"By George, she always does. If there's anything wrong it's been with
+Hugh; and, by George, I don't know what it is he was up to when you
+first came home. It wasn't my doing;--of course you know that."
+
+"I never thought that anything was your doing, Captain Clavering."
+
+"I think Hugh had been losing money; I do indeed. He was like a bear
+with a sore head just at that time. There was no living in the house
+with him. I daresay Hermy may have told you all about that."
+
+"Hermione is not by nature so communicative as you are, Captain
+Clavering."
+
+"Isn't she? I should have thought between sisters--; but of course
+that's no business of mine." Again she was silent, awfully silent,
+and he became aware that he must either get up and go away or carry
+on the conversation himself. To do either seemed to be equally
+difficult, and for a while he sat there almost gasping in his misery.
+He was quite aware that as yet he had not made her know that he was
+there. He was not there, as he well knew, in his friend Doodles'
+sense of the word. "At any rate there isn't any good in quarrelling,
+is there, Julia?" he said at last. Now that he had asked a question,
+surely she must speak.
+
+"There is great good sometimes I think," said she, "in people
+remaining apart and not seeing each other. Sir Hugh Clavering has not
+quarrelled with me, that I am aware. Indeed, since my marriage there
+have been no means of quarrelling between us. But I think it quite as
+well that he and I should not come together."
+
+"But he particularly wants you to go to Clavering."
+
+"Has he sent you here as his messenger?"
+
+"Sent me! oh dear no; nothing of that sort. I have come altogether on
+my own hook. If Hugh wants a messenger he must find some one else.
+But you and I were always friends you know,"--at this assertion she
+opened her large eyes widely, and simply smiled;--"and I thought that
+perhaps you might be glad to see me if I called. That was all."
+
+"You are very good, Captain Clavering."
+
+"I couldn't bear to think that you should be here in London, and that
+one shouldn't see anything of you or know anything about you. Tell
+me now; is there anything I can do for you? Do you want anybody to
+settle anything for you in the city?"
+
+"I think not, Captain Clavering; thank you very much."
+
+"Because I should be so happy; I should indeed. There's nothing I
+should like so much as to make myself useful in some way. Isn't there
+anything now? There must be so much to be looked after,--about money
+and all that."
+
+"My lawyer does all that, Captain Clavering."
+
+"Those fellows are such harpies. There is no end to their charges;
+and all for doing things that would only be a pleasure to me."
+
+"I'm afraid I can't employ you in any matter that would suit your
+tastes."
+
+"Can't you indeed, now?" Then again there was a silence, and Captain
+Clavering was beginning to think that he must go. He was willing
+to work hard at talking or anything else; but he could not work
+if no ground for starting were allowed to him. He thought he must
+go, though he was aware that he had not made even the slightest
+preparation for future obedience to his friend's precepts. He began
+to feel that he had commenced wrongly. He should have made her know
+that he was there from the first moment of her entrance into the
+room. He must retreat now in order that he might advance with more
+force on the next occasion. He had just made up his mind to this and
+was doubting how he might best get himself out of his chair with the
+purpose of going, when sudden relief came in the shape of another
+visitor. The door was thrown open and Madam Gordeloup was announced.
+
+"Well, my angel," said the little woman, running up to her friend
+and kissing her on either side of her face. Then she turned round as
+though she had only just seen the strange gentleman, and curtseyed to
+him. Captain Clavering holding his hat in both his hands bowed to the
+little woman.
+
+
+[Illustration: Captain Clavering makes his first attempt.]
+
+
+"My sister's brother-in-law, Captain Clavering," said Lady Ongar.
+"Madam Gordeloup."
+
+Captain Clavering bowed again. "Ah, Sir Oo's brother," said Madam
+Gordeloup. "I am very glad to see Captain Clavering; and is your
+sister come?"
+
+"No; my sister is not come."
+
+"Lady Clavering is not in town this spring," said the captain.
+
+"Ah, not in town! Then I do pity her. There is only de one place to
+live in, and that is London, for April, May, and June. Lady Clavering
+is not coming to London?"
+
+"Her little boy isn't quite the thing," said the captain.
+
+"Not quite de ting?" said the Franco-Pole in an inquiring voice, not
+exactly understanding the gentleman's language.
+
+"My little nephew is ill, and my sister does not think it wise to
+bring him to London."
+
+"Ah; that is a pity. And Sir Oo? Sir Oo is in London?"
+
+"Yes," said the captain; "my brother has been up some time."
+
+"And his lady left alone in the country? Poor lady! But your English
+ladies like the country. They are fond of the fields and the daisies.
+So they say; but I think often they lie. Me; I like the houses,
+and the people, and the pavé. The fields are damp, and I love not
+rheumatism at all." Then the little woman shrugged her shoulders and
+shook herself. "Tell us the truth, Julie; which do you like best, the
+town or the country?"
+
+"Whichever I'm not in, I think."
+
+"Ah, just so. Whichever you are not in at present. That is because
+you are still idle. You have not settled yourself!" At this reference
+to the possibility of Lady Ongar settling herself, Captain Clavering
+pricked up his ears, and listened eagerly for what might come next.
+He only knew of one way in which a young woman without a husband
+could settle herself. "You must wait, my dear, a little longer, just
+a little longer, till the time of your trouble has passed by."
+
+"Don't talk such nonsense, Sophie," said the countess.
+
+"Ah, my dear, it is no nonsense. I am always telling her, Captain
+Clavering, that she must go through this black, troublesome time as
+quick as she can; and then nobody will enjoy the town so much as de
+rich and beautiful Lady Ongar. Is it not so, Captain Clavering?"
+
+Archie thought that the time had now come for him to say something
+pretty, so that his love might begin to know that he was there. "By
+George, yes, there'll be nobody so much admired when she comes out
+again. There never was anybody so much admired before,--before,--that
+is, when you were Julia Brabazon, you know; and I shouldn't wonder if
+you didn't come out quite as strong as ever."
+
+"As strong!" said the Franco-Pole. "A woman that has been married is
+always more admired than a meess."
+
+"Sophie, might I ask you and Captain Clavering to be a little less
+personal?"
+
+"There is noting I hate so much as your meesses," continued Madame
+Gordeloup; "noting! Your English meesses give themselves such airs.
+Now in Paris, or in dear Vienna, or in St. Petersburg, they are not
+like that at all. There they are nobodies--they are nobodies; but
+then they will be something very soon, which is to be better. Your
+English meess is so much and so grand; she never can be greater and
+grander. So when she is a mamma, she lives down in the country by
+herself, and looks after de pills and de powders. I don't like that.
+I don't like that at all. No; if my husband had put me into the
+country to look after de pills and de powders, he should have had
+them all, all--himself, when he came to see me." As she said this
+with great energy, she opened her eyes wide, and looked full into
+Archie's face.
+
+Captain Clavering, who was sitting with his hat in his two hands
+between his knees, stared at the little foreigner. He had heard
+before of women poisoning their husbands, but never had heard a woman
+advocate the system as expedient. Nor had he often heard a woman
+advocate any system with the vehemence which Madame Gordeloup now
+displayed on this matter, and with an allusion which was so very
+pointed to the special position of his own sister-in-law. Did Lady
+Ongar agree with her? He felt as though he should like to know his
+Julia's opinions on that matter.
+
+"Sophie, Captain Clavering will think you are in earnest," said the
+countess, laughing.
+
+"So I am--in earnest. It is all wrong. You boil all the water out of
+de pot before you put the gigot into it. So the gigot is no good, is
+tough and dry, and you shut it up in an old house in the country.
+Then, to make matters pretty, you talk about de fields and de
+daisies. I know. 'Thank you,' I should say. 'De fields and de daisies
+are so nice and so good! Suppose you go down, my love, and walk in de
+fields, and pick de daisies, and send them up to me by de railway!'
+Yes, that is what I would say."
+
+Captain Clavering was now quite in the dark, and began to regard the
+little woman as a lunatic. When she spoke of the pot and the gigot
+he vainly endeavoured to follow her; and now that she had got among
+the daisies he was more at a loss than ever. Fruit, vegetables, and
+cut flowers came up, he knew, to London regularly from Clavering,
+when the family was in town;--but no daisies. In France it must, he
+supposed, be different. He was aware, however, of his ignorance, and
+said nothing.
+
+"No one ever did try to shut you up, Sophie!"
+
+"No, indeed; M. Gordeloup knew better. What would he do if I were
+shut up? And no one will ever shut you up, my dear. If I were you,
+I would give no one a chance."
+
+"Don't say that," said the captain, almost passionately; "don't say
+that."
+
+"Ha, ha! but I do say it. Why should a woman who has got everything
+marry again? If she wants de fields and de daisies she has got them
+of her own--yes, of her own. If she wants de town, she has got
+that too. Jewels,--she can go and buy them. Coaches,--there they
+are. Parties,--one, two, three, every night, as many as she please.
+Gentlemen who will be her humble slaves; such a plenty,--all London.
+Or, if she want to be alone, no one can come near her. Why should she
+marry? No."
+
+"But she might be in love with somebody," said the captain, in a
+surprised but humble tone.
+
+"Love! Bah! Be in love, so that she may be shut up in an old barrack
+with de powders!" The way in which that word barrack was pronounced,
+and the middle letters sounded, almost lifted the captain off his
+seat. "Love is very pretty at seventeen, when the imagination is
+telling a parcel of lies, and when life is one dream. To like
+people,--oh, yes; to be very fond of your friends,--oh, yes; to be
+most attached,--as I am to my Julie,"--here she got hold of Lady
+Ongar's hand,--"it is the salt of life! But what you call love,
+booing and cooing, with rhymes and verses about de moon, it is to go
+back to pap and panade, and what you call bibs. No; if a woman wants
+a house, and de something to live on, let her marry a husband; or if
+a man want to have children, let him marry a wife. But to be shut up
+in a country house, when everything you have got of your own,--I say
+it is bad."
+
+Captain Clavering was heartily sorry that he had mentioned the fact
+of his sister-in-law being left at home at Clavering Park. It was
+most unfortunate. How could he make it understood that if he were
+married he would not think of shutting his wife up at Ongar Park?
+"Lady Clavering, you know, does come to London generally," he said.
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed the little Franco-Pole.
+
+"And as for me, I never should be happy, if I were married, unless I
+had my wife with me everywhere," said Captain Clavering.
+
+"Bah-ah-ah!" ejaculated the lady.
+
+Captain Clavering could not endure this any longer. He felt that the
+manner of the lady was, to say the least of it, unpleasant, and he
+perceived that he was doing no good to his own cause. So he rose from
+his chair and muttered some words with the intention of showing his
+purpose of departure.
+
+"Good-by, Captain Clavering," said Lady Ongar. "My love to my sister
+when you see her."
+
+Archie shook hands with her and then made his bow to Madame
+Gordeloup.
+
+"Au revoir, my friend," she said, "and you remember all I say. It is
+not good for de wife to be all alone in the country, while de husband
+walk about in the town and make an eye to every lady he see." Archie
+would not trust himself to renew the argument, but bowing again, made
+his way off.
+
+"He was come for one admirer," said Sophie, as soon as the door was
+closed.
+
+"An admirer of whom?"
+
+"Not of me;--oh, no; I was not in danger at all."
+
+"Of me? Captain Clavering! Sophie, you get your head full of the
+strangest nonsense."
+
+"Ah; very well. You see. What will you give me if I am right? Will
+you bet? Why had he got on his new gloves, and had his head all
+smelling with stuff from de hairdresser? Does he come always perfumed
+like that? Does he wear shiny little boots to walk about in de
+morning, and make an eye always? Perhaps yes."
+
+"I never saw his boots or his eyes."
+
+"But I see them. I see many things. He come to have Ongere Park for
+his own. I tell you, yes. Ten thousand will come to have Ongere Park.
+Why not? To have Ongere Park and all de money a man will make himself
+smell a great deal."
+
+"You think much more about all that than is necessary."
+
+"Do I, my dear? Very well. There are three already. There is Edouard,
+and there is this Clavering who you say is a captain; and there
+is the other Clavering who goes with his nose in the air, and who
+think himself a clever fellow because he learned his lesson at
+school and did not get himself whipped. He will be whipped yet some
+day,--perhaps."
+
+"Sophie, hold your tongue. Captain Clavering is my sister's
+brother-in-law, and Harry Clavering is my friend."
+
+"Ah, friend! I know what sort of friend he wants to be. How much
+better to have a park and plenty of money than to work in a ditch and
+make a railway! But he do not know the way with a woman. Perhaps he
+may be more at home, as you say, in the ditch. I should say to him,
+'My friend, you will do well in de ditch if you work hard;--suppose
+you stay there.'"
+
+"You don't seem to like my cousin, and if you please, we will talk no
+more about him."
+
+"Why should I not like him? He don't want to get any money from me."
+
+"That will do, Sophie."
+
+"Very well; it shall do for me. But this other man that come here
+to-day. He is a fool."
+
+"Very likely."
+
+"He did not learn his lesson without whipping."
+
+"Nor with whipping either."
+
+"No; he have learned nothing. He does not know what to do with his
+hat. He is a fool. Come, Julie, will you take me out for a drive. It
+is melancholy for you to go alone; I came to ask you for a drive.
+Shall we go?" And they did go, Lady Ongar and Sophie Gordeloup
+together. Lady Ongar, as she submitted, despised herself for her
+submission; but what was she to do? It is sometimes very difficult to
+escape from the meshes of friendship.
+
+Captain Clavering, when he left Bolton Street, went down to his
+club, having first got rid of his shining boots and new gloves. He
+sauntered up into the billiard-room knowing that his friend would be
+there, and there he found Doodles with his coat off, the sleeves of
+his shirt turned back, and armed with his cue. His brother captain,
+the moment that he saw him, presented the cue at his breast. "Does
+she know you're there, old fellow; I say, does she know you're
+there?" The room was full of men, and the whole thing was done so
+publicly that Captain Clavering was almost offended.
+
+"Come, Doodles, you go on with your game," said he; "it's you to
+play." Doodles turned to the table, and scientifically pocketed the
+ball on which he played; then he laid his own ball close under the
+cushion, picked up a shilling and put it into his waistcoat pocket,
+holding a lighted cigar in his mouth the while, and then he came back
+to his friend. "Well, Clavvy, how has it been?"
+
+"Oh, nothing as yet, you know."
+
+"Haven't you seen her?"
+
+"Yes, I've seen her, of course. I'm not the fellow to let the grass
+grow under my feet. I've only just come from her house."
+
+"Well, well?"
+
+"That's nothing much to tell the first day, you know."
+
+"Did you let her know you were there? That's the chat. Damme, did you
+let her know you were there?"
+
+In answer to this Archie attempted to explain that he was not as yet
+quite sure that he had been successful in that particular; but in
+the middle of his story Captain Doodles was called off to exercise
+his skill again, and on this occasion to pick up two shillings. "I'm
+sorry for you, Griggs," he said, as a very young lieutenant, whose
+last life he had taken, put up his cue with a look of ineffable
+disgust, and whose shilling Doodles had pocketed; "I'm sorry for you,
+very; but a fellow must play the game, you know." Whereupon Griggs
+walked out of the room with a gait that seemed to show that he had
+his own ideas upon that matter, though he did not choose to divulge
+them. Doodles instantly returned to his friend. "With cattle of that
+kind it's no use trying the waiting dodge," said he. "You should make
+your running at once, and trust to bottom to carry you through."
+
+"But there was a horrid little Frenchwoman came in!"
+
+"What; a servant?"
+
+"No; a friend. Such a creature! You should have heard her talk. A
+kind of confidential friend she seemed, who called her Julie. I had
+to go away and leave her there, of course."
+
+"Ah! you'll have to tip that woman."
+
+"What, with money?"
+
+"I shouldn't wonder."
+
+"It would come very expensive."
+
+"A tenner now and then, you know. She would do your business for you.
+Give her a brooch first, and then offer to lend her the money. You'd
+find she'll rise fast enough, if you're any hand for throwing a fly."
+
+"Oh! I could do it, you know."
+
+"Do it then, and let 'em both know that you're there. Yes, Parkyns,
+I'll divide. And, Clavvy, you can come in now in Griggs' place." Then
+Captain Clavering stripped himself for the battle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE BLUE POSTS.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+"Oh; so you 'ave come to see me. I am so glad." With these words
+Sophie Gordeloup welcomed Harry Clavering to her room in Mount Street
+early one morning not long after her interview with Captain Archie
+in Lady Ongar's presence. On the previous evening Harry had received
+a note from Lady Ongar, in which she upbraided him for having left
+unperformed her commission with reference to Count Pateroff. The
+letter had begun quite abruptly. "I think it unkind of you that you
+do not come to me. I asked you to see a certain person on my behalf,
+and you have not done so. Twice he has been here. Once I was in truth
+out. He came again the next evening at nine, and I was then ill,
+and had gone to bed. You understand it all, and must know how this
+annoys me. I thought you would have done this for me, and I thought I
+should have seen you.--J." This note he found at his lodgings when he
+returned home at night, and on the following morning he went in his
+despair direct to Mount Street, on his way to the Adelphi. It was not
+yet ten o'clock when he was shown into Madame Gordeloup's presence,
+and as regarded her dress he did not find her to be quite prepared
+for morning visitors. But he might well be indifferent on that
+matter, as the lady seemed to disregard the circumstances altogether.
+On her head she wore what he took to be a nightcap, though I will
+not absolutely undertake to say that she had slept in that very
+head-dress. There were frills to it, and a certain attempt at
+prettinesses had been made; but then the attempt had been made so
+long ago, and the frills were so ignorant of starch and all frillish
+propensities, that it hardly could pretend to decency. A great white
+wrapper she also wore, which might not have been objectionable had
+it not been so long worn that it looked like a university college
+surplice at the end of the long vacation. Her slippers had all the
+ease which age could give them, and above the slippers, neatness, to
+say the least of it, did not predominate. But Sophie herself seemed
+to be quite at her ease in spite of these deficiencies, and received
+our hero with an eager, pointed welcome, which I can hardly describe
+as affectionate, and which Harry did not at all understand.
+
+"I have to apologize for troubling you," he began.
+
+"Trouble, what trouble? Bah! You give me no trouble. It is you have
+the trouble to come here. You come early and I have not got my
+crinoline. If you are contented, so am I." Then she smiled, and sat
+herself down suddenly, letting herself almost fall into her special
+corner in the sofa. "Take a chair, Mr. Harry; then we can talk more
+comfortable."
+
+"I want especially to see your brother. Can you give me his address?"
+
+"What? Edouard--certainly; Travellers' Club."
+
+"But he is never there."
+
+"He sends every day for his letters. You want to see him. Why?"
+
+Harry was at once confounded, having no answer. "A little private
+business," he said.
+
+"Ah; a little private business. You do not owe him a little money,
+I am afraid, or you would not want to see him. Ha, ha! You write to
+him, and he will see you. There;--there is paper and pen and ink. He
+shall get your letter this day."
+
+Harry, nothing suspicious, did as he was bid, and wrote a note in
+which he simply told the count that he was specially desirous of
+seeing him.
+
+"I will go to you anywhere," said Harry, "if you will name a place."
+
+We, knowing Madame Gordeloup's habits, may feel little doubt but that
+she thought it her duty to become acquainted with the contents of the
+note before she sent it out of her house, but we may also know that
+she learned very little from it.
+
+"It shall go, almost immediately," said Sophie, when the envelope was
+closed.
+
+Then Harry got up to depart, having done his work. "What, you are
+going in that way at once? You are in a hurry?"
+
+"Well, yes; I am in a hurry, rather, Madame Gordeloup. I have got
+to be at my office, and I only just came up here to find out your
+brother's address." Then he rose and went, leaving the note behind
+him.
+
+Then Madame Gordeloup, speaking to herself in French, called Harry
+Clavering a lout, a fool, an awkward overgrown boy, and a pig. She
+declared him to be a pig nine times over, then shook herself in
+violent disgust, and after that betook herself to the letter.
+
+The letter was at any rate duly sent to the count, for before Harry
+had left Mr. Beilby's chambers on that day, Pateroff came to him
+there. Harry sat in the same room with other men, and therefore went
+out to see his acquaintance in a little antechamber that was used
+for such purposes. As he walked from one room to the other, he was
+conscious of the delicacy and difficulty of the task before him, and
+the colour was high in his face as he opened the door. But when he
+had done so, he saw that the count was not alone. A gentleman was
+with him, whom he did not introduce to Harry, and before whom Harry
+could not say that which he had to communicate.
+
+"Pardon me," said the count, "but we are in railroad hurry. Nobody
+ever was in such a haste as I and my friend. You are not engaged
+to-morrow? No, I see. You dine with me and my friend at the Blue
+Posts. You know the Blue Posts?"
+
+Harry said he did not know the Blue Posts.
+
+"Then you shall know the Blue Posts. I will be your instructor. You
+drink claret. Come and see. You eat beefsteaks. Come and try. You
+love one glass of port wine with your cheese. No. But you shall
+love it when you have dined with me at the Blue Posts. We will dine
+altogether after the English way;--which is the best way in the world
+when it is quite good. It is quite good at the Blue Posts;--quite
+good! Seven o'clock. You are fined when a minute late; an extra glass
+of port wine a minute. Now I must go. Ah; yes. I am ruined already."
+
+Then Count Pateroff, holding his watch in his hand, bolted out of the
+room before Harry could say a word to him.
+
+He had nothing for it but to go to the dinner, and to the dinner he
+went. On that same evening, the evening of the day on which he had
+seen Sophie and her brother, he wrote to Lady Ongar, using to her
+the same manner of writing that she had used to him, and telling her
+that he had done his best, that he had now seen him whom he had been
+desired to see, but that he had not been able to speak to him. He
+was, however, to dine with him on the following day,--and would call
+in Bolton Street as soon as possible after that interview.
+
+Exactly at seven o'clock, Harry, having the fear of the threatened
+fine before his eyes, was at the Blue Posts; and there, standing in
+the middle of the room, he saw Count Pateroff. With Count Pateroff
+was the same gentleman whom Harry had seen at the Adelphi, and whom
+the count now introduced as Colonel Schmoff; and also a little
+Englishman with a knowing eye and a bull-dog neck, and whiskers
+cut very short and trim,--a horsey little man, whom the count also
+introduced. "Captain Boodle; says he knows a cousin of yours, Mr.
+Clavering."
+
+Then Colonel Schmoff bowed, never yet having spoken a word in Harry's
+hearing, and our old friend Doodles with glib volubility told Harry
+how intimate he was with Archie, and how he knew Sir Hugh, and how he
+had met Lady Clavering, and how "doosed" glad he was to meet Harry
+himself on this present occasion.
+
+"And now, my boys, we'll set down," said the count. "There's just a
+little soup, printanier; yes, they can make soup here; then a cut of
+salmon; and after that the beefsteak. Nothing more. Schmoff, my boy,
+can you eat beefsteak?"
+
+Schmoff neither smiled nor spoke, but simply bowed his head gravely,
+and sitting down, arranged with slow exactness his napkin over his
+waistcoat and lap.
+
+"Captain Boodle, can you eat beefsteak," said the count; "Blue Posts'
+beefsteak?"
+
+"Try me," said Doodles. "That's all. Try me."
+
+"I will try you, and I will try Mr. Clavering. Schmoff would eat a
+horse if he had not a bullock, and a piece of a jackass if he had not
+a horse."
+
+"I did eat a horse in Hamboro' once. We was besieged."
+
+So much said Schmoff, very slowly, in a deep bass voice, speaking
+from the bottom of his chest, and frowning very heavily as he did so.
+The exertion was so great that he did not repeat it for a
+considerable time.
+
+"Thank God we are not besieged now," said the count, as the soup was
+handed round to them. "Ah, Albert, my friend, that is good soup; very
+good soup. My compliments to the excellent Stubbs. Mr. Clavering, the
+excellent Stubbs is the cook. I am quite at home here and they do
+their best for me. You need not fear you will have any of Schmoff's
+horse."
+
+This was all very pleasant, and Harry Clavering sat down to his
+dinner prepared to enjoy it; but there was a sense about him during
+the whole time that he was being taken in and cheated, and that
+the count would cheat him and actually escape away from him on
+that evening without his being able to speak a word to him. They
+were dining in a public room, at a large table which they had to
+themselves, while others were dining at small tables round them.
+Even if Schmoff and Boodle had not been there, he could hardly have
+discussed Lady Ongar's private affairs in such a room as that. The
+count had brought him there to dine in this way with a premeditated
+purpose of throwing him over, pretending to give him the meeting that
+had been asked for, but intending that it should pass by and be of no
+avail. Such was Harry's belief, and he resolved that, though he might
+have to seize Pateroff by the tails of his coat, the count should not
+escape him without having been forced at any rate to hear what he had
+to say. In the meantime the dinner went on very pleasantly.
+
+"Ah," said the count, "there is no fish like salmon early in the
+year; but not too early. And it should come alive from Grove, and be
+cooked by Stubbs."
+
+"And eaten by me," said Boodle.
+
+"Under my auspices," said the count, "and then all is well. Mr.
+Clavering, a little bit near the head? Not care about any particular
+part? That is wrong. Everybody should always learn what is the best
+to eat of everything, and get it if they can."
+
+"By George, I should think so," said Doodles. "I know I do."
+
+"Not to know the bit out of the neck of the salmon from any other
+bit, is not to know a false note from a true one. Not to distinguish
+a '51 wine from a '58, is to look at an arm or a leg on the canvas,
+and to care nothing whether it is in drawing, or out of drawing. Not
+to know Stubbs' beefsteak from other beefsteaks, is to say that every
+woman is the same thing to you. Only, Stubbs will let you have his
+beefsteak if you will pay him,--him or his master. With the beautiful
+woman it is not always so;--not always. Do I make myself understood?"
+
+"Clear as mud," said Doodles. "I'm quite along with you there. Why
+should a man be ashamed of eating what's nice? Everybody does it."
+
+"No, Captain Boodle; not everybody. Some cannot get it, and some do
+not know it when it comes in their way. They are to be pitied. I do
+pity them from the bottom of my heart. But there is one poor fellow
+I do pity more even than they."
+
+There was something in the tone of the count's words,--a simple
+pathos, and almost a melody, which interested Harry Clavering. No one
+knew better than Count Pateroff how to use all the inflexions of his
+voice, and produce from the phrases he used the very highest interest
+which they were capable of producing. He now spoke of his pity in a
+way that might almost have made a sensitive man weep. "Who is it that
+you pity so much?" Harry asked.
+
+"The man who cannot digest," said the count, in a low clear voice.
+Then he bent down his head over the morsel of food on his plate,
+as though he were desirous of hiding a tear. "The man who cannot
+digest!" As he repeated the words he raised his head again, and
+looked round at all their faces.
+
+"Yes, yes;--mein Gott, yes," said Schmoff, and even he appeared as
+though he were almost moved from the deep quietude of his inward
+indifference.
+
+"Ah; talk of blessings! What a blessing is digestion!" said the
+count. "I do not know whether you have ever thought of it, Captain
+Boodle? You are young, and perhaps not. Or you, Mr. Clavering? It is
+a subject worthy of your thoughts. To digest! Do you know what it
+means? It is to have the sun always shining, and the shade always
+ready for you. It is to be met with smiles, and to be greeted with
+kisses. It is to hear sweet sounds, to sleep with sweet dreams, to
+be touched ever by gentle, soft, cool hands. It is to be in paradise.
+Adam and Eve were in paradise. Why? Their digestion was good. Ah!
+then they took liberties, eat bad fruit,--things they could not
+digest. They what we call, ruined their constitutions, destroyed
+their gastric juices, and then they were expelled from paradise by an
+angel with a flaming sword. The angel with the flaming sword, which
+turned two ways, was indigestion! There came a great indigestion upon
+the earth because the cooks were bad, and they called it a deluge.
+Ah, I thank God there is to be no more deluges. All the evils come
+from this. Macbeth could not sleep. It was the supper, not the
+murder. His wife talked and walked. It was the supper again. Milton
+had a bad digestion because he is always so cross; and your Carlyle
+must have the worst digestion in the world, because he never says
+any good of anything. Ah, to digest is to be happy! Believe me, my
+friends, there is no other way not to be turned out of paradise by a
+fiery two-handed turning sword."
+
+"It is true," said Schmoff; "yes, it is true."
+
+"I believe you," said Doodles. "And how well the count describes it,
+don't he, Mr. Clavering? I never looked at it in that light; but,
+after all, digestion is everything. What is a horse worth, if he
+won't feed?"
+
+"I never thought much about it," said Harry.
+
+"That is very good," said the great preacher. "Not to think about it
+ever is the best thing in the world. You will be made to think about
+it if there be necessity. A friend of mine told me he did not know
+whether he had a digestion. My friend, I said, you are like the
+husbandmen; you do not know your own blessings. A bit more steak, Mr.
+Clavering; see, it has come up hot, just to prove that you have the
+blessing."
+
+There was a pause in the conversation for a minute or two, during
+which Schmoff and Doodles were very busy giving the required proof;
+and the count was leaning back in his chair, with a smile of
+conscious wisdom on his face, looking as though he were in deep
+consideration of the subject on which he had just spoken with so much
+eloquence. Harry did not interrupt the silence, as, foolishly, he was
+allowing his mind to carry itself away from the scene of enjoyment
+that was present, and trouble itself with the coming battle which he
+would be obliged to fight with the count. Schmoff was the first to
+speak. "When I was eating a horse at Hamboro'--" he began.
+
+"Schmoff," said the count, "if we allow you to get behind the
+ramparts of that besieged city, we shall have to eat that horse for
+the rest of the evening. Captain Boodle, if you will believe me, I
+eat that horse once for two hours. Ah, here is the port wine. Now,
+Mr. Clavering, this is the wine for cheese;--'34. No man should drink
+above two glasses of '34. If you want port after that, then have
+'20."
+
+Schmoff had certainly been hardly treated. He had scarcely spoken a
+word during dinner, and should, I think, have been allowed to say
+something of the flavour of the horse. It did not, however, appear
+from his countenance that he had felt, or that he resented the
+interference; though he did not make any further attempt to enliven
+the conversation.
+
+They did not sit long over their wine, and the count, in spite of
+what he had said about the claret, did not drink any. "Captain
+Boodle," he said, "you must respect my weakness as well as my
+strength. I know what I can do, and what I cannot. If I were a real
+hero, like you English,--which means, if I had an ostrich in my
+inside,--I would drink till twelve every night, and eat broiled
+bones till six every morning. But alas! the ostrich has not been
+given to me. As a common man I am pretty well, but I have no heroic
+capacities. We will have a little chasse, and then we will smoke."
+
+Harry began to be very nervous. How was he to do it? It had become
+clearer and clearer to him through every ten minutes of the dinner,
+that the count did not intend to give him any moment for private
+conversation. He felt that he was cheated and ill-used, and was
+waxing angry. They were to go and smoke in a public room, and he
+knew, or thought he knew, what that meant. The count would sit there
+till he went, and had brought the Colonel Schmoff with him, so that
+he might be sure of some ally to remain by his side and ensure
+silence. And the count, doubtless, had calculated that when Captain
+Boodle went, as he soon would go, to his billiards, he, Harry
+Clavering, would feel himself compelled to go also. No! It should not
+result in that way. Harry resolved that he would not go. He had his
+mission to perform and he would perform it, even if he were compelled
+to do so in the presence of Colonel Schmoff.
+
+Doodles soon went. He could not sit long with the simple
+gratification of a cigar, without gin-and-water or other comfort
+of that kind, even though the eloquence of Count Pateroff might be
+excited in his favour. He was a man, indeed, who did not love to sit
+still, even with the comfort of gin-and-water. An active little man
+was Captain Boodle, always doing something or anxious to do something
+in his own line of business. Small speculations in money, so
+concocted as to leave the risk against him smaller than the chance on
+his side, constituted Captain Boodle's trade; and in that trade he
+was indefatigable, ingenious, and, to a certain extent, successful.
+The worst of the trade was this: that though he worked at it above
+twelve hours a day, to the exclusion of all other interests in
+life, he could only make out of it an income which would have been
+considered a beggarly failure at any other profession. When he netted
+a pound a day he considered himself to have done very well; but he
+could not do that every day in the week. To do it often required
+unremitting exertion. And then, in spite of all his care, misfortunes
+would come. "A cursed garron, of whom nobody had ever heard the name!
+If a man mayn't take a liberty with such a brute as that, when is
+he to take a liberty?" So had he expressed himself plaintively,
+endeavouring to excuse himself, when on some occasion a race had been
+won by some outside horse which Captain Boodle had omitted to make
+safe in his betting-book. He was regarded by his intimate friends
+as a very successful man; but I think myself that his life was a
+mistake. To live with one's hands ever daubed with chalk from a
+billiard-table, to be always spying into stables and rubbing against
+grooms, to put up with the narrow lodgings which needy men encounter
+at race meetings, to be day after day on the rails running after
+platers and steeplechasers, to be conscious on all occasions of the
+expediency of selling your beast when you are hunting, to be counting
+up little odds at all your spare moments;--these things do not, I
+think, make a satisfactory life for a young man. And for a man that
+is not young, they are the very devil! Better have no digestion when
+you are forty than find yourself living such a life as that! Captain
+Boodle would, I think, have been happier had he contrived to get
+himself employed as a tax-gatherer or an attorney's clerk.
+
+On this occasion Doodles soon went, as had been expected, and Harry
+found himself smoking with the two foreigners. Pateroff was no longer
+eloquent, but sat with his cigar in his mouth as silent as Colonel
+Schmoff himself. It was evidently expected of Harry that he should
+go.
+
+"Count," he said at last, "you got my note?" There were seven or
+eight persons sitting in the room besides the party of three to which
+Harry belonged.
+
+"Your note, Mr. Clavering! which note? Oh, yes; I should not have had
+the pleasure of seeing you here to-day but for that."
+
+"Can you give me five minutes in private?"
+
+"What! now! here! this evening! after dinner? Another time I will
+talk with you by the hour together."
+
+"I fear I must trouble you now. I need not remind you that I could
+not keep you yesterday morning; you were so much hurried."
+
+"And now I am having my little moment of comfort! These special
+business conversations after dinner are so bad for the digestion!"
+
+"If I could have caught you before dinner, Count Pateroff, I would
+have done so."
+
+"If it must be, it must. Schmoff, will you wait for me ten minutes?
+I will not be more than ten minutes." And the count as he made this
+promise looked at his watch. "Waiter," he said, speaking in a sharp
+tone which Harry had not heard before, "show this gentleman and
+me into a private room." Harry got up and led the way out, not
+forgetting to assure himself that he cared nothing for the sharpness
+of the count's voice.
+
+"Now, Mr. Clavering, what is it?" said the count, looking full into
+Harry's eye.
+
+"I will tell you in two words."
+
+"In one if you can."
+
+"I came with a message to you from Lady Ongar."
+
+"Why are you a messenger from Lady Ongar?"
+
+"I have known her long and she is connected with my family."
+
+"Why does she not send her messages by Sir Hugh,--her
+brother-in-law?"
+
+"It is hardly for you to ask that!"
+
+"Yes; it is for me to ask that. I have known Lady Ongar well, and
+have treated her with kindness. I do not want to have messages by
+anybody. But go on. If you are a messenger, give your message."
+
+"Lady Ongar bids me tell you that she cannot see you."
+
+"But she must see me. She shall see me!"
+
+"I am to explain to you that she declines to do so. Surely, Count
+Pateroff, you must understand--"
+
+"Ah, bah; I understand everything;--in such matters as these, better,
+perhaps, than you, Mr. Clavering. You have given your message. Now,
+as you are a messenger, will you give mine?"
+
+"That will depend altogether on its nature."
+
+"Sir, I never send uncivil words to a woman, though sometimes I
+may be tempted to speak them to a man; when, for instance, a man
+interferes with me; do you understand? My message is this:--tell her
+ladyship, with my compliments, that it will be better for her to see
+me,--better for her, and for me. When that poor lord died,--and he
+had been, mind, my friend for many years before her ladyship had
+heard his name,--I was with him; and there were occurrences of which
+you know nothing and need know nothing. I did my best then to be
+courteous to Lady Ongar, which she returns by shutting her door in
+my face. I do not mind that. I am not angry with a woman. But tell
+her that when she has heard what I now say to her by you, she will,
+I do not doubt, think better of it; and therefore I shall do myself
+the honour of presenting myself at her door again. Good-night, Mr.
+Clavering; au revoir; we will have another of Stubbs' little dinners
+before long." As he spoke these last words the count's voice was
+again changed, and the old smile had returned to his face.
+
+Harry shook hands with him and walked away homewards, not without a
+feeling that the count had got the better of him, even to the end.
+He had, however, learned how the land lay, and could explain to Lady
+Ongar that Count Pateroff now knew her wishes and was determined to
+disregard them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+DESOLATION.
+
+
+In the meantime there was grief down at the great house of Clavering;
+and grief, we must suppose also, at the house in Berkeley Square,
+as soon as the news from his country home had reached Sir Hugh
+Clavering. Little Hughy, his heir, was dead. Early one morning, Mrs.
+Clavering, at the rectory, received a message from Lady Clavering,
+begging that she would go up to the house, and, on arriving there,
+she found that the poor child was very ill. The doctor was then at
+Clavering, and had recommended that a message should be sent to the
+father in London, begging him to come down. This message had been
+already despatched when Mrs. Clavering arrived. The poor mother was
+in a state of terrible agony, but at that time there was yet hope.
+Mrs. Clavering then remained with Lady Clavering for two or three
+hours; but just before dinner on the same day another messenger came
+across to say that hope was past, and that the child had gone. Could
+Mrs. Clavering come over again, as Lady Clavering was in a sad way?
+
+"You'll have your dinner first?" said the rector.
+
+"No, I think not. I shall wish to make her take something, and I can
+do it better if I ask for tea for myself. I will go at once. Poor
+dear little boy."
+
+"It was a blow I always feared," said the rector to his daughter as
+soon as his wife had left them. "Indeed, I knew that it was coming."
+
+"And she was always fearing it," said Fanny. "But I do not think he
+did. He never seems to think that evil will come to him."
+
+"He will feel this," said the rector.
+
+"Feel it, papa! Of course he will feel it."
+
+"I do not think he would,--not deeply, that is,--if there were four
+or five of them. He is a hard man;--the hardest man I ever knew. Who
+ever saw him playing with his own child, or with any other? Who ever
+heard him say a soft word to his wife? But he will be hit now, for
+this child was his heir. He will be hit hard now, and I pity him."
+
+Mrs. Clavering went across the park alone, and soon found herself in
+the poor bereaved mother's room. She was sitting by herself, having
+driven the old housekeeper away from her; and there were no traces
+of tears then on her face, though she had wept plentifully when Mrs.
+Clavering had been with her in the morning. But there had come upon
+her suddenly a look of age, which nothing but such sorrow as this can
+produce. Mrs. Clavering was surprised to see that she had dressed
+herself carefully since the morning, as was her custom to do daily,
+even when alone; and that she was not in her bedroom, but in a small
+sitting-room which she generally used when Sir Hugh was not at the
+park.
+
+"My poor Hermione," said Mrs. Clavering, coming up to her, and taking
+her by the hand.
+
+"Yes, I am poor; poor enough. Why have they troubled you to come
+across again?"
+
+"Did you not send for me? But it was quite right, whether you sent or
+no. Of course I should come when I heard it. It cannot be good for
+you to be all alone."
+
+"I suppose he will be here to-night?"
+
+"Yes, if he got your message before three o'clock."
+
+"Oh, he will have received it, and I suppose he will come. You think
+he will come, eh?"
+
+"Of course he will come."
+
+"I do not know. He does not like coming to the country."
+
+"He will be sure to come now, Hermione."
+
+"And who will tell him? Some one must tell him before he comes to
+me. Should there not be some one to tell him? They have sent another
+message."
+
+"Hannah shall be at hand to tell him." Hannah was the old housekeeper
+who had been in the family when Sir Hugh was born. "Or, if you wish
+it, Henry shall come down and remain here. I am sure he will do so,
+if it will be a comfort."
+
+"No; he would, perhaps, be rough to Mr. Clavering. He is so very
+hard. Hannah shall do it. Will you make her understand?" Mrs.
+Clavering promised that she would do this, wondering, as she did so,
+at the wretched, frigid immobility of the unfortunate woman before
+her. She knew Lady Clavering well;--knew her to be in many things
+weak, to be worldly, listless, and perhaps somewhat selfish; but she
+knew also that she had loved her child as mothers always love. Yet,
+at this moment, it seemed that she was thinking more of her husband
+than of the bairn she had lost. Mrs. Clavering had sat down by her
+and taken her hand, and was still so sitting in silence when Lady
+Clavering spoke again. "I suppose he will turn me out of his house
+now," she said.
+
+"Who will do so? Hugh? Oh, Hermione, how can you speak in such a
+way?"
+
+"He scolded me before because my poor darling was not strong. My
+darling! How could I help it? And he scolded me because there was
+none other but he. He will turn me out altogether now. Oh, Mrs.
+Clavering, you do not know how hard he is."
+
+Anything was better than this, and therefore Mrs. Clavering asked the
+poor woman to take her into the room where the little body lay in
+its little cot. If she could induce the mother to weep for the child,
+even that would be better than this hard persistent fear as to what
+her husband would say and do. So they both went and stood together
+over the little fellow whose short sufferings had thus been brought
+to an end. "My poor dear, what can I say to comfort you?" Mrs.
+Clavering, as she asked this, knew well that no comfort could be
+spoken in words; but--if she could only make the sufferer weep!
+
+"Comfort!" said the mother. "There is no comfort now, I believe,
+in anything. It is long since I knew any comfort;--not since Julia
+went."
+
+"Have you written to Julia?"
+
+"No; I have written to no one. I cannot write. I feel as though if it
+were to bring him back again I could not write of it. My boy! my boy!
+my boy!" But still there was not a tear in her eye.
+
+"I will write to Julia," said Mrs. Clavering; "and I will read to you
+my letter."
+
+"No, do not read it me. What is the use? He has made her quarrel with
+me. Julia cares nothing now for me, or for my angel. Why should she
+care? When she came home we would not see her. Of course she will not
+care. Who is there that will care for me?"
+
+"Do not I care for you, Hermione?"
+
+"Yes, because you are here; because of the nearness of the houses.
+If you lived far away you would not care for me. It is just the
+custom of the thing." There was something so true in this that Mrs.
+Clavering could make no answer to it. Then they turned to go back
+into the sitting-room, and as they did so Lady Clavering lingered
+behind for a moment; but when she was again with Mrs. Clavering her
+cheek was still dry.
+
+"He will be at the station at nine," said Lady Clavering. "They must
+send the brougham for him, or the dog-cart. He will be very angry if
+he is made to come home in the fly from the public-house." Then the
+elder lady left the room and gave orders that Sir Hugh should be met
+by his carriage. What must the wife think of her husband, when she
+feared that he would be angered by little matters at such a time as
+this! "Do you think it will make him very unhappy?" Lady Clavering
+asked.
+
+"Of course it will make him unhappy. How should it be otherwise?"
+
+"He had said so often that the child would die. He will have got used
+to the fear."
+
+"His grief will be as fresh now as though he had never thought so,
+and never said so."
+
+"He is so hard; and then he has such will, such power. He will thrust
+it off from him and determine that it shall not oppress him. I know
+him so well."
+
+"We should all make some exertion like that in our sorrow, trusting
+to God's kindness to relieve us. You too, Hermione, should determine
+also; but not yet, my dear. At first it is better to let sorrow have
+its way."
+
+"But he will determine at once. You remember when Meeny went." Meeny
+had been a little girl who had been born before the boy, and who had
+died when little more than twelve months old. "He did not expect
+that; but then he only shook his head, and went out of the room. He
+has never spoken to me one word of her since that. I think he has
+forgotten Meeny altogether,--even that she was ever here."
+
+"He cannot forget the boy who was his heir."
+
+"Ah, that is where it is. He will say words to me which would make
+you weep if you could hear them. Yes, my darling was his heir. Archie
+will marry now, and will have children, and his boy will be the heir.
+There will be more division and more quarrels, for Hugh will hate his
+brother now."
+
+"I do not understand why."
+
+"Because he is so hard. It is a pity he should ever have married, for
+he wants nothing that a wife can do for him. He wanted a boy to come
+after him in the estate, and now that glory has been taken from him.
+Mrs. Clavering, I often wish that I could die."
+
+It would be bootless here to repeat the words of wise and loving
+counsel with which the elder of the two ladies endeavoured to comfort
+the younger, and to make her understand what were the duties which
+still remained to her, and which, if they were rightly performed,
+would, in their performance, soften the misery of her lot. Lady
+Clavering listened with that dull, useless attention which on such
+occasions sorrow always gives to the prudent counsels of friendship;
+but she was thinking ever and always of her husband, and watching the
+moment of his expected return. In her heart she wished that he might
+not come on that evening. At last, at half-past nine, she exerted
+herself to send away her visitor.
+
+"He will be here soon, if he comes to-night," Lady Clavering said,
+"and it will be better that he should find me alone."
+
+"Will it be better?"
+
+"Yes, yes. Cannot you see how he would frown and shake his head if
+you were here? I would sooner be alone when he comes. Good-night. You
+have been very kind to me; but you are always kind. Things are done
+kindly always at your house, because there is so much love there. You
+will write to Julia for me. Good-night." Then Mrs. Clavering kissed
+her and went, thinking as she walked home in the dark to the rectory,
+how much she had to be thankful in that these words had been true
+which her poor neighbour had spoken. Her house was full of love.
+
+For the next half hour Lady Clavering sat alone listening with eager
+ear for the sound of her husband's wheels, and at last she had almost
+told herself that the hour for his coming had gone by, when she heard
+the rapid grating on the gravel as the dog-cart was driven up to
+the door. She ran out on to the corridor, but her heart sank within
+her as she did so, and she took tightly hold of the balustrade to
+support herself. For a moment she had thought of running down to meet
+him;--of trusting to the sadness of the moment to produce in him, if
+it were but for a minute, something of tender solicitude; but she
+remembered that the servants would be there, and knew that he would
+not be soft before them. She remembered also that the housekeeper had
+received her instructions, and she feared to disarrange the settled
+programme. So she went back to the open door of the room, that her
+retreating step might not be heard by him as he should come up to
+her, and standing there she still listened. The house was silent
+and her ears were acute with sorrow. She could hear the movement of
+the old woman as she gently, tremblingly, as Lady Clavering knew,
+made her way down the hall to meet her master. Sir Hugh of course
+had learned his child's fate already from the servant who had met
+him; but it was well that the ceremony of such telling should be
+performed. She felt the cold air come in from the opened front door,
+and she heard her husband's heavy quick step as he entered. Then she
+heard the murmur of Hannah's voice; but the first word she heard was
+in her husband's tones, "Where is Lady Clavering?" Then the answer
+was given, and the wife, knowing that he was coming, retreated back
+to her chair.
+
+But still he did not come quite at once. He was pulling off his coat
+and laying aside his hat and gloves. Then came upon her a feeling
+that at such a time any other husband and wife would have been at
+once in each other's arms. And at the moment she thought of all that
+they had lost. To her her child had been all and everything. To him
+he had been his heir and the prop of his house. The boy had been the
+only link that had still bound them together. Now he was gone, and
+there was no longer any link between them. He was gone and she had
+nothing left to her. He was gone, and the father was also alone
+in the world, without any heir and with no prop to his house. She
+thought of all this as she heard his step coming slowly up the
+stairs. Slowly he came along the passage, and though she dreaded his
+coming it almost seemed as though he would never be there.
+
+When he had entered the room she was the first to speak. "Oh, Hugh!"
+she exclaimed, "oh, Hugh!" He had closed the door before he uttered a
+word, and then he threw himself into a chair. There were candles near
+to him and she could see that his countenance also was altered. He
+had indeed been stricken hard, and his half-stunned face showed the
+violence of the blow. The harsh, cruel, selfish man had at last been
+made to suffer. Although he had spoken of it and had expected it, the
+death of his heir hit him hard, as the rector had said.
+
+"When did he die?" asked the father.
+
+"It was past four I think." Then there was again silence, and Lady
+Clavering went up to her husband and stood close by his shoulder. At
+last she ventured to put her hand upon him. With all her own misery
+heavy upon her, she was chiefly thinking at this moment how she might
+soothe him. She laid her hand upon his shoulder, and by degrees she
+moved it softly to his breast. Then he raised his own hand and with
+it moved hers from his person. He did it gently;--but what was the
+use of such nonsense as that?
+
+"The Lord giveth," said the wife, "and the Lord taketh away." Hearing
+this Sir Hugh made with his head a gesture of impatience. "Blessed be
+the name of the Lord," continued Lady Clavering. Her voice was low
+and almost trembling, and she repeated the words as though they were
+a task which she had set herself.
+
+
+[Illustration: "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away."]
+
+
+"That's all very well in its way," said he, "but what's the special
+use of it now? I hate twaddle. One must bear one's misfortune as one
+best can. I don't believe that kind of thing ever makes it lighter."
+
+"They say it does, Hugh."
+
+"Ah! they say! Have they ever tried? If you have been living up to
+that kind of thing all your life, it may be very well;--that is as
+well at one time as another. But it won't give me back my boy."
+
+"No, Hugh; he will never come back again; but we may think that he's
+in Heaven."
+
+"If that is enough for you, let it be so. But don't talk to me of it.
+I don't like it. It doesn't suit me. I had only one, and he has gone.
+It is always the way." He spoke of the child as having been his--not
+his and hers. She felt this, and understood the want of affection
+which it conveyed; but she said nothing of it.
+
+"Oh, Hugh; what could we do? It was not our fault."
+
+"Who is talking of any fault? I have said nothing as to fault. He
+was always poor and sickly. The Claverings, generally, have been so
+strong. Look at myself, and Archie, and my sisters. Well, it cannot
+be helped. Thinking of it will not bring him back again. You had
+better tell some one to get me something to eat. I came away, of
+course, without any dinner."
+
+She herself had eaten nothing since the morning, but she neither
+spoke nor thought of that. She rang the bell, and going out into the
+passage gave the servant the order on the stairs.
+
+"It is no good my staying here," he said. "I will go and dress. It
+is the best not to think of such things,--much the best. People call
+that heartless, of course, but then people are fools. If I were to
+sit still, and think of it for a week together, what good could I
+do?"
+
+"But how not to think of it? that is the thing."
+
+"Women are different, I suppose. I will dress and then go down to the
+breakfast-room. Tell Saunders to get me a bottle of champagne. You
+will be better also if you will take a glass of wine."
+
+It was the first word he had spoken which showed any care for her,
+and she was grateful for it. As he arose to go, she came close to
+him again, and put her hand very gently on his arm. "Hugh," she said,
+"will you not see him?"
+
+"What good will that do?"
+
+"I think you would regret it if you were to let them take him away
+without looking at him. He is so pretty as he lays in his little bed.
+I thought you would come with me to see him." He was more gentle with
+her than she had expected, and she led him away to the room which had
+been their own, and in which the child had died.
+
+"Why here?" he said, almost angrily, as he entered.
+
+"I have had him here with me since you went."
+
+"He should not be here now," he said, shuddering. "I wish he had been
+moved before I came. I will not have this room any more; remember
+that." She led him up to the foot of the little cot, which stood
+close by the head of her own bed, and then she removed a handkerchief
+which lay upon the child's face.
+
+"Oh, Hugh! oh, Hugh!" she said, and, throwing her arms round his
+neck, she wept violently upon his breast. For a few moments he did
+not disturb her, but stood looking at his boy's face. "Hugh, Hugh,"
+she repeated, "will you not be kind to me? Do be kind to me. It is
+not my fault that we are childless."
+
+Still he endured her for a few moments longer. He spoke no word to
+her, but he let her remain there, with her head upon his breast.
+
+"Dear Hugh, I love you so truly!"
+
+"This is nonsense," said he, "sheer nonsense." His voice was low and
+very hoarse. "Why do you talk of kindness now?"
+
+"Because I am so wretched."
+
+"What have I done to make you wretched?"
+
+"I do not mean that; but if you will be gentle with me, it will
+comfort me. Do not leave me here all alone, now my darling has been
+taken from me."
+
+Then he shook her from him, not violently, but with a persistent
+action.
+
+"Do you mean that you want to go up to town?" he said.
+
+"Oh, no; not that."
+
+"Then what is it you want? Where would you live, if not here?"
+
+"Anywhere you please, only that you should stay with me."
+
+"All that is nonsense. I wonder that you should talk of such things
+now. Come away from this, and let me go to my room. All this is trash
+and nonsense, and I hate it." She put back with careful hands the
+piece of cambric which she had moved, and then, seating herself on
+a chair, wept violently, with her hands closed upon her face. "That
+comes of bringing me here," he said. "Get up, Hermione. I will not
+have you so foolish. Get up, I say. I will have the room closed till
+the men come."
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"Get up, I say, and come away." Then she rose, and followed him out
+of the chamber, and when he went to change his clothes she returned
+to the room in which he had found her. There she sat and wept, while
+he went down and dined and drank alone. But the old housekeeper
+brought her up a morsel of food and a glass of wine, saying that her
+master desired that she would take it.
+
+"I will not leave you, my lady, till you have done so," said Hannah.
+"To fast so long must be bad always."
+
+Then she eat the food, and drank a drop of wine, and allowed the old
+woman to take her away to the bed that had been prepared for her. Of
+her husband she saw no more for four days. On the next morning a note
+was brought to her, in which Sir Hugh told her that he had returned
+to London. It was necessary, he said, that he should see his lawyer
+and his brother. He and Archie would return for the funeral. With
+reference to that he had already given orders.
+
+During the next three days, and till her husband's return, Lady
+Clavering remained at the rectory, and in the comfort of Mrs.
+Clavering's presence she almost felt that it would be well for her
+if those days could be prolonged. But she knew the hour at which
+her husband would return, and she took care to be at home when he
+arrived. "You will come and see him?" she said to the rector, as she
+left the parsonage. "You will come at once;--in an hour or two?"
+Mr. Clavering remembered the circumstances of his last visit to the
+house, and the declaration he had then made that he would not return
+there. But all that could not now be considered.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I will come across this evening. But you had better
+tell him, so that he need not be troubled to see me if he would
+rather be alone."
+
+"Oh, he will see you. Of course he will see you. And you will not
+remember that he ever offended you?"
+
+Mrs. Clavering had written both to Julia and to Harry, and the day
+of the funeral had been settled. Harry had already communicated
+his intention of coming down; and Lady Ongar had replied to Mrs.
+Clavering's letter, saying that she could not now offer to go to
+Clavering Park, but that if her sister would go elsewhere with
+her,--to some place, perhaps, on the sea-side,--she would be glad to
+accompany her; and she used many arguments in her letter to show that
+such an arrangement as this had better be made.
+
+"You will be with my sister," she had said; "and she will understand
+why I do not write to her myself, and will not think that it comes
+from coldness." This had been written before Lady Ongar saw Harry
+Clavering.
+
+Mr. Clavering, when he got to the great house, was immediately shown
+into the room in which the baronet and his younger brother were
+sitting. They had, some time since, finished dinner, but the
+decanters were still on the table before them. "Hugh," said the
+rector, walking up to his elder nephew, briskly, "I grieve for you.
+I grieve for you from the bottom of my heart."
+
+"Yes," said Hugh, "it has been a heavy blow. Sit down, uncle. There
+is a clean glass there; or Archie will fetch you one." Then Archie
+looked out a clean glass and passed the decanter; but of this the
+rector took no direct notice.
+
+"It has been a blow, my poor boy,--a heavy blow," said the rector.
+"None heavier could have fallen. But our sorrows come from Heaven, as
+do our blessings, and must be accepted."
+
+"We are all like grass," said Archie, "and must be cut down in
+our turns." Archie, in saying this, intended to put on his best
+behaviour. He was as sincere as he knew how to be.
+
+"Come, Archie, none of that," said his brother. "It is my uncle's
+trade."
+
+"Hugh," said the rector, "unless you can think of it so, you will
+find no comfort."
+
+"And I expect none, so there is an end of that. Different people
+think of these things differently, you know, and it is of no more
+use for me to bother you than it is for you to bother me. My boy has
+gone, and I know that he will not come back to me. I shall never have
+another, and it is hard to bear. But, meaning no offence to you, I
+would sooner be left to bear it in my own way. If I were to talk
+about the grass as Archie did just now, it would be humbug, and I
+hate humbug. No offence to you. Take some wine, uncle."
+
+But the rector could not drink wine in that presence, and therefore
+he escaped as soon as he could. He spoke one word of intended comfort
+to Lady Clavering, and then returned to the rectory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+YES; WRONG;--CERTAINLY WRONG.
+
+
+Harry Clavering had heard the news of his little cousin's death
+before he went to Bolton Street to report the result of his
+negotiation with the count. His mother's letter with the news had
+come to him in the morning, and on the same evening he called on Lady
+Ongar. She also had then received Mrs. Clavering's letter, and knew
+what had occurred at the park. Harry found her alone, having asked
+the servant whether Madame Gordeloup was with his mistress. Had such
+been the case he would have gone away, and left his message untold.
+
+As he entered the room his mind was naturally full of the tidings
+from Clavering. Count Pateroff and his message had lost some of
+their importance through this other event, and the emptiness of the
+childless house was the first subject of conversation between him
+and Lady Ongar. "I pity my sister greatly," said she. "I feel for
+her as deeply as I should have done had nothing occurred to separate
+us;--but I cannot feel for him."
+
+"I do," said Harry.
+
+"He is your cousin, and perhaps has been your friend?"
+
+"No, not especially. He and I have never pulled well together; but
+still I pity him deeply."
+
+"He is not my cousin, but I know him better than you do, Harry. He
+will not feel much himself, and his sorrow will be for his heir, not
+for his son. He is a man whose happiness does not depend on the life
+or death of any one. He likes some people, as he once liked me; but I
+do not think that he ever loved any human being. He will get over it,
+and he will simply wish that Hermy may die, that he may marry another
+wife. Harry, I know him so well!"
+
+"Archie will marry now," said Harry.
+
+"Yes; if he can get any one to have him. There are very few men who
+can't get wives, but I can fancy Archie Clavering to be one of them.
+He has not humility enough to ask the sort of girl who would be glad
+to take him. Now, with his improved prospects, he will want a royal
+princess or something not much short of it. Money, rank, and blood
+might have done before, but he'll expect youth, beauty, and wit now,
+as well as the other things. He may marry after all, for he is just
+the man to walk out of a church some day with the cookmaid under his
+arm as his wife."
+
+"Perhaps he may find something between a princess and a cookmaid."
+
+"I hope, for your sake, he may not;--neither a princess nor a
+cookmaid, nor anything between."
+
+"He has my leave to marry to-morrow, Lady Ongar. If I had my wish,
+Hugh should have his house full of children."
+
+"Of course that is the proper thing to say, Harry."
+
+"I won't stand that from you, Lady Ongar. What I say, I mean; and no
+one knows that better than you."
+
+"Won't you, Harry? From whom, then, if not from me? But come, I will
+do you justice, and believe you to be simple enough to wish anything
+of the kind. The sort of castle in the air which you build, is not
+one to be had by inheritance, but to be taken by storm. You must
+fight for it."
+
+"Or work for it."
+
+"Or win it in some way off your own bat; and no lord ever sat prouder
+in his castle than you sit in those that you build from day to
+day in your imagination. And you sally forth and do all manner
+of magnificent deeds. You help distressed damsels,--poor me, for
+instance; and you attack enormous dragons;--shall I say that Sophie
+Gordeloup is the latest dragon?--and you wish well to your enemies,
+such as Hugh and Archie; and you cut down enormous forests, which
+means your coming miracles as an engineer;--and then you fall
+gloriously in love. When is that last to be, Harry?"
+
+"I suppose, according to all precedent, that must be done with the
+distressed damsel," he said,--fool that he was.
+
+"No, Harry, no; you shall take your young fresh generous heart to a
+better market than that; not but that the distressed damsel will ever
+remember what might once have been."
+
+He knew that he was playing on the edge of a precipice,--that he was
+fluttering as a moth round a candle. He knew that it behoved him
+now at once to tell her all his tale as to Stratton and Florence
+Burton;--that if he could tell it now, the pang would be over and the
+danger gone. But he did not tell it. Instead of telling it he thought
+of Lady Ongar's beauty, of his own early love, of what might have
+been his had he not gone to Stratton. I think he thought, if not of
+her wealth, yet of the power and place which would have been his were
+it now open to him to ask her for her hand. When he had declared that
+he did not want his cousin's inheritance, he had spoken the simple
+truth. He was not covetous of another's money. Were Archie to marry
+as many wives as Henry, and have as many children as Priam, it would
+be no offence to him. His desires did not lie in that line. But in
+this other case, the woman before him who would so willingly have
+endowed him with all that she possessed, had been loved by him before
+he had ever seen Florence Burton. In all his love for Florence,--so
+he now told himself, but so told himself falsely,--he had ever
+remembered that Julia Brabazon had been his first love, the love whom
+he had loved with all his heart. But things had gone with him most
+unfortunately,--with a misfortune that had never been paralleled. It
+was thus he was thinking instead of remembering that now was the time
+in which his tale should be told.
+
+Lady Ongar, however, soon carried him away from the actual brink of
+the precipice. "But how about the dragon," said she, "or rather about
+the dragon's brother, at whom you were bound to go and tilt on my
+behalf? Have you tilted, or are you a recreant knight?"
+
+"I have tilted," said he, "but the he-dragon professes that he will
+not regard himself as killed. In other words he declares that he will
+see you."
+
+"That he will see me?" said Lady Ongar, and as she spoke there came
+an angry spot on each cheek. "Does he send me that message as a
+threat?"
+
+"He does not send it as a threat, but I think he partly means it so."
+
+"He will find, Harry, that I will not see him; and that should he
+force himself into my presence, I shall know how to punish such an
+outrage. If he sent me any message, let me know it."
+
+"To tell the truth he was most unwilling to speak to me at all,
+though he was anxious to be civil to me. When I had inquired for him
+some time in vain, he came to me with another man, and asked me to
+dinner. So I went, and as there were four of us, of course I could
+not speak to him then. He still had the other man, a foreigner--"
+
+"Colonel Schmoff, perhaps?"
+
+"Yes; Colonel Schmoff. He kept Colonel Schmoff by him, so as to guard
+him from being questioned."
+
+"That is so like him. Everything he does he does with some
+design,--with some little plan. Well, Harry, you might have ignored
+Colonel Schmoff for what I should have cared."
+
+"I got the count to come out into another room at last, and then he
+was very angry,--with me, you know,--and talked of what he would do
+to men who interfered with him."
+
+"You will not quarrel with him, Harry? Promise me that there shall be
+no nonsense of that sort,--no fighting."
+
+"Oh, no; we were friends again very soon. But he bade me tell you
+that there was something important for him to say and for you to
+hear, which was no concern of mine, and which required an interview."
+
+"I do not believe him, Harry."
+
+"And he said that he had once been very courteous to you--"
+
+"Yes; once insolent,--and once courteous. I have forgiven the one for
+the other."
+
+"He then went on to say that you made him a poor return for his
+civility by shutting your door in his face, but that he did not
+doubt you would think better of it when you had heard his message.
+Therefore, he said, he should call again. That, Lady Ongar, was the
+whole of it."
+
+"Shall I tell you what his intention was, Harry?" Again her face
+became red as she asked this question; but the colour which now came
+to her cheeks was rather that of shame than of anger.
+
+"What was his intention?"
+
+"To make you believe that I am in his power; to make you think that
+he has been my lover; to lower me in your eyes, so that you might
+believe all that others have believed,--all that Hugh Clavering has
+pretended to believe. That has been his object, Harry, and perhaps
+you will tell me what success he has had."
+
+"Lady Ongar!"
+
+"You know the old story, that the drop which is ever dropping will
+wear the stone. And after all why should your faith in me be as hard
+even as a stone?"
+
+"Do you believe that what he said had any such effect?"
+
+"It is very hard to look into another person's heart; and the dearer
+and nearer that heart is to your own, the greater, I think, is the
+difficulty. I know that man's heart,--what he calls his heart; but I
+don't know yours."
+
+For a moment or two Clavering made no answer, and then, when he did
+speak, he went back from himself to the count.
+
+"If what you surmise of him be true, he must be a very devil. He
+cannot be a man--"
+
+"Man or devil, what matters which he be? Which is the worst,
+Harry, and what is the difference? The Fausts of this day want no
+Mephistopheles to teach them guile or to harden their hearts."
+
+"I do not believe that there are such men. There may be one."
+
+"One, Harry! What was Lord Ongar? What is your cousin Hugh? What is
+this Count Pateroff? Are they not all of the same nature; hard as
+stone, desirous simply of indulging their own appetites, utterly
+without one generous feeling, incapable even of the idea of caring
+for any one? Is it not so? In truth this count is the best of the
+three I have named. With him a woman would stand a better chance than
+with either of the others."
+
+"Nevertheless, if that was his motive, he is a devil."
+
+"He shall be a devil if you say so. He shall be anything you please,
+so long as he has not made you think evil of me."
+
+"No; he has not done that."
+
+"Then I don't care what he has done, or what he may do. You would
+not have me see him, would you?" This she asked with a sudden energy,
+throwing herself forward from her seat with her elbows on the table,
+and resting her face on her hands, as she had already done more than
+once when he had been there; so that the attitude, which became her
+well, was now customary in his eyes.
+
+"You will hardly be guided by my opinion in such a matter."
+
+"By whose, then, will I be guided? Nay, Harry, since you put me to a
+promise, I will make the promise. I will be guided by your opinion.
+If you bid me see him, I will do it,--though, I own, it would be
+distressing to me."
+
+"Why should you see him, if you do not wish it?"
+
+"I know no reason. In truth there is no reason. What he says about
+Lord Ongar is simply some part of his scheme. You see what his scheme
+is, Harry?"
+
+"What is his scheme?"
+
+"Simply this--that I should be frightened into becoming his wife. My
+darling bosom friend Sophie, who, as I take it, has not quite managed
+to come to satisfactory terms with her brother,--and I have no doubt
+her price for assistance has been high,--has informed me more than
+once that her brother desires to do me so much honour. The count,
+perhaps, thinks that he can manage such a bagatelle without any aid
+from his sister; and my dearest Sophie seems to feel that she can do
+better with me herself in my widowed state, than if I were to take
+another husband. They are so kind and so affectionate; are they not?"
+
+At this moment tea was brought in, and Clavering sat for a time
+silent with his cup in his hand. She, the meanwhile, had resumed the
+old position with her face upon her hands, which she had abandoned
+when the servant entered the room, and was now sitting looking at
+him as he sipped his tea with his eyes averted from her. "I cannot
+understand," at last he said, "why you should persist in your
+intimacy with such a woman."
+
+"You have not thought about it, Harry, or you would understand it. It
+is, I think, very easily understood."
+
+"You know her to be treacherous, false, vulgar, covetous,
+unprincipled. You cannot like her. You say she is a dragon."
+
+"A dragon to you, I said."
+
+"You cannot pretend that she is a lady, and yet you put up with her
+society."
+
+"Exactly. And now tell me what you would have me do."
+
+"I would have you part from her."
+
+"But how? It is so easy to say, part. Am I to bar my door against
+her when she has given me no offence? Am I to forget that she did me
+great service, when I sorely needed such services? Can I tell her to
+her face that she is all these things that you say of her, and that
+therefore I will for the future dispense with her company? Or do you
+believe that people in this world associate only with those they love
+and esteem?"
+
+"I would not have one for my intimate friend whom I did not love and
+esteem."
+
+"But, Harry, suppose that no one loved and esteemed you; that you had
+no home down at Clavering with a father that admires you and a mother
+that worships you; no sisters that think you to be almost perfect,
+no comrades with whom you can work with mutual regard and emulation,
+no self-confidence, no high hopes of your own, no power of choosing
+companions whom you can esteem and love;--suppose with you it was
+Sophie Gordeloup or none,--how would it be with you then?"
+
+His heart must have been made of stone if this had not melted it. He
+got up and coming round to her stood over her. "Julia," he said, "it
+is not so with you."
+
+"But it is so with Julia," she said. "That is the truth. How am I
+better than her, and why should I not associate with her?"
+
+"Better than her! As women you are poles asunder."
+
+"But as dragons," she said, smiling, "we come together."
+
+"Do you mean that you have no one to love you?"
+
+"Yes, Harry; that is just what I do mean. I have none to love me. In
+playing my cards I have won my stakes in money and rank, but have
+lost the amount ten times told in affection, friendship, and that
+general unpronounced esteem which creates the fellowship of men and
+women in the world. I have a carriage and horses, and am driven about
+with grand servants; and people, as they see me, whisper and say that
+is Lady Ongar, whom nobody knows. I can see it in their eyes till I
+fancy that I can hear their words."
+
+"But it is all false."
+
+"What is false? It is not false that I have deserved this. I have
+done that which has made me a fitting companion for such a one as
+Sophie Gordeloup, though I have not done that which perhaps these
+people think."
+
+He paused again before he spoke, still standing near her on the rug.
+"Lady Ongar--" he said.
+
+"Nay, Harry; not Lady Ongar when we are together thus. Let me feel
+that I have one friend who can dare to call me by my name,--from
+whose mouth I shall be pleased to hear my name. You need not fear
+that I shall think that it means too much. I will not take it as
+meaning what it used to mean."
+
+He did not know how to go on with his speech, or in truth what to
+say to her. Florence Burton was still present to his mind, and from
+minute to minute he told himself that he would not become a villain.
+But now it had come to that with him, that he would have given all
+that he had in the world that he had never gone to Stratton. He
+sat down by her in silence, looking away from her at the fire,
+swearing to himself that he would not become a villain, and yet
+wishing, almost wishing, that he had the courage to throw his honour
+overboard. At last, half turning round towards her he took her hand,
+or rather took her first by the wrist till he could possess himself
+of her hand. As he did so he touched her hair and her cheek, and she
+let her hand drop till it rested in his. "Julia," he said, "what can
+I do to comfort you?" She did not answer him, but looked away from
+him as she sat, across the table into vacancy. "Julia," he said
+again, "is there anything that will comfort you?" But still she did
+not answer him.
+
+He understood it all as well as the reader will understand it. He
+knew how it was with her, and was aware that he was at this instant
+false almost equally to her and to Florence. He knew that the
+question he had asked was one to which there could be made a true and
+satisfactory answer, but that his safety lay in the fact that that
+answer was all but impossible for her to give. Could she say, "Yes,
+you can comfort me. Tell me that you yet love me, and I will be
+comforted?" But he had not designed to bring her into such difficulty
+as this. He had not intended to be cruel. He had drifted into
+treachery unawares, and was torturing her, not because he was wicked,
+but because he was weak. He had held her hand now for some minute
+or two, but still she did not speak to him. Then he raised it and
+pressed it warmly to his lips.
+
+"No, Harry," she said, jumping from her seat and drawing her
+hand rapidly from him; "no; it shall not be like that. Let it be
+Lady Ongar again if the sound of the other name brings back too
+closely the memory of other days. Let it be Lady Ongar again. I can
+understand that it will be better." As she spoke she walked away from
+him across the room, and he followed her.
+
+"Are you angry?" he asked her.
+
+"No, Harry; not angry. How should I be angry with you who alone are
+left to me of my old friends? But, Harry, you must think for me, and
+spare me in my difficulty."
+
+"Spare you, Julia?"
+
+"Yes, Harry, spare me; you must be good to me and considerate, and
+make yourself like a brother to me. But people will know you are not
+a brother, and you must remember all that, for my sake. But you must
+not leave me or desert me. Anything that people might say would be
+better than that."
+
+"Was I wrong to kiss your hand?"
+
+"Yes, wrong, certainly wrong;--that is, not wrong, but unmindful."
+
+"I did it," he said, "because I love you." And as he spoke the tears
+stood in both his eyes.
+
+"Yes; you love me, and I you; but not with love that may show itself
+in that form. That was the old love, which I threw away, and which
+has been lost. That was at an end when I--jilted you. I am not angry;
+but you will remember that that love exists no longer? You will
+remember that, Harry?"
+
+He sat himself down in a chair in a far part of the room, and two
+tears coursed their way down his cheeks. She stood over him and
+watched him as he wept. "I did not mean to make you sad," she said.
+"Come, we will be sad no longer. I understand it all. I know how
+it is with you. The old love is lost, but we will not the less be
+friends." Then he rose suddenly from his chair, and taking her in his
+arms, and holding her closely to his bosom, pressed his lips to hers.
+
+He was so quick in this that she had not the power, even if she had
+the wish, to restrain him. But she struggled in his arms, and held
+her face aloof from him as she gently rebuked his passion. "No,
+Harry, no; not so," she said, "it must not be so."
+
+"Yes, Julia, yes; it shall be so; ever so,--always so." And he
+was still holding her in his arms, when the door opened, and with
+stealthy, cat-like steps Sophie Gordeloup entered the room. Harry
+immediately retreated from his position, and Lady Ongar turned upon
+her friend, and glared upon her with angry eyes.
+
+"Ah," said the little Franco-Pole, with an expression of infinite
+delight on her detestable visage, "ah, my dears, is it not well that
+I thus announce myself?"
+
+"No," said Lady Ongar, "it is not well. It is anything but well."
+
+"And why not well, Julie? Come, do not be foolish. Mr. Clavering is
+only a cousin, and a very handsome cousin, too. What does it signify
+before me?"
+
+"It signifies nothing before you," said Lady Ongar.
+
+"But before the servant, Julie--?"
+
+"It would signify nothing before anybody."
+
+"Come, come, Julie, dear; that is nonsense."
+
+"Nonsense or no nonsense, I would wish to be private when I please.
+Will you tell me, Madame Gordeloup, what is your pleasure at the
+present moment?"
+
+"My pleasure is to beg your pardon and to say you must forgive your
+poor friend. Your fine man-servant is out, and Bessy let me in. I
+told Bessy I would go up by myself, and that is all. If I have come
+too late I beg pardon."
+
+"Not too late, certainly,--as I am still up."
+
+"And I wanted to ask you about the pictures to-morrow? You said,
+perhaps you would go to-morrow,--perhaps not."
+
+Clavering had found himself to be somewhat awkwardly situated
+while Madame Gordeloup was thus explaining the causes of her having
+come unannounced into the room; as soon, therefore, as he found
+it practicable, he took his leave. "Julia," he said, "as Madame
+Gordeloup is with you, I will now go."
+
+"But you will let me see you soon?"
+
+"Yes, very soon; that is, as soon as I return from Clavering. I leave
+town early to-morrow morning."
+
+"Good-by, then," and she put out her hand to him frankly, smiling
+sweetly on him. As he felt the warm pressure of her hand he hardly
+knew whether to return it or to reject it. But he had gone too far
+now for retreat, and he held it firmly for a moment in his own. She
+smiled again upon him, oh! so passionately, and nodded her head at
+him. He had never, he thought, seen a woman look so lovely, or more
+light of heart. How different was her countenance now from that she
+had worn when she told him, earlier on that fatal evening, of all the
+sorrows that made her wretched! That nod of hers said so much. "We
+understand each other now,--do we not? Yes; although this spiteful
+woman has for the moment come between us, we understand each other.
+And is it not sweet? Ah! the troubles of which I told you;--you,
+you have cured them all." All that had been said plainly in her
+farewell salutation, and Harry had not dared to contradict it by any
+expression of his countenance.
+
+"By, by, Mr. Clavering," said Sophie.
+
+"Good evening, Madame Gordeloup," said Harry, turning upon her a look
+of bitter anger. Then he went, leaving the two women together, and
+walked home to Bloomsbury Square,--not with the heart of a joyous
+thriving lover.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Harry Clavering, when he walked away from Bolton Street after the
+scene in which he had been interrupted by Sophie Gordeloup, was
+not in a happy frame of mind, nor did he make his journey down to
+Clavering with much comfort to himself. Whether or no he was now to
+be regarded as a villain, at any rate he was not a villain capable of
+doing his villany without extreme remorse and agony of mind. It did
+not seem to him to be even yet possible that he should be altogether
+untrue to Florence. It hardly occurred to him to think that he could
+free himself from the contract by which he was bound to her. No; it
+was towards Lady Ongar that his treachery must be exhibited;--towards
+the woman whom he had sworn to befriend, and whom he now, in his
+distress, imagined to be the dearer to him of the two. He should,
+according to his custom, have written to Florence a day or two before
+he left London, and, as he went to Bolton Street, had determined to
+do so that evening on his return home; but when he reached his rooms
+he found it impossible to write such a letter. What could he say to
+her that would not be false? How could he tell her that he loved her,
+and speak as he was wont to do of his impatience, after that which
+had just occurred in Bolton Street?
+
+But what was he to do in regard to Julia? He was bound to let her
+know at once what was his position, and to tell her that in treating
+her as he had treated her, he had simply insulted her. That look
+of gratified contentment with which she had greeted him as he
+was leaving her, clung to his memory and tormented him. Of that
+contentment he must now rob her, and he was bound to do so with as
+little delay as was possible. Early in the morning before he started
+on his journey he did make an attempt, a vain attempt, to write, not
+to Florence but to Julia. The letter would not get itself written. He
+had not the hardihood to inform her that he had amused himself with
+her sorrows, and that he had injured her by the exhibition of his
+love. And then that horrid Franco-Pole, whose prying eyes Julia had
+dared to disregard, because she had been proud of his love! If she
+had not been there, the case might have been easier. Harry, as he
+thought of this, forgot to remind himself that if Sophie had not
+interrupted him he would have floundered on from one danger to
+another till he would have committed himself more thoroughly even
+than he had done, and have made promises which it would have been as
+shameful to break as it would be to keep them. But even as it was,
+had he not made such promises? Was there not such a promise in that
+embrace, in the half-forgotten word or two which he had spoken while
+she was in his arms, and in the parting grasp of his hand? He could
+not write that letter then, on that morning, hurried as he was with
+the necessity of his journey; and he started for Clavering resolving
+that it should be written from his father's house.
+
+It was a tedious, sad journey to him, and he was silent and out
+of spirits when he reached his home; but he had gone there for the
+purpose of his cousin's funeral, and his mood was not at first
+noticed, as it might have been had the occasion been different. His
+father's countenance wore that well-known look of customary solemnity
+which is found to be necessary on such occasions, and his mother was
+still thinking of the sorrows of Lady Clavering, who had been at the
+rectory for the last day or two.
+
+"Have you seen Lady Ongar since she heard of the poor child's death?"
+his mother asked.
+
+"Yes, I was with her yesterday evening."
+
+"Do you see her often?" Fanny inquired.
+
+"What do you call often? No; not often. I went to her last night
+because she had given me a commission. I have seen her three or four
+times altogether."
+
+"Is she as handsome as she used to be?" said Fanny.
+
+"I cannot tell; I do not know."
+
+"You used to think her very handsome, Harry."
+
+"Of course she is handsome. There has never been a doubt about that;
+but when a woman is in deep mourning one hardly thinks about her
+beauty." Oh, Harry, Harry, how could you be so false?
+
+"I thought young widows were always particularly charming," said
+Fanny; "and when one remembers about Lord Ongar one does not think of
+her being a widow so much as one would do if he had been different."
+
+"I don't know anything about that," said he. He felt that he was
+stupid, and that he blundered in every word, but he could not help
+himself. It was impossible that he should talk about Lady Ongar with
+proper composure. Fanny saw that the subject annoyed him and that
+it made him cross, and she therefore ceased. "She wrote a very nice
+letter to your mother about the poor child, and about her sister,"
+said the rector. "I wish with all my heart that Hermione could go to
+her for a time."
+
+"I fear that he will not let her," said Mrs. Clavering. "I do not
+understand it all, but Hermione says that the rancour between Hugh
+and her sister is stronger now than ever."
+
+"And Hugh will not be the first to put rancour out of his heart,"
+said the rector.
+
+On the following day was the funeral and Harry went with his father
+and cousins to the child's grave. When he met Sir Hugh in the
+dining-room in the Great House the baronet hardly spoke to him. "A
+sad occasion; is it not?" said Archie; "very sad; very sad." Then
+Harry could see that Hugh scowled at his brother angrily, hating his
+humbug, and hating it the more because in Archie's case it was doubly
+humbug. Archie was now heir to the property and to the title.
+
+After the funeral Harry went to see Lady Clavering, and again had to
+endure a conversation about Lady Ongar. Indeed, he had been specially
+commissioned by Julia to press upon her sister the expediency of
+leaving Clavering for a while. This had been early on that last
+evening in Bolton Street, long before Madame Gordeloup had made her
+appearance. "Tell her from me," Lady Ongar had said, "that I will go
+anywhere that she may wish if she will go with me,--she and I alone;
+and, Harry, tell her this as though I meant it. I do mean it. She
+will understand why I do not write myself. I know that he sees all
+her letters when he is with her." This task Harry was now to perform,
+and the result he was bound to communicate to Lady Ongar. The message
+he might give; but delivering the answer to Lady Ongar would be
+another thing.
+
+Lady Clavering listened to what he said, but when he pressed her for
+a reply she shook her head. "And why not, Lady Clavering?"
+
+"People can't always leave their houses and go away, Harry."
+
+"But I should have thought that you could have done so now;--that is,
+before long. Will Sir Hugh remain here at Clavering?"
+
+"He has not told me that he means to go."
+
+"If he stays, I suppose you will stay; but if he goes up to London
+again, I cannot see why you and your sister should not go away
+together. She mentioned Tenby as being very quiet, but she would be
+guided by you in that altogether."
+
+"I do not think it will be possible, Harry. Tell her with my love,
+that I am truly obliged to her, but that I do not think it will be
+possible. She is free, you know, to do what she pleases."
+
+"Yes, she is free. But do you mean--?"
+
+"I mean, Harry, that I had better stay where I am. What is the use of
+a scene, and of being refused at last? Do not say more about it, but
+tell her that it cannot be so." This Harry promised to do, and after
+a while was rising to go, when she suddenly asked him a question. "Do
+you remember what I was saying about Julia and Archie when you were
+here last?"
+
+"Yes; I remember."
+
+"Well, would he have a chance? It seems that you see more of her now
+than any one else."
+
+"No chance at all, I should say." And Harry, as he answered, could
+not repress a feeling of most unreasonable jealousy.
+
+"Ah, you have always thought little of Archie. Archie's position is
+changed now, Harry, since my darling was taken from me. Of course he
+will marry, and Hugh, I think, would like him to marry Julia. It was
+he proposed it. He never likes anything unless he has proposed it
+himself."
+
+"It was he proposed the marriage with Lord Ongar. Does he like that?"
+
+"Well; you know, Julia has got her money." Harry, as he heard this,
+turned away, sick at heart. The poor baby whose mother was now
+speaking to him had only been buried that morning, and she was
+already making fresh schemes for family wealth. Julia has got her
+money! That had seemed to her, even in her sorrow, to be sufficient
+compensation for all that her sister had endured and was enduring.
+Poor soul! Harry did not reflect as he should have done, that in all
+her schemes she was only scheming for that peace which might perhaps
+come to her if her husband were satisfied. "And why should not Julia
+take him?" she asked.
+
+"I cannot tell why, but she never will," said Harry, almost in anger.
+At that moment the door was opened, and Sir Hugh came into the room.
+"I did not know that you were here," Sir Hugh said, turning to the
+visitor.
+
+"I could not be down here without saying a few words to Lady
+Clavering."
+
+"The less said the better, I suppose, just at present," said Sir
+Hugh. But there was no offence in the tone of his voice, or in his
+countenance, and Harry took the words as meaning none.
+
+"I was telling Lady Clavering that as soon as she can, she would be
+better if she left home for awhile."
+
+"And why should you tell Lady Clavering that?"
+
+"I have told him that I would not go," said the poor woman.
+
+"Why should she go, and where; and why have you proposed it? And how
+does it come to pass that her going or not going should be a matter
+of solicitude to you?" Now, as Sir Hugh asked these questions of
+his cousin, there was much of offence in his tone,--of intended
+offence,--and in his eye, and in all his bearing. He had turned his
+back upon his wife, and was looking full into Harry's face. "Lady
+Clavering, no doubt, is much obliged to you," he said, "but why is it
+that you specially have interfered to recommend her to leave her home
+at such a time as this?"
+
+Harry had not spoken as he did to Sir Hugh without having made some
+calculation in his own mind as to the result of what he was about
+to say. He did not, as regarded himself, care for his cousin or his
+cousin's anger. His object at present was simply that of carrying out
+Lady Ongar's wish, and he had thought that perhaps Sir Hugh might not
+object to the proposal which his wife was too timid to make to him.
+
+"It was a message from her sister," said Harry, "sent by me."
+
+"Upon my word she is very kind. And what was the message,--unless it
+be a secret between you three?"
+
+"I have had no secret, Hugh," said his wife.
+
+"Let me hear what he has to say," said Sir Hugh.
+
+"Lady Ongar thought that it might be well that her sister should
+leave Clavering for a short time, and has offered to go anywhere with
+her for a few weeks. That is all."
+
+"And why the devil should Hermione leave her own house? And if
+she were to leave it, why should she go with a woman that has
+misconducted herself?"
+
+"Oh, Hugh!" exclaimed Lady Clavering.
+
+"Lady Ongar has never misconducted herself," said Harry.
+
+"Are you her champion?" asked Sir Hugh.
+
+"As far as that, I am. She has never misconducted herself; and what
+is more, she has been cruelly used since she came home."
+
+"By whom; by whom?" said Sir Hugh, stepping close up to his cousin
+and looking with angry eyes into his face.
+
+But Harry Clavering was not a man to be intimidated by the angry eyes
+of any man. "By you," he said, "her brother-in-law;--by you, who made
+up her wretched marriage, and who, of all others, were the most bound
+to protect her."
+
+"Oh, Harry, don't, don't!" shrieked Lady Clavering.
+
+"Hermione, hold your tongue," said the imperious husband; "or,
+rather, go away and leave us. I have a word or two to say to Harry
+Clavering, which had better be said in private."
+
+"I will not go if you are going to quarrel."
+
+"Harry," said Sir Hugh, "I will trouble you to go downstairs before
+me. If you will step into the breakfast-room I will come to you."
+
+Harry Clavering did as he was bid, and in a few minutes was joined by
+his cousin in the breakfast-room.
+
+"No doubt you intended to insult me by what you said upstairs." The
+baronet began in this way after he had carefully shut the door, and
+had slowly walked up to the rug before the fire, and had there taken
+his position.
+
+"Not at all; I intended to take the part of an ill-used woman whom
+you had calumniated."
+
+"Now look here, Harry, I will have no interference on your part in
+my affairs, either here or elsewhere. You are a very fine fellow, no
+doubt, but it is not part of your business to set me or my house in
+order. After what you have just said before Lady Clavering you will
+do well not to come here in my absence."
+
+"Neither in your absence nor in your presence."
+
+"As to the latter you may do as you please. And now touching my
+sister-in-law, I will simply recommend you to look after your own
+affairs."
+
+"I shall look after what affairs I please."
+
+"Of Lady Ongar and her life since her marriage I daresay you know as
+little as anybody in the world, and I do not suppose it likely that
+you will learn much from her. She made a fool of you once, and it is
+on the cards that she may do so again."
+
+"You said just now that you would brook no interference in your
+affairs. Neither will I."
+
+"I don't know that you have any affairs in which any one can
+interfere. I have been given to understand that you are engaged
+to marry that young lady whom your mother brought here one day to
+dinner. If that be so, I do not see how you can reconcile it to
+yourself to become the champion, as you called it, of Lady Ongar."
+
+"I never said anything of the kind."
+
+"Yes, you did."
+
+"No; it was you who asked me whether I was her champion."
+
+"And you said you were."
+
+"So far as to defend her name when I heard it traduced by you."
+
+"By heavens, your impudence is beautiful. Who knows her best, do you
+think,--you or I? Whose sister-in-law is she? You have told me I was
+cruel to her. Now to that I will not submit, and I require you to
+apologize to me."
+
+"I have no apology to make, and nothing to retract."
+
+"Then I shall tell your father of your gross misconduct, and shall
+warn him that you have made it necessary for me to turn his son
+out of my house. You are an impertinent, overbearing puppy, and if
+your name were not the same as my own, I would tell the grooms to
+horsewhip you off the place."
+
+"Which order, you know, the grooms would not obey. They would a deal
+sooner horsewhip you. Sometimes I think they will, when I hear you
+speak to them."
+
+"Now go!"
+
+"Of course I shall go. What would keep me here?"
+
+Sir Hugh then opened the door, and Harry passed through it, not
+without a cautious look over his shoulder, so that he might be on his
+guard if any violence were contemplated. But Hugh knew better than
+that, and allowed his cousin to walk out of the room, and out of the
+house, unmolested.
+
+And this had happened on the day of the funeral! Harry Clavering had
+quarrelled thus with the father within a few hours of the moment in
+which they two had stood together over the grave of that father's
+only child! As he thought of this while he walked across the park he
+became sick at heart. How vile, wretched and miserable was the world
+around him! How terribly vicious were the people with whom he was
+dealing! And what could he think of himself,--of himself, who was
+engaged to Florence Burton, and engaged also, as he certainly was,
+to Lady Ongar? Even his cousin had rebuked him for his treachery to
+Florence; but what would his cousin have said had he known all? And
+then what good had he done;--or rather what evil had he not done?
+In his attempt on behalf of Lady Clavering had he not, in truth,
+interfered without proper excuse, and fairly laid himself open to
+anger from his cousin? And he felt that he had been an ass, a fool,
+a conceited ass, thinking that he could produce good, when his
+interference could be efficacious only for evil. Why could he not
+have held his tongue when Sir Hugh came in, instead of making that
+vain suggestion as to Lady Clavering? But even this trouble was but
+an addition to the great trouble that overwhelmed him. How was he to
+escape the position which he had made for himself in reference to
+Lady Ongar? As he had left London he had promised to himself that
+he would write to her that same night and tell her everything as to
+Florence; but the night had passed, and the next day was nearly gone,
+and no such letter had been written.
+
+As he sat with his father that evening, he told the story of his
+quarrel with his cousin. His father shrugged his shoulders and raised
+his eyebrows. "You are a bolder man than I am," he said. "I certainly
+should not have dared to advise Hugh as to what he should do with his
+wife."
+
+"But I did not advise him. I only said that I had been talking to her
+about it. If he were to say to you that he had been recommending my
+mother to do this or that, you would not take it amiss?"
+
+"But Hugh is a peculiar man."
+
+"No man has a right to be peculiar. Every man is bound to accept such
+usage as is customary in the world."
+
+"I don't suppose that it will signify much," said the rector. "To
+have your cousin's doors barred against you, either here or in
+London, will not injure you."
+
+"Oh, no; it will not injure me; but I do not wish you to think that
+I have been unreasonable."
+
+The night went by and so did the next day, and still the letter did
+not get itself written. On the third morning after the funeral he
+heard that Sir Hugh had gone away; but he, of course, did not go up
+to the house, remembering well that he had been warned by the master
+not to do so in the master's absence. His mother, however, went
+to Lady Clavering, and some intercourse between the families was
+renewed. He had intended to stay but one day after the funeral, but
+at the end of a week he was still at the rectory. It was Whitsuntide
+he said, and he might as well take his holiday as he was down there.
+Of course they were glad that he should remain with them, but they
+did not fail to perceive that things with him were not altogether
+right; nor had Fanny failed to perceive that he had not once
+mentioned Florence's name since he had been at the rectory.
+
+"Harry," she said, "there is nothing wrong between you and Florence?"
+
+
+[Illustration: "Harry," she said, "there is nothing wrong between
+you and Florence?"]
+
+
+"Wrong! what should there be wrong? What do you mean by wrong?"
+
+"I had a letter from her to-day and she asks where you are."
+
+"Women expect such a lot of letter-writing! But I have been remiss I
+know. I got out of my business way of doing things when I came down
+here and have neglected it. Do you write to her to-morrow, and tell
+her that she shall hear from me directly I get back to town."
+
+"But why should you not write to her from here?"
+
+"Because I can get you to do it for me."
+
+Fanny felt that this was not at all like a lover, and not at all like
+such a lover as her brother had been. While Florence had been at
+Clavering he had been most constant with his letters, and Fanny had
+often heard Florence boast of them as being perfect in their way. She
+did not say anything further at the present moment, but she knew that
+things were not altogether right. Things were by no means right. He
+had written neither to Lady Ongar nor to Florence, and the longer
+he put off the task the more burdensome did it become. He was now
+telling himself that he would write to neither till he got back to
+London.
+
+On the day before he went, there came to him a letter from Stratton.
+Fanny was with him when he received it, and observed that he put
+it into his pocket without opening it. In his pocket he carried it
+unopened half the day, till he was ashamed of his own weakness. At
+last, almost in despair with himself, he broke the seal and forced
+himself to read it. There was nothing in it that need have alarmed
+him. It contained hardly a word that was intended for a rebuke.
+
+"I wonder why you should have been two whole weeks without writing,"
+she said. "It seems so odd to me, because you have spoiled me by your
+customary goodness. I know that other men when they are engaged do
+not trouble themselves with constant letter-writing. Even Theodore,
+who according to Cecilia is perfect, would not write to her then very
+often; and now, when he is away, his letters are only three lines.
+I suppose you are teaching me not to be exacting. If so, I will kiss
+the rod like a good child; but I feel it the more because the lesson
+has not come soon enough."
+
+Then she went on in her usual strain, telling him of what she had
+done, what she had read, and what she had thought. There was no
+suspicion in her letter, no fear, no hint at jealousy. And she
+should have no further cause for jealousy! One of the two must
+be sacrificed, and it was most fitting that Julia should be the
+sacrifice. Julia should be sacrificed,--Julia and himself! But still
+he could not write to Florence till he had written to Julia. He could
+not bring himself to send soft, pretty, loving words to one woman
+while the other was still regarding him as her affianced lover.
+
+"Was your letter from Florence this morning?" Fanny asked him.
+
+"Yes; it was."
+
+"Had she received mine?"
+
+"I don't know. Of course she had. If you sent it by post of course
+she got it."
+
+"She might have mentioned it, perhaps."
+
+"I daresay she did. I don't remember."
+
+"Well, Harry; you need not be cross with me because I love the girl
+who is going to be your wife. You would not like it if I did not care
+about her."
+
+"I hate being called cross."
+
+"Suppose I were to say that I hated your being cross. I'm sure I
+do;--and you are going away to-morrow, too. You have hardly said a
+nice word to me since you have been home."
+
+Harry threw himself back into a chair almost in despair. He was not
+enough a hypocrite to say nice words when his heart within him was
+not at ease. He could not bring himself to pretend that things were
+pleasant.
+
+"If you are in trouble, Harry, I will not go on teasing you."
+
+"I am in trouble," he said.
+
+"And cannot I help you?"
+
+"No; you cannot help me. No one can help me. But do not ask any
+questions."
+
+"Oh, Harry! is it about money?"
+
+"No, no; it has nothing to do with money."
+
+"You have not really quarrelled with Florence?"
+
+"No; I have not quarrelled with her at all. But I will not answer
+more questions. And, Fanny, do not speak of this to my father or
+mother. It will be over before long, and then, if possible, I will
+tell you."
+
+"Harry, you are not going to fight with Hugh?"
+
+"Fight with Hugh! no. Not that I should mind it; but he is not fool
+enough for that. If he wanted fighting done, he would do it by
+deputy. But there is nothing of that kind."
+
+She asked him no more questions, and on the next morning he returned
+to London. On his table he found a note which he at once knew to be
+from Lady Ongar, and which had come only that afternoon.
+
+"Come to me at once;--at once." That was all that the note contained.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+CUMBERLY LANE WITHOUT THE MUD.
+
+
+Fanny Clavering, while she was inquiring of her brother about his
+troubles, had not been without troubles of her own. For some days
+past she had been aware,--almost aware,--that Mr. Saul's love was not
+among the things that were past. I am not prepared to say that this
+conviction on her part was altogether an unalloyed trouble, or that
+there might have been no faint touch of sadness, of silent melancholy
+about her, had it been otherwise. But Mr. Saul was undoubtedly a
+trouble to her; and Mr. Saul with his love in activity would be more
+troublesome than Mr. Saul with his love in abeyance. "It would be
+madness either in him or in me," Fanny had said to herself very
+often; "he has not a shilling in the world." But she thought no
+more in these days of the awkwardness of his gait, or of his rusty
+clothes, or his abstracted manner; and for his doings as a clergyman
+her admiration had become very great. Her mother saw something of
+all this, and cautioned her; but Fanny's demure manner deceived Mrs.
+Clavering. "Oh, mamma, of course I know that anything of the kind
+must be impossible; and I am sure he does not think of it himself any
+longer." When she had said this, Mrs. Clavering had believed that
+it was all right. The reader must not suppose that Fanny had been a
+hypocrite. There had been no hypocrisy in her words to her mother. At
+that moment the conviction that Mr. Saul's love was not among past
+events had not reached her; and as regarded herself, she was quite
+sincere when she said that anything of the kind must be impossible.
+
+It will be remembered that Florence Burton had advised Mr. Saul
+to try again, and that Mr. Saul had resolved that he would do
+so,--resolving, also, that should he try in vain he must leave
+Clavering, and seek another home. He was a solemn, earnest,
+thoughtful man; to whom such a matter as this was a phase of life
+very serious, causing infinite present trouble, nay, causing
+tribulation, and, to the same extent, capable of causing infinite
+joy. From day to day he went about his work, seeing her amidst his
+ministrations almost daily. And never during these days did he say
+a word to her of his love,--never since that day in which he had
+plainly pleaded his cause in the muddy lane. To no one but Florence
+Burton had he since spoken of it, and Florence had certainly been
+true to her trust; but, notwithstanding all that, Fanny's conviction
+was very strong.
+
+Florence had counselled Mr. Saul to try again, and Mr. Saul was
+prepared to make the attempt; but he was a man who allowed himself to
+do nothing in a hurry. He thought much of the matter before he could
+prepare himself to recur to the subject; doubting, sometimes, whether
+he would be right to do so without first speaking to Fanny's father;
+doubting, afterwards, whether he might not best serve his cause by
+asking the assistance of Fanny's mother. But he resolved at last that
+he would depend on himself alone. As to the rector, if his suit to
+Fanny were a fault against Mr. Clavering as Fanny's father, that
+fault had been already committed. But Mr. Saul would not admit to
+himself that it was a fault. I fancy that he considered himself to
+have, as a gentleman, a right to address himself to any lady with
+whom he was thrown into close contact. I fancy that he ignored all
+want of worldly preparation,--never for a moment attempting to place
+himself on a footing with men who were richer than himself, and, as
+the world goes, brighter, but still feeling himself to be in no way
+lower than they. If any woman so lived as to show that she thought
+his line better than their line, it was open to him to ask such woman
+to join her lot to his. If he failed, the misfortune was his; and
+the misfortune, as he well knew, was one which it was hard to bear.
+And as to the mother, though he had learned to love Mrs. Clavering
+dearly,--appreciating her kindness to all those around her, her
+conduct to her husband, her solicitude in the parish, all her genuine
+goodness, still he was averse to trust to her for any part of his
+success. Though Mr. Saul was no knight, though he had nothing
+knightly about him, though he was a poor curate in very rusty clothes
+and with manner strangely unfitted for much communion with the outer
+world, still he had a feeling that the spoil which he desired to
+win should be won by his own spear, and that his triumph would lose
+half its glory if it were not achieved by his own prowess. He was
+no coward, either in such matter as this or in any other. When
+circumstances demanded that he should speak he could speak his mind
+freely, with manly vigour, and sometimes not without a certain manly
+grace.
+
+How did Fanny know that it was coming? She did know it, though he had
+said nothing to her beyond his usual parish communications. He was
+often with her in the two schools; often returned with her in the
+sweet spring evenings along the lane that led back to the rectory
+from Cumberly Green; often inspected with her the little amounts of
+parish charities and entries of pence collected from such parents as
+could pay. He had never reverted to that other subject. But yet Fanny
+knew that it was coming, and when she had questioned Harry about his
+troubles she had been thinking also of her own.
+
+It was now the middle of May, and the spring was giving way to the
+early summer almost before the spring had itself arrived. It is so, I
+think, in these latter years. The sharpness of March prolongs itself
+almost through April; and then, while we are still hoping for the
+spring, there falls upon us suddenly a bright, dangerous, delicious
+gleam of summer. The lane from Cumberly Green was no longer muddy,
+and Fanny could go backwards and forwards between the parsonage and
+her distant school without that wading for which feminine apparel
+is so unsuited. One evening, just as she had finished her work, Mr.
+Saul's head appeared at the school-door, and he asked her whether she
+were about to return home. As soon as she saw his eye and heard his
+voice, she feared that the day was come. She was prepared with no
+new answer, and could only give the answer that she had given before.
+She had always told herself that it was impossible; and as to all
+other questions, about her own heart or such like, she had put such
+questions away from her as being unnecessary, and, perhaps, unseemly.
+The thing was impossible, and should therefore be put away out of
+thought, as a matter completed and at an end. But now the time was
+come, and she almost wished that she had been more definite in her
+own resolutions.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Saul, I have just done."
+
+"I will walk with you, if you will let me." Then Fanny spoke some
+words of experienced wisdom to two or three girls, in order that
+she might show to them, to him, and to herself that she was quite
+collected. She lingered in the room for a few minutes, and was very
+wise and very experienced. "I am quite ready now, Mr. Saul." So
+saying, she came forth upon the green lane, and he followed her.
+
+They walked on in silence for a little way, and then he asked her
+some question about Florence Burton. Fanny told him that she had
+heard from Stratton two days since, and that Florence was well.
+
+"I liked her very much," said Mr. Saul.
+
+"So did we all. She is coming here again in the autumn; so it will
+not be very long before you see her again."
+
+"How that may be I cannot tell, but if you see her that will be of
+more consequence."
+
+"We shall all see her, of course."
+
+"It was here, in this lane, that I was with her last, and wished her
+good-by. She did not tell you of my having parted with her, then?"
+
+"Not especially, that I remember."
+
+"Ah, you would have remembered if she had told you; but she was quite
+right not to tell you." Fanny was now a little confused, so that she
+could not exactly calculate what all this meant. Mr. Saul walked on
+by her side, and for some moments nothing was said. After a while
+he recurred again to his parting from Florence. "I asked her advice
+on that occasion, and she gave it me clearly,--with a clear purpose
+and an assured voice. I like a person who will do that. You are sure
+then that you are getting the truth out of your friend, even if it be
+a simple negative, or a refusal to give any reply to the question
+asked."
+
+"Florence Burton is always clear in what she says."
+
+"I had asked her if she thought that I might venture to hope for a
+more favourable answer if I urged my suit to you again."
+
+"She cannot have said yes to that, Mr. Saul; she cannot have done
+so!"
+
+"She did not do so. She simply bade me ask yourself. And she was
+right. On such a matter there is no one to whom I can with propriety
+address myself, but to yourself. Therefore I now ask you the
+question. May I venture to have any hope?"
+
+His voice was so solemn, and there was so much of eager seriousness
+in his face that Fanny could not bring herself to answer him with
+quickness. The answer that was in her mind was in truth this: "How
+can you ask me to try to love a man who has but seventy pounds a
+year in the world, while I myself have nothing?" But there was
+something in his demeanour,--something that was almost grand in its
+gravity,--which made it quite impossible that she should speak to
+him in that tone. But he, having asked his question, waited for an
+answer; and she was well aware that the longer she delayed it, the
+weaker became the ground on which she was standing.
+
+"It is quite impossible," she said at last.
+
+"If it really be so,--if you will say again that it is so after
+hearing me out to an end, I will desist. In that case I will desist
+and leave you,--and leave Clavering."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Saul, do not do that,--for papa's sake, and because of the
+parish."
+
+"I would do much for your father, and as to the parish I love it
+well. I do not think I can make you understand how well I love it.
+It seems to me that I can never again have the same feeling for any
+place that I have for this. There is not a house, a field, a green
+lane, that is not dear to me. It is like a first love. With some
+people a first love will come so strongly that it makes a renewal
+of the passion impossible." He did not say that it would be so with
+himself, but it seemed to her that he intended that she should so
+understand him.
+
+"I do not see why you should leave Clavering," she said.
+
+"If you knew the nature of my regard for yourself, you would see
+why it should be so. I do not say that there ought to be any such
+necessity. If I were strong there would be no such need. But I am
+weak,--weak in this; and I could not hold myself under such control
+as is wanted for the work I have to do." When he had spoken of his
+love for the place,--for the parish, there had been something of
+passion in his language; but now in the words which he spoke of
+himself and of his feeling for her, he was calm and reasonable and
+tranquil, and talked of his going away from her as he might have
+talked had some change of air been declared necessary for his health.
+She felt that this was so, and was almost angry with him.
+
+"Of course you must know what will be best for yourself," she said.
+
+"Yes; I know now what I must do, if such is to be your answer. I have
+made up my mind as to that. I cannot remain at Clavering, if I am
+told that I may never hope that you will become my wife."
+
+"But, Mr. Saul--"
+
+"Well; I am listening. But before you speak, remember how
+all-important your words will be to me."
+
+"No; they cannot be all-important."
+
+"As regards my present happiness and rest in this world they will
+be so. Of course I know that nothing you can say or do will hurt me
+beyond that. But you might help me even to that further and greater
+bliss. You might help me too in that,--as I also might help you."
+
+"But, Mr. Saul--" she began again, and then, feeling that she must go
+on, she forced herself to utter words which at the time she felt to
+be commonplace. "People cannot marry without an income. Mr. Fielding
+did not think of such a thing till he had a living assured to him."
+
+"But, independently of that, might I hope?" She ventured for an
+instant to glance at his face, and saw that his eyes were glistening
+with a wonderful brightness.
+
+"How can I answer you further? Is not that reason enough why such a
+thing should not be even discussed?"
+
+"No, Miss Clavering, it is not reason enough. If you were to tell
+me that you could never love me,--me, personally,--that you could
+never regard me with affection, that would be reason why I should
+desist;--why I should abandon all my hope here, and go away from
+Clavering for ever. Nothing else can be reason enough. My being poor
+ought not to make you throw me aside if you loved me. If it were so
+that you loved me, I think you would owe it me to say so, let me be
+ever so poor."
+
+"I do not like you the less because you are poor."
+
+"But do you like me at all? Can you bring yourself to love me? Would
+you make the effort if I had such an income as you thought necessary?
+If I had such riches, could you teach yourself to regard me as him
+whom you were to love better than all the world beside? I call upon
+you to answer me that question truly; and if you tell me that it
+could be so, I will not despair, and I will not go away."
+
+As he said this they came to a turn in the road which brought the
+parsonage gate within their view. Fanny knew that she would leave him
+there and go in alone, but she knew also that she must say something
+further to him before she could thus escape. She did not wish to give
+him an assurance of her positive indifference to him,--and still less
+did she wish to tell him that he might hope. It could not be possible
+that such an engagement should be approved by her father, nor could
+she bring herself to think that she could be quite contented with
+a lover such as Mr. Saul. When he had first proposed to her she
+had almost ridiculed his proposition in her heart. Even now there
+was something in it that was almost ridiculous;--and yet there was
+something in it also that touched her as being sublime. The man was
+honest, good, and true,--perhaps the best and truest man that she had
+ever known. She could not bring herself to say to him any word that
+should banish him for ever from the place he loved so well.
+
+"If you knew your own heart well enough to answer me, you should do
+so," he went on to say. "If you do not, say so, and I will be content
+to wait your own time."
+
+"It would be better, Mr. Saul, that you should not think of this any
+more."
+
+"No, Miss Clavering; that would not be better,--not for me; for it
+would prove me to be utterly heartless. I am not heartless. I love
+you dearly. I will not say that I cannot live without you; but it is
+my one great hope as regards this world, that I should have you at
+some future day as my own. It may be that I am too prone to hope; but
+surely, if that were altogether beyond hope, you would have found
+words to tell me so by this time." They had now come to the gateway,
+and he paused as she put her trembling hand upon the latch.
+
+"I cannot say more to you now," she said.
+
+"Then let it be so. But, Miss Clavering, I shall not leave this place
+till you have said more than that. And I will speak the truth to you,
+even though it may offend you. I have more of hope now than I have
+ever had before,--more hope that you may possibly learn to love me.
+In a few days I will ask you again whether I may be allowed to speak
+upon the subject to your father. Now I will say farewell, and may God
+bless you; and remember this,--that my only earthly wish and ambition
+is in your hands." Then he went on his way towards his own lodgings,
+and she entered the parsonage garden by herself.
+
+What should she now do, and how should she carry herself? She would
+have gone to her mother at once, were it not that she could not
+resolve what words she would speak to her mother. When her mother
+should ask her how she regarded the man, in what way should she
+answer that question? She could not tell herself that she loved Mr.
+Saul; and yet, if she surely did not love him,--if such love were
+impossible,--why had she not said as much to him? We, however, may
+declare that that inclination to ridicule his passion, to think
+of him as a man who had no right to love, was gone for ever. She
+conceded to him clearly that right, and knew that he had exercised it
+well. She knew that he was good and true, and honest, and recognized
+in him also manly courage and spirited resolution. She would not tell
+herself that it was impossible that she should love him.
+
+She went up at last to her room doubting, unhappy, and ill at ease.
+To have such a secret long kept from her mother would make her life
+unendurable to her. But she felt that, in speaking to her mother,
+only one aspect of the affair would be possible. Even though she
+loved him, how could she marry a curate whose only income was seventy
+pounds a year?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE RUSSIAN SPY.
+
+
+When the baby died at Clavering Park, somebody hinted that Sir Hugh
+would certainly quarrel with his brother as soon as Archie should
+become the father of a presumptive heir to the title and property.
+That such would be the case those who best knew Sir Hugh would not
+doubt. That Archie should have that of which he himself had been
+robbed, would of itself be enough to make him hate Archie. But,
+nevertheless, at this present time, he continued to instigate his
+brother in that matter of the proposed marriage with Lady Ongar.
+Hugh, as well as others, felt that Archie's prospects were now
+improved, and that he could demand the hand of a wealthy lady
+with more of seeming propriety than would have belonged to such a
+proposition while the poor child was living. No one would understand
+this better than Lady Ongar, who knew so well all the circumstances
+of the family. The day after the funeral the two brothers returned to
+London together, and Hugh spoke his mind in the railway carriage. "It
+will be no good for you to hang on about Bolton Street, off and on,
+as though she were a girl of seventeen," he said.
+
+"I'm quite up to that," said Archie. "I must let her know I'm there
+of course. I understand all that."
+
+"Then why don't you do it? I thought you meant to go to her at once
+when we were talking about it before in London."
+
+"So I did go to her, and got on with her very well, too, considering
+that I hadn't been there long when another woman came in."
+
+"But you didn't tell her what you had come about?"
+
+"No; not exactly. You see it doesn't do to pop at once to a widow
+like her. Ongar, you know, hasn't been dead six months. One has to be
+a little delicate in these things."
+
+"Believe me, Archie, you had better give up all notions of being
+delicate, and tell her what you want at once,--plainly and fairly.
+You may be sure that she will not think of her former husband, if you
+don't."
+
+"Oh! I don't think about him at all."
+
+"Who was the woman you say was there?"
+
+"That little Frenchwoman,--the sister of the man;--Sophie she calls
+her. Sophie Gordeloup is her name. They are bosom friends."
+
+"The sister of that count?"
+
+"Yes; his sister. Such a woman for talking! She said ever so much
+about your keeping Hermione down in the country."
+
+"The devil she did. What business was that of hers? That is Julia's
+doing."
+
+"Well; no, I don't think so. Julia didn't say a word about it. In
+fact, I don't know how it came up. But you never heard such a woman
+to talk,--an ugly, old, hideous little creature! But the two are
+always together."
+
+"If you don't take care you'll find that Julia is married to the
+count while you are thinking about it."
+
+Then Archie began to consider whether he might not as well tell
+his brother of his present scheme with reference to Julia. Having
+discussed the matter at great length with his confidential friend,
+Captain Boodle, he had come to the conclusion that his safest course
+would be to bribe Madame Gordeloup, and creep into Julia's favour by
+that lady's aid. Now, on his return to London, he was about at once
+to play that game, and had already provided himself with funds for
+the purpose. The parting with ready money was a grievous thing to
+Archie, though in this case the misery would be somewhat palliated by
+the feeling that it was a bonâ fide sporting transaction. He would
+be lessening the odds against himself by a judicious hedging of his
+bets. "You must stand to lose something always by the horse you mean
+to win," Doodles had said to him, and Archie had recognized the
+propriety of the remark. He had, therefore, with some difficulty,
+provided himself with funds, and was prepared to set about his
+hedging operations as soon as he could find Madame Gordeloup on his
+return to London. He had already ascertained her address through
+Doodles, and had ascertained by the unparalleled acuteness of his
+friend that the lady was--a Russian spy. It would have been beautiful
+to have seen Archie's face when this information was whispered into
+his ear, in private, at the club. It was as though he had then been
+made acquainted with some great turf secret, unknown to the sporting
+world in general.
+
+"Ah!" he said, drawing a long breath, "no;--by George, is she?"
+
+The same story had been told everywhere in London of the little woman
+for the last half dozen years, whether truly or untruly I am not
+prepared to say; but it had not hitherto reached Archie Clavering;
+and now, on hearing it, he felt that he was becoming a participator
+in the deepest diplomatic secrets of Europe.
+
+"By George," said he, "is she really?"
+
+And his respect for the little woman rose a thousand per cent.
+
+"That's what she is," said Doodles, "and it's a doosed fine thing
+for you, you know! Of course you can make her safe, and that will be
+everything."
+
+Archie resolved at once that he would use the great advantage which
+chance and the ingenuity of his friend had thrown in his way; but
+that necessity of putting money in his purse was a sore grievance
+to him, and it occurred to him that it would be a grand thing if
+he could induce his brother to help him in this special matter. If
+he could only make Hugh see the immense advantage of an alliance
+with the Russian spy, Hugh could hardly avoid contributing to the
+expense,--of course on the understanding that all such moneys were
+to be repaid when the Russian spy's work had been brought to a
+successful result. Russian spy! There was in the very sound of the
+words something so charming that it almost made Archie in love with
+the outlay. A female Russian spy too! Sophie Gordeloup certainly
+retained but very few of the charms of womanhood, nor had her
+presence as a lady affected Archie with any special pleasure; but yet
+he felt infinitely more pleased with the affair than he would have
+been had she been a man spy. The intrigue was deeper. His sense of
+delight in the mysterious wickedness of the thing was enhanced by an
+additional spice. It is not given to every man to employ the services
+of a political Russian lady-spy in his love-affairs! As he thought of
+it in all its bearings, he felt that he was almost a Talleyrand, or,
+at any rate, a Palmerston.
+
+Should he tell his brother? If he could represent the matter in such
+a light to his brother as to induce Hugh to produce the funds for
+purchasing the Spy's services, the whole thing would be complete
+with a completeness that has rarely been equalled. But he doubted.
+Hugh was a hard man,--a hard, unimaginative man, and might possibly
+altogether refuse to believe in the Russian spy. Hugh believed in
+little but what he himself saw, and usually kept a very firm grasp
+upon his money.
+
+"That Madame Gordeloup is always with Julia," Archie said, trying the
+way, as it were, before he told his plan.
+
+"Of course she will help her brother's views."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that. Some of these foreign women ain't like
+other women at all. They go deeper;--a doosed sight deeper."
+
+"Into men's pockets, you mean."
+
+"They play a deep game altogether. What do you suppose she is, now?"
+This question Archie asked in a whisper, bending his head forward
+towards his brother, though there was no one else in the carriage
+with them.
+
+"What she is? A thief of some kind probably. I've no doubt she's up
+to any roguery."
+
+"She's a--Russian spy."
+
+"Oh, I've heard of that for the last dozen years. All the ugly old
+Frenchwomen in London are Russian spies, according to what people
+say; but the Russians know how to use their money better than that.
+If they employ spies, they employ people who can spy something."
+
+Archie felt this to be cruel,--very cruel, but he said nothing
+further about it. His brother was stupid, pigheaded, obstinate, and
+quite unfitted by nature for affairs of intrigue. It was, alas,
+certain that his brother would provide no money for such a purpose
+as that he now projected; but, thinking of this, he found some
+consolation in the reflection that Hugh would not be a participator
+with him in his great secret. When he should have bought the Russian
+spy, he and Doodles would rejoice together in privacy without any
+third confederate. Triumviri might be very well; Archie also had
+heard of triumviri; but two were company, and three were none.
+Thus he consoled himself when his pigheaded brother expressed his
+disbelief in the Russian spy.
+
+There was nothing more said between them in the railway carriage,
+and, as they parted at the door in Berkeley Square, Hugh swore to
+himself that this should be the last season in which he would harbour
+his brother in London. After this he must have a house of his own
+there, or have no house at all. Then Archie went down to his club,
+and finally arranged with Doodles that the first visit to the Spy
+should be made on the following morning. After much consultation it
+was agreed between them that the way should be paved by a diplomatic
+note. The diplomatic note was therefore written by Doodles and copied
+by Archie.
+
+"Captain Clavering presents his compliments to Madame Gordeloup,
+and proposes to call upon her to-morrow morning at twelve o'clock,
+if that hour will be convenient. Captain Clavering is desirous
+of consulting Madame Gordeloup on an affair of much importance."
+"Consult me!" said Sophie to herself, when she got the letter. "For
+what should he consult me? It is that stupid man I saw with Julie.
+Ah, well; never mind. The stupid man shall come." The commissioner,
+therefore, who had taken the letter to Mount Street, returned to the
+club with a note in which Madame Gordeloup expressed her willingness
+to undergo the proposed interview. Archie felt that the letter,--a
+letter from a Russian spy addressed positively to himself,--gave him
+already diplomatic rank, and he kept it as a treasure in his breast
+coat-pocket.
+
+It then became necessary that he and his friend should discuss the
+manner in which the Spy should be managed. Doodles had his misgivings
+that Archie would be awkward, and almost angered his friend by the
+repetition of his cautions. "You mustn't chuck your money at her
+head, you know," said Doodles.
+
+"Of course not; but when the time comes I shall slip the notes into
+her hand,--with a little pressure perhaps."
+
+"It would be better to leave them near her on the table."
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"Oh, yes; a great deal. It's always done in that way."
+
+"But perhaps she wouldn't see them,--or wouldn't know where they came
+from."
+
+"Let her alone for that."
+
+"But I must make her understand what I want of her,--in return, you
+know. I ain't going to give her twenty pounds for nothing."
+
+"You must explain that at first; tell her that you expect her aid,
+and that she will find you a grateful friend,--a grateful friend,
+say;--mind you remember that."
+
+"Yes; I'll remember that. I suppose it would be as good a way as
+any."
+
+"It's the only way, unless you want her to ring for the servant to
+kick you out of the house. It's as well understood as A B C, among
+the people who do these things. I should say take jewellery instead
+of money if she were anything but a Russian spy; but they understand
+the thing so well, that you may go farther with them than with
+others."
+
+Archie's admiration for Sophie became still higher as he heard this.
+"I do like people," said he, "who understand what's what, and no
+mistake."
+
+"But even with her you must be very careful."
+
+"Oh, yes; that's a matter of course."
+
+"When I was declaring for the last time that she would find me a
+grateful friend, just at the word grateful, I would put down the four
+fivers on the table, smoothing them with my hand like that." Then
+Doodles acted the part, putting a great deal of emphasis on the word
+grateful, as he went through the smoothing ceremony with two or three
+sheets of club notepaper. "That's your game, you may be sure. If you
+put them into her hand she may feel herself obliged to pretend to be
+angry; but she can't be angry simply because you put your money on
+her table. Do you see that, old fellow?" Archie declared that he did
+see it very plainly. "If she does not choose to undertake the job,
+she'll merely have to tell you that you have left something behind
+you."
+
+"But there's no fear of that, I suppose?"
+
+"I can't say. Her hands may be full, you know, or she may think you
+don't go high enough."
+
+"But I mean to tip her again, of course."
+
+"Again! I should think so. I suppose she must have about a couple of
+hundred before the end of next month if she's to do any good. After a
+bit you'll be able to explain that she shall have a sum down when the
+marriage has come off."
+
+"She won't take the money and do nothing; will she?"
+
+"Oh, no; they never sell you like that. It would spoil their own
+business if they were to play that game. If you can make it worth
+her while, she'll do the work for you. But you must be careful;--do
+remember that." Archie shook his head, almost in anger, and then went
+home for his night's rest.
+
+On the next morning he dressed himself in his best, and presented
+himself at the door in Mount Street, exactly as the clock struck
+twelve. He had an idea that these people were very punctilious as
+to time. Who could say but that the French ambassador might have
+an appointment with Madame Gordeloup at half-past one,--or perhaps
+some emissary from the Pope! He had resolved that he would not take
+his left glove off his hand, and he had thrust the notes in under
+the palm of his glove, thinking he could get at them easier from
+there, should they be wanted in a moment, than he could do from his
+waistcoat pocket. He knocked at the door, knowing that he trembled as
+he did so, and felt considerable relief when he found himself to be
+alone in the room to which he was shown. He knew that men conversant
+with intrigues always go to work with their eyes open, and,
+therefore, at once, he began to look about him. Could he not put the
+money into some convenient hiding-place,--now at once? There, in one
+corner, was the spot in which she would seat herself upon the sofa.
+He saw plainly enough, as with the eye of a Talleyrand, the marks
+thereon of her constant sitting. So he seized the moment to place a
+chair suitable for himself, and cleared a few inches on the table
+near to it, for the smoothing of the bank-notes,--feeling, while
+so employed, that he was doing great things. He had almost made up
+his mind to slip one note between the pages of a book, not with any
+well-defined plan as to the utility of such a measure, but because it
+seemed to be such a diplomatic thing to do! But while this grand idea
+was still flashing backwards and forwards across his brain, the door
+opened, and he found himself in the presence of--the Russian spy.
+
+He at once saw that the Russian spy was very dirty, and that she wore
+a nightcap, but he liked her the better on that account. A female
+Russian spy should, he felt, differ much in her attire from other
+women. If possible, she should be arrayed in diamonds, and pearl
+ear-drops, with as little else upon her as might be; but failing
+that costume, which might be regarded as the appropriate evening spy
+costume,--a tumbled nightcap, and a dirty white wrapper, old cloth
+slippers, and objectionable stockings were just what they should be.
+
+"Ah!" said the lady, "you are Captain Clavering. Yes, I remember."
+
+"I am Captain Clavering. I had the honour of meeting you at Lady
+Ongar's."
+
+"And now you wish to consult me on an affair of great importance.
+Very well. You may consult me. Will you sit down--there." And Madame
+Gordeloup indicated to him a chair just opposite to herself, and
+far removed from that convenient spot which Archie had prepared for
+the smoothing of the bank-notes. Near to the place now assigned to
+him there was no table whatever, and he felt that he would in that
+position be so completely raked by the fire of her keen eyes, that he
+would not be able to carry on his battle upon good terms. In spite,
+therefore, of the lady's very plain instructions, he made an attempt
+to take possession of the chair which he had himself placed; but it
+was an ineffectual attempt, for the Spy was very peremptory with him.
+"There, Captain Clavering; there; there; you will be best there."
+Then he did as he was bid, and seated himself, as it were, quite out
+at sea, with nothing but an ocean of carpet around him, and with no
+possibility of manipulating his notes except under the raking fire of
+those terribly sharp eyes. "And now," said Madame Gordeloup, "you can
+commence to consult me. What is the business?"
+
+Ah; what was the business? That was now the difficulty? In discussing
+the proper way of tendering the bank-notes, I fear the two captains
+had forgotten the nicest point of the whole negotiation. How was he
+to tell her what it was that he wanted to do himself, and what that
+she was to be required to do for him? It behoved him above all things
+not to be awkward! That he remembered. But how not to be awkward?
+"Well!" she said; and there was something almost of crossness in her
+tone. Her time, no doubt, was valuable. The French ambassador might
+even now be coming. "Well?"
+
+"I think, Madame Gordeloup, you know my brother's sister-in-law, Lady
+Ongar?"
+
+"What, Julie? Of course I know Julie. Julie and I are dear friends."
+
+"So I supposed. That is the reason why I have come to you."
+
+"Well;--well;--well?"
+
+"Lady Ongar is a person whom I have known for a long time, and for
+whom I have a great,--I may say a very deep regard."
+
+"Ah! yes. What a jointure she has! and what a park! Thousands and
+thousands of pounds,--and so beautiful! If I was a man I should have
+a very deep regard too. Yes."
+
+"A most beautiful creature;--is she not?"
+
+"Ah; if you had seen her in Florence, as I used to see her, in the
+long summer evenings! Her lovely hair was all loose to the wind, and
+she would sit hour after hour looking, oh, at the stars! Have you
+seen the stars in Italy?"
+
+Captain Clavering couldn't say that he had, but he had seen them
+uncommon bright in Norway, when he had been fishing there.
+
+"Or the moon?" continued Sophie, not regarding his answer. "Ah; that
+is to live! And he, her husband, the rich lord, he was dying,--in a
+little room just inside, you know. It was very melancholy, Captain
+Clavering. But when she was looking at the moon, with her hair all
+dishevelled," and Sophie put her hands up to her own dirty nightcap,
+"she was just like a Magdalen; yes, just the same;--just the same."
+
+The exact strength of the picture, and the nature of the comparison
+drawn, were perhaps lost upon Archie; and indeed, Sophie herself
+probably trusted more to the tone of her words, than to any idea
+which they contained; but their tone was perfect, and she felt that
+if anything could make him talk, he would talk now.
+
+"Dear me! you don't say so. I have always admired her very much,
+Madame Gordeloup."
+
+"Well?"
+
+The French ambassador was probably in the next street already, and if
+Archie was to tell his tale at all he must do it now.
+
+"You will keep my secret if I tell it you?" he asked.
+
+"Is it me you ask that? Did you ever hear of me that I tell a
+gentleman's secret? I think not. If you have a secret, and will trust
+me, that will be good; if you will not trust me,--that will be good
+also."
+
+"Of course I will trust you. That is why I have come here."
+
+"Then out with it. I am not a little girl. You need not be bashful.
+Two and two make four. I know that. But some people want them to make
+five. I know that too. So speak out what you have to say."
+
+"I am going to ask Lady Ongar to--to--to--marry me."
+
+"Ah, indeed; with all the thousands of pounds and the beautiful park!
+But the beautiful hair is more than all the thousands of pounds. Is
+it not so?"
+
+"Well, as to that, they all go together, you know."
+
+"And that is so lucky! If they was to be separated, which would you
+take?"
+
+The little woman grinned as she asked this question, and Archie, had
+he at all understood her character, might at once have put himself
+on a pleasant footing with her; but he was still confused and ill at
+ease, and only muttered something about the truth of his love for
+Julia.
+
+"And you want to get her to marry you?"
+
+"Yes; that's just it."
+
+"And you want me to help you?"
+
+"That's just it again."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Upon my word, if you'll stick to me, you know, and see me through
+it, and all that kind of thing, you'll find in me a most grateful
+friend;--indeed, a most grateful friend." And Archie, as from his
+position he was debarred from attempting the smoothing process, began
+to work with his right forefinger under the glove on his left hand.
+
+"What have you got there?" said Madame Gordeloup, looking at him with
+all her eyes.
+
+Captain Clavering instantly discontinued the work with his finger,
+and became terribly confused. Her voice on asking the question had
+become very sharp; and it seemed to him that if he brought out
+his money in that awkward, barefaced way which now seemed to be
+necessary, she would display all the wrath of which a Russian spy
+could be capable. Would it not be better that he should let the money
+rest for the present, and trust to his promise of gratitude? Ah, how
+he wished that he had slipped at any rate one note between the pages
+of a book.
+
+"What have you got there?" she demanded again, very sharply.
+
+"Oh, nothing."
+
+"It is not nothing. What have you got there? If you have got nothing,
+take off your glove. Come."
+
+Captain Clavering became very red in the face, and was altogether
+at a loss what to say or do. "Is it money you have got there?" she
+asked. "Let me see how much. Come."
+
+"It is just a few bank-notes I put in here to be handy," he said.
+
+"Ah; that is very handy, certainly. I never saw that custom before.
+Let me look." Then she took his hand, and with her own hooked finger
+clawed out the notes. "Ah! five, ten, fifteen, twenty pounds. Twenty
+pounds is not a great deal, but it is very nice to have even that
+always handy. I was wanting so much money as that myself; perhaps you
+will make it handy to me."
+
+"Upon my word I shall be most happy. Nothing on earth would give me
+more pleasure."
+
+"Fifty pounds would give me more pleasure; just twice as much
+pleasure." Archie had begun to rejoice greatly at the safe
+disposition of the money, and to think how excellently well this spy
+did her business; but now there came upon him suddenly an idea that
+spies perhaps might do their business too well. "Twenty pounds in
+this country goes a very little way; you are all so rich," said the
+Spy.
+
+"By George, I ain't. I ain't rich, indeed."
+
+"But you mean to be--with Julie's money?"
+
+"Oh--ah--yes; and you ought to know, Madame Gordeloup, that I am now
+the heir to the family estate and title."
+
+"Yes; the poor little baby is dead, in spite of the pills and the
+powders, the daisies and the buttercups! Poor little baby! I had a
+baby of my own once, and that died also." Whereupon Madame Gordeloup,
+putting up her hand to her eyes, wiped away a real tear with the
+bank-notes which she still held. "And I am to remind Julie that you
+will be the heir?"
+
+"She will know all about that already."
+
+"But I will tell her. It will be something to say, at any rate,--and
+that, perhaps, will be the difficulty."
+
+"Just so! I didn't look at it in that light before."
+
+"And am I to propose it to her first?"
+
+"Well; I don't know. Perhaps as you are so clever, it might be as
+well."
+
+"And at once?"
+
+"Yes, certainly; at once. You see, Madame Gordeloup, there may be so
+many buzzing about her."
+
+"Exactly; and some of them perhaps will have more than twenty pounds
+handy. Some will buzz better than that."
+
+"Of course I didn't mean that for anything more than just a little
+compliment to begin with."
+
+"Oh, ah; just a little compliment for beginning. And when will it be
+making a progress and going on?"
+
+"Making a progress!"
+
+"Yes; when will the compliment become a little bigger? Twenty pounds!
+Oh! it's just for a few gloves, you know; nothing more."
+
+"Nothing more than that, of course," said poor Archie.
+
+"Well; when will the compliment grow bigger? Let me see. Julie has
+seven thousands of pounds, what you call, per annum. And have you
+seen that beautiful park? Oh! And if you can make her to look at the
+moon with her hair down,--oh! When will that compliment grow bigger?
+Twenty pounds! I am ashamed, you know."
+
+"When will you see her, Madame Gordeloup?"
+
+"See her! I see her every day, always. I will be there to-day, and
+to-morrow, and the next day."
+
+"You might say a word then at once,--this afternoon."
+
+"What! for twenty pounds! Seven thousands of pounds per annum; and
+you give me twenty pounds! Fie, Captain Clavering. It is only just
+for me to speak to you,--this! That is all. Come; when will you bring
+me fifty?"
+
+"By George--fifty!"
+
+"Yes, fifty;--for another beginning. What; seven thousands of pounds
+per annum, and make difficulty for fifty pounds! You have a handy way
+with your glove. Will you come with fifty pounds to-morrow?" Archie,
+with the drops of perspiration standing on his brow, and now desirous
+of getting out again into the street, promised that he would come
+again on the following day with the required sum.
+
+"Just for another beginning! And now, good-morning, Captain
+Clavering. I will do my possible with Julie. Julie is very fond of
+me, and I think you have been right in coming here. But twenty pounds
+was too little, even for a beginning." Mercenary wretch; hungry,
+greedy, ill-conditioned woman,--altogether of the harpy breed! As
+Archie Clavering looked into her grey eyes, and saw there her greed
+and her hunger, his flesh crept upon his bones. Should he not succeed
+with Julia, how much would this excellent lady cost him?
+
+As soon as he was gone the excellent lady made an intolerable
+grimace, shaking herself and shrugging her shoulders, and walking
+up and down the room with her dirty wrapper held close round her.
+"Bah," she said. "Bah!" And as she thought of the heavy stupidity
+of her late visitor she shrugged herself and shook herself again
+violently, and clutched up her robe still more closely. "Bah!" It was
+intolerable to her that a man should be such a fool, even though she
+was to make money by him. And then, that such a man should conceive
+it to be possible that he should become the husband of a woman with
+seven thousand pounds a year! Bah!
+
+Archie, as he walked away from Mount Street, found it difficult
+to create a triumphant feeling within his own bosom. He had been
+awkward, slow, and embarrassed, and the Spy had been too much for
+him. He was quite aware of that, and he was aware also that even the
+sagacious Doodles had been wrong. There had, at any rate, been no
+necessity for making a difficulty about the money. The Russian spy
+had known her business too well to raise troublesome scruples on
+that point. That she was very good at her trade he was prepared to
+acknowledge; but a fear came upon him that he would find the article
+too costly for his own purposes. He remembered the determined tone
+in which she had demanded the fifty pounds merely as a further
+beginning.
+
+And then he could not but reflect how much had been said at the
+interview about money,--about money for her, and how very little had
+been said as to the assistance to be given,--as to the return to be
+made for the money. No plan had been laid down, no times fixed, no
+facilities for making love suggested to him. He had simply paid over
+his twenty pounds, and been desired to bring another fifty. The other
+fifty he was to take to Mount Street on the morrow. What if she were
+to require fifty pounds every day, and declare that she could not
+stir in the matter for less? Doodles, no doubt, had told him that
+these first-class Russian spies did well the work for which they
+were paid; and no doubt, if paid according to her own tariff, Madame
+Gordeloup would work well for him; but such a tariff as that was
+altogether beyond his means! It would be imperatively necessary that
+he should come to some distinct settlement with her as to price. The
+twenty pounds, of course, were gone; but would it not be better that
+he should come to some final understanding with her before he gave
+her the further fifty? But then, as he thought of this, he was aware
+that she was too clever to allow him to do as he desired. If he went
+into that room with the fifty pounds in his pockets, or in his glove,
+or, indeed, anywhere about his person, she would have it from him,
+let his own resolution to make a previous bargain be what it might.
+His respect for the woman rose almost to veneration, but with the
+veneration was mixed a strong feeling of fear.
+
+But, in spite of all this, he did venture to triumph a little when
+he met Doodles at the club. He had employed the Russian spy, and had
+paid her twenty pounds, and was enrolled in the corps of diplomatic
+and mysterious personages, who do their work by mysterious agencies.
+He did not tell Doodles anything about the glove, or the way in which
+the money was taken from him; but he did say that he was to see the
+Spy again to-morrow, and that he intended to take with him another
+present of fifty pounds.
+
+"By George, Clavvy, you are going it!" said Doodles, in a voice that
+was delightfully envious to the ears of Captain Archie. When he heard
+that envious tone he felt that he was entitled to be triumphant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+"WHAT WOULD MEN SAY OF YOU?"
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+"Harry, tell me the truth,--tell me all the truth." Harry Clavering
+was thus greeted when in obedience to the summons from Lady Ongar, he
+went to her almost immediately on his return to London.
+
+It will be remembered that he had remained at Clavering some days
+after the departure of Hugh and Archie, lacking the courage to face
+his misfortunes boldly. But though his delay had been cowardly, it
+had not been easy to him to be a coward. He despised himself for not
+having written with warm, full-expressed affection to Florence and
+with honest clear truth to Julia. Half his misery rose from this
+feeling of self-abasement, and from the consciousness that he was
+weak,--piteously weak, exactly in that in which he had often boasted
+to himself that he was strong. But such inward boastings are not
+altogether bad. They preserve men from succumbing, and make at any
+rate some attempt to realize themselves. The man who tells himself
+that he is brave, will struggle much before he flies; but the man who
+never does so tell himself, will find flying easy unless his heart
+be of nature very high. Now had come the moment either for flying,
+or not flying; and Harry swearing that he would stand his ground,
+resolutely took his hat and gloves, and made his way to Bolton Street
+with a sore heart.
+
+But as he went he could not keep himself from arguing the matter
+within his own breast. He knew what was his duty. It was his duty to
+stick to Florence, not only with his word and his hand, but with his
+heart. It was his duty to tell Lady Ongar that not only his word was
+at Stratton, but his heart also, and to ask her pardon for the wrong
+that he had done her by that caress. For some ten minutes as he
+walked through the streets his resolve was strong to do this manifest
+duty; but, gradually, as he thought of that caress, as he thought
+of the difficulties of the coming interview, as he thought of
+Julia's high-toned beauty,--perhaps something also of her wealth
+and birth,--and more strongly still as he thought of her love for
+him, false, treacherous, selfish arguments offered themselves to his
+mind,--arguments which he knew to be false and selfish. Which of them
+did he love? Could it be right for him to give his hand without his
+heart? Could it really be good for Florence,--poor injured Florence,
+that she should be taken by a man who had ceased to regard her
+more than all other women? Were he to marry her now, would not
+that deceit be worse than the other deceit? Or, rather, would
+not that be deceitful, whereas the other course would simply be
+unfortunate,--unfortunate through circumstances for which he was
+blameless? Damnable arguments! False, cowardly logic, by which all
+male jilts seek to excuse their own treachery to themselves and to
+others!
+
+Thus during the second ten minutes of his walk, his line of conduct
+became less plain to him, and as he entered Piccadilly he was
+racked with doubts. But instead of settling them in his mind he
+unconsciously allowed himself to dwell upon the words with which he
+would seek to excuse his treachery to Florence. He thought how he
+would tell her,--not to her face with spoken words, for that he
+could not do,--but with written skill, that he was unworthy of her
+goodness, that his love for her had fallen off through his own
+unworthiness, and had returned to one who was in all respects less
+perfect than she, but who in old days, as she well knew, had been
+his first love. Yes! he would say all this, and Julia, let her anger
+be what it might, should know that he had said it. As he planned
+this, there came to him a little comfort, for he thought there was
+something grand in such a resolution. Yes; he would do that, even
+though he should lose Julia also.
+
+Miserable clap-trap! He knew in his heart that all his logic was
+false, and his arguments baseless. Cease to love Florence Burton! He
+had not ceased to love her, nor is the heart of any man made so like
+a weather-cock that it needs must turn itself hither and thither, as
+the wind directs, and be altogether beyond the man's control. For
+Harry, with all his faults, and in spite of his present falseness,
+was a man. No man ceases to love without a cause. No man need cease
+to love without a cause. A man may maintain his love, and nourish
+it, and keep it warm by honest manly effort, as he may his probity,
+his courage, or his honour. It was not that he had ceased to love
+Florence; but that the glare of the candle had been too bright for
+him and he had scorched his wings. After all, as to that embrace of
+which he had thought so much, and the memory of which was so sweet to
+him and so bitter,--it had simply been an accident. Thus, writing in
+his mind that letter to Florence which he knew, if he were an honest
+man, he would never allow himself to write, he reached Lady Ongar's
+door without having arranged for himself any special line of conduct.
+
+We must return for a moment to the fact that Hugh and Archie had
+returned to town before Harry Clavering. How Archie had been engaged
+on great doings, the reader, I hope, will remember; and he may
+as well be informed here that the fifty pounds were duly taken
+to Mount Street, and were extracted from him by the Spy without
+much difficulty. I do not know that Archie in return obtained any
+immediate aid or valuable information from Sophie Gordeloup; but
+Sophie did obtain some information from him which she found herself
+able to use for her own purposes. As his position with reference to
+love and marriage was being discussed, and the position also of the
+divine Julia, Sophie hinted her fear of another Clavering lover. What
+did Archie think of his cousin Harry? "Why; he's engaged to another
+girl," said Archie, opening wide his eyes and his mouth, and becoming
+very free with his information. This was a matter to which Sophie
+found it worth her while to attend, and she soon learned from Archie
+all that Archie knew about Florence Burton. And this was all that
+could be known. No secret had been made in the family of Harry's
+engagement. Archie told his fair assistant that Miss Burton had
+been received at Clavering Park openly as Harry's future wife, and,
+"by Jove, you know, he can't be coming it with Julia after that,
+you know." Sophie made a little grimace, but did not say much. She,
+remembering that she had caught Lady Ongar in Harry's arms, thought
+that, "by Jove," he might be coming it with Julia, even after Miss
+Burton's reception at Clavering Park. Then, too, she remembered
+some few words that had passed between her and her dear Julia after
+Harry's departure on the evening of the embrace, and perceived that
+Julia was in ignorance of the very existence of Florence Burton, even
+though Florence had been received at the Park. This was information
+worth having,--information to be used! Her respect for Harry rose
+immeasurably. She had not given him credit for so much audacity,
+so much gallantry, and so much skill. She had thought him to be a
+pigheaded Clavering, like the rest of them. He was not pigheaded;
+he was a promising young man; she could have liked him and perhaps
+aided him,--only that he had shown so strong a determination to
+have nothing to do with her. Therefore the information should be
+used;--and: it was used.
+
+The reader will now understand what was the truth which Lady Ongar
+demanded from Harry Clavering. "Harry, tell me the truth; tell me all
+the truth." She had come forward to meet him in the middle of the
+room when she spoke these words, and stood looking him in the face,
+not having given him her hand.
+
+"What truth?" said Harry. "Have I ever told you a lie?" But he knew
+well what was the truth required of him.
+
+"Lies can be acted as well as told. Harry, tell me all at once. Who
+is Florence Burton; who and what?" She knew it all, then, and things
+had settled themselves for him without the necessity of any action
+on his part. It was odd enough that she should not have learned it
+before, but at any rate she knew it now. And it was well that she
+should have been told;--only how was he to excuse himself for that
+embrace? "At any rate speak to me," she said, standing quite erect,
+and looking as a Juno might have looked. "You will acknowledge at
+least that I have a right to ask the question. Who is this Florence
+Burton?"
+
+"She is the daughter of Mr. Burton of Stratton."
+
+"And is that all that you can tell me? Come, Harry, be braver than
+that. I was not such a coward once with you. Are you engaged to marry
+her?"
+
+"Yes, Lady Ongar, I am."
+
+"Then you have had your revenge on me, and now we are quits." So
+saying, she stepped back from the middle of the room, and sat herself
+down on her accustomed seat. He was left there standing, and it
+seemed as though she intended to take no further notice of him. He
+might go if he pleased, and there would be an end of it all. The
+difficulty would be over, and he might at once write to Florence in
+what language he liked. It would simply be a little episode in his
+life, and his escape would not have been arduous.
+
+But he could not go from her in that way. He could not bring himself
+to leave the room without some further word. She had spoken of
+revenge. Was it not incumbent on him to explain to her that there
+had been no revenge; that he had loved, and suffered, and forgiven
+without one thought of anger;--and that then he had unfortunately
+loved again? Must he not find some words in which to tell her that
+she had been the light, and he simply the poor moth that had burned
+his wings?
+
+"No, Lady Ongar," said he, "there has been no revenge."
+
+"We will call it justice, if you please. At any rate I do not mean to
+complain."
+
+"If you ever injured me--" he began.
+
+"I did injure you," said she, sharply.
+
+"If you ever injured me, I forgave you freely."
+
+"I did injure you--" As she spoke she rose again from her seat,
+showing how impossible to her was that tranquillity which she had
+attempted to maintain. "I did injure you, but the injury came to you
+early in life, and sat lightly on you. Within a few months you had
+learned to love this young lady at the place you went to,--the first
+young lady you saw! I had not done you much harm, Harry. But that
+which you have done me cannot be undone."
+
+"Julia," he said, coming up to her.
+
+"No; not Julia. When you were here before I asked you to call me so,
+hoping, longing, believing,--doing more, so much more than I could
+have done, but that I thought my love might now be of service to you.
+You do not think that I had heard of this then?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"No. It is odd that I should not have known it, as I now hear that
+she was at my sister's house; but all others have not been as silent
+as you have been. We are quits, Harry; that is all that I have to
+say. We are quits now."
+
+"I have intended to be true to you;--to you and to her."
+
+"Were you true when you acted as you did the other night?" He could
+not explain to her how greatly he had been tempted. "Were you true
+when you held me in your arms as that woman came in? Had you not made
+me think that I might glory in loving you, and that I might show her
+that I scorned her when she thought to promise me her secrecy;--her
+secrecy, as though I were ashamed of what she had seen. I was not
+ashamed,--not then. Had all the world known it, I should not have
+been ashamed. 'I have loved him long,' I should have said, 'and
+him only. He is to be my husband, and now at last I need not be
+ashamed.'" So much she spoke, standing up, looking at him with firm
+face, and uttering her syllables with a quick clear voice; but at the
+last word there came a quiver in her tone, and the strength of her
+countenance quailed, and there was a tear which made dim her eye, and
+she knew that she could no longer stand before him. She endeavoured
+to seat herself with composure; but the attempt failed, and as she
+fell back upon the sofa he just heard the sob which had cost her so
+great and vain an effort to restrain. In an instant he was kneeling
+at her feet, and grasping at the hand with which she was hiding her
+face. "Julia," he said, "look at me; let us at any rate understand
+each other at last."
+
+"No, Harry; there must be no more such knowledge,--no more such
+understanding. You must go from me, and come here no more. Had it not
+been for that other night, I would still have endeavoured to regard
+you as a friend. But I have no right to such friendship. I have
+sinned and gone astray, and am a thing vile and polluted. I sold
+myself, as a beast is sold, and men have treated me as I treated
+myself."
+
+"Have I treated you so?"
+
+"Yes, Harry; you, you. How did you treat me when you took me in your
+arms and kissed me,--knowing, knowing that I was not to be your wife?
+O God, I have sinned. I have sinned, and I am punished."
+
+"No, no," said he, rising from his knees, "it was not as you say."
+
+"Then how was it, sir? Is it thus that you treat other women;--your
+friends, those to whom you declare friendship? What did you mean me
+to think?"
+
+"That I loved you."
+
+"Yes; with a love that should complete my disgrace,--that should
+finish my degradation. But I had not heard of this Florence Burton;
+and, Harry, that night I was so happy in my bed. And in that next
+week when you were down there for that sad ceremony, I was happy
+here, happy and proud. Yes, Harry, I was so proud when I thought that
+you still loved me,--loved me in spite of my past sin, that I almost
+forgot that I was polluted. You have made me remember it, and I shall
+not forget it again."
+
+It would have been better for him had he gone away at once. Now
+he was sitting in a chair, sobbing violently, and pressing away
+the tears from his cheeks with his hands. How could he make her
+understand that he had intended no insult when he embraced her? Was
+it not incumbent on him to tell her that the wrong he then did was
+done to Florence Burton, and not to her? But his agony was too much
+for him at present, and he could find no words in which to speak to
+her.
+
+"I said to myself that you would come when the funeral was over, and
+I wept for poor Hermy as I thought that my lot was so much happier
+than hers. But people have what they deserve, and Hermy, who has done
+no such wrong as I have done, is not crushed as I am crushed. It was
+just, Harry, that the punishment should come from you, but it has
+come very heavily."
+
+"Julia, it was not meant to be so."
+
+"Well; we will let that pass. I cannot unsay, Harry, all that I have
+said;--all that I did not say, but which you must have thought and
+known when you were here last. I cannot bid you believe that I do
+not--love you."
+
+"Not more tenderly or truly than I love you."
+
+"Nay, Harry, your love to me can be neither true nor tender,--nor
+will I permit it to be offered to me. You do not think I would rob
+that girl of what is hers. Mine for you may be both tender and true;
+but, alas, truth has come to me when it can avail me no longer."
+
+"Julia, if you will say that you love me, it shall avail you."
+
+"In saying that, you are continuing to ill-treat me. Listen to me
+now. I hardly know when it began, for, at first, I did not expect
+that you would forgive me and let me be dear to you as I used to be;
+but as you sat here, looking up into my face in the old way, it came
+on me gradually,--the feeling that it might be so; and I told myself
+that if you would take me I might be of service to you, and I thought
+that I might forgive myself at last for possessing this money if I
+could throw it into your lap, so that you might thrive with it in
+the world; and I said to myself that it might be well to wait awhile,
+till I should see whether you really loved me; but then came that
+burst of passion, and though I knew that you were wrong, I was
+proud to feel that I was still so dear to you. It is all over. We
+understand each other at last, and you may go. There is nothing to be
+forgiven between us."
+
+He had now resolved that Florence must go by the board. If Julia
+would still take him she should be his wife, and he would face
+Florence and all the Burtons, and his own family, and all the world
+in the matter of his treachery. What would he care what the world
+might say? His treachery to Florence was a thing completed. Now, at
+this moment, he felt himself to be so devoted to Julia as to make him
+regard his engagement to Florence as one which must, at all hazards,
+be renounced. He thought of his mother's sorrow, of his father's
+scorn,--of the dismay with which Fanny would hear concerning him
+a tale which she would believe to be so impossible; he thought of
+Theodore Burton, and the deep, unquenchable anger of which that
+brother was capable, and of Cecilia and her outraged kindness; he
+thought of the infamy which would be attached to him, and resolved
+that he must bear it all. Even if his own heart did not move him so
+to act, how could he hinder himself from giving comfort and happiness
+to this woman who was before him? Injury, wrong, and broken-hearted
+wretchedness, he could not prevent; but, therefore, this part was as
+open to him as the other. Men would say that he had done this for
+Lady Ongar's money; and the indignation with which he was able to
+regard this false accusation,--for his mind declared such accusation
+to be damnably false,--gave him some comfort. People might say of him
+what they pleased. He was about to do the best within his power. Bad,
+alas, was the best, but it was of no avail now to think of that.
+
+"Julia," he said, "between us at least there shall be nothing to be
+forgiven."
+
+"There is nothing," said she.
+
+"And there shall be no broken love. I am true to you now,--as ever."
+
+"And, what, then, of your truth to Miss Florence Burton?"
+
+"It will not be for you to rebuke me with that. We have, both of us,
+played our game badly, but not for that reason need we both be ruined
+and broken-hearted. In your folly you thought that wealth was better
+than love; and I, in my folly,--I thought that one love blighted
+might be mended by another. When I asked Miss Burton to be my wife
+you were the wife of another man. Now that you are free again I
+cannot marry Miss Burton."
+
+"You must marry her, Harry."
+
+"There shall be no must in such a case. You do not know her, and
+cannot understand how good, how perfect she is. She is too good to
+take a hand without a heart."
+
+"And what would men say of you?"
+
+"I must bear what men say. I do not suppose that I shall be all
+happy,--not even with your love. When things have once gone wrong
+they cannot be mended without showing the patches. But yet men stay
+the hand of ruin for a while, tinkering here and putting in a nail
+there, stitching and cobbling; and so things are kept together. It
+must be so for you and me. Give me your hand, Julia, for I have never
+deceived you, and you need not fear that I shall do so now. Give me
+your hand, and say that you will be my wife."
+
+"No, Harry; not your wife. I do not, as you say, know that perfect
+girl, but I will not rob one that is so good."
+
+"You are bound to me, Julia. You must do as I bid you. You have told
+me that you love me; and I have told you,--and I tell you now, that I
+love none other as I love you;--have never loved any other as I have
+loved you. Give me your hand." Then, coming to her, he took her hand,
+while she sat with her face averted from him. "Tell me that you will
+be my wife." But she would not say the words. She was less selfish
+than he, and was thinking,--was trying to think what might be best
+for them all, but, above all, what might be best for him. "Speak to
+me," he said, "and acknowledge that you wronged me when you thought
+that the expression of my love was an insult to you."
+
+"It is easy to say, speak. What shall I say?"
+
+"Say that you will be my wife."
+
+"No,--I will not say it." She rose again from her chair, and took
+her hand away from him. "I will not say it. Go now and think over
+all that you have done; and I also will think of it. God help me.
+What evil comes, when evil has been done! But, Harry, I understand
+you now, and I at least will blame you no more. Go and see Florence
+Burton; and if, when you see her, you find that you can love her,
+take her to your heart, and be true to her. You shall never hear
+another reproach from me. Go now, go; there is nothing more to be
+said."
+
+He paused a moment as though he were going to speak, but he left the
+room without another word. As he went along the passage and turned on
+the stairs he saw her standing at the door of the room, looking at
+him, and it seemed that her eyes were imploring him to be true to her
+in spite of the words that she had spoken. "And I will be true to
+her," he said to himself. "She was the first that I ever loved, and I
+will be true to her."
+
+He went out, and for an hour or two wandered about the town, hardly
+knowing whither his steps were taking him. There had been a tragic
+seriousness in what had occurred to him this evening, which seemed to
+cover him with care, and make him feel that his youth was gone from
+him. At any former period of his life his ears would have tingled
+with pride to hear such a woman as Lady Ongar speak of her love for
+him in such terms as she had used; but there was no room now for
+pride in his bosom. Now at least he thought nothing of her wealth or
+rank. He thought of her as a woman between whom and himself there
+existed so strong a passion as to make it impossible that he should
+marry another, even though his duty plainly required it. The grace
+and graciousness of his life were over; but love still remained to
+him, and of that he must make the most. All others whom he regarded
+would revile him, and now he must live for this woman alone. She had
+said that she had injured him. Yes, indeed, she had injured him! She
+had robbed him of his high character, of his unclouded brow, of that
+self-pride which had so often told him that he was living a life
+without reproach among men. She had brought him to a state in which
+misery must be his bedfellow, and disgrace his companion;--but still
+she loved him, and to that love he would be true.
+
+And as to Florence Burton;--how was he to settle matters with her?
+That letter for which he had been preparing the words as he went to
+Bolton Street, before the necessity for it had become irrevocable,
+did not now appear to him to be very easy. At any rate he did not
+attempt it on that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE MAN WHO DUSTED HIS BOOTS WITH HIS HANDKERCHIEF.
+
+
+When Florence Burton had written three letters to Harry without
+receiving a word in reply to either of them, she began to be
+seriously unhappy. The last of these letters, received by him after
+the scene described in the last chapter, he had been afraid to read.
+It still remained unopened in his pocket. But Florence, though she
+was unhappy, was not even yet jealous. Her fears did not lie in that
+direction, nor had she naturally any tendency to such uneasiness.
+He was ill, she thought; or if not ill in health, then ill at ease.
+Some trouble afflicted him of which he could not bring himself to
+tell her the facts, and as she thought of this she remembered her own
+stubbornness on the subject of their marriage, and blamed herself in
+that she was not now with him, to comfort him. If such comfort would
+avail him anything now, she would be stubborn no longer. When the
+third letter brought no reply she wrote to her sister-in-law, Mrs.
+Burton, confessing her uneasiness, and begging for comfort. Surely
+Cecilia could not but see him occasionally,--or at any rate have the
+power of seeing him. Or Theodore might do so,--as of course he would
+be at the office. If anything ailed him would Cecilia tell her all
+the truth? But Cecilia, when she began to fear that something did ail
+him, did not find it very easy to tell Florence all the truth.
+
+But there was jealousy at Stratton, though Florence was not jealous.
+Old Mrs. Burton had become alarmed, and was ready to tear the eyes
+out of Harry Clavering's head if Harry should be false to her
+daughter. This was a misfortune of which, with all her brood, Mrs.
+Burton had as yet known nothing. No daughter of hers had been misused
+by any man, and no son of hers had ever misused any one's daughter.
+Her children had gone out into the world steadily, prudently, making
+no brilliant marriages, but never falling into any mistakes. She
+heard of such misfortunes around her,--that a young lady here had
+loved in vain, and that a young lady there had been left to wear the
+willow; but such sorrows had never visited her roof, and she was
+disposed to think,--and perhaps to say,--that the fault lay chiefly
+in the imprudence of mothers. What if at last, when her work in this
+line had been so nearly brought to a successful close, misery and
+disappointment should come also upon her lamb! In such case Mrs.
+Burton, we may say, was a ewe who would not see her lamb suffer
+without many bleatings and considerable exercise of her maternal
+energies.
+
+And tidings had come to Mrs. Burton which had not as yet been allowed
+to reach Florence's ears. In the office at the Adelphi was one Mr.
+Walliker, who had a younger brother now occupying that desk in Mr.
+Burton's office which had belonged to Harry Clavering. Through
+Bob Walliker, Mrs. Burton learned that Harry did not come to the
+office even when it was known that he had returned to London from
+Clavering;--and she also learned at last that the young men in the
+office were connecting Harry Clavering's name with that of the rich
+and noble widow, Lady Ongar. Then Mrs. Burton wrote to her son
+Theodore, as Florence had written to Theodore's wife.
+
+Mrs. Burton, though she had loved Harry dearly, and had perhaps in
+many respects liked him better than any of her sons-in-law, had,
+nevertheless, felt some misgivings from the first. Florence was
+brighter, better educated, and cleverer than her elder sisters, and
+therefore when it had come to pass that she was asked in marriage
+by a man somewhat higher in rank and softer in manners than they
+who had married her sisters, there had seemed to be some reason
+for the change;--but Mrs. Burton had felt that it was a ground for
+apprehension. High rank and soft manners may not always belong to a
+true heart. At first she was unwilling to hint this caution even to
+herself; but at last, as her suspicions grew, she spoke the words
+very frequently, not only to herself but also to her husband. Why,
+oh why, had she let into her house any man differing in mode of life
+from those whom she had known to be honest and good? How would her
+gray hairs be made to go in sorrow to the grave, if, after all her
+old prudence and all her old success, her last pet lamb should be
+returned to the mother's side, ill-used, maimed, and blighted!
+
+Theodore Burton, when he received his mother's letter, had not seen
+Harry since his return from Clavering. He had been inclined to be
+very angry with him for his long and unannounced absence from the
+office. "He will do no good," he had said to his wife. "He does
+not know what real work means." But his anger turned to disgust as
+regarded Harry, and almost to despair as regarded his sister, when
+Harry had been a week in town and yet had not shown himself at the
+Adelphi. But at this time Theodore Burton had heard no word of Lady
+Ongar, though the clerks in the office had that name daily in their
+mouths. "Cannot you go to him, Theodore?" said his wife. "It is
+very easy to say go to him," he replied. "If I made it my business
+I could, of course, go to him, and no doubt find him if I was
+determined to do so;--but what more could I do? I can lead a horse to
+the water, but I cannot make him drink." "You could speak to him of
+Florence." "That is such a woman's idea," said the husband. "When
+every proper incentive to duty and ambition has failed him, he is to
+be brought into the right way by the mention of a girl's name!" "May
+I see him?" Cecilia urged. "Yes,--if you can catch him; but I do not
+advise you to try."
+
+After that came the two letters for the husband and wife, each of
+which was shown to the other; and then for the first time did either
+of them receive the idea that Lady Ongar with her fortune might be a
+cause of misery to their sister. "I don't believe a word of it," said
+Cecilia, whose cheeks were burning, half with shame and half with
+anger. Harry had been such a pet with her,--had already been taken
+so closely to her heart as a brother! "I should not have suspected
+him of that kind of baseness," said Theodore, very slowly. "He is
+not base," said Cecilia. "He may be idle and foolish, but he is not
+base."
+
+"I must at any rate go after him now," said Theodore. "I don't
+believe this;--I won't believe it. I do not believe it. But if it
+should be true--!"
+
+"Oh, Theodore."
+
+"I do not think it is true. It is not the kind of weakness I have
+seen in him. He is weak and vain, but I should have said that he was
+true."
+
+"I am sure he is true."
+
+"I think so. I cannot say more than that I think so."
+
+"You will write to your mother?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And may I ask Florence to come up? Is it not always better that
+people should be near to each other when they are engaged?"
+
+"You can ask her, if you like. I doubt whether she will come."
+
+"She will come if she thinks that anything is amiss with him."
+
+Cecilia wrote immediately to Florence, pressing her invitation in the
+strongest terms that she could use. "I tell you the whole truth," she
+said. "We have not seen him, and this, of course, has troubled us
+very greatly. I feel quite sure he would come to us if you were here;
+and this, I think, should bring you, if no other consideration does
+so. Theodore imagines that he has become simply idle, and that he
+is ashamed to show himself here because of that. It may be that he
+has some trouble with reference to his own home, of which we know
+nothing. But if he has any such trouble, you ought to be made aware
+of it, and I feel sure that he would tell you if you were here." Much
+more she said, arguing in the same way, and pressing Florence to come
+to London.
+
+Mr. Burton did not at once send a reply to his mother, but he wrote
+the following note to Harry:--
+
+
+   Adelphi ----, May, 186--.
+
+   MY DEAR CLAVERING,--I have been sorry to notice your
+   continued absence from the office, and both Cecilia and I
+   have been very sorry that you have discontinued coming to
+   us. But I should not have written to you on this matter,
+   not wishing to interfere in your own concerns, had I not
+   desired to see you specially with reference to my sister.
+   As I have that to say to you concerning her which I can
+   hardly write, will you make an appointment with me here,
+   or at my house? Or, if you cannot do that, will you say
+   when I shall find you at home? If you will come and dine
+   with us we shall like that best, and leave you to name an
+   early day: to-morrow, or the next day, or the day after.
+
+   Very truly yours,
+
+   THEODORE BURTON.
+
+
+When Cecilia's letter reached Stratton, and another post came
+without any letter from Harry, poor Florence's heart sank low in her
+bosom. "Well, my dear," said Mrs. Burton, who watched her daughter
+anxiously while she was reading the letter. Mrs. Burton had not
+told Florence of her own letter to her son; and now, having herself
+received no answer, looked to obtain some reply from that which her
+daughter-in-law had sent.
+
+"Cecilia wants me to go to London," said Florence.
+
+"Is there anything the matter that you should go just now?"
+
+"Not exactly the matter, mamma; but you can see the letter."
+
+Mrs. Burton read it slowly, and felt sure that much was the matter.
+She knew that Cecilia would have written in that strain only under
+the influence of some great alarm. At first she was disposed to
+think that she herself would go to London. She was eager to know the
+truth,--eager to utter her loud maternal bleatings if any wrong were
+threatened to her lamb. Florence might go with her, but she longed
+herself to be on the field of action. She felt that she could almost
+annihilate any man by her words and looks who would dare to ill-treat
+a girl of hers.
+
+"Well, mamma;--what do you think?"
+
+"I don't know yet, my dear. I will speak to your papa before dinner."
+But as Mrs. Burton had been usually autocratic in the management of
+her own daughters, Florence was aware that her mother simply required
+a little time before she made up her mind. "It is not that I want to
+go to London--for the pleasure of it, mamma."
+
+"I know that, my dear."
+
+"Nor yet merely to see him!--though of course I do long to see him!"
+
+"Of course you do;--why shouldn't you?"
+
+"But Cecilia is so very prudent, and she thinks that it will be
+better. And she would not have pressed it, unless Theodore had
+thought so too!"
+
+"I thought Theodore would have written to me!"
+
+"But he writes so seldom."
+
+"I expected a letter from him now, as I had written to him."
+
+"About Harry, do you mean?"
+
+"Well;--yes. I did not mention it, as I was aware I might make you
+uneasy. But I saw that you were unhappy at not hearing from him."
+
+"Oh, mamma, do let me go."
+
+"Of course you shall go if you wish it;--but let me speak to papa
+before anything is quite decided."
+
+Mrs. Burton did speak to her husband, and it was arranged that
+Florence should go up to Onslow Crescent. But Mrs. Burton, though
+she had been always autocratic about her unmarried daughters, had
+never been autocratic about herself. When she hinted that she also
+might go, she saw that the scheme was not approved, and she at once
+abandoned it. "It would look as if we were all afraid," said Mr.
+Burton, "and after all what does it come to?--a young gentleman does
+not write to his sweetheart for two or three weeks. I used to think
+myself the best lover in the world if I wrote once a month."
+
+"There was no penny post then, Mr. Burton."
+
+"And I often wish there was none now," said Mr. Burton. That matter
+was therefore decided, and Florence wrote back to her sister-in-law,
+saying that she would go up to London on the third day from that. In
+the meantime, Harry Clavering and Theodore Burton had met.
+
+Has it ever been the lot of any unmarried male reader of these pages
+to pass three or four days in London, without anything to do,--to
+have to get through them by himself,--and to have that burden on
+his shoulder, with the additional burden of some terrible, wearing
+misery, away from which there seems to be no road, and out of which
+there is apparently no escape? That was Harry Clavering's condition
+for some few days after the evening which he last passed in the
+company of Lady Ongar,--and I will ask any such unmarried man
+whether, in such a plight, there was for him any other alternative
+but to wish himself dead? In such a condition, a man can simply walk
+the streets by himself, and declare to himself that everything is
+bad, and rotten, and vile, and worthless. He wishes himself dead, and
+calculates the different advantages of prussic acid and pistols. He
+may the while take his meals very punctually at his club, may smoke
+his cigars, and drink his bitter beer, or brandy-and-water;--but he
+is all the time wishing himself dead, and making that calculation as
+to the best way of achieving that desirable result. Such was Harry
+Clavering's condition now. As for his office, the doors of that place
+were absolutely closed against him, by the presence of Theodore
+Burton. When he attempted to read he could not understand a word,
+or sit for ten minutes with a book in his hand. No occupation was
+possible to him. He longed to go again to Bolton Street, but he did
+not even do that. If there, he could act only as though Florence had
+been deserted for ever;--and if he so acted he would be infamous for
+life. And yet he had sworn to Julia that such was his intention. He
+hardly dared to ask himself which of the two he loved. The misery of
+it all had become so heavy upon him, that he could take no pleasure
+in the thought of his love. It must always be all regret, all sorrow,
+and all remorse. Then there came upon him the letter from Theodore
+Burton, and he knew that it was necessary that he should see the
+writer.
+
+Nothing could be more disagreeable than such an interview, but he
+could not allow himself to be guilty of the cowardice of declining
+it. Of a personal quarrel with Burton he was not afraid. He felt,
+indeed, that he might almost find relief in the capability of being
+himself angry with any one. But he must positively make up his mind
+before such an interview. He must devote himself either to Florence
+or to Julia;--and he did not know how to abandon the one or the
+other. He had allowed himself to be so governed by impulse that he
+had pledged himself to Lady Ongar, and had sworn to her that he would
+be entirely hers. She, it is true, had not taken him altogether
+at his word, but not the less did he know,--did he think that he
+knew,--that she looked for the performance of his promise. And she
+had been the first that he had sworn to love!
+
+In his dilemma he did at last go to Bolton Street, and there found
+that Lady Ongar had left town for three or four days. The servant
+said that she had gone, he believed, to the Isle of Wight; and that
+Madame Gordeloup had gone with her. She was to be back in town early
+in the following week. This was on a Thursday, and he was aware that
+he could not postpone his interview with Burton till after Julia's
+return. So he went to his club, and nailing himself as it were to
+the writing-table, made an appointment for the following morning. He
+would be with Burton at the Adelphi at twelve o'clock. He had been
+in trouble, he said, and that trouble had kept him from the office
+and from Onslow Crescent. Having written this, he sent it off, and
+then played billiards and smoked and dined, played more billiards
+and smoked and drank till the usual hours of the night had come.
+He was not a man who liked such things. He had not become what he
+was by passing his earlier years after this fashion. But his misery
+required excitement,--and billiards with tobacco were better than the
+desolation of solitude.
+
+On the following morning he did not breakfast till near eleven. Why
+should he get up as long as it was possible to obtain the relief
+which was to be had from dozing? As far as possible he would not
+think of the matter till he had put his hat upon his head to go
+to the Adelphi. But the time for taking his hat soon came; and he
+started on his short journey. But even as he walked, he could not
+think of it. He was purposeless, as a ship without a rudder, telling
+himself that he could only go as the winds might direct him. How
+he did hate himself for his one weakness! And yet he hardly made
+an effort to overcome it. On one point only did he seem to have a
+resolve. If Burton attempted to use with him anything like a threat
+he would instantly resent it.
+
+Punctually at twelve he walked into the outer office, and was told
+that Mr. Burton was in his room.
+
+"Halloa, Clavering," said Walliker, who was standing with his back to
+the fire, "I thought we had lost you for good and all. And here you
+are come back again!"
+
+Harry had always disliked this man, and now hated him worse than
+ever. "Yes; I am here," said he, "for a few minutes; but I believe
+I need not trouble you."
+
+"All right, old fellow," said Walliker; and then Harry passed through
+into the inner room.
+
+"I am very glad to see you, Harry," said Burton, rising and giving
+his hand cordially to Clavering. "And I am sorry to hear that you
+have been in trouble. Is it anything in which we can help you?"
+
+"I hope,--Mrs. Burton is well," said Harry, hesitating.
+
+"Pretty well."
+
+"And the children?"
+
+"Quite well. They say you are a very bad fellow not to go and see
+them."
+
+"I believe I am a bad fellow," said Harry.
+
+"Sit down, Harry. It will be best to come at the point at once;--will
+it not? Is there anything wrong between you and Florence?"
+
+"What do you mean by wrong?"
+
+"I should call it very wrong,--hideously wrong, if after all that
+has passed between you, there should now be any doubt as to your
+affection for each other. If such doubt were now to arise with her,
+I should almost disown my sister."
+
+"You will never have to blush for her."
+
+"I think not. I thank God that hitherto there have been no such
+blushes among us. And I hope, Harry, that my heart may never have
+to bleed for her. Come, Harry, let me tell you all at once like an
+honest man. I hate subterfuges and secrets. A report has reached the
+old people at home,--not Florence, mind,--that you are untrue to
+Florence, and are passing your time with that lady who is the sister
+of your cousin's wife."
+
+"What right have they to ask how I pass my time?"
+
+"Do not be unjust, Harry. If you simply tell me that your visits
+to that lady imply no evil to my sister, I, knowing you to be
+a gentleman, will take your word for all that it can mean." He
+paused, and Harry hesitated and could not answer. "Nay, dear
+friend,--brother, as we both of us have thought you,--come once more
+to Onslow Crescent and kiss the bairns, and kiss Cecilia, too, and
+sit with us at our table, and talk as you used to do, and I will ask
+no further question;--nor will she. Then you will come back here to
+your work, and your trouble will be gone, and your mind will be at
+ease; and, Harry, one of the best girls that ever gave her heart into
+a man's keeping will be there to worship you, and to swear when your
+back is turned that any one who says a word against you shall be no
+brother and no sister and no friend of hers."
+
+And this was the man who had dusted his boots with his
+pocket-handkerchief, and whom Harry had regarded as being on that
+account hardly fit to be his friend! He knew that the man was noble,
+and good, and generous, and true;--and knew also that in all that
+Burton said he simply did his duty as a brother. But not on that
+account was it the easier for him to reply.
+
+"Say that you will come to us this evening," said Burton. "Even if
+you have an engagement, put it off."
+
+"I have none," said Harry.
+
+"Then say that you will come to us, and all will be well."
+
+Harry understood of course that his compliance with this invitation
+would be taken as implying that all was right. It would be so easy to
+accept the invitation, and any other answer was so difficult! But yet
+he would not bring himself to tell the lie.
+
+"Burton," he said, "I am in trouble."
+
+"What is the trouble?" The man's voice was now changed, and so was
+the glance of his eye. There was no expression of anger,--none as
+yet; but the sweetness of his countenance was gone,--a sweetness that
+was unusual to him, but which still was at his command when he needed
+it.
+
+"I cannot tell you all here. If you will let me come to you this
+evening I will tell you everything,--to you and to Cecilia too. Will
+you let me come?"
+
+"Certainly. Will you dine with us?"
+
+"No;--after dinner; when the children are in bed." Then he went,
+leaving on the mind of Theodore Burton an impression that though
+something was much amiss, his mother had been wrong in her fears
+respecting Lady Ongar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+FRESHWATER GATE.
+
+
+Count Pateroff, Sophie's brother, was a man who, when he had taken a
+thing in hand, generally liked to carry it through. It may perhaps
+be said that most men are of this turn of mind; but the count was,
+I think, especially eager in this respect. And as he was not one who
+had many irons in the fire, who made either many little efforts, or
+any great efforts after things altogether beyond his reach, he was
+justified in expecting success. As to Archie's courtship, any one
+who really knew the man and the woman, and who knew anything of the
+nature of women in general, would have predicted failure for him.
+Even with Doodle's aid he could not have a chance in the race. But
+when Count Pateroff entered himself for the same prize, those who
+knew him would not speak of his failure as a thing certain.
+
+The prize was too great not to be attempted by so very prudent a
+gentleman. He was less impulsive in his nature than his sister, and
+did not open his eyes and talk with watering mouth of the seven
+thousands of pounds a year; but in his quiet way he had weighed and
+calculated all the advantages to be gained, had even ascertained at
+what rate he could insure the lady's life, and had made himself
+certain that nothing in the deed of Lord Ongar's marriage-settlement
+entailed any pecuniary penalty on his widow's second marriage. Then
+he had gone down, as we know, to Ongar Park, and as he had walked
+from the lodge to the house and back again, he had looked around him
+complacently, and told himself that the place would do very well.
+For the English character, in spite of the pigheadedness of many
+Englishmen, he had,--as he would have said himself,--much admiration,
+and he thought that the life of a country gentleman, with a nice
+place of his own,--with such a very nice place of his own as was
+Ongar Park,--and so very nice an income, would suit him well in his
+declining years.
+
+And he had certain advantages, certain aids towards his object, which
+had come to him from circumstances;--as, indeed, he had also certain
+disadvantages. He knew the lady, which was in itself much. He knew
+much of the lady's history, and had that cognisance of the saddest
+circumstances of her life, which in itself creates an intimacy. It is
+not necessary now to go back to those scenes which had disfigured the
+last months of Lord Ongar's life, but the reader will understand that
+what had then occurred gave the count a possible footing as a suitor.
+And the reader will also understand the disadvantages which had at
+this time already shown themselves in the lady's refusal to see the
+count.
+
+It may be thought that Sophie's standing with Lady Ongar would be
+a great advantage to her brother; but I doubt whether the brother
+trusted either the honesty or the discretion of his sister. He
+would have been willing to purchase such assistance as she might
+give,--not in Archie's pleasant way, with bank-notes hidden under his
+glove,--but by acknowledgments for services to be turned into solid
+remuneration when the marriage should have taken place, had he not
+feared that Sophie might communicate the fact of such acknowledgments
+to the other lady,--making her own bargain in doing so. He had
+calculated all this, and had come to the conclusion that he had
+better make no direct proposal to Sophie; and when Sophie made a
+direct proposal to him, pointing out to him in glowing language all
+the fine things which such a marriage would give him, he had hardly
+vouchsafed to her a word of answer. "Very well," said Sophie to
+herself;--"very well. Then we both know what we are about."
+
+Sophie herself would have kept Lady Ongar from marrying any one had
+she been able. Not even a brother's gratitude would be so serviceable
+to her as the generous kindness of a devoted friend. That she might
+be able both to sell her services to a lover, and also to keep Julie
+from marrying, was a lucky combination of circumstances which did
+not occur to her till Archie came to her with the money in his glove.
+That complicated game she was now playing, and was aware that Harry
+Clavering was the great stumbling-block in her way. A woman even less
+clever than Sophie would have perceived that Lady Ongar was violently
+attached to Harry; and Sophie, when she did see it, thought that
+there was nothing left for her but to make her hay while the sun was
+yet shining. Then she heard the story of Florence Burton; and again
+she thought that Fortune was on her side. She told the story of
+Florence Burton,--with what result we know; and was quite sharp
+enough to perceive afterwards that the tale had had its intended
+effect,--even though her Julie had resolutely declined to speak
+either of Harry Clavering or of Florence Burton.
+
+Count Pateroff had again called in Bolton Street, and had again been
+refused admittance. It was plain to him to see by the servant's
+manner that it was intended that he should understand that he was
+not to be admitted. Under such circumstances, it was necessary that
+he must either abandon his pursuit, or that he must operate upon
+Lady Ongar through some other feeling than her personal regard for
+himself. He might, perhaps, have trusted much to his own eloquence if
+he could have seen her; but how is a man to be eloquent in his wooing
+if he cannot see the lady whom he covets? There is, indeed, the penny
+post, but in these days of legal restraints, there is no other method
+of approaching an unwilling beauty. Forcible abduction is put an end
+to as regards Great Britain and Ireland. So the count had resort to
+the post.
+
+His letter was very long, and shall not, therefore, be given to the
+reader. He began by telling Lady Ongar that she owed it to him for
+the good services he had done her, to read what he might say, and to
+answer him. He then gave her various reasons why she should see him,
+pleading, among other things, in language which she could understand,
+though the words were purposely as ambiguous as they could be made,
+that he had possessed and did possess the power of doing her a
+grievous injury, and that he had abstained, and--hoped that he might
+be able to abstain for the future. She knew that the words contained
+no threat,--that taken literally they were the reverse of a threat,
+and amounted to a promise,--but she understood also all that he had
+intended to imply. Long as his own letter was, he said nothing in it
+as to his suit, confining himself to a request that she should see
+him. But with his letter he sent her an enclosure longer than the
+letter itself, in which his wishes were clearly explained.
+
+This enclosure purported to be an expression of Lord Ongar's wishes
+on many subjects, as they had been communicated to Count Pateroff
+in the latter days of the lord's life; but as the manuscript was
+altogether in the count's writing, and did not even pretend to
+have been subjected to Lord Ongar's eye, it simply amounted to the
+count's own story of their alleged conversations. There might have
+been no such conversations, or their tenour might have been very
+different from that which the count represented, or the statements
+and opinions, if expressed at all by Lord Ongar, might have been
+expressed at times when no statements or opinions coming from him
+could be of any value. But as to these conversations, if they could
+have been verified as having come from Lord Ongar's mouth when he was
+in full possession of such faculties as he possessed,--all that would
+have amounted to nothing with Lady Ongar. To Lord Ongar alive she had
+owed obedience, and had been obedient. To Lord Ongar dead she owed no
+obedience, and would not be obedient.
+
+Such would have been her feelings as to any document which could have
+reached her, purporting to contain Lord Ongar's wishes; but this
+document was of a nature which made her specially antagonistic to the
+exercise of any such marital authority from the grave. It was very
+long, and went into small details,--details which were very small;
+but the upshot of it all was a tendering of great thanks to Count
+Pateroff, and the expression of a strong wish that the count should
+marry his widow. "O. said that this would be the only thing for J.'s
+name." "O. said that this would be the safest course for his own
+honour." "O. said, as he took my hand, that in promising to take this
+step I gave him great comfort." "O. commissioned me to speak to J. in
+his name to this effect." The O. was of course Lord Ongar, and the J.
+was of course Julia. It was all in French, and went on in the same
+strain for many pages. Lady Ongar answered the letter as follows:--
+
+
+   Lady Ongar presents her compliments to Count Pateroff, and
+   begs to return the enclosed manuscript, which is, to her,
+   perfectly valueless. Lady Ongar must still decline, and
+   now more strongly than before, to receive Count Pateroff.
+
+   Bolton Street, May 186--.
+
+
+She was quite firm as she did this. She had no doubt at all on the
+matter. She did not feel that she wanted to ask for any advice. But
+she did feel that this count might still work her additional woe,
+that her cup of sorrow might not even yet be full, and that she was
+sadly,--sadly in want of love and protection. For aught she knew, the
+count might publish the whole statement, and people might believe
+that those words came from her husband, and that her husband had
+understood what would be best for her fame and for his honour. The
+whole thing was a threat, and not to save herself from any misery,
+would she have succumbed to a menace; but still it was possible that
+the threat might be carried out.
+
+She was sorely in want of love and protection. At this time, when the
+count's letter reached her, Harry had been with her; and we know what
+had passed between them. She had bid him go to Florence,--and love
+Florence,--and marry Florence,--and leave her in her desolation. That
+had been her last command to him. But we all know what such commands
+mean. She had not been false in giving him these orders. She had
+intended it at the moment. The glow of self-sacrifice had been warm
+in her bosom,--and she had resolved to do without that which she
+wanted in order that another might have it. But when she thought
+of it afterwards in her loneliness, she told herself that Florence
+Burton could not want Harry's love as she wanted it. There could
+not be such need to this girl, who possessed father and mother, and
+brothers, and youth, as there was to her, who had no other arm on
+which she could lean, besides that of the one man for whom she had
+acknowledged her love, and who had also declared his passion for her.
+She made no scheme to deprive Florence of her lover. In the long
+hours of her own solitude she never revoked, even within her own
+bosom, the last words she had said to Harry Clavering. But not the
+less did she hope that he might come to her again, and that she
+might learn from him that he had freed himself from that unfortunate
+engagement into which her falseness to him had driven him.
+
+It was after she had answered Count Pateroff's letter that she
+resolved to go out of town for three or four days. For some short
+time she had been minded to go away altogether, and not to return
+till after the autumn; but this scheme gradually diminished itself
+and fell away, till she determined that she would come back
+after three or four days. Then came to her Sophie,--her devoted
+Sophie,--Sophie whom she despised and hated; Sophie of whom she was
+so anxious to rid herself that in all her plans there was some little
+under-plot to that effect; Sophie whom she knew to be dishonest to
+her in any way that might make dishonesty profitable; and before
+Sophie had left her, Sophie had engaged herself to go with her dear
+friend to the Isle of Wight! As a matter of course, Sophie was to
+be franked on this expedition. On such expeditions Sophies are
+always franked as a matter of course. And Sophie would travel with
+all imaginable luxury,--a matter to which Sophie was by no means
+indifferent, though her own private life was conducted with an
+economy that was not luxurious. But, although all these good things
+came in Sophie's way, she contrived to make it appear that she was
+devoting herself in a manner that was almost sacrificial to the
+friend of her bosom. At the same time Lady Ongar sent a few words,
+as a message, to the count by his sister. Lady Ongar, having told to
+Madame Gordeloup the story of the document which had reached her, and
+having described her own answer, was much commended by her friend.
+
+"You are quite right, dear, quite. Of course I am fond of my brother.
+Edouard and I have always been the best of friends. But that does not
+make me think you ought to give yourself to him. Bah! Why should a
+woman give away everything? Edouard is a fine fellow. But what is
+that? Fine fellows like to have all the money themselves."
+
+"Will you tell him,--from me," said Lady Ongar, "that I will take it
+as a kindness on his part if he will abstain from coming to my house.
+I certainly shall not see him with my own consent."
+
+Sophie promised,--and probably gave the message; but when she also
+informed Edouard of Lady Ongar's intended visit to the Isle of Wight,
+telling him the day on which they were going and the precise spot,
+with the name of the hotel at which they were to stay, she went a
+little beyond the commission which her dearest friend had given her.
+
+At the western end of the Isle of Wight, and on the further shore,
+about three miles from the point of the island which we call
+the Needles, there is a little break in the cliff, known to all
+stay-at-home English travellers as Freshwater Gate. Here there is a
+cluster of cottages and two inns, and a few bathing-boxes, and ready
+access by easy ascents to the breezy downs on either side, over which
+the sea air blows with all its salt and wholesome sweetness. At one
+of these two inns Lady Ongar located herself and Sophie; and all
+Freshwater, and all Yarmouth, and all that end of the island were
+alive to the fact that the rich widowed countess respecting whom
+such strange tales were told, had come on a visit to these parts.
+Innkeepers like such visitors. The more venomous are the stories told
+against them, the more money are they apt to spend, and the less
+likely are they to examine their bills. A rich woman altogether
+without a character is a mine of wealth to an innkeeper. In the
+present case no such godsend had come in the way,--but there was
+supposed to be a something a little odd, and the visitor was on that
+account the more welcome.
+
+Sophie was not the most delightful companion in the world for such
+a place. London was her sphere, as she herself had understood when
+declaiming against those husbands who keep their wives in the
+country. And she had no love for the sea specially, regarding all
+winds as nuisances excepting such as had been raised by her own
+efforts, and thinking that salt from a saltcellar was more convenient
+than that brought to her on the breezes. It was now near the end of
+May, but she had not been half an hour at the inn before she was loud
+in demanding a fire,--and when the fire came she was unwilling to
+leave it. Her gesture was magnificent when Lady Ongar proposed to
+her that she should bathe. What,--put her own dear little dry body,
+by her own will, into the cold sea! She shrugged herself, and shook
+herself, and without speaking a word declined with so much eloquence
+that it was impossible not to admire her. Nor would she walk. On the
+first day, during the warmest part of the day, she allowed herself to
+be taken out in a carriage belonging to the inn; but after her drive
+she clung to the fire, and consumed her time with a French novel.
+
+Nor was Lady Ongar much more comfortable in the Isle of Wight than
+she had been in London. The old poet told us how Black Care sits
+behind the horseman, and some modern poet will some day describe to
+us that terrible goddess as she takes her place with the stoker close
+to the fire of the locomotive engine. Sitting with Sophie opposite
+to her, Lady Ongar was not happy, even though her eye rested on the
+lines of that magnificent coast. Once indeed, on the evening of their
+first day, Sophie left her, and she was alone for nearly an hour.
+Ah, how happy could she have been if Harry Clavering might have been
+there with her. Perhaps a day might come in which Harry might bring
+her there. In such a case Atra Cura would be left behind, and then
+she might be altogether happy. She sat dreaming of this for above an
+hour, and Sophie was still away. When Sophie returned, which she did
+all too soon, she explained that she had been in her bedroom. She had
+been very busy, and now had come down to make herself comfortable.
+
+On the next evening Lady Ongar declared her intention of going up
+on the downs by herself. They had dined at five, so that she might
+have a long evening, and soon after six she started. "If I do not
+break down I will get as far as the Needles," she said. Sophie, who
+had heard that the distance was three miles, lifted up her hands in
+despair. "If you are not back before nine I shall send the people
+after you." Consenting to this with a laugh, Lady Ongar made her way
+up to the downs, and walked steadily on towards the extreme point of
+the island. To the Needles themselves she did not make her way. These
+rocks are now approached, as all the stay-at-home travellers know,
+through a fort, and down to the fort she did not go. But turning a
+little from the highest point of the hill towards the cliffs on her
+left hand, she descended till she reached a spot from which she could
+look down on the pebbly beach lying some three hundred feet below
+her, and on the soft shining ripple of the quiet waters as they
+moved themselves with a pleasant sound on the long strand which lay
+stretched in a line from the spot beneath her out to the point of
+the island. The evening was warm, and almost transparent in its
+clearness, and very quiet. There was no sound even of a breeze. When
+she seated herself close upon the margin of the cliff, she heard the
+small waves moving the stones which they washed, and the sound was
+as the sound of little children's voices, very distant. Looking
+down, she could see through the wonderful transparency of the water,
+and the pebbles below it were bright as diamonds, and the sands
+were burnished like gold. And each tiny silent wavelet as it moved
+up towards the shore and lost itself at last in its own effort,
+stretched itself the whole length of the strand. Such brightness on
+the sea-shore she had never seen before, nor had she ever listened as
+now she listened to that infantine babble of the baby waves. She sat
+there close upon the margin, on a seat of chalk which the winds had
+made, looking, listening, and forgetting for a while that she was
+Lady Ongar whom people did not know, who lived alone in the world
+with Sophie Gordeloup for her friend,--and whose lover was betrothed
+to another woman. She had been there perhaps half-an-hour, and had
+learned to be at home on her perch, sitting there in comfort, with no
+desire to move, when a voice which she well knew at the first sound
+startled her, and she rose quickly to her feet. "Lady Ongar," said
+the voice, "are you not rather near the edge?" As she turned round
+there was Count Pateroff with his hand already upon her dress, so
+that no danger might be produced by the suddenness of his speech.
+
+
+[Illustration: "Lady Ongar, are you not rather near the edge?"]
+
+
+"There is nothing to fear," she said, stepping back from her seat. As
+she did so, he dropped his hand from her dress, and, raising it to
+his head, lifted his hat from his forehead. "You will excuse me, I
+hope, Lady Ongar," he said, "for having taken this mode of speaking
+to you."
+
+"I certainly shall not excuse you; nor, further than I can help it,
+shall I listen to you."
+
+"There are a few words which I must say."
+
+"Count Pateroff, I beg that you will leave me. This is treacherous
+and unmanly,--and can do you no good. By what right do you follow me
+here?"
+
+"I follow you for your own good, Lady Ongar; I do it that you may
+hear me say a few words that are necessary for you to hear."
+
+"I will hear no words from you,--that is, none willingly. By this
+time you ought to know me and to understand me." She had begun to
+walk up the hill very rapidly, and for a moment or two he had thought
+that she would escape him; but her breath had soon failed her, and
+she found herself compelled to stand while he regained his place
+beside her. This he had not done without an effort, and for some
+minutes they were both silent. "It is very beautiful," at last he
+said, pointing away over the sea.
+
+"Yes;--it is very beautiful," she answered. "Why did you disturb me
+when I was so happy?" But the count was still recovering his breath,
+and made no answer to this question. When, however, she attempted to
+move on again, still breasting the hill, he put his hand upon her arm
+very gently.
+
+"Lady Ongar," he said, "you must listen to me for a moment. Why not
+do it without a quarrel?"
+
+"If you mean that I cannot escape from you, it is true enough."
+
+"Why should you want to escape? Did I ever hurt you? Before this have
+I not protected you from injury?"
+
+"No;--never. You protect me!"
+
+"Yes;--I; from your husband, from yourself, and from the world. You
+do not know,--not yet, all that I have done for you. Did you read
+what Lord Ongar had said?"
+
+"I read what it pleased you to write."
+
+"What it pleased me! Do you pretend to think that Lord Ongar did not
+speak as he speaks there? Do you not know that those were his own
+words? Do you not recognize them? Ah, yes, Lady Ongar; you know them
+to be true."
+
+"Their truth or falsehood is nothing to me. They are altogether
+indifferent to me either way."
+
+"That would be very well if it were possible; but it is not. There;
+now we are at the top, and it will be easier. Will you let me have
+the honour to offer you my arm? No! Be it so; but I think you would
+walk the easier. It would not be for the first time."
+
+"That is a falsehood." As she spoke she stepped before him, and
+looked into his face with eyes full of passion. "That is a positive
+falsehood. I never walked with a hand resting on your arm."
+
+There came over his face the pleasantest smile as he answered her.
+"You forget everything," he said;--"everything. But it does not
+matter. Other people will not forget. Julie, you had better take me
+for your husband. You will be better as my wife, and happier, than
+you can be otherwise."
+
+"Look down there, Count Pateroff;--down to the edge. If my misery is
+too great to be borne, I can escape from it there on better terms
+than you propose to me."
+
+"Ah! That is what we call poetry. Poetry is very pretty, and in
+saying this as you do, you make yourself divine. But to be dashed
+over the cliffs and broken on the rocks;--in prose it is not so
+well."
+
+"Sir, will you allow me to pass on while you remain; or will you let
+me rest here, while you return alone?"
+
+"No, Julie; not so. I have found you with too much difficulty. In
+London, you see, I could not find you. Here, for a minute, you must
+listen to me. Do you not know, Julie, that your character is in my
+hands?"
+
+"In your hands? No;--never; thank God, never. But what if it were?"
+
+"Only this,--that I am forced to play the only game that you leave
+open to me. Chance brought you and me together in such a way that
+nothing but marriage can be beneficial to either of us;--and I swore
+to Lord Ongar that it should be so. I mean that it shall be so,--or
+that you shall be punished for your misconduct to him and to me."
+
+"You are both insolent and false. But listen to me, since you are
+here and I cannot avoid you. I know what your threats mean."
+
+"I have never threatened you. I have promised you my aid, but have
+used no threats."
+
+"Not when you tell me that I shall be punished? But to avoid no
+punishment, if any be in your power, will I ever willingly place
+myself in your company. You may write of me what papers you please,
+and repeat of me whatever stories you may choose to fabricate, but
+you will not frighten me into compliance by doing so. I have, at any
+rate, spirit enough to resist such attempts as that."
+
+"As you are living at present, you are alone in the world!"
+
+"And I am content to remain alone."
+
+"You are thinking, then, of no second marriage?"
+
+"If I were, does that concern you? But I will speak no further word
+to you. If you follow me into the inn, or persecute me further by
+forcing yourself upon me, I will put myself under the protection of
+the police."
+
+Having said this, she walked on as quickly as her strength would
+permit, while he walked by her side, urging upon her his old
+arguments as to Lord Ongar's expressed wishes, as to his own efforts
+on her behalf,--and at last as to the strong affection with which he
+regarded her. But she kept her promise, and said not a word in answer
+to it all. For more than an hour they walked side by side, and during
+the greater part of that time not a syllable escaped from her.
+From moment to moment she kept her eye warily on him, fearing that
+he might take her by the arm, or attempt some violence with her.
+But he was too wise for this, and too fully conscious that no
+such proceeding on his part could be of any service to him. He
+continued, however, to speak to her words which she could not avoid
+hearing,--hoping rather than thinking that he might at last frighten
+her by a description of all the evil which it was within his power
+to do her. But in acting thus he showed that he knew nothing of her
+character. She was not a woman whom any prospect of evil could
+possibly frighten into a distasteful marriage.
+
+Within a few hundred yards of the hotel there is another fort, and at
+this point the path taken by Lady Ongar led into the private grounds
+of the inn at which she was staying. Here the count left her, raising
+his hat as he did so, and saying that he hoped to see her again
+before she left the island.
+
+"If you do so," said she, "it shall be in presence of those who can
+protect me." And so they parted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+WHAT CECILIA BURTON DID FOR HER SISTER-IN-LAW.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+As soon as Harry Clavering had made his promise to Mr. Burton, and
+had declared that he would be in Onslow Crescent that same evening,
+he went away from the offices at the Adelphi, feeling it to be quite
+impossible that he should recommence his work there at that moment,
+even should it ever be within his power to do so. Nor did Burton
+expect that he should stay. He understood, from what had passed, much
+of Harry's trouble, if not the whole of it; and though he did not
+despair on behalf of his sister, he was aware that her lover had
+fallen into a difficulty, from which he could not extricate himself
+without great suffering and much struggling. But Burton was a man
+who, in spite of something cynical on the surface of his character,
+believed well of mankind generally, and well also of men as
+individuals. Even though Harry had done amiss, he might be saved. And
+though Harry's conduct to Florence might have been bad, nay, might
+have been false, still, as Burton believed, he was too good to be
+cast aside, or spurned out of the way, without some further attempt
+to save him.
+
+When Clavering had left him Burton went back to his work, and after
+a while succeeded in riveting his mind on the papers before him. It
+was a hard struggle with him, but he did it, and did not leave his
+business till his usual hour. It was past five when he took down his
+hat and his umbrella, and, as I fear, dusted his boots before he
+passed out of the office on to the passage. As he went he gave sundry
+directions to porters and clerks, as was his wont, and then walked
+off intent upon his usual exercise before he should reach his home.
+
+But he had to determine on much with reference to Florence and
+Harry before he saw his wife. How was the meeting of the evening to
+take place, and in what way should it be commenced? If there were
+indispensable cause for his anger, in what way should he show it, and
+if necessity for vengeance, how should his sister be avenged? There
+is nothing more difficult for a man than the redressing of injuries
+done to a woman who is very near to him and very dear to him. The
+whole theory of Christian meekness and forgiveness becomes broken to
+pieces and falls to the ground, almost as an absurd theory, even at
+the idea of such wrong. What man ever forgave an insult to his wife
+or an injury to his sister, because he had taught himself that to
+forgive trespasses is a religious duty? Without an argument, without
+a moment's thought, the man declares to himself that such trespasses
+as those are not included in the general order. But what is he to do?
+Thirty years since his course was easy, and unless the sinner were
+a clergyman, he could in some sort satisfy his craving for revenge
+by taking a pistol in his hand, and having a shot at the offender.
+That method was doubtless barbarous and unreasonable, but it was
+satisfactory and sufficed. But what can he do now? A thoughtful,
+prudent, painstaking man, such as was Theodore Burton, feels that it
+is not given to him to attack another with his fists, to fly at his
+enemy's throat, and carry out his purpose after the manner of dogs.
+Such a one has probably something round his heart which tells him
+that if so attacked he could defend himself; but he knows that he has
+no aptitude for making such onslaught, and is conscious that such
+deeds of arms would be unbecoming to him. In many, perhaps in most of
+such cases, he may, if he please, have recourse to the laws. But any
+aid that the law can give him is altogether distasteful to him. The
+name of her that is so dear to him should be kept quiet as the grave
+under such misfortune, not blazoned through ten thousand columns
+for the amusement of all the crowd. There is nothing left for him
+but to spurn the man,--not with his foot but with his thoughts;
+and the bitter consciousness that to such spurning the sinner
+will be indifferent. The old way was barbarous certainly, and
+unreasonable,--but there was a satisfaction in it that has been often
+wanting since the use of pistols went out of fashion among us.
+
+All this passed through Burton's mind as he walked home. One would
+not have supposed him to be a man eager for bloodshed,--he with a
+wife whom he deemed to be perfect, with children who in his eyes
+were gracious as young gods, with all his daily work which he loved
+as good workers always do; but yet, as he thought of Florence, as
+he thought of the possibility of treachery on Harry's part, he
+regarded almost with dismay the conclusion to which he was forced
+to come,--that there could be no punishment. He might proclaim the
+offender to the world as false, and the world would laugh at the
+proclaimer, and shake hands with the offender. To sit together with
+such a man on a barrel of powder, or fight him over a handkerchief,
+seemed to him to be reasonable, nay salutary, under such a grievance.
+There are sins, he felt, which the gods should punish with instant
+thunderbolts, and such sins as this were of such a nature. His
+Florence,--pure, good, loving, true, herself totally void of all
+suspicion, faultless in heart as well as mind, the flower of that
+Burton flock which had prospered so well,--that she should be
+sacrificed through the treachery of a man who, at his best, had
+scarcely been worthy of her! The thought of this was almost too much
+for him, and he gnashed his teeth as he went on his way.
+
+But yet he had not given up the man. Though he could not restrain
+himself from foreshadowing the misery that would result from such
+baseness, yet he told himself that he would not condemn before
+condemnation was necessary. Harry Clavering might not be good enough
+for Florence. What man was good enough for Florence? But still, if
+married, Harry, he thought, would not make a bad husband. Many a man
+who is prone enough to escape from the bonds which he has undertaken
+to endure,--to escape from them before they are riveted,--is mild
+enough under their endurance, when they are once fastened upon him.
+Harry Clavering was not of such a nature that Burton could tell
+himself that it would be well that his sister should escape even
+though her way of escape must lie through the fire and water of
+outraged love. That Harry Clavering was a gentleman, that he was
+clever, that he was by nature affectionate, soft in manner, tender of
+heart, anxious to please, good-tempered, and of high ambition, Burton
+knew well; and he partly recognized the fact that Harry had probably
+fallen into his present fault more by accident than by design.
+Clavering was not a skilled and practiced deceiver. At last, as he
+drew near to his own door, he resolved on the line of conduct he
+would pursue. He would tell his wife everything, and she should
+receive Harry alone.
+
+He was weary when he reached home, and was a little cross with his
+fatigue. Good man as he was, he was apt to be fretful on the first
+moment of his return to his own house, hot with walking, tired with
+his day's labour, and in want of his dinner. His wife understood this
+well, and always bore with him at such moments, coming down to him
+in the dressing-room behind the back parlour, and ministering to
+his wants. I fear he took some advantage of her goodness, knowing
+that at such moments he could grumble and scold without danger of
+contradiction. But the institution was established, and Cecilia never
+rebelled against its traditional laws. On the present day he had
+much to say to her, but even that he could not say without some few
+symptoms of petulant weariness.
+
+"I'm afraid you've had a terrible long day," she said.
+
+"I don't know what you call terribly long. I find the days terribly
+short. I have had Harry with me, as I told you I should."
+
+"Well, well. Say in one word, dear, that it is all right,--if it is
+so."
+
+"But it is not all right. I wonder what on earth the men do to the
+boots, that I can never get a pair that do not hurt me in walking."
+At this moment she was standing over him with his slippers.
+
+"Will you have a glass of sherry before dinner, dear; you are so
+tired?"
+
+"Sherry--no!"
+
+"And what about Harry? You don't mean to say--"
+
+"If you'll listen, I'll tell you what I do mean to say." Then he
+described to her as well as he could, what had really taken place
+between him and Harry Clavering at the office.
+
+"He cannot mean to be false, if he is coming here," said the wife.
+
+"He does not mean to be false; but he is one of those men who can be
+false without meaning it,--who allow themselves to drift away from
+their anchors, and to be carried out into seas of misery and trouble,
+because they are not careful in looking to their tackle. I think that
+he may still be held to a right course, and therefore I have begged
+him to come here."
+
+"I am sure that you are right, Theodore. He is so good and so
+affectionate, and he made himself so much one of us!"
+
+"Yes; too easily by half. That is just the danger. But look
+here, Cissy. I'll tell you what I mean to do. I will not see him
+myself;--at any rate, not at first. Probably I had better not see him
+at all. You shall talk to him."
+
+"By myself!"
+
+"Why not? You and he have always been great friends, and he is a man
+who can speak more openly to a woman than to another man."
+
+"And what shall I say as to your absence?"
+
+"Just the truth. Tell him that I am remaining in the dining-room
+because I think his task will be easier with you in my absence. He
+has got himself into some mess with that woman."
+
+"With Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Yes; not that her name was mentioned between us, but I suppose it is
+so."
+
+"Horrible woman;--wicked, wretched creature!"
+
+"I know nothing about that, nor, as I suppose, do you."
+
+"My dear, you must have heard."
+
+"But if I had,--and I don't know that I have,--I need not have
+believed. I am told that she married an old man who is now dead, and
+I suppose she wants a young husband."
+
+"My dear!"
+
+"If I were you, Cissy, I would say as little as might be about her.
+She was an old friend of Harry's--"
+
+"She jilted him when he was quite a boy; I know that;--long before he
+had seen our Florence."
+
+"And she is connected with him through his cousin. Let her be ever so
+bad, I should drop that."
+
+"You can't suppose, Theodore, that I want even to mention her name.
+I'm told that nobody ever visits her."
+
+"She needn't be a bit the worse on that account. Whenever I hear that
+there is a woman whom nobody visits, I always feel inclined to go and
+pay my respects to her."
+
+"Theodore, how can you say so?"
+
+"And that, I suppose, is just what Harry has done. If the world and
+his wife had visited Lady Ongar, there would not have been all this
+trouble now."
+
+Mrs. Burton of course undertook the task which her husband assigned
+to her, though she did so with much nervous trepidation, and many
+fears lest the desired object should be lost through her own
+maladroit management. With her, there was at least no doubt as to the
+thing to be done,--no hesitation as to the desirability of securing
+Harry Clavering for the Burton faction. Everything in her mind was
+to be forgiven to Harry, and he was to be received by them all with
+open arms and loving caresses, if he would only abandon Lady Ongar
+altogether. To secure her lover for Florence, was Mrs. Burton's
+single and simple object. She raised no questions now within her
+own breast as to whether Harry would make a good husband. Any such
+question as that should have been asked and answered before he had
+been accepted at Stratton. The thing to be done now was to bring
+Harry and Florence together, and,--since such terrible dangers were
+intervening,--to make them man and wife with as little further delay
+as might be possible. The name of Lady Ongar was odious to her. When
+men went astray in matters of love it was within the power of Cecilia
+Burton's heart to forgive them; but she could not pardon women that
+so sinned. This countess had once jilted Harry, and that was enough
+to secure her condemnation. And since that what terrible things had
+been said of her! And dear, uncharitable Cecilia Burton was apt to
+think, when evil was spoken of women,--of women whom she did not
+know,--that there could not be smoke without fire. And now this woman
+was a widow with a large fortune, and wanted a husband! What business
+had any widow to want a husband? It is so easy for wives to speak
+and think after that fashion when they are satisfied with their own
+ventures.
+
+It was arranged that when Harry came to the door, Mrs. Burton should
+go up alone to the drawing-room and receive him there, remaining
+with her husband in the dining-room till he should come. Twice while
+sitting downstairs after the cloth was gone she ran upstairs with the
+avowed purpose of going into the nursery, but in truth that she might
+see that the room was comfortable, that it looked pretty, and that
+the chairs were so arranged as to be convenient. The two eldest
+children were with them in the parlour, and when she started on
+her second errand, Cissy reminded her that baby would be asleep.
+Theodore, who understood the little manoeuvre, smiled but said
+nothing, and his wife, who in such matters was resolute, went and
+made her further little changes in the furniture. At last there
+came the knock at the door,--the expected knock, a knock which told
+something of the hesitating unhappy mind of him who had rapped, and
+Mrs. Burton started on her business. "Tell him just simply why you
+are there alone," said her husband.
+
+"Is it Harry Clavering?" Cissy asked, "and mayn't I go?"
+
+"It is Harry Clavering," her father said, "and you may not go.
+Indeed, it is time you went somewhere else."
+
+It was Harry Clavering. He had not spent a pleasant day since he had
+left Mr. Beilby's offices in the morning, and, now that he had come
+to Onslow Crescent, he did not expect to spend a pleasant evening.
+When I declare that as yet he had not come to any firm resolution, I
+fear that he will be held as being too weak for the rôle of hero even
+in such pages as these. Perhaps no terms have been so injurious to
+the profession of the novelist as those two words, hero and heroine.
+In spite of the latitude which is allowed to the writer in putting
+his own interpretation upon these words, something heroic is still
+expected; whereas, if he attempt to paint from Nature, how little
+that is heroic should he describe! How many young men, subjected to
+the temptations which had befallen Harry Clavering,--how many young
+men whom you, delicate reader, number among your friends,--would have
+come out from them unscathed? A man, you say, delicate reader, a true
+man can love but one woman,--but one at a time. So you say, and are
+so convinced; but no conviction was ever more false. When a true man
+has loved with all his heart and all his soul,--does he cease to
+love,--does he cleanse his heart of that passion when circumstances
+run against him, and he is forced to turn elsewhere for his life's
+companion? Or is he untrue as a lover in that he does not waste his
+life in desolation, because he has been disappointed? Or does his old
+love perish and die away, because another has crept into his heart?
+No; the first love, if that was true, is ever there; and should she
+and he meet after many years, though their heads be gray and their
+cheeks wrinkled, there will still be a touch of the old passion as
+their hands meet for a moment. Methinks that love never dies, unless
+it be murdered by downright ill-usage. It may be so murdered, but
+even ill-usage will more often fail than succeed in that enterprise.
+How, then, could Harry fail to love the woman whom he had loved
+first, when she returned to him still young, still beautiful, and
+told him, with all her charms and all her flattery, how her heart
+stood towards him?
+
+But it is not to be thought that I excuse him altogether. A man,
+though he may love many, should be devoted only to one. The man's
+feeling to the woman whom he is to marry should be this:--that not
+from love only, but from chivalry, from manhood, and from duty, he
+will be prepared always, and at all hazards, to defend her from every
+misadventure, to struggle ever that she may be happy, to see that no
+wind blows upon her with needless severity, that no ravening wolf
+of a misery shall come near her, that her path be swept clean for
+her,--as clean as may be, and that her roof-tree be made firm upon a
+rock. There is much of this which is quite independent of love,--much
+of it that may be done without love. This is devotion, and it is this
+which a man owes to the woman who has once promised to be his wife,
+and has not forfeited her right. Doubtless Harry Clavering should
+have remembered this at the first moment of his weakness in Lady
+Ongar's drawing-room. Doubtless he should have known at once that
+his duty to Florence made it necessary that he should declare his
+engagement,--even though, in doing so, he might have seemed to
+caution Lady Ongar on that point on which no woman can endure a
+caution. But the fault was hers, and the caution was needed. No doubt
+he should not have returned to Bolton Street. He should not have
+cozened himself by trusting himself to her assurances of friendship;
+he should have kept warm his love for the woman to whom his hand was
+owed, not suffering himself to make comparisons to her injury. He
+should have been chivalric, manly, full of high duty. He should have
+been all this, and full also of love, and then he would have been a
+hero. But men as I see them are not often heroic.
+
+As he entered the room he saw Mrs. Burton at once, and then looked
+round quickly for her husband. "Harry," said she, "I am so glad to
+see you once again," and she gave him her hand, and smiled on him
+with that sweet look which used to make him feel that it was pleasant
+to be near her. He took her hand and muttered some word of greeting,
+and then looked round again for Mr. Burton. "Theodore is not here,"
+she said; "he thought it better that you and I should have a little
+talk together. He said you would like it best so; but perhaps I ought
+not to tell you that."
+
+"I do like it best so,--much best. I can speak to you as I could
+hardly speak to him."
+
+"What is it, Harry, that ails you? What has kept you away from us?
+Why do you leave poor Flo so long without writing to her? She will be
+here on Monday. You will come and see her then; or perhaps you will
+go with me and meet her at the station?"
+
+"Burton said that she was coming, but I did not understand that it
+was so soon."
+
+"You do not think it too soon, Harry; do you?"
+
+"No," said Harry, but his tone belied his assertion. At any rate
+he had not pretended to display any of a lover's rapture at this
+prospect of seeing the lady whom he loved.
+
+"Sit down, Harry. Why do you stand like that and look so comfortless?
+Theodore says that you have some trouble at heart. Is it a trouble
+that you can tell to a friend such as I am?"
+
+"It is very hard to tell. Oh, Mrs. Burton, I am broken-hearted. For
+the last two weeks I have wished that I might die."
+
+"Do not say that, Harry; that would be wicked."
+
+"Wicked or not, it is true. I have been so wretched that I have
+not known how to hold myself. I could not bring myself to write to
+Florence."
+
+"But why not? You do not mean that you are false to Florence. You
+cannot mean that. Harry, say at once that it is not so, and I
+will promise you her forgiveness, Theodore's forgiveness, all our
+forgiveness for anything else. Oh, Harry, say anything but that." In
+answer to this Harry Clavering had nothing to say, but sat with his
+head resting on his arm and his face turned away from her. "Speak,
+Harry; if you are a man, say something. Is it so? If it be so, I
+believe that you will have killed her. Why do you not speak to me?
+Harry Clavering, tell me what is the truth."
+
+Then he told her all his story, not looking her once in the face,
+not changing his voice, suppressing his emotion till he came to the
+history of the present days. He described to her how he had loved
+Julia Brabazon, and how his love had been treated by her; how he had
+sworn to himself, when he knew that she had in truth become that
+lord's wife, that for her sake he would keep himself from loving any
+other woman. Then he spoke of his first days at Stratton and of his
+early acquaintance with Florence, and told her how different had been
+his second love,--how it had grown gradually and with no check to his
+confidence, till he felt sure that the sweet girl who was so often
+near him would, if he could win her, be to him a source of joy for
+all his life. "And so she shall," said Cecilia, with tears running
+down her cheeks; "she shall do so yet." And he went on with his tale,
+saying how pleasant it had been for him to find himself at home in
+Onslow Crescent, how he had joyed in calling her Cecilia, and having
+her infants in his arms, as though they were already partly belonging
+to him. And he told her how he had met the young widow at the
+station, having employed himself on her behalf at her sister's
+instance; and how cold she had been to him, offending him by her
+silence and sombre pride. "False woman!" exclaimed Mrs. Burton. "Oh,
+Cecilia, do not abuse her,--do not say a word till you know all." "I
+know that she is false," said Mrs. Burton, with vehement indignation.
+"She is not false," said Harry; "if there be falsehood, it is mine."
+Then he went on, and said how different she was when next he saw her.
+How then he understood that her solemn and haughty manner had been
+almost forced on her by the mode of her return, with no other friend
+to meet her. "She has deserved no friend," said Mrs. Burton. "You
+wrong her," said Harry; "you do not know her. If any woman has been
+ever sinned against, it is she." "But was she not false from the very
+first,--false, that she might become rich by marrying a man that she
+did not love? Will you speak up for her after that? Oh, Harry, think
+of it."
+
+"I will speak up for her," said Harry; and now it seemed for the
+first time that something of his old boldness had returned to him. "I
+will speak up for her, although she did as you say, because she has
+suffered as few women have been made to suffer, and because she has
+repented in ashes as few women are called on to repent." And now as
+he warmed with his feeling for her, he uttered his words faster and
+with less of shame in his voice. He described how he had gone again
+and again to Bolton Street, thinking no evil, till--till--till
+something of the old feeling had come back upon him. He meant to be
+true in his story, but I doubt whether he told all the truth. How
+could he tell it all? How could he confess that the blaze of the
+woman's womanhood, the flame of her beauty, and the fire engendered
+by her mingled rank and suffering, had singed him and burned him
+up, poor moth that he was? "And then at last I learned," said he,
+"that--that she had loved me more than I had believed."
+
+"And is Florence to suffer because she has postponed her love of you
+to her love of money?"
+
+"Mrs. Burton, if you do not understand it now, I do not know that I
+can tell you more. Florence alone in this matter is altogether good.
+Lady Ongar has been wrong, and I have been wrong. I sometimes think
+that Florence is too good for me."
+
+"It is for her to say that, if it be necessary."
+
+"I have told you all now, and you will know why I have not come to
+you."
+
+"No, Harry; you have not told me all. Have you told that--woman that
+she should be your wife?" To this question he made no immediate
+answer, and she repeated it. "Tell me; have you told her you would
+marry her?"
+
+"I did tell her so."
+
+"And you will keep your word to her?" Harry, as he heard the words,
+was struck with awe that there should be such vehemence, such anger,
+in the voice of so gentle a woman as Cecilia Burton. "Answer me, sir,
+do you mean to marry this--countess?" But still he made no answer. "I
+do not wonder that you cannot speak," she said. "Oh, Florence,--oh,
+my darling; my lost, broken-hearted angel!" Then she turned away her
+face and wept.
+
+"Cecilia," he said, attempting to approach her with his hand, without
+rising from his chair.
+
+"No, sir; when I desired you to call me so, it was because I thought
+you were to be a brother. I did not think that there could be a thing
+so weak as you. Perhaps you had better go now, lest you should meet
+my husband in his wrath, and he should spurn you."
+
+But Harry Clavering still sat in his chair, motionless,--motionless,
+and without a word. After a while he turned his face towards her, and
+even in her own misery she was stricken by the wretchedness of his
+countenance. Suddenly she rose quickly from her chair, and coming
+close to him, threw herself on her knees before him. "Harry," she
+said, "Harry; it is not yet too late. Be our own Harry again; our
+dearest Harry. Say that it shall be so. What is this woman to you?
+What has she done for you, that for her you should throw aside such a
+one as our Florence? Is she noble, and good, and pure and spotless as
+Florence is? Will she love you with such love as Florence's? Will she
+believe in you as Florence believes? Yes, Harry, she believes yet.
+She knows nothing of this, and shall know nothing, if you will only
+say that you will be true. No one shall know, and I will remember it
+only to remember your goodness afterwards. Think of it, Harry; there
+can be no falseness to one who has been so false to you. Harry, you
+will not destroy us all at one blow?"
+
+Never before was man so supplicated to take into his arms youth and
+beauty and feminine purity! And in truth he would have yielded, as
+indeed, what man would not have yielded,--had not Mrs. Burton been
+interrupted in her prayers. The step of her husband was heard upon
+the stairs, and she, rising from her knees, whispered quickly, "Do
+not tell him that it is settled. Let me tell him when you are gone."
+
+"You two have been a long time together," said Theodore, as he came
+in.
+
+"Why did you leave us, then, so long?" said Mrs. Burton, trying
+to smile, though the signs of tears were, as she well knew, plain
+enough.
+
+"I thought you would have sent for me."
+
+"Burton," said Harry, "I take it kindly of you that you allowed me to
+see your wife alone."
+
+"Women always understand these things best," said he.
+
+"And you will come again to-morrow, Harry, and answer me my
+question?"
+
+"Not to-morrow."
+
+"Florence will be here on Monday."
+
+"And why should he not come when Florence is here?" asked Theodore,
+in an angry tone.
+
+"Of course he will come, but I want to see him again first. Do I not,
+Harry?"
+
+"I hate mysteries," said Burton.
+
+"There shall be no mystery," said his wife. "Why did you send him to
+me, but that there are some things difficult to discuss among three?
+Will you come to-morrow, Harry?"
+
+"Not to-morrow; but I will write to-morrow,--early to-morrow. I will
+go now, and of course you will tell Burton everything that I have
+said. Good night." They both took his hand, and Cecilia pressed it
+as she looked with beseeching eyes into his face. What would she not
+have done to secure the happiness of the sister whom she loved? On
+this occasion she had descended low that she might do much.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+HOW DAMON PARTED FROM PYTHIAS.
+
+
+Lady Ongar, when she left Count Pateroff at the little fort on the
+cliff and entered by herself the gardens belonging to the hotel, had
+long since made up her mind that there should at last be a positive
+severance between herself and her devoted Sophie. For half-an-hour
+she had been walking in silence by the count's side; and though, of
+course, she had heard all that he had spoken, she had been able in
+that time to consider much. It must have been through Sophie that the
+count had heard of her journey to the Isle of Wight; and, worse than
+that, Sophie must, as she thought, have instigated this pursuit. In
+that she wronged her poor friend. Sophie had been simply paid by her
+brother for giving such information as enabled him to arrange this
+meeting. She had not even counselled him to follow Lady Ongar. But
+now Lady Ongar, in blind wrath, determined that Sophie should be
+expelled from her bosom. Lady Ongar would find this task of expulsion
+the less difficult in that she had come to loathe her devoted
+friend, and to feel it to be incumbent on her to rid herself of such
+devotion. Now had arrived the moment in which it might be done.
+
+And yet there were difficulties. Two ladies living together in an inn
+cannot, without much that is disagreeable, send down to the landlord
+saying that they want separate rooms, because they have taken it
+into their minds to hate each other. And there would, moreover, be
+something awkward in saying to Sophie that, though she was discarded,
+her bill should be paid--for this last and only time. No; Lady Ongar
+had already perceived that that would not do. She would not quarrel
+with Sophie after that fashion. She would leave the Isle of Wight on
+the following morning early, informing Sophie why she did so, and
+would offer money to the little Franco-Pole, presuming that it might
+not be agreeable to the Franco-Pole to be hurried away from her
+marine or rural happiness so quickly. But in doing this she would be
+careful to make Sophie understand that Bolton Street was to be closed
+against her for ever afterwards. With neither Count Pateroff nor his
+sister would she ever again willingly place herself in contact.
+
+It was dark as she entered the house,--the walk out, her delay there,
+and her return having together occupied her three hours. She had
+hardly felt the dusk growing on her as she progressed steadily on her
+way, with that odious man beside her. She had been thinking of other
+things, and her eyes had accustomed themselves gradually to the
+fading twilight. But now, when she saw the glimmer of the lamps from
+the inn-windows, she knew that the night had come upon her, and she
+began to fear that she had been imprudent in allowing herself to be
+out so late,--imprudent, even had she succeeded in being alone. She
+went direct to her own room, that, woman-like, she might consult her
+own face as to the effects of the insult she had received, and then
+having, as it were, steadied herself, and prepared herself for the
+scene that was to follow, she descended to the sitting-room and
+encountered her friend. The friend was the first to speak; and the
+reader will kindly remember that the friend had ample reason for
+knowing what companion Lady Ongar had been likely to meet upon the
+downs.
+
+"Julie, dear, how late you are," said Sophie, as though she were
+rather irritated in having been kept so long waiting for her tea.
+
+"I am late," said Lady Ongar.
+
+"And don't you think you are imprudent,--all alone, you know, dear;
+just a leetle imprudent."
+
+"Very imprudent, indeed. I have been thinking of that now as I
+crossed the lawn, and found how dark it was. I have been very
+imprudent; but I have escaped without much injury."
+
+"Escaped! escaped what? Have you escaped a cold, or a drunken man?"
+
+"Both, as I think." Then she sat down, and, having rung the bell, she
+ordered tea.
+
+"There seems to be something very odd with you," said Sophie. "I do
+not quite understand you."
+
+"When did you see your brother last?" Lady Ongar asked.
+
+"My brother?"
+
+"Yes, Count Pateroff. When did you see him last?"
+
+"Why do you want to know?"
+
+"Well, it does not signify, as of course you will not tell me. But
+will you say when you will see him next?"
+
+"How can I tell?"
+
+"Will it be to-night?"
+
+"Julie, what do you mean?"
+
+"Only this, that I wish you would make him understand that if he has
+anything to do concerning me, he might as well do it out of hand. For
+the last hour--"
+
+"Then you have seen him?"
+
+"Yes; is not that wonderful? I have seen him."
+
+"And why could you not tell him yourself what you had to say? He
+and I do not agree about certain things, and I do not like to carry
+messages to him. And you have seen him here on this sacré sea-coast?"
+
+"Exactly so; on this sacré sea-coast. Is it not odd that he should
+have known that I was here,--known the very inn we were at,--and
+known, too, whither I was going to-night?"
+
+"He would learn that from the servants, my dear."
+
+"No doubt. He has been good enough to amuse me with mysterious
+threats as to what he would do to punish me if I would not--"
+
+"Become his wife?" suggested Sophie.
+
+"Exactly. It was very flattering on his part. I certainly do not
+intend to become his wife."
+
+"Ah, you like better that young Clavering who has the other
+sweetheart. He is younger. That is true."
+
+"Upon my word, yes. I like my cousin, Harry Clavering, much better
+than I like your brother; but, as I take it, that has not much to
+do with it. I was speaking of your brother's threats. I do not
+understand them; but I wish he could be made to understand that if he
+has anything to do, he had better go and do it. As for marriage, I
+would sooner marry the first ploughboy I could find in the fields."
+
+"Julie,--you need not insult him."
+
+"I will have no more of your Julie; and I will have no more of you."
+As she said this she rose from her chair, and walked about the room.
+"You have betrayed me, and there shall be an end of it."
+
+
+[Illustration: How Damon parted from Pythias.]
+
+
+"Betrayed you! what nonsense you talk. In what have I betrayed you?"
+
+"You set him upon my track here, though you knew I desired to avoid
+him."
+
+"And is that all? I was coming here to this detestable island, and I
+told my brother. That is my offence,--and then you talk of betraying!
+Julie, you sometimes are a goose."
+
+"Very often, no doubt; but, Madame Gordeloup, if you please we will
+be geese apart for the future."
+
+"Oh, certainly;--if you wish it."
+
+"I do wish it."
+
+"It cannot hurt me. I can choose my friends anywhere. The world is
+open to me to go where I please into society. I am not at a loss."
+
+All this Lady Ongar well understood, but she could bear it without
+injury to her temper. Such revenge was to be expected from such a
+woman. "I do not want you to be at a loss," she said. "I only want
+you to understand that after what has this evening occurred between
+your brother and me, our acquaintance had better cease."
+
+"And I am to be punished for my brother?"
+
+"You said just now that it would be no punishment, and I was glad
+to hear it. Society is, as you say, open to you, and you will lose
+nothing."
+
+"Of course society is open to me. Have I committed myself? I am not
+talked about for my lovers by all the town. Why should I be at a
+loss? No."
+
+"I shall return to London to-morrow by the earliest opportunity.
+I have already told them so, and have ordered a carriage to go to
+Yarmouth at eight."
+
+"And you leave me here, alone!"
+
+"Your brother is here, Madame Gordeloup."
+
+"My brother is nothing to me. You know well that. He can come and he
+can go when he please. I come here to follow you,--to be companion
+to you, to oblige you,--and now you say you go and leave me in this
+detestable barrack. If I am here alone, I will be revenged."
+
+"You shall go back with me if you wish it."
+
+"At eight o'clock in the morning,--and see, it is now eleven; while
+you have been wandering about alone with my brother in the dark! No;
+I will not go so early morning as that. To-morrow is Saturday--you
+was to remain till Tuesday."
+
+"You may do as you please. I shall go at eight to-morrow."
+
+"Very well. You go at eight, very well. And who will pay for the
+'beels' when you are gone, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"I have already ordered the bill up to-morrow morning. If you will
+allow me to offer you twenty pounds, that will bring you to London
+when you please to follow."
+
+"Twenty pounds! What is twenty pounds? No; I will not have your
+twenty pounds." And she pushed away from her the two notes which Lady
+Ongar had already put upon the table. "Who is to pay me for the loss
+of all my time? Tell me that. I have devoted myself to you. Who will
+pay me for that?"
+
+"Not I, certainly, Madame Gordeloup."
+
+"Not you! You will not pay me for my time;--for a whole year I have
+been devoted to you! You will not pay me, and you send me away in
+this way? By Gar, you will be made to pay,--through the nose."
+
+As the interview was becoming unpleasant, Lady Ongar took her candle
+and went away to bed, leaving the twenty pounds on the table. As she
+left the room she knew that the money was there, but she could not
+bring herself to pick it up and restore it to her pocket. It was
+improbable, she thought, that Madame Gordeloup would leave it to the
+mercy of the waiters; and the chances were that the notes would go
+into the pocket for which they were intended.
+
+And such was the result. Sophie, when she was left alone, got up
+from her seat, and stood for some moments on the rug, making her
+calculations. That Lady Ongar should be very angry about Count
+Pateroff's presence Sophie had expected; but she had not expected
+that her friend's anger would be carried to such extremity that she
+would pronounce a sentence of banishment for life. But, perhaps,
+after all, it might be well for Sophie herself that such sentence
+should be carried out. This fool of a woman with her income, her
+park, and her rank, was going to give herself,--so said Sophie to
+herself,--to a young, handsome, proud pig of a fellow,--so Sophie
+called him,--who had already shown himself to be Sophie's enemy, and
+who would certainly find no place for Sophie Gordeloup within his
+house. Might it not be well that the quarrel should be consummated
+now,--such compensation being obtained as might possibly be
+extracted. Sophie certainly knew a good deal, which it might be for
+the convenience of the future husband to keep dark--or convenient for
+the future wife that the future husband should not know. Terms might
+be yet had, although Lady Ongar had refused to pay anything beyond
+that trumpery twenty pounds. Terms might be had; or, indeed, it might
+be that Lady Ongar herself, when her anger was over, might sue for a
+reconciliation. Or Sophie,--and this idea occurred as Sophie herself
+became a little despondent after long calculation,--Sophie herself
+might acknowledge herself to be wrong, begging pardon, and weeping
+on her friend's neck. Perhaps it might be worth while to make some
+further calculation in bed. Then Sophie, softly drawing the notes
+towards her as a cat might have done, and hiding them somewhere about
+her person, also went to her room.
+
+In the morning Lady Ongar prepared herself for starting at eight
+o'clock, and, as a part of that preparation, had her breakfast
+brought to her upstairs. When the time was up, she descended to the
+sitting-room on the way to the carriage, and there she found Sophie
+also prepared for a journey.
+
+"I am going too. You will let me go?" said Sophie.
+
+"Certainly," said Lady Ongar. "I proposed to you to do so yesterday."
+
+"You should not be so hard upon your poor friend," said Sophie. This
+was said in the hearing of Lady Ongar's maid and of two waiters,
+and Lady Ongar made no reply to it. When they were in the carriage
+together, the maid being then stowed away in a dickey or rumble
+behind, Sophie again whined and was repentant. "Julie, you should not
+be so hard upon your poor Sophie."
+
+"It seems to me that the hardest things said were spoken by you."
+
+"Then I will beg your pardon. I am impulsive. I do not restrain
+myself. When I am angry I say I know not what. If I said
+any words that were wrong, I will apologize, and beg to be
+forgiven,--there,--on my knees." And, as she spoke, the adroit little
+woman contrived to get herself down upon her knees on the floor of
+the carriage. "There; say that I am forgiven; say that Sophie is
+pardoned." The little woman had calculated that even should her
+Julie pardon her, Julie would hardly condescend to ask for the two
+ten-pound notes.
+
+But Lady Ongar had stoutly determined that there should be no further
+intimacy, and had reflected that a better occasion for a quarrel
+could hardly be vouchsafed to her than that afforded by Sophie's
+treachery in bringing her brother down to Freshwater. She was too
+strong, and too much mistress of her will, to be cheated now out of
+her advantage. "Madame Gordeloup, that attitude is absurd;--I beg you
+will get up."
+
+"Never; never till you have pardoned me." And Sophie crouched still
+lower, till she was all among the dressing-cases and little bags
+at the bottom of the carriage. "I will not get up till you say the
+words, 'Sophie, dear, I forgive you.'"
+
+"Then I fear you will have an uncomfortable drive. Luckily it will be
+very short. It is only half-an-hour to Yarmouth."
+
+"And I will kneel again on board the packet; and on the--what you
+call, platform,--and in the railway carriage,--and in the street.
+I will kneel to my Julie everywhere, till she say, 'Sophie, dear,
+I forgive you!'"
+
+"Madame Gordeloup, pray understand me; between you and me there shall
+be no further intimacy."
+
+"No!"
+
+"Certainly not. No further explanation is necessary, but our intimacy
+has certainly come to an end."
+
+"It has."
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"Julie!"
+
+"That is such nonsense. Madame Gordeloup, you are disgracing yourself
+by your proceedings."
+
+"Oh! disgracing myself, am I?" In saying this, Sophie picked herself
+up from among the dressing-cases, and recovered her seat. "I am
+disgracing myself! Well, I know very well whose disgrace is the most
+talked about in the world, yours or mine. Disgracing myself;--and
+from you? What did your husband say of you himself?"
+
+Lady Ongar began to feel that even a very short journey might be too
+long. Sophie was now quite up, and was wriggling herself on her seat,
+adjusting her clothes which her late attitude had disarranged, not in
+the most graceful manner.
+
+"You shall see," she continued. "Yes, you shall see. Tell me of
+disgrace! I have only disgraced myself by being with you. Ah,--very
+well. Yes; I will get out. As for being quiet, I shall be quiet
+whenever I like it. I know when to talk and when to hold my tongue.
+Disgrace!" So saying, she stepped out of the carriage, leaning on the
+arm of a boatman who had come to the door, and who had heard her last
+words.
+
+It may be imagined that all this did not contribute much to the
+comfort of Lady Ongar. They were now on the little pier at Yarmouth,
+and in five minutes every one there knew who she was, and knew also
+that there had been some disagreement between her and the little
+foreigner. The eyes of the boatmen, and of the drivers, and of the
+other travellers, and of the natives going over to the market at
+Lymington, were all on her, and the eyes also of all the idlers of
+Yarmouth who had congregated there to watch the despatch of the early
+boat. But she bore it well, seating herself, with her maid beside
+her, on one of the benches on the deck, and waiting there with
+patience till the boat should start. Sophie once or twice muttered
+the word "disgrace!" but beyond that she remained silent.
+
+They crossed over the little channel without a word, and without a
+word made their way up to the railway-station. Lady Ongar had been
+too confused to get tickets for their journey at Yarmouth, but had
+paid on board the boat for the passage of the three persons--herself,
+her maid, and Sophie. But, at the station at Lymington, the more
+important business of taking tickets for the journey to London became
+necessary. Lady Ongar had thought of this on her journey across the
+water, and, when at the railway-station, gave her purse to her maid,
+whispering her orders. The girl took three first-class tickets, and
+then going gently up to Madame Gordeloup, offered one to that lady.
+"Ah, yes; very well; I understand," said Sophie, taking the ticket.
+"I shall take this;" and she held the ticket up in her hand, as
+though she had some specially mysterious purpose in accepting it.
+
+She got into the same carriage with Lady Ongar and her maid, but
+spoke no word on her journey up to London. At Basingstoke she had a
+glass of sherry, for which Lady Ongar's maid paid. Lady Ongar had
+telegraphed for her carriage, which was waiting for her, but Sophie
+betook herself to a cab. "Shall I pay the cabman, ma'am?" said the
+maid. "Yes," said Sophie, "or stop. It will be half-a-crown. You had
+better give me the half-crown." The maid did so, and in this way the
+careful Sophie added another shilling to her store,--over and above
+the twenty pounds,--knowing well that the fare to Mount Street was
+eighteen-pence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+DOODLES IN MOUNT STREET.
+
+
+Captain Clavering and Captain Boodle had, as may be imagined,
+discussed at great length and with much frequency the results of the
+former captain's negotiations with the Russian spy, and it had been
+declared strongly by the latter captain, and ultimately admitted by
+the former, that those results were not satisfactory. Seventy pounds
+had been expended, and, so to say, nothing had been accomplished.
+It was in vain that Archie, unwilling to have it thought that he
+had been worsted in diplomacy, argued that with these political
+personages, and especially with Russian political personages, the
+ambages were everything,--that the preliminaries were in fact the
+whole, and that when they were arranged, the thing was done. Doodles
+proved to demonstration that the thing was not done, and that seventy
+pounds was too much for mere preliminaries. "My dear fellow," he
+said, speaking I fear with some scorn in his voice, "where are you?
+That's what I want to know. Where are you? Just nowhere." This was
+true. All that Archie had received from Madame Gordeloup in return
+for his last payment, was an intimation that no immediate day could
+be at present named for a renewal of his personal attack upon the
+countess; but that a day might be named when he should next come to
+Mount Street,--provision, of course, being made that he should come
+with a due qualification under his glove. Now the original basis
+on which Archie was to carry on his suit had been arranged to be
+this,--that Lady Ongar should be made to know that he was there; and
+the way in which Doodles had illustrated this precept by the artistic
+and allegorical use of his heel was still fresh in Archie's memory.
+The meeting in which they had come to that satisfactory understanding
+had taken place early in the spring, and now June was coming on, and
+the countess certainly did not as yet know that her suitor was there!
+If anything was to be done by the Russian spy it should be done
+quickly, and Doodles did not refrain from expressing his opinion that
+his friend was "putting his foot into it," and "making a mull of the
+whole thing." Now Archie Clavering was a man not eaten up by the vice
+of self-confidence, but prone rather to lean upon his friends and
+anxious for the aid of counsel in difficulty.
+
+"What the devil is a fellow to do?" he asked. "Perhaps I had better
+give it all up. Everybody says that she is as proud as Lucifer; and,
+after all, nobody knows what rigs she has been up to."
+
+But this was by no means the view which Doodles was inclined to take.
+He was a man who in the field never gave up a race because he was
+thrown out at the start, having perceived that patience would achieve
+as much, perhaps, as impetuosity. He had ridden many a waiting
+race, and had won some of them. He was never so sure of his hand at
+billiards as when the score was strong against him. "Always fight
+whilst there's any fight left in you," was a maxim with him. He never
+surrendered a bet as lost, till the evidence as to the facts was
+quite conclusive, and had taught himself to regard any chance, be it
+ever so remote, as a kind of property.
+
+"Never say die," was his answer to Archie's remark. "You see, Clavvy,
+you have still a few good cards, and you can never know what a woman
+really means till you have popped yourself. As to what she did when
+she was away, and all that, you see when a woman has got seven
+thousand a year in her own right, it covers a multitude of sins."
+
+"Of course, I know that."
+
+"And why should a fellow be uncharitable? If a man is to believe all
+that he hears, by George, they're all much of a muchness. For my part
+I never believe anything. I always suppose every horse will run to
+win; and though there may be a cross now and again, that's the surest
+line to go upon. D'you understand me now?" Archie said that of course
+he understood him; but I fancy that Doodles had gone a little too
+deep for Archie's intellect.
+
+"I should say, drop this woman, and go at the widow yourself at
+once."
+
+"And lose all my seventy pounds for nothing!"
+
+"You're not soft enough to suppose that you'll ever get it back
+again, I hope?" Archie assured his friend that he was not soft enough
+for any such hope as that, and then the two remained silent for a
+while, deeply considering the posture of the affair. "I'll tell you
+what I'll do for you," said Doodles; "and upon my word I think it
+will be the best thing."
+
+"And what's that?"
+
+"I'll go to this woman myself."
+
+"What; to Lady Ongar?"
+
+"No; but to the Spy, as you call her. Principals are never the best
+for this kind of work. When a man has to pay the money himself he can
+never make so good a bargain as another can make for him. That stands
+to reason. And I can be blunter with her about it than you can;--can
+go straight at it, you know; and you may be sure of this, she won't
+get any money from me, unless I get the marbles for it."
+
+"You'll take some with you, then?"
+
+"Well, yes; that is, if it's convenient. We were talking of going two
+or three hundred pounds, you know, and you've only gone seventy as
+yet. Suppose you hand me over the odd thirty. If she gets it out of
+me easy, tell me my name isn't Boodle."
+
+There was much in this that was distasteful to Captain Clavering,
+but at last he submitted, and handed over the thirty pounds to his
+friend. Then there was considerable doubt whether the ambassador
+should announce himself by a note, but it was decided at last that
+his arrival should not be expected. If he did not find the lady at
+home or disengaged on the first visit, or on the second, he might on
+the third or the fourth. He was a persistent, patient little man,
+and assured his friend that he would certainly see Madame Gordeloup
+before a week had passed over their heads.
+
+On the occasion of his first visit to Mount Street, Sophie Gordeloup
+was enjoying her retreat in the Isle of Wight. When he called the
+second time she was in bed, the fatigue of her journey on the
+previous day,--the day on which she had actually risen at seven
+o'clock in the morning,--having oppressed her much. She had returned
+in the cab alone, and had occupied herself much on the same evening.
+Now that she was to be parted from her Julie, it was needful that she
+should be occupied. She wrote a long letter to her brother,--much
+more confidential than her letters to him had lately been,--telling
+him how much she had suffered on his behalf, and describing to
+him with great energy the perverseness, malignity, and general
+pigheadedness of her late friend. Then she wrote an anonymous letter
+to Mrs. Burton, whose name and address she had learned, after having
+ascertained from Archie the fact of Harry Clavering's engagement. In
+this letter she described the wretched wiles by which that horrid
+woman Lady Ongar was struggling to keep Harry and Miss Burton apart.
+"It is very bad, but it is true," said the diligent little woman.
+"She has been seen in his embrace; I know it." After that she dressed
+and went out into society,--the society of which she had boasted as
+being open to her,--to the house of some hanger-on of some embassy,
+and listened, and whispered, and laughed when some old sinner joked
+with her, and talked poetry to a young man who was foolish and lame,
+but who had some money, and got a glass of wine and a cake for
+nothing, and so was very busy; and on her return home calculated that
+her cab-hire for the evening had been judiciously spent. But her
+diligence had been so great that when Captain Boodle called the next
+morning at twelve o'clock she was still in bed. Had she been in dear
+Paris, or in dearer Vienna, that would have not hindered her from
+receiving the visit; but in pigheaded London this could not be done;
+and, therefore, when she had duly scrutinized Captain Boodle's card,
+and had learned from the servant that Captain Boodle desired to see
+herself on very particular business, she made an appointment with him
+for the following day.
+
+On the following day at the same hour Doodles came and was shown up
+into her room. He had scrupulously avoided any smartness of apparel,
+calculating that a Newmarket costume would be, of all dresses, the
+most efficacious in filling her with an idea of his smartness;
+whereas Archie had probably injured himself much by his polished
+leather boots, and general newness of clothing. Doodles, therefore,
+wore a cut-away coat, a coloured shirt with a fogle round his neck,
+old brown trowsers that fitted very tightly round his legs, and was
+careful to take no gloves with him. He was a man with a small bullet
+head, who wore his hair cut very short, and had no other beard than
+a slight appendage on his lower chin. He certainly did possess a
+considerable look of smartness, and when he would knit his brows and
+nod his head, some men were apt to think that it was not easy to get
+on the soft side of him.
+
+Sophie on this occasion was not arrayed with that becoming negligence
+which had graced her appearance when Captain Clavering had called.
+She knew that a visitor was coming, and the questionably white
+wrapper had been exchanged for an ordinary dress. This was regretted,
+rather than otherwise, by Captain Boodle, who had received from
+Archie a description of the lady's appearance, and who had been
+anxious to see the Spy in her proper and peculiar habiliments. It
+must be remembered that Sophie knew nothing of her present visitor,
+and was altogether unaware that he was in any way connected with
+Captain Clavering.
+
+"You are Captain Boddle," she said, looking hard at Doodles, as he
+bowed to her on entering the room.
+
+"Captain Boodle, ma'am; at your service."
+
+"Oh, Captain Bood-dle; it is English name, I suppose?"
+
+"Certainly, ma'am, certainly. Altogether English, I believe.
+Our Boodles come out of Warwickshire; small property near
+Leamington,--doosed small, I'm sorry to say."
+
+She looked at him very hard, and was altogether unable to discover
+what was the nature or probable mode of life of the young man before
+her. She had lived much in England, and had known Englishmen of
+many classes, but she could not remember that she had ever become
+conversant with such a one as he who was now before her. Was he a
+gentleman, or might he be a housebreaker? "A doosed small property
+near Leamington," she said, repeating the words after him. "Oh!"
+
+"But my visit to you, ma'am, has nothing to do with that."
+
+"Nothing to do with the small property."
+
+"Nothing in life."
+
+"Then, Captain Bood-dle, what may it have to do with?"
+
+Hereupon Doodles took a chair, not having been invited to go through
+that ceremony. According to the theory created in her mind at the
+instant, this man was not at all like an English captain. Captain
+is an unfortunate title, somewhat equivalent to the foreign
+count,--unfortunate in this respect, that it is easily adopted by
+many whose claims to it are very slight. Archie Clavering, with his
+polished leather boots, had looked like a captain,--had come up to
+her idea of a captain,--but this man! The more she regarded him, the
+stronger in her mind became the idea of the housebreaker.
+
+"My business, ma'am, is of a very delicate nature,--of a nature very
+delicate indeed. But I think that you and I, who understand the
+world, may soon come to understand each other."
+
+"Oh, you understand the world. Very well, sir. Go on."
+
+"Now, ma'am, money is money, you know."
+
+"And a goose is a goose; but what of that?"
+
+"Yes; a goose is a goose, and some people are not geese. Nobody,
+ma'am, would think of calling you a goose."
+
+"I hope not. It would be so uncivil, even an Englishman would not say
+it. Will you go on?"
+
+"I think you have the pleasure of knowing Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Knowing who?" said Sophie, almost shrieking.
+
+"Lady Ongar."
+
+During the last day or two Sophie's mind had been concerned very
+much with her dear Julie, but had not been concerned at all with
+the affairs of Captain Clavering, and, therefore, when Lady Ongar's
+name was mentioned, her mind went away altogether to the quarrel, and
+did not once refer itself to the captain. Could it be that this was
+an attorney, and was it possible that Julie would be mean enough to
+make claims upon her? Claims might be made for more than those twenty
+pounds. "And you," she said, "do you know Lady Ongar?"
+
+"I have not that honour myself."
+
+"Oh, you have not; and do you want to be introduced?"
+
+"Not exactly,--not at present; at some future day I shall hope to
+have the pleasure. But I am right in believing that she and you are
+very intimate? Now what are you going to do for my friend Archie
+Clavering?"
+
+"Oh-h-h!" exclaimed Sophie.
+
+"Yes. What are you going to do for my friend Archie Clavering?
+Seventy pounds, you know, ma'am, is a smart bit of money!"
+
+"A smart bit of money, is it? That is what you think on your leetle
+property down in Warwickshire."
+
+"It isn't my property, ma'am, at all. It belongs to my uncle."
+
+"Oh, it is your uncle that has the leetle property. And what had
+your uncle to do with Lady Ongar? What is your uncle to your friend
+Archie?"
+
+"Nothing at all, ma'am; nothing on earth."
+
+"Then why do you tell me all this rigmarole about your uncle and his
+leetle property, and Warwickshire? What have I to do with your uncle?
+Sir, I do not understand you,--not at all. Nor do I know why I have
+the honour to see you here, Captain Bood-dle."
+
+Even Doodles, redoubtable as he was--even he, with all his smartness,
+felt that he was overcome, and that this woman was too much for him.
+He was altogether perplexed, as he could not perceive whether in all
+her tirade about the little property she had really misunderstood
+him, and had in truth thought that he had been talking about his
+uncle, or whether the whole thing was cunning on her part. The
+reader, perhaps, will have a more correct idea of this lady than
+Captain Boodle had been able to obtain. She had now risen from her
+sofa, and was standing as though she expected him to go; but he had
+not as yet opened the budget of his business.
+
+"I am here, ma'am," said he, "to speak to you about my friend,
+Captain Clavering."
+
+"Then you can go back to your friend, and tell him I have nothing to
+say. And, more than that, Captain Booddle"--the woman intensified
+the name in a most disgusting manner, with the evident purpose of
+annoying him; of that he had become quite sure--"more than that, his
+sending you here is an impertinence. Will you tell him that?"
+
+"No, ma'am, I will not."
+
+"Perhaps you are his laquais," continued the inexhaustible Sophie,
+"and are obliged to come when he send you?"
+
+"I am no man's laquais, ma'am."
+
+"If so, I do not blame you; or, perhaps, it is your way to make your
+love third or fourth hand down in Warwickshire?"
+
+"Damn Warwickshire!" said Doodles, who was put beyond himself.
+
+"With all my heart. Damn Warwickshire." And the horrid woman grinned
+at him as she repeated his words. "And the leetle property, and
+the uncle, if you wish it; and the leetle nephew,--and the leetle
+nephew,--and the leetle nephew!" She stood over him as she repeated
+the last words with wondrous rapidity, and grinned at him, and
+grimaced and shook herself, till Doodles was altogether bewildered.
+If this was a Russian spy he would avoid such in future, and keep
+himself for the milder acerbities of Newmarket, and the easier
+chaff of his club. He looked up into her face at the present moment,
+striving to think of some words by which he might assist himself. He
+had as yet performed no part of his mission, but any such performance
+was now entirely out of the question. The woman had defied him, and
+had altogether thrown Clavering overboard. There was no further
+question of her services, and therefore he felt himself to be quite
+entitled to twit her with the payment she had taken.
+
+"And how about my friend's seventy pounds?" said he.
+
+"How about seventy pounds! a leetle man comes here and tells me he
+is a Booddle in Warwickshire, and says he has an uncle with a very
+leetle property, and asks me how about seventy pounds! Suppose I ask
+you how about the policeman, what will you say then?"
+
+"You send for him and you shall hear what I say."
+
+"No; not to take away such a leetle man as you. I send for a
+policeman when I am afraid. Booddle in Warwickshire is not a terrible
+man. Suppose you go to your friend and tell him from me that he have
+chose a very bad Mercury in his affairs of love;--the worst Mercury
+I ever see. Perhaps the Warwickshire Mercuries are not very good. Can
+you tell me, Captain Booddle, how they make love down in
+Warwickshire?"
+
+"And that is all the satisfaction I am to have?"
+
+"Who said you was to have satisfaction? Very little satisfaction I
+should think you ever have, when you come as a Mercury."
+
+"My friend means to know something about that seventy pounds."
+
+"Seventy pounds! If you talk to me any more of seventy pounds, I will
+fly at your face." As she spoke this she jumped across at him as
+though she were really on the point of attacking him with her nails,
+and he, in dismay, retreated to the door. "You, and your seventy
+pounds! Oh, you English! What mean mens you are! Oh! a Frenchman
+would despise to do it. Yes; or a Russian or a Pole. But you,--you
+want it all down in black and white, like a butcher's beel. You know
+nothing, and understand nothing, and can never speak, and can never
+hold your tongues. You have no head, but the head of a bull. A bull
+can break all the china in a shop,--dash, smash, crash,--all the
+pretty things gone in a minute! So can an Englishman. Your seventy
+pounds! You will come again to me for seventy pounds, I think." In
+her energy she had acted the bull, and had exhibited her idea of the
+dashing, the smashing and the crashing, by the motion of her head and
+the waving of her hands.
+
+"And you decline to say anything about the seventy pounds?" said
+Doodles, resolving that his courage should not desert him.
+
+Whereupon the divine Sophie laughed. "Ha, ha, ha! I see you have not
+got on any gloves, Captain Booddle."
+
+"Gloves; no. I don't wear gloves."
+
+"Nor your uncle with the leetle property in Warwickshire? Captain
+Clavering, he wears a glove. He is a handy man." Doodles stared at
+her, understanding nothing of this. "Perhaps it is in your waistcoat
+pocket," and she approached him fearlessly, as though she were about
+to deprive him of his watch.
+
+"I don't know what you mean," said he, retreating.
+
+"Ah, you are not a handy man, like my friend the other captain, so
+you had better go away. Yes; you had better go to Warwickshire. In
+Warwickshire, I suppose, they make ready for your Michaelmas dinners.
+You have four months to get fat. Suppose you go away and get fat."
+
+Doodles understood nothing of her sarcasm, but began to perceive
+that he might as well take his departure. The woman was probably a
+lunatic, and his friend Archie had no doubt been grossly deceived
+when he was sent to her for assistance. He had some faint idea that
+the seventy pounds might be recovered from such a madwoman; but in
+the recovery his friend would be exposed, and he saw that the money
+must be abandoned. At any rate, he had not been soft enough to
+dispose of any more treasure.
+
+"Good-morning, ma'am," he said, very curtly.
+
+"Good-morning to you, Captain Booddle. Are you coming again another
+day?"
+
+"Not that I know of, ma'am."
+
+"You are very welcome to stay away. I like your friend the better.
+Tell him to come and be handy with his glove. As for you,--suppose
+you go to the leetle property."
+
+Then Captain Boodle went, and, as soon as he had made his way out
+into the open street, stood still and looked around him, that by the
+aspect of things familiar to his eyes he might be made certain that
+he was in a world with which he was conversant. While in that room
+with the Spy he had ceased to remember that he was in London,--his
+own London, within a mile of his club, within a mile of Tattersall's.
+He had been, as it were, removed to some strange world in which the
+tact, and courage, and acuteness natural to him had not been of avail
+to him. Madame Gordeloup had opened a new world to him,--a new world
+of which he desired to make no further experience. Gradually he
+began to understand why he had been desired to prepare himself for
+Michaelmas eating. Gradually some idea about Archie's glove glimmered
+across his brain. A wonderful woman certainly was the Russian spy,--a
+phenomenon which in future years he might perhaps be glad to remember
+that he had seen in the flesh. The first race-horse which he might
+ever own and name himself he would certainly call the Russian spy.
+In the meantime, as he slowly walked across Berkeley Square, he
+acknowledged to himself that she was not mad, and acknowledged also
+that the less said about that seventy pounds the better. From thence
+he crossed Piccadilly, and sauntered down St. James's Street into
+Pall Mall, revolving in his mind how he would carry himself with
+Clavvy. He, at any rate, had his ground for triumph. He had parted
+with no money, and had ascertained by his own wit that no available
+assistance from that quarter was to be had in the matter which his
+friend had in hand.
+
+It was some hours after this when the two friends met, and at that
+time Doodles was up to his eyes in chalk and the profitable delights
+of pool. But Archie was too intent on his business to pay much regard
+to his friend's proper avocation. "Well, Doodles," he said, hardly
+waiting till his ambassador had finished his stroke and laid his ball
+close waxed to one of the cushions. "Well; have you seen her?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I've seen her," said Doodles, seating himself on an exalted
+bench which ran round the room, while Archie, with anxious eyes,
+stood before him.
+
+"Well?" said Archie.
+
+"She's a rum 'un. Thank 'ee, Griggs; you always stand to me like a
+brick." This was said to a young lieutenant who had failed to hit the
+captain's ball, and now tendered him a shilling with a very bitter
+look.
+
+"She is queer," said Archie,--"certainly."
+
+"Queer! By George, I'll back her for the queerest bit of horseflesh
+going any way about these diggings. I thought she was mad at first,
+but I believe she knows what she's about."
+
+"She knows what she's about well enough. She's worth all the money if
+you can only get her to work."
+
+"Bosh, my dear fellow."
+
+"Why bosh? What's up now?"
+
+"Bosh! Bosh! Bosh! Me to play, is it?" Down he went, and not finding
+a good open for a hazard, again waxed himself to the cushion, to the
+infinite disgust of Griggs, who did indeed hit the ball this time,
+but in such a way as to make the loss of another life from Griggs'
+original three a matter of certainty. "I don't think it's hardly
+fair," whispered Griggs to a friend, "a man playing always for
+safety. It's not the game I like, and I shan't play at the same table
+with Doodles any more."
+
+"It's all bosh," repeated Doodles, coming back to his seat. "She
+don't mean to do anything, and never did. I've found her out."
+
+"Found out what?"
+
+"She's been laughing at you. She got your money out from under your
+glove, didn't she?"
+
+"Well, I did put it there."
+
+"Of course you did. I knew that I should find out what was what if
+I once went there. I got it all out of her. But, by George, what a
+woman she is! She swore at me to my very face."
+
+"Swore at you! In French you mean?"
+
+"No; not in French at all, but damned me in downright English. By
+George, how I did laugh!--me and everybody belonging to me. I'm
+blessed if she didn't."
+
+"There was nothing like that about her when I saw her."
+
+"You didn't turn her inside out as I've done; but stop half a
+moment." Then he descended, chalked away at his cue hastily, pocketed
+a shilling or two, and returned. "You didn't turn her inside out as
+I've done. I tell you, Clavvy, there's nothing to be done there, and
+there never was. If you'd kept on going yourself she'd have drained
+you as dry,--as dry as that table. There's your thirty pounds back,
+and, upon my word, old fellow, you ought to thank me."
+
+Archie did thank him, and Doodles was not without his triumph. Of
+the frequent references to Warwickshire which he had been forced
+to endure, he said nothing, nor yet of the reference to Michaelmas
+dinners; and, gradually, as he came to talk frequently to Archie of
+the Russian spy, and perhaps also to one or two others of his more
+intimate friends, he began to convince himself that he really had
+wormed the truth out of Madame Gordeloup, and got altogether the
+better of that lady, in a very wonderful way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+HARRY CLAVERING'S CONFESSION.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Harry Clavering, when he went away from Onslow Crescent, after his
+interview with Cecilia Burton, was a wretched, pitiable man. He had
+told the truth of himself, as far as he was able to tell it, to a
+woman whom he thoroughly esteemed, and having done so was convinced
+that she could no longer entertain any respect for him. He had laid
+bare to her all his weakness, and for a moment she had spurned him.
+It was true that she had again reconciled herself to him, struggling
+to save both him and her sister from future misery,--that she had
+even condescended to implore him to be gracious to Florence, taking
+that which to her mind seemed then to be the surest path to her
+object; but not the less did he feel that she must despise him.
+Having promised his hand to one woman,--to a woman whom he still
+professed that he loved dearly,--he had allowed himself to be cheated
+into offering it to another. And he knew that the cheating had been
+his own. It was he who had done the evil. Julia, in showing her
+affection for him, had tendered her love to a man whom she believed
+to be free. He had intended to walk straight. He had not allowed
+himself to be enamoured of the wealth possessed by this woman who
+had thrown herself at his feet. But he had been so weak that he had
+fallen in his own despite.
+
+There is, I suppose, no young man possessed of average talents and
+average education, who does not early in life lay out for himself
+some career with more or less precision,--some career which is high
+in its tendencies and noble in its aspirations, and to which he is
+afterwards compelled to compare the circumstances of the life which
+he shapes for himself. In doing this he may not attempt, perhaps, to
+lay down for himself any prescribed amount of success which he will
+endeavour to reach, or even the very pathway by which he will strive
+to be successful; but he will tell himself what are the vices which
+he will avoid, and what the virtues which he will strive to attain.
+Few young men ever did this with more precision than it had been done
+by Harry Clavering, and few with more self-confidence. Very early
+in life he had been successful,--so successful as to enable him to
+emancipate himself not only from his father's absolute control, but
+almost also from any interference on his father's part. It had seemed
+to be admitted that he was a better man than his father, better than
+the other Claverings,--the jewel of the race, the Clavering to whom
+the family would in future years look up, not as their actual head,
+but as their strongest prop and most assured support. He had said to
+himself that he would be an honest, truthful, hard-working man, not
+covetous after money, though conscious that a labourer was worthy of
+his hire, and conscious also that the better the work done the better
+should be his wages. Then he had encountered a blow,--a heavy blow
+from a false woman,--and he had boasted to himself that he had borne
+it well, as a man should bear all blows. And now, after all these
+resolves and all these boastings, he found himself brought by his own
+weakness to such a pass that he hardly dared to look in the face any
+of his dearest and most intimate friends.
+
+He was not remiss in telling himself all this. He did draw the
+comparison ruthlessly between the character which he had intended
+to make his own and that which he now had justly earned. He did not
+excuse himself. We are told to love others as ourselves, and it is
+hard to do so. But I think that we never hate others, never despise
+others, as we are sometimes compelled by our own convictions and
+self-judgment to hate and to despise ourselves. Harry, as he walked
+home on this evening, was lost in disgust at his own conduct. He
+could almost have hit his head against the walls, or thrown himself
+beneath the waggons as he passed them, so thoroughly was he ashamed
+of his own life. Even now, on this evening, he had escaped from
+Onslow Crescent,--basely escaped,--without having declared any
+purpose. Twice on this day he had escaped, almost by subterfuges;
+once from Burton's office, and now again from Cecilia's presence. How
+long was this to go on, or how could life be endurable to him under
+such circumstances?
+
+In parting from Cecilia, and promising to write at once, and
+promising to come again in a few days, he had had some idea in his
+head that he would submit his fate to the arbitrament of Lady Ongar.
+At any rate he must, he thought, see her, and finally arrange with
+her what the fate of both of them should be, before he could make any
+definite statement of his purpose in Onslow Crescent. The last tender
+of his hand had been made to Julia, and he could not renew his former
+promises on Florence's behalf, till he had been absolved by Julia.
+
+This may at any rate be pleaded on his behalf,--that in all the
+workings of his mind at this time there was very little of personal
+vanity. Very personally vain he had been when Julia Brabazon,--the
+beautiful and noble-born Julia,--had first confessed at Clavering
+that she loved him; but that vanity had been speedily knocked on its
+head by her conduct to him. Men when they are jilted can hardly be
+vain of the conquest which has led to such a result. Since that there
+had been no vanity of that sort. His love to Florence had been open,
+honest, and satisfactory, but he had not considered himself to have
+achieved a wonderful triumph at Stratton. And when he found that
+Lord Ongar's widow still loved him,--that he was still regarded with
+affection by the woman who had formerly wounded him,--there was too
+much of pain, almost of tragedy, in his position, to admit of vanity.
+He would say to himself that, as far as he knew his own heart, he
+thought he loved Julia the best; but, nevertheless, he thoroughly
+wished that she had not returned from Italy, or that he had not seen
+her when she had so returned.
+
+He had promised to write, and that he would do this very night. He
+had failed to make Cecilia Burton understand what he intended to do,
+having, indeed, hardly himself resolved; but before he went to bed
+he would both resolve and explain to her his resolution. Immediately,
+therefore, on his return home he sat down at his desk with the pen in
+his hand and the paper before him.
+
+At last the words came. I can hardly say that they were the product
+of any fixed resolve made before he commenced the writing. I think
+that his mind worked more fully when the pen was in his hands than
+it had done during the hour through which he sat listless, doing
+nothing, struggling to have a will of his own, but failing. The
+letter when it was written was as follows:--
+
+
+   Bloomsbury Square, May, 186--.
+
+   DEAREST MRS. BURTON,--I said that I would write to-morrow,
+   but I am writing now, immediately on my return home.
+   Whatever else you may think of me, pray be sure of this,
+   that I am most anxious to make you know and understand my
+   own position at any rate as well as I do myself. I tried
+   to explain it to you when I was with you this evening, but
+   I fear that I failed; and when Mr. Burton came in I could
+   not say anything further.
+
+   I know that I have behaved very badly to your
+   sister,--very badly, even though she should never become
+   aware that I have done so. Not that that is possible, for
+   if she were to be my wife to-morrow I should tell her
+   everything. But badly as you must think of me, I have
+   never for a moment had a premeditated intention to deceive
+   her. I believe you do know on what terms I had stood with
+   Miss Brabazon before her marriage, and that when she
+   married, whatever my feelings might be, there was no
+   self-accusation. And after that you know all that took
+   place between me and Florence till the return of Lord
+   Ongar's widow. Up to that time everything had been fair
+   between us. I had told Florence of my former attachment,
+   and she probably thought but little of it. Such things are
+   so common with men! Some change happens as had happened
+   with me, and a man's second love is often stronger and
+   more worthy of a woman's acceptance than the first. At any
+   rate, she knew it, and there was, so far, an end of it.
+   And you understood, also, how very anxious I was to avoid
+   delay in our marriage. No one knows that better than
+   you,--not even Florence,--for I have talked it over with
+   you so often; and you will remember how I have begged you
+   to assist me. I don't blame my darling Florence. She was
+   doing what she deemed best; but oh, if she had only been
+   guided by what you once said to her!
+
+   Then Lord Ongar's widow returned; and dear Mrs. Burton,
+   though I fear you think ill of her, you must remember that
+   as far as you know, or I, she has done nothing wrong, has
+   been in no respect false, since her marriage. As to her
+   early conduct to me, she did what many women have done,
+   but what no woman should do. But how can I blame her,
+   knowing how terrible has been my own weakness! But as to
+   her conduct since her marriage, I implore you to believe
+   with me that she has been sinned against grievously, and
+   has not sinned. Well; as you know, I met her. It was
+   hardly unnatural that I should do so, as we are connected.
+   But whether natural or unnatural, foolish or wise, I went
+   to her often. I thought at first that she must know of
+   my engagement as her sister knew it well, and had met
+   Florence. But she did not know it; and so, having none
+   near her that she could love, hardly a friend but myself,
+   grievously wronged by the world and her own relatives,
+   thinking that with her wealth she could make some amends
+   to me for her former injury, she--. Dear Mrs. Burton, I
+   think you will understand it now, and will see that she at
+   least is free from blame.
+
+   I am not defending myself; of course all this should have
+   been without effect on me. But I had loved her so dearly!
+   I do love her still so dearly! Love like that does not
+   die. When she left me it was natural that I should seek
+   some one else to love. When she returned to me,--when I
+   found that in spite of her faults she had loved me through
+   it all, I--I yielded and became false and a traitor.
+
+   I say that I love her still; but I know well that Florence
+   is far the nobler woman of the two. Florence never
+   could have done what she did. In nature, in mind, in
+   acquirement, in heart, Florence is the better. The man who
+   marries Florence must be happy if any woman can make a man
+   happy. Of her of whom I am now speaking, I know well that
+   I cannot say that. How then, you will ask, can I be fool
+   enough, having had such a choice, to doubt between the
+   two! How is it that man doubts between vice and virtue,
+   between honour and dishonour, between heaven and hell?
+
+   But all this is nothing to you. I do not know whether
+   Florence would take me now. I am well aware that I have no
+   right to expect that she should. But if I understood you
+   aright this evening, she, as yet, has heard nothing of all
+   this. What must she think of me for not writing to her!
+   But I could not bring myself to write in a false spirit;
+   and how could I tell her all that I have now told to you?
+
+   I know that you wish that our engagement should go on.
+   Dear Mrs. Burton, I love you so dearly for wishing it! Mr.
+   Burton, when he shall have heard everything, will, I fear,
+   think differently. For me, I feel that I must see Lady
+   Ongar before I can again go to your house, and I write now
+   chiefly to tell you that this is what I have determined to
+   do. I believe she is now away, in the Isle of Wight, but
+   I will see her as soon as she returns. After that I will
+   either come to Onslow Crescent or send. Florence will be
+   with you then. She of course must know everything, and you
+   have my permission to show this letter to her if you think
+   well to do so.--Most sincerely and affectionately yours,
+
+   HARRY CLAVERING.
+
+
+This he delivered himself the next morning at the door in Onslow
+Crescent, taking care not to be there till after Theodore Burton
+should have gone from home. He left a card also, so that it might
+be known, not only that he had brought it himself, but that he had
+intended Mrs. Burton to be aware of that fact. Then he went and
+wandered about, and passed his day in misery, as such men do when
+they are thoroughly discontented with their own conduct. This was
+the Saturday on which Lady Ongar returned with her Sophie from the
+Isle of Wight; but of that premature return Harry knew nothing, and
+therefore allowed the Sunday to pass by without going to Bolton
+Street. On the Monday morning he received a letter from home which
+made it necessary,--or induced him to suppose it to be necessary,
+that he should go home to Clavering, at any rate for one day. This he
+did on the Monday, sending a line to Mrs. Burton to say whither he
+was gone, and that he should be back by Wednesday night or Thursday
+morning,--and imploring her to give his love to Florence, if she
+would venture to do so. Mrs. Burton would know what must be his first
+business in London on his return, and she might be sure he would come
+or send to Onslow Crescent as soon as that was over.
+
+Harry's letter,--the former and longer letter, Cecilia had read over,
+till she nearly knew it by heart, before her husband's return. She
+well understood that he would be very hard upon Harry. He had been
+inclined to forgive Clavering for what had been remiss,--to forgive
+the silence, the absence from the office, and the want of courtesy
+to his wife, till Harry had confessed his sin;--but he could not
+endure that his sister should seek the hand of a man who had declared
+himself to be in doubt whether he would take it, or that any one
+should seek it for her, in her ignorance of all the truth. His wife,
+on the other hand, simply looked to Florence's comfort and happiness.
+That Florence should not suffer the pang of having been deceived and
+rejected was all in all to Cecilia. "Of course she must know it some
+day," the wife had pleaded to her husband. "He is not the man to
+keep anything secret. But if she is told when he has returned to her,
+and is good to her, the happiness of the return will cure the other
+misery." But Burton would not submit to this. "To be comfortable at
+present is not everything," he said. "If the man be so miserably weak
+that he does not even now know his own mind, Florence had better take
+her punishment, and be quit of him."
+
+Cecilia had narrated to him with passable fidelity what had occurred
+upstairs, while he was sitting alone in the dining-room. That she,
+in her anger, had at one moment spurned Harry Clavering, and that
+in the next she had knelt to him, imploring him to come back to
+Florence,--those two little incidents she did not tell to her
+husband. Harry's adventures with Lady Ongar, as far as she knew them,
+she described accurately. "I can't make any apology for him; upon my
+life I can't," said Burton. "If I know what it is for a man to behave
+ill, falsely, like a knave in such matters, he is so behaving." So
+Theodore Burton spoke as he took his candle to go away to his work;
+but his wife had induced him to promise that he would not write to
+Stratton or take any other step in the matter till they had waited
+twenty-four hours for Harry's promised letter.
+
+The letter came before the twenty-four hours were expired, and
+Burton, on his return home on the Saturday, found himself called upon
+to read and pass judgment upon Harry's confession. "What right has he
+to speak of her as his darling Florence," he exclaimed, "while he is
+confessing his own knavery?"
+
+"But if she is his darling--?" pleaded his wife.
+
+"Trash! But the word from him in such a letter is simply an
+additional insult. And what does he know about this woman who has
+come back? He vouches for her, but what can he know of her? Just what
+she tells him. He is simply a fool."
+
+"But you cannot dislike him for believing her word."
+
+"Cecilia," said he, holding down the letter as he spoke,--"you are so
+carried away by your love for Florence, and your fear lest a marriage
+which has been once talked of should not take place, that you shut
+your eyes to this man's true character. Can you believe any good of
+a man who tells you to your face that he is engaged to two women at
+once?"
+
+"I think I can," said Cecilia, hardly venturing to express so
+dangerous an opinion above her breath.
+
+"And what would you think of a woman who did so?"
+
+"Ah, that is so different! I cannot explain it, but you know that it
+is different."
+
+"I know that you would forgive a man anything, and a woman nothing."
+To this she submitted in silence, having probably heard the reproof
+before, and he went on to finish the letter. "Not defending himself!"
+he exclaimed,--"then why does he not defend himself? When a man tells
+me that he does not, or cannot defend himself, I know that he is a
+sorry fellow, without a spark of spirit."
+
+"I don't think that of Harry. Surely that letter shows a spirit."
+
+"Such a one as I should be ashamed to see in a dog. No man should
+ever be in a position in which he cannot defend himself. No man, at
+any rate, should admit himself to be so placed. Wish that he should
+go on with his engagement! I do not wish it at all. I am sorry for
+Florence. She will suffer terribly. But the loss of such a lover as
+that is infinitely a lesser loss than would be the gain of such a
+husband. You had better write to Florence, and tell her not to come."
+
+"Oh, Theodore!"
+
+"That is my advice."
+
+"But there is no post between this and Monday," said Cecilia
+temporizing.
+
+"Send her a message by the wires."
+
+"You cannot explain this by a telegram, Theodore. Besides, why should
+she not come? Her coming can do no harm. If you were to tell your
+mother now of all this, it would prevent the possibility of things
+ever being right."
+
+"Things,--that is, this thing, never will be right," said he.
+
+"But let us see. She will be here on Monday, and if you think it best
+you can tell her everything. Indeed, she must be told when she is
+here, for I could not keep it from her. I could not smile and talk to
+her about him and make her think that it is all right."
+
+"Not you! I should be very sorry if you could."
+
+"But I think I could make her understand that she should not decide
+upon breaking with him altogether."
+
+"And I think I could make her understand that she ought to do so."
+
+"But you wouldn't do that, Theodore?"
+
+"I would if I thought it my duty."
+
+"But at any rate, she must come, and we can talk of that to-morrow."
+
+As to Florence's coming, Burton had given way, beaten, apparently,
+by that argument about the post. On the Sunday very little was said
+about Harry Clavering. Cecilia studiously avoided the subject, and
+Burton had not so far decided on dropping Harry altogether, as to
+make him anxious to express any such decision. After all, such
+dropping or not dropping must be the work of Florence herself. On the
+Monday morning Cecilia had a further triumph. On that day her husband
+was very fully engaged,--having to meet a synod of contractors,
+surveyors, and engineers, to discuss which of the remaining
+thoroughfares of London should not be knocked down by the coming
+railways,--and he could not absent himself from the Adelphi. It was,
+therefore, arranged that Mrs. Burton should go to the Paddington
+Station to meet her sister-in-law. She therefore would have the first
+word with Florence, and the earliest opportunity of impressing the
+new-comer with her own ideas. "Of course, you must say something to
+her of this man," said her husband, "but the less you say the better.
+After all she must be left to judge for herself." In all matters
+such as this,--in all affairs of tact, of social intercourse, and
+of conduct between man and man, or man and woman, Mr. Burton was
+apt to be eloquent in his domestic discussion, and sometimes almost
+severe;--but the final arrangement of them was generally left to his
+wife. He enunciated principles of strategy,--much, no doubt, to her
+benefit; but she actually fought the battles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+FLORENCE BURTON PACKS UP A PACKET.
+
+
+Though nobody had expressed to Florence at Stratton any fear of Harry
+Clavering's perfidy, that young lady was not altogether easy in her
+mind. Weeks and weeks had passed, and she had not heard from him.
+Her mother was manifestly uneasy, and had announced some days before
+Florence's departure, her surprise and annoyance in not having heard
+from her eldest son. When Florence inquired as to the subject of the
+expected letter, her mother put the question aside, saying, with
+a little assumed irritability, that of course she liked to get an
+answer to her letters when she took the trouble to write them. And
+when the day for Florence's journey drew nigh, the old lady became
+more and more uneasy,--showing plainly that she wished her daughter
+was not going to London. But Florence, as she was quite determined to
+go, said nothing to all this. Her father also was uneasy, and neither
+of them had for some days named her lover in her hearing. She knew
+that there was something wrong, and felt that it was better that she
+should go to London and learn the truth.
+
+No female heart was ever less prone to suspicion than the heart of
+Florence Burton. Among those with whom she had been most intimate
+nothing had occurred to teach her that men could be false, or women
+either. When she had heard from Harry Clavering the story of Julia
+Brabazon, she had, not making much accusation against the sinner in
+speech, put Julia down in the books of her mind as a bold, bad woman
+who could forget her sex, and sell her beauty and her womanhood
+for money. There might be such a woman here and there, or such a
+man. There were murderers in the world,--but the bulk of mankind
+is not made subject to murderers. Florence had never considered
+the possibility that she herself could become liable to such a
+misfortune. And then, when the day came that she was engaged, her
+confidence in the man chosen by her was unlimited. Such love as hers
+rarely suspects. He with whom she had to do was Harry Clavering, and
+therefore she could not be deceived. Moreover she was supported by
+a self-respect and a self-confidence which did not at first allow
+her to dream that a man who had once loved her would ever wish to
+leave her. It was to her as though a sacrament as holy as that of
+the church had passed between them, and she could not easily bring
+herself to think that that sacrament had been as nothing to Harry
+Clavering. But nevertheless there was something wrong, and when she
+left her father's house at Stratton, she was well aware that she
+must prepare herself for tidings that might be evil. She could bear
+anything, she thought, without disgracing herself; but there were
+tidings which might send her back to Stratton a broken woman, fit
+perhaps to comfort the declining years of her father and mother, but
+fit for nothing else.
+
+Her mother watched her closely as she sat at her breakfast that
+morning, but much could not be gained by watching Florence Burton
+when Florence wished to conceal her thoughts. Many messages were sent
+to Theodore, to Cecilia, and to the children, messages to others of
+the Burton clan who were in town, but not a word was said of Harry
+Clavering. The very absence of his name was enough to make them
+all wretched, but Florence bore it as the Spartan boy bore the fox
+beneath his tunic. Mrs. Burton could hardly keep herself from a burst
+of indignation; but she had been strongly warned by her husband, and
+restrained herself till Florence was gone. "If he is playing her
+false," said she, as soon as she was alone with her old husband,
+"he shall suffer for it, though I have to tear his face with my own
+fingers."
+
+"Nonsense, my dear; nonsense."
+
+"It is not nonsense, Mr. Burton. A gentleman, indeed! He is to be
+allowed to be dishonest to my girl because he is a gentleman! I wish
+there was no such thing as a gentleman;--so I do. Perhaps there would
+be more honest men then." It was unendurable to her that a girl of
+hers should be so treated.
+
+Immediately on the arrival of the train at the London platform,
+Florence espied Cecilia, and in a minute was in her arms. There was a
+special tenderness in her sister-in-law's caress, which at once told
+Florence that her fears had not been without cause. Who has not felt
+the evil tidings conveyed by the exaggerated tenderness of a special
+kiss? But while on the platform and among the porters she said
+nothing of herself. She asked after Theodore and heard of the railway
+confederacy with a shew of delight. "He'd like to make a line from
+Hyde Park Corner to the Tower of London," said Florence, with a
+smile. Then she asked after the children, and specially for the
+baby; but as yet she spoke no word of Harry Clavering. The trunk and
+the bag were at last found; and the two ladies were packed into a
+cab, and had started. Cecilia, when they were seated, got hold of
+Florence's hand, and pressed it warmly. "Dearest," she said, "I am
+so glad to have you with us once again." "And now," said Florence,
+speaking with a calmness that was almost unnatural, "tell me all the
+truth."
+
+All the truth! What a demand it was. And yet Cecilia had expected
+that none less would be made upon her. Of course Florence must have
+known that there was something wrong. Of course she would ask as to
+her lover immediately upon her arrival. "And now tell me all the
+truth."
+
+"Oh, Florence!"
+
+"The truth, then, is very bad?" said Florence, gently. "Tell me first
+of all whether you have seen him. Is he ill?"
+
+"He was with us on Friday. He is not ill."
+
+"Thank God for that. Has anything happened to him? Has he lost
+money?"
+
+"No; I have heard nothing about money."
+
+"Then he is tired of me. Tell me at once, my own one. You know me
+so well. You know I can bear it. Don't treat me as though I were a
+coward."
+
+"No; it is not that. It is not that he is tired of you. If you had
+heard him speak of you on Friday,--that you were the noblest, purest,
+dearest, best of women--" This was imprudent on her part; but what
+loving woman could at such a moment have endured to be prudent?
+
+"Then what is it?" asked Florence, almost sternly. "Look here,
+Cecilia; if it be anything touching himself or his own character, I
+will put up with it, in spite of anything my brother may say. Though
+he had been a murderer, if that were possible, I would not leave him.
+I will never leave him unless he leaves me. Where is he now, at this
+moment?"
+
+"He is in town." Mrs. Burton had not received Harry's note, telling
+her of his journey to Clavering, before she had left home. Now at
+this moment it was waiting for her in Onslow Crescent.
+
+"And am I to see him? Cecilia, why cannot you tell me how it is? In
+such a case I should tell you,--should tell you everything at once;
+because I know that you are not a coward. Why cannot you do so to
+me?"
+
+"You have heard of Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Heard of her;--yes. She treated Harry very badly before her
+marriage."
+
+"She has come back to London, a widow."
+
+"I know she has. And Harry has gone back to her! Is that it? Do you
+mean to tell me that Harry and Lady Ongar are to be married?"
+
+"No; I cannot say that. I hope it is not so. Indeed, I do not think
+it."
+
+"Then what have I to fear? Does she object to his marrying me? What
+has she to do between us?"
+
+"She wishes that Harry should come back to her, and Harry has been
+unsteady. He has been with her often; and he has been very weak. It
+may be all right yet, Flo; it may indeed,--if you can forgive his
+weakness."
+
+Something of the truth had now come home to Florence, and she sat
+thinking of it long before she spoke again. This widow, she knew, was
+very wealthy, and Harry had loved her before he had come to Stratton.
+Harry's first love had come back free,--free to wed again, and
+able to make the fortune of the man she might love and marry. What
+had Florence to give to any man that could be weighed with this?
+Lady Ongar was very rich. Florence had already heard all this from
+Harry,--was very rich, was clever, and was beautiful; and moreover
+she had been Harry's first love. Was it reasonable that she with her
+little claims, her puny attractions, should stand in Harry's way when
+such a prize as that came across him! And as for his weakness;--might
+it not be strength, rather than weakness;--the strength of an old
+love which he could not quell, now that the woman was free to take
+him? For herself,--had she not known that she had only come second?
+As she thought of him with his noble bride and that bride's great
+fortune, and of her own insignificance, her low birth, her doubtful
+prettiness,--prettiness that had ever been doubtful to herself, of
+her few advantages, she told herself that she had no right to stand
+upon her claims. "I wish I had known it sooner," she said, in a voice
+so soft that Cecilia strained her ears to catch the words. "I wish I
+had known it sooner. I would not have come up to be in his way."
+
+"But you will be in no one's way, Flo, unless it be in hers."
+
+"And I will not be in hers," said Florence, speaking somewhat louder,
+and raising her head in pride as she spoke. "I will be neither in
+hers nor in his. I think I will go back at once."
+
+Cecilia upon this, ventured to look round at her, and saw that she
+was very pale, but that her eyes were dry and her lips pressed close
+together. It had not occurred to Mrs. Burton that her sister-in-law
+would take it in this way,--that she would express herself as being
+willing to give way, and that she would at once surrender her lover
+to her rival. The married woman, she who was already happy with a
+husband, having enlisted all her sympathies on the side of a marriage
+between Florence and Harry Clavering, could by no means bring herself
+to agree to this view. No one liked success better than Cecilia
+Burton, and to her success would consist in rescuing Harry from Lady
+Ongar and securing him for Florence. In fighting this battle she had
+found that she would have against her Lady Ongar--of course, and then
+her husband, and Harry himself too, as she feared; and now also she
+must reckon Florence also among her opponents. But she could not
+endure the idea of failing in such a cause. "Oh, Florence, I think
+you are so wrong," she said.
+
+"You would feel as I do, if you were in my place."
+
+"But people cannot always judge best when they feel the most. What
+you should think of is his happiness."
+
+"So I do;--and of his future career."
+
+"Career! I hate to hear of careers. Men do not want careers, or
+should not want them. Could it be good for him to marry a woman who
+has been false--who has done as she has, simply because she has made
+herself rich by her wickedness? Do you believe so much in riches
+yourself?"
+
+"If he loves her best, I will not blame him," said Florence. "He knew
+her before he had seen me. He was quite honest and told me all the
+story. It is not his fault if he still likes her the best."
+
+When they reached Onslow Crescent, the first half-hour was spent with
+the children, as to whom Florence could not but observe that even
+from their mouths the name of Harry Clavering was banished. But she
+played with Cissy and Sophie, giving them their little presents from
+Stratton; and sat with the baby in her lap, kissing his pink feet and
+making little soft noises for his behoof, sweetly as she might have
+done if no terrible crisis in her own life had now come upon her. Not
+a tear as yet had moistened her eyes, and Cecilia was partly aware
+that Florence's weeping would be done in secret. "Come up with me
+into my own room;--I have something to show you," she said, as the
+nurse took the baby at last; and Cissy and Sophie were at the same
+time sent away with their brother. "As I came in I got a note from
+Harry, but, before you see that, I must show you the letter which
+he wrote to me on Friday. He has gone down to Clavering,--on some
+business,--for one day." Mrs. Burton, in her heart, could hardly
+acquit him of having run out of town at the moment to avoid the
+arrival of Florence.
+
+They went upstairs, and the note was, in fact, read before the
+letter. "I hope there is nothing wrong at the parsonage," said
+Florence.
+
+"You see he says he will be back after one day."
+
+"Perhaps he has gone to tell them,--of this change in his prospects."
+
+"No, dear, no; you do not yet understand his feelings. Read his
+letter, and you will know more. If there is to be a change, he is at
+any rate too much ashamed of it to speak of it. He does not wish it
+himself. It is simply this,--that she has thrown herself in his way,
+and he has not known how to avoid her."
+
+Then Florence read the letter very slowly, going over most of the
+sentences more than once, and struggling to learn from them what were
+really the wishes of the writer. When she came to Harry's exculpation
+of Lady Ongar, she believed it thoroughly, and said so,--meeting,
+however, a direct contradiction on that point from her sister-in-law.
+When she had finished it, she folded it up and gave it back. "Cissy,"
+she said, "I know that I ought to go back. I do not want to see him,
+and I am glad that he has gone away."
+
+"But you do not mean to give him up?"
+
+"Yes, dearest."
+
+"But you said you would never leave him, unless he left you."
+
+"He has left me."
+
+"No, Florence; not so. Do you not see what he says;--that he knows
+you are the only woman that can make him happy?"
+
+"He has not said that; but if he had, it would make no matter.
+He understands well how it is. He says that I could not take him
+now,--even if he came to me; and I cannot. How could I? What! wish to
+marry a man who does not love me, who loves another, when I know that
+I am regarded simply as a barrier between them; when by doing so I
+should mar his fortunes? Cissy, dear, when you think of it, you will
+not wish it."
+
+"Mar his fortunes! It would make them. I do wish it,--and he wishes
+it too. I tell you that I had him here, and I know it. Why should you
+be sacrificed?"
+
+"What is the meaning of self-denial, if no one can bear to suffer?"
+
+"But he will suffer too,--and all for her caprices! You cannot really
+think that her money would do him any good. Who would ever speak to
+him again, or even see him? What would the world say of him? Why, his
+own father and mother and sisters would disown him, if they are such
+as you say they are."
+
+Florence would not argue it further, but went to her room, and
+remained there alone till Cecilia came to tell her that her brother
+had returned. What weeping there may have been there, need not be
+told. Indeed, as I think, there was not much, for Florence was a
+girl whose education had not brought her into the way of hysterical
+sensations. The Burtons were an active, energetic people who
+sympathized with each other in labour and success,--and in endurance
+also; but who had little sympathy to express for the weaknesses of
+grief. When her children had stumbled in their play, bruising their
+little noses, and barking their little shins, Mrs. Burton, the elder,
+had been wont to bid them rise, asking them what their legs were for,
+if they could not stand. So they had dried their own little eyes with
+their own little fists, and had learned to understand that the rubs
+of the world were to be borne in silence. This rub that had come to
+Florence was of grave import, and had gone deeper than the outward
+skin; but still the old lesson had its effect.
+
+Florence rose from the bed on which she was lying, and prepared to
+come down. "Do not commit yourself to him, as to anything," said
+Cecilia.
+
+"I understand what that means," Florence answered. "He thinks as I
+do. But never mind. He will not say much, and I shall say less. It is
+bad to talk of this to any man,--even to a brother."
+
+Burton also received his sister with that exceptional affection which
+declares pity for some overwhelming misfortune. He kissed her lips,
+which was rare with him, for he would generally but just touch her
+forehead, and he put his hand behind her waist and partly embraced
+her. "Did Cissy manage to find you at the station?"
+
+"Oh, yes;--easily."
+
+"Theodore thinks that a woman is no good for any such purpose as
+that," said Cecilia. "It is a wonder to him, no doubt, that we are
+not now wandering about London in search of each other,--and of him."
+
+"I think she would have got home quicker if I could have been there,"
+said Burton.
+
+"We were in a cab in one minute;--weren't we, Florence? The
+difference would have been that you would have given a porter
+sixpence,--and I gave him a shilling, having bespoken him before."
+
+"And Theodore's time was worth the sixpence, I suppose," said
+Florence.
+
+"That depends," said Cecilia. "How did the synod go on?"
+
+"The synod made an ass of itself;--as synods always do. It is
+necessary to get a lot of men together, for the show of the
+thing,--otherwise the world will not believe. That is the meaning of
+committees. But the real work must always be done by one or two men.
+Come;--I'll go and get ready for dinner."
+
+The subject,--the one real subject, had thus been altogether avoided
+at this first meeting with the man of the house, and the evening
+passed without any allusion to it. Much was made of the children,
+and much was said of the old people at home; but still there was
+a consciousness over them all that the one matter of importance
+was being kept in the background. They were all thinking of Harry
+Clavering, but no one mentioned his name. They all knew that they
+were unhappy and heavy-hearted through his fault, but no one blamed
+him. He had been received in that house with open arms, had been
+warmed in their bosom, and had stung them; but though they were all
+smarting from the sting, they uttered no complaint. Burton had made
+up his mind that it would be better to pass over the matter thus in
+silence,--to say nothing further of Harry Clavering. A misfortune
+had come upon them. They must bear it, and go on as before. Harry
+had been admitted into the London office on the footing of a paid
+clerk,--on the same footing, indeed, as Burton himself, though with
+a much smaller salary and inferior work. This position had been
+accorded to him of course through the Burton interest, and it was
+understood that if he chose to make himself useful, he could rise
+in the business as Theodore had risen. But he could only do so as
+one of the Burtons. For the last three months he had declined to
+take his salary, alleging that private affairs had kept him away
+from the office. It was to the hands of Theodore Burton himself that
+such matters came for management, and therefore there had been no
+necessity for further explanation. Harry Clavering would of course
+leave the house, and there would be an end of him in the records of
+the Burton family. He would have come and made his mark,--a terrible
+mark, and would have passed on. Those whom he had bruised by his
+cruelty, and knocked over by his treachery, must get to their feet
+again as best they could, and say as little as might be of their
+fall. There are knaves in this world, and no one can suppose that
+he has a special right to be exempted from their knavery because he
+himself is honest. It is on the honest that the knaves prey. That
+was Burton's theory in this matter. He would learn from Cecilia
+how Florence was bearing herself; but to Florence herself he would
+say little or nothing if she bore with patience and dignity, as he
+believed she would, the calamity which had befallen her.
+
+But he must write to his mother. The old people at Stratton must not
+be left in the dark as to what was going on. He must write to his
+mother, unless he could learn from his wife that Florence herself had
+communicated to them at home the fact of Harry's iniquity. But he
+asked no question as to this on the first night, and on the following
+morning he went off, having simply been told that Florence had seen
+Harry's letter, that she knew all, and that she was carrying herself
+like an angel.
+
+"Not like an angel that hopes?" said Theodore.
+
+"Let her alone for a day or two," said Cecilia. "Of course she must
+have a few days to think of it. I need hardly tell you that you will
+never have to be ashamed of your sister."
+
+The Tuesday and the Wednesday passed by, and though Cecilia and
+Florence when together discussed the matter, no change was made in
+the wishes or thoughts of either of them. Florence, now that she was
+in town, had consented to remain till after Harry should return, on
+the understanding that she should not be called upon to see him. He
+was to be told that she forgave him altogether,--that his troth was
+returned to him and that he was free, but that in such circumstances
+a meeting between them could be of no avail. And then a little packet
+was made up, which was to be given to him. How was it that Florence
+had brought with her all his presents and all his letters? But there
+they were in her box upstairs, and sitting by herself, with weary
+fingers, she packed them, and left them packed under lock and key,
+addressed by herself to Harry Clavering, Esq. Oh, the misery of
+packing such a parcel! The feeling with which a woman does it
+is never encountered by a man. He chucks the things together in
+wrath,--the lock of hair, the letters in the pretty Italian hand
+that have taken so much happy care in the writing, the jewelled
+shirt-studs, which were first put in by the fingers that gave them.
+They are thrown together, and given to some other woman to deliver.
+But the girl lingers over her torture. She reads the letters again.
+She thinks of the moments of bliss which each little toy has given.
+She is loth to part with everything. She would fain keep some one
+thing,--the smallest of them all. She doubts,--till a feeling of
+maidenly reserve constrains her at last, and the coveted trifle, with
+careful, painstaking fingers, is put with the rest, and the parcel is
+made complete, and the address is written with precision.
+
+
+[Illustration: Florence Burton makes up a packet.]
+
+
+"Of course I cannot see him," said Florence. "You will hand to him
+what I have to send to him; and you must ask him, if he has kept any
+of my letters, to return them." She said nothing of the shirt-studs,
+but he would understand that. As for the lock of hair,--doubtless it
+had been burned.
+
+Cecilia said but little in answer to this. She would not as yet look
+upon the matter as Florence looked at it, and as Theodore did also.
+Harry was to be back in town on Thursday morning. He could not,
+probably, be seen or heard of on that day, because of his visit to
+Lady Ongar. It was absolutely necessary that he should see Lady Ongar
+before he could come to Onslow Terrace, with possibility of becoming
+once more the old Harry Clavering whom they were all to love. But
+Mrs. Burton would by no means give up all hope. It was useless to say
+anything to Florence, but she still hoped that good might come.
+
+And then, as she thought of it all, a project came into her head.
+Alas, and alas! Was she not too late with her project? Why had she
+not thought of it on the Tuesday or early on the Wednesday, when it
+might possibly have been executed? But it was a project which she
+must have kept secret from her husband, of which he would by no means
+have approved; and as she remembered this, she told herself that
+perhaps it was as well that things should take their own course
+without such interference as she had contemplated.
+
+On the Thursday morning there came to her a letter in a strange hand.
+It was from Clavering,--from Harry's mother. Mrs. Clavering wrote,
+as she said, at her son's request, to say that he was confined to
+his bed, and could not be in London as soon as he expected. Mrs.
+Burton was not to suppose that he was really ill, and none of the
+family were to be frightened. From this Mrs. Burton learned that Mrs.
+Clavering knew nothing of Harry's apostasy. The letter went on to
+say that Harry would write as soon as he himself was able, and would
+probably be in London early next week,--at any rate before the end
+of it. He was a little feverish, but there was no cause for alarm.
+Florence, of course, could only listen and turn pale. Now at any rate
+she must remain in London.
+
+Mrs. Burton's project might, after all, be feasible; but then what if
+her husband should really be angry with her? That was a misfortune
+which never yet had come upon her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+SHOWING WHY HARRY CLAVERING WAS WANTED AT THE RECTORY.
+
+
+The letter which had summoned Harry to the parsonage had been from
+his mother, and had begged him to come to Clavering at once, as
+trouble had come upon them from an unexpected source. His father
+had quarrelled with Mr. Saul. The rector and the curate had had an
+interview, in which there had been high words, and Mr. Clavering had
+refused to see Mr. Saul again. Fanny also was in great trouble,--and
+the parish was, as it were, in hot water. Mrs. Clavering thought that
+Harry had better run down to Clavering, and see Mr. Saul. Harry, not
+unwillingly, acceded to his mother's request, much wondering at the
+source of this new misfortune. As to Fanny, she, as he believed, had
+held out no encouragement to Mr. Saul's overtures. When Mr. Saul had
+proposed to her,--making that first offer of which Harry had been
+aware,--nothing could have been more steadfast than her rejection
+of the gentleman's hand. Harry had regarded Mr. Saul as little less
+than mad to think of such a thing, but, thinking of him as a man
+very different in his ways and feelings from other men, had believed
+that he might go on at Clavering comfortably as curate in spite of
+that little accident. It appeared, however, that he was not going on
+comfortably; but Harry, when he left London, could not quite imagine
+how such violent discomfort should have arisen that the rector and
+the curate should be unable to meet each other. If the reader will
+allow me, I will go back a little and explain this.
+
+The reader already knows what Fanny's brother did not know,--namely,
+that Mr. Saul had pressed his suit again, and had pressed it very
+strongly; and he also knows that Fanny's reception of the second
+offer was very different from her reception of the first. She had
+begun to doubt;--to doubt whether her first judgment as to Mr. Saul's
+character had not been unjust,--to doubt whether, in addressing her,
+he was not right, seeing that his love for her was so strong,--to
+doubt whether she did not like him better than she had thought she
+did,--to doubt whether an engagement with a penniless curate was
+in truth a position utterly to be reprehended and avoided. Young
+penniless curates must love somebody as well as young beneficed
+vicars and rectors. And then Mr. Saul pleaded his cause so well!
+
+She did not at once speak to her mother on the matter, and the fact
+that she had a secret made her very wretched. She had left Mr. Saul
+in doubt, giving him no answer, and he had said that he would ask her
+again in a few days what was to be his fate. She hardly knew how to
+tell her mother of this till she had told herself what were her own
+wishes. She thoroughly desired to have her mother in her confidence,
+and promised herself that it should be so before Mr. Saul renewed his
+suit. He was a man who was never hurried or impatient in his doings.
+But Fanny put off the interview with her mother,--put off her own
+final resolution, till it was too late, and Mr. Saul came upon her
+again, when she was but ill-prepared for him.
+
+A woman, when she doubts whether she loves or does not love, is
+inclined five parts out of six towards the man of whom she is
+thinking. When a woman doubts she is lost, the cynics say. I simply
+assert, being no cynic, that when a woman doubts she is won. The more
+Fanny thought of Mr. Saul, the more she felt that he was not the man
+for which she had first taken him,--that he was of larger dimensions
+as regarded spirit, manhood, and heart, and better entitled to a
+woman's love. She would not tell herself that she was attached to
+him; but in all her arguments with herself against him, she rested
+her objection mainly on the fact that he had but seventy pounds a
+year. And then the threatened attack, the attack that was to be
+final, came upon her before she was prepared for it!
+
+They had been together as usual during the intervening time. It was,
+indeed, impossible that they should not be together. Since she had
+first begun to doubt about Mr. Saul, she had been more diligent than
+heretofore in visiting the poor and in attending to her school, as
+though she were recognizing the duty which would specially be hers if
+she were to marry such a one as he. And thus they had been brought
+together more than ever. All this her mother had seen, and seeing,
+had trembled; but she had not thought it wise to say anything till
+Fanny should speak. Fanny was very good and very prudent. It could
+not be but that Fanny should know how impossible must be such a
+marriage. As to the rector, he had no suspicions on the matter. Saul
+had made himself an ass on one occasion, and there had been an end of
+it. As a curate Saul was invaluable, and therefore the fact of his
+having made himself an ass had been forgiven him. It was thus that
+the rector looked at it.
+
+It was hardly more than ten days since the last walk in Cumberly Lane
+when Mr. Saul renewed the attack. He did it again on the same spot,
+and at the same hour of the day. Twice a week, always on the same
+days, he was in the chapel up at this end of the parish, and on these
+days he could always find Fanny on her way home. When he put his head
+in at the little school door and asked for her, her mind misgave her.
+He had not walked home with her since, and though he had been in the
+school with her often, had always left her there, going about his
+own business, as though he were by no means desirous of her company.
+Now the time had come, and Fanny felt that she was not prepared. But
+she took up her hat, and went out to him, knowing that there was no
+escape.
+
+"Miss Clavering," said he, "have you thought of what I was saying to
+you?" To this she made no answer, but merely played with the point of
+the parasol which she held in her hand. "You cannot but have thought
+of it," he continued. "You could not dismiss it altogether from your
+thoughts."
+
+"I have thought about it, of course," she said.
+
+"And what does your mind say? Or rather what does your heart say?
+Both should speak, but I would sooner hear the heart first."
+
+"I am sure, Mr. Saul, that it is quite impossible."
+
+"In what way impossible?"
+
+"Papa would not allow it."
+
+"Have you asked him?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no."
+
+"Or Mrs. Clavering?"
+
+Fanny blushed as she remembered how she had permitted the days to go
+by without asking her mother's counsel. "No; I have spoken to no one.
+Why should I, when I knew that it is impossible?"
+
+"May I speak to Mr. Clavering?" To this Fanny made no immediate
+answer, and then Mr. Saul urged the question again. "May I speak to
+your father?"
+
+Fanny felt that she was assenting, even in that she did not answer
+such a question by an immediate refusal of her permission; and yet
+she did not mean to assent. "Miss Clavering," he said, "if you regard
+me with affection, you have no right to refuse me this request.
+I tell you so boldly. If you feel for me that love which would
+enable you to accept me as your husband, it is your duty to tell me
+so,--your duty to me, to yourself, and to your God."
+
+Fanny did not quite see the thing in this light, and yet she did
+not wish to contradict him. At this moment she forgot that in order
+to put herself on perfectly firm ground, she should have gone back
+to the first hypothesis, and assured him that she did not feel any
+such regard for him. Mr. Saul, whose intellect was more acute, took
+advantage of her here, and chose to believe that that matter of her
+affection was now conceded to him. He knew what he was doing well,
+and is open to a charge of some jesuitry. "Mr. Saul," said Fanny,
+with grave prudence, "it cannot be right for people to marry when
+they have nothing to live upon." When she had shown him so plainly
+that she had no other piece left on the board to play than this, the
+game may be said to have been won on his side.
+
+"If that be your sole objection," said he, "you cannot but think it
+right that I and your father should discuss it." To this she made no
+reply whatever, and they walked along the lane for a considerable way
+in silence. Mr. Saul would have been glad to have had the interview
+over now, feeling that at any future meeting he would have stronger
+power of assuming the position of an accepted lover than he would do
+now. Another man would have desired to get from her lips a decided
+word of love,--to take her hand, perhaps, and to feel some response
+from it,--to go further than this, as is not unlikely, and plead for
+the happy indulgences of an accepted lover. But Mr. Saul abstained,
+and was wise in abstaining. She had not so far committed herself, but
+that she might even now have drawn back, had he pressed her too hard.
+For hand-pressing, and the titillations of love-making, Mr. Saul was
+not adapted; but he was a man who, having once loved, would love on
+to the end.
+
+The way, however, was too long to be completed without further
+speech. Fanny, as she walked, was struggling to find some words
+by which she might still hold her ground, but the words were not
+forthcoming. It seemed to herself that she was being carried away
+by this man, because she had suddenly lost her remembrance of all
+negatives. The more she struggled the more she failed, and at last
+gave it up in despair. Let Mr. Saul say what he would, it was
+impossible that they should be married. All his arguments about duty
+were nonsense. It could not be her duty to marry a man who would have
+to starve in his attempt to keep her. She wished she had told him at
+first that she did not love him, but that seemed to be too late now.
+The moment that she was in the house she would go to her mother and
+tell her everything.
+
+"Miss Clavering," said he, "I shall see your father to-morrow."
+
+"No, no," she ejaculated.
+
+"I shall certainly do so in any event. I shall either tell him that
+I must leave the parish,--explaining to him why I must go; or I
+shall ask him to let me remain here in the hope that I may become
+his son-in-law. You will not now tell me that I am to go?" Fanny
+was again silent, her memory failing her as to either negative or
+affirmative that would be of service. "To stay here hopeless would
+be impossible to me. Now I am not hopeless. Now I am full of hope.
+I think I could be happy, though I had to wait as Jacob waited."
+
+"And perhaps have Jacob's consolation," said Fanny. She was lost by
+the joke and he knew it. A grim smile of satisfaction crossed his
+thin face as he heard it, and there was a feeling of triumph at his
+heart. "I am hardly fitted to be a patriarch, as the patriarchs were
+of old," he said. "Though the seven years should be prolonged to
+fourteen I do not think I should seek any Leah."
+
+They were soon at the gate, and his work for that evening was done.
+He would go home to his solitary room at a neighbouring farm-house,
+and sit in triumph as he eat his morsel of cold mutton by himself.
+He, without any advantage of a person to back him, poor, friendless,
+hitherto conscious that he was unfitted to mix even in ordinary
+social life--he had won the heart of the fairest woman he had ever
+seen. "You will give me your hand at parting," he said, whereupon she
+tendered it to him with her eyes fixed upon the ground. "I hope we
+understand each other," he continued. "You may at any rate understand
+this, that I love you with all my heart and all my strength. If
+things prosper with me, all my prosperity shall be for you. If there
+be no prosperity for me, you shall be my only consolation in this
+world. You are my Alpha and my Omega, my first and last, my beginning
+and end,--my everything, my all." Then he turned away and left her,
+and there had come no negative from her lips. As far as her lips were
+concerned no negative was any longer possible to her.
+
+She went into the house knowing that she must at once seek her
+mother; but she allowed herself first to remain for some half-hour
+in her own bedroom, preparing the words that she would use. The
+interview she knew would be difficult,--much more difficult than it
+would have been before her last walk with Mr. Saul; and the worst of
+it was that she could not quite make up her mind as to what it was
+that she wished to say. She waited till she should hear her mother's
+step on the stairs. At last Mrs. Clavering came up to dress, and then
+Fanny, following her quickly into her bedroom, abruptly began.
+
+"Mamma," she said, "I want to speak to you very much."
+
+"Well, my dear?"
+
+"But you mustn't be in a hurry, mamma." Mrs. Clavering looked at her
+watch, and declaring that it still wanted three-quarters of an hour
+to dinner, promised that she would not be very much in a hurry.
+
+"Mamma, Mr. Saul has been speaking to me again."
+
+"Has he, my dear? You cannot, of course, help it if he chooses to
+speak to you, but he ought to know that it is very foolish. It must
+end in his having to leave us."
+
+"That is what he says, mamma. He says he must go away unless--"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Unless I will consent that he shall remain here as--"
+
+"As your accepted lover. Is that it, Fanny?"
+
+"Yes, mamma."
+
+"Then he must go, I suppose. What else can any of us say? I shall be
+sorry both for his sake and for your papa's." Mrs. Clavering as she
+said this looked at her daughter, and saw at once that this edict on
+her part did not settle the difficulty. There was that in Fanny's
+face which showed trouble and the necessity of further explanation.
+"Is not that what you think yourself, my dear?" Mrs. Clavering asked.
+
+"I should be very sorry if he had to leave the parish on my account."
+
+"We all shall feel that, dearest; but what can we do? I presume you
+don't wish him to remain as your lover?"
+
+"I don't know, mamma," said Fanny.
+
+It was then as Mrs. Clavering had feared. Indeed from the first word
+that Fanny had spoken on the present occasion, she had almost been
+sure of the facts, as they now were. To her father it would appear
+wonderful that his daughter should have come to love such a man as
+Mr. Saul, but Mrs. Clavering knew better than he how far perseverance
+will go with women,--perseverance joined with high mental capacity,
+and with high spirit to back it. She was grieved but not surprised,
+and would at once have accepted the idea of Mr. Saul becoming her
+son-in-law, had not the poverty of the man been so much against him.
+"Do you mean, my dear, that you wish him to remain here after what
+he has said to you? That would be tantamount to accepting him. You
+understand that, Fanny;--eh, dear?"
+
+"I suppose it would, mamma."
+
+"And is that what you mean? Come, dearest, tell me the whole of it.
+What have you said to him yourself? What has he been led to think
+from the answer you have given him to-day?"
+
+"He says that he means to see papa to-morrow."
+
+"But is he to see him with your consent?" Fanny had hitherto placed
+herself in the nook of a bow-window which looked out into the garden,
+and there, though she was near to the dressing-table at which her
+mother was sitting, she could so far screen herself as almost to hide
+her face when she was speaking. From this retreat her mother found it
+necessary to withdraw her; so she rose, and going to a sofa in the
+room, bade her daughter come and sit beside her. "A doctor, my dear,
+can never do any good," she said, "unless the patient will tell him
+everything. Have you told Mr. Saul that he may see papa,--as coming
+from you, you know?"
+
+"No, mamma;--I did not tell him that. I told him that it would be
+altogether impossible, because we should be so poor."
+
+"He ought to have known that himself."
+
+"But I don't think he ever thinks of such things as that, mamma. I
+can't tell you quite what he said, but it went to show that he didn't
+regard money at all."
+
+"But that is nonsense; is it not, Fanny?"
+
+"What he means is, not that people if they are fond of each other
+ought to marry at once when they have got nothing to live upon, but
+that they ought to tell each other so and then be content to wait.
+I suppose he thinks that some day he may have a living."
+
+"But, Fanny, are you fond of him;--and have you ever told him so?"
+
+"I have never told him so, mamma."
+
+"But you are fond of him?" To this question Fanny made no answer, and
+now Mrs. Clavering knew it all. She felt no inclination to scold her
+daughter, or even to point out in very strong language how foolish
+Fanny had been in allowing a man to engage her affections merely by
+asking for them. The thing was a misfortune, and should have been
+avoided by the departure of Mr. Saul from the parish after his first
+declaration of love. He had been allowed to remain for the sake of
+the rector's comfort, and the best must now be made of it. That Mr.
+Saul must now go was certain, and Fanny must endure the weariness
+of an attachment with an absent lover to which her father would not
+consent. It was very bad, but Mrs. Clavering did not think that
+she could make it better by attempting to scold her daughter into
+renouncing the man.
+
+"I suppose you would like me to tell papa all this before Mr. Saul
+comes to-morrow?"
+
+"If you think it best, mamma."
+
+"And you mean, dear, that you would wish to accept him, only that he
+has no income?"
+
+"I think so, mamma."
+
+"Have you told him so?"
+
+"I did not tell him so, but he understands it."
+
+"If you did not tell him so, you might still think of it again."
+
+But Fanny had surrendered herself now, and was determined to make no
+further attempt at sending the garrison up to the wall. "I am sure,
+mamma, that if he were well off, like Edward, I should accept him. It
+is only because he has no income."
+
+"But you have not told him that?"
+
+"I would not tell him anything without your consent and papa's. He
+said he should go to papa to-morrow, and I could not prevent that.
+I did say that I knew it was quite impossible."
+
+The mischief was done and there was no help for it. Mrs. Clavering
+told her daughter that she would talk it all over with the rector
+that night, so that Fanny was able to come down to dinner without
+fearing any further scene on that evening. But on the following
+morning she did not appear at prayers, nor was she present at the
+breakfast table. Her mother went to her early, and she immediately
+asked if it was considered necessary that she should see her father
+before Mr. Saul came. But this was not required of her. "Papa says
+that it is out of the question," said Mrs. Clavering. "I told him
+so myself," said Fanny, beginning to whimper. "And there must be no
+engagements," said Mrs. Clavering. "No, mamma. I haven't engaged
+myself. I told him it was impossible." "And papa thinks that Mr.
+Saul must leave him," continued Mrs. Clavering. "I knew papa would
+say that;--but, mamma, I shall not forget him for that reason." To
+this Mrs. Clavering made no reply, and Fanny was allowed to remain
+upstairs till Mr. Saul had come and gone.
+
+Very soon after breakfast Mr. Saul did come. His presence at the
+rectory was so common that the servants were not generally summoned
+to announce his arrivals, but his visits were made to Mrs. Clavering
+and Fanny more often than to the rector. On this occasion he rang the
+bell, and asked for Mr. Clavering, and was shown into the rector's
+so-called study, in a way that the maid-servant felt to be unusual.
+And the rector was sitting uncomfortably prepared for the visit, not
+having had his after-breakfast cigar. He had been induced to declare
+that he was not, and would not be, angry with Fanny; but Mr. Saul
+was left to such indignation as he thought it incumbent on himself
+to express. In his opinion, the marriage was impossible, not only
+because there was no money, but because Mr. Saul was Mr. Saul,
+and because Fanny Clavering was Fanny Clavering. Mr. Saul was a
+gentleman; but that was all that could be said of him. There is a
+class of country clergymen in England, of whom Mr. Clavering was one,
+and his son-in-law, Mr. Fielding, another, which is so closely allied
+to the squirearchy, as to possess a double identity. Such clergymen
+are not only clergymen, but they are country gentlemen also. Mr.
+Clavering regarded clergymen of his class,--of the country gentlemen
+class, as being quite distinct from all others,--and as being, I may
+say, very much higher than all others, without reference to any money
+question. When meeting his brother rectors and vicars, he had quite
+a different tone in addressing them,--as they might belong to his
+class, or to another. There was no offence in this. The clerical
+country gentlemen understood it all as though there were some secret
+sign or shibboleth between them; but the outsiders had no complaint
+to make of arrogance, and did not feel themselves aggrieved. They
+hardly knew that there was an inner clerical familiarity to which
+they were not admitted. But now that there was a young curate from
+the outer circle demanding Mr. Clavering's daughter in marriage, and
+that without a shilling in his pocket, Mr. Clavering felt that the
+eyes of the offender must be opened. The nuisance to him was very
+great, but this opening of Mr. Saul's eyes was a duty from which he
+could not shrink.
+
+He got up when the curate entered, and greeted his curate, as though
+he were unaware of the purpose of the present visit. The whole burden
+of the story was to be thrown upon Mr. Saul. But that gentleman was
+not long in casting the burden from his shoulders. "Mr. Clavering,"
+he said, "I have come to ask your permission to be a suitor for your
+daughter's hand."
+
+The rector was almost taken aback by the abruptness of the request.
+"Quite impossible, Mr. Saul," he said--"quite impossible. I am told
+by Mrs. Clavering that you were speaking to Fanny again about this
+yesterday, and I must say, that I think you have been behaving very
+badly."
+
+"In what way have I behaved badly?"
+
+"In endeavouring to gain her affections behind my back."
+
+"But, Mr. Clavering, how otherwise could I gain them? How otherwise
+does any man gain any woman's love? If you mean--"
+
+"Look here, Mr. Saul. I don't think that there is any necessity for
+an argument between you and me on this point. That you cannot marry
+Miss Clavering is so self-evident that it does not require to be
+discussed. If there were nothing else against it, neither of you
+have got a penny. I have not seen my daughter since I heard of this
+madness,--hear me out if you please, sir,--since I heard of this
+madness, but her mother tells me that she is quite aware of that
+fact. Your coming to me with such a proposition is an absurdity if it
+is nothing worse. Now you must do one of two things, Mr. Saul. You
+must either promise me that this shall be at an end altogether, or
+you must leave the parish."
+
+"I certainly shall not promise you that my hopes as they regard your
+daughter will be at an end."
+
+"Then, Mr. Saul, the sooner you go the better."
+
+A dark cloud came across Mr. Saul's brow as he heard these last
+words. "That is the way in which you would send away your groom, if
+he had offended you," he said.
+
+"I do not wish to be unnecessarily harsh," said Mr. Clavering, "and
+what I say to you now I say to you not as my curate, but as to a most
+unwarranted suitor for my daughter's hand. Of course I cannot turn
+you out of the parish at a day's notice. I know that well enough. But
+your feelings as a gentleman ought to make you aware that you should
+go at once."
+
+"And that is to be my only answer?"
+
+"What answer did you expect?"
+
+"I have been thinking so much lately of the answers I might get from
+your daughter, that I have not made other calculations. Perhaps I had
+no right to expect any other than that you have now given me."
+
+"Of course you had not. And now I ask you again to give her up."
+
+"I shall not do that, certainly."
+
+"Then, Mr. Saul, you must go; and, inconvenient as it will be to
+myself,--terribly inconvenient, I must ask you to go at once. Of
+course I cannot allow you to meet my daughter any more. As long as
+you remain she will be debarred from going to her school, and you
+will be debarred from coming here."
+
+"If I say that I will not seek her at the school?"
+
+"I will not have it. It is out of the question that you should remain
+in the parish. You ought to feel it."
+
+"Mr. Clavering, my going,--I mean my instant going,--is a matter of
+which I have not yet thought. I must consider it before I give you an
+answer."
+
+"It ought to require no consideration," said Mr. Clavering, rising
+from his chair,--"none at all; not a moment's. Heavens and earth!
+Why, what did you suppose you were to live upon? But I won't
+discuss it. I will not say one more word upon a subject which is so
+distasteful to me. You must excuse me if I leave you."
+
+Mr. Saul then departed, and from this interview had arisen that state
+of things in the parish which had induced Mrs. Clavering to call
+Harry to their assistance. The rector had become more energetic on
+the subject than any of them had expected. He did not actually forbid
+his wife to see Mr. Saul, but he did say that Mr. Saul should not
+come to the rectory. Then there arose a question as to the Sunday
+services, and yet Mr. Clavering would have no intercourse with his
+curate. He would have no intercourse with him unless he would fix an
+immediate day for going, or else promise that he would think no more
+of Fanny. Hitherto he had done neither, and therefore Mrs. Clavering
+had sent for her son.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+MR. SAUL'S ABODE.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+When Harry Clavering left London he was not well, though he did not
+care to tell himself that he was ill. But he had been so harassed by
+his position, was so ashamed of himself, and as yet so unable to see
+any escape from his misery, that he was sore with fatigue and almost
+worn out with trouble. On his arrival at the parsonage, his mother at
+once asked him if he was ill, and received his petulant denial with
+an ill-satisfied countenance. That there was something wrong between
+him and Florence she suspected, but at the present moment she was
+not disposed to inquire into that matter. Harry's love-affairs had
+for her a great interest, but Fanny's love-affairs at the present
+moment were paramount in her bosom. Fanny, indeed, had become very
+troublesome since Mr. Saul's visit to her father. On the evening
+of her conversation with her mother, and on the following morning,
+Fanny had carried herself with bravery, and Mrs. Clavering had been
+disposed to think that her daughter's heart was not wounded deeply.
+She had admitted the impossibility of her marriage with Mr. Saul, and
+had never insisted on the strength of her attachment. But no sooner
+was she told that Mr. Saul had been banished from the house, than she
+took upon herself to mope in the most love-lorn fashion, and behaved
+herself as though she were the victim of an all-absorbing passion.
+Between her and her father no word on the subject had been spoken,
+and even to her mother she was silent, respectful, and subdued, as
+it becomes daughters to be who are hardly used when they are in love.
+Now, Mrs. Clavering felt that in this her daughter was not treating
+her well.
+
+"But you don't mean to say that she cares for him?" Harry said to his
+mother, when they were alone on the evening of his arrival.
+
+"Yes, she cares for him, certainly. As far as I can tell, she cares
+for him very much."
+
+"It is the oddest thing I ever knew in my life. I should have said he
+was the last man in the world for success of that kind."
+
+"One never can tell, Harry. You see he is a very good young man."
+
+"But girls don't fall in love with men because they're good, mother."
