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IN THE WOODS + + + +CHAPTER XI + +At half-past nine of the clock on the evening of this memorable day, a +body of five-and-twenty stout young fellows, prize-winners, wrestlers, +boxers, and topers, of the Hillford Club, set forth on a march to Ipley +Common. + +Now, a foreigner, hearing of their destination and the provocation they +had endured, would have supposed that they were bent upon deeds of +vengeance; and it requires knowledge of our countrymen to take it as a +fact that the idea and aim of the expedition were simply to furnish the +offending Ipley boys a little music. Such were the idea and the aim. +Hillford had nothing to do with consequences: no more than our England is +responsible when she sails out among the empires and hemispheres, saying, +'buy' and 'sell,' and they clamour to be eaten up entire. Foreigners +pertinaciously misunderstand us. They have the barbarous habit of +judging by results. Let us know ourselves better. It is melancholy to +contemplate the intrigues, and vile designs, and vengeances of other +nations; and still more so, after we have written so many pages of +intelligible history, to see them attributed to us. Will it never be +perceived that we do not sow the thing that happens? The source of the +flooding stream which drinks up those rich acres of low flat land is not +more innocent than we. If, as does seem possible, we are in a sort of +alliance with Destiny, we have signed no compact, and accomplish our work +as solidly and merrily as a wood-hatchet in the hands of the woodman. +This arrangement to give Ipley a little music, was projected as a return +for the favours of the morning: nor have I in my time heard anything +comparable to it in charity of sentiment, when I consider the detestable +outrage Hillford suffered under. + +The parading of the drum, the trombone, a horn, two whistles, and a fife, +in front of Hillford booth, caught the fancy of the Clubmen, who roared +out parting adjurations that the music was not to be spared; and that Tom +Breeks was a musical fellow, with a fine empty pate, if any one of the +instruments should fail perchance. They were to give Ipley plenty of +music: for Ipley wanted to be taught harmony. Harmony was Ipley's weak +point. "Gie 'em," said one jolly ruddy Hillford man, "gie 'em whack fol, +lol!" And he smacked himself, and set toward an invisible partner. Nor, +as recent renowned historians have proved, are observations of this +nature beneath the dignity of chronicle. They vindicate, as they +localize, the sincerity of Hillford. + +Really, to be an islander full of ale, is to be the kindest creature on +or off two legs. For that very reason, it may be, his wrath at bad blood +is so easily aroused. In our hot moods we would desire things like unto +ourselves, and object violently to whatsoever is unlike. And also we +desire that the benefits we shed be appreciated. If Ipley understands +neither our music nor our intent, haply we must hold a performance on the +impenetrable sconce of Ipley. + +At the hour named, the expedition, with many a promise that the music +should be sweet, departed hilariously: Will Burdock, the left-handed +cricketer and hard-hitter, being leader; with Peter Bartholomew, potboy, +John Girling, miller's man, and Ned Thewk, gardener's assistant, for +lieutenants. On the march, silence was proclaimed, and partially +enforced, after two fights against authority. Near the sign of King +William's Head, General Burdock called a halt, and betrayed irresolution +with reference to the route to be adopted; but as none of his troop could +at all share such a condition of mind in the neighbourhood of an inn, he +was permitted to debate peacefully with his lieutenants, while the rest +burst through the doors and hailed the landlord: a proceeding he was +quickly induced to imitate. Thus, when the tail shows strongest decision +of purpose, the head must follow. + +An accurate oinometer, or method of determining what shall be the +condition of the spirit of man according to the degrees of wine or beer +in him, were surely of priceless service to us. For now must we, to be +certain of our sanity and dignity, abstain, which is to clip, impoverish, +imprison the soul: or else, taking wings of wine, we go aloft over capes, +and islands, and seas, but are even as balloons that cannot make for any +line, and are at the mercy of the winds--without a choice, save to come +down by virtue of a collapse. Could we say to ourselves, in the great +style, This is the point where desire to embrace humanity is merged in +vindictiveness toward