+
+"I hope they do,--for that and other things together."
+
+"But he has got none of the other things. What a pity it was that he
+was let to stay here after he first made a fool of himself."
+
+"It's too late to think of that now, Harry. Of course she can't marry
+him. They would have nothing to live on. I should say that he has no
+prospect of a living."
+
+"I can't conceive how a man can do such a wicked thing," said Harry,
+moralizing, and forgetting for a moment his own sins. "Coming into
+a house like this, and in such a position, and then undermining a
+girl's affections, when he must know that it is quite out of the
+question that he should marry her! I call it downright wicked. It is
+treachery of the worst sort, and coming from a clergyman is of course
+the more to be condemned. I shan't be slow to tell him my mind."
+
+"You will gain nothing by quarrelling with him."
+
+"But how can I help it, if I am to see him at all?"
+
+"I mean that I would not be rough with him. The great thing is
+to make him feel that he should go away as soon as possible, and
+renounce all idea of seeing Fanny again. You see, your father will
+have no conversation with him at all, and it is so disagreeable about
+the services. They'll have to meet in the vestry-room on Sunday, and
+they won't speak. Will not that be terrible? Anything will be better
+than that he should remain here."
+
+"And what will my father do for a curate?"
+
+"He can't do anything till he knows when Mr. Saul will go. He talks
+of taking all the services himself."
+
+"He couldn't do it, mother. He must not think of it. However, I'll
+see Saul the first thing to-morrow."
+
+The next day was Tuesday, and Harry proposed to leave the rectory at
+ten o'clock for Mr. Saul's lodgings. Before he did so, he had a few
+words with his father, who professed even deeper animosity against
+Mr. Saul than his son. "After that," he said, "I'll believe that a
+girl may fall in love with any man! People say all manner of things
+about the folly of girls; but nothing but this,--nothing short of
+this,--would have convinced me that it was possible that Fanny
+should have been such a fool. An ape of a fellow,--not made like a
+man,--with a thin hatchet face, and unwholesome stubbly chin. Good
+heavens!"
+
+"He has talked her into it."
+
+"But he is such an ass. As far as I know him, he can't say Bo! to a
+goose."
+
+"There I think you are perhaps wrong."
+
+"Upon my word, I've never been able to get a word from him except
+about the parish. He is the most uncompanionable fellow. There's
+Edward Fielding is as active a clergyman as Saul; but Edward Fielding
+has something to say for himself."
+
+"Saul is a cleverer man than Edward is; but his cleverness is of a
+different sort."
+
+"It is of a sort that is very invisible to me. But what does all that
+matter? He hasn't got a shilling. When I was a curate, we didn't
+think of doing such things as that." Mr. Clavering had only been a
+curate for twelve months, and during that time had become engaged
+to his present wife with the consent of every one concerned. "But
+clergymen were gentlemen then. I don't know what the Church will come
+to; I don't indeed."
+
+After this Harry went away upon his mission. What a farce it was that
+he should be engaged to make straight the affairs of other people,
+when his own affairs were so very crooked! As he walked up to the
+old farmhouse in which Mr. Saul was living, he thought of this, and
+acknowledged to himself that he could hardly make himself in earnest
+about his sister's affairs, because of his own troubles. He tried
+to fill himself with a proper feeling of dignified wrath and high
+paternal indignation against the poor curate; but under it all, and
+at the back of it all, and in front of it all, there was ever present
+to him his own position. Did he wish to escape from Lady Ongar; and
+if so, how was he to do it? And if he did not escape from Lady Ongar,
+how was he ever to hold up his head again?
+
+He had sent a note to Mr. Saul on the previous evening giving notice
+of his intended visit, and had received an answer, in which the
+curate had promised that he would be at home. He had never before
+been in Mr. Saul's room, and as he entered it, felt more strongly
+than ever how incongruous was the idea of Mr. Saul as a suitor to his
+sister. The Claverings had always had things comfortable around them.
+They were a people who had ever lived on Brussels carpets, and had
+seated themselves in capacious chairs. Ormolu, damask hangings, and
+Sevres china were not familiar to them; but they had never lacked
+anything that is needed for the comfort of the first-class clerical
+world. Mr. Saul in his abode boasted but few comforts. He inhabited
+a big bed-room, in which there was a vast fireplace and a very small
+grate,--the grate being very much more modern than the fireplace.
+There was a small rag of a carpet near the hearth, and on this stood
+a large deal table,--a table made of unalloyed deal, without any
+mendacious paint, putting forward a pretence in the direction of
+mahogany. One wooden Windsor arm-chair--very comfortable in its
+way--was appropriated to the use of Mr. Saul himself, and two other
+small wooden chairs flanked the other side of the fireplace. In one
+distant corner stood Mr. Saul's small bed, and in another distant
+corner stood his small dressing-table. Against the wall stood a
+rickety deal press in which he kept his clothes. Other furniture
+there was none. One of the large windows facing towards the farmyard
+had been permanently closed, and in the wide embrasure was placed
+a portion of Mr. Saul's library,--books which he had brought with
+him from college; and on the ground under this closed window were
+arranged the others, making a long row, which stretched from the
+bed to the dressing-table, very pervious, I fear, to the attacks of
+mice. The big table near the fireplace was covered with books and
+papers,--and, alas, with dust; for he had fallen into that terrible
+habit which prevails among bachelors, of allowing his work to remain
+ever open, never finished, always confused,--with papers above books,
+and books above papers,--looking as though no useful product could
+ever be made to come forth from such chaotic elements. But there Mr.
+Saul composed his sermons, and studied his Bible, and followed up,
+no doubt, some special darling pursuit which his ambition dictated.
+But there he did not eat his meals; that had been made impossible by
+the pile of papers and dust; and his chop, therefore, or his broiled
+rasher, or bit of pig's fry was deposited for him on the little
+dressing-table, and there consumed.
+
+Such was the solitary apartment of the gentleman who now aspired to
+the hand of Miss Clavering; and for this accommodation, including
+attendance, he paid the reasonable sum of £10 per annum. He then
+had £60 left, with which to feed himself, clothe himself like a
+gentleman,--a duty somewhat neglected,--and perform his charities!
+
+Harry Clavering, as he looked around him, felt almost ashamed of his
+sister. The walls were whitewashed, and stained in many places; and
+the floor in the middle of the room seemed to be very rotten. What
+young man who has himself dwelt ever in comfort would like such a
+house for his sister? Mr. Saul, however, came forward with no marks
+of visible shame on his face, and greeted his visitor frankly with an
+open hand. "You came down from London yesterday, I suppose?" said Mr.
+Saul.
+
+"Just so," said Harry.
+
+"Take a seat;" and Mr. Saul suggested the arm-chair, but Harry
+contented himself with one of the others. "I hope Mrs. Clavering is
+well?" "Quite well," said Harry, cheerfully. "And your father,--and
+sister?" "Quite well, thank you," said Harry, very stiffly. "I would
+have come down to you at the rectory," said Mr. Saul, "instead of
+bringing you up here; only, as you have heard, no doubt, I and your
+father have unfortunately had a difference." This Mr. Saul said
+without any apparent effort, and then left Harry to commence the
+further conversation.
+
+"Of course, you know what I'm come here about?" said Harry.
+
+"Not exactly; at any rate not so clearly but what I would wish you to
+tell me."
+
+"You have gone to my father as a suitor for my sister's hand."
+
+"Yes, I have."
+
+"Now you must know that that is altogether impossible,--a thing not
+to be even talked of."
+
+"So your father says. I need not tell you that I was very sorry to
+hear him speak in that way."
+
+"But, my dear fellow, you can't really be in earnest? You can't
+suppose it possible that he would allow such an engagement?"
+
+"As to the latter question, I have no answer to give; but I certainly
+was,--and certainly am in earnest."
+
+"Then I must say that I think you have a very erroneous idea of what
+the conduct of a gentleman should be."
+
+"Stop a moment, Clavering," said Mr. Saul, rising, and standing with
+his back to the big fireplace. "Don't allow yourself to say in a
+hurry words which you will afterwards regret. I do not think you can
+have intended to come here and tell me that I am not a gentleman."
+
+"I don't want to have an argument with you; but you must give it up;
+that's all."
+
+"Give what up? If you mean give up your sister, I certainly shall
+never do that. She may give me up, and if you have anything to say on
+that head, you had better say it to her."
+
+"What right can you have,--without a shilling in the world--?"
+
+"I should have no right to marry her in such a condition,--with your
+father's consent or without it. It is a thing which I have never
+proposed to myself for a moment,--or to her."
+
+"And what have you proposed to yourself?"
+
+Mr. Saul paused a moment before he spoke, looking down at the dusty
+heaps upon his table, as though hoping that inspiration might come
+to him from them. "I will tell you what I have proposed," said he at
+last, "as nearly as I can put it into words. I propose to myself to
+have the image in my heart of one human being whom I can love above
+all the world beside; I propose to hope that I, as others, may some
+day marry, and that she whom I so love may become my wife; I propose
+to bear with such courage as I can much certain delay, and probable
+absolute failure in all this; and I propose also to expect,--no,
+hardly to expect,--that that which I will do for her, she will do for
+me. Now you know all my mind, and you may be sure of this, that I
+will instigate your sister to no disobedience."
+
+"Of course she will not see you again."
+
+"I shall think that hard after what has passed between us; but I
+certainly shall not endeavour to see her clandestinely."
+
+"And under these circumstances, Mr. Saul, of course you must leave
+us."
+
+"So your father says."
+
+"But leave us at once, I mean. It cannot be comfortable that you and
+my father should go on in the parish together in this way."
+
+"What does your father mean by 'at once'?"
+
+"The sooner the better; say in two months' time at furthest."
+
+"Very well. I will go in two months' time. I have no other home to go
+to, and no other means of livelihood; but as your father wishes it,
+I will go at the end of two months. As I comply with this, I hope my
+request to see your sister once before I go will not be refused."
+
+"It could do no good, Mr. Saul."
+
+"To me it would do great good,--and, as I think, no harm to her."
+
+"My father, I am sure, will not allow it. Indeed, why should he? Nor,
+as I understand, would my sister wish it."
+
+"Has she said so?"
+
+"Not to me; but she has acknowledged that any idea of a marriage
+between herself and you is quite impossible, and after that I'm sure
+she'll have too much sense to wish for an interview. If there is
+anything further that I can do for you, I shall be most happy." Mr.
+Saul did not see that Harry Clavering could do anything for him,
+and then Harry took his leave. The rector, when he heard of the
+arrangement, expressed himself as in some sort satisfied. One month
+would have been better than two, but then it could hardly be expected
+that Mr. Saul could take himself away instantly, without looking for
+a hole in which to lay his head. "Of course it is understood that
+he is not to see her?" the rector said. In answer to this, Harry
+explained what had taken place, expressing his opinion that Mr. Saul
+would, at any rate, keep his word. "Interview, indeed!" said the
+rector. "It is the man's audacity that most astonishes me. It passes
+me to think how such a fellow can dare to propose such a thing. What
+is it that he expects as the end of it?" Then Harry endeavoured to
+repeat what Mr. Saul had said as to his own expectations, but he
+was quite aware that he failed to make his father understand those
+expectations as he had understood them when the words came from Mr.
+Saul's own mouth. Harry Clavering had acknowledged to himself that it
+was impossible not to respect the poor curate.
+
+To Mrs. Clavering, of course, fell the task of explaining to Fanny
+what had been done, and what was going to be done. "He is to go away,
+my dear, at the end of two months."
+
+"Very well, mamma."
+
+"And, of course, you and he are not to meet before that."
+
+"Of course not, if you and papa say so."
+
+"I have told your papa that it will only be necessary to tell you
+this, and that then you can go to your school just as usual, if you
+please. Neither papa nor I would doubt your word for a moment."
+
+"But what can I do if he comes to me?" asked Fanny, almost
+whimpering.
+
+"He has said that he will not, and we do not doubt his word either."
+
+"That I am sure you need not. Whatever anybody may say, Mr. Saul is
+as much a gentleman as though he had the best living in the diocese.
+No one ever knew him break his word,--not a hair's breadth,--or
+do--anything else--that he ought--not to do." And Fanny, as she
+pronounced this rather strong eulogium, began to sob. Mrs. Clavering
+felt that Fanny was headstrong, and almost ill-natured, in speaking
+in this tone of her lover, after the manner in which she had been
+treated; but there could be no use in discussing Mr. Saul's virtues,
+and therefore she let the matter drop. "If you will take my advice,"
+she said, "you will go about your occupations just as usual. You'll
+soon recover your spirits in that way."
+
+"I don't want to recover my spirits," said Fanny; "but if you wish it
+I'll go on with the schools."
+
+It was quite manifest now that Fanny intended to play the role of a
+broken-hearted young lady, and to regard the absent Mr. Saul with
+passionate devotion. That this should be so Mrs. Clavering felt to be
+the more cruel, because no such tendencies had been shown before the
+paternal sentence against Mr. Saul had been passed. Fanny in telling
+her own tale had begun by declaring that any such an engagement was
+an impossibility. She had not asked permission to have Mr. Saul for a
+lover. She had given no hint that she even hoped for such permission.
+But now when that was done which she herself had almost dictated, she
+took upon herself to live as though she were ill-used as badly as a
+heroine in a castle among the Apennines! And in this way she would
+really become deeply in love with Mr. Saul;--thinking of all which
+Mrs. Clavering almost regretted that the edict of banishment had gone
+forth. It would, perhaps, have been better to have left Mr. Saul to
+go about the parish, and to have laughed Fanny out of her fancy. But
+it was too late now for that, and Mrs. Clavering said nothing further
+on the subject to any one.
+
+On the day following his visit to the farm house, Harry Clavering
+was unwell,--too unwell to go back to London; and on the next day he
+was ill in bed. Then it was that he got his mother to write to Mrs.
+Burton;--and then also he told his mother a part of his troubles.
+When the letter was written he was very anxious to see it, and was
+desirous that it should be specially worded, and so written as to
+make Mrs. Burton certain that he was in truth too ill to come to
+London, though not ill enough to create alarm. "Why not simply let me
+say that you are kept here for a day or two?" asked Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Because I promised that I would be in Onslow Terrace to-morrow, and
+she must not think that I would stay away if I could avoid it."
+
+Then Mrs. Clavering closed the letter and directed it. When she had
+done that, and put on it the postage-stamp, she asked in a voice that
+was intended to be indifferent whether Florence was in London; and,
+hearing that she was so, expressed her surprise that the letter
+should not be written to Florence.
+
+"My engagement was with Mrs. Burton," said Harry.
+
+"I hope there is nothing wrong between you and Florence?" said his
+mother. To this question Harry made no immediate answer, and Mrs.
+Clavering was afraid to press it. But after a while he recurred to
+the subject himself. "Mother," he said, "things are wrong between
+Florence and me."
+
+"Oh, Harry;--what has she done?"
+
+"It is rather what have I done! As for her, she has simply trusted
+herself to a man who has been false to her."
+
+"Dear Harry, do not say that. What is it that you mean? It is not
+true about Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Then you have heard, mother. Of course I do not know what you have
+heard, but it can hardly be worse than the truth. But you must not
+blame her. Whatever fault there may be, is all mine." Then he told
+her much of what had occurred in Bolton Street. We may suppose that
+he said nothing of that mad caress,--nothing, perhaps, of the final
+promise which he made to Julia as he last passed out of her presence;
+but he did give her to understand that he had in some way returned to
+his old passion for the woman whom he had first loved.
+
+I should describe Mrs. Clavering in language too highly eulogistic
+were I to lead the reader to believe that she was altogether averse
+to such advantages as would accrue to her son from a marriage so
+brilliant as that which he might now make with the grandly dowered
+widow of the late earl. Mrs. Clavering by no means despised worldly
+goods; and she had, moreover, an idea that her highly gifted son
+was better adapted to the spending than to the making of money. It
+had come to be believed at the rectory that though Harry had worked
+very hard at college,--as is the case with many highly born young
+gentlemen,--and though he would, undoubtedly, continue to work hard
+if he were thrown among congenial occupations,--such as politics and
+the like,--nevertheless, he would never excel greatly in any drudgery
+that would be necessary for the making of money. There had been
+something to be proud of in this, but there had, of course, been more
+to regret. But now if Harry were to marry Lady Ongar, all trouble
+on that score would be over. But poor Florence! When Mrs. Clavering
+allowed herself to think of the matter she knew that Florence's
+claims should be held as paramount. And when she thought further and
+thought seriously, she knew also that Harry's honour and Harry's
+happiness demanded that he should be true to the girl to whom his
+hand had been promised. And, then, was not Lady Ongar's name tainted?
+It might be that she had suffered cruel ill-usage in this. It might
+be that no such taint had been deserved. Mrs. Clavering could plead
+the injured woman's cause when speaking of it without any close
+reference to her own belongings; but it would have been very grievous
+to her, even had there been no Florence Burton in the case, that her
+son should make his fortune by marrying a woman as to whose character
+the world was in doubt.
+
+She came to him late in the evening when his sister and father had
+just left him, and sitting with her hand upon his, spoke one word,
+which perhaps had more weight with Harry than any word that had yet
+been spoken. "Have you slept, dear?" she said.
+
+"A little before my father came in."
+
+"My darling," she said,--"you will be true to Florence; will you
+not?" Then there was a pause. "My own Harry, tell me that you will be
+true where your truth is due."
+
+"I will, mother," he said.
+
+"My own boy; my darling boy; my own true gentleman!" Harry felt that
+he did not deserve the praise; but praise undeserved, though it may
+be satire in disguise, is often very useful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+PARTING.
+
+
+On the next day Harry was not better, but the doctor still said that
+there was no cause for alarm. He was suffering from a low fever, and
+his sister had better be kept out of his room. He would not sleep,
+and was restless, and it might be some time before he could return to
+London.
+
+Early in the day the rector came into his son's bedroom, and told him
+and his mother, who was there, the news which he had just heard from
+the great house. "Hugh has come home," he said, "and is going out
+yachting for the rest of the summer. They are going to Norway in Jack
+Stuart's yacht. Archie is going with them." Now Archie was known to
+be a great man in a yacht, cognizant of ropes, well up in booms and
+spars, very intimate with bolts, and one to whose hands a tiller came
+as naturally as did the saddle of a steeple-chase horse to the legs
+of his friend Doodles. "They are going to fish," said the rector.
+
+"But Jack Stuart's yacht is only a river-boat,--or just big enough
+for Cowes harbour, but nothing more," said Harry, roused in his bed
+to some excitement by the news.
+
+"I know nothing about Jack Stuart or his boat either," said the
+rector; "but that's what they told me. He's down here, at any rate,
+for I saw the servant that came with him."
+
+"What a shame it is," said Mrs. Clavering,--"a scandalous shame."
+
+"You mean his going away?" said the rector.
+
+"Of course I do;--his leaving her here by herself, all alone. He can
+have no heart;--after losing her child and suffering as she has done.
+It makes me ashamed of my own name."
+
+"You can't alter him, my dear. He has his good qualities and his
+bad,--and the bad ones are by far the more conspicuous."
+
+"I don't know any good qualities he has."
+
+"He does not get into debt. He will not destroy the property. He will
+leave the family after him as well off as it was before him,--and
+though he is a hard man, he does nothing actively cruel. Think of
+Lord Ongar, and then you'll remember that there are worse men than
+Hugh. Not that I like him. I am never comfortable for a moment in his
+presence. I always feel that he wants to quarrel with me, and that I
+almost want to quarrel with him."
+
+"I detest him," said Harry, from beneath the bedclothes.
+
+"You won't be troubled with him any more this summer, for he means to
+be off in less than a week."
+
+"And what is she to do?" asked Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Live here as she has done ever since Julia married. I don't see that
+it will make much difference to her. He's never with her when he's in
+England, and I should think she must be more comfortable without him
+than with him."
+
+"It's a great catch for Archie," said Harry.
+
+"Archie Clavering is a fool," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"They say he understands a yacht," said the rector, who then left the
+room.
+
+The rector's news was all true. Sir Hugh Clavering had come down
+to the Park, and had announced his intention of going to Norway in
+Jack Stuart's yacht. Archie also had been invited to join the party.
+Sir Hugh intended to leave the Thames in about a week, and had not
+thought it necessary to give his wife any intimation of the fact,
+till he told her himself of his intention. He took, I think, a
+delight in being thus over-harsh in his harshness to her. He proved
+to himself thus not only that he was master, but that he would be
+master without any let or drawback, without compunctions, and even
+without excuses for his ill-conduct. There should be no plea put in
+by him in his absences, that he had only gone to catch a few fish,
+when his intentions had been other than piscatorial. He intended
+to do as he liked now and always,--and he intended that his wife
+should know that such was his intention. She was now childless, and
+therefore he had no other terms to keep with her than those which
+appertained to her necessities for bed and board. There was the
+house, and she might live in it; and there were the butchers and the
+bakers, and other tradesmen to supply her wants. Nay;--there were the
+old carriage and the old horses at her disposal, if they could be of
+any service to her. Such were Sir Hugh Clavering's ideas as to the
+bonds inflicted upon him by his marriage vows.
+
+"I'm going to Norway next week." It was thus Sir Hugh communicated
+his intention to his wife within five minutes of their first
+greeting.
+
+"To Norway, Hugh?"
+
+"Yes;--why not to Norway? I and one or two others have got some
+fishing there. Archie is going too. It will keep him from spending
+his money;--or rather from spending money which isn't his."
+
+"And for how long will you be gone?"
+
+It was part of Sir Hugh Clavering's theory as to these matters
+that there should be no lying in the conduct of them. He would not
+condescend to screen any part of his doings by a falsehood;--so he
+answered this question with exact truth.
+
+"I don't suppose we shall be back before October."
+
+"Not before October?"
+
+"No. We are talking of putting in on the coast of Normandy somewhere;
+and probably may run down to Brittany. I shall be back, at any rate,
+for the hunting. As for the partridges, the game has gone so much to
+the devil here, that they are not worth coming for."
+
+"You'll be away four months!"
+
+"I suppose I shall if I don't come back till October." Then he left
+her, calculating that she would have considered the matter before
+he returned, and have decided that no good could come to her from
+complaint. She knew his purpose now, and would no doubt reconcile
+herself to it quickly;--perhaps with a few tears, which would not
+hurt him if he did not see them.
+
+But this blow was almost more than Lady Clavering could bear,--was
+more than she could bear in silence. Why she should have grudged her
+husband his trip abroad, seeing that his presence in England could
+hardly have been a solace to her, it is hard to understand. Had he
+remained in England, he would rarely have been at Clavering Park; and
+when he was at the Park he would rarely have given her the benefit
+of his society. When they were together he was usually scolding her,
+or else sitting in gloomy silence, as though that phase of his life
+was almost insupportable to him. He was so unusually disagreeable in
+his intercourse with her, that his absence, one would think, must be
+preferable to his presence. But women can bear anything better than
+desertion. Cruelty is bad, but neglect is worse than cruelty, and
+desertion worse even than neglect. To be treated as though she were
+not in existence, or as though her existence were a nuisance simply
+to be endured, and, as far as possible, to be forgotten, was more
+than even Lady Clavering could bear without complaint. When her
+husband left her, she sat meditating how she might turn against her
+oppressor. She was a woman not apt for fighting,--unlike her sister,
+who knew well how to use the cudgels in her own behalf; she was
+timid, not gifted with a full flow of words, prone to sink and become
+dependent; but she,--even she,--with all these deficiencies,--felt
+that she must make some stand against the outrage to which she was
+now to be subjected.
+
+"Hugh," she said, when next she saw him, "you can't really mean that
+you are going to leave me from this time till the winter?"
+
+"I said nothing about the winter."
+
+"Well,--till October?"
+
+"I said that I was going, and I usually mean what I say."
+
+"I cannot believe it, Hugh; I cannot bring myself to think that you
+will be so cruel."
+
+"Look here, Hermy, if you take to calling names I won't stand it."
+
+"And I won't stand it, either. What am I to do? Am I to be here in
+this dreadful barrack of a house all alone? How would you like it?
+Would you bear it for one month, let alone four or five? I won't
+remain here; I tell you that fairly."
+
+"Where do you want to go?"
+
+"I don't want to go anywhere, but I'll go away somewhere and die;--I
+will indeed. I'll destroy myself, or something."
+
+"Psha!"
+
+"Yes; of course it's a joke to you. What have I done to deserve this?
+Have I ever done anything that you told me not? It's all because of
+Hughy,--my darling,--so it is; and it's cruel of you, and not like a
+husband; and it's not manly. It's very cruel. I didn't think anybody
+would have been so cruel as you are to me." Then she broke down and
+burst into tears.
+
+"Have you done, Hermy?" said her husband.
+
+"No; I've not done."
+
+"Then go on again," said he.
+
+But in truth she had done, and could only repeat her last accusation.
+"You're very, very cruel."
+
+"You said that before."
+
+"And I'll say it again. I'll tell everybody; so I will. I'll tell
+your uncle at the rectory, and he shall speak to you."
+
+"Look here, Hermy; I can bear a deal of nonsense from you because
+some women are given to talk nonsense; but if I find you telling
+tales about me out of this house, and especially to my uncle, or
+indeed to anybody, I'll let you know what it is to be cruel."
+
+"You can't be worse than you are."
+
+"Don't try me; that's all. And as I suppose you have now said all
+that you've got to say, if you please we will regard that subject as
+finished." The poor woman had said all that she could say, and had no
+further means of carrying on the war. In her thoughts she could do
+so; in her thoughts she could wander forth out of the gloomy house in
+the night, and perish in the damp and cold, leaving a paper behind
+her to tell the world that her husband's cruelty had brought her to
+that pass. Or she would go to Julia and leave him for ever. Julia,
+she thought, would still receive her. But as to one thing she had
+certainly made up her mind; she would go with her complaint to Mrs.
+Clavering at the rectory, let her lord and master show his anger in
+whatever form he might please.
+
+The next day Sir Hugh himself made her a proposition which somewhat
+softened the aspect of affairs. This he did in his usual voice, with
+something of a smile on his face, and speaking as though he were
+altogether oblivious of the scenes of yesterday. "I was thinking,
+Hermy," he said, "that you might have Julia down here while I am
+away."
+
+"Have Julia here?"
+
+"Yes; why not? She'll come, I'm sure, when she knows that my back is
+turned."
+
+"I've never thought about asking her,--at least not lately."
+
+"No; of course. But you might as well do so now. It seems that she
+never goes to Ongar Park, and, as far as I can learn, never will. I'm
+going to see her myself."
+
+"You going to see her?"
+
+"Yes; Lord Ongar's people want to know whether she can be induced
+to give up the place; that is, to sell her interest in it. I have
+promised to see her. Do you write her a letter first, and tell her
+that I want to see her; and ask her also to come here as soon as she
+can leave London."
+
+"But wouldn't the lawyers do it better than you?"
+
+"Well;--one would think so; but I am commissioned to make her a kind
+of apology from the whole Courton family. They fancy they've been
+hard upon her; and, by George, I believe they have. I may be able to
+say a word for myself too. If she isn't a fool she'll put her anger
+in her pocket, and come down to you."
+
+Lady Clavering liked the idea of having her sister with her, but she
+was not quite meek enough to receive the permission now given her as
+full compensation for the injury done. She said that she would do as
+he had bidden her, and then went back to her own grievances. "I don't
+suppose Julia, even if she would come for a little time, would find
+it very pleasant to live in such a place as this, all alone."
+
+"She wouldn't be all alone when you are with her," said Hugh,
+gruffly, and then again went out, leaving his wife to become used to
+her misfortune by degrees.
+
+It was not surprising that Lady Clavering should dislike her solitude
+at Clavering Park house, nor surprising that Sir Hugh should find the
+place disagreeable. The house was a large, square, stone building,
+with none of the prettinesses of modern country-houses about it.
+The gardens were away from the house, and the cold desolate flat
+park came up close around the windows. The rooms were large and
+lofty,--very excellent for the purpose of a large household, but
+with nothing of that snug, pretty comfort which solitude requires for
+its solace. The furniture was old and heavy, and the hangings were
+dark in colour. Lady Clavering when alone there,--and she generally
+was alone,--never entered the rooms on the ground-floor. Nor did she
+ever pass through the wilderness of a hall by which the front-door
+was to be reached. Throughout more than half her days she never came
+downstairs at all; but when she did so, preparatory to being dragged
+about the parish lanes in the old family carriage, she was let out at
+a small side-door; and so it came to pass that during the absences of
+the lord of the mansion, the shutters were not even moved from any of
+the lower windows. Under such circumstances there can be no wonder
+that Lady Clavering regarded the place as a prison. "I wish you could
+come upon it unawares, and see how gloomy it is," she said to him.
+"I don't think you'd stand it alone for two days, let alone all your
+life."
+
+"I'll shut it up altogether if you like," said he.
+
+"And where am I to go?" she asked.
+
+"You can go to Moor Hall if you please." Now Moor Hall was a small
+house, standing on a small property belonging to Sir Hugh, in that
+part of Devonshire which lies north of Dartmoor, somewhere near the
+Holsworthy region, and which is perhaps as ugly, as desolate, and as
+remote as any part of England. Lady Clavering had heard much of Moor
+Hall, and dreaded it as the heroine, made to live in the big grim
+castle low down among the Apennines, dreads the smaller and grimmer
+castle which is known to exist somewhere higher up in the mountains.
+
+"Why couldn't I go to Brighton?" said Lady Clavering boldly.
+
+"Because I don't choose it," said Sir Hugh. After that she did go
+to the rectory, and told Mrs. Clavering all her troubles. She had
+written to her sister, having, however, delayed the doing of this for
+two or three days, and she had not at this time received an answer
+from Lady Ongar. Nor did she hear from her sister till after Sir Hugh
+had left her. It was on the day before his departure that she went to
+the rectory, finding herself driven to this act of rebellion by his
+threat of Moor Hall. "I will never go there unless I am dragged there
+by force," she said to Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"I don't think he means that," said Mrs. Clavering. "He only wants to
+make you understand that you'd better remain at the Park."
+
+"But if you knew what a house it is to be all alone in!"
+
+"Dear Hermione, I do know! But you must come to us oftener, and let
+us endeavour to make it better for you."
+
+"But how can I do that? How can I come to his uncle's house, just
+because my own husband has made my own home so wretched that I cannot
+bear it. I'm ashamed to do that. I ought not to be telling you all
+this, of course. I don't know what he'd do if he knew it; but it is
+so hard to bear it all without telling some one."
+
+"My poor dear!"
+
+"I sometimes think I'll ask Mr. Clavering to speak to him, and to
+tell him at once that I will not submit to it any longer. Of course
+he would be mad with rage, but if he were to kill me I should like it
+better than having to go on in this way. I'm sure he is only waiting
+for me to die."
+
+Mrs. Clavering said all that she could to comfort the poor woman, but
+there was not much that she could say. She had strongly advocated the
+plan of having Lady Ongar at the Park, thinking perhaps that Harry
+would be more safe while that lady was at Clavering, than he might
+perhaps be if she remained in London. But Mrs. Clavering doubted much
+whether Lady Ongar would consent to make such a visit. She regarded
+Lady Ongar as a hard, worldly, pleasure-seeking woman,--sinned
+against perhaps in much, but also sinning in much herself,--to whom
+the desolation of the Park would be even more unendurable than it was
+to the elder sister. But of this, of course, she said nothing. Lady
+Clavering left her, somewhat quieted, if not comforted; and went back
+to pass her last evening with her husband.
+
+"Upon second thought, I'll go by the first train," he said, as he saw
+her for a moment before she went up to dress. "I shall have to be off
+from here a little after six, but I don't mind that in summer." Thus
+she was to be deprived of such gratification as there might have been
+in breakfasting with him on the last morning! It might be hard to say
+in what that gratification would have consisted. She must by this
+time have learned that his presence gave her none of the pleasures
+usually expected from society. He slighted her in everything. He
+rarely vouchsafed to her those little attentions which all women
+expect from all gentlemen. If he handed her a plate, or cut for her
+a morsel of bread from the loaf, he showed by his manner and by his
+brow that the doing so was a nuisance to him. At their meals he
+rarely spoke to her,--having always at breakfast a paper or a book
+before him, and at dinner devoting his attention to a dog at his
+feet. Why should she have felt herself cruelly ill-used in this
+matter of his last breakfast,--so cruelly ill-used that she wept
+afresh over it as she dressed herself,--seeing that she would lose so
+little? Because she loved the man;--loved him, though she now thought
+that she hated him. We very rarely, I fancy, love those whose love
+we have not either possessed or expected,--or at any rate for whose
+love we have not hoped; but when it has once existed, ill-usage will
+seldom destroy it. Angry as she was with the man, ready as she was to
+complain of him, to rebel against him,--perhaps to separate herself
+from him for ever, nevertheless she found it to be a cruel grievance
+that she should not sit at table with him on the morning of his
+going. "Jackson shall bring me a cup of coffee as I'm dressing,"
+he said, "and I'll breakfast at the club." She knew that there was
+no reason for this, except that breakfasting at his club was more
+agreeable to him than breakfasting with his wife.
+
+She had got rid of her tears before she came down to dinner, but
+still she was melancholy and almost lachrymose. This was the last
+night, and she felt that something special ought to be said; but
+she did not know what she expected, or what it was that she herself
+wished to say. I think that she was longing for an opportunity to
+forgive him,--only that he would not be forgiven. If he would have
+spoken one soft word to her, she would have accepted that one word as
+an apology; but no such word came. He sat opposite to her at dinner,
+drinking his wine and feeding his dog; but he was no more gracious to
+her at this dinner than he had been on any former day. She sat there
+pretending to eat, speaking a dull word now and then, to which his
+answer was a monosyllable, looking out at him from under her eyes,
+through the candlelight, to see whether any feeling was moving him;
+and then having pretended to eat a couple of strawberries she left
+him to himself. Still, however, this was not the last. There would
+come some moment for an embrace,--for some cold half-embrace, in
+which he would be forced to utter something of a farewell.
+
+He, when he was left alone, first turned his mind to the subject of
+Jack Stuart and his yacht. He had on that day received a letter from
+a noble friend,--a friend so noble that he was able to take liberties
+even with Sir Hugh Clavering,--in which his noble friend had told him
+that he was a fool to trust himself on so long an expedition in Jack
+Stuart's little boat. Jack, the noble friend said, knew nothing of
+the matter, and as for the masters who were hired for the sailing of
+such crafts, their only object was to keep out as long as possible,
+with an eye to their wages and perquisites. It might be all very well
+for Jack Stuart, who had nothing in the world to lose but his life
+and his yacht; but his noble friend thought that any such venture
+on the part of Sir Hugh was simply tomfoolery. But Sir Hugh was an
+obstinate man, and none of the Claverings were easily made afraid by
+personal danger. Jack Stuart might know nothing about the management
+of a boat, but Archie did. And as for the smallness of the craft,--he
+knew of a smaller craft which had been out on the Norway coast during
+the whole of the last season. So he drove that thought away from his
+mind, with no strong feelings of gratitude towards his noble friend.
+
+And then for a few moments he thought of his own home. What had his
+wife done for him, that he should put himself out of his way to do
+much for her? She had brought him no money. She had added nothing
+either by her wit, beauty, or rank to his position in the world.
+She had given him no heir. What had he received from her that he
+should endure her commonplace conversation, and washed-out, dowdy
+prettinesses? Perhaps some momentary feeling of compassion, some
+twang of conscience, came across his heart, as he thought of it all;
+but if so he checked it instantly, in accordance with the teachings
+of his whole life. He had made his reflections on all these things,
+and had tutored his mind to certain resolutions, and would not allow
+himself to be carried away by any womanly softness. She had her
+house, her carriage, her bed, her board, and her clothes; and seeing
+how very little she herself had contributed to the common fund, her
+husband determined that in having those things she had all that she
+had a right to claim. Then he drank a glass of sherry, and went into
+the drawing-room with that hard smile upon his face, which he was
+accustomed to wear when he intended to signify to his wife that
+she might as well make the best of existing things, and not cause
+unnecessary trouble, by giving herself airs or assuming that she was
+unhappy.
+
+He had his cup of coffee, and she had her cup of tea, and she made
+one or two little attempts at saying something special,--something
+that might lead to a word or two as to their parting; but he was
+careful and crafty, and she was awkward and timid,--and she failed.
+He had hardly been there an hour, when looking at his watch he
+declared that it was ten o'clock, and that he would go to bed. Well;
+perhaps it might be best to bring it to an end, and to go through
+this embrace, and have done with it! Any tender word that was to be
+spoken on either side, it was now clear to her, must be spoken in
+that last farewell. There was a tear in her eye as she rose to kiss
+him; but the tear was not there of her own good will, and she strove
+to get rid of it without his seeing it. As he spoke he also rose,
+and having lit for himself a bed-candle was ready to go. "Good-by,
+Hermy," he said, submitting himself, with the candle in his hand, to
+the inevitable embrace.
+
+"Good-by, Hugh; and God bless you," she said, putting her arms round
+his neck. "Pray,--pray take care of yourself."
+
+"All right," he said. His position with the candle was awkward, and
+he wished that it might be over.
+
+
+[Illustration: Husband and wife.]
+
+
+But she had a word prepared which she was determined to utter,--poor
+weak creature that she was. She still had her arm round his
+shoulders, so that he could not escape without shaking her off, and
+her forehead was almost resting on his bosom. "Hugh," she said, "you
+must not be angry with me for what I said to you."
+
+"Very well," said he;--"I won't."
+
+"And, Hugh," said she; "of course I can't like your going."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will," said he.
+
+"No;--I can't like it; but, Hugh, I will not think ill of it any
+more. Only be here as much as you can when you come home."
+
+"All right," said he; then he kissed her forehead and escaped from
+her, and went his way, telling himself, as he went, that she was a
+fool.
+
+That was the last he saw of her,--before his yachting commenced;
+but she,--poor fool,--was up by times in the morning, and, peeping
+out between her curtains as the early summer sun glanced upon her
+eyelids, saw him come forth from the porch and descend the great
+steps, and get into his dog-cart and drive himself away. Then, when
+the sound of the gig could be no longer heard, and when her eyes
+could no longer catch the last expiring speck of his hat, the poor
+fool took herself to bed again and cried herself to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS LAST ATTEMPT.
+
+
+The yachting scheme was first proposed to Archie by his brother Hugh.
+"Jack says that he can make a berth for you, and you'd better come,"
+said the elder brother, understanding that when his edict had thus
+gone forth, the thing was as good as arranged. "Jack finds the boat
+and men, and I find the grub and wine,--and pay for the fishing,"
+said Hugh; "so you need not make any bones about it." Archie was not
+disposed to make any bones about it as regarded his acceptance either
+of the berth or of the grub and wine, and as he would be expected to
+earn his passage by his work, there was no necessity for any scruple;
+but there arose the question whether he had not got more important
+fish to fry. He had not as yet made his proposal to Lady Ongar, and
+although he now knew that he had nothing to hope from the Russian
+spy,--nevertheless he thought that he might as well try his own hand
+at the venture. His resolution on this head was always stronger after
+dinner than before, and generally became stronger and more strong
+as the evening advanced;--so that he usually went to bed with a
+firm determination "to pop," as he called it to his friend Doodles,
+early on the next day; but distance affected him as well as the hour
+of the day, and his purpose would become surprisingly cool in the
+neighbourhood of Bolton Street. When, however, his brother suggested
+that he should be taken altogether away from the scene of action, he
+thought of the fine income and of Ongar Park with pangs of regret,
+and ventured upon a mild remonstrance. "But there's this affair of
+Julia, you know," said he.
+
+"I thought that was all off," said Hugh.
+
+"O dear, no; not off at all. I haven't asked her yet."
+
+"I know you've not; and I don't suppose you ever will."
+
+"Yes, I shall;--that is to say, I mean it. I was advised not to be
+in too much of a hurry; that is to say, I thought it best to let her
+settle down a little after her first seeing me."
+
+"To recover from her confusion?"
+
+"Well, not exactly that. I don't suppose she was confused."
+
+"I should say not. My idea is that you haven't a ghost of chance, and
+that as you haven't done anything all this time, you need not trouble
+yourself now."
+
+"But I have done something," said Archie, thinking of his seventy
+pounds.
+
+"You may as well give it up, for she means to marry Harry."
+
+"No!"
+
+"But I tell you she does. While you've been thinking he's been doing.
+From what I hear he may have her to-morrow for the asking."
+
+"But he's engaged to that girl whom they had with them down at the
+rectory," said Archie, in a tone which showed with what horror he
+should regard any inconstancy towards Florence Burton on the part of
+Harry Clavering.
+
+"What does that matter? You don't suppose he'll let seven thousand
+a year slip through his fingers because he had promised to marry a
+little girl like her? If her people choose to proceed against him
+they'll make him pay swinging damages; that is all."
+
+Archie did not like this idea at all, and became more than ever
+intent on his own matrimonial prospects. He almost thought that he
+had a right to Lady Ongar's money, and he certainly did think that
+a monstrous injustice was done to him by this idea of a marriage
+between her and his cousin. "I mean to ask her as I've gone so far,
+certainly," said he.
+
+"You can do as you like about that."
+
+"Yes; of course I can do as I like; but when a fellow has gone in for
+a thing, he likes to see it through." He was still thinking of the
+seventy pounds which he had invested, and which he could now recover
+only out of Lady Ongar's pocket.
+
+"And you mean to say you won't come to Norway?"
+
+"Well; if she accepts me--"
+
+"If she accepts you," said Hugh, "of course you can't come; but
+supposing she don't?"
+
+"In that case, I might as well do that as anything else," said
+Archie. Whereupon Sir Hugh signified to Jack Stuart that Archie would
+join the party, and went down to Clavering with no misgiving on that
+head.
+
+Some few days after this there was another little dinner at the
+military club, to which no one was admitted but Archie and his friend
+Doodles. Whenever these prandial consultations were held, Archie
+paid the bill. There were no spoken terms to that effect, but the
+regulation seemed to come naturally to both of them. Why should
+Doodles be taken from his billiards half-an-hour earlier than usual,
+and devote a portion of the calculating powers of his brain to
+Archie's service without compensation? And a richer vintage was
+needed when so much thought was required, the burden of which Archie
+would not of course allow to fall on his friend's shoulders. Were
+not this explained, the experienced reader would regard the devoted
+friendship of Doodles as exaggerated.
+
+"I certainly shall ask her to-morrow," said Archie, looking with
+a thoughtful cast of countenance through the club window into the
+street. "It may be hurrying the matter a little, but I can't help
+that." He spoke in a somewhat boastful tone, as though he were proud
+of himself and had forgotten that he had said the same words once or
+twice before.
+
+"Make her know that you're there; that's everything," said Doodles.
+"Since I fathomed that woman in Mount Street, I've felt that you must
+make the score off your own bat, if you're to make it at all."
+
+"You did that well," said Archie, who knew that the amount of
+pleasing encouragement which he might hope to get from his friend,
+must depend on the praise which he himself should bestow. "Yes; you
+certainly did bowl her over uncommon well."
+
+"That kind of thing just comes within my line," said Doodles, with
+conscious pride. "Now, as to asking Lady Ongar downright to marry
+me,--upon my word I believe I should be half afraid of doing it
+myself."
+
+"I've none of that kind of feeling," said Archie.
+
+"It comes more in your way, I daresay," said Doodles. "But for me,
+what I like is a little bit of management,--what I call a touch of
+the diplomatic. You'll be able to see her to-morrow?"
+
+"I hope so. I shall go early,--that is, as soon as I've looked
+through the papers and written a few letters. Yes, I think she'll see
+me. And as for what Hugh says about Harry Clavering, why, d---- it,
+you know, a fellow can't go on in that way; can he?"
+
+"Because of the other girl, you mean?"
+
+"He has had her down among all our people, just as though they were
+going to be married to-morrow. If a man is to do that kind of thing,
+what woman can be safe?"
+
+"I wonder whether she likes him?" asked the crafty Doodles.
+
+"She did like him, I fancy, in her calf days; but that means nothing.
+She knows what she's at now, bless you, and she'll look to the
+future. It's my son who'll have the Clavering property and be the
+baronet, not his. You see what a string to my bow that is."
+
+When this banquet was over, Doodles made something of a resolution
+that it should be the last to be eaten on that subject. The matter
+had lost its novelty, and the price paid to him was not sufficient to
+secure his attention any longer. "I shall be here to-morrow at four,"
+he said, as he rose from his chair with the view of retreating to the
+smoking-room, "and then we shall know all about it. Whichever way
+it's to be, it isn't worth your while keeping such a thing as that
+in hand any longer. I should say give her her chance to-morrow, and
+then have done with it." Archie in reply to this declared that those
+were exactly his sentiments, and then went away to prepare himself in
+silence and solitude for the next day's work.
+
+On the following day at two o'clock Lady Ongar was sitting alone
+in the front room on the ground-floor in Bolton Street. Of Harry
+Clavering's illness she had as yet heard nothing, nor of his absence
+from London. She had not seen him since he had parted from her on
+that evening when he had asked her to be his wife, and the last words
+she had heard from his lips had made this request. She, indeed, had
+then bade him be true to her rival,--to Florence Burton. She had told
+him this in spite of her love,--of her love for him and of his for
+her. They two, she had said, could not now become man and wife;--but
+he had not acknowledged the truth of what she had said. She could
+not write to him. She could make no overtures. She could ask no
+questions. She had no friend in whom she could place confidence. She
+could only wait for him, till he should come to her or send to her,
+and let her know what was to be her fate.
+
+As she now sat she held a letter in her hand which had just
+been brought to her from Sophie,--from her poor, famished, but
+indefatigable Sophie. Sophie she had not seen since they had parted
+on the railway platform, and then the parting was supposed to be made
+in lasting enmity. Desolate as she was, she had congratulated herself
+much on her escape from Sophie's friendship, and was driven by no
+qualms of her heart to long for a renewal of the old ties. But it was
+not so with the more affectionate Sophie; and Sophie therefore had
+written,--as follows:--
+
+
+   Mount Street--Friday morning.
+
+   DEAREST DEAREST JULIE,--My heart is so sad that I cannot
+   keep my silence longer. What; can such friendship as ours
+   has been be made to die all in a minute? Oh, no;--not
+   at least in my bosom, which is filled with love for my
+   Julie. And my Julie will not turn from her friend, who
+   has been so true to her,--ah, at such moments too,--oh,
+   yes, at such moments!--just for an angry word, or a little
+   indiscretion. What was it after all about my brother?
+   Bah! He is a fool; that is all. If you shall wish it,
+   I will never speak to him again. What is my brother to
+   me, compared to my Julie? My brother is nothing to me. I
+   tell him we go to that accursed island,--accursed island
+   because my Julie has quarrelled with me there,--and he
+   arranges himself to follow us. What could I do? I could
+   not tie him up by the leg in his London club. He is a man
+   whom no one can tie up by the leg. Mon Dieu, no. He is
+   very hard to tie up.
+
+   Do I wish him for your husband? Never! Why should I wish
+   him for your husband? If I was a man, my Julie, I should
+   wish you for myself. But I am not, and why should you not
+   have him whom you like the best? If I was you, with your
+   beauty and money and youth, I would have any man that
+   I liked,--everything. I know, of course,--for did I not
+   see? It is that young Clavering to whom your little
+   heart wishes to render itself;--not the captain who is a
+   fool,--such a fool! but the other who is not a fool, but
+   a fine fellow;--and so handsome! Yes; there is no doubt
+   as to that. He is beautiful as a Phoebus. [This was
+   good-natured on the part of Sophie, who, as the reader may
+   remember, hated Harry Clavering herself.]
+
+   Well,--why should he not be your own? As for your poor
+   Sophie, she would do all in her power to assist the friend
+   whom she love. There is that little girl,--yes; it is
+   true as I told you. But little girls cannot have all they
+   want always. He is a gay deceiver. These men who are so
+   beautiful as Phoebus are always deceivers. But you need
+   not be the one deceived;--you with your money and your
+   beauty and your--what you call rank. No, I think not; and
+   I think that little girl must put up with it, as other
+   little girls have done, since the men first learned how to
+   tell lies. That is my advice, and if you will let me I can
+   give you good assistance.
+
+   Dearest Julie, think of all this, and do not banish your
+   Sophie. I am so true to you, that I cannot live without
+   you. Send me back one word of permission, and I will come
+   to you, and kneel at your feet. And in the meantime, I am
+
+   Your most devoted friend,
+
+   SOPHIE.
+
+
+Lady Ongar, on the receipt of this letter, was not at all changed in
+her purpose with reference to Madame Gordeloup. She knew well enough
+where her Sophie's heart was placed, and would yield to no further
+pressure from that quarter; but Sophie's reasoning, nevertheless, had
+its effect. She, Lady Ongar, with her youth, her beauty, her wealth,
+and her rank, why should she not have that one thing which alone
+could make her happy, seeing, as she did see, or as she thought she
+saw, that in making herself happy she could do so much, could confer
+such great blessings on him she loved? She had already found that the
+money she had received as the price of herself had done very little
+towards making her happy in her present state. What good was it to
+her that she had a carriage and horses and two footmen six feet high?
+One pleasant word from lips that she could love,--from the lips of
+man or woman that she could esteem,--would be worth it all. She had
+gone down to her pleasant place in the country,--a place so pleasant
+that it had a fame of its own among the luxuriantly pleasant seats of
+the English country gentry; she had gone there, expecting to be happy
+in the mere feeling that it was all her own; and the whole thing had
+been to her so unutterably sad, so wretched in the severity of its
+desolation, that she had been unable to endure her life amidst the
+shade of her own trees. All her apples hitherto had turned to ashes
+between her teeth, because her fate had forced her to attempt the
+eating of them alone. But if she could give the fruit to him,--if she
+could make the apples over, so that they should all be his, and not
+hers, then would there not come to her some of the sweetness of the
+juice of them?
+
+She declared to herself that she would not tempt this man to be
+untrue to his troth, were it not that in doing so she would so
+greatly benefit himself. Was it not manifest that Harry Clavering was
+a gentleman, qualified to shine among men of rank and fashion, but
+not qualified to make his way by his own diligence? In saying this of
+him, she did not know how heavy was the accusation that she brought
+against him; but what woman, within her own breast, accuses the
+man she loves? Were he to marry Florence Burton, would he not ruin
+himself, and probably ruin her also? But she could give him all that
+he wanted. Though Ongar Park to her alone was, with its rich pastures
+and spreading oaks and lowing cattle, desolate as the Dead Sea shore,
+for him,--and for her with him,--would it not be the very paradise
+suited to them? Would it not be the heaven in which such a Phoebus
+should shine amidst the gyrations of his satellites? A Phoebus
+going about his own field in knickerbockers, and with attendant
+satellites, would possess a divinity which, as she thought, might
+make her happy. As she thought of all this, and asked herself these
+questions, there was an inner conscience which told her that she
+had no right to Harry's love or Harry's hand; but still she could
+not cease to long that good things might come to her, though those
+good things had not been deserved. Alas, good things not deserved
+too often lose their goodness when they come! As she was sitting
+with Sophie's letter in her hand the door was opened, and Captain
+Clavering was announced.
+
+Captain Archibald Clavering was again dressed in his very best, but
+he did not even yet show by his demeanour that aptitude for the
+business now in hand of which he had boasted on the previous evening
+to his friend. Lady Ongar, I think, partly guessed the object of
+his visit. She had perceived, or perhaps had unconsciously felt, on
+the occasion of his former coming, that the visit had not been made
+simply from motives of civility. She had known Archie in old days,
+and was aware that the splendour of his vestments had a significance.
+Well, if anything of that kind was to be done, the sooner it was done
+the better.
+
+"Julia," he said, as soon as he was seated, "I hope I have the
+pleasure of seeing you quite well?"
+
+"Pretty well, I thank you," said she.
+
+"You have been out of town, I think?" She told him that she had been
+in the Isle of Wight for a day or two, and then there was a short
+silence. "When I heard that you were gone," he said, "I feared that
+perhaps you were ill!"
+
+"O dear, no; nothing of that sort."
+
+"I am so glad," said Archie; and then he was silent again. He had,
+however, as he was aware, thrown a great deal of expression into his
+inquiries after her health, and he had now to calculate how he could
+best use the standing-ground that he had made for himself.
+
+"Have you seen my sister lately?" she asked.
+
+"Your sister? no. She is always at Clavering. I think it doosed wrong
+of Hugh, the way he goes on, keeping her down there, while he is up
+here in London. It isn't at all my idea of what a husband ought to
+do."
+
+"I suppose she likes it," said Lady Ongar.
+
+"Oh, if she likes it, that's a different thing, of course," said
+Archie. Then there was another pause.
+
+"Don't you find yourself rather lonely here sometimes?" he asked.
+
+Lady Ongar felt that it would be better for all parties that it
+should be over, and that it would not be over soon unless she could
+help him. "Very lonely indeed," she said; "but then I suppose that it
+is the fate of widows to be lonely."
+
+"I don't see that at all," said Archie, briskly; "--unless they are
+old and ugly, and that kind of thing. When a widow has become a widow
+after she has been married ever so many years, why then I suppose she
+looks to be left alone; and I suppose they like it."
+
+"Indeed, I can't say. I don't like it."
+
+"Then you would wish to change?"
+
+"It is a very intricate subject, Captain Clavering, and one which I
+do not think I am quite disposed to discuss at present. After a year
+or two, perhaps I shall go into society again. Most widows do, I
+believe."
+
+"But I was thinking of something else," said Archie, working himself
+up to the point with great energy, but still with many signs that he
+was ill at ease at his work. "I was, by Jove!"
+
+"And of what were you thinking, Captain Clavering?"
+
+"I was thinking,--of course you know, Julia, that since poor little
+Hughy's death, I am the next in for the title?"
+
+"Poor Hughy! I'm sure you are too generous to rejoice at that."
+
+"Indeed I am. When two fellows offered me a dinner at the club on the
+score of my chances, I wouldn't have it. But there's the fact;--isn't
+it?"
+
+"There is no doubt of that, I believe."
+
+"None on earth; and the most of it is entailed, too; not that Hugh
+would leave an acre away from the title. I'm as safe as wax as far
+as that is concerned. I don't suppose he ever borrowed a shilling or
+mortgaged an acre in his life."
+
+"I should think he was a prudent man."
+
+"We are both of us prudent. I will say that of myself, though I
+oughtn't to say it. And now, Julia,--a few words are the best after
+all. Look here,--if you'll take me just as I am, I'm blessed if I
+shan't be the happiest fellow in all London. I shall indeed. I've
+always been uncommon fond of you, though I never said anything about
+it in the old days, because,--because you see, what's the use of a
+man asking a girl to marry him if they haven't got a farthing between
+them. I think it's wrong; I do indeed; but it's different now, you
+know." It certainly was very different now.
+
+"Captain Clavering," she said, "I'm sorry you should have troubled
+yourself with such an idea as this."
+
+"Don't say that, Julia. It's no trouble; it's a pleasure."
+
+"But such a thing as you mean never can take place."
+
+"Yes, it can. Why can't it? I ain't in a hurry. I'll wait your own
+time, and do just whatever you wish all the while. Don't say no
+without thinking about it, Julia."
+
+"It is one of those things, Captain Clavering, which want no more
+thinking than what a woman can give to it at the first moment."
+
+"Ah,--you think so now, because you're surprised a little."
+
+"Well; I am surprised a little, as our previous intercourse was never
+of a nature to make such a proposition as this at all probable."
+
+"That was merely because I didn't think it right," said Archie, who,
+now that he had worked himself into the vein, liked the sound of his
+own voice. "It was indeed."
+
+"And I don't think it right now. You must listen to me for a moment,
+Captain Clavering--for fear of a mistake. Believe me, any such plan
+as this is quite out of the question;--quite." In uttering that last
+word she managed to use a tone of voice which did make an impression
+on him. "I never can, under any circumstances, become your wife. You
+might as well look upon that as altogether decided, because it will
+save us both annoyance."
+
+"You needn't be so sure yet, Julia."
+
+"Yes, I must be sure. And unless you will promise me to drop the
+matter, I must,--to protect myself,--desire my servants not to admit
+you into the house again. I shall be sorry to do that, and I think
+you will save me from the necessity."
+
+He did save her from that necessity, and before he went he gave her
+the required promise. "That's well," said she, tendering him her
+hand; "and now we shall part friends."
+
+"I shall like to be friends," said he, in a crestfallen voice, and
+with that he took his leave. It was a great comfort to him that he
+had the scheme of Jack Stuart's yacht and the trip to Norway for his
+immediate consolation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+WHAT LADY ONGAR THOUGHT ABOUT IT.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Mrs. Burton, it may perhaps be remembered, had formed in her heart
+a scheme of her own--a scheme of which she thought with much
+trepidation, and in which she could not request her husband's
+assistance, knowing well that he would not only not assist it, but
+that he would altogether disapprove of it. But yet she could not put
+it aside from her thoughts, believing that it might be the means of
+bringing Harry Clavering and Florence together. Her husband had now
+thoroughly condemned poor Harry, and had passed sentence against
+him,--not indeed openly to Florence herself, but very often in
+the hearing of his wife. Cecilia, womanlike, was more angry with
+circumstances than with the offending man,--with circumstances and
+with the woman who stood in Florence's way. She was perfectly willing
+to forgive Harry, if Harry could only be made to go right at last. He
+was good-looking and pleasant, and had nice ways in a house, and was
+altogether too valuable as a lover to be lost without many struggles.
+So she kept to her scheme, and at last she carried it into execution.
+
+She started alone from her house one morning, and getting into an
+omnibus at Brompton had herself put down on the rising ground in
+Piccadilly, opposite to the Green Park. Why she had hesitated to tell
+the omnibus-man to stop at Bolton Street can hardly be explained; but
+she had felt that there would be almost a declaration of guilt in
+naming that locality. So she got out on the little hill, and walked
+up in front of the Prime Minister's house,--as it was then,--and of
+the yellow palace built by one of our merchant princes, and turned
+into the street that was all but interdicted to her by her own
+conscience. She turned up Bolton Street, and with a trembling hand
+knocked at Lady Ongar's door.
+
+Florence in the meantime was sitting alone in Onslow Terrace. She
+knew now that Harry was ill at Clavering,--that he was indeed very
+ill, though Mrs. Clavering had assured her that his illness was not
+dangerous. For Mrs. Clavering had written to herself,--addressing
+her with all the old familiarity and affection,--with a warmth of
+affection that was almost more than natural. It was clear that Mrs.
+Clavering knew nothing of Harry's sins. Or, might it not be possible,
+Cecilia had suggested, that Mrs. Clavering might have known, and have
+resolved potentially that those sins should be banished, and become
+ground for some beautifully sincere repentance? Ah, how sweet it
+would be to receive that wicked sheep back again into the sheepfold,
+and then to dock him a little of his wandering powers, to fix him
+with some pleasant clog, to tie him down as a prudent domestic sheep
+should be tied, and make him the pride of the flock! But all this
+had been part of Cecilia's scheme, and of that scheme poor Florence
+knew nothing. According to Florence's view Mrs. Clavering's letter
+was written under a mistake. Harry had kept his secret at home,
+and intended to keep it for the present. But there was the letter,
+and Florence felt that it was impossible for her to answer it
+without telling the whole truth. It was very painful to her to leave
+unanswered so kind a letter as that, and it was quite impossible that
+she should write of Harry in the old strain. "It will be best that I
+should tell her the whole," Florence had said, "and then I shall be
+saved the pain of any direct communication with him." Her brother, to
+whom Cecilia had repeated this, applauded his sister's resolution.
+"Let her face it and bear it, and live it down," he had said. "Let
+her do it at once, so that all this maudlin sentimentality may be at
+an end." But Cecilia would not accede to this, and as Florence was
+in truth resolved, and had declared her purpose plainly, Cecilia
+was driven to the execution of her scheme more quickly than she had
+intended. In the meantime, Florence took out her little desk and
+wrote her letter. In tears and an agony of spirit which none can
+understand but women who have been driven to do the same, was it
+written. Could she have allowed herself to express her thoughts with
+passion, it would have been comparatively easy; but it behoved her to
+be calm, to be very quiet in her words,--almost reticent even in the
+language which she chose, and to abandon her claim not only without a
+reproach, but almost without an allusion to her love. Whilst Cecilia
+was away, the letter was written, and re-written and copied; but Mrs.
+Burton was safe in this, that her sister-in-law had promised that the
+letter should not be sent till she had seen it.
+
+Mrs. Burton, when she knocked at Lady Ongar's door, had a little note
+ready for the servant between her fingers. Her compliments to Lady
+Ongar, and would Lady Ongar oblige her by an interview. The note
+contained simply that, and nothing more; and when the servant took it
+from her, she declared her intention of waiting in the hall till she
+had received an answer. But she was shown into the dining-room, and
+there she remained for a quarter of an hour, during which time she
+was by no means comfortable. Probably Lady Ongar might refuse to
+receive her; but should that not be the case,--should she succeed in
+making her way into that lady's presence, how should she find the
+eloquence wherewith to plead her cause? At the end of the fifteen
+minutes, Lady Ongar herself opened the door and entered the room.
+"Mrs. Burton," she said, smiling, "I am really ashamed to have kept
+you so long; but open confession, they say, is good for the soul, and
+the truth is that I was not dressed." Then she led the way upstairs,
+and placed Mrs. Burton on a sofa, and placed herself in her own
+chair,--from whence she could see well, but in which she could not
+be well seen,--and stretched out the folds of her morning dress
+gracefully, and made her visitor thoroughly understand that she was
+at home and at her ease.
+
+We may, I think, surmise that Lady Ongar's open confession would do
+her soul but little good, as it lacked truth, which is the first
+requisite for all confessions. Lady Ongar had been sufficiently
+dressed to receive any visitor, but had felt that some special
+preparation was necessary for the reception of the one who had
+now come to her. She knew well who was Mrs. Burton, and surmised
+accurately the purpose for which Mrs. Burton had come. Upon the
+manner in which she now carried herself might hang the decision of
+the question which was so important to her,--whether that Phoebus
+in knickerbockers should or should not become lord of Ongar Park.
+To effect success now, she must maintain an ascendancy during this
+coming interview, and in the maintenance of all ascendancy, much
+depends on the outward man or woman; and she must think a little of
+the words she must use, and a little, too, of her own purpose. She
+was fully minded to get the better of Mrs. Burton if that might be
+possible, but she was not altogether decided on the other point. She
+wished that Harry Clavering might be her own. She would have wished
+to pension off that Florence Burton with half her wealth, had such
+pensioning been possible. But not the less did she entertain some
+half doubts whether it would not be well that she could abandon her
+own wishes, and give up her own hope of happiness. Of Mrs. Burton
+personally she had known nothing, and having expected to see a
+somewhat strong-featured and perhaps rather vulgar woman, and to hear
+a voice painfully indicative of a strong mind, she was agreeably
+surprised to find a pretty, mild lady, who from the first showed that
+she was half afraid of what she herself was doing. "I have heard your
+name, Mrs. Burton," said Lady Ongar, "from our mutual friend, Mr.
+Clavering, and I have no doubt you have heard mine from him also."
+This she said in accordance with the little plan which during those
+fifteen minutes she had laid down for her own guidance.
+
+Mrs. Burton was surprised, and at first almost silenced, by this
+open mentioning of a name which she had felt that she would have
+the greatest difficulty in approaching. She said, however, that it
+was so. She had heard Lady Ongar's name from Mr. Clavering. "We are
+connected, you know," said Lady Ongar. "My sister is married to
+his first-cousin, Sir Hugh; and when I was living with my sister
+at Clavering, he was at the rectory there. That was before my own
+marriage." She was perfectly easy in her manner, and flattered
+herself that the ascendancy was complete.
+
+"I have heard as much from Mr. Clavering," said Cecilia.
+
+"And he was very civil to me immediately on my return home. Perhaps
+you may have heard that also. He took this house for me, and made
+himself generally useful, as young men ought to do. I believe he is
+in the same office with your husband; is he not? I hope I may not
+have been the means of making him idle?"
+
+This was all very well and very pretty, but Mrs. Burton was already
+beginning to feel that she was doing nothing towards the achievement
+of her purpose. "I suppose he has been idle," she said, "but I did
+not mean to trouble you about that." Upon hearing this, Lady Ongar
+smiled. This supposition that she had really intended to animadvert
+upon Harry Clavering's idleness was amusing to her as she remembered
+how little such idleness would signify if she could only have her
+way.
+
+"Poor Harry!" she said. "I supposed his sins would be laid at my
+door. But my idea is, you know, that he never will do any good at
+such work as that."
+
+"Perhaps not;--that is, I really can't say. I don't think Mr. Burton
+has ever expressed any such opinion; and if he had--"
+
+"If he had, you wouldn't mention it."
+
+"I don't suppose I should, Lady Ongar;--not to a stranger."
+
+"Harry Clavering and I are not strangers," said Lady Ongar, changing
+the tone of her voice altogether as she spoke.
+
+"No; I know that. You have known him longer than we have. I am aware
+of that."
+
+"Yes; before he ever dreamed of going into your husband's business,
+Mrs. Burton; long before he had ever been to--Stratton."
+
+The name of Stratton was an assistance to Cecilia, and seemed to
+have been spoken with the view of enabling her to commence her work.
+"Yes," she said, "but nevertheless he did go to Stratton. He went
+to Stratton, and there he became acquainted with my sister-in-law,
+Florence Burton."
+
+"I am aware of it, Mrs. Burton."
+
+"And he also became engaged to her."
+
+"I am aware of that too. He has told me as much himself."
+
+"And has he told you whether he means to keep, or to break that
+engagement?"
+
+"Ah, Mrs. Burton, is that question fair? Is it fair either to him, or
+to me? If he has taken me into his confidence and has not taken you,
+should I be doing well to betray him? Or if there can be anything in
+such a secret specially interesting to myself, why should I be made
+to tell it to you?"
+
+"I think the truth is always the best, Lady Ongar."
+
+"Truth is always better than a lie;--so at least people say, though
+they sometimes act differently; but silence may be better than
+either."
+
+"This is a matter, Lady Ongar, in which I cannot be silent. I hope
+you will not be angry with me for coming to you,--or for asking you
+these questions--"
+
+"O dear, no."
+
+"But I cannot be silent. My sister-in-law must at any rate know what
+is to be her fate."
+
+"Then why do you not ask him?"
+
+"He is ill at present."
+
+"Ill! Where is he ill? Who says he is ill?" And Lady Ongar, though
+she did not quite leave her chair, raised herself up and forgot all
+her preparations. "Where is he, Mrs. Burton? I have not heard of his
+illness."
+
+"He is at Clavering;--at the parsonage."
+
+"I have heard nothing of this. What ails him? If he be really ill,
+dangerously ill, I conjure you to tell me. But pray tell me the
+truth. Let there be no tricks in such a matter as this."
+
+"Tricks, Lady Ongar!"
+
+"If Harry Clavering be ill, tell me what ails him. Is he in danger?"
+
+"His mother in writing to Florence says that he is not in danger; but
+that he is confined to the house. He has been taken by some fever."
+On that very morning Lady Ongar had received a letter from her
+sister, begging her to come to Clavering Park during the absence
+of Sir Hugh; but in the letter no word had been said as to Harry's
+illness. Had he been seriously, or at least dangerously ill, Hermione
+would certainly have mentioned it. All this flashed across Julia's
+mind as these tidings about Harry reached her. If he were not really
+in danger, or even if he were, why should she betray her feeling
+before this woman? "If there had been much in it," she said, resuming
+her former position and manners, "I should no doubt have heard of it
+from my sister."
+
+"We hear that it is not dangerous," continued Mrs. Burton; "but he is
+away, and we cannot see him. And, in truth, Lady Ongar, we cannot see
+him any more until we know that he means to deal honestly by us."
+
+"Am I the keeper of his honesty?"
+
+"From what I have heard, I think you are. If you will tell me
+that I have heard falsely, I will go away and beg your pardon for
+my intrusion. But if what I have heard be true, you must not be
+surprised that I show this anxiety for the happiness of my sister. If
+you knew her, Lady Ongar, you would know that she is too good to be
+thrown aside with indifference."
+
+"Harry Clavering tells me that she is an angel,--that she is
+perfect."
+
+"And if he loves her, will it not be a shame that they should be
+parted?"
+
+"I said nothing about his loving her. Men are not always fond of
+perfection. The angels may be too angelic for this world."
+
+"He did love her."
+
+"So I suppose;--or at any rate he thought that he did."
+
+"He did love her, and I believe he loves her still."
+
+"He has my leave to do so, Mrs. Burton."
+
+Cecilia, though she was somewhat afraid of the task which she had
+undertaken, and was partly awed by Lady Ongar's style of beauty and
+demeanour, nevertheless felt that if she still hoped to do any good,
+she must speak the truth out at once. She must ask Lady Ongar whether
+she held herself to be engaged to Harry Clavering. If she did not do
+this, nothing could come of the present interview.
+
+"You say that, Lady Ongar, but do you mean it?" she asked. "We have
+been told that you also are engaged to marry Mr. Clavering."
+
+"Who has told you so?"
+
+"We have heard it. I have heard it, and have been obliged to tell my
+sister that I had done so."
+
+"And who told you? Did you hear it from Harry Clavering himself?"
+
+"I did. I heard it in part from him."
+
+"Then why have you come beyond him to me? He must know. If he has
+told you that he is engaged to marry me, he must also have told you
+that he does not intend to marry Miss Florence Burton. It is not for
+me to defend him or to accuse him. Why do you come to me?"
+
+"For mercy and forbearance," said Mrs. Burton, rising from her seat
+and coming over to the side of the room in which Lady Ongar was
+seated.
+
+
+[Illustration: A plea for mercy.]
+
+
+"And Miss Burton has sent you?"
+
+"No; she does not know that I am here; nor does my husband know it.
+No one knows it. I have come to tell you that before God this man is
+engaged to become the husband of Florence Burton. She has learned to
+love him, and has now no other chance of happiness."
+
+"But what of his happiness?"
+
+"Yes; we are bound to think of that. Florence is bound to think of
+that above all things."
+
+"And so am I. I love him too;--as fondly, perhaps, as she can do. I
+loved him first, before she had even heard his name."
+
+"But, Lady Ongar--"
+
+"Yes; you may ask the question if you will, and I will answer it
+truly." They were both standing now and confronting each other. "Or
+I will answer it without your asking it. I was false to him. I would
+not marry him because he was poor; and then I married another because
+he was rich. All that is true. But it does not make me love him the
+less now. I have loved him through it all. Yes; you are shocked, but
+it is true. I have loved him through it all. And what am I to do now,
+if he still loves me? I can give him wealth now."
+
+"Wealth will not make him happy."
+
+"It has not made me happy; but it may help to do so with him. But
+with me at any rate there can be no doubt. It is his happiness to
+which I am bound to look. Mrs. Burton, if I thought that I could make
+him happy, and if he would come to me, I would marry him to-morrow,
+though I broke your sister's heart by doing so. But if I felt that
+she could do so more than I, I would leave him to her, though I broke
+my own. I have spoken to you very openly. Will she say as much as
+that?"
+
+"She would act in that way. I do not know what she would say."
+
+"Then let her do so, and leave him to be the judge of his own
+happiness. Let her pledge herself that no reproaches shall come
+from her, and I will pledge myself equally. It was I who loved him
+first, and it is I who have brought him into this trouble. I owe him
+everything. Had I been true to him, he would never have thought of,
+never have seen, Miss Florence Burton."
+
+All that was, no doubt, true, but it did not touch the question of
+Florence's right. The fact on which Mrs. Burton wished to insist, if
+only she knew how, was this, that Florence had not sinned at all, and
+that Florence therefore ought not to bear any part of the punishment.
+It might be very true that Harry's fault was to be excused in part
+because of Lady Ongar's greater and primary fault;--but why should
+Florence be the scapegoat?
+
+"You should think of his honour as well as his happiness," said Mrs.
+Burton at last.
+
+"That is rather severe, Mrs. Burton, considering that it is said
+to me in my own house. Am I so low as that, that his honour will
+be tarnished if I become his wife?" But she, in saying this, was
+thinking of things of which Mrs. Burton knew nothing.
+
+"His honour will be tarnished," said she, "if he do not marry her
+whom he has promised to marry. He was welcomed by her father and
+mother to their house, and then he made himself master of her heart.
+But it was not his till he had asked for it, and had offered his own
+and his hand in return for it. Is he not bound to keep his promise?
+He cannot be bound to you after any such fashion as that. If you are
+solicitous for his welfare, you should know that if he would live
+with the reputation of a gentleman, there is only one course open to
+him."
+
+"It is the old story," said Lady Ongar; "the old story! Has not
+somebody said that the gods laugh at the perjuries of lovers? I do
+not know that men are inclined to be much more severe than the gods.
+These broken hearts are what women are doomed to bear."
+
+"And that is to be your answer to me, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"No; that is not my answer to you. That is the excuse that I make for
+Harry Clavering. My answer to you has been very explicit. Pardon me
+if I say that it has been more explicit than you had any right to
+expect. I have told you that I am prepared to take any step that may
+be most conducive to the happiness of the man whom I once injured,
+but whom I have always loved. I will do this, let it cost myself what
+it may; and I will do this let the cost to any other woman be what
+it may. You cannot expect that I should love another woman better
+than myself." She said this, still standing, not without something
+more than vehemence in her tone. In her voice, in her manner, and
+in her eye there was that which amounted almost to ferocity. She
+was declaring that some sacrifice must be made, and that she recked
+little whether it should be of herself or of another. As she would
+immolate herself without hesitation, if the necessity should exist,
+so would she see Florence Burton destroyed without a twinge of
+remorse, if the destruction of Florence would serve the purpose
+which she had in view. You and I, O reader, may feel that the man
+for whom all this was to be done was not worth the passion. He had
+proved himself to be very far from such worth. But the passion,
+nevertheless, was there, and the woman was honest in what she was
+saying.
+
+After this Mrs. Burton got herself out of the room as soon as she
+found an opening which allowed her to go. In making her farewell
+speech, she muttered some indistinct apology for the visit which she
+had been bold enough to make. "Not at all," said Lady Ongar. "You
+have been quite right;--you are fighting your battle for the friend
+you love bravely; and were it not that the cause of the battle must,
+I fear, separate us hereafter, I should be proud to know one who
+fights so well for her friends. And when all this is over and has
+been settled, in whatever way it may be settled, let Miss Burton know
+from me that I have been taught to hold her name and character in
+the highest possible esteem." Mrs. Burton made no attempt at further
+speech, but left the room with a low curtsey.
+
+Till she found herself out in the street, she was unable to think
+whether she had done most harm or most good by her visit to Bolton
+Street,--whether she had in any way served Florence, or whether she
+had simply confessed to Florence's rival the extent of her sister's
+misery. That Florence herself would feel the latter to be the case,
+when she should know it all, Mrs. Burton was well aware. Her own
+ears had tingled with shame as Harry Clavering had been discussed
+as a grand prize for which her sister was contending with another
+woman,--and contending with so small a chance of success. It was
+terrible to her that any woman dear to her should seem to seek for a
+man's love. And the audacity with which Lady Ongar had proclaimed her
+own feelings had been terrible also to Cecilia. She was aware that
+she was meddling with things which were foreign to her nature, and
+which would be odious to her husband. But yet, was not the battle
+worth fighting? It was not to be endured that Florence should seek
+after this thing; but, after all, the possession of the thing in
+question was the only earthly good that could give any comfort to
+poor Florence. Even Cecilia, with all her partiality for Harry,
+felt that he was not worth the struggle; but it was for her now to
+estimate him at the price which Florence might put upon him,--not at
+her own price.
+
+But she must tell Florence what had been done, and tell her on that
+very day of her meeting with Lady Ongar. In no other way could she
+stop that letter which she knew that Florence would have already
+written to Mrs. Clavering. And could she now tell Florence that there
+was ground for hope? Was it not the fact that Lady Ongar had spoken
+the simple and plain truth when she had said that Harry must be
+allowed to choose the course which appeared to him to be the best for
+him? It was hard, very hard, that it should be so. And was it not
+true also that men, as well as gods, excuse the perjuries of lovers?
+She wanted to have back Harry among them as one to be forgiven
+easily, to be petted much, and to be loved always; but, in spite
+of the softness of her woman's nature, she wished that he might be
+punished sorely if he did not so return. It was grievous to her that
+he should any longer have a choice in the matter. Heavens and earth!
+was he to be allowed to treat a woman as he had treated Florence, and
+was nothing to come of it? In spite both of gods and men, the thing
+was so grievous to Cecilia Burton, that she could not bring herself
+to acknowledge that it was possible. Such things had not been done in
+the world which she had known.
+
+She walked the whole way home to Brompton, and had hardly perfected
+any plan when she reached her own door. If only Florence would allow
+her to write the letter to Mrs. Clavering, perhaps something might be
+done in that way. So she entered the house prepared to tell the story
+of her morning's work.
+
+And she must tell it also to her husband in the evening! It had been
+hard to do the thing without his knowing of it beforehand; but it
+would be impossible to her to keep the thing a secret from him, now
+that it was done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+HOW TO DISPOSE OF A WIFE.
+
+
+When Sir Hugh came up to town there did not remain to him quite a
+week before the day on which he was to leave the coast of Essex in
+Jack Stuart's yacht for Norway, and he had a good deal to do in the
+meantime in the way of provisioning the boat. Fortnum and Mason, no
+doubt, would have done it all for him without any trouble on his
+part, but he was not a man to trust any Fortnum or any Mason as to
+the excellence of the article to be supplied, or as to the price. He
+desired to have good wine,--very good wine; but he did not desire to
+pay a very high price. No one knew better than Sir Hugh that good
+wine cannot be bought cheap,--but things may be costly and yet not
+dear; or they may be both. To such matters Sir Hugh was wont to pay
+very close attention himself. He had done something in that line
+before he left London, and immediately on his return he went to the
+work again, summoning Archie to his assistance, but never asking
+Archie's opinion,--as though Archie had been his head-butler.
+
+Immediately on his arrival in London he cross-questioned his brother
+as to his marriage prospects. "I suppose you are going with us?" Hugh
+said to Archie, as he caught him in the hall of the house in Berkeley
+Square on the morning after his arrival.
+
+"O dear, yes," said Archie. "I thought that was quite understood.
+I have been getting my traps together." The getting of his traps
+together had consisted in the ordering of a sailor's jacket with
+brass buttons, and three pair of white duck trousers.
+
+"All right," said Sir Hugh. "You had better come with me into the
+City this morning. I am going to Boxall's in Great Thames Street."
+
+"Are you going to breakfast here?" asked Archie.
+
+"No; you can come to me at the Union in about an hour. I suppose you
+have never plucked up courage to ask Julia to marry you?"
+
+"Yes, I did," said Archie.
+
+"And what answer did you get?" Archie had found himself obliged to
+repudiate with alacrity the attack upon his courage which his brother
+had so plainly made; but, beyond that, the subject was one which
+was not pleasing to him. "Well, what did she say to you?" asked his
+brother, who had no idea of sparing Archie's feelings in such a
+matter.
+
+"She said;--indeed I don't remember exactly what it was that she did
+say."
+
+"But she refused you?"
+
+"Yes;--she refused me. I think she wanted me to understand that I had
+come to her too soon after Ongar's death."
+
+"Then she must be an infernal hypocrite;--that's all." But of any
+hypocrisy in this matter the reader will acquit Lady Ongar, and will
+understand that Archie had merely lessened the severity of his own
+fall by a clever excuse. After that the two brothers went to Boxall's
+in the City, and Archie, having been kept fagging all day, was sent
+in the evening to dine by himself at his own club.
+
+Sir Hugh also was desirous of seeing Lady Ongar, and had caused his
+wife to say as much in that letter which she wrote to her sister. In
+this way an appointment had been made without any direct intercourse
+between Sir Hugh and his sister-in-law. They two had never met since
+the day on which Sir Hugh had given her away in Clavering Church.
+To Hugh Clavering, who was by no means a man of sentiment, this
+signified little or nothing. When Lady Ongar had returned a widow,
+and when evil stories against her had been rife, he had thought it
+expedient to have nothing to do with her. He did not himself care
+much about his sister-in-law's morals; but should his wife become
+much complicated with a sister damaged in character there might come
+of it trouble and annoyance. Therefore, he had resolved that Lady
+Ongar should be dropped. But during the last few months things had
+in some respects changed. The Courton people,--that is to say, Lord
+Ongar's family,--had given Hugh Clavering to understand that, having
+made inquiry, they were disposed to acquit Lady Ongar, and to declare
+their belief that she was subject to no censure. They did not wish
+themselves to know her, as no intimacy between them could now be
+pleasant; but they had felt it to be incumbent on them to say as much
+as that to Sir Hugh. Sir Hugh had not even told his wife, but he had
+twice suggested that Lady Ongar should be asked to Clavering Park. In
+answer to both these invitations, Lady Ongar had declined to go to
+Clavering Park.
+
+And now Sir Hugh had a commission on his hands from the same Courton
+people, which made it necessary that he should see his sister-in-law,
+and Julia had agreed to receive him. To him, who was very hard in
+such matters, the idea of his visit was not made disagreeable by any
+remembrance of his own harshness to the woman whom he was going to
+see. He cared nothing about that, and it had not occurred to him that
+she would care much. But, in truth, she did care very much, and when
+the hour was coming on which Sir Hugh was to appear, she thought
+much of the manner in which it would become her to receive him.
+He had condemned her in that matter as to which any condemnation
+is an insult to a woman; and he had so condemned her, being her
+brother-in-law and her only natural male friend. In her sorrow she
+should have been able to lean upon him; but from the first, without
+any inquiry, he had believed the worst of her, and had withdrawn from
+her altogether his support, when the slightest support from him would
+have been invaluable to her. Could she forgive this? Never; never!
+She was not a woman to wish to forgive such an offence. It was an
+offence which it would be despicable in her to forgive. Many had
+offended her, some had injured her, one or two had insulted her; but
+to her thinking, no one had so offended her, had so injured her, had
+so grossly insulted her, as he had done. In what way then would it
+become her to receive him? Before his arrival she had made up her
+mind on this subject, and had resolved that she would, at least, say
+no word of her own wrongs.
+
+"How do you do, Julia?" said Sir Hugh, walking into the room with a
+step which was perhaps unnaturally quick, and with his hand extended.
+Lady Ongar had thought of that too. She would give much to escape
+the touch of his hand, if it were possible; but she had told herself
+that she would best consult her own dignity by declaring no actual
+quarrel. So she put out her fingers and just touched his palm.
+
+"I hope Hermy is well?" she said.
+
+"Pretty well, thank you. She is rather lonely since she lost her poor
+little boy, and would be very glad if you would go to her."
+
+"I cannot do that; but if she would come to me I should be
+delighted."
+
+"You see it would not suit her to be in London so soon after Hughy's
+death."
+
+"I am not bound to London. I would go anywhere else,--except to
+Clavering."
+
+"You never go to Ongar Park, I am told."
+
+"I have been there."
+
+"But they say you do not intend to go again."
+
+"Not at present, certainly. Indeed, I do not suppose I shall ever go
+there. I do not like the place."
+
+"That's just what they have told me. It is about that--partly--that I
+want to speak to you. If you don't like the place, why shouldn't you
+sell your interest in it back to the family? They'd give you more
+than the value for it."
+
+"I do not know that I should care to sell it."
+
+"Why not, if you don't mean to use the house? I might as well
+explain at once what it is that has been said to me. John Courton,
+you know, is acting as guardian for the young earl, and they don't
+want to keep up so large a place as the Castle. Ongar Park would just
+suit Mrs. Courton,"--Mrs. Courton was the widowed mother of the young
+earl,--"and they would be very happy to buy your interest."
+
+"Would not such a proposition come best through a lawyer?" said Lady
+Ongar.
+
+"The fact is this,--they think they have been a little hard on you."
+
+"I have never accused them."
+
+"But they feel it themselves, and they think that you might take it
+perhaps amiss if they were to send you a simple message through an
+attorney. Courton told me that he would not have allowed any such
+proposition to be made, if you had seemed disposed to use the place.
+They wish to be civil, and all that kind of thing."
+
+"Their civility or incivility is indifferent to me," said Julia.
+
+"But why shouldn't you take the money?"
+
+"The money is equally indifferent to me."
+
+"You mean then to say that you won't listen to it? Of course they
+can't make you part with the place if you wish to keep it."
+
+"Not more than they can make you sell Clavering Park. I do not,
+however, wish to be uncivil, and I will let you know through my
+lawyer what I think about it. All such matters are best managed by
+lawyers."
+
+After that Sir Hugh said nothing further about Ongar Park. He was
+well aware, from the tone in which Lady Ongar answered him, that she
+was averse to talk to him on that subject; but he was not conscious
+that his presence was otherwise disagreeable to her, or that she
+would resent any interference from him on any subject because he
+had been cruel to her. So after a little while he began again about
+Hermione. As the world had determined upon acquitting Lady Ongar,
+it would be convenient to him that the two sisters should be again
+intimate, especially as Julia was a rich woman. His wife did not like
+Clavering Park, and he certainly did not like Clavering Park himself.
+If he could once get the house shut up, he might manage to keep it
+shut for some years to come. His wife was now no more than a burden
+to him, and it would suit him well to put off the burden on to his
+sister-in-law's shoulders. It was not that he intended to have his
+wife altogether dependent on another person, but he thought that if
+they two were established together, in the first instance merely as
+a summer arrangement, such establishment might be made to assume
+some permanence. This would be very pleasant to him. Of course he
+would pay a portion of the expense,--as small a portion as might be
+possible,--but such a portion as might enable him to live with credit
+before the world.
+
+"I wish I could think that you and Hermy might be together while I am
+absent," he said.
+
+"I shall be very happy to have her if she will come to me," Julia
+replied.
+
+"What,--here, in London? I am not quite sure that she wishes to come
+up to London at present."
+
+"I have never understood that she had any objection to being in
+town," said Lady Ongar.
+
+"Not formerly, certainly; but now, since her boy's death--"
+
+"Why should his death make more difference to her than to you?"
+To this question Sir Hugh made no reply. "If you are thinking of
+society, she could be nowhere safer from any such necessity than with
+me. I never go out anywhere. I have never dined out, or even spent an
+evening in company since Lord Ongar's death. And no one would come
+here to disturb her."
+
+"I didn't mean that."
+
+"I don't quite know what you did mean. From different causes she and
+I are left pretty nearly equally without friends."
+
+"Hermione is not left without friends," said Sir Hugh with a tone of
+offence.
+
+"Were she not, she would not want to come to me. Your society is
+in London, to which she does not come, or in other country-houses
+than your own, to which she is not taken. She lives altogether at
+Clavering, and there is no one there, except your uncle."
+
+"Whatever neighbourhood there is she has,--just like other women."
+
+"Just like some other women, no doubt. I shall remain in town for
+another month, and after that I shall go somewhere; I don't much care
+where. If Hermy will come to me as my guest I shall be most happy
+to have her. And the longer she will stay with me the better. Your
+coming home need make no difference, I suppose."
+
+There was a keenness of reproach in her tone as she spoke, which even
+he could not but feel and acknowledge. He was very thick-skinned
+to such reproaches, and would have left this unnoticed had it been
+possible. Had she continued speaking he would have done so. But she
+remained silent, and sat looking at him, saying with her eyes the
+same thing that she had already spoken with her words. Thus he was
+driven to speak. "I don't know," said he, "whether you intend that
+for a sneer."
+
+She was perfectly indifferent whether or no she offended him. Only
+that she had believed that the maintenance of her own dignity forbade
+it, she would have openly rebuked him, and told him that he was not
+welcome in her house. No treatment from her could, as she thought,
+be worse than he had deserved from her. His first enmity had injured
+her, but she could afford to laugh at his present anger. "It is hard
+to talk to you about Hermy without what you are pleased to call a
+sneer. You simply wish to rid yourself of her."
+
+"I wish no such thing, and you have no right to say so."
+
+"At any rate you are ridding yourself of her society; and if under
+those circumstances she likes to come to me I shall be glad to
+receive her. Our life together will not be very cheerful, but neither
+she nor I ought to expect a cheerful life."
+
+He rose from his chair now with a cloud of anger upon his brow. "I
+can see how it is," said he; "because everything has not gone smooth
+with yourself you choose to resent it upon me. I might have expected
+that you would not have forgotten in whose house you met Lord Ongar."
+
+"No, Hugh; I forget nothing; neither when I met him, nor how I
+married him, nor any of the events that have happened since. My
+memory, unfortunately, is very good."
+
+"I did all I could for you, and should have been safe from your
+insolence."
+
+"You should have continued to stay away from me, and you would have
+been quite safe. But our quarrelling in this way is foolish. We can
+never be friends,--you and I; but we need not be open enemies. Your
+wife is my sister, and I say again that if she likes to come to me,
+I shall be delighted to have her."
+
+"My wife," said he, "will go to the house of no person who is
+insolent to me." Then he took his hat, and left the room without
+further word or sign of greeting. In spite of his calculations and
+caution as to money,--in spite of his well-considered arrangements
+and the comfortable provision for his future ease which he had
+proposed to himself, he was a man who had not his temper so much
+under control as to enable him to postpone his anger to his prudence.
+That little scheme for getting rid of his wife was now at an end. He
+would never permit her to go to her sister's house after the manner
+in which Julia had just treated him!
+
+When he was gone Lady Ongar walked about her own room smiling, and
+at first was well pleased with herself. She had received Archie's
+overture with decision, but at the same time with courtesy, for
+Archie was weak, and poor, and powerless. But she had treated Sir
+Hugh with scorn, and had been enabled to do so without the utterance
+of any actual reproach as to the wrongs which she herself had endured
+from him. He had put himself in her power, and she had not thrown
+away the opportunity. She had told him that she did not want his
+friendship, and would not be his friend; but she had done this
+without any loud abuse unbecoming to her either as a countess, a
+widow, or a lady. For Hermione she was sorry. Hermione now could
+hardly come to her. But even as to that she did not despair. As
+things were going on, it would become almost necessary that her
+sister and Sir Hugh should be parted. Both must wish it; and if this
+were arranged, then Hermione should come to her.
+
+But from this she soon came to think again about Harry Clavering. How
+was that matter to be decided, and what steps would it become her to
+take as to its decision? Sir Hugh had proposed to her that she should
+sell her interest in Ongar Park, and she had promised that she would
+make known her decision on that matter through her lawyer. As she had
+been saying this she was well aware that she would never sell the
+property;--but she had already resolved that she would at once give
+it back, without purchase-money, to the Ongar family, were it not
+kept that she might hand it over to Harry Clavering as a fitting
+residence for his lordship. If he might be there, looking after
+his cattle, going about with the steward subservient at his heels,
+ministering justice to the Enoch Gubbys and others, she would care
+nothing for the wants of any of the Courton people. But if such were
+not to be the destiny of Ongar Park,--if there were to be no such
+Adam in that Eden,--then the mother of the little lord might take
+herself thither, and revel among the rich blessings of the place
+without delay, and with no difficulty as to price. As to price,;--had
+she not already found the money-bag that had come to her to be too
+heavy for her hands?
+
+But she could do nothing till that question was settled; and how was
+she to settle it? Every word that had passed between her and Cecilia
+Burton had been turned over and over in her mind, and she could only
+declare to herself as she had then declared to her visitor, that it
+must be as Harry should please. She would submit, if he required her
+submission; but she could not bring herself to take steps to secure
+her own misery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+FAREWELL TO DOODLES.
+
+
+At last came the day on which the two Claverings were to go down
+to Harwich and put themselves on board Jack Stuart's yacht. The
+hall of the house in Berkeley Square was strewed with portmanteaus,
+gun-cases, and fishing-rods, whereas the wine and packets of
+preserved meat, and the bottled beer and fish in tins, and the large
+box of cigars, and the prepared soups, had been sent down by Boxall,
+and were by this time on board the boat. Hugh and Archie were to
+leave London this day by train at 5 P.M., and were to sleep on board.
+Jack Stuart was already there, having assisted in working the yacht
+round from Brightlingsea.
+
+On that morning Archie had a farewell breakfast at his club with
+Doodles, and after that, having spent the intervening hours in the
+billiard-room, a farewell luncheon. There had been something of
+melancholy in this last day between the friends, originating partly
+in the failure of Archie's hopes as to Lady Ongar, and partly perhaps
+in the bad character which seemed to belong to Jack Stuart and his
+craft. "He has been at it for years, and always coming to grief,"
+said Doodles. "He is just like a man I know, who has been hunting
+for the last ten years, and can't sit a horse at a fence yet. He has
+broken every bone in his skin, and I don't suppose he ever saw a good
+thing to a finish. He never knows whether hounds are in cover, or
+where they are. His only idea is to follow another man's red coat
+till he comes to grief;--and yet he will go on hunting. There are
+some people who never will understand what they can do, and what
+they can't." In answer to this, Archie reminded his friend that on
+this occasion Jack Stuart would have the advantage of an excellent
+dry-nurse, acknowledged to be very great on such occasions. Would
+not he, Archie Clavering, be there to pilot Jack Stuart and his
+boat? But, nevertheless, Doodles was melancholy, and went on telling
+stories about that unfortunate man who would continue to break his
+bones, though he had no aptitude for out-of-door sports. "He'll be
+carried home on a stretcher some day, you know," said Doodles.
+
+"What does it matter if he is?" said Archie, boldly, thinking of
+himself and of the danger predicted for him. "A man can only die
+once."
+
+"I call it quite a tempting of Providence," said Doodles.
+
+But their conversation was chiefly about Lady Ongar and the Spy. It
+was only on this day that Doodles had learned that Archie had in
+truth offered his hand, and been rejected; and Captain Clavering was
+surprised by the extent of his friend's sympathy. "It's a doosed
+disagreeable thing,--a very disagreeable thing indeed," said Doodles.
+Archie, who did not wish to be regarded as specially unfortunate,
+declined to look at the matter in this light; but Doodles insisted.
+"It would cut me up like the very mischief," he said. "I know that;
+and the worst of it is, that perhaps you wouldn't have gone on, only
+for me. I meant it all for the best, old fellow. I did, indeed.
+There; that's the game to you. I'm playing uncommon badly this
+morning; but the truth is, I'm thinking of those women." Now as
+Doodles was playing for a little money, this was really civil on his
+part.
+
+And he would persevere in talking about the Spy, as though there
+were something in his remembrance of the lady which attracted him
+irresistibly to the subject. He had always boasted that in his
+interview with her he had come off with the victory, nor did he now
+cease to make such boasts; but still he spoke of her and her powers
+with an awe which would have completely opened the eyes of any one a
+little more sharp on such matters than Archie Clavering. He was so
+intent on this subject that he sent the marker out of the room so
+that he might discuss it with more freedom, and might plainly express
+his views as to her influence on his friend's fate.
+
+"By George! she's a wonderful woman. Do you know I can't help
+thinking of her at night. She keeps me awake;--she does, upon my
+honour."
+
+"I can't say she keeps me awake, but I wish I had my seventy pounds
+back again."
+
+"Do you know, if I were you, I shouldn't grudge it. I should think it
+worth pretty nearly all the money to have had the dealing with her."
+
+"Then you ought to go halves."
+
+"Well, yes;--only that I ain't flush, I would. When one thinks of it,
+her absolutely taking the notes out of your waistcoat-pocket, upon my
+word it's beautiful! She'd have had it out of mine, if I hadn't been
+doosed sharp."
+
+"She understood what she was about, certainly."
+
+"What I should like to know is this: did she or did she not tell Lady
+Ongar what she was to do;--about you I mean? I daresay she did after
+all."
+
+"And took my money for nothing?"
+
+"Because you didn't go high enough, you know."
+
+"But that was your fault. I went as high as you told me."
+
+"No, you didn't, Clavvy; not if you remember. But the fact is, I
+don't suppose you could go high enough. I shouldn't be surprised if
+such a woman as that wanted--thousands! I shouldn't indeed. I shall
+never forget the way in which she swore at me;--and how she abused me
+about my family. I think she must have had some special reason for
+disliking Warwickshire, she said such awful hard things about it."
+
+"How did she know that you came from Warwickshire?"
+
+"She did know it. If I tell you something don't you say anything
+about it. I have an idea about her."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I didn't mention it before, because I don't talk much of those sort
+of things. I don't pretend to understand them, and it is better to
+leave them alone."
+
+"But what do you mean?"
+
+Doodles looked very solemn as he answered. "I think she's a
+medium--or a media, or whatever it ought to be called."
+
+"What! one of those spirit-rapping people?" And Archie's hair almost
+stood on end as he asked the question.
+
+"They don't rap now,--not the best of them, that is. That was the old
+way, and seems to have been given up."
+
+"But what do you suppose she did?"
+
+"How did she know that the money was in your waistcoat-pocket, now?
+How did she know that I came from Warwickshire? And then she had a
+way of going about the room as though she could have raised herself
+off her feet in a moment if she had chosen. And then her swearing,
+and the rest of it,--so unlike any other woman, you know."
+
+"But do you think she could have made Julia hate me?"
+
+"Ah, I can't tell that. There are such lots of things going on
+now-a-days that a fellow can understand nothing about! But I've no
+doubt of this,--if you were to tie her up with ropes ever so, I don't
+in the least doubt but what she'd get out."
+
+Archie was awe-struck, and made two or three strokes after this; but
+then he plucked up his courage and asked a question,--
+
+"Where do you suppose they get it from, Doodles?"
+
+"That's just the question."
+
+"Is it from--the devil, do you think?" said Archie, whispering the
+name of the Evil One in a very low voice.
+
+"Well, yes; I suppose that's most likely."
+
+"Because they don't seem to do a great deal of harm with it after
+all. As for my money, she would have had that any way, for I intended
+to give it to her."
+
+"There are people who think," said Doodles, "that the spirits don't
+come from anywhere, but are always floating about."
+
+"And then one person catches them, and another doesn't?" asked
+Archie.
+
+"They tell me that it depends upon what the mediums or medias eat and
+drink," said Doodles, "and upon what sort of minds they have. They
+must be cleverish people, I fancy, or the spirits wouldn't come to
+them."
+
+"But you never hear of any swell being a medium. Why don't the
+spirits go to a prime minister or some of those fellows? Only think
+what a help they'd be."
+
+"If they come from the devil," suggested Doodles, "he wouldn't let
+them do any real good."
+
+"I've heard a deal about them," said Archie, "and it seems to me that
+the mediums are always poor people, and that they come from nobody
+knows where. The Spy is a clever woman I daresay--"
+
+"There isn't much doubt about that," said the admiring Doodles.
+
+"But you can't say she's respectable, you know. If I was a spirit I
+wouldn't go to a woman who wore such dirty stockings as she had on."
+
+"That's nonsense, Clavvy. What does a spirit care about a woman's
+stockings?"
+
+"But why don't they ever go to the wise people? that's what I want
+to know." And as he asked the question boldly he struck his ball
+sharply, and, lo, the three balls rolled vanquished into three
+different pockets. "I don't believe about it," said Archie, as he
+readjusted the score. "The devil can't do such things as that or
+there'd be an end of everything; and as to spirits in the air, why
+should there be more spirits now than there were four-and-twenty
+years ago?"
+
+"That's all very well, old fellow," said Doodles, "but you and I
+ain't clever enough to understand everything." Then that subject was
+dropped, and Doodles went back for a while to the perils of Jack
+Stuart's yacht.
+
+After the lunch, which was in fact Archie's early dinner, Doodles
+was going to leave his friend, but Archie insisted that his brother
+captain should walk with him up to Berkeley Square, and see the last
+of him into his cab. Doodles had suggested that Sir Hugh would be
+there, and that Sir Hugh was not always disposed to welcome his
+brother's friends to his own house after the most comfortable modes
+of friendship; but Archie explained that on such an occasion as this
+there need be no fear on that head; he and his brother were going
+away together, and there was a certain feeling of jollity about the
+trip which would divest Sir Hugh of his roughness. "And besides,"
+said Archie, "as you will be there to see me off, he'll know that
+you're not going to stay yourself." Convinced by this, Doodles
+consented to walk up to Berkeley Square.
+
+Sir Hugh had spent the greatest part of this day at home, immersed
+among his guns and rods, and their various appurtenances. He also had
+breakfasted at his club, but had ordered his luncheon to be prepared
+for him at home. He had arranged to leave Berkeley Square at four,
+and had directed that his lamb chops should be brought to him exactly
+at three. He was himself a little late in coming downstairs, and it
+was ten minutes past the hour when he desired that the chops might be
+put on the table, saying that he himself would be in the drawing-room
+in time to meet them. He was a man solicitous about his lamb chops,
+and careful that the asparagus should be hot; solicitous also as
+to that bottle of Lafitte by which those comestibles were to be
+accompanied and which was, of its own nature, too good to be shared
+with his brother Archie. But as he was on the landing, by the
+drawing-room door, descending quickly, conscious that in obedience to
+his orders the chops had been already served, he was met by a servant
+who, with disturbed face and quick voice, told him that there was a
+lady waiting for him in the hall.
+
+"D---- it!" said Sir Hugh.
+
+"She has just come, Sir Hugh, and says that she specially wants to
+see you."
+
+"Why the devil did you let her in?"
+
+"She walked in when the door was opened, Sir Hugh, and I couldn't
+help it. She seemed to be a lady, Sir Hugh, and I didn't like not to
+let her inside the door."
+
+"What's the lady's name?" asked the master.
+
+"It's a foreign name, Sir Hugh. She said she wouldn't keep you five
+minutes." The lamb chops, and the asparagus, and the Lafitte were in
+the dining-room, and the only way to the dining-room lay through the
+hall to which the foreign lady had obtained an entrance. Sir Hugh,
+making such calculations as the moments allowed, determined that he
+would face the enemy, and pass on to his banquet over her prostrate
+body. He went quickly down into the hall, and there was encountered
+by Sophie Gordeloup, who, skipping over the gun-cases, and rushing
+through the portmanteaus, caught the baronet by the arm before he had
+been able to approach the dining-room door. "Sir 'Oo," she said, "I
+am so glad to have caught you. You are going away, and I have things
+to tell you which you must hear--yes; it is well for you I have
+caught you, Sir 'Oo." Sir Hugh looked as though he by no means
+participated in this feeling, and saying something about his great
+hurry begged that he might be allowed to go to his food. Then he
+added that, as far as his memory served him, he had not the honour of
+knowing the lady who was addressing him.
+
+"You come in to your little dinner," said Sophie, "and I will tell
+you everything as you are eating. Don't mind me. You shall eat and
+drink, and I will talk. I am Madame Gordeloup,--Sophie Gordeloup.
+Ah,--you know the name now. Yes. That is me. Count Pateroff is my
+brother. You know Count Pateroff? He knowed Lord Ongar, and I knowed
+Lord Ongar. We know Lady Ongar. Ah,--you understand now that I can
+have much to tell. It is well you was not gone without seeing me? Eh;
+yes! You shall eat and drink, but suppose you send that man into the
+kitchen!"
+
+Sir Hugh was so taken by surprise that he hardly knew how to act on
+the spur of the moment. He certainly had heard of Madame Gordeloup,
+though he had never before seen her. For years past her name had been
+familiar to him in London, and when Lady Ongar had returned as a
+widow it had been, to his thinking, one of her worst offences that
+this woman had been her friend. Under ordinary circumstances his
+judgment would have directed him to desire the servant to put her out
+into the street as an impostor, and to send for the police if there
+was any difficulty. But it certainly might be possible that this
+woman had something to tell with reference to Lady Ongar which it
+would suit his purposes to hear. At the present moment he was not
+very well inclined to his sister-in-law, and was disposed to hear
+evil of her. So he passed on into the dining-room and desired Madame
+Gordeloup to follow him. Then he closed the room door, and standing
+up with his back to the fireplace, so that he might be saved from the
+necessity of asking her to sit down, he declared himself ready to
+hear anything that his visitor might have to say.
+
+"But you will eat your dinner, Sir 'Oo? You will not mind me. I shall
+not care."
+
+"Thank you, no;--if you will just say what you have got to say, I
+will be obliged to you."
+
+"But the nice things will be so cold! Why should you mind me? Nobody
+minds me."
+
+"I will wait, if you please, till you have done me the honour of
+leaving me."
+
+"Ah, well,--you Englishmen are so cold and ceremonious. But Lord
+Ongar was not with me like that. I knew Lord Ongar so well."
+
+"Lord Ongar was more fortunate than I am."
+
+"He was a poor man who did kill himself. Yes. It was always that
+bottle of Cognac. And there was other bottles was worser still. Never
+mind; he has gone now, and his widow has got the money. It is she
+has been a fortunate woman! Sir 'Oo, I will sit down here in the
+arm-chair." Sir Hugh made a motion with his hand, not daring to
+forbid her to do as she was minded. "And you, Sir 'Oo;--will not you
+sit down also?"
+
+"I will continue to stand if you will allow me."
+
+"Very well; you shall do as most pleases you. As I did walk here, and
+shall walk back, I will sit down."
+
+"And now if you have anything to say, Madame Gordeloup," said Sir
+Hugh, looking at the silver covers which were hiding the chops and
+the asparagus, and looking also at his watch, "perhaps you will be
+good enough to say it."
+
+"Anything to say! Yes, Sir 'Oo, I have something to say. It is a pity
+you will not sit at your dinner."
+
+"I will not sit at my dinner till you have left me. So now, if you
+will be pleased to proceed--"
+
+"I will proceed. Perhaps you don't know that Lord Ongar died in these
+arms?" And Sophie, as she spoke, stretched out her skinny hands, and
+put herself as far as possible into the attitude in which it would be
+most convenient to nurse the head of a dying man upon her bosom. Sir
+Hugh, thinking to himself that Lord Ongar could hardly have received
+much consolation in his fate from this incident, declared that he had
+not heard the fact before. "No; you have not heard it. She have tell
+nothing to her friends here. He die abroad, and she has come back
+with all the money; but she tell nothing to anybody here, so I must
+tell."
+
+"But I don't care how he died, Madame Gordeloup. It is nothing to
+me."
+
+"But yes, Sir 'Oo. The lady, your wife, is the sister to Lady Ongar.
+Is not that so? Lady Ongar did live with you before she was married.
+Is not that so? Your brother and your cousin both wishes to marry her
+and have all the money. Is not that so? Your brother has come to me
+to help him, and has sent the little man out of Warwickshire. Is not
+that so?"
+
+"What the d---- is all that to me?" said Sir Hugh, who did not quite
+understand the story as the lady was telling it.
+
+"I will explain, Sir 'Oo, what the d---- it is to you; only I wish
+you were eating the nice things on the table. This Lady Ongar is
+treating me very bad. She treat my brother very bad too. My brother
+is Count Pateroff. We have been put to--oh, such expenses for her!
+It have nearly ruined me. I make a journey to your London here
+altogether for her. Then, for her, I go down to that accursed little
+island;--what you call it?--where she insult me. Oh! all my time
+is gone. Your brother and your cousin, and the little man out of
+Warwickshire, all coming to my house,--just as it please them."
+
+"But what is this to me?" shouted Sir Hugh.
+
+"A great deal to you," screamed back Madame Gordeloup. "You see I
+know everything,--everything. I have got papers."
+
+"What do I care for your papers? Look here, Madame Gordeloup, you had
+better go away."
+
+"Not yet, Sir 'Oo; not yet. You are going away to Norway--I know; and
+I am ruined before you come back."
+
+"Look here, madame; do you mean that you want money from me?"
+
+"I want my rights, Sir 'Oo. Remember, I know everything;--everything;
+oh, such things! If they were all known,--in the newspapers, you
+understand, or that kind of thing, that lady in Bolton Street would
+lose all her money to-morrow. Yes. There is uncles to the little
+lord; yes! Ah, how much would they give me, I wonder? They would not
+tell me to go away."
+
+Sophie was perhaps justified in the estimate she had made of Sir
+Hugh's probable character from the knowledge which she had acquired
+of his brother Archie; but, nevertheless, she had fallen into a great
+mistake. There could hardly have been a man then in London less
+likely to fall into her present views than Sir Hugh Clavering. Not
+only was he too fond of his money to give it away without knowing why
+he did so; but he was subject to none of that weakness by which some
+men are prompted to submit to such extortions. Had he believed her
+story, and had Lady Ongar been really dear to him, he would never
+have dealt with such a one as Madame Gordeloup otherwise than through
+the police.
+
+"Madame Gordeloup," said he, "if you don't immediately take yourself
+off, I shall have you put out of the house."
+
+He would have sent for a constable at once, had he not feared that by
+doing so, he would retard his journey.
+
+"What!" said Sophie, whose courage was as good as his own. "Me put
+out of the house! Who shall touch me?"
+
+"My servant shall; or if that will not do, the police. Come, walk."
+And he stepped over towards her as though he himself intended to
+assist in her expulsion by violence.
+
+"Well, you are there; I see you; and what next?" said Sophie. "You,
+and your valk! I can tell you things fit for you to know, and you
+say, Valk. If I valk, I will valk to some purpose. I do not often
+valk for nothing when I am told--Valk!" Upon this, Sir Hugh rang the
+bell with some violence. "I care nothing for your bells, or for your
+servants, or for your policemen. I have told you that your sister owe
+me a great deal of money, and you say,--Valk. I vill valk." Thereupon
+the servant came into the room, and Sir Hugh, in an angry voice,
+desired him to open the front door. "Yes,--open vide," said Sophie,
+who, when anger came upon her, was apt to drop into a mode of
+speaking English which she was able to avoid in her cooler moments.
+"Sir 'Oo, I am going to valk, and you shall hear of my valking."
+
+"Am I to take that as a threat?" said he.
+
+"Not a tret at all," said she; "only a promise. Ah, I am good to keep
+my promises! Yes, I make a promise. Your poor wife,--down with the
+daises; I know all, and she shall hear too. That is another promise.
+And your brother, the captain. Oh! here he is, and the little man
+out of Warwickshire." She had got up from her chair, and had moved
+towards the door with the intention of going; but just as she was
+passing out into the hall, she encountered Archie and Doodles. Sir
+Hugh, who had been altogether at a loss to understand what she had
+meant by the man out of Warwickshire, followed her into the hall, and
+became more angry than before at finding that his brother had brought
+a friend to his house at so very inopportune a moment. The wrath in
+his face was so plainly expressed that Doodles could perceive it, and
+wished himself away. The presence also of the Spy was not pleasant
+to the gallant captain. Was the wonderful woman ubiquitous, that
+he should thus encounter her again, and that so soon after all the
+things that he had spoken of her on this morning? "How do you do,
+gentlemen?" said Sophie. "There is a great many boxes here, and I
+with my crinoline have not got room." Then she shook hands, first
+with Archie, and then with Doodles; and asked the latter why he
+was not as yet gone to Warwickshire. Archie, in almost mortal fear,
+looked up into his brother's face. Had his brother learned the story
+of that seventy pounds? Sir Hugh was puzzled beyond measure at
+finding that the woman knew the two men; but having still an eye to
+his lamb chops, was chiefly anxious to get rid of Sophie and Doodles
+together.
+
+"This is my friend Boodle,--Captain Boodle," said Archie, trying to
+put a bold face upon the crisis. "He has come to see me off."
+
+"Very kind of him," said Sir Hugh. "Just make way for this lady, will
+you? I want to get her out of the house if I can. Your friend seems
+to know her; perhaps he'll be good enough to give her his arm."
+
+"Who;--I?" said Doodles. "No; I don't know her particularly. I did
+meet her once before, just once,--in a casual way."
+
+"Captain Booddle and me is very good friends," said Sophie. "He come
+to my house and behave himself very well; only he is not so handy a
+man as your brother, Sir 'Oo."
+
+Archie trembled, and he trembled still more when his brother, turning
+to him, asked him if he knew the woman.
+
+"Yes; he know the woman very well," said Sophie. "Why do you not
+come any more to see me? You send your little friend; but I like you
+better yourself. You come again when you return, and all that shall
+be made right."
+
+But still she did not go. She had now seated herself on a gun-case
+which was resting on a portmanteau, and seemed to be at her ease. The
+time was going fast, and Sir Hugh, if he meant to eat his chops, must
+eat them at once.
+
+"See her out of the hall, into the street," he said to Archie; "and
+if she gives trouble, send for the police. She has come here to get
+money from me by threats, and only that we have no time, I would have
+her taken to the lock-up house at once." Then Sir Hugh retreated into
+the dining-room and shut the door.
+
+"Lock-up-ouse!" said Sophie, scornfully. "What is dat?"
+
+"He means a prison," said Doodles.
+
+"Prison! I know who is most likely be in a prison. Tell me of a
+prison! Is he a minister of state that he can send out order for me
+to be made prisoner? Is there lettres de cachet now in England? I
+think not. Prison, indeed!"
+
+"But really, Madame Gordeloup, you had better go; you had, indeed,"
+said Archie.
+
+"You, too--you bid me go? Did I bid you go when you came to me? Did I
+not tell you, sit down? Was I not polite? Did I send for a police? or
+talk of lock-up-ouse to you? No. It is English that do these things;
+only English."
+
+Archie felt that it was incumbent on him to explain that his visit
+to her house had been made under other circumstances,--that he had
+brought money instead of seeking it; and had, in fact, gone to her
+simply in the way of her own trade. He did begin some preliminaries
+to this explanation; but as the servant was there, and as his brother
+might come out from the dining-room,--and as also he was aware that
+he could hardly tell the story much to his own advantage, he stopped
+abruptly, and, looking piteously at Doodles, implored him to take the
+lady away.
+
+"Perhaps you wouldn't mind just seeing her into Mount Street," said
+Archie.
+
+"Who; I?" said Doodles, electrified.
+
+"It is only just round the corner," said Archie.
+
+"Yes, Captain Booddle, we will go," said Sophie. "This is a bad
+house; and your Sir 'Oo,--I do not like him at all. Lock-up, indeed!
+I tell you he shall very soon be locked up himself. There is what you
+call Davy's locker. I know;--yes."
+
+Doodles also trembled when he heard this anathema, and thought once
+more of the character of Jack Stuart and his yacht.
+
+"Pray go with her," said Archie.
+
+"But I had come to see you off."
+
+"Never mind," said Archie. "He is in such a taking, you know. God
+bless you, old fellow; good-by! I'll write and tell you what fish we
+get, and mind you tell me what Turriper does for the Bedfordshire.
+Good-by, Madame Gordeloup--good-by."
+
+There was no escape for him, so Doodles put on his hat and prepared
+to walk away to Mount Street with the Spy under his arm,--the Spy
+as to whose avocations, over and beyond those of her diplomatic
+profession, he had such strong suspicions! He felt inclined to be
+angry with his friend, but the circumstances of his parting hardly
+admitted of any expression of anger.
+
+"Good-by, Clavvy," he said. "Yes; I'll write; that is, if I've got
+anything to say."
+
+"Take care of yourself, captain," said Sophie.
+
+"All right," said Archie.
+
+"Mind you come and see me when you come back," said Sophie.
+
+"Of course I will," said Archie.
+
+"And we'll make that all right for you yet. Gentlemen, when they have
+so much to gain, shouldn't take a No too easy. You come with your
+handy glove, and we'll see about it again." Then Sophie walked off
+leaning upon the arm of Captain Boodle, and Archie stood at the door
+watching them till they turned out of sight round the corner of the
+square. At last he saw them no more, and then he returned to his
+brother.
+
+And as we shall see Doodles no more,--or almost no more,--we will now
+bid him adieu civilly. The pair were not ill-matched, though the lady
+perhaps had some advantage in acuteness, given to her no doubt by the
+experience of a longer life. Doodles, as he walked along two sides
+of the square with the fair burden on his arm, felt himself to be
+in some sort proud of his position, though it was one from which he
+would not have been sorry to escape, had escape been possible. A
+remarkable phenomenon was the Spy, and to have walked round Berkeley
+Square with such a woman leaning on his arm, might in coming years be
+an event to remember with satisfaction. In the meantime he did not
+say much to her, and did not quite understand all that she said to
+him. At last he came to the door which he well remembered, and then
+he paused. He did not escape even then. After a while the door was
+opened, and those who were passing might have seen Captain Boodle,
+slowly and with hesitating steps, enter the narrow passage before the
+lady. Then Sophie followed, and closed the door behind her. As far as
+this story goes, what took place at that interview cannot be known.
+Let us bid farewell to Doodles, and wish him a happy escape.
+
+"How did you come to know that woman?" said Hugh to his brother, as
+soon as Archie was in the dining-room.
+
+"She was a friend of Julia's," said Archie.
+
+"You haven't given her money?" Hugh asked.
+
+"O dear, no," said Archie.
+
+Immediately after that they got into their cab; the things were
+pitched on the top; and,--for a while,--we may bid adieu to them
+also.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+SHEWING HOW MRS. BURTON FOUGHT HER BATTLE.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+"Florence, I have been to Bolton Street and I have seen Lady Ongar."
+Those were the first words which Cecilia Burton spoke to her
+sister-in-law, when she found Florence in the drawing-room on her
+return from the visit which she had made to the countess. Florence
+had still before her the desk on which she had been writing; and
+the letter in its envelope addressed to Mrs. Clavering, but as yet
+unclosed, was lying beneath her blotting-paper. Florence, who had
+never dreamed of such an undertaking on Cecilia's part, was astounded
+at the tidings which she heard. Of course her first effort was made
+to learn from her sister's tone and countenance what had been the
+result of this interview;--but she could learn nothing from either.
+There was no radiance as of joy in Mrs. Burton's face, nor was there
+written there anything of despair. Her voice was serious and almost
+solemn, and her manner was very grave;--but that was all. "You have
+seen her?" said Florence, rising up from her chair.
+
+"Yes, dear. I may have done wrong. Theodore, I know, will say so. But
+I thought it best to try to learn the truth before you wrote to Mrs.
+Clavering."
+
+"And what is the truth? But perhaps you have not learned it?"
+
+"I think I have learned all that she could tell me. She has been very
+frank."
+
+"Well;--what is the truth? Do not suppose, dearest, that I cannot
+bear it. I hope for nothing now. I only want to have this settled,
+that I may be at rest."
+
+Upon this Mrs. Burton took the suffering girl in her arms and
+caressed her tenderly. "My love," said she, "it is not easy for us to
+be at rest. You cannot be at rest as yet."
+
+"I can. I will be so, when I know that this is settled. I do not wish
+to interfere with his fortune. There is my letter to his mother, and
+now I will go back to Stratton."
+
+"Not yet, dearest; not yet," said Mrs. Burton, taking the letter
+in her hand, but refraining from withdrawing it at once from the
+envelope. "You must hear what I have heard to-day."
+
+"Does she say that she loves him?"
+
+"Ah, yes;--she loves him. We must not doubt that."
+
+"And he;--what does she say of him?"
+
+"She says what you also must say, Florence;--though it is hard that
+it should be so. It must be as he shall decide."
+
+"No," said Florence, withdrawing herself from the arm that was still
+around her. "No; it shall not be as he may choose to decide. I will
+not so submit myself to him. It is enough as it is. I will never see
+him more;--never. To say that I do not love him would be untrue, but
+I will never see him again."
+
+"Stop, dear; stop. What if it be no fault of his?"
+
+"No fault of his that he went to her when we--we--we--he and I--were,
+as we were, together!"
+
+"Of course there has been some fault; but, Flo dearest, listen to me.
+You know that I would ask you to do nothing from which a woman should
+shrink."
+
+"I know that you would give your heart's blood for me;--but nothing
+will be of avail now. Do not look at me with melancholy eyes like
+that. Cissy, it will not kill me. It is only the doubt that kills
+one."
+
+"I will not look at you with melancholy eyes, but you must listen to
+me. She does not herself know what his intention is."
+
+"But I know it,--and I know my own. Read my letter, Cissy. There is
+not one word of anger in it, nor will I ever utter a reproach. He
+knew her first. If he loved her through it all, it was a pity he
+could not be constant to his love, even though she was false to him."
+
+"But you won't hear me, Flo. As far as I can learn the truth,--as
+I myself most firmly believe,--when he went to her on her return
+to England, he had no other intention than that of visiting an old
+friend."
+
+"But what sort of friend, Cissy?"
+
+"He had no idea then of being untrue to you. But when he saw her the
+old intimacy came back. That was natural. Then he was dazzled by her
+beauty."
+
+"Is she then so beautiful?"
+
+"She is very beautiful."
+
+"Let him go to her," said Florence, tearing herself away from her
+sister's arm, and walking across the room with a quick and almost
+angry step. "Let her have him. Cissy, there shall be an end of it.
+I will not condescend to solicit his love. If she is such as you say,
+and if beauty with him goes for everything,--what chance could there
+be for such as me?"
+
+"I did not say that beauty with him went for everything."
+
+"Of course it does. I ought to have known that it would be so with
+such a one as him. And then she is rich also,--wonderfully rich! What
+right can I have to think of him?"
+
+"Florence, you are unjust. You do not even suspect that it is her
+money."
+
+"To me it is the same thing. I suppose that a woman who is so
+beautiful has a right to everything. I know that I am plain, and I
+will be--content--in future--to think no more--" Poor Florence, when
+she had got as far as that, broke down, and could go on no further
+with the declaration which she had been about to make as to her
+future prospects. Mrs. Burton, taking advantage of this, went on with
+her story, struggling, not altogether unsuccessfully, to assume a
+calm tone of unimpassioned reason.
+
+"As I said before, he was dazzled--"
+
+"Dazzled!--oh!"
+
+"But even then he had no idea of being untrue to you."
+
+"No; he was untrue without an idea. That is worse."
+
+"Florence, you are perverse, and are determined to be unfair. I must
+beg that you will hear me to the end, so that then you may be able to
+judge what course you ought to follow." This Mrs. Burton said with
+the air of a great authority; after which she continued in a voice
+something less stern--"He thought of doing no injury to you when he
+went to see her; but something of the feeling of his old love grew
+upon him when he was in her company, and he became embarrassed by his
+position before he was aware of his own danger. He might, of course,
+have been stronger." Here Florence exhibited a gesture of strong
+impatience, though she did not speak. "I am not going to defend him
+altogether, but I think you must admit that he was hardly tried. Of
+course I cannot say what passed between them, but I can understand
+how easily they might recur to the old scenes;--how naturally she
+would wish for a renewal of the love which she had been base enough
+to betray! She does not, however, consider herself as at present
+engaged to him. That you may know for certain. It may be that she has
+asked him for such a promise, and that he has hesitated. If so, his
+staying away from us, and his not writing to you, can be easily
+understood."
+
+"And what is it you would have me do?"
+
+"He is ill now. Wait till he is well. He would have been here before
+this, had not illness prevented him. Wait till he comes."
+
+"I cannot do that, Cissy. Wait I must, but I cannot wait without
+offering him, through his mother, the freedom which I have so much
+reason to know that he desires."
+
+"We do not know that he desires it. We do not know that his mother
+even suspects him of any fault towards you. Now that he is there,--at
+home,--away from Bolton Street--"
+
+"I do not care to trust to such influences as that, Cissy. If he
+could not spend this morning with her in her own house, and then as
+he left her feel that he preferred me to her, and to all the world,
+I would rather be as I am than take his hand. He shall not marry me
+from pity, nor yet from a sense of duty. We know the old story,--how
+the devil would be a monk when he was sick. I will not accept his
+sick-bed allegiance, or have to think that I owe my husband to a
+mother's influence over him while he is ill."
+
+"You will make me think, Flo, that you are less true to him than she
+is."
+
+"Perhaps it is so. Let him have what good such truth as hers can do
+him. For me, I feel that it is my duty to be true to myself. I will
+not condescend to indulge my heart at the cost of my pride as a
+woman."
+
+"Oh, Florence, I hate that word pride."
+
+"You would not hate it for yourself, in my place."
+
+"You need take no shame to love him."
+
+"Have I taken shame to love him?" said Florence, rising again from
+her chair. "Have I been missish or coy about my love? From the moment
+in which I knew that it was a pleasure to myself to regard him as my
+future husband, I have spoken of my love as being always proud of it.
+I have acknowledged it as openly as you can do yours for Theodore. I
+acknowledge it still, and will never deny it. Take shame that I have
+loved him! No. But I should take to myself great shame should I ever
+be brought so low as to ask him for his love, when once I had learned
+to think that he had transferred it from myself to another woman."
+Then she walked the length of the room, backwards and forwards, with
+hasty steps, not looking at her sister-in-law, whose eyes were now
+filled with tears. "Come, Cissy," she then said, "we will make an end
+of this. Read my letter if you choose to read it,--though indeed it
+is not worth the reading, and then let me send it to the post."
+
+Mrs. Burton now opened the letter and read it very slowly. It was
+stern and almost unfeeling in the calmness of the words chosen;
+but in those words her proposed marriage with Harry Clavering was
+absolutely abandoned. "I know," she said, "that your son is more
+warmly attached to another lady than he is to me, and under those
+circumstances, for his sake as well as for mine, it is necessary
+that we should part. Dear Mrs. Clavering, may I ask you to make him
+understand that he and I are never to recur to the past? If he will
+send me back any letters of mine,--should any have been kept,--and
+the little present which I once gave him, all will have been done
+which need be done, and all have been said which need be said. He
+will receive in a small parcel his own letters and the gifts which
+he has made me." There was in this a tone of completeness,--as of
+a business absolutely finished,--of a judgment admitting no appeal,
+which did not at all suit Mrs. Burton's views. A letter, quite as
+becoming on the part of Florence, might, she thought, be written,
+which would still leave open a door for reconciliation. But Florence
+was resolved, and the letter was sent.
+
+The part which Mrs. Burton had taken in this conversation had
+surprised even herself. She had been full of anger with Harry
+Clavering,--as wrathful with him as her nature permitted her to be;
+and yet she had pleaded his cause with all her eloquence, going
+almost so far in her defence of him as to declare that he was
+blameless. And in truth she was prepared to acquit him of blame,--to
+give him full absolution without penance,--if only he could be
+brought back again into the fold. Her wrath against him would be very
+hot should he not so return;--but all should be more than forgiven
+if he would only come back, and do his duty with affectionate and
+patient fidelity. Her desire was, not so much that justice should
+be done, as that Florence should have the thing coveted, and that
+Florence's rival should not have it. According to the arguments,
+as arranged by her feminine logic, Harry Clavering would be all
+right or all wrong according as he might at last bear himself. She
+desired success, and, if she could only be successful, was prepared
+to forgive everything. And even yet she would not give up the
+battle, though she admitted to herself that Florence's letter to
+Mrs. Clavering made the contest more difficult than ever. It might,
+however, be that Mrs. Clavering would be good enough, just enough,
+true enough, clever enough, to know that such a letter as this,
+coming from such a girl and written under such circumstances, should
+be taken as meaning nothing. Most mothers would wish to see their
+sons married to wealth, should wealth throw itself in their way;--but
+Mrs. Clavering, possibly, might not be such a mother as that.
+
+In the meantime there was before her the terrible necessity of
+explaining to her husband the step which she had taken without his
+knowledge, and of which she knew that she must tell him the history
+before she could sit down to dinner with him in comfort. "Theodore,"
+she said, creeping in out of her own chamber to his dressing-room,
+while he was washing his hands, "you mustn't be angry with me, but
+I have done something to-day."
+
+"And why must I not be angry with you?"
+
+"You know what I mean. You mustn't be angry--especially about
+this,--because I don't want you to be."
+
+"That's conclusive," said he. It was manifest to her that he was in a
+good humour, which was a great blessing. He had not been tried with
+his work as he was often wont to be, and was therefore willing to be
+playful.
+
+"What do you think I've done?" said she. "I have been to Bolton
+Street and have seen Lady Ongar."
+
+"No!"
+
+"I have, Theodore, indeed."
+
+Mr. Burton had been rubbing his face vehemently with a rough towel at
+the moment in which the communication had been made to him, and so
+strongly was he affected by it that he was stopped in his operation
+and brought to a stand in his movement, looking at his wife over the
+towel as he held it in both his hands. "What on earth has made you do
+such a thing as that?" he said.
+
+"I thought it best. I thought that I might hear the truth,--and so
+I have. I could not bear that Florence should be sacrificed whilst
+anything remained undone that was possible."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me that you were going?"
+
+"Well, my dear; I thought it better not. Of course I ought to have
+told you, but in this instance I thought it best just to go without
+the fuss of mentioning it."
+
+"What you really mean is, that if you had told me I should have asked
+you not to go."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"And you were determined to have your own way."
+
+"I don't think, Theodore, I care so much about my own way as some
+women do. I am sure I always think your opinion is better than my
+own;--that is, in most things."
+
+"And what did Lady Ongar say to you?" He had now put down the towel,
+and was seated in his arm-chair, looking up into his wife's face.
+
+"It would be a long story to tell you all that she said."
+
+"Was she civil to you?"
+
+"She was not uncivil. She is a handsome, proud woman, prone to
+speak out what she thinks and determined to have her own way when
+it is possible; but I think that she intended to be civil to me
+personally."
+
+"What is her purpose now?"
+
+"Her purpose is clear enough. She means to marry Harry Clavering if
+she can get him. She said so. She made no secret of what her wishes
+are."
+
+"Then, Cissy, let her marry him, and do not let us trouble ourselves
+further in the matter."
+
+"But Florence, Theodore! Think of Florence!"
+
+"I am thinking of her, and I think that Harry Clavering is not worth
+her acceptance. She is as the traveller that fell among thieves.
+She is hurt and wounded, but not dead. It is for you to be the Good
+Samaritan, but the oil which you should pour into her wounds is not
+a renewed hope as to that worthless man. Let Lady Ongar have him. As
+far as I can see, they are fit for each other."
+
+Then she went through with him, diligently, all the arguments
+which she had used with Florence, palliating Harry's conduct, and
+explaining the circumstances of his disloyalty, almost as those
+circumstances had in truth occurred. "I think you are too hard on
+him," she said. "You can't be too hard on falsehood," he replied.
+"No, not while it exists. But you would not be angry with a man for
+ever, because he should once have been false? But we do not know that
+he is false." "Do we not?" said he. "But never mind; we must go to
+dinner now. Does Florence know of your visit?" Then, before she would
+allow him to leave his room, she explained to him what had taken
+place between herself and Florence, and told him of the letter that
+had been written to Mrs. Clavering. "She is right," said he. "That
+way out of her difficulty is the best that is left to her." But,
+nevertheless, Mrs. Burton was resolved that she would not as yet
+surrender.
+
+Theodore Burton, when he reached the drawing-room, went up to his
+sister and kissed her. Such a sign of the tenderness of love was
+not common with him, for he was one of those who are not usually
+demonstrative in their affection. At the present moment he said
+nothing of what was passing in his mind, nor did she. She simply
+raised her face to meet his lips, and pressed his hand as she held
+it. What need was there of any further sign between them than this?
+Then they went to dinner, and their meal was eaten almost in silence.
+Almost every moment Cecilia's eye was on her sister-in-law. A careful
+observer, had there been one there, might have seen this; but, while
+they remained together downstairs, there occurred among them nothing
+else to mark that all was not well with them.
+
+Nor would the brother have spoken a word during the evening on the
+subject that was so near to all their hearts had not Florence led the
+way. When they were at tea, and when Cecilia had already made up her
+mind that there was to be no further discussion that night, Florence
+suddenly broke forth.
+
+"Theodore," she said, "I have been thinking much about it, and I
+believe I had better go home, to Stratton, to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, no," said Cecilia, eagerly.
+
+"I believe it will be better that I should," continued Florence. "I
+suppose it is very weak in me to own it; but I am unhappy, and, like
+the wounded bird, I feel that it will be well that I should hide
+myself."
+
+Cecilia was at her feet in a moment. "Dearest Flo," she said. "Is not
+this your home as well as Stratton?"
+
+"When I am able to be happy it is. Those who have light hearts may
+have more homes than one; but it is not so with those whose hearts
+are heavy. I think it will be best for me to go."
+
+"You shall do exactly as you please," said her brother. "In such a
+matter I will not try to persuade you. I only wish that we could tend
+to comfort you."
+
+"You do comfort me. If I know that you think I am doing right, that
+will comfort me more than anything. Absolute and immediate comfort is
+not to be had when one is sorrowful."
+
+"No, indeed," said her brother. "Sorrow should not be killed too
+quickly. I always think that those who are impervious to grief must
+be impervious also to happiness. If you have feelings capable of the
+one, you must have them capable also of the other!"
+
+"You should wait, at any rate, till you get an answer from Mrs.
+Clavering," said Cecilia.
+
+"I do not know that she has any answer to send to me."
+
+"Oh, yes; she must answer you, if you will think of it. If she
+accepts what you have said--"
+
+"She cannot but accept it."
+
+"Then she must reply to you. There is something which you have asked
+her to send to you; and I think you should wait, at any rate, till
+it reaches you here. Mind I do not think her answer will be of that
+nature; but it is clear that you should wait for it whatever it may
+be." Then Florence, with the concurrence of her brother's opinion,
+consented to remain in London for a few days, expecting the answer
+which would be sent by Mrs. Clavering;--and after that no further
+discussion took place as to her trouble.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+THE SHEEP RETURNS TO THE FOLD.
+
+
+Harry Clavering had spoken solemn words to his mother, during his
+illness, which both he and she regarded as a promise that Florence
+should not be deserted by him. After that promise nothing more was
+said between them on the subject for a few days. Mrs. Clavering was
+contented that the promise had been made, and Harry himself, in the
+weakness consequent upon his illness, was willing enough to accept
+the excuse which his illness gave him for postponing any action in
+the matter. But the fever had left him, and he was sitting up in his
+mother's room, when Florence's letter reached the parsonage,--and,
+with the letter, the little parcel which she herself had packed up so
+carefully. On the day before that a few words had passed between the
+rector and his wife, which will explain the feelings of both of them
+in the matter.
+
+"Have you heard," said he,--speaking in a voice hardly above a
+whisper, although no third person was in the room,--"that Harry is
+again thinking of making Julia his wife?"
+
+"He is not thinking of doing so," said Mrs. Clavering. "They who say
+so, do him wrong."
+
+"It would be a great thing for him as regards money."
+
+"But he is engaged,--and Florence Burton has been received here as
+his future wife. I could not endure to think that it should be so. At
+any rate, it is not true."
+
+"I only tell you what I heard," said the rector, gently sighing,
+partly in obedience to his wife's implied rebuke, and partly at the
+thought that so grand a marriage should not be within his son's
+reach. The rector was beginning to be aware that Harry would hardly
+make a fortune at the profession which he had chosen, and that a rich
+marriage would be an easy way out of all the difficulties which such
+a failure promised. The rector was a man who dearly loved easy ways
+out of difficulties. But in such matters as these his wife he knew
+was imperative and powerful, and he lacked the courage to plead for a
+cause that was prudent, but ungenerous.
+
+When Mrs. Clavering received the letter and parcel on the next
+morning, Harry Clavering was still in bed. With the delightful
+privilege of a convalescent invalid, he was allowed in these days
+to get up just when getting up became more comfortable than lying
+in bed, and that time did not usually come till eleven o'clock was
+past;--but the postman reached the Clavering parsonage by nine. The
+letter, as we know, was addressed to Mrs. Clavering herself, as
+was also the outer envelope which contained the packet; but the
+packet itself was addressed in Florence's clear handwriting to Harry
+Clavering, Esq. "That is a large parcel to come by post, mamma," said
+Fanny.
+
+"Yes, my dear; but it is something particular."
+
+"It's from some tradesman, I suppose?" said the rector.
+
+"No; it's not from a tradesman," said Mrs. Clavering. But she said
+nothing further, and both husband and daughter perceived that it was
+not intended that they should ask further questions.
+
+Fanny, as usual, had taken her brother his breakfast, and Mrs.
+Clavering did not go up to him till that ceremony had been completed
+and removed. Indeed it was necessary that she should study Florence's
+letter in her own room before she could speak to him about it. What
+the parcel contained she well knew, even before the letter had been
+thoroughly read; and I need hardly say that the treasure was sacred
+in her hands. When she had finished the perusal of the letter there
+was a tear,--a gentle tear, in each eye. She understood it all, and
+could fathom the strength and weakness of every word which Florence
+had written. But she was such a woman,--exactly such a woman,--as
+Cecilia Burton had pictured to herself. Mrs. Clavering was good
+enough, great enough, true enough, clever enough to know that Harry's
+love for Florence should be sustained, and his fancy for Lady Ongar
+overcome. At no time would she have been proud to see her son
+prosperous only in the prosperity of a wife's fortune; but she would
+have been thoroughly ashamed of him, had he resolved to pursue such
+prosperity under his present circumstances.
+
+But her tears,--though they were there in the corners of her
+eyes,--were not painful tears. Dear Florence! She was suffering
+bitterly now. This very day would be a day of agony to her. There
+had been for her, doubtless, many days of agony during the past
+month. That the letter was true in all its words Mrs. Clavering did
+not doubt. That Florence believed that all was over between her and
+Harry, Mrs. Clavering was as sure as Florence had intended that she
+should be. But all should not be over, and the days of agony should
+soon be at an end. Her boy had promised her, and to her he had always
+been true. And she understood, too, the way in which these dangers
+had come upon him, and her judgment was not heavy upon her son;--her
+gracious boy, who had ever been so good to her! It might be that he
+had been less diligent at his work than he should have been,--that
+on that account further delay would still be necessary; but Florence
+would forgive that, and he had promised that Florence should not be
+deserted.
+
+Then she took the parcel in her hands, and considered all its
+circumstances,--how precious had once been its contents, and how
+precious doubtless they still were, though they had been thus
+repudiated! And she thought of the moments,--nay, rather of the
+hours,--which had been passed in the packing of that little packet.
+She well understood how a girl would linger over such dear pain,
+touching the things over and over again, allowing herself to read
+morsels of the letters at which she had already forbidden herself
+even to look,--till every word had been again seen and weighed, again
+caressed and again abjured. She knew how those little trinkets would
+have been fondled! How salt had been the tears that had fallen on
+them, and how carefully the drops would have been removed. Every fold
+in the paper of the two envelopes, with the little morsels of wax
+just adequate for their purpose, told of the lingering painful care
+with which the work had been done. Ah! the parcel should go back at
+once with words of love that should put an end to all that pain! She,
+who had sent these loved things away, should have her letters again,
+and should touch her little treasures with fingers that should take
+pleasure in the touching. She should again read her lover's words
+with an enduring delight. Mrs. Clavering understood it all, as though
+she also were still a girl with a lover of her own.
+
+Harry was beginning to think that the time had come in which getting
+up would be more comfortable than lying in bed, when his mother
+knocked at his door and entered his room. "I was just going to make a
+move, mother," he said, having reached that stage of convalescence in
+which some shame comes upon the idler.
+
+"But I want to speak to you first, my dear," said Mrs. Clavering. "I
+have got a letter for you, or rather a parcel." Harry held out his
+hand, and taking the packet, at once recognized the writing of the
+address.
+
+"You know from whom it comes, Harry?"
+
+"Oh, yes, mother."
+
+"And do you know what it contains?" Harry, still holding the packet,
+looked at it, but said nothing. "I know," said his mother; "for
+she has written and told me. Will you see her letter to me?" Again
+Harry held out his hand, but his mother did not at once give him the
+letter. "First of all, my dear, let us know that we understand each
+other. This dear girl,--to me she is inexpressibly dear,--is to be
+your wife?"
+
+"Yes, mother;--it shall be so."
+
+
+[Illustration: The sheep returns to the fold.]
+
+
+"That is my own boy! Harry, I have never doubted you;--have never
+doubted that you would be right at last. Now you shall see her
+letter. But you must remember that she has had cause to make her
+unhappy."
+
+"I will remember."
+
+"Had you not been ill, everything would of course have been all right
+before now." As to the correctness of this assertion the reader
+probably will have doubts of his own. Then she handed him the letter,
+and sat on his bed-side while he read it. At first he was startled,
+and made almost indignant at the firmness of the girl's words. She
+gave him up as though it were a thing quite decided, and uttered no
+expression of her own regret in doing so. There was no soft woman's
+wail in her words. But there was in them something which made him
+unconsciously long to get back the thing which he had so nearly
+thrown away from him. They inspired him with a doubt whether he might
+yet succeed, which very doubt greatly increased his desire. As he
+read the letter for the second time, Julia became less beautiful
+in his imagination, and the charm of Florence's character became
+stronger.
+
+"Well, dear?" said his mother, when she saw that he had finished the
+second reading of the epistle.
+
+He hardly knew how to express, even to his mother, all his
+feelings,--the shame that he felt, and with the shame something of
+indignation that he should have been so repulsed. And of his love,
+too, he was afraid to speak. He was willing enough to give the
+required assurance, but after that he would have preferred to have
+been left alone. But his mother could not leave him without some
+further word of agreement between them as to the course which they
+would pursue.
+
+"Will you write to her, mother, or shall I?"
+
+"I shall write, certainly,--by to-day's post. I would not leave her
+an hour, if I could help it, without an assurance of your unaltered
+affection."
+
+"I could go to town to-morrow, mother;--could I not?"
+
+"Not to-morrow, Harry. It would be foolish. Say on Monday."
+
+"And you will write to-day?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I will send a line also,--just a line."
+
+"And the parcel?"
+
+"I have not opened it yet."
+
+"You know what it contains. Send it back at once, Harry;--at once.
+If I understand her feelings, she will not be happy till she gets it
+into her hands again. We will send Jem over to the post-office, and
+have it registered."
+
+When so much was settled, Mrs. Clavering went away about the affairs
+of her house, thinking as she did so of the loving words with which
+she would strive to give back happiness to Florence Burton.
+
+Harry, when he was alone, slowly opened the parcel. He could not
+resist the temptation of doing this, and of looking again at the
+things which she had sent back to him. And he was not without an
+idea,--perhaps a hope--that there might be with them some short
+note,--some scrap containing a few words for himself. If he had
+any such hope he was disappointed. There were his own letters,
+all scented with lavender from the casket in which they had been
+preserved; there was the rich bracelet which had been given with some
+little ceremony, and the cheap brooch which he had thrown to her as
+a joke, and which she had sworn that she would value the most of all
+because she could wear it every day; and there was the pencil-case
+which he had fixed on to her watch-chain, while her fingers were
+touching his fingers, caressing him for his love while her words were
+rebuking him for his awkwardness. He remembered it all as the things
+lay strewed upon his bed. And he re-read every word of his own words.
+"What a fool a man makes of himself," he said to himself at last,
+with something of the cheeriness of laughter about his heart. But as
+he said so he was quite ready to make himself a fool after the same
+fashion again,--if only there were not in his way that difficulty of
+recommencing. Had it been possible for him to write again at once in
+the old strain,--without any reference to his own conduct during the
+last month, he would have begun his fooling without waiting to finish
+his dressing.
+
+"Did you open the parcel?" his mother asked him, some hour or so
+before it was necessary that Jem should be started on his mission.
+
+"Yes; I thought it best to open it."
+
+"And have you made it up again?"
+
+"Not yet, mother."
+
+"Put this with it, dear." And his mother gave him a little jewel, a
+cupid in mosaic surrounded by tiny diamonds, which he remembered her
+to wear ever since he had first noticed the things she had worn. "Not
+from me, mind. I give it to you. Come;--will you trust me to pack
+them?" Then Mrs. Clavering again made up the parcel, and added the
+trinket which she had brought with her.
+
+Harry at last brought himself to write a few words. "Dearest, dearest
+Florence,--They will not let me out, or I would go to you at once.
+My mother has written, and though I have not seen her letter, I know
+what it contains. Indeed, indeed you may believe it all. May I not
+venture to return the parcel? I do send it back and implore you to
+keep it. I shall be in town, I think, on Monday, and will go to
+Onslow Crescent,--instantly. Your own, H. C." Then there was scrawled
+a postscript which was worth all the rest put together,--was better
+than his own note, better than his mother's letter, better than the
+returned packet. "I love no one better than you;--no one half so
+well,--neither now, nor ever did." These words, whether wholly true
+or only partially so, were at least to the point; and were taken by
+Cecilia Burton, when she heard of them, as a confession of faith that
+demanded instant and plenary absolution.
+
+The trouble which had called Harry down to Clavering remained, I
+regret to say, almost in full force now that his prolonged visit
+had been brought so near its close. Mr. Saul, indeed, had agreed
+to resign his curacy, and was already on the look-out for similar
+employment in some other parish. And since his interview with Fanny's
+father he had never entered the rectory, or spoken to Fanny. Fanny
+had promised that there should be no such speaking, and indeed no
+danger of that kind was feared. Whatever Mr. Saul might do he would
+do openly,--nay, audaciously. But though there existed this security,
+nevertheless things as regarded Fanny were very unpleasant. When Mr.
+Saul had commenced his courtship, she had agreed with her family in
+almost ridiculing the idea of such a lover. There had been a feeling
+with her as with the others that poor Mr. Saul was to be pitied. Then
+she had come to regard his overtures as matters of grave import,--not
+indeed avowing to her mother anything so strong as a return of his
+affection, but speaking of his proposal as one to which there was
+no other objection than that of a want of money. Now, however, she
+went moping about the house as though she were a victim of true love,
+condemned to run unsmoothly for ever; as though her passion for Mr.
+Saul were too much for her, and she were waiting in patience till
+death should relieve her from the cruelty of her parents. She never
+complained. Such victims never do complain. But she moped and was
+wretched, and when her mother questioned her, struggling to find out
+how strong this feeling might in truth be, Fanny would simply make
+her dutiful promises,--promises which were wickedly dutiful,--that
+she would never mention the name of Mr. Saul any more. Mr. Saul in
+the meantime went about his parish duties with grim energy, supplying
+the rector's shortcomings without a word. He would have been glad
+to preach all the sermons and read all the services during these
+six months, had he been allowed to do so. He was constant in
+the schools,--more constant than ever in his visitings. He was
+very courteous to Mr. Clavering when the necessities of their
+position brought them together. For all this Mr. Clavering hated
+him,--unjustly. For a man placed as Mr. Saul was placed a line of
+conduct exactly level with that previously followed is impossible,
+and it was better that he should become more energetic in his duties
+than less so. It will be easily understood that all these things
+interfered much with the general happiness of the family at the
+rectory at this time.
+
+The Monday came, and Harry Clavering, now convalescent and simply
+interesting from the remaining effects of his illness, started on his
+journey for London. There had come no further letters from Onslow
+Terrace to the parsonage, and, indeed, owing to the intervention of
+Sunday, none could have come unless Florence had written by return
+of post. Harry made his journey, beginning it with some promise of
+happiness to himself,--but becoming somewhat uneasy as his train drew
+near to London. He had behaved badly, and he knew that in the first
+place he must own that he had done so. To men such a necessity is
+always grievous. Women not unfrequently like the task. To confess,
+submit, and be accepted as confessing and submitting, comes naturally
+to the feminine mind. The cry of peccavi sounds soft and pretty when
+made by sweet lips in a loving voice. But a man who can own that he
+has done amiss without a pang,--who can so own it to another man,
+or even to a woman,--is usually but a poor creature. Harry must now
+make such confession, and therefore he became uneasy. And then, for
+him, there was another task behind the one which he would be called
+upon to perform this evening,--a task which would have nothing of
+pleasantness in it to redeem its pain. He must confess not only to
+Florence,--where his confession might probably have its reward,--but
+he must confess also to Julia. This second confession would, indeed,
+be a hard task to him. That, however, was to be postponed till the
+morrow. On this evening he had pledged himself that he would go
+direct to Onslow Terrace; and this he did as soon after he had
+reached his lodgings as was possible. It was past six when he reached
+London, and it was not yet eight when, with palpitating heart, he
+knocked at Mr. Burton's door.
+
+I must take the reader back with me for a few minutes, in order
+that we may see after what fashion the letters from Clavering were
+received by the ladies in Onslow Terrace. On that day Mr. Burton had
+been required to go out of London by one of the early trains, and had
+not been in the house when the postman came. Nothing had been said
+between Cecilia and Florence as to their hopes or fears in regard to
+an answer from Clavering;--nothing at least since that conversation
+in which Florence had agreed to remain in London for yet a few days;
+but each of them was very nervous on the matter. Any answer, if sent
+at once from Clavering, would arrive on this morning; and therefore,
+when the well-known knock was heard, neither of them was able to
+maintain her calmness perfectly. But yet nothing was said, nor did
+either of them rise from her seat at the breakfast-table. Presently
+the girl came in with apparently a bundle of letters, which she was
+still sorting when she entered the room. There were two or three for
+Mr. Burton, two for Cecilia, and then two besides the registered
+packet for Florence. For that a receipt was needed, and as Florence
+had seen the address and recognized the writing, she was hardly able
+to give her signature. As soon as the maid was gone, Cecilia could
+keep her seat no longer. "I know those are from Clavering," she said,
+rising from her chair, and coming round to the side of the table.
+Florence instinctively swept the packet into her lap, and, leaning
+forward, covered the letters with her hands. "Oh, Florence, let us
+see them; let us see them at once. If we are to be happy let us know
+it." But Florence paused, still leaning over her treasures, and
+hardly daring to show her burning face. Even yet it might be that she
+was rejected. Then Cecilia went back to her seat, and simply looked
+at her sister with beseeching eyes. "I think I'll go upstairs,"
+said Florence. "Are you afraid of me, Flo?" Cecilia answered
+reproachfully. "Let me see the outside of them." Then Florence
+brought them round the table, and put them into her sister's hands.
+"May I open this one from Mrs. Clavering?" Florence nodded her head.
+Then the seal was broken, and in one minute the two women were crying
+in each other's arms. "I was quite sure of it," said Cecilia, through
+her tears,--"perfectly sure. I never doubted it for a moment. How
+could you have talked of going to Stratton?" At last Florence got
+herself away up to the window, and gradually mustered courage to
+break the envelope of her lover's letter. It was not at once that she
+showed the postscript to Cecilia, nor at once that the packet was
+opened. That last ceremony she did perform in the solitude of her
+own room. But before the day was over the postscript had been shown,
+and the added trinket had been exhibited. "I remember it well," said
+Florence. "Mrs. Clavering wore it on her forehead when we dined at
+Lady Clavering's." Mrs. Burton in all this saw something of the
+gentle persuasion which the mother had used, but of that she said
+nothing. That he should be back again, and should have repented, was
+enough for her.
+
+Mr. Burton was again absent when Harry Clavering knocked in person
+at the door; but on this occasion his absence had been specially
+arranged by him with a view to Harry's comfort. "He won't want to
+see me this evening," he had said. "Indeed you'll all get on a
+great deal better without me." He therefore had remained away from
+home, and, not being a club man, had dined most uncomfortably at an
+eating-house. "Are the ladies at home?" Harry asked, when the door
+was opened. Oh, yes; they were at home. There was no danger that they
+should be found out on such an occasion as this. The girl looked
+at him pleasantly, calling him by his name as she answered him, as
+though she too desired to show him that he had again been taken into
+favour,--into her favour as well as that of her mistress.
+
+He hardly knew what he was doing as he ran up the steps to the
+drawing-room. He was afraid of what was to come; but nevertheless
+he rushed at his fate as some young soldier rushes at the trench
+in which he feels that he may probably fall. So Harry Clavering
+hurried on, and before he had looked round upon the room which he had
+entered, found his fate with Florence on his bosom.
+
+Alas, alas! I fear that justice was outraged in the welcome that
+Harry received on that evening. I have said that he would be called
+upon to own his sins, and so much, at least, should have been
+required of him. But he owned no sin! I have said that a certain
+degradation must attend him in that first interview after his
+reconciliation. Instead of this the hours that he spent that evening
+in Onslow Terrace were hours of one long ovation. He was, as it were,
+put upon a throne as a king who had returned from his conquest, and
+those two women did him honour, almost kneeling at his feet. Cecilia
+was almost as tender with him as Florence, pleading to her own false
+heart the fact of his illness as his excuse. There was something of
+the pallor of the sick-room left with him,--a slight tenuity in his
+hands and brightness in his eye which did him yeoman's service. Had
+he been quite robust, Cecilia might have felt that she could not
+justify to herself the peculiar softness of her words. After the
+first quarter of an hour he was supremely happy. His awkwardness had
+gone, and as he sat with his arm round Florence's waist, he found
+that the little pencil-case had again been attached to her chain, and
+as he looked down upon her he saw that the cheap brooch was again on
+her breast. It would have been pretty, could an observer have been
+there, to see the skill with which they both steered clear of any
+word or phrase which could be disagreeable to him. One might have
+thought that it would have been impossible to avoid all touch of a
+rebuke. The very fact that he was forgiven would seem to imply some
+fault that required pardon. But there was no hint at any fault.
+The tact of women excels the skill of men; and so perfect was the
+tact of these women that not a word was said which wounded Harry's
+ear. He had come again into their fold, and they were rejoiced and
+showed their joy. He who had gone astray had repented, and they were
+beautifully tender to the repentant sheep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+RESTITUTION.
+
+
+Harry stayed a little too long with his love,--a little longer at
+least than had been computed, and in consequence met Theodore Burton
+in the Crescent as he was leaving it. This meeting could hardly be
+made without something of pain, and perhaps it was well for Harry
+that he should have such an opportunity as this for getting over it
+quickly. But when he saw Mr. Burton under the bright gas-lamp he
+would very willingly have avoided him, had it been possible.
+
+"Well, Harry?" said Burton, giving his hand to the repentant sheep.
+
+"How are you, Burton?" said Harry, trying to speak with an
+unconcerned voice. Then in answer to an inquiry as to his health, he
+told of his own illness, speaking of that confounded fever having
+made him very low. He intended no deceit, but he made more of the
+fever than was necessary.
+
+"When will you come back to the shop?" Burton asked. It must be
+remembered that though the brother could not refuse to welcome back
+to his home his sister's lover, still he thought that the engagement
+was a misfortune. He did not believe in Harry as a man of business,
+and had almost rejoiced when Florence had been so nearly quit of him.
+And now there was a taint of sarcasm in his voice as he asked as to
+Harry's return to the chambers in the Adelphi.
+
+"I can hardly quite say as yet," said Harry, still pleading his
+illness. "They were very much against my coming up to London so
+soon. Indeed I should not have done it had I not felt so very--very
+anxious to see Florence. I don't know, Burton, whether I ought to say
+anything to you about that."
+
+"I suppose you have said what you had to say to the women?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I think they understand me completely, and I hope that I
+understand them."
+
+"In that case I don't know that you need say anything to me. Come to
+the Adelphi as soon as you can; that's all. I never think myself that
+a man becomes a bit stronger after an illness by remaining idle."
+Then Harry passed on, and felt that he had escaped easily in that
+interview.
+
+But as he walked home he was compelled to think of the step which he
+must next take. When he had last seen Lady Ongar he had left her with
+a promise that Florence was to be deserted for her sake. As yet that
+promise would by her be supposed to be binding. Indeed he had thought
+it to be binding on himself till he had found himself under his
+mother's influence at the parsonage. During his last few weeks in
+London he had endured an agony of doubt; but in his vacillations
+the pendulum had always veered more strongly towards Bolton Street
+than to Onslow Crescent. Now the swinging of the pendulum had ceased
+altogether. From henceforth Bolton Street must be forbidden ground
+to him, and the sheepfold in Onslow Crescent must be his home till
+he should have established a small peculiar fold for himself. But,
+as yet, he had still before him the task of communicating his
+final decision to the lady in Bolton Street. As he walked home he
+determined that he had better do so in the first place by letter,
+and so eager was he as to the propriety of doing this at once, that
+on his return to his lodgings he sat down, and wrote the letter
+before he went to his bed. It was not very easily written. Here, at
+any rate, he had to make those confessions of which I have before
+spoken;--confessions which it may be less difficult to make with
+pen and ink than with spoken words, but which when so made are more
+degrading. The word that is written is a thing capable of permanent
+life, and lives frequently to the confusion of its parent. A man
+should make his confessions always by word of mouth if it be
+possible. Whether such a course would have been possible to Harry
+Clavering may be doubtful. It might have been that in a personal
+meeting the necessary confession would not have got itself adequately
+spoken. Thinking, perhaps, of this he wrote his letter as follows on
+that night.
+
+
+   Bloomsbury Square, July, 186--.
+
+
+The date was easily written, but how was he to go on after that? In
+what form of affection or indifference was he to address her whom he
+had at that last meeting called his own, his dearest Julia? He got
+out of his difficulty in the way common to ladies and gentlemen under
+such stress, and did not address her by any name or any epithet.
+The date he allowed to remain, and then he went away at once to the
+matter of his subject.
+
+
+   I feel that I owe it you at once to tell you what has
+   been my history during the last few weeks. I came up from
+   Clavering to-day, and have since that been with Mrs. and
+   Miss Burton. Immediately on my return from them I sit down
+   to write you.
+
+
+After having said so much, Harry probably felt that the rest of his
+letter would be surplusage. Those few words would tell her all that
+it was required that she should know. But courtesy demanded that he
+should say more, and he went on with his confession.
+
+
+   You know that I became engaged to Miss Burton soon after
+   your own marriage. I feel now that I should have told you
+   this when we first met; but yet, had I done so, it would
+   have seemed as though I told it with a special object. I
+   don't know whether I make myself understood in this. I can
+   only hope that I do so.
+
+
+Understood! Of course she understood it all. She required no
+blundering explanation from him to assist her intelligence.
+
+
+   I wish now that I had mentioned it. It would have been
+   better for both of us. I should have been saved much pain;
+   and you, perhaps, some uneasiness.
+
+   I was called down to Clavering a few weeks ago, about some
+   business in the family, and then became ill,--so that I
+   was confined to my bed instead of returning to town. Had
+   it not been for this I should not have left you so long in
+   suspense,--that is if there has been suspense. For myself,
+   I have to own that I have been very weak,--worse than
+   weak, I fear you will think. I do not know whether your
+   old regard for me will prompt you to make any excuse for
+   me, but I am well sure that I can make none for myself
+   which will not have suggested itself to you, without
+   my urging it. If you choose to think that I have been
+   heartless,--or rather, if you are able so to think of me,
+   no words of mine, written or spoken now, will remove that
+   impression from your mind.
+
+   I believe that I need write nothing further. You will
+   understand from what I have said all that I should have
+   to say were I to refer at length to that which has passed
+   between us. All that is over now, and it only remains for
+   me to express a hope that you may be happy. Whether we
+   shall ever see each other again who shall say?--but if we
+   do I trust that we may not meet as enemies. May God bless
+   you here and hereafter.
+
+   HARRY CLAVERING.
+
+
+When the letter was finished Harry sat for a while by his open
+window looking at the moon, over the chimney-pots of his square, and
+thinking of his career in life as it had hitherto been fulfilled. The
+great promise of his earlier days had not been kept. His plight in
+the world was now poor enough, though his hopes had been so high! He
+was engaged to be married, but had no income on which to marry. He
+had narrowly escaped great wealth. Ah!--It was hard for him to think
+of that without a regret; but he did strive so to think of it. Though
+he told himself that it would have been evil for him to have depended
+on money which had been procured by the very act which had been to
+him an injury,--to have dressed himself in the feathers which had
+been plucked from Lord Ongar's wings,--it was hard for him to think
+of all that he had missed, and rejoice thoroughly that he had missed
+it. But he told himself that he so rejoiced, and endeavoured to be
+glad that he had not soiled his hands with riches which never would
+have belonged to the woman he had loved had she not earned them by
+being false to him. Early on the following morning he sent off his
+letter, and then, putting himself into a cab, bowled down to Onslow
+Crescent. The sheepfold now was very pleasant to him when the head
+shepherd was away, and so much gratification it was natural that he
+should allow himself.
+
+That evening, when he came from his club, he found a note from Lady
+Ongar. It was very short, and the blood rushed to his face as he felt
+ashamed at seeing with how much apparent ease she had answered him.
+He had written with difficulty, and had written awkwardly. But there
+was nothing awkward in her words.
+
+
+   DEAR HARRY,--We are quits now. I do not know why we should
+   ever meet as enemies. I shall never feel myself to be an
+   enemy of yours. I think it would be well that we should
+   see each other, and if you have no objection to seeing me,
+   I will be at home any evening that you may call. Indeed
+   I am at home always in the evening. Surely, Harry, there
+   can be no reason why we should not meet. You need not fear
+   that there will be danger in it.
+
+   Will you give my compliments to Miss Florence Burton, with
+   my best wishes for her happiness? Your Mrs. Burton I have
+   seen,--as you may have heard, and I congratulate you on
+   your friend.
+
+   Yours always, J. O.
+
+
+The writing of this letter seemed to have been easy enough, and
+certainly there was nothing in it that was awkward; but I think that
+the writer had suffered more in the writing than Harry had done in
+producing his longer epistle. But she had known how to hide her
+suffering, and had used a tone which told no tale of her wounds. We
+are quits now, she had said, and she had repeated the words over and
+over again to herself as she walked up and down her room. Yes! they
+were quits now,--if the reflection of that fact could do her any
+good. She had ill-treated him in her early days; but, as she had
+told herself so often, she had served him rather than injured him by
+that ill-treatment. She had been false to him; but her falsehood had
+preserved him from a lot which could not have been fortunate. With
+such a clog as she would have been round his neck,--with such a wife,
+without a shilling of fortune, how could he have risen in the world?
+No! Though she had deceived him, she had served him. Then,--after
+that,--had come the tragedy of her life, the terrible days in
+thinking of which she still shuddered, the days of her husband and
+Sophie Gordeloup,--that terrible deathbed, those attacks upon her
+honour, misery upon misery, as to which she never now spoke a word to
+any one, and as to which she was resolved that she never would speak
+again. She had sold herself for money, and had got the price; but
+the punishment of her offence had been very heavy. And now, in these
+latter days, she had thought to compensate the man she had loved for
+the treachery with which she had used him. That treachery had been
+serviceable to him, but not the less should the compensation be very
+rich. And she would love him too. Ah, yes; she had always loved him!
+He should have it all now,--everything, if only he would consent to
+forget that terrible episode in her life, as she would strive to
+forget it. All that should remain to remind them of Lord Ongar would
+be the wealth that should henceforth belong to Harry Clavering.
+Such had been her dream, and Harry had come to her with words of
+love which made it seem to be a reality. He had spoken to her words
+of love which he was now forced to withdraw, and the dream was
+dissipated. It was not to be allowed to her to escape her penalty so
+easily as that! As for him, they were now quits. That being the case,
+there could be no reason why they should quarrel.
+
+But what now should she do with her wealth, and especially how should
+she act in respect to that place down in the country? Though she had
+learned to hate Ongar Park during her solitary visit there, she had
+still looked forward to the pleasure the property might give her,
+when she should be able to bestow it upon Harry Clavering. But that
+had been part of her dream, and the dream was now over. Through it
+all she had been conscious that she might hardly dare to hope that
+the end of her punishment should come so soon,--and now she knew that
+it was not to come. As far as she could see, there was no end to the
+punishment in prospect for her. From her first meeting with Harry
+Clavering on the platform of the railway station his presence, or
+her thoughts of him, had sufficed to give some brightness to her
+life,--had enabled her to support the friendship of Sophie Gordeloup,
+and also to support her solitude when poor Sophie had been banished.
+But now she was left without any resource. As she sat alone,
+meditating on all this, she endeavoured to console herself with the
+reflection that, after all, she was the one whom Harry loved,--whom
+Harry would have chosen, had he been free to choose. But the comfort
+to be derived from that was very poor. Yes; he had loved her
+once,--nay, perhaps he loved her still. But when that love was her
+own she had rejected it. She had rejected it, simply declaring to
+him, to her friends, and to the world at large, that she preferred to
+be rich. She had her reward, and, bowing her head upon her hands, she
+acknowledged that the punishment was deserved.
+
+Her first step after writing her note to Harry was to send for Mr.
+Turnbull, her lawyer. She had expected to see Harry on the evening of
+the day on which she had written, but instead of that she received a
+note from him in which he said that he would come to her before long.
+Mr. Turnbull was more instant in obeying her commands, and was with
+her on the morning after he received her injunction. He was almost
+a perfect stranger to her, having only seen her once and that for a
+few moments after her return to England. Her marriage settlements
+had been prepared for her by Sir Hugh's attorney; but during her
+sojourn in Florence it had become necessary that she should have
+some one in London to look after her own affairs, and Mr. Turnbull
+had been recommended to her by lawyers employed by her husband. He
+was a prudent, sensible man, who recognized it to be his imperative
+interest to look after his client's interest. And he had done his
+duty by Lady Ongar in that trying time immediately after her return.
+An offer had then been made by the Courton family to give Julia her
+income without opposition if she would surrender Ongar Park. To this
+she had made objections with indignation, and Mr. Turnbull, though he
+had at first thought that she would be wise to comply with the terms
+proposed, had done her work for her with satisfactory expedition.
+Since those days she had not seen him, but now she had summoned him,
+and he was with her in Bolton Street.
+
+"I want to speak to you, Mr. Turnbull," she said, "about that place
+down in Surrey. I don't like it."
+
+"Not like Ongar Park?" he said. "I have always heard that it is so
+charming."
+
+"It is not charming to me. It is a sort of property that I don't
+want, and I mean to give it up."
+
+"Lord Ongar's uncles would buy your interest in it, I have no doubt."
+
+"Exactly. They have sent to me, offering to do so. My brother-in-law,
+Sir Hugh Clavering, called on me with a message from them saying
+so. I thought that he was very foolish to come, and so I told him.
+Such things should be done by one's lawyers. Don't you think so, Mr.
+Turnbull?" Mr. Turnbull smiled as he declared that, of course, he,
+being a lawyer, was of that opinion. "I am afraid they will have
+thought me uncivil," continued Julia, "as I spoke rather brusquely to
+Sir Hugh Clavering. I am not inclined to take any steps through Sir
+Hugh Clavering; but I do not know that I have any reason to be angry
+with the little lord's family."
+
+"Really, Lady Ongar, I think not. When your ladyship returned there
+was some opposition thought of for a while, but I really do not think
+it was their fault."
+
+"No; it was not their fault."
+
+"That was my feeling at the time; it was indeed."
+
+"It was the fault of Lord Ongar,--of my husband. As regards all
+the Courtons I have no word of complaint to make. It is not to be
+expected,--it is not desirable that they and I should be friends.
+It is impossible, after what has passed, that there should be such
+friendship. But they have never injured me, and I wish to oblige
+them. Had Ongar Park suited me I should, doubtless, have kept it; but
+it does not suit me, and they are welcome to have it back again."
+
+"Has a price been named, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"No price need be named. There is to be no question of a price. Lord
+Ongar's mother is welcome to the place,--or rather to such interest
+as I have in it."
+
+"And to pay a rent?" suggested Mr. Turnbull.
+
+"To pay no rent! Nothing would induce me to let the place, or to sell
+my right in it. I will have no bargain about it. But as nothing also
+will induce me to live there, I am not such a dog in the manger as to
+wish to keep it. If you will have the kindness to see Mr. Courton's
+lawyer and to make arrangements about it."
+
+"But, Lady Ongar; what you call your right in the estate is worth
+over twenty thousand pounds. It is indeed. You could borrow twenty
+thousand pounds on the security of it to-morrow."
+
+"But I don't want to borrow twenty thousand pounds."
+
+"No, no; exactly. Of course you don't. But I point out that fact to
+show the value. You would be making a present of that sum of money
+to people who do not want it,--who have no claim upon you. I really
+don't see how they could take it."
+
+"Mrs. Courton wishes to have the place very much."
+
+"But, my lady, she has never thought of getting it without paying
+for it. Lady Ongar, I really cannot advise you to take any such step
+as that. Indeed, I cannot. I should be wrong, as your lawyer, if
+I did not point out to you that such a proceeding would be quite
+romantic,--quite so; what the world would call Quixotic. People don't
+expect such things as that. They don't, indeed."
+
+"People don't often have such reasons as I have," said Lady Ongar.
+Mr. Turnbull sat silent for a while, looking as though he were
+unhappy. The proposition made to him was one which, as a lawyer, he
+felt to be very distasteful to him. He knew that his client had no
+male friends in whom she confided, and he felt that the world would
+blame him if he allowed this lady to part with her property in the
+way she had suggested. "You will find that I am in earnest," she
+continued, smiling. "And you may as well give way to my vagaries with
+a good grace."
+
+"They would not take it, Lady Ongar."
+
+"At any rate we can try them. If you will make them understand that
+I don't at all want the place, and that it will go to rack and ruin
+because there is no one to live there, I am sure they will take it."
+
+Then Mr. Turnbull again sat silent and unhappy, thinking with what
+words he might best bring forward his last and strongest argument
+against this rash proceeding.
+
+"Lady Ongar," he said, "in your peculiar position there are double
+reasons why you should not act in this way."
+
+"What do you mean, Mr. Turnbull? What is my peculiar position?"
+
+"The world will say that you have restored Ongar Park because you
+were afraid to keep it. Indeed, Lady Ongar, you had better let it
+remain as it is."
+
+"I care nothing for what the world says," she exclaimed, rising
+quickly from her chair;--"nothing; nothing!"
+
+"You should really hold by your rights; you should, indeed. Who can
+possibly say what other interests may be concerned? You may marry,
+and live for the next fifty years, and have a family. It is my duty,
+Lady Ongar, to point out these things to you."
+
+"I am sure you are quite right, Mr. Turnbull," she said, struggling
+to maintain a quiet demeanour. "You, of course, are only doing your
+duty. But whether I marry or whether I remain as I am, I shall give
+up this place. And as for what the world, as you call it, may say, I
+will not deny that I cared much for that on my immediate return. What
+people said then made me very unhappy. But I care nothing for it now.
+I have established my rights, and that has been sufficient. To me
+it seems that the world, as you call it, has been civil enough in
+its usage of me lately. It is only of those who should have been my
+friends that I have a right to complain. If you will please to do
+this thing for me, I will be obliged to you."
+
+"If you are quite determined about it--"
+
+"I am quite determined. What is the use of the place to me? I never
+shall go there. What is the use even of the money that comes to me?
+I have no purpose for it. I have nothing to do with it."
+
+There was something in her tone as she said this which well filled
+him with pity.
+
+"You should remember," he said, "how short a time it is since you
+became a widow. Things will be different with you soon."
+
+"My clothes will be different, if you mean that," she answered; "but
+I do not know that there will be any other change in me. But I am
+wrong to trouble you with all this. If you will let Mr. Courton's
+lawyer know, with my compliments to Mrs. Courton, that I have heard
+that she would like to have the place, and that I do not want it, I
+will be obliged to you." Mr. Turnbull having by this time perceived
+that she was quite in earnest, took his leave, having promised to do
+her bidding.
+
+In this interview she had told her lawyer only a part of the plan
+which was now running in her head. As for giving up Ongar Park, she
+took to herself no merit for that. The place had been odious to her
+ever since she had endeavoured to establish herself there and had
+found that the clergyman's wife would not speak to her,--that even
+her own housekeeper would hardly condescend to hold converse with
+her. She felt that she would be a dog in the manger to keep the place
+in her own possession. But she had thoughts beyond this,--resolutions
+only as yet half-formed as to a wider surrender. She had disgraced
+herself, ruined herself, robbed herself of all happiness by the
+marriage she had made. Her misery had not been simply the misery of
+that lord's lifetime. As might have been expected, that was soon
+over. But an enduring wretchedness had come after that from which
+she saw no prospect of escape. What was to be her future life, left
+as she was and would be, in desolation? If she were to give it all
+up,--all the wealth that had been so ill-gotten,--might there not
+then be some hope of comfort for her?
+
+She had been willing enough to keep Lord Ongar's money, and use it
+for the purposes of her own comfort, while she had still hoped that
+comfort might come from it. The remembrance of all that she had to
+give had been very pleasant to her, as long as she had hoped that
+Harry Clavering would receive it at her hands. She had not at once
+felt that the fruit had all turned to ashes. But now,--now that Harry
+was gone from her,--now that she had no friend left to her whom she
+could hope to make happy by her munificence,--the very knowledge of
+her wealth was a burden to her. And as she thought of her riches in
+these first days of her desertion, as she had indeed been thinking
+since Cecilia Burton had been with her, she came to understand that
+she was degraded by their acquisition. She had done that which had
+been unpardonably bad, and she felt like Judas when he stood with the
+price of his treachery in his hand. He had given up his money, and
+would not she do as much? There had been a moment in which she had
+nearly declared all her purpose to the lawyer, but she was held back
+by the feeling that she ought to make her plans certain before she
+communicated them to him.
+
+She must live. She could not go out and hang herself as Judas had
+done. And then there was her title and rank, of which she did not
+know whether it was within her power to divest herself. She sorely
+felt the want of some one from whom in her present need she might
+ask counsel; of some friend to whom she could trust to tell her in
+what way she might now best atone for the evil she had done. Plans
+ran through her head which were thrown aside almost as soon as made,
+because she saw that they were impracticable. She even longed in
+these days for her sister's aid, though of old she had thought but
+little of Hermy as a counsellor. She had no friend whom she might
+ask;--unless she might still ask Harry Clavering.
+
+If she did not keep it all might she still keep something,--enough
+for decent life,--and yet comfort herself with the feeling that she
+had expiated her sin? And what would be said of her when she had made
+this great surrender? Would not the world laugh at her instead of
+praising her,--that world as to which she had assured Mr. Turnbull
+that she did not care what its verdict about her might be? She had
+many doubts. Ah! why had not Harry Clavering remained true to her?
+But her punishment had come upon her with all its severity, and she
+acknowledged to herself now that it was not to be avoided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+LADY ONGAR'S REVENGE.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+At last came the night which Harry had fixed for his visit to Bolton
+Street. He had looked forward certainly with no pleasure to the
+interview, and now that the time for it had come, was disposed to
+think that Lady Ongar had been unwise in asking for it. But he had
+promised that he would go, and there was no possible escape.
+
+He dined that evening in Onslow Crescent, where he was now again
+established with all his old comfort. He had again gone up to the
+children's nursery with Cecilia, had kissed them all in their cots,
+and made himself quite at home in the establishment. It was with them
+there as though there had been no dreadful dream about Lady Ongar. It
+was so altogether with Cecilia and Florence, and even Mr. Burton was
+allowing himself to be brought round to a charitable view of Harry's
+character. Harry on this day had gone to the chambers in the Adelphi
+for an hour, and walking away with Theodore Burton had declared his
+intention of working like a horse. "If you were to say like a man,
+it would perhaps be better," said Burton. "I must leave you to say
+that," answered Harry; "for the present I will content myself with
+the horse." Burton was willing to hope, and allowed himself once more
+to fall into his old pleasant way of talking about the business as
+though there were no other subject under the sun so full of manifold
+interest. He was very keen at the present moment about Metropolitan
+railways, and was ridiculing the folly of those who feared that the
+railway projectors were going too fast. "But we shall never get any
+thanks," he said. "When the thing has been done, and thanks are our
+due, people will look upon all our work so much as a matter of course
+that it will never occur to them to think that they owe us anything.
+They will have forgotten all their cautions, and will take what they
+get as though it were simply their due. Nothing astonishes me so
+much as the fear people feel before a thing is done when I join it
+with their want of surprise or admiration afterwards." In this way
+even Theodore Burton had resumed his terms of intimacy with Harry
+Clavering.
+
+Harry had told both Cecilia and Florence of his intended visit to
+Bolton Street, and they had all become very confidential on the
+subject. In most such cases we may suppose that a man does not say
+much to one woman of the love which another woman has acknowledged
+for himself. Nor was Harry Clavering at all disposed to make any
+such boast. But in this case, Lady Ongar herself had told everything
+to Mrs. Burton. She had declared her passion, and had declared
+also her intention of making Harry her husband if he would take her.
+Everything was known, and there was no possibility of sparing Lady
+Ongar's name.
+
+"If I had been her I would not have asked for such a meeting,"
+Cecilia said. The three were at this time sitting together, for Mr.
+Burton rarely joined them in their conversation.
+
+"I don't know," said Florence. "I do not see why she and Harry should
+not remain as friends."
+
+"They might be friends without meeting now," said Cecilia.
+
+"Hardly. If the awkwardness were not got over at once it would never
+be got over. I almost think she is right, though if I were her
+I should long to have it over." That was Florence's judgment in
+the matter. Harry sat between them, like a sheep as he was, very
+meekly,--not without some enjoyment of his sheepdom, but still
+feeling that he was a sheep. At half-past eight he started up, having
+already been told that a cab was waiting for him at the door. He
+pressed Cecilia's hand as he went, indicating his feeling that he had
+before him an affair of some magnitude, and then of course had a
+word or two to say to Florence in private on the landing. Oh, those
+delicious private words, the need for which comes so often during
+those short halcyon days of one's lifetime! They were so pleasant
+that Harry would fain have returned to repeat them after he was
+seated in his cab; but the inevitable wheels carried him onwards with
+cruel velocity, and he was in Bolton Street before the minutes had
+sufficed for him to collect his thoughts.
+
+
+[Illustration: Harry sat between them, like a sheep as he was, very
+meekly.]
+
+
+Lady Ongar, when he entered the room, was sitting in her accustomed
+chair, near a little work-table which she always used, and did not
+rise to meet him. It was a pretty chair, soft and easy, made with
+a back for lounging, but with no arms to impede the circles of a
+lady's hoop. Harry knew the chair well and had spoken of its graceful
+comfort in some of his visits to Bolton Street. She was seated there
+when he entered; and though he was not sufficiently experienced in
+the secrets of feminine attire to know at once that she had dressed
+herself with care, he did perceive that she was very charming, not
+only by force of her own beauty, but by the aid also of her dress.
+And yet she was in deep mourning,--in the deepest mourning; nor was
+there anything about her of which complaint might fairly be made by
+those who do complain on such subjects. Her dress was high round
+her neck, and the cap on her head was indisputably a widow's cap;
+but enough of her brown hair was to be seen to tell of its rich
+loveliness; and the black dress was so made as to show the full
+perfection of her form; and with it all there was that graceful
+feminine brightness that care and money can always give, and
+which will not come without care and money. It might be well, she
+had thought, to surrender her income, and become poor and dowdy
+hereafter, but there could be no reason why Harry Clavering should
+not be made to know all that he had lost.
+
+"Well, Harry," she said, as he stepped up to her and took her offered
+hand. "I am glad that you have come that I may congratulate you.
+Better late than never; eh, Harry?"
+
+How was he to answer her when she spoke to him in this strain? "I
+hope it is not too late," he said, hardly knowing what the words were
+which were coming from his mouth.
+
+"Nay; that is for you to say. I can do it heartily, Harry, if you
+mean that. And why not? Why should I not wish you happy? I have
+always liked you,--have always wished for your happiness. You believe
+that I am sincere when I congratulate you;--do you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes; you are always sincere."
+
+"I have always been so to you. As to any sincerity beyond that we
+need say nothing now. I have always been your good friend,--to the
+best of my ability. Ah, Harry; you do not know how much I have
+thought of your welfare; how much I do think of it. But never mind
+that. Tell me something now of this Florence Burton of yours. Is she
+tall?" I believe that Lady Ongar, when she asked this question, knew
+well that Florence was short of stature.
+
+"No; she is not tall," said Harry.
+
+"What,--a little beauty? Upon the whole I think I agree with your
+taste. The most lovely women that I have ever seen have been small,
+bright, and perfect in their proportions. It is very rare that a tall
+woman has a perfect figure." Julia's own figure was quite perfect.
+"Do you remember Constance Vane? Nothing ever exceeded her beauty."
+Now Constance Vane,--she at least who had in those days been
+Constance Vane, but who now was the stout mother of two or three
+children,--had been a waxen doll of a girl, whom Harry had known, but
+had neither liked nor admired. But she was highly bred, and belonged
+to the cream of English fashion; she had possessed a complexion as
+pure in its tints as are the interior leaves of a blush rose,--and
+she had never had a thought in her head, and hardly ever a word on
+her lips. She and Florence Burton were as poles asunder in their
+differences. Harry felt this at once, and had an indistinct notion
+that Lady Ongar was as well aware of the fact as was he himself. "She
+is not a bit like Constance Vane," he said.
+
+"Then what is she like? If she is more beautiful than what Miss Vane
+used to be, she must be lovely indeed."
+
+"She has no pretensions of that kind," said Harry, almost sulkily.
+
+"I have heard that she was so very beautiful!" Lady Ongar had never
+heard a word about Florence's beauty;--not a word. She knew nothing
+personally of Florence beyond what Mrs. Burton had told her. But who
+will not forgive her the little deceit that was necessary to her
+little revenge?
+
+"I don't know how to describe her," said Harry. "I hope the time may
+soon come when you will see her, and be able to judge for yourself."
+
+"I hope so too. It shall not be my fault if I do not like her."
+
+"I do not think you can fail to like her. She is very clever, and
+that will go further with you than mere beauty. Not but what I think
+her very,--very pretty."
+
+"Ah,--I understand. She reads a great deal, and that sort of thing.
+Yes; that is very nice. But I shouldn't have thought that that
+would have taken you. You used not to care much for talent and
+learning,--not in women I mean."
+
+"I don't know about that," said Harry, looking very foolish.
+
+"But a contrast is what you men always like. Of course I ought not
+to say that, but you will know of what I am thinking. A clever,
+highly-educated woman like Miss Burton will be a much better
+companion to you than I could have been. You see I am very frank,
+Harry." She wished to make him talk freely about himself, his future
+days, and his past days, while he was simply anxious to say on these
+subjects as little as possible. Poor woman! The excitement of having
+a passion which she might indulge was over with her,--at any rate for
+the present. She had played her game and had lost wofully; but before
+she retired altogether from the gaming-table she could not keep
+herself from longing for a last throw of the dice.
+
+"These things, I fear, go very much by chance," said Harry.
+
+"You do not mean me to suppose that you are taking Miss Burton by
+chance. That would be as uncomplimentary to her as to yourself."
+
+"Chance, at any rate, has been very good to me in this instance."
+
+"Of that I am sure. Do not suppose that I am doubting that. It is
+not only the paradise that you have gained, but the pandemonium
+that you have escaped!" Then she laughed slightly, but the laughter
+was uneasy, and made her angry with herself. She had especially
+determined to be at ease during this meeting, and was conscious that
+any falling off in that respect on her part would put into his hands
+the power which she was desirous of exercising.
+
+"You are determined to rebuke me, I see," said he. "If you choose to
+do so, I am prepared to bear it. My defence, if I have a defence, is
+one that I cannot use."
+
+"And what would be your defence?"
+
+"I have said that I cannot use it."
+
+"As if I did not understand it all! What you mean to say is
+this,--that when your good stars sent you in the way of Florence
+Burton, you had been ill-treated by her who would have made your
+pandemonium for you, and that she therefore,--she who came first and
+behaved so badly--can have no right to find fault with you in that
+you have obeyed your good stars and done so well for yourself. That
+is what you call your defence. It would be perfect, Harry,--perfect,
+if you had only whispered to me a word of Miss Burton when I first
+saw you after my return home. It is odd to me that you should not
+have written to me and told me when I was abroad with my husband.
+It would have comforted me to have known that the wound which I had
+given had been cured;--that is, if there was a wound."
+
+"You know that there was a wound."
+
+"At any rate, it was not mortal. But when are such wounds mortal?
+When are they more than skin-deep?"
+
+"I can say nothing as to that now."
+
+"No, Harry; of course you can say nothing. Why should you be made
+to say anything? You are fortunate and happy, and have all that you
+want. I have nothing that I want."
+
+There was a reality in the tone of sorrow in which this was spoken
+which melted him at once;--and the more so in that there was so much
+in her grief which could not but be flattering to his vanity. "Do not
+say that, Lady Ongar," he exclaimed.
+
+"But I do say it. What have I got in the world that is worth having?
+My possessions are ever so many thousands a year,--and a damaged
+name."
+
+"I deny that. I deny it altogether. I do not think that there is one
+who knows of your story who believes ill of you."
+
+"I could tell you of one, Harry, who thinks very ill of me;--nay, of
+two; and they are both in this room. Do you remember how you used to
+teach me that terribly conceited bit of Latin,--Nil conscire sibi? Do
+you suppose that I can boast that I never grow pale as I think of my
+own fault? I am thinking of it always, and my heart is ever becoming
+paler and paler. And as to the treatment of others;--I wish I could
+make you know what I suffered when I was fool enough to go to that
+place in Surrey. The coachman who drives me no doubt thinks that I
+poisoned my husband, and the servant who let you in just now supposes
+me to be an abandoned woman because you are here."
+
+"You will be angry with me, perhaps, if I say that these feelings are
+morbid and will die away. They show the weakness which has come from
+the ill-usage you have suffered."
+
+"You are right in part, no doubt. I shall become hardened to it all,
+and shall fall into some endurable mode of life in time. But I can
+look forward to nothing. What future have I? Was there ever any one
+so utterly friendless as I am? Your kind cousin has done that for
+me;--and yet he came here to me the other day, smiling and talking as
+though he were sure that I should be delighted by his condescension.
+I do not think that he will ever come again."
+
+"I did not know you had seen him."
+
+"Yes; I saw him;--but I did not find much relief from his visit. We
+won't mind that, however. We can talk about something better than
+Hugh Clavering during the few minutes that we have together;--can we
+not? And so Miss Burton is very learned and very clever?"
+
+"I did not quite say that."
+
+"But I know she is. What a comfort that will be to you! I am not
+clever, and I never should have become learned. Oh, dear! I had but
+one merit, Harry;--I was fond of you."
+
+"And how did you show it?" He did not speak these words, because he
+would not triumph over her, nor was he willing to express that regret
+on his own part which these words would have implied;--but it was
+impossible for him to avoid a thought of them. He remained silent,
+therefore, taking up some toy from the table into his hands, as
+though that would occupy his attention.
+
+"But what a fool I am to talk of it;--am I not? And I am worse
+than a fool. I was thinking of you when I stood up in church to be
+married;--thinking of that offer of your little savings. I used to
+think of you at every harsh word that I endured;--of your modes of
+life when I sat through those terrible nights by that poor creature's
+bed;--of you when I knew that the last day was coming. I thought of
+you always, Harry, when I counted up my gains. I never count them
+up now. Ah, how I thought of you when I came to this house in the
+carriage which you had provided for me, when I had left you at the
+station almost without speaking a word to you! I should have been
+more gracious had I not had you in my thoughts throughout my whole
+journey home from Florence. And after that I had some comfort in
+believing that the price of my shame might make you rich without
+shame. Oh, Harry, I have been disappointed! You will never understand
+what I felt when first that evil woman told me of Miss Burton."
+
+"Oh, Julia, what am I to say?"
+
+"You can say nothing; but I wonder that you had not told me."
+
+"How could I tell you? Would it not have seemed that I was vain
+enough to have thought of putting you on your guard?"
+
+"And why not? But never mind. Do not suppose that I am rebuking you.
+As I said in my letter, we are quits now, and there is no place for
+scolding on either side. We are quits now; but I am punished and you
+are rewarded."
+
+Of course he could not answer this. Of course he was hard pressed
+for words. Of course he could neither acknowledge that he had been
+rewarded, nor assert that a share of the punishment of which she
+spoke had fallen upon him also. This was the revenge with which she
+had intended to attack him. That she should think that he had in
+truth been punished and not rewarded, was very natural. Had he been
+less quick in forgetting her after her marriage, he would have had
+his reward without any punishment. If such were her thoughts, who
+shall quarrel with her on that account?
+
+"I have been very frank with you," she continued. "Indeed, why should
+I not be so? People talk of a lady's secret, but my secret has been
+no secret from you? That I was made to tell it under,--under,--what I
+will call an error,--was your fault; and it is that that has made us
+quits."
+
+"I know that I have behaved badly to you."
+
+"But then unfortunately you know also that I had deserved bad
+treatment. Well; we will say no more about it. I have been very
+candid with you, but then I have injured no one by my candour. You
+have not said a word to me in reply; but then your tongue is tied
+by your duty to Miss Burton,--your duty and your love together, of
+course. It is all as it should be, and now I will have done. When are
+you to be married, Harry?"
+
+"No time has been fixed. I am a very poor man, you know."
+
+"Alas, alas,--yes. When mischief is done, how badly all the things
+turn out. You are poor and I am rich, and yet we cannot help each
+other."
+
+"I fear not."
+
+"Unless I could adopt Miss Burton, and be a sort of mother to her.
+You would shrink, however, from any such guardianship on my part. But
+you are clever, Harry, and can work when you please, and will make
+your way. If Miss Burton keeps you waiting now by any prudent fear on
+her part, I shall not think so well of her as I am inclined to do."
+
+"The Burtons are all prudent people."
+
+"Tell her, from me, with my love,--not to be too prudent. I thought
+to be prudent, and see what has come of it."
+
+"I will tell her what you say."
+
+"Do, please; and, Harry, look here. Will she accept a little present
+from me? You, at any rate, for my sake, will ask her to do so. Give
+her this,--it is only a trifle,"--and she put her hand on a small
+jeweller's box, which was close to her arm upon the table, "and tell
+her,--of course she knows all our story, Harry?"
+
+"Yes; she knows it all."
+
+"Tell her that she whom you have rejected sends it with her kindest
+wishes to her whom you have taken."
+
+"No; I will not tell her that."
+
+"Why not? It is all true. I have not poisoned the little ring, as the
+ladies would have done some centuries since. They were grander then
+than we are now, and perhaps hardly worse, though more cruel. You
+will bid her take it,--will you not?"
+
+"I am sure she will take it without bidding on my part."
+
+"And tell her not to write me any thanks. She and I will both
+understand that that had better be omitted. If, when I shall see her
+at some future time as your wife, it shall be on her finger, I shall
+know that I am thanked." Then Harry rose to go. "I did not mean by
+that to turn you out, but perhaps it may be as well. I have no more
+to say,--and as for you, you cannot but wish that the penance should
+be over." Then he pressed her hand, and with some muttered farewell,
+bade her adieu. Again she did not rise from her chair, but nodding at
+him with a sweet smile, let him go without another word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+SHEWING WHAT HAPPENED OFF HELIGOLAND.
+
+
+During the six weeks after this, Harry Clavering settled down to
+his work at the chambers in the Adelphi with exemplary diligence.
+Florence, having remained a fortnight in town after Harry's return
+to the sheepfold, and having accepted Lady Ongar's present,--not
+without a long and anxious consultation with her sister-in-law on
+the subject,--had returned in fully restored happiness to Stratton.
+Mrs. Burton was at Ramsgate with the children, and Mr. Burton was in
+Russia with reference to a line of railway which was being projected
+from Moscow to Astracan. It was now September, and Harry, in his
+letters home, declared that he was the only person left in London.
+It was hard upon him,--much harder than it was upon the Wallikers
+and other young men whom fate retained in town, for Harry was a man
+given to shooting,--a man accustomed to pass the autumnal months in a
+country house. And then, if things had chanced to go one way instead
+of another, he would have had his own shooting down at Ongar Park
+with his own friends,--admiring him at his heels; or if not so this
+year, he would have been shooting elsewhere with the prospect of
+these rich joys for years to come. As it was, he had promised to
+stick to the shop, and was sticking to it manfully. Nor do I think
+that he allowed his mind to revert to those privileges which might
+have been his at all more frequently than any of my readers would
+have done in his place. He was sticking to the shop, and though he
+greatly disliked the hot desolation of London in those days, being
+absolutely afraid to frequent his club at such a period of the
+year,--and though he hated Walliker mortally,--he was fully resolved
+to go on with his work. Who could tell what might be his fate?
+Perhaps in another ten years he might be carrying that Russian
+railway on through the deserts of Siberia. Then there came to him
+suddenly tidings which disturbed all his resolutions, and changed the
+whole current of his life.
+
+At first there came a telegram to him from the country, desiring
+him to go down at once to Clavering, but not giving him any reason.
+Added to the message were these words,--"We are all well at the
+parsonage;"--words evidently added in thoughtfulness. But before he
+had left the office there came to him there a young man from the bank
+at which his cousin Hugh kept his account, telling him the tidings
+to which the telegram no doubt referred. Jack Stuart's boat had been
+lost, and his two cousins had gone to their graves beneath the sea!
+The master of the boat, and Stuart himself, with a boy, had been
+saved. The other sailors whom they had with them, and the ship's
+steward, had perished with the Claverings. Stuart, it seemed, had
+caused tidings of the accident to be sent to the rector of Clavering
+and to Sir Hugh's bankers. At the bank they had ascertained that
+their late customer's cousin was in town, and their messenger had
+thereupon been sent, first to Bloomsbury Square, and from thence to
+the Adelphi.
+
+Harry had never loved his cousins. The elder he had greatly disliked,
+and the younger he would have disliked had he not despised him. But
+not the less on that account was he inexpressibly shocked when he
+first heard what had happened. The lad said that there could, as he
+imagined, be no mistake. The message had come, as he believed, from
+Holland, but of that he was not certain. There could, however, be no
+doubt about the fact. It distinctly stated that both brothers had
+perished. Harry had known when he received the message from home,
+that no train would take him till three in the afternoon, and had
+therefore remained at the office; but he could not remain now. His
+head was confused, and he could hardly bring himself to think how
+this matter would affect himself. When he attempted to explain his
+absence to an old serious clerk there, he spoke of his own return
+to the office as certain. He should be back, he supposed, in a week
+at the furthest. He was thinking then of his promises to Theodore
+Burton, and had not begun to realize the fact that his whole destiny
+in life would be changed. He said something, with a long face, of
+the terrible misfortune which had occurred, but gave no hint that
+that misfortune would be important in its consequences to himself. It
+was not till he had reached his lodgings in Bloomsbury Square that
+he remembered that his own father was now the baronet, and that he
+was his father's heir. And then for a moment he thought about the
+property. He believed that it was entailed, but even of that he was
+not certain. But if it were unentailed, to whom could his cousin have
+left it? He endeavoured, however, to expel such thoughts from his
+mind, as though there was something ungenerous in entertaining them.
+He tried to think of the widow, but even in doing that he could not
+tell himself that there was much ground for genuine sorrow. No wife
+had ever had less joy from her husband's society than Lady Clavering
+had had from that of Sir Hugh. There was no child to mourn the
+loss,--no brother, no unmarried sister. Sir Hugh had had friends,--as
+friendship goes with such men; but Harry could not but doubt whether
+among them all there would be one who would feel anything like true
+grief for his loss. And it was the same with Archie. Who in the world
+would miss Archie Clavering? What man or woman would find the world
+to be less bright because Archie Clavering was sleeping beneath the
+waves? Some score of men at his club would talk of poor Clavvy for
+a few days,--would do so without any pretence at the tenderness
+of sorrow; and then even of Archie's memory there would be an end.
+Thinking of all this as he was carried down to Clavering, Harry could
+not but acknowledge that the loss to the world had not been great;
+but, even while telling himself this, he would not allow himself to
+take comfort in the prospect of his heirship. Once, perhaps, he did
+speculate how Florence should bear her honours as Lady Clavering; but
+this idea he swept away from his thoughts as quickly as he was able.
+
+The tidings had reached the parsonage very late on the previous
+night; so late that the rector had been disturbed in his bed to
+receive them. It was his duty to make known to Lady Clavering the
+fact that she was a widow, but this he could not do till the next
+morning. But there was little sleep that night for him or for his
+wife! He knew well enough that the property was entailed. He felt
+with sufficient strength what it was to become a baronet at a sudden
+blow, and to become also the owner of the whole Clavering property.
+He was not slow to think of the removal to the great house, of the
+altered prospects of his son, and of the mode of life which would
+be fitting for himself in future. Before the morning came he had
+meditated who should be the future rector of Clavering, and had
+made some calculations as to the expediency of resuming his hunting.
+Not that he was a heartless man,--or that he rejoiced at what had
+happened. But a man's ideas of generosity change as he advances in
+age, and the rector was old enough to tell himself boldly that this
+thing that had happened could not be to him a cause of much grief. He
+had never loved his cousins, or pretended to love them. His cousin's
+wife he did love, after a fashion, but in speaking to his own wife
+of the way in which this tragedy would affect Hermione, he did not
+scruple to speak of her widowhood as a period of coming happiness.
+
+"She will be cut to pieces," said Mrs. Clavering. "She was attached
+to him as earnestly as though he had treated her always well."
+
+"I believe it; but not the less will she feel her release,
+unconsciously; and her life, which has been very wretched, will
+gradually become easy to her."
+
+Even Mrs. Clavering could not deny that this would be so, and then
+they reverted to matters which more closely concerned themselves. "I
+suppose Harry will marry at once now," said the mother.
+
+"No doubt;--it is almost a pity; is it not?" The rector,--as we will
+still call him,--was thinking that Florence was hardly a fitting wife
+for his son with his altered prospects. Ah, what a grand thing it
+would have been if the Clavering property and Lady Ongar's jointure
+could have gone together!
+
+"Not a pity at all," said Mrs. Clavering. "You will find that
+Florence will make him a very happy man."
+
+"I dare say;--I dare say. Only he would hardly have taken her had
+this sad accident happened before he saw her. But if she will make
+him happy that is everything. I have never thought much about
+money myself. If I find any comfort in these tidings it is for his
+sake, not for my own. I would sooner remain as I am." This was not
+altogether untrue, and yet he was thinking of the big house and the
+hunting.
+
+"What will be done about the living?" It was early in the morning
+when Mrs. Clavering asked this question. She had thought much about
+the living during the night. And so had the rector;--but his thoughts
+had not run in the same direction as hers. He made no immediate
+answer, and then she went on with her question. "Do you think that
+you will keep it in your own hands?"
+
+"Well,--no; why should I? I am too idle about it as it is. I should
+be more so under these altered circumstances."
+
+"I am sure you would do your duty if you resolved to keep it, but I
+don't see why you should do so."
+
+"Clavering is a great deal better than Humbleton," said the rector.
+Humbleton was the name of the parish held by Mr. Fielding, his
+son-in-law.
+
+But the idea here put forward did not suit the idea which was running
+in Mrs. Clavering's mind. "Edward and Mary are very well off," she
+said. "His own property is considerable, and I don't think they want
+anything. Besides, he would hardly like to give up a family living."
+
+"I might ask him at any rate."
+
+"I was thinking of Mr. Saul," said Mrs. Clavering boldly.
+
+"Of Mr. Saul!" The image of Mr. Saul, as rector of Clavering,
+perplexed the new baronet egregiously.
+
+"Well;--yes. He is an excellent; clergyman. No one can deny that."
+Then there was silence between them for a few moments. "In that case
+he and Fanny would of course marry. It is no good concealing the fact
+that she is very fond of him."
+
+"Upon my word I can't understand it," said the rector.
+
+"It is so,--and as to the excellence of his character there can be
+no doubt." To this the rector made no answer, but went away into his
+dressing-room, that he might prepare himself for his walk across the
+park to the great house. While they were discussing who should be the
+future incumbent of the living, Lady Clavering was still sleeping in
+unconsciousness of her fate. Mr. Clavering greatly dreaded the task
+which was before him, and had made a little attempt to induce his
+wife to take the office upon herself; but she had explained to him
+that it would be more seemly that he should be the bearer of the
+tidings. "It would seem that you were wanting in affection for her if
+you do not go yourself," his wife had said to him. That the rector of
+Clavering was master of himself and of his own actions, no one who
+knew the family ever denied, but the instances in which he declined
+to follow his wife's advice were not many.
+
+It was about eight o'clock when he went across the park. He had
+already sent a messenger with a note to beg that Lady Clavering
+would be up to receive him. As he would come very early, he had said,
+perhaps she would see him in her own room. The poor lady had, of
+course, been greatly frightened by this announcement; but this fear
+had been good for her, as they had well understood at the rectory;
+the blow, dreadfully sudden as it must still be, would be somewhat
+less sudden under this preparation. When Mr. Clavering reached
+the house the servant was in waiting to show him upstairs to the
+sitting-room which Lady Clavering usually occupied when alone. She
+had been there waiting for him for the last half-hour.
+
+"Mr. Clavering, what is it?" she exclaimed, as he entered with
+tidings of death written on his visage. "In the name of heaven, what
+is it? You have something to tell me of Hugh."
+
+"Dear Hermione," he said, taking her by the hand.
+
+"What is it? Tell me at once. Is he still alive?"
+
+The rector still held her by the hand, but spoke no word. He had been
+trying as he came across the park to arrange the words in which he
+should tell his tale, but now it was told without any speech on his
+part.
+
+"He is dead. Why do you not speak? Why are you so cruel?"
+
+"Dearest Hermione, what am I to say to comfort you?"
+
+What he might say after this was of little moment, for she had
+fainted. He rang the bell, and then, when the servants were
+there,--the old housekeeper and Lady Clavering's maid,--he told to
+them, rather than to her, what had been their master's fate.
+
+"And Captain Archie?" asked the housekeeper.
+
+The rector shook his head, and the housekeeper knew that the rector
+was now the baronet. Then they took the poor widow to her own
+room,--should I not rather call her, as I may venture to speak the
+truth, the enfranchised slave than the poor widow?--and the rector,
+taking up his hat, promised that he would send his wife across to
+their mistress. His morning's task had been painful, but it had been
+easily accomplished. As he walked home among the oaks of Clavering
+Park, he told himself, no doubt, that they were now all his own.
+
+That day at the rectory was very sombre, if it was not actually sad.
+The greater part of the morning Mrs. Clavering passed with the widow,
+and sitting near her sofa she wrote sundry letters to those who were
+connected with the family. The longest of these was to Lady Ongar,
+who was now at Tenby; and in that there was a pressing request from
+Hermione that her sister would come to her at Clavering Park. "Tell
+her," said Lady Clavering, "that all her anger must be over now." But
+Mrs. Clavering said nothing of Julia's anger. She merely urged the
+request that Julia would come to her sister. "She will be sure to
+come," said Mrs. Clavering. "You need have no fear on that head."
+
+"But how can I invite her here, when the house is not my own?"
+
+"Pray do not talk in that way, Hermione. The house will be your own
+for any time that you may want it. Your husband's relations are your
+dear friends; are they not?" But this allusion to her husband brought
+her to another fit of hysterical tears. "Both of them gone," she
+said. "Both of them gone!" Mrs. Clavering knew well that she was not
+alluding to the two brothers, but to her husband and to her baby. Of
+poor Archie no one had said a word,--beyond that one word spoken by
+the housekeeper. For her, it had been necessary that she should know
+who was now the master of Clavering Park.
+
+Twice in the day Mrs. Clavering went over to the big house, and on
+her second return, late in the evening, she found her son. When she
+arrived, there had already been some few words on the subject between
+him and his father.
+
+"You have heard of it, Harry?"
+
+"Yes; a clerk came to me from the banker's."
+
+"Dreadful; is it not? Quite terrible to think of!"
+
+"Indeed it is, sir. I was never so shocked in my life."
+
+"He would go in that cursed boat, though I know that he was advised
+against it," said the father, holding up his hands and shaking his
+head. "And now both of them gone;--both gone at once!"
+
+"How does she bear it?"
+
+"Your mother is with her now. When I went in the morning,--I had
+written a line, and she expected bad news,--she fainted. Of course,
+I could do nothing. I can hardly say that I told her. She asked the
+question, and then saw by my face that her fears were well-founded.
+Upon my word, I was glad when she did faint;--it was the best thing
+for her."
+
+"It must have been very painful for you."
+
+"Terrible;--terrible;" and the rector shook his head. "It will make a
+great difference in your prospects, Harry."
+
+"And in your life, sir! So to say, you are as young a man as myself."
+
+"Am I? I believe I was about as young when you were born. But I don't
+think at all about myself in this matter. I am too old to care to
+change my manner of living. It won't affect me very much. Indeed, I
+hardly know yet how it may affect me. Your mother thinks I ought to
+give up the living. If you were in orders, Harry--"
+
+"I'm very glad, sir, that I am not."
+
+"I suppose so. And there is no need; certainly, there is no need. You
+will be able to do pretty nearly what you like about the property. I
+shall not care to interfere."
+
+"Yes, you will, sir. It feels strange now, but you will soon get used
+to it. I wonder whether he left a will."
+
+"It can't make any difference to you, you know. Every acre of the
+property is entailed. She has her settlement. Eight hundred a year,
+I think it is. She'll not be a rich woman like her sister. I wonder
+where she'll live. As far as that goes, she might stay at the house,
+if she likes it. I'm sure your mother wouldn't object."
+
+Harry on this occasion asked no question about the living, but he
+also had thought of that. He knew well that his mother would befriend
+Mr. Saul, and he knew also that his father would ultimately take his
+mother's advice. As regarded himself he had no personal objection to
+Mr. Saul, though he could not understand how his sister should feel
+any strong regard for such a man.
+
+Edward Fielding would make a better neighbour at the parsonage, and
+then he thought whether an exchange might not be made. After that,
+and before his mother's return from the great house, he took a stroll
+through the park with Fanny. Fanny altogether declined to discuss any
+of the family prospects, as they were affected by the accident which
+had happened. To her mind the tragedy was so terrible that she could
+only feel its tragic element. No doubt she had her own thoughts about
+Mr. Saul as connected with it. "What would he think of this sudden
+death of the two brothers? How would he feel it? If she could be
+allowed to talk to him on the matter, what would he say of their
+fate here and hereafter? Would he go to the great house to offer the
+consolations of religion to the widow?" Of all this she thought much;
+but no picture of Mr. Saul as rector of Clavering, or of herself as
+mistress in her mother's house, presented itself to her mind. Harry
+found her to be a dull companion, and he, perhaps, consoled himself
+with some personal attention to the oak trees. The trees loomed
+larger upon him now than they had ever done before.
+
+On the third day the rector went up to London, leaving Harry at the
+parsonage. It was necessary that lawyers should be visited, and
+that such facts as to the loss should be proved as were capable of
+proof. There was no doubt at all as to the fate of Sir Hugh and his
+brother. The escape of Mr. Stuart and of two of those employed by him
+prevented the possibility of a doubt. The vessel had been caught in a
+gale off Heligoland, and had foundered. They had all striven to get
+into the yacht's boat, but those who had succeeded in doing so had
+gone down. The master of the yacht had seen the two brothers perish.
+Those who were saved had been picked up off the spars to which they
+had attached themselves. There was no doubt in the way of the new
+baronet, and no difficulty.
+
+Nor was there any will made either by Sir Hugh or his brother. Poor
+Archie had nothing to leave, and that he should have left no will was
+not remarkable. But neither had there been much in the power of Sir
+Hugh to bequeath, nor was there any great cause for a will on his
+part. Had he left a son, his son would have inherited everything. He
+had, however, died childless, and his wife was provided for by her
+settlement. On his marriage he had made the amount settled as small
+as his wife's friends would accept, and no one who knew the man
+expected that he would increase the amount after his death. Having
+been in town for three days the rector returned,--being then in full
+possession of the title; but this he did not assume till after the
+second Sunday from the date of the telegram which brought the news.
+
+In the meantime Harry had written to Florence, to whom the tidings
+were as important as to any one concerned. She had left London very
+triumphant,--quite confident that she had nothing now to fear from
+Lady Ongar or from any other living woman, having not only forgiven
+Harry his sins, but having succeeded also in persuading herself
+that there had been no sins to forgive,--having quarrelled with her
+brother half-a-dozen times in that he would not accept her arguments
+on this matter. He too would forgive Harry,--had forgiven him; was
+quite ready to omit all further remark on the matter; but could not
+bring himself when urged by Florence to admit that her Apollo had
+been altogether godlike. Florence had thus left London in triumph,
+but she had gone with a conviction that she and Harry must remain
+apart for some indefinite time, which probably must be measured by
+years. "Let us see at the end of two years," she had said; and Harry
+had been forced to be content. But how would it be with her now?
+
+Harry of course began his letter by telling her of the catastrophe,
+with the usual amount of epithets. It was very terrible, awful,
+shocking,--the saddest thing that had ever happened! The poor widow
+was in a desperate state, and all the Claverings were nearly beside
+themselves. But when this had been duly said, he allowed himself
+to go into their own home question. "I cannot fail," he wrote, "to
+think of this chiefly as it concerns you,--or rather, as it concerns
+myself in reference to you. I suppose I shall leave the business now.
+Indeed, my father seems to think that my remaining there would be
+absurd, and my mother agrees with him. As I am the only son, the
+property will enable me to live easily without a profession. When I
+say 'me,' of course you will understand what 'me' means. The better
+part of 'me' is so prudent, that I know she will not accept this
+view of things without ever so much consideration, and, therefore,
+she must come to Clavering to hear it discussed by the elders. For
+myself, I cannot bear to think that I should take delight in the
+results of this dreadful misfortune; but how am I to keep myself from
+being made happy by the feeling that we may now be married without
+further delay? After all that has passed, nothing will make me happy
+or even permanently comfortable till I can call you fairly my own. My
+mother has already said that she hopes you will come here in about a
+fortnight,--that is, as soon as we shall have fallen tolerably into
+our places again; but she will write herself before that time. I
+have written a line to your brother addressed to the office, which I
+suppose will find him. I have written also to Cecilia. Your brother,
+no doubt, will hear the news first through the French newspapers."
+Then he said a little, but a very little, as to their future modes
+of life, just intimating to her, and no more, that her destiny might
+probably call upon her to be the mother of a future baronet.
+
+The news had reached Clavering on a Saturday. On the following Sunday
+every one in the parish had no doubt heard of it, but nothing on the
+subject was said in church on that day. The rector remained at home
+during the morning, and the whole service was performed by Mr. Saul.
+But on the second Sunday Mr. Fielding had come over from Humbleton,
+and he preached a sermon on the loss which the parish had sustained
+in the sudden death of the two brothers. It is, perhaps, well that
+such sermons should be preached. The inhabitants of Clavering would
+have felt that their late lords had been treated like dogs, had no
+word been said of them in the house of God. The nature of their fate
+had forbidden even the common ceremony of a burial service. It is
+well that some respect should be maintained from the low in station
+towards those who are high, even when no respect has been deserved.
+And, for the widow's sake, it was well that some notice should be
+taken in Clavering of this death of the head of the Claverings. But
+I should not myself have liked the duty of preaching an eulogistic
+sermon on the lives and death of Hugh Clavering and his brother
+Archie. What had either of them ever done to merit a good word from
+any man, or to earn the love of any woman? That Sir Hugh had been
+loved by his wife had come from the nature of the woman, not at all
+from the qualities of the man. Both of the brothers had lived on
+the unexpressed theory of consuming, for the benefit of their own
+backs and their own bellies, the greatest possible amount of those
+good things which fortune might put in their way. I doubt whether
+either of them had ever contributed anything willingly to the comfort
+or happiness of any human being. Hugh, being powerful by nature
+and having a strong will, had tyrannized over all those who were
+subject to him. Archie, not gifted as was his brother, had been
+milder, softer, and less actively hateful; but his principle of
+action had been the same. Everything for himself! Was it not well
+that two such men should be consigned to the fishes, and that the
+world,--especially the Clavering world, and that poor widow, who
+now felt herself to be so inexpressibly wretched when her period of
+comfort was in truth only commencing,--was it not well that the world
+and Clavering should be well quit of them? That idea is the one which
+one would naturally have felt inclined to put into one's sermon on
+such an occasion; and then to sing some song of rejoicing;--either to
+do that, or to leave the matter alone.
+
+But not so are such sermons preached; and not after that fashion
+did the young clergyman who had married the first-cousin of these
+Claverings buckle himself to the subject. He indeed had, I think, but
+little difficulty, either inwardly with his conscience, or outwardly
+with his subject. He possessed the power of a pleasant, easy flow of
+words, and of producing tears, if not from other eyes, at any rate
+from his own. He drew a picture of the little ship amidst the storm,
+and of God's hand as it moved in its anger upon the waters; but of
+the cause of that divine wrath and its direction he said nothing.
+Then, of the suddenness of death and its awfulness he said much, not
+insisting as he did so on the necessity of repentance for salvation,
+as far as those two poor sinners were concerned. No, indeed;--how
+could any preacher have done that? But he improved the occasion by
+telling those around him that they should so live as to be ever ready
+for the hand of death. If that were possible, where then indeed would
+be the victory of the grave? And at last he came to the master and
+lord whom they had lost. Even here there was no difficulty for him.
+The heir had gone first, and then the father and his brother. Who
+among them would not pity the bereaved mother and the widow? Who
+among them would not remember with affection the babe whom they had
+seen at that font, and with respect the landlord under whose rule
+they had lived? How pleasant it must be to ask those questions which
+no one can rise to answer! Farmer Gubbins as he sat by, listening
+with what power of attention had been vouchsafed to him, felt himself
+to be somewhat moved, but soon released himself from the task, and
+allowed his mind to run away into other ideas. The rector was a
+kindly man and a generous. The rector would allow him to enclose that
+little bit of common land, that was to be taken in, without adding
+anything to his rent. The rector would be there on audit days, and
+things would be very pleasant. Farmer Gubbins, when the slight
+murmuring gurgle of the preacher's tears was heard, shook his
+own head by way of a responsive wail; but at that moment he was
+congratulating himself on the coming comfort of the new reign. Mr.
+Fielding, however, got great credit for his sermon; and it did,
+probably, more good than harm,--unless, indeed, we should take into
+our calculation, in giving our award on this subject, the permanent
+utility of all truth, and the permanent injury of all falsehood.
+
+Mr. Fielding remained at the parsonage during the greater part of
+the following week, and then there took place a great deal of family
+conversation respecting the future incumbent of the living. At these
+family conclaves, however, Fanny was not asked to be present. Mrs.
+Clavering, who knew well how to do such work, was gradually bringing
+her husband round to endure the name of Mr. Saul. Twenty times had
+he asserted that he could not understand it; but, whether or no such
+understanding might ever be possible, he was beginning to recognize
+it as true that the thing not understood was a fact. His daughter
+Fanny was positively in love with Mr. Saul, and that to such an
+extent that her mother believed her happiness to be involved in it.
+"I can't understand it;--upon my word I can't," said the rector for
+the last time, and then he gave way. There was now the means of
+giving an ample provision for the lovers, and that provision was to
+be given.
+
+Mr. Fielding shook his head,--not in this instance as to Fanny's
+predilection for Mr. Saul; though in discussing that matter with his
+own wife he had shaken his head very often; but he shook it now with
+reference to the proposed change. He was very well where he was. And
+although Clavering was better than Humbleton, it was not so much
+better as to induce him to throw his own family over by proposing to
+send Mr. Saul among them. Mr. Saul was an excellent clergyman, but
+perhaps his uncle, who had given him his living, might not like Mr.
+Saul. Thus it was decided in these conclaves that Mr. Saul was to be
+the future rector of Clavering.
+
+In the meantime poor Fanny moped,--wretched in her solitude,
+anticipating no such glorious joys as her mother was preparing for
+her; and Mr. Saul was preparing with energy for his departure into
+foreign parts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+IS SHE MAD?
+
+
+Lady Ongar was at Tenby when she received Mrs. Clavering's letter,
+and had not heard of the fate of her brother-in-law till the news
+reached her in that way. She had gone down to a lodging at Tenby
+with no attendant but one maid, and was preparing herself for the
+great surrender of her property which she meditated. Hitherto she had
+heard nothing from the Courtons or their lawyer as to the offer she
+had made about Ongar Park; but the time had been short, and lawyers'
+work, as she knew, was never done in a hurry. She had gone to Tenby,
+flying, in truth, from the loneliness of London to the loneliness
+of the sea-shore,--but expecting she knew not what comfort from the
+change. She would take with her no carriage, and there would, as she
+thought, be excitement even in that. She would take long walks by
+herself;--she would read;--nay, if possible, she would study and
+bring herself to some habits of industry. Hitherto she had failed in
+everything, but now she would try if some mode of success might not
+be open to her. She would ascertain, too, on what smallest sum she
+could live respectably and without penury, and would keep only so
+much out of Lord Ongar's wealth.
+
+But hitherto her life at Tenby had not been successful. Solitary days
+were longer there even than they had been in London. People stared
+at her more; and, though she did not own it to herself, she missed
+greatly the comforts of her London house. As for reading, I doubt
+whether she did much better by the seaside than she had done in the
+town. Men and women say that they will read, and think so,--those,
+I mean, who have acquired no habit of reading,--believing the work
+to be, of all works, the easiest. It may be work, they think, but of
+all works it must be the easiest of achievement. Given the absolute
+faculty of reading, the task of going through the pages of a book
+must be, of all tasks, the most certainly within the grasp of the
+man or woman who attempts it! Alas, no;--if the habit be not there,
+of all tasks it is the most difficult. If a man have not acquired
+the habit of reading till he be old, he shall sooner in his old age
+learn to make shoes than learn the adequate use of a book. And worse
+again;--under such circumstances the making of shoes shall be more
+pleasant to him than the reading of a book. Let those who are not
+old,--who are still young, ponder this well. Lady Ongar, indeed, was
+not old, by no means too old to clothe herself in new habits. But
+even she was old enough to find that the doing so was a matter of
+much difficulty. She had her books around her; but, in spite of her
+books, she was sadly in want of some excitement when the letter from
+Clavering came to her relief.
+
+It was indeed a relief. Her brother-in-law dead, and he also who had
+so lately been her suitor! These two men whom she had so lately seen
+in lusty health,--proud with all the pride of outward life,--had
+both, by a stroke of the winds, been turned into nothing. A terrible
+retribution had fallen upon her enemy,--for as her enemy she had
+ever regarded Hugh Clavering since her husband's death. She took
+no joy in this retribution. There was no feeling of triumph at her
+heart in that he had perished. She did not tell herself that she
+was glad,--either for her own sake or for her sister's. But mingled
+with the awe she felt there was a something of unexpressed and
+inexpressible relief. Her present life was very grievous to her,--and
+now had occurred that which would open to her new hopes and a new
+mode of living. Her brother-in-law had oppressed her by his very
+existence, and now he was gone. Had she had no brother-in-law who
+ought to have welcomed her, her return to England would not have been
+terrible to her as it had been. Her sister would be now restored
+to her, and her solitude would probably be at an end. And then the
+very excitement occasioned by the news was salutary to her. She was,
+in truth, shocked. As she said to her maid, she felt it to be very
+dreadful. But, nevertheless, the day on which she received those
+tidings was less wearisome to her than any other of the days that she
+had passed at Tenby.
+
+Poor Archie! Some feeling of a tear, some half-formed drop that
+was almost a tear, came to her eye as she thought of his fate. How
+foolish he had always been, how unintelligent, how deficient in all
+those qualities which recommend men to women! But the very memory
+of his deficiencies created something like a tenderness in his
+favour. Hugh was disagreeable, nay hateful, by reason of the power
+which he possessed; whereas Archie was not hateful at all, and was
+disagreeable simply because nature had been a niggard to him. And
+then he had professed himself to be her lover. There had not been
+much in this; for he had come, of course, for her money; but even
+when that is the case a woman will feel something for the man who
+has offered to link his lot with hers. Of all those to whom the fate
+of the two brothers had hitherto been matter of moment, I think that
+Lady Ongar felt more than any other for the fate of poor Archie.
+
+And how would it affect Harry Clavering? She had desired to give
+Harry all the good things of the world, thinking that they would
+become him well,--thinking that they would become him very well as
+reaching him from her hand. Now he would have them all, but would
+not have them from her. Now he would have them all, and would share
+them with Florence Burton. Ah,--if she could have been true to
+him in those early days,--in those days when she had feared his
+poverty,--would it not have been well now with her also? The measure
+of her retribution was come full home to her at last! Sir Harry
+Clavering! She tried the name and found that it sounded very well.
+And she thought of the figure of the man and of his nature, and she
+knew that he would bear it with a becoming manliness. Sir Harry
+Clavering would be somebody in his county,--would be a husband of
+whom his wife would be proud as he went about among his tenants and
+his gamekeepers,--and perhaps on wider and better journeys, looking
+up the voters of his neighbourhood. Yes; happy would be the wife of
+Sir Harry Clavering. He was a man who would delight in sharing his
+house, his hopes, his schemes and councils with his wife. He would
+find a companion in his wife. He would do honour to his wife, and
+make much of her. He would like to see her go bravely. And then, if
+children came, how tender he would be to them! Whether Harry could
+ever have become a good head to a poor household might be doubtful,
+but no man had ever been born fitter for the position which he was
+now called upon to fill. It was thus that Lady Ongar thought of Harry
+Clavering as she owned to herself that the full measure of her just
+retribution had come home to her.
+
+Of course she would go at once to Clavering Park. She wrote to her
+sister saying so, and the next day she started. She started so
+quickly on her journey that she reached the house not very many hours
+after her own letter. She was there when the rector started for
+London, and there when Mr. Fielding preached his sermon; but she did
+not see Mr. Clavering before he went, nor was she present to hear the
+eloquence of the younger clergyman. Till after that Sunday the only
+member of the family she had seen was Mrs. Clavering, who spent some
+period of every day up at the great house. Mrs. Clavering had not
+hitherto seen Lady Ongar since her return, and was greatly astonished
+at the change which so short a time had made. "She is handsomer
+than ever she was," Mrs. Clavering said to the rector; "but it is
+that beauty which some women carry into middle life, and not the
+loveliness of youth." Lady Ongar's manner was cold and stately when
+first she met Mrs. Clavering. It was on the morning of her marriage
+when they had last met,--when Julia Brabazon was resolving that she
+would look like a countess, and that to be a countess should be
+enough for her happiness. She could not but remember this now, and
+was unwilling at first to make confession of her failure by any
+meekness of conduct. It behoved her to be proud, at any rate till she
+should know how this new Lady Clavering would receive her. And then
+it was more than probable that this new Lady Clavering knew all that
+had taken place between her and Harry. It behoved her, therefore, to
+hold her head on high.
+
+But before the week was over, Mrs. Clavering,--for we will still call
+her so,--had broken Lady Ongar's spirit by her kindness; and the poor
+woman who had so much to bear had brought herself to speak of the
+weight of her burden. Julia had, on one occasion, called her Lady
+Clavering, and for the moment this had been allowed to pass without
+observation. The widowed lady was then present, and no notice of the
+name was possible. But soon afterwards Mrs. Clavering made her little
+request on the subject. "I do not quite know what the custom may be,"
+she said, "but do not call me so just yet. It will only be reminding
+Hermy of her bereavement."
+
+"She is thinking of it always," said Julia.
+
+"No doubt she is; but still the new name would wound her. And,
+indeed, it perplexes me also. Let it come by-and-by, when we are more
+settled."
+
+Lady Ongar had truly said that her sister was as yet always thinking
+of her bereavement. To her now it was as though the husband she had
+lost had been a paragon among men. She could only remember of him his
+manliness, his power,--a dignity of presence which he possessed,--and
+the fact that to her he had been everything. She thought of that
+last and vain caution which she had given him, when with her hardly
+permitted last embrace she had besought him to take care of himself.
+She did not remember now how coldly that embrace had been received,
+how completely those words had been taken as meaning nothing, how he
+had left her not only without a sign of affection, but without an
+attempt to repress the evidences of his indifference. But she did
+remember that she had had her arm upon his shoulder, and tried to
+think of that embrace as though it had been sweet to her. And she did
+remember how she had stood at the window, listening to the sounds of
+the wheels which took him off, and watching his form as long as her
+eye could rest upon it. Ah! what falsehoods she told herself now of
+her love to him, and of his goodness to her; pious falsehoods which
+would surely tend to bring some comfort to her wounded spirit.
+
+But her sister could hardly bear to hear the praises of Sir Hugh.
+When she found how it was to be, she resolved that she would bear
+them,--bear them, and not contradict them; but her struggle in doing
+so was great, and was almost too much for her.
+
+"He had judged me and condemned me," she said at last, "and
+therefore, as a matter of course, we were not such friends when we
+last met as we used to be before my marriage."
+
+"But, Julia, there was much for which you owed him gratitude."
+
+"We will say nothing about that now, Hermy."
+
+"I do not know why your mouth should be closed on such a subject
+because he has gone. I should have thought that you would be glad to
+acknowledge his kindness to you. But you were always hard."
+
+"Perhaps I am hard."
+
+"And twice he asked you to come here since you returned,--but you
+would not come."
+
+"I have come now, Hermy, when I have thought that I might be of use."
+
+"He felt it when you would not come before. I know he did." Lady
+Ongar could not but think of the way in which he had manifested his
+feelings on the occasion of his visit to Bolton Street. "I never
+could understand why you were so bitter."
+
+"I think, dear, we had better not discuss that. I also have had much
+to bear,--I, as well as you. What you have borne has come in no wise
+from your own fault."
+
+"No, indeed; I did not want him to go. I would have given anything to
+keep him at home."
+
+Her sister had not been thinking of the suffering which had come
+to her from the loss of her husband, but of her former miseries.
+This, however, she did not explain. "No," Lady Ongar continued to
+say. "You have nothing for which to blame yourself, whereas I have
+much,--indeed everything. If we are to remain together, as I hope we
+may, it will be better for us both that bygones should be bygones."
+
+"Do you mean that I am never to speak of Hugh?"
+
+"No;--I by no means intend that. But I would rather that you should
+not refer to his feelings towards me. I think he did not quite
+understand the sort of life that I led while my husband was alive,
+and that he judged me amiss. Therefore I would have bygones be
+bygones."
+
+Three or four days after this, when the question of leaving Clavering
+Park was being mooted, the elder sister started a difficulty as to
+money matters. An offer had been made to her by Mrs. Clavering to
+remain at the great house, but this she had declined, alleging that
+the place would be distasteful to her after her husband's death.
+She, poor soul, did not allege that it had been made distasteful to
+her for ever by the solitude which she had endured there during her
+husband's lifetime! She would go away somewhere, and live as best
+she might upon her jointure. It was not very much, but it would be
+sufficient. She did not see, she said, how she could live with her
+sister, because she did not wish to be dependent. Julia, of course,
+would live in a style to which she could make no pretence.
+
+Mrs. Clavering, who was present,--as was also Lady Ongar,--declared
+that she saw no such difficulty. "Sisters together," she said, "need
+hardly think of a difference in such matters."
+
+Then it was that Lady Ongar first spoke to either of them of her
+half-formed resolution about her money, and then too, for the first
+time, did she come down altogether from that high horse on which
+she had been, as it were, compelled to mount herself while in Mrs.
+Clavering's presence. "I think I must explain," said she, "something
+of what I mean to do,--about my money that is. I do not think that
+there will be much difference between me and Hermy in that respect."
+
+"That is nonsense," said her sister, fretfully.
+
+"There will be a difference in income certainly," said Mrs.
+Clavering, "but I do not see that that need create any uncomfortable
+feeling."
+
+"Only one doesn't like to be dependent," said Hermione.
+
+"You shall not be asked to give up any of your independence," said
+Julia, with a smile,--a melancholy smile, that gave but little sign
+of pleasantness within. Then on a sudden her face became stern and
+hard. "The fact is," she said, "I do not intend to keep Lord Ongar's
+money."
+
+"Not to keep your income!" said Hermione.
+
+"No;--I will give it back to them,--or at least the greater part of
+it. Why should I keep it?"
+
+"It is your own," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Yes; legally it is my own. I know that. And when there was some
+question whether it should not be disputed I would have fought for it
+to the last shilling. Somebody,--I suppose it was the lawyer,--wanted
+to keep from me the place in Surrey. I told them then that I would
+not abandon my right to an inch of it. But they yielded,--and now I
+have given them back the house."
+
+"You have given it back!" said her sister.
+
+"Yes;--I have said they may have it. It is of no use to me. I hate
+the place."
+
+"You have been very generous," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"But that will not affect your income," said Hermione.
+
+"No;--that would not affect my income." Then she paused, not knowing
+how to go on with the story of her purpose.
+
+"If I may say so, Lady Ongar," said Mrs. Clavering, "I would not, if
+I were you, take any steps in so important a matter without advice."
+
+"Who is there that can advise me? Of course the lawyer tells me that
+I ought to keep it all. It is his business to give such advice as
+that. But what does he know of what I feel? How can he understand me?
+How, indeed, can I expect that any one shall understand me?"
+
+"But it is possible that people should misunderstand you," said Mrs.
+Clavering.
+
+"Exactly. That is just what he says. But, Mrs. Clavering, I care
+nothing for that. I care nothing for what anybody says or thinks.
+What is it to me what they say?"
+
+"I should have thought it was everything," said her sister.
+
+"No,--it is nothing;--nothing at all." Then she was again silent, and
+was unable to express herself. She could not bring herself to declare
+in words that self-condemnation of her own conduct which was now
+weighing so heavily upon her. It was not that she wished to keep back
+her own feelings, either from her sister or from Mrs. Clavering; but
+that the words in which to express them were wanting to her.
+
+"And have they accepted the house?" Mrs. Clavering asked.
+
+"They must accept it. What else can they do? They cannot make me call
+it mine if I do not choose. If I refuse to take the income which Mr.
+Courton's lawyer pays in to my bankers', they cannot compel me to
+have it."
+
+"But you are not going to give that up too?" said her sister.
+
+"I am. I will not have his money,--not more than enough to keep me
+from being a scandal to his family. I will not have it. It is a
+curse to me, and has been from the first. What right have I to all
+that money, because,--because,--because--" She could not finish her
+sentence, but turned away from them, and walked by herself to the
+window.
+
+Lady Clavering looked at Mrs. Clavering as though she thought that
+her sister was mad. "Do you understand her?" said Lady Clavering in
+a whisper.
+
+"I think I do," said the other. "I think I know what is passing in
+her mind." Then she followed Lady Ongar across the room, and taking
+her gently by the arm tried to comfort her,--to comfort her, and to
+argue with her as to the rashness of that which she proposed to do.
+She endeavoured to explain to the poor woman how it was that she
+should at this moment be wretched, and anxious to do that which, if
+done, would put it out of her power afterwards to make herself useful
+in the world. It shocked the prudence of Mrs. Clavering,--this idea
+of abandoning money, the possession of which was questioned by no
+one. "They do not want it, Lady Ongar," she said.
+
+"That has nothing to do with it," answered the other.
+
+"And nobody has any suspicion but what it is honourably and fairly
+your own."
+
+"But does anybody ever think how I got it?" said Lady Ongar, turning
+sharply round upon Mrs. Clavering. "You,--you,--you,--do you dare to
+tell me what you think of the way in which it became mine? Could you
+bear it, if it had become yours after such a fashion? I cannot bear
+it, and I will not." She was now speaking with so much violence that
+her sister was awed into silence, and Mrs. Clavering herself found a
+difficulty in answering her.
+
+"Whatever may have been the past," said she, "the question now is how
+to do the best for the future."
+
+"I had hoped," continued Lady Ongar without noticing what was said to
+her, "I had hoped to make everything straight by giving his money to
+another. You know to whom I mean, and so does Hermy. I thought, when
+I returned, that bad as I had been I might still do some good in the
+world. But it is as they tell us in the sermons. One cannot make good
+come out of evil. I have done evil, and nothing but evil has come
+from the evil which I have done. Nothing but evil will come from it.
+As for being useful in the world,--I know of what use I am! When
+women hear how wretched I have been they will be unwilling to sell
+themselves as I did." Then she made her way to the door, and left the
+room, going out with quiet steps, and closing the lock behind her
+without a sound.
+
+"I did not know that she was such as that," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Nor did I. She has never spoken in that way before."
+
+"Poor soul! Hermione, you see there are those in the world whose
+sufferings are worse than yours."
+
+"I don't know," said Lady Clavering. "She never lost what I have
+lost,--never."
+
+"She has lost what I am sure you never will lose, her own
+self-esteem. But, Hermy, you should be good to her. We must all be
+good to her. Will it not be better that you should stay with us for a
+while,--both of you?"
+
+"What, here at the park?"
+
+"We will make room for you at the rectory, if you would like it."
+
+"Oh, no; I will go away. I shall be better away. I suppose she will
+not be like that often; will she?"
+
+"She was much moved just now."
+
+"And what does she mean about her income? She cannot be in earnest."
+
+"She is in earnest now."
+
+"And cannot it be prevented? Only think,--if after all she were to
+give up her jointure! Mrs. Clavering, you do not think she is mad; do
+you?"
+
+Mrs. Clavering said what she could to comfort the elder and weaker
+sister on this subject, explaining to her that the Courtons would not
+be at all likely to take advantage of any wild generosity on the part
+of Lady Ongar, and then she walked home across the park, meditating
+on the character of the two sisters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+MADAME GORDELOUP RETIRES FROM BRITISH DIPLOMACY.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+The reader must be asked to accompany me once more to that room in
+Mount Street in which poor Archie practised diplomacy, and whither
+the courageous Doodles was carried prisoner in those moments in which
+he was last seen of us. The Spy was now sitting alone before her
+desk, scribbling with all her energy,--writing letters on foreign
+policy, no doubt, to all the courts of Europe, but especially to that
+Russian court to which her services were more especially due. She was
+hard at work, when there came the sound of a step upon the stairs.
+The practised ear of the Spy became erect, and she at once knew who
+was her visitor. It was not one with whom diplomacy would much avail,
+or who was likely to have money ready under his glove for her behoof.
+"Ah, Edouard, is that you? I am glad you have come," she said, as
+Count Pateroff entered the room.
+
+"Yes, it is I. I got your note yesterday."
+
+"You are good,--very good. You are always good." Sophie as she said
+this went on very rapidly with her letter,--so rapidly that her hand
+seemed to run about the paper wildly. Then she flung down her pen,
+and folded the paper on which she had been writing with marvellous
+quickness. There was an activity about the woman, in all her
+movements, which was wonderful to watch. "There," she said, "that is
+done; now we can talk. Ah! I have nearly written off my fingers this
+morning." Her brother smiled, but said nothing about the letters. He
+never allowed himself to allude in any way to her professional
+duties.
+
+"So you are going to St. Petersburg?" he said.
+
+"Well,--yes, I think. Why should I remain here spending money with
+both hands and through the nose?" At this idea, the brother again
+smiled pleasantly. He had never seen his sister to be culpably
+extravagant as she now described herself. "Nothing to get and
+everything to lose," she went on saying.
+
+"You know your own affairs best," he answered.
+
+"Yes; I know my own affairs. If I remained here, I should be taken
+away to that black building there;" and she pointed in the direction
+of the workhouse, which fronts so gloomily upon Mount Street. "You
+would not come to take me out."
+
+The count smiled again. "You are too clever for that, Sophie, I
+think."
+
+"Ah, it is well for a woman to be clever, or she must starve,--yes,
+starve! Such a one as I must starve in this accursed country, if I
+were not what you call, clever." The brother and sister were talking
+in French, and she spoke now almost as rapidly as she had written.
+"They are beasts and fools, and as awkward as bulls,--yes, as bulls.
+I hate them. I hate them all. Men, women, children,--they are all
+alike. Look at the street out there. Though it is summer, I shiver
+when I look out at its blackness. It is the ugliest nation! And they
+understand nothing. Oh, how I hate them!"
+
+"They are not without merit. They have got money."
+
+"Money,--yes. They have got money; and they are so stupid, you
+may take it from under their eyes. They will not see you. But of
+their own hearts, they will give you nothing. You see that black
+building,--the workhouse. I call it Little England. It is just the
+same. The naked, hungry, poor wretches lie at the door, and the great
+fat beadles swell about like turkey-cocks inside."
+
+"You have been here long enough to know, at any rate."
+
+"Yes; I have been here long,--too long. I have made my life a
+wilderness, staying here in this country of barracks. And what have
+I got for it? I came back because of that woman, and she has thrown
+me over. That is your fault,--yours,--yours!"
+
+"And you have sent for me to tell me that again?"
+
+"No, Edouard. I sent for you that you might see your sister once
+more,--that I might once more see my brother." This she said
+leaning forward on the table, on which her arms rested, and looking
+steadfastly into his face with eyes moist,--just moist, with a tear
+in each. Whether Edouard was too unfeeling to be moved by this
+show of affection, or whether he gave more credit to his sister's
+histrionic powers than to those of her heart, I will not say; but he
+was altogether irresponsive to her appeal. "You will be back again
+before long," he said.
+
+"Never! I shall come back to this accursed country never again. No;
+I am going once and for all. I will soil myself with the mud of its
+gutters no more. I came for the sake of Julie; and now,--how has she
+treated me?" Edouard shrugged his shoulders. "And you,--how has she
+treated you?"
+
+"Never mind me."
+
+"Ah, but I must mind you. Only that you would not let me manage, it
+might be yours now,--yes, all. Why did you come down to that accursed
+island?"
+
+"It was my way to play my game. Leave that alone, Sophie." And there
+came a frown over the brother's brow.
+
+"Your way to play your game! Yes; and what has become of mine? You
+have destroyed mine; but you think nothing of that. After all that I
+have gone through, to have nothing; and through you,--my brother! Ah,
+that is the hardest of all,--when I was putting all things in train
+for you!"
+
+"You are always putting things in train. Leave your trains alone,
+where I am concerned."
+
+"But why did you come to that place in the accursed island? I am
+ruined by that journey. Yes; I am ruined. You will not help me to get
+a shilling from her,--not even for my expenses."
+
+"Certainly not. You are clever enough to do your own work without my
+aid."
+
+"And is that all from a brother? Well! And now that they have drowned
+themselves,--the two Claverings,--the fool and the brute; and she can
+do what she pleases--"
+
+"She could always do as she pleased since Lord Ongar died."
+
+"Yes; but she is more lonely than ever now. That cousin who is the
+greatest fool of all, who might have had everything,--mon Dieu! yes,
+everything;--she would have given it all to him with a sweep of her
+hand, if he would have taken it. He is to marry himself to a little
+brown girl, who has not a shilling. No one but an Englishman could
+make follies so abominable as these. Ah, I am sick,--I am sick when
+I remember it!" And Sophie gave unmistakeable signs of a grief which
+could hardly have been self-interested. But in truth she suffered
+pain at seeing a good game spoilt. It was not that she had any wish
+for Harry Clavering's welfare. Had he gone to the bottom of the sea
+in the same boat with his cousins, the tidings of his fate would have
+been pleasurable to her rather than otherwise. But when she saw such
+cards thrown away as he had held in his hand, she encountered that
+sort of suffering which a good player feels when he sits behind the
+chair of one who plays up to his adversary's trump, and makes no
+tricks of his own kings and aces.
+
+"He may marry himself to the devil, if he please;--it is nothing to
+me," said the count.
+
+"But she is there;--by herself,--at that place;--what is it called?
+Ten--bie. Will you not go now, when you can do no harm?"
+
+"No; I will not go now."
+
+"And in a year she will have taken some other one for her husband."
+
+"What is that to me? But look here, Sophie, for you may as well
+understand me at once. If I were ever to think of Lady Ongar again as
+my wife, I should not tell you."
+
+"And why not tell me,--your sister?"
+
+"Because it would do me no good. If you had not been there she would
+have been my wife now."
+
+"Edouard!"
+
+"What I say is true. But I do not want to reproach you because of
+that. Each of us was playing his own game; and your game was not my
+game. You are going now, and if I play my game again I can play it
+alone."
+
+Upon hearing this Sophie sat awhile in silence, looking at him. "You
+will play it alone?" she said at last. "You would rather do that?"
+
+"Much rather, if I play any game at all."
+
+"And you will give me something to go?"
+
+"Not one sou."
+
+"You will not;--not a sou?"
+
+"Not half a sou,--for you to go or stay. Sophie, are you not a fool
+to ask me for money?"
+
+"And you are a fool,--a fool who knows nothing. You need not look at
+me like that. I am not afraid. I shall remain here. I shall stay and
+do as the lawyer tells me. He says that if I bring my action she must
+pay me for my expenses. I will bring my action. I am not going to
+leave it all to you. No. Do you remember those days in Florence?
+I have not been paid yet, but I will be paid. One hundred and
+seventy-five thousand francs a year,--and after all I am to have none
+of it! Say;--should it become yours, will you do something for your
+sister?"
+
+"Nothing at all;--nothing. Sophie, do you think I am fool enough to
+bargain in such a matter?"
+
+"Then I will stay. Yes;--I will bring my action. All the world shall
+hear, and they shall know how you have destroyed me and yourself.
+Ah;--you think I am afraid; that I will not spend my money. I will
+spend all,--all,--all; and I will be revenged."
+
+"You may go or stay; it is the same thing to me. Now, if you please,
+I will take my leave." And he got up from his chair to leave her.
+
+"It is the same thing to you?"
+
+"Quite the same."
+
+"Then I will stay, and she shall hear my name every day of
+her life;--every hour. She shall be so sick of me and of you,
+that,--that--that-- Oh, Edouard!" This last appeal was made to him
+because he was already at the door, and could not be stopped in any
+other way.
+
+"What else have you to say, my sister?"
+
+"Oh, Edouard, what would I not give to see all those riches yours?
+Has it not been my dearest wish? Edouard, you are ungrateful. All men
+are ungrateful." Now, having succeeded in stopping him, she buried
+her face in the corner of the sofa and wept plentifully. It must be
+presumed that her acting before her brother must have been altogether
+thrown away; but the acting was, nevertheless, very good.
+
+"If you are in truth going to St. Petersburg," he said, "I will bid
+you adieu now. If not,--au revoir."
+
+"I am going. Yes, Edouard, I am. I cannot bear this country longer.
+My heart is being torn to pieces. All my affections are outraged.
+Yes, I am going;--perhaps on Monday;--perhaps on Monday week. But
+I go in truth. My brother, adieu." Then she got up, and putting a
+hand on each of his shoulders, lifted up her face to be kissed. He
+embraced her in the manner proposed, and turned to leave her. But
+before he went she made to him one other petition, holding him by the
+arm as she did so. "Edouard, you can lend me twenty napoleons till I
+am at St. Petersburg?"
+
+"No, Sophie; no."
+
+"Not lend your sister twenty napoleons!"
+
+"No, Sophie. I never lend money. It is a rule."
+
+"Will you give me five? I am so poor. I have almost nothing."
+
+"Things are not so bad with you as that, I hope?"
+
+"Ah, yes; they are very bad. Since I have been in this accursed
+city,--now, this time, what have I got? Nothing,--nothing. She was to
+be all in all to me,--and she has given me nothing! It is very bad to
+be so poor. Say that you will give me five napoleons;--O my brother!"
+She was still hanging by his arm, and, as she did so, she looked up
+into his face with tears in her eyes. As he regarded her, bending
+down his face over hers, a slight smile came upon his countenance.
+Then he put his hand into his pocket, and taking out his purse,
+handed to her five sovereigns.
+
+"Only five?" she said.
+
+"Only five," he answered.
+
+"A thousand thanks, O my brother." Then she kissed him again, and
+after that he went. She accompanied him to the top of the stairs,
+and from thence showered blessings on his head, till she heard the
+lock of the door closed behind him. When he was altogether gone she
+unlocked an inner drawer in her desk, and, taking out an uncompleted
+rouleau of gold, added her brother's sovereigns thereto. The sum he
+had given her was exactly wanted to make up the required number of
+twenty-five. She counted them half-a-dozen times, to be quite sure,
+and then rolled them carefully in paper, and sealed the little packet
+at each end. "Ah," she said, speaking to herself, "they are very
+nice. Nothing else English is nice, but only these." There were many
+rolls of money there before her in the drawer of the desk;--some ten,
+perhaps, or twelve. These she took out one after another, passing
+them lovingly through her fingers, looking at the little seals at the
+ends of each, weighing them in her hand as though to make sure that
+no wrong had been done to them in her absence, standing them up one
+against another to see that they were of the same length. We may be
+quite sure that Sophie Gordeloup brought no sovereigns with her to
+England when she came over with Lady Ongar after the earl's death,
+and that the hoard before her contained simply the plunder which she
+had collected during this her latest visit to the "accursed" country
+which she was going to leave.
+
+But before she started she was resolved to make one more attempt upon
+that mine of wealth which, but a few weeks ago, had seemed to be
+open before her. She had learned from the servants in Bolton Street
+that Lady Ongar was with Lady Clavering, at Clavering Park, and she
+addressed a letter to her there. This letter she wrote in English,
+and she threw into her appeal all the pathos of which she was
+capable.--
+
+
+   Mount Street, October, 186--.
+
+   DEAREST JULIE,--I do not think you would wish me to go
+   away from this country for ever,--for ever, without
+   one word of farewell to her I love so fondly. Yes; I
+   have loved you with all my heart,--and now I am going
+   away,--for ever. Shall we not meet each other once, and
+   have one embrace? No trouble will be too much to me for
+   that. No journey will be too long. Only say, Sophie, come
+   to your Julie.
+
+   I must go, because I am so poor. Yes; I cannot live longer
+   here without having the means. I am not ashamed to say to
+   my Julie, who is rich, that I am poor. No; nor would I be
+   ashamed to wait on my Julie like a slave if she would let
+   me. My Julie was angry with me, because of my brother! Was
+   it my fault that he came upon us in our little retreat,
+   where we was so happy? Oh, no. I told him not to come. I
+   knew his coming was for nothing,--nothing at all. I knew
+   where was the heart of my Julie!--my poor Julie! But he
+   was not worth that heart, and the pearl was thrown before
+   a pig. But my brother--! Ah, he has ruined me. Why am I
+   separated from my Julie but for him? Well; I can go away,
+   and in my own countries there are those who will not wish
+   to be separated from Sophie Gordeloup.
+
+   May I now tell my Julie in what condition is her poor
+   friend? She will remember how it was that my feet brought
+   me to England,--to England, to which I had said farewell
+   for ever,--to England, where people must be rich like my
+   Julie before they can eat and drink. I thought nothing
+   then but of my Julie. I stopped not on the road to make
+   merchandise,--what you call a bargain,--about my coming.
+   No; I came at once, leaving all things,--my little
+   affairs,--in confusion, because my Julie wanted me to
+   come! It was in the winter. Oh, that winter! My poor bones
+   shall never forget it. They are racked still with the
+   pains which your savage winds have given them. And now it
+   is autumn. Ten months have I been here, and I have eaten
+   up my little substance. Oh, Julie, you, who are so rich,
+   do not know what is the poverty of your Sophie!
+
+   A lawyer have told me,--not a French lawyer, but an
+   English,--that somebody should pay me everything. He says
+   the law would give it me. He have offered me the money
+   himself,--just to let him make an action. But I have
+   said,--No. No; Sophie will not have an action with her
+   Julie. She would scorn that; and so the lawyer went away.
+   But if my Julie will think of this, and will remember her
+   Sophie,--how much she have expended, and now at last there
+   is nothing left. She must go and beg among her friends.
+   And why? Because she have loved her Julie too well. You,
+   who are so rich, would miss it not at all. What would
+   two,--three hundred pounds be to my Julie?
+
+   Shall I come to you? Say so; say so, and I will go at
+   once, if I did crawl on my knees. Oh, what a joy to see
+   my Julie! And do not think I will trouble you about money.
+   No; your Sophie will be too proud for that. Not a word
+   will I say, but to love you. Nothing will I do, but to
+   print one kiss on my Julie's forehead, and then to retire
+   for ever; asking God's blessing for her dear head.
+
+   Thine,--always thine,
+
+   SOPHIE.
+
+
+Lady Ongar, when she received this letter, was a little perplexed by
+it, not feeling quite sure in what way she might best answer it. It
+was the special severity of her position that there was no one to
+whom, in such difficulties, she could apply for advice. Of one thing
+she was quite sure,--that, willingly, she would never again see
+her devoted Sophie. And she knew that the woman deserved no money
+from her; that she had deserved none, but had received much. Every
+assertion in her letter was false. No one had wished her to come,
+and the expense of her coming had been paid for her over and over
+again. Lady Ongar knew that she had money,--and knew also that she
+would have had immediate recourse to law, if any lawyer would have
+suggested to her with a probability of success that he could get more
+for her. No doubt she had been telling her story to some attorney, in
+the hope that money might thus be extracted, and had been dragging
+her Julie's name through the mud, telling all she knew of that
+wretched Florentine story. As to all that Lady Ongar had no doubt;
+and yet she wished to send the woman money!
+
+There are services for which one is ready to give almost any
+amount of money payment,--if only one can be sure that that money
+payment will be taken as sufficient recompence for the service
+in question. Sophie Gordeloup had been useful. She had been very
+disagreeable,--but she had been useful. She had done things which
+nobody else could have done, and she had done her work well. That she
+had been paid for her work over and over again, there was no doubt;
+but Lady Ongar was willing to give her yet further payment, if only
+there might be an end of it. But she feared to do this, dreading
+the nature and cunning of the little woman,--lest she should take
+such payment as an acknowledgment of services for which secret
+compensation must be made,--and should then proceed to further
+threats. Thinking much of all this, Julie at last wrote to her Sophie
+as follows:--
+
+
+   Lady Ongar presents her compliments to Madame Gordeloup,
+   and must decline to see Madame Gordeloup again after what
+   has passed. Lady Ongar is very sorry to hear that Madame
+   Gordeloup is in want of funds. Whatever assistance Lady
+   Ongar might have been willing to afford, she now feels
+   that she is prohibited from giving any by the allusion
+   which Madame Gordeloup has made to legal advice. If Madame
+   Gordeloup has legal demands on Lady Ongar which are
+   said by a lawyer to be valid, Lady Ongar would strongly
+   recommend Madame Gordeloup to enforce them.
+
+   Clavering Park, October, 186--.
+
+
+This she wrote, acting altogether on her own judgment, and sent off
+by return of post. She almost wept at her own cruelty after the
+letter was gone, and greatly doubted her own discretion. But of whom
+could she have asked advice? Could she have told all the story of
+Madame Gordeloup to the rector or to the rector's wife? The letter
+no doubt was a discreet letter; but she greatly doubted her own
+discretion, and when she received her Sophie's rejoinder, she hardly
+dared to break the envelope.
+
+Poor Sophie! Her Julie's letter nearly broke her heart. For sincerity
+little credit was due to her;--but some little was perhaps due. That
+she should be called Madame Gordeloup, and have compliments presented
+to her by the woman,--by the countess with whom and with whose
+husband she had been on such closely familiar terms, did in truth
+wound some tender feelings within her bosom. Such love as she had
+been able to give, she had given to her Julie. That she had always
+been willing to rob her Julie, to make a milch-cow of her Julie, to
+sell her Julie, to threaten her Julie, to quarrel with her Julie
+if aught might be done in that way,--to expose her Julie; nay, to
+destroy her Julie if money was to be so made;--all this did not
+hinder her love. She loved her Julie, and was broken-hearted that her
+Julie should have written to her in such a strain.
+
+But her feelings were much more acute when she came to perceive that
+she had damaged her own affairs by the hint of a menace which she
+had thrown out. Business is business, and must take precedence of
+all sentiment and romance in this hard world in which bread is so
+necessary. Of that Madame Gordeloup was well aware. And therefore,
+having given herself but two short minutes to weep over her Julie's
+hardness, she applied her mind at once to the rectification
+of the error she had made. Yes; she had been wrong about the
+lawyer,--certainly wrong. But then these English people were so
+pig-headed! A slight suspicion of a hint, such as that she had made,
+would have been taken by a Frenchman, by a Russian, by a Pole, as
+meaning no more than it meant. "But these English are bulls; the men
+and the women are all like bulls,--bulls!"
+
+She at once sat down and wrote another letter; another in such an
+ecstasy of eagerness to remove the evil impressions which she had
+made, that she wrote it almost with the natural effusion of her
+heart.--
+
+
+   DEAR FRIEND,--Your coldness kills me,--kills me! But
+   perhaps I have deserved it. If I said there were legal
+   demands I did deserve it. No; there are none. Legal
+   demands! Oh, no. What can your poor friend demand legally?
+   The lawyer--he knows nothing; he was a stranger. It was my
+   brother spoke to him. What should I do with a lawyer? Oh,
+   my friend, do not be angry with your poor servant. I write
+   now not to ask for money,--but for a kind word; for one
+   word of kindness and love to your Sophie before she have
+   gone for ever! Yes; for ever. Oh, Julie, oh, my angel;
+   I would lie at your feet and kiss them if you were here.
+   Yours till death, even though you should still be hard to
+   me,
+
+   SOPHIE.
+
+
+To this appeal Lady Ongar sent no direct answer, but she commissioned
+Mr. Turnbull, her lawyer, to call upon Madame Gordeloup and pay to
+that lady one hundred pounds, taking her receipt for the same. Lady
+Ongar, in her letter to the lawyer, explained that the woman in
+question had been useful in Florence; and explained also that she
+might pretend that she had further claims. "If so," said Lady Ongar,
+"I wish you to tell her that she can prosecute them at law if she
+pleases. The money I now give her is a gratuity made for certain
+services rendered in Florence during the illness of Lord Ongar." This
+commission Mr. Turnbull executed, and Sophie Gordeloup, when taking
+the money, made no demand for any further payment.
+
+Four days after this a little woman, carrying a very big bandbox in
+her hands, might have been seen to scramble with difficulty out of
+a boat in the Thames up the side of a steamer bound from thence for
+Boulogne. And after her there climbed up an active little man, who,
+with peremptory voice, repulsed the boatman's demand for further
+payment. He also had a bandbox on his arm,--belonging, no doubt, to
+the little woman. And it might have been seen that the active little
+man, making his way to the table at which the clerk of the boat
+was sitting, out of his own purse paid the passage-money for two
+passengers,--through to Paris. And the head and legs and neck of that
+little man were like to the head and legs and neck of--our friend
+Doodles, alias Captain Boodle, of Warwickshire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+SHOWING HOW THINGS SETTLED THEMSELVES AT THE RECTORY.
+
+
+When Harry's letter, with the tidings of the fate of his cousins,
+reached Florence at Stratton, the whole family was, not unnaturally,
+thrown into great excitement. Being slow people, the elder Burtons
+had hardly as yet realized the fact that Harry was again to be
+accepted among the Burton Penates as a pure divinity. Mrs. Burton,
+for some weeks past, had grown to be almost sublime in her wrath
+against him. That a man should live and treat her daughter as
+Florence was about to be treated! Had not her husband forbidden
+such a journey, as being useless in regard to the expenditure,
+she would have gone up to London that she might have told Harry
+what she thought of him. Then came the news that Harry was again a
+divinity,--an Apollo, whom the Burton Penates ought only to be too
+proud to welcome to a seat among them!
+
+And now came this other news that this Apollo was to be an Apollo
+indeed! When the god first became a god again, there was still a
+cloud upon the minds of the elder Burtons as to the means by which
+the divinity was to be sustained. A god in truth, but a god with so
+very moderate an annual income;--unless indeed those old Burtons made
+it up to an extent which seemed to them to be quite unnatural! There
+was joy among the Burtons, of course, but the joy was somewhat dimmed
+by these reflections as to the slight means of their Apollo. A lover
+who was not an Apollo might wait; but, as they had learned already,
+there was danger in keeping such a god as this suspended on the
+tenter-hooks of expectation.
+
+But now there came the further news! This Apollo of theirs had really
+a place of his own among the gods of Olympus. He was the eldest son
+of a man of large fortune, and would be a baronet! He had already
+declared that he would marry at once;--that his father wished him to
+do so, and that an abundant income would be forthcoming. As to his
+eagerness for an immediate marriage, no divinity in or out of the
+heavens could behave better. Old Mrs. Burton, as she went through
+the process of taking him again to her heart, remembered that that
+virtue had been his, even before the days of his backsliding had
+come. A warm-hearted, eager, affectionate divinity,--with only this
+against him, that he wanted some careful looking after in these, his
+unsettled days. "I really do think that he'll be as fond of his own
+fireside as any other man, when he has once settled down," said Mrs.
+Burton.
+
+It will not, I hope, be taken as a blot on the character of this
+mother that she was much elated at the prospect of the good things
+which were to fall to her daughter's lot. For herself she desired
+nothing. For her daughters she had coveted only good, substantial,
+painstaking husbands, who would fear God and mind their business.
+When Harry Clavering had come across her path and had demanded a
+daughter from her, after the manner of the other young men who had
+learned the secrets of their profession at Stratton, she had desired
+nothing more than that he and Florence should walk in the path which
+had been followed by her sisters and their husbands. But then had
+come that terrible fear; and now had come these golden prospects.
+That her daughter should be Lady Clavering, of Clavering Park! She
+could not but be elated at the thought of it. She would not live to
+see it, but the consciousness that it would be so was pleasant to her
+in her old age. Florence had ever been regarded as the flower of the
+flock, and now she would be taken up into high places,--according to
+her deserts.
+
+First had come the letter from Harry, and then, after an interval
+of a week, another letter from Mrs. Clavering, pressing her dear
+Florence to go to the parsonage. "We think that at present we all
+ought to be together," said Mrs. Clavering, "and therefore we want
+you to be with us." It was very flattering. "I suppose I ought to go,
+mamma?" said Florence. Mrs. Burton was of opinion that she certainly
+ought to go. "You should write to her ladyship at once," said Mrs.
+Burton, mindful of the change which had taken place. Florence,
+however, addressed her letter, as heretofore, to Mrs. Clavering,
+thinking that a mistake on that side would be better than a mistake
+on the other. It was not for her to be over-mindful of the rank with
+which she was about to be connected. "You won't forget your old
+mother now that you are going to be so grand?" said Mrs. Burton, as
+Florence was leaving her.
+
+"You only say that to laugh at me," said Florence. "I expect no
+grandness, and I am sure you expect no forgetfulness."
+
+The solemnity consequent upon the first news of the accident had worn
+itself off, and Florence found the family at the parsonage happy and
+comfortable. Mrs. Fielding was still there, and Mr. Fielding was
+expected again after the next Sunday. Fanny also was there, and
+Florence could see during the first half-hour that she was very
+radiant. Mr. Saul, however, was not there, and it may as well be said
+at once that Mr. Saul as yet knew nothing of his coming fortune.
+Florence was received with open arms by them all, and by Harry with
+arms which were almost too open. "I suppose it may be in about three
+weeks from now?" he said at the first moment in which he could have
+her to himself.
+
+"Oh, Harry,--no," said Florence.
+
+"No;--why no? That's what my mother proposes."
+
+"In three weeks!--She could not have said that. Nobody has begun to
+think of such a thing yet at Stratton."
+
+"They are so very slow at Stratton!"
+
+"And you are so very fast at Clavering! But, Harry, we don't know
+where we are going to live."
+
+"We should go abroad at first, I suppose."
+
+"And what then? That would only be for a month or so."
+
+"Only for a month? I mean for all the winter,--and the spring. Why
+not? One can see nothing in a month. If we are back for the shooting
+next year that would do,--and then of course we should come here. I
+should say next winter,--that is the winter after the next,--we might
+as well stay with them at the big house, and then we could look about
+us, you know. I should like a place near to this, because of the
+hunting!"
+
+Florence, when she heard all this, became aware that in talking
+about a month she had forgotten herself. She had been accustomed to
+holidays of a month's duration,--and to honeymoon trips fitted to
+such vacations. A month was the longest holiday ever heard of in the
+chambers in the Adelphi,--or at the house in Onslow Crescent. She had
+forgotten herself. It was not to be the lot of her husband to earn
+his bread, and fit himself to such periods as business might require.
+Then Harry went on describing the tour which he had arranged;--which
+as he said he only suggested. But it was quite apparent that in
+this matter he intended to be paramount. Florence indeed made no
+objection. To spend a fortnight in Paris;--to hurry over the Alps
+before the cold weather came; to spend a month in Florence, and then
+go on to Rome;--it would all be very nice. But she declared that it
+would suit the next year better than this.
+
+"Suit ten thousand fiddlesticks," said Harry.
+
+"But it is October now."
+
+"And therefore there is no time to lose."
+
+"I haven't a dress in the world but the one I have on, and a few
+others like it. Oh, Harry, how can you talk in that way?"
+
+"Well, say four weeks then from now. That will make it the seventh of
+November, and we'll only stay a day or two in Paris. We can do Paris
+next year,--in May. If you'll agree to that, I'll agree."
+
+But Florence's breath was taken away from her, and she could agree to
+nothing. She did agree to nothing till she had been talked into doing
+so by Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"My dear," said her future mother-in-law, "what you say is
+undoubtedly true. There is no absolute necessity for hurrying. It is
+not an affair of life and death. But you and Harry have been engaged
+quite long enough now, and I really don't see why you should put it
+off. If you do as he asks you, you will just have time to make
+yourselves comfortable before the cold weather begins."
+
+"But mamma will be so surprised."
+
+"I'm sure she will wish it, my dear. You see Harry is a young man of
+that sort,--so impetuous I mean, you know, and so eager,--and so--you
+know what I mean,--that the sooner he is married the better. You
+can't but take it as a compliment, Florence, that he is so eager."
+
+"Of course I do."
+
+"And you should reward him. Believe me it will be best that it should
+not be delayed." Whether or no Mrs. Clavering had present in her
+imagination the possibility of any further danger that might result
+from Lady Ongar, I will not say, but if so, she altogether failed in
+communicating her idea to Florence.
+
+"Then I must go home at once," said Florence, driven almost to bewail
+the terrors of her position.
+
+"You can write home at once and tell your mother. You can tell her
+all that I say, and I am sure she will agree with me. If you wish it,
+I will write a line to Mrs. Burton myself." Florence said that she
+would wish it. "And we can begin, you know, to get your things ready
+here. People don't take so long about all that now-a-days as they
+used to do." When Mrs. Clavering had turned against her, Florence
+knew that she had no hope, and surrendered, subject to the approval
+of the higher authorities at Stratton. The higher authorities at
+Stratton approved also, of course, and Florence found herself fixed
+to a day with a suddenness that bewildered her. Immediately,--almost
+as soon as the consent had been extorted from her,--she began to be
+surrounded with incipient preparation for the event, as to which,
+about three weeks since, she had made up her mind that it would never
+come to pass.
+
+On the second day of her arrival, in the privacy of her bedroom,
+Fanny communicated to her the decision of her family in regard to
+Mr. Saul. But she told the story at first as though this decision
+referred to the living only,--as though the rectory were to be
+conferred on Mr. Saul without any burden attached to it. "He has
+been here so long, dear," said Fanny, "and understands the people so
+well."
+
+"I am so delighted," said Florence.
+
+"I am sure it is the best thing papa could do;--that is if he quite
+makes up his mind to give up the parish himself."
+
+This troubled Florence, who did not know that a baronet could hold a
+living.
+
+"I thought he must give up being a clergyman now that Sir Hugh is
+dead?"
+
+"O dear, no." And then Fanny, who was great on ecclesiastical
+subjects, explained it all. "Even though he were to be a peer,
+he could hold a living if he pleased. A great many baronets are
+clergymen, and some of them do hold preferments. As to papa, the
+doubt has been with him whether he would wish to give up the work.
+But he will preach sometimes, you know; though of course he will not
+be able to do that unless Mr. Saul lets him. No one but the rector
+has a right to his own pulpit except the bishop; and he can preach
+three times a year if he likes it."
+
+"And suppose the bishop wanted to preach four times?"
+
+"He couldn't do it; at least, I believe not. But you see he never
+wants to preach at all,--not in such a place as this,--so that does
+not signify."
+
+"And will Mr. Saul come and live here, in this house?"
+
+"Some day I suppose he will," said Fanny, blushing.
+
+"And you, dear?"
+
+"I don't know how that may be."
+
+"Come, Fanny."
+
+"Indeed I don't, Florence, or I would tell you. Of course Mr. Saul
+has asked me. I never had any secret with you about that; have I?"
+
+"No; you were very good."
+
+"Then he asked me again; twice again. And then there came,--oh, such
+a quarrel between him and papa. It was so terrible. Do you know, I
+believe they wouldn't speak in the vestry! Not but what each of them
+has the highest possible opinion of the other. But of course Mr. Saul
+couldn't marry on a curacy. When I think of it it really seems that
+he must have been mad."
+
+"But you don't think him so mad now, dear?"
+
+"He doesn't know a word about it yet; not a word. He hasn't been in
+the house since, and papa and he didn't speak,--not in a friendly
+way,--till the news came of poor Hugh's being drowned. Then he came
+up to papa, and, of course, papa took his hand. But he still thinks
+he is going away."
+
+"And when is he to be told that he needn't go?"
+
+"That is the difficulty. Mamma will have to do it, I believe. But
+what she will say, I'm sure I for one can't think."
+
+"Mrs. Clavering will have no difficulty."
+
+"You mustn't call her Mrs. Clavering."
+
+"Lady Clavering then."
+
+"That's a great deal worse. She's your mamma now,--not quite so much
+as she is mine, but the next thing to it."
+
+"She'll know what to say to Mr. Saul."
+
+"But what is she to say?"
+
+"Well, Fanny,--you ought to know that. I suppose you do--love him?"
+
+"I have never told him so."
+
+"But you will?"
+
+"It seems so odd. Mamma will have to-- Suppose he were to turn round
+and say he didn't want me?"
+
+"That would be awkward."
+
+"He would in a minute if that was what he felt. The idea of having
+the living would not weigh with him a bit."
+
+"But when he was so much in love before, it won't make him out of
+love;--will it?"
+
+"I don't know," said Fanny. "At any rate, mamma is to see him
+to-morrow, and after that I suppose;--I'm sure I don't know,--but I
+suppose he'll come to the rectory as he used to do."
+
+"How happy you must be," said Florence, kissing her. To this Fanny
+made some unintelligible demur. It was undoubtedly possible that,
+under the altered circumstances of the case, so strange a being as
+Mr. Saul might have changed his mind.
+
+There was a great trial awaiting Florence Burton. She had to be taken
+up to call on the ladies at the great house,--on the two widowed
+ladies who were still remaining there when she came to Clavering.
+It was only on the day before her arrival that Harry had seen Lady
+Ongar. He had thought much of the matter before he went across to
+the house, doubting whether it would not be better to let Julia go
+without troubling her with a further interview. But he had not then
+seen even Lady Clavering since the tidings of her bereavement had
+come, and he felt that it would not be well that he should let his
+cousin's widow leave Clavering without offering her his sympathy. And
+it might be better, also, that he should see Julia once again, if
+only that he might show himself capable of meeting her without the
+exhibition of any peculiar emotion. He went, therefore, to the house,
+and having asked for Lady Clavering, saw both the sisters together.
+He soon found that the presence of the younger one was a relief to
+him. Lady Clavering was so sad, and so peevish in her sadness,--so
+broken-spirited, so far as yet from recognizing the great
+enfranchisement that had come to her, that with her alone he would
+have found himself almost unable to express the sympathy which he
+felt. But with Lady Ongar he had no difficulty. Lady Ongar, her
+sister being with them in the room, talked to him easily, as though
+there had never been anything between them to make conversation
+difficult. That all words between them should, on such an occasion
+as this, be sad, was a matter of course; but it seemed to Harry that
+Julia had freed herself from all the effects of that feeling which
+had existed between them, and that it would become him to do this
+as effectually as she had done it. Such an idea, at least, was in
+his mind for a moment; but when he left her she spoke one word
+which dispelled it. "Harry," she said, "you must ask Miss Burton
+to come across and see me. I hear that she is to be at the rectory
+to-morrow." Harry of course said that he would send her. "She will
+understand why I cannot go to her, as I should do,--but for poor
+Hermy's position. You will explain this, Harry." Harry, blushing up
+to his forehead, declared that Florence would require no explanation,
+and that she would certainly make the visit as proposed. "I wish to
+see her, Harry,--so much. And if I do not see her now, I may never
+have another chance."
+
+It was nearly a week after this that Florence went across to
+the great house with Mrs. Clavering and Fanny. I think that she
+understood the nature of the visit she was called upon to make,
+and no doubt she trembled much at the coming ordeal. She was going
+to see her great rival,--her rival, who had almost been preferred
+to her,--nay, who had been preferred to her for some short space
+of time, and whose claims as to beauty and wealth were so greatly
+superior to her own. And this woman whom she was to see had been the
+first love of the man whom she now regarded as her own,--and would
+have been about to be his wife at this moment had it not been for her
+own treachery to him. Was she so beautiful as people said? Florence,
+in the bottom of her heart, wished that she might have been saved
+from this interview.
+
+The three ladies from the rectory found the two ladies at the great
+house sitting together in the small drawing-room. Florence was
+so confused that she could hardly bring herself to speak to Lady
+Clavering, or so much as to look at Lady Ongar. She shook hands with
+the elder sister, and knew that her hand was then taken by the other.
+Julia at first spoke a very few words to Mrs. Clavering, and Fanny
+sat herself down beside Hermione. Florence took a chair at a little
+distance, and was left there for a few minutes without notice. For
+this she was very thankful, and by degrees was able to fix her eyes
+on the face of the woman whom she so feared to see, and yet on whom
+she so desired to look. Lady Clavering was a mass of ill-arranged
+widow's weeds. She had assumed in all its grotesque ugliness those
+paraphernalia of outward woe which women have been condemned to wear,
+in order that for a time they may be shorn of all the charms of
+their sex. Nothing could be more proper or unbecoming than the heavy,
+drooping, shapeless blackness in which Lady Clavering had enveloped
+herself. But Lady Ongar, though also a widow, though as yet a
+widow of not twelve months' standing, was dressed,--in weeds, no
+doubt,--but in weeds which had been so cultivated that they were as
+good as flowers. She was very beautiful. Florence owned to herself
+as she sat there in silence, that Lady Ongar was the most beautiful
+woman that she had ever seen. But hers was not the beauty by which,
+as she would have thought, Harry Clavering would have been attracted.
+Lady Ongar's form, bust, and face were, at this period of her life,
+almost majestic; whereas the softness and grace of womanhood were the
+charms which Harry loved. He had sometimes said to Florence that, to
+his taste, Cecilia Burton was almost perfect as a woman. And there
+could be no contrast greater than that between Cecilia Burton and
+Lady Ongar. But Florence did not remember that the Julia Brabazon of
+three years since had not been the same as the Lady Ongar whom now
+she saw.
+
+When they had been there some minutes Lady Ongar came and sat beside
+Florence, moving her seat as though she were doing the most natural
+thing in the world. Florence's heart came to her mouth, but she made
+a resolution that she would, if possible, bear herself well. "You
+have been at Clavering before, I think?" said Lady Ongar. Florence
+said that she had been at the parsonage during the last Easter.
+"Yes,--I heard that you dined here with my brother-in-law." This she
+said in a low voice, having seen that Lady Clavering was engaged with
+Fanny and Mrs. Clavering. "Was it not terribly sudden?"
+
+"Terribly sudden," said Florence.
+
+"The two brothers! Had you not met Captain Clavering?"
+
+"Yes,--he was here when I dined with your sister."
+
+"Poor fellow! Is it not odd that they should have gone, and that
+their friend, whose yacht it was, should have been saved? They say,
+however, that Mr. Stuart behaved admirably, begging his friends to
+get into the boat first. He stayed by the vessel when the boat was
+carried away, and he was saved in that way. But he meant to do the
+best he could for them. There's no doubt of that."
+
+"But how dreadful his feelings must be!"
+
+"Men do not think so much of these things as we do. They have so much
+more to employ their minds. Don't you think so?" Florence did not at
+the moment quite know what she thought about men's feelings, but said
+that she supposed that such was the case. "But I think that after
+all they are juster than we are," continued Lady Ongar,--"juster and
+truer, though not so tender-hearted. Mr. Stuart, no doubt, would have
+been willing to drown himself to save his friends, because the fault
+was in some degree his. I don't know that I should have been able to
+do so much."
+
+"In such a moment it must have been so difficult to think of what
+ought to be done."
+
+"Yes, indeed; and there is but little good in speculating upon it
+now. You know this place, do you not;--the house, I mean, and the
+gardens?"
+
+"Not very well." Florence, as she answered this question, began again
+to tremble. "Take a turn with me, and I will show you the garden. My
+hat and cloak are in the hall." Then Florence got up to accompany
+her, trembling very much inwardly. "Miss Burton and I are going
+out for a few minutes," said Lady Ongar, addressing herself to Mrs.
+Clavering. "We will not keep you waiting very long."
+
+"We are in no hurry," said Mrs. Clavering. Then Florence was carried
+off, and found herself alone with her conquered rival.
+
+"Not that there is much to show you," said Lady Ongar; "indeed
+nothing; but the place must be of more interest to you than to any
+one else; and if you are fond of that sort of thing, no doubt you
+will make it all that is charming."
+
+"I am very fond of a garden," said Florence.
+
+"I don't know whether I am. Alone, by myself, I think I should care
+nothing for the prettiest Eden in all England. I don't think I
+would care for a walk through the Elysian fields by myself. I am a
+chameleon, and take the colour of those with whom I live. My future
+colours will not be very bright as I take it. It's a gloomy place
+enough; is it not? But there are fine trees, you see, which are the
+only things which one cannot by any possibility command. Given good
+trees, taste and money may do anything very quickly; as I have no
+doubt you'll find."
+
+"I don't suppose I shall have much to do with it--at present."
+
+"I should think that you will have everything to do with it. There,
+Miss Burton; I brought you here to show you this very spot, and to
+make to you my confession here,--and to get from you, here, one word
+of confidence, if you will give it me." Florence was trembling now
+outwardly as well as inwardly. "You know my story; as far, I mean, as
+I had a story once, in conjunction with Harry Clavering?"
+
+
+[Illustration: Lady Ongar and Florence.]
+
+
+"I think I do," said Florence.
+
+"I am sure you do," said Lady Ongar. "He has told me that you do; and
+what he says is always true. It was here, on this spot, that I gave
+him back his troth to me, and told him that I would have none of his
+love, because he was poor. That is barely two years ago. Now he is
+poor no longer. Now, had I been true to him, a marriage with him
+would have been, in a prudential point of view, all that any woman
+could desire. I gave up the dearest heart, the sweetest temper, ay,
+and the truest man that, that-- Well, you have won him instead, and
+he has been the gainer. I doubt whether I ever should have made him
+happy; but I know that you will do so. It was just here that I parted
+from him."
+
+"He has told me of that parting," said Florence.
+
+"I am sure he has. And, Miss Burton, if you will allow me to say one
+word further,--do not be made to think any ill of him because of what
+happened the other day."
+
+"I think no ill of him," said Florence proudly.
+
+"That is well. But I am sure you do not. You are not one to think
+evil, as I take it, of anybody; much less of him whom you love. When
+he saw me again, free as I am, and when I saw him, thinking him also
+to be free, was it strange that some memory of old days should come
+back upon us? But the fault, if fault there has been, was mine."
+
+"I have never said that there was any fault."
+
+"No, Miss Burton; but others have said so. No doubt I am foolish
+to talk to you in this way; and I have not yet said that which I
+desired to say. It is simply this;--that I do not begrudge you your
+happiness. I wished the same happiness to be mine; but it is not
+mine. It might have been, but I forfeited it. It is past; and I will
+pray that you may enjoy it long. You will not refuse to receive my
+congratulations?"
+
+"Indeed, I will not."
+
+"Or to think of me as a friend of your husband's?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"That is all then. I have shown you the gardens, and now we may
+go in. Some day, perhaps, when you are Lady Paramount here, and
+your children are running about the place, I may come again to see
+them;--if you and he will have me."
+
+"I hope you will, Lady Ongar. In truth, I hope so."
+
+"It is odd enough that I said to him once that I would never go to
+Clavering Park again till I went there to see his wife. That was long
+before those two poor brothers perished,--before I had ever heard of
+Florence Burton. And yet, indeed, it was not very long ago. It was
+since my husband died. But that was not quite true, for here I am,
+and he has not yet got a wife. But it was odd; was it not?"
+
+"I cannot think what should have made you say that."
+
+"A spirit of prophecy comes on one sometimes, I suppose. Well; shall
+we go in? I have shown you all the wonders of the garden, and told
+you all the wonders connected with it of which I know aught. No doubt
+there would be other wonders, more wonderful, if one could ransack
+the private history of all the Claverings for the last hundred years.
+I hope, Miss Burton, that any marvels which may attend your career
+here may be happy marvels." She then took Florence by the hand, and
+drawing close to her, stooped over and kissed her. "You will think me
+a fool, of course," said she; "but I do not care for that." Florence
+now was in tears, and could make no answer in words; but she pressed
+the hand which she still held, and then followed her companion back
+into the house. After that, the visit was soon brought to an end, and
+the three ladies from the rectory returned across the park to their
+house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+Florence Burton had taken upon herself to say that Mrs. Clavering
+would have no difficulty in making to Mr. Saul the communication
+which was now needed before he could be received at the rectory, as
+the rector's successor and future son-in-law; but Mrs. Clavering
+was by no means so confident of her own powers. To her it seemed as
+though the undertaking which she had in hand, was one surrounded with
+difficulties. Her husband, when the matter was being discussed, at
+once made her understand that he would not relieve her by an offer
+to perform the task. He had been made to break the bad news to Lady
+Clavering, and, having been submissive in that matter, felt himself
+able to stand aloof altogether as to this more difficult embassy.
+"I suppose it would hardly do to ask Harry to see him again," Mrs.
+Clavering had said. "You would do it much better, my dear," the
+rector had replied. Then Mrs. Clavering had submitted in her turn;
+and when the scheme was fully matured, and the time had come in
+which the making of the proposition could no longer be delayed with
+prudence, Mr. Saul was summoned by a short note. "Dear Mr. Saul,--If
+you are disengaged would you come to me at the rectory at eleven
+to-morrow?--Yours ever, M. C." Mr. Saul of course said that he would
+come. When the to-morrow had arrived and breakfast was over, the
+rector and Harry took themselves off, somewhere about the grounds of
+the great house,--counting up their treasures of proprietorship, as
+we can fancy that men so circumstanced would do,--while Mary Fielding
+with Fanny and Florence retired upstairs, so that they might be
+well out of the way. They knew, all of them, what was about to be
+done, and Fanny behaved herself like a white lamb decked with bright
+ribbons for the sacrificial altar. To her it was a sacrificial
+morning,--very sacred, very solemn, and very trying to the nerves.
+"I don't think that any girl was ever in such a position before," she
+said to her sister. "A great many girls would be glad to be in the
+same position," Mrs. Fielding replied. "Do you think so? To me there
+is something almost humiliating in the idea that he should be asked
+to take me." "Fiddlestick, my dear," replied Mrs. Fielding.
+
+Mr. Saul came, punctual as the church clock,--of which he had the
+regulating himself,--and was shown into the rectory dining-room,
+where Mrs. Clavering was sitting alone. He looked, as he ever did,
+serious, composed, ill-dressed, and like a gentleman. Of course he
+must have supposed that the present rector would make some change
+in his mode of living, and could not be surprised that he should
+have been summoned to the rectory;--but he was surprised that the
+summons should have come from Mrs. Clavering, and not from the
+rector himself. It appeared to him that the old enmity must be very
+enduring, if, even now, Mr. Clavering could not bring himself to see
+his curate on a matter of business.
+
+"It seems a long time since we have seen you here, Mr. Saul," said
+Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Yes;--when I have remembered how often I used to be here, my absence
+has seemed long and strange."
+
+"It has been a source of great grief to me."
+
+"And to me, Mrs. Clavering."
+
+"But, as circumstances then were, in truth it could not be avoided.
+Common prudence made it necessary. Don't you think so, Mr. Saul?"
+
+"If you ask me I must answer according to my own ideas. Common
+prudence should not have made it necessary,--at least not according
+to my view of things. Common prudence, with different people, means
+such different things! But I am not going to quarrel with your ideas
+of common prudence, Mrs. Clavering."
+
+Mrs. Clavering had begun badly, and was aware of it. She should have
+said nothing about the past. She had foreseen, from the first, the
+danger of doing so, but had been unable to rush at once into the
+golden future. "I hope we shall have no more quarrelling at any
+rate," she said.
+
+"There shall be none on my part. Only, Mrs. Clavering, you must not
+suppose from my saying so that I intend to give up my pretensions.
+A word from your daughter would make me do so, but no words from any
+one else."
+
+"She ought to be very proud of such constancy on your part, Mr. Saul,
+and I have no doubt she will be." Mr. Saul did not understand this,
+and made no reply to it. "I don't know whether you have heard that
+Mr. Clavering intends to--give up the living."
+
+"I have not heard it. I have thought it probable that he would do
+so."
+
+"He has made up his mind that he will. The fact is, that if he held
+it, he must neglect either that or the property." We will not stop
+at this moment to examine what Mr. Saul's ideas must have been as to
+the exigencies of the property, which would leave no time for the
+performance of such clerical duties as had fallen for some years past
+to the share of the rector himself. "He hopes that he may be allowed
+to take some part in the services,--but he means to resign the
+living."
+
+"I suppose that will not much affect me for the little time that I
+have to remain."
+
+"We think it will affect you,--and hope that it may. Mr. Clavering
+wishes you to accept the living."
+
+"To accept the living?" And for a moment even Mr. Saul looked as
+though he were surprised.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Saul."
+
+"To be rector of Clavering?"
+
+"If you see no objection to such an arrangement."
+
+"It is a most munificent offer,--but as strange as it is munificent.
+Unless indeed--" And then some glimpse of the truth made its way into
+the chinks of Mr. Saul's mind.
+
+"Mr. Clavering would, no doubt, have made the offer to you himself,
+had it not been that I can, perhaps, speak to you about dear Fanny
+better than he could do. Though our prudence has not been quite to
+your mind, you can at any rate understand that we might very much
+object to her marrying you when there was nothing for you to live on,
+even though we had no objection to yourself personally."
+
+"But Mr. Clavering did object on both grounds."
+
+"I was not aware that he had done so; but, if so, no such objection
+is now made by him,--or by me. My idea is that a child should
+be allowed to consult her own heart, and to indulge her own
+choice,--provided that in doing so she does not prepare for herself
+a life of indigence, which must be a life of misery; and of course
+providing also that there be no strong personal objection."
+
+"A life of indigence need not be a life of misery," said Mr. Saul,
+with that obstinacy which formed so great a part of his character.
+
+"Well, well."
+
+"I am very indigent, but I am not at all miserable. If we are to be
+made miserable by that, what is the use of all our teaching?"
+
+"But, at any rate, a competence is comfortable."
+
+"Too comfortable!" As Mr. Saul made this exclamation, Mrs. Clavering
+could not but wonder at her daughter's taste. But the matter had gone
+too far now for any possibility of receding.
+
+"You will not refuse it, I hope, as it will be accompanied by what
+you say you still desire."
+
+"No; I will not refuse it. And may God give her and me grace so to
+use the riches of this world that they become not a stumbling-block
+to us, and a rock of offence. It is possible that the camel should be
+made to go through the needle's eye. It is possible."
+
+"The position, you know, is not one of great wealth."
+
+"It is to me, who have barely hitherto had the means of support. Will
+you tell your husband from me that I will accept, and endeavour not
+to betray the double trust he proposes to confer on me. It is much
+that he should give to me his daughter. She shall be to me bone of my
+bone, and flesh of my flesh. If God will give me his grace thereto, I
+will watch over her, so that no harm shall come nigh her. I love her
+as the apple of my eye; and I am thankful,--very thankful that the
+rich gift should be made to me."
+
+"I am sure that you love her, Mr. Saul."
+
+"But," continued he, not marking her interruption, "that other trust
+is one still greater, and requiring a more tender care and even a
+closer sympathy. I shall feel that the souls of these people will be,
+as it were, in my hand, and that I shall be called upon to give an
+account of their welfare. I will strive,--I will strive. And she,
+also, will be with me, to help me."
+
+When Mrs. Clavering described this scene to her husband, he shook his
+head; and there came over his face a smile, in which there was much
+of melancholy, as he said, "Ah, yes,--that is all very well now. He
+will settle down as other men do, I suppose, when he has four or five
+children around him." Such were the ideas which the experience of
+the outgoing and elder clergyman taught him to entertain as to the
+ecstatic piety of his younger brother.
+
+It was Mrs. Clavering who suggested to Mr. Saul that perhaps he would
+like to see Fanny. This she did when her story had been told, and he
+was preparing to leave her. "Certainly, if she will come to me."
+
+"I will make no promise," said Mrs. Clavering, "but I will see." Then
+she went upstairs to the room where the girls were sitting, and the
+sacrificial lamb was sent down into the drawing-room. "I suppose if
+you say so, mamma--"
+
+"I think, my dear, that you had better see him. You will meet then
+more comfortably afterwards." So Fanny went into the drawing-room,
+and Mr. Saul was sent to her there. What passed between them all
+readers of these pages will understand. Few young ladies, I fear,
+will envy Fanny Clavering her lover; but they will remember that Love
+will still be lord of all; and they will acknowledge that he had done
+much to deserve the success in life which had come in his way.
+
+It was long before the old rector could reconcile himself either
+to the new rector or his new son-in-law. Mrs. Clavering had now
+so warmly taken up Fanny's part, and had so completely assumed a
+mother's interest in her coming marriage, that Mr. Clavering, or Sir
+Henry, as we may now call him, had found himself obliged to abstain
+from repeating to her the wonder with which he still regarded his
+daughter's choice. But to Harry he could still be eloquent on the
+subject. "Of course it's all right now," he said. "He's a very good
+young man, and nobody would work harder in the parish. I always
+thought I was very lucky to have such an assistant. But upon my word
+I cannot understand Fanny; I cannot indeed."
+
+"She has been taken by the religious side of her character," said
+Harry.
+
+"Yes, of course. And no doubt it is very gratifying to me to see that
+she thinks so much of religion. It should be the first consideration
+with all of us at all times. But she has never been used to men like
+Mr. Saul."
+
+"Nobody can deny that he is a gentleman."
+
+"Yes; he is a gentleman. God forbid that I should say he was not;
+especially now that he is going to marry your sister. But-- I don't
+know whether you quite understand what I mean?"
+
+"I think I do. He isn't quite one of our sort."
+
+"How on earth she can ever have brought herself to look at him in
+that light!"
+
+"There's no accounting for tastes, sir. And, after all, as he's to
+have the living, there will be nothing to regret."
+
+"No; nothing to regret. I suppose he'll be up at the other house
+occasionally. I never could make anything of him when he dined at the
+rectory; perhaps he'll be better there. Perhaps, when he's married,
+he'll get into the way of drinking a glass of wine like anybody else.
+Dear Fanny; I hope she'll be happy. That's everything." In answer to
+this Harry took upon himself to assure his father that Fanny would
+be happy; and then they changed the conversation, and discussed the
+alterations which they would make in reference to the preservation of
+pheasants.
+
+Mr. Saul and Fanny remained long together on that occasion, and when
+they parted he went off about his work, not saying a word to any
+other person in the house, and she betook herself as fast as her feet
+could carry her to her own room. She said not a word either to her
+mother, or to her sister, or to Florence as to what had passed at
+that interview; but, when she was first seen by any of them, she
+was very grave in her demeanour, and very silent. When her father
+congratulated her, which he did with as much cordiality as he was
+able to assume, she kissed him and thanked him for his care and
+kindness; but even this she did almost solemnly. "Ah, I see how it
+is to be," said the old rector to his wife. "There are to be no more
+cakes and ale in the parish." Then his wife reminded him of what he
+himself had said of the change which would take place in Mr. Saul's
+ways when he should have a lot of children running about his feet.
+"Then I can only hope that they'll begin to run about very soon,"
+said the old rector.
+
+To her sister, Mary Fielding, Fanny said little or nothing of her
+coming marriage, but to Florence, who, as regarded that event, was
+in the same position as herself, she frequently did express her
+feelings,--declaring how awful to her was the responsibility of
+the thing she was about to do. "Of course that's quite true," said
+Florence, "but it doesn't make one doubt that one is right to marry."
+
+"I don't know," said Fanny. "When I think of it, it does almost make
+me doubt."
+
+"Then if I were Mr. Saul I would not let you think of it at all."
+
+"Ah;--that shows that you do not understand him. He would be the
+first to advise me to hesitate if he thought that,--that--that;--I
+don't know that I can quite express what I mean."
+
+"Under those circumstances Mr. Saul won't think
+that,--that--that--that--"
+
+"Oh, Florence, it is too serious for laughing. It is indeed." Then
+Florence also hoped that a time might come, and that shortly, in
+which Mr. Saul might moderate his views,--though she did not express
+herself exactly as the rector had done.
+
+Immediately after this Florence went back to Stratton, in order that
+she might pass what remained to her of her freedom with her mother
+and father, and that she might prepare herself for her wedding. The
+affair with her was so much hurried that she had hardly time to give
+her mind to those considerations which were weighing so heavily
+on Fanny's mind. It was felt by all the Burtons,--especially by
+Cecilia,--that there was need for extension of their views in regard
+to millinery, seeing that Florence was to marry the eldest son
+and heir of a baronet. And old Mrs. Burton was awed almost into
+quiescence by the reflections which came upon her when she thought
+of the breakfast, and of the presence of Sir Henry Clavering. She at
+once summoned her daughter-in-law from Ramsgate to her assistance,
+and felt that all her experience, gathered from the wedding
+breakfasts of so many elder daughters, would hardly carry her through
+the difficulties of the present occasion.
+
+The two widowed sisters were still at the great house when Sir Henry
+Clavering with Harry and Fanny went to Stratton, but they left it on
+the following day. The father and son went up together to bid them
+farewell, on the eve of their departure, and to press upon them,
+over and over again, the fact that they were still to regard the
+Claverings of Clavering Park as their nearest relations and friends.
+The elder sister simply cried when this was said to her,--cried
+easily with plenteous tears, till the weeds which enveloped her
+seemed to be damp from the ever-running fountain. Hitherto, to
+weep had been her only refuge; but I think that even this had
+already become preferable to her former life. Lady Ongar assured Sir
+Henry, or Mr. Clavering, as he was still called till after their
+departure,--that she would always remember and accept his kindness.
+"And you will come to us?" said he. "Certainly; when I can make Hermy
+come. She will be better when the summer is here. And then, after
+that, we will think about it." On this occasion she seemed to be
+quite cheerful herself, and bade Harry farewell with all the frank
+affection of an old friend.
+
+"I have given up the house in Bolton Street," she said to him.
+
+"And where do you mean to live?"
+
+"Anywhere; just as it may suit Hermy. What difference does it make?
+We are going to Tenby now, and though Tenby seems to me to have as
+few attractions as any place I ever knew, I daresay we shall stay
+there, simply because we shall be there. That is the consideration
+which weighs most with such old women as we are. Good-by, Harry."
+
+"Good-by, Julia. I hope that I may yet see you,--you and Hermy, happy
+before long."
+
+"I don't know much about happiness, Harry. There comes a dream of it
+sometimes,--such as you have got now. But I will answer for this: you
+shall never hear of my being down-hearted. At least not on my own
+account," she added in a whisper. "Poor Hermy may sometimes drag me
+down. But I will do my best. And, Harry, tell your wife that I shall
+write to her occasionally,--once a year, or something like that; so
+that she need not be afraid. Good-by, Harry."
+
+"Good-by, Julia." And so they parted.
+
+Immediately on her arrival at Tenby, Lady Ongar communicated to Mr.
+Turnbull her intention of giving back to the Courton family, not only
+the place called Ongar Park, but also the whole of her income with
+the exception of eight hundred a year, so that in that respect she
+might be equal to her sister. This brought Mr. Turnbull down to
+Tenby, and there was interview after interview between the countess
+and the lawyer. The proposition, however, was made to the Courtons,
+and was absolutely refused by them. Ongar Park was accepted on behalf
+of the mother of the present earl; but as regarded the money, the
+widow of the late earl was assured by the elder surviving brother
+that no one doubted her right to it, or would be a party to accepting
+it from her. "Then," said Lady Ongar, "it will accumulate in my
+hands, and I can leave it as I please in my will."
+
+"As to that, no one can control you," said her brother-in-law--who
+went to Tenby to see her; "but you must not be angry, if I advise
+you not to make any such resolution. Such hoards never have good
+results." This good result, however, did come from the effort which
+the poor broken-spirited woman was making,--that an intimacy, and at
+last a close friendship, was formed between her and the relatives of
+her deceased lord.
+
+And now my story is done. My readers will easily understand what
+would be the future life of Harry Clavering and his wife after the
+completion of that tour in Italy, and the birth of the heir,--the
+preparations for which made the tour somewhat shorter than Harry had
+intended. His father, of course, gave up to him the shooting, and
+the farming of the home farm,--and after a while, the management of
+the property. Sir Henry preached occasionally,--believing himself to
+preach much oftener than he did,--and usually performed some portion
+of the morning service.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Theodore Burton, in answer to some comfortable remark
+from his wife; "Providence has done very well for Florence. And
+Providence has done very well for him also;--but Providence was
+making a great mistake when she expected him to earn his bread."
+
+
+
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Claverings, by Anthony Trollope,
+Illustrated by Mary Ellen Edwards</h1>
+<p class="noindent">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+<p class="noindent">Title: The Claverings</p>
+<p class="noindent">Author: Anthony Trollope</p>
+<p class="noindent">Release Date: May 3, 2005  [eBook #15766]<br />
+This revision, incorporating the original illustrations, released July 23, 2014,
+and further revised July 14, 2018</p>
+<p class="noindent">Language: English</p>
+<p class="noindent">Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p class="noindent">***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLAVERINGS***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Mike Mariano<br />
+    from page images generously made available by the<br />
+    Making of America Collection of the Cornell University Library<br />
+    (<a href="http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/">http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/</a>)<br />
+    and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.,<br />
+    using illustrations generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive<br />
+    (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Editorial Note:<br />
+      <br />
+      <i>The Claverings</i> was published first in serial form in the
+      <i>The Cornhill Magazine</i> from February, 1866, to May, 1867,
+      and then in book form by Smith, Elder and Co. in 1867.<br />
+      <br />
+      The <i>Cornhill</i> version contained 16 full-page illustrations
+      and 16 quarter-page vignettes by Mary Ellen Edwards, a respected
+      and successful illustrator. The Smith, Elder first edition contained
+      only the full-page illustrations. Both the full-page illustrations
+      and the vignettes are included in this e-book.<br />
+      <br />
+      Images of the original illustrations are available through
+      Internet Archive.<br />
+      For Chapters I-XV see
+      <a href="https://archive.org/details/claverings01trolrich">
+      https://archive.org/details/claverings01trolrich</a><br />
+      Chapters XVI-XXXIII see
+      <a href="https://archive.org/details/claverings02trolrich">
+      https://archive.org/details/claverings02trolrich</a><br />
+      and Chapters XXXIV-XLVIII see
+      <a href="https://archive.org/details/claverings03trolrich">
+      https://archive.org/details/claverings03trolrich</a>
+   </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h1>THE CLAVERINGS</h1>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>by</h4>
+
+<h2>ANTHONY TROLLOPE</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="center">
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="1">
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>      <td><a href="#c01" >JULIA BRABAZON.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>     <td><a href="#c02" >HARRY CLAVERING CHOOSES HIS PROFESSION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c03" >LORD ONGAR.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>     <td><a href="#c04" >FLORENCE BURTON.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">V.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>      <td><a href="#c05" >LADY ONGAR'S RETURN.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>     <td><a href="#c06" >THE REV. SAMUEL SAUL.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c07" >SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A COUNTESS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c08" >THE HOUSE IN ONSLOW CRESCENT.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">IX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>     <td><a href="#c09" >TOO PRUDENT BY HALF.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">X.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>      <td><a href="#c10" >FLORENCE BURTON AT THE RECTORY.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>     <td><a href="#c11" >SIR HUGH AND HIS BROTHER ARCHIE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c12" >LADY ONGAR TAKES POSSESSION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c13" >A VISITOR CALLS AT ONGAR PARK.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c14" >COUNT PATEROFF AND HIS SISTER.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>     <td><a href="#c15" >AN EVENING IN BOLTON STREET.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c16" >THE RIVALS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c17" >"LET HER KNOW THAT YOU'RE THERE."</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XVIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td><a href="#c18" >CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XIX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c19" >THE BLUE POSTS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>     <td><a href="#c20" >DESOLATION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c21" >YES; WRONG;&mdash;CERTAINLY WRONG.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c22" >THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td><a href="#c23" >CUMBERLY LANE WITHOUT THE MUD.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c24" >THE RUSSIAN SPY.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c25" >"WHAT WOULD MEN SAY OF YOU?"</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c26" >THE MAN WHO DUSTED HIS BOOTS WITH HIS HANDKERCHIEF.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td><a href="#c27" >FRESHWATER GATE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXVIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td> <td><a href="#c28" >WHAT CECILIA BURTON DID FOR HER SISTER-IN-LAW.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXIX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c29" >HOW DAMON PARTED FROM PYTHIAS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c30" >DOODLES IN MOUNT STREET.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXXI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c31" >HARRY CLAVERING'S CONFESSION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXXII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td><a href="#c32" >FLORENCE BURTON PACKS UP A PACKET.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXXIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td> <td><a href="#c33" >SHOWING WHY HARRY CLAVERING WAS WANTED AT THE RECTORY.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXXIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td><a href="#c34" >MR. SAUL'S ABODE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXXV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c35" >PARTING.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXXVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td><a href="#c36" >CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS LAST ATTEMPT.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXXVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td> <td><a href="#c37" >WHAT LADY ONGAR THOUGHT ABOUT IT.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXXVIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#c38" >HOW TO DISPOSE OF A WIFE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XXXIX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td><a href="#c39" >FAREWELL TO DOODLES.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XL.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>     <td><a href="#c40" >SHEWING HOW MRS. BURTON FOUGHT HER BATTLE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XLI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c41" >THE SHEEP RETURNS TO THE FOLD.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XLII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c42" >RESTITUTION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XLIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td><a href="#c43" >LADY ONGAR'S REVENGE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XLIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c44" >SHEWING WHAT HAPPENED OFF HELIGOLAND.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XLV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>    <td><a href="#c45" >IS SHE MAD?</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XLVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>   <td><a href="#c46" >MADAME GORDELOUP RETIRES FROM BRITISH DIPLOMACY.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XLVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td><a href="#c47" >SHOWING HOW THINGS SETTLED THEMSELVES AT THE RECTORY.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XLVIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td> <td><a href="#c48" >CONCLUSION.</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS</h3>
+<div class="center">
+<table class="med" style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="3">
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill03">"A PUIR FECKLESS THING, TOTTERING ALONG LIKE,&mdash;"</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill06">MR. SAUL PROPOSES.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER VI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill07">A FRIENDLY TALK.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER VII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill12">WAS NOT THE PRICE IN HER HAND?</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill14">"DID HE NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST HER?"</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XIV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill18">CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XVIII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill20">"THE LORD GIVETH, AND THE LORD TAKETH AWAY."</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XX.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill22">"HARRY," SHE SAID, "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG BETWEEN YOU AND FLORENCE?"</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XXII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill27">"LADY ONGAR, ARE YOU NOT RATHER NEAR THE EDGE?"</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XXVII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill29">HOW DAMON PARTED FROM PYTHIAS.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XXIX.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill32">FLORENCE BURTON MAKES UP A PACKET.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XXXII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill35">HUSBAND AND WIFE.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XXXV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill37">A PLEA FOR MERCY.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XXXVII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill41">THE SHEEP RETURNS TO THE FOLD.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XLI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill43">HARRY SAT BETWEEN THEM, LIKE A SHEEP AS HE WAS, VERY MEEKLY.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XLIII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#ill47">LADY ONGAR AND FLORENCE.</a> </td><td valign="top">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="nowrap">CHAPTER XLVII.</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c01"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+<h4>JULIA BRABAZON.<br />&nbsp;</h4>
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill01-v.jpg" width="310"
+alt="T" />he gardens
+of Clavering Park were removed some three hundred yards
+from the large, square, sombre-looking stone mansion which was the
+country-house of Sir Hugh Clavering, the eleventh baronet of that
+name; and in these gardens, which had but little of beauty to
+recommend them, I will introduce my readers to two of the personages
+with whom I wish to make them acquainted in the following story. It
+was now the end of August, and the parterres, beds, and bits of lawn
+were dry, disfigured, and almost ugly, from the effects of a long
+drought. In gardens to which care and labour are given abundantly,
+flower-beds will be pretty, and grass will be green, let the weather
+be what it may; but care and labour were but scantily bestowed on the
+Clavering Gardens, and everything was yellow, adust, harsh, and dry.
+Over the burnt turf towards a gate that led to the house, a lady was
+walking, and by her side there walked a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"You are going in, then, Miss Brabazon," said the gentleman, and it
+was very manifest from his tone that he intended to convey some deep
+reproach in his words.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I am going in," said the lady. "You asked me to walk with
+you, and I refused. You have now waylaid me, and therefore I shall
+escape,&mdash;unless I am prevented by violence." As she spoke she stood
+still for a moment, and looked into his face with a smile which
+seemed to indicate that if such violence were used, within rational
+bounds, she would not feel herself driven to great anger.</p>
+
+<p>But though she might be inclined to be playful, he was by no means in
+that mood. "And why did you refuse me when I asked you?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"For two reasons, partly because I thought it better to avoid any
+conversation with you."</p>
+
+<p>"That is civil to an old friend."</p>
+
+<p>"But chiefly,"&mdash;and now as she spoke she drew herself up, and
+dismissed the smile from her face, and allowed her eyes to fall upon
+the ground;&mdash;"but chiefly because I thought that Lord Ongar would
+prefer that I should not roam alone about Clavering Park with any
+young gentleman while I am down here; and that he might specially
+object to my roaming with you, were he to know that you and I
+were&mdash;old acquaintances. Now I have been very frank, Mr. Clavering,
+and I think that that ought to be enough."</p>
+
+<p>"You are afraid of him already, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid of offending any one whom I love, and especially any one
+to whom I owe any duty."</p>
+
+<p>"Enough! Indeed it is not. From what you know of me do you think it
+likely that that will be enough?" He was now standing in front of
+her, between her and the gate, and she made no effort to leave him.</p>
+
+<p>"And what is it you want? I suppose you do not mean to fight Lord
+Ongar, and that if you did you would not come to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Fight him! No; I have no quarrel with him. Fighting him would do no
+good."</p>
+
+<p>"None in the least; and he would not fight if you were to ask him;
+and you could not ask him without being false to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I should have had an example for that, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nonsense, Mr. Clavering. My falsehood, if you should choose
+to call me false, is of a very different nature, and is pardonable by
+all laws known to the world."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a jilt,&mdash;that is all."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Harry, don't use hard words,"&mdash;and she put her hand kindly
+upon his arm. "Look at me, such as I am, and at yourself, and then
+say whether anything but misery could come of a match between you and
+me. Our ages by the register are the same, but I am ten years older
+than you by the world. I have two hundred a year, and I owe at this
+moment six hundred pounds. You have, perhaps, double as much, and
+would lose half of that if you married. You are an usher at a
+school."</p>
+
+<p>"No, madam, I am not an usher at a school."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, you know I don't mean to make you angry."</p>
+
+<p>"At the present moment, I am a schoolmaster, and if I remained so, I
+might fairly look forward to a liberal income. But I am going to give
+that up."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not be more fit for matrimony because you are going to give
+up your profession. Now Lord Ongar has&mdash;heaven knows what;&mdash;perhaps
+sixty thousand a year."</p>
+
+<p>"In all my life I never heard such effrontery,&mdash;such barefaced,
+shameless worldliness!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I not love a man with a large income?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is old enough to be your father."</p>
+
+<p>"He is thirty-six, and I am twenty-four."</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty-six!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is the Peerage for you to look at. But, my dear Harry, do you
+not know that you are perplexing me and yourself too, for nothing? I
+was fool enough when I came here from Nice, after papa's death, to
+let you talk nonsense to me for a month or two."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you or did you not swear that you loved me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Clavering, I did not imagine that your strength would have
+condescended to take such advantage over the weakness of a woman. I
+remember no oaths of any kind, and what foolish assertions I may have
+made, I am not going to repeat. It must have become manifest to you
+during these two years that all that was a romance. If it be a
+pleasure to you to look back to it, of that pleasure I cannot deprive
+you. Perhaps I also may sometimes look back. But I shall never speak
+of that time again; and you, if you are as noble as I take you to be,
+will not speak of it either. I know you would not wish to injure me."</p>
+
+<p>"I would wish to save you from the misery you are bringing on
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"In that you must allow me to look after myself. Lord Ongar certainly
+wants a wife, and I intend to be true to him,&mdash;and useful."</p>
+
+<p>"How about love?"</p>
+
+<p>"And to love him, sir. Do you think that no man can win a woman's
+love, unless he is filled to the brim with poetry, and has a neck
+like Lord Byron, and is handsome like your worship? You are very
+handsome, Harry, and you, too, should go into the market and make the
+best of yourself. Why should you not learn to love some nice girl
+that has money to assist you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Julia!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; I will not be called Julia. If you do, I will be insulted,
+and leave you instantly. I may call you Harry, as being so much
+younger,&mdash;though we were born in the same month,&mdash;and as a sort of
+cousin. But I shall never do that after to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"You have courage enough, then, to tell me that you have not ill-used
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I have. Why, what a fool you would have me be! Look at me,
+and tell me whether I am fit to be the wife of such a one as you. By
+the time you are entering the world, I shall be an old woman, and
+shall have lived my life. Even if I were fit to be your mate when we
+were living here together, am I fit, after what I have done and seen
+during the last two years? Do you think it would really do any good
+to any one if I were to jilt, as you call it, Lord Ongar, and tell
+them all,&mdash;your cousin, Sir Hugh, and my sister, and your
+father,&mdash;that I was going to keep myself up, and marry you when you
+were ready for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to say that the evil is done."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. At the present moment I owe six hundred pounds, and I
+don't know where to turn for it, so that my husband may not be dunned
+for my debts as soon as he has married me. What a wife I should have
+been for you;&mdash;should I not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I could pay the six hundred pounds for you with money that I have
+earned myself,&mdash;though you do call me an usher;&mdash;and perhaps would
+ask fewer questions about it than Lord Ongar will do with all his
+thousands."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Harry, I beg your pardon about the usher. Of course, I know
+that you are a fellow of your college, and that St. Cuthbert's, where
+you teach the boys, is one of the grandest schools in England; and I
+hope you'll be a bishop; nay,&mdash;I think you will, if you make up your
+mind to try for it."</p>
+
+<p>"I have given up all idea of going into the church."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you'll be a judge. I know you'll be great and distinguished,
+and that you'll do it all yourself. You are distinguished already. If
+you could only know how infinitely I should prefer your lot to mine!
+Oh, Harry, I envy you! I do envy you! You have got the ball at your
+feet, and the world before you, and can win everything for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"But nothing is anything without your love."</p>
+
+<p>"Psha! Love, indeed. What could I do for you but ruin you? You know
+it as well as I do; but you are selfish enough to wish to continue a
+romance which would be absolutely destructive to me, though for a
+while it might afford a pleasant relaxation to your graver studies.
+Harry, you can choose in the world. You have divinity, and law, and
+literature, and art. And if debarred from love now by the exigencies
+of labour, you will be as fit for love in ten years' time as you are
+at present."</p>
+
+<p>"But I do love now."</p>
+
+<p>"Be a man, then, and keep it to yourself. Love is not to be our
+master. You can choose, as I say; but I have had no choice,&mdash;no
+choice but to be married well, or to go out like a snuff of a candle.
+I don't like the snuff of a candle, and, therefore, I am going to be
+married well."</p>
+
+<p>"And that suffices?"</p>
+
+<p>"It must suffice. And why should it not suffice? You are very
+uncivil, cousin, and very unlike the rest of the world. Everybody
+compliments me on my marriage. Lord Ongar is not only rich, but he is
+a man of fashion, and a man of talent."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you fond of race-horses yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very fond of them."</p>
+
+<p>"And of that kind of life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very fond of it. I mean to be fond of everything that Lord Ongar
+likes. I know that I can't change him, and, therefore, I shall not
+try."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right there, Miss Brabazon."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to be impertinent, sir; but I will not take it so. This is
+to be our last meeting in private, and I won't acknowledge that I am
+insulted. But it must be over now, Harry; and here I have been pacing
+round and round the garden with you, in spite of my refusal just now.
+It must not be repeated, or things will be said which I do not mean
+to have ever said of me. Good-by, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Julia."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, for that once let it pass. And remember this: I have told you
+all my hopes, and my one trouble. I have been thus open with you
+because I thought it might serve to make you look at things in a
+right light. I trust to your honour as a gentleman to repeat nothing
+that I have said to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not given to repeat such things as those."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure you are not. And I hope you will not misunderstand the
+spirit in which they have been spoken. I shall never regret what I
+have told you now, if it tends to make you perceive that we must both
+regard our past acquaintance as a romance, which must, from the stern
+necessity of things, be treated as a dream which we have dreamt, or a
+poem which we have read."</p>
+
+<p>"You can treat it as you please."</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, Harry; and I will always hope for your welfare, and
+hear of your success with joy. Will you come up and shoot with them
+on Thursday?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, with Hugh? No; Hugh and I do not hit it off together. If I
+shot at Clavering I should have to do it as a sort of head-keeper.
+It's a higher position, I know, than that of an usher, but it doesn't
+suit me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Harry! that is so cruel! But you will come up to the house. Lord
+Ongar will be there on the thirty-first; the day after to-morrow, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"I must decline even that temptation. I never go into the house when
+Hugh is there, except about twice a year on solemn invitation&mdash;just
+to prevent there being a family quarrel."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, then," and she offered him her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, if it must be so."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether you mean to grace my marriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. I shall be away from Clavering, so that the marriage
+bells may not wound my ears. For the matter of that, I shall be at
+the school."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose we shall meet some day in town."</p>
+
+<p>"Most probably not. My ways and Lord Ongar's will be altogether
+different, even if I should succeed in getting up to London. If you
+ever come to see Hermione here, I may chance to meet you in the
+house. But you will not do that often, the place is so dull and
+unattractive."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the dearest old park."</p>
+
+<p>"You won't care much for old parks as Lady Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know what I may care about as Lady Ongar; but as Julia
+Brabazon I will now say good-by for the last time." Then they parted,
+and the lady returned to the great house, while Harry Clavering made
+his way across the park towards the rectory.</p>
+
+<p>Three years before this scene in the gardens at Clavering Park, Lord
+Brabazon had died at Nice, leaving one unmarried daughter, the lady
+to whom the reader has just been introduced. One other daughter he
+had, who was then already married to Sir Hugh Clavering, and Lady
+Clavering was the Hermione of whom mention has already been made.
+Lord Brabazon, whose peerage had descended to him in a direct line
+from the time of the Plantagenets, was one of those unfortunate
+nobles of whom England is burdened with but few, who have no means
+equal to their rank. He had married late in life, and had died
+without a male heir. The title which had come from the Plantagenets
+was now lapsed; and when the last lord died, about four hundred a
+year was divided between his two daughters. The elder had already
+made an excellent match, as regarded fortune, in marrying Sir Hugh
+Clavering; and the younger was now about to make a much more splendid
+match in her alliance with Lord Ongar. Of them I do not know that it
+is necessary to say much more at present.</p>
+
+<p>And of Harry Clavering it perhaps may not be necessary to say much in
+the way of description. The attentive reader will have already
+gathered nearly all that should be known of him before he makes
+himself known by his own deeds. He was the only son of the Reverend
+Henry Clavering, rector of Clavering, uncle of the present Sir Hugh
+Clavering, and brother of the last Sir Hugh. The Reverend Henry
+Clavering, and Mrs. Clavering his wife, and his two daughters, Mary
+and Fanny Clavering, lived always at Clavering Rectory, on the
+outskirts of Clavering Park, at a full mile's distance from the
+house. The church stood in the park, about midway between the two
+residences. When I have named one more Clavering, Captain Clavering,
+Captain Archibald Clavering, Sir Hugh's brother, and when I shall
+have said also that both Sir Hugh and Captain Clavering were men fond
+of pleasure and fond of money, I shall have said all that I need now
+say about the Clavering family at large.</p>
+
+<p>Julia Brabazon had indulged in some reminiscence of the romance of
+her past poetic life when she talked of cousinship between her and
+Harry Clavering. Her sister was the wife of Harry Clavering's first
+cousin, but between her and Harry there was no relationship whatever.
+When old Lord Brabazon had died at Nice she had come to Clavering
+Park, and had created some astonishment among those who knew Sir Hugh
+by making good her footing in his establishment. He was not the man
+to take up a wife's sister, and make his house her home, out of
+charity or from domestic love. Lady Clavering, who had been a
+handsome woman and fashionable withal, no doubt may have had some
+influence; but Sir Hugh was a man much prone to follow his own
+courses. It must be presumed that Julia Brabazon had made herself
+agreeable in the house, and also probably useful. She had been taken
+to London through two seasons, and had there held up her head among
+the bravest. And she had been taken abroad,&mdash;for Sir Hugh did not
+love Clavering Park, except during six weeks of partridge shooting;
+and she had been at Newmarket with them, and at the house of a
+certain fast hunting duke with whom Sir Hugh was intimate; and at
+Brighton with her sister, when it suited Sir Hugh to remain alone at
+the duke's; and then again up in London, where she finally arranged
+matters with Lord Ongar. It was acknowledged by all the friends of
+the two families, and indeed I may say of the three families
+now&mdash;among the Brabazon people, and the Clavering people, and the
+Courton people,&mdash;Lord Ongar's family name was Courton,&mdash;that Julia
+Brabazon had been very clever. Of her and Harry Clavering together no
+one had ever said a word. If any words had been spoken between her
+and Hermione on the subject, the two sisters had been discreet enough
+to manage that they should go no further. In those short months of
+Julia's romance Sir Hugh had been away from Clavering, and Hermione
+had been much occupied in giving birth to an heir. Julia had now
+lived past her one short spell of poetry, had written her one sonnet,
+and was prepared for the business of the world.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c02"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+<h4>HARRY CLAVERING CHOOSES HIS PROFESSION.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Harry Clavering might not be an usher, but, nevertheless, he was home
+for the holidays. And who can say where the usher ends and the
+schoolmaster begins? He, perhaps, may properly be called an usher,
+who is hired by a private schoolmaster to assist himself in his
+private occupation, whereas Harry Clavering had been selected by a
+public body out of a hundred candidates, with much real or pretended
+reference to certificates of qualification. He was certainly not an
+usher, as he was paid three hundred a year for his work,&mdash;which is
+quite beyond the mark of ushers. So much was certain; but yet the
+word stuck in his throat and made him uncomfortable. He did not like
+to reflect that he was home for the holidays.</p>
+
+<p>But he had determined that he would never come home for the holidays
+again. At Christmas he would leave the school at which he had won his
+appointment with so much trouble, and go into an open profession.