individuals: where radiant sweet temper culminates +in tremendous wrath: where the treasures of anticipation, waxing riotous, +arouse the memory of wrongs: in plain words, could we know positively, +and from the hand of science, when we have had enough, we should stop. +There is not a doubt that we should stop. It is so true we should stop, +that, I am ready to say, ladies have no right to call us horrid names, +and complain of us, till they have helped us to some such trustworthy +scientific instrument as this which I have called for. In its absence, I +am persuaded that the true natural oinometer is the hat. Were the hat +always worn during potation; were ladies when they retire to place it on +our heads, or, better still, chaplets of flowers; then, like the wise +ancients, we should be able to tell to a nicety how far we had advanced +in our dithyramb to the theme of fuddle and muddle. Unhappily the hat +does not forewarn: it is simply indicative. I believe, nevertheless, +that science might set to work upon it forthwith, and found a system. +When you mark men drinking who wear their hats, and those hats are seen +gradually beginning to hang on the backs of their heads, as from pegs, in +the fashion of a fez, the bald projection of forehead looks jolly and +frank: distrust that sign: the may-fly of the soul is then about to be +gobbled up by the chub of the passions. A hat worn fez-fashion is a +dangerous hat. A hat on the brows shows a man who can take more, but +thinks he will go home instead, and does so, peaceably. That is his +determination. He may look like Macduff, but he is a lamb. The vinous +reverses the non-vinous passionate expression of the hat. If I am +discredited, I appeal to history, which tells us that the hats of the +Hillford five-and-twenty were all exceedingly hind-ward-set when the +march was resumed. It followed that Peter Bartholomew, potboy, made +irritable objections to that old joke which finished his name as though +it were a cat calling, and the offence being repeated, he dealt an +impartial swing of his stick at divers heads, and told them to take that, +which they assured him they had done by sending him flying into a hedge. +Peter, being reprimanded by his commanding officer, acknowledged a hot +desire to try his mettle, and the latter responsible person had to be +restrained from granting the wish he cherished by John Girling, whom he +threw for his trouble and as Burdock was the soundest hitter, numbers +cried out against Girling, revolting him with a sense of overwhelming +injustice that could be appeased only by his prostrating two stout lads +and squaring against a third, who came up from a cross-road. This one +knocked him down with the gentleness of a fist that knows how Beer should +be treated, and then sang out, in the voice of Wilfrid Pole: "Which is +the nearest way to Ipley, you fellows?" + +"Come along with us, sir, and we'll show you," said Burdock. + +"Are you going there?" + +"Well, that's pretty clear." + +"Hillford men, are you?" + +"We've left the women behind." + +"I'm in a hurry, so, good night." + +"And so are we in a hurry, sir. But, you're a gentleman, and we want to +give them chaps at Ipley a little surprise, d'ye see, in the way of a +dollop o' music: and if you won't go givin' 'em warning, you may trot; +and that road'll take you." + +"All right," said Wilfrid, now fairly divided between his jealousy of +Gambier and anxiety for Emilia. + +Could her artist nature, of which he had heard perplexing talk, excuse +her and make her heart absolutely guiltless (what he called 'innocent'), +in trusting herself to any man's honour? I regret to say that the dainty +adorers of the sex are even thus grossly suspicious of all women when +their sentiment is ever so triflingly offended. + +Lights on Ipley Common were seen from a rise of the hilly road. The moon +was climbing through drifts of torn black cloud. Hastening his pace, for +a double reason now, Wilfrid had the booth within hearing, listened a +moment; and then stood fast. His unconscious gasp of the words: "Thank +God; there she is!" might have betrayed him to another. + +She was sitting near one end of the booth, singing as Wilfrid had never +yet heard her sing: her dark eyes flashing. Behind her stood Captain +Gambier, keeping guard with all the composure of a gentleman-usher at a +royal presentation. Along the tables, men and women were ranged facing +her; open-mouthed, some of them but for the most part wearing a +predetermined expression of applausive judgement, as who should say, +"Queer, but good." They gave Emilia their faces, which was all she +wanted! and