+Indeed he had chosen his profession, and his mode of entering it. He
+would become a civil engineer, and perhaps a land surveyor, and with
+this view he would enter himself as a pupil in the great house of
+Beilby and Burton. The terms even had been settled. He was to pay a
+premium of five hundred pounds and join Mr. Burton, who was settled
+in the town of Stratton, for twelve months before he placed himself
+in Mr. Beilby's office in London. Stratton was less than twenty miles
+from Clavering. It was a comfort to him to think that he could pay
+this five hundred pounds out of his own earnings, without troubling
+his father. It was a comfort, even though he had earned that money by
+"ushering" for the last two years.</p>
+
+<p>When he left Julia Brabazon in the garden, Harry Clavering did not go
+at once home to the rectory, but sauntered out all alone into the
+park, intending to indulge in reminiscences of his past romance. It
+was all over, that idea of having Julia Brabazon for his love; and
+now he had to ask himself whether he intended to be made permanently
+miserable by her worldly falseness, or whether he would borrow
+something of her worldly wisdom, and agree with himself to look back
+on what was past as a pleasurable excitement in his boyhood. Of
+course we all know that really permanent misery was in truth out of
+the question. Nature had not made him physically or mentally so poor
+a creature as to be incapable of a cure. But on this occasion he
+decided on permanent misery. There was about his heart,&mdash;about his
+actual anatomical heart, with its internal arrangement of valves and
+blood-vessels,&mdash;a heavy dragging feeling that almost amounted to
+corporeal pain, and which he described to himself as agony. Why
+should this rich, debauched, disreputable lord have the power of
+taking the cup from his lip, the one morsel of bread which he coveted
+from his mouth, his one ingot of treasure out of his coffer? Fight
+him! No, he knew he could not fight Lord Ongar. The world was against
+such an arrangement. And in truth Harry Clavering had so much
+contempt for Lord Ongar, that he had no wish to fight so poor a
+creature. The man had had delirium tremens, and was a worn-out
+miserable object. So at least Harry Clavering was only too ready to
+believe. He did not care much for Lord Ongar in the matter. His anger
+was against her;&mdash;that she should have deserted him for a miserable
+creature, who had nothing to back him but wealth and rank!</p>
+
+<p>There was wretchedness in every view of the matter. He loved her so
+well, and yet he could do nothing! He could take no step towards
+saving her or assisting himself. The marriage bells would ring within
+a month from the present time, and his own father would go to the
+church and marry them. Unless Lord Ongar were to die before then by
+God's hand, there could be no escape,&mdash;and of such escape Harry
+Clavering had no thought. He felt a weary, dragging soreness at his
+heart, and told himself that he must be miserable for ever,&mdash;not so
+miserable but what he would work, but so wretched that the world
+could have for him no satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>What could he do? What thing could he achieve so that she should know
+that he did not let her go from him without more thought than his
+poor words had expressed? He was perfectly aware that in their
+conversation she had had the best of the argument,&mdash;that he had
+talked almost like a boy, while she had talked quite like a woman.
+She had treated him de haut en bas with all that superiority which
+youth and beauty give to a young woman over a very young man. What
+could he do? Before he returned to the rectory, he had made up his
+mind what he would do, and on the following morning Julia Brabazon
+received by the hands of her maid the following
+<span class="nowrap">note:&mdash;</span></p>
+
+<p>"I think I understood all that you said to me yesterday. At any rate,
+I understand that you have one trouble left, and that I have the
+means of curing it." In the first draft of his letter he said
+something about ushering, but that he omitted afterwards. "You may be
+assured that the enclosed is all my own, and that it is entirely at
+my own disposal. You may also be quite sure of good faith on the part
+of the lender.&mdash;H. C." And in this letter he enclosed a cheque for
+six hundred pounds. It was the money which he had saved since he took
+his degree, and had been intended for Messrs. Beilby and Burton. But
+he would wait another two years,&mdash;continuing to do his ushering for
+her sake. What did it matter to a man who must, under any
+circumstances, be permanently miserable?</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hugh was not yet at Clavering. He was to come with Lord Ongar on
+the eve of the partridge-shooting. The two sisters, therefore, had
+the house all to themselves. At about twelve they sat down to
+breakfast together in a little upstairs chamber adjoining Lady
+Clavering's own room, Julia Brabazon at that time having her lover's
+generous letter in her pocket. She knew that it was as improper as it
+was generous, and that, moreover, it was very dangerous. There was no
+knowing what might be the result of such a letter should Lord Ongar
+even know that she had received it. She was not absolutely angry with
+Harry, but had, to herself, twenty times called him a foolish,
+indiscreet, dear generous boy. But what was she to do with the
+cheque? As to that, she had hardly as yet made up her mind when she
+joined her sister on the morning in question. Even to Hermione she
+did not dare to tell the fact that such a letter had been received by
+her.</p>
+
+<p>But in truth her debts were a great torment to her; and yet how
+trifling they were when compared with the wealth of the man who was
+to become her husband in six weeks! Let her marry him, and not pay
+them, and he probably would never be the wiser. They would get
+themselves paid almost without his knowledge, perhaps altogether
+without his hearing of them. But yet she feared him, knowing him to
+be greedy about money; and, to give her such merit as was due to her,
+she felt the meanness of going to her husband with debts on her
+shoulder. She had five thousand pounds of her own; but the very
+settlement which gave her a noble dower, and which made the marriage
+so brilliant, made over this small sum in its entirety to her lord.
+She had been wrong not to tell the lawyer of her trouble when he had
+brought the paper for her to sign; but she had not told him. If Sir
+Hugh Clavering had been her own brother there would have been no
+difficulty, but he was only her brother-in-law, and she feared to
+speak to him. Her sister, however, knew that there were debts, and on
+that subject she was not afraid to speak to Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermy," said she, "what am I to do about this money that I owe? I
+got a bill from Colclugh's this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Just because he knows you're going to be married; that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"But how am I to pay him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Take no notice of it till next spring. I don't know what else you
+can do. You'll be sure to have money when you come back from the
+Continent."</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't lend it me; could you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who? I? Did you ever know me have any money in hand since I was
+married? I have the name of an allowance, but it is always spent
+before it comes to me, and I am always in debt."</p>
+
+<p>"Would Hugh&mdash;let me have it?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, give it you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it wouldn't be so very much for him. I never asked him for a
+pound yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he would say something you wouldn't like if you were to ask
+him; but, of course, you can try it if you please."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what am I to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Ongar should have let you keep your own fortune. It would have
+been nothing to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Hugh didn't let you keep your own fortune."</p>
+
+<p>"But the money which will be nothing to Lord Ongar was a good deal to
+Hugh. You're going to have sixty thousand a year, while we have to do
+with seven or eight. Besides, I hadn't been out in London, and it
+wasn't likely I should owe much in Nice. He did ask me, and there was
+something."</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to do, Hermy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Write and ask Lord Ongar to let you have what you want out of your
+own money. Write to-day, so that he may get your letter before he
+comes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear! oh, dear! I never wrote a word to him yet, and to begin
+with asking him for money!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he can be angry with you for that."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't know what to say. Would you write it for me, and let me
+see how it looks?"</p>
+
+<p>This Lady Clavering did; and had she refused to do it, I think that
+poor Harry Clavering's cheque would have been used. As it was, Lady
+Clavering wrote the letter to "My dear Lord Ongar," and it was copied
+and signed by "Yours most affectionately, Julia Brabazon." The effect
+of this was the receipt of a cheque for a thousand pounds in a very
+pretty note from Lord Ongar, which the lord brought with him to
+Clavering, and sent up to Julia as he was dressing for dinner. It was
+an extremely comfortable arrangement, and Julia was very glad of the
+money,&mdash;feeling it to be a portion of that which was her own. And
+Harry's cheque had been returned to him on the day of its receipt.
+"Of course I cannot take it, and of course you should not have sent
+it." These words were written on the morsel of paper in which the
+money was returned. But Miss Brabazon had torn the signature off the
+cheque, so that it might be safe, whereas Harry Clavering had taken
+no precaution with it whatever. But then Harry Clavering had not
+lived two years in London.</p>
+
+<p>During the hours that the cheque was away from him, Harry had told
+his father that perhaps, even yet, he might change his purpose as to
+going to Messrs. Beilby and Burton. He did not know, he said, but he
+was still in doubt. This had sprung from some chance question which
+his father had asked, and which had seemed to demand an answer. Mr.
+Clavering greatly disliked the scheme of life which his son had made.
+Harry's life hitherto had been prosperous and very creditable. He had
+gone early to Cambridge, and at twenty-two had become a fellow of his
+college. This fellowship he could hold for five or six years without
+going into orders. It would then lead to a living, and would in the
+meantime afford a livelihood. But, beyond this, Harry, with an energy
+which he certainly had not inherited from his father, had become a
+schoolmaster, and was already a rich man. He had done more than well,
+and there was a great probability that between them they might be
+able to buy the next presentation to Clavering, when the time should
+come in which Sir Hugh should determine on selling it. That Sir Hugh
+should give the family living to his cousin was never thought
+probable by any of the family at the rectory; but he might perhaps
+part with it under such circumstances on favourable terms. For all
+these reasons the father was very anxious that his son should follow
+out the course for which he had been intended; but that he, being
+unenergetic and having hitherto done little for his son, should
+dictate to a young man who had been energetic, and who had done much
+for himself, was out of the question. Harry, therefore, was to be the
+arbiter of his own fate. But when Harry received back the cheque from
+Julia Brabazon, then he again returned to his resolution respecting
+Messrs. Beilby and Burton, and took the first opportunity of telling
+his father that such was the case.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast he followed his father into his study, and there,
+sitting in two easy-chairs opposite to each other, they lit each a
+cigar. Such was the reverend gentleman's custom in the afternoon, and
+such also in the morning. I do not know whether the smoking of four
+or five cigars daily by the parson of a parish may now-a-day be
+considered as a vice in him, but if so, it was the only vice with
+which Mr. Clavering could be charged. He was a kind, soft-hearted,
+gracious man, tender to his wife, whom he ever regarded as the angel
+of his house, indulgent to his daughters, whom he idolized, ever
+patient with his parishioners, and awake,&mdash;though not widely
+awake,&mdash;to the responsibilities of his calling. The world had been
+too comfortable for him, and also too narrow; so that he had sunk
+into idleness. The world had given him much to eat and drink, but it
+had given him little to do, and thus he had gradually fallen away
+from his early purposes, till his energy hardly sufficed for the
+doing of that little. His living gave him eight hundred a year; his
+wife's fortune nearly doubled that. He had married early, and had got
+his living early, and had been very prosperous. But he was not a
+happy man. He knew that he had put off the day of action till the
+power of action had passed away from him. His library was well
+furnished, but he rarely read much else than novels and poetry; and
+of late years the reading even of poetry had given way to the reading
+of novels. Till within ten years of the hour of which I speak, he had
+been a hunting parson,&mdash;not hunting loudly, but following his sport
+as it is followed by moderate sportsmen. Then there had come a new
+bishop, and the new bishop had sent for him,&mdash;nay, finally had come
+to him, and had lectured him with blatant authority. "My lord," said
+the parson of Clavering, plucking up something of his past energy, as
+the colour rose to his face, "I think you are wrong in this. I think
+you are specially wrong to interfere with me in this way on your
+first coming among us. You feel it to be your duty, no doubt; but to
+me it seems that you mistake your duty. But, as the matter is one
+simply of my own pleasure, I shall give it up." After that Mr.
+Clavering hunted no more, and never spoke a good word to any one of
+the bishop of his diocese. For myself, I think it as well that
+clergymen should not hunt; but had I been the parson of Clavering, I
+should, under those circumstances, have hunted double.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Clavering hunted no more, and probably smoked a greater number of
+cigars in consequence. He had an increased amount of time at his
+disposal, but did not, therefore, give more time to his duties. Alas!
+what time did he give to his duties? He kept a most energetic curate,
+whom he allowed to do almost what he would with the parish. Every-day
+services he did prohibit, declaring that he would not have the parish
+church made ridiculous; but in other respects his curate was the
+pastor. Once every Sunday he read the service, and once every Sunday
+he preached, and he resided in his parsonage ten months every year.
+His wife and daughters went among the poor,&mdash;and he smoked cigars in
+his library. Though not yet fifty, he was becoming fat and
+idle,&mdash;unwilling to walk, and not caring much even for such riding as
+the bishop had left to him. And, to make matters worse,&mdash;far worse,
+he knew all this of himself, and understood it thoroughly. "I see a
+better path, and know how good it is, but I follow ever the worse."
+He was saying that to himself daily, and was saying it always without
+hope.</p>
+
+<p>And his wife had given him up. She had given him up, not with
+disdainful rejection, nor with contempt in her eye, or censure in her
+voice, not with diminution of love or of outward respect. She had
+given him up as a man abandons his attempts to make his favourite dog
+take the water. He would fain that the dog he loves should dash into
+the stream as other dogs will do. It is, to his thinking, a noble
+instinct in a dog. But his dog dreads the water. As, however, he has
+learned to love the beast, he puts up with this mischance, and never
+dreams of banishing poor Ponto from his hearth because of this
+failure. And so it was with Mrs. Clavering and her husband at the
+rectory. He understood it all. He knew that he was so far rejected;
+and he acknowledged to himself the necessity for such rejection.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a very serious thing to decide upon," he said, when his son
+had spoken to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it is serious,&mdash;about as serious a thing as a man can think of;
+but a man cannot put it off on that account. If I mean to make such a
+change in my plans, the sooner I do it the better."</p>
+
+<p>"But yesterday you were in another mind."</p>
+
+<p>"No, father, not in another mind. I did not tell you then, nor can I
+tell you all now. I had thought that I should want my money for
+another purpose for a year or two; but that I have abandoned."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the purpose a secret, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a secret, because it concerns another person."</p>
+
+<p>"You were going to lend your money to some one?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must keep it a secret, though you know I seldom have any secrets
+from you. That idea, however, is abandoned, and I mean to go over to
+Stratton to-morrow, and tell Mr. Burton that I shall be there after
+Christmas. I must be at St. Cuthbert's on Tuesday."</p>
+
+<p>Then they both sat silent for a while, silently blowing out their
+clouds of smoke. The son had said all that he cared to say, and would
+have wished that there might then be an end of it; but he knew that
+his father had much on his mind, and would fain express, if he could
+express it without too much trouble, or without too evident a need of
+self-reproach, his own thoughts on the subject. "You have made up
+your mind, then, altogether that you do not like the church as a
+profession," he said at last.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have, father."</p>
+
+<p>"And on what grounds? The grounds which recommend it to you are very
+strong. Your education has adapted you for it. Your success in it is
+already ensured by your fellowship. In a great degree you have
+entered it as a profession already, by taking a fellowship. What you
+are doing is not choosing a line in life, but changing one already
+chosen. You are making of yourself a rolling stone."</p>
+
+<p>"A stone should roll till it has come to the spot that suits it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not give up the school if it irks you?"</p>
+
+<p>"And become a Cambridge Don, and practise deportment among the
+undergraduates."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that you need do that. You need not even live at
+Cambridge. Take a church in London. You would be sure to get one by
+holding up your hand. If that, with your fellowship, is not
+sufficient, I will give you what more you want."</p>
+
+<p>"No, father&mdash;no. By God's blessing I will never ask you for a pound.
+I can hold my fellowship for four years longer without orders, and in
+four years' time I think I can earn my bread."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't doubt that, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why should I not follow my wishes in this matter? The truth is,
+I do not feel myself qualified to be a good clergyman."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not that you have doubts, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I might have them if I came to think much about it,&mdash;as I must do if
+I took orders. And I do not wish to be crippled in doing what I think
+lawful by conventional rules. A rebellious clergyman is, I think, a
+sorry object. It seems to me that he is a bird fouling his own nest.
+Now, I know I should be a rebellious clergyman."</p>
+
+<p>"In our church the life of a clergyman is as the life of any other
+gentleman,&mdash;within very broad limits."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why did Bishop Proudie interfere with your hunting?"</p>
+
+<p>"Limits may be very broad, Harry, and yet exclude hunting. Bishop
+Proudie was vulgar and intrusive, such being the nature of his wife,
+who instructs him; but if you were in orders I should be very sorry
+to see you take to hunting."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me that a clergyman has nothing to do in life unless he
+is always preaching and teaching. Look at Saul,"&mdash;Mr. Saul was the
+curate of Clavering&mdash;"he is always preaching and teaching. He is
+doing the best he can; and what a life of it he has. He has literally
+thrown off all worldly cares,&mdash;and consequently everybody laughs at
+him, and nobody loves him. I don't believe a better man breathes, but
+I shouldn't like his life."</p>
+
+<p>At this point there was another pause, which lasted till the cigars
+had come to an end. Then, as he threw the stump into the fire, Mr.
+Clavering spoke again. "The truth is, Harry, that you have had, all
+your life, a bad example before you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, father."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my son;&mdash;let me speak on to the end, and then you can say what
+you please. In me you have had a bad example on one side, and now, in
+poor Saul, you have a bad example on the other side. Can you fancy no
+life between the two, which would fit your physical nature, which is
+larger than his, and your mental wants, which are higher than mine?
+Yes, they are, Harry. It is my duty to say this, but it would be
+unseemly that there should be any controversy between us on the
+subject."</p>
+
+<p>"If you choose to stop me in that way&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I do choose to stop you in that way. As for Saul, it is impossible
+that you should become such a man as he. It is not that he mortifies
+his flesh, but that he has no flesh to mortify. He is unconscious of
+the flavour of venison, or the scent of roses, or the beauty of
+women. He is an exceptional specimen of a man, and you need no more
+fear, than you should venture to hope, that you could become such as
+he is."</p>
+
+<p>At this point they were interrupted by the entrance of Fanny
+Clavering, who came to say that Mr. Saul was in the drawing-room.
+"What does he want, Fanny?" This question Mr. Clavering asked half in
+a whisper, but with something of comic humour in his face, as though
+partly afraid that Mr. Saul should hear it, and partly intending to
+convey a wish that he might escape Mr. Saul, if it were possible.</p>
+
+<p>"It's about the iron church, papa. He says it is come,&mdash;or part of it
+has come,&mdash;and he wants you to go out to Cumberly Green about the
+site."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought that was all settled."</p>
+
+<p>"He says not."</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter where it is? He can put it anywhere he likes on
+the Green. However, I had better go to him." So Mr. Clavering went.
+Cumberly Green was a hamlet in the parish of Clavering, three miles
+distant from the church, the people of which had got into a wicked
+habit of going to a dissenting chapel near to them. By Mr. Saul's
+energy, but chiefly out of Mr. Clavering's purse, an iron chapel had
+been purchased for a hundred and fifty pounds, and Mr. Saul proposed
+to add to his own duties the pleasing occupation of walking to
+Cumberly Green every Sunday morning before breakfast, and every
+Wednesday evening after dinner, to perform a service and bring back
+to the true flock as many of the erring sheep of Cumberly Green as he
+might be able to catch. Towards the purchase of this iron church Mr.
+Clavering had at first given a hundred pounds. Sir Hugh, in answer to
+the fifth application, had very ungraciously, through his steward,
+bestowed ten pounds. Among the farmers one pound nine and eightpence
+had been collected. Mr. Saul had given two pounds; Mrs. Clavering
+gave five pounds; the girls gave ten shillings each; Henry Clavering
+gave five pounds;&mdash;and then the parson made up the remainder. But Mr.
+Saul had journeyed thrice painfully to Bristol, making the bargain
+for the church, going and coming each time by third-class, and he had
+written all the letters; but Mrs. Clavering had paid the postage, and
+she and the girls between them were making the covering for the
+little altar.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it all settled, Harry?" said Fanny, stopping with her brother,
+and hanging over his chair. She was a pretty, gay-spirited girl, with
+bright eyes and dark brown hair, which fell in two curls behind her
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>"He has said nothing to unsettle it."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it makes him very unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Fanny, not very unhappy. He would rather that I should go into
+the church, but that is about all."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are quite right."</p>
+
+<p>"And Mary thinks I am quite wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Mary thinks so, of course. So should I too, perhaps, if I were
+engaged to a clergyman. That's the old story of the fox who had lost
+his tail."</p>
+
+<p>"And your tail isn't gone yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my tail isn't gone yet. Mary thinks that no life is like a
+clergyman's life. But, Harry, though mamma hasn't said so, I'm sure
+she thinks you are right. She won't say so as long as it may seem to
+interfere with anything papa may choose to say; but I'm sure she's
+glad in her heart."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am glad in my heart, Fanny. And as I'm the person most
+concerned, I suppose that's the most material thing." Then they
+followed their father into the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't you drive Mrs. Clavering over in the pony chair, and settle
+it between you," said Mr. Clavering to his curate. Mr. Saul looked
+disappointed. In the first place, he hated driving the pony, which
+was a rapid-footed little beast, that had a will of his own; and in
+the next place, he thought the rector ought to visit the spot on such
+an occasion. "Or Mrs. Clavering will drive you," said the rector,
+remembering Mr. Saul's objection to the pony. Still Mr. Saul looked
+unhappy. Mr. Saul was very tall and very thin, with a tall thin head,
+and weak eyes, and a sharp, well-cut nose, and, so to say, no lips,
+and very white teeth, with no beard, and a well-cut chin. His face
+was so thin that his cheekbones obtruded themselves unpleasantly. He
+wore a long rusty black coat, and a high rusty black waistcoat, and
+trousers that were brown with dirty roads and general ill-usage.
+Nevertheless, it never occurred to any one that Mr. Saul did not look
+like a gentleman, not even to himself, to whom no ideas whatever on
+that subject ever presented themselves. But that he was a gentleman I
+think he knew well enough, and was able to carry himself before Sir
+Hugh and his wife with quite as much ease as he could do in the
+rectory. Once or twice he had dined at the great house; but Lady
+Clavering had declared him to be a bore, and Sir Hugh had called him
+"that most offensive of all animals, a clerical prig." It had
+therefore been decided that he was not to be asked to the great house
+any more. It may be as well to state here, as elsewhere, that Mr.
+Clavering very rarely went to his nephew's table. On certain
+occasions he did do so, so that there might be no recognized quarrel
+between him and Sir Hugh; but such visits were few and far between.</p>
+
+<p>After a few more words from Mr. Saul, and a glance from his wife's
+eye, Mr. Clavering consented to go to Cumberly Green, though there
+was nothing he liked so little as a morning spent with his curate.
+When he had started, Harry told his mother also of his final
+decision. "I shall go to Stratton to-morrow and settle it all."</p>
+
+<p>"And what does papa say?" asked the mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Just what he has said before. It is not so much that he wishes me to
+be a clergyman, as that he does not wish me to have lost all my time
+up to this."</p>
+
+<p>"It is more than that, I think, Harry," said his elder sister, a tall
+girl, less pretty than her sister, apparently less careful of her
+prettiness, very quiet, or, as some said, demure, but known to be
+good as gold by all who knew her well.</p>
+
+<p>"I doubt it," said Harry, stoutly. "But, however that may be, a man
+must choose for himself."</p>
+
+<p>"We all thought you had chosen," said Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"If it is settled," said the mother, "I suppose we shall do no good
+by opposing it."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you wish to oppose it, mamma?" said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear. I think you should judge for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"You see I could have no scope in the church for that sort of
+ambition which would satisfy me. Look at such men as Locke, and
+Stephenson, and Brassey. They are the men who seem to me to do most
+in the world. They were all self-educated, but surely a man can't
+have a worse chance because he has learned something. Look at old
+Beilby with a seat in Parliament, and a property worth two or three
+hundred thousand pounds! When he was my age he had nothing but his
+weekly wages."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether Mr. Beilby is a very happy man or a very good
+man," said Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, either," said Harry; "but I do know that he has thrown
+a single arch over a wider span of water than ever was done before,
+and that ought to make him happy." After saying this in a tone of
+high authority, befitting his dignity as a fellow of his college,
+Harry Clavering went out, leaving his mother and sisters to discuss
+the subject which to two of them was all-important. As to Mary, she
+had hopes of her own, vested in the clerical concerns of a
+neighbouring parish.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c03"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+<h4>LORD ONGAR.</h4>
+
+
+<p>On the next morning Harry Clavering rode over to Stratton, thinking
+much of his misery as he went. It was all very well for him, in the
+presence of his own family to talk of his profession as the one
+subject which was to him of any importance; but he knew very well
+himself that he was only beguiling them in doing so. This question of
+a profession was, after all, but dead leaves to him,&mdash;to him who had
+a canker at his heart, a perpetual thorn in his bosom, a misery
+within him which no profession could mitigate! Those dear ones at
+home guessed nothing of this, and he would take care that they should
+guess nothing. Why should they have the pain of knowing that he had
+been made wretched for ever by blighted hopes? His mother, indeed,
+had suspected something in those sweet days of his roaming with Julia
+through the park. She had once or twice said a word to warn him. But
+of the very truth of his deep love,&mdash;so he told himself,&mdash;she had
+been happily ignorant. Let her be ignorant. Why should he make his
+mother unhappy? As these thoughts passed through his mind, I think
+that he revelled in his wretchedness, and made much to himself of his
+misery. He sucked in his sorrow greedily, and was somewhat proud to
+have had occasion to break his heart. But not the less, because he
+was thus early blighted, would he struggle for success in the world.
+He would show her that, as his wife, she might have had a worthier
+position than Lord Ongar could give her. He, too, might probably rise
+the quicker in the world, as now he would have no impediment of wife
+or family. Then, as he rode along, he composed a sonnet, fitting to
+his case, the strength and rhythm of which seemed to him, as he sat
+on horseback, to be almost perfect. Unfortunately, when he was back
+at Clavering, and sat in his room with the pen in his hand, the turn
+of the words had escaped him.</p>
+
+<p>He found Mr. Burton at home, and was not long in concluding his
+business. Messrs. Beilby and Burton were not only civil engineers,
+but were land surveyors also, and land valuers on a great scale. They
+were employed much by Government upon public buildings, and if not
+architects themselves, were supposed to know all that architects
+should do and should not do. In the purchase of great properties Mr.
+Burton's opinion was supposed to be, or to have been, as good as any
+in the kingdom, and therefore there was very much to be learned in
+the office at Stratton. But Mr. Burton was not a rich man like his
+partner, Mr. Beilby, nor an ambitious man. He had never soared
+Parliamentwards, had never speculated, had never invented, and never
+been great. He had been the father of a very large family, all of
+whom were doing as well in the world, and some of them perhaps
+better, than their father. Indeed, there were many who said that Mr.
+Burton would have been a richer man if he had not joined himself in
+partnership with Mr. Beilby. Mr. Beilby had the reputation of
+swallowing more than his share wherever he went.</p>
+
+<p>When the business part of the arrangement was finished Mr. Burton
+talked to his future pupil about lodgings, and went out with him into
+the town to look for rooms. The old man found that Harry Clavering
+was rather nice in this respect, and in his own mind formed an idea
+that this new beginner might have been a more auspicious pupil, had
+he not already become a fellow of a college. Indeed, Harry talked to
+him quite as though they two were on an equality together; and,
+before they had parted, Mr. Burton was not sure that Harry did not
+patronize him. He asked the young man, however, to join them at their
+early dinner, and then introduced him to Mrs. Burton, and to their
+youngest daughter, the only child who was still living with them.
+"All my other girls are married, Mr. Clavering; and all of them
+married to men connected with my own profession." The colour came
+slightly to Florence Burton's cheeks as she heard her father's words,
+and Harry asked himself whether the old man expected that he should
+go through the same ordeal; but Mr. Burton himself was quite unaware
+that he had said anything wrong, and then went on to speak of the
+successes of his sons. "But they began early, Mr. Clavering; and
+worked hard,&mdash;very hard indeed." He was a good, kindly, garrulous old
+man; but Harry began to doubt whether he would learn much at
+Stratton. It was, however, too late to think of that now, and
+everything was fixed.</p>
+
+<p>Harry, when he looked at Florence Burton, at once declared to himself
+that she was plain. Anything more unlike Julia Brabazon never
+appeared in the guise of a young lady. Julia was tall, with a high
+brow, a glorious complexion, a nose as finely modelled as though a
+Grecian sculptor had cut it, a small mouth, but lovely in its curves,
+and a chin that finished and made perfect the symmetry of her face.
+Her neck was long, but graceful as a swan's, her bust was full, and
+her whole figure like that of a goddess. Added to this, when he had
+first known her, had been all the charm of youth. When she had
+returned to Clavering the other day, the affianced bride of Lord
+Ongar, he had hardly known whether to admire or to deplore the
+settled air of established womanhood which she had assumed. Her large
+eyes had always lacked something of rapid glancing sparkling
+brightness. They had been glorious eyes to him, and in those early
+days he had not known that they lacked aught; but he had perceived,
+or perhaps fancied, that now, in her present condition, they were
+often cold, and sometimes almost cruel. Nevertheless he was ready to
+swear that she was perfect in her beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Florence Burton was short of stature, was brown, meagre, and
+poor-looking. So said Harry Clavering to himself. Her small hand,
+though soft, lacked that wondrous charm of touch which Julia's
+possessed. Her face was short, and her forehead, though it was broad
+and open, had none of that feminine command which Julia's look
+conveyed. That Florence's eyes were very bright,&mdash;bright and soft as
+well, he allowed; and her dark brown hair was very glossy; but she
+was, on the whole, a mean-looking little thing. He could not, as he
+said to himself on his return home, avoid the comparison, as she was
+the first girl he had seen since he had parted from Julia Brabazon.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you'll find yourself comfortable at Stratton, sir," said old
+Mrs. Burton.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Harry, "but I want very little myself in that way.
+Anything does for me."</p>
+
+<p>"One young gentleman we had took a bedroom at Mrs. Pott's, and did
+very nicely without any second room at all. Don't you remember, Mr.
+B.? it was young Granger."</p>
+
+<p>"Young Granger had a very short allowance," said Mr. Burton. "He
+lived upon fifty pounds a year all the time he was here."</p>
+
+<p>"And I don't think Scarness had more when he began," said Mrs.
+Burton. "Mr. Scarness married one of my girls, Mr. Clavering, when he
+started himself at Liverpool. He has pretty nigh all the Liverpool
+docks under him now. I have heard him say that butcher's meat did not
+cost him four shillings a week all the time he was here. I've always
+thought Stratton one of the reasonablest places anywhere for a young
+man to do for himself in."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, my dear," said the husband, "that Mr. Clavering will
+care very much for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not, Mr. B.; but I do like to see young men careful about
+their spendings. What's the use of spending a shilling when sixpence
+will do as well; and sixpence saved when a man has nothing but
+himself, becomes pounds and pounds by the time he has a family about
+him."</p>
+
+<p>During all this time Miss Burton said little or nothing, and Harry
+Clavering himself did not say much. He could not express any
+intention of rivalling Mr. Scarness's economy in the article of
+butcher's meat, nor could he promise to content himself with
+Granger's solitary bedroom. But as he rode home he almost began to
+fear that he had made a mistake. He was not wedded to the joys of his
+college hall, or the college common room. He did not like the
+narrowness of college life. But he doubted whether the change from
+that to the oft-repeated hospitalities of Mrs. Burton might not be
+too much for him. Scarness's four shillings'-worth of butcher's meat
+had already made him half sick of his new profession, and though
+Stratton might be the "reasonablest place anywhere for a young man,"
+he could not look forward to living there for a year with much
+delight. As for Miss Burton, it might be quite as well that she was
+plain, as he wished for none of the delights which beauty affords to
+young men.</p>
+
+<p>On his return home, however, he made no complaint of Stratton. He was
+too strong-willed to own that he had been in any way wrong, and when
+early in the following week he started for St. Cuthbert's, he was
+able to speak with cheerful hope of his new prospects. If ultimately
+he should find life in Stratton to be unendurable, he would cut that
+part of his career short, and contrive to get up to London at an
+earlier time than he had intended.</p>
+
+<p>On the 31st of August Lord Ongar and Sir Hugh Clavering reached
+Clavering Park, and, as has been already told, a pretty little note
+was at once sent up to Miss Brabazon in her bedroom. When she met
+Lord Ongar in the drawing-room, about an hour afterwards, she had
+instructed herself that it would be best to say nothing of the note;
+but she could not refrain from a word. "I am much obliged, my lord,
+by your kindness and generosity," she said, as she gave him her hand.
+He merely bowed and smiled, and muttered something as to his hoping
+that he might always find it as easy to gratify her. He was a little
+man, on whose behalf it certainly appeared that the Peerage must have
+told a falsehood; it seemed so at least to those who judged of his
+years from his appearance. The Peerage said that he was thirty-six,
+and that, no doubt, was in truth his age, but any one would have
+declared him to be ten years older. This look was produced chiefly by
+the effect of an elaborately dressed jet black wig which he wore.
+What misfortune had made him bald so early,&mdash;if to be bald early in
+life be a misfortune,&mdash;I cannot say; but he had lost the hair from
+the crown of his head, and had preferred wiggery to baldness. No
+doubt an effort was made to hide the wiggishness of his wigs, but
+what effect in that direction was ever made successfully? He was,
+moreover, weak, thin, and physically poor, and had, no doubt,
+increased this weakness and poorness by hard living. Though others
+thought him old, time had gone swiftly with him, and he still thought
+himself a young man. He hunted, though he could not ride. He shot,
+though he could not walk. And, unfortunately, he drank, though he had
+no capacity for drinking! His friends at last had taught him to
+believe that his only chance of saving himself lay in marriage, and
+therefore he had engaged himself to Julia Brabazon, purchasing her at
+the price of a brilliant settlement. If Lord Ongar should die before
+her, Ongar Park was to be hers for life, with thousands a year to
+maintain it. Courton Castle, the great family seat, would of course
+go to the heir; but Ongar Park was supposed to be the most delightful
+small country-seat anywhere within thirty miles of London. It lay
+among the Surrey hills, and all the world had heard of the charms of
+Ongar Park. If Julia were to survive her lord, Ongar Park was to be
+hers; and they who saw them both together had but little doubt that
+she would come to the enjoyment of this clause in her settlement.
+Lady Clavering had been clever in arranging the match; and Sir Hugh,
+though he might have been unwilling to give his sister-in-law money
+out of his own pocket, had performed his duty as a brother-in-law in
+looking to her future welfare. Julia Brabazon had no doubt that she
+was doing well. Poor Harry Clavering! She had loved him in the days
+of her romance. She, too, had written her sonnets. But she had grown
+old earlier in life than he had done, and had taught herself that
+romance could not be allowed to a woman in her position. She was
+highly born, the daughter of a peer, without money, and even without
+a home to which she had any claim. Of course she had accepted Lord
+Ongar, but she had not put out her hand to take all these good things
+without resolving that she would do her duty to her future lord. The
+duty would be doubtless disagreeable, but she would do it with all
+the more diligence on that account.</p>
+
+<p>September passed by, hecatombs of partridges were slaughtered, and
+the day of the wedding drew nigh. It was pretty to see Lord Ongar and
+the self-satisfaction which he enjoyed at this time. The world was
+becoming young with him again, and he thought that he rather liked
+the respectability of his present mode of life. He gave himself but
+scanty allowances of wine, and no allowance of anything stronger than
+wine, and did not dislike his temperance. There was about him at all
+hours an air which seemed to say, "There; I told you all that I could
+do it as soon as there was any necessity." And in these halcyon days
+he could shoot for an hour without his pony, and he liked the gentle
+courteous badinage which was bestowed upon his courtship, and he
+liked also Julia's beauty. Her conduct to him was perfect. She was
+never pert, never exigeant, never romantic, and never humble. She
+never bored him, and yet was always ready to be with him when he
+wished it. She was never exalted; and yet she bore her high place as
+became a woman nobly born and acknowledged to be beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare you have quite made a lover of him," said Lady Clavering
+to her sister. When a thought of the match had first arisen in Sir
+Hugh's London house, Lady Clavering had been eager in praise of Lord
+Ongar, or eager in praise rather of the position which the future
+Lady Ongar might hold; but since the prize had been secured, since it
+had become plain that Julia was to be the greater woman of the two,
+she had harped sometimes on the other string. As a sister she had
+striven for a sister's welfare, but as a woman she could not keep
+herself from comparisons which might tend to show that after all,
+well as Julia was doing, she was not doing better than her elder
+sister had done. Hermione had married simply a baronet, and not the
+richest or the most amiable among baronets; but she had married a man
+suitable in age and wealth, with whom any girl might have been in
+love. She had not sold herself to be the nurse, or not to be the
+nurse, as it might turn out, of a worn-out debauch&eacute;. She would have
+hinted nothing of this, perhaps have thought nothing of this, had not
+Julia and Lord Ongar walked together through the Clavering groves as
+though they were two young people. She owed it as a duty to her
+sister to point out that Lord Ongar could not be a romantic young
+person, and ought not to be encouraged to play that part.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that I have made anything of him," answered Julia. "I
+suppose he's much like other men when they're going to be married."
+Julia quite understood the ideas that were passing through her
+sister's mind, and did not feel them to be unnatural.</p>
+
+<p>"What I mean is, that he has come out so strong in the Romeo line,
+which we hardly expected, you know. We shall have him under your
+bedroom window with a guitar like Don Giovanni."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not, because it's so cold. I don't think it likely, as he
+seems fond of going to bed early."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's the best thing for him," said Lady Clavering, becoming
+serious and carefully benevolent. "It's quite a wonder what good
+hours and quiet living have done for him in so short a time. I was
+observing him as he walked yesterday, and he put his feet to the
+ground as firmly almost as Hugh does."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he indeed? I hope he won't have the habit of putting his hand
+down firmly as Hugh does sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"As for that," said Lady Clavering, with a little tremor, "I don't
+think there's much difference between them. They all say that when
+Lord Ongar means a thing he does mean it."</p>
+
+<p>"I think a man ought to have a way of his own."</p>
+
+<p>"And a woman also, don't you, my dear? But, as I was saying, if Lord
+Ongar will continue to take care of himself he may become quite a
+different man. Hugh says that he drinks next to nothing now, and
+though he sometimes lights a cigar in the smoking-room at night, he
+hardly ever smokes it. You must do what you can to keep him from
+tobacco. I happen to know that Sir Charles Poddy said that so many
+cigars were worse for him even than brandy."</p>
+
+<p>All this Julia bore with an even temper. She was determined to bear
+everything till her time should come. Indeed she had made herself
+understand that the hearing of such things as these was a part of the
+price which she was to be called upon to pay. It was not pleasant for
+her to hear what Sir Charles Poddy had said about the tobacco and
+brandy of the man she was just going to marry. She would sooner have
+heard of his riding sixty miles a day, or dancing all night, as she
+might have heard had she been contented to take Harry Clavering. But
+she had made her selection with her eyes open, and was not disposed
+to quarrel with her bargain, because that which she had bought was no
+better than the article which she had known it to be when she was
+making her purchase. Nor was she even angry with her sister. "I will
+do the best I can, Hermy; you may be sure of that. But there are some
+things which it is useless to talk about."</p>
+
+<p>"But it was as well you should know what Sir Charles said."</p>
+
+<p>"I know quite enough of what he says, Hermy,&mdash;quite as much, I
+daresay, as you do. But, never mind. If Lord Ongar has given up
+smoking, I quite agree with you that it's a good thing. I wish they'd
+all give it up, for I hate the smell of it. Hugh has got worse and
+worse. He never cares about changing his clothes now."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what it is," said Sir Hugh to his wife that night;
+"sixty thousand a year is a very fine income, but Julia will find she
+has caught a Tartar."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he'll hardly live long; will he?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know or care when he lives or when he dies; but, by heaven,
+he is the most overbearing fellow I ever had in the house with me. I
+wouldn't stand him here for another fortnight,&mdash;not even to make her
+all safe."</p>
+
+<p>"It will soon be over. They'll be gone on Thursday."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of his having the impudence to tell
+Cunliffe,"&mdash;Cunliffe was the head keeper,&mdash;"before my face, that he
+didn't know anything about pheasants! 'Well, my lord, I think we've
+got a few about the place,' said Cunliffe. 'Very few,' said Ongar,
+with a sneer. Now, if I haven't a better head of game here than he
+has at Courton, I'll eat him. But the impudence of his saying that
+before me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you make him any answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"'There's about enough to suit me,' I said. Then he skulked away,
+knocked off his pins. I shouldn't like to be his wife; I can tell
+Julia that."</p>
+
+<p>"Julia is very clever," said the sister.</p>
+
+<p>The day of the marriage came, and everything at Clavering was done
+with much splendour. Four bridesmaids came down from London on the
+preceding day; two were already staying in the house, and the two
+cousins came as two more from the rectory. Julia Brabazon had never
+been really intimate with Mary and Fanny Clavering, but she had known
+them well enough to make it odd if she did not ask them to come to
+her wedding and to take a part in the ceremony. And, moreover, she
+had thought of Harry and her little romance of other days. Harry,
+perhaps, might be glad to know that she had shown this courtesy to
+his sisters. Harry, she knew, would be away at his school. Though she
+had asked him whether he meant to come to her wedding, she had been
+better pleased that he should be absent. She had not many regrets
+herself, but it pleased her to think that he should have them. So
+Mary and Fanny Clavering were asked to attend her at the altar. Mary
+and Fanny would both have preferred to decline, but their mother had
+told them that they could not do so. "It would make ill-feeling,"
+said Mrs. Clavering; "and that is what your papa particularly wishes
+to avoid."</p>
+
+<p>"When you say papa particularly wishes anything, mamma, you always
+mean that you wish it particularly yourself," said Fanny. "But if it
+must be done, it must; and then I shall know how to behave when
+Mary's time comes."</p>
+
+<p>The bells were rung lustily all the morning, and all the parish was
+there, round about the church, to see. There was no record of a lord
+ever having been married in Clavering church before; and now this
+lord was going to marry my lady's sister. It was all one as though
+she were a Clavering herself. But there was no ecstatic joy in the
+parish. There were to be no bonfires, and no eating and drinking at
+Sir Hugh's expense,&mdash;no comforts provided for any of the poor by Lady
+Clavering on that special occasion. Indeed, there was never much of
+such kindnesses between the lord of the soil and his dependants. A
+certain stipulated dole was given at Christmas for coals and
+blankets; but even for that there was generally some wrangle between
+the rector and the steward. "If there's to be all this row about it,"
+the rector had said to the steward, "I'll never ask for it again." "I
+wish my uncle would only be as good as his word," Sir Hugh had said,
+when the rector's speech was repeated to him. Therefore, there was
+not much of real rejoicing in the parish on this occasion, though the
+bells were rung loudly, and though the people, young and old, did
+cluster round the churchyard to see the lord lead his bride out of
+the church. "A puir feckless thing, tottering along like,&mdash;not half
+the makings of a man. A stout lass like she could a'most blow him
+away wi' a puff of her mouth." That was the verdict which an old
+farmer's wife passed upon him, and that verdict was made good by the
+general opinion of the parish.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill03"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill03.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill03-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt='"A puir feckless thing, tottering along like,&mdash;"' /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">"A puir
+      feckless thing, tottering along like,&mdash;"</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill03.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>But though the lord might be only half a man, Julia Brabazon walked
+out from the church every inch a countess. Whatever price she might
+have paid, she had at any rate got the thing which she had intended
+to buy. And as she stepped into the chariot which carried her away to
+the railway station on her way to Dover, she told herself that she
+had done right. She had chosen her profession, as Harry Clavering had
+chosen his; and having so far succeeded, she would do her best to
+make her success perfect. Mercenary! Of course she had been
+mercenary. Were not all men and women mercenary upon whom devolved
+the necessity of earning their bread?</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a great breakfast at the park,&mdash;for the quality,&mdash;and
+the rector on this occasion submitted himself to become the guest of
+the nephew whom he thoroughly disliked.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c04"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+<h4>FLORENCE BURTON.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill04-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="I" />t was
+now Christmas time at Stratton, or rather Christmas time was
+near at hand; not the Christmas next after the autumn of Lord Ongar's
+marriage, but the following Christmas, and Harry Clavering had
+finished his studies in Mr. Burton's office. He flattered himself
+that he had not been idle while he was there, and was now about to
+commence his more advanced stage of pupilage, under the great Mr.
+Beilby in London, with hopes which were still good, if they were not
+so magnificent as they once had been. When he first saw Mr. Burton in
+his office, and beheld the dusty pigeon-holes with dusty papers, and
+caught the first glimpse of things as they really were in the
+workshop of that man of business, he had, to say the truth, been
+disgusted. And Mrs. Burton's early dinner, and Florence Burton's
+"plain face" and plain ways, had disconcerted him. On that day he had
+repented of his intention with regard to Stratton; but he had carried
+out his purpose like a man, and now he rejoiced greatly that he had
+done so. He rejoiced greatly, though his hopes were somewhat sobered,
+and his views of life less grand than they had been. He was to start
+for Clavering early on the following morning, intending to spend his
+Christmas at home, and we will see him and listen to him as he bade
+farewell to one of the members of Mr. Burton's family.</p>
+
+<p>He was sitting in a small back parlour in Mr. Burton's house, and on
+the table of the room there was burning a single candle. It was a
+dull, dingy, brown room, furnished with horsehair-covered chairs, an
+old horsehair sofa, and heavy rusty curtains. I don't know that there
+was in the room any attempt at ornament, as certainly there was no
+evidence of wealth. It was now about seven o'clock in the evening,
+and tea was over in Mrs. Burton's establishment. Harry Clavering had
+had his tea, and had eaten his hot muffin, at the further side from
+the fire of the family table, while Florence had poured out the tea,
+and Mrs. Burton had sat by the fire on one side with a handkerchief
+over her lap, and Mr. Burton had been comfortable with his arm-chair
+and his slippers on the other side. When tea was over, Harry had made
+his parting speech to Mrs. Burton, and that lady had kissed him, and
+bade God bless him. "I'll see you for a moment before you go, in my
+office, Harry," Mr. Burton had said. Then Harry had gone downstairs,
+and some one else had gone boldly with him, and they two were sitting
+together in the dingy brown room. After that I need hardly tell my
+reader what had become of Harry Clavering's perpetual life-enduring
+heart's misery.</p>
+
+<p>He and Florence were sitting on the old horsehair sofa, and
+Florence's hand was in his. "My darling," he said, "how am I to live
+for the next two years?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean five years, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I mean two,&mdash;that is two, unless I can make the time less. I
+believe you'd be better pleased to think it was ten."</p>
+
+<p>"Much better pleased to think it was ten than to have no such hope at
+all. Of course we shall see each other. It's not as though you were
+going to New Zealand."</p>
+
+<p>"I almost wish I were. One would agree then as to the necessity of
+this cursed delay."</p>
+
+<p>"Harry, Harry!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is accursed. The prudence of the world in these latter days seems
+to me to be more abominable than all its other iniquities."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Harry, we should have no income."</p>
+
+<p>"Income is a word that I hate."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you are getting on to your high horse, and you know I always go
+out of the way when you begin to prance on that beast. As for me, I
+don't want to leave papa's house where I'm sure of my bread and
+butter, till I'm sure of it in another."</p>
+
+<p>"You say that, Florence, on purpose to torment me."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Harry, do you think I want to torment you on your last night?
+The truth is, I love you so well that I can afford to be patient for
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate patience, and always did. Patience is one of the worst vices
+I know. It's almost as bad as humility. You'll tell me you're 'umble
+next. If you'll only add that you're contented, you'll describe
+yourself as one of the lowest of God's creatures."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about being 'umble, but I am contented. Are not you
+contented with me, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;because you're not in a hurry to be married."</p>
+
+<p>"What a goose you are. Do you know I'm not sure that if you really
+love a person, and are quite confident about him,&mdash;as I am of
+you,&mdash;that having to look forward to being married is not the best
+part of it all. I suppose you'll like to get my letters now, but I
+don't know that you'll care for them much when we've been man and
+wife for ten years."</p>
+
+<p>"But one can't live upon letters."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall expect you to live upon mine, and to grow fat on them.
+There;&mdash;I heard papa's step on the stairs. He said you were to go to
+him. Good-by, Harry;&mdash;dearest Harry! What a blessed wind it was that
+blew you here."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a moment;&mdash;about your getting to Clavering. I shall come for
+you on Easter-eve."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no;&mdash;why should you have so much trouble and expense?"</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I shall come for you,&mdash;unless, indeed, you decline to
+travel with me."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be so nice! And then I shall be sure to have you with me the
+first moment I see them. I shall think it very awful when I first
+meet your father."</p>
+
+<p>"He's the most good-natured man, I should say, in England."</p>
+
+<p>"But he'll think me so plain. You did at first, you know. But he
+won't be uncivil enough to tell me so, as you did. And Mary is to be
+married in Easter week? Oh, dear, oh, dear; I shall be so shy among
+them all."</p>
+
+<p>"You shy! I never saw you shy in my life. I don't suppose you were
+ever really put out yet."</p>
+
+<p>"But I must really put you out, because papa is waiting for you.
+Dear, dear, dearest Harry. Though I am so patient I shall count the
+hours till you come for me. Dearest Harry!" Then she bore with him,
+as he pressed her close to his bosom, and kissed her lips, and her
+forehead, and her glossy hair. When he was gone she sat down alone
+for a few minutes on the old sofa, and hugged herself in her
+happiness. What a happy wind that had been which had blown such a
+lover as that for her to Stratton!</p>
+
+<p>"I think he's a good young man," said Mrs. Burton, as soon as she was
+left with her old husband upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he's a good young man. He means very well."</p>
+
+<p>"But he is not idle; is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no; he's not idle. And he's very clever;&mdash;too clever, I'm
+afraid. But I think he'll do well, though it may take him some time
+to settle."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems so natural his taking to Flo; doesn't it? They've all taken
+one when they went away, and they've all done very well. Deary me;
+how sad the house will be when Flo has gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;it'll make a difference that way. But what then? I wouldn't
+wish to keep one of 'em at home for that reason."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. I think I'd feel ashamed of myself to have a daughter
+not married, or not in the way to be married afore she's thirty. I
+couldn't bear to think that no young man should take a fancy to a
+girl of mine. But Flo's not twenty yet, and Carry, who was the oldest
+to go, wasn't four-and-twenty when Scarness took her." Thereupon the
+old lady put her handkerchief to the corner of her eyes, and wept
+gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Flo isn't gone yet," said Mr. Burton.</p>
+
+<p>"But I hope, B., it's not to be a long engagement. I don't like long
+engagements. It ain't good,&mdash;not for the girl; it ain't, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"We were engaged for seven years."</p>
+
+<p>"People weren't so much in a hurry then at anything; but I ain't sure
+it was very good for me. And though we weren't just married, we were
+living next door and saw each other. What'll come to Flo if she's to
+be here and he's to be up in London, pleasuring himself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Flo must bear it as other girls do," said the father, as he got up
+from his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he's a good young man; I think he is," said the mother. "But
+don't stand out for too much for 'em to begin upon. What matters?
+Sure if they were to be a little short you could help 'em." To such a
+suggestion as this Mr. Burton thought it as well to make no answer,
+but with ponderous steps descended to his office.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Harry," said Mr. Burton, "so you're to be off in the morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; I shall breakfast at home to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah,&mdash;when I was your age I always used to make an early start. Three
+hours before breakfast never does any hurt. But it shouldn't be more
+than that. The wind gets into the stomach." Harry had no remark to
+make on this, and waited, therefore, till Mr. Burton went on. "And
+you'll be up in London by the 10th of next month?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; I intend to be at Mr. Beilby's office on the 11th."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right. Never lose a day. In losing a day now, you don't lose
+what you might earn now in a day, but what you might be earning when
+you're at your best. A young man should always remember that. You
+can't dispense with a round in the ladder going up. You only make
+your time at the top so much the shorter."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you'll find that I'm all right, sir. I don't mean to be
+idle."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray don't. Of course, you know, I speak to you very differently
+from what I should do if you were simply going away from my office.
+What I shall have to give Florence will be very little,&mdash;that is,
+comparatively little. She shall have a hundred a year, when she
+marries, till I die; and after my death and her mother's she will
+share with the others. But a hundred a year will be nothing to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't it, sir? I think a very great deal of a hundred a year. I'm to
+have a hundred and fifty from the office; and I should be ready to
+marry on that to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't live on such an income,&mdash;unless you were to alter your
+habits very much."</p>
+
+<p>"But I will alter them."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see. You are so placed that by marrying you would lose a
+considerable income; and I would advise you to put off thinking of it
+for the next two years."</p>
+
+<p>"My belief is, that settling down would be the best thing in the
+world to make me work."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll try what a year will do. So Florence is to go to your father's
+house at Easter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; she has been good enough to promise to come, if you have
+no objection."</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite as well that they should know her early. I only hope
+they will like her as well as we like you. Now I'll say
+good-night,&mdash;and good-by." Then Harry went, and walking up and down
+the High Street of Stratton, thought of all that he had done during
+the past year.</p>
+
+<p>On his arrival at Stratton that idea of perpetual misery arising from
+blighted affection was still strong within his breast. He had given
+all his heart to a false woman who had betrayed him. He had risked
+all his fortune on one cast of the die, and, gambler-like, had lost
+everything. On the day of Julia's marriage he had shut himself up at
+the school,&mdash;luckily it was a holiday,&mdash;and had flattered himself
+that he had gone through some hours of intense agony. No doubt he did
+suffer somewhat, for in truth he had loved the woman; but such
+sufferings are seldom perpetual, and with him they had been as easy
+of cure as with most others. A little more than a year had passed,
+and now he was already engaged to another woman. As he thought of
+this he did not by any means accuse himself of inconstancy or of
+weakness of heart. It appeared to him now the most natural thing in
+the world that he should love Florence Burton. In those old days he
+had never seen Florence, and had hardly thought seriously of what
+qualities a man really wants in a wife. As he walked up and down the
+hill of Stratton Street with the kiss of the dear, modest,
+affectionate girl still warm upon his lips, he told himself that a
+marriage with such a one as Julia Brabazon would have been altogether
+fatal to his chance of happiness.</p>
+
+<p>And things had occurred and rumours had reached him which assisted
+him much in adopting this view of the subject. It was known to all
+the Claverings,&mdash;and even to all others who cared about such
+things,&mdash;that Lord and Lady Ongar were not happy together, and it had
+been already said that Lady Ongar had misconducted herself. There was
+a certain count whose name had come to be mingled with hers in a way
+that was, to say the least of it, very unfortunate. Sir Hugh
+Clavering had declared, in Mrs. Clavering's hearing, though but
+little disposed in general to make many revelations to any of the
+family at the rectory, "that he did not intend to take his
+sister-in-law's part. She had made her own bed, and she must lie upon
+it. She had known what Lord Ongar was before she had married him, and
+the fault was her own." So much Sir Hugh had said, and, in saying it,
+had done all that in him lay to damn his sister-in-law's fair fame.
+Harry Clavering, little as he had lived in the world during the last
+twelve months, still knew that some people told a different story.
+The earl too and his wife had not been in England since their
+marriage;&mdash;so that these rumours had been filtered to them at home
+through a foreign medium. During most of their time they had been in
+Italy, and now, as Harry knew, they were at Florence. He had heard
+that Lord Ongar had declared his intention of suing for a divorce;
+but that he supposed to be erroneous, as the two were still living
+under the same roof. Then he heard that Lord Ongar was ill; and
+whispers were spread abroad darkly and doubtingly, as though great
+misfortunes were apprehended.</p>
+
+<p>Harry could not fail to tell himself that had Julia become his wife,
+as she had once promised, these whispers and this darkness would
+hardly have come to pass. But not on that account did he now regret
+that her early vows had not been kept. Living at Stratton, he had
+taught himself to think much of the quiet domesticities of life, and
+to believe that Florence Burton was fitter to be his wife than Julia
+Brabazon. He told himself that he had done well to find this out, and
+that he had been wise to act upon it. His wisdom had in truth
+consisted in his capacity to feel that Florence was a nice girl,
+clever, well-minded, high-principled, and full of spirit,&mdash;and in
+falling in love with her as a consequence. All his regard for the
+quiet domesticities had come from his love, and had had no share in
+producing it. Florence was bright-eyed. No eyes were ever brighter,
+either in tears or in laughter. And when he came to look at her well
+he found that he had been an idiot to think her plain. "There are
+things that grow to beauty as you look at them,&mdash;to exquisite beauty;
+and you are one of them," he had said to her. "And there are men,"
+she had answered, "who grow to flattery as you listen to them,&mdash;to
+impudent flattery; and you are one of them." "I thought you plain the
+first day I saw you. That's not flattery." "Yes, sir, it is; and you
+mean it for flattery. But after all, Harry, it comes only to this,
+that you want to tell me that you have learned to love me." He
+repeated all this to himself as he walked up and down Stratton, and
+declared to himself that she was very lovely. It had been given to
+him to ascertain this, and he was rather proud of himself. But he was
+a little diffident about his father. He thought that, perhaps, his
+father might see Florence as he himself had first seen her, and might
+not have discernment enough to ascertain his mistake as he had done.
+But Florence was not going to Clavering at once, and he would be able
+to give beforehand his own account of her. He had not been home since
+his engagement had been a thing settled; but his position with regard
+to Florence had been declared by letter, and his mother had written
+to the young lady asking her to come to Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>When Harry got home all the family received him with congratulations.
+"I am so glad to think that you should marry early," his mother said
+to him in a whisper. "But I am not married yet, mother," he
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Do show me a lock of her hair," said Fanny, laughing. "It's twice
+prettier hair than yours, though she doesn't think half so much about
+it as you do," said her brother, pinching Fanny's arm. "But you'll
+show me a lock, won't you?" said Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad she's to be here at my marriage," said Mary, "because
+then Edward will know her. I'm so glad that he will see her." "Edward
+will have other fish to fry, and won't care much about her," said
+Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems you're going to do the regular thing," said his father,
+"like all the good apprentices. Marry your master's daughter, and
+then become Lord Mayor of London." This was not the view in which it
+had pleased Harry to regard his engagement. All the other "young men"
+that had gone to Mr. Burton's had married Mr. Burton's
+daughters,&mdash;or, at least, enough had done so to justify the Stratton
+assertion that all had fallen into the same trap. The Burtons, with
+their five girls, were supposed in Stratton to have managed their
+affairs very well, and something of these hints had reached Harry's
+ears. He would have preferred that the thing should not have been
+made so common, but he was not fool enough to make himself really
+unhappy on that head. "I don't know much about becoming Lord Mayor,"
+he replied. "That promotion doesn't lie exactly in our line." "But
+marrying your master's daughter does, it seems," said the Rector.
+Harry thought that this, as coming from his father, was almost
+ill-natured, and therefore dropped the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure we shall like her," said Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that I shall like Harry's choice," said Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope Edward will like her," said Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary," said her sister, "I do wish you were once married. When you
+are, you'll begin to have a self of your own again. Now you're no
+better than an unconscious echo."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait for your own turn, my dear," said the mother.</p>
+
+<p>Harry had reached home on a Saturday, and the following Monday was
+Christmas-day. Lady Clavering, he was told, was at home at the park,
+and Sir Hugh had been there lately. No one from the house except the
+servants were seen at church either on the Sunday or on
+Christmas-day. "But that shows nothing," said the Rector, speaking in
+anger. "He very rarely does come, and when he does, it would be
+better that he should be away. I think that he likes to insult me by
+misconducting himself. They say that she is not well, and I can
+easily believe that all this about her sister makes her unhappy. If I
+were you I would go up and call. Your mother was there the other day,
+but did not see them. I think you'll find that he's away, hunting
+somewhere. I saw the groom going off with three horses on Sunday
+afternoon. He always sends them by the church gate just as we're
+coming out."</p>
+
+<p>So Harry went up to the house, and found Lady Clavering at home. She
+was looking old and careworn, but she was glad to see him. Harry was
+the only one of the rectory family who had been liked at the great
+house since Sir Hugh's marriage, and he, had he cared to do so, would
+have been made welcome there. But, as he had once said to Sir Hugh's
+sister-in-law, if he shot the Clavering game, he would be expected to
+do so in the guise of a head gamekeeper, and he did not choose to
+play that part. It would not suit him to drink Sir Hugh's claret, and
+be bidden to ring the bell, and to be asked to step into the stable
+for this or that. He was a fellow of his college, and quite as big a
+man, he thought, as Sir Hugh. He would not be a hanger-on at the
+park, and, to tell the truth, he disliked his cousin quite as much as
+his father did. But there had even been a sort of friendship,&mdash;nay,
+occasionally almost a confidence, between him and Lady Clavering, and
+he believed that by her he was really liked.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clavering had heard of his engagement, and of course
+congratulated him. "Who told you?" he asked,&mdash;"was it my mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I have not seen your mother I don't know when. I think it was my
+maid told me. Though we somehow don't see much of you all at the
+rectory, our servants are no doubt more gracious with the rectory
+servants. I'm sure she must be nice, Harry, or you would not have
+chosen her. I hope she has got some money."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think she is nice. She is coming here at Easter."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, we shall be away then, you know; and about the money?"</p>
+
+<p>"She will have a little, but very little;&mdash;a hundred a year."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Harry, is not that rash of you? Younger brothers should always
+get money. You're the same as a younger brother, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"My idea is to earn my own bread. It's not very aristocratic, but,
+after all, there are a great many more in the same boat with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you will earn your bread, but having a wife with money
+would not hinder that. A girl is not the worse because she can bring
+some help. However, I'm sure I hope you'll be happy."</p>
+
+<p>"What I meant was that I think it best when the money comes from the
+husband."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I ought to agree with you, because we never had any." Then
+there was a pause. "I suppose you've heard about Lord Ongar," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard that he is very ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Very ill. I believe there was no hope when we heard last; but Julia
+never writes now."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry that it is so bad as that," said Harry, not well knowing
+what else to say.</p>
+
+<p>"As regards Julia, I do not know whether it may not be for the best.
+It seems to be a cruel thing to say, but of course I cannot but think
+most of her. You have heard, perhaps, that they have not been happy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I had heard that."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course; and what is the use of pretending anything with you? You
+know what people have said of her."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never believed it."</p>
+
+<p>"You always loved her, Harry. Oh, dear, I remember how unhappy that
+made me once, and I was so afraid that Hugh would suspect it. She
+would never have done for you;&mdash;would she, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"She did a great deal better for herself," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean that ironically, you shouldn't say it now. If he dies,
+she will be well off, of course, and people will in time forget what
+has been said,&mdash;that is, if she will live quietly. The worst of it is
+that she fears nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"But you speak as though you thought she had
+been&mdash;<span class="nowrap">been&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"I think she was probably imprudent, but I believe nothing worse than
+that. But who can say what is absolutely wrong, and what only
+imprudent? I think she was too proud to go really astray. And then
+with such a man as that, so difficult and so
+ill-<span class="nowrap">tempered&mdash;!</span> Sir Hugh
+<span class="nowrap">thinks&mdash;"</span> But at that moment
+the door was opened and Sir Hugh came in.</p>
+
+<p>"What does Sir Hugh think?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"We were speaking of Lord Ongar," said Harry, sitting up and shaking
+hands with his cousin.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Harry, you were speaking on a subject that I would rather not
+have discussed in this house. Do you understand that, Hermione? I
+will have no talking about Lord Ongar or his wife. We know very
+little, and what we hear is simply uncomfortable. Will you dine here
+to-day, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, no; I have only just come home."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am just going away. That is, I go to-morrow. I cannot stand
+this place. I think it the dullest neighbourhood in all England, and
+the most gloomy house I ever saw. Hermione likes it."</p>
+
+<p>To this last assertion Lady Clavering expressed no assent; nor did
+she venture to contradict him.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c05"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+<h4>LADY ONGAR'S RETURN.</h4>
+
+
+<p>But Sir Hugh did not get away from Clavering Park on the next morning
+as he had intended. There came to him that same afternoon a message
+by telegraph, to say that Lord Ongar was dead. He had died at
+Florence on the afternoon of Christmas-day, and Lady Ongar had
+expressed her intention of coming at once to England.</p>
+
+<p>"Why the devil doesn't she stay where she is?" said Sir Hugh, to his
+wife. "People would forget her there, and in twelve months time the
+row would be all over."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps she does not want to be forgotten," said Lady Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Then she should want it. I don't care whether she has been guilty or
+not. When a woman gets her name into such a mess as that, she should
+keep in the background."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are unjust to her, Hugh."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you do. You don't suppose that I expect anything else. But
+if you mean to tell me that there would have been all this row if she
+had been decently prudent, I tell you that you're mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"Only think what a man he was."</p>
+
+<p>"She knew that when she took him, and should have borne with him
+while he lasted. A woman isn't to have seven thousand a year for
+nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"But you forget that not a syllable has been proved against her, or
+been attempted to be proved. She has never left him, and now she has
+been with him in his last moments. I don't think you ought to be the
+first to turn against her."</p>
+
+<p>"If she would remain abroad, I would do the best I could for her. She
+chooses to return home; and as I think she's wrong, I won't have her
+here;&mdash;that's all. You don't suppose that I go about the world
+accusing her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you might do something to fight her battle for her."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do nothing,&mdash;unless she takes my advice and remains abroad.
+You must write to her now, and you will tell her what I say. It's an
+infernal bore, his dying at this moment; but I suppose people won't
+expect that I'm to shut myself up."</p>
+
+<p>For one day only did the baronet shut himself up, and on the
+following he went whither he had before intended.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clavering thought it proper to write a line to the rectory,
+informing the family there that Lord Ongar was no more. This she did
+in a note to Mrs. Clavering; and when it was received, there came
+over the faces of them all that lugubrious look, which is, as a
+matter of course, assumed by decorous people when tidings come of the
+death of any one who has been known to them, even in the most distant
+way. With the exception of Harry, all the rectory Claverings had been
+introduced to Lord Ongar, and were now bound to express something
+approaching to sorrow. Will any one dare to call this hypocrisy? If
+it be so called, who in the world is not a hypocrite? Where is the
+man or woman who has not a special face for sorrow before company?
+The man or woman who has no such face, would at once be accused of
+heartless impropriety.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very sad," said Mrs. Clavering; "only think, it is but little
+more than a year since you married them!"</p>
+
+<p>"And twelve such months as they have been for her!" said the Rector,
+shaking his head. His face was very lugubrious, for though as a
+parson he was essentially a kindly, easy man, to whom humbug was
+odious, and who dealt little in the austerities of clerical
+denunciation, still he had his face of pulpit sorrow for the sins of
+the people,&mdash;what I may perhaps call his clerical knack of gentle
+condemnation,&mdash;and could therefore assume a solemn look, and a little
+saddened motion of his head, with more ease than people who are not
+often called upon for such action.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor woman!" said Fanny, thinking of the woman's married sorrows,
+and her early widowhood.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor man," said Mary, shuddering as she thought of the husband's
+fate.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said Harry, almost sententiously, "that no one in this
+house will condemn her upon such mere rumours as have been heard."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should any one in this house condemn her," said the Rector,
+"even if there were more than rumours? My dears, judge not, lest ye
+be judged. As regards her, we are bound by close ties not to speak
+ill of her&mdash;or even to think ill, unless we cannot avoid it. As far
+as I know, we have not even any reason for thinking ill." Then he
+went out, changed the tone of his countenance among the rectory
+stables, and lit his cigar.</p>
+
+<p>Three days after that a second note was brought down from the great
+house to the rectory, and this was from Lady Clavering to Harry.
+"Dear Harry," ran the note,&mdash;"Could you find time to come up to me
+this morning? Sir Hugh has gone to North Priory.&mdash;Ever yours, H. C."
+Harry, of course, went, and as he went, he wondered how Sir Hugh
+could have had the heart to go to North Priory at such a moment.
+North Priory was a hunting seat some thirty miles from Clavering,
+belonging to a great nobleman with whom Sir Hugh much consorted.
+Harry was grieved that his cousin had not resisted the temptation of
+going at such a time, but he was quick enough to perceive that Lady
+Clavering alluded to the absence of her lord as a reason why Harry
+might pay his visit to the house with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so much obliged to you for coming," said Lady Clavering. "I want
+to know if you can do something for me." As she spoke, she had a
+paper in her hand which he immediately perceived to be a letter from
+Italy.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do anything I can, of course, Lady Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"But I must tell you, that I hardly know whether I ought to ask you.
+I'm doing what would make Hugh very angry. But he is so unreasonable,
+and so cruel about Julia. He condemns her simply because, as he says,
+there is no smoke without fire. That is such a cruel thing to say
+about a woman;&mdash;is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>Harry thought that it was a cruel thing, but as he did not wish to
+speak evil of Sir Hugh before Lady Clavering, he held his tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"When we got the first news by telegraph, Julia said that she
+intended to come home at once. Hugh thinks that she should remain
+abroad for some time, and indeed I am not sure but that would be
+best. At any rate he made me write to her, and advise her to stay. He
+declared that if she came at once he would do nothing for her. The
+truth is, he does not want to have her here, for if she were again in
+the house he would have to take her part, if ill-natured things were
+said."</p>
+
+<p>"That's cowardly," said Harry, stoutly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say that, Harry, till you have heard it all. If he believes
+these things, he is right not to wish to meddle. He is very hard, and
+always believes evil. But he is not a coward. If she were here,
+living with him as my sister, he would take her part, whatever he
+might himself think."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should he think ill of his own sister-in-law? I have never
+thought ill of her."</p>
+
+<p>"You loved her, and he never did;&mdash;though I think he liked her too in
+his way. But that's what he told me to do, and I did it. I wrote to
+her, advising her to remain at Florence till the warm weather comes,
+saying that as she could not specially wish to be in London for the
+season, I thought she would be more comfortable there than here;&mdash;and
+then I added that Hugh also advised her to stay. Of course I did not
+say that he would not have her here,&mdash;but that was his threat."</p>
+
+<p>"She is not likely to press herself where she is not wanted."</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;and she will not forget her rank and her money;&mdash;for that must
+now be hers. Julia can be quite as hard and as stubborn as he can.
+But I did write as I say, and I think that if she had got my letter
+before she had written herself, she would perhaps have stayed. But
+here is a letter from her, declaring that she will come at once. She
+will be starting almost as soon as my letter gets there, and I am
+sure she will not alter her purpose now."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why she should not come if she likes it."</p>
+
+<p>"Only that she might be more comfortable there. But read what she
+says. You need not read the first part. Not that there is any secret;
+but it is about him and his last moments, and it would only pain
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Harry longed to read the whole, but he did as he was bid, and began
+the letter at the spot which Lady Clavering marked for him with her
+finger. "I have to start on the third, and as I shall stay nowhere
+except to sleep at Turin and Paris, I shall be home by the eighth;&mdash;I
+think on the evening of the eighth. I shall bring only my own maid,
+and one of his men who desires to come back with me. I wish to have
+apartments taken for me in London. I suppose Hugh will do as much as
+this for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure Hugh won't," said Lady Clavering, who was watching
+his eye as he read.</p>
+
+<p>Harry said nothing, but went on reading. "I shall only want two
+sitting-rooms and two bedrooms,&mdash;one for myself and one for
+Clara,&mdash;and should like to have them somewhere near Piccadilly,&mdash;in
+Clarges Street, or about there. You can write me a line, or send me a
+message to the Hotel Bristol, at Paris. If anything fails, so that I
+should not hear, I shall go to the Palace Hotel; and, in that case,
+should telegraph for rooms from Paris."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all I'm to read?" Harry asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You can go on and see what she says as to her reason for coming." So
+Harry went on reading. "I have suffered much, and of course I know
+that I must suffer more; but I am determined that I will face the
+worst of it at once. It has been hinted to me that an attempt will be
+made to interfere with the
+<span class="nowrap">settlement&mdash;"</span> "Who can have hinted that?"
+said Harry. Lady Clavering suspected who might have done so, but she
+made no answer. "I can hardly think it possible; but, if it is done,
+I will not be out of the way. I have done my duty as best I could,
+and have done it under circumstances that I may truly say were
+terrible;&mdash;and I will go on doing it. No one shall say that I am
+ashamed to show my face and claim my own. You will be surprised when
+you see me. I have aged so
+<span class="nowrap">much;&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"You need not go on," said Lady Clavering. "The rest is about nothing
+that signifies."</p>
+
+<p>Then Harry refolded the letter and gave it back to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Hugh is gone, and therefore I could not show him that in time to
+do anything; but if I were to do so, he would simply do nothing, and
+let her go to the hotel in London. Now that would be unkind;&mdash;would
+it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very unkind, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"It would seem so cold to her on her return."</p>
+
+<p>"Very cold. Will you not go and meet her?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clavering blushed as she answered. Though Sir Hugh was a tyrant
+to his wife, and known to be such, and though she knew that this was
+known, she had never said that it was so to any of the Claverings;
+but now she was driven to confess it. "He would not let me go, Harry.
+I could not go without telling him, and if I told him he would forbid
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"And she is to be all alone in London, without any friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go to her as soon as he will let me. I don't think he will
+forbid my going to her, perhaps after a day or two; but I know he
+would not let me go on purpose to meet her."</p>
+
+<p>"It does seem hard."</p>
+
+<p>"But about the apartments, Harry? I thought that perhaps you would
+see about them. After all that has passed I could not have asked you,
+only that now, as you are engaged yourself, it is nearly the same as
+though you were married. I would ask Archibald, only then there would
+be a fuss between Archibald and Hugh; and somehow I look on you more
+as a brother-in-law than I do Archibald."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Archie in London?"</p>
+
+<p>"His address is at his club, but I daresay he is at North Priory
+also. At any rate, I shall say nothing to him."</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking he might have met her."</p>
+
+<p>"Julia never liked him. And, indeed, I don't think she will care so
+much about being met. She was always independent in that way, and
+would go over the world alone better than many men. But couldn't you
+run up and manage about the apartments? A woman coming home as a
+widow,&mdash;and in her position,&mdash;feels an hotel to be so public."</p>
+
+<p>"I will see about the apartments."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you would. And there will be time for you to send to me, so
+that I can write to Paris;&mdash;will there not? There is more than a
+week, you know."</p>
+
+<p>But Henry did not wish to go to London on this business immediately.
+He had made up his mind that he would not only take the rooms, but
+that he would also meet Lady Ongar at the station. He said nothing of
+this to Lady Clavering, as, perhaps, she might not approve; but such
+was his intention. He was wrong no doubt. A man in such cases should
+do what he is asked to do, and do no more. But he repeated to himself
+the excuse that Lady Clavering had made,&mdash;namely, that he was already
+the same as a married man, and that, therefore, no harm could come of
+his courtesy to his cousin's wife's sister. But he did not wish to
+make two journeys to London, nor did he desire to be away for a full
+week out of his holidays. Lady Clavering could not press him to go at
+once, and, therefore, it was settled as he proposed. She would write
+to Paris immediately, and he would go up to London after three or
+four days. "If we only knew of any apartments, we could write," said
+Lady Clavering. "You could not know that they were comfortable," said
+Harry; "and you will find that I will do it in plenty of time." Then
+he took his leave; but Lady Clavering had still one other word to say
+to him. "You had better not say anything about all this at the
+rectory; had you?" Harry, without considering much about it, said
+that he would not mention it.</p>
+
+<p>Then he went away and walked again about the park, thinking of it
+all. He had not seen her since he had walked round the park, in his
+misery, after parting with her in the garden. How much had happened
+since then! She had been married in her glory, had become a countess,
+and then a widow, and was now returning with a tarnished name, almost
+repudiated by those who had been her dearest friends; but with rank
+and fortune at her command,&mdash;and again a free woman. He could not but
+think what might have been his chance were it not for Florence
+Burton! But much had happened to him also. He had almost perished in
+his misery;&mdash;so he told himself;&mdash;but had once more "tricked his
+beams,"&mdash;that was his expression to himself,&mdash;and was now "flaming in
+the forehead" of a glorious love. And even if there had been no such
+love, would a widowed countess with a damaged name have suited his
+ambition, simply because she had the rich dower of the poor wretch to
+whom she had sold herself? No, indeed. There could be no question of
+renewed vows between them now;&mdash;there could have been no such
+question even had there been no "glorious love," which had accrued to
+him almost as his normal privilege in right of his pupilage in Mr.
+Burton's office. No;&mdash;there could be, there could have been, nothing
+now between him and the widowed Countess of Ongar. But, nevertheless,
+he liked the idea of meeting her in London. He felt some triumph in
+the thought that he should be the first to touch her hand on her
+return after all that she had suffered. He would be very courteous to
+her, and would spare no trouble that would give her any ease. As for
+her rooms, he would see to everything of which he could think that
+might add to her comfort; and a wish crept upon him, uninvited, that
+she might be conscious of what he had done for her.</p>
+
+<p>Would she be aware, he wondered, that he was engaged? Lady Clavering
+had known it for the last three months, and would probably have
+mentioned the circumstance in a letter. But perhaps not. The sisters,
+he knew, had not been good correspondents; and he almost wished that
+she might not know it. "I should not care to be talking to her about
+Florence," he said to himself.</p>
+
+<p>It was very strange that they should come to meet in such a way,
+after all that had passed between them in former days. Would it occur
+to her that he was the only man she had ever loved?&mdash;for, of course,
+as he well knew, she had never loved her husband. Or would she now be
+too callous to everything but the outer world to think at all of such
+a subject? She had said that she was aged, and he could well believe
+it. Then he pictured her to himself in her weeds, worn, sad, thin,
+but still proud and handsome. He had told Florence of his early love
+for the woman whom Lord Ongar had married, and had described with
+rapture his joy that that early passion had come to nothing. Now he
+would have to tell Florence of this meeting; and he thought of the
+comparison he would make between her bright young charms and the
+shipwrecked beauty of the widow. On the whole, he was proud that he
+had been selected for the commission, as he liked to think of himself
+as one to whom things happened which were out of the ordinary course.
+His only objection to Florence was that she had come to him so much
+in the ordinary course.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose the truth is you are tired of our dulness," said his
+father to him, when he declared his purpose of going up to London,
+and, in answer to certain questions that were asked him, had
+hesitated to tell his business.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, it is not so," said Harry, earnestly; "but I have a
+commission to execute for a certain person, and I cannot explain what
+it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Another secret;&mdash;eh, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry,&mdash;but it is a secret. It is not one of my own
+seeking; that is all I can say." His mother and sisters also asked
+him a question or two; but when he became mysterious, they did not
+persevere. "Of course it is something about Florence," said Fanny.
+"I'll be bound he is going to meet her. What will you bet me, Harry,
+you don't go to the play with Florence before you come home?" To this
+Henry deigned no answer; and after that no more questions were asked.</p>
+
+<p>He went up to London and took rooms in Bolton Street. There was a
+pretty fresh-looking light drawing-room, or, indeed, two
+drawing-rooms, and a small dining-room, and a large bed-room looking
+over upon the trees of some great nobleman's garden. As Harry stood
+at the window it seemed so odd to him that he should be there. And he
+was busy about everything in the chamber, seeing that all things were
+clean and well ordered. Was the woman of the house sure of her cook?
+Sure; of course she was sure. Had not old Lady Dimdaff lived there
+for two years, and nobody ever was so particular about her victuals
+as Lady Dimdaff. "And would Lady Ongar keep her own carriage?" As to
+this Harry could say nothing. Then came the question of price, and
+Harry found his commission very difficult. The sum asked seemed to be
+enormous. "Seven guineas a week at that time of the year!" Lady
+Dimdaff had always paid seven guineas. "But that was in the season,"
+suggested Harry. To this the woman replied that it was the season
+now. Harry felt that he did not like to drive a bargain for the
+Countess, who would probably care very little what she paid, and
+therefore assented. But a guinea a day for lodgings did seem a great
+deal of money. He was prepared to marry and commence housekeeping
+upon a less sum for all his expenses. However, he had done his
+commission, had written to Lady Clavering, and had telegraphed to
+Paris. He had almost brought himself to write to Lady Ongar, but when
+the moment came he abstained. He had sent the telegram as from H.
+Clavering. She might think that it came from Hugh if she pleased.</p>
+
+<p>He was unable not to attend specially to his dress when he went to
+meet her at the Victoria Station. He told himself that he was an
+ass,&mdash;but still he went on being an ass. During the whole afternoon
+he could do nothing but think of what he had in hand. He was to tell
+Florence everything, but had Florence known the actual state of his
+mind, I doubt whether she would have been satisfied with him. The
+train was due at 8 P.M. He dined at the Oxford and Cambridge Club at
+six, and then went to his lodgings to take one last look at his outer
+man. The evening was very fine, but he went down to the station in a
+cab, because he would not meet Lady Ongar in soiled boots. He told
+himself again that he was an ass; and then tried to console himself
+by thinking that such an occasion as this seldom happened once to any
+man,&mdash;could hardly happen more than once to any man. He had hired a
+carriage for her, not thinking it fit that Lady Ongar should be taken
+to her new home in a cab; and when he was at the station, half an
+hour before the proper time, was very fidgety because it had not
+come. Ten minutes before eight he might have been seen standing at
+the entrance to the station looking out anxiously for the vehicle.
+The man was there, of course, in time, but Harry made himself angry
+because he could not get the carriage so placed that Lady Ongar might
+be sure of stepping into it without leaving the platform. Punctually
+to the moment the coming train announced itself by its whistle, and
+Harry Clavering felt himself to be in a flutter.</p>
+
+<p>The train came up along the platform, and Harry stood there expecting
+to see Julia Brabazon's head projected from the first window that
+caught his eye. It was of Julia Brabazon's head, and not of Lady
+Ongar's, that he was thinking. But he saw no sign of her presence
+while the carriages were coming to a stand-still, and the platform
+was covered with passengers before he discovered her whom he was
+seeking. At last he encountered in the crowd a man in livery, and
+found from him that he was Lady Ongar's servant. "I have come to meet
+Lady Ongar," said Harry, "and have got a carriage for her." Then the
+servant found his mistress, and Harry offered his hand to a tall
+woman in black. She wore a black straw hat with a veil, but the veil
+was so thick that Harry could not at all see her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that Mr. Clavering?" said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Harry, "it is I. Your sister asked me to take rooms for
+you, and as I was in town I thought I might as well meet you to see
+if you wanted anything. Can I get the luggage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you;&mdash;the man will do that. He knows where the things are."</p>
+
+<p>"I ordered a carriage;&mdash;shall I show him where it is? Perhaps you
+will let me take you to it? They are so stupid here. They would not
+let me bring it up."</p>
+
+<p>"It will do very well I'm sure. It's very kind of you. The rooms are
+in Bolton Street. I have the number here. Oh! thank you." But she
+would not take his arm. So he led the way, and stood at the door
+while she got into the carriage with her maid. "I'd better show the
+man where you are now." This he did, and afterwards shook hands with
+her through the carriage window. This was all he saw of her, and the
+words which have been repeated were all that were spoken. Of her face
+he had not caught a glimpse.</p>
+
+<p>As he went home to his lodgings he was conscious that the interview
+had not been satisfactory. He could not say what more he wanted, but
+he felt that there was something amiss. He consoled himself, however,
+by reminding himself that Florence Burton was the girl whom he had
+really loved, and not Julia Brabazon. Lady Ongar had given him no
+invitation to come and see her, and therefore he determined that he
+would return home on the following day without going near Bolton
+Street. He had pictured to himself beforehand the sort of description
+he would give to Lady Clavering of her sister; but, seeing how things
+had turned out, he made up his mind that he would say nothing of the
+meeting. Indeed, he would not go up to the great house at all. He had
+done Lady Clavering's commission,&mdash;at some little trouble and expense
+to himself, and there should be an end of it. Lady Ongar would not
+mention that she had seen him. He doubted, indeed, whether she would
+remember whom she had seen. For any good that he had done, or for any
+sentiment that there had been, his cousin Hugh's butler might as well
+have gone to the train. In this mood he returned home, consoling
+himself with the fitness of things which had given him Florence
+Burton instead of Julia Brabazon for a wife.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c06"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+<h4>THE REV. SAMUEL SAUL.</h4>
+
+
+<p>During Harry's absence in London, a circumstance had occurred at the
+rectory which had surprised some of them and annoyed others a good
+deal. Mr. Saul, the curate, had made an offer to Fanny. The Rector
+and Fanny declared themselves to be both surprised and annoyed. That
+the Rector was in truth troubled by the thing was very evident. Mrs.
+Clavering said that she had almost suspected it,&mdash;that she was at any
+rate not surprised; as to the offer itself, of course she was sorry
+that it should have been made, as it could not suit Fanny to accept
+it. Mary was surprised, as she had thought Mr. Saul to be wholly
+intent on other things; but she could not see any reason why the
+offer should be regarded as being on his part unreasonable.</p>
+
+<p>"How can you say so, mamma?" Such had been Fanny's indignant
+exclamation when Mrs. Clavering had hinted that Mr. Saul's proceeding
+had been expected by her.</p>
+
+<p>"Simply because I saw that he liked you, my dear. Men under such
+circumstances have different ways of showing their liking."</p>
+
+<p>Fanny, who had seen all of Mary's love-affair from the beginning to
+the end, and who had watched the Reverend Edward Fielding in all his
+very conspicuous man&oelig;uvres, would not agree to this. Edward
+Fielding from the first moment of his intimate acquaintance with Mary
+had left no doubt of his intentions on the mind of any one. He had
+talked to Mary and walked with Mary whenever he was allowed or found
+it possible to do so. When driven to talk to Fanny, he had always
+talked about Mary. He had been a lover of the good, old, plainspoken
+stamp, about whom there had been no mistake. From the first moment of
+his coming much about Clavering Rectory the only question had been
+about his income. "I don't think Mr. Saul ever said a word to me
+except about the poor people and the church-services," said Fanny.
+"That was merely his way," said Mrs. Clavering. "Then he must be a
+goose," said Fanny. "I am very sorry if I have made him unhappy, but
+he had no business to come to me in that way."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I shall have to look for another curate," said the Rector.
+But this was said in private to his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that at all," said Mrs. Clavering. "With many men it
+would be so; but I think you will find that he will take an answer,
+and that there will be an end of it."</p>
+
+<p>Fanny, perhaps, had a right to be indignant, for certainly Mr. Saul
+had given her no fair warning of his intention. Mary had for some
+months been intent rather on Mr. Fielding's church matters than on
+those going on in her own parish, and therefore there had been
+nothing singular in the fact that Mr. Saul had said more on such
+matters to Fanny than to her sister. Fanny was eager and active, and
+as Mr. Saul was very eager and very active, it was natural that they
+should have had some interests in common. But there had been no
+private walkings, and no talkings that could properly be called
+private. There was a certain book which Fanny kept, containing the
+names of all the poor people in the parish, to which Mr. Saul had
+access equally with herself; but its contents were of a most prosaic
+nature, and when she had sat over it in the rectory drawing-room,
+with Mr. Saul by her side, striving to extract more than twelve
+pennies out of charity shillings, she had never thought that it would
+lead to a declaration of love.</p>
+
+<p>He had never called her Fanny in his life,&mdash;not up to the moment when
+she declined the honour of becoming Mrs. Saul. The offer itself was
+made in this wise. She had been at the house of old Widow Tubb,
+half-way between Cumberly Green and the little village of Clavering,
+striving to make that rheumatic old woman believe that she had not
+been cheated by a general conspiracy of the parish in the matter of a
+distribution of coal, when, just as she was about to leave the
+cottage, Mr. Saul came up. It was then past four, and the evening was
+becoming dark, and there was, moreover, a slight drizzle of rain. It
+was not a tempting evening for a walk of a mile and a half through a
+very dirty lane; but Fanny Clavering did not care much for such
+things, and was just stepping out into the mud and moisture, with her
+dress well looped up, when Mr. Saul accosted her.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you'll be very wet, Miss Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be better than going without my cup of tea, Mr. Saul,
+which I should have to do if I stayed any longer with Mrs. Tubb. And
+I have got an umbrella."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is so dark and dirty," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm used to that, as you ought to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I do know it," said he, walking on with her. "I do know that
+nothing ever turns you away from the good work."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in the tone of his voice which Fanny did not
+like. He had never complimented her before. They had been very
+intimate and had often scolded each other. Fanny would accuse him of
+exacting too much from the people, and he would retort upon her that
+she coddled them. Fanny would often decline to obey him, and he would
+make angry hints as to his clerical authority. In this way they had
+worked together pleasantly, without any of the awkwardness which on
+other terms would have arisen between a young man and a young woman.
+But now that he began to praise her with some peculiar intention of
+meaning in his tone, she was confounded. She had made no immediate
+answer to him, but walked on rapidly through the mud and slush.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very constant," said he; "I have not been two years at
+Clavering without finding that out." It was becoming worse and worse.
+It was not so much his words which provoked her as the tone in which
+they were uttered. And yet she had not the slightest idea of what was
+coming. If, thoroughly admiring her devotion and mistaken as to her
+character, he were to ask her to become a Protestant nun, or suggest
+to her that she should leave her home and go as nurse into a
+hospital, then there would have occurred the sort of folly of which
+she believed him to be capable. Of the folly which he now committed,
+she had not believed him to be capable.</p>
+
+<p>It had come on to rain hard, and she held her umbrella low over her
+head. He also was walking with an open umbrella in his hand, so that
+they were not very close to each other. Fanny, as she stepped on
+impetuously, put her foot into the depth of a pool, and splashed
+herself thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, oh dear," said she; "this is very disagreeable."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Clavering," said he, "I have been looking for an opportunity to
+speak to you, and I do not know when I may find another so suitable
+as this." She still believed that some proposition was to be made to
+her which would be disagreeable, and perhaps impertinent,&mdash;but it
+never occurred to her that Mr. Saul was in want of a wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't it rain too hard for talking?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"As I have begun I must go on with it now," he replied, raising his
+voice a little, as though it were necessary that he should do so to
+make her hear him through the rain and darkness. She moved a little
+further away from him with unthinking irritation; but still he went
+on with his purpose. "Miss Clavering, I know that I am ill-suited to
+play the part of a lover;&mdash;very ill suited." Then she gave a start
+and again splashed herself sadly. "I have never read how it is done
+in books, and have not allowed my imagination to dwell much on such
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Saul, don't go on; pray don't." Now she did understand what was
+coming.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Clavering, I must go on now; but not on that account would
+I press you to give me an answer to-day. I have learned to love you,
+and if you can love me in return, I will take you by the hand, and
+you shall be my wife. I have found that in you which I have been
+unable not to love,&mdash;not to covet that I may bind it to myself as my
+own for ever. Will you think of this, and give me an answer when you
+have considered it fully?"</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill06"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill06.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill06-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="Mr. Saul proposes." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">Mr. Saul
+      proposes.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill06.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>He had not spoken altogether amiss, and Fanny, though she was very
+angry with him, was conscious of this. The time he had chosen might
+not be considered suitable for a declaration of love, nor the place;
+but having chosen them, he had, perhaps, made the best of them. There
+had been no hesitation in his voice, and his words had been perfectly
+audible.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Saul, of course I can assure you at once," said Fanny.
+"There need not be any consideration. I really have never thought&mdash;"
+Fanny, who knew her own mind on the matter thoroughly, was hardly
+able to express herself plainly and without incivility. As soon as
+that phrase "of course" had passed her lips, she felt that it should
+not have been spoken. There was no need that she should insult him by
+telling him that such a proposition from him could have but one
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Clavering; I know you have never thought of it, and
+therefore it would be well that you should take time. I have not been
+able to make manifest to you by little signs, as men do who are less
+awkward, all the love that I have felt for you. Indeed, could I have
+done so, I should still have hesitated till I had thoroughly resolved
+that I might be better with a wife than without one; and had resolved
+also, as far as that might be possible for me, that you also would be
+better with a husband."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Saul, really that should be for me to think of."</p>
+
+<p>"And for me also. Can any man offer to marry a woman,&mdash;to bind a
+woman for life to certain duties, and to so close an obligation,
+without thinking whether such bonds would be good for her as well as
+for himself? Of course you must think for yourself;&mdash;and so have I
+thought for you. You should think for yourself, and you should think
+also for me."</p>
+
+<p>Fanny was quite aware that as regarded herself, the matter was one
+which required no more thinking. Mr. Saul was not a man with whom she
+could bring herself to be in love. She had her own ideas as to what
+was loveable in men, and the eager curate, splashing through the rain
+by her side, by no means came up to her standard of excellence. She
+was unconsciously aware that he had altogether mistaken her
+character, and given her credit for more abnegation of the world than
+she pretended to possess, or was desirous of possessing. Fanny
+Clavering was in no hurry to get married. I do not know that she had
+even made up her mind that marriage would be a good thing for her;
+but she had an untroubled conviction that if she did marry, her
+husband should have a house and an income. She had no reliance on her
+own power of living on a potato, and with one new dress every year. A
+comfortable home, with nice, comfortable things around her, ease in
+money matters, and elegance in life, were charms with which she had
+not quarrelled, and, though she did not wish to be hard upon Mr. Saul
+on account of his mistake, she did feel that in making his
+proposition he had blundered. Because she chose to do her duty as a
+parish clergyman's daughter, he thought himself entitled to regard
+her as devot&eacute;e, who would be willing to resign everything to become
+the wife of a clergyman, who was active, indeed, but who had not one
+shilling of income beyond his curacy. "Mr. Saul," she said, "I can
+assure you I need take no time for further thinking. It cannot be as
+you would have it."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I have been abrupt. Indeed, I feel that it is so, though I
+did not know how to avoid it."</p>
+
+<p>"It would have made no difference. Indeed, indeed, Mr. Saul, nothing
+of that kind could have made a difference."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you grant me this;&mdash;that I may speak to you again on the same
+subject after six months?"</p>
+
+<p>"It cannot do any good."</p>
+
+<p>"It will do this good;&mdash;that for so much time you will have had the
+idea before you." Fanny thought that she would have Mr. Saul himself
+before her, and that that would be enough. Mr. Saul, with his rusty
+clothes and his thick, dirty shoes, and his weak, blinking eyes, and
+his mind always set upon the one wish of his life, could not be made
+to present himself to her in the guise of a lover. He was one of
+those men of whom women become very fond with the fondness of
+friendship, but from whom young women seem to be as far removed in
+the way of love as though they belonged to some other species. "I
+will not press you further," said he, "as I gather by your tone that
+it distresses you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry if I distress you, but really, Mr. Saul, I could give
+you,&mdash;I never could give you any other answer."</p>
+
+<p>Then they walked on silently through the rain,&mdash;silently, without a
+single word,&mdash;for more than half a mile, till they reached the
+rectory gate. Here it was necessary that they should, at any rate,
+speak to each other, and for the last three hundred yards Fanny had
+been trying to find the words which would be suitable. But he was the
+first to break the silence. "Good-night, Miss Clavering," he said,
+stopping and putting out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Mr. Saul."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope that there may be no difference in our bearing to each other,
+because of what I have to-day said to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not on my part;&mdash;that is, if you will forget it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Clavering; I shall not forget it. If it had been a thing to
+be forgotten, I should not have spoken. I certainly shall not forget
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean, Mr. Saul."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not forget it even in the way that you mean. But still I
+think you need not fear me, because you know that I love you. I think
+I can promise that you need not withdraw yourself from me, because of
+what has passed. But you will tell your father and your mother, and
+of course will be guided by them. And now, good-night." Then he went,
+and she was astonished at finding that he had had much the best of it
+in his manner of speaking and conducting himself. She had refused him
+very curtly, and he had borne it well. He had not been abashed, nor
+had he become sulky, nor had he tried to melt her by mention of his
+own misery. In truth he had done it very well,&mdash;only that he should
+have known better than to make any such attempt at all.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Saul had been right in one thing. Of course she told her mother,
+and of course her mother told her father. Before dinner that evening
+the whole affair was being debated in the family conclave. They all
+agreed that Fanny had had no alternative but to reject the
+proposition at once. That, indeed, was so thoroughly taken for
+granted, that the point was not discussed. But there came to be a
+difference between the Rector and Fanny on one side, and Mrs.
+Clavering and Mary on the other. "Upon my word," said the Rector, "I
+think it was very impertinent." Fanny would not have liked to use
+that word herself, but she loved her father for using it.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see that," said Mrs. Clavering. "He could not know what
+Fanny's views in life might be. Curates very often marry out of the
+houses of the clergymen with whom they are placed, and I do not see
+why Mr. Saul should be debarred from the privilege of trying."</p>
+
+<p>"If he had got to like Fanny what else was he to do?" said Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mary, don't talk such nonsense," said Fanny. "Got to like!
+People shouldn't get to like people unless there's some reason for
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth did he intend to live on?" demanded the Rector.</p>
+
+<p>"Edward had nothing to live on, when you first allowed him to come
+here," said Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"But Edward had prospects, and Saul, as far as I know, has none. He
+had given no one the slightest notice. If the man in the moon had
+come to Fanny I don't suppose she would have been more surprised."</p>
+
+<p>"Not half so much, papa."</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that Mrs. Clavering had declared that she was not
+surprised,&mdash;that she had suspected it, and had almost made Fanny
+angry by saying so. When Harry came back two days afterwards, the
+family news was imparted to him, and he immediately ranged himself on
+his father's side. "Upon my word I think that he ought to be
+forbidden the house," said Harry. "He has forgotten himself in making
+such a proposition."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nonsense, Harry," said his mother. "If he can be comfortable
+coming here, there can be no reason why he should be uncomfortable.
+It would be an injustice to him to ask him to go, and a great trouble
+to your father to find another curate that would suit him so well."
+There could be no doubt whatever as to the latter proposition, and
+therefore it was quietly argued that Mr. Saul's fault, if there had
+been a fault, should be condoned. On the next day he came to the
+rectory, and they were all astonished at the ease with which he bore
+himself. It was not that he affected any special freedom of manner,
+or that he altogether avoided any change in his mode of speaking to
+them. A slight blush came upon his sallow face as he first spoke to
+Mrs. Clavering, and he hardly did more than say a single word to
+Fanny. But he carried himself as though conscious of what he had
+done, but in no degree ashamed of the doing it. The Rector's manner
+to him was stiff and formal;&mdash;seeing which Mrs. Clavering spoke to
+him gently, and with a smile. "I saw you were a little hard on him,
+and therefore I tried to make up for it," said she afterwards. "You
+were quite right," said the husband. "You always are. But I wish he
+had not made such a fool of himself. It will never be the same thing
+with him again." Harry hardly spoke to Mr. Saul the first time he met
+him, all of which Mr. Saul understood perfectly.</p>
+
+<p>"Clavering," he said to Harry, a day or two after this, "I hope there
+is to be no difference between you and me."</p>
+
+<p>"Difference! I don't know what you mean by difference."</p>
+
+<p>"We were good friends, and I hope that we are to remain so. No doubt
+you know what has taken place between me and your sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes;&mdash;I have been told, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"What I mean is, that I hope you are not going to quarrel with me on
+that account? What I did, is it not what you would have done in my
+position?&mdash;only you would have done it successfully?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think a fellow should have some income, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you say that you would have waited for income before you spoke
+of marriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it might have been better that you should have gone to my
+father."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be that that is the rule in such things, but if so I do not
+know it. Would she have liked that better?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well;&mdash;I can't say."</p>
+
+<p>"You are engaged? Did you go to the young lady's family first?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say I did; but I think I had given them some ground to
+expect it. I fancy they all knew what I was about. But it's over now,
+and I don't know that we need say anything more about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. Nothing can be said that would be of any use; but I
+do not think I have done anything that you should resent."</p>
+
+<p>"Resent is a strong word. I don't resent it, or, at any rate, I
+won't; and there may be an end of it." After this, Harry was more
+gracious with Mr. Saul, having an idea that the curate had made some
+sort of apology for what he had done. But that, I fancy, was by no
+means Mr. Saul's view of the case. Had he offered to marry the
+daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury, instead of the daughter of
+the Rector of Clavering, he would not have imagined that his doing so
+needed an apology.</p>
+
+<p>The day after his return from London Lady Clavering sent for Harry up
+to the house. "So you saw my sister in London?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Harry blushing; "as I was in town, I thought that I might
+as well meet her. But, as you said, Lady Ongar is able to do without
+much assistance of that kind. I only just saw her."</p>
+
+<p>"Julia took it so kindly of you; but she seems surprised that you did
+not come to her the following day. She thought you would have
+called."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, no. I fancied that she would be too tired and too busy to
+wish to see any mere acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Harry, I see that she has angered you," said Lady Clavering;
+"otherwise you would not talk about mere acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least. Angered me! How could she anger me? What I meant
+was that at such a time she would probably wish to see no one but
+people on business,&mdash;unless it was some one near to her, like
+yourself or Hugh."</p>
+
+<p>"Hugh will not go to her."</p>
+
+<p>"But you will do so; will you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Before long I will. You don't seem to understand, Harry,&mdash;and,
+perhaps, it would be odd if you did,&mdash;that I can't run up to town and
+back as I please. I ought not to tell you this, I dare say, but one
+feels as though one wanted to talk to some one about one's affairs.
+At the present moment, I have not the money to go,&mdash;even if there
+were no other reason." These last words she said almost in a whisper,
+and then she looked up into the young man's face, to see what he
+thought of the communication she had made him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, money!" he said. "You could soon get money. But I hope it won't
+be long before you go."</p>
+
+<p>On the next morning but one a letter came by the post for him from
+Lady Ongar. When he saw the handwriting, which he knew, his heart was
+at once in his mouth, and he hesitated to open his letter at the
+breakfast-table. He did open it and read it, but, in truth, he hardly
+understood it or digested it till he had taken it away with him up to
+his own room. The letter, which was very short, was as
+<span class="nowrap">follows:&mdash;</span><br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">Dear Friend</span>,</p>
+
+<p>I felt your kindness in coming to me at the station so
+much!&mdash;the more, perhaps, because others, who owed me more
+kindness, have paid me less. Don't suppose that I allude
+to poor Hermione, for, in truth, I have no intention to
+complain of her. I thought, perhaps, you would have come
+to see me before you left London; but I suppose you were
+hurried. I hear from Clavering that you are to be up about
+your new profession in a day or two. Pray come and see me
+before you have been many days in London. I shall have so
+much to say to you! The rooms you have taken are
+everything that I wanted, and I am so grateful!</p>
+
+<p class="ind12">Yours ever,</p>
+
+<p class="ind14">J. O.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>When Harry had read and had digested this, he became aware that he
+was again fluttered. "Poor creature!" he said to himself; "it is sad
+to think how much she is in want of a friend."</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c07"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+<h4>SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A COUNTESS.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill07-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="A" />bout the
+middle of January Harry Clavering went up to London, and
+settled himself to work at Mr. Beilby's office. Mr. Beilby's office
+consisted of four or five large chambers, overlooking the river from
+the bottom of Adam Street in the Adelphi, and here Harry found a
+table for himself in the same apartment with three other pupils. It
+was a fine old room, lofty, and with large windows, ornamented on the
+ceiling with Italian scrollwork, and a flying goddess in the centre.
+In days gone by the house had been the habitation of some great rich
+man, who had there enjoyed the sweet breezes from the river before
+London had become the London of the present days, and when no
+embankment had been needed for the Thames. Nothing could be nicer
+than this room, or more pleasant than the table and seat which he was
+to occupy near a window; but there was something in the tone of the
+other men towards him which did not quite satisfy him. They probably
+did not know that he was a fellow of a college, and treated him
+almost as they might have done had he come to them direct from King's
+College, in the Strand, or from the London University. Down at
+Stratton, a certain amount of honour had been paid to him. They had
+known there who he was, and had felt some deference for him. They had
+not slapped him on the back, or poked him in the ribs, or even called
+him old fellow, before some length of acquaintance justified such
+appellation. But up at Mr. Beilby's, in the Adelphi, one young man,
+who was certainly his junior in age, and who did not seem as yet to
+have attained any high position in the science of engineering,
+manifestly thought that he was acting in a friendly and becoming way
+by declaring the stranger to be a lad of wax on the second day of his
+appearance. Harry Clavering was not disinclined to believe that he
+was a "lad of wax," or "a brick," or "a trump," or "no small beer."
+But he desired that such complimentary and endearing appellations
+should be used to him only by those who had known him long enough to
+be aware that he deserved them. Mr. Joseph Walliker certainly was not
+as yet among this number.</p>
+
+<p>There was a man at Mr. Beilby's who was entitled to greet him with
+endearing terms, and to be so greeted himself, although Harry had
+never seen him till he attended for the first time at the Adelphi.
+This was Theodore Burton, his future brother-in-law, who was now the
+leading man in the London house;&mdash;the leading man as regarded
+business, though he was not as yet a partner. It was understood that
+this Mr. Burton was to come in when his father went out; and in the
+meantime he received a salary of a thousand a year as managing clerk.
+A very hard-working, steady, intelligent man was Mr. Theodore Burton,
+with a bald head, a high forehead, and that look of constant work
+about him which such men obtain. Harry Clavering could not bring
+himself to take a liking to him, because he wore cotton gloves and
+had an odious habit of dusting his shoes with his
+pocket-handkerchief. Twice Harry saw him do this on the first day of
+their acquaintance, and he regretted it exceedingly. The cotton
+gloves too were offensive, as were also the thick shoes which had
+been dusted; but the dusting was the great sin.</p>
+
+<p>And there was something which did not quite please Harry in Mr.
+Theodore Burton's manner, though the gentleman had manifestly
+intended to be very kind to him. When Burton had been speaking to him
+for a minute or two, it flashed across Harry's mind that he had not
+bound himself to marry the whole Burton family, and that, perhaps, he
+must take some means to let that fact be known. "Theodore," as he had
+so often heard the younger Mr. Burton called by loving lips, seemed
+to claim him as his own, called him Harry, and upbraided him with
+friendly warmth for not having come direct to his,&mdash;Mr.
+Burton's,&mdash;house in Onslow Crescent. "Pray feel yourself at home
+there," said Mr. Burton. "I hope you'll like my wife. You needn't be
+afraid of being made to be idle if you spend your evenings there, for
+we are all reading people. Will you come and dine to-day?" Florence
+had told him that she was her brother Theodore's favourite sister,
+and that Theodore as a husband and a brother, and a man, was perfect.
+But Theodore had dusted his boots with his handkerchief, and Harry
+Clavering would not dine with him on that day.</p>
+
+<p>And then it was painfully manifest to him that every one in the
+office knew his destiny with reference to old Burton's daughter. He
+had been one of the Stratton men, and no more than any other had he
+gone unscathed through the Stratton fire. He had been made to do the
+regular thing, as Granger, Scarness, and others had done it. Stratton
+would be safer ground now, as Clavering had taken the last. That was
+the feeling on the matter which seemed to belong to others. It was
+not that Harry thought in this way of his own Florence. He knew well
+enough what a lucky fellow he was to have won such a girl. He was
+well aware how widely his Florence differed from Carry Scarness. He
+denied to himself indignantly that he had any notion of repenting
+what he had done. But he did wish that these private matters might
+have remained private, and that all the men at Beilby's had not known
+of his engagement. When Walliker, on the fourth day of their
+acquaintance, asked him if it was all right at Stratton, he made up
+his mind that he hated Walliker, and that he would hate Walliker to
+the last day of his life. He had declined the first invitation given
+to him by Theodore Burton; but he could not altogether avoid his
+future brother-in-law, and had agreed to dine with him on this day.</p>
+
+<p>On that same afternoon Harry, when he left Mr. Beilby's office, went
+direct to Bolton Street, that he might call on Lady Ongar. As he went
+thither he bethought himself that these Wallikers and the like had
+had no such events in life as had befallen him! They laughed at him
+about Florence Burton, little guessing that it had been his lot to
+love, and to be loved by such a one as Julia Brabazon had been,&mdash;such
+a one as Lady Ongar now was. But things had gone well with him. Julia
+Brabazon could have made no man happy, but Florence Burton would be
+the sweetest, dearest, truest little wife that ever man took to his
+home. He was thinking of this, and determined to think of it more and
+more daily, as he knocked at Lady Ongar's door. "Yes; her ladyship
+was at home," said the servant whom he had seen on the railway
+platform; and in a few moments' time he found himself in the
+drawing-room which he had criticized so carefully when he was taking
+it for its present occupant.</p>
+
+<p>He was left in the room for five or six minutes, and was able to make
+a full mental inventory of its contents. It was very different in its
+present aspect from the room which he had seen not yet a month since.
+She had told him that the apartments had been all that she desired;
+but since then everything had been altered, at least in appearance. A
+new piano had been brought in, and the chintz on the furniture was
+surely new. And the room was crowded with small feminine belongings,
+indicative of wealth and luxury. There were ornaments about, and
+pretty toys, and a thousand knickknacks which none but the rich can
+possess, and which none can possess even among the rich unless they
+can give taste as well as money to their acquisition. Then he heard a
+light step; the door opened, and Lady Ongar was there.</p>
+
+<p>He expected to see the same figure that he had seen on the railway
+platform, the same gloomy drapery, the same quiet, almost deathlike
+demeanour, nay, almost the same veil over her features; but the Lady
+Ongar whom he now saw was as unlike that Lady Ongar as she was unlike
+that Julia Brabazon whom he had known in old days at Clavering Park.
+She was dressed, no doubt, in black; nay, no doubt, she was dressed
+in weeds; but in spite of the black and in spite of the weeds there
+was nothing about her of the weariness or of the solemnity of woe. He
+hardly saw that her dress was made of crape, or that long white
+pendants were hanging down from the cap which sat so prettily upon
+her head. But it was her face at which he gazed. At first he thought
+that she could hardly be the same woman, she was to his eyes so much
+older than she had been! And yet as he looked at her, he found that
+she was as handsome as ever,&mdash;more handsome than she had ever been
+before. There was a dignity about her face and figure which became
+her well, and which she carried as though she knew herself to be in
+very truth a countess. It was a face which bore well such signs of
+age as those which had come upon it. She seemed to be a woman fitter
+for womanhood than for girlhood. Her eyes were brighter than of yore,
+and, as Harry thought, larger; and her high forehead and noble stamp
+of countenance seemed fitted for the dress and headgear which she
+wore.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been expecting you," said she, stepping up to him. "Hermione
+wrote me word that you were to come up on Monday. Why did you not
+come sooner?" There was a smile on her face as she spoke, and a
+confidence in her tone which almost confounded him.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had so many things to do," said he lamely.</p>
+
+<p>"About your new profession. Yes, I can understand that. And so you
+are settled in London now? Where are you living;&mdash;that is, if you are
+settled yet?" In answer to this, Harry told her that he had taken
+lodgings in Bloomsbury Square, blushing somewhat as he named so
+unfashionable a locality. Old Mrs. Burton had recommended him to the
+house in which he was located, but he did not find it necessary to
+explain that fact to Lady Ongar.</p>
+
+<p>"I have to thank you for what you did for me," continued she. "You
+ran away from me in such a hurry on that night that I was unable to
+speak to you. But to tell the truth, Harry, I was in no mood then to
+speak to any one. Of course you thought that I treated you ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you did. If I thought you did not, I should be angry with
+you now. But had it been to save my life I could not have helped it.
+Why did not Sir Hugh Clavering come to meet me? Why did not my
+sister's husband come to me?" To this question Harry could make no
+answer. He was still standing with his hat in his hand, and now
+turned his face away from her and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Harry," she said, "and let me talk to you like a
+friend;&mdash;unless you are in a hurry to go away."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said he, seating himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Or unless you, too, are afraid of me."</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid of you, Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, afraid; but I don't mean you. I don't believe that you are
+coward enough to desert a woman who was once your friend because
+misfortune has overtaken her, and calumny has been at work with her
+name."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry; I do not think it of you. But if Sir Hugh be not a
+coward, why did he not come and meet me? Why has he left me to stand
+alone, now that he could be of service to me? I knew that money was
+his god, but I have never asked him for a shilling and should not
+have done so now. Oh, Harry, how wicked you were about that cheque!
+Do you remember?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I remember."</p>
+
+<p>"So shall I; always, always. If I had taken that money how often
+should I have heard of it since?"</p>
+
+<p>"Heard of it?" he asked. "Do you mean from me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; how often from you? Would you have dunned me, and told me of it
+once a week? Upon my word, Harry, I was told of it more nearly every
+day. Is it not wonderful that men should be so mean?"</p>
+
+<p>It was clear to him now that she was talking of her husband who was
+dead, and on that subject he felt himself at present unable to speak
+a word. He little dreamed at that moment how openly she would soon
+speak to him of Lord Ongar and of Lord Ongar's faults!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how I have wished that I had taken your money! But never mind
+about that now, Harry. Wretched as such taunts were, they soon became
+a small thing. But it has been cowardly in your cousin, Hugh; has it
+not? If I had not lived with him as one of his family, it would not
+have mattered. People would not have expected it. It was as though my
+own brother had cast me forth."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Clavering has been with you; has she not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Once, for half-an-hour. She came up for one day, and came here by
+herself, cowering as though she were afraid of me. Poor Hermy! She
+has not a good time of it either. You lords of creation lead your
+slaves sad lives when it pleases you to change your billing and
+cooing for matter-of-fact masterdom and rule. I don't blame Hermy. I
+suppose she did all she could, and I did not utter one word of
+reproach of her. Nor should I to him. Indeed, if he came now the
+servant would deny me to him. He has insulted me, and I shall
+remember the insult."</p>
+
+<p>Harry Clavering did not clearly understand what it was that Lady
+Ongar had desired of her brother-in-law,&mdash;what aid she had required;
+nor did he know whether it would be fitting for him to offer to act
+in Sir Hugh's place. Anything that he could do, he felt himself at
+that moment willing to do, even though the necessary service should
+demand some sacrifice greater than prudence could approve. "If I had
+thought that anything was wanted, I should have come to you sooner,"
+said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything is wanted, Harry. Everything is wanted;&mdash;except that
+cheque for six hundred pounds which you sent me so treacherously. Did
+you ever think what might have happened if a certain person had heard
+of that? All the world would have declared that you had done it for
+your own private purposes;&mdash;all the world, except one."</p>
+
+<p>Harry, as he heard this, felt that he was blushing. Did Lady Ongar
+know of his engagement with Florence Burton? Lady Clavering knew it,
+and might probably have told the tidings; but then, again, she might
+not have told them. Harry at this moment wished that he knew how it
+was. All that Lady Ongar said to him would come with so different a
+meaning according as she did, or did not know that fact. But he had
+no mind to tell her of the fact himself. He declared to himself that
+he hoped she knew it, as it would serve to make them both more
+comfortable together; but he did not think that it would do for him
+to bring forward the subject, neck and heels as it were. The proper
+thing would be that she should congratulate him, but this she did not
+do. "I certainly meant no ill," he said, in answer to the last words
+she had spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"You have never meant ill to me, Harry; though you know you have
+abused me dreadfully before now. I daresay you forget the hard names
+you have called me. You men do forget such things."</p>
+
+<p>"I remember calling you one name."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not repeat it now, if you please. If I deserved it, it would
+shame me; and if I did not, it should shame you."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I will not repeat it."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it not seem odd, Harry, that you and I should be sitting,
+talking together in this way?" She was leaning now towards him,
+across the table, and one hand was raised to her forehead while her
+eyes were fixed intently upon his. The attitude was one which he felt
+to express extreme intimacy. She would not have sat in that way,
+pressing back her hair from her brow, with all appearance of
+widowhood banished from her face, in the presence of any but a dear
+and close friend. He did not think of this, but he felt that it was
+so, almost by instinct. "I have such a tale to tell you," she said;
+"such a tale!"</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill07"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill07.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill07-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="A friendly talk." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">A friendly talk.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill07.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Why should she tell it to him? Of course he asked himself this
+question. Then he remembered that she had no brother,&mdash;remembered
+also that her brother-in-law had deserted her, and he declared to
+himself that, if necessary, he would be her brother. "I fear that you
+have not been happy," said he, "since I saw you last."</p>
+
+<p>"Happy!" she replied. "I have lived such a life as I did not think
+any man or woman could be made to live on this side the grave. I will
+be honest with you, Harry. Nothing but the conviction that it could
+not be for long has saved me from destroying myself. I knew that he
+must die!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lady Ongar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed; that is the name he gave me; and because I consented to
+take it from him, he treated me;&mdash;O heavens! how am I to find words
+to tell you what he did, and the way in which he treated me. A woman
+could not tell it to a man. Harry, I have no friend that I trust but
+you, but to you I cannot tell it. When he found that he had been
+wrong in marrying me, that he did not want the thing which he had
+thought would suit him, that I was a drag upon him rather than a
+comfort,&mdash;what was his mode, do you think, of ridding himself of the
+burden?" Clavering sat silent looking at her. Both her hands were now
+up to her forehead, and her large eyes were gazing at him till he
+found himself unable to withdraw his own for a moment from her face.
+"He strove to get another man to take me off his hands; and when he
+found that he was failing,&mdash;he charged me with the guilt which he
+himself had contrived for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Ongar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; you may well stare at me. You may well speak hoarsely and look
+like that. It may be that even you will not believe me;&mdash;but by the
+God in whom we both believe, I tell you nothing but the truth. He
+attempted that and he failed,&mdash;and then he accused me of the crime
+which he could not bring me to commit."</p>
+
+<p>"And what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; what then? Harry, I had a thing to do, and a life to live, that
+would have tried the bravest; but I went through it. I stuck to him
+to the last! He told me before he was dying,&mdash;before that last
+frightful illness, that I was staying with him for his money. 'For
+your money, my lord,' I said, 'and for my own name.' And so it was.
+Would it have been wise in me, after all that I had gone through, to
+have given up that for which I had sold myself? I had been very poor,
+and had been so placed that poverty, even such poverty as mine, was a
+curse to me. You know what I gave up because I feared that curse. Was
+I to be foiled at last, because such a creature as that wanted to
+shirk out of his bargain? I knew there were some who would say I had
+been false. Hugh Clavering says so now, I suppose. But they never
+should say I had left him to die alone in a foreign land."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he ask you to leave him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No;&mdash;but he called me that name which no woman should hear and stay.
+No woman should do so unless she had a purpose such as mine. He
+wanted back the price that he had paid, and I was determined to do
+nothing that should assist him in his meanness! And then, Harry, his
+last illness! Oh, Harry, you would pity me if you could know all!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was his own intemperance!"</p>
+
+<p>"Intemperance! It was brandy,&mdash;sheer brandy. He brought himself to
+such a state that nothing but brandy would keep him alive, and in
+which brandy was sure to kill him;&mdash;and it did kill him. Did you ever
+hear of the horrors of drink?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I have heard of such a state."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you may never live to see it. It is a sight that would stick
+by you for ever. But I saw it, and tended him through the whole, as
+though I had been his servant. I remained with him when that man who
+opened the door for you could no longer endure the room. I was with
+him when the strong woman from the hospital, though she could not
+understand his words, almost fainted at what she saw and heard. He
+was punished, Harry. I need wish no farther vengeance on him, even
+for all his cruelty, his injustice, his unmanly treachery. Is it not
+fearful to think that any man should have the power of bringing
+himself to such an end as that?"</p>
+
+<p>Harry was thinking rather how fearful it was that a man should have
+it in his power to drag any woman through such a Gehenna as that
+which this lord had created. He felt that had Julia Brabazon been
+his, as she had once promised him, he never would have allowed
+himself to speak a harsh word to her, to have looked at her except
+with loving eyes. But she had chosen to join herself to a man who had
+treated her with a cruelty exceeding all that his imagination could
+have conceived. "It is a mercy that he has gone," said he at last.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a mercy for both. Perhaps you can understand now something of
+my married life. And through it all I had but one friend;&mdash;if I may
+call him a friend who had come to terms with my husband, and was to
+have been his agent in destroying me. But when this man understood
+from me that I was not what he had been taught to think me,&mdash;which my
+husband had told him I was,&mdash;he relented."</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask what was that man's name?"</p>
+
+<p>"His name is Pateroff. He is a Pole, but he speaks English like an
+Englishman. In my presence he told Lord Ongar that he was false and
+brutal. Lord Ongar laughed, with that little, low, sneering laughter
+which was his nearest approach to merriment, and told Count Pateroff
+that that was of course his game before me. There, Harry,&mdash;I will
+tell you nothing more of it. You will understand enough to know what
+I have suffered; and if you can believe that I have not
+<span class="nowrap">sinned&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lady Ongar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will not doubt you again. But as far as I can learn you are
+nearly alone in your belief. What Hermy thinks I cannot tell, but she
+will soon come to think as Hugh may bid her. And I shall not blame
+her. What else can she do, poor creature?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure she believes no ill of you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have one advantage, Harry,&mdash;one advantage over her and some
+others. I am free. The chains have hurt me sorely during my slavery;
+but I am free, and the price of my servitude remains. He had written
+home,&mdash;would you believe that?&mdash;while I was living with him he had
+written home to say that evidence should be collected for getting rid
+of me. And yet he would sometimes be civil, hoping to cheat me into
+inadvertencies. He would ask that man to dine, and then of a sudden
+would be absent; and during this he was ordering that evidence should
+be collected! Evidence, indeed! The same servants have lived with me
+through it all. If I could now bring forward evidence I could make it
+all clear as the day. But there needs no care for a woman's honour,
+though a man may have to guard his by collecting evidence!"</p>
+
+<p>"But what he did cannot injure you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Harry, it has injured me; it has all but destroyed me. Have not
+reports reached even you? Speak out like a man, and say whether it is
+not so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard something."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you have heard something! If you heard something of your sister
+where would you be? All the world would be a chaos to you till you
+had pulled out somebody's tongue by the roots. Not injured me! For
+two years your cousin Hugh's house was my home. I met Lord Ongar in
+his house. I was married from his house. He is my brother-in-law, and
+it so happens that of all men he is the nearest to me. He stands well
+before the world, and at this time could have done me real service.
+How is it that he did not welcome me home;&mdash;that I am not now at his
+house with my sister; that he did not meet me so that the world might
+know that I was received back among my own people? Why is it, Harry,
+that I am telling this to you;&mdash;to you, who are nothing to me; my
+sister's husband's cousin; a young man, from your position not fit to
+be my confidant? Why am I telling this to you, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because we are old friends," said he, wondering again at this moment
+whether she knew of his engagement with Florence Burton.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we are old friends, and we have always liked each other; but
+you must know that, as the world judges, I am wrong to tell all this
+to you. I should be wrong,&mdash;only that the world has cast me out, so
+that I am no longer bound to regard it. I am Lady Ongar, and I have
+my share of that man's money. They have given me up Ongar Park,
+having satisfied themselves that it is mine by right, and must be
+mine by law. But he has robbed me of every friend I had in the world,
+and yet you tell me he has not injured me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not every friend."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry, I will not forget you, though I spoke so slightingly of
+you just now. But your vanity need not be hurt. It is only the
+world,&mdash;Mrs. Grundy, you know, that would deny me such friendship as
+yours; not my own taste or choice. Mrs. Grundy always denies us
+exactly those things which we ourselves like best. You are clever
+enough to understand that."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled and looked foolish, and declared that he only offered his
+assistance because perhaps it might be convenient at the present
+moment. What could he do for her? How could he show his friendship
+for her now at once?</p>
+
+<p>"You have done it, Harry, in listening to me and giving me your
+sympathy. It is seldom that we want any great thing from our friends.
+I want nothing of that kind. No one can hurt me much further now. My
+money and my rank are safe; and, perhaps, by degrees, acquaintances,
+if not friends, will form themselves round me again. At present, of
+course, I see no one; but because I see no one, I wanted some one to
+whom I could speak. Poor Hermy is worse than no one. Good-by, Harry;
+you look surprised and bewildered now, but you will soon get over
+that. Don't be long before I see you again."</p>
+
+<p>Then, feeling that he was bidden to go, he wished her good-by, and
+went.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c08"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER VIII.</h3>
+<h4>THE HOUSE IN ONSLOW CRESCENT.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Harry, as he walked away from the house in Bolton Street, hardly knew
+whether he was on his heels or his head. Burton had told him not to
+dress&mdash;"We don't give dress dinner parties, you know. It's all in the
+family way with us,"&mdash;and Harry, therefore, went direct from Bolton
+Street to Onslow Crescent. But, though he managed to keep the proper
+course down Piccadilly, he was in such confusion of mind that he
+hardly knew whither he was going. It seemed as though a new form of
+life had been opened to him, and that it had been opened in such a
+way as almost necessarily to engulf him. It was not only that Lady
+Ongar's history was so terrible, and her life so strange, but that he
+himself was called upon to form a part of that history, and to join
+himself in some sort to that life. This countess with her wealth, her
+rank, her beauty, and her bright intellect had called him to her, and
+told him that he was her only friend. Of course he had promised his
+friendship. How could he have failed to give such a promise to one
+whom he had loved so well? But to what must such a promise lead, or
+rather to what must it not have led had it not been for Florence
+Burton? She was young, free, and rich. She made no pretence of regret
+for the husband she had lost, speaking of him as though in truth she
+hardly regarded herself as his wife. And she was the same Julia whom
+he had loved, who had loved him, who had jilted him, and in regret
+for whom he had once resolved to lead a wretched, lonely life! Of
+course she must expect that he would renew it all;&mdash;unless, indeed,
+she knew of his engagement. But if she knew it, why had she not
+spoken of it?</p>
+
+<p>And could it be that she had no friends,&mdash;that everybody had deserted
+her, that she was all alone in the world? As he thought of it all,
+the whole thing seemed to him to be too terrible for reality. What a
+tragedy was that she had told him! He thought of the man's insolence
+to the woman whom he had married and sworn to love, then of his
+cruelty, his fiendish, hellish cruelty,&mdash;and lastly of his terrible
+punishment. "I stuck to him through it all," she had said to him; and
+then he endeavoured to picture to himself that bedside by which Julia
+Brabazon, his Julia Brabazon, had remained firm, when hospital
+attendants had been scared by the horrors they had witnessed, and the
+nerves of a strong man,&mdash;of a man paid for such work, had failed him!</p>
+
+<p>The truth of her word throughout he never doubted; and, indeed, no
+man or woman who heard her could have doubted. One hears stories told
+that to oneself, the hearer, are manifestly false; and one hears
+stories as to the truth or falsehood of which one is in doubt; and
+stories again which seem to be partly true and partly untrue. But one
+also hears that of the truth of which no doubt seems to be possible.
+So it had been with the tale which Lady Ongar had told. It had been
+all as she had said; and had Sir Hugh heard it,&mdash;even Sir Hugh, who
+doubted all men and regarded all women as being false beyond
+doubt,&mdash;even he, I think, would have believed it.</p>
+
+<p>But she had deserved the sufferings which had come upon her. Even
+Harry, whose heart was very tender towards her, owned as much as
+that. She had sold herself, as she had said of herself more than
+once. She had given herself to a man whom she regarded not at all,
+even when her heart belonged to another,&mdash;to a man whom she must have
+loathed and despised when she was putting her hand into his before
+the altar. What scorn had there been upon her face when she spoke of
+the beginning of their married miseries! With what eloquence of
+expression had she pronounced him to be vile, worthless, unmanly; a
+thing from which a woman must turn with speechless contempt! She had
+now his name, his rank, and his money, but she was friendless and
+alone. Harry Clavering declared to himself that she had deserved
+it,&mdash;and, having so declared, forgave her all her faults. She had
+sinned, and then had suffered; and, therefore, should now be
+forgiven. If he could do aught to ease her troubles, he would do
+it,&mdash;as a brother would for a sister.</p>
+
+<p>But it would be well that she should know of his engagement. Then he
+thought of the whole interview, and felt sure that she must know it.
+At any rate he told himself that he was sure. She could hardly have
+spoken to him as she had done, unless she had known. When last they
+had been together, sauntering round the gardens at Clavering, he had
+rebuked her for her treachery to him. Now she came to him almost
+open-armed, free, full of her cares, swearing to him that he was her
+only friend! All this could mean but one thing,&mdash;unless she knew that
+that one thing was barred by his altered position.</p>
+
+<p>But it gratified him to think that she had chosen him for the
+repository of her tale; that she had told her terrible history to
+him. I fear that some small part of this gratification was owing to
+her rank and wealth. To be the one friend of a widowed countess,
+young, rich, and beautiful, was something much out of the common way.
+Such confidence lifted him far above the Wallikers of the world. That
+he was pleased to be so trusted by one that was beautiful, was, I
+think, no disgrace to him;&mdash;although I bear in mind his condition as
+a man engaged. It might be dangerous, but that danger in such case it
+would be his duty to overcome. But in order that it might be
+overcome, it would certainly be well that she should know his
+position.</p>
+
+<p>I fear he speculated as he went along as to what might have been his
+condition in the world had he never seen Florence Burton. First he
+asked himself, whether, under any circumstances, he would have wished
+to marry a widow, and especially a widow by whom he had already been
+jilted. Yes; he thought that he could have forgiven her even that, if
+his own heart had not changed; but he did not forget to tell himself
+again how lucky it was for him that his heart was changed. What
+countess in the world, let her have what park she might, and any
+imaginable number of thousands a year, could be so sweet, so nice, so
+good, so fitting for him as his own Florence Burton? Then he
+endeavoured to reflect what happened when a commoner married the
+widow of a peer. She was still called, he believed, by her old title,
+unless she should choose to abandon it. Any such arrangement was now
+out of the question; but he thought that he would prefer that she
+should have been called Mrs. Clavering, if such a state of things had
+come about. I do not know that he pictured to himself any necessity,
+either on her part or on his, of abandoning anything else that came
+to her from her late husband.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past six, the time named by Theodore Burton, he found himself
+at the door in Onslow Crescent, and was at once shown up into the
+drawing-room. He knew that Mr. Burton had a family, and he had
+pictured to himself an untidy, ugly house, with an untidy, motherly
+woman going about with a baby in her arms. Such would naturally be
+the home of a man who dusted his shoes with his pocket-handkerchief.
+But to his surprise he found himself in as pretty a drawing-room as
+he remembered to have seen; and seated on a sofa, was almost as
+pretty a woman as he remembered. She was tall and slight, with large
+brown eyes and well-defined eyebrows, with an oval face, and the
+sweetest, kindest mouth that ever graced a woman. Her dark brown hair
+was quite plain, having been brushed simply smooth across the
+forehead, and then collected in a knot behind. Close beside her, on a
+low chair, sat a little fair-haired girl, about seven years old, who
+was going through some pretence at needlework; and kneeling on a
+higher chair, while she sprawled over the drawing-room table, was
+another girl, some three years younger, who was engaged with a
+puzzle-box.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Clavering," said she, rising from her chair; "I am so glad to
+see you, though I am almost angry with you for not coming to us
+sooner. I have heard so much about you; of course you know that."
+Harry explained that he had only been a few days in town, and
+declared that he was happy to learn that he had been considered worth
+talking about.</p>
+
+<p>"If you were worth accepting you were worth talking about."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I was neither," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Well; I am not going to flatter you yet. Only as I think our Flo is
+without exception the most perfect girl I ever saw, I don't suppose
+she would be guilty of making a bad choice. Cissy, dear, this is Mr.
+Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>Cissy got up from her chair, and came up to him. "Mamma says I am to
+love you very much," said Cissy, putting up her face to be kissed.</p>
+
+<p>"But I did not tell you to say I had told you," said Mrs. Burton,
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"And I will love you very much," said Harry, taking her up in his
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>"But not so much as Aunt Florence,&mdash;will you?"</p>
+
+<p>They all knew it. It was clear to him that everybody connected with
+the Burtons had been told of the engagement, and that they all spoke
+of it openly, as they did of any other everyday family occurrence.
+There was not much reticence among the Burtons. He could not but feel
+this, though now, at the present moment, he was disposed to think
+specially well of the family because Mrs. Burton and her children
+were so nice.</p>
+
+<p>"And this is another daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; another future niece, Mr. Clavering. But I suppose I may call
+you Harry; may I not? My name is Cecilia. Yes, that is Miss Pert."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not Miss Pert," said the little soft round ball of a girl from
+the chair. "I'm Sophy Burton. Oh! you musn't tittle."</p>
+
+<p>Harry found himself quite at home in ten minutes; and before Mr.
+Burton had returned, had been taken upstairs into the nursery to see
+Theodore Burton Junior in his cradle, Theodore Burton Junior being as
+yet only some few months old. "Now you've seen us all," said Mrs.
+Burton, "and we'll go downstairs and wait for my husband. I must let
+you into a secret, too. We don't dine till past seven; you may as
+well remember that for the future. But I wanted to have you for
+half-an-hour to myself before dinner, so that I might look at you,
+and make up my mind about Flo's choice. I hope you won't be angry
+with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"And how have you made up your mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you want to find that out, you must get it through Florence. You
+may be quite sure I shall tell her; and, I suppose, I may be quite
+sure she will tell you. Does she tell you everything?"</p>
+
+<p>"I tell her everything," said Harry, feeling himself, however, to be
+a little conscience-smitten at the moment, as he remembered his
+interview with Lady Ongar. Things had occurred this very day which he
+certainly could not tell her.</p>
+
+<p>"Do;&mdash;do; always do that," said Mrs. Burton, laying her hand
+affectionately on his arm. "There is no way so certain to bind a
+woman to you, heart and soul, as to show her that you trust her in
+everything. Theodore tells me everything. I don't think there's a
+drain planned under a railway-bank, but that he shows it me in some
+way; and I feel so grateful for it. It makes me know that I can never
+do enough for him. I hope you'll be as good to Flo as he is to me."</p>
+
+<p>"We can't both be perfect, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well! of course you'll laugh at me. Theodore always laughs at me
+when I get on what he calls a high horse. I wonder whether you are as
+sensible as he is?"</p>
+
+<p>Harry reflected that he never wore cotton gloves. "I don't think I am
+very sensible," said he. "I do a great many foolish things, and the
+worst is, that I like them."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I. I like so many foolish things."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma!" said Cissy.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have that quoted against me, now, for the next six months,
+whenever I am preaching wisdom in the nursery. But Florence is nearly
+as sensible as her brother."</p>
+
+<p>"Much more so than I am."</p>
+
+<p>"All the Burtons are full up to their eyes with good sense. And what
+a good thing it is! Who ever heard of any of them coming to sorrow?
+Whatever they have to live on, they always have enough. Did you ever
+know a woman who has done better with her children, or has known how
+to do better, than Theodore's mother? She is the dearest old woman."
+Harry had heard her called a very clever old woman by certain persons
+in Stratton, and could not but think of her matrimonial successes as
+her praises were thus sung by her daughter-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>They went on talking, while Sophy sat in Harry's lap, till there was
+heard the sound of the key in the latch of the front-door, and the
+master of the house was known to be there. "It's Theodore," said his
+wife, jumping up and going out to meet him. "I'm so glad that you
+have been here a little before him, because now I feel that I know
+you. When he's here I shan't get in a word." Then she went down to
+her husband, and Harry was left to speculate how so very charming a
+woman could ever have been brought to love a man who cleaned his
+boots with his pocket-handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>There were soon steps again upon the stairs, and Burton returned
+bringing with him another man whom he introduced to Harry as Mr.
+Jones. "I didn't know my brother was coming," said Mrs. Burton, "but
+it will be very pleasant, as of course I shall want you to know him."
+Harry became a little perplexed. How far might these family
+ramifications be supposed to go? Would he be welcomed, as one of the
+household, to the hearth of Mrs. Jones; and if of Mrs. Jones, then of
+Mrs. Jones's brother? His mental inquiries, however, in this
+direction, were soon ended by his finding that Mr. Jones was a
+bachelor.</p>
+
+<p>Jones, it appeared, was the editor, or sub-editor, or co-editor, of
+some influential daily newspaper. "He is a night bird, Harry&mdash;," said
+Mrs. Burton. She had fallen into the way of calling him Harry at
+once, but he could not on that occasion bring himself to call her
+Cecilia. He might have done so had not her husband been present, but
+he was ashamed to do it before him. "He is a night bird, Harry," said
+she, speaking of her brother, "and flies away at nine o'clock, that
+he may go and hoot like an owl in some dark city haunt that he has.
+Then, when he is himself asleep at breakfast-time, his hootings are
+being heard round the town."</p>
+
+<p>Harry rather liked the idea of knowing an editor. Editors were, he
+thought, influential people, who had the world very much under their
+feet,&mdash;being, as he conceived, afraid of no men, while other men are
+very much afraid of them. He was glad enough to shake Jones by the
+hand, when he found that Jones was an editor. But Jones, though he
+had the face and forehead of a clever man, was very quiet, and seemed
+almost submissive to his sister and brother-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner was plain, but good, and Harry after a while became happy
+and satisfied, although he had come to the house with something
+almost like a resolution to find fault. Men, and women also, do
+frequently go about in such a mood, having unconscionably from some
+small circumstance, prejudged their acquaintances, and made up their
+mind that their acquaintances should be condemned. Influenced in this
+way, Harry had not intended to pass a pleasant evening, and would
+have stood aloof and been cold, had it been possible to him; but he
+found that it was not possible; and after a little while he was
+friendly and joyous, and the dinner went off very well. There was
+some wild-fowl, and he was agreeably surprised as he watched the
+mental anxiety and gastronomic skill with which Burton went through
+the process of preparing the gravy, with lemon and pepper, having in
+the room a little silver-pot and an apparatus of fire for the
+occasion. He would as soon have expected the Archbishop of Canterbury
+himself to go through such an operation in the dining-room at Lambeth
+as the hard-working man of business whom he had known in the chambers
+at the Adelphi.</p>
+
+<p>"Does he always do that, Mrs. Burton?" Harry asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Always," said Burton, "when I can get the materials. One doesn't
+bother oneself about a cold leg of mutton, you know, which is my
+usual dinner when we are alone. The children have it hot in the
+middle of the day."</p>
+
+<p>"Such a thing never happened to him yet, Harry," said Mrs. Burton.</p>
+
+<p>"Gently with the pepper," said the editor. It was the first word he
+had spoken for some time.</p>
+
+<p>"Be good enough to remember that, yourself, when you are writing your
+article to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"No, none for me, Theodore," said Mrs. Burton.</p>
+
+<p>"Cissy!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have dined really. If I had remembered that you were going to
+display your cookery, I would have kept some of my energy, but I
+forgot it."</p>
+
+<p>"As a rule," said Burton, "I don't think women recognize any
+difference in flavours. I believe wild duck and hashed mutton would
+be quite the same to my wife if her eyes were blinded. I should not
+mind this, if it were not that they are generally proud of the
+deficiency. They think it grand."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as men think it grand not to know one tune from another," said
+his wife.</p>
+
+<p>When dinner was over, Burton got up from his seat. "Harry," said he,
+"do you like good wine?" Harry said that he did. Whatever women may
+say about wild-fowl, men never profess an indifference to good wine,
+although there is a theory about the world, quite as incorrect as it
+is general, that they have given up drinking it. "Indeed, I do," said
+Harry. "Then I'll give you a bottle of port," said Burton, and so
+saying he left the room.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very glad you have come to-day," said Jones, with much gravity.
+"He never gives me any of that when I'm alone with him; and he never,
+by any means, brings it out for company."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean to accuse him of drinking it alone, Tom?" said his
+sister, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know when he drinks it; I only know when he doesn't."</p>
+
+<p>The wine was decanted with as much care as had been given to the
+concoction of the gravy, and the clearness of the dark liquid was
+scrutinized with an eye that was full of anxious care. "Now, Cissy,
+what do you think of that? She knows a glass of good wine when she
+gets it, as well as you do, Harry; in spite of her contempt for the
+duck."</p>
+
+<p>As they sipped the old port they sat round the dining-room fire, and
+Harry Clavering was forced to own to himself that he had never been
+more comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Burton, stretching out his slippered feet, "why can't it
+all be after-dinner, instead of that weary room at the Adelphi?"</p>
+
+<p>"And all old port?" said Jones.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and all old port. You are not such an ass as to suppose that a
+man in suggesting to himself a continuance of pleasure suggests to
+himself also the evils which are supposed to accompany such pleasure.
+If I took much of the stuff I should get cross and sick, and make a
+beast of myself; but then what a pity it is that it should be so."</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't like much of it, I think," said his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"That is it," said he. "We are driven to work because work never
+palls on us, whereas pleasure always does. What a wonderful scheme it
+is when one looks at it all. No man can follow pleasure long
+continually. When a man strives to do so, he turns his pleasure at
+once into business, and works at that. Come, Harry, we mustn't have
+another bottle, as Jones would go to sleep among the type." Then they
+all went upstairs together. Harry, before he went away, was taken
+again up into the nursery, and there kissed the two little girls in
+their cots. When he was outside the nursery door, on the top of the
+stairs, Mrs. Burton took him by the hand. "You'll come to us often,"
+said she, "and make yourself at home here, will you not?" Harry could
+not but say that he would. Indeed he did so without hesitation,
+almost with eagerness, for he had liked her and had liked her house.
+"We think of you, you know," she continued, "quite as one of
+ourselves. How could it be otherwise when Flo is the dearest to us of
+all beyond our own?"</p>
+
+<p>"It makes me so happy to hear you say so," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Then come here and talk about her. I want Theodore to feel that you
+are his brother; it will be so important to you in the business that
+it should be so." After that he went away, and as he walked back
+along Piccadilly, and then up through the regions of St. Giles to his
+home in Bloomsbury Square, he satisfied himself that the life of
+Onslow Crescent was a better manner of life than that which was
+likely to prevail in Bolton Street.</p>
+
+<p>When he was gone his character was of course discussed between the
+husband and wife in Onslow Crescent. "What do you think of him?" said
+the husband.</p>
+
+<p>"I like him so much! He is so much nicer than you told me,&mdash;so much
+pleasanter and easier; and I have no doubt he is as clever, though I
+don't think he shows that at once."</p>
+
+<p>"He is clever enough; there's no doubt about that."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you not think he was pleasant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he was pleasant here. He is one of those men who get on best
+with women. You'll make much more of him for awhile than I shall.
+He'll gossip with you and sit idling with you for the hour together,
+if you'll let him. There's nothing wrong about him, and he'd like
+nothing better than that."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't believe that he's idle by disposition? Think of all that
+he has done already."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what is most against him. He might do very well with us
+if he had not got that confounded fellowship; but having got that, he
+thinks the hard work of life is pretty well over with him."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose he can be so foolish as that, Theodore."</p>
+
+<p>"I know well what such men are, and I know the evil that is done to
+them by the cramming they endure. They learn many names of
+things,&mdash;high-sounding names, and they come to understand a great
+deal about words. It is a knowledge that requires no experience and
+very little real thought. But it demands much memory; and when they
+have loaded themselves in this way, they think that they are
+instructed in all things. After all, what can they do that is of real
+use to mankind? What can they create?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose they are of use."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know it. A man will tell you, or pretend to tell you,&mdash;for
+the chances are ten to one that he is wrong,&mdash;what sort of lingo was
+spoken in some particular island or province six hundred years before
+Christ. What good will that do any one, even if he were right? And
+then see the effect upon the men themselves! At four-and-twenty a
+young fellow has achieved some wonderful success, and calls himself
+by some outlandish and conceited name&mdash;a double first, or something
+of the kind. Then he thinks he has completed everything, and is too
+vain to learn anything afterwards. The truth is, that at twenty-four
+no man has done more than acquire the rudiments of his education. The
+system is bad from beginning to end. All that competition makes false
+and imperfect growth. Come, I'll go to bed."</p>
+
+<p>What would Harry have said if he had heard all this from the man who
+dusted his boots with his handkerchief?</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c09"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+<h4>TOO PRUDENT BY HALF.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Florence Burton thought herself the happiest girl in the world. There
+was nothing wanting to the perfection of her bliss. She could
+perceive, though she never allowed her mind to dwell upon the fact,
+that her lover was superior in many respects to the men whom her
+sisters had married. He was better educated, better looking, in fact
+more fully a gentleman at all points than either Scarness or any of
+the others. She liked her sisters' husbands very well, and in former
+days, before Harry Clavering had come to Stratton, she had never
+taught herself to think that she, if she married, would want anything
+different from that which Providence had given to them. She had never
+thrown up her head, or even thrown up her nose, and told herself that
+she would demand something better than that. But not the less was she
+alive to the knowledge that something better had come in her way, and
+that that something better was now her own. She was very proud of her
+lover, and, no doubt, in some gently feminine way showed that she was
+so as she made her way about among her friends at Stratton. Any idea
+that she herself was better educated, better looking, or more clever
+than her elder sisters, and that, therefore, she was deserving of a
+higher order of husband, had never entered her mind. The Burtons in
+London,&mdash;Theodore Burton and his wife,&mdash;who knew her well, and who,
+of all the family, were best able to appreciate her worth, had long
+been of opinion that she deserved some specially favoured lot in
+life. The question with them would be, whether Harry Clavering was
+good enough for her.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody at Stratton knew that she was engaged, and when they wished
+her joy she made no coy denials. Her sisters had all been engaged in
+the same way, and their marriages had gone off in regular sequence to
+their engagements. There had never been any secret with them about
+their affairs. On this matter the practice is very various among
+different people. There are families who think it almost indelicate
+to talk about marriage as a thing actually in prospect for any of
+their own community. An ordinary acquaintance would be considered to
+be impertinent in even hinting at such a thing, although the thing
+were an established fact. The engaged young ladies only whisper the
+news through the very depths of their pink note-paper, and are
+supposed to blush as they communicate the tidings by their pens, even
+in the retirement of their own rooms. But there are other families in
+which there is no vestige of such mystery, in which an engaged couple
+are spoken of together as openly as though they were already bound in
+some sort of public partnership. In these families the young ladies
+talk openly of their lovers, and generally prefer that subject of
+conversation to any other. Such a family,&mdash;so little mysterious,&mdash;so
+open in their arrangements, was that of the Burtons at Stratton. The
+reserve in the reserved families is usually atoned for by the
+magnificence of the bridal arrangements, when the marriage is at last
+solemnized; whereas, among the other set,&mdash;the people who have no
+reserve,&mdash;the marriage, when it comes, is customarily an affair of
+much less outward ceremony. They are married without blast of
+trumpet, with very little profit to the confectioner, and do their
+honeymoon, if they do it at all, with prosaic simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>Florence had made up her mind that she would be in no hurry about it.
+Harry was in a hurry; but that was a matter of course. He was a
+quick-blooded, impatient, restless being. She was slower, and more
+given to consideration. It would be better that they should wait,
+even if it were for five or six years. She had no fear of poverty for
+herself. She had lived always in a house in which money was much
+regarded, and among people who were of inexpensive habits. But such
+had not been his lot, and it was her duty to think of the mode of
+life which might suit him. He would not be happy as a poor
+man,&mdash;without comforts around him, which would simply be comforts to
+him though they would be luxuries to her. When her mother told her,
+shaking her head rather sorrowfully as she heard Florence talk, that
+she did not like long engagements, Florence would shake hers too, in
+playful derision, and tell her mother not to be so suspicious. "It is
+not you that are going to marry him, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear; I know that. But long engagements never are good. And I
+can't think why young people should want so many things, now, that
+they used to do without very well when I was married. When I went
+into housekeeping, we only had one girl of fifteen to do everything;
+and we hadn't a nursemaid regular till Theodore was born; and there
+were three before him."</p>
+
+<p>Florence could not say how many maid-servants Harry might wish to
+have under similar circumstances, but she was very confident that he
+would want much more attendance than her father and mother had done,
+or even than some of her brothers and sisters. Her father, when he
+first married, would not have objected, on returning home, to find
+his wife in the kitchen, looking after the progress of the dinner;
+nor even would her brother Theodore have been made unhappy by such a
+circumstance. But Harry, she knew, would not like it; and therefore
+Harry must wait. "It will do him good, mamma," said Florence. "You
+can't think that I mean to find fault with him; but I know that he is
+young in his ways. He is one of those men who should not marry till
+they are twenty-eight, or thereabouts."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean that he is unsteady?"</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;not unsteady. I don't think him a bit unsteady; but he will be
+happier single for a year or two. He hasn't settled down to like his
+tea and toast when he is tired of his work, as a married man should
+do. Do you know that I am not sure that a little flirtation would not
+be very good for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"It should be very moderate, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"But then, suppose it wasn't moderate. I don't like to see engaged
+young men going on in that way. I suppose I'm very old-fashioned; but
+I think when a young man is engaged, he ought to remember it and to
+show it. It ought to make him a little serious, and he shouldn't be
+going about like a butterfly, that may do just as it pleases in the
+sunshine."</p>
+
+<p>During the three months which Harry remained in town before the
+Easter holidays he wrote more than once to Florence, pressing her to
+name an early day for their marriage. These letters were written, I
+think, after certain evenings spent under favourable circumstances in
+Onslow Crescent, when he was full of the merits of domestic comfort,
+and perhaps also owed some of their inspiration to the fact that Lady
+Ongar had left London without seeing him. He had called repeatedly in
+Bolton Street, having been specially pressed to do so by Lady Ongar,
+but he had only once found her at home, and then a third person had
+been present. This third person had been a lady who was not
+introduced to him, but he had learned from her speech that she was a
+foreigner. On that occasion Lady Ongar had made herself gracious and
+pleasant, but nothing had passed which interested him, and, most
+unreasonably, he had felt himself to be provoked. When next he went
+to Bolton Street he found that Lady Ongar had left London. She had
+gone down to Ongar Park, and, as far as the woman at the house knew,
+intended to remain there till after Easter. Harry had some undefined
+idea that she should not have taken such a step without telling him.
+Had she not declared to him that he was her only friend? When a
+friend is going out of town, leaving an only friend behind, that
+friend ought to tell her only friend what she is going to do,
+otherwise such a declaration of only-friendship means nothing. Such
+was Harry Clavering's reasoning, and having so reasoned, he declared
+to himself that it did mean nothing, and was very pressing to
+Florence Burton to name an early day. He had been with Cecilia, he
+told her,&mdash;he had learned to call Mrs. Burton Cecilia in his
+letters,&mdash;and she quite agreed with him that their income would be
+enough. He was to have two hundred a year from his father, having
+brought himself to abandon that high-toned resolve which he had made
+some time since that he would never draw any part of his income from
+the parental coffers. His father had again offered it, and he had
+accepted it. Old Mr. Burton was to add a hundred, and Harry was of
+opinion that they could do very well. Cecilia thought the same, he
+said, and therefore Florence surely would not refuse. But Florence
+received, direct from Onslow Crescent, Cecilia's own version of her
+thoughts, and did refuse. It may be surmised that she would have
+refused even without assistance from Cecilia, for she was a young
+lady not of a fickle or changing disposition. So she wrote to Harry
+with much care, and as her letter had some influence on the story to
+be told, the reader shall read it,&mdash;if the reader so pleases.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="jright">Stratton. March, 186&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">Dear Harry</span>,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I received your letter this morning, and answer it at
+once, because I know you will be impatient for an answer.
+You are impatient about things,&mdash;are you not? But it was a
+kind, sweet, dear, generous letter, and I need not tell
+you now that I love the writer of it with all my heart. I
+am so glad you like Cecilia. I think she is the perfection
+of a woman. And Theodore is every bit as good as Cecilia,
+though I know you don't think so, because you don't say
+so. I am always happy when I am in Onslow Crescent. I
+should have been there this spring, only that a certain
+person who chooses to think that his claims on me are
+stronger than those of any other person wishes me to go
+elsewhere. Mamma wishes me to go to London also for a
+week, but I don't want to be away from the old house too
+much before the final parting comes at last.</p>
+
+<p>And now about the final parting; for I may as well rush at
+it at once. I need hardly tell you that no care for father
+or mother shall make me put off my marriage. Of course I
+owe everything to you now; and as they have approved it, I
+have no right to think of them in opposition to you. And
+you must not suppose that they ask me to stay. On the
+contrary, mamma is always telling me that early marriages
+are best. She has sent all the birds out of the nest but
+one; and is impatient to see that one fly away, that she
+may be sure that there is no lame one in the brood. You
+must not therefore think that it is mamma; nor is it papa,
+as regards himself,&mdash;though papa agrees with me in
+thinking that we ought to wait a little.</p>
+
+<p>Dear Harry, you must not be angry, but I am sure that we
+ought to wait. We are, both of us, young, and why should
+we be in a hurry? I know what you will say, and of course
+I love you the more because you love me so well; but I
+fancy that I can be quite happy if I can see you two or
+three times in the year, and hear from you constantly. It
+is so good of you to write such nice letters, and the
+longer they are the better I like them. Whatever you put
+in them, I like them to be full. I know I can't write nice
+letters myself, and it makes me unhappy. Unless I have got
+something special to say, I am dumb.</p>
+
+<p>But now I have something special to say. In spite of all
+that you tell me about Cecilia, I do not think it would do
+for us to venture upon marrying yet. I know that you are
+willing to sacrifice everything, but I ought not on that
+account to accept a sacrifice. I could not bear to see you
+poor and uncomfortable; and we should be very poor in
+London now-a-days with such an income as we should have.
+If we were going to live here at Stratton perhaps we might
+manage, but I feel sure that it would be imprudent in
+London. You ought not to be angry with me for saying this,
+for I am quite as anxious to be with you as you can
+possibly be to be with me; only I can bear to look
+forward, and have a pleasure in feeling that all my
+happiness is to come. I know I am right in this. Do write
+me one little line to say that you are not angry with your
+little girl.</p>
+
+<p>I shall be quite ready for you by the 29th. I got such a
+dear little note from Fanny the other day. She says that
+you never write to them, and she supposes that I have the
+advantage of all your energy in that way. I have told her
+that I do get a good deal. My brother writes to me very
+seldom, I know; and I get twenty letters from Cecilia for
+one scrap that Theodore ever sends me. Perhaps some of
+these days I shall be the chief correspondent with the
+rectory. Fanny told me all about the dresses, and I have
+my own quite ready. I've been bridesmaid to four of my own
+sisters, so I ought to know what I'm about. I'll never be
+bridesmaid to anybody again, after Fanny; but whom on
+earth shall I have for myself? I think we must wait till
+Cissy and Sophy are ready. Cissy wrote me word that you
+were a darling man. I don't know how much of that came
+directly from Cissy, or how much from Cecilia.</p>
+
+<p>God bless you, dear, dearest Harry. Let me have one letter
+before you come to fetch me, and acknowledge that I am
+right, even if you say that I am disagreeable. Of course I
+like to think that you want to have me; but, you see, one
+has to pay the penalty of being civilized.&mdash;Ever and
+always your own affectionate</p>
+
+<p class="ind12"><span class="smallcaps">Florence
+Burton</span>.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Harry Clavering was very angry when he got this letter. The primary
+cause of his anger was the fact that Florence should pretend to know
+what was better for him than he knew himself. If he was willing to
+encounter life in London on less than four hundred a year, surely she
+might be contented to try the same experiment. He did not for a
+moment suspect that she feared for herself, but he was indignant with
+her because of her fear for him. What right had she to accuse him of
+wanting to be comfortable? Had he not for her sake consented to be
+very uncomfortable at that old house at Stratton? Was he not willing
+to give up his fellowship, and the society of Lady Ongar, and
+everything else, for her sake? Had he not shown himself to be such a
+lover as there is not one in a hundred? And yet she wrote and told
+him that it wouldn't do for him to be poor and uncomfortable! After
+all that he had done in the world, after all that he had gone
+through, it would be odd if, at this time of day, he did not know
+what was good for himself! It was in that way that he regarded
+Florence's pertinacity.</p>
+
+<p>He was rather unhappy at this period. It seemed to him that he was
+somewhat slighted on both sides,&mdash;or, if I may say so, less thought
+of on both sides than he deserved. Had Lady Ongar remained in town,
+as she ought to have done, he would have solaced himself, and at the
+same time have revenged himself upon Florence, by devoting some of
+his spare hours to that lady. It was Lady Ongar's sudden departure
+that had made him feel that he ought to rush at once into marriage.
+Now he had no consolation, except that of complaining to Mrs. Burton,
+and going frequently to the theatre. To Mrs. Burton he did complain a
+great deal, pulling her worsteds and threads about the while, sitting
+in idleness while she was working, just as Theodore Burton had
+predicted that he would do.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't have you so idle, Harry," Mrs. Burton said to him one day.
+"You know you ought to be at your office now." It must be admitted on
+behalf of Harry Clavering, that they who liked him, especially women,
+were able to become intimate with him very easily. He had
+comfortable, homely ways about him, and did not habitually give
+himself airs. He had become quite domesticated at the Burtons' house
+during the ten weeks that he had been in London, and knew his way to
+Onslow Crescent almost too well. It may, perhaps, be surmised
+correctly that he would not have gone there so frequently if Mrs.
+Theodore Burton had been an ugly woman.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all her fault," said he, continuing to snip a piece of worsted
+with a pair of scissors as he spoke. "She's too prudent by half."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Florence!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't but know that I should work three times as much if she had
+given me a different answer. It stands to reason any man would work
+under such circumstances as that. Not that I am idle, I believe. I do
+as much as any other man about the place."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't have my worsted destroyed all the same. Theodore says that
+Florence is right."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he does; of course he'll say I'm wrong. I won't ask her
+again,&mdash;that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Harry! don't say that. You know you'll ask her. You would
+to-morrow, if she were here."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know me, Cecilia, or you would not say so. When I have
+made up my mind to a thing, I am generally firm about it. She said
+something about two years, and I will not say a word to alter that
+decision. If it be altered, it shall be altered by her."</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime he punished Florence by sending her no special answer
+to her letter. He wrote to her as usual; but he made no reference to
+his last proposal, nor to her refusal. She had asked him to tell her
+that he was not angry, but he would tell her nothing of the kind. He
+told her when and where and how he would meet her, and convey her
+from Stratton to Clavering; gave her some account of a play he had
+seen; described a little dinner-party in Onslow Crescent; and told
+her a funny story about Mr. Walliker and the office at the Adelphi.
+But he said no word, even in rebuke, as to her decision about their
+marriage. He intended that this should be felt to be severe, and took
+pleasure in the pain that he would be giving. Florence, when she
+received her letter, knew that he was sore, and understood thoroughly
+the working of his mind. "I will comfort him when we are together,"
+she said to herself. "I will make him reasonable when I see him." It
+was not the way in which he expected that his anger would be
+received.</p>
+
+<p>One day on his return home he found a card on his table which
+surprised him very much. It contained a name but no address, but over
+the name there was a pencil memorandum, stating that the owner of the
+card would call again on his return to London after Easter. The name
+on the card was that of Count Pateroff. He remembered the name well
+as soon as he saw it, though he had never thought of it since the
+solitary occasion on which it had been mentioned to him. Count
+Pateroff was the man who had been Lord Ongar's friend, and respecting
+whom Lord Ongar had brought a false charge against his wife. Why
+should Count Pateroff call on him? Why was he in England? Whence had
+he learned the address in Bloomsbury Square? To that last question he
+had no difficulty in finding an answer. Of course he must have heard
+it from Lady Ongar. Count Pateroff had now left London! Had he gone
+to Ongar Park? Harry Clavering's mind was instantly filled with
+suspicion, and he became jealous in spite of Florence Burton. Could
+it be that Lady Ongar, not yet four months a widow, was receiving at
+her house in the country this man with whose name her own had been so
+fatally joined? If so, what could he think of such behaviour? He was
+very angry. He knew that he was angry, but he did not at all know
+that he was jealous. Was he not, by her own declaration to him, her
+only friend; and as such could he entertain such a suspicion without
+anger? "Her friend!" he said to himself. "Not if she has any dealings
+whatever with that man after what she has told me of him!" He
+remembered at last that perhaps the count might not be at Ongar Park;
+but he must, at any rate, have had some dealing with Lady Ongar or he
+would not have known the address in Bloomsbury Square. "Count
+Pateroff!" he said, repeating the name, "I shouldn't wonder if I have
+to quarrel with that man." During the whole of that night he was
+thinking of Lady Ongar. As regarded himself, he knew that he had
+nothing to offer to Lady Ongar but a brotherly friendship; but,
+nevertheless, it was an injury to him that she should be acquainted
+intimately with any unmarried man but himself.</p>
+
+<p>On the next day he was to go to Stratton, and in the morning a letter
+was brought to him by the postman; a letter, or rather a very short
+note. Guildford was the postmark, and he knew at once that it was
+from Lady Ongar.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">Dear Mr.
+Clavering</span> [the note <span class="nowrap">said],&mdash;</span></p>
+
+<p>I was so sorry to leave London without seeing you; I shall
+be back by the end of April, and am keeping on the same
+rooms. Come to me, if you can, on the evening of the 30th,
+after dinner. He at last bade Hermy to write and ask me to
+go to Clavering for the Easter week. Such a note! I'll
+show it you when we meet. Of course I declined.</p>
+
+<p>But I write on purpose to tell you that I have begged
+Count Pateroff to see you. I have not seen him, but I have
+had to write to him about things that happened in
+Florence. He has come to England chiefly with reference to
+the affairs of Lord Ongar. I want you to hear his story.
+As far as I have known him he is a truth-telling man,
+though I do not know that I am able to say much more in
+his favour.</p>
+
+<p class="ind14">Ever yours, J. O.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>When he had read this he was quite an altered man. See Count
+Pateroff! Of course he would see him. What task could be more fitting
+for a friend than this, of seeing such a man under such
+circumstances. Before he left London he wrote a note for Count
+Pateroff, to be given to the count by the people at the lodgings
+should he call during Harry's absence from London. In this he
+explained that he would be at Clavering for a fortnight, but
+expressed himself ready to come up to London at a day's notice should
+Count Pateroff be necessitated again to leave London before the day
+named.</p>
+
+<p>As he went about his business that day, and as he journeyed down to
+Stratton, he entertained much kinder ideas about Lady Ongar than he
+had previously done since seeing Count Pateroff's card.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c10"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+<h4>FLORENCE BURTON AT THE RECTORY.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill10-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="H" />arry
+Clavering went down to Stratton, slept one night at old Mr.
+Burton's house, and drove Florence over to Clavering,&mdash;twenty miles
+across the country,&mdash;on the following day. This journey together had
+been looked forward to with great delight by both of them, and
+Florence, in spite of the snubbing which she had received from her
+lover because of her prudence, was very happy as she seated herself
+alongside of him in the vehicle which had been sent over from the
+rectory, and which he called a trap. Not a word had as yet been said
+between them as to that snubbing, nor was Harry minded that anything
+should be said. He meant to carry on his revenge by being dumb on
+that subject. But such was not Florence's intention. She desired not
+only to have her own way in this matter, but desired also that he
+should assent to her arrangements.</p>
+
+<p>It was a charming day for such a journey. It was cold, but not cold
+enough to make them uncomfortable. There was a wind, but not wind
+enough to torment them. Once there came on a little shower, which
+just sufficed to give Harry an opportunity of wrapping his companion
+very closely, but he had hardly completed the ceremony before the
+necessity for it was over. They both agreed that this mode of
+travelling was infinitely preferable to a journey by railroad, and I
+myself should be of the same opinion if one could always make one's
+journeys under the same circumstances. And it must be understood that
+Harry, though no doubt he was still taking his revenge on Florence by
+abstaining from all allusion to her letter, was not disposed to make
+himself otherwise disagreeable. He played his part of lover very
+well, and Florence was supremely happy.</p>
+
+<p>"Harry," she said, when the journey was more than half completed,
+"you never told me what you thought of my letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Which letter?" But he knew very well which was the letter in
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"My prudent letter,&mdash;written in answer to yours that was very
+imprudent."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought there was nothing more to be said about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Harry, don't let there be any subject between us that we don't
+care to think about and discuss. I know what you meant by not
+answering me. You meant to punish me,&mdash;did you not, for having an
+opinion different from yours? Is not that true, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Punish you,&mdash;no; I did not want to punish you. It was I that was
+punished, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"But you know I was right. Was I not right?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you were wrong, but I don't want to say anything more about
+it now."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but, Harry, I want you to talk about it. Is it not everything to
+me,&mdash;everything in this world,&mdash;that you and I should agree about
+this? I have nothing else to think of but you. I have nothing to hope
+for but that I may live to be your wife. My only care in the world is
+my care for you! Come, Harry, don't be glum with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not glum."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak a nice word to me. Tell me that you believe me when I say that
+it is not of myself I am thinking, but of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't you let me think for myself in this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you have got to think for me."</p>
+
+<p>"And I think you'd do very well on the income we've got. If you'll
+consent to marry, this summer, I won't be glum, as you call it, a
+moment longer."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry; I must not do that. I should be false to my duty to you
+if I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's no use saying anything more about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Harry, if an engagement for two years is tedious to
+<span class="nowrap">you&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is tedious. Is not waiting for anything always tedious?
+There's nothing I hate so much as waiting."</p>
+
+<p>"But listen to me," said she, gravely. "If it is too tedious, if it
+is more than you think you can bear without being unhappy, I will
+release you from your engagement."</p>
+
+<p>"Florence!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hear me to the end. It will make no change in me; and then if you
+like to come to me again at the end of the two years, you may be sure
+of the way in which I shall receive you."</p>
+
+<p>"And what good would that do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Simply this good, that you would not be bound in a manner that makes
+you unhappy. If you did not intend that when you asked me to be your
+<span class="nowrap">wife&mdash;</span> Oh, Harry,
+all I want is to make you happy. That is all that I
+care for, all that I think about!"</p>
+
+<p>Harry swore to her with ten thousand oaths that he would not release
+her from any part of her engagement with him, that he would give her
+no loophole of escape from him, that he intended to hold her so
+firmly that if she divided herself from him, she should be accounted
+among women a paragon of falseness. He was ready, he said, to marry
+her to-morrow. That was his wish, his idea of what would be best for
+both of them;&mdash;and after that, if not to-morrow, then on the next
+day, and so on till the day should come on which she should consent
+to become his wife. He went on also to say that he should continue to
+torment her on the subject about once a week till he had induced her
+to give way; and then he quoted a Latin line to show that a constant
+dropping of water will hollow a stone. This was somewhat at variance
+with a declaration he had made to Mrs. Burton, in Onslow Crescent, to
+the effect that he would never speak to Florence again upon the
+subject; but then men do occasionally change their minds, and Harry
+Clavering was a man who often changed his.</p>
+
+<p>Florence, as he made the declaration above described, thought that he
+played his part of lover very well, and drew herself a little closer
+to him as she thanked him for his warmth. "Dear Harry, you are so
+good and so kind, and I do love you so truly!" In this way the
+journey was made very pleasantly, and when Florence was driven up to
+the rectory door she was quite contented with her coachman.</p>
+
+<p>Harry Clavering, who is the hero of our story, will not, I fear, have
+hitherto presented himself to the reader as having much of the heroic
+nature in his character. It will, perhaps, be complained of him that
+he is fickle, vain, easily led, and almost as easily led to evil as
+to good. But it should be remembered that hitherto he has been rather
+hardly dealt with in these pages, and that his faults and weaknesses
+have been exposed almost unfairly. That he had such faults and was
+subject to such weaknesses may be believed of him; but there may be a
+question whether as much evil would not be known of most men, let
+them be heroes or not be heroes, if their characters were, so to say,
+turned inside out before our eyes. Harry Clavering, fellow of his
+college, six feet high, with handsome face and person, and with
+plenty to say for himself on all subjects, was esteemed highly and
+regarded much by those who knew him, in spite of those little foibles
+which marred his character; and I must beg the reader to take the
+world's opinion about him, and not to estimate him too meanly thus
+early in this history of his adventures.</p>
+
+<p>If this tale should ever be read by any lady who, in the course of
+her career, has entered a house under circumstances similar to those
+which had brought Florence Burton to Clavering rectory, she will
+understand how anxious must have been that young lady when she
+encountered the whole Clavering family in the hall. She had been
+blown about by the wind, and her cloaks and shawls were heavy on her,
+and her hat was a little out of shape,&mdash;from some fault on the part
+of Harry, as I believe,&mdash;and she felt herself to be a dowdy as she
+appeared among them. What would they think of her, and what would
+they think of Harry in that he had chosen such an one to be his wife?
+Mrs. Clavering had kissed her before she had seen that lady's face;
+and Mary and Fanny had kissed her before she knew which was which;
+and then a stout, clerical gentleman kissed her who, no doubt, was
+Mr. Clavering, senior. After that, another clerical gentleman, very
+much younger and very much slighter, shook hands with her. He might
+have kissed her, too, had he been so minded, for Florence was too
+confused to be capable of making any exact reckoning in the matter.
+He might have done so&mdash;that is, as far as Florence was concerned. It
+may be a question whether Mary Clavering would not have objected; for
+this clerical gentleman was the Rev. Edward Fielding, who was to
+become her husband in three days' time.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Florence," said Fanny, "come upstairs into mamma's room and
+have some tea, and we'll look at you. Harry, you needn't come. You've
+had her to yourself for a long time, and can have her again in the
+evening."</p>
+
+<p>Florence, in this way, was taken upstairs and found herself seated by
+a fire, while three pairs of hands were taking from her her shawls
+and hat and cloak, almost before she knew where she was.</p>
+
+<p>"It is so odd to have you here," said Fanny. "We have only one
+brother, so, of course, we shall make very much of you. Isn't she
+nice, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure she is; very nice. But I shouldn't have told her so before
+her face, if you hadn't asked the question."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nonsense, mamma. You mustn't believe mamma when she pretends
+to be grand and sententious. It's only put on as a sort of company
+air, but we don't mean to make company of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray don't," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad you are come just at this time," said Mary. "I think so
+much of having Harry's future wife at my wedding. I wish we were both
+going to be married the same day."</p>
+
+<p>"But we are not going to be married for ever so long. Two years hence
+has been the shortest time named."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be sure of that, Florence," said Fanny. "We have all of us
+received a special commission from Harry to talk you out of that
+heresy; have we not, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you had better not tease Florence about that immediately on
+her arrival. It's hardly fair." Then, when they had drunk their tea,
+Florence was taken away to her own room, and before she was allowed
+to go downstairs she was intimate with both the girls, and had so far
+overcome her awe of Harry's mother as to be able to answer her
+without confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, what do you think of her?" said Harry to his father, as
+soon as they were alone.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not had time to think much of her yet. She seems to be very
+pretty. She isn't so tall as I thought she would be."</p>
+
+<p>"No; she's not tall," said Harry, in a voice of disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"I've no doubt we shall like her very much. What money is she to
+have?"</p>
+
+<p>"A hundred a year while her father lives."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not much."</p>
+
+<p>"Much or little, it made no difference with me. I should never have
+thought of marrying a girl for her money. It's a kind of thing that I
+hate. I almost wish she was to have nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't refuse it if I were you."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I shan't refuse it; but what I mean is that I never
+thought about it when I asked her to have me; and I shouldn't have
+been a bit more likely to ask her if she had ten times as much."</p>
+
+<p>"A fortune with one's wife isn't a bad thing for a poor man, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"But a poor man must be poor in more senses than one when he looks
+about to get a fortune in that way."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you won't marry just yet," said the father. "Including
+everything, you would not have five hundred a year, and that would be
+very close work in London."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not quite decided yet, sir. As far as I am myself concerned, I
+think that people are a great deal too prudent about money. I believe
+I could live as a married man on a hundred a year, if I had no more;
+and as for London, I don't see why London should be more expensive
+than any other place. You can get exactly what you want in London,
+and make your halfpence go farther there than anywhere else."</p>
+
+<p>"And your sovereigns go quicker," said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>"All that is wanted," said Harry, "is the will to live on your
+income, and a little firmness in carrying out your plans."</p>
+
+<p>The rector of Clavering, as he heard all this wisdom fall from his
+son's lips, looked at Harry's expensive clothes, at the ring on his
+finger, at the gold chain on his waistcoat, at the studs in his
+shirt, and smiled gently. He was by no means so clever a man as his
+son, but he knew something more of the world, and though not much
+given to general reading, he had read his son's character. "A great
+deal of firmness and of fortitude also is wanted for that kind of
+life," he said. "There are men who can go through it without
+suffering, but I would not advise any young man to commence it in a
+hurry. If I were you I should wait a year or two. Come, let's have a
+walk; that is, if you can tear yourself away from your lady-love for
+an hour. If there is not Saul coming up the avenue! Take your hat,
+Harry, and we'll get out the other way. He only wants to see the
+girls about the school, but if he catches us he'll keep us for an
+hour." Then Harry asked after Mr. Saul's love-affairs. "I've not
+heard one single word about it since you went away," said the rector.
+"It seems to have passed off like a dream. He and Fanny go on the
+same as ever, and I suppose he knows that he made a fool of himself."
+But in this matter the rector of Clavering was mistaken. Mr. Saul did
+not by any means think that he had made a fool of himself.</p>
+
+<p>"He has never spoken a word to me since," said Fanny to her brother
+that evening; "that is, not a word as to what occurred then. Of
+course it was very embarrassing at first, though I don't think he
+minded it much. He came after a day or two just the same as ever, and
+he almost made me think that he had forgotten it."</p>
+
+<p>"And he wasn't confused?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. He never is. The only difference is that I think he
+scolds me more than he used to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Scold you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, yes; he always scolded me if he thought there was anything
+wrong, especially about giving the children holidays. But he does it
+now more than ever."</p>
+
+<p>"And how do you bear it?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a half-and-half sort of way. I laugh at him, and then do as I'm
+bid. He makes everybody do what he bids them at Clavering,&mdash;except
+papa, sometimes. But he scolds him, too. I heard him the other day in
+the library."</p>
+
+<p>"And did my father take it from him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did, in a sort of a way. I don't think papa likes him; but then
+he knows, and we all know, that he is so good. He never spares
+himself in anything. He has nothing but his curacy, and what he gives
+away is wonderful."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he won't take to scolding me," said Harry, proudly.</p>
+
+<p>"As you don't concern yourself about the parish, I should say that
+you're safe. I suppose he thinks mamma does everything right, for he
+never scolds her."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no talk of his going away."</p>
+
+<p>"None at all. I think we should all be sorry, because he does so much
+good."</p>
+
+<p>Florence reigned supreme in the estimation of the rectory family all
+the evening of her arrival and till after breakfast the next morning,
+but then the bride elect was restored to her natural pre-eminence.
+This, however, lasted only for two days, after which the bride was
+taken away. The wedding was very nice, and pretty, and comfortable;
+and the people of Clavering were much better satisfied with it than
+they had been with that other marriage which has been mentioned as
+having been celebrated in Clavering Church. The rectory family was
+generally popular, and everybody wished well to the daughter who was
+being given away. When they were gone there was a breakfast at the
+rectory, and speeches were made with much volubility. On such an
+occasion the rector was a great man, and Harry also shone in
+conspicuous rivalry with his father. But Mr. Saul's spirit was not so
+well tuned to the occasion as that of the rector or his son, and when
+he got upon his legs, and mournfully expressed a hope that his friend
+Mr. Fielding might be enabled to bear the trials of this life with
+fortitude, it was felt by them all that the speaking had better be
+brought to an end.</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't laugh at him, Harry," Fanny said to her brother
+afterwards, almost seriously. "One man can do one thing and one
+another. You can make a speech better than he can, but I don't think
+you could preach so good a sermon."</p>
+
+<p>"I declare I think you're getting fond of him after all," said Harry.
+Upon hearing this Fanny turned away with a look of great offence. "No
+one but a brother," said she, "would say such a thing as that to me,
+because I don't like to hear the poor man ridiculed without cause."
+That evening, when they were alone, Fanny told Florence the whole
+story about Mr. Saul. "I tell you, you know, because you're like one
+of ourselves now. It has never been mentioned to any one out of the
+family."</p>
+
+<p>Florence declared that the story would be sacred with her.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure of that, dear, and therefore I like you to know it. Of
+course such a thing was quite out of the question. The poor fellow
+has no means at all,&mdash;literally none. And then, independently of
+<span class="nowrap">that&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I should ever bring myself to think of that as the
+first thing," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"No, nor would I. If I really were attached to a man, I think I would
+tell him so, and agree to wait, either with hope or without it."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so, Fanny."</p>
+
+<p>"But there was nothing of that kind; and, indeed, he's the sort of
+man that no girl would think of being in love with,&mdash;isn't he? You
+see he will hardly take the trouble to dress himself decently."</p>
+
+<p>"I have only seen him at a wedding, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"And for him he was quite bright. But you will see plenty of him if
+you will go to the schools with me. And indeed he comes here a great
+deal, quite as much as he did before that happened. He is so good,
+Florence!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor man!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't in the least make out from his manner whether he has given
+up thinking about it. I suppose he has. Indeed, of course he has,
+because he must know that it would be of no sort of use. But he is
+one of those men of whom you can never say whether they are happy or
+not; and you never can be quite sure what may be in his mind."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not bound to the place at all,&mdash;not like your father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said Fanny, thinking perhaps that Mr. Saul might find
+himself to be bound to the place, though not exactly with bonds
+similar to those which kept her father there.</p>
+
+<p>"If he found himself to be unhappy, he could go," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; he could go if he were unhappy," said Fanny. "That is, he
+could go if he pleased."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clavering had come to the wedding; but no one else had been
+present from the great house. Sir Hugh, indeed, was not at home; but,
+as the rector truly observed, he might have been at home if he had so
+pleased. "But he is a man," said the father to the son, "who always
+does a rude thing if it be in his power. For myself, I care nothing
+for him, as he knows. But he thinks that Mary would have liked to
+have seen him as the head of the family, and therefore he does not
+come. He has greater skill in making himself odious than any man I
+ever knew. As for her, they say he's leading her a terrible life. And
+he's becoming so stingy about money, too!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear that Archie is very heavy on him."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe that he would allow any man to be heavy on him, as
+you call it. Archie has means of his own, and I suppose has not run
+through them yet. If Hugh has advanced him money, you may be sure
+that he has security. As for Archie, he will come to an end very
+soon, if what I hear is true. They tell me he is always at Newmarket,
+and that he always loses."</p>
+
+<p>But though Sir Hugh was thus uncourteous to the rector and to the
+rector's daughter, he was so far prepared to be civil to his cousin
+Harry, that he allowed his wife to ask all the rectory family to dine
+up at the house, in honour of Harry's sweetheart. Florence Burton was
+specially invited with Lady Clavering's sweetest smile. Florence, of
+course, referred the matter to her hostess, but it was decided that
+they should all accept the invitation. It was given, personally,
+after the breakfast, and it is not always easy to decline invitations
+so given. It may, I think, be doubted whether any man or woman has a
+right to give an invitation in this way, and whether all invitations
+so given should not be null and void, from the fact of the unfair
+advantage that has been taken. The man who fires at a sitting bird is
+known to be no sportsman. Now, the dinner-giver who catches his guest
+in an unguarded moment, and bags him when he has had no chance to
+rise upon his wing, does fire at a sitting bird. In this instance,
+however, Lady Clavering's little speeches were made only to Mrs.
+Clavering and to Florence. She said nothing personally to the rector,
+and he therefore might have escaped. But his wife talked him over.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you should go for Harry's sake," said Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see what good it will do Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"It will show that you approve of the match."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't approve or disapprove of it. He's his own master."</p>
+
+<p>"But you do approve, you know, as you countenance it; and there
+cannot possibly be a sweeter girl than Florence Burton. We all like
+her, and I'm sure you seem to take to her thoroughly."</p>
+
+<p>"Take to her; yes, I take to her very well. She's ladylike, and
+though she's no beauty, she looks pretty, and is spirited. And I
+daresay she's clever."</p>
+
+<p>"And so good."</p>
+
+<p>"If she's good, that's better than all. Only I don't see what they're
+to live on."</p>
+
+<p>"But as she is here, you will go with us to the great house?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Clavering never asked her husband anything in vain, and the
+rector agreed to go. He apologized for this afterwards to his son by
+explaining that he did it as a duty. "It will serve for six months,"
+he said. "If I did not go there about once in six months, there would
+be supposed to be a family quarrel, and that would be bad for the
+parish."</p>
+
+<p>Harry was to remain only a week at Clavering, and the dinner was to
+take place the evening before he went away. On that morning he walked
+all round the park with Florence,&mdash;as he had before often walked with
+Julia,&mdash;and took that occasion of giving her a full history of the
+Clavering family. "We none of us like my cousin Hugh," he had said.
+"But she is at least harmless, and she means to be good-natured. She
+is very unlike her sister, Lady Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"So I should suppose, from what you have told me."</p>
+
+<p>"Altogether an inferior being."</p>
+
+<p>"And she has only one child."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one,&mdash;a boy now two years old. They say he's anything but
+strong."</p>
+
+<p>"And Sir Hugh has one brother."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; Archie Clavering. I think Archie is a worse fellow even than
+Hugh. He makes more attempts to be agreeable, but there is something
+in his eye which I always distrust. And then he is a man who does no
+good in the world to anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"He's not married?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; he's not married, and I don't suppose he ever will marry. It's
+on the cards, Florence, that the future baronet may
+<span class="nowrap">be&mdash;"</span> Then she
+frowned on him, walked on quickly, and changed the conversation.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c11"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XI.</h3>
+<h4>SIR HUGH AND HIS BROTHER ARCHIE.</h4>
+
+
+<p>There was a numerous gathering of Claverings in the drawing-room of
+the Great House when the family from the rectory arrived comprising
+three generations; for the nurse was in the room holding the heir in
+her arms. Mrs. Clavering and Fanny of course inspected the child at
+once, as they were bound to do, while Lady Clavering welcomed
+Florence Burton. Archie spoke a word or two to his uncle, and Sir
+Hugh vouchsafed to give one finger to his cousin Harry by way of
+shaking hands with him. Then there came a feeble squeak from the
+infant, and there was a cloud at once upon Sir Hugh's brow.
+"Hermione," he said, "I wish you wouldn't have the child in here.
+It's not the place for him. He's always cross. I've said a dozen
+times I wouldn't have him down here just before dinner." Then a sign
+was made to the nurse, and she walked off with her burden. It was a
+poor, rickety, unalluring bairn, but it was all that Lady Clavering
+had, and she would fain have been allowed to show it to her
+relatives, as other mothers are allowed to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Hugh," said his wife, "shall I introduce you to Miss Burton?"</p>
+
+<p>Then Sir Hugh came forward and shook hands with his new guest, with
+some sort of apology for his remissness, while Harry stood by,
+glowering at him, with offence in his eye. "My father is right," he
+had said to himself when his cousin failed to notice Florence on her
+first entrance into the room; "he is impertinent as well as
+disagreeable. I don't care for quarrels in the parish, and so I shall
+let him know."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word she's a doosed good-looking little thing," said Archie,
+coming up to him, after having also shaken hands with her;&mdash;"doosed
+good-looking, I call her."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you think so," said Harry, drily.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's see; where was it you picked her up? I did hear, but I
+forget."</p>
+
+<p>"I picked her up, as you call it, at Stratton, where her father
+lives."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I know. He's the fellow that coached you in your new
+business, isn't he? By-the-by, Harry, I think you've made a mess of
+it in changing your line. I'd have stuck to my governor's shop if I'd
+been you. You'd got through all the
+<span class="nowrap">d&mdash;&mdash;d</span> fag of it, and there's the
+living that has always belonged to a Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"What would your brother have said if I had asked him to give it to
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"He wouldn't have given it of course. Nobody does give anything to
+anybody now-a-days. Livings are a sort of thing that people buy. But
+you'd have got it under favourable circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is, Archie, I'm not very fond of the church, as a
+profession."</p>
+
+<p>"I should have thought it easy work. Look at your father. He keeps a
+curate and doesn't take any trouble himself. Upon my word, if I'd
+known as much then as I do now, I'd have had a shy for it myself.
+Hugh couldn't have refused it to me."</p>
+
+<p>"But Hugh can't give it while his uncle holds it."</p>
+
+<p>"That would have been against me to be sure, and your governor's life
+is pretty nearly as good as mine. I shouldn't have liked waiting; so
+I suppose it's as well as it is."</p>
+
+<p>There may perhaps have been other reasons why Archie Clavering's
+regrets that he did not take holy orders were needless. He had never
+succeeded in learning anything that any master had ever attempted to
+teach him, although he had shown considerable aptitude in picking up
+acquirements for which no regular masters are appointed. He knew the
+fathers and mothers,&mdash;sires and dams I ought perhaps to say,&mdash;and
+grandfathers and grandmothers, and so back for some generations, of
+all the horses of note living in his day. He knew also the
+circumstances of all races,&mdash;what horses would run at them, and at
+what ages, what were the stakes, the periods of running, and the
+special interests of each affair. But not, on that account, should it
+be thought that the turf had been profitable to him. That it might
+become profitable at some future time, was possible; but Captain
+Archibald Clavering had not yet reached the profitable stage in the
+career of a betting man, though perhaps he was beginning to qualify
+himself for it. He was not bad-looking, though his face was
+unprepossessing to a judge of character. He was slight and well made,
+about five feet nine in height, with light brown hair, which had
+already left the top of his head bald, with slight whiskers, and a
+well-formed moustache. But the peculiarity of his face was in his
+eyes. His eyebrows were light-coloured and very slight, and this was
+made more apparent by the skin above the eyes, which was loose and
+hung down over the outside corners of them, giving him a look of
+cunning which was disagreeable. He seemed always to be speculating,
+counting up the odds, and calculating whether anything could be done
+with the events then present before him. And he was always ready to
+make a bet, being ever provided with a book for that purpose. He
+would take the odds that the sun did not rise on the morrow, and
+would either win the bet or wrangle in the losing of it. He would
+wrangle, but would do so noiselessly, never on such occasions
+damaging his cause by a loud voice. He was now about thirty-three
+years of age, and was two years younger than the baronet. Sir Hugh
+was not a gambler like his brother, but I do not know that he was
+therefore a more estimable man. He was greedy and anxious to increase
+his store, never willing to lose that which he possessed, fond of
+pleasure, but very careful of himself in the enjoyment of it,
+handsome, every inch an English gentleman in appearance, and
+therefore popular with men and women of his own class who were not
+near enough to him to know him well, given to but few words, proud of
+his name, and rank, and place, well versed in the business of the
+world, a match for most men in money matters, not ignorant, though he
+rarely opened a book, selfish, and utterly regardless of the feelings
+of all those with whom he came in contact. Such were Sir Hugh
+Clavering and his brother the captain.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hugh took Florence in to dinner, and when the soup had been eaten
+made an attempt to talk to her. "How long have you been here, Miss
+Burton?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nearly a week," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah;&mdash;you came to the wedding; I was sorry I couldn't be here. It
+went off very well, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well indeed, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"They're tiresome things in general,&mdash;weddings. Don't you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, no,&mdash;except that some person one loves is always being
+taken away."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be the next person to be taken away yourself, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must be the next person at home, because I am the last that is
+left. All my sisters are married."</p>
+
+<p>"And how many are there?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are five married."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens&mdash;five!"</p>
+
+<p>"And they are all married to men in the same profession as Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite a family affair," said Sir Hugh. Harry, who was sitting on the
+other side of Florence, heard this, and would have preferred that
+Florence should have said nothing about her sisters. "Why, Harry,"
+said the baronet, "if you will go into partnership with your
+father-in-law and all your brothers-in-law you could stand against
+the world."</p>
+
+<p>"You might add my four brothers," said Florence, who saw no shame in
+the fact that they were all engaged in the same business.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heaven!" exclaimed Sir Hugh, and after that he did not say much
+more to Florence.</p>
+
+<p>The rector had taken Lady Clavering in to dinner, and they two did
+manage to carry on between them some conversation respecting the
+parish affairs. Lady Clavering was not active among the poor,&mdash;nor
+was the rector himself, and perhaps neither of them knew how little
+the other did; but they could talk Clavering talk, and the parson was
+willing to take for granted his neighbour's good will to make herself
+agreeable. But Mrs. Clavering, who sat between Sir Hugh and Archie,
+had a very bad time of it. Sir Hugh spoke to her once during the
+dinner, saying that he hoped she was satisfied with her daughter's
+marriage; but even this he said in a tone that seemed to imply that
+any such satisfaction must rest on very poor grounds. "Thoroughly
+satisfied," said Mrs. Clavering, drawing herself up and looking very
+unlike the usual Mrs. Clavering of the rectory. After that there was
+no further conversation between her and Sir Hugh. "The worst of him
+to me is always this," she said that evening to her husband, "that he
+puts me so much out of conceit with myself. If I were with him long I
+should begin to find myself the most disagreeable woman in England!"
+"Then pray don't be with him long," said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>But Archie made conversation throughout dinner, and added greatly to
+Mrs. Clavering's troubles by doing so. There was nothing in common
+between them, but still Archie went on laboriously with his work. It
+was a duty which he recognized, and at which he would work hard. When
+he had used up Mary's marriage, a subject which he economized
+carefully, so that he brought it down to the roast saddle of mutton,
+he began upon Harry's match. When was it to be? Where were they to
+live? Was there any money? What manner of people were the Burtons?
+Perhaps he might get over it? This he whispered very lowly, and it
+was the question next in sequence to that about the money. When, in
+answer to this, Mrs. Clavering with considerable energy declared that
+anything of that kind would be a misfortune of which there seemed to
+be no chance whatever, he recovered himself as he thought very
+skilfully. "Oh, yes; of course; that's just what I meant;&mdash;a doosed
+nice girl I think her;&mdash;a doosed nice girl, all round." Archie's
+questions were very laborious to his fellow-labourer in his
+conversation because he never allowed one of them to pass without an
+answer. He always recognized the fact that he was working hard on
+behalf of society, and, as he used to say himself, that he had no
+idea of pulling all the coach up the hill by his own shoulders.
+Whenever therefore he had made his effort he waited for his
+companion's, looking closely into her face, cunningly driving her on,
+so that she also should pull her share of the coach. Before dinner
+was over Mrs. Clavering found the hill to be very steep, and the
+coach to be very heavy. "I'll bet you seven to one," said he,&mdash;and
+this was his parting speech as Mrs. Clavering rose up at Lady
+Clavering's nod,&mdash;"I'll bet you seven to one, that the whole box and
+dice of them are married before me,&mdash;or at any rate as soon; and I
+don't mean to remain single much longer, I can tell you." The "box
+and dice of them" was supposed to comprise Harry, Florence, Fanny,
+and Lady Ongar, of all of whom mention had been made, and that saving
+clause,&mdash;"at any rate as soon,"&mdash;was cunningly put in, as it had
+occurred to Archie that he perhaps might be married on the same day
+as one of those other persons. But Mrs. Clavering was not compelled
+either to accept or reject the bet, as she was already moving before
+the terms had been fully explained to her.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clavering as she went out of the room stopped a moment behind
+Harry's chair and whispered a word to him. "I want to speak to you
+before you go to-night." Then she passed on.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that Hermione was saying?" asked Sir Hugh, when he had shut
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>"She only told me that she wanted to speak to me."</p>
+
+<p>"She has always got some cursed secret," said Sir Hugh. "If there is
+anything I hate, it's a secret." Now this was hardly fair, for Sir
+Hugh was a man very secret in his own affairs, never telling his wife
+anything about them. He kept two banker's accounts so that no
+banker's clerk might know how he stood as regarded ready money, and
+hardly treated even his lawyer with confidence.</p>
+
+<p>He did not move from his own chair, so that, after dinner, his uncle
+was not next to him. The places left by the ladies were not closed
+up, and the table was very uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"I see they're going to have another week after this with the
+Pytchley," said Sir Hugh to his brother.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose they will,&mdash;or ten days. Things ain't very early this
+year."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I shall go down. It's never any use trying to hunt here
+after the middle of March."</p>
+
+<p>"You're rather short of foxes, are you not?" said the rector, making
+an attempt to join the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word I don't know anything about it," said Sir Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"There are foxes at Clavering," said Archie, recommencing his duty.
+"The hounds will be here on Saturday, and I'll bet three to one I
+find a fox before twelve o'clock, or, say, half-past twelve,&mdash;that
+is, if they'll draw punctually and let me do as I like with the pack.
+I'll bet a guinea we find, and a guinea we run, and a guinea we kill;
+that is, you know, if they'll really look for a fox."</p>
+
+<p>The rector had been willing to fall into a little hunting talk for
+the sake of society, but he was not prepared to go the length that
+Archie proposed to take him, and therefore the subject dropped.</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate I shan't stay here after to-morrow," said Sir Hugh,
+still addressing himself to his brother. "Pass the wine, will you,
+Harry; that is, if your father is drinking any."</p>
+
+<p>"No more wine for me," said the rector, almost angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Liberty Hall," said Sir Hugh; "everybody does as they like about
+that. I mean to have another bottle of claret. Archie, ring the bell,
+will you?" Captain Clavering, though he was further from the bell
+than his elder brother, got up and did as he was bid. The claret
+came, and was drunk almost in silence. The rector, though he had a
+high opinion of the cellar of the great house, would take none of the
+new bottle, because he was angry. Harry filled his glass, and
+attempted to say something. Sir Hugh answered him by a monosyllable,
+and Archie offered to bet him two to one that he was wrong.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go into the drawing-room," said the rector, getting up.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Sir Hugh; "you'll find coffee there, I daresay. Has
+your father given up wine?" he asked, as soon as the door was closed.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I know of," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"He used to take as good a whack as any man I know. The bishop hasn't
+put his embargo on that as well as the hunting, I hope?" To this
+Harry made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"He's in the blues, I think," said Archie. "Is there anything the
+matter with him, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing as far as I know."</p>
+
+<p>"If I were left at Clavering all the year, with nothing to do, as he
+is, I think I should drink a good deal of wine," said Sir Hugh. "I
+don't know what it is,&mdash;something in the air, I suppose,&mdash;but
+everybody always seems to me to be dreadfully dull here. You ain't
+taking any wine either. Don't stop here out of ceremony, you know, if
+you want to go after Miss Burton." Harry took him at his word, and
+went after Miss Burton, leaving the brothers together over their
+claret.</p>
+
+<p>The two brothers remained drinking their wine, but they drank it in
+an uncomfortable fashion, not saying much to each other for the first
+ten minutes after the other Claverings were gone. Archie was in some
+degree afraid of his brother, and never offered to make any bets with
+him. Hugh had once put a stop to this altogether. "Archie," he had
+said, "pray understand that there is no money to be made out of me,
+at any rate not by you. If you lost money to me, you wouldn't think
+it necessary to pay; and I certainly shall lose none to you." The
+habit of proposing to bet had become with Archie so much a matter of
+course, that he did not generally intend any real speculation by his
+offers; but with his brother he had dropped even the habit. And he
+seldom began any conversation with Hugh unless he had some point to
+gain,&mdash;an advance of money to ask, or some favour to beg in the way
+of shooting, or the loan of a horse. On such occasions he would
+commence the negotiation with his usual diplomacy, not knowing any
+other mode of expressing his wishes; but he was aware that his
+brother would always detect his man&oelig;uvres, and expose them before
+he had got through his first preface; and, therefore, as I have said,
+he was afraid of Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what's come to my uncle of late," said Hugh, after a
+while. "I think I shall have to drop them at the rectory altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"He never had much to say for himself."</p>
+
+<p>"But he has a mode of expressing himself without speaking, which I do
+not choose to put up with at my table. The fact is they are going to
+the mischief at the rectory. His eldest girl has just married a
+curate."</p>
+
+<p>"Fielding has got a living."</p>
+
+<p>"It's something very small then, and I suppose Fanny will marry that
+prig they have here. My uncle himself never does any of his own work,
+and now Harry is going to make a fool of himself. I used to think he
+would fall on his legs."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a clever fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why is he such a fool as to marry such a girl as this, without
+money, good looks, or breeding? It's well for you he is such a fool,
+or else you wouldn't have a chance."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that at all," said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"Julia always had a sneaking fondness for Harry, and if he had waited
+would have taken him now. She was very near making a fool of herself
+with him once, before Lord Ongar turned up."</p>
+
+<p>To this Archie said nothing, but he changed colour, and it may almost
+be said of him that he blushed. Why he was affected in so singular a
+manner by his brother's words will be best explained by a statement
+of what took place in the back drawing-room a little later in the
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>When Harry reached the drawing-room he went up to Lady Clavering, but
+she said nothing to him then of especial notice. She was talking to
+Mrs. Clavering while the rector was reading,&mdash;or pretending to
+read,&mdash;a review, and the two girls were chattering together in
+another part of the room. Then they had coffee, and after awhile the
+two other men came in from their wine. Lady Clavering did not move at
+once, but she took the first opportunity of doing so, when Sir Hugh
+came up to Mrs. Clavering and spoke a word to her. A few minutes
+after that Harry found himself closeted with Lady Clavering, in a
+little room detached from the others, though the doors between the
+two were open.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," said Lady Clavering, "that Sir Hugh has asked Julia to
+come here?" Harry paused a moment, and then acknowledged that he did
+know it.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you did not advise her to refuse."</p>
+
+<p>"I advise her! Oh dear, no. She did not ask me anything about it."</p>
+
+<p>"But she has refused. Don't you think she has been very wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is hard to say," said Harry. "You know I thought it very cruel
+that Hugh did not receive her immediately on her return. If I had
+been him I should have gone to Paris to meet her."</p>
+
+<p>"It's no good talking of that now, Harry. Hugh is hard, and we all
+know that. Who feels it most, do you think; Julia or I? But as he has
+come round, what can she gain by standing off? Will it not be the
+best thing for her to come here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that she has much to gain by it."</p>
+
+<p>"Harry,&mdash;do you know that we have a plan?" "Who is we?" Harry asked;
+but she went on without noticing his question. "I tell you, because I
+believe you can help us more than any one, if you will. Only for your
+engagement with Miss Burton I should not mention it to you; and, but
+for that, the plan would, I daresay, be of no use."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the plan?" said Harry, very gravely. A vague idea of what
+the plan might be had come across Harry's mind during Lady
+Clavering's last speech.</p>
+
+<p>"Would it not be a good thing if Julia and Archie were to be
+married?" She asked the question in a quick, hesitating voice,
+looking at first eagerly up into his face, and then turning away her
+eyes, as though she were afraid of the answer she might read there.
+"Of course I know that you were fond of her, but all that can be
+nothing now."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Harry, "that can be nothing now."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why shouldn't Archie have her? It would make us all so much
+more comfortable together. I told Archie that I should speak to you,
+because I know that you have more weight with her than any of us; but
+Hugh doesn't know that I mean it."</p>
+
+<p>"Does Sir Hugh know of the,&mdash;the plan?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was he who proposed it. Archie will be very badly off when he has
+settled with Hugh about all their money dealings. Of course Julia's
+money would be left in her own hands; there would be no intention to
+interfere with that. But the position would be so good for him; and
+it would, you know, put him on his legs."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Harry, "it would put him on his legs, I daresay."</p>
+
+<p>"And why shouldn't it be so? She can't live alone by herself always.
+Of course she never could have really loved Lord Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"Never, I should think," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"And Archie is good-natured, and good-tempered,
+and&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;good-looking. Don't you think so? I think it would
+just do for her. She'd have her own way, for he's not a bit like
+Hugh, you know. He's not so clever as Hugh, but he is much more
+good-natured. Don't you think it would be a good arrangement, Harry?"
+Then again she looked up into his face anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing in the whole matter surprised him more than her eagerness in
+advocating the proposal. Why should she desire that her sister should
+be sacrificed in this way? But in so thinking of it he forgot her own
+position, and the need that there was to her for some friend to be
+near to her,&mdash;for some comfort and assistance. She had spoken truly
+in saying that the plan had originated with her husband; but since it
+had been suggested to her, she had not ceased to think of it, and to
+wish for it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Harry, what do you say?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that I have anything to say."</p>
+
+<p>"But I know you can help us. When I was with her the last time she
+declared that you were the only one of us she ever wished to see
+again. She meant to include me then especially, but of course she was
+not thinking of Archie. I know you can help us if you will."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to ask her to marry him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly that; I don't think that would do any good. But you
+might persuade her to come here. I think she would come if you
+advised her; and then, after a bit, you might say a good word for
+Archie."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word I could not."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I know he would not make her happy. What good would such a
+marriage do her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Think of her position. No one will visit her unless she is first
+received here, or at any rate unless she comes to us in town. And
+then it would be up-hill work. Do you know Lord Ongar had absolutely
+determined at one time to&mdash;to get a divorce?"</p>
+
+<p>"And do you believe that she was guilty?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say that. No; why should I believe anything against my own
+sister when nothing is proved. But that makes no difference, if the
+world believes it. They say now that if he had lived three months
+longer she never would have got the money."</p>
+
+<p>"Then they say lies. Who is it says so? A parcel of old women who
+delight in having some one to run down and backbite. It is all false,
+Lady Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"But what does it signify, Harry? There she is, and you know how
+people are talking. Of course it would be best for her to marry
+again; and if she would take Archie,&mdash;Sir Hugh's brother, my
+brother-in-law, nothing further would be said. She might go anywhere
+then. As her sister, I feel sure that it is the best thing she could
+do."</p>
+
+<p>Harry's brow became clouded, and there was a look of anger on his
+face as he answered her.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Clavering," he said, "your sister will never marry my cousin
+Archie. I look upon the thing as impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it is, Harry, that you,&mdash;you yourself would not wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I wish it?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is your own cousin."</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin indeed! Why should I wish it, or why should I not wish it?
+They are neither of them anything to me."</p>
+
+<p>"She ought not to be anything to you."</p>
+
+<p>"And she is nothing. She may marry Archie, if she pleases, for me. I
+shall not set her against him. But, Lady Clavering, you might as well
+tell him to get one of the stars. I don't think you can know your
+sister when you suppose such a match to be possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione!" shouted Sir Hugh,&mdash;and the shout was uttered in a voice
+that always caused Lady Clavering to tremble.</p>
+
+<p>"I am coming," she said, rising from her chair. "Don't set yourself
+against it, Harry," and then, without waiting to hear him further,
+she obeyed her husband's summons. "What the mischief keeps you in
+there?" he said. It seemed that things had not been going well in the
+larger room. The rector had stuck to his review, taking no notice of
+Sir Hugh when he entered. "You seem to be very fond of your book, all
+of a sudden," Sir Hugh had said, after standing silent on the rug for
+a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am," said the rector,&mdash;"just at present."</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite new with you, then," said Sir Hugh, "or else you're very
+much belied."</p>
+
+<p>"Hugh," said Mr. Clavering, rising slowly from his chair, "I don't
+often come into my father's house, but when I do, I wish to be
+treated with respect. You are the only person in this parish that
+ever omits to do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Bosh!" said Sir Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>The two girls sat cowering in their seats, and poor Florence must
+have begun to entertain an uncomfortable idea of her future
+connexions. Archie made a frantic attempt to raise some conversation
+with Mrs. Clavering about the weather. Mrs. Clavering, paying no
+attention to Archie whatever, looked at her husband with beseeching
+eyes. "Henry," she said, "do not allow yourself to be angry; pray do
+not. What is the use?"</p>
+
+<p>"None on earth," he said, returning to his book. "No use on
+earth;&mdash;and worse than none in showing it."</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that Sir Hugh had made a diversion by calling to his
+wife. "I wish you'd stay with us, and not go off alone with one
+person in particular, in that way." Lady Clavering looked round and
+immediately saw that things were unpleasant. "Archie," she said,
+"will you ring for tea?" And Archie did ring. The tea was brought,
+and a cup was taken all round, almost in silence.</p>
+
+<p>Harry in the meantime remained by himself thinking of what he had
+heard from Lady Clavering. Archie Clavering marry Lady Ongar,&mdash;marry
+his Julia! It was impossible. He could not bring himself even to
+think of such an arrangement with equanimity. He was almost frantic
+with anger as he thought of this proposition to restore Lady Ongar to
+the position in the world's repute which she had a right to claim, by
+such a marriage as that. "She would indeed be disgraced then," said
+Harry to himself. But he knew that it was impossible. He could see
+what would be the nature of Julia's countenance if Archie should ever
+get near enough to her to make his proposal! Archie indeed! There was
+no one for whom, at that moment, he entertained so thorough a
+contempt as he did for his cousin, Archie Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>Let us hope that he was no dog in the manger;&mdash;that the feelings
+which he now entertained for poor Archie would not have been roused
+against any other possible suitor who might have been named as a
+fitting husband for Lady Ongar. Lady Ongar could be nothing to him!</p>
+
+<p>But I fear that he was a dog in the manger, and that any marriage
+contemplated for Lady Ongar, either by herself or by others for her,
+would have been distasteful to him,&mdash;unnaturally distasteful. He knew
+that Lady Ongar could be nothing to him; and yet, as he came out of
+the small room into the larger room, there was something sore about
+his heart, and the soreness was occasioned by the thought that any
+second marriage should be thought possible for Lady Ongar. Florence
+smiled on him as he went up to her, but I doubt whether she would
+have smiled had she known all his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after that Mrs. Clavering rose to return home, having swallowed
+a peace-offering in the shape of a cup of tea. But though the tea had
+quieted the storm then on the waters, there was no true peace in the
+rector's breast. He shook hands cordially with Lady Clavering,
+without animosity with Archie, and then held out three fingers to the
+baronet. The baronet held out one finger. Each nodded at the other,
+and so they parted. Harry, who knew nothing of what had happened, and
+who was still thinking of Lady Ongar, busied himself with Florence,
+and they were soon out of the house, walking down the broad road from
+the front door.</p>
+
+<p>"I will never enter that house again, when I know that Hugh Clavering
+is in it," said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't make rash assertions, Henry," said his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it is not rash, but I make that assertion," he said. "I will
+never again enter that house as my nephew's guest. I have borne a
+great deal for the sake of peace, but there are things which a man
+cannot bear."</p>
+
+<p>Then, as they walked home, the two girls explained to Harry what had
+occurred in the larger room, while he was talking to Lady Clavering
+in the smaller one. But he said nothing to them of the subject of
+that conversation.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c12"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XII.</h3>
+<h4>LADY ONGAR TAKES POSSESSION.</h4>
+
+
+<p>I do not know that there is in England a more complete gentleman's
+residence than Ongar Park, nor could there be one in better repair,
+or more fit for immediate habitation than was that house when it came
+into the hands of the young widow. The park was not large, containing
+about sixty or seventy acres. But there was a home-farm attached to
+the place, which also now belonged to Lady Ongar for her life, and
+which gave to the park itself an appearance of extent which it would
+otherwise have wanted. The house, regarded as a nobleman's mansion,
+was moderate in size, but it was ample for the requirements of any
+ordinarily wealthy family. The dining-room, library, drawing-rooms,
+and breakfast-room, were all large and well-arranged. The hall was
+handsome and spacious, and the bed-rooms were sufficiently numerous
+to make an auctioneer's mouth water. But the great charm of Ongar
+Park lay in the grounds immediately round the house, which sloped
+down from the terrace before the windows to a fast-running stream
+which was almost hidden,&mdash;but was not hidden,&mdash;by the shrubs on its
+bank. Though the domain itself was small, the shrubberies and walks
+were extensive. It was a place costly to maintain in its present
+perfect condition, but when that was said against it, all was said
+against it which its bitterest enemies could allege.</p>
+
+<p>But Lady Ongar, with her large jointure, and with no external
+expenses whatever, could afford this delight without imprudence.
+Everything in and about the place was her own, and she might live
+there happily, even in the face of the world's frowns, if she could
+teach herself to find happiness in rural luxuries. On her immediate
+return to England, her lawyer had told her that he found there would
+be opposition to her claim, and that an attempt would be made to keep
+the house out of her hands. Lord Ongar's people would, he said, bribe
+her to submit to this by immediate acquiescence as to her income. But
+she had declared that she would not submit,&mdash;that she would have
+house and income and all; and she had been successful. "Why should I
+surrender what is my own?" she had said, looking the lawyer full in
+the face. The lawyer had not dared to tell her that her
+opponents,&mdash;Lord Ongar's heirs,&mdash;had calculated on her anxiety to
+avoid exposure; but she knew that that was meant. "I have nothing to
+fear from them," she said, "and mean to claim what is my own by my
+settlement." There had, in truth, been no ground for disputing her
+right, and the place was given up to her before she had been three
+months in England. She at once went down and took possession, and
+there she was, alone, when her sister was communicating to Harry
+Clavering her plan about Captain Archie.</p>
+
+<p>She had never seen the place till she reached it on this occasion;
+nor had she ever seen, nor would she now probably ever see, Lord
+Ongar's larger house, Courton Castle. She had gone abroad with him
+immediately on their marriage, and now she had returned a widow to
+take possession of his house. There she was in possession of it all.
+The furniture in the rooms, the books in the cases, the gilded clocks
+and grand mirrors about the house, all the implements of wealthy care
+about the gardens, the corn in the granaries and the ricks in the
+hay-yard, the horses in the stable, and the cows lowing in the
+fields,&mdash;they were all hers. She had performed her part of the
+bargain, and now the price was paid to her into her hands. When she
+arrived she did not know what was the extent of her riches in this
+world's goods; nor, in truth, had she at once the courage to ask
+questions on the subject. She saw cows, and was told of horses; and
+words came to her gradually of sheep and oxen, of poultry, pigs, and
+growing calves. It was as though a new world had opened itself before
+her eyes, full of interest, and as though all that world were her
+own. She looked at it, and knew that it was the price of her bargain.
+Upon the whole she had been very lucky. She had, indeed, passed
+through a sharp agony,&mdash;an agony sharp almost to death; but the agony
+had been short, and the price was in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>A close carriage had met her at the station, and taken her with her
+maid to the house. She had so arranged that she had reached the
+station after dark, and even then had felt that the eyes of many were
+upon her as she went out to her carriage, with her face covered by a
+veil. She was all alone, and there would be no one at the house to
+whom she could speak;&mdash;but the knowledge that the carriage was her
+own perhaps consoled her. The housekeeper who received her was a
+stout, elderly, comfortable body, to whom she could perhaps say a few
+words beyond those which might be spoken to an ordinary servant; but
+she fancied at once that the housekeeper was cold to her, and solemn
+in her demeanour. "I hope you have good fires, Mrs. Button." "Yes, my
+lady." "I think I will have some tea; I don't want anything else
+to-night." "Very well, my lady." Mrs. Button, maintaining a solemn
+countenance, would not go beyond this; and yet Mrs. Button looked
+like a woman who could have enjoyed a gossip, had the lady been a
+lady to her mind. Perhaps Mrs. Button did not like serving a lady as
+to whom such sad stories were told. Lady Ongar, as she thought of
+this, drew herself up unconsciously, and sent Mrs. Button away from
+her.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, after an early breakfast, Lady Ongar went out. She
+was determined that she would work hard; that she would understand
+the farm; that she would know the labourers; that she would assist
+the poor; that she would have a school; and, above all, that she
+would make all the privileges of ownership her own. Was not the price
+in her hand, and would she not use it? She felt that it was very good
+that something of the price had come to her thus in the shape of
+land, and beeves, and wide, heavy outside garniture. From them she
+would pluck an interest which mere money could not have given her.
+She was out early, therefore, that she might look round upon the
+things that were her own.</p>
+
+<p>And there came upon her a feeling that she would not empty this sweet
+cup at one draught, that she would dally somewhat with the rich
+banquet that was spread for her. She had many griefs to overcome,
+much sorrow to conquer, perhaps a long period of desolation to
+assuage, and she would not be prodigal of her resources. As she
+looked around her while she walked, almost furtively, lest some
+gardener as he spied her might guess her thoughts and tell how my
+lady was revelling in her pride of possession,&mdash;it appeared to her
+that those novelties in which she was to find her new interest were
+without end. There was not a tree there, not a shrub, not a turn in
+the walks, which should not become her friend. She did not go far
+from the house, not even down to the water. She was husbanding her
+resources. But yet she lost herself amidst the paths, and tried to
+find a joy in feeling that she had done so. It was all her own. It
+was the price of what she had done; and the price was even now being
+paid into her hand,&mdash;paid with current coin and of full weight.</p>
+
+<p>As she sat down alone to her breakfast, she declared to herself that
+this should be enough for her,&mdash;that it should satisfy her. She had
+made her bargain with her eyes open, and would not now ask for things
+which had not been stipulated in the contract. She was alone, and all
+the world was turning its back on her. The relatives of her late
+husband would, as a matter of course, be her enemies. Them she had
+never seen, and that they should speak evil of her seemed to be only
+natural. But her own relatives were removed from her by a gulf nearly
+equally wide. Of Brabazon cousins she had none nearer than the third
+or fourth degree of cousinship, and of them she had never taken heed,
+and expected no heed from them. Her set of friends would naturally
+have been the same as her sister's, and would have been made up of
+those she had known when she was one of Sir Hugh's family. But from
+Sir Hugh she was divided now as widely as from the Ongar people,
+and,&mdash;for any purposes of society,&mdash;from her sister also. Sir Hugh
+had allowed his wife to invite her to Clavering, but to this she
+would not submit after Sir Hugh's treatment to her on her return.
+Though she had suffered much, her spirit was unbroken. Sir Hugh was,
+in truth, responsible for her reception in England. Had he come
+forward like a brother, all might have been well. But it was too late
+now for Sir Hugh Clavering to remedy the evil he had done, and he
+should be made to understand that Lady Ongar would not become a
+suppliant to him for mercy. She was striving to think how "rich she
+was in horses, how rich in broidered garments and in gold," as she
+sat solitary over her breakfast; but her mind would run off to other
+things, cumbering itself with unnecessary miseries and useless
+indignation. Had she not her price in her hand?</p>
+
+<p>Would she see the steward that morning? No,&mdash;not that morning. Things
+outside could go on for a while in their course as heretofore. She
+feared to seem to take possession with pride, and then there was that
+conviction that it would be well to husband her resources. So she
+sent for Mrs. Button, and asked Mrs. Button to walk through the rooms
+with her. Mrs. Button came, but again declined to accept her lady's
+condescension. Every spot about the house, every room, closet, and
+wardrobe, she was ready to open with zeal; the furniture she was
+prepared to describe, if Lady Ongar would listen to her; but every
+word was spoken in a solemn voice, very far removed from gossiping.
+Only once was Mrs. Button moved to betray any emotion. "That, my
+lady, was my lord's mother's room, after my lord died,&mdash;my lord's
+father that was; may God bless her." Then Lady Ongar reflected that
+from her husband she had never heard a word either of his father or
+his mother. She wished that she could seat herself with that woman in
+some small upstairs room, and then ask question after question about
+the family. But she did not dare to make the attempt. She could not
+bring herself to explain to Mrs. Button that she had never known
+anything of the belongings of her own husband.</p>
+
+<p>When she had seen the upper part of the house, Mrs. Button offered to
+convoy her through the kitchens and servants' apartments, but she
+declined this for the present. She had done enough for the day. So
+she dismissed Mrs. Button, and took herself to the library. How often
+had she heard that books afforded the surest consolation to the
+desolate. She would take to reading; not on this special day, but as
+the resource for many days and months, and years to come. But this
+idea had faded and become faint, before she had left the gloomy,
+damp-feeling, chill room, in which some former Lord Ongar had stored
+the musty volumes which he had thought fit to purchase. The library
+gave her no ease, so she went out again among the lawns and shrubs.
+For some time to come her best resources must be those which she
+could find outside the house.</p>
+
+<p>Peering about, she made her way behind the stables, which were
+attached to the house, to a farmyard gate, through which the way led
+to the head-quarters of the live-stock. She did not go through, but
+she looked over the gate, telling herself that those barns and sheds,
+that wealth of straw-yard, those sleeping pigs and idle dreaming
+calves, were all her own. As she did so, her eye fell upon an old
+labourer, who was sitting close to her, on a felled tree, under the
+shelter of a paling, eating his dinner. A little girl, some six years
+old, who had brought him his meal tied up in a handkerchief, was
+crouching near his feet. They had both seen her before she had seen
+them, and when she noticed them, were staring at her with all their
+eyes. She and they were on the same side of the farmyard paling, and
+so she could reach them and speak to them without difficulty. There
+was apparently no other person near enough to listen, and it occurred
+to her that she might at any rate make a friend of this old man. His
+name, he said, was Enoch Gubby, and the girl was his grandchild. Her
+name was Patty Gubby. Then Patty got up and had her head patted by
+her ladyship and received sixpence. They neither of them, however,
+knew who her ladyship was, and, as far as Lady Ongar could ascertain
+without a question too direct to be asked, had never heard of her.
+Enoch Gubby said he worked for Mr. Giles, the steward,&mdash;that was for
+my lord, and as he was old and stiff with rheumatism he only got
+eight shillings a week. He had a daughter, the mother of Patty, who
+worked in the fields, and got six shillings a week. Everything about
+the poor Gubbys seemed to be very wretched and miserable. Sometimes
+he could hardly drag himself about, he was so bad with the
+rheumatics. Then she thought that she would make one person happy,
+and told him that his wages should be raised to ten shillings a week.
+No matter whether he earned it or not, or what Mr. Giles might say,
+he should have ten shillings a week. Enoch Gubby bowed, and rubbed
+his head, and stared, and was in truth thankful because of the
+sixpence in ready money; but he believed nothing about the ten
+shillings. He did not especially disbelieve, but simply felt
+confident that he understood nothing that was said to him. That
+kindness was intended, and that the sixpence was there, he did
+understand.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill12"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill12.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill12-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="Was not the price in her hand?" /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">Was not
+      the price in her hand?</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill12.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>But Enoch Gubby got his weekly ten shillings, though Lady Ongar
+hardly realized the pleasure that she had expected from the
+transaction. She sent that afternoon for Mr. Giles, the steward, and
+told him what she had done. Mr. Giles did not at all approve, and
+spoke his disapproval very plainly, though he garnished his rebuke
+with a great many "my lady's." The old man was a hanger-on about the
+place, and for years had received eight shillings a week, which he
+had not half earned. "Now he will have ten, that is all," said Lady
+Ongar. Mr. Giles acknowledged that if her ladyship pleased, Enoch
+Gubby must have the ten shillings, but declared that the business
+could not be carried on in that way. Everybody about the place would
+expect an addition, and those people who did earn what they received,
+would think themselves cruelly used in being worse treated than Enoch
+Gubby, who, according to Mr. Giles, was by no means the most worthy
+old man in the parish. And as for his daughter&mdash;oh! Mr. Giles could
+not trust himself to talk about the daughter to her ladyship. Before
+he left her, Lady Ongar was convinced that she had made a mistake.
+Not even from charity will pleasure come, if charity be taken up
+simply to appease remorse.</p>
+
+<p>The price was in her hand. For a fortnight the idea clung to her,
+that gradually she would realize the joys of possession; but there
+was no moment in which she could tell herself that the joy was hers.
+She was now mistress of the geography of the place. There was no more
+losing herself amidst the shrubberies, no thought of economizing her
+resources. Of Mr. Giles and his doings she still knew very little,
+but the desire of knowing much had faded. The ownership of the
+haystacks had become a thing tame to her, and the great cart-horses,
+as to every one of which she had intended to feel an interest, were
+matters of indifference to her. She observed that since her arrival a
+new name in new paint,&mdash;her own name,&mdash;was attached to the carts, and
+that the letters were big and glaring. She wished that this had not
+been done, or, at any rate, that the letters had been smaller. Then
+she began to think that it might be well for her to let the farm to a
+tenant; not that she might thus get more money, but because she felt
+that the farm would be a trouble. The apples had indeed quickly
+turned to ashes between her teeth!</p>
+
+<p>On the first Sunday that she was at Ongar Park she went to the parish
+church. She had resolved strongly that she would do this, and she did
+it; but when the moment for starting came, her courage almost failed
+her. The church was but a few yards from her own gate, and she walked
+there without any attendant. She had, however, sent word to the
+sexton to say that she would be there, and the old man was ready to
+show her into the family pew. She wore a thick veil, and was dressed,
+of course, in all the deep ceremonious woe of widowhood. As she
+walked up the centre of the church she thought of her dress, and told
+herself that all there would know how it had been between her and her
+husband. She was pretending to mourn for the man to whom she had sold
+herself; for the man who through happy chance had died so quickly,
+leaving her with the price in her hand! All of course knew that, and
+all thought that they knew, moreover, that she had been foully false
+to her bargain, and had not earned the price! That, also, she told
+herself. But she went through it, and walked out of the church among
+the village crowd with her head on high.</p>
+
+<p>Three days afterwards she wrote to the clergyman, asking him to call
+on her. She had come, she said, to live in the parish, and hoped to
+be able, with his assistance, to be of some use among the people. She
+would hardly know how to act without some counsel from him. The
+schools might be all that was excellent, but if there was anything
+required she hoped he would tell her. On the following morning the
+clergyman called, and, with many thanks for her generosity, listened
+to her plans, and accepted her subsidies. But he was a married man,
+and he said nothing of his wife, nor during the next week did his
+wife come to call on her. She was to be left desolate by all, because
+men had told lies of her!</p>
+
+<p>She had the price in her hands, but she felt herself tempted to do as
+Judas did,&mdash;to go out and hang herself.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c13"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XIII.</h3>
+<h4>A VISITOR CALLS AT ONGAR PARK.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill13-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="I" />t will be
+remembered that Harry Clavering, on returning one evening
+to his lodgings in Bloomsbury Square, had been much astonished at
+finding there the card of Count Pateroff, a man of whom he had only
+heard, up to that moment, as the friend of the late Lord Ongar. At
+first he had been very angry with Lady Ongar, thinking that she and
+this count were in some league together, some league of which he
+would greatly disapprove; but his anger had given place to a new
+interest when he learned direct from herself that she had not seen
+the count, and that she was simply anxious that he, as her friend,
+should have an interview with the man. He had then become very eager
+in the matter, offering to subject himself to any amount of
+inconvenience so that he might effect that which Lady Ongar asked of
+him. He was not, however, called upon to endure any special trouble
+or expense, as he heard nothing more from Count Pateroff till he had
+been back in London for two or three weeks.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Ongar's statement to him had been quite true. It had been even
+more than true; for when she had written she had not even heard
+directly from the count. She had learned by letter from another
+person that Count Pateroff was in London, and had then communicated
+the fact to her friend. This other person was a sister of the
+count's, who was now living in London, one Madame Gordeloup,&mdash;Sophie
+Gordeloup,&mdash;a lady whom Harry had found sitting in Lady Ongar's room
+when last he had seen her in Bolton Street. He had not then heard her
+name; nor was he aware then, or for some time subsequently, that
+Count Pateroff had any relative in London.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Ongar had been a fortnight in the country before she received
+Madame Gordeloup's letter. In that letter the sister had declared
+herself to be most anxious that her brother should see Lady Ongar.
+The letter had been in French, and had been very eloquent,&mdash;more
+eloquent in its cause than any letter with the same object could have
+been if written by an Englishwoman in English; and the eloquence was
+less offensive than it might, under all concurrent circumstances,
+have been had it reached Lady Ongar in English. The reader must not,
+however, suppose that the letter contained a word that was intended
+to support a lover's suit. It was very far indeed from that, and
+spoke of the count simply as a friend; but its eloquence went to show
+that nothing that had passed should be construed by Lady Ongar as
+offering any bar to a fair friendship. What the world said!&mdash;Bah! Did
+not she know,&mdash;she, Sophie,&mdash;and did not her friend know,&mdash;her friend
+Julie,&mdash;that the world was a great liar? Was it not even now telling
+wicked venomous lies about her friend Julie? Why mind what the world
+said, seeing that the world could not be brought to speak one word of
+truth? The world indeed! Bah!</p>
+
+<p>But Lady Ongar, though she was not as yet more than half as old as
+Madame Gordeloup, knew what she was about almost as well as that lady
+knew what Sophie Gordeloup was doing. Lady Ongar had known the
+count's sister in France and Italy, having seen much of her in one of
+those sudden intimacies to which English people are subject when
+abroad; and she had been glad to see Madame Gordeloup in
+London,&mdash;much more glad than she would have been had she been
+received there on her return by a crowd of loving native friends. But
+not on that account was she prepared to shape her conduct in
+accordance with her friend Sophie's advice, and especially not so
+when that advice had reference to Sophie's brother. She had,
+therefore, said very little in return to the lady's eloquence,
+answering the letter on that matter very vaguely; but, having a
+purpose of her own, had begged that Count Pateroff might be asked to
+call upon Harry Clavering. Count Pateroff did not feel himself to
+care very much about Harry Clavering, but wishing to do as he was
+bidden, did leave his card in Bloomsbury Square.</p>
+
+<p>And why was Lady Ongar anxious that the young man who was her friend
+should see the man who had been her husband's friend, and whose name
+had been mixed with her own in so grievous a manner? She had called
+Harry her friend, and it might be that she desired to give this
+friend every possible means of testing the truth of that story which
+she herself had told. The reader, perhaps, will hardly have believed
+in Lady Ongar's friendship;&mdash;will, perhaps, have believed neither the
+friendship nor the story. If so, the reader will have done her wrong,
+and will not have read her character aright. The woman was not
+heartless because she had once, in one great epoch of her life,
+betrayed her own heart; nor was she altogether false because she had
+once lied; nor altogether vile, because she had once taught herself
+that, for such an one as her, riches were a necessity. It might be
+that the punishment of her sin could meet with no remission in this
+world, but not on that account should it be presumed that there was
+no place for repentance left to her.</p>
+
+<p>As she walked alone through the shrubberies at Ongar Park she thought
+much of those other paths at Clavering, and of the walks in which she
+had not been alone; and she thought of that interview in the garden
+when she had explained to Harry,&mdash;as she had then thought so
+successfully,&mdash;that they two, each being poor, were not fit to love
+and marry each other. She had brooded over all that, too, during the
+long hours of her sad journey home to England. She was thinking of it
+still when she had met him, and had been so cold to him on the
+platform of the railway station, when she had sent him away angry
+because she had seemed to slight him. She had thought of it as she
+had sat in her London room, telling him the terrible tale of her
+married life, while her eyes were fixed on his and her head was
+resting on her hands. Even then, at that moment, she was asking
+herself whether he believed her story, or whether, within his breast,
+he was saying that she was vile and false. She knew that she had been
+false to him, and that he must have despised her when, with her easy
+philosophy, she had made the best of her own mercenary perfidy. He
+had called her a jilt to her face, and she had been able to receive
+the accusation with a smile. Would he now call her something worse,
+and with a louder voice, within his own bosom? And if she could
+convince him that to that accusation she was not fairly subject,
+might the old thing come back again? Would he walk with her again,
+and look into her eyes as though he only wanted her commands to show
+himself ready to be her slave? She was a widow, and had seen many
+things, but even now she had not reached her six-and-twentieth year.</p>
+
+<p>The apples at her rich country-seat had quickly become ashes between
+her teeth, but something of the juice of the fruit might yet reach
+her palate if he would come and sit with her at the table. As she
+complained to herself of the coldness of the world, she thought that
+she would not care how cold might be all the world if there might be
+but one whom she could love, and who would love her. And him she had
+loved. To him, in old days,&mdash;in days which now seemed to her to be
+very old,&mdash;she had made confession of her love. Old as were those
+days, it could not be but he should still remember them. She had
+loved him, and him only. To none other had she ever pretended love.
+From none other had love been offered to her. Between her and that
+wretched being to whom she had sold herself, who had been half dead
+before she had seen him, there had been no pretence of love. But
+Harry Clavering she had loved. Harry Clavering was a man, with all
+those qualities which she valued, and also with those foibles which
+saved him from being too perfect for so slight a creature as herself.
+Harry had been offended to the quick, and had called her a jilt; but
+yet it might be possible that he would return to her.</p>
+
+<p>It should not be supposed that since her return to England she had
+had one settled, definite object before her eyes with regard to this
+renewal of her love. There had been times in which she had thought
+that she would go on with the life which she had prepared for
+herself, and that she would make herself contented, if not happy,
+with the price which had been paid to her. And there were other
+times, in which her spirits sank low within her, and she told herself
+that no contentment was any longer possible to her. She looked at
+herself in the glass, and found herself to be old and haggard. Harry,
+she said, was the last man in the world to sell himself for wealth,
+when there was no love remaining. Harry would never do as she had
+done with herself! Not for all the wealth that woman ever
+inherited,&mdash;so she told herself,&mdash;would he link himself to one who
+had made herself vile and tainted among women! In this, I think, she
+did him no more than justice, though it may be that in some other
+matters she rated his character too highly. Of Florence Burton she
+had as yet heard nothing, though had she heard of her, it may well be
+that she would not on that account have desisted. Such being her
+thoughts and her hopes, she had written to Harry, begging him to see
+this man who had followed her,&mdash;she knew not why,&mdash;from Italy; and
+had told the sister simply that she could not do as she was asked,
+because she was away from London, alone in a country house.</p>
+
+<p>And quite alone she was sitting one morning, counting up her misery,
+feeling that the apples were, in truth, ashes, when a servant came to
+her, telling her that there was a gentleman in the hall desirous of
+seeing her. The man had the visitor's card in his hand, but before
+she could read the name, the blood had mounted into her face as she
+told herself that it was Harry Clavering. There was joy for a moment
+at her heart; but she must not show it,&mdash;not as yet. She had been but
+four months a widow, and he should not have come to her in the
+country. She must see him and in some way make him understand
+this,&mdash;but she would be very gentle with him. Then her eye fell upon
+the card, and she saw, with grievous disappointment, that it bore the
+name of Count Pateroff. No;&mdash;she was not going to be caught in that
+way. Let the result be what it might, she would not let Sophie
+Gordeloup, or Sophie's brother, get the better of her by such a ruse
+as that! "Tell the gentleman, with my compliments," she said, as she
+handed back the card, "that I regret it greatly, but I can see no one
+now." Then the servant went away, and she sat wondering whether the
+count would be able to make his way into her presence. She felt
+rather than knew that she had some reason to fear him. All that had
+been told of him and of her had been false. No accusation brought
+against her had contained one spark of truth. But there had been
+things between Lord Ongar and this man which she would not care to
+have told openly in England. And though, in his conduct to her, he
+had been customarily courteous, and on one occasion had been
+generous, still she feared him. She would much rather that he should
+have remained in Italy. And though, when all alone in Bolton Street,
+she had in her desolation welcomed his sister Sophie, she would have
+preferred that Sophie should not have come to her, claiming to renew
+their friendship. But with the count she would hold no communion now,
+even though he should find his way into the room.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes passed before the servant returned, and then he brought
+a note with him. As the door opened Lady Ongar rose, ready to leave
+the room by another passage; but she took the note and read it. It
+was as follows:&mdash;"I cannot understand why you should refuse to see
+me, and I feel aggrieved. My present purpose is to say a few words to
+you on private matters connected with papers that belonged to Lord
+Ongar. I still hope that you will admit me.&mdash;P." Having read these
+words while standing, she made an effort to think what might be the
+best course for her to follow. As for Lord Ongar's papers, she did
+not believe in the plea. Lord Ongar could have had no papers
+interesting to her in such a manner as to make her desirous of seeing
+this man or of hearing of them in private. Lord Ongar, though she had
+nursed him to the hour of his death, earning her price, had been her
+bitterest enemy; and though there had been something about this count
+that she had respected, she had known him to be a man of intrigue and
+afraid of no falsehoods in his intrigues,&mdash;a dangerous man, who might
+perhaps now and again do a generous thing, but one who would expect
+payment for his generosity. Besides, had he not been named openly as
+her lover? She wrote to him, therefore, as follows:&mdash;"Lady Ongar
+presents her compliments to Count Pateroff, and finds it to be out of
+her power to see him at present." This answer the visitor took and
+walked away from the front door without showing any disgust to the
+servant, either by his demeanour or in his countenance. On that
+evening she received from him a long letter, written at the
+neighbouring inn, expostulating with her as to her conduct towards
+him, and saying in the last line, that it was "impossible now that
+they should be strangers to each other." "Impossible that we should
+be strangers," she said almost out loud. "Why impossible? I know no
+such impossibility." After that she carefully burned both the letter
+and the note.</p>
+
+<p>She remained at Ongar Park something over six weeks, and then, about
+the beginning of May, she went back to London. No one had been to see
+her, except Mr. Sturm, the clergyman of the parish; and he, though
+something almost approaching to an intimacy had sprung up between
+them, had never yet spoken to her of his wife. She was not quite sure
+whether her rank might not deter him,&mdash;whether under such
+circumstances as those now in question, the ordinary social rules
+were not ordinarily broken,&mdash;whether a countess should not call on a
+clergyman's wife first, although the countess might be the stranger;
+but she did not dare to do as she would have done, had no blight
+attached itself to her name. She gave, therefore, no hint; she said
+no word of Mrs. Sturm, though her heart was longing for a kind word
+from some woman's mouth. But she allowed herself to feel no anger
+against the husband, and went through her parish work, thanking him
+for his assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Of Mr. Giles she had seen very little, and since her misfortune with
+Enoch Gubby, she had made no further attempt to interfere with the
+wages of the persons employed. Into the houses of some of the poor
+she had made her way, but she fancied that they were not glad to see
+her. They might, perhaps, have all heard of her reputation, and
+Gubby's daughter may have congratulated herself that there was
+another in the parish as bad as herself, or perhaps, happily, worse.
+The owner of all the wealth around strove to make Mrs. Button become
+a messenger of charity between herself and some of the poor; but Mrs.
+Button altogether declined the employment, although, as her mistress
+had ascertained, she herself performed her own little missions of
+charity with zeal. Before the fortnight was over, Lady Ongar was sick
+of her house and her park, utterly disregardful of her horses and
+oxen, and unmindful even of the pleasant stream which in these spring
+days rippled softly at the bottom of her gardens.</p>
+
+<p>She had undertaken to be back in London early in May, by appointment
+with her lawyer, and had unfortunately communicated the fact to
+Madame Gordeloup. Four or five days before she was due in Bolton
+Street, her mindful Sophie, with unerring memory, wrote to her,
+declaring her readiness to do all and anything that the most diligent
+friendship could prompt. Should she meet her dear Julie at the
+station in London? Should she bring any special carriage? Should she
+order any special dinner in Bolton Street? She herself would of
+course come to Bolton Street, if not allowed to be present at the
+station. It was still chilly in the evenings, and she would have
+fires lit. Might she suggest a roast fowl and some bread sauce, and
+perhaps a sweetbread,&mdash;and just one glass of champagne? And might she
+share the banquet? There was not a word in the note about the too
+obtrusive brother, either as to the offence committed by him, or the
+offence felt by him.</p>
+
+<p>The little Franco-Polish woman was there in Bolton Street, of
+course,&mdash;for Lady Ongar had not dared to refuse her. A little, dry,
+bright woman she was, with quick eyes, and thin lips, and small nose,
+and mean forehead, and scanty hair drawn back quite tightly from her
+face and head; very dry, but still almost pretty with her quickness
+and her brightness. She was fifty, was Sophie Gordeloup, but she had
+so managed her years that she was as active on her limbs as most
+women are at twenty-five. And the chicken, and the bread-sauce, and
+the sweetbread, and the champagne were there, all very good of their
+kind; for Sophie Gordeloup liked such things to be good, and knew how
+to indulge her own appetite, and to coax that of another person.</p>
+
+<p>Some little satisfaction Lady Ongar received from the fact that she
+was not alone; but the satisfaction was not satisfactory. When Sophie
+had left her at ten o'clock, running off by herself to her lodgings
+in Mount Street, Lady Ongar, after but one moment's thought, sat down
+and wrote a note to Harry Clavering.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">Dear
+Harry</span>,&mdash;I am back in town. Pray come and see me to-morrow
+evening. Yours ever,</p>
+
+<p class="ind15">J. O.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p><a id="c14"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XIV.</h3>
+<h4>COUNT PATEROFF AND HIS SISTER.</h4>
+
+
+<p>After an interval of some weeks, during which Harry had been down at
+Clavering and had returned again to his work at the Adelphi, Count
+Pateroff called again in Bloomsbury Square;&mdash;but Harry was at Mr.
+Beilby's office. Harry at once returned the count's visit at the
+address given in Mount Street. Madame was at home, said the
+servant-girl, from which Harry was led to suppose that the count was
+a married man; but Harry felt that he had no right to intrude upon
+madame, so he simply left his card. Wishing, however, really to have
+this interview, and having been lately elected at a club of which he
+was rather proud, he wrote to the count asking him to dine with him
+at the Beaufort. He explained that there was a strangers'
+room,&mdash;which Pateroff knew very well, having often dined at the
+Beaufort,&mdash;and said something as to a private little dinner for two,
+thereby apologizing for proposing to the count to dine without other
+guests. Pateroff accepted the invitation, and Harry, never having
+done such a thing before, ordered his dinner with much nervousness.</p>
+
+<p>The count was punctual, and the two men introduced themselves. Harry
+had expected to see a handsome foreigner, with black hair, polished
+whiskers, and probably a hook nose,&mdash;forty years of age or
+thereabouts, but so got up as to look not much more than thirty. But
+his guest was by no means a man of that stamp. Excepting that the
+count's age was altogether uncertain, no correctness of guess on that
+matter being possible by means of his appearance, Harry's
+preconceived notion was wrong in every point. He was a fair man, with
+a broad fair face, and very light blue eyes; his forehead was low,
+but broad; he wore no whiskers, but bore on his lip a heavy moustache
+which was not grey, but perfectly white&mdash;white it was with years of
+course, but yet it gave no sign of age to his face. He was well made,
+active, and somewhat broad in the shoulders, though rather below the
+middle height. But for a certain ease of manner which he possessed,
+accompanied by something of restlessness in his eye, any one would
+have taken him for an Englishman. And his speech hardly betrayed that
+he was not English. Harry, knowing that he was a foreigner, noticed
+now and again some little acquired distinctness of speech which is
+hardly natural to a native; but otherwise there was nothing in his
+tongue to betray him.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry that you should have had so much trouble," he said,
+shaking hands with Harry. Clavering declared that he had incurred no
+trouble, and declared also that he would be only too happy to have
+taken any trouble in obeying a behest from his friend Lady Ongar. Had
+he been a Pole as was the count, he would not have forgotten to add
+that he would have been equally willing to exert himself with the
+view of making the count's acquaintance; but being simply a young
+Englishman, he was much too awkward for any such courtesy as that.
+The count observed the omission, smiled, and bowed. Then he spoke of
+the weather, and said that London was a magnificent city. Oh, yes, he
+knew London well,&mdash;had known it these twenty years;&mdash;had been for
+fifteen years a member of the Travellers';&mdash;he liked everything
+English, except hunting. English hunting he had found to be dull
+work. But he liked shooting for an hour or two. He could not rival,
+he said, the intense energy of an Englishman, who would work all day
+with his guns harder than ploughmen with their ploughs. Englishmen
+sported, he said, as though more than their bread,&mdash;as though their
+honour, their wives, their souls, depended on it. It was very fine!
+He often wished that he was an Englishman. Then he shrugged his
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Harry was very anxious to commence a conversation about Lady Ongar,
+but he did not know how at first to introduce her name. Count
+Pateroff had come to him at Lady Ongar's request, and therefore, as
+he thought, the count should have been the first to mention her. But
+the count seemed to be enjoying his dinner without any thought either
+of Lady Ongar or of her late husband. At this time he had been down
+to Ongar Park, on that mission which had been, as we know, futile;
+but he said no word of that to Harry. He seemed to enjoy his dinner
+thoroughly, and made himself very agreeable. When the wine was
+discussed he told Harry that a certain vintage of Moselle was very
+famous at the Beaufort. Harry ordered the wine of course, and was
+delighted to give his guest the best of everything; but he was a
+little annoyed at finding that the stranger knew his club better than
+he knew it himself. Slowly the count ate his dinner, enjoying every
+morsel that he took with that thoughtful, conscious pleasure which
+young men never attain in eating and drinking, and which men as they
+grow older so often forget to acquire. But the count never forgot any
+of his own capacities for pleasure, and in all things made the most
+of his own resources. To be rich is not to have one or ten thousand a
+year, but to be able to get out of that one or ten thousand all that
+every pound, and every shilling, and every penny will give you. After
+this fashion the count was a rich man.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't sit after dinner here, I suppose," said the count, when he
+had completed an elaborate washing of his mouth and moustache. "I
+like this club because we who are strangers have so charming a room
+for our smoking. It is the best club in London for men who do not
+belong to it."</p>
+
+<p>It occurred to Harry that in the smoking-room there could be no
+privacy. Three or four men had already spoken to the count, showing
+that he was well known, giving notice, as it were, that Pateroff
+would become a public man when once he was placed in a public circle.
+To have given a dinner to the count, and to have spoken no word to
+him about Lady Ongar, would be by no means satisfactory to Harry's
+feelings, though, as it appeared, it might be sufficiently
+satisfactory to the guest. Harry therefore suggested one bottle of
+claret. The count agreed, expressing an opinion that the 51 Lafitte
+was unexceptional. The 51 Lafitte was ordered, and Harry, as he
+filled his glass, considered the way in which his subject should be
+introduced.</p>
+
+<p>"You knew Lord Ongar, I think, abroad?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Ongar,&mdash;abroad! Oh, yes, very well; and for many years here in
+London; and at Vienna; and very early in life at St. Petersburg. I
+knew Lord Ongar first in Russia when he was attached to the embassy
+as Frederic Courton. His father, Lord Courton, was then alive, as was
+also his grandfather. He was a nice, good-looking lad then."</p>
+
+<p>"As regards his being nice, he seems to have changed a good deal
+before he died." This the count noticed by simply shrugging his
+shoulders and smiling as he sipped his wine. "By all that I can hear
+he became a horrid brute when he married," said Harry, energetically.</p>
+
+<p>"He was not pleasant when he was ill at Florence," said the count.</p>
+
+<p>"She must have had a terrible time with him," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>The count put up his hands, again shrugged his shoulders, and then
+shook his head. "She knew he was no longer an Adonis when he married
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"An Adonis! No; she did not expect an Adonis; but she thought he
+would have something of the honour and feelings of a man."</p>
+
+<p>"She found it uncomfortable, no doubt. He did too much of this, you
+know," said the count, raising his glass to his lips; "and he didn't
+do it with 51 Lafitte. That was Ongar's fault. All the world knew it
+for the last ten years. No one knew it better than Hugh Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;" said Harry, and then he stopped. He hardly knew what it was
+that he wished to learn from the man, though he certainly did wish to
+learn something. He had thought that the count would himself have
+talked about Lady Ongar and those Florentine days, but this he did
+not seem disposed to do. "Shall we have our cigars now?" said Count
+Pateroff.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, if you don't mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, certainly. There is no hurry."</p>
+
+<p>"You will take no more wine?"</p>
+
+<p>"No more wine. I take my wine at dinner, as you saw."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to ask you one special question,&mdash;about Lady Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"I will say anything in her favour that you please. I am always ready
+to say anything in the favour of any lady, and, if needs be, to swear
+it. But anything against any lady nobody ever heard me say."</p>
+
+<p>Harry was sharp enough to perceive that any assertion made under such
+a stipulation was worse than nothing. It was as when a man, in
+denying the truth of a statement, does so with an assurance that on
+that subject he should consider himself justified in telling any
+number of lies. "I did not write the book,&mdash;but you have no right to
+ask the question; and I should say that I had not, even if I had."
+Pateroff was speaking of Lady Ongar in this way, and Harry hated him
+for doing so.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want you to say any good of her," said he, "or any evil."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shall say no evil of her."</p>
+
+<p>"But I think you know that she has been most cruelly treated."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there is about seven&mdash;thousand&mdash;pounds a year, I think!
+Seven&mdash;thousand&mdash;a year! Not francs, but pounds! We poor foreigners
+lose ourselves in amazement when we hear about your English fortunes.
+Seven thousand pounds a year for a lady all alone, and a beau-tiful
+house! A house so beautiful, they tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>"What has that to do with it?" said Harry; whereupon the count again
+shrugged his shoulders. "What has that to do with it? Because the man
+was rich he was not justified in ill-treating his wife. Did he not
+bring false accusations against her, in order that he might rob her
+after his death of all that of which you think so much? Did he not
+bear false witness against her, to his own dishonour?"</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill14"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill14.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill14-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt='"Did he not bear false witness against her?"' /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">"Did he
+      not bear false witness against her?"</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill14.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"She has got the money, I think,&mdash;and the beautiful house."</p>
+
+<p>"But her name has been covered with lies."</p>
+
+<p>"What can I do? Why do you ask me? I know nothing. Look here, Mr.
+Clavering, if you want to make any inquiry you had better go to my
+sister. I don't see what good it will do, but she will talk to you by
+the hour together, if you wish it. Let us smoke."</p>
+
+<p>"Your sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my sister. Madame Gordeloup is her name. Has not Lady Ongar
+mentioned my sister? They are inseparables. My sister lives in Mount
+Street."</p>
+
+<p>"With you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not with me; I do not live in Mount Street. I have my address
+sometimes at her house."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Gordeloup?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Madame Gordeloup. She is Lady Ongar's friend. She will talk to
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you introduce me, Count Pateroff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; it is not necessary. You can go to Mount Street, and she
+will be delighted. There is the card. And now we will smoke." Harry
+felt that he could not, with good-breeding, detain the count any
+longer, and, therefore, rising from his chair, led the way into the
+smoking-room. When there, the man of the world separated himself from
+his young friend, of whose enthusiasm he had perhaps had enough, and
+was soon engaged in conversation with sundry other men of his own
+standing. Harry soon perceived that his guest had no further need of
+his countenance, and went home to Bloomsbury Square by no means
+satisfied with his new acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>On the next day he dined in Onslow Crescent with the Burtons, and
+when there he said nothing about Lady Ongar or Count Pateroff. He was
+not aware that he had any special reason for being silent on the
+subject, but he made up his mind that the Burtons were people so far
+removed in their sphere of life from Lady Ongar, that the subject
+would not be suitable in Onslow Crescent. It was his lot in life to
+be concerned with people of the two classes. He did not at all mean
+to say,&mdash;even to himself,&mdash;that he liked the Ongar class the better;
+but still, as such was his lot, he must take it as it came, and
+entertain both subjects of interest, without any commingling of them
+one with another. Of Lady Ongar and his early love he had spoken to
+Florence at some length, but he did not find it necessary in his
+letters to tell her anything of Count Pateroff and his dinner at the
+Beaufort. Nor did he mention the dinner to his dear friend Cecilia.
+On this occasion he made himself very happy in Onslow Crescent,
+playing with the children, chatting with his friend, and enduring,
+with a good grace, Theodore Burton's sarcasm, when that ever-studious
+gentleman told him that he was only fit to go about tied to a woman's
+apron-string.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day, about five o'clock, he called in Mount Street.
+He had doubted much as to this, thinking that at any rate he ought,
+in the first place, to write and ask permission. But at last he
+resolved that he would take the count at his word, and presenting
+himself at the door, he sent up his name. Madame Gordeloup was at
+home, and in a few moments he found himself in the room in which the
+lady was sitting, and recognized her whom he had seen with Lady Ongar
+in Bolton Street. She got up at once, having glanced at the name upon
+the card, and seemed to know all about him. She shook hands with him
+cordially, almost squeezing his hand, and bade him sit down near her
+on the sofa. "She was so glad to see him, for her dear Julie's sake.
+Julie, as of course he knew, was at 'Ongere' Park. Oh! so
+happy,"&mdash;which, by the by, he did not know,&mdash;"and would be up in the
+course of next week. So many things to do, of course, Mr. Clavering.
+The house, and the servants, and the park, and the beautiful things
+of a large country establishment! But it was delightful, and Julie
+was quite happy!"</p>
+
+<p>No people could be more unlike to each other than this brother and
+his sister. No human being could have taken Madame Gordeloup for an
+Englishwoman, though it might be difficult to judge, either from her
+language or her appearance, of the nationality to which she belonged.
+She spoke English with great fluency, but every word uttered declared
+her not to be English. And when she was most fluent she was most
+incorrect in her language. She was small, eager, and quick, and
+appeared quite as anxious to talk as her brother had been to hold his
+tongue. She lived in a small room on the first floor of a small
+house; and it seemed to Harry that she lived alone. But he had not
+been long there before she had told him all her history, and
+explained to him most of her circumstances. That she kept back
+something is probable; but how many are there who can afford to tell
+everything?</p>
+
+<p>Her husband was still living, but he was at St. Petersburg. He was a
+Frenchman by family, but had been born in Russia. He had been
+attached to the Russian embassy in London, but was now attached to
+diplomacy in general in Russia. She did not join him because she
+loved England,&mdash;oh, so much! And, perhaps, her husband might come
+back again some day. She did not say that she had not seen him for
+ten years, and was not quite sure whether he was dead or alive; but
+had she made a clean breast in all things, she might have done so.
+She said that she was a good deal still at the Russian embassy; but
+she did not say that she herself was a paid spy. Nor do I say so now,
+positively; but that was the character given to her by many who knew
+her. She called her brother Edouard, as though Harry had known the
+count all his life; and always spoke of Lady Ongar as Julie. She
+uttered one or two little hints which seemed to imply that she knew
+everything that had passed between "Julie" and Harry Clavering in
+early days; and never mentioned Lord Ongar without some term of
+violent abuse.</p>
+
+<p>"Horrid wretch!" she said, pausing over all the <i>r's</i> in the name she
+had called him. "It began, you know, from the very first. Of course
+he had been a fool. An old rou&eacute; is always a fool to marry. What does
+he get, you know, for his money? A pretty face. He's tired of that as
+soon as it's his own. Is it not so, Mr. Clavering? But other people
+ain't tired of it, and then he becomes jealous. But Lord Ongar was
+not jealous. He was not man enough to be jealous. Hor-r-rid
+wr-retch!" She then went on telling many things which, as he
+listened, almost made Harry Clavering's hair stand on end, and which
+must not be repeated here. She herself had met her brother in Paris,
+and had been with him when they encountered the Ongars in that
+capital. According to her showing, they had, all of them, been
+together nearly from that time to the day of Lord Ongar's death. But
+Harry soon learned to feel that he could not believe all that the
+little lady told him.</p>
+
+<p>"Edouard was always with him. Poor Edouard!" she said. "There was
+some money matter between them about &eacute;cart&eacute;. When that wr-retch got
+to be so bad, he did not like parting with his money,&mdash;not even when
+he had lost it! And Julie had been so good always! Julie and Edouard
+had done everything for the nasty wr-retch." Harry did not at all
+like this mingling of the name of Julie and Edouard, though it did
+not for a moment fill his mind with any suspicion as to Lady Ongar.
+It made him feel, however, that this woman was dangerous, and that
+her tongue might be very mischievous if she talked to others as she
+did to him. As he looked at her,&mdash;and being now in her own room she
+was not dressed with scrupulous care,&mdash;and as he listened to her, he
+could not conceive what Lady Ongar had seen in her that she should
+have made a friend of her. Her brother, the count, was undoubtedly a
+gentleman in his manners and way of life, but he did not know by what
+name to call this woman, who called Lady Ongar Julie. She was
+altogether unlike any ladies whom he had known.</p>
+
+<p>"You know that Julie will be in town next week?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I did not know when she was to return."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; she has business with those people in South Audley Street
+on Thursday. Poor dear! Those lawyers are so harassing! But when
+people have seven&mdash;thousand&mdash;pounds a year, they must put up with
+lawyers." As she pronounced those talismanic words, which to her were
+almost celestial, Harry perceived for the first time that there was
+some sort of resemblance between her and the count. He could see that
+they were brother and sister. "I shall go to her directly she comes,
+and of course I will tell her how good you have been to come to me.
+And Edouard has been dining with you? How good of you. He told me how
+charming you are,"&mdash;Harry was quite sure then that she was
+fibbing,&mdash;"and that it was so pleasant! Edouard is very much attached
+to Julie; very much. Though, of course, all that was mere nonsense;
+just lies told by that wicked lord. Bah! what did he know?" Harry by
+this time was beginning to wish that he had never found his way to
+Mount Street.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course they were lies," he said roughly.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, mon cher. Those things always are lies, and so wicked!
+What good do they do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lies never do any good," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>To so wide a proposition as this madame was not prepared to give an
+unconditional assent; she therefore shrugged her shoulders and once
+again looked like her brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" she said. "Julie is a happy woman now. Seven&mdash;thousand&mdash;pounds
+a year! One does not know how to believe it; does one?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never heard the amount of her income," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all that," said the Franco-Pole, energetically, "every franc
+of it, besides the house! I know it. She told me herself. Yes. What
+woman would risk that, you know; and his life, you may say, as good
+as gone? Of course they were lies."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you understand her, Madame Gordeloup."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I know her, so well. And love her&mdash;oh, Mr. Clavering, I
+love her so dearly! Is she not charming? So beautiful you know, and
+grand. Such a will, too! That is what I like in a woman. Such a
+courage! She never flinched in those horrid days, never. And when he
+called her,&mdash;you know what,&mdash;she only looked at him, just looked at
+him, miserable object. Oh, it was beautiful!" And Madame Gordeloup,
+rising in her energy from her seat for the purpose, strove to throw
+upon Harry such another glance as the injured, insulted wife had
+thrown upon her foul-tongued, dying lord.</p>
+
+<p>"She will marry," said Madame Gordeloup, changing her tone with a
+suddenness that made Harry start; "yes, she will marry of course.
+Your English widows always marry if they have money. They are wrong,
+and she will be wrong; but she will marry."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know how that may be," said Harry, looking foolish.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I know she will marry, Mr. Clavering; I told Edouard so
+yesterday. He merely smiled. It would hardly do for him, she has so
+much will. Edouard has a will also."</p>
+
+<p>"All men have, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes; but there is a difference. A sum of money down, if a man is
+to marry, is better than a widow's dower. If she dies, you know, he
+looks so foolish. And she is grand and will want to spend everything.
+Is she much older than you, Mr. Clavering? Of course I know Julie's
+age, though perhaps you do not. What will you give me to tell?" And
+the woman leered at him with a smile which made Harry think that she
+was almost more than mortal. He found himself quite unable to cope
+with her in conversation, and soon after this got up to take his
+leave. "You will come again," she said. "Do. I like you so much. And
+when Julie is in town, we shall be able to see her together, and I
+will be your friend. Believe me."</p>
+
+<p>Harry was very far from believing her, and did not in the least
+require her friendship. Her friendship indeed! How could any decent
+English man or woman wish for the friendship of such a creature as
+that? It was thus that he thought of her as he walked away from Mount
+Street, making heavy accusations, within his own breast, against Lady
+Ongar as he did so. Julia! He repeated the name over to himself a
+dozen times, thinking that the flavour of it was lost since it had
+been contaminated so often by that vile tongue. But what concern was
+it of his? Let her be Julia to whom she would, she could never be
+Julia again to him. But she was his friend&mdash;Lady Ongar, and he told
+himself plainly that his friend had been wrong in having permitted
+herself to hold any intimacy with such a woman as that. No doubt Lady
+Ongar had been subjected to very trying troubles in the last months
+of her husband's life, but no circumstances could justify her, if she
+continued to endorse the false cordiality of that horribly vulgar and
+evil-minded little woman. As regarded the grave charges brought
+against Lady Ongar, Harry still gave no credit to them, still looked
+upon them as calumnies, in spite of the damning advocacy of Sophie
+and her brother; but he felt that she must have dabbled in very dirty
+water to have returned to England with such claimants on her
+friendship as these. He had not much admired the count, but the
+count's sister had been odious to him. "I will be your friend.
+Believe me." Harry Clavering stamped upon the pavement as he thought
+of the little Pole's offer to him. She be his friend! No,
+indeed;&mdash;not if there were no other friend for him in all London.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie, too, had her thoughts about him. Sophie was very anxious in
+this matter, and was resolved to stick as close to her Julie as
+possible. "I will be his friend or his enemy;&mdash;let him choose." That
+had been Sophie's reflection on the matter when she was left alone.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c15"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XV.</h3>
+<h4>AN EVENING IN BOLTON STREET.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Ten days after his visit in Mount Street, Harry received the note
+which Lady Ongar had written to him on the night of her arrival in
+London. It was brought to Mr. Beilby's office by her own footman
+early in the morning; but Harry was there at the time, and was thus
+able to answer it, telling Lady Ongar that he would come as she had
+desired. She had commenced her letter "Dear Harry," and he well
+remembered that when she had before written she had called him "Dear
+Mr. Clavering." And though the note contained only half-a-dozen
+ordinary words, it seemed to him to be affectionate, and almost
+loving. Had she not been eager to see him, she would hardly thus have
+written to him on the very instant of her return. "Dear Lady Ongar,"
+he wrote, "I shall dine at my club, and be with you about eight.
+Yours always, H. C." After that he could hardly bring himself to work
+satisfactorily during the whole day. Since his interview with the
+Franco-Polish lady he had thought a good deal about himself, and had
+resolved to work harder and to love Florence Burton more devotedly
+than ever. The nasty little woman had said certain words to him which
+had caused him to look into his own breast and to tell himself that
+this was necessary. As the love was easier than the work, he began
+his new tasks on the following morning by writing a long and very
+affectionate letter to his own Flo, who was still staying at
+Clavering rectory;&mdash;a letter so long and so affectionate that
+Florence, in her ecstasy of delight, made Fanny read it, and confess
+that, as a love-letter, it was perfect.</p>
+
+<p>"It's great nonsense, all the same," said Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't nonsense at all," said Florence; "and if it were, it would
+not signify. Is it true? That's the question."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure it's true," said Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"And so am I," said Florence. "I don't want any one to tell me that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why did you ask, you simpleton?" Florence indeed was having a
+happy time of it at Clavering rectory. When Fanny called her a
+simpleton, she threw her arms round Fanny's neck and kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>And Harry kept his resolve about the work too, investigating plans
+with a resolution to understand them which was almost successful.
+During those days he would remain at his office till past four
+o'clock, and would then walk away with Theodore Burton, dining
+sometimes in Onslow Crescent, and going there sometimes in the
+evening after dinner. And when there he would sit and read; and once
+when Cecilia essayed to talk to him, he told her to keep her
+apron-strings to herself. Then Theodore laughed and apologized, and
+Cecilia said that too much work made Jack a dull boy; and then
+Theodore laughed again, stretching out his legs and arms as he rested
+a moment from his own study, and declared that, under those
+circumstances, Harry never would be dull. And Harry, on those
+evenings, would be taken upstairs to see the bairns in their cots;
+and as he stood with their mother looking down upon the children,
+pretty words would be said about Florence and his future life; and
+all was going merry as a marriage bell. But on that morning, when the
+note had come from Lady Ongar, Harry could work no more to his
+satisfaction. He scrawled upon his blotting-paper, and made no
+progress whatsoever towards the understanding of anything. It was the
+day on which, in due course, he would write to Florence; and he did
+write to her. But Florence did not show this letter to Fanny,
+claiming for it any meed of godlike perfection. It was a stupid,
+short letter, in which he declared that he was very busy, and that
+his head ached. In a postscript he told her that he was going to see
+Lady Ongar that evening. This he communicated to her under an idea
+that by doing so he made everything right. And I think that the
+telling of it did relieve his conscience.</p>
+
+<p>He left the office soon after three, having brought himself to
+believe in the headache, and sauntered down to his club. He found men
+playing whist there, and, as whist might be good for his head, he
+joined them. They won his money, and scolded him for playing badly
+till he was angry, and then he went out for a walk by himself. As he
+went along Piccadilly, he saw Sophie Gordeloup coming towards him,
+trotting along, with her dress held well up over her ankles, eager,
+quick, and, as he said to himself, clearly intent upon some mischief.
+He endeavoured to avoid her by turning up the Burlington Arcade, but
+she was too quick for him, and was walking up the arcade by his side
+before he had been able to make up his mind as to the best mode of
+ridding himself of such a companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mr. Clavering, I am so glad to see you. I was with Julie last
+night. She was fagged, very much fagged; the journey, you know, and
+the business. But yet so handsome! And we talked of you. Yes, Mr.
+Clavering; and I told her how good you had been in coming to me. She
+said you were always good; yes, she did. When shall you see her?"</p>
+
+<p>Harry Clavering was a bad hand at fibbing, and a bad hand also at
+leaving a question unanswered. When questioned in this way he did not
+know what to do but to answer the truth. He would much rather not
+have said that he was going to Bolton Street that evening, but he
+could find no alternative. "I believe I shall see her this evening,"
+he said, simply venturing to mitigate the evil of making the
+communication by rendering it falsely doubtful. There are men who fib
+with so bad a grace and with so little tact that they might as well
+not fib at all. They not only never arrive at success, but never even
+venture to expect it.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, this evening. Let me see. I don't think I can be there to-night;
+Madame Berenstoff receives at the embassy."</p>
+
+<p>"Good afternoon," said Harry, turning into Truefit's, the
+hairdresser's, shop.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, very well," said Sophie to herself; "just so. It will be better,
+much better. He is simply one lout, and why should he have it all? My
+God, what fools, what louts, are these Englishmen!" Now having read
+Sophie's thoughts so far, we will leave her to walk up the remainder
+of the arcade by herself.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know that Harry's visit to Truefit's establishment had been
+in any degree caused by his engagement for the evening. I fancy that
+he had simply taken to ground at the first hole, as does a hunted
+fox. But now that he was there he had his head put in order, and
+thought that he looked the better for the operation. He then went
+back to his club, and when he sauntered into the card-room one old
+gentleman looked askance at him, as though inquiring angrily whether
+he had come there to make fresh misery. "Thank you; no,&mdash;I won't play
+again," said Harry. Then the old gentleman was appeased, and offered
+him a pinch of snuff. "Have you seen the new book about whist?" said
+the old gentleman. "It is very useful,&mdash;very useful. I'll send you a
+copy if you will allow me." Then Harry left the room, and went down
+to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>It was a little past eight when he knocked at Lady Ongar's door. I
+fear he had calculated that if he were punctual to the moment, she
+would think that he thought the matter to be important. It was
+important to him, and he was willing that she should know that it was
+so. But there are degrees in everything, and therefore he was twenty
+minutes late. He was not the first man who has weighed the diplomatic
+advantage of being after his time. But all those ideas went from him
+at once when she met him almost at the door of the room, and, taking
+him by the hand, said that she was "so glad to see him,&mdash;so very
+glad. Fancy, Harry, I haven't seen an old friend since I saw you
+last. You don't know how hard all that seems."</p>
+
+<p>"It is hard," said he; and when he felt the pressure of her hand, and
+saw the brightness of her eye, and when her dress rustled against him
+as he followed her to her seat, and he became sensible of the
+influence of her presence, all his diplomacy vanished, and he was
+simply desirous of devoting himself to her service. Of course, any
+such devotion was to be given without detriment to that other
+devotion which he owed to Florence Burton. But this stipulation,
+though it was made, was made quickly, and with a confused brain.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;it is hard," she said. "Harry, sometimes I think I shall go
+mad. It is more than I can bear. I could bear it if it hadn't been my
+own fault,&mdash;all my own fault."</p>
+
+<p>There was a suddenness about this which took him quite by surprise.
+No doubt it had been her own fault. He also had told himself that;
+though, of course, he would make no such charge to her. "You have not
+recovered yet," he said, "from what you have suffered lately. Things
+will look brighter to you after a while."</p>
+
+<p>"Will they? Ah,&mdash;I do not know. But come, Harry; come and sit down,
+and let me get you some tea. There is no harm, I suppose, in having
+you here,&mdash;is there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Harm, Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;harm, Lady Ongar." As she repeated her own name after him,
+nearly in his tone, she smiled once again; and then she looked as she
+used to look in the old days, when she would be merry with him. "It
+is hard to know what a woman may do, and what she may not. When my
+husband was ill and dying, I never left his bedside. From the moment
+of my marrying him till his death, I hardly spoke to a man but in his
+presence; and when once I did, it was he that had sent him. And for
+all that people have turned their backs upon me. You and I were old
+friends, Harry, and something more once,&mdash;were we not? But I jilted
+you, as you were man enough to tell me. How I did respect you when
+you dared to speak the truth to me. Men don't know women, or they
+would be harder to them."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean to be hard to you."</p>
+
+<p>"If you had taken me by the shoulders and shaken me, and have
+declared that before God you would not allow such wickedness, I
+should have obeyed you. I know I should." Harry thought of Florence,
+and could not bring himself to say that he wished it had been so.
+"But where would you have been then, Harry? I was wrong and false and
+a beast to marry that man; but I should not, therefore, have been
+right to marry you and ruin you. It would have been ruin, you know,
+and we should simply have been fools."</p>
+
+<p>"The folly was very pleasant," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; I will not deny that. But then the wisdom and the prudence
+afterwards! Oh, Harry, that was not pleasant. That was not pleasant!
+But what was I saying? Oh! about the propriety of your being here. It
+is so hard to know what is proper. As I have been married, I suppose
+I may receive whom I please. Is not that the law?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may receive me, I should think. Your sister is my cousin's
+wife." Harry's matter-of-fact argument did as well as anything else,
+for it turned her thought at the moment.</p>
+
+<p>"My sister, Harry! If there was nothing to make us friends but our
+connection through Sir Hugh Clavering, I do not know that I should be
+particularly anxious to see you. How unmanly he has been, and how
+cruel."</p>
+
+<p>"Very cruel," said Harry. Then he thought of Archie and Archie's
+suit. "But he is willing to change all that now. Hermione asked me
+the other day to persuade you to go to Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"And have you come here to use your eloquence for that purpose? I
+will never go to Clavering again, Harry, unless it should be yours
+and your wife should offer to receive me. Then I'd pack up for the
+dear, dull, solemn old place though I was on the other side of
+Europe."</p>
+
+<p>"It will never be mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably not, and probably, therefore, I shall never be there again.
+No; I can forgive an injury, but not an insult,&mdash;not an insult such
+as that. I will not go to Clavering; so, Harry, you may save your
+eloquence. Hermione I shall be glad to see whenever she will come to
+me. If you can persuade her to that, you will persuade her to a
+charity."</p>
+
+<p>"She goes nowhere, I think, without his&mdash;his&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Without his permission. Of course she does not. That, I suppose, is
+all as it should be. And he is such a tyrant that he will give no
+such permission. He would tell her, I suppose, that her sister was no
+fit companion for her."</p>
+
+<p>"He could not say that now, as he has asked you there."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I don't know that. He would say one thing first and another
+after, just as it would suit him. He has some object in wishing that
+I should go there, I suppose." Harry, who knew the object, and who
+was too faithful to betray Lady Clavering, even though he was
+altogether hostile to his cousin Archie's suit, felt a little proud
+of his position, but said nothing in answer to this. "But I shall not
+go; nor will I see him, or go to his house when he comes up to
+London. When do they come, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is in town now."</p>
+
+<p>"What a nice husband, is he not? And when does Hermione come?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know; she did not say. Little Hughy is ill, and that may
+keep her."</p>
+
+<p>"After all, Harry, I may have to pack up and go to Clavering even
+yet,&mdash;that is, if the mistress of the house will have me."</p>
+
+<p>"Never in the way you mean, Lady Ongar. Do not propose to kill all my
+relations in order that I might have their property. Archie intends
+to marry, and have a dozen children."</p>
+
+<p>"Archie marry! Who will have him? But such men as he are often in the
+way by marrying some cookmaid at last. Archie is Hugh's body-slave.
+Fancy being body-slave to Hugh Clavering! He has two, and poor Hermy
+is the other; only he prefers not to have Hermy near him, which is
+lucky for her. Here is some tea. Let us sit down and be comfortable,
+and talk no more about our horrid relations. I don't know what made
+me speak of them. I did not mean it."</p>
+
+<p>Harry sat down and took the cup from her hand, as she had bidden the
+servant to leave the tray upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"So you saw Count Pateroff," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and his sister."</p>
+
+<p>"So she told me. What do you think of them?" To this question Harry
+made no immediate answer. "You may speak out. Though I lived abroad
+with such as them for twelve months, I have not forgotten the sweet
+scent of our English hedgerows, nor the wholesomeness of English
+household manners. What do you think of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are not sweet or wholesome," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Harry, you are so honest! Your honesty is beautiful. A spade
+will ever be a spade with you."</p>
+
+<p>He thought that she was laughing at him, and coloured.</p>
+
+<p>"You pressed me to speak," he said, "and I did but use your own
+words."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but you used them with such straightforward violence! Well, you
+shall use what words you please, and how you please, because a word
+of truth is so pleasant after living in a world of lies. I know you
+will not lie to me, Harry. You never did."</p>
+
+<p>He felt that now was the moment in which he should tell her of his
+engagement, but he let the moment pass without using it. And, indeed,
+it would have been hard for him to tell. In telling such a story he
+would have been cautioning her that it was useless for her to love
+him,&mdash;and this he could not bring himself to do. And he was not sure
+even now that she had not learned the fact from her sister. "I hope
+not," he said. In all that he was saying he knew that his words were
+tame and impotent in comparison with hers, which seemed to him to
+mean so much. But then his position was so unfortunate! Had it not
+been for Florence Burton he would have been long since at her feet;
+for, to give Harry Clavering his due, he could be quick enough at
+swearing to a passion. He was one of those men to whom love-making
+comes so readily that it is a pity that they should ever marry. He
+was ever making love to women, usually meaning no harm. He made love
+to Cecilia Burton over her children's beds, and that discreet matron
+liked it. But it was a love-making without danger. It simply
+signified on his part the pleasure he had in being on good terms with
+a pretty woman. He would have liked to have made love in the same way
+to Lady Ongar; but that was impossible, and in all love-making with
+Lady Ongar there must be danger. There was a pause after the
+expression of his last hopes, during which he finished his tea, and
+then looked at his boots.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not ask me what I have been doing at my country-house."</p>
+
+<p>"And what have you been doing there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hating it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Everything is wrong that I do; everything must be wrong. That is the
+nature of the curse upon me."</p>
+
+<p>"You think too much of all that now."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Harry, that is so easily said. People do not think of such
+things if they can help themselves. The place is full of him and his
+memories; full of him, though I do not as yet know whether he ever
+put his foot in it. Do you know, I have a plan, a scheme, which
+would, I think, make me happy for one half-hour. It is to give
+everything back to the family. Everything! money, house, and name; to
+call myself Julia Brabazon, and let the world call me what it
+pleases. Then I would walk out into the streets, and beg some one to
+give me my bread. Is there one in all the wide world that would give
+me a crust? Is there one, except yourself, Harry&mdash;one, except
+yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>Poor Florence! I fear it fared badly with her cause at this moment.
+How was it possible that he should not regret, that he should not
+look back upon Stratton with something akin to sorrow? Julia had been
+his first love, and to her he could have been always true. I fear he
+thought of this now. I fear that it was a grief to him that he could
+not place himself close at her side, bid her do as she had planned,
+and then come to him, and share all his crusts. Had it been open to
+him to play that part, he would have played it well, and would have
+gloried in the thoughts of her poverty. The position would have
+suited him exactly. But Florence was in the way, and he could not do
+it. How was he to answer Lady Ongar? It was more difficult now than
+ever to tell her of Florence Burton.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes were full of tears, and she accepted that as his excuse for
+not answering her. "I suppose they would say that I was a romantic
+fool. When the price has been taken one cannot cleanse oneself of the
+stain. With Judas, you know, it was not sufficient that he gave back
+the money. Life was too heavy for him, and so he went out and hanged
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Julia," he said, getting up from his chair, and going over to where
+she sat on a sofa, "Julia, it is horrid to hear you speak of yourself
+in that way. I will not have it. You are not such a one as the
+Iscariot." And as he spoke to her, he found her hand in his.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you had my burden, Harry, for one half day, so that you might
+know its weight."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could bear it for you&mdash;for life."</p>
+
+<p>"To be always alone, Harry; to have none that come to me and scold
+me, and love me, and sometimes make me smile! You will scold me at
+any rate; will you not? It is terrible to have no one near one that
+will speak to one with the old easiness of familiar affection. And
+then the pretence of it where it does not, cannot, could not, exist!
+Oh, that woman, Harry;&mdash;that woman who comes here and calls me Julie!
+And she has got me to promise too that I would call her Sophie! I
+know that you despise me because she comes here. Yes; I can see it.
+You said at once that she was not wholesome, with your dear outspoken
+honesty."</p>
+
+<p>"It was your word."</p>
+
+<p>"And she is not wholesome, whosever word it was. She was there,
+hanging about him when he was so bad, before the worst came. She read
+novels to him,&mdash;books that I never saw, and played &eacute;cart&eacute; with him
+for what she called gloves. I believe in my heart she was spying me,
+and I let her come and go as she would, because I would not seem to
+be afraid of her. So it grew. And once or twice she was useful to me.
+A woman, Harry, wants to have a woman near her sometimes,&mdash;even
+though it be such an unwholesome creature as Sophie Gordeloup. You
+must not think too badly of me on her account."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not;&mdash;I will not think badly of you at all."</p>
+
+<p>"He is better, is he not? I know little of him or nothing, but he has
+a more reputable outside than she has. Indeed I liked him. He had
+known Lord Ongar well; and though he did not toady him nor was afraid
+of him, yet he was gentle and considerate. Once to me he said words
+that I was called on to resent;&mdash;but he never repeated them, and I
+know that he was prompted by him who should have protected me. It is
+too bad, Harry, is it not? Too bad almost to be believed by such as
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very bad," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"After that he was always courteous; and when the end came and things
+were very terrible, he behaved well and kindly. He went in and out
+quietly, and like an old friend. He paid for everything, and was
+useful. I know that even this made people talk;&mdash;yes, Harry, even at
+such a moment as that! But in spite of the talking I did better with
+him then than I could have done without him."</p>
+
+<p>"He looks like a man who could be kind if he chooses."</p>
+
+<p>"He is one of those, Harry, who find it easy to be good-natured, and
+who are soft by nature, as cats are,&mdash;not from their heart, but
+through instinctive propensity to softness. When it suits them, they
+scratch, even though they have been ever so soft before. Count
+Pateroff is a cat. You, Harry, I think are a dog." She perhaps
+expected that he would promise to her that he would be her dog,&mdash;a
+dog in constancy and affection; but he was still mindful in part of
+Florence, and restrained himself.</p>
+
+<p>"I must tell you something further," she said. "And indeed it is this
+that I particularly want to tell you. I have not seen him, you know,
+since I parted with him at Florence."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I had told you. However, so it is. And now, listen:&mdash;He
+came down to Ongar Park the other day while I was there, and sent in
+his card. When I refused to receive him, he wrote to me pressing his
+visit. I still declined, and he wrote again. I burned his note,
+because I did not choose that anything from him should be in my
+possession. He told some story about papers of Lord Ongar. I have
+nothing to do with Lord Ongar's papers. Everything of which I knew
+was sealed up in the count's presence and in mine, and was sent to
+the lawyers for the executors. I looked at nothing; not at one word
+in a single letter. What could he have to say to me of Lord Ongar's
+papers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Or he might have written?"</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate he should not have come there, Harry. I would not see
+him, nor, if I can help it, will I see him here. I will be open with
+you, Harry. I think that perhaps it might suit him to make me his
+wife. Such an arrangement, however, would not suit me. I am not going
+to be frightened into marrying a man, because he has been falsely
+called my lover. If I cannot escape the calumny in any other way, I
+will not escape it in that way."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he said anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; not a word. I have not seen him since the day after Lord Ongar's
+funeral. But I have seen his sister."</p>
+
+<p>"And has she proposed such a thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, she has not proposed it. But she talks of it, saying that it
+would not do. Then, when I tell her that of course it would not do,
+she shows me all that would make it expedient. She is so sly and so
+false, that with all my eyes open I cannot quite understand her, or
+quite know what she is doing. I do not feel sure that she wishes it
+herself."</p>
+
+<p>"She told me that it would not do."</p>
+
+<p>"She did, did she? If she speaks of it again, tell her that she is
+right, that it will never do. Had he not come down to Ongar Park, I
+should not have mentioned this to you. I should not have thought that
+he had in truth any such scheme in his head. He did not tell you that
+he had been there?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did not mention it. Indeed, he said very little about you at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"No, he would not. He is cautious. He never talks of anybody to
+anybody. He speaks only of the outward things of the world. Now,
+Harry, what you must do for me is this." As she was speaking to him
+she was leaning again upon the table, with her forehead resting upon
+her hands. Her small widow's cap had become thus thrust back, and was
+now nearly off her head, so that her rich brown hair was to be seen
+in its full luxuriance, rich and lovely as it had ever been. Could it
+be that she felt,&mdash;half thought, half felt, without knowing that she
+thought it,&mdash;that while the signs of her widowhood were about her,
+telling in their too plain language the tale of what she had been, he
+could not dare to speak to her of his love? She was indeed a widow,
+but not as are other widows. She had confessed, did hourly confess to
+herself, the guilt which she had committed in marrying that man; but
+the very fact of such confessions, of such acknowledgment, absolved
+her from the necessity of any show of sorrow. When she declared how
+she had despised and hated her late lord, she threw off mentally all
+her weeds. Mourning, the appearance even of mourning, became
+impossible to her, and the cap upon her head was declared openly to
+be a sacrifice to the world's requirements. It was now pushed back,
+but I fancy that nothing like a thought on the matter had made itself
+plain to her mind. "What you must do for me is this," she continued.
+"You must see Count Pateroff again, and tell him from me,&mdash;as my
+friend,&mdash;that I cannot consent to see him. Tell him that if he will
+think of it, he must know the reason why."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he will know."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him what I say, all the same; and tell him that as I have
+hitherto had cause to be grateful to him for his kindness, so also I
+hope he will not put an end to that feeling by anything now, that
+would not be kind. If there be papers of Lord Ongar's, he can take
+them either to my lawyers, if that be fit, or to those of the family.
+You can tell him that, can you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I can tell him."</p>
+
+<p>"And have you any objection?"</p>
+
+<p>"None for myself. The question is,&mdash;would it not come better from
+some one else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are a young man, you mean? Whom else can I trust, Harry?
+To whom can I go? Would you have me ask Hugh to do this? Or, perhaps
+you think Archie Clavering would be a proper messenger. Who else have
+I got?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would not his sister be better?"</p>
+
+<p>"How should I know that she had told him? She would tell him her own
+story,&mdash;what she herself wished. And whatever story she told, he
+would not believe it. They know each other better than you and I know
+them. It must be you, Harry, if you will do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will do it. I will try and see him to-morrow. Where does
+he live?"</p>
+
+<p>"How should I know? Perhaps nobody knows; no one, perhaps, of all
+those with whom he associates constantly. They do not live after our
+fashion, do they, these foreigners? But you will find him at his
+club, or hear of him at the house in Mount Street. You will do it;
+eh, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will."</p>
+
+<p>"That is my good Harry. But I suppose you would do anything I asked
+you. Ah, well; it is good to have one friend, if one has no more.
+Look, Harry! if it is not near eleven o'clock! Did you know that you
+had been here nearly three hours? And I have given you nothing but a
+cup of tea!"</p>
+
+<p>"What else do you think I have wanted?"</p>
+
+<p>"At your club you would have had cigars and brandy-and-water, and
+billiards, and broiled bones, and oysters, and tankards of beer. I
+know all about it. You have been very patient with me. If you go
+quick perhaps you will not be too late for the tankards and the
+oysters."</p>
+
+<p>"I never have any tankards or any oysters."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is cigars and brandy-and-water. Go quick, and perhaps you
+may not be too late."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go, but not there. One cannot change one's thoughts so
+suddenly."</p>
+
+<p>"Go, then; and do not change your thoughts. Go and think of me, and
+pity me. Pity me for what I have got, but pity me most for what I
+have lost." Harry did not say another word, but took her hand, and
+kissed it, and then left her.</p>
+
+<p>Pity her for what she had lost! What had she lost? What did she mean
+by that? He knew well what she meant by pitying her for what she had
+got. What had she lost? She had lost him. Did she intend to evoke his
+pity for that loss? She had lost him. Yes, indeed. Whether or no the
+loss was one to regret, he would not say to himself; or rather, he,
+of course, declared that it was not; but such as it was, it had been
+incurred. He was now the property of Florence Burton, and, whatever
+happened, he would be true to her.</p>
+
+
+<p>Perhaps he pitied himself also. If so, it is to be hoped that
+Florence may never know of such pity. Before he went to bed, when he
+was praying on his knees, he inserted it in his prayers that the God
+in whom he believed might make him true in his faith to Florence
+Burton.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c16"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XVI.</h3>
+<h4>THE RIVALS.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill16-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="L" />ady Ongar
+sat alone, long into the night, when Harry Clavering had
+left her. She sat there long, getting up occasionally from her seat,
+once or twice attempting to write at her desk, looking now and then
+at a paper or two, and then at a small picture which she had, but
+passing the long hours in thinking,&mdash;in long, sad, solitary thoughts.
+What should she do with herself,&mdash;with herself, her title, and her
+money? Would it be still well that she should do something, that she
+should make some attempt; or should she, in truth, abandon all, as
+the arch-traitor did, and acknowledge that for her foot there could
+no longer be a resting-place on the earth? At six-and-twenty, with
+youth, beauty, and wealth at her command, must she despair? But her
+youth had been stained, her beauty had lost its freshness; and as for
+her wealth, had she not stolen it? Did not the weight of the theft
+sit so heavy on her, that her brightest thought was one which
+prompted her to abandon it?</p>
+
+<p>As to that idea of giving up her income and her house, and calling
+herself again Julia Brabazon, though there was something in the
+poetry of it which would now and again for half an hour relieve her,
+yet she hardly proposed such a course to herself as a reality. The
+world in which she had lived had taught her to laugh at romance, to
+laugh at it even while she liked its beauty; and she would tell
+herself that for such a one as her to do such a thing as this, would
+be to insure for herself the ridicule of all who knew her name. What
+would Sir Hugh say, and her sister? What Count Pateroff and the
+faithful Sophie? What all the Ongar tribe, who would reap the rich
+harvest of her insanity? These latter would offer to provide her a
+place in some convenient asylum, and the others would all agree that
+such would be her fitting destiny. She could bear the idea of walking
+forth, as she had said, penniless into the street, without a crust;
+but she could not bear the idea of being laughed at when she got
+there.</p>
+
+<p>To her, in her position, her only escape was by marriage. It was the
+solitude of her position which maddened her;&mdash;its solitude, or the
+necessity of breaking that solitude by the presence of those who were
+odious to her. Whether it were better to be alone, feeding on the
+bitterness of her own thoughts, or to be comforted by the fulsome
+flatteries and odious falsenesses of Sophie Gordeloup, she could not
+tell. She hated herself for her loneliness, but she hated herself
+almost worse for submitting herself to the society of Sophie
+Gordeloup. Why not give all that she possessed to Harry
+Clavering&mdash;herself, her income, her rich pastures and horses and
+oxen, and try whether the world would not be better to her when she
+had done so?</p>
+
+<p>She had learned to laugh at romance, but still she believed in love.
+While that bargain was going on as to her settlement, she had laughed
+at romance, and had told herself that in this world worldly
+prosperity was everything. Sir Hugh then had stood by her with truth,
+for he had well understood the matter, and could enter into it with
+zest. Lord Ongar, in his state of health, had not been in a position
+to make close stipulations as to the dower in the event of his
+proposed wife becoming a widow. "No, no; we won't stand that," Sir
+Hugh had said to the lawyers. "We all hope, of course, that Lord
+Ongar may live long; no doubt he'll turn over a new leaf, and die at
+ninety. But in such a case as this the widow must not be fettered."
+The widow had not been fettered, and Julia had been made to
+understand the full advantage of such an arrangement. But still she
+had believed in love when she had bade farewell to Harry in the
+garden. She had told herself then, even then, that she would have
+better liked to have taken him and his love,&mdash;if only she could have
+afforded it. He had not dreamed that on leaving him she had gone from
+him to her room, and taken out his picture,&mdash;the same that she had
+with her now in Bolton Street,&mdash;and had kissed it, bidding him
+farewell there with a passion which she could not display in his
+presence. And she had thought of his offer about the money over and
+over again. "Yes," she would say; "that man loved me. He would have
+given me all he had to relieve me, though nothing was to come to him
+in return." She had, at any rate, been loved once; and she almost
+wished that she had taken the money, that she might now have an
+opportunity of repaying it.</p>
+
+<p>And she was again free, and her old lover was again by her side. Had
+that fatal episode in her life been so fatal that she must now regard
+herself as tainted and unfit for him? There was no longer anything to
+separate them,&mdash;anything of which she was aware, unless it was that.
+And as for his love,&mdash;did he not look and speak as though he loved
+her still? Had he not pressed her hand passionately, and kissed it,
+and once more called her Julia? How should it be that he should not
+love her? In such a case as his, love might have been turned to
+hatred or to enmity; but it was not so with him. He called himself
+her friend. How could there be friendship between them without love?</p>
+
+<p>And then she thought how much with her wealth she might do for him.
+With all his early studies and his talent Harry Clavering was not the
+man, she thought, to make his way in the world by hard work; but with
+such an income as she could give him, he might shine among the proud
+ones of his nation. He should go into Parliament, and do great
+things. He should be lord of all. It should all be his without a word
+of reserve. She had been mercenary once, but she would atone for that
+now by open-handed, undoubting generosity. She herself had learned to
+hate the house and fields and widespread comforts of Ongar Park. She
+had walked among it all alone, and despised. But it would be a glory
+to her to see him go forth, with Giles at his heels, boldly giving
+his orders, changing this and improving that. He would be rebuked for
+no errors, let him do with Enoch Gubby and the rest of them what he
+pleased! And then the parson's wife would be glad enough to come to
+her, and the house would be full of smiling faces. And it might be
+that God would be good to her, and that she would have treasures, as
+other women had them, and that the flavour would come back to the
+apples, and that the ashes would cease to grate between her teeth.</p>
+
+<p>She loved him, and why should it not be so? She could go before God's
+altar with him without disgracing herself with a lie. She could put
+her hand in his, and swear honestly that she would worship him and
+obey him. She had been dishonest;&mdash;but if he would pardon her for
+that, could she not reward him richly for such pardon? And it seemed
+to her that he had pardoned her. He had forgiven it all and was
+gracious to her,&mdash;coming at her beck and call, and sitting with her
+as though he liked her presence. She was woman enough to understand
+this, and she knew that he liked it. Of course he loved her. How
+could it be otherwise?</p>
+
+<p>But yet he spoke nothing to her of his love. In the old days there
+had been with him no bashfulness of that kind. He was not a man to
+tremble and doubt before a woman. In those old days he had been ready
+enough,&mdash;so ready, that she had wondered that one who had just come
+from his books should know so well how to make himself master of a
+girl's heart. Nature had given him that art, as she does give it to
+some, withholding it from many. But now he sat near her, dropping
+once and again half words of love, hearing her references to the old
+times;&mdash;and yet he said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>But how was he to speak of love to one who was a widow but of four
+months' standing? And with what face could he now again ask for her
+hand, knowing that it had been filled so full since last it was
+refused to him? It was thus she argued to herself when she excused
+him in that he did not speak to her. As to her widowhood, to herself
+it was a thing of scorn. Thinking of it, she cast her weepers from
+her, and walked about the room, scorning the hypocrisy of her dress.
+It needed that she should submit herself to this hypocrisy before the
+world; but he might know,&mdash;for had she not told him?&mdash;that the
+clothes she wore were no index of her feeling or of her heart. She
+had been mean enough, base enough, vile enough, to sell herself to
+that wretched lord. Mean, base, and vile she had been, and she now
+confessed it; but she was not false enough to pretend that she
+mourned the man as a wife mourns. Harry might have seen enough to
+know, have understood enough to perceive, that he need not regard her
+widowhood.</p>
+
+<p>And as to her money! If that were the stumbling-block, might it not
+be well that the first overture should come from her? Could she not
+find words to tell him that it might all be his? Could she not say to
+him, "Harry Clavering, all this is nothing in my hands. Take it into
+your hands, and it will prosper." Then it was that she went to her
+desk, and attempted to write to him. She did write to him a completed
+note, offering herself and all that was hers for his acceptance. In
+doing so, she strove hard to be honest and yet not over bold; to be
+affectionate and yet not unfeminine. Long she sat, holding her head
+with one hand, while the other attempted to use the pen which would
+not move over the paper. At length, quickly it flew across the sheet,
+and a few lines were there for her to peruse.</p>
+
+<p>"Harry Clavering," she had written,<br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noindent">I know
+I am doing what men and women say no woman should
+do. You may, perhaps, say so of me now; but if you do, I
+know you so well, that I do not fear that others will be
+able to repeat it. Harry, I have never loved any one but
+you. Will you be my husband? You well know that I should
+not make you this offer if I did not intend that
+everything I have should be yours. It will be pleasant to
+me to feel that I can make some reparation for the evil I
+have done. As for love, I have never loved any one but
+you. You yourself must know that well. Yours, altogether
+if you will have it
+so,&mdash;<span class="smallcaps">Julia</span>.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>She took the letter with her, back across the room to her seat by the
+fire, and took with her at the same time the little portrait; and
+there she sat, looking at the one and reading the other. At last she
+slowly folded the note up into a thin wisp of paper, and, lighting
+the end of it, watched it till every shred of it was burnt to an ash.
+"If he wants me," she said, "he can come and take me,&mdash;as other men
+do." It was a fearful attempt, that which she had thought of making.
+How could she have looked him in the face again had his answer to her
+been a refusal?</p>
+
+<p>Another hour went by before she took herself to her bed, during which
+her cruelly-used maiden was waiting for her half asleep in the
+chamber above; and during that time she tried to bring herself to
+some steady resolve. She would remain in London for the coming
+months, so that he might come to her if he pleased. She would remain
+there, even though she were subject to the daily attacks of Sophie
+Gordeloup. She hardly knew why, but in part she was afraid of Sophie.
+She had done nothing of which Sophie knew the secret. She had no
+cause to tremble because Sophie might be offended. The woman had seen
+her in some of her saddest moments, and could indeed tell of
+indignities which would have killed some women. But these she had
+borne, and had not disgraced herself in the bearing of them. But
+still she was afraid of Sophie, and felt that she could not bring
+herself absolutely to dismiss her friend from her house.
+Nevertheless, she would remain;&mdash;because Harry Clavering was in
+London and could come to her there. To her house at Ongar Park she
+would never go again, unless she went as his wife. The place had
+become odious to her. Bad as was her solitude in London, with Sophie
+Gordeloup to break it,&mdash;and perhaps with Sophie's brother to attack
+her, it was not so bad as the silent desolation of Ongar Park. Never
+again would she go there, unless she went there, in triumph,&mdash;as
+Harry's wife. Having so far resolved she took herself at last to her
+room, and dismissed her drowsy Ph&oelig;be to her rest.</p>
+
+<p>And now the reader must be asked to travel down at once into the
+country, that he may see how Florence Burton passed the same evening
+at Clavering Rectory. It was Florence's last night there, and on the
+following morning she was to return to her father's house at
+Stratton. Florence had not as yet received her unsatisfactory letter
+from Harry. That was to arrive on the following morning. At present
+she was, as regarded her letters, under the influence of that one
+which had been satisfactory in so especial a degree. Not that the
+coming letter,&mdash;the one now on its route,&mdash;was of a nature to disturb
+her comfort permanently, or to make her in any degree unhappy. "Dear
+fellow; he must be careful, he is overworking himself." Even the
+unsatisfactory letter would produce nothing worse than this from her;
+but now, at the moment of which I am writing, she was in a paradise
+of happy thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Her visit to Clavering had been in every respect successful. She had
+been liked by every one, and every one in return had been liked by
+her. Mrs. Clavering had treated her as though she were a daughter.
+The rector had made her pretty presents, had kissed her, and called
+her his child. With Fanny she had formed a friendship which was to
+endure for ever, let destiny separate them how it might. Dear Fanny!
+She had had a wonderful interview respecting Fanny on this very day,
+and was at this moment disquieting her mind because she could not
+tell her friend what had happened without a breach of confidence! She
+had learned a great deal at Clavering, though in most matters of
+learning she was a better instructed woman than they were whom she
+had met. In general knowledge and in intellect she was Fanny's
+superior, though Fanny Clavering was no fool; but Florence, when she
+came thither, had lacked something which living in such a house had
+given to her;&mdash;or, I should rather say, something had been given to
+her of which she would greatly feel the want, if it could be again
+taken from her. Her mother was as excellent a woman as had ever sent
+forth a family of daughters into the world, and I do not know that
+any one ever objected to her as being ignorant, or specially vulgar;
+but the house in Stratton was not like Clavering Rectory in the
+little ways of living, and this Florence Burton had been clever
+enough to understand. She knew that a sojourn under such a roof, with
+such a woman as Mrs. Clavering, must make her fitter to be Harry's
+wife; and, therefore, when they pressed her to come again in the
+autumn, she said that she thought she would. She could understand,
+too, that Harry was different in many things from the men who had
+married her sisters, and she rejoiced that it was so. Poor Florence!
+Had he been more like them it might have been safer for her.</p>
+
+<p>But we must return for a moment to the wonderful interview which has
+been mentioned. Florence, during her sojourn at Clavering, had become
+intimate with Mr. Saul, as well as with Fanny. She had given herself
+for the time heartily to the schools, and matters had so far
+progressed with her that Mr. Saul had on one occasion scolded her
+soundly. "It's a great sign that he thinks well of you," Fanny had
+said. "It was the only sign he ever gave me, before he spoke to me in
+that sad strain." On the afternoon of this, her last day at
+Clavering, she had gone over to Cumberly Green with Fanny, to say
+farewell to the children, and walked back by herself, as Fanny had
+not finished her work. When she was still about half a mile from the
+rectory, she met Mr. Saul, who was on his way out to the Green. "I
+knew I should meet you," he said, "so that I might say good-by."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, Mr. Saul,&mdash;for I am going in truth, to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you were staying. I wish you were going to remain with us.
+Having you here is very pleasant, and you do more good here, perhaps,
+than you will elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not allow that. You forget that I have a father and mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and you will have a husband soon."</p>
+
+<p>"No, not soon; some day, perhaps, if all goes well. But I mean to be
+back here often before that. I mean to be here in October, just for a
+little visit, if mamma can spare me."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Burton," he said, speaking in a very serious
+<span class="nowrap">tone&mdash;.</span> All his
+tones were serious, but that which he now adopted was more solemn
+than usual. "I wish to consult you on a certain matter, if you can
+give me five minutes of your time."</p>
+
+<p>"To consult me, Mr. Saul?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Burton. I am hard pressed at present, and I know no one
+else of whom I can ask a certain question, if I cannot ask it of you.
+I think that you will answer me truly, if you answer me at all. I do
+not think you would flatter me, or tell me an untruth."</p>
+
+<p>"Flatter you! how could I flatter you?"</p>
+
+<p>"By telling me&mdash;; but I must ask you my question first. You and Fanny
+Clavering are dear friends now. You tell each other everything."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," said Florence, doubting as to what she might best
+say, but guessing something of that which was coming.</p>
+
+<p>"She will have told you, perhaps, that I asked her to be my wife. Did
+she ever tell you that?" Florence looked into his face for a few
+moments without answering him, not knowing how to answer such a
+question. "I know that she has told you," said he. "I can see that it
+is so."</p>
+
+<p>"She has told me," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should she not? How could she be with you so many hours, and not
+tell you that of which she could hardly fail to have the remembrance
+often present with her. If I were gone from here, if I were not
+before her eyes daily, it might be otherwise; but seeing me as she
+does from day to day, of course she has spoken of me to her friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Saul; she has told me of it."</p>
+
+<p>"And now, will you tell me whether I may hope."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Saul!"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to betray no secret, but I ask you for your advice. Can I
+hope that she will ever return my love?"</p>
+
+<p>"How am I to answer you?"</p>
+
+<p>"With the truth. Only with the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say that she thinks that you have forgotten it."</p>
+
+<p>"Forgotten it! No, Miss Burton; she cannot think that. Do you believe
+that men or women can forget such things as that? Can you ever forget
+her brother? Do you think people ever forget when they have loved?
+No, I have not forgotten her. I have not forgotten that walk which we
+had down this lane together. There are things which men never
+forget." Then he paused for an answer.</p>
+
+<p>Florence was by nature steady and self-collected, and she at once
+felt that she was bound to be wary before she gave him any answer.
+She had half fancied once or twice that Fanny thought more of Mr.
+Saul than she allowed even herself to know. And Fanny, when she had
+spoken of the impossibility of such a marriage, had always based the
+impossibility on the fact that people should not marry without the
+means of living,&mdash;a reason which to Florence, with all her prudence,
+was not sufficient. Fanny might wait as she also intended to wait.
+Latterly, too, Fanny had declared more than once to Florence her
+conviction that Mr. Saul's passion had been a momentary insanity
+which had altogether passed away; and in these declarations Florence
+had half fancied that she discovered some tinge of regret. If it were
+so, what was she now to say to Mr. Saul?</p>
+
+<p>"You think then, Miss Burton," he continued, "that I have no chance
+of success? I ask the question because if I felt certain that this
+was so,&mdash;quite certain, I should be wrong to remain here. It has been
+my first and only parish, and I could not leave it without bitter
+sorrow. But if I were to remain here hopelessly, I should become
+unfit for my work. I am becoming so, and shall be better away."</p>
+
+<p>"But why ask me, Mr. Saul?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I think that you can tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"But why not ask herself? Who can tell you so truly as she can do?"</p>
+
+<p>"You would not advise me to do that if you were sure that she would
+reject me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I would advise."</p>
+
+<p>"I will take your advice, Miss Burton. Now, good-by, and may God
+bless you. You say you will be here in the autumn; but before the
+autumn I shall probably have left Clavering. If so our farewells will
+be for very long, but I shall always remember our pleasant
+intercourse here." Then he went on towards Cumberly Green; and
+Florence, as she walked into the vicarage grounds, was thinking that
+no girl had ever been loved by a more single-hearted, pure-minded
+gentleman than Mr. Saul.</p>
+
+<p>As she sat alone in her bed-room, five or six hours after this
+interview, she felt some regret that she should leave Clavering
+without a word to Fanny on the subject. Mr. Saul had exacted no
+promise of secrecy from her; he was not a man to exact such promises.
+But she felt not the less that she would be betraying confidence to
+speak, and it might even be that her speaking on the matter would do
+more harm than good. Her sympathies were doubtless with Mr. Saul, but
+she could not therefore say that she thought Fanny ought to accept
+his love. It would be best to say nothing of the matter, and to allow
+Mr. Saul to fight his own battle.</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned to her own matters, and there she found that
+everything was pleasant. How good the world had been to her to give
+her such a lover as Harry Clavering! She owned with all her heart the
+excellence of being in love, when a girl might be allowed to call
+such a man her own. She could not but make comparisons between him
+and Mr. Saul, though she knew that she was making them on points that
+were hardly worthy of her thoughts. Mr. Saul was plain, uncouth, with
+little that was bright about him except the brightness of his piety.
+Harry was like the morning star. He looked and walked and spoke as
+though he were something more godlike than common men. His very voice
+created joy, and the ring of his laughter was to Florence as the
+music of the heavens. What woman would not have loved Harry
+Clavering? Even Julia Brabazon,&mdash;a creature so base that she had sold
+herself to such a thing as Lord Ongar for money and a title, but so
+grand in her gait and ways, so Florence had been told, that she
+seemed to despise the earth on which she trod,&mdash;even she had loved
+him. Then as Florence thought of what Julia Brabazon might have had
+and of what she had lost, she wondered that there could be women born
+so sadly vicious.</p>
+
+<p>But that woman's vice had given her her success, her joy, her great
+triumph! It was surely not for her to deal hardly with the faults of
+Julia Brabazon,&mdash;for her who was enjoying all the blessings of which
+those faults had robbed the other! Julia Brabazon had been her very
+good friend.</p>
+
+<p>But why had this perfect lover come to her, to one so small, so
+trifling, so little in the world's account as she, and given to her
+all the treasure of his love? Oh, Harry,&mdash;dear Harry! what could she
+do for him that would be a return good enough for such great
+goodness? Then she took out his last letter, that satisfactory
+letter, that letter that had been declared to be perfect, and read it
+and read it again. No; she did not want Fanny or any one else to tell
+her that he was true. Honesty and truth were written on every line of
+his face, were to be heard in every tone of his voice, could be seen
+in every sentence that came from his hand. Dear Harry; dearest Harry!
+She knew well that he was true.</p>
+
+<p>Then she also sat down and wrote to him, on that her last night
+beneath his father's roof,&mdash;wrote to him when she had nearly prepared
+herself for her bed; and honestly, out of her full heart, thanked him
+for his love. There was no need that she should be coy with him now,
+for she was his own. "Dear Harry, when I think of all that you have
+done for me in loving me and choosing me for your wife, I know that I
+can never pay you all that I owe you."</p>
+
+<p>Such were the two rival claimants for the hand of Harry Clavering.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c17"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XVII.</h3>
+<h4>"LET HER KNOW THAT YOU'RE THERE."</h4>
+
+
+<p>A week had passed since the evening which Harry had spent in Bolton
+Street, and he had not again seen Lady Ongar. He had professed to
+himself that his reason for not going there was the non-performance
+of the commission which Lady Ongar had given him with reference to
+Count Pateroff. He had not yet succeeded in catching the count,
+though he had twice asked for him in Mount Street and twice at the
+club in Pall Mall. It appeared that the count never went to Mount
+Street, and was very rarely seen at the club. There was some other
+club which he frequented, and Harry did not know what club. On both
+the occasions of Harry's calling in Mount Street, the servant had
+asked him to go up and see madame; but he had declined to do so,
+pleading that he was hurried. He was, however, driven to resolve that
+he must go direct to Sophie, as otherwise he could find no means of
+doing as he had promised. She probably might put him on the scent of
+her brother.</p>
+
+<p>But there had been another reason why Harry had not gone to Bolton
+Street, though he had not acknowledged it to himself. He did not dare
+to trust himself with Lady Ongar. He feared that he would be led on
+to betray himself and to betray Florence,&mdash;to throw himself at
+Julia's feet and sacrifice his honesty, in spite of all his
+resolutions to the contrary. He felt when there as the accustomed but
+repentant dram-drinker might feel, when having resolved to abstain,
+he is called upon to sit with the full glass offered before his lips.
+From such temptation as that the repentant dram-drinker knows that he
+must fly. But though he did not go after the fire-water of Bolton
+Street, neither was he able to satisfy himself with the cool fountain
+of Onslow Crescent. He was wretched at this time,&mdash;ill-satisfied with
+himself and others, and was no fitting companion for Cecilia Burton.
+The world, he thought, had used him ill. He could have been true to
+Julia Brabazon when she was well-nigh penniless. It was not for her
+money that he had regarded her. Had he been now a free man,&mdash;free
+from those chains with which he had fettered himself at Stratton,&mdash;he
+would again have asked this woman for her love, in spite of her past
+treachery; but it would have been for her love and not for her money
+that he would have sought her. Was it his fault that he had loved
+her, that she had been false to him, and that she had now come back
+and thrown herself before him? Or had he been wrong because he had
+ventured to think that he loved another when Julia had deserted him?
+Or could he help himself if he now found that his love in truth
+belonged to her whom he had known first? The world had been very
+cruel to him, and he could not go to Onslow Crescent and behave there
+prettily, hearing the praises of Florence with all the ardour of a
+discreet lover.</p>
+
+<p>He knew well what would have been his right course, and yet he did
+not follow it. Let him but once communicate to Lady Ongar the fact of
+his engagement, and the danger would be over, though much, perhaps,
+of the misery might remain. Let him write to her and mention the
+fact, bringing it up as some little immaterial accident, and she
+would understand what he meant. But this he abstained from doing.
+Though he swore to himself that he would not touch the dram, he would
+not dash down the full glass that was held to his lips. He went about
+the town very wretchedly, looking for the count, and regarding
+himself as a man specially marked out for sorrow by the cruel hand of
+misfortune. Lady Ongar, in the meantime, was expecting him, and was
+waxing angry and becoming bitter towards him because he came not.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hugh Clavering was now up in London, and with him was his brother
+Archie. Sir Hugh was a man who strained an income, that was handsome
+and sufficient for a country gentleman, to the very utmost, wanting
+to get out of it more than it could be made to give. He was not a man
+to be in debt, or indulge himself with present pleasures to be paid
+for out of the funds of future years. He was possessed of a worldly
+wisdom which kept him from that folly, and taught him to appreciate
+fully the value of independence. But he was ever remembering how many
+shillings there are in a pound, and how many pence in a shilling. He
+had a great eye to discount, and looked very closely into his bills.
+He searched for cheap shops;&mdash;and some men began to say of him that
+he had found a cheap establishment for such wines as he did not drink
+himself! In playing cards and in betting he was very careful, never
+playing high, never risking much, but hoping to turn something by the
+end of the year, and angry with himself if he had not done so. An
+unamiable man he was, but one whose heir would probably not quarrel
+with him,&mdash;if only he would die soon enough. He had always had a
+house in town, a moderate house in Berkeley Square, which belonged to
+him and had belonged to his father before him. Lady Clavering had
+usually lived there during the season; or, as had latterly been the
+case, during only a part of the season. And now it had come to pass,
+in this year, that Lady Clavering was not to come to London at all,
+and that Sir Hugh was meditating whether the house in Berkeley Square
+might not be let. The arrangement would make the difference of
+considerably more than a thousand a year to him. For himself, he
+would take lodgings. He had no idea of giving up London in the spring
+and early summer. But why keep up a house in Berkeley Square, as Lady
+Clavering did not use it?</p>
+
+<p>He was partly driven to this by a desire to shake off the burden of
+his brother. When Archie chose to go to Clavering the house was open
+to him. That was the necessity of Sir Hugh's position, and he could
+not avoid it unless he made it worth his while to quarrel with his
+brother. Archie was obedient, ringing the bell when he was told,
+looking after the horses, spying about, and perhaps saving as much
+money as he cost. But the matter was very different in Berkeley
+Square. No elder brother is bound to find breakfast and bed for a
+younger brother in London. And yet from his boyhood upwards Archie
+had made good his footing in Berkeley Square. In the matter of the
+breakfast, Sir Hugh had indeed of late got the better of him. The
+servants were kept on board wages, and there were no household
+accounts. But there was Archie's room, and Sir Hugh felt this to be a
+hardship.</p>
+
+<p>The present was not the moment for actually driving forth the
+intruder, for Archie was now up in London, especially under his
+brother's auspices. And if the business on which Captain Clavering
+was now intent could be brought to a successful issue, the standing
+in the world of that young man would be very much altered. Then he
+would be a brother of whom Sir Hugh might be proud; a brother who
+would pay his way, and settle his points at whist if he lost them,
+even to a brother. If Archie could induce Lady Ongar to marry him, he
+would not be called upon any longer to ring the bells and look after
+the stable. He would have bells of his own, and stables too, and
+perhaps some captain of his own to ring them and look after them. The
+expulsion, therefore, was not to take place till Archie should have
+made his attempt upon Lady Ongar.</p>
+
+<p>But Sir Hugh would admit of no delay, whereas Archie himself seemed
+to think that the iron was not yet quite hot enough for striking. It
+would be better, he had suggested, to postpone the work till Julia
+could be coaxed down to Clavering in the autumn. He could do the work
+better, he thought, down at Clavering than in London. But Sir Hugh
+was altogether of a different opinion. Though he had already asked
+his sister-in-law to Clavering, when the idea had first come up, he
+was glad that she had declined the visit. Her coming might be very
+well if she accepted Archie; but he did not want to be troubled with
+any renewal of his responsibility respecting her, if, as was more
+probable, she should reject him. The world still looked askance at
+Lady Ongar, and Hugh did not wish to take up the armour of a paladin
+in her favour. If Archie married her, Archie would be the paladin;
+though, indeed, in that case, no paladin would be needed.</p>
+
+<p>"She has only been a widow, you know, four months," said Archie,
+pleading for delay. "It won't be delicate, will it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Delicate!" said Sir Hugh. "I don't know whether there is much of
+delicacy in it at all."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why she isn't to be treated like any other woman. If you
+were to die, you'd think it very odd if any fellow came up to Hermy
+before the season was over."</p>
+
+<p>"Archie, you are a fool," said Sir Hugh; and Archie could see by his
+brother's brow that Hugh was angry. "You say things that for folly
+and absurdity are beyond belief. If you can't see the peculiarities
+of Julia's position, I am not going to point them out to you."</p>
+
+<p>"She is peculiar, of course,&mdash;having so much money, and that place
+near Guildford, all her own for her life. Of course it's peculiar.
+But four months, Hugh!"</p>
+
+<p>"If it had been four days it need have made no difference. A home,
+with some one to support her, is everything to her. If you wait till
+lots of fellows are buzzing round her you won't have a chance. You'll
+find that by this time next year she'll be the top of the fashion;
+and if not engaged to you, she will be to some one else. I shouldn't
+be surprised if Harry were after her again."</p>
+
+<p>"He's engaged to that girl we saw down at Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"What matters that? Engagements can be broken as well as made. You
+have this great advantage over every one, except him, that you can go
+to her at once without doing anything out of the way. That girl that
+Harry has in tow may perhaps keep him away for some time."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what, Hugh, you might as well call with me the first
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"So that I may quarrel with her, which I certainly should do,&mdash;or,
+rather, she with me. No, Archie; if you're afraid to go alone, you'd
+better give it up."</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid! I'm not afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>"She can't eat you. Remember that with her you needn't stand on your
+p's and q's, as you would with another woman. She knows what she is
+about, and will understand what she has to get as well as what she is
+expected to give. All I can say is, that if she accepts you, Hermy
+will consent that she shall go to Clavering as much as she pleases
+till the marriage takes place. It couldn't be done, I suppose, till
+after a year; and in that case she shall be married at Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>Here was a prospect for Julia Brabazon;&mdash;to be led to the same altar,
+at which she had married Lord Ongar, by Archie Clavering, twelve
+months after her first husband's death, and little more than two
+years after her first wedding! The peculiarity of the position did
+not quite make itself apparent either to Hugh or to Archie; but there
+was one point which did suggest itself to the younger brother at that
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose there was anything really wrong, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't say, I'm sure," said Sir Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I shouldn't like&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If I were you I wouldn't trouble myself about that. Judge not, that
+you be not judged."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's true, to be sure," said Archie; and on that point he
+went forth satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>But the job before him was a peculiar job, and that Archie well knew.
+In some inexplicable manner he put himself into the scales and
+weighed himself, and discovered his own weight with fair accuracy.
+And he put her into the scales, and he found that she was much the
+heavier of the two. How he did this,&mdash;how such men as Archie
+Clavering do do it,&mdash;I cannot say; but they do weigh themselves, and
+know their own weight, and shove themselves aside as being too light
+for any real service in the world. This they do, though they may
+fluster with their voices, and walk about with their noses in the
+air, and swing their canes, and try to look as large as they may.
+They do not look large, and they know it; and consequently they ring
+the bells, and look after the horses, and shove themselves on one
+side, so that the heavier weights may come forth and do the work.
+Archie Clavering, who had duly weighed himself, could hardly bring
+himself to believe that Lady Ongar would be fool enough to marry him!
+Seven thousand a year, with a park and farm in Surrey, and give it
+all to him,&mdash;him, Archie Clavering, who had, so to say, no weight at
+all! Archie Clavering, for one, could not bring himself to believe
+it.</p>
+
+<p>But yet Hermy, her sister, thought it possible; and though Hermy was,
+as Archie had found out by his invisible scales, lighter than Julia,
+still she must know something of her sister's nature. And Hugh, who
+was by no means light,&mdash;who was a man of weight, with money and
+position and firm ground beneath his feet,&mdash;he also thought that it
+might be so. "Faint heart never won a fair lady," said Archie to
+himself a dozen times, as he walked down to the Rag. The Rag was his
+club, and there was a friend there whom he could consult
+confidentially. No; faint heart never won a fair lady; but they who
+repeat to themselves that adage, trying thereby to get courage,
+always have faint hearts for such work. Harry Clavering never thought
+of the proverb when he went a-wooing.</p>
+
+<p>But Captain Boodle of the Rag,&mdash;for Captain Boodle always lived at
+the Rag when he was not at Newmarket, or at other racecourses, or in
+the neighbourhood of Market Harborough,&mdash;Captain Boodle knew a thing
+or two, and Captain Boodle was his fast friend. He would go to Boodle
+and arrange the campaign with him. Boodle had none of that hectoring,
+domineering way which Hugh never quite threw off in his intercourse
+with his brother. And Archie, as he went along, resolved that when
+Lady Ongar's money was his, and when he had a countess for his wife,
+he would give his elder brother a cold shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Boodle was playing pool at the Rag, and Archie joined him; but pool
+is a game which hardly admits of confidential intercourse as to
+proposed wives, and Archie was obliged to remain quiet on that
+subject all the afternoon. He cunningly, however, lost a little money
+to Boodle, for Boodle liked to win,&mdash;and engaged himself to dine at
+the same table with his friend. Their dinner they ate almost in
+silence,&mdash;unless when they abused the cook, or made to each other
+some pithy suggestion as to the expediency of this or that
+delicacy,&mdash;bearing always steadily in view the cost as well as
+desirability of the viands. Boodle had no shame in not having this or
+that because it was dear. To dine with the utmost luxury at the
+smallest expense was a proficiency belonging to him, and of which he
+was very proud.</p>
+
+<p>But after a while the cloth was gone, and the heads of the two men
+were brought near together over the small table. Boodle did not speak
+a word till his brother captain had told his story, had pointed out
+all the advantages to be gained, explained in what peculiar way the
+course lay open to himself, and made the whole thing clear to his
+friend's eye.</p>
+
+<p>"They say she's been a little queer, don't they?" said the friendly
+counsellor.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course people talk, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Talk, yes; they're talking a doosed sight, I should say. There's no
+mistake about the money, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, none," said Archie, shaking his head vigorously. "Hugh managed
+all that for her, so I know it."</p>
+
+<p>"She don't lose any of it because she enters herself for running
+again, does she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a shilling. That's the beauty of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Was you ever sweet on her before?"</p>
+
+<p>"What! before Ongar took her? O laws, no. She hadn't a rap, you
+know;&mdash;and knew how to spend money as well as any girl in London."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all to begin then, Clavvy; all the up-hill work to be done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes; I don't know about up-hill, Doodles. What do you mean by
+up-hill?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that seven thousand a year ain't usually to be picked up
+merely by trotting easy along the flat. And this sort of work is very
+up-hill generally, I take it;&mdash;unless, you know, a fellow has a fancy
+for it. If a fellow is really sweet on a girl, he likes it, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"She's a doosed handsome woman, you know, Doodles."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know anything about it, except that I suppose Ongar wouldn't
+have taken her if she hadn't stood well on her pasterns, and had some
+breeding about her. I never thought much of her sister,&mdash;your
+brother's wife, you know,&mdash;that is in the way of looks. No doubt she
+runs straight, and that's a great thing. She won't go the wrong side
+of the post."</p>
+
+<p>"As for running straight, let me alone for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, Clavvy, I'll tell you what my ideas are. When a man's
+trying a young filly, his hands can't be too light. A touch too much
+will bring her on her haunches, or throw her out of her step. She
+should hardly feel the iron in her mouth. That's the sort of work
+which requires a man to know well what he's about. But when I've got
+to do with a trained mare, I always choose that she shall know that
+I'm there! Do you understand me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I understand you, Doodles."</p>
+
+<p>"I always choose that she shall know that I'm there." And Captain
+Boodle, as he repeated these manly words with a firm voice, put out
+his hands as though he were handling the horse's rein. "Their mouths
+are never so fine then, and they generally want to be brought up to
+the bit, d'ye see?&mdash;up to the bit. When a mare has been trained to
+her work, and knows what she's at in her running, she's all the
+better for feeling a fellow's hands as she's going. She likes it
+rather. It gives her confidence, and makes her know where she is. And
+look here, Clavvy, when she comes to her fences, give her her head;
+but steady her first, and make her know that you're there. Damme;
+whatever you do, let her know that you're there. There's nothing like
+it. She'll think all the more of the fellow that's piloting her. And
+look here, Clavvy; ride her with spurs. Always ride a trained mare
+with spurs. Let her know that they're on; and if she tries to get her
+head, give 'em her. Yes, by George, give 'em her." And Captain Boodle
+in his energy twisted himself in his chair, and brought his heel
+round, so that it could be seen by Archie. Then he produced a sharp
+click with his tongue, and made the peculiar jerk with the muscle of
+his legs, whereby he was accustomed to evoke the agility of his
+horses. After that he looked triumphantly at his friend. "Give 'em
+her, Clavvy, and she'll like you the better for it. She'll know then
+that you mean it."</p>
+
+<p>It was thus that Captain Boodle instructed his friend Archie
+Clavering how to woo Lady Ongar; and Archie, as he listened to his
+friend's words of wisdom, felt that he had learned a great deal.
+"That's the way I'll do it, Doodles," he said, "and upon my word I'm
+very much obliged to you."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the way, you may depend on it. Let her know that you're
+there.&mdash;Let her know that you're there. She's done the filly work
+before, you see; and it's no good trying that again."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering really believed that he had learned a good deal,
+and that he now knew the way to set about the work before him. What
+sort of spurs he was to use, and how he was to put them on, I don't
+think he did know; but that was a detail as to which he did not think
+it necessary to consult his adviser. He sat the whole evening in the
+smoking-room, very silent, drinking slowly iced gin-and-water; and
+the more he drank the more assured he felt that he now understood the
+way in which he was to attempt the work before him. "Let her know I'm
+there," he said to himself, shaking his head gently, so that no one
+should observe him; "yes, let her know I'm there." At this time
+Captain Boodle, or Doodles as he was familiarly called, had again
+ascended to the billiard-room and was hard at work. "Let her know
+that I'm there," repeated Archie, mentally. Everything was contained
+in that precept. And he, with his hands before him on his knees, went
+through the process of steadying a horse with the snaffle-rein, just
+touching the curb, as he did so, for security. It was but a motion of
+his fingers and no one could see it, but it made him confident that
+he had learned his lesson. "Up to the bit," he repeated; "by George,
+yes; up to the bit. There's nothing like it for a trained mare. Give
+her head, but steady her." And Archie, as the words passed across his
+memory and were almost pronounced, seemed to be flying successfully
+over some prodigious fence. He leaned himself back a little in the
+saddle, and seemed to hold firm with his legs. That was the way to do
+it. And then the spurs! He would not forget the spurs. She should
+know that he wore a spur, and that, if necessary, he would use it.
+Then he, too, gave a little click with his tongue, and an acute
+observer might have seen the motion of his heel.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours after that he was still sitting in the smoking-room,
+chewing the end of a cigar, when Doodles came down victorious from
+the billiard-room. Archie was half asleep, and did not notice the
+entrance of his friend. "Let her know that you're there," said
+Doodles, close into Archie Clavering's ear,&mdash;"damme, let her know
+that you're there." Archie started and did not like the surprise, or
+the warm breath in his ear; but he forgave the offence for the wisdom
+of the words that had been spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Then he walked home by himself, repeating again and again the
+invaluable teachings of his friend.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c18"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3>
+<h4>CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.</h4>
+
+
+<p>During breakfast on the following day,&mdash;which means from the hour of
+one till two, for the glasses of iced gin-and-water had been
+many,&mdash;Archie Clavering was making up his mind that he would begin at
+once. He would go to Bolton Street on that day, and make an attempt
+to be admitted. If not admitted to-day he would make another attempt
+to-morrow, and, if still unsuccessful, he would write a letter; not a
+letter containing an offer, which according to Archie's ideas would
+not be letting her know that he was there in a manner sufficiently
+potential,&mdash;but a letter in which he would explain that he had very
+grave reasons for wishing to see his near and dear connexion, Lady
+Ongar. Soon after two he sallied out, and he also went to a
+hairdresser's. He was aware that in doing so he was hardly obeying
+his friend to the letter, as this sort of operation would come rather
+under the head of handling a filly with a light touch; but he thought
+that he could in this way, at any rate, do no harm, if he would only
+remember the instructions he had received when in the presence of the
+trained mare. It was nearly three when he found himself in Bolton
+Street, having calculated that Lady Ongar might be more probably
+found at home then than at a later hour. But when he came to the
+door, instead of knocking, he passed by it. He began to remember that
+he had not yet made up his mind by what means he would bring it about
+that she should certainly know that he was there. So he took a little
+turn up the street, away from Piccadilly, through a narrow passage
+that there is in those parts, and by some stables, and down into
+Piccadilly, and again to Bolton Street; during which little tour he
+had made up his mind that it could hardly become his duty to teach
+her that great lesson on this occasion. She must undoubtedly be
+taught to know that he was there, but not so taught on this, his
+first visit. That lesson should quickly precede his offer; and,
+although he had almost hoped in the interval between two of his
+beakers of gin-and-water on the preceding evening that he might ride
+the race and win it altogether during this very morning visit he was
+about to make, in his cooler moments he had begun to reflect that
+that would hardly be practicable. The mare must get a gallop before
+she would be in a condition to be brought out. So Archie knocked at
+the door, intending merely to give the mare a gallop if he should
+find her in to-day.</p>
+
+<p>He gave his name, and was shown at once up into Lady Ongar's
+drawing-room. Lady Ongar was not there, but she soon came down, and
+entered the room with a smile on her face and with an outstretched
+hand. Between the man-servant who took the captain's name, and the
+maid-servant who carried it up to her mistress,&mdash;but who did not see
+the gentleman before she did so, there had arisen some mistake, and
+Lady Ongar, as she came down from her chamber above expected that she
+was to meet another man. Harry Clavering, she thought, had come to
+her at last. "I'll be down at once," Lady Ongar had said, dismissing
+the girl and then standing for a moment before her mirror as she
+smoothed her hair, obliterated as far as it might be possible the
+ugliness of her cap, and shook out the folds of her dress. A
+countess, a widow, a woman of the world who had seen enough to make
+her composed under all circumstances, one would say,&mdash;a trained mare
+as Doodles had called her,&mdash;she stood before her glass doubting and
+trembling like a girl, when she heard that Harry Clavering was
+waiting for her below. We may surmise that she would have spared
+herself some of this trouble had she known the real name of her
+visitor. Then, as she came slowly down the stairs, she reflected how
+she would receive him. He had stayed away from her, and she would be
+cold to him,&mdash;cold and formal as she had been on the railway
+platform. She knew well how to play that part. Yes; it was his turn
+now to show some eagerness of friendship, if there was ever to be
+anything more than friendship between them. But she changed all this
+as she put her hand upon the lock of the door. She would be honest to
+him,&mdash;honest and true. She was in truth glad to see him, and he
+should know it. What cared she now for the common ways of women and
+the usual coynesses of feminine coquetry? She told herself also, in
+language somewhat differing from that which Doodles had used, that
+her filly days were gone by, and that she was now a trained mare. All
+this passed through her mind as her hand was on the door; and then
+she opened it, with a smiling face and ready hand, to find herself in
+the presence of&mdash;Captain Archie Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>The captain was sharp-sighted enough to observe the change in her
+manner. The change, indeed, was visible enough, and was such that it
+at once knocked out of Archie's breast some portion of the courage
+with which his friend's lessons had inspired him. The outstretched
+hand fell slowly to her side, the smile gave place to a look of
+composed dignity which made Archie at once feel that the fate which
+called upon him to woo a countess was in itself hard. And she walked
+slowly into the room before she spoke to him, or he to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Clavering!" she said at last, and there was much more of
+surprise than of welcome in her words as she uttered them.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Lady On&mdash;, Julia, that is; I thought I might as well come and
+call, as I found we weren't to see you at Clavering when we were all
+there at Easter." When she had been living in his brother's house as
+one of the family he had called her Julia, as Hugh had done. The
+connection between them had been close, and it had come naturally to
+him to do so. He had thought much of this since his present project
+had been initiated, and had strongly resolved not to lose the
+advantage of his former familiarity. He had very nearly broken down
+at the onset, but, as the reader will have observed, had recovered
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good," she said; and then as he had been some time
+standing with his right hand presented to her, she just touched it
+with her own.</p>
+
+<p>"There's nothing I hate so much as stuff and nonsense," said Archie.
+To this remark she simply bowed, remaining awfully quiet. Captain
+Clavering felt that her silence was in truth awful. She had always
+been good at talking, and he had paused for her to say something; but
+when she bowed to him in that stiff manner,&mdash;"doosed stiff she was;
+doosed stiff, and impudent too," he told Doodles afterwards;&mdash;he knew
+that he must go on himself. "Stuff and nonsense is the mischief, you
+know." Then she bowed again. "There's been something the matter with
+them all down at Clavering since you came home, Julia; but hang me if
+I can find out what it is!" Still she was silent. "It ain't Hermy;
+that I must say. Hermy always speaks of you as though there had never
+been anything wrong." This assurance, we may say, must have been
+flattering to the lady whom he was about to court.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermy was always too good to me," said Lady Ongar, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"By George, she always does. If there's anything wrong it's been with
+Hugh; and, by George, I don't know what it is he was up to when you
+first came home. It wasn't my doing;&mdash;of course you know that."</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought that anything was your doing, Captain Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"I think Hugh had been losing money; I do indeed. He was like a bear
+with a sore head just at that time. There was no living in the house
+with him. I daresay Hermy may have told you all about that."</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione is not by nature so communicative as you are, Captain
+Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't she? I should have thought between sisters&mdash;; but of course
+that's no business of mine." Again she was silent, awfully silent,
+and he became aware that he must either get up and go away or carry
+on the conversation himself. To do either seemed to be equally
+difficult, and for a while he sat there almost gasping in his misery.
+He was quite aware that as yet he had not made her know that he was
+there. He was not there, as he well knew, in his friend Doodles'
+sense of the word. "At any rate there isn't any good in quarrelling,
+is there, Julia?" he said at last. Now that he had asked a question,
+surely she must speak.</p>
+
+<p>"There is great good sometimes I think," said she, "in people
+remaining apart and not seeing each other. Sir Hugh Clavering has not
+quarrelled with me, that I am aware. Indeed, since my marriage there
+have been no means of quarrelling between us. But I think it quite as
+well that he and I should not come together."</p>
+
+<p>"But he particularly wants you to go to Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he sent you here as his messenger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sent me! oh dear no; nothing of that sort. I have come altogether on
+my own hook. If Hugh wants a messenger he must find some one else.
+But you and I were always friends you know,"&mdash;at this assertion she
+opened her large eyes widely, and simply smiled;&mdash;"and I thought that
+perhaps you might be glad to see me if I called. That was all."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good, Captain Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't bear to think that you should be here in London, and that
+one shouldn't see anything of you or know anything about you. Tell me
+now; is there anything I can do for you? Do you want anybody to
+settle anything for you in the city?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not, Captain Clavering; thank you very much."</p>
+
+<p>"Because I should be so happy; I should indeed. There's nothing I
+should like so much as to make myself useful in some way. Isn't there
+anything now? There must be so much to be looked after,&mdash;about money
+and all that."</p>
+
+<p>"My lawyer does all that, Captain Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"Those fellows are such harpies. There is no end to their charges;
+and all for doing things that would only be a pleasure to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I can't employ you in any matter that would suit your
+tastes."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you indeed, now?" Then again there was a silence, and Captain
+Clavering was beginning to think that he must go. He was willing to
+work hard at talking or anything else; but he could not work if no
+ground for starting were allowed to him. He thought he must go,
+though he was aware that he had not made even the slightest
+preparation for future obedience to his friend's precepts. He began
+to feel that he had commenced wrongly. He should have made her know
+that he was there from the first moment of her entrance into the
+room. He must retreat now in order that he might advance with more
+force on the next occasion. He had just made up his mind to this and
+was doubting how he might best get himself out of his chair with the
+purpose of going, when sudden relief came in the shape of another
+visitor. The door was thrown open and Madam Gordeloup was announced.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my angel," said the little woman, running up to her friend and
+kissing her on either side of her face. Then she turned round as
+though she had only just seen the strange gentleman, and curtseyed to
+him. Captain Clavering holding his hat in both his hands bowed to the
+little woman.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill18"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill18.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill18-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="Captain Clavering makes his first attempt." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">Captain
+      Clavering makes his first attempt.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill18.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"My sister's brother-in-law, Captain Clavering," said Lady Ongar.
+"Madam Gordeloup."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering bowed again. "Ah, Sir Oo's brother," said Madam
+Gordeloup. "I am very glad to see Captain Clavering; and is your
+sister come?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; my sister is not come."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Clavering is not in town this spring," said the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, not in town! Then I do pity her. There is only de one place to
+live in, and that is London, for April, May, and June. Lady Clavering
+is not coming to London?"</p>
+
+<p>"Her little boy isn't quite the thing," said the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite de ting?" said the Franco-Pole in an inquiring voice, not
+exactly understanding the gentleman's language.</p>
+
+<p>"My little nephew is ill, and my sister does not think it wise to
+bring him to London."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah; that is a pity. And Sir Oo? Sir Oo is in London?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the captain; "my brother has been up some time."</p>
+
+<p>"And his lady left alone in the country? Poor lady! But your English
+ladies like the country. They are fond of the fields and the daisies.
+So they say; but I think often they lie. Me; I like the houses, and
+the people, and the pav&eacute;. The fields are damp, and I love not
+rheumatism at all." Then the little woman shrugged her shoulders and
+shook herself. "Tell us the truth, Julie; which do you like best, the
+town or the country?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whichever I'm not in, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, just so. Whichever you are not in at present. That is because
+you are still idle. You have not settled yourself!" At this reference
+to the possibility of Lady Ongar settling herself, Captain Clavering
+pricked up his ears, and listened eagerly for what might come next.
+He only knew of one way in which a young woman without a husband
+could settle herself. "You must wait, my dear, a little longer, just
+a little longer, till the time of your trouble has passed by."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk such nonsense, Sophie," said the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, my dear, it is no nonsense. I am always telling her, Captain
+Clavering, that she must go through this black, troublesome time as
+quick as she can; and then nobody will enjoy the town so much as de
+rich and beautiful Lady Ongar. Is it not so, Captain Clavering?"</p>
+
+<p>Archie thought that the time had now come for him to say something
+pretty, so that his love might begin to know that he was there. "By
+George, yes, there'll be nobody so much admired when she comes out
+again. There never was anybody so much admired before,&mdash;before,&mdash;that
+is, when you were Julia Brabazon, you know; and I shouldn't wonder if
+you didn't come out quite as strong as ever."</p>
+
+<p>"As strong!" said the Franco-Pole. "A woman that has been married is
+always more admired than a meess."</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie, might I ask you and Captain Clavering to be a little less
+personal?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is noting I hate so much as your meesses," continued Madame
+Gordeloup; "noting! Your English meesses give themselves such airs.
+Now in Paris, or in dear Vienna, or in St. Petersburg, they are not
+like that at all. There they are nobodies&mdash;they are nobodies; but
+then they will be something very soon, which is to be better. Your
+English meess is so much and so grand; she never can be greater and
+grander. So when she is a mamma, she lives down in the country by
+herself, and looks after de pills and de powders. I don't like that.
+I don't like that at all. No; if my husband had put me into the
+country to look after de pills and de powders, he should have had
+them all, all&mdash;himself, when he came to see me." As she said this
+with great energy, she opened her eyes wide, and looked full into
+Archie's face.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering, who was sitting with his hat in his two hands
+between his knees, stared at the little foreigner. He had heard
+before of women poisoning their husbands, but never had heard a woman
+advocate the system as expedient. Nor had he often heard a woman
+advocate any system with the vehemence which Madame Gordeloup now
+displayed on this matter, and with an allusion which was so very
+pointed to the special position of his own sister-in-law. Did Lady
+Ongar agree with her? He felt as though he should like to know his
+Julia's opinions on that matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie, Captain Clavering will think you are in earnest," said the
+countess, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"So I am&mdash;in earnest. It is all wrong. You boil all the water out of
+de pot before you put the gigot into it. So the gigot is no good, is
+tough and dry, and you shut it up in an old house in the country.
+Then, to make matters pretty, you talk about de fields and de
+daisies. I know. 'Thank you,' I should say. 'De fields and de daisies
+are so nice and so good! Suppose you go down, my love, and walk in de
+fields, and pick de daisies, and send them up to me by de railway!'
+Yes, that is what I would say."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering was now quite in the dark, and began to regard the
+little woman as a lunatic. When she spoke of the pot and the gigot he
+vainly endeavoured to follow her; and now that she had got among the
+daisies he was more at a loss than ever. Fruit, vegetables, and cut
+flowers came up, he knew, to London regularly from Clavering, when
+the family was in town;&mdash;but no daisies. In France it must, he
+supposed, be different. He was aware, however, of his ignorance, and
+said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"No one ever did try to shut you up, Sophie!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed; M. Gordeloup knew better. What would he do if I were
+shut up? And no one will ever shut you up, my dear. If I were you, I
+would give no one a chance."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say that," said the captain, almost passionately; "don't say
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha! but I do say it. Why should a woman who has got everything
+marry again? If she wants de fields and de daisies she has got them
+of her own&mdash;yes, of her own. If she wants de town, she has got that
+too. Jewels,&mdash;she can go and buy them. Coaches,&mdash;there they are.
+Parties,&mdash;one, two, three, every night, as many as she please.
+Gentlemen who will be her humble slaves; such a plenty,&mdash;all London.
+Or, if she want to be alone, no one can come near her. Why should she
+marry? No."</p>
+
+<p>"But she might be in love with somebody," said the captain, in a
+surprised but humble tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Love! Bah! Be in love, so that she may be shut up in an old barrack
+with de powders!" The way in which that word barrack was pronounced,
+and the middle letters sounded, almost lifted the captain off his
+seat. "Love is very pretty at seventeen, when the imagination is
+telling a parcel of lies, and when life is one dream. To like
+people,&mdash;oh, yes; to be very fond of your friends,&mdash;oh, yes; to be
+most attached,&mdash;as I am to my Julie,"&mdash;here she got hold of Lady
+Ongar's hand,&mdash;"it is the salt of life! But what you call love,
+booing and cooing, with rhymes and verses about de moon, it is to go
+back to pap and panade, and what you call bibs. No; if a woman wants
+a house, and de something to live on, let her marry a husband; or if
+a man want to have children, let him marry a wife. But to be shut up
+in a country house, when everything you have got of your own,&mdash;I say
+it is bad."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering was heartily sorry that he had mentioned the fact
+of his sister-in-law being left at home at Clavering Park. It was
+most unfortunate. How could he make it understood that if he were
+married he would not think of shutting his wife up at Ongar Park?
+"Lady Clavering, you know, does come to London generally," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" exclaimed the little Franco-Pole.</p>
+
+<p>"And as for me, I never should be happy, if I were married, unless I
+had my wife with me everywhere," said Captain Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah-ah-ah!" ejaculated the lady.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering could not endure this any longer. He felt that the
+manner of the lady was, to say the least of it, unpleasant, and he
+perceived that he was doing no good to his own cause. So he rose from
+his chair and muttered some words with the intention of showing his
+purpose of departure.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Captain Clavering," said Lady Ongar. "My love to my sister
+when you see her."</p>
+
+<p>Archie shook hands with her and then made his bow to Madame
+Gordeloup.</p>
+
+<p>"Au revoir, my friend," she said, "and you remember all I say. It is
+not good for de wife to be all alone in the country, while de husband
+walk about in the town and make an eye to every lady he see." Archie
+would not trust himself to renew the argument, but bowing again, made
+his way off.</p>
+
+<p>"He was come for one admirer," said Sophie, as soon as the door was
+closed.</p>
+
+<p>"An admirer of whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not of me;&mdash;oh, no; I was not in danger at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Of me? Captain Clavering! Sophie, you get your head full of the
+strangest nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah; very well. You see. What will you give me if I am right? Will
+you bet? Why had he got on his new gloves, and had his head all
+smelling with stuff from de hairdresser? Does he come always perfumed
+like that? Does he wear shiny little boots to walk about in de
+morning, and make an eye always? Perhaps yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw his boots or his eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"But I see them. I see many things. He come to have Ongere Park for
+his own. I tell you, yes. Ten thousand will come to have Ongere Park.
+Why not? To have Ongere Park and all de money a man will make himself
+smell a great deal."</p>
+
+<p>"You think much more about all that than is necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I, my dear? Very well. There are three already. There is Edouard,
+and there is this Clavering who you say is a captain; and there is
+the other Clavering who goes with his nose in the air, and who think
+himself a clever fellow because he learned his lesson at school and
+did not get himself whipped. He will be whipped yet some
+day,&mdash;perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie, hold your tongue. Captain Clavering is my sister's
+brother-in-law, and Harry Clavering is my friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, friend! I know what sort of friend he wants to be. How much
+better to have a park and plenty of money than to work in a ditch and
+make a railway! But he do not know the way with a woman. Perhaps he
+may be more at home, as you say, in the ditch. I should say to him,
+'My friend, you will do well in de ditch if you work hard;&mdash;suppose
+you stay there.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't seem to like my cousin, and if you please, we will talk no
+more about him."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I not like him? He don't want to get any money from me."</p>
+
+<p>"That will do, Sophie."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; it shall do for me. But this other man that come here
+to-day. He is a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely."</p>
+
+<p>"He did not learn his lesson without whipping."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor with whipping either."</p>
+
+<p>"No; he have learned nothing. He does not know what to do with his
+hat. He is a fool. Come, Julie, will you take me out for a drive. It
+is melancholy for you to go alone; I came to ask you for a drive.
+Shall we go?" And they did go, Lady Ongar and Sophie Gordeloup
+together. Lady Ongar, as she submitted, despised herself for her
+submission; but what was she to do? It is sometimes very difficult to
+escape from the meshes of friendship.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering, when he left Bolton Street, went down to his club,
+having first got rid of his shining boots and new gloves. He
+sauntered up into the billiard-room knowing that his friend would be
+there, and there he found Doodles with his coat off, the sleeves of
+his shirt turned back, and armed with his cue. His brother captain,
+the moment that he saw him, presented the cue at his breast. "Does
+she know you're there, old fellow; I say, does she know you're
+there?" The room was full of men, and the whole thing was done so
+publicly that Captain Clavering was almost offended.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Doodles, you go on with your game," said he; "it's you to
+play." Doodles turned to the table, and scientifically pocketed the
+ball on which he played; then he laid his own ball close under the
+cushion, picked up a shilling and put it into his waistcoat pocket,
+holding a lighted cigar in his mouth the while, and then he came back
+to his friend. "Well, Clavvy, how has it been?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing as yet, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you seen her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I've seen her, of course. I'm not the fellow to let the grass
+grow under my feet. I've only just come from her house."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's nothing much to tell the first day, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you let her know you were there? That's the chat. Damme, did you
+let her know you were there?"</p>
+
+<p>In answer to this Archie attempted to explain that he was not as yet
+quite sure that he had been successful in that particular; but in the
+middle of his story Captain Doodles was called off to exercise his
+skill again, and on this occasion to pick up two shillings. "I'm
+sorry for you, Griggs," he said, as a very young lieutenant, whose
+last life he had taken, put up his cue with a look of ineffable
+disgust, and whose shilling Doodles had pocketed; "I'm sorry for you,
+very; but a fellow must play the game, you know." Whereupon Griggs
+walked out of the room with a gait that seemed to show that he had
+his own ideas upon that matter, though he did not choose to divulge
+them. Doodles instantly returned to his friend. "With cattle of that
+kind it's no use trying the waiting dodge," said he. "You should make
+your running at once, and trust to bottom to carry you through."</p>
+
+<p>"But there was a horrid little Frenchwoman came in!"</p>
+
+<p>"What; a servant?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; a friend. Such a creature! You should have heard her talk. A
+kind of confidential friend she seemed, who called her Julie. I had
+to go away and leave her there, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you'll have to tip that woman."</p>
+
+<p>"What, with money?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't wonder."</p>
+
+<p>"It would come very expensive."</p>
+
+<p>"A tenner now and then, you know. She would do your business for you.
+Give her a brooch first, and then offer to lend her the money. You'd
+find she'll rise fast enough, if you're any hand for throwing a fly."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I could do it, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Do it then, and let 'em both know that you're there. Yes, Parkyns,
+I'll divide. And, Clavvy, you can come in now in Griggs' place." Then
+Captain Clavering stripped himself for the battle.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c19"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XIX.</h3>
+<h4>THE BLUE POSTS.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill19-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="O" />h; so
+you 'ave come to see me. I am so glad." With these words
+Sophie Gordeloup welcomed Harry Clavering to her room in Mount Street
+early one morning not long after her interview with Captain Archie in
+Lady Ongar's presence. On the previous evening Harry had received a
+note from Lady Ongar, in which she upbraided him for having left
+unperformed her commission with reference to Count Pateroff. The
+letter had begun quite abruptly. "I think it unkind of you that you
+do not come to me. I asked you to see a certain person on my behalf,
+and you have not done so. Twice he has been here. Once I was in truth
+out. He came again the next evening at nine, and I was then ill, and
+had gone to bed. You understand it all, and must know how this annoys
+me. I thought you would have done this for me, and I thought I should
+have seen you.&mdash;J." This note he found at his lodgings when he
+returned home at night, and on the following morning he went in his
+despair direct to Mount Street, on his way to the Adelphi. It was not
+yet ten o'clock when he was shown into Madame Gordeloup's presence,
+and as regarded her dress he did not find her to be quite prepared
+for morning visitors. But he might well be indifferent on that
+matter, as the lady seemed to disregard the circumstances altogether.
+On her head she wore what he took to be a nightcap, though I will not
+absolutely undertake to say that she had slept in that very
+head-dress. There were frills to it, and a certain attempt at
+prettinesses had been made; but then the attempt had been made so
+long ago, and the frills were so ignorant of starch and all frillish
+propensities, that it hardly could pretend to decency. A great white
+wrapper she also wore, which might not have been objectionable had it
+not been so long worn that it looked like a university college
+surplice at the end of the long vacation. Her slippers had all the
+ease which age could give them, and above the slippers, neatness, to
+say the least of it, did not predominate. But Sophie herself seemed
+to be quite at her ease in spite of these deficiencies, and received
+our hero with an eager, pointed welcome, which I can hardly describe
+as affectionate, and which Harry did not at all understand.</p>
+
+<p>"I have to apologize for troubling you," he began.</p>
+
+<p>"Trouble, what trouble? Bah! You give me no trouble. It is you have
+the trouble to come here. You come early and I have not got my
+crinoline. If you are contented, so am I." Then she smiled, and sat
+herself down suddenly, letting herself almost fall into her special
+corner in the sofa. "Take a chair, Mr. Harry; then we can talk more
+comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"I want especially to see your brother. Can you give me his address?"</p>
+
+<p>"What? Edouard&mdash;certainly; Travellers' Club."</p>
+
+<p>"But he is never there."</p>
+
+<p>"He sends every day for his letters. You want to see him. Why?"</p>
+
+<p>Harry was at once confounded, having no answer. "A little private
+business," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah; a little private business. You do not owe him a little money, I
+am afraid, or you would not want to see him. Ha, ha! You write to
+him, and he will see you. There;&mdash;there is paper and pen and ink. He
+shall get your letter this day."</p>
+
+<p>Harry, nothing suspicious, did as he was bid, and wrote a note in
+which he simply told the count that he was specially desirous of
+seeing him.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go to you anywhere," said Harry, "if you will name a place."</p>
+
+<p>We, knowing Madame Gordeloup's habits, may feel little doubt but that
+she thought it her duty to become acquainted with the contents of the
+note before she sent it out of her house, but we may also know that
+she learned very little from it.</p>
+
+<p>"It shall go, almost immediately," said Sophie, when the envelope was
+closed.</p>
+
+<p>Then Harry got up to depart, having done his work. "What, you are
+going in that way at once? You are in a hurry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes; I am in a hurry, rather, Madame Gordeloup. I have got to
+be at my office, and I only just came up here to find out your
+brother's address." Then he rose and went, leaving the note behind
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Then Madame Gordeloup, speaking to herself in French, called Harry
+Clavering a lout, a fool, an awkward overgrown boy, and a pig. She
+declared him to be a pig nine times over, then shook herself in
+violent disgust, and after that betook herself to the letter.</p>
+
+<p>The letter was at any rate duly sent to the count, for before Harry
+had left Mr. Beilby's chambers on that day, Pateroff came to him
+there. Harry sat in the same room with other men, and therefore went
+out to see his acquaintance in a little antechamber that was used for
+such purposes. As he walked from one room to the other, he was
+conscious of the delicacy and difficulty of the task before him, and
+the colour was high in his face as he opened the door. But when he
+had done so, he saw that the count was not alone. A gentleman was
+with him, whom he did not introduce to Harry, and before whom Harry
+could not say that which he had to communicate.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," said the count, "but we are in railroad hurry. Nobody
+ever was in such a haste as I and my friend. You are not engaged
+to-morrow? No, I see. You dine with me and my friend at the Blue
+Posts. You know the Blue Posts?"</p>
+
+<p>Harry said he did not know the Blue Posts.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you shall know the Blue Posts. I will be your instructor. You
+drink claret. Come and see. You eat beefsteaks. Come and try. You
+love one glass of port wine with your cheese. No. But you shall love
+it when you have dined with me at the Blue Posts. We will dine
+altogether after the English way;&mdash;which is the best way in the world
+when it is quite good. It is quite good at the Blue Posts;&mdash;quite
+good! Seven o'clock. You are fined when a minute late; an extra glass
+of port wine a minute. Now I must go. Ah; yes. I am ruined already."</p>
+
+<p>Then Count Pateroff, holding his watch in his hand, bolted out of the
+room before Harry could say a word to him.</p>
+
+<p>He had nothing for it but to go to the dinner, and to the dinner he
+went. On that same evening, the evening of the day on which he had
+seen Sophie and her brother, he wrote to Lady Ongar, using to her the
+same manner of writing that she had used to him, and telling her that
+he had done his best, that he had now seen him whom he had been
+desired to see, but that he had not been able to speak to him. He
+was, however, to dine with him on the following day,&mdash;and would call
+in Bolton Street as soon as possible after that interview.</p>
+
+<p>Exactly at seven o'clock, Harry, having the fear of the threatened
+fine before his eyes, was at the Blue Posts; and there, standing in
+the middle of the room, he saw Count Pateroff. With Count Pateroff
+was the same gentleman whom Harry had seen at the Adelphi, and whom
+the count now introduced as Colonel Schmoff; and also a little
+Englishman with a knowing eye and a bull-dog neck, and whiskers cut
+very short and trim,&mdash;a horsey little man, whom the count also
+introduced. "Captain Boodle; says he knows a cousin of yours, Mr.
+Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>Then Colonel Schmoff bowed, never yet having spoken a word in Harry's
+hearing, and our old friend Doodles with glib volubility told Harry
+how intimate he was with Archie, and how he knew Sir Hugh, and how he
+had met Lady Clavering, and how "doosed" glad he was to meet Harry
+himself on this present occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, my boys, we'll set down," said the count. "There's just a
+little soup, printanier; yes, they can make soup here; then a cut of
+salmon; and after that the beefsteak. Nothing more. Schmoff, my boy,
+can you eat beefsteak?"</p>
+
+<p>Schmoff neither smiled nor spoke, but simply bowed his head gravely,
+and sitting down, arranged with slow exactness his napkin over his
+waistcoat and lap.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Boodle, can you eat beefsteak," said the count; "Blue Posts'
+beefsteak?"</p>
+
+<p>"Try me," said Doodles. "That's all. Try me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will try you, and I will try Mr. Clavering. Schmoff would eat a
+horse if he had not a bullock, and a piece of a jackass if he had not
+a horse."</p>
+
+<p>"I did eat a horse in Hamboro' once. We was besieged."</p>
+
+<p>So much said Schmoff, very slowly, in a deep bass voice, speaking
+from the bottom of his chest, and frowning very heavily as he did so.
+The exertion was so great that he did not repeat it for a
+considerable time.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God we are not besieged now," said the count, as the soup was
+handed round to them. "Ah, Albert, my friend, that is good soup; very
+good soup. My compliments to the excellent Stubbs. Mr. Clavering, the
+excellent Stubbs is the cook. I am quite at home here and they do
+their best for me. You need not fear you will have any of Schmoff's
+horse."</p>
+
+<p>This was all very pleasant, and Harry Clavering sat down to his
+dinner prepared to enjoy it; but there was a sense about him during
+the whole time that he was being taken in and cheated, and that the
+count would cheat him and actually escape away from him on that
+evening without his being able to speak a word to him. They were
+dining in a public room, at a large table which they had to
+themselves, while others were dining at small tables round them. Even
+if Schmoff and Boodle had not been there, he could hardly have
+discussed Lady Ongar's private affairs in such a room as that. The
+count had brought him there to dine in this way with a premeditated
+purpose of throwing him over, pretending to give him the meeting that
+had been asked for, but intending that it should pass by and be of no
+avail. Such was Harry's belief, and he resolved that, though he might
+have to seize Pateroff by the tails of his coat, the count should not
+escape him without having been forced at any rate to hear what he had
+to say. In the meantime the dinner went on very pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said the count, "there is no fish like salmon early in the
+year; but not too early. And it should come alive from Grove, and be
+cooked by Stubbs."</p>
+
+<p>"And eaten by me," said Boodle.</p>
+
+<p>"Under my auspices," said the count, "and then all is well. Mr.
+Clavering, a little bit near the head? Not care about any particular
+part? That is wrong. Everybody should always learn what is the best
+to eat of everything, and get it if they can."</p>
+
+<p>"By George, I should think so," said Doodles. "I know I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to know the bit out of the neck of the salmon from any other
+bit, is not to know a false note from a true one. Not to distinguish
+a '51 wine from a '58, is to look at an arm or a leg on the canvas,
+and to care nothing whether it is in drawing, or out of drawing. Not
+to know Stubbs' beefsteak from other beefsteaks, is to say that every
+woman is the same thing to you. Only, Stubbs will let you have his
+beefsteak if you will pay him,&mdash;him or his master. With the beautiful
+woman it is not always so;&mdash;not always. Do I make myself understood?"</p>
+
+<p>"Clear as mud," said Doodles. "I'm quite along with you there. Why
+should a man be ashamed of eating what's nice? Everybody does it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Captain Boodle; not everybody. Some cannot get it, and some do
+not know it when it comes in their way. They are to be pitied. I do
+pity them from the bottom of my heart. But there is one poor fellow I
+do pity more even than they."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in the tone of the count's words,&mdash;a simple
+pathos, and almost a melody, which interested Harry Clavering. No one
+knew better than Count Pateroff how to use all the inflexions of his
+voice, and produce from the phrases he used the very highest interest
+which they were capable of producing. He now spoke of his pity in a
+way that might almost have made a sensitive man weep. "Who is it that
+you pity so much?" Harry asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The man who cannot digest," said the count, in a low clear voice.
+Then he bent down his head over the morsel of food on his plate, as
+though he were desirous of hiding a tear. "The man who cannot
+digest!" As he repeated the words he raised his head again, and
+looked round at all their faces.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes;&mdash;mein Gott, yes," said Schmoff, and even he appeared as
+though he were almost moved from the deep quietude of his inward
+indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah; talk of blessings! What a blessing is digestion!" said the
+count. "I do not know whether you have ever thought of it, Captain
+Boodle? You are young, and perhaps not. Or you, Mr. Clavering? It is
+a subject worthy of your thoughts. To digest! Do you know what it
+means? It is to have the sun always shining, and the shade always
+ready for you. It is to be met with smiles, and to be greeted with
+kisses. It is to hear sweet sounds, to sleep with sweet dreams, to be
+touched ever by gentle, soft, cool hands. It is to be in paradise.
+Adam and Eve were in paradise. Why? Their digestion was good. Ah!
+then they took liberties, eat bad fruit,&mdash;things they could not
+digest. They what we call, ruined their constitutions, destroyed
+their gastric juices, and then they were expelled from paradise by an
+angel with a flaming sword. The angel with the flaming sword, which
+turned two ways, was indigestion! There came a great indigestion upon
+the earth because the cooks were bad, and they called it a deluge.
+Ah, I thank God there is to be no more deluges. All the evils come
+from this. Macbeth could not sleep. It was the supper, not the
+murder. His wife talked and walked. It was the supper again. Milton
+had a bad digestion because he is always so cross; and your Carlyle
+must have the worst digestion in the world, because he never says any
+good of anything. Ah, to digest is to be happy! Believe me, my
+friends, there is no other way not to be turned out of paradise by a
+fiery two-handed turning sword."</p>
+
+<p>"It is true," said Schmoff; "yes, it is true."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you," said Doodles. "And how well the count describes it,
+don't he, Mr. Clavering? I never looked at it in that light; but,
+after all, digestion is everything. What is a horse worth, if he
+won't feed?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought much about it," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"That is very good," said the great preacher. "Not to think about it
+ever is the best thing in the world. You will be made to think about
+it if there be necessity. A friend of mine told me he did not know
+whether he had a digestion. My friend, I said, you are like the
+husbandmen; you do not know your own blessings. A bit more steak, Mr.
+Clavering; see, it has come up hot, just to prove that you have the
+blessing."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause in the conversation for a minute or two, during
+which Schmoff and Doodles were very busy giving the required proof;
+and the count was leaning back in his chair, with a smile of
+conscious wisdom on his face, looking as though he were in deep
+consideration of the subject on which he had just spoken with so much
+eloquence. Harry did not interrupt the silence, as, foolishly, he was
+allowing his mind to carry itself away from the scene of enjoyment
+that was present, and trouble itself with the coming battle which he
+would be obliged to fight with the count. Schmoff was the first to
+speak. "When I was eating a horse at
+<span class="nowrap">Hamboro'&mdash;"</span> he began.</p>
+
+<p>"Schmoff," said the count, "if we allow you to get behind the
+ramparts of that besieged city, we shall have to eat that horse for
+the rest of the evening. Captain Boodle, if you will believe me, I
+eat that horse once for two hours. Ah, here is the port wine. Now,
+Mr. Clavering, this is the wine for cheese;&mdash;'34. No man should drink
+above two glasses of '34. If you want port after that, then have
+'20."</p>
+
+<p>Schmoff had certainly been hardly treated. He had scarcely spoken a
+word during dinner, and should, I think, have been allowed to say
+something of the flavour of the horse. It did not, however, appear
+from his countenance that he had felt, or that he resented the
+interference; though he did not make any further attempt to enliven
+the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>They did not sit long over their wine, and the count, in spite of
+what he had said about the claret, did not drink any. "Captain
+Boodle," he said, "you must respect my weakness as well as my
+strength. I know what I can do, and what I cannot. If I were a real
+hero, like you English,&mdash;which means, if I had an ostrich in my
+inside,&mdash;I would drink till twelve every night, and eat broiled bones
+till six every morning. But alas! the ostrich has not been given to
+me. As a common man I am pretty well, but I have no heroic
+capacities. We will have a little chasse, and then we will smoke."</p>
+
+<p>Harry began to be very nervous. How was he to do it? It had become
+clearer and clearer to him through every ten minutes of the dinner,
+that the count did not intend to give him any moment for private
+conversation. He felt that he was cheated and ill-used, and was
+waxing angry. They were to go and smoke in a public room, and he
+knew, or thought he knew, what that meant. The count would sit there
+till he went, and had brought the Colonel Schmoff with him, so that
+he might be sure of some ally to remain by his side and ensure
+silence. And the count, doubtless, had calculated that when Captain
+Boodle went, as he soon would go, to his billiards, he, Harry
+Clavering, would feel himself compelled to go also. No! It should not
+result in that way. Harry resolved that he would not go. He had his
+mission to perform and he would perform it, even if he were compelled
+to do so in the presence of Colonel Schmoff.</p>
+
+<p>Doodles soon went. He could not sit long with the simple
+gratification of a cigar, without gin-and-water or other comfort of
+that kind, even though the eloquence of Count Pateroff might be
+excited in his favour. He was a man, indeed, who did not love to sit
+still, even with the comfort of gin-and-water. An active little man
+was Captain Boodle, always doing something or anxious to do something
+in his own line of business. Small speculations in money, so
+concocted as to leave the risk against him smaller than the chance on
+his side, constituted Captain Boodle's trade; and in that trade he
+was indefatigable, ingenious, and, to a certain extent, successful.
+The worst of the trade was this: that though he worked at it above
+twelve hours a day, to the exclusion of all other interests in life,
+he could only make out of it an income which would have been
+considered a beggarly failure at any other profession. When he netted
+a pound a day he considered himself to have done very well; but he
+could not do that every day in the week. To do it often required
+unremitting exertion. And then, in spite of all his care, misfortunes
+would come. "A cursed garron, of whom nobody had ever heard the name!
+If a man mayn't take a liberty with such a brute as that, when is he
+to take a liberty?" So had he expressed himself plaintively,
+endeavouring to excuse himself, when on some occasion a race had been
+won by some outside horse which Captain Boodle had omitted to make
+safe in his betting-book. He was regarded by his intimate friends as
+a very successful man; but I think myself that his life was a
+mistake. To live with one's hands ever daubed with chalk from a
+billiard-table, to be always spying into stables and rubbing against
+grooms, to put up with the narrow lodgings which needy men encounter
+at race meetings, to be day after day on the rails running after
+platers and steeplechasers, to be conscious on all occasions of the
+expediency of selling your beast when you are hunting, to be counting
+up little odds at all your spare moments;&mdash;these things do not, I
+think, make a satisfactory life for a young man. And for a man that
+is not young, they are the very devil! Better have no digestion when
+you are forty than find yourself living such a life as that! Captain
+Boodle would, I think, have been happier had he contrived to get
+himself employed as a tax-gatherer or an attorney's clerk.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion Doodles soon went, as had been expected, and Harry
+found himself smoking with the two foreigners. Pateroff was no longer
+eloquent, but sat with his cigar in his mouth as silent as Colonel
+Schmoff himself. It was evidently expected of Harry that he should
+go.</p>
+
+<p>"Count," he said at last, "you got my note?" There were seven or
+eight persons sitting in the room besides the party of three to which
+Harry belonged.</p>
+
+<p>"Your note, Mr. Clavering! which note? Oh, yes; I should not have had
+the pleasure of seeing you here to-day but for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you give me five minutes in private?"</p>
+
+<p>"What! now! here! this evening! after dinner? Another time I will
+talk with you by the hour together."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear I must trouble you now. I need not remind you that I could
+not keep you yesterday morning; you were so much hurried."</p>
+
+<p>"And now I am having my little moment of comfort! These special
+business conversations after dinner are so bad for the digestion!"</p>
+
+<p>"If I could have caught you before dinner, Count Pateroff, I would
+have done so."</p>
+
+<p>"If it must be, it must. Schmoff, will you wait for me ten minutes? I
+will not be more than ten minutes." And the count as he made this
+promise looked at his watch. "Waiter," he said, speaking in a sharp
+tone which Harry had not heard before, "show this gentleman and me
+into a private room." Harry got up and led the way out, not
+forgetting to assure himself that he cared nothing for the sharpness
+of the count's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Clavering, what is it?" said the count, looking full into
+Harry's eye.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you in two words."</p>
+
+<p>"In one if you can."</p>
+
+<p>"I came with a message to you from Lady Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you a messenger from Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have known her long and she is connected with my family."</p>
+
+<p>"Why does she not send her messages by Sir Hugh,&mdash;her
+brother-in-law?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is hardly for you to ask that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it is for me to ask that. I have known Lady Ongar well, and
+have treated her with kindness. I do not want to have messages by
+anybody. But go on. If you are a messenger, give your message."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Ongar bids me tell you that she cannot see you."</p>
+
+<p>"But she must see me. She shall see me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am to explain to you that she declines to do so. Surely, Count
+Pateroff, you must
+<span class="nowrap">understand&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, bah; I understand everything;&mdash;in such matters as these, better,
+perhaps, than you, Mr. Clavering. You have given your message. Now,
+as you are a messenger, will you give mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"That will depend altogether on its nature."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I never send uncivil words to a woman, though sometimes I may
+be tempted to speak them to a man; when, for instance, a man
+interferes with me; do you understand? My message is this:&mdash;tell her
+ladyship, with my compliments, that it will be better for her to see
+me,&mdash;better for her, and for me. When that poor lord died,&mdash;and he
+had been, mind, my friend for many years before her ladyship had
+heard his name,&mdash;I was with him; and there were occurrences of which
+you know nothing and need know nothing. I did my best then to be
+courteous to Lady Ongar, which she returns by shutting her door in my
+face. I do not mind that. I am not angry with a woman. But tell her
+that when she has heard what I now say to her by you, she will, I do
+not doubt, think better of it; and therefore I shall do myself the
+honour of presenting myself at her door again. Good-night, Mr.
+Clavering; au revoir; we will have another of Stubbs' little dinners
+before long." As he spoke these last words the count's voice was
+again changed, and the old smile had returned to his face.</p>
+
+<p>Harry shook hands with him and walked away homewards, not without a
+feeling that the count had got the better of him, even to the end. He
+had, however, learned how the land lay, and could explain to Lady
+Ongar that Count Pateroff now knew her wishes and was determined to
+disregard them.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c20"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XX.</h3>
+<h4>DESOLATION.</h4>
+
+
+<p>In the meantime there was grief down at the great house of Clavering;
+and grief, we must suppose also, at the house in Berkeley Square, as
+soon as the news from his country home had reached Sir Hugh
+Clavering. Little Hughy, his heir, was dead. Early one morning, Mrs.
+Clavering, at the rectory, received a message from Lady Clavering,
+begging that she would go up to the house, and, on arriving there,
+she found that the poor child was very ill. The doctor was then at
+Clavering, and had recommended that a message should be sent to the
+father in London, begging him to come down. This message had been
+already despatched when Mrs. Clavering arrived. The poor mother was
+in a state of terrible agony, but at that time there was yet hope.
+Mrs. Clavering then remained with Lady Clavering for two or three
+hours; but just before dinner on the same day another messenger came
+across to say that hope was past, and that the child had gone. Could
+Mrs. Clavering come over again, as Lady Clavering was in a sad way?</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have your dinner first?" said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I think not. I shall wish to make her take something, and I can
+do it better if I ask for tea for myself. I will go at once. Poor
+dear little boy."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a blow I always feared," said the rector to his daughter as
+soon as his wife had left them. "Indeed, I knew that it was coming."</p>
+
+<p>"And she was always fearing it," said Fanny. "But I do not think he
+did. He never seems to think that evil will come to him."</p>
+
+<p>"He will feel this," said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>"Feel it, papa! Of course he will feel it."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think he would,&mdash;not deeply, that is,&mdash;if there were four
+or five of them. He is a hard man;&mdash;the hardest man I ever knew. Who
+ever saw him playing with his own child, or with any other? Who ever
+heard him say a soft word to his wife? But he will be hit now, for
+this child was his heir. He will be hit hard now, and I pity him."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Clavering went across the park alone, and soon found herself in
+the poor bereaved mother's room. She was sitting by herself, having
+driven the old housekeeper away from her; and there were no traces of
+tears then on her face, though she had wept plentifully when Mrs.
+Clavering had been with her in the morning. But there had come upon
+her suddenly a look of age, which nothing but such sorrow as this can
+produce. Mrs. Clavering was surprised to see that she had dressed
+herself carefully since the morning, as was her custom to do daily,
+even when alone; and that she was not in her bedroom, but in a small
+sitting-room which she generally used when Sir Hugh was not at the
+park.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Hermione," said Mrs. Clavering, coming up to her, and taking
+her by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am poor; poor enough. Why have they troubled you to come
+across again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not send for me? But it was quite right, whether you sent or
+no. Of course I should come when I heard it. It cannot be good for
+you to be all alone."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he will be here to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if he got your message before three o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he will have received it, and I suppose he will come. You think
+he will come, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he will come."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know. He does not like coming to the country."</p>
+
+<p>"He will be sure to come now, Hermione."</p>
+
+<p>"And who will tell him? Some one must tell him before he comes to me.
+Should there not be some one to tell him? They have sent another
+message."</p>
+
+<p>"Hannah shall be at hand to tell him." Hannah was the old housekeeper
+who had been in the family when Sir Hugh was born. "Or, if you wish
+it, Henry shall come down and remain here. I am sure he will do so,
+if it will be a comfort."</p>
+
+<p>"No; he would, perhaps, be rough to Mr. Clavering. He is so very
+hard. Hannah shall do it. Will you make her understand?" Mrs.
+Clavering promised that she would do this, wondering, as she did so,
+at the wretched, frigid immobility of the unfortunate woman before
+her. She knew Lady Clavering well;&mdash;knew her to be in many things
+weak, to be worldly, listless, and perhaps somewhat selfish; but she
+knew also that she had loved her child as mothers always love. Yet,
+at this moment, it seemed that she was thinking more of her husband
+than of the bairn she had lost. Mrs. Clavering had sat down by her
+and taken her hand, and was still so sitting in silence when Lady
+Clavering spoke again. "I suppose he will turn me out of his house
+now," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Who will do so? Hugh? Oh, Hermione, how can you speak in such a
+way?"</p>
+
+<p>"He scolded me before because my poor darling was not strong. My
+darling! How could I help it? And he scolded me because there was
+none other but he. He will turn me out altogether now. Oh, Mrs.
+Clavering, you do not know how hard he is."</p>
+
+<p>Anything was better than this, and therefore Mrs. Clavering asked the
+poor woman to take her into the room where the little body lay in its
+little cot. If she could induce the mother to weep for the child,
+even that would be better than this hard persistent fear as to what
+her husband would say and do. So they both went and stood together
+over the little fellow whose short sufferings had thus been brought
+to an end. "My poor dear, what can I say to comfort you?" Mrs.
+Clavering, as she asked this, knew well that no comfort could be
+spoken in words; but&mdash;if she could only make the sufferer weep!</p>
+
+<p>"Comfort!" said the mother. "There is no comfort now, I believe, in
+anything. It is long since I knew any comfort;&mdash;not since Julia
+went."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you written to Julia?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I have written to no one. I cannot write. I feel as though if it
+were to bring him back again I could not write of it. My boy! my boy!
+my boy!" But still there was not a tear in her eye.</p>
+
+<p>"I will write to Julia," said Mrs. Clavering; "and I will read to you
+my letter."</p>
+
+<p>"No, do not read it me. What is the use? He has made her quarrel with
+me. Julia cares nothing now for me, or for my angel. Why should she
+care? When she came home we would not see her. Of course she will not
+care. Who is there that will care for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not I care for you, Hermione?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, because you are here; because of the nearness of the houses. If
+you lived far away you would not care for me. It is just the custom
+of the thing." There was something so true in this that Mrs.
+Clavering could make no answer to it. Then they turned to go back
+into the sitting-room, and as they did so Lady Clavering lingered
+behind for a moment; but when she was again with Mrs. Clavering her
+cheek was still dry.</p>
+
+<p>"He will be at the station at nine," said Lady Clavering. "They must
+send the brougham for him, or the dog-cart. He will be very angry if
+he is made to come home in the fly from the public-house." Then the
+elder lady left the room and gave orders that Sir Hugh should be met
+by his carriage. What must the wife think of her husband, when she
+feared that he would be angered by little matters at such a time as
+this! "Do you think it will make him very unhappy?" Lady Clavering
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it will make him unhappy. How should it be otherwise?"</p>
+
+<p>"He had said so often that the child would die. He will have got used
+to the fear."</p>
+
+<p>"His grief will be as fresh now as though he had never thought so,
+and never said so."</p>
+
+<p>"He is so hard; and then he has such will, such power. He will thrust
+it off from him and determine that it shall not oppress him. I know
+him so well."</p>
+
+<p>"We should all make some exertion like that in our sorrow, trusting
+to God's kindness to relieve us. You too, Hermione, should determine
+also; but not yet, my dear. At first it is better to let sorrow have
+its way."</p>
+
+<p>"But he will determine at once. You remember when Meeny went." Meeny
+had been a little girl who had been born before the boy, and who had
+died when little more than twelve months old. "He did not expect
+that; but then he only shook his head, and went out of the room. He
+has never spoken to me one word of her since that. I think he has
+forgotten Meeny altogether,&mdash;even that she was ever here."</p>
+
+<p>"He cannot forget the boy who was his heir."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is where it is. He will say words to me which would make
+you weep if you could hear them. Yes, my darling was his heir. Archie
+will marry now, and will have children, and his boy will be the heir.
+There will be more division and more quarrels, for Hugh will hate his
+brother now."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand why."</p>
+
+<p>"Because he is so hard. It is a pity he should ever have married, for
+he wants nothing that a wife can do for him. He wanted a boy to come
+after him in the estate, and now that glory has been taken from him.
+Mrs. Clavering, I often wish that I could die."</p>
+
+<p>It would be bootless here to repeat the words of wise and loving
+counsel with which the elder of the two ladies endeavoured to comfort
+the younger, and to make her understand what were the duties which
+still remained to her, and which, if they were rightly performed,
+would, in their performance, soften the misery of her lot. Lady
+Clavering listened with that dull, useless attention which on such
+occasions sorrow always gives to the prudent counsels of friendship;
+but she was thinking ever and always of her husband, and watching the
+moment of his expected return. In her heart she wished that he might
+not come on that evening. At last, at half-past nine, she exerted
+herself to send away her visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"He will be here soon, if he comes to-night," Lady Clavering said,
+"and it will be better that he should find me alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Will it be better?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes. Cannot you see how he would frown and shake his head if
+you were here? I would sooner be alone when he comes. Good-night. You
+have been very kind to me; but you are always kind. Things are done
+kindly always at your house, because there is so much love there. You
+will write to Julia for me. Good-night." Then Mrs. Clavering kissed
+her and went, thinking as she walked home in the dark to the rectory,
+how much she had to be thankful in that these words had been true
+which her poor neighbour had spoken. Her house was full of love.</p>
+
+<p>For the next half hour Lady Clavering sat alone listening with eager
+ear for the sound of her husband's wheels, and at last she had almost
+told herself that the hour for his coming had gone by, when she heard
+the rapid grating on the gravel as the dog-cart was driven up to the
+door. She ran out on to the corridor, but her heart sank within her
+as she did so, and she took tightly hold of the balustrade to support
+herself. For a moment she had thought of running down to meet
+him;&mdash;of trusting to the sadness of the moment to produce in him, if
+it were but for a minute, something of tender solicitude; but she
+remembered that the servants would be there, and knew that he would
+not be soft before them. She remembered also that the housekeeper had
+received her instructions, and she feared to disarrange the settled
+programme. So she went back to the open door of the room, that her
+retreating step might not be heard by him as he should come up to
+her, and standing there she still listened. The house was silent and
+her ears were acute with sorrow. She could hear the movement of the
+old woman as she gently, tremblingly, as Lady Clavering knew, made
+her way down the hall to meet her master. Sir Hugh of course had
+learned his child's fate already from the servant who had met him;
+but it was well that the ceremony of such telling should be
+performed. She felt the cold air come in from the opened front door,
+and she heard her husband's heavy quick step as he entered. Then she
+heard the murmur of Hannah's voice; but the first word she heard was
+in her husband's tones, "Where is Lady Clavering?" Then the answer
+was given, and the wife, knowing that he was coming, retreated back
+to her chair.</p>
+
+<p>But still he did not come quite at once. He was pulling off his coat
+and laying aside his hat and gloves. Then came upon her a feeling
+that at such a time any other husband and wife would have been at
+once in each other's arms. And at the moment she thought of all that
+they had lost. To her her child had been all and everything. To him
+he had been his heir and the prop of his house. The boy had been the
+only link that had still bound them together. Now he was gone, and
+there was no longer any link between them. He was gone and she had
+nothing left to her. He was gone, and the father was also alone in
+the world, without any heir and with no prop to his house. She
+thought of all this as she heard his step coming slowly up the
+stairs. Slowly he came along the passage, and though she dreaded his
+coming it almost seemed as though he would never be there.</p>
+
+<p>When he had entered the room she was the first to speak. "Oh, Hugh!"
+she exclaimed, "oh, Hugh!" He had closed the door before he uttered a
+word, and then he threw himself into a chair. There were candles near
+to him and she could see that his countenance also was altered. He
+had indeed been stricken hard, and his half-stunned face showed the
+violence of the blow. The harsh, cruel, selfish man had at last been
+made to suffer. Although he had spoken of it and had expected it, the
+death of his heir hit him hard, as the rector had said.</p>
+
+<p>"When did he die?" asked the father.</p>
+
+<p>"It was past four I think." Then there was again silence, and Lady
+Clavering went up to her husband and stood close by his shoulder. At
+last she ventured to put her hand upon him. With all her own misery
+heavy upon her, she was chiefly thinking at this moment how she might
+soothe him. She laid her hand upon his shoulder, and by degrees she
+moved it softly to his breast. Then he raised his own hand and with
+it moved hers from his person. He did it gently;&mdash;but what was the
+use of such nonsense as that?</p>
+
+<p>"The Lord giveth," said the wife, "and the Lord taketh away." Hearing
+this Sir Hugh made with his head a gesture of impatience. "Blessed be
+the name of the Lord," continued Lady Clavering. Her voice was low
+and almost trembling, and she repeated the words as though they were
+a task which she had set herself.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill20"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill20.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill20-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt='"The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away."' /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">"The Lord
+      giveth, and the Lord taketh away."</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill20.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"That's all very well in its way," said he, "but what's the special
+use of it now? I hate twaddle. One must bear one's misfortune as one
+best can. I don't believe that kind of thing ever makes it lighter."</p>
+
+<p>"They say it does, Hugh."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! they say! Have they ever tried? If you have been living up to
+that kind of thing all your life, it may be very well;&mdash;that is as
+well at one time as another. But it won't give me back my boy."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Hugh; he will never come back again; but we may think that he's
+in Heaven."</p>
+
+<p>"If that is enough for you, let it be so. But don't talk to me of it.
+I don't like it. It doesn't suit me. I had only one, and he has gone.
+It is always the way." He spoke of the child as having been his&mdash;not
+his and hers. She felt this, and understood the want of affection
+which it conveyed; but she said nothing of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Hugh; what could we do? It was not our fault."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is talking of any fault? I have said nothing as to fault. He was
+always poor and sickly. The Claverings, generally, have been so
+strong. Look at myself, and Archie, and my sisters. Well, it cannot
+be helped. Thinking of it will not bring him back again. You had
+better tell some one to get me something to eat. I came away, of
+course, without any dinner."</p>
+
+<p>She herself had eaten nothing since the morning, but she neither
+spoke nor thought of that. She rang the bell, and going out into the
+passage gave the servant the order on the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"It is no good my staying here," he said. "I will go and dress. It is
+the best not to think of such things,&mdash;much the best. People call
+that heartless, of course, but then people are fools. If I were to
+sit still, and think of it for a week together, what good could I
+do?"</p>
+
+<p>"But how not to think of it? that is the thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Women are different, I suppose. I will dress and then go down to the
+breakfast-room. Tell Saunders to get me a bottle of champagne. You
+will be better also if you will take a glass of wine."</p>
+
+<p>It was the first word he had spoken which showed any care for her,
+and she was grateful for it. As he arose to go, she came close to him
+again, and put her hand very gently on his arm. "Hugh," she said,
+"will you not see him?"</p>
+
+<p>"What good will that do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you would regret it if you were to let them take him away
+without looking at him. He is so pretty as he lays in his little bed.
+I thought you would come with me to see him." He was more gentle with
+her than she had expected, and she led him away to the room which had
+been their own, and in which the child had died.</p>
+
+<p>"Why here?" he said, almost angrily, as he entered.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had him here with me since you went."</p>
+
+<p>"He should not be here now," he said, shuddering. "I wish he had been
+moved before I came. I will not have this room any more; remember
+that." She led him up to the foot of the little cot, which stood
+close by the head of her own bed, and then she removed a handkerchief
+which lay upon the child's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Hugh! oh, Hugh!" she said, and, throwing her arms round his
+neck, she wept violently upon his breast. For a few moments he did
+not disturb her, but stood looking at his boy's face. "Hugh, Hugh,"
+she repeated, "will you not be kind to me? Do be kind to me. It is
+not my fault that we are childless."</p>
+
+<p>Still he endured her for a few moments longer. He spoke no word to
+her, but he let her remain there, with her head upon his breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Hugh, I love you so truly!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is nonsense," said he, "sheer nonsense." His voice was low and
+very hoarse. "Why do you talk of kindness now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am so wretched."</p>
+
+<p>"What have I done to make you wretched?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not mean that; but if you will be gentle with me, it will
+comfort me. Do not leave me here all alone, now my darling has been
+taken from me."</p>
+
+<p>Then he shook her from him, not violently, but with a persistent
+action.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that you want to go up to town?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; not that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what is it you want? Where would you live, if not here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anywhere you please, only that you should stay with me."</p>
+
+<p>"All that is nonsense. I wonder that you should talk of such things
+now. Come away from this, and let me go to my room. All this is trash
+and nonsense, and I hate it." She put back with careful hands the
+piece of cambric which she had moved, and then, seating herself on a
+chair, wept violently, with her hands closed upon her face. "That
+comes of bringing me here," he said. "Get up, Hermione. I will not
+have you so foolish. Get up, I say. I will have the room closed till
+the men come."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!"</p>
+
+<p>"Get up, I say, and come away." Then she rose, and followed him out
+of the chamber, and when he went to change his clothes she returned
+to the room in which he had found her. There she sat and wept, while
+he went down and dined and drank alone. But the old housekeeper
+brought her up a morsel of food and a glass of wine, saying that her
+master desired that she would take it.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not leave you, my lady, till you have done so," said Hannah.
+"To fast so long must be bad always."</p>
+
+<p>Then she eat the food, and drank a drop of wine, and allowed the old
+woman to take her away to the bed that had been prepared for her. Of
+her husband she saw no more for four days. On the next morning a note
+was brought to her, in which Sir Hugh told her that he had returned
+to London. It was necessary, he said, that he should see his lawyer
+and his brother. He and Archie would return for the funeral. With
+reference to that he had already given orders.</p>
+
+<p>During the next three days, and till her husband's return, Lady
+Clavering remained at the rectory, and in the comfort of Mrs.
+Clavering's presence she almost felt that it would be well for her if
+those days could be prolonged. But she knew the hour at which her
+husband would return, and she took care to be at home when he
+arrived. "You will come and see him?" she said to the rector, as she
+left the parsonage. "You will come at once;&mdash;in an hour or two?" Mr.
+Clavering remembered the circumstances of his last visit to the
+house, and the declaration he had then made that he would not return
+there. But all that could not now be considered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I will come across this evening. But you had better
+tell him, so that he need not be troubled to see me if he would
+rather be alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he will see you. Of course he will see you. And you will not
+remember that he ever offended you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Clavering had written both to Julia and to Harry, and the day of
+the funeral had been settled. Harry had already communicated his
+intention of coming down; and Lady Ongar had replied to Mrs.
+Clavering's letter, saying that she could not now offer to go to
+Clavering Park, but that if her sister would go elsewhere with
+her,&mdash;to some place, perhaps, on the sea-side,&mdash;she would be glad to
+accompany her; and she used many arguments in her letter to show that
+such an arrangement as this had better be made.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be with my sister," she had said; "and she will understand
+why I do not write to her myself, and will not think that it comes
+from coldness." This had been written before Lady Ongar saw Harry
+Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Clavering, when he got to the great house, was immediately shown
+into the room in which the baronet and his younger brother were
+sitting. They had, some time since, finished dinner, but the
+decanters were still on the table before them. "Hugh," said the
+rector, walking up to his elder nephew, briskly, "I grieve for you. I
+grieve for you from the bottom of my heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Hugh, "it has been a heavy blow. Sit down, uncle. There
+is a clean glass there; or Archie will fetch you one." Then Archie
+looked out a clean glass and passed the decanter; but of this the
+rector took no direct notice.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been a blow, my poor boy,&mdash;a heavy blow," said the rector.
+"None heavier could have fallen. But our sorrows come from Heaven, as
+do our blessings, and must be accepted."</p>
+
+<p>"We are all like grass," said Archie, "and must be cut down in our
+turns." Archie, in saying this, intended to put on his best
+behaviour. He was as sincere as he knew how to be.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Archie, none of that," said his brother. "It is my uncle's
+trade."</p>
+
+<p>"Hugh," said the rector, "unless you can think of it so, you will
+find no comfort."</p>
+
+<p>"And I expect none, so there is an end of that. Different people
+think of these things differently, you know, and it is of no more use
+for me to bother you than it is for you to bother me. My boy has
+gone, and I know that he will not come back to me. I shall never have
+another, and it is hard to bear. But, meaning no offence to you, I
+would sooner be left to bear it in my own way. If I were to talk
+about the grass as Archie did just now, it would be humbug, and I
+hate humbug. No offence to you. Take some wine, uncle."</p>
+
+<p>But the rector could not drink wine in that presence, and therefore
+he escaped as soon as he could. He spoke one word of intended comfort
+to Lady Clavering, and then returned to the rectory.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c21"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXI.</h3>
+<h4>YES; WRONG;&mdash;CERTAINLY WRONG.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Harry Clavering had heard the news of his little cousin's death
+before he went to Bolton Street to report the result of his
+negotiation with the count. His mother's letter with the news had
+come to him in the morning, and on the same evening he called on Lady
+Ongar. She also had then received Mrs. Clavering's letter, and knew
+what had occurred at the park. Harry found her alone, having asked
+the servant whether Madame Gordeloup was with his mistress. Had such
+been the case he would have gone away, and left his message untold.</p>
+
+<p>As he entered the room his mind was naturally full of the tidings
+from Clavering. Count Pateroff and his message had lost some of their
+importance through this other event, and the emptiness of the
+childless house was the first subject of conversation between him and
+Lady Ongar. "I pity my sister greatly," said she. "I feel for her as
+deeply as I should have done had nothing occurred to separate
+us;&mdash;but I cannot feel for him."</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"He is your cousin, and perhaps has been your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not especially. He and I have never pulled well together; but
+still I pity him deeply."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not my cousin, but I know him better than you do, Harry. He
+will not feel much himself, and his sorrow will be for his heir, not
+for his son. He is a man whose happiness does not depend on the life
+or death of any one. He likes some people, as he once liked me; but I
+do not think that he ever loved any human being. He will get over it,
+and he will simply wish that Hermy may die, that he may marry another
+wife. Harry, I know him so well!"</p>
+
+<p>"Archie will marry now," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; if he can get any one to have him. There are very few men who
+can't get wives, but I can fancy Archie Clavering to be one of them.
+He has not humility enough to ask the sort of girl who would be glad
+to take him. Now, with his improved prospects, he will want a royal
+princess or something not much short of it. Money, rank, and blood
+might have done before, but he'll expect youth, beauty, and wit now,
+as well as the other things. He may marry after all, for he is just
+the man to walk out of a church some day with the cookmaid under his
+arm as his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he may find something between a princess and a cookmaid."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope, for your sake, he may not;&mdash;neither a princess nor a
+cookmaid, nor anything between."</p>
+
+<p>"He has my leave to marry to-morrow, Lady Ongar. If I had my wish,
+Hugh should have his house full of children."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course that is the proper thing to say, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't stand that from you, Lady Ongar. What I say, I mean; and no
+one knows that better than you."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you, Harry? From whom, then, if not from me? But come, I will
+do you justice, and believe you to be simple enough to wish anything
+of the kind. The sort of castle in the air which you build, is not
+one to be had by inheritance, but to be taken by storm. You must
+fight for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Or work for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Or win it in some way off your own bat; and no lord ever sat prouder
+in his castle than you sit in those that you build from day to day in
+your imagination. And you sally forth and do all manner of
+magnificent deeds. You help distressed damsels,&mdash;poor me, for
+instance; and you attack enormous dragons;&mdash;shall I say that Sophie
+Gordeloup is the latest dragon?&mdash;and you wish well to your enemies,
+such as Hugh and Archie; and you cut down enormous forests, which
+means your coming miracles as an engineer;&mdash;and then you fall
+gloriously in love. When is that last to be, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose, according to all precedent, that must be done with the
+distressed damsel," he said,&mdash;fool that he was.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry, no; you shall take your young fresh generous heart to a
+better market than that; not but that the distressed damsel will ever
+remember what might once have been."</p>
+
+<p>He knew that he was playing on the edge of a precipice,&mdash;that he was
+fluttering as a moth round a candle. He knew that it behoved him now
+at once to tell her all his tale as to Stratton and Florence
+Burton;&mdash;that if he could tell it now, the pang would be over and the
+danger gone. But he did not tell it. Instead of telling it he thought
+of Lady Ongar's beauty, of his own early love, of what might have
+been his had he not gone to Stratton. I think he thought, if not of
+her wealth, yet of the power and place which would have been his were
+it now open to him to ask her for her hand. When he had declared that
+he did not want his cousin's inheritance, he had spoken the simple
+truth. He was not covetous of another's money. Were Archie to marry
+as many wives as Henry, and have as many children as Priam, it would
+be no offence to him. His desires did not lie in that line. But in
+this other case, the woman before him who would so willingly have
+endowed him with all that she possessed, had been loved by him before
+he had ever seen Florence Burton. In all his love for Florence,&mdash;so
+he now told himself, but so told himself falsely,&mdash;he had ever
+remembered that Julia Brabazon had been his first love, the love whom
+he had loved with all his heart. But things had gone with him most
+unfortunately,&mdash;with a misfortune that had never been paralleled. It
+was thus he was thinking instead of remembering that now was the time
+in which his tale should be told.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Ongar, however, soon carried him away from the actual brink of
+the precipice. "But how about the dragon," said she, "or rather about
+the dragon's brother, at whom you were bound to go and tilt on my
+behalf? Have you tilted, or are you a recreant knight?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have tilted," said he, "but the he-dragon professes that he will
+not regard himself as killed. In other words he declares that he will
+see you."</p>
+
+<p>"That he will see me?" said Lady Ongar, and as she spoke there came
+an angry spot on each cheek. "Does he send me that message as a
+threat?"</p>
+
+<p>"He does not send it as a threat, but I think he partly means it so."</p>
+
+<p>"He will find, Harry, that I will not see him; and that should he
+force himself into my presence, I shall know how to punish such an
+outrage. If he sent me any message, let me know it."</p>
+
+<p>"To tell the truth he was most unwilling to speak to me at all,
+though he was anxious to be civil to me. When I had inquired for him
+some time in vain, he came to me with another man, and asked me to
+dinner. So I went, and as there were four of us, of course I could
+not speak to him then. He still had the other man, a
+<span class="nowrap">foreigner&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Colonel Schmoff, perhaps?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; Colonel Schmoff. He kept Colonel Schmoff by him, so as to guard
+him from being questioned."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so like him. Everything he does he does with some
+design,&mdash;with some little plan. Well, Harry, you might have ignored
+Colonel Schmoff for what I should have cared."</p>
+
+<p>"I got the count to come out into another room at last, and then he
+was very angry,&mdash;with me, you know,&mdash;and talked of what he would do
+to men who interfered with him."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not quarrel with him, Harry? Promise me that there shall be
+no nonsense of that sort,&mdash;no fighting."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; we were friends again very soon. But he bade me tell you
+that there was something important for him to say and for you to
+hear, which was no concern of mine, and which required an interview."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe him, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"And he said that he had once been very courteous to
+<span class="nowrap">you&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes; once insolent,&mdash;and once courteous. I have forgiven the one for
+the other."</p>
+
+<p>"He then went on to say that you made him a poor return for his
+civility by shutting your door in his face, but that he did not doubt
+you would think better of it when you had heard his message.
+Therefore, he said, he should call again. That, Lady Ongar, was the
+whole of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I tell you what his intention was, Harry?" Again her face
+became red as she asked this question; but the colour which now came
+to her cheeks was rather that of shame than of anger.</p>
+
+<p>"What was his intention?"</p>
+
+<p>"To make you believe that I am in his power; to make you think that
+he has been my lover; to lower me in your eyes, so that you might
+believe all that others have believed,&mdash;all that Hugh Clavering has
+pretended to believe. That has been his object, Harry, and perhaps
+you will tell me what success he has had."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Ongar!"</p>
+
+<p>"You know the old story, that the drop which is ever dropping will
+wear the stone. And after all why should your faith in me be as hard
+even as a stone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe that what he said had any such effect?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is very hard to look into another person's heart; and the dearer
+and nearer that heart is to your own, the greater, I think, is the
+difficulty. I know that man's heart,&mdash;what he calls his heart; but I
+don't know yours."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment or two Clavering made no answer, and then, when he did
+speak, he went back from himself to the count.</p>
+
+<p>"If what you surmise of him be true, he must be a very devil. He
+cannot be a <span class="nowrap">man&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Man or devil, what matters which he be? Which is the worst, Harry,
+and what is the difference? The Fausts of this day want no
+Mephistopheles to teach them guile or to harden their hearts."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe that there are such men. There may be one."</p>
+
+<p>"One, Harry! What was Lord Ongar? What is your cousin Hugh? What is
+this Count Pateroff? Are they not all of the same nature; hard as
+stone, desirous simply of indulging their own appetites, utterly
+without one generous feeling, incapable even of the idea of caring
+for any one? Is it not so? In truth this count is the best of the
+three I have named. With him a woman would stand a better chance than
+with either of the others."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, if that was his motive, he is a devil."</p>
+
+<p>"He shall be a devil if you say so. He shall be anything you please,
+so long as he has not made you think evil of me."</p>
+
+<p>"No; he has not done that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I don't care what he has done, or what he may do. You would not
+have me see him, would you?" This she asked with a sudden energy,
+throwing herself forward from her seat with her elbows on the table,
+and resting her face on her hands, as she had already done more than
+once when he had been there; so that the attitude, which became her
+well, was now customary in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You will hardly be guided by my opinion in such a matter."</p>
+
+<p>"By whose, then, will I be guided? Nay, Harry, since you put me to a
+promise, I will make the promise. I will be guided by your opinion.
+If you bid me see him, I will do it,&mdash;though, I own, it would be
+distressing to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you see him, if you do not wish it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know no reason. In truth there is no reason. What he says about
+Lord Ongar is simply some part of his scheme. You see what his scheme
+is, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is his scheme?"</p>
+
+<p>"Simply this&mdash;that I should be frightened into becoming his wife. My
+darling bosom friend Sophie, who, as I take it, has not quite managed
+to come to satisfactory terms with her brother,&mdash;and I have no doubt
+her price for assistance has been high,&mdash;has informed me more than
+once that her brother desires to do me so much honour. The count,
+perhaps, thinks that he can manage such a bagatelle without any aid
+from his sister; and my dearest Sophie seems to feel that she can do
+better with me herself in my widowed state, than if I were to take
+another husband. They are so kind and so affectionate; are they not?"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment tea was brought in, and Clavering sat for a time
+silent with his cup in his hand. She, the meanwhile, had resumed the
+old position with her face upon her hands, which she had abandoned
+when the servant entered the room, and was now sitting looking at him
+as he sipped his tea with his eyes averted from her. "I cannot
+understand," at last he said, "why you should persist in your
+intimacy with such a woman."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not thought about it, Harry, or you would understand it. It
+is, I think, very easily understood."</p>
+
+<p>"You know her to be treacherous, false, vulgar, covetous,
+unprincipled. You cannot like her. You say she is a dragon."</p>
+
+<p>"A dragon to you, I said."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot pretend that she is a lady, and yet you put up with her
+society."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. And now tell me what you would have me do."</p>
+
+<p>"I would have you part from her."</p>
+
+<p>"But how? It is so easy to say, part. Am I to bar my door against her
+when she has given me no offence? Am I to forget that she did me
+great service, when I sorely needed such services? Can I tell her to
+her face that she is all these things that you say of her, and that
+therefore I will for the future dispense with her company? Or do you
+believe that people in this world associate only with those they love
+and esteem?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would not have one for my intimate friend whom I did not love and
+esteem."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Harry, suppose that no one loved and esteemed you; that you had
+no home down at Clavering with a father that admires you and a mother
+that worships you; no sisters that think you to be almost perfect, no
+comrades with whom you can work with mutual regard and emulation, no
+self-confidence, no high hopes of your own, no power of choosing
+companions whom you can esteem and love;&mdash;suppose with you it was
+Sophie Gordeloup or none,&mdash;how would it be with you then?"</p>
+
+<p>His heart must have been made of stone if this had not melted it. He
+got up and coming round to her stood over her. "Julia," he said, "it
+is not so with you."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is so with Julia," she said. "That is the truth. How am I
+better than her, and why should I not associate with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Better than her! As women you are poles asunder."</p>
+
+<p>"But as dragons," she said, smiling, "we come together."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that you have no one to love you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Harry; that is just what I do mean. I have none to love me. In
+playing my cards I have won my stakes in money and rank, but have
+lost the amount ten times told in affection, friendship, and that
+general unpronounced esteem which creates the fellowship of men and
+women in the world. I have a carriage and horses, and am driven about
+with grand servants; and people, as they see me, whisper and say that
+is Lady Ongar, whom nobody knows. I can see it in their eyes till I
+fancy that I can hear their words."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is all false."</p>
+
+<p>"What is false? It is not false that I have deserved this. I have
+done that which has made me a fitting companion for such a one as
+Sophie Gordeloup, though I have not done that which perhaps these
+people think."</p>
+
+<p>He paused again before he spoke, still standing near her on the rug.
+"Lady <span class="nowrap">Ongar&mdash;"</span> he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, Harry; not Lady Ongar when we are together thus. Let me feel
+that I have one friend who can dare to call me by my name,&mdash;from
+whose mouth I shall be pleased to hear my name. You need not fear
+that I shall think that it means too much. I will not take it as
+meaning what it used to mean."</p>
+
+<p>He did not know how to go on with his speech, or in truth what to say
+to her. Florence Burton was still present to his mind, and from
+minute to minute he told himself that he would not become a villain.
+But now it had come to that with him, that he would have given all
+that he had in the world that he had never gone to Stratton. He sat
+down by her in silence, looking away from her at the fire, swearing
+to himself that he would not become a villain, and yet wishing,
+almost wishing, that he had the courage to throw his honour
+overboard. At last, half turning round towards her he took her hand,
+or rather took her first by the wrist till he could possess himself
+of her hand. As he did so he touched her hair and her cheek, and she
+let her hand drop till it rested in his. "Julia," he said, "what can
+I do to comfort you?" She did not answer him, but looked away from
+him as she sat, across the table into vacancy. "Julia," he said
+again, "is there anything that will comfort you?" But still she did
+not answer him.</p>
+
+<p>He understood it all as well as the reader will understand it. He
+knew how it was with her, and was aware that he was at this instant
+false almost equally to her and to Florence. He knew that the
+question he had asked was one to which there could be made a true and
+satisfactory answer, but that his safety lay in the fact that that
+answer was all but impossible for her to give. Could she say, "Yes,
+you can comfort me. Tell me that you yet love me, and I will be
+comforted?" But he had not designed to bring her into such difficulty
+as this. He had not intended to be cruel. He had drifted into
+treachery unawares, and was torturing her, not because he was wicked,
+but because he was weak. He had held her hand now for some minute or
+two, but still she did not speak to him. Then he raised it and
+pressed it warmly to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry," she said, jumping from her seat and drawing her hand
+rapidly from him; "no; it shall not be like that. Let it be Lady
+Ongar again if the sound of the other name brings back too closely
+the memory of other days. Let it be Lady Ongar again. I can
+understand that it will be better." As she spoke she walked away from
+him across the room, and he followed her.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you angry?" he asked her.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry; not angry. How should I be angry with you who alone are
+left to me of my old friends? But, Harry, you must think for me, and
+spare me in my difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>"Spare you, Julia?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Harry, spare me; you must be good to me and considerate, and
+make yourself like a brother to me. But people will know you are not
+a brother, and you must remember all that, for my sake. But you must
+not leave me or desert me. Anything that people might say would be
+better than that."</p>
+
+<p>"Was I wrong to kiss your hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, wrong, certainly wrong;&mdash;that is, not wrong, but unmindful."</p>
+
+<p>"I did it," he said, "because I love you." And as he spoke the tears
+stood in both his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; you love me, and I you; but not with love that may show itself
+in that form. That was the old love, which I threw away, and which
+has been lost. That was at an end when I&mdash;jilted you. I am not angry;
+but you will remember that that love exists no longer? You will
+remember that, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>He sat himself down in a chair in a far part of the room, and two
+tears coursed their way down his cheeks. She stood over him and
+watched him as he wept. "I did not mean to make you sad," she said.
+"Come, we will be sad no longer. I understand it all. I know how it
+is with you. The old love is lost, but we will not the less be
+friends." Then he rose suddenly from his chair, and taking her in his
+arms, and holding her closely to his bosom, pressed his lips to hers.</p>
+
+<p>He was so quick in this that she had not the power, even if she had
+the wish, to restrain him. But she struggled in his arms, and held
+her face aloof from him as she gently rebuked his passion. "No,
+Harry, no; not so," she said, "it must not be so."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Julia, yes; it shall be so; ever so,&mdash;always so." And he was
+still holding her in his arms, when the door opened, and with
+stealthy, cat-like steps Sophie Gordeloup entered the room. Harry
+immediately retreated from his position, and Lady Ongar turned upon
+her friend, and glared upon her with angry eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said the little Franco-Pole, with an expression of infinite
+delight on her detestable visage, "ah, my dears, is it not well that
+I thus announce myself?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Lady Ongar, "it is not well. It is anything but well."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not well, Julie? Come, do not be foolish. Mr. Clavering is
+only a cousin, and a very handsome cousin, too. What does it signify
+before me?"</p>
+
+<p>"It signifies nothing before you," said Lady Ongar.</p>
+
+<p>"But before the servant, Julie&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would signify nothing before anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, Julie, dear; that is nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense or no nonsense, I would wish to be private when I please.
+Will you tell me, Madame Gordeloup, what is your pleasure at the
+present moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"My pleasure is to beg your pardon and to say you must forgive your
+poor friend. Your fine man-servant is out, and Bessy let me in. I
+told Bessy I would go up by myself, and that is all. If I have come
+too late I beg pardon."</p>
+
+<p>"Not too late, certainly,&mdash;as I am still up."</p>
+
+<p>"And I wanted to ask you about the pictures to-morrow? You said,
+perhaps you would go to-morrow,&mdash;perhaps not."</p>
+
+<p>Clavering had found himself to be somewhat awkwardly situated while
+Madame Gordeloup was thus explaining the causes of her having come
+unannounced into the room; as soon, therefore, as he found it
+practicable, he took his leave. "Julia," he said, "as Madame
+Gordeloup is with you, I will now go."</p>
+
+<p>"But you will let me see you soon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, very soon; that is, as soon as I return from Clavering. I leave
+town early to-morrow morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, then," and she put out her hand to him frankly, smiling
+sweetly on him. As he felt the warm pressure of her hand he hardly
+knew whether to return it or to reject it. But he had gone too far
+now for retreat, and he held it firmly for a moment in his own. She
+smiled again upon him, oh! so passionately, and nodded her head at
+him. He had never, he thought, seen a woman look so lovely, or more
+light of heart. How different was her countenance now from that she
+had worn when she told him, earlier on that fatal evening, of all the
+sorrows that made her wretched! That nod of hers said so much. "We
+understand each other now,&mdash;do we not? Yes; although this spiteful
+woman has for the moment come between us, we understand each other.
+And is it not sweet? Ah! the troubles of which I told you;&mdash;you, you
+have cured them all." All that had been said plainly in her farewell
+salutation, and Harry had not dared to contradict it by any
+expression of his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"By, by, Mr. Clavering," said Sophie.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Madame Gordeloup," said Harry, turning upon her a look
+of bitter anger. Then he went, leaving the two women together, and
+walked home to Bloomsbury Square,&mdash;not with the heart of a joyous
+thriving lover.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c22"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXII.</h3>
+<h4>THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill22-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="H" />arry
+Clavering, when he walked away from Bolton Street after the
+scene in which he had been interrupted by Sophie Gordeloup, was not
+in a happy frame of mind, nor did he make his journey down to
+Clavering with much comfort to himself. Whether or no he was now to
+be regarded as a villain, at any rate he was not a villain capable of
+doing his villany without extreme remorse and agony of mind. It did
+not seem to him to be even yet possible that he should be altogether
+untrue to Florence. It hardly occurred to him to think that he could
+free himself from the contract by which he was bound to her. No; it
+was towards Lady Ongar that his treachery must be exhibited;&mdash;towards
+the woman whom he had sworn to befriend, and whom he now, in his
+distress, imagined to be the dearer to him of the two. He should,
+according to his custom, have written to Florence a day or two before
+he left London, and, as he went to Bolton Street, had determined to
+do so that evening on his return home; but when he reached his rooms
+he found it impossible to write such a letter. What could he say to
+her that would not be false? How could he tell her that he loved her,
+and speak as he was wont to do of his impatience, after that which
+had just occurred in Bolton Street?</p>
+
+<p>But what was he to do in regard to Julia? He was bound to let her
+know at once what was his position, and to tell her that in treating
+her as he had treated her, he had simply insulted her. That look of
+gratified contentment with which she had greeted him as he was
+leaving her, clung to his memory and tormented him. Of that
+contentment he must now rob her, and he was bound to do so with as
+little delay as was possible. Early in the morning before he started
+on his journey he did make an attempt, a vain attempt, to write, not
+to Florence but to Julia. The letter would not get itself written. He
+had not the hardihood to inform her that he had amused himself with
+her sorrows, and that he had injured her by the exhibition of his
+love. And then that horrid Franco-Pole, whose prying eyes Julia had
+dared to disregard, because she had been proud of his love! If she
+had not been there, the case might have been easier. Harry, as he
+thought of this, forgot to remind himself that if Sophie had not
+interrupted him he would have floundered on from one danger to
+another till he would have committed himself more thoroughly even
+than he had done, and have made promises which it would have been as
+shameful to break as it would be to keep them. But even as it was,
+had he not made such promises? Was there not such a promise in that
+embrace, in the half-forgotten word or two which he had spoken while
+she was in his arms, and in the parting grasp of his hand? He could
+not write that letter then, on that morning, hurried as he was with
+the necessity of his journey; and he started for Clavering resolving
+that it should be written from his father's house.</p>
+
+<p>It was a tedious, sad journey to him, and he was silent and out of
+spirits when he reached his home; but he had gone there for the
+purpose of his cousin's funeral, and his mood was not at first
+noticed, as it might have been had the occasion been different. His
+father's countenance wore that well-known look of customary solemnity
+which is found to be necessary on such occasions, and his mother was
+still thinking of the sorrows of Lady Clavering, who had been at the
+rectory for the last day or two.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen Lady Ongar since she heard of the poor child's death?"
+his mother asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I was with her yesterday evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see her often?" Fanny inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you call often? No; not often. I went to her last night
+because she had given me a commission. I have seen her three or four
+times altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she as handsome as she used to be?" said Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell; I do not know."</p>
+
+<p>"You used to think her very handsome, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course she is handsome. There has never been a doubt about that;
+but when a woman is in deep mourning one hardly thinks about her
+beauty." Oh, Harry, Harry, how could you be so false?</p>
+
+<p>"I thought young widows were always particularly charming," said
+Fanny; "and when one remembers about Lord Ongar one does not think of
+her being a widow so much as one would do if he had been different."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know anything about that," said he. He felt that he was
+stupid, and that he blundered in every word, but he could not help
+himself. It was impossible that he should talk about Lady Ongar with
+proper composure. Fanny saw that the subject annoyed him and that it
+made him cross, and she therefore ceased. "She wrote a very nice
+letter to your mother about the poor child, and about her sister,"
+said the rector. "I wish with all my heart that Hermione could go to
+her for a time."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear that he will not let her," said Mrs. Clavering. "I do not
+understand it all, but Hermione says that the rancour between Hugh
+and her sister is stronger now than ever."</p>
+
+<p>"And Hugh will not be the first to put rancour out of his heart,"
+said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day was the funeral and Harry went with his father
+and cousins to the child's grave. When he met Sir Hugh in the
+dining-room in the Great House the baronet hardly spoke to him. "A
+sad occasion; is it not?" said Archie; "very sad; very sad." Then
+Harry could see that Hugh scowled at his brother angrily, hating his
+humbug, and hating it the more because in Archie's case it was doubly
+humbug. Archie was now heir to the property and to the title.</p>
+
+<p>After the funeral Harry went to see Lady Clavering, and again had to
+endure a conversation about Lady Ongar. Indeed, he had been specially
+commissioned by Julia to press upon her sister the expediency of
+leaving Clavering for a while. This had been early on that last
+evening in Bolton Street, long before Madame Gordeloup had made her
+appearance. "Tell her from me," Lady Ongar had said, "that I will go
+anywhere that she may wish if she will go with me,&mdash;she and I alone;
+and, Harry, tell her this as though I meant it. I do mean it. She
+will understand why I do not write myself. I know that he sees all
+her letters when he is with her." This task Harry was now to perform,
+and the result he was bound to communicate to Lady Ongar. The message
+he might give; but delivering the answer to Lady Ongar would be
+another thing.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clavering listened to what he said, but when he pressed her for
+a reply she shook her head. "And why not, Lady Clavering?"</p>
+
+<p>"People can't always leave their houses and go away, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"But I should have thought that you could have done so now;&mdash;that is,
+before long. Will Sir Hugh remain here at Clavering?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has not told me that he means to go."</p>
+
+<p>"If he stays, I suppose you will stay; but if he goes up to London
+again, I cannot see why you and your sister should not go away
+together. She mentioned Tenby as being very quiet, but she would be
+guided by you in that altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think it will be possible, Harry. Tell her with my love,
+that I am truly obliged to her, but that I do not think it will be
+possible. She is free, you know, to do what she pleases."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she is free. But do you mean&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean, Harry, that I had better stay where I am. What is the use of
+a scene, and of being refused at last? Do not say more about it, but
+tell her that it cannot be so." This Harry promised to do, and after
+a while was rising to go, when she suddenly asked him a question. "Do
+you remember what I was saying about Julia and Archie when you were
+here last?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, would he have a chance? It seems that you see more of her now
+than any one else."</p>
+
+<p>"No chance at all, I should say." And Harry, as he answered, could
+not repress a feeling of most unreasonable jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you have always thought little of Archie. Archie's position is
+changed now, Harry, since my darling was taken from me. Of course he
+will marry, and Hugh, I think, would like him to marry Julia. It was
+he proposed it. He never likes anything unless he has proposed it
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>"It was he proposed the marriage with Lord Ongar. Does he like that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well; you know, Julia has got her money." Harry, as he heard this,
+turned away, sick at heart. The poor baby whose mother was now
+speaking to him had only been buried that morning, and she was
+already making fresh schemes for family wealth. Julia has got her
+money! That had seemed to her, even in her sorrow, to be sufficient
+compensation for all that her sister had endured and was enduring.
+Poor soul! Harry did not reflect as he should have done, that in all
+her schemes she was only scheming for that peace which might perhaps
+come to her if her husband were satisfied. "And why should not Julia
+take him?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell why, but she never will," said Harry, almost in anger.
+At that moment the door was opened, and Sir Hugh came into the room.
+"I did not know that you were here," Sir Hugh said, turning to the
+visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"I could not be down here without saying a few words to Lady
+Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"The less said the better, I suppose, just at present," said Sir
+Hugh. But there was no offence in the tone of his voice, or in his
+countenance, and Harry took the words as meaning none.</p>
+
+<p>"I was telling Lady Clavering that as soon as she can, she would be
+better if she left home for awhile."</p>
+
+<p>"And why should you tell Lady Clavering that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have told him that I would not go," said the poor woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should she go, and where; and why have you proposed it? And how
+does it come to pass that her going or not going should be a matter
+of solicitude to you?" Now, as Sir Hugh asked these questions of his
+cousin, there was much of offence in his tone,&mdash;of intended
+offence,&mdash;and in his eye, and in all his bearing. He had turned his
+back upon his wife, and was looking full into Harry's face. "Lady
+Clavering, no doubt, is much obliged to you," he said, "but why is it
+that you specially have interfered to recommend her to leave her home
+at such a time as this?"</p>
+
+<p>Harry had not spoken as he did to Sir Hugh without having made some
+calculation in his own mind as to the result of what he was about to
+say. He did not, as regarded himself, care for his cousin or his
+cousin's anger. His object at present was simply that of carrying out
+Lady Ongar's wish, and he had thought that perhaps Sir Hugh might not
+object to the proposal which his wife was too timid to make to him.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a message from her sister," said Harry, "sent by me."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word she is very kind. And what was the message,&mdash;unless it
+be a secret between you three?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have had no secret, Hugh," said his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me hear what he has to say," said Sir Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Ongar thought that it might be well that her sister should
+leave Clavering for a short time, and has offered to go anywhere with
+her for a few weeks. That is all."</p>
+
+<p>"And why the devil should Hermione leave her own house? And if she
+were to leave it, why should she go with a woman that has
+misconducted herself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Hugh!" exclaimed Lady Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Ongar has never misconducted herself," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you her champion?" asked Sir Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"As far as that, I am. She has never misconducted herself; and what
+is more, she has been cruelly used since she came home."</p>
+
+<p>"By whom; by whom?" said Sir Hugh, stepping close up to his cousin
+and looking with angry eyes into his face.</p>
+
+<p>But Harry Clavering was not a man to be intimidated by the angry eyes
+of any man. "By you," he said, "her brother-in-law;&mdash;by you, who made
+up her wretched marriage, and who, of all others, were the most bound
+to protect her."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Harry, don't, don't!" shrieked Lady Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione, hold your tongue," said the imperious husband; "or,
+rather, go away and leave us. I have a word or two to say to Harry
+Clavering, which had better be said in private."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not go if you are going to quarrel."</p>
+
+<p>"Harry," said Sir Hugh, "I will trouble you to go downstairs before
+me. If you will step into the breakfast-room I will come to you."</p>
+
+<p>Harry Clavering did as he was bid, and in a few minutes was joined by
+his cousin in the breakfast-room.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt you intended to insult me by what you said upstairs." The
+baronet began in this way after he had carefully shut the door, and
+had slowly walked up to the rug before the fire, and had there taken
+his position.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all; I intended to take the part of an ill-used woman whom
+you had calumniated."</p>
+
+<p>"Now look here, Harry, I will have no interference on your part in my
+affairs, either here or elsewhere. You are a very fine fellow, no
+doubt, but it is not part of your business to set me or my house in
+order. After what you have just said before Lady Clavering you will
+do well not to come here in my absence."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither in your absence nor in your presence."</p>
+
+<p>"As to the latter you may do as you please. And now touching my
+sister-in-law, I will simply recommend you to look after your own
+affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall look after what affairs I please."</p>
+
+<p>"Of Lady Ongar and her life since her marriage I daresay you know as
+little as anybody in the world, and I do not suppose it likely that
+you will learn much from her. She made a fool of you once, and it is
+on the cards that she may do so again."</p>
+
+<p>"You said just now that you would brook no interference in your
+affairs. Neither will I."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that you have any affairs in which any one can
+interfere. I have been given to understand that you are engaged to
+marry that young lady whom your mother brought here one day to
+dinner. If that be so, I do not see how you can reconcile it to
+yourself to become the champion, as you called it, of Lady Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"I never said anything of the kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you did."</p>
+
+<p>"No; it was you who asked me whether I was her champion."</p>
+
+<p>"And you said you were."</p>
+
+<p>"So far as to defend her name when I heard it traduced by you."</p>
+
+<p>"By heavens, your impudence is beautiful. Who knows her best, do you
+think,&mdash;you or I? Whose sister-in-law is she? You have told me I was
+cruel to her. Now to that I will not submit, and I require you to
+apologize to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no apology to make, and nothing to retract."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall tell your father of your gross misconduct, and shall
+warn him that you have made it necessary for me to turn his son out
+of my house. You are an impertinent, overbearing puppy, and if your
+name were not the same as my own, I would tell the grooms to
+horsewhip you off the place."</p>
+
+<p>"Which order, you know, the grooms would not obey. They would a deal
+sooner horsewhip you. Sometimes I think they will, when I hear you
+speak to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Now go!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I shall go. What would keep me here?"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hugh then opened the door, and Harry passed through it, not
+without a cautious look over his shoulder, so that he might be on his
+guard if any violence were contemplated. But Hugh knew better than
+that, and allowed his cousin to walk out of the room, and out of the
+house, unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>And this had happened on the day of the funeral! Harry Clavering had
+quarrelled thus with the father within a few hours of the moment in
+which they two had stood together over the grave of that father's
+only child! As he thought of this while he walked across the park he
+became sick at heart. How vile, wretched and miserable was the world
+around him! How terribly vicious were the people with whom he was
+dealing! And what could he think of himself,&mdash;of himself, who was
+engaged to Florence Burton, and engaged also, as he certainly was, to
+Lady Ongar? Even his cousin had rebuked him for his treachery to
+Florence; but what would his cousin have said had he known all? And
+then what good had he done;&mdash;or rather what evil had he not done? In
+his attempt on behalf of Lady Clavering had he not, in truth,
+interfered without proper excuse, and fairly laid himself open to
+anger from his cousin? And he felt that he had been an ass, a fool, a
+conceited ass, thinking that he could produce good, when his
+interference could be efficacious only for evil. Why could he not
+have held his tongue when Sir Hugh came in, instead of making that
+vain suggestion as to Lady Clavering? But even this trouble was but
+an addition to the great trouble that overwhelmed him. How was he to
+escape the position which he had made for himself in reference to
+Lady Ongar? As he had left London he had promised to himself that he
+would write to her that same night and tell her everything as to
+Florence; but the night had passed, and the next day was nearly gone,
+and no such letter had been written.</p>
+
+<p>As he sat with his father that evening, he told the story of his
+quarrel with his cousin. His father shrugged his shoulders and raised
+his eyebrows. "You are a bolder man than I am," he said. "I certainly
+should not have dared to advise Hugh as to what he should do with his
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>"But I did not advise him. I only said that I had been talking to her
+about it. If he were to say to you that he had been recommending my
+mother to do this or that, you would not take it amiss?"</p>
+
+<p>"But Hugh is a peculiar man."</p>
+
+<p>"No man has a right to be peculiar. Every man is bound to accept such
+usage as is customary in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose that it will signify much," said the rector. "To
+have your cousin's doors barred against you, either here or in
+London, will not injure you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; it will not injure me; but I do not wish you to think that I
+have been unreasonable."</p>
+
+<p>The night went by and so did the next day, and still the letter did
+not get itself written. On the third morning after the funeral he
+heard that Sir Hugh had gone away; but he, of course, did not go up
+to the house, remembering well that he had been warned by the master
+not to do so in the master's absence. His mother, however, went to
+Lady Clavering, and some intercourse between the families was
+renewed. He had intended to stay but one day after the funeral, but
+at the end of a week he was still at the rectory. It was Whitsuntide
+he said, and he might as well take his holiday as he was down there.
+Of course they were glad that he should remain with them, but they
+did not fail to perceive that things with him were not altogether
+right; nor had Fanny failed to perceive that he had not once
+mentioned Florence's name since he had been at the rectory.</p>
+
+<p>"Harry," she said, "there is nothing wrong between you and Florence?"</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill22"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill22.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill22-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt='"Harry," she said, "there is nothing
+      wrong between you and Florence?"' /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">"Harry," she
+      said, "there is nothing wrong between you and Florence?"</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill22.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Wrong! what should there be wrong? What do you mean by wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had a letter from her to-day and she asks where you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Women expect such a lot of letter-writing! But I have been remiss I
+know. I got out of my business way of doing things when I came down
+here and have neglected it. Do you write to her to-morrow, and tell
+her that she shall hear from me directly I get back to town."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should you not write to her from here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I can get you to do it for me."</p>
+
+<p>Fanny felt that this was not at all like a lover, and not at all like
+such a lover as her brother had been. While Florence had been at
+Clavering he had been most constant with his letters, and Fanny had
+often heard Florence boast of them as being perfect in their way. She
+did not say anything further at the present moment, but she knew that
+things were not altogether right. Things were by no means right. He
+had written neither to Lady Ongar nor to Florence, and the longer he
+put off the task the more burdensome did it become. He was now
+telling himself that he would write to neither till he got back to
+London.</p>
+
+<p>On the day before he went, there came to him a letter from Stratton.
+Fanny was with him when he received it, and observed that he put it
+into his pocket without opening it. In his pocket he carried it
+unopened half the day, till he was ashamed of his own weakness. At
+last, almost in despair with himself, he broke the seal and forced
+himself to read it. There was nothing in it that need have alarmed
+him. It contained hardly a word that was intended for a rebuke.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder why you should have been two whole weeks without writing,"
+she said. "It seems so odd to me, because you have spoiled me by your
+customary goodness. I know that other men when they are engaged do
+not trouble themselves with constant letter-writing. Even Theodore,
+who according to Cecilia is perfect, would not write to her then very
+often; and now, when he is away, his letters are only three lines. I
+suppose you are teaching me not to be exacting. If so, I will kiss
+the rod like a good child; but I feel it the more because the lesson
+has not come soon enough."</p>
+
+<p>Then she went on in her usual strain, telling him of what she had
+done, what she had read, and what she had thought. There was no
+suspicion in her letter, no fear, no hint at jealousy. And she should
+have no further cause for jealousy! One of the two must be
+sacrificed, and it was most fitting that Julia should be the
+sacrifice. Julia should be sacrificed,&mdash;Julia and himself! But still
+he could not write to Florence till he had written to Julia. He could
+not bring himself to send soft, pretty, loving words to one woman
+while the other was still regarding him as her affianced lover.</p>
+
+<p>"Was your letter from Florence this morning?" Fanny asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it was."</p>
+
+<p>"Had she received mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. Of course she had. If you sent it by post of course
+she got it."</p>
+
+<p>"She might have mentioned it, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay she did. I don't remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Harry; you need not be cross with me because I love the girl
+who is going to be your wife. You would not like it if I did not care
+about her."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate being called cross."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose I were to say that I hated your being cross. I'm sure I
+do;&mdash;and you are going away to-morrow, too. You have hardly said a
+nice word to me since you have been home."</p>
+
+<p>Harry threw himself back into a chair almost in despair. He was not
+enough a hypocrite to say nice words when his heart within him was
+not at ease. He could not bring himself to pretend that things were
+pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are in trouble, Harry, I will not go on teasing you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am in trouble," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"And cannot I help you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; you cannot help me. No one can help me. But do not ask any
+questions."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Harry! is it about money?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; it has nothing to do with money."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not really quarrelled with Florence?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I have not quarrelled with her at all. But I will not answer
+more questions. And, Fanny, do not speak of this to my father or
+mother. It will be over before long, and then, if possible, I will
+tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Harry, you are not going to fight with Hugh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fight with Hugh! no. Not that I should mind it; but he is not fool
+enough for that. If he wanted fighting done, he would do it by
+deputy. But there is nothing of that kind."</p>
+
+<p>She asked him no more questions, and on the next morning he returned
+to London. On his table he found a note which he at once knew to be
+from Lady Ongar, and which had come only that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"Come to me at once;&mdash;at once." That was all that the note contained.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c23"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3>
+<h4>CUMBERLY LANE WITHOUT THE MUD.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Fanny Clavering, while she was inquiring of her brother about his
+troubles, had not been without troubles of her own. For some days
+past she had been aware,&mdash;almost aware,&mdash;that Mr. Saul's love was not
+among the things that were past. I am not prepared to say that this
+conviction on her part was altogether an unalloyed trouble, or that
+there might have been no faint touch of sadness, of silent melancholy
+about her, had it been otherwise. But Mr. Saul was undoubtedly a
+trouble to her; and Mr. Saul with his love in activity would be more
+troublesome than Mr. Saul with his love in abeyance. "It would be
+madness either in him or in me," Fanny had said to herself very
+often; "he has not a shilling in the world." But she thought no more
+in these days of the awkwardness of his gait, or of his rusty
+clothes, or his abstracted manner; and for his doings as a clergyman
+her admiration had become very great. Her mother saw something of all
+this, and cautioned her; but Fanny's demure manner deceived Mrs.
+Clavering. "Oh, mamma, of course I know that anything of the kind
+must be impossible; and I am sure he does not think of it himself any
+longer." When she had said this, Mrs. Clavering had believed that it
+was all right. The reader must not suppose that Fanny had been a
+hypocrite. There had been no hypocrisy in her words to her mother. At
+that moment the conviction that Mr. Saul's love was not among past
+events had not reached her; and as regarded herself, she was quite
+sincere when she said that anything of the kind must be impossible.</p>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that Florence Burton had advised Mr. Saul to
+try again, and that Mr. Saul had resolved that he would do
+so,&mdash;resolving, also, that should he try in vain he must leave
+Clavering, and seek another home. He was a solemn, earnest,
+thoughtful man; to whom such a matter as this was a phase of life
+very serious, causing infinite present trouble, nay, causing
+tribulation, and, to the same extent, capable of causing infinite
+joy. From day to day he went about his work, seeing her amidst his
+ministrations almost daily. And never during these days did he say a
+word to her of his love,&mdash;never since that day in which he had
+plainly pleaded his cause in the muddy lane. To no one but Florence
+Burton had he since spoken of it, and Florence had certainly been
+true to her trust; but, notwithstanding all that, Fanny's conviction
+was very strong.</p>
+
+<p>Florence had counselled Mr. Saul to try again, and Mr. Saul was
+prepared to make the attempt; but he was a man who allowed himself to
+do nothing in a hurry. He thought much of the matter before he could
+prepare himself to recur to the subject; doubting, sometimes, whether
+he would be right to do so without first speaking to Fanny's father;
+doubting, afterwards, whether he might not best serve his cause by
+asking the assistance of Fanny's mother. But he resolved at last that
+he would depend on himself alone. As to the rector, if his suit to
+Fanny were a fault against Mr. Clavering as Fanny's father, that
+fault had been already committed. But Mr. Saul would not admit to
+himself that it was a fault. I fancy that he considered himself to
+have, as a gentleman, a right to address himself to any lady with
+whom he was thrown into close contact. I fancy that he ignored all
+want of worldly preparation,&mdash;never for a moment attempting to place
+himself on a footing with men who were richer than himself, and, as
+the world goes, brighter, but still feeling himself to be in no way
+lower than they. If any woman so lived as to show that she thought
+his line better than their line, it was open to him to ask such woman
+to join her lot to his. If he failed, the misfortune was his; and the
+misfortune, as he well knew, was one which it was hard to bear. And
+as to the mother, though he had learned to love Mrs. Clavering
+dearly,&mdash;appreciating her kindness to all those around her, her
+conduct to her husband, her solicitude in the parish, all her genuine
+goodness, still he was averse to trust to her for any part of his
+success. Though Mr. Saul was no knight, though he had nothing
+knightly about him, though he was a poor curate in very rusty clothes
+and with manner strangely unfitted for much communion with the outer
+world, still he had a feeling that the spoil which he desired to win
+should be won by his own spear, and that his triumph would lose half
+its glory if it were not achieved by his own prowess. He was no
+coward, either in such matter as this or in any other. When
+circumstances demanded that he should speak he could speak his mind
+freely, with manly vigour, and sometimes not without a certain manly
+grace.</p>
+
+<p>How did Fanny know that it was coming? She did know it, though he had
+said nothing to her beyond his usual parish communications. He was
+often with her in the two schools; often returned with her in the
+sweet spring evenings along the lane that led back to the rectory
+from Cumberly Green; often inspected with her the little amounts of
+parish charities and entries of pence collected from such parents as
+could pay. He had never reverted to that other subject. But yet Fanny
+knew that it was coming, and when she had questioned Harry about his
+troubles she had been thinking also of her own.</p>
+
+<p>It was now the middle of May, and the spring was giving way to the
+early summer almost before the spring had itself arrived. It is so, I
+think, in these latter years. The sharpness of March prolongs itself
+almost through April; and then, while we are still hoping for the
+spring, there falls upon us suddenly a bright, dangerous, delicious
+gleam of summer. The lane from Cumberly Green was no longer muddy,
+and Fanny could go backwards and forwards between the parsonage and
+her distant school without that wading for which feminine apparel is
+so unsuited. One evening, just as she had finished her work, Mr.
+Saul's head appeared at the school-door, and he asked her whether she
+were about to return home. As soon as she saw his eye and heard his
+voice, she feared that the day was come. She was prepared with no new
+answer, and could only give the answer that she had given before. She
+had always told herself that it was impossible; and as to all other
+questions, about her own heart or such like, she had put such
+questions away from her as being unnecessary, and, perhaps, unseemly.
+The thing was impossible, and should therefore be put away out of
+thought, as a matter completed and at an end. But now the time was
+come, and she almost wished that she had been more definite in her
+own resolutions.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Saul, I have just done."</p>
+
+<p>"I will walk with you, if you will let me." Then Fanny spoke some
+words of experienced wisdom to two or three girls, in order that she
+might show to them, to him, and to herself that she was quite
+collected. She lingered in the room for a few minutes, and was very
+wise and very experienced. "I am quite ready now, Mr. Saul." So
+saying, she came forth upon the green lane, and he followed her.</p>
+
+<p>They walked on in silence for a little way, and then he asked her
+some question about Florence Burton. Fanny told him that she had
+heard from Stratton two days since, and that Florence was well.</p>
+
+<p>"I liked her very much," said Mr. Saul.</p>
+
+<p>"So did we all. She is coming here again in the autumn; so it will
+not be very long before you see her again."</p>
+
+<p>"How that may be I cannot tell, but if you see her that will be of
+more consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall all see her, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"It was here, in this lane, that I was with her last, and wished her
+good-by. She did not tell you of my having parted with her, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not especially, that I remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you would have remembered if she had told you; but she was quite
+right not to tell you." Fanny was now a little confused, so that she
+could not exactly calculate what all this meant. Mr. Saul walked on
+by her side, and for some moments nothing was said. After a while he
+recurred again to his parting from Florence. "I asked her advice on
+that occasion, and she gave it me clearly,&mdash;with a clear purpose and
+an assured voice. I like a person who will do that. You are sure then
+that you are getting the truth out of your friend, even if it be a
+simple negative, or a refusal to give any reply to the question
+asked."</p>
+
+<p>"Florence Burton is always clear in what she says."</p>
+
+<p>"I had asked her if she thought that I might venture to hope for a
+more favourable answer if I urged my suit to you again."</p>
+
+<p>"She cannot have said yes to that, Mr. Saul; she cannot have done
+so!"</p>
+
+<p>"She did not do so. She simply bade me ask yourself. And she was
+right. On such a matter there is no one to whom I can with propriety
+address myself, but to yourself. Therefore I now ask you the
+question. May I venture to have any hope?"</p>
+
+<p>His voice was so solemn, and there was so much of eager seriousness
+in his face that Fanny could not bring herself to answer him with
+quickness. The answer that was in her mind was in truth this: "How
+can you ask me to try to love a man who has but seventy pounds a year
+in the world, while I myself have nothing?" But there was something
+in his demeanour,&mdash;something that was almost grand in its
+gravity,&mdash;which made it quite impossible that she should speak to him
+in that tone. But he, having asked his question, waited for an
+answer; and she was well aware that the longer she delayed it, the
+weaker became the ground on which she was standing.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite impossible," she said at last.</p>
+
+<p>"If it really be so,&mdash;if you will say again that it is so after
+hearing me out to an end, I will desist. In that case I will desist
+and leave you,&mdash;and leave Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Saul, do not do that,&mdash;for papa's sake, and because of the
+parish."</p>
+
+<p>"I would do much for your father, and as to the parish I love it
+well. I do not think I can make you understand how well I love it. It
+seems to me that I can never again have the same feeling for any
+place that I have for this. There is not a house, a field, a green
+lane, that is not dear to me. It is like a first love. With some
+people a first love will come so strongly that it makes a renewal of
+the passion impossible." He did not say that it would be so with
+himself, but it seemed to her that he intended that she should so
+understand him.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see why you should leave Clavering," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"If you knew the nature of my regard for yourself, you would see why
+it should be so. I do not say that there ought to be any such
+necessity. If I were strong there would be no such need. But I am
+weak,&mdash;weak in this; and I could not hold myself under such control
+as is wanted for the work I have to do." When he had spoken of his
+love for the place,&mdash;for the parish, there had been something of
+passion in his language; but now in the words which he spoke of
+himself and of his feeling for her, he was calm and reasonable and
+tranquil, and talked of his going away from her as he might have
+talked had some change of air been declared necessary for his health.
+She felt that this was so, and was almost angry with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you must know what will be best for yourself," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I know now what I must do, if such is to be your answer. I have
+made up my mind as to that. I cannot remain at Clavering, if I am
+told that I may never hope that you will become my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Mr. Saul&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well; I am listening. But before you speak, remember how
+all-important your words will be to me."</p>
+
+<p>"No; they cannot be all-important."</p>
+
+<p>"As regards my present happiness and rest in this world they will be
+so. Of course I know that nothing you can say or do will hurt me
+beyond that. But you might help me even to that further and greater
+bliss. You might help me too in that,&mdash;as I also might help you."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Mr. Saul&mdash;" she began again, and then, feeling that she must go
+on, she forced herself to utter words which at the time she felt to
+be commonplace. "People cannot marry without an income. Mr. Fielding
+did not think of such a thing till he had a living assured to him."</p>
+
+<p>"But, independently of that, might I hope?" She ventured for an
+instant to glance at his face, and saw that his eyes were glistening
+with a wonderful brightness.</p>
+
+<p>"How can I answer you further? Is not that reason enough why such a
+thing should not be even discussed?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Clavering, it is not reason enough. If you were to tell me
+that you could never love me,&mdash;me, personally,&mdash;that you could never
+regard me with affection, that would be reason why I should
+desist;&mdash;why I should abandon all my hope here, and go away from
+Clavering for ever. Nothing else can be reason enough. My being poor
+ought not to make you throw me aside if you loved me. If it were so
+that you loved me, I think you would owe it me to say so, let me be
+ever so poor."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not like you the less because you are poor."</p>
+
+<p>"But do you like me at all? Can you bring yourself to love me? Would
+you make the effort if I had such an income as you thought necessary?
+If I had such riches, could you teach yourself to regard me as him
+whom you were to love better than all the world beside? I call upon
+you to answer me that question truly; and if you tell me that it
+could be so, I will not despair, and I will not go away."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this they came to a turn in the road which brought the
+parsonage gate within their view. Fanny knew that she would leave him
+there and go in alone, but she knew also that she must say something
+further to him before she could thus escape. She did not wish to give
+him an assurance of her positive indifference to him,&mdash;and still less
+did she wish to tell him that he might hope. It could not be possible
+that such an engagement should be approved by her father, nor could
+she bring herself to think that she could be quite contented with a
+lover such as Mr. Saul. When he had first proposed to her she had
+almost ridiculed his proposition in her heart. Even now there was
+something in it that was almost ridiculous;&mdash;and yet there was
+something in it also that touched her as being sublime. The man was
+honest, good, and true,&mdash;perhaps the best and truest man that she had
+ever known. She could not bring herself to say to him any word that
+should banish him for ever from the place he loved so well.</p>
+
+<p>"If you knew your own heart well enough to answer me, you should do
+so," he went on to say. "If you do not, say so, and I will be content
+to wait your own time."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be better, Mr. Saul, that you should not think of this any
+more."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Clavering; that would not be better,&mdash;not for me; for it
+would prove me to be utterly heartless. I am not heartless. I love
+you dearly. I will not say that I cannot live without you; but it is
+my one great hope as regards this world, that I should have you at
+some future day as my own. It may be that I am too prone to hope; but
+surely, if that were altogether beyond hope, you would have found
+words to tell me so by this time." They had now come to the gateway,
+and he paused as she put her trembling hand upon the latch.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say more to you now," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then let it be so. But, Miss Clavering, I shall not leave this place
+till you have said more than that. And I will speak the truth to you,
+even though it may offend you. I have more of hope now than I have
+ever had before,&mdash;more hope that you may possibly learn to love me.
+In a few days I will ask you again whether I may be allowed to speak
+upon the subject to your father. Now I will say farewell, and may God
+bless you; and remember this,&mdash;that my only earthly wish and ambition
+is in your hands." Then he went on his way towards his own lodgings,
+and she entered the parsonage garden by herself.</p>
+
+<p>What should she now do, and how should she carry herself? She would
+have gone to her mother at once, were it not that she could not
+resolve what words she would speak to her mother. When her mother
+should ask her how she regarded the man, in what way should she
+answer that question? She could not tell herself that she loved Mr.
+Saul; and yet, if she surely did not love him,&mdash;if such love were
+impossible,&mdash;why had she not said as much to him? We, however, may
+declare that that inclination to ridicule his passion, to think of
+him as a man who had no right to love, was gone for ever. She
+conceded to him clearly that right, and knew that he had exercised it
+well. She knew that he was good and true, and honest, and recognized
+in him also manly courage and spirited resolution. She would not tell
+herself that it was impossible that she should love him.</p>
+
+<p>She went up at last to her room doubting, unhappy, and ill at ease.
+To have such a secret long kept from her mother would make her life
+unendurable to her. But she felt that, in speaking to her mother,
+only one aspect of the affair would be possible. Even though she
+loved him, how could she marry a curate whose only income was seventy
+pounds a year?</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c24"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3>
+<h4>THE RUSSIAN SPY.</h4>
+
+
+<p>When the baby died at Clavering Park, somebody hinted that Sir Hugh
+would certainly quarrel with his brother as soon as Archie should
+become the father of a presumptive heir to the title and property.
+That such would be the case those who best knew Sir Hugh would not
+doubt. That Archie should have that of which he himself had been
+robbed, would of itself be enough to make him hate Archie. But,
+nevertheless, at this present time, he continued to instigate his
+brother in that matter of the proposed marriage with Lady Ongar.
+Hugh, as well as others, felt that Archie's prospects were now
+improved, and that he could demand the hand of a wealthy lady with
+more of seeming propriety than would have belonged to such a
+proposition while the poor child was living. No one would understand
+this better than Lady Ongar, who knew so well all the circumstances
+of the family. The day after the funeral the two brothers returned to
+London together, and Hugh spoke his mind in the railway carriage. "It
+will be no good for you to hang on about Bolton Street, off and on,
+as though she were a girl of seventeen," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm quite up to that," said Archie. "I must let her know I'm there
+of course. I understand all that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why don't you do it? I thought you meant to go to her at once
+when we were talking about it before in London."</p>
+
+<p>"So I did go to her, and got on with her very well, too, considering
+that I hadn't been there long when another woman came in."</p>
+
+<p>"But you didn't tell her what you had come about?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; not exactly. You see it doesn't do to pop at once to a widow
+like her. Ongar, you know, hasn't been dead six months. One has to be
+a little delicate in these things."</p>
+
+<p>"Believe me, Archie, you had better give up all notions of being
+delicate, and tell her what you want at once,&mdash;plainly and fairly.
+You may be sure that she will not think of her former husband, if you
+don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I don't think about him at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Who was the woman you say was there?"</p>
+
+<p>"That little Frenchwoman,&mdash;the sister of the man;&mdash;Sophie she calls
+her. Sophie Gordeloup is her name. They are bosom friends."</p>
+
+<p>"The sister of that count?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; his sister. Such a woman for talking! She said ever so much
+about your keeping Hermione down in the country."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil she did. What business was that of hers? That is Julia's
+doing."</p>
+
+<p>"Well; no, I don't think so. Julia didn't say a word about it. In
+fact, I don't know how it came up. But you never heard such a woman
+to talk,&mdash;an ugly, old, hideous little creature! But the two are
+always together."</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't take care you'll find that Julia is married to the
+count while you are thinking about it."</p>
+
+<p>Then Archie began to consider whether he might not as well tell his
+brother of his present scheme with reference to Julia. Having
+discussed the matter at great length with his confidential friend,
+Captain Boodle, he had come to the conclusion that his safest course
+would be to bribe Madame Gordeloup, and creep into Julia's favour by
+that lady's aid. Now, on his return to London, he was about at once
+to play that game, and had already provided himself with funds for
+the purpose. The parting with ready money was a grievous thing to
+Archie, though in this case the misery would be somewhat palliated by
+the feeling that it was a bon&acirc; fide sporting transaction. He would be
+lessening the odds against himself by a judicious hedging of his
+bets. "You must stand to lose something always by the horse you mean
+to win," Doodles had said to him, and Archie had recognized the
+propriety of the remark. He had, therefore, with some difficulty,
+provided himself with funds, and was prepared to set about his
+hedging operations as soon as he could find Madame Gordeloup on his
+return to London. He had already ascertained her address through
+Doodles, and had ascertained by the unparalleled acuteness of his
+friend that the lady was&mdash;a Russian spy. It would have been beautiful
+to have seen Archie's face when this information was whispered into
+his ear, in private, at the club. It was as though he had then been
+made acquainted with some great turf secret, unknown to the sporting
+world in general.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" he said, drawing a long breath, "no;&mdash;by George, is she?"</p>
+
+<p>The same story had been told everywhere in London of the little woman
+for the last half dozen years, whether truly or untruly I am not
+prepared to say; but it had not hitherto reached Archie Clavering;
+and now, on hearing it, he felt that he was becoming a participator
+in the deepest diplomatic secrets of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>"By George," said he, "is she really?"</p>
+
+<p>And his respect for the little woman rose a thousand per cent.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what she is," said Doodles, "and it's a doosed fine thing for
+you, you know! Of course you can make her safe, and that will be
+everything."</p>
+
+<p>Archie resolved at once that he would use the great advantage which
+chance and the ingenuity of his friend had thrown in his way; but
+that necessity of putting money in his purse was a sore grievance to
+him, and it occurred to him that it would be a grand thing if he
+could induce his brother to help him in this special matter. If he
+could only make Hugh see the immense advantage of an alliance with
+the Russian spy, Hugh could hardly avoid contributing to the
+expense,&mdash;of course on the understanding that all such moneys were to
+be repaid when the Russian spy's work had been brought to a
+successful result. Russian spy! There was in the very sound of the
+words something so charming that it almost made Archie in love with
+the outlay. A female Russian spy too! Sophie Gordeloup certainly
+retained but very few of the charms of womanhood, nor had her
+presence as a lady affected Archie with any special pleasure; but yet
+he felt infinitely more pleased with the affair than he would have
+been had she been a man spy. The intrigue was deeper. His sense of
+delight in the mysterious wickedness of the thing was enhanced by an
+additional spice. It is not given to every man to employ the services
+of a political Russian lady-spy in his love-affairs! As he thought of
+it in all its bearings, he felt that he was almost a Talleyrand, or,
+at any rate, a Palmerston.</p>
+
+<p>Should he tell his brother? If he could represent the matter in such
+a light to his brother as to induce Hugh to produce the funds for
+purchasing the Spy's services, the whole thing would be complete with
+a completeness that has rarely been equalled. But he doubted. Hugh
+was a hard man,&mdash;a hard, unimaginative man, and might possibly
+altogether refuse to believe in the Russian spy. Hugh believed in
+little but what he himself saw, and usually kept a very firm grasp
+upon his money.</p>
+
+<p>"That Madame Gordeloup is always with Julia," Archie said, trying the
+way, as it were, before he told his plan.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course she will help her brother's views."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not so sure of that. Some of these foreign women ain't like
+other women at all. They go deeper;&mdash;a doosed sight deeper."</p>
+
+<p>"Into men's pockets, you mean."</p>
+
+<p>"They play a deep game altogether. What do you suppose she is, now?"
+This question Archie asked in a whisper, bending his head forward
+towards his brother, though there was no one else in the carriage
+with them.</p>
+
+<p>"What she is? A thief of some kind probably. I've no doubt she's up
+to any roguery."</p>
+
+<p>"She's a&mdash;Russian spy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I've heard of that for the last dozen years. All the ugly old
+Frenchwomen in London are Russian spies, according to what people
+say; but the Russians know how to use their money better than that.
+If they employ spies, they employ people who can spy something."</p>
+
+<p>Archie felt this to be cruel,&mdash;very cruel, but he said nothing
+further about it. His brother was stupid, pigheaded, obstinate, and
+quite unfitted by nature for affairs of intrigue. It was, alas,
+certain that his brother would provide no money for such a purpose as
+that he now projected; but, thinking of this, he found some
+consolation in the reflection that Hugh would not be a participator
+with him in his great secret. When he should have bought the Russian
+spy, he and Doodles would rejoice together in privacy without any
+third confederate. Triumviri might be very well; Archie also had
+heard of triumviri; but two were company, and three were none. Thus
+he consoled himself when his pigheaded brother expressed his
+disbelief in the Russian spy.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing more said between them in the railway carriage,
+and, as they parted at the door in Berkeley Square, Hugh swore to
+himself that this should be the last season in which he would harbour
+his brother in London. After this he must have a house of his own
+there, or have no house at all. Then Archie went down to his club,
+and finally arranged with Doodles that the first visit to the Spy
+should be made on the following morning. After much consultation it
+was agreed between them that the way should be paved by a diplomatic
+note. The diplomatic note was therefore written by Doodles and copied
+by Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Clavering presents his compliments to Madame Gordeloup, and
+proposes to call upon her to-morrow morning at twelve o'clock, if
+that hour will be convenient. Captain Clavering is desirous of
+consulting Madame Gordeloup on an affair of much importance."
+"Consult me!" said Sophie to herself, when she got the letter. "For
+what should he consult me? It is that stupid man I saw with Julie.
+Ah, well; never mind. The stupid man shall come." The commissioner,
+therefore, who had taken the letter to Mount Street, returned to the
+club with a note in which Madame Gordeloup expressed her willingness
+to undergo the proposed interview. Archie felt that the letter,&mdash;a
+letter from a Russian spy addressed positively to himself,&mdash;gave him
+already diplomatic rank, and he kept it as a treasure in his breast
+coat-pocket.</p>
+
+<p>It then became necessary that he and his friend should discuss the
+manner in which the Spy should be managed. Doodles had his misgivings
+that Archie would be awkward, and almost angered his friend by the
+repetition of his cautions. "You mustn't chuck your money at her
+head, you know," said Doodles.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not; but when the time comes I shall slip the notes into
+her hand,&mdash;with a little pressure perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be better to leave them near her on the table."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; a great deal. It's always done in that way."</p>
+
+<p>"But perhaps she wouldn't see them,&mdash;or wouldn't know where they came
+from."</p>
+
+<p>"Let her alone for that."</p>
+
+<p>"But I must make her understand what I want of her,&mdash;in return, you
+know. I ain't going to give her twenty pounds for nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"You must explain that at first; tell her that you expect her aid,
+and that she will find you a grateful friend,&mdash;a grateful friend,
+say;&mdash;mind you remember that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I'll remember that. I suppose it would be as good a way as
+any."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the only way, unless you want her to ring for the servant to
+kick you out of the house. It's as well understood as A B C, among
+the people who do these things. I should say take jewellery instead
+of money if she were anything but a Russian spy; but they understand
+the thing so well, that you may go farther with them than with
+others."</p>
+
+<p>Archie's admiration for Sophie became still higher as he heard this.
+"I do like people," said he, "who understand what's what, and no
+mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"But even with her you must be very careful."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; that's a matter of course."</p>
+
+<p>"When I was declaring for the last time that she would find me a
+grateful friend, just at the word grateful, I would put down the four
+fivers on the table, smoothing them with my hand like that." Then
+Doodles acted the part, putting a great deal of emphasis on the word
+grateful, as he went through the smoothing ceremony with two or three
+sheets of club notepaper. "That's your game, you may be sure. If you
+put them into her hand she may feel herself obliged to pretend to be
+angry; but she can't be angry simply because you put your money on
+her table. Do you see that, old fellow?" Archie declared that he did
+see it very plainly. "If she does not choose to undertake the job,
+she'll merely have to tell you that you have left something behind
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"But there's no fear of that, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say. Her hands may be full, you know, or she may think you
+don't go high enough."</p>
+
+<p>"But I mean to tip her again, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Again! I should think so. I suppose she must have about a couple of
+hundred before the end of next month if she's to do any good. After a
+bit you'll be able to explain that she shall have a sum down when the
+marriage has come off."</p>
+
+<p>"She won't take the money and do nothing; will she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; they never sell you like that. It would spoil their own
+business if they were to play that game. If you can make it worth her
+while, she'll do the work for you. But you must be careful;&mdash;do
+remember that." Archie shook his head, almost in anger, and then went
+home for his night's rest.</p>
+
+<p>On the next morning he dressed himself in his best, and presented
+himself at the door in Mount Street, exactly as the clock struck
+twelve. He had an idea that these people were very punctilious as to
+time. Who could say but that the French ambassador might have an
+appointment with Madame Gordeloup at half-past one,&mdash;or perhaps some
+emissary from the Pope! He had resolved that he would not take his
+left glove off his hand, and he had thrust the notes in under the
+palm of his glove, thinking he could get at them easier from there,
+should they be wanted in a moment, than he could do from his
+waistcoat pocket. He knocked at the door, knowing that he trembled as
+he did so, and felt considerable relief when he found himself to be
+alone in the room to which he was shown. He knew that men conversant
+with intrigues always go to work with their eyes open, and,
+therefore, at once, he began to look about him. Could he not put the
+money into some convenient hiding-place,&mdash;now at once? There, in one
+corner, was the spot in which she would seat herself upon the sofa.
+He saw plainly enough, as with the eye of a Talleyrand, the marks
+thereon of her constant sitting. So he seized the moment to place a
+chair suitable for himself, and cleared a few inches on the table
+near to it, for the smoothing of the bank-notes,&mdash;feeling, while so
+employed, that he was doing great things. He had almost made up his
+mind to slip one note between the pages of a book, not with any
+well-defined plan as to the utility of such a measure, but because it
+seemed to be such a diplomatic thing to do! But while this grand idea
+was still flashing backwards and forwards across his brain, the door
+opened, and he found himself in the presence of&mdash;the Russian spy.</p>
+
+<p>He at once saw that the Russian spy was very dirty, and that she wore
+a nightcap, but he liked her the better on that account. A female
+Russian spy should, he felt, differ much in her attire from other
+women. If possible, she should be arrayed in diamonds, and pearl
+ear-drops, with as little else upon her as might be; but failing that
+costume, which might be regarded as the appropriate evening spy
+costume,&mdash;a tumbled nightcap, and a dirty white wrapper, old cloth
+slippers, and objectionable stockings were just what they should be.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said the lady, "you are Captain Clavering. Yes, I remember."</p>
+
+<p>"I am Captain Clavering. I had the honour of meeting you at Lady
+Ongar's."</p>
+
+<p>"And now you wish to consult me on an affair of great importance.
+Very well. You may consult me. Will you sit down&mdash;there." And Madame
+Gordeloup indicated to him a chair just opposite to herself, and far
+removed from that convenient spot which Archie had prepared for the
+smoothing of the bank-notes. Near to the place now assigned to him
+there was no table whatever, and he felt that he would in that
+position be so completely raked by the fire of her keen eyes, that he
+would not be able to carry on his battle upon good terms. In spite,
+therefore, of the lady's very plain instructions, he made an attempt
+to take possession of the chair which he had himself placed; but it
+was an ineffectual attempt, for the Spy was very peremptory with him.
+"There, Captain Clavering; there; there; you will be best there."
+Then he did as he was bid, and seated himself, as it were, quite out
+at sea, with nothing but an ocean of carpet around him, and with no
+possibility of manipulating his notes except under the raking fire of
+those terribly sharp eyes. "And now," said Madame Gordeloup, "you can
+commence to consult me. What is the business?"</p>
+
+<p>Ah; what was the business? That was now the difficulty? In discussing
+the proper way of tendering the bank-notes, I fear the two captains
+had forgotten the nicest point of the whole negotiation. How was he
+to tell her what it was that he wanted to do himself, and what that
+she was to be required to do for him? It behoved him above all things
+not to be awkward! That he remembered. But how not to be awkward?
+"Well!" she said; and there was something almost of crossness in her
+tone. Her time, no doubt, was valuable. The French ambassador might
+even now be coming. "Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think, Madame Gordeloup, you know my brother's sister-in-law, Lady
+Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, Julie? Of course I know Julie. Julie and I are dear friends."</p>
+
+<p>"So I supposed. That is the reason why I have come to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well;&mdash;well;&mdash;well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Ongar is a person whom I have known for a long time, and for
+whom I have a great,&mdash;I may say a very deep regard."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! yes. What a jointure she has! and what a park! Thousands and
+thousands of pounds,&mdash;and so beautiful! If I was a man I should have
+a very deep regard too. Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"A most beautiful creature;&mdash;is she not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah; if you had seen her in Florence, as I used to see her, in the
+long summer evenings! Her lovely hair was all loose to the wind, and
+she would sit hour after hour looking, oh, at the stars! Have you
+seen the stars in Italy?"</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering couldn't say that he had, but he had seen them
+uncommon bright in Norway, when he had been fishing there.</p>
+
+<p>"Or the moon?" continued Sophie, not regarding his answer. "Ah; that
+is to live! And he, her husband, the rich lord, he was dying,&mdash;in a
+little room just inside, you know. It was very melancholy, Captain
+Clavering. But when she was looking at the moon, with her hair all
+dishevelled," and Sophie put her hands up to her own dirty nightcap,
+"she was just like a Magdalen; yes, just the same;&mdash;just the same."</p>
+
+<p>The exact strength of the picture, and the nature of the comparison
+drawn, were perhaps lost upon Archie; and indeed, Sophie herself
+probably trusted more to the tone of her words, than to any idea
+which they contained; but their tone was perfect, and she felt that
+if anything could make him talk, he would talk now.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me! you don't say so. I have always admired her very much,
+Madame Gordeloup."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>The French ambassador was probably in the next street already, and if
+Archie was to tell his tale at all he must do it now.</p>
+
+<p>"You will keep my secret if I tell it you?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it me you ask that? Did you ever hear of me that I tell a
+gentleman's secret? I think not. If you have a secret, and will trust
+me, that will be good; if you will not trust me,&mdash;that will be good
+also."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will trust you. That is why I have come here."</p>
+
+<p>"Then out with it. I am not a little girl. You need not be bashful.
+Two and two make four. I know that. But some people want them to make
+five. I know that too. So speak out what you have to say."</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to ask Lady Ongar to&mdash;to&mdash;to&mdash;marry me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, indeed; with all the thousands of pounds and the beautiful park!
+But the beautiful hair is more than all the thousands of pounds. Is
+it not so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as to that, they all go together, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is so lucky! If they was to be separated, which would you
+take?"</p>
+
+<p>The little woman grinned as she asked this question, and Archie, had
+he at all understood her character, might at once have put himself on
+a pleasant footing with her; but he was still confused and ill at
+ease, and only muttered something about the truth of his love for
+Julia.</p>
+
+<p>"And you want to get her to marry you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; that's just it."</p>
+
+<p>"And you want me to help you?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it again."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, if you'll stick to me, you know, and see me through
+it, and all that kind of thing, you'll find in me a most grateful
+friend;&mdash;indeed, a most grateful friend." And Archie, as from his
+position he was debarred from attempting the smoothing process, began
+to work with his right forefinger under the glove on his left hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you got there?" said Madame Gordeloup, looking at him with
+all her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering instantly discontinued the work with his finger,
+and became terribly confused. Her voice on asking the question had
+become very sharp; and it seemed to him that if he brought out his
+money in that awkward, barefaced way which now seemed to be
+necessary, she would display all the wrath of which a Russian spy
+could be capable. Would it not be better that he should let the money
+rest for the present, and trust to his promise of gratitude? Ah, how
+he wished that he had slipped at any rate one note between the pages
+of a book.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you got there?" she demanded again, very sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not nothing. What have you got there? If you have got nothing,
+take off your glove. Come."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Clavering became very red in the face, and was altogether at
+a loss what to say or do. "Is it money you have got there?" she
+asked. "Let me see how much. Come."</p>
+
+<p>"It is just a few bank-notes I put in here to be handy," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah; that is very handy, certainly. I never saw that custom before.
+Let me look." Then she took his hand, and with her own hooked finger
+clawed out the notes. "Ah! five, ten, fifteen, twenty pounds. Twenty
+pounds is not a great deal, but it is very nice to have even that
+always handy. I was wanting so much money as that myself; perhaps you
+will make it handy to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word I shall be most happy. Nothing on earth would give me
+more pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>"Fifty pounds would give me more pleasure; just twice as much
+pleasure." Archie had begun to rejoice greatly at the safe
+disposition of the money, and to think how excellently well this spy
+did her business; but now there came upon him suddenly an idea that
+spies perhaps might do their business too well. "Twenty pounds in
+this country goes a very little way; you are all so rich," said the
+Spy.</p>
+
+<p>"By George, I ain't. I ain't rich, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"But you mean to be&mdash;with Julie's money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;ah&mdash;yes; and you ought to know, Madame Gordeloup, that I am now
+the heir to the family estate and title."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the poor little baby is dead, in spite of the pills and the
+powders, the daisies and the buttercups! Poor little baby! I had a
+baby of my own once, and that died also." Whereupon Madame Gordeloup,
+putting up her hand to her eyes, wiped away a real tear with the
+bank-notes which she still held. "And I am to remind Julie that you
+will be the heir?"</p>
+
+<p>"She will know all about that already."</p>
+
+<p>"But I will tell her. It will be something to say, at any rate,&mdash;and
+that, perhaps, will be the difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so! I didn't look at it in that light before."</p>
+
+<p>"And am I to propose it to her first?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well; I don't know. Perhaps as you are so clever, it might be as
+well."</p>
+
+<p>"And at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly; at once. You see, Madame Gordeloup, there may be so
+many buzzing about her."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly; and some of them perhaps will have more than twenty pounds
+handy. Some will buzz better than that."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I didn't mean that for anything more than just a little
+compliment to begin with."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ah; just a little compliment for beginning. And when will it be
+making a progress and going on?"</p>
+
+<p>"Making a progress!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; when will the compliment become a little bigger? Twenty pounds!
+Oh! it's just for a few gloves, you know; nothing more."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing more than that, of course," said poor Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"Well; when will the compliment grow bigger? Let me see. Julie has
+seven thousands of pounds, what you call, per annum. And have you
+seen that beautiful park? Oh! And if you can make her to look at the
+moon with her hair down,&mdash;oh! When will that compliment grow bigger?
+Twenty pounds! I am ashamed, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"When will you see her, Madame Gordeloup?"</p>
+
+<p>"See her! I see her every day, always. I will be there to-day, and
+to-morrow, and the next day."</p>
+
+<p>"You might say a word then at once,&mdash;this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"What! for twenty pounds! Seven thousands of pounds per annum; and
+you give me twenty pounds! Fie, Captain Clavering. It is only just
+for me to speak to you,&mdash;this! That is all. Come; when will you bring
+me fifty?"</p>
+
+<p>"By George&mdash;fifty!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, fifty;&mdash;for another beginning. What; seven thousands of pounds
+per annum, and make difficulty for fifty pounds! You have a handy way
+with your glove. Will you come with fifty pounds to-morrow?" Archie,
+with the drops of perspiration standing on his brow, and now desirous
+of getting out again into the street, promised that he would come
+again on the following day with the required sum.</p>
+
+<p>"Just for another beginning! And now, good-morning, Captain
+Clavering. I will do my possible with Julie. Julie is very fond of
+me, and I think you have been right in coming here. But twenty pounds
+was too little, even for a beginning." Mercenary wretch; hungry,
+greedy, ill-conditioned woman,&mdash;altogether of the harpy breed! As
+Archie Clavering looked into her grey eyes, and saw there her greed
+and her hunger, his flesh crept upon his bones. Should he not succeed
+with Julia, how much would this excellent lady cost him?</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he was gone the excellent lady made an intolerable
+grimace, shaking herself and shrugging her shoulders, and walking up
+and down the room with her dirty wrapper held close round her. "Bah,"
+she said. "Bah!" And as she thought of the heavy stupidity of her
+late visitor she shrugged herself and shook herself again violently,
+and clutched up her robe still more closely. "Bah!" It was
+intolerable to her that a man should be such a fool, even though she
+was to make money by him. And then, that such a man should conceive
+it to be possible that he should become the husband of a woman with
+seven thousand pounds a year! Bah!</p>
+
+<p>Archie, as he walked away from Mount Street, found it difficult to
+create a triumphant feeling within his own bosom. He had been
+awkward, slow, and embarrassed, and the Spy had been too much for
+him. He was quite aware of that, and he was aware also that even the
+sagacious Doodles had been wrong. There had, at any rate, been no
+necessity for making a difficulty about the money. The Russian spy
+had known her business too well to raise troublesome scruples on that
+point. That she was very good at her trade he was prepared to
+acknowledge; but a fear came upon him that he would find the article
+too costly for his own purposes. He remembered the determined tone in
+which she had demanded the fifty pounds merely as a further
+beginning.</p>
+
+<p>And then he could not but reflect how much had been said at the
+interview about money,&mdash;about money for her, and how very little had
+been said as to the assistance to be given,&mdash;as to the return to be
+made for the money. No plan had been laid down, no times fixed, no
+facilities for making love suggested to him. He had simply paid over
+his twenty pounds, and been desired to bring another fifty. The other
+fifty he was to take to Mount Street on the morrow. What if she were
+to require fifty pounds every day, and declare that she could not
+stir in the matter for less? Doodles, no doubt, had told him that
+these first-class Russian spies did well the work for which they were
+paid; and no doubt, if paid according to her own tariff, Madame
+Gordeloup would work well for him; but such a tariff as that was
+altogether beyond his means! It would be imperatively necessary that
+he should come to some distinct settlement with her as to price. The
+twenty pounds, of course, were gone; but would it not be better that
+he should come to some final understanding with her before he gave
+her the further fifty? But then, as he thought of this, he was aware
+that she was too clever to allow him to do as he desired. If he went
+into that room with the fifty pounds in his pockets, or in his glove,
+or, indeed, anywhere about his person, she would have it from him,
+let his own resolution to make a previous bargain be what it might.
+His respect for the woman rose almost to veneration, but with the
+veneration was mixed a strong feeling of fear.</p>
+
+<p>But, in spite of all this, he did venture to triumph a little when he
+met Doodles at the club. He had employed the Russian spy, and had
+paid her twenty pounds, and was enrolled in the corps of diplomatic
+and mysterious personages, who do their work by mysterious agencies.
+He did not tell Doodles anything about the glove, or the way in which
+the money was taken from him; but he did say that he was to see the
+Spy again to-morrow, and that he intended to take with him another
+present of fifty pounds.</p>
+
+<p>"By George, Clavvy, you are going it!" said Doodles, in a voice that
+was delightfully envious to the ears of Captain Archie. When he heard
+that envious tone he felt that he was entitled to be triumphant.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c25"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXV.</h3>
+<h4>"WHAT WOULD MEN SAY OF YOU?"</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill25-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="H" />arry,
+tell me the truth,&mdash;tell me all the truth." Harry Clavering
+was thus greeted when in obedience to the summons from Lady Ongar, he
+went to her almost immediately on his return to London.</p>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that he had remained at Clavering some days
+after the departure of Hugh and Archie, lacking the courage to face
+his misfortunes boldly. But though his delay had been cowardly, it
+had not been easy to him to be a coward. He despised himself for not
+having written with warm, full-expressed affection to Florence and
+with honest clear truth to Julia. Half his misery rose from this
+feeling of self-abasement, and from the consciousness that he was
+weak,&mdash;piteously weak, exactly in that in which he had often boasted
+to himself that he was strong. But such inward boastings are not
+altogether bad. They preserve men from succumbing, and make at any
+rate some attempt to realize themselves. The man who tells himself
+that he is brave, will struggle much before he flies; but the man who
+never does so tell himself, will find flying easy unless his heart be
+of nature very high. Now had come the moment either for flying, or
+not flying; and Harry swearing that he would stand his ground,
+resolutely took his hat and gloves, and made his way to Bolton Street
+with a sore heart.</p>
+
+<p>But as he went he could not keep himself from arguing the matter
+within his own breast. He knew what was his duty. It was his duty to
+stick to Florence, not only with his word and his hand, but with his
+heart. It was his duty to tell Lady Ongar that not only his word was
+at Stratton, but his heart also, and to ask her pardon for the wrong
+that he had done her by that caress. For some ten minutes as he
+walked through the streets his resolve was strong to do this manifest
+duty; but, gradually, as he thought of that caress, as he thought of
+the difficulties of the coming interview, as he thought of Julia's
+high-toned beauty,&mdash;perhaps something also of her wealth and
+birth,&mdash;and more strongly still as he thought of her love for him,
+false, treacherous, selfish arguments offered themselves to his
+mind,&mdash;arguments which he knew to be false and selfish. Which of them
+did he love? Could it be right for him to give his hand without his
+heart? Could it really be good for Florence,&mdash;poor injured Florence,
+that she should be taken by a man who had ceased to regard her more
+than all other women? Were he to marry her now, would not that deceit
+be worse than the other deceit? Or, rather, would not that be
+deceitful, whereas the other course would simply be
+unfortunate,&mdash;unfortunate through circumstances for which he was
+blameless? Damnable arguments! False, cowardly logic, by which all
+male jilts seek to excuse their own treachery to themselves and to
+others!</p>
+
+<p>Thus during the second ten minutes of his walk, his line of conduct
+became less plain to him, and as he entered Piccadilly he was racked
+with doubts. But instead of settling them in his mind he
+unconsciously allowed himself to dwell upon the words with which he
+would seek to excuse his treachery to Florence. He thought how he
+would tell her,&mdash;not to her face with spoken words, for that he could
+not do,&mdash;but with written skill, that he was unworthy of her
+goodness, that his love for her had fallen off through his own
+unworthiness, and had returned to one who was in all respects less
+perfect than she, but who in old days, as she well knew, had been his
+first love. Yes! he would say all this, and Julia, let her anger be
+what it might, should know that he had said it. As he planned this,
+there came to him a little comfort, for he thought there was
+something grand in such a resolution. Yes; he would do that, even
+though he should lose Julia also.</p>
+
+<p>Miserable clap-trap! He knew in his heart that all his logic was
+false, and his arguments baseless. Cease to love Florence Burton! He
+had not ceased to love her, nor is the heart of any man made so like
+a weather-cock that it needs must turn itself hither and thither, as
+the wind directs, and be altogether beyond the man's control. For
+Harry, with all his faults, and in spite of his present falseness,
+was a man. No man ceases to love without a cause. No man need cease
+to love without a cause. A man may maintain his love, and nourish it,
+and keep it warm by honest manly effort, as he may his probity, his
+courage, or his honour. It was not that he had ceased to love
+Florence; but that the glare of the candle had been too bright for
+him and he had scorched his wings. After all, as to that embrace of
+which he had thought so much, and the memory of which was so sweet to
+him and so bitter,&mdash;it had simply been an accident. Thus, writing in
+his mind that letter to Florence which he knew, if he were an honest
+man, he would never allow himself to write, he reached Lady Ongar's
+door without having arranged for himself any special line of conduct.</p>
+
+<p>We must return for a moment to the fact that Hugh and Archie had
+returned to town before Harry Clavering. How Archie had been engaged
+on great doings, the reader, I hope, will remember; and he may as
+well be informed here that the fifty pounds were duly taken to Mount
+Street, and were extracted from him by the Spy without much
+difficulty. I do not know that Archie in return obtained any
+immediate aid or valuable information from Sophie Gordeloup; but
+Sophie did obtain some information from him which she found herself
+able to use for her own purposes. As his position with reference to
+love and marriage was being discussed, and the position also of the
+divine Julia, Sophie hinted her fear of another Clavering lover. What
+did Archie think of his cousin Harry? "Why; he's engaged to another
+girl," said Archie, opening wide his eyes and his mouth, and becoming
+very free with his information. This was a matter to which Sophie
+found it worth her while to attend, and she soon learned from Archie
+all that Archie knew about Florence Burton. And this was all that
+could be known. No secret had been made in the family of Harry's
+engagement. Archie told his fair assistant that Miss Burton had been
+received at Clavering Park openly as Harry's future wife, and, "by
+Jove, you know, he can't be coming it with Julia after that, you
+know." Sophie made a little grimace, but did not say much. She,
+remembering that she had caught Lady Ongar in Harry's arms, thought
+that, "by Jove," he might be coming it with Julia, even after Miss
+Burton's reception at Clavering Park. Then, too, she remembered some
+few words that had passed between her and her dear Julia after
+Harry's departure on the evening of the embrace, and perceived that
+Julia was in ignorance of the very existence of Florence Burton, even
+though Florence had been received at the Park. This was information
+worth having,&mdash;information to be used! Her respect for Harry rose
+immeasurably. She had not given him credit for so much audacity, so
+much gallantry, and so much skill. She had thought him to be a
+pigheaded Clavering, like the rest of them. He was not pigheaded; he
+was a promising young man; she could have liked him and perhaps aided
+him,&mdash;only that he had shown so strong a determination to have
+nothing to do with her. Therefore the information should be
+used;&mdash;and: it was used.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will now understand what was the truth which Lady Ongar
+demanded from Harry Clavering. "Harry, tell me the truth; tell me all
+the truth." She had come forward to meet him in the middle of the
+room when she spoke these words, and stood looking him in the face,
+not having given him her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What truth?" said Harry. "Have I ever told you a lie?" But he knew
+well what was the truth required of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Lies can be acted as well as told. Harry, tell me all at once. Who
+is Florence Burton; who and what?" She knew it all, then, and things
+had settled themselves for him without the necessity of any action on
+his part. It was odd enough that she should not have learned it
+before, but at any rate she knew it now. And it was well that she
+should have been told;&mdash;only how was he to excuse himself for that
+embrace? "At any rate speak to me," she said, standing quite erect,
+and looking as a Juno might have looked. "You will acknowledge at
+least that I have a right to ask the question. Who is this Florence
+Burton?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is the daughter of Mr. Burton of Stratton."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all that you can tell me? Come, Harry, be braver than
+that. I was not such a coward once with you. Are you engaged to marry
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Lady Ongar, I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have had your revenge on me, and now we are quits." So
+saying, she stepped back from the middle of the room, and sat herself
+down on her accustomed seat. He was left there standing, and it
+seemed as though she intended to take no further notice of him. He
+might go if he pleased, and there would be an end of it all. The
+difficulty would be over, and he might at once write to Florence in
+what language he liked. It would simply be a little episode in his
+life, and his escape would not have been arduous.</p>
+
+<p>But he could not go from her in that way. He could not bring himself
+to leave the room without some further word. She had spoken of
+revenge. Was it not incumbent on him to explain to her that there had
+been no revenge; that he had loved, and suffered, and forgiven
+without one thought of anger;&mdash;and that then he had unfortunately
+loved again? Must he not find some words in which to tell her that
+she had been the light, and he simply the poor moth that had burned
+his wings?</p>
+
+<p>"No, Lady Ongar," said he, "there has been no revenge."</p>
+
+<p>"We will call it justice, if you please. At any rate I do not mean to
+complain."</p>
+
+<p>"If you ever injured me&mdash;" he began.</p>
+
+<p>"I did injure you," said she, sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"If you ever injured me, I forgave you freely."</p>
+
+<p>"I did injure you&mdash;" As she spoke she rose again from her seat,
+showing how impossible to her was that tranquillity which she had
+attempted to maintain. "I did injure you, but the injury came to you
+early in life, and sat lightly on you. Within a few months you had
+learned to love this young lady at the place you went to,&mdash;the first
+young lady you saw! I had not done you much harm, Harry. But that
+which you have done me cannot be undone."</p>
+
+<p>"Julia," he said, coming up to her.</p>
+
+<p>"No; not Julia. When you were here before I asked you to call me so,
+hoping, longing, believing,&mdash;doing more, so much more than I could
+have done, but that I thought my love might now be of service to you.
+You do not think that I had heard of this then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no."</p>
+
+<p>"No. It is odd that I should not have known it, as I now hear that
+she was at my sister's house; but all others have not been as silent
+as you have been. We are quits, Harry; that is all that I have to
+say. We are quits now."</p>
+
+<p>"I have intended to be true to you;&mdash;to you and to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you true when you acted as you did the other night?" He could
+not explain to her how greatly he had been tempted. "Were you true
+when you held me in your arms as that woman came in? Had you not made
+me think that I might glory in loving you, and that I might show her
+that I scorned her when she thought to promise me her secrecy;&mdash;her
+secrecy, as though I were ashamed of what she had seen. I was not
+ashamed,&mdash;not then. Had all the world known it, I should not have
+been ashamed. 'I have loved him long,' I should have said, 'and him
+only. He is to be my husband, and now at last I need not be
+ashamed.'" So much she spoke, standing up, looking at him with firm
+face, and uttering her syllables with a quick clear voice; but at the
+last word there came a quiver in her tone, and the strength of her
+countenance quailed, and there was a tear which made dim her eye, and
+she knew that she could no longer stand before him. She endeavoured
+to seat herself with composure; but the attempt failed, and as she
+fell back upon the sofa he just heard the sob which had cost her so
+great and vain an effort to restrain. In an instant he was kneeling
+at her feet, and grasping at the hand with which she was hiding her
+face. "Julia," he said, "look at me; let us at any rate understand
+each other at last."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry; there must be no more such knowledge,&mdash;no more such
+understanding. You must go from me, and come here no more. Had it not
+been for that other night, I would still have endeavoured to regard
+you as a friend. But I have no right to such friendship. I have
+sinned and gone astray, and am a thing vile and polluted. I sold
+myself, as a beast is sold, and men have treated me as I treated
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I treated you so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Harry; you, you. How did you treat me when you took me in your
+arms and kissed me,&mdash;knowing, knowing that I was not to be your wife?
+O God, I have sinned. I have sinned, and I am punished."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said he, rising from his knees, "it was not as you say."</p>
+
+<p>"Then how was it, sir? Is it thus that you treat other women;&mdash;your
+friends, those to whom you declare friendship? What did you mean me
+to think?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I loved you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; with a love that should complete my disgrace,&mdash;that should
+finish my degradation. But I had not heard of this Florence Burton;
+and, Harry, that night I was so happy in my bed. And in that next
+week when you were down there for that sad ceremony, I was happy
+here, happy and proud. Yes, Harry, I was so proud when I thought that
+you still loved me,&mdash;loved me in spite of my past sin, that I almost
+forgot that I was polluted. You have made me remember it, and I shall
+not forget it again."</p>
+
+<p>It would have been better for him had he gone away at once. Now he
+was sitting in a chair, sobbing violently, and pressing away the
+tears from his cheeks with his hands. How could he make her
+understand that he had intended no insult when he embraced her? Was
+it not incumbent on him to tell her that the wrong he then did was
+done to Florence Burton, and not to her? But his agony was too much
+for him at present, and he could find no words in which to speak to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"I said to myself that you would come when the funeral was over, and
+I wept for poor Hermy as I thought that my lot was so much happier
+than hers. But people have what they deserve, and Hermy, who has done
+no such wrong as I have done, is not crushed as I am crushed. It was
+just, Harry, that the punishment should come from you, but it has
+come very heavily."</p>
+
+<p>"Julia, it was not meant to be so."</p>
+
+<p>"Well; we will let that pass. I cannot unsay, Harry, all that I have
+said;&mdash;all that I did not say, but which you must have thought and
+known when you were here last. I cannot bid you believe that I do
+not&mdash;love you."</p>
+
+<p>"Not more tenderly or truly than I love you."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, Harry, your love to me can be neither true nor tender,&mdash;nor
+will I permit it to be offered to me. You do not think I would rob
+that girl of what is hers. Mine for you may be both tender and true;
+but, alas, truth has come to me when it can avail me no longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Julia, if you will say that you love me, it shall avail you."</p>
+
+<p>"In saying that, you are continuing to ill-treat me. Listen to me
+now. I hardly know when it began, for, at first, I did not expect
+that you would forgive me and let me be dear to you as I used to be;
+but as you sat here, looking up into my face in the old way, it came
+on me gradually,&mdash;the feeling that it might be so; and I told myself
+that if you would take me I might be of service to you, and I thought
+that I might forgive myself at last for possessing this money if I
+could throw it into your lap, so that you might thrive with it in the
+world; and I said to myself that it might be well to wait awhile,
+till I should see whether you really loved me; but then came that
+burst of passion, and though I knew that you were wrong, I was proud
+to feel that I was still so dear to you. It is all over. We
+understand each other at last, and you may go. There is nothing to be
+forgiven between us."</p>
+
+<p>He had now resolved that Florence must go by the board. If Julia
+would still take him she should be his wife, and he would face
+Florence and all the Burtons, and his own family, and all the world
+in the matter of his treachery. What would he care what the world
+might say? His treachery to Florence was a thing completed. Now, at
+this moment, he felt himself to be so devoted to Julia as to make him
+regard his engagement to Florence as one which must, at all hazards,
+be renounced. He thought of his mother's sorrow, of his father's
+scorn,&mdash;of the dismay with which Fanny would hear concerning him a
+tale which she would believe to be so impossible; he thought of
+Theodore Burton, and the deep, unquenchable anger of which that
+brother was capable, and of Cecilia and her outraged kindness; he
+thought of the infamy which would be attached to him, and resolved
+that he must bear it all. Even if his own heart did not move him so
+to act, how could he hinder himself from giving comfort and happiness
+to this woman who was before him? Injury, wrong, and broken-hearted
+wretchedness, he could not prevent; but, therefore, this part was as
+open to him as the other. Men would say that he had done this for
+Lady Ongar's money; and the indignation with which he was able to
+regard this false accusation,&mdash;for his mind declared such accusation
+to be damnably false,&mdash;gave him some comfort. People might say of him
+what they pleased. He was about to do the best within his power. Bad,
+alas, was the best, but it was of no avail now to think of that.</p>
+
+<p>"Julia," he said, "between us at least there shall be nothing to be
+forgiven."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"And there shall be no broken love. I am true to you now,&mdash;as ever."</p>
+
+<p>"And, what, then, of your truth to Miss Florence Burton?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will not be for you to rebuke me with that. We have, both of us,
+played our game badly, but not for that reason need we both be ruined
+and broken-hearted. In your folly you thought that wealth was better
+than love; and I, in my folly,&mdash;I thought that one love blighted
+might be mended by another. When I asked Miss Burton to be my wife
+you were the wife of another man. Now that you are free again I
+cannot marry Miss Burton."</p>
+
+<p>"You must marry her, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"There shall be no must in such a case. You do not know her, and
+cannot understand how good, how perfect she is. She is too good to
+take a hand without a heart."</p>
+
+<p>"And what would men say of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must bear what men say. I do not suppose that I shall be all
+happy,&mdash;not even with your love. When things have once gone wrong
+they cannot be mended without showing the patches. But yet men stay
+the hand of ruin for a while, tinkering here and putting in a nail
+there, stitching and cobbling; and so things are kept together. It
+must be so for you and me. Give me your hand, Julia, for I have never
+deceived you, and you need not fear that I shall do so now. Give me
+your hand, and say that you will be my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry; not your wife. I do not, as you say, know that perfect
+girl, but I will not rob one that is so good."</p>
+
+<p>"You are bound to me, Julia. You must do as I bid you. You have told
+me that you love me; and I have told you,&mdash;and I tell you now, that I
+love none other as I love you;&mdash;have never loved any other as I have
+loved you. Give me your hand." Then, coming to her, he took her hand,
+while she sat with her face averted from him. "Tell me that you will
+be my wife." But she would not say the words. She was less selfish
+than he, and was thinking,&mdash;was trying to think what might be best
+for them all, but, above all, what might be best for him. "Speak to
+me," he said, "and acknowledge that you wronged me when you thought
+that the expression of my love was an insult to you."</p>
+
+<p>"It is easy to say, speak. What shall I say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Say that you will be my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;I will not say it." She rose again from her chair, and took her
+hand away from him. "I will not say it. Go now and think over all
+that you have done; and I also will think of it. God help me. What
+evil comes, when evil has been done! But, Harry, I understand you
+now, and I at least will blame you no more. Go and see Florence
+Burton; and if, when you see her, you find that you can love her,
+take her to your heart, and be true to her. You shall never hear
+another reproach from me. Go now, go; there is nothing more to be
+said."</p>
+
+<p>He paused a moment as though he were going to speak, but he left the
+room without another word. As he went along the passage and turned on
+the stairs he saw her standing at the door of the room, looking at
+him, and it seemed that her eyes were imploring him to be true to her
+in spite of the words that she had spoken. "And I will be true to
+her," he said to himself. "She was the first that I ever loved, and I
+will be true to her."</p>
+
+<p>He went out, and for an hour or two wandered about the town, hardly
+knowing whither his steps were taking him. There had been a tragic
+seriousness in what had occurred to him this evening, which seemed to
+cover him with care, and make him feel that his youth was gone from
+him. At any former period of his life his ears would have tingled
+with pride to hear such a woman as Lady Ongar speak of her love for
+him in such terms as she had used; but there was no room now for
+pride in his bosom. Now at least he thought nothing of her wealth or
+rank. He thought of her as a woman between whom and himself there
+existed so strong a passion as to make it impossible that he should
+marry another, even though his duty plainly required it. The grace
+and graciousness of his life were over; but love still remained to
+him, and of that he must make the most. All others whom he regarded
+would revile him, and now he must live for this woman alone. She had
+said that she had injured him. Yes, indeed, she had injured him! She
+had robbed him of his high character, of his unclouded brow, of that
+self-pride which had so often told him that he was living a life
+without reproach among men. She had brought him to a state in which
+misery must be his bedfellow, and disgrace his companion;&mdash;but still
+she loved him, and to that love he would be true.</p>
+
+<p>And as to Florence Burton;&mdash;how was he to settle matters with her?
+That letter for which he had been preparing the words as he went to
+Bolton Street, before the necessity for it had become irrevocable,
+did not now appear to him to be very easy. At any rate he did not
+attempt it on that night.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c26"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXVI.</h3>
+<h4>THE MAN WHO DUSTED HIS BOOTS WITH HIS HANDKERCHIEF.</h4>
+
+
+<p>When Florence Burton had written three letters to Harry without
+receiving a word in reply to either of them, she began to be
+seriously unhappy. The last of these letters, received by him after
+the scene described in the last chapter, he had been afraid to read.
+It still remained unopened in his pocket. But Florence, though she
+was unhappy, was not even yet jealous. Her fears did not lie in that
+direction, nor had she naturally any tendency to such uneasiness. He
+was ill, she thought; or if not ill in health, then ill at ease. Some
+trouble afflicted him of which he could not bring himself to tell her
+the facts, and as she thought of this she remembered her own
+stubbornness on the subject of their marriage, and blamed herself in
+that she was not now with him, to comfort him. If such comfort would
+avail him anything now, she would be stubborn no longer. When the
+third letter brought no reply she wrote to her sister-in-law, Mrs.
+Burton, confessing her uneasiness, and begging for comfort. Surely
+Cecilia could not but see him occasionally,&mdash;or at any rate have the
+power of seeing him. Or Theodore might do so,&mdash;as of course he would
+be at the office. If anything ailed him would Cecilia tell her all
+the truth? But Cecilia, when she began to fear that something did ail
+him, did not find it very easy to tell Florence all the truth.</p>
+
+<p>But there was jealousy at Stratton, though Florence was not jealous.
+Old Mrs. Burton had become alarmed, and was ready to tear the eyes
+out of Harry Clavering's head if Harry should be false to her
+daughter. This was a misfortune of which, with all her brood, Mrs.
+Burton had as yet known nothing. No daughter of hers had been misused
+by any man, and no son of hers had ever misused any one's daughter.
+Her children had gone out into the world steadily, prudently, making
+no brilliant marriages, but never falling into any mistakes. She
+heard of such misfortunes around her,&mdash;that a young lady here had
+loved in vain, and that a young lady there had been left to wear the
+willow; but such sorrows had never visited her roof, and she was
+disposed to think,&mdash;and perhaps to say,&mdash;that the fault lay chiefly
+in the imprudence of mothers. What if at last, when her work in this
+line had been so nearly brought to a successful close, misery and
+disappointment should come also upon her lamb! In such case Mrs.
+Burton, we may say, was a ewe who would not see her lamb suffer
+without many bleatings and considerable exercise of her maternal
+energies.</p>
+
+<p>And tidings had come to Mrs. Burton which had not as yet been allowed
+to reach Florence's ears. In the office at the Adelphi was one Mr.
+Walliker, who had a younger brother now occupying that desk in Mr.
+Burton's office which had belonged to Harry Clavering. Through Bob
+Walliker, Mrs. Burton learned that Harry did not come to the office
+even when it was known that he had returned to London from
+Clavering;&mdash;and she also learned at last that the young men in the
+office were connecting Harry Clavering's name with that of the rich
+and noble widow, Lady Ongar. Then Mrs. Burton wrote to her son
+Theodore, as Florence had written to Theodore's wife.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burton, though she had loved Harry dearly, and had perhaps in
+many respects liked him better than any of her sons-in-law, had,
+nevertheless, felt some misgivings from the first. Florence was
+brighter, better educated, and cleverer than her elder sisters, and
+therefore when it had come to pass that she was asked in marriage by
+a man somewhat higher in rank and softer in manners than they who had
+married her sisters, there had seemed to be some reason for the
+change;&mdash;but Mrs. Burton had felt that it was a ground for
+apprehension. High rank and soft manners may not always belong to a
+true heart. At first she was unwilling to hint this caution even to
+herself; but at last, as her suspicions grew, she spoke the words
+very frequently, not only to herself but also to her husband. Why, oh
+why, had she let into her house any man differing in mode of life
+from those whom she had known to be honest and good? How would her
+gray hairs be made to go in sorrow to the grave, if, after all her
+old prudence and all her old success, her last pet lamb should be
+returned to the mother's side, ill-used, maimed, and blighted!</p>
+
+<p>Theodore Burton, when he received his mother's letter, had not seen
+Harry since his return from Clavering. He had been inclined to be
+very angry with him for his long and unannounced absence from the
+office. "He will do no good," he had said to his wife. "He does not
+know what real work means." But his anger turned to disgust as
+regarded Harry, and almost to despair as regarded his sister, when
+Harry had been a week in town and yet had not shown himself at the
+Adelphi. But at this time Theodore Burton had heard no word of Lady
+Ongar, though the clerks in the office had that name daily in their
+mouths. "Cannot you go to him, Theodore?" said his wife. "It is very
+easy to say go to him," he replied. "If I made it my business I
+could, of course, go to him, and no doubt find him if I was
+determined to do so;&mdash;but what more could I do? I can lead a horse to
+the water, but I cannot make him drink." "You could speak to him of
+Florence." "That is such a woman's idea," said the husband. "When
+every proper incentive to duty and ambition has failed him, he is to
+be brought into the right way by the mention of a girl's name!" "May
+I see him?" Cecilia urged. "Yes,&mdash;if you can catch him; but I do not
+advise you to try."</p>
+
+<p>After that came the two letters for the husband and wife, each of
+which was shown to the other; and then for the first time did either
+of them receive the idea that Lady Ongar with her fortune might be a
+cause of misery to their sister. "I don't believe a word of it," said
+Cecilia, whose cheeks were burning, half with shame and half with
+anger. Harry had been such a pet with her,&mdash;had already been taken so
+closely to her heart as a brother! "I should not have suspected him
+of that kind of baseness," said Theodore, very slowly. "He is not
+base," said Cecilia. "He may be idle and foolish, but he is not
+base."</p>
+
+<p>"I must at any rate go after him now," said Theodore. "I don't
+believe this;&mdash;I won't believe it. I do not believe it. But if it
+should be <span class="nowrap">true&mdash;!"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Theodore."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think it is true. It is not the kind of weakness I have
+seen in him. He is weak and vain, but I should have said that he was
+true."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure he is true."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so. I cannot say more than that I think so."</p>
+
+<p>"You will write to your mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And may I ask Florence to come up? Is it not always better that
+people should be near to each other when they are engaged?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can ask her, if you like. I doubt whether she will come."</p>
+
+<p>"She will come if she thinks that anything is amiss with him."</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia wrote immediately to Florence, pressing her invitation in the
+strongest terms that she could use. "I tell you the whole truth," she
+said. "We have not seen him, and this, of course, has troubled us
+very greatly. I feel quite sure he would come to us if you were here;
+and this, I think, should bring you, if no other consideration does
+so. Theodore imagines that he has become simply idle, and that he is
+ashamed to show himself here because of that. It may be that he has
+some trouble with reference to his own home, of which we know
+nothing. But if he has any such trouble, you ought to be made aware
+of it, and I feel sure that he would tell you if you were here." Much
+more she said, arguing in the same way, and pressing Florence to come
+to London.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burton did not at once send a reply to his mother, but he wrote
+the following note to
+<span class="nowrap">Harry:&mdash;</span><br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="jright">Adelphi &mdash;&mdash;, May, 186&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">My dear
+Clavering</span>,&mdash;I have been sorry to notice your
+continued absence from the office, and both Cecilia and I
+have been very sorry that you have discontinued coming to
+us. But I should not have written to you on this matter,
+not wishing to interfere in your own concerns, had I not
+desired to see you specially with reference to my sister.
+As I have that to say to you concerning her which I can
+hardly write, will you make an appointment with me here,
+or at my house? Or, if you cannot do that, will you say
+when I shall find you at home? If you will come and dine
+with us we shall like that best, and leave you to name an
+early day: to-morrow, or the next day, or the day after.</p>
+
+<p class="ind10">Very truly yours,</p>
+
+<p class="ind12"><span class="smallcaps">Theodore Burton</span>.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>When Cecilia's letter reached Stratton, and another post came without
+any letter from Harry, poor Florence's heart sank low in her bosom.
+"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Burton, who watched her daughter anxiously
+while she was reading the letter. Mrs. Burton had not told Florence
+of her own letter to her son; and now, having herself received no
+answer, looked to obtain some reply from that which her
+daughter-in-law had sent.</p>
+
+<p>"Cecilia wants me to go to London," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything the matter that you should go just now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly the matter, mamma; but you can see the letter."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burton read it slowly, and felt sure that much was the matter.
+She knew that Cecilia would have written in that strain only under
+the influence of some great alarm. At first she was disposed to think
+that she herself would go to London. She was eager to know the
+truth,&mdash;eager to utter her loud maternal bleatings if any wrong were
+threatened to her lamb. Florence might go with her, but she longed
+herself to be on the field of action. She felt that she could almost
+annihilate any man by her words and looks who would dare to ill-treat
+a girl of hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mamma;&mdash;what do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know yet, my dear. I will speak to your papa before dinner."
+But as Mrs. Burton had been usually autocratic in the management of
+her own daughters, Florence was aware that her mother simply required
+a little time before she made up her mind. "It is not that I want to
+go to London&mdash;for the pleasure of it, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor yet merely to see him!&mdash;though of course I do long to see him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you do;&mdash;why shouldn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"But Cecilia is so very prudent, and she thinks that it will be
+better. And she would not have pressed it, unless Theodore had
+thought so too!"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought Theodore would have written to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But he writes so seldom."</p>
+
+<p>"I expected a letter from him now, as I had written to him."</p>
+
+<p>"About Harry, do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well;&mdash;yes. I did not mention it, as I was aware I might make you
+uneasy. But I saw that you were unhappy at not hearing from him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma, do let me go."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you shall go if you wish it;&mdash;but let me speak to papa
+before anything is quite decided."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burton did speak to her husband, and it was arranged that
+Florence should go up to Onslow Crescent. But Mrs. Burton, though she
+had been always autocratic about her unmarried daughters, had never
+been autocratic about herself. When she hinted that she also might
+go, she saw that the scheme was not approved, and she at once
+abandoned it. "It would look as if we were all afraid," said Mr.
+Burton, "and after all what does it come to?&mdash;a young gentleman does
+not write to his sweetheart for two or three weeks. I used to think
+myself the best lover in the world if I wrote once a month."</p>
+
+<p>"There was no penny post then, Mr. Burton."</p>
+
+<p>"And I often wish there was none now," said Mr. Burton. That matter
+was therefore decided, and Florence wrote back to her sister-in-law,
+saying that she would go up to London on the third day from that. In
+the meantime, Harry Clavering and Theodore Burton had met.</p>
+
+<p>Has it ever been the lot of any unmarried male reader of these pages
+to pass three or four days in London, without anything to do,&mdash;to
+have to get through them by himself,&mdash;and to have that burden on his
+shoulder, with the additional burden of some terrible, wearing
+misery, away from which there seems to be no road, and out of which
+there is apparently no escape? That was Harry Clavering's condition
+for some few days after the evening which he last passed in the
+company of Lady Ongar,&mdash;and I will ask any such unmarried man
+whether, in such a plight, there was for him any other alternative
+but to wish himself dead? In such a condition, a man can simply walk
+the streets by himself, and declare to himself that everything is
+bad, and rotten, and vile, and worthless. He wishes himself dead, and
+calculates the different advantages of prussic acid and pistols. He
+may the while take his meals very punctually at his club, may smoke
+his cigars, and drink his bitter beer, or brandy-and-water;&mdash;but he
+is all the time wishing himself dead, and making that calculation as
+to the best way of achieving that desirable result. Such was Harry
+Clavering's condition now. As for his office, the doors of that place
+were absolutely closed against him, by the presence of Theodore
+Burton. When he attempted to read he could not understand a word, or
+sit for ten minutes with a book in his hand. No occupation was
+possible to him. He longed to go again to Bolton Street, but he did
+not even do that. If there, he could act only as though Florence had
+been deserted for ever;&mdash;and if he so acted he would be infamous for
+life. And yet he had sworn to Julia that such was his intention. He
+hardly dared to ask himself which of the two he loved. The misery of
+it all had become so heavy upon him, that he could take no pleasure
+in the thought of his love. It must always be all regret, all sorrow,
+and all remorse. Then there came upon him the letter from Theodore
+Burton, and he knew that it was necessary that he should see the
+writer.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could be more disagreeable than such an interview, but he
+could not allow himself to be guilty of the cowardice of declining
+it. Of a personal quarrel with Burton he was not afraid. He felt,
+indeed, that he might almost find relief in the capability of being
+himself angry with any one. But he must positively make up his mind
+before such an interview. He must devote himself either to Florence
+or to Julia;&mdash;and he did not know how to abandon the one or the
+other. He had allowed himself to be so governed by impulse that he
+had pledged himself to Lady Ongar, and had sworn to her that he would
+be entirely hers. She, it is true, had not taken him altogether at
+his word, but not the less did he know,&mdash;did he think that he
+knew,&mdash;that she looked for the performance of his promise. And she
+had been the first that he had sworn to love!</p>
+
+<p>In his dilemma he did at last go to Bolton Street, and there found
+that Lady Ongar had left town for three or four days. The servant
+said that she had gone, he believed, to the Isle of Wight; and that
+Madame Gordeloup had gone with her. She was to be back in town early
+in the following week. This was on a Thursday, and he was aware that
+he could not postpone his interview with Burton till after Julia's
+return. So he went to his club, and nailing himself as it were to the
+writing-table, made an appointment for the following morning. He
+would be with Burton at the Adelphi at twelve o'clock. He had been in
+trouble, he said, and that trouble had kept him from the office and
+from Onslow Crescent. Having written this, he sent it off, and then
+played billiards and smoked and dined, played more billiards and
+smoked and drank till the usual hours of the night had come. He was
+not a man who liked such things. He had not become what he was by
+passing his earlier years after this fashion. But his misery required
+excitement,&mdash;and billiards with tobacco were better than the
+desolation of solitude.</p>
+
+<p>On the following morning he did not breakfast till near eleven. Why
+should he get up as long as it was possible to obtain the relief
+which was to be had from dozing? As far as possible he would not
+think of the matter till he had put his hat upon his head to go to
+the Adelphi. But the time for taking his hat soon came; and he
+started on his short journey. But even as he walked, he could not
+think of it. He was purposeless, as a ship without a rudder, telling
+himself that he could only go as the winds might direct him. How he
+did hate himself for his one weakness! And yet he hardly made an
+effort to overcome it. On one point only did he seem to have a
+resolve. If Burton attempted to use with him anything like a threat
+he would instantly resent it.</p>
+
+<p>Punctually at twelve he walked into the outer office, and was told
+that Mr. Burton was in his room.</p>
+
+<p>"Halloa, Clavering," said Walliker, who was standing with his back to
+the fire, "I thought we had lost you for good and all. And here you
+are come back again!"</p>
+
+<p>Harry had always disliked this man, and now hated him worse than
+ever. "Yes; I am here," said he, "for a few minutes; but I believe I
+need not trouble you."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, old fellow," said Walliker; and then Harry passed through
+into the inner room.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad to see you, Harry," said Burton, rising and giving
+his hand cordially to Clavering. "And I am sorry to hear that you
+have been in trouble. Is it anything in which we can help you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope,&mdash;Mrs. Burton is well," said Harry, hesitating.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty well."</p>
+
+<p>"And the children?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite well. They say you are a very bad fellow not to go and see
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I am a bad fellow," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Harry. It will be best to come at the point at once;&mdash;will
+it not? Is there anything wrong between you and Florence?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should call it very wrong,&mdash;hideously wrong, if after all that has
+passed between you, there should now be any doubt as to your
+affection for each other. If such doubt were now to arise with her, I
+should almost disown my sister."</p>
+
+<p>"You will never have to blush for her."</p>
+
+<p>"I think not. I thank God that hitherto there have been no such
+blushes among us. And I hope, Harry, that my heart may never have to
+bleed for her. Come, Harry, let me tell you all at once like an
+honest man. I hate subterfuges and secrets. A report has reached the
+old people at home,&mdash;not Florence, mind,&mdash;that you are untrue to
+Florence, and are passing your time with that lady who is the sister
+of your cousin's wife."</p>
+
+<p>"What right have they to ask how I pass my time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be unjust, Harry. If you simply tell me that your visits to
+that lady imply no evil to my sister, I, knowing you to be a
+gentleman, will take your word for all that it can mean." He paused,
+and Harry hesitated and could not answer. "Nay, dear
+friend,&mdash;brother, as we both of us have thought you,&mdash;come once more
+to Onslow Crescent and kiss the bairns, and kiss Cecilia, too, and
+sit with us at our table, and talk as you used to do, and I will ask
+no further question;&mdash;nor will she. Then you will come back here to
+your work, and your trouble will be gone, and your mind will be at
+ease; and, Harry, one of the best girls that ever gave her heart into
+a man's keeping will be there to worship you, and to swear when your
+back is turned that any one who says a word against you shall be no
+brother and no sister and no friend of hers."</p>
+
+<p>And this was the man who had dusted his boots with his
+pocket-handkerchief, and whom Harry had regarded as being on that
+account hardly fit to be his friend! He knew that the man was noble,
+and good, and generous, and true;&mdash;and knew also that in all that
+Burton said he simply did his duty as a brother. But not on that
+account was it the easier for him to reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Say that you will come to us this evening," said Burton. "Even if
+you have an engagement, put it off."</p>
+
+<p>"I have none," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"Then say that you will come to us, and all will be well."</p>
+
+<p>Harry understood of course that his compliance with this invitation
+would be taken as implying that all was right. It would be so easy to
+accept the invitation, and any other answer was so difficult! But yet
+he would not bring himself to tell the lie.</p>
+
+<p>"Burton," he said, "I am in trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the trouble?" The man's voice was now changed, and so was
+the glance of his eye. There was no expression of anger,&mdash;none as
+yet; but the sweetness of his countenance was gone,&mdash;a sweetness that
+was unusual to him, but which still was at his command when he needed
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you all here. If you will let me come to you this
+evening I will tell you everything,&mdash;to you and to Cecilia too. Will
+you let me come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. Will you dine with us?"</p>
+
+<p>"No;&mdash;after dinner; when the children are in bed." Then he went,
+leaving on the mind of Theodore Burton an impression that though
+something was much amiss, his mother had been wrong in her fears
+respecting Lady Ongar.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c27"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXVII.</h3>
+<h4>FRESHWATER GATE.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Count Pateroff, Sophie's brother, was a man who, when he had taken a
+thing in hand, generally liked to carry it through. It may perhaps be
+said that most men are of this turn of mind; but the count was, I
+think, especially eager in this respect. And as he was not one who
+had many irons in the fire, who made either many little efforts, or
+any great efforts after things altogether beyond his reach, he was
+justified in expecting success. As to Archie's courtship, any one who
+really knew the man and the woman, and who knew anything of the
+nature of women in general, would have predicted failure for him.
+Even with Doodle's aid he could not have a chance in the race. But
+when Count Pateroff entered himself for the same prize, those who
+knew him would not speak of his failure as a thing certain.</p>
+
+<p>The prize was too great not to be attempted by so very prudent a
+gentleman. He was less impulsive in his nature than his sister, and
+did not open his eyes and talk with watering mouth of the seven
+thousands of pounds a year; but in his quiet way he had weighed and
+calculated all the advantages to be gained, had even ascertained at
+what rate he could insure the lady's life, and had made himself
+certain that nothing in the deed of Lord Ongar's marriage-settlement
+entailed any pecuniary penalty on his widow's second marriage. Then
+he had gone down, as we know, to Ongar Park, and as he had walked
+from the lodge to the house and back again, he had looked around him
+complacently, and told himself that the place would do very well. For
+the English character, in spite of the pigheadedness of many
+Englishmen, he had,&mdash;as he would have said himself,&mdash;much admiration,
+and he thought that the life of a country gentleman, with a nice
+place of his own,&mdash;with such a very nice place of his own as was
+Ongar Park,&mdash;and so very nice an income, would suit him well in his
+declining years.</p>
+
+<p>And he had certain advantages, certain aids towards his object, which
+had come to him from circumstances;&mdash;as, indeed, he had also certain
+disadvantages. He knew the lady, which was in itself much. He knew
+much of the lady's history, and had that cognisance of the saddest
+circumstances of her life, which in itself creates an intimacy. It is
+not necessary now to go back to those scenes which had disfigured the
+last months of Lord Ongar's life, but the reader will understand that
+what had then occurred gave the count a possible footing as a suitor.
+And the reader will also understand the disadvantages which had at
+this time already shown themselves in the lady's refusal to see the
+count.</p>
+
+<p>It may be thought that Sophie's standing with Lady Ongar would be a
+great advantage to her brother; but I doubt whether the brother
+trusted either the honesty or the discretion of his sister. He would
+have been willing to purchase such assistance as she might give,&mdash;not
+in Archie's pleasant way, with bank-notes hidden under his
+glove,&mdash;but by acknowledgments for services to be turned into solid
+remuneration when the marriage should have taken place, had he not
+feared that Sophie might communicate the fact of such acknowledgments
+to the other lady,&mdash;making her own bargain in doing so. He had
+calculated all this, and had come to the conclusion that he had
+better make no direct proposal to Sophie; and when Sophie made a
+direct proposal to him, pointing out to him in glowing language all
+the fine things which such a marriage would give him, he had hardly
+vouchsafed to her a word of answer. "Very well," said Sophie to
+herself;&mdash;"very well. Then we both know what we are about."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie herself would have kept Lady Ongar from marrying any one had
+she been able. Not even a brother's gratitude would be so serviceable
+to her as the generous kindness of a devoted friend. That she might
+be able both to sell her services to a lover, and also to keep Julie
+from marrying, was a lucky combination of circumstances which did not
+occur to her till Archie came to her with the money in his glove.
+That complicated game she was now playing, and was aware that Harry
+Clavering was the great stumbling-block in her way. A woman even less
+clever than Sophie would have perceived that Lady Ongar was violently
+attached to Harry; and Sophie, when she did see it, thought that
+there was nothing left for her but to make her hay while the sun was
+yet shining. Then she heard the story of Florence Burton; and again
+she thought that Fortune was on her side. She told the story of
+Florence Burton,&mdash;with what result we know; and was quite sharp
+enough to perceive afterwards that the tale had had its intended
+effect,&mdash;even though her Julie had resolutely declined to speak
+either of Harry Clavering or of Florence Burton.</p>
+
+<p>Count Pateroff had again called in Bolton Street, and had again been
+refused admittance. It was plain to him to see by the servant's
+manner that it was intended that he should understand that he was not
+to be admitted. Under such circumstances, it was necessary that he
+must either abandon his pursuit, or that he must operate upon Lady
+Ongar through some other feeling than her personal regard for
+himself. He might, perhaps, have trusted much to his own eloquence if
+he could have seen her; but how is a man to be eloquent in his wooing
+if he cannot see the lady whom he covets? There is, indeed, the penny
+post, but in these days of legal restraints, there is no other method
+of approaching an unwilling beauty. Forcible abduction is put an end
+to as regards Great Britain and Ireland. So the count had resort to
+the post.</p>
+
+<p>His letter was very long, and shall not, therefore, be given to the
+reader. He began by telling Lady Ongar that she owed it to him for
+the good services he had done her, to read what he might say, and to
+answer him. He then gave her various reasons why she should see him,
+pleading, among other things, in language which she could understand,
+though the words were purposely as ambiguous as they could be made,
+that he had possessed and did possess the power of doing her a
+grievous injury, and that he had abstained, and&mdash;hoped that he might
+be able to abstain for the future. She knew that the words contained
+no threat,&mdash;that taken literally they were the reverse of a threat,
+and amounted to a promise,&mdash;but she understood also all that he had
+intended to imply. Long as his own letter was, he said nothing in it
+as to his suit, confining himself to a request that she should see
+him. But with his letter he sent her an enclosure longer than the
+letter itself, in which his wishes were clearly explained.</p>
+
+<p>This enclosure purported to be an expression of Lord Ongar's wishes
+on many subjects, as they had been communicated to Count Pateroff in
+the latter days of the lord's life; but as the manuscript was
+altogether in the count's writing, and did not even pretend to have
+been subjected to Lord Ongar's eye, it simply amounted to the count's
+own story of their alleged conversations. There might have been no
+such conversations, or their tenour might have been very different
+from that which the count represented, or the statements and
+opinions, if expressed at all by Lord Ongar, might have been
+expressed at times when no statements or opinions coming from him
+could be of any value. But as to these conversations, if they could
+have been verified as having come from Lord Ongar's mouth when he was
+in full possession of such faculties as he possessed,&mdash;all that would
+have amounted to nothing with Lady Ongar. To Lord Ongar alive she had
+owed obedience, and had been obedient. To Lord Ongar dead she owed no
+obedience, and would not be obedient.</p>
+
+<p>Such would have been her feelings as to any document which could have
+reached her, purporting to contain Lord Ongar's wishes; but this
+document was of a nature which made her specially antagonistic to the
+exercise of any such marital authority from the grave. It was very
+long, and went into small details,&mdash;details which were very small;
+but the upshot of it all was a tendering of great thanks to Count
+Pateroff, and the expression of a strong wish that the count should
+marry his widow. "O. said that this would be the only thing for J.'s
+name." "O. said that this would be the safest course for his own
+honour." "O. said, as he took my hand, that in promising to take this
+step I gave him great comfort." "O. commissioned me to speak to J. in
+his name to this effect." The O. was of course Lord Ongar, and the J.
+was of course Julia. It was all in French, and went on in the same
+strain for many pages. Lady Ongar answered the letter as
+<span class="nowrap">follows:&mdash;</span><br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>Lady Ongar presents her compliments to Count Pateroff, and
+begs to return the enclosed manuscript, which is, to her,
+perfectly valueless. Lady Ongar must still decline, and
+now more strongly than before, to receive Count Pateroff.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Bolton Street, May 186&mdash;.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>She was quite firm as she did this. She had no doubt at all on the
+matter. She did not feel that she wanted to ask for any advice. But
+she did feel that this count might still work her additional woe,
+that her cup of sorrow might not even yet be full, and that she was
+sadly,&mdash;sadly in want of love and protection. For aught she knew, the
+count might publish the whole statement, and people might believe
+that those words came from her husband, and that her husband had
+understood what would be best for her fame and for his honour. The
+whole thing was a threat, and not to save herself from any misery,
+would she have succumbed to a menace; but still it was possible that
+the threat might be carried out.</p>
+
+<p>She was sorely in want of love and protection. At this time, when the
+count's letter reached her, Harry had been with her; and we know what
+had passed between them. She had bid him go to Florence,&mdash;and love
+Florence,&mdash;and marry Florence,&mdash;and leave her in her desolation. That
+had been her last command to him. But we all know what such commands
+mean. She had not been false in giving him these orders. She had
+intended it at the moment. The glow of self-sacrifice had been warm
+in her bosom,&mdash;and she had resolved to do without that which she
+wanted in order that another might have it. But when she thought of
+it afterwards in her loneliness, she told herself that Florence
+Burton could not want Harry's love as she wanted it. There could not
+be such need to this girl, who possessed father and mother, and
+brothers, and youth, as there was to her, who had no other arm on
+which she could lean, besides that of the one man for whom she had
+acknowledged her love, and who had also declared his passion for her.
+She made no scheme to deprive Florence of her lover. In the long
+hours of her own solitude she never revoked, even within her own
+bosom, the last words she had said to Harry Clavering. But not the
+less did she hope that he might come to her again, and that she might
+learn from him that he had freed himself from that unfortunate
+engagement into which her falseness to him had driven him.</p>
+
+<p>It was after she had answered Count Pateroff's letter that she
+resolved to go out of town for three or four days. For some short
+time she had been minded to go away altogether, and not to return
+till after the autumn; but this scheme gradually diminished itself
+and fell away, till she determined that she would come back after
+three or four days. Then came to her Sophie,&mdash;her devoted
+Sophie,&mdash;Sophie whom she despised and hated; Sophie of whom she was
+so anxious to rid herself that in all her plans there was some little
+under-plot to that effect; Sophie whom she knew to be dishonest to
+her in any way that might make dishonesty profitable; and before
+Sophie had left her, Sophie had engaged herself to go with her dear
+friend to the Isle of Wight! As a matter of course, Sophie was to be
+franked on this expedition. On such expeditions Sophies are always
+franked as a matter of course. And Sophie would travel with all
+imaginable luxury,&mdash;a matter to which Sophie was by no means
+indifferent, though her own private life was conducted with an
+economy that was not luxurious. But, although all these good things
+came in Sophie's way, she contrived to make it appear that she was
+devoting herself in a manner that was almost sacrificial to the
+friend of her bosom. At the same time Lady Ongar sent a few words, as
+a message, to the count by his sister. Lady Ongar, having told to
+Madame Gordeloup the story of the document which had reached her, and
+having described her own answer, was much commended by her friend.</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite right, dear, quite. Of course I am fond of my brother.
+Edouard and I have always been the best of friends. But that does not
+make me think you ought to give yourself to him. Bah! Why should a
+woman give away everything? Edouard is a fine fellow. But what is
+that? Fine fellows like to have all the money themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell him,&mdash;from me," said Lady Ongar, "that I will take it
+as a kindness on his part if he will abstain from coming to my house.
+I certainly shall not see him with my own consent."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie promised,&mdash;and probably gave the message; but when she also
+informed Edouard of Lady Ongar's intended visit to the Isle of Wight,
+telling him the day on which they were going and the precise spot,
+with the name of the hotel at which they were to stay, she went a
+little beyond the commission which her dearest friend had given her.</p>
+
+<p>At the western end of the Isle of Wight, and on the further shore,
+about three miles from the point of the island which we call the
+Needles, there is a little break in the cliff, known to all
+stay-at-home English travellers as Freshwater Gate. Here there is a
+cluster of cottages and two inns, and a few bathing-boxes, and ready
+access by easy ascents to the breezy downs on either side, over which
+the sea air blows with all its salt and wholesome sweetness. At one
+of these two inns Lady Ongar located herself and Sophie; and all
+Freshwater, and all Yarmouth, and all that end of the island were
+alive to the fact that the rich widowed countess respecting whom such
+strange tales were told, had come on a visit to these parts.
+Innkeepers like such visitors. The more venomous are the stories told
+against them, the more money are they apt to spend, and the less
+likely are they to examine their bills. A rich woman altogether
+without a character is a mine of wealth to an innkeeper. In the
+present case no such godsend had come in the way,&mdash;but there was
+supposed to be a something a little odd, and the visitor was on that
+account the more welcome.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie was not the most delightful companion in the world for such a
+place. London was her sphere, as she herself had understood when
+declaiming against those husbands who keep their wives in the
+country. And she had no love for the sea specially, regarding all
+winds as nuisances excepting such as had been raised by her own
+efforts, and thinking that salt from a saltcellar was more convenient
+than that brought to her on the breezes. It was now near the end of
+May, but she had not been half an hour at the inn before she was loud
+in demanding a fire,&mdash;and when the fire came she was unwilling to
+leave it. Her gesture was magnificent when Lady Ongar proposed to her
+that she should bathe. What,&mdash;put her own dear little dry body, by
+her own will, into the cold sea! She shrugged herself, and shook
+herself, and without speaking a word declined with so much eloquence
+that it was impossible not to admire her. Nor would she walk. On the
+first day, during the warmest part of the day, she allowed herself to
+be taken out in a carriage belonging to the inn; but after her drive
+she clung to the fire, and consumed her time with a French novel.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Lady Ongar much more comfortable in the Isle of Wight than
+she had been in London. The old poet told us how Black Care sits
+behind the horseman, and some modern poet will some day describe to
+us that terrible goddess as she takes her place with the stoker close
+to the fire of the locomotive engine. Sitting with Sophie opposite to
+her, Lady Ongar was not happy, even though her eye rested on the
+lines of that magnificent coast. Once indeed, on the evening of their
+first day, Sophie left her, and she was alone for nearly an hour. Ah,
+how happy could she have been if Harry Clavering might have been
+there with her. Perhaps a day might come in which Harry might bring
+her there. In such a case Atra Cura would be left behind, and then
+she might be altogether happy. She sat dreaming of this for above an
+hour, and Sophie was still away. When Sophie returned, which she did
+all too soon, she explained that she had been in her bedroom. She had
+been very busy, and now had come down to make herself comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>On the next evening Lady Ongar declared her intention of going up on
+the downs by herself. They had dined at five, so that she might have
+a long evening, and soon after six she started. "If I do not break
+down I will get as far as the Needles," she said. Sophie, who had
+heard that the distance was three miles, lifted up her hands in
+despair. "If you are not back before nine I shall send the people
+after you." Consenting to this with a laugh, Lady Ongar made her way
+up to the downs, and walked steadily on towards the extreme point of
+the island. To the Needles themselves she did not make her way. These
+rocks are now approached, as all the stay-at-home travellers know,
+through a fort, and down to the fort she did not go. But turning a
+little from the highest point of the hill towards the cliffs on her
+left hand, she descended till she reached a spot from which she could
+look down on the pebbly beach lying some three hundred feet below
+her, and on the soft shining ripple of the quiet waters as they moved
+themselves with a pleasant sound on the long strand which lay
+stretched in a line from the spot beneath her out to the point of the
+island. The evening was warm, and almost transparent in its
+clearness, and very quiet. There was no sound even of a breeze. When
+she seated herself close upon the margin of the cliff, she heard the
+small waves moving the stones which they washed, and the sound was as
+the sound of little children's voices, very distant. Looking down,
+she could see through the wonderful transparency of the water, and
+the pebbles below it were bright as diamonds, and the sands were
+burnished like gold. And each tiny silent wavelet as it moved up
+towards the shore and lost itself at last in its own effort,
+stretched itself the whole length of the strand. Such brightness on
+the sea-shore she had never seen before, nor had she ever listened as
+now she listened to that infantine babble of the baby waves. She sat
+there close upon the margin, on a seat of chalk which the winds had
+made, looking, listening, and forgetting for a while that she was
+Lady Ongar whom people did not know, who lived alone in the world
+with Sophie Gordeloup for her friend,&mdash;and whose lover was betrothed
+to another woman. She had been there perhaps half-an-hour, and had
+learned to be at home on her perch, sitting there in comfort, with no
+desire to move, when a voice which she well knew at the first sound
+startled her, and she rose quickly to her feet. "Lady Ongar," said
+the voice, "are you not rather near the edge?" As she turned round
+there was Count Pateroff with his hand already upon her dress, so
+that no danger might be produced by the suddenness of his speech.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill27"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill27.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill27-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt='"Lady Ongar, are you not rather near the edge?"' /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">"Lady Ongar,
+      are you not rather near the edge?"</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill27.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"There is nothing to fear," she said, stepping back from her seat. As
+she did so, he dropped his hand from her dress, and, raising it to
+his head, lifted his hat from his forehead. "You will excuse me, I
+hope, Lady Ongar," he said, "for having taken this mode of speaking
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shall not excuse you; nor, further than I can help it,
+shall I listen to you."</p>
+
+<p>"There are a few words which I must say."</p>
+
+<p>"Count Pateroff, I beg that you will leave me. This is treacherous
+and unmanly,&mdash;and can do you no good. By what right do you follow me
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I follow you for your own good, Lady Ongar; I do it that you may
+hear me say a few words that are necessary for you to hear."</p>
+
+<p>"I will hear no words from you,&mdash;that is, none willingly. By this
+time you ought to know me and to understand me." She had begun to
+walk up the hill very rapidly, and for a moment or two he had thought
+that she would escape him; but her breath had soon failed her, and
+she found herself compelled to stand while he regained his place
+beside her. This he had not done without an effort, and for some
+minutes they were both silent. "It is very beautiful," at last he
+said, pointing away over the sea.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;&mdash;it is very beautiful," she answered. "Why did you disturb me
+when I was so happy?" But the count was still recovering his breath,
+and made no answer to this question. When, however, she attempted to
+move on again, still breasting the hill, he put his hand upon her arm
+very gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Ongar," he said, "you must listen to me for a moment. Why not
+do it without a quarrel?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean that I cannot escape from you, it is true enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you want to escape? Did I ever hurt you? Before this have
+I not protected you from injury?"</p>
+
+<p>"No;&mdash;never. You protect me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;&mdash;I; from your husband, from yourself, and from the world. You
+do not know,&mdash;not yet, all that I have done for you. Did you read
+what Lord Ongar had said?"</p>
+
+<p>"I read what it pleased you to write."</p>
+
+<p>"What it pleased me! Do you pretend to think that Lord Ongar did not
+speak as he speaks there? Do you not know that those were his own
+words? Do you not recognize them? Ah, yes, Lady Ongar; you know them
+to be true."</p>
+
+<p>"Their truth or falsehood is nothing to me. They are altogether
+indifferent to me either way."</p>
+
+<p>"That would be very well if it were possible; but it is not. There;
+now we are at the top, and it will be easier. Will you let me have
+the honour to offer you my arm? No! Be it so; but I think you would
+walk the easier. It would not be for the first time."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a falsehood." As she spoke she stepped before him, and
+looked into his face with eyes full of passion. "That is a positive
+falsehood. I never walked with a hand resting on your arm."</p>
+
+<p>There came over his face the pleasantest smile as he answered her.
+"You forget everything," he said;&mdash;"everything. But it does not
+matter. Other people will not forget. Julie, you had better take me
+for your husband. You will be better as my wife, and happier, than
+you can be otherwise."</p>
+
+<p>"Look down there, Count Pateroff;&mdash;down to the edge. If my misery is
+too great to be borne, I can escape from it there on better terms
+than you propose to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! That is what we call poetry. Poetry is very pretty, and in
+saying this as you do, you make yourself divine. But to be dashed
+over the cliffs and broken on the rocks;&mdash;in prose it is not so
+well."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, will you allow me to pass on while you remain; or will you let
+me rest here, while you return alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Julie; not so. I have found you with too much difficulty. In
+London, you see, I could not find you. Here, for a minute, you must
+listen to me. Do you not know, Julie, that your character is in my
+hands?"</p>
+
+<p>"In your hands? No;&mdash;never; thank God, never. But what if it were?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only this,&mdash;that I am forced to play the only game that you leave
+open to me. Chance brought you and me together in such a way that
+nothing but marriage can be beneficial to either of us;&mdash;and I swore
+to Lord Ongar that it should be so. I mean that it shall be so,&mdash;or
+that you shall be punished for your misconduct to him and to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You are both insolent and false. But listen to me, since you are
+here and I cannot avoid you. I know what your threats mean."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never threatened you. I have promised you my aid, but have
+used no threats."</p>
+
+<p>"Not when you tell me that I shall be punished? But to avoid no
+punishment, if any be in your power, will I ever willingly place
+myself in your company. You may write of me what papers you please,
+and repeat of me whatever stories you may choose to fabricate, but
+you will not frighten me into compliance by doing so. I have, at any
+rate, spirit enough to resist such attempts as that."</p>
+
+<p>"As you are living at present, you are alone in the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"And I am content to remain alone."</p>
+
+<p>"You are thinking, then, of no second marriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I were, does that concern you? But I will speak no further word
+to you. If you follow me into the inn, or persecute me further by
+forcing yourself upon me, I will put myself under the protection of
+the police."</p>
+
+<p>Having said this, she walked on as quickly as her strength would
+permit, while he walked by her side, urging upon her his old
+arguments as to Lord Ongar's expressed wishes, as to his own efforts
+on her behalf,&mdash;and at last as to the strong affection with which he
+regarded her. But she kept her promise, and said not a word in answer
+to it all. For more than an hour they walked side by side, and during
+the greater part of that time not a syllable escaped from her. From
+moment to moment she kept her eye warily on him, fearing that he
+might take her by the arm, or attempt some violence with her. But he
+was too wise for this, and too fully conscious that no such
+proceeding on his part could be of any service to him. He continued,
+however, to speak to her words which she could not avoid
+hearing,&mdash;hoping rather than thinking that he might at last frighten
+her by a description of all the evil which it was within his power to
+do her. But in acting thus he showed that he knew nothing of her
+character. She was not a woman whom any prospect of evil could
+possibly frighten into a distasteful marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Within a few hundred yards of the hotel there is another fort, and at
+this point the path taken by Lady Ongar led into the private grounds
+of the inn at which she was staying. Here the count left her, raising
+his hat as he did so, and saying that he hoped to see her again
+before she left the island.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do so," said she, "it shall be in presence of those who can
+protect me." And so they parted.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c28"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h3>
+<h4>WHAT CECILIA BURTON DID FOR HER SISTER-IN-LAW.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill28-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="A" />s soon
+as Harry Clavering had made his promise to Mr. Burton, and
+had declared that he would be in Onslow Crescent that same evening,
+he went away from the offices at the Adelphi, feeling it to be quite
+impossible that he should recommence his work there at that moment,
+even should it ever be within his power to do so. Nor did Burton
+expect that he should stay. He understood, from what had passed, much
+of Harry's trouble, if not the whole of it; and though he did not
+despair on behalf of his sister, he was aware that her lover had
+fallen into a difficulty, from which he could not extricate himself
+without great suffering and much struggling. But Burton was a man
+who, in spite of something cynical on the surface of his character,
+believed well of mankind generally, and well also of men as
+individuals. Even though Harry had done amiss, he might be saved. And
+though Harry's conduct to Florence might have been bad, nay, might
+have been false, still, as Burton believed, he was too good to be
+cast aside, or spurned out of the way, without some further attempt
+to save him.</p>
+
+<p>When Clavering had left him Burton went back to his work, and after a
+while succeeded in riveting his mind on the papers before him. It was
+a hard struggle with him, but he did it, and did not leave his
+business till his usual hour. It was past five when he took down his
+hat and his umbrella, and, as I fear, dusted his boots before he
+passed out of the office on to the passage. As he went he gave sundry
+directions to porters and clerks, as was his wont, and then walked
+off intent upon his usual exercise before he should reach his home.</p>
+
+<p>But he had to determine on much with reference to Florence and Harry
+before he saw his wife. How was the meeting of the evening to take
+place, and in what way should it be commenced? If there were
+indispensable cause for his anger, in what way should he show it, and
+if necessity for vengeance, how should his sister be avenged? There
+is nothing more difficult for a man than the redressing of injuries
+done to a woman who is very near to him and very dear to him. The
+whole theory of Christian meekness and forgiveness becomes broken to
+pieces and falls to the ground, almost as an absurd theory, even at
+the idea of such wrong. What man ever forgave an insult to his wife
+or an injury to his sister, because he had taught himself that to
+forgive trespasses is a religious duty? Without an argument, without
+a moment's thought, the man declares to himself that such trespasses
+as those are not included in the general order. But what is he to do?
+Thirty years since his course was easy, and unless the sinner were a
+clergyman, he could in some sort satisfy his craving for revenge by
+taking a pistol in his hand, and having a shot at the offender. That
+method was doubtless barbarous and unreasonable, but it was
+satisfactory and sufficed. But what can he do now? A thoughtful,
+prudent, painstaking man, such as was Theodore Burton, feels that it
+is not given to him to attack another with his fists, to fly at his
+enemy's throat, and carry out his purpose after the manner of dogs.
+Such a one has probably something round his heart which tells him
+that if so attacked he could defend himself; but he knows that he has
+no aptitude for making such onslaught, and is conscious that such
+deeds of arms would be unbecoming to him. In many, perhaps in most of
+such cases, he may, if he please, have recourse to the laws. But any
+aid that the law can give him is altogether distasteful to him. The
+name of her that is so dear to him should be kept quiet as the grave
+under such misfortune, not blazoned through ten thousand columns for
+the amusement of all the crowd. There is nothing left for him but to
+spurn the man,&mdash;not with his foot but with his thoughts; and the
+bitter consciousness that to such spurning the sinner will be
+indifferent. The old way was barbarous certainly, and
+unreasonable,&mdash;but there was a satisfaction in it that has been often
+wanting since the use of pistols went out of fashion among us.</p>
+
+<p>All this passed through Burton's mind as he walked home. One would
+not have supposed him to be a man eager for bloodshed,&mdash;he with a
+wife whom he deemed to be perfect, with children who in his eyes were
+gracious as young gods, with all his daily work which he loved as
+good workers always do; but yet, as he thought of Florence, as he
+thought of the possibility of treachery on Harry's part, he regarded
+almost with dismay the conclusion to which he was forced to
+come,&mdash;that there could be no punishment. He might proclaim the
+offender to the world as false, and the world would laugh at the
+proclaimer, and shake hands with the offender. To sit together with
+such a man on a barrel of powder, or fight him over a handkerchief,
+seemed to him to be reasonable, nay salutary, under such a grievance.
+There are sins, he felt, which the gods should punish with instant
+thunderbolts, and such sins as this were of such a nature. His
+Florence,&mdash;pure, good, loving, true, herself totally void of all
+suspicion, faultless in heart as well as mind, the flower of that
+Burton flock which had prospered so well,&mdash;that she should be
+sacrificed through the treachery of a man who, at his best, had
+scarcely been worthy of her! The thought of this was almost too much
+for him, and he gnashed his teeth as he went on his way.</p>
+
+<p>But yet he had not given up the man. Though he could not restrain
+himself from foreshadowing the misery that would result from such
+baseness, yet he told himself that he would not condemn before
+condemnation was necessary. Harry Clavering might not be good enough
+for Florence. What man was good enough for Florence? But still, if
+married, Harry, he thought, would not make a bad husband. Many a man
+who is prone enough to escape from the bonds which he has undertaken
+to endure,&mdash;to escape from them before they are riveted,&mdash;is mild
+enough under their endurance, when they are once fastened upon him.
+Harry Clavering was not of such a nature that Burton could tell
+himself that it would be well that his sister should escape even
+though her way of escape must lie through the fire and water of
+outraged love. That Harry Clavering was a gentleman, that he was
+clever, that he was by nature affectionate, soft in manner, tender of
+heart, anxious to please, good-tempered, and of high ambition, Burton
+knew well; and he partly recognized the fact that Harry had probably
+fallen into his present fault more by accident than by design.
+Clavering was not a skilled and practiced deceiver. At last, as he
+drew near to his own door, he resolved on the line of conduct he
+would pursue. He would tell his wife everything, and she should
+receive Harry alone.</p>
+
+<p>He was weary when he reached home, and was a little cross with his
+fatigue. Good man as he was, he was apt to be fretful on the first
+moment of his return to his own house, hot with walking, tired with
+his day's labour, and in want of his dinner. His wife understood this
+well, and always bore with him at such moments, coming down to him in
+the dressing-room behind the back parlour, and ministering to his
+wants. I fear he took some advantage of her goodness, knowing that at
+such moments he could grumble and scold without danger of
+contradiction. But the institution was established, and Cecilia never
+rebelled against its traditional laws. On the present day he had much
+to say to her, but even that he could not say without some few
+symptoms of petulant weariness.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you've had a terrible long day," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you call terribly long. I find the days terribly
+short. I have had Harry with me, as I told you I should."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well. Say in one word, dear, that it is all right,&mdash;if it is
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is not all right. I wonder what on earth the men do to the
+boots, that I can never get a pair that do not hurt me in walking."
+At this moment she was standing over him with his slippers.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you have a glass of sherry before dinner, dear; you are so
+tired?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sherry&mdash;no!"</p>
+
+<p>"And what about Harry? You don't mean to say&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If you'll listen, I'll tell you what I do mean to say." Then he
+described to her as well as he could, what had really taken place
+between him and Harry Clavering at the office.</p>
+
+<p>"He cannot mean to be false, if he is coming here," said the wife.</p>
+
+<p>"He does not mean to be false; but he is one of those men who can be
+false without meaning it,&mdash;who allow themselves to drift away from
+their anchors, and to be carried out into seas of misery and trouble,
+because they are not careful in looking to their tackle. I think that
+he may still be held to a right course, and therefore I have begged
+him to come here."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure that you are right, Theodore. He is so good and so
+affectionate, and he made himself so much one of us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; too easily by half. That is just the danger. But look here,
+Cissy. I'll tell you what I mean to do. I will not see him
+myself;&mdash;at any rate, not at first. Probably I had better not see him
+at all. You shall talk to him."</p>
+
+<p>"By myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? You and he have always been great friends, and he is a man
+who can speak more openly to a woman than to another man."</p>
+
+<p>"And what shall I say as to your absence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just the truth. Tell him that I am remaining in the dining-room
+because I think his task will be easier with you in my absence. He
+has got himself into some mess with that woman."</p>
+
+<p>"With Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; not that her name was mentioned between us, but I suppose it is
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"Horrible woman;&mdash;wicked, wretched creature!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing about that, nor, as I suppose, do you."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, you must have heard."</p>
+
+<p>"But if I had,&mdash;and I don't know that I have,&mdash;I need not have
+believed. I am told that she married an old man who is now dead, and
+I suppose she wants a young husband."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"If I were you, Cissy, I would say as little as might be about her.
+She was an old friend of
+<span class="nowrap">Harry's&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"She jilted him when he was quite a boy; I know that;&mdash;long before he
+had seen our Florence."</p>
+
+<p>"And she is connected with him through his cousin. Let her be ever so
+bad, I should drop that."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't suppose, Theodore, that I want even to mention her name.
+I'm told that nobody ever visits her."</p>
+
+<p>"She needn't be a bit the worse on that account. Whenever I hear that
+there is a woman whom nobody visits, I always feel inclined to go and
+pay my respects to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Theodore, how can you say so?"</p>
+
+<p>"And that, I suppose, is just what Harry has done. If the world and
+his wife had visited Lady Ongar, there would not have been all this
+trouble now."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burton of course undertook the task which her husband assigned
+to her, though she did so with much nervous trepidation, and many
+fears lest the desired object should be lost through her own
+maladroit management. With her, there was at least no doubt as to the
+thing to be done,&mdash;no hesitation as to the desirability of securing
+Harry Clavering for the Burton faction. Everything in her mind was to
+be forgiven to Harry, and he was to be received by them all with open
+arms and loving caresses, if he would only abandon Lady Ongar
+altogether. To secure her lover for Florence, was Mrs. Burton's
+single and simple object. She raised no questions now within her own
+breast as to whether Harry would make a good husband. Any such
+question as that should have been asked and answered before he had
+been accepted at Stratton. The thing to be done now was to bring
+Harry and Florence together, and,&mdash;since such terrible dangers were
+intervening,&mdash;to make them man and wife with as little further delay
+as might be possible. The name of Lady Ongar was odious to her. When
+men went astray in matters of love it was within the power of Cecilia
+Burton's heart to forgive them; but she could not pardon women that
+so sinned. This countess had once jilted Harry, and that was enough
+to secure her condemnation. And since that what terrible things had
+been said of her! And dear, uncharitable Cecilia Burton was apt to
+think, when evil was spoken of women,&mdash;of women whom she did not
+know,&mdash;that there could not be smoke without fire. And now this woman
+was a widow with a large fortune, and wanted a husband! What business
+had any widow to want a husband? It is so easy for wives to speak and
+think after that fashion when they are satisfied with their own
+ventures.</p>
+
+<p>It was arranged that when Harry came to the door, Mrs. Burton should
+go up alone to the drawing-room and receive him there, remaining with
+her husband in the dining-room till he should come. Twice while
+sitting downstairs after the cloth was gone she ran upstairs with the
+avowed purpose of going into the nursery, but in truth that she might
+see that the room was comfortable, that it looked pretty, and that
+the chairs were so arranged as to be convenient. The two eldest
+children were with them in the parlour, and when she started on her
+second errand, Cissy reminded her that baby would be asleep.
+Theodore, who understood the little man&oelig;uvre, smiled but said
+nothing, and his wife, who in such matters was resolute, went and
+made her further little changes in the furniture. At last there came
+the knock at the door,&mdash;the expected knock, a knock which told
+something of the hesitating unhappy mind of him who had rapped, and
+Mrs. Burton started on her business. "Tell him just simply why you
+are there alone," said her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it Harry Clavering?" Cissy asked, "and mayn't I go?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is Harry Clavering," her father said, "and you may not go.
+Indeed, it is time you went somewhere else."</p>
+
+<p>It was Harry Clavering. He had not spent a pleasant day since he had
+left Mr. Beilby's offices in the morning, and, now that he had come
+to Onslow Crescent, he did not expect to spend a pleasant evening.
+When I declare that as yet he had not come to any firm resolution, I
+fear that he will be held as being too weak for the r&ocirc;le of hero even
+in such pages as these. Perhaps no terms have been so injurious to
+the profession of the novelist as those two words, hero and heroine.
+In spite of the latitude which is allowed to the writer in putting
+his own interpretation upon these words, something heroic is still
+expected; whereas, if he attempt to paint from Nature, how little
+that is heroic should he describe! How many young men, subjected to
+the temptations which had befallen Harry Clavering,&mdash;how many young
+men whom you, delicate reader, number among your friends,&mdash;would have
+come out from them unscathed? A man, you say, delicate reader, a true
+man can love but one woman,&mdash;but one at a time. So you say, and are
+so convinced; but no conviction was ever more false. When a true man
+has loved with all his heart and all his soul,&mdash;does he cease to
+love,&mdash;does he cleanse his heart of that passion when circumstances
+run against him, and he is forced to turn elsewhere for his life's
+companion? Or is he untrue as a lover in that he does not waste his
+life in desolation, because he has been disappointed? Or does his old
+love perish and die away, because another has crept into his heart?
+No; the first love, if that was true, is ever there; and should she
+and he meet after many years, though their heads be gray and their
+cheeks wrinkled, there will still be a touch of the old passion as
+their hands meet for a moment. Methinks that love never dies, unless
+it be murdered by downright ill-usage. It may be so murdered, but
+even ill-usage will more often fail than succeed in that enterprise.
+How, then, could Harry fail to love the woman whom he had loved
+first, when she returned to him still young, still beautiful, and
+told him, with all her charms and all her flattery, how her heart
+stood towards him?</p>
+
+<p>But it is not to be thought that I excuse him altogether. A man,
+though he may love many, should be devoted only to one. The man's
+feeling to the woman whom he is to marry should be this:&mdash;that not
+from love only, but from chivalry, from manhood, and from duty, he
+will be prepared always, and at all hazards, to defend her from every
+misadventure, to struggle ever that she may be happy, to see that no
+wind blows upon her with needless severity, that no ravening wolf of
+a misery shall come near her, that her path be swept clean for
+her,&mdash;as clean as may be, and that her roof-tree be made firm upon a
+rock. There is much of this which is quite independent of love,&mdash;much
+of it that may be done without love. This is devotion, and it is this
+which a man owes to the woman who has once promised to be his wife,
+and has not forfeited her right. Doubtless Harry Clavering should
+have remembered this at the first moment of his weakness in Lady
+Ongar's drawing-room. Doubtless he should have known at once that his
+duty to Florence made it necessary that he should declare his
+engagement,&mdash;even though, in doing so, he might have seemed to
+caution Lady Ongar on that point on which no woman can endure a
+caution. But the fault was hers, and the caution was needed. No doubt
+he should not have returned to Bolton Street. He should not have
+cozened himself by trusting himself to her assurances of friendship;
+he should have kept warm his love for the woman to whom his hand was
+owed, not suffering himself to make comparisons to her injury. He
+should have been chivalric, manly, full of high duty. He should have
+been all this, and full also of love, and then he would have been a
+hero. But men as I see them are not often heroic.</p>
+
+<p>As he entered the room he saw Mrs. Burton at once, and then looked
+round quickly for her husband. "Harry," said she, "I am so glad to
+see you once again," and she gave him her hand, and smiled on him
+with that sweet look which used to make him feel that it was pleasant
+to be near her. He took her hand and muttered some word of greeting,
+and then looked round again for Mr. Burton. "Theodore is not here,"
+she said; "he thought it better that you and I should have a little
+talk together. He said you would like it best so; but perhaps I ought
+not to tell you that."</p>
+
+<p>"I do like it best so,&mdash;much best. I can speak to you as I could
+hardly speak to him."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Harry, that ails you? What has kept you away from us?
+Why do you leave poor Flo so long without writing to her? She will be
+here on Monday. You will come and see her then; or perhaps you will
+go with me and meet her at the station?"</p>
+
+<p>"Burton said that she was coming, but I did not understand that it
+was so soon."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not think it too soon, Harry; do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Harry, but his tone belied his assertion. At any rate he
+had not pretended to display any of a lover's rapture at this
+prospect of seeing the lady whom he loved.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Harry. Why do you stand like that and look so comfortless?
+Theodore says that you have some trouble at heart. Is it a trouble
+that you can tell to a friend such as I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is very hard to tell. Oh, Mrs. Burton, I am broken-hearted. For
+the last two weeks I have wished that I might die."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not say that, Harry; that would be wicked."</p>
+
+<p>"Wicked or not, it is true. I have been so wretched that I have not
+known how to hold myself. I could not bring myself to write to
+Florence."</p>
+
+<p>"But why not? You do not mean that you are false to Florence. You
+cannot mean that. Harry, say at once that it is not so, and I will
+promise you her forgiveness, Theodore's forgiveness, all our
+forgiveness for anything else. Oh, Harry, say anything but that." In
+answer to this Harry Clavering had nothing to say, but sat with his
+head resting on his arm and his face turned away from her. "Speak,
+Harry; if you are a man, say something. Is it so? If it be so, I
+believe that you will have killed her. Why do you not speak to me?
+Harry Clavering, tell me what is the truth."</p>
+
+<p>Then he told her all his story, not looking her once in the face, not
+changing his voice, suppressing his emotion till he came to the
+history of the present days. He described to her how he had loved
+Julia Brabazon, and how his love had been treated by her; how he had
+sworn to himself, when he knew that she had in truth become that
+lord's wife, that for her sake he would keep himself from loving any
+other woman. Then he spoke of his first days at Stratton and of his
+early acquaintance with Florence, and told her how different had been
+his second love,&mdash;how it had grown gradually and with no check to his
+confidence, till he felt sure that the sweet girl who was so often
+near him would, if he could win her, be to him a source of joy for
+all his life. "And so she shall," said Cecilia, with tears running
+down her cheeks; "she shall do so yet." And he went on with his tale,
+saying how pleasant it had been for him to find himself at home in
+Onslow Crescent, how he had joyed in calling her Cecilia, and having
+her infants in his arms, as though they were already partly belonging
+to him. And he told her how he had met the young widow at the
+station, having employed himself on her behalf at her sister's
+instance; and how cold she had been to him, offending him by her
+silence and sombre pride. "False woman!" exclaimed Mrs. Burton. "Oh,
+Cecilia, do not abuse her,&mdash;do not say a word till you know all." "I
+know that she is false," said Mrs. Burton, with vehement indignation.
+"She is not false," said Harry; "if there be falsehood, it is mine."
+Then he went on, and said how different she was when next he saw her.
+How then he understood that her solemn and haughty manner had been
+almost forced on her by the mode of her return, with no other friend
+to meet her. "She has deserved no friend," said Mrs. Burton. "You
+wrong her," said Harry; "you do not know her. If any woman has been
+ever sinned against, it is she." "But was she not false from the very
+first,&mdash;false, that she might become rich by marrying a man that she
+did not love? Will you speak up for her after that? Oh, Harry, think
+of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I will speak up for her," said Harry; and now it seemed for the
+first time that something of his old boldness had returned to him. "I
+will speak up for her, although she did as you say, because she has
+suffered as few women have been made to suffer, and because she has
+repented in ashes as few women are called on to repent." And now as
+he warmed with his feeling for her, he uttered his words faster and
+with less of shame in his voice. He described how he had gone again
+and again to Bolton Street, thinking no evil, till&mdash;till&mdash;till
+something of the old feeling had come back upon him. He meant to be
+true in his story, but I doubt whether he told all the truth. How
+could he tell it all? How could he confess that the blaze of the
+woman's womanhood, the flame of her beauty, and the fire engendered
+by her mingled rank and suffering, had singed him and burned him up,
+poor moth that he was? "And then at last I learned," said he,
+"that&mdash;that she had loved me more than I had believed."</p>
+
+<p>"And is Florence to suffer because she has postponed her love of you
+to her love of money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Burton, if you do not understand it now, I do not know that I
+can tell you more. Florence alone in this matter is altogether good.
+Lady Ongar has been wrong, and I have been wrong. I sometimes think
+that Florence is too good for me."</p>
+
+<p>"It is for her to say that, if it be necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you all now, and you will know why I have not come to
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry; you have not told me all. Have you told that&mdash;woman that
+she should be your wife?" To this question he made no immediate
+answer, and she repeated it. "Tell me; have you told her you would
+marry her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did tell her so."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will keep your word to her?" Harry, as he heard the words,
+was struck with awe that there should be such vehemence, such anger,
+in the voice of so gentle a woman as Cecilia Burton. "Answer me, sir,
+do you mean to marry this&mdash;countess?" But still he made no answer. "I
+do not wonder that you cannot speak," she said. "Oh, Florence,&mdash;oh,
+my darling; my lost, broken-hearted angel!" Then she turned away her
+face and wept.</p>
+
+<p>"Cecilia," he said, attempting to approach her with his hand, without
+rising from his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; when I desired you to call me so, it was because I thought
+you were to be a brother. I did not think that there could be a thing
+so weak as you. Perhaps you had better go now, lest you should meet
+my husband in his wrath, and he should spurn you."</p>
+
+<p>But Harry Clavering still sat in his chair, motionless,&mdash;motionless,
+and without a word. After a while he turned his face towards her, and
+even in her own misery she was stricken by the wretchedness of his
+countenance. Suddenly she rose quickly from her chair, and coming
+close to him, threw herself on her knees before him. "Harry," she
+said, "Harry; it is not yet too late. Be our own Harry again; our
+dearest Harry. Say that it shall be so. What is this woman to you?
+What has she done for you, that for her you should throw aside such a
+one as our Florence? Is she noble, and good, and pure and spotless as
+Florence is? Will she love you with such love as Florence's? Will she
+believe in you as Florence believes? Yes, Harry, she believes yet.
+She knows nothing of this, and shall know nothing, if you will only
+say that you will be true. No one shall know, and I will remember it
+only to remember your goodness afterwards. Think of it, Harry; there
+can be no falseness to one who has been so false to you. Harry, you
+will not destroy us all at one blow?"</p>
+
+<p>Never before was man so supplicated to take into his arms youth and
+beauty and feminine purity! And in truth he would have yielded, as
+indeed, what man would not have yielded,&mdash;had not Mrs. Burton been
+interrupted in her prayers. The step of her husband was heard upon
+the stairs, and she, rising from her knees, whispered quickly, "Do
+not tell him that it is settled. Let me tell him when you are gone."</p>
+
+<p>"You two have been a long time together," said Theodore, as he came
+in.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you leave us, then, so long?" said Mrs. Burton, trying to
+smile, though the signs of tears were, as she well knew, plain
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you would have sent for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Burton," said Harry, "I take it kindly of you that you allowed me to
+see your wife alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Women always understand these things best," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"And you will come again to-morrow, Harry, and answer me my
+question?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Florence will be here on Monday."</p>
+
+<p>"And why should he not come when Florence is here?" asked Theodore,
+in an angry tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he will come, but I want to see him again first. Do I not,
+Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hate mysteries," said Burton.</p>
+
+<p>"There shall be no mystery," said his wife. "Why did you send him to
+me, but that there are some things difficult to discuss among three?
+Will you come to-morrow, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-morrow; but I will write to-morrow,&mdash;early to-morrow. I will
+go now, and of course you will tell Burton everything that I have
+said. Good night." They both took his hand, and Cecilia pressed it as
+she looked with beseeching eyes into his face. What would she not
+have done to secure the happiness of the sister whom she loved? On
+this occasion she had descended low that she might do much.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c29"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIX.</h3>
+<h4>HOW DAMON PARTED FROM PYTHIAS.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Lady Ongar, when she left Count Pateroff at the little fort on the
+cliff and entered by herself the gardens belonging to the hotel, had
+long since made up her mind that there should at last be a positive
+severance between herself and her devoted Sophie. For half-an-hour
+she had been walking in silence by the count's side; and though, of
+course, she had heard all that he had spoken, she had been able in
+that time to consider much. It must have been through Sophie that the
+count had heard of her journey to the Isle of Wight; and, worse than
+that, Sophie must, as she thought, have instigated this pursuit. In
+that she wronged her poor friend. Sophie had been simply paid by her
+brother for giving such information as enabled him to arrange this
+meeting. She had not even counselled him to follow Lady Ongar. But
+now Lady Ongar, in blind wrath, determined that Sophie should be
+expelled from her bosom. Lady Ongar would find this task of expulsion
+the less difficult in that she had come to loathe her devoted friend,
+and to feel it to be incumbent on her to rid herself of such
+devotion. Now had arrived the moment in which it might be done.</p>
+
+<p>And yet there were difficulties. Two ladies living together in an inn
+cannot, without much that is disagreeable, send down to the landlord
+saying that they want separate rooms, because they have taken it into
+their minds to hate each other. And there would, moreover, be
+something awkward in saying to Sophie that, though she was discarded,
+her bill should be paid&mdash;for this last and only time. No; Lady Ongar
+had already perceived that that would not do. She would not quarrel
+with Sophie after that fashion. She would leave the Isle of Wight on
+the following morning early, informing Sophie why she did so, and
+would offer money to the little Franco-Pole, presuming that it might
+not be agreeable to the Franco-Pole to be hurried away from her
+marine or rural happiness so quickly. But in doing this she would be
+careful to make Sophie understand that Bolton Street was to be closed
+against her for ever afterwards. With neither Count Pateroff nor his
+sister would she ever again willingly place herself in contact.</p>
+
+<p>It was dark as she entered the house,&mdash;the walk out, her delay there,
+and her return having together occupied her three hours. She had
+hardly felt the dusk growing on her as she progressed steadily on her
+way, with that odious man beside her. She had been thinking of other
+things, and her eyes had accustomed themselves gradually to the
+fading twilight. But now, when she saw the glimmer of the lamps from
+the inn-windows, she knew that the night had come upon her, and she
+began to fear that she had been imprudent in allowing herself to be
+out so late,&mdash;imprudent, even had she succeeded in being alone. She
+went direct to her own room, that, woman-like, she might consult her
+own face as to the effects of the insult she had received, and then
+having, as it were, steadied herself, and prepared herself for the
+scene that was to follow, she descended to the sitting-room and
+encountered her friend. The friend was the first to speak; and the
+reader will kindly remember that the friend had ample reason for
+knowing what companion Lady Ongar had been likely to meet upon the
+downs.</p>
+
+<p>"Julie, dear, how late you are," said Sophie, as though she were
+rather irritated in having been kept so long waiting for her tea.</p>
+
+<p>"I am late," said Lady Ongar.</p>
+
+<p>"And don't you think you are imprudent,&mdash;all alone, you know, dear;
+just a leetle imprudent."</p>
+
+<p>"Very imprudent, indeed. I have been thinking of that now as I
+crossed the lawn, and found how dark it was. I have been very
+imprudent; but I have escaped without much injury."</p>
+
+<p>"Escaped! escaped what? Have you escaped a cold, or a drunken man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Both, as I think." Then she sat down, and, having rung the bell, she
+ordered tea.</p>
+
+<p>"There seems to be something very odd with you," said Sophie. "I do
+not quite understand you."</p>
+
+<p>"When did you see your brother last?" Lady Ongar asked.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Count Pateroff. When did you see him last?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you want to know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it does not signify, as of course you will not tell me. But
+will you say when you will see him next?"</p>
+
+<p>"How can I tell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will it be to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Julie, what do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only this, that I wish you would make him understand that if he has
+anything to do concerning me, he might as well do it out of hand. For
+the last <span class="nowrap">hour&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Then you have seen him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; is not that wonderful? I have seen him."</p>
+
+<p>"And why could you not tell him yourself what you had to say? He and
+I do not agree about certain things, and I do not like to carry
+messages to him. And you have seen him here on this sacr&eacute; sea-coast?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly so; on this sacr&eacute; sea-coast. Is it not odd that he should
+have known that I was here,&mdash;known the very inn we were at,&mdash;and
+known, too, whither I was going to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"He would learn that from the servants, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt. He has been good enough to amuse me with mysterious
+threats as to what he would do to punish me if I would
+<span class="nowrap">not&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Become his wife?" suggested Sophie.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. It was very flattering on his part. I certainly do not
+intend to become his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you like better that young Clavering who has the other
+sweetheart. He is younger. That is true."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, yes. I like my cousin, Harry Clavering, much better
+than I like your brother; but, as I take it, that has not much to do
+with it. I was speaking of your brother's threats. I do not
+understand them; but I wish he could be made to understand that if he
+has anything to do, he had better go and do it. As for marriage, I
+would sooner marry the first ploughboy I could find in the fields."</p>
+
+<p>"Julie,&mdash;you need not insult him."</p>
+
+<p>"I will have no more of your Julie; and I will have no more of you."
+As she said this she rose from her chair, and walked about the room.
+"You have betrayed me, and there shall be an end of it."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill29"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill29.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill29-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="How Damon parted from Pythias." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">How
+      Damon parted from Pythias.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill29.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Betrayed you! what nonsense you talk. In what have I betrayed you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You set him upon my track here, though you knew I desired to avoid
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all? I was coming here to this detestable island, and I
+told my brother. That is my offence,&mdash;and then you talk of betraying!
+Julie, you sometimes are a goose."</p>
+
+<p>"Very often, no doubt; but, Madame Gordeloup, if you please we will
+be geese apart for the future."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, certainly;&mdash;if you wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"I do wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"It cannot hurt me. I can choose my friends anywhere. The world is
+open to me to go where I please into society. I am not at a loss."</p>
+
+<p>All this Lady Ongar well understood, but she could bear it without
+injury to her temper. Such revenge was to be expected from such a
+woman. "I do not want you to be at a loss," she said. "I only want
+you to understand that after what has this evening occurred between
+your brother and me, our acquaintance had better cease."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am to be punished for my brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"You said just now that it would be no punishment, and I was glad to
+hear it. Society is, as you say, open to you, and you will lose
+nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course society is open to me. Have I committed myself? I am not
+talked about for my lovers by all the town. Why should I be at a
+loss? No."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall return to London to-morrow by the earliest opportunity. I
+have already told them so, and have ordered a carriage to go to
+Yarmouth at eight."</p>
+
+<p>"And you leave me here, alone!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your brother is here, Madame Gordeloup."</p>
+
+<p>"My brother is nothing to me. You know well that. He can come and he
+can go when he please. I come here to follow you,&mdash;to be companion to
+you, to oblige you,&mdash;and now you say you go and leave me in this
+detestable barrack. If I am here alone, I will be revenged."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall go back with me if you wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"At eight o'clock in the morning,&mdash;and see, it is now eleven; while
+you have been wandering about alone with my brother in the dark! No;
+I will not go so early morning as that. To-morrow is Saturday&mdash;you
+was to remain till Tuesday."</p>
+
+<p>"You may do as you please. I shall go at eight to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. You go at eight, very well. And who will pay for the
+'beels' when you are gone, Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have already ordered the bill up to-morrow morning. If you will
+allow me to offer you twenty pounds, that will bring you to London
+when you please to follow."</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty pounds! What is twenty pounds? No; I will not have your
+twenty pounds." And she pushed away from her the two notes which Lady
+Ongar had already put upon the table. "Who is to pay me for the loss
+of all my time? Tell me that. I have devoted myself to you. Who will
+pay me for that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not I, certainly, Madame Gordeloup."</p>
+
+<p>"Not you! You will not pay me for my time;&mdash;for a whole year I have
+been devoted to you! You will not pay me, and you send me away in
+this way? By Gar, you will be made to pay,&mdash;through the nose."</p>
+
+<p>As the interview was becoming unpleasant, Lady Ongar took her candle
+and went away to bed, leaving the twenty pounds on the table. As she
+left the room she knew that the money was there, but she could not
+bring herself to pick it up and restore it to her pocket. It was
+improbable, she thought, that Madame Gordeloup would leave it to the
+mercy of the waiters; and the chances were that the notes would go
+into the pocket for which they were intended.</p>
+
+<p>And such was the result. Sophie, when she was left alone, got up from
+her seat, and stood for some moments on the rug, making her
+calculations. That Lady Ongar should be very angry about Count
+Pateroff's presence Sophie had expected; but she had not expected
+that her friend's anger would be carried to such extremity that she
+would pronounce a sentence of banishment for life. But, perhaps,
+after all, it might be well for Sophie herself that such sentence
+should be carried out. This fool of a woman with her income, her
+park, and her rank, was going to give herself,&mdash;so said Sophie to
+herself,&mdash;to a young, handsome, proud pig of a fellow,&mdash;so Sophie
+called him,&mdash;who had already shown himself to be Sophie's enemy, and
+who would certainly find no place for Sophie Gordeloup within his
+house. Might it not be well that the quarrel should be consummated
+now,&mdash;such compensation being obtained as might possibly be
+extracted. Sophie certainly knew a good deal, which it might be for
+the convenience of the future husband to keep dark&mdash;or convenient for
+the future wife that the future husband should not know. Terms might
+be yet had, although Lady Ongar had refused to pay anything beyond
+that trumpery twenty pounds. Terms might be had; or, indeed, it might
+be that Lady Ongar herself, when her anger was over, might sue for a
+reconciliation. Or Sophie,&mdash;and this idea occurred as Sophie herself
+became a little despondent after long calculation,&mdash;Sophie herself
+might acknowledge herself to be wrong, begging pardon, and weeping on
+her friend's neck. Perhaps it might be worth while to make some
+further calculation in bed. Then Sophie, softly drawing the notes
+towards her as a cat might have done, and hiding them somewhere about
+her person, also went to her room.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning Lady Ongar prepared herself for starting at eight
+o'clock, and, as a part of that preparation, had her breakfast
+brought to her upstairs. When the time was up, she descended to the
+sitting-room on the way to the carriage, and there she found Sophie
+also prepared for a journey.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going too. You will let me go?" said Sophie.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Lady Ongar. "I proposed to you to do so yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"You should not be so hard upon your poor friend," said Sophie. This
+was said in the hearing of Lady Ongar's maid and of two waiters, and
+Lady Ongar made no reply to it. When they were in the carriage
+together, the maid being then stowed away in a dickey or rumble
+behind, Sophie again whined and was repentant. "Julie, you should not
+be so hard upon your poor Sophie."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me that the hardest things said were spoken by you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will beg your pardon. I am impulsive. I do not restrain
+myself. When I am angry I say I know not what. If I said any words
+that were wrong, I will apologize, and beg to be
+forgiven,&mdash;there,&mdash;on my knees." And, as she spoke, the adroit little
+woman contrived to get herself down upon her knees on the floor of
+the carriage. "There; say that I am forgiven; say that Sophie is
+pardoned." The little woman had calculated that even should her Julie
+pardon her, Julie would hardly condescend to ask for the two
+ten-pound notes.</p>
+
+<p>But Lady Ongar had stoutly determined that there should be no further
+intimacy, and had reflected that a better occasion for a quarrel
+could hardly be vouchsafed to her than that afforded by Sophie's
+treachery in bringing her brother down to Freshwater. She was too
+strong, and too much mistress of her will, to be cheated now out of
+her advantage. "Madame Gordeloup, that attitude is absurd;&mdash;I beg you
+will get up."</p>
+
+<p>"Never; never till you have pardoned me." And Sophie crouched still
+lower, till she was all among the dressing-cases and little bags at
+the bottom of the carriage. "I will not get up till you say the
+words, 'Sophie, dear, I forgive you.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I fear you will have an uncomfortable drive. Luckily it will be
+very short. It is only half-an-hour to Yarmouth."</p>
+
+<p>"And I will kneel again on board the packet; and on the&mdash;what you
+call, platform,&mdash;and in the railway carriage,&mdash;and in the street. I
+will kneel to my Julie everywhere, till she say, 'Sophie, dear, I
+forgive you!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Gordeloup, pray understand me; between you and me there shall
+be no further intimacy."</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. No further explanation is necessary, but our intimacy
+has certainly come to an end."</p>
+
+<p>"It has."</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly."</p>
+
+<p>"Julie!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is such nonsense. Madame Gordeloup, you are disgracing yourself
+by your proceedings."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! disgracing myself, am I?" In saying this, Sophie picked herself
+up from among the dressing-cases, and recovered her seat. "I am
+disgracing myself! Well, I know very well whose disgrace is the most
+talked about in the world, yours or mine. Disgracing myself;&mdash;and
+from you? What did your husband say of you himself?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Ongar began to feel that even a very short journey might be too
+long. Sophie was now quite up, and was wriggling herself on her seat,
+adjusting her clothes which her late attitude had disarranged, not in
+the most graceful manner.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall see," she continued. "Yes, you shall see. Tell me of
+disgrace! I have only disgraced myself by being with you. Ah,&mdash;very
+well. Yes; I will get out. As for being quiet, I shall be quiet
+whenever I like it. I know when to talk and when to hold my tongue.
+Disgrace!" So saying, she stepped out of the carriage, leaning on the
+arm of a boatman who had come to the door, and who had heard her last
+words.</p>
+
+<p>It may be imagined that all this did not contribute much to the
+comfort of Lady Ongar. They were now on the little pier at Yarmouth,
+and in five minutes every one there knew who she was, and knew also
+that there had been some disagreement between her and the little
+foreigner. The eyes of the boatmen, and of the drivers, and of the
+other travellers, and of the natives going over to the market at
+Lymington, were all on her, and the eyes also of all the idlers of
+Yarmouth who had congregated there to watch the despatch of the early
+boat. But she bore it well, seating herself, with her maid beside
+her, on one of the benches on the deck, and waiting there with
+patience till the boat should start. Sophie once or twice muttered
+the word "disgrace!" but beyond that she remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>They crossed over the little channel without a word, and without a
+word made their way up to the railway-station. Lady Ongar had been
+too confused to get tickets for their journey at Yarmouth, but had
+paid on board the boat for the passage of the three persons&mdash;herself,
+her maid, and Sophie. But, at the station at Lymington, the more
+important business of taking tickets for the journey to London became
+necessary. Lady Ongar had thought of this on her journey across the
+water, and, when at the railway-station, gave her purse to her maid,
+whispering her orders. The girl took three first-class tickets, and
+then going gently up to Madame Gordeloup, offered one to that lady.
+"Ah, yes; very well; I understand," said Sophie, taking the ticket.
+"I shall take this;" and she held the ticket up in her hand, as
+though she had some specially mysterious purpose in accepting it.</p>
+
+<p>She got into the same carriage with Lady Ongar and her maid, but
+spoke no word on her journey up to London. At Basingstoke she had a
+glass of sherry, for which Lady Ongar's maid paid. Lady Ongar had
+telegraphed for her carriage, which was waiting for her, but Sophie
+betook herself to a cab. "Shall I pay the cabman, ma'am?" said the
+maid. "Yes," said Sophie, "or stop. It will be half-a-crown. You had
+better give me the half-crown." The maid did so, and in this way the
+careful Sophie added another shilling to her store,&mdash;over and above
+the twenty pounds,&mdash;knowing well that the fare to Mount Street was
+eighteen-pence.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c30"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXX.</h3>
+<h4>DOODLES IN MOUNT STREET.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Captain Clavering and Captain Boodle had, as may be imagined,
+discussed at great length and with much frequency the results of the
+former captain's negotiations with the Russian spy, and it had been
+declared strongly by the latter captain, and ultimately admitted by
+the former, that those results were not satisfactory. Seventy pounds
+had been expended, and, so to say, nothing had been accomplished. It
+was in vain that Archie, unwilling to have it thought that he had
+been worsted in diplomacy, argued that with these political
+personages, and especially with Russian political personages, the
+ambages were everything,&mdash;that the preliminaries were in fact the
+whole, and that when they were arranged, the thing was done. Doodles
+proved to demonstration that the thing was not done, and that seventy
+pounds was too much for mere preliminaries. "My dear fellow," he
+said, speaking I fear with some scorn in his voice, "where are you?
+That's what I want to know. Where are you? Just nowhere." This was
+true. All that Archie had received from Madame Gordeloup in return
+for his last payment, was an intimation that no immediate day could
+be at present named for a renewal of his personal attack upon the
+countess; but that a day might be named when he should next come to
+Mount Street,&mdash;provision, of course, being made that he should come
+with a due qualification under his glove. Now the original basis on
+which Archie was to carry on his suit had been arranged to be
+this,&mdash;that Lady Ongar should be made to know that he was there; and
+the way in which Doodles had illustrated this precept by the artistic
+and allegorical use of his heel was still fresh in Archie's memory.
+The meeting in which they had come to that satisfactory understanding
+had taken place early in the spring, and now June was coming on, and
+the countess certainly did not as yet know that her suitor was there!
+If anything was to be done by the Russian spy it should be done
+quickly, and Doodles did not refrain from expressing his opinion that
+his friend was "putting his foot into it," and "making a mull of the
+whole thing." Now Archie Clavering was a man not eaten up by the vice
+of self-confidence, but prone rather to lean upon his friends and
+anxious for the aid of counsel in difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil is a fellow to do?" he asked. "Perhaps I had better
+give it all up. Everybody says that she is as proud as Lucifer; and,
+after all, nobody knows what rigs she has been up to."</p>
+
+<p>But this was by no means the view which Doodles was inclined to take.
+He was a man who in the field never gave up a race because he was
+thrown out at the start, having perceived that patience would achieve
+as much, perhaps, as impetuosity. He had ridden many a waiting race,
+and had won some of them. He was never so sure of his hand at
+billiards as when the score was strong against him. "Always fight
+whilst there's any fight left in you," was a maxim with him. He never
+surrendered a bet as lost, till the evidence as to the facts was
+quite conclusive, and had taught himself to regard any chance, be it
+ever so remote, as a kind of property.</p>
+
+<p>"Never say die," was his answer to Archie's remark. "You see, Clavvy,
+you have still a few good cards, and you can never know what a woman
+really means till you have popped yourself. As to what she did when
+she was away, and all that, you see when a woman has got seven
+thousand a year in her own right, it covers a multitude of sins."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I know that."</p>
+
+<p>"And why should a fellow be uncharitable? If a man is to believe all
+that he hears, by George, they're all much of a muchness. For my part
+I never believe anything. I always suppose every horse will run to
+win; and though there may be a cross now and again, that's the surest
+line to go upon. D'you understand me now?" Archie said that of course
+he understood him; but I fancy that Doodles had gone a little too
+deep for Archie's intellect.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say, drop this woman, and go at the widow yourself at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>"And lose all my seventy pounds for nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're not soft enough to suppose that you'll ever get it back
+again, I hope?" Archie assured his friend that he was not soft enough
+for any such hope as that, and then the two remained silent for a
+while, deeply considering the posture of the affair. "I'll tell you
+what I'll do for you," said Doodles; "and upon my word I think it
+will be the best thing."</p>
+
+<p>"And what's that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go to this woman myself."</p>
+
+<p>"What; to Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but to the Spy, as you call her. Principals are never the best
+for this kind of work. When a man has to pay the money himself he can
+never make so good a bargain as another can make for him. That stands
+to reason. And I can be blunter with her about it than you can;&mdash;can
+go straight at it, you know; and you may be sure of this, she won't
+get any money from me, unless I get the marbles for it."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll take some with you, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes; that is, if it's convenient. We were talking of going two
+or three hundred pounds, you know, and you've only gone seventy as
+yet. Suppose you hand me over the odd thirty. If she gets it out of
+me easy, tell me my name isn't Boodle."</p>
+
+<p>There was much in this that was distasteful to Captain Clavering, but
+at last he submitted, and handed over the thirty pounds to his
+friend. Then there was considerable doubt whether the ambassador
+should announce himself by a note, but it was decided at last that
+his arrival should not be expected. If he did not find the lady at
+home or disengaged on the first visit, or on the second, he might on
+the third or the fourth. He was a persistent, patient little man, and
+assured his friend that he would certainly see Madame Gordeloup
+before a week had passed over their heads.</p>
+
+<p>On the occasion of his first visit to Mount Street, Sophie Gordeloup
+was enjoying her retreat in the Isle of Wight. When he called the
+second time she was in bed, the fatigue of her journey on the
+previous day,&mdash;the day on which she had actually risen at seven
+o'clock in the morning,&mdash;having oppressed her much. She had returned
+in the cab alone, and had occupied herself much on the same evening.
+Now that she was to be parted from her Julie, it was needful that she
+should be occupied. She wrote a long letter to her brother,&mdash;much
+more confidential than her letters to him had lately been,&mdash;telling
+him how much she had suffered on his behalf, and describing to him
+with great energy the perverseness, malignity, and general
+pigheadedness of her late friend. Then she wrote an anonymous letter
+to Mrs. Burton, whose name and address she had learned, after having
+ascertained from Archie the fact of Harry Clavering's engagement. In
+this letter she described the wretched wiles by which that horrid
+woman Lady Ongar was struggling to keep Harry and Miss Burton apart.
+"It is very bad, but it is true," said the diligent little woman.
+"She has been seen in his embrace; I know it." After that she dressed
+and went out into society,&mdash;the society of which she had boasted as
+being open to her,&mdash;to the house of some hanger-on of some embassy,
+and listened, and whispered, and laughed when some old sinner joked
+with her, and talked poetry to a young man who was foolish and lame,
+but who had some money, and got a glass of wine and a cake for
+nothing, and so was very busy; and on her return home calculated that
+her cab-hire for the evening had been judiciously spent. But her
+diligence had been so great that when Captain Boodle called the next
+morning at twelve o'clock she was still in bed. Had she been in dear
+Paris, or in dearer Vienna, that would have not hindered her from
+receiving the visit; but in pigheaded London this could not be done;
+and, therefore, when she had duly scrutinized Captain Boodle's card,
+and had learned from the servant that Captain Boodle desired to see
+herself on very particular business, she made an appointment with him
+for the following day.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day at the same hour Doodles came and was shown up
+into her room. He had scrupulously avoided any smartness of apparel,
+calculating that a Newmarket costume would be, of all dresses, the
+most efficacious in filling her with an idea of his smartness;
+whereas Archie had probably injured himself much by his polished
+leather boots, and general newness of clothing. Doodles, therefore,
+wore a cut-away coat, a coloured shirt with a fogle round his neck,
+old brown trowsers that fitted very tightly round his legs, and was
+careful to take no gloves with him. He was a man with a small bullet
+head, who wore his hair cut very short, and had no other beard than a
+slight appendage on his lower chin. He certainly did possess a
+considerable look of smartness, and when he would knit his brows and
+nod his head, some men were apt to think that it was not easy to get
+on the soft side of him.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie on this occasion was not arrayed with that becoming negligence
+which had graced her appearance when Captain Clavering had called.
+She knew that a visitor was coming, and the questionably white
+wrapper had been exchanged for an ordinary dress. This was regretted,
+rather than otherwise, by Captain Boodle, who had received from
+Archie a description of the lady's appearance, and who had been
+anxious to see the Spy in her proper and peculiar habiliments. It
+must be remembered that Sophie knew nothing of her present visitor,
+and was altogether unaware that he was in any way connected with
+Captain Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Captain Boddle," she said, looking hard at Doodles, as he
+bowed to her on entering the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Boodle, ma'am; at your service."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Captain Bood-dle; it is English name, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, ma'am, certainly. Altogether English, I believe. Our
+Boodles come out of Warwickshire; small property near
+Leamington,&mdash;doosed small, I'm sorry to say."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him very hard, and was altogether unable to discover
+what was the nature or probable mode of life of the young man before
+her. She had lived much in England, and had known Englishmen of many
+classes, but she could not remember that she had ever become
+conversant with such a one as he who was now before her. Was he a
+gentleman, or might he be a housebreaker? "A doosed small property
+near Leamington," she said, repeating the words after him. "Oh!"</p>
+
+<p>"But my visit to you, ma'am, has nothing to do with that."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing to do with the small property."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing in life."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Captain Bood-dle, what may it have to do with?"</p>
+
+<p>Hereupon Doodles took a chair, not having been invited to go through
+that ceremony. According to the theory created in her mind at the
+instant, this man was not at all like an English captain. Captain is
+an unfortunate title, somewhat equivalent to the foreign
+count,&mdash;unfortunate in this respect, that it is easily adopted by
+many whose claims to it are very slight. Archie Clavering, with his
+polished leather boots, had looked like a captain,&mdash;had come up to
+her idea of a captain,&mdash;but this man! The more she regarded him, the
+stronger in her mind became the idea of the housebreaker.</p>
+
+<p>"My business, ma'am, is of a very delicate nature,&mdash;of a nature very
+delicate indeed. But I think that you and I, who understand the
+world, may soon come to understand each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you understand the world. Very well, sir. Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, ma'am, money is money, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"And a goose is a goose; but what of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; a goose is a goose, and some people are not geese. Nobody,
+ma'am, would think of calling you a goose."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not. It would be so uncivil, even an Englishman would not say
+it. Will you go on?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have the pleasure of knowing Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Knowing who?" said Sophie, almost shrieking.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>During the last day or two Sophie's mind had been concerned very much
+with her dear Julie, but had not been concerned at all with the
+affairs of Captain Clavering, and, therefore, when Lady Ongar's name
+was mentioned, her mind went away altogether to the quarrel, and did
+not once refer itself to the captain. Could it be that this was an
+attorney, and was it possible that Julie would be mean enough to make
+claims upon her? Claims might be made for more than those twenty
+pounds. "And you," she said, "do you know Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not that honour myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you have not; and do you want to be introduced?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly,&mdash;not at present; at some future day I shall hope to
+have the pleasure. But I am right in believing that she and you are
+very intimate? Now what are you going to do for my friend Archie
+Clavering?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh-h-h!" exclaimed Sophie.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. What are you going to do for my friend Archie Clavering?
+Seventy pounds, you know, ma'am, is a smart bit of money!"</p>
+
+<p>"A smart bit of money, is it? That is what you think on your leetle
+property down in Warwickshire."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't my property, ma'am, at all. It belongs to my uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is your uncle that has the leetle property. And what had your
+uncle to do with Lady Ongar? What is your uncle to your friend
+Archie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all, ma'am; nothing on earth."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why do you tell me all this rigmarole about your uncle and his
+leetle property, and Warwickshire? What have I to do with your uncle?
+Sir, I do not understand you,&mdash;not at all. Nor do I know why I have
+the honour to see you here, Captain Bood-dle."</p>
+
+<p>Even Doodles, redoubtable as he was&mdash;even he, with all his smartness,
+felt that he was overcome, and that this woman was too much for him.
+He was altogether perplexed, as he could not perceive whether in all
+her tirade about the little property she had really misunderstood
+him, and had in truth thought that he had been talking about his
+uncle, or whether the whole thing was cunning on her part. The
+reader, perhaps, will have a more correct idea of this lady than
+Captain Boodle had been able to obtain. She had now risen from her
+sofa, and was standing as though she expected him to go; but he had
+not as yet opened the budget of his business.</p>
+
+<p>"I am here, ma'am," said he, "to speak to you about my friend,
+Captain Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can go back to your friend, and tell him I have nothing to
+say. And, more than that, Captain Booddle"&mdash;the woman intensified the
+name in a most disgusting manner, with the evident purpose of
+annoying him; of that he had become quite sure&mdash;"more than that, his
+sending you here is an impertinence. Will you tell him that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, ma'am, I will not."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you are his laquais," continued the inexhaustible Sophie,
+"and are obliged to come when he send you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am no man's laquais, ma'am."</p>
+
+<p>"If so, I do not blame you; or, perhaps, it is your way to make your
+love third or fourth hand down in Warwickshire?"</p>
+
+<p>"Damn Warwickshire!" said Doodles, who was put beyond himself.</p>
+
+<p>"With all my heart. Damn Warwickshire." And the horrid woman grinned
+at him as she repeated his words. "And the leetle property, and the
+uncle, if you wish it; and the leetle nephew,&mdash;and the leetle
+nephew,&mdash;and the leetle nephew!" She stood over him as she repeated
+the last words with wondrous rapidity, and grinned at him, and
+grimaced and shook herself, till Doodles was altogether bewildered.
+If this was a Russian spy he would avoid such in future, and keep
+himself for the milder acerbities of Newmarket, and the easier chaff
+of his club. He looked up into her face at the present moment,
+striving to think of some words by which he might assist himself. He
+had as yet performed no part of his mission, but any such performance
+was now entirely out of the question. The woman had defied him, and
+had altogether thrown Clavering overboard. There was no further
+question of her services, and therefore he felt himself to be quite
+entitled to twit her with the payment she had taken.</p>
+
+<p>"And how about my friend's seventy pounds?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"How about seventy pounds! a leetle man comes here and tells me he is
+a Booddle in Warwickshire, and says he has an uncle with a very
+leetle property, and asks me how about seventy pounds! Suppose I ask
+you how about the policeman, what will you say then?"</p>
+
+<p>"You send for him and you shall hear what I say."</p>
+
+<p>"No; not to take away such a leetle man as you. I send for a
+policeman when I am afraid. Booddle in Warwickshire is not a terrible
+man. Suppose you go to your friend and tell him from me that he have
+chose a very bad Mercury in his affairs of love;&mdash;the worst Mercury I
+ever see. Perhaps the Warwickshire Mercuries are not very good. Can
+you tell me, Captain Booddle, how they make love down in
+Warwickshire?"</p>
+
+<p>"And that is all the satisfaction I am to have?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who said you was to have satisfaction? Very little satisfaction I
+should think you ever have, when you come as a Mercury."</p>
+
+<p>"My friend means to know something about that seventy pounds."</p>
+
+<p>"Seventy pounds! If you talk to me any more of seventy pounds, I will
+fly at your face." As she spoke this she jumped across at him as
+though she were really on the point of attacking him with her nails,
+and he, in dismay, retreated to the door. "You, and your seventy
+pounds! Oh, you English! What mean mens you are! Oh! a Frenchman
+would despise to do it. Yes; or a Russian or a Pole. But you,&mdash;you
+want it all down in black and white, like a butcher's beel. You know
+nothing, and understand nothing, and can never speak, and can never
+hold your tongues. You have no head, but the head of a bull. A bull
+can break all the china in a shop,&mdash;dash, smash, crash,&mdash;all the
+pretty things gone in a minute! So can an Englishman. Your seventy
+pounds! You will come again to me for seventy pounds, I think." In
+her energy she had acted the bull, and had exhibited her idea of the
+dashing, the smashing and the crashing, by the motion of her head and
+the waving of her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"And you decline to say anything about the seventy pounds?" said
+Doodles, resolving that his courage should not desert him.</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon the divine Sophie laughed. "Ha, ha, ha! I see you have not
+got on any gloves, Captain Booddle."</p>
+
+<p>"Gloves; no. I don't wear gloves."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor your uncle with the leetle property in Warwickshire? Captain
+Clavering, he wears a glove. He is a handy man." Doodles stared at
+her, understanding nothing of this. "Perhaps it is in your waistcoat
+pocket," and she approached him fearlessly, as though she were about
+to deprive him of his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you mean," said he, retreating.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you are not a handy man, like my friend the other captain, so
+you had better go away. Yes; you had better go to Warwickshire. In
+Warwickshire, I suppose, they make ready for your Michaelmas dinners.
+You have four months to get fat. Suppose you go away and get fat."</p>
+
+<p>Doodles understood nothing of her sarcasm, but began to perceive that
+he might as well take his departure. The woman was probably a
+lunatic, and his friend Archie had no doubt been grossly deceived
+when he was sent to her for assistance. He had some faint idea that
+the seventy pounds might be recovered from such a madwoman; but in
+the recovery his friend would be exposed, and he saw that the money
+must be abandoned. At any rate, he had not been soft enough to
+dispose of any more treasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, ma'am," he said, very curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning to you, Captain Booddle. Are you coming again another
+day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I know of, ma'am."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very welcome to stay away. I like your friend the better.
+Tell him to come and be handy with his glove. As for you,&mdash;suppose
+you go to the leetle property."</p>
+
+<p>Then Captain Boodle went, and, as soon as he had made his way out
+into the open street, stood still and looked around him, that by the
+aspect of things familiar to his eyes he might be made certain that
+he was in a world with which he was conversant. While in that room
+with the Spy he had ceased to remember that he was in London,&mdash;his
+own London, within a mile of his club, within a mile of Tattersall's.
+He had been, as it were, removed to some strange world in which the
+tact, and courage, and acuteness natural to him had not been of avail
+to him. Madame Gordeloup had opened a new world to him,&mdash;a new world
+of which he desired to make no further experience. Gradually he began
+to understand why he had been desired to prepare himself for
+Michaelmas eating. Gradually some idea about Archie's glove glimmered
+across his brain. A wonderful woman certainly was the Russian spy,&mdash;a
+phenomenon which in future years he might perhaps be glad to remember
+that he had seen in the flesh. The first race-horse which he might
+ever own and name himself he would certainly call the Russian spy. In
+the meantime, as he slowly walked across Berkeley Square, he
+acknowledged to himself that she was not mad, and acknowledged also
+that the less said about that seventy pounds the better. From thence
+he crossed Piccadilly, and sauntered down St. James's Street into
+Pall Mall, revolving in his mind how he would carry himself with
+Clavvy. He, at any rate, had his ground for triumph. He had parted
+with no money, and had ascertained by his own wit that no available
+assistance from that quarter was to be had in the matter which his
+friend had in hand.</p>
+
+<p>It was some hours after this when the two friends met, and at that
+time Doodles was up to his eyes in chalk and the profitable delights
+of pool. But Archie was too intent on his business to pay much regard
+to his friend's proper avocation. "Well, Doodles," he said, hardly
+waiting till his ambassador had finished his stroke and laid his ball
+close waxed to one of the cushions. "Well; have you seen her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I've seen her," said Doodles, seating himself on an exalted
+bench which ran round the room, while Archie, with anxious eyes,
+stood before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a rum 'un. Thank 'ee, Griggs; you always stand to me like a
+brick." This was said to a young lieutenant who had failed to hit the
+captain's ball, and now tendered him a shilling with a very bitter
+look.</p>
+
+<p>"She is queer," said Archie,&mdash;"certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Queer! By George, I'll back her for the queerest bit of horseflesh
+going any way about these diggings. I thought she was mad at first,
+but I believe she knows what she's about."</p>
+
+<p>"She knows what she's about well enough. She's worth all the money if
+you can only get her to work."</p>
+
+<p>"Bosh, my dear fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Why bosh? What's up now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bosh! Bosh! Bosh! Me to play, is it?" Down he went, and not finding
+a good open for a hazard, again waxed himself to the cushion, to the
+infinite disgust of Griggs, who did indeed hit the ball this time,
+but in such a way as to make the loss of another life from Griggs'
+original three a matter of certainty. "I don't think it's hardly
+fair," whispered Griggs to a friend, "a man playing always for
+safety. It's not the game I like, and I shan't play at the same table
+with Doodles any more."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all bosh," repeated Doodles, coming back to his seat. "She
+don't mean to do anything, and never did. I've found her out."</p>
+
+<p>"Found out what?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's been laughing at you. She got your money out from under your
+glove, didn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I did put it there."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you did. I knew that I should find out what was what if I
+once went there. I got it all out of her. But, by George, what a
+woman she is! She swore at me to my very face."</p>
+
+<p>"Swore at you! In French you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; not in French at all, but damned me in downright English. By
+George, how I did laugh!&mdash;me and everybody belonging to me. I'm
+blessed if she didn't."</p>
+
+<p>"There was nothing like that about her when I saw her."</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't turn her inside out as I've done; but stop half a
+moment." Then he descended, chalked away at his cue hastily, pocketed
+a shilling or two, and returned. "You didn't turn her inside out as
+I've done. I tell you, Clavvy, there's nothing to be done there, and
+there never was. If you'd kept on going yourself she'd have drained
+you as dry,&mdash;as dry as that table. There's your thirty pounds back,
+and, upon my word, old fellow, you ought to thank me."</p>
+
+<p>Archie did thank him, and Doodles was not without his triumph. Of the
+frequent references to Warwickshire which he had been forced to
+endure, he said nothing, nor yet of the reference to Michaelmas
+dinners; and, gradually, as he came to talk frequently to Archie of
+the Russian spy, and perhaps also to one or two others of his more
+intimate friends, he began to convince himself that he really had
+wormed the truth out of Madame Gordeloup, and got altogether the
+better of that lady, in a very wonderful way.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c31"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXI.</h3>
+<h4>HARRY CLAVERING'S CONFESSION.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill31-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="H" />arry Clavering,
+when he went away from Onslow Crescent, after his
+interview with Cecilia Burton, was a wretched, pitiable man. He had
+told the truth of himself, as far as he was able to tell it, to a
+woman whom he thoroughly esteemed, and having done so was convinced
+that she could no longer entertain any respect for him. He had laid
+bare to her all his weakness, and for a moment she had spurned him.
+It was true that she had again reconciled herself to him, struggling
+to save both him and her sister from future misery,&mdash;that she had
+even condescended to implore him to be gracious to Florence, taking
+that which to her mind seemed then to be the surest path to her
+object; but not the less did he feel that she must despise him.
+Having promised his hand to one woman,&mdash;to a woman whom he still
+professed that he loved dearly,&mdash;he had allowed himself to be cheated
+into offering it to another. And he knew that the cheating had been
+his own. It was he who had done the evil. Julia, in showing her
+affection for him, had tendered her love to a man whom she believed
+to be free. He had intended to walk straight. He had not allowed
+himself to be enamoured of the wealth possessed by this woman who had
+thrown herself at his feet. But he had been so weak that he had
+fallen in his own despite.</p>
+
+<p>There is, I suppose, no young man possessed of average talents and
+average education, who does not early in life lay out for himself
+some career with more or less precision,&mdash;some career which is high
+in its tendencies and noble in its aspirations, and to which he is
+afterwards compelled to compare the circumstances of the life which
+he shapes for himself. In doing this he may not attempt, perhaps, to
+lay down for himself any prescribed amount of success which he will
+endeavour to reach, or even the very pathway by which he will strive
+to be successful; but he will tell himself what are the vices which
+he will avoid, and what the virtues which he will strive to attain.
+Few young men ever did this with more precision than it had been done
+by Harry Clavering, and few with more self-confidence. Very early in
+life he had been successful,&mdash;so successful as to enable him to
+emancipate himself not only from his father's absolute control, but
+almost also from any interference on his father's part. It had seemed
+to be admitted that he was a better man than his father, better than
+the other Claverings,&mdash;the jewel of the race, the Clavering to whom
+the family would in future years look up, not as their actual head,
+but as their strongest prop and most assured support. He had said to
+himself that he would be an honest, truthful, hard-working man, not
+covetous after money, though conscious that a labourer was worthy of
+his hire, and conscious also that the better the work done the better
+should be his wages. Then he had encountered a blow,&mdash;a heavy blow
+from a false woman,&mdash;and he had boasted to himself that he had borne
+it well, as a man should bear all blows. And now, after all these
+resolves and all these boastings, he found himself brought by his own
+weakness to such a pass that he hardly dared to look in the face any
+of his dearest and most intimate friends.</p>
+
+<p>He was not remiss in telling himself all this. He did draw the
+comparison ruthlessly between the character which he had intended to
+make his own and that which he now had justly earned. He did not
+excuse himself. We are told to love others as ourselves, and it is
+hard to do so. But I think that we never hate others, never despise
+others, as we are sometimes compelled by our own convictions and
+self-judgment to hate and to despise ourselves. Harry, as he walked
+home on this evening, was lost in disgust at his own conduct. He
+could almost have hit his head against the walls, or thrown himself
+beneath the waggons as he passed them, so thoroughly was he ashamed
+of his own life. Even now, on this evening, he had escaped from
+Onslow Crescent,&mdash;basely escaped,&mdash;without having declared any
+purpose. Twice on this day he had escaped, almost by subterfuges;
+once from Burton's office, and now again from Cecilia's presence. How
+long was this to go on, or how could life be endurable to him under
+such circumstances?</p>
+
+<p>In parting from Cecilia, and promising to write at once, and
+promising to come again in a few days, he had had some idea in his
+head that he would submit his fate to the arbitrament of Lady Ongar.
+At any rate he must, he thought, see her, and finally arrange with
+her what the fate of both of them should be, before he could make any
+definite statement of his purpose in Onslow Crescent. The last tender
+of his hand had been made to Julia, and he could not renew his former
+promises on Florence's behalf, till he had been absolved by Julia.</p>
+
+<p>This may at any rate be pleaded on his behalf,&mdash;that in all the
+workings of his mind at this time there was very little of personal
+vanity. Very personally vain he had been when Julia Brabazon,&mdash;the
+beautiful and noble-born Julia,&mdash;had first confessed at Clavering
+that she loved him; but that vanity had been speedily knocked on its
+head by her conduct to him. Men when they are jilted can hardly be
+vain of the conquest which has led to such a result. Since that there
+had been no vanity of that sort. His love to Florence had been open,
+honest, and satisfactory, but he had not considered himself to have
+achieved a wonderful triumph at Stratton. And when he found that Lord
+Ongar's widow still loved him,&mdash;that he was still regarded with
+affection by the woman who had formerly wounded him,&mdash;there was too
+much of pain, almost of tragedy, in his position, to admit of vanity.
+He would say to himself that, as far as he knew his own heart, he
+thought he loved Julia the best; but, nevertheless, he thoroughly
+wished that she had not returned from Italy, or that he had not seen
+her when she had so returned.</p>
+
+<p>He had promised to write, and that he would do this very night. He
+had failed to make Cecilia Burton understand what he intended to do,
+having, indeed, hardly himself resolved; but before he went to bed he
+would both resolve and explain to her his resolution. Immediately,
+therefore, on his return home he sat down at his desk with the pen in
+his hand and the paper before him.</p>
+
+<p>At last the words came. I can hardly say that they were the product
+of any fixed resolve made before he commenced the writing. I think
+that his mind worked more fully when the pen was in his hands than it
+had done during the hour through which he sat listless, doing
+nothing, struggling to have a will of his own, but failing. The
+letter when it was written was as
+<span class="nowrap">follows:&mdash;</span><br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="jright">Bloomsbury Square, May, 186&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">Dearest
+Mrs. Burton</span>,&mdash;I said that I would write to-morrow,
+but I am writing now, immediately on my return home.
+Whatever else you may think of me, pray be sure of this,
+that I am most anxious to make you know and understand my
+own position at any rate as well as I do myself. I tried
+to explain it to you when I was with you this evening, but
+I fear that I failed; and when Mr. Burton came in I could
+not say anything further.</p>
+
+<p>I know that I have behaved very badly to your
+sister,&mdash;very badly, even though she should never become
+aware that I have done so. Not that that is possible, for
+if she were to be my wife to-morrow I should tell her
+everything. But badly as you must think of me, I have
+never for a moment had a premeditated intention to deceive
+her. I believe you do know on what terms I had stood with
+Miss Brabazon before her marriage, and that when she
+married, whatever my feelings might be, there was no
+self-accusation. And after that you know all that took
+place between me and Florence till the return of Lord
+Ongar's widow. Up to that time everything had been fair
+between us. I had told Florence of my former attachment,
+and she probably thought but little of it. Such things are
+so common with men! Some change happens as had happened
+with me, and a man's second love is often stronger and
+more worthy of a woman's acceptance than the first. At any
+rate, she knew it, and there was, so far, an end of it.
+And you understood, also, how very anxious I was to avoid
+delay in our marriage. No one knows that better than
+you,&mdash;not even Florence,&mdash;for I have talked it over with
+you so often; and you will remember how I have begged you
+to assist me. I don't blame my darling Florence. She was
+doing what she deemed best; but oh, if she had only been
+guided by what you once said to her!</p>
+
+<p>Then Lord Ongar's widow returned; and dear Mrs. Burton,
+though I fear you think ill of her, you must remember that
+as far as you know, or I, she has done nothing wrong, has
+been in no respect false, since her marriage. As to her
+early conduct to me, she did what many women have done,
+but what no woman should do. But how can I blame her,
+knowing how terrible has been my own weakness! But as to
+her conduct since her marriage, I implore you to believe
+with me that she has been sinned against grievously, and
+has not sinned. Well; as you know, I met her. It was
+hardly unnatural that I should do so, as we are connected.
+But whether natural or unnatural, foolish or wise, I went
+to her often. I thought at first that she must know of my
+engagement as her sister knew it well, and had met
+Florence. But she did not know it; and so, having none
+near her that she could love, hardly a friend but myself,
+grievously wronged by the world and her own relatives,
+thinking that with her wealth she could make some amends
+to me for her former injury,
+<span class="nowrap">she&mdash;.</span> Dear Mrs. Burton, I
+think you will understand it now, and will see that she at
+least is free from blame.</p>
+
+<p>I am not defending myself; of course all this should have
+been without effect on me. But I had loved her so dearly!
+I do love her still so dearly! Love like that does not
+die. When she left me it was natural that I should seek
+some one else to love. When she returned to me,&mdash;when I
+found that in spite of her faults she had loved me through
+it all, I&mdash;I yielded and became false and a traitor.</p>
+
+<p>I say that I love her still; but I know well that Florence
+is far the nobler woman of the two. Florence never could
+have done what she did. In nature, in mind, in
+acquirement, in heart, Florence is the better. The man who
+marries Florence must be happy if any woman can make a man
+happy. Of her of whom I am now speaking, I know well that
+I cannot say that. How then, you will ask, can I be fool
+enough, having had such a choice, to doubt between the
+two! How is it that man doubts between vice and virtue,
+between honour and dishonour, between heaven and hell?</p>
+
+<p>But all this is nothing to you. I do not know whether
+Florence would take me now. I am well aware that I have no
+right to expect that she should. But if I understood you
+aright this evening, she, as yet, has heard nothing of all
+this. What must she think of me for not writing to her!
+But I could not bring myself to write in a false spirit;
+and how could I tell her all that I have now told to you?</p>
+
+<p>I know that you wish that our engagement should go on.
+Dear Mrs. Burton, I love you so dearly for wishing it! Mr.
+Burton, when he shall have heard everything, will, I fear,
+think differently. For me, I feel that I must see Lady
+Ongar before I can again go to your house, and I write now
+chiefly to tell you that this is what I have determined to
+do. I believe she is now away, in the Isle of Wight, but I
+will see her as soon as she returns. After that I will
+either come to Onslow Crescent or send. Florence will be
+with you then. She of course must know everything, and you
+have my permission to show this letter to her if you think
+well to do so.&mdash;Most sincerely and affectionately yours,</p>
+
+<p class="ind12"><span class="smallcaps">Harry
+Clavering</span>.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>This he delivered himself the next morning at the door in Onslow
+Crescent, taking care not to be there till after Theodore Burton
+should have gone from home. He left a card also, so that it might be
+known, not only that he had brought it himself, but that he had
+intended Mrs. Burton to be aware of that fact. Then he went and
+wandered about, and passed his day in misery, as such men do when
+they are thoroughly discontented with their own conduct. This was the
+Saturday on which Lady Ongar returned with her Sophie from the Isle
+of Wight; but of that premature return Harry knew nothing, and
+therefore allowed the Sunday to pass by without going to Bolton
+Street. On the Monday morning he received a letter from home which
+made it necessary,&mdash;or induced him to suppose it to be necessary,
+that he should go home to Clavering, at any rate for one day. This he
+did on the Monday, sending a line to Mrs. Burton to say whither he
+was gone, and that he should be back by Wednesday night or Thursday
+morning,&mdash;and imploring her to give his love to Florence, if she
+would venture to do so. Mrs. Burton would know what must be his first
+business in London on his return, and she might be sure he would come
+or send to Onslow Crescent as soon as that was over.</p>
+
+<p>Harry's letter,&mdash;the former and longer letter, Cecilia had read over,
+till she nearly knew it by heart, before her husband's return. She
+well understood that he would be very hard upon Harry. He had been
+inclined to forgive Clavering for what had been remiss,&mdash;to forgive
+the silence, the absence from the office, and the want of courtesy to
+his wife, till Harry had confessed his sin;&mdash;but he could not endure
+that his sister should seek the hand of a man who had declared
+himself to be in doubt whether he would take it, or that any one
+should seek it for her, in her ignorance of all the truth. His wife,
+on the other hand, simply looked to Florence's comfort and happiness.
+That Florence should not suffer the pang of having been deceived and
+rejected was all in all to Cecilia. "Of course she must know it some
+day," the wife had pleaded to her husband. "He is not the man to keep
+anything secret. But if she is told when he has returned to her, and
+is good to her, the happiness of the return will cure the other
+misery." But Burton would not submit to this. "To be comfortable at
+present is not everything," he said. "If the man be so miserably weak
+that he does not even now know his own mind, Florence had better take
+her punishment, and be quit of him."</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia had narrated to him with passable fidelity what had occurred
+upstairs, while he was sitting alone in the dining-room. That she, in
+her anger, had at one moment spurned Harry Clavering, and that in the
+next she had knelt to him, imploring him to come back to
+Florence,&mdash;those two little incidents she did not tell to her
+husband. Harry's adventures with Lady Ongar, as far as she knew them,
+she described accurately. "I can't make any apology for him; upon my
+life I can't," said Burton. "If I know what it is for a man to behave
+ill, falsely, like a knave in such matters, he is so behaving." So
+Theodore Burton spoke as he took his candle to go away to his work;
+but his wife had induced him to promise that he would not write to
+Stratton or take any other step in the matter till they had waited
+twenty-four hours for Harry's promised letter.</p>
+
+<p>The letter came before the twenty-four hours were expired, and
+Burton, on his return home on the Saturday, found himself called upon
+to read and pass judgment upon Harry's confession. "What right has he
+to speak of her as his darling Florence," he exclaimed, "while he is
+confessing his own knavery?"</p>
+
+<p>"But if she is his darling&mdash;?" pleaded his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Trash! But the word from him in such a letter is simply an
+additional insult. And what does he know about this woman who has
+come back? He vouches for her, but what can he know of her? Just what
+she tells him. He is simply a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"But you cannot dislike him for believing her word."</p>
+
+<p>"Cecilia," said he, holding down the letter as he spoke,&mdash;"you are so
+carried away by your love for Florence, and your fear lest a marriage
+which has been once talked of should not take place, that you shut
+your eyes to this man's true character. Can you believe any good of a
+man who tells you to your face that he is engaged to two women at
+once?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can," said Cecilia, hardly venturing to express so
+dangerous an opinion above her breath.</p>
+
+<p>"And what would you think of a woman who did so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is so different! I cannot explain it, but you know that it
+is different."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that you would forgive a man anything, and a woman nothing."
+To this she submitted in silence, having probably heard the reproof
+before, and he went on to finish the letter. "Not defending himself!"
+he exclaimed,&mdash;"then why does he not defend himself? When a man tells
+me that he does not, or cannot defend himself, I know that he is a
+sorry fellow, without a spark of spirit."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think that of Harry. Surely that letter shows a spirit."</p>
+
+<p>"Such a one as I should be ashamed to see in a dog. No man should
+ever be in a position in which he cannot defend himself. No man, at
+any rate, should admit himself to be so placed. Wish that he should
+go on with his engagement! I do not wish it at all. I am sorry for
+Florence. She will suffer terribly. But the loss of such a lover as
+that is infinitely a lesser loss than would be the gain of such a
+husband. You had better write to Florence, and tell her not to come."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Theodore!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is my advice."</p>
+
+<p>"But there is no post between this and Monday," said Cecilia
+temporizing.</p>
+
+<p>"Send her a message by the wires."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot explain this by a telegram, Theodore. Besides, why should
+she not come? Her coming can do no harm. If you were to tell your
+mother now of all this, it would prevent the possibility of things
+ever being right."</p>
+
+<p>"Things,&mdash;that is, this thing, never will be right," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"But let us see. She will be here on Monday, and if you think it best
+you can tell her everything. Indeed, she must be told when she is
+here, for I could not keep it from her. I could not smile and talk to
+her about him and make her think that it is all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Not you! I should be very sorry if you could."</p>
+
+<p>"But I think I could make her understand that she should not decide
+upon breaking with him altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"And I think I could make her understand that she ought to do so."</p>
+
+<p>"But you wouldn't do that, Theodore?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would if I thought it my duty."</p>
+
+<p>"But at any rate, she must come, and we can talk of that to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>As to Florence's coming, Burton had given way, beaten, apparently, by
+that argument about the post. On the Sunday very little was said
+about Harry Clavering. Cecilia studiously avoided the subject, and
+Burton had not so far decided on dropping Harry altogether, as to
+make him anxious to express any such decision. After all, such
+dropping or not dropping must be the work of Florence herself. On the
+Monday morning Cecilia had a further triumph. On that day her husband
+was very fully engaged,&mdash;having to meet a synod of contractors,
+surveyors, and engineers, to discuss which of the remaining
+thoroughfares of London should not be knocked down by the coming
+railways,&mdash;and he could not absent himself from the Adelphi. It was,
+therefore, arranged that Mrs. Burton should go to the Paddington
+Station to meet her sister-in-law. She therefore would have the first
+word with Florence, and the earliest opportunity of impressing the
+new-comer with her own ideas. "Of course, you must say something to
+her of this man," said her husband, "but the less you say the better.
+After all she must be left to judge for herself." In all matters such
+as this,&mdash;in all affairs of tact, of social intercourse, and of
+conduct between man and man, or man and woman, Mr. Burton was apt to
+be eloquent in his domestic discussion, and sometimes almost
+severe;&mdash;but the final arrangement of them was generally left to his
+wife. He enunciated principles of strategy,&mdash;much, no doubt, to her
+benefit; but she actually fought the battles.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c32"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXII.</h3>
+<h4>FLORENCE BURTON PACKS UP A PACKET.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Though nobody had expressed to Florence at Stratton any fear of Harry
+Clavering's perfidy, that young lady was not altogether easy in her
+mind. Weeks and weeks had passed, and she had not heard from him. Her
+mother was manifestly uneasy, and had announced some days before
+Florence's departure, her surprise and annoyance in not having heard
+from her eldest son. When Florence inquired as to the subject of the
+expected letter, her mother put the question aside, saying, with a
+little assumed irritability, that of course she liked to get an
+answer to her letters when she took the trouble to write them. And
+when the day for Florence's journey drew nigh, the old lady became
+more and more uneasy,&mdash;showing plainly that she wished her daughter
+was not going to London. But Florence, as she was quite determined to
+go, said nothing to all this. Her father also was uneasy, and neither
+of them had for some days named her lover in her hearing. She knew
+that there was something wrong, and felt that it was better that she
+should go to London and learn the truth.</p>
+
+<p>No female heart was ever less prone to suspicion than the heart of
+Florence Burton. Among those with whom she had been most intimate
+nothing had occurred to teach her that men could be false, or women
+either. When she had heard from Harry Clavering the story of Julia
+Brabazon, she had, not making much accusation against the sinner in
+speech, put Julia down in the books of her mind as a bold, bad woman
+who could forget her sex, and sell her beauty and her womanhood for
+money. There might be such a woman here and there, or such a man.
+There were murderers in the world,&mdash;but the bulk of mankind is not
+made subject to murderers. Florence had never considered the
+possibility that she herself could become liable to such a
+misfortune. And then, when the day came that she was engaged, her
+confidence in the man chosen by her was unlimited. Such love as hers
+rarely suspects. He with whom she had to do was Harry Clavering, and
+therefore she could not be deceived. Moreover she was supported by a
+self-respect and a self-confidence which did not at first allow her
+to dream that a man who had once loved her would ever wish to leave
+her. It was to her as though a sacrament as holy as that of the
+church had passed between them, and she could not easily bring
+herself to think that that sacrament had been as nothing to Harry
+Clavering. But nevertheless there was something wrong, and when she
+left her father's house at Stratton, she was well aware that she must
+prepare herself for tidings that might be evil. She could bear
+anything, she thought, without disgracing herself; but there were
+tidings which might send her back to Stratton a broken woman, fit
+perhaps to comfort the declining years of her father and mother, but
+fit for nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother watched her closely as she sat at her breakfast that
+morning, but much could not be gained by watching Florence Burton
+when Florence wished to conceal her thoughts. Many messages were sent
+to Theodore, to Cecilia, and to the children, messages to others of
+the Burton clan who were in town, but not a word was said of Harry
+Clavering. The very absence of his name was enough to make them all
+wretched, but Florence bore it as the Spartan boy bore the fox
+beneath his tunic. Mrs. Burton could hardly keep herself from a burst
+of indignation; but she had been strongly warned by her husband, and
+restrained herself till Florence was gone. "If he is playing her
+false," said she, as soon as she was alone with her old husband, "he
+shall suffer for it, though I have to tear his face with my own
+fingers."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, my dear; nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not nonsense, Mr. Burton. A gentleman, indeed! He is to be
+allowed to be dishonest to my girl because he is a gentleman! I wish
+there was no such thing as a gentleman;&mdash;so I do. Perhaps there would
+be more honest men then." It was unendurable to her that a girl of
+hers should be so treated.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately on the arrival of the train at the London platform,
+Florence espied Cecilia, and in a minute was in her arms. There was a
+special tenderness in her sister-in-law's caress, which at once told
+Florence that her fears had not been without cause. Who has not felt
+the evil tidings conveyed by the exaggerated tenderness of a special
+kiss? But while on the platform and among the porters she said
+nothing of herself. She asked after Theodore and heard of the railway
+confederacy with a shew of delight. "He'd like to make a line from
+Hyde Park Corner to the Tower of London," said Florence, with a
+smile. Then she asked after the children, and specially for the baby;
+but as yet she spoke no word of Harry Clavering. The trunk and the
+bag were at last found; and the two ladies were packed into a cab,
+and had started. Cecilia, when they were seated, got hold of
+Florence's hand, and pressed it warmly. "Dearest," she said, "I am so
+glad to have you with us once again." "And now," said Florence,
+speaking with a calmness that was almost unnatural, "tell me all the
+truth."</p>
+
+<p>All the truth! What a demand it was. And yet Cecilia had expected
+that none less would be made upon her. Of course Florence must have
+known that there was something wrong. Of course she would ask as to
+her lover immediately upon her arrival. "And now tell me all the
+truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Florence!"</p>
+
+<p>"The truth, then, is very bad?" said Florence, gently. "Tell me first
+of all whether you have seen him. Is he ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was with us on Friday. He is not ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God for that. Has anything happened to him? Has he lost
+money?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I have heard nothing about money."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he is tired of me. Tell me at once, my own one. You know me so
+well. You know I can bear it. Don't treat me as though I were a
+coward."</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is not that. It is not that he is tired of you. If you had
+heard him speak of you on Friday,&mdash;that you were the noblest, purest,
+dearest, best of
+<span class="nowrap">women&mdash;"</span>
+This was imprudent on her part; but what
+loving woman could at such a moment have endured to be prudent?</p>
+
+<p>"Then what is it?" asked Florence, almost sternly. "Look here,
+Cecilia; if it be anything touching himself or his own character, I
+will put up with it, in spite of anything my brother may say. Though
+he had been a murderer, if that were possible, I would not leave him.
+I will never leave him unless he leaves me. Where is he now, at this
+moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is in town." Mrs. Burton had not received Harry's note, telling
+her of his journey to Clavering, before she had left home. Now at
+this moment it was waiting for her in Onslow Crescent.</p>
+
+<p>"And am I to see him? Cecilia, why cannot you tell me how it is? In
+such a case I should tell you,&mdash;should tell you everything at once;
+because I know that you are not a coward. Why cannot you do so to
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard of Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Heard of her;&mdash;yes. She treated Harry very badly before her
+marriage."</p>
+
+<p>"She has come back to London, a widow."</p>
+
+<p>"I know she has. And Harry has gone back to her! Is that it? Do you
+mean to tell me that Harry and Lady Ongar are to be married?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I cannot say that. I hope it is not so. Indeed, I do not think
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what have I to fear? Does she object to his marrying me? What
+has she to do between us?"</p>
+
+<p>"She wishes that Harry should come back to her, and Harry has been
+unsteady. He has been with her often; and he has been very weak. It
+may be all right yet, Flo; it may indeed,&mdash;if you can forgive his
+weakness."</p>
+
+<p>Something of the truth had now come home to Florence, and she sat
+thinking of it long before she spoke again. This widow, she knew, was
+very wealthy, and Harry had loved her before he had come to Stratton.
+Harry's first love had come back free,&mdash;free to wed again, and able
+to make the fortune of the man she might love and marry. What had
+Florence to give to any man that could be weighed with this? Lady
+Ongar was very rich. Florence had already heard all this from
+Harry,&mdash;was very rich, was clever, and was beautiful; and moreover
+she had been Harry's first love. Was it reasonable that she with her
+little claims, her puny attractions, should stand in Harry's way when
+such a prize as that came across him! And as for his weakness;&mdash;might
+it not be strength, rather than weakness;&mdash;the strength of an old
+love which he could not quell, now that the woman was free to take
+him? For herself,&mdash;had she not known that she had only come second?
+As she thought of him with his noble bride and that bride's great
+fortune, and of her own insignificance, her low birth, her doubtful
+prettiness,&mdash;prettiness that had ever been doubtful to herself, of
+her few advantages, she told herself that she had no right to stand
+upon her claims. "I wish I had known it sooner," she said, in a voice
+so soft that Cecilia strained her ears to catch the words. "I wish I
+had known it sooner. I would not have come up to be in his way."</p>
+
+<p>"But you will be in no one's way, Flo, unless it be in hers."</p>
+
+<p>"And I will not be in hers," said Florence, speaking somewhat louder,
+and raising her head in pride as she spoke. "I will be neither in
+hers nor in his. I think I will go back at once."</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia upon this, ventured to look round at her, and saw that she
+was very pale, but that her eyes were dry and her lips pressed close
+together. It had not occurred to Mrs. Burton that her sister-in-law
+would take it in this way,&mdash;that she would express herself as being
+willing to give way, and that she would at once surrender her lover
+to her rival. The married woman, she who was already happy with a
+husband, having enlisted all her sympathies on the side of a marriage
+between Florence and Harry Clavering, could by no means bring herself
+to agree to this view. No one liked success better than Cecilia
+Burton, and to her success would consist in rescuing Harry from Lady
+Ongar and securing him for Florence. In fighting this battle she had
+found that she would have against her Lady Ongar&mdash;of course, and then
+her husband, and Harry himself too, as she feared; and now also she
+must reckon Florence also among her opponents. But she could not
+endure the idea of failing in such a cause. "Oh, Florence, I think
+you are so wrong," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You would feel as I do, if you were in my place."</p>
+
+<p>"But people cannot always judge best when they feel the most. What
+you should think of is his happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"So I do;&mdash;and of his future career."</p>
+
+<p>"Career! I hate to hear of careers. Men do not want careers, or
+should not want them. Could it be good for him to marry a woman who
+has been false&mdash;who has done as she has, simply because she has made
+herself rich by her wickedness? Do you believe so much in riches
+yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"If he loves her best, I will not blame him," said Florence. "He knew
+her before he had seen me. He was quite honest and told me all the
+story. It is not his fault if he still likes her the best."</p>
+
+<p>When they reached Onslow Crescent, the first half-hour was spent with
+the children, as to whom Florence could not but observe that even
+from their mouths the name of Harry Clavering was banished. But she
+played with Cissy and Sophie, giving them their little presents from
+Stratton; and sat with the baby in her lap, kissing his pink feet and
+making little soft noises for his behoof, sweetly as she might have
+done if no terrible crisis in her own life had now come upon her. Not
+a tear as yet had moistened her eyes, and Cecilia was partly aware
+that Florence's weeping would be done in secret. "Come up with me
+into my own room;&mdash;I have something to show you," she said, as the
+nurse took the baby at last; and Cissy and Sophie were at the same
+time sent away with their brother. "As I came in I got a note from
+Harry, but, before you see that, I must show you the letter which he
+wrote to me on Friday. He has gone down to Clavering,&mdash;on some
+business,&mdash;for one day." Mrs. Burton, in her heart, could hardly
+acquit him of having run out of town at the moment to avoid the
+arrival of Florence.</p>
+
+<p>They went upstairs, and the note was, in fact, read before the
+letter. "I hope there is nothing wrong at the parsonage," said
+Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"You see he says he will be back after one day."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he has gone to tell them,&mdash;of this change in his prospects."</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear, no; you do not yet understand his feelings. Read his
+letter, and you will know more. If there is to be a change, he is at
+any rate too much ashamed of it to speak of it. He does not wish it
+himself. It is simply this,&mdash;that she has thrown herself in his way,
+and he has not known how to avoid her."</p>
+
+<p>Then Florence read the letter very slowly, going over most of the
+sentences more than once, and struggling to learn from them what were
+really the wishes of the writer. When she came to Harry's exculpation
+of Lady Ongar, she believed it thoroughly, and said so,&mdash;meeting,
+however, a direct contradiction on that point from her sister-in-law.
+When she had finished it, she folded it up and gave it back. "Cissy,"
+she said, "I know that I ought to go back. I do not want to see him,
+and I am glad that he has gone away."</p>
+
+<p>"But you do not mean to give him up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dearest."</p>
+
+<p>"But you said you would never leave him, unless he left you."</p>
+
+<p>"He has left me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Florence; not so. Do you not see what he says;&mdash;that he knows
+you are the only woman that can make him happy?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has not said that; but if he had, it would make no matter. He
+understands well how it is. He says that I could not take him
+now,&mdash;even if he came to me; and I cannot. How could I? What! wish to
+marry a man who does not love me, who loves another, when I know that
+I am regarded simply as a barrier between them; when by doing so I
+should mar his fortunes? Cissy, dear, when you think of it, you will
+not wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"Mar his fortunes! It would make them. I do wish it,&mdash;and he wishes
+it too. I tell you that I had him here, and I know it. Why should you
+be sacrificed?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is the meaning of self-denial, if no one can bear to suffer?"</p>
+
+<p>"But he will suffer too,&mdash;and all for her caprices! You cannot really
+think that her money would do him any good. Who would ever speak to
+him again, or even see him? What would the world say of him? Why, his
+own father and mother and sisters would disown him, if they are such
+as you say they are."</p>
+
+<p>Florence would not argue it further, but went to her room, and
+remained there alone till Cecilia came to tell her that her brother
+had returned. What weeping there may have been there, need not be
+told. Indeed, as I think, there was not much, for Florence was a girl
+whose education had not brought her into the way of hysterical
+sensations. The Burtons were an active, energetic people who
+sympathized with each other in labour and success,&mdash;and in endurance
+also; but who had little sympathy to express for the weaknesses of
+grief. When her children had stumbled in their play, bruising their
+little noses, and barking their little shins, Mrs. Burton, the elder,
+had been wont to bid them rise, asking them what their legs were for,
+if they could not stand. So they had dried their own little eyes with
+their own little fists, and had learned to understand that the rubs
+of the world were to be borne in silence. This rub that had come to
+Florence was of grave import, and had gone deeper than the outward
+skin; but still the old lesson had its effect.</p>
+
+<p>Florence rose from the bed on which she was lying, and prepared to
+come down. "Do not commit yourself to him, as to anything," said
+Cecilia.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand what that means," Florence answered. "He thinks as I
+do. But never mind. He will not say much, and I shall say less. It is
+bad to talk of this to any man,&mdash;even to a brother."</p>
+
+<p>Burton also received his sister with that exceptional affection which
+declares pity for some overwhelming misfortune. He kissed her lips,
+which was rare with him, for he would generally but just touch her
+forehead, and he put his hand behind her waist and partly embraced
+her. "Did Cissy manage to find you at the station?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes;&mdash;easily."</p>
+
+<p>"Theodore thinks that a woman is no good for any such purpose as
+that," said Cecilia. "It is a wonder to him, no doubt, that we are
+not now wandering about London in search of each other,&mdash;and of him."</p>
+
+<p>"I think she would have got home quicker if I could have been there,"
+said Burton.</p>
+
+<p>"We were in a cab in one minute;&mdash;weren't we, Florence? The
+difference would have been that you would have given a porter
+sixpence,&mdash;and I gave him a shilling, having bespoken him before."</p>
+
+<p>"And Theodore's time was worth the sixpence, I suppose," said
+Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"That depends," said Cecilia. "How did the synod go on?"</p>
+
+<p>"The synod made an ass of itself;&mdash;as synods always do. It is
+necessary to get a lot of men together, for the show of the
+thing,&mdash;otherwise the world will not believe. That is the meaning of
+committees. But the real work must always be done by one or two men.
+Come;&mdash;I'll go and get ready for dinner."</p>
+
+<p>The subject,&mdash;the one real subject, had thus been altogether avoided
+at this first meeting with the man of the house, and the evening
+passed without any allusion to it. Much was made of the children, and
+much was said of the old people at home; but still there was a
+consciousness over them all that the one matter of importance was
+being kept in the background. They were all thinking of Harry
+Clavering, but no one mentioned his name. They all knew that they
+were unhappy and heavy-hearted through his fault, but no one blamed
+him. He had been received in that house with open arms, had been
+warmed in their bosom, and had stung them; but though they were all
+smarting from the sting, they uttered no complaint. Burton had made
+up his mind that it would be better to pass over the matter thus in
+silence,&mdash;to say nothing further of Harry Clavering. A misfortune had
+come upon them. They must bear it, and go on as before. Harry had
+been admitted into the London office on the footing of a paid
+clerk,&mdash;on the same footing, indeed, as Burton himself, though with a
+much smaller salary and inferior work. This position had been
+accorded to him of course through the Burton interest, and it was
+understood that if he chose to make himself useful, he could rise in
+the business as Theodore had risen. But he could only do so as one of
+the Burtons. For the last three months he had declined to take his
+salary, alleging that private affairs had kept him away from the
+office. It was to the hands of Theodore Burton himself that such
+matters came for management, and therefore there had been no
+necessity for further explanation. Harry Clavering would of course
+leave the house, and there would be an end of him in the records of
+the Burton family. He would have come and made his mark,&mdash;a terrible
+mark, and would have passed on. Those whom he had bruised by his
+cruelty, and knocked over by his treachery, must get to their feet
+again as best they could, and say as little as might be of their
+fall. There are knaves in this world, and no one can suppose that he
+has a special right to be exempted from their knavery because he
+himself is honest. It is on the honest that the knaves prey. That was
+Burton's theory in this matter. He would learn from Cecilia how
+Florence was bearing herself; but to Florence herself he would say
+little or nothing if she bore with patience and dignity, as he
+believed she would, the calamity which had befallen her.</p>
+
+<p>But he must write to his mother. The old people at Stratton must not
+be left in the dark as to what was going on. He must write to his
+mother, unless he could learn from his wife that Florence herself had
+communicated to them at home the fact of Harry's iniquity. But he
+asked no question as to this on the first night, and on the following
+morning he went off, having simply been told that Florence had seen
+Harry's letter, that she knew all, and that she was carrying herself
+like an angel.</p>
+
+<p>"Not like an angel that hopes?" said Theodore.</p>
+
+<p>"Let her alone for a day or two," said Cecilia. "Of course she must
+have a few days to think of it. I need hardly tell you that you will
+never have to be ashamed of your sister."</p>
+
+<p>The Tuesday and the Wednesday passed by, and though Cecilia and
+Florence when together discussed the matter, no change was made in
+the wishes or thoughts of either of them. Florence, now that she was
+in town, had consented to remain till after Harry should return, on
+the understanding that she should not be called upon to see him. He
+was to be told that she forgave him altogether,&mdash;that his troth was
+returned to him and that he was free, but that in such circumstances
+a meeting between them could be of no avail. And then a little packet
+was made up, which was to be given to him. How was it that Florence
+had brought with her all his presents and all his letters? But there
+they were in her box upstairs, and sitting by herself, with weary
+fingers, she packed them, and left them packed under lock and key,
+addressed by herself to Harry Clavering, Esq. Oh, the misery of
+packing such a parcel! The feeling with which a woman does it is
+never encountered by a man. He chucks the things together in
+wrath,&mdash;the lock of hair, the letters in the pretty Italian hand that
+have taken so much happy care in the writing, the jewelled
+shirt-studs, which were first put in by the fingers that gave them.
+They are thrown together, and given to some other woman to deliver.
+But the girl lingers over her torture. She reads the letters again.
+She thinks of the moments of bliss which each little toy has given.
+She is loth to part with everything. She would fain keep some one
+thing,&mdash;the smallest of them all. She doubts,&mdash;till a feeling of
+maidenly reserve constrains her at last, and the coveted trifle, with
+careful, painstaking fingers, is put with the rest, and the parcel is
+made complete, and the address is written with precision.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill32"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill32.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill32-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="Florence Burton makes up a packet." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">Florence
+      Burton makes up a packet.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill32.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Of course I cannot see him," said Florence. "You will hand to him
+what I have to send to him; and you must ask him, if he has kept any
+of my letters, to return them." She said nothing of the shirt-studs,
+but he would understand that. As for the lock of hair,&mdash;doubtless it
+had been burned.</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia said but little in answer to this. She would not as yet look
+upon the matter as Florence looked at it, and as Theodore did also.
+Harry was to be back in town on Thursday morning. He could not,
+probably, be seen or heard of on that day, because of his visit to
+Lady Ongar. It was absolutely necessary that he should see Lady Ongar
+before he could come to Onslow Terrace, with possibility of becoming
+once more the old Harry Clavering whom they were all to love. But
+Mrs. Burton would by no means give up all hope. It was useless to say
+anything to Florence, but she still hoped that good might come.</p>
+
+<p>And then, as she thought of it all, a project came into her head.
+Alas, and alas! Was she not too late with her project? Why had she
+not thought of it on the Tuesday or early on the Wednesday, when it
+might possibly have been executed? But it was a project which she
+must have kept secret from her husband, of which he would by no means
+have approved; and as she remembered this, she told herself that
+perhaps it was as well that things should take their own course
+without such interference as she had contemplated.</p>
+
+<p>On the Thursday morning there came to her a letter in a strange hand.
+It was from Clavering,&mdash;from Harry's mother. Mrs. Clavering wrote, as
+she said, at her son's request, to say that he was confined to his
+bed, and could not be in London as soon as he expected. Mrs. Burton
+was not to suppose that he was really ill, and none of the family
+were to be frightened. From this Mrs. Burton learned that Mrs.
+Clavering knew nothing of Harry's apostasy. The letter went on to say
+that Harry would write as soon as he himself was able, and would
+probably be in London early next week,&mdash;at any rate before the end of
+it. He was a little feverish, but there was no cause for alarm.
+Florence, of course, could only listen and turn pale. Now at any rate
+she must remain in London.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burton's project might, after all, be feasible; but then what if
+her husband should really be angry with her? That was a misfortune
+which never yet had come upon her.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c33"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h3>
+<h4>SHOWING WHY HARRY CLAVERING WAS WANTED AT THE RECTORY.</h4>
+
+
+<p>The letter which had summoned Harry to the parsonage had been from
+his mother, and had begged him to come to Clavering at once, as
+trouble had come upon them from an unexpected source. His father had
+quarrelled with Mr. Saul. The rector and the curate had had an
+interview, in which there had been high words, and Mr. Clavering had
+refused to see Mr. Saul again. Fanny also was in great trouble,&mdash;and
+the parish was, as it were, in hot water. Mrs. Clavering thought that
+Harry had better run down to Clavering, and see Mr. Saul. Harry, not
+unwillingly, acceded to his mother's request, much wondering at the
+source of this new misfortune. As to Fanny, she, as he believed, had
+held out no encouragement to Mr. Saul's overtures. When Mr. Saul had
+proposed to her,&mdash;making that first offer of which Harry had been
+aware,&mdash;nothing could have been more steadfast than her rejection of
+the gentleman's hand. Harry had regarded Mr. Saul as little less than
+mad to think of such a thing, but, thinking of him as a man very
+different in his ways and feelings from other men, had believed that
+he might go on at Clavering comfortably as curate in spite of that
+little accident. It appeared, however, that he was not going on
+comfortably; but Harry, when he left London, could not quite imagine
+how such violent discomfort should have arisen that the rector and
+the curate should be unable to meet each other. If the reader will
+allow me, I will go back a little and explain this.</p>
+
+<p>The reader already knows what Fanny's brother did not know,&mdash;namely,
+that Mr. Saul had pressed his suit again, and had pressed it very
+strongly; and he also knows that Fanny's reception of the second
+offer was very different from her reception of the first. She had
+begun to doubt;&mdash;to doubt whether her first judgment as to Mr. Saul's
+character had not been unjust,&mdash;to doubt whether, in addressing her,
+he was not right, seeing that his love for her was so strong,&mdash;to
+doubt whether she did not like him better than she had thought she
+did,&mdash;to doubt whether an engagement with a penniless curate was in
+truth a position utterly to be reprehended and avoided. Young
+penniless curates must love somebody as well as young beneficed
+vicars and rectors. And then Mr. Saul pleaded his cause so well!</p>
+
+<p>She did not at once speak to her mother on the matter, and the fact
+that she had a secret made her very wretched. She had left Mr. Saul
+in doubt, giving him no answer, and he had said that he would ask her
+again in a few days what was to be his fate. She hardly knew how to
+tell her mother of this till she had told herself what were her own
+wishes. She thoroughly desired to have her mother in her confidence,
+and promised herself that it should be so before Mr. Saul renewed his
+suit. He was a man who was never hurried or impatient in his doings.
+But Fanny put off the interview with her mother,&mdash;put off her own
+final resolution, till it was too late, and Mr. Saul came upon her
+again, when she was but ill-prepared for him.</p>
+
+<p>A woman, when she doubts whether she loves or does not love, is
+inclined five parts out of six towards the man of whom she is
+thinking. When a woman doubts she is lost, the cynics say. I simply
+assert, being no cynic, that when a woman doubts she is won. The more
+Fanny thought of Mr. Saul, the more she felt that he was not the man
+for which she had first taken him,&mdash;that he was of larger dimensions
+as regarded spirit, manhood, and heart, and better entitled to a
+woman's love. She would not tell herself that she was attached to
+him; but in all her arguments with herself against him, she rested
+her objection mainly on the fact that he had but seventy pounds a
+year. And then the threatened attack, the attack that was to be
+final, came upon her before she was prepared for it!</p>
+
+<p>They had been together as usual during the intervening time. It was,
+indeed, impossible that they should not be together. Since she had
+first begun to doubt about Mr. Saul, she had been more diligent than
+heretofore in visiting the poor and in attending to her school, as
+though she were recognizing the duty which would specially be hers if
+she were to marry such a one as he. And thus they had been brought
+together more than ever. All this her mother had seen, and seeing,
+had trembled; but she had not thought it wise to say anything till
+Fanny should speak. Fanny was very good and very prudent. It could
+not be but that Fanny should know how impossible must be such a
+marriage. As to the rector, he had no suspicions on the matter. Saul
+had made himself an ass on one occasion, and there had been an end of
+it. As a curate Saul was invaluable, and therefore the fact of his
+having made himself an ass had been forgiven him. It was thus that
+the rector looked at it.</p>
+
+<p>It was hardly more than ten days since the last walk in Cumberly Lane
+when Mr. Saul renewed the attack. He did it again on the same spot,
+and at the same hour of the day. Twice a week, always on the same
+days, he was in the chapel up at this end of the parish, and on these
+days he could always find Fanny on her way home. When he put his head
+in at the little school door and asked for her, her mind misgave her.
+He had not walked home with her since, and though he had been in the
+school with her often, had always left her there, going about his own
+business, as though he were by no means desirous of her company. Now
+the time had come, and Fanny felt that she was not prepared. But she
+took up her hat, and went out to him, knowing that there was no
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Clavering," said he, "have you thought of what I was saying to
+you?" To this she made no answer, but merely played with the point of
+the parasol which she held in her hand. "You cannot but have thought
+of it," he continued. "You could not dismiss it altogether from your
+thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought about it, of course," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"And what does your mind say? Or rather what does your heart say?
+Both should speak, but I would sooner hear the heart first."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure, Mr. Saul, that it is quite impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way impossible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Papa would not allow it."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you asked him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, no."</p>
+
+<p>"Or Mrs. Clavering?"</p>
+
+<p>Fanny blushed as she remembered how she had permitted the days to go
+by without asking her mother's counsel. "No; I have spoken to no one.
+Why should I, when I knew that it is impossible?"</p>
+
+<p>"May I speak to Mr. Clavering?" To this Fanny made no immediate
+answer, and then Mr. Saul urged the question again. "May I speak to
+your father?"</p>
+
+<p>Fanny felt that she was assenting, even in that she did not answer
+such a question by an immediate refusal of her permission; and yet
+she did not mean to assent. "Miss Clavering," he said, "if you regard
+me with affection, you have no right to refuse me this request. I
+tell you so boldly. If you feel for me that love which would enable
+you to accept me as your husband, it is your duty to tell me
+so,&mdash;your duty to me, to yourself, and to your God."</p>
+
+<p>Fanny did not quite see the thing in this light, and yet she did not
+wish to contradict him. At this moment she forgot that in order to
+put herself on perfectly firm ground, she should have gone back to
+the first hypothesis, and assured him that she did not feel any such
+regard for him. Mr. Saul, whose intellect was more acute, took
+advantage of her here, and chose to believe that that matter of her
+affection was now conceded to him. He knew what he was doing well,
+and is open to a charge of some jesuitry. "Mr. Saul," said Fanny,
+with grave prudence, "it cannot be right for people to marry when
+they have nothing to live upon." When she had shown him so plainly
+that she had no other piece left on the board to play than this, the
+game may be said to have been won on his side.</p>
+
+<p>"If that be your sole objection," said he, "you cannot but think it
+right that I and your father should discuss it." To this she made no
+reply whatever, and they walked along the lane for a considerable way
+in silence. Mr. Saul would have been glad to have had the interview
+over now, feeling that at any future meeting he would have stronger
+power of assuming the position of an accepted lover than he would do
+now. Another man would have desired to get from her lips a decided
+word of love,&mdash;to take her hand, perhaps, and to feel some response
+from it,&mdash;to go further than this, as is not unlikely, and plead for
+the happy indulgences of an accepted lover. But Mr. Saul abstained,
+and was wise in abstaining. She had not so far committed herself, but
+that she might even now have drawn back, had he pressed her too hard.
+For hand-pressing, and the titillations of love-making, Mr. Saul was
+not adapted; but he was a man who, having once loved, would love on
+to the end.</p>
+
+<p>The way, however, was too long to be completed without further
+speech. Fanny, as she walked, was struggling to find some words by
+which she might still hold her ground, but the words were not
+forthcoming. It seemed to herself that she was being carried away by
+this man, because she had suddenly lost her remembrance of all
+negatives. The more she struggled the more she failed, and at last
+gave it up in despair. Let Mr. Saul say what he would, it was
+impossible that they should be married. All his arguments about duty
+were nonsense. It could not be her duty to marry a man who would have
+to starve in his attempt to keep her. She wished she had told him at
+first that she did not love him, but that seemed to be too late now.
+The moment that she was in the house she would go to her mother and
+tell her everything.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Clavering," said he, "I shall see your father to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," she ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall certainly do so in any event. I shall either tell him that I
+must leave the parish,&mdash;explaining to him why I must go; or I shall
+ask him to let me remain here in the hope that I may become his
+son-in-law. You will not now tell me that I am to go?" Fanny was
+again silent, her memory failing her as to either negative or
+affirmative that would be of service. "To stay here hopeless would be
+impossible to me. Now I am not hopeless. Now I am full of hope. I
+think I could be happy, though I had to wait as Jacob waited."</p>
+
+<p>"And perhaps have Jacob's consolation," said Fanny. She was lost by
+the joke and he knew it. A grim smile of satisfaction crossed his
+thin face as he heard it, and there was a feeling of triumph at his
+heart. "I am hardly fitted to be a patriarch, as the patriarchs were
+of old," he said. "Though the seven years should be prolonged to
+fourteen I do not think I should seek any Leah."</p>
+
+<p>They were soon at the gate, and his work for that evening was done.
+He would go home to his solitary room at a neighbouring farm-house,
+and sit in triumph as he eat his morsel of cold mutton by himself.
+He, without any advantage of a person to back him, poor, friendless,
+hitherto conscious that he was unfitted to mix even in ordinary
+social life&mdash;he had won the heart of the fairest woman he had ever
+seen. "You will give me your hand at parting," he said, whereupon she
+tendered it to him with her eyes fixed upon the ground. "I hope we
+understand each other," he continued. "You may at any rate understand
+this, that I love you with all my heart and all my strength. If
+things prosper with me, all my prosperity shall be for you. If there
+be no prosperity for me, you shall be my only consolation in this
+world. You are my Alpha and my Omega, my first and last, my beginning
+and end,&mdash;my everything, my all." Then he turned away and left her,
+and there had come no negative from her lips. As far as her lips were
+concerned no negative was any longer possible to her.</p>
+
+<p>She went into the house knowing that she must at once seek her
+mother; but she allowed herself first to remain for some half-hour in
+her own bedroom, preparing the words that she would use. The
+interview she knew would be difficult,&mdash;much more difficult than it
+would have been before her last walk with Mr. Saul; and the worst of
+it was that she could not quite make up her mind as to what it was
+that she wished to say. She waited till she should hear her mother's
+step on the stairs. At last Mrs. Clavering came up to dress, and then
+Fanny, following her quickly into her bedroom, abruptly began.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma," she said, "I want to speak to you very much."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"But you mustn't be in a hurry, mamma." Mrs. Clavering looked at her
+watch, and declaring that it still wanted three-quarters of an hour
+to dinner, promised that she would not be very much in a hurry.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, Mr. Saul has been speaking to me again."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he, my dear? You cannot, of course, help it if he chooses to
+speak to you, but he ought to know that it is very foolish. It must
+end in his having to leave us."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what he says, mamma. He says he must go away
+<span class="nowrap">unless&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Unless what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unless I will consent that he shall remain here as&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"As your accepted lover. Is that it, Fanny?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he must go, I suppose. What else can any of us say? I shall be
+sorry both for his sake and for your papa's." Mrs. Clavering as she
+said this looked at her daughter, and saw at once that this edict on
+her part did not settle the difficulty. There was that in Fanny's
+face which showed trouble and the necessity of further explanation.
+"Is not that what you think yourself, my dear?" Mrs. Clavering asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be very sorry if he had to leave the parish on my account."</p>
+
+<p>"We all shall feel that, dearest; but what can we do? I presume you
+don't wish him to remain as your lover?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, mamma," said Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>It was then as Mrs. Clavering had feared. Indeed from the first word
+that Fanny had spoken on the present occasion, she had almost been
+sure of the facts, as they now were. To her father it would appear
+wonderful that his daughter should have come to love such a man as
+Mr. Saul, but Mrs. Clavering knew better than he how far perseverance
+will go with women,&mdash;perseverance joined with high mental capacity,
+and with high spirit to back it. She was grieved but not surprised,
+and would at once have accepted the idea of Mr. Saul becoming her
+son-in-law, had not the poverty of the man been so much against him.
+"Do you mean, my dear, that you wish him to remain here after what he
+has said to you? That would be tantamount to accepting him. You
+understand that, Fanny;&mdash;eh, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it would, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that what you mean? Come, dearest, tell me the whole of it.