silence, save for an intermingling soft snore, here and +there, the elfin trumpet of silence. To tell truth, certain heads had +bowed low to the majesty of beer, and were down on the table between +sprawling doubled arms. No essay on the power of beer could exhibit it +more convincingly than, the happy indifference with which they received +admonishing blows from quart-pots, salutes from hot pipe-bowls, pricks +from pipe-ends, on nose, and cheek, and pate; as if to vindicate for +their beloved beverage a right to rank with that old classic drink +wherewith the fairest of women vanquished human ills. The majority, +however, had been snatched out of this bliss by the intrusion of their +wives, who sat beside them like Consciences in petticoats; and it must be +said that Emilia was in favour with the married men, for one reason, +because she gave these broad-ribboned ladies a good excuse for allowing +their lords to stop where they were so comfortable, a continually- +extending five minutes longer. + +Yet, though the words were foreign and the style of the song and the +singer were strange, many of the older fellows' eyes twinkled, and their +mouths pursed with a kind of half-protesting pleasure. All were reverent +to the compliment paid them by Emilia's presence. The general expression +was much like that seen when the popular ear is given to the national +anthem. Wilfrid hung at the opening of the booth, a cynical spectator. +For what on earth made her throw such energy, and glory of music, into a +song before fellows like these? He laughed dolorously. "she hasn't a +particle of any sense of ridicule," he said to himself. Forthwith her +voice took hold of him, and led him as heroes of old were led unwillingly +into enchanted woods. If she had been singing things holy, a hymn, a +hallelujah, in this company, it struck him that somehow it would have +seemed appropriate; not objectionable; at any rate, not ridiculous. Dr. +Watts would have put a girdle about her; but a song of romance sung in +this atmosphere of pipes and beer and boozy heads, chagrined Wilfrid in +proportion as the softer half of him began to succumb to the +deliciousness of her voice. + +Emilia may have had some warning sense that admiration is only one +ingredient of homage, that to make it fast and true affection must be +won. Now, poor people, yokels, clods, cannot love what is +incomprehensible to them. An idol must have their attributes: a king +must show his face now and then: a song must appeal to their +intelligence, to subdue them quite. This, as we know, is not the case in +the higher circles. Emilia may have divined it: possibly from the very +great respect with which her finale was greeted. Vigorous as the +"Brayvos" were, they sounded abashed: they lacked abandonment. In fact, +it was gratitude that applauded, and not enthusiasm. "Hillford don't +hear stuff like that, do 'em?" which was the main verbal encomium passed, +may be taken testificatorily as to this point. + +"Dame! dame!" cried Emilia, finding her way quickly to one of the more +decently-bonneted women; "am I not glad to see you here! Did I please +you? And you, dear Farmer Wilson? I caught sight of you just as I was +finishing. I remember the song you like, and I want to sing it. I know +the tune, but the words! the words! what are the words? Humming won't +do." + +"Ah, now!" quoth Farmer Wilson, pointing out the end of his pipe, "that's +what they'll swallow down; that's the song to make 'em kick. Sing that, +miss. Furrin songs 's all right enough; but 'Ale it is my tipple, and +England is my nation!' Let's have something plain and flat on the +surface, miss." + +Dame Wilson jogged her husband's arm, to make him remember that talking +was his dangerous pastime, and sent abroad a petition for a song-book; +and after a space a very doggy-eared book, resembling a poodle of that +genus, was handed to her. Then uprose a shout for this song and that; +but Emilia fixed upon the one she had in view, and walked back to her +harp, with her head bent, perusing it attentively all the way. There, +she gave the book to Captain Gambier, and begged him to hold it open +before her, with a passing light of eyes likely to be rather disturbing +to a jealous spectator. The Captain seized the book without wincing, and +displayed a remarkable equanimity of countenance as he held it out, +according to direction. No sooner had Emilia struck a prelude of the +well-known air, than the interior of the booth was transfigured; legs +began to move, elbows jerked upward, fingers fillipped: the whole body of +them were ready to duck and bow, dance, and do her bidding she had fairly +caught their hearts. For, besides the pleasure they had in their own +familiar tune, it was wonderful to them that Emilia should know what they +knew. This was the marvel, this the inspiration. She smiled to see how +true she had struck, and seemed to swim on the pleasure she excited. +Once, as her voice dropped, she looked up at Captain Gambier, so very +archly, with the curving line of her bare throat, that Wilfrid was +dragged down from his cynical observatory, and made to feel as a common +man among them all. + +At the "thrum-thrum" on the harp-strings, which wound up the song, +frenzied shouts were raised for a repetition. Emilia was perfectly +willing to gratify them; Captain Gambier appeared to be remonstrating +with her, but she put up her joined hands, +mock-petitioningly, and he with great affability held out the book anew. +Wilfrid was thinking of moving to her to take her forcibly away when she +recommenced. + +At the same instant--but who, knowing that a house of glass is about to +be shattered, can refrain from admiring its glitter in the beams?--Ipley +crooned a ready accompaniment: the sleepers had been awakened: the women +and the men were alive, half-dancing, half-chorusing here a baby was +tossed, and there an old fellow's elbow worked mutely, expressive of the +rollicking gaiety within him: the whole length of the booth was in a +pleasing simmer, ready to overboil with shouts humane and cheerful, while +Emilia pitched her note and led; archly, and quite one with them all, and +yet in a way that critical Wilfrid could not object to, so plainly did +she sing to give happiness. + +I cannot delay; but I request you, that are here privileged to soar aloft +with the Muse, to fix your minds upon one point in this flight. Let not +the heat and dust of the ensuing fray divert your attention from the +magnanimity of Beer. It will be vindicated in the end but be worthy of +your seat beside the Muse, who alone of us all can take one view of the +inevitable two that perplex mortal judgements. + +For, if Ipley had jumped jovially up, and met the Hillford alarum with +laughter,--how then? Why, then I maintain that the magnanimity of Beer +would have blazed effulgent on the spot: there would have been louder +laughter and fraternal greetings. As it was, the fire on the altar of +Wisdom was again kindled by Folly, and the steps to the altar were broken +heads, after the antique fashion. + +In dismay, Ipley started. The members of the Club stared. Emilia +faltered in horror. + +A moment her voice swam stemming the execrable concert, but it was +overwhelmed. Wilfrid pressed forward to her. They could hear nothing +but the din. The booth raged like an insurgent menagerie. Outside it +sounded of brazen beasts, and beasts that whistled, beasts that boomed. +A whirlwind huddled them, and at last a cry, "We've got a visit from +Hillford," told a tale. At once the stoutest hearts pressed to the +opening. "My harp!" Emilia made her voice reach Wilfrid's ear. +Unprovided with weapons, Ipley parleyed. Hillford howled in reply. The +trombone brayed an interminable note, that would have driven to madness +quiescent cats by steaming kettles, and quick, like the springing pulse +of battle, the drum thumped and thumped. Blood could not hear it and +keep from boiling. The booth shook violently. Wilfrid and Gambier threw +over half-a-dozen chairs, forms, and tables, to make a barrier for the +protection of the women. + +"Come," Wilfrid said to Emilia, "leave the harp, I will get you another. +Come." + +"No, no," she cried in her nervous fright. + +"For God's sake, come!" he reiterated, she, stamping her foot, as to +emphasize "No! no! no!" + +"But I will buy you another harp;" he made audible to her through the +hubbub. + +"This one!" she gasped with her hand on it. "What will he think if he +finds that I forsook it?" + +Wilfrid knew her to allude to the unknown person who had given it to her. + +"There--there," said he. "I sent it, and I can get you another. So, +come. Be good, and come." + +"It was you!" + +Emilia looked at him. She seemed to have no senses for the uproar about +her. + +But now the outer barricade was broken through, and the rout pressed on +the second line. Tom Breeks, the orator, and Jim, transformed from a +lurching yokel to a lithe dog of battle, kept the retreat of Ipley, +challenging any two of Hillford to settle the dispute. Captain Gambier +attempted an authoritative parley, in the midst of which a Hillford man +made a long arm and struck Emilia's harp, till the strings jarred loose +and horrid. The noise would have been enough to irritate