+What have you said to him yourself? What has he been led to think
+from the answer you have given him to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"He says that he means to see papa to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"But is he to see him with your consent?" Fanny had hitherto placed
+herself in the nook of a bow-window which looked out into the garden,
+and there, though she was near to the dressing-table at which her
+mother was sitting, she could so far screen herself as almost to hide
+her face when she was speaking. From this retreat her mother found it
+necessary to withdraw her; so she rose, and going to a sofa in the
+room, bade her daughter come and sit beside her. "A doctor, my dear,
+can never do any good," she said, "unless the patient will tell him
+everything. Have you told Mr. Saul that he may see papa,&mdash;as coming
+from you, you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, mamma;&mdash;I did not tell him that. I told him that it would be
+altogether impossible, because we should be so poor."</p>
+
+<p>"He ought to have known that himself."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't think he ever thinks of such things as that, mamma. I
+can't tell you quite what he said, but it went to show that he didn't
+regard money at all."</p>
+
+<p>"But that is nonsense; is it not, Fanny?"</p>
+
+<p>"What he means is, not that people if they are fond of each other
+ought to marry at once when they have got nothing to live upon, but
+that they ought to tell each other so and then be content to wait. I
+suppose he thinks that some day he may have a living."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Fanny, are you fond of him;&mdash;and have you ever told him so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have never told him so, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are fond of him?" To this question Fanny made no answer, and
+now Mrs. Clavering knew it all. She felt no inclination to scold her
+daughter, or even to point out in very strong language how foolish
+Fanny had been in allowing a man to engage her affections merely by
+asking for them. The thing was a misfortune, and should have been
+avoided by the departure of Mr. Saul from the parish after his first
+declaration of love. He had been allowed to remain for the sake of
+the rector's comfort, and the best must now be made of it. That Mr.
+Saul must now go was certain, and Fanny must endure the weariness of
+an attachment with an absent lover to which her father would not
+consent. It was very bad, but Mrs. Clavering did not think that she
+could make it better by attempting to scold her daughter into
+renouncing the man.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you would like me to tell papa all this before Mr. Saul
+comes to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you think it best, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"And you mean, dear, that you would wish to accept him, only that he
+has no income?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you told him so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not tell him so, but he understands it."</p>
+
+<p>"If you did not tell him so, you might still think of it again."</p>
+
+<p>But Fanny had surrendered herself now, and was determined to make no
+further attempt at sending the garrison up to the wall. "I am sure,
+mamma, that if he were well off, like Edward, I should accept him. It
+is only because he has no income."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have not told him that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would not tell him anything without your consent and papa's. He
+said he should go to papa to-morrow, and I could not prevent that. I
+did say that I knew it was quite impossible."</p>
+
+<p>The mischief was done and there was no help for it. Mrs. Clavering
+told her daughter that she would talk it all over with the rector
+that night, so that Fanny was able to come down to dinner without
+fearing any further scene on that evening. But on the following
+morning she did not appear at prayers, nor was she present at the
+breakfast table. Her mother went to her early, and she immediately
+asked if it was considered necessary that she should see her father
+before Mr. Saul came. But this was not required of her. "Papa says
+that it is out of the question," said Mrs. Clavering. "I told him so
+myself," said Fanny, beginning to whimper. "And there must be no
+engagements," said Mrs. Clavering. "No, mamma. I haven't engaged
+myself. I told him it was impossible." "And papa thinks that Mr. Saul
+must leave him," continued Mrs. Clavering. "I knew papa would say
+that;&mdash;but, mamma, I shall not forget him for that reason." To this
+Mrs. Clavering made no reply, and Fanny was allowed to remain
+upstairs till Mr. Saul had come and gone.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon after breakfast Mr. Saul did come. His presence at the
+rectory was so common that the servants were not generally summoned
+to announce his arrivals, but his visits were made to Mrs. Clavering
+and Fanny more often than to the rector. On this occasion he rang the
+bell, and asked for Mr. Clavering, and was shown into the rector's
+so-called study, in a way that the maid-servant felt to be unusual.
+And the rector was sitting uncomfortably prepared for the visit, not
+having had his after-breakfast cigar. He had been induced to declare
+that he was not, and would not be, angry with Fanny; but Mr. Saul was
+left to such indignation as he thought it incumbent on himself to
+express. In his opinion, the marriage was impossible, not only
+because there was no money, but because Mr. Saul was Mr. Saul, and
+because Fanny Clavering was Fanny Clavering. Mr. Saul was a
+gentleman; but that was all that could be said of him. There is a
+class of country clergymen in England, of whom Mr. Clavering was one,
+and his son-in-law, Mr. Fielding, another, which is so closely allied
+to the squirearchy, as to possess a double identity. Such clergymen
+are not only clergymen, but they are country gentlemen also. Mr.
+Clavering regarded clergymen of his class,&mdash;of the country gentlemen
+class, as being quite distinct from all others,&mdash;and as being, I may
+say, very much higher than all others, without reference to any money
+question. When meeting his brother rectors and vicars, he had quite a
+different tone in addressing them,&mdash;as they might belong to his
+class, or to another. There was no offence in this. The clerical
+country gentlemen understood it all as though there were some secret
+sign or shibboleth between them; but the outsiders had no complaint
+to make of arrogance, and did not feel themselves aggrieved. They
+hardly knew that there was an inner clerical familiarity to which
+they were not admitted. But now that there was a young curate from
+the outer circle demanding Mr. Clavering's daughter in marriage, and
+that without a shilling in his pocket, Mr. Clavering felt that the
+eyes of the offender must be opened. The nuisance to him was very
+great, but this opening of Mr. Saul's eyes was a duty from which he
+could not shrink.</p>
+
+<p>He got up when the curate entered, and greeted his curate, as though
+he were unaware of the purpose of the present visit. The whole burden
+of the story was to be thrown upon Mr. Saul. But that gentleman was
+not long in casting the burden from his shoulders. "Mr. Clavering,"
+he said, "I have come to ask your permission to be a suitor for your
+daughter's hand."</p>
+
+<p>The rector was almost taken aback by the abruptness of the request.
+"Quite impossible, Mr. Saul," he said&mdash;"quite impossible. I am told
+by Mrs. Clavering that you were speaking to Fanny again about this
+yesterday, and I must say, that I think you have been behaving very
+badly."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way have I behaved badly?"</p>
+
+<p>"In endeavouring to gain her affections behind my back."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Mr. Clavering, how otherwise could I gain them? How otherwise
+does any man gain any woman's love? If you
+<span class="nowrap">mean&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Mr. Saul. I don't think that there is any necessity for
+an argument between you and me on this point. That you cannot marry
+Miss Clavering is so self-evident that it does not require to be
+discussed. If there were nothing else against it, neither of you have
+got a penny. I have not seen my daughter since I heard of this
+madness,&mdash;hear me out if you please, sir,&mdash;since I heard of this
+madness, but her mother tells me that she is quite aware of that
+fact. Your coming to me with such a proposition is an absurdity if it
+is nothing worse. Now you must do one of two things, Mr. Saul. You
+must either promise me that this shall be at an end altogether, or
+you must leave the parish."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shall not promise you that my hopes as they regard your
+daughter will be at an end."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Mr. Saul, the sooner you go the better."</p>
+
+<p>A dark cloud came across Mr. Saul's brow as he heard these last
+words. "That is the way in which you would send away your groom, if
+he had offended you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not wish to be unnecessarily harsh," said Mr. Clavering, "and
+what I say to you now I say to you not as my curate, but as to a most
+unwarranted suitor for my daughter's hand. Of course I cannot turn
+you out of the parish at a day's notice. I know that well enough. But
+your feelings as a gentleman ought to make you aware that you should
+go at once."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is to be my only answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"What answer did you expect?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been thinking so much lately of the answers I might get from
+your daughter, that I have not made other calculations. Perhaps I had
+no right to expect any other than that you have now given me."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you had not. And now I ask you again to give her up."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not do that, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Mr. Saul, you must go; and, inconvenient as it will be to
+myself,&mdash;terribly inconvenient, I must ask you to go at once. Of
+course I cannot allow you to meet my daughter any more. As long as
+you remain she will be debarred from going to her school, and you
+will be debarred from coming here."</p>
+
+<p>"If I say that I will not seek her at the school?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not have it. It is out of the question that you should remain
+in the parish. You ought to feel it."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Clavering, my going,&mdash;I mean my instant going,&mdash;is a matter of
+which I have not yet thought. I must consider it before I give you an
+answer."</p>
+
+<p>"It ought to require no consideration," said Mr. Clavering, rising
+from his chair,&mdash;"none at all; not a moment's. Heavens and earth!
+Why, what did you suppose you were to live upon? But I won't discuss
+it. I will not say one more word upon a subject which is so
+distasteful to me. You must excuse me if I leave you."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Saul then departed, and from this interview had arisen that state
+of things in the parish which had induced Mrs. Clavering to call
+Harry to their assistance. The rector had become more energetic on
+the subject than any of them had expected. He did not actually forbid
+his wife to see Mr. Saul, but he did say that Mr. Saul should not
+come to the rectory. Then there arose a question as to the Sunday
+services, and yet Mr. Clavering would have no intercourse with his
+curate. He would have no intercourse with him unless he would fix an
+immediate day for going, or else promise that he would think no more
+of Fanny. Hitherto he had done neither, and therefore Mrs. Clavering
+had sent for her son.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c34"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h3>
+<h4>MR. SAUL'S ABODE.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill34-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="W" />hen Harry
+Clavering left London he was not well, though he did not
+care to tell himself that he was ill. But he had been so harassed by
+his position, was so ashamed of himself, and as yet so unable to see
+any escape from his misery, that he was sore with fatigue and almost
+worn out with trouble. On his arrival at the parsonage, his mother at
+once asked him if he was ill, and received his petulant denial with
+an ill-satisfied countenance. That there was something wrong between
+him and Florence she suspected, but at the present moment she was not
+disposed to inquire into that matter. Harry's love-affairs had for
+her a great interest, but Fanny's love-affairs at the present moment
+were paramount in her bosom. Fanny, indeed, had become very
+troublesome since Mr. Saul's visit to her father. On the evening of
+her conversation with her mother, and on the following morning, Fanny
+had carried herself with bravery, and Mrs. Clavering had been
+disposed to think that her daughter's heart was not wounded deeply.
+She had admitted the impossibility of her marriage with Mr. Saul, and
+had never insisted on the strength of her attachment. But no sooner
+was she told that Mr. Saul had been banished from the house, than she
+took upon herself to mope in the most love-lorn fashion, and behaved
+herself as though she were the victim of an all-absorbing passion.
+Between her and her father no word on the subject had been spoken,
+and even to her mother she was silent, respectful, and subdued, as it
+becomes daughters to be who are hardly used when they are in love.
+Now, Mrs. Clavering felt that in this her daughter was not treating
+her well.</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't mean to say that she cares for him?" Harry said to his
+mother, when they were alone on the evening of his arrival.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she cares for him, certainly. As far as I can tell, she cares
+for him very much."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the oddest thing I ever knew in my life. I should have said he
+was the last man in the world for success of that kind."</p>
+
+<p>"One never can tell, Harry. You see he is a very good young man."</p>
+
+<p>"But girls don't fall in love with men because they're good, mother."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope they do,&mdash;for that and other things together."</p>
+
+<p>"But he has got none of the other things. What a pity it was that he
+was let to stay here after he first made a fool of himself."</p>
+
+<p>"It's too late to think of that now, Harry. Of course she can't marry
+him. They would have nothing to live on. I should say that he has no
+prospect of a living."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't conceive how a man can do such a wicked thing," said Harry,
+moralizing, and forgetting for a moment his own sins. "Coming into a
+house like this, and in such a position, and then undermining a
+girl's affections, when he must know that it is quite out of the
+question that he should marry her! I call it downright wicked. It is
+treachery of the worst sort, and coming from a clergyman is of course
+the more to be condemned. I shan't be slow to tell him my mind."</p>
+
+<p>"You will gain nothing by quarrelling with him."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can I help it, if I am to see him at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that I would not be rough with him. The great thing is to
+make him feel that he should go away as soon as possible, and
+renounce all idea of seeing Fanny again. You see, your father will
+have no conversation with him at all, and it is so disagreeable about
+the services. They'll have to meet in the vestry-room on Sunday, and
+they won't speak. Will not that be terrible? Anything will be better
+than that he should remain here."</p>
+
+<p>"And what will my father do for a curate?"</p>
+
+<p>"He can't do anything till he knows when Mr. Saul will go. He talks
+of taking all the services himself."</p>
+
+<p>"He couldn't do it, mother. He must not think of it. However, I'll
+see Saul the first thing to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>The next day was Tuesday, and Harry proposed to leave the rectory at
+ten o'clock for Mr. Saul's lodgings. Before he did so, he had a few
+words with his father, who professed even deeper animosity against
+Mr. Saul than his son. "After that," he said, "I'll believe that a
+girl may fall in love with any man! People say all manner of things
+about the folly of girls; but nothing but this,&mdash;nothing short of
+this,&mdash;would have convinced me that it was possible that Fanny should
+have been such a fool. An ape of a fellow,&mdash;not made like a
+man,&mdash;with a thin hatchet face, and unwholesome stubbly chin. Good
+heavens!"</p>
+
+<p>"He has talked her into it."</p>
+
+<p>"But he is such an ass. As far as I know him, he can't say Bo! to a
+goose."</p>
+
+<p>"There I think you are perhaps wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, I've never been able to get a word from him except
+about the parish. He is the most uncompanionable fellow. There's
+Edward Fielding is as active a clergyman as Saul; but Edward Fielding
+has something to say for himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Saul is a cleverer man than Edward is; but his cleverness is of a
+different sort."</p>
+
+<p>"It is of a sort that is very invisible to me. But what does all that
+matter? He hasn't got a shilling. When I was a curate, we didn't
+think of doing such things as that." Mr. Clavering had only been a
+curate for twelve months, and during that time had become engaged to
+his present wife with the consent of every one concerned. "But
+clergymen were gentlemen then. I don't know what the Church will come
+to; I don't indeed."</p>
+
+<p>After this Harry went away upon his mission. What a farce it was that
+he should be engaged to make straight the affairs of other people,
+when his own affairs were so very crooked! As he walked up to the old
+farmhouse in which Mr. Saul was living, he thought of this, and
+acknowledged to himself that he could hardly make himself in earnest
+about his sister's affairs, because of his own troubles. He tried to
+fill himself with a proper feeling of dignified wrath and high
+paternal indignation against the poor curate; but under it all, and
+at the back of it all, and in front of it all, there was ever present
+to him his own position. Did he wish to escape from Lady Ongar; and
+if so, how was he to do it? And if he did not escape from Lady Ongar,
+how was he ever to hold up his head again?</p>
+
+<p>He had sent a note to Mr. Saul on the previous evening giving notice
+of his intended visit, and had received an answer, in which the
+curate had promised that he would be at home. He had never before
+been in Mr. Saul's room, and as he entered it, felt more strongly
+than ever how incongruous was the idea of Mr. Saul as a suitor to his
+sister. The Claverings had always had things comfortable around them.
+They were a people who had ever lived on Brussels carpets, and had
+seated themselves in capacious chairs. Ormolu, damask hangings, and
+Sevres china were not familiar to them; but they had never lacked
+anything that is needed for the comfort of the first-class clerical
+world. Mr. Saul in his abode boasted but few comforts. He inhabited a
+big bed-room, in which there was a vast fireplace and a very small
+grate,&mdash;the grate being very much more modern than the fireplace.
+There was a small rag of a carpet near the hearth, and on this stood
+a large deal table,&mdash;a table made of unalloyed deal, without any
+mendacious paint, putting forward a pretence in the direction of
+mahogany. One wooden Windsor arm-chair&mdash;very comfortable in its
+way&mdash;was appropriated to the use of Mr. Saul himself, and two other
+small wooden chairs flanked the other side of the fireplace. In one
+distant corner stood Mr. Saul's small bed, and in another distant
+corner stood his small dressing-table. Against the wall stood a
+rickety deal press in which he kept his clothes. Other furniture
+there was none. One of the large windows facing towards the farmyard
+had been permanently closed, and in the wide embrasure was placed a
+portion of Mr. Saul's library,&mdash;books which he had brought with him
+from college; and on the ground under this closed window were
+arranged the others, making a long row, which stretched from the bed
+to the dressing-table, very pervious, I fear, to the attacks of mice.
+The big table near the fireplace was covered with books and
+papers,&mdash;and, alas, with dust; for he had fallen into that terrible
+habit which prevails among bachelors, of allowing his work to remain
+ever open, never finished, always confused,&mdash;with papers above books,
+and books above papers,&mdash;looking as though no useful product could
+ever be made to come forth from such chaotic elements. But there Mr.
+Saul composed his sermons, and studied his Bible, and followed up, no
+doubt, some special darling pursuit which his ambition dictated. But
+there he did not eat his meals; that had been made impossible by the
+pile of papers and dust; and his chop, therefore, or his broiled
+rasher, or bit of pig's fry was deposited for him on the little
+dressing-table, and there consumed.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the solitary apartment of the gentleman who now aspired to
+the hand of Miss Clavering; and for this accommodation, including
+attendance, he paid the reasonable sum of &pound;10 per annum. He then had
+&pound;60 left, with which to feed himself, clothe himself like a
+gentleman,&mdash;a duty somewhat neglected,&mdash;and perform his charities!</p>
+
+<p>Harry Clavering, as he looked around him, felt almost ashamed of his
+sister. The walls were whitewashed, and stained in many places; and
+the floor in the middle of the room seemed to be very rotten. What
+young man who has himself dwelt ever in comfort would like such a
+house for his sister? Mr. Saul, however, came forward with no marks
+of visible shame on his face, and greeted his visitor frankly with an
+open hand. "You came down from London yesterday, I suppose?" said Mr.
+Saul.</p>
+
+<p>"Just so," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"Take a seat;" and Mr. Saul suggested the arm-chair, but Harry
+contented himself with one of the others. "I hope Mrs. Clavering is
+well?" "Quite well," said Harry, cheerfully. "And your father,&mdash;and
+sister?" "Quite well, thank you," said Harry, very stiffly. "I would
+have come down to you at the rectory," said Mr. Saul, "instead of
+bringing you up here; only, as you have heard, no doubt, I and your
+father have unfortunately had a difference." This Mr. Saul said
+without any apparent effort, and then left Harry to commence the
+further conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, you know what I'm come here about?" said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly; at any rate not so clearly but what I would wish you to
+tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"You have gone to my father as a suitor for my sister's hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you must know that that is altogether impossible,&mdash;a thing not
+to be even talked of."</p>
+
+<p>"So your father says. I need not tell you that I was very sorry to
+hear him speak in that way."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear fellow, you can't really be in earnest? You can't
+suppose it possible that he would allow such an engagement?"</p>
+
+<p>"As to the latter question, I have no answer to give; but I certainly
+was,&mdash;and certainly am in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must say that I think you have a very erroneous idea of what
+the conduct of a gentleman should be."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a moment, Clavering," said Mr. Saul, rising, and standing with
+his back to the big fireplace. "Don't allow yourself to say in a
+hurry words which you will afterwards regret. I do not think you can
+have intended to come here and tell me that I am not a gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to have an argument with you; but you must give it up;
+that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"Give what up? If you mean give up your sister, I certainly shall
+never do that. She may give me up, and if you have anything to say on
+that head, you had better say it to her."</p>
+
+<p>"What right can you have,&mdash;without a shilling in the
+<span class="nowrap">world&mdash;?"</span></p>
+
+<p>"I should have no right to marry her in such a condition,&mdash;with your
+father's consent or without it. It is a thing which I have never
+proposed to myself for a moment,&mdash;or to her."</p>
+
+<p>"And what have you proposed to yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Saul paused a moment before he spoke, looking down at the dusty
+heaps upon his table, as though hoping that inspiration might come to
+him from them. "I will tell you what I have proposed," said he at
+last, "as nearly as I can put it into words. I propose to myself to
+have the image in my heart of one human being whom I can love above
+all the world beside; I propose to hope that I, as others, may some
+day marry, and that she whom I so love may become my wife; I propose
+to bear with such courage as I can much certain delay, and probable
+absolute failure in all this; and I propose also to expect,&mdash;no,
+hardly to expect,&mdash;that that which I will do for her, she will do for
+me. Now you know all my mind, and you may be sure of this, that I
+will instigate your sister to no disobedience."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course she will not see you again."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall think that hard after what has passed between us; but I
+certainly shall not endeavour to see her clandestinely."</p>
+
+<p>"And under these circumstances, Mr. Saul, of course you must leave
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"So your father says."</p>
+
+<p>"But leave us at once, I mean. It cannot be comfortable that you and
+my father should go on in the parish together in this way."</p>
+
+<p>"What does your father mean by 'at once'?"</p>
+
+<p>"The sooner the better; say in two months' time at furthest."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. I will go in two months' time. I have no other home to go
+to, and no other means of livelihood; but as your father wishes it, I
+will go at the end of two months. As I comply with this, I hope my
+request to see your sister once before I go will not be refused."</p>
+
+<p>"It could do no good, Mr. Saul."</p>
+
+<p>"To me it would do great good,&mdash;and, as I think, no harm to her."</p>
+
+<p>"My father, I am sure, will not allow it. Indeed, why should he? Nor,
+as I understand, would my sister wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"Has she said so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to me; but she has acknowledged that any idea of a marriage
+between herself and you is quite impossible, and after that I'm sure
+she'll have too much sense to wish for an interview. If there is
+anything further that I can do for you, I shall be most happy." Mr.
+Saul did not see that Harry Clavering could do anything for him, and
+then Harry took his leave. The rector, when he heard of the
+arrangement, expressed himself as in some sort satisfied. One month
+would have been better than two, but then it could hardly be expected
+that Mr. Saul could take himself away instantly, without looking for
+a hole in which to lay his head. "Of course it is understood that he
+is not to see her?" the rector said. In answer to this, Harry
+explained what had taken place, expressing his opinion that Mr. Saul
+would, at any rate, keep his word. "Interview, indeed!" said the
+rector. "It is the man's audacity that most astonishes me. It passes
+me to think how such a fellow can dare to propose such a thing. What
+is it that he expects as the end of it?" Then Harry endeavoured to
+repeat what Mr. Saul had said as to his own expectations, but he was
+quite aware that he failed to make his father understand those
+expectations as he had understood them when the words came from Mr.
+Saul's own mouth. Harry Clavering had acknowledged to himself that it
+was impossible not to respect the poor curate.</p>
+
+<p>To Mrs. Clavering, of course, fell the task of explaining to Fanny
+what had been done, and what was going to be done. "He is to go away,
+my dear, at the end of two months."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"And, of course, you and he are not to meet before that."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not, if you and papa say so."</p>
+
+<p>"I have told your papa that it will only be necessary to tell you
+this, and that then you can go to your school just as usual, if you
+please. Neither papa nor I would doubt your word for a moment."</p>
+
+<p>"But what can I do if he comes to me?" asked Fanny, almost
+whimpering.</p>
+
+<p>"He has said that he will not, and we do not doubt his word either."</p>
+
+<p>"That I am sure you need not. Whatever anybody may say, Mr. Saul is
+as much a gentleman as though he had the best living in the diocese.
+No one ever knew him break his word,&mdash;not a hair's breadth,&mdash;or
+do&mdash;anything else&mdash;that he ought&mdash;not to do." And Fanny, as she
+pronounced this rather strong eulogium, began to sob. Mrs. Clavering
+felt that Fanny was headstrong, and almost ill-natured, in speaking
+in this tone of her lover, after the manner in which she had been
+treated; but there could be no use in discussing Mr. Saul's virtues,
+and therefore she let the matter drop. "If you will take my advice,"
+she said, "you will go about your occupations just as usual. You'll
+soon recover your spirits in that way."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to recover my spirits," said Fanny; "but if you wish it
+I'll go on with the schools."</p>
+
+<p>It was quite manifest now that Fanny intended to play the role of a
+broken-hearted young lady, and to regard the absent Mr. Saul with
+passionate devotion. That this should be so Mrs. Clavering felt to be
+the more cruel, because no such tendencies had been shown before the
+paternal sentence against Mr. Saul had been passed. Fanny in telling
+her own tale had begun by declaring that any such an engagement was
+an impossibility. She had not asked permission to have Mr. Saul for a
+lover. She had given no hint that she even hoped for such permission.
+But now when that was done which she herself had almost dictated, she
+took upon herself to live as though she were ill-used as badly as a
+heroine in a castle among the Apennines! And in this way she would
+really become deeply in love with Mr. Saul;&mdash;thinking of all which
+Mrs. Clavering almost regretted that the edict of banishment had gone
+forth. It would, perhaps, have been better to have left Mr. Saul to
+go about the parish, and to have laughed Fanny out of her fancy. But
+it was too late now for that, and Mrs. Clavering said nothing further
+on the subject to any one.</p>
+
+<p>On the day following his visit to the farm house, Harry Clavering was
+unwell,&mdash;too unwell to go back to London; and on the next day he was
+ill in bed. Then it was that he got his mother to write to Mrs.
+Burton;&mdash;and then also he told his mother a part of his troubles.
+When the letter was written he was very anxious to see it, and was
+desirous that it should be specially worded, and so written as to
+make Mrs. Burton certain that he was in truth too ill to come to
+London, though not ill enough to create alarm. "Why not simply let me
+say that you are kept here for a day or two?" asked Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I promised that I would be in Onslow Terrace to-morrow, and
+she must not think that I would stay away if I could avoid it."</p>
+
+<p>Then Mrs. Clavering closed the letter and directed it. When she had
+done that, and put on it the postage-stamp, she asked in a voice that
+was intended to be indifferent whether Florence was in London; and,
+hearing that she was so, expressed her surprise that the letter
+should not be written to Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"My engagement was with Mrs. Burton," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope there is nothing wrong between you and Florence?" said his
+mother. To this question Harry made no immediate answer, and Mrs.
+Clavering was afraid to press it. But after a while he recurred to
+the subject himself. "Mother," he said, "things are wrong between
+Florence and me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Harry;&mdash;what has she done?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather what have I done! As for her, she has simply trusted
+herself to a man who has been false to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Harry, do not say that. What is it that you mean? It is not
+true about Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have heard, mother. Of course I do not know what you have
+heard, but it can hardly be worse than the truth. But you must not
+blame her. Whatever fault there may be, is all mine." Then he told
+her much of what had occurred in Bolton Street. We may suppose that
+he said nothing of that mad caress,&mdash;nothing, perhaps, of the final
+promise which he made to Julia as he last passed out of her presence;
+but he did give her to understand that he had in some way returned to
+his old passion for the woman whom he had first loved.</p>
+
+<p>I should describe Mrs. Clavering in language too highly eulogistic
+were I to lead the reader to believe that she was altogether averse
+to such advantages as would accrue to her son from a marriage so
+brilliant as that which he might now make with the grandly dowered
+widow of the late earl. Mrs. Clavering by no means despised worldly
+goods; and she had, moreover, an idea that her highly gifted son was
+better adapted to the spending than to the making of money. It had
+come to be believed at the rectory that though Harry had worked very
+hard at college,&mdash;as is the case with many highly born young
+gentlemen,&mdash;and though he would, undoubtedly, continue to work hard
+if he were thrown among congenial occupations,&mdash;such as politics and
+the like,&mdash;nevertheless, he would never excel greatly in any drudgery
+that would be necessary for the making of money. There had been
+something to be proud of in this, but there had, of course, been more
+to regret. But now if Harry were to marry Lady Ongar, all trouble on
+that score would be over. But poor Florence! When Mrs. Clavering
+allowed herself to think of the matter she knew that Florence's
+claims should be held as paramount. And when she thought further and
+thought seriously, she knew also that Harry's honour and Harry's
+happiness demanded that he should be true to the girl to whom his
+hand had been promised. And, then, was not Lady Ongar's name tainted?
+It might be that she had suffered cruel ill-usage in this. It might
+be that no such taint had been deserved. Mrs. Clavering could plead
+the injured woman's cause when speaking of it without any close
+reference to her own belongings; but it would have been very grievous
+to her, even had there been no Florence Burton in the case, that her
+son should make his fortune by marrying a woman as to whose character
+the world was in doubt.</p>
+
+<p>She came to him late in the evening when his sister and father had
+just left him, and sitting with her hand upon his, spoke one word,
+which perhaps had more weight with Harry than any word that had yet
+been spoken. "Have you slept, dear?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"A little before my father came in."</p>
+
+<p>"My darling," she said,&mdash;"you will be true to Florence; will you
+not?" Then there was a pause. "My own Harry, tell me that you will be
+true where your truth is due."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, mother," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"My own boy; my darling boy; my own true gentleman!" Harry felt that
+he did not deserve the praise; but praise undeserved, though it may
+be satire in disguise, is often very useful.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c35"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXV.</h3>
+<h4>PARTING.</h4>
+
+
+<p>On the next day Harry was not better, but the doctor still said that
+there was no cause for alarm. He was suffering from a low fever, and
+his sister had better be kept out of his room. He would not sleep,
+and was restless, and it might be some time before he could return to
+London.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the day the rector came into his son's bedroom, and told him
+and his mother, who was there, the news which he had just heard from
+the great house. "Hugh has come home," he said, "and is going out
+yachting for the rest of the summer. They are going to Norway in Jack
+Stuart's yacht. Archie is going with them." Now Archie was known to
+be a great man in a yacht, cognizant of ropes, well up in booms and
+spars, very intimate with bolts, and one to whose hands a tiller came
+as naturally as did the saddle of a steeple-chase horse to the legs
+of his friend Doodles. "They are going to fish," said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>"But Jack Stuart's yacht is only a river-boat,&mdash;or just big enough
+for Cowes harbour, but nothing more," said Harry, roused in his bed
+to some excitement by the news.</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing about Jack Stuart or his boat either," said the
+rector; "but that's what they told me. He's down here, at any rate,
+for I saw the servant that came with him."</p>
+
+<p>"What a shame it is," said Mrs. Clavering,&mdash;"a scandalous shame."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean his going away?" said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I do;&mdash;his leaving her here by herself, all alone. He can
+have no heart;&mdash;after losing her child and suffering as she has done.
+It makes me ashamed of my own name."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't alter him, my dear. He has his good qualities and his
+bad,&mdash;and the bad ones are by far the more conspicuous."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know any good qualities he has."</p>
+
+<p>"He does not get into debt. He will not destroy the property. He will
+leave the family after him as well off as it was before him,&mdash;and
+though he is a hard man, he does nothing actively cruel. Think of
+Lord Ongar, and then you'll remember that there are worse men than
+Hugh. Not that I like him. I am never comfortable for a moment in his
+presence. I always feel that he wants to quarrel with me, and that I
+almost want to quarrel with him."</p>
+
+<p>"I detest him," said Harry, from beneath the bedclothes.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't be troubled with him any more this summer, for he means to
+be off in less than a week."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is she to do?" asked Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Live here as she has done ever since Julia married. I don't see that
+it will make much difference to her. He's never with her when he's in
+England, and I should think she must be more comfortable without him
+than with him."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a great catch for Archie," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"Archie Clavering is a fool," said Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"They say he understands a yacht," said the rector, who then left the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>The rector's news was all true. Sir Hugh Clavering had come down to
+the Park, and had announced his intention of going to Norway in Jack
+Stuart's yacht. Archie also had been invited to join the party. Sir
+Hugh intended to leave the Thames in about a week, and had not
+thought it necessary to give his wife any intimation of the fact,
+till he told her himself of his intention. He took, I think, a
+delight in being thus over-harsh in his harshness to her. He proved
+to himself thus not only that he was master, but that he would be
+master without any let or drawback, without compunctions, and even
+without excuses for his ill-conduct. There should be no plea put in
+by him in his absences, that he had only gone to catch a few fish,
+when his intentions had been other than piscatorial. He intended to
+do as he liked now and always,&mdash;and he intended that his wife should
+know that such was his intention. She was now childless, and
+therefore he had no other terms to keep with her than those which
+appertained to her necessities for bed and board. There was the
+house, and she might live in it; and there were the butchers and the
+bakers, and other tradesmen to supply her wants. Nay;&mdash;there were the
+old carriage and the old horses at her disposal, if they could be of
+any service to her. Such were Sir Hugh Clavering's ideas as to the
+bonds inflicted upon him by his marriage vows.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to Norway next week." It was thus Sir Hugh communicated
+his intention to his wife within five minutes of their first
+greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"To Norway, Hugh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;&mdash;why not to Norway? I and one or two others have got some
+fishing there. Archie is going too. It will keep him from spending
+his money;&mdash;or rather from spending money which isn't his."</p>
+
+<p>"And for how long will you be gone?"</p>
+
+<p>It was part of Sir Hugh Clavering's theory as to these matters that
+there should be no lying in the conduct of them. He would not
+condescend to screen any part of his doings by a falsehood;&mdash;so he
+answered this question with exact truth.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose we shall be back before October."</p>
+
+<p>"Not before October?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. We are talking of putting in on the coast of Normandy somewhere;
+and probably may run down to Brittany. I shall be back, at any rate,
+for the hunting. As for the partridges, the game has gone so much to
+the devil here, that they are not worth coming for."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be away four months!"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I shall if I don't come back till October." Then he left
+her, calculating that she would have considered the matter before he
+returned, and have decided that no good could come to her from
+complaint. She knew his purpose now, and would no doubt reconcile
+herself to it quickly;&mdash;perhaps with a few tears, which would not
+hurt him if he did not see them.</p>
+
+<p>But this blow was almost more than Lady Clavering could bear,&mdash;was
+more than she could bear in silence. Why she should have grudged her
+husband his trip abroad, seeing that his presence in England could
+hardly have been a solace to her, it is hard to understand. Had he
+remained in England, he would rarely have been at Clavering Park; and
+when he was at the Park he would rarely have given her the benefit of
+his society. When they were together he was usually scolding her, or
+else sitting in gloomy silence, as though that phase of his life was
+almost insupportable to him. He was so unusually disagreeable in his
+intercourse with her, that his absence, one would think, must be
+preferable to his presence. But women can bear anything better than
+desertion. Cruelty is bad, but neglect is worse than cruelty, and
+desertion worse even than neglect. To be treated as though she were
+not in existence, or as though her existence were a nuisance simply
+to be endured, and, as far as possible, to be forgotten, was more
+than even Lady Clavering could bear without complaint. When her
+husband left her, she sat meditating how she might turn against her
+oppressor. She was a woman not apt for fighting,&mdash;unlike her sister,
+who knew well how to use the cudgels in her own behalf; she was
+timid, not gifted with a full flow of words, prone to sink and become
+dependent; but she,&mdash;even she,&mdash;with all these deficiencies,&mdash;felt
+that she must make some stand against the outrage to which she was
+now to be subjected.</p>
+
+<p>"Hugh," she said, when next she saw him, "you can't really mean that
+you are going to leave me from this time till the winter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said nothing about the winter."</p>
+
+<p>"Well,&mdash;till October?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said that I was going, and I usually mean what I say."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot believe it, Hugh; I cannot bring myself to think that you
+will be so cruel."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Hermy, if you take to calling names I won't stand it."</p>
+
+<p>"And I won't stand it, either. What am I to do? Am I to be here in
+this dreadful barrack of a house all alone? How would you like it?
+Would you bear it for one month, let alone four or five? I won't
+remain here; I tell you that fairly."</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you want to go?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to go anywhere, but I'll go away somewhere and die;&mdash;I
+will indeed. I'll destroy myself, or something."</p>
+
+<p>"Psha!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; of course it's a joke to you. What have I done to deserve this?
+Have I ever done anything that you told me not? It's all because of
+Hughy,&mdash;my darling,&mdash;so it is; and it's cruel of you, and not like a
+husband; and it's not manly. It's very cruel. I didn't think anybody
+would have been so cruel as you are to me." Then she broke down and
+burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you done, Hermy?" said her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I've not done."</p>
+
+<p>"Then go on again," said he.</p>
+
+<p>But in truth she had done, and could only repeat her last accusation.
+"You're very, very cruel."</p>
+
+<p>"You said that before."</p>
+
+<p>"And I'll say it again. I'll tell everybody; so I will. I'll tell
+your uncle at the rectory, and he shall speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Hermy; I can bear a deal of nonsense from you because
+some women are given to talk nonsense; but if I find you telling
+tales about me out of this house, and especially to my uncle, or
+indeed to anybody, I'll let you know what it is to be cruel."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't be worse than you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try me; that's all. And as I suppose you have now said all
+that you've got to say, if you please we will regard that subject as
+finished." The poor woman had said all that she could say, and had no
+further means of carrying on the war. In her thoughts she could do
+so; in her thoughts she could wander forth out of the gloomy house in
+the night, and perish in the damp and cold, leaving a paper behind
+her to tell the world that her husband's cruelty had brought her to
+that pass. Or she would go to Julia and leave him for ever. Julia,
+she thought, would still receive her. But as to one thing she had
+certainly made up her mind; she would go with her complaint to Mrs.
+Clavering at the rectory, let her lord and master show his anger in
+whatever form he might please.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Sir Hugh himself made her a proposition which somewhat
+softened the aspect of affairs. This he did in his usual voice, with
+something of a smile on his face, and speaking as though he were
+altogether oblivious of the scenes of yesterday. "I was thinking,
+Hermy," he said, "that you might have Julia down here while I am
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"Have Julia here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; why not? She'll come, I'm sure, when she knows that my back is
+turned."</p>
+
+<p>"I've never thought about asking her,&mdash;at least not lately."</p>
+
+<p>"No; of course. But you might as well do so now. It seems that she
+never goes to Ongar Park, and, as far as I can learn, never will. I'm
+going to see her myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You going to see her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; Lord Ongar's people want to know whether she can be induced to
+give up the place; that is, to sell her interest in it. I have
+promised to see her. Do you write her a letter first, and tell her
+that I want to see her; and ask her also to come here as soon as she
+can leave London."</p>
+
+<p>"But wouldn't the lawyers do it better than you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well;&mdash;one would think so; but I am commissioned to make her a kind
+of apology from the whole Courton family. They fancy they've been
+hard upon her; and, by George, I believe they have. I may be able to
+say a word for myself too. If she isn't a fool she'll put her anger
+in her pocket, and come down to you."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clavering liked the idea of having her sister with her, but she
+was not quite meek enough to receive the permission now given her as
+full compensation for the injury done. She said that she would do as
+he had bidden her, and then went back to her own grievances. "I don't
+suppose Julia, even if she would come for a little time, would find
+it very pleasant to live in such a place as this, all alone."</p>
+
+<p>"She wouldn't be all alone when you are with her," said Hugh,
+gruffly, and then again went out, leaving his wife to become used to
+her misfortune by degrees.</p>
+
+<p>It was not surprising that Lady Clavering should dislike her solitude
+at Clavering Park house, nor surprising that Sir Hugh should find the
+place disagreeable. The house was a large, square, stone building,
+with none of the prettinesses of modern country-houses about it. The
+gardens were away from the house, and the cold desolate flat park
+came up close around the windows. The rooms were large and
+lofty,&mdash;very excellent for the purpose of a large household, but with
+nothing of that snug, pretty comfort which solitude requires for its
+solace. The furniture was old and heavy, and the hangings were dark
+in colour. Lady Clavering when alone there,&mdash;and she generally was
+alone,&mdash;never entered the rooms on the ground-floor. Nor did she ever
+pass through the wilderness of a hall by which the front-door was to
+be reached. Throughout more than half her days she never came
+downstairs at all; but when she did so, preparatory to being dragged
+about the parish lanes in the old family carriage, she was let out at
+a small side-door; and so it came to pass that during the absences of
+the lord of the mansion, the shutters were not even moved from any of
+the lower windows. Under such circumstances there can be no wonder
+that Lady Clavering regarded the place as a prison. "I wish you could
+come upon it unawares, and see how gloomy it is," she said to him. "I
+don't think you'd stand it alone for two days, let alone all your
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll shut it up altogether if you like," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"And where am I to go?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You can go to Moor Hall if you please." Now Moor Hall was a small
+house, standing on a small property belonging to Sir Hugh, in that
+part of Devonshire which lies north of Dartmoor, somewhere near the
+Holsworthy region, and which is perhaps as ugly, as desolate, and as
+remote as any part of England. Lady Clavering had heard much of Moor
+Hall, and dreaded it as the heroine, made to live in the big grim
+castle low down among the Apennines, dreads the smaller and grimmer
+castle which is known to exist somewhere higher up in the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"Why couldn't I go to Brighton?" said Lady Clavering boldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I don't choose it," said Sir Hugh. After that she did go to
+the rectory, and told Mrs. Clavering all her troubles. She had
+written to her sister, having, however, delayed the doing of this for
+two or three days, and she had not at this time received an answer
+from Lady Ongar. Nor did she hear from her sister till after Sir Hugh
+had left her. It was on the day before his departure that she went to
+the rectory, finding herself driven to this act of rebellion by his
+threat of Moor Hall. "I will never go there unless I am dragged there
+by force," she said to Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he means that," said Mrs. Clavering. "He only wants to
+make you understand that you'd better remain at the Park."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you knew what a house it is to be all alone in!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Hermione, I do know! But you must come to us oftener, and let
+us endeavour to make it better for you."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can I do that? How can I come to his uncle's house, just
+because my own husband has made my own home so wretched that I cannot
+bear it. I'm ashamed to do that. I ought not to be telling you all
+this, of course. I don't know what he'd do if he knew it; but it is
+so hard to bear it all without telling some one."</p>
+
+<p>"My poor dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"I sometimes think I'll ask Mr. Clavering to speak to him, and to
+tell him at once that I will not submit to it any longer. Of course
+he would be mad with rage, but if he were to kill me I should like it
+better than having to go on in this way. I'm sure he is only waiting
+for me to die."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Clavering said all that she could to comfort the poor woman, but
+there was not much that she could say. She had strongly advocated the
+plan of having Lady Ongar at the Park, thinking perhaps that Harry
+would be more safe while that lady was at Clavering, than he might
+perhaps be if she remained in London. But Mrs. Clavering doubted much
+whether Lady Ongar would consent to make such a visit. She regarded
+Lady Ongar as a hard, worldly, pleasure-seeking woman,&mdash;sinned
+against perhaps in much, but also sinning in much herself,&mdash;to whom
+the desolation of the Park would be even more unendurable than it was
+to the elder sister. But of this, of course, she said nothing. Lady
+Clavering left her, somewhat quieted, if not comforted; and went back
+to pass her last evening with her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon second thought, I'll go by the first train," he said, as he saw
+her for a moment before she went up to dress. "I shall have to be off
+from here a little after six, but I don't mind that in summer." Thus
+she was to be deprived of such gratification as there might have been
+in breakfasting with him on the last morning! It might be hard to say
+in what that gratification would have consisted. She must by this
+time have learned that his presence gave her none of the pleasures
+usually expected from society. He slighted her in everything. He
+rarely vouchsafed to her those little attentions which all women
+expect from all gentlemen. If he handed her a plate, or cut for her a
+morsel of bread from the loaf, he showed by his manner and by his
+brow that the doing so was a nuisance to him. At their meals he
+rarely spoke to her,&mdash;having always at breakfast a paper or a book
+before him, and at dinner devoting his attention to a dog at his
+feet. Why should she have felt herself cruelly ill-used in this
+matter of his last breakfast,&mdash;so cruelly ill-used that she wept
+afresh over it as she dressed herself,&mdash;seeing that she would lose so
+little? Because she loved the man;&mdash;loved him, though she now thought
+that she hated him. We very rarely, I fancy, love those whose love we
+have not either possessed or expected,&mdash;or at any rate for whose love
+we have not hoped; but when it has once existed, ill-usage will
+seldom destroy it. Angry as she was with the man, ready as she was to
+complain of him, to rebel against him,&mdash;perhaps to separate herself
+from him for ever, nevertheless she found it to be a cruel grievance
+that she should not sit at table with him on the morning of his
+going. "Jackson shall bring me a cup of coffee as I'm dressing," he
+said, "and I'll breakfast at the club." She knew that there was no
+reason for this, except that breakfasting at his club was more
+agreeable to him than breakfasting with his wife.</p>
+
+<p>She had got rid of her tears before she came down to dinner, but
+still she was melancholy and almost lachrymose. This was the last
+night, and she felt that something special ought to be said; but she
+did not know what she expected, or what it was that she herself
+wished to say. I think that she was longing for an opportunity to
+forgive him,&mdash;only that he would not be forgiven. If he would have
+spoken one soft word to her, she would have accepted that one word as
+an apology; but no such word came. He sat opposite to her at dinner,
+drinking his wine and feeding his dog; but he was no more gracious to
+her at this dinner than he had been on any former day. She sat there
+pretending to eat, speaking a dull word now and then, to which his
+answer was a monosyllable, looking out at him from under her eyes,
+through the candlelight, to see whether any feeling was moving him;
+and then having pretended to eat a couple of strawberries she left
+him to himself. Still, however, this was not the last. There would
+come some moment for an embrace,&mdash;for some cold half-embrace, in
+which he would be forced to utter something of a farewell.</p>
+
+<p>He, when he was left alone, first turned his mind to the subject of
+Jack Stuart and his yacht. He had on that day received a letter from
+a noble friend,&mdash;a friend so noble that he was able to take liberties
+even with Sir Hugh Clavering,&mdash;in which his noble friend had told him
+that he was a fool to trust himself on so long an expedition in Jack
+Stuart's little boat. Jack, the noble friend said, knew nothing of
+the matter, and as for the masters who were hired for the sailing of
+such crafts, their only object was to keep out as long as possible,
+with an eye to their wages and perquisites. It might be all very well
+for Jack Stuart, who had nothing in the world to lose but his life
+and his yacht; but his noble friend thought that any such venture on
+the part of Sir Hugh was simply tomfoolery. But Sir Hugh was an
+obstinate man, and none of the Claverings were easily made afraid by
+personal danger. Jack Stuart might know nothing about the management
+of a boat, but Archie did. And as for the smallness of the craft,&mdash;he
+knew of a smaller craft which had been out on the Norway coast during
+the whole of the last season. So he drove that thought away from his
+mind, with no strong feelings of gratitude towards his noble friend.</p>
+
+<p>And then for a few moments he thought of his own home. What had his
+wife done for him, that he should put himself out of his way to do
+much for her? She had brought him no money. She had added nothing
+either by her wit, beauty, or rank to his position in the world. She
+had given him no heir. What had he received from her that he should
+endure her commonplace conversation, and washed-out, dowdy
+prettinesses? Perhaps some momentary feeling of compassion, some
+twang of conscience, came across his heart, as he thought of it all;
+but if so he checked it instantly, in accordance with the teachings
+of his whole life. He had made his reflections on all these things,
+and had tutored his mind to certain resolutions, and would not allow
+himself to be carried away by any womanly softness. She had her
+house, her carriage, her bed, her board, and her clothes; and seeing
+how very little she herself had contributed to the common fund, her
+husband determined that in having those things she had all that she
+had a right to claim. Then he drank a glass of sherry, and went into
+the drawing-room with that hard smile upon his face, which he was
+accustomed to wear when he intended to signify to his wife that she
+might as well make the best of existing things, and not cause
+unnecessary trouble, by giving herself airs or assuming that she was
+unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>He had his cup of coffee, and she had her cup of tea, and she made
+one or two little attempts at saying something special,&mdash;something
+that might lead to a word or two as to their parting; but he was
+careful and crafty, and she was awkward and timid,&mdash;and she failed.
+He had hardly been there an hour, when looking at his watch he
+declared that it was ten o'clock, and that he would go to bed. Well;
+perhaps it might be best to bring it to an end, and to go through
+this embrace, and have done with it! Any tender word that was to be
+spoken on either side, it was now clear to her, must be spoken in
+that last farewell. There was a tear in her eye as she rose to kiss
+him; but the tear was not there of her own good will, and she strove
+to get rid of it without his seeing it. As he spoke he also rose, and
+having lit for himself a bed-candle was ready to go. "Good-by,
+Hermy," he said, submitting himself, with the candle in his hand, to
+the inevitable embrace.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Hugh; and God bless you," she said, putting her arms round
+his neck. "Pray,&mdash;pray take care of yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," he said. His position with the candle was awkward, and
+he wished that it might be over.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill35"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill35.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill35-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="Husband and wife." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">Husband
+      and wife.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill35.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>But she had a word prepared which she was determined to utter,&mdash;poor
+weak creature that she was. She still had her arm round his
+shoulders, so that he could not escape without shaking her off, and
+her forehead was almost resting on his bosom. "Hugh," she said, "you
+must not be angry with me for what I said to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said he;&mdash;"I won't."</p>
+
+<p>"And, Hugh," said she; "of course I can't like your going."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, you will," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"No;&mdash;I can't like it; but, Hugh, I will not think ill of it any
+more. Only be here as much as you can when you come home."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said he; then he kissed her forehead and escaped from
+her, and went his way, telling himself, as he went, that she was a
+fool.</p>
+
+<p>That was the last he saw of her,&mdash;before his yachting commenced; but
+she,&mdash;poor fool,&mdash;was up by times in the morning, and, peeping out
+between her curtains as the early summer sun glanced upon her
+eyelids, saw him come forth from the porch and descend the great
+steps, and get into his dog-cart and drive himself away. Then, when
+the sound of the gig could be no longer heard, and when her eyes
+could no longer catch the last expiring speck of his hat, the poor
+fool took herself to bed again and cried herself to sleep.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c36"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h3>
+<h4>CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS LAST ATTEMPT.</h4>
+
+
+<p>The yachting scheme was first proposed to Archie by his brother Hugh.
+"Jack says that he can make a berth for you, and you'd better come,"
+said the elder brother, understanding that when his edict had thus
+gone forth, the thing was as good as arranged. "Jack finds the boat
+and men, and I find the grub and wine,&mdash;and pay for the fishing,"
+said Hugh; "so you need not make any bones about it." Archie was not
+disposed to make any bones about it as regarded his acceptance either
+of the berth or of the grub and wine, and as he would be expected to
+earn his passage by his work, there was no necessity for any scruple;
+but there arose the question whether he had not got more important
+fish to fry. He had not as yet made his proposal to Lady Ongar, and
+although he now knew that he had nothing to hope from the Russian
+spy,&mdash;nevertheless he thought that he might as well try his own hand
+at the venture. His resolution on this head was always stronger after
+dinner than before, and generally became stronger and more strong as
+the evening advanced;&mdash;so that he usually went to bed with a firm
+determination "to pop," as he called it to his friend Doodles, early
+on the next day; but distance affected him as well as the hour of the
+day, and his purpose would become surprisingly cool in the
+neighbourhood of Bolton Street. When, however, his brother suggested
+that he should be taken altogether away from the scene of action, he
+thought of the fine income and of Ongar Park with pangs of regret,
+and ventured upon a mild remonstrance. "But there's this affair of
+Julia, you know," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought that was all off," said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"O dear, no; not off at all. I haven't asked her yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you've not; and I don't suppose you ever will."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I shall;&mdash;that is to say, I mean it. I was advised not to be in
+too much of a hurry; that is to say, I thought it best to let her
+settle down a little after her first seeing me."</p>
+
+<p>"To recover from her confusion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not exactly that. I don't suppose she was confused."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not. My idea is that you haven't a ghost of chance, and
+that as you haven't done anything all this time, you need not trouble
+yourself now."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have done something," said Archie, thinking of his seventy
+pounds.</p>
+
+<p>"You may as well give it up, for she means to marry Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I tell you she does. While you've been thinking he's been doing.
+From what I hear he may have her to-morrow for the asking."</p>
+
+<p>"But he's engaged to that girl whom they had with them down at the
+rectory," said Archie, in a tone which showed with what horror he
+should regard any inconstancy towards Florence Burton on the part of
+Harry Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"What does that matter? You don't suppose he'll let seven thousand a
+year slip through his fingers because he had promised to marry a
+little girl like her? If her people choose to proceed against him
+they'll make him pay swinging damages; that is all."</p>
+
+<p>Archie did not like this idea at all, and became more than ever
+intent on his own matrimonial prospects. He almost thought that he
+had a right to Lady Ongar's money, and he certainly did think that a
+monstrous injustice was done to him by this idea of a marriage
+between her and his cousin. "I mean to ask her as I've gone so far,
+certainly," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"You can do as you like about that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; of course I can do as I like; but when a fellow has gone in for
+a thing, he likes to see it through." He was still thinking of the
+seventy pounds which he had invested, and which he could now recover
+only out of Lady Ongar's pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"And you mean to say you won't come to Norway?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well; if she accepts me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If she accepts you," said Hugh, "of course you can't come; but
+supposing she don't?"</p>
+
+<p>"In that case, I might as well do that as anything else," said
+Archie. Whereupon Sir Hugh signified to Jack Stuart that Archie would
+join the party, and went down to Clavering with no misgiving on that
+head.</p>
+
+<p>Some few days after this there was another little dinner at the
+military club, to which no one was admitted but Archie and his friend
+Doodles. Whenever these prandial consultations were held, Archie paid
+the bill. There were no spoken terms to that effect, but the
+regulation seemed to come naturally to both of them. Why should
+Doodles be taken from his billiards half-an-hour earlier than usual,
+and devote a portion of the calculating powers of his brain to
+Archie's service without compensation? And a richer vintage was
+needed when so much thought was required, the burden of which Archie
+would not of course allow to fall on his friend's shoulders. Were not
+this explained, the experienced reader would regard the devoted
+friendship of Doodles as exaggerated.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shall ask her to-morrow," said Archie, looking with a
+thoughtful cast of countenance through the club window into the
+street. "It may be hurrying the matter a little, but I can't help
+that." He spoke in a somewhat boastful tone, as though he were proud
+of himself and had forgotten that he had said the same words once or
+twice before.</p>
+
+<p>"Make her know that you're there; that's everything," said Doodles.
+"Since I fathomed that woman in Mount Street, I've felt that you must
+make the score off your own bat, if you're to make it at all."</p>
+
+<p>"You did that well," said Archie, who knew that the amount of
+pleasing encouragement which he might hope to get from his friend,
+must depend on the praise which he himself should bestow. "Yes; you
+certainly did bowl her over uncommon well."</p>
+
+<p>"That kind of thing just comes within my line," said Doodles, with
+conscious pride. "Now, as to asking Lady Ongar downright to marry
+me,&mdash;upon my word I believe I should be half afraid of doing it
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"I've none of that kind of feeling," said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"It comes more in your way, I daresay," said Doodles. "But for me,
+what I like is a little bit of management,&mdash;what I call a touch of
+the diplomatic. You'll be able to see her to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so. I shall go early,&mdash;that is, as soon as I've looked
+through the papers and written a few letters. Yes, I think she'll see
+me. And as for what Hugh says about Harry Clavering, why,
+<span class="nowrap">d&mdash;&mdash;</span> it,
+you know, a fellow can't go on in that way; can he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because of the other girl, you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has had her down among all our people, just as though they were
+going to be married to-morrow. If a man is to do that kind of thing,
+what woman can be safe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder whether she likes him?" asked the crafty Doodles.</p>
+
+<p>"She did like him, I fancy, in her calf days; but that means nothing.
+She knows what she's at now, bless you, and she'll look to the
+future. It's my son who'll have the Clavering property and be the
+baronet, not his. You see what a string to my bow that is."</p>
+
+<p>When this banquet was over, Doodles made something of a resolution
+that it should be the last to be eaten on that subject. The matter
+had lost its novelty, and the price paid to him was not sufficient to
+secure his attention any longer. "I shall be here to-morrow at four,"
+he said, as he rose from his chair with the view of retreating to the
+smoking-room, "and then we shall know all about it. Whichever way
+it's to be, it isn't worth your while keeping such a thing as that in
+hand any longer. I should say give her her chance to-morrow, and then
+have done with it." Archie in reply to this declared that those were
+exactly his sentiments, and then went away to prepare himself in
+silence and solitude for the next day's work.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day at two o'clock Lady Ongar was sitting alone in
+the front room on the ground-floor in Bolton Street. Of Harry
+Clavering's illness she had as yet heard nothing, nor of his absence
+from London. She had not seen him since he had parted from her on
+that evening when he had asked her to be his wife, and the last words
+she had heard from his lips had made this request. She, indeed, had
+then bade him be true to her rival,&mdash;to Florence Burton. She had told
+him this in spite of her love,&mdash;of her love for him and of his for
+her. They two, she had said, could not now become man and wife;&mdash;but
+he had not acknowledged the truth of what she had said. She could not
+write to him. She could make no overtures. She could ask no
+questions. She had no friend in whom she could place confidence. She
+could only wait for him, till he should come to her or send to her,
+and let her know what was to be her fate.</p>
+
+<p>As she now sat she held a letter in her hand which had just been
+brought to her from Sophie,&mdash;from her poor, famished, but
+indefatigable Sophie. Sophie she had not seen since they had parted
+on the railway platform, and then the parting was supposed to be made
+in lasting enmity. Desolate as she was, she had congratulated herself
+much on her escape from Sophie's friendship, and was driven by no
+qualms of her heart to long for a renewal of the old ties. But it was
+not so with the more affectionate Sophie; and Sophie therefore had
+written,&mdash;as <span class="nowrap">follows:&mdash;</span><br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="jright">Mount Street&mdash;Friday morning.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">Dearest
+dearest Julie</span>,&mdash;My heart is so sad that I cannot
+keep my silence longer. What; can such friendship as ours
+has been be made to die all in a minute? Oh, no;&mdash;not at
+least in my bosom, which is filled with love for my Julie.
+And my Julie will not turn from her friend, who has been
+so true to her,&mdash;ah, at such moments too,&mdash;oh, yes, at
+such moments!&mdash;just for an angry word, or a little
+indiscretion. What was it after all about my brother? Bah!
+He is a fool; that is all. If you shall wish it, I will
+never speak to him again. What is my brother to me,
+compared to my Julie? My brother is nothing to me. I tell
+him we go to that accursed island,&mdash;accursed island
+because my Julie has quarrelled with me there,&mdash;and he
+arranges himself to follow us. What could I do? I could
+not tie him up by the leg in his London club. He is a man
+whom no one can tie up by the leg. Mon Dieu, no. He is
+very hard to tie up.</p>
+
+<p>Do I wish him for your husband? Never! Why should I wish
+him for your husband? If I was a man, my Julie, I should
+wish you for myself. But I am not, and why should you not
+have him whom you like the best? If I was you, with your
+beauty and money and youth, I would have any man that I
+liked,&mdash;everything. I know, of course,&mdash;for did I not see?
+It is that young Clavering to whom your little heart
+wishes to render itself;&mdash;not the captain who is a
+fool,&mdash;such a fool! but the other who is not a fool, but a
+fine fellow;&mdash;and so handsome! Yes; there is no doubt as
+to that. He is beautiful as a Ph&oelig;bus. [This was
+good-natured on the part of Sophie, who, as the reader may
+remember, hated Harry Clavering herself.]</p>
+
+<p>Well,&mdash;why should he not be your own? As for your poor
+Sophie, she would do all in her power to assist the friend
+whom she love. There is that little girl,&mdash;yes; it is true
+as I told you. But little girls cannot have all they want
+always. He is a gay deceiver. These men who are so
+beautiful as Ph&oelig;bus are always deceivers. But you need
+not be the one deceived;&mdash;you with your money and your
+beauty and your&mdash;what you call rank. No, I think not; and
+I think that little girl must put up with it, as other
+little girls have done, since the men first learned how to
+tell lies. That is my advice, and if you will let me I can
+give you good assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Dearest Julie, think of all this, and do not banish your
+Sophie. I am so true to you, that I cannot live without
+you. Send me back one word of permission, and I will come
+to you, and kneel at your feet. And in the meantime, I am</p>
+
+<p class="ind10">Your most devoted friend,</p>
+
+<p class="ind15"><span class="smallcaps">Sophie</span>.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Lady Ongar, on the receipt of this letter, was not at all changed in
+her purpose with reference to Madame Gordeloup. She knew well enough
+where her Sophie's heart was placed, and would yield to no further
+pressure from that quarter; but Sophie's reasoning, nevertheless, had
+its effect. She, Lady Ongar, with her youth, her beauty, her wealth,
+and her rank, why should she not have that one thing which alone
+could make her happy, seeing, as she did see, or as she thought she
+saw, that in making herself happy she could do so much, could confer
+such great blessings on him she loved? She had already found that the
+money she had received as the price of herself had done very little
+towards making her happy in her present state. What good was it to
+her that she had a carriage and horses and two footmen six feet high?
+One pleasant word from lips that she could love,&mdash;from the lips of
+man or woman that she could esteem,&mdash;would be worth it all. She had
+gone down to her pleasant place in the country,&mdash;a place so pleasant
+that it had a fame of its own among the luxuriantly pleasant seats of
+the English country gentry; she had gone there, expecting to be happy
+in the mere feeling that it was all her own; and the whole thing had
+been to her so unutterably sad, so wretched in the severity of its
+desolation, that she had been unable to endure her life amidst the
+shade of her own trees. All her apples hitherto had turned to ashes
+between her teeth, because her fate had forced her to attempt the
+eating of them alone. But if she could give the fruit to him,&mdash;if she
+could make the apples over, so that they should all be his, and not
+hers, then would there not come to her some of the sweetness of the
+juice of them?</p>
+
+<p>She declared to herself that she would not tempt this man to be
+untrue to his troth, were it not that in doing so she would so
+greatly benefit himself. Was it not manifest that Harry Clavering was
+a gentleman, qualified to shine among men of rank and fashion, but
+not qualified to make his way by his own diligence? In saying this of
+him, she did not know how heavy was the accusation that she brought
+against him; but what woman, within her own breast, accuses the man
+she loves? Were he to marry Florence Burton, would he not ruin
+himself, and probably ruin her also? But she could give him all that
+he wanted. Though Ongar Park to her alone was, with its rich pastures
+and spreading oaks and lowing cattle, desolate as the Dead Sea shore,
+for him,&mdash;and for her with him,&mdash;would it not be the very paradise
+suited to them? Would it not be the heaven in which such a Ph&oelig;bus
+should shine amidst the gyrations of his satellites? A Ph&oelig;bus
+going about his own field in knickerbockers, and with attendant
+satellites, would possess a divinity which, as she thought, might
+make her happy. As she thought of all this, and asked herself these
+questions, there was an inner conscience which told her that she had
+no right to Harry's love or Harry's hand; but still she could not
+cease to long that good things might come to her, though those good
+things had not been deserved. Alas, good things not deserved too
+often lose their goodness when they come! As she was sitting with
+Sophie's letter in her hand the door was opened, and Captain
+Clavering was announced.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Archibald Clavering was again dressed in his very best, but
+he did not even yet show by his demeanour that aptitude for the
+business now in hand of which he had boasted on the previous evening
+to his friend. Lady Ongar, I think, partly guessed the object of his
+visit. She had perceived, or perhaps had unconsciously felt, on the
+occasion of his former coming, that the visit had not been made
+simply from motives of civility. She had known Archie in old days,
+and was aware that the splendour of his vestments had a significance.
+Well, if anything of that kind was to be done, the sooner it was done
+the better.</p>
+
+<p>"Julia," he said, as soon as he was seated, "I hope I have the
+pleasure of seeing you quite well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty well, I thank you," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been out of town, I think?" She told him that she had been
+in the Isle of Wight for a day or two, and then there was a short
+silence. "When I heard that you were gone," he said, "I feared that
+perhaps you were ill!"</p>
+
+<p>"O dear, no; nothing of that sort."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad," said Archie; and then he was silent again. He had,
+however, as he was aware, thrown a great deal of expression into his
+inquiries after her health, and he had now to calculate how he could
+best use the standing-ground that he had made for himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen my sister lately?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Your sister? no. She is always at Clavering. I think it doosed wrong
+of Hugh, the way he goes on, keeping her down there, while he is up
+here in London. It isn't at all my idea of what a husband ought to
+do."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose she likes it," said Lady Ongar.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if she likes it, that's a different thing, of course," said
+Archie. Then there was another pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you find yourself rather lonely here sometimes?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Ongar felt that it would be better for all parties that it
+should be over, and that it would not be over soon unless she could
+help him. "Very lonely indeed," she said; "but then I suppose that it
+is the fate of widows to be lonely."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that at all," said Archie, briskly; "&mdash;unless they are
+old and ugly, and that kind of thing. When a widow has become a widow
+after she has been married ever so many years, why then I suppose she
+looks to be left alone; and I suppose they like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I can't say. I don't like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you would wish to change?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a very intricate subject, Captain Clavering, and one which I
+do not think I am quite disposed to discuss at present. After a year
+or two, perhaps I shall go into society again. Most widows do, I
+believe."</p>
+
+<p>"But I was thinking of something else," said Archie, working himself
+up to the point with great energy, but still with many signs that he
+was ill at ease at his work. "I was, by Jove!"</p>
+
+<p>"And of what were you thinking, Captain Clavering?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking,&mdash;of course you know, Julia, that since poor little
+Hughy's death, I am the next in for the title?"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Hughy! I'm sure you are too generous to rejoice at that."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I am. When two fellows offered me a dinner at the club on the
+score of my chances, I wouldn't have it. But there's the fact;&mdash;isn't
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt of that, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"None on earth; and the most of it is entailed, too; not that Hugh
+would leave an acre away from the title. I'm as safe as wax as far as
+that is concerned. I don't suppose he ever borrowed a shilling or
+mortgaged an acre in his life."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think he was a prudent man."</p>
+
+<p>"We are both of us prudent. I will say that of myself, though I
+oughtn't to say it. And now, Julia,&mdash;a few words are the best after
+all. Look here,&mdash;if you'll take me just as I am, I'm blessed if I
+shan't be the happiest fellow in all London. I shall indeed. I've
+always been uncommon fond of you, though I never said anything about
+it in the old days, because,&mdash;because you see, what's the use of a
+man asking a girl to marry him if they haven't got a farthing between
+them. I think it's wrong; I do indeed; but it's different now, you
+know." It certainly was very different now.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Clavering," she said, "I'm sorry you should have troubled
+yourself with such an idea as this."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say that, Julia. It's no trouble; it's a pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>"But such a thing as you mean never can take place."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it can. Why can't it? I ain't in a hurry. I'll wait your own
+time, and do just whatever you wish all the while. Don't say no
+without thinking about it, Julia."</p>
+
+<p>"It is one of those things, Captain Clavering, which want no more
+thinking than what a woman can give to it at the first moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah,&mdash;you think so now, because you're surprised a little."</p>
+
+<p>"Well; I am surprised a little, as our previous intercourse was never
+of a nature to make such a proposition as this at all probable."</p>
+
+<p>"That was merely because I didn't think it right," said Archie, who,
+now that he had worked himself into the vein, liked the sound of his
+own voice. "It was indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"And I don't think it right now. You must listen to me for a moment,
+Captain Clavering&mdash;for fear of a mistake. Believe me, any such plan
+as this is quite out of the question;&mdash;quite." In uttering that last
+word she managed to use a tone of voice which did make an impression
+on him. "I never can, under any circumstances, become your wife. You
+might as well look upon that as altogether decided, because it will
+save us both annoyance."</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't be so sure yet, Julia."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I must be sure. And unless you will promise me to drop the
+matter, I must,&mdash;to protect myself,&mdash;desire my servants not to admit
+you into the house again. I shall be sorry to do that, and I think
+you will save me from the necessity."</p>
+
+<p>He did save her from that necessity, and before he went he gave her
+the required promise. "That's well," said she, tendering him her
+hand; "and now we shall part friends."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall like to be friends," said he, in a crestfallen voice, and
+with that he took his leave. It was a great comfort to him that he
+had the scheme of Jack Stuart's yacht and the trip to Norway for his
+immediate consolation.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c37"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h3>
+<h4>WHAT LADY ONGAR THOUGHT ABOUT IT.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill37-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="M" />rs. Burton,
+it may perhaps be remembered, had formed in her heart a
+scheme of her own&mdash;a scheme of which she thought with much
+trepidation, and in which she could not request her husband's
+assistance, knowing well that he would not only not assist it, but
+that he would altogether disapprove of it. But yet she could not put
+it aside from her thoughts, believing that it might be the means of
+bringing Harry Clavering and Florence together. Her husband had now
+thoroughly condemned poor Harry, and had passed sentence against
+him,&mdash;not indeed openly to Florence herself, but very often in the
+hearing of his wife. Cecilia, womanlike, was more angry with
+circumstances than with the offending man,&mdash;with circumstances and
+with the woman who stood in Florence's way. She was perfectly willing
+to forgive Harry, if Harry could only be made to go right at last. He
+was good-looking and pleasant, and had nice ways in a house, and was
+altogether too valuable as a lover to be lost without many struggles.
+So she kept to her scheme, and at last she carried it into execution.</p>
+
+<p>She started alone from her house one morning, and getting into an
+omnibus at Brompton had herself put down on the rising ground in
+Piccadilly, opposite to the Green Park. Why she had hesitated to tell
+the omnibus-man to stop at Bolton Street can hardly be explained; but
+she had felt that there would be almost a declaration of guilt in
+naming that locality. So she got out on the little hill, and walked
+up in front of the Prime Minister's house,&mdash;as it was then,&mdash;and of
+the yellow palace built by one of our merchant princes, and turned
+into the street that was all but interdicted to her by her own
+conscience. She turned up Bolton Street, and with a trembling hand
+knocked at Lady Ongar's door.</p>
+
+<p>Florence in the meantime was sitting alone in Onslow Terrace. She
+knew now that Harry was ill at Clavering,&mdash;that he was indeed very
+ill, though Mrs. Clavering had assured her that his illness was not
+dangerous. For Mrs. Clavering had written to herself,&mdash;addressing her
+with all the old familiarity and affection,&mdash;with a warmth of
+affection that was almost more than natural. It was clear that Mrs.
+Clavering knew nothing of Harry's sins. Or, might it not be possible,
+Cecilia had suggested, that Mrs. Clavering might have known, and have
+resolved potentially that those sins should be banished, and become
+ground for some beautifully sincere repentance? Ah, how sweet it
+would be to receive that wicked sheep back again into the sheepfold,
+and then to dock him a little of his wandering powers, to fix him
+with some pleasant clog, to tie him down as a prudent domestic sheep
+should be tied, and make him the pride of the flock! But all this had
+been part of Cecilia's scheme, and of that scheme poor Florence knew
+nothing. According to Florence's view Mrs. Clavering's letter was
+written under a mistake. Harry had kept his secret at home, and
+intended to keep it for the present. But there was the letter, and
+Florence felt that it was impossible for her to answer it without
+telling the whole truth. It was very painful to her to leave
+unanswered so kind a letter as that, and it was quite impossible that
+she should write of Harry in the old strain. "It will be best that I
+should tell her the whole," Florence had said, "and then I shall be
+saved the pain of any direct communication with him." Her brother, to
+whom Cecilia had repeated this, applauded his sister's resolution.
+"Let her face it and bear it, and live it down," he had said. "Let
+her do it at once, so that all this maudlin sentimentality may be at
+an end." But Cecilia would not accede to this, and as Florence was in
+truth resolved, and had declared her purpose plainly, Cecilia was
+driven to the execution of her scheme more quickly than she had
+intended. In the meantime, Florence took out her little desk and
+wrote her letter. In tears and an agony of spirit which none can
+understand but women who have been driven to do the same, was it
+written. Could she have allowed herself to express her thoughts with
+passion, it would have been comparatively easy; but it behoved her to
+be calm, to be very quiet in her words,&mdash;almost reticent even in the
+language which she chose, and to abandon her claim not only without a
+reproach, but almost without an allusion to her love. Whilst Cecilia
+was away, the letter was written, and re-written and copied; but Mrs.
+Burton was safe in this, that her sister-in-law had promised that the
+letter should not be sent till she had seen it.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burton, when she knocked at Lady Ongar's door, had a little note
+ready for the servant between her fingers. Her compliments to Lady
+Ongar, and would Lady Ongar oblige her by an interview. The note
+contained simply that, and nothing more; and when the servant took it
+from her, she declared her intention of waiting in the hall till she
+had received an answer. But she was shown into the dining-room, and
+there she remained for a quarter of an hour, during which time she
+was by no means comfortable. Probably Lady Ongar might refuse to
+receive her; but should that not be the case,&mdash;should she succeed in
+making her way into that lady's presence, how should she find the
+eloquence wherewith to plead her cause? At the end of the fifteen
+minutes, Lady Ongar herself opened the door and entered the room.
+"Mrs. Burton," she said, smiling, "I am really ashamed to have kept
+you so long; but open confession, they say, is good for the soul, and
+the truth is that I was not dressed." Then she led the way upstairs,
+and placed Mrs. Burton on a sofa, and placed herself in her own
+chair,&mdash;from whence she could see well, but in which she could not be
+well seen,&mdash;and stretched out the folds of her morning dress
+gracefully, and made her visitor thoroughly understand that she was
+at home and at her ease.</p>
+
+<p>We may, I think, surmise that Lady Ongar's open confession would do
+her soul but little good, as it lacked truth, which is the first
+requisite for all confessions. Lady Ongar had been sufficiently
+dressed to receive any visitor, but had felt that some special
+preparation was necessary for the reception of the one who had now
+come to her. She knew well who was Mrs. Burton, and surmised
+accurately the purpose for which Mrs. Burton had come. Upon the
+manner in which she now carried herself might hang the decision of
+the question which was so important to her,&mdash;whether that Ph&oelig;bus
+in knickerbockers should or should not become lord of Ongar Park. To
+effect success now, she must maintain an ascendancy during this
+coming interview, and in the maintenance of all ascendancy, much
+depends on the outward man or woman; and she must think a little of
+the words she must use, and a little, too, of her own purpose. She
+was fully minded to get the better of Mrs. Burton if that might be
+possible, but she was not altogether decided on the other point. She
+wished that Harry Clavering might be her own. She would have wished
+to pension off that Florence Burton with half her wealth, had such
+pensioning been possible. But not the less did she entertain some
+half doubts whether it would not be well that she could abandon her
+own wishes, and give up her own hope of happiness. Of Mrs. Burton
+personally she had known nothing, and having expected to see a
+somewhat strong-featured and perhaps rather vulgar woman, and to hear
+a voice painfully indicative of a strong mind, she was agreeably
+surprised to find a pretty, mild lady, who from the first showed that
+she was half afraid of what she herself was doing. "I have heard your
+name, Mrs. Burton," said Lady Ongar, "from our mutual friend, Mr.
+Clavering, and I have no doubt you have heard mine from him also."
+This she said in accordance with the little plan which during those
+fifteen minutes she had laid down for her own guidance.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burton was surprised, and at first almost silenced, by this open
+mentioning of a name which she had felt that she would have the
+greatest difficulty in approaching. She said, however, that it was
+so. She had heard Lady Ongar's name from Mr. Clavering. "We are
+connected, you know," said Lady Ongar. "My sister is married to his
+first-cousin, Sir Hugh; and when I was living with my sister at
+Clavering, he was at the rectory there. That was before my own
+marriage." She was perfectly easy in her manner, and flattered
+herself that the ascendancy was complete.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard as much from Mr. Clavering," said Cecilia.</p>
+
+<p>"And he was very civil to me immediately on my return home. Perhaps
+you may have heard that also. He took this house for me, and made
+himself generally useful, as young men ought to do. I believe he is
+in the same office with your husband; is he not? I hope I may not
+have been the means of making him idle?"</p>
+
+<p>This was all very well and very pretty, but Mrs. Burton was already
+beginning to feel that she was doing nothing towards the achievement
+of her purpose. "I suppose he has been idle," she said, "but I did
+not mean to trouble you about that." Upon hearing this, Lady Ongar
+smiled. This supposition that she had really intended to animadvert
+upon Harry Clavering's idleness was amusing to her as she remembered
+how little such idleness would signify if she could only have her
+way.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Harry!" she said. "I supposed his sins would be laid at my
+door. But my idea is, you know, that he never will do any good at
+such work as that."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not;&mdash;that is, I really can't say. I don't think Mr. Burton
+has ever expressed any such opinion; and if he
+<span class="nowrap">had&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"If he had, you wouldn't mention it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose I should, Lady Ongar;&mdash;not to a stranger."</p>
+
+<p>"Harry Clavering and I are not strangers," said Lady Ongar, changing
+the tone of her voice altogether as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I know that. You have known him longer than we have. I am aware
+of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; before he ever dreamed of going into your husband's business,
+Mrs. Burton; long before he had ever been to&mdash;Stratton."</p>
+
+<p>The name of Stratton was an assistance to Cecilia, and seemed to have
+been spoken with the view of enabling her to commence her work.
+"Yes," she said, "but nevertheless he did go to Stratton. He went to
+Stratton, and there he became acquainted with my sister-in-law,
+Florence Burton."</p>
+
+<p>"I am aware of it, Mrs. Burton."</p>
+
+<p>"And he also became engaged to her."</p>
+
+<p>"I am aware of that too. He has told me as much himself."</p>
+
+<p>"And has he told you whether he means to keep, or to break that
+engagement?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mrs. Burton, is that question fair? Is it fair either to him, or
+to me? If he has taken me into his confidence and has not taken you,
+should I be doing well to betray him? Or if there can be anything in
+such a secret specially interesting to myself, why should I be made
+to tell it to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think the truth is always the best, Lady Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"Truth is always better than a lie;&mdash;so at least people say, though
+they sometimes act differently; but silence may be better than
+either."</p>
+
+<p>"This is a matter, Lady Ongar, in which I cannot be silent. I hope
+you will not be angry with me for coming to you,&mdash;or for asking you
+these <span class="nowrap">questions&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"O dear, no."</p>
+
+<p>"But I cannot be silent. My sister-in-law must at any rate know what
+is to be her fate."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why do you not ask him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is ill at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Ill! Where is he ill? Who says he is ill?" And Lady Ongar, though
+she did not quite leave her chair, raised herself up and forgot all
+her preparations. "Where is he, Mrs. Burton? I have not heard of his
+illness."</p>
+
+<p>"He is at Clavering;&mdash;at the parsonage."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard nothing of this. What ails him? If he be really ill,
+dangerously ill, I conjure you to tell me. But pray tell me the
+truth. Let there be no tricks in such a matter as this."</p>
+
+<p>"Tricks, Lady Ongar!"</p>
+
+<p>"If Harry Clavering be ill, tell me what ails him. Is he in danger?"</p>
+
+<p>"His mother in writing to Florence says that he is not in danger; but
+that he is confined to the house. He has been taken by some fever."
+On that very morning Lady Ongar had received a letter from her
+sister, begging her to come to Clavering Park during the absence of
+Sir Hugh; but in the letter no word had been said as to Harry's
+illness. Had he been seriously, or at least dangerously ill, Hermione
+would certainly have mentioned it. All this flashed across Julia's
+mind as these tidings about Harry reached her. If he were not really
+in danger, or even if he were, why should she betray her feeling
+before this woman? "If there had been much in it," she said, resuming
+her former position and manners, "I should no doubt have heard of it
+from my sister."</p>
+
+<p>"We hear that it is not dangerous," continued Mrs. Burton; "but he is
+away, and we cannot see him. And, in truth, Lady Ongar, we cannot see
+him any more until we know that he means to deal honestly by us."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I the keeper of his honesty?"</p>
+
+<p>"From what I have heard, I think you are. If you will tell me that I
+have heard falsely, I will go away and beg your pardon for my
+intrusion. But if what I have heard be true, you must not be
+surprised that I show this anxiety for the happiness of my sister. If
+you knew her, Lady Ongar, you would know that she is too good to be
+thrown aside with indifference."</p>
+
+<p>"Harry Clavering tells me that she is an angel,&mdash;that she is
+perfect."</p>
+
+<p>"And if he loves her, will it not be a shame that they should be
+parted?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said nothing about his loving her. Men are not always fond of
+perfection. The angels may be too angelic for this world."</p>
+
+<p>"He did love her."</p>
+
+<p>"So I suppose;&mdash;or at any rate he thought that he did."</p>
+
+<p>"He did love her, and I believe he loves her still."</p>
+
+<p>"He has my leave to do so, Mrs. Burton."</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia, though she was somewhat afraid of the task which she had
+undertaken, and was partly awed by Lady Ongar's style of beauty and
+demeanour, nevertheless felt that if she still hoped to do any good,
+she must speak the truth out at once. She must ask Lady Ongar whether
+she held herself to be engaged to Harry Clavering. If she did not do
+this, nothing could come of the present interview.</p>
+
+<p>"You say that, Lady Ongar, but do you mean it?" she asked. "We have
+been told that you also are engaged to marry Mr. Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"Who has told you so?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have heard it. I have heard it, and have been obliged to tell my
+sister that I had done so."</p>
+
+<p>"And who told you? Did you hear it from Harry Clavering himself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did. I heard it in part from him."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why have you come beyond him to me? He must know. If he has
+told you that he is engaged to marry me, he must also have told you
+that he does not intend to marry Miss Florence Burton. It is not for
+me to defend him or to accuse him. Why do you come to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"For mercy and forbearance," said Mrs. Burton, rising from her seat
+and coming over to the side of the room in which Lady Ongar was
+seated.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill37"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill37.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill37-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="A plea for mercy." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">A plea
+      for mercy.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill37.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"And Miss Burton has sent you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; she does not know that I am here; nor does my husband know it.
+No one knows it. I have come to tell you that before God this man is
+engaged to become the husband of Florence Burton. She has learned to
+love him, and has now no other chance of happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"But what of his happiness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; we are bound to think of that. Florence is bound to think of
+that above all things."</p>
+
+<p>"And so am I. I love him too;&mdash;as fondly, perhaps, as she can do. I
+loved him first, before she had even heard his name."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Lady Ongar&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; you may ask the question if you will, and I will answer it
+truly." They were both standing now and confronting each other. "Or I
+will answer it without your asking it. I was false to him. I would
+not marry him because he was poor; and then I married another because
+he was rich. All that is true. But it does not make me love him the
+less now. I have loved him through it all. Yes; you are shocked, but
+it is true. I have loved him through it all. And what am I to do now,
+if he still loves me? I can give him wealth now."</p>
+
+<p>"Wealth will not make him happy."</p>
+
+<p>"It has not made me happy; but it may help to do so with him. But
+with me at any rate there can be no doubt. It is his happiness to
+which I am bound to look. Mrs. Burton, if I thought that I could make
+him happy, and if he would come to me, I would marry him to-morrow,
+though I broke your sister's heart by doing so. But if I felt that
+she could do so more than I, I would leave him to her, though I broke
+my own. I have spoken to you very openly. Will she say as much as
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"She would act in that way. I do not know what she would say."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let her do so, and leave him to be the judge of his own
+happiness. Let her pledge herself that no reproaches shall come from
+her, and I will pledge myself equally. It was I who loved him first,
+and it is I who have brought him into this trouble. I owe him
+everything. Had I been true to him, he would never have thought of,
+never have seen, Miss Florence Burton."</p>
+
+<p>All that was, no doubt, true, but it did not touch the question of
+Florence's right. The fact on which Mrs. Burton wished to insist, if
+only she knew how, was this, that Florence had not sinned at all, and
+that Florence therefore ought not to bear any part of the punishment.
+It might be very true that Harry's fault was to be excused in part
+because of Lady Ongar's greater and primary fault;&mdash;but why should
+Florence be the scapegoat?</p>
+
+<p>"You should think of his honour as well as his happiness," said Mrs.
+Burton at last.</p>
+
+<p>"That is rather severe, Mrs. Burton, considering that it is said to
+me in my own house. Am I so low as that, that his honour will be
+tarnished if I become his wife?" But she, in saying this, was
+thinking of things of which Mrs. Burton knew nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"His honour will be tarnished," said she, "if he do not marry her
+whom he has promised to marry. He was welcomed by her father and
+mother to their house, and then he made himself master of her heart.
+But it was not his till he had asked for it, and had offered his own
+and his hand in return for it. Is he not bound to keep his promise?
+He cannot be bound to you after any such fashion as that. If you are
+solicitous for his welfare, you should know that if he would live
+with the reputation of a gentleman, there is only one course open to
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the old story," said Lady Ongar; "the old story! Has not
+somebody said that the gods laugh at the perjuries of lovers? I do
+not know that men are inclined to be much more severe than the gods.
+These broken hearts are what women are doomed to bear."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is to be your answer to me, Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; that is not my answer to you. That is the excuse that I make for
+Harry Clavering. My answer to you has been very explicit. Pardon me
+if I say that it has been more explicit than you had any right to
+expect. I have told you that I am prepared to take any step that may
+be most conducive to the happiness of the man whom I once injured,
+but whom I have always loved. I will do this, let it cost myself what
+it may; and I will do this let the cost to any other woman be what it
+may. You cannot expect that I should love another woman better than
+myself." She said this, still standing, not without something more
+than vehemence in her tone. In her voice, in her manner, and in her
+eye there was that which amounted almost to ferocity. She was
+declaring that some sacrifice must be made, and that she recked
+little whether it should be of herself or of another. As she would
+immolate herself without hesitation, if the necessity should exist,
+so would she see Florence Burton destroyed without a twinge of
+remorse, if the destruction of Florence would serve the purpose which
+she had in view. You and I, O reader, may feel that the man for whom
+all this was to be done was not worth the passion. He had proved
+himself to be very far from such worth. But the passion,
+nevertheless, was there, and the woman was honest in what she was
+saying.</p>
+
+<p>After this Mrs. Burton got herself out of the room as soon as she
+found an opening which allowed her to go. In making her farewell
+speech, she muttered some indistinct apology for the visit which she
+had been bold enough to make. "Not at all," said Lady Ongar. "You
+have been quite right;&mdash;you are fighting your battle for the friend
+you love bravely; and were it not that the cause of the battle must,
+I fear, separate us hereafter, I should be proud to know one who
+fights so well for her friends. And when all this is over and has
+been settled, in whatever way it may be settled, let Miss Burton know
+from me that I have been taught to hold her name and character in the
+highest possible esteem." Mrs. Burton made no attempt at further
+speech, but left the room with a low curtsey.</p>
+
+<p>Till she found herself out in the street, she was unable to think
+whether she had done most harm or most good by her visit to Bolton
+Street,&mdash;whether she had in any way served Florence, or whether she
+had simply confessed to Florence's rival the extent of her sister's
+misery. That Florence herself would feel the latter to be the case,
+when she should know it all, Mrs. Burton was well aware. Her own ears
+had tingled with shame as Harry Clavering had been discussed as a
+grand prize for which her sister was contending with another
+woman,&mdash;and contending with so small a chance of success. It was
+terrible to her that any woman dear to her should seem to seek for a
+man's love. And the audacity with which Lady Ongar had proclaimed her
+own feelings had been terrible also to Cecilia. She was aware that
+she was meddling with things which were foreign to her nature, and
+which would be odious to her husband. But yet, was not the battle
+worth fighting? It was not to be endured that Florence should seek
+after this thing; but, after all, the possession of the thing in
+question was the only earthly good that could give any comfort to
+poor Florence. Even Cecilia, with all her partiality for Harry, felt
+that he was not worth the struggle; but it was for her now to
+estimate him at the price which Florence might put upon him,&mdash;not at
+her own price.</p>
+
+<p>But she must tell Florence what had been done, and tell her on that
+very day of her meeting with Lady Ongar. In no other way could she
+stop that letter which she knew that Florence would have already
+written to Mrs. Clavering. And could she now tell Florence that there
+was ground for hope? Was it not the fact that Lady Ongar had spoken
+the simple and plain truth when she had said that Harry must be
+allowed to choose the course which appeared to him to be the best for
+him? It was hard, very hard, that it should be so. And was it not
+true also that men, as well as gods, excuse the perjuries of lovers?
+She wanted to have back Harry among them as one to be forgiven
+easily, to be petted much, and to be loved always; but, in spite of
+the softness of her woman's nature, she wished that he might be
+punished sorely if he did not so return. It was grievous to her that
+he should any longer have a choice in the matter. Heavens and earth!
+was he to be allowed to treat a woman as he had treated Florence, and
+was nothing to come of it? In spite both of gods and men, the thing
+was so grievous to Cecilia Burton, that she could not bring herself
+to acknowledge that it was possible. Such things had not been done in
+the world which she had known.</p>
+
+<p>She walked the whole way home to Brompton, and had hardly perfected
+any plan when she reached her own door. If only Florence would allow
+her to write the letter to Mrs. Clavering, perhaps something might be
+done in that way. So she entered the house prepared to tell the story
+of her morning's work.</p>
+
+<p>And she must tell it also to her husband in the evening! It had been
+hard to do the thing without his knowing of it beforehand; but it
+would be impossible to her to keep the thing a secret from him, now
+that it was done.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c38"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h3>
+<h4>HOW TO DISPOSE OF A WIFE.</h4>
+
+
+<p>When Sir Hugh came up to town there did not remain to him quite a
+week before the day on which he was to leave the coast of Essex in
+Jack Stuart's yacht for Norway, and he had a good deal to do in the
+meantime in the way of provisioning the boat. Fortnum and Mason, no
+doubt, would have done it all for him without any trouble on his
+part, but he was not a man to trust any Fortnum or any Mason as to
+the excellence of the article to be supplied, or as to the price. He
+desired to have good wine,&mdash;very good wine; but he did not desire to
+pay a very high price. No one knew better than Sir Hugh that good
+wine cannot be bought cheap,&mdash;but things may be costly and yet not
+dear; or they may be both. To such matters Sir Hugh was wont to pay
+very close attention himself. He had done something in that line
+before he left London, and immediately on his return he went to the
+work again, summoning Archie to his assistance, but never asking
+Archie's opinion,&mdash;as though Archie had been his head-butler.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately on his arrival in London he cross-questioned his brother
+as to his marriage prospects. "I suppose you are going with us?" Hugh
+said to Archie, as he caught him in the hall of the house in Berkeley
+Square on the morning after his arrival.</p>
+
+<p>"O dear, yes," said Archie. "I thought that was quite understood. I
+have been getting my traps together." The getting of his traps
+together had consisted in the ordering of a sailor's jacket with
+brass buttons, and three pair of white duck trousers.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Sir Hugh. "You had better come with me into the
+City this morning. I am going to Boxall's in Great Thames Street."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to breakfast here?" asked Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"No; you can come to me at the Union in about an hour. I suppose you
+have never plucked up courage to ask Julia to marry you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I did," said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"And what answer did you get?" Archie had found himself obliged to
+repudiate with alacrity the attack upon his courage which his brother
+had so plainly made; but, beyond that, the subject was one which was
+not pleasing to him. "Well, what did she say to you?" asked his
+brother, who had no idea of sparing Archie's feelings in such a
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>"She said;&mdash;indeed I don't remember exactly what it was that she did
+say."</p>
+
+<p>"But she refused you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;&mdash;she refused me. I think she wanted me to understand that I had
+come to her too soon after Ongar's death."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she must be an infernal hypocrite;&mdash;that's all." But of any
+hypocrisy in this matter the reader will acquit Lady Ongar, and will
+understand that Archie had merely lessened the severity of his own
+fall by a clever excuse. After that the two brothers went to Boxall's
+in the City, and Archie, having been kept fagging all day, was sent
+in the evening to dine by himself at his own club.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hugh also was desirous of seeing Lady Ongar, and had caused his
+wife to say as much in that letter which she wrote to her sister. In
+this way an appointment had been made without any direct intercourse
+between Sir Hugh and his sister-in-law. They two had never met since
+the day on which Sir Hugh had given her away in Clavering Church. To
+Hugh Clavering, who was by no means a man of sentiment, this
+signified little or nothing. When Lady Ongar had returned a widow,
+and when evil stories against her had been rife, he had thought it
+expedient to have nothing to do with her. He did not himself care
+much about his sister-in-law's morals; but should his wife become
+much complicated with a sister damaged in character there might come
+of it trouble and annoyance. Therefore, he had resolved that Lady
+Ongar should be dropped. But during the last few months things had in
+some respects changed. The Courton people,&mdash;that is to say, Lord
+Ongar's family,&mdash;had given Hugh Clavering to understand that, having
+made inquiry, they were disposed to acquit Lady Ongar, and to declare
+their belief that she was subject to no censure. They did not wish
+themselves to know her, as no intimacy between them could now be
+pleasant; but they had felt it to be incumbent on them to say as much
+as that to Sir Hugh. Sir Hugh had not even told his wife, but he had
+twice suggested that Lady Ongar should be asked to Clavering Park. In
+answer to both these invitations, Lady Ongar had declined to go to
+Clavering Park.</p>
+
+<p>And now Sir Hugh had a commission on his hands from the same Courton
+people, which made it necessary that he should see his sister-in-law,
+and Julia had agreed to receive him. To him, who was very hard in
+such matters, the idea of his visit was not made disagreeable by any
+remembrance of his own harshness to the woman whom he was going to
+see. He cared nothing about that, and it had not occurred to him that
+she would care much. But, in truth, she did care very much, and when
+the hour was coming on which Sir Hugh was to appear, she thought much
+of the manner in which it would become her to receive him. He had
+condemned her in that matter as to which any condemnation is an
+insult to a woman; and he had so condemned her, being her
+brother-in-law and her only natural male friend. In her sorrow she
+should have been able to lean upon him; but from the first, without
+any inquiry, he had believed the worst of her, and had withdrawn from
+her altogether his support, when the slightest support from him would
+have been invaluable to her. Could she forgive this? Never; never!
+She was not a woman to wish to forgive such an offence. It was an
+offence which it would be despicable in her to forgive. Many had
+offended her, some had injured her, one or two had insulted her; but
+to her thinking, no one had so offended her, had so injured her, had
+so grossly insulted her, as he had done. In what way then would it
+become her to receive him? Before his arrival she had made up her
+mind on this subject, and had resolved that she would, at least, say
+no word of her own wrongs.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do, Julia?" said Sir Hugh, walking into the room with a
+step which was perhaps unnaturally quick, and with his hand extended.
+Lady Ongar had thought of that too. She would give much to escape the
+touch of his hand, if it were possible; but she had told herself that
+she would best consult her own dignity by declaring no actual
+quarrel. So she put out her fingers and just touched his palm.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope Hermy is well?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty well, thank you. She is rather lonely since she lost her poor
+little boy, and would be very glad if you would go to her."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot do that; but if she would come to me I should be
+delighted."</p>
+
+<p>"You see it would not suit her to be in London so soon after Hughy's
+death."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not bound to London. I would go anywhere else,&mdash;except to
+Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"You never go to Ongar Park, I am told."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been there."</p>
+
+<p>"But they say you do not intend to go again."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at present, certainly. Indeed, I do not suppose I shall ever go
+there. I do not like the place."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what they have told me. It is about that&mdash;partly&mdash;that I
+want to speak to you. If you don't like the place, why shouldn't you
+sell your interest in it back to the family? They'd give you more
+than the value for it."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know that I should care to sell it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, if you don't mean to use the house? I might as well explain
+at once what it is that has been said to me. John Courton, you know,
+is acting as guardian for the young earl, and they don't want to keep
+up so large a place as the Castle. Ongar Park would just suit Mrs.
+Courton,"&mdash;Mrs. Courton was the widowed mother of the young
+earl,&mdash;"and they would be very happy to buy your interest."</p>
+
+<p>"Would not such a proposition come best through a lawyer?" said Lady
+Ongar.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is this,&mdash;they think they have been a little hard on you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never accused them."</p>
+
+<p>"But they feel it themselves, and they think that you might take it
+perhaps amiss if they were to send you a simple message through an
+attorney. Courton told me that he would not have allowed any such
+proposition to be made, if you had seemed disposed to use the place.
+They wish to be civil, and all that kind of thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Their civility or incivility is indifferent to me," said Julia.</p>
+
+<p>"But why shouldn't you take the money?"</p>
+
+<p>"The money is equally indifferent to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean then to say that you won't listen to it? Of course they
+can't make you part with the place if you wish to keep it."</p>
+
+<p>"Not more than they can make you sell Clavering Park. I do not,
+however, wish to be uncivil, and I will let you know through my
+lawyer what I think about it. All such matters are best managed by
+lawyers."</p>
+
+<p>After that Sir Hugh said nothing further about Ongar Park. He was
+well aware, from the tone in which Lady Ongar answered him, that she
+was averse to talk to him on that subject; but he was not conscious
+that his presence was otherwise disagreeable to her, or that she
+would resent any interference from him on any subject because he had
+been cruel to her. So after a little while he began again about
+Hermione. As the world had determined upon acquitting Lady Ongar, it
+would be convenient to him that the two sisters should be again
+intimate, especially as Julia was a rich woman. His wife did not like
+Clavering Park, and he certainly did not like Clavering Park himself.
+If he could once get the house shut up, he might manage to keep it
+shut for some years to come. His wife was now no more than a burden
+to him, and it would suit him well to put off the burden on to his
+sister-in-law's shoulders. It was not that he intended to have his
+wife altogether dependent on another person, but he thought that if
+they two were established together, in the first instance merely as a
+summer arrangement, such establishment might be made to assume some
+permanence. This would be very pleasant to him. Of course he would
+pay a portion of the expense,&mdash;as small a portion as might be
+possible,&mdash;but such a portion as might enable him to live with credit
+before the world.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could think that you and Hermy might be together while I am
+absent," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be very happy to have her if she will come to me," Julia
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>"What,&mdash;here, in London? I am not quite sure that she wishes to come
+up to London at present."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never understood that she had any objection to being in
+town," said Lady Ongar.</p>
+
+<p>"Not formerly, certainly; but now, since her boy's
+<span class="nowrap">death&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Why should his death make more difference to her than to you?" To
+this question Sir Hugh made no reply. "If you are thinking of
+society, she could be nowhere safer from any such necessity than with
+me. I never go out anywhere. I have never dined out, or even spent an
+evening in company since Lord Ongar's death. And no one would come
+here to disturb her."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean that."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't quite know what you did mean. From different causes she and
+I are left pretty nearly equally without friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione is not left without friends," said Sir Hugh with a tone of
+offence.</p>
+
+<p>"Were she not, she would not want to come to me. Your society is in
+London, to which she does not come, or in other country-houses than
+your own, to which she is not taken. She lives altogether at
+Clavering, and there is no one there, except your uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever neighbourhood there is she has,&mdash;just like other women."</p>
+
+<p>"Just like some other women, no doubt. I shall remain in town for
+another month, and after that I shall go somewhere; I don't much care
+where. If Hermy will come to me as my guest I shall be most happy to
+have her. And the longer she will stay with me the better. Your
+coming home need make no difference, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>There was a keenness of reproach in her tone as she spoke, which even
+he could not but feel and acknowledge. He was very thick-skinned to
+such reproaches, and would have left this unnoticed had it been
+possible. Had she continued speaking he would have done so. But she
+remained silent, and sat looking at him, saying with her eyes the
+same thing that she had already spoken with her words. Thus he was
+driven to speak. "I don't know," said he, "whether you intend that
+for a sneer."</p>
+
+<p>She was perfectly indifferent whether or no she offended him. Only
+that she had believed that the maintenance of her own dignity forbade
+it, she would have openly rebuked him, and told him that he was not
+welcome in her house. No treatment from her could, as she thought, be
+worse than he had deserved from her. His first enmity had injured
+her, but she could afford to laugh at his present anger. "It is hard
+to talk to you about Hermy without what you are pleased to call a
+sneer. You simply wish to rid yourself of her."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish no such thing, and you have no right to say so."</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate you are ridding yourself of her society; and if under
+those circumstances she likes to come to me I shall be glad to
+receive her. Our life together will not be very cheerful, but neither
+she nor I ought to expect a cheerful life."</p>
+
+<p>He rose from his chair now with a cloud of anger upon his brow. "I
+can see how it is," said he; "because everything has not gone smooth
+with yourself you choose to resent it upon me. I might have expected
+that you would not have forgotten in whose house you met Lord Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Hugh; I forget nothing; neither when I met him, nor how I
+married him, nor any of the events that have happened since. My
+memory, unfortunately, is very good."</p>
+
+<p>"I did all I could for you, and should have been safe from your
+insolence."</p>
+
+<p>"You should have continued to stay away from me, and you would have
+been quite safe. But our quarrelling in this way is foolish. We can
+never be friends,&mdash;you and I; but we need not be open enemies. Your
+wife is my sister, and I say again that if she likes to come to me, I
+shall be delighted to have her."</p>
+
+<p>"My wife," said he, "will go to the house of no person who is
+insolent to me." Then he took his hat, and left the room without
+further word or sign of greeting. In spite of his calculations and
+caution as to money,&mdash;in spite of his well-considered arrangements
+and the comfortable provision for his future ease which he had
+proposed to himself, he was a man who had not his temper so much
+under control as to enable him to postpone his anger to his prudence.
+That little scheme for getting rid of his wife was now at an end. He
+would never permit her to go to her sister's house after the manner
+in which Julia had just treated him!</p>
+
+<p>When he was gone Lady Ongar walked about her own room smiling, and at
+first was well pleased with herself. She had received Archie's
+overture with decision, but at the same time with courtesy, for
+Archie was weak, and poor, and powerless. But she had treated Sir
+Hugh with scorn, and had been enabled to do so without the utterance
+of any actual reproach as to the wrongs which she herself had endured
+from him. He had put himself in her power, and she had not thrown
+away the opportunity. She had told him that she did not want his
+friendship, and would not be his friend; but she had done this
+without any loud abuse unbecoming to her either as a countess, a
+widow, or a lady. For Hermione she was sorry. Hermione now could
+hardly come to her. But even as to that she did not despair. As
+things were going on, it would become almost necessary that her
+sister and Sir Hugh should be parted. Both must wish it; and if this
+were arranged, then Hermione should come to her.</p>
+
+<p>But from this she soon came to think again about Harry Clavering. How
+was that matter to be decided, and what steps would it become her to
+take as to its decision? Sir Hugh had proposed to her that she should
+sell her interest in Ongar Park, and she had promised that she would
+make known her decision on that matter through her lawyer. As she had
+been saying this she was well aware that she would never sell the
+property;&mdash;but she had already resolved that she would at once give
+it back, without purchase-money, to the Ongar family, were it not
+kept that she might hand it over to Harry Clavering as a fitting
+residence for his lordship. If he might be there, looking after his
+cattle, going about with the steward subservient at his heels,
+ministering justice to the Enoch Gubbys and others, she would care
+nothing for the wants of any of the Courton people. But if such were
+not to be the destiny of Ongar Park,&mdash;if there were to be no such
+Adam in that Eden,&mdash;then the mother of the little lord might take
+herself thither, and revel among the rich blessings of the place
+without delay, and with no difficulty as to price. As to price,;&mdash;had
+she not already found the money-bag that had come to her to be too
+heavy for her hands?</p>
+
+<p>But she could do nothing till that question was settled; and how was
+she to settle it? Every word that had passed between her and Cecilia
+Burton had been turned over and over in her mind, and she could only
+declare to herself as she had then declared to her visitor, that it
+must be as Harry should please. She would submit, if he required her
+submission; but she could not bring herself to take steps to secure
+her own misery.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c39"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h3>
+<h4>FAREWELL TO DOODLES.</h4>
+
+
+<p>At last came the day on which the two Claverings were to go down to
+Harwich and put themselves on board Jack Stuart's yacht. The hall of
+the house in Berkeley Square was strewed with portmanteaus,
+gun-cases, and fishing-rods, whereas the wine and packets of
+preserved meat, and the bottled beer and fish in tins, and the large
+box of cigars, and the prepared soups, had been sent down by Boxall,
+and were by this time on board the boat. Hugh and Archie were to
+leave London this day by train at 5 P.M., and were to sleep on board.
+Jack Stuart was already there, having assisted in working the yacht
+round from Brightlingsea.</p>
+
+<p>On that morning Archie had a farewell breakfast at his club with
+Doodles, and after that, having spent the intervening hours in the
+billiard-room, a farewell luncheon. There had been something of
+melancholy in this last day between the friends, originating partly
+in the failure of Archie's hopes as to Lady Ongar, and partly perhaps
+in the bad character which seemed to belong to Jack Stuart and his
+craft. "He has been at it for years, and always coming to grief,"
+said Doodles. "He is just like a man I know, who has been hunting for
+the last ten years, and can't sit a horse at a fence yet. He has
+broken every bone in his skin, and I don't suppose he ever saw a good
+thing to a finish. He never knows whether hounds are in cover, or
+where they are. His only idea is to follow another man's red coat
+till he comes to grief;&mdash;and yet he will go on hunting. There are
+some people who never will understand what they can do, and what they
+can't." In answer to this, Archie reminded his friend that on this
+occasion Jack Stuart would have the advantage of an excellent
+dry-nurse, acknowledged to be very great on such occasions. Would not
+he, Archie Clavering, be there to pilot Jack Stuart and his boat?
+But, nevertheless, Doodles was melancholy, and went on telling
+stories about that unfortunate man who would continue to break his
+bones, though he had no aptitude for out-of-door sports. "He'll be
+carried home on a stretcher some day, you know," said Doodles.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter if he is?" said Archie, boldly, thinking of
+himself and of the danger predicted for him. "A man can only die
+once."</p>
+
+<p>"I call it quite a tempting of Providence," said Doodles.</p>
+
+<p>But their conversation was chiefly about Lady Ongar and the Spy. It
+was only on this day that Doodles had learned that Archie had in
+truth offered his hand, and been rejected; and Captain Clavering was
+surprised by the extent of his friend's sympathy. "It's a doosed
+disagreeable thing,&mdash;a very disagreeable thing indeed," said Doodles.
+Archie, who did not wish to be regarded as specially unfortunate,
+declined to look at the matter in this light; but Doodles insisted.
+"It would cut me up like the very mischief," he said. "I know that;
+and the worst of it is, that perhaps you wouldn't have gone on, only
+for me. I meant it all for the best, old fellow. I did, indeed.
+There; that's the game to you. I'm playing uncommon badly this
+morning; but the truth is, I'm thinking of those women." Now as
+Doodles was playing for a little money, this was really civil on his
+part.</p>
+
+<p>And he would persevere in talking about the Spy, as though there were
+something in his remembrance of the lady which attracted him
+irresistibly to the subject. He had always boasted that in his
+interview with her he had come off with the victory, nor did he now
+cease to make such boasts; but still he spoke of her and her powers
+with an awe which would have completely opened the eyes of any one a
+little more sharp on such matters than Archie Clavering. He was so
+intent on this subject that he sent the marker out of the room so
+that he might discuss it with more freedom, and might plainly express
+his views as to her influence on his friend's fate.</p>
+
+<p>"By George! she's a wonderful woman. Do you know I can't help
+thinking of her at night. She keeps me awake;&mdash;she does, upon my
+honour."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say she keeps me awake, but I wish I had my seventy pounds
+back again."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, if I were you, I shouldn't grudge it. I should think it
+worth pretty nearly all the money to have had the dealing with her."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you ought to go halves."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes;&mdash;only that I ain't flush, I would. When one thinks of it,
+her absolutely taking the notes out of your waistcoat-pocket, upon my
+word it's beautiful! She'd have had it out of mine, if I hadn't been
+doosed sharp."</p>
+
+<p>"She understood what she was about, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"What I should like to know is this: did she or did she not tell Lady
+Ongar what she was to do;&mdash;about you I mean? I daresay she did after
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"And took my money for nothing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you didn't go high enough, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"But that was your fault. I went as high as you told me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you didn't, Clavvy; not if you remember. But the fact is, I
+don't suppose you could go high enough. I shouldn't be surprised if
+such a woman as that wanted&mdash;thousands! I shouldn't indeed. I shall
+never forget the way in which she swore at me;&mdash;and how she abused me
+about my family. I think she must have had some special reason for
+disliking Warwickshire, she said such awful hard things about it."</p>
+
+<p>"How did she know that you came from Warwickshire?"</p>
+
+<p>"She did know it. If I tell you something don't you say anything
+about it. I have an idea about her."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mention it before, because I don't talk much of those sort
+of things. I don't pretend to understand them, and it is better to
+leave them alone."</p>
+
+<p>"But what do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Doodles looked very solemn as he answered. "I think she's a
+medium&mdash;or a media, or whatever it ought to be called."</p>
+
+<p>"What! one of those spirit-rapping people?" And Archie's hair almost
+stood on end as he asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"They don't rap now,&mdash;not the best of them, that is. That was the old
+way, and seems to have been given up."</p>
+
+<p>"But what do you suppose she did?"</p>
+
+<p>"How did she know that the money was in your waistcoat-pocket, now?
+How did she know that I came from Warwickshire? And then she had a
+way of going about the room as though she could have raised herself
+off her feet in a moment if she had chosen. And then her swearing,
+and the rest of it,&mdash;so unlike any other woman, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"But do you think she could have made Julia hate me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I can't tell that. There are such lots of things going on
+now-a-days that a fellow can understand nothing about! But I've no
+doubt of this,&mdash;if you were to tie her up with ropes ever so, I don't
+in the least doubt but what she'd get out."</p>
+
+<p>Archie was awe-struck, and made two or three strokes after this; but
+then he plucked up his courage and asked a
+<span class="nowrap">question,&mdash;</span></p>
+
+<p>"Where do you suppose they get it from, Doodles?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just the question."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it from&mdash;the devil, do you think?" said Archie, whispering the
+name of the Evil One in a very low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes; I suppose that's most likely."</p>
+
+<p>"Because they don't seem to do a great deal of harm with it after
+all. As for my money, she would have had that any way, for I intended
+to give it to her."</p>
+
+<p>"There are people who think," said Doodles, "that the spirits don't
+come from anywhere, but are always floating about."</p>
+
+<p>"And then one person catches them, and another doesn't?" asked
+Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"They tell me that it depends upon what the mediums or medias eat and
+drink," said Doodles, "and upon what sort of minds they have. They
+must be cleverish people, I fancy, or the spirits wouldn't come to
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"But you never hear of any swell being a medium. Why don't the
+spirits go to a prime minister or some of those fellows? Only think
+what a help they'd be."</p>
+
+<p>"If they come from the devil," suggested Doodles, "he wouldn't let
+them do any real good."</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard a deal about them," said Archie, "and it seems to me that
+the mediums are always poor people, and that they come from nobody
+knows where. The Spy is a clever woman I
+<span class="nowrap">daresay&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"There isn't much doubt about that," said the admiring Doodles.</p>
+
+<p>"But you can't say she's respectable, you know. If I was a spirit I
+wouldn't go to a woman who wore such dirty stockings as she had on."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nonsense, Clavvy. What does a spirit care about a woman's
+stockings?"</p>
+
+<p>"But why don't they ever go to the wise people? that's what I want to
+know." And as he asked the question boldly he struck his ball
+sharply, and, lo, the three balls rolled vanquished into three
+different pockets. "I don't believe about it," said Archie, as he
+readjusted the score. "The devil can't do such things as that or
+there'd be an end of everything; and as to spirits in the air, why
+should there be more spirits now than there were four-and-twenty
+years ago?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well, old fellow," said Doodles, "but you and I
+ain't clever enough to understand everything." Then that subject was
+dropped, and Doodles went back for a while to the perils of Jack
+Stuart's yacht.</p>
+
+<p>After the lunch, which was in fact Archie's early dinner, Doodles was
+going to leave his friend, but Archie insisted that his brother
+captain should walk with him up to Berkeley Square, and see the last
+of him into his cab. Doodles had suggested that Sir Hugh would be
+there, and that Sir Hugh was not always disposed to welcome his
+brother's friends to his own house after the most comfortable modes
+of friendship; but Archie explained that on such an occasion as this
+there need be no fear on that head; he and his brother were going
+away together, and there was a certain feeling of jollity about the
+trip which would divest Sir Hugh of his roughness. "And besides,"
+said Archie, "as you will be there to see me off, he'll know that
+you're not going to stay yourself." Convinced by this, Doodles
+consented to walk up to Berkeley Square.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hugh had spent the greatest part of this day at home, immersed
+among his guns and rods, and their various appurtenances. He also had
+breakfasted at his club, but had ordered his luncheon to be prepared
+for him at home. He had arranged to leave Berkeley Square at four,
+and had directed that his lamb chops should be brought to him exactly
+at three. He was himself a little late in coming downstairs, and it
+was ten minutes past the hour when he desired that the chops might be
+put on the table, saying that he himself would be in the drawing-room
+in time to meet them. He was a man solicitous about his lamb chops,
+and careful that the asparagus should be hot; solicitous also as to
+that bottle of Lafitte by which those comestibles were to be
+accompanied and which was, of its own nature, too good to be shared
+with his brother Archie. But as he was on the landing, by the
+drawing-room door, descending quickly, conscious that in obedience to
+his orders the chops had been already served, he was met by a servant
+who, with disturbed face and quick voice, told him that there was a
+lady waiting for him in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"D&mdash;&mdash; it!" said Sir Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"She has just come, Sir Hugh, and says that she specially wants to
+see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why the devil did you let her in?"</p>
+
+<p>"She walked in when the door was opened, Sir Hugh, and I couldn't
+help it. She seemed to be a lady, Sir Hugh, and I didn't like not to
+let her inside the door."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the lady's name?" asked the master.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a foreign name, Sir Hugh. She said she wouldn't keep you five
+minutes." The lamb chops, and the asparagus, and the Lafitte were in
+the dining-room, and the only way to the dining-room lay through the
+hall to which the foreign lady had obtained an entrance. Sir Hugh,
+making such calculations as the moments allowed, determined that he
+would face the enemy, and pass on to his banquet over her prostrate
+body. He went quickly down into the hall, and there was encountered
+by Sophie Gordeloup, who, skipping over the gun-cases, and rushing
+through the portmanteaus, caught the baronet by the arm before he had
+been able to approach the dining-room door. "Sir 'Oo," she said, "I
+am so glad to have caught you. You are going away, and I have things
+to tell you which you must hear&mdash;yes; it is well for you I have
+caught you, Sir 'Oo." Sir Hugh looked as though he by no means
+participated in this feeling, and saying something about his great
+hurry begged that he might be allowed to go to his food. Then he
+added that, as far as his memory served him, he had not the honour of
+knowing the lady who was addressing him.</p>
+
+<p>"You come in to your little dinner," said Sophie, "and I will tell
+you everything as you are eating. Don't mind me. You shall eat and
+drink, and I will talk. I am Madame Gordeloup,&mdash;Sophie Gordeloup.
+Ah,&mdash;you know the name now. Yes. That is me. Count Pateroff is my
+brother. You know Count Pateroff? He knowed Lord Ongar, and I knowed
+Lord Ongar. We know Lady Ongar. Ah,&mdash;you understand now that I can
+have much to tell. It is well you was not gone without seeing me? Eh;
+yes! You shall eat and drink, but suppose you send that man into the
+kitchen!"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hugh was so taken by surprise that he hardly knew how to act on
+the spur of the moment. He certainly had heard of Madame Gordeloup,
+though he had never before seen her. For years past her name had been
+familiar to him in London, and when Lady Ongar had returned as a
+widow it had been, to his thinking, one of her worst offences that
+this woman had been her friend. Under ordinary circumstances his
+judgment would have directed him to desire the servant to put her out
+into the street as an impostor, and to send for the police if there
+was any difficulty. But it certainly might be possible that this
+woman had something to tell with reference to Lady Ongar which it
+would suit his purposes to hear. At the present moment he was not
+very well inclined to his sister-in-law, and was disposed to hear
+evil of her. So he passed on into the dining-room and desired Madame
+Gordeloup to follow him. Then he closed the room door, and standing
+up with his back to the fireplace, so that he might be saved from the
+necessity of asking her to sit down, he declared himself ready to
+hear anything that his visitor might have to say.</p>
+
+<p>"But you will eat your dinner, Sir 'Oo? You will not mind me. I shall
+not care."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, no;&mdash;if you will just say what you have got to say, I
+will be obliged to you."</p>
+
+<p>"But the nice things will be so cold! Why should you mind me? Nobody
+minds me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will wait, if you please, till you have done me the honour of
+leaving me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well,&mdash;you Englishmen are so cold and ceremonious. But Lord
+Ongar was not with me like that. I knew Lord Ongar so well."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Ongar was more fortunate than I am."</p>
+
+<p>"He was a poor man who did kill himself. Yes. It was always that
+bottle of Cognac. And there was other bottles was worser still. Never
+mind; he has gone now, and his widow has got the money. It is she has
+been a fortunate woman! Sir 'Oo, I will sit down here in the
+arm-chair." Sir Hugh made a motion with his hand, not daring to
+forbid her to do as she was minded. "And you, Sir 'Oo;&mdash;will not you
+sit down also?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will continue to stand if you will allow me."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; you shall do as most pleases you. As I did walk here, and
+shall walk back, I will sit down."</p>
+
+<p>"And now if you have anything to say, Madame Gordeloup," said Sir
+Hugh, looking at the silver covers which were hiding the chops and
+the asparagus, and looking also at his watch, "perhaps you will be
+good enough to say it."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything to say! Yes, Sir 'Oo, I have something to say. It is a pity
+you will not sit at your dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not sit at my dinner till you have left me. So now, if you
+will be pleased to <span class="nowrap">proceed&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"I will proceed. Perhaps you don't know that Lord Ongar died in these
+arms?" And Sophie, as she spoke, stretched out her skinny hands, and
+put herself as far as possible into the attitude in which it would be
+most convenient to nurse the head of a dying man upon her bosom. Sir
+Hugh, thinking to himself that Lord Ongar could hardly have received
+much consolation in his fate from this incident, declared that he had
+not heard the fact before. "No; you have not heard it. She have tell
+nothing to her friends here. He die abroad, and she has come back
+with all the money; but she tell nothing to anybody here, so I must
+tell."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't care how he died, Madame Gordeloup. It is nothing to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"But yes, Sir 'Oo. The lady, your wife, is the sister to Lady Ongar.
+Is not that so? Lady Ongar did live with you before she was married.
+Is not that so? Your brother and your cousin both wishes to marry her
+and have all the money. Is not that so? Your brother has come to me
+to help him, and has sent the little man out of Warwickshire. Is not
+that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"What the d&mdash;&mdash; is all that to me?" said Sir Hugh, who did not quite
+understand the story as the lady was telling it.</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain, Sir 'Oo, what the d&mdash;&mdash; it is to you; only I wish
+you were eating the nice things on the table. This Lady Ongar is
+treating me very bad. She treat my brother very bad too. My brother
+is Count Pateroff. We have been put to&mdash;oh, such expenses for her! It
+have nearly ruined me. I make a journey to your London here
+altogether for her. Then, for her, I go down to that accursed little
+island;&mdash;what you call it?&mdash;where she insult me. Oh! all my time is
+gone. Your brother and your cousin, and the little man out of
+Warwickshire, all coming to my house,&mdash;just as it please them."</p>
+
+<p>"But what is this to me?" shouted Sir Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"A great deal to you," screamed back Madame Gordeloup. "You see I
+know everything,&mdash;everything. I have got papers."</p>
+
+<p>"What do I care for your papers? Look here, Madame Gordeloup, you had
+better go away."</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet, Sir 'Oo; not yet. You are going away to Norway&mdash;I know; and
+I am ruined before you come back."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, madame; do you mean that you want money from me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want my rights, Sir 'Oo. Remember, I know everything;&mdash;everything;
+oh, such things! If they were all known,&mdash;in the newspapers, you
+understand, or that kind of thing, that lady in Bolton Street would
+lose all her money to-morrow. Yes. There is uncles to the little
+lord; yes! Ah, how much would they give me, I wonder? They would not
+tell me to go away."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie was perhaps justified in the estimate she had made of Sir
+Hugh's probable character from the knowledge which she had acquired
+of his brother Archie; but, nevertheless, she had fallen into a great
+mistake. There could hardly have been a man then in London less
+likely to fall into her present views than Sir Hugh Clavering. Not
+only was he too fond of his money to give it away without knowing why
+he did so; but he was subject to none of that weakness by which some
+men are prompted to submit to such extortions. Had he believed her
+story, and had Lady Ongar been really dear to him, he would never
+have dealt with such a one as Madame Gordeloup otherwise than through
+the police.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Gordeloup," said he, "if you don't immediately take yourself
+off, I shall have you put out of the house."</p>
+
+<p>He would have sent for a constable at once, had he not feared that by
+doing so, he would retard his journey.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" said Sophie, whose courage was as good as his own. "Me put
+out of the house! Who shall touch me?"</p>
+
+<p>"My servant shall; or if that will not do, the police. Come, walk."
+And he stepped over towards her as though he himself intended to
+assist in her expulsion by violence.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you are there; I see you; and what next?" said Sophie. "You,
+and your valk! I can tell you things fit for you to know, and you
+say, Valk. If I valk, I will valk to some purpose. I do not often
+valk for nothing when I am told&mdash;Valk!" Upon this, Sir Hugh rang the
+bell with some violence. "I care nothing for your bells, or for your
+servants, or for your policemen. I have told you that your sister owe
+me a great deal of money, and you say,&mdash;Valk. I vill valk." Thereupon
+the servant came into the room, and Sir Hugh, in an angry voice,
+desired him to open the front door. "Yes,&mdash;open vide," said Sophie,
+who, when anger came upon her, was apt to drop into a mode of
+speaking English which she was able to avoid in her cooler moments.
+"Sir 'Oo, I am going to valk, and you shall hear of my valking."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to take that as a threat?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a tret at all," said she; "only a promise. Ah, I am good to keep
+my promises! Yes, I make a promise. Your poor wife,&mdash;down with the
+daises; I know all, and she shall hear too. That is another promise.
+And your brother, the captain. Oh! here he is, and the little man out
+of Warwickshire." She had got up from her chair, and had moved
+towards the door with the intention of going; but just as she was
+passing out into the hall, she encountered Archie and Doodles. Sir
+Hugh, who had been altogether at a loss to understand what she had
+meant by the man out of Warwickshire, followed her into the hall, and
+became more angry than before at finding that his brother had brought
+a friend to his house at so very inopportune a moment. The wrath in
+his face was so plainly expressed that Doodles could perceive it, and
+wished himself away. The presence also of the Spy was not pleasant to
+the gallant captain. Was the wonderful woman ubiquitous, that he
+should thus encounter her again, and that so soon after all the
+things that he had spoken of her on this morning? "How do you do,
+gentlemen?" said Sophie. "There is a great many boxes here, and I
+with my crinoline have not got room." Then she shook hands, first
+with Archie, and then with Doodles; and asked the latter why he was
+not as yet gone to Warwickshire. Archie, in almost mortal fear,
+looked up into his brother's face. Had his brother learned the story
+of that seventy pounds? Sir Hugh was puzzled beyond measure at
+finding that the woman knew the two men; but having still an eye to
+his lamb chops, was chiefly anxious to get rid of Sophie and Doodles
+together.</p>
+
+<p>"This is my friend Boodle,&mdash;Captain Boodle," said Archie, trying to
+put a bold face upon the crisis. "He has come to see me off."</p>
+
+<p>"Very kind of him," said Sir Hugh. "Just make way for this lady, will
+you? I want to get her out of the house if I can. Your friend seems
+to know her; perhaps he'll be good enough to give her his arm."</p>
+
+<p>"Who;&mdash;I?" said Doodles. "No; I don't know her particularly. I did
+meet her once before, just once,&mdash;in a casual way."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Booddle and me is very good friends," said Sophie. "He come
+to my house and behave himself very well; only he is not so handy a
+man as your brother, Sir 'Oo."</p>
+
+<p>Archie trembled, and he trembled still more when his brother, turning
+to him, asked him if he knew the woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he know the woman very well," said Sophie. "Why do you not come
+any more to see me? You send your little friend; but I like you
+better yourself. You come again when you return, and all that shall
+be made right."</p>
+
+<p>But still she did not go. She had now seated herself on a gun-case
+which was resting on a portmanteau, and seemed to be at her ease. The
+time was going fast, and Sir Hugh, if he meant to eat his chops, must
+eat them at once.</p>
+
+<p>"See her out of the hall, into the street," he said to Archie; "and
+if she gives trouble, send for the police. She has come here to get
+money from me by threats, and only that we have no time, I would have
+her taken to the lock-up house at once." Then Sir Hugh retreated into
+the dining-room and shut the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Lock-up-ouse!" said Sophie, scornfully. "What is dat?"</p>
+
+<p>"He means a prison," said Doodles.</p>
+
+<p>"Prison! I know who is most likely be in a prison. Tell me of a
+prison! Is he a minister of state that he can send out order for me
+to be made prisoner? Is there lettres de cachet now in England? I
+think not. Prison, indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>"But really, Madame Gordeloup, you had better go; you had, indeed,"
+said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"You, too&mdash;you bid me go? Did I bid you go when you came to me? Did I
+not tell you, sit down? Was I not polite? Did I send for a police? or
+talk of lock-up-ouse to you? No. It is English that do these things;
+only English."</p>
+
+<p>Archie felt that it was incumbent on him to explain that his visit to
+her house had been made under other circumstances,&mdash;that he had
+brought money instead of seeking it; and had, in fact, gone to her
+simply in the way of her own trade. He did begin some preliminaries
+to this explanation; but as the servant was there, and as his brother
+might come out from the dining-room,&mdash;and as also he was aware that
+he could hardly tell the story much to his own advantage, he stopped
+abruptly, and, looking piteously at Doodles, implored him to take the
+lady away.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you wouldn't mind just seeing her into Mount Street," said
+Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"Who; I?" said Doodles, electrified.</p>
+
+<p>"It is only just round the corner," said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Captain Booddle, we will go," said Sophie. "This is a bad
+house; and your Sir 'Oo,&mdash;I do not like him at all. Lock-up, indeed!
+I tell you he shall very soon be locked up himself. There is what you
+call Davy's locker. I know;&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+<p>Doodles also trembled when he heard this anathema, and thought once
+more of the character of Jack Stuart and his yacht.</p>
+
+<p>"Pray go with her," said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"But I had come to see you off."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," said Archie. "He is in such a taking, you know. God
+bless you, old fellow; good-by! I'll write and tell you what fish we
+get, and mind you tell me what Turriper does for the Bedfordshire.
+Good-by, Madame Gordeloup&mdash;good-by."</p>
+
+<p>There was no escape for him, so Doodles put on his hat and prepared
+to walk away to Mount Street with the Spy under his arm,&mdash;the Spy as
+to whose avocations, over and beyond those of her diplomatic
+profession, he had such strong suspicions! He felt inclined to be
+angry with his friend, but the circumstances of his parting hardly
+admitted of any expression of anger.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Clavvy," he said. "Yes; I'll write; that is, if I've got
+anything to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Take care of yourself, captain," said Sophie.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"Mind you come and see me when you come back," said Sophie.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will," said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"And we'll make that all right for you yet. Gentlemen, when they have
+so much to gain, shouldn't take a No too easy. You come with your
+handy glove, and we'll see about it again." Then Sophie walked off
+leaning upon the arm of Captain Boodle, and Archie stood at the door
+watching them till they turned out of sight round the corner of the
+square. At last he saw them no more, and then he returned to his
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>And as we shall see Doodles no more,&mdash;or almost no more,&mdash;we will now
+bid him adieu civilly. The pair were not ill-matched, though the lady
+perhaps had some advantage in acuteness, given to her no doubt by the
+experience of a longer life. Doodles, as he walked along two sides of
+the square with the fair burden on his arm, felt himself to be in
+some sort proud of his position, though it was one from which he
+would not have been sorry to escape, had escape been possible. A
+remarkable phenomenon was the Spy, and to have walked round Berkeley
+Square with such a woman leaning on his arm, might in coming years be
+an event to remember with satisfaction. In the meantime he did not
+say much to her, and did not quite understand all that she said to
+him. At last he came to the door which he well remembered, and then
+he paused. He did not escape even then. After a while the door was
+opened, and those who were passing might have seen Captain Boodle,
+slowly and with hesitating steps, enter the narrow passage before the
+lady. Then Sophie followed, and closed the door behind her. As far as
+this story goes, what took place at that interview cannot be known.
+Let us bid farewell to Doodles, and wish him a happy escape.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you come to know that woman?" said Hugh to his brother, as
+soon as Archie was in the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>"She was a friend of Julia's," said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't given her money?" Hugh asked.</p>
+
+<p>"O dear, no," said Archie.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after that they got into their cab; the things were
+pitched on the top; and,&mdash;for a while,&mdash;we may bid adieu to them
+also.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c40"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XL.</h3>
+<h4>SHEWING HOW MRS. BURTON FOUGHT HER BATTLE.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill40-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="F" />lorence,
+I have been to Bolton Street and I have seen Lady Ongar."
+Those were the first words which Cecilia Burton spoke to her
+sister-in-law, when she found Florence in the drawing-room on her
+return from the visit which she had made to the countess. Florence
+had still before her the desk on which she had been writing; and the
+letter in its envelope addressed to Mrs. Clavering, but as yet
+unclosed, was lying beneath her blotting-paper. Florence, who had
+never dreamed of such an undertaking on Cecilia's part, was astounded
+at the tidings which she heard. Of course her first effort was made
+to learn from her sister's tone and countenance what had been the
+result of this interview;&mdash;but she could learn nothing from either.
+There was no radiance as of joy in Mrs. Burton's face, nor was there
+written there anything of despair. Her voice was serious and almost
+solemn, and her manner was very grave;&mdash;but that was all. "You have
+seen her?" said Florence, rising up from her chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear. I may have done wrong. Theodore, I know, will say so. But
+I thought it best to try to learn the truth before you wrote to Mrs.
+Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is the truth? But perhaps you have not learned it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have learned all that she could tell me. She has been very
+frank."</p>
+
+<p>"Well;&mdash;what is the truth? Do not suppose, dearest, that I cannot
+bear it. I hope for nothing now. I only want to have this settled,
+that I may be at rest."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this Mrs. Burton took the suffering girl in her arms and
+caressed her tenderly. "My love," said she, "it is not easy for us to
+be at rest. You cannot be at rest as yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I can. I will be so, when I know that this is settled. I do not wish
+to interfere with his fortune. There is my letter to his mother, and
+now I will go back to Stratton."</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet, dearest; not yet," said Mrs. Burton, taking the letter in
+her hand, but refraining from withdrawing it at once from the
+envelope. "You must hear what I have heard to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she say that she loves him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes;&mdash;she loves him. We must not doubt that."</p>
+
+<p>"And he;&mdash;what does she say of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"She says what you also must say, Florence;&mdash;though it is hard that
+it should be so. It must be as he shall decide."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Florence, withdrawing herself from the arm that was still
+around her. "No; it shall not be as he may choose to decide. I will
+not so submit myself to him. It is enough as it is. I will never see
+him more;&mdash;never. To say that I do not love him would be untrue, but
+I will never see him again."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, dear; stop. What if it be no fault of his?"</p>
+
+<p>"No fault of his that he went to her when we&mdash;we&mdash;we&mdash;he and I&mdash;were,
+as we were, together!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course there has been some fault; but, Flo dearest, listen to me.
+You know that I would ask you to do nothing from which a woman should
+shrink."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that you would give your heart's blood for me;&mdash;but nothing
+will be of avail now. Do not look at me with melancholy eyes like
+that. Cissy, it will not kill me. It is only the doubt that kills
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not look at you with melancholy eyes, but you must listen to
+me. She does not herself know what his intention is."</p>
+
+<p>"But I know it,&mdash;and I know my own. Read my letter, Cissy. There is
+not one word of anger in it, nor will I ever utter a reproach. He
+knew her first. If he loved her through it all, it was a pity he
+could not be constant to his love, even though she was false to him."</p>
+
+<p>"But you won't hear me, Flo. As far as I can learn the truth,&mdash;as I
+myself most firmly believe,&mdash;when he went to her on her return to
+England, he had no other intention than that of visiting an old
+friend."</p>
+
+<p>"But what sort of friend, Cissy?"</p>
+
+<p>"He had no idea then of being untrue to you. But when he saw her the
+old intimacy came back. That was natural. Then he was dazzled by her
+beauty."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she then so beautiful?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is very beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"Let him go to her," said Florence, tearing herself away from her
+sister's arm, and walking across the room with a quick and almost
+angry step. "Let her have him. Cissy, there shall be an end of it. I
+will not condescend to solicit his love. If she is such as you say,
+and if beauty with him goes for everything,&mdash;what chance could there
+be for such as me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say that beauty with him went for everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it does. I ought to have known that it would be so with
+such a one as him. And then she is rich also,&mdash;wonderfully rich! What
+right can I have to think of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Florence, you are unjust. You do not even suspect that it is her
+money."</p>
+
+<p>"To me it is the same thing. I suppose that a woman who is so
+beautiful has a right to everything. I know that I am plain, and I
+will be&mdash;content&mdash;in future&mdash;to think no
+<span class="nowrap">more&mdash;"</span> Poor Florence, when
+she had got as far as that, broke down, and could go on no further
+with the declaration which she had been about to make as to her
+future prospects. Mrs. Burton, taking advantage of this, went on with
+her story, struggling, not altogether unsuccessfully, to assume a
+calm tone of unimpassioned reason.</p>
+
+<p>"As I said before, he was dazzled&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dazzled!&mdash;oh!"</p>
+
+<p>"But even then he had no idea of being untrue to you."</p>
+
+<p>"No; he was untrue without an idea. That is worse."</p>
+
+<p>"Florence, you are perverse, and are determined to be unfair. I must
+beg that you will hear me to the end, so that then you may be able to
+judge what course you ought to follow." This Mrs. Burton said with
+the air of a great authority; after which she continued in a voice
+something less stern&mdash;"He thought of doing no injury to you when he
+went to see her; but something of the feeling of his old love grew
+upon him when he was in her company, and he became embarrassed by his
+position before he was aware of his own danger. He might, of course,
+have been stronger." Here Florence exhibited a gesture of strong
+impatience, though she did not speak. "I am not going to defend him
+altogether, but I think you must admit that he was hardly tried. Of
+course I cannot say what passed between them, but I can understand
+how easily they might recur to the old scenes;&mdash;how naturally she
+would wish for a renewal of the love which she had been base enough
+to betray! She does not, however, consider herself as at present
+engaged to him. That you may know for certain. It may be that she has
+asked him for such a promise, and that he has hesitated. If so, his
+staying away from us, and his not writing to you, can be easily
+understood."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is it you would have me do?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is ill now. Wait till he is well. He would have been here before
+this, had not illness prevented him. Wait till he comes."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot do that, Cissy. Wait I must, but I cannot wait without
+offering him, through his mother, the freedom which I have so much
+reason to know that he desires."</p>
+
+<p>"We do not know that he desires it. We do not know that his mother
+even suspects him of any fault towards you. Now that he is there,&mdash;at
+home,&mdash;away from Bolton
+<span class="nowrap">Street&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"I do not care to trust to such influences as that, Cissy. If he
+could not spend this morning with her in her own house, and then as
+he left her feel that he preferred me to her, and to all the world, I
+would rather be as I am than take his hand. He shall not marry me
+from pity, nor yet from a sense of duty. We know the old story,&mdash;how
+the devil would be a monk when he was sick. I will not accept his
+sick-bed allegiance, or have to think that I owe my husband to a
+mother's influence over him while he is ill."</p>
+
+<p>"You will make me think, Flo, that you are less true to him than she
+is."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it is so. Let him have what good such truth as hers can do
+him. For me, I feel that it is my duty to be true to myself. I will
+not condescend to indulge my heart at the cost of my pride as a
+woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Florence, I hate that word pride."</p>
+
+<p>"You would not hate it for yourself, in my place."</p>
+
+<p>"You need take no shame to love him."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I taken shame to love him?" said Florence, rising again from
+her chair. "Have I been missish or coy about my love? From the moment
+in which I knew that it was a pleasure to myself to regard him as my
+future husband, I have spoken of my love as being always proud of it.
+I have acknowledged it as openly as you can do yours for Theodore. I
+acknowledge it still, and will never deny it. Take shame that I have
+loved him! No. But I should take to myself great shame should I ever
+be brought so low as to ask him for his love, when once I had learned
+to think that he had transferred it from myself to another woman."
+Then she walked the length of the room, backwards and forwards, with
+hasty steps, not looking at her sister-in-law, whose eyes were now
+filled with tears. "Come, Cissy," she then said, "we will make an end
+of this. Read my letter if you choose to read it,&mdash;though indeed it
+is not worth the reading, and then let me send it to the post."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burton now opened the letter and read it very slowly. It was
+stern and almost unfeeling in the calmness of the words chosen; but
+in those words her proposed marriage with Harry Clavering was
+absolutely abandoned. "I know," she said, "that your son is more
+warmly attached to another lady than he is to me, and under those
+circumstances, for his sake as well as for mine, it is necessary that
+we should part. Dear Mrs. Clavering, may I ask you to make him
+understand that he and I are never to recur to the past? If he will
+send me back any letters of mine,&mdash;should any have been kept,&mdash;and
+the little present which I once gave him, all will have been done
+which need be done, and all have been said which need be said. He
+will receive in a small parcel his own letters and the gifts which he
+has made me." There was in this a tone of completeness,&mdash;as of a
+business absolutely finished,&mdash;of a judgment admitting no appeal,
+which did not at all suit Mrs. Burton's views. A letter, quite as
+becoming on the part of Florence, might, she thought, be written,
+which would still leave open a door for reconciliation. But Florence
+was resolved, and the letter was sent.</p>
+
+<p>The part which Mrs. Burton had taken in this conversation had
+surprised even herself. She had been full of anger with Harry
+Clavering,&mdash;as wrathful with him as her nature permitted her to be;
+and yet she had pleaded his cause with all her eloquence, going
+almost so far in her defence of him as to declare that he was
+blameless. And in truth she was prepared to acquit him of blame,&mdash;to
+give him full absolution without penance,&mdash;if only he could be
+brought back again into the fold. Her wrath against him would be very
+hot should he not so return;&mdash;but all should be more than forgiven if
+he would only come back, and do his duty with affectionate and
+patient fidelity. Her desire was, not so much that justice should be
+done, as that Florence should have the thing coveted, and that
+Florence's rival should not have it. According to the arguments, as
+arranged by her feminine logic, Harry Clavering would be all right or
+all wrong according as he might at last bear himself. She desired
+success, and, if she could only be successful, was prepared to
+forgive everything. And even yet she would not give up the battle,
+though she admitted to herself that Florence's letter to Mrs.
+Clavering made the contest more difficult than ever. It might,
+however, be that Mrs. Clavering would be good enough, just enough,
+true enough, clever enough, to know that such a letter as this,
+coming from such a girl and written under such circumstances, should
+be taken as meaning nothing. Most mothers would wish to see their
+sons married to wealth, should wealth throw itself in their way;&mdash;but
+Mrs. Clavering, possibly, might not be such a mother as that.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime there was before her the terrible necessity of
+explaining to her husband the step which she had taken without his
+knowledge, and of which she knew that she must tell him the history
+before she could sit down to dinner with him in comfort. "Theodore,"
+she said, creeping in out of her own chamber to his dressing-room,
+while he was washing his hands, "you mustn't be angry with me, but I
+have done something to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"And why must I not be angry with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean. You mustn't be angry&mdash;especially about
+this,&mdash;because I don't want you to be."</p>
+
+<p>"That's conclusive," said he. It was manifest to her that he was in a
+good humour, which was a great blessing. He had not been tried with
+his work as he was often wont to be, and was therefore willing to be
+playful.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think I've done?" said she. "I have been to Bolton
+Street and have seen Lady Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have, Theodore, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burton had been rubbing his face vehemently with a rough towel at
+the moment in which the communication had been made to him, and so
+strongly was he affected by it that he was stopped in his operation
+and brought to a stand in his movement, looking at his wife over the
+towel as he held it in both his hands. "What on earth has made you do
+such a thing as that?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it best. I thought that I might hear the truth,&mdash;and so I
+have. I could not bear that Florence should be sacrificed whilst
+anything remained undone that was possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you tell me that you were going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear; I thought it better not. Of course I ought to have
+told you, but in this instance I thought it best just to go without
+the fuss of mentioning it."</p>
+
+<p>"What you really mean is, that if you had told me I should have asked
+you not to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"And you were determined to have your own way."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think, Theodore, I care so much about my own way as some
+women do. I am sure I always think your opinion is better than my
+own;&mdash;that is, in most things."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did Lady Ongar say to you?" He had now put down the towel,
+and was seated in his arm-chair, looking up into his wife's face.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a long story to tell you all that she said."</p>
+
+<p>"Was she civil to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She was not uncivil. She is a handsome, proud woman, prone to speak
+out what she thinks and determined to have her own way when it is
+possible; but I think that she intended to be civil to me
+personally."</p>
+
+<p>"What is her purpose now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Her purpose is clear enough. She means to marry Harry Clavering if
+she can get him. She said so. She made no secret of what her wishes
+are."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Cissy, let her marry him, and do not let us trouble ourselves
+further in the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"But Florence, Theodore! Think of Florence!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am thinking of her, and I think that Harry Clavering is not worth
+her acceptance. She is as the traveller that fell among thieves. She
+is hurt and wounded, but not dead. It is for you to be the Good
+Samaritan, but the oil which you should pour into her wounds is not a
+renewed hope as to that worthless man. Let Lady Ongar have him. As
+far as I can see, they are fit for each other."</p>
+
+<p>Then she went through with him, diligently, all the arguments which
+she had used with Florence, palliating Harry's conduct, and
+explaining the circumstances of his disloyalty, almost as those
+circumstances had in truth occurred. "I think you are too hard on
+him," she said. "You can't be too hard on falsehood," he replied.
+"No, not while it exists. But you would not be angry with a man for
+ever, because he should once have been false? But we do not know that
+he is false." "Do we not?" said he. "But never mind; we must go to
+dinner now. Does Florence know of your visit?" Then, before she would
+allow him to leave his room, she explained to him what had taken
+place between herself and Florence, and told him of the letter that
+had been written to Mrs. Clavering. "She is right," said he. "That
+way out of her difficulty is the best that is left to her." But,
+nevertheless, Mrs. Burton was resolved that she would not as yet
+surrender.</p>
+
+<p>Theodore Burton, when he reached the drawing-room, went up to his
+sister and kissed her. Such a sign of the tenderness of love was not
+common with him, for he was one of those who are not usually
+demonstrative in their affection. At the present moment he said
+nothing of what was passing in his mind, nor did she. She simply
+raised her face to meet his lips, and pressed his hand as she held
+it. What need was there of any further sign between them than this?
+Then they went to dinner, and their meal was eaten almost in silence.
+Almost every moment Cecilia's eye was on her sister-in-law. A careful
+observer, had there been one there, might have seen this; but, while
+they remained together downstairs, there occurred among them nothing
+else to mark that all was not well with them.</p>
+
+<p>Nor would the brother have spoken a word during the evening on the
+subject that was so near to all their hearts had not Florence led the
+way. When they were at tea, and when Cecilia had already made up her
+mind that there was to be no further discussion that night, Florence
+suddenly broke forth.</p>
+
+<p>"Theodore," she said, "I have been thinking much about it, and I
+believe I had better go home, to Stratton, to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said Cecilia, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe it will be better that I should," continued Florence. "I
+suppose it is very weak in me to own it; but I am unhappy, and, like
+the wounded bird, I feel that it will be well that I should hide
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia was at her feet in a moment. "Dearest Flo," she said. "Is not
+this your home as well as Stratton?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I am able to be happy it is. Those who have light hearts may
+have more homes than one; but it is not so with those whose hearts
+are heavy. I think it will be best for me to go."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall do exactly as you please," said her brother. "In such a
+matter I will not try to persuade you. I only wish that we could tend
+to comfort you."</p>
+
+<p>"You do comfort me. If I know that you think I am doing right, that
+will comfort me more than anything. Absolute and immediate comfort is
+not to be had when one is sorrowful."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed," said her brother. "Sorrow should not be killed too
+quickly. I always think that those who are impervious to grief must
+be impervious also to happiness. If you have feelings capable of the
+one, you must have them capable also of the other!"</p>
+
+<p>"You should wait, at any rate, till you get an answer from Mrs.
+Clavering," said Cecilia.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know that she has any answer to send to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; she must answer you, if you will think of it. If she
+accepts what you have
+<span class="nowrap">said&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"She cannot but accept it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she must reply to you. There is something which you have asked
+her to send to you; and I think you should wait, at any rate, till it
+reaches you here. Mind I do not think her answer will be of that
+nature; but it is clear that you should wait for it whatever it may
+be." Then Florence, with the concurrence of her brother's opinion,
+consented to remain in London for a few days, expecting the answer
+which would be sent by Mrs. Clavering;&mdash;and after that no further
+discussion took place as to her trouble.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c41"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLI.</h3>
+<h4>THE SHEEP RETURNS TO THE FOLD.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Harry Clavering had spoken solemn words to his mother, during his
+illness, which both he and she regarded as a promise that Florence
+should not be deserted by him. After that promise nothing more was
+said between them on the subject for a few days. Mrs. Clavering was
+contented that the promise had been made, and Harry himself, in the
+weakness consequent upon his illness, was willing enough to accept
+the excuse which his illness gave him for postponing any action in
+the matter. But the fever had left him, and he was sitting up in his
+mother's room, when Florence's letter reached the parsonage,&mdash;and,
+with the letter, the little parcel which she herself had packed up so
+carefully. On the day before that a few words had passed between the
+rector and his wife, which will explain the feelings of both of them
+in the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard," said he,&mdash;speaking in a voice hardly above a
+whisper, although no third person was in the room,&mdash;"that Harry is
+again thinking of making Julia his wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is not thinking of doing so," said Mrs. Clavering. "They who say
+so, do him wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a great thing for him as regards money."</p>
+
+<p>"But he is engaged,&mdash;and Florence Burton has been received here as
+his future wife. I could not endure to think that it should be so. At
+any rate, it is not true."</p>
+
+<p>"I only tell you what I heard," said the rector, gently sighing,
+partly in obedience to his wife's implied rebuke, and partly at the
+thought that so grand a marriage should not be within his son's
+reach. The rector was beginning to be aware that Harry would hardly
+make a fortune at the profession which he had chosen, and that a rich
+marriage would be an easy way out of all the difficulties which such
+a failure promised. The rector was a man who dearly loved easy ways
+out of difficulties. But in such matters as these his wife he knew
+was imperative and powerful, and he lacked the courage to plead for a
+cause that was prudent, but ungenerous.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Clavering received the letter and parcel on the next
+morning, Harry Clavering was still in bed. With the delightful
+privilege of a convalescent invalid, he was allowed in these days to
+get up just when getting up became more comfortable than lying in
+bed, and that time did not usually come till eleven o'clock was
+past;&mdash;but the postman reached the Clavering parsonage by nine. The
+letter, as we know, was addressed to Mrs. Clavering herself, as was
+also the outer envelope which contained the packet; but the packet
+itself was addressed in Florence's clear handwriting to Harry
+Clavering, Esq. "That is a large parcel to come by post, mamma," said
+Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear; but it is something particular."</p>
+
+<p>"It's from some tradesman, I suppose?" said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>"No; it's not from a tradesman," said Mrs. Clavering. But she said
+nothing further, and both husband and daughter perceived that it was
+not intended that they should ask further questions.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny, as usual, had taken her brother his breakfast, and Mrs.
+Clavering did not go up to him till that ceremony had been completed
+and removed. Indeed it was necessary that she should study Florence's
+letter in her own room before she could speak to him about it. What
+the parcel contained she well knew, even before the letter had been
+thoroughly read; and I need hardly say that the treasure was sacred
+in her hands. When she had finished the perusal of the letter there
+was a tear,&mdash;a gentle tear, in each eye. She understood it all, and
+could fathom the strength and weakness of every word which Florence
+had written. But she was such a woman,&mdash;exactly such a woman,&mdash;as
+Cecilia Burton had pictured to herself. Mrs. Clavering was good
+enough, great enough, true enough, clever enough to know that Harry's
+love for Florence should be sustained, and his fancy for Lady Ongar
+overcome. At no time would she have been proud to see her son
+prosperous only in the prosperity of a wife's fortune; but she would
+have been thoroughly ashamed of him, had he resolved to pursue such
+prosperity under his present circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>But her tears,&mdash;though they were there in the corners of her
+eyes,&mdash;were not painful tears. Dear Florence! She was suffering
+bitterly now. This very day would be a day of agony to her. There had
+been for her, doubtless, many days of agony during the past month.
+That the letter was true in all its words Mrs. Clavering did not
+doubt. That Florence believed that all was over between her and
+Harry, Mrs. Clavering was as sure as Florence had intended that she
+should be. But all should not be over, and the days of agony should
+soon be at an end. Her boy had promised her, and to her he had always
+been true. And she understood, too, the way in which these dangers
+had come upon him, and her judgment was not heavy upon her son;&mdash;her
+gracious boy, who had ever been so good to her! It might be that he
+had been less diligent at his work than he should have been,&mdash;that on
+that account further delay would still be necessary; but Florence
+would forgive that, and he had promised that Florence should not be
+deserted.</p>
+
+<p>Then she took the parcel in her hands, and considered all its
+circumstances,&mdash;how precious had once been its contents, and how
+precious doubtless they still were, though they had been thus
+repudiated! And she thought of the moments,&mdash;nay, rather of the
+hours,&mdash;which had been passed in the packing of that little packet.
+She well understood how a girl would linger over such dear pain,
+touching the things over and over again, allowing herself to read
+morsels of the letters at which she had already forbidden herself
+even to look,&mdash;till every word had been again seen and weighed, again
+caressed and again abjured. She knew how those little trinkets would
+have been fondled! How salt had been the tears that had fallen on
+them, and how carefully the drops would have been removed. Every fold
+in the paper of the two envelopes, with the little morsels of wax
+just adequate for their purpose, told of the lingering painful care
+with which the work had been done. Ah! the parcel should go back at
+once with words of love that should put an end to all that pain! She,
+who had sent these loved things away, should have her letters again,
+and should touch her little treasures with fingers that should take
+pleasure in the touching. She should again read her lover's words
+with an enduring delight. Mrs. Clavering understood it all, as though
+she also were still a girl with a lover of her own.</p>
+
+<p>Harry was beginning to think that the time had come in which getting
+up would be more comfortable than lying in bed, when his mother
+knocked at his door and entered his room. "I was just going to make a
+move, mother," he said, having reached that stage of convalescence in
+which some shame comes upon the idler.</p>
+
+<p>"But I want to speak to you first, my dear," said Mrs. Clavering. "I
+have got a letter for you, or rather a parcel." Harry held out his
+hand, and taking the packet, at once recognized the writing of the
+address.</p>
+
+<p>"You know from whom it comes, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, mother."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you know what it contains?" Harry, still holding the packet,
+looked at it, but said nothing. "I know," said his mother; "for she
+has written and told me. Will you see her letter to me?" Again Harry
+held out his hand, but his mother did not at once give him the
+letter. "First of all, my dear, let us know that we understand each
+other. This dear girl,&mdash;to me she is inexpressibly dear,&mdash;is to be
+your wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mother;&mdash;it shall be so."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill41"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill41.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill41-t.jpg" width="550"
+      alt="The sheep returns to the fold." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">The
+      sheep returns to the fold.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill41.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"That is my own boy! Harry, I have never doubted you;&mdash;have never
+doubted that you would be right at last. Now you shall see her
+letter. But you must remember that she has had cause to make her
+unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"I will remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Had you not been ill, everything would of course have been all right
+before now." As to the correctness of this assertion the reader
+probably will have doubts of his own. Then she handed him the letter,
+and sat on his bed-side while he read it. At first he was startled,
+and made almost indignant at the firmness of the girl's words. She
+gave him up as though it were a thing quite decided, and uttered no
+expression of her own regret in doing so. There was no soft woman's
+wail in her words. But there was in them something which made him
+unconsciously long to get back the thing which he had so nearly
+thrown away from him. They inspired him with a doubt whether he might
+yet succeed, which very doubt greatly increased his desire. As he
+read the letter for the second time, Julia became less beautiful in
+his imagination, and the charm of Florence's character became
+stronger.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dear?" said his mother, when she saw that he had finished the
+second reading of the epistle.</p>
+
+<p>He hardly knew how to express, even to his mother, all his
+feelings,&mdash;the shame that he felt, and with the shame something of
+indignation that he should have been so repulsed. And of his love,
+too, he was afraid to speak. He was willing enough to give the
+required assurance, but after that he would have preferred to have
+been left alone. But his mother could not leave him without some
+further word of agreement between them as to the course which they
+would pursue.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you write to her, mother, or shall I?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall write, certainly,&mdash;by to-day's post. I would not leave her
+an hour, if I could help it, without an assurance of your unaltered
+affection."</p>
+
+<p>"I could go to town to-morrow, mother;&mdash;could I not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-morrow, Harry. It would be foolish. Say on Monday."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will write to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"I will send a line also,&mdash;just a line."</p>
+
+<p>"And the parcel?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not opened it yet."</p>
+
+<p>"You know what it contains. Send it back at once, Harry;&mdash;at once. If
+I understand her feelings, she will not be happy till she gets it
+into her hands again. We will send Jem over to the post-office, and
+have it registered."</p>
+
+<p>When so much was settled, Mrs. Clavering went away about the affairs
+of her house, thinking as she did so of the loving words with which
+she would strive to give back happiness to Florence Burton.</p>
+
+<p>Harry, when he was alone, slowly opened the parcel. He could not
+resist the temptation of doing this, and of looking again at the
+things which she had sent back to him. And he was not without an
+idea,&mdash;perhaps a hope&mdash;that there might be with them some short
+note,&mdash;some scrap containing a few words for himself. If he had any
+such hope he was disappointed. There were his own letters, all
+scented with lavender from the casket in which they had been
+preserved; there was the rich bracelet which had been given with some
+little ceremony, and the cheap brooch which he had thrown to her as a
+joke, and which she had sworn that she would value the most of all
+because she could wear it every day; and there was the pencil-case
+which he had fixed on to her watch-chain, while her fingers were
+touching his fingers, caressing him for his love while her words were
+rebuking him for his awkwardness. He remembered it all as the things
+lay strewed upon his bed. And he re-read every word of his own words.
+"What a fool a man makes of himself," he said to himself at last,
+with something of the cheeriness of laughter about his heart. But as
+he said so he was quite ready to make himself a fool after the same
+fashion again,&mdash;if only there were not in his way that difficulty of
+recommencing. Had it been possible for him to write again at once in
+the old strain,&mdash;without any reference to his own conduct during the
+last month, he would have begun his fooling without waiting to finish
+his dressing.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you open the parcel?" his mother asked him, some hour or so
+before it was necessary that Jem should be started on his mission.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I thought it best to open it."</p>
+
+<p>"And have you made it up again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet, mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Put this with it, dear." And his mother gave him a little jewel, a
+cupid in mosaic surrounded by tiny diamonds, which he remembered her
+to wear ever since he had first noticed the things she had worn. "Not
+from me, mind. I give it to you. Come;&mdash;will you trust me to pack
+them?" Then Mrs. Clavering again made up the parcel, and added the
+trinket which she had brought with her.</p>
+
+<p>Harry at last brought himself to write a few words. "Dearest, dearest
+Florence,&mdash;They will not let me out, or I would go to you at once. My
+mother has written, and though I have not seen her letter, I know
+what it contains. Indeed, indeed you may believe it all. May I not
+venture to return the parcel? I do send it back and implore you to
+keep it. I shall be in town, I think, on Monday, and will go to
+Onslow Crescent,&mdash;instantly. Your own, H. C." Then there was scrawled
+a postscript which was worth all the rest put together,&mdash;was better
+than his own note, better than his mother's letter, better than the
+returned packet. "I love no one better than you;&mdash;no one half so
+well,&mdash;neither now, nor ever did." These words, whether wholly true
+or only partially so, were at least to the point; and were taken by
+Cecilia Burton, when she heard of them, as a confession of faith that
+demanded instant and plenary absolution.</p>
+
+<p>The trouble which had called Harry down to Clavering remained, I
+regret to say, almost in full force now that his prolonged visit had
+been brought so near its close. Mr. Saul, indeed, had agreed to
+resign his curacy, and was already on the look-out for similar
+employment in some other parish. And since his interview with Fanny's
+father he had never entered the rectory, or spoken to Fanny. Fanny
+had promised that there should be no such speaking, and indeed no
+danger of that kind was feared. Whatever Mr. Saul might do he would
+do openly,&mdash;nay, audaciously. But though there existed this security,
+nevertheless things as regarded Fanny were very unpleasant. When Mr.
+Saul had commenced his courtship, she had agreed with her family in
+almost ridiculing the idea of such a lover. There had been a feeling
+with her as with the others that poor Mr. Saul was to be pitied. Then
+she had come to regard his overtures as matters of grave import,&mdash;not
+indeed avowing to her mother anything so strong as a return of his
+affection, but speaking of his proposal as one to which there was no
+other objection than that of a want of money. Now, however, she went
+moping about the house as though she were a victim of true love,
+condemned to run unsmoothly for ever; as though her passion for Mr.
+Saul were too much for her, and she were waiting in patience till
+death should relieve her from the cruelty of her parents. She never
+complained. Such victims never do complain. But she moped and was
+wretched, and when her mother questioned her, struggling to find out
+how strong this feeling might in truth be, Fanny would simply make
+her dutiful promises,&mdash;promises which were wickedly dutiful,&mdash;that
+she would never mention the name of Mr. Saul any more. Mr. Saul in
+the meantime went about his parish duties with grim energy, supplying
+the rector's shortcomings without a word. He would have been glad to
+preach all the sermons and read all the services during these six
+months, had he been allowed to do so. He was constant in the
+schools,&mdash;more constant than ever in his visitings. He was very
+courteous to Mr. Clavering when the necessities of their position
+brought them together. For all this Mr. Clavering hated
+him,&mdash;unjustly. For a man placed as Mr. Saul was placed a line of
+conduct exactly level with that previously followed is impossible,
+and it was better that he should become more energetic in his duties
+than less so. It will be easily understood that all these things
+interfered much with the general happiness of the family at the
+rectory at this time.</p>
+
+<p>The Monday came, and Harry Clavering, now convalescent and simply
+interesting from the remaining effects of his illness, started on his
+journey for London. There had come no further letters from Onslow
+Terrace to the parsonage, and, indeed, owing to the intervention of
+Sunday, none could have come unless Florence had written by return of
+post. Harry made his journey, beginning it with some promise of
+happiness to himself,&mdash;but becoming somewhat uneasy as his train drew
+near to London. He had behaved badly, and he knew that in the first
+place he must own that he had done so. To men such a necessity is
+always grievous. Women not unfrequently like the task. To confess,
+submit, and be accepted as confessing and submitting, comes naturally
+to the feminine mind. The cry of peccavi sounds soft and pretty when
+made by sweet lips in a loving voice. But a man who can own that he
+has done amiss without a pang,&mdash;who can so own it to another man, or
+even to a woman,&mdash;is usually but a poor creature. Harry must now make
+such confession, and therefore he became uneasy. And then, for him,
+there was another task behind the one which he would be called upon
+to perform this evening,&mdash;a task which would have nothing of
+pleasantness in it to redeem its pain. He must confess not only to
+Florence,&mdash;where his confession might probably have its reward,&mdash;but
+he must confess also to Julia. This second confession would, indeed,
+be a hard task to him. That, however, was to be postponed till the
+morrow. On this evening he had pledged himself that he would go
+direct to Onslow Terrace; and this he did as soon after he had
+reached his lodgings as was possible. It was past six when he reached
+London, and it was not yet eight when, with palpitating heart, he
+knocked at Mr. Burton's door.</p>
+
+<p>I must take the reader back with me for a few minutes, in order that
+we may see after what fashion the letters from Clavering were
+received by the ladies in Onslow Terrace. On that day Mr. Burton had
+been required to go out of London by one of the early trains, and had
+not been in the house when the postman came. Nothing had been said
+between Cecilia and Florence as to their hopes or fears in regard to
+an answer from Clavering;&mdash;nothing at least since that conversation
+in which Florence had agreed to remain in London for yet a few days;
+but each of them was very nervous on the matter. Any answer, if sent
+at once from Clavering, would arrive on this morning; and therefore,
+when the well-known knock was heard, neither of them was able to
+maintain her calmness perfectly. But yet nothing was said, nor did
+either of them rise from her seat at the breakfast-table. Presently
+the girl came in with apparently a bundle of letters, which she was
+still sorting when she entered the room. There were two or three for
+Mr. Burton, two for Cecilia, and then two besides the registered
+packet for Florence. For that a receipt was needed, and as Florence
+had seen the address and recognized the writing, she was hardly able
+to give her signature. As soon as the maid was gone, Cecilia could
+keep her seat no longer. "I know those are from Clavering," she said,
+rising from her chair, and coming round to the side of the table.
+Florence instinctively swept the packet into her lap, and, leaning
+forward, covered the letters with her hands. "Oh, Florence, let us
+see them; let us see them at once. If we are to be happy let us know
+it." But Florence paused, still leaning over her treasures, and
+hardly daring to show her burning face. Even yet it might be that she
+was rejected. Then Cecilia went back to her seat, and simply looked
+at her sister with beseeching eyes. "I think I'll go upstairs," said
+Florence. "Are you afraid of me, Flo?" Cecilia answered
+reproachfully. "Let me see the outside of them." Then Florence
+brought them round the table, and put them into her sister's hands.
+"May I open this one from Mrs. Clavering?" Florence nodded her head.
+Then the seal was broken, and in one minute the two women were crying
+in each other's arms. "I was quite sure of it," said Cecilia, through
+her tears,&mdash;"perfectly sure. I never doubted it for a moment. How
+could you have talked of going to Stratton?" At last Florence got
+herself away up to the window, and gradually mustered courage to
+break the envelope of her lover's letter. It was not at once that she
+showed the postscript to Cecilia, nor at once that the packet was
+opened. That last ceremony she did perform in the solitude of her own
+room. But before the day was over the postscript had been shown, and
+the added trinket had been exhibited. "I remember it well," said
+Florence. "Mrs. Clavering wore it on her forehead when we dined at
+Lady Clavering's." Mrs. Burton in all this saw something of the
+gentle persuasion which the mother had used, but of that she said
+nothing. That he should be back again, and should have repented, was
+enough for her.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burton was again absent when Harry Clavering knocked in person at
+the door; but on this occasion his absence had been specially
+arranged by him with a view to Harry's comfort. "He won't want to see
+me this evening," he had said. "Indeed you'll all get on a great deal
+better without me." He therefore had remained away from home, and,
+not being a club man, had dined most uncomfortably at an
+eating-house. "Are the ladies at home?" Harry asked, when the door
+was opened. Oh, yes; they were at home. There was no danger that they
+should be found out on such an occasion as this. The girl looked at
+him pleasantly, calling him by his name as she answered him, as
+though she too desired to show him that he had again been taken into
+favour,&mdash;into her favour as well as that of her mistress.</p>
+
+<p>He hardly knew what he was doing as he ran up the steps to the
+drawing-room. He was afraid of what was to come; but nevertheless he
+rushed at his fate as some young soldier rushes at the trench in
+which he feels that he may probably fall. So Harry Clavering hurried
+on, and before he had looked round upon the room which he had
+entered, found his fate with Florence on his bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Alas, alas! I fear that justice was outraged in the welcome that
+Harry received on that evening. I have said that he would be called
+upon to own his sins, and so much, at least, should have been
+required of him. But he owned no sin! I have said that a certain
+degradation must attend him in that first interview after his
+reconciliation. Instead of this the hours that he spent that evening
+in Onslow Terrace were hours of one long ovation. He was, as it were,
+put upon a throne as a king who had returned from his conquest, and
+those two women did him honour, almost kneeling at his feet. Cecilia
+was almost as tender with him as Florence, pleading to her own false
+heart the fact of his illness as his excuse. There was something of
+the pallor of the sick-room left with him,&mdash;a slight tenuity in his
+hands and brightness in his eye which did him yeoman's service. Had
+he been quite robust, Cecilia might have felt that she could not
+justify to herself the peculiar softness of her words. After the
+first quarter of an hour he was supremely happy. His awkwardness had
+gone, and as he sat with his arm round Florence's waist, he found
+that the little pencil-case had again been attached to her chain, and
+as he looked down upon her he saw that the cheap brooch was again on
+her breast. It would have been pretty, could an observer have been
+there, to see the skill with which they both steered clear of any
+word or phrase which could be disagreeable to him. One might have
+thought that it would have been impossible to avoid all touch of a
+rebuke. The very fact that he was forgiven would seem to imply some
+fault that required pardon. But there was no hint at any fault. The
+tact of women excels the skill of men; and so perfect was the tact of
+these women that not a word was said which wounded Harry's ear. He
+had come again into their fold, and they were rejoiced and showed
+their joy. He who had gone astray had repented, and they were
+beautifully tender to the repentant sheep.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c42"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLII.</h3>
+<h4>RESTITUTION.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Harry stayed a little too long with his love,&mdash;a little longer at
+least than had been computed, and in consequence met Theodore Burton
+in the Crescent as he was leaving it. This meeting could hardly be
+made without something of pain, and perhaps it was well for Harry
+that he should have such an opportunity as this for getting over it
+quickly. But when he saw Mr. Burton under the bright gas-lamp he
+would very willingly have avoided him, had it been possible.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Harry?" said Burton, giving his hand to the repentant sheep.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, Burton?" said Harry, trying to speak with an
+unconcerned voice. Then in answer to an inquiry as to his health, he
+told of his own illness, speaking of that confounded fever having
+made him very low. He intended no deceit, but he made more of the
+fever than was necessary.</p>
+
+<p>"When will you come back to the shop?" Burton asked. It must be
+remembered that though the brother could not refuse to welcome back
+to his home his sister's lover, still he thought that the engagement
+was a misfortune. He did not believe in Harry as a man of business,
+and had almost rejoiced when Florence had been so nearly quit of him.
+And now there was a taint of sarcasm in his voice as he asked as to
+Harry's return to the chambers in the Adelphi.</p>
+
+<p>"I can hardly quite say as yet," said Harry, still pleading his
+illness. "They were very much against my coming up to London so soon.
+Indeed I should not have done it had I not felt so very&mdash;very anxious
+to see Florence. I don't know, Burton, whether I ought to say
+anything to you about that."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you have said what you had to say to the women?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I think they understand me completely, and I hope that I
+understand them."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case I don't know that you need say anything to me. Come to
+the Adelphi as soon as you can; that's all. I never think myself that
+a man becomes a bit stronger after an illness by remaining idle."
+Then Harry passed on, and felt that he had escaped easily in that
+interview.</p>
+
+<p>But as he walked home he was compelled to think of the step which he
+must next take. When he had last seen Lady Ongar he had left her with
+a promise that Florence was to be deserted for her sake. As yet that
+promise would by her be supposed to be binding. Indeed he had thought
+it to be binding on himself till he had found himself under his
+mother's influence at the parsonage. During his last few weeks in
+London he had endured an agony of doubt; but in his vacillations the
+pendulum had always veered more strongly towards Bolton Street than
+to Onslow Crescent. Now the swinging of the pendulum had ceased
+altogether. From henceforth Bolton Street must be forbidden ground to
+him, and the sheepfold in Onslow Crescent must be his home till he
+should have established a small peculiar fold for himself. But, as
+yet, he had still before him the task of communicating his final
+decision to the lady in Bolton Street. As he walked home he
+determined that he had better do so in the first place by letter, and
+so eager was he as to the propriety of doing this at once, that on
+his return to his lodgings he sat down, and wrote the letter before
+he went to his bed. It was not very easily written. Here, at any
+rate, he had to make those confessions of which I have before
+spoken;&mdash;confessions which it may be less difficult to make with pen
+and ink than with spoken words, but which when so made are more
+degrading. The word that is written is a thing capable of permanent
+life, and lives frequently to the confusion of its parent. A man
+should make his confessions always by word of mouth if it be
+possible. Whether such a course would have been possible to Harry
+Clavering may be doubtful. It might have been that in a personal
+meeting the necessary confession would not have got itself adequately
+spoken. Thinking, perhaps, of this he wrote his letter as follows on
+that night.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="jright">Bloomsbury Square, July, 186&mdash;.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The date was easily written, but how was he to go on after that? In
+what form of affection or indifference was he to address her whom he
+had at that last meeting called his own, his dearest Julia? He got
+out of his difficulty in the way common to ladies and gentlemen under
+such stress, and did not address her by any name or any epithet. The
+date he allowed to remain, and then he went away at once to the
+matter of his subject.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>I feel that I owe it you at once to tell you what has been
+my history during the last few weeks. I came up from
+Clavering to-day, and have since that been with Mrs. and
+Miss Burton. Immediately on my return from them I sit down
+to write you.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>After having said so much, Harry probably felt that the rest of his
+letter would be surplusage. Those few words would tell her all that
+it was required that she should know. But courtesy demanded that he
+should say more, and he went on with his confession.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>You know that I became engaged to Miss Burton soon after
+your own marriage. I feel now that I should have told you
+this when we first met; but yet, had I done so, it would
+have seemed as though I told it with a special object. I
+don't know whether I make myself understood in this. I can
+only hope that I do so.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Understood! Of course she understood it all. She required no
+blundering explanation from him to assist her intelligence.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>I wish now that I had mentioned it. It would have been
+better for both of us. I should have been saved much pain;
+and you, perhaps, some uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>I was called down to Clavering a few weeks ago, about some
+business in the family, and then became ill,&mdash;so that I
+was confined to my bed instead of returning to town. Had
+it not been for this I should not have left you so long in
+suspense,&mdash;that is if there has been suspense. For myself,
+I have to own that I have been very weak,&mdash;worse than
+weak, I fear you will think. I do not know whether your
+old regard for me will prompt you to make any excuse for
+me, but I am well sure that I can make none for myself
+which will not have suggested itself to you, without my
+urging it. If you choose to think that I have been
+heartless,&mdash;or rather, if you are able so to think of me,
+no words of mine, written or spoken now, will remove that
+impression from your mind.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that I need write nothing further. You will
+understand from what I have said all that I should have to
+say were I to refer at length to that which has passed
+between us. All that is over now, and it only remains for
+me to express a hope that you may be happy. Whether we
+shall ever see each other again who shall say?&mdash;but if we
+do I trust that we may not meet as enemies. May God bless
+you here and hereafter.</p>
+
+<p class="ind12"><span class="smallcaps">Harry
+Clavering</span>.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>When the letter was finished Harry sat for a while by his open window
+looking at the moon, over the chimney-pots of his square, and
+thinking of his career in life as it had hitherto been fulfilled. The
+great promise of his earlier days had not been kept. His plight in
+the world was now poor enough, though his hopes had been so high! He
+was engaged to be married, but had no income on which to marry. He
+had narrowly escaped great wealth. Ah!&mdash;It was hard for him to think
+of that without a regret; but he did strive so to think of it. Though
+he told himself that it would have been evil for him to have depended
+on money which had been procured by the very act which had been to
+him an injury,&mdash;to have dressed himself in the feathers which had
+been plucked from Lord Ongar's wings,&mdash;it was hard for him to think
+of all that he had missed, and rejoice thoroughly that he had missed
+it. But he told himself that he so rejoiced, and endeavoured to be
+glad that he had not soiled his hands with riches which never would
+have belonged to the woman he had loved had she not earned them by
+being false to him. Early on the following morning he sent off his
+letter, and then, putting himself into a cab, bowled down to Onslow
+Crescent. The sheepfold now was very pleasant to him when the head
+shepherd was away, and so much gratification it was natural that he
+should allow himself.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, when he came from his club, he found a note from Lady
+Ongar. It was very short, and the blood rushed to his face as he felt
+ashamed at seeing with how much apparent ease she had answered him.
+He had written with difficulty, and had written awkwardly. But there
+was nothing awkward in her words.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">Dear
+Harry</span>,&mdash;We are quits now. I do not know why we should
+ever meet as enemies. I shall never feel myself to be an
+enemy of yours. I think it would be well that we should
+see each other, and if you have no objection to seeing me,
+I will be at home any evening that you may call. Indeed I
+am at home always in the evening. Surely, Harry, there can
+be no reason why we should not meet. You need not fear
+that there will be danger in it.</p>
+
+<p>Will you give my compliments to Miss Florence Burton, with
+my best wishes for her happiness? Your Mrs. Burton I have
+seen,&mdash;as you may have heard, and I congratulate you on
+your friend.</p>
+
+<p class="ind12">Yours always, J. O.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The writing of this letter seemed to have been easy enough, and
+certainly there was nothing in it that was awkward; but I think that
+the writer had suffered more in the writing than Harry had done in
+producing his longer epistle. But she had known how to hide her
+suffering, and had used a tone which told no tale of her wounds. We
+are quits now, she had said, and she had repeated the words over and
+over again to herself as she walked up and down her room. Yes! they
+were quits now,&mdash;if the reflection of that fact could do her any
+good. She had ill-treated him in her early days; but, as she had told
+herself so often, she had served him rather than injured him by that
+ill-treatment. She had been false to him; but her falsehood had
+preserved him from a lot which could not have been fortunate. With
+such a clog as she would have been round his neck,&mdash;with such a wife,
+without a shilling of fortune, how could he have risen in the world?
+No! Though she had deceived him, she had served him. Then,&mdash;after
+that,&mdash;had come the tragedy of her life, the terrible days in
+thinking of which she still shuddered, the days of her husband and
+Sophie Gordeloup,&mdash;that terrible deathbed, those attacks upon her
+honour, misery upon misery, as to which she never now spoke a word to
+any one, and as to which she was resolved that she never would speak
+again. She had sold herself for money, and had got the price; but the
+punishment of her offence had been very heavy. And now, in these
+latter days, she had thought to compensate the man she had loved for
+the treachery with which she had used him. That treachery had been
+serviceable to him, but not the less should the compensation be very
+rich. And she would love him too. Ah, yes; she had always loved him!
+He should have it all now,&mdash;everything, if only he would consent to
+forget that terrible episode in her life, as she would strive to
+forget it. All that should remain to remind them of Lord Ongar would
+be the wealth that should henceforth belong to Harry Clavering. Such
+had been her dream, and Harry had come to her with words of love
+which made it seem to be a reality. He had spoken to her words of
+love which he was now forced to withdraw, and the dream was
+dissipated. It was not to be allowed to her to escape her penalty so
+easily as that! As for him, they were now quits. That being the case,
+there could be no reason why they should quarrel.</p>
+
+<p>But what now should she do with her wealth, and especially how should
+she act in respect to that place down in the country? Though she had
+learned to hate Ongar Park during her solitary visit there, she had
+still looked forward to the pleasure the property might give her,
+when she should be able to bestow it upon Harry Clavering. But that
+had been part of her dream, and the dream was now over. Through it
+all she had been conscious that she might hardly dare to hope that
+the end of her punishment should come so soon,&mdash;and now she knew that
+it was not to come. As far as she could see, there was no end to the
+punishment in prospect for her. From her first meeting with Harry
+Clavering on the platform of the railway station his presence, or her
+thoughts of him, had sufficed to give some brightness to her
+life,&mdash;had enabled her to support the friendship of Sophie Gordeloup,
+and also to support her solitude when poor Sophie had been banished.
+But now she was left without any resource. As she sat alone,
+meditating on all this, she endeavoured to console herself with the
+reflection that, after all, she was the one whom Harry loved,&mdash;whom
+Harry would have chosen, had he been free to choose. But the comfort
+to be derived from that was very poor. Yes; he had loved her
+once,&mdash;nay, perhaps he loved her still. But when that love was her
+own she had rejected it. She had rejected it, simply declaring to
+him, to her friends, and to the world at large, that she preferred to
+be rich. She had her reward, and, bowing her head upon her hands, she
+acknowledged that the punishment was deserved.</p>
+
+<p>Her first step after writing her note to Harry was to send for Mr.
+Turnbull, her lawyer. She had expected to see Harry on the evening of
+the day on which she had written, but instead of that she received a
+note from him in which he said that he would come to her before long.
+Mr. Turnbull was more instant in obeying her commands, and was with
+her on the morning after he received her injunction. He was almost a
+perfect stranger to her, having only seen her once and that for a few
+moments after her return to England. Her marriage settlements had
+been prepared for her by Sir Hugh's attorney; but during her sojourn
+in Florence it had become necessary that she should have some one in
+London to look after her own affairs, and Mr. Turnbull had been
+recommended to her by lawyers employed by her husband. He was a
+prudent, sensible man, who recognized it to be his imperative
+interest to look after his client's interest. And he had done his
+duty by Lady Ongar in that trying time immediately after her return.
+An offer had then been made by the Courton family to give Julia her
+income without opposition if she would surrender Ongar Park. To this
+she had made objections with indignation, and Mr. Turnbull, though he
+had at first thought that she would be wise to comply with the terms
+proposed, had done her work for her with satisfactory expedition.
+Since those days she had not seen him, but now she had summoned him,
+and he was with her in Bolton Street.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to speak to you, Mr. Turnbull," she said, "about that place
+down in Surrey. I don't like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Not like Ongar Park?" he said. "I have always heard that it is so
+charming."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not charming to me. It is a sort of property that I don't
+want, and I mean to give it up."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Ongar's uncles would buy your interest in it, I have no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. They have sent to me, offering to do so. My brother-in-law,
+Sir Hugh Clavering, called on me with a message from them saying so.
+I thought that he was very foolish to come, and so I told him. Such
+things should be done by one's lawyers. Don't you think so, Mr.
+Turnbull?" Mr. Turnbull smiled as he declared that, of course, he,
+being a lawyer, was of that opinion. "I am afraid they will have
+thought me uncivil," continued Julia, "as I spoke rather brusquely to
+Sir Hugh Clavering. I am not inclined to take any steps through Sir
+Hugh Clavering; but I do not know that I have any reason to be angry
+with the little lord's family."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Lady Ongar, I think not. When your ladyship returned there
+was some opposition thought of for a while, but I really do not think
+it was their fault."</p>
+
+<p>"No; it was not their fault."</p>
+
+<p>"That was my feeling at the time; it was indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"It was the fault of Lord Ongar,&mdash;of my husband. As regards all the
+Courtons I have no word of complaint to make. It is not to be
+expected,&mdash;it is not desirable that they and I should be friends. It
+is impossible, after what has passed, that there should be such
+friendship. But they have never injured me, and I wish to oblige
+them. Had Ongar Park suited me I should, doubtless, have kept it; but
+it does not suit me, and they are welcome to have it back again."</p>
+
+<p>"Has a price been named, Lady Ongar?"</p>
+
+<p>"No price need be named. There is to be no question of a price. Lord
+Ongar's mother is welcome to the place,&mdash;or rather to such interest
+as I have in it."</p>
+
+<p>"And to pay a rent?" suggested Mr. Turnbull.</p>
+
+<p>"To pay no rent! Nothing would induce me to let the place, or to sell
+my right in it. I will have no bargain about it. But as nothing also
+will induce me to live there, I am not such a dog in the manger as to
+wish to keep it. If you will have the kindness to see Mr. Courton's
+lawyer and to make arrangements about it."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Lady Ongar; what you call your right in the estate is worth
+over twenty thousand pounds. It is indeed. You could borrow twenty
+thousand pounds on the security of it to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't want to borrow twenty thousand pounds."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; exactly. Of course you don't. But I point out that fact to
+show the value. You would be making a present of that sum of money to
+people who do not want it,&mdash;who have no claim upon you. I really
+don't see how they could take it."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Courton wishes to have the place very much."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my lady, she has never thought of getting it without paying for
+it. Lady Ongar, I really cannot advise you to take any such step as
+that. Indeed, I cannot. I should be wrong, as your lawyer, if I did
+not point out to you that such a proceeding would be quite
+romantic,&mdash;quite so; what the world would call Quixotic. People don't
+expect such things as that. They don't, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"People don't often have such reasons as I have," said Lady Ongar.
+Mr. Turnbull sat silent for a while, looking as though he were
+unhappy. The proposition made to him was one which, as a lawyer, he
+felt to be very distasteful to him. He knew that his client had no
+male friends in whom she confided, and he felt that the world would
+blame him if he allowed this lady to part with her property in the
+way she had suggested. "You will find that I am in earnest," she
+continued, smiling. "And you may as well give way to my vagaries with
+a good grace."</p>
+
+<p>"They would not take it, Lady Ongar."</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate we can try them. If you will make them understand that I
+don't at all want the place, and that it will go to rack and ruin
+because there is no one to live there, I am sure they will take it."</p>
+
+<p>Then Mr. Turnbull again sat silent and unhappy, thinking with what
+words he might best bring forward his last and strongest argument
+against this rash proceeding.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Ongar," he said, "in your peculiar position there are double
+reasons why you should not act in this way."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Mr. Turnbull? What is my peculiar position?"</p>
+
+<p>"The world will say that you have restored Ongar Park because you
+were afraid to keep it. Indeed, Lady Ongar, you had better let it
+remain as it is."</p>
+
+<p>"I care nothing for what the world says," she exclaimed, rising
+quickly from her chair;&mdash;"nothing; nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"You should really hold by your rights; you should, indeed. Who can
+possibly say what other interests may be concerned? You may marry,
+and live for the next fifty years, and have a family. It is my duty,
+Lady Ongar, to point out these things to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you are quite right, Mr. Turnbull," she said, struggling
+to maintain a quiet demeanour. "You, of course, are only doing your
+duty. But whether I marry or whether I remain as I am, I shall give
+up this place. And as for what the world, as you call it, may say, I
+will not deny that I cared much for that on my immediate return. What
+people said then made me very unhappy. But I care nothing for it now.
+I have established my rights, and that has been sufficient. To me it
+seems that the world, as you call it, has been civil enough in its
+usage of me lately. It is only of those who should have been my
+friends that I have a right to complain. If you will please to do
+this thing for me, I will be obliged to you."</p>
+
+<p>"If you are quite determined about it&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite determined. What is the use of the place to me? I never
+shall go there. What is the use even of the money that comes to me? I
+have no purpose for it. I have nothing to do with it."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in her tone as she said this which well filled
+him with pity.</p>
+
+<p>"You should remember," he said, "how short a time it is since you
+became a widow. Things will be different with you soon."</p>
+
+<p>"My clothes will be different, if you mean that," she answered; "but
+I do not know that there will be any other change in me. But I am
+wrong to trouble you with all this. If you will let Mr. Courton's
+lawyer know, with my compliments to Mrs. Courton, that I have heard
+that she would like to have the place, and that I do not want it, I
+will be obliged to you." Mr. Turnbull having by this time perceived
+that she was quite in earnest, took his leave, having promised to do
+her bidding.</p>
+
+<p>In this interview she had told her lawyer only a part of the plan
+which was now running in her head. As for giving up Ongar Park, she
+took to herself no merit for that. The place had been odious to her
+ever since she had endeavoured to establish herself there and had
+found that the clergyman's wife would not speak to her,&mdash;that even
+her own housekeeper would hardly condescend to hold converse with
+her. She felt that she would be a dog in the manger to keep the place
+in her own possession. But she had thoughts beyond this,&mdash;resolutions
+only as yet half-formed as to a wider surrender. She had disgraced
+herself, ruined herself, robbed herself of all happiness by the
+marriage she had made. Her misery had not been simply the misery of
+that lord's lifetime. As might have been expected, that was soon
+over. But an enduring wretchedness had come after that from which she
+saw no prospect of escape. What was to be her future life, left as
+she was and would be, in desolation? If she were to give it all
+up,&mdash;all the wealth that had been so ill-gotten,&mdash;might there not
+then be some hope of comfort for her?</p>
+
+<p>She had been willing enough to keep Lord Ongar's money, and use it
+for the purposes of her own comfort, while she had still hoped that
+comfort might come from it. The remembrance of all that she had to
+give had been very pleasant to her, as long as she had hoped that
+Harry Clavering would receive it at her hands. She had not at once
+felt that the fruit had all turned to ashes. But now,&mdash;now that Harry
+was gone from her,&mdash;now that she had no friend left to her whom she
+could hope to make happy by her munificence,&mdash;the very knowledge of
+her wealth was a burden to her. And as she thought of her riches in
+these first days of her desertion, as she had indeed been thinking
+since Cecilia Burton had been with her, she came to understand that
+she was degraded by their acquisition. She had done that which had
+been unpardonably bad, and she felt like Judas when he stood with the
+price of his treachery in his hand. He had given up his money, and
+would not she do as much? There had been a moment in which she had
+nearly declared all her purpose to the lawyer, but she was held back
+by the feeling that she ought to make her plans certain before she
+communicated them to him.</p>
+
+<p>She must live. She could not go out and hang herself as Judas had
+done. And then there was her title and rank, of which she did not
+know whether it was within her power to divest herself. She sorely
+felt the want of some one from whom in her present need she might ask
+counsel; of some friend to whom she could trust to tell her in what
+way she might now best atone for the evil she had done. Plans ran
+through her head which were thrown aside almost as soon as made,
+because she saw that they were impracticable. She even longed in
+these days for her sister's aid, though of old she had thought but
+little of Hermy as a counsellor. She had no friend whom she might
+ask;&mdash;unless she might still ask Harry Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>If she did not keep it all might she still keep something,&mdash;enough
+for decent life,&mdash;and yet comfort herself with the feeling that she
+had expiated her sin? And what would be said of her when she had made
+this great surrender? Would not the world laugh at her instead of
+praising her,&mdash;that world as to which she had assured Mr. Turnbull
+that she did not care what its verdict about her might be? She had
+many doubts. Ah! why had not Harry Clavering remained true to her?
+But her punishment had come upon her with all its severity, and she
+acknowledged to herself now that it was not to be avoided.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c43"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLIII.</h3>
+<h4>LADY ONGAR'S REVENGE.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill43-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="A" />t last
+came the night which Harry had fixed for his visit to Bolton
+Street. He had looked forward certainly with no pleasure to the
+interview, and now that the time for it had come, was disposed to
+think that Lady Ongar had been unwise in asking for it. But he had
+promised that he would go, and there was no possible escape.</p>
+
+<p>He dined that evening in Onslow Crescent, where he was now again
+established with all his old comfort. He had again gone up to the
+children's nursery with Cecilia, had kissed them all in their cots,
+and made himself quite at home in the establishment. It was with them
+there as though there had been no dreadful dream about Lady Ongar. It
+was so altogether with Cecilia and Florence, and even Mr. Burton was
+allowing himself to be brought round to a charitable view of Harry's
+character. Harry on this day had gone to the chambers in the Adelphi
+for an hour, and walking away with Theodore Burton had declared his
+intention of working like a horse. "If you were to say like a man, it
+would perhaps be better," said Burton. "I must leave you to say
+that," answered Harry; "for the present I will content myself with
+the horse." Burton was willing to hope, and allowed himself once more
+to fall into his old pleasant way of talking about the business as
+though there were no other subject under the sun so full of manifold
+interest. He was very keen at the present moment about Metropolitan
+railways, and was ridiculing the folly of those who feared that the
+railway projectors were going too fast. "But we shall never get any
+thanks," he said. "When the thing has been done, and thanks are our
+due, people will look upon all our work so much as a matter of course
+that it will never occur to them to think that they owe us anything.
+They will have forgotten all their cautions, and will take what they
+get as though it were simply their due. Nothing astonishes me so much
+as the fear people feel before a thing is done when I join it with
+their want of surprise or admiration afterwards." In this way even
+Theodore Burton had resumed his terms of intimacy with Harry
+Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>Harry had told both Cecilia and Florence of his intended visit to
+Bolton Street, and they had all become very confidential on the
+subject. In most such cases we may suppose that a man does not say
+much to one woman of the love which another woman has acknowledged
+for himself. Nor was Harry Clavering at all disposed to make any such
+boast. But in this case, Lady Ongar herself had told everything to
+Mrs. Burton. She had declared her passion, and had declared also her
+intention of making Harry her husband if he would take her.
+Everything was known, and there was no possibility of sparing Lady
+Ongar's name.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had been her I would not have asked for such a meeting,"
+Cecilia said. The three were at this time sitting together, for Mr.
+Burton rarely joined them in their conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Florence. "I do not see why she and Harry should
+not remain as friends."</p>
+
+<p>"They might be friends without meeting now," said Cecilia.</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly. If the awkwardness were not got over at once it would never
+be got over. I almost think she is right, though if I were her I
+should long to have it over." That was Florence's judgment in the
+matter. Harry sat between them, like a sheep as he was, very
+meekly,&mdash;not without some enjoyment of his sheepdom, but still
+feeling that he was a sheep. At half-past eight he started up, having
+already been told that a cab was waiting for him at the door. He
+pressed Cecilia's hand as he went, indicating his feeling that he had
+before him an affair of some magnitude, and then of course had a word
+or two to say to Florence in private on the landing. Oh, those
+delicious private words, the need for which comes so often during
+those short halcyon days of one's lifetime! They were so pleasant
+that Harry would fain have returned to repeat them after he was
+seated in his cab; but the inevitable wheels carried him onwards with
+cruel velocity, and he was in Bolton Street before the minutes had
+sufficed for him to collect his thoughts.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill43"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill43.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill43-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="Harry sat between them, like a sheep
+      as he was, very meekly." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">Harry sat
+      between them, like a sheep as he was, very meekly.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill43.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Lady Ongar, when he entered the room, was sitting in her accustomed
+chair, near a little work-table which she always used, and did not
+rise to meet him. It was a pretty chair, soft and easy, made with a
+back for lounging, but with no arms to impede the circles of a lady's
+hoop. Harry knew the chair well and had spoken of its graceful
+comfort in some of his visits to Bolton Street. She was seated there
+when he entered; and though he was not sufficiently experienced in
+the secrets of feminine attire to know at once that she had dressed
+herself with care, he did perceive that she was very charming, not
+only by force of her own beauty, but by the aid also of her dress.
+And yet she was in deep mourning,&mdash;in the deepest mourning; nor was
+there anything about her of which complaint might fairly be made by
+those who do complain on such subjects. Her dress was high round her
+neck, and the cap on her head was indisputably a widow's cap; but
+enough of her brown hair was to be seen to tell of its rich
+loveliness; and the black dress was so made as to show the full
+perfection of her form; and with it all there was that graceful
+feminine brightness that care and money can always give, and which
+will not come without care and money. It might be well, she had
+thought, to surrender her income, and become poor and dowdy
+hereafter, but there could be no reason why Harry Clavering should
+not be made to know all that he had lost.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Harry," she said, as he stepped up to her and took her offered
+hand. "I am glad that you have come that I may congratulate you.
+Better late than never; eh, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>How was he to answer her when she spoke to him in this strain? "I
+hope it is not too late," he said, hardly knowing what the words were
+which were coming from his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay; that is for you to say. I can do it heartily, Harry, if you
+mean that. And why not? Why should I not wish you happy? I have
+always liked you,&mdash;have always wished for your happiness. You believe
+that I am sincere when I congratulate you;&mdash;do you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; you are always sincere."</p>
+
+<p>"I have always been so to you. As to any sincerity beyond that we
+need say nothing now. I have always been your good friend,&mdash;to the
+best of my ability. Ah, Harry; you do not know how much I have
+thought of your welfare; how much I do think of it. But never mind
+that. Tell me something now of this Florence Burton of yours. Is she
+tall?" I believe that Lady Ongar, when she asked this question, knew
+well that Florence was short of stature.</p>
+
+<p>"No; she is not tall," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"What,&mdash;a little beauty? Upon the whole I think I agree with your
+taste. The most lovely women that I have ever seen have been small,
+bright, and perfect in their proportions. It is very rare that a tall
+woman has a perfect figure." Julia's own figure was quite perfect.
+"Do you remember Constance Vane? Nothing ever exceeded her beauty."
+Now Constance Vane,&mdash;she at least who had in those days been
+Constance Vane, but who now was the stout mother of two or three
+children,&mdash;had been a waxen doll of a girl, whom Harry had known, but
+had neither liked nor admired. But she was highly bred, and belonged
+to the cream of English fashion; she had possessed a complexion as
+pure in its tints as are the interior leaves of a blush rose,&mdash;and
+she had never had a thought in her head, and hardly ever a word on
+her lips. She and Florence Burton were as poles asunder in their
+differences. Harry felt this at once, and had an indistinct notion
+that Lady Ongar was as well aware of the fact as was he himself. "She
+is not a bit like Constance Vane," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what is she like? If she is more beautiful than what Miss Vane
+used to be, she must be lovely indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"She has no pretensions of that kind," said Harry, almost sulkily.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard that she was so very beautiful!" Lady Ongar had never
+heard a word about Florence's beauty;&mdash;not a word. She knew nothing
+personally of Florence beyond what Mrs. Burton had told her. But who
+will not forgive her the little deceit that was necessary to her
+little revenge?</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how to describe her," said Harry. "I hope the time may
+soon come when you will see her, and be able to judge for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so too. It shall not be my fault if I do not like her."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think you can fail to like her. She is very clever, and
+that will go further with you than mere beauty. Not but what I think
+her very,&mdash;very pretty."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah,&mdash;I understand. She reads a great deal, and that sort of thing.
+Yes; that is very nice. But I shouldn't have thought that that would
+have taken you. You used not to care much for talent and
+learning,&mdash;not in women I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about that," said Harry, looking very foolish.</p>
+
+<p>"But a contrast is what you men always like. Of course I ought not to
+say that, but you will know of what I am thinking. A clever,
+highly-educated woman like Miss Burton will be a much better
+companion to you than I could have been. You see I am very frank,
+Harry." She wished to make him talk freely about himself, his future
+days, and his past days, while he was simply anxious to say on these
+subjects as little as possible. Poor woman! The excitement of having
+a passion which she might indulge was over with her,&mdash;at any rate for
+the present. She had played her game and had lost wofully; but before
+she retired altogether from the gaming-table she could not keep
+herself from longing for a last throw of the dice.</p>
+
+<p>"These things, I fear, go very much by chance," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not mean me to suppose that you are taking Miss Burton by
+chance. That would be as uncomplimentary to her as to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Chance, at any rate, has been very good to me in this instance."</p>
+
+<p>"Of that I am sure. Do not suppose that I am doubting that. It is not
+only the paradise that you have gained, but the pandemonium that you
+have escaped!" Then she laughed slightly, but the laughter was
+uneasy, and made her angry with herself. She had especially
+determined to be at ease during this meeting, and was conscious that
+any falling off in that respect on her part would put into his hands
+the power which she was desirous of exercising.</p>
+
+<p>"You are determined to rebuke me, I see," said he. "If you choose to
+do so, I am prepared to bear it. My defence, if I have a defence, is
+one that I cannot use."</p>
+
+<p>"And what would be your defence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have said that I cannot use it."</p>
+
+<p>"As if I did not understand it all! What you mean to say is
+this,&mdash;that when your good stars sent you in the way of Florence
+Burton, you had been ill-treated by her who would have made your
+pandemonium for you, and that she therefore,&mdash;she who came first and
+behaved so badly&mdash;can have no right to find fault with you in that
+you have obeyed your good stars and done so well for yourself. That
+is what you call your defence. It would be perfect, Harry,&mdash;perfect,
+if you had only whispered to me a word of Miss Burton when I first
+saw you after my return home. It is odd to me that you should not
+have written to me and told me when I was abroad with my husband. It
+would have comforted me to have known that the wound which I had
+given had been cured;&mdash;that is, if there was a wound."</p>
+
+<p>"You know that there was a wound."</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate, it was not mortal. But when are such wounds mortal?
+When are they more than skin-deep?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can say nothing as to that now."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Harry; of course you can say nothing. Why should you be made to
+say anything? You are fortunate and happy, and have all that you
+want. I have nothing that I want."</p>
+
+<p>There was a reality in the tone of sorrow in which this was spoken
+which melted him at once;&mdash;and the more so in that there was so much
+in her grief which could not but be flattering to his vanity. "Do not
+say that, Lady Ongar," he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"But I do say it. What have I got in the world that is worth having?
+My possessions are ever so many thousands a year,&mdash;and a damaged
+name."</p>
+
+<p>"I deny that. I deny it altogether. I do not think that there is one
+who knows of your story who believes ill of you."</p>
+
+<p>"I could tell you of one, Harry, who thinks very ill of me;&mdash;nay, of
+two; and they are both in this room. Do you remember how you used to
+teach me that terribly conceited bit of Latin,&mdash;Nil conscire sibi? Do
+you suppose that I can boast that I never grow pale as I think of my
+own fault? I am thinking of it always, and my heart is ever becoming
+paler and paler. And as to the treatment of others;&mdash;I wish I could
+make you know what I suffered when I was fool enough to go to that
+place in Surrey. The coachman who drives me no doubt thinks that I
+poisoned my husband, and the servant who let you in just now supposes
+me to be an abandoned woman because you are here."</p>
+
+<p>"You will be angry with me, perhaps, if I say that these feelings are
+morbid and will die away. They show the weakness which has come from
+the ill-usage you have suffered."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right in part, no doubt. I shall become hardened to it all,
+and shall fall into some endurable mode of life in time. But I can
+look forward to nothing. What future have I? Was there ever any one
+so utterly friendless as I am? Your kind cousin has done that for
+me;&mdash;and yet he came here to me the other day, smiling and talking as
+though he were sure that I should be delighted by his condescension.
+I do not think that he will ever come again."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know you had seen him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I saw him;&mdash;but I did not find much relief from his visit. We
+won't mind that, however. We can talk about something better than
+Hugh Clavering during the few minutes that we have together;&mdash;can we
+not? And so Miss Burton is very learned and very clever?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not quite say that."</p>
+
+<p>"But I know she is. What a comfort that will be to you! I am not
+clever, and I never should have become learned. Oh, dear! I had but
+one merit, Harry;&mdash;I was fond of you."</p>
+
+<p>"And how did you show it?" He did not speak these words, because he
+would not triumph over her, nor was he willing to express that regret
+on his own part which these words would have implied;&mdash;but it was
+impossible for him to avoid a thought of them. He remained silent,
+therefore, taking up some toy from the table into his hands, as
+though that would occupy his attention.</p>
+
+<p>"But what a fool I am to talk of it;&mdash;am I not? And I am worse than a
+fool. I was thinking of you when I stood up in church to be
+married;&mdash;thinking of that offer of your little savings. I used to
+think of you at every harsh word that I endured;&mdash;of your modes of
+life when I sat through those terrible nights by that poor creature's
+bed;&mdash;of you when I knew that the last day was coming. I thought of
+you always, Harry, when I counted up my gains. I never count them up
+now. Ah, how I thought of you when I came to this house in the
+carriage which you had provided for me, when I had left you at the
+station almost without speaking a word to you! I should have been
+more gracious had I not had you in my thoughts throughout my whole
+journey home from Florence. And after that I had some comfort in
+believing that the price of my shame might make you rich without
+shame. Oh, Harry, I have been disappointed! You will never understand
+what I felt when first that evil woman told me of Miss Burton."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Julia, what am I to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can say nothing; but I wonder that you had not told me."</p>
+
+<p>"How could I tell you? Would it not have seemed that I was vain
+enough to have thought of putting you on your guard?"</p>
+
+<p>"And why not? But never mind. Do not suppose that I am rebuking you.
+As I said in my letter, we are quits now, and there is no place for
+scolding on either side. We are quits now; but I am punished and you
+are rewarded."</p>
+
+<p>Of course he could not answer this. Of course he was hard pressed for
+words. Of course he could neither acknowledge that he had been
+rewarded, nor assert that a share of the punishment of which she
+spoke had fallen upon him also. This was the revenge with which she
+had intended to attack him. That she should think that he had in
+truth been punished and not rewarded, was very natural. Had he been
+less quick in forgetting her after her marriage, he would have had
+his reward without any punishment. If such were her thoughts, who
+shall quarrel with her on that account?</p>
+
+<p>"I have been very frank with you," she continued. "Indeed, why should
+I not be so? People talk of a lady's secret, but my secret has been
+no secret from you? That I was made to tell it under,&mdash;under,&mdash;what I
+will call an error,&mdash;was your fault; and it is that that has made us
+quits."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that I have behaved badly to you."</p>
+
+<p>"But then unfortunately you know also that I had deserved bad
+treatment. Well; we will say no more about it. I have been very
+candid with you, but then I have injured no one by my candour. You
+have not said a word to me in reply; but then your tongue is tied by
+your duty to Miss Burton,&mdash;your duty and your love together, of
+course. It is all as it should be, and now I will have done. When are
+you to be married, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"No time has been fixed. I am a very poor man, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, alas,&mdash;yes. When mischief is done, how badly all the things
+turn out. You are poor and I am rich, and yet we cannot help each
+other."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear not."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless I could adopt Miss Burton, and be a sort of mother to her.
+You would shrink, however, from any such guardianship on my part. But
+you are clever, Harry, and can work when you please, and will make
+your way. If Miss Burton keeps you waiting now by any prudent fear on
+her part, I shall not think so well of her as I am inclined to do."</p>
+
+<p>"The Burtons are all prudent people."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her, from me, with my love,&mdash;not to be too prudent. I thought
+to be prudent, and see what has come of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell her what you say."</p>
+
+<p>"Do, please; and, Harry, look here. Will she accept a little present
+from me? You, at any rate, for my sake, will ask her to do so. Give
+her this,&mdash;it is only a trifle,"&mdash;and she put her hand on a small
+jeweller's box, which was close to her arm upon the table, "and tell
+her,&mdash;of course she knows all our story, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; she knows it all."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her that she whom you have rejected sends it with her kindest
+wishes to her whom you have taken."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I will not tell her that."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? It is all true. I have not poisoned the little ring, as the
+ladies would have done some centuries since. They were grander then
+than we are now, and perhaps hardly worse, though more cruel. You
+will bid her take it,&mdash;will you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure she will take it without bidding on my part."</p>
+
+<p>"And tell her not to write me any thanks. She and I will both
+understand that that had better be omitted. If, when I shall see her
+at some future time as your wife, it shall be on her finger, I shall
+know that I am thanked." Then Harry rose to go. "I did not mean by
+that to turn you out, but perhaps it may be as well. I have no more
+to say,&mdash;and as for you, you cannot but wish that the penance should
+be over." Then he pressed her hand, and with some muttered farewell,
+bade her adieu. Again she did not rise from her chair, but nodding at
+him with a sweet smile, let him go without another word.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c44"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLIV.</h3>
+<h4>SHEWING WHAT HAPPENED OFF HELIGOLAND.</h4>
+
+
+<p>During the six weeks after this, Harry Clavering settled down to his
+work at the chambers in the Adelphi with exemplary diligence.
+Florence, having remained a fortnight in town after Harry's return to
+the sheepfold, and having accepted Lady Ongar's present,&mdash;not without
+a long and anxious consultation with her sister-in-law on the
+subject,&mdash;had returned in fully restored happiness to Stratton. Mrs.
+Burton was at Ramsgate with the children, and Mr. Burton was in
+Russia with reference to a line of railway which was being projected
+from Moscow to Astracan. It was now September, and Harry, in his
+letters home, declared that he was the only person left in London. It
+was hard upon him,&mdash;much harder than it was upon the Wallikers and
+other young men whom fate retained in town, for Harry was a man given
+to shooting,&mdash;a man accustomed to pass the autumnal months in a
+country house. And then, if things had chanced to go one way instead
+of another, he would have had his own shooting down at Ongar Park
+with his own friends,&mdash;admiring him at his heels; or if not so this
+year, he would have been shooting elsewhere with the prospect of
+these rich joys for years to come. As it was, he had promised to
+stick to the shop, and was sticking to it manfully. Nor do I think
+that he allowed his mind to revert to those privileges which might
+have been his at all more frequently than any of my readers would
+have done in his place. He was sticking to the shop, and though he
+greatly disliked the hot desolation of London in those days, being
+absolutely afraid to frequent his club at such a period of the
+year,&mdash;and though he hated Walliker mortally,&mdash;he was fully resolved
+to go on with his work. Who could tell what might be his fate?
+Perhaps in another ten years he might be carrying that Russian
+railway on through the deserts of Siberia. Then there came to him
+suddenly tidings which disturbed all his resolutions, and changed the
+whole current of his life.</p>
+
+<p>At first there came a telegram to him from the country, desiring him
+to go down at once to Clavering, but not giving him any reason. Added
+to the message were these words,&mdash;"We are all well at the
+parsonage;"&mdash;words evidently added in thoughtfulness. But before he
+had left the office there came to him there a young man from the bank
+at which his cousin Hugh kept his account, telling him the tidings to
+which the telegram no doubt referred. Jack Stuart's boat had been
+lost, and his two cousins had gone to their graves beneath the sea!
+The master of the boat, and Stuart himself, with a boy, had been
+saved. The other sailors whom they had with them, and the ship's
+steward, had perished with the Claverings. Stuart, it seemed, had
+caused tidings of the accident to be sent to the rector of Clavering
+and to Sir Hugh's bankers. At the bank they had ascertained that
+their late customer's cousin was in town, and their messenger had
+thereupon been sent, first to Bloomsbury Square, and from thence to
+the Adelphi.</p>
+
+<p>Harry had never loved his cousins. The elder he had greatly disliked,
+and the younger he would have disliked had he not despised him. But
+not the less on that account was he inexpressibly shocked when he
+first heard what had happened. The lad said that there could, as he
+imagined, be no mistake. The message had come, as he believed, from
+Holland, but of that he was not certain. There could, however, be no
+doubt about the fact. It distinctly stated that both brothers had
+perished. Harry had known when he received the message from home,
+that no train would take him till three in the afternoon, and had
+therefore remained at the office; but he could not remain now. His
+head was confused, and he could hardly bring himself to think how
+this matter would affect himself. When he attempted to explain his
+absence to an old serious clerk there, he spoke of his own return to
+the office as certain. He should be back, he supposed, in a week at
+the furthest. He was thinking then of his promises to Theodore
+Burton, and had not begun to realize the fact that his whole destiny
+in life would be changed. He said something, with a long face, of the
+terrible misfortune which had occurred, but gave no hint that that
+misfortune would be important in its consequences to himself. It was
+not till he had reached his lodgings in Bloomsbury Square that he
+remembered that his own father was now the baronet, and that he was
+his father's heir. And then for a moment he thought about the
+property. He believed that it was entailed, but even of that he was
+not certain. But if it were unentailed, to whom could his cousin have
+left it? He endeavoured, however, to expel such thoughts from his
+mind, as though there was something ungenerous in entertaining them.
+He tried to think of the widow, but even in doing that he could not
+tell himself that there was much ground for genuine sorrow. No wife
+had ever had less joy from her husband's society than Lady Clavering
+had had from that of Sir Hugh. There was no child to mourn the
+loss,&mdash;no brother, no unmarried sister. Sir Hugh had had friends,&mdash;as
+friendship goes with such men; but Harry could not but doubt whether
+among them all there would be one who would feel anything like true
+grief for his loss. And it was the same with Archie. Who in the world
+would miss Archie Clavering? What man or woman would find the world
+to be less bright because Archie Clavering was sleeping beneath the
+waves? Some score of men at his club would talk of poor Clavvy for a
+few days,&mdash;would do so without any pretence at the tenderness of
+sorrow; and then even of Archie's memory there would be an end.
+Thinking of all this as he was carried down to Clavering, Harry could
+not but acknowledge that the loss to the world had not been great;
+but, even while telling himself this, he would not allow himself to
+take comfort in the prospect of his heirship. Once, perhaps, he did
+speculate how Florence should bear her honours as Lady Clavering; but
+this idea he swept away from his thoughts as quickly as he was able.</p>
+
+<p>The tidings had reached the parsonage very late on the previous
+night; so late that the rector had been disturbed in his bed to
+receive them. It was his duty to make known to Lady Clavering the
+fact that she was a widow, but this he could not do till the next
+morning. But there was little sleep that night for him or for his
+wife! He knew well enough that the property was entailed. He felt
+with sufficient strength what it was to become a baronet at a sudden
+blow, and to become also the owner of the whole Clavering property.
+He was not slow to think of the removal to the great house, of the
+altered prospects of his son, and of the mode of life which would be
+fitting for himself in future. Before the morning came he had
+meditated who should be the future rector of Clavering, and had made
+some calculations as to the expediency of resuming his hunting. Not
+that he was a heartless man,&mdash;or that he rejoiced at what had
+happened. But a man's ideas of generosity change as he advances in
+age, and the rector was old enough to tell himself boldly that this
+thing that had happened could not be to him a cause of much grief. He
+had never loved his cousins, or pretended to love them. His cousin's
+wife he did love, after a fashion, but in speaking to his own wife of
+the way in which this tragedy would affect Hermione, he did not
+scruple to speak of her widowhood as a period of coming happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"She will be cut to pieces," said Mrs. Clavering. "She was attached
+to him as earnestly as though he had treated her always well."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe it; but not the less will she feel her release,
+unconsciously; and her life, which has been very wretched, will
+gradually become easy to her."</p>
+
+<p>Even Mrs. Clavering could not deny that this would be so, and then
+they reverted to matters which more closely concerned themselves. "I
+suppose Harry will marry at once now," said the mother.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt;&mdash;it is almost a pity; is it not?" The rector,&mdash;as we will
+still call him,&mdash;was thinking that Florence was hardly a fitting wife
+for his son with his altered prospects. Ah, what a grand thing it
+would have been if the Clavering property and Lady Ongar's jointure
+could have gone together!</p>
+
+<p>"Not a pity at all," said Mrs. Clavering. "You will find that
+Florence will make him a very happy man."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say;&mdash;I dare say. Only he would hardly have taken her had
+this sad accident happened before he saw her. But if she will make
+him happy that is everything. I have never thought much about money
+myself. If I find any comfort in these tidings it is for his sake,
+not for my own. I would sooner remain as I am." This was not
+altogether untrue, and yet he was thinking of the big house and the
+hunting.</p>
+
+<p>"What will be done about the living?" It was early in the morning
+when Mrs. Clavering asked this question. She had thought much about
+the living during the night. And so had the rector;&mdash;but his thoughts
+had not run in the same direction as hers. He made no immediate
+answer, and then she went on with her question. "Do you think that
+you will keep it in your own hands?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well,&mdash;no; why should I? I am too idle about it as it is. I should
+be more so under these altered circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you would do your duty if you resolved to keep it, but I
+don't see why you should do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Clavering is a great deal better than Humbleton," said the rector.
+Humbleton was the name of the parish held by Mr. Fielding, his
+son-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>But the idea here put forward did not suit the idea which was running
+in Mrs. Clavering's mind. "Edward and Mary are very well off," she
+said. "His own property is considerable, and I don't think they want
+anything. Besides, he would hardly like to give up a family living."</p>
+
+<p>"I might ask him at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking of Mr. Saul," said Mrs. Clavering boldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Of Mr. Saul!" The image of Mr. Saul, as rector of Clavering,
+perplexed the new baronet egregiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well;&mdash;yes. He is an excellent; clergyman. No one can deny that."
+Then there was silence between them for a few moments. "In that case
+he and Fanny would of course marry. It is no good concealing the fact
+that she is very fond of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word I can't understand it," said the rector.</p>
+
+<p>"It is so,&mdash;and as to the excellence of his character there can be no
+doubt." To this the rector made no answer, but went away into his
+dressing-room, that he might prepare himself for his walk across the
+park to the great house. While they were discussing who should be the
+future incumbent of the living, Lady Clavering was still sleeping in
+unconsciousness of her fate. Mr. Clavering greatly dreaded the task
+which was before him, and had made a little attempt to induce his
+wife to take the office upon herself; but she had explained to him
+that it would be more seemly that he should be the bearer of the
+tidings. "It would seem that you were wanting in affection for her if
+you do not go yourself," his wife had said to him. That the rector of
+Clavering was master of himself and of his own actions, no one who
+knew the family ever denied, but the instances in which he declined
+to follow his wife's advice were not many.</p>
+
+<p>It was about eight o'clock when he went across the park. He had
+already sent a messenger with a note to beg that Lady Clavering would
+be up to receive him. As he would come very early, he had said,
+perhaps she would see him in her own room. The poor lady had, of
+course, been greatly frightened by this announcement; but this fear
+had been good for her, as they had well understood at the rectory;
+the blow, dreadfully sudden as it must still be, would be somewhat
+less sudden under this preparation. When Mr. Clavering reached the
+house the servant was in waiting to show him upstairs to the
+sitting-room which Lady Clavering usually occupied when alone. She
+had been there waiting for him for the last half-hour.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Clavering, what is it?" she exclaimed, as he entered with
+tidings of death written on his visage. "In the name of heaven, what
+is it? You have something to tell me of Hugh."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Hermione," he said, taking her by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it? Tell me at once. Is he still alive?"</p>
+
+<p>The rector still held her by the hand, but spoke no word. He had been
+trying as he came across the park to arrange the words in which he
+should tell his tale, but now it was told without any speech on his
+part.</p>
+
+<p>"He is dead. Why do you not speak? Why are you so cruel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest Hermione, what am I to say to comfort you?"</p>
+
+<p>What he might say after this was of little moment, for she had
+fainted. He rang the bell, and then, when the servants were
+there,&mdash;the old housekeeper and Lady Clavering's maid,&mdash;he told to
+them, rather than to her, what had been their master's fate.</p>
+
+<p>"And Captain Archie?" asked the housekeeper.</p>
+
+<p>The rector shook his head, and the housekeeper knew that the rector
+was now the baronet. Then they took the poor widow to her own
+room,&mdash;should I not rather call her, as I may venture to speak the
+truth, the enfranchised slave than the poor widow?&mdash;and the rector,
+taking up his hat, promised that he would send his wife across to
+their mistress. His morning's task had been painful, but it had been
+easily accomplished. As he walked home among the oaks of Clavering
+Park, he told himself, no doubt, that they were now all his own.</p>
+
+<p>That day at the rectory was very sombre, if it was not actually sad.
+The greater part of the morning Mrs. Clavering passed with the widow,
+and sitting near her sofa she wrote sundry letters to those who were
+connected with the family. The longest of these was to Lady Ongar,
+who was now at Tenby; and in that there was a pressing request from
+Hermione that her sister would come to her at Clavering Park. "Tell
+her," said Lady Clavering, "that all her anger must be over now." But
+Mrs. Clavering said nothing of Julia's anger. She merely urged the
+request that Julia would come to her sister. "She will be sure to
+come," said Mrs. Clavering. "You need have no fear on that head."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can I invite her here, when the house is not my own?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pray do not talk in that way, Hermione. The house will be your own
+for any time that you may want it. Your husband's relations are your
+dear friends; are they not?" But this allusion to her husband brought
+her to another fit of hysterical tears. "Both of them gone," she
+said. "Both of them gone!" Mrs. Clavering knew well that she was not
+alluding to the two brothers, but to her husband and to her baby. Of
+poor Archie no one had said a word,&mdash;beyond that one word spoken by
+the housekeeper. For her, it had been necessary that she should know
+who was now the master of Clavering Park.</p>
+
+<p>Twice in the day Mrs. Clavering went over to the big house, and on
+her second return, late in the evening, she found her son. When she
+arrived, there had already been some few words on the subject between
+him and his father.</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard of it, Harry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; a clerk came to me from the banker's."</p>
+
+<p>"Dreadful; is it not? Quite terrible to think of!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it is, sir. I was never so shocked in my life."</p>
+
+<p>"He would go in that cursed boat, though I know that he was advised
+against it," said the father, holding up his hands and shaking his
+head. "And now both of them gone;&mdash;both gone at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"How does she bear it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother is with her now. When I went in the morning,&mdash;I had
+written a line, and she expected bad news,&mdash;she fainted. Of course, I
+could do nothing. I can hardly say that I told her. She asked the
+question, and then saw by my face that her fears were well-founded.
+Upon my word, I was glad when she did faint;&mdash;it was the best thing
+for her."</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been very painful for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Terrible;&mdash;terrible;" and the rector shook his head. "It will make a
+great difference in your prospects, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"And in your life, sir! So to say, you are as young a man as myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I? I believe I was about as young when you were born. But I don't
+think at all about myself in this matter. I am too old to care to
+change my manner of living. It won't affect me very much. Indeed, I
+hardly know yet how it may affect me. Your mother thinks I ought to
+give up the living. If you were in orders,
+<span class="nowrap">Harry&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm very glad, sir, that I am not."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so. And there is no need; certainly, there is no need. You
+will be able to do pretty nearly what you like about the property. I
+shall not care to interfere."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you will, sir. It feels strange now, but you will soon get used
+to it. I wonder whether he left a will."</p>
+
+<p>"It can't make any difference to you, you know. Every acre of the
+property is entailed. She has her settlement. Eight hundred a year, I
+think it is. She'll not be a rich woman like her sister. I wonder
+where she'll live. As far as that goes, she might stay at the house,
+if she likes it. I'm sure your mother wouldn't object."</p>
+
+<p>Harry on this occasion asked no question about the living, but he
+also had thought of that. He knew well that his mother would befriend
+Mr. Saul, and he knew also that his father would ultimately take his
+mother's advice. As regarded himself he had no personal objection to
+Mr. Saul, though he could not understand how his sister should feel
+any strong regard for such a man.</p>
+
+<p>Edward Fielding would make a better neighbour at the parsonage, and
+then he thought whether an exchange might not be made. After that,
+and before his mother's return from the great house, he took a stroll
+through the park with Fanny. Fanny altogether declined to discuss any
+of the family prospects, as they were affected by the accident which
+had happened. To her mind the tragedy was so terrible that she could
+only feel its tragic element. No doubt she had her own thoughts about
+Mr. Saul as connected with it. "What would he think of this sudden
+death of the two brothers? How would he feel it? If she could be
+allowed to talk to him on the matter, what would he say of their fate
+here and hereafter? Would he go to the great house to offer the
+consolations of religion to the widow?" Of all this she thought much;
+but no picture of Mr. Saul as rector of Clavering, or of herself as
+mistress in her mother's house, presented itself to her mind. Harry
+found her to be a dull companion, and he, perhaps, consoled himself
+with some personal attention to the oak trees. The trees loomed
+larger upon him now than they had ever done before.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day the rector went up to London, leaving Harry at the
+parsonage. It was necessary that lawyers should be visited, and that
+such facts as to the loss should be proved as were capable of proof.
+There was no doubt at all as to the fate of Sir Hugh and his brother.
+The escape of Mr. Stuart and of two of those employed by him
+prevented the possibility of a doubt. The vessel had been caught in a
+gale off Heligoland, and had foundered. They had all striven to get
+into the yacht's boat, but those who had succeeded in doing so had
+gone down. The master of the yacht had seen the two brothers perish.
+Those who were saved had been picked up off the spars to which they
+had attached themselves. There was no doubt in the way of the new
+baronet, and no difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was there any will made either by Sir Hugh or his brother. Poor
+Archie had nothing to leave, and that he should have left no will was
+not remarkable. But neither had there been much in the power of Sir
+Hugh to bequeath, nor was there any great cause for a will on his
+part. Had he left a son, his son would have inherited everything. He
+had, however, died childless, and his wife was provided for by her
+settlement. On his marriage he had made the amount settled as small
+as his wife's friends would accept, and no one who knew the man
+expected that he would increase the amount after his death. Having
+been in town for three days the rector returned,&mdash;being then in full
+possession of the title; but this he did not assume till after the
+second Sunday from the date of the telegram which brought the news.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Harry had written to Florence, to whom the tidings
+were as important as to any one concerned. She had left London very
+triumphant,&mdash;quite confident that she had nothing now to fear from
+Lady Ongar or from any other living woman, having not only forgiven
+Harry his sins, but having succeeded also in persuading herself that
+there had been no sins to forgive,&mdash;having quarrelled with her
+brother half-a-dozen times in that he would not accept her arguments
+on this matter. He too would forgive Harry,&mdash;had forgiven him; was
+quite ready to omit all further remark on the matter; but could not
+bring himself when urged by Florence to admit that her Apollo had
+been altogether godlike. Florence had thus left London in triumph,
+but she had gone with a conviction that she and Harry must remain
+apart for some indefinite time, which probably must be measured by
+years. "Let us see at the end of two years," she had said; and Harry
+had been forced to be content. But how would it be with her now?</p>
+
+<p>Harry of course began his letter by telling her of the catastrophe,
+with the usual amount of epithets. It was very terrible, awful,
+shocking,&mdash;the saddest thing that had ever happened! The poor widow
+was in a desperate state, and all the Claverings were nearly beside
+themselves. But when this had been duly said, he allowed himself to
+go into their own home question. "I cannot fail," he wrote, "to think
+of this chiefly as it concerns you,&mdash;or rather, as it concerns myself
+in reference to you. I suppose I shall leave the business now.
+Indeed, my father seems to think that my remaining there would be
+absurd, and my mother agrees with him. As I am the only son, the
+property will enable me to live easily without a profession. When I
+say 'me,' of course you will understand what 'me' means. The better
+part of 'me' is so prudent, that I know she will not accept this view
+of things without ever so much consideration, and, therefore, she
+must come to Clavering to hear it discussed by the elders. For
+myself, I cannot bear to think that I should take delight in the
+results of this dreadful misfortune; but how am I to keep myself from
+being made happy by the feeling that we may now be married without
+further delay? After all that has passed, nothing will make me happy
+or even permanently comfortable till I can call you fairly my own. My
+mother has already said that she hopes you will come here in about a
+fortnight,&mdash;that is, as soon as we shall have fallen tolerably into
+our places again; but she will write herself before that time. I have
+written a line to your brother addressed to the office, which I
+suppose will find him. I have written also to Cecilia. Your brother,
+no doubt, will hear the news first through the French newspapers."
+Then he said a little, but a very little, as to their future modes of
+life, just intimating to her, and no more, that her destiny might
+probably call upon her to be the mother of a future baronet.</p>
+
+<p>The news had reached Clavering on a Saturday. On the following Sunday
+every one in the parish had no doubt heard of it, but nothing on the
+subject was said in church on that day. The rector remained at home
+during the morning, and the whole service was performed by Mr. Saul.
+But on the second Sunday Mr. Fielding had come over from Humbleton,
+and he preached a sermon on the loss which the parish had sustained
+in the sudden death of the two brothers. It is, perhaps, well that
+such sermons should be preached. The inhabitants of Clavering would
+have felt that their late lords had been treated like dogs, had no
+word been said of them in the house of God. The nature of their fate
+had forbidden even the common ceremony of a burial service. It is
+well that some respect should be maintained from the low in station
+towards those who are high, even when no respect has been deserved.
+And, for the widow's sake, it was well that some notice should be
+taken in Clavering of this death of the head of the Claverings. But I
+should not myself have liked the duty of preaching an eulogistic
+sermon on the lives and death of Hugh Clavering and his brother
+Archie. What had either of them ever done to merit a good word from
+any man, or to earn the love of any woman? That Sir Hugh had been
+loved by his wife had come from the nature of the woman, not at all
+from the qualities of the man. Both of the brothers had lived on the
+unexpressed theory of consuming, for the benefit of their own backs
+and their own bellies, the greatest possible amount of those good
+things which fortune might put in their way. I doubt whether either
+of them had ever contributed anything willingly to the comfort or
+happiness of any human being. Hugh, being powerful by nature and
+having a strong will, had tyrannized over all those who were subject
+to him. Archie, not gifted as was his brother, had been milder,
+softer, and less actively hateful; but his principle of action had
+been the same. Everything for himself! Was it not well that two such
+men should be consigned to the fishes, and that the
+world,&mdash;especially the Clavering world, and that poor widow, who now
+felt herself to be so inexpressibly wretched when her period of
+comfort was in truth only commencing,&mdash;was it not well that the world
+and Clavering should be well quit of them? That idea is the one which
+one would naturally have felt inclined to put into one's sermon on
+such an occasion; and then to sing some song of rejoicing;&mdash;either to
+do that, or to leave the matter alone.</p>
+
+<p>But not so are such sermons preached; and not after that fashion did
+the young clergyman who had married the first-cousin of these
+Claverings buckle himself to the subject. He indeed had, I think, but
+little difficulty, either inwardly with his conscience, or outwardly
+with his subject. He possessed the power of a pleasant, easy flow of
+words, and of producing tears, if not from other eyes, at any rate
+from his own. He drew a picture of the little ship amidst the storm,
+and of God's hand as it moved in its anger upon the waters; but of
+the cause of that divine wrath and its direction he said nothing.
+Then, of the suddenness of death and its awfulness he said much, not
+insisting as he did so on the necessity of repentance for salvation,
+as far as those two poor sinners were concerned. No, indeed;&mdash;how
+could any preacher have done that? But he improved the occasion by
+telling those around him that they should so live as to be ever ready
+for the hand of death. If that were possible, where then indeed would
+be the victory of the grave? And at last he came to the master and
+lord whom they had lost. Even here there was no difficulty for him.
+The heir had gone first, and then the father and his brother. Who
+among them would not pity the bereaved mother and the widow? Who
+among them would not remember with affection the babe whom they had
+seen at that font, and with respect the landlord under whose rule
+they had lived? How pleasant it must be to ask those questions which
+no one can rise to answer! Farmer Gubbins as he sat by, listening
+with what power of attention had been vouchsafed to him, felt himself
+to be somewhat moved, but soon released himself from the task, and
+allowed his mind to run away into other ideas. The rector was a
+kindly man and a generous. The rector would allow him to enclose that
+little bit of common land, that was to be taken in, without adding
+anything to his rent. The rector would be there on audit days, and
+things would be very pleasant. Farmer Gubbins, when the slight
+murmuring gurgle of the preacher's tears was heard, shook his own
+head by way of a responsive wail; but at that moment he was
+congratulating himself on the coming comfort of the new reign. Mr.
+Fielding, however, got great credit for his sermon; and it did,
+probably, more good than harm,&mdash;unless, indeed, we should take into
+our calculation, in giving our award on this subject, the permanent
+utility of all truth, and the permanent injury of all falsehood.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Fielding remained at the parsonage during the greater part of the
+following week, and then there took place a great deal of family
+conversation respecting the future incumbent of the living. At these
+family conclaves, however, Fanny was not asked to be present. Mrs.
+Clavering, who knew well how to do such work, was gradually bringing
+her husband round to endure the name of Mr. Saul. Twenty times had he
+asserted that he could not understand it; but, whether or no such
+understanding might ever be possible, he was beginning to recognize
+it as true that the thing not understood was a fact. His daughter
+Fanny was positively in love with Mr. Saul, and that to such an
+extent that her mother believed her happiness to be involved in it.
+"I can't understand it;&mdash;upon my word I can't," said the rector for
+the last time, and then he gave way. There was now the means of
+giving an ample provision for the lovers, and that provision was to
+be given.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Fielding shook his head,&mdash;not in this instance as to Fanny's
+predilection for Mr. Saul; though in discussing that matter with his
+own wife he had shaken his head very often; but he shook it now with
+reference to the proposed change. He was very well where he was. And
+although Clavering was better than Humbleton, it was not so much
+better as to induce him to throw his own family over by proposing to
+send Mr. Saul among them. Mr. Saul was an excellent clergyman, but
+perhaps his uncle, who had given him his living, might not like Mr.
+Saul. Thus it was decided in these conclaves that Mr. Saul was to be
+the future rector of Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime poor Fanny moped,&mdash;wretched in her solitude,
+anticipating no such glorious joys as her mother was preparing for
+her; and Mr. Saul was preparing with energy for his departure into
+foreign parts.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c45"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLV.</h3>
+<h4>IS SHE MAD?</h4>
+
+
+<p>Lady Ongar was at Tenby when she received Mrs. Clavering's letter,
+and had not heard of the fate of her brother-in-law till the news
+reached her in that way. She had gone down to a lodging at Tenby with
+no attendant but one maid, and was preparing herself for the great
+surrender of her property which she meditated. Hitherto she had heard
+nothing from the Courtons or their lawyer as to the offer she had
+made about Ongar Park; but the time had been short, and lawyers'
+work, as she knew, was never done in a hurry. She had gone to Tenby,
+flying, in truth, from the loneliness of London to the loneliness of
+the sea-shore,&mdash;but expecting she knew not what comfort from the
+change. She would take with her no carriage, and there would, as she
+thought, be excitement even in that. She would take long walks by
+herself;&mdash;she would read;&mdash;nay, if possible, she would study and
+bring herself to some habits of industry. Hitherto she had failed in
+everything, but now she would try if some mode of success might not
+be open to her. She would ascertain, too, on what smallest sum she
+could live respectably and without penury, and would keep only so
+much out of Lord Ongar's wealth.</p>
+
+<p>But hitherto her life at Tenby had not been successful. Solitary days
+were longer there even than they had been in London. People stared at
+her more; and, though she did not own it to herself, she missed
+greatly the comforts of her London house. As for reading, I doubt
+whether she did much better by the seaside than she had done in the
+town. Men and women say that they will read, and think so,&mdash;those, I
+mean, who have acquired no habit of reading,&mdash;believing the work to
+be, of all works, the easiest. It may be work, they think, but of all
+works it must be the easiest of achievement. Given the absolute
+faculty of reading, the task of going through the pages of a book
+must be, of all tasks, the most certainly within the grasp of the man
+or woman who attempts it! Alas, no;&mdash;if the habit be not there, of
+all tasks it is the most difficult. If a man have not acquired the
+habit of reading till he be old, he shall sooner in his old age learn
+to make shoes than learn the adequate use of a book. And worse
+again;&mdash;under such circumstances the making of shoes shall be more
+pleasant to him than the reading of a book. Let those who are not
+old,&mdash;who are still young, ponder this well. Lady Ongar, indeed, was
+not old, by no means too old to clothe herself in new habits. But
+even she was old enough to find that the doing so was a matter of
+much difficulty. She had her books around her; but, in spite of her
+books, she was sadly in want of some excitement when the letter from
+Clavering came to her relief.</p>
+
+<p>It was indeed a relief. Her brother-in-law dead, and he also who had
+so lately been her suitor! These two men whom she had so lately seen
+in lusty health,&mdash;proud with all the pride of outward life,&mdash;had
+both, by a stroke of the winds, been turned into nothing. A terrible
+retribution had fallen upon her enemy,&mdash;for as her enemy she had ever
+regarded Hugh Clavering since her husband's death. She took no joy in
+this retribution. There was no feeling of triumph at her heart in
+that he had perished. She did not tell herself that she was
+glad,&mdash;either for her own sake or for her sister's. But mingled with
+the awe she felt there was a something of unexpressed and
+inexpressible relief. Her present life was very grievous to her,&mdash;and
+now had occurred that which would open to her new hopes and a new
+mode of living. Her brother-in-law had oppressed her by his very
+existence, and now he was gone. Had she had no brother-in-law who
+ought to have welcomed her, her return to England would not have been
+terrible to her as it had been. Her sister would be now restored to
+her, and her solitude would probably be at an end. And then the very
+excitement occasioned by the news was salutary to her. She was, in
+truth, shocked. As she said to her maid, she felt it to be very
+dreadful. But, nevertheless, the day on which she received those
+tidings was less wearisome to her than any other of the days that she
+had passed at Tenby.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Archie! Some feeling of a tear, some half-formed drop that was
+almost a tear, came to her eye as she thought of his fate. How
+foolish he had always been, how unintelligent, how deficient in all
+those qualities which recommend men to women! But the very memory of
+his deficiencies created something like a tenderness in his favour.
+Hugh was disagreeable, nay hateful, by reason of the power which he
+possessed; whereas Archie was not hateful at all, and was
+disagreeable simply because nature had been a niggard to him. And
+then he had professed himself to be her lover. There had not been
+much in this; for he had come, of course, for her money; but even
+when that is the case a woman will feel something for the man who has
+offered to link his lot with hers. Of all those to whom the fate of
+the two brothers had hitherto been matter of moment, I think that
+Lady Ongar felt more than any other for the fate of poor Archie.</p>
+
+<p>And how would it affect Harry Clavering? She had desired to give
+Harry all the good things of the world, thinking that they would
+become him well,&mdash;thinking that they would become him very well as
+reaching him from her hand. Now he would have them all, but would not
+have them from her. Now he would have them all, and would share them
+with Florence Burton. Ah,&mdash;if she could have been true to him in
+those early days,&mdash;in those days when she had feared his
+poverty,&mdash;would it not have been well now with her also? The measure
+of her retribution was come full home to her at last! Sir Harry
+Clavering! She tried the name and found that it sounded very well.
+And she thought of the figure of the man and of his nature, and she
+knew that he would bear it with a becoming manliness. Sir Harry
+Clavering would be somebody in his county,&mdash;would be a husband of
+whom his wife would be proud as he went about among his tenants and
+his gamekeepers,&mdash;and perhaps on wider and better journeys, looking
+up the voters of his neighbourhood. Yes; happy would be the wife of
+Sir Harry Clavering. He was a man who would delight in sharing his
+house, his hopes, his schemes and councils with his wife. He would
+find a companion in his wife. He would do honour to his wife, and
+make much of her. He would like to see her go bravely. And then, if
+children came, how tender he would be to them! Whether Harry could
+ever have become a good head to a poor household might be doubtful,
+but no man had ever been born fitter for the position which he was
+now called upon to fill. It was thus that Lady Ongar thought of Harry
+Clavering as she owned to herself that the full measure of her just
+retribution had come home to her.</p>
+
+<p>Of course she would go at once to Clavering Park. She wrote to her
+sister saying so, and the next day she started. She started so
+quickly on her journey that she reached the house not very many hours
+after her own letter. She was there when the rector started for
+London, and there when Mr. Fielding preached his sermon; but she did
+not see Mr. Clavering before he went, nor was she present to hear the
+eloquence of the younger clergyman. Till after that Sunday the only
+member of the family she had seen was Mrs. Clavering, who spent some
+period of every day up at the great house. Mrs. Clavering had not
+hitherto seen Lady Ongar since her return, and was greatly astonished
+at the change which so short a time had made. "She is handsomer than
+ever she was," Mrs. Clavering said to the rector; "but it is that
+beauty which some women carry into middle life, and not the
+loveliness of youth." Lady Ongar's manner was cold and stately when
+first she met Mrs. Clavering. It was on the morning of her marriage
+when they had last met,&mdash;when Julia Brabazon was resolving that she
+would look like a countess, and that to be a countess should be
+enough for her happiness. She could not but remember this now, and
+was unwilling at first to make confession of her failure by any
+meekness of conduct. It behoved her to be proud, at any rate till she
+should know how this new Lady Clavering would receive her. And then
+it was more than probable that this new Lady Clavering knew all that
+had taken place between her and Harry. It behoved her, therefore, to
+hold her head on high.</p>
+
+<p>But before the week was over, Mrs. Clavering,&mdash;for we will still call
+her so,&mdash;had broken Lady Ongar's spirit by her kindness; and the poor
+woman who had so much to bear had brought herself to speak of the
+weight of her burden. Julia had, on one occasion, called her Lady
+Clavering, and for the moment this had been allowed to pass without
+observation. The widowed lady was then present, and no notice of the
+name was possible. But soon afterwards Mrs. Clavering made her little
+request on the subject. "I do not quite know what the custom may be,"
+she said, "but do not call me so just yet. It will only be reminding
+Hermy of her bereavement."</p>
+
+<p>"She is thinking of it always," said Julia.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt she is; but still the new name would wound her. And,
+indeed, it perplexes me also. Let it come by-and-by, when we are more
+settled."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Ongar had truly said that her sister was as yet always thinking
+of her bereavement. To her now it was as though the husband she had
+lost had been a paragon among men. She could only remember of him his
+manliness, his power,&mdash;a dignity of presence which he possessed,&mdash;and
+the fact that to her he had been everything. She thought of that last
+and vain caution which she had given him, when with her hardly
+permitted last embrace she had besought him to take care of himself.
+She did not remember now how coldly that embrace had been received,
+how completely those words had been taken as meaning nothing, how he
+had left her not only without a sign of affection, but without an
+attempt to repress the evidences of his indifference. But she did
+remember that she had had her arm upon his shoulder, and tried to
+think of that embrace as though it had been sweet to her. And she did
+remember how she had stood at the window, listening to the sounds of
+the wheels which took him off, and watching his form as long as her
+eye could rest upon it. Ah! what falsehoods she told herself now of
+her love to him, and of his goodness to her; pious falsehoods which
+would surely tend to bring some comfort to her wounded spirit.</p>
+
+<p>But her sister could hardly bear to hear the praises of Sir Hugh.
+When she found how it was to be, she resolved that she would bear
+them,&mdash;bear them, and not contradict them; but her struggle in doing
+so was great, and was almost too much for her.</p>
+
+<p>"He had judged me and condemned me," she said at last, "and
+therefore, as a matter of course, we were not such friends when we
+last met as we used to be before my marriage."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Julia, there was much for which you owed him gratitude."</p>
+
+<p>"We will say nothing about that now, Hermy."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know why your mouth should be closed on such a subject
+because he has gone. I should have thought that you would be glad to
+acknowledge his kindness to you. But you were always hard."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I am hard."</p>
+
+<p>"And twice he asked you to come here since you returned,&mdash;but you
+would not come."</p>
+
+<p>"I have come now, Hermy, when I have thought that I might be of use."</p>
+
+<p>"He felt it when you would not come before. I know he did." Lady
+Ongar could not but think of the way in which he had manifested his
+feelings on the occasion of his visit to Bolton Street. "I never
+could understand why you were so bitter."</p>
+
+<p>"I think, dear, we had better not discuss that. I also have had much
+to bear,&mdash;I, as well as you. What you have borne has come in no wise
+from your own fault."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed; I did not want him to go. I would have given anything to
+keep him at home."</p>
+
+<p>Her sister had not been thinking of the suffering which had come to
+her from the loss of her husband, but of her former miseries. This,
+however, she did not explain. "No," Lady Ongar continued to say. "You
+have nothing for which to blame yourself, whereas I have
+much,&mdash;indeed everything. If we are to remain together, as I hope we
+may, it will be better for us both that bygones should be bygones."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that I am never to speak of Hugh?"</p>
+
+<p>"No;&mdash;I by no means intend that. But I would rather that you should
+not refer to his feelings towards me. I think he did not quite
+understand the sort of life that I led while my husband was alive,
+and that he judged me amiss. Therefore I would have bygones be
+bygones."</p>
+
+<p>Three or four days after this, when the question of leaving Clavering
+Park was being mooted, the elder sister started a difficulty as to
+money matters. An offer had been made to her by Mrs. Clavering to
+remain at the great house, but this she had declined, alleging that
+the place would be distasteful to her after her husband's death. She,
+poor soul, did not allege that it had been made distasteful to her
+for ever by the solitude which she had endured there during her
+husband's lifetime! She would go away somewhere, and live as best she
+might upon her jointure. It was not very much, but it would be
+sufficient. She did not see, she said, how she could live with her
+sister, because she did not wish to be dependent. Julia, of course,
+would live in a style to which she could make no pretence.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Clavering, who was present,&mdash;as was also Lady Ongar,&mdash;declared
+that she saw no such difficulty. "Sisters together," she said, "need
+hardly think of a difference in such matters."</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that Lady Ongar first spoke to either of them of her
+half-formed resolution about her money, and then too, for the first
+time, did she come down altogether from that high horse on which she
+had been, as it were, compelled to mount herself while in Mrs.
+Clavering's presence. "I think I must explain," said she, "something
+of what I mean to do,&mdash;about my money that is. I do not think that
+there will be much difference between me and Hermy in that respect."</p>
+
+<p>"That is nonsense," said her sister, fretfully.</p>
+
+<p>"There will be a difference in income certainly," said Mrs.
+Clavering, "but I do not see that that need create any uncomfortable
+feeling."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one doesn't like to be dependent," said Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not be asked to give up any of your independence," said
+Julia, with a smile,&mdash;a melancholy smile, that gave but little sign
+of pleasantness within. Then on a sudden her face became stern and
+hard. "The fact is," she said, "I do not intend to keep Lord Ongar's
+money."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to keep your income!" said Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"No;&mdash;I will give it back to them,&mdash;or at least the greater part of
+it. Why should I keep it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is your own," said Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; legally it is my own. I know that. And when there was some
+question whether it should not be disputed I would have fought for it
+to the last shilling. Somebody,&mdash;I suppose it was the lawyer,&mdash;wanted
+to keep from me the place in Surrey. I told them then that I would
+not abandon my right to an inch of it. But they yielded,&mdash;and now I
+have given them back the house."</p>
+
+<p>"You have given it back!" said her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;&mdash;I have said they may have it. It is of no use to me. I hate
+the place."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been very generous," said Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"But that will not affect your income," said Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"No;&mdash;that would not affect my income." Then she paused, not knowing
+how to go on with the story of her purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"If I may say so, Lady Ongar," said Mrs. Clavering, "I would not, if
+I were you, take any steps in so important a matter without advice."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is there that can advise me? Of course the lawyer tells me that
+I ought to keep it all. It is his business to give such advice as
+that. But what does he know of what I feel? How can he understand me?
+How, indeed, can I expect that any one shall understand me?"</p>
+
+<p>"But it is possible that people should misunderstand you," said Mrs.
+Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. That is just what he says. But, Mrs. Clavering, I care
+nothing for that. I care nothing for what anybody says or thinks.
+What is it to me what they say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should have thought it was everything," said her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;it is nothing;&mdash;nothing at all." Then she was again silent, and
+was unable to express herself. She could not bring herself to declare
+in words that self-condemnation of her own conduct which was now
+weighing so heavily upon her. It was not that she wished to keep back
+her own feelings, either from her sister or from Mrs. Clavering; but
+that the words in which to express them were wanting to her.</p>
+
+<p>"And have they accepted the house?" Mrs. Clavering asked.</p>
+
+<p>"They must accept it. What else can they do? They cannot make me call
+it mine if I do not choose. If I refuse to take the income which Mr.
+Courton's lawyer pays in to my bankers', they cannot compel me to
+have it."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are not going to give that up too?" said her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"I am. I will not have his money,&mdash;not more than enough to keep me
+from being a scandal to his family. I will not have it. It is a curse
+to me, and has been from the first. What right have I to all that
+money, because,&mdash;because,&mdash;<span class="nowrap">because&mdash;"</span>
+She could not finish her
+sentence, but turned away from them, and walked by herself to the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Clavering looked at Mrs. Clavering as though she thought that
+her sister was mad. "Do you understand her?" said Lady Clavering in a
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I do," said the other. "I think I know what is passing in
+her mind." Then she followed Lady Ongar across the room, and taking
+her gently by the arm tried to comfort her,&mdash;to comfort her, and to
+argue with her as to the rashness of that which she proposed to do.
+She endeavoured to explain to the poor woman how it was that she
+should at this moment be wretched, and anxious to do that which, if
+done, would put it out of her power afterwards to make herself useful
+in the world. It shocked the prudence of Mrs. Clavering,&mdash;this idea
+of abandoning money, the possession of which was questioned by no
+one. "They do not want it, Lady Ongar," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"That has nothing to do with it," answered the other.</p>
+
+<p>"And nobody has any suspicion but what it is honourably and fairly
+your own."</p>
+
+<p>"But does anybody ever think how I got it?" said Lady Ongar, turning
+sharply round upon Mrs. Clavering. "You,&mdash;you,&mdash;you,&mdash;do you dare to
+tell me what you think of the way in which it became mine? Could you
+bear it, if it had become yours after such a fashion? I cannot bear
+it, and I will not." She was now speaking with so much violence that
+her sister was awed into silence, and Mrs. Clavering herself found a
+difficulty in answering her.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever may have been the past," said she, "the question now is how
+to do the best for the future."</p>
+
+<p>"I had hoped," continued Lady Ongar without noticing what was said to
+her, "I had hoped to make everything straight by giving his money to
+another. You know to whom I mean, and so does Hermy. I thought, when
+I returned, that bad as I had been I might still do some good in the
+world. But it is as they tell us in the sermons. One cannot make good
+come out of evil. I have done evil, and nothing but evil has come
+from the evil which I have done. Nothing but evil will come from it.
+As for being useful in the world,&mdash;I know of what use I am! When
+women hear how wretched I have been they will be unwilling to sell
+themselves as I did." Then she made her way to the door, and left the
+room, going out with quiet steps, and closing the lock behind her
+without a sound.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know that she was such as that," said Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor did I. She has never spoken in that way before."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor soul! Hermione, you see there are those in the world whose
+sufferings are worse than yours."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Lady Clavering. "She never lost what I have
+lost,&mdash;never."</p>
+
+<p>"She has lost what I am sure you never will lose, her own
+self-esteem. But, Hermy, you should be good to her. We must all be
+good to her. Will it not be better that you should stay with us for a
+while,&mdash;both of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, here at the park?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will make room for you at the rectory, if you would like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; I will go away. I shall be better away. I suppose she will
+not be like that often; will she?"</p>
+
+<p>"She was much moved just now."</p>
+
+<p>"And what does she mean about her income? She cannot be in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"She is in earnest now."</p>
+
+<p>"And cannot it be prevented? Only think,&mdash;if after all she were to
+give up her jointure! Mrs. Clavering, you do not think she is mad; do
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Clavering said what she could to comfort the elder and weaker
+sister on this subject, explaining to her that the Courtons would not
+be at all likely to take advantage of any wild generosity on the part
+of Lady Ongar, and then she walked home across the park, meditating
+on the character of the two sisters.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c46"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLVI.</h3>
+<h4>MADAME GORDELOUP RETIRES FROM BRITISH DIPLOMACY.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><img class="left" src="images/ill46-v.jpg"
+width="310" alt="T" />he reader
+must be asked to accompany me once more to that room in
+Mount Street in which poor Archie practised diplomacy, and whither
+the courageous Doodles was carried prisoner in those moments in which
+he was last seen of us. The Spy was now sitting alone before her
+desk, scribbling with all her energy,&mdash;writing letters on foreign
+policy, no doubt, to all the courts of Europe, but especially to that
+Russian court to which her services were more especially due. She was
+hard at work, when there came the sound of a step upon the stairs.
+The practised ear of the Spy became erect, and she at once knew who
+was her visitor. It was not one with whom diplomacy would much avail,
+or who was likely to have money ready under his glove for her behoof.
+"Ah, Edouard, is that you? I am glad you have come," she said, as
+Count Pateroff entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is I. I got your note yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"You are good,&mdash;very good. You are always good." Sophie as she said
+this went on very rapidly with her letter,&mdash;so rapidly that her hand
+seemed to run about the paper wildly. Then she flung down her pen,
+and folded the paper on which she had been writing with marvellous
+quickness. There was an activity about the woman, in all her
+movements, which was wonderful to watch. "There," she said, "that is
+done; now we can talk. Ah! I have nearly written off my fingers this
+morning." Her brother smiled, but said nothing about the letters. He
+never allowed himself to allude in any way to her professional
+duties.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are going to St. Petersburg?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well,&mdash;yes, I think. Why should I remain here spending money with
+both hands and through the nose?" At this idea, the brother again
+smiled pleasantly. He had never seen his sister to be culpably
+extravagant as she now described herself. "Nothing to get and
+everything to lose," she went on saying.</p>
+
+<p>"You know your own affairs best," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I know my own affairs. If I remained here, I should be taken
+away to that black building there;" and she pointed in the direction
+of the workhouse, which fronts so gloomily upon Mount Street. "You
+would not come to take me out."</p>
+
+<p>The count smiled again. "You are too clever for that, Sophie, I
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, it is well for a woman to be clever, or she must starve,&mdash;yes,
+starve! Such a one as I must starve in this accursed country, if I
+were not what you call, clever." The brother and sister were talking
+in French, and she spoke now almost as rapidly as she had written.
+"They are beasts and fools, and as awkward as bulls,&mdash;yes, as bulls.
+I hate them. I hate them all. Men, women, children,&mdash;they are all
+alike. Look at the street out there. Though it is summer, I shiver
+when I look out at its blackness. It is the ugliest nation! And they
+understand nothing. Oh, how I hate them!"</p>
+
+<p>"They are not without merit. They have got money."</p>
+
+<p>"Money,&mdash;yes. They have got money; and they are so stupid, you may
+take it from under their eyes. They will not see you. But of their
+own hearts, they will give you nothing. You see that black
+building,&mdash;the workhouse. I call it Little England. It is just the
+same. The naked, hungry, poor wretches lie at the door, and the great
+fat beadles swell about like turkey-cocks inside."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been here long enough to know, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I have been here long,&mdash;too long. I have made my life a
+wilderness, staying here in this country of barracks. And what have I
+got for it? I came back because of that woman, and she has thrown me
+over. That is your fault,&mdash;yours,&mdash;yours!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you have sent for me to tell me that again?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Edouard. I sent for you that you might see your sister once
+more,&mdash;that I might once more see my brother." This she said leaning
+forward on the table, on which her arms rested, and looking
+steadfastly into his face with eyes moist,&mdash;just moist, with a tear
+in each. Whether Edouard was too unfeeling to be moved by this show
+of affection, or whether he gave more credit to his sister's
+histrionic powers than to those of her heart, I will not say; but he
+was altogether irresponsive to her appeal. "You will be back again
+before long," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Never! I shall come back to this accursed country never again. No; I
+am going once and for all. I will soil myself with the mud of its
+gutters no more. I came for the sake of Julie; and now,&mdash;how has she
+treated me?" Edouard shrugged his shoulders. "And you,&mdash;how has she
+treated you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but I must mind you. Only that you would not let me manage, it
+might be yours now,&mdash;yes, all. Why did you come down to that accursed
+island?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was my way to play my game. Leave that alone, Sophie." And there
+came a frown over the brother's brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Your way to play your game! Yes; and what has become of mine? You
+have destroyed mine; but you think nothing of that. After all that I
+have gone through, to have nothing; and through you,&mdash;my brother! Ah,
+that is the hardest of all,&mdash;when I was putting all things in train
+for you!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are always putting things in train. Leave your trains alone,
+where I am concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"But why did you come to that place in the accursed island? I am
+ruined by that journey. Yes; I am ruined. You will not help me to get
+a shilling from her,&mdash;not even for my expenses."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. You are clever enough to do your own work without my
+aid."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all from a brother? Well! And now that they have drowned
+themselves,&mdash;the two Claverings,&mdash;the fool and the brute; and she can
+do what she <span class="nowrap">pleases&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"She could always do as she pleased since Lord Ongar died."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but she is more lonely than ever now. That cousin who is the
+greatest fool of all, who might have had everything,&mdash;mon Dieu! yes,
+everything;&mdash;she would have given it all to him with a sweep of her
+hand, if he would have taken it. He is to marry himself to a little
+brown girl, who has not a shilling. No one but an Englishman could
+make follies so abominable as these. Ah, I am sick,&mdash;I am sick when I
+remember it!" And Sophie gave unmistakeable signs of a grief which
+could hardly have been self-interested. But in truth she suffered
+pain at seeing a good game spoilt. It was not that she had any wish
+for Harry Clavering's welfare. Had he gone to the bottom of the sea
+in the same boat with his cousins, the tidings of his fate would have
+been pleasurable to her rather than otherwise. But when she saw such
+cards thrown away as he had held in his hand, she encountered that
+sort of suffering which a good player feels when he sits behind the
+chair of one who plays up to his adversary's trump, and makes no
+tricks of his own kings and aces.</p>
+
+<p>"He may marry himself to the devil, if he please;&mdash;it is nothing to
+me," said the count.</p>
+
+<p>"But she is there;&mdash;by herself,&mdash;at that place;&mdash;what is it called?
+Ten&mdash;bie. Will you not go now, when you can do no harm?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I will not go now."</p>
+
+<p>"And in a year she will have taken some other one for her husband."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that to me? But look here, Sophie, for you may as well
+understand me at once. If I were ever to think of Lady Ongar again as
+my wife, I should not tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not tell me,&mdash;your sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it would do me no good. If you had not been there she would
+have been my wife now."</p>
+
+<p>"Edouard!"</p>
+
+<p>"What I say is true. But I do not want to reproach you because of
+that. Each of us was playing his own game; and your game was not my
+game. You are going now, and if I play my game again I can play it
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>Upon hearing this Sophie sat awhile in silence, looking at him. "You
+will play it alone?" she said at last. "You would rather do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Much rather, if I play any game at all."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will give me something to go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not one sou."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not;&mdash;not a sou?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not half a sou,&mdash;for you to go or stay. Sophie, are you not a fool
+to ask me for money?"</p>
+
+<p>"And you are a fool,&mdash;a fool who knows nothing. You need not look at
+me like that. I am not afraid. I shall remain here. I shall stay and
+do as the lawyer tells me. He says that if I bring my action she must
+pay me for my expenses. I will bring my action. I am not going to
+leave it all to you. No. Do you remember those days in Florence? I
+have not been paid yet, but I will be paid. One hundred and
+seventy-five thousand francs a year,&mdash;and after all I am to have none
+of it! Say;&mdash;should it become yours, will you do something for your
+sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all;&mdash;nothing. Sophie, do you think I am fool enough to
+bargain in such a matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will stay. Yes;&mdash;I will bring my action. All the world shall
+hear, and they shall know how you have destroyed me and yourself.
+Ah;&mdash;you think I am afraid; that I will not spend my money. I will
+spend all,&mdash;all,&mdash;all; and I will be revenged."</p>
+
+<p>"You may go or stay; it is the same thing to me. Now, if you please,
+I will take my leave." And he got up from his chair to leave her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the same thing to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will stay, and she shall hear my name every day of her
+life;&mdash;every hour. She shall be so sick of me and of you,
+that,&mdash;that&mdash;<span class="nowrap">that&mdash;</span> Oh,
+Edouard!" This last appeal was made to him
+because he was already at the door, and could not be stopped in any
+other way.</p>
+
+<p>"What else have you to say, my sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Edouard, what would I not give to see all those riches yours?
+Has it not been my dearest wish? Edouard, you are ungrateful. All men
+are ungrateful." Now, having succeeded in stopping him, she buried
+her face in the corner of the sofa and wept plentifully. It must be
+presumed that her acting before her brother must have been altogether
+thrown away; but the acting was, nevertheless, very good.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are in truth going to St. Petersburg," he said, "I will bid
+you adieu now. If not,&mdash;au revoir."</p>
+
+<p>"I am going. Yes, Edouard, I am. I cannot bear this country longer.
+My heart is being torn to pieces. All my affections are outraged.
+Yes, I am going;&mdash;perhaps on Monday;&mdash;perhaps on Monday week. But I
+go in truth. My brother, adieu." Then she got up, and putting a hand
+on each of his shoulders, lifted up her face to be kissed. He
+embraced her in the manner proposed, and turned to leave her. But
+before he went she made to him one other petition, holding him by the
+arm as she did so. "Edouard, you can lend me twenty napoleons till I
+am at St. Petersburg?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Sophie; no."</p>
+
+<p>"Not lend your sister twenty napoleons!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Sophie. I never lend money. It is a rule."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you give me five? I am so poor. I have almost nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Things are not so bad with you as that, I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes; they are very bad. Since I have been in this accursed
+city,&mdash;now, this time, what have I got? Nothing,&mdash;nothing. She was to
+be all in all to me,&mdash;and she has given me nothing! It is very bad to
+be so poor. Say that you will give me five napoleons;&mdash;O my brother!"
+She was still hanging by his arm, and, as she did so, she looked up
+into his face with tears in her eyes. As he regarded her, bending
+down his face over hers, a slight smile came upon his countenance.
+Then he put his hand into his pocket, and taking out his purse,
+handed to her five sovereigns.</p>
+
+<p>"Only five?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Only five," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"A thousand thanks, O my brother." Then she kissed him again, and
+after that he went. She accompanied him to the top of the stairs, and
+from thence showered blessings on his head, till she heard the lock
+of the door closed behind him. When he was altogether gone she
+unlocked an inner drawer in her desk, and, taking out an uncompleted
+rouleau of gold, added her brother's sovereigns thereto. The sum he
+had given her was exactly wanted to make up the required number of
+twenty-five. She counted them half-a-dozen times, to be quite sure,
+and then rolled them carefully in paper, and sealed the little packet
+at each end. "Ah," she said, speaking to herself, "they are very
+nice. Nothing else English is nice, but only these." There were many
+rolls of money there before her in the drawer of the desk;&mdash;some ten,
+perhaps, or twelve. These she took out one after another, passing
+them lovingly through her fingers, looking at the little seals at the
+ends of each, weighing them in her hand as though to make sure that
+no wrong had been done to them in her absence, standing them up one
+against another to see that they were of the same length. We may be
+quite sure that Sophie Gordeloup brought no sovereigns with her to
+England when she came over with Lady Ongar after the earl's death,
+and that the hoard before her contained simply the plunder which she
+had collected during this her latest visit to the "accursed" country
+which she was going to leave.</p>
+
+<p>But before she started she was resolved to make one more attempt upon
+that mine of wealth which, but a few weeks ago, had seemed to be open
+before her. She had learned from the servants in Bolton Street that
+Lady Ongar was with Lady Clavering, at Clavering Park, and she
+addressed a letter to her there. This letter she wrote in English,
+and she threw into her appeal all the pathos of which she was
+<span class="nowrap">capable.&mdash;</span><br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="jright">Mount Street, October, 186&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">Dearest
+Julie</span>,&mdash;I do not think you would wish me to go
+away from this country for ever,&mdash;for ever, without one
+word of farewell to her I love so fondly. Yes; I have
+loved you with all my heart,&mdash;and now I am going
+away,&mdash;for ever. Shall we not meet each other once, and
+have one embrace? No trouble will be too much to me for
+that. No journey will be too long. Only say, Sophie, come
+to your Julie.</p>
+
+<p>I must go, because I am so poor. Yes; I cannot live longer
+here without having the means. I am not ashamed to say to
+my Julie, who is rich, that I am poor. No; nor would I be
+ashamed to wait on my Julie like a slave if she would let
+me. My Julie was angry with me, because of my brother! Was
+it my fault that he came upon us in our little retreat,
+where we was so happy? Oh, no. I told him not to come. I
+knew his coming was for nothing,&mdash;nothing at all. I knew
+where was the heart of my Julie!&mdash;my poor Julie! But he
+was not worth that heart, and the pearl was thrown before
+a pig. But my <span class="nowrap">brother&mdash;!</span> Ah,
+he has ruined me. Why am I
+separated from my Julie but for him? Well; I can go away,
+and in my own countries there are those who will not wish
+to be separated from Sophie Gordeloup.</p>
+
+<p>May I now tell my Julie in what condition is her poor
+friend? She will remember how it was that my feet brought
+me to England,&mdash;to England, to which I had said farewell
+for ever,&mdash;to England, where people must be rich like my
+Julie before they can eat and drink. I thought nothing
+then but of my Julie. I stopped not on the road to make
+merchandise,&mdash;what you call a bargain,&mdash;about my coming.
+No; I came at once, leaving all things,&mdash;my little
+affairs,&mdash;in confusion, because my Julie wanted me to
+come! It was in the winter. Oh, that winter! My poor bones
+shall never forget it. They are racked still with the
+pains which your savage winds have given them. And now it
+is autumn. Ten months have I been here, and I have eaten
+up my little substance. Oh, Julie, you, who are so rich,
+do not know what is the poverty of your Sophie!</p>
+
+<p>A lawyer have told me,&mdash;not a French lawyer, but an
+English,&mdash;that somebody should pay me everything. He says
+the law would give it me. He have offered me the money
+himself,&mdash;just to let him make an action. But I have
+said,&mdash;No. No; Sophie will not have an action with her
+Julie. She would scorn that; and so the lawyer went away.
+But if my Julie will think of this, and will remember her
+Sophie,&mdash;how much she have expended, and now at last there
+is nothing left. She must go and beg among her friends.
+And why? Because she have loved her Julie too well. You,
+who are so rich, would miss it not at all. What would
+two,&mdash;three hundred pounds be to my Julie?</p>
+
+<p>Shall I come to you? Say so; say so, and I will go at
+once, if I did crawl on my knees. Oh, what a joy to see my
+Julie! And do not think I will trouble you about money.
+No; your Sophie will be too proud for that. Not a word
+will I say, but to love you. Nothing will I do, but to
+print one kiss on my Julie's forehead, and then to retire
+for ever; asking God's blessing for her dear head.</p>
+
+<p class="ind10">Thine,&mdash;always thine,</p>
+
+<p class="ind14"><span class="smallcaps">Sophie</span>.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Lady Ongar, when she received this letter, was a little perplexed by
+it, not feeling quite sure in what way she might best answer it. It
+was the special severity of her position that there was no one to
+whom, in such difficulties, she could apply for advice. Of one thing
+she was quite sure,&mdash;that, willingly, she would never again see her
+devoted Sophie. And she knew that the woman deserved no money from
+her; that she had deserved none, but had received much. Every
+assertion in her letter was false. No one had wished her to come, and
+the expense of her coming had been paid for her over and over again.
+Lady Ongar knew that she had money,&mdash;and knew also that she would
+have had immediate recourse to law, if any lawyer would have
+suggested to her with a probability of success that he could get more
+for her. No doubt she had been telling her story to some attorney, in
+the hope that money might thus be extracted, and had been dragging
+her Julie's name through the mud, telling all she knew of that
+wretched Florentine story. As to all that Lady Ongar had no doubt;
+and yet she wished to send the woman money!</p>
+
+<p>There are services for which one is ready to give almost any amount
+of money payment,&mdash;if only one can be sure that that money payment
+will be taken as sufficient recompence for the service in question.
+Sophie Gordeloup had been useful. She had been very
+disagreeable,&mdash;but she had been useful. She had done things which
+nobody else could have done, and she had done her work well. That she
+had been paid for her work over and over again, there was no doubt;
+but Lady Ongar was willing to give her yet further payment, if only
+there might be an end of it. But she feared to do this, dreading the
+nature and cunning of the little woman,&mdash;lest she should take such
+payment as an acknowledgment of services for which secret
+compensation must be made,&mdash;and should then proceed to further
+threats. Thinking much of all this, Julie at last wrote to her Sophie
+as <span class="nowrap">follows:&mdash;</span><br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>Lady Ongar presents her compliments to Madame Gordeloup,
+and must decline to see Madame Gordeloup again after what
+has passed. Lady Ongar is very sorry to hear that Madame
+Gordeloup is in want of funds. Whatever assistance Lady
+Ongar might have been willing to afford, she now feels
+that she is prohibited from giving any by the allusion
+which Madame Gordeloup has made to legal advice. If Madame
+Gordeloup has legal demands on Lady Ongar which are said
+by a lawyer to be valid, Lady Ongar would strongly
+recommend Madame Gordeloup to enforce them.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Clavering Park, October, 186&mdash;.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>This she wrote, acting altogether on her own judgment, and sent off
+by return of post. She almost wept at her own cruelty after the
+letter was gone, and greatly doubted her own discretion. But of whom
+could she have asked advice? Could she have told all the story of
+Madame Gordeloup to the rector or to the rector's wife? The letter no
+doubt was a discreet letter; but she greatly doubted her own
+discretion, and when she received her Sophie's rejoinder, she hardly
+dared to break the envelope.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Sophie! Her Julie's letter nearly broke her heart. For sincerity
+little credit was due to her;&mdash;but some little was perhaps due. That
+she should be called Madame Gordeloup, and have compliments presented
+to her by the woman,&mdash;by the countess with whom and with whose
+husband she had been on such closely familiar terms, did in truth
+wound some tender feelings within her bosom. Such love as she had
+been able to give, she had given to her Julie. That she had always
+been willing to rob her Julie, to make a milch-cow of her Julie, to
+sell her Julie, to threaten her Julie, to quarrel with her Julie if
+aught might be done in that way,&mdash;to expose her Julie; nay, to
+destroy her Julie if money was to be so made;&mdash;all this did not
+hinder her love. She loved her Julie, and was broken-hearted that her
+Julie should have written to her in such a strain.</p>
+
+<p>But her feelings were much more acute when she came to perceive that
+she had damaged her own affairs by the hint of a menace which she had
+thrown out. Business is business, and must take precedence of all
+sentiment and romance in this hard world in which bread is so
+necessary. Of that Madame Gordeloup was well aware. And therefore,
+having given herself but two short minutes to weep over her Julie's
+hardness, she applied her mind at once to the rectification of the
+error she had made. Yes; she had been wrong about the
+lawyer,&mdash;certainly wrong. But then these English people were so
+pig-headed! A slight suspicion of a hint, such as that she had made,
+would have been taken by a Frenchman, by a Russian, by a Pole, as
+meaning no more than it meant. "But these English are bulls; the men
+and the women are all like bulls,&mdash;bulls!"</p>
+
+<p>She at once sat down and wrote another letter; another in such an
+ecstasy of eagerness to remove the evil impressions which she had
+made, that she wrote it almost with the natural effusion of her
+<span class="nowrap">heart.&mdash;</span><br />&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smallcaps">Dear
+Friend</span>,&mdash;Your coldness kills me,&mdash;kills me! But
+perhaps I have deserved it. If I said there were legal
+demands I did deserve it. No; there are none. Legal
+demands! Oh, no. What can your poor friend demand legally?
+The lawyer&mdash;he knows nothing; he was a stranger. It was my
+brother spoke to him. What should I do with a lawyer? Oh,
+my friend, do not be angry with your poor servant. I write
+now not to ask for money,&mdash;but for a kind word; for one
+word of kindness and love to your Sophie before she have
+gone for ever! Yes; for ever. Oh, Julie, oh, my angel; I
+would lie at your feet and kiss them if you were here.
+Yours till death, even though you should still be hard to
+me,</p>
+
+<p class="ind14"><span class="smallcaps">Sophie</span>.<br />&nbsp;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>To this appeal Lady Ongar sent no direct answer, but she commissioned
+Mr. Turnbull, her lawyer, to call upon Madame Gordeloup and pay to
+that lady one hundred pounds, taking her receipt for the same. Lady
+Ongar, in her letter to the lawyer, explained that the woman in
+question had been useful in Florence; and explained also that she
+might pretend that she had further claims. "If so," said Lady Ongar,
+"I wish you to tell her that she can prosecute them at law if she
+pleases. The money I now give her is a gratuity made for certain
+services rendered in Florence during the illness of Lord Ongar." This
+commission Mr. Turnbull executed, and Sophie Gordeloup, when taking
+the money, made no demand for any further payment.</p>
+
+<p>Four days after this a little woman, carrying a very big bandbox in
+her hands, might have been seen to scramble with difficulty out of a
+boat in the Thames up the side of a steamer bound from thence for
+Boulogne. And after her there climbed up an active little man, who,
+with peremptory voice, repulsed the boatman's demand for further
+payment. He also had a bandbox on his arm,&mdash;belonging, no doubt, to
+the little woman. And it might have been seen that the active little
+man, making his way to the table at which the clerk of the boat was
+sitting, out of his own purse paid the passage-money for two
+passengers,&mdash;through to Paris. And the head and legs and neck of that
+little man were like to the head and legs and neck of&mdash;our friend
+Doodles, alias Captain Boodle, of Warwickshire.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c47"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLVII.</h3>
+<h4>SHOWING HOW THINGS SETTLED THEMSELVES AT THE RECTORY.</h4>
+
+
+<p>When Harry's letter, with the tidings of the fate of his cousins,
+reached Florence at Stratton, the whole family was, not unnaturally,
+thrown into great excitement. Being slow people, the elder Burtons
+had hardly as yet realized the fact that Harry was again to be
+accepted among the Burton Penates as a pure divinity. Mrs. Burton,
+for some weeks past, had grown to be almost sublime in her wrath
+against him. That a man should live and treat her daughter as
+Florence was about to be treated! Had not her husband forbidden such
+a journey, as being useless in regard to the expenditure, she would
+have gone up to London that she might have told Harry what she
+thought of him. Then came the news that Harry was again a
+divinity,&mdash;an Apollo, whom the Burton Penates ought only to be too
+proud to welcome to a seat among them!</p>
+
+<p>And now came this other news that this Apollo was to be an Apollo
+indeed! When the god first became a god again, there was still a
+cloud upon the minds of the elder Burtons as to the means by which
+the divinity was to be sustained. A god in truth, but a god with so
+very moderate an annual income;&mdash;unless indeed those old Burtons made
+it up to an extent which seemed to them to be quite unnatural! There
+was joy among the Burtons, of course, but the joy was somewhat dimmed
+by these reflections as to the slight means of their Apollo. A lover
+who was not an Apollo might wait; but, as they had learned already,
+there was danger in keeping such a god as this suspended on the
+tenter-hooks of expectation.</p>
+
+<p>But now there came the further news! This Apollo of theirs had really
+a place of his own among the gods of Olympus. He was the eldest son
+of a man of large fortune, and would be a baronet! He had already
+declared that he would marry at once;&mdash;that his father wished him to
+do so, and that an abundant income would be forthcoming. As to his
+eagerness for an immediate marriage, no divinity in or out of the
+heavens could behave better. Old Mrs. Burton, as she went through the
+process of taking him again to her heart, remembered that that virtue
+had been his, even before the days of his backsliding had come. A
+warm-hearted, eager, affectionate divinity,&mdash;with only this against
+him, that he wanted some careful looking after in these, his
+unsettled days. "I really do think that he'll be as fond of his own
+fireside as any other man, when he has once settled down," said Mrs.
+Burton.</p>
+
+<p>It will not, I hope, be taken as a blot on the character of this
+mother that she was much elated at the prospect of the good things
+which were to fall to her daughter's lot. For herself she desired
+nothing. For her daughters she had coveted only good, substantial,
+painstaking husbands, who would fear God and mind their business.
+When Harry Clavering had come across her path and had demanded a
+daughter from her, after the manner of the other young men who had
+learned the secrets of their profession at Stratton, she had desired
+nothing more than that he and Florence should walk in the path which
+had been followed by her sisters and their husbands. But then had
+come that terrible fear; and now had come these golden prospects.
+That her daughter should be Lady Clavering, of Clavering Park! She
+could not but be elated at the thought of it. She would not live to
+see it, but the consciousness that it would be so was pleasant to her
+in her old age. Florence had ever been regarded as the flower of the
+flock, and now she would be taken up into high places,&mdash;according to
+her deserts.</p>
+
+<p>First had come the letter from Harry, and then, after an interval of
+a week, another letter from Mrs. Clavering, pressing her dear
+Florence to go to the parsonage. "We think that at present we all
+ought to be together," said Mrs. Clavering, "and therefore we want
+you to be with us." It was very flattering. "I suppose I ought to go,
+mamma?" said Florence. Mrs. Burton was of opinion that she certainly
+ought to go. "You should write to her ladyship at once," said Mrs.
+Burton, mindful of the change which had taken place. Florence,
+however, addressed her letter, as heretofore, to Mrs. Clavering,
+thinking that a mistake on that side would be better than a mistake
+on the other. It was not for her to be over-mindful of the rank with
+which she was about to be connected. "You won't forget your old
+mother now that you are going to be so grand?" said Mrs. Burton, as
+Florence was leaving her.</p>
+
+<p>"You only say that to laugh at me," said Florence. "I expect no
+grandness, and I am sure you expect no forgetfulness."</p>
+
+<p>The solemnity consequent upon the first news of the accident had worn
+itself off, and Florence found the family at the parsonage happy and
+comfortable. Mrs. Fielding was still there, and Mr. Fielding was
+expected again after the next Sunday. Fanny also was there, and
+Florence could see during the first half-hour that she was very
+radiant. Mr. Saul, however, was not there, and it may as well be said
+at once that Mr. Saul as yet knew nothing of his coming fortune.
+Florence was received with open arms by them all, and by Harry with
+arms which were almost too open. "I suppose it may be in about three
+weeks from now?" he said at the first moment in which he could have
+her to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Harry,&mdash;no," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"No;&mdash;why no? That's what my mother proposes."</p>
+
+<p>"In three weeks!&mdash;She could not have said that. Nobody has begun to
+think of such a thing yet at Stratton."</p>
+
+<p>"They are so very slow at Stratton!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you are so very fast at Clavering! But, Harry, we don't know
+where we are going to live."</p>
+
+<p>"We should go abroad at first, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"And what then? That would only be for a month or so."</p>
+
+<p>"Only for a month? I mean for all the winter,&mdash;and the spring. Why
+not? One can see nothing in a month. If we are back for the shooting
+next year that would do,&mdash;and then of course we should come here. I
+should say next winter,&mdash;that is the winter after the next,&mdash;we might
+as well stay with them at the big house, and then we could look about
+us, you know. I should like a place near to this, because of the
+hunting!"</p>
+
+<p>Florence, when she heard all this, became aware that in talking about
+a month she had forgotten herself. She had been accustomed to
+holidays of a month's duration,&mdash;and to honeymoon trips fitted to
+such vacations. A month was the longest holiday ever heard of in the
+chambers in the Adelphi,&mdash;or at the house in Onslow Crescent. She had
+forgotten herself. It was not to be the lot of her husband to earn
+his bread, and fit himself to such periods as business might require.
+Then Harry went on describing the tour which he had arranged;&mdash;which
+as he said he only suggested. But it was quite apparent that in this
+matter he intended to be paramount. Florence indeed made no
+objection. To spend a fortnight in Paris;&mdash;to hurry over the Alps
+before the cold weather came; to spend a month in Florence, and then
+go on to Rome;&mdash;it would all be very nice. But she declared that it
+would suit the next year better than this.</p>
+
+<p>"Suit ten thousand fiddlesticks," said Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is October now."</p>
+
+<p>"And therefore there is no time to lose."</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't a dress in the world but the one I have on, and a few
+others like it. Oh, Harry, how can you talk in that way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, say four weeks then from now. That will make it the seventh of
+November, and we'll only stay a day or two in Paris. We can do Paris
+next year,&mdash;in May. If you'll agree to that, I'll agree."</p>
+
+<p>But Florence's breath was taken away from her, and she could agree to
+nothing. She did agree to nothing till she had been talked into doing
+so by Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," said her future mother-in-law, "what you say is
+undoubtedly true. There is no absolute necessity for hurrying. It is
+not an affair of life and death. But you and Harry have been engaged
+quite long enough now, and I really don't see why you should put it
+off. If you do as he asks you, you will just have time to make
+yourselves comfortable before the cold weather begins."</p>
+
+<p>"But mamma will be so surprised."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure she will wish it, my dear. You see Harry is a young man of
+that sort,&mdash;so impetuous I mean, you know, and so eager,&mdash;and so&mdash;you
+know what I mean,&mdash;that the sooner he is married the better. You
+can't but take it as a compliment, Florence, that he is so eager."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I do."</p>
+
+<p>"And you should reward him. Believe me it will be best that it should
+not be delayed." Whether or no Mrs. Clavering had present in her
+imagination the possibility of any further danger that might result
+from Lady Ongar, I will not say, but if so, she altogether failed in
+communicating her idea to Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must go home at once," said Florence, driven almost to bewail
+the terrors of her position.</p>
+
+<p>"You can write home at once and tell your mother. You can tell her
+all that I say, and I am sure she will agree with me. If you wish it,
+I will write a line to Mrs. Burton myself." Florence said that she
+would wish it. "And we can begin, you know, to get your things ready
+here. People don't take so long about all that now-a-days as they
+used to do." When Mrs. Clavering had turned against her, Florence
+knew that she had no hope, and surrendered, subject to the approval
+of the higher authorities at Stratton. The higher authorities at
+Stratton approved also, of course, and Florence found herself fixed
+to a day with a suddenness that bewildered her. Immediately,&mdash;almost
+as soon as the consent had been extorted from her,&mdash;she began to be
+surrounded with incipient preparation for the event, as to which,
+about three weeks since, she had made up her mind that it would never
+come to pass.</p>
+
+<p>On the second day of her arrival, in the privacy of her bedroom,
+Fanny communicated to her the decision of her family in regard to Mr.
+Saul. But she told the story at first as though this decision
+referred to the living only,&mdash;as though the rectory were to be
+conferred on Mr. Saul without any burden attached to it. "He has been
+here so long, dear," said Fanny, "and understands the people so
+well."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so delighted," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure it is the best thing papa could do;&mdash;that is if he quite
+makes up his mind to give up the parish himself."</p>
+
+<p>This troubled Florence, who did not know that a baronet could hold a
+living.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought he must give up being a clergyman now that Sir Hugh is
+dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"O dear, no." And then Fanny, who was great on ecclesiastical
+subjects, explained it all. "Even though he were to be a peer, he
+could hold a living if he pleased. A great many baronets are
+clergymen, and some of them do hold preferments. As to papa, the
+doubt has been with him whether he would wish to give up the work.
+But he will preach sometimes, you know; though of course he will not
+be able to do that unless Mr. Saul lets him. No one but the rector
+has a right to his own pulpit except the bishop; and he can preach
+three times a year if he likes it."</p>
+
+<p>"And suppose the bishop wanted to preach four times?"</p>
+
+<p>"He couldn't do it; at least, I believe not. But you see he never
+wants to preach at all,&mdash;not in such a place as this,&mdash;so that does
+not signify."</p>
+
+<p>"And will Mr. Saul come and live here, in this house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some day I suppose he will," said Fanny, blushing.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how that may be."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Fanny."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I don't, Florence, or I would tell you. Of course Mr. Saul
+has asked me. I never had any secret with you about that; have I?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; you were very good."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he asked me again; twice again. And then there came,&mdash;oh, such
+a quarrel between him and papa. It was so terrible. Do you know, I
+believe they wouldn't speak in the vestry! Not but what each of them
+has the highest possible opinion of the other. But of course Mr. Saul
+couldn't marry on a curacy. When I think of it it really seems that
+he must have been mad."</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't think him so mad now, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"He doesn't know a word about it yet; not a word. He hasn't been in
+the house since, and papa and he didn't speak,&mdash;not in a friendly
+way,&mdash;till the news came of poor Hugh's being drowned. Then he came
+up to papa, and, of course, papa took his hand. But he still thinks
+he is going away."</p>
+
+<p>"And when is he to be told that he needn't go?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is the difficulty. Mamma will have to do it, I believe. But
+what she will say, I'm sure I for one can't think."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Clavering will have no difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't call her Mrs. Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Clavering then."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a great deal worse. She's your mamma now,&mdash;not quite so much
+as she is mine, but the next thing to it."</p>
+
+<p>"She'll know what to say to Mr. Saul."</p>
+
+<p>"But what is she to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Fanny,&mdash;you ought to know that. I suppose you do&mdash;love him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have never told him so."</p>
+
+<p>"But you will?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems so odd. Mamma will have to&mdash; Suppose he were to turn round
+and say he didn't want me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That would be awkward."</p>
+
+<p>"He would in a minute if that was what he felt. The idea of having
+the living would not weigh with him a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"But when he was so much in love before, it won't make him out of
+love;&mdash;will it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Fanny. "At any rate, mamma is to see him
+to-morrow, and after that I suppose;&mdash;I'm sure I don't know,&mdash;but I
+suppose he'll come to the rectory as he used to do."</p>
+
+<p>"How happy you must be," said Florence, kissing her. To this Fanny
+made some unintelligible demur. It was undoubtedly possible that,
+under the altered circumstances of the case, so strange a being as
+Mr. Saul might have changed his mind.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great trial awaiting Florence Burton. She had to be taken
+up to call on the ladies at the great house,&mdash;on the two widowed
+ladies who were still remaining there when she came to Clavering. It
+was only on the day before her arrival that Harry had seen Lady
+Ongar. He had thought much of the matter before he went across to the
+house, doubting whether it would not be better to let Julia go
+without troubling her with a further interview. But he had not then
+seen even Lady Clavering since the tidings of her bereavement had
+come, and he felt that it would not be well that he should let his
+cousin's widow leave Clavering without offering her his sympathy. And
+it might be better, also, that he should see Julia once again, if
+only that he might show himself capable of meeting her without the
+exhibition of any peculiar emotion. He went, therefore, to the house,
+and having asked for Lady Clavering, saw both the sisters together.
+He soon found that the presence of the younger one was a relief to
+him. Lady Clavering was so sad, and so peevish in her sadness,&mdash;so
+broken-spirited, so far as yet from recognizing the great
+enfranchisement that had come to her, that with her alone he would
+have found himself almost unable to express the sympathy which he
+felt. But with Lady Ongar he had no difficulty. Lady Ongar, her
+sister being with them in the room, talked to him easily, as though
+there had never been anything between them to make conversation
+difficult. That all words between them should, on such an occasion as
+this, be sad, was a matter of course; but it seemed to Harry that
+Julia had freed herself from all the effects of that feeling which
+had existed between them, and that it would become him to do this as
+effectually as she had done it. Such an idea, at least, was in his
+mind for a moment; but when he left her she spoke one word which
+dispelled it. "Harry," she said, "you must ask Miss Burton to come
+across and see me. I hear that she is to be at the rectory
+to-morrow." Harry of course said that he would send her. "She will
+understand why I cannot go to her, as I should do,&mdash;but for poor
+Hermy's position. You will explain this, Harry." Harry, blushing up
+to his forehead, declared that Florence would require no explanation,
+and that she would certainly make the visit as proposed. "I wish to
+see her, Harry,&mdash;so much. And if I do not see her now, I may never
+have another chance."</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly a week after this that Florence went across to the
+great house with Mrs. Clavering and Fanny. I think that she
+understood the nature of the visit she was called upon to make, and
+no doubt she trembled much at the coming ordeal. She was going to see
+her great rival,&mdash;her rival, who had almost been preferred to
+her,&mdash;nay, who had been preferred to her for some short space of
+time, and whose claims as to beauty and wealth were so greatly
+superior to her own. And this woman whom she was to see had been the
+first love of the man whom she now regarded as her own,&mdash;and would
+have been about to be his wife at this moment had it not been for her
+own treachery to him. Was she so beautiful as people said? Florence,
+in the bottom of her heart, wished that she might have been saved
+from this interview.</p>
+
+<p>The three ladies from the rectory found the two ladies at the great
+house sitting together in the small drawing-room. Florence was so
+confused that she could hardly bring herself to speak to Lady
+Clavering, or so much as to look at Lady Ongar. She shook hands with
+the elder sister, and knew that her hand was then taken by the other.
+Julia at first spoke a very few words to Mrs. Clavering, and Fanny
+sat herself down beside Hermione. Florence took a chair at a little
+distance, and was left there for a few minutes without notice. For
+this she was very thankful, and by degrees was able to fix her eyes
+on the face of the woman whom she so feared to see, and yet on whom
+she so desired to look. Lady Clavering was a mass of ill-arranged
+widow's weeds. She had assumed in all its grotesque ugliness those
+paraphernalia of outward woe which women have been condemned to wear,
+in order that for a time they may be shorn of all the charms of their
+sex. Nothing could be more proper or unbecoming than the heavy,
+drooping, shapeless blackness in which Lady Clavering had enveloped
+herself. But Lady Ongar, though also a widow, though as yet a widow
+of not twelve months' standing, was dressed,&mdash;in weeds, no
+doubt,&mdash;but in weeds which had been so cultivated that they were as
+good as flowers. She was very beautiful. Florence owned to herself as
+she sat there in silence, that Lady Ongar was the most beautiful
+woman that she had ever seen. But hers was not the beauty by which,
+as she would have thought, Harry Clavering would have been attracted.
+Lady Ongar's form, bust, and face were, at this period of her life,
+almost majestic; whereas the softness and grace of womanhood were the
+charms which Harry loved. He had sometimes said to Florence that, to
+his taste, Cecilia Burton was almost perfect as a woman. And there
+could be no contrast greater than that between Cecilia Burton and
+Lady Ongar. But Florence did not remember that the Julia Brabazon of
+three years since had not been the same as the Lady Ongar whom now
+she saw.</p>
+
+<p>When they had been there some minutes Lady Ongar came and sat beside
+Florence, moving her seat as though she were doing the most natural
+thing in the world. Florence's heart came to her mouth, but she made
+a resolution that she would, if possible, bear herself well. "You
+have been at Clavering before, I think?" said Lady Ongar. Florence
+said that she had been at the parsonage during the last Easter.
+"Yes,&mdash;I heard that you dined here with my brother-in-law." This she
+said in a low voice, having seen that Lady Clavering was engaged with
+Fanny and Mrs. Clavering. "Was it not terribly sudden?"</p>
+
+<p>"Terribly sudden," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"The two brothers! Had you not met Captain Clavering?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;he was here when I dined with your sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fellow! Is it not odd that they should have gone, and that
+their friend, whose yacht it was, should have been saved? They say,
+however, that Mr. Stuart behaved admirably, begging his friends to
+get into the boat first. He stayed by the vessel when the boat was
+carried away, and he was saved in that way. But he meant to do the
+best he could for them. There's no doubt of that."</p>
+
+<p>"But how dreadful his feelings must be!"</p>
+
+<p>"Men do not think so much of these things as we do. They have so much
+more to employ their minds. Don't you think so?" Florence did not at
+the moment quite know what she thought about men's feelings, but said
+that she supposed that such was the case. "But I think that after all
+they are juster than we are," continued Lady Ongar,&mdash;"juster and
+truer, though not so tender-hearted. Mr. Stuart, no doubt, would have
+been willing to drown himself to save his friends, because the fault
+was in some degree his. I don't know that I should have been able to
+do so much."</p>
+
+<p>"In such a moment it must have been so difficult to think of what
+ought to be done."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed; and there is but little good in speculating upon it
+now. You know this place, do you not;&mdash;the house, I mean, and the
+gardens?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not very well." Florence, as she answered this question, began again
+to tremble. "Take a turn with me, and I will show you the garden. My
+hat and cloak are in the hall." Then Florence got up to accompany
+her, trembling very much inwardly. "Miss Burton and I are going out
+for a few minutes," said Lady Ongar, addressing herself to Mrs.
+Clavering. "We will not keep you waiting very long."</p>
+
+<p>"We are in no hurry," said Mrs. Clavering. Then Florence was carried
+off, and found herself alone with her conquered rival.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that there is much to show you," said Lady Ongar; "indeed
+nothing; but the place must be of more interest to you than to any
+one else; and if you are fond of that sort of thing, no doubt you
+will make it all that is charming."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very fond of a garden," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether I am. Alone, by myself, I think I should care
+nothing for the prettiest Eden in all England. I don't think I would
+care for a walk through the Elysian fields by myself. I am a
+chameleon, and take the colour of those with whom I live. My future
+colours will not be very bright as I take it. It's a gloomy place
+enough; is it not? But there are fine trees, you see, which are the
+only things which one cannot by any possibility command. Given good
+trees, taste and money may do anything very quickly; as I have no
+doubt you'll find."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose I shall have much to do with it&mdash;at present."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think that you will have everything to do with it. There,
+Miss Burton; I brought you here to show you this very spot, and to
+make to you my confession here,&mdash;and to get from you, here, one word
+of confidence, if you will give it me." Florence was trembling now
+outwardly as well as inwardly. "You know my story; as far, I mean, as
+I had a story once, in conjunction with Harry Clavering?"</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><a id="ill47"></a>
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4px">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/ill47.jpg">
+      <img src="images/ill47-t.jpg" height="600"
+      alt="Lady Ongar and Florence." /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <span class="caption"><span class="smallcaps">Lady
+      Ongar and Florence.</span><br />
+      Click to <a href="images/ill47.jpg">ENLARGE</a></span>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"I think I do," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you do," said Lady Ongar. "He has told me that you do; and
+what he says is always true. It was here, on this spot, that I gave
+him back his troth to me, and told him that I would have none of his
+love, because he was poor. That is barely two years ago. Now he is
+poor no longer. Now, had I been true to him, a marriage with him
+would have been, in a prudential point of view, all that any woman
+could desire. I gave up the dearest heart, the sweetest temper, ay,
+and the truest man that,
+<span class="nowrap">that&mdash;</span> Well, you have won him instead, and
+he has been the gainer. I doubt whether I ever should have made him
+happy; but I know that you will do so. It was just here that I parted
+from him."</p>
+
+<p>"He has told me of that parting," said Florence.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure he has. And, Miss Burton, if you will allow me to say one
+word further,&mdash;do not be made to think any ill of him because of what
+happened the other day."</p>
+
+<p>"I think no ill of him," said Florence proudly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is well. But I am sure you do not. You are not one to think
+evil, as I take it, of anybody; much less of him whom you love. When
+he saw me again, free as I am, and when I saw him, thinking him also
+to be free, was it strange that some memory of old days should come
+back upon us? But the fault, if fault there has been, was mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never said that there was any fault."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Burton; but others have said so. No doubt I am foolish to
+talk to you in this way; and I have not yet said that which I desired
+to say. It is simply this;&mdash;that I do not begrudge you your
+happiness. I wished the same happiness to be mine; but it is not
+mine. It might have been, but I forfeited it. It is past; and I will
+pray that you may enjoy it long. You will not refuse to receive my
+congratulations?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I will not."</p>
+
+<p>"Or to think of me as a friend of your husband's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no."</p>
+
+<p>"That is all then. I have shown you the gardens, and now we may go
+in. Some day, perhaps, when you are Lady Paramount here, and your
+children are running about the place, I may come again to see
+them;&mdash;if you and he will have me."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will, Lady Ongar. In truth, I hope so."</p>
+
+<p>"It is odd enough that I said to him once that I would never go to
+Clavering Park again till I went there to see his wife. That was long
+before those two poor brothers perished,&mdash;before I had ever heard of
+Florence Burton. And yet, indeed, it was not very long ago. It was
+since my husband died. But that was not quite true, for here I am,
+and he has not yet got a wife. But it was odd; was it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot think what should have made you say that."</p>
+
+<p>"A spirit of prophecy comes on one sometimes, I suppose. Well; shall
+we go in? I have shown you all the wonders of the garden, and told
+you all the wonders connected with it of which I know aught. No doubt
+there would be other wonders, more wonderful, if one could ransack
+the private history of all the Claverings for the last hundred years.
+I hope, Miss Burton, that any marvels which may attend your career
+here may be happy marvels." She then took Florence by the hand, and
+drawing close to her, stooped over and kissed her. "You will think me
+a fool, of course," said she; "but I do not care for that." Florence
+now was in tears, and could make no answer in words; but she pressed
+the hand which she still held, and then followed her companion back
+into the house. After that, the visit was soon brought to an end, and
+the three ladies from the rectory returned across the park to their
+house.</p>
+
+
+<p><a id="c48"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h3>
+<h4>CONCLUSION.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Florence Burton had taken upon herself to say that Mrs. Clavering
+would have no difficulty in making to Mr. Saul the communication
+which was now needed before he could be received at the rectory, as
+the rector's successor and future son-in-law; but Mrs. Clavering was
+by no means so confident of her own powers. To her it seemed as
+though the undertaking which she had in hand, was one surrounded with
+difficulties. Her husband, when the matter was being discussed, at
+once made her understand that he would not relieve her by an offer to
+perform the task. He had been made to break the bad news to Lady
+Clavering, and, having been submissive in that matter, felt himself
+able to stand aloof altogether as to this more difficult embassy. "I
+suppose it would hardly do to ask Harry to see him again," Mrs.
+Clavering had said. "You would do it much better, my dear," the
+rector had replied. Then Mrs. Clavering had submitted in her turn;
+and when the scheme was fully matured, and the time had come in which
+the making of the proposition could no longer be delayed with
+prudence, Mr. Saul was summoned by a short note. "Dear Mr. Saul,&mdash;If
+you are disengaged would you come to me at the rectory at eleven
+to-morrow?&mdash;Yours ever, M. C." Mr. Saul of course said that he would
+come. When the to-morrow had arrived and breakfast was over, the
+rector and Harry took themselves off, somewhere about the grounds of
+the great house,&mdash;counting up their treasures of proprietorship, as
+we can fancy that men so circumstanced would do,&mdash;while Mary Fielding
+with Fanny and Florence retired upstairs, so that they might be well
+out of the way. They knew, all of them, what was about to be done,
+and Fanny behaved herself like a white lamb decked with bright
+ribbons for the sacrificial altar. To her it was a sacrificial
+morning,&mdash;very sacred, very solemn, and very trying to the nerves. "I
+don't think that any girl was ever in such a position before," she
+said to her sister. "A great many girls would be glad to be in the
+same position," Mrs. Fielding replied. "Do you think so? To me there
+is something almost humiliating in the idea that he should be asked
+to take me." "Fiddlestick, my dear," replied Mrs. Fielding.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Saul came, punctual as the church clock,&mdash;of which he had the
+regulating himself,&mdash;and was shown into the rectory dining-room,
+where Mrs. Clavering was sitting alone. He looked, as he ever did,
+serious, composed, ill-dressed, and like a gentleman. Of course he
+must have supposed that the present rector would make some change in
+his mode of living, and could not be surprised that he should have
+been summoned to the rectory;&mdash;but he was surprised that the summons
+should have come from Mrs. Clavering, and not from the rector
+himself. It appeared to him that the old enmity must be very
+enduring, if, even now, Mr. Clavering could not bring himself to see
+his curate on a matter of business.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems a long time since we have seen you here, Mr. Saul," said
+Mrs. Clavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;&mdash;when I have remembered how often I used to be here, my absence
+has seemed long and strange."</p>
+
+<p>"It has been a source of great grief to me."</p>
+
+<p>"And to me, Mrs. Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>"But, as circumstances then were, in truth it could not be avoided.
+Common prudence made it necessary. Don't you think so, Mr. Saul?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you ask me I must answer according to my own ideas. Common
+prudence should not have made it necessary,&mdash;at least not according
+to my view of things. Common prudence, with different people, means
+such different things! But I am not going to quarrel with your ideas
+of common prudence, Mrs. Clavering."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Clavering had begun badly, and was aware of it. She should have
+said nothing about the past. She had foreseen, from the first, the
+danger of doing so, but had been unable to rush at once into the
+golden future. "I hope we shall have no more quarrelling at any
+rate," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"There shall be none on my part. Only, Mrs. Clavering, you must not
+suppose from my saying so that I intend to give up my pretensions. A
+word from your daughter would make me do so, but no words from any
+one else."</p>
+
+<p>"She ought to be very proud of such constancy on your part, Mr. Saul,
+and I have no doubt she will be." Mr. Saul did not understand this,
+and made no reply to it. "I don't know whether you have heard that
+Mr. Clavering intends to&mdash;give up the living."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not heard it. I have thought it probable that he would do
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"He has made up his mind that he will. The fact is, that if he held
+it, he must neglect either that or the property." We will not stop at
+this moment to examine what Mr. Saul's ideas must have been as to the
+exigencies of the property, which would leave no time for the
+performance of such clerical duties as had fallen for some years past
+to the share of the rector himself. "He hopes that he may be allowed
+to take some part in the services,&mdash;but he means to resign the
+living."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that will not much affect me for the little time that I
+have to remain."</p>
+
+<p>"We think it will affect you,&mdash;and hope that it may. Mr. Clavering
+wishes you to accept the living."</p>
+
+<p>"To accept the living?" And for a moment even Mr. Saul looked as
+though he were surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Saul."</p>
+
+<p>"To be rector of Clavering?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you see no objection to such an arrangement."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a most munificent offer,&mdash;but as strange as it is munificent.
+Unless <span class="nowrap">indeed&mdash;"</span> And
+then some glimpse of the truth made its way into
+the chinks of Mr. Saul's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Clavering would, no doubt, have made the offer to you himself,
+had it not been that I can, perhaps, speak to you about dear Fanny
+better than he could do. Though our prudence has not been quite to
+your mind, you can at any rate understand that we might very much
+object to her marrying you when there was nothing for you to live on,
+even though we had no objection to yourself personally."</p>
+
+<p>"But Mr. Clavering did object on both grounds."</p>
+
+<p>"I was not aware that he had done so; but, if so, no such objection
+is now made by him,&mdash;or by me. My idea is that a child should be
+allowed to consult her own heart, and to indulge her own
+choice,&mdash;provided that in doing so she does not prepare for herself a
+life of indigence, which must be a life of misery; and of course
+providing also that there be no strong personal objection."</p>
+
+<p>"A life of indigence need not be a life of misery," said Mr. Saul,
+with that obstinacy which formed so great a part of his character.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very indigent, but I am not at all miserable. If we are to be
+made miserable by that, what is the use of all our teaching?"</p>
+
+<p>"But, at any rate, a competence is comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"Too comfortable!" As Mr. Saul made this exclamation, Mrs. Clavering
+could not but wonder at her daughter's taste. But the matter had gone
+too far now for any possibility of receding.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not refuse it, I hope, as it will be accompanied by what
+you say you still desire."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I will not refuse it. And may God give her and me grace so to
+use the riches of this world that they become not a stumbling-block
+to us, and a rock of offence. It is possible that the camel should be
+made to go through the needle's eye. It is possible."</p>
+
+<p>"The position, you know, is not one of great wealth."</p>
+
+<p>"It is to me, who have barely hitherto had the means of support. Will
+you tell your husband from me that I will accept, and endeavour not
+to betray the double trust he proposes to confer on me. It is much
+that he should give to me his daughter. She shall be to me bone of my
+bone, and flesh of my flesh. If God will give me his grace thereto, I
+will watch over her, so that no harm shall come nigh her. I love her
+as the apple of my eye; and I am thankful,&mdash;very thankful that the
+rich gift should be made to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure that you love her, Mr. Saul."</p>
+
+<p>"But," continued he, not marking her interruption, "that other trust
+is one still greater, and requiring a more tender care and even a
+closer sympathy. I shall feel that the souls of these people will be,
+as it were, in my hand, and that I shall be called upon to give an
+account of their welfare. I will strive,&mdash;I will strive. And she,
+also, will be with me, to help me."</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Clavering described this scene to her husband, he shook his
+head; and there came over his face a smile, in which there was much
+of melancholy, as he said, "Ah, yes,&mdash;that is all very well now. He
+will settle down as other men do, I suppose, when he has four or five
+children around him." Such were the ideas which the experience of the
+outgoing and elder clergyman taught him to entertain as to the
+ecstatic piety of his younger brother.</p>
+
+<p>It was Mrs. Clavering who suggested to Mr. Saul that perhaps he would
+like to see Fanny. This she did when her story had been told, and he
+was preparing to leave her. "Certainly, if she will come to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will make no promise," said Mrs. Clavering, "but I will see." Then
+she went upstairs to the room where the girls were sitting, and the
+sacrificial lamb was sent down into the drawing-room. "I suppose if
+you say so, <span class="nowrap">mamma&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"I think, my dear, that you had better see him. You will meet then
+more comfortably afterwards." So Fanny went into the drawing-room,
+and Mr. Saul was sent to her there. What passed between them all
+readers of these pages will understand. Few young ladies, I fear,
+will envy Fanny Clavering her lover; but they will remember that Love
+will still be lord of all; and they will acknowledge that he had done
+much to deserve the success in life which had come in his way.</p>
+
+<p>It was long before the old rector could reconcile himself either to
+the new rector or his new son-in-law. Mrs. Clavering had now so
+warmly taken up Fanny's part, and had so completely assumed a
+mother's interest in her coming marriage, that Mr. Clavering, or Sir
+Henry, as we may now call him, had found himself obliged to abstain
+from repeating to her the wonder with which he still regarded his
+daughter's choice. But to Harry he could still be eloquent on the
+subject. "Of course it's all right now," he said. "He's a very good
+young man, and nobody would work harder in the parish. I always
+thought I was very lucky to have such an assistant. But upon my word
+I cannot understand Fanny; I cannot indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"She has been taken by the religious side of her character," said
+Harry.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course. And no doubt it is very gratifying to me to see that
+she thinks so much of religion. It should be the first consideration
+with all of us at all times. But she has never been used to men like
+Mr. Saul."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody can deny that he is a gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he is a gentleman. God forbid that I should say he was not;
+especially now that he is going to marry your sister.
+<span class="nowrap">But&mdash;</span> I don't
+know whether you quite understand what I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I do. He isn't quite one of our sort."</p>
+
+<p>"How on earth she can ever have brought herself to look at him in
+that light!"</p>
+
+<p>"There's no accounting for tastes, sir. And, after all, as he's to
+have the living, there will be nothing to regret."</p>
+
+<p>"No; nothing to regret. I suppose he'll be up at the other house
+occasionally. I never could make anything of him when he dined at the
+rectory; perhaps he'll be better there. Perhaps, when he's married,
+he'll get into the way of drinking a glass of wine like anybody else.
+Dear Fanny; I hope she'll be happy. That's everything." In answer to
+this Harry took upon himself to assure his father that Fanny would be
+happy; and then they changed the conversation, and discussed the
+alterations which they would make in reference to the preservation of
+pheasants.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Saul and Fanny remained long together on that occasion, and when
+they parted he went off about his work, not saying a word to any
+other person in the house, and she betook herself as fast as her feet
+could carry her to her own room. She said not a word either to her
+mother, or to her sister, or to Florence as to what had passed at
+that interview; but, when she was first seen by any of them, she was
+very grave in her demeanour, and very silent. When her father
+congratulated her, which he did with as much cordiality as he was
+able to assume, she kissed him and thanked him for his care and
+kindness; but even this she did almost solemnly. "Ah, I see how it is
+to be," said the old rector to his wife. "There are to be no more
+cakes and ale in the parish." Then his wife reminded him of what he
+himself had said of the change which would take place in Mr. Saul's
+ways when he should have a lot of children running about his feet.
+"Then I can only hope that they'll begin to run about very soon,"
+said the old rector.</p>
+
+<p>To her sister, Mary Fielding, Fanny said little or nothing of her
+coming marriage, but to Florence, who, as regarded that event, was in
+the same position as herself, she frequently did express her
+feelings,&mdash;declaring how awful to her was the responsibility of the
+thing she was about to do. "Of course that's quite true," said
+Florence, "but it doesn't make one doubt that one is right to marry."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Fanny. "When I think of it, it does almost make
+me doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Then if I were Mr. Saul I would not let you think of it at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah;&mdash;that shows that you do not understand him. He would be the
+first to advise me to hesitate if he thought that,&mdash;that&mdash;that;&mdash;I
+don't know that I can quite express what I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Under those circumstances Mr. Saul won't think
+that,&mdash;that&mdash;that&mdash;<span class="nowrap">that&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Florence, it is too serious for laughing. It is indeed." Then
+Florence also hoped that a time might come, and that shortly, in
+which Mr. Saul might moderate his views,&mdash;though she did not express
+herself exactly as the rector had done.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after this Florence went back to Stratton, in order that
+she might pass what remained to her of her freedom with her mother
+and father, and that she might prepare herself for her wedding. The
+affair with her was so much hurried that she had hardly time to give
+her mind to those considerations which were weighing so heavily on
+Fanny's mind. It was felt by all the Burtons,&mdash;especially by
+Cecilia,&mdash;that there was need for extension of their views in regard
+to millinery, seeing that Florence was to marry the eldest son and
+heir of a baronet. And old Mrs. Burton was awed almost into
+quiescence by the reflections which came upon her when she thought of
+the breakfast, and of the presence of Sir Henry Clavering. She at
+once summoned her daughter-in-law from Ramsgate to her assistance,
+and felt that all her experience, gathered from the wedding
+breakfasts of so many elder daughters, would hardly carry her through
+the difficulties of the present occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The two widowed sisters were still at the great house when Sir Henry
+Clavering with Harry and Fanny went to Stratton, but they left it on
+the following day. The father and son went up together to bid them
+farewell, on the eve of their departure, and to press upon them, over
+and over again, the fact that they were still to regard the
+Claverings of Clavering Park as their nearest relations and friends.
+The elder sister simply cried when this was said to her,&mdash;cried
+easily with plenteous tears, till the weeds which enveloped her
+seemed to be damp from the ever-running fountain. Hitherto, to weep
+had been her only refuge; but I think that even this had already
+become preferable to her former life. Lady Ongar assured Sir Henry,
+or Mr. Clavering, as he was still called till after their
+departure,&mdash;that she would always remember and accept his kindness.
+"And you will come to us?" said he. "Certainly; when I can make Hermy
+come. She will be better when the summer is here. And then, after
+that, we will think about it." On this occasion she seemed to be
+quite cheerful herself, and bade Harry farewell with all the frank
+affection of an old friend.</p>
+
+<p>"I have given up the house in Bolton Street," she said to him.</p>
+
+<p>"And where do you mean to live?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anywhere; just as it may suit Hermy. What difference does it make?
+We are going to Tenby now, and though Tenby seems to me to have as
+few attractions as any place I ever knew, I daresay we shall stay
+there, simply because we shall be there. That is the consideration
+which weighs most with such old women as we are. Good-by, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Julia. I hope that I may yet see you,&mdash;you and Hermy, happy
+before long."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know much about happiness, Harry. There comes a dream of it
+sometimes,&mdash;such as you have got now. But I will answer for this: you
+shall never hear of my being down-hearted. At least not on my own
+account," she added in a whisper. "Poor Hermy may sometimes drag me
+down. But I will do my best. And, Harry, tell your wife that I shall
+write to her occasionally,&mdash;once a year, or something like that; so
+that she need not be afraid. Good-by, Harry."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Julia." And so they parted.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately on her arrival at Tenby, Lady Ongar communicated to Mr.
+Turnbull her intention of giving back to the Courton family, not only
+the place called Ongar Park, but also the whole of her income with
+the exception of eight hundred a year, so that in that respect she
+might be equal to her sister. This brought Mr. Turnbull down to
+Tenby, and there was interview after interview between the countess
+and the lawyer. The proposition, however, was made to the Courtons,
+and was absolutely refused by them. Ongar Park was accepted on behalf
+of the mother of the present earl; but as regarded the money, the
+widow of the late earl was assured by the elder surviving brother
+that no one doubted her right to it, or would be a party to accepting
+it from her. "Then," said Lady Ongar, "it will accumulate in my
+hands, and I can leave it as I please in my will."</p>
+
+<p>"As to that, no one can control you," said her brother-in-law&mdash;who
+went to Tenby to see her; "but you must not be angry, if I advise you
+not to make any such resolution. Such hoards never have good
+results." This good result, however, did come from the effort which
+the poor broken-spirited woman was making,&mdash;that an intimacy, and at
+last a close friendship, was formed between her and the relatives of
+her deceased lord.</p>
+
+<p>And now my story is done. My readers will easily understand what
+would be the future life of Harry Clavering and his wife after the
+completion of that tour in Italy, and the birth of the heir,&mdash;the
+preparations for which made the tour somewhat shorter than Harry had
+intended. His father, of course, gave up to him the shooting, and the
+farming of the home farm,&mdash;and after a while, the management of the
+property. Sir Henry preached occasionally,&mdash;believing himself to
+preach much oftener than he did,&mdash;and usually performed some portion
+of the morning service.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Theodore Burton, in answer to some comfortable remark
+from his wife; "Providence has done very well for Florence. And
+Providence has done very well for him also;&mdash;but Providence was
+making a great mistake when she expected him to earn his bread."</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLAVERINGS***</p>
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@@ -0,0 +1,22619 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Claverings, by Anthony Trollope,
+Illustrated by Mary Ellen Edwards
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Claverings
+
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 3, 2005  [eBook #15766]
+This revision released July 23, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLAVERINGS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Mike Mariano from page images generously made available
+by the Making of America Collection of the Cornell University Library
+(http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/)
+and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D., using illustrations generously
+made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org).
+
+
+
+Editorial note:
+
+      _The Claverings_ was published first in serial form in _The
+      Cornhill Magazine_ from February, 1866, to May, 1867, and
+      then in book form by Smith, Elder and Co. in 1867.
+
+      The _Cornhill_ version contained 16 full-page illustrations
+      and 16 quarter-page vignettes by Mary Ellen Edwards, a
+      respected and successful illustrator. The Smith, Elder first
+      edition contained only the full-page illustrations. Both the
+      full-page illustrations and the vignettes are included in
+      this e-book. They can be seen by viewing the HTML version of
+      this file. See 15766-h.htm or 15766-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15766/15766-h/15766-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15766/15766-h.zip)
+
+      Images of the original illustrations are available through
+      Internet Archive.
+      For Chapters I-XV see
+      https://archive.org/details/claverings01trolrich
+      Chapters XVI-XXXIII see
+      https://archive.org/details/claverings02trolrich
+      and Chapters XXXIV-XLVIII see
+      https://archive.org/details/claverings03trolrich
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CLAVERINGS
+
+by
+
+ANTHONY TROLLOPE
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+         I. JULIA BRABAZON.
+        II. HARRY CLAVERING CHOOSES HIS PROFESSION.
+       III. LORD ONGAR.
+        IV. FLORENCE BURTON.
+         V. LADY ONGAR'S RETURN.
+        VI. THE REV. SAMUEL SAUL.
+       VII. SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A COUNTESS.
+      VIII. THE HOUSE IN ONSLOW CRESCENT.
+        IX. TOO PRUDENT BY HALF.
+         X. FLORENCE BURTON AT THE RECTORY.
+        XI. SIR HUGH AND HIS BROTHER ARCHIE.
+       XII. LADY ONGAR TAKES POSSESSION.
+      XIII. A VISITOR CALLS AT ONGAR PARK.
+       XIV. COUNT PATEROFF AND HIS SISTER.
+        XV. AN EVENING IN BOLTON STREET.
+       XVI. THE RIVALS.
+      XVII. "LET HER KNOW THAT YOU'RE THERE."
+     XVIII. CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.
+       XIX. THE BLUE POSTS.
+        XX. DESOLATION.
+       XXI. YES; WRONG;--CERTAINLY WRONG.
+      XXII. THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL.
+     XXIII. CUMBERLY LANE WITHOUT THE MUD.
+      XXIV. THE RUSSIAN SPY.
+       XXV. "WHAT WOULD MEN SAY OF YOU?"
+      XXVI. THE MAN WHO DUSTED HIS BOOTS WITH HIS HANDKERCHIEF.
+     XXVII. FRESHWATER GATE.
+    XXVIII. WHAT CECILIA BURTON DID FOR HER SISTER-IN-LAW.
+      XXIX. HOW DAMON PARTED FROM PYTHIAS.
+       XXX. DOODLES IN MOUNT STREET.
+      XXXI. HARRY CLAVERING'S CONFESSION.
+     XXXII. FLORENCE BURTON PACKS UP A PACKET.
+    XXXIII. SHOWING WHY HARRY CLAVERING WAS WANTED AT THE RECTORY.
+     XXXIV. MR. SAUL'S ABODE.
+      XXXV. PARTING.
+     XXXVI. CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS LAST ATTEMPT.
+    XXXVII. WHAT LADY ONGAR THOUGHT ABOUT IT.
+   XXXVIII. HOW TO DISPOSE OF A WIFE.
+     XXXIX. FAREWELL TO DOODLES.
+        XL. SHEWING HOW MRS. BURTON FOUGHT HER BATTLE.
+       XLI. THE SHEEP RETURNS TO THE FOLD.
+      XLII. RESTITUTION.
+     XLIII. LADY ONGAR'S REVENGE.
+      XLIV. SHEWING WHAT HAPPENED OFF HELIGOLAND.
+       XLV. IS SHE MAD?
+      XLVI. MADAME GORDELOUP RETIRES FROM BRITISH DIPLOMACY.
+     XLVII. SHOWING HOW THINGS SETTLED THEMSELVES AT THE RECTORY.
+    XLVIII. CONCLUSION.
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+   "A PUIR FECKLESS THING, TOTTERING ALONG LIKE,--"   CHAPTER III.
+   MR. SAUL PROPOSES.                                 CHAPTER VI.
+   A FRIENDLY TALK.                                   CHAPTER VII.
+   WAS NOT THE PRICE IN HER HAND?                     CHAPTER XII.
+   "DID HE NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST HER?"       CHAPTER XIV.
+   CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.         CHAPTER XVIII.
+   "THE LORD GIVETH, AND THE LORD TAKETH AWAY."       CHAPTER XX.
+   "HARRY," SHE SAID, "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG
+      BETWEEN YOU AND FLORENCE?"                      CHAPTER XXII.
+   "LADY ONGAR, ARE YOU NOT RATHER NEAR THE EDGE?"    CHAPTER XXVII.
+   HOW DAMON PARTED FROM PYTHIAS.                     CHAPTER XXIX.
+   FLORENCE BURTON MAKES UP A PACKET.                 CHAPTER XXXII.
+   HUSBAND AND WIFE.                                  CHAPTER XXXV.
+   A PLEA FOR MERCY.                                  CHAPTER XXXVII.
+   THE SHEEP RETURNS TO THE FOLD.                     CHAPTER XLI.
+   HARRY SAT BETWEEN THEM, LIKE A SHEEP AS HE WAS,
+      VERY MEEKLY.                                    CHAPTER XLIII.
+   LADY ONGAR AND FLORENCE.                           CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+JULIA BRABAZON.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+The gardens of Clavering Park were removed some three hundred yards
+from the large, square, sombre-looking stone mansion which was
+the country-house of Sir Hugh Clavering, the eleventh baronet of
+that name; and in these gardens, which had but little of beauty to
+recommend them, I will introduce my readers to two of the personages
+with whom I wish to make them acquainted in the following story. It
+was now the end of August, and the parterres, beds, and bits of lawn
+were dry, disfigured, and almost ugly, from the effects of a long
+drought. In gardens to which care and labour are given abundantly,
+flower-beds will be pretty, and grass will be green, let the weather
+be what it may; but care and labour were but scantily bestowed on the
+Clavering Gardens, and everything was yellow, adust, harsh, and dry.
+Over the burnt turf towards a gate that led to the house, a lady was
+walking, and by her side there walked a gentleman.
+
+"You are going in, then, Miss Brabazon," said the gentleman, and it
+was very manifest from his tone that he intended to convey some deep
+reproach in his words.
+
+"Of course I am going in," said the lady. "You asked me to walk with
+you, and I refused. You have now waylaid me, and therefore I shall
+escape,--unless I am prevented by violence." As she spoke she stood
+still for a moment, and looked into his face with a smile which
+seemed to indicate that if such violence were used, within rational
+bounds, she would not feel herself driven to great anger.
+
+But though she might be inclined to be playful, he was by no means in
+that mood. "And why did you refuse me when I asked you?" said he.
+
+"For two reasons, partly because I thought it better to avoid any
+conversation with you."
+
+"That is civil to an old friend."
+
+"But chiefly,"--and now as she spoke she drew herself up, and
+dismissed the smile from her face, and allowed her eyes to fall upon
+the ground;--"but chiefly because I thought that Lord Ongar would
+prefer that I should not roam alone about Clavering Park with any
+young gentleman while I am down here; and that he might specially
+object to my roaming with you, were he to know that you and I
+were--old acquaintances. Now I have been very frank, Mr. Clavering,
+and I think that that ought to be enough."
+
+"You are afraid of him already, then?"
+
+"I am afraid of offending any one whom I love, and especially any one
+to whom I owe any duty."
+
+"Enough! Indeed it is not. From what you know of me do you think it
+likely that that will be enough?" He was now standing in front of
+her, between her and the gate, and she made no effort to leave him.
+
+"And what is it you want? I suppose you do not mean to fight Lord
+Ongar, and that if you did you would not come to me."
+
+"Fight him! No; I have no quarrel with him. Fighting him would do no
+good."
+
+"None in the least; and he would not fight if you were to ask him;
+and you could not ask him without being false to me."
+
+"I should have had an example for that, at any rate."
+
+"That's nonsense, Mr. Clavering. My falsehood, if you should choose
+to call me false, is of a very different nature, and is pardonable by
+all laws known to the world."
+
+"You are a jilt,--that is all."
+
+"Come, Harry, don't use hard words,"--and she put her hand kindly
+upon his arm. "Look at me, such as I am, and at yourself, and then
+say whether anything but misery could come of a match between you
+and me. Our ages by the register are the same, but I am ten years
+older than you by the world. I have two hundred a year, and I owe at
+this moment six hundred pounds. You have, perhaps, double as much,
+and would lose half of that if you married. You are an usher at a
+school."
+
+"No, madam, I am not an usher at a school."
+
+"Well, well, you know I don't mean to make you angry."
+
+"At the present moment, I am a schoolmaster, and if I remained so, I
+might fairly look forward to a liberal income. But I am going to give
+that up."
+
+"You will not be more fit for matrimony because you are going to give
+up your profession. Now Lord Ongar has--heaven knows what;--perhaps
+sixty thousand a year."
+
+"In all my life I never heard such effrontery,--such barefaced,
+shameless worldliness!"
+
+"Why should I not love a man with a large income?"
+
+"He is old enough to be your father."
+
+"He is thirty-six, and I am twenty-four."
+
+"Thirty-six!"
+
+"There is the Peerage for you to look at. But, my dear Harry, do you
+not know that you are perplexing me and yourself too, for nothing?
+I was fool enough when I came here from Nice, after papa's death, to
+let you talk nonsense to me for a month or two."
+
+"Did you or did you not swear that you loved me?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Clavering, I did not imagine that your strength would have
+condescended to take such advantage over the weakness of a woman.
+I remember no oaths of any kind, and what foolish assertions I may
+have made, I am not going to repeat. It must have become manifest to
+you during these two years that all that was a romance. If it be a
+pleasure to you to look back to it, of that pleasure I cannot deprive
+you. Perhaps I also may sometimes look back. But I shall never speak
+of that time again; and you, if you are as noble as I take you to be,
+will not speak of it either. I know you would not wish to injure me."
+
+"I would wish to save you from the misery you are bringing on
+yourself."
+
+"In that you must allow me to look after myself. Lord Ongar certainly
+wants a wife, and I intend to be true to him,--and useful."
+
+"How about love?"
+
+"And to love him, sir. Do you think that no man can win a woman's
+love, unless he is filled to the brim with poetry, and has a neck
+like Lord Byron, and is handsome like your worship? You are very
+handsome, Harry, and you, too, should go into the market and make the
+best of yourself. Why should you not learn to love some nice girl
+that has money to assist you?"
+
+"Julia!"
+
+"No, sir; I will not be called Julia. If you do, I will be insulted,
+and leave you instantly. I may call you Harry, as being so much
+younger,--though we were born in the same month,--and as a sort of
+cousin. But I shall never do that after to-day."
+
+"You have courage enough, then, to tell me that you have not ill-used
+me?"
+
+"Certainly I have. Why, what a fool you would have me be! Look at me,
+and tell me whether I am fit to be the wife of such a one as you. By
+the time you are entering the world, I shall be an old woman, and
+shall have lived my life. Even if I were fit to be your mate when
+we were living here together, am I fit, after what I have done and
+seen during the last two years? Do you think it would really do
+any good to any one if I were to jilt, as you call it, Lord Ongar,
+and tell them all,--your cousin, Sir Hugh, and my sister, and your
+father,--that I was going to keep myself up, and marry you when you
+were ready for me?"
+
+"You mean to say that the evil is done."
+
+"No, indeed. At the present moment I owe six hundred pounds, and I
+don't know where to turn for it, so that my husband may not be dunned
+for my debts as soon as he has married me. What a wife I should have
+been for you;--should I not?"
+
+"I could pay the six hundred pounds for you with money that I have
+earned myself,--though you do call me an usher;--and perhaps would
+ask fewer questions about it than Lord Ongar will do with all his
+thousands."
+
+"Dear Harry, I beg your pardon about the usher. Of course, I know
+that you are a fellow of your college, and that St. Cuthbert's, where
+you teach the boys, is one of the grandest schools in England; and I
+hope you'll be a bishop; nay,--I think you will, if you make up your
+mind to try for it."
+
+"I have given up all idea of going into the church."
+
+"Then you'll be a judge. I know you'll be great and distinguished,
+and that you'll do it all yourself. You are distinguished already. If
+you could only know how infinitely I should prefer your lot to mine!
+Oh, Harry, I envy you! I do envy you! You have got the ball at your
+feet, and the world before you, and can win everything for yourself."
+
+"But nothing is anything without your love."
+
+"Psha! Love, indeed. What could I do for you but ruin you? You know
+it as well as I do; but you are selfish enough to wish to continue a
+romance which would be absolutely destructive to me, though for a
+while it might afford a pleasant relaxation to your graver studies.
+Harry, you can choose in the world. You have divinity, and law, and
+literature, and art. And if debarred from love now by the exigencies
+of labour, you will be as fit for love in ten years' time as you are
+at present."
+
+"But I do love now."
+
+"Be a man, then, and keep it to yourself. Love is not to be our
+master. You can choose, as I say; but I have had no choice,--no
+choice but to be married well, or to go out like a snuff of a candle.
+I don't like the snuff of a candle, and, therefore, I am going to be
+married well."
+
+"And that suffices?"
+
+"It must suffice. And why should it not suffice? You are very
+uncivil, cousin, and very unlike the rest of the world. Everybody
+compliments me on my marriage. Lord Ongar is not only rich, but he is
+a man of fashion, and a man of talent."
+
+"Are you fond of race-horses yourself?"
+
+"Very fond of them."
+
+"And of that kind of life?"
+
+"Very fond of it. I mean to be fond of everything that Lord Ongar
+likes. I know that I can't change him, and, therefore, I shall not
+try."
+
+"You are right there, Miss Brabazon."
+
+"You mean to be impertinent, sir; but I will not take it so. This is
+to be our last meeting in private, and I won't acknowledge that I am
+insulted. But it must be over now, Harry; and here I have been pacing
+round and round the garden with you, in spite of my refusal just now.
+It must not be repeated, or things will be said which I do not mean
+to have ever said of me. Good-by, Harry."
+
+"Good-by, Julia."
+
+"Well, for that once let it pass. And remember this: I have told you
+all my hopes, and my one trouble. I have been thus open with you
+because I thought it might serve to make you look at things in a
+right light. I trust to your honour as a gentleman to repeat nothing
+that I have said to you."
+
+"I am not given to repeat such things as those."
+
+"I'm sure you are not. And I hope you will not misunderstand the
+spirit in which they have been spoken. I shall never regret what I
+have told you now, if it tends to make you perceive that we must both
+regard our past acquaintance as a romance, which must, from the stern
+necessity of things, be treated as a dream which we have dreamt, or a
+poem which we have read."
+
+"You can treat it as you please."
+
+"God bless you, Harry; and I will always hope for your welfare, and
+hear of your success with joy. Will you come up and shoot with them
+on Thursday?"
+
+"What, with Hugh? No; Hugh and I do not hit it off together. If I
+shot at Clavering I should have to do it as a sort of head-keeper.
+It's a higher position, I know, than that of an usher, but it doesn't
+suit me."
+
+"Oh, Harry! that is so cruel! But you will come up to the house. Lord
+Ongar will be there on the thirty-first; the day after to-morrow, you
+know."
+
+"I must decline even that temptation. I never go into the house when
+Hugh is there, except about twice a year on solemn invitation--just
+to prevent there being a family quarrel."
+
+"Good-by, then," and she offered him her hand.
+
+"Good-by, if it must be so."
+
+"I don't know whether you mean to grace my marriage?"
+
+"Certainly not. I shall be away from Clavering, so that the marriage
+bells may not wound my ears. For the matter of that, I shall be at
+the school."
+
+"I suppose we shall meet some day in town."
+
+"Most probably not. My ways and Lord Ongar's will be altogether
+different, even if I should succeed in getting up to London. If you
+ever come to see Hermione here, I may chance to meet you in the
+house. But you will not do that often, the place is so dull and
+unattractive."
+
+"It is the dearest old park."
+
+"You won't care much for old parks as Lady Ongar."
+
+"You don't know what I may care about as Lady Ongar; but as Julia
+Brabazon I will now say good-by for the last time." Then they parted,
+and the lady returned to the great house, while Harry Clavering made
+his way across the park towards the rectory.
+
+Three years before this scene in the gardens at Clavering Park, Lord
+Brabazon had died at Nice, leaving one unmarried daughter, the lady
+to whom the reader has just been introduced. One other daughter he
+had, who was then already married to Sir Hugh Clavering, and Lady
+Clavering was the Hermione of whom mention has already been made.
+Lord Brabazon, whose peerage had descended to him in a direct line
+from the time of the Plantagenets, was one of those unfortunate
+nobles of whom England is burdened with but few, who have no means
+equal to their rank. He had married late in life, and had died
+without a male heir. The title which had come from the Plantagenets
+was now lapsed; and when the last lord died, about four hundred a
+year was divided between his two daughters. The elder had already
+made an excellent match, as regarded fortune, in marrying Sir Hugh
+Clavering; and the younger was now about to make a much more splendid
+match in her alliance with Lord Ongar. Of them I do not know that it
+is necessary to say much more at present.
+
+And of Harry Clavering it perhaps may not be necessary to say much
+in the way of description. The attentive reader will have already
+gathered nearly all that should be known of him before he makes
+himself known by his own deeds. He was the only son of the Reverend
+Henry Clavering, rector of Clavering, uncle of the present Sir Hugh
+Clavering, and brother of the last Sir Hugh. The Reverend Henry
+Clavering, and Mrs. Clavering his wife, and his two daughters, Mary
+and Fanny Clavering, lived always at Clavering Rectory, on the
+outskirts of Clavering Park, at a full mile's distance from the
+house. The church stood in the park, about midway between the two
+residences. When I have named one more Clavering, Captain Clavering,
+Captain Archibald Clavering, Sir Hugh's brother, and when I shall
+have said also that both Sir Hugh and Captain Clavering were men fond
+of pleasure and fond of money, I shall have said all that I need now
+say about the Clavering family at large.
+
+Julia Brabazon had indulged in some reminiscence of the romance of
+her past poetic life when she talked of cousinship between her and
+Harry Clavering. Her sister was the wife of Harry Clavering's first
+cousin, but between her and Harry there was no relationship whatever.
+When old Lord Brabazon had died at Nice she had come to Clavering
+Park, and had created some astonishment among those who knew Sir
+Hugh by making good her footing in his establishment. He was not
+the man to take up a wife's sister, and make his house her home,
+out of charity or from domestic love. Lady Clavering, who had been
+a handsome woman and fashionable withal, no doubt may have had some
+influence; but Sir Hugh was a man much prone to follow his own
+courses. It must be presumed that Julia Brabazon had made herself
+agreeable in the house, and also probably useful. She had been taken
+to London through two seasons, and had there held up her head among
+the bravest. And she had been taken abroad,--for Sir Hugh did not
+love Clavering Park, except during six weeks of partridge shooting;
+and she had been at Newmarket with them, and at the house of a
+certain fast hunting duke with whom Sir Hugh was intimate; and at
+Brighton with her sister, when it suited Sir Hugh to remain alone at
+the duke's; and then again up in London, where she finally arranged
+matters with Lord Ongar. It was acknowledged by all the friends
+of the two families, and indeed I may say of the three families
+now--among the Brabazon people, and the Clavering people, and the
+Courton people,--Lord Ongar's family name was Courton,--that Julia
+Brabazon had been very clever. Of her and Harry Clavering together no
+one had ever said a word. If any words had been spoken between her
+and Hermione on the subject, the two sisters had been discreet enough
+to manage that they should go no further. In those short months of
+Julia's romance Sir Hugh had been away from Clavering, and Hermione
+had been much occupied in giving birth to an heir. Julia had now
+lived past her one short spell of poetry, had written her one sonnet,
+and was prepared for the business of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+HARRY CLAVERING CHOOSES HIS PROFESSION.
+
+
+Harry Clavering might not be an usher, but, nevertheless, he was
+home for the holidays. And who can say where the usher ends and the
+schoolmaster begins? He, perhaps, may properly be called an usher,
+who is hired by a private schoolmaster to assist himself in his
+private occupation, whereas Harry Clavering had been selected by a
+public body out of a hundred candidates, with much real or pretended
+reference to certificates of qualification. He was certainly not an
+usher, as he was paid three hundred a year for his work,--which is
+quite beyond the mark of ushers. So much was certain; but yet the
+word stuck in his throat and made him uncomfortable. He did not like
+to reflect that he was home for the holidays.
+
+But he had determined that he would never come home for the holidays
+again. At Christmas he would leave the school at which he had won
+his appointment with so much trouble, and go into an open profession.
+Indeed he had chosen his profession, and his mode of entering it. He
+would become a civil engineer, and perhaps a land surveyor, and with
+this view he would enter himself as a pupil in the great house of
+Beilby and Burton. The terms even had been settled. He was to pay a
+premium of five hundred pounds and join Mr. Burton, who was settled
+in the town of Stratton, for twelve months before he placed himself
+in Mr. Beilby's office in London. Stratton was less than twenty miles
+from Clavering. It was a comfort to him to think that he could pay
+this five hundred pounds out of his own earnings, without troubling
+his father. It was a comfort, even though he had earned that money by
+"ushering" for the last two years.
+
+When he left Julia Brabazon in the garden, Harry Clavering did not
+go at once home to the rectory, but sauntered out all alone into the
+park, intending to indulge in reminiscences of his past romance. It
+was all over, that idea of having Julia Brabazon for his love; and
+now he had to ask himself whether he intended to be made permanently
+miserable by her worldly falseness, or whether he would borrow
+something of her worldly wisdom, and agree with himself to look back
+on what was past as a pleasurable excitement in his boyhood. Of
+course we all know that really permanent misery was in truth out of
+the question. Nature had not made him physically or mentally so poor
+a creature as to be incapable of a cure. But on this occasion he
+decided on permanent misery. There was about his heart,--about his
+actual anatomical heart, with its internal arrangement of valves
+and blood-vessels,--a heavy dragging feeling that almost amounted
+to corporeal pain, and which he described to himself as agony. Why
+should this rich, debauched, disreputable lord have the power of
+taking the cup from his lip, the one morsel of bread which he coveted
+from his mouth, his one ingot of treasure out of his coffer? Fight
+him! No, he knew he could not fight Lord Ongar. The world was against
+such an arrangement. And in truth Harry Clavering had so much
+contempt for Lord Ongar, that he had no wish to fight so poor a
+creature. The man had had delirium tremens, and was a worn-out
+miserable object. So at least Harry Clavering was only too ready to
+believe. He did not care much for Lord Ongar in the matter. His anger
+was against her;--that she should have deserted him for a miserable
+creature, who had nothing to back him but wealth and rank!
+
+There was wretchedness in every view of the matter. He loved her so
+well, and yet he could do nothing! He could take no step towards
+saving her or assisting himself. The marriage bells would ring within
+a month from the present time, and his own father would go to the
+church and marry them. Unless Lord Ongar were to die before then
+by God's hand, there could be no escape,--and of such escape Harry
+Clavering had no thought. He felt a weary, dragging soreness at his
+heart, and told himself that he must be miserable for ever,--not so
+miserable but what he would work, but so wretched that the world
+could have for him no satisfaction.
+
+What could he do? What thing could he achieve so that she should
+know that he did not let her go from him without more thought than
+his poor words had expressed? He was perfectly aware that in their
+conversation she had had the best of the argument,--that he had
+talked almost like a boy, while she had talked quite like a woman.
+She had treated him de haut en bas with all that superiority which
+youth and beauty give to a young woman over a very young man. What
+could he do? Before he returned to the rectory, he had made up his
+mind what he would do, and on the following morning Julia Brabazon
+received by the hands of her maid the following note:--
+
+"I think I understood all that you said to me yesterday. At any
+rate, I understand that you have one trouble left, and that I have
+the means of curing it." In the first draft of his letter he said
+something about ushering, but that he omitted afterwards. "You may be
+assured that the enclosed is all my own, and that it is entirely at
+my own disposal. You may also be quite sure of good faith on the part
+of the lender.--H. C." And in this letter he enclosed a cheque for
+six hundred pounds. It was the money which he had saved since he
+took his degree, and had been intended for Messrs. Beilby and Burton.
+But he would wait another two years,--continuing to do his ushering
+for her sake. What did it matter to a man who must, under any
+circumstances, be permanently miserable?
+
+Sir Hugh was not yet at Clavering. He was to come with Lord Ongar
+on the eve of the partridge-shooting. The two sisters, therefore,
+had the house all to themselves. At about twelve they sat down to
+breakfast together in a little upstairs chamber adjoining Lady
+Clavering's own room, Julia Brabazon at that time having her lover's
+generous letter in her pocket. She knew that it was as improper as it
+was generous, and that, moreover, it was very dangerous. There was no
+knowing what might be the result of such a letter should Lord Ongar
+even know that she had received it. She was not absolutely angry
+with Harry, but had, to herself, twenty times called him a foolish,
+indiscreet, dear generous boy. But what was she to do with the
+cheque? As to that, she had hardly as yet made up her mind when she
+joined her sister on the morning in question. Even to Hermione she
+did not dare to tell the fact that such a letter had been received by
+her.
+
+But in truth her debts were a great torment to her; and yet how
+trifling they were when compared with the wealth of the man who
+was to become her husband in six weeks! Let her marry him, and not
+pay them, and he probably would never be the wiser. They would get
+themselves paid almost without his knowledge, perhaps altogether
+without his hearing of them. But yet she feared him, knowing him to
+be greedy about money; and, to give her such merit as was due to
+her, she felt the meanness of going to her husband with debts on
+her shoulder. She had five thousand pounds of her own; but the very
+settlement which gave her a noble dower, and which made the marriage
+so brilliant, made over this small sum in its entirety to her lord.
+She had been wrong not to tell the lawyer of her trouble when he had
+brought the paper for her to sign; but she had not told him. If Sir
+Hugh Clavering had been her own brother there would have been no
+difficulty, but he was only her brother-in-law, and she feared to
+speak to him. Her sister, however, knew that there were debts, and on
+that subject she was not afraid to speak to Hermione.
+
+"Hermy," said she, "what am I to do about this money that I owe? I
+got a bill from Colclugh's this morning."
+
+"Just because he knows you're going to be married; that's all."
+
+"But how am I to pay him?"
+
+"Take no notice of it till next spring. I don't know what else you
+can do. You'll be sure to have money when you come back from the
+Continent."
+
+"You couldn't lend it me; could you?"
+
+"Who? I? Did you ever know me have any money in hand since I was
+married? I have the name of an allowance, but it is always spent
+before it comes to me, and I am always in debt."
+
+"Would Hugh--let me have it?"
+
+"What, give it you?"
+
+"Well, it wouldn't be so very much for him. I never asked him for a
+pound yet."
+
+"I think he would say something you wouldn't like if you were to ask
+him; but, of course, you can try it if you please."
+
+"Then what am I to do?"
+
+"Lord Ongar should have let you keep your own fortune. It would have
+been nothing to him."
+
+"Hugh didn't let you keep your own fortune."
+
+"But the money which will be nothing to Lord Ongar was a good deal to
+Hugh. You're going to have sixty thousand a year, while we have to
+do with seven or eight. Besides, I hadn't been out in London, and it
+wasn't likely I should owe much in Nice. He did ask me, and there was
+something."
+
+"What am I to do, Hermy?"
+
+"Write and ask Lord Ongar to let you have what you want out of your
+own money. Write to-day, so that he may get your letter before he
+comes."
+
+"Oh, dear! oh, dear! I never wrote a word to him yet, and to begin
+with asking him for money!"
+
+"I don't think he can be angry with you for that."
+
+"I shouldn't know what to say. Would you write it for me, and let me
+see how it looks?"
+
+This Lady Clavering did; and had she refused to do it, I think that
+poor Harry Clavering's cheque would have been used. As it was, Lady
+Clavering wrote the letter to "My dear Lord Ongar," and it was copied
+and signed by "Yours most affectionately, Julia Brabazon." The effect
+of this was the receipt of a cheque for a thousand pounds in a very
+pretty note from Lord Ongar, which the lord brought with him to
+Clavering, and sent up to Julia as he was dressing for dinner. It was
+an extremely comfortable arrangement, and Julia was very glad of the
+money,--feeling it to be a portion of that which was her own. And
+Harry's cheque had been returned to him on the day of its receipt.
+"Of course I cannot take it, and of course you should not have sent
+it." These words were written on the morsel of paper in which the
+money was returned. But Miss Brabazon had torn the signature off the
+cheque, so that it might be safe, whereas Harry Clavering had taken
+no precaution with it whatever. But then Harry Clavering had not
+lived two years in London.
+
+During the hours that the cheque was away from him, Harry had told
+his father that perhaps, even yet, he might change his purpose as to
+going to Messrs. Beilby and Burton. He did not know, he said, but he
+was still in doubt. This had sprung from some chance question which
+his father had asked, and which had seemed to demand an answer. Mr.
+Clavering greatly disliked the scheme of life which his son had made.
+Harry's life hitherto had been prosperous and very creditable. He had
+gone early to Cambridge, and at twenty-two had become a fellow of his
+college. This fellowship he could hold for five or six years without
+going into orders. It would then lead to a living, and would in the
+meantime afford a livelihood. But, beyond this, Harry, with an energy
+which he certainly had not inherited from his father, had become a
+schoolmaster, and was already a rich man. He had done more than well,
+and there was a great probability that between them they might be
+able to buy the next presentation to Clavering, when the time should
+come in which Sir Hugh should determine on selling it. That Sir
+Hugh should give the family living to his cousin was never thought
+probable by any of the family at the rectory; but he might perhaps
+part with it under such circumstances on favourable terms. For all
+these reasons the father was very anxious that his son should follow
+out the course for which he had been intended; but that he, being
+unenergetic and having hitherto done little for his son, should
+dictate to a young man who had been energetic, and who had done much
+for himself, was out of the question. Harry, therefore, was to be the
+arbiter of his own fate. But when Harry received back the cheque from
+Julia Brabazon, then he again returned to his resolution respecting
+Messrs. Beilby and Burton, and took the first opportunity of telling
+his father that such was the case.
+
+After breakfast he followed his father into his study, and there,
+sitting in two easy-chairs opposite to each other, they lit each a
+cigar. Such was the reverend gentleman's custom in the afternoon,
+and such also in the morning. I do not know whether the smoking of
+four or five cigars daily by the parson of a parish may now-a-day be
+considered as a vice in him, but if so, it was the only vice with
+which Mr. Clavering could be charged. He was a kind, soft-hearted,
+gracious man, tender to his wife, whom he ever regarded as the
+angel of his house, indulgent to his daughters, whom he idolized,
+ever patient with his parishioners, and awake,--though not widely
+awake,--to the responsibilities of his calling. The world had been
+too comfortable for him, and also too narrow; so that he had sunk
+into idleness. The world had given him much to eat and drink, but it
+had given him little to do, and thus he had gradually fallen away
+from his early purposes, till his energy hardly sufficed for the
+doing of that little. His living gave him eight hundred a year; his
+wife's fortune nearly doubled that. He had married early, and had
+got his living early, and had been very prosperous. But he was not
+a happy man. He knew that he had put off the day of action till
+the power of action had passed away from him. His library was well
+furnished, but he rarely read much else than novels and poetry; and
+of late years the reading even of poetry had given way to the reading
+of novels. Till within ten years of the hour of which I speak, he had
+been a hunting parson,--not hunting loudly, but following his sport
+as it is followed by moderate sportsmen. Then there had come a new
+bishop, and the new bishop had sent for him,--nay, finally had come
+to him, and had lectured him with blatant authority. "My lord," said
+the parson of Clavering, plucking up something of his past energy,
+as the colour rose to his face, "I think you are wrong in this. I
+think you are specially wrong to interfere with me in this way on
+your first coming among us. You feel it to be your duty, no doubt;
+but to me it seems that you mistake your duty. But, as the matter
+is one simply of my own pleasure, I shall give it up." After that
+Mr. Clavering hunted no more, and never spoke a good word to any one
+of the bishop of his diocese. For myself, I think it as well that
+clergymen should not hunt; but had I been the parson of Clavering,
+I should, under those circumstances, have hunted double.
+
+Mr. Clavering hunted no more, and probably smoked a greater number
+of cigars in consequence. He had an increased amount of time at his
+disposal, but did not, therefore, give more time to his duties. Alas!
+what time did he give to his duties? He kept a most energetic curate,
+whom he allowed to do almost what he would with the parish. Every-day
+services he did prohibit, declaring that he would not have the parish
+church made ridiculous; but in other respects his curate was the
+pastor. Once every Sunday he read the service, and once every Sunday
+he preached, and he resided in his parsonage ten months every year.
+His wife and daughters went among the poor,--and he smoked cigars
+in his library. Though not yet fifty, he was becoming fat and
+idle,--unwilling to walk, and not caring much even for such riding as
+the bishop had left to him. And, to make matters worse,--far worse,
+he knew all this of himself, and understood it thoroughly. "I see a
+better path, and know how good it is, but I follow ever the worse."
+He was saying that to himself daily, and was saying it always without
+hope.
+
+And his wife had given him up. She had given him up, not with
+disdainful rejection, nor with contempt in her eye, or censure in her
+voice, not with diminution of love or of outward respect. She had
+given him up as a man abandons his attempts to make his favourite dog
+take the water. He would fain that the dog he loves should dash into
+the stream as other dogs will do. It is, to his thinking, a noble
+instinct in a dog. But his dog dreads the water. As, however, he
+has learned to love the beast, he puts up with this mischance, and
+never dreams of banishing poor Ponto from his hearth because of this
+failure. And so it was with Mrs. Clavering and her husband at the
+rectory. He understood it all. He knew that he was so far rejected;
+and he acknowledged to himself the necessity for such rejection.
+
+"It is a very serious thing to decide upon," he said, when his son
+had spoken to him.
+
+"Yes; it is serious,--about as serious a thing as a man can think of;
+but a man cannot put it off on that account. If I mean to make such a
+change in my plans, the sooner I do it the better."
+
+"But yesterday you were in another mind."
+
+"No, father, not in another mind. I did not tell you then, nor can
+I tell you all now. I had thought that I should want my money for
+another purpose for a year or two; but that I have abandoned."
+
+"Is the purpose a secret, Harry?"
+
+"It is a secret, because it concerns another person."
+
+"You were going to lend your money to some one?"
+
+"I must keep it a secret, though you know I seldom have any secrets
+from you. That idea, however, is abandoned, and I mean to go over to
+Stratton to-morrow, and tell Mr. Burton that I shall be there after
+Christmas. I must be at St. Cuthbert's on Tuesday."
+
+Then they both sat silent for a while, silently blowing out their
+clouds of smoke. The son had said all that he cared to say, and would
+have wished that there might then be an end of it; but he knew that
+his father had much on his mind, and would fain express, if he could
+express it without too much trouble, or without too evident a need
+of self-reproach, his own thoughts on the subject. "You have made
+up your mind, then, altogether that you do not like the church as a
+profession," he said at last.
+
+"I think I have, father."
+
+"And on what grounds? The grounds which recommend it to you are very
+strong. Your education has adapted you for it. Your success in it
+is already ensured by your fellowship. In a great degree you have
+entered it as a profession already, by taking a fellowship. What you
+are doing is not choosing a line in life, but changing one already
+chosen. You are making of yourself a rolling stone."
+
+"A stone should roll till it has come to the spot that suits it."
+
+"Why not give up the school if it irks you?"
+
+"And become a Cambridge Don, and practise deportment among the
+undergraduates."
+
+"I don't see that you need do that. You need not even live at
+Cambridge. Take a church in London. You would be sure to get one
+by holding up your hand. If that, with your fellowship, is not
+sufficient, I will give you what more you want."
+
+"No, father--no. By God's blessing I will never ask you for a pound.
+I can hold my fellowship for four years longer without orders, and in
+four years' time I think I can earn my bread."
+
+"I don't doubt that, Harry."
+
+"Then why should I not follow my wishes in this matter? The truth is,
+I do not feel myself qualified to be a good clergyman."
+
+"It is not that you have doubts, is it?"
+
+"I might have them if I came to think much about it,--as I must do if
+I took orders. And I do not wish to be crippled in doing what I think
+lawful by conventional rules. A rebellious clergyman is, I think, a
+sorry object. It seems to me that he is a bird fouling his own nest.
+Now, I know I should be a rebellious clergyman."
+
+"In our church the life of a clergyman is as the life of any other
+gentleman,--within very broad limits."
+
+"Then why did Bishop Proudie interfere with your hunting?"
+
+"Limits may be very broad, Harry, and yet exclude hunting. Bishop
+Proudie was vulgar and intrusive, such being the nature of his wife,
+who instructs him; but if you were in orders I should be very sorry
+to see you take to hunting."
+
+"It seems to me that a clergyman has nothing to do in life unless
+he is always preaching and teaching. Look at Saul,"--Mr. Saul was
+the curate of Clavering--"he is always preaching and teaching. He is
+doing the best he can; and what a life of it he has. He has literally
+thrown off all worldly cares,--and consequently everybody laughs at
+him, and nobody loves him. I don't believe a better man breathes, but
+I shouldn't like his life."
+
+At this point there was another pause, which lasted till the cigars
+had come to an end. Then, as he threw the stump into the fire, Mr.
+Clavering spoke again. "The truth is, Harry, that you have had, all
+your life, a bad example before you."
+
+"No, father."
+
+"Yes, my son;--let me speak on to the end, and then you can say what
+you please. In me you have had a bad example on one side, and now, in
+poor Saul, you have a bad example on the other side. Can you fancy no
+life between the two, which would fit your physical nature, which is
+larger than his, and your mental wants, which are higher than mine?
+Yes, they are, Harry. It is my duty to say this, but it would be
+unseemly that there should be any controversy between us on the
+subject."
+
+"If you choose to stop me in that way--"
+
+"I do choose to stop you in that way. As for Saul, it is impossible
+that you should become such a man as he. It is not that he mortifies
+his flesh, but that he has no flesh to mortify. He is unconscious
+of the flavour of venison, or the scent of roses, or the beauty of
+women. He is an exceptional specimen of a man, and you need no more
+fear, than you should venture to hope, that you could become such as
+he is."
+
+At this point they were interrupted by the entrance of Fanny
+Clavering, who came to say that Mr. Saul was in the drawing-room.
+"What does he want, Fanny?" This question Mr. Clavering asked half in
+a whisper, but with something of comic humour in his face, as though
+partly afraid that Mr. Saul should hear it, and partly intending to
+convey a wish that he might escape Mr. Saul, if it were possible.
+
+"It's about the iron church, papa. He says it is come,--or part of
+it has come,--and he wants you to go out to Cumberly Green about the
+site."
+
+"I thought that was all settled."
+
+"He says not."
+
+"What does it matter where it is? He can put it anywhere he likes on
+the Green. However, I had better go to him." So Mr. Clavering went.
+Cumberly Green was a hamlet in the parish of Clavering, three miles
+distant from the church, the people of which had got into a wicked
+habit of going to a dissenting chapel near to them. By Mr. Saul's
+energy, but chiefly out of Mr. Clavering's purse, an iron chapel had
+been purchased for a hundred and fifty pounds, and Mr. Saul proposed
+to add to his own duties the pleasing occupation of walking to
+Cumberly Green every Sunday morning before breakfast, and every
+Wednesday evening after dinner, to perform a service and bring back
+to the true flock as many of the erring sheep of Cumberly Green as he
+might be able to catch. Towards the purchase of this iron church Mr.
+Clavering had at first given a hundred pounds. Sir Hugh, in answer to
+the fifth application, had very ungraciously, through his steward,
+bestowed ten pounds. Among the farmers one pound nine and eightpence
+had been collected. Mr. Saul had given two pounds; Mrs. Clavering
+gave five pounds; the girls gave ten shillings each; Henry Clavering
+gave five pounds;--and then the parson made up the remainder. But Mr.
+Saul had journeyed thrice painfully to Bristol, making the bargain
+for the church, going and coming each time by third-class, and he had
+written all the letters; but Mrs. Clavering had paid the postage,
+and she and the girls between them were making the covering for the
+little altar.
+
+"Is it all settled, Harry?" said Fanny, stopping with her brother,
+and hanging over his chair. She was a pretty, gay-spirited girl, with
+bright eyes and dark brown hair, which fell in two curls behind her
+ears.
+
+"He has said nothing to unsettle it."
+
+"I know it makes him very unhappy."
+
+"No, Fanny, not very unhappy. He would rather that I should go into
+the church, but that is about all."
+
+"I think you are quite right."
+
+"And Mary thinks I am quite wrong."
+
+"Mary thinks so, of course. So should I too, perhaps, if I were
+engaged to a clergyman. That's the old story of the fox who had lost
+his tail."
+
+"And your tail isn't gone yet?"
+
+"No, my tail isn't gone yet. Mary thinks that no life is like a
+clergyman's life. But, Harry, though mamma hasn't said so, I'm sure
+she thinks you are right. She won't say so as long as it may seem to
+interfere with anything papa may choose to say; but I'm sure she's
+glad in her heart."
+
+"And I am glad in my heart, Fanny. And as I'm the person most
+concerned, I suppose that's the most material thing." Then they
+followed their father into the drawing-room.
+
+"Couldn't you drive Mrs. Clavering over in the pony chair, and settle
+it between you," said Mr. Clavering to his curate. Mr. Saul looked
+disappointed. In the first place, he hated driving the pony, which
+was a rapid-footed little beast, that had a will of his own; and in
+the next place, he thought the rector ought to visit the spot on such
+an occasion. "Or Mrs. Clavering will drive you," said the rector,
+remembering Mr. Saul's objection to the pony. Still Mr. Saul looked
+unhappy. Mr. Saul was very tall and very thin, with a tall thin head,
+and weak eyes, and a sharp, well-cut nose, and, so to say, no lips,
+and very white teeth, with no beard, and a well-cut chin. His face
+was so thin that his cheekbones obtruded themselves unpleasantly.
+He wore a long rusty black coat, and a high rusty black waistcoat,
+and trousers that were brown with dirty roads and general ill-usage.
+Nevertheless, it never occurred to any one that Mr. Saul did not look
+like a gentleman, not even to himself, to whom no ideas whatever on
+that subject ever presented themselves. But that he was a gentleman
+I think he knew well enough, and was able to carry himself before
+Sir Hugh and his wife with quite as much ease as he could do in the
+rectory. Once or twice he had dined at the great house; but Lady
+Clavering had declared him to be a bore, and Sir Hugh had called
+him "that most offensive of all animals, a clerical prig." It had
+therefore been decided that he was not to be asked to the great
+house any more. It may be as well to state here, as elsewhere, that
+Mr. Clavering very rarely went to his nephew's table. On certain
+occasions he did do so, so that there might be no recognized quarrel
+between him and Sir Hugh; but such visits were few and far between.
+
+After a few more words from Mr. Saul, and a glance from his wife's
+eye, Mr. Clavering consented to go to Cumberly Green, though there
+was nothing he liked so little as a morning spent with his curate.
+When he had started, Harry told his mother also of his final
+decision. "I shall go to Stratton to-morrow and settle it all."
+
+"And what does papa say?" asked the mother.
+
+"Just what he has said before. It is not so much that he wishes me to
+be a clergyman, as that he does not wish me to have lost all my time
+up to this."
+
+"It is more than that, I think, Harry," said his elder sister, a tall
+girl, less pretty than her sister, apparently less careful of her
+prettiness, very quiet, or, as some said, demure, but known to be
+good as gold by all who knew her well.
+
+"I doubt it," said Harry, stoutly. "But, however that may be, a man
+must choose for himself."
+
+"We all thought you had chosen," said Mary.
+
+"If it is settled," said the mother, "I suppose we shall do no good
+by opposing it."
+
+"Would you wish to oppose it, mamma?" said Harry.
+
+"No, my dear. I think you should judge for yourself."
+
+"You see I could have no scope in the church for that sort of
+ambition which would satisfy me. Look at such men as Locke, and
+Stephenson, and Brassey. They are the men who seem to me to do most
+in the world. They were all self-educated, but surely a man can't
+have a worse chance because he has learned something. Look at old
+Beilby with a seat in Parliament, and a property worth two or three
+hundred thousand pounds! When he was my age he had nothing but his
+weekly wages."
+
+"I don't know whether Mr. Beilby is a very happy man or a very good
+man," said Mary.
+
+"I don't know, either," said Harry; "but I do know that he has thrown
+a single arch over a wider span of water than ever was done before,
+and that ought to make him happy." After saying this in a tone of
+high authority, befitting his dignity as a fellow of his college,
+Harry Clavering went out, leaving his mother and sisters to discuss
+the subject which to two of them was all-important. As to Mary,
+she had hopes of her own, vested in the clerical concerns of a
+neighbouring parish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LORD ONGAR.
+
+
+On the next morning Harry Clavering rode over to Stratton, thinking
+much of his misery as he went. It was all very well for him, in the
+presence of his own family to talk of his profession as the one
+subject which was to him of any importance; but he knew very well
+himself that he was only beguiling them in doing so. This question
+of a profession was, after all, but dead leaves to him,--to him who
+had a canker at his heart, a perpetual thorn in his bosom, a misery
+within him which no profession could mitigate! Those dear ones at
+home guessed nothing of this, and he would take care that they should
+guess nothing. Why should they have the pain of knowing that he had
+been made wretched for ever by blighted hopes? His mother, indeed,
+had suspected something in those sweet days of his roaming with Julia
+through the park. She had once or twice said a word to warn him. But
+of the very truth of his deep love,--so he told himself,--she had
+been happily ignorant. Let her be ignorant. Why should he make his
+mother unhappy? As these thoughts passed through his mind, I think
+that he revelled in his wretchedness, and made much to himself of his
+misery. He sucked in his sorrow greedily, and was somewhat proud to
+have had occasion to break his heart. But not the less, because he
+was thus early blighted, would he struggle for success in the world.
+He would show her that, as his wife, she might have had a worthier
+position than Lord Ongar could give her. He, too, might probably rise
+the quicker in the world, as now he would have no impediment of wife
+or family. Then, as he rode along, he composed a sonnet, fitting to
+his case, the strength and rhythm of which seemed to him, as he sat
+on horseback, to be almost perfect. Unfortunately, when he was back
+at Clavering, and sat in his room with the pen in his hand, the turn
+of the words had escaped him.
+
+He found Mr. Burton at home, and was not long in concluding his
+business. Messrs. Beilby and Burton were not only civil engineers,
+but were land surveyors also, and land valuers on a great scale. They
+were employed much by Government upon public buildings, and if not
+architects themselves, were supposed to know all that architects
+should do and should not do. In the purchase of great properties
+Mr. Burton's opinion was supposed to be, or to have been, as good as
+any in the kingdom, and therefore there was very much to be learned
+in the office at Stratton. But Mr. Burton was not a rich man like
+his partner, Mr. Beilby, nor an ambitious man. He had never soared
+Parliamentwards, had never speculated, had never invented, and never
+been great. He had been the father of a very large family, all of
+whom were doing as well in the world, and some of them perhaps
+better, than their father. Indeed, there were many who said that Mr.
+Burton would have been a richer man if he had not joined himself
+in partnership with Mr. Beilby. Mr. Beilby had the reputation of
+swallowing more than his share wherever he went.
+
+When the business part of the arrangement was finished Mr. Burton
+talked to his future pupil about lodgings, and went out with him into
+the town to look for rooms. The old man found that Harry Clavering
+was rather nice in this respect, and in his own mind formed an idea
+that this new beginner might have been a more auspicious pupil, had
+he not already become a fellow of a college. Indeed, Harry talked
+to him quite as though they two were on an equality together; and,
+before they had parted, Mr. Burton was not sure that Harry did not
+patronize him. He asked the young man, however, to join them at their
+early dinner, and then introduced him to Mrs. Burton, and to their
+youngest daughter, the only child who was still living with them.
+"All my other girls are married, Mr. Clavering; and all of them
+married to men connected with my own profession." The colour came
+slightly to Florence Burton's cheeks as she heard her father's words,
+and Harry asked himself whether the old man expected that he should
+go through the same ordeal; but Mr. Burton himself was quite unaware
+that he had said anything wrong, and then went on to speak of the
+successes of his sons. "But they began early, Mr. Clavering; and
+worked hard,--very hard indeed." He was a good, kindly, garrulous
+old man; but Harry began to doubt whether he would learn much at
+Stratton. It was, however, too late to think of that now, and
+everything was fixed.
+
+Harry, when he looked at Florence Burton, at once declared to himself
+that she was plain. Anything more unlike Julia Brabazon never
+appeared in the guise of a young lady. Julia was tall, with a high
+brow, a glorious complexion, a nose as finely modelled as though a
+Grecian sculptor had cut it, a small mouth, but lovely in its curves,
+and a chin that finished and made perfect the symmetry of her face.
+Her neck was long, but graceful as a swan's, her bust was full, and
+her whole figure like that of a goddess. Added to this, when he
+had first known her, had been all the charm of youth. When she had
+returned to Clavering the other day, the affianced bride of Lord
+Ongar, he had hardly known whether to admire or to deplore the
+settled air of established womanhood which she had assumed. Her
+large eyes had always lacked something of rapid glancing sparkling
+brightness. They had been glorious eyes to him, and in those early
+days he had not known that they lacked aught; but he had perceived,
+or perhaps fancied, that now, in her present condition, they were
+often cold, and sometimes almost cruel. Nevertheless he was ready to
+swear that she was perfect in her beauty.
+
+Poor Florence Burton was short of stature, was brown, meagre, and
+poor-looking. So said Harry Clavering to himself. Her small hand,
+though soft, lacked that wondrous charm of touch which Julia's
+possessed. Her face was short, and her forehead, though it was broad
+and open, had none of that feminine command which Julia's look
+conveyed. That Florence's eyes were very bright,--bright and soft as
+well, he allowed; and her dark brown hair was very glossy; but she
+was, on the whole, a mean-looking little thing. He could not, as he
+said to himself on his return home, avoid the comparison, as she was
+the first girl he had seen since he had parted from Julia Brabazon.
+
+"I hope you'll find yourself comfortable at Stratton, sir," said old
+Mrs. Burton.
+
+"Thank you," said Harry, "but I want very little myself in that way.
+Anything does for me."
+
+"One young gentleman we had took a bedroom at Mrs. Pott's, and did
+very nicely without any second room at all. Don't you remember, Mr.
+B.? it was young Granger."
+
+"Young Granger had a very short allowance," said Mr. Burton. "He
+lived upon fifty pounds a year all the time he was here."
+
+"And I don't think Scarness had more when he began," said Mrs.
+Burton. "Mr. Scarness married one of my girls, Mr. Clavering, when he
+started himself at Liverpool. He has pretty nigh all the Liverpool
+docks under him now. I have heard him say that butcher's meat did not
+cost him four shillings a week all the time he was here. I've always
+thought Stratton one of the reasonablest places anywhere for a young
+man to do for himself in."
+
+"I don't know, my dear," said the husband, "that Mr. Clavering will
+care very much for that."
+
+"Perhaps not, Mr. B.; but I do like to see young men careful about
+their spendings. What's the use of spending a shilling when sixpence
+will do as well; and sixpence saved when a man has nothing but
+himself, becomes pounds and pounds by the time he has a family about
+him."
+
+During all this time Miss Burton said little or nothing, and Harry
+Clavering himself did not say much. He could not express any
+intention of rivalling Mr. Scarness's economy in the article of
+butcher's meat, nor could he promise to content himself with
+Granger's solitary bedroom. But as he rode home he almost began to
+fear that he had made a mistake. He was not wedded to the joys of
+his college hall, or the college common room. He did not like the
+narrowness of college life. But he doubted whether the change from
+that to the oft-repeated hospitalities of Mrs. Burton might not be
+too much for him. Scarness's four shillings'-worth of butcher's meat
+had already made him half sick of his new profession, and though
+Stratton might be the "reasonablest place anywhere for a young man,"
+he could not look forward to living there for a year with much
+delight. As for Miss Burton, it might be quite as well that she was
+plain, as he wished for none of the delights which beauty affords to
+young men.
+
+On his return home, however, he made no complaint of Stratton. He was
+too strong-willed to own that he had been in any way wrong, and when
+early in the following week he started for St. Cuthbert's, he was
+able to speak with cheerful hope of his new prospects. If ultimately
+he should find life in Stratton to be unendurable, he would cut that
+part of his career short, and contrive to get up to London at an
+earlier time than he had intended.
+
+On the 31st of August Lord Ongar and Sir Hugh Clavering reached
+Clavering Park, and, as has been already told, a pretty little note
+was at once sent up to Miss Brabazon in her bedroom. When she met
+Lord Ongar in the drawing-room, about an hour afterwards, she had
+instructed herself that it would be best to say nothing of the note;
+but she could not refrain from a word. "I am much obliged, my lord,
+by your kindness and generosity," she said, as she gave him her hand.
+He merely bowed and smiled, and muttered something as to his hoping
+that he might always find it as easy to gratify her. He was a little
+man, on whose behalf it certainly appeared that the Peerage must have
+told a falsehood; it seemed so at least to those who judged of his
+years from his appearance. The Peerage said that he was thirty-six,
+and that, no doubt, was in truth his age, but any one would have
+declared him to be ten years older. This look was produced chiefly
+by the effect of an elaborately dressed jet black wig which he wore.
+What misfortune had made him bald so early,--if to be bald early in
+life be a misfortune,--I cannot say; but he had lost the hair from
+the crown of his head, and had preferred wiggery to baldness. No
+doubt an effort was made to hide the wiggishness of his wigs, but
+what effect in that direction was ever made successfully? He was,
+moreover, weak, thin, and physically poor, and had, no doubt,
+increased this weakness and poorness by hard living. Though others
+thought him old, time had gone swiftly with him, and he still thought
+himself a young man. He hunted, though he could not ride. He shot,
+though he could not walk. And, unfortunately, he drank, though he
+had no capacity for drinking! His friends at last had taught him to
+believe that his only chance of saving himself lay in marriage, and
+therefore he had engaged himself to Julia Brabazon, purchasing her at
+the price of a brilliant settlement. If Lord Ongar should die before
+her, Ongar Park was to be hers for life, with thousands a year to
+maintain it. Courton Castle, the great family seat, would of course
+go to the heir; but Ongar Park was supposed to be the most delightful
+small country-seat anywhere within thirty miles of London. It lay
+among the Surrey hills, and all the world had heard of the charms of
+Ongar Park. If Julia were to survive her lord, Ongar Park was to be
+hers; and they who saw them both together had but little doubt that
+she would come to the enjoyment of this clause in her settlement.
+Lady Clavering had been clever in arranging the match; and Sir Hugh,
+though he might have been unwilling to give his sister-in-law money
+out of his own pocket, had performed his duty as a brother-in-law in
+looking to her future welfare. Julia Brabazon had no doubt that she
+was doing well. Poor Harry Clavering! She had loved him in the days
+of her romance. She, too, had written her sonnets. But she had grown
+old earlier in life than he had done, and had taught herself that
+romance could not be allowed to a woman in her position. She was
+highly born, the daughter of a peer, without money, and even without
+a home to which she had any claim. Of course she had accepted Lord
+Ongar, but she had not put out her hand to take all these good things
+without resolving that she would do her duty to her future lord. The
+duty would be doubtless disagreeable, but she would do it with all
+the more diligence on that account.
+
+September passed by, hecatombs of partridges were slaughtered, and
+the day of the wedding drew nigh. It was pretty to see Lord Ongar and
+the self-satisfaction which he enjoyed at this time. The world was
+becoming young with him again, and he thought that he rather liked
+the respectability of his present mode of life. He gave himself but
+scanty allowances of wine, and no allowance of anything stronger than
+wine, and did not dislike his temperance. There was about him at all
+hours an air which seemed to say, "There; I told you all that I could
+do it as soon as there was any necessity." And in these halcyon days
+he could shoot for an hour without his pony, and he liked the gentle
+courteous badinage which was bestowed upon his courtship, and he
+liked also Julia's beauty. Her conduct to him was perfect. She was
+never pert, never exigeant, never romantic, and never humble. She
+never bored him, and yet was always ready to be with him when he
+wished it. She was never exalted; and yet she bore her high place as
+became a woman nobly born and acknowledged to be beautiful.
+
+"I declare you have quite made a lover of him," said Lady Clavering
+to her sister. When a thought of the match had first arisen in Sir
+Hugh's London house, Lady Clavering had been eager in praise of Lord
+Ongar, or eager in praise rather of the position which the future
+Lady Ongar might hold; but since the prize had been secured, since it
+had become plain that Julia was to be the greater woman of the two,
+she had harped sometimes on the other string. As a sister she had
+striven for a sister's welfare, but as a woman she could not keep
+herself from comparisons which might tend to show that after all,
+well as Julia was doing, she was not doing better than her elder
+sister had done. Hermione had married simply a baronet, and not the
+richest or the most amiable among baronets; but she had married a
+man suitable in age and wealth, with whom any girl might have been
+in love. She had not sold herself to be the nurse, or not to be the
+nurse, as it might turn out, of a worn-out debauche. She would have
+hinted nothing of this, perhaps have thought nothing of this, had not
+Julia and Lord Ongar walked together through the Clavering groves
+as though they were two young people. She owed it as a duty to her
+sister to point out that Lord Ongar could not be a romantic young
+person, and ought not to be encouraged to play that part.
+
+"I don't know that I have made anything of him," answered Julia. "I
+suppose he's much like other men when they're going to be married."
+Julia quite understood the ideas that were passing through her
+sister's mind, and did not feel them to be unnatural.
+
+"What I mean is, that he has come out so strong in the Romeo line,
+which we hardly expected, you know. We shall have him under your
+bedroom window with a guitar like Don Giovanni."
+
+"I hope not, because it's so cold. I don't think it likely, as he
+seems fond of going to bed early."
+
+"And it's the best thing for him," said Lady Clavering, becoming
+serious and carefully benevolent. "It's quite a wonder what good
+hours and quiet living have done for him in so short a time. I was
+observing him as he walked yesterday, and he put his feet to the
+ground as firmly almost as Hugh does."
+
+"Did he indeed? I hope he won't have the habit of putting his hand
+down firmly as Hugh does sometimes."
+
+"As for that," said Lady Clavering, with a little tremor, "I don't
+think there's much difference between them. They all say that when
+Lord Ongar means a thing he does mean it."
+
+"I think a man ought to have a way of his own."
+
+"And a woman also, don't you, my dear? But, as I was saying, if Lord
+Ongar will continue to take care of himself he may become quite a
+different man. Hugh says that he drinks next to nothing now, and
+though he sometimes lights a cigar in the smoking-room at night, he
+hardly ever smokes it. You must do what you can to keep him from
+tobacco. I happen to know that Sir Charles Poddy said that so many
+cigars were worse for him even than brandy."
+
+All this Julia bore with an even temper. She was determined to bear
+everything till her time should come. Indeed she had made herself
+understand that the hearing of such things as these was a part of the
+price which she was to be called upon to pay. It was not pleasant for
+her to hear what Sir Charles Poddy had said about the tobacco and
+brandy of the man she was just going to marry. She would sooner have
+heard of his riding sixty miles a day, or dancing all night, as she
+might have heard had she been contented to take Harry Clavering. But
+she had made her selection with her eyes open, and was not disposed
+to quarrel with her bargain, because that which she had bought was
+no better than the article which she had known it to be when she was
+making her purchase. Nor was she even angry with her sister. "I will
+do the best I can, Hermy; you may be sure of that. But there are some
+things which it is useless to talk about."
+
+"But it was as well you should know what Sir Charles said."
+
+"I know quite enough of what he says, Hermy,--quite as much, I
+daresay, as you do. But, never mind. If Lord Ongar has given up
+smoking, I quite agree with you that it's a good thing. I wish they'd
+all give it up, for I hate the smell of it. Hugh has got worse and
+worse. He never cares about changing his clothes now."
+
+"I'll tell you what it is," said Sir Hugh to his wife that night;
+"sixty thousand a year is a very fine income, but Julia will find she
+has caught a Tartar."
+
+"I suppose he'll hardly live long; will he?"
+
+"I don't know or care when he lives or when he dies; but, by heaven,
+he is the most overbearing fellow I ever had in the house with me. I
+wouldn't stand him here for another fortnight,--not even to make her
+all safe."
+
+"It will soon be over. They'll be gone on Thursday."
+
+"What do you think of his having the impudence to tell
+Cunliffe,"--Cunliffe was the head keeper,--"before my face, that he
+didn't know anything about pheasants! 'Well, my lord, I think we've
+got a few about the place,' said Cunliffe. 'Very few,' said Ongar,
+with a sneer. Now, if I haven't a better head of game here than he
+has at Courton, I'll eat him. But the impudence of his saying that
+before me!"
+
+"Did you make him any answer?"
+
+"'There's about enough to suit me,' I said. Then he skulked away,
+knocked off his pins. I shouldn't like to be his wife; I can tell
+Julia that."
+
+"Julia is very clever," said the sister.
+
+The day of the marriage came, and everything at Clavering was done
+with much splendour. Four bridesmaids came down from London on the
+preceding day; two were already staying in the house, and the two
+cousins came as two more from the rectory. Julia Brabazon had never
+been really intimate with Mary and Fanny Clavering, but she had known
+them well enough to make it odd if she did not ask them to come to
+her wedding and to take a part in the ceremony. And, moreover, she
+had thought of Harry and her little romance of other days. Harry,
+perhaps, might be glad to know that she had shown this courtesy to
+his sisters. Harry, she knew, would be away at his school. Though she
+had asked him whether he meant to come to her wedding, she had been
+better pleased that he should be absent. She had not many regrets
+herself, but it pleased her to think that he should have them. So
+Mary and Fanny Clavering were asked to attend her at the altar. Mary
+and Fanny would both have preferred to decline, but their mother had
+told them that they could not do so. "It would make ill-feeling,"
+said Mrs. Clavering; "and that is what your papa particularly wishes
+to avoid."
+
+"When you say papa particularly wishes anything, mamma, you always
+mean that you wish it particularly yourself," said Fanny. "But if
+it must be done, it must; and then I shall know how to behave when
+Mary's time comes."
+
+The bells were rung lustily all the morning, and all the parish was
+there, round about the church, to see. There was no record of a lord
+ever having been married in Clavering church before; and now this
+lord was going to marry my lady's sister. It was all one as though
+she were a Clavering herself. But there was no ecstatic joy in the
+parish. There were to be no bonfires, and no eating and drinking at
+Sir Hugh's expense,--no comforts provided for any of the poor by Lady
+Clavering on that special occasion. Indeed, there was never much of
+such kindnesses between the lord of the soil and his dependants.
+A certain stipulated dole was given at Christmas for coals and
+blankets; but even for that there was generally some wrangle between
+the rector and the steward. "If there's to be all this row about it,"
+the rector had said to the steward, "I'll never ask for it again." "I
+wish my uncle would only be as good as his word," Sir Hugh had said,
+when the rector's speech was repeated to him. Therefore, there was
+not much of real rejoicing in the parish on this occasion, though the
+bells were rung loudly, and though the people, young and old, did
+cluster round the churchyard to see the lord lead his bride out of
+the church. "A puir feckless thing, tottering along like,--not half
+the makings of a man. A stout lass like she could a'most blow him
+away wi' a puff of her mouth." That was the verdict which an old
+farmer's wife passed upon him, and that verdict was made good by the
+general opinion of the parish.
+
+
+[Illustration: "A puir feckless thing, tottering along like,--"]
+
+
+But though the lord might be only half a man, Julia Brabazon walked
+out from the church every inch a countess. Whatever price she might
+have paid, she had at any rate got the thing which she had intended
+to buy. And as she stepped into the chariot which carried her away to
+the railway station on her way to Dover, she told herself that she
+had done right. She had chosen her profession, as Harry Clavering
+had chosen his; and having so far succeeded, she would do her best
+to make her success perfect. Mercenary! Of course she had been
+mercenary. Were not all men and women mercenary upon whom devolved
+the necessity of earning their bread?
+
+Then there was a great breakfast at the park,--for the quality,--and
+the rector on this occasion submitted himself to become the guest of
+the nephew whom he thoroughly disliked.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+FLORENCE BURTON.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+It was now Christmas time at Stratton, or rather Christmas time was
+near at hand; not the Christmas next after the autumn of Lord Ongar's
+marriage, but the following Christmas, and Harry Clavering had
+finished his studies in Mr. Burton's office. He flattered himself
+that he had not been idle while he was there, and was now about to
+commence his more advanced stage of pupilage, under the great Mr.
+Beilby in London, with hopes which were still good, if they were not
+so magnificent as they once had been. When he first saw Mr. Burton
+in his office, and beheld the dusty pigeon-holes with dusty papers,
+and caught the first glimpse of things as they really were in the
+workshop of that man of business, he had, to say the truth, been
+disgusted. And Mrs. Burton's early dinner, and Florence Burton's
+"plain face" and plain ways, had disconcerted him. On that day he had
+repented of his intention with regard to Stratton; but he had carried
+out his purpose like a man, and now he rejoiced greatly that he had
+done so. He rejoiced greatly, though his hopes were somewhat sobered,
+and his views of life less grand than they had been. He was to start
+for Clavering early on the following morning, intending to spend his
+Christmas at home, and we will see him and listen to him as he bade
+farewell to one of the members of Mr. Burton's family.
+
+He was sitting in a small back parlour in Mr. Burton's house, and on
+the table of the room there was burning a single candle. It was a
+dull, dingy, brown room, furnished with horsehair-covered chairs, an
+old horsehair sofa, and heavy rusty curtains. I don't know that there
+was in the room any attempt at ornament, as certainly there was no
+evidence of wealth. It was now about seven o'clock in the evening,
+and tea was over in Mrs. Burton's establishment. Harry Clavering had
+had his tea, and had eaten his hot muffin, at the further side from
+the fire of the family table, while Florence had poured out the tea,
+and Mrs. Burton had sat by the fire on one side with a handkerchief
+over her lap, and Mr. Burton had been comfortable with his arm-chair
+and his slippers on the other side. When tea was over, Harry had made
+his parting speech to Mrs. Burton, and that lady had kissed him, and
+bade God bless him. "I'll see you for a moment before you go, in my
+office, Harry," Mr. Burton had said. Then Harry had gone downstairs,
+and some one else had gone boldly with him, and they two were sitting
+together in the dingy brown room. After that I need hardly tell my
+reader what had become of Harry Clavering's perpetual life-enduring
+heart's misery.
+
+He and Florence were sitting on the old horsehair sofa, and
+Florence's hand was in his. "My darling," he said, "how am I to live
+for the next two years?"
+
+"You mean five years, Harry."
+
+"No; I mean two,--that is two, unless I can make the time less. I
+believe you'd be better pleased to think it was ten."
+
+"Much better pleased to think it was ten than to have no such hope at
+all. Of course we shall see each other. It's not as though you were
+going to New Zealand."
+
+"I almost wish I were. One would agree then as to the necessity of
+this cursed delay."
+
+"Harry, Harry!"
+
+"It is accursed. The prudence of the world in these latter days seems
+to me to be more abominable than all its other iniquities."
+
+"But, Harry, we should have no income."
+
+"Income is a word that I hate."
+
+"Now you are getting on to your high horse, and you know I always go
+out of the way when you begin to prance on that beast. As for me,
+I don't want to leave papa's house where I'm sure of my bread and
+butter, till I'm sure of it in another."
+
+"You say that, Florence, on purpose to torment me."
+
+"Dear Harry, do you think I want to torment you on your last night?
+The truth is, I love you so well that I can afford to be patient for
+you."
+
+"I hate patience, and always did. Patience is one of the worst vices
+I know. It's almost as bad as humility. You'll tell me you're 'umble
+next. If you'll only add that you're contented, you'll describe
+yourself as one of the lowest of God's creatures."
+
+"I don't know about being 'umble, but I am contented. Are not you
+contented with me, sir?"
+
+"No,--because you're not in a hurry to be married."
+
+"What a goose you are. Do you know I'm not sure that if you really
+love a person, and are quite confident about him,--as I am of
+you,--that having to look forward to being married is not the best
+part of it all. I suppose you'll like to get my letters now, but I
+don't know that you'll care for them much when we've been man and
+wife for ten years."
+
+"But one can't live upon letters."
+
+"I shall expect you to live upon mine, and to grow fat on them.
+There;--I heard papa's step on the stairs. He said you were to go to
+him. Good-by, Harry;--dearest Harry! What a blessed wind it was that
+blew you here."
+
+"Stop a moment;--about your getting to Clavering. I shall come for
+you on Easter-eve."
+
+"Oh, no;--why should you have so much trouble and expense?"
+
+"I tell you I shall come for you,--unless, indeed, you decline to
+travel with me."
+
+"It will be so nice! And then I shall be sure to have you with me the
+first moment I see them. I shall think it very awful when I first
+meet your father."
+
+"He's the most good-natured man, I should say, in England."
+
+"But he'll think me so plain. You did at first, you know. But he
+won't be uncivil enough to tell me so, as you did. And Mary is to be
+married in Easter week? Oh, dear, oh, dear; I shall be so shy among
+them all."
+
+"You shy! I never saw you shy in my life. I don't suppose you were
+ever really put out yet."
+
+"But I must really put you out, because papa is waiting for you.
+Dear, dear, dearest Harry. Though I am so patient I shall count
+the hours till you come for me. Dearest Harry!" Then she bore with
+him, as he pressed her close to his bosom, and kissed her lips, and
+her forehead, and her glossy hair. When he was gone she sat down
+alone for a few minutes on the old sofa, and hugged herself in her
+happiness. What a happy wind that had been which had blown such a
+lover as that for her to Stratton!
+
+"I think he's a good young man," said Mrs. Burton, as soon as she was
+left with her old husband upstairs.
+
+"Yes, he's a good young man. He means very well."
+
+"But he is not idle; is he?"
+
+"No--no; he's not idle. And he's very clever;--too clever, I'm
+afraid. But I think he'll do well, though it may take him some time
+to settle."
+
+"It seems so natural his taking to Flo; doesn't it? They've all taken
+one when they went away, and they've all done very well. Deary me;
+how sad the house will be when Flo has gone."
+
+"Yes,--it'll make a difference that way. But what then? I wouldn't
+wish to keep one of 'em at home for that reason."
+
+"No, indeed. I think I'd feel ashamed of myself to have a daughter
+not married, or not in the way to be married afore she's thirty. I
+couldn't bear to think that no young man should take a fancy to a
+girl of mine. But Flo's not twenty yet, and Carry, who was the oldest
+to go, wasn't four-and-twenty when Scarness took her." Thereupon the
+old lady put her handkerchief to the corner of her eyes, and wept
+gently.
+
+"Flo isn't gone yet," said Mr. Burton.
+
+"But I hope, B., it's not to be a long engagement. I don't like long
+engagements. It ain't good,--not for the girl; it ain't, indeed."
+
+"We were engaged for seven years."
+
+"People weren't so much in a hurry then at anything; but I ain't sure
+it was very good for me. And though we weren't just married, we were
+living next door and saw each other. What'll come to Flo if she's to
+be here and he's to be up in London, pleasuring himself?"
+
+"Flo must bear it as other girls do," said the father, as he got up
+from his chair.
+
+"I think he's a good young man; I think he is," said the mother. "But
+don't stand out for too much for 'em to begin upon. What matters?
+Sure if they were to be a little short you could help 'em." To such
+a suggestion as this Mr. Burton thought it as well to make no answer,
+but with ponderous steps descended to his office.
+
+"Well, Harry," said Mr. Burton, "so you're to be off in the morning?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I shall breakfast at home to-morrow."
+
+"Ah,--when I was your age I always used to make an early start. Three
+hours before breakfast never does any hurt. But it shouldn't be more
+than that. The wind gets into the stomach." Harry had no remark to
+make on this, and waited, therefore, till Mr. Burton went on. "And
+you'll be up in London by the 10th of next month?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I intend to be at Mr. Beilby's office on the 11th."
+
+"That's right. Never lose a day. In losing a day now, you don't lose
+what you might earn now in a day, but what you might be earning when
+you're at your best. A young man should always remember that. You
+can't dispense with a round in the ladder going up. You only make
+your time at the top so much the shorter."
+
+"I hope you'll find that I'm all right, sir. I don't mean to be
+idle."
+
+"Pray don't. Of course, you know, I speak to you very differently
+from what I should do if you were simply going away from my office.
+What I shall have to give Florence will be very little,--that is,
+comparatively little. She shall have a hundred a year, when she
+marries, till I die; and after my death and her mother's she will
+share with the others. But a hundred a year will be nothing to you."
+
+"Won't it, sir? I think a very great deal of a hundred a year. I'm to
+have a hundred and fifty from the office; and I should be ready to
+marry on that to-morrow."
+
+"You couldn't live on such an income,--unless you were to alter your
+habits very much."
+
+"But I will alter them."
+
+"We shall see. You are so placed that by marrying you would lose a
+considerable income; and I would advise you to put off thinking of it
+for the next two years."
+
+"My belief is, that settling down would be the best thing in the
+world to make me work."
+
+"We'll try what a year will do. So Florence is to go to your father's
+house at Easter?"
+
+"Yes, sir; she has been good enough to promise to come, if you have
+no objection."
+
+"It is quite as well that they should know her early. I only
+hope they will like her as well as we like you. Now I'll say
+good-night,--and good-by." Then Harry went, and walking up and down
+the High Street of Stratton, thought of all that he had done during
+the past year.
+
+On his arrival at Stratton that idea of perpetual misery arising from
+blighted affection was still strong within his breast. He had given
+all his heart to a false woman who had betrayed him. He had risked
+all his fortune on one cast of the die, and, gambler-like, had lost
+everything. On the day of Julia's marriage he had shut himself up at
+the school,--luckily it was a holiday,--and had flattered himself
+that he had gone through some hours of intense agony. No doubt he
+did suffer somewhat, for in truth he had loved the woman; but such
+sufferings are seldom perpetual, and with him they had been as easy
+of cure as with most others. A little more than a year had passed,
+and now he was already engaged to another woman. As he thought of
+this he did not by any means accuse himself of inconstancy or of
+weakness of heart. It appeared to him now the most natural thing in
+the world that he should love Florence Burton. In those old days
+he had never seen Florence, and had hardly thought seriously of
+what qualities a man really wants in a wife. As he walked up and
+down the hill of Stratton Street with the kiss of the dear, modest,
+affectionate girl still warm upon his lips, he told himself that a
+marriage with such a one as Julia Brabazon would have been altogether
+fatal to his chance of happiness.
+
+And things had occurred and rumours had reached him which assisted
+him much in adopting this view of the subject. It was known to
+all the Claverings,--and even to all others who cared about such
+things,--that Lord and Lady Ongar were not happy together, and it
+had been already said that Lady Ongar had misconducted herself.
+There was a certain count whose name had come to be mingled with
+hers in a way that was, to say the least of it, very unfortunate.
+Sir Hugh Clavering had declared, in Mrs. Clavering's hearing, though
+but little disposed in general to make many revelations to any of
+the family at the rectory, "that he did not intend to take his
+sister-in-law's part. She had made her own bed, and she must lie upon
+it. She had known what Lord Ongar was before she had married him, and
+the fault was her own." So much Sir Hugh had said, and, in saying
+it, had done all that in him lay to damn his sister-in-law's fair
+fame. Harry Clavering, little as he had lived in the world during
+the last twelve months, still knew that some people told a different
+story. The earl too and his wife had not been in England since their
+marriage;--so that these rumours had been filtered to them at home
+through a foreign medium. During most of their time they had been in
+Italy, and now, as Harry knew, they were at Florence. He had heard
+that Lord Ongar had declared his intention of suing for a divorce;
+but that he supposed to be erroneous, as the two were still living
+under the same roof. Then he heard that Lord Ongar was ill; and
+whispers were spread abroad darkly and doubtingly, as though great
+misfortunes were apprehended.
+
+Harry could not fail to tell himself that had Julia become his wife,
+as she had once promised, these whispers and this darkness would
+hardly have come to pass. But not on that account did he now regret
+that her early vows had not been kept. Living at Stratton, he had
+taught himself to think much of the quiet domesticities of life, and
+to believe that Florence Burton was fitter to be his wife than Julia
+Brabazon. He told himself that he had done well to find this out,
+and that he had been wise to act upon it. His wisdom had in truth
+consisted in his capacity to feel that Florence was a nice girl,
+clever, well-minded, high-principled, and full of spirit,--and in
+falling in love with her as a consequence. All his regard for the
+quiet domesticities had come from his love, and had had no share in
+producing it. Florence was bright-eyed. No eyes were ever brighter,
+either in tears or in laughter. And when he came to look at her well
+he found that he had been an idiot to think her plain. "There are
+things that grow to beauty as you look at them,--to exquisite beauty;
+and you are one of them," he had said to her. "And there are men,"
+she had answered, "who grow to flattery as you listen to them,--to
+impudent flattery; and you are one of them." "I thought you plain
+the first day I saw you. That's not flattery." "Yes, sir, it is; and
+you mean it for flattery. But after all, Harry, it comes only to
+this, that you want to tell me that you have learned to love me." He
+repeated all this to himself as he walked up and down Stratton, and
+declared to himself that she was very lovely. It had been given to
+him to ascertain this, and he was rather proud of himself. But he was
+a little diffident about his father. He thought that, perhaps, his
+father might see Florence as he himself had first seen her, and might
+not have discernment enough to ascertain his mistake as he had done.
+But Florence was not going to Clavering at once, and he would be able
+to give beforehand his own account of her. He had not been home since
+his engagement had been a thing settled; but his position with regard
+to Florence had been declared by letter, and his mother had written
+to the young lady asking her to come to Clavering.
+
+When Harry got home all the family received him with congratulations.
+"I am so glad to think that you should marry early," his mother
+said to him in a whisper. "But I am not married yet, mother," he
+answered.
+
+"Do show me a lock of her hair," said Fanny, laughing. "It's twice
+prettier hair than yours, though she doesn't think half so much about
+it as you do," said her brother, pinching Fanny's arm. "But you'll
+show me a lock, won't you?" said Fanny.
+
+"I'm so glad she's to be here at my marriage," said Mary, "because
+then Edward will know her. I'm so glad that he will see her." "Edward
+will have other fish to fry, and won't care much about her," said
+Harry.
+
+"It seems you're going to do the regular thing," said his father,
+"like all the good apprentices. Marry your master's daughter,
+and then become Lord Mayor of London." This was not the view in
+which it had pleased Harry to regard his engagement. All the other
+"young men" that had gone to Mr. Burton's had married Mr. Burton's
+daughters,--or, at least, enough had done so to justify the Stratton
+assertion that all had fallen into the same trap. The Burtons, with
+their five girls, were supposed in Stratton to have managed their
+affairs very well, and something of these hints had reached Harry's
+ears. He would have preferred that the thing should not have been
+made so common, but he was not fool enough to make himself really
+unhappy on that head. "I don't know much about becoming Lord Mayor,"
+he replied. "That promotion doesn't lie exactly in our line." "But
+marrying your master's daughter does, it seems," said the Rector.
+Harry thought that this, as coming from his father, was almost
+ill-natured, and therefore dropped the conversation.
+
+"I'm sure we shall like her," said Fanny.
+
+"I think that I shall like Harry's choice," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"I do hope Edward will like her," said Mary.
+
+"Mary," said her sister, "I do wish you were once married. When you
+are, you'll begin to have a self of your own again. Now you're no
+better than an unconscious echo."
+
+"Wait for your own turn, my dear," said the mother.
+
+Harry had reached home on a Saturday, and the following Monday was
+Christmas-day. Lady Clavering, he was told, was at home at the
+park, and Sir Hugh had been there lately. No one from the house
+except the servants were seen at church either on the Sunday or on
+Christmas-day. "But that shows nothing," said the Rector, speaking
+in anger. "He very rarely does come, and when he does, it would be
+better that he should be away. I think that he likes to insult me
+by misconducting himself. They say that she is not well, and I can
+easily believe that all this about her sister makes her unhappy. If I
+were you I would go up and call. Your mother was there the other day,
+but did not see them. I think you'll find that he's away, hunting
+somewhere. I saw the groom going off with three horses on Sunday
+afternoon. He always sends them by the church gate just as we're
+coming out."
+
+So Harry went up to the house, and found Lady Clavering at home. She
+was looking old and careworn, but she was glad to see him. Harry was
+the only one of the rectory family who had been liked at the great
+house since Sir Hugh's marriage, and he, had he cared to do so, would
+have been made welcome there. But, as he had once said to Sir Hugh's
+sister-in-law, if he shot the Clavering game, he would be expected
+to do so in the guise of a head gamekeeper, and he did not choose to
+play that part. It would not suit him to drink Sir Hugh's claret, and
+be bidden to ring the bell, and to be asked to step into the stable
+for this or that. He was a fellow of his college, and quite as big
+a man, he thought, as Sir Hugh. He would not be a hanger-on at the
+park, and, to tell the truth, he disliked his cousin quite as much as
+his father did. But there had even been a sort of friendship,--nay,
+occasionally almost a confidence, between him and Lady Clavering, and
+he believed that by her he was really liked.
+
+Lady Clavering had heard of his engagement, and of course
+congratulated him. "Who told you?" he asked,--"was it my mother?"
+
+"No; I have not seen your mother I don't know when. I think it was
+my maid told me. Though we somehow don't see much of you all at the
+rectory, our servants are no doubt more gracious with the rectory
+servants. I'm sure she must be nice, Harry, or you would not have
+chosen her. I hope she has got some money."
+
+"Yes, I think she is nice. She is coming here at Easter."
+
+"Ah, we shall be away then, you know; and about the money?"
+
+"She will have a little, but very little;--a hundred a year."
+
+"Oh, Harry, is not that rash of you? Younger brothers should always
+get money. You're the same as a younger brother, you know."
+
+"My idea is to earn my own bread. It's not very aristocratic, but,
+after all, there are a great many more in the same boat with me."
+
+"Of course you will earn your bread, but having a wife with money
+would not hinder that. A girl is not the worse because she can bring
+some help. However, I'm sure I hope you'll be happy."
+
+"What I meant was that I think it best when the money comes from the
+husband."
+
+"I'm sure I ought to agree with you, because we never had any." Then
+there was a pause. "I suppose you've heard about Lord Ongar," she
+said.
+
+"I have heard that he is very ill."
+
+"Very ill. I believe there was no hope when we heard last; but Julia
+never writes now."
+
+"I'm sorry that it is so bad as that," said Harry, not well knowing
+what else to say.
+
+"As regards Julia, I do not know whether it may not be for the best.
+It seems to be a cruel thing to say, but of course I cannot but think
+most of her. You have heard, perhaps, that they have not been happy?"
+
+"Yes; I had heard that."
+
+"Of course; and what is the use of pretending anything with you? You
+know what people have said of her."
+
+"I have never believed it."
+
+"You always loved her, Harry. Oh, dear, I remember how unhappy that
+made me once, and I was so afraid that Hugh would suspect it. She
+would never have done for you;--would she, Harry?"
+
+"She did a great deal better for herself," said Harry.
+
+"If you mean that ironically, you shouldn't say it now. If he dies,
+she will be well off, of course, and people will in time forget what
+has been said,--that is, if she will live quietly. The worst of it is
+that she fears nothing."
+
+"But you speak as though you thought she had been--been--"
+
+"I think she was probably imprudent, but I believe nothing worse
+than that. But who can say what is absolutely wrong, and what only
+imprudent? I think she was too proud to go really astray. And then
+with such a man as that, so difficult and so ill-tempered--! Sir Hugh
+thinks--" But at that moment the door was opened and Sir Hugh came
+in.
+
+"What does Sir Hugh think?" said he.
+
+"We were speaking of Lord Ongar," said Harry, sitting up and shaking
+hands with his cousin.
+
+"Then, Harry, you were speaking on a subject that I would rather
+not have discussed in this house. Do you understand that, Hermione?
+I will have no talking about Lord Ongar or his wife. We know very
+little, and what we hear is simply uncomfortable. Will you dine here
+to-day, Harry?"
+
+"Thank you, no; I have only just come home."
+
+"And I am just going away. That is, I go to-morrow. I cannot stand
+this place. I think it the dullest neighbourhood in all England, and
+the most gloomy house I ever saw. Hermione likes it."
+
+To this last assertion Lady Clavering expressed no assent; nor did
+she venture to contradict him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LADY ONGAR'S RETURN.
+
+
+But Sir Hugh did not get away from Clavering Park on the next morning
+as he had intended. There came to him that same afternoon a message
+by telegraph, to say that Lord Ongar was dead. He had died at
+Florence on the afternoon of Christmas-day, and Lady Ongar had
+expressed her intention of coming at once to England.
+
+"Why the devil doesn't she stay where she is?" said Sir Hugh, to his
+wife. "People would forget her there, and in twelve months time the
+row would be all over."
+
+"Perhaps she does not want to be forgotten," said Lady Clavering.
+
+"Then she should want it. I don't care whether she has been guilty or
+not. When a woman gets her name into such a mess as that, she should
+keep in the background."
+
+"I think you are unjust to her, Hugh."
+
+"Of course you do. You don't suppose that I expect anything else. But
+if you mean to tell me that there would have been all this row if she
+had been decently prudent, I tell you that you're mistaken."
+
+"Only think what a man he was."
+
+"She knew that when she took him, and should have borne with him
+while he lasted. A woman isn't to have seven thousand a year for
+nothing."
+
+"But you forget that not a syllable has been proved against her, or
+been attempted to be proved. She has never left him, and now she has
+been with him in his last moments. I don't think you ought to be the
+first to turn against her."
+
+"If she would remain abroad, I would do the best I could for her.
+She chooses to return home; and as I think she's wrong, I won't have
+her here;--that's all. You don't suppose that I go about the world
+accusing her?"
+
+"I think you might do something to fight her battle for her."
+
+"I will do nothing,--unless she takes my advice and remains abroad.
+You must write to her now, and you will tell her what I say. It's an
+infernal bore, his dying at this moment; but I suppose people won't
+expect that I'm to shut myself up."
+
+For one day only did the baronet shut himself up, and on the
+following he went whither he had before intended.
+
+Lady Clavering thought it proper to write a line to the rectory,
+informing the family there that Lord Ongar was no more. This she
+did in a note to Mrs. Clavering; and when it was received, there
+came over the faces of them all that lugubrious look, which is, as a
+matter of course, assumed by decorous people when tidings come of the
+death of any one who has been known to them, even in the most distant
+way. With the exception of Harry, all the rectory Claverings had been
+introduced to Lord Ongar, and were now bound to express something
+approaching to sorrow. Will any one dare to call this hypocrisy? If
+it be so called, who in the world is not a hypocrite? Where is the
+man or woman who has not a special face for sorrow before company?
+The man or woman who has no such face, would at once be accused of
+heartless impropriety.
+
+"It is very sad," said Mrs. Clavering; "only think, it is but little
+more than a year since you married them!"
+
+"And twelve such months as they have been for her!" said the Rector,
+shaking his head. His face was very lugubrious, for though as
+a parson he was essentially a kindly, easy man, to whom humbug
+was odious, and who dealt little in the austerities of clerical
+denunciation, still he had his face of pulpit sorrow for the sins of
+the people,--what I may perhaps call his clerical knack of gentle
+condemnation,--and could therefore assume a solemn look, and a little
+saddened motion of his head, with more ease than people who are not
+often called upon for such action.
+
+"Poor woman!" said Fanny, thinking of the woman's married sorrows,
+and her early widowhood.
+
+"Poor man," said Mary, shuddering as she thought of the husband's
+fate.
+
+"I hope," said Harry, almost sententiously, "that no one in this
+house will condemn her upon such mere rumours as have been heard."
+
+"Why should any one in this house condemn her," said the Rector,
+"even if there were more than rumours? My dears, judge not, lest ye
+be judged. As regards her, we are bound by close ties not to speak
+ill of her--or even to think ill, unless we cannot avoid it. As far
+as I know, we have not even any reason for thinking ill." Then he
+went out, changed the tone of his countenance among the rectory
+stables, and lit his cigar.
+
+Three days after that a second note was brought down from the great
+house to the rectory, and this was from Lady Clavering to Harry.
+"Dear Harry," ran the note,--"Could you find time to come up to me
+this morning? Sir Hugh has gone to North Priory.--Ever yours, H. C."
+Harry, of course, went, and as he went, he wondered how Sir Hugh
+could have had the heart to go to North Priory at such a moment.
+North Priory was a hunting seat some thirty miles from Clavering,
+belonging to a great nobleman with whom Sir Hugh much consorted.
+Harry was grieved that his cousin had not resisted the temptation of
+going at such a time, but he was quick enough to perceive that Lady
+Clavering alluded to the absence of her lord as a reason why Harry
+might pay his visit to the house with satisfaction.
+
+"I'm so much obliged to you for coming," said Lady Clavering. "I want
+to know if you can do something for me." As she spoke, she had a
+paper in her hand which he immediately perceived to be a letter from
+Italy.
+
+"I'll do anything I can, of course, Lady Clavering."
+
+"But I must tell you, that I hardly know whether I ought to ask you.
+I'm doing what would make Hugh very angry. But he is so unreasonable,
+and so cruel about Julia. He condemns her simply because, as he says,
+there is no smoke without fire. That is such a cruel thing to say
+about a woman;--is it not?"
+
+Harry thought that it was a cruel thing, but as he did not wish to
+speak evil of Sir Hugh before Lady Clavering, he held his tongue.
+
+"When we got the first news by telegraph, Julia said that she
+intended to come home at once. Hugh thinks that she should remain
+abroad for some time, and indeed I am not sure but that would be
+best. At any rate he made me write to her, and advise her to stay. He
+declared that if she came at once he would do nothing for her. The
+truth is, he does not want to have her here, for if she were again in
+the house he would have to take her part, if ill-natured things were
+said."
+
+"That's cowardly," said Harry, stoutly.
+
+"Don't say that, Harry, till you have heard it all. If he believes
+these things, he is right not to wish to meddle. He is very hard,
+and always believes evil. But he is not a coward. If she were here,
+living with him as my sister, he would take her part, whatever he
+might himself think."
+
+"But why should he think ill of his own sister-in-law? I have never
+thought ill of her."
+
+"You loved her, and he never did;--though I think he liked her too in
+his way. But that's what he told me to do, and I did it. I wrote to
+her, advising her to remain at Florence till the warm weather comes,
+saying that as she could not specially wish to be in London for the
+season, I thought she would be more comfortable there than here;--and
+then I added that Hugh also advised her to stay. Of course I did not
+say that he would not have her here,--but that was his threat."
+
+"She is not likely to press herself where she is not wanted."
+
+"No,--and she will not forget her rank and her money;--for that must
+now be hers. Julia can be quite as hard and as stubborn as he can.
+But I did write as I say, and I think that if she had got my letter
+before she had written herself, she would perhaps have stayed. But
+here is a letter from her, declaring that she will come at once. She
+will be starting almost as soon as my letter gets there, and I am
+sure she will not alter her purpose now."
+
+"I don't see why she should not come if she likes it."
+
+"Only that she might be more comfortable there. But read what she
+says. You need not read the first part. Not that there is any secret;
+but it is about him and his last moments, and it would only pain
+you."
+
+Harry longed to read the whole, but he did as he was bid, and began
+the letter at the spot which Lady Clavering marked for him with her
+finger. "I have to start on the third, and as I shall stay nowhere
+except to sleep at Turin and Paris, I shall be home by the eighth;--I
+think on the evening of the eighth. I shall bring only my own maid,
+and one of his men who desires to come back with me. I wish to have
+apartments taken for me in London. I suppose Hugh will do as much as
+this for me?"
+
+"I am quite sure Hugh won't," said Lady Clavering, who was watching
+his eye as he read.
+
+Harry said nothing, but went on reading. "I shall only want two
+sitting-rooms and two bedrooms,--one for myself and one for
+Clara,--and should like to have them somewhere near Piccadilly,--in
+Clarges Street, or about there. You can write me a line, or send me a
+message to the Hotel Bristol, at Paris. If anything fails, so that I
+should not hear, I shall go to the Palace Hotel; and, in that case,
+should telegraph for rooms from Paris."
+
+"Is that all I'm to read?" Harry asked.
+
+"You can go on and see what she says as to her reason for coming." So
+Harry went on reading. "I have suffered much, and of course I know
+that I must suffer more; but I am determined that I will face the
+worst of it at once. It has been hinted to me that an attempt will be
+made to interfere with the settlement--" "Who can have hinted that?"
+said Harry. Lady Clavering suspected who might have done so, but she
+made no answer. "I can hardly think it possible; but, if it is done,
+I will not be out of the way. I have done my duty as best I could,
+and have done it under circumstances that I may truly say were
+terrible;--and I will go on doing it. No one shall say that I am
+ashamed to show my face and claim my own. You will be surprised when
+you see me. I have aged so much;--"
+
+"You need not go on," said Lady Clavering. "The rest is about nothing
+that signifies."
+
+Then Harry refolded the letter and gave it back to his companion.
+
+"Sir Hugh is gone, and therefore I could not show him that in time to
+do anything; but if I were to do so, he would simply do nothing, and
+let her go to the hotel in London. Now that would be unkind;--would
+it not?"
+
+"Very unkind, I think."
+
+"It would seem so cold to her on her return."
+
+"Very cold. Will you not go and meet her?"
+
+Lady Clavering blushed as she answered. Though Sir Hugh was a tyrant
+to his wife, and known to be such, and though she knew that this was
+known, she had never said that it was so to any of the Claverings;
+but now she was driven to confess it. "He would not let me go, Harry.
+I could not go without telling him, and if I told him he would forbid
+it."
+
+"And she is to be all alone in London, without any friend?"
+
+"I shall go to her as soon as he will let me. I don't think he will
+forbid my going to her, perhaps after a day or two; but I know he
+would not let me go on purpose to meet her."
+
+"It does seem hard."
+
+"But about the apartments, Harry? I thought that perhaps you would
+see about them. After all that has passed I could not have asked you,
+only that now, as you are engaged yourself, it is nearly the same as
+though you were married. I would ask Archibald, only then there would
+be a fuss between Archibald and Hugh; and somehow I look on you more
+as a brother-in-law than I do Archibald."
+
+"Is Archie in London?"
+
+"His address is at his club, but I daresay he is at North Priory
+also. At any rate, I shall say nothing to him."
+
+"I was thinking he might have met her."
+
+"Julia never liked him. And, indeed, I don't think she will care so
+much about being met. She was always independent in that way, and
+would go over the world alone better than many men. But couldn't you
+run up and manage about the apartments? A woman coming home as a
+widow,--and in her position,--feels an hotel to be so public."
+
+"I will see about the apartments."
+
+"I knew you would. And there will be time for you to send to me, so
+that I can write to Paris;--will there not? There is more than a
+week, you know."
+
+But Henry did not wish to go to London on this business immediately.
+He had made up his mind that he would not only take the rooms, but
+that he would also meet Lady Ongar at the station. He said nothing of
+this to Lady Clavering, as, perhaps, she might not approve; but such
+was his intention. He was wrong no doubt. A man in such cases should
+do what he is asked to do, and do no more. But he repeated to himself
+the excuse that Lady Clavering had made,--namely, that he was already
+the same as a married man, and that, therefore, no harm could come of
+his courtesy to his cousin's wife's sister. But he did not wish to
+make two journeys to London, nor did he desire to be away for a full
+week out of his holidays. Lady Clavering could not press him to go at
+once, and, therefore, it was settled as he proposed. She would write
+to Paris immediately, and he would go up to London after three or
+four days. "If we only knew of any apartments, we could write," said
+Lady Clavering. "You could not know that they were comfortable," said
+Harry; "and you will find that I will do it in plenty of time." Then
+he took his leave; but Lady Clavering had still one other word to
+say to him. "You had better not say anything about all this at the
+rectory; had you?" Harry, without considering much about it, said
+that he would not mention it.
+
+Then he went away and walked again about the park, thinking of it
+all. He had not seen her since he had walked round the park, in his
+misery, after parting with her in the garden. How much had happened
+since then! She had been married in her glory, had become a countess,
+and then a widow, and was now returning with a tarnished name, almost
+repudiated by those who had been her dearest friends; but with rank
+and fortune at her command,--and again a free woman. He could not
+but think what might have been his chance were it not for Florence
+Burton! But much had happened to him also. He had almost perished
+in his misery;--so he told himself;--but had once more "tricked his
+beams,"--that was his expression to himself,--and was now "flaming in
+the forehead" of a glorious love. And even if there had been no such
+love, would a widowed countess with a damaged name have suited his
+ambition, simply because she had the rich dower of the poor wretch
+to whom she had sold herself? No, indeed. There could be no question
+of renewed vows between them now;--there could have been no such
+question even had there been no "glorious love," which had accrued
+to him almost as his normal privilege in right of his pupilage in Mr.
+Burton's office. No;--there could be, there could have been, nothing
+now between him and the widowed Countess of Ongar. But, nevertheless,
+he liked the idea of meeting her in London. He felt some triumph in
+the thought that he should be the first to touch her hand on her
+return after all that she had suffered. He would be very courteous to
+her, and would spare no trouble that would give her any ease. As for
+her rooms, he would see to everything of which he could think that
+might add to her comfort; and a wish crept upon him, uninvited, that
+she might be conscious of what he had done for her.
+
+Would she be aware, he wondered, that he was engaged? Lady Clavering
+had known it for the last three months, and would probably have
+mentioned the circumstance in a letter. But perhaps not. The sisters,
+he knew, had not been good correspondents; and he almost wished that
+she might not know it. "I should not care to be talking to her about
+Florence," he said to himself.
+
+It was very strange that they should come to meet in such a way,
+after all that had passed between them in former days. Would it occur
+to her that he was the only man she had ever loved?--for, of course,
+as he well knew, she had never loved her husband. Or would she now be
+too callous to everything but the outer world to think at all of such
+a subject? She had said that she was aged, and he could well believe
+it. Then he pictured her to himself in her weeds, worn, sad, thin,
+but still proud and handsome. He had told Florence of his early love
+for the woman whom Lord Ongar had married, and had described with
+rapture his joy that that early passion had come to nothing. Now he
+would have to tell Florence of this meeting; and he thought of the
+comparison he would make between her bright young charms and the
+shipwrecked beauty of the widow. On the whole, he was proud that he
+had been selected for the commission, as he liked to think of himself
+as one to whom things happened which were out of the ordinary course.
+His only objection to Florence was that she had come to him so much
+in the ordinary course.
+
+"I suppose the truth is you are tired of our dulness," said his
+father to him, when he declared his purpose of going up to London,
+and, in answer to certain questions that were asked him, had
+hesitated to tell his business.
+
+"Indeed, it is not so," said Harry, earnestly; "but I have a
+commission to execute for a certain person, and I cannot explain what
+it is."
+
+"Another secret;--eh, Harry?"
+
+"I am very sorry,--but it is a secret. It is not one of my own
+seeking; that is all I can say." His mother and sisters also asked
+him a question or two; but when he became mysterious, they did not
+persevere. "Of course it is something about Florence," said Fanny.
+"I'll be bound he is going to meet her. What will you bet me, Harry,
+you don't go to the play with Florence before you come home?" To this
+Henry deigned no answer; and after that no more questions were asked.
+
+He went up to London and took rooms in Bolton Street. There
+was a pretty fresh-looking light drawing-room, or, indeed, two
+drawing-rooms, and a small dining-room, and a large bed-room looking
+over upon the trees of some great nobleman's garden. As Harry stood
+at the window it seemed so odd to him that he should be there. And he
+was busy about everything in the chamber, seeing that all things were
+clean and well ordered. Was the woman of the house sure of her cook?
+Sure; of course she was sure. Had not old Lady Dimdaff lived there
+for two years, and nobody ever was so particular about her victuals
+as Lady Dimdaff. "And would Lady Ongar keep her own carriage?" As to
+this Harry could say nothing. Then came the question of price, and
+Harry found his commission very difficult. The sum asked seemed to
+be enormous. "Seven guineas a week at that time of the year!" Lady
+Dimdaff had always paid seven guineas. "But that was in the season,"
+suggested Harry. To this the woman replied that it was the season
+now. Harry felt that he did not like to drive a bargain for the
+Countess, who would probably care very little what she paid, and
+therefore assented. But a guinea a day for lodgings did seem a great
+deal of money. He was prepared to marry and commence housekeeping
+upon a less sum for all his expenses. However, he had done his
+commission, had written to Lady Clavering, and had telegraphed to
+Paris. He had almost brought himself to write to Lady Ongar, but when
+the moment came he abstained. He had sent the telegram as from H.
+Clavering. She might think that it came from Hugh if she pleased.
+
+He was unable not to attend specially to his dress when he went to
+meet her at the Victoria Station. He told himself that he was an
+ass,--but still he went on being an ass. During the whole afternoon
+he could do nothing but think of what he had in hand. He was to tell
+Florence everything, but had Florence known the actual state of his
+mind, I doubt whether she would have been satisfied with him. The
+train was due at 8 P.M. He dined at the Oxford and Cambridge Club at
+six, and then went to his lodgings to take one last look at his outer
+man. The evening was very fine, but he went down to the station in a
+cab, because he would not meet Lady Ongar in soiled boots. He told
+himself again that he was an ass; and then tried to console himself
+by thinking that such an occasion as this seldom happened once to any
+man,--could hardly happen more than once to any man. He had hired
+a carriage for her, not thinking it fit that Lady Ongar should be
+taken to her new home in a cab; and when he was at the station, half
+an hour before the proper time, was very fidgety because it had not
+come. Ten minutes before eight he might have been seen standing at
+the entrance to the station looking out anxiously for the vehicle.
+The man was there, of course, in time, but Harry made himself angry
+because he could not get the carriage so placed that Lady Ongar might
+be sure of stepping into it without leaving the platform. Punctually
+to the moment the coming train announced itself by its whistle, and
+Harry Clavering felt himself to be in a flutter.
+
+The train came up along the platform, and Harry stood there expecting
+to see Julia Brabazon's head projected from the first window that
+caught his eye. It was of Julia Brabazon's head, and not of Lady
+Ongar's, that he was thinking. But he saw no sign of her presence
+while the carriages were coming to a stand-still, and the platform
+was covered with passengers before he discovered her whom he was
+seeking. At last he encountered in the crowd a man in livery, and
+found from him that he was Lady Ongar's servant. "I have come to meet
+Lady Ongar," said Harry, "and have got a carriage for her." Then the
+servant found his mistress, and Harry offered his hand to a tall
+woman in black. She wore a black straw hat with a veil, but the veil
+was so thick that Harry could not at all see her face.
+
+"Is that Mr. Clavering?" said she.
+
+"Yes," said Harry, "it is I. Your sister asked me to take rooms for
+you, and as I was in town I thought I might as well meet you to see
+if you wanted anything. Can I get the luggage?"
+
+"Thank you;--the man will do that. He knows where the things are."
+
+"I ordered a carriage;--shall I show him where it is? Perhaps you
+will let me take you to it? They are so stupid here. They would not
+let me bring it up."
+
+"It will do very well I'm sure. It's very kind of you. The rooms are
+in Bolton Street. I have the number here. Oh! thank you." But she
+would not take his arm. So he led the way, and stood at the door
+while she got into the carriage with her maid. "I'd better show the
+man where you are now." This he did, and afterwards shook hands with
+her through the carriage window. This was all he saw of her, and the
+words which have been repeated were all that were spoken. Of her face
+he had not caught a glimpse.
+
+As he went home to his lodgings he was conscious that the interview
+had not been satisfactory. He could not say what more he wanted, but
+he felt that there was something amiss. He consoled himself, however,
+by reminding himself that Florence Burton was the girl whom he had
+really loved, and not Julia Brabazon. Lady Ongar had given him no
+invitation to come and see her, and therefore he determined that he
+would return home on the following day without going near Bolton
+Street. He had pictured to himself beforehand the sort of description
+he would give to Lady Clavering of her sister; but, seeing how things
+had turned out, he made up his mind that he would say nothing of the
+meeting. Indeed, he would not go up to the great house at all. He had
+done Lady Clavering's commission,--at some little trouble and expense
+to himself, and there should be an end of it. Lady Ongar would not
+mention that she had seen him. He doubted, indeed, whether she would
+remember whom she had seen. For any good that he had done, or for
+any sentiment that there had been, his cousin Hugh's butler might as
+well have gone to the train. In this mood he returned home, consoling
+himself with the fitness of things which had given him Florence
+Burton instead of Julia Brabazon for a wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE REV. SAMUEL SAUL.
+
+
+During Harry's absence in London, a circumstance had occurred at the
+rectory which had surprised some of them and annoyed others a good
+deal. Mr. Saul, the curate, had made an offer to Fanny. The Rector
+and Fanny declared themselves to be both surprised and annoyed. That
+the Rector was in truth troubled by the thing was very evident. Mrs.
+Clavering said that she had almost suspected it,--that she was at any
+rate not surprised; as to the offer itself, of course she was sorry
+that it should have been made, as it could not suit Fanny to accept
+it. Mary was surprised, as she had thought Mr. Saul to be wholly
+intent on other things; but she could not see any reason why the
+offer should be regarded as being on his part unreasonable.
+
+"How can you say so, mamma?" Such had been Fanny's indignant
+exclamation when Mrs. Clavering had hinted that Mr. Saul's proceeding
+had been expected by her.
+
+"Simply because I saw that he liked you, my dear. Men under such
+circumstances have different ways of showing their liking."
+
+Fanny, who had seen all of Mary's love-affair from the beginning to
+the end, and who had watched the Reverend Edward Fielding in all
+his very conspicuous manoeuvres, would not agree to this. Edward
+Fielding from the first moment of his intimate acquaintance with Mary
+had left no doubt of his intentions on the mind of any one. He had
+talked to Mary and walked with Mary whenever he was allowed or found
+it possible to do so. When driven to talk to Fanny, he had always
+talked about Mary. He had been a lover of the good, old, plainspoken
+stamp, about whom there had been no mistake. From the first moment of
+his coming much about Clavering Rectory the only question had been
+about his income. "I don't think Mr. Saul ever said a word to me
+except about the poor people and the church-services," said Fanny.
+"That was merely his way," said Mrs. Clavering. "Then he must be a
+goose," said Fanny. "I am very sorry if I have made him unhappy, but
+he had no business to come to me in that way."
+
+"I suppose I shall have to look for another curate," said the Rector.
+But this was said in private to his wife.
+
+"I don't see that at all," said Mrs. Clavering. "With many men it
+would be so; but I think you will find that he will take an answer,
+and that there will be an end of it."
+
+Fanny, perhaps, had a right to be indignant, for certainly Mr. Saul
+had given her no fair warning of his intention. Mary had for some
+months been intent rather on Mr. Fielding's church matters than
+on those going on in her own parish, and therefore there had been
+nothing singular in the fact that Mr. Saul had said more on such
+matters to Fanny than to her sister. Fanny was eager and active, and
+as Mr. Saul was very eager and very active, it was natural that they
+should have had some interests in common. But there had been no
+private walkings, and no talkings that could properly be called
+private. There was a certain book which Fanny kept, containing the
+names of all the poor people in the parish, to which Mr. Saul had
+access equally with herself; but its contents were of a most prosaic
+nature, and when she had sat over it in the rectory drawing-room,
+with Mr. Saul by her side, striving to extract more than twelve
+pennies out of charity shillings, she had never thought that it would
+lead to a declaration of love.
+
+He had never called her Fanny in his life,--not up to the moment
+when she declined the honour of becoming Mrs. Saul. The offer itself
+was made in this wise. She had been at the house of old Widow Tubb,
+half-way between Cumberly Green and the little village of Clavering,
+striving to make that rheumatic old woman believe that she had not
+been cheated by a general conspiracy of the parish in the matter of
+a distribution of coal, when, just as she was about to leave the
+cottage, Mr. Saul came up. It was then past four, and the evening was
+becoming dark, and there was, moreover, a slight drizzle of rain. It
+was not a tempting evening for a walk of a mile and a half through
+a very dirty lane; but Fanny Clavering did not care much for such
+things, and was just stepping out into the mud and moisture, with her
+dress well looped up, when Mr. Saul accosted her.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll be very wet, Miss Clavering."
+
+"That will be better than going without my cup of tea, Mr. Saul,
+which I should have to do if I stayed any longer with Mrs. Tubb. And
+I have got an umbrella."
+
+"But it is so dark and dirty," said he.
+
+"I'm used to that, as you ought to know."
+
+"Yes; I do know it," said he, walking on with her. "I do know that
+nothing ever turns you away from the good work."
+
+There was something in the tone of his voice which Fanny did not
+like. He had never complimented her before. They had been very
+intimate and had often scolded each other. Fanny would accuse him of
+exacting too much from the people, and he would retort upon her that
+she coddled them. Fanny would often decline to obey him, and he would
+make angry hints as to his clerical authority. In this way they had
+worked together pleasantly, without any of the awkwardness which on
+other terms would have arisen between a young man and a young woman.
+But now that he began to praise her with some peculiar intention of
+meaning in his tone, she was confounded. She had made no immediate
+answer to him, but walked on rapidly through the mud and slush.
+
+"You are very constant," said he; "I have not been two years at
+Clavering without finding that out." It was becoming worse and worse.
+It was not so much his words which provoked her as the tone in which
+they were uttered. And yet she had not the slightest idea of what
+was coming. If, thoroughly admiring her devotion and mistaken as to
+her character, he were to ask her to become a Protestant nun, or
+suggest to her that she should leave her home and go as nurse into a
+hospital, then there would have occurred the sort of folly of which
+she believed him to be capable. Of the folly which he now committed,
+she had not believed him to be capable.
+
+It had come on to rain hard, and she held her umbrella low over her
+head. He also was walking with an open umbrella in his hand, so that
+they were not very close to each other. Fanny, as she stepped on
+impetuously, put her foot into the depth of a pool, and splashed
+herself thoroughly.
+
+"Oh dear, oh dear," said she; "this is very disagreeable."
+
+"Miss Clavering," said he, "I have been looking for an opportunity to
+speak to you, and I do not know when I may find another so suitable
+as this." She still believed that some proposition was to be made to
+her which would be disagreeable, and perhaps impertinent,--but it
+never occurred to her that Mr. Saul was in want of a wife.
+
+"Doesn't it rain too hard for talking?" she said.
+
+"As I have begun I must go on with it now," he replied, raising his
+voice a little, as though it were necessary that he should do so to
+make her hear him through the rain and darkness. She moved a little
+further away from him with unthinking irritation; but still he went
+on with his purpose. "Miss Clavering, I know that I am ill-suited to
+play the part of a lover;--very ill suited." Then she gave a start
+and again splashed herself sadly. "I have never read how it is done
+in books, and have not allowed my imagination to dwell much on such
+things."
+
+"Mr. Saul, don't go on; pray don't." Now she did understand what was
+coming.
+
+"Yes, Miss Clavering, I must go on now; but not on that account would
+I press you to give me an answer to-day. I have learned to love you,
+and if you can love me in return, I will take you by the hand, and
+you shall be my wife. I have found that in you which I have been
+unable not to love,--not to covet that I may bind it to myself as my
+own for ever. Will you think of this, and give me an answer when you
+have considered it fully?"
+
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Saul proposes.]
+
+
+He had not spoken altogether amiss, and Fanny, though she was very
+angry with him, was conscious of this. The time he had chosen might
+not be considered suitable for a declaration of love, nor the place;
+but having chosen them, he had, perhaps, made the best of them. There
+had been no hesitation in his voice, and his words had been perfectly
+audible.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Saul, of course I can assure you at once," said Fanny.
+"There need not be any consideration. I really have never thought--"
+Fanny, who knew her own mind on the matter thoroughly, was hardly
+able to express herself plainly and without incivility. As soon as
+that phrase "of course" had passed her lips, she felt that it should
+not have been spoken. There was no need that she should insult him
+by telling him that such a proposition from him could have but one
+answer.
+
+"No, Miss Clavering; I know you have never thought of it, and
+therefore it would be well that you should take time. I have not been
+able to make manifest to you by little signs, as men do who are less
+awkward, all the love that I have felt for you. Indeed, could I have
+done so, I should still have hesitated till I had thoroughly resolved
+that I might be better with a wife than without one; and had resolved
+also, as far as that might be possible for me, that you also would be
+better with a husband."
+
+"Mr. Saul, really that should be for me to think of."
+
+"And for me also. Can any man offer to marry a woman,--to bind a
+woman for life to certain duties, and to so close an obligation,
+without thinking whether such bonds would be good for her as well as
+for himself? Of course you must think for yourself;--and so have I
+thought for you. You should think for yourself, and you should think
+also for me."
+
+Fanny was quite aware that as regarded herself, the matter was one
+which required no more thinking. Mr. Saul was not a man with whom she
+could bring herself to be in love. She had her own ideas as to what
+was loveable in men, and the eager curate, splashing through the
+rain by her side, by no means came up to her standard of excellence.
+She was unconsciously aware that he had altogether mistaken her
+character, and given her credit for more abnegation of the world
+than she pretended to possess, or was desirous of possessing. Fanny
+Clavering was in no hurry to get married. I do not know that she
+had even made up her mind that marriage would be a good thing for
+her; but she had an untroubled conviction that if she did marry, her
+husband should have a house and an income. She had no reliance on her
+own power of living on a potato, and with one new dress every year.
+A comfortable home, with nice, comfortable things around her, ease
+in money matters, and elegance in life, were charms with which she
+had not quarrelled, and, though she did not wish to be hard upon
+Mr. Saul on account of his mistake, she did feel that in making his
+proposition he had blundered. Because she chose to do her duty as a
+parish clergyman's daughter, he thought himself entitled to regard
+her as devotee, who would be willing to resign everything to become
+the wife of a clergyman, who was active, indeed, but who had not one
+shilling of income beyond his curacy. "Mr. Saul," she said, "I can
+assure you I need take no time for further thinking. It cannot be as
+you would have it."
+
+"Perhaps I have been abrupt. Indeed, I feel that it is so, though I
+did not know how to avoid it."
+
+"It would have made no difference. Indeed, indeed, Mr. Saul, nothing
+of that kind could have made a difference."
+
+"Will you grant me this;--that I may speak to you again on the same
+subject after six months?"
+
+"It cannot do any good."
+
+"It will do this good;--that for so much time you will have had the
+idea before you." Fanny thought that she would have Mr. Saul himself
+before her, and that that would be enough. Mr. Saul, with his rusty
+clothes and his thick, dirty shoes, and his weak, blinking eyes,
+and his mind always set upon the one wish of his life, could not be
+made to present himself to her in the guise of a lover. He was one
+of those men of whom women become very fond with the fondness of
+friendship, but from whom young women seem to be as far removed in
+the way of love as though they belonged to some other species. "I
+will not press you further," said he, "as I gather by your tone that
+it distresses you."
+
+"I am so sorry if I distress you, but really, Mr. Saul, I could give
+you,--I never could give you any other answer."
+
+Then they walked on silently through the rain,--silently, without
+a single word,--for more than half a mile, till they reached the
+rectory gate. Here it was necessary that they should, at any rate,
+speak to each other, and for the last three hundred yards Fanny had
+been trying to find the words which would be suitable. But he was the
+first to break the silence. "Good-night, Miss Clavering," he said,
+stopping and putting out his hand.
+
+"Good-night, Mr. Saul."
+
+"I hope that there may be no difference in our bearing to each other,
+because of what I have to-day said to you?"
+
+"Not on my part;--that is, if you will forget it."
+
+"No, Miss Clavering; I shall not forget it. If it had been a thing to
+be forgotten, I should not have spoken. I certainly shall not forget
+it."
+
+"You know what I mean, Mr. Saul."
+
+"I shall not forget it even in the way that you mean. But still I
+think you need not fear me, because you know that I love you. I think
+I can promise that you need not withdraw yourself from me, because of
+what has passed. But you will tell your father and your mother, and
+of course will be guided by them. And now, good-night." Then he went,
+and she was astonished at finding that he had had much the best of it
+in his manner of speaking and conducting himself. She had refused him
+very curtly, and he had borne it well. He had not been abashed, nor
+had he become sulky, nor had he tried to melt her by mention of his
+own misery. In truth he had done it very well,--only that he should
+have known better than to make any such attempt at all.
+
+Mr. Saul had been right in one thing. Of course she told her mother,
+and of course her mother told her father. Before dinner that evening
+the whole affair was being debated in the family conclave. They
+all agreed that Fanny had had no alternative but to reject the
+proposition at once. That, indeed, was so thoroughly taken for
+granted, that the point was not discussed. But there came to be
+a difference between the Rector and Fanny on one side, and Mrs.
+Clavering and Mary on the other. "Upon my word," said the Rector,
+"I think it was very impertinent." Fanny would not have liked to use
+that word herself, but she loved her father for using it.
+
+"I do not see that," said Mrs. Clavering. "He could not know what
+Fanny's views in life might be. Curates very often marry out of the
+houses of the clergymen with whom they are placed, and I do not see
+why Mr. Saul should be debarred from the privilege of trying."
+
+"If he had got to like Fanny what else was he to do?" said Mary.
+
+"Oh, Mary, don't talk such nonsense," said Fanny. "Got to like!
+People shouldn't get to like people unless there's some reason for
+it."
+
+"What on earth did he intend to live on?" demanded the Rector.
+
+"Edward had nothing to live on, when you first allowed him to come
+here," said Mary.
+
+"But Edward had prospects, and Saul, as far as I know, has none. He
+had given no one the slightest notice. If the man in the moon had
+come to Fanny I don't suppose she would have been more surprised."
+
+"Not half so much, papa."
+
+Then it was that Mrs. Clavering had declared that she was not
+surprised,--that she had suspected it, and had almost made Fanny
+angry by saying so. When Harry came back two days afterwards, the
+family news was imparted to him, and he immediately ranged himself
+on his father's side. "Upon my word I think that he ought to be
+forbidden the house," said Harry. "He has forgotten himself in making
+such a proposition."
+
+"That's nonsense, Harry," said his mother. "If he can be comfortable
+coming here, there can be no reason why he should be uncomfortable.
+It would be an injustice to him to ask him to go, and a great trouble
+to your father to find another curate that would suit him so well."
+There could be no doubt whatever as to the latter proposition, and
+therefore it was quietly argued that Mr. Saul's fault, if there had
+been a fault, should be condoned. On the next day he came to the
+rectory, and they were all astonished at the ease with which he bore
+himself. It was not that he affected any special freedom of manner,
+or that he altogether avoided any change in his mode of speaking to
+them. A slight blush came upon his sallow face as he first spoke to
+Mrs. Clavering, and he hardly did more than say a single word to
+Fanny. But he carried himself as though conscious of what he had
+done, but in no degree ashamed of the doing it. The Rector's manner
+to him was stiff and formal;--seeing which Mrs. Clavering spoke to
+him gently, and with a smile. "I saw you were a little hard on him,
+and therefore I tried to make up for it," said she afterwards. "You
+were quite right," said the husband. "You always are. But I wish he
+had not made such a fool of himself. It will never be the same thing
+with him again." Harry hardly spoke to Mr. Saul the first time he met
+him, all of which Mr. Saul understood perfectly.
+
+"Clavering," he said to Harry, a day or two after this, "I hope there
+is to be no difference between you and me."
+
+"Difference! I don't know what you mean by difference."
+
+"We were good friends, and I hope that we are to remain so. No doubt
+you know what has taken place between me and your sister."
+
+"Oh, yes;--I have been told, of course."
+
+"What I mean is, that I hope you are not going to quarrel with me on
+that account? What I did, is it not what you would have done in my
+position?--only you would have done it successfully?"
+
+"I think a fellow should have some income, you know."
+
+"Can you say that you would have waited for income before you spoke
+of marriage?"
+
+"I think it might have been better that you should have gone to my
+father."
+
+"It may be that that is the rule in such things, but if so I do not
+know it. Would she have liked that better?"
+
+"Well;--I can't say."
+
+"You are engaged? Did you go to the young lady's family first?"
+
+"I can't say I did; but I think I had given them some ground to
+expect it. I fancy they all knew what I was about. But it's over now,
+and I don't know that we need say anything more about it."
+
+"Certainly not. Nothing can be said that would be of any use; but I
+do not think I have done anything that you should resent."
+
+"Resent is a strong word. I don't resent it, or, at any rate, I
+won't; and there may be an end of it." After this, Harry was more
+gracious with Mr. Saul, having an idea that the curate had made some
+sort of apology for what he had done. But that, I fancy, was by
+no means Mr. Saul's view of the case. Had he offered to marry the
+daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury, instead of the daughter of
+the Rector of Clavering, he would not have imagined that his doing so
+needed an apology.
+
+The day after his return from London Lady Clavering sent for Harry up
+to the house. "So you saw my sister in London?" she said.
+
+"Yes," said Harry blushing; "as I was in town, I thought that I might
+as well meet her. But, as you said, Lady Ongar is able to do without
+much assistance of that kind. I only just saw her."
+
+"Julia took it so kindly of you; but she seems surprised that you
+did not come to her the following day. She thought you would have
+called."
+
+"Oh, dear, no. I fancied that she would be too tired and too busy to
+wish to see any mere acquaintance."
+
+"Ah, Harry, I see that she has angered you," said Lady Clavering;
+"otherwise you would not talk about mere acquaintance."
+
+"Not in the least. Angered me! How could she anger me? What I meant
+was that at such a time she would probably wish to see no one but
+people on business,--unless it was some one near to her, like
+yourself or Hugh."
+
+"Hugh will not go to her."
+
+"But you will do so; will you not?"
+
+"Before long I will. You don't seem to understand, Harry,--and,
+perhaps, it would be odd if you did,--that I can't run up to town and
+back as I please. I ought not to tell you this, I dare say, but one
+feels as though one wanted to talk to some one about one's affairs.
+At the present moment, I have not the money to go,--even if there
+were no other reason." These last words she said almost in a whisper,
+and then she looked up into the young man's face, to see what he
+thought of the communication she had made him.
+
+"Oh, money!" he said. "You could soon get money. But I hope it won't
+be long before you go."
+
+On the next morning but one a letter came by the post for him from
+Lady Ongar. When he saw the handwriting, which he knew, his heart
+was at once in his mouth, and he hesitated to open his letter at the
+breakfast-table. He did open it and read it, but, in truth, he hardly
+understood it or digested it till he had taken it away with him up to
+his own room. The letter, which was very short, was as follows:--
+
+
+   DEAR FRIEND,
+
+   I felt your kindness in coming to me at the station so
+   much!--the more, perhaps, because others, who owed me more
+   kindness, have paid me less. Don't suppose that I allude
+   to poor Hermione, for, in truth, I have no intention to
+   complain of her. I thought, perhaps, you would have come
+   to see me before you left London; but I suppose you were
+   hurried. I hear from Clavering that you are to be up about
+   your new profession in a day or two. Pray come and see
+   me before you have been many days in London. I shall
+   have so much to say to you! The rooms you have taken are
+   everything that I wanted, and I am so grateful!
+
+   Yours ever,
+
+   J. O.
+
+
+When Harry had read and had digested this, he became aware that he
+was again fluttered. "Poor creature!" he said to himself; "it is sad
+to think how much she is in want of a friend."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SOME SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A COUNTESS.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+About the middle of January Harry Clavering went up to London, and
+settled himself to work at Mr. Beilby's office. Mr. Beilby's office
+consisted of four or five large chambers, overlooking the river from
+the bottom of Adam Street in the Adelphi, and here Harry found a
+table for himself in the same apartment with three other pupils. It
+was a fine old room, lofty, and with large windows, ornamented on the
+ceiling with Italian scrollwork, and a flying goddess in the centre.
+In days gone by the house had been the habitation of some great
+rich man, who had there enjoyed the sweet breezes from the river
+before London had become the London of the present days, and when no
+embankment had been needed for the Thames. Nothing could be nicer
+than this room, or more pleasant than the table and seat which he was
+to occupy near a window; but there was something in the tone of the
+other men towards him which did not quite satisfy him. They probably
+did not know that he was a fellow of a college, and treated him
+almost as they might have done had he come to them direct from King's
+College, in the Strand, or from the London University. Down at
+Stratton, a certain amount of honour had been paid to him. They had
+known there who he was, and had felt some deference for him. They had
+not slapped him on the back, or poked him in the ribs, or even called
+him old fellow, before some length of acquaintance justified such
+appellation. But up at Mr. Beilby's, in the Adelphi, one young man,
+who was certainly his junior in age, and who did not seem as yet
+to have attained any high position in the science of engineering,
+manifestly thought that he was acting in a friendly and becoming way
+by declaring the stranger to be a lad of wax on the second day of his
+appearance. Harry Clavering was not disinclined to believe that he
+was a "lad of wax," or "a brick," or "a trump," or "no small beer."
+But he desired that such complimentary and endearing appellations
+should be used to him only by those who had known him long enough to
+be aware that he deserved them. Mr. Joseph Walliker certainly was not
+as yet among this number.
+
+There was a man at Mr. Beilby's who was entitled to greet him with
+endearing terms, and to be so greeted himself, although Harry had
+never seen him till he attended for the first time at the Adelphi.
+This was Theodore Burton, his future brother-in-law, who was now
+the leading man in the London house;--the leading man as regarded
+business, though he was not as yet a partner. It was understood that
+this Mr. Burton was to come in when his father went out; and in
+the meantime he received a salary of a thousand a year as managing
+clerk. A very hard-working, steady, intelligent man was Mr. Theodore
+Burton, with a bald head, a high forehead, and that look of constant
+work about him which such men obtain. Harry Clavering could not
+bring himself to take a liking to him, because he wore cotton
+gloves and had an odious habit of dusting his shoes with his
+pocket-handkerchief. Twice Harry saw him do this on the first day
+of their acquaintance, and he regretted it exceedingly. The cotton
+gloves too were offensive, as were also the thick shoes which had
+been dusted; but the dusting was the great sin.
+
+And there was something which did not quite please Harry in Mr.
+Theodore Burton's manner, though the gentleman had manifestly
+intended to be very kind to him. When Burton had been speaking to him
+for a minute or two, it flashed across Harry's mind that he had not
+bound himself to marry the whole Burton family, and that, perhaps,
+he must take some means to let that fact be known. "Theodore," as
+he had so often heard the younger Mr. Burton called by loving lips,
+seemed to claim him as his own, called him Harry, and upbraided
+him with friendly warmth for not having come direct to his,--Mr.
+Burton's,--house in Onslow Crescent. "Pray feel yourself at home
+there," said Mr. Burton. "I hope you'll like my wife. You needn't be
+afraid of being made to be idle if you spend your evenings there, for
+we are all reading people. Will you come and dine to-day?" Florence
+had told him that she was her brother Theodore's favourite sister,
+and that Theodore as a husband and a brother, and a man, was perfect.
+But Theodore had dusted his boots with his handkerchief, and Harry
+Clavering would not dine with him on that day.
+
+And then it was painfully manifest to him that every one in the
+office knew his destiny with reference to old Burton's daughter. He
+had been one of the Stratton men, and no more than any other had he
+gone unscathed through the Stratton fire. He had been made to do the
+regular thing, as Granger, Scarness, and others had done it. Stratton
+would be safer ground now, as Clavering had taken the last. That was
+the feeling on the matter which seemed to belong to others. It was
+not that Harry thought in this way of his own Florence. He knew well
+enough what a lucky fellow he was to have won such a girl. He was
+well aware how widely his Florence differed from Carry Scarness. He
+denied to himself indignantly that he had any notion of repenting
+what he had done. But he did wish that these private matters might
+have remained private, and that all the men at Beilby's had not
+known of his engagement. When Walliker, on the fourth day of their
+acquaintance, asked him if it was all right at Stratton, he made up
+his mind that he hated Walliker, and that he would hate Walliker to
+the last day of his life. He had declined the first invitation given
+to him by Theodore Burton; but he could not altogether avoid his
+future brother-in-law, and had agreed to dine with him on this day.
+
+On that same afternoon Harry, when he left Mr. Beilby's office, went
+direct to Bolton Street, that he might call on Lady Ongar. As he went
+thither he bethought himself that these Wallikers and the like had
+had no such events in life as had befallen him! They laughed at him
+about Florence Burton, little guessing that it had been his lot to
+love, and to be loved by such a one as Julia Brabazon had been,--such
+a one as Lady Ongar now was. But things had gone well with him. Julia
+Brabazon could have made no man happy, but Florence Burton would be
+the sweetest, dearest, truest little wife that ever man took to his
+home. He was thinking of this, and determined to think of it more and
+more daily, as he knocked at Lady Ongar's door. "Yes; her ladyship
+was at home," said the servant whom he had seen on the railway
+platform; and in a few moments' time he found himself in the
+drawing-room which he had criticized so carefully when he was taking
+it for its present occupant.
+
+He was left in the room for five or six minutes, and was able to make
+a full mental inventory of its contents. It was very different in its
+present aspect from the room which he had seen not yet a month since.
+She had told him that the apartments had been all that she desired;
+but since then everything had been altered, at least in appearance.
+A new piano had been brought in, and the chintz on the furniture was
+surely new. And the room was crowded with small feminine belongings,
+indicative of wealth and luxury. There were ornaments about, and
+pretty toys, and a thousand knickknacks which none but the rich can
+possess, and which none can possess even among the rich unless they
+can give taste as well as money to their acquisition. Then he heard a
+light step; the door opened, and Lady Ongar was there.
+
+He expected to see the same figure that he had seen on the railway
+platform, the same gloomy drapery, the same quiet, almost deathlike
+demeanour, nay, almost the same veil over her features; but the Lady
+Ongar whom he now saw was as unlike that Lady Ongar as she was unlike
+that Julia Brabazon whom he had known in old days at Clavering Park.
+She was dressed, no doubt, in black; nay, no doubt, she was dressed
+in weeds; but in spite of the black and in spite of the weeds there
+was nothing about her of the weariness or of the solemnity of woe.
+He hardly saw that her dress was made of crape, or that long white
+pendants were hanging down from the cap which sat so prettily upon
+her head. But it was her face at which he gazed. At first he thought
+that she could hardly be the same woman, she was to his eyes so much
+older than she had been! And yet as he looked at her, he found that
+she was as handsome as ever,--more handsome than she had ever been
+before. There was a dignity about her face and figure which became
+her well, and which she carried as though she knew herself to be in
+very truth a countess. It was a face which bore well such signs of
+age as those which had come upon it. She seemed to be a woman fitter
+for womanhood than for girlhood. Her eyes were brighter than of yore,
+and, as Harry thought, larger; and her high forehead and noble stamp
+of countenance seemed fitted for the dress and headgear which she
+wore.
+
+"I have been expecting you," said she, stepping up to him. "Hermione
+wrote me word that you were to come up on Monday. Why did you not
+come sooner?" There was a smile on her face as she spoke, and a
+confidence in her tone which almost confounded him.
+
+"I have had so many things to do," said he lamely.
+
+"About your new profession. Yes, I can understand that. And so you
+are settled in London now? Where are you living;--that is, if you are
+settled yet?" In answer to this, Harry told her that he had taken
+lodgings in Bloomsbury Square, blushing somewhat as he named so
+unfashionable a locality. Old Mrs. Burton had recommended him to the
+house in which he was located, but he did not find it necessary to
+explain that fact to Lady Ongar.
+
+"I have to thank you for what you did for me," continued she. "You
+ran away from me in such a hurry on that night that I was unable to
+speak to you. But to tell the truth, Harry, I was in no mood then to
+speak to any one. Of course you thought that I treated you ill."
+
+"Oh, no," said he.
+
+"Of course you did. If I thought you did not, I should be angry with
+you now. But had it been to save my life I could not have helped
+it. Why did not Sir Hugh Clavering come to meet me? Why did not my
+sister's husband come to me?" To this question Harry could make no
+answer. He was still standing with his hat in his hand, and now
+turned his face away from her and shook his head.
+
+"Sit down, Harry," she said, "and let me talk to you like a
+friend;--unless you are in a hurry to go away."
+
+"Oh, no," said he, seating himself.
+
+"Or unless you, too, are afraid of me."
+
+"Afraid of you, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Yes, afraid; but I don't mean you. I don't believe that you are
+coward enough to desert a woman who was once your friend because
+misfortune has overtaken her, and calumny has been at work with her
+name."
+
+"I hope not," said he.
+
+"No, Harry; I do not think it of you. But if Sir Hugh be not a
+coward, why did he not come and meet me? Why has he left me to stand
+alone, now that he could be of service to me? I knew that money was
+his god, but I have never asked him for a shilling and should not
+have done so now. Oh, Harry, how wicked you were about that cheque!
+Do you remember?"
+
+"Yes; I remember."
+
+"So shall I; always, always. If I had taken that money how often
+should I have heard of it since?"
+
+"Heard of it?" he asked. "Do you mean from me?"
+
+"Yes; how often from you? Would you have dunned me, and told me of it
+once a week? Upon my word, Harry, I was told of it more nearly every
+day. Is it not wonderful that men should be so mean?"
+
+It was clear to him now that she was talking of her husband who was
+dead, and on that subject he felt himself at present unable to speak
+a word. He little dreamed at that moment how openly she would soon
+speak to him of Lord Ongar and of Lord Ongar's faults!
+
+"Oh, how I have wished that I had taken your money! But never mind
+about that now, Harry. Wretched as such taunts were, they soon became
+a small thing. But it has been cowardly in your cousin, Hugh; has it
+not? If I had not lived with him as one of his family, it would not
+have mattered. People would not have expected it. It was as though my
+own brother had cast me forth."
+
+"Lady Clavering has been with you; has she not?"
+
+"Once, for half-an-hour. She came up for one day, and came here by
+herself, cowering as though she were afraid of me. Poor Hermy! She
+has not a good time of it either. You lords of creation lead your
+slaves sad lives when it pleases you to change your billing and
+cooing for matter-of-fact masterdom and rule. I don't blame Hermy.
+I suppose she did all she could, and I did not utter one word of
+reproach of her. Nor should I to him. Indeed, if he came now the
+servant would deny me to him. He has insulted me, and I shall
+remember the insult."
+
+Harry Clavering did not clearly understand what it was that Lady
+Ongar had desired of her brother-in-law,--what aid she had required;
+nor did he know whether it would be fitting for him to offer to act
+in Sir Hugh's place. Anything that he could do, he felt himself at
+that moment willing to do, even though the necessary service should
+demand some sacrifice greater than prudence could approve. "If I had
+thought that anything was wanted, I should have come to you sooner,"
+said he.
+
+"Everything is wanted, Harry. Everything is wanted;--except that
+cheque for six hundred pounds which you sent me so treacherously. Did
+you ever think what might have happened if a certain person had heard
+of that? All the world would have declared that you had done it for
+your own private purposes;--all the world, except one."
+
+Harry, as he heard this, felt that he was blushing. Did Lady Ongar
+know of his engagement with Florence Burton? Lady Clavering knew it,
+and might probably have told the tidings; but then, again, she might
+not have told them. Harry at this moment wished that he knew how it
+was. All that Lady Ongar said to him would come with so different
+a meaning according as she did, or did not know that fact. But he
+had no mind to tell her of the fact himself. He declared to himself
+that he hoped she knew it, as it would serve to make them both more
+comfortable together; but he did not think that it would do for him
+to bring forward the subject, neck and heels as it were. The proper
+thing would be that she should congratulate him, but this she did not
+do. "I certainly meant no ill," he said, in answer to the last words
+she had spoken.
+
+"You have never meant ill to me, Harry; though you know you have
+abused me dreadfully before now. I daresay you forget the hard names
+you have called me. You men do forget such things."
+
+"I remember calling you one name."
+
+"Do not repeat it now, if you please. If I deserved it, it would
+shame me; and if I did not, it should shame you."
+
+"No; I will not repeat it."
+
+"Does it not seem odd, Harry, that you and I should be sitting,
+talking together in this way?" She was leaning now towards him,
+across the table, and one hand was raised to her forehead while her
+eyes were fixed intently upon his. The attitude was one which he
+felt to express extreme intimacy. She would not have sat in that
+way, pressing back her hair from her brow, with all appearance of
+widowhood banished from her face, in the presence of any but a dear
+and close friend. He did not think of this, but he felt that it was
+so, almost by instinct. "I have such a tale to tell you," she said;
+"such a tale!"
+
+
+[Illustration: A friendly talk.]
+
+
+Why should she tell it to him? Of course he asked himself this
+question. Then he remembered that she had no brother,--remembered
+also that her brother-in-law had deserted her, and he declared to
+himself that, if necessary, he would be her brother. "I fear that you
+have not been happy," said he, "since I saw you last."
+
+"Happy!" she replied. "I have lived such a life as I did not think
+any man or woman could be made to live on this side the grave. I will
+be honest with you, Harry. Nothing but the conviction that it could
+not be for long has saved me from destroying myself. I knew that he
+must die!"
+
+"Oh, Lady Ongar!"
+
+"Yes, indeed; that is the name he gave me; and because I consented to
+take it from him, he treated me;--O heavens! how am I to find words
+to tell you what he did, and the way in which he treated me. A woman
+could not tell it to a man. Harry, I have no friend that I trust but
+you, but to you I cannot tell it. When he found that he had been
+wrong in marrying me, that he did not want the thing which he had
+thought would suit him, that I was a drag upon him rather than a
+comfort,--what was his mode, do you think, of ridding himself of the
+burden?" Clavering sat silent looking at her. Both her hands were now
+up to her forehead, and her large eyes were gazing at him till he
+found himself unable to withdraw his own for a moment from her face.
+"He strove to get another man to take me off his hands; and when he
+found that he was failing,--he charged me with the guilt which he
+himself had contrived for me."
+
+"Lady Ongar!"
+
+"Yes; you may well stare at me. You may well speak hoarsely and look
+like that. It may be that even you will not believe me;--but by the
+God in whom we both believe, I tell you nothing but the truth. He
+attempted that and he failed,--and then he accused me of the crime
+which he could not bring me to commit."
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"Yes; what then? Harry, I had a thing to do, and a life to live,
+that would have tried the bravest; but I went through it. I stuck to
+him to the last! He told me before he was dying,--before that last
+frightful illness, that I was staying with him for his money. 'For
+your money, my lord,' I said, 'and for my own name.' And so it was.
+Would it have been wise in me, after all that I had gone through, to
+have given up that for which I had sold myself? I had been very poor,
+and had been so placed that poverty, even such poverty as mine, was
+a curse to me. You know what I gave up because I feared that curse.
+Was I to be foiled at last, because such a creature as that wanted
+to shirk out of his bargain? I knew there were some who would say I
+had been false. Hugh Clavering says so now, I suppose. But they never
+should say I had left him to die alone in a foreign land."
+
+"Did he ask you to leave him?"
+
+"No;--but he called me that name which no woman should hear and stay.
+No woman should do so unless she had a purpose such as mine. He
+wanted back the price that he had paid, and I was determined to do
+nothing that should assist him in his meanness! And then, Harry, his
+last illness! Oh, Harry, you would pity me if you could know all!"
+
+"It was his own intemperance!"
+
+"Intemperance! It was brandy,--sheer brandy. He brought himself to
+such a state that nothing but brandy would keep him alive, and in
+which brandy was sure to kill him;--and it did kill him. Did you ever
+hear of the horrors of drink?"
+
+"Yes; I have heard of such a state."
+
+"I hope you may never live to see it. It is a sight that would stick
+by you for ever. But I saw it, and tended him through the whole, as
+though I had been his servant. I remained with him when that man who
+opened the door for you could no longer endure the room. I was with
+him when the strong woman from the hospital, though she could not
+understand his words, almost fainted at what she saw and heard. He
+was punished, Harry. I need wish no farther vengeance on him, even
+for all his cruelty, his injustice, his unmanly treachery. Is it
+not fearful to think that any man should have the power of bringing
+himself to such an end as that?"
+
+Harry was thinking rather how fearful it was that a man should have
+it in his power to drag any woman through such a Gehenna as that
+which this lord had created. He felt that had Julia Brabazon been
+his, as she had once promised him, he never would have allowed
+himself to speak a harsh word to her, to have looked at her except
+with loving eyes. But she had chosen to join herself to a man who had
+treated her with a cruelty exceeding all that his imagination could
+have conceived. "It is a mercy that he has gone," said he at last.
+
+"It is a mercy for both. Perhaps you can understand now something of
+my married life. And through it all I had but one friend;--if I may
+call him a friend who had come to terms with my husband, and was to
+have been his agent in destroying me. But when this man understood
+from me that I was not what he had been taught to think me,--which my
+husband had told him I was,--he relented."
+
+"May I ask what was that man's name?"
+
+"His name is Pateroff. He is a Pole, but he speaks English like an
+Englishman. In my presence he told Lord Ongar that he was false and
+brutal. Lord Ongar laughed, with that little, low, sneering laughter
+which was his nearest approach to merriment, and told Count Pateroff
+that that was of course his game before me. There, Harry,--I will
+tell you nothing more of it. You will understand enough to know what
+I have suffered; and if you can believe that I have not sinned--"
+
+"Oh, Lady Ongar!"
+
+"Well, I will not doubt you again. But as far as I can learn you are
+nearly alone in your belief. What Hermy thinks I cannot tell, but she
+will soon come to think as Hugh may bid her. And I shall not blame
+her. What else can she do, poor creature?"
+
+"I am sure she believes no ill of you."
+
+"I have one advantage, Harry,--one advantage over her and some
+others. I am free. The chains have hurt me sorely during my slavery;
+but I am free, and the price of my servitude remains. He had written
+home,--would you believe that?--while I was living with him he had
+written home to say that evidence should be collected for getting rid
+of me. And yet he would sometimes be civil, hoping to cheat me into
+inadvertencies. He would ask that man to dine, and then of a sudden
+would be absent; and during this he was ordering that evidence should
+be collected! Evidence, indeed! The same servants have lived with me
+through it all. If I could now bring forward evidence I could make it
+all clear as the day. But there needs no care for a woman's honour,
+though a man may have to guard his by collecting evidence!"
+
+"But what he did cannot injure you."
+
+"Yes, Harry, it has injured me; it has all but destroyed me. Have not
+reports reached even you? Speak out like a man, and say whether it is
+not so?"
+
+"I have heard something."
+
+"Yes, you have heard something! If you heard something of your sister
+where would you be? All the world would be a chaos to you till you
+had pulled out somebody's tongue by the roots. Not injured me! For
+two years your cousin Hugh's house was my home. I met Lord Ongar in
+his house. I was married from his house. He is my brother-in-law, and
+it so happens that of all men he is the nearest to me. He stands well
+before the world, and at this time could have done me real service.
+How is it that he did not welcome me home;--that I am not now at his
+house with my sister; that he did not meet me so that the world might
+know that I was received back among my own people? Why is it, Harry,
+that I am telling this to you;--to you, who are nothing to me; my
+sister's husband's cousin; a young man, from your position not fit to
+be my confidant? Why am I telling this to you, Harry?"
+
+"Because we are old friends," said he, wondering again at this moment
+whether she knew of his engagement with Florence Burton.
+
+"Yes, we are old friends, and we have always liked each other; but
+you must know that, as the world judges, I am wrong to tell all this
+to you. I should be wrong,--only that the world has cast me out,
+so that I am no longer bound to regard it. I am Lady Ongar, and I
+have my share of that man's money. They have given me up Ongar Park,
+having satisfied themselves that it is mine by right, and must be
+mine by law. But he has robbed me of every friend I had in the world,
+and yet you tell me he has not injured me!"
+
+"Not every friend."
+
+"No, Harry, I will not forget you, though I spoke so slightingly
+of you just now. But your vanity need not be hurt. It is only the
+world,--Mrs. Grundy, you know, that would deny me such friendship
+as yours; not my own taste or choice. Mrs. Grundy always denies us
+exactly those things which we ourselves like best. You are clever
+enough to understand that."
+
+He smiled and looked foolish, and declared that he only offered his
+assistance because perhaps it might be convenient at the present
+moment. What could he do for her? How could he show his friendship
+for her now at once?
+
+"You have done it, Harry, in listening to me and giving me your
+sympathy. It is seldom that we want any great thing from our friends.
+I want nothing of that kind. No one can hurt me much further now. My
+money and my rank are safe; and, perhaps, by degrees, acquaintances,
+if not friends, will form themselves round me again. At present, of
+course, I see no one; but because I see no one, I wanted some one to
+whom I could speak. Poor Hermy is worse than no one. Good-by, Harry;
+you look surprised and bewildered now, but you will soon get over
+that. Don't be long before I see you again."
+
+Then, feeling that he was bidden to go, he wished her good-by, and
+went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE HOUSE IN ONSLOW CRESCENT.
+
+
+Harry, as he walked away from the house in Bolton Street, hardly knew
+whether he was on his heels or his head. Burton had told him not to
+dress--"We don't give dress dinner parties, you know. It's all in the
+family way with us,"--and Harry, therefore, went direct from Bolton
+Street to Onslow Crescent. But, though he managed to keep the proper
+course down Piccadilly, he was in such confusion of mind that he
+hardly knew whither he was going. It seemed as though a new form of
+life had been opened to him, and that it had been opened in such a
+way as almost necessarily to engulf him. It was not only that Lady
+Ongar's history was so terrible, and her life so strange, but that he
+himself was called upon to form a part of that history, and to join
+himself in some sort to that life. This countess with her wealth, her
+rank, her beauty, and her bright intellect had called him to her, and
+told him that he was her only friend. Of course he had promised his
+friendship. How could he have failed to give such a promise to one
+whom he had loved so well? But to what must such a promise lead, or
+rather to what must it not have led had it not been for Florence
+Burton? She was young, free, and rich. She made no pretence of regret
+for the husband she had lost, speaking of him as though in truth she
+hardly regarded herself as his wife. And she was the same Julia whom
+he had loved, who had loved him, who had jilted him, and in regret
+for whom he had once resolved to lead a wretched, lonely life! Of
+course she must expect that he would renew it all;--unless, indeed,
+she knew of his engagement. But if she knew it, why had she not
+spoken of it?
+
+And could it be that she had no friends,--that everybody had deserted
+her, that she was all alone in the world? As he thought of it all,
+the whole thing seemed to him to be too terrible for reality. What a
+tragedy was that she had told him! He thought of the man's insolence
+to the woman whom he had married and sworn to love, then of his
+cruelty, his fiendish, hellish cruelty,--and lastly of his terrible
+punishment. "I stuck to him through it all," she had said to him;
+and then he endeavoured to picture to himself that bedside by which
+Julia Brabazon, his Julia Brabazon, had remained firm, when hospital
+attendants had been scared by the horrors they had witnessed, and the
+nerves of a strong man,--of a man paid for such work, had failed him!
+
+The truth of her word throughout he never doubted; and, indeed, no
+man or woman who heard her could have doubted. One hears stories told
+that to oneself, the hearer, are manifestly false; and one hears
+stories as to the truth or falsehood of which one is in doubt; and
+stories again which seem to be partly true and partly untrue. But one
+also hears that of the truth of which no doubt seems to be possible.
+So it had been with the tale which Lady Ongar had told. It had been
+all as she had said; and had Sir Hugh heard it,--even Sir Hugh,
+who doubted all men and regarded all women as being false beyond
+doubt,--even he, I think, would have believed it.
+
+But she had deserved the sufferings which had come upon her. Even
+Harry, whose heart was very tender towards her, owned as much as
+that. She had sold herself, as she had said of herself more than
+once. She had given herself to a man whom she regarded not at all,
+even when her heart belonged to another,--to a man whom she must have
+loathed and despised when she was putting her hand into his before
+the altar. What scorn had there been upon her face when she spoke
+of the beginning of their married miseries! With what eloquence of
+expression had she pronounced him to be vile, worthless, unmanly; a
+thing from which a woman must turn with speechless contempt! She had
+now his name, his rank, and his money, but she was friendless and
+alone. Harry Clavering declared to himself that she had deserved
+it,--and, having so declared, forgave her all her faults. She
+had sinned, and then had suffered; and, therefore, should now be
+forgiven. If he could do aught to ease her troubles, he would do
+it,--as a brother would for a sister.
+
+But it would be well that she should know of his engagement. Then he
+thought of the whole interview, and felt sure that she must know it.
+At any rate he told himself that he was sure. She could hardly have
+spoken to him as she had done, unless she had known. When last they
+had been together, sauntering round the gardens at Clavering, he had
+rebuked her for her treachery to him. Now she came to him almost
+open-armed, free, full of her cares, swearing to him that he was her
+only friend! All this could mean but one thing,--unless she knew that
+that one thing was barred by his altered position.
+
+But it gratified him to think that she had chosen him for the
+repository of her tale; that she had told her terrible history to
+him. I fear that some small part of this gratification was owing
+to her rank and wealth. To be the one friend of a widowed countess,
+young, rich, and beautiful, was something much out of the common way.
+Such confidence lifted him far above the Wallikers of the world. That
+he was pleased to be so trusted by one that was beautiful, was, I
+think, no disgrace to him;--although I bear in mind his condition
+as a man engaged. It might be dangerous, but that danger in such
+case it would be his duty to overcome. But in order that it might
+be overcome, it would certainly be well that she should know his
+position.
+
+I fear he speculated as he went along as to what might have been his
+condition in the world had he never seen Florence Burton. First he
+asked himself, whether, under any circumstances, he would have wished
+to marry a widow, and especially a widow by whom he had already been
+jilted. Yes; he thought that he could have forgiven her even that, if
+his own heart had not changed; but he did not forget to tell himself
+again how lucky it was for him that his heart was changed. What
+countess in the world, let her have what park she might, and any
+imaginable number of thousands a year, could be so sweet, so nice,
+so good, so fitting for him as his own Florence Burton? Then he
+endeavoured to reflect what happened when a commoner married the
+widow of a peer. She was still called, he believed, by her old title,
+unless she should choose to abandon it. Any such arrangement was now
+out of the question; but he thought that he would prefer that she
+should have been called Mrs. Clavering, if such a state of things had
+come about. I do not know that he pictured to himself any necessity,
+either on her part or on his, of abandoning anything else that came
+to her from her late husband.
+
+At half-past six, the time named by Theodore Burton, he found himself
+at the door in Onslow Crescent, and was at once shown up into the
+drawing-room. He knew that Mr. Burton had a family, and he had
+pictured to himself an untidy, ugly house, with an untidy, motherly
+woman going about with a baby in her arms. Such would naturally be
+the home of a man who dusted his shoes with his pocket-handkerchief.
+But to his surprise he found himself in as pretty a drawing-room
+as he remembered to have seen; and seated on a sofa, was almost as
+pretty a woman as he remembered. She was tall and slight, with large
+brown eyes and well-defined eyebrows, with an oval face, and the
+sweetest, kindest mouth that ever graced a woman. Her dark brown
+hair was quite plain, having been brushed simply smooth across the
+forehead, and then collected in a knot behind. Close beside her, on
+a low chair, sat a little fair-haired girl, about seven years old,
+who was going through some pretence at needlework; and kneeling
+on a higher chair, while she sprawled over the drawing-room table,
+was another girl, some three years younger, who was engaged with a
+puzzle-box.
+
+"Mr. Clavering," said she, rising from her chair; "I am so glad to
+see you, though I am almost angry with you for not coming to us
+sooner. I have heard so much about you; of course you know that."
+Harry explained that he had only been a few days in town, and
+declared that he was happy to learn that he had been considered worth
+talking about.
+
+"If you were worth accepting you were worth talking about."
+
+"Perhaps I was neither," said he.
+
+"Well; I am not going to flatter you yet. Only as I think our Flo is
+without exception the most perfect girl I ever saw, I don't suppose
+she would be guilty of making a bad choice. Cissy, dear, this is Mr.
+Clavering."
+
+Cissy got up from her chair, and came up to him. "Mamma says I am to
+love you very much," said Cissy, putting up her face to be kissed.
+
+"But I did not tell you to say I had told you," said Mrs. Burton,
+laughing.
+
+"And I will love you very much," said Harry, taking her up in his
+arms.
+
+"But not so much as Aunt Florence,--will you?"
+
+They all knew it. It was clear to him that everybody connected with
+the Burtons had been told of the engagement, and that they all spoke
+of it openly, as they did of any other everyday family occurrence.
+There was not much reticence among the Burtons. He could not but feel
+this, though now, at the present moment, he was disposed to think
+specially well of the family because Mrs. Burton and her children
+were so nice.
+
+"And this is another daughter?"
+
+"Yes; another future niece, Mr. Clavering. But I suppose I may call
+you Harry; may I not? My name is Cecilia. Yes, that is Miss Pert."
+
+"I'm not Miss Pert," said the little soft round ball of a girl from
+the chair. "I'm Sophy Burton. Oh! you musn't tittle."
+
+Harry found himself quite at home in ten minutes; and before Mr.
+Burton had returned, had been taken upstairs into the nursery to see
+Theodore Burton Junior in his cradle, Theodore Burton Junior being
+as yet only some few months old. "Now you've seen us all," said Mrs.
+Burton, "and we'll go downstairs and wait for my husband. I must
+let you into a secret, too. We don't dine till past seven; you may
+as well remember that for the future. But I wanted to have you for
+half-an-hour to myself before dinner, so that I might look at you,
+and make up my mind about Flo's choice. I hope you won't be angry
+with me?"
+
+"And how have you made up your mind?"
+
+"If you want to find that out, you must get it through Florence. You
+may be quite sure I shall tell her; and, I suppose, I may be quite
+sure she will tell you. Does she tell you everything?"
+
+"I tell her everything," said Harry, feeling himself, however, to
+be a little conscience-smitten at the moment, as he remembered his
+interview with Lady Ongar. Things had occurred this very day which he
+certainly could not tell her.
+
+"Do;--do; always do that," said Mrs. Burton, laying her hand
+affectionately on his arm. "There is no way so certain to bind a
+woman to you, heart and soul, as to show her that you trust her in
+everything. Theodore tells me everything. I don't think there's a
+drain planned under a railway-bank, but that he shows it me in some
+way; and I feel so grateful for it. It makes me know that I can never
+do enough for him. I hope you'll be as good to Flo as he is to me."
+
+"We can't both be perfect, you know."
+
+"Ah, well! of course you'll laugh at me. Theodore always laughs at me
+when I get on what he calls a high horse. I wonder whether you are as
+sensible as he is?"
+
+Harry reflected that he never wore cotton gloves. "I don't think I am
+very sensible," said he. "I do a great many foolish things, and the
+worst is, that I like them."
+
+"So do I. I like so many foolish things."
+
+"Oh, mamma!" said Cissy.
+
+"I shall have that quoted against me, now, for the next six months,
+whenever I am preaching wisdom in the nursery. But Florence is nearly
+as sensible as her brother."
+
+"Much more so than I am."
+
+"All the Burtons are full up to their eyes with good sense. And what
+a good thing it is! Who ever heard of any of them coming to sorrow?
+Whatever they have to live on, they always have enough. Did you ever
+know a woman who has done better with her children, or has known how
+to do better, than Theodore's mother? She is the dearest old woman."
+Harry had heard her called a very clever old woman by certain persons
+in Stratton, and could not but think of her matrimonial successes as
+her praises were thus sung by her daughter-in-law.
+
+They went on talking, while Sophy sat in Harry's lap, till there was
+heard the sound of the key in the latch of the front-door, and the
+master of the house was known to be there. "It's Theodore," said his
+wife, jumping up and going out to meet him. "I'm so glad that you
+have been here a little before him, because now I feel that I know
+you. When he's here I shan't get in a word." Then she went down to
+her husband, and Harry was left to speculate how so very charming
+a woman could ever have been brought to love a man who cleaned his
+boots with his pocket-handkerchief.
+
+There were soon steps again upon the stairs, and Burton returned
+bringing with him another man whom he introduced to Harry as Mr.
+Jones. "I didn't know my brother was coming," said Mrs. Burton, "but
+it will be very pleasant, as of course I shall want you to know
+him." Harry became a little perplexed. How far might these family
+ramifications be supposed to go? Would he be welcomed, as one of
+the household, to the hearth of Mrs. Jones; and if of Mrs. Jones,
+then of Mrs. Jones's brother? His mental inquiries, however, in
+this direction, were soon ended by his finding that Mr. Jones was a
+bachelor.
+
+Jones, it appeared, was the editor, or sub-editor, or co-editor, of
+some influential daily newspaper. "He is a night bird, Harry--," said
+Mrs. Burton. She had fallen into the way of calling him Harry at
+once, but he could not on that occasion bring himself to call her
+Cecilia. He might have done so had not her husband been present, but
+he was ashamed to do it before him. "He is a night bird, Harry," said
+she, speaking of her brother, "and flies away at nine o'clock, that
+he may go and hoot like an owl in some dark city haunt that he has.
+Then, when he is himself asleep at breakfast-time, his hootings are
+being heard round the town."
+
+Harry rather liked the idea of knowing an editor. Editors were, he
+thought, influential people, who had the world very much under their
+feet,--being, as he conceived, afraid of no men, while other men are
+very much afraid of them. He was glad enough to shake Jones by the
+hand, when he found that Jones was an editor. But Jones, though he
+had the face and forehead of a clever man, was very quiet, and seemed
+almost submissive to his sister and brother-in-law.
+
+The dinner was plain, but good, and Harry after a while became happy
+and satisfied, although he had come to the house with something
+almost like a resolution to find fault. Men, and women also, do
+frequently go about in such a mood, having unconscionably from some
+small circumstance, prejudged their acquaintances, and made up their
+mind that their acquaintances should be condemned. Influenced in this
+way, Harry had not intended to pass a pleasant evening, and would
+have stood aloof and been cold, had it been possible to him; but
+he found that it was not possible; and after a little while he was
+friendly and joyous, and the dinner went off very well. There was
+some wild-fowl, and he was agreeably surprised as he watched the
+mental anxiety and gastronomic skill with which Burton went through
+the process of preparing the gravy, with lemon and pepper, having
+in the room a little silver-pot and an apparatus of fire for the
+occasion. He would as soon have expected the Archbishop of Canterbury
+himself to go through such an operation in the dining-room at Lambeth
+as the hard-working man of business whom he had known in the chambers
+at the Adelphi.
+
+"Does he always do that, Mrs. Burton?" Harry asked.
+
+"Always," said Burton, "when I can get the materials. One doesn't
+bother oneself about a cold leg of mutton, you know, which is my
+usual dinner when we are alone. The children have it hot in the
+middle of the day."
+
+"Such a thing never happened to him yet, Harry," said Mrs. Burton.
+
+"Gently with the pepper," said the editor. It was the first word he
+had spoken for some time.
+
+"Be good enough to remember that, yourself, when you are writing your
+article to-night."
+
+"No, none for me, Theodore," said Mrs. Burton.
+
+"Cissy!"
+
+"I have dined really. If I had remembered that you were going to
+display your cookery, I would have kept some of my energy, but I
+forgot it."
+
+"As a rule," said Burton, "I don't think women recognize any
+difference in flavours. I believe wild duck and hashed mutton would
+be quite the same to my wife if her eyes were blinded. I should
+not mind this, if it were not that they are generally proud of the
+deficiency. They think it grand."
+
+"Just as men think it grand not to know one tune from another," said
+his wife.
+
+When dinner was over, Burton got up from his seat. "Harry," said he,
+"do you like good wine?" Harry said that he did. Whatever women may
+say about wild-fowl, men never profess an indifference to good wine,
+although there is a theory about the world, quite as incorrect as it
+is general, that they have given up drinking it. "Indeed, I do," said
+Harry. "Then I'll give you a bottle of port," said Burton, and so
+saying he left the room.
+
+"I'm very glad you have come to-day," said Jones, with much gravity.
+"He never gives me any of that when I'm alone with him; and he never,
+by any means, brings it out for company."
+
+"You don't mean to accuse him of drinking it alone, Tom?" said his
+sister, laughing.
+
+"I don't know when he drinks it; I only know when he doesn't."
+
+The wine was decanted with as much care as had been given to the
+concoction of the gravy, and the clearness of the dark liquid was
+scrutinized with an eye that was full of anxious care. "Now, Cissy,
+what do you think of that? She knows a glass of good wine when she
+gets it, as well as you do, Harry; in spite of her contempt for the
+duck."
+
+As they sipped the old port they sat round the dining-room fire, and
+Harry Clavering was forced to own to himself that he had never been
+more comfortable.
+
+"Ah," said Burton, stretching out his slippered feet, "why can't it
+all be after-dinner, instead of that weary room at the Adelphi?"
+
+"And all old port?" said Jones.
+
+"Yes, and all old port. You are not such an ass as to suppose that a
+man in suggesting to himself a continuance of pleasure suggests to
+himself also the evils which are supposed to accompany such pleasure.
+If I took much of the stuff I should get cross and sick, and make a
+beast of myself; but then what a pity it is that it should be so."
+
+"You wouldn't like much of it, I think," said his wife.
+
+"That is it," said he. "We are driven to work because work never
+palls on us, whereas pleasure always does. What a wonderful scheme
+it is when one looks at it all. No man can follow pleasure long
+continually. When a man strives to do so, he turns his pleasure at
+once into business, and works at that. Come, Harry, we mustn't have
+another bottle, as Jones would go to sleep among the type." Then they
+all went upstairs together. Harry, before he went away, was taken
+again up into the nursery, and there kissed the two little girls in
+their cots. When he was outside the nursery door, on the top of the
+stairs, Mrs. Burton took him by the hand. "You'll come to us often,"
+said she, "and make yourself at home here, will you not?" Harry
+could not but say that he would. Indeed he did so without hesitation,
+almost with eagerness, for he had liked her and had liked her
+house. "We think of you, you know," she continued, "quite as one of
+ourselves. How could it be otherwise when Flo is the dearest to us of
+all beyond our own?"
+
+"It makes me so happy to hear you say so," said he.
+
+"Then come here and talk about her. I want Theodore to feel that you
+are his brother; it will be so important to you in the business that
+it should be so." After that he went away, and as he walked back
+along Piccadilly, and then up through the regions of St. Giles to
+his home in Bloomsbury Square, he satisfied himself that the life
+of Onslow Crescent was a better manner of life than that which was
+likely to prevail in Bolton Street.
+
+When he was gone his character was of course discussed between the
+husband and wife in Onslow Crescent. "What do you think of him?" said
+the husband.
+
+"I like him so much! He is so much nicer than you told me,--so much
+pleasanter and easier; and I have no doubt he is as clever, though I
+don't think he shows that at once."
+
+"He is clever enough; there's no doubt about that."
+
+"And did you not think he was pleasant?"
+
+"Yes; he was pleasant here. He is one of those men who get on best
+with women. You'll make much more of him for awhile than I shall.
+He'll gossip with you and sit idling with you for the hour together,
+if you'll let him. There's nothing wrong about him, and he'd like
+nothing better than that."
+
+"You don't believe that he's idle by disposition? Think of all that
+he has done already."
+
+"That's just what is most against him. He might do very well with us
+if he had not got that confounded fellowship; but having got that, he
+thinks the hard work of life is pretty well over with him."
+
+"I don't suppose he can be so foolish as that, Theodore."
+
+"I know well what such men are, and I know the evil that is done
+to them by the cramming they endure. They learn many names of
+things,--high-sounding names, and they come to understand a great
+deal about words. It is a knowledge that requires no experience
+and very little real thought. But it demands much memory; and when
+they have loaded themselves in this way, they think that they are
+instructed in all things. After all, what can they do that is of real
+use to mankind? What can they create?"
+
+"I suppose they are of use."
+
+"I don't know it. A man will tell you, or pretend to tell you,--for
+the chances are ten to one that he is wrong,--what sort of lingo was
+spoken in some particular island or province six hundred years before
+Christ. What good will that do any one, even if he were right? And
+then see the effect upon the men themselves! At four-and-twenty a
+young fellow has achieved some wonderful success, and calls himself
+by some outlandish and conceited name--a double first, or something
+of the kind. Then he thinks he has completed everything, and is too
+vain to learn anything afterwards. The truth is, that at twenty-four
+no man has done more than acquire the rudiments of his education. The
+system is bad from beginning to end. All that competition makes false
+and imperfect growth. Come, I'll go to bed."
+
+What would Harry have said if he had heard all this from the man who
+dusted his boots with his handkerchief?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+TOO PRUDENT BY HALF.
+
+
+Florence Burton thought herself the happiest girl in the world.
+There was nothing wanting to the perfection of her bliss. She could
+perceive, though she never allowed her mind to dwell upon the fact,
+that her lover was superior in many respects to the men whom her
+sisters had married. He was better educated, better looking, in fact
+more fully a gentleman at all points than either Scarness or any of
+the others. She liked her sisters' husbands very well, and in former
+days, before Harry Clavering had come to Stratton, she had never
+taught herself to think that she, if she married, would want anything
+different from that which Providence had given to them. She had never
+thrown up her head, or even thrown up her nose, and told herself that
+she would demand something better than that. But not the less was she
+alive to the knowledge that something better had come in her way, and
+that that something better was now her own. She was very proud of her
+lover, and, no doubt, in some gently feminine way showed that she was
+so as she made her way about among her friends at Stratton. Any idea
+that she herself was better educated, better looking, or more clever
+than her elder sisters, and that, therefore, she was deserving of a
+higher order of husband, had never entered her mind. The Burtons in
+London,--Theodore Burton and his wife,--who knew her well, and who,
+of all the family, were best able to appreciate her worth, had long
+been of opinion that she deserved some specially favoured lot in
+life. The question with them would be, whether Harry Clavering was
+good enough for her.
+
+Everybody at Stratton knew that she was engaged, and when they wished
+her joy she made no coy denials. Her sisters had all been engaged in
+the same way, and their marriages had gone off in regular sequence to
+their engagements. There had never been any secret with them about
+their affairs. On this matter the practice is very various among
+different people. There are families who think it almost indelicate
+to talk about marriage as a thing actually in prospect for any of
+their own community. An ordinary acquaintance would be considered to
+be impertinent in even hinting at such a thing, although the thing
+were an established fact. The engaged young ladies only whisper
+the news through the very depths of their pink note-paper, and are
+supposed to blush as they communicate the tidings by their pens, even
+in the retirement of their own rooms. But there are other families in
+which there is no vestige of such mystery, in which an engaged couple
+are spoken of together as openly as though they were already bound in
+some sort of public partnership. In these families the young ladies
+talk openly of their lovers, and generally prefer that subject of
+conversation to any other. Such a family,--so little mysterious,--so
+open in their arrangements, was that of the Burtons at Stratton.
+The reserve in the reserved families is usually atoned for by the
+magnificence of the bridal arrangements, when the marriage is at last
+solemnized; whereas, among the other set,--the people who have no
+reserve,--the marriage, when it comes, is customarily an affair
+of much less outward ceremony. They are married without blast of
+trumpet, with very little profit to the confectioner, and do their
+honeymoon, if they do it at all, with prosaic simplicity.
+
+Florence had made up her mind that she would be in no hurry about
+it. Harry was in a hurry; but that was a matter of course. He was a
+quick-blooded, impatient, restless being. She was slower, and more
+given to consideration. It would be better that they should wait,
+even if it were for five or six years. She had no fear of poverty
+for herself. She had lived always in a house in which money was
+much regarded, and among people who were of inexpensive habits.
+But such had not been his lot, and it was her duty to think of the
+mode of life which might suit him. He would not be happy as a poor
+man,--without comforts around him, which would simply be comforts to
+him though they would be luxuries to her. When her mother told her,
+shaking her head rather sorrowfully as she heard Florence talk, that
+she did not like long engagements, Florence would shake hers too, in
+playful derision, and tell her mother not to be so suspicious. "It is
+not you that are going to marry him, mamma."
+
+"No, my dear; I know that. But long engagements never are good. And
+I can't think why young people should want so many things, now, that
+they used to do without very well when I was married. When I went
+into housekeeping, we only had one girl of fifteen to do everything;
+and we hadn't a nursemaid regular till Theodore was born; and there
+were three before him."
+
+Florence could not say how many maid-servants Harry might wish to
+have under similar circumstances, but she was very confident that he
+would want much more attendance than her father and mother had done,
+or even than some of her brothers and sisters. Her father, when he
+first married, would not have objected, on returning home, to find
+his wife in the kitchen, looking after the progress of the dinner;
+nor even would her brother Theodore have been made unhappy by such a
+circumstance. But Harry, she knew, would not like it; and therefore
+Harry must wait. "It will do him good, mamma," said Florence. "You
+can't think that I mean to find fault with him; but I know that he is
+young in his ways. He is one of those men who should not marry till
+they are twenty-eight, or thereabouts."
+
+"You mean that he is unsteady?"
+
+"No,--not unsteady. I don't think him a bit unsteady; but he will be
+happier single for a year or two. He hasn't settled down to like his
+tea and toast when he is tired of his work, as a married man should
+do. Do you know that I am not sure that a little flirtation would not
+be very good for him?"
+
+"Oh, my dear!"
+
+"It should be very moderate, you know."
+
+"But then, suppose it wasn't moderate. I don't like to see engaged
+young men going on in that way. I suppose I'm very old-fashioned; but
+I think when a young man is engaged, he ought to remember it and to
+show it. It ought to make him a little serious, and he shouldn't be
+going about like a butterfly, that may do just as it pleases in the
+sunshine."
+
+During the three months which Harry remained in town before the
+Easter holidays he wrote more than once to Florence, pressing her to
+name an early day for their marriage. These letters were written, I
+think, after certain evenings spent under favourable circumstances in
+Onslow Crescent, when he was full of the merits of domestic comfort,
+and perhaps also owed some of their inspiration to the fact that Lady
+Ongar had left London without seeing him. He had called repeatedly in
+Bolton Street, having been specially pressed to do so by Lady Ongar,
+but he had only once found her at home, and then a third person
+had been present. This third person had been a lady who was not
+introduced to him, but he had learned from her speech that she was
+a foreigner. On that occasion Lady Ongar had made herself gracious
+and pleasant, but nothing had passed which interested him, and, most
+unreasonably, he had felt himself to be provoked. When next he went
+to Bolton Street he found that Lady Ongar had left London. She had
+gone down to Ongar Park, and, as far as the woman at the house knew,
+intended to remain there till after Easter. Harry had some undefined
+idea that she should not have taken such a step without telling
+him. Had she not declared to him that he was her only friend?
+When a friend is going out of town, leaving an only friend behind,
+that friend ought to tell her only friend what she is going to do,
+otherwise such a declaration of only-friendship means nothing. Such
+was Harry Clavering's reasoning, and having so reasoned, he declared
+to himself that it did mean nothing, and was very pressing to
+Florence Burton to name an early day. He had been with Cecilia,
+he told her,--he had learned to call Mrs. Burton Cecilia in his
+letters,--and she quite agreed with him that their income would be
+enough. He was to have two hundred a year from his father, having
+brought himself to abandon that high-toned resolve which he had made
+some time since that he would never draw any part of his income from
+the parental coffers. His father had again offered it, and he had
+accepted it. Old Mr. Burton was to add a hundred, and Harry was of
+opinion that they could do very well. Cecilia thought the same, he
+said, and therefore Florence surely would not refuse. But Florence
+received, direct from Onslow Crescent, Cecilia's own version of her
+thoughts, and did refuse. It may be surmised that she would have
+refused even without assistance from Cecilia, for she was a young
+lady not of a fickle or changing disposition. So she wrote to Harry
+with much care, and as her letter had some influence on the story to
+be told, the reader shall read it,--if the reader so pleases.
+
+
+   Stratton. March, 186--.
+
+   DEAR HARRY,--
+
+   I received your letter this morning, and answer it at
+   once, because I know you will be impatient for an answer.
+   You are impatient about things,--are you not? But it was
+   a kind, sweet, dear, generous letter, and I need not tell
+   you now that I love the writer of it with all my heart. I
+   am so glad you like Cecilia. I think she is the perfection
+   of a woman. And Theodore is every bit as good as Cecilia,
+   though I know you don't think so, because you don't say
+   so. I am always happy when I am in Onslow Crescent. I
+   should have been there this spring, only that a certain
+   person who chooses to think that his claims on me are
+   stronger than those of any other person wishes me to go
+   elsewhere. Mamma wishes me to go to London also for a
+   week, but I don't want to be away from the old house too
+   much before the final parting comes at last.
+
+   And now about the final parting; for I may as well rush at
+   it at once. I need hardly tell you that no care for father
+   or mother shall make me put off my marriage. Of course I
+   owe everything to you now; and as they have approved it,
+   I have no right to think of them in opposition to you.
+   And you must not suppose that they ask me to stay. On the
+   contrary, mamma is always telling me that early marriages
+   are best. She has sent all the birds out of the nest but
+   one; and is impatient to see that one fly away, that
+   she may be sure that there is no lame one in the brood.
+   You must not therefore think that it is mamma; nor is it
+   papa, as regards himself,--though papa agrees with me in
+   thinking that we ought to wait a little.
+
+   Dear Harry, you must not be angry, but I am sure that we
+   ought to wait. We are, both of us, young, and why should
+   we be in a hurry? I know what you will say, and of course
+   I love you the more because you love me so well; but I
+   fancy that I can be quite happy if I can see you two or
+   three times in the year, and hear from you constantly.
+   It is so good of you to write such nice letters, and the
+   longer they are the better I like them. Whatever you put
+   in them, I like them to be full. I know I can't write nice
+   letters myself, and it makes me unhappy. Unless I have got
+   something special to say, I am dumb.
+
+   But now I have something special to say. In spite of all
+   that you tell me about Cecilia, I do not think it would do
+   for us to venture upon marrying yet. I know that you are
+   willing to sacrifice everything, but I ought not on that
+   account to accept a sacrifice. I could not bear to see
+   you poor and uncomfortable; and we should be very poor in
+   London now-a-days with such an income as we should have.
+   If we were going to live here at Stratton perhaps we might
+   manage, but I feel sure that it would be imprudent in
+   London. You ought not to be angry with me for saying
+   this, for I am quite as anxious to be with you as you
+   can possibly be to be with me; only I can bear to look
+   forward, and have a pleasure in feeling that all my
+   happiness is to come. I know I am right in this. Do write
+   me one little line to say that you are not angry with your
+   little girl.
+
+   I shall be quite ready for you by the 29th. I got such a
+   dear little note from Fanny the other day. She says that
+   you never write to them, and she supposes that I have the
+   advantage of all your energy in that way. I have told her
+   that I do get a good deal. My brother writes to me very
+   seldom, I know; and I get twenty letters from Cecilia for
+   one scrap that Theodore ever sends me. Perhaps some of
+   these days I shall be the chief correspondent with the
+   rectory. Fanny told me all about the dresses, and I have
+   my own quite ready. I've been bridesmaid to four of my own
+   sisters, so I ought to know what I'm about. I'll never
+   be bridesmaid to anybody again, after Fanny; but whom on
+   earth shall I have for myself? I think we must wait till
+   Cissy and Sophy are ready. Cissy wrote me word that you
+   were a darling man. I don't know how much of that came
+   directly from Cissy, or how much from Cecilia.
+
+   God bless you, dear, dearest Harry. Let me have one letter
+   before you come to fetch me, and acknowledge that I am
+   right, even if you say that I am disagreeable. Of course
+   I like to think that you want to have me; but, you see,
+   one has to pay the penalty of being civilized.--Ever and
+   always your own affectionate
+
+   FLORENCE BURTON.
+
+
+Harry Clavering was very angry when he got this letter. The primary
+cause of his anger was the fact that Florence should pretend to know
+what was better for him than he knew himself. If he was willing to
+encounter life in London on less than four hundred a year, surely
+she might be contented to try the same experiment. He did not for a
+moment suspect that she feared for herself, but he was indignant with
+her because of her fear for him. What right had she to accuse him
+of wanting to be comfortable? Had he not for her sake consented to
+be very uncomfortable at that old house at Stratton? Was he not
+willing to give up his fellowship, and the society of Lady Ongar,
+and everything else, for her sake? Had he not shown himself to be
+such a lover as there is not one in a hundred? And yet she wrote and
+told him that it wouldn't do for him to be poor and uncomfortable!
+After all that he had done in the world, after all that he had gone
+through, it would be odd if, at this time of day, he did not know
+what was good for himself! It was in that way that he regarded
+Florence's pertinacity.
+
+He was rather unhappy at this period. It seemed to him that he was
+somewhat slighted on both sides,--or, if I may say so, less thought
+of on both sides than he deserved. Had Lady Ongar remained in town,
+as she ought to have done, he would have solaced himself, and at the
+same time have revenged himself upon Florence, by devoting some of
+his spare hours to that lady. It was Lady Ongar's sudden departure
+that had made him feel that he ought to rush at once into marriage.
+Now he had no consolation, except that of complaining to Mrs. Burton,
+and going frequently to the theatre. To Mrs. Burton he did complain a
+great deal, pulling her worsteds and threads about the while, sitting
+in idleness while she was working, just as Theodore Burton had
+predicted that he would do.
+
+"I won't have you so idle, Harry," Mrs. Burton said to him one day.
+"You know you ought to be at your office now." It must be admitted
+on behalf of Harry Clavering, that they who liked him, especially
+women, were able to become intimate with him very easily. He had
+comfortable, homely ways about him, and did not habitually give
+himself airs. He had become quite domesticated at the Burtons' house
+during the ten weeks that he had been in London, and knew his way
+to Onslow Crescent almost too well. It may, perhaps, be surmised
+correctly that he would not have gone there so frequently if Mrs.
+Theodore Burton had been an ugly woman.
+
+"It's all her fault," said he, continuing to snip a piece of worsted
+with a pair of scissors as he spoke. "She's too prudent by half."
+
+"Poor Florence!"
+
+"You can't but know that I should work three times as much if she had
+given me a different answer. It stands to reason any man would work
+under such circumstances as that. Not that I am idle, I believe. I do
+as much as any other man about the place."
+
+"I won't have my worsted destroyed all the same. Theodore says that
+Florence is right."
+
+"Of course he does; of course he'll say I'm wrong. I won't ask her
+again,--that's all."
+
+"Oh, Harry! don't say that. You know you'll ask her. You would
+to-morrow, if she were here."
+
+"You don't know me, Cecilia, or you would not say so. When I have
+made up my mind to a thing, I am generally firm about it. She said
+something about two years, and I will not say a word to alter that
+decision. If it be altered, it shall be altered by her."
+
+In the meantime he punished Florence by sending her no special answer
+to her letter. He wrote to her as usual; but he made no reference to
+his last proposal, nor to her refusal. She had asked him to tell her
+that he was not angry, but he would tell her nothing of the kind. He
+told her when and where and how he would meet her, and convey her
+from Stratton to Clavering; gave her some account of a play he had
+seen; described a little dinner-party in Onslow Crescent; and told
+her a funny story about Mr. Walliker and the office at the Adelphi.
+But he said no word, even in rebuke, as to her decision about their
+marriage. He intended that this should be felt to be severe, and took
+pleasure in the pain that he would be giving. Florence, when she
+received her letter, knew that he was sore, and understood thoroughly
+the working of his mind. "I will comfort him when we are together,"
+she said to herself. "I will make him reasonable when I see him."
+It was not the way in which he expected that his anger would be
+received.
+
+One day on his return home he found a card on his table which
+surprised him very much. It contained a name but no address, but over
+the name there was a pencil memorandum, stating that the owner of the
+card would call again on his return to London after Easter. The name
+on the card was that of Count Pateroff. He remembered the name well
+as soon as he saw it, though he had never thought of it since the
+solitary occasion on which it had been mentioned to him. Count
+Pateroff was the man who had been Lord Ongar's friend, and respecting
+whom Lord Ongar had brought a false charge against his wife. Why
+should Count Pateroff call on him? Why was he in England? Whence had
+he learned the address in Bloomsbury Square? To that last question he
+had no difficulty in finding an answer. Of course he must have heard
+it from Lady Ongar. Count Pateroff had now left London! Had he gone
+to Ongar Park? Harry Clavering's mind was instantly filled with
+suspicion, and he became jealous in spite of Florence Burton. Could
+it be that Lady Ongar, not yet four months a widow, was receiving at
+her house in the country this man with whose name her own had been so
+fatally joined? If so, what could he think of such behaviour? He was
+very angry. He knew that he was angry, but he did not at all know
+that he was jealous. Was he not, by her own declaration to him, her
+only friend; and as such could he entertain such a suspicion without
+anger? "Her friend!" he said to himself. "Not if she has any dealings
+whatever with that man after what she has told me of him!" He
+remembered at last that perhaps the count might not be at Ongar Park;
+but he must, at any rate, have had some dealing with Lady Ongar or
+he would not have known the address in Bloomsbury Square. "Count
+Pateroff!" he said, repeating the name, "I shouldn't wonder if I
+have to quarrel with that man." During the whole of that night he
+was thinking of Lady Ongar. As regarded himself, he knew that he
+had nothing to offer to Lady Ongar but a brotherly friendship; but,
+nevertheless, it was an injury to him that she should be acquainted
+intimately with any unmarried man but himself.
+
+On the next day he was to go to Stratton, and in the morning a letter
+was brought to him by the postman; a letter, or rather a very short
+note. Guildford was the postmark, and he knew at once that it was
+from Lady Ongar.
+
+
+   DEAR MR. CLAVERING [the note said],--
+
+   I was so sorry to leave London without seeing you; I shall
+   be back by the end of April, and am keeping on the same
+   rooms. Come to me, if you can, on the evening of the 30th,
+   after dinner. He at last bade Hermy to write and ask me
+   to go to Clavering for the Easter week. Such a note! I'll
+   show it you when we meet. Of course I declined.
+
+   But I write on purpose to tell you that I have begged
+   Count Pateroff to see you. I have not seen him, but I
+   have had to write to him about things that happened in
+   Florence. He has come to England chiefly with reference to
+   the affairs of Lord Ongar. I want you to hear his story.
+   As far as I have known him he is a truth-telling man,
+   though I do not know that I am able to say much more in
+   his favour.
+
+   Ever yours, J. O.
+
+
+When he had read this he was quite an altered man. See Count
+Pateroff! Of course he would see him. What task could be more
+fitting for a friend than this, of seeing such a man under such
+circumstances. Before he left London he wrote a note for Count
+Pateroff, to be given to the count by the people at the lodgings
+should he call during Harry's absence from London. In this he
+explained that he would be at Clavering for a fortnight, but
+expressed himself ready to come up to London at a day's notice should
+Count Pateroff be necessitated again to leave London before the day
+named.
+
+As he went about his business that day, and as he journeyed down to
+Stratton, he entertained much kinder ideas about Lady Ongar than he
+had previously done since seeing Count Pateroff's card.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FLORENCE BURTON AT THE RECTORY.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Harry Clavering went down to Stratton, slept one night at old Mr.
+Burton's house, and drove Florence over to Clavering,--twenty miles
+across the country,--on the following day. This journey together
+had been looked forward to with great delight by both of them, and
+Florence, in spite of the snubbing which she had received from her
+lover because of her prudence, was very happy as she seated herself
+alongside of him in the vehicle which had been sent over from the
+rectory, and which he called a trap. Not a word had as yet been said
+between them as to that snubbing, nor was Harry minded that anything
+should be said. He meant to carry on his revenge by being dumb on
+that subject. But such was not Florence's intention. She desired not
+only to have her own way in this matter, but desired also that he
+should assent to her arrangements.
+
+It was a charming day for such a journey. It was cold, but not cold
+enough to make them uncomfortable. There was a wind, but not wind
+enough to torment them. Once there came on a little shower, which
+just sufficed to give Harry an opportunity of wrapping his companion
+very closely, but he had hardly completed the ceremony before the
+necessity for it was over. They both agreed that this mode of
+travelling was infinitely preferable to a journey by railroad, and I
+myself should be of the same opinion if one could always make one's
+journeys under the same circumstances. And it must be understood that
+Harry, though no doubt he was still taking his revenge on Florence by
+abstaining from all allusion to her letter, was not disposed to make
+himself otherwise disagreeable. He played his part of lover very
+well, and Florence was supremely happy.
+
+"Harry," she said, when the journey was more than half completed,
+"you never told me what you thought of my letter."
+
+"Which letter?" But he knew very well which was the letter in
+question.
+
+"My prudent letter,--written in answer to yours that was very
+imprudent."
+
+"I thought there was nothing more to be said about it."
+
+"Come, Harry, don't let there be any subject between us that we
+don't care to think about and discuss. I know what you meant by not
+answering me. You meant to punish me,--did you not, for having an
+opinion different from yours? Is not that true, Harry?"
+
+"Punish you,--no; I did not want to punish you. It was I that was
+punished, I think."
+
+"But you know I was right. Was I not right?"
+
+"I think you were wrong, but I don't want to say anything more about
+it now."
+
+"Ah, but, Harry, I want you to talk about it. Is it not everything
+to me,--everything in this world,--that you and I should agree about
+this? I have nothing else to think of but you. I have nothing to hope
+for but that I may live to be your wife. My only care in the world is
+my care for you! Come, Harry, don't be glum with me."
+
+"I am not glum."
+
+"Speak a nice word to me. Tell me that you believe me when I say that
+it is not of myself I am thinking, but of you."
+
+"Why can't you let me think for myself in this?"
+
+"Because you have got to think for me."
+
+"And I think you'd do very well on the income we've got. If you'll
+consent to marry, this summer, I won't be glum, as you call it, a
+moment longer."
+
+"No, Harry; I must not do that. I should be false to my duty to you
+if I did."
+
+"Then it's no use saying anything more about it."
+
+"Look here, Harry, if an engagement for two years is tedious to
+you--"
+
+"Of course it is tedious. Is not waiting for anything always tedious?
+There's nothing I hate so much as waiting."
+
+"But listen to me," said she, gravely. "If it is too tedious, if it
+is more than you think you can bear without being unhappy, I will
+release you from your engagement."
+
+"Florence!"
+
+"Hear me to the end. It will make no change in me; and then if you
+like to come to me again at the end of the two years, you may be sure
+of the way in which I shall receive you."
+
+"And what good would that do?"
+
+"Simply this good, that you would not be bound in a manner that makes
+you unhappy. If you did not intend that when you asked me to be your
+wife-- Oh, Harry, all I want is to make you happy. That is all that I
+care for, all that I think about!"
+
+Harry swore to her with ten thousand oaths that he would not release
+her from any part of her engagement with him, that he would give
+her no loophole of escape from him, that he intended to hold her so
+firmly that if she divided herself from him, she should be accounted
+among women a paragon of falseness. He was ready, he said, to marry
+her to-morrow. That was his wish, his idea of what would be best for
+both of them;--and after that, if not to-morrow, then on the next
+day, and so on till the day should come on which she should consent
+to become his wife. He went on also to say that he should continue to
+torment her on the subject about once a week till he had induced her
+to give way; and then he quoted a Latin line to show that a constant
+dropping of water will hollow a stone. This was somewhat at variance
+with a declaration he had made to Mrs. Burton, in Onslow Crescent,
+to the effect that he would never speak to Florence again upon the
+subject; but then men do occasionally change their minds, and Harry
+Clavering was a man who often changed his.
+
+Florence, as he made the declaration above described, thought that
+he played his part of lover very well, and drew herself a little
+closer to him as she thanked him for his warmth. "Dear Harry, you are
+so good and so kind, and I do love you so truly!" In this way the
+journey was made very pleasantly, and when Florence was driven up to
+the rectory door she was quite contented with her coachman.
+
+Harry Clavering, who is the hero of our story, will not, I fear, have
+hitherto presented himself to the reader as having much of the heroic
+nature in his character. It will, perhaps, be complained of him that
+he is fickle, vain, easily led, and almost as easily led to evil as
+to good. But it should be remembered that hitherto he has been rather
+hardly dealt with in these pages, and that his faults and weaknesses
+have been exposed almost unfairly. That he had such faults and was
+subject to such weaknesses may be believed of him; but there may be
+a question whether as much evil would not be known of most men, let
+them be heroes or not be heroes, if their characters were, so to
+say, turned inside out before our eyes. Harry Clavering, fellow of
+his college, six feet high, with handsome face and person, and with
+plenty to say for himself on all subjects, was esteemed highly and
+regarded much by those who knew him, in spite of those little foibles
+which marred his character; and I must beg the reader to take the
+world's opinion about him, and not to estimate him too meanly thus
+early in this history of his adventures.
+
+If this tale should ever be read by any lady who, in the course of
+her career, has entered a house under circumstances similar to those
+which had brought Florence Burton to Clavering rectory, she will
+understand how anxious must have been that young lady when she
+encountered the whole Clavering family in the hall. She had been
+blown about by the wind, and her cloaks and shawls were heavy on her,
+and her hat was a little out of shape,--from some fault on the part
+of Harry, as I believe,--and she felt herself to be a dowdy as she
+appeared among them. What would they think of her, and what would
+they think of Harry in that he had chosen such an one to be his wife?
+Mrs. Clavering had kissed her before she had seen that lady's face;
+and Mary and Fanny had kissed her before she knew which was which;
+and then a stout, clerical gentleman kissed her who, no doubt, was
+Mr. Clavering, senior. After that, another clerical gentleman, very
+much younger and very much slighter, shook hands with her. He might
+have kissed her, too, had he been so minded, for Florence was too
+confused to be capable of making any exact reckoning in the matter.
+He might have done so--that is, as far as Florence was concerned. It
+may be a question whether Mary Clavering would not have objected;
+for this clerical gentleman was the Rev. Edward Fielding, who was to
+become her husband in three days' time.
+
+"Now, Florence," said Fanny, "come upstairs into mamma's room and
+have some tea, and we'll look at you. Harry, you needn't come. You've
+had her to yourself for a long time, and can have her again in the
+evening."
+
+Florence, in this way, was taken upstairs and found herself seated by
+a fire, while three pairs of hands were taking from her her shawls
+and hat and cloak, almost before she knew where she was.
+
+"It is so odd to have you here," said Fanny. "We have only one
+brother, so, of course, we shall make very much of you. Isn't she
+nice, mamma?"
+
+"I'm sure she is; very nice. But I shouldn't have told her so before
+her face, if you hadn't asked the question."
+
+"That's nonsense, mamma. You mustn't believe mamma when she pretends
+to be grand and sententious. It's only put on as a sort of company
+air, but we don't mean to make company of you."
+
+"Pray don't," said Florence.
+
+"I'm so glad you are come just at this time," said Mary. "I think so
+much of having Harry's future wife at my wedding. I wish we were both
+going to be married the same day."
+
+"But we are not going to be married for ever so long. Two years hence
+has been the shortest time named."
+
+"Don't be sure of that, Florence," said Fanny. "We have all of us
+received a special commission from Harry to talk you out of that
+heresy; have we not, mamma?"
+
+"I think you had better not tease Florence about that immediately on
+her arrival. It's hardly fair." Then, when they had drunk their tea,
+Florence was taken away to her own room, and before she was allowed
+to go downstairs she was intimate with both the girls, and had so
+far overcome her awe of Harry's mother as to be able to answer her
+without confusion.
+
+"Well, sir, what do you think of her?" said Harry to his father, as
+soon as they were alone.
+
+"I have not had time to think much of her yet. She seems to be very
+pretty. She isn't so tall as I thought she would be."
+
+"No; she's not tall," said Harry, in a voice of disappointment.
+
+"I've no doubt we shall like her very much. What money is she to
+have?"
+
+"A hundred a year while her father lives."
+
+"That's not much."
+
+"Much or little, it made no difference with me. I should never have
+thought of marrying a girl for her money. It's a kind of thing that
+I hate. I almost wish she was to have nothing."
+
+"I shouldn't refuse it if I were you."
+
+"Of course, I shan't refuse it; but what I mean is that I never
+thought about it when I asked her to have me; and I shouldn't have
+been a bit more likely to ask her if she had ten times as much."
+
+"A fortune with one's wife isn't a bad thing for a poor man, Harry."
+
+"But a poor man must be poor in more senses than one when he looks
+about to get a fortune in that way."
+
+"I suppose you won't marry just yet," said the father. "Including
+everything, you would not have five hundred a year, and that would be
+very close work in London."
+
+"It's not quite decided yet, sir. As far as I am myself concerned, I
+think that people are a great deal too prudent about money. I believe
+I could live as a married man on a hundred a year, if I had no more;
+and as for London, I don't see why London should be more expensive
+than any other place. You can get exactly what you want in London,
+and make your halfpence go farther there than anywhere else."
+
+"And your sovereigns go quicker," said the rector.
+
+"All that is wanted," said Harry, "is the will to live on your
+income, and a little firmness in carrying out your plans."
+
+The rector of Clavering, as he heard all this wisdom fall from his
+son's lips, looked at Harry's expensive clothes, at the ring on his
+finger, at the gold chain on his waistcoat, at the studs in his
+shirt, and smiled gently. He was by no means so clever a man as his
+son, but he knew something more of the world, and though not much
+given to general reading, he had read his son's character. "A great
+deal of firmness and of fortitude also is wanted for that kind
+of life," he said. "There are men who can go through it without
+suffering, but I would not advise any young man to commence it in a
+hurry. If I were you I should wait a year or two. Come, let's have a
+walk; that is, if you can tear yourself away from your lady-love for
+an hour. If there is not Saul coming up the avenue! Take your hat,
+Harry, and we'll get out the other way. He only wants to see the
+girls about the school, but if he catches us he'll keep us for an
+hour." Then Harry asked after Mr. Saul's love-affairs. "I've not
+heard one single word about it since you went away," said the rector.
+"It seems to have passed off like a dream. He and Fanny go on the
+same as ever, and I suppose he knows that he made a fool of himself."
+But in this matter the rector of Clavering was mistaken. Mr. Saul did
+not by any means think that he had made a fool of himself.
+
+"He has never spoken a word to me since," said Fanny to her brother
+that evening; "that is, not a word as to what occurred then. Of
+course it was very embarrassing at first, though I don't think he
+minded it much. He came after a day or two just the same as ever, and
+he almost made me think that he had forgotten it."
+
+"And he wasn't confused?"
+
+"Not at all. He never is. The only difference is that I think he
+scolds me more than he used to do."
+
+"Scold you!"
+
+"Oh dear, yes; he always scolded me if he thought there was anything
+wrong, especially about giving the children holidays. But he does it
+now more than ever."
+
+"And how do you bear it?"
+
+"In a half-and-half sort of way. I laugh at him, and then do as I'm
+bid. He makes everybody do what he bids them at Clavering,--except
+papa, sometimes. But he scolds him, too. I heard him the other day in
+the library."
+
+"And did my father take it from him?"
+
+"He did, in a sort of a way. I don't think papa likes him; but then
+he knows, and we all know, that he is so good. He never spares
+himself in anything. He has nothing but his curacy, and what he gives
+away is wonderful."
+
+"I hope he won't take to scolding me," said Harry, proudly.
+
+"As you don't concern yourself about the parish, I should say that
+you're safe. I suppose he thinks mamma does everything right, for he
+never scolds her."
+
+"There is no talk of his going away."
+
+"None at all. I think we should all be sorry, because he does so much
+good."
+
+Florence reigned supreme in the estimation of the rectory family all
+the evening of her arrival and till after breakfast the next morning,
+but then the bride elect was restored to her natural pre-eminence.
+This, however, lasted only for two days, after which the bride was
+taken away. The wedding was very nice, and pretty, and comfortable;
+and the people of Clavering were much better satisfied with it than
+they had been with that other marriage which has been mentioned as
+having been celebrated in Clavering Church. The rectory family was
+generally popular, and everybody wished well to the daughter who
+was being given away. When they were gone there was a breakfast at
+the rectory, and speeches were made with much volubility. On such
+an occasion the rector was a great man, and Harry also shone in
+conspicuous rivalry with his father. But Mr. Saul's spirit was not so
+well tuned to the occasion as that of the rector or his son, and when
+he got upon his legs, and mournfully expressed a hope that his friend
+Mr. Fielding might be enabled to bear the trials of this life with
+fortitude, it was felt by them all that the speaking had better be
+brought to an end.
+
+"You shouldn't laugh at him, Harry," Fanny said to her brother
+afterwards, almost seriously. "One man can do one thing and one
+another. You can make a speech better than he can, but I don't think
+you could preach so good a sermon."
+
+"I declare I think you're getting fond of him after all," said Harry.
+Upon hearing this Fanny turned away with a look of great offence. "No
+one but a brother," said she, "would say such a thing as that to me,
+because I don't like to hear the poor man ridiculed without cause."
+That evening, when they were alone, Fanny told Florence the whole
+story about Mr. Saul. "I tell you, you know, because you're like one
+of ourselves now. It has never been mentioned to any one out of the
+family."
+
+Florence declared that the story would be sacred with her.
+
+"I'm sure of that, dear, and therefore I like you to know it. Of
+course such a thing was quite out of the question. The poor fellow
+has no means at all,--literally none. And then, independently of
+that--"
+
+"I don't think I should ever bring myself to think of that as the
+first thing," said Florence.
+
+"No, nor would I. If I really were attached to a man, I think I would
+tell him so, and agree to wait, either with hope or without it."
+
+"Just so, Fanny."
+
+"But there was nothing of that kind; and, indeed, he's the sort of
+man that no girl would think of being in love with,--isn't he? You
+see he will hardly take the trouble to dress himself decently."
+
+"I have only seen him at a wedding, you know."
+
+"And for him he was quite bright. But you will see plenty of him if
+you will go to the schools with me. And indeed he comes here a great
+deal, quite as much as he did before that happened. He is so good,
+Florence!"
+
+"Poor man!"
+
+"I can't in the least make out from his manner whether he has given
+up thinking about it. I suppose he has. Indeed, of course he has,
+because he must know that it would be of no sort of use. But he is
+one of those men of whom you can never say whether they are happy or
+not; and you never can be quite sure what may be in his mind."
+
+"He is not bound to the place at all,--not like your father?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Fanny, thinking perhaps that Mr. Saul might find
+himself to be bound to the place, though not exactly with bonds
+similar to those which kept her father there.
+
+"If he found himself to be unhappy, he could go," said Florence.
+
+"Oh, yes; he could go if he were unhappy," said Fanny. "That is, he
+could go if he pleased."
+
+Lady Clavering had come to the wedding; but no one else had been
+present from the great house. Sir Hugh, indeed, was not at home; but,
+as the rector truly observed, he might have been at home if he had so
+pleased. "But he is a man," said the father to the son, "who always
+does a rude thing if it be in his power. For myself, I care nothing
+for him, as he knows. But he thinks that Mary would have liked to
+have seen him as the head of the family, and therefore he does not
+come. He has greater skill in making himself odious than any man I
+ever knew. As for her, they say he's leading her a terrible life. And
+he's becoming so stingy about money, too!"
+
+"I hear that Archie is very heavy on him."
+
+"I don't believe that he would allow any man to be heavy on him, as
+you call it. Archie has means of his own, and I suppose has not run
+through them yet. If Hugh has advanced him money, you may be sure
+that he has security. As for Archie, he will come to an end very
+soon, if what I hear is true. They tell me he is always at Newmarket,
+and that he always loses."
+
+But though Sir Hugh was thus uncourteous to the rector and to the
+rector's daughter, he was so far prepared to be civil to his cousin
+Harry, that he allowed his wife to ask all the rectory family to dine
+up at the house, in honour of Harry's sweetheart. Florence Burton
+was specially invited with Lady Clavering's sweetest smile. Florence,
+of course, referred the matter to her hostess, but it was decided
+that they should all accept the invitation. It was given, personally,
+after the breakfast, and it is not always easy to decline invitations
+so given. It may, I think, be doubted whether any man or woman has a
+right to give an invitation in this way, and whether all invitations
+so given should not be null and void, from the fact of the unfair
+advantage that has been taken. The man who fires at a sitting bird is
+known to be no sportsman. Now, the dinner-giver who catches his guest
+in an unguarded moment, and bags him when he has had no chance to
+rise upon his wing, does fire at a sitting bird. In this instance,
+however, Lady Clavering's little speeches were made only to Mrs.
+Clavering and to Florence. She said nothing personally to the rector,
+and he therefore might have escaped. But his wife talked him over.
+
+"I think you should go for Harry's sake," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"I don't see what good it will do Harry."
+
+"It will show that you approve of the match."
+
+"I don't approve or disapprove of it. He's his own master."
+
+"But you do approve, you know, as you countenance it; and there
+cannot possibly be a sweeter girl than Florence Burton. We all like
+her, and I'm sure you seem to take to her thoroughly."
+
+"Take to her; yes, I take to her very well. She's ladylike, and
+though she's no beauty, she looks pretty, and is spirited. And I
+daresay she's clever."
+
+"And so good."
+
+"If she's good, that's better than all. Only I don't see what they're
+to live on."
+
+"But as she is here, you will go with us to the great house?"
+
+Mrs. Clavering never asked her husband anything in vain, and the
+rector agreed to go. He apologized for this afterwards to his son by
+explaining that he did it as a duty. "It will serve for six months,"
+he said. "If I did not go there about once in six months, there would
+be supposed to be a family quarrel, and that would be bad for the
+parish."
+
+Harry was to remain only a week at Clavering, and the dinner was to
+take place the evening before he went away. On that morning he walked
+all round the park with Florence,--as he had before often walked with
+Julia,--and took that occasion of giving her a full history of the
+Clavering family. "We none of us like my cousin Hugh," he had said.
+"But she is at least harmless, and she means to be good-natured. She
+is very unlike her sister, Lady Ongar."
+
+"So I should suppose, from what you have told me."
+
+"Altogether an inferior being."
+
+"And she has only one child."
+
+"Only one,--a boy now two years old. They say he's anything but
+strong."
+
+"And Sir Hugh has one brother."
+
+"Yes; Archie Clavering. I think Archie is a worse fellow even than
+Hugh. He makes more attempts to be agreeable, but there is something
+in his eye which I always distrust. And then he is a man who does no
+good in the world to anybody."
+
+"He's not married?"
+
+"No; he's not married, and I don't suppose he ever will marry. It's
+on the cards, Florence, that the future baronet may be--" Then she
+frowned on him, walked on quickly, and changed the conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+SIR HUGH AND HIS BROTHER ARCHIE.
+
+
+There was a numerous gathering of Claverings in the drawing-room of
+the Great House when the family from the rectory arrived comprising
+three generations; for the nurse was in the room holding the heir
+in her arms. Mrs. Clavering and Fanny of course inspected the child
+at once, as they were bound to do, while Lady Clavering welcomed
+Florence Burton. Archie spoke a word or two to his uncle, and Sir
+Hugh vouchsafed to give one finger to his cousin Harry by way
+of shaking hands with him. Then there came a feeble squeak from
+the infant, and there was a cloud at once upon Sir Hugh's brow.
+"Hermione," he said, "I wish you wouldn't have the child in here.
+It's not the place for him. He's always cross. I've said a dozen
+times I wouldn't have him down here just before dinner." Then a sign
+was made to the nurse, and she walked off with her burden. It was a
+poor, rickety, unalluring bairn, but it was all that Lady Clavering
+had, and she would fain have been allowed to show it to her
+relatives, as other mothers are allowed to do.
+
+"Hugh," said his wife, "shall I introduce you to Miss Burton?"
+
+Then Sir Hugh came forward and shook hands with his new guest, with
+some sort of apology for his remissness, while Harry stood by,
+glowering at him, with offence in his eye. "My father is right,"
+he had said to himself when his cousin failed to notice Florence
+on her first entrance into the room; "he is impertinent as well as
+disagreeable. I don't care for quarrels in the parish, and so I shall
+let him know."
+
+"Upon my word she's a doosed good-looking little thing," said Archie,
+coming up to him, after having also shaken hands with her;--"doosed
+good-looking, I call her."
+
+"I'm glad you think so," said Harry, drily.
+
+"Let's see; where was it you picked her up? I did hear, but I
+forget."
+
+"I picked her up, as you call it, at Stratton, where her father
+lives."
+
+"Oh, yes; I know. He's the fellow that coached you in your new
+business, isn't he? By-the-by, Harry, I think you've made a mess of
+it in changing your line. I'd have stuck to my governor's shop if I'd
+been you. You'd got through all the d----d fag of it, and there's the
+living that has always belonged to a Clavering."
+
+"What would your brother have said if I had asked him to give it to
+me?"
+
+"He wouldn't have given it of course. Nobody does give anything to
+anybody now-a-days. Livings are a sort of thing that people buy. But
+you'd have got it under favourable circumstances."
+
+"The fact is, Archie, I'm not very fond of the church, as a
+profession."
+
+"I should have thought it easy work. Look at your father. He keeps
+a curate and doesn't take any trouble himself. Upon my word, if I'd
+known as much then as I do now, I'd have had a shy for it myself.
+Hugh couldn't have refused it to me."
+
+"But Hugh can't give it while his uncle holds it."
+
+"That would have been against me to be sure, and your governor's life
+is pretty nearly as good as mine. I shouldn't have liked waiting; so
+I suppose it's as well as it is."
+
+There may perhaps have been other reasons why Archie Clavering's
+regrets that he did not take holy orders were needless. He had never
+succeeded in learning anything that any master had ever attempted to
+teach him, although he had shown considerable aptitude in picking up
+acquirements for which no regular masters are appointed. He knew the
+fathers and mothers,--sires and dams I ought perhaps to say,--and
+grandfathers and grandmothers, and so back for some generations,
+of all the horses of note living in his day. He knew also the
+circumstances of all races,--what horses would run at them, and at
+what ages, what were the stakes, the periods of running, and the
+special interests of each affair. But not, on that account, should it
+be thought that the turf had been profitable to him. That it might
+become profitable at some future time, was possible; but Captain
+Archibald Clavering had not yet reached the profitable stage in
+the career of a betting man, though perhaps he was beginning to
+qualify himself for it. He was not bad-looking, though his face was
+unprepossessing to a judge of character. He was slight and well made,
+about five feet nine in height, with light brown hair, which had
+already left the top of his head bald, with slight whiskers, and a
+well-formed moustache. But the peculiarity of his face was in his
+eyes. His eyebrows were light-coloured and very slight, and this was
+made more apparent by the skin above the eyes, which was loose and
+hung down over the outside corners of them, giving him a look of
+cunning which was disagreeable. He seemed always to be speculating,
+counting up the odds, and calculating whether anything could be done
+with the events then present before him. And he was always ready to
+make a bet, being ever provided with a book for that purpose. He
+would take the odds that the sun did not rise on the morrow, and
+would either win the bet or wrangle in the losing of it. He would
+wrangle, but would do so noiselessly, never on such occasions
+damaging his cause by a loud voice. He was now about thirty-three
+years of age, and was two years younger than the baronet. Sir Hugh
+was not a gambler like his brother, but I do not know that he
+was therefore a more estimable man. He was greedy and anxious to
+increase his store, never willing to lose that which he possessed,
+fond of pleasure, but very careful of himself in the enjoyment of
+it, handsome, every inch an English gentleman in appearance, and
+therefore popular with men and women of his own class who were not
+near enough to him to know him well, given to but few words, proud
+of his name, and rank, and place, well versed in the business of the
+world, a match for most men in money matters, not ignorant, though he
+rarely opened a book, selfish, and utterly regardless of the feelings
+of all those with whom he came in contact. Such were Sir Hugh
+Clavering and his brother the captain.
+
+Sir Hugh took Florence in to dinner, and when the soup had been eaten
+made an attempt to talk to her. "How long have you been here, Miss
+Burton?"
+
+"Nearly a week," said Florence.
+
+"Ah;--you came to the wedding; I was sorry I couldn't be here. It
+went off very well, I suppose?"
+
+"Very well indeed, I think."
+
+"They're tiresome things in general,--weddings. Don't you think so?"
+
+"Oh dear, no,--except that some person one loves is always being
+taken away."
+
+"You'll be the next person to be taken away yourself, I suppose?"
+
+"I must be the next person at home, because I am the last that is
+left. All my sisters are married."
+
+"And how many are there?"
+
+"There are five married."
+
+"Good heavens--five!"
+
+"And they are all married to men in the same profession as Harry."
+
+"Quite a family affair," said Sir Hugh. Harry, who was sitting on
+the other side of Florence, heard this, and would have preferred
+that Florence should have said nothing about her sisters. "Why,
+Harry," said the baronet, "if you will go into partnership with your
+father-in-law and all your brothers-in-law you could stand against
+the world."
+
+"You might add my four brothers," said Florence, who saw no shame in
+the fact that they were all engaged in the same business.
+
+"Good heaven!" exclaimed Sir Hugh, and after that he did not say much
+more to Florence.
+
+The rector had taken Lady Clavering in to dinner, and they two did
+manage to carry on between them some conversation respecting the
+parish affairs. Lady Clavering was not active among the poor,--nor
+was the rector himself, and perhaps neither of them knew how little
+the other did; but they could talk Clavering talk, and the parson was
+willing to take for granted his neighbour's good will to make herself
+agreeable. But Mrs. Clavering, who sat between Sir Hugh and Archie,
+had a very bad time of it. Sir Hugh spoke to her once during the
+dinner, saying that he hoped she was satisfied with her daughter's
+marriage; but even this he said in a tone that seemed to imply that
+any such satisfaction must rest on very poor grounds. "Thoroughly
+satisfied," said Mrs. Clavering, drawing herself up and looking very
+unlike the usual Mrs. Clavering of the rectory. After that there was
+no further conversation between her and Sir Hugh. "The worst of him
+to me is always this," she said that evening to her husband, "that he
+puts me so much out of conceit with myself. If I were with him long I
+should begin to find myself the most disagreeable woman in England!"
+"Then pray don't be with him long," said the rector.
+
+But Archie made conversation throughout dinner, and added greatly to
+Mrs. Clavering's troubles by doing so. There was nothing in common
+between them, but still Archie went on laboriously with his work.
+It was a duty which he recognized, and at which he would work hard.
+When he had used up Mary's marriage, a subject which he economized
+carefully, so that he brought it down to the roast saddle of mutton,
+he began upon Harry's match. When was it to be? Where were they to
+live? Was there any money? What manner of people were the Burtons?
+Perhaps he might get over it? This he whispered very lowly, and it
+was the question next in sequence to that about the money. When, in
+answer to this, Mrs. Clavering with considerable energy declared that
+anything of that kind would be a misfortune of which there seemed
+to be no chance whatever, he recovered himself as he thought very
+skilfully. "Oh, yes; of course; that's just what I meant;--a doosed
+nice girl I think her;--a doosed nice girl, all round." Archie's
+questions were very laborious to his fellow-labourer in his
+conversation because he never allowed one of them to pass without an
+answer. He always recognized the fact that he was working hard on
+behalf of society, and, as he used to say himself, that he had no
+idea of pulling all the coach up the hill by his own shoulders.
+Whenever therefore he had made his effort he waited for his
+companion's, looking closely into her face, cunningly driving her on,
+so that she also should pull her share of the coach. Before dinner
+was over Mrs. Clavering found the hill to be very steep, and the
+coach to be very heavy. "I'll bet you seven to one," said he,--and
+this was his parting speech as Mrs. Clavering rose up at Lady
+Clavering's nod,--"I'll bet you seven to one, that the whole box and
+dice of them are married before me,--or at any rate as soon; and I
+don't mean to remain single much longer, I can tell you." The "box
+and dice of them" was supposed to comprise Harry, Florence, Fanny,
+and Lady Ongar, of all of whom mention had been made, and that saving
+clause,--"at any rate as soon,"--was cunningly put in, as it had
+occurred to Archie that he perhaps might be married on the same day
+as one of those other persons. But Mrs. Clavering was not compelled
+either to accept or reject the bet, as she was already moving before
+the terms had been fully explained to her.
+
+Lady Clavering as she went out of the room stopped a moment behind
+Harry's chair and whispered a word to him. "I want to speak to you
+before you go to-night." Then she passed on.
+
+"What's that Hermione was saying?" asked Sir Hugh, when he had shut
+the door.
+
+"She only told me that she wanted to speak to me."
+
+"She has always got some cursed secret," said Sir Hugh. "If there is
+anything I hate, it's a secret." Now this was hardly fair, for Sir
+Hugh was a man very secret in his own affairs, never telling his
+wife anything about them. He kept two banker's accounts so that no
+banker's clerk might know how he stood as regarded ready money, and
+hardly treated even his lawyer with confidence.
+
+He did not move from his own chair, so that, after dinner, his uncle
+was not next to him. The places left by the ladies were not closed
+up, and the table was very uncomfortable.
+
+"I see they're going to have another week after this with the
+Pytchley," said Sir Hugh to his brother.
+
+"I suppose they will,--or ten days. Things ain't very early this
+year."
+
+"I think I shall go down. It's never any use trying to hunt here
+after the middle of March."
+
+"You're rather short of foxes, are you not?" said the rector, making
+an attempt to join the conversation.
+
+"Upon my word I don't know anything about it," said Sir Hugh.
+
+"There are foxes at Clavering," said Archie, recommencing his duty.
+"The hounds will be here on Saturday, and I'll bet three to one I
+find a fox before twelve o'clock, or, say, half-past twelve,--that
+is, if they'll draw punctually and let me do as I like with the pack.
+I'll bet a guinea we find, and a guinea we run, and a guinea we kill;
+that is, you know, if they'll really look for a fox."
+
+The rector had been willing to fall into a little hunting talk for
+the sake of society, but he was not prepared to go the length that
+Archie proposed to take him, and therefore the subject dropped.
+
+"At any rate I shan't stay here after to-morrow," said Sir Hugh,
+still addressing himself to his brother. "Pass the wine, will you,
+Harry; that is, if your father is drinking any."
+
+"No more wine for me," said the rector, almost angrily.
+
+"Liberty Hall," said Sir Hugh; "everybody does as they like about
+that. I mean to have another bottle of claret. Archie, ring the bell,
+will you?" Captain Clavering, though he was further from the bell
+than his elder brother, got up and did as he was bid. The claret
+came, and was drunk almost in silence. The rector, though he had a
+high opinion of the cellar of the great house, would take none of
+the new bottle, because he was angry. Harry filled his glass, and
+attempted to say something. Sir Hugh answered him by a monosyllable,
+and Archie offered to bet him two to one that he was wrong.
+
+"I'll go into the drawing-room," said the rector, getting up.
+
+"All right," said Sir Hugh; "you'll find coffee there, I daresay. Has
+your father given up wine?" he asked, as soon as the door was closed.
+
+"Not that I know of," said Harry.
+
+"He used to take as good a whack as any man I know. The bishop hasn't
+put his embargo on that as well as the hunting, I hope?" To this
+Harry made no answer.
+
+"He's in the blues, I think," said Archie. "Is there anything the
+matter with him, Harry?"
+
+"Nothing as far as I know."
+
+"If I were left at Clavering all the year, with nothing to do, as
+he is, I think I should drink a good deal of wine," said Sir Hugh.
+"I don't know what it is,--something in the air, I suppose,--but
+everybody always seems to me to be dreadfully dull here. You ain't
+taking any wine either. Don't stop here out of ceremony, you know,
+if you want to go after Miss Burton." Harry took him at his word,
+and went after Miss Burton, leaving the brothers together over their
+claret.
+
+The two brothers remained drinking their wine, but they drank it in
+an uncomfortable fashion, not saying much to each other for the first
+ten minutes after the other Claverings were gone. Archie was in some
+degree afraid of his brother, and never offered to make any bets with
+him. Hugh had once put a stop to this altogether. "Archie," he had
+said, "pray understand that there is no money to be made out of me,
+at any rate not by you. If you lost money to me, you wouldn't think
+it necessary to pay; and I certainly shall lose none to you." The
+habit of proposing to bet had become with Archie so much a matter of
+course, that he did not generally intend any real speculation by his
+offers; but with his brother he had dropped even the habit. And he
+seldom began any conversation with Hugh unless he had some point
+to gain,--an advance of money to ask, or some favour to beg in the
+way of shooting, or the loan of a horse. On such occasions he would
+commence the negotiation with his usual diplomacy, not knowing any
+other mode of expressing his wishes; but he was aware that his
+brother would always detect his manoeuvres, and expose them before
+he had got through his first preface; and, therefore, as I have said,
+he was afraid of Hugh.
+
+"I don't know what's come to my uncle of late," said Hugh, after a
+while. "I think I shall have to drop them at the rectory altogether."
+
+"He never had much to say for himself."
+
+"But he has a mode of expressing himself without speaking, which I
+do not choose to put up with at my table. The fact is they are going
+to the mischief at the rectory. His eldest girl has just married a
+curate."
+
+"Fielding has got a living."
+
+"It's something very small then, and I suppose Fanny will marry that
+prig they have here. My uncle himself never does any of his own work,
+and now Harry is going to make a fool of himself. I used to think he
+would fall on his legs."
+
+"He is a clever fellow."
+
+"Then why is he such a fool as to marry such a girl as this, without
+money, good looks, or breeding? It's well for you he is such a fool,
+or else you wouldn't have a chance."
+
+"I don't see that at all," said Archie.
+
+"Julia always had a sneaking fondness for Harry, and if he had waited
+would have taken him now. She was very near making a fool of herself
+with him once, before Lord Ongar turned up."
+
+To this Archie said nothing, but he changed colour, and it may almost
+be said of him that he blushed. Why he was affected in so singular a
+manner by his brother's words will be best explained by a statement
+of what took place in the back drawing-room a little later in the
+evening.
+
+When Harry reached the drawing-room he went up to Lady Clavering, but
+she said nothing to him then of especial notice. She was talking
+to Mrs. Clavering while the rector was reading,--or pretending to
+read,--a review, and the two girls were chattering together in
+another part of the room. Then they had coffee, and after awhile the
+two other men came in from their wine. Lady Clavering did not move at
+once, but she took the first opportunity of doing so, when Sir Hugh
+came up to Mrs. Clavering and spoke a word to her. A few minutes
+after that Harry found himself closeted with Lady Clavering, in a
+little room detached from the others, though the doors between the
+two were open.
+
+"Do you know," said Lady Clavering, "that Sir Hugh has asked Julia to
+come here?" Harry paused a moment, and then acknowledged that he did
+know it.
+
+"I hope you did not advise her to refuse."
+
+"I advise her! Oh dear, no. She did not ask me anything about it."
+
+"But she has refused. Don't you think she has been very wrong?"
+
+"It is hard to say," said Harry. "You know I thought it very cruel
+that Hugh did not receive her immediately on her return. If I had
+been him I should have gone to Paris to meet her."
+
+"It's no good talking of that now, Harry. Hugh is hard, and we all
+know that. Who feels it most, do you think; Julia or I? But as he has
+come round, what can she gain by standing off? Will it not be the
+best thing for her to come here?"
+
+"I don't know that she has much to gain by it."
+
+"Harry,--do you know that we have a plan?" "Who is we?" Harry asked;
+but she went on without noticing his question. "I tell you, because I
+believe you can help us more than any one, if you will. Only for your
+engagement with Miss Burton I should not mention it to you; and, but
+for that, the plan would, I daresay, be of no use."
+
+"What is the plan?" said Harry, very gravely. A vague idea of
+what the plan might be had come across Harry's mind during Lady
+Clavering's last speech.
+
+"Would it not be a good thing if Julia and Archie were to be
+married?" She asked the question in a quick, hesitating voice,
+looking at first eagerly up into his face, and then turning away her
+eyes, as though she were afraid of the answer she might read there.
+"Of course I know that you were fond of her, but all that can be
+nothing now."
+
+"No," said Harry, "that can be nothing now."
+
+"Then why shouldn't Archie have her? It would make us all so much
+more comfortable together. I told Archie that I should speak to you,
+because I know that you have more weight with her than any of us; but
+Hugh doesn't know that I mean it."
+
+"Does Sir Hugh know of the,--the plan?"
+
+"It was he who proposed it. Archie will be very badly off when he has
+settled with Hugh about all their money dealings. Of course Julia's
+money would be left in her own hands; there would be no intention to
+interfere with that. But the position would be so good for him; and
+it would, you know, put him on his legs."
+
+"Yes," said Harry, "it would put him on his legs, I daresay."
+
+"And why shouldn't it be so? She can't live alone by herself always.
+Of course she never could have really loved Lord Ongar."
+
+"Never, I should think," said Harry.
+
+"And Archie is good-natured, and good-tempered,
+and--and--and--good-looking. Don't you think so? I think it would
+just do for her. She'd have her own way, for he's not a bit like
+Hugh, you know. He's not so clever as Hugh, but he is much more
+good-natured. Don't you think it would be a good arrangement, Harry?"
+Then again she looked up into his face anxiously.
+
+Nothing in the whole matter surprised him more than her eagerness in
+advocating the proposal. Why should she desire that her sister should
+be sacrificed in this way? But in so thinking of it he forgot her own
+position, and the need that there was to her for some friend to be
+near to her,--for some comfort and assistance. She had spoken truly
+in saying that the plan had originated with her husband; but since it
+had been suggested to her, she had not ceased to think of it, and to
+wish for it.
+
+"Well, Harry, what do you say?" she asked.
+
+"I don't see that I have anything to say."
+
+"But I know you can help us. When I was with her the last time she
+declared that you were the only one of us she ever wished to see
+again. She meant to include me then especially, but of course she was
+not thinking of Archie. I know you can help us if you will."
+
+"Am I to ask her to marry him?"
+
+"Not exactly that; I don't think that would do any good. But you
+might persuade her to come here. I think she would come if you
+advised her; and then, after a bit, you might say a good word for
+Archie."
+
+"Upon my word I could not."
+
+"Why not, Harry?"
+
+"Because I know he would not make her happy. What good would such a
+marriage do her?"
+
+"Think of her position. No one will visit her unless she is first
+received here, or at any rate unless she comes to us in town. And
+then it would be up-hill work. Do you know Lord Ongar had absolutely
+determined at one time to--to get a divorce?"
+
+"And do you believe that she was guilty?"
+
+"I don't say that. No; why should I believe anything against my own
+sister when nothing is proved. But that makes no difference, if the
+world believes it. They say now that if he had lived three months
+longer she never would have got the money."
+
+"Then they say lies. Who is it says so? A parcel of old women who
+delight in having some one to run down and backbite. It is all false,
+Lady Clavering."
+
+"But what does it signify, Harry? There she is, and you know how
+people are talking. Of course it would be best for her to marry
+again; and if she would take Archie,--Sir Hugh's brother, my
+brother-in-law, nothing further would be said. She might go anywhere
+then. As her sister, I feel sure that it is the best thing she could
+do."
+
+Harry's brow became clouded, and there was a look of anger on his
+face as he answered her.
+
+"Lady Clavering," he said, "your sister will never marry my cousin
+Archie. I look upon the thing as impossible."
+
+"Perhaps it is, Harry, that you,--you yourself would not wish it."
+
+"Why should I wish it?"
+
+"He is your own cousin."
+
+"Cousin indeed! Why should I wish it, or why should I not wish it?
+They are neither of them anything to me."
+
+"She ought not to be anything to you."
+
+"And she is nothing. She may marry Archie, if she pleases, for me. I
+shall not set her against him. But, Lady Clavering, you might as well
+tell him to get one of the stars. I don't think you can know your
+sister when you suppose such a match to be possible."
+
+"Hermione!" shouted Sir Hugh,--and the shout was uttered in a voice
+that always caused Lady Clavering to tremble.
+
+"I am coming," she said, rising from her chair. "Don't set yourself
+against it, Harry," and then, without waiting to hear him further,
+she obeyed her husband's summons. "What the mischief keeps you in
+there?" he said. It seemed that things had not been going well in the
+larger room. The rector had stuck to his review, taking no notice of
+Sir Hugh when he entered. "You seem to be very fond of your book, all
+of a sudden," Sir Hugh had said, after standing silent on the rug for
+a few minutes.
+
+"Yes, I am," said the rector,--"just at present."
+
+"It's quite new with you, then," said Sir Hugh, "or else you're very
+much belied."
+
+"Hugh," said Mr. Clavering, rising slowly from his chair, "I don't
+often come into my father's house, but when I do, I wish to be
+treated with respect. You are the only person in this parish that
+ever omits to do so."
+
+"Bosh!" said Sir Hugh.
+
+The two girls sat cowering in their seats, and poor Florence
+must have begun to entertain an uncomfortable idea of her future
+connexions. Archie made a frantic attempt to raise some conversation
+with Mrs. Clavering about the weather. Mrs. Clavering, paying no
+attention to Archie whatever, looked at her husband with beseeching
+eyes. "Henry," she said, "do not allow yourself to be angry; pray do
+not. What is the use?"
+
+"None on earth," he said, returning to his book. "No use on
+earth;--and worse than none in showing it."
+
+Then it was that Sir Hugh had made a diversion by calling to his
+wife. "I wish you'd stay with us, and not go off alone with one
+person in particular, in that way." Lady Clavering looked round and
+immediately saw that things were unpleasant. "Archie," she said,
+"will you ring for tea?" And Archie did ring. The tea was brought,
+and a cup was taken all round, almost in silence.
+
+Harry in the meantime remained by himself thinking of what he had
+heard from Lady Clavering. Archie Clavering marry Lady Ongar,--marry
+his Julia! It was impossible. He could not bring himself even to
+think of such an arrangement with equanimity. He was almost frantic
+with anger as he thought of this proposition to restore Lady Ongar to
+the position in the world's repute which she had a right to claim, by
+such a marriage as that. "She would indeed be disgraced then," said
+Harry to himself. But he knew that it was impossible. He could see
+what would be the nature of Julia's countenance if Archie should ever
+get near enough to her to make his proposal! Archie indeed! There
+was no one for whom, at that moment, he entertained so thorough a
+contempt as he did for his cousin, Archie Clavering.
+
+Let us hope that he was no dog in the manger;--that the feelings
+which he now entertained for poor Archie would not have been roused
+against any other possible suitor who might have been named as a
+fitting husband for Lady Ongar. Lady Ongar could be nothing to him!
+
+But I fear that he was a dog in the manger, and that any marriage
+contemplated for Lady Ongar, either by herself or by others for her,
+would have been distasteful to him,--unnaturally distasteful. He knew
+that Lady Ongar could be nothing to him; and yet, as he came out of
+the small room into the larger room, there was something sore about
+his heart, and the soreness was occasioned by the thought that any
+second marriage should be thought possible for Lady Ongar. Florence
+smiled on him as he went up to her, but I doubt whether she would
+have smiled had she known all his heart.
+
+Soon after that Mrs. Clavering rose to return home, having swallowed
+a peace-offering in the shape of a cup of tea. But though the tea
+had quieted the storm then on the waters, there was no true peace in
+the rector's breast. He shook hands cordially with Lady Clavering,
+without animosity with Archie, and then held out three fingers to the
+baronet. The baronet held out one finger. Each nodded at the other,
+and so they parted. Harry, who knew nothing of what had happened, and
+who was still thinking of Lady Ongar, busied himself with Florence,
+and they were soon out of the house, walking down the broad road from
+the front door.
+
+"I will never enter that house again, when I know that Hugh Clavering
+is in it," said the rector.
+
+"Don't make rash assertions, Henry," said his wife.
+
+"I hope it is not rash, but I make that assertion," he said. "I will
+never again enter that house as my nephew's guest. I have borne a
+great deal for the sake of peace, but there are things which a man
+cannot bear."
+
+Then, as they walked home, the two girls explained to Harry what had
+occurred in the larger room, while he was talking to Lady Clavering
+in the smaller one. But he said nothing to them of the subject of
+that conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+LADY ONGAR TAKES POSSESSION.
+
+
+I do not know that there is in England a more complete gentleman's
+residence than Ongar Park, nor could there be one in better repair,
+or more fit for immediate habitation than was that house when it came
+into the hands of the young widow. The park was not large, containing
+about sixty or seventy acres. But there was a home-farm attached to
+the place, which also now belonged to Lady Ongar for her life, and
+which gave to the park itself an appearance of extent which it would
+otherwise have wanted. The house, regarded as a nobleman's mansion,
+was moderate in size, but it was ample for the requirements of any
+ordinarily wealthy family. The dining-room, library, drawing-rooms,
+and breakfast-room, were all large and well-arranged. The hall was
+handsome and spacious, and the bed-rooms were sufficiently numerous
+to make an auctioneer's mouth water. But the great charm of Ongar
+Park lay in the grounds immediately round the house, which sloped
+down from the terrace before the windows to a fast-running stream
+which was almost hidden,--but was not hidden,--by the shrubs on its
+bank. Though the domain itself was small, the shrubberies and walks
+were extensive. It was a place costly to maintain in its present
+perfect condition, but when that was said against it, all was said
+against it which its bitterest enemies could allege.
+
+But Lady Ongar, with her large jointure, and with no external
+expenses whatever, could afford this delight without imprudence.
+Everything in and about the place was her own, and she might live
+there happily, even in the face of the world's frowns, if she could
+teach herself to find happiness in rural luxuries. On her immediate
+return to England, her lawyer had told her that he found there would
+be opposition to her claim, and that an attempt would be made to keep
+the house out of her hands. Lord Ongar's people would, he said, bribe
+her to submit to this by immediate acquiescence as to her income.
+But she had declared that she would not submit,--that she would
+have house and income and all; and she had been successful. "Why
+should I surrender what is my own?" she had said, looking the lawyer
+full in the face. The lawyer had not dared to tell her that her
+opponents,--Lord Ongar's heirs,--had calculated on her anxiety to
+avoid exposure; but she knew that that was meant. "I have nothing to
+fear from them," she said, "and mean to claim what is my own by my
+settlement." There had, in truth, been no ground for disputing her
+right, and the place was given up to her before she had been three
+months in England. She at once went down and took possession, and
+there she was, alone, when her sister was communicating to Harry
+Clavering her plan about Captain Archie.
+
+She had never seen the place till she reached it on this occasion;
+nor had she ever seen, nor would she now probably ever see, Lord
+Ongar's larger house, Courton Castle. She had gone abroad with him
+immediately on their marriage, and now she had returned a widow to
+take possession of his house. There she was in possession of it all.
+The furniture in the rooms, the books in the cases, the gilded clocks
+and grand mirrors about the house, all the implements of wealthy
+care about the gardens, the corn in the granaries and the ricks
+in the hay-yard, the horses in the stable, and the cows lowing in
+the fields,--they were all hers. She had performed her part of the
+bargain, and now the price was paid to her into her hands. When she
+arrived she did not know what was the extent of her riches in this
+world's goods; nor, in truth, had she at once the courage to ask
+questions on the subject. She saw cows, and was told of horses; and
+words came to her gradually of sheep and oxen, of poultry, pigs, and
+growing calves. It was as though a new world had opened itself before
+her eyes, full of interest, and as though all that world were her
+own. She looked at it, and knew that it was the price of her bargain.
+Upon the whole she had been very lucky. She had, indeed, passed
+through a sharp agony,--an agony sharp almost to death; but the agony
+had been short, and the price was in her hand.
+
+A close carriage had met her at the station, and taken her with her
+maid to the house. She had so arranged that she had reached the
+station after dark, and even then had felt that the eyes of many were
+upon her as she went out to her carriage, with her face covered by
+a veil. She was all alone, and there would be no one at the house
+to whom she could speak;--but the knowledge that the carriage was
+her own perhaps consoled her. The housekeeper who received her was a
+stout, elderly, comfortable body, to whom she could perhaps say a few
+words beyond those which might be spoken to an ordinary servant; but
+she fancied at once that the housekeeper was cold to her, and solemn
+in her demeanour. "I hope you have good fires, Mrs. Button." "Yes,
+my lady." "I think I will have some tea; I don't want anything else
+to-night." "Very well, my lady." Mrs. Button, maintaining a solemn
+countenance, would not go beyond this; and yet Mrs. Button looked
+like a woman who could have enjoyed a gossip, had the lady been a
+lady to her mind. Perhaps Mrs. Button did not like serving a lady as
+to whom such sad stories were told. Lady Ongar, as she thought of
+this, drew herself up unconsciously, and sent Mrs. Button away from
+her.
+
+The next morning, after an early breakfast, Lady Ongar went out. She
+was determined that she would work hard; that she would understand
+the farm; that she would know the labourers; that she would assist
+the poor; that she would have a school; and, above all, that she
+would make all the privileges of ownership her own. Was not the price
+in her hand, and would she not use it? She felt that it was very good
+that something of the price had come to her thus in the shape of
+land, and beeves, and wide, heavy outside garniture. From them she
+would pluck an interest which mere money could not have given her.
+She was out early, therefore, that she might look round upon the
+things that were her own.
+
+And there came upon her a feeling that she would not empty this sweet
+cup at one draught, that she would dally somewhat with the rich
+banquet that was spread for her. She had many griefs to overcome,
+much sorrow to conquer, perhaps a long period of desolation to
+assuage, and she would not be prodigal of her resources. As she
+looked around her while she walked, almost furtively, lest some
+gardener as he spied her might guess her thoughts and tell how my
+lady was revelling in her pride of possession,--it appeared to her
+that those novelties in which she was to find her new interest were
+without end. There was not a tree there, not a shrub, not a turn in
+the walks, which should not become her friend. She did not go far
+from the house, not even down to the water. She was husbanding her
+resources. But yet she lost herself amidst the paths, and tried to
+find a joy in feeling that she had done so. It was all her own. It
+was the price of what she had done; and the price was even now being
+paid into her hand,--paid with current coin and of full weight.
+
+As she sat down alone to her breakfast, she declared to herself that
+this should be enough for her,--that it should satisfy her. She had
+made her bargain with her eyes open, and would not now ask for things
+which had not been stipulated in the contract. She was alone, and all
+the world was turning its back on her. The relatives of her late
+husband would, as a matter of course, be her enemies. Them she had
+never seen, and that they should speak evil of her seemed to be only
+natural. But her own relatives were removed from her by a gulf nearly
+equally wide. Of Brabazon cousins she had none nearer than the third
+or fourth degree of cousinship, and of them she had never taken heed,
+and expected no heed from them. Her set of friends would naturally
+have been the same as her sister's, and would have been made up of
+those she had known when she was one of Sir Hugh's family. But from
+Sir Hugh she was divided now as widely as from the Ongar people,
+and,--for any purposes of society,--from her sister also. Sir Hugh
+had allowed his wife to invite her to Clavering, but to this she
+would not submit after Sir Hugh's treatment to her on her return.
+Though she had suffered much, her spirit was unbroken. Sir Hugh was,
+in truth, responsible for her reception in England. Had he come
+forward like a brother, all might have been well. But it was too late
+now for Sir Hugh Clavering to remedy the evil he had done, and he
+should be made to understand that Lady Ongar would not become a
+suppliant to him for mercy. She was striving to think how "rich she
+was in horses, how rich in broidered garments and in gold," as she
+sat solitary over her breakfast; but her mind would run off to other
+things, cumbering itself with unnecessary miseries and useless
+indignation. Had she not her price in her hand?
+
+Would she see the steward that morning? No,--not that morning. Things
+outside could go on for a while in their course as heretofore. She
+feared to seem to take possession with pride, and then there was that
+conviction that it would be well to husband her resources. So she
+sent for Mrs. Button, and asked Mrs. Button to walk through the rooms
+with her. Mrs. Button came, but again declined to accept her lady's
+condescension. Every spot about the house, every room, closet, and
+wardrobe, she was ready to open with zeal; the furniture she was
+prepared to describe, if Lady Ongar would listen to her; but every
+word was spoken in a solemn voice, very far removed from gossiping.
+Only once was Mrs. Button moved to betray any emotion. "That, my
+lady, was my lord's mother's room, after my lord died,--my lord's
+father that was; may God bless her." Then Lady Ongar reflected that
+from her husband she had never heard a word either of his father or
+his mother. She wished that she could seat herself with that woman in
+some small upstairs room, and then ask question after question about
+the family. But she did not dare to make the attempt. She could not
+bring herself to explain to Mrs. Button that she had never known
+anything of the belongings of her own husband.
+
+When she had seen the upper part of the house, Mrs. Button offered to
+convoy her through the kitchens and servants' apartments, but she
+declined this for the present. She had done enough for the day. So
+she dismissed Mrs. Button, and took herself to the library. How often
+had she heard that books afforded the surest consolation to the
+desolate. She would take to reading; not on this special day, but as
+the resource for many days and months, and years to come. But this
+idea had faded and become faint, before she had left the gloomy,
+damp-feeling, chill room, in which some former Lord Ongar had stored
+the musty volumes which he had thought fit to purchase. The library
+gave her no ease, so she went out again among the lawns and shrubs.
+For some time to come her best resources must be those which she
+could find outside the house.
+
+Peering about, she made her way behind the stables, which were
+attached to the house, to a farmyard gate, through which the way led
+to the head-quarters of the live-stock. She did not go through, but
+she looked over the gate, telling herself that those barns and sheds,
+that wealth of straw-yard, those sleeping pigs and idle dreaming
+calves, were all her own. As she did so, her eye fell upon an old
+labourer, who was sitting close to her, on a felled tree, under the
+shelter of a paling, eating his dinner. A little girl, some six years
+old, who had brought him his meal tied up in a handkerchief, was
+crouching near his feet. They had both seen her before she had seen
+them, and when she noticed them, were staring at her with all their
+eyes. She and they were on the same side of the farmyard paling, and
+so she could reach them and speak to them without difficulty. There
+was apparently no other person near enough to listen, and it occurred
+to her that she might at any rate make a friend of this old man. His
+name, he said, was Enoch Gubby, and the girl was his grandchild. Her
+name was Patty Gubby. Then Patty got up and had her head patted by
+her ladyship and received sixpence. They neither of them, however,
+knew who her ladyship was, and, as far as Lady Ongar could ascertain
+without a question too direct to be asked, had never heard of her.
+Enoch Gubby said he worked for Mr. Giles, the steward,--that was for
+my lord, and as he was old and stiff with rheumatism he only got
+eight shillings a week. He had a daughter, the mother of Patty, who
+worked in the fields, and got six shillings a week. Everything about
+the poor Gubbys seemed to be very wretched and miserable. Sometimes
+he could hardly drag himself about, he was so bad with the
+rheumatics. Then she thought that she would make one person happy,
+and told him that his wages should be raised to ten shillings a week.
+No matter whether he earned it or not, or what Mr. Giles might say,
+he should have ten shillings a week. Enoch Gubby bowed, and rubbed
+his head, and stared, and was in truth thankful because of the
+sixpence in ready money; but he believed nothing about the ten
+shillings. He did not especially disbelieve, but simply felt
+confident that he understood nothing that was said to him. That
+kindness was intended, and that the sixpence was there, he did
+understand.
+
+
+[Illustration: Was not the price in her hand?]
+
+
+But Enoch Gubby got his weekly ten shillings, though Lady Ongar
+hardly realized the pleasure that she had expected from the
+transaction. She sent that afternoon for Mr. Giles, the steward, and
+told him what she had done. Mr. Giles did not at all approve, and
+spoke his disapproval very plainly, though he garnished his rebuke
+with a great many "my lady's." The old man was a hanger-on about the
+place, and for years had received eight shillings a week, which he
+had not half earned. "Now he will have ten, that is all," said Lady
+Ongar. Mr. Giles acknowledged that if her ladyship pleased, Enoch
+Gubby must have the ten shillings, but declared that the business
+could not be carried on in that way. Everybody about the place would
+expect an addition, and those people who did earn what they received,
+would think themselves cruelly used in being worse treated than Enoch
+Gubby, who, according to Mr. Giles, was by no means the most worthy
+old man in the parish. And as for his daughter--oh! Mr. Giles could
+not trust himself to talk about the daughter to her ladyship. Before
+he left her, Lady Ongar was convinced that she had made a mistake.
+Not even from charity will pleasure come, if charity be taken up
+simply to appease remorse.
+
+The price was in her hand. For a fortnight the idea clung to her,
+that gradually she would realize the joys of possession; but there
+was no moment in which she could tell herself that the joy was hers.
+She was now mistress of the geography of the place. There was no more
+losing herself amidst the shrubberies, no thought of economizing her
+resources. Of Mr. Giles and his doings she still knew very little,
+but the desire of knowing much had faded. The ownership of the
+haystacks had become a thing tame to her, and the great cart-horses,
+as to every one of which she had intended to feel an interest, were
+matters of indifference to her. She observed that since her arrival a
+new name in new paint,--her own name,--was attached to the carts, and
+that the letters were big and glaring. She wished that this had not
+been done, or, at any rate, that the letters had been smaller. Then
+she began to think that it might be well for her to let the farm to
+a tenant; not that she might thus get more money, but because she
+felt that the farm would be a trouble. The apples had indeed quickly
+turned to ashes between her teeth!
+
+On the first Sunday that she was at Ongar Park she went to the parish
+church. She had resolved strongly that she would do this, and she did
+it; but when the moment for starting came, her courage almost failed
+her. The church was but a few yards from her own gate, and she walked
+there without any attendant. She had, however, sent word to the
+sexton to say that she would be there, and the old man was ready to
+show her into the family pew. She wore a thick veil, and was dressed,
+of course, in all the deep ceremonious woe of widowhood. As she
+walked up the centre of the church she thought of her dress, and told
+herself that all there would know how it had been between her and her
+husband. She was pretending to mourn for the man to whom she had sold
+herself; for the man who through happy chance had died so quickly,
+leaving her with the price in her hand! All of course knew that, and
+all thought that they knew, moreover, that she had been foully false
+to her bargain, and had not earned the price! That, also, she told
+herself. But she went through it, and walked out of the church among
+the village crowd with her head on high.
+
+Three days afterwards she wrote to the clergyman, asking him to call
+on her. She had come, she said, to live in the parish, and hoped to
+be able, with his assistance, to be of some use among the people.
+She would hardly know how to act without some counsel from him. The
+schools might be all that was excellent, but if there was anything
+required she hoped he would tell her. On the following morning the
+clergyman called, and, with many thanks for her generosity, listened
+to her plans, and accepted her subsidies. But he was a married man,
+and he said nothing of his wife, nor during the next week did his
+wife come to call on her. She was to be left desolate by all, because
+men had told lies of her!
+
+She had the price in her hands, but she felt herself tempted to do as
+Judas did,--to go out and hang herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A VISITOR CALLS AT ONGAR PARK.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+It will be remembered that Harry Clavering, on returning one evening
+to his lodgings in Bloomsbury Square, had been much astonished at
+finding there the card of Count Pateroff, a man of whom he had only
+heard, up to that moment, as the friend of the late Lord Ongar. At
+first he had been very angry with Lady Ongar, thinking that she and
+this count were in some league together, some league of which he
+would greatly disapprove; but his anger had given place to a new
+interest when he learned direct from herself that she had not seen
+the count, and that she was simply anxious that he, as her friend,
+should have an interview with the man. He had then become very
+eager in the matter, offering to subject himself to any amount of
+inconvenience so that he might effect that which Lady Ongar asked of
+him. He was not, however, called upon to endure any special trouble
+or expense, as he heard nothing more from Count Pateroff till he had
+been back in London for two or three weeks.
+
+Lady Ongar's statement to him had been quite true. It had been even
+more than true; for when she had written she had not even heard
+directly from the count. She had learned by letter from another
+person that Count Pateroff was in London, and had then communicated
+the fact to her friend. This other person was a sister of the
+count's, who was now living in London, one Madame Gordeloup,--Sophie
+Gordeloup,--a lady whom Harry had found sitting in Lady Ongar's room
+when last he had seen her in Bolton Street. He had not then heard her
+name; nor was he aware then, or for some time subsequently, that
+Count Pateroff had any relative in London.
+
+Lady Ongar had been a fortnight in the country before she received
+Madame Gordeloup's letter. In that letter the sister had declared
+herself to be most anxious that her brother should see Lady Ongar.
+The letter had been in French, and had been very eloquent,--more
+eloquent in its cause than any letter with the same object could have
+been if written by an Englishwoman in English; and the eloquence was
+less offensive than it might, under all concurrent circumstances,
+have been had it reached Lady Ongar in English. The reader must not,
+however, suppose that the letter contained a word that was intended
+to support a lover's suit. It was very far indeed from that, and
+spoke of the count simply as a friend; but its eloquence went to show
+that nothing that had passed should be construed by Lady Ongar as
+offering any bar to a fair friendship. What the world said!--Bah! Did
+not she know,--she, Sophie,--and did not her friend know,--her friend
+Julie,--that the world was a great liar? Was it not even now telling
+wicked venomous lies about her friend Julie? Why mind what the world
+said, seeing that the world could not be brought to speak one word of
+truth? The world indeed! Bah!
+
+But Lady Ongar, though she was not as yet more than half as old as
+Madame Gordeloup, knew what she was about almost as well as that
+lady knew what Sophie Gordeloup was doing. Lady Ongar had known
+the count's sister in France and Italy, having seen much of her
+in one of those sudden intimacies to which English people are
+subject when abroad; and she had been glad to see Madame Gordeloup
+in London,--much more glad than she would have been had she been
+received there on her return by a crowd of loving native friends.
+But not on that account was she prepared to shape her conduct in
+accordance with her friend Sophie's advice, and especially not
+so when that advice had reference to Sophie's brother. She had,
+therefore, said very little in return to the lady's eloquence,
+answering the letter on that matter very vaguely; but, having a
+purpose of her own, had begged that Count Pateroff might be asked to
+call upon Harry Clavering. Count Pateroff did not feel himself to
+care very much about Harry Clavering, but wishing to do as he was
+bidden, did leave his card in Bloomsbury Square.
+
+And why was Lady Ongar anxious that the young man who was her friend
+should see the man who had been her husband's friend, and whose name
+had been mixed with her own in so grievous a manner? She had called
+Harry her friend, and it might be that she desired to give this
+friend every possible means of testing the truth of that story which
+she herself had told. The reader, perhaps, will hardly have believed
+in Lady Ongar's friendship;--will, perhaps, have believed neither
+the friendship nor the story. If so, the reader will have done her
+wrong, and will not have read her character aright. The woman was
+not heartless because she had once, in one great epoch of her life,
+betrayed her own heart; nor was she altogether false because she had
+once lied; nor altogether vile, because she had once taught herself
+that, for such an one as her, riches were a necessity. It might be
+that the punishment of her sin could meet with no remission in this
+world, but not on that account should it be presumed that there was
+no place for repentance left to her.
+
+As she walked alone through the shrubberies at Ongar Park she thought
+much of those other paths at Clavering, and of the walks in which
+she had not been alone; and she thought of that interview in the
+garden when she had explained to Harry,--as she had then thought so
+successfully,--that they two, each being poor, were not fit to love
+and marry each other. She had brooded over all that, too, during the
+long hours of her sad journey home to England. She was thinking of
+it still when she had met him, and had been so cold to him on the
+platform of the railway station, when she had sent him away angry
+because she had seemed to slight him. She had thought of it as she
+had sat in her London room, telling him the terrible tale of her
+married life, while her eyes were fixed on his and her head was
+resting on her hands. Even then, at that moment, she was asking
+herself whether he believed her story, or whether, within his breast,
+he was saying that she was vile and false. She knew that she had been
+false to him, and that he must have despised her when, with her easy
+philosophy, she had made the best of her own mercenary perfidy. He
+had called her a jilt to her face, and she had been able to receive
+the accusation with a smile. Would he now call her something worse,
+and with a louder voice, within his own bosom? And if she could
+convince him that to that accusation she was not fairly subject,
+might the old thing come back again? Would he walk with her again,
+and look into her eyes as though he only wanted her commands to show
+himself ready to be her slave? She was a widow, and had seen many
+things, but even now she had not reached her six-and-twentieth year.
+
+The apples at her rich country-seat had quickly become ashes between
+her teeth, but something of the juice of the fruit might yet reach
+her palate if he would come and sit with her at the table. As she
+complained to herself of the coldness of the world, she thought that
+she would not care how cold might be all the world if there might be
+but one whom she could love, and who would love her. And him she had
+loved. To him, in old days,--in days which now seemed to her to be
+very old,--she had made confession of her love. Old as were those
+days, it could not be but he should still remember them. She had
+loved him, and him only. To none other had she ever pretended love.
+From none other had love been offered to her. Between her and that
+wretched being to whom she had sold herself, who had been half dead
+before she had seen him, there had been no pretence of love. But
+Harry Clavering she had loved. Harry Clavering was a man, with all
+those qualities which she valued, and also with those foibles which
+saved him from being too perfect for so slight a creature as herself.
+Harry had been offended to the quick, and had called her a jilt; but
+yet it might be possible that he would return to her.
+
+It should not be supposed that since her return to England she had
+had one settled, definite object before her eyes with regard to
+this renewal of her love. There had been times in which she had
+thought that she would go on with the life which she had prepared
+for herself, and that she would make herself contented, if not happy,
+with the price which had been paid to her. And there were other
+times, in which her spirits sank low within her, and she told herself
+that no contentment was any longer possible to her. She looked at
+herself in the glass, and found herself to be old and haggard. Harry,
+she said, was the last man in the world to sell himself for wealth,
+when there was no love remaining. Harry would never do as she
+had done with herself! Not for all the wealth that woman ever
+inherited,--so she told herself,--would he link himself to one who
+had made herself vile and tainted among women! In this, I think, she
+did him no more than justice, though it may be that in some other
+matters she rated his character too highly. Of Florence Burton she
+had as yet heard nothing, though had she heard of her, it may well
+be that she would not on that account have desisted. Such being her
+thoughts and her hopes, she had written to Harry, begging him to see
+this man who had followed her,--she knew not why,--from Italy; and
+had told the sister simply that she could not do as she was asked,
+because she was away from London, alone in a country house.
+
+And quite alone she was sitting one morning, counting up her misery,
+feeling that the apples were, in truth, ashes, when a servant came to
+her, telling her that there was a gentleman in the hall desirous of
+seeing her. The man had the visitor's card in his hand, but before
+she could read the name, the blood had mounted into her face as she
+told herself that it was Harry Clavering. There was joy for a moment
+at her heart; but she must not show it,--not as yet. She had been
+but four months a widow, and he should not have come to her in
+the country. She must see him and in some way make him understand
+this,--but she would be very gentle with him. Then her eye fell upon
+the card, and she saw, with grievous disappointment, that it bore
+the name of Count Pateroff. No;--she was not going to be caught in
+that way. Let the result be what it might, she would not let Sophie
+Gordeloup, or Sophie's brother, get the better of her by such a ruse
+as that! "Tell the gentleman, with my compliments," she said, as she
+handed back the card, "that I regret it greatly, but I can see no
+one now." Then the servant went away, and she sat wondering whether
+the count would be able to make his way into her presence. She felt
+rather than knew that she had some reason to fear him. All that had
+been told of him and of her had been false. No accusation brought
+against her had contained one spark of truth. But there had been
+things between Lord Ongar and this man which she would not care to
+have told openly in England. And though, in his conduct to her,
+he had been customarily courteous, and on one occasion had been
+generous, still she feared him. She would much rather that he should
+have remained in Italy. And though, when all alone in Bolton Street,
+she had in her desolation welcomed his sister Sophie, she would have
+preferred that Sophie should not have come to her, claiming to renew
+their friendship. But with the count she would hold no communion now,
+even though he should find his way into the room.
+
+A few minutes passed before the servant returned, and then he brought
+a note with him. As the door opened Lady Ongar rose, ready to leave
+the room by another passage; but she took the note and read it. It
+was as follows:--"I cannot understand why you should refuse to see
+me, and I feel aggrieved. My present purpose is to say a few words to
+you on private matters connected with papers that belonged to Lord
+Ongar. I still hope that you will admit me.--P." Having read these
+words while standing, she made an effort to think what might be
+the best course for her to follow. As for Lord Ongar's papers, she
+did not believe in the plea. Lord Ongar could have had no papers
+interesting to her in such a manner as to make her desirous of seeing
+this man or of hearing of them in private. Lord Ongar, though she had
+nursed him to the hour of his death, earning her price, had been her
+bitterest enemy; and though there had been something about this count
+that she had respected, she had known him to be a man of intrigue and
+afraid of no falsehoods in his intrigues,--a dangerous man, who might
+perhaps now and again do a generous thing, but one who would expect
+payment for his generosity. Besides, had he not been named openly
+as her lover? She wrote to him, therefore, as follows:--"Lady Ongar
+presents her compliments to Count Pateroff, and finds it to be out
+of her power to see him at present." This answer the visitor took
+and walked away from the front door without showing any disgust
+to the servant, either by his demeanour or in his countenance. On
+that evening she received from him a long letter, written at the
+neighbouring inn, expostulating with her as to her conduct towards
+him, and saying in the last line, that it was "impossible now that
+they should be strangers to each other." "Impossible that we should
+be strangers," she said almost out loud. "Why impossible? I know no
+such impossibility." After that she carefully burned both the letter
+and the note.
+
+She remained at Ongar Park something over six weeks, and then, about
+the beginning of May, she went back to London. No one had been to see
+her, except Mr. Sturm, the clergyman of the parish; and he, though
+something almost approaching to an intimacy had sprung up between
+them, had never yet spoken to her of his wife. She was not quite
+sure whether her rank might not deter him,--whether under such
+circumstances as those now in question, the ordinary social rules
+were not ordinarily broken,--whether a countess should not call on a
+clergyman's wife first, although the countess might be the stranger;
+but she did not dare to do as she would have done, had no blight
+attached itself to her name. She gave, therefore, no hint; she said
+no word of Mrs. Sturm, though her heart was longing for a kind word
+from some woman's mouth. But she allowed herself to feel no anger
+against the husband, and went through her parish work, thanking him
+for his assistance.
+
+Of Mr. Giles she had seen very little, and since her misfortune with
+Enoch Gubby, she had made no further attempt to interfere with the
+wages of the persons employed. Into the houses of some of the poor
+she had made her way, but she fancied that they were not glad to
+see her. They might, perhaps, have all heard of her reputation,
+and Gubby's daughter may have congratulated herself that there was
+another in the parish as bad as herself, or perhaps, happily, worse.
+The owner of all the wealth around strove to make Mrs. Button become
+a messenger of charity between herself and some of the poor; but Mrs.
+Button altogether declined the employment, although, as her mistress
+had ascertained, she herself performed her own little missions of
+charity with zeal. Before the fortnight was over, Lady Ongar was sick
+of her house and her park, utterly disregardful of her horses and
+oxen, and unmindful even of the pleasant stream which in these spring
+days rippled softly at the bottom of her gardens.
+
+She had undertaken to be back in London early in May, by appointment
+with her lawyer, and had unfortunately communicated the fact to
+Madame Gordeloup. Four or five days before she was due in Bolton
+Street, her mindful Sophie, with unerring memory, wrote to her,
+declaring her readiness to do all and anything that the most diligent
+friendship could prompt. Should she meet her dear Julie at the
+station in London? Should she bring any special carriage? Should
+she order any special dinner in Bolton Street? She herself would of
+course come to Bolton Street, if not allowed to be present at the
+station. It was still chilly in the evenings, and she would have
+fires lit. Might she suggest a roast fowl and some bread sauce, and
+perhaps a sweetbread,--and just one glass of champagne? And might she
+share the banquet? There was not a word in the note about the too
+obtrusive brother, either as to the offence committed by him, or the
+offence felt by him.
+
+The little Franco-Polish woman was there in Bolton Street, of
+course,--for Lady Ongar had not dared to refuse her. A little, dry,
+bright woman she was, with quick eyes, and thin lips, and small nose,
+and mean forehead, and scanty hair drawn back quite tightly from her
+face and head; very dry, but still almost pretty with her quickness
+and her brightness. She was fifty, was Sophie Gordeloup, but she had
+so managed her years that she was as active on her limbs as most
+women are at twenty-five. And the chicken, and the bread-sauce, and
+the sweetbread, and the champagne were there, all very good of their
+kind; for Sophie Gordeloup liked such things to be good, and knew how
+to indulge her own appetite, and to coax that of another person.
+
+Some little satisfaction Lady Ongar received from the fact that she
+was not alone; but the satisfaction was not satisfactory. When Sophie
+had left her at ten o'clock, running off by herself to her lodgings
+in Mount Street, Lady Ongar, after but one moment's thought, sat down
+and wrote a note to Harry Clavering.
+
+
+   DEAR HARRY,--I am back in town. Pray come and see me to-morrow
+   evening. Yours ever,
+
+   J. O.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+COUNT PATEROFF AND HIS SISTER.
+
+
+After an interval of some weeks, during which Harry had been down
+at Clavering and had returned again to his work at the Adelphi,
+Count Pateroff called again in Bloomsbury Square;--but Harry was
+at Mr. Beilby's office. Harry at once returned the count's visit
+at the address given in Mount Street. Madame was at home, said the
+servant-girl, from which Harry was led to suppose that the count was
+a married man; but Harry felt that he had no right to intrude upon
+madame, so he simply left his card. Wishing, however, really to
+have this interview, and having been lately elected at a club of
+which he was rather proud, he wrote to the count asking him to dine
+with him at the Beaufort. He explained that there was a strangers'
+room,--which Pateroff knew very well, having often dined at the
+Beaufort,--and said something as to a private little dinner for two,
+thereby apologizing for proposing to the count to dine without other
+guests. Pateroff accepted the invitation, and Harry, never having
+done such a thing before, ordered his dinner with much nervousness.
+
+The count was punctual, and the two men introduced themselves.
+Harry had expected to see a handsome foreigner, with black hair,
+polished whiskers, and probably a hook nose,--forty years of age or
+thereabouts, but so got up as to look not much more than thirty.
+But his guest was by no means a man of that stamp. Excepting that
+the count's age was altogether uncertain, no correctness of guess
+on that matter being possible by means of his appearance, Harry's
+preconceived notion was wrong in every point. He was a fair man, with
+a broad fair face, and very light blue eyes; his forehead was low,
+but broad; he wore no whiskers, but bore on his lip a heavy moustache
+which was not grey, but perfectly white--white it was with years of
+course, but yet it gave no sign of age to his face. He was well made,
+active, and somewhat broad in the shoulders, though rather below the
+middle height. But for a certain ease of manner which he possessed,
+accompanied by something of restlessness in his eye, any one would
+have taken him for an Englishman. And his speech hardly betrayed that
+he was not English. Harry, knowing that he was a foreigner, noticed
+now and again some little acquired distinctness of speech which is
+hardly natural to a native; but otherwise there was nothing in his
+tongue to betray him.
+
+"I am sorry that you should have had so much trouble," he said,
+shaking hands with Harry. Clavering declared that he had incurred no
+trouble, and declared also that he would be only too happy to have
+taken any trouble in obeying a behest from his friend Lady Ongar. Had
+he been a Pole as was the count, he would not have forgotten to add
+that he would have been equally willing to exert himself with the
+view of making the count's acquaintance; but being simply a young
+Englishman, he was much too awkward for any such courtesy as that.
+The count observed the omission, smiled, and bowed. Then he spoke of
+the weather, and said that London was a magnificent city. Oh, yes,
+he knew London well,--had known it these twenty years;--had been
+for fifteen years a member of the Travellers';--he liked everything
+English, except hunting. English hunting he had found to be dull
+work. But he liked shooting for an hour or two. He could not rival,
+he said, the intense energy of an Englishman, who would work all day
+with his guns harder than ploughmen with their ploughs. Englishmen
+sported, he said, as though more than their bread,--as though their
+honour, their wives, their souls, depended on it. It was very fine!
+He often wished that he was an Englishman. Then he shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+Harry was very anxious to commence a conversation about Lady Ongar,
+but he did not know how at first to introduce her name. Count
+Pateroff had come to him at Lady Ongar's request, and therefore, as
+he thought, the count should have been the first to mention her. But
+the count seemed to be enjoying his dinner without any thought either
+of Lady Ongar or of her late husband. At this time he had been down
+to Ongar Park, on that mission which had been, as we know, futile;
+but he said no word of that to Harry. He seemed to enjoy his dinner
+thoroughly, and made himself very agreeable. When the wine was
+discussed he told Harry that a certain vintage of Moselle was very
+famous at the Beaufort. Harry ordered the wine of course, and was
+delighted to give his guest the best of everything; but he was a
+little annoyed at finding that the stranger knew his club better than
+he knew it himself. Slowly the count ate his dinner, enjoying every
+morsel that he took with that thoughtful, conscious pleasure which
+young men never attain in eating and drinking, and which men as they
+grow older so often forget to acquire. But the count never forgot any
+of his own capacities for pleasure, and in all things made the most
+of his own resources. To be rich is not to have one or ten thousand a
+year, but to be able to get out of that one or ten thousand all that
+every pound, and every shilling, and every penny will give you. After
+this fashion the count was a rich man.
+
+"You don't sit after dinner here, I suppose," said the count, when
+he had completed an elaborate washing of his mouth and moustache. "I
+like this club because we who are strangers have so charming a room
+for our smoking. It is the best club in London for men who do not
+belong to it."
+
+It occurred to Harry that in the smoking-room there could be no
+privacy. Three or four men had already spoken to the count, showing
+that he was well known, giving notice, as it were, that Pateroff
+would become a public man when once he was placed in a public circle.
+To have given a dinner to the count, and to have spoken no word
+to him about Lady Ongar, would be by no means satisfactory to
+Harry's feelings, though, as it appeared, it might be sufficiently
+satisfactory to the guest. Harry therefore suggested one bottle of
+claret. The count agreed, expressing an opinion that the 51 Lafitte
+was unexceptional. The 51 Lafitte was ordered, and Harry, as he
+filled his glass, considered the way in which his subject should be
+introduced.
+
+"You knew Lord Ongar, I think, abroad?"
+
+"Lord Ongar,--abroad! Oh, yes, very well; and for many years here in
+London; and at Vienna; and very early in life at St. Petersburg. I
+knew Lord Ongar first in Russia when he was attached to the embassy
+as Frederic Courton. His father, Lord Courton, was then alive, as was
+also his grandfather. He was a nice, good-looking lad then."
+
+"As regards his being nice, he seems to have changed a good deal
+before he died." This the count noticed by simply shrugging his
+shoulders and smiling as he sipped his wine. "By all that I can hear
+he became a horrid brute when he married," said Harry, energetically.
+
+"He was not pleasant when he was ill at Florence," said the count.
+
+"She must have had a terrible time with him," said Harry.
+
+The count put up his hands, again shrugged his shoulders, and then
+shook his head. "She knew he was no longer an Adonis when he married
+her."
+
+"An Adonis! No; she did not expect an Adonis; but she thought he
+would have something of the honour and feelings of a man."
+
+"She found it uncomfortable, no doubt. He did too much of this, you
+know," said the count, raising his glass to his lips; "and he didn't
+do it with 51 Lafitte. That was Ongar's fault. All the world knew it
+for the last ten years. No one knew it better than Hugh Clavering."
+
+"But--" said Harry, and then he stopped. He hardly knew what it was
+that he wished to learn from the man, though he certainly did wish
+to learn something. He had thought that the count would himself have
+talked about Lady Ongar and those Florentine days, but this he did
+not seem disposed to do. "Shall we have our cigars now?" said Count
+Pateroff.
+
+"One moment, if you don't mind."
+
+"Certainly, certainly. There is no hurry."
+
+"You will take no more wine?"
+
+"No more wine. I take my wine at dinner, as you saw."
+
+"I want to ask you one special question,--about Lady Ongar."
+
+"I will say anything in her favour that you please. I am always ready
+to say anything in the favour of any lady, and, if needs be, to swear
+it. But anything against any lady nobody ever heard me say."
+
+Harry was sharp enough to perceive that any assertion made under
+such a stipulation was worse than nothing. It was as when a man, in
+denying the truth of a statement, does so with an assurance that on
+that subject he should consider himself justified in telling any
+number of lies. "I did not write the book,--but you have no right to
+ask the question; and I should say that I had not, even if I had."
+Pateroff was speaking of Lady Ongar in this way, and Harry hated him
+for doing so.
+
+"I don't want you to say any good of her," said he, "or any evil."
+
+"I certainly shall say no evil of her."
+
+"But I think you know that she has been most cruelly treated."
+
+"Well, there is about seven--thousand--pounds a year, I think!
+Seven--thousand--a year! Not francs, but pounds! We poor foreigners
+lose ourselves in amazement when we hear about your English fortunes.
+Seven thousand pounds a year for a lady all alone, and a beau-tiful
+house! A house so beautiful, they tell me!"
+
+"What has that to do with it?" said Harry; whereupon the count again
+shrugged his shoulders. "What has that to do with it? Because the man
+was rich he was not justified in ill-treating his wife. Did he not
+bring false accusations against her, in order that he might rob her
+after his death of all that of which you think so much? Did he not
+bear false witness against her, to his own dishonour?"
+
+
+[Illustration: "Did he not bear false witness against her?"]
+
+
+"She has got the money, I think,--and the beautiful house."
+
+"But her name has been covered with lies."
+
+"What can I do? Why do you ask me? I know nothing. Look here, Mr.
+Clavering, if you want to make any inquiry you had better go to my
+sister. I don't see what good it will do, but she will talk to you by
+the hour together, if you wish it. Let us smoke."
+
+"Your sister?"
+
+"Yes, my sister. Madame Gordeloup is her name. Has not Lady Ongar
+mentioned my sister? They are inseparables. My sister lives in Mount
+Street."
+
+"With you?"
+
+"No, not with me; I do not live in Mount Street. I have my address
+sometimes at her house."
+
+"Madame Gordeloup?"
+
+"Yes, Madame Gordeloup. She is Lady Ongar's friend. She will talk to
+you."
+
+"Will you introduce me, Count Pateroff?"
+
+"Oh, no; it is not necessary. You can go to Mount Street, and she
+will be delighted. There is the card. And now we will smoke." Harry
+felt that he could not, with good-breeding, detain the count any
+longer, and, therefore, rising from his chair, led the way into the
+smoking-room. When there, the man of the world separated himself from
+his young friend, of whose enthusiasm he had perhaps had enough, and
+was soon engaged in conversation with sundry other men of his own
+standing. Harry soon perceived that his guest had no further need
+of his countenance, and went home to Bloomsbury Square by no means
+satisfied with his new acquaintance.
+
+On the next day he dined in Onslow Crescent with the Burtons, and
+when there he said nothing about Lady Ongar or Count Pateroff. He
+was not aware that he had any special reason for being silent on the
+subject, but he made up his mind that the Burtons were people so far
+removed in their sphere of life from Lady Ongar, that the subject
+would not be suitable in Onslow Crescent. It was his lot in life to
+be concerned with people of the two classes. He did not at all mean
+to say,--even to himself,--that he liked the Ongar class the better;
+but still, as such was his lot, he must take it as it came, and
+entertain both subjects of interest, without any commingling of them
+one with another. Of Lady Ongar and his early love he had spoken to
+Florence at some length, but he did not find it necessary in his
+letters to tell her anything of Count Pateroff and his dinner at the
+Beaufort. Nor did he mention the dinner to his dear friend Cecilia.
+On this occasion he made himself very happy in Onslow Crescent,
+playing with the children, chatting with his friend, and enduring,
+with a good grace, Theodore Burton's sarcasm, when that ever-studious
+gentleman told him that he was only fit to go about tied to a woman's
+apron-string.
+
+On the following day, about five o'clock, he called in Mount Street.
+He had doubted much as to this, thinking that at any rate he ought,
+in the first place, to write and ask permission. But at last he
+resolved that he would take the count at his word, and presenting
+himself at the door, he sent up his name. Madame Gordeloup was at
+home, and in a few moments he found himself in the room in which the
+lady was sitting, and recognized her whom he had seen with Lady Ongar
+in Bolton Street. She got up at once, having glanced at the name upon
+the card, and seemed to know all about him. She shook hands with him
+cordially, almost squeezing his hand, and bade him sit down near
+her on the sofa. "She was so glad to see him, for her dear Julie's
+sake. Julie, as of course he knew, was at 'Ongere' Park. Oh! so
+happy,"--which, by the by, he did not know,--"and would be up in the
+course of next week. So many things to do, of course, Mr. Clavering.
+The house, and the servants, and the park, and the beautiful things
+of a large country establishment! But it was delightful, and Julie
+was quite happy!"
+
+No people could be more unlike to each other than this brother and
+his sister. No human being could have taken Madame Gordeloup for an
+Englishwoman, though it might be difficult to judge, either from her
+language or her appearance, of the nationality to which she belonged.
+She spoke English with great fluency, but every word uttered declared
+her not to be English. And when she was most fluent she was most
+incorrect in her language. She was small, eager, and quick, and
+appeared quite as anxious to talk as her brother had been to hold
+his tongue. She lived in a small room on the first floor of a small
+house; and it seemed to Harry that she lived alone. But he had
+not been long there before she had told him all her history, and
+explained to him most of her circumstances. That she kept back
+something is probable; but how many are there who can afford to tell
+everything?
+
+Her husband was still living, but he was at St. Petersburg. He was
+a Frenchman by family, but had been born in Russia. He had been
+attached to the Russian embassy in London, but was now attached to
+diplomacy in general in Russia. She did not join him because she
+loved England,--oh, so much! And, perhaps, her husband might come
+back again some day. She did not say that she had not seen him for
+ten years, and was not quite sure whether he was dead or alive; but
+had she made a clean breast in all things, she might have done so.
+She said that she was a good deal still at the Russian embassy; but
+she did not say that she herself was a paid spy. Nor do I say so now,
+positively; but that was the character given to her by many who knew
+her. She called her brother Edouard, as though Harry had known the
+count all his life; and always spoke of Lady Ongar as Julie. She
+uttered one or two little hints which seemed to imply that she knew
+everything that had passed between "Julie" and Harry Clavering in
+early days; and never mentioned Lord Ongar without some term of
+violent abuse.
+
+"Horrid wretch!" she said, pausing over all the _r's_ in the name she
+had called him. "It began, you know, from the very first. Of course
+he had been a fool. An old roue is always a fool to marry. What does
+he get, you know, for his money? A pretty face. He's tired of that
+as soon as it's his own. Is it not so, Mr. Clavering? But other
+people ain't tired of it, and then he becomes jealous. But Lord Ongar
+was not jealous. He was not man enough to be jealous. Hor-r-rid
+wr-retch!" She then went on telling many things which, as he
+listened, almost made Harry Clavering's hair stand on end, and which
+must not be repeated here. She herself had met her brother in Paris,
+and had been with him when they encountered the Ongars in that
+capital. According to her showing, they had, all of them, been
+together nearly from that time to the day of Lord Ongar's death. But
+Harry soon learned to feel that he could not believe all that the
+little lady told him.
+
+"Edouard was always with him. Poor Edouard!" she said. "There was
+some money matter between them about ecarte. When that wr-retch got
+to be so bad, he did not like parting with his money,--not even when
+he had lost it! And Julie had been so good always! Julie and Edouard
+had done everything for the nasty wr-retch." Harry did not at all
+like this mingling of the name of Julie and Edouard, though it did
+not for a moment fill his mind with any suspicion as to Lady Ongar.
+It made him feel, however, that this woman was dangerous, and that
+her tongue might be very mischievous if she talked to others as she
+did to him. As he looked at her,--and being now in her own room she
+was not dressed with scrupulous care,--and as he listened to her, he
+could not conceive what Lady Ongar had seen in her that she should
+have made a friend of her. Her brother, the count, was undoubtedly
+a gentleman in his manners and way of life, but he did not know by
+what name to call this woman, who called Lady Ongar Julie. She was
+altogether unlike any ladies whom he had known.
+
+"You know that Julie will be in town next week?"
+
+"No; I did not know when she was to return."
+
+"Oh, yes; she has business with those people in South Audley Street
+on Thursday. Poor dear! Those lawyers are so harassing! But when
+people have seven--thousand--pounds a year, they must put up with
+lawyers." As she pronounced those talismanic words, which to her were
+almost celestial, Harry perceived for the first time that there was
+some sort of resemblance between her and the count. He could see that
+they were brother and sister. "I shall go to her directly she comes,
+and of course I will tell her how good you have been to come to
+me. And Edouard has been dining with you? How good of you. He told
+me how charming you are,"--Harry was quite sure then that she was
+fibbing,--"and that it was so pleasant! Edouard is very much attached
+to Julie; very much. Though, of course, all that was mere nonsense;
+just lies told by that wicked lord. Bah! what did he know?" Harry by
+this time was beginning to wish that he had never found his way to
+Mount Street.
+
+"Of course they were lies," he said roughly.
+
+"Of course, mon cher. Those things always are lies, and so wicked!
+What good do they do?"
+
+"Lies never do any good," said Harry.
+
+To so wide a proposition as this madame was not prepared to give an
+unconditional assent; she therefore shrugged her shoulders and once
+again looked like her brother.
+
+"Ah!" she said. "Julie is a happy woman now. Seven--thousand--pounds
+a year! One does not know how to believe it; does one?"
+
+"I never heard the amount of her income," said Harry.
+
+"It is all that," said the Franco-Pole, energetically, "every franc
+of it, besides the house! I know it. She told me herself. Yes. What
+woman would risk that, you know; and his life, you may say, as good
+as gone? Of course they were lies."
+
+"I don't think you understand her, Madame Gordeloup."
+
+"Oh, yes; I know her, so well. And love her--oh, Mr. Clavering, I
+love her so dearly! Is she not charming? So beautiful you know, and
+grand. Such a will, too! That is what I like in a woman. Such a
+courage! She never flinched in those horrid days, never. And when he
+called her,--you know what,--she only looked at him, just looked at
+him, miserable object. Oh, it was beautiful!" And Madame Gordeloup,
+rising in her energy from her seat for the purpose, strove to throw
+upon Harry such another glance as the injured, insulted wife had
+thrown upon her foul-tongued, dying lord.
+
+"She will marry," said Madame Gordeloup, changing her tone with a
+suddenness that made Harry start; "yes, she will marry of course.
+Your English widows always marry if they have money. They are wrong,
+and she will be wrong; but she will marry."
+
+"I do not know how that may be," said Harry, looking foolish.
+
+"I tell you I know she will marry, Mr. Clavering; I told Edouard so
+yesterday. He merely smiled. It would hardly do for him, she has so
+much will. Edouard has a will also."
+
+"All men have, I suppose."
+
+"Ah, yes; but there is a difference. A sum of money down, if a man is
+to marry, is better than a widow's dower. If she dies, you know, he
+looks so foolish. And she is grand and will want to spend everything.
+Is she much older than you, Mr. Clavering? Of course I know Julie's
+age, though perhaps you do not. What will you give me to tell?" And
+the woman leered at him with a smile which made Harry think that she
+was almost more than mortal. He found himself quite unable to cope
+with her in conversation, and soon after this got up to take his
+leave. "You will come again," she said. "Do. I like you so much. And
+when Julie is in town, we shall be able to see her together, and I
+will be your friend. Believe me."
+
+Harry was very far from believing her, and did not in the least
+require her friendship. Her friendship indeed! How could any decent
+English man or woman wish for the friendship of such a creature as
+that? It was thus that he thought of her as he walked away from Mount
+Street, making heavy accusations, within his own breast, against Lady
+Ongar as he did so. Julia! He repeated the name over to himself a
+dozen times, thinking that the flavour of it was lost since it had
+been contaminated so often by that vile tongue. But what concern was
+it of his? Let her be Julia to whom she would, she could never be
+Julia again to him. But she was his friend--Lady Ongar, and he told
+himself plainly that his friend had been wrong in having permitted
+herself to hold any intimacy with such a woman as that. No doubt Lady
+Ongar had been subjected to very trying troubles in the last months
+of her husband's life, but no circumstances could justify her, if she
+continued to endorse the false cordiality of that horribly vulgar
+and evil-minded little woman. As regarded the grave charges brought
+against Lady Ongar, Harry still gave no credit to them, still looked
+upon them as calumnies, in spite of the damning advocacy of Sophie
+and her brother; but he felt that she must have dabbled in very
+dirty water to have returned to England with such claimants on her
+friendship as these. He had not much admired the count, but the
+count's sister had been odious to him. "I will be your friend.
+Believe me." Harry Clavering stamped upon the pavement as he
+thought of the little Pole's offer to him. She be his friend! No,
+indeed;--not if there were no other friend for him in all London.
+
+Sophie, too, had her thoughts about him. Sophie was very anxious
+in this matter, and was resolved to stick as close to her Julie as
+possible. "I will be his friend or his enemy;--let him choose." That
+had been Sophie's reflection on the matter when she was left alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+AN EVENING IN BOLTON STREET.
+
+
+Ten days after his visit in Mount Street, Harry received the note
+which Lady Ongar had written to him on the night of her arrival in
+London. It was brought to Mr. Beilby's office by her own footman
+early in the morning; but Harry was there at the time, and was thus
+able to answer it, telling Lady Ongar that he would come as she had
+desired. She had commenced her letter "Dear Harry," and he well
+remembered that when she had before written she had called him "Dear
+Mr. Clavering." And though the note contained only half-a-dozen
+ordinary words, it seemed to him to be affectionate, and almost
+loving. Had she not been eager to see him, she would hardly thus have
+written to him on the very instant of her return. "Dear Lady Ongar,"
+he wrote, "I shall dine at my club, and be with you about eight.
+Yours always, H. C." After that he could hardly bring himself to work
+satisfactorily during the whole day. Since his interview with the
+Franco-Polish lady he had thought a good deal about himself, and had
+resolved to work harder and to love Florence Burton more devotedly
+than ever. The nasty little woman had said certain words to him
+which had caused him to look into his own breast and to tell himself
+that this was necessary. As the love was easier than the work, he
+began his new tasks on the following morning by writing a long and
+very affectionate letter to his own Flo, who was still staying
+at Clavering rectory;--a letter so long and so affectionate that
+Florence, in her ecstasy of delight, made Fanny read it, and confess
+that, as a love-letter, it was perfect.
+
+"It's great nonsense, all the same," said Fanny.
+
+"It isn't nonsense at all," said Florence; "and if it were, it would
+not signify. Is it true? That's the question."
+
+"I'm sure it's true," said Fanny.
+
+"And so am I," said Florence. "I don't want any one to tell me that."
+
+"Then why did you ask, you simpleton?" Florence indeed was having
+a happy time of it at Clavering rectory. When Fanny called her a
+simpleton, she threw her arms round Fanny's neck and kissed her.
+
+And Harry kept his resolve about the work too, investigating plans
+with a resolution to understand them which was almost successful.
+During those days he would remain at his office till past four
+o'clock, and would then walk away with Theodore Burton, dining
+sometimes in Onslow Crescent, and going there sometimes in the
+evening after dinner. And when there he would sit and read; and
+once when Cecilia essayed to talk to him, he told her to keep her
+apron-strings to herself. Then Theodore laughed and apologized,
+and Cecilia said that too much work made Jack a dull boy; and then
+Theodore laughed again, stretching out his legs and arms as he
+rested a moment from his own study, and declared that, under those
+circumstances, Harry never would be dull. And Harry, on those
+evenings, would be taken upstairs to see the bairns in their cots;
+and as he stood with their mother looking down upon the children,
+pretty words would be said about Florence and his future life; and
+all was going merry as a marriage bell. But on that morning, when
+the note had come from Lady Ongar, Harry could work no more to his
+satisfaction. He scrawled upon his blotting-paper, and made no
+progress whatsoever towards the understanding of anything. It was
+the day on which, in due course, he would write to Florence; and he
+did write to her. But Florence did not show this letter to Fanny,
+claiming for it any meed of godlike perfection. It was a stupid,
+short letter, in which he declared that he was very busy, and that
+his head ached. In a postscript he told her that he was going to see
+Lady Ongar that evening. This he communicated to her under an idea
+that by doing so he made everything right. And I think that the
+telling of it did relieve his conscience.
+
+He left the office soon after three, having brought himself to
+believe in the headache, and sauntered down to his club. He found men
+playing whist there, and, as whist might be good for his head, he
+joined them. They won his money, and scolded him for playing badly
+till he was angry, and then he went out for a walk by himself. As he
+went along Piccadilly, he saw Sophie Gordeloup coming towards him,
+trotting along, with her dress held well up over her ankles, eager,
+quick, and, as he said to himself, clearly intent upon some mischief.
+He endeavoured to avoid her by turning up the Burlington Arcade, but
+she was too quick for him, and was walking up the arcade by his side
+before he had been able to make up his mind as to the best mode of
+ridding himself of such a companion.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Clavering, I am so glad to see you. I was with Julie last
+night. She was fagged, very much fagged; the journey, you know, and
+the business. But yet so handsome! And we talked of you. Yes, Mr.
+Clavering; and I told her how good you had been in coming to me. She
+said you were always good; yes, she did. When shall you see her?"
+
+Harry Clavering was a bad hand at fibbing, and a bad hand also at
+leaving a question unanswered. When questioned in this way he did not
+know what to do but to answer the truth. He would much rather not
+have said that he was going to Bolton Street that evening, but he
+could find no alternative. "I believe I shall see her this evening,"
+he said, simply venturing to mitigate the evil of making the
+communication by rendering it falsely doubtful. There are men who fib
+with so bad a grace and with so little tact that they might as well
+not fib at all. They not only never arrive at success, but never even
+venture to expect it.
+
+"Ah, this evening. Let me see. I don't think I can be there to-night;
+Madame Berenstoff receives at the embassy."
+
+"Good afternoon," said Harry, turning into Truefit's, the
+hairdresser's, shop.
+
+"Ah, very well," said Sophie to herself; "just so. It will be better,
+much better. He is simply one lout, and why should he have it all? My
+God, what fools, what louts, are these Englishmen!" Now having read
+Sophie's thoughts so far, we will leave her to walk up the remainder
+of the arcade by herself.
+
+I do not know that Harry's visit to Truefit's establishment had been
+in any degree caused by his engagement for the evening. I fancy that
+he had simply taken to ground at the first hole, as does a hunted
+fox. But now that he was there he had his head put in order, and
+thought that he looked the better for the operation. He then went
+back to his club, and when he sauntered into the card-room one old
+gentleman looked askance at him, as though inquiring angrily whether
+he had come there to make fresh misery. "Thank you; no,--I won't play
+again," said Harry. Then the old gentleman was appeased, and offered
+him a pinch of snuff. "Have you seen the new book about whist?" said
+the old gentleman. "It is very useful,--very useful. I'll send you a
+copy if you will allow me." Then Harry left the room, and went down
+to dinner.
+
+It was a little past eight when he knocked at Lady Ongar's door.
+I fear he had calculated that if he were punctual to the moment,
+she would think that he thought the matter to be important. It was
+important to him, and he was willing that she should know that it was
+so. But there are degrees in everything, and therefore he was twenty
+minutes late. He was not the first man who has weighed the diplomatic
+advantage of being after his time. But all those ideas went from him
+at once when she met him almost at the door of the room, and, taking
+him by the hand, said that she was "so glad to see him,--so very
+glad. Fancy, Harry, I haven't seen an old friend since I saw you
+last. You don't know how hard all that seems."
+
+"It is hard," said he; and when he felt the pressure of her hand, and
+saw the brightness of her eye, and when her dress rustled against
+him as he followed her to her seat, and he became sensible of the
+influence of her presence, all his diplomacy vanished, and he was
+simply desirous of devoting himself to her service. Of course,
+any such devotion was to be given without detriment to that other
+devotion which he owed to Florence Burton. But this stipulation,
+though it was made, was made quickly, and with a confused brain.
+
+"Yes,--it is hard," she said. "Harry, sometimes I think I shall go
+mad. It is more than I can bear. I could bear it if it hadn't been my
+own fault,--all my own fault."
+
+There was a suddenness about this which took him quite by surprise.
+No doubt it had been her own fault. He also had told himself that;
+though, of course, he would make no such charge to her. "You have not
+recovered yet," he said, "from what you have suffered lately. Things
+will look brighter to you after a while."
+
+"Will they? Ah,--I do not know. But come, Harry; come and sit down,
+and let me get you some tea. There is no harm, I suppose, in having
+you here,--is there?"
+
+"Harm, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Yes,--harm, Lady Ongar." As she repeated her own name after him,
+nearly in his tone, she smiled once again; and then she looked as she
+used to look in the old days, when she would be merry with him. "It
+is hard to know what a woman may do, and what she may not. When my
+husband was ill and dying, I never left his bedside. From the moment
+of my marrying him till his death, I hardly spoke to a man but in his
+presence; and when once I did, it was he that had sent him. And for
+all that people have turned their backs upon me. You and I were old
+friends, Harry, and something more once,--were we not? But I jilted
+you, as you were man enough to tell me. How I did respect you when
+you dared to speak the truth to me. Men don't know women, or they
+would be harder to them."
+
+"I did not mean to be hard to you."
+
+"If you had taken me by the shoulders and shaken me, and have
+declared that before God you would not allow such wickedness, I
+should have obeyed you. I know I should." Harry thought of Florence,
+and could not bring himself to say that he wished it had been so.
+"But where would you have been then, Harry? I was wrong and false and
+a beast to marry that man; but I should not, therefore, have been
+right to marry you and ruin you. It would have been ruin, you know,
+and we should simply have been fools."
+
+"The folly was very pleasant," said he.
+
+"Yes, yes; I will not deny that. But then the wisdom and the prudence
+afterwards! Oh, Harry, that was not pleasant. That was not pleasant!
+But what was I saying? Oh! about the propriety of your being here. It
+is so hard to know what is proper. As I have been married, I suppose
+I may receive whom I please. Is not that the law?"
+
+"You may receive me, I should think. Your sister is my cousin's
+wife." Harry's matter-of-fact argument did as well as anything else,
+for it turned her thought at the moment.
+
+"My sister, Harry! If there was nothing to make us friends but our
+connection through Sir Hugh Clavering, I do not know that I should be
+particularly anxious to see you. How unmanly he has been, and how
+cruel."
+
+"Very cruel," said Harry. Then he thought of Archie and Archie's
+suit. "But he is willing to change all that now. Hermione asked me
+the other day to persuade you to go to Clavering."
+
+"And have you come here to use your eloquence for that purpose? I
+will never go to Clavering again, Harry, unless it should be yours
+and your wife should offer to receive me. Then I'd pack up for the
+dear, dull, solemn old place though I was on the other side of
+Europe."
+
+"It will never be mine."
+
+"Probably not, and probably, therefore, I shall never be there again.
+No; I can forgive an injury, but not an insult,--not an insult such
+as that. I will not go to Clavering; so, Harry, you may save your
+eloquence. Hermione I shall be glad to see whenever she will come
+to me. If you can persuade her to that, you will persuade her to a
+charity."
+
+"She goes nowhere, I think, without his--his--"
+
+"Without his permission. Of course she does not. That, I suppose, is
+all as it should be. And he is such a tyrant that he will give no
+such permission. He would tell her, I suppose, that her sister was no
+fit companion for her."
+
+"He could not say that now, as he has asked you there."
+
+"Ah, I don't know that. He would say one thing first and another
+after, just as it would suit him. He has some object in wishing
+that I should go there, I suppose." Harry, who knew the object, and
+who was too faithful to betray Lady Clavering, even though he was
+altogether hostile to his cousin Archie's suit, felt a little proud
+of his position, but said nothing in answer to this. "But I shall
+not go; nor will I see him, or go to his house when he comes up to
+London. When do they come, Harry?"
+
+"He is in town now."
+
+"What a nice husband, is he not? And when does Hermione come?"
+
+"I do not know; she did not say. Little Hughy is ill, and that may
+keep her."
+
+"After all, Harry, I may have to pack up and go to Clavering even
+yet,--that is, if the mistress of the house will have me."
+
+"Never in the way you mean, Lady Ongar. Do not propose to kill all my
+relations in order that I might have their property. Archie intends
+to marry, and have a dozen children."
+
+"Archie marry! Who will have him? But such men as he are often in the
+way by marrying some cookmaid at last. Archie is Hugh's body-slave.
+Fancy being body-slave to Hugh Clavering! He has two, and poor Hermy
+is the other; only he prefers not to have Hermy near him, which is
+lucky for her. Here is some tea. Let us sit down and be comfortable,
+and talk no more about our horrid relations. I don't know what made
+me speak of them. I did not mean it."
+
+Harry sat down and took the cup from her hand, as she had bidden the
+servant to leave the tray upon the table.
+
+"So you saw Count Pateroff," she said.
+
+"Yes, and his sister."
+
+"So she told me. What do you think of them?" To this question Harry
+made no immediate answer. "You may speak out. Though I lived abroad
+with such as them for twelve months, I have not forgotten the sweet
+scent of our English hedgerows, nor the wholesomeness of English
+household manners. What do you think of them?"
+
+"They are not sweet or wholesome," said he.
+
+"Oh, Harry, you are so honest! Your honesty is beautiful. A spade
+will ever be a spade with you."
+
+He thought that she was laughing at him, and coloured.
+
+"You pressed me to speak," he said, "and I did but use your own
+words."
+
+"Yes, but you used them with such straightforward violence! Well, you
+shall use what words you please, and how you please, because a word
+of truth is so pleasant after living in a world of lies. I know you
+will not lie to me, Harry. You never did."
+
+He felt that now was the moment in which he should tell her of his
+engagement, but he let the moment pass without using it. And, indeed,
+it would have been hard for him to tell. In telling such a story he
+would have been cautioning her that it was useless for her to love
+him,--and this he could not bring himself to do. And he was not sure
+even now that she had not learned the fact from her sister. "I hope
+not," he said. In all that he was saying he knew that his words were
+tame and impotent in comparison with hers, which seemed to him to
+mean so much. But then his position was so unfortunate! Had it not
+been for Florence Burton he would have been long since at her feet;
+for, to give Harry Clavering his due, he could be quick enough at
+swearing to a passion. He was one of those men to whom love-making
+comes so readily that it is a pity that they should ever marry. He
+was ever making love to women, usually meaning no harm. He made
+love to Cecilia Burton over her children's beds, and that discreet
+matron liked it. But it was a love-making without danger. It simply
+signified on his part the pleasure he had in being on good terms with
+a pretty woman. He would have liked to have made love in the same
+way to Lady Ongar; but that was impossible, and in all love-making
+with Lady Ongar there must be danger. There was a pause after the
+expression of his last hopes, during which he finished his tea, and
+then looked at his boots.
+
+"You do not ask me what I have been doing at my country-house."
+
+"And what have you been doing there?"
+
+"Hating it."
+
+"That is wrong."
+
+"Everything is wrong that I do; everything must be wrong. That is the
+nature of the curse upon me."
+
+"You think too much of all that now."
+
+"Ah, Harry, that is so easily said. People do not think of such
+things if they can help themselves. The place is full of him and his
+memories; full of him, though I do not as yet know whether he ever
+put his foot in it. Do you know, I have a plan, a scheme, which
+would, I think, make me happy for one half-hour. It is to give
+everything back to the family. Everything! money, house, and name;
+to call myself Julia Brabazon, and let the world call me what it
+pleases. Then I would walk out into the streets, and beg some one
+to give me my bread. Is there one in all the wide world that would
+give me a crust? Is there one, except yourself, Harry--one, except
+yourself?"
+
+Poor Florence! I fear it fared badly with her cause at this moment.
+How was it possible that he should not regret, that he should not
+look back upon Stratton with something akin to sorrow? Julia had been
+his first love, and to her he could have been always true. I fear he
+thought of this now. I fear that it was a grief to him that he could
+not place himself close at her side, bid her do as she had planned,
+and then come to him, and share all his crusts. Had it been open to
+him to play that part, he would have played it well, and would have
+gloried in the thoughts of her poverty. The position would have
+suited him exactly. But Florence was in the way, and he could not do
+it. How was he to answer Lady Ongar? It was more difficult now than
+ever to tell her of Florence Burton.
+
+His eyes were full of tears, and she accepted that as his excuse for
+not answering her. "I suppose they would say that I was a romantic
+fool. When the price has been taken one cannot cleanse oneself of the
+stain. With Judas, you know, it was not sufficient that he gave back
+the money. Life was too heavy for him, and so he went out and hanged
+himself."
+
+"Julia," he said, getting up from his chair, and going over to where
+she sat on a sofa, "Julia, it is horrid to hear you speak of yourself
+in that way. I will not have it. You are not such a one as the
+Iscariot." And as he spoke to her, he found her hand in his.
+
+"I wish you had my burden, Harry, for one half day, so that you might
+know its weight."
+
+"I wish I could bear it for you--for life."
+
+"To be always alone, Harry; to have none that come to me and scold
+me, and love me, and sometimes make me smile! You will scold me at
+any rate; will you not? It is terrible to have no one near one that
+will speak to one with the old easiness of familiar affection. And
+then the pretence of it where it does not, cannot, could not, exist!
+Oh, that woman, Harry;--that woman who comes here and calls me Julie!
+And she has got me to promise too that I would call her Sophie! I
+know that you despise me because she comes here. Yes; I can see it.
+You said at once that she was not wholesome, with your dear outspoken
+honesty."
+
+"It was your word."
+
+"And she is not wholesome, whosever word it was. She was there,
+hanging about him when he was so bad, before the worst came. She read
+novels to him,--books that I never saw, and played ecarte with him
+for what she called gloves. I believe in my heart she was spying me,
+and I let her come and go as she would, because I would not seem to
+be afraid of her. So it grew. And once or twice she was useful to
+me. A woman, Harry, wants to have a woman near her sometimes,--even
+though it be such an unwholesome creature as Sophie Gordeloup. You
+must not think too badly of me on her account."
+
+"I will not;--I will not think badly of you at all."
+
+"He is better, is he not? I know little of him or nothing, but he has
+a more reputable outside than she has. Indeed I liked him. He had
+known Lord Ongar well; and though he did not toady him nor was afraid
+of him, yet he was gentle and considerate. Once to me he said words
+that I was called on to resent;--but he never repeated them, and I
+know that he was prompted by him who should have protected me. It is
+too bad, Harry, is it not? Too bad almost to be believed by such as
+you."
+
+"It is very bad," said Harry.
+
+"After that he was always courteous; and when the end came and things
+were very terrible, he behaved well and kindly. He went in and out
+quietly, and like an old friend. He paid for everything, and was
+useful. I know that even this made people talk;--yes, Harry, even at
+such a moment as that! But in spite of the talking I did better with
+him then than I could have done without him."
+
+"He looks like a man who could be kind if he chooses."
+
+"He is one of those, Harry, who find it easy to be good-natured,
+and who are soft by nature, as cats are,--not from their heart, but
+through instinctive propensity to softness. When it suits them,
+they scratch, even though they have been ever so soft before. Count
+Pateroff is a cat. You, Harry, I think are a dog." She perhaps
+expected that he would promise to her that he would be her dog,--a
+dog in constancy and affection; but he was still mindful in part of
+Florence, and restrained himself.
+
+"I must tell you something further," she said. "And indeed it is this
+that I particularly want to tell you. I have not seen him, you know,
+since I parted with him at Florence."
+
+"I did not know," said Harry.
+
+"I thought I had told you. However, so it is. And now, listen:--He
+came down to Ongar Park the other day while I was there, and sent
+in his card. When I refused to receive him, he wrote to me pressing
+his visit. I still declined, and he wrote again. I burned his note,
+because I did not choose that anything from him should be in my
+possession. He told some story about papers of Lord Ongar. I have
+nothing to do with Lord Ongar's papers. Everything of which I knew
+was sealed up in the count's presence and in mine, and was sent to
+the lawyers for the executors. I looked at nothing; not at one word
+in a single letter. What could he have to say to me of Lord Ongar's
+papers?"
+
+"Or he might have written?"
+
+"At any rate he should not have come there, Harry. I would not see
+him, nor, if I can help it, will I see him here. I will be open with
+you, Harry. I think that perhaps it might suit him to make me his
+wife. Such an arrangement, however, would not suit me. I am not going
+to be frightened into marrying a man, because he has been falsely
+called my lover. If I cannot escape the calumny in any other way, I
+will not escape it in that way."
+
+"Has he said anything?"
+
+"No; not a word. I have not seen him since the day after Lord Ongar's
+funeral. But I have seen his sister."
+
+"And has she proposed such a thing?"
+
+"No, she has not proposed it. But she talks of it, saying that it
+would not do. Then, when I tell her that of course it would not do,
+she shows me all that would make it expedient. She is so sly and so
+false, that with all my eyes open I cannot quite understand her, or
+quite know what she is doing. I do not feel sure that she wishes it
+herself."
+
+"She told me that it would not do."
+
+"She did, did she? If she speaks of it again, tell her that she is
+right, that it will never do. Had he not come down to Ongar Park, I
+should not have mentioned this to you. I should not have thought that
+he had in truth any such scheme in his head. He did not tell you that
+he had been there?"
+
+"He did not mention it. Indeed, he said very little about you at
+all."
+
+"No, he would not. He is cautious. He never talks of anybody to
+anybody. He speaks only of the outward things of the world. Now,
+Harry, what you must do for me is this." As she was speaking to him
+she was leaning again upon the table, with her forehead resting upon
+her hands. Her small widow's cap had become thus thrust back, and was
+now nearly off her head, so that her rich brown hair was to be seen
+in its full luxuriance, rich and lovely as it had ever been. Could it
+be that she felt,--half thought, half felt, without knowing that she
+thought it,--that while the signs of her widowhood were about her,
+telling in their too plain language the tale of what she had been, he
+could not dare to speak to her of his love? She was indeed a widow,
+but not as are other widows. She had confessed, did hourly confess to
+herself, the guilt which she had committed in marrying that man; but
+the very fact of such confessions, of such acknowledgment, absolved
+her from the necessity of any show of sorrow. When she declared how
+she had despised and hated her late lord, she threw off mentally
+all her weeds. Mourning, the appearance even of mourning, became
+impossible to her, and the cap upon her head was declared openly to
+be a sacrifice to the world's requirements. It was now pushed back,
+but I fancy that nothing like a thought on the matter had made itself
+plain to her mind. "What you must do for me is this," she continued.
+"You must see Count Pateroff again, and tell him from me,--as my
+friend,--that I cannot consent to see him. Tell him that if he will
+think of it, he must know the reason why."
+
+"Of course he will know."
+
+"Tell him what I say, all the same; and tell him that as I have
+hitherto had cause to be grateful to him for his kindness, so also
+I hope he will not put an end to that feeling by anything now, that
+would not be kind. If there be papers of Lord Ongar's, he can take
+them either to my lawyers, if that be fit, or to those of the family.
+You can tell him that, can you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I can tell him."
+
+"And have you any objection?"
+
+"None for myself. The question is,--would it not come better from
+some one else?"
+
+"Because you are a young man, you mean? Whom else can I trust, Harry?
+To whom can I go? Would you have me ask Hugh to do this? Or, perhaps
+you think Archie Clavering would be a proper messenger. Who else have
+I got?"
+
+"Would not his sister be better?"
+
+"How should I know that she had told him? She would tell him her own
+story,--what she herself wished. And whatever story she told, he
+would not believe it. They know each other better than you and I know
+them. It must be you, Harry, if you will do it."
+
+"Of course I will do it. I will try and see him to-morrow. Where does
+he live?"
+
+"How should I know? Perhaps nobody knows; no one, perhaps, of all
+those with whom he associates constantly. They do not live after our
+fashion, do they, these foreigners? But you will find him at his
+club, or hear of him at the house in Mount Street. You will do it;
+eh, Harry?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"That is my good Harry. But I suppose you would do anything I asked
+you. Ah, well; it is good to have one friend, if one has no more.
+Look, Harry! if it is not near eleven o'clock! Did you know that you
+had been here nearly three hours? And I have given you nothing but a
+cup of tea!"
+
+"What else do you think I have wanted?"
+
+"At your club you would have had cigars and brandy-and-water, and
+billiards, and broiled bones, and oysters, and tankards of beer.
+I know all about it. You have been very patient with me. If you go
+quick perhaps you will not be too late for the tankards and the
+oysters."
+
+"I never have any tankards or any oysters."
+
+"Then it is cigars and brandy-and-water. Go quick, and perhaps you
+may not be too late."
+
+"I will go, but not there. One cannot change one's thoughts so
+suddenly."
+
+"Go, then; and do not change your thoughts. Go and think of me, and
+pity me. Pity me for what I have got, but pity me most for what I
+have lost." Harry did not say another word, but took her hand, and
+kissed it, and then left her.
+
+Pity her for what she had lost! What had she lost? What did she mean
+by that? He knew well what she meant by pitying her for what she had
+got. What had she lost? She had lost him. Did she intend to evoke his
+pity for that loss? She had lost him. Yes, indeed. Whether or no the
+loss was one to regret, he would not say to himself; or rather, he,
+of course, declared that it was not; but such as it was, it had been
+incurred. He was now the property of Florence Burton, and, whatever
+happened, he would be true to her.
+
+Perhaps he pitied himself also. If so, it is to be hoped that
+Florence may never know of such pity. Before he went to bed, when
+he was praying on his knees, he inserted it in his prayers that the
+God in whom he believed might make him true in his faith to Florence
+Burton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE RIVALS.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Lady Ongar sat alone, long into the night, when Harry Clavering had
+left her. She sat there long, getting up occasionally from her seat,
+once or twice attempting to write at her desk, looking now and then
+at a paper or two, and then at a small picture which she had, but
+passing the long hours in thinking,--in long, sad, solitary thoughts.
+What should she do with herself,--with herself, her title, and her
+money? Would it be still well that she should do something, that she
+should make some attempt; or should she, in truth, abandon all, as
+the arch-traitor did, and acknowledge that for her foot there could
+no longer be a resting-place on the earth? At six-and-twenty, with
+youth, beauty, and wealth at her command, must she despair? But her
+youth had been stained, her beauty had lost its freshness; and as
+for her wealth, had she not stolen it? Did not the weight of the
+theft sit so heavy on her, that her brightest thought was one which
+prompted her to abandon it?
+
+As to that idea of giving up her income and her house, and calling
+herself again Julia Brabazon, though there was something in the
+poetry of it which would now and again for half an hour relieve her,
+yet she hardly proposed such a course to herself as a reality. The
+world in which she had lived had taught her to laugh at romance,
+to laugh at it even while she liked its beauty; and she would tell
+herself that for such a one as her to do such a thing as this, would
+be to insure for herself the ridicule of all who knew her name. What
+would Sir Hugh say, and her sister? What Count Pateroff and the
+faithful Sophie? What all the Ongar tribe, who would reap the rich
+harvest of her insanity? These latter would offer to provide her a
+place in some convenient asylum, and the others would all agree that
+such would be her fitting destiny. She could bear the idea of walking
+forth, as she had said, penniless into the street, without a crust;
+but she could not bear the idea of being laughed at when she got
+there.
+
+To her, in her position, her only escape was by marriage. It was the
+solitude of her position which maddened her;--its solitude, or the
+necessity of breaking that solitude by the presence of those who were
+odious to her. Whether it were better to be alone, feeding on the
+bitterness of her own thoughts, or to be comforted by the fulsome
+flatteries and odious falsenesses of Sophie Gordeloup, she could
+not tell. She hated herself for her loneliness, but she hated
+herself almost worse for submitting herself to the society of
+Sophie Gordeloup. Why not give all that she possessed to Harry
+Clavering--herself, her income, her rich pastures and horses and
+oxen, and try whether the world would not be better to her when she
+had done so?
+
+She had learned to laugh at romance, but still she believed in
+love. While that bargain was going on as to her settlement, she had
+laughed at romance, and had told herself that in this world worldly
+prosperity was everything. Sir Hugh then had stood by her with truth,
+for he had well understood the matter, and could enter into it with
+zest. Lord Ongar, in his state of health, had not been in a position
+to make close stipulations as to the dower in the event of his
+proposed wife becoming a widow. "No, no; we won't stand that," Sir
+Hugh had said to the lawyers. "We all hope, of course, that Lord
+Ongar may live long; no doubt he'll turn over a new leaf, and die at
+ninety. But in such a case as this the widow must not be fettered."
+The widow had not been fettered, and Julia had been made to
+understand the full advantage of such an arrangement. But still she
+had believed in love when she had bade farewell to Harry in the
+garden. She had told herself then, even then, that she would have
+better liked to have taken him and his love,--if only she could have
+afforded it. He had not dreamed that on leaving him she had gone
+from him to her room, and taken out his picture,--the same that she
+had with her now in Bolton Street,--and had kissed it, bidding him
+farewell there with a passion which she could not display in his
+presence. And she had thought of his offer about the money over and
+over again. "Yes," she would say; "that man loved me. He would have
+given me all he had to relieve me, though nothing was to come to him
+in return." She had, at any rate, been loved once; and she almost
+wished that she had taken the money, that she might now have an
+opportunity of repaying it.
+
+And she was again free, and her old lover was again by her side. Had
+that fatal episode in her life been so fatal that she must now regard
+herself as tainted and unfit for him? There was no longer anything to
+separate them,--anything of which she was aware, unless it was that.
+And as for his love,--did he not look and speak as though he loved
+her still? Had he not pressed her hand passionately, and kissed it,
+and once more called her Julia? How should it be that he should not
+love her? In such a case as his, love might have been turned to
+hatred or to enmity; but it was not so with him. He called himself
+her friend. How could there be friendship between them without love?
+
+And then she thought how much with her wealth she might do for him.
+With all his early studies and his talent Harry Clavering was not
+the man, she thought, to make his way in the world by hard work; but
+with such an income as she could give him, he might shine among the
+proud ones of his nation. He should go into Parliament, and do great
+things. He should be lord of all. It should all be his without a word
+of reserve. She had been mercenary once, but she would atone for that
+now by open-handed, undoubting generosity. She herself had learned to
+hate the house and fields and widespread comforts of Ongar Park. She
+had walked among it all alone, and despised. But it would be a glory
+to her to see him go forth, with Giles at his heels, boldly giving
+his orders, changing this and improving that. He would be rebuked for
+no errors, let him do with Enoch Gubby and the rest of them what he
+pleased! And then the parson's wife would be glad enough to come to
+her, and the house would be full of smiling faces. And it might be
+that God would be good to her, and that she would have treasures, as
+other women had them, and that the flavour would come back to the
+apples, and that the ashes would cease to grate between her teeth.
+
+She loved him, and why should it not be so? She could go before God's
+altar with him without disgracing herself with a lie. She could put
+her hand in his, and swear honestly that she would worship him and
+obey him. She had been dishonest;--but if he would pardon her for
+that, could she not reward him richly for such pardon? And it seemed
+to her that he had pardoned her. He had forgiven it all and was
+gracious to her,--coming at her beck and call, and sitting with her
+as though he liked her presence. She was woman enough to understand
+this, and she knew that he liked it. Of course he loved her. How
+could it be otherwise?
+
+But yet he spoke nothing to her of his love. In the old days there
+had been with him no bashfulness of that kind. He was not a man to
+tremble and doubt before a woman. In those old days he had been ready
+enough,--so ready, that she had wondered that one who had just come
+from his books should know so well how to make himself master of a
+girl's heart. Nature had given him that art, as she does give it to
+some, withholding it from many. But now he sat near her, dropping
+once and again half words of love, hearing her references to the old
+times;--and yet he said nothing.
+
+But how was he to speak of love to one who was a widow but of four
+months' standing? And with what face could he now again ask for her
+hand, knowing that it had been filled so full since last it was
+refused to him? It was thus she argued to herself when she excused
+him in that he did not speak to her. As to her widowhood, to herself
+it was a thing of scorn. Thinking of it, she cast her weepers from
+her, and walked about the room, scorning the hypocrisy of her dress.
+It needed that she should submit herself to this hypocrisy before
+the world; but he might know,--for had she not told him?--that the
+clothes she wore were no index of her feeling or of her heart. She
+had been mean enough, base enough, vile enough, to sell herself
+to that wretched lord. Mean, base, and vile she had been, and she
+now confessed it; but she was not false enough to pretend that she
+mourned the man as a wife mourns. Harry might have seen enough to
+know, have understood enough to perceive, that he need not regard her
+widowhood.
+
+And as to her money! If that were the stumbling-block, might it not
+be well that the first overture should come from her? Could she not
+find words to tell him that it might all be his? Could she not say to
+him, "Harry Clavering, all this is nothing in my hands. Take it into
+your hands, and it will prosper." Then it was that she went to her
+desk, and attempted to write to him. She did write to him a completed
+note, offering herself and all that was hers for his acceptance. In
+doing so, she strove hard to be honest and yet not over bold; to be
+affectionate and yet not unfeminine. Long she sat, holding her head
+with one hand, while the other attempted to use the pen which would
+not move over the paper. At length, quickly it flew across the sheet,
+and a few lines were there for her to peruse.
+
+"Harry Clavering," she had written,
+
+
+   I know I am doing what men and women say no woman should
+   do. You may, perhaps, say so of me now; but if you do,
+   I know you so well, that I do not fear that others will
+   be able to repeat it. Harry, I have never loved any one
+   but you. Will you be my husband? You well know that I
+   should not make you this offer if I did not intend that
+   everything I have should be yours. It will be pleasant to
+   me to feel that I can make some reparation for the evil
+   I have done. As for love, I have never loved any one but
+   you. You yourself must know that well. Yours, altogether
+   if you will have it so,--JULIA.
+
+
+She took the letter with her, back across the room to her seat by the
+fire, and took with her at the same time the little portrait; and
+there she sat, looking at the one and reading the other. At last she
+slowly folded the note up into a thin wisp of paper, and, lighting
+the end of it, watched it till every shred of it was burnt to an ash.
+"If he wants me," she said, "he can come and take me,--as other men
+do." It was a fearful attempt, that which she had thought of making.
+How could she have looked him in the face again had his answer to her
+been a refusal?
+
+Another hour went by before she took herself to her bed, during
+which her cruelly-used maiden was waiting for her half asleep in
+the chamber above; and during that time she tried to bring herself
+to some steady resolve. She would remain in London for the coming
+months, so that he might come to her if he pleased. She would remain
+there, even though she were subject to the daily attacks of Sophie
+Gordeloup. She hardly knew why, but in part she was afraid of Sophie.
+She had done nothing of which Sophie knew the secret. She had no
+cause to tremble because Sophie might be offended. The woman had
+seen her in some of her saddest moments, and could indeed tell
+of indignities which would have killed some women. But these she
+had borne, and had not disgraced herself in the bearing of them.
+But still she was afraid of Sophie, and felt that she could not
+bring herself absolutely to dismiss her friend from her house.
+Nevertheless, she would remain;--because Harry Clavering was in
+London and could come to her there. To her house at Ongar Park she
+would never go again, unless she went as his wife. The place had
+become odious to her. Bad as was her solitude in London, with Sophie
+Gordeloup to break it,--and perhaps with Sophie's brother to attack
+her, it was not so bad as the silent desolation of Ongar Park. Never
+again would she go there, unless she went there, in triumph,--as
+Harry's wife. Having so far resolved she took herself at last to her
+room, and dismissed her drowsy Phoebe to her rest.
+
+And now the reader must be asked to travel down at once into the
+country, that he may see how Florence Burton passed the same evening
+at Clavering Rectory. It was Florence's last night there, and on
+the following morning she was to return to her father's house at
+Stratton. Florence had not as yet received her unsatisfactory letter
+from Harry. That was to arrive on the following morning. At present
+she was, as regarded her letters, under the influence of that one
+which had been satisfactory in so especial a degree. Not that the
+coming letter,--the one now on its route,--was of a nature to disturb
+her comfort permanently, or to make her in any degree unhappy. "Dear
+fellow; he must be careful, he is overworking himself." Even the
+unsatisfactory letter would produce nothing worse than this from her;
+but now, at the moment of which I am writing, she was in a paradise
+of happy thoughts.
+
+Her visit to Clavering had been in every respect successful. She had
+been liked by every one, and every one in return had been liked by
+her. Mrs. Clavering had treated her as though she were a daughter.
+The rector had made her pretty presents, had kissed her, and called
+her his child. With Fanny she had formed a friendship which was to
+endure for ever, let destiny separate them how it might. Dear Fanny!
+She had had a wonderful interview respecting Fanny on this very day,
+and was at this moment disquieting her mind because she could not
+tell her friend what had happened without a breach of confidence!
+She had learned a great deal at Clavering, though in most matters
+of learning she was a better instructed woman than they were whom
+she had met. In general knowledge and in intellect she was Fanny's
+superior, though Fanny Clavering was no fool; but Florence, when she
+came thither, had lacked something which living in such a house had
+given to her;--or, I should rather say, something had been given to
+her of which she would greatly feel the want, if it could be again
+taken from her. Her mother was as excellent a woman as had ever sent
+forth a family of daughters into the world, and I do not know that
+any one ever objected to her as being ignorant, or specially vulgar;
+but the house in Stratton was not like Clavering Rectory in the
+little ways of living, and this Florence Burton had been clever
+enough to understand. She knew that a sojourn under such a roof, with
+such a woman as Mrs. Clavering, must make her fitter to be Harry's
+wife; and, therefore, when they pressed her to come again in the
+autumn, she said that she thought she would. She could understand,
+too, that Harry was different in many things from the men who had
+married her sisters, and she rejoiced that it was so. Poor Florence!
+Had he been more like them it might have been safer for her.
+
+But we must return for a moment to the wonderful interview which
+has been mentioned. Florence, during her sojourn at Clavering, had
+become intimate with Mr. Saul, as well as with Fanny. She had given
+herself for the time heartily to the schools, and matters had so far
+progressed with her that Mr. Saul had on one occasion scolded her
+soundly. "It's a great sign that he thinks well of you," Fanny had
+said. "It was the only sign he ever gave me, before he spoke to
+me in that sad strain." On the afternoon of this, her last day at
+Clavering, she had gone over to Cumberly Green with Fanny, to say
+farewell to the children, and walked back by herself, as Fanny had
+not finished her work. When she was still about half a mile from the
+rectory, she met Mr. Saul, who was on his way out to the Green. "I
+knew I should meet you," he said, "so that I might say good-by."
+
+"Yes, indeed, Mr. Saul,--for I am going in truth, to-morrow."
+
+"I wish you were staying. I wish you were going to remain with us.
+Having you here is very pleasant, and you do more good here, perhaps,
+than you will elsewhere."
+
+"I will not allow that. You forget that I have a father and mother."
+
+"Yes; and you will have a husband soon."
+
+"No, not soon; some day, perhaps, if all goes well. But I mean to be
+back here often before that. I mean to be here in October, just for a
+little visit, if mamma can spare me."
+
+"Miss Burton," he said, speaking in a very serious tone--. All his
+tones were serious, but that which he now adopted was more solemn
+than usual. "I wish to consult you on a certain matter, if you can
+give me five minutes of your time."
+
+"To consult me, Mr. Saul?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Burton. I am hard pressed at present, and I know no one
+else of whom I can ask a certain question, if I cannot ask it of you.
+I think that you will answer me truly, if you answer me at all. I do
+not think you would flatter me, or tell me an untruth."
+
+"Flatter you! how could I flatter you?"
+
+"By telling me--; but I must ask you my question first. You and Fanny
+Clavering are dear friends now. You tell each other everything."
+
+"I do not know," said Florence, doubting as to what she might best
+say, but guessing something of that which was coming.
+
+"She will have told you, perhaps, that I asked her to be my wife.
+Did she ever tell you that?" Florence looked into his face for a
+few moments without answering him, not knowing how to answer such a
+question. "I know that she has told you," said he. "I can see that it
+is so."
+
+"She has told me," said Florence.
+
+"Why should she not? How could she be with you so many hours, and not
+tell you that of which she could hardly fail to have the remembrance
+often present with her. If I were gone from here, if I were not
+before her eyes daily, it might be otherwise; but seeing me as she
+does from day to day, of course she has spoken of me to her friend."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Saul; she has told me of it."
+
+"And now, will you tell me whether I may hope."
+
+"Mr. Saul!"
+
+"I want you to betray no secret, but I ask you for your advice. Can I
+hope that she will ever return my love?"
+
+"How am I to answer you?"
+
+"With the truth. Only with the truth."
+
+"I should say that she thinks that you have forgotten it."
+
+"Forgotten it! No, Miss Burton; she cannot think that. Do you believe
+that men or women can forget such things as that? Can you ever forget
+her brother? Do you think people ever forget when they have loved?
+No, I have not forgotten her. I have not forgotten that walk which
+we had down this lane together. There are things which men never
+forget." Then he paused for an answer.
+
+Florence was by nature steady and self-collected, and she at once
+felt that she was bound to be wary before she gave him any answer.
+She had half fancied once or twice that Fanny thought more of Mr.
+Saul than she allowed even herself to know. And Fanny, when she had
+spoken of the impossibility of such a marriage, had always based the
+impossibility on the fact that people should not marry without the
+means of living,--a reason which to Florence, with all her prudence,
+was not sufficient. Fanny might wait as she also intended to wait.
+Latterly, too, Fanny had declared more than once to Florence her
+conviction that Mr. Saul's passion had been a momentary insanity
+which had altogether passed away; and in these declarations Florence
+had half fancied that she discovered some tinge of regret. If it were
+so, what was she now to say to Mr. Saul?
+
+"You think then, Miss Burton," he continued, "that I have no chance
+of success? I ask the question because if I felt certain that this
+was so,--quite certain, I should be wrong to remain here. It has been
+my first and only parish, and I could not leave it without bitter
+sorrow. But if I were to remain here hopelessly, I should become
+unfit for my work. I am becoming so, and shall be better away."
+
+"But why ask me, Mr. Saul?"
+
+"Because I think that you can tell me."
+
+"But why not ask herself? Who can tell you so truly as she can do?"
+
+"You would not advise me to do that if you were sure that she would
+reject me?"
+
+"That is what I would advise."
+
+"I will take your advice, Miss Burton. Now, good-by, and may God
+bless you. You say you will be here in the autumn; but before the
+autumn I shall probably have left Clavering. If so our farewells
+will be for very long, but I shall always remember our pleasant
+intercourse here." Then he went on towards Cumberly Green; and
+Florence, as she walked into the vicarage grounds, was thinking that
+no girl had ever been loved by a more single-hearted, pure-minded
+gentleman than Mr. Saul.
+
+As she sat alone in her bed-room, five or six hours after this
+interview, she felt some regret that she should leave Clavering
+without a word to Fanny on the subject. Mr. Saul had exacted no
+promise of secrecy from her; he was not a man to exact such promises.
+But she felt not the less that she would be betraying confidence to
+speak, and it might even be that her speaking on the matter would do
+more harm than good. Her sympathies were doubtless with Mr. Saul, but
+she could not therefore say that she thought Fanny ought to accept
+his love. It would be best to say nothing of the matter, and to allow
+Mr. Saul to fight his own battle.
+
+Then she turned to her own matters, and there she found that
+everything was pleasant. How good the world had been to her to give
+her such a lover as Harry Clavering! She owned with all her heart the
+excellence of being in love, when a girl might be allowed to call
+such a man her own. She could not but make comparisons between him
+and Mr. Saul, though she knew that she was making them on points that
+were hardly worthy of her thoughts. Mr. Saul was plain, uncouth, with
+little that was bright about him except the brightness of his piety.
+Harry was like the morning star. He looked and walked and spoke as
+though he were something more godlike than common men. His very
+voice created joy, and the ring of his laughter was to Florence
+as the music of the heavens. What woman would not have loved Harry
+Clavering? Even Julia Brabazon,--a creature so base that she had sold
+herself to such a thing as Lord Ongar for money and a title, but
+so grand in her gait and ways, so Florence had been told, that she
+seemed to despise the earth on which she trod,--even she had loved
+him. Then as Florence thought of what Julia Brabazon might have had
+and of what she had lost, she wondered that there could be women born
+so sadly vicious.
+
+But that woman's vice had given her her success, her joy, her great
+triumph! It was surely not for her to deal hardly with the faults of
+Julia Brabazon,--for her who was enjoying all the blessings of which
+those faults had robbed the other! Julia Brabazon had been her very
+good friend.
+
+But why had this perfect lover come to her, to one so small, so
+trifling, so little in the world's account as she, and given to her
+all the treasure of his love? Oh, Harry,--dear Harry! what could
+she do for him that would be a return good enough for such great
+goodness? Then she took out his last letter, that satisfactory
+letter, that letter that had been declared to be perfect, and read it
+and read it again. No; she did not want Fanny or any one else to tell
+her that he was true. Honesty and truth were written on every line of
+his face, were to be heard in every tone of his voice, could be seen
+in every sentence that came from his hand. Dear Harry; dearest Harry!
+She knew well that he was true.
+
+Then she also sat down and wrote to him, on that her last night
+beneath his father's roof,--wrote to him when she had nearly prepared
+herself for her bed; and honestly, out of her full heart, thanked him
+for his love. There was no need that she should be coy with him now,
+for she was his own. "Dear Harry, when I think of all that you have
+done for me in loving me and choosing me for your wife, I know that
+I can never pay you all that I owe you."
+
+Such were the two rival claimants for the hand of Harry Clavering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"LET HER KNOW THAT YOU'RE THERE."
+
+
+A week had passed since the evening which Harry had spent in Bolton
+Street, and he had not again seen Lady Ongar. He had professed to
+himself that his reason for not going there was the non-performance
+of the commission which Lady Ongar had given him with reference
+to Count Pateroff. He had not yet succeeded in catching the count,
+though he had twice asked for him in Mount Street and twice at the
+club in Pall Mall. It appeared that the count never went to Mount
+Street, and was very rarely seen at the club. There was some other
+club which he frequented, and Harry did not know what club. On both
+the occasions of Harry's calling in Mount Street, the servant had
+asked him to go up and see madame; but he had declined to do so,
+pleading that he was hurried. He was, however, driven to resolve that
+he must go direct to Sophie, as otherwise he could find no means of
+doing as he had promised. She probably might put him on the scent of
+her brother.
+
+But there had been another reason why Harry had not gone to Bolton
+Street, though he had not acknowledged it to himself. He did not
+dare to trust himself with Lady Ongar. He feared that he would be
+led on to betray himself and to betray Florence,--to throw himself
+at Julia's feet and sacrifice his honesty, in spite of all his
+resolutions to the contrary. He felt when there as the accustomed but
+repentant dram-drinker might feel, when having resolved to abstain,
+he is called upon to sit with the full glass offered before his lips.
+From such temptation as that the repentant dram-drinker knows that
+he must fly. But though he did not go after the fire-water of Bolton
+Street, neither was he able to satisfy himself with the cool fountain
+of Onslow Crescent. He was wretched at this time,--ill-satisfied with
+himself and others, and was no fitting companion for Cecilia Burton.
+The world, he thought, had used him ill. He could have been true to
+Julia Brabazon when she was well-nigh penniless. It was not for her
+money that he had regarded her. Had he been now a free man,--free
+from those chains with which he had fettered himself at Stratton,--he
+would again have asked this woman for her love, in spite of her past
+treachery; but it would have been for her love and not for her money
+that he would have sought her. Was it his fault that he had loved
+her, that she had been false to him, and that she had now come back
+and thrown herself before him? Or had he been wrong because he had
+ventured to think that he loved another when Julia had deserted him?