Wilfrid beyond +endurance. When he saw the fellow continuing to strike the harp-frame +while Emilia clutched it, in a feeble defence, against her bosom, he +caught a thick stick from a neighbouring hand and knocked that Hillford +man so clean to earth that Hillford murmured at the blow. Wilfrid then +joined the front array. + +"Half-a-dozen hits like that a-piece, sir," nodded Tom Breeks. + +"There goes another!" Jim shouted. + +"Not quite, my lad," interposed Ned Thewk, though Peter Bartholomew was +reeling in confirmation. + +His blow at Jim missed, but came sharply in the swing on Wilfrid's cheek- +bone. + +Maddened at the immediate vision of that feature swollen, purple, even as +a plum with an assiduous fly on it, certifying to ripeness:--Says the +philosopher, "We are never up to the mark of any position, if we are in a +position beneath our own mark;" and it is true that no hero in conflict +should think of his face, but Wilfrid was all the while protesting +wrathfully against the folly of his having set foot in such a place:-- +Maddened, I say, Wilfrid, a keen swordman, cleared a space. John Girling +fell to him: Ned Thewk fell to him, and the sconce of Will Burdock rang. + +"A rascally absurd business!" said Gambier, letting his stick do the part +of a damnatory verb on one of the enemy, while he added, "The drunken +vagabonds!" + +All the Hillford party were now in the booth. Ipley, meantime, was not +sleeping. Farmer Wilson and a set of the Ipley men whom age had +sagaciously instructed to prefer stratagem to force, had slipped outside, +and were labouring as busily as their comrades within: stooping to the +tent-pegs, sending emissaries to the tent-poles. + +"Drunk!" roared Will Burdock. "Did you happen to say 'drunk?'" And +looking all the while at Gambier, he, with infernal cunning, swung at +Wilfrid's fated cheekbone. The latter rushed furiously into the press of +them, and there was a charge from Ipley, and a lock, from which Wilfrid +extricated himself to hurry off Emilia. He perceived that bad blood was +boiling up. + +"Forward!" cried Will Burdock, and Hillford in turn made a tide. + +As they came on in numbers too great for Ipley to stand against, an +obscuration fell over all. The fight paused. Then a sensation as of +some fellows smoothing their polls and their cheeks, and leaning on their +shoulders with obtrusive affection, inspirited them to lash about +indiscriminately. Whoops and yells arose; then peals of laughter. +Homage to the cleverness of Ipley was paid in hurrahs, the moment +Hillford understood the stratagem by which its men of valour were lamed +and imprisoned. The truth was, that the booth was down on them, and they +were struggling entangled in an enormous bag of canvas. + +Wilfrid drew Emilia from under the drooping folds of the tent. He was +allowed, on inspection of features, to pass. The men of Hillford were +captured one by one like wild geese, as with difficulty they emerged, +roaring, rolling with laughter, all. + +Yea; to such an extent did they laugh that they can scarce be said to +have done less than make the joke of the foe their own. And this proves +the great and amazing magnanimity of Beer. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A pillar of dim silver rain fronted the moon on the hills. Emilia walked +hurriedly, with her head bent, like a penitent: now and then peeping up +and breathing to the keen scent of the tender ferns. Wilfrid still +grasped her hand, and led her across the common, away from the rout. + +When the uproar behind them had sunk, he said "You'll get your feet wet. +I'm sorry you should have to walk. How did you come here?" + +She answered: "I forget." + +"You must have come here in some conveyance. Did you walk?" + +Again she answered: "I forget;" a little querulously; perhaps wilfully. + +"Well!" he persisted: "You must have got your harp to this place by some +means or other?" + +"Yes, my harp!" a sob checked her voice. + +Wilfrid tried to soothe her. "Never mind the harp. It's easily +replaced." + +"Not that one!" she moaned. + +"We will get you another." + +"I shall never love any but that." + +"Perhaps we may hear good news of it to-morrow." + +"No; for I felt it die in my hands. The third blow was the one that +killed it. It's broken." + +Wilfrid could not reproach her, and he had not any desire to preach. So, +as no idea of having done amiss in coming to the booth to sing illumined +her, and she yet knew that she was in some way guilty, she accused +herself of disregard for that dear harp while it was brilliant and +serviceable. "Now I remember what poor music I made of it! I touched it +with cold fingers. The sound was thin, as if it had no heart. Tick- +tick!