+Or could he help himself if he now found that his love in truth
+belonged to her whom he had known first? The world had been very
+cruel to him, and he could not go to Onslow Crescent and behave there
+prettily, hearing the praises of Florence with all the ardour of a
+discreet lover.
+
+He knew well what would have been his right course, and yet he did
+not follow it. Let him but once communicate to Lady Ongar the fact of
+his engagement, and the danger would be over, though much, perhaps,
+of the misery might remain. Let him write to her and mention the
+fact, bringing it up as some little immaterial accident, and she
+would understand what he meant. But this he abstained from doing.
+Though he swore to himself that he would not touch the dram, he would
+not dash down the full glass that was held to his lips. He went
+about the town very wretchedly, looking for the count, and regarding
+himself as a man specially marked out for sorrow by the cruel hand of
+misfortune. Lady Ongar, in the meantime, was expecting him, and was
+waxing angry and becoming bitter towards him because he came not.
+
+Sir Hugh Clavering was now up in London, and with him was his brother
+Archie. Sir Hugh was a man who strained an income, that was handsome
+and sufficient for a country gentleman, to the very utmost, wanting
+to get out of it more than it could be made to give. He was not a man
+to be in debt, or indulge himself with present pleasures to be paid
+for out of the funds of future years. He was possessed of a worldly
+wisdom which kept him from that folly, and taught him to appreciate
+fully the value of independence. But he was ever remembering how many
+shillings there are in a pound, and how many pence in a shilling. He
+had a great eye to discount, and looked very closely into his bills.
+He searched for cheap shops;--and some men began to say of him that
+he had found a cheap establishment for such wines as he did not drink
+himself! In playing cards and in betting he was very careful, never
+playing high, never risking much, but hoping to turn something by the
+end of the year, and angry with himself if he had not done so. An
+unamiable man he was, but one whose heir would probably not quarrel
+with him,--if only he would die soon enough. He had always had a
+house in town, a moderate house in Berkeley Square, which belonged
+to him and had belonged to his father before him. Lady Clavering
+had usually lived there during the season; or, as had latterly been
+the case, during only a part of the season. And now it had come to
+pass, in this year, that Lady Clavering was not to come to London at
+all, and that Sir Hugh was meditating whether the house in Berkeley
+Square might not be let. The arrangement would make the difference
+of considerably more than a thousand a year to him. For himself, he
+would take lodgings. He had no idea of giving up London in the spring
+and early summer. But why keep up a house in Berkeley Square, as Lady
+Clavering did not use it?
+
+He was partly driven to this by a desire to shake off the burden of
+his brother. When Archie chose to go to Clavering the house was open
+to him. That was the necessity of Sir Hugh's position, and he could
+not avoid it unless he made it worth his while to quarrel with his
+brother. Archie was obedient, ringing the bell when he was told,
+looking after the horses, spying about, and perhaps saving as much
+money as he cost. But the matter was very different in Berkeley
+Square. No elder brother is bound to find breakfast and bed for a
+younger brother in London. And yet from his boyhood upwards Archie
+had made good his footing in Berkeley Square. In the matter of the
+breakfast, Sir Hugh had indeed of late got the better of him. The
+servants were kept on board wages, and there were no household
+accounts. But there was Archie's room, and Sir Hugh felt this to be a
+hardship.
+
+The present was not the moment for actually driving forth the
+intruder, for Archie was now up in London, especially under his
+brother's auspices. And if the business on which Captain Clavering
+was now intent could be brought to a successful issue, the standing
+in the world of that young man would be very much altered. Then he
+would be a brother of whom Sir Hugh might be proud; a brother who
+would pay his way, and settle his points at whist if he lost them,
+even to a brother. If Archie could induce Lady Ongar to marry him, he
+would not be called upon any longer to ring the bells and look after
+the stable. He would have bells of his own, and stables too, and
+perhaps some captain of his own to ring them and look after them. The
+expulsion, therefore, was not to take place till Archie should have
+made his attempt upon Lady Ongar.
+
+But Sir Hugh would admit of no delay, whereas Archie himself seemed
+to think that the iron was not yet quite hot enough for striking. It
+would be better, he had suggested, to postpone the work till Julia
+could be coaxed down to Clavering in the autumn. He could do the work
+better, he thought, down at Clavering than in London. But Sir Hugh
+was altogether of a different opinion. Though he had already asked
+his sister-in-law to Clavering, when the idea had first come up, he
+was glad that she had declined the visit. Her coming might be very
+well if she accepted Archie; but he did not want to be troubled with
+any renewal of his responsibility respecting her, if, as was more
+probable, she should reject him. The world still looked askance at
+Lady Ongar, and Hugh did not wish to take up the armour of a paladin
+in her favour. If Archie married her, Archie would be the paladin;
+though, indeed, in that case, no paladin would be needed.
+
+"She has only been a widow, you know, four months," said Archie,
+pleading for delay. "It won't be delicate, will it?"
+
+"Delicate!" said Sir Hugh. "I don't know whether there is much of
+delicacy in it at all."
+
+"I don't see why she isn't to be treated like any other woman. If you
+were to die, you'd think it very odd if any fellow came up to Hermy
+before the season was over."
+
+"Archie, you are a fool," said Sir Hugh; and Archie could see by his
+brother's brow that Hugh was angry. "You say things that for folly
+and absurdity are beyond belief. If you can't see the peculiarities
+of Julia's position, I am not going to point them out to you."
+
+"She is peculiar, of course,--having so much money, and that place
+near Guildford, all her own for her life. Of course it's peculiar.
+But four months, Hugh!"
+
+"If it had been four days it need have made no difference. A home,
+with some one to support her, is everything to her. If you wait till
+lots of fellows are buzzing round her you won't have a chance. You'll
+find that by this time next year she'll be the top of the fashion;
+and if not engaged to you, she will be to some one else. I shouldn't
+be surprised if Harry were after her again."
+
+"He's engaged to that girl we saw down at Clavering."
+
+"What matters that? Engagements can be broken as well as made. You
+have this great advantage over every one, except him, that you can go
+to her at once without doing anything out of the way. That girl that
+Harry has in tow may perhaps keep him away for some time."
+
+"I tell you what, Hugh, you might as well call with me the first
+time."
+
+"So that I may quarrel with her, which I certainly should do,--or,
+rather, she with me. No, Archie; if you're afraid to go alone, you'd
+better give it up."
+
+"Afraid! I'm not afraid!"
+
+"She can't eat you. Remember that with her you needn't stand on your
+p's and q's, as you would with another woman. She knows what she is
+about, and will understand what she has to get as well as what she is
+expected to give. All I can say is, that if she accepts you, Hermy
+will consent that she shall go to Clavering as much as she pleases
+till the marriage takes place. It couldn't be done, I suppose, till
+after a year; and in that case she shall be married at Clavering."
+
+Here was a prospect for Julia Brabazon;--to be led to the same altar,
+at which she had married Lord Ongar, by Archie Clavering, twelve
+months after her first husband's death, and little more than two
+years after her first wedding! The peculiarity of the position did
+not quite make itself apparent either to Hugh or to Archie; but there
+was one point which did suggest itself to the younger brother at that
+moment.
+
+"I don't suppose there was anything really wrong, eh?"
+
+"Can't say, I'm sure," said Sir Hugh.
+
+"Because I shouldn't like--"
+
+"If I were you I wouldn't trouble myself about that. Judge not, that
+you be not judged."
+
+"Yes, that's true, to be sure," said Archie; and on that point he
+went forth satisfied.
+
+But the job before him was a peculiar job, and that Archie well
+knew. In some inexplicable manner he put himself into the scales and
+weighed himself, and discovered his own weight with fair accuracy.
+And he put her into the scales, and he found that she was much
+the heavier of the two. How he did this,--how such men as Archie
+Clavering do do it,--I cannot say; but they do weigh themselves, and
+know their own weight, and shove themselves aside as being too light
+for any real service in the world. This they do, though they may
+fluster with their voices, and walk about with their noses in the
+air, and swing their canes, and try to look as large as they may.
+They do not look large, and they know it; and consequently they ring
+the bells, and look after the horses, and shove themselves on one
+side, so that the heavier weights may come forth and do the work.
+Archie Clavering, who had duly weighed himself, could hardly bring
+himself to believe that Lady Ongar would be fool enough to marry him!
+Seven thousand a year, with a park and farm in Surrey, and give it
+all to him,--him, Archie Clavering, who had, so to say, no weight at
+all! Archie Clavering, for one, could not bring himself to believe
+it.
+
+But yet Hermy, her sister, thought it possible; and though Hermy was,
+as Archie had found out by his invisible scales, lighter than Julia,
+still she must know something of her sister's nature. And Hugh, who
+was by no means light,--who was a man of weight, with money and
+position and firm ground beneath his feet,--he also thought that
+it might be so. "Faint heart never won a fair lady," said Archie
+to himself a dozen times, as he walked down to the Rag. The Rag
+was his club, and there was a friend there whom he could consult
+confidentially. No; faint heart never won a fair lady; but they
+who repeat to themselves that adage, trying thereby to get courage,
+always have faint hearts for such work. Harry Clavering never thought
+of the proverb when he went a-wooing.
+
+But Captain Boodle of the Rag,--for Captain Boodle always lived at
+the Rag when he was not at Newmarket, or at other racecourses, or in
+the neighbourhood of Market Harborough,--Captain Boodle knew a thing
+or two, and Captain Boodle was his fast friend. He would go to Boodle
+and arrange the campaign with him. Boodle had none of that hectoring,
+domineering way which Hugh never quite threw off in his intercourse
+with his brother. And Archie, as he went along, resolved that when
+Lady Ongar's money was his, and when he had a countess for his wife,
+he would give his elder brother a cold shoulder.
+
+Boodle was playing pool at the Rag, and Archie joined him; but
+pool is a game which hardly admits of confidential intercourse as
+to proposed wives, and Archie was obliged to remain quiet on that
+subject all the afternoon. He cunningly, however, lost a little money
+to Boodle, for Boodle liked to win,--and engaged himself to dine
+at the same table with his friend. Their dinner they ate almost
+in silence,--unless when they abused the cook, or made to each
+other some pithy suggestion as to the expediency of this or that
+delicacy,--bearing always steadily in view the cost as well as
+desirability of the viands. Boodle had no shame in not having this
+or that because it was dear. To dine with the utmost luxury at the
+smallest expense was a proficiency belonging to him, and of which he
+was very proud.
+
+But after a while the cloth was gone, and the heads of the two men
+were brought near together over the small table. Boodle did not speak
+a word till his brother captain had told his story, had pointed out
+all the advantages to be gained, explained in what peculiar way the
+course lay open to himself, and made the whole thing clear to his
+friend's eye.
+
+"They say she's been a little queer, don't they?" said the friendly
+counsellor.
+
+"Of course people talk, you know."
+
+"Talk, yes; they're talking a doosed sight, I should say. There's no
+mistake about the money, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, none," said Archie, shaking his head vigorously. "Hugh managed
+all that for her, so I know it."
+
+"She don't lose any of it because she enters herself for running
+again, does she?"
+
+"Not a shilling. That's the beauty of it."
+
+"Was you ever sweet on her before?"
+
+"What! before Ongar took her? O laws, no. She hadn't a rap, you
+know;--and knew how to spend money as well as any girl in London."
+
+"It's all to begin then, Clavvy; all the up-hill work to be done?"
+
+"Well, yes; I don't know about up-hill, Doodles. What do you mean by
+up-hill?"
+
+"I mean that seven thousand a year ain't usually to be picked up
+merely by trotting easy along the flat. And this sort of work is
+very up-hill generally, I take it;--unless, you know, a fellow has a
+fancy for it. If a fellow is really sweet on a girl, he likes it, I
+suppose."
+
+"She's a doosed handsome woman, you know, Doodles."
+
+"I don't know anything about it, except that I suppose Ongar wouldn't
+have taken her if she hadn't stood well on her pasterns, and had
+some breeding about her. I never thought much of her sister,--your
+brother's wife, you know,--that is in the way of looks. No doubt she
+runs straight, and that's a great thing. She won't go the wrong side
+of the post."
+
+"As for running straight, let me alone for that."
+
+"Well, now, Clavvy, I'll tell you what my ideas are. When a man's
+trying a young filly, his hands can't be too light. A touch too much
+will bring her on her haunches, or throw her out of her step. She
+should hardly feel the iron in her mouth. That's the sort of work
+which requires a man to know well what he's about. But when I've got
+to do with a trained mare, I always choose that she shall know that
+I'm there! Do you understand me?"
+
+"Yes; I understand you, Doodles."
+
+"I always choose that she shall know that I'm there." And Captain
+Boodle, as he repeated these manly words with a firm voice, put out
+his hands as though he were handling the horse's rein. "Their mouths
+are never so fine then, and they generally want to be brought up
+to the bit, d'ye see?--up to the bit. When a mare has been trained
+to her work, and knows what she's at in her running, she's all the
+better for feeling a fellow's hands as she's going. She likes it
+rather. It gives her confidence, and makes her know where she is. And
+look here, Clavvy, when she comes to her fences, give her her head;
+but steady her first, and make her know that you're there. Damme;
+whatever you do, let her know that you're there. There's nothing like
+it. She'll think all the more of the fellow that's piloting her. And
+look here, Clavvy; ride her with spurs. Always ride a trained mare
+with spurs. Let her know that they're on; and if she tries to get her
+head, give 'em her. Yes, by George, give 'em her." And Captain Boodle
+in his energy twisted himself in his chair, and brought his heel
+round, so that it could be seen by Archie. Then he produced a sharp
+click with his tongue, and made the peculiar jerk with the muscle
+of his legs, whereby he was accustomed to evoke the agility of his
+horses. After that he looked triumphantly at his friend. "Give 'em
+her, Clavvy, and she'll like you the better for it. She'll know then
+that you mean it."
+
+It was thus that Captain Boodle instructed his friend Archie
+Clavering how to woo Lady Ongar; and Archie, as he listened to his
+friend's words of wisdom, felt that he had learned a great deal.
+"That's the way I'll do it, Doodles," he said, "and upon my word I'm
+very much obliged to you."
+
+"That's the way, you may depend on it. Let her know that you're
+there.--Let her know that you're there. She's done the filly work
+before, you see; and it's no good trying that again."
+
+Captain Clavering really believed that he had learned a good deal,
+and that he now knew the way to set about the work before him. What
+sort of spurs he was to use, and how he was to put them on, I don't
+think he did know; but that was a detail as to which he did not think
+it necessary to consult his adviser. He sat the whole evening in the
+smoking-room, very silent, drinking slowly iced gin-and-water; and
+the more he drank the more assured he felt that he now understood the
+way in which he was to attempt the work before him. "Let her know
+I'm there," he said to himself, shaking his head gently, so that no
+one should observe him; "yes, let her know I'm there." At this time
+Captain Boodle, or Doodles as he was familiarly called, had again
+ascended to the billiard-room and was hard at work. "Let her know
+that I'm there," repeated Archie, mentally. Everything was contained
+in that precept. And he, with his hands before him on his knees, went
+through the process of steadying a horse with the snaffle-rein, just
+touching the curb, as he did so, for security. It was but a motion of
+his fingers and no one could see it, but it made him confident that
+he had learned his lesson. "Up to the bit," he repeated; "by George,
+yes; up to the bit. There's nothing like it for a trained mare. Give
+her head, but steady her." And Archie, as the words passed across his
+memory and were almost pronounced, seemed to be flying successfully
+over some prodigious fence. He leaned himself back a little in the
+saddle, and seemed to hold firm with his legs. That was the way to
+do it. And then the spurs! He would not forget the spurs. She should
+know that he wore a spur, and that, if necessary, he would use it.
+Then he, too, gave a little click with his tongue, and an acute
+observer might have seen the motion of his heel.
+
+Two hours after that he was still sitting in the smoking-room,
+chewing the end of a cigar, when Doodles came down victorious from
+the billiard-room. Archie was half asleep, and did not notice the
+entrance of his friend. "Let her know that you're there," said
+Doodles, close into Archie Clavering's ear,--"damme, let her know
+that you're there." Archie started and did not like the surprise, or
+the warm breath in his ear; but he forgave the offence for the wisdom
+of the words that had been spoken.
+
+Then he walked home by himself, repeating again and again the
+invaluable teachings of his friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS FIRST ATTEMPT.
+
+
+During breakfast on the following day,--which means from the hour
+of one till two, for the glasses of iced gin-and-water had been
+many,--Archie Clavering was making up his mind that he would begin at
+once. He would go to Bolton Street on that day, and make an attempt
+to be admitted. If not admitted to-day he would make another attempt
+to-morrow, and, if still unsuccessful, he would write a letter; not a
+letter containing an offer, which according to Archie's ideas would
+not be letting her know that he was there in a manner sufficiently
+potential,--but a letter in which he would explain that he had
+very grave reasons for wishing to see his near and dear connexion,
+Lady Ongar. Soon after two he sallied out, and he also went to a
+hairdresser's. He was aware that in doing so he was hardly obeying
+his friend to the letter, as this sort of operation would come rather
+under the head of handling a filly with a light touch; but he thought
+that he could in this way, at any rate, do no harm, if he would only
+remember the instructions he had received when in the presence of the
+trained mare. It was nearly three when he found himself in Bolton
+Street, having calculated that Lady Ongar might be more probably
+found at home then than at a later hour. But when he came to the
+door, instead of knocking, he passed by it. He began to remember that
+he had not yet made up his mind by what means he would bring it about
+that she should certainly know that he was there. So he took a little
+turn up the street, away from Piccadilly, through a narrow passage
+that there is in those parts, and by some stables, and down into
+Piccadilly, and again to Bolton Street; during which little tour
+he had made up his mind that it could hardly become his duty to
+teach her that great lesson on this occasion. She must undoubtedly
+be taught to know that he was there, but not so taught on this, his
+first visit. That lesson should quickly precede his offer; and,
+although he had almost hoped in the interval between two of his
+beakers of gin-and-water on the preceding evening that he might ride
+the race and win it altogether during this very morning visit he was
+about to make, in his cooler moments he had begun to reflect that
+that would hardly be practicable. The mare must get a gallop before
+she would be in a condition to be brought out. So Archie knocked at
+the door, intending merely to give the mare a gallop if he should
+find her in to-day.
+
+He gave his name, and was shown at once up into Lady Ongar's
+drawing-room. Lady Ongar was not there, but she soon came down, and
+entered the room with a smile on her face and with an outstretched
+hand. Between the man-servant who took the captain's name, and the
+maid-servant who carried it up to her mistress,--but who did not see
+the gentleman before she did so, there had arisen some mistake, and
+Lady Ongar, as she came down from her chamber above expected that
+she was to meet another man. Harry Clavering, she thought, had
+come to her at last. "I'll be down at once," Lady Ongar had said,
+dismissing the girl and then standing for a moment before her mirror
+as she smoothed her hair, obliterated as far as it might be possible
+the ugliness of her cap, and shook out the folds of her dress. A
+countess, a widow, a woman of the world who had seen enough to make
+her composed under all circumstances, one would say,--a trained mare
+as Doodles had called her,--she stood before her glass doubting
+and trembling like a girl, when she heard that Harry Clavering was
+waiting for her below. We may surmise that she would have spared
+herself some of this trouble had she known the real name of her
+visitor. Then, as she came slowly down the stairs, she reflected how
+she would receive him. He had stayed away from her, and she would
+be cold to him,--cold and formal as she had been on the railway
+platform. She knew well how to play that part. Yes; it was his turn
+now to show some eagerness of friendship, if there was ever to be
+anything more than friendship between them. But she changed all this
+as she put her hand upon the lock of the door. She would be honest
+to him,--honest and true. She was in truth glad to see him, and he
+should know it. What cared she now for the common ways of women and
+the usual coynesses of feminine coquetry? She told herself also, in
+language somewhat differing from that which Doodles had used, that
+her filly days were gone by, and that she was now a trained mare. All
+this passed through her mind as her hand was on the door; and then
+she opened it, with a smiling face and ready hand, to find herself in
+the presence of--Captain Archie Clavering.
+
+The captain was sharp-sighted enough to observe the change in her
+manner. The change, indeed, was visible enough, and was such that it
+at once knocked out of Archie's breast some portion of the courage
+with which his friend's lessons had inspired him. The outstretched
+hand fell slowly to her side, the smile gave place to a look of
+composed dignity which made Archie at once feel that the fate which
+called upon him to woo a countess was in itself hard. And she walked
+slowly into the room before she spoke to him, or he to her.
+
+"Captain Clavering!" she said at last, and there was much more of
+surprise than of welcome in her words as she uttered them.
+
+"Yes, Lady On--, Julia, that is; I thought I might as well come and
+call, as I found we weren't to see you at Clavering when we were all
+there at Easter." When she had been living in his brother's house
+as one of the family he had called her Julia, as Hugh had done. The
+connection between them had been close, and it had come naturally to
+him to do so. He had thought much of this since his present project
+had been initiated, and had strongly resolved not to lose the
+advantage of his former familiarity. He had very nearly broken down
+at the onset, but, as the reader will have observed, had recovered
+himself.
+
+"You are very good," she said; and then as he had been some time
+standing with his right hand presented to her, she just touched it
+with her own.
+
+"There's nothing I hate so much as stuff and nonsense," said Archie.
+To this remark she simply bowed, remaining awfully quiet. Captain
+Clavering felt that her silence was in truth awful. She had always
+been good at talking, and he had paused for her to say something; but
+when she bowed to him in that stiff manner,--"doosed stiff she was;
+doosed stiff, and impudent too," he told Doodles afterwards;--he knew
+that he must go on himself. "Stuff and nonsense is the mischief, you
+know." Then she bowed again. "There's been something the matter with
+them all down at Clavering since you came home, Julia; but hang me if
+I can find out what it is!" Still she was silent. "It ain't Hermy;
+that I must say. Hermy always speaks of you as though there had never
+been anything wrong." This assurance, we may say, must have been
+flattering to the lady whom he was about to court.
+
+"Hermy was always too good to me," said Lady Ongar, smiling.
+
+"By George, she always does. If there's anything wrong it's been with
+Hugh; and, by George, I don't know what it is he was up to when you
+first came home. It wasn't my doing;--of course you know that."
+
+"I never thought that anything was your doing, Captain Clavering."
+
+"I think Hugh had been losing money; I do indeed. He was like a bear
+with a sore head just at that time. There was no living in the house
+with him. I daresay Hermy may have told you all about that."
+
+"Hermione is not by nature so communicative as you are, Captain
+Clavering."
+
+"Isn't she? I should have thought between sisters--; but of course
+that's no business of mine." Again she was silent, awfully silent,
+and he became aware that he must either get up and go away or carry
+on the conversation himself. To do either seemed to be equally
+difficult, and for a while he sat there almost gasping in his misery.
+He was quite aware that as yet he had not made her know that he was
+there. He was not there, as he well knew, in his friend Doodles'
+sense of the word. "At any rate there isn't any good in quarrelling,
+is there, Julia?" he said at last. Now that he had asked a question,
+surely she must speak.
+
+"There is great good sometimes I think," said she, "in people
+remaining apart and not seeing each other. Sir Hugh Clavering has not
+quarrelled with me, that I am aware. Indeed, since my marriage there
+have been no means of quarrelling between us. But I think it quite as
+well that he and I should not come together."
+
+"But he particularly wants you to go to Clavering."
+
+"Has he sent you here as his messenger?"
+
+"Sent me! oh dear no; nothing of that sort. I have come altogether on
+my own hook. If Hugh wants a messenger he must find some one else.
+But you and I were always friends you know,"--at this assertion she
+opened her large eyes widely, and simply smiled;--"and I thought that
+perhaps you might be glad to see me if I called. That was all."
+
+"You are very good, Captain Clavering."
+
+"I couldn't bear to think that you should be here in London, and that
+one shouldn't see anything of you or know anything about you. Tell
+me now; is there anything I can do for you? Do you want anybody to
+settle anything for you in the city?"
+
+"I think not, Captain Clavering; thank you very much."
+
+"Because I should be so happy; I should indeed. There's nothing I
+should like so much as to make myself useful in some way. Isn't there
+anything now? There must be so much to be looked after,--about money
+and all that."
+
+"My lawyer does all that, Captain Clavering."
+
+"Those fellows are such harpies. There is no end to their charges;
+and all for doing things that would only be a pleasure to me."
+
+"I'm afraid I can't employ you in any matter that would suit your
+tastes."
+
+"Can't you indeed, now?" Then again there was a silence, and Captain
+Clavering was beginning to think that he must go. He was willing
+to work hard at talking or anything else; but he could not work
+if no ground for starting were allowed to him. He thought he must
+go, though he was aware that he had not made even the slightest
+preparation for future obedience to his friend's precepts. He began
+to feel that he had commenced wrongly. He should have made her know
+that he was there from the first moment of her entrance into the
+room. He must retreat now in order that he might advance with more
+force on the next occasion. He had just made up his mind to this and
+was doubting how he might best get himself out of his chair with the
+purpose of going, when sudden relief came in the shape of another
+visitor. The door was thrown open and Madam Gordeloup was announced.
+
+"Well, my angel," said the little woman, running up to her friend
+and kissing her on either side of her face. Then she turned round as
+though she had only just seen the strange gentleman, and curtseyed to
+him. Captain Clavering holding his hat in both his hands bowed to the
+little woman.
+
+
+[Illustration: Captain Clavering makes his first attempt.]
+
+
+"My sister's brother-in-law, Captain Clavering," said Lady Ongar.
+"Madam Gordeloup."
+
+Captain Clavering bowed again. "Ah, Sir Oo's brother," said Madam
+Gordeloup. "I am very glad to see Captain Clavering; and is your
+sister come?"
+
+"No; my sister is not come."
+
+"Lady Clavering is not in town this spring," said the captain.
+
+"Ah, not in town! Then I do pity her. There is only de one place to
+live in, and that is London, for April, May, and June. Lady Clavering
+is not coming to London?"
+
+"Her little boy isn't quite the thing," said the captain.
+
+"Not quite de ting?" said the Franco-Pole in an inquiring voice, not
+exactly understanding the gentleman's language.
+
+"My little nephew is ill, and my sister does not think it wise to
+bring him to London."
+
+"Ah; that is a pity. And Sir Oo? Sir Oo is in London?"
+
+"Yes," said the captain; "my brother has been up some time."
+
+"And his lady left alone in the country? Poor lady! But your English
+ladies like the country. They are fond of the fields and the daisies.
+So they say; but I think often they lie. Me; I like the houses,
+and the people, and the pave. The fields are damp, and I love not
+rheumatism at all." Then the little woman shrugged her shoulders and
+shook herself. "Tell us the truth, Julie; which do you like best, the
+town or the country?"
+
+"Whichever I'm not in, I think."
+
+"Ah, just so. Whichever you are not in at present. That is because
+you are still idle. You have not settled yourself!" At this reference
+to the possibility of Lady Ongar settling herself, Captain Clavering
+pricked up his ears, and listened eagerly for what might come next.
+He only knew of one way in which a young woman without a husband
+could settle herself. "You must wait, my dear, a little longer, just
+a little longer, till the time of your trouble has passed by."
+
+"Don't talk such nonsense, Sophie," said the countess.
+
+"Ah, my dear, it is no nonsense. I am always telling her, Captain
+Clavering, that she must go through this black, troublesome time as
+quick as she can; and then nobody will enjoy the town so much as de
+rich and beautiful Lady Ongar. Is it not so, Captain Clavering?"
+
+Archie thought that the time had now come for him to say something
+pretty, so that his love might begin to know that he was there. "By
+George, yes, there'll be nobody so much admired when she comes out
+again. There never was anybody so much admired before,--before,--that
+is, when you were Julia Brabazon, you know; and I shouldn't wonder if
+you didn't come out quite as strong as ever."
+
+"As strong!" said the Franco-Pole. "A woman that has been married is
+always more admired than a meess."
+
+"Sophie, might I ask you and Captain Clavering to be a little less
+personal?"
+
+"There is noting I hate so much as your meesses," continued Madame
+Gordeloup; "noting! Your English meesses give themselves such airs.
+Now in Paris, or in dear Vienna, or in St. Petersburg, they are not
+like that at all. There they are nobodies--they are nobodies; but
+then they will be something very soon, which is to be better. Your
+English meess is so much and so grand; she never can be greater and
+grander. So when she is a mamma, she lives down in the country by
+herself, and looks after de pills and de powders. I don't like that.
+I don't like that at all. No; if my husband had put me into the
+country to look after de pills and de powders, he should have had
+them all, all--himself, when he came to see me." As she said this
+with great energy, she opened her eyes wide, and looked full into
+Archie's face.
+
+Captain Clavering, who was sitting with his hat in his two hands
+between his knees, stared at the little foreigner. He had heard
+before of women poisoning their husbands, but never had heard a woman
+advocate the system as expedient. Nor had he often heard a woman
+advocate any system with the vehemence which Madame Gordeloup now
+displayed on this matter, and with an allusion which was so very
+pointed to the special position of his own sister-in-law. Did Lady
+Ongar agree with her? He felt as though he should like to know his
+Julia's opinions on that matter.
+
+"Sophie, Captain Clavering will think you are in earnest," said the
+countess, laughing.
+
+"So I am--in earnest. It is all wrong. You boil all the water out of
+de pot before you put the gigot into it. So the gigot is no good, is
+tough and dry, and you shut it up in an old house in the country.
+Then, to make matters pretty, you talk about de fields and de
+daisies. I know. 'Thank you,' I should say. 'De fields and de daisies
+are so nice and so good! Suppose you go down, my love, and walk in de
+fields, and pick de daisies, and send them up to me by de railway!'
+Yes, that is what I would say."
+
+Captain Clavering was now quite in the dark, and began to regard the
+little woman as a lunatic. When she spoke of the pot and the gigot
+he vainly endeavoured to follow her; and now that she had got among
+the daisies he was more at a loss than ever. Fruit, vegetables, and
+cut flowers came up, he knew, to London regularly from Clavering,
+when the family was in town;--but no daisies. In France it must, he
+supposed, be different. He was aware, however, of his ignorance, and
+said nothing.
+
+"No one ever did try to shut you up, Sophie!"
+
+"No, indeed; M. Gordeloup knew better. What would he do if I were
+shut up? And no one will ever shut you up, my dear. If I were you,
+I would give no one a chance."
+
+"Don't say that," said the captain, almost passionately; "don't say
+that."
+
+"Ha, ha! but I do say it. Why should a woman who has got everything
+marry again? If she wants de fields and de daisies she has got them
+of her own--yes, of her own. If she wants de town, she has got
+that too. Jewels,--she can go and buy them. Coaches,--there they
+are. Parties,--one, two, three, every night, as many as she please.
+Gentlemen who will be her humble slaves; such a plenty,--all London.
+Or, if she want to be alone, no one can come near her. Why should she
+marry? No."
+
+"But she might be in love with somebody," said the captain, in a
+surprised but humble tone.
+
+"Love! Bah! Be in love, so that she may be shut up in an old barrack
+with de powders!" The way in which that word barrack was pronounced,
+and the middle letters sounded, almost lifted the captain off his
+seat. "Love is very pretty at seventeen, when the imagination is
+telling a parcel of lies, and when life is one dream. To like
+people,--oh, yes; to be very fond of your friends,--oh, yes; to be
+most attached,--as I am to my Julie,"--here she got hold of Lady
+Ongar's hand,--"it is the salt of life! But what you call love,
+booing and cooing, with rhymes and verses about de moon, it is to go
+back to pap and panade, and what you call bibs. No; if a woman wants
+a house, and de something to live on, let her marry a husband; or if
+a man want to have children, let him marry a wife. But to be shut up
+in a country house, when everything you have got of your own,--I say
+it is bad."
+
+Captain Clavering was heartily sorry that he had mentioned the fact
+of his sister-in-law being left at home at Clavering Park. It was
+most unfortunate. How could he make it understood that if he were
+married he would not think of shutting his wife up at Ongar Park?
+"Lady Clavering, you know, does come to London generally," he said.
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed the little Franco-Pole.
+
+"And as for me, I never should be happy, if I were married, unless I
+had my wife with me everywhere," said Captain Clavering.
+
+"Bah-ah-ah!" ejaculated the lady.
+
+Captain Clavering could not endure this any longer. He felt that the
+manner of the lady was, to say the least of it, unpleasant, and he
+perceived that he was doing no good to his own cause. So he rose from
+his chair and muttered some words with the intention of showing his
+purpose of departure.
+
+"Good-by, Captain Clavering," said Lady Ongar. "My love to my sister
+when you see her."
+
+Archie shook hands with her and then made his bow to Madame
+Gordeloup.
+
+"Au revoir, my friend," she said, "and you remember all I say. It is
+not good for de wife to be all alone in the country, while de husband
+walk about in the town and make an eye to every lady he see." Archie
+would not trust himself to renew the argument, but bowing again, made
+his way off.
+
+"He was come for one admirer," said Sophie, as soon as the door was
+closed.
+
+"An admirer of whom?"
+
+"Not of me;--oh, no; I was not in danger at all."
+
+"Of me? Captain Clavering! Sophie, you get your head full of the
+strangest nonsense."
+
+"Ah; very well. You see. What will you give me if I am right? Will
+you bet? Why had he got on his new gloves, and had his head all
+smelling with stuff from de hairdresser? Does he come always perfumed
+like that? Does he wear shiny little boots to walk about in de
+morning, and make an eye always? Perhaps yes."
+
+"I never saw his boots or his eyes."
+
+"But I see them. I see many things. He come to have Ongere Park for
+his own. I tell you, yes. Ten thousand will come to have Ongere Park.
+Why not? To have Ongere Park and all de money a man will make himself
+smell a great deal."
+
+"You think much more about all that than is necessary."
+
+"Do I, my dear? Very well. There are three already. There is Edouard,
+and there is this Clavering who you say is a captain; and there
+is the other Clavering who goes with his nose in the air, and who
+think himself a clever fellow because he learned his lesson at
+school and did not get himself whipped. He will be whipped yet some
+day,--perhaps."
+
+"Sophie, hold your tongue. Captain Clavering is my sister's
+brother-in-law, and Harry Clavering is my friend."
+
+"Ah, friend! I know what sort of friend he wants to be. How much
+better to have a park and plenty of money than to work in a ditch and
+make a railway! But he do not know the way with a woman. Perhaps he
+may be more at home, as you say, in the ditch. I should say to him,
+'My friend, you will do well in de ditch if you work hard;--suppose
+you stay there.'"
+
+"You don't seem to like my cousin, and if you please, we will talk no
+more about him."
+
+"Why should I not like him? He don't want to get any money from me."
+
+"That will do, Sophie."
+
+"Very well; it shall do for me. But this other man that come here
+to-day. He is a fool."
+
+"Very likely."
+
+"He did not learn his lesson without whipping."
+
+"Nor with whipping either."
+
+"No; he have learned nothing. He does not know what to do with his
+hat. He is a fool. Come, Julie, will you take me out for a drive. It
+is melancholy for you to go alone; I came to ask you for a drive.
+Shall we go?" And they did go, Lady Ongar and Sophie Gordeloup
+together. Lady Ongar, as she submitted, despised herself for her
+submission; but what was she to do? It is sometimes very difficult to
+escape from the meshes of friendship.
+
+Captain Clavering, when he left Bolton Street, went down to his
+club, having first got rid of his shining boots and new gloves. He
+sauntered up into the billiard-room knowing that his friend would be
+there, and there he found Doodles with his coat off, the sleeves of
+his shirt turned back, and armed with his cue. His brother captain,
+the moment that he saw him, presented the cue at his breast. "Does
+she know you're there, old fellow; I say, does she know you're
+there?" The room was full of men, and the whole thing was done so
+publicly that Captain Clavering was almost offended.
+
+"Come, Doodles, you go on with your game," said he; "it's you to
+play." Doodles turned to the table, and scientifically pocketed the
+ball on which he played; then he laid his own ball close under the
+cushion, picked up a shilling and put it into his waistcoat pocket,
+holding a lighted cigar in his mouth the while, and then he came back
+to his friend. "Well, Clavvy, how has it been?"
+
+"Oh, nothing as yet, you know."
+
+"Haven't you seen her?"
+
+"Yes, I've seen her, of course. I'm not the fellow to let the grass
+grow under my feet. I've only just come from her house."
+
+"Well, well?"
+
+"That's nothing much to tell the first day, you know."
+
+"Did you let her know you were there? That's the chat. Damme, did you
+let her know you were there?"
+
+In answer to this Archie attempted to explain that he was not as yet
+quite sure that he had been successful in that particular; but in
+the middle of his story Captain Doodles was called off to exercise
+his skill again, and on this occasion to pick up two shillings. "I'm
+sorry for you, Griggs," he said, as a very young lieutenant, whose
+last life he had taken, put up his cue with a look of ineffable
+disgust, and whose shilling Doodles had pocketed; "I'm sorry for you,
+very; but a fellow must play the game, you know." Whereupon Griggs
+walked out of the room with a gait that seemed to show that he had
+his own ideas upon that matter, though he did not choose to divulge
+them. Doodles instantly returned to his friend. "With cattle of that
+kind it's no use trying the waiting dodge," said he. "You should make
+your running at once, and trust to bottom to carry you through."
+
+"But there was a horrid little Frenchwoman came in!"
+
+"What; a servant?"
+
+"No; a friend. Such a creature! You should have heard her talk. A
+kind of confidential friend she seemed, who called her Julie. I had
+to go away and leave her there, of course."
+
+"Ah! you'll have to tip that woman."
+
+"What, with money?"
+
+"I shouldn't wonder."
+
+"It would come very expensive."
+
+"A tenner now and then, you know. She would do your business for you.
+Give her a brooch first, and then offer to lend her the money. You'd
+find she'll rise fast enough, if you're any hand for throwing a fly."
+
+"Oh! I could do it, you know."
+
+"Do it then, and let 'em both know that you're there. Yes, Parkyns,
+I'll divide. And, Clavvy, you can come in now in Griggs' place." Then
+Captain Clavering stripped himself for the battle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE BLUE POSTS.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+"Oh; so you 'ave come to see me. I am so glad." With these words
+Sophie Gordeloup welcomed Harry Clavering to her room in Mount Street
+early one morning not long after her interview with Captain Archie
+in Lady Ongar's presence. On the previous evening Harry had received
+a note from Lady Ongar, in which she upbraided him for having left
+unperformed her commission with reference to Count Pateroff. The
+letter had begun quite abruptly. "I think it unkind of you that you
+do not come to me. I asked you to see a certain person on my behalf,
+and you have not done so. Twice he has been here. Once I was in truth
+out. He came again the next evening at nine, and I was then ill,
+and had gone to bed. You understand it all, and must know how this
+annoys me. I thought you would have done this for me, and I thought I
+should have seen you.--J." This note he found at his lodgings when he
+returned home at night, and on the following morning he went in his
+despair direct to Mount Street, on his way to the Adelphi. It was not
+yet ten o'clock when he was shown into Madame Gordeloup's presence,
+and as regarded her dress he did not find her to be quite prepared
+for morning visitors. But he might well be indifferent on that
+matter, as the lady seemed to disregard the circumstances altogether.
+On her head she wore what he took to be a nightcap, though I will
+not absolutely undertake to say that she had slept in that very
+head-dress. There were frills to it, and a certain attempt at
+prettinesses had been made; but then the attempt had been made so
+long ago, and the frills were so ignorant of starch and all frillish
+propensities, that it hardly could pretend to decency. A great white
+wrapper she also wore, which might not have been objectionable had
+it not been so long worn that it looked like a university college
+surplice at the end of the long vacation. Her slippers had all the
+ease which age could give them, and above the slippers, neatness, to
+say the least of it, did not predominate. But Sophie herself seemed
+to be quite at her ease in spite of these deficiencies, and received
+our hero with an eager, pointed welcome, which I can hardly describe
+as affectionate, and which Harry did not at all understand.
+
+"I have to apologize for troubling you," he began.
+
+"Trouble, what trouble? Bah! You give me no trouble. It is you have
+the trouble to come here. You come early and I have not got my
+crinoline. If you are contented, so am I." Then she smiled, and sat
+herself down suddenly, letting herself almost fall into her special
+corner in the sofa. "Take a chair, Mr. Harry; then we can talk more
+comfortable."
+
+"I want especially to see your brother. Can you give me his address?"
+
+"What? Edouard--certainly; Travellers' Club."
+
+"But he is never there."
+
+"He sends every day for his letters. You want to see him. Why?"
+
+Harry was at once confounded, having no answer. "A little private
+business," he said.
+
+"Ah; a little private business. You do not owe him a little money,
+I am afraid, or you would not want to see him. Ha, ha! You write to
+him, and he will see you. There;--there is paper and pen and ink. He
+shall get your letter this day."
+
+Harry, nothing suspicious, did as he was bid, and wrote a note in
+which he simply told the count that he was specially desirous of
+seeing him.
+
+"I will go to you anywhere," said Harry, "if you will name a place."
+
+We, knowing Madame Gordeloup's habits, may feel little doubt but that
+she thought it her duty to become acquainted with the contents of the
+note before she sent it out of her house, but we may also know that
+she learned very little from it.
+
+"It shall go, almost immediately," said Sophie, when the envelope was
+closed.
+
+Then Harry got up to depart, having done his work. "What, you are
+going in that way at once? You are in a hurry?"
+
+"Well, yes; I am in a hurry, rather, Madame Gordeloup. I have got
+to be at my office, and I only just came up here to find out your
+brother's address." Then he rose and went, leaving the note behind
+him.
+
+Then Madame Gordeloup, speaking to herself in French, called Harry
+Clavering a lout, a fool, an awkward overgrown boy, and a pig. She
+declared him to be a pig nine times over, then shook herself in
+violent disgust, and after that betook herself to the letter.
+
+The letter was at any rate duly sent to the count, for before Harry
+had left Mr. Beilby's chambers on that day, Pateroff came to him
+there. Harry sat in the same room with other men, and therefore went
+out to see his acquaintance in a little antechamber that was used
+for such purposes. As he walked from one room to the other, he was
+conscious of the delicacy and difficulty of the task before him, and
+the colour was high in his face as he opened the door. But when he
+had done so, he saw that the count was not alone. A gentleman was
+with him, whom he did not introduce to Harry, and before whom Harry
+could not say that which he had to communicate.
+
+"Pardon me," said the count, "but we are in railroad hurry. Nobody
+ever was in such a haste as I and my friend. You are not engaged
+to-morrow? No, I see. You dine with me and my friend at the Blue
+Posts. You know the Blue Posts?"
+
+Harry said he did not know the Blue Posts.
+
+"Then you shall know the Blue Posts. I will be your instructor. You
+drink claret. Come and see. You eat beefsteaks. Come and try. You
+love one glass of port wine with your cheese. No. But you shall
+love it when you have dined with me at the Blue Posts. We will dine
+altogether after the English way;--which is the best way in the world
+when it is quite good. It is quite good at the Blue Posts;--quite
+good! Seven o'clock. You are fined when a minute late; an extra glass
+of port wine a minute. Now I must go. Ah; yes. I am ruined already."
+
+Then Count Pateroff, holding his watch in his hand, bolted out of the
+room before Harry could say a word to him.
+
+He had nothing for it but to go to the dinner, and to the dinner he
+went. On that same evening, the evening of the day on which he had
+seen Sophie and her brother, he wrote to Lady Ongar, using to her
+the same manner of writing that she had used to him, and telling her
+that he had done his best, that he had now seen him whom he had been
+desired to see, but that he had not been able to speak to him. He
+was, however, to dine with him on the following day,--and would call
+in Bolton Street as soon as possible after that interview.
+
+Exactly at seven o'clock, Harry, having the fear of the threatened
+fine before his eyes, was at the Blue Posts; and there, standing in
+the middle of the room, he saw Count Pateroff. With Count Pateroff
+was the same gentleman whom Harry had seen at the Adelphi, and whom
+the count now introduced as Colonel Schmoff; and also a little
+Englishman with a knowing eye and a bull-dog neck, and whiskers
+cut very short and trim,--a horsey little man, whom the count also
+introduced. "Captain Boodle; says he knows a cousin of yours, Mr.
+Clavering."
+
+Then Colonel Schmoff bowed, never yet having spoken a word in Harry's
+hearing, and our old friend Doodles with glib volubility told Harry
+how intimate he was with Archie, and how he knew Sir Hugh, and how he
+had met Lady Clavering, and how "doosed" glad he was to meet Harry
+himself on this present occasion.
+
+"And now, my boys, we'll set down," said the count. "There's just a
+little soup, printanier; yes, they can make soup here; then a cut of
+salmon; and after that the beefsteak. Nothing more. Schmoff, my boy,
+can you eat beefsteak?"
+
+Schmoff neither smiled nor spoke, but simply bowed his head gravely,
+and sitting down, arranged with slow exactness his napkin over his
+waistcoat and lap.
+
+"Captain Boodle, can you eat beefsteak," said the count; "Blue Posts'
+beefsteak?"
+
+"Try me," said Doodles. "That's all. Try me."
+
+"I will try you, and I will try Mr. Clavering. Schmoff would eat a
+horse if he had not a bullock, and a piece of a jackass if he had not
+a horse."
+
+"I did eat a horse in Hamboro' once. We was besieged."
+
+So much said Schmoff, very slowly, in a deep bass voice, speaking
+from the bottom of his chest, and frowning very heavily as he did so.
+The exertion was so great that he did not repeat it for a
+considerable time.
+
+"Thank God we are not besieged now," said the count, as the soup was
+handed round to them. "Ah, Albert, my friend, that is good soup; very
+good soup. My compliments to the excellent Stubbs. Mr. Clavering, the
+excellent Stubbs is the cook. I am quite at home here and they do
+their best for me. You need not fear you will have any of Schmoff's
+horse."
+
+This was all very pleasant, and Harry Clavering sat down to his
+dinner prepared to enjoy it; but there was a sense about him during
+the whole time that he was being taken in and cheated, and that
+the count would cheat him and actually escape away from him on
+that evening without his being able to speak a word to him. They
+were dining in a public room, at a large table which they had to
+themselves, while others were dining at small tables round them.
+Even if Schmoff and Boodle had not been there, he could hardly have
+discussed Lady Ongar's private affairs in such a room as that. The
+count had brought him there to dine in this way with a premeditated
+purpose of throwing him over, pretending to give him the meeting that
+had been asked for, but intending that it should pass by and be of no
+avail. Such was Harry's belief, and he resolved that, though he might
+have to seize Pateroff by the tails of his coat, the count should not
+escape him without having been forced at any rate to hear what he had
+to say. In the meantime the dinner went on very pleasantly.
+
+"Ah," said the count, "there is no fish like salmon early in the
+year; but not too early. And it should come alive from Grove, and be
+cooked by Stubbs."
+
+"And eaten by me," said Boodle.
+
+"Under my auspices," said the count, "and then all is well. Mr.
+Clavering, a little bit near the head? Not care about any particular
+part? That is wrong. Everybody should always learn what is the best
+to eat of everything, and get it if they can."
+
+"By George, I should think so," said Doodles. "I know I do."
+
+"Not to know the bit out of the neck of the salmon from any other
+bit, is not to know a false note from a true one. Not to distinguish
+a '51 wine from a '58, is to look at an arm or a leg on the canvas,
+and to care nothing whether it is in drawing, or out of drawing. Not
+to know Stubbs' beefsteak from other beefsteaks, is to say that every
+woman is the same thing to you. Only, Stubbs will let you have his
+beefsteak if you will pay him,--him or his master. With the beautiful
+woman it is not always so;--not always. Do I make myself understood?"
+
+"Clear as mud," said Doodles. "I'm quite along with you there. Why
+should a man be ashamed of eating what's nice? Everybody does it."
+
+"No, Captain Boodle; not everybody. Some cannot get it, and some do
+not know it when it comes in their way. They are to be pitied. I do
+pity them from the bottom of my heart. But there is one poor fellow
+I do pity more even than they."
+
+There was something in the tone of the count's words,--a simple
+pathos, and almost a melody, which interested Harry Clavering. No one
+knew better than Count Pateroff how to use all the inflexions of his
+voice, and produce from the phrases he used the very highest interest
+which they were capable of producing. He now spoke of his pity in a
+way that might almost have made a sensitive man weep. "Who is it that
+you pity so much?" Harry asked.
+
+"The man who cannot digest," said the count, in a low clear voice.
+Then he bent down his head over the morsel of food on his plate,
+as though he were desirous of hiding a tear. "The man who cannot
+digest!" As he repeated the words he raised his head again, and
+looked round at all their faces.
+
+"Yes, yes;--mein Gott, yes," said Schmoff, and even he appeared as
+though he were almost moved from the deep quietude of his inward
+indifference.
+
+"Ah; talk of blessings! What a blessing is digestion!" said the
+count. "I do not know whether you have ever thought of it, Captain
+Boodle? You are young, and perhaps not. Or you, Mr. Clavering? It is
+a subject worthy of your thoughts. To digest! Do you know what it
+means? It is to have the sun always shining, and the shade always
+ready for you. It is to be met with smiles, and to be greeted with
+kisses. It is to hear sweet sounds, to sleep with sweet dreams, to
+be touched ever by gentle, soft, cool hands. It is to be in paradise.
+Adam and Eve were in paradise. Why? Their digestion was good. Ah!
+then they took liberties, eat bad fruit,--things they could not
+digest. They what we call, ruined their constitutions, destroyed
+their gastric juices, and then they were expelled from paradise by an
+angel with a flaming sword. The angel with the flaming sword, which
+turned two ways, was indigestion! There came a great indigestion upon
+the earth because the cooks were bad, and they called it a deluge.
+Ah, I thank God there is to be no more deluges. All the evils come
+from this. Macbeth could not sleep. It was the supper, not the
+murder. His wife talked and walked. It was the supper again. Milton
+had a bad digestion because he is always so cross; and your Carlyle
+must have the worst digestion in the world, because he never says
+any good of anything. Ah, to digest is to be happy! Believe me, my
+friends, there is no other way not to be turned out of paradise by a
+fiery two-handed turning sword."
+
+"It is true," said Schmoff; "yes, it is true."
+
+"I believe you," said Doodles. "And how well the count describes it,
+don't he, Mr. Clavering? I never looked at it in that light; but,
+after all, digestion is everything. What is a horse worth, if he
+won't feed?"
+
+"I never thought much about it," said Harry.
+
+"That is very good," said the great preacher. "Not to think about it
+ever is the best thing in the world. You will be made to think about
+it if there be necessity. A friend of mine told me he did not know
+whether he had a digestion. My friend, I said, you are like the
+husbandmen; you do not know your own blessings. A bit more steak, Mr.
+Clavering; see, it has come up hot, just to prove that you have the
+blessing."
+
+There was a pause in the conversation for a minute or two, during
+which Schmoff and Doodles were very busy giving the required proof;
+and the count was leaning back in his chair, with a smile of
+conscious wisdom on his face, looking as though he were in deep
+consideration of the subject on which he had just spoken with so much
+eloquence. Harry did not interrupt the silence, as, foolishly, he was
+allowing his mind to carry itself away from the scene of enjoyment
+that was present, and trouble itself with the coming battle which he
+would be obliged to fight with the count. Schmoff was the first to
+speak. "When I was eating a horse at Hamboro'--" he began.
+
+"Schmoff," said the count, "if we allow you to get behind the
+ramparts of that besieged city, we shall have to eat that horse for
+the rest of the evening. Captain Boodle, if you will believe me, I
+eat that horse once for two hours. Ah, here is the port wine. Now,
+Mr. Clavering, this is the wine for cheese;--'34. No man should drink
+above two glasses of '34. If you want port after that, then have
+'20."
+
+Schmoff had certainly been hardly treated. He had scarcely spoken a
+word during dinner, and should, I think, have been allowed to say
+something of the flavour of the horse. It did not, however, appear
+from his countenance that he had felt, or that he resented the
+interference; though he did not make any further attempt to enliven
+the conversation.
+
+They did not sit long over their wine, and the count, in spite of
+what he had said about the claret, did not drink any. "Captain
+Boodle," he said, "you must respect my weakness as well as my
+strength. I know what I can do, and what I cannot. If I were a real
+hero, like you English,--which means, if I had an ostrich in my
+inside,--I would drink till twelve every night, and eat broiled
+bones till six every morning. But alas! the ostrich has not been
+given to me. As a common man I am pretty well, but I have no heroic
+capacities. We will have a little chasse, and then we will smoke."
+
+Harry began to be very nervous. How was he to do it? It had become
+clearer and clearer to him through every ten minutes of the dinner,
+that the count did not intend to give him any moment for private
+conversation. He felt that he was cheated and ill-used, and was
+waxing angry. They were to go and smoke in a public room, and he
+knew, or thought he knew, what that meant. The count would sit there
+till he went, and had brought the Colonel Schmoff with him, so that
+he might be sure of some ally to remain by his side and ensure
+silence. And the count, doubtless, had calculated that when Captain
+Boodle went, as he soon would go, to his billiards, he, Harry
+Clavering, would feel himself compelled to go also. No! It should not
+result in that way. Harry resolved that he would not go. He had his
+mission to perform and he would perform it, even if he were compelled
+to do so in the presence of Colonel Schmoff.
+
+Doodles soon went. He could not sit long with the simple
+gratification of a cigar, without gin-and-water or other comfort
+of that kind, even though the eloquence of Count Pateroff might be
+excited in his favour. He was a man, indeed, who did not love to sit
+still, even with the comfort of gin-and-water. An active little man
+was Captain Boodle, always doing something or anxious to do something
+in his own line of business. Small speculations in money, so
+concocted as to leave the risk against him smaller than the chance on
+his side, constituted Captain Boodle's trade; and in that trade he
+was indefatigable, ingenious, and, to a certain extent, successful.
+The worst of the trade was this: that though he worked at it above
+twelve hours a day, to the exclusion of all other interests in
+life, he could only make out of it an income which would have been
+considered a beggarly failure at any other profession. When he netted
+a pound a day he considered himself to have done very well; but he
+could not do that every day in the week. To do it often required
+unremitting exertion. And then, in spite of all his care, misfortunes
+would come. "A cursed garron, of whom nobody had ever heard the name!
+If a man mayn't take a liberty with such a brute as that, when is
+he to take a liberty?" So had he expressed himself plaintively,
+endeavouring to excuse himself, when on some occasion a race had been
+won by some outside horse which Captain Boodle had omitted to make
+safe in his betting-book. He was regarded by his intimate friends
+as a very successful man; but I think myself that his life was a
+mistake. To live with one's hands ever daubed with chalk from a
+billiard-table, to be always spying into stables and rubbing against
+grooms, to put up with the narrow lodgings which needy men encounter
+at race meetings, to be day after day on the rails running after
+platers and steeplechasers, to be conscious on all occasions of the
+expediency of selling your beast when you are hunting, to be counting
+up little odds at all your spare moments;--these things do not, I
+think, make a satisfactory life for a young man. And for a man that
+is not young, they are the very devil! Better have no digestion when
+you are forty than find yourself living such a life as that! Captain
+Boodle would, I think, have been happier had he contrived to get
+himself employed as a tax-gatherer or an attorney's clerk.
+
+On this occasion Doodles soon went, as had been expected, and Harry
+found himself smoking with the two foreigners. Pateroff was no longer
+eloquent, but sat with his cigar in his mouth as silent as Colonel
+Schmoff himself. It was evidently expected of Harry that he should
+go.
+
+"Count," he said at last, "you got my note?" There were seven or
+eight persons sitting in the room besides the party of three to which
+Harry belonged.
+
+"Your note, Mr. Clavering! which note? Oh, yes; I should not have had
+the pleasure of seeing you here to-day but for that."
+
+"Can you give me five minutes in private?"
+
+"What! now! here! this evening! after dinner? Another time I will
+talk with you by the hour together."
+
+"I fear I must trouble you now. I need not remind you that I could
+not keep you yesterday morning; you were so much hurried."
+
+"And now I am having my little moment of comfort! These special
+business conversations after dinner are so bad for the digestion!"
+
+"If I could have caught you before dinner, Count Pateroff, I would
+have done so."
+
+"If it must be, it must. Schmoff, will you wait for me ten minutes?
+I will not be more than ten minutes." And the count as he made this
+promise looked at his watch. "Waiter," he said, speaking in a sharp
+tone which Harry had not heard before, "show this gentleman and
+me into a private room." Harry got up and led the way out, not
+forgetting to assure himself that he cared nothing for the sharpness
+of the count's voice.
+
+"Now, Mr. Clavering, what is it?" said the count, looking full into
+Harry's eye.
+
+"I will tell you in two words."
+
+"In one if you can."
+
+"I came with a message to you from Lady Ongar."
+
+"Why are you a messenger from Lady Ongar?"
+
+"I have known her long and she is connected with my family."
+
+"Why does she not send her messages by Sir Hugh,--her
+brother-in-law?"
+
+"It is hardly for you to ask that!"
+
+"Yes; it is for me to ask that. I have known Lady Ongar well, and
+have treated her with kindness. I do not want to have messages by
+anybody. But go on. If you are a messenger, give your message."
+
+"Lady Ongar bids me tell you that she cannot see you."
+
+"But she must see me. She shall see me!"
+
+"I am to explain to you that she declines to do so. Surely, Count
+Pateroff, you must understand--"
+
+"Ah, bah; I understand everything;--in such matters as these, better,
+perhaps, than you, Mr. Clavering. You have given your message. Now,
+as you are a messenger, will you give mine?"
+
+"That will depend altogether on its nature."
+
+"Sir, I never send uncivil words to a woman, though sometimes I
+may be tempted to speak them to a man; when, for instance, a man
+interferes with me; do you understand? My message is this:--tell her
+ladyship, with my compliments, that it will be better for her to see
+me,--better for her, and for me. When that poor lord died,--and he
+had been, mind, my friend for many years before her ladyship had
+heard his name,--I was with him; and there were occurrences of which
+you know nothing and need know nothing. I did my best then to be
+courteous to Lady Ongar, which she returns by shutting her door in
+my face. I do not mind that. I am not angry with a woman. But tell
+her that when she has heard what I now say to her by you, she will,
+I do not doubt, think better of it; and therefore I shall do myself
+the honour of presenting myself at her door again. Good-night, Mr.
+Clavering; au revoir; we will have another of Stubbs' little dinners
+before long." As he spoke these last words the count's voice was
+again changed, and the old smile had returned to his face.
+
+Harry shook hands with him and walked away homewards, not without a
+feeling that the count had got the better of him, even to the end.
+He had, however, learned how the land lay, and could explain to Lady
+Ongar that Count Pateroff now knew her wishes and was determined to
+disregard them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+DESOLATION.
+
+
+In the meantime there was grief down at the great house of Clavering;
+and grief, we must suppose also, at the house in Berkeley Square,
+as soon as the news from his country home had reached Sir Hugh
+Clavering. Little Hughy, his heir, was dead. Early one morning, Mrs.
+Clavering, at the rectory, received a message from Lady Clavering,
+begging that she would go up to the house, and, on arriving there,
+she found that the poor child was very ill. The doctor was then at
+Clavering, and had recommended that a message should be sent to the
+father in London, begging him to come down. This message had been
+already despatched when Mrs. Clavering arrived. The poor mother was
+in a state of terrible agony, but at that time there was yet hope.
+Mrs. Clavering then remained with Lady Clavering for two or three
+hours; but just before dinner on the same day another messenger came
+across to say that hope was past, and that the child had gone. Could
+Mrs. Clavering come over again, as Lady Clavering was in a sad way?
+
+"You'll have your dinner first?" said the rector.
+
+"No, I think not. I shall wish to make her take something, and I can
+do it better if I ask for tea for myself. I will go at once. Poor
+dear little boy."
+
+"It was a blow I always feared," said the rector to his daughter as
+soon as his wife had left them. "Indeed, I knew that it was coming."
+
+"And she was always fearing it," said Fanny. "But I do not think he
+did. He never seems to think that evil will come to him."
+
+"He will feel this," said the rector.
+
+"Feel it, papa! Of course he will feel it."
+
+"I do not think he would,--not deeply, that is,--if there were four
+or five of them. He is a hard man;--the hardest man I ever knew. Who
+ever saw him playing with his own child, or with any other? Who ever
+heard him say a soft word to his wife? But he will be hit now, for
+this child was his heir. He will be hit hard now, and I pity him."
+
+Mrs. Clavering went across the park alone, and soon found herself in
+the poor bereaved mother's room. She was sitting by herself, having
+driven the old housekeeper away from her; and there were no traces
+of tears then on her face, though she had wept plentifully when Mrs.
+Clavering had been with her in the morning. But there had come upon
+her suddenly a look of age, which nothing but such sorrow as this can
+produce. Mrs. Clavering was surprised to see that she had dressed
+herself carefully since the morning, as was her custom to do daily,
+even when alone; and that she was not in her bedroom, but in a small
+sitting-room which she generally used when Sir Hugh was not at the
+park.
+
+"My poor Hermione," said Mrs. Clavering, coming up to her, and taking
+her by the hand.
+
+"Yes, I am poor; poor enough. Why have they troubled you to come
+across again?"
+
+"Did you not send for me? But it was quite right, whether you sent or
+no. Of course I should come when I heard it. It cannot be good for
+you to be all alone."
+
+"I suppose he will be here to-night?"
+
+"Yes, if he got your message before three o'clock."
+
+"Oh, he will have received it, and I suppose he will come. You think
+he will come, eh?"
+
+"Of course he will come."
+
+"I do not know. He does not like coming to the country."
+
+"He will be sure to come now, Hermione."
+
+"And who will tell him? Some one must tell him before he comes to
+me. Should there not be some one to tell him? They have sent another
+message."
+
+"Hannah shall be at hand to tell him." Hannah was the old housekeeper
+who had been in the family when Sir Hugh was born. "Or, if you wish
+it, Henry shall come down and remain here. I am sure he will do so,
+if it will be a comfort."
+
+"No; he would, perhaps, be rough to Mr. Clavering. He is so very
+hard. Hannah shall do it. Will you make her understand?" Mrs.
+Clavering promised that she would do this, wondering, as she did so,
+at the wretched, frigid immobility of the unfortunate woman before
+her. She knew Lady Clavering well;--knew her to be in many things
+weak, to be worldly, listless, and perhaps somewhat selfish; but she
+knew also that she had loved her child as mothers always love. Yet,
+at this moment, it seemed that she was thinking more of her husband
+than of the bairn she had lost. Mrs. Clavering had sat down by her
+and taken her hand, and was still so sitting in silence when Lady
+Clavering spoke again. "I suppose he will turn me out of his house
+now," she said.
+
+"Who will do so? Hugh? Oh, Hermione, how can you speak in such a
+way?"
+
+"He scolded me before because my poor darling was not strong. My
+darling! How could I help it? And he scolded me because there was
+none other but he. He will turn me out altogether now. Oh, Mrs.
+Clavering, you do not know how hard he is."
+
+Anything was better than this, and therefore Mrs. Clavering asked the
+poor woman to take her into the room where the little body lay in
+its little cot. If she could induce the mother to weep for the child,
+even that would be better than this hard persistent fear as to what
+her husband would say and do. So they both went and stood together
+over the little fellow whose short sufferings had thus been brought
+to an end. "My poor dear, what can I say to comfort you?" Mrs.
+Clavering, as she asked this, knew well that no comfort could be
+spoken in words; but--if she could only make the sufferer weep!
+
+"Comfort!" said the mother. "There is no comfort now, I believe,
+in anything. It is long since I knew any comfort;--not since Julia
+went."
+
+"Have you written to Julia?"
+
+"No; I have written to no one. I cannot write. I feel as though if it
+were to bring him back again I could not write of it. My boy! my boy!
+my boy!" But still there was not a tear in her eye.
+
+"I will write to Julia," said Mrs. Clavering; "and I will read to you
+my letter."
+
+"No, do not read it me. What is the use? He has made her quarrel with
+me. Julia cares nothing now for me, or for my angel. Why should she
+care? When she came home we would not see her. Of course she will not
+care. Who is there that will care for me?"
+
+"Do not I care for you, Hermione?"
+
+"Yes, because you are here; because of the nearness of the houses.
+If you lived far away you would not care for me. It is just the
+custom of the thing." There was something so true in this that Mrs.
+Clavering could make no answer to it. Then they turned to go back
+into the sitting-room, and as they did so Lady Clavering lingered
+behind for a moment; but when she was again with Mrs. Clavering her
+cheek was still dry.
+
+"He will be at the station at nine," said Lady Clavering. "They must
+send the brougham for him, or the dog-cart. He will be very angry if
+he is made to come home in the fly from the public-house." Then the
+elder lady left the room and gave orders that Sir Hugh should be met
+by his carriage. What must the wife think of her husband, when she
+feared that he would be angered by little matters at such a time as
+this! "Do you think it will make him very unhappy?" Lady Clavering
+asked.
+
+"Of course it will make him unhappy. How should it be otherwise?"
+
+"He had said so often that the child would die. He will have got used
+to the fear."
+
+"His grief will be as fresh now as though he had never thought so,
+and never said so."
+
+"He is so hard; and then he has such will, such power. He will thrust
+it off from him and determine that it shall not oppress him. I know
+him so well."
+
+"We should all make some exertion like that in our sorrow, trusting
+to God's kindness to relieve us. You too, Hermione, should determine
+also; but not yet, my dear. At first it is better to let sorrow have
+its way."
+
+"But he will determine at once. You remember when Meeny went." Meeny
+had been a little girl who had been born before the boy, and who had
+died when little more than twelve months old. "He did not expect
+that; but then he only shook his head, and went out of the room. He
+has never spoken to me one word of her since that. I think he has
+forgotten Meeny altogether,--even that she was ever here."
+
+"He cannot forget the boy who was his heir."
+
+"Ah, that is where it is. He will say words to me which would make
+you weep if you could hear them. Yes, my darling was his heir. Archie
+will marry now, and will have children, and his boy will be the heir.
+There will be more division and more quarrels, for Hugh will hate his
+brother now."
+
+"I do not understand why."
+
+"Because he is so hard. It is a pity he should ever have married, for
+he wants nothing that a wife can do for him. He wanted a boy to come
+after him in the estate, and now that glory has been taken from him.
+Mrs. Clavering, I often wish that I could die."
+
+It would be bootless here to repeat the words of wise and loving
+counsel with which the elder of the two ladies endeavoured to comfort
+the younger, and to make her understand what were the duties which
+still remained to her, and which, if they were rightly performed,
+would, in their performance, soften the misery of her lot. Lady
+Clavering listened with that dull, useless attention which on such
+occasions sorrow always gives to the prudent counsels of friendship;
+but she was thinking ever and always of her husband, and watching the
+moment of his expected return. In her heart she wished that he might
+not come on that evening. At last, at half-past nine, she exerted
+herself to send away her visitor.
+
+"He will be here soon, if he comes to-night," Lady Clavering said,
+"and it will be better that he should find me alone."
+
+"Will it be better?"
+
+"Yes, yes. Cannot you see how he would frown and shake his head if
+you were here? I would sooner be alone when he comes. Good-night. You
+have been very kind to me; but you are always kind. Things are done
+kindly always at your house, because there is so much love there. You
+will write to Julia for me. Good-night." Then Mrs. Clavering kissed
+her and went, thinking as she walked home in the dark to the rectory,
+how much she had to be thankful in that these words had been true
+which her poor neighbour had spoken. Her house was full of love.
+
+For the next half hour Lady Clavering sat alone listening with eager
+ear for the sound of her husband's wheels, and at last she had almost
+told herself that the hour for his coming had gone by, when she heard
+the rapid grating on the gravel as the dog-cart was driven up to
+the door. She ran out on to the corridor, but her heart sank within
+her as she did so, and she took tightly hold of the balustrade to
+support herself. For a moment she had thought of running down to meet
+him;--of trusting to the sadness of the moment to produce in him, if
+it were but for a minute, something of tender solicitude; but she
+remembered that the servants would be there, and knew that he would
+not be soft before them. She remembered also that the housekeeper had
+received her instructions, and she feared to disarrange the settled
+programme. So she went back to the open door of the room, that her
+retreating step might not be heard by him as he should come up to
+her, and standing there she still listened. The house was silent
+and her ears were acute with sorrow. She could hear the movement of
+the old woman as she gently, tremblingly, as Lady Clavering knew,
+made her way down the hall to meet her master. Sir Hugh of course
+had learned his child's fate already from the servant who had met
+him; but it was well that the ceremony of such telling should be
+performed. She felt the cold air come in from the opened front door,
+and she heard her husband's heavy quick step as he entered. Then she
+heard the murmur of Hannah's voice; but the first word she heard was
+in her husband's tones, "Where is Lady Clavering?" Then the answer
+was given, and the wife, knowing that he was coming, retreated back
+to her chair.
+
+But still he did not come quite at once. He was pulling off his coat
+and laying aside his hat and gloves. Then came upon her a feeling
+that at such a time any other husband and wife would have been at
+once in each other's arms. And at the moment she thought of all that
+they had lost. To her her child had been all and everything. To him
+he had been his heir and the prop of his house. The boy had been the
+only link that had still bound them together. Now he was gone, and
+there was no longer any link between them. He was gone and she had
+nothing left to her. He was gone, and the father was also alone
+in the world, without any heir and with no prop to his house. She
+thought of all this as she heard his step coming slowly up the
+stairs. Slowly he came along the passage, and though she dreaded his
+coming it almost seemed as though he would never be there.
+
+When he had entered the room she was the first to speak. "Oh, Hugh!"
+she exclaimed, "oh, Hugh!" He had closed the door before he uttered a
+word, and then he threw himself into a chair. There were candles near
+to him and she could see that his countenance also was altered. He
+had indeed been stricken hard, and his half-stunned face showed the
+violence of the blow. The harsh, cruel, selfish man had at last been
+made to suffer. Although he had spoken of it and had expected it, the
+death of his heir hit him hard, as the rector had said.
+
+"When did he die?" asked the father.
+
+"It was past four I think." Then there was again silence, and Lady
+Clavering went up to her husband and stood close by his shoulder. At
+last she ventured to put her hand upon him. With all her own misery
+heavy upon her, she was chiefly thinking at this moment how she might
+soothe him. She laid her hand upon his shoulder, and by degrees she
+moved it softly to his breast. Then he raised his own hand and with
+it moved hers from his person. He did it gently;--but what was the
+use of such nonsense as that?
+
+"The Lord giveth," said the wife, "and the Lord taketh away." Hearing
+this Sir Hugh made with his head a gesture of impatience. "Blessed be
+the name of the Lord," continued Lady Clavering. Her voice was low
+and almost trembling, and she repeated the words as though they were
+a task which she had set herself.
+
+
+[Illustration: "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away."]
+
+
+"That's all very well in its way," said he, "but what's the special
+use of it now? I hate twaddle. One must bear one's misfortune as one
+best can. I don't believe that kind of thing ever makes it lighter."
+
+"They say it does, Hugh."
+
+"Ah! they say! Have they ever tried? If you have been living up to
+that kind of thing all your life, it may be very well;--that is as
+well at one time as another. But it won't give me back my boy."
+
+"No, Hugh; he will never come back again; but we may think that he's
+in Heaven."
+
+"If that is enough for you, let it be so. But don't talk to me of it.
+I don't like it. It doesn't suit me. I had only one, and he has gone.
+It is always the way." He spoke of the child as having been his--not
+his and hers. She felt this, and understood the want of affection
+which it conveyed; but she said nothing of it.
+
+"Oh, Hugh; what could we do? It was not our fault."
+
+"Who is talking of any fault? I have said nothing as to fault. He
+was always poor and sickly. The Claverings, generally, have been so
+strong. Look at myself, and Archie, and my sisters. Well, it cannot
+be helped. Thinking of it will not bring him back again. You had
+better tell some one to get me something to eat. I came away, of
+course, without any dinner."
+
+She herself had eaten nothing since the morning, but she neither
+spoke nor thought of that. She rang the bell, and going out into the
+passage gave the servant the order on the stairs.
+
+"It is no good my staying here," he said. "I will go and dress. It
+is the best not to think of such things,--much the best. People call
+that heartless, of course, but then people are fools. If I were to
+sit still, and think of it for a week together, what good could I
+do?"
+
+"But how not to think of it? that is the thing."
+
+"Women are different, I suppose. I will dress and then go down to the
+breakfast-room. Tell Saunders to get me a bottle of champagne. You
+will be better also if you will take a glass of wine."
+
+It was the first word he had spoken which showed any care for her,
+and she was grateful for it. As he arose to go, she came close to
+him again, and put her hand very gently on his arm. "Hugh," she said,
+"will you not see him?"
+
+"What good will that do?"
+
+"I think you would regret it if you were to let them take him away
+without looking at him. He is so pretty as he lays in his little bed.
+I thought you would come with me to see him." He was more gentle with
+her than she had expected, and she led him away to the room which had
+been their own, and in which the child had died.
+
+"Why here?" he said, almost angrily, as he entered.
+
+"I have had him here with me since you went."
+
+"He should not be here now," he said, shuddering. "I wish he had been
+moved before I came. I will not have this room any more; remember
+that." She led him up to the foot of the little cot, which stood
+close by the head of her own bed, and then she removed a handkerchief
+which lay upon the child's face.
+
+"Oh, Hugh! oh, Hugh!" she said, and, throwing her arms round his
+neck, she wept violently upon his breast. For a few moments he did
+not disturb her, but stood looking at his boy's face. "Hugh, Hugh,"
+she repeated, "will you not be kind to me? Do be kind to me. It is
+not my fault that we are childless."
+
+Still he endured her for a few moments longer. He spoke no word to
+her, but he let her remain there, with her head upon his breast.
+
+"Dear Hugh, I love you so truly!"
+
+"This is nonsense," said he, "sheer nonsense." His voice was low and
+very hoarse. "Why do you talk of kindness now?"
+
+"Because I am so wretched."
+
+"What have I done to make you wretched?"
+
+"I do not mean that; but if you will be gentle with me, it will
+comfort me. Do not leave me here all alone, now my darling has been
+taken from me."
+
+Then he shook her from him, not violently, but with a persistent
+action.
+
+"Do you mean that you want to go up to town?" he said.
+
+"Oh, no; not that."
+
+"Then what is it you want? Where would you live, if not here?"
+
+"Anywhere you please, only that you should stay with me."
+
+"All that is nonsense. I wonder that you should talk of such things
+now. Come away from this, and let me go to my room. All this is trash
+and nonsense, and I hate it." She put back with careful hands the
+piece of cambric which she had moved, and then, seating herself on
+a chair, wept violently, with her hands closed upon her face. "That
+comes of bringing me here," he said. "Get up, Hermione. I will not
+have you so foolish. Get up, I say. I will have the room closed till
+the men come."
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"Get up, I say, and come away." Then she rose, and followed him out
+of the chamber, and when he went to change his clothes she returned
+to the room in which he had found her. There she sat and wept, while
+he went down and dined and drank alone. But the old housekeeper
+brought her up a morsel of food and a glass of wine, saying that her
+master desired that she would take it.
+
+"I will not leave you, my lady, till you have done so," said Hannah.
+"To fast so long must be bad always."
+
+Then she eat the food, and drank a drop of wine, and allowed the old
+woman to take her away to the bed that had been prepared for her. Of
+her husband she saw no more for four days. On the next morning a note
+was brought to her, in which Sir Hugh told her that he had returned
+to London. It was necessary, he said, that he should see his lawyer
+and his brother. He and Archie would return for the funeral. With
+reference to that he had already given orders.
+
+During the next three days, and till her husband's return, Lady
+Clavering remained at the rectory, and in the comfort of Mrs.
+Clavering's presence she almost felt that it would be well for her
+if those days could be prolonged. But she knew the hour at which
+her husband would return, and she took care to be at home when he
+arrived. "You will come and see him?" she said to the rector, as she
+left the parsonage. "You will come at once;--in an hour or two?"
+Mr. Clavering remembered the circumstances of his last visit to the
+house, and the declaration he had then made that he would not return
+there. But all that could not now be considered.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I will come across this evening. But you had better
+tell him, so that he need not be troubled to see me if he would
+rather be alone."
+
+"Oh, he will see you. Of course he will see you. And you will not
+remember that he ever offended you?"
+
+Mrs. Clavering had written both to Julia and to Harry, and the day
+of the funeral had been settled. Harry had already communicated
+his intention of coming down; and Lady Ongar had replied to Mrs.
+Clavering's letter, saying that she could not now offer to go to
+Clavering Park, but that if her sister would go elsewhere with
+her,--to some place, perhaps, on the sea-side,--she would be glad to
+accompany her; and she used many arguments in her letter to show that
+such an arrangement as this had better be made.
+
+"You will be with my sister," she had said; "and she will understand
+why I do not write to her myself, and will not think that it comes
+from coldness." This had been written before Lady Ongar saw Harry
+Clavering.
+
+Mr. Clavering, when he got to the great house, was immediately shown
+into the room in which the baronet and his younger brother were
+sitting. They had, some time since, finished dinner, but the
+decanters were still on the table before them. "Hugh," said the
+rector, walking up to his elder nephew, briskly, "I grieve for you.
+I grieve for you from the bottom of my heart."
+
+"Yes," said Hugh, "it has been a heavy blow. Sit down, uncle. There
+is a clean glass there; or Archie will fetch you one." Then Archie
+looked out a clean glass and passed the decanter; but of this the
+rector took no direct notice.
+
+"It has been a blow, my poor boy,--a heavy blow," said the rector.
+"None heavier could have fallen. But our sorrows come from Heaven, as
+do our blessings, and must be accepted."
+
+"We are all like grass," said Archie, "and must be cut down in
+our turns." Archie, in saying this, intended to put on his best
+behaviour. He was as sincere as he knew how to be.
+
+"Come, Archie, none of that," said his brother. "It is my uncle's
+trade."
+
+"Hugh," said the rector, "unless you can think of it so, you will
+find no comfort."
+
+"And I expect none, so there is an end of that. Different people
+think of these things differently, you know, and it is of no more
+use for me to bother you than it is for you to bother me. My boy has
+gone, and I know that he will not come back to me. I shall never have
+another, and it is hard to bear. But, meaning no offence to you, I
+would sooner be left to bear it in my own way. If I were to talk
+about the grass as Archie did just now, it would be humbug, and I
+hate humbug. No offence to you. Take some wine, uncle."
+
+But the rector could not drink wine in that presence, and therefore
+he escaped as soon as he could. He spoke one word of intended comfort
+to Lady Clavering, and then returned to the rectory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+YES; WRONG;--CERTAINLY WRONG.
+
+
+Harry Clavering had heard the news of his little cousin's death
+before he went to Bolton Street to report the result of his
+negotiation with the count. His mother's letter with the news had
+come to him in the morning, and on the same evening he called on Lady
+Ongar. She also had then received Mrs. Clavering's letter, and knew
+what had occurred at the park. Harry found her alone, having asked
+the servant whether Madame Gordeloup was with his mistress. Had such
+been the case he would have gone away, and left his message untold.
+
+As he entered the room his mind was naturally full of the tidings
+from Clavering. Count Pateroff and his message had lost some of
+their importance through this other event, and the emptiness of the
+childless house was the first subject of conversation between him
+and Lady Ongar. "I pity my sister greatly," said she. "I feel for
+her as deeply as I should have done had nothing occurred to separate
+us;--but I cannot feel for him."
+
+"I do," said Harry.
+
+"He is your cousin, and perhaps has been your friend?"
+
+"No, not especially. He and I have never pulled well together; but
+still I pity him deeply."
+
+"He is not my cousin, but I know him better than you do, Harry. He
+will not feel much himself, and his sorrow will be for his heir, not
+for his son. He is a man whose happiness does not depend on the life
+or death of any one. He likes some people, as he once liked me; but I
+do not think that he ever loved any human being. He will get over it,
+and he will simply wish that Hermy may die, that he may marry another
+wife. Harry, I know him so well!"
+
+"Archie will marry now," said Harry.
+
+"Yes; if he can get any one to have him. There are very few men who
+can't get wives, but I can fancy Archie Clavering to be one of them.
+He has not humility enough to ask the sort of girl who would be glad
+to take him. Now, with his improved prospects, he will want a royal
+princess or something not much short of it. Money, rank, and blood
+might have done before, but he'll expect youth, beauty, and wit now,
+as well as the other things. He may marry after all, for he is just
+the man to walk out of a church some day with the cookmaid under his
+arm as his wife."
+
+"Perhaps he may find something between a princess and a cookmaid."
+
+"I hope, for your sake, he may not;--neither a princess nor a
+cookmaid, nor anything between."
+
+"He has my leave to marry to-morrow, Lady Ongar. If I had my wish,
+Hugh should have his house full of children."
+
+"Of course that is the proper thing to say, Harry."
+
+"I won't stand that from you, Lady Ongar. What I say, I mean; and no
+one knows that better than you."
+
+"Won't you, Harry? From whom, then, if not from me? But come, I will
+do you justice, and believe you to be simple enough to wish anything
+of the kind. The sort of castle in the air which you build, is not
+one to be had by inheritance, but to be taken by storm. You must
+fight for it."
+
+"Or work for it."
+
+"Or win it in some way off your own bat; and no lord ever sat prouder
+in his castle than you sit in those that you build from day to
+day in your imagination. And you sally forth and do all manner
+of magnificent deeds. You help distressed damsels,--poor me, for
+instance; and you attack enormous dragons;--shall I say that Sophie
+Gordeloup is the latest dragon?--and you wish well to your enemies,
+such as Hugh and Archie; and you cut down enormous forests, which
+means your coming miracles as an engineer;--and then you fall
+gloriously in love. When is that last to be, Harry?"
+
+"I suppose, according to all precedent, that must be done with the
+distressed damsel," he said,--fool that he was.
+
+"No, Harry, no; you shall take your young fresh generous heart to a
+better market than that; not but that the distressed damsel will ever
+remember what might once have been."
+
+He knew that he was playing on the edge of a precipice,--that he was
+fluttering as a moth round a candle. He knew that it behoved him
+now at once to tell her all his tale as to Stratton and Florence
+Burton;--that if he could tell it now, the pang would be over and the
+danger gone. But he did not tell it. Instead of telling it he thought
+of Lady Ongar's beauty, of his own early love, of what might have
+been his had he not gone to Stratton. I think he thought, if not of
+her wealth, yet of the power and place which would have been his were
+it now open to him to ask her for her hand. When he had declared that
+he did not want his cousin's inheritance, he had spoken the simple
+truth. He was not covetous of another's money. Were Archie to marry
+as many wives as Henry, and have as many children as Priam, it would
+be no offence to him. His desires did not lie in that line. But in
+this other case, the woman before him who would so willingly have
+endowed him with all that she possessed, had been loved by him before
+he had ever seen Florence Burton. In all his love for Florence,--so
+he now told himself, but so told himself falsely,--he had ever
+remembered that Julia Brabazon had been his first love, the love whom
+he had loved with all his heart. But things had gone with him most
+unfortunately,--with a misfortune that had never been paralleled. It
+was thus he was thinking instead of remembering that now was the time
+in which his tale should be told.
+
+Lady Ongar, however, soon carried him away from the actual brink of
+the precipice. "But how about the dragon," said she, "or rather about
+the dragon's brother, at whom you were bound to go and tilt on my
+behalf? Have you tilted, or are you a recreant knight?"
+
+"I have tilted," said he, "but the he-dragon professes that he will
+not regard himself as killed. In other words he declares that he will
+see you."
+
+"That he will see me?" said Lady Ongar, and as she spoke there came
+an angry spot on each cheek. "Does he send me that message as a
+threat?"
+
+"He does not send it as a threat, but I think he partly means it so."
+
+"He will find, Harry, that I will not see him; and that should he
+force himself into my presence, I shall know how to punish such an
+outrage. If he sent me any message, let me know it."
+
+"To tell the truth he was most unwilling to speak to me at all,
+though he was anxious to be civil to me. When I had inquired for him
+some time in vain, he came to me with another man, and asked me to
+dinner. So I went, and as there were four of us, of course I could
+not speak to him then. He still had the other man, a foreigner--"
+
+"Colonel Schmoff, perhaps?"
+
+"Yes; Colonel Schmoff. He kept Colonel Schmoff by him, so as to guard
+him from being questioned."
+
+"That is so like him. Everything he does he does with some
+design,--with some little plan. Well, Harry, you might have ignored
+Colonel Schmoff for what I should have cared."
+
+"I got the count to come out into another room at last, and then he
+was very angry,--with me, you know,--and talked of what he would do
+to men who interfered with him."
+
+"You will not quarrel with him, Harry? Promise me that there shall be
+no nonsense of that sort,--no fighting."
+
+"Oh, no; we were friends again very soon. But he bade me tell you
+that there was something important for him to say and for you to
+hear, which was no concern of mine, and which required an interview."
+
+"I do not believe him, Harry."
+
+"And he said that he had once been very courteous to you--"
+
+"Yes; once insolent,--and once courteous. I have forgiven the one for
+the other."
+
+"He then went on to say that you made him a poor return for his
+civility by shutting your door in his face, but that he did not
+doubt you would think better of it when you had heard his message.
+Therefore, he said, he should call again. That, Lady Ongar, was the
+whole of it."
+
+"Shall I tell you what his intention was, Harry?" Again her face
+became red as she asked this question; but the colour which now came
+to her cheeks was rather that of shame than of anger.
+
+"What was his intention?"
+
+"To make you believe that I am in his power; to make you think that
+he has been my lover; to lower me in your eyes, so that you might
+believe all that others have believed,--all that Hugh Clavering has
+pretended to believe. That has been his object, Harry, and perhaps
+you will tell me what success he has had."
+
+"Lady Ongar!"
+
+"You know the old story, that the drop which is ever dropping will
+wear the stone. And after all why should your faith in me be as hard
+even as a stone?"
+
+"Do you believe that what he said had any such effect?"
+
+"It is very hard to look into another person's heart; and the dearer
+and nearer that heart is to your own, the greater, I think, is the
+difficulty. I know that man's heart,--what he calls his heart; but I
+don't know yours."
+
+For a moment or two Clavering made no answer, and then, when he did
+speak, he went back from himself to the count.
+
+"If what you surmise of him be true, he must be a very devil. He
+cannot be a man--"
+
+"Man or devil, what matters which he be? Which is the worst,
+Harry, and what is the difference? The Fausts of this day want no
+Mephistopheles to teach them guile or to harden their hearts."
+
+"I do not believe that there are such men. There may be one."
+
+"One, Harry! What was Lord Ongar? What is your cousin Hugh? What is
+this Count Pateroff? Are they not all of the same nature; hard as
+stone, desirous simply of indulging their own appetites, utterly
+without one generous feeling, incapable even of the idea of caring
+for any one? Is it not so? In truth this count is the best of the
+three I have named. With him a woman would stand a better chance than
+with either of the others."
+
+"Nevertheless, if that was his motive, he is a devil."
+
+"He shall be a devil if you say so. He shall be anything you please,
+so long as he has not made you think evil of me."
+
+"No; he has not done that."
+
+"Then I don't care what he has done, or what he may do. You would
+not have me see him, would you?" This she asked with a sudden energy,
+throwing herself forward from her seat with her elbows on the table,
+and resting her face on her hands, as she had already done more than
+once when he had been there; so that the attitude, which became her
+well, was now customary in his eyes.
+
+"You will hardly be guided by my opinion in such a matter."
+
+"By whose, then, will I be guided? Nay, Harry, since you put me to a
+promise, I will make the promise. I will be guided by your opinion.
+If you bid me see him, I will do it,--though, I own, it would be
+distressing to me."
+
+"Why should you see him, if you do not wish it?"
+
+"I know no reason. In truth there is no reason. What he says about
+Lord Ongar is simply some part of his scheme. You see what his scheme
+is, Harry?"
+
+"What is his scheme?"
+
+"Simply this--that I should be frightened into becoming his wife. My
+darling bosom friend Sophie, who, as I take it, has not quite managed
+to come to satisfactory terms with her brother,--and I have no doubt
+her price for assistance has been high,--has informed me more than
+once that her brother desires to do me so much honour. The count,
+perhaps, thinks that he can manage such a bagatelle without any aid
+from his sister; and my dearest Sophie seems to feel that she can do
+better with me herself in my widowed state, than if I were to take
+another husband. They are so kind and so affectionate; are they not?"
+
+At this moment tea was brought in, and Clavering sat for a time
+silent with his cup in his hand. She, the meanwhile, had resumed the
+old position with her face upon her hands, which she had abandoned
+when the servant entered the room, and was now sitting looking at
+him as he sipped his tea with his eyes averted from her. "I cannot
+understand," at last he said, "why you should persist in your
+intimacy with such a woman."
+
+"You have not thought about it, Harry, or you would understand it. It
+is, I think, very easily understood."
+
+"You know her to be treacherous, false, vulgar, covetous,
+unprincipled. You cannot like her. You say she is a dragon."
+
+"A dragon to you, I said."
+
+"You cannot pretend that she is a lady, and yet you put up with her
+society."
+
+"Exactly. And now tell me what you would have me do."
+
+"I would have you part from her."
+
+"But how? It is so easy to say, part. Am I to bar my door against
+her when she has given me no offence? Am I to forget that she did me
+great service, when I sorely needed such services? Can I tell her to
+her face that she is all these things that you say of her, and that
+therefore I will for the future dispense with her company? Or do you
+believe that people in this world associate only with those they love
+and esteem?"
+
+"I would not have one for my intimate friend whom I did not love and
+esteem."
+
+"But, Harry, suppose that no one loved and esteemed you; that you had
+no home down at Clavering with a father that admires you and a mother
+that worships you; no sisters that think you to be almost perfect,
+no comrades with whom you can work with mutual regard and emulation,
+no self-confidence, no high hopes of your own, no power of choosing
+companions whom you can esteem and love;--suppose with you it was
+Sophie Gordeloup or none,--how would it be with you then?"
+
+His heart must have been made of stone if this had not melted it. He
+got up and coming round to her stood over her. "Julia," he said, "it
+is not so with you."
+
+"But it is so with Julia," she said. "That is the truth. How am I
+better than her, and why should I not associate with her?"
+
+"Better than her! As women you are poles asunder."
+
+"But as dragons," she said, smiling, "we come together."
+
+"Do you mean that you have no one to love you?"
+
+"Yes, Harry; that is just what I do mean. I have none to love me. In
+playing my cards I have won my stakes in money and rank, but have
+lost the amount ten times told in affection, friendship, and that
+general unpronounced esteem which creates the fellowship of men and
+women in the world. I have a carriage and horses, and am driven about
+with grand servants; and people, as they see me, whisper and say that
+is Lady Ongar, whom nobody knows. I can see it in their eyes till I
+fancy that I can hear their words."
+
+"But it is all false."
+
+"What is false? It is not false that I have deserved this. I have
+done that which has made me a fitting companion for such a one as
+Sophie Gordeloup, though I have not done that which perhaps these
+people think."
+
+He paused again before he spoke, still standing near her on the rug.
+"Lady Ongar--" he said.
+
+"Nay, Harry; not Lady Ongar when we are together thus. Let me feel
+that I have one friend who can dare to call me by my name,--from
+whose mouth I shall be pleased to hear my name. You need not fear
+that I shall think that it means too much. I will not take it as
+meaning what it used to mean."
+
+He did not know how to go on with his speech, or in truth what to
+say to her. Florence Burton was still present to his mind, and from
+minute to minute he told himself that he would not become a villain.
+But now it had come to that with him, that he would have given all
+that he had in the world that he had never gone to Stratton. He
+sat down by her in silence, looking away from her at the fire,
+swearing to himself that he would not become a villain, and yet
+wishing, almost wishing, that he had the courage to throw his honour
+overboard. At last, half turning round towards her he took her hand,
+or rather took her first by the wrist till he could possess himself
+of her hand. As he did so he touched her hair and her cheek, and she
+let her hand drop till it rested in his. "Julia," he said, "what can
+I do to comfort you?" She did not answer him, but looked away from
+him as she sat, across the table into vacancy. "Julia," he said
+again, "is there anything that will comfort you?" But still she did
+not answer him.
+
+He understood it all as well as the reader will understand it. He
+knew how it was with her, and was aware that he was at this instant
+false almost equally to her and to Florence. He knew that the
+question he had asked was one to which there could be made a true and
+satisfactory answer, but that his safety lay in the fact that that
+answer was all but impossible for her to give. Could she say, "Yes,
+you can comfort me. Tell me that you yet love me, and I will be
+comforted?" But he had not designed to bring her into such difficulty
+as this. He had not intended to be cruel. He had drifted into
+treachery unawares, and was torturing her, not because he was wicked,
+but because he was weak. He had held her hand now for some minute
+or two, but still she did not speak to him. Then he raised it and
+pressed it warmly to his lips.
+
+"No, Harry," she said, jumping from her seat and drawing her
+hand rapidly from him; "no; it shall not be like that. Let it be
+Lady Ongar again if the sound of the other name brings back too
+closely the memory of other days. Let it be Lady Ongar again. I can
+understand that it will be better." As she spoke she walked away from
+him across the room, and he followed her.
+
+"Are you angry?" he asked her.
+
+"No, Harry; not angry. How should I be angry with you who alone are
+left to me of my old friends? But, Harry, you must think for me, and
+spare me in my difficulty."
+
+"Spare you, Julia?"
+
+"Yes, Harry, spare me; you must be good to me and considerate, and
+make yourself like a brother to me. But people will know you are not
+a brother, and you must remember all that, for my sake. But you must
+not leave me or desert me. Anything that people might say would be
+better than that."
+
+"Was I wrong to kiss your hand?"
+
+"Yes, wrong, certainly wrong;--that is, not wrong, but unmindful."
+
+"I did it," he said, "because I love you." And as he spoke the tears
+stood in both his eyes.
+
+"Yes; you love me, and I you; but not with love that may show itself
+in that form. That was the old love, which I threw away, and which
+has been lost. That was at an end when I--jilted you. I am not angry;
+but you will remember that that love exists no longer? You will
+remember that, Harry?"
+
+He sat himself down in a chair in a far part of the room, and two
+tears coursed their way down his cheeks. She stood over him and
+watched him as he wept. "I did not mean to make you sad," she said.
+"Come, we will be sad no longer. I understand it all. I know how
+it is with you. The old love is lost, but we will not the less be
+friends." Then he rose suddenly from his chair, and taking her in his
+arms, and holding her closely to his bosom, pressed his lips to hers.
+
+He was so quick in this that she had not the power, even if she had
+the wish, to restrain him. But she struggled in his arms, and held
+her face aloof from him as she gently rebuked his passion. "No,
+Harry, no; not so," she said, "it must not be so."
+
+"Yes, Julia, yes; it shall be so; ever so,--always so." And he
+was still holding her in his arms, when the door opened, and with
+stealthy, cat-like steps Sophie Gordeloup entered the room. Harry
+immediately retreated from his position, and Lady Ongar turned upon
+her friend, and glared upon her with angry eyes.
+
+"Ah," said the little Franco-Pole, with an expression of infinite
+delight on her detestable visage, "ah, my dears, is it not well that
+I thus announce myself?"
+
+"No," said Lady Ongar, "it is not well. It is anything but well."
+
+"And why not well, Julie? Come, do not be foolish. Mr. Clavering is
+only a cousin, and a very handsome cousin, too. What does it signify
+before me?"
+
+"It signifies nothing before you," said Lady Ongar.
+
+"But before the servant, Julie--?"
+
+"It would signify nothing before anybody."
+
+"Come, come, Julie, dear; that is nonsense."
+
+"Nonsense or no nonsense, I would wish to be private when I please.
+Will you tell me, Madame Gordeloup, what is your pleasure at the
+present moment?"
+
+"My pleasure is to beg your pardon and to say you must forgive your
+poor friend. Your fine man-servant is out, and Bessy let me in. I
+told Bessy I would go up by myself, and that is all. If I have come
+too late I beg pardon."
+
+"Not too late, certainly,--as I am still up."
+
+"And I wanted to ask you about the pictures to-morrow? You said,
+perhaps you would go to-morrow,--perhaps not."
+
+Clavering had found himself to be somewhat awkwardly situated
+while Madame Gordeloup was thus explaining the causes of her having
+come unannounced into the room; as soon, therefore, as he found
+it practicable, he took his leave. "Julia," he said, "as Madame
+Gordeloup is with you, I will now go."
+
+"But you will let me see you soon?"
+
+"Yes, very soon; that is, as soon as I return from Clavering. I leave
+town early to-morrow morning."
+
+"Good-by, then," and she put out her hand to him frankly, smiling
+sweetly on him. As he felt the warm pressure of her hand he hardly
+knew whether to return it or to reject it. But he had gone too far
+now for retreat, and he held it firmly for a moment in his own. She
+smiled again upon him, oh! so passionately, and nodded her head at
+him. He had never, he thought, seen a woman look so lovely, or more
+light of heart. How different was her countenance now from that she
+had worn when she told him, earlier on that fatal evening, of all the
+sorrows that made her wretched! That nod of hers said so much. "We
+understand each other now,--do we not? Yes; although this spiteful
+woman has for the moment come between us, we understand each other.
+And is it not sweet? Ah! the troubles of which I told you;--you,
+you have cured them all." All that had been said plainly in her
+farewell salutation, and Harry had not dared to contradict it by any
+expression of his countenance.
+
+"By, by, Mr. Clavering," said Sophie.
+
+"Good evening, Madame Gordeloup," said Harry, turning upon her a look
+of bitter anger. Then he went, leaving the two women together, and
+walked home to Bloomsbury Square,--not with the heart of a joyous
+thriving lover.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Harry Clavering, when he walked away from Bolton Street after the
+scene in which he had been interrupted by Sophie Gordeloup, was
+not in a happy frame of mind, nor did he make his journey down to
+Clavering with much comfort to himself. Whether or no he was now to
+be regarded as a villain, at any rate he was not a villain capable of
+doing his villany without extreme remorse and agony of mind. It did
+not seem to him to be even yet possible that he should be altogether
+untrue to Florence. It hardly occurred to him to think that he could
+free himself from the contract by which he was bound to her. No; it
+was towards Lady Ongar that his treachery must be exhibited;--towards
+the woman whom he had sworn to befriend, and whom he now, in his
+distress, imagined to be the dearer to him of the two. He should,
+according to his custom, have written to Florence a day or two before
+he left London, and, as he went to Bolton Street, had determined to
+do so that evening on his return home; but when he reached his rooms
+he found it impossible to write such a letter. What could he say to
+her that would not be false? How could he tell her that he loved her,
+and speak as he was wont to do of his impatience, after that which
+had just occurred in Bolton Street?
+
+But what was he to do in regard to Julia? He was bound to let her
+know at once what was his position, and to tell her that in treating
+her as he had treated her, he had simply insulted her. That look
+of gratified contentment with which she had greeted him as he
+was leaving her, clung to his memory and tormented him. Of that
+contentment he must now rob her, and he was bound to do so with as
+little delay as was possible. Early in the morning before he started
+on his journey he did make an attempt, a vain attempt, to write, not
+to Florence but to Julia. The letter would not get itself written. He
+had not the hardihood to inform her that he had amused himself with
+her sorrows, and that he had injured her by the exhibition of his
+love. And then that horrid Franco-Pole, whose prying eyes Julia had
+dared to disregard, because she had been proud of his love! If she
+had not been there, the case might have been easier. Harry, as he
+thought of this, forgot to remind himself that if Sophie had not
+interrupted him he would have floundered on from one danger to
+another till he would have committed himself more thoroughly even
+than he had done, and have made promises which it would have been as
+shameful to break as it would be to keep them. But even as it was,
+had he not made such promises? Was there not such a promise in that
+embrace, in the half-forgotten word or two which he had spoken while
+she was in his arms, and in the parting grasp of his hand? He could
+not write that letter then, on that morning, hurried as he was with
+the necessity of his journey; and he started for Clavering resolving
+that it should be written from his father's house.
+
+It was a tedious, sad journey to him, and he was silent and out
+of spirits when he reached his home; but he had gone there for the
+purpose of his cousin's funeral, and his mood was not at first
+noticed, as it might have been had the occasion been different. His
+father's countenance wore that well-known look of customary solemnity
+which is found to be necessary on such occasions, and his mother was
+still thinking of the sorrows of Lady Clavering, who had been at the
+rectory for the last day or two.
+
+"Have you seen Lady Ongar since she heard of the poor child's death?"
+his mother asked.
+
+"Yes, I was with her yesterday evening."
+
+"Do you see her often?" Fanny inquired.
+
+"What do you call often? No; not often. I went to her last night
+because she had given me a commission. I have seen her three or four
+times altogether."
+
+"Is she as handsome as she used to be?" said Fanny.
+
+"I cannot tell; I do not know."
+
+"You used to think her very handsome, Harry."
+
+"Of course she is handsome. There has never been a doubt about that;
+but when a woman is in deep mourning one hardly thinks about her
+beauty." Oh, Harry, Harry, how could you be so false?
+
+"I thought young widows were always particularly charming," said
+Fanny; "and when one remembers about Lord Ongar one does not think of
+her being a widow so much as one would do if he had been different."
+
+"I don't know anything about that," said he. He felt that he was
+stupid, and that he blundered in every word, but he could not help
+himself. It was impossible that he should talk about Lady Ongar with
+proper composure. Fanny saw that the subject annoyed him and that
+it made him cross, and she therefore ceased. "She wrote a very nice
+letter to your mother about the poor child, and about her sister,"
+said the rector. "I wish with all my heart that Hermione could go to
+her for a time."
+
+"I fear that he will not let her," said Mrs. Clavering. "I do not
+understand it all, but Hermione says that the rancour between Hugh
+and her sister is stronger now than ever."
+
+"And Hugh will not be the first to put rancour out of his heart,"
+said the rector.
+
+On the following day was the funeral and Harry went with his father
+and cousins to the child's grave. When he met Sir Hugh in the
+dining-room in the Great House the baronet hardly spoke to him. "A
+sad occasion; is it not?" said Archie; "very sad; very sad." Then
+Harry could see that Hugh scowled at his brother angrily, hating his
+humbug, and hating it the more because in Archie's case it was doubly
+humbug. Archie was now heir to the property and to the title.
+
+After the funeral Harry went to see Lady Clavering, and again had to
+endure a conversation about Lady Ongar. Indeed, he had been specially
+commissioned by Julia to press upon her sister the expediency of
+leaving Clavering for a while. This had been early on that last
+evening in Bolton Street, long before Madame Gordeloup had made her
+appearance. "Tell her from me," Lady Ongar had said, "that I will go
+anywhere that she may wish if she will go with me,--she and I alone;
+and, Harry, tell her this as though I meant it. I do mean it. She
+will understand why I do not write myself. I know that he sees all
+her letters when he is with her." This task Harry was now to perform,
+and the result he was bound to communicate to Lady Ongar. The message
+he might give; but delivering the answer to Lady Ongar would be
+another thing.
+
+Lady Clavering listened to what he said, but when he pressed her for
+a reply she shook her head. "And why not, Lady Clavering?"
+
+"People can't always leave their houses and go away, Harry."
+
+"But I should have thought that you could have done so now;--that is,
+before long. Will Sir Hugh remain here at Clavering?"
+
+"He has not told me that he means to go."
+
+"If he stays, I suppose you will stay; but if he goes up to London
+again, I cannot see why you and your sister should not go away
+together. She mentioned Tenby as being very quiet, but she would be
+guided by you in that altogether."
+
+"I do not think it will be possible, Harry. Tell her with my love,
+that I am truly obliged to her, but that I do not think it will be
+possible. She is free, you know, to do what she pleases."
+
+"Yes, she is free. But do you mean--?"
+
+"I mean, Harry, that I had better stay where I am. What is the use of
+a scene, and of being refused at last? Do not say more about it, but
+tell her that it cannot be so." This Harry promised to do, and after
+a while was rising to go, when she suddenly asked him a question. "Do
+you remember what I was saying about Julia and Archie when you were
+here last?"
+
+"Yes; I remember."
+
+"Well, would he have a chance? It seems that you see more of her now
+than any one else."
+
+"No chance at all, I should say." And Harry, as he answered, could
+not repress a feeling of most unreasonable jealousy.
+
+"Ah, you have always thought little of Archie. Archie's position is
+changed now, Harry, since my darling was taken from me. Of course he
+will marry, and Hugh, I think, would like him to marry Julia. It was
+he proposed it. He never likes anything unless he has proposed it
+himself."
+
+"It was he proposed the marriage with Lord Ongar. Does he like that?"
+
+"Well; you know, Julia has got her money." Harry, as he heard this,
+turned away, sick at heart. The poor baby whose mother was now
+speaking to him had only been buried that morning, and she was
+already making fresh schemes for family wealth. Julia has got her
+money! That had seemed to her, even in her sorrow, to be sufficient
+compensation for all that her sister had endured and was enduring.
+Poor soul! Harry did not reflect as he should have done, that in all
+her schemes she was only scheming for that peace which might perhaps
+come to her if her husband were satisfied. "And why should not Julia
+take him?" she asked.
+
+"I cannot tell why, but she never will," said Harry, almost in anger.
+At that moment the door was opened, and Sir Hugh came into the room.
+"I did not know that you were here," Sir Hugh said, turning to the
+visitor.
+
+"I could not be down here without saying a few words to Lady
+Clavering."
+
+"The less said the better, I suppose, just at present," said Sir
+Hugh. But there was no offence in the tone of his voice, or in his
+countenance, and Harry took the words as meaning none.
+
+"I was telling Lady Clavering that as soon as she can, she would be
+better if she left home for awhile."
+
+"And why should you tell Lady Clavering that?"
+
+"I have told him that I would not go," said the poor woman.
+
+"Why should she go, and where; and why have you proposed it? And how
+does it come to pass that her going or not going should be a matter
+of solicitude to you?" Now, as Sir Hugh asked these questions of
+his cousin, there was much of offence in his tone,--of intended
+offence,--and in his eye, and in all his bearing. He had turned his
+back upon his wife, and was looking full into Harry's face. "Lady
+Clavering, no doubt, is much obliged to you," he said, "but why is it
+that you specially have interfered to recommend her to leave her home
+at such a time as this?"
+
+Harry had not spoken as he did to Sir Hugh without having made some
+calculation in his own mind as to the result of what he was about
+to say. He did not, as regarded himself, care for his cousin or his
+cousin's anger. His object at present was simply that of carrying out
+Lady Ongar's wish, and he had thought that perhaps Sir Hugh might not
+object to the proposal which his wife was too timid to make to him.
+
+"It was a message from her sister," said Harry, "sent by me."
+
+"Upon my word she is very kind. And what was the message,--unless it
+be a secret between you three?"
+
+"I have had no secret, Hugh," said his wife.
+
+"Let me hear what he has to say," said Sir Hugh.
+
+"Lady Ongar thought that it might be well that her sister should
+leave Clavering for a short time, and has offered to go anywhere with
+her for a few weeks. That is all."
+
+"And why the devil should Hermione leave her own house? And if
+she were to leave it, why should she go with a woman that has
+misconducted herself?"
+
+"Oh, Hugh!" exclaimed Lady Clavering.
+
+"Lady Ongar has never misconducted herself," said Harry.
+
+"Are you her champion?" asked Sir Hugh.
+
+"As far as that, I am. She has never misconducted herself; and what
+is more, she has been cruelly used since she came home."
+
+"By whom; by whom?" said Sir Hugh, stepping close up to his cousin
+and looking with angry eyes into his face.
+
+But Harry Clavering was not a man to be intimidated by the angry eyes
+of any man. "By you," he said, "her brother-in-law;--by you, who made
+up her wretched marriage, and who, of all others, were the most bound
+to protect her."
+
+"Oh, Harry, don't, don't!" shrieked Lady Clavering.
+
+"Hermione, hold your tongue," said the imperious husband; "or,
+rather, go away and leave us. I have a word or two to say to Harry
+Clavering, which had better be said in private."
+
+"I will not go if you are going to quarrel."
+
+"Harry," said Sir Hugh, "I will trouble you to go downstairs before
+me. If you will step into the breakfast-room I will come to you."
+
+Harry Clavering did as he was bid, and in a few minutes was joined by
+his cousin in the breakfast-room.
+
+"No doubt you intended to insult me by what you said upstairs." The
+baronet began in this way after he had carefully shut the door, and
+had slowly walked up to the rug before the fire, and had there taken
+his position.
+
+"Not at all; I intended to take the part of an ill-used woman whom
+you had calumniated."
+
+"Now look here, Harry, I will have no interference on your part in
+my affairs, either here or elsewhere. You are a very fine fellow, no
+doubt, but it is not part of your business to set me or my house in
+order. After what you have just said before Lady Clavering you will
+do well not to come here in my absence."
+
+"Neither in your absence nor in your presence."
+
+"As to the latter you may do as you please. And now touching my
+sister-in-law, I will simply recommend you to look after your own
+affairs."
+
+"I shall look after what affairs I please."
+
+"Of Lady Ongar and her life since her marriage I daresay you know as
+little as anybody in the world, and I do not suppose it likely that
+you will learn much from her. She made a fool of you once, and it is
+on the cards that she may do so again."
+
+"You said just now that you would brook no interference in your
+affairs. Neither will I."
+
+"I don't know that you have any affairs in which any one can
+interfere. I have been given to understand that you are engaged
+to marry that young lady whom your mother brought here one day to
+dinner. If that be so, I do not see how you can reconcile it to
+yourself to become the champion, as you called it, of Lady Ongar."
+
+"I never said anything of the kind."
+
+"Yes, you did."
+
+"No; it was you who asked me whether I was her champion."
+
+"And you said you were."
+
+"So far as to defend her name when I heard it traduced by you."
+
+"By heavens, your impudence is beautiful. Who knows her best, do you
+think,--you or I? Whose sister-in-law is she? You have told me I was
+cruel to her. Now to that I will not submit, and I require you to
+apologize to me."
+
+"I have no apology to make, and nothing to retract."
+
+"Then I shall tell your father of your gross misconduct, and shall
+warn him that you have made it necessary for me to turn his son
+out of my house. You are an impertinent, overbearing puppy, and if
+your name were not the same as my own, I would tell the grooms to
+horsewhip you off the place."
+
+"Which order, you know, the grooms would not obey. They would a deal
+sooner horsewhip you. Sometimes I think they will, when I hear you
+speak to them."
+
+"Now go!"
+
+"Of course I shall go. What would keep me here?"
+
+Sir Hugh then opened the door, and Harry passed through it, not
+without a cautious look over his shoulder, so that he might be on his
+guard if any violence were contemplated. But Hugh knew better than
+that, and allowed his cousin to walk out of the room, and out of the
+house, unmolested.
+
+And this had happened on the day of the funeral! Harry Clavering had
+quarrelled thus with the father within a few hours of the moment in
+which they two had stood together over the grave of that father's
+only child! As he thought of this while he walked across the park he
+became sick at heart. How vile, wretched and miserable was the world
+around him! How terribly vicious were the people with whom he was
+dealing! And what could he think of himself,--of himself, who was
+engaged to Florence Burton, and engaged also, as he certainly was,
+to Lady Ongar? Even his cousin had rebuked him for his treachery to
+Florence; but what would his cousin have said had he known all? And
+then what good had he done;--or rather what evil had he not done?
+In his attempt on behalf of Lady Clavering had he not, in truth,
+interfered without proper excuse, and fairly laid himself open to
+anger from his cousin? And he felt that he had been an ass, a fool,
+a conceited ass, thinking that he could produce good, when his
+interference could be efficacious only for evil. Why could he not
+have held his tongue when Sir Hugh came in, instead of making that
+vain suggestion as to Lady Clavering? But even this trouble was but
+an addition to the great trouble that overwhelmed him. How was he to
+escape the position which he had made for himself in reference to
+Lady Ongar? As he had left London he had promised to himself that
+he would write to her that same night and tell her everything as to
+Florence; but the night had passed, and the next day was nearly gone,
+and no such letter had been written.
+
+As he sat with his father that evening, he told the story of his
+quarrel with his cousin. His father shrugged his shoulders and raised
+his eyebrows. "You are a bolder man than I am," he said. "I certainly
+should not have dared to advise Hugh as to what he should do with his
+wife."
+
+"But I did not advise him. I only said that I had been talking to her
+about it. If he were to say to you that he had been recommending my
+mother to do this or that, you would not take it amiss?"
+
+"But Hugh is a peculiar man."
+
+"No man has a right to be peculiar. Every man is bound to accept such
+usage as is customary in the world."
+
+"I don't suppose that it will signify much," said the rector. "To
+have your cousin's doors barred against you, either here or in
+London, will not injure you."
+
+"Oh, no; it will not injure me; but I do not wish you to think that
+I have been unreasonable."
+
+The night went by and so did the next day, and still the letter did
+not get itself written. On the third morning after the funeral he
+heard that Sir Hugh had gone away; but he, of course, did not go up
+to the house, remembering well that he had been warned by the master
+not to do so in the master's absence. His mother, however, went
+to Lady Clavering, and some intercourse between the families was
+renewed. He had intended to stay but one day after the funeral, but
+at the end of a week he was still at the rectory. It was Whitsuntide
+he said, and he might as well take his holiday as he was down there.
+Of course they were glad that he should remain with them, but they
+did not fail to perceive that things with him were not altogether
+right; nor had Fanny failed to perceive that he had not once
+mentioned Florence's name since he had been at the rectory.
+
+"Harry," she said, "there is nothing wrong between you and Florence?"
+
+
+[Illustration: "Harry," she said, "there is nothing wrong between
+you and Florence?"]
+
+
+"Wrong! what should there be wrong? What do you mean by wrong?"
+
+"I had a letter from her to-day and she asks where you are."
+
+"Women expect such a lot of letter-writing! But I have been remiss I
+know. I got out of my business way of doing things when I came down
+here and have neglected it. Do you write to her to-morrow, and tell
+her that she shall hear from me directly I get back to town."
+
+"But why should you not write to her from here?"
+
+"Because I can get you to do it for me."
+
+Fanny felt that this was not at all like a lover, and not at all like
+such a lover as her brother had been. While Florence had been at
+Clavering he had been most constant with his letters, and Fanny had
+often heard Florence boast of them as being perfect in their way. She
+did not say anything further at the present moment, but she knew that
+things were not altogether right. Things were by no means right. He
+had written neither to Lady Ongar nor to Florence, and the longer
+he put off the task the more burdensome did it become. He was now
+telling himself that he would write to neither till he got back to
+London.
+
+On the day before he went, there came to him a letter from Stratton.
+Fanny was with him when he received it, and observed that he put
+it into his pocket without opening it. In his pocket he carried it
+unopened half the day, till he was ashamed of his own weakness. At
+last, almost in despair with himself, he broke the seal and forced
+himself to read it. There was nothing in it that need have alarmed
+him. It contained hardly a word that was intended for a rebuke.
+
+"I wonder why you should have been two whole weeks without writing,"
+she said. "It seems so odd to me, because you have spoiled me by your
+customary goodness. I know that other men when they are engaged do
+not trouble themselves with constant letter-writing. Even Theodore,
+who according to Cecilia is perfect, would not write to her then very
+often; and now, when he is away, his letters are only three lines.
+I suppose you are teaching me not to be exacting. If so, I will kiss
+the rod like a good child; but I feel it the more because the lesson
+has not come soon enough."
+
+Then she went on in her usual strain, telling him of what she had
+done, what she had read, and what she had thought. There was no
+suspicion in her letter, no fear, no hint at jealousy. And she
+should have no further cause for jealousy! One of the two must
+be sacrificed, and it was most fitting that Julia should be the
+sacrifice. Julia should be sacrificed,--Julia and himself! But still
+he could not write to Florence till he had written to Julia. He could
+not bring himself to send soft, pretty, loving words to one woman
+while the other was still regarding him as her affianced lover.
+
+"Was your letter from Florence this morning?" Fanny asked him.
+
+"Yes; it was."
+
+"Had she received mine?"
+
+"I don't know. Of course she had. If you sent it by post of course
+she got it."
+
+"She might have mentioned it, perhaps."
+
+"I daresay she did. I don't remember."
+
+"Well, Harry; you need not be cross with me because I love the girl
+who is going to be your wife. You would not like it if I did not care
+about her."
+
+"I hate being called cross."
+
+"Suppose I were to say that I hated your being cross. I'm sure I
+do;--and you are going away to-morrow, too. You have hardly said a
+nice word to me since you have been home."
+
+Harry threw himself back into a chair almost in despair. He was not
+enough a hypocrite to say nice words when his heart within him was
+not at ease. He could not bring himself to pretend that things were
+pleasant.
+
+"If you are in trouble, Harry, I will not go on teasing you."
+
+"I am in trouble," he said.
+
+"And cannot I help you?"
+
+"No; you cannot help me. No one can help me. But do not ask any
+questions."
+
+"Oh, Harry! is it about money?"
+
+"No, no; it has nothing to do with money."
+
+"You have not really quarrelled with Florence?"
+
+"No; I have not quarrelled with her at all. But I will not answer
+more questions. And, Fanny, do not speak of this to my father or
+mother. It will be over before long, and then, if possible, I will
+tell you."
+
+"Harry, you are not going to fight with Hugh?"
+
+"Fight with Hugh! no. Not that I should mind it; but he is not fool
+enough for that. If he wanted fighting done, he would do it by
+deputy. But there is nothing of that kind."
+
+She asked him no more questions, and on the next morning he returned
+to London. On his table he found a note which he at once knew to be
+from Lady Ongar, and which had come only that afternoon.
+
+"Come to me at once;--at once." That was all that the note contained.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+CUMBERLY LANE WITHOUT THE MUD.
+
+
+Fanny Clavering, while she was inquiring of her brother about his
+troubles, had not been without troubles of her own. For some days
+past she had been aware,--almost aware,--that Mr. Saul's love was not
+among the things that were past. I am not prepared to say that this
+conviction on her part was altogether an unalloyed trouble, or that
+there might have been no faint touch of sadness, of silent melancholy
+about her, had it been otherwise. But Mr. Saul was undoubtedly a
+trouble to her; and Mr. Saul with his love in activity would be more
+troublesome than Mr. Saul with his love in abeyance. "It would be
+madness either in him or in me," Fanny had said to herself very
+often; "he has not a shilling in the world." But she thought no
+more in these days of the awkwardness of his gait, or of his rusty
+clothes, or his abstracted manner; and for his doings as a clergyman
+her admiration had become very great. Her mother saw something of
+all this, and cautioned her; but Fanny's demure manner deceived Mrs.
+Clavering. "Oh, mamma, of course I know that anything of the kind
+must be impossible; and I am sure he does not think of it himself any
+longer." When she had said this, Mrs. Clavering had believed that
+it was all right. The reader must not suppose that Fanny had been a
+hypocrite. There had been no hypocrisy in her words to her mother. At
+that moment the conviction that Mr. Saul's love was not among past
+events had not reached her; and as regarded herself, she was quite
+sincere when she said that anything of the kind must be impossible.
+
+It will be remembered that Florence Burton had advised Mr. Saul
+to try again, and that Mr. Saul had resolved that he would do
+so,--resolving, also, that should he try in vain he must leave
+Clavering, and seek another home. He was a solemn, earnest,
+thoughtful man; to whom such a matter as this was a phase of life
+very serious, causing infinite present trouble, nay, causing
+tribulation, and, to the same extent, capable of causing infinite
+joy. From day to day he went about his work, seeing her amidst his
+ministrations almost daily. And never during these days did he say
+a word to her of his love,--never since that day in which he had
+plainly pleaded his cause in the muddy lane. To no one but Florence
+Burton had he since spoken of it, and Florence had certainly been
+true to her trust; but, notwithstanding all that, Fanny's conviction
+was very strong.
+
+Florence had counselled Mr. Saul to try again, and Mr. Saul was
+prepared to make the attempt; but he was a man who allowed himself to
+do nothing in a hurry. He thought much of the matter before he could
+prepare himself to recur to the subject; doubting, sometimes, whether
+he would be right to do so without first speaking to Fanny's father;
+doubting, afterwards, whether he might not best serve his cause by
+asking the assistance of Fanny's mother. But he resolved at last that
+he would depend on himself alone. As to the rector, if his suit to
+Fanny were a fault against Mr. Clavering as Fanny's father, that
+fault had been already committed. But Mr. Saul would not admit to
+himself that it was a fault. I fancy that he considered himself to
+have, as a gentleman, a right to address himself to any lady with
+whom he was thrown into close contact. I fancy that he ignored all
+want of worldly preparation,--never for a moment attempting to place
+himself on a footing with men who were richer than himself, and, as
+the world goes, brighter, but still feeling himself to be in no way
+lower than they. If any woman so lived as to show that she thought
+his line better than their line, it was open to him to ask such woman
+to join her lot to his. If he failed, the misfortune was his; and
+the misfortune, as he well knew, was one which it was hard to bear.
+And as to the mother, though he had learned to love Mrs. Clavering
+dearly,--appreciating her kindness to all those around her, her
+conduct to her husband, her solicitude in the parish, all her genuine
+goodness, still he was averse to trust to her for any part of his
+success. Though Mr. Saul was no knight, though he had nothing
+knightly about him, though he was a poor curate in very rusty clothes
+and with manner strangely unfitted for much communion with the outer
+world, still he had a feeling that the spoil which he desired to
+win should be won by his own spear, and that his triumph would lose
+half its glory if it were not achieved by his own prowess. He was
+no coward, either in such matter as this or in any other. When
+circumstances demanded that he should speak he could speak his mind
+freely, with manly vigour, and sometimes not without a certain manly
+grace.
+
+How did Fanny know that it was coming? She did know it, though he had
+said nothing to her beyond his usual parish communications. He was
+often with her in the two schools; often returned with her in the
+sweet spring evenings along the lane that led back to the rectory
+from Cumberly Green; often inspected with her the little amounts of
+parish charities and entries of pence collected from such parents as
+could pay. He had never reverted to that other subject. But yet Fanny
+knew that it was coming, and when she had questioned Harry about his
+troubles she had been thinking also of her own.
+
+It was now the middle of May, and the spring was giving way to the
+early summer almost before the spring had itself arrived. It is so, I
+think, in these latter years. The sharpness of March prolongs itself
+almost through April; and then, while we are still hoping for the
+spring, there falls upon us suddenly a bright, dangerous, delicious
+gleam of summer. The lane from Cumberly Green was no longer muddy,
+and Fanny could go backwards and forwards between the parsonage and
+her distant school without that wading for which feminine apparel
+is so unsuited. One evening, just as she had finished her work, Mr.
+Saul's head appeared at the school-door, and he asked her whether she
+were about to return home. As soon as she saw his eye and heard his
+voice, she feared that the day was come. She was prepared with no
+new answer, and could only give the answer that she had given before.
+She had always told herself that it was impossible; and as to all
+other questions, about her own heart or such like, she had put such
+questions away from her as being unnecessary, and, perhaps, unseemly.
+The thing was impossible, and should therefore be put away out of
+thought, as a matter completed and at an end. But now the time was
+come, and she almost wished that she had been more definite in her
+own resolutions.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Saul, I have just done."
+
+"I will walk with you, if you will let me." Then Fanny spoke some
+words of experienced wisdom to two or three girls, in order that
+she might show to them, to him, and to herself that she was quite
+collected. She lingered in the room for a few minutes, and was very
+wise and very experienced. "I am quite ready now, Mr. Saul." So
+saying, she came forth upon the green lane, and he followed her.
+
+They walked on in silence for a little way, and then he asked her
+some question about Florence Burton. Fanny told him that she had
+heard from Stratton two days since, and that Florence was well.
+
+"I liked her very much," said Mr. Saul.
+
+"So did we all. She is coming here again in the autumn; so it will
+not be very long before you see her again."
+
+"How that may be I cannot tell, but if you see her that will be of
+more consequence."
+
+"We shall all see her, of course."
+
+"It was here, in this lane, that I was with her last, and wished her
+good-by. She did not tell you of my having parted with her, then?"
+
+"Not especially, that I remember."
+
+"Ah, you would have remembered if she had told you; but she was quite
+right not to tell you." Fanny was now a little confused, so that she
+could not exactly calculate what all this meant. Mr. Saul walked on
+by her side, and for some moments nothing was said. After a while
+he recurred again to his parting from Florence. "I asked her advice
+on that occasion, and she gave it me clearly,--with a clear purpose
+and an assured voice. I like a person who will do that. You are sure
+then that you are getting the truth out of your friend, even if it be
+a simple negative, or a refusal to give any reply to the question
+asked."
+
+"Florence Burton is always clear in what she says."
+
+"I had asked her if she thought that I might venture to hope for a
+more favourable answer if I urged my suit to you again."
+
+"She cannot have said yes to that, Mr. Saul; she cannot have done
+so!"
+
+"She did not do so. She simply bade me ask yourself. And she was
+right. On such a matter there is no one to whom I can with propriety
+address myself, but to yourself. Therefore I now ask you the
+question. May I venture to have any hope?"
+
+His voice was so solemn, and there was so much of eager seriousness
+in his face that Fanny could not bring herself to answer him with
+quickness. The answer that was in her mind was in truth this: "How
+can you ask me to try to love a man who has but seventy pounds a
+year in the world, while I myself have nothing?" But there was
+something in his demeanour,--something that was almost grand in its
+gravity,--which made it quite impossible that she should speak to
+him in that tone. But he, having asked his question, waited for an
+answer; and she was well aware that the longer she delayed it, the
+weaker became the ground on which she was standing.
+
+"It is quite impossible," she said at last.
+
+"If it really be so,--if you will say again that it is so after
+hearing me out to an end, I will desist. In that case I will desist
+and leave you,--and leave Clavering."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Saul, do not do that,--for papa's sake, and because of the
+parish."
+
+"I would do much for your father, and as to the parish I love it
+well. I do not think I can make you understand how well I love it.
+It seems to me that I can never again have the same feeling for any
+place that I have for this. There is not a house, a field, a green
+lane, that is not dear to me. It is like a first love. With some
+people a first love will come so strongly that it makes a renewal
+of the passion impossible." He did not say that it would be so with
+himself, but it seemed to her that he intended that she should so
+understand him.
+
+"I do not see why you should leave Clavering," she said.
+
+"If you knew the nature of my regard for yourself, you would see
+why it should be so. I do not say that there ought to be any such
+necessity. If I were strong there would be no such need. But I am
+weak,--weak in this; and I could not hold myself under such control
+as is wanted for the work I have to do." When he had spoken of his
+love for the place,--for the parish, there had been something of
+passion in his language; but now in the words which he spoke of
+himself and of his feeling for her, he was calm and reasonable and
+tranquil, and talked of his going away from her as he might have
+talked had some change of air been declared necessary for his health.
+She felt that this was so, and was almost angry with him.
+
+"Of course you must know what will be best for yourself," she said.
+
+"Yes; I know now what I must do, if such is to be your answer. I have
+made up my mind as to that. I cannot remain at Clavering, if I am
+told that I may never hope that you will become my wife."
+
+"But, Mr. Saul--"
+
+"Well; I am listening. But before you speak, remember how
+all-important your words will be to me."
+
+"No; they cannot be all-important."
+
+"As regards my present happiness and rest in this world they will
+be so. Of course I know that nothing you can say or do will hurt me
+beyond that. But you might help me even to that further and greater
+bliss. You might help me too in that,--as I also might help you."
+
+"But, Mr. Saul--" she began again, and then, feeling that she must go
+on, she forced herself to utter words which at the time she felt to
+be commonplace. "People cannot marry without an income. Mr. Fielding
+did not think of such a thing till he had a living assured to him."
+
+"But, independently of that, might I hope?" She ventured for an
+instant to glance at his face, and saw that his eyes were glistening
+with a wonderful brightness.
+
+"How can I answer you further? Is not that reason enough why such a
+thing should not be even discussed?"
+
+"No, Miss Clavering, it is not reason enough. If you were to tell
+me that you could never love me,--me, personally,--that you could
+never regard me with affection, that would be reason why I should
+desist;--why I should abandon all my hope here, and go away from
+Clavering for ever. Nothing else can be reason enough. My being poor
+ought not to make you throw me aside if you loved me. If it were so
+that you loved me, I think you would owe it me to say so, let me be
+ever so poor."
+
+"I do not like you the less because you are poor."
+
+"But do you like me at all? Can you bring yourself to love me? Would
+you make the effort if I had such an income as you thought necessary?
+If I had such riches, could you teach yourself to regard me as him
+whom you were to love better than all the world beside? I call upon
+you to answer me that question truly; and if you tell me that it
+could be so, I will not despair, and I will not go away."
+
+As he said this they came to a turn in the road which brought the
+parsonage gate within their view. Fanny knew that she would leave him
+there and go in alone, but she knew also that she must say something
+further to him before she could thus escape. She did not wish to give
+him an assurance of her positive indifference to him,--and still less
+did she wish to tell him that he might hope. It could not be possible
+that such an engagement should be approved by her father, nor could
+she bring herself to think that she could be quite contented with
+a lover such as Mr. Saul. When he had first proposed to her she
+had almost ridiculed his proposition in her heart. Even now there
+was something in it that was almost ridiculous;--and yet there was
+something in it also that touched her as being sublime. The man was
+honest, good, and true,--perhaps the best and truest man that she had
+ever known. She could not bring herself to say to him any word that
+should banish him for ever from the place he loved so well.
+
+"If you knew your own heart well enough to answer me, you should do
+so," he went on to say. "If you do not, say so, and I will be content
+to wait your own time."
+
+"It would be better, Mr. Saul, that you should not think of this any
+more."
+
+"No, Miss Clavering; that would not be better,--not for me; for it
+would prove me to be utterly heartless. I am not heartless. I love
+you dearly. I will not say that I cannot live without you; but it is
+my one great hope as regards this world, that I should have you at
+some future day as my own. It may be that I am too prone to hope; but
+surely, if that were altogether beyond hope, you would have found
+words to tell me so by this time." They had now come to the gateway,
+and he paused as she put her trembling hand upon the latch.
+
+"I cannot say more to you now," she said.
+
+"Then let it be so. But, Miss Clavering, I shall not leave this place
+till you have said more than that. And I will speak the truth to you,
+even though it may offend you. I have more of hope now than I have
+ever had before,--more hope that you may possibly learn to love me.
+In a few days I will ask you again whether I may be allowed to speak
+upon the subject to your father. Now I will say farewell, and may God
+bless you; and remember this,--that my only earthly wish and ambition
+is in your hands." Then he went on his way towards his own lodgings,
+and she entered the parsonage garden by herself.
+
+What should she now do, and how should she carry herself? She would
+have gone to her mother at once, were it not that she could not
+resolve what words she would speak to her mother. When her mother
+should ask her how she regarded the man, in what way should she
+answer that question? She could not tell herself that she loved Mr.
+Saul; and yet, if she surely did not love him,--if such love were
+impossible,--why had she not said as much to him? We, however, may
+declare that that inclination to ridicule his passion, to think
+of him as a man who had no right to love, was gone for ever. She
+conceded to him clearly that right, and knew that he had exercised it
+well. She knew that he was good and true, and honest, and recognized
+in him also manly courage and spirited resolution. She would not tell
+herself that it was impossible that she should love him.
+
+She went up at last to her room doubting, unhappy, and ill at ease.
+To have such a secret long kept from her mother would make her life
+unendurable to her. But she felt that, in speaking to her mother,
+only one aspect of the affair would be possible. Even though she
+loved him, how could she marry a curate whose only income was seventy
+pounds a year?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE RUSSIAN SPY.
+
+
+When the baby died at Clavering Park, somebody hinted that Sir Hugh
+would certainly quarrel with his brother as soon as Archie should
+become the father of a presumptive heir to the title and property.
+That such would be the case those who best knew Sir Hugh would not
+doubt. That Archie should have that of which he himself had been
+robbed, would of itself be enough to make him hate Archie. But,
+nevertheless, at this present time, he continued to instigate his
+brother in that matter of the proposed marriage with Lady Ongar.
+Hugh, as well as others, felt that Archie's prospects were now
+improved, and that he could demand the hand of a wealthy lady
+with more of seeming propriety than would have belonged to such a
+proposition while the poor child was living. No one would understand
+this better than Lady Ongar, who knew so well all the circumstances
+of the family. The day after the funeral the two brothers returned to
+London together, and Hugh spoke his mind in the railway carriage. "It
+will be no good for you to hang on about Bolton Street, off and on,
+as though she were a girl of seventeen," he said.
+
+"I'm quite up to that," said Archie. "I must let her know I'm there
+of course. I understand all that."
+
+"Then why don't you do it? I thought you meant to go to her at once
+when we were talking about it before in London."
+
+"So I did go to her, and got on with her very well, too, considering
+that I hadn't been there long when another woman came in."
+
+"But you didn't tell her what you had come about?"
+
+"No; not exactly. You see it doesn't do to pop at once to a widow
+like her. Ongar, you know, hasn't been dead six months. One has to be
+a little delicate in these things."
+
+"Believe me, Archie, you had better give up all notions of being
+delicate, and tell her what you want at once,--plainly and fairly.
+You may be sure that she will not think of her former husband, if you
+don't."
+
+"Oh! I don't think about him at all."
+
+"Who was the woman you say was there?"
+
+"That little Frenchwoman,--the sister of the man;--Sophie she calls
+her. Sophie Gordeloup is her name. They are bosom friends."
+
+"The sister of that count?"
+
+"Yes; his sister. Such a woman for talking! She said ever so much
+about your keeping Hermione down in the country."
+
+"The devil she did. What business was that of hers? That is Julia's
+doing."
+
+"Well; no, I don't think so. Julia didn't say a word about it. In
+fact, I don't know how it came up. But you never heard such a woman
+to talk,--an ugly, old, hideous little creature! But the two are
+always together."
+
+"If you don't take care you'll find that Julia is married to the
+count while you are thinking about it."
+
+Then Archie began to consider whether he might not as well tell
+his brother of his present scheme with reference to Julia. Having
+discussed the matter at great length with his confidential friend,
+Captain Boodle, he had come to the conclusion that his safest course
+would be to bribe Madame Gordeloup, and creep into Julia's favour by
+that lady's aid. Now, on his return to London, he was about at once
+to play that game, and had already provided himself with funds for
+the purpose. The parting with ready money was a grievous thing to
+Archie, though in this case the misery would be somewhat palliated by
+the feeling that it was a bona fide sporting transaction. He would
+be lessening the odds against himself by a judicious hedging of his
+bets. "You must stand to lose something always by the horse you mean
+to win," Doodles had said to him, and Archie had recognized the
+propriety of the remark. He had, therefore, with some difficulty,
+provided himself with funds, and was prepared to set about his
+hedging operations as soon as he could find Madame Gordeloup on his
+return to London. He had already ascertained her address through
+Doodles, and had ascertained by the unparalleled acuteness of his
+friend that the lady was--a Russian spy. It would have been beautiful
+to have seen Archie's face when this information was whispered into
+his ear, in private, at the club. It was as though he had then been
+made acquainted with some great turf secret, unknown to the sporting
+world in general.
+
+"Ah!" he said, drawing a long breath, "no;--by George, is she?"
+
+The same story had been told everywhere in London of the little woman
+for the last half dozen years, whether truly or untruly I am not
+prepared to say; but it had not hitherto reached Archie Clavering;
+and now, on hearing it, he felt that he was becoming a participator
+in the deepest diplomatic secrets of Europe.
+
+"By George," said he, "is she really?"
+
+And his respect for the little woman rose a thousand per cent.
+
+"That's what she is," said Doodles, "and it's a doosed fine thing
+for you, you know! Of course you can make her safe, and that will be
+everything."
+
+Archie resolved at once that he would use the great advantage which
+chance and the ingenuity of his friend had thrown in his way; but
+that necessity of putting money in his purse was a sore grievance
+to him, and it occurred to him that it would be a grand thing if
+he could induce his brother to help him in this special matter. If
+he could only make Hugh see the immense advantage of an alliance
+with the Russian spy, Hugh could hardly avoid contributing to the
+expense,--of course on the understanding that all such moneys were
+to be repaid when the Russian spy's work had been brought to a
+successful result. Russian spy! There was in the very sound of the
+words something so charming that it almost made Archie in love with
+the outlay. A female Russian spy too! Sophie Gordeloup certainly
+retained but very few of the charms of womanhood, nor had her
+presence as a lady affected Archie with any special pleasure; but yet
+he felt infinitely more pleased with the affair than he would have
+been had she been a man spy. The intrigue was deeper. His sense of
+delight in the mysterious wickedness of the thing was enhanced by an
+additional spice. It is not given to every man to employ the services
+of a political Russian lady-spy in his love-affairs! As he thought of
+it in all its bearings, he felt that he was almost a Talleyrand, or,
+at any rate, a Palmerston.
+
+Should he tell his brother? If he could represent the matter in such
+a light to his brother as to induce Hugh to produce the funds for
+purchasing the Spy's services, the whole thing would be complete
+with a completeness that has rarely been equalled. But he doubted.
+Hugh was a hard man,--a hard, unimaginative man, and might possibly
+altogether refuse to believe in the Russian spy. Hugh believed in
+little but what he himself saw, and usually kept a very firm grasp
+upon his money.
+
+"That Madame Gordeloup is always with Julia," Archie said, trying the
+way, as it were, before he told his plan.
+
+"Of course she will help her brother's views."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that. Some of these foreign women ain't like
+other women at all. They go deeper;--a doosed sight deeper."
+
+"Into men's pockets, you mean."
+
+"They play a deep game altogether. What do you suppose she is, now?"
+This question Archie asked in a whisper, bending his head forward
+towards his brother, though there was no one else in the carriage
+with them.
+
+"What she is? A thief of some kind probably. I've no doubt she's up
+to any roguery."
+
+"She's a--Russian spy."
+
+"Oh, I've heard of that for the last dozen years. All the ugly old
+Frenchwomen in London are Russian spies, according to what people
+say; but the Russians know how to use their money better than that.
+If they employ spies, they employ people who can spy something."
+
+Archie felt this to be cruel,--very cruel, but he said nothing
+further about it. His brother was stupid, pigheaded, obstinate, and
+quite unfitted by nature for affairs of intrigue. It was, alas,
+certain that his brother would provide no money for such a purpose
+as that he now projected; but, thinking of this, he found some
+consolation in the reflection that Hugh would not be a participator
+with him in his great secret. When he should have bought the Russian
+spy, he and Doodles would rejoice together in privacy without any
+third confederate. Triumviri might be very well; Archie also had
+heard of triumviri; but two were company, and three were none.
+Thus he consoled himself when his pigheaded brother expressed his
+disbelief in the Russian spy.
+
+There was nothing more said between them in the railway carriage,
+and, as they parted at the door in Berkeley Square, Hugh swore to
+himself that this should be the last season in which he would harbour
+his brother in London. After this he must have a house of his own
+there, or have no house at all. Then Archie went down to his club,
+and finally arranged with Doodles that the first visit to the Spy
+should be made on the following morning. After much consultation it
+was agreed between them that the way should be paved by a diplomatic
+note. The diplomatic note was therefore written by Doodles and copied
+by Archie.
+
+"Captain Clavering presents his compliments to Madame Gordeloup,
+and proposes to call upon her to-morrow morning at twelve o'clock,
+if that hour will be convenient. Captain Clavering is desirous
+of consulting Madame Gordeloup on an affair of much importance."
+"Consult me!" said Sophie to herself, when she got the letter. "For
+what should he consult me? It is that stupid man I saw with Julie.
+Ah, well; never mind. The stupid man shall come." The commissioner,
+therefore, who had taken the letter to Mount Street, returned to the
+club with a note in which Madame Gordeloup expressed her willingness
+to undergo the proposed interview. Archie felt that the letter,--a
+letter from a Russian spy addressed positively to himself,--gave him
+already diplomatic rank, and he kept it as a treasure in his breast
+coat-pocket.
+
+It then became necessary that he and his friend should discuss the
+manner in which the Spy should be managed. Doodles had his misgivings
+that Archie would be awkward, and almost angered his friend by the
+repetition of his cautions. "You mustn't chuck your money at her
+head, you know," said Doodles.
+
+"Of course not; but when the time comes I shall slip the notes into
+her hand,--with a little pressure perhaps."
+
+"It would be better to leave them near her on the table."
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"Oh, yes; a great deal. It's always done in that way."
+
+"But perhaps she wouldn't see them,--or wouldn't know where they came
+from."
+
+"Let her alone for that."
+
+"But I must make her understand what I want of her,--in return, you
+know. I ain't going to give her twenty pounds for nothing."
+
+"You must explain that at first; tell her that you expect her aid,
+and that she will find you a grateful friend,--a grateful friend,
+say;--mind you remember that."
+
+"Yes; I'll remember that. I suppose it would be as good a way as
+any."
+
+"It's the only way, unless you want her to ring for the servant to
+kick you out of the house. It's as well understood as A B C, among
+the people who do these things. I should say take jewellery instead
+of money if she were anything but a Russian spy; but they understand
+the thing so well, that you may go farther with them than with
+others."
+
+Archie's admiration for Sophie became still higher as he heard this.
+"I do like people," said he, "who understand what's what, and no
+mistake."
+
+"But even with her you must be very careful."
+
+"Oh, yes; that's a matter of course."
+
+"When I was declaring for the last time that she would find me a
+grateful friend, just at the word grateful, I would put down the four
+fivers on the table, smoothing them with my hand like that." Then
+Doodles acted the part, putting a great deal of emphasis on the word
+grateful, as he went through the smoothing ceremony with two or three
+sheets of club notepaper. "That's your game, you may be sure. If you
+put them into her hand she may feel herself obliged to pretend to be
+angry; but she can't be angry simply because you put your money on
+her table. Do you see that, old fellow?" Archie declared that he did
+see it very plainly. "If she does not choose to undertake the job,
+she'll merely have to tell you that you have left something behind
+you."
+
+"But there's no fear of that, I suppose?"
+
+"I can't say. Her hands may be full, you know, or she may think you
+don't go high enough."
+
+"But I mean to tip her again, of course."
+
+"Again! I should think so. I suppose she must have about a couple of
+hundred before the end of next month if she's to do any good. After a
+bit you'll be able to explain that she shall have a sum down when the
+marriage has come off."
+
+"She won't take the money and do nothing; will she?"
+
+"Oh, no; they never sell you like that. It would spoil their own
+business if they were to play that game. If you can make it worth
+her while, she'll do the work for you. But you must be careful;--do
+remember that." Archie shook his head, almost in anger, and then went
+home for his night's rest.
+
+On the next morning he dressed himself in his best, and presented
+himself at the door in Mount Street, exactly as the clock struck
+twelve. He had an idea that these people were very punctilious as
+to time. Who could say but that the French ambassador might have
+an appointment with Madame Gordeloup at half-past one,--or perhaps
+some emissary from the Pope! He had resolved that he would not take
+his left glove off his hand, and he had thrust the notes in under
+the palm of his glove, thinking he could get at them easier from
+there, should they be wanted in a moment, than he could do from his
+waistcoat pocket. He knocked at the door, knowing that he trembled as
+he did so, and felt considerable relief when he found himself to be
+alone in the room to which he was shown. He knew that men conversant
+with intrigues always go to work with their eyes open, and,
+therefore, at once, he began to look about him. Could he not put the
+money into some convenient hiding-place,--now at once? There, in one
+corner, was the spot in which she would seat herself upon the sofa.
+He saw plainly enough, as with the eye of a Talleyrand, the marks
+thereon of her constant sitting. So he seized the moment to place a
+chair suitable for himself, and cleared a few inches on the table
+near to it, for the smoothing of the bank-notes,--feeling, while
+so employed, that he was doing great things. He had almost made up
+his mind to slip one note between the pages of a book, not with any
+well-defined plan as to the utility of such a measure, but because it
+seemed to be such a diplomatic thing to do! But while this grand idea
+was still flashing backwards and forwards across his brain, the door
+opened, and he found himself in the presence of--the Russian spy.
+
+He at once saw that the Russian spy was very dirty, and that she wore
+a nightcap, but he liked her the better on that account. A female
+Russian spy should, he felt, differ much in her attire from other
+women. If possible, she should be arrayed in diamonds, and pearl
+ear-drops, with as little else upon her as might be; but failing
+that costume, which might be regarded as the appropriate evening spy
+costume,--a tumbled nightcap, and a dirty white wrapper, old cloth
+slippers, and objectionable stockings were just what they should be.
+
+"Ah!" said the lady, "you are Captain Clavering. Yes, I remember."
+
+"I am Captain Clavering. I had the honour of meeting you at Lady
+Ongar's."
+
+"And now you wish to consult me on an affair of great importance.
+Very well. You may consult me. Will you sit down--there." And Madame
+Gordeloup indicated to him a chair just opposite to herself, and
+far removed from that convenient spot which Archie had prepared for
+the smoothing of the bank-notes. Near to the place now assigned to
+him there was no table whatever, and he felt that he would in that
+position be so completely raked by the fire of her keen eyes, that he
+would not be able to carry on his battle upon good terms. In spite,
+therefore, of the lady's very plain instructions, he made an attempt
+to take possession of the chair which he had himself placed; but it
+was an ineffectual attempt, for the Spy was very peremptory with him.
+"There, Captain Clavering; there; there; you will be best there."
+Then he did as he was bid, and seated himself, as it were, quite out
+at sea, with nothing but an ocean of carpet around him, and with no
+possibility of manipulating his notes except under the raking fire of
+those terribly sharp eyes. "And now," said Madame Gordeloup, "you can
+commence to consult me. What is the business?"
+
+Ah; what was the business? That was now the difficulty? In discussing
+the proper way of tendering the bank-notes, I fear the two captains
+had forgotten the nicest point of the whole negotiation. How was he
+to tell her what it was that he wanted to do himself, and what that
+she was to be required to do for him? It behoved him above all things
+not to be awkward! That he remembered. But how not to be awkward?
+"Well!" she said; and there was something almost of crossness in her
+tone. Her time, no doubt, was valuable. The French ambassador might
+even now be coming. "Well?"
+
+"I think, Madame Gordeloup, you know my brother's sister-in-law, Lady
+Ongar?"
+
+"What, Julie? Of course I know Julie. Julie and I are dear friends."
+
+"So I supposed. That is the reason why I have come to you."
+
+"Well;--well;--well?"
+
+"Lady Ongar is a person whom I have known for a long time, and for
+whom I have a great,--I may say a very deep regard."
+
+"Ah! yes. What a jointure she has! and what a park! Thousands and
+thousands of pounds,--and so beautiful! If I was a man I should have
+a very deep regard too. Yes."
+
+"A most beautiful creature;--is she not?"
+
+"Ah; if you had seen her in Florence, as I used to see her, in the
+long summer evenings! Her lovely hair was all loose to the wind, and
+she would sit hour after hour looking, oh, at the stars! Have you
+seen the stars in Italy?"
+
+Captain Clavering couldn't say that he had, but he had seen them
+uncommon bright in Norway, when he had been fishing there.
+
+"Or the moon?" continued Sophie, not regarding his answer. "Ah; that
+is to live! And he, her husband, the rich lord, he was dying,--in a
+little room just inside, you know. It was very melancholy, Captain
+Clavering. But when she was looking at the moon, with her hair all
+dishevelled," and Sophie put her hands up to her own dirty nightcap,
+"she was just like a Magdalen; yes, just the same;--just the same."
+
+The exact strength of the picture, and the nature of the comparison
+drawn, were perhaps lost upon Archie; and indeed, Sophie herself
+probably trusted more to the tone of her words, than to any idea
+which they contained; but their tone was perfect, and she felt that
+if anything could make him talk, he would talk now.
+
+"Dear me! you don't say so. I have always admired her very much,
+Madame Gordeloup."
+
+"Well?"
+
+The French ambassador was probably in the next street already, and if
+Archie was to tell his tale at all he must do it now.
+
+"You will keep my secret if I tell it you?" he asked.
+
+"Is it me you ask that? Did you ever hear of me that I tell a
+gentleman's secret? I think not. If you have a secret, and will trust
+me, that will be good; if you will not trust me,--that will be good
+also."
+
+"Of course I will trust you. That is why I have come here."
+
+"Then out with it. I am not a little girl. You need not be bashful.
+Two and two make four. I know that. But some people want them to make
+five. I know that too. So speak out what you have to say."
+
+"I am going to ask Lady Ongar to--to--to--marry me."
+
+"Ah, indeed; with all the thousands of pounds and the beautiful park!
+But the beautiful hair is more than all the thousands of pounds. Is
+it not so?"
+
+"Well, as to that, they all go together, you know."
+
+"And that is so lucky! If they was to be separated, which would you
+take?"
+
+The little woman grinned as she asked this question, and Archie, had
+he at all understood her character, might at once have put himself
+on a pleasant footing with her; but he was still confused and ill at
+ease, and only muttered something about the truth of his love for
+Julia.
+
+"And you want to get her to marry you?"
+
+"Yes; that's just it."
+
+"And you want me to help you?"
+
+"That's just it again."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Upon my word, if you'll stick to me, you know, and see me through
+it, and all that kind of thing, you'll find in me a most grateful
+friend;--indeed, a most grateful friend." And Archie, as from his
+position he was debarred from attempting the smoothing process, began
+to work with his right forefinger under the glove on his left hand.
+
+"What have you got there?" said Madame Gordeloup, looking at him with
+all her eyes.
+
+Captain Clavering instantly discontinued the work with his finger,
+and became terribly confused. Her voice on asking the question had
+become very sharp; and it seemed to him that if he brought out
+his money in that awkward, barefaced way which now seemed to be
+necessary, she would display all the wrath of which a Russian spy
+could be capable. Would it not be better that he should let the money
+rest for the present, and trust to his promise of gratitude? Ah, how
+he wished that he had slipped at any rate one note between the pages
+of a book.
+
+"What have you got there?" she demanded again, very sharply.
+
+"Oh, nothing."
+
+"It is not nothing. What have you got there? If you have got nothing,
+take off your glove. Come."
+
+Captain Clavering became very red in the face, and was altogether
+at a loss what to say or do. "Is it money you have got there?" she
+asked. "Let me see how much. Come."
+
+"It is just a few bank-notes I put in here to be handy," he said.
+
+"Ah; that is very handy, certainly. I never saw that custom before.
+Let me look." Then she took his hand, and with her own hooked finger
+clawed out the notes. "Ah! five, ten, fifteen, twenty pounds. Twenty
+pounds is not a great deal, but it is very nice to have even that
+always handy. I was wanting so much money as that myself; perhaps you
+will make it handy to me."
+
+"Upon my word I shall be most happy. Nothing on earth would give me
+more pleasure."
+
+"Fifty pounds would give me more pleasure; just twice as much
+pleasure." Archie had begun to rejoice greatly at the safe
+disposition of the money, and to think how excellently well this spy
+did her business; but now there came upon him suddenly an idea that
+spies perhaps might do their business too well. "Twenty pounds in
+this country goes a very little way; you are all so rich," said the
+Spy.
+
+"By George, I ain't. I ain't rich, indeed."
+
+"But you mean to be--with Julie's money?"
+
+"Oh--ah--yes; and you ought to know, Madame Gordeloup, that I am now
+the heir to the family estate and title."
+
+"Yes; the poor little baby is dead, in spite of the pills and the
+powders, the daisies and the buttercups! Poor little baby! I had a
+baby of my own once, and that died also." Whereupon Madame Gordeloup,
+putting up her hand to her eyes, wiped away a real tear with the
+bank-notes which she still held. "And I am to remind Julie that you
+will be the heir?"
+
+"She will know all about that already."
+
+"But I will tell her. It will be something to say, at any rate,--and
+that, perhaps, will be the difficulty."
+
+"Just so! I didn't look at it in that light before."
+
+"And am I to propose it to her first?"
+
+"Well; I don't know. Perhaps as you are so clever, it might be as
+well."
+
+"And at once?"
+
+"Yes, certainly; at once. You see, Madame Gordeloup, there may be so
+many buzzing about her."
+
+"Exactly; and some of them perhaps will have more than twenty pounds
+handy. Some will buzz better than that."
+
+"Of course I didn't mean that for anything more than just a little
+compliment to begin with."
+
+"Oh, ah; just a little compliment for beginning. And when will it be
+making a progress and going on?"
+
+"Making a progress!"
+
+"Yes; when will the compliment become a little bigger? Twenty pounds!
+Oh! it's just for a few gloves, you know; nothing more."
+
+"Nothing more than that, of course," said poor Archie.
+
+"Well; when will the compliment grow bigger? Let me see. Julie has
+seven thousands of pounds, what you call, per annum. And have you
+seen that beautiful park? Oh! And if you can make her to look at the
+moon with her hair down,--oh! When will that compliment grow bigger?
+Twenty pounds! I am ashamed, you know."
+
+"When will you see her, Madame Gordeloup?"
+
+"See her! I see her every day, always. I will be there to-day, and
+to-morrow, and the next day."
+
+"You might say a word then at once,--this afternoon."
+
+"What! for twenty pounds! Seven thousands of pounds per annum; and
+you give me twenty pounds! Fie, Captain Clavering. It is only just
+for me to speak to you,--this! That is all. Come; when will you bring
+me fifty?"
+
+"By George--fifty!"
+
+"Yes, fifty;--for another beginning. What; seven thousands of pounds
+per annum, and make difficulty for fifty pounds! You have a handy way
+with your glove. Will you come with fifty pounds to-morrow?" Archie,
+with the drops of perspiration standing on his brow, and now desirous
+of getting out again into the street, promised that he would come
+again on the following day with the required sum.
+
+"Just for another beginning! And now, good-morning, Captain
+Clavering. I will do my possible with Julie. Julie is very fond of
+me, and I think you have been right in coming here. But twenty pounds
+was too little, even for a beginning." Mercenary wretch; hungry,
+greedy, ill-conditioned woman,--altogether of the harpy breed! As
+Archie Clavering looked into her grey eyes, and saw there her greed
+and her hunger, his flesh crept upon his bones. Should he not succeed
+with Julia, how much would this excellent lady cost him?
+
+As soon as he was gone the excellent lady made an intolerable
+grimace, shaking herself and shrugging her shoulders, and walking
+up and down the room with her dirty wrapper held close round her.
+"Bah," she said. "Bah!" And as she thought of the heavy stupidity
+of her late visitor she shrugged herself and shook herself again
+violently, and clutched up her robe still more closely. "Bah!" It was
+intolerable to her that a man should be such a fool, even though she
+was to make money by him. And then, that such a man should conceive
+it to be possible that he should become the husband of a woman with
+seven thousand pounds a year! Bah!
+
+Archie, as he walked away from Mount Street, found it difficult
+to create a triumphant feeling within his own bosom. He had been
+awkward, slow, and embarrassed, and the Spy had been too much for
+him. He was quite aware of that, and he was aware also that even the
+sagacious Doodles had been wrong. There had, at any rate, been no
+necessity for making a difficulty about the money. The Russian spy
+had known her business too well to raise troublesome scruples on
+that point. That she was very good at her trade he was prepared to
+acknowledge; but a fear came upon him that he would find the article
+too costly for his own purposes. He remembered the determined tone
+in which she had demanded the fifty pounds merely as a further
+beginning.
+
+And then he could not but reflect how much had been said at the
+interview about money,--about money for her, and how very little had
+been said as to the assistance to be given,--as to the return to be
+made for the money. No plan had been laid down, no times fixed, no
+facilities for making love suggested to him. He had simply paid over
+his twenty pounds, and been desired to bring another fifty. The other
+fifty he was to take to Mount Street on the morrow. What if she were
+to require fifty pounds every day, and declare that she could not
+stir in the matter for less? Doodles, no doubt, had told him that
+these first-class Russian spies did well the work for which they
+were paid; and no doubt, if paid according to her own tariff, Madame
+Gordeloup would work well for him; but such a tariff as that was
+altogether beyond his means! It would be imperatively necessary that
+he should come to some distinct settlement with her as to price. The
+twenty pounds, of course, were gone; but would it not be better that
+he should come to some final understanding with her before he gave
+her the further fifty? But then, as he thought of this, he was aware
+that she was too clever to allow him to do as he desired. If he went
+into that room with the fifty pounds in his pockets, or in his glove,
+or, indeed, anywhere about his person, she would have it from him,
+let his own resolution to make a previous bargain be what it might.
+His respect for the woman rose almost to veneration, but with the
+veneration was mixed a strong feeling of fear.
+
+But, in spite of all this, he did venture to triumph a little when
+he met Doodles at the club. He had employed the Russian spy, and had
+paid her twenty pounds, and was enrolled in the corps of diplomatic
+and mysterious personages, who do their work by mysterious agencies.
+He did not tell Doodles anything about the glove, or the way in which
+the money was taken from him; but he did say that he was to see the
+Spy again to-morrow, and that he intended to take with him another
+present of fifty pounds.
+
+"By George, Clavvy, you are going it!" said Doodles, in a voice that
+was delightfully envious to the ears of Captain Archie. When he heard
+that envious tone he felt that he was entitled to be triumphant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+"WHAT WOULD MEN SAY OF YOU?"
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+"Harry, tell me the truth,--tell me all the truth." Harry Clavering
+was thus greeted when in obedience to the summons from Lady Ongar, he
+went to her almost immediately on his return to London.
+
+It will be remembered that he had remained at Clavering some days
+after the departure of Hugh and Archie, lacking the courage to face
+his misfortunes boldly. But though his delay had been cowardly, it
+had not been easy to him to be a coward. He despised himself for not
+having written with warm, full-expressed affection to Florence and
+with honest clear truth to Julia. Half his misery rose from this
+feeling of self-abasement, and from the consciousness that he was
+weak,--piteously weak, exactly in that in which he had often boasted
+to himself that he was strong. But such inward boastings are not
+altogether bad. They preserve men from succumbing, and make at any
+rate some attempt to realize themselves. The man who tells himself
+that he is brave, will struggle much before he flies; but the man who
+never does so tell himself, will find flying easy unless his heart
+be of nature very high. Now had come the moment either for flying,
+or not flying; and Harry swearing that he would stand his ground,
+resolutely took his hat and gloves, and made his way to Bolton Street
+with a sore heart.
+
+But as he went he could not keep himself from arguing the matter
+within his own breast. He knew what was his duty. It was his duty to
+stick to Florence, not only with his word and his hand, but with his
+heart. It was his duty to tell Lady Ongar that not only his word was
+at Stratton, but his heart also, and to ask her pardon for the wrong
+that he had done her by that caress. For some ten minutes as he
+walked through the streets his resolve was strong to do this manifest
+duty; but, gradually, as he thought of that caress, as he thought
+of the difficulties of the coming interview, as he thought of
+Julia's high-toned beauty,--perhaps something also of her wealth
+and birth,--and more strongly still as he thought of her love for
+him, false, treacherous, selfish arguments offered themselves to his
+mind,--arguments which he knew to be false and selfish. Which of them
+did he love? Could it be right for him to give his hand without his
+heart? Could it really be good for Florence,--poor injured Florence,
+that she should be taken by a man who had ceased to regard her
+more than all other women? Were he to marry her now, would not
+that deceit be worse than the other deceit? Or, rather, would
+not that be deceitful, whereas the other course would simply be
+unfortunate,--unfortunate through circumstances for which he was
+blameless? Damnable arguments! False, cowardly logic, by which all
+male jilts seek to excuse their own treachery to themselves and to
+others!
+
+Thus during the second ten minutes of his walk, his line of conduct
+became less plain to him, and as he entered Piccadilly he was
+racked with doubts. But instead of settling them in his mind he
+unconsciously allowed himself to dwell upon the words with which he
+would seek to excuse his treachery to Florence. He thought how he
+would tell her,--not to her face with spoken words, for that he
+could not do,--but with written skill, that he was unworthy of her
+goodness, that his love for her had fallen off through his own
+unworthiness, and had returned to one who was in all respects less
+perfect than she, but who in old days, as she well knew, had been
+his first love. Yes! he would say all this, and Julia, let her anger
+be what it might, should know that he had said it. As he planned
+this, there came to him a little comfort, for he thought there was
+something grand in such a resolution. Yes; he would do that, even
+though he should lose Julia also.
+
+Miserable clap-trap! He knew in his heart that all his logic was
+false, and his arguments baseless. Cease to love Florence Burton! He
+had not ceased to love her, nor is the heart of any man made so like
+a weather-cock that it needs must turn itself hither and thither, as
+the wind directs, and be altogether beyond the man's control. For
+Harry, with all his faults, and in spite of his present falseness,
+was a man. No man ceases to love without a cause. No man need cease
+to love without a cause. A man may maintain his love, and nourish
+it, and keep it warm by honest manly effort, as he may his probity,
+his courage, or his honour. It was not that he had ceased to love
+Florence; but that the glare of the candle had been too bright for
+him and he had scorched his wings. After all, as to that embrace of
+which he had thought so much, and the memory of which was so sweet to
+him and so bitter,--it had simply been an accident. Thus, writing in
+his mind that letter to Florence which he knew, if he were an honest
+man, he would never allow himself to write, he reached Lady Ongar's
+door without having arranged for himself any special line of conduct.
+
+We must return for a moment to the fact that Hugh and Archie had
+returned to town before Harry Clavering. How Archie had been engaged
+on great doings, the reader, I hope, will remember; and he may
+as well be informed here that the fifty pounds were duly taken
+to Mount Street, and were extracted from him by the Spy without
+much difficulty. I do not know that Archie in return obtained any
+immediate aid or valuable information from Sophie Gordeloup; but
+Sophie did obtain some information from him which she found herself
+able to use for her own purposes. As his position with reference to
+love and marriage was being discussed, and the position also of the
+divine Julia, Sophie hinted her fear of another Clavering lover. What
+did Archie think of his cousin Harry? "Why; he's engaged to another
+girl," said Archie, opening wide his eyes and his mouth, and becoming
+very free with his information. This was a matter to which Sophie
+found it worth her while to attend, and she soon learned from Archie
+all that Archie knew about Florence Burton. And this was all that
+could be known. No secret had been made in the family of Harry's
+engagement. Archie told his fair assistant that Miss Burton had
+been received at Clavering Park openly as Harry's future wife, and,
+"by Jove, you know, he can't be coming it with Julia after that,
+you know." Sophie made a little grimace, but did not say much. She,
+remembering that she had caught Lady Ongar in Harry's arms, thought
+that, "by Jove," he might be coming it with Julia, even after Miss
+Burton's reception at Clavering Park. Then, too, she remembered
+some few words that had passed between her and her dear Julia after
+Harry's departure on the evening of the embrace, and perceived that
+Julia was in ignorance of the very existence of Florence Burton, even
+though Florence had been received at the Park. This was information
+worth having,--information to be used! Her respect for Harry rose
+immeasurably. She had not given him credit for so much audacity,
+so much gallantry, and so much skill. She had thought him to be a
+pigheaded Clavering, like the rest of them. He was not pigheaded;
+he was a promising young man; she could have liked him and perhaps
+aided him,--only that he had shown so strong a determination to
+have nothing to do with her. Therefore the information should be
+used;--and: it was used.
+
+The reader will now understand what was the truth which Lady Ongar
+demanded from Harry Clavering. "Harry, tell me the truth; tell me all
+the truth." She had come forward to meet him in the middle of the
+room when she spoke these words, and stood looking him in the face,
+not having given him her hand.
+
+"What truth?" said Harry. "Have I ever told you a lie?" But he knew
+well what was the truth required of him.
+
+"Lies can be acted as well as told. Harry, tell me all at once. Who
+is Florence Burton; who and what?" She knew it all, then, and things
+had settled themselves for him without the necessity of any action
+on his part. It was odd enough that she should not have learned it
+before, but at any rate she knew it now. And it was well that she
+should have been told;--only how was he to excuse himself for that
+embrace? "At any rate speak to me," she said, standing quite erect,
+and looking as a Juno might have looked. "You will acknowledge at
+least that I have a right to ask the question. Who is this Florence
+Burton?"
+
+"She is the daughter of Mr. Burton of Stratton."
+
+"And is that all that you can tell me? Come, Harry, be braver than
+that. I was not such a coward once with you. Are you engaged to marry
+her?"
+
+"Yes, Lady Ongar, I am."
+
+"Then you have had your revenge on me, and now we are quits." So
+saying, she stepped back from the middle of the room, and sat herself
+down on her accustomed seat. He was left there standing, and it
+seemed as though she intended to take no further notice of him. He
+might go if he pleased, and there would be an end of it all. The
+difficulty would be over, and he might at once write to Florence in
+what language he liked. It would simply be a little episode in his
+life, and his escape would not have been arduous.
+
+But he could not go from her in that way. He could not bring himself
+to leave the room without some further word. She had spoken of
+revenge. Was it not incumbent on him to explain to her that there
+had been no revenge; that he had loved, and suffered, and forgiven
+without one thought of anger;--and that then he had unfortunately
+loved again? Must he not find some words in which to tell her that
+she had been the light, and he simply the poor moth that had burned
+his wings?
+
+"No, Lady Ongar," said he, "there has been no revenge."
+
+"We will call it justice, if you please. At any rate I do not mean to
+complain."
+
+"If you ever injured me--" he began.
+
+"I did injure you," said she, sharply.
+
+"If you ever injured me, I forgave you freely."
+
+"I did injure you--" As she spoke she rose again from her seat,
+showing how impossible to her was that tranquillity which she had
+attempted to maintain. "I did injure you, but the injury came to you
+early in life, and sat lightly on you. Within a few months you had
+learned to love this young lady at the place you went to,--the first
+young lady you saw! I had not done you much harm, Harry. But that
+which you have done me cannot be undone."
+
+"Julia," he said, coming up to her.
+
+"No; not Julia. When you were here before I asked you to call me so,
+hoping, longing, believing,--doing more, so much more than I could
+have done, but that I thought my love might now be of service to you.
+You do not think that I had heard of this then?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"No. It is odd that I should not have known it, as I now hear that
+she was at my sister's house; but all others have not been as silent
+as you have been. We are quits, Harry; that is all that I have to
+say. We are quits now."
+
+"I have intended to be true to you;--to you and to her."
+
+"Were you true when you acted as you did the other night?" He could
+not explain to her how greatly he had been tempted. "Were you true
+when you held me in your arms as that woman came in? Had you not made
+me think that I might glory in loving you, and that I might show her
+that I scorned her when she thought to promise me her secrecy;--her
+secrecy, as though I were ashamed of what she had seen. I was not
+ashamed,--not then. Had all the world known it, I should not have
+been ashamed. 'I have loved him long,' I should have said, 'and
+him only. He is to be my husband, and now at last I need not be
+ashamed.'" So much she spoke, standing up, looking at him with firm
+face, and uttering her syllables with a quick clear voice; but at the
+last word there came a quiver in her tone, and the strength of her
+countenance quailed, and there was a tear which made dim her eye, and
+she knew that she could no longer stand before him. She endeavoured
+to seat herself with composure; but the attempt failed, and as she
+fell back upon the sofa he just heard the sob which had cost her so
+great and vain an effort to restrain. In an instant he was kneeling
+at her feet, and grasping at the hand with which she was hiding her
+face. "Julia," he said, "look at me; let us at any rate understand
+each other at last."
+
+"No, Harry; there must be no more such knowledge,--no more such
+understanding. You must go from me, and come here no more. Had it not
+been for that other night, I would still have endeavoured to regard
+you as a friend. But I have no right to such friendship. I have
+sinned and gone astray, and am a thing vile and polluted. I sold
+myself, as a beast is sold, and men have treated me as I treated
+myself."
+
+"Have I treated you so?"
+
+"Yes, Harry; you, you. How did you treat me when you took me in your
+arms and kissed me,--knowing, knowing that I was not to be your wife?
+O God, I have sinned. I have sinned, and I am punished."
+
+"No, no," said he, rising from his knees, "it was not as you say."
+
+"Then how was it, sir? Is it thus that you treat other women;--your
+friends, those to whom you declare friendship? What did you mean me
+to think?"
+
+"That I loved you."
+
+"Yes; with a love that should complete my disgrace,--that should
+finish my degradation. But I had not heard of this Florence Burton;
+and, Harry, that night I was so happy in my bed. And in that next
+week when you were down there for that sad ceremony, I was happy
+here, happy and proud. Yes, Harry, I was so proud when I thought that
+you still loved me,--loved me in spite of my past sin, that I almost
+forgot that I was polluted. You have made me remember it, and I shall
+not forget it again."
+
+It would have been better for him had he gone away at once. Now
+he was sitting in a chair, sobbing violently, and pressing away
+the tears from his cheeks with his hands. How could he make her
+understand that he had intended no insult when he embraced her? Was
+it not incumbent on him to tell her that the wrong he then did was
+done to Florence Burton, and not to her? But his agony was too much
+for him at present, and he could find no words in which to speak to
+her.
+
+"I said to myself that you would come when the funeral was over, and
+I wept for poor Hermy as I thought that my lot was so much happier
+than hers. But people have what they deserve, and Hermy, who has done
+no such wrong as I have done, is not crushed as I am crushed. It was
+just, Harry, that the punishment should come from you, but it has
+come very heavily."
+
+"Julia, it was not meant to be so."
+
+"Well; we will let that pass. I cannot unsay, Harry, all that I have
+said;--all that I did not say, but which you must have thought and
+known when you were here last. I cannot bid you believe that I do
+not--love you."
+
+"Not more tenderly or truly than I love you."
+
+"Nay, Harry, your love to me can be neither true nor tender,--nor
+will I permit it to be offered to me. You do not think I would rob
+that girl of what is hers. Mine for you may be both tender and true;
+but, alas, truth has come to me when it can avail me no longer."
+
+"Julia, if you will say that you love me, it shall avail you."
+
+"In saying that, you are continuing to ill-treat me. Listen to me
+now. I hardly know when it began, for, at first, I did not expect
+that you would forgive me and let me be dear to you as I used to be;
+but as you sat here, looking up into my face in the old way, it came
+on me gradually,--the feeling that it might be so; and I told myself
+that if you would take me I might be of service to you, and I thought
+that I might forgive myself at last for possessing this money if I
+could throw it into your lap, so that you might thrive with it in
+the world; and I said to myself that it might be well to wait awhile,
+till I should see whether you really loved me; but then came that
+burst of passion, and though I knew that you were wrong, I was
+proud to feel that I was still so dear to you. It is all over. We
+understand each other at last, and you may go. There is nothing to be
+forgiven between us."
+
+He had now resolved that Florence must go by the board. If Julia
+would still take him she should be his wife, and he would face
+Florence and all the Burtons, and his own family, and all the world
+in the matter of his treachery. What would he care what the world
+might say? His treachery to Florence was a thing completed. Now, at
+this moment, he felt himself to be so devoted to Julia as to make him
+regard his engagement to Florence as one which must, at all hazards,
+be renounced. He thought of his mother's sorrow, of his father's
+scorn,--of the dismay with which Fanny would hear concerning him
+a tale which she would believe to be so impossible; he thought of
+Theodore Burton, and the deep, unquenchable anger of which that
+brother was capable, and of Cecilia and her outraged kindness; he
+thought of the infamy which would be attached to him, and resolved
+that he must bear it all. Even if his own heart did not move him so
+to act, how could he hinder himself from giving comfort and happiness
+to this woman who was before him? Injury, wrong, and broken-hearted
+wretchedness, he could not prevent; but, therefore, this part was as
+open to him as the other. Men would say that he had done this for
+Lady Ongar's money; and the indignation with which he was able to
+regard this false accusation,--for his mind declared such accusation
+to be damnably false,--gave him some comfort. People might say of him
+what they pleased. He was about to do the best within his power. Bad,
+alas, was the best, but it was of no avail now to think of that.
+
+"Julia," he said, "between us at least there shall be nothing to be
+forgiven."
+
+"There is nothing," said she.
+
+"And there shall be no broken love. I am true to you now,--as ever."
+
+"And, what, then, of your truth to Miss Florence Burton?"
+
+"It will not be for you to rebuke me with that. We have, both of us,
+played our game badly, but not for that reason need we both be ruined
+and broken-hearted. In your folly you thought that wealth was better
+than love; and I, in my folly,--I thought that one love blighted
+might be mended by another. When I asked Miss Burton to be my wife
+you were the wife of another man. Now that you are free again I
+cannot marry Miss Burton."
+
+"You must marry her, Harry."
+
+"There shall be no must in such a case. You do not know her, and
+cannot understand how good, how perfect she is. She is too good to
+take a hand without a heart."
+
+"And what would men say of you?"
+
+"I must bear what men say. I do not suppose that I shall be all
+happy,--not even with your love. When things have once gone wrong
+they cannot be mended without showing the patches. But yet men stay
+the hand of ruin for a while, tinkering here and putting in a nail
+there, stitching and cobbling; and so things are kept together. It
+must be so for you and me. Give me your hand, Julia, for I have never
+deceived you, and you need not fear that I shall do so now. Give me
+your hand, and say that you will be my wife."
+
+"No, Harry; not your wife. I do not, as you say, know that perfect
+girl, but I will not rob one that is so good."
+
+"You are bound to me, Julia. You must do as I bid you. You have told
+me that you love me; and I have told you,--and I tell you now, that I
+love none other as I love you;--have never loved any other as I have
+loved you. Give me your hand." Then, coming to her, he took her hand,
+while she sat with her face averted from him. "Tell me that you will
+be my wife." But she would not say the words. She was less selfish
+than he, and was thinking,--was trying to think what might be best
+for them all, but, above all, what might be best for him. "Speak to
+me," he said, "and acknowledge that you wronged me when you thought
+that the expression of my love was an insult to you."
+
+"It is easy to say, speak. What shall I say?"
+
+"Say that you will be my wife."
+
+"No,--I will not say it." She rose again from her chair, and took
+her hand away from him. "I will not say it. Go now and think over
+all that you have done; and I also will think of it. God help me.
+What evil comes, when evil has been done! But, Harry, I understand
+you now, and I at least will blame you no more. Go and see Florence
+Burton; and if, when you see her, you find that you can love her,
+take her to your heart, and be true to her. You shall never hear
+another reproach from me. Go now, go; there is nothing more to be
+said."
+
+He paused a moment as though he were going to speak, but he left the
+room without another word. As he went along the passage and turned on
+the stairs he saw her standing at the door of the room, looking at
+him, and it seemed that her eyes were imploring him to be true to her
+in spite of the words that she had spoken. "And I will be true to
+her," he said to himself. "She was the first that I ever loved, and I
+will be true to her."
+
+He went out, and for an hour or two wandered about the town, hardly
+knowing whither his steps were taking him. There had been a tragic
+seriousness in what had occurred to him this evening, which seemed to
+cover him with care, and make him feel that his youth was gone from
+him. At any former period of his life his ears would have tingled
+with pride to hear such a woman as Lady Ongar speak of her love for
+him in such terms as she had used; but there was no room now for
+pride in his bosom. Now at least he thought nothing of her wealth or
+rank. He thought of her as a woman between whom and himself there
+existed so strong a passion as to make it impossible that he should
+marry another, even though his duty plainly required it. The grace
+and graciousness of his life were over; but love still remained to
+him, and of that he must make the most. All others whom he regarded
+would revile him, and now he must live for this woman alone. She had
+said that she had injured him. Yes, indeed, she had injured him! She
+had robbed him of his high character, of his unclouded brow, of that
+self-pride which had so often told him that he was living a life
+without reproach among men. She had brought him to a state in which
+misery must be his bedfellow, and disgrace his companion;--but still
+she loved him, and to that love he would be true.
+
+And as to Florence Burton;--how was he to settle matters with her?
+That letter for which he had been preparing the words as he went to
+Bolton Street, before the necessity for it had become irrevocable,
+did not now appear to him to be very easy. At any rate he did not
+attempt it on that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE MAN WHO DUSTED HIS BOOTS WITH HIS HANDKERCHIEF.
+
+
+When Florence Burton had written three letters to Harry without
+receiving a word in reply to either of them, she began to be
+seriously unhappy. The last of these letters, received by him after
+the scene described in the last chapter, he had been afraid to read.
+It still remained unopened in his pocket. But Florence, though she
+was unhappy, was not even yet jealous. Her fears did not lie in that
+direction, nor had she naturally any tendency to such uneasiness.
+He was ill, she thought; or if not ill in health, then ill at ease.
+Some trouble afflicted him of which he could not bring himself to
+tell her the facts, and as she thought of this she remembered her own
+stubbornness on the subject of their marriage, and blamed herself in
+that she was not now with him, to comfort him. If such comfort would
+avail him anything now, she would be stubborn no longer. When the
+third letter brought no reply she wrote to her sister-in-law, Mrs.
+Burton, confessing her uneasiness, and begging for comfort. Surely
+Cecilia could not but see him occasionally,--or at any rate have the
+power of seeing him. Or Theodore might do so,--as of course he would
+be at the office. If anything ailed him would Cecilia tell her all
+the truth? But Cecilia, when she began to fear that something did ail
+him, did not find it very easy to tell Florence all the truth.
+
+But there was jealousy at Stratton, though Florence was not jealous.
+Old Mrs. Burton had become alarmed, and was ready to tear the eyes
+out of Harry Clavering's head if Harry should be false to her
+daughter. This was a misfortune of which, with all her brood, Mrs.
+Burton had as yet known nothing. No daughter of hers had been misused
+by any man, and no son of hers had ever misused any one's daughter.
+Her children had gone out into the world steadily, prudently, making
+no brilliant marriages, but never falling into any mistakes. She
+heard of such misfortunes around her,--that a young lady here had
+loved in vain, and that a young lady there had been left to wear the
+willow; but such sorrows had never visited her roof, and she was
+disposed to think,--and perhaps to say,--that the fault lay chiefly
+in the imprudence of mothers. What if at last, when her work in this
+line had been so nearly brought to a successful close, misery and
+disappointment should come also upon her lamb! In such case Mrs.
+Burton, we may say, was a ewe who would not see her lamb suffer
+without many bleatings and considerable exercise of her maternal
+energies.
+
+And tidings had come to Mrs. Burton which had not as yet been allowed
+to reach Florence's ears. In the office at the Adelphi was one Mr.
+Walliker, who had a younger brother now occupying that desk in Mr.
+Burton's office which had belonged to Harry Clavering. Through
+Bob Walliker, Mrs. Burton learned that Harry did not come to the
+office even when it was known that he had returned to London from
+Clavering;--and she also learned at last that the young men in the
+office were connecting Harry Clavering's name with that of the rich
+and noble widow, Lady Ongar. Then Mrs. Burton wrote to her son
+Theodore, as Florence had written to Theodore's wife.
+
+Mrs. Burton, though she had loved Harry dearly, and had perhaps in
+many respects liked him better than any of her sons-in-law, had,
+nevertheless, felt some misgivings from the first. Florence was
+brighter, better educated, and cleverer than her elder sisters, and
+therefore when it had come to pass that she was asked in marriage
+by a man somewhat higher in rank and softer in manners than they
+who had married her sisters, there had seemed to be some reason
+for the change;--but Mrs. Burton had felt that it was a ground for
+apprehension. High rank and soft manners may not always belong to a
+true heart. At first she was unwilling to hint this caution even to
+herself; but at last, as her suspicions grew, she spoke the words
+very frequently, not only to herself but also to her husband. Why,
+oh why, had she let into her house any man differing in mode of life
+from those whom she had known to be honest and good? How would her
+gray hairs be made to go in sorrow to the grave, if, after all her
+old prudence and all her old success, her last pet lamb should be
+returned to the mother's side, ill-used, maimed, and blighted!
+
+Theodore Burton, when he received his mother's letter, had not seen
+Harry since his return from Clavering. He had been inclined to be
+very angry with him for his long and unannounced absence from the
+office. "He will do no good," he had said to his wife. "He does
+not know what real work means." But his anger turned to disgust as
+regarded Harry, and almost to despair as regarded his sister, when
+Harry had been a week in town and yet had not shown himself at the
+Adelphi. But at this time Theodore Burton had heard no word of Lady
+Ongar, though the clerks in the office had that name daily in their
+mouths. "Cannot you go to him, Theodore?" said his wife. "It is
+very easy to say go to him," he replied. "If I made it my business
+I could, of course, go to him, and no doubt find him if I was
+determined to do so;--but what more could I do? I can lead a horse to
+the water, but I cannot make him drink." "You could speak to him of
+Florence." "That is such a woman's idea," said the husband. "When
+every proper incentive to duty and ambition has failed him, he is to
+be brought into the right way by the mention of a girl's name!" "May
+I see him?" Cecilia urged. "Yes,--if you can catch him; but I do not
+advise you to try."
+
+After that came the two letters for the husband and wife, each of
+which was shown to the other; and then for the first time did either
+of them receive the idea that Lady Ongar with her fortune might be a
+cause of misery to their sister. "I don't believe a word of it," said
+Cecilia, whose cheeks were burning, half with shame and half with
+anger. Harry had been such a pet with her,--had already been taken
+so closely to her heart as a brother! "I should not have suspected
+him of that kind of baseness," said Theodore, very slowly. "He is
+not base," said Cecilia. "He may be idle and foolish, but he is not
+base."
+
+"I must at any rate go after him now," said Theodore. "I don't
+believe this;--I won't believe it. I do not believe it. But if it
+should be true--!"
+
+"Oh, Theodore."
+
+"I do not think it is true. It is not the kind of weakness I have
+seen in him. He is weak and vain, but I should have said that he was
+true."
+
+"I am sure he is true."
+
+"I think so. I cannot say more than that I think so."
+
+"You will write to your mother?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And may I ask Florence to come up? Is it not always better that
+people should be near to each other when they are engaged?"
+
+"You can ask her, if you like. I doubt whether she will come."
+
+"She will come if she thinks that anything is amiss with him."
+
+Cecilia wrote immediately to Florence, pressing her invitation in the
+strongest terms that she could use. "I tell you the whole truth," she
+said. "We have not seen him, and this, of course, has troubled us
+very greatly. I feel quite sure he would come to us if you were here;
+and this, I think, should bring you, if no other consideration does
+so. Theodore imagines that he has become simply idle, and that he
+is ashamed to show himself here because of that. It may be that he
+has some trouble with reference to his own home, of which we know
+nothing. But if he has any such trouble, you ought to be made aware
+of it, and I feel sure that he would tell you if you were here." Much
+more she said, arguing in the same way, and pressing Florence to come
+to London.
+
+Mr. Burton did not at once send a reply to his mother, but he wrote
+the following note to Harry:--
+
+
+   Adelphi ----, May, 186--.
+
+   MY DEAR CLAVERING,--I have been sorry to notice your
+   continued absence from the office, and both Cecilia and I
+   have been very sorry that you have discontinued coming to
+   us. But I should not have written to you on this matter,
+   not wishing to interfere in your own concerns, had I not
+   desired to see you specially with reference to my sister.
+   As I have that to say to you concerning her which I can
+   hardly write, will you make an appointment with me here,
+   or at my house? Or, if you cannot do that, will you say
+   when I shall find you at home? If you will come and dine
+   with us we shall like that best, and leave you to name an
+   early day: to-morrow, or the next day, or the day after.
+
+   Very truly yours,
+
+   THEODORE BURTON.
+
+
+When Cecilia's letter reached Stratton, and another post came
+without any letter from Harry, poor Florence's heart sank low in her
+bosom. "Well, my dear," said Mrs. Burton, who watched her daughter
+anxiously while she was reading the letter. Mrs. Burton had not
+told Florence of her own letter to her son; and now, having herself
+received no answer, looked to obtain some reply from that which her
+daughter-in-law had sent.
+
+"Cecilia wants me to go to London," said Florence.
+
+"Is there anything the matter that you should go just now?"
+
+"Not exactly the matter, mamma; but you can see the letter."
+
+Mrs. Burton read it slowly, and felt sure that much was the matter.
+She knew that Cecilia would have written in that strain only under
+the influence of some great alarm. At first she was disposed to
+think that she herself would go to London. She was eager to know the
+truth,--eager to utter her loud maternal bleatings if any wrong were
+threatened to her lamb. Florence might go with her, but she longed
+herself to be on the field of action. She felt that she could almost
+annihilate any man by her words and looks who would dare to ill-treat
+a girl of hers.
+
+"Well, mamma;--what do you think?"
+
+"I don't know yet, my dear. I will speak to your papa before dinner."
+But as Mrs. Burton had been usually autocratic in the management of
+her own daughters, Florence was aware that her mother simply required
+a little time before she made up her mind. "It is not that I want to
+go to London--for the pleasure of it, mamma."
+
+"I know that, my dear."
+
+"Nor yet merely to see him!--though of course I do long to see him!"
+
+"Of course you do;--why shouldn't you?"
+
+"But Cecilia is so very prudent, and she thinks that it will be
+better. And she would not have pressed it, unless Theodore had
+thought so too!"
+
+"I thought Theodore would have written to me!"
+
+"But he writes so seldom."
+
+"I expected a letter from him now, as I had written to him."
+
+"About Harry, do you mean?"
+
+"Well;--yes. I did not mention it, as I was aware I might make you
+uneasy. But I saw that you were unhappy at not hearing from him."
+
+"Oh, mamma, do let me go."
+
+"Of course you shall go if you wish it;--but let me speak to papa
+before anything is quite decided."
+
+Mrs. Burton did speak to her husband, and it was arranged that
+Florence should go up to Onslow Crescent. But Mrs. Burton, though
+she had been always autocratic about her unmarried daughters, had
+never been autocratic about herself. When she hinted that she also
+might go, she saw that the scheme was not approved, and she at once
+abandoned it. "It would look as if we were all afraid," said Mr.
+Burton, "and after all what does it come to?--a young gentleman does
+not write to his sweetheart for two or three weeks. I used to think
+myself the best lover in the world if I wrote once a month."
+
+"There was no penny post then, Mr. Burton."
+
+"And I often wish there was none now," said Mr. Burton. That matter
+was therefore decided, and Florence wrote back to her sister-in-law,
+saying that she would go up to London on the third day from that. In
+the meantime, Harry Clavering and Theodore Burton had met.
+
+Has it ever been the lot of any unmarried male reader of these pages
+to pass three or four days in London, without anything to do,--to
+have to get through them by himself,--and to have that burden on
+his shoulder, with the additional burden of some terrible, wearing
+misery, away from which there seems to be no road, and out of which
+there is apparently no escape? That was Harry Clavering's condition
+for some few days after the evening which he last passed in the
+company of Lady Ongar,--and I will ask any such unmarried man
+whether, in such a plight, there was for him any other alternative
+but to wish himself dead? In such a condition, a man can simply walk
+the streets by himself, and declare to himself that everything is
+bad, and rotten, and vile, and worthless. He wishes himself dead, and
+calculates the different advantages of prussic acid and pistols. He
+may the while take his meals very punctually at his club, may smoke
+his cigars, and drink his bitter beer, or brandy-and-water;--but he
+is all the time wishing himself dead, and making that calculation as
+to the best way of achieving that desirable result. Such was Harry
+Clavering's condition now. As for his office, the doors of that place
+were absolutely closed against him, by the presence of Theodore
+Burton. When he attempted to read he could not understand a word,
+or sit for ten minutes with a book in his hand. No occupation was
+possible to him. He longed to go again to Bolton Street, but he did
+not even do that. If there, he could act only as though Florence had
+been deserted for ever;--and if he so acted he would be infamous for
+life. And yet he had sworn to Julia that such was his intention. He
+hardly dared to ask himself which of the two he loved. The misery of
+it all had become so heavy upon him, that he could take no pleasure
+in the thought of his love. It must always be all regret, all sorrow,
+and all remorse. Then there came upon him the letter from Theodore
+Burton, and he knew that it was necessary that he should see the
+writer.
+
+Nothing could be more disagreeable than such an interview, but he
+could not allow himself to be guilty of the cowardice of declining
+it. Of a personal quarrel with Burton he was not afraid. He felt,
+indeed, that he might almost find relief in the capability of being
+himself angry with any one. But he must positively make up his mind
+before such an interview. He must devote himself either to Florence
+or to Julia;--and he did not know how to abandon the one or the
+other. He had allowed himself to be so governed by impulse that he
+had pledged himself to Lady Ongar, and had sworn to her that he would
+be entirely hers. She, it is true, had not taken him altogether
+at his word, but not the less did he know,--did he think that he
+knew,--that she looked for the performance of his promise. And she
+had been the first that he had sworn to love!
+
+In his dilemma he did at last go to Bolton Street, and there found
+that Lady Ongar had left town for three or four days. The servant
+said that she had gone, he believed, to the Isle of Wight; and that
+Madame Gordeloup had gone with her. She was to be back in town early
+in the following week. This was on a Thursday, and he was aware that
+he could not postpone his interview with Burton till after Julia's
+return. So he went to his club, and nailing himself as it were to
+the writing-table, made an appointment for the following morning. He
+would be with Burton at the Adelphi at twelve o'clock. He had been
+in trouble, he said, and that trouble had kept him from the office
+and from Onslow Crescent. Having written this, he sent it off, and
+then played billiards and smoked and dined, played more billiards
+and smoked and drank till the usual hours of the night had come.
+He was not a man who liked such things. He had not become what he
+was by passing his earlier years after this fashion. But his misery
+required excitement,--and billiards with tobacco were better than the
+desolation of solitude.
+
+On the following morning he did not breakfast till near eleven. Why
+should he get up as long as it was possible to obtain the relief
+which was to be had from dozing? As far as possible he would not
+think of the matter till he had put his hat upon his head to go
+to the Adelphi. But the time for taking his hat soon came; and he
+started on his short journey. But even as he walked, he could not
+think of it. He was purposeless, as a ship without a rudder, telling
+himself that he could only go as the winds might direct him. How
+he did hate himself for his one weakness! And yet he hardly made
+an effort to overcome it. On one point only did he seem to have a
+resolve. If Burton attempted to use with him anything like a threat
+he would instantly resent it.
+
+Punctually at twelve he walked into the outer office, and was told
+that Mr. Burton was in his room.
+
+"Halloa, Clavering," said Walliker, who was standing with his back to
+the fire, "I thought we had lost you for good and all. And here you
+are come back again!"
+
+Harry had always disliked this man, and now hated him worse than
+ever. "Yes; I am here," said he, "for a few minutes; but I believe
+I need not trouble you."
+
+"All right, old fellow," said Walliker; and then Harry passed through
+into the inner room.
+
+"I am very glad to see you, Harry," said Burton, rising and giving
+his hand cordially to Clavering. "And I am sorry to hear that you
+have been in trouble. Is it anything in which we can help you?"
+
+"I hope,--Mrs. Burton is well," said Harry, hesitating.
+
+"Pretty well."
+
+"And the children?"
+
+"Quite well. They say you are a very bad fellow not to go and see
+them."
+
+"I believe I am a bad fellow," said Harry.
+
+"Sit down, Harry. It will be best to come at the point at once;--will
+it not? Is there anything wrong between you and Florence?"
+
+"What do you mean by wrong?"
+
+"I should call it very wrong,--hideously wrong, if after all that
+has passed between you, there should now be any doubt as to your
+affection for each other. If such doubt were now to arise with her,
+I should almost disown my sister."
+
+"You will never have to blush for her."
+
+"I think not. I thank God that hitherto there have been no such
+blushes among us. And I hope, Harry, that my heart may never have
+to bleed for her. Come, Harry, let me tell you all at once like an
+honest man. I hate subterfuges and secrets. A report has reached the
+old people at home,--not Florence, mind,--that you are untrue to
+Florence, and are passing your time with that lady who is the sister
+of your cousin's wife."
+
+"What right have they to ask how I pass my time?"
+
+"Do not be unjust, Harry. If you simply tell me that your visits
+to that lady imply no evil to my sister, I, knowing you to be
+a gentleman, will take your word for all that it can mean." He
+paused, and Harry hesitated and could not answer. "Nay, dear
+friend,--brother, as we both of us have thought you,--come once more
+to Onslow Crescent and kiss the bairns, and kiss Cecilia, too, and
+sit with us at our table, and talk as you used to do, and I will ask
+no further question;--nor will she. Then you will come back here to
+your work, and your trouble will be gone, and your mind will be at
+ease; and, Harry, one of the best girls that ever gave her heart into
+a man's keeping will be there to worship you, and to swear when your
+back is turned that any one who says a word against you shall be no
+brother and no sister and no friend of hers."
+
+And this was the man who had dusted his boots with his
+pocket-handkerchief, and whom Harry had regarded as being on that
+account hardly fit to be his friend! He knew that the man was noble,
+and good, and generous, and true;--and knew also that in all that
+Burton said he simply did his duty as a brother. But not on that
+account was it the easier for him to reply.
+
+"Say that you will come to us this evening," said Burton. "Even if
+you have an engagement, put it off."
+
+"I have none," said Harry.
+
+"Then say that you will come to us, and all will be well."
+
+Harry understood of course that his compliance with this invitation
+would be taken as implying that all was right. It would be so easy to
+accept the invitation, and any other answer was so difficult! But yet
+he would not bring himself to tell the lie.
+
+"Burton," he said, "I am in trouble."
+
+"What is the trouble?" The man's voice was now changed, and so was
+the glance of his eye. There was no expression of anger,--none as
+yet; but the sweetness of his countenance was gone,--a sweetness that
+was unusual to him, but which still was at his command when he needed
+it.
+
+"I cannot tell you all here. If you will let me come to you this
+evening I will tell you everything,--to you and to Cecilia too. Will
+you let me come?"
+
+"Certainly. Will you dine with us?"
+
+"No;--after dinner; when the children are in bed." Then he went,
+leaving on the mind of Theodore Burton an impression that though
+something was much amiss, his mother had been wrong in her fears
+respecting Lady Ongar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+FRESHWATER GATE.
+
+
+Count Pateroff, Sophie's brother, was a man who, when he had taken a
+thing in hand, generally liked to carry it through. It may perhaps
+be said that most men are of this turn of mind; but the count was,
+I think, especially eager in this respect. And as he was not one who
+had many irons in the fire, who made either many little efforts, or
+any great efforts after things altogether beyond his reach, he was
+justified in expecting success. As to Archie's courtship, any one
+who really knew the man and the woman, and who knew anything of the
+nature of women in general, would have predicted failure for him.
+Even with Doodle's aid he could not have a chance in the race. But
+when Count Pateroff entered himself for the same prize, those who
+knew him would not speak of his failure as a thing certain.
+
+The prize was too great not to be attempted by so very prudent a
+gentleman. He was less impulsive in his nature than his sister, and
+did not open his eyes and talk with watering mouth of the seven
+thousands of pounds a year; but in his quiet way he had weighed and
+calculated all the advantages to be gained, had even ascertained at
+what rate he could insure the lady's life, and had made himself
+certain that nothing in the deed of Lord Ongar's marriage-settlement
+entailed any pecuniary penalty on his widow's second marriage. Then
+he had gone down, as we know, to Ongar Park, and as he had walked
+from the lodge to the house and back again, he had looked around him
+complacently, and told himself that the place would do very well.
+For the English character, in spite of the pigheadedness of many
+Englishmen, he had,--as he would have said himself,--much admiration,
+and he thought that the life of a country gentleman, with a nice
+place of his own,--with such a very nice place of his own as was
+Ongar Park,--and so very nice an income, would suit him well in his
+declining years.
+
+And he had certain advantages, certain aids towards his object, which
+had come to him from circumstances;--as, indeed, he had also certain
+disadvantages. He knew the lady, which was in itself much. He knew
+much of the lady's history, and had that cognisance of the saddest
+circumstances of her life, which in itself creates an intimacy. It is
+not necessary now to go back to those scenes which had disfigured the
+last months of Lord Ongar's life, but the reader will understand that
+what had then occurred gave the count a possible footing as a suitor.
+And the reader will also understand the disadvantages which had at
+this time already shown themselves in the lady's refusal to see the
+count.
+
+It may be thought that Sophie's standing with Lady Ongar would be
+a great advantage to her brother; but I doubt whether the brother
+trusted either the honesty or the discretion of his sister. He
+would have been willing to purchase such assistance as she might
+give,--not in Archie's pleasant way, with bank-notes hidden under his
+glove,--but by acknowledgments for services to be turned into solid
+remuneration when the marriage should have taken place, had he not
+feared that Sophie might communicate the fact of such acknowledgments
+to the other lady,--making her own bargain in doing so. He had
+calculated all this, and had come to the conclusion that he had
+better make no direct proposal to Sophie; and when Sophie made a
+direct proposal to him, pointing out to him in glowing language all
+the fine things which such a marriage would give him, he had hardly
+vouchsafed to her a word of answer. "Very well," said Sophie to
+herself;--"very well. Then we both know what we are about."
+
+Sophie herself would have kept Lady Ongar from marrying any one had
+she been able. Not even a brother's gratitude would be so serviceable
+to her as the generous kindness of a devoted friend. That she might
+be able both to sell her services to a lover, and also to keep Julie
+from marrying, was a lucky combination of circumstances which did
+not occur to her till Archie came to her with the money in his glove.
+That complicated game she was now playing, and was aware that Harry
+Clavering was the great stumbling-block in her way. A woman even less
+clever than Sophie would have perceived that Lady Ongar was violently
+attached to Harry; and Sophie, when she did see it, thought that
+there was nothing left for her but to make her hay while the sun was
+yet shining. Then she heard the story of Florence Burton; and again
+she thought that Fortune was on her side. She told the story of
+Florence Burton,--with what result we know; and was quite sharp
+enough to perceive afterwards that the tale had had its intended
+effect,--even though her Julie had resolutely declined to speak
+either of Harry Clavering or of Florence Burton.
+
+Count Pateroff had again called in Bolton Street, and had again been
+refused admittance. It was plain to him to see by the servant's
+manner that it was intended that he should understand that he was
+not to be admitted. Under such circumstances, it was necessary that
+he must either abandon his pursuit, or that he must operate upon
+Lady Ongar through some other feeling than her personal regard for
+himself. He might, perhaps, have trusted much to his own eloquence if
+he could have seen her; but how is a man to be eloquent in his wooing
+if he cannot see the lady whom he covets? There is, indeed, the penny
+post, but in these days of legal restraints, there is no other method
+of approaching an unwilling beauty. Forcible abduction is put an end
+to as regards Great Britain and Ireland. So the count had resort to
+the post.
+
+His letter was very long, and shall not, therefore, be given to the
+reader. He began by telling Lady Ongar that she owed it to him for
+the good services he had done her, to read what he might say, and to
+answer him. He then gave her various reasons why she should see him,
+pleading, among other things, in language which she could understand,
+though the words were purposely as ambiguous as they could be made,
+that he had possessed and did possess the power of doing her a
+grievous injury, and that he had abstained, and--hoped that he might
+be able to abstain for the future. She knew that the words contained
+no threat,--that taken literally they were the reverse of a threat,
+and amounted to a promise,--but she understood also all that he had
+intended to imply. Long as his own letter was, he said nothing in it
+as to his suit, confining himself to a request that she should see
+him. But with his letter he sent her an enclosure longer than the
+letter itself, in which his wishes were clearly explained.
+
+This enclosure purported to be an expression of Lord Ongar's wishes
+on many subjects, as they had been communicated to Count Pateroff
+in the latter days of the lord's life; but as the manuscript was
+altogether in the count's writing, and did not even pretend to
+have been subjected to Lord Ongar's eye, it simply amounted to the
+count's own story of their alleged conversations. There might have
+been no such conversations, or their tenour might have been very
+different from that which the count represented, or the statements
+and opinions, if expressed at all by Lord Ongar, might have been
+expressed at times when no statements or opinions coming from him
+could be of any value. But as to these conversations, if they could
+have been verified as having come from Lord Ongar's mouth when he was
+in full possession of such faculties as he possessed,--all that would
+have amounted to nothing with Lady Ongar. To Lord Ongar alive she had
+owed obedience, and had been obedient. To Lord Ongar dead she owed no
+obedience, and would not be obedient.
+
+Such would have been her feelings as to any document which could have
+reached her, purporting to contain Lord Ongar's wishes; but this
+document was of a nature which made her specially antagonistic to the
+exercise of any such marital authority from the grave. It was very
+long, and went into small details,--details which were very small;
+but the upshot of it all was a tendering of great thanks to Count
+Pateroff, and the expression of a strong wish that the count should
+marry his widow. "O. said that this would be the only thing for J.'s
+name." "O. said that this would be the safest course for his own
+honour." "O. said, as he took my hand, that in promising to take this
+step I gave him great comfort." "O. commissioned me to speak to J. in
+his name to this effect." The O. was of course Lord Ongar, and the J.
+was of course Julia. It was all in French, and went on in the same
+strain for many pages. Lady Ongar answered the letter as follows:--
+
+
+   Lady Ongar presents her compliments to Count Pateroff, and
+   begs to return the enclosed manuscript, which is, to her,
+   perfectly valueless. Lady Ongar must still decline, and
+   now more strongly than before, to receive Count Pateroff.
+
+   Bolton Street, May 186--.
+
+
+She was quite firm as she did this. She had no doubt at all on the
+matter. She did not feel that she wanted to ask for any advice. But
+she did feel that this count might still work her additional woe,
+that her cup of sorrow might not even yet be full, and that she was
+sadly,--sadly in want of love and protection. For aught she knew, the
+count might publish the whole statement, and people might believe
+that those words came from her husband, and that her husband had
+understood what would be best for her fame and for his honour. The
+whole thing was a threat, and not to save herself from any misery,
+would she have succumbed to a menace; but still it was possible that
+the threat might be carried out.
+
+She was sorely in want of love and protection. At this time, when the
+count's letter reached her, Harry had been with her; and we know what
+had passed between them. She had bid him go to Florence,--and love
+Florence,--and marry Florence,--and leave her in her desolation. That
+had been her last command to him. But we all know what such commands
+mean. She had not been false in giving him these orders. She had
+intended it at the moment. The glow of self-sacrifice had been warm
+in her bosom,--and she had resolved to do without that which she
+wanted in order that another might have it. But when she thought
+of it afterwards in her loneliness, she told herself that Florence
+Burton could not want Harry's love as she wanted it. There could
+not be such need to this girl, who possessed father and mother, and
+brothers, and youth, as there was to her, who had no other arm on
+which she could lean, besides that of the one man for whom she had
+acknowledged her love, and who had also declared his passion for her.
+She made no scheme to deprive Florence of her lover. In the long
+hours of her own solitude she never revoked, even within her own
+bosom, the last words she had said to Harry Clavering. But not the
+less did she hope that he might come to her again, and that she
+might learn from him that he had freed himself from that unfortunate
+engagement into which her falseness to him had driven him.
+
+It was after she had answered Count Pateroff's letter that she
+resolved to go out of town for three or four days. For some short
+time she had been minded to go away altogether, and not to return
+till after the autumn; but this scheme gradually diminished itself
+and fell away, till she determined that she would come back
+after three or four days. Then came to her Sophie,--her devoted
+Sophie,--Sophie whom she despised and hated; Sophie of whom she was
+so anxious to rid herself that in all her plans there was some little
+under-plot to that effect; Sophie whom she knew to be dishonest to
+her in any way that might make dishonesty profitable; and before
+Sophie had left her, Sophie had engaged herself to go with her dear
+friend to the Isle of Wight! As a matter of course, Sophie was to
+be franked on this expedition. On such expeditions Sophies are
+always franked as a matter of course. And Sophie would travel with
+all imaginable luxury,--a matter to which Sophie was by no means
+indifferent, though her own private life was conducted with an
+economy that was not luxurious. But, although all these good things
+came in Sophie's way, she contrived to make it appear that she was
+devoting herself in a manner that was almost sacrificial to the
+friend of her bosom. At the same time Lady Ongar sent a few words,
+as a message, to the count by his sister. Lady Ongar, having told to
+Madame Gordeloup the story of the document which had reached her, and
+having described her own answer, was much commended by her friend.
+
+"You are quite right, dear, quite. Of course I am fond of my brother.
+Edouard and I have always been the best of friends. But that does not
+make me think you ought to give yourself to him. Bah! Why should a
+woman give away everything? Edouard is a fine fellow. But what is
+that? Fine fellows like to have all the money themselves."
+
+"Will you tell him,--from me," said Lady Ongar, "that I will take it
+as a kindness on his part if he will abstain from coming to my house.
+I certainly shall not see him with my own consent."
+
+Sophie promised,--and probably gave the message; but when she also
+informed Edouard of Lady Ongar's intended visit to the Isle of Wight,
+telling him the day on which they were going and the precise spot,
+with the name of the hotel at which they were to stay, she went a
+little beyond the commission which her dearest friend had given her.
+
+At the western end of the Isle of Wight, and on the further shore,
+about three miles from the point of the island which we call
+the Needles, there is a little break in the cliff, known to all
+stay-at-home English travellers as Freshwater Gate. Here there is a
+cluster of cottages and two inns, and a few bathing-boxes, and ready
+access by easy ascents to the breezy downs on either side, over which
+the sea air blows with all its salt and wholesome sweetness. At one
+of these two inns Lady Ongar located herself and Sophie; and all
+Freshwater, and all Yarmouth, and all that end of the island were
+alive to the fact that the rich widowed countess respecting whom
+such strange tales were told, had come on a visit to these parts.
+Innkeepers like such visitors. The more venomous are the stories told
+against them, the more money are they apt to spend, and the less
+likely are they to examine their bills. A rich woman altogether
+without a character is a mine of wealth to an innkeeper. In the
+present case no such godsend had come in the way,--but there was
+supposed to be a something a little odd, and the visitor was on that
+account the more welcome.
+
+Sophie was not the most delightful companion in the world for such
+a place. London was her sphere, as she herself had understood when
+declaiming against those husbands who keep their wives in the
+country. And she had no love for the sea specially, regarding all
+winds as nuisances excepting such as had been raised by her own
+efforts, and thinking that salt from a saltcellar was more convenient
+than that brought to her on the breezes. It was now near the end of
+May, but she had not been half an hour at the inn before she was loud
+in demanding a fire,--and when the fire came she was unwilling to
+leave it. Her gesture was magnificent when Lady Ongar proposed to
+her that she should bathe. What,--put her own dear little dry body,
+by her own will, into the cold sea! She shrugged herself, and shook
+herself, and without speaking a word declined with so much eloquence
+that it was impossible not to admire her. Nor would she walk. On the
+first day, during the warmest part of the day, she allowed herself to
+be taken out in a carriage belonging to the inn; but after her drive
+she clung to the fire, and consumed her time with a French novel.
+
+Nor was Lady Ongar much more comfortable in the Isle of Wight than
+she had been in London. The old poet told us how Black Care sits
+behind the horseman, and some modern poet will some day describe to
+us that terrible goddess as she takes her place with the stoker close
+to the fire of the locomotive engine. Sitting with Sophie opposite
+to her, Lady Ongar was not happy, even though her eye rested on the
+lines of that magnificent coast. Once indeed, on the evening of their
+first day, Sophie left her, and she was alone for nearly an hour.
+Ah, how happy could she have been if Harry Clavering might have been
+there with her. Perhaps a day might come in which Harry might bring
+her there. In such a case Atra Cura would be left behind, and then
+she might be altogether happy. She sat dreaming of this for above an
+hour, and Sophie was still away. When Sophie returned, which she did
+all too soon, she explained that she had been in her bedroom. She had
+been very busy, and now had come down to make herself comfortable.
+
+On the next evening Lady Ongar declared her intention of going up
+on the downs by herself. They had dined at five, so that she might
+have a long evening, and soon after six she started. "If I do not
+break down I will get as far as the Needles," she said. Sophie, who
+had heard that the distance was three miles, lifted up her hands in
+despair. "If you are not back before nine I shall send the people
+after you." Consenting to this with a laugh, Lady Ongar made her way
+up to the downs, and walked steadily on towards the extreme point of
+the island. To the Needles themselves she did not make her way. These
+rocks are now approached, as all the stay-at-home travellers know,
+through a fort, and down to the fort she did not go. But turning a
+little from the highest point of the hill towards the cliffs on her
+left hand, she descended till she reached a spot from which she could
+look down on the pebbly beach lying some three hundred feet below
+her, and on the soft shining ripple of the quiet waters as they
+moved themselves with a pleasant sound on the long strand which lay
+stretched in a line from the spot beneath her out to the point of
+the island. The evening was warm, and almost transparent in its
+clearness, and very quiet. There was no sound even of a breeze. When
+she seated herself close upon the margin of the cliff, she heard the
+small waves moving the stones which they washed, and the sound was
+as the sound of little children's voices, very distant. Looking
+down, she could see through the wonderful transparency of the water,
+and the pebbles below it were bright as diamonds, and the sands
+were burnished like gold. And each tiny silent wavelet as it moved
+up towards the shore and lost itself at last in its own effort,
+stretched itself the whole length of the strand. Such brightness on
+the sea-shore she had never seen before, nor had she ever listened as
+now she listened to that infantine babble of the baby waves. She sat
+there close upon the margin, on a seat of chalk which the winds had
+made, looking, listening, and forgetting for a while that she was
+Lady Ongar whom people did not know, who lived alone in the world
+with Sophie Gordeloup for her friend,--and whose lover was betrothed
+to another woman. She had been there perhaps half-an-hour, and had
+learned to be at home on her perch, sitting there in comfort, with no
+desire to move, when a voice which she well knew at the first sound
+startled her, and she rose quickly to her feet. "Lady Ongar," said
+the voice, "are you not rather near the edge?" As she turned round
+there was Count Pateroff with his hand already upon her dress, so
+that no danger might be produced by the suddenness of his speech.
+
+
+[Illustration: "Lady Ongar, are you not rather near the edge?"]
+
+
+"There is nothing to fear," she said, stepping back from her seat. As
+she did so, he dropped his hand from her dress, and, raising it to
+his head, lifted his hat from his forehead. "You will excuse me, I
+hope, Lady Ongar," he said, "for having taken this mode of speaking
+to you."
+
+"I certainly shall not excuse you; nor, further than I can help it,
+shall I listen to you."
+
+"There are a few words which I must say."
+
+"Count Pateroff, I beg that you will leave me. This is treacherous
+and unmanly,--and can do you no good. By what right do you follow me
+here?"
+
+"I follow you for your own good, Lady Ongar; I do it that you may
+hear me say a few words that are necessary for you to hear."
+
+"I will hear no words from you,--that is, none willingly. By this
+time you ought to know me and to understand me." She had begun to
+walk up the hill very rapidly, and for a moment or two he had thought
+that she would escape him; but her breath had soon failed her, and
+she found herself compelled to stand while he regained his place
+beside her. This he had not done without an effort, and for some
+minutes they were both silent. "It is very beautiful," at last he
+said, pointing away over the sea.
+
+"Yes;--it is very beautiful," she answered. "Why did you disturb me
+when I was so happy?" But the count was still recovering his breath,
+and made no answer to this question. When, however, she attempted to
+move on again, still breasting the hill, he put his hand upon her arm
+very gently.
+
+"Lady Ongar," he said, "you must listen to me for a moment. Why not
+do it without a quarrel?"
+
+"If you mean that I cannot escape from you, it is true enough."
+
+"Why should you want to escape? Did I ever hurt you? Before this have
+I not protected you from injury?"
+
+"No;--never. You protect me!"
+
+"Yes;--I; from your husband, from yourself, and from the world. You
+do not know,--not yet, all that I have done for you. Did you read
+what Lord Ongar had said?"
+
+"I read what it pleased you to write."
+
+"What it pleased me! Do you pretend to think that Lord Ongar did not
+speak as he speaks there? Do you not know that those were his own
+words? Do you not recognize them? Ah, yes, Lady Ongar; you know them
+to be true."
+
+"Their truth or falsehood is nothing to me. They are altogether
+indifferent to me either way."
+
+"That would be very well if it were possible; but it is not. There;
+now we are at the top, and it will be easier. Will you let me have
+the honour to offer you my arm? No! Be it so; but I think you would
+walk the easier. It would not be for the first time."
+
+"That is a falsehood." As she spoke she stepped before him, and
+looked into his face with eyes full of passion. "That is a positive
+falsehood. I never walked with a hand resting on your arm."
+
+There came over his face the pleasantest smile as he answered her.
+"You forget everything," he said;--"everything. But it does not
+matter. Other people will not forget. Julie, you had better take me
+for your husband. You will be better as my wife, and happier, than
+you can be otherwise."
+
+"Look down there, Count Pateroff;--down to the edge. If my misery is
+too great to be borne, I can escape from it there on better terms
+than you propose to me."
+
+"Ah! That is what we call poetry. Poetry is very pretty, and in
+saying this as you do, you make yourself divine. But to be dashed
+over the cliffs and broken on the rocks;--in prose it is not so
+well."
+
+"Sir, will you allow me to pass on while you remain; or will you let
+me rest here, while you return alone?"
+
+"No, Julie; not so. I have found you with too much difficulty. In
+London, you see, I could not find you. Here, for a minute, you must
+listen to me. Do you not know, Julie, that your character is in my
+hands?"
+
+"In your hands? No;--never; thank God, never. But what if it were?"
+
+"Only this,--that I am forced to play the only game that you leave
+open to me. Chance brought you and me together in such a way that
+nothing but marriage can be beneficial to either of us;--and I swore
+to Lord Ongar that it should be so. I mean that it shall be so,--or
+that you shall be punished for your misconduct to him and to me."
+
+"You are both insolent and false. But listen to me, since you are
+here and I cannot avoid you. I know what your threats mean."
+
+"I have never threatened you. I have promised you my aid, but have
+used no threats."
+
+"Not when you tell me that I shall be punished? But to avoid no
+punishment, if any be in your power, will I ever willingly place
+myself in your company. You may write of me what papers you please,
+and repeat of me whatever stories you may choose to fabricate, but
+you will not frighten me into compliance by doing so. I have, at any
+rate, spirit enough to resist such attempts as that."
+
+"As you are living at present, you are alone in the world!"
+
+"And I am content to remain alone."
+
+"You are thinking, then, of no second marriage?"
+
+"If I were, does that concern you? But I will speak no further word
+to you. If you follow me into the inn, or persecute me further by
+forcing yourself upon me, I will put myself under the protection of
+the police."
+
+Having said this, she walked on as quickly as her strength would
+permit, while he walked by her side, urging upon her his old
+arguments as to Lord Ongar's expressed wishes, as to his own efforts
+on her behalf,--and at last as to the strong affection with which he
+regarded her. But she kept her promise, and said not a word in answer
+to it all. For more than an hour they walked side by side, and during
+the greater part of that time not a syllable escaped from her.
+From moment to moment she kept her eye warily on him, fearing that
+he might take her by the arm, or attempt some violence with her.
+But he was too wise for this, and too fully conscious that no
+such proceeding on his part could be of any service to him. He
+continued, however, to speak to her words which she could not avoid
+hearing,--hoping rather than thinking that he might at last frighten
+her by a description of all the evil which it was within his power
+to do her. But in acting thus he showed that he knew nothing of her
+character. She was not a woman whom any prospect of evil could
+possibly frighten into a distasteful marriage.
+
+Within a few hundred yards of the hotel there is another fort, and at
+this point the path taken by Lady Ongar led into the private grounds
+of the inn at which she was staying. Here the count left her, raising
+his hat as he did so, and saying that he hoped to see her again
+before she left the island.
+
+"If you do so," said she, "it shall be in presence of those who can
+protect me." And so they parted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+WHAT CECILIA BURTON DID FOR HER SISTER-IN-LAW.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+As soon as Harry Clavering had made his promise to Mr. Burton, and
+had declared that he would be in Onslow Crescent that same evening,
+he went away from the offices at the Adelphi, feeling it to be quite
+impossible that he should recommence his work there at that moment,
+even should it ever be within his power to do so. Nor did Burton
+expect that he should stay. He understood, from what had passed, much
+of Harry's trouble, if not the whole of it; and though he did not
+despair on behalf of his sister, he was aware that her lover had
+fallen into a difficulty, from which he could not extricate himself
+without great suffering and much struggling. But Burton was a man
+who, in spite of something cynical on the surface of his character,
+believed well of mankind generally, and well also of men as
+individuals. Even though Harry had done amiss, he might be saved. And
+though Harry's conduct to Florence might have been bad, nay, might
+have been false, still, as Burton believed, he was too good to be
+cast aside, or spurned out of the way, without some further attempt
+to save him.
+
+When Clavering had left him Burton went back to his work, and after
+a while succeeded in riveting his mind on the papers before him. It
+was a hard struggle with him, but he did it, and did not leave his
+business till his usual hour. It was past five when he took down his
+hat and his umbrella, and, as I fear, dusted his boots before he
+passed out of the office on to the passage. As he went he gave sundry
+directions to porters and clerks, as was his wont, and then walked
+off intent upon his usual exercise before he should reach his home.
+
+But he had to determine on much with reference to Florence and
+Harry before he saw his wife. How was the meeting of the evening to
+take place, and in what way should it be commenced? If there were
+indispensable cause for his anger, in what way should he show it, and
+if necessity for vengeance, how should his sister be avenged? There
+is nothing more difficult for a man than the redressing of injuries
+done to a woman who is very near to him and very dear to him. The
+whole theory of Christian meekness and forgiveness becomes broken to
+pieces and falls to the ground, almost as an absurd theory, even at
+the idea of such wrong. What man ever forgave an insult to his wife
+or an injury to his sister, because he had taught himself that to
+forgive trespasses is a religious duty? Without an argument, without
+a moment's thought, the man declares to himself that such trespasses
+as those are not included in the general order. But what is he to do?
+Thirty years since his course was easy, and unless the sinner were
+a clergyman, he could in some sort satisfy his craving for revenge
+by taking a pistol in his hand, and having a shot at the offender.
+That method was doubtless barbarous and unreasonable, but it was
+satisfactory and sufficed. But what can he do now? A thoughtful,
+prudent, painstaking man, such as was Theodore Burton, feels that it
+is not given to him to attack another with his fists, to fly at his
+enemy's throat, and carry out his purpose after the manner of dogs.
+Such a one has probably something round his heart which tells him
+that if so attacked he could defend himself; but he knows that he has
+no aptitude for making such onslaught, and is conscious that such
+deeds of arms would be unbecoming to him. In many, perhaps in most of
+such cases, he may, if he please, have recourse to the laws. But any
+aid that the law can give him is altogether distasteful to him. The
+name of her that is so dear to him should be kept quiet as the grave
+under such misfortune, not blazoned through ten thousand columns
+for the amusement of all the crowd. There is nothing left for him
+but to spurn the man,--not with his foot but with his thoughts;
+and the bitter consciousness that to such spurning the sinner
+will be indifferent. The old way was barbarous certainly, and
+unreasonable,--but there was a satisfaction in it that has been often
+wanting since the use of pistols went out of fashion among us.
+
+All this passed through Burton's mind as he walked home. One would
+not have supposed him to be a man eager for bloodshed,--he with a
+wife whom he deemed to be perfect, with children who in his eyes
+were gracious as young gods, with all his daily work which he loved
+as good workers always do; but yet, as he thought of Florence, as
+he thought of the possibility of treachery on Harry's part, he
+regarded almost with dismay the conclusion to which he was forced
+to come,--that there could be no punishment. He might proclaim the
+offender to the world as false, and the world would laugh at the
+proclaimer, and shake hands with the offender. To sit together with
+such a man on a barrel of powder, or fight him over a handkerchief,
+seemed to him to be reasonable, nay salutary, under such a grievance.
+There are sins, he felt, which the gods should punish with instant
+thunderbolts, and such sins as this were of such a nature. His
+Florence,--pure, good, loving, true, herself totally void of all
+suspicion, faultless in heart as well as mind, the flower of that
+Burton flock which had prospered so well,--that she should be
+sacrificed through the treachery of a man who, at his best, had
+scarcely been worthy of her! The thought of this was almost too much
+for him, and he gnashed his teeth as he went on his way.
+
+But yet he had not given up the man. Though he could not restrain
+himself from foreshadowing the misery that would result from such
+baseness, yet he told himself that he would not condemn before
+condemnation was necessary. Harry Clavering might not be good enough
+for Florence. What man was good enough for Florence? But still, if
+married, Harry, he thought, would not make a bad husband. Many a man
+who is prone enough to escape from the bonds which he has undertaken
+to endure,--to escape from them before they are riveted,--is mild
+enough under their endurance, when they are once fastened upon him.
+Harry Clavering was not of such a nature that Burton could tell
+himself that it would be well that his sister should escape even
+though her way of escape must lie through the fire and water of
+outraged love. That Harry Clavering was a gentleman, that he was
+clever, that he was by nature affectionate, soft in manner, tender of
+heart, anxious to please, good-tempered, and of high ambition, Burton
+knew well; and he partly recognized the fact that Harry had probably
+fallen into his present fault more by accident than by design.
+Clavering was not a skilled and practiced deceiver. At last, as he
+drew near to his own door, he resolved on the line of conduct he
+would pursue. He would tell his wife everything, and she should
+receive Harry alone.
+
+He was weary when he reached home, and was a little cross with his
+fatigue. Good man as he was, he was apt to be fretful on the first
+moment of his return to his own house, hot with walking, tired with
+his day's labour, and in want of his dinner. His wife understood this
+well, and always bore with him at such moments, coming down to him
+in the dressing-room behind the back parlour, and ministering to
+his wants. I fear he took some advantage of her goodness, knowing
+that at such moments he could grumble and scold without danger of
+contradiction. But the institution was established, and Cecilia never
+rebelled against its traditional laws. On the present day he had
+much to say to her, but even that he could not say without some few
+symptoms of petulant weariness.
+
+"I'm afraid you've had a terrible long day," she said.
+
+"I don't know what you call terribly long. I find the days terribly
+short. I have had Harry with me, as I told you I should."
+
+"Well, well. Say in one word, dear, that it is all right,--if it is
+so."
+
+"But it is not all right. I wonder what on earth the men do to the
+boots, that I can never get a pair that do not hurt me in walking."
+At this moment she was standing over him with his slippers.
+
+"Will you have a glass of sherry before dinner, dear; you are so
+tired?"
+
+"Sherry--no!"
+
+"And what about Harry? You don't mean to say--"
+
+"If you'll listen, I'll tell you what I do mean to say." Then he
+described to her as well as he could, what had really taken place
+between him and Harry Clavering at the office.
+
+"He cannot mean to be false, if he is coming here," said the wife.
+
+"He does not mean to be false; but he is one of those men who can be
+false without meaning it,--who allow themselves to drift away from
+their anchors, and to be carried out into seas of misery and trouble,
+because they are not careful in looking to their tackle. I think that
+he may still be held to a right course, and therefore I have begged
+him to come here."
+
+"I am sure that you are right, Theodore. He is so good and so
+affectionate, and he made himself so much one of us!"
+
+"Yes; too easily by half. That is just the danger. But look
+here, Cissy. I'll tell you what I mean to do. I will not see him
+myself;--at any rate, not at first. Probably I had better not see him
+at all. You shall talk to him."
+
+"By myself!"
+
+"Why not? You and he have always been great friends, and he is a man
+who can speak more openly to a woman than to another man."
+
+"And what shall I say as to your absence?"
+
+"Just the truth. Tell him that I am remaining in the dining-room
+because I think his task will be easier with you in my absence. He
+has got himself into some mess with that woman."
+
+"With Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Yes; not that her name was mentioned between us, but I suppose it is
+so."
+
+"Horrible woman;--wicked, wretched creature!"
+
+"I know nothing about that, nor, as I suppose, do you."
+
+"My dear, you must have heard."
+
+"But if I had,--and I don't know that I have,--I need not have
+believed. I am told that she married an old man who is now dead, and
+I suppose she wants a young husband."
+
+"My dear!"
+
+"If I were you, Cissy, I would say as little as might be about her.
+She was an old friend of Harry's--"
+
+"She jilted him when he was quite a boy; I know that;--long before he
+had seen our Florence."
+
+"And she is connected with him through his cousin. Let her be ever so
+bad, I should drop that."
+
+"You can't suppose, Theodore, that I want even to mention her name.
+I'm told that nobody ever visits her."
+
+"She needn't be a bit the worse on that account. Whenever I hear that
+there is a woman whom nobody visits, I always feel inclined to go and
+pay my respects to her."
+
+"Theodore, how can you say so?"
+
+"And that, I suppose, is just what Harry has done. If the world and
+his wife had visited Lady Ongar, there would not have been all this
+trouble now."
+
+Mrs. Burton of course undertook the task which her husband assigned
+to her, though she did so with much nervous trepidation, and many
+fears lest the desired object should be lost through her own
+maladroit management. With her, there was at least no doubt as to the
+thing to be done,--no hesitation as to the desirability of securing
+Harry Clavering for the Burton faction. Everything in her mind was
+to be forgiven to Harry, and he was to be received by them all with
+open arms and loving caresses, if he would only abandon Lady Ongar
+altogether. To secure her lover for Florence, was Mrs. Burton's
+single and simple object. She raised no questions now within her
+own breast as to whether Harry would make a good husband. Any such
+question as that should have been asked and answered before he had
+been accepted at Stratton. The thing to be done now was to bring
+Harry and Florence together, and,--since such terrible dangers were
+intervening,--to make them man and wife with as little further delay
+as might be possible. The name of Lady Ongar was odious to her. When
+men went astray in matters of love it was within the power of Cecilia
+Burton's heart to forgive them; but she could not pardon women that
+so sinned. This countess had once jilted Harry, and that was enough
+to secure her condemnation. And since that what terrible things had
+been said of her! And dear, uncharitable Cecilia Burton was apt to
+think, when evil was spoken of women,--of women whom she did not
+know,--that there could not be smoke without fire. And now this woman
+was a widow with a large fortune, and wanted a husband! What business
+had any widow to want a husband? It is so easy for wives to speak
+and think after that fashion when they are satisfied with their own
+ventures.
+
+It was arranged that when Harry came to the door, Mrs. Burton should
+go up alone to the drawing-room and receive him there, remaining
+with her husband in the dining-room till he should come. Twice while
+sitting downstairs after the cloth was gone she ran upstairs with the
+avowed purpose of going into the nursery, but in truth that she might
+see that the room was comfortable, that it looked pretty, and that
+the chairs were so arranged as to be convenient. The two eldest
+children were with them in the parlour, and when she started on
+her second errand, Cissy reminded her that baby would be asleep.
+Theodore, who understood the little manoeuvre, smiled but said
+nothing, and his wife, who in such matters was resolute, went and
+made her further little changes in the furniture. At last there
+came the knock at the door,--the expected knock, a knock which told
+something of the hesitating unhappy mind of him who had rapped, and
+Mrs. Burton started on her business. "Tell him just simply why you
+are there alone," said her husband.
+
+"Is it Harry Clavering?" Cissy asked, "and mayn't I go?"
+
+"It is Harry Clavering," her father said, "and you may not go.
+Indeed, it is time you went somewhere else."
+
+It was Harry Clavering. He had not spent a pleasant day since he had
+left Mr. Beilby's offices in the morning, and, now that he had come
+to Onslow Crescent, he did not expect to spend a pleasant evening.
+When I declare that as yet he had not come to any firm resolution, I
+fear that he will be held as being too weak for the role of hero even
+in such pages as these. Perhaps no terms have been so injurious to
+the profession of the novelist as those two words, hero and heroine.
+In spite of the latitude which is allowed to the writer in putting
+his own interpretation upon these words, something heroic is still
+expected; whereas, if he attempt to paint from Nature, how little
+that is heroic should he describe! How many young men, subjected to
+the temptations which had befallen Harry Clavering,--how many young
+men whom you, delicate reader, number among your friends,--would have
+come out from them unscathed? A man, you say, delicate reader, a true
+man can love but one woman,--but one at a time. So you say, and are
+so convinced; but no conviction was ever more false. When a true man
+has loved with all his heart and all his soul,--does he cease to
+love,--does he cleanse his heart of that passion when circumstances
+run against him, and he is forced to turn elsewhere for his life's
+companion? Or is he untrue as a lover in that he does not waste his
+life in desolation, because he has been disappointed? Or does his old
+love perish and die away, because another has crept into his heart?
+No; the first love, if that was true, is ever there; and should she
+and he meet after many years, though their heads be gray and their
+cheeks wrinkled, there will still be a touch of the old passion as
+their hands meet for a moment. Methinks that love never dies, unless
+it be murdered by downright ill-usage. It may be so murdered, but
+even ill-usage will more often fail than succeed in that enterprise.
+How, then, could Harry fail to love the woman whom he had loved
+first, when she returned to him still young, still beautiful, and
+told him, with all her charms and all her flattery, how her heart
+stood towards him?
+
+But it is not to be thought that I excuse him altogether. A man,
+though he may love many, should be devoted only to one. The man's
+feeling to the woman whom he is to marry should be this:--that not
+from love only, but from chivalry, from manhood, and from duty, he
+will be prepared always, and at all hazards, to defend her from every
+misadventure, to struggle ever that she may be happy, to see that no
+wind blows upon her with needless severity, that no ravening wolf
+of a misery shall come near her, that her path be swept clean for
+her,--as clean as may be, and that her roof-tree be made firm upon a
+rock. There is much of this which is quite independent of love,--much
+of it that may be done without love. This is devotion, and it is this
+which a man owes to the woman who has once promised to be his wife,
+and has not forfeited her right. Doubtless Harry Clavering should
+have remembered this at the first moment of his weakness in Lady
+Ongar's drawing-room. Doubtless he should have known at once that
+his duty to Florence made it necessary that he should declare his
+engagement,--even though, in doing so, he might have seemed to
+caution Lady Ongar on that point on which no woman can endure a
+caution. But the fault was hers, and the caution was needed. No doubt
+he should not have returned to Bolton Street. He should not have
+cozened himself by trusting himself to her assurances of friendship;
+he should have kept warm his love for the woman to whom his hand was
+owed, not suffering himself to make comparisons to her injury. He
+should have been chivalric, manly, full of high duty. He should have
+been all this, and full also of love, and then he would have been a
+hero. But men as I see them are not often heroic.
+
+As he entered the room he saw Mrs. Burton at once, and then looked
+round quickly for her husband. "Harry," said she, "I am so glad to
+see you once again," and she gave him her hand, and smiled on him
+with that sweet look which used to make him feel that it was pleasant
+to be near her. He took her hand and muttered some word of greeting,
+and then looked round again for Mr. Burton. "Theodore is not here,"
+she said; "he thought it better that you and I should have a little
+talk together. He said you would like it best so; but perhaps I ought
+not to tell you that."
+
+"I do like it best so,--much best. I can speak to you as I could
+hardly speak to him."
+
+"What is it, Harry, that ails you? What has kept you away from us?
+Why do you leave poor Flo so long without writing to her? She will be
+here on Monday. You will come and see her then; or perhaps you will
+go with me and meet her at the station?"
+
+"Burton said that she was coming, but I did not understand that it
+was so soon."
+
+"You do not think it too soon, Harry; do you?"
+
+"No," said Harry, but his tone belied his assertion. At any rate
+he had not pretended to display any of a lover's rapture at this
+prospect of seeing the lady whom he loved.
+
+"Sit down, Harry. Why do you stand like that and look so comfortless?
+Theodore says that you have some trouble at heart. Is it a trouble
+that you can tell to a friend such as I am?"
+
+"It is very hard to tell. Oh, Mrs. Burton, I am broken-hearted. For
+the last two weeks I have wished that I might die."
+
+"Do not say that, Harry; that would be wicked."
+
+"Wicked or not, it is true. I have been so wretched that I have
+not known how to hold myself. I could not bring myself to write to
+Florence."
+
+"But why not? You do not mean that you are false to Florence. You
+cannot mean that. Harry, say at once that it is not so, and I
+will promise you her forgiveness, Theodore's forgiveness, all our
+forgiveness for anything else. Oh, Harry, say anything but that." In
+answer to this Harry Clavering had nothing to say, but sat with his
+head resting on his arm and his face turned away from her. "Speak,
+Harry; if you are a man, say something. Is it so? If it be so, I
+believe that you will have killed her. Why do you not speak to me?
+Harry Clavering, tell me what is the truth."
+
+Then he told her all his story, not looking her once in the face,
+not changing his voice, suppressing his emotion till he came to the
+history of the present days. He described to her how he had loved
+Julia Brabazon, and how his love had been treated by her; how he had
+sworn to himself, when he knew that she had in truth become that
+lord's wife, that for her sake he would keep himself from loving any
+other woman. Then he spoke of his first days at Stratton and of his
+early acquaintance with Florence, and told her how different had been
+his second love,--how it had grown gradually and with no check to his
+confidence, till he felt sure that the sweet girl who was so often
+near him would, if he could win her, be to him a source of joy for
+all his life. "And so she shall," said Cecilia, with tears running
+down her cheeks; "she shall do so yet." And he went on with his tale,
+saying how pleasant it had been for him to find himself at home in
+Onslow Crescent, how he had joyed in calling her Cecilia, and having
+her infants in his arms, as though they were already partly belonging
+to him. And he told her how he had met the young widow at the
+station, having employed himself on her behalf at her sister's
+instance; and how cold she had been to him, offending him by her
+silence and sombre pride. "False woman!" exclaimed Mrs. Burton. "Oh,
+Cecilia, do not abuse her,--do not say a word till you know all." "I
+know that she is false," said Mrs. Burton, with vehement indignation.
+"She is not false," said Harry; "if there be falsehood, it is mine."
+Then he went on, and said how different she was when next he saw her.
+How then he understood that her solemn and haughty manner had been
+almost forced on her by the mode of her return, with no other friend
+to meet her. "She has deserved no friend," said Mrs. Burton. "You
+wrong her," said Harry; "you do not know her. If any woman has been
+ever sinned against, it is she." "But was she not false from the very
+first,--false, that she might become rich by marrying a man that she
+did not love? Will you speak up for her after that? Oh, Harry, think
+of it."
+
+"I will speak up for her," said Harry; and now it seemed for the
+first time that something of his old boldness had returned to him. "I
+will speak up for her, although she did as you say, because she has
+suffered as few women have been made to suffer, and because she has
+repented in ashes as few women are called on to repent." And now as
+he warmed with his feeling for her, he uttered his words faster and
+with less of shame in his voice. He described how he had gone again
+and again to Bolton Street, thinking no evil, till--till--till
+something of the old feeling had come back upon him. He meant to be
+true in his story, but I doubt whether he told all the truth. How
+could he tell it all? How could he confess that the blaze of the
+woman's womanhood, the flame of her beauty, and the fire engendered
+by her mingled rank and suffering, had singed him and burned him
+up, poor moth that he was? "And then at last I learned," said he,
+"that--that she had loved me more than I had believed."
+
+"And is Florence to suffer because she has postponed her love of you
+to her love of money?"
+
+"Mrs. Burton, if you do not understand it now, I do not know that I
+can tell you more. Florence alone in this matter is altogether good.
+Lady Ongar has been wrong, and I have been wrong. I sometimes think
+that Florence is too good for me."
+
+"It is for her to say that, if it be necessary."
+
+"I have told you all now, and you will know why I have not come to
+you."
+
+"No, Harry; you have not told me all. Have you told that--woman that
+she should be your wife?" To this question he made no immediate
+answer, and she repeated it. "Tell me; have you told her you would
+marry her?"
+
+"I did tell her so."
+
+"And you will keep your word to her?" Harry, as he heard the words,
+was struck with awe that there should be such vehemence, such anger,
+in the voice of so gentle a woman as Cecilia Burton. "Answer me, sir,
+do you mean to marry this--countess?" But still he made no answer. "I
+do not wonder that you cannot speak," she said. "Oh, Florence,--oh,
+my darling; my lost, broken-hearted angel!" Then she turned away her
+face and wept.
+
+"Cecilia," he said, attempting to approach her with his hand, without
+rising from his chair.
+
+"No, sir; when I desired you to call me so, it was because I thought
+you were to be a brother. I did not think that there could be a thing
+so weak as you. Perhaps you had better go now, lest you should meet
+my husband in his wrath, and he should spurn you."
+
+But Harry Clavering still sat in his chair, motionless,--motionless,
+and without a word. After a while he turned his face towards her, and
+even in her own misery she was stricken by the wretchedness of his
+countenance. Suddenly she rose quickly from her chair, and coming
+close to him, threw herself on her knees before him. "Harry," she
+said, "Harry; it is not yet too late. Be our own Harry again; our
+dearest Harry. Say that it shall be so. What is this woman to you?
+What has she done for you, that for her you should throw aside such a
+one as our Florence? Is she noble, and good, and pure and spotless as
+Florence is? Will she love you with such love as Florence's? Will she
+believe in you as Florence believes? Yes, Harry, she believes yet.
+She knows nothing of this, and shall know nothing, if you will only
+say that you will be true. No one shall know, and I will remember it
+only to remember your goodness afterwards. Think of it, Harry; there
+can be no falseness to one who has been so false to you. Harry, you
+will not destroy us all at one blow?"
+
+Never before was man so supplicated to take into his arms youth and
+beauty and feminine purity! And in truth he would have yielded, as
+indeed, what man would not have yielded,--had not Mrs. Burton been
+interrupted in her prayers. The step of her husband was heard upon
+the stairs, and she, rising from her knees, whispered quickly, "Do
+not tell him that it is settled. Let me tell him when you are gone."
+
+"You two have been a long time together," said Theodore, as he came
+in.
+
+"Why did you leave us, then, so long?" said Mrs. Burton, trying
+to smile, though the signs of tears were, as she well knew, plain
+enough.
+
+"I thought you would have sent for me."
+
+"Burton," said Harry, "I take it kindly of you that you allowed me to
+see your wife alone."
+
+"Women always understand these things best," said he.
+
+"And you will come again to-morrow, Harry, and answer me my
+question?"
+
+"Not to-morrow."
+
+"Florence will be here on Monday."
+
+"And why should he not come when Florence is here?" asked Theodore,
+in an angry tone.
+
+"Of course he will come, but I want to see him again first. Do I not,
+Harry?"
+
+"I hate mysteries," said Burton.
+
+"There shall be no mystery," said his wife. "Why did you send him to
+me, but that there are some things difficult to discuss among three?
+Will you come to-morrow, Harry?"
+
+"Not to-morrow; but I will write to-morrow,--early to-morrow. I will
+go now, and of course you will tell Burton everything that I have
+said. Good night." They both took his hand, and Cecilia pressed it
+as she looked with beseeching eyes into his face. What would she not
+have done to secure the happiness of the sister whom she loved? On
+this occasion she had descended low that she might do much.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+HOW DAMON PARTED FROM PYTHIAS.
+
+
+Lady Ongar, when she left Count Pateroff at the little fort on the
+cliff and entered by herself the gardens belonging to the hotel, had
+long since made up her mind that there should at last be a positive
+severance between herself and her devoted Sophie. For half-an-hour
+she had been walking in silence by the count's side; and though, of
+course, she had heard all that he had spoken, she had been able in
+that time to consider much. It must have been through Sophie that the
+count had heard of her journey to the Isle of Wight; and, worse than
+that, Sophie must, as she thought, have instigated this pursuit. In
+that she wronged her poor friend. Sophie had been simply paid by her
+brother for giving such information as enabled him to arrange this
+meeting. She had not even counselled him to follow Lady Ongar. But
+now Lady Ongar, in blind wrath, determined that Sophie should be
+expelled from her bosom. Lady Ongar would find this task of expulsion
+the less difficult in that she had come to loathe her devoted
+friend, and to feel it to be incumbent on her to rid herself of such
+devotion. Now had arrived the moment in which it might be done.
+
+And yet there were difficulties. Two ladies living together in an inn
+cannot, without much that is disagreeable, send down to the landlord
+saying that they want separate rooms, because they have taken it
+into their minds to hate each other. And there would, moreover, be
+something awkward in saying to Sophie that, though she was discarded,
+her bill should be paid--for this last and only time. No; Lady Ongar
+had already perceived that that would not do. She would not quarrel
+with Sophie after that fashion. She would leave the Isle of Wight on
+the following morning early, informing Sophie why she did so, and
+would offer money to the little Franco-Pole, presuming that it might
+not be agreeable to the Franco-Pole to be hurried away from her
+marine or rural happiness so quickly. But in doing this she would be
+careful to make Sophie understand that Bolton Street was to be closed
+against her for ever afterwards. With neither Count Pateroff nor his
+sister would she ever again willingly place herself in contact.
+
+It was dark as she entered the house,--the walk out, her delay there,
+and her return having together occupied her three hours. She had
+hardly felt the dusk growing on her as she progressed steadily on her
+way, with that odious man beside her. She had been thinking of other
+things, and her eyes had accustomed themselves gradually to the
+fading twilight. But now, when she saw the glimmer of the lamps from
+the inn-windows, she knew that the night had come upon her, and she
+began to fear that she had been imprudent in allowing herself to be
+out so late,--imprudent, even had she succeeded in being alone. She
+went direct to her own room, that, woman-like, she might consult her
+own face as to the effects of the insult she had received, and then
+having, as it were, steadied herself, and prepared herself for the
+scene that was to follow, she descended to the sitting-room and
+encountered her friend. The friend was the first to speak; and the
+reader will kindly remember that the friend had ample reason for
+knowing what companion Lady Ongar had been likely to meet upon the
+downs.
+
+"Julie, dear, how late you are," said Sophie, as though she were
+rather irritated in having been kept so long waiting for her tea.
+
+"I am late," said Lady Ongar.
+
+"And don't you think you are imprudent,--all alone, you know, dear;
+just a leetle imprudent."
+
+"Very imprudent, indeed. I have been thinking of that now as I
+crossed the lawn, and found how dark it was. I have been very
+imprudent; but I have escaped without much injury."
+
+"Escaped! escaped what? Have you escaped a cold, or a drunken man?"
+
+"Both, as I think." Then she sat down, and, having rung the bell, she
+ordered tea.
+
+"There seems to be something very odd with you," said Sophie. "I do
+not quite understand you."
+
+"When did you see your brother last?" Lady Ongar asked.
+
+"My brother?"
+
+"Yes, Count Pateroff. When did you see him last?"
+
+"Why do you want to know?"
+
+"Well, it does not signify, as of course you will not tell me. But
+will you say when you will see him next?"
+
+"How can I tell?"
+
+"Will it be to-night?"
+
+"Julie, what do you mean?"
+
+"Only this, that I wish you would make him understand that if he has
+anything to do concerning me, he might as well do it out of hand. For
+the last hour--"
+
+"Then you have seen him?"
+
+"Yes; is not that wonderful? I have seen him."
+
+"And why could you not tell him yourself what you had to say? He
+and I do not agree about certain things, and I do not like to carry
+messages to him. And you have seen him here on this sacre sea-coast?"
+
+"Exactly so; on this sacre sea-coast. Is it not odd that he should
+have known that I was here,--known the very inn we were at,--and
+known, too, whither I was going to-night?"
+
+"He would learn that from the servants, my dear."
+
+"No doubt. He has been good enough to amuse me with mysterious
+threats as to what he would do to punish me if I would not--"
+
+"Become his wife?" suggested Sophie.
+
+"Exactly. It was very flattering on his part. I certainly do not
+intend to become his wife."
+
+"Ah, you like better that young Clavering who has the other
+sweetheart. He is younger. That is true."
+
+"Upon my word, yes. I like my cousin, Harry Clavering, much better
+than I like your brother; but, as I take it, that has not much to
+do with it. I was speaking of your brother's threats. I do not
+understand them; but I wish he could be made to understand that if he
+has anything to do, he had better go and do it. As for marriage, I
+would sooner marry the first ploughboy I could find in the fields."
+
+"Julie,--you need not insult him."
+
+"I will have no more of your Julie; and I will have no more of you."
+As she said this she rose from her chair, and walked about the room.
+"You have betrayed me, and there shall be an end of it."
+
+
+[Illustration: How Damon parted from Pythias.]
+
+
+"Betrayed you! what nonsense you talk. In what have I betrayed you?"
+
+"You set him upon my track here, though you knew I desired to avoid
+him."
+
+"And is that all? I was coming here to this detestable island, and I
+told my brother. That is my offence,--and then you talk of betraying!
+Julie, you sometimes are a goose."
+
+"Very often, no doubt; but, Madame Gordeloup, if you please we will
+be geese apart for the future."
+
+"Oh, certainly;--if you wish it."
+
+"I do wish it."
+
+"It cannot hurt me. I can choose my friends anywhere. The world is
+open to me to go where I please into society. I am not at a loss."
+
+All this Lady Ongar well understood, but she could bear it without
+injury to her temper. Such revenge was to be expected from such a
+woman. "I do not want you to be at a loss," she said. "I only want
+you to understand that after what has this evening occurred between
+your brother and me, our acquaintance had better cease."
+
+"And I am to be punished for my brother?"
+
+"You said just now that it would be no punishment, and I was glad
+to hear it. Society is, as you say, open to you, and you will lose
+nothing."
+
+"Of course society is open to me. Have I committed myself? I am not
+talked about for my lovers by all the town. Why should I be at a
+loss? No."
+
+"I shall return to London to-morrow by the earliest opportunity.
+I have already told them so, and have ordered a carriage to go to
+Yarmouth at eight."
+
+"And you leave me here, alone!"
+
+"Your brother is here, Madame Gordeloup."
+
+"My brother is nothing to me. You know well that. He can come and he
+can go when he please. I come here to follow you,--to be companion
+to you, to oblige you,--and now you say you go and leave me in this
+detestable barrack. If I am here alone, I will be revenged."
+
+"You shall go back with me if you wish it."
+
+"At eight o'clock in the morning,--and see, it is now eleven; while
+you have been wandering about alone with my brother in the dark! No;
+I will not go so early morning as that. To-morrow is Saturday--you
+was to remain till Tuesday."
+
+"You may do as you please. I shall go at eight to-morrow."
+
+"Very well. You go at eight, very well. And who will pay for the
+'beels' when you are gone, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"I have already ordered the bill up to-morrow morning. If you will
+allow me to offer you twenty pounds, that will bring you to London
+when you please to follow."
+
+"Twenty pounds! What is twenty pounds? No; I will not have your
+twenty pounds." And she pushed away from her the two notes which Lady
+Ongar had already put upon the table. "Who is to pay me for the loss
+of all my time? Tell me that. I have devoted myself to you. Who will
+pay me for that?"
+
+"Not I, certainly, Madame Gordeloup."
+
+"Not you! You will not pay me for my time;--for a whole year I have
+been devoted to you! You will not pay me, and you send me away in
+this way? By Gar, you will be made to pay,--through the nose."
+
+As the interview was becoming unpleasant, Lady Ongar took her candle
+and went away to bed, leaving the twenty pounds on the table. As she
+left the room she knew that the money was there, but she could not
+bring herself to pick it up and restore it to her pocket. It was
+improbable, she thought, that Madame Gordeloup would leave it to the
+mercy of the waiters; and the chances were that the notes would go
+into the pocket for which they were intended.
+
+And such was the result. Sophie, when she was left alone, got up
+from her seat, and stood for some moments on the rug, making her
+calculations. That Lady Ongar should be very angry about Count
+Pateroff's presence Sophie had expected; but she had not expected
+that her friend's anger would be carried to such extremity that she
+would pronounce a sentence of banishment for life. But, perhaps,
+after all, it might be well for Sophie herself that such sentence
+should be carried out. This fool of a woman with her income, her
+park, and her rank, was going to give herself,--so said Sophie to
+herself,--to a young, handsome, proud pig of a fellow,--so Sophie
+called him,--who had already shown himself to be Sophie's enemy, and
+who would certainly find no place for Sophie Gordeloup within his
+house. Might it not be well that the quarrel should be consummated
+now,--such compensation being obtained as might possibly be
+extracted. Sophie certainly knew a good deal, which it might be for
+the convenience of the future husband to keep dark--or convenient for
+the future wife that the future husband should not know. Terms might
+be yet had, although Lady Ongar had refused to pay anything beyond
+that trumpery twenty pounds. Terms might be had; or, indeed, it might
+be that Lady Ongar herself, when her anger was over, might sue for a
+reconciliation. Or Sophie,--and this idea occurred as Sophie herself
+became a little despondent after long calculation,--Sophie herself
+might acknowledge herself to be wrong, begging pardon, and weeping
+on her friend's neck. Perhaps it might be worth while to make some
+further calculation in bed. Then Sophie, softly drawing the notes
+towards her as a cat might have done, and hiding them somewhere about
+her person, also went to her room.
+
+In the morning Lady Ongar prepared herself for starting at eight
+o'clock, and, as a part of that preparation, had her breakfast
+brought to her upstairs. When the time was up, she descended to the
+sitting-room on the way to the carriage, and there she found Sophie
+also prepared for a journey.
+
+"I am going too. You will let me go?" said Sophie.
+
+"Certainly," said Lady Ongar. "I proposed to you to do so yesterday."
+
+"You should not be so hard upon your poor friend," said Sophie. This
+was said in the hearing of Lady Ongar's maid and of two waiters,
+and Lady Ongar made no reply to it. When they were in the carriage
+together, the maid being then stowed away in a dickey or rumble
+behind, Sophie again whined and was repentant. "Julie, you should not
+be so hard upon your poor Sophie."
+
+"It seems to me that the hardest things said were spoken by you."
+
+"Then I will beg your pardon. I am impulsive. I do not restrain
+myself. When I am angry I say I know not what. If I said
+any words that were wrong, I will apologize, and beg to be
+forgiven,--there,--on my knees." And, as she spoke, the adroit little
+woman contrived to get herself down upon her knees on the floor of
+the carriage. "There; say that I am forgiven; say that Sophie is
+pardoned." The little woman had calculated that even should her
+Julie pardon her, Julie would hardly condescend to ask for the two
+ten-pound notes.
+
+But Lady Ongar had stoutly determined that there should be no further
+intimacy, and had reflected that a better occasion for a quarrel
+could hardly be vouchsafed to her than that afforded by Sophie's
+treachery in bringing her brother down to Freshwater. She was too
+strong, and too much mistress of her will, to be cheated now out of
+her advantage. "Madame Gordeloup, that attitude is absurd;--I beg you
+will get up."
+
+"Never; never till you have pardoned me." And Sophie crouched still
+lower, till she was all among the dressing-cases and little bags
+at the bottom of the carriage. "I will not get up till you say the
+words, 'Sophie, dear, I forgive you.'"
+
+"Then I fear you will have an uncomfortable drive. Luckily it will be
+very short. It is only half-an-hour to Yarmouth."
+
+"And I will kneel again on board the packet; and on the--what you
+call, platform,--and in the railway carriage,--and in the street.
+I will kneel to my Julie everywhere, till she say, 'Sophie, dear,
+I forgive you!'"
+
+"Madame Gordeloup, pray understand me; between you and me there shall
+be no further intimacy."
+
+"No!"
+
+"Certainly not. No further explanation is necessary, but our intimacy
+has certainly come to an end."
+
+"It has."
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"Julie!"
+
+"That is such nonsense. Madame Gordeloup, you are disgracing yourself
+by your proceedings."
+
+"Oh! disgracing myself, am I?" In saying this, Sophie picked herself
+up from among the dressing-cases, and recovered her seat. "I am
+disgracing myself! Well, I know very well whose disgrace is the most
+talked about in the world, yours or mine. Disgracing myself;--and
+from you? What did your husband say of you himself?"
+
+Lady Ongar began to feel that even a very short journey might be too
+long. Sophie was now quite up, and was wriggling herself on her seat,
+adjusting her clothes which her late attitude had disarranged, not in
+the most graceful manner.
+
+"You shall see," she continued. "Yes, you shall see. Tell me of
+disgrace! I have only disgraced myself by being with you. Ah,--very
+well. Yes; I will get out. As for being quiet, I shall be quiet
+whenever I like it. I know when to talk and when to hold my tongue.
+Disgrace!" So saying, she stepped out of the carriage, leaning on the
+arm of a boatman who had come to the door, and who had heard her last
+words.
+
+It may be imagined that all this did not contribute much to the
+comfort of Lady Ongar. They were now on the little pier at Yarmouth,
+and in five minutes every one there knew who she was, and knew also
+that there had been some disagreement between her and the little
+foreigner. The eyes of the boatmen, and of the drivers, and of the
+other travellers, and of the natives going over to the market at
+Lymington, were all on her, and the eyes also of all the idlers of
+Yarmouth who had congregated there to watch the despatch of the early
+boat. But she bore it well, seating herself, with her maid beside
+her, on one of the benches on the deck, and waiting there with
+patience till the boat should start. Sophie once or twice muttered
+the word "disgrace!" but beyond that she remained silent.
+
+They crossed over the little channel without a word, and without a
+word made their way up to the railway-station. Lady Ongar had been
+too confused to get tickets for their journey at Yarmouth, but had
+paid on board the boat for the passage of the three persons--herself,
+her maid, and Sophie. But, at the station at Lymington, the more
+important business of taking tickets for the journey to London became
+necessary. Lady Ongar had thought of this on her journey across the
+water, and, when at the railway-station, gave her purse to her maid,
+whispering her orders. The girl took three first-class tickets, and
+then going gently up to Madame Gordeloup, offered one to that lady.
+"Ah, yes; very well; I understand," said Sophie, taking the ticket.
+"I shall take this;" and she held the ticket up in her hand, as
+though she had some specially mysterious purpose in accepting it.
+
+She got into the same carriage with Lady Ongar and her maid, but
+spoke no word on her journey up to London. At Basingstoke she had a
+glass of sherry, for which Lady Ongar's maid paid. Lady Ongar had
+telegraphed for her carriage, which was waiting for her, but Sophie
+betook herself to a cab. "Shall I pay the cabman, ma'am?" said the
+maid. "Yes," said Sophie, "or stop. It will be half-a-crown. You had
+better give me the half-crown." The maid did so, and in this way the
+careful Sophie added another shilling to her store,--over and above
+the twenty pounds,--knowing well that the fare to Mount Street was
+eighteen-pence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+DOODLES IN MOUNT STREET.
+
+
+Captain Clavering and Captain Boodle had, as may be imagined,
+discussed at great length and with much frequency the results of the
+former captain's negotiations with the Russian spy, and it had been
+declared strongly by the latter captain, and ultimately admitted by
+the former, that those results were not satisfactory. Seventy pounds
+had been expended, and, so to say, nothing had been accomplished.
+It was in vain that Archie, unwilling to have it thought that he
+had been worsted in diplomacy, argued that with these political
+personages, and especially with Russian political personages, the
+ambages were everything,--that the preliminaries were in fact the
+whole, and that when they were arranged, the thing was done. Doodles
+proved to demonstration that the thing was not done, and that seventy
+pounds was too much for mere preliminaries. "My dear fellow," he
+said, speaking I fear with some scorn in his voice, "where are you?
+That's what I want to know. Where are you? Just nowhere." This was
+true. All that Archie had received from Madame Gordeloup in return
+for his last payment, was an intimation that no immediate day could
+be at present named for a renewal of his personal attack upon the
+countess; but that a day might be named when he should next come to
+Mount Street,--provision, of course, being made that he should come
+with a due qualification under his glove. Now the original basis
+on which Archie was to carry on his suit had been arranged to be
+this,--that Lady Ongar should be made to know that he was there; and
+the way in which Doodles had illustrated this precept by the artistic
+and allegorical use of his heel was still fresh in Archie's memory.
+The meeting in which they had come to that satisfactory understanding
+had taken place early in the spring, and now June was coming on, and
+the countess certainly did not as yet know that her suitor was there!
+If anything was to be done by the Russian spy it should be done
+quickly, and Doodles did not refrain from expressing his opinion that
+his friend was "putting his foot into it," and "making a mull of the
+whole thing." Now Archie Clavering was a man not eaten up by the vice
+of self-confidence, but prone rather to lean upon his friends and
+anxious for the aid of counsel in difficulty.
+
+"What the devil is a fellow to do?" he asked. "Perhaps I had better
+give it all up. Everybody says that she is as proud as Lucifer; and,
+after all, nobody knows what rigs she has been up to."
+
+But this was by no means the view which Doodles was inclined to take.
+He was a man who in the field never gave up a race because he was
+thrown out at the start, having perceived that patience would achieve
+as much, perhaps, as impetuosity. He had ridden many a waiting
+race, and had won some of them. He was never so sure of his hand at
+billiards as when the score was strong against him. "Always fight
+whilst there's any fight left in you," was a maxim with him. He never
+surrendered a bet as lost, till the evidence as to the facts was
+quite conclusive, and had taught himself to regard any chance, be it
+ever so remote, as a kind of property.
+
+"Never say die," was his answer to Archie's remark. "You see, Clavvy,
+you have still a few good cards, and you can never know what a woman
+really means till you have popped yourself. As to what she did when
+she was away, and all that, you see when a woman has got seven
+thousand a year in her own right, it covers a multitude of sins."
+
+"Of course, I know that."
+
+"And why should a fellow be uncharitable? If a man is to believe all
+that he hears, by George, they're all much of a muchness. For my part
+I never believe anything. I always suppose every horse will run to
+win; and though there may be a cross now and again, that's the surest
+line to go upon. D'you understand me now?" Archie said that of course
+he understood him; but I fancy that Doodles had gone a little too
+deep for Archie's intellect.
+
+"I should say, drop this woman, and go at the widow yourself at
+once."
+
+"And lose all my seventy pounds for nothing!"
+
+"You're not soft enough to suppose that you'll ever get it back
+again, I hope?" Archie assured his friend that he was not soft enough
+for any such hope as that, and then the two remained silent for a
+while, deeply considering the posture of the affair. "I'll tell you
+what I'll do for you," said Doodles; "and upon my word I think it
+will be the best thing."
+
+"And what's that?"
+
+"I'll go to this woman myself."
+
+"What; to Lady Ongar?"
+
+"No; but to the Spy, as you call her. Principals are never the best
+for this kind of work. When a man has to pay the money himself he can
+never make so good a bargain as another can make for him. That stands
+to reason. And I can be blunter with her about it than you can;--can
+go straight at it, you know; and you may be sure of this, she won't
+get any money from me, unless I get the marbles for it."
+
+"You'll take some with you, then?"
+
+"Well, yes; that is, if it's convenient. We were talking of going two
+or three hundred pounds, you know, and you've only gone seventy as
+yet. Suppose you hand me over the odd thirty. If she gets it out of
+me easy, tell me my name isn't Boodle."
+
+There was much in this that was distasteful to Captain Clavering,
+but at last he submitted, and handed over the thirty pounds to his
+friend. Then there was considerable doubt whether the ambassador
+should announce himself by a note, but it was decided at last that
+his arrival should not be expected. If he did not find the lady at
+home or disengaged on the first visit, or on the second, he might on
+the third or the fourth. He was a persistent, patient little man,
+and assured his friend that he would certainly see Madame Gordeloup
+before a week had passed over their heads.
+
+On the occasion of his first visit to Mount Street, Sophie Gordeloup
+was enjoying her retreat in the Isle of Wight. When he called the
+second time she was in bed, the fatigue of her journey on the
+previous day,--the day on which she had actually risen at seven
+o'clock in the morning,--having oppressed her much. She had returned
+in the cab alone, and had occupied herself much on the same evening.
+Now that she was to be parted from her Julie, it was needful that she
+should be occupied. She wrote a long letter to her brother,--much
+more confidential than her letters to him had lately been,--telling
+him how much she had suffered on his behalf, and describing to
+him with great energy the perverseness, malignity, and general
+pigheadedness of her late friend. Then she wrote an anonymous letter
+to Mrs. Burton, whose name and address she had learned, after having
+ascertained from Archie the fact of Harry Clavering's engagement. In
+this letter she described the wretched wiles by which that horrid
+woman Lady Ongar was struggling to keep Harry and Miss Burton apart.
+"It is very bad, but it is true," said the diligent little woman.
+"She has been seen in his embrace; I know it." After that she dressed
+and went out into society,--the society of which she had boasted as
+being open to her,--to the house of some hanger-on of some embassy,
+and listened, and whispered, and laughed when some old sinner joked
+with her, and talked poetry to a young man who was foolish and lame,
+but who had some money, and got a glass of wine and a cake for
+nothing, and so was very busy; and on her return home calculated that
+her cab-hire for the evening had been judiciously spent. But her
+diligence had been so great that when Captain Boodle called the next
+morning at twelve o'clock she was still in bed. Had she been in dear
+Paris, or in dearer Vienna, that would have not hindered her from
+receiving the visit; but in pigheaded London this could not be done;
+and, therefore, when she had duly scrutinized Captain Boodle's card,
+and had learned from the servant that Captain Boodle desired to see
+herself on very particular business, she made an appointment with him
+for the following day.
+
+On the following day at the same hour Doodles came and was shown up
+into her room. He had scrupulously avoided any smartness of apparel,
+calculating that a Newmarket costume would be, of all dresses, the
+most efficacious in filling her with an idea of his smartness;
+whereas Archie had probably injured himself much by his polished
+leather boots, and general newness of clothing. Doodles, therefore,
+wore a cut-away coat, a coloured shirt with a fogle round his neck,
+old brown trowsers that fitted very tightly round his legs, and was
+careful to take no gloves with him. He was a man with a small bullet
+head, who wore his hair cut very short, and had no other beard than
+a slight appendage on his lower chin. He certainly did possess a
+considerable look of smartness, and when he would knit his brows and
+nod his head, some men were apt to think that it was not easy to get
+on the soft side of him.
+
+Sophie on this occasion was not arrayed with that becoming negligence
+which had graced her appearance when Captain Clavering had called.
+She knew that a visitor was coming, and the questionably white
+wrapper had been exchanged for an ordinary dress. This was regretted,
+rather than otherwise, by Captain Boodle, who had received from
+Archie a description of the lady's appearance, and who had been
+anxious to see the Spy in her proper and peculiar habiliments. It
+must be remembered that Sophie knew nothing of her present visitor,
+and was altogether unaware that he was in any way connected with
+Captain Clavering.
+
+"You are Captain Boddle," she said, looking hard at Doodles, as he
+bowed to her on entering the room.
+
+"Captain Boodle, ma'am; at your service."
+
+"Oh, Captain Bood-dle; it is English name, I suppose?"
+
+"Certainly, ma'am, certainly. Altogether English, I believe.
+Our Boodles come out of Warwickshire; small property near
+Leamington,--doosed small, I'm sorry to say."
+
+She looked at him very hard, and was altogether unable to discover
+what was the nature or probable mode of life of the young man before
+her. She had lived much in England, and had known Englishmen of
+many classes, but she could not remember that she had ever become
+conversant with such a one as he who was now before her. Was he a
+gentleman, or might he be a housebreaker? "A doosed small property
+near Leamington," she said, repeating the words after him. "Oh!"
+
+"But my visit to you, ma'am, has nothing to do with that."
+
+"Nothing to do with the small property."
+
+"Nothing in life."
+
+"Then, Captain Bood-dle, what may it have to do with?"
+
+Hereupon Doodles took a chair, not having been invited to go through
+that ceremony. According to the theory created in her mind at the
+instant, this man was not at all like an English captain. Captain
+is an unfortunate title, somewhat equivalent to the foreign
+count,--unfortunate in this respect, that it is easily adopted by
+many whose claims to it are very slight. Archie Clavering, with his
+polished leather boots, had looked like a captain,--had come up to
+her idea of a captain,--but this man! The more she regarded him, the
+stronger in her mind became the idea of the housebreaker.
+
+"My business, ma'am, is of a very delicate nature,--of a nature very
+delicate indeed. But I think that you and I, who understand the
+world, may soon come to understand each other."
+
+"Oh, you understand the world. Very well, sir. Go on."
+
+"Now, ma'am, money is money, you know."
+
+"And a goose is a goose; but what of that?"
+
+"Yes; a goose is a goose, and some people are not geese. Nobody,
+ma'am, would think of calling you a goose."
+
+"I hope not. It would be so uncivil, even an Englishman would not say
+it. Will you go on?"
+
+"I think you have the pleasure of knowing Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Knowing who?" said Sophie, almost shrieking.
+
+"Lady Ongar."
+
+During the last day or two Sophie's mind had been concerned very
+much with her dear Julie, but had not been concerned at all with
+the affairs of Captain Clavering, and, therefore, when Lady Ongar's
+name was mentioned, her mind went away altogether to the quarrel, and
+did not once refer itself to the captain. Could it be that this was
+an attorney, and was it possible that Julie would be mean enough to
+make claims upon her? Claims might be made for more than those twenty
+pounds. "And you," she said, "do you know Lady Ongar?"
+
+"I have not that honour myself."
+
+"Oh, you have not; and do you want to be introduced?"
+
+"Not exactly,--not at present; at some future day I shall hope to
+have the pleasure. But I am right in believing that she and you are
+very intimate? Now what are you going to do for my friend Archie
+Clavering?"
+
+"Oh-h-h!" exclaimed Sophie.
+
+"Yes. What are you going to do for my friend Archie Clavering?
+Seventy pounds, you know, ma'am, is a smart bit of money!"
+
+"A smart bit of money, is it? That is what you think on your leetle
+property down in Warwickshire."
+
+"It isn't my property, ma'am, at all. It belongs to my uncle."
+
+"Oh, it is your uncle that has the leetle property. And what had
+your uncle to do with Lady Ongar? What is your uncle to your friend
+Archie?"
+
+"Nothing at all, ma'am; nothing on earth."
+
+"Then why do you tell me all this rigmarole about your uncle and his
+leetle property, and Warwickshire? What have I to do with your uncle?
+Sir, I do not understand you,--not at all. Nor do I know why I have
+the honour to see you here, Captain Bood-dle."
+
+Even Doodles, redoubtable as he was--even he, with all his smartness,
+felt that he was overcome, and that this woman was too much for him.
+He was altogether perplexed, as he could not perceive whether in all
+her tirade about the little property she had really misunderstood
+him, and had in truth thought that he had been talking about his
+uncle, or whether the whole thing was cunning on her part. The
+reader, perhaps, will have a more correct idea of this lady than
+Captain Boodle had been able to obtain. She had now risen from her
+sofa, and was standing as though she expected him to go; but he had
+not as yet opened the budget of his business.
+
+"I am here, ma'am," said he, "to speak to you about my friend,
+Captain Clavering."
+
+"Then you can go back to your friend, and tell him I have nothing to
+say. And, more than that, Captain Booddle"--the woman intensified
+the name in a most disgusting manner, with the evident purpose of
+annoying him; of that he had become quite sure--"more than that, his
+sending you here is an impertinence. Will you tell him that?"
+
+"No, ma'am, I will not."
+
+"Perhaps you are his laquais," continued the inexhaustible Sophie,
+"and are obliged to come when he send you?"
+
+"I am no man's laquais, ma'am."
+
+"If so, I do not blame you; or, perhaps, it is your way to make your
+love third or fourth hand down in Warwickshire?"
+
+"Damn Warwickshire!" said Doodles, who was put beyond himself.
+
+"With all my heart. Damn Warwickshire." And the horrid woman grinned
+at him as she repeated his words. "And the leetle property, and
+the uncle, if you wish it; and the leetle nephew,--and the leetle
+nephew,--and the leetle nephew!" She stood over him as she repeated
+the last words with wondrous rapidity, and grinned at him, and
+grimaced and shook herself, till Doodles was altogether bewildered.
+If this was a Russian spy he would avoid such in future, and keep
+himself for the milder acerbities of Newmarket, and the easier
+chaff of his club. He looked up into her face at the present moment,
+striving to think of some words by which he might assist himself. He
+had as yet performed no part of his mission, but any such performance
+was now entirely out of the question. The woman had defied him, and
+had altogether thrown Clavering overboard. There was no further
+question of her services, and therefore he felt himself to be quite
+entitled to twit her with the payment she had taken.
+
+"And how about my friend's seventy pounds?" said he.
+
+"How about seventy pounds! a leetle man comes here and tells me he
+is a Booddle in Warwickshire, and says he has an uncle with a very
+leetle property, and asks me how about seventy pounds! Suppose I ask
+you how about the policeman, what will you say then?"
+
+"You send for him and you shall hear what I say."
+
+"No; not to take away such a leetle man as you. I send for a
+policeman when I am afraid. Booddle in Warwickshire is not a terrible
+man. Suppose you go to your friend and tell him from me that he have
+chose a very bad Mercury in his affairs of love;--the worst Mercury
+I ever see. Perhaps the Warwickshire Mercuries are not very good. Can
+you tell me, Captain Booddle, how they make love down in
+Warwickshire?"
+
+"And that is all the satisfaction I am to have?"
+
+"Who said you was to have satisfaction? Very little satisfaction I
+should think you ever have, when you come as a Mercury."
+
+"My friend means to know something about that seventy pounds."
+
+"Seventy pounds! If you talk to me any more of seventy pounds, I will
+fly at your face." As she spoke this she jumped across at him as
+though she were really on the point of attacking him with her nails,
+and he, in dismay, retreated to the door. "You, and your seventy
+pounds! Oh, you English! What mean mens you are! Oh! a Frenchman
+would despise to do it. Yes; or a Russian or a Pole. But you,--you
+want it all down in black and white, like a butcher's beel. You know
+nothing, and understand nothing, and can never speak, and can never
+hold your tongues. You have no head, but the head of a bull. A bull
+can break all the china in a shop,--dash, smash, crash,--all the
+pretty things gone in a minute! So can an Englishman. Your seventy
+pounds! You will come again to me for seventy pounds, I think." In
+her energy she had acted the bull, and had exhibited her idea of the
+dashing, the smashing and the crashing, by the motion of her head and
+the waving of her hands.
+
+"And you decline to say anything about the seventy pounds?" said
+Doodles, resolving that his courage should not desert him.
+
+Whereupon the divine Sophie laughed. "Ha, ha, ha! I see you have not
+got on any gloves, Captain Booddle."
+
+"Gloves; no. I don't wear gloves."
+
+"Nor your uncle with the leetle property in Warwickshire? Captain
+Clavering, he wears a glove. He is a handy man." Doodles stared at
+her, understanding nothing of this. "Perhaps it is in your waistcoat
+pocket," and she approached him fearlessly, as though she were about
+to deprive him of his watch.
+
+"I don't know what you mean," said he, retreating.
+
+"Ah, you are not a handy man, like my friend the other captain, so
+you had better go away. Yes; you had better go to Warwickshire. In
+Warwickshire, I suppose, they make ready for your Michaelmas dinners.
+You have four months to get fat. Suppose you go away and get fat."
+
+Doodles understood nothing of her sarcasm, but began to perceive
+that he might as well take his departure. The woman was probably a
+lunatic, and his friend Archie had no doubt been grossly deceived
+when he was sent to her for assistance. He had some faint idea that
+the seventy pounds might be recovered from such a madwoman; but in
+the recovery his friend would be exposed, and he saw that the money
+must be abandoned. At any rate, he had not been soft enough to
+dispose of any more treasure.
+
+"Good-morning, ma'am," he said, very curtly.
+
+"Good-morning to you, Captain Booddle. Are you coming again another
+day?"
+
+"Not that I know of, ma'am."
+
+"You are very welcome to stay away. I like your friend the better.
+Tell him to come and be handy with his glove. As for you,--suppose
+you go to the leetle property."
+
+Then Captain Boodle went, and, as soon as he had made his way out
+into the open street, stood still and looked around him, that by the
+aspect of things familiar to his eyes he might be made certain that
+he was in a world with which he was conversant. While in that room
+with the Spy he had ceased to remember that he was in London,--his
+own London, within a mile of his club, within a mile of Tattersall's.
+He had been, as it were, removed to some strange world in which the
+tact, and courage, and acuteness natural to him had not been of avail
+to him. Madame Gordeloup had opened a new world to him,--a new world
+of which he desired to make no further experience. Gradually he
+began to understand why he had been desired to prepare himself for
+Michaelmas eating. Gradually some idea about Archie's glove glimmered
+across his brain. A wonderful woman certainly was the Russian spy,--a
+phenomenon which in future years he might perhaps be glad to remember
+that he had seen in the flesh. The first race-horse which he might
+ever own and name himself he would certainly call the Russian spy.
+In the meantime, as he slowly walked across Berkeley Square, he
+acknowledged to himself that she was not mad, and acknowledged also
+that the less said about that seventy pounds the better. From thence
+he crossed Piccadilly, and sauntered down St. James's Street into
+Pall Mall, revolving in his mind how he would carry himself with
+Clavvy. He, at any rate, had his ground for triumph. He had parted
+with no money, and had ascertained by his own wit that no available
+assistance from that quarter was to be had in the matter which his
+friend had in hand.
+
+It was some hours after this when the two friends met, and at that
+time Doodles was up to his eyes in chalk and the profitable delights
+of pool. But Archie was too intent on his business to pay much regard
+to his friend's proper avocation. "Well, Doodles," he said, hardly
+waiting till his ambassador had finished his stroke and laid his ball
+close waxed to one of the cushions. "Well; have you seen her?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I've seen her," said Doodles, seating himself on an exalted
+bench which ran round the room, while Archie, with anxious eyes,
+stood before him.
+
+"Well?" said Archie.
+
+"She's a rum 'un. Thank 'ee, Griggs; you always stand to me like a
+brick." This was said to a young lieutenant who had failed to hit the
+captain's ball, and now tendered him a shilling with a very bitter
+look.
+
+"She is queer," said Archie,--"certainly."
+
+"Queer! By George, I'll back her for the queerest bit of horseflesh
+going any way about these diggings. I thought she was mad at first,
+but I believe she knows what she's about."
+
+"She knows what she's about well enough. She's worth all the money if
+you can only get her to work."
+
+"Bosh, my dear fellow."
+
+"Why bosh? What's up now?"
+
+"Bosh! Bosh! Bosh! Me to play, is it?" Down he went, and not finding
+a good open for a hazard, again waxed himself to the cushion, to the
+infinite disgust of Griggs, who did indeed hit the ball this time,
+but in such a way as to make the loss of another life from Griggs'
+original three a matter of certainty. "I don't think it's hardly
+fair," whispered Griggs to a friend, "a man playing always for
+safety. It's not the game I like, and I shan't play at the same table
+with Doodles any more."
+
+"It's all bosh," repeated Doodles, coming back to his seat. "She
+don't mean to do anything, and never did. I've found her out."
+
+"Found out what?"
+
+"She's been laughing at you. She got your money out from under your
+glove, didn't she?"
+
+"Well, I did put it there."
+
+"Of course you did. I knew that I should find out what was what if
+I once went there. I got it all out of her. But, by George, what a
+woman she is! She swore at me to my very face."
+
+"Swore at you! In French you mean?"
+
+"No; not in French at all, but damned me in downright English. By
+George, how I did laugh!--me and everybody belonging to me. I'm
+blessed if she didn't."
+
+"There was nothing like that about her when I saw her."
+
+"You didn't turn her inside out as I've done; but stop half a
+moment." Then he descended, chalked away at his cue hastily, pocketed
+a shilling or two, and returned. "You didn't turn her inside out as
+I've done. I tell you, Clavvy, there's nothing to be done there, and
+there never was. If you'd kept on going yourself she'd have drained
+you as dry,--as dry as that table. There's your thirty pounds back,
+and, upon my word, old fellow, you ought to thank me."
+
+Archie did thank him, and Doodles was not without his triumph. Of
+the frequent references to Warwickshire which he had been forced
+to endure, he said nothing, nor yet of the reference to Michaelmas
+dinners; and, gradually, as he came to talk frequently to Archie of
+the Russian spy, and perhaps also to one or two others of his more
+intimate friends, he began to convince himself that he really had
+wormed the truth out of Madame Gordeloup, and got altogether the
+better of that lady, in a very wonderful way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+HARRY CLAVERING'S CONFESSION.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Harry Clavering, when he went away from Onslow Crescent, after his
+interview with Cecilia Burton, was a wretched, pitiable man. He had
+told the truth of himself, as far as he was able to tell it, to a
+woman whom he thoroughly esteemed, and having done so was convinced
+that she could no longer entertain any respect for him. He had laid
+bare to her all his weakness, and for a moment she had spurned him.
+It was true that she had again reconciled herself to him, struggling
+to save both him and her sister from future misery,--that she had
+even condescended to implore him to be gracious to Florence, taking
+that which to her mind seemed then to be the surest path to her
+object; but not the less did he feel that she must despise him.
+Having promised his hand to one woman,--to a woman whom he still
+professed that he loved dearly,--he had allowed himself to be cheated
+into offering it to another. And he knew that the cheating had been
+his own. It was he who had done the evil. Julia, in showing her
+affection for him, had tendered her love to a man whom she believed
+to be free. He had intended to walk straight. He had not allowed
+himself to be enamoured of the wealth possessed by this woman who
+had thrown herself at his feet. But he had been so weak that he had
+fallen in his own despite.
+
+There is, I suppose, no young man possessed of average talents and
+average education, who does not early in life lay out for himself
+some career with more or less precision,--some career which is high
+in its tendencies and noble in its aspirations, and to which he is
+afterwards compelled to compare the circumstances of the life which
+he shapes for himself. In doing this he may not attempt, perhaps, to
+lay down for himself any prescribed amount of success which he will
+endeavour to reach, or even the very pathway by which he will strive
+to be successful; but he will tell himself what are the vices which
+he will avoid, and what the virtues which he will strive to attain.
+Few young men ever did this with more precision than it had been done
+by Harry Clavering, and few with more self-confidence. Very early
+in life he had been successful,--so successful as to enable him to
+emancipate himself not only from his father's absolute control, but
+almost also from any interference on his father's part. It had seemed
+to be admitted that he was a better man than his father, better than
+the other Claverings,--the jewel of the race, the Clavering to whom
+the family would in future years look up, not as their actual head,
+but as their strongest prop and most assured support. He had said to
+himself that he would be an honest, truthful, hard-working man, not
+covetous after money, though conscious that a labourer was worthy of
+his hire, and conscious also that the better the work done the better
+should be his wages. Then he had encountered a blow,--a heavy blow
+from a false woman,--and he had boasted to himself that he had borne
+it well, as a man should bear all blows. And now, after all these
+resolves and all these boastings, he found himself brought by his own
+weakness to such a pass that he hardly dared to look in the face any
+of his dearest and most intimate friends.
+
+He was not remiss in telling himself all this. He did draw the
+comparison ruthlessly between the character which he had intended
+to make his own and that which he now had justly earned. He did not
+excuse himself. We are told to love others as ourselves, and it is
+hard to do so. But I think that we never hate others, never despise
+others, as we are sometimes compelled by our own convictions and
+self-judgment to hate and to despise ourselves. Harry, as he walked
+home on this evening, was lost in disgust at his own conduct. He
+could almost have hit his head against the walls, or thrown himself
+beneath the waggons as he passed them, so thoroughly was he ashamed
+of his own life. Even now, on this evening, he had escaped from
+Onslow Crescent,--basely escaped,--without having declared any
+purpose. Twice on this day he had escaped, almost by subterfuges;
+once from Burton's office, and now again from Cecilia's presence. How
+long was this to go on, or how could life be endurable to him under
+such circumstances?
+
+In parting from Cecilia, and promising to write at once, and
+promising to come again in a few days, he had had some idea in his
+head that he would submit his fate to the arbitrament of Lady Ongar.
+At any rate he must, he thought, see her, and finally arrange with
+her what the fate of both of them should be, before he could make any
+definite statement of his purpose in Onslow Crescent. The last tender
+of his hand had been made to Julia, and he could not renew his former
+promises on Florence's behalf, till he had been absolved by Julia.
+
+This may at any rate be pleaded on his behalf,--that in all the
+workings of his mind at this time there was very little of personal
+vanity. Very personally vain he had been when Julia Brabazon,--the
+beautiful and noble-born Julia,--had first confessed at Clavering
+that she loved him; but that vanity had been speedily knocked on its
+head by her conduct to him. Men when they are jilted can hardly be
+vain of the conquest which has led to such a result. Since that there
+had been no vanity of that sort. His love to Florence had been open,
+honest, and satisfactory, but he had not considered himself to have
+achieved a wonderful triumph at Stratton. And when he found that
+Lord Ongar's widow still loved him,--that he was still regarded with
+affection by the woman who had formerly wounded him,--there was too
+much of pain, almost of tragedy, in his position, to admit of vanity.
+He would say to himself that, as far as he knew his own heart, he
+thought he loved Julia the best; but, nevertheless, he thoroughly
+wished that she had not returned from Italy, or that he had not seen
+her when she had so returned.
+
+He had promised to write, and that he would do this very night. He
+had failed to make Cecilia Burton understand what he intended to do,
+having, indeed, hardly himself resolved; but before he went to bed
+he would both resolve and explain to her his resolution. Immediately,
+therefore, on his return home he sat down at his desk with the pen in
+his hand and the paper before him.
+
+At last the words came. I can hardly say that they were the product
+of any fixed resolve made before he commenced the writing. I think
+that his mind worked more fully when the pen was in his hands than
+it had done during the hour through which he sat listless, doing
+nothing, struggling to have a will of his own, but failing. The
+letter when it was written was as follows:--
+
+
+   Bloomsbury Square, May, 186--.
+
+   DEAREST MRS. BURTON,--I said that I would write to-morrow,
+   but I am writing now, immediately on my return home.
+   Whatever else you may think of me, pray be sure of this,
+   that I am most anxious to make you know and understand my
+   own position at any rate as well as I do myself. I tried
+   to explain it to you when I was with you this evening, but
+   I fear that I failed; and when Mr. Burton came in I could
+   not say anything further.
+
+   I know that I have behaved very badly to your
+   sister,--very badly, even though she should never become
+   aware that I have done so. Not that that is possible, for
+   if she were to be my wife to-morrow I should tell her
+   everything. But badly as you must think of me, I have
+   never for a moment had a premeditated intention to deceive
+   her. I believe you do know on what terms I had stood with
+   Miss Brabazon before her marriage, and that when she
+   married, whatever my feelings might be, there was no
+   self-accusation. And after that you know all that took
+   place between me and Florence till the return of Lord
+   Ongar's widow. Up to that time everything had been fair
+   between us. I had told Florence of my former attachment,
+   and she probably thought but little of it. Such things are
+   so common with men! Some change happens as had happened
+   with me, and a man's second love is often stronger and
+   more worthy of a woman's acceptance than the first. At any
+   rate, she knew it, and there was, so far, an end of it.
+   And you understood, also, how very anxious I was to avoid
+   delay in our marriage. No one knows that better than
+   you,--not even Florence,--for I have talked it over with
+   you so often; and you will remember how I have begged you
+   to assist me. I don't blame my darling Florence. She was
+   doing what she deemed best; but oh, if she had only been
+   guided by what you once said to her!
+
+   Then Lord Ongar's widow returned; and dear Mrs. Burton,
+   though I fear you think ill of her, you must remember that
+   as far as you know, or I, she has done nothing wrong, has
+   been in no respect false, since her marriage. As to her
+   early conduct to me, she did what many women have done,
+   but what no woman should do. But how can I blame her,
+   knowing how terrible has been my own weakness! But as to
+   her conduct since her marriage, I implore you to believe
+   with me that she has been sinned against grievously, and
+   has not sinned. Well; as you know, I met her. It was
+   hardly unnatural that I should do so, as we are connected.
+   But whether natural or unnatural, foolish or wise, I went
+   to her often. I thought at first that she must know of
+   my engagement as her sister knew it well, and had met
+   Florence. But she did not know it; and so, having none
+   near her that she could love, hardly a friend but myself,
+   grievously wronged by the world and her own relatives,
+   thinking that with her wealth she could make some amends
+   to me for her former injury, she--. Dear Mrs. Burton, I
+   think you will understand it now, and will see that she at
+   least is free from blame.
+
+   I am not defending myself; of course all this should have
+   been without effect on me. But I had loved her so dearly!
+   I do love her still so dearly! Love like that does not
+   die. When she left me it was natural that I should seek
+   some one else to love. When she returned to me,--when I
+   found that in spite of her faults she had loved me through
+   it all, I--I yielded and became false and a traitor.
+
+   I say that I love her still; but I know well that Florence
+   is far the nobler woman of the two. Florence never
+   could have done what she did. In nature, in mind, in
+   acquirement, in heart, Florence is the better. The man who
+   marries Florence must be happy if any woman can make a man
+   happy. Of her of whom I am now speaking, I know well that
+   I cannot say that. How then, you will ask, can I be fool
+   enough, having had such a choice, to doubt between the
+   two! How is it that man doubts between vice and virtue,
+   between honour and dishonour, between heaven and hell?
+
+   But all this is nothing to you. I do not know whether
+   Florence would take me now. I am well aware that I have no
+   right to expect that she should. But if I understood you
+   aright this evening, she, as yet, has heard nothing of all
+   this. What must she think of me for not writing to her!
+   But I could not bring myself to write in a false spirit;
+   and how could I tell her all that I have now told to you?
+
+   I know that you wish that our engagement should go on.
+   Dear Mrs. Burton, I love you so dearly for wishing it! Mr.
+   Burton, when he shall have heard everything, will, I fear,
+   think differently. For me, I feel that I must see Lady
+   Ongar before I can again go to your house, and I write now
+   chiefly to tell you that this is what I have determined to
+   do. I believe she is now away, in the Isle of Wight, but
+   I will see her as soon as she returns. After that I will
+   either come to Onslow Crescent or send. Florence will be
+   with you then. She of course must know everything, and you
+   have my permission to show this letter to her if you think
+   well to do so.--Most sincerely and affectionately yours,
+
+   HARRY CLAVERING.
+
+
+This he delivered himself the next morning at the door in Onslow
+Crescent, taking care not to be there till after Theodore Burton
+should have gone from home. He left a card also, so that it might
+be known, not only that he had brought it himself, but that he had
+intended Mrs. Burton to be aware of that fact. Then he went and
+wandered about, and passed his day in misery, as such men do when
+they are thoroughly discontented with their own conduct. This was
+the Saturday on which Lady Ongar returned with her Sophie from the
+Isle of Wight; but of that premature return Harry knew nothing, and
+therefore allowed the Sunday to pass by without going to Bolton
+Street. On the Monday morning he received a letter from home which
+made it necessary,--or induced him to suppose it to be necessary,
+that he should go home to Clavering, at any rate for one day. This he
+did on the Monday, sending a line to Mrs. Burton to say whither he
+was gone, and that he should be back by Wednesday night or Thursday
+morning,--and imploring her to give his love to Florence, if she
+would venture to do so. Mrs. Burton would know what must be his first
+business in London on his return, and she might be sure he would come
+or send to Onslow Crescent as soon as that was over.
+
+Harry's letter,--the former and longer letter, Cecilia had read over,
+till she nearly knew it by heart, before her husband's return. She
+well understood that he would be very hard upon Harry. He had been
+inclined to forgive Clavering for what had been remiss,--to forgive
+the silence, the absence from the office, and the want of courtesy
+to his wife, till Harry had confessed his sin;--but he could not
+endure that his sister should seek the hand of a man who had declared
+himself to be in doubt whether he would take it, or that any one
+should seek it for her, in her ignorance of all the truth. His wife,
+on the other hand, simply looked to Florence's comfort and happiness.
+That Florence should not suffer the pang of having been deceived and
+rejected was all in all to Cecilia. "Of course she must know it some
+day," the wife had pleaded to her husband. "He is not the man to
+keep anything secret. But if she is told when he has returned to her,
+and is good to her, the happiness of the return will cure the other
+misery." But Burton would not submit to this. "To be comfortable at
+present is not everything," he said. "If the man be so miserably weak
+that he does not even now know his own mind, Florence had better take
+her punishment, and be quit of him."
+
+Cecilia had narrated to him with passable fidelity what had occurred
+upstairs, while he was sitting alone in the dining-room. That she,
+in her anger, had at one moment spurned Harry Clavering, and that
+in the next she had knelt to him, imploring him to come back to
+Florence,--those two little incidents she did not tell to her
+husband. Harry's adventures with Lady Ongar, as far as she knew them,
+she described accurately. "I can't make any apology for him; upon my
+life I can't," said Burton. "If I know what it is for a man to behave
+ill, falsely, like a knave in such matters, he is so behaving." So
+Theodore Burton spoke as he took his candle to go away to his work;
+but his wife had induced him to promise that he would not write to
+Stratton or take any other step in the matter till they had waited
+twenty-four hours for Harry's promised letter.
+
+The letter came before the twenty-four hours were expired, and
+Burton, on his return home on the Saturday, found himself called upon
+to read and pass judgment upon Harry's confession. "What right has he
+to speak of her as his darling Florence," he exclaimed, "while he is
+confessing his own knavery?"
+
+"But if she is his darling--?" pleaded his wife.
+
+"Trash! But the word from him in such a letter is simply an
+additional insult. And what does he know about this woman who has
+come back? He vouches for her, but what can he know of her? Just what
+she tells him. He is simply a fool."
+
+"But you cannot dislike him for believing her word."
+
+"Cecilia," said he, holding down the letter as he spoke,--"you are so
+carried away by your love for Florence, and your fear lest a marriage
+which has been once talked of should not take place, that you shut
+your eyes to this man's true character. Can you believe any good of
+a man who tells you to your face that he is engaged to two women at
+once?"
+
+"I think I can," said Cecilia, hardly venturing to express so
+dangerous an opinion above her breath.
+
+"And what would you think of a woman who did so?"
+
+"Ah, that is so different! I cannot explain it, but you know that it
+is different."
+
+"I know that you would forgive a man anything, and a woman nothing."
+To this she submitted in silence, having probably heard the reproof
+before, and he went on to finish the letter. "Not defending himself!"
+he exclaimed,--"then why does he not defend himself? When a man tells
+me that he does not, or cannot defend himself, I know that he is a
+sorry fellow, without a spark of spirit."
+
+"I don't think that of Harry. Surely that letter shows a spirit."
+
+"Such a one as I should be ashamed to see in a dog. No man should
+ever be in a position in which he cannot defend himself. No man, at
+any rate, should admit himself to be so placed. Wish that he should
+go on with his engagement! I do not wish it at all. I am sorry for
+Florence. She will suffer terribly. But the loss of such a lover as
+that is infinitely a lesser loss than would be the gain of such a
+husband. You had better write to Florence, and tell her not to come."
+
+"Oh, Theodore!"
+
+"That is my advice."
+
+"But there is no post between this and Monday," said Cecilia
+temporizing.
+
+"Send her a message by the wires."
+
+"You cannot explain this by a telegram, Theodore. Besides, why should
+she not come? Her coming can do no harm. If you were to tell your
+mother now of all this, it would prevent the possibility of things
+ever being right."
+
+"Things,--that is, this thing, never will be right," said he.
+
+"But let us see. She will be here on Monday, and if you think it best
+you can tell her everything. Indeed, she must be told when she is
+here, for I could not keep it from her. I could not smile and talk to
+her about him and make her think that it is all right."
+
+"Not you! I should be very sorry if you could."
+
+"But I think I could make her understand that she should not decide
+upon breaking with him altogether."
+
+"And I think I could make her understand that she ought to do so."
+
+"But you wouldn't do that, Theodore?"
+
+"I would if I thought it my duty."
+
+"But at any rate, she must come, and we can talk of that to-morrow."
+
+As to Florence's coming, Burton had given way, beaten, apparently,
+by that argument about the post. On the Sunday very little was said
+about Harry Clavering. Cecilia studiously avoided the subject, and
+Burton had not so far decided on dropping Harry altogether, as to
+make him anxious to express any such decision. After all, such
+dropping or not dropping must be the work of Florence herself. On the
+Monday morning Cecilia had a further triumph. On that day her husband
+was very fully engaged,--having to meet a synod of contractors,
+surveyors, and engineers, to discuss which of the remaining
+thoroughfares of London should not be knocked down by the coming
+railways,--and he could not absent himself from the Adelphi. It was,
+therefore, arranged that Mrs. Burton should go to the Paddington
+Station to meet her sister-in-law. She therefore would have the first
+word with Florence, and the earliest opportunity of impressing the
+new-comer with her own ideas. "Of course, you must say something to
+her of this man," said her husband, "but the less you say the better.
+After all she must be left to judge for herself." In all matters
+such as this,--in all affairs of tact, of social intercourse, and
+of conduct between man and man, or man and woman, Mr. Burton was
+apt to be eloquent in his domestic discussion, and sometimes almost
+severe;--but the final arrangement of them was generally left to his
+wife. He enunciated principles of strategy,--much, no doubt, to her
+benefit; but she actually fought the battles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+FLORENCE BURTON PACKS UP A PACKET.
+
+
+Though nobody had expressed to Florence at Stratton any fear of Harry
+Clavering's perfidy, that young lady was not altogether easy in her
+mind. Weeks and weeks had passed, and she had not heard from him.
+Her mother was manifestly uneasy, and had announced some days before
+Florence's departure, her surprise and annoyance in not having heard
+from her eldest son. When Florence inquired as to the subject of the
+expected letter, her mother put the question aside, saying, with
+a little assumed irritability, that of course she liked to get an
+answer to her letters when she took the trouble to write them. And
+when the day for Florence's journey drew nigh, the old lady became
+more and more uneasy,--showing plainly that she wished her daughter
+was not going to London. But Florence, as she was quite determined to
+go, said nothing to all this. Her father also was uneasy, and neither
+of them had for some days named her lover in her hearing. She knew
+that there was something wrong, and felt that it was better that she
+should go to London and learn the truth.
+
+No female heart was ever less prone to suspicion than the heart of
+Florence Burton. Among those with whom she had been most intimate
+nothing had occurred to teach her that men could be false, or women
+either. When she had heard from Harry Clavering the story of Julia
+Brabazon, she had, not making much accusation against the sinner in
+speech, put Julia down in the books of her mind as a bold, bad woman
+who could forget her sex, and sell her beauty and her womanhood
+for money. There might be such a woman here and there, or such a
+man. There were murderers in the world,--but the bulk of mankind
+is not made subject to murderers. Florence had never considered
+the possibility that she herself could become liable to such a
+misfortune. And then, when the day came that she was engaged, her
+confidence in the man chosen by her was unlimited. Such love as hers
+rarely suspects. He with whom she had to do was Harry Clavering, and
+therefore she could not be deceived. Moreover she was supported by
+a self-respect and a self-confidence which did not at first allow
+her to dream that a man who had once loved her would ever wish to
+leave her. It was to her as though a sacrament as holy as that of
+the church had passed between them, and she could not easily bring
+herself to think that that sacrament had been as nothing to Harry
+Clavering. But nevertheless there was something wrong, and when she
+left her father's house at Stratton, she was well aware that she
+must prepare herself for tidings that might be evil. She could bear
+anything, she thought, without disgracing herself; but there were
+tidings which might send her back to Stratton a broken woman, fit
+perhaps to comfort the declining years of her father and mother, but
+fit for nothing else.
+
+Her mother watched her closely as she sat at her breakfast that
+morning, but much could not be gained by watching Florence Burton
+when Florence wished to conceal her thoughts. Many messages were sent
+to Theodore, to Cecilia, and to the children, messages to others of
+the Burton clan who were in town, but not a word was said of Harry
+Clavering. The very absence of his name was enough to make them
+all wretched, but Florence bore it as the Spartan boy bore the fox
+beneath his tunic. Mrs. Burton could hardly keep herself from a burst
+of indignation; but she had been strongly warned by her husband, and
+restrained herself till Florence was gone. "If he is playing her
+false," said she, as soon as she was alone with her old husband,
+"he shall suffer for it, though I have to tear his face with my own
+fingers."
+
+"Nonsense, my dear; nonsense."
+
+"It is not nonsense, Mr. Burton. A gentleman, indeed! He is to be
+allowed to be dishonest to my girl because he is a gentleman! I wish
+there was no such thing as a gentleman;--so I do. Perhaps there would
+be more honest men then." It was unendurable to her that a girl of
+hers should be so treated.
+
+Immediately on the arrival of the train at the London platform,
+Florence espied Cecilia, and in a minute was in her arms. There was a
+special tenderness in her sister-in-law's caress, which at once told
+Florence that her fears had not been without cause. Who has not felt
+the evil tidings conveyed by the exaggerated tenderness of a special
+kiss? But while on the platform and among the porters she said
+nothing of herself. She asked after Theodore and heard of the railway
+confederacy with a shew of delight. "He'd like to make a line from
+Hyde Park Corner to the Tower of London," said Florence, with a
+smile. Then she asked after the children, and specially for the
+baby; but as yet she spoke no word of Harry Clavering. The trunk and
+the bag were at last found; and the two ladies were packed into a
+cab, and had started. Cecilia, when they were seated, got hold of
+Florence's hand, and pressed it warmly. "Dearest," she said, "I am
+so glad to have you with us once again." "And now," said Florence,
+speaking with a calmness that was almost unnatural, "tell me all the
+truth."
+
+All the truth! What a demand it was. And yet Cecilia had expected
+that none less would be made upon her. Of course Florence must have
+known that there was something wrong. Of course she would ask as to
+her lover immediately upon her arrival. "And now tell me all the
+truth."
+
+"Oh, Florence!"
+
+"The truth, then, is very bad?" said Florence, gently. "Tell me first
+of all whether you have seen him. Is he ill?"
+
+"He was with us on Friday. He is not ill."
+
+"Thank God for that. Has anything happened to him? Has he lost
+money?"
+
+"No; I have heard nothing about money."
+
+"Then he is tired of me. Tell me at once, my own one. You know me
+so well. You know I can bear it. Don't treat me as though I were a
+coward."
+
+"No; it is not that. It is not that he is tired of you. If you had
+heard him speak of you on Friday,--that you were the noblest, purest,
+dearest, best of women--" This was imprudent on her part; but what
+loving woman could at such a moment have endured to be prudent?
+
+"Then what is it?" asked Florence, almost sternly. "Look here,
+Cecilia; if it be anything touching himself or his own character, I
+will put up with it, in spite of anything my brother may say. Though
+he had been a murderer, if that were possible, I would not leave him.
+I will never leave him unless he leaves me. Where is he now, at this
+moment?"
+
+"He is in town." Mrs. Burton had not received Harry's note, telling
+her of his journey to Clavering, before she had left home. Now at
+this moment it was waiting for her in Onslow Crescent.
+
+"And am I to see him? Cecilia, why cannot you tell me how it is? In
+such a case I should tell you,--should tell you everything at once;
+because I know that you are not a coward. Why cannot you do so to
+me?"
+
+"You have heard of Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Heard of her;--yes. She treated Harry very badly before her
+marriage."
+
+"She has come back to London, a widow."
+
+"I know she has. And Harry has gone back to her! Is that it? Do you
+mean to tell me that Harry and Lady Ongar are to be married?"
+
+"No; I cannot say that. I hope it is not so. Indeed, I do not think
+it."
+
+"Then what have I to fear? Does she object to his marrying me? What
+has she to do between us?"
+
+"She wishes that Harry should come back to her, and Harry has been
+unsteady. He has been with her often; and he has been very weak. It
+may be all right yet, Flo; it may indeed,--if you can forgive his
+weakness."
+
+Something of the truth had now come home to Florence, and she sat
+thinking of it long before she spoke again. This widow, she knew, was
+very wealthy, and Harry had loved her before he had come to Stratton.
+Harry's first love had come back free,--free to wed again, and
+able to make the fortune of the man she might love and marry. What
+had Florence to give to any man that could be weighed with this?
+Lady Ongar was very rich. Florence had already heard all this from
+Harry,--was very rich, was clever, and was beautiful; and moreover
+she had been Harry's first love. Was it reasonable that she with her
+little claims, her puny attractions, should stand in Harry's way when
+such a prize as that came across him! And as for his weakness;--might
+it not be strength, rather than weakness;--the strength of an old
+love which he could not quell, now that the woman was free to take
+him? For herself,--had she not known that she had only come second?
+As she thought of him with his noble bride and that bride's great
+fortune, and of her own insignificance, her low birth, her doubtful
+prettiness,--prettiness that had ever been doubtful to herself, of
+her few advantages, she told herself that she had no right to stand
+upon her claims. "I wish I had known it sooner," she said, in a voice
+so soft that Cecilia strained her ears to catch the words. "I wish I
+had known it sooner. I would not have come up to be in his way."
+
+"But you will be in no one's way, Flo, unless it be in hers."
+
+"And I will not be in hers," said Florence, speaking somewhat louder,
+and raising her head in pride as she spoke. "I will be neither in
+hers nor in his. I think I will go back at once."
+
+Cecilia upon this, ventured to look round at her, and saw that she
+was very pale, but that her eyes were dry and her lips pressed close
+together. It had not occurred to Mrs. Burton that her sister-in-law
+would take it in this way,--that she would express herself as being
+willing to give way, and that she would at once surrender her lover
+to her rival. The married woman, she who was already happy with a
+husband, having enlisted all her sympathies on the side of a marriage
+between Florence and Harry Clavering, could by no means bring herself
+to agree to this view. No one liked success better than Cecilia
+Burton, and to her success would consist in rescuing Harry from Lady
+Ongar and securing him for Florence. In fighting this battle she had
+found that she would have against her Lady Ongar--of course, and then
+her husband, and Harry himself too, as she feared; and now also she
+must reckon Florence also among her opponents. But she could not
+endure the idea of failing in such a cause. "Oh, Florence, I think
+you are so wrong," she said.
+
+"You would feel as I do, if you were in my place."
+
+"But people cannot always judge best when they feel the most. What
+you should think of is his happiness."
+
+"So I do;--and of his future career."
+
+"Career! I hate to hear of careers. Men do not want careers, or
+should not want them. Could it be good for him to marry a woman who
+has been false--who has done as she has, simply because she has made
+herself rich by her wickedness? Do you believe so much in riches
+yourself?"
+
+"If he loves her best, I will not blame him," said Florence. "He knew
+her before he had seen me. He was quite honest and told me all the
+story. It is not his fault if he still likes her the best."
+
+When they reached Onslow Crescent, the first half-hour was spent with
+the children, as to whom Florence could not but observe that even
+from their mouths the name of Harry Clavering was banished. But she
+played with Cissy and Sophie, giving them their little presents from
+Stratton; and sat with the baby in her lap, kissing his pink feet and
+making little soft noises for his behoof, sweetly as she might have
+done if no terrible crisis in her own life had now come upon her. Not
+a tear as yet had moistened her eyes, and Cecilia was partly aware
+that Florence's weeping would be done in secret. "Come up with me
+into my own room;--I have something to show you," she said, as the
+nurse took the baby at last; and Cissy and Sophie were at the same
+time sent away with their brother. "As I came in I got a note from
+Harry, but, before you see that, I must show you the letter which
+he wrote to me on Friday. He has gone down to Clavering,--on some
+business,--for one day." Mrs. Burton, in her heart, could hardly
+acquit him of having run out of town at the moment to avoid the
+arrival of Florence.
+
+They went upstairs, and the note was, in fact, read before the
+letter. "I hope there is nothing wrong at the parsonage," said
+Florence.
+
+"You see he says he will be back after one day."
+
+"Perhaps he has gone to tell them,--of this change in his prospects."
+
+"No, dear, no; you do not yet understand his feelings. Read his
+letter, and you will know more. If there is to be a change, he is at
+any rate too much ashamed of it to speak of it. He does not wish it
+himself. It is simply this,--that she has thrown herself in his way,
+and he has not known how to avoid her."
+
+Then Florence read the letter very slowly, going over most of the
+sentences more than once, and struggling to learn from them what were
+really the wishes of the writer. When she came to Harry's exculpation
+of Lady Ongar, she believed it thoroughly, and said so,--meeting,
+however, a direct contradiction on that point from her sister-in-law.
+When she had finished it, she folded it up and gave it back. "Cissy,"
+she said, "I know that I ought to go back. I do not want to see him,
+and I am glad that he has gone away."
+
+"But you do not mean to give him up?"
+
+"Yes, dearest."
+
+"But you said you would never leave him, unless he left you."
+
+"He has left me."
+
+"No, Florence; not so. Do you not see what he says;--that he knows
+you are the only woman that can make him happy?"
+
+"He has not said that; but if he had, it would make no matter.
+He understands well how it is. He says that I could not take him
+now,--even if he came to me; and I cannot. How could I? What! wish to
+marry a man who does not love me, who loves another, when I know that
+I am regarded simply as a barrier between them; when by doing so I
+should mar his fortunes? Cissy, dear, when you think of it, you will
+not wish it."
+
+"Mar his fortunes! It would make them. I do wish it,--and he wishes
+it too. I tell you that I had him here, and I know it. Why should you
+be sacrificed?"
+
+"What is the meaning of self-denial, if no one can bear to suffer?"
+
+"But he will suffer too,--and all for her caprices! You cannot really
+think that her money would do him any good. Who would ever speak to
+him again, or even see him? What would the world say of him? Why, his
+own father and mother and sisters would disown him, if they are such
+as you say they are."
+
+Florence would not argue it further, but went to her room, and
+remained there alone till Cecilia came to tell her that her brother
+had returned. What weeping there may have been there, need not be
+told. Indeed, as I think, there was not much, for Florence was a
+girl whose education had not brought her into the way of hysterical
+sensations. The Burtons were an active, energetic people who
+sympathized with each other in labour and success,--and in endurance
+also; but who had little sympathy to express for the weaknesses of
+grief. When her children had stumbled in their play, bruising their
+little noses, and barking their little shins, Mrs. Burton, the elder,
+had been wont to bid them rise, asking them what their legs were for,
+if they could not stand. So they had dried their own little eyes with
+their own little fists, and had learned to understand that the rubs
+of the world were to be borne in silence. This rub that had come to
+Florence was of grave import, and had gone deeper than the outward
+skin; but still the old lesson had its effect.
+
+Florence rose from the bed on which she was lying, and prepared to
+come down. "Do not commit yourself to him, as to anything," said
+Cecilia.
+
+"I understand what that means," Florence answered. "He thinks as I
+do. But never mind. He will not say much, and I shall say less. It is
+bad to talk of this to any man,--even to a brother."
+
+Burton also received his sister with that exceptional affection which
+declares pity for some overwhelming misfortune. He kissed her lips,
+which was rare with him, for he would generally but just touch her
+forehead, and he put his hand behind her waist and partly embraced
+her. "Did Cissy manage to find you at the station?"
+
+"Oh, yes;--easily."
+
+"Theodore thinks that a woman is no good for any such purpose as
+that," said Cecilia. "It is a wonder to him, no doubt, that we are
+not now wandering about London in search of each other,--and of him."
+
+"I think she would have got home quicker if I could have been there,"
+said Burton.
+
+"We were in a cab in one minute;--weren't we, Florence? The
+difference would have been that you would have given a porter
+sixpence,--and I gave him a shilling, having bespoken him before."
+
+"And Theodore's time was worth the sixpence, I suppose," said
+Florence.
+
+"That depends," said Cecilia. "How did the synod go on?"
+
+"The synod made an ass of itself;--as synods always do. It is
+necessary to get a lot of men together, for the show of the
+thing,--otherwise the world will not believe. That is the meaning of
+committees. But the real work must always be done by one or two men.
+Come;--I'll go and get ready for dinner."
+
+The subject,--the one real subject, had thus been altogether avoided
+at this first meeting with the man of the house, and the evening
+passed without any allusion to it. Much was made of the children,
+and much was said of the old people at home; but still there was
+a consciousness over them all that the one matter of importance
+was being kept in the background. They were all thinking of Harry
+Clavering, but no one mentioned his name. They all knew that they
+were unhappy and heavy-hearted through his fault, but no one blamed
+him. He had been received in that house with open arms, had been
+warmed in their bosom, and had stung them; but though they were all
+smarting from the sting, they uttered no complaint. Burton had made
+up his mind that it would be better to pass over the matter thus in
+silence,--to say nothing further of Harry Clavering. A misfortune
+had come upon them. They must bear it, and go on as before. Harry
+had been admitted into the London office on the footing of a paid
+clerk,--on the same footing, indeed, as Burton himself, though with
+a much smaller salary and inferior work. This position had been
+accorded to him of course through the Burton interest, and it was
+understood that if he chose to make himself useful, he could rise
+in the business as Theodore had risen. But he could only do so as
+one of the Burtons. For the last three months he had declined to
+take his salary, alleging that private affairs had kept him away
+from the office. It was to the hands of Theodore Burton himself that
+such matters came for management, and therefore there had been no
+necessity for further explanation. Harry Clavering would of course
+leave the house, and there would be an end of him in the records of
+the Burton family. He would have come and made his mark,--a terrible
+mark, and would have passed on. Those whom he had bruised by his
+cruelty, and knocked over by his treachery, must get to their feet
+again as best they could, and say as little as might be of their
+fall. There are knaves in this world, and no one can suppose that
+he has a special right to be exempted from their knavery because he
+himself is honest. It is on the honest that the knaves prey. That
+was Burton's theory in this matter. He would learn from Cecilia
+how Florence was bearing herself; but to Florence herself he would
+say little or nothing if she bore with patience and dignity, as he
+believed she would, the calamity which had befallen her.
+
+But he must write to his mother. The old people at Stratton must not
+be left in the dark as to what was going on. He must write to his
+mother, unless he could learn from his wife that Florence herself had
+communicated to them at home the fact of Harry's iniquity. But he
+asked no question as to this on the first night, and on the following
+morning he went off, having simply been told that Florence had seen
+Harry's letter, that she knew all, and that she was carrying herself
+like an angel.
+
+"Not like an angel that hopes?" said Theodore.
+
+"Let her alone for a day or two," said Cecilia. "Of course she must
+have a few days to think of it. I need hardly tell you that you will
+never have to be ashamed of your sister."
+
+The Tuesday and the Wednesday passed by, and though Cecilia and
+Florence when together discussed the matter, no change was made in
+the wishes or thoughts of either of them. Florence, now that she was
+in town, had consented to remain till after Harry should return, on
+the understanding that she should not be called upon to see him. He
+was to be told that she forgave him altogether,--that his troth was
+returned to him and that he was free, but that in such circumstances
+a meeting between them could be of no avail. And then a little packet
+was made up, which was to be given to him. How was it that Florence
+had brought with her all his presents and all his letters? But there
+they were in her box upstairs, and sitting by herself, with weary
+fingers, she packed them, and left them packed under lock and key,
+addressed by herself to Harry Clavering, Esq. Oh, the misery of
+packing such a parcel! The feeling with which a woman does it
+is never encountered by a man. He chucks the things together in
+wrath,--the lock of hair, the letters in the pretty Italian hand
+that have taken so much happy care in the writing, the jewelled
+shirt-studs, which were first put in by the fingers that gave them.
+They are thrown together, and given to some other woman to deliver.
+But the girl lingers over her torture. She reads the letters again.
+She thinks of the moments of bliss which each little toy has given.
+She is loth to part with everything. She would fain keep some one
+thing,--the smallest of them all. She doubts,--till a feeling of
+maidenly reserve constrains her at last, and the coveted trifle, with
+careful, painstaking fingers, is put with the rest, and the parcel is
+made complete, and the address is written with precision.
+
+
+[Illustration: Florence Burton makes up a packet.]
+
+
+"Of course I cannot see him," said Florence. "You will hand to him
+what I have to send to him; and you must ask him, if he has kept any
+of my letters, to return them." She said nothing of the shirt-studs,
+but he would understand that. As for the lock of hair,--doubtless it
+had been burned.
+
+Cecilia said but little in answer to this. She would not as yet look
+upon the matter as Florence looked at it, and as Theodore did also.
+Harry was to be back in town on Thursday morning. He could not,
+probably, be seen or heard of on that day, because of his visit to
+Lady Ongar. It was absolutely necessary that he should see Lady Ongar
+before he could come to Onslow Terrace, with possibility of becoming
+once more the old Harry Clavering whom they were all to love. But
+Mrs. Burton would by no means give up all hope. It was useless to say
+anything to Florence, but she still hoped that good might come.
+
+And then, as she thought of it all, a project came into her head.
+Alas, and alas! Was she not too late with her project? Why had she
+not thought of it on the Tuesday or early on the Wednesday, when it
+might possibly have been executed? But it was a project which she
+must have kept secret from her husband, of which he would by no means
+have approved; and as she remembered this, she told herself that
+perhaps it was as well that things should take their own course
+without such interference as she had contemplated.
+
+On the Thursday morning there came to her a letter in a strange hand.
+It was from Clavering,--from Harry's mother. Mrs. Clavering wrote,
+as she said, at her son's request, to say that he was confined to
+his bed, and could not be in London as soon as he expected. Mrs.
+Burton was not to suppose that he was really ill, and none of the
+family were to be frightened. From this Mrs. Burton learned that Mrs.
+Clavering knew nothing of Harry's apostasy. The letter went on to
+say that Harry would write as soon as he himself was able, and would
+probably be in London early next week,--at any rate before the end
+of it. He was a little feverish, but there was no cause for alarm.
+Florence, of course, could only listen and turn pale. Now at any rate
+she must remain in London.
+
+Mrs. Burton's project might, after all, be feasible; but then what if
+her husband should really be angry with her? That was a misfortune
+which never yet had come upon her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+SHOWING WHY HARRY CLAVERING WAS WANTED AT THE RECTORY.
+
+
+The letter which had summoned Harry to the parsonage had been from
+his mother, and had begged him to come to Clavering at once, as
+trouble had come upon them from an unexpected source. His father
+had quarrelled with Mr. Saul. The rector and the curate had had an
+interview, in which there had been high words, and Mr. Clavering had
+refused to see Mr. Saul again. Fanny also was in great trouble,--and
+the parish was, as it were, in hot water. Mrs. Clavering thought that
+Harry had better run down to Clavering, and see Mr. Saul. Harry, not
+unwillingly, acceded to his mother's request, much wondering at the
+source of this new misfortune. As to Fanny, she, as he believed, had
+held out no encouragement to Mr. Saul's overtures. When Mr. Saul had
+proposed to her,--making that first offer of which Harry had been
+aware,--nothing could have been more steadfast than her rejection
+of the gentleman's hand. Harry had regarded Mr. Saul as little less
+than mad to think of such a thing, but, thinking of him as a man
+very different in his ways and feelings from other men, had believed
+that he might go on at Clavering comfortably as curate in spite of
+that little accident. It appeared, however, that he was not going on
+comfortably; but Harry, when he left London, could not quite imagine
+how such violent discomfort should have arisen that the rector and
+the curate should be unable to meet each other. If the reader will
+allow me, I will go back a little and explain this.
+
+The reader already knows what Fanny's brother did not know,--namely,
+that Mr. Saul had pressed his suit again, and had pressed it very
+strongly; and he also knows that Fanny's reception of the second
+offer was very different from her reception of the first. She had
+begun to doubt;--to doubt whether her first judgment as to Mr. Saul's
+character had not been unjust,--to doubt whether, in addressing her,
+he was not right, seeing that his love for her was so strong,--to
+doubt whether she did not like him better than she had thought she
+did,--to doubt whether an engagement with a penniless curate was
+in truth a position utterly to be reprehended and avoided. Young
+penniless curates must love somebody as well as young beneficed
+vicars and rectors. And then Mr. Saul pleaded his cause so well!
+
+She did not at once speak to her mother on the matter, and the fact
+that she had a secret made her very wretched. She had left Mr. Saul
+in doubt, giving him no answer, and he had said that he would ask her
+again in a few days what was to be his fate. She hardly knew how to
+tell her mother of this till she had told herself what were her own
+wishes. She thoroughly desired to have her mother in her confidence,
+and promised herself that it should be so before Mr. Saul renewed his
+suit. He was a man who was never hurried or impatient in his doings.
+But Fanny put off the interview with her mother,--put off her own
+final resolution, till it was too late, and Mr. Saul came upon her
+again, when she was but ill-prepared for him.
+
+A woman, when she doubts whether she loves or does not love, is
+inclined five parts out of six towards the man of whom she is
+thinking. When a woman doubts she is lost, the cynics say. I simply
+assert, being no cynic, that when a woman doubts she is won. The more
+Fanny thought of Mr. Saul, the more she felt that he was not the man
+for which she had first taken him,--that he was of larger dimensions
+as regarded spirit, manhood, and heart, and better entitled to a
+woman's love. She would not tell herself that she was attached to
+him; but in all her arguments with herself against him, she rested
+her objection mainly on the fact that he had but seventy pounds a
+year. And then the threatened attack, the attack that was to be
+final, came upon her before she was prepared for it!
+
+They had been together as usual during the intervening time. It was,
+indeed, impossible that they should not be together. Since she had
+first begun to doubt about Mr. Saul, she had been more diligent than
+heretofore in visiting the poor and in attending to her school, as
+though she were recognizing the duty which would specially be hers if
+she were to marry such a one as he. And thus they had been brought
+together more than ever. All this her mother had seen, and seeing,
+had trembled; but she had not thought it wise to say anything till
+Fanny should speak. Fanny was very good and very prudent. It could
+not be but that Fanny should know how impossible must be such a
+marriage. As to the rector, he had no suspicions on the matter. Saul
+had made himself an ass on one occasion, and there had been an end of
+it. As a curate Saul was invaluable, and therefore the fact of his
+having made himself an ass had been forgiven him. It was thus that
+the rector looked at it.
+
+It was hardly more than ten days since the last walk in Cumberly Lane
+when Mr. Saul renewed the attack. He did it again on the same spot,
+and at the same hour of the day. Twice a week, always on the same
+days, he was in the chapel up at this end of the parish, and on these
+days he could always find Fanny on her way home. When he put his head
+in at the little school door and asked for her, her mind misgave her.
+He had not walked home with her since, and though he had been in the
+school with her often, had always left her there, going about his
+own business, as though he were by no means desirous of her company.
+Now the time had come, and Fanny felt that she was not prepared. But
+she took up her hat, and went out to him, knowing that there was no
+escape.
+
+"Miss Clavering," said he, "have you thought of what I was saying to
+you?" To this she made no answer, but merely played with the point of
+the parasol which she held in her hand. "You cannot but have thought
+of it," he continued. "You could not dismiss it altogether from your
+thoughts."
+
+"I have thought about it, of course," she said.
+
+"And what does your mind say? Or rather what does your heart say?
+Both should speak, but I would sooner hear the heart first."
+
+"I am sure, Mr. Saul, that it is quite impossible."
+
+"In what way impossible?"
+
+"Papa would not allow it."
+
+"Have you asked him?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no."
+
+"Or Mrs. Clavering?"
+
+Fanny blushed as she remembered how she had permitted the days to go
+by without asking her mother's counsel. "No; I have spoken to no one.
+Why should I, when I knew that it is impossible?"
+
+"May I speak to Mr. Clavering?" To this Fanny made no immediate
+answer, and then Mr. Saul urged the question again. "May I speak to
+your father?"
+
+Fanny felt that she was assenting, even in that she did not answer
+such a question by an immediate refusal of her permission; and yet
+she did not mean to assent. "Miss Clavering," he said, "if you regard
+me with affection, you have no right to refuse me this request.
+I tell you so boldly. If you feel for me that love which would
+enable you to accept me as your husband, it is your duty to tell me
+so,--your duty to me, to yourself, and to your God."
+
+Fanny did not quite see the thing in this light, and yet she did
+not wish to contradict him. At this moment she forgot that in order
+to put herself on perfectly firm ground, she should have gone back
+to the first hypothesis, and assured him that she did not feel any
+such regard for him. Mr. Saul, whose intellect was more acute, took
+advantage of her here, and chose to believe that that matter of her
+affection was now conceded to him. He knew what he was doing well,
+and is open to a charge of some jesuitry. "Mr. Saul," said Fanny,
+with grave prudence, "it cannot be right for people to marry when
+they have nothing to live upon." When she had shown him so plainly
+that she had no other piece left on the board to play than this, the
+game may be said to have been won on his side.
+
+"If that be your sole objection," said he, "you cannot but think it
+right that I and your father should discuss it." To this she made no
+reply whatever, and they walked along the lane for a considerable way
+in silence. Mr. Saul would have been glad to have had the interview
+over now, feeling that at any future meeting he would have stronger
+power of assuming the position of an accepted lover than he would do
+now. Another man would have desired to get from her lips a decided
+word of love,--to take her hand, perhaps, and to feel some response
+from it,--to go further than this, as is not unlikely, and plead for
+the happy indulgences of an accepted lover. But Mr. Saul abstained,
+and was wise in abstaining. She had not so far committed herself, but
+that she might even now have drawn back, had he pressed her too hard.
+For hand-pressing, and the titillations of love-making, Mr. Saul was
+not adapted; but he was a man who, having once loved, would love on
+to the end.
+
+The way, however, was too long to be completed without further
+speech. Fanny, as she walked, was struggling to find some words
+by which she might still hold her ground, but the words were not
+forthcoming. It seemed to herself that she was being carried away
+by this man, because she had suddenly lost her remembrance of all
+negatives. The more she struggled the more she failed, and at last
+gave it up in despair. Let Mr. Saul say what he would, it was
+impossible that they should be married. All his arguments about duty
+were nonsense. It could not be her duty to marry a man who would have
+to starve in his attempt to keep her. She wished she had told him at
+first that she did not love him, but that seemed to be too late now.
+The moment that she was in the house she would go to her mother and
+tell her everything.
+
+"Miss Clavering," said he, "I shall see your father to-morrow."
+
+"No, no," she ejaculated.
+
+"I shall certainly do so in any event. I shall either tell him that
+I must leave the parish,--explaining to him why I must go; or I
+shall ask him to let me remain here in the hope that I may become
+his son-in-law. You will not now tell me that I am to go?" Fanny
+was again silent, her memory failing her as to either negative or
+affirmative that would be of service. "To stay here hopeless would
+be impossible to me. Now I am not hopeless. Now I am full of hope.
+I think I could be happy, though I had to wait as Jacob waited."
+
+"And perhaps have Jacob's consolation," said Fanny. She was lost by
+the joke and he knew it. A grim smile of satisfaction crossed his
+thin face as he heard it, and there was a feeling of triumph at his
+heart. "I am hardly fitted to be a patriarch, as the patriarchs were
+of old," he said. "Though the seven years should be prolonged to
+fourteen I do not think I should seek any Leah."
+
+They were soon at the gate, and his work for that evening was done.
+He would go home to his solitary room at a neighbouring farm-house,
+and sit in triumph as he eat his morsel of cold mutton by himself.
+He, without any advantage of a person to back him, poor, friendless,
+hitherto conscious that he was unfitted to mix even in ordinary
+social life--he had won the heart of the fairest woman he had ever
+seen. "You will give me your hand at parting," he said, whereupon she
+tendered it to him with her eyes fixed upon the ground. "I hope we
+understand each other," he continued. "You may at any rate understand
+this, that I love you with all my heart and all my strength. If
+things prosper with me, all my prosperity shall be for you. If there
+be no prosperity for me, you shall be my only consolation in this
+world. You are my Alpha and my Omega, my first and last, my beginning
+and end,--my everything, my all." Then he turned away and left her,
+and there had come no negative from her lips. As far as her lips were
+concerned no negative was any longer possible to her.
+
+She went into the house knowing that she must at once seek her
+mother; but she allowed herself first to remain for some half-hour
+in her own bedroom, preparing the words that she would use. The
+interview she knew would be difficult,--much more difficult than it
+would have been before her last walk with Mr. Saul; and the worst of
+it was that she could not quite make up her mind as to what it was
+that she wished to say. She waited till she should hear her mother's
+step on the stairs. At last Mrs. Clavering came up to dress, and then
+Fanny, following her quickly into her bedroom, abruptly began.
+
+"Mamma," she said, "I want to speak to you very much."
+
+"Well, my dear?"
+
+"But you mustn't be in a hurry, mamma." Mrs. Clavering looked at her
+watch, and declaring that it still wanted three-quarters of an hour
+to dinner, promised that she would not be very much in a hurry.
+
+"Mamma, Mr. Saul has been speaking to me again."
+
+"Has he, my dear? You cannot, of course, help it if he chooses to
+speak to you, but he ought to know that it is very foolish. It must
+end in his having to leave us."
+
+"That is what he says, mamma. He says he must go away unless--"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Unless I will consent that he shall remain here as--"
+
+"As your accepted lover. Is that it, Fanny?"
+
+"Yes, mamma."
+
+"Then he must go, I suppose. What else can any of us say? I shall be
+sorry both for his sake and for your papa's." Mrs. Clavering as she
+said this looked at her daughter, and saw at once that this edict on
+her part did not settle the difficulty. There was that in Fanny's
+face which showed trouble and the necessity of further explanation.
+"Is not that what you think yourself, my dear?" Mrs. Clavering asked.
+
+"I should be very sorry if he had to leave the parish on my account."
+
+"We all shall feel that, dearest; but what can we do? I presume you
+don't wish him to remain as your lover?"
+
+"I don't know, mamma," said Fanny.
+
+It was then as Mrs. Clavering had feared. Indeed from the first word
+that Fanny had spoken on the present occasion, she had almost been
+sure of the facts, as they now were. To her father it would appear
+wonderful that his daughter should have come to love such a man as
+Mr. Saul, but Mrs. Clavering knew better than he how far perseverance
+will go with women,--perseverance joined with high mental capacity,
+and with high spirit to back it. She was grieved but not surprised,
+and would at once have accepted the idea of Mr. Saul becoming her
+son-in-law, had not the poverty of the man been so much against him.
+"Do you mean, my dear, that you wish him to remain here after what
+he has said to you? That would be tantamount to accepting him. You
+understand that, Fanny;--eh, dear?"
+
+"I suppose it would, mamma."
+
+"And is that what you mean? Come, dearest, tell me the whole of it.
+What have you said to him yourself? What has he been led to think
+from the answer you have given him to-day?"
+
+"He says that he means to see papa to-morrow."
+
+"But is he to see him with your consent?" Fanny had hitherto placed
+herself in the nook of a bow-window which looked out into the garden,
+and there, though she was near to the dressing-table at which her
+mother was sitting, she could so far screen herself as almost to hide
+her face when she was speaking. From this retreat her mother found it
+necessary to withdraw her; so she rose, and going to a sofa in the
+room, bade her daughter come and sit beside her. "A doctor, my dear,
+can never do any good," she said, "unless the patient will tell him
+everything. Have you told Mr. Saul that he may see papa,--as coming
+from you, you know?"
+
+"No, mamma;--I did not tell him that. I told him that it would be
+altogether impossible, because we should be so poor."
+
+"He ought to have known that himself."
+
+"But I don't think he ever thinks of such things as that, mamma. I
+can't tell you quite what he said, but it went to show that he didn't
+regard money at all."
+
+"But that is nonsense; is it not, Fanny?"
+
+"What he means is, not that people if they are fond of each other
+ought to marry at once when they have got nothing to live upon, but
+that they ought to tell each other so and then be content to wait.
+I suppose he thinks that some day he may have a living."
+
+"But, Fanny, are you fond of him;--and have you ever told him so?"
+
+"I have never told him so, mamma."
+
+"But you are fond of him?" To this question Fanny made no answer, and
+now Mrs. Clavering knew it all. She felt no inclination to scold her
+daughter, or even to point out in very strong language how foolish
+Fanny had been in allowing a man to engage her affections merely by
+asking for them. The thing was a misfortune, and should have been
+avoided by the departure of Mr. Saul from the parish after his first
+declaration of love. He had been allowed to remain for the sake of
+the rector's comfort, and the best must now be made of it. That Mr.
+Saul must now go was certain, and Fanny must endure the weariness
+of an attachment with an absent lover to which her father would not
+consent. It was very bad, but Mrs. Clavering did not think that
+she could make it better by attempting to scold her daughter into
+renouncing the man.
+
+"I suppose you would like me to tell papa all this before Mr. Saul
+comes to-morrow?"
+
+"If you think it best, mamma."
+
+"And you mean, dear, that you would wish to accept him, only that he
+has no income?"
+
+"I think so, mamma."
+
+"Have you told him so?"
+
+"I did not tell him so, but he understands it."
+
+"If you did not tell him so, you might still think of it again."
+
+But Fanny had surrendered herself now, and was determined to make no
+further attempt at sending the garrison up to the wall. "I am sure,
+mamma, that if he were well off, like Edward, I should accept him. It
+is only because he has no income."
+
+"But you have not told him that?"
+
+"I would not tell him anything without your consent and papa's. He
+said he should go to papa to-morrow, and I could not prevent that.
+I did say that I knew it was quite impossible."
+
+The mischief was done and there was no help for it. Mrs. Clavering
+told her daughter that she would talk it all over with the rector
+that night, so that Fanny was able to come down to dinner without
+fearing any further scene on that evening. But on the following
+morning she did not appear at prayers, nor was she present at the
+breakfast table. Her mother went to her early, and she immediately
+asked if it was considered necessary that she should see her father
+before Mr. Saul came. But this was not required of her. "Papa says
+that it is out of the question," said Mrs. Clavering. "I told him
+so myself," said Fanny, beginning to whimper. "And there must be no
+engagements," said Mrs. Clavering. "No, mamma. I haven't engaged
+myself. I told him it was impossible." "And papa thinks that Mr.
+Saul must leave him," continued Mrs. Clavering. "I knew papa would
+say that;--but, mamma, I shall not forget him for that reason." To
+this Mrs. Clavering made no reply, and Fanny was allowed to remain
+upstairs till Mr. Saul had come and gone.
+
+Very soon after breakfast Mr. Saul did come. His presence at the
+rectory was so common that the servants were not generally summoned
+to announce his arrivals, but his visits were made to Mrs. Clavering
+and Fanny more often than to the rector. On this occasion he rang the
+bell, and asked for Mr. Clavering, and was shown into the rector's
+so-called study, in a way that the maid-servant felt to be unusual.
+And the rector was sitting uncomfortably prepared for the visit, not
+having had his after-breakfast cigar. He had been induced to declare
+that he was not, and would not be, angry with Fanny; but Mr. Saul
+was left to such indignation as he thought it incumbent on himself
+to express. In his opinion, the marriage was impossible, not only
+because there was no money, but because Mr. Saul was Mr. Saul,
+and because Fanny Clavering was Fanny Clavering. Mr. Saul was a
+gentleman; but that was all that could be said of him. There is a
+class of country clergymen in England, of whom Mr. Clavering was one,
+and his son-in-law, Mr. Fielding, another, which is so closely allied
+to the squirearchy, as to possess a double identity. Such clergymen
+are not only clergymen, but they are country gentlemen also. Mr.
+Clavering regarded clergymen of his class,--of the country gentlemen
+class, as being quite distinct from all others,--and as being, I may
+say, very much higher than all others, without reference to any money
+question. When meeting his brother rectors and vicars, he had quite
+a different tone in addressing them,--as they might belong to his
+class, or to another. There was no offence in this. The clerical
+country gentlemen understood it all as though there were some secret
+sign or shibboleth between them; but the outsiders had no complaint
+to make of arrogance, and did not feel themselves aggrieved. They
+hardly knew that there was an inner clerical familiarity to which
+they were not admitted. But now that there was a young curate from
+the outer circle demanding Mr. Clavering's daughter in marriage, and
+that without a shilling in his pocket, Mr. Clavering felt that the
+eyes of the offender must be opened. The nuisance to him was very
+great, but this opening of Mr. Saul's eyes was a duty from which he
+could not shrink.
+
+He got up when the curate entered, and greeted his curate, as though
+he were unaware of the purpose of the present visit. The whole burden
+of the story was to be thrown upon Mr. Saul. But that gentleman was
+not long in casting the burden from his shoulders. "Mr. Clavering,"
+he said, "I have come to ask your permission to be a suitor for your
+daughter's hand."
+
+The rector was almost taken aback by the abruptness of the request.
+"Quite impossible, Mr. Saul," he said--"quite impossible. I am told
+by Mrs. Clavering that you were speaking to Fanny again about this
+yesterday, and I must say, that I think you have been behaving very
+badly."
+
+"In what way have I behaved badly?"
+
+"In endeavouring to gain her affections behind my back."
+
+"But, Mr. Clavering, how otherwise could I gain them? How otherwise
+does any man gain any woman's love? If you mean--"
+
+"Look here, Mr. Saul. I don't think that there is any necessity for
+an argument between you and me on this point. That you cannot marry
+Miss Clavering is so self-evident that it does not require to be
+discussed. If there were nothing else against it, neither of you
+have got a penny. I have not seen my daughter since I heard of this
+madness,--hear me out if you please, sir,--since I heard of this
+madness, but her mother tells me that she is quite aware of that
+fact. Your coming to me with such a proposition is an absurdity if it
+is nothing worse. Now you must do one of two things, Mr. Saul. You
+must either promise me that this shall be at an end altogether, or
+you must leave the parish."
+
+"I certainly shall not promise you that my hopes as they regard your
+daughter will be at an end."
+
+"Then, Mr. Saul, the sooner you go the better."
+
+A dark cloud came across Mr. Saul's brow as he heard these last
+words. "That is the way in which you would send away your groom, if
+he had offended you," he said.
+
+"I do not wish to be unnecessarily harsh," said Mr. Clavering, "and
+what I say to you now I say to you not as my curate, but as to a most
+unwarranted suitor for my daughter's hand. Of course I cannot turn
+you out of the parish at a day's notice. I know that well enough. But
+your feelings as a gentleman ought to make you aware that you should
+go at once."
+
+"And that is to be my only answer?"
+
+"What answer did you expect?"
+
+"I have been thinking so much lately of the answers I might get from
+your daughter, that I have not made other calculations. Perhaps I had
+no right to expect any other than that you have now given me."
+
+"Of course you had not. And now I ask you again to give her up."
+
+"I shall not do that, certainly."
+
+"Then, Mr. Saul, you must go; and, inconvenient as it will be to
+myself,--terribly inconvenient, I must ask you to go at once. Of
+course I cannot allow you to meet my daughter any more. As long as
+you remain she will be debarred from going to her school, and you
+will be debarred from coming here."
+
+"If I say that I will not seek her at the school?"
+
+"I will not have it. It is out of the question that you should remain
+in the parish. You ought to feel it."
+
+"Mr. Clavering, my going,--I mean my instant going,--is a matter of
+which I have not yet thought. I must consider it before I give you an
+answer."
+
+"It ought to require no consideration," said Mr. Clavering, rising
+from his chair,--"none at all; not a moment's. Heavens and earth!
+Why, what did you suppose you were to live upon? But I won't
+discuss it. I will not say one more word upon a subject which is so
+distasteful to me. You must excuse me if I leave you."
+
+Mr. Saul then departed, and from this interview had arisen that state
+of things in the parish which had induced Mrs. Clavering to call
+Harry to their assistance. The rector had become more energetic on
+the subject than any of them had expected. He did not actually forbid
+his wife to see Mr. Saul, but he did say that Mr. Saul should not
+come to the rectory. Then there arose a question as to the Sunday
+services, and yet Mr. Clavering would have no intercourse with his
+curate. He would have no intercourse with him unless he would fix an
+immediate day for going, or else promise that he would think no more
+of Fanny. Hitherto he had done neither, and therefore Mrs. Clavering
+had sent for her son.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+MR. SAUL'S ABODE.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+When Harry Clavering left London he was not well, though he did not
+care to tell himself that he was ill. But he had been so harassed by
+his position, was so ashamed of himself, and as yet so unable to see
+any escape from his misery, that he was sore with fatigue and almost
+worn out with trouble. On his arrival at the parsonage, his mother at
+once asked him if he was ill, and received his petulant denial with
+an ill-satisfied countenance. That there was something wrong between
+him and Florence she suspected, but at the present moment she was
+not disposed to inquire into that matter. Harry's love-affairs had
+for her a great interest, but Fanny's love-affairs at the present
+moment were paramount in her bosom. Fanny, indeed, had become very
+troublesome since Mr. Saul's visit to her father. On the evening
+of her conversation with her mother, and on the following morning,
+Fanny had carried herself with bravery, and Mrs. Clavering had been
+disposed to think that her daughter's heart was not wounded deeply.
+She had admitted the impossibility of her marriage with Mr. Saul, and
+had never insisted on the strength of her attachment. But no sooner
+was she told that Mr. Saul had been banished from the house, than she
+took upon herself to mope in the most love-lorn fashion, and behaved
+herself as though she were the victim of an all-absorbing passion.
+Between her and her father no word on the subject had been spoken,
+and even to her mother she was silent, respectful, and subdued, as
+it becomes daughters to be who are hardly used when they are in love.
+Now, Mrs. Clavering felt that in this her daughter was not treating
+her well.
+
+"But you don't mean to say that she cares for him?" Harry said to his
+mother, when they were alone on the evening of his arrival.
+
+"Yes, she cares for him, certainly. As far as I can tell, she cares
+for him very much."
+
+"It is the oddest thing I ever knew in my life. I should have said he
+was the last man in the world for success of that kind."
+
+"One never can tell, Harry. You see he is a very good young man."
+
+"But girls don't fall in love with men because they're good, mother."
+
+"I hope they do,--for that and other things together."
+
+"But he has got none of the other things. What a pity it was that he
+was let to stay here after he first made a fool of himself."
+
+"It's too late to think of that now, Harry. Of course she can't marry
+him. They would have nothing to live on. I should say that he has no
+prospect of a living."
+
+"I can't conceive how a man can do such a wicked thing," said Harry,
+moralizing, and forgetting for a moment his own sins. "Coming into
+a house like this, and in such a position, and then undermining a
+girl's affections, when he must know that it is quite out of the
+question that he should marry her! I call it downright wicked. It is
+treachery of the worst sort, and coming from a clergyman is of course
+the more to be condemned. I shan't be slow to tell him my mind."
+
+"You will gain nothing by quarrelling with him."
+
+"But how can I help it, if I am to see him at all?"
+
+"I mean that I would not be rough with him. The great thing is
+to make him feel that he should go away as soon as possible, and
+renounce all idea of seeing Fanny again. You see, your father will
+have no conversation with him at all, and it is so disagreeable about
+the services. They'll have to meet in the vestry-room on Sunday, and
+they won't speak. Will not that be terrible? Anything will be better
+than that he should remain here."
+
+"And what will my father do for a curate?"
+
+"He can't do anything till he knows when Mr. Saul will go. He talks
+of taking all the services himself."
+
+"He couldn't do it, mother. He must not think of it. However, I'll
+see Saul the first thing to-morrow."
+
+The next day was Tuesday, and Harry proposed to leave the rectory at
+ten o'clock for Mr. Saul's lodgings. Before he did so, he had a few
+words with his father, who professed even deeper animosity against
+Mr. Saul than his son. "After that," he said, "I'll believe that a
+girl may fall in love with any man! People say all manner of things
+about the folly of girls; but nothing but this,--nothing short of
+this,--would have convinced me that it was possible that Fanny
+should have been such a fool. An ape of a fellow,--not made like a
+man,--with a thin hatchet face, and unwholesome stubbly chin. Good
+heavens!"
+
+"He has talked her into it."
+
+"But he is such an ass. As far as I know him, he can't say Bo! to a
+goose."
+
+"There I think you are perhaps wrong."
+
+"Upon my word, I've never been able to get a word from him except
+about the parish. He is the most uncompanionable fellow. There's
+Edward Fielding is as active a clergyman as Saul; but Edward Fielding
+has something to say for himself."
+
+"Saul is a cleverer man than Edward is; but his cleverness is of a
+different sort."
+
+"It is of a sort that is very invisible to me. But what does all that
+matter? He hasn't got a shilling. When I was a curate, we didn't
+think of doing such things as that." Mr. Clavering had only been a
+curate for twelve months, and during that time had become engaged
+to his present wife with the consent of every one concerned. "But
+clergymen were gentlemen then. I don't know what the Church will come
+to; I don't indeed."
+
+After this Harry went away upon his mission. What a farce it was that
+he should be engaged to make straight the affairs of other people,
+when his own affairs were so very crooked! As he walked up to the
+old farmhouse in which Mr. Saul was living, he thought of this, and
+acknowledged to himself that he could hardly make himself in earnest
+about his sister's affairs, because of his own troubles. He tried
+to fill himself with a proper feeling of dignified wrath and high
+paternal indignation against the poor curate; but under it all, and
+at the back of it all, and in front of it all, there was ever present
+to him his own position. Did he wish to escape from Lady Ongar; and
+if so, how was he to do it? And if he did not escape from Lady Ongar,
+how was he ever to hold up his head again?
+
+He had sent a note to Mr. Saul on the previous evening giving notice
+of his intended visit, and had received an answer, in which the
+curate had promised that he would be at home. He had never before
+been in Mr. Saul's room, and as he entered it, felt more strongly
+than ever how incongruous was the idea of Mr. Saul as a suitor to his
+sister. The Claverings had always had things comfortable around them.
+They were a people who had ever lived on Brussels carpets, and had
+seated themselves in capacious chairs. Ormolu, damask hangings, and
+Sevres china were not familiar to them; but they had never lacked
+anything that is needed for the comfort of the first-class clerical
+world. Mr. Saul in his abode boasted but few comforts. He inhabited
+a big bed-room, in which there was a vast fireplace and a very small
+grate,--the grate being very much more modern than the fireplace.
+There was a small rag of a carpet near the hearth, and on this stood
+a large deal table,--a table made of unalloyed deal, without any
+mendacious paint, putting forward a pretence in the direction of
+mahogany. One wooden Windsor arm-chair--very comfortable in its
+way--was appropriated to the use of Mr. Saul himself, and two other
+small wooden chairs flanked the other side of the fireplace. In one
+distant corner stood Mr. Saul's small bed, and in another distant
+corner stood his small dressing-table. Against the wall stood a
+rickety deal press in which he kept his clothes. Other furniture
+there was none. One of the large windows facing towards the farmyard
+had been permanently closed, and in the wide embrasure was placed
+a portion of Mr. Saul's library,--books which he had brought with
+him from college; and on the ground under this closed window were
+arranged the others, making a long row, which stretched from the
+bed to the dressing-table, very pervious, I fear, to the attacks of
+mice. The big table near the fireplace was covered with books and
+papers,--and, alas, with dust; for he had fallen into that terrible
+habit which prevails among bachelors, of allowing his work to remain
+ever open, never finished, always confused,--with papers above books,
+and books above papers,--looking as though no useful product could
+ever be made to come forth from such chaotic elements. But there Mr.
+Saul composed his sermons, and studied his Bible, and followed up,
+no doubt, some special darling pursuit which his ambition dictated.
+But there he did not eat his meals; that had been made impossible by
+the pile of papers and dust; and his chop, therefore, or his broiled
+rasher, or bit of pig's fry was deposited for him on the little
+dressing-table, and there consumed.
+
+Such was the solitary apartment of the gentleman who now aspired to
+the hand of Miss Clavering; and for this accommodation, including
+attendance, he paid the reasonable sum of L10 per annum. He then
+had L60 left, with which to feed himself, clothe himself like a
+gentleman,--a duty somewhat neglected,--and perform his charities!
+
+Harry Clavering, as he looked around him, felt almost ashamed of his
+sister. The walls were whitewashed, and stained in many places; and
+the floor in the middle of the room seemed to be very rotten. What
+young man who has himself dwelt ever in comfort would like such a
+house for his sister? Mr. Saul, however, came forward with no marks
+of visible shame on his face, and greeted his visitor frankly with an
+open hand. "You came down from London yesterday, I suppose?" said Mr.
+Saul.
+
+"Just so," said Harry.
+
+"Take a seat;" and Mr. Saul suggested the arm-chair, but Harry
+contented himself with one of the others. "I hope Mrs. Clavering is
+well?" "Quite well," said Harry, cheerfully. "And your father,--and
+sister?" "Quite well, thank you," said Harry, very stiffly. "I would
+have come down to you at the rectory," said Mr. Saul, "instead of
+bringing you up here; only, as you have heard, no doubt, I and your
+father have unfortunately had a difference." This Mr. Saul said
+without any apparent effort, and then left Harry to commence the
+further conversation.
+
+"Of course, you know what I'm come here about?" said Harry.
+
+"Not exactly; at any rate not so clearly but what I would wish you to
+tell me."
+
+"You have gone to my father as a suitor for my sister's hand."
+
+"Yes, I have."
+
+"Now you must know that that is altogether impossible,--a thing not
+to be even talked of."
+
+"So your father says. I need not tell you that I was very sorry to
+hear him speak in that way."
+
+"But, my dear fellow, you can't really be in earnest? You can't
+suppose it possible that he would allow such an engagement?"
+
+"As to the latter question, I have no answer to give; but I certainly
+was,--and certainly am in earnest."
+
+"Then I must say that I think you have a very erroneous idea of what
+the conduct of a gentleman should be."
+
+"Stop a moment, Clavering," said Mr. Saul, rising, and standing with
+his back to the big fireplace. "Don't allow yourself to say in a
+hurry words which you will afterwards regret. I do not think you can
+have intended to come here and tell me that I am not a gentleman."
+
+"I don't want to have an argument with you; but you must give it up;
+that's all."
+
+"Give what up? If you mean give up your sister, I certainly shall
+never do that. She may give me up, and if you have anything to say on
+that head, you had better say it to her."
+
+"What right can you have,--without a shilling in the world--?"
+
+"I should have no right to marry her in such a condition,--with your
+father's consent or without it. It is a thing which I have never
+proposed to myself for a moment,--or to her."
+
+"And what have you proposed to yourself?"
+
+Mr. Saul paused a moment before he spoke, looking down at the dusty
+heaps upon his table, as though hoping that inspiration might come
+to him from them. "I will tell you what I have proposed," said he at
+last, "as nearly as I can put it into words. I propose to myself to
+have the image in my heart of one human being whom I can love above
+all the world beside; I propose to hope that I, as others, may some
+day marry, and that she whom I so love may become my wife; I propose
+to bear with such courage as I can much certain delay, and probable
+absolute failure in all this; and I propose also to expect,--no,
+hardly to expect,--that that which I will do for her, she will do for
+me. Now you know all my mind, and you may be sure of this, that I
+will instigate your sister to no disobedience."
+
+"Of course she will not see you again."
+
+"I shall think that hard after what has passed between us; but I
+certainly shall not endeavour to see her clandestinely."
+
+"And under these circumstances, Mr. Saul, of course you must leave
+us."
+
+"So your father says."
+
+"But leave us at once, I mean. It cannot be comfortable that you and
+my father should go on in the parish together in this way."
+
+"What does your father mean by 'at once'?"
+
+"The sooner the better; say in two months' time at furthest."
+
+"Very well. I will go in two months' time. I have no other home to go
+to, and no other means of livelihood; but as your father wishes it,
+I will go at the end of two months. As I comply with this, I hope my
+request to see your sister once before I go will not be refused."
+
+"It could do no good, Mr. Saul."
+
+"To me it would do great good,--and, as I think, no harm to her."
+
+"My father, I am sure, will not allow it. Indeed, why should he? Nor,
+as I understand, would my sister wish it."
+
+"Has she said so?"
+
+"Not to me; but she has acknowledged that any idea of a marriage
+between herself and you is quite impossible, and after that I'm sure
+she'll have too much sense to wish for an interview. If there is
+anything further that I can do for you, I shall be most happy." Mr.
+Saul did not see that Harry Clavering could do anything for him,
+and then Harry took his leave. The rector, when he heard of the
+arrangement, expressed himself as in some sort satisfied. One month
+would have been better than two, but then it could hardly be expected
+that Mr. Saul could take himself away instantly, without looking for
+a hole in which to lay his head. "Of course it is understood that
+he is not to see her?" the rector said. In answer to this, Harry
+explained what had taken place, expressing his opinion that Mr. Saul
+would, at any rate, keep his word. "Interview, indeed!" said the
+rector. "It is the man's audacity that most astonishes me. It passes
+me to think how such a fellow can dare to propose such a thing. What
+is it that he expects as the end of it?" Then Harry endeavoured to
+repeat what Mr. Saul had said as to his own expectations, but he
+was quite aware that he failed to make his father understand those
+expectations as he had understood them when the words came from Mr.
+Saul's own mouth. Harry Clavering had acknowledged to himself that it
+was impossible not to respect the poor curate.
+
+To Mrs. Clavering, of course, fell the task of explaining to Fanny
+what had been done, and what was going to be done. "He is to go away,
+my dear, at the end of two months."
+
+"Very well, mamma."
+
+"And, of course, you and he are not to meet before that."
+
+"Of course not, if you and papa say so."
+
+"I have told your papa that it will only be necessary to tell you
+this, and that then you can go to your school just as usual, if you
+please. Neither papa nor I would doubt your word for a moment."
+
+"But what can I do if he comes to me?" asked Fanny, almost
+whimpering.
+
+"He has said that he will not, and we do not doubt his word either."
+
+"That I am sure you need not. Whatever anybody may say, Mr. Saul is
+as much a gentleman as though he had the best living in the diocese.
+No one ever knew him break his word,--not a hair's breadth,--or
+do--anything else--that he ought--not to do." And Fanny, as she
+pronounced this rather strong eulogium, began to sob. Mrs. Clavering
+felt that Fanny was headstrong, and almost ill-natured, in speaking
+in this tone of her lover, after the manner in which she had been
+treated; but there could be no use in discussing Mr. Saul's virtues,
+and therefore she let the matter drop. "If you will take my advice,"
+she said, "you will go about your occupations just as usual. You'll
+soon recover your spirits in that way."
+
+"I don't want to recover my spirits," said Fanny; "but if you wish it
+I'll go on with the schools."
+
+It was quite manifest now that Fanny intended to play the role of a
+broken-hearted young lady, and to regard the absent Mr. Saul with
+passionate devotion. That this should be so Mrs. Clavering felt to be
+the more cruel, because no such tendencies had been shown before the
+paternal sentence against Mr. Saul had been passed. Fanny in telling
+her own tale had begun by declaring that any such an engagement was
+an impossibility. She had not asked permission to have Mr. Saul for a
+lover. She had given no hint that she even hoped for such permission.
+But now when that was done which she herself had almost dictated, she
+took upon herself to live as though she were ill-used as badly as a
+heroine in a castle among the Apennines! And in this way she would
+really become deeply in love with Mr. Saul;--thinking of all which
+Mrs. Clavering almost regretted that the edict of banishment had gone
+forth. It would, perhaps, have been better to have left Mr. Saul to
+go about the parish, and to have laughed Fanny out of her fancy. But
+it was too late now for that, and Mrs. Clavering said nothing further
+on the subject to any one.
+
+On the day following his visit to the farm house, Harry Clavering
+was unwell,--too unwell to go back to London; and on the next day he
+was ill in bed. Then it was that he got his mother to write to Mrs.
+Burton;--and then also he told his mother a part of his troubles.
+When the letter was written he was very anxious to see it, and was
+desirous that it should be specially worded, and so written as to
+make Mrs. Burton certain that he was in truth too ill to come to
+London, though not ill enough to create alarm. "Why not simply let me
+say that you are kept here for a day or two?" asked Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Because I promised that I would be in Onslow Terrace to-morrow, and
+she must not think that I would stay away if I could avoid it."
+
+Then Mrs. Clavering closed the letter and directed it. When she had
+done that, and put on it the postage-stamp, she asked in a voice that
+was intended to be indifferent whether Florence was in London; and,
+hearing that she was so, expressed her surprise that the letter
+should not be written to Florence.
+
+"My engagement was with Mrs. Burton," said Harry.
+
+"I hope there is nothing wrong between you and Florence?" said his
+mother. To this question Harry made no immediate answer, and Mrs.
+Clavering was afraid to press it. But after a while he recurred to
+the subject himself. "Mother," he said, "things are wrong between
+Florence and me."
+
+"Oh, Harry;--what has she done?"
+
+"It is rather what have I done! As for her, she has simply trusted
+herself to a man who has been false to her."
+
+"Dear Harry, do not say that. What is it that you mean? It is not
+true about Lady Ongar?"
+
+"Then you have heard, mother. Of course I do not know what you have
+heard, but it can hardly be worse than the truth. But you must not
+blame her. Whatever fault there may be, is all mine." Then he told
+her much of what had occurred in Bolton Street. We may suppose that
+he said nothing of that mad caress,--nothing, perhaps, of the final
+promise which he made to Julia as he last passed out of her presence;
+but he did give her to understand that he had in some way returned to
+his old passion for the woman whom he had first loved.
+
+I should describe Mrs. Clavering in language too highly eulogistic
+were I to lead the reader to believe that she was altogether averse
+to such advantages as would accrue to her son from a marriage so
+brilliant as that which he might now make with the grandly dowered
+widow of the late earl. Mrs. Clavering by no means despised worldly
+goods; and she had, moreover, an idea that her highly gifted son
+was better adapted to the spending than to the making of money. It
+had come to be believed at the rectory that though Harry had worked
+very hard at college,--as is the case with many highly born young
+gentlemen,--and though he would, undoubtedly, continue to work hard
+if he were thrown among congenial occupations,--such as politics and
+the like,--nevertheless, he would never excel greatly in any drudgery
+that would be necessary for the making of money. There had been
+something to be proud of in this, but there had, of course, been more
+to regret. But now if Harry were to marry Lady Ongar, all trouble
+on that score would be over. But poor Florence! When Mrs. Clavering
+allowed herself to think of the matter she knew that Florence's
+claims should be held as paramount. And when she thought further and
+thought seriously, she knew also that Harry's honour and Harry's
+happiness demanded that he should be true to the girl to whom his
+hand had been promised. And, then, was not Lady Ongar's name tainted?
+It might be that she had suffered cruel ill-usage in this. It might
+be that no such taint had been deserved. Mrs. Clavering could plead
+the injured woman's cause when speaking of it without any close
+reference to her own belongings; but it would have been very grievous
+to her, even had there been no Florence Burton in the case, that her
+son should make his fortune by marrying a woman as to whose character
+the world was in doubt.
+
+She came to him late in the evening when his sister and father had
+just left him, and sitting with her hand upon his, spoke one word,
+which perhaps had more weight with Harry than any word that had yet
+been spoken. "Have you slept, dear?" she said.
+
+"A little before my father came in."
+
+"My darling," she said,--"you will be true to Florence; will you
+not?" Then there was a pause. "My own Harry, tell me that you will be
+true where your truth is due."
+
+"I will, mother," he said.
+
+"My own boy; my darling boy; my own true gentleman!" Harry felt that
+he did not deserve the praise; but praise undeserved, though it may
+be satire in disguise, is often very useful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+PARTING.
+
+
+On the next day Harry was not better, but the doctor still said that
+there was no cause for alarm. He was suffering from a low fever, and
+his sister had better be kept out of his room. He would not sleep,
+and was restless, and it might be some time before he could return to
+London.
+
+Early in the day the rector came into his son's bedroom, and told him
+and his mother, who was there, the news which he had just heard from
+the great house. "Hugh has come home," he said, "and is going out
+yachting for the rest of the summer. They are going to Norway in Jack
+Stuart's yacht. Archie is going with them." Now Archie was known to
+be a great man in a yacht, cognizant of ropes, well up in booms and
+spars, very intimate with bolts, and one to whose hands a tiller came
+as naturally as did the saddle of a steeple-chase horse to the legs
+of his friend Doodles. "They are going to fish," said the rector.
+
+"But Jack Stuart's yacht is only a river-boat,--or just big enough
+for Cowes harbour, but nothing more," said Harry, roused in his bed
+to some excitement by the news.
+
+"I know nothing about Jack Stuart or his boat either," said the
+rector; "but that's what they told me. He's down here, at any rate,
+for I saw the servant that came with him."
+
+"What a shame it is," said Mrs. Clavering,--"a scandalous shame."
+
+"You mean his going away?" said the rector.
+
+"Of course I do;--his leaving her here by herself, all alone. He can
+have no heart;--after losing her child and suffering as she has done.
+It makes me ashamed of my own name."
+
+"You can't alter him, my dear. He has his good qualities and his
+bad,--and the bad ones are by far the more conspicuous."
+
+"I don't know any good qualities he has."
+
+"He does not get into debt. He will not destroy the property. He will
+leave the family after him as well off as it was before him,--and
+though he is a hard man, he does nothing actively cruel. Think of
+Lord Ongar, and then you'll remember that there are worse men than
+Hugh. Not that I like him. I am never comfortable for a moment in his
+presence. I always feel that he wants to quarrel with me, and that I
+almost want to quarrel with him."
+
+"I detest him," said Harry, from beneath the bedclothes.
+
+"You won't be troubled with him any more this summer, for he means to
+be off in less than a week."
+
+"And what is she to do?" asked Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Live here as she has done ever since Julia married. I don't see that
+it will make much difference to her. He's never with her when he's in
+England, and I should think she must be more comfortable without him
+than with him."
+
+"It's a great catch for Archie," said Harry.
+
+"Archie Clavering is a fool," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"They say he understands a yacht," said the rector, who then left the
+room.
+
+The rector's news was all true. Sir Hugh Clavering had come down
+to the Park, and had announced his intention of going to Norway in
+Jack Stuart's yacht. Archie also had been invited to join the party.
+Sir Hugh intended to leave the Thames in about a week, and had not
+thought it necessary to give his wife any intimation of the fact,
+till he told her himself of his intention. He took, I think, a
+delight in being thus over-harsh in his harshness to her. He proved
+to himself thus not only that he was master, but that he would be
+master without any let or drawback, without compunctions, and even
+without excuses for his ill-conduct. There should be no plea put in
+by him in his absences, that he had only gone to catch a few fish,
+when his intentions had been other than piscatorial. He intended
+to do as he liked now and always,--and he intended that his wife
+should know that such was his intention. She was now childless, and
+therefore he had no other terms to keep with her than those which
+appertained to her necessities for bed and board. There was the
+house, and she might live in it; and there were the butchers and the
+bakers, and other tradesmen to supply her wants. Nay;--there were the
+old carriage and the old horses at her disposal, if they could be of
+any service to her. Such were Sir Hugh Clavering's ideas as to the
+bonds inflicted upon him by his marriage vows.
+
+"I'm going to Norway next week." It was thus Sir Hugh communicated
+his intention to his wife within five minutes of their first
+greeting.
+
+"To Norway, Hugh?"
+
+"Yes;--why not to Norway? I and one or two others have got some
+fishing there. Archie is going too. It will keep him from spending
+his money;--or rather from spending money which isn't his."
+
+"And for how long will you be gone?"
+
+It was part of Sir Hugh Clavering's theory as to these matters
+that there should be no lying in the conduct of them. He would not
+condescend to screen any part of his doings by a falsehood;--so he
+answered this question with exact truth.
+
+"I don't suppose we shall be back before October."
+
+"Not before October?"
+
+"No. We are talking of putting in on the coast of Normandy somewhere;
+and probably may run down to Brittany. I shall be back, at any rate,
+for the hunting. As for the partridges, the game has gone so much to
+the devil here, that they are not worth coming for."
+
+"You'll be away four months!"
+
+"I suppose I shall if I don't come back till October." Then he left
+her, calculating that she would have considered the matter before
+he returned, and have decided that no good could come to her from
+complaint. She knew his purpose now, and would no doubt reconcile
+herself to it quickly;--perhaps with a few tears, which would not
+hurt him if he did not see them.
+
+But this blow was almost more than Lady Clavering could bear,--was
+more than she could bear in silence. Why she should have grudged her
+husband his trip abroad, seeing that his presence in England could
+hardly have been a solace to her, it is hard to understand. Had he
+remained in England, he would rarely have been at Clavering Park; and
+when he was at the Park he would rarely have given her the benefit
+of his society. When they were together he was usually scolding her,
+or else sitting in gloomy silence, as though that phase of his life
+was almost insupportable to him. He was so unusually disagreeable in
+his intercourse with her, that his absence, one would think, must be
+preferable to his presence. But women can bear anything better than
+desertion. Cruelty is bad, but neglect is worse than cruelty, and
+desertion worse even than neglect. To be treated as though she were
+not in existence, or as though her existence were a nuisance simply
+to be endured, and, as far as possible, to be forgotten, was more
+than even Lady Clavering could bear without complaint. When her
+husband left her, she sat meditating how she might turn against her
+oppressor. She was a woman not apt for fighting,--unlike her sister,
+who knew well how to use the cudgels in her own behalf; she was
+timid, not gifted with a full flow of words, prone to sink and become
+dependent; but she,--even she,--with all these deficiencies,--felt
+that she must make some stand against the outrage to which she was
+now to be subjected.
+
+"Hugh," she said, when next she saw him, "you can't really mean that
+you are going to leave me from this time till the winter?"
+
+"I said nothing about the winter."
+
+"Well,--till October?"
+
+"I said that I was going, and I usually mean what I say."
+
+"I cannot believe it, Hugh; I cannot bring myself to think that you
+will be so cruel."
+
+"Look here, Hermy, if you take to calling names I won't stand it."
+
+"And I won't stand it, either. What am I to do? Am I to be here in
+this dreadful barrack of a house all alone? How would you like it?
+Would you bear it for one month, let alone four or five? I won't
+remain here; I tell you that fairly."
+
+"Where do you want to go?"
+
+"I don't want to go anywhere, but I'll go away somewhere and die;--I
+will indeed. I'll destroy myself, or something."
+
+"Psha!"
+
+"Yes; of course it's a joke to you. What have I done to deserve this?
+Have I ever done anything that you told me not? It's all because of
+Hughy,--my darling,--so it is; and it's cruel of you, and not like a
+husband; and it's not manly. It's very cruel. I didn't think anybody
+would have been so cruel as you are to me." Then she broke down and
+burst into tears.
+
+"Have you done, Hermy?" said her husband.
+
+"No; I've not done."
+
+"Then go on again," said he.
+
+But in truth she had done, and could only repeat her last accusation.
+"You're very, very cruel."
+
+"You said that before."
+
+"And I'll say it again. I'll tell everybody; so I will. I'll tell
+your uncle at the rectory, and he shall speak to you."
+
+"Look here, Hermy; I can bear a deal of nonsense from you because
+some women are given to talk nonsense; but if I find you telling
+tales about me out of this house, and especially to my uncle, or
+indeed to anybody, I'll let you know what it is to be cruel."
+
+"You can't be worse than you are."
+
+"Don't try me; that's all. And as I suppose you have now said all
+that you've got to say, if you please we will regard that subject as
+finished." The poor woman had said all that she could say, and had no
+further means of carrying on the war. In her thoughts she could do
+so; in her thoughts she could wander forth out of the gloomy house in
+the night, and perish in the damp and cold, leaving a paper behind
+her to tell the world that her husband's cruelty had brought her to
+that pass. Or she would go to Julia and leave him for ever. Julia,
+she thought, would still receive her. But as to one thing she had
+certainly made up her mind; she would go with her complaint to Mrs.
+Clavering at the rectory, let her lord and master show his anger in
+whatever form he might please.
+
+The next day Sir Hugh himself made her a proposition which somewhat
+softened the aspect of affairs. This he did in his usual voice, with
+something of a smile on his face, and speaking as though he were
+altogether oblivious of the scenes of yesterday. "I was thinking,
+Hermy," he said, "that you might have Julia down here while I am
+away."
+
+"Have Julia here?"
+
+"Yes; why not? She'll come, I'm sure, when she knows that my back is
+turned."
+
+"I've never thought about asking her,--at least not lately."
+
+"No; of course. But you might as well do so now. It seems that she
+never goes to Ongar Park, and, as far as I can learn, never will. I'm
+going to see her myself."
+
+"You going to see her?"
+
+"Yes; Lord Ongar's people want to know whether she can be induced
+to give up the place; that is, to sell her interest in it. I have
+promised to see her. Do you write her a letter first, and tell her
+that I want to see her; and ask her also to come here as soon as she
+can leave London."
+
+"But wouldn't the lawyers do it better than you?"
+
+"Well;--one would think so; but I am commissioned to make her a kind
+of apology from the whole Courton family. They fancy they've been
+hard upon her; and, by George, I believe they have. I may be able to
+say a word for myself too. If she isn't a fool she'll put her anger
+in her pocket, and come down to you."
+
+Lady Clavering liked the idea of having her sister with her, but she
+was not quite meek enough to receive the permission now given her as
+full compensation for the injury done. She said that she would do as
+he had bidden her, and then went back to her own grievances. "I don't
+suppose Julia, even if she would come for a little time, would find
+it very pleasant to live in such a place as this, all alone."
+
+"She wouldn't be all alone when you are with her," said Hugh,
+gruffly, and then again went out, leaving his wife to become used to
+her misfortune by degrees.
+
+It was not surprising that Lady Clavering should dislike her solitude
+at Clavering Park house, nor surprising that Sir Hugh should find the
+place disagreeable. The house was a large, square, stone building,
+with none of the prettinesses of modern country-houses about it.
+The gardens were away from the house, and the cold desolate flat
+park came up close around the windows. The rooms were large and
+lofty,--very excellent for the purpose of a large household, but
+with nothing of that snug, pretty comfort which solitude requires for
+its solace. The furniture was old and heavy, and the hangings were
+dark in colour. Lady Clavering when alone there,--and she generally
+was alone,--never entered the rooms on the ground-floor. Nor did she
+ever pass through the wilderness of a hall by which the front-door
+was to be reached. Throughout more than half her days she never came
+downstairs at all; but when she did so, preparatory to being dragged
+about the parish lanes in the old family carriage, she was let out at
+a small side-door; and so it came to pass that during the absences of
+the lord of the mansion, the shutters were not even moved from any of
+the lower windows. Under such circumstances there can be no wonder
+that Lady Clavering regarded the place as a prison. "I wish you could
+come upon it unawares, and see how gloomy it is," she said to him.
+"I don't think you'd stand it alone for two days, let alone all your
+life."
+
+"I'll shut it up altogether if you like," said he.
+
+"And where am I to go?" she asked.
+
+"You can go to Moor Hall if you please." Now Moor Hall was a small
+house, standing on a small property belonging to Sir Hugh, in that
+part of Devonshire which lies north of Dartmoor, somewhere near the
+Holsworthy region, and which is perhaps as ugly, as desolate, and as
+remote as any part of England. Lady Clavering had heard much of Moor
+Hall, and dreaded it as the heroine, made to live in the big grim
+castle low down among the Apennines, dreads the smaller and grimmer
+castle which is known to exist somewhere higher up in the mountains.
+
+"Why couldn't I go to Brighton?" said Lady Clavering boldly.
+
+"Because I don't choose it," said Sir Hugh. After that she did go
+to the rectory, and told Mrs. Clavering all her troubles. She had
+written to her sister, having, however, delayed the doing of this for
+two or three days, and she had not at this time received an answer
+from Lady Ongar. Nor did she hear from her sister till after Sir Hugh
+had left her. It was on the day before his departure that she went to
+the rectory, finding herself driven to this act of rebellion by his
+threat of Moor Hall. "I will never go there unless I am dragged there
+by force," she said to Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"I don't think he means that," said Mrs. Clavering. "He only wants to
+make you understand that you'd better remain at the Park."
+
+"But if you knew what a house it is to be all alone in!"
+
+"Dear Hermione, I do know! But you must come to us oftener, and let
+us endeavour to make it better for you."
+
+"But how can I do that? How can I come to his uncle's house, just
+because my own husband has made my own home so wretched that I cannot
+bear it. I'm ashamed to do that. I ought not to be telling you all
+this, of course. I don't know what he'd do if he knew it; but it is
+so hard to bear it all without telling some one."
+
+"My poor dear!"
+
+"I sometimes think I'll ask Mr. Clavering to speak to him, and to
+tell him at once that I will not submit to it any longer. Of course
+he would be mad with rage, but if he were to kill me I should like it
+better than having to go on in this way. I'm sure he is only waiting
+for me to die."
+
+Mrs. Clavering said all that she could to comfort the poor woman, but
+there was not much that she could say. She had strongly advocated the
+plan of having Lady Ongar at the Park, thinking perhaps that Harry
+would be more safe while that lady was at Clavering, than he might
+perhaps be if she remained in London. But Mrs. Clavering doubted much
+whether Lady Ongar would consent to make such a visit. She regarded
+Lady Ongar as a hard, worldly, pleasure-seeking woman,--sinned
+against perhaps in much, but also sinning in much herself,--to whom
+the desolation of the Park would be even more unendurable than it was
+to the elder sister. But of this, of course, she said nothing. Lady
+Clavering left her, somewhat quieted, if not comforted; and went back
+to pass her last evening with her husband.
+
+"Upon second thought, I'll go by the first train," he said, as he saw
+her for a moment before she went up to dress. "I shall have to be off
+from here a little after six, but I don't mind that in summer." Thus
+she was to be deprived of such gratification as there might have been
+in breakfasting with him on the last morning! It might be hard to say
+in what that gratification would have consisted. She must by this
+time have learned that his presence gave her none of the pleasures
+usually expected from society. He slighted her in everything. He
+rarely vouchsafed to her those little attentions which all women
+expect from all gentlemen. If he handed her a plate, or cut for her
+a morsel of bread from the loaf, he showed by his manner and by his
+brow that the doing so was a nuisance to him. At their meals he
+rarely spoke to her,--having always at breakfast a paper or a book
+before him, and at dinner devoting his attention to a dog at his
+feet. Why should she have felt herself cruelly ill-used in this
+matter of his last breakfast,--so cruelly ill-used that she wept
+afresh over it as she dressed herself,--seeing that she would lose so
+little? Because she loved the man;--loved him, though she now thought
+that she hated him. We very rarely, I fancy, love those whose love
+we have not either possessed or expected,--or at any rate for whose
+love we have not hoped; but when it has once existed, ill-usage will
+seldom destroy it. Angry as she was with the man, ready as she was to
+complain of him, to rebel against him,--perhaps to separate herself
+from him for ever, nevertheless she found it to be a cruel grievance
+that she should not sit at table with him on the morning of his
+going. "Jackson shall bring me a cup of coffee as I'm dressing,"
+he said, "and I'll breakfast at the club." She knew that there was
+no reason for this, except that breakfasting at his club was more
+agreeable to him than breakfasting with his wife.
+
+She had got rid of her tears before she came down to dinner, but
+still she was melancholy and almost lachrymose. This was the last
+night, and she felt that something special ought to be said; but
+she did not know what she expected, or what it was that she herself
+wished to say. I think that she was longing for an opportunity to
+forgive him,--only that he would not be forgiven. If he would have
+spoken one soft word to her, she would have accepted that one word as
+an apology; but no such word came. He sat opposite to her at dinner,
+drinking his wine and feeding his dog; but he was no more gracious to
+her at this dinner than he had been on any former day. She sat there
+pretending to eat, speaking a dull word now and then, to which his
+answer was a monosyllable, looking out at him from under her eyes,
+through the candlelight, to see whether any feeling was moving him;
+and then having pretended to eat a couple of strawberries she left
+him to himself. Still, however, this was not the last. There would
+come some moment for an embrace,--for some cold half-embrace, in
+which he would be forced to utter something of a farewell.
+
+He, when he was left alone, first turned his mind to the subject of
+Jack Stuart and his yacht. He had on that day received a letter from
+a noble friend,--a friend so noble that he was able to take liberties
+even with Sir Hugh Clavering,--in which his noble friend had told him
+that he was a fool to trust himself on so long an expedition in Jack
+Stuart's little boat. Jack, the noble friend said, knew nothing of
+the matter, and as for the masters who were hired for the sailing of
+such crafts, their only object was to keep out as long as possible,
+with an eye to their wages and perquisites. It might be all very well
+for Jack Stuart, who had nothing in the world to lose but his life
+and his yacht; but his noble friend thought that any such venture
+on the part of Sir Hugh was simply tomfoolery. But Sir Hugh was an
+obstinate man, and none of the Claverings were easily made afraid by
+personal danger. Jack Stuart might know nothing about the management
+of a boat, but Archie did. And as for the smallness of the craft,--he
+knew of a smaller craft which had been out on the Norway coast during
+the whole of the last season. So he drove that thought away from his
+mind, with no strong feelings of gratitude towards his noble friend.
+
+And then for a few moments he thought of his own home. What had his
+wife done for him, that he should put himself out of his way to do
+much for her? She had brought him no money. She had added nothing
+either by her wit, beauty, or rank to his position in the world.
+She had given him no heir. What had he received from her that he
+should endure her commonplace conversation, and washed-out, dowdy
+prettinesses? Perhaps some momentary feeling of compassion, some
+twang of conscience, came across his heart, as he thought of it all;
+but if so he checked it instantly, in accordance with the teachings
+of his whole life. He had made his reflections on all these things,
+and had tutored his mind to certain resolutions, and would not allow
+himself to be carried away by any womanly softness. She had her
+house, her carriage, her bed, her board, and her clothes; and seeing
+how very little she herself had contributed to the common fund, her
+husband determined that in having those things she had all that she
+had a right to claim. Then he drank a glass of sherry, and went into
+the drawing-room with that hard smile upon his face, which he was
+accustomed to wear when he intended to signify to his wife that
+she might as well make the best of existing things, and not cause
+unnecessary trouble, by giving herself airs or assuming that she was
+unhappy.
+
+He had his cup of coffee, and she had her cup of tea, and she made
+one or two little attempts at saying something special,--something
+that might lead to a word or two as to their parting; but he was
+careful and crafty, and she was awkward and timid,--and she failed.
+He had hardly been there an hour, when looking at his watch he
+declared that it was ten o'clock, and that he would go to bed. Well;
+perhaps it might be best to bring it to an end, and to go through
+this embrace, and have done with it! Any tender word that was to be
+spoken on either side, it was now clear to her, must be spoken in
+that last farewell. There was a tear in her eye as she rose to kiss
+him; but the tear was not there of her own good will, and she strove
+to get rid of it without his seeing it. As he spoke he also rose,
+and having lit for himself a bed-candle was ready to go. "Good-by,
+Hermy," he said, submitting himself, with the candle in his hand, to
+the inevitable embrace.
+
+"Good-by, Hugh; and God bless you," she said, putting her arms round
+his neck. "Pray,--pray take care of yourself."
+
+"All right," he said. His position with the candle was awkward, and
+he wished that it might be over.
+
+
+[Illustration: Husband and wife.]
+
+
+But she had a word prepared which she was determined to utter,--poor
+weak creature that she was. She still had her arm round his
+shoulders, so that he could not escape without shaking her off, and
+her forehead was almost resting on his bosom. "Hugh," she said, "you
+must not be angry with me for what I said to you."
+
+"Very well," said he;--"I won't."
+
+"And, Hugh," said she; "of course I can't like your going."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will," said he.
+
+"No;--I can't like it; but, Hugh, I will not think ill of it any
+more. Only be here as much as you can when you come home."
+
+"All right," said he; then he kissed her forehead and escaped from
+her, and went his way, telling himself, as he went, that she was a
+fool.
+
+That was the last he saw of her,--before his yachting commenced;
+but she,--poor fool,--was up by times in the morning, and, peeping
+out between her curtains as the early summer sun glanced upon her
+eyelids, saw him come forth from the porch and descend the great
+steps, and get into his dog-cart and drive himself away. Then, when
+the sound of the gig could be no longer heard, and when her eyes
+could no longer catch the last expiring speck of his hat, the poor
+fool took herself to bed again and cried herself to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+CAPTAIN CLAVERING MAKES HIS LAST ATTEMPT.
+
+
+The yachting scheme was first proposed to Archie by his brother Hugh.
+"Jack says that he can make a berth for you, and you'd better come,"
+said the elder brother, understanding that when his edict had thus
+gone forth, the thing was as good as arranged. "Jack finds the boat
+and men, and I find the grub and wine,--and pay for the fishing,"
+said Hugh; "so you need not make any bones about it." Archie was not
+disposed to make any bones about it as regarded his acceptance either
+of the berth or of the grub and wine, and as he would be expected to
+earn his passage by his work, there was no necessity for any scruple;
+but there arose the question whether he had not got more important
+fish to fry. He had not as yet made his proposal to Lady Ongar, and
+although he now knew that he had nothing to hope from the Russian
+spy,--nevertheless he thought that he might as well try his own hand
+at the venture. His resolution on this head was always stronger after
+dinner than before, and generally became stronger and more strong
+as the evening advanced;--so that he usually went to bed with a
+firm determination "to pop," as he called it to his friend Doodles,
+early on the next day; but distance affected him as well as the hour
+of the day, and his purpose would become surprisingly cool in the
+neighbourhood of Bolton Street. When, however, his brother suggested
+that he should be taken altogether away from the scene of action, he
+thought of the fine income and of Ongar Park with pangs of regret,
+and ventured upon a mild remonstrance. "But there's this affair of
+Julia, you know," said he.
+
+"I thought that was all off," said Hugh.
+
+"O dear, no; not off at all. I haven't asked her yet."
+
+"I know you've not; and I don't suppose you ever will."
+
+"Yes, I shall;--that is to say, I mean it. I was advised not to be
+in too much of a hurry; that is to say, I thought it best to let her
+settle down a little after her first seeing me."
+
+"To recover from her confusion?"
+
+"Well, not exactly that. I don't suppose she was confused."
+
+"I should say not. My idea is that you haven't a ghost of chance, and
+that as you haven't done anything all this time, you need not trouble
+yourself now."
+
+"But I have done something," said Archie, thinking of his seventy
+pounds.
+
+"You may as well give it up, for she means to marry Harry."
+
+"No!"
+
+"But I tell you she does. While you've been thinking he's been doing.
+From what I hear he may have her to-morrow for the asking."
+
+"But he's engaged to that girl whom they had with them down at the
+rectory," said Archie, in a tone which showed with what horror he
+should regard any inconstancy towards Florence Burton on the part of
+Harry Clavering.
+
+"What does that matter? You don't suppose he'll let seven thousand
+a year slip through his fingers because he had promised to marry a
+little girl like her? If her people choose to proceed against him
+they'll make him pay swinging damages; that is all."
+
+Archie did not like this idea at all, and became more than ever
+intent on his own matrimonial prospects. He almost thought that he
+had a right to Lady Ongar's money, and he certainly did think that
+a monstrous injustice was done to him by this idea of a marriage
+between her and his cousin. "I mean to ask her as I've gone so far,
+certainly," said he.
+
+"You can do as you like about that."
+
+"Yes; of course I can do as I like; but when a fellow has gone in for
+a thing, he likes to see it through." He was still thinking of the
+seventy pounds which he had invested, and which he could now recover
+only out of Lady Ongar's pocket.
+
+"And you mean to say you won't come to Norway?"
+
+"Well; if she accepts me--"
+
+"If she accepts you," said Hugh, "of course you can't come; but
+supposing she don't?"
+
+"In that case, I might as well do that as anything else," said
+Archie. Whereupon Sir Hugh signified to Jack Stuart that Archie would
+join the party, and went down to Clavering with no misgiving on that
+head.
+
+Some few days after this there was another little dinner at the
+military club, to which no one was admitted but Archie and his friend
+Doodles. Whenever these prandial consultations were held, Archie
+paid the bill. There were no spoken terms to that effect, but the
+regulation seemed to come naturally to both of them. Why should
+Doodles be taken from his billiards half-an-hour earlier than usual,
+and devote a portion of the calculating powers of his brain to
+Archie's service without compensation? And a richer vintage was
+needed when so much thought was required, the burden of which Archie
+would not of course allow to fall on his friend's shoulders. Were
+not this explained, the experienced reader would regard the devoted
+friendship of Doodles as exaggerated.
+
+"I certainly shall ask her to-morrow," said Archie, looking with
+a thoughtful cast of countenance through the club window into the
+street. "It may be hurrying the matter a little, but I can't help
+that." He spoke in a somewhat boastful tone, as though he were proud
+of himself and had forgotten that he had said the same words once or
+twice before.
+
+"Make her know that you're there; that's everything," said Doodles.
+"Since I fathomed that woman in Mount Street, I've felt that you must
+make the score off your own bat, if you're to make it at all."
+
+"You did that well," said Archie, who knew that the amount of
+pleasing encouragement which he might hope to get from his friend,
+must depend on the praise which he himself should bestow. "Yes; you
+certainly did bowl her over uncommon well."
+
+"That kind of thing just comes within my line," said Doodles, with
+conscious pride. "Now, as to asking Lady Ongar downright to marry
+me,--upon my word I believe I should be half afraid of doing it
+myself."
+
+"I've none of that kind of feeling," said Archie.
+
+"It comes more in your way, I daresay," said Doodles. "But for me,
+what I like is a little bit of management,--what I call a touch of
+the diplomatic. You'll be able to see her to-morrow?"
+
+"I hope so. I shall go early,--that is, as soon as I've looked
+through the papers and written a few letters. Yes, I think she'll see
+me. And as for what Hugh says about Harry Clavering, why, d---- it,
+you know, a fellow can't go on in that way; can he?"
+
+"Because of the other girl, you mean?"
+
+"He has had her down among all our people, just as though they were
+going to be married to-morrow. If a man is to do that kind of thing,
+what woman can be safe?"
+
+"I wonder whether she likes him?" asked the crafty Doodles.
+
+"She did like him, I fancy, in her calf days; but that means nothing.
+She knows what she's at now, bless you, and she'll look to the
+future. It's my son who'll have the Clavering property and be the
+baronet, not his. You see what a string to my bow that is."
+
+When this banquet was over, Doodles made something of a resolution
+that it should be the last to be eaten on that subject. The matter
+had lost its novelty, and the price paid to him was not sufficient to
+secure his attention any longer. "I shall be here to-morrow at four,"
+he said, as he rose from his chair with the view of retreating to the
+smoking-room, "and then we shall know all about it. Whichever way
+it's to be, it isn't worth your while keeping such a thing as that
+in hand any longer. I should say give her her chance to-morrow, and
+then have done with it." Archie in reply to this declared that those
+were exactly his sentiments, and then went away to prepare himself in
+silence and solitude for the next day's work.
+
+On the following day at two o'clock Lady Ongar was sitting alone
+in the front room on the ground-floor in Bolton Street. Of Harry
+Clavering's illness she had as yet heard nothing, nor of his absence
+from London. She had not seen him since he had parted from her on
+that evening when he had asked her to be his wife, and the last words
+she had heard from his lips had made this request. She, indeed, had
+then bade him be true to her rival,--to Florence Burton. She had told
+him this in spite of her love,--of her love for him and of his for
+her. They two, she had said, could not now become man and wife;--but
+he had not acknowledged the truth of what she had said. She could
+not write to him. She could make no overtures. She could ask no
+questions. She had no friend in whom she could place confidence. She
+could only wait for him, till he should come to her or send to her,
+and let her know what was to be her fate.
+
+As she now sat she held a letter in her hand which had just
+been brought to her from Sophie,--from her poor, famished, but
+indefatigable Sophie. Sophie she had not seen since they had parted
+on the railway platform, and then the parting was supposed to be made
+in lasting enmity. Desolate as she was, she had congratulated herself
+much on her escape from Sophie's friendship, and was driven by no
+qualms of her heart to long for a renewal of the old ties. But it was
+not so with the more affectionate Sophie; and Sophie therefore had
+written,--as follows:--
+
+
+   Mount Street--Friday morning.
+
+   DEAREST DEAREST JULIE,--My heart is so sad that I cannot
+   keep my silence longer. What; can such friendship as ours
+   has been be made to die all in a minute? Oh, no;--not
+   at least in my bosom, which is filled with love for my
+   Julie. And my Julie will not turn from her friend, who
+   has been so true to her,--ah, at such moments too,--oh,
+   yes, at such moments!--just for an angry word, or a little
+   indiscretion. What was it after all about my brother?
+   Bah! He is a fool; that is all. If you shall wish it,
+   I will never speak to him again. What is my brother to
+   me, compared to my Julie? My brother is nothing to me. I
+   tell him we go to that accursed island,--accursed island
+   because my Julie has quarrelled with me there,--and he
+   arranges himself to follow us. What could I do? I could
+   not tie him up by the leg in his London club. He is a man
+   whom no one can tie up by the leg. Mon Dieu, no. He is
+   very hard to tie up.
+
+   Do I wish him for your husband? Never! Why should I wish
+   him for your husband? If I was a man, my Julie, I should
+   wish you for myself. But I am not, and why should you not
+   have him whom you like the best? If I was you, with your
+   beauty and money and youth, I would have any man that
+   I liked,--everything. I know, of course,--for did I not
+   see? It is that young Clavering to whom your little
+   heart wishes to render itself;--not the captain who is a
+   fool,--such a fool! but the other who is not a fool, but
+   a fine fellow;--and so handsome! Yes; there is no doubt
+   as to that. He is beautiful as a Phoebus. [This was
+   good-natured on the part of Sophie, who, as the reader may
+   remember, hated Harry Clavering herself.]
+
+   Well,--why should he not be your own? As for your poor
+   Sophie, she would do all in her power to assist the friend
+   whom she love. There is that little girl,--yes; it is
+   true as I told you. But little girls cannot have all they
+   want always. He is a gay deceiver. These men who are so
+   beautiful as Phoebus are always deceivers. But you need
+   not be the one deceived;--you with your money and your
+   beauty and your--what you call rank. No, I think not; and
+   I think that little girl must put up with it, as other
+   little girls have done, since the men first learned how to
+   tell lies. That is my advice, and if you will let me I can
+   give you good assistance.
+
+   Dearest Julie, think of all this, and do not banish your
+   Sophie. I am so true to you, that I cannot live without
+   you. Send me back one word of permission, and I will come
+   to you, and kneel at your feet. And in the meantime, I am
+
+   Your most devoted friend,
+
+   SOPHIE.
+
+
+Lady Ongar, on the receipt of this letter, was not at all changed in
+her purpose with reference to Madame Gordeloup. She knew well enough
+where her Sophie's heart was placed, and would yield to no further
+pressure from that quarter; but Sophie's reasoning, nevertheless, had
+its effect. She, Lady Ongar, with her youth, her beauty, her wealth,
+and her rank, why should she not have that one thing which alone
+could make her happy, seeing, as she did see, or as she thought she
+saw, that in making herself happy she could do so much, could confer
+such great blessings on him she loved? She had already found that the
+money she had received as the price of herself had done very little
+towards making her happy in her present state. What good was it to
+her that she had a carriage and horses and two footmen six feet high?
+One pleasant word from lips that she could love,--from the lips of
+man or woman that she could esteem,--would be worth it all. She had
+gone down to her pleasant place in the country,--a place so pleasant
+that it had a fame of its own among the luxuriantly pleasant seats of
+the English country gentry; she had gone there, expecting to be happy
+in the mere feeling that it was all her own; and the whole thing had
+been to her so unutterably sad, so wretched in the severity of its
+desolation, that she had been unable to endure her life amidst the
+shade of her own trees. All her apples hitherto had turned to ashes
+between her teeth, because her fate had forced her to attempt the
+eating of them alone. But if she could give the fruit to him,--if she
+could make the apples over, so that they should all be his, and not
+hers, then would there not come to her some of the sweetness of the
+juice of them?
+
+She declared to herself that she would not tempt this man to be
+untrue to his troth, were it not that in doing so she would so
+greatly benefit himself. Was it not manifest that Harry Clavering was
+a gentleman, qualified to shine among men of rank and fashion, but
+not qualified to make his way by his own diligence? In saying this of
+him, she did not know how heavy was the accusation that she brought
+against him; but what woman, within her own breast, accuses the
+man she loves? Were he to marry Florence Burton, would he not ruin
+himself, and probably ruin her also? But she could give him all that
+he wanted. Though Ongar Park to her alone was, with its rich pastures
+and spreading oaks and lowing cattle, desolate as the Dead Sea shore,
+for him,--and for her with him,--would it not be the very paradise
+suited to them? Would it not be the heaven in which such a Phoebus
+should shine amidst the gyrations of his satellites? A Phoebus
+going about his own field in knickerbockers, and with attendant
+satellites, would possess a divinity which, as she thought, might
+make her happy. As she thought of all this, and asked herself these
+questions, there was an inner conscience which told her that she
+had no right to Harry's love or Harry's hand; but still she could
+not cease to long that good things might come to her, though those
+good things had not been deserved. Alas, good things not deserved
+too often lose their goodness when they come! As she was sitting
+with Sophie's letter in her hand the door was opened, and Captain
+Clavering was announced.
+
+Captain Archibald Clavering was again dressed in his very best, but
+he did not even yet show by his demeanour that aptitude for the
+business now in hand of which he had boasted on the previous evening
+to his friend. Lady Ongar, I think, partly guessed the object of
+his visit. She had perceived, or perhaps had unconsciously felt, on
+the occasion of his former coming, that the visit had not been made
+simply from motives of civility. She had known Archie in old days,
+and was aware that the splendour of his vestments had a significance.
+Well, if anything of that kind was to be done, the sooner it was done
+the better.
+
+"Julia," he said, as soon as he was seated, "I hope I have the
+pleasure of seeing you quite well?"
+
+"Pretty well, I thank you," said she.
+
+"You have been out of town, I think?" She told him that she had been
+in the Isle of Wight for a day or two, and then there was a short
+silence. "When I heard that you were gone," he said, "I feared that
+perhaps you were ill!"
+
+"O dear, no; nothing of that sort."
+
+"I am so glad," said Archie; and then he was silent again. He had,
+however, as he was aware, thrown a great deal of expression into his
+inquiries after her health, and he had now to calculate how he could
+best use the standing-ground that he had made for himself.
+
+"Have you seen my sister lately?" she asked.
+
+"Your sister? no. She is always at Clavering. I think it doosed wrong
+of Hugh, the way he goes on, keeping her down there, while he is up
+here in London. It isn't at all my idea of what a husband ought to
+do."
+
+"I suppose she likes it," said Lady Ongar.
+
+"Oh, if she likes it, that's a different thing, of course," said
+Archie. Then there was another pause.
+
+"Don't you find yourself rather lonely here sometimes?" he asked.
+
+Lady Ongar felt that it would be better for all parties that it
+should be over, and that it would not be over soon unless she could
+help him. "Very lonely indeed," she said; "but then I suppose that it
+is the fate of widows to be lonely."
+
+"I don't see that at all," said Archie, briskly; "--unless they are
+old and ugly, and that kind of thing. When a widow has become a widow
+after she has been married ever so many years, why then I suppose she
+looks to be left alone; and I suppose they like it."
+
+"Indeed, I can't say. I don't like it."
+
+"Then you would wish to change?"
+
+"It is a very intricate subject, Captain Clavering, and one which I
+do not think I am quite disposed to discuss at present. After a year
+or two, perhaps I shall go into society again. Most widows do, I
+believe."
+
+"But I was thinking of something else," said Archie, working himself
+up to the point with great energy, but still with many signs that he
+was ill at ease at his work. "I was, by Jove!"
+
+"And of what were you thinking, Captain Clavering?"
+
+"I was thinking,--of course you know, Julia, that since poor little
+Hughy's death, I am the next in for the title?"
+
+"Poor Hughy! I'm sure you are too generous to rejoice at that."
+
+"Indeed I am. When two fellows offered me a dinner at the club on the
+score of my chances, I wouldn't have it. But there's the fact;--isn't
+it?"
+
+"There is no doubt of that, I believe."
+
+"None on earth; and the most of it is entailed, too; not that Hugh
+would leave an acre away from the title. I'm as safe as wax as far
+as that is concerned. I don't suppose he ever borrowed a shilling or
+mortgaged an acre in his life."
+
+"I should think he was a prudent man."
+
+"We are both of us prudent. I will say that of myself, though I
+oughtn't to say it. And now, Julia,--a few words are the best after
+all. Look here,--if you'll take me just as I am, I'm blessed if I
+shan't be the happiest fellow in all London. I shall indeed. I've
+always been uncommon fond of you, though I never said anything about
+it in the old days, because,--because you see, what's the use of a
+man asking a girl to marry him if they haven't got a farthing between
+them. I think it's wrong; I do indeed; but it's different now, you
+know." It certainly was very different now.
+
+"Captain Clavering," she said, "I'm sorry you should have troubled
+yourself with such an idea as this."
+
+"Don't say that, Julia. It's no trouble; it's a pleasure."
+
+"But such a thing as you mean never can take place."
+
+"Yes, it can. Why can't it? I ain't in a hurry. I'll wait your own
+time, and do just whatever you wish all the while. Don't say no
+without thinking about it, Julia."
+
+"It is one of those things, Captain Clavering, which want no more
+thinking than what a woman can give to it at the first moment."
+
+"Ah,--you think so now, because you're surprised a little."
+
+"Well; I am surprised a little, as our previous intercourse was never
+of a nature to make such a proposition as this at all probable."
+
+"That was merely because I didn't think it right," said Archie, who,
+now that he had worked himself into the vein, liked the sound of his
+own voice. "It was indeed."
+
+"And I don't think it right now. You must listen to me for a moment,
+Captain Clavering--for fear of a mistake. Believe me, any such plan
+as this is quite out of the question;--quite." In uttering that last
+word she managed to use a tone of voice which did make an impression
+on him. "I never can, under any circumstances, become your wife. You
+might as well look upon that as altogether decided, because it will
+save us both annoyance."
+
+"You needn't be so sure yet, Julia."
+
+"Yes, I must be sure. And unless you will promise me to drop the
+matter, I must,--to protect myself,--desire my servants not to admit
+you into the house again. I shall be sorry to do that, and I think
+you will save me from the necessity."
+
+He did save her from that necessity, and before he went he gave her
+the required promise. "That's well," said she, tendering him her
+hand; "and now we shall part friends."
+
+"I shall like to be friends," said he, in a crestfallen voice, and
+with that he took his leave. It was a great comfort to him that he
+had the scheme of Jack Stuart's yacht and the trip to Norway for his
+immediate consolation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+WHAT LADY ONGAR THOUGHT ABOUT IT.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Mrs. Burton, it may perhaps be remembered, had formed in her heart
+a scheme of her own--a scheme of which she thought with much
+trepidation, and in which she could not request her husband's
+assistance, knowing well that he would not only not assist it, but
+that he would altogether disapprove of it. But yet she could not put
+it aside from her thoughts, believing that it might be the means of
+bringing Harry Clavering and Florence together. Her husband had now
+thoroughly condemned poor Harry, and had passed sentence against
+him,--not indeed openly to Florence herself, but very often in
+the hearing of his wife. Cecilia, womanlike, was more angry with
+circumstances than with the offending man,--with circumstances and
+with the woman who stood in Florence's way. She was perfectly willing
+to forgive Harry, if Harry could only be made to go right at last. He
+was good-looking and pleasant, and had nice ways in a house, and was
+altogether too valuable as a lover to be lost without many struggles.
+So she kept to her scheme, and at last she carried it into execution.
+
+She started alone from her house one morning, and getting into an
+omnibus at Brompton had herself put down on the rising ground in
+Piccadilly, opposite to the Green Park. Why she had hesitated to tell
+the omnibus-man to stop at Bolton Street can hardly be explained; but
+she had felt that there would be almost a declaration of guilt in
+naming that locality. So she got out on the little hill, and walked
+up in front of the Prime Minister's house,--as it was then,--and of
+the yellow palace built by one of our merchant princes, and turned
+into the street that was all but interdicted to her by her own
+conscience. She turned up Bolton Street, and with a trembling hand
+knocked at Lady Ongar's door.
+
+Florence in the meantime was sitting alone in Onslow Terrace. She
+knew now that Harry was ill at Clavering,--that he was indeed very
+ill, though Mrs. Clavering had assured her that his illness was not
+dangerous. For Mrs. Clavering had written to herself,--addressing
+her with all the old familiarity and affection,--with a warmth of
+affection that was almost more than natural. It was clear that Mrs.
+Clavering knew nothing of Harry's sins. Or, might it not be possible,
+Cecilia had suggested, that Mrs. Clavering might have known, and have
+resolved potentially that those sins should be banished, and become
+ground for some beautifully sincere repentance? Ah, how sweet it
+would be to receive that wicked sheep back again into the sheepfold,
+and then to dock him a little of his wandering powers, to fix him
+with some pleasant clog, to tie him down as a prudent domestic sheep
+should be tied, and make him the pride of the flock! But all this
+had been part of Cecilia's scheme, and of that scheme poor Florence
+knew nothing. According to Florence's view Mrs. Clavering's letter
+was written under a mistake. Harry had kept his secret at home,
+and intended to keep it for the present. But there was the letter,
+and Florence felt that it was impossible for her to answer it
+without telling the whole truth. It was very painful to her to leave
+unanswered so kind a letter as that, and it was quite impossible that
+she should write of Harry in the old strain. "It will be best that I
+should tell her the whole," Florence had said, "and then I shall be
+saved the pain of any direct communication with him." Her brother, to
+whom Cecilia had repeated this, applauded his sister's resolution.
+"Let her face it and bear it, and live it down," he had said. "Let
+her do it at once, so that all this maudlin sentimentality may be at
+an end." But Cecilia would not accede to this, and as Florence was
+in truth resolved, and had declared her purpose plainly, Cecilia
+was driven to the execution of her scheme more quickly than she had
+intended. In the meantime, Florence took out her little desk and
+wrote her letter. In tears and an agony of spirit which none can
+understand but women who have been driven to do the same, was it
+written. Could she have allowed herself to express her thoughts with
+passion, it would have been comparatively easy; but it behoved her to
+be calm, to be very quiet in her words,--almost reticent even in the
+language which she chose, and to abandon her claim not only without a
+reproach, but almost without an allusion to her love. Whilst Cecilia
+was away, the letter was written, and re-written and copied; but Mrs.
+Burton was safe in this, that her sister-in-law had promised that the
+letter should not be sent till she had seen it.
+
+Mrs. Burton, when she knocked at Lady Ongar's door, had a little note
+ready for the servant between her fingers. Her compliments to Lady
+Ongar, and would Lady Ongar oblige her by an interview. The note
+contained simply that, and nothing more; and when the servant took it
+from her, she declared her intention of waiting in the hall till she
+had received an answer. But she was shown into the dining-room, and
+there she remained for a quarter of an hour, during which time she
+was by no means comfortable. Probably Lady Ongar might refuse to
+receive her; but should that not be the case,--should she succeed in
+making her way into that lady's presence, how should she find the
+eloquence wherewith to plead her cause? At the end of the fifteen
+minutes, Lady Ongar herself opened the door and entered the room.
+"Mrs. Burton," she said, smiling, "I am really ashamed to have kept
+you so long; but open confession, they say, is good for the soul, and
+the truth is that I was not dressed." Then she led the way upstairs,
+and placed Mrs. Burton on a sofa, and placed herself in her own
+chair,--from whence she could see well, but in which she could not
+be well seen,--and stretched out the folds of her morning dress
+gracefully, and made her visitor thoroughly understand that she was
+at home and at her ease.
+
+We may, I think, surmise that Lady Ongar's open confession would do
+her soul but little good, as it lacked truth, which is the first
+requisite for all confessions. Lady Ongar had been sufficiently
+dressed to receive any visitor, but had felt that some special
+preparation was necessary for the reception of the one who had
+now come to her. She knew well who was Mrs. Burton, and surmised
+accurately the purpose for which Mrs. Burton had come. Upon the
+manner in which she now carried herself might hang the decision of
+the question which was so important to her,--whether that Phoebus
+in knickerbockers should or should not become lord of Ongar Park.
+To effect success now, she must maintain an ascendancy during this
+coming interview, and in the maintenance of all ascendancy, much
+depends on the outward man or woman; and she must think a little of
+the words she must use, and a little, too, of her own purpose. She
+was fully minded to get the better of Mrs. Burton if that might be
+possible, but she was not altogether decided on the other point. She
+wished that Harry Clavering might be her own. She would have wished
+to pension off that Florence Burton with half her wealth, had such
+pensioning been possible. But not the less did she entertain some
+half doubts whether it would not be well that she could abandon her
+own wishes, and give up her own hope of happiness. Of Mrs. Burton
+personally she had known nothing, and having expected to see a
+somewhat strong-featured and perhaps rather vulgar woman, and to hear
+a voice painfully indicative of a strong mind, she was agreeably
+surprised to find a pretty, mild lady, who from the first showed that
+she was half afraid of what she herself was doing. "I have heard your
+name, Mrs. Burton," said Lady Ongar, "from our mutual friend, Mr.
+Clavering, and I have no doubt you have heard mine from him also."
+This she said in accordance with the little plan which during those
+fifteen minutes she had laid down for her own guidance.
+
+Mrs. Burton was surprised, and at first almost silenced, by this
+open mentioning of a name which she had felt that she would have
+the greatest difficulty in approaching. She said, however, that it
+was so. She had heard Lady Ongar's name from Mr. Clavering. "We are
+connected, you know," said Lady Ongar. "My sister is married to
+his first-cousin, Sir Hugh; and when I was living with my sister
+at Clavering, he was at the rectory there. That was before my own
+marriage." She was perfectly easy in her manner, and flattered
+herself that the ascendancy was complete.
+
+"I have heard as much from Mr. Clavering," said Cecilia.
+
+"And he was very civil to me immediately on my return home. Perhaps
+you may have heard that also. He took this house for me, and made
+himself generally useful, as young men ought to do. I believe he is
+in the same office with your husband; is he not? I hope I may not
+have been the means of making him idle?"
+
+This was all very well and very pretty, but Mrs. Burton was already
+beginning to feel that she was doing nothing towards the achievement
+of her purpose. "I suppose he has been idle," she said, "but I did
+not mean to trouble you about that." Upon hearing this, Lady Ongar
+smiled. This supposition that she had really intended to animadvert
+upon Harry Clavering's idleness was amusing to her as she remembered
+how little such idleness would signify if she could only have her
+way.
+
+"Poor Harry!" she said. "I supposed his sins would be laid at my
+door. But my idea is, you know, that he never will do any good at
+such work as that."
+
+"Perhaps not;--that is, I really can't say. I don't think Mr. Burton
+has ever expressed any such opinion; and if he had--"
+
+"If he had, you wouldn't mention it."
+
+"I don't suppose I should, Lady Ongar;--not to a stranger."
+
+"Harry Clavering and I are not strangers," said Lady Ongar, changing
+the tone of her voice altogether as she spoke.
+
+"No; I know that. You have known him longer than we have. I am aware
+of that."
+
+"Yes; before he ever dreamed of going into your husband's business,
+Mrs. Burton; long before he had ever been to--Stratton."
+
+The name of Stratton was an assistance to Cecilia, and seemed to
+have been spoken with the view of enabling her to commence her work.
+"Yes," she said, "but nevertheless he did go to Stratton. He went
+to Stratton, and there he became acquainted with my sister-in-law,
+Florence Burton."
+
+"I am aware of it, Mrs. Burton."
+
+"And he also became engaged to her."
+
+"I am aware of that too. He has told me as much himself."
+
+"And has he told you whether he means to keep, or to break that
+engagement?"
+
+"Ah, Mrs. Burton, is that question fair? Is it fair either to him, or
+to me? If he has taken me into his confidence and has not taken you,
+should I be doing well to betray him? Or if there can be anything in
+such a secret specially interesting to myself, why should I be made
+to tell it to you?"
+
+"I think the truth is always the best, Lady Ongar."
+
+"Truth is always better than a lie;--so at least people say, though
+they sometimes act differently; but silence may be better than
+either."
+
+"This is a matter, Lady Ongar, in which I cannot be silent. I hope
+you will not be angry with me for coming to you,--or for asking you
+these questions--"
+
+"O dear, no."
+
+"But I cannot be silent. My sister-in-law must at any rate know what
+is to be her fate."
+
+"Then why do you not ask him?"
+
+"He is ill at present."
+
+"Ill! Where is he ill? Who says he is ill?" And Lady Ongar, though
+she did not quite leave her chair, raised herself up and forgot all
+her preparations. "Where is he, Mrs. Burton? I have not heard of his
+illness."
+
+"He is at Clavering;--at the parsonage."
+
+"I have heard nothing of this. What ails him? If he be really ill,
+dangerously ill, I conjure you to tell me. But pray tell me the
+truth. Let there be no tricks in such a matter as this."
+
+"Tricks, Lady Ongar!"
+
+"If Harry Clavering be ill, tell me what ails him. Is he in danger?"
+
+"His mother in writing to Florence says that he is not in danger; but
+that he is confined to the house. He has been taken by some fever."
+On that very morning Lady Ongar had received a letter from her
+sister, begging her to come to Clavering Park during the absence
+of Sir Hugh; but in the letter no word had been said as to Harry's
+illness. Had he been seriously, or at least dangerously ill, Hermione
+would certainly have mentioned it. All this flashed across Julia's
+mind as these tidings about Harry reached her. If he were not really
+in danger, or even if he were, why should she betray her feeling
+before this woman? "If there had been much in it," she said, resuming
+her former position and manners, "I should no doubt have heard of it
+from my sister."
+
+"We hear that it is not dangerous," continued Mrs. Burton; "but he is
+away, and we cannot see him. And, in truth, Lady Ongar, we cannot see
+him any more until we know that he means to deal honestly by us."
+
+"Am I the keeper of his honesty?"
+
+"From what I have heard, I think you are. If you will tell me
+that I have heard falsely, I will go away and beg your pardon for
+my intrusion. But if what I have heard be true, you must not be
+surprised that I show this anxiety for the happiness of my sister. If
+you knew her, Lady Ongar, you would know that she is too good to be
+thrown aside with indifference."
+
+"Harry Clavering tells me that she is an angel,--that she is
+perfect."
+
+"And if he loves her, will it not be a shame that they should be
+parted?"
+
+"I said nothing about his loving her. Men are not always fond of
+perfection. The angels may be too angelic for this world."
+
+"He did love her."
+
+"So I suppose;--or at any rate he thought that he did."
+
+"He did love her, and I believe he loves her still."
+
+"He has my leave to do so, Mrs. Burton."
+
+Cecilia, though she was somewhat afraid of the task which she had
+undertaken, and was partly awed by Lady Ongar's style of beauty and
+demeanour, nevertheless felt that if she still hoped to do any good,
+she must speak the truth out at once. She must ask Lady Ongar whether
+she held herself to be engaged to Harry Clavering. If she did not do
+this, nothing could come of the present interview.
+
+"You say that, Lady Ongar, but do you mean it?" she asked. "We have
+been told that you also are engaged to marry Mr. Clavering."
+
+"Who has told you so?"
+
+"We have heard it. I have heard it, and have been obliged to tell my
+sister that I had done so."
+
+"And who told you? Did you hear it from Harry Clavering himself?"
+
+"I did. I heard it in part from him."
+
+"Then why have you come beyond him to me? He must know. If he has
+told you that he is engaged to marry me, he must also have told you
+that he does not intend to marry Miss Florence Burton. It is not for
+me to defend him or to accuse him. Why do you come to me?"
+
+"For mercy and forbearance," said Mrs. Burton, rising from her seat
+and coming over to the side of the room in which Lady Ongar was
+seated.
+
+
+[Illustration: A plea for mercy.]
+
+
+"And Miss Burton has sent you?"
+
+"No; she does not know that I am here; nor does my husband know it.
+No one knows it. I have come to tell you that before God this man is
+engaged to become the husband of Florence Burton. She has learned to
+love him, and has now no other chance of happiness."
+
+"But what of his happiness?"
+
+"Yes; we are bound to think of that. Florence is bound to think of
+that above all things."
+
+"And so am I. I love him too;--as fondly, perhaps, as she can do. I
+loved him first, before she had even heard his name."
+
+"But, Lady Ongar--"
+
+"Yes; you may ask the question if you will, and I will answer it
+truly." They were both standing now and confronting each other. "Or
+I will answer it without your asking it. I was false to him. I would
+not marry him because he was poor; and then I married another because
+he was rich. All that is true. But it does not make me love him the
+less now. I have loved him through it all. Yes; you are shocked, but
+it is true. I have loved him through it all. And what am I to do now,
+if he still loves me? I can give him wealth now."
+
+"Wealth will not make him happy."
+
+"It has not made me happy; but it may help to do so with him. But
+with me at any rate there can be no doubt. It is his happiness to
+which I am bound to look. Mrs. Burton, if I thought that I could make
+him happy, and if he would come to me, I would marry him to-morrow,
+though I broke your sister's heart by doing so. But if I felt that
+she could do so more than I, I would leave him to her, though I broke
+my own. I have spoken to you very openly. Will she say as much as
+that?"
+
+"She would act in that way. I do not know what she would say."
+
+"Then let her do so, and leave him to be the judge of his own
+happiness. Let her pledge herself that no reproaches shall come
+from her, and I will pledge myself equally. It was I who loved him
+first, and it is I who have brought him into this trouble. I owe him
+everything. Had I been true to him, he would never have thought of,
+never have seen, Miss Florence Burton."
+
+All that was, no doubt, true, but it did not touch the question of
+Florence's right. The fact on which Mrs. Burton wished to insist, if
+only she knew how, was this, that Florence had not sinned at all, and
+that Florence therefore ought not to bear any part of the punishment.
+It might be very true that Harry's fault was to be excused in part
+because of Lady Ongar's greater and primary fault;--but why should
+Florence be the scapegoat?
+
+"You should think of his honour as well as his happiness," said Mrs.
+Burton at last.
+
+"That is rather severe, Mrs. Burton, considering that it is said
+to me in my own house. Am I so low as that, that his honour will
+be tarnished if I become his wife?" But she, in saying this, was
+thinking of things of which Mrs. Burton knew nothing.
+
+"His honour will be tarnished," said she, "if he do not marry her
+whom he has promised to marry. He was welcomed by her father and
+mother to their house, and then he made himself master of her heart.
+But it was not his till he had asked for it, and had offered his own
+and his hand in return for it. Is he not bound to keep his promise?
+He cannot be bound to you after any such fashion as that. If you are
+solicitous for his welfare, you should know that if he would live
+with the reputation of a gentleman, there is only one course open to
+him."
+
+"It is the old story," said Lady Ongar; "the old story! Has not
+somebody said that the gods laugh at the perjuries of lovers? I do
+not know that men are inclined to be much more severe than the gods.
+These broken hearts are what women are doomed to bear."
+
+"And that is to be your answer to me, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"No; that is not my answer to you. That is the excuse that I make for
+Harry Clavering. My answer to you has been very explicit. Pardon me
+if I say that it has been more explicit than you had any right to
+expect. I have told you that I am prepared to take any step that may
+be most conducive to the happiness of the man whom I once injured,
+but whom I have always loved. I will do this, let it cost myself what
+it may; and I will do this let the cost to any other woman be what
+it may. You cannot expect that I should love another woman better
+than myself." She said this, still standing, not without something
+more than vehemence in her tone. In her voice, in her manner, and
+in her eye there was that which amounted almost to ferocity. She
+was declaring that some sacrifice must be made, and that she recked
+little whether it should be of herself or of another. As she would
+immolate herself without hesitation, if the necessity should exist,
+so would she see Florence Burton destroyed without a twinge of
+remorse, if the destruction of Florence would serve the purpose
+which she had in view. You and I, O reader, may feel that the man
+for whom all this was to be done was not worth the passion. He had
+proved himself to be very far from such worth. But the passion,
+nevertheless, was there, and the woman was honest in what she was
+saying.
+
+After this Mrs. Burton got herself out of the room as soon as she
+found an opening which allowed her to go. In making her farewell
+speech, she muttered some indistinct apology for the visit which she
+had been bold enough to make. "Not at all," said Lady Ongar. "You
+have been quite right;--you are fighting your battle for the friend
+you love bravely; and were it not that the cause of the battle must,
+I fear, separate us hereafter, I should be proud to know one who
+fights so well for her friends. And when all this is over and has
+been settled, in whatever way it may be settled, let Miss Burton know
+from me that I have been taught to hold her name and character in
+the highest possible esteem." Mrs. Burton made no attempt at further
+speech, but left the room with a low curtsey.
+
+Till she found herself out in the street, she was unable to think
+whether she had done most harm or most good by her visit to Bolton
+Street,--whether she had in any way served Florence, or whether she
+had simply confessed to Florence's rival the extent of her sister's
+misery. That Florence herself would feel the latter to be the case,
+when she should know it all, Mrs. Burton was well aware. Her own
+ears had tingled with shame as Harry Clavering had been discussed
+as a grand prize for which her sister was contending with another
+woman,--and contending with so small a chance of success. It was
+terrible to her that any woman dear to her should seem to seek for a
+man's love. And the audacity with which Lady Ongar had proclaimed her
+own feelings had been terrible also to Cecilia. She was aware that
+she was meddling with things which were foreign to her nature, and
+which would be odious to her husband. But yet, was not the battle
+worth fighting? It was not to be endured that Florence should seek
+after this thing; but, after all, the possession of the thing in
+question was the only earthly good that could give any comfort to
+poor Florence. Even Cecilia, with all her partiality for Harry,
+felt that he was not worth the struggle; but it was for her now to
+estimate him at the price which Florence might put upon him,--not at
+her own price.
+
+But she must tell Florence what had been done, and tell her on that
+very day of her meeting with Lady Ongar. In no other way could she
+stop that letter which she knew that Florence would have already
+written to Mrs. Clavering. And could she now tell Florence that there
+was ground for hope? Was it not the fact that Lady Ongar had spoken
+the simple and plain truth when she had said that Harry must be
+allowed to choose the course which appeared to him to be the best for
+him? It was hard, very hard, that it should be so. And was it not
+true also that men, as well as gods, excuse the perjuries of lovers?
+She wanted to have back Harry among them as one to be forgiven
+easily, to be petted much, and to be loved always; but, in spite
+of the softness of her woman's nature, she wished that he might be
+punished sorely if he did not so return. It was grievous to her that
+he should any longer have a choice in the matter. Heavens and earth!
+was he to be allowed to treat a woman as he had treated Florence, and
+was nothing to come of it? In spite both of gods and men, the thing
+was so grievous to Cecilia Burton, that she could not bring herself
+to acknowledge that it was possible. Such things had not been done in
+the world which she had known.
+
+She walked the whole way home to Brompton, and had hardly perfected
+any plan when she reached her own door. If only Florence would allow
+her to write the letter to Mrs. Clavering, perhaps something might be
+done in that way. So she entered the house prepared to tell the story
+of her morning's work.
+
+And she must tell it also to her husband in the evening! It had been
+hard to do the thing without his knowing of it beforehand; but it
+would be impossible to her to keep the thing a secret from him, now
+that it was done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+HOW TO DISPOSE OF A WIFE.
+
+
+When Sir Hugh came up to town there did not remain to him quite a
+week before the day on which he was to leave the coast of Essex in
+Jack Stuart's yacht for Norway, and he had a good deal to do in the
+meantime in the way of provisioning the boat. Fortnum and Mason, no
+doubt, would have done it all for him without any trouble on his
+part, but he was not a man to trust any Fortnum or any Mason as to
+the excellence of the article to be supplied, or as to the price. He
+desired to have good wine,--very good wine; but he did not desire to
+pay a very high price. No one knew better than Sir Hugh that good
+wine cannot be bought cheap,--but things may be costly and yet not
+dear; or they may be both. To such matters Sir Hugh was wont to pay
+very close attention himself. He had done something in that line
+before he left London, and immediately on his return he went to the
+work again, summoning Archie to his assistance, but never asking
+Archie's opinion,--as though Archie had been his head-butler.
+
+Immediately on his arrival in London he cross-questioned his brother
+as to his marriage prospects. "I suppose you are going with us?" Hugh
+said to Archie, as he caught him in the hall of the house in Berkeley
+Square on the morning after his arrival.
+
+"O dear, yes," said Archie. "I thought that was quite understood.
+I have been getting my traps together." The getting of his traps
+together had consisted in the ordering of a sailor's jacket with
+brass buttons, and three pair of white duck trousers.
+
+"All right," said Sir Hugh. "You had better come with me into the
+City this morning. I am going to Boxall's in Great Thames Street."
+
+"Are you going to breakfast here?" asked Archie.
+
+"No; you can come to me at the Union in about an hour. I suppose you
+have never plucked up courage to ask Julia to marry you?"
+
+"Yes, I did," said Archie.
+
+"And what answer did you get?" Archie had found himself obliged to
+repudiate with alacrity the attack upon his courage which his brother
+had so plainly made; but, beyond that, the subject was one which
+was not pleasing to him. "Well, what did she say to you?" asked his
+brother, who had no idea of sparing Archie's feelings in such a
+matter.
+
+"She said;--indeed I don't remember exactly what it was that she did
+say."
+
+"But she refused you?"
+
+"Yes;--she refused me. I think she wanted me to understand that I had
+come to her too soon after Ongar's death."
+
+"Then she must be an infernal hypocrite;--that's all." But of any
+hypocrisy in this matter the reader will acquit Lady Ongar, and will
+understand that Archie had merely lessened the severity of his own
+fall by a clever excuse. After that the two brothers went to Boxall's
+in the City, and Archie, having been kept fagging all day, was sent
+in the evening to dine by himself at his own club.
+
+Sir Hugh also was desirous of seeing Lady Ongar, and had caused his
+wife to say as much in that letter which she wrote to her sister. In
+this way an appointment had been made without any direct intercourse
+between Sir Hugh and his sister-in-law. They two had never met since
+the day on which Sir Hugh had given her away in Clavering Church.
+To Hugh Clavering, who was by no means a man of sentiment, this
+signified little or nothing. When Lady Ongar had returned a widow,
+and when evil stories against her had been rife, he had thought it
+expedient to have nothing to do with her. He did not himself care
+much about his sister-in-law's morals; but should his wife become
+much complicated with a sister damaged in character there might come
+of it trouble and annoyance. Therefore, he had resolved that Lady
+Ongar should be dropped. But during the last few months things had
+in some respects changed. The Courton people,--that is to say, Lord
+Ongar's family,--had given Hugh Clavering to understand that, having
+made inquiry, they were disposed to acquit Lady Ongar, and to declare
+their belief that she was subject to no censure. They did not wish
+themselves to know her, as no intimacy between them could now be
+pleasant; but they had felt it to be incumbent on them to say as much
+as that to Sir Hugh. Sir Hugh had not even told his wife, but he had
+twice suggested that Lady Ongar should be asked to Clavering Park. In
+answer to both these invitations, Lady Ongar had declined to go to
+Clavering Park.
+
+And now Sir Hugh had a commission on his hands from the same Courton
+people, which made it necessary that he should see his sister-in-law,
+and Julia had agreed to receive him. To him, who was very hard in
+such matters, the idea of his visit was not made disagreeable by any
+remembrance of his own harshness to the woman whom he was going to
+see. He cared nothing about that, and it had not occurred to him that
+she would care much. But, in truth, she did care very much, and when
+the hour was coming on which Sir Hugh was to appear, she thought
+much of the manner in which it would become her to receive him.
+He had condemned her in that matter as to which any condemnation
+is an insult to a woman; and he had so condemned her, being her
+brother-in-law and her only natural male friend. In her sorrow she
+should have been able to lean upon him; but from the first, without
+any inquiry, he had believed the worst of her, and had withdrawn from
+her altogether his support, when the slightest support from him would
+have been invaluable to her. Could she forgive this? Never; never!
+She was not a woman to wish to forgive such an offence. It was an
+offence which it would be despicable in her to forgive. Many had
+offended her, some had injured her, one or two had insulted her; but
+to her thinking, no one had so offended her, had so injured her, had
+so grossly insulted her, as he had done. In what way then would it
+become her to receive him? Before his arrival she had made up her
+mind on this subject, and had resolved that she would, at least, say
+no word of her own wrongs.
+
+"How do you do, Julia?" said Sir Hugh, walking into the room with a
+step which was perhaps unnaturally quick, and with his hand extended.
+Lady Ongar had thought of that too. She would give much to escape
+the touch of his hand, if it were possible; but she had told herself
+that she would best consult her own dignity by declaring no actual
+quarrel. So she put out her fingers and just touched his palm.
+
+"I hope Hermy is well?" she said.
+
+"Pretty well, thank you. She is rather lonely since she lost her poor
+little boy, and would be very glad if you would go to her."
+
+"I cannot do that; but if she would come to me I should be
+delighted."
+
+"You see it would not suit her to be in London so soon after Hughy's
+death."
+
+"I am not bound to London. I would go anywhere else,--except to
+Clavering."
+
+"You never go to Ongar Park, I am told."
+
+"I have been there."
+
+"But they say you do not intend to go again."
+
+"Not at present, certainly. Indeed, I do not suppose I shall ever go
+there. I do not like the place."
+
+"That's just what they have told me. It is about that--partly--that I
+want to speak to you. If you don't like the place, why shouldn't you
+sell your interest in it back to the family? They'd give you more
+than the value for it."
+
+"I do not know that I should care to sell it."
+
+"Why not, if you don't mean to use the house? I might as well
+explain at once what it is that has been said to me. John Courton,
+you know, is acting as guardian for the young earl, and they don't
+want to keep up so large a place as the Castle. Ongar Park would just
+suit Mrs. Courton,"--Mrs. Courton was the widowed mother of the young
+earl,--"and they would be very happy to buy your interest."
+
+"Would not such a proposition come best through a lawyer?" said Lady
+Ongar.
+
+"The fact is this,--they think they have been a little hard on you."
+
+"I have never accused them."
+
+"But they feel it themselves, and they think that you might take it
+perhaps amiss if they were to send you a simple message through an
+attorney. Courton told me that he would not have allowed any such
+proposition to be made, if you had seemed disposed to use the place.
+They wish to be civil, and all that kind of thing."
+
+"Their civility or incivility is indifferent to me," said Julia.
+
+"But why shouldn't you take the money?"
+
+"The money is equally indifferent to me."
+
+"You mean then to say that you won't listen to it? Of course they
+can't make you part with the place if you wish to keep it."
+
+"Not more than they can make you sell Clavering Park. I do not,
+however, wish to be uncivil, and I will let you know through my
+lawyer what I think about it. All such matters are best managed by
+lawyers."
+
+After that Sir Hugh said nothing further about Ongar Park. He was
+well aware, from the tone in which Lady Ongar answered him, that she
+was averse to talk to him on that subject; but he was not conscious
+that his presence was otherwise disagreeable to her, or that she
+would resent any interference from him on any subject because he
+had been cruel to her. So after a little while he began again about
+Hermione. As the world had determined upon acquitting Lady Ongar,
+it would be convenient to him that the two sisters should be again
+intimate, especially as Julia was a rich woman. His wife did not like
+Clavering Park, and he certainly did not like Clavering Park himself.
+If he could once get the house shut up, he might manage to keep it
+shut for some years to come. His wife was now no more than a burden
+to him, and it would suit him well to put off the burden on to his
+sister-in-law's shoulders. It was not that he intended to have his
+wife altogether dependent on another person, but he thought that if
+they two were established together, in the first instance merely as
+a summer arrangement, such establishment might be made to assume
+some permanence. This would be very pleasant to him. Of course he
+would pay a portion of the expense,--as small a portion as might be
+possible,--but such a portion as might enable him to live with credit
+before the world.
+
+"I wish I could think that you and Hermy might be together while I am
+absent," he said.
+
+"I shall be very happy to have her if she will come to me," Julia
+replied.
+
+"What,--here, in London? I am not quite sure that she wishes to come
+up to London at present."
+
+"I have never understood that she had any objection to being in
+town," said Lady Ongar.
+
+"Not formerly, certainly; but now, since her boy's death--"
+
+"Why should his death make more difference to her than to you?"
+To this question Sir Hugh made no reply. "If you are thinking of
+society, she could be nowhere safer from any such necessity than with
+me. I never go out anywhere. I have never dined out, or even spent an
+evening in company since Lord Ongar's death. And no one would come
+here to disturb her."
+
+"I didn't mean that."
+
+"I don't quite know what you did mean. From different causes she and
+I are left pretty nearly equally without friends."
+
+"Hermione is not left without friends," said Sir Hugh with a tone of
+offence.
+
+"Were she not, she would not want to come to me. Your society is
+in London, to which she does not come, or in other country-houses
+than your own, to which she is not taken. She lives altogether at
+Clavering, and there is no one there, except your uncle."
+
+"Whatever neighbourhood there is she has,--just like other women."
+
+"Just like some other women, no doubt. I shall remain in town for
+another month, and after that I shall go somewhere; I don't much care
+where. If Hermy will come to me as my guest I shall be most happy
+to have her. And the longer she will stay with me the better. Your
+coming home need make no difference, I suppose."
+
+There was a keenness of reproach in her tone as she spoke, which even
+he could not but feel and acknowledge. He was very thick-skinned
+to such reproaches, and would have left this unnoticed had it been
+possible. Had she continued speaking he would have done so. But she
+remained silent, and sat looking at him, saying with her eyes the
+same thing that she had already spoken with her words. Thus he was
+driven to speak. "I don't know," said he, "whether you intend that
+for a sneer."
+
+She was perfectly indifferent whether or no she offended him. Only
+that she had believed that the maintenance of her own dignity forbade
+it, she would have openly rebuked him, and told him that he was not
+welcome in her house. No treatment from her could, as she thought,
+be worse than he had deserved from her. His first enmity had injured
+her, but she could afford to laugh at his present anger. "It is hard
+to talk to you about Hermy without what you are pleased to call a
+sneer. You simply wish to rid yourself of her."
+
+"I wish no such thing, and you have no right to say so."
+
+"At any rate you are ridding yourself of her society; and if under
+those circumstances she likes to come to me I shall be glad to
+receive her. Our life together will not be very cheerful, but neither
+she nor I ought to expect a cheerful life."
+
+He rose from his chair now with a cloud of anger upon his brow. "I
+can see how it is," said he; "because everything has not gone smooth
+with yourself you choose to resent it upon me. I might have expected
+that you would not have forgotten in whose house you met Lord Ongar."
+
+"No, Hugh; I forget nothing; neither when I met him, nor how I
+married him, nor any of the events that have happened since. My
+memory, unfortunately, is very good."
+
+"I did all I could for you, and should have been safe from your
+insolence."
+
+"You should have continued to stay away from me, and you would have
+been quite safe. But our quarrelling in this way is foolish. We can
+never be friends,--you and I; but we need not be open enemies. Your
+wife is my sister, and I say again that if she likes to come to me,
+I shall be delighted to have her."
+
+"My wife," said he, "will go to the house of no person who is
+insolent to me." Then he took his hat, and left the room without
+further word or sign of greeting. In spite of his calculations and
+caution as to money,--in spite of his well-considered arrangements
+and the comfortable provision for his future ease which he had
+proposed to himself, he was a man who had not his temper so much
+under control as to enable him to postpone his anger to his prudence.
+That little scheme for getting rid of his wife was now at an end. He
+would never permit her to go to her sister's house after the manner
+in which Julia had just treated him!
+
+When he was gone Lady Ongar walked about her own room smiling, and
+at first was well pleased with herself. She had received Archie's
+overture with decision, but at the same time with courtesy, for
+Archie was weak, and poor, and powerless. But she had treated Sir
+Hugh with scorn, and had been enabled to do so without the utterance
+of any actual reproach as to the wrongs which she herself had endured
+from him. He had put himself in her power, and she had not thrown
+away the opportunity. She had told him that she did not want his
+friendship, and would not be his friend; but she had done this
+without any loud abuse unbecoming to her either as a countess, a
+widow, or a lady. For Hermione she was sorry. Hermione now could
+hardly come to her. But even as to that she did not despair. As
+things were going on, it would become almost necessary that her
+sister and Sir Hugh should be parted. Both must wish it; and if this
+were arranged, then Hermione should come to her.
+
+But from this she soon came to think again about Harry Clavering. How
+was that matter to be decided, and what steps would it become her to
+take as to its decision? Sir Hugh had proposed to her that she should
+sell her interest in Ongar Park, and she had promised that she would
+make known her decision on that matter through her lawyer. As she had
+been saying this she was well aware that she would never sell the
+property;--but she had already resolved that she would at once give
+it back, without purchase-money, to the Ongar family, were it not
+kept that she might hand it over to Harry Clavering as a fitting
+residence for his lordship. If he might be there, looking after
+his cattle, going about with the steward subservient at his heels,
+ministering justice to the Enoch Gubbys and others, she would care
+nothing for the wants of any of the Courton people. But if such were
+not to be the destiny of Ongar Park,--if there were to be no such
+Adam in that Eden,--then the mother of the little lord might take
+herself thither, and revel among the rich blessings of the place
+without delay, and with no difficulty as to price. As to price,;--had
+she not already found the money-bag that had come to her to be too
+heavy for her hands?
+
+But she could do nothing till that question was settled; and how was
+she to settle it? Every word that had passed between her and Cecilia
+Burton had been turned over and over in her mind, and she could only
+declare to herself as she had then declared to her visitor, that it
+must be as Harry should please. She would submit, if he required her
+submission; but she could not bring herself to take steps to secure
+her own misery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+FAREWELL TO DOODLES.
+
+
+At last came the day on which the two Claverings were to go down
+to Harwich and put themselves on board Jack Stuart's yacht. The
+hall of the house in Berkeley Square was strewed with portmanteaus,
+gun-cases, and fishing-rods, whereas the wine and packets of
+preserved meat, and the bottled beer and fish in tins, and the large
+box of cigars, and the prepared soups, had been sent down by Boxall,
+and were by this time on board the boat. Hugh and Archie were to
+leave London this day by train at 5 P.M., and were to sleep on board.
+Jack Stuart was already there, having assisted in working the yacht
+round from Brightlingsea.
+
+On that morning Archie had a farewell breakfast at his club with
+Doodles, and after that, having spent the intervening hours in the
+billiard-room, a farewell luncheon. There had been something of
+melancholy in this last day between the friends, originating partly
+in the failure of Archie's hopes as to Lady Ongar, and partly perhaps
+in the bad character which seemed to belong to Jack Stuart and his
+craft. "He has been at it for years, and always coming to grief,"
+said Doodles. "He is just like a man I know, who has been hunting
+for the last ten years, and can't sit a horse at a fence yet. He has
+broken every bone in his skin, and I don't suppose he ever saw a good
+thing to a finish. He never knows whether hounds are in cover, or
+where they are. His only idea is to follow another man's red coat
+till he comes to grief;--and yet he will go on hunting. There are
+some people who never will understand what they can do, and what
+they can't." In answer to this, Archie reminded his friend that on
+this occasion Jack Stuart would have the advantage of an excellent
+dry-nurse, acknowledged to be very great on such occasions. Would
+not he, Archie Clavering, be there to pilot Jack Stuart and his
+boat? But, nevertheless, Doodles was melancholy, and went on telling
+stories about that unfortunate man who would continue to break his
+bones, though he had no aptitude for out-of-door sports. "He'll be
+carried home on a stretcher some day, you know," said Doodles.
+
+"What does it matter if he is?" said Archie, boldly, thinking of
+himself and of the danger predicted for him. "A man can only die
+once."
+
+"I call it quite a tempting of Providence," said Doodles.
+
+But their conversation was chiefly about Lady Ongar and the Spy. It
+was only on this day that Doodles had learned that Archie had in
+truth offered his hand, and been rejected; and Captain Clavering was
+surprised by the extent of his friend's sympathy. "It's a doosed
+disagreeable thing,--a very disagreeable thing indeed," said Doodles.
+Archie, who did not wish to be regarded as specially unfortunate,
+declined to look at the matter in this light; but Doodles insisted.
+"It would cut me up like the very mischief," he said. "I know that;
+and the worst of it is, that perhaps you wouldn't have gone on, only
+for me. I meant it all for the best, old fellow. I did, indeed.
+There; that's the game to you. I'm playing uncommon badly this
+morning; but the truth is, I'm thinking of those women." Now as
+Doodles was playing for a little money, this was really civil on his
+part.
+
+And he would persevere in talking about the Spy, as though there
+were something in his remembrance of the lady which attracted him
+irresistibly to the subject. He had always boasted that in his
+interview with her he had come off with the victory, nor did he now
+cease to make such boasts; but still he spoke of her and her powers
+with an awe which would have completely opened the eyes of any one a
+little more sharp on such matters than Archie Clavering. He was so
+intent on this subject that he sent the marker out of the room so
+that he might discuss it with more freedom, and might plainly express
+his views as to her influence on his friend's fate.
+
+"By George! she's a wonderful woman. Do you know I can't help
+thinking of her at night. She keeps me awake;--she does, upon my
+honour."
+
+"I can't say she keeps me awake, but I wish I had my seventy pounds
+back again."
+
+"Do you know, if I were you, I shouldn't grudge it. I should think it
+worth pretty nearly all the money to have had the dealing with her."
+
+"Then you ought to go halves."
+
+"Well, yes;--only that I ain't flush, I would. When one thinks of it,
+her absolutely taking the notes out of your waistcoat-pocket, upon my
+word it's beautiful! She'd have had it out of mine, if I hadn't been
+doosed sharp."
+
+"She understood what she was about, certainly."
+
+"What I should like to know is this: did she or did she not tell Lady
+Ongar what she was to do;--about you I mean? I daresay she did after
+all."
+
+"And took my money for nothing?"
+
+"Because you didn't go high enough, you know."
+
+"But that was your fault. I went as high as you told me."
+
+"No, you didn't, Clavvy; not if you remember. But the fact is, I
+don't suppose you could go high enough. I shouldn't be surprised if
+such a woman as that wanted--thousands! I shouldn't indeed. I shall
+never forget the way in which she swore at me;--and how she abused me
+about my family. I think she must have had some special reason for
+disliking Warwickshire, she said such awful hard things about it."
+
+"How did she know that you came from Warwickshire?"
+
+"She did know it. If I tell you something don't you say anything
+about it. I have an idea about her."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I didn't mention it before, because I don't talk much of those sort
+of things. I don't pretend to understand them, and it is better to
+leave them alone."
+
+"But what do you mean?"
+
+Doodles looked very solemn as he answered. "I think she's a
+medium--or a media, or whatever it ought to be called."
+
+"What! one of those spirit-rapping people?" And Archie's hair almost
+stood on end as he asked the question.
+
+"They don't rap now,--not the best of them, that is. That was the old
+way, and seems to have been given up."
+
+"But what do you suppose she did?"
+
+"How did she know that the money was in your waistcoat-pocket, now?
+How did she know that I came from Warwickshire? And then she had a
+way of going about the room as though she could have raised herself
+off her feet in a moment if she had chosen. And then her swearing,
+and the rest of it,--so unlike any other woman, you know."
+
+"But do you think she could have made Julia hate me?"
+
+"Ah, I can't tell that. There are such lots of things going on
+now-a-days that a fellow can understand nothing about! But I've no
+doubt of this,--if you were to tie her up with ropes ever so, I don't
+in the least doubt but what she'd get out."
+
+Archie was awe-struck, and made two or three strokes after this; but
+then he plucked up his courage and asked a question,--
+
+"Where do you suppose they get it from, Doodles?"
+
+"That's just the question."
+
+"Is it from--the devil, do you think?" said Archie, whispering the
+name of the Evil One in a very low voice.
+
+"Well, yes; I suppose that's most likely."
+
+"Because they don't seem to do a great deal of harm with it after
+all. As for my money, she would have had that any way, for I intended
+to give it to her."
+
+"There are people who think," said Doodles, "that the spirits don't
+come from anywhere, but are always floating about."
+
+"And then one person catches them, and another doesn't?" asked
+Archie.
+
+"They tell me that it depends upon what the mediums or medias eat and
+drink," said Doodles, "and upon what sort of minds they have. They
+must be cleverish people, I fancy, or the spirits wouldn't come to
+them."
+
+"But you never hear of any swell being a medium. Why don't the
+spirits go to a prime minister or some of those fellows? Only think
+what a help they'd be."
+
+"If they come from the devil," suggested Doodles, "he wouldn't let
+them do any real good."
+
+"I've heard a deal about them," said Archie, "and it seems to me that
+the mediums are always poor people, and that they come from nobody
+knows where. The Spy is a clever woman I daresay--"
+
+"There isn't much doubt about that," said the admiring Doodles.
+
+"But you can't say she's respectable, you know. If I was a spirit I
+wouldn't go to a woman who wore such dirty stockings as she had on."
+
+"That's nonsense, Clavvy. What does a spirit care about a woman's
+stockings?"
+
+"But why don't they ever go to the wise people? that's what I want
+to know." And as he asked the question boldly he struck his ball
+sharply, and, lo, the three balls rolled vanquished into three
+different pockets. "I don't believe about it," said Archie, as he
+readjusted the score. "The devil can't do such things as that or
+there'd be an end of everything; and as to spirits in the air, why
+should there be more spirits now than there were four-and-twenty
+years ago?"
+
+"That's all very well, old fellow," said Doodles, "but you and I
+ain't clever enough to understand everything." Then that subject was
+dropped, and Doodles went back for a while to the perils of Jack
+Stuart's yacht.
+
+After the lunch, which was in fact Archie's early dinner, Doodles
+was going to leave his friend, but Archie insisted that his brother
+captain should walk with him up to Berkeley Square, and see the last
+of him into his cab. Doodles had suggested that Sir Hugh would be
+there, and that Sir Hugh was not always disposed to welcome his
+brother's friends to his own house after the most comfortable modes
+of friendship; but Archie explained that on such an occasion as this
+there need be no fear on that head; he and his brother were going
+away together, and there was a certain feeling of jollity about the
+trip which would divest Sir Hugh of his roughness. "And besides,"
+said Archie, "as you will be there to see me off, he'll know that
+you're not going to stay yourself." Convinced by this, Doodles
+consented to walk up to Berkeley Square.
+
+Sir Hugh had spent the greatest part of this day at home, immersed
+among his guns and rods, and their various appurtenances. He also had
+breakfasted at his club, but had ordered his luncheon to be prepared
+for him at home. He had arranged to leave Berkeley Square at four,
+and had directed that his lamb chops should be brought to him exactly
+at three. He was himself a little late in coming downstairs, and it
+was ten minutes past the hour when he desired that the chops might be
+put on the table, saying that he himself would be in the drawing-room
+in time to meet them. He was a man solicitous about his lamb chops,
+and careful that the asparagus should be hot; solicitous also as
+to that bottle of Lafitte by which those comestibles were to be
+accompanied and which was, of its own nature, too good to be shared
+with his brother Archie. But as he was on the landing, by the
+drawing-room door, descending quickly, conscious that in obedience to
+his orders the chops had been already served, he was met by a servant
+who, with disturbed face and quick voice, told him that there was a
+lady waiting for him in the hall.
+
+"D---- it!" said Sir Hugh.
+
+"She has just come, Sir Hugh, and says that she specially wants to
+see you."
+
+"Why the devil did you let her in?"
+
+"She walked in when the door was opened, Sir Hugh, and I couldn't
+help it. She seemed to be a lady, Sir Hugh, and I didn't like not to
+let her inside the door."
+
+"What's the lady's name?" asked the master.
+
+"It's a foreign name, Sir Hugh. She said she wouldn't keep you five
+minutes." The lamb chops, and the asparagus, and the Lafitte were in
+the dining-room, and the only way to the dining-room lay through the
+hall to which the foreign lady had obtained an entrance. Sir Hugh,
+making such calculations as the moments allowed, determined that he
+would face the enemy, and pass on to his banquet over her prostrate
+body. He went quickly down into the hall, and there was encountered
+by Sophie Gordeloup, who, skipping over the gun-cases, and rushing
+through the portmanteaus, caught the baronet by the arm before he had
+been able to approach the dining-room door. "Sir 'Oo," she said, "I
+am so glad to have caught you. You are going away, and I have things
+to tell you which you must hear--yes; it is well for you I have
+caught you, Sir 'Oo." Sir Hugh looked as though he by no means
+participated in this feeling, and saying something about his great
+hurry begged that he might be allowed to go to his food. Then he
+added that, as far as his memory served him, he had not the honour of
+knowing the lady who was addressing him.
+
+"You come in to your little dinner," said Sophie, "and I will tell
+you everything as you are eating. Don't mind me. You shall eat and
+drink, and I will talk. I am Madame Gordeloup,--Sophie Gordeloup.
+Ah,--you know the name now. Yes. That is me. Count Pateroff is my
+brother. You know Count Pateroff? He knowed Lord Ongar, and I knowed
+Lord Ongar. We know Lady Ongar. Ah,--you understand now that I can
+have much to tell. It is well you was not gone without seeing me? Eh;
+yes! You shall eat and drink, but suppose you send that man into the
+kitchen!"
+
+Sir Hugh was so taken by surprise that he hardly knew how to act on
+the spur of the moment. He certainly had heard of Madame Gordeloup,
+though he had never before seen her. For years past her name had been
+familiar to him in London, and when Lady Ongar had returned as a
+widow it had been, to his thinking, one of her worst offences that
+this woman had been her friend. Under ordinary circumstances his
+judgment would have directed him to desire the servant to put her out
+into the street as an impostor, and to send for the police if there
+was any difficulty. But it certainly might be possible that this
+woman had something to tell with reference to Lady Ongar which it
+would suit his purposes to hear. At the present moment he was not
+very well inclined to his sister-in-law, and was disposed to hear
+evil of her. So he passed on into the dining-room and desired Madame
+Gordeloup to follow him. Then he closed the room door, and standing
+up with his back to the fireplace, so that he might be saved from the
+necessity of asking her to sit down, he declared himself ready to
+hear anything that his visitor might have to say.
+
+"But you will eat your dinner, Sir 'Oo? You will not mind me. I shall
+not care."
+
+"Thank you, no;--if you will just say what you have got to say, I
+will be obliged to you."
+
+"But the nice things will be so cold! Why should you mind me? Nobody
+minds me."
+
+"I will wait, if you please, till you have done me the honour of
+leaving me."
+
+"Ah, well,--you Englishmen are so cold and ceremonious. But Lord
+Ongar was not with me like that. I knew Lord Ongar so well."
+
+"Lord Ongar was more fortunate than I am."
+
+"He was a poor man who did kill himself. Yes. It was always that
+bottle of Cognac. And there was other bottles was worser still. Never
+mind; he has gone now, and his widow has got the money. It is she
+has been a fortunate woman! Sir 'Oo, I will sit down here in the
+arm-chair." Sir Hugh made a motion with his hand, not daring to
+forbid her to do as she was minded. "And you, Sir 'Oo;--will not you
+sit down also?"
+
+"I will continue to stand if you will allow me."
+
+"Very well; you shall do as most pleases you. As I did walk here, and
+shall walk back, I will sit down."
+
+"And now if you have anything to say, Madame Gordeloup," said Sir
+Hugh, looking at the silver covers which were hiding the chops and
+the asparagus, and looking also at his watch, "perhaps you will be
+good enough to say it."
+
+"Anything to say! Yes, Sir 'Oo, I have something to say. It is a pity
+you will not sit at your dinner."
+
+"I will not sit at my dinner till you have left me. So now, if you
+will be pleased to proceed--"
+
+"I will proceed. Perhaps you don't know that Lord Ongar died in these
+arms?" And Sophie, as she spoke, stretched out her skinny hands, and
+put herself as far as possible into the attitude in which it would be
+most convenient to nurse the head of a dying man upon her bosom. Sir
+Hugh, thinking to himself that Lord Ongar could hardly have received
+much consolation in his fate from this incident, declared that he had
+not heard the fact before. "No; you have not heard it. She have tell
+nothing to her friends here. He die abroad, and she has come back
+with all the money; but she tell nothing to anybody here, so I must
+tell."
+
+"But I don't care how he died, Madame Gordeloup. It is nothing to
+me."
+
+"But yes, Sir 'Oo. The lady, your wife, is the sister to Lady Ongar.
+Is not that so? Lady Ongar did live with you before she was married.
+Is not that so? Your brother and your cousin both wishes to marry her
+and have all the money. Is not that so? Your brother has come to me
+to help him, and has sent the little man out of Warwickshire. Is not
+that so?"
+
+"What the d---- is all that to me?" said Sir Hugh, who did not quite
+understand the story as the lady was telling it.
+
+"I will explain, Sir 'Oo, what the d---- it is to you; only I wish
+you were eating the nice things on the table. This Lady Ongar is
+treating me very bad. She treat my brother very bad too. My brother
+is Count Pateroff. We have been put to--oh, such expenses for her!
+It have nearly ruined me. I make a journey to your London here
+altogether for her. Then, for her, I go down to that accursed little
+island;--what you call it?--where she insult me. Oh! all my time
+is gone. Your brother and your cousin, and the little man out of
+Warwickshire, all coming to my house,--just as it please them."
+
+"But what is this to me?" shouted Sir Hugh.
+
+"A great deal to you," screamed back Madame Gordeloup. "You see I
+know everything,--everything. I have got papers."
+
+"What do I care for your papers? Look here, Madame Gordeloup, you had
+better go away."
+
+"Not yet, Sir 'Oo; not yet. You are going away to Norway--I know; and
+I am ruined before you come back."
+
+"Look here, madame; do you mean that you want money from me?"
+
+"I want my rights, Sir 'Oo. Remember, I know everything;--everything;
+oh, such things! If they were all known,--in the newspapers, you
+understand, or that kind of thing, that lady in Bolton Street would
+lose all her money to-morrow. Yes. There is uncles to the little
+lord; yes! Ah, how much would they give me, I wonder? They would not
+tell me to go away."
+
+Sophie was perhaps justified in the estimate she had made of Sir
+Hugh's probable character from the knowledge which she had acquired
+of his brother Archie; but, nevertheless, she had fallen into a great
+mistake. There could hardly have been a man then in London less
+likely to fall into her present views than Sir Hugh Clavering. Not
+only was he too fond of his money to give it away without knowing why
+he did so; but he was subject to none of that weakness by which some
+men are prompted to submit to such extortions. Had he believed her
+story, and had Lady Ongar been really dear to him, he would never
+have dealt with such a one as Madame Gordeloup otherwise than through
+the police.
+
+"Madame Gordeloup," said he, "if you don't immediately take yourself
+off, I shall have you put out of the house."
+
+He would have sent for a constable at once, had he not feared that by
+doing so, he would retard his journey.
+
+"What!" said Sophie, whose courage was as good as his own. "Me put
+out of the house! Who shall touch me?"
+
+"My servant shall; or if that will not do, the police. Come, walk."
+And he stepped over towards her as though he himself intended to
+assist in her expulsion by violence.
+
+"Well, you are there; I see you; and what next?" said Sophie. "You,
+and your valk! I can tell you things fit for you to know, and you
+say, Valk. If I valk, I will valk to some purpose. I do not often
+valk for nothing when I am told--Valk!" Upon this, Sir Hugh rang the
+bell with some violence. "I care nothing for your bells, or for your
+servants, or for your policemen. I have told you that your sister owe
+me a great deal of money, and you say,--Valk. I vill valk." Thereupon
+the servant came into the room, and Sir Hugh, in an angry voice,
+desired him to open the front door. "Yes,--open vide," said Sophie,
+who, when anger came upon her, was apt to drop into a mode of
+speaking English which she was able to avoid in her cooler moments.
+"Sir 'Oo, I am going to valk, and you shall hear of my valking."
+
+"Am I to take that as a threat?" said he.
+
+"Not a tret at all," said she; "only a promise. Ah, I am good to keep
+my promises! Yes, I make a promise. Your poor wife,--down with the
+daises; I know all, and she shall hear too. That is another promise.
+And your brother, the captain. Oh! here he is, and the little man
+out of Warwickshire." She had got up from her chair, and had moved
+towards the door with the intention of going; but just as she was
+passing out into the hall, she encountered Archie and Doodles. Sir
+Hugh, who had been altogether at a loss to understand what she had
+meant by the man out of Warwickshire, followed her into the hall, and
+became more angry than before at finding that his brother had brought
+a friend to his house at so very inopportune a moment. The wrath in
+his face was so plainly expressed that Doodles could perceive it, and
+wished himself away. The presence also of the Spy was not pleasant
+to the gallant captain. Was the wonderful woman ubiquitous, that
+he should thus encounter her again, and that so soon after all the
+things that he had spoken of her on this morning? "How do you do,
+gentlemen?" said Sophie. "There is a great many boxes here, and I
+with my crinoline have not got room." Then she shook hands, first
+with Archie, and then with Doodles; and asked the latter why he
+was not as yet gone to Warwickshire. Archie, in almost mortal fear,
+looked up into his brother's face. Had his brother learned the story
+of that seventy pounds? Sir Hugh was puzzled beyond measure at
+finding that the woman knew the two men; but having still an eye to
+his lamb chops, was chiefly anxious to get rid of Sophie and Doodles
+together.
+
+"This is my friend Boodle,--Captain Boodle," said Archie, trying to
+put a bold face upon the crisis. "He has come to see me off."
+
+"Very kind of him," said Sir Hugh. "Just make way for this lady, will
+you? I want to get her out of the house if I can. Your friend seems
+to know her; perhaps he'll be good enough to give her his arm."
+
+"Who;--I?" said Doodles. "No; I don't know her particularly. I did
+meet her once before, just once,--in a casual way."
+
+"Captain Booddle and me is very good friends," said Sophie. "He come
+to my house and behave himself very well; only he is not so handy a
+man as your brother, Sir 'Oo."
+
+Archie trembled, and he trembled still more when his brother, turning
+to him, asked him if he knew the woman.
+
+"Yes; he know the woman very well," said Sophie. "Why do you not
+come any more to see me? You send your little friend; but I like you
+better yourself. You come again when you return, and all that shall
+be made right."
+
+But still she did not go. She had now seated herself on a gun-case
+which was resting on a portmanteau, and seemed to be at her ease. The
+time was going fast, and Sir Hugh, if he meant to eat his chops, must
+eat them at once.
+
+"See her out of the hall, into the street," he said to Archie; "and
+if she gives trouble, send for the police. She has come here to get
+money from me by threats, and only that we have no time, I would have
+her taken to the lock-up house at once." Then Sir Hugh retreated into
+the dining-room and shut the door.
+
+"Lock-up-ouse!" said Sophie, scornfully. "What is dat?"
+
+"He means a prison," said Doodles.
+
+"Prison! I know who is most likely be in a prison. Tell me of a
+prison! Is he a minister of state that he can send out order for me
+to be made prisoner? Is there lettres de cachet now in England? I
+think not. Prison, indeed!"
+
+"But really, Madame Gordeloup, you had better go; you had, indeed,"
+said Archie.
+
+"You, too--you bid me go? Did I bid you go when you came to me? Did I
+not tell you, sit down? Was I not polite? Did I send for a police? or
+talk of lock-up-ouse to you? No. It is English that do these things;
+only English."
+
+Archie felt that it was incumbent on him to explain that his visit
+to her house had been made under other circumstances,--that he had
+brought money instead of seeking it; and had, in fact, gone to her
+simply in the way of her own trade. He did begin some preliminaries
+to this explanation; but as the servant was there, and as his brother
+might come out from the dining-room,--and as also he was aware that
+he could hardly tell the story much to his own advantage, he stopped
+abruptly, and, looking piteously at Doodles, implored him to take the
+lady away.
+
+"Perhaps you wouldn't mind just seeing her into Mount Street," said
+Archie.
+
+"Who; I?" said Doodles, electrified.
+
+"It is only just round the corner," said Archie.
+
+"Yes, Captain Booddle, we will go," said Sophie. "This is a bad
+house; and your Sir 'Oo,--I do not like him at all. Lock-up, indeed!
+I tell you he shall very soon be locked up himself. There is what you
+call Davy's locker. I know;--yes."
+
+Doodles also trembled when he heard this anathema, and thought once
+more of the character of Jack Stuart and his yacht.
+
+"Pray go with her," said Archie.
+
+"But I had come to see you off."
+
+"Never mind," said Archie. "He is in such a taking, you know. God
+bless you, old fellow; good-by! I'll write and tell you what fish we
+get, and mind you tell me what Turriper does for the Bedfordshire.
+Good-by, Madame Gordeloup--good-by."
+
+There was no escape for him, so Doodles put on his hat and prepared
+to walk away to Mount Street with the Spy under his arm,--the Spy
+as to whose avocations, over and beyond those of her diplomatic
+profession, he had such strong suspicions! He felt inclined to be
+angry with his friend, but the circumstances of his parting hardly
+admitted of any expression of anger.
+
+"Good-by, Clavvy," he said. "Yes; I'll write; that is, if I've got
+anything to say."
+
+"Take care of yourself, captain," said Sophie.
+
+"All right," said Archie.
+
+"Mind you come and see me when you come back," said Sophie.
+
+"Of course I will," said Archie.
+
+"And we'll make that all right for you yet. Gentlemen, when they have
+so much to gain, shouldn't take a No too easy. You come with your
+handy glove, and we'll see about it again." Then Sophie walked off
+leaning upon the arm of Captain Boodle, and Archie stood at the door
+watching them till they turned out of sight round the corner of the
+square. At last he saw them no more, and then he returned to his
+brother.
+
+And as we shall see Doodles no more,--or almost no more,--we will now
+bid him adieu civilly. The pair were not ill-matched, though the lady
+perhaps had some advantage in acuteness, given to her no doubt by the
+experience of a longer life. Doodles, as he walked along two sides
+of the square with the fair burden on his arm, felt himself to be
+in some sort proud of his position, though it was one from which he
+would not have been sorry to escape, had escape been possible. A
+remarkable phenomenon was the Spy, and to have walked round Berkeley
+Square with such a woman leaning on his arm, might in coming years be
+an event to remember with satisfaction. In the meantime he did not
+say much to her, and did not quite understand all that she said to
+him. At last he came to the door which he well remembered, and then
+he paused. He did not escape even then. After a while the door was
+opened, and those who were passing might have seen Captain Boodle,
+slowly and with hesitating steps, enter the narrow passage before the
+lady. Then Sophie followed, and closed the door behind her. As far as
+this story goes, what took place at that interview cannot be known.
+Let us bid farewell to Doodles, and wish him a happy escape.
+
+"How did you come to know that woman?" said Hugh to his brother, as
+soon as Archie was in the dining-room.
+
+"She was a friend of Julia's," said Archie.
+
+"You haven't given her money?" Hugh asked.
+
+"O dear, no," said Archie.
+
+Immediately after that they got into their cab; the things were
+pitched on the top; and,--for a while,--we may bid adieu to them
+also.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+SHEWING HOW MRS. BURTON FOUGHT HER BATTLE.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+"Florence, I have been to Bolton Street and I have seen Lady Ongar."
+Those were the first words which Cecilia Burton spoke to her
+sister-in-law, when she found Florence in the drawing-room on her
+return from the visit which she had made to the countess. Florence
+had still before her the desk on which she had been writing; and
+the letter in its envelope addressed to Mrs. Clavering, but as yet
+unclosed, was lying beneath her blotting-paper. Florence, who had
+never dreamed of such an undertaking on Cecilia's part, was astounded
+at the tidings which she heard. Of course her first effort was made
+to learn from her sister's tone and countenance what had been the
+result of this interview;--but she could learn nothing from either.
+There was no radiance as of joy in Mrs. Burton's face, nor was there
+written there anything of despair. Her voice was serious and almost
+solemn, and her manner was very grave;--but that was all. "You have
+seen her?" said Florence, rising up from her chair.
+
+"Yes, dear. I may have done wrong. Theodore, I know, will say so. But
+I thought it best to try to learn the truth before you wrote to Mrs.
+Clavering."
+
+"And what is the truth? But perhaps you have not learned it?"
+
+"I think I have learned all that she could tell me. She has been very
+frank."
+
+"Well;--what is the truth? Do not suppose, dearest, that I cannot
+bear it. I hope for nothing now. I only want to have this settled,
+that I may be at rest."
+
+Upon this Mrs. Burton took the suffering girl in her arms and
+caressed her tenderly. "My love," said she, "it is not easy for us to
+be at rest. You cannot be at rest as yet."
+
+"I can. I will be so, when I know that this is settled. I do not wish
+to interfere with his fortune. There is my letter to his mother, and
+now I will go back to Stratton."
+
+"Not yet, dearest; not yet," said Mrs. Burton, taking the letter
+in her hand, but refraining from withdrawing it at once from the
+envelope. "You must hear what I have heard to-day."
+
+"Does she say that she loves him?"
+
+"Ah, yes;--she loves him. We must not doubt that."
+
+"And he;--what does she say of him?"
+
+"She says what you also must say, Florence;--though it is hard that
+it should be so. It must be as he shall decide."
+
+"No," said Florence, withdrawing herself from the arm that was still
+around her. "No; it shall not be as he may choose to decide. I will
+not so submit myself to him. It is enough as it is. I will never see
+him more;--never. To say that I do not love him would be untrue, but
+I will never see him again."
+
+"Stop, dear; stop. What if it be no fault of his?"
+
+"No fault of his that he went to her when we--we--we--he and I--were,
+as we were, together!"
+
+"Of course there has been some fault; but, Flo dearest, listen to me.
+You know that I would ask you to do nothing from which a woman should
+shrink."
+
+"I know that you would give your heart's blood for me;--but nothing
+will be of avail now. Do not look at me with melancholy eyes like
+that. Cissy, it will not kill me. It is only the doubt that kills
+one."
+
+"I will not look at you with melancholy eyes, but you must listen to
+me. She does not herself know what his intention is."
+
+"But I know it,--and I know my own. Read my letter, Cissy. There is
+not one word of anger in it, nor will I ever utter a reproach. He
+knew her first. If he loved her through it all, it was a pity he
+could not be constant to his love, even though she was false to him."
+
+"But you won't hear me, Flo. As far as I can learn the truth,--as
+I myself most firmly believe,--when he went to her on her return
+to England, he had no other intention than that of visiting an old
+friend."
+
+"But what sort of friend, Cissy?"
+
+"He had no idea then of being untrue to you. But when he saw her the
+old intimacy came back. That was natural. Then he was dazzled by her
+beauty."
+
+"Is she then so beautiful?"
+
+"She is very beautiful."
+
+"Let him go to her," said Florence, tearing herself away from her
+sister's arm, and walking across the room with a quick and almost
+angry step. "Let her have him. Cissy, there shall be an end of it.
+I will not condescend to solicit his love. If she is such as you say,
+and if beauty with him goes for everything,--what chance could there
+be for such as me?"
+
+"I did not say that beauty with him went for everything."
+
+"Of course it does. I ought to have known that it would be so with
+such a one as him. And then she is rich also,--wonderfully rich! What
+right can I have to think of him?"
+
+"Florence, you are unjust. You do not even suspect that it is her
+money."
+
+"To me it is the same thing. I suppose that a woman who is so
+beautiful has a right to everything. I know that I am plain, and I
+will be--content--in future--to think no more--" Poor Florence, when
+she had got as far as that, broke down, and could go on no further
+with the declaration which she had been about to make as to her
+future prospects. Mrs. Burton, taking advantage of this, went on with
+her story, struggling, not altogether unsuccessfully, to assume a
+calm tone of unimpassioned reason.
+
+"As I said before, he was dazzled--"
+
+"Dazzled!--oh!"
+
+"But even then he had no idea of being untrue to you."
+
+"No; he was untrue without an idea. That is worse."
+
+"Florence, you are perverse, and are determined to be unfair. I must
+beg that you will hear me to the end, so that then you may be able to
+judge what course you ought to follow." This Mrs. Burton said with
+the air of a great authority; after which she continued in a voice
+something less stern--"He thought of doing no injury to you when he
+went to see her; but something of the feeling of his old love grew
+upon him when he was in her company, and he became embarrassed by his
+position before he was aware of his own danger. He might, of course,
+have been stronger." Here Florence exhibited a gesture of strong
+impatience, though she did not speak. "I am not going to defend him
+altogether, but I think you must admit that he was hardly tried. Of
+course I cannot say what passed between them, but I can understand
+how easily they might recur to the old scenes;--how naturally she
+would wish for a renewal of the love which she had been base enough
+to betray! She does not, however, consider herself as at present
+engaged to him. That you may know for certain. It may be that she has
+asked him for such a promise, and that he has hesitated. If so, his
+staying away from us, and his not writing to you, can be easily
+understood."
+
+"And what is it you would have me do?"
+
+"He is ill now. Wait till he is well. He would have been here before
+this, had not illness prevented him. Wait till he comes."
+
+"I cannot do that, Cissy. Wait I must, but I cannot wait without
+offering him, through his mother, the freedom which I have so much
+reason to know that he desires."
+
+"We do not know that he desires it. We do not know that his mother
+even suspects him of any fault towards you. Now that he is there,--at
+home,--away from Bolton Street--"
+
+"I do not care to trust to such influences as that, Cissy. If he
+could not spend this morning with her in her own house, and then as
+he left her feel that he preferred me to her, and to all the world,
+I would rather be as I am than take his hand. He shall not marry me
+from pity, nor yet from a sense of duty. We know the old story,--how
+the devil would be a monk when he was sick. I will not accept his
+sick-bed allegiance, or have to think that I owe my husband to a
+mother's influence over him while he is ill."
+
+"You will make me think, Flo, that you are less true to him than she
+is."
+
+"Perhaps it is so. Let him have what good such truth as hers can do
+him. For me, I feel that it is my duty to be true to myself. I will
+not condescend to indulge my heart at the cost of my pride as a
+woman."
+
+"Oh, Florence, I hate that word pride."
+
+"You would not hate it for yourself, in my place."
+
+"You need take no shame to love him."
+
+"Have I taken shame to love him?" said Florence, rising again from
+her chair. "Have I been missish or coy about my love? From the moment
+in which I knew that it was a pleasure to myself to regard him as my
+future husband, I have spoken of my love as being always proud of it.
+I have acknowledged it as openly as you can do yours for Theodore. I
+acknowledge it still, and will never deny it. Take shame that I have
+loved him! No. But I should take to myself great shame should I ever
+be brought so low as to ask him for his love, when once I had learned
+to think that he had transferred it from myself to another woman."
+Then she walked the length of the room, backwards and forwards, with
+hasty steps, not looking at her sister-in-law, whose eyes were now
+filled with tears. "Come, Cissy," she then said, "we will make an end
+of this. Read my letter if you choose to read it,--though indeed it
+is not worth the reading, and then let me send it to the post."
+
+Mrs. Burton now opened the letter and read it very slowly. It was
+stern and almost unfeeling in the calmness of the words chosen;
+but in those words her proposed marriage with Harry Clavering was
+absolutely abandoned. "I know," she said, "that your son is more
+warmly attached to another lady than he is to me, and under those
+circumstances, for his sake as well as for mine, it is necessary
+that we should part. Dear Mrs. Clavering, may I ask you to make him
+understand that he and I are never to recur to the past? If he will
+send me back any letters of mine,--should any have been kept,--and
+the little present which I once gave him, all will have been done
+which need be done, and all have been said which need be said. He
+will receive in a small parcel his own letters and the gifts which
+he has made me." There was in this a tone of completeness,--as of
+a business absolutely finished,--of a judgment admitting no appeal,
+which did not at all suit Mrs. Burton's views. A letter, quite as
+becoming on the part of Florence, might, she thought, be written,
+which would still leave open a door for reconciliation. But Florence
+was resolved, and the letter was sent.
+
+The part which Mrs. Burton had taken in this conversation had
+surprised even herself. She had been full of anger with Harry
+Clavering,--as wrathful with him as her nature permitted her to be;
+and yet she had pleaded his cause with all her eloquence, going
+almost so far in her defence of him as to declare that he was
+blameless. And in truth she was prepared to acquit him of blame,--to
+give him full absolution without penance,--if only he could be
+brought back again into the fold. Her wrath against him would be very
+hot should he not so return;--but all should be more than forgiven
+if he would only come back, and do his duty with affectionate and
+patient fidelity. Her desire was, not so much that justice should
+be done, as that Florence should have the thing coveted, and that
+Florence's rival should not have it. According to the arguments,
+as arranged by her feminine logic, Harry Clavering would be all
+right or all wrong according as he might at last bear himself. She
+desired success, and, if she could only be successful, was prepared
+to forgive everything. And even yet she would not give up the
+battle, though she admitted to herself that Florence's letter to
+Mrs. Clavering made the contest more difficult than ever. It might,
+however, be that Mrs. Clavering would be good enough, just enough,
+true enough, clever enough, to know that such a letter as this,
+coming from such a girl and written under such circumstances, should
+be taken as meaning nothing. Most mothers would wish to see their
+sons married to wealth, should wealth throw itself in their way;--but
+Mrs. Clavering, possibly, might not be such a mother as that.
+
+In the meantime there was before her the terrible necessity of
+explaining to her husband the step which she had taken without his
+knowledge, and of which she knew that she must tell him the history
+before she could sit down to dinner with him in comfort. "Theodore,"
+she said, creeping in out of her own chamber to his dressing-room,
+while he was washing his hands, "you mustn't be angry with me, but
+I have done something to-day."
+
+"And why must I not be angry with you?"
+
+"You know what I mean. You mustn't be angry--especially about
+this,--because I don't want you to be."
+
+"That's conclusive," said he. It was manifest to her that he was in a
+good humour, which was a great blessing. He had not been tried with
+his work as he was often wont to be, and was therefore willing to be
+playful.
+
+"What do you think I've done?" said she. "I have been to Bolton
+Street and have seen Lady Ongar."
+
+"No!"
+
+"I have, Theodore, indeed."
+
+Mr. Burton had been rubbing his face vehemently with a rough towel at
+the moment in which the communication had been made to him, and so
+strongly was he affected by it that he was stopped in his operation
+and brought to a stand in his movement, looking at his wife over the
+towel as he held it in both his hands. "What on earth has made you do
+such a thing as that?" he said.
+
+"I thought it best. I thought that I might hear the truth,--and so
+I have. I could not bear that Florence should be sacrificed whilst
+anything remained undone that was possible."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me that you were going?"
+
+"Well, my dear; I thought it better not. Of course I ought to have
+told you, but in this instance I thought it best just to go without
+the fuss of mentioning it."
+
+"What you really mean is, that if you had told me I should have asked
+you not to go."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"And you were determined to have your own way."
+
+"I don't think, Theodore, I care so much about my own way as some
+women do. I am sure I always think your opinion is better than my
+own;--that is, in most things."
+
+"And what did Lady Ongar say to you?" He had now put down the towel,
+and was seated in his arm-chair, looking up into his wife's face.
+
+"It would be a long story to tell you all that she said."
+
+"Was she civil to you?"
+
+"She was not uncivil. She is a handsome, proud woman, prone to
+speak out what she thinks and determined to have her own way when
+it is possible; but I think that she intended to be civil to me
+personally."
+
+"What is her purpose now?"
+
+"Her purpose is clear enough. She means to marry Harry Clavering if
+she can get him. She said so. She made no secret of what her wishes
+are."
+
+"Then, Cissy, let her marry him, and do not let us trouble ourselves
+further in the matter."
+
+"But Florence, Theodore! Think of Florence!"
+
+"I am thinking of her, and I think that Harry Clavering is not worth
+her acceptance. She is as the traveller that fell among thieves.
+She is hurt and wounded, but not dead. It is for you to be the Good
+Samaritan, but the oil which you should pour into her wounds is not
+a renewed hope as to that worthless man. Let Lady Ongar have him. As
+far as I can see, they are fit for each other."
+
+Then she went through with him, diligently, all the arguments
+which she had used with Florence, palliating Harry's conduct, and
+explaining the circumstances of his disloyalty, almost as those
+circumstances had in truth occurred. "I think you are too hard on
+him," she said. "You can't be too hard on falsehood," he replied.
+"No, not while it exists. But you would not be angry with a man for
+ever, because he should once have been false? But we do not know that
+he is false." "Do we not?" said he. "But never mind; we must go to
+dinner now. Does Florence know of your visit?" Then, before she would
+allow him to leave his room, she explained to him what had taken
+place between herself and Florence, and told him of the letter that
+had been written to Mrs. Clavering. "She is right," said he. "That
+way out of her difficulty is the best that is left to her." But,
+nevertheless, Mrs. Burton was resolved that she would not as yet
+surrender.
+
+Theodore Burton, when he reached the drawing-room, went up to his
+sister and kissed her. Such a sign of the tenderness of love was
+not common with him, for he was one of those who are not usually
+demonstrative in their affection. At the present moment he said
+nothing of what was passing in his mind, nor did she. She simply
+raised her face to meet his lips, and pressed his hand as she held
+it. What need was there of any further sign between them than this?
+Then they went to dinner, and their meal was eaten almost in silence.
+Almost every moment Cecilia's eye was on her sister-in-law. A careful
+observer, had there been one there, might have seen this; but, while
+they remained together downstairs, there occurred among them nothing
+else to mark that all was not well with them.
+
+Nor would the brother have spoken a word during the evening on the
+subject that was so near to all their hearts had not Florence led the
+way. When they were at tea, and when Cecilia had already made up her
+mind that there was to be no further discussion that night, Florence
+suddenly broke forth.
+
+"Theodore," she said, "I have been thinking much about it, and I
+believe I had better go home, to Stratton, to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, no," said Cecilia, eagerly.
+
+"I believe it will be better that I should," continued Florence. "I
+suppose it is very weak in me to own it; but I am unhappy, and, like
+the wounded bird, I feel that it will be well that I should hide
+myself."
+
+Cecilia was at her feet in a moment. "Dearest Flo," she said. "Is not
+this your home as well as Stratton?"
+
+"When I am able to be happy it is. Those who have light hearts may
+have more homes than one; but it is not so with those whose hearts
+are heavy. I think it will be best for me to go."
+
+"You shall do exactly as you please," said her brother. "In such a
+matter I will not try to persuade you. I only wish that we could tend
+to comfort you."
+
+"You do comfort me. If I know that you think I am doing right, that
+will comfort me more than anything. Absolute and immediate comfort is
+not to be had when one is sorrowful."
+
+"No, indeed," said her brother. "Sorrow should not be killed too
+quickly. I always think that those who are impervious to grief must
+be impervious also to happiness. If you have feelings capable of the
+one, you must have them capable also of the other!"
+
+"You should wait, at any rate, till you get an answer from Mrs.
+Clavering," said Cecilia.
+
+"I do not know that she has any answer to send to me."
+
+"Oh, yes; she must answer you, if you will think of it. If she
+accepts what you have said--"
+
+"She cannot but accept it."
+
+"Then she must reply to you. There is something which you have asked
+her to send to you; and I think you should wait, at any rate, till
+it reaches you here. Mind I do not think her answer will be of that
+nature; but it is clear that you should wait for it whatever it may
+be." Then Florence, with the concurrence of her brother's opinion,
+consented to remain in London for a few days, expecting the answer
+which would be sent by Mrs. Clavering;--and after that no further
+discussion took place as to her trouble.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+THE SHEEP RETURNS TO THE FOLD.
+
+
+Harry Clavering had spoken solemn words to his mother, during his
+illness, which both he and she regarded as a promise that Florence
+should not be deserted by him. After that promise nothing more was
+said between them on the subject for a few days. Mrs. Clavering was
+contented that the promise had been made, and Harry himself, in the
+weakness consequent upon his illness, was willing enough to accept
+the excuse which his illness gave him for postponing any action in
+the matter. But the fever had left him, and he was sitting up in his
+mother's room, when Florence's letter reached the parsonage,--and,
+with the letter, the little parcel which she herself had packed up so
+carefully. On the day before that a few words had passed between the
+rector and his wife, which will explain the feelings of both of them
+in the matter.
+
+"Have you heard," said he,--speaking in a voice hardly above a
+whisper, although no third person was in the room,--"that Harry is
+again thinking of making Julia his wife?"
+
+"He is not thinking of doing so," said Mrs. Clavering. "They who say
+so, do him wrong."
+
+"It would be a great thing for him as regards money."
+
+"But he is engaged,--and Florence Burton has been received here as
+his future wife. I could not endure to think that it should be so. At
+any rate, it is not true."
+
+"I only tell you what I heard," said the rector, gently sighing,
+partly in obedience to his wife's implied rebuke, and partly at the
+thought that so grand a marriage should not be within his son's
+reach. The rector was beginning to be aware that Harry would hardly
+make a fortune at the profession which he had chosen, and that a rich
+marriage would be an easy way out of all the difficulties which such
+a failure promised. The rector was a man who dearly loved easy ways
+out of difficulties. But in such matters as these his wife he knew
+was imperative and powerful, and he lacked the courage to plead for a
+cause that was prudent, but ungenerous.
+
+When Mrs. Clavering received the letter and parcel on the next
+morning, Harry Clavering was still in bed. With the delightful
+privilege of a convalescent invalid, he was allowed in these days
+to get up just when getting up became more comfortable than lying
+in bed, and that time did not usually come till eleven o'clock was
+past;--but the postman reached the Clavering parsonage by nine. The
+letter, as we know, was addressed to Mrs. Clavering herself, as
+was also the outer envelope which contained the packet; but the
+packet itself was addressed in Florence's clear handwriting to Harry
+Clavering, Esq. "That is a large parcel to come by post, mamma," said
+Fanny.
+
+"Yes, my dear; but it is something particular."
+
+"It's from some tradesman, I suppose?" said the rector.
+
+"No; it's not from a tradesman," said Mrs. Clavering. But she said
+nothing further, and both husband and daughter perceived that it was
+not intended that they should ask further questions.
+
+Fanny, as usual, had taken her brother his breakfast, and Mrs.
+Clavering did not go up to him till that ceremony had been completed
+and removed. Indeed it was necessary that she should study Florence's
+letter in her own room before she could speak to him about it. What
+the parcel contained she well knew, even before the letter had been
+thoroughly read; and I need hardly say that the treasure was sacred
+in her hands. When she had finished the perusal of the letter there
+was a tear,--a gentle tear, in each eye. She understood it all, and
+could fathom the strength and weakness of every word which Florence
+had written. But she was such a woman,--exactly such a woman,--as
+Cecilia Burton had pictured to herself. Mrs. Clavering was good
+enough, great enough, true enough, clever enough to know that Harry's
+love for Florence should be sustained, and his fancy for Lady Ongar
+overcome. At no time would she have been proud to see her son
+prosperous only in the prosperity of a wife's fortune; but she would
+have been thoroughly ashamed of him, had he resolved to pursue such
+prosperity under his present circumstances.
+
+But her tears,--though they were there in the corners of her
+eyes,--were not painful tears. Dear Florence! She was suffering
+bitterly now. This very day would be a day of agony to her. There
+had been for her, doubtless, many days of agony during the past
+month. That the letter was true in all its words Mrs. Clavering did
+not doubt. That Florence believed that all was over between her and
+Harry, Mrs. Clavering was as sure as Florence had intended that she
+should be. But all should not be over, and the days of agony should
+soon be at an end. Her boy had promised her, and to her he had always
+been true. And she understood, too, the way in which these dangers
+had come upon him, and her judgment was not heavy upon her son;--her
+gracious boy, who had ever been so good to her! It might be that he
+had been less diligent at his work than he should have been,--that
+on that account further delay would still be necessary; but Florence
+would forgive that, and he had promised that Florence should not be
+deserted.
+
+Then she took the parcel in her hands, and considered all its
+circumstances,--how precious had once been its contents, and how
+precious doubtless they still were, though they had been thus
+repudiated! And she thought of the moments,--nay, rather of the
+hours,--which had been passed in the packing of that little packet.
+She well understood how a girl would linger over such dear pain,
+touching the things over and over again, allowing herself to read
+morsels of the letters at which she had already forbidden herself
+even to look,--till every word had been again seen and weighed, again
+caressed and again abjured. She knew how those little trinkets would
+have been fondled! How salt had been the tears that had fallen on
+them, and how carefully the drops would have been removed. Every fold
+in the paper of the two envelopes, with the little morsels of wax
+just adequate for their purpose, told of the lingering painful care
+with which the work had been done. Ah! the parcel should go back at
+once with words of love that should put an end to all that pain! She,
+who had sent these loved things away, should have her letters again,
+and should touch her little treasures with fingers that should take
+pleasure in the touching. She should again read her lover's words
+with an enduring delight. Mrs. Clavering understood it all, as though
+she also were still a girl with a lover of her own.
+
+Harry was beginning to think that the time had come in which getting
+up would be more comfortable than lying in bed, when his mother
+knocked at his door and entered his room. "I was just going to make a
+move, mother," he said, having reached that stage of convalescence in
+which some shame comes upon the idler.
+
+"But I want to speak to you first, my dear," said Mrs. Clavering. "I
+have got a letter for you, or rather a parcel." Harry held out his
+hand, and taking the packet, at once recognized the writing of the
+address.
+
+"You know from whom it comes, Harry?"
+
+"Oh, yes, mother."
+
+"And do you know what it contains?" Harry, still holding the packet,
+looked at it, but said nothing. "I know," said his mother; "for
+she has written and told me. Will you see her letter to me?" Again
+Harry held out his hand, but his mother did not at once give him the
+letter. "First of all, my dear, let us know that we understand each
+other. This dear girl,--to me she is inexpressibly dear,--is to be
+your wife?"
+
+"Yes, mother;--it shall be so."
+
+
+[Illustration: The sheep returns to the fold.]
+
+
+"That is my own boy! Harry, I have never doubted you;--have never
+doubted that you would be right at last. Now you shall see her
+letter. But you must remember that she has had cause to make her
+unhappy."
+
+"I will remember."
+
+"Had you not been ill, everything would of course have been all right
+before now." As to the correctness of this assertion the reader
+probably will have doubts of his own. Then she handed him the letter,
+and sat on his bed-side while he read it. At first he was startled,
+and made almost indignant at the firmness of the girl's words. She
+gave him up as though it were a thing quite decided, and uttered no
+expression of her own regret in doing so. There was no soft woman's
+wail in her words. But there was in them something which made him
+unconsciously long to get back the thing which he had so nearly
+thrown away from him. They inspired him with a doubt whether he might
+yet succeed, which very doubt greatly increased his desire. As he
+read the letter for the second time, Julia became less beautiful
+in his imagination, and the charm of Florence's character became
+stronger.
+
+"Well, dear?" said his mother, when she saw that he had finished the
+second reading of the epistle.
+
+He hardly knew how to express, even to his mother, all his
+feelings,--the shame that he felt, and with the shame something of
+indignation that he should have been so repulsed. And of his love,
+too, he was afraid to speak. He was willing enough to give the
+required assurance, but after that he would have preferred to have
+been left alone. But his mother could not leave him without some
+further word of agreement between them as to the course which they
+would pursue.
+
+"Will you write to her, mother, or shall I?"
+
+"I shall write, certainly,--by to-day's post. I would not leave her
+an hour, if I could help it, without an assurance of your unaltered
+affection."
+
+"I could go to town to-morrow, mother;--could I not?"
+
+"Not to-morrow, Harry. It would be foolish. Say on Monday."
+
+"And you will write to-day?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I will send a line also,--just a line."
+
+"And the parcel?"
+
+"I have not opened it yet."
+
+"You know what it contains. Send it back at once, Harry;--at once.
+If I understand her feelings, she will not be happy till she gets it
+into her hands again. We will send Jem over to the post-office, and
+have it registered."
+
+When so much was settled, Mrs. Clavering went away about the affairs
+of her house, thinking as she did so of the loving words with which
+she would strive to give back happiness to Florence Burton.
+
+Harry, when he was alone, slowly opened the parcel. He could not
+resist the temptation of doing this, and of looking again at the
+things which she had sent back to him. And he was not without an
+idea,--perhaps a hope--that there might be with them some short
+note,--some scrap containing a few words for himself. If he had
+any such hope he was disappointed. There were his own letters,
+all scented with lavender from the casket in which they had been
+preserved; there was the rich bracelet which had been given with some
+little ceremony, and the cheap brooch which he had thrown to her as
+a joke, and which she had sworn that she would value the most of all
+because she could wear it every day; and there was the pencil-case
+which he had fixed on to her watch-chain, while her fingers were
+touching his fingers, caressing him for his love while her words were
+rebuking him for his awkwardness. He remembered it all as the things
+lay strewed upon his bed. And he re-read every word of his own words.
+"What a fool a man makes of himself," he said to himself at last,
+with something of the cheeriness of laughter about his heart. But as
+he said so he was quite ready to make himself a fool after the same
+fashion again,--if only there were not in his way that difficulty of
+recommencing. Had it been possible for him to write again at once in
+the old strain,--without any reference to his own conduct during the
+last month, he would have begun his fooling without waiting to finish
+his dressing.
+
+"Did you open the parcel?" his mother asked him, some hour or so
+before it was necessary that Jem should be started on his mission.
+
+"Yes; I thought it best to open it."
+
+"And have you made it up again?"
+
+"Not yet, mother."
+
+"Put this with it, dear." And his mother gave him a little jewel, a
+cupid in mosaic surrounded by tiny diamonds, which he remembered her
+to wear ever since he had first noticed the things she had worn. "Not
+from me, mind. I give it to you. Come;--will you trust me to pack
+them?" Then Mrs. Clavering again made up the parcel, and added the
+trinket which she had brought with her.
+
+Harry at last brought himself to write a few words. "Dearest, dearest
+Florence,--They will not let me out, or I would go to you at once.
+My mother has written, and though I have not seen her letter, I know
+what it contains. Indeed, indeed you may believe it all. May I not
+venture to return the parcel? I do send it back and implore you to
+keep it. I shall be in town, I think, on Monday, and will go to
+Onslow Crescent,--instantly. Your own, H. C." Then there was scrawled
+a postscript which was worth all the rest put together,--was better
+than his own note, better than his mother's letter, better than the
+returned packet. "I love no one better than you;--no one half so
+well,--neither now, nor ever did." These words, whether wholly true
+or only partially so, were at least to the point; and were taken by
+Cecilia Burton, when she heard of them, as a confession of faith that
+demanded instant and plenary absolution.
+
+The trouble which had called Harry down to Clavering remained, I
+regret to say, almost in full force now that his prolonged visit
+had been brought so near its close. Mr. Saul, indeed, had agreed
+to resign his curacy, and was already on the look-out for similar
+employment in some other parish. And since his interview with Fanny's
+father he had never entered the rectory, or spoken to Fanny. Fanny
+had promised that there should be no such speaking, and indeed no
+danger of that kind was feared. Whatever Mr. Saul might do he would
+do openly,--nay, audaciously. But though there existed this security,
+nevertheless things as regarded Fanny were very unpleasant. When Mr.
+Saul had commenced his courtship, she had agreed with her family in
+almost ridiculing the idea of such a lover. There had been a feeling
+with her as with the others that poor Mr. Saul was to be pitied. Then
+she had come to regard his overtures as matters of grave import,--not
+indeed avowing to her mother anything so strong as a return of his
+affection, but speaking of his proposal as one to which there was
+no other objection than that of a want of money. Now, however, she
+went moping about the house as though she were a victim of true love,
+condemned to run unsmoothly for ever; as though her passion for Mr.
+Saul were too much for her, and she were waiting in patience till
+death should relieve her from the cruelty of her parents. She never
+complained. Such victims never do complain. But she moped and was
+wretched, and when her mother questioned her, struggling to find out
+how strong this feeling might in truth be, Fanny would simply make
+her dutiful promises,--promises which were wickedly dutiful,--that
+she would never mention the name of Mr. Saul any more. Mr. Saul in
+the meantime went about his parish duties with grim energy, supplying
+the rector's shortcomings without a word. He would have been glad
+to preach all the sermons and read all the services during these
+six months, had he been allowed to do so. He was constant in
+the schools,--more constant than ever in his visitings. He was
+very courteous to Mr. Clavering when the necessities of their
+position brought them together. For all this Mr. Clavering hated
+him,--unjustly. For a man placed as Mr. Saul was placed a line of
+conduct exactly level with that previously followed is impossible,
+and it was better that he should become more energetic in his duties
+than less so. It will be easily understood that all these things
+interfered much with the general happiness of the family at the
+rectory at this time.
+
+The Monday came, and Harry Clavering, now convalescent and simply
+interesting from the remaining effects of his illness, started on his
+journey for London. There had come no further letters from Onslow
+Terrace to the parsonage, and, indeed, owing to the intervention of
+Sunday, none could have come unless Florence had written by return
+of post. Harry made his journey, beginning it with some promise of
+happiness to himself,--but becoming somewhat uneasy as his train drew
+near to London. He had behaved badly, and he knew that in the first
+place he must own that he had done so. To men such a necessity is
+always grievous. Women not unfrequently like the task. To confess,
+submit, and be accepted as confessing and submitting, comes naturally
+to the feminine mind. The cry of peccavi sounds soft and pretty when
+made by sweet lips in a loving voice. But a man who can own that he
+has done amiss without a pang,--who can so own it to another man,
+or even to a woman,--is usually but a poor creature. Harry must now
+make such confession, and therefore he became uneasy. And then, for
+him, there was another task behind the one which he would be called
+upon to perform this evening,--a task which would have nothing of
+pleasantness in it to redeem its pain. He must confess not only to
+Florence,--where his confession might probably have its reward,--but
+he must confess also to Julia. This second confession would, indeed,
+be a hard task to him. That, however, was to be postponed till the
+morrow. On this evening he had pledged himself that he would go
+direct to Onslow Terrace; and this he did as soon after he had
+reached his lodgings as was possible. It was past six when he reached
+London, and it was not yet eight when, with palpitating heart, he
+knocked at Mr. Burton's door.
+
+I must take the reader back with me for a few minutes, in order
+that we may see after what fashion the letters from Clavering were
+received by the ladies in Onslow Terrace. On that day Mr. Burton had
+been required to go out of London by one of the early trains, and had
+not been in the house when the postman came. Nothing had been said
+between Cecilia and Florence as to their hopes or fears in regard to
+an answer from Clavering;--nothing at least since that conversation
+in which Florence had agreed to remain in London for yet a few days;
+but each of them was very nervous on the matter. Any answer, if sent
+at once from Clavering, would arrive on this morning; and therefore,
+when the well-known knock was heard, neither of them was able to
+maintain her calmness perfectly. But yet nothing was said, nor did
+either of them rise from her seat at the breakfast-table. Presently
+the girl came in with apparently a bundle of letters, which she was
+still sorting when she entered the room. There were two or three for
+Mr. Burton, two for Cecilia, and then two besides the registered
+packet for Florence. For that a receipt was needed, and as Florence
+had seen the address and recognized the writing, she was hardly able
+to give her signature. As soon as the maid was gone, Cecilia could
+keep her seat no longer. "I know those are from Clavering," she said,
+rising from her chair, and coming round to the side of the table.
+Florence instinctively swept the packet into her lap, and, leaning
+forward, covered the letters with her hands. "Oh, Florence, let us
+see them; let us see them at once. If we are to be happy let us know
+it." But Florence paused, still leaning over her treasures, and
+hardly daring to show her burning face. Even yet it might be that she
+was rejected. Then Cecilia went back to her seat, and simply looked
+at her sister with beseeching eyes. "I think I'll go upstairs,"
+said Florence. "Are you afraid of me, Flo?" Cecilia answered
+reproachfully. "Let me see the outside of them." Then Florence
+brought them round the table, and put them into her sister's hands.
+"May I open this one from Mrs. Clavering?" Florence nodded her head.
+Then the seal was broken, and in one minute the two women were crying
+in each other's arms. "I was quite sure of it," said Cecilia, through
+her tears,--"perfectly sure. I never doubted it for a moment. How
+could you have talked of going to Stratton?" At last Florence got
+herself away up to the window, and gradually mustered courage to
+break the envelope of her lover's letter. It was not at once that she
+showed the postscript to Cecilia, nor at once that the packet was
+opened. That last ceremony she did perform in the solitude of her
+own room. But before the day was over the postscript had been shown,
+and the added trinket had been exhibited. "I remember it well," said
+Florence. "Mrs. Clavering wore it on her forehead when we dined at
+Lady Clavering's." Mrs. Burton in all this saw something of the
+gentle persuasion which the mother had used, but of that she said
+nothing. That he should be back again, and should have repented, was
+enough for her.
+
+Mr. Burton was again absent when Harry Clavering knocked in person
+at the door; but on this occasion his absence had been specially
+arranged by him with a view to Harry's comfort. "He won't want to
+see me this evening," he had said. "Indeed you'll all get on a
+great deal better without me." He therefore had remained away from
+home, and, not being a club man, had dined most uncomfortably at an
+eating-house. "Are the ladies at home?" Harry asked, when the door
+was opened. Oh, yes; they were at home. There was no danger that they
+should be found out on such an occasion as this. The girl looked
+at him pleasantly, calling him by his name as she answered him, as
+though she too desired to show him that he had again been taken into
+favour,--into her favour as well as that of her mistress.
+
+He hardly knew what he was doing as he ran up the steps to the
+drawing-room. He was afraid of what was to come; but nevertheless
+he rushed at his fate as some young soldier rushes at the trench
+in which he feels that he may probably fall. So Harry Clavering
+hurried on, and before he had looked round upon the room which he had
+entered, found his fate with Florence on his bosom.
+
+Alas, alas! I fear that justice was outraged in the welcome that
+Harry received on that evening. I have said that he would be called
+upon to own his sins, and so much, at least, should have been
+required of him. But he owned no sin! I have said that a certain
+degradation must attend him in that first interview after his
+reconciliation. Instead of this the hours that he spent that evening
+in Onslow Terrace were hours of one long ovation. He was, as it were,
+put upon a throne as a king who had returned from his conquest, and
+those two women did him honour, almost kneeling at his feet. Cecilia
+was almost as tender with him as Florence, pleading to her own false
+heart the fact of his illness as his excuse. There was something of
+the pallor of the sick-room left with him,--a slight tenuity in his
+hands and brightness in his eye which did him yeoman's service. Had
+he been quite robust, Cecilia might have felt that she could not
+justify to herself the peculiar softness of her words. After the
+first quarter of an hour he was supremely happy. His awkwardness had
+gone, and as he sat with his arm round Florence's waist, he found
+that the little pencil-case had again been attached to her chain, and
+as he looked down upon her he saw that the cheap brooch was again on
+her breast. It would have been pretty, could an observer have been
+there, to see the skill with which they both steered clear of any
+word or phrase which could be disagreeable to him. One might have
+thought that it would have been impossible to avoid all touch of a
+rebuke. The very fact that he was forgiven would seem to imply some
+fault that required pardon. But there was no hint at any fault.
+The tact of women excels the skill of men; and so perfect was the
+tact of these women that not a word was said which wounded Harry's
+ear. He had come again into their fold, and they were rejoiced and
+showed their joy. He who had gone astray had repented, and they were
+beautifully tender to the repentant sheep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+RESTITUTION.
+
+
+Harry stayed a little too long with his love,--a little longer at
+least than had been computed, and in consequence met Theodore Burton
+in the Crescent as he was leaving it. This meeting could hardly be
+made without something of pain, and perhaps it was well for Harry
+that he should have such an opportunity as this for getting over it
+quickly. But when he saw Mr. Burton under the bright gas-lamp he
+would very willingly have avoided him, had it been possible.
+
+"Well, Harry?" said Burton, giving his hand to the repentant sheep.
+
+"How are you, Burton?" said Harry, trying to speak with an
+unconcerned voice. Then in answer to an inquiry as to his health, he
+told of his own illness, speaking of that confounded fever having
+made him very low. He intended no deceit, but he made more of the
+fever than was necessary.
+
+"When will you come back to the shop?" Burton asked. It must be
+remembered that though the brother could not refuse to welcome back
+to his home his sister's lover, still he thought that the engagement
+was a misfortune. He did not believe in Harry as a man of business,
+and had almost rejoiced when Florence had been so nearly quit of him.
+And now there was a taint of sarcasm in his voice as he asked as to
+Harry's return to the chambers in the Adelphi.
+
+"I can hardly quite say as yet," said Harry, still pleading his
+illness. "They were very much against my coming up to London so
+soon. Indeed I should not have done it had I not felt so very--very
+anxious to see Florence. I don't know, Burton, whether I ought to say
+anything to you about that."
+
+"I suppose you have said what you had to say to the women?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I think they understand me completely, and I hope that I
+understand them."
+
+"In that case I don't know that you need say anything to me. Come to
+the Adelphi as soon as you can; that's all. I never think myself that
+a man becomes a bit stronger after an illness by remaining idle."
+Then Harry passed on, and felt that he had escaped easily in that
+interview.
+
+But as he walked home he was compelled to think of the step which he
+must next take. When he had last seen Lady Ongar he had left her with
+a promise that Florence was to be deserted for her sake. As yet that
+promise would by her be supposed to be binding. Indeed he had thought
+it to be binding on himself till he had found himself under his
+mother's influence at the parsonage. During his last few weeks in
+London he had endured an agony of doubt; but in his vacillations
+the pendulum had always veered more strongly towards Bolton Street
+than to Onslow Crescent. Now the swinging of the pendulum had ceased
+altogether. From henceforth Bolton Street must be forbidden ground
+to him, and the sheepfold in Onslow Crescent must be his home till
+he should have established a small peculiar fold for himself. But,
+as yet, he had still before him the task of communicating his
+final decision to the lady in Bolton Street. As he walked home he
+determined that he had better do so in the first place by letter,
+and so eager was he as to the propriety of doing this at once, that
+on his return to his lodgings he sat down, and wrote the letter
+before he went to his bed. It was not very easily written. Here, at
+any rate, he had to make those confessions of which I have before
+spoken;--confessions which it may be less difficult to make with
+pen and ink than with spoken words, but which when so made are more
+degrading. The word that is written is a thing capable of permanent
+life, and lives frequently to the confusion of its parent. A man
+should make his confessions always by word of mouth if it be
+possible. Whether such a course would have been possible to Harry
+Clavering may be doubtful. It might have been that in a personal
+meeting the necessary confession would not have got itself adequately
+spoken. Thinking, perhaps, of this he wrote his letter as follows on
+that night.
+
+
+   Bloomsbury Square, July, 186--.
+
+
+The date was easily written, but how was he to go on after that? In
+what form of affection or indifference was he to address her whom he
+had at that last meeting called his own, his dearest Julia? He got
+out of his difficulty in the way common to ladies and gentlemen under
+such stress, and did not address her by any name or any epithet.
+The date he allowed to remain, and then he went away at once to the
+matter of his subject.
+
+
+   I feel that I owe it you at once to tell you what has
+   been my history during the last few weeks. I came up from
+   Clavering to-day, and have since that been with Mrs. and
+   Miss Burton. Immediately on my return from them I sit down
+   to write you.
+
+
+After having said so much, Harry probably felt that the rest of his
+letter would be surplusage. Those few words would tell her all that
+it was required that she should know. But courtesy demanded that he
+should say more, and he went on with his confession.
+
+
+   You know that I became engaged to Miss Burton soon after
+   your own marriage. I feel now that I should have told you
+   this when we first met; but yet, had I done so, it would
+   have seemed as though I told it with a special object. I
+   don't know whether I make myself understood in this. I can
+   only hope that I do so.
+
+
+Understood! Of course she understood it all. She required no
+blundering explanation from him to assist her intelligence.
+
+
+   I wish now that I had mentioned it. It would have been
+   better for both of us. I should have been saved much pain;
+   and you, perhaps, some uneasiness.
+
+   I was called down to Clavering a few weeks ago, about some
+   business in the family, and then became ill,--so that I
+   was confined to my bed instead of returning to town. Had
+   it not been for this I should not have left you so long in
+   suspense,--that is if there has been suspense. For myself,
+   I have to own that I have been very weak,--worse than
+   weak, I fear you will think. I do not know whether your
+   old regard for me will prompt you to make any excuse for
+   me, but I am well sure that I can make none for myself
+   which will not have suggested itself to you, without
+   my urging it. If you choose to think that I have been
+   heartless,--or rather, if you are able so to think of me,
+   no words of mine, written or spoken now, will remove that
+   impression from your mind.
+
+   I believe that I need write nothing further. You will
+   understand from what I have said all that I should have
+   to say were I to refer at length to that which has passed
+   between us. All that is over now, and it only remains for
+   me to express a hope that you may be happy. Whether we
+   shall ever see each other again who shall say?--but if we
+   do I trust that we may not meet as enemies. May God bless
+   you here and hereafter.
+
+   HARRY CLAVERING.
+
+
+When the letter was finished Harry sat for a while by his open
+window looking at the moon, over the chimney-pots of his square, and
+thinking of his career in life as it had hitherto been fulfilled. The
+great promise of his earlier days had not been kept. His plight in
+the world was now poor enough, though his hopes had been so high! He
+was engaged to be married, but had no income on which to marry. He
+had narrowly escaped great wealth. Ah!--It was hard for him to think
+of that without a regret; but he did strive so to think of it. Though
+he told himself that it would have been evil for him to have depended
+on money which had been procured by the very act which had been to
+him an injury,--to have dressed himself in the feathers which had
+been plucked from Lord Ongar's wings,--it was hard for him to think
+of all that he had missed, and rejoice thoroughly that he had missed
+it. But he told himself that he so rejoiced, and endeavoured to be
+glad that he had not soiled his hands with riches which never would
+have belonged to the woman he had loved had she not earned them by
+being false to him. Early on the following morning he sent off his
+letter, and then, putting himself into a cab, bowled down to Onslow
+Crescent. The sheepfold now was very pleasant to him when the head
+shepherd was away, and so much gratification it was natural that he
+should allow himself.
+
+That evening, when he came from his club, he found a note from Lady
+Ongar. It was very short, and the blood rushed to his face as he felt
+ashamed at seeing with how much apparent ease she had answered him.
+He had written with difficulty, and had written awkwardly. But there
+was nothing awkward in her words.
+
+
+   DEAR HARRY,--We are quits now. I do not know why we should
+   ever meet as enemies. I shall never feel myself to be an
+   enemy of yours. I think it would be well that we should
+   see each other, and if you have no objection to seeing me,
+   I will be at home any evening that you may call. Indeed
+   I am at home always in the evening. Surely, Harry, there
+   can be no reason why we should not meet. You need not fear
+   that there will be danger in it.
+
+   Will you give my compliments to Miss Florence Burton, with
+   my best wishes for her happiness? Your Mrs. Burton I have
+   seen,--as you may have heard, and I congratulate you on
+   your friend.
+
+   Yours always, J. O.
+
+
+The writing of this letter seemed to have been easy enough, and
+certainly there was nothing in it that was awkward; but I think that
+the writer had suffered more in the writing than Harry had done in
+producing his longer epistle. But she had known how to hide her
+suffering, and had used a tone which told no tale of her wounds. We
+are quits now, she had said, and she had repeated the words over and
+over again to herself as she walked up and down her room. Yes! they
+were quits now,--if the reflection of that fact could do her any
+good. She had ill-treated him in her early days; but, as she had
+told herself so often, she had served him rather than injured him by
+that ill-treatment. She had been false to him; but her falsehood had
+preserved him from a lot which could not have been fortunate. With
+such a clog as she would have been round his neck,--with such a wife,
+without a shilling of fortune, how could he have risen in the world?
+No! Though she had deceived him, she had served him. Then,--after
+that,--had come the tragedy of her life, the terrible days in
+thinking of which she still shuddered, the days of her husband and
+Sophie Gordeloup,--that terrible deathbed, those attacks upon her
+honour, misery upon misery, as to which she never now spoke a word to
+any one, and as to which she was resolved that she never would speak
+again. She had sold herself for money, and had got the price; but
+the punishment of her offence had been very heavy. And now, in these
+latter days, she had thought to compensate the man she had loved for
+the treachery with which she had used him. That treachery had been
+serviceable to him, but not the less should the compensation be very
+rich. And she would love him too. Ah, yes; she had always loved him!
+He should have it all now,--everything, if only he would consent to
+forget that terrible episode in her life, as she would strive to
+forget it. All that should remain to remind them of Lord Ongar would
+be the wealth that should henceforth belong to Harry Clavering.
+Such had been her dream, and Harry had come to her with words of
+love which made it seem to be a reality. He had spoken to her words
+of love which he was now forced to withdraw, and the dream was
+dissipated. It was not to be allowed to her to escape her penalty so
+easily as that! As for him, they were now quits. That being the case,
+there could be no reason why they should quarrel.
+
+But what now should she do with her wealth, and especially how should
+she act in respect to that place down in the country? Though she had
+learned to hate Ongar Park during her solitary visit there, she had
+still looked forward to the pleasure the property might give her,
+when she should be able to bestow it upon Harry Clavering. But that
+had been part of her dream, and the dream was now over. Through it
+all she had been conscious that she might hardly dare to hope that
+the end of her punishment should come so soon,--and now she knew that
+it was not to come. As far as she could see, there was no end to the
+punishment in prospect for her. From her first meeting with Harry
+Clavering on the platform of the railway station his presence, or
+her thoughts of him, had sufficed to give some brightness to her
+life,--had enabled her to support the friendship of Sophie Gordeloup,
+and also to support her solitude when poor Sophie had been banished.
+But now she was left without any resource. As she sat alone,
+meditating on all this, she endeavoured to console herself with the
+reflection that, after all, she was the one whom Harry loved,--whom
+Harry would have chosen, had he been free to choose. But the comfort
+to be derived from that was very poor. Yes; he had loved her
+once,--nay, perhaps he loved her still. But when that love was her
+own she had rejected it. She had rejected it, simply declaring to
+him, to her friends, and to the world at large, that she preferred to
+be rich. She had her reward, and, bowing her head upon her hands, she
+acknowledged that the punishment was deserved.
+
+Her first step after writing her note to Harry was to send for Mr.
+Turnbull, her lawyer. She had expected to see Harry on the evening of
+the day on which she had written, but instead of that she received a
+note from him in which he said that he would come to her before long.
+Mr. Turnbull was more instant in obeying her commands, and was with
+her on the morning after he received her injunction. He was almost
+a perfect stranger to her, having only seen her once and that for a
+few moments after her return to England. Her marriage settlements
+had been prepared for her by Sir Hugh's attorney; but during her
+sojourn in Florence it had become necessary that she should have
+some one in London to look after her own affairs, and Mr. Turnbull
+had been recommended to her by lawyers employed by her husband. He
+was a prudent, sensible man, who recognized it to be his imperative
+interest to look after his client's interest. And he had done his
+duty by Lady Ongar in that trying time immediately after her return.
+An offer had then been made by the Courton family to give Julia her
+income without opposition if she would surrender Ongar Park. To this
+she had made objections with indignation, and Mr. Turnbull, though he
+had at first thought that she would be wise to comply with the terms
+proposed, had done her work for her with satisfactory expedition.
+Since those days she had not seen him, but now she had summoned him,
+and he was with her in Bolton Street.
+
+"I want to speak to you, Mr. Turnbull," she said, "about that place
+down in Surrey. I don't like it."
+
+"Not like Ongar Park?" he said. "I have always heard that it is so
+charming."
+
+"It is not charming to me. It is a sort of property that I don't
+want, and I mean to give it up."
+
+"Lord Ongar's uncles would buy your interest in it, I have no doubt."
+
+"Exactly. They have sent to me, offering to do so. My brother-in-law,
+Sir Hugh Clavering, called on me with a message from them saying
+so. I thought that he was very foolish to come, and so I told him.
+Such things should be done by one's lawyers. Don't you think so, Mr.
+Turnbull?" Mr. Turnbull smiled as he declared that, of course, he,
+being a lawyer, was of that opinion. "I am afraid they will have
+thought me uncivil," continued Julia, "as I spoke rather brusquely to
+Sir Hugh Clavering. I am not inclined to take any steps through Sir
+Hugh Clavering; but I do not know that I have any reason to be angry
+with the little lord's family."
+
+"Really, Lady Ongar, I think not. When your ladyship returned there
+was some opposition thought of for a while, but I really do not think
+it was their fault."
+
+"No; it was not their fault."
+
+"That was my feeling at the time; it was indeed."
+
+"It was the fault of Lord Ongar,--of my husband. As regards all
+the Courtons I have no word of complaint to make. It is not to be
+expected,--it is not desirable that they and I should be friends.
+It is impossible, after what has passed, that there should be such
+friendship. But they have never injured me, and I wish to oblige
+them. Had Ongar Park suited me I should, doubtless, have kept it; but
+it does not suit me, and they are welcome to have it back again."
+
+"Has a price been named, Lady Ongar?"
+
+"No price need be named. There is to be no question of a price. Lord
+Ongar's mother is welcome to the place,--or rather to such interest
+as I have in it."
+
+"And to pay a rent?" suggested Mr. Turnbull.
+
+"To pay no rent! Nothing would induce me to let the place, or to sell
+my right in it. I will have no bargain about it. But as nothing also
+will induce me to live there, I am not such a dog in the manger as to
+wish to keep it. If you will have the kindness to see Mr. Courton's
+lawyer and to make arrangements about it."
+
+"But, Lady Ongar; what you call your right in the estate is worth
+over twenty thousand pounds. It is indeed. You could borrow twenty
+thousand pounds on the security of it to-morrow."
+
+"But I don't want to borrow twenty thousand pounds."
+
+"No, no; exactly. Of course you don't. But I point out that fact to
+show the value. You would be making a present of that sum of money
+to people who do not want it,--who have no claim upon you. I really
+don't see how they could take it."
+
+"Mrs. Courton wishes to have the place very much."
+
+"But, my lady, she has never thought of getting it without paying
+for it. Lady Ongar, I really cannot advise you to take any such step
+as that. Indeed, I cannot. I should be wrong, as your lawyer, if
+I did not point out to you that such a proceeding would be quite
+romantic,--quite so; what the world would call Quixotic. People don't
+expect such things as that. They don't, indeed."
+
+"People don't often have such reasons as I have," said Lady Ongar.
+Mr. Turnbull sat silent for a while, looking as though he were
+unhappy. The proposition made to him was one which, as a lawyer, he
+felt to be very distasteful to him. He knew that his client had no
+male friends in whom she confided, and he felt that the world would
+blame him if he allowed this lady to part with her property in the
+way she had suggested. "You will find that I am in earnest," she
+continued, smiling. "And you may as well give way to my vagaries with
+a good grace."
+
+"They would not take it, Lady Ongar."
+
+"At any rate we can try them. If you will make them understand that
+I don't at all want the place, and that it will go to rack and ruin
+because there is no one to live there, I am sure they will take it."
+
+Then Mr. Turnbull again sat silent and unhappy, thinking with what
+words he might best bring forward his last and strongest argument
+against this rash proceeding.
+
+"Lady Ongar," he said, "in your peculiar position there are double
+reasons why you should not act in this way."
+
+"What do you mean, Mr. Turnbull? What is my peculiar position?"
+
+"The world will say that you have restored Ongar Park because you
+were afraid to keep it. Indeed, Lady Ongar, you had better let it
+remain as it is."
+
+"I care nothing for what the world says," she exclaimed, rising
+quickly from her chair;--"nothing; nothing!"
+
+"You should really hold by your rights; you should, indeed. Who can
+possibly say what other interests may be concerned? You may marry,
+and live for the next fifty years, and have a family. It is my duty,
+Lady Ongar, to point out these things to you."
+
+"I am sure you are quite right, Mr. Turnbull," she said, struggling
+to maintain a quiet demeanour. "You, of course, are only doing your
+duty. But whether I marry or whether I remain as I am, I shall give
+up this place. And as for what the world, as you call it, may say, I
+will not deny that I cared much for that on my immediate return. What
+people said then made me very unhappy. But I care nothing for it now.
+I have established my rights, and that has been sufficient. To me
+it seems that the world, as you call it, has been civil enough in
+its usage of me lately. It is only of those who should have been my
+friends that I have a right to complain. If you will please to do
+this thing for me, I will be obliged to you."
+
+"If you are quite determined about it--"
+
+"I am quite determined. What is the use of the place to me? I never
+shall go there. What is the use even of the money that comes to me?
+I have no purpose for it. I have nothing to do with it."
+
+There was something in her tone as she said this which well filled
+him with pity.
+
+"You should remember," he said, "how short a time it is since you
+became a widow. Things will be different with you soon."
+
+"My clothes will be different, if you mean that," she answered; "but
+I do not know that there will be any other change in me. But I am
+wrong to trouble you with all this. If you will let Mr. Courton's
+lawyer know, with my compliments to Mrs. Courton, that I have heard
+that she would like to have the place, and that I do not want it, I
+will be obliged to you." Mr. Turnbull having by this time perceived
+that she was quite in earnest, took his leave, having promised to do
+her bidding.
+
+In this interview she had told her lawyer only a part of the plan
+which was now running in her head. As for giving up Ongar Park, she
+took to herself no merit for that. The place had been odious to her
+ever since she had endeavoured to establish herself there and had
+found that the clergyman's wife would not speak to her,--that even
+her own housekeeper would hardly condescend to hold converse with
+her. She felt that she would be a dog in the manger to keep the place
+in her own possession. But she had thoughts beyond this,--resolutions
+only as yet half-formed as to a wider surrender. She had disgraced
+herself, ruined herself, robbed herself of all happiness by the
+marriage she had made. Her misery had not been simply the misery of
+that lord's lifetime. As might have been expected, that was soon
+over. But an enduring wretchedness had come after that from which
+she saw no prospect of escape. What was to be her future life, left
+as she was and would be, in desolation? If she were to give it all
+up,--all the wealth that had been so ill-gotten,--might there not
+then be some hope of comfort for her?
+
+She had been willing enough to keep Lord Ongar's money, and use it
+for the purposes of her own comfort, while she had still hoped that
+comfort might come from it. The remembrance of all that she had to
+give had been very pleasant to her, as long as she had hoped that
+Harry Clavering would receive it at her hands. She had not at once
+felt that the fruit had all turned to ashes. But now,--now that Harry
+was gone from her,--now that she had no friend left to her whom she
+could hope to make happy by her munificence,--the very knowledge of
+her wealth was a burden to her. And as she thought of her riches in
+these first days of her desertion, as she had indeed been thinking
+since Cecilia Burton had been with her, she came to understand that
+she was degraded by their acquisition. She had done that which had
+been unpardonably bad, and she felt like Judas when he stood with the
+price of his treachery in his hand. He had given up his money, and
+would not she do as much? There had been a moment in which she had
+nearly declared all her purpose to the lawyer, but she was held back
+by the feeling that she ought to make her plans certain before she
+communicated them to him.
+
+She must live. She could not go out and hang herself as Judas had
+done. And then there was her title and rank, of which she did not
+know whether it was within her power to divest herself. She sorely
+felt the want of some one from whom in her present need she might
+ask counsel; of some friend to whom she could trust to tell her in
+what way she might now best atone for the evil she had done. Plans
+ran through her head which were thrown aside almost as soon as made,
+because she saw that they were impracticable. She even longed in
+these days for her sister's aid, though of old she had thought but
+little of Hermy as a counsellor. She had no friend whom she might
+ask;--unless she might still ask Harry Clavering.
+
+If she did not keep it all might she still keep something,--enough
+for decent life,--and yet comfort herself with the feeling that she
+had expiated her sin? And what would be said of her when she had made
+this great surrender? Would not the world laugh at her instead of
+praising her,--that world as to which she had assured Mr. Turnbull
+that she did not care what its verdict about her might be? She had
+many doubts. Ah! why had not Harry Clavering remained true to her?
+But her punishment had come upon her with all its severity, and she
+acknowledged to herself now that it was not to be avoided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+LADY ONGAR'S REVENGE.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+At last came the night which Harry had fixed for his visit to Bolton
+Street. He had looked forward certainly with no pleasure to the
+interview, and now that the time for it had come, was disposed to
+think that Lady Ongar had been unwise in asking for it. But he had
+promised that he would go, and there was no possible escape.
+
+He dined that evening in Onslow Crescent, where he was now again
+established with all his old comfort. He had again gone up to the
+children's nursery with Cecilia, had kissed them all in their cots,
+and made himself quite at home in the establishment. It was with them
+there as though there had been no dreadful dream about Lady Ongar. It
+was so altogether with Cecilia and Florence, and even Mr. Burton was
+allowing himself to be brought round to a charitable view of Harry's
+character. Harry on this day had gone to the chambers in the Adelphi
+for an hour, and walking away with Theodore Burton had declared his
+intention of working like a horse. "If you were to say like a man,
+it would perhaps be better," said Burton. "I must leave you to say
+that," answered Harry; "for the present I will content myself with
+the horse." Burton was willing to hope, and allowed himself once more
+to fall into his old pleasant way of talking about the business as
+though there were no other subject under the sun so full of manifold
+interest. He was very keen at the present moment about Metropolitan
+railways, and was ridiculing the folly of those who feared that the
+railway projectors were going too fast. "But we shall never get any
+thanks," he said. "When the thing has been done, and thanks are our
+due, people will look upon all our work so much as a matter of course
+that it will never occur to them to think that they owe us anything.
+They will have forgotten all their cautions, and will take what they
+get as though it were simply their due. Nothing astonishes me so
+much as the fear people feel before a thing is done when I join it
+with their want of surprise or admiration afterwards." In this way
+even Theodore Burton had resumed his terms of intimacy with Harry
+Clavering.
+
+Harry had told both Cecilia and Florence of his intended visit to
+Bolton Street, and they had all become very confidential on the
+subject. In most such cases we may suppose that a man does not say
+much to one woman of the love which another woman has acknowledged
+for himself. Nor was Harry Clavering at all disposed to make any
+such boast. But in this case, Lady Ongar herself had told everything
+to Mrs. Burton. She had declared her passion, and had declared
+also her intention of making Harry her husband if he would take her.
+Everything was known, and there was no possibility of sparing Lady
+Ongar's name.
+
+"If I had been her I would not have asked for such a meeting,"
+Cecilia said. The three were at this time sitting together, for Mr.
+Burton rarely joined them in their conversation.
+
+"I don't know," said Florence. "I do not see why she and Harry should
+not remain as friends."
+
+"They might be friends without meeting now," said Cecilia.
+
+"Hardly. If the awkwardness were not got over at once it would never
+be got over. I almost think she is right, though if I were her
+I should long to have it over." That was Florence's judgment in
+the matter. Harry sat between them, like a sheep as he was, very
+meekly,--not without some enjoyment of his sheepdom, but still
+feeling that he was a sheep. At half-past eight he started up, having
+already been told that a cab was waiting for him at the door. He
+pressed Cecilia's hand as he went, indicating his feeling that he had
+before him an affair of some magnitude, and then of course had a
+word or two to say to Florence in private on the landing. Oh, those
+delicious private words, the need for which comes so often during
+those short halcyon days of one's lifetime! They were so pleasant
+that Harry would fain have returned to repeat them after he was
+seated in his cab; but the inevitable wheels carried him onwards with
+cruel velocity, and he was in Bolton Street before the minutes had
+sufficed for him to collect his thoughts.
+
+
+[Illustration: Harry sat between them, like a sheep as he was, very
+meekly.]
+
+
+Lady Ongar, when he entered the room, was sitting in her accustomed
+chair, near a little work-table which she always used, and did not
+rise to meet him. It was a pretty chair, soft and easy, made with
+a back for lounging, but with no arms to impede the circles of a
+lady's hoop. Harry knew the chair well and had spoken of its graceful
+comfort in some of his visits to Bolton Street. She was seated there
+when he entered; and though he was not sufficiently experienced in
+the secrets of feminine attire to know at once that she had dressed
+herself with care, he did perceive that she was very charming, not
+only by force of her own beauty, but by the aid also of her dress.
+And yet she was in deep mourning,--in the deepest mourning; nor was
+there anything about her of which complaint might fairly be made by
+those who do complain on such subjects. Her dress was high round
+her neck, and the cap on her head was indisputably a widow's cap;
+but enough of her brown hair was to be seen to tell of its rich
+loveliness; and the black dress was so made as to show the full
+perfection of her form; and with it all there was that graceful
+feminine brightness that care and money can always give, and
+which will not come without care and money. It might be well, she
+had thought, to surrender her income, and become poor and dowdy
+hereafter, but there could be no reason why Harry Clavering should
+not be made to know all that he had lost.
+
+"Well, Harry," she said, as he stepped up to her and took her offered
+hand. "I am glad that you have come that I may congratulate you.
+Better late than never; eh, Harry?"
+
+How was he to answer her when she spoke to him in this strain? "I
+hope it is not too late," he said, hardly knowing what the words were
+which were coming from his mouth.
+
+"Nay; that is for you to say. I can do it heartily, Harry, if you
+mean that. And why not? Why should I not wish you happy? I have
+always liked you,--have always wished for your happiness. You believe
+that I am sincere when I congratulate you;--do you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes; you are always sincere."
+
+"I have always been so to you. As to any sincerity beyond that we
+need say nothing now. I have always been your good friend,--to the
+best of my ability. Ah, Harry; you do not know how much I have
+thought of your welfare; how much I do think of it. But never mind
+that. Tell me something now of this Florence Burton of yours. Is she
+tall?" I believe that Lady Ongar, when she asked this question, knew
+well that Florence was short of stature.
+
+"No; she is not tall," said Harry.
+
+"What,--a little beauty? Upon the whole I think I agree with your
+taste. The most lovely women that I have ever seen have been small,
+bright, and perfect in their proportions. It is very rare that a tall
+woman has a perfect figure." Julia's own figure was quite perfect.
+"Do you remember Constance Vane? Nothing ever exceeded her beauty."
+Now Constance Vane,--she at least who had in those days been
+Constance Vane, but who now was the stout mother of two or three
+children,--had been a waxen doll of a girl, whom Harry had known, but
+had neither liked nor admired. But she was highly bred, and belonged
+to the cream of English fashion; she had possessed a complexion as
+pure in its tints as are the interior leaves of a blush rose,--and
+she had never had a thought in her head, and hardly ever a word on
+her lips. She and Florence Burton were as poles asunder in their
+differences. Harry felt this at once, and had an indistinct notion
+that Lady Ongar was as well aware of the fact as was he himself. "She
+is not a bit like Constance Vane," he said.
+
+"Then what is she like? If she is more beautiful than what Miss Vane
+used to be, she must be lovely indeed."
+
+"She has no pretensions of that kind," said Harry, almost sulkily.
+
+"I have heard that she was so very beautiful!" Lady Ongar had never
+heard a word about Florence's beauty;--not a word. She knew nothing
+personally of Florence beyond what Mrs. Burton had told her. But who
+will not forgive her the little deceit that was necessary to her
+little revenge?
+
+"I don't know how to describe her," said Harry. "I hope the time may
+soon come when you will see her, and be able to judge for yourself."
+
+"I hope so too. It shall not be my fault if I do not like her."
+
+"I do not think you can fail to like her. She is very clever, and
+that will go further with you than mere beauty. Not but what I think
+her very,--very pretty."
+
+"Ah,--I understand. She reads a great deal, and that sort of thing.
+Yes; that is very nice. But I shouldn't have thought that that
+would have taken you. You used not to care much for talent and
+learning,--not in women I mean."
+
+"I don't know about that," said Harry, looking very foolish.
+
+"But a contrast is what you men always like. Of course I ought not
+to say that, but you will know of what I am thinking. A clever,
+highly-educated woman like Miss Burton will be a much better
+companion to you than I could have been. You see I am very frank,
+Harry." She wished to make him talk freely about himself, his future
+days, and his past days, while he was simply anxious to say on these
+subjects as little as possible. Poor woman! The excitement of having
+a passion which she might indulge was over with her,--at any rate for
+the present. She had played her game and had lost wofully; but before
+she retired altogether from the gaming-table she could not keep
+herself from longing for a last throw of the dice.
+
+"These things, I fear, go very much by chance," said Harry.
+
+"You do not mean me to suppose that you are taking Miss Burton by
+chance. That would be as uncomplimentary to her as to yourself."
+
+"Chance, at any rate, has been very good to me in this instance."
+
+"Of that I am sure. Do not suppose that I am doubting that. It is
+not only the paradise that you have gained, but the pandemonium
+that you have escaped!" Then she laughed slightly, but the laughter
+was uneasy, and made her angry with herself. She had especially
+determined to be at ease during this meeting, and was conscious that
+any falling off in that respect on her part would put into his hands
+the power which she was desirous of exercising.
+
+"You are determined to rebuke me, I see," said he. "If you choose to
+do so, I am prepared to bear it. My defence, if I have a defence, is
+one that I cannot use."
+
+"And what would be your defence?"
+
+"I have said that I cannot use it."
+
+"As if I did not understand it all! What you mean to say is
+this,--that when your good stars sent you in the way of Florence
+Burton, you had been ill-treated by her who would have made your
+pandemonium for you, and that she therefore,--she who came first and
+behaved so badly--can have no right to find fault with you in that
+you have obeyed your good stars and done so well for yourself. That
+is what you call your defence. It would be perfect, Harry,--perfect,
+if you had only whispered to me a word of Miss Burton when I first
+saw you after my return home. It is odd to me that you should not
+have written to me and told me when I was abroad with my husband.
+It would have comforted me to have known that the wound which I had
+given had been cured;--that is, if there was a wound."
+
+"You know that there was a wound."
+
+"At any rate, it was not mortal. But when are such wounds mortal?
+When are they more than skin-deep?"
+
+"I can say nothing as to that now."
+
+"No, Harry; of course you can say nothing. Why should you be made
+to say anything? You are fortunate and happy, and have all that you
+want. I have nothing that I want."
+
+There was a reality in the tone of sorrow in which this was spoken
+which melted him at once;--and the more so in that there was so much
+in her grief which could not but be flattering to his vanity. "Do not
+say that, Lady Ongar," he exclaimed.
+
+"But I do say it. What have I got in the world that is worth having?
+My possessions are ever so many thousands a year,--and a damaged
+name."
+
+"I deny that. I deny it altogether. I do not think that there is one
+who knows of your story who believes ill of you."
+
+"I could tell you of one, Harry, who thinks very ill of me;--nay, of
+two; and they are both in this room. Do you remember how you used to
+teach me that terribly conceited bit of Latin,--Nil conscire sibi? Do
+you suppose that I can boast that I never grow pale as I think of my
+own fault? I am thinking of it always, and my heart is ever becoming
+paler and paler. And as to the treatment of others;--I wish I could
+make you know what I suffered when I was fool enough to go to that
+place in Surrey. The coachman who drives me no doubt thinks that I
+poisoned my husband, and the servant who let you in just now supposes
+me to be an abandoned woman because you are here."
+
+"You will be angry with me, perhaps, if I say that these feelings are
+morbid and will die away. They show the weakness which has come from
+the ill-usage you have suffered."
+
+"You are right in part, no doubt. I shall become hardened to it all,
+and shall fall into some endurable mode of life in time. But I can
+look forward to nothing. What future have I? Was there ever any one
+so utterly friendless as I am? Your kind cousin has done that for
+me;--and yet he came here to me the other day, smiling and talking as
+though he were sure that I should be delighted by his condescension.
+I do not think that he will ever come again."
+
+"I did not know you had seen him."
+
+"Yes; I saw him;--but I did not find much relief from his visit. We
+won't mind that, however. We can talk about something better than
+Hugh Clavering during the few minutes that we have together;--can we
+not? And so Miss Burton is very learned and very clever?"
+
+"I did not quite say that."
+
+"But I know she is. What a comfort that will be to you! I am not
+clever, and I never should have become learned. Oh, dear! I had but
+one merit, Harry;--I was fond of you."
+
+"And how did you show it?" He did not speak these words, because he
+would not triumph over her, nor was he willing to express that regret
+on his own part which these words would have implied;--but it was
+impossible for him to avoid a thought of them. He remained silent,
+therefore, taking up some toy from the table into his hands, as
+though that would occupy his attention.
+
+"But what a fool I am to talk of it;--am I not? And I am worse
+than a fool. I was thinking of you when I stood up in church to be
+married;--thinking of that offer of your little savings. I used to
+think of you at every harsh word that I endured;--of your modes of
+life when I sat through those terrible nights by that poor creature's
+bed;--of you when I knew that the last day was coming. I thought of
+you always, Harry, when I counted up my gains. I never count them
+up now. Ah, how I thought of you when I came to this house in the
+carriage which you had provided for me, when I had left you at the
+station almost without speaking a word to you! I should have been
+more gracious had I not had you in my thoughts throughout my whole
+journey home from Florence. And after that I had some comfort in
+believing that the price of my shame might make you rich without
+shame. Oh, Harry, I have been disappointed! You will never understand
+what I felt when first that evil woman told me of Miss Burton."
+
+"Oh, Julia, what am I to say?"
+
+"You can say nothing; but I wonder that you had not told me."
+
+"How could I tell you? Would it not have seemed that I was vain
+enough to have thought of putting you on your guard?"
+
+"And why not? But never mind. Do not suppose that I am rebuking you.
+As I said in my letter, we are quits now, and there is no place for
+scolding on either side. We are quits now; but I am punished and you
+are rewarded."
+
+Of course he could not answer this. Of course he was hard pressed
+for words. Of course he could neither acknowledge that he had been
+rewarded, nor assert that a share of the punishment of which she
+spoke had fallen upon him also. This was the revenge with which she
+had intended to attack him. That she should think that he had in
+truth been punished and not rewarded, was very natural. Had he been
+less quick in forgetting her after her marriage, he would have had
+his reward without any punishment. If such were her thoughts, who
+shall quarrel with her on that account?
+
+"I have been very frank with you," she continued. "Indeed, why should
+I not be so? People talk of a lady's secret, but my secret has been
+no secret from you? That I was made to tell it under,--under,--what I
+will call an error,--was your fault; and it is that that has made us
+quits."
+
+"I know that I have behaved badly to you."
+
+"But then unfortunately you know also that I had deserved bad
+treatment. Well; we will say no more about it. I have been very
+candid with you, but then I have injured no one by my candour. You
+have not said a word to me in reply; but then your tongue is tied
+by your duty to Miss Burton,--your duty and your love together, of
+course. It is all as it should be, and now I will have done. When are
+you to be married, Harry?"
+
+"No time has been fixed. I am a very poor man, you know."
+
+"Alas, alas,--yes. When mischief is done, how badly all the things
+turn out. You are poor and I am rich, and yet we cannot help each
+other."
+
+"I fear not."
+
+"Unless I could adopt Miss Burton, and be a sort of mother to her.
+You would shrink, however, from any such guardianship on my part. But
+you are clever, Harry, and can work when you please, and will make
+your way. If Miss Burton keeps you waiting now by any prudent fear on
+her part, I shall not think so well of her as I am inclined to do."
+
+"The Burtons are all prudent people."
+
+"Tell her, from me, with my love,--not to be too prudent. I thought
+to be prudent, and see what has come of it."
+
+"I will tell her what you say."
+
+"Do, please; and, Harry, look here. Will she accept a little present
+from me? You, at any rate, for my sake, will ask her to do so. Give
+her this,--it is only a trifle,"--and she put her hand on a small
+jeweller's box, which was close to her arm upon the table, "and tell
+her,--of course she knows all our story, Harry?"
+
+"Yes; she knows it all."
+
+"Tell her that she whom you have rejected sends it with her kindest
+wishes to her whom you have taken."
+
+"No; I will not tell her that."
+
+"Why not? It is all true. I have not poisoned the little ring, as the
+ladies would have done some centuries since. They were grander then
+than we are now, and perhaps hardly worse, though more cruel. You
+will bid her take it,--will you not?"
+
+"I am sure she will take it without bidding on my part."
+
+"And tell her not to write me any thanks. She and I will both
+understand that that had better be omitted. If, when I shall see her
+at some future time as your wife, it shall be on her finger, I shall
+know that I am thanked." Then Harry rose to go. "I did not mean by
+that to turn you out, but perhaps it may be as well. I have no more
+to say,--and as for you, you cannot but wish that the penance should
+be over." Then he pressed her hand, and with some muttered farewell,
+bade her adieu. Again she did not rise from her chair, but nodding at
+him with a sweet smile, let him go without another word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+SHEWING WHAT HAPPENED OFF HELIGOLAND.
+
+
+During the six weeks after this, Harry Clavering settled down to
+his work at the chambers in the Adelphi with exemplary diligence.
+Florence, having remained a fortnight in town after Harry's return
+to the sheepfold, and having accepted Lady Ongar's present,--not
+without a long and anxious consultation with her sister-in-law on
+the subject,--had returned in fully restored happiness to Stratton.
+Mrs. Burton was at Ramsgate with the children, and Mr. Burton was in
+Russia with reference to a line of railway which was being projected
+from Moscow to Astracan. It was now September, and Harry, in his
+letters home, declared that he was the only person left in London.
+It was hard upon him,--much harder than it was upon the Wallikers
+and other young men whom fate retained in town, for Harry was a man
+given to shooting,--a man accustomed to pass the autumnal months in a
+country house. And then, if things had chanced to go one way instead
+of another, he would have had his own shooting down at Ongar Park
+with his own friends,--admiring him at his heels; or if not so this
+year, he would have been shooting elsewhere with the prospect of
+these rich joys for years to come. As it was, he had promised to
+stick to the shop, and was sticking to it manfully. Nor do I think
+that he allowed his mind to revert to those privileges which might
+have been his at all more frequently than any of my readers would
+have done in his place. He was sticking to the shop, and though he
+greatly disliked the hot desolation of London in those days, being
+absolutely afraid to frequent his club at such a period of the
+year,--and though he hated Walliker mortally,--he was fully resolved
+to go on with his work. Who could tell what might be his fate?
+Perhaps in another ten years he might be carrying that Russian
+railway on through the deserts of Siberia. Then there came to him
+suddenly tidings which disturbed all his resolutions, and changed the
+whole current of his life.
+
+At first there came a telegram to him from the country, desiring
+him to go down at once to Clavering, but not giving him any reason.
+Added to the message were these words,--"We are all well at the
+parsonage;"--words evidently added in thoughtfulness. But before he
+had left the office there came to him there a young man from the bank
+at which his cousin Hugh kept his account, telling him the tidings
+to which the telegram no doubt referred. Jack Stuart's boat had been
+lost, and his two cousins had gone to their graves beneath the sea!
+The master of the boat, and Stuart himself, with a boy, had been
+saved. The other sailors whom they had with them, and the ship's
+steward, had perished with the Claverings. Stuart, it seemed, had
+caused tidings of the accident to be sent to the rector of Clavering
+and to Sir Hugh's bankers. At the bank they had ascertained that
+their late customer's cousin was in town, and their messenger had
+thereupon been sent, first to Bloomsbury Square, and from thence to
+the Adelphi.
+
+Harry had never loved his cousins. The elder he had greatly disliked,
+and the younger he would have disliked had he not despised him. But
+not the less on that account was he inexpressibly shocked when he
+first heard what had happened. The lad said that there could, as he
+imagined, be no mistake. The message had come, as he believed, from
+Holland, but of that he was not certain. There could, however, be no
+doubt about the fact. It distinctly stated that both brothers had
+perished. Harry had known when he received the message from home,
+that no train would take him till three in the afternoon, and had
+therefore remained at the office; but he could not remain now. His
+head was confused, and he could hardly bring himself to think how
+this matter would affect himself. When he attempted to explain his
+absence to an old serious clerk there, he spoke of his own return
+to the office as certain. He should be back, he supposed, in a week
+at the furthest. He was thinking then of his promises to Theodore
+Burton, and had not begun to realize the fact that his whole destiny
+in life would be changed. He said something, with a long face, of
+the terrible misfortune which had occurred, but gave no hint that
+that misfortune would be important in its consequences to himself. It
+was not till he had reached his lodgings in Bloomsbury Square that
+he remembered that his own father was now the baronet, and that he
+was his father's heir. And then for a moment he thought about the
+property. He believed that it was entailed, but even of that he was
+not certain. But if it were unentailed, to whom could his cousin have
+left it? He endeavoured, however, to expel such thoughts from his
+mind, as though there was something ungenerous in entertaining them.
+He tried to think of the widow, but even in doing that he could not
+tell himself that there was much ground for genuine sorrow. No wife
+had ever had less joy from her husband's society than Lady Clavering
+had had from that of Sir Hugh. There was no child to mourn the
+loss,--no brother, no unmarried sister. Sir Hugh had had friends,--as
+friendship goes with such men; but Harry could not but doubt whether
+among them all there would be one who would feel anything like true
+grief for his loss. And it was the same with Archie. Who in the world
+would miss Archie Clavering? What man or woman would find the world
+to be less bright because Archie Clavering was sleeping beneath the
+waves? Some score of men at his club would talk of poor Clavvy for
+a few days,--would do so without any pretence at the tenderness
+of sorrow; and then even of Archie's memory there would be an end.
+Thinking of all this as he was carried down to Clavering, Harry could
+not but acknowledge that the loss to the world had not been great;
+but, even while telling himself this, he would not allow himself to
+take comfort in the prospect of his heirship. Once, perhaps, he did
+speculate how Florence should bear her honours as Lady Clavering; but
+this idea he swept away from his thoughts as quickly as he was able.
+
+The tidings had reached the parsonage very late on the previous
+night; so late that the rector had been disturbed in his bed to
+receive them. It was his duty to make known to Lady Clavering the
+fact that she was a widow, but this he could not do till the next
+morning. But there was little sleep that night for him or for his
+wife! He knew well enough that the property was entailed. He felt
+with sufficient strength what it was to become a baronet at a sudden
+blow, and to become also the owner of the whole Clavering property.
+He was not slow to think of the removal to the great house, of the
+altered prospects of his son, and of the mode of life which would
+be fitting for himself in future. Before the morning came he had
+meditated who should be the future rector of Clavering, and had
+made some calculations as to the expediency of resuming his hunting.
+Not that he was a heartless man,--or that he rejoiced at what had
+happened. But a man's ideas of generosity change as he advances in
+age, and the rector was old enough to tell himself boldly that this
+thing that had happened could not be to him a cause of much grief. He
+had never loved his cousins, or pretended to love them. His cousin's
+wife he did love, after a fashion, but in speaking to his own wife
+of the way in which this tragedy would affect Hermione, he did not
+scruple to speak of her widowhood as a period of coming happiness.
+
+"She will be cut to pieces," said Mrs. Clavering. "She was attached
+to him as earnestly as though he had treated her always well."
+
+"I believe it; but not the less will she feel her release,
+unconsciously; and her life, which has been very wretched, will
+gradually become easy to her."
+
+Even Mrs. Clavering could not deny that this would be so, and then
+they reverted to matters which more closely concerned themselves. "I
+suppose Harry will marry at once now," said the mother.
+
+"No doubt;--it is almost a pity; is it not?" The rector,--as we will
+still call him,--was thinking that Florence was hardly a fitting wife
+for his son with his altered prospects. Ah, what a grand thing it
+would have been if the Clavering property and Lady Ongar's jointure
+could have gone together!
+
+"Not a pity at all," said Mrs. Clavering. "You will find that
+Florence will make him a very happy man."
+
+"I dare say;--I dare say. Only he would hardly have taken her had
+this sad accident happened before he saw her. But if she will make
+him happy that is everything. I have never thought much about
+money myself. If I find any comfort in these tidings it is for his
+sake, not for my own. I would sooner remain as I am." This was not
+altogether untrue, and yet he was thinking of the big house and the
+hunting.
+
+"What will be done about the living?" It was early in the morning
+when Mrs. Clavering asked this question. She had thought much about
+the living during the night. And so had the rector;--but his thoughts
+had not run in the same direction as hers. He made no immediate
+answer, and then she went on with her question. "Do you think that
+you will keep it in your own hands?"
+
+"Well,--no; why should I? I am too idle about it as it is. I should
+be more so under these altered circumstances."
+
+"I am sure you would do your duty if you resolved to keep it, but I
+don't see why you should do so."
+
+"Clavering is a great deal better than Humbleton," said the rector.
+Humbleton was the name of the parish held by Mr. Fielding, his
+son-in-law.
+
+But the idea here put forward did not suit the idea which was running
+in Mrs. Clavering's mind. "Edward and Mary are very well off," she
+said. "His own property is considerable, and I don't think they want
+anything. Besides, he would hardly like to give up a family living."
+
+"I might ask him at any rate."
+
+"I was thinking of Mr. Saul," said Mrs. Clavering boldly.
+
+"Of Mr. Saul!" The image of Mr. Saul, as rector of Clavering,
+perplexed the new baronet egregiously.
+
+"Well;--yes. He is an excellent; clergyman. No one can deny that."
+Then there was silence between them for a few moments. "In that case
+he and Fanny would of course marry. It is no good concealing the fact
+that she is very fond of him."
+
+"Upon my word I can't understand it," said the rector.
+
+"It is so,--and as to the excellence of his character there can be
+no doubt." To this the rector made no answer, but went away into his
+dressing-room, that he might prepare himself for his walk across the
+park to the great house. While they were discussing who should be the
+future incumbent of the living, Lady Clavering was still sleeping in
+unconsciousness of her fate. Mr. Clavering greatly dreaded the task
+which was before him, and had made a little attempt to induce his
+wife to take the office upon herself; but she had explained to him
+that it would be more seemly that he should be the bearer of the
+tidings. "It would seem that you were wanting in affection for her if
+you do not go yourself," his wife had said to him. That the rector of
+Clavering was master of himself and of his own actions, no one who
+knew the family ever denied, but the instances in which he declined
+to follow his wife's advice were not many.
+
+It was about eight o'clock when he went across the park. He had
+already sent a messenger with a note to beg that Lady Clavering
+would be up to receive him. As he would come very early, he had said,
+perhaps she would see him in her own room. The poor lady had, of
+course, been greatly frightened by this announcement; but this fear
+had been good for her, as they had well understood at the rectory;
+the blow, dreadfully sudden as it must still be, would be somewhat
+less sudden under this preparation. When Mr. Clavering reached
+the house the servant was in waiting to show him upstairs to the
+sitting-room which Lady Clavering usually occupied when alone. She
+had been there waiting for him for the last half-hour.
+
+"Mr. Clavering, what is it?" she exclaimed, as he entered with
+tidings of death written on his visage. "In the name of heaven, what
+is it? You have something to tell me of Hugh."
+
+"Dear Hermione," he said, taking her by the hand.
+
+"What is it? Tell me at once. Is he still alive?"
+
+The rector still held her by the hand, but spoke no word. He had been
+trying as he came across the park to arrange the words in which he
+should tell his tale, but now it was told without any speech on his
+part.
+
+"He is dead. Why do you not speak? Why are you so cruel?"
+
+"Dearest Hermione, what am I to say to comfort you?"
+
+What he might say after this was of little moment, for she had
+fainted. He rang the bell, and then, when the servants were
+there,--the old housekeeper and Lady Clavering's maid,--he told to
+them, rather than to her, what had been their master's fate.
+
+"And Captain Archie?" asked the housekeeper.
+
+The rector shook his head, and the housekeeper knew that the rector
+was now the baronet. Then they took the poor widow to her own
+room,--should I not rather call her, as I may venture to speak the
+truth, the enfranchised slave than the poor widow?--and the rector,
+taking up his hat, promised that he would send his wife across to
+their mistress. His morning's task had been painful, but it had been
+easily accomplished. As he walked home among the oaks of Clavering
+Park, he told himself, no doubt, that they were now all his own.
+
+That day at the rectory was very sombre, if it was not actually sad.
+The greater part of the morning Mrs. Clavering passed with the widow,
+and sitting near her sofa she wrote sundry letters to those who were
+connected with the family. The longest of these was to Lady Ongar,
+who was now at Tenby; and in that there was a pressing request from
+Hermione that her sister would come to her at Clavering Park. "Tell
+her," said Lady Clavering, "that all her anger must be over now." But
+Mrs. Clavering said nothing of Julia's anger. She merely urged the
+request that Julia would come to her sister. "She will be sure to
+come," said Mrs. Clavering. "You need have no fear on that head."
+
+"But how can I invite her here, when the house is not my own?"
+
+"Pray do not talk in that way, Hermione. The house will be your own
+for any time that you may want it. Your husband's relations are your
+dear friends; are they not?" But this allusion to her husband brought
+her to another fit of hysterical tears. "Both of them gone," she
+said. "Both of them gone!" Mrs. Clavering knew well that she was not
+alluding to the two brothers, but to her husband and to her baby. Of
+poor Archie no one had said a word,--beyond that one word spoken by
+the housekeeper. For her, it had been necessary that she should know
+who was now the master of Clavering Park.
+
+Twice in the day Mrs. Clavering went over to the big house, and on
+her second return, late in the evening, she found her son. When she
+arrived, there had already been some few words on the subject between
+him and his father.
+
+"You have heard of it, Harry?"
+
+"Yes; a clerk came to me from the banker's."
+
+"Dreadful; is it not? Quite terrible to think of!"
+
+"Indeed it is, sir. I was never so shocked in my life."
+
+"He would go in that cursed boat, though I know that he was advised
+against it," said the father, holding up his hands and shaking his
+head. "And now both of them gone;--both gone at once!"
+
+"How does she bear it?"
+
+"Your mother is with her now. When I went in the morning,--I had
+written a line, and she expected bad news,--she fainted. Of course,
+I could do nothing. I can hardly say that I told her. She asked the
+question, and then saw by my face that her fears were well-founded.
+Upon my word, I was glad when she did faint;--it was the best thing
+for her."
+
+"It must have been very painful for you."
+
+"Terrible;--terrible;" and the rector shook his head. "It will make a
+great difference in your prospects, Harry."
+
+"And in your life, sir! So to say, you are as young a man as myself."
+
+"Am I? I believe I was about as young when you were born. But I don't
+think at all about myself in this matter. I am too old to care to
+change my manner of living. It won't affect me very much. Indeed, I
+hardly know yet how it may affect me. Your mother thinks I ought to
+give up the living. If you were in orders, Harry--"
+
+"I'm very glad, sir, that I am not."
+
+"I suppose so. And there is no need; certainly, there is no need. You
+will be able to do pretty nearly what you like about the property. I
+shall not care to interfere."
+
+"Yes, you will, sir. It feels strange now, but you will soon get used
+to it. I wonder whether he left a will."
+
+"It can't make any difference to you, you know. Every acre of the
+property is entailed. She has her settlement. Eight hundred a year,
+I think it is. She'll not be a rich woman like her sister. I wonder
+where she'll live. As far as that goes, she might stay at the house,
+if she likes it. I'm sure your mother wouldn't object."
+
+Harry on this occasion asked no question about the living, but he
+also had thought of that. He knew well that his mother would befriend
+Mr. Saul, and he knew also that his father would ultimately take his
+mother's advice. As regarded himself he had no personal objection to
+Mr. Saul, though he could not understand how his sister should feel
+any strong regard for such a man.
+
+Edward Fielding would make a better neighbour at the parsonage, and
+then he thought whether an exchange might not be made. After that,
+and before his mother's return from the great house, he took a stroll
+through the park with Fanny. Fanny altogether declined to discuss any
+of the family prospects, as they were affected by the accident which
+had happened. To her mind the tragedy was so terrible that she could
+only feel its tragic element. No doubt she had her own thoughts about
+Mr. Saul as connected with it. "What would he think of this sudden
+death of the two brothers? How would he feel it? If she could be
+allowed to talk to him on the matter, what would he say of their
+fate here and hereafter? Would he go to the great house to offer the
+consolations of religion to the widow?" Of all this she thought much;
+but no picture of Mr. Saul as rector of Clavering, or of herself as
+mistress in her mother's house, presented itself to her mind. Harry
+found her to be a dull companion, and he, perhaps, consoled himself
+with some personal attention to the oak trees. The trees loomed
+larger upon him now than they had ever done before.
+
+On the third day the rector went up to London, leaving Harry at the
+parsonage. It was necessary that lawyers should be visited, and
+that such facts as to the loss should be proved as were capable of
+proof. There was no doubt at all as to the fate of Sir Hugh and his
+brother. The escape of Mr. Stuart and of two of those employed by him
+prevented the possibility of a doubt. The vessel had been caught in a
+gale off Heligoland, and had foundered. They had all striven to get
+into the yacht's boat, but those who had succeeded in doing so had
+gone down. The master of the yacht had seen the two brothers perish.
+Those who were saved had been picked up off the spars to which they
+had attached themselves. There was no doubt in the way of the new
+baronet, and no difficulty.
+
+Nor was there any will made either by Sir Hugh or his brother. Poor
+Archie had nothing to leave, and that he should have left no will was
+not remarkable. But neither had there been much in the power of Sir
+Hugh to bequeath, nor was there any great cause for a will on his
+part. Had he left a son, his son would have inherited everything. He
+had, however, died childless, and his wife was provided for by her
+settlement. On his marriage he had made the amount settled as small
+as his wife's friends would accept, and no one who knew the man
+expected that he would increase the amount after his death. Having
+been in town for three days the rector returned,--being then in full
+possession of the title; but this he did not assume till after the
+second Sunday from the date of the telegram which brought the news.
+
+In the meantime Harry had written to Florence, to whom the tidings
+were as important as to any one concerned. She had left London very
+triumphant,--quite confident that she had nothing now to fear from
+Lady Ongar or from any other living woman, having not only forgiven
+Harry his sins, but having succeeded also in persuading herself
+that there had been no sins to forgive,--having quarrelled with her
+brother half-a-dozen times in that he would not accept her arguments
+on this matter. He too would forgive Harry,--had forgiven him; was
+quite ready to omit all further remark on the matter; but could not
+bring himself when urged by Florence to admit that her Apollo had
+been altogether godlike. Florence had thus left London in triumph,
+but she had gone with a conviction that she and Harry must remain
+apart for some indefinite time, which probably must be measured by
+years. "Let us see at the end of two years," she had said; and Harry
+had been forced to be content. But how would it be with her now?
+
+Harry of course began his letter by telling her of the catastrophe,
+with the usual amount of epithets. It was very terrible, awful,
+shocking,--the saddest thing that had ever happened! The poor widow
+was in a desperate state, and all the Claverings were nearly beside
+themselves. But when this had been duly said, he allowed himself
+to go into their own home question. "I cannot fail," he wrote, "to
+think of this chiefly as it concerns you,--or rather, as it concerns
+myself in reference to you. I suppose I shall leave the business now.
+Indeed, my father seems to think that my remaining there would be
+absurd, and my mother agrees with him. As I am the only son, the
+property will enable me to live easily without a profession. When I
+say 'me,' of course you will understand what 'me' means. The better
+part of 'me' is so prudent, that I know she will not accept this
+view of things without ever so much consideration, and, therefore,
+she must come to Clavering to hear it discussed by the elders. For
+myself, I cannot bear to think that I should take delight in the
+results of this dreadful misfortune; but how am I to keep myself from
+being made happy by the feeling that we may now be married without
+further delay? After all that has passed, nothing will make me happy
+or even permanently comfortable till I can call you fairly my own. My
+mother has already said that she hopes you will come here in about a
+fortnight,--that is, as soon as we shall have fallen tolerably into
+our places again; but she will write herself before that time. I
+have written a line to your brother addressed to the office, which I
+suppose will find him. I have written also to Cecilia. Your brother,
+no doubt, will hear the news first through the French newspapers."
+Then he said a little, but a very little, as to their future modes
+of life, just intimating to her, and no more, that her destiny might
+probably call upon her to be the mother of a future baronet.
+
+The news had reached Clavering on a Saturday. On the following Sunday
+every one in the parish had no doubt heard of it, but nothing on the
+subject was said in church on that day. The rector remained at home
+during the morning, and the whole service was performed by Mr. Saul.
+But on the second Sunday Mr. Fielding had come over from Humbleton,
+and he preached a sermon on the loss which the parish had sustained
+in the sudden death of the two brothers. It is, perhaps, well that
+such sermons should be preached. The inhabitants of Clavering would
+have felt that their late lords had been treated like dogs, had no
+word been said of them in the house of God. The nature of their fate
+had forbidden even the common ceremony of a burial service. It is
+well that some respect should be maintained from the low in station
+towards those who are high, even when no respect has been deserved.
+And, for the widow's sake, it was well that some notice should be
+taken in Clavering of this death of the head of the Claverings. But
+I should not myself have liked the duty of preaching an eulogistic
+sermon on the lives and death of Hugh Clavering and his brother
+Archie. What had either of them ever done to merit a good word from
+any man, or to earn the love of any woman? That Sir Hugh had been
+loved by his wife had come from the nature of the woman, not at all
+from the qualities of the man. Both of the brothers had lived on
+the unexpressed theory of consuming, for the benefit of their own
+backs and their own bellies, the greatest possible amount of those
+good things which fortune might put in their way. I doubt whether
+either of them had ever contributed anything willingly to the comfort
+or happiness of any human being. Hugh, being powerful by nature
+and having a strong will, had tyrannized over all those who were
+subject to him. Archie, not gifted as was his brother, had been
+milder, softer, and less actively hateful; but his principle of
+action had been the same. Everything for himself! Was it not well
+that two such men should be consigned to the fishes, and that the
+world,--especially the Clavering world, and that poor widow, who
+now felt herself to be so inexpressibly wretched when her period of
+comfort was in truth only commencing,--was it not well that the world
+and Clavering should be well quit of them? That idea is the one which
+one would naturally have felt inclined to put into one's sermon on
+such an occasion; and then to sing some song of rejoicing;--either to
+do that, or to leave the matter alone.
+
+But not so are such sermons preached; and not after that fashion
+did the young clergyman who had married the first-cousin of these
+Claverings buckle himself to the subject. He indeed had, I think, but
+little difficulty, either inwardly with his conscience, or outwardly
+with his subject. He possessed the power of a pleasant, easy flow of
+words, and of producing tears, if not from other eyes, at any rate
+from his own. He drew a picture of the little ship amidst the storm,
+and of God's hand as it moved in its anger upon the waters; but of
+the cause of that divine wrath and its direction he said nothing.
+Then, of the suddenness of death and its awfulness he said much, not
+insisting as he did so on the necessity of repentance for salvation,
+as far as those two poor sinners were concerned. No, indeed;--how
+could any preacher have done that? But he improved the occasion by
+telling those around him that they should so live as to be ever ready
+for the hand of death. If that were possible, where then indeed would
+be the victory of the grave? And at last he came to the master and
+lord whom they had lost. Even here there was no difficulty for him.
+The heir had gone first, and then the father and his brother. Who
+among them would not pity the bereaved mother and the widow? Who
+among them would not remember with affection the babe whom they had
+seen at that font, and with respect the landlord under whose rule
+they had lived? How pleasant it must be to ask those questions which
+no one can rise to answer! Farmer Gubbins as he sat by, listening
+with what power of attention had been vouchsafed to him, felt himself
+to be somewhat moved, but soon released himself from the task, and
+allowed his mind to run away into other ideas. The rector was a
+kindly man and a generous. The rector would allow him to enclose that
+little bit of common land, that was to be taken in, without adding
+anything to his rent. The rector would be there on audit days, and
+things would be very pleasant. Farmer Gubbins, when the slight
+murmuring gurgle of the preacher's tears was heard, shook his
+own head by way of a responsive wail; but at that moment he was
+congratulating himself on the coming comfort of the new reign. Mr.
+Fielding, however, got great credit for his sermon; and it did,
+probably, more good than harm,--unless, indeed, we should take into
+our calculation, in giving our award on this subject, the permanent
+utility of all truth, and the permanent injury of all falsehood.
+
+Mr. Fielding remained at the parsonage during the greater part of
+the following week, and then there took place a great deal of family
+conversation respecting the future incumbent of the living. At these
+family conclaves, however, Fanny was not asked to be present. Mrs.
+Clavering, who knew well how to do such work, was gradually bringing
+her husband round to endure the name of Mr. Saul. Twenty times had
+he asserted that he could not understand it; but, whether or no such
+understanding might ever be possible, he was beginning to recognize
+it as true that the thing not understood was a fact. His daughter
+Fanny was positively in love with Mr. Saul, and that to such an
+extent that her mother believed her happiness to be involved in it.
+"I can't understand it;--upon my word I can't," said the rector for
+the last time, and then he gave way. There was now the means of
+giving an ample provision for the lovers, and that provision was to
+be given.
+
+Mr. Fielding shook his head,--not in this instance as to Fanny's
+predilection for Mr. Saul; though in discussing that matter with his
+own wife he had shaken his head very often; but he shook it now with
+reference to the proposed change. He was very well where he was. And
+although Clavering was better than Humbleton, it was not so much
+better as to induce him to throw his own family over by proposing to
+send Mr. Saul among them. Mr. Saul was an excellent clergyman, but
+perhaps his uncle, who had given him his living, might not like Mr.
+Saul. Thus it was decided in these conclaves that Mr. Saul was to be
+the future rector of Clavering.
+
+In the meantime poor Fanny moped,--wretched in her solitude,
+anticipating no such glorious joys as her mother was preparing for
+her; and Mr. Saul was preparing with energy for his departure into
+foreign parts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+IS SHE MAD?
+
+
+Lady Ongar was at Tenby when she received Mrs. Clavering's letter,
+and had not heard of the fate of her brother-in-law till the news
+reached her in that way. She had gone down to a lodging at Tenby
+with no attendant but one maid, and was preparing herself for the
+great surrender of her property which she meditated. Hitherto she had
+heard nothing from the Courtons or their lawyer as to the offer she
+had made about Ongar Park; but the time had been short, and lawyers'
+work, as she knew, was never done in a hurry. She had gone to Tenby,
+flying, in truth, from the loneliness of London to the loneliness
+of the sea-shore,--but expecting she knew not what comfort from the
+change. She would take with her no carriage, and there would, as she
+thought, be excitement even in that. She would take long walks by
+herself;--she would read;--nay, if possible, she would study and
+bring herself to some habits of industry. Hitherto she had failed in
+everything, but now she would try if some mode of success might not
+be open to her. She would ascertain, too, on what smallest sum she
+could live respectably and without penury, and would keep only so
+much out of Lord Ongar's wealth.
+
+But hitherto her life at Tenby had not been successful. Solitary days
+were longer there even than they had been in London. People stared
+at her more; and, though she did not own it to herself, she missed
+greatly the comforts of her London house. As for reading, I doubt
+whether she did much better by the seaside than she had done in the
+town. Men and women say that they will read, and think so,--those,
+I mean, who have acquired no habit of reading,--believing the work
+to be, of all works, the easiest. It may be work, they think, but of
+all works it must be the easiest of achievement. Given the absolute
+faculty of reading, the task of going through the pages of a book
+must be, of all tasks, the most certainly within the grasp of the
+man or woman who attempts it! Alas, no;--if the habit be not there,
+of all tasks it is the most difficult. If a man have not acquired
+the habit of reading till he be old, he shall sooner in his old age
+learn to make shoes than learn the adequate use of a book. And worse
+again;--under such circumstances the making of shoes shall be more
+pleasant to him than the reading of a book. Let those who are not
+old,--who are still young, ponder this well. Lady Ongar, indeed, was
+not old, by no means too old to clothe herself in new habits. But
+even she was old enough to find that the doing so was a matter of
+much difficulty. She had her books around her; but, in spite of her
+books, she was sadly in want of some excitement when the letter from
+Clavering came to her relief.
+
+It was indeed a relief. Her brother-in-law dead, and he also who had
+so lately been her suitor! These two men whom she had so lately seen
+in lusty health,--proud with all the pride of outward life,--had
+both, by a stroke of the winds, been turned into nothing. A terrible
+retribution had fallen upon her enemy,--for as her enemy she had
+ever regarded Hugh Clavering since her husband's death. She took
+no joy in this retribution. There was no feeling of triumph at her
+heart in that he had perished. She did not tell herself that she
+was glad,--either for her own sake or for her sister's. But mingled
+with the awe she felt there was a something of unexpressed and
+inexpressible relief. Her present life was very grievous to her,--and
+now had occurred that which would open to her new hopes and a new
+mode of living. Her brother-in-law had oppressed her by his very
+existence, and now he was gone. Had she had no brother-in-law who
+ought to have welcomed her, her return to England would not have been
+terrible to her as it had been. Her sister would be now restored
+to her, and her solitude would probably be at an end. And then the
+very excitement occasioned by the news was salutary to her. She was,
+in truth, shocked. As she said to her maid, she felt it to be very
+dreadful. But, nevertheless, the day on which she received those
+tidings was less wearisome to her than any other of the days that she
+had passed at Tenby.
+
+Poor Archie! Some feeling of a tear, some half-formed drop that
+was almost a tear, came to her eye as she thought of his fate. How
+foolish he had always been, how unintelligent, how deficient in all
+those qualities which recommend men to women! But the very memory
+of his deficiencies created something like a tenderness in his
+favour. Hugh was disagreeable, nay hateful, by reason of the power
+which he possessed; whereas Archie was not hateful at all, and was
+disagreeable simply because nature had been a niggard to him. And
+then he had professed himself to be her lover. There had not been
+much in this; for he had come, of course, for her money; but even
+when that is the case a woman will feel something for the man who
+has offered to link his lot with hers. Of all those to whom the fate
+of the two brothers had hitherto been matter of moment, I think that
+Lady Ongar felt more than any other for the fate of poor Archie.
+
+And how would it affect Harry Clavering? She had desired to give
+Harry all the good things of the world, thinking that they would
+become him well,--thinking that they would become him very well as
+reaching him from her hand. Now he would have them all, but would
+not have them from her. Now he would have them all, and would share
+them with Florence Burton. Ah,--if she could have been true to
+him in those early days,--in those days when she had feared his
+poverty,--would it not have been well now with her also? The measure
+of her retribution was come full home to her at last! Sir Harry
+Clavering! She tried the name and found that it sounded very well.
+And she thought of the figure of the man and of his nature, and she
+knew that he would bear it with a becoming manliness. Sir Harry
+Clavering would be somebody in his county,--would be a husband of
+whom his wife would be proud as he went about among his tenants and
+his gamekeepers,--and perhaps on wider and better journeys, looking
+up the voters of his neighbourhood. Yes; happy would be the wife of
+Sir Harry Clavering. He was a man who would delight in sharing his
+house, his hopes, his schemes and councils with his wife. He would
+find a companion in his wife. He would do honour to his wife, and
+make much of her. He would like to see her go bravely. And then, if
+children came, how tender he would be to them! Whether Harry could
+ever have become a good head to a poor household might be doubtful,
+but no man had ever been born fitter for the position which he was
+now called upon to fill. It was thus that Lady Ongar thought of Harry
+Clavering as she owned to herself that the full measure of her just
+retribution had come home to her.
+
+Of course she would go at once to Clavering Park. She wrote to her
+sister saying so, and the next day she started. She started so
+quickly on her journey that she reached the house not very many hours
+after her own letter. She was there when the rector started for
+London, and there when Mr. Fielding preached his sermon; but she did
+not see Mr. Clavering before he went, nor was she present to hear the
+eloquence of the younger clergyman. Till after that Sunday the only
+member of the family she had seen was Mrs. Clavering, who spent some
+period of every day up at the great house. Mrs. Clavering had not
+hitherto seen Lady Ongar since her return, and was greatly astonished
+at the change which so short a time had made. "She is handsomer
+than ever she was," Mrs. Clavering said to the rector; "but it is
+that beauty which some women carry into middle life, and not the
+loveliness of youth." Lady Ongar's manner was cold and stately when
+first she met Mrs. Clavering. It was on the morning of her marriage
+when they had last met,--when Julia Brabazon was resolving that she
+would look like a countess, and that to be a countess should be
+enough for her happiness. She could not but remember this now, and
+was unwilling at first to make confession of her failure by any
+meekness of conduct. It behoved her to be proud, at any rate till she
+should know how this new Lady Clavering would receive her. And then
+it was more than probable that this new Lady Clavering knew all that
+had taken place between her and Harry. It behoved her, therefore, to
+hold her head on high.
+
+But before the week was over, Mrs. Clavering,--for we will still call
+her so,--had broken Lady Ongar's spirit by her kindness; and the poor
+woman who had so much to bear had brought herself to speak of the
+weight of her burden. Julia had, on one occasion, called her Lady
+Clavering, and for the moment this had been allowed to pass without
+observation. The widowed lady was then present, and no notice of the
+name was possible. But soon afterwards Mrs. Clavering made her little
+request on the subject. "I do not quite know what the custom may be,"
+she said, "but do not call me so just yet. It will only be reminding
+Hermy of her bereavement."
+
+"She is thinking of it always," said Julia.
+
+"No doubt she is; but still the new name would wound her. And,
+indeed, it perplexes me also. Let it come by-and-by, when we are more
+settled."
+
+Lady Ongar had truly said that her sister was as yet always thinking
+of her bereavement. To her now it was as though the husband she had
+lost had been a paragon among men. She could only remember of him his
+manliness, his power,--a dignity of presence which he possessed,--and
+the fact that to her he had been everything. She thought of that
+last and vain caution which she had given him, when with her hardly
+permitted last embrace she had besought him to take care of himself.
+She did not remember now how coldly that embrace had been received,
+how completely those words had been taken as meaning nothing, how he
+had left her not only without a sign of affection, but without an
+attempt to repress the evidences of his indifference. But she did
+remember that she had had her arm upon his shoulder, and tried to
+think of that embrace as though it had been sweet to her. And she did
+remember how she had stood at the window, listening to the sounds of
+the wheels which took him off, and watching his form as long as her
+eye could rest upon it. Ah! what falsehoods she told herself now of
+her love to him, and of his goodness to her; pious falsehoods which
+would surely tend to bring some comfort to her wounded spirit.
+
+But her sister could hardly bear to hear the praises of Sir Hugh.
+When she found how it was to be, she resolved that she would bear
+them,--bear them, and not contradict them; but her struggle in doing
+so was great, and was almost too much for her.
+
+"He had judged me and condemned me," she said at last, "and
+therefore, as a matter of course, we were not such friends when we
+last met as we used to be before my marriage."
+
+"But, Julia, there was much for which you owed him gratitude."
+
+"We will say nothing about that now, Hermy."
+
+"I do not know why your mouth should be closed on such a subject
+because he has gone. I should have thought that you would be glad to
+acknowledge his kindness to you. But you were always hard."
+
+"Perhaps I am hard."
+
+"And twice he asked you to come here since you returned,--but you
+would not come."
+
+"I have come now, Hermy, when I have thought that I might be of use."
+
+"He felt it when you would not come before. I know he did." Lady
+Ongar could not but think of the way in which he had manifested his
+feelings on the occasion of his visit to Bolton Street. "I never
+could understand why you were so bitter."
+
+"I think, dear, we had better not discuss that. I also have had much
+to bear,--I, as well as you. What you have borne has come in no wise
+from your own fault."
+
+"No, indeed; I did not want him to go. I would have given anything to
+keep him at home."
+
+Her sister had not been thinking of the suffering which had come
+to her from the loss of her husband, but of her former miseries.
+This, however, she did not explain. "No," Lady Ongar continued to
+say. "You have nothing for which to blame yourself, whereas I have
+much,--indeed everything. If we are to remain together, as I hope we
+may, it will be better for us both that bygones should be bygones."
+
+"Do you mean that I am never to speak of Hugh?"
+
+"No;--I by no means intend that. But I would rather that you should
+not refer to his feelings towards me. I think he did not quite
+understand the sort of life that I led while my husband was alive,
+and that he judged me amiss. Therefore I would have bygones be
+bygones."
+
+Three or four days after this, when the question of leaving Clavering
+Park was being mooted, the elder sister started a difficulty as to
+money matters. An offer had been made to her by Mrs. Clavering to
+remain at the great house, but this she had declined, alleging that
+the place would be distasteful to her after her husband's death.
+She, poor soul, did not allege that it had been made distasteful to
+her for ever by the solitude which she had endured there during her
+husband's lifetime! She would go away somewhere, and live as best
+she might upon her jointure. It was not very much, but it would be
+sufficient. She did not see, she said, how she could live with her
+sister, because she did not wish to be dependent. Julia, of course,
+would live in a style to which she could make no pretence.
+
+Mrs. Clavering, who was present,--as was also Lady Ongar,--declared
+that she saw no such difficulty. "Sisters together," she said, "need
+hardly think of a difference in such matters."
+
+Then it was that Lady Ongar first spoke to either of them of her
+half-formed resolution about her money, and then too, for the first
+time, did she come down altogether from that high horse on which
+she had been, as it were, compelled to mount herself while in Mrs.
+Clavering's presence. "I think I must explain," said she, "something
+of what I mean to do,--about my money that is. I do not think that
+there will be much difference between me and Hermy in that respect."
+
+"That is nonsense," said her sister, fretfully.
+
+"There will be a difference in income certainly," said Mrs.
+Clavering, "but I do not see that that need create any uncomfortable
+feeling."
+
+"Only one doesn't like to be dependent," said Hermione.
+
+"You shall not be asked to give up any of your independence," said
+Julia, with a smile,--a melancholy smile, that gave but little sign
+of pleasantness within. Then on a sudden her face became stern and
+hard. "The fact is," she said, "I do not intend to keep Lord Ongar's
+money."
+
+"Not to keep your income!" said Hermione.
+
+"No;--I will give it back to them,--or at least the greater part of
+it. Why should I keep it?"
+
+"It is your own," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Yes; legally it is my own. I know that. And when there was some
+question whether it should not be disputed I would have fought for it
+to the last shilling. Somebody,--I suppose it was the lawyer,--wanted
+to keep from me the place in Surrey. I told them then that I would
+not abandon my right to an inch of it. But they yielded,--and now I
+have given them back the house."
+
+"You have given it back!" said her sister.
+
+"Yes;--I have said they may have it. It is of no use to me. I hate
+the place."
+
+"You have been very generous," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"But that will not affect your income," said Hermione.
+
+"No;--that would not affect my income." Then she paused, not knowing
+how to go on with the story of her purpose.
+
+"If I may say so, Lady Ongar," said Mrs. Clavering, "I would not, if
+I were you, take any steps in so important a matter without advice."
+
+"Who is there that can advise me? Of course the lawyer tells me that
+I ought to keep it all. It is his business to give such advice as
+that. But what does he know of what I feel? How can he understand me?
+How, indeed, can I expect that any one shall understand me?"
+
+"But it is possible that people should misunderstand you," said Mrs.
+Clavering.
+
+"Exactly. That is just what he says. But, Mrs. Clavering, I care
+nothing for that. I care nothing for what anybody says or thinks.
+What is it to me what they say?"
+
+"I should have thought it was everything," said her sister.
+
+"No,--it is nothing;--nothing at all." Then she was again silent, and
+was unable to express herself. She could not bring herself to declare
+in words that self-condemnation of her own conduct which was now
+weighing so heavily upon her. It was not that she wished to keep back
+her own feelings, either from her sister or from Mrs. Clavering; but
+that the words in which to express them were wanting to her.
+
+"And have they accepted the house?" Mrs. Clavering asked.
+
+"They must accept it. What else can they do? They cannot make me call
+it mine if I do not choose. If I refuse to take the income which Mr.
+Courton's lawyer pays in to my bankers', they cannot compel me to
+have it."
+
+"But you are not going to give that up too?" said her sister.
+
+"I am. I will not have his money,--not more than enough to keep me
+from being a scandal to his family. I will not have it. It is a
+curse to me, and has been from the first. What right have I to all
+that money, because,--because,--because--" She could not finish her
+sentence, but turned away from them, and walked by herself to the
+window.
+
+Lady Clavering looked at Mrs. Clavering as though she thought that
+her sister was mad. "Do you understand her?" said Lady Clavering in
+a whisper.
+
+"I think I do," said the other. "I think I know what is passing in
+her mind." Then she followed Lady Ongar across the room, and taking
+her gently by the arm tried to comfort her,--to comfort her, and to
+argue with her as to the rashness of that which she proposed to do.
+She endeavoured to explain to the poor woman how it was that she
+should at this moment be wretched, and anxious to do that which, if
+done, would put it out of her power afterwards to make herself useful
+in the world. It shocked the prudence of Mrs. Clavering,--this idea
+of abandoning money, the possession of which was questioned by no
+one. "They do not want it, Lady Ongar," she said.
+
+"That has nothing to do with it," answered the other.
+
+"And nobody has any suspicion but what it is honourably and fairly
+your own."
+
+"But does anybody ever think how I got it?" said Lady Ongar, turning
+sharply round upon Mrs. Clavering. "You,--you,--you,--do you dare to
+tell me what you think of the way in which it became mine? Could you
+bear it, if it had become yours after such a fashion? I cannot bear
+it, and I will not." She was now speaking with so much violence that
+her sister was awed into silence, and Mrs. Clavering herself found a
+difficulty in answering her.
+
+"Whatever may have been the past," said she, "the question now is how
+to do the best for the future."
+
+"I had hoped," continued Lady Ongar without noticing what was said to
+her, "I had hoped to make everything straight by giving his money to
+another. You know to whom I mean, and so does Hermy. I thought, when
+I returned, that bad as I had been I might still do some good in the
+world. But it is as they tell us in the sermons. One cannot make good
+come out of evil. I have done evil, and nothing but evil has come
+from the evil which I have done. Nothing but evil will come from it.
+As for being useful in the world,--I know of what use I am! When
+women hear how wretched I have been they will be unwilling to sell
+themselves as I did." Then she made her way to the door, and left the
+room, going out with quiet steps, and closing the lock behind her
+without a sound.
+
+"I did not know that she was such as that," said Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Nor did I. She has never spoken in that way before."
+
+"Poor soul! Hermione, you see there are those in the world whose
+sufferings are worse than yours."
+
+"I don't know," said Lady Clavering. "She never lost what I have
+lost,--never."
+
+"She has lost what I am sure you never will lose, her own
+self-esteem. But, Hermy, you should be good to her. We must all be
+good to her. Will it not be better that you should stay with us for a
+while,--both of you?"
+
+"What, here at the park?"
+
+"We will make room for you at the rectory, if you would like it."
+
+"Oh, no; I will go away. I shall be better away. I suppose she will
+not be like that often; will she?"
+
+"She was much moved just now."
+
+"And what does she mean about her income? She cannot be in earnest."
+
+"She is in earnest now."
+
+"And cannot it be prevented? Only think,--if after all she were to
+give up her jointure! Mrs. Clavering, you do not think she is mad; do
+you?"
+
+Mrs. Clavering said what she could to comfort the elder and weaker
+sister on this subject, explaining to her that the Courtons would not
+be at all likely to take advantage of any wild generosity on the part
+of Lady Ongar, and then she walked home across the park, meditating
+on the character of the two sisters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+MADAME GORDELOUP RETIRES FROM BRITISH DIPLOMACY.
+
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+The reader must be asked to accompany me once more to that room in
+Mount Street in which poor Archie practised diplomacy, and whither
+the courageous Doodles was carried prisoner in those moments in which
+he was last seen of us. The Spy was now sitting alone before her
+desk, scribbling with all her energy,--writing letters on foreign
+policy, no doubt, to all the courts of Europe, but especially to that
+Russian court to which her services were more especially due. She was
+hard at work, when there came the sound of a step upon the stairs.
+The practised ear of the Spy became erect, and she at once knew who
+was her visitor. It was not one with whom diplomacy would much avail,
+or who was likely to have money ready under his glove for her behoof.
+"Ah, Edouard, is that you? I am glad you have come," she said, as
+Count Pateroff entered the room.
+
+"Yes, it is I. I got your note yesterday."
+
+"You are good,--very good. You are always good." Sophie as she said
+this went on very rapidly with her letter,--so rapidly that her hand
+seemed to run about the paper wildly. Then she flung down her pen,
+and folded the paper on which she had been writing with marvellous
+quickness. There was an activity about the woman, in all her
+movements, which was wonderful to watch. "There," she said, "that is
+done; now we can talk. Ah! I have nearly written off my fingers this
+morning." Her brother smiled, but said nothing about the letters. He
+never allowed himself to allude in any way to her professional
+duties.
+
+"So you are going to St. Petersburg?" he said.
+
+"Well,--yes, I think. Why should I remain here spending money with
+both hands and through the nose?" At this idea, the brother again
+smiled pleasantly. He had never seen his sister to be culpably
+extravagant as she now described herself. "Nothing to get and
+everything to lose," she went on saying.
+
+"You know your own affairs best," he answered.
+
+"Yes; I know my own affairs. If I remained here, I should be taken
+away to that black building there;" and she pointed in the direction
+of the workhouse, which fronts so gloomily upon Mount Street. "You
+would not come to take me out."
+
+The count smiled again. "You are too clever for that, Sophie, I
+think."
+
+"Ah, it is well for a woman to be clever, or she must starve,--yes,
+starve! Such a one as I must starve in this accursed country, if I
+were not what you call, clever." The brother and sister were talking
+in French, and she spoke now almost as rapidly as she had written.
+"They are beasts and fools, and as awkward as bulls,--yes, as bulls.
+I hate them. I hate them all. Men, women, children,--they are all
+alike. Look at the street out there. Though it is summer, I shiver
+when I look out at its blackness. It is the ugliest nation! And they
+understand nothing. Oh, how I hate them!"
+
+"They are not without merit. They have got money."
+
+"Money,--yes. They have got money; and they are so stupid, you
+may take it from under their eyes. They will not see you. But of
+their own hearts, they will give you nothing. You see that black
+building,--the workhouse. I call it Little England. It is just the
+same. The naked, hungry, poor wretches lie at the door, and the great
+fat beadles swell about like turkey-cocks inside."
+
+"You have been here long enough to know, at any rate."
+
+"Yes; I have been here long,--too long. I have made my life a
+wilderness, staying here in this country of barracks. And what have
+I got for it? I came back because of that woman, and she has thrown
+me over. That is your fault,--yours,--yours!"
+
+"And you have sent for me to tell me that again?"
+
+"No, Edouard. I sent for you that you might see your sister once
+more,--that I might once more see my brother." This she said
+leaning forward on the table, on which her arms rested, and looking
+steadfastly into his face with eyes moist,--just moist, with a tear
+in each. Whether Edouard was too unfeeling to be moved by this
+show of affection, or whether he gave more credit to his sister's
+histrionic powers than to those of her heart, I will not say; but he
+was altogether irresponsive to her appeal. "You will be back again
+before long," he said.
+
+"Never! I shall come back to this accursed country never again. No;
+I am going once and for all. I will soil myself with the mud of its
+gutters no more. I came for the sake of Julie; and now,--how has she
+treated me?" Edouard shrugged his shoulders. "And you,--how has she
+treated you?"
+
+"Never mind me."
+
+"Ah, but I must mind you. Only that you would not let me manage, it
+might be yours now,--yes, all. Why did you come down to that accursed
+island?"
+
+"It was my way to play my game. Leave that alone, Sophie." And there
+came a frown over the brother's brow.
+
+"Your way to play your game! Yes; and what has become of mine? You
+have destroyed mine; but you think nothing of that. After all that I
+have gone through, to have nothing; and through you,--my brother! Ah,
+that is the hardest of all,--when I was putting all things in train
+for you!"
+
+"You are always putting things in train. Leave your trains alone,
+where I am concerned."
+
+"But why did you come to that place in the accursed island? I am
+ruined by that journey. Yes; I am ruined. You will not help me to get
+a shilling from her,--not even for my expenses."
+
+"Certainly not. You are clever enough to do your own work without my
+aid."
+
+"And is that all from a brother? Well! And now that they have drowned
+themselves,--the two Claverings,--the fool and the brute; and she can
+do what she pleases--"
+
+"She could always do as she pleased since Lord Ongar died."
+
+"Yes; but she is more lonely than ever now. That cousin who is the
+greatest fool of all, who might have had everything,--mon Dieu! yes,
+everything;--she would have given it all to him with a sweep of her
+hand, if he would have taken it. He is to marry himself to a little
+brown girl, who has not a shilling. No one but an Englishman could
+make follies so abominable as these. Ah, I am sick,--I am sick when
+I remember it!" And Sophie gave unmistakeable signs of a grief which
+could hardly have been self-interested. But in truth she suffered
+pain at seeing a good game spoilt. It was not that she had any wish
+for Harry Clavering's welfare. Had he gone to the bottom of the sea
+in the same boat with his cousins, the tidings of his fate would have
+been pleasurable to her rather than otherwise. But when she saw such
+cards thrown away as he had held in his hand, she encountered that
+sort of suffering which a good player feels when he sits behind the
+chair of one who plays up to his adversary's trump, and makes no
+tricks of his own kings and aces.
+
+"He may marry himself to the devil, if he please;--it is nothing to
+me," said the count.
+
+"But she is there;--by herself,--at that place;--what is it called?
+Ten--bie. Will you not go now, when you can do no harm?"
+
+"No; I will not go now."
+
+"And in a year she will have taken some other one for her husband."
+
+"What is that to me? But look here, Sophie, for you may as well
+understand me at once. If I were ever to think of Lady Ongar again as
+my wife, I should not tell you."
+
+"And why not tell me,--your sister?"
+
+"Because it would do me no good. If you had not been there she would
+have been my wife now."
+
+"Edouard!"
+
+"What I say is true. But I do not want to reproach you because of
+that. Each of us was playing his own game; and your game was not my
+game. You are going now, and if I play my game again I can play it
+alone."
+
+Upon hearing this Sophie sat awhile in silence, looking at him. "You
+will play it alone?" she said at last. "You would rather do that?"
+
+"Much rather, if I play any game at all."
+
+"And you will give me something to go?"
+
+"Not one sou."
+
+"You will not;--not a sou?"
+
+"Not half a sou,--for you to go or stay. Sophie, are you not a fool
+to ask me for money?"
+
+"And you are a fool,--a fool who knows nothing. You need not look at
+me like that. I am not afraid. I shall remain here. I shall stay and
+do as the lawyer tells me. He says that if I bring my action she must
+pay me for my expenses. I will bring my action. I am not going to
+leave it all to you. No. Do you remember those days in Florence?
+I have not been paid yet, but I will be paid. One hundred and
+seventy-five thousand francs a year,--and after all I am to have none
+of it! Say;--should it become yours, will you do something for your
+sister?"
+
+"Nothing at all;--nothing. Sophie, do you think I am fool enough to
+bargain in such a matter?"
+
+"Then I will stay. Yes;--I will bring my action. All the world shall
+hear, and they shall know how you have destroyed me and yourself.
+Ah;--you think I am afraid; that I will not spend my money. I will
+spend all,--all,--all; and I will be revenged."
+
+"You may go or stay; it is the same thing to me. Now, if you please,
+I will take my leave." And he got up from his chair to leave her.
+
+"It is the same thing to you?"
+
+"Quite the same."
+
+"Then I will stay, and she shall hear my name every day of
+her life;--every hour. She shall be so sick of me and of you,
+that,--that--that-- Oh, Edouard!" This last appeal was made to him
+because he was already at the door, and could not be stopped in any
+other way.
+
+"What else have you to say, my sister?"
+
+"Oh, Edouard, what would I not give to see all those riches yours?
+Has it not been my dearest wish? Edouard, you are ungrateful. All men
+are ungrateful." Now, having succeeded in stopping him, she buried
+her face in the corner of the sofa and wept plentifully. It must be
+presumed that her acting before her brother must have been altogether
+thrown away; but the acting was, nevertheless, very good.
+
+"If you are in truth going to St. Petersburg," he said, "I will bid
+you adieu now. If not,--au revoir."
+
+"I am going. Yes, Edouard, I am. I cannot bear this country longer.
+My heart is being torn to pieces. All my affections are outraged.
+Yes, I am going;--perhaps on Monday;--perhaps on Monday week. But
+I go in truth. My brother, adieu." Then she got up, and putting a
+hand on each of his shoulders, lifted up her face to be kissed. He
+embraced her in the manner proposed, and turned to leave her. But
+before he went she made to him one other petition, holding him by the
+arm as she did so. "Edouard, you can lend me twenty napoleons till I
+am at St. Petersburg?"
+
+"No, Sophie; no."
+
+"Not lend your sister twenty napoleons!"
+
+"No, Sophie. I never lend money. It is a rule."
+
+"Will you give me five? I am so poor. I have almost nothing."
+
+"Things are not so bad with you as that, I hope?"
+
+"Ah, yes; they are very bad. Since I have been in this accursed
+city,--now, this time, what have I got? Nothing,--nothing. She was to
+be all in all to me,--and she has given me nothing! It is very bad to
+be so poor. Say that you will give me five napoleons;--O my brother!"
+She was still hanging by his arm, and, as she did so, she looked up
+into his face with tears in her eyes. As he regarded her, bending
+down his face over hers, a slight smile came upon his countenance.
+Then he put his hand into his pocket, and taking out his purse,
+handed to her five sovereigns.
+
+"Only five?" she said.
+
+"Only five," he answered.
+
+"A thousand thanks, O my brother." Then she kissed him again, and
+after that he went. She accompanied him to the top of the stairs,
+and from thence showered blessings on his head, till she heard the
+lock of the door closed behind him. When he was altogether gone she
+unlocked an inner drawer in her desk, and, taking out an uncompleted
+rouleau of gold, added her brother's sovereigns thereto. The sum he
+had given her was exactly wanted to make up the required number of
+twenty-five. She counted them half-a-dozen times, to be quite sure,
+and then rolled them carefully in paper, and sealed the little packet
+at each end. "Ah," she said, speaking to herself, "they are very
+nice. Nothing else English is nice, but only these." There were many
+rolls of money there before her in the drawer of the desk;--some ten,
+perhaps, or twelve. These she took out one after another, passing
+them lovingly through her fingers, looking at the little seals at the
+ends of each, weighing them in her hand as though to make sure that
+no wrong had been done to them in her absence, standing them up one
+against another to see that they were of the same length. We may be
+quite sure that Sophie Gordeloup brought no sovereigns with her to
+England when she came over with Lady Ongar after the earl's death,
+and that the hoard before her contained simply the plunder which she
+had collected during this her latest visit to the "accursed" country
+which she was going to leave.
+
+But before she started she was resolved to make one more attempt upon
+that mine of wealth which, but a few weeks ago, had seemed to be
+open before her. She had learned from the servants in Bolton Street
+that Lady Ongar was with Lady Clavering, at Clavering Park, and she
+addressed a letter to her there. This letter she wrote in English,
+and she threw into her appeal all the pathos of which she was
+capable.--
+
+
+   Mount Street, October, 186--.
+
+   DEAREST JULIE,--I do not think you would wish me to go
+   away from this country for ever,--for ever, without
+   one word of farewell to her I love so fondly. Yes; I
+   have loved you with all my heart,--and now I am going
+   away,--for ever. Shall we not meet each other once, and
+   have one embrace? No trouble will be too much to me for
+   that. No journey will be too long. Only say, Sophie, come
+   to your Julie.
+
+   I must go, because I am so poor. Yes; I cannot live longer
+   here without having the means. I am not ashamed to say to
+   my Julie, who is rich, that I am poor. No; nor would I be
+   ashamed to wait on my Julie like a slave if she would let
+   me. My Julie was angry with me, because of my brother! Was
+   it my fault that he came upon us in our little retreat,
+   where we was so happy? Oh, no. I told him not to come. I
+   knew his coming was for nothing,--nothing at all. I knew
+   where was the heart of my Julie!--my poor Julie! But he
+   was not worth that heart, and the pearl was thrown before
+   a pig. But my brother--! Ah, he has ruined me. Why am I
+   separated from my Julie but for him? Well; I can go away,
+   and in my own countries there are those who will not wish
+   to be separated from Sophie Gordeloup.
+
+   May I now tell my Julie in what condition is her poor
+   friend? She will remember how it was that my feet brought
+   me to England,--to England, to which I had said farewell
+   for ever,--to England, where people must be rich like my
+   Julie before they can eat and drink. I thought nothing
+   then but of my Julie. I stopped not on the road to make
+   merchandise,--what you call a bargain,--about my coming.
+   No; I came at once, leaving all things,--my little
+   affairs,--in confusion, because my Julie wanted me to
+   come! It was in the winter. Oh, that winter! My poor bones
+   shall never forget it. They are racked still with the
+   pains which your savage winds have given them. And now it
+   is autumn. Ten months have I been here, and I have eaten
+   up my little substance. Oh, Julie, you, who are so rich,
+   do not know what is the poverty of your Sophie!
+
+   A lawyer have told me,--not a French lawyer, but an
+   English,--that somebody should pay me everything. He says
+   the law would give it me. He have offered me the money
+   himself,--just to let him make an action. But I have
+   said,--No. No; Sophie will not have an action with her
+   Julie. She would scorn that; and so the lawyer went away.
+   But if my Julie will think of this, and will remember her
+   Sophie,--how much she have expended, and now at last there
+   is nothing left. She must go and beg among her friends.
+   And why? Because she have loved her Julie too well. You,
+   who are so rich, would miss it not at all. What would
+   two,--three hundred pounds be to my Julie?
+
+   Shall I come to you? Say so; say so, and I will go at
+   once, if I did crawl on my knees. Oh, what a joy to see
+   my Julie! And do not think I will trouble you about money.
+   No; your Sophie will be too proud for that. Not a word
+   will I say, but to love you. Nothing will I do, but to
+   print one kiss on my Julie's forehead, and then to retire
+   for ever; asking God's blessing for her dear head.
+
+   Thine,--always thine,
+
+   SOPHIE.
+
+
+Lady Ongar, when she received this letter, was a little perplexed by
+it, not feeling quite sure in what way she might best answer it. It
+was the special severity of her position that there was no one to
+whom, in such difficulties, she could apply for advice. Of one thing
+she was quite sure,--that, willingly, she would never again see
+her devoted Sophie. And she knew that the woman deserved no money
+from her; that she had deserved none, but had received much. Every
+assertion in her letter was false. No one had wished her to come,
+and the expense of her coming had been paid for her over and over
+again. Lady Ongar knew that she had money,--and knew also that she
+would have had immediate recourse to law, if any lawyer would have
+suggested to her with a probability of success that he could get more
+for her. No doubt she had been telling her story to some attorney, in
+the hope that money might thus be extracted, and had been dragging
+her Julie's name through the mud, telling all she knew of that
+wretched Florentine story. As to all that Lady Ongar had no doubt;
+and yet she wished to send the woman money!
+
+There are services for which one is ready to give almost any
+amount of money payment,--if only one can be sure that that money
+payment will be taken as sufficient recompence for the service
+in question. Sophie Gordeloup had been useful. She had been very
+disagreeable,--but she had been useful. She had done things which
+nobody else could have done, and she had done her work well. That she
+had been paid for her work over and over again, there was no doubt;
+but Lady Ongar was willing to give her yet further payment, if only
+there might be an end of it. But she feared to do this, dreading
+the nature and cunning of the little woman,--lest she should take
+such payment as an acknowledgment of services for which secret
+compensation must be made,--and should then proceed to further
+threats. Thinking much of all this, Julie at last wrote to her Sophie
+as follows:--
+
+
+   Lady Ongar presents her compliments to Madame Gordeloup,
+   and must decline to see Madame Gordeloup again after what
+   has passed. Lady Ongar is very sorry to hear that Madame
+   Gordeloup is in want of funds. Whatever assistance Lady
+   Ongar might have been willing to afford, she now feels
+   that she is prohibited from giving any by the allusion
+   which Madame Gordeloup has made to legal advice. If Madame
+   Gordeloup has legal demands on Lady Ongar which are
+   said by a lawyer to be valid, Lady Ongar would strongly
+   recommend Madame Gordeloup to enforce them.
+
+   Clavering Park, October, 186--.
+
+
+This she wrote, acting altogether on her own judgment, and sent off
+by return of post. She almost wept at her own cruelty after the
+letter was gone, and greatly doubted her own discretion. But of whom
+could she have asked advice? Could she have told all the story of
+Madame Gordeloup to the rector or to the rector's wife? The letter
+no doubt was a discreet letter; but she greatly doubted her own
+discretion, and when she received her Sophie's rejoinder, she hardly
+dared to break the envelope.
+
+Poor Sophie! Her Julie's letter nearly broke her heart. For sincerity
+little credit was due to her;--but some little was perhaps due. That
+she should be called Madame Gordeloup, and have compliments presented
+to her by the woman,--by the countess with whom and with whose
+husband she had been on such closely familiar terms, did in truth
+wound some tender feelings within her bosom. Such love as she had
+been able to give, she had given to her Julie. That she had always
+been willing to rob her Julie, to make a milch-cow of her Julie, to
+sell her Julie, to threaten her Julie, to quarrel with her Julie
+if aught might be done in that way,--to expose her Julie; nay, to
+destroy her Julie if money was to be so made;--all this did not
+hinder her love. She loved her Julie, and was broken-hearted that her
+Julie should have written to her in such a strain.
+
+But her feelings were much more acute when she came to perceive that
+she had damaged her own affairs by the hint of a menace which she
+had thrown out. Business is business, and must take precedence of
+all sentiment and romance in this hard world in which bread is so
+necessary. Of that Madame Gordeloup was well aware. And therefore,
+having given herself but two short minutes to weep over her Julie's
+hardness, she applied her mind at once to the rectification
+of the error she had made. Yes; she had been wrong about the
+lawyer,--certainly wrong. But then these English people were so
+pig-headed! A slight suspicion of a hint, such as that she had made,
+would have been taken by a Frenchman, by a Russian, by a Pole, as
+meaning no more than it meant. "But these English are bulls; the men
+and the women are all like bulls,--bulls!"
+
+She at once sat down and wrote another letter; another in such an
+ecstasy of eagerness to remove the evil impressions which she had
+made, that she wrote it almost with the natural effusion of her
+heart.--
+
+
+   DEAR FRIEND,--Your coldness kills me,--kills me! But
+   perhaps I have deserved it. If I said there were legal
+   demands I did deserve it. No; there are none. Legal
+   demands! Oh, no. What can your poor friend demand legally?
+   The lawyer--he knows nothing; he was a stranger. It was my
+   brother spoke to him. What should I do with a lawyer? Oh,
+   my friend, do not be angry with your poor servant. I write
+   now not to ask for money,--but for a kind word; for one
+   word of kindness and love to your Sophie before she have
+   gone for ever! Yes; for ever. Oh, Julie, oh, my angel;
+   I would lie at your feet and kiss them if you were here.
+   Yours till death, even though you should still be hard to
+   me,
+
+   SOPHIE.
+
+
+To this appeal Lady Ongar sent no direct answer, but she commissioned
+Mr. Turnbull, her lawyer, to call upon Madame Gordeloup and pay to
+that lady one hundred pounds, taking her receipt for the same. Lady
+Ongar, in her letter to the lawyer, explained that the woman in
+question had been useful in Florence; and explained also that she
+might pretend that she had further claims. "If so," said Lady Ongar,
+"I wish you to tell her that she can prosecute them at law if she
+pleases. The money I now give her is a gratuity made for certain
+services rendered in Florence during the illness of Lord Ongar." This
+commission Mr. Turnbull executed, and Sophie Gordeloup, when taking
+the money, made no demand for any further payment.
+
+Four days after this a little woman, carrying a very big bandbox in
+her hands, might have been seen to scramble with difficulty out of
+a boat in the Thames up the side of a steamer bound from thence for
+Boulogne. And after her there climbed up an active little man, who,
+with peremptory voice, repulsed the boatman's demand for further
+payment. He also had a bandbox on his arm,--belonging, no doubt, to
+the little woman. And it might have been seen that the active little
+man, making his way to the table at which the clerk of the boat
+was sitting, out of his own purse paid the passage-money for two
+passengers,--through to Paris. And the head and legs and neck of that
+little man were like to the head and legs and neck of--our friend
+Doodles, alias Captain Boodle, of Warwickshire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+SHOWING HOW THINGS SETTLED THEMSELVES AT THE RECTORY.
+
+
+When Harry's letter, with the tidings of the fate of his cousins,
+reached Florence at Stratton, the whole family was, not unnaturally,
+thrown into great excitement. Being slow people, the elder Burtons
+had hardly as yet realized the fact that Harry was again to be
+accepted among the Burton Penates as a pure divinity. Mrs. Burton,
+for some weeks past, had grown to be almost sublime in her wrath
+against him. That a man should live and treat her daughter as
+Florence was about to be treated! Had not her husband forbidden
+such a journey, as being useless in regard to the expenditure,
+she would have gone up to London that she might have told Harry
+what she thought of him. Then came the news that Harry was again a
+divinity,--an Apollo, whom the Burton Penates ought only to be too
+proud to welcome to a seat among them!
+
+And now came this other news that this Apollo was to be an Apollo
+indeed! When the god first became a god again, there was still a
+cloud upon the minds of the elder Burtons as to the means by which
+the divinity was to be sustained. A god in truth, but a god with so
+very moderate an annual income;--unless indeed those old Burtons made
+it up to an extent which seemed to them to be quite unnatural! There
+was joy among the Burtons, of course, but the joy was somewhat dimmed
+by these reflections as to the slight means of their Apollo. A lover
+who was not an Apollo might wait; but, as they had learned already,
+there was danger in keeping such a god as this suspended on the
+tenter-hooks of expectation.
+
+But now there came the further news! This Apollo of theirs had really
+a place of his own among the gods of Olympus. He was the eldest son
+of a man of large fortune, and would be a baronet! He had already
+declared that he would marry at once;--that his father wished him to
+do so, and that an abundant income would be forthcoming. As to his
+eagerness for an immediate marriage, no divinity in or out of the
+heavens could behave better. Old Mrs. Burton, as she went through
+the process of taking him again to her heart, remembered that that
+virtue had been his, even before the days of his backsliding had
+come. A warm-hearted, eager, affectionate divinity,--with only this
+against him, that he wanted some careful looking after in these, his
+unsettled days. "I really do think that he'll be as fond of his own
+fireside as any other man, when he has once settled down," said Mrs.
+Burton.
+
+It will not, I hope, be taken as a blot on the character of this
+mother that she was much elated at the prospect of the good things
+which were to fall to her daughter's lot. For herself she desired
+nothing. For her daughters she had coveted only good, substantial,
+painstaking husbands, who would fear God and mind their business.
+When Harry Clavering had come across her path and had demanded a
+daughter from her, after the manner of the other young men who had
+learned the secrets of their profession at Stratton, she had desired
+nothing more than that he and Florence should walk in the path which
+had been followed by her sisters and their husbands. But then had
+come that terrible fear; and now had come these golden prospects.
+That her daughter should be Lady Clavering, of Clavering Park! She
+could not but be elated at the thought of it. She would not live to
+see it, but the consciousness that it would be so was pleasant to her
+in her old age. Florence had ever been regarded as the flower of the
+flock, and now she would be taken up into high places,--according to
+her deserts.
+
+First had come the letter from Harry, and then, after an interval
+of a week, another letter from Mrs. Clavering, pressing her dear
+Florence to go to the parsonage. "We think that at present we all
+ought to be together," said Mrs. Clavering, "and therefore we want
+you to be with us." It was very flattering. "I suppose I ought to go,
+mamma?" said Florence. Mrs. Burton was of opinion that she certainly
+ought to go. "You should write to her ladyship at once," said Mrs.
+Burton, mindful of the change which had taken place. Florence,
+however, addressed her letter, as heretofore, to Mrs. Clavering,
+thinking that a mistake on that side would be better than a mistake
+on the other. It was not for her to be over-mindful of the rank with
+which she was about to be connected. "You won't forget your old
+mother now that you are going to be so grand?" said Mrs. Burton, as
+Florence was leaving her.
+
+"You only say that to laugh at me," said Florence. "I expect no
+grandness, and I am sure you expect no forgetfulness."
+
+The solemnity consequent upon the first news of the accident had worn
+itself off, and Florence found the family at the parsonage happy and
+comfortable. Mrs. Fielding was still there, and Mr. Fielding was
+expected again after the next Sunday. Fanny also was there, and
+Florence could see during the first half-hour that she was very
+radiant. Mr. Saul, however, was not there, and it may as well be said
+at once that Mr. Saul as yet knew nothing of his coming fortune.
+Florence was received with open arms by them all, and by Harry with
+arms which were almost too open. "I suppose it may be in about three
+weeks from now?" he said at the first moment in which he could have
+her to himself.
+
+"Oh, Harry,--no," said Florence.
+
+"No;--why no? That's what my mother proposes."
+
+"In three weeks!--She could not have said that. Nobody has begun to
+think of such a thing yet at Stratton."
+
+"They are so very slow at Stratton!"
+
+"And you are so very fast at Clavering! But, Harry, we don't know
+where we are going to live."
+
+"We should go abroad at first, I suppose."
+
+"And what then? That would only be for a month or so."
+
+"Only for a month? I mean for all the winter,--and the spring. Why
+not? One can see nothing in a month. If we are back for the shooting
+next year that would do,--and then of course we should come here. I
+should say next winter,--that is the winter after the next,--we might
+as well stay with them at the big house, and then we could look about
+us, you know. I should like a place near to this, because of the
+hunting!"
+
+Florence, when she heard all this, became aware that in talking
+about a month she had forgotten herself. She had been accustomed to
+holidays of a month's duration,--and to honeymoon trips fitted to
+such vacations. A month was the longest holiday ever heard of in the
+chambers in the Adelphi,--or at the house in Onslow Crescent. She had
+forgotten herself. It was not to be the lot of her husband to earn
+his bread, and fit himself to such periods as business might require.
+Then Harry went on describing the tour which he had arranged;--which
+as he said he only suggested. But it was quite apparent that in
+this matter he intended to be paramount. Florence indeed made no
+objection. To spend a fortnight in Paris;--to hurry over the Alps
+before the cold weather came; to spend a month in Florence, and then
+go on to Rome;--it would all be very nice. But she declared that it
+would suit the next year better than this.
+
+"Suit ten thousand fiddlesticks," said Harry.
+
+"But it is October now."
+
+"And therefore there is no time to lose."
+
+"I haven't a dress in the world but the one I have on, and a few
+others like it. Oh, Harry, how can you talk in that way?"
+
+"Well, say four weeks then from now. That will make it the seventh of
+November, and we'll only stay a day or two in Paris. We can do Paris
+next year,--in May. If you'll agree to that, I'll agree."
+
+But Florence's breath was taken away from her, and she could agree to
+nothing. She did agree to nothing till she had been talked into doing
+so by Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"My dear," said her future mother-in-law, "what you say is
+undoubtedly true. There is no absolute necessity for hurrying. It is
+not an affair of life and death. But you and Harry have been engaged
+quite long enough now, and I really don't see why you should put it
+off. If you do as he asks you, you will just have time to make
+yourselves comfortable before the cold weather begins."
+
+"But mamma will be so surprised."
+
+"I'm sure she will wish it, my dear. You see Harry is a young man of
+that sort,--so impetuous I mean, you know, and so eager,--and so--you
+know what I mean,--that the sooner he is married the better. You
+can't but take it as a compliment, Florence, that he is so eager."
+
+"Of course I do."
+
+"And you should reward him. Believe me it will be best that it should
+not be delayed." Whether or no Mrs. Clavering had present in her
+imagination the possibility of any further danger that might result
+from Lady Ongar, I will not say, but if so, she altogether failed in
+communicating her idea to Florence.
+
+"Then I must go home at once," said Florence, driven almost to bewail
+the terrors of her position.
+
+"You can write home at once and tell your mother. You can tell her
+all that I say, and I am sure she will agree with me. If you wish it,
+I will write a line to Mrs. Burton myself." Florence said that she
+would wish it. "And we can begin, you know, to get your things ready
+here. People don't take so long about all that now-a-days as they
+used to do." When Mrs. Clavering had turned against her, Florence
+knew that she had no hope, and surrendered, subject to the approval
+of the higher authorities at Stratton. The higher authorities at
+Stratton approved also, of course, and Florence found herself fixed
+to a day with a suddenness that bewildered her. Immediately,--almost
+as soon as the consent had been extorted from her,--she began to be
+surrounded with incipient preparation for the event, as to which,
+about three weeks since, she had made up her mind that it would never
+come to pass.
+
+On the second day of her arrival, in the privacy of her bedroom,
+Fanny communicated to her the decision of her family in regard to
+Mr. Saul. But she told the story at first as though this decision
+referred to the living only,--as though the rectory were to be
+conferred on Mr. Saul without any burden attached to it. "He has
+been here so long, dear," said Fanny, "and understands the people so
+well."
+
+"I am so delighted," said Florence.
+
+"I am sure it is the best thing papa could do;--that is if he quite
+makes up his mind to give up the parish himself."
+
+This troubled Florence, who did not know that a baronet could hold a
+living.
+
+"I thought he must give up being a clergyman now that Sir Hugh is
+dead?"
+
+"O dear, no." And then Fanny, who was great on ecclesiastical
+subjects, explained it all. "Even though he were to be a peer,
+he could hold a living if he pleased. A great many baronets are
+clergymen, and some of them do hold preferments. As to papa, the
+doubt has been with him whether he would wish to give up the work.
+But he will preach sometimes, you know; though of course he will not
+be able to do that unless Mr. Saul lets him. No one but the rector
+has a right to his own pulpit except the bishop; and he can preach
+three times a year if he likes it."
+
+"And suppose the bishop wanted to preach four times?"
+
+"He couldn't do it; at least, I believe not. But you see he never
+wants to preach at all,--not in such a place as this,--so that does
+not signify."
+
+"And will Mr. Saul come and live here, in this house?"
+
+"Some day I suppose he will," said Fanny, blushing.
+
+"And you, dear?"
+
+"I don't know how that may be."
+
+"Come, Fanny."
+
+"Indeed I don't, Florence, or I would tell you. Of course Mr. Saul
+has asked me. I never had any secret with you about that; have I?"
+
+"No; you were very good."
+
+"Then he asked me again; twice again. And then there came,--oh, such
+a quarrel between him and papa. It was so terrible. Do you know, I
+believe they wouldn't speak in the vestry! Not but what each of them
+has the highest possible opinion of the other. But of course Mr. Saul
+couldn't marry on a curacy. When I think of it it really seems that
+he must have been mad."
+
+"But you don't think him so mad now, dear?"
+
+"He doesn't know a word about it yet; not a word. He hasn't been in
+the house since, and papa and he didn't speak,--not in a friendly
+way,--till the news came of poor Hugh's being drowned. Then he came
+up to papa, and, of course, papa took his hand. But he still thinks
+he is going away."
+
+"And when is he to be told that he needn't go?"
+
+"That is the difficulty. Mamma will have to do it, I believe. But
+what she will say, I'm sure I for one can't think."
+
+"Mrs. Clavering will have no difficulty."
+
+"You mustn't call her Mrs. Clavering."
+
+"Lady Clavering then."
+
+"That's a great deal worse. She's your mamma now,--not quite so much
+as she is mine, but the next thing to it."
+
+"She'll know what to say to Mr. Saul."
+
+"But what is she to say?"
+
+"Well, Fanny,--you ought to know that. I suppose you do--love him?"
+
+"I have never told him so."
+
+"But you will?"
+
+"It seems so odd. Mamma will have to-- Suppose he were to turn round
+and say he didn't want me?"
+
+"That would be awkward."
+
+"He would in a minute if that was what he felt. The idea of having
+the living would not weigh with him a bit."
+
+"But when he was so much in love before, it won't make him out of
+love;--will it?"
+
+"I don't know," said Fanny. "At any rate, mamma is to see him
+to-morrow, and after that I suppose;--I'm sure I don't know,--but I
+suppose he'll come to the rectory as he used to do."
+
+"How happy you must be," said Florence, kissing her. To this Fanny
+made some unintelligible demur. It was undoubtedly possible that,
+under the altered circumstances of the case, so strange a being as
+Mr. Saul might have changed his mind.
+
+There was a great trial awaiting Florence Burton. She had to be taken
+up to call on the ladies at the great house,--on the two widowed
+ladies who were still remaining there when she came to Clavering.
+It was only on the day before her arrival that Harry had seen Lady
+Ongar. He had thought much of the matter before he went across to
+the house, doubting whether it would not be better to let Julia go
+without troubling her with a further interview. But he had not then
+seen even Lady Clavering since the tidings of her bereavement had
+come, and he felt that it would not be well that he should let his
+cousin's widow leave Clavering without offering her his sympathy. And
+it might be better, also, that he should see Julia once again, if
+only that he might show himself capable of meeting her without the
+exhibition of any peculiar emotion. He went, therefore, to the house,
+and having asked for Lady Clavering, saw both the sisters together.
+He soon found that the presence of the younger one was a relief to
+him. Lady Clavering was so sad, and so peevish in her sadness,--so
+broken-spirited, so far as yet from recognizing the great
+enfranchisement that had come to her, that with her alone he would
+have found himself almost unable to express the sympathy which he
+felt. But with Lady Ongar he had no difficulty. Lady Ongar, her
+sister being with them in the room, talked to him easily, as though
+there had never been anything between them to make conversation
+difficult. That all words between them should, on such an occasion
+as this, be sad, was a matter of course; but it seemed to Harry that
+Julia had freed herself from all the effects of that feeling which
+had existed between them, and that it would become him to do this
+as effectually as she had done it. Such an idea, at least, was in
+his mind for a moment; but when he left her she spoke one word
+which dispelled it. "Harry," she said, "you must ask Miss Burton
+to come across and see me. I hear that she is to be at the rectory
+to-morrow." Harry of course said that he would send her. "She will
+understand why I cannot go to her, as I should do,--but for poor
+Hermy's position. You will explain this, Harry." Harry, blushing up
+to his forehead, declared that Florence would require no explanation,
+and that she would certainly make the visit as proposed. "I wish to
+see her, Harry,--so much. And if I do not see her now, I may never
+have another chance."
+
+It was nearly a week after this that Florence went across to
+the great house with Mrs. Clavering and Fanny. I think that she
+understood the nature of the visit she was called upon to make,
+and no doubt she trembled much at the coming ordeal. She was going
+to see her great rival,--her rival, who had almost been preferred
+to her,--nay, who had been preferred to her for some short space
+of time, and whose claims as to beauty and wealth were so greatly
+superior to her own. And this woman whom she was to see had been the
+first love of the man whom she now regarded as her own,--and would
+have been about to be his wife at this moment had it not been for her
+own treachery to him. Was she so beautiful as people said? Florence,
+in the bottom of her heart, wished that she might have been saved
+from this interview.
+
+The three ladies from the rectory found the two ladies at the great
+house sitting together in the small drawing-room. Florence was
+so confused that she could hardly bring herself to speak to Lady
+Clavering, or so much as to look at Lady Ongar. She shook hands with
+the elder sister, and knew that her hand was then taken by the other.
+Julia at first spoke a very few words to Mrs. Clavering, and Fanny
+sat herself down beside Hermione. Florence took a chair at a little
+distance, and was left there for a few minutes without notice. For
+this she was very thankful, and by degrees was able to fix her eyes
+on the face of the woman whom she so feared to see, and yet on whom
+she so desired to look. Lady Clavering was a mass of ill-arranged
+widow's weeds. She had assumed in all its grotesque ugliness those
+paraphernalia of outward woe which women have been condemned to wear,
+in order that for a time they may be shorn of all the charms of
+their sex. Nothing could be more proper or unbecoming than the heavy,
+drooping, shapeless blackness in which Lady Clavering had enveloped
+herself. But Lady Ongar, though also a widow, though as yet a
+widow of not twelve months' standing, was dressed,--in weeds, no
+doubt,--but in weeds which had been so cultivated that they were as
+good as flowers. She was very beautiful. Florence owned to herself
+as she sat there in silence, that Lady Ongar was the most beautiful
+woman that she had ever seen. But hers was not the beauty by which,
+as she would have thought, Harry Clavering would have been attracted.
+Lady Ongar's form, bust, and face were, at this period of her life,
+almost majestic; whereas the softness and grace of womanhood were the
+charms which Harry loved. He had sometimes said to Florence that, to
+his taste, Cecilia Burton was almost perfect as a woman. And there
+could be no contrast greater than that between Cecilia Burton and
+Lady Ongar. But Florence did not remember that the Julia Brabazon of
+three years since had not been the same as the Lady Ongar whom now
+she saw.
+
+When they had been there some minutes Lady Ongar came and sat beside
+Florence, moving her seat as though she were doing the most natural
+thing in the world. Florence's heart came to her mouth, but she made
+a resolution that she would, if possible, bear herself well. "You
+have been at Clavering before, I think?" said Lady Ongar. Florence
+said that she had been at the parsonage during the last Easter.
+"Yes,--I heard that you dined here with my brother-in-law." This she
+said in a low voice, having seen that Lady Clavering was engaged with
+Fanny and Mrs. Clavering. "Was it not terribly sudden?"
+
+"Terribly sudden," said Florence.
+
+"The two brothers! Had you not met Captain Clavering?"
+
+"Yes,--he was here when I dined with your sister."
+
+"Poor fellow! Is it not odd that they should have gone, and that
+their friend, whose yacht it was, should have been saved? They say,
+however, that Mr. Stuart behaved admirably, begging his friends to
+get into the boat first. He stayed by the vessel when the boat was
+carried away, and he was saved in that way. But he meant to do the
+best he could for them. There's no doubt of that."
+
+"But how dreadful his feelings must be!"
+
+"Men do not think so much of these things as we do. They have so much
+more to employ their minds. Don't you think so?" Florence did not at
+the moment quite know what she thought about men's feelings, but said
+that she supposed that such was the case. "But I think that after
+all they are juster than we are," continued Lady Ongar,--"juster and
+truer, though not so tender-hearted. Mr. Stuart, no doubt, would have
+been willing to drown himself to save his friends, because the fault
+was in some degree his. I don't know that I should have been able to
+do so much."
+
+"In such a moment it must have been so difficult to think of what
+ought to be done."
+
+"Yes, indeed; and there is but little good in speculating upon it
+now. You know this place, do you not;--the house, I mean, and the
+gardens?"
+
+"Not very well." Florence, as she answered this question, began again
+to tremble. "Take a turn with me, and I will show you the garden. My
+hat and cloak are in the hall." Then Florence got up to accompany
+her, trembling very much inwardly. "Miss Burton and I are going
+out for a few minutes," said Lady Ongar, addressing herself to Mrs.
+Clavering. "We will not keep you waiting very long."
+
+"We are in no hurry," said Mrs. Clavering. Then Florence was carried
+off, and found herself alone with her conquered rival.
+
+"Not that there is much to show you," said Lady Ongar; "indeed
+nothing; but the place must be of more interest to you than to any
+one else; and if you are fond of that sort of thing, no doubt you
+will make it all that is charming."
+
+"I am very fond of a garden," said Florence.
+
+"I don't know whether I am. Alone, by myself, I think I should care
+nothing for the prettiest Eden in all England. I don't think I
+would care for a walk through the Elysian fields by myself. I am a
+chameleon, and take the colour of those with whom I live. My future
+colours will not be very bright as I take it. It's a gloomy place
+enough; is it not? But there are fine trees, you see, which are the
+only things which one cannot by any possibility command. Given good
+trees, taste and money may do anything very quickly; as I have no
+doubt you'll find."
+
+"I don't suppose I shall have much to do with it--at present."
+
+"I should think that you will have everything to do with it. There,
+Miss Burton; I brought you here to show you this very spot, and to
+make to you my confession here,--and to get from you, here, one word
+of confidence, if you will give it me." Florence was trembling now
+outwardly as well as inwardly. "You know my story; as far, I mean, as
+I had a story once, in conjunction with Harry Clavering?"
+
+
+[Illustration: Lady Ongar and Florence.]
+
+
+"I think I do," said Florence.
+
+"I am sure you do," said Lady Ongar. "He has told me that you do; and
+what he says is always true. It was here, on this spot, that I gave
+him back his troth to me, and told him that I would have none of his
+love, because he was poor. That is barely two years ago. Now he is
+poor no longer. Now, had I been true to him, a marriage with him
+would have been, in a prudential point of view, all that any woman
+could desire. I gave up the dearest heart, the sweetest temper, ay,
+and the truest man that, that-- Well, you have won him instead, and
+he has been the gainer. I doubt whether I ever should have made him
+happy; but I know that you will do so. It was just here that I parted
+from him."
+
+"He has told me of that parting," said Florence.
+
+"I am sure he has. And, Miss Burton, if you will allow me to say one
+word further,--do not be made to think any ill of him because of what
+happened the other day."
+
+"I think no ill of him," said Florence proudly.
+
+"That is well. But I am sure you do not. You are not one to think
+evil, as I take it, of anybody; much less of him whom you love. When
+he saw me again, free as I am, and when I saw him, thinking him also
+to be free, was it strange that some memory of old days should come
+back upon us? But the fault, if fault there has been, was mine."
+
+"I have never said that there was any fault."
+
+"No, Miss Burton; but others have said so. No doubt I am foolish
+to talk to you in this way; and I have not yet said that which I
+desired to say. It is simply this;--that I do not begrudge you your
+happiness. I wished the same happiness to be mine; but it is not
+mine. It might have been, but I forfeited it. It is past; and I will
+pray that you may enjoy it long. You will not refuse to receive my
+congratulations?"
+
+"Indeed, I will not."
+
+"Or to think of me as a friend of your husband's?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"That is all then. I have shown you the gardens, and now we may
+go in. Some day, perhaps, when you are Lady Paramount here, and
+your children are running about the place, I may come again to see
+them;--if you and he will have me."
+
+"I hope you will, Lady Ongar. In truth, I hope so."
+
+"It is odd enough that I said to him once that I would never go to
+Clavering Park again till I went there to see his wife. That was long
+before those two poor brothers perished,--before I had ever heard of
+Florence Burton. And yet, indeed, it was not very long ago. It was
+since my husband died. But that was not quite true, for here I am,
+and he has not yet got a wife. But it was odd; was it not?"
+
+"I cannot think what should have made you say that."
+
+"A spirit of prophecy comes on one sometimes, I suppose. Well; shall
+we go in? I have shown you all the wonders of the garden, and told
+you all the wonders connected with it of which I know aught. No doubt
+there would be other wonders, more wonderful, if one could ransack
+the private history of all the Claverings for the last hundred years.
+I hope, Miss Burton, that any marvels which may attend your career
+here may be happy marvels." She then took Florence by the hand, and
+drawing close to her, stooped over and kissed her. "You will think me
+a fool, of course," said she; "but I do not care for that." Florence
+now was in tears, and could make no answer in words; but she pressed
+the hand which she still held, and then followed her companion back
+into the house. After that, the visit was soon brought to an end, and
+the three ladies from the rectory returned across the park to their
+house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+Florence Burton had taken upon herself to say that Mrs. Clavering
+would have no difficulty in making to Mr. Saul the communication
+which was now needed before he could be received at the rectory, as
+the rector's successor and future son-in-law; but Mrs. Clavering
+was by no means so confident of her own powers. To her it seemed as
+though the undertaking which she had in hand, was one surrounded with
+difficulties. Her husband, when the matter was being discussed, at
+once made her understand that he would not relieve her by an offer
+to perform the task. He had been made to break the bad news to Lady
+Clavering, and, having been submissive in that matter, felt himself
+able to stand aloof altogether as to this more difficult embassy.
+"I suppose it would hardly do to ask Harry to see him again," Mrs.
+Clavering had said. "You would do it much better, my dear," the
+rector had replied. Then Mrs. Clavering had submitted in her turn;
+and when the scheme was fully matured, and the time had come in
+which the making of the proposition could no longer be delayed with
+prudence, Mr. Saul was summoned by a short note. "Dear Mr. Saul,--If
+you are disengaged would you come to me at the rectory at eleven
+to-morrow?--Yours ever, M. C." Mr. Saul of course said that he would
+come. When the to-morrow had arrived and breakfast was over, the
+rector and Harry took themselves off, somewhere about the grounds of
+the great house,--counting up their treasures of proprietorship, as
+we can fancy that men so circumstanced would do,--while Mary Fielding
+with Fanny and Florence retired upstairs, so that they might be
+well out of the way. They knew, all of them, what was about to be
+done, and Fanny behaved herself like a white lamb decked with bright
+ribbons for the sacrificial altar. To her it was a sacrificial
+morning,--very sacred, very solemn, and very trying to the nerves.
+"I don't think that any girl was ever in such a position before," she
+said to her sister. "A great many girls would be glad to be in the
+same position," Mrs. Fielding replied. "Do you think so? To me there
+is something almost humiliating in the idea that he should be asked
+to take me." "Fiddlestick, my dear," replied Mrs. Fielding.
+
+Mr. Saul came, punctual as the church clock,--of which he had the
+regulating himself,--and was shown into the rectory dining-room,
+where Mrs. Clavering was sitting alone. He looked, as he ever did,
+serious, composed, ill-dressed, and like a gentleman. Of course he
+must have supposed that the present rector would make some change
+in his mode of living, and could not be surprised that he should
+have been summoned to the rectory;--but he was surprised that the
+summons should have come from Mrs. Clavering, and not from the
+rector himself. It appeared to him that the old enmity must be very
+enduring, if, even now, Mr. Clavering could not bring himself to see
+his curate on a matter of business.
+
+"It seems a long time since we have seen you here, Mr. Saul," said
+Mrs. Clavering.
+
+"Yes;--when I have remembered how often I used to be here, my absence
+has seemed long and strange."
+
+"It has been a source of great grief to me."
+
+"And to me, Mrs. Clavering."
+
+"But, as circumstances then were, in truth it could not be avoided.
+Common prudence made it necessary. Don't you think so, Mr. Saul?"
+
+"If you ask me I must answer according to my own ideas. Common
+prudence should not have made it necessary,--at least not according
+to my view of things. Common prudence, with different people, means
+such different things! But I am not going to quarrel with your ideas
+of common prudence, Mrs. Clavering."
+
+Mrs. Clavering had begun badly, and was aware of it. She should have
+said nothing about the past. She had foreseen, from the first, the
+danger of doing so, but had been unable to rush at once into the
+golden future. "I hope we shall have no more quarrelling at any
+rate," she said.
+
+"There shall be none on my part. Only, Mrs. Clavering, you must not
+suppose from my saying so that I intend to give up my pretensions.
+A word from your daughter would make me do so, but no words from any
+one else."
+
+"She ought to be very proud of such constancy on your part, Mr. Saul,
+and I have no doubt she will be." Mr. Saul did not understand this,
+and made no reply to it. "I don't know whether you have heard that
+Mr. Clavering intends to--give up the living."
+
+"I have not heard it. I have thought it probable that he would do
+so."
+
+"He has made up his mind that he will. The fact is, that if he held
+it, he must neglect either that or the property." We will not stop
+at this moment to examine what Mr. Saul's ideas must have been as to
+the exigencies of the property, which would leave no time for the
+performance of such clerical duties as had fallen for some years past
+to the share of the rector himself. "He hopes that he may be allowed
+to take some part in the services,--but he means to resign the
+living."
+
+"I suppose that will not much affect me for the little time that I
+have to remain."
+
+"We think it will affect you,--and hope that it may. Mr. Clavering
+wishes you to accept the living."
+
+"To accept the living?" And for a moment even Mr. Saul looked as
+though he were surprised.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Saul."
+
+"To be rector of Clavering?"
+
+"If you see no objection to such an arrangement."
+
+"It is a most munificent offer,--but as strange as it is munificent.
+Unless indeed--" And then some glimpse of the truth made its way into
+the chinks of Mr. Saul's mind.
+
+"Mr. Clavering would, no doubt, have made the offer to you himself,
+had it not been that I can, perhaps, speak to you about dear Fanny
+better than he could do. Though our prudence has not been quite to
+your mind, you can at any rate understand that we might very much
+object to her marrying you when there was nothing for you to live on,
+even though we had no objection to yourself personally."
+
+"But Mr. Clavering did object on both grounds."
+
+"I was not aware that he had done so; but, if so, no such objection
+is now made by him,--or by me. My idea is that a child should
+be allowed to consult her own heart, and to indulge her own
+choice,--provided that in doing so she does not prepare for herself
+a life of indigence, which must be a life of misery; and of course
+providing also that there be no strong personal objection."
+
+"A life of indigence need not be a life of misery," said Mr. Saul,
+with that obstinacy which formed so great a part of his character.
+
+"Well, well."
+
+"I am very indigent, but I am not at all miserable. If we are to be
+made miserable by that, what is the use of all our teaching?"
+
+"But, at any rate, a competence is comfortable."
+
+"Too comfortable!" As Mr. Saul made this exclamation, Mrs. Clavering
+could not but wonder at her daughter's taste. But the matter had gone
+too far now for any possibility of receding.
+
+"You will not refuse it, I hope, as it will be accompanied by what
+you say you still desire."
+
+"No; I will not refuse it. And may God give her and me grace so to
+use the riches of this world that they become not a stumbling-block
+to us, and a rock of offence. It is possible that the camel should be
+made to go through the needle's eye. It is possible."
+
+"The position, you know, is not one of great wealth."
+
+"It is to me, who have barely hitherto had the means of support. Will
+you tell your husband from me that I will accept, and endeavour not
+to betray the double trust he proposes to confer on me. It is much
+that he should give to me his daughter. She shall be to me bone of my
+bone, and flesh of my flesh. If God will give me his grace thereto, I
+will watch over her, so that no harm shall come nigh her. I love her
+as the apple of my eye; and I am thankful,--very thankful that the
+rich gift should be made to me."
+
+"I am sure that you love her, Mr. Saul."
+
+"But," continued he, not marking her interruption, "that other trust
+is one still greater, and requiring a more tender care and even a
+closer sympathy. I shall feel that the souls of these people will be,
+as it were, in my hand, and that I shall be called upon to give an
+account of their welfare. I will strive,--I will strive. And she,
+also, will be with me, to help me."
+
+When Mrs. Clavering described this scene to her husband, he shook his
+head; and there came over his face a smile, in which there was much
+of melancholy, as he said, "Ah, yes,--that is all very well now. He
+will settle down as other men do, I suppose, when he has four or five
+children around him." Such were the ideas which the experience of
+the outgoing and elder clergyman taught him to entertain as to the
+ecstatic piety of his younger brother.
+
+It was Mrs. Clavering who suggested to Mr. Saul that perhaps he would
+like to see Fanny. This she did when her story had been told, and he
+was preparing to leave her. "Certainly, if she will come to me."
+
+"I will make no promise," said Mrs. Clavering, "but I will see." Then
+she went upstairs to the room where the girls were sitting, and the
+sacrificial lamb was sent down into the drawing-room. "I suppose if
+you say so, mamma--"
+
+"I think, my dear, that you had better see him. You will meet then
+more comfortably afterwards." So Fanny went into the drawing-room,
+and Mr. Saul was sent to her there. What passed between them all
+readers of these pages will understand. Few young ladies, I fear,
+will envy Fanny Clavering her lover; but they will remember that Love
+will still be lord of all; and they will acknowledge that he had done
+much to deserve the success in life which had come in his way.
+
+It was long before the old rector could reconcile himself either
+to the new rector or his new son-in-law. Mrs. Clavering had now
+so warmly taken up Fanny's part, and had so completely assumed a
+mother's interest in her coming marriage, that Mr. Clavering, or Sir
+Henry, as we may now call him, had found himself obliged to abstain
+from repeating to her the wonder with which he still regarded his
+daughter's choice. But to Harry he could still be eloquent on the
+subject. "Of course it's all right now," he said. "He's a very good
+young man, and nobody would work harder in the parish. I always
+thought I was very lucky to have such an assistant. But upon my word
+I cannot understand Fanny; I cannot indeed."
+
+"She has been taken by the religious side of her character," said
+Harry.
+
+"Yes, of course. And no doubt it is very gratifying to me to see that
+she thinks so much of religion. It should be the first consideration
+with all of us at all times. But she has never been used to men like
+Mr. Saul."
+
+"Nobody can deny that he is a gentleman."
+
+"Yes; he is a gentleman. God forbid that I should say he was not;
+especially now that he is going to marry your sister. But-- I don't
+know whether you quite understand what I mean?"
+
+"I think I do. He isn't quite one of our sort."
+
+"How on earth she can ever have brought herself to look at him in
+that light!"
+
+"There's no accounting for tastes, sir. And, after all, as he's to
+have the living, there will be nothing to regret."
+
+"No; nothing to regret. I suppose he'll be up at the other house
+occasionally. I never could make anything of him when he dined at the
+rectory; perhaps he'll be better there. Perhaps, when he's married,
+he'll get into the way of drinking a glass of wine like anybody else.
+Dear Fanny; I hope she'll be happy. That's everything." In answer to
+this Harry took upon himself to assure his father that Fanny would
+be happy; and then they changed the conversation, and discussed the
+alterations which they would make in reference to the preservation of
+pheasants.
+
+Mr. Saul and Fanny remained long together on that occasion, and when
+they parted he went off about his work, not saying a word to any
+other person in the house, and she betook herself as fast as her feet
+could carry her to her own room. She said not a word either to her
+mother, or to her sister, or to Florence as to what had passed at
+that interview; but, when she was first seen by any of them, she
+was very grave in her demeanour, and very silent. When her father
+congratulated her, which he did with as much cordiality as he was
+able to assume, she kissed him and thanked him for his care and
+kindness; but even this she did almost solemnly. "Ah, I see how it
+is to be," said the old rector to his wife. "There are to be no more
+cakes and ale in the parish." Then his wife reminded him of what he
+himself had said of the change which would take place in Mr. Saul's
+ways when he should have a lot of children running about his feet.
+"Then I can only hope that they'll begin to run about very soon,"
+said the old rector.
+
+To her sister, Mary Fielding, Fanny said little or nothing of her
+coming marriage, but to Florence, who, as regarded that event, was
+in the same position as herself, she frequently did express her
+feelings,--declaring how awful to her was the responsibility of
+the thing she was about to do. "Of course that's quite true," said
+Florence, "but it doesn't make one doubt that one is right to marry."
+
+"I don't know," said Fanny. "When I think of it, it does almost make
+me doubt."
+
+"Then if I were Mr. Saul I would not let you think of it at all."
+
+"Ah;--that shows that you do not understand him. He would be the
+first to advise me to hesitate if he thought that,--that--that;--I
+don't know that I can quite express what I mean."
+
+"Under those circumstances Mr. Saul won't think
+that,--that--that--that--"
+
+"Oh, Florence, it is too serious for laughing. It is indeed." Then
+Florence also hoped that a time might come, and that shortly, in
+which Mr. Saul might moderate his views,--though she did not express
+herself exactly as the rector had done.
+
+Immediately after this Florence went back to Stratton, in order that
+she might pass what remained to her of her freedom with her mother
+and father, and that she might prepare herself for her wedding. The
+affair with her was so much hurried that she had hardly time to give
+her mind to those considerations which were weighing so heavily
+on Fanny's mind. It was felt by all the Burtons,--especially by
+Cecilia,--that there was need for extension of their views in regard
+to millinery, seeing that Florence was to marry the eldest son
+and heir of a baronet. And old Mrs. Burton was awed almost into
+quiescence by the reflections which came upon her when she thought
+of the breakfast, and of the presence of Sir Henry Clavering. She at
+once summoned her daughter-in-law from Ramsgate to her assistance,
+and felt that all her experience, gathered from the wedding
+breakfasts of so many elder daughters, would hardly carry her through
+the difficulties of the present occasion.
+
+The two widowed sisters were still at the great house when Sir Henry
+Clavering with Harry and Fanny went to Stratton, but they left it on
+the following day. The father and son went up together to bid them
+farewell, on the eve of their departure, and to press upon them,
+over and over again, the fact that they were still to regard the
+Claverings of Clavering Park as their nearest relations and friends.
+The elder sister simply cried when this was said to her,--cried
+easily with plenteous tears, till the weeds which enveloped her
+seemed to be damp from the ever-running fountain. Hitherto, to
+weep had been her only refuge; but I think that even this had
+already become preferable to her former life. Lady Ongar assured Sir
+Henry, or Mr. Clavering, as he was still called till after their
+departure,--that she would always remember and accept his kindness.
+"And you will come to us?" said he. "Certainly; when I can make Hermy
+come. She will be better when the summer is here. And then, after
+that, we will think about it." On this occasion she seemed to be
+quite cheerful herself, and bade Harry farewell with all the frank
+affection of an old friend.
+
+"I have given up the house in Bolton Street," she said to him.
+
+"And where do you mean to live?"
+
+"Anywhere; just as it may suit Hermy. What difference does it make?
+We are going to Tenby now, and though Tenby seems to me to have as
+few attractions as any place I ever knew, I daresay we shall stay
+there, simply because we shall be there. That is the consideration
+which weighs most with such old women as we are. Good-by, Harry."
+
+"Good-by, Julia. I hope that I may yet see you,--you and Hermy, happy
+before long."
+
+"I don't know much about happiness, Harry. There comes a dream of it
+sometimes,--such as you have got now. But I will answer for this: you
+shall never hear of my being down-hearted. At least not on my own
+account," she added in a whisper. "Poor Hermy may sometimes drag me
+down. But I will do my best. And, Harry, tell your wife that I shall
+write to her occasionally,--once a year, or something like that; so
+that she need not be afraid. Good-by, Harry."
+
+"Good-by, Julia." And so they parted.
+
+Immediately on her arrival at Tenby, Lady Ongar communicated to Mr.
+Turnbull her intention of giving back to the Courton family, not only
+the place called Ongar Park, but also the whole of her income with
+the exception of eight hundred a year, so that in that respect she
+might be equal to her sister. This brought Mr. Turnbull down to
+Tenby, and there was interview after interview between the countess
+and the lawyer. The proposition, however, was made to the Courtons,
+and was absolutely refused by them. Ongar Park was accepted on behalf
+of the mother of the present earl; but as regarded the money, the
+widow of the late earl was assured by the elder surviving brother
+that no one doubted her right to it, or would be a party to accepting
+it from her. "Then," said Lady Ongar, "it will accumulate in my
+hands, and I can leave it as I please in my will."
+
+"As to that, no one can control you," said her brother-in-law--who
+went to Tenby to see her; "but you must not be angry, if I advise
+you not to make any such resolution. Such hoards never have good
+results." This good result, however, did come from the effort which
+the poor broken-spirited woman was making,--that an intimacy, and at
+last a close friendship, was formed between her and the relatives of
+her deceased lord.
+
+And now my story is done. My readers will easily understand what
+would be the future life of Harry Clavering and his wife after the
+completion of that tour in Italy, and the birth of the heir,--the
+preparations for which made the tour somewhat shorter than Harry had
+intended. His father, of course, gave up to him the shooting, and
+the farming of the home farm,--and after a while, the management of
+the property. Sir Henry preached occasionally,--believing himself to
+preach much oftener than he did,--and usually performed some portion
+of the morning service.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Theodore Burton, in answer to some comfortable remark
+from his wife; "Providence has done very well for Florence. And
+Providence has done very well for him also;--but Providence was
+making a great mistake when she expected him to earn his bread."
+
+
+
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