--I fancy I touched it with a dead man's finger-nails." + +She crossed her wrists tight at the clasp of her waist, and letting her +chin fall on her throat, shook her body fretfully, much as a pettish +little girl might do. Wilfrid grimaced. "Tick-tick" was not a pathetic +elegy in his ears. + +"The only thing is, not to think about it," said he. "It's only an +instrument, after all." + +"It's the second one I've seen killed like a living creature," replied +Emilia. + +They walked on silently, till Wilfrid remarked, that he wondered where +Gambier was. She gave no heed to the name. The little quiet footing and +the bowed head by his side, moved him to entreat her not to be unhappy. +Her voice had another tone when she answered that she was not unhappy. + +"No tears at all?" Wilfrid stooped to get a close view of her face. "I +thought I saw one. If it's about the harp, look!--you shall go into that +cottage where the light is, sit there, and wait for me, and I will bring +you what remains of it. I dare say we can have it mended." + +Emilia lifted her eyes. "I am not crying for the harp. If you go back I +must go with you." + +"That's out of the question. You must never be found in that sort of +place again." + +"Let us leave the harp," she murmured. "You cannot go without me. Let +me sit here for a minute. Sit with me." + +She pointed to a place beside herself on the fork of a dry log under +flowering hawthorn. A pale shadowy blue centre of light among the clouds +told where the moon was. Rain had ceased, and the refreshed earth smelt +all of flowers, as if each breeze going by held a nosegay to their +nostrils. + +Wilfrid was sensible of a sudden marked change in her. His blood was +quicker than his brain in feeling it. Her voice now, even in common +speaking, had that vibrating richness which in her singing swept his +nerves. + +"If you cry, there must be a cause, you know," he said, for the sake of +keeping the conversation in a safe channel. + +"How brave you are!" was Emilia's sedate exclamation, in reply. + +Her cheeks glowed, as if she had just uttered a great confession, but +while the colour mounted to her eyes, they kept their affectionate +intentness upon him without a quiver of the lids. + +"Do you think me a coward?" she relieved him by asking sharply, like one +whom the thought had turned into a darker path. "I am not. I hung my +head while you were fighting, because, what could I do? I would not have +left you. Girls can only say, "I will perish with him." + +"But," Wilfrid tried to laugh, "there was no necessity for that sort of +devotion. What are you thinking of? It was half in good-humour, all +through. Part of their fun!" + +Clearly Emilia's conception of the recent fray was unchangeable. + +"And the place for girls is at home; that's certain," he added. + +"I should always like to be where..." Her voice flowed on with singular +gravity to that stop. + +Wilfrid's hand travelled mechanically to his pricking cheek-bone. + +Was it possible that a love-scene was coming on as a pendant to that +monstrously ridiculous affair of half-an-hour back? To know that she had +sufficient sensibility was gratifying, and flattering that it aimed at +him. She was really a darling little woman: only too absurd! Had she +been on the point of saying that she would always like to be where he, +Wilfrid, was? An odd touch of curiosity, peculiar to the languid +emotions, made him ask her this: and to her soft "Yes," he continued +briskly, and in the style of condescending fellowship: "Of course we're +not going to part!" + +"I wonder," said Emilia. + +There she sat, evidently sounding right through the future with her young +brain, to hear what Destiny might have to say. + +The 'I wonder' rang sweetly in his head. It was as delicate a way of +confessing, "I love you with all my soul," as could be imagined. +Extremely refined young ladies could hardly have improved upon it, saving +with the angelic shades of sentiment familiar to them. + +Convinced that he had now heard enough for his vanity, Wilfrid returned +emphatically to the tone of the world's highroad. + +"By the way," he said, "you mustn't have any exaggerated idea of this +night's work. Remember, also, I have to share the honours with Captain +Gambier." + +"I did not see him," said Emilia. + +"Are you not cold?" he asked, for a diversion, though he had one of her +hands. + +She gave him the other. + +He could not quit them abruptly: nor could he hold both without being +drawn to her. + +"What is it you say?" Wilfrid whispered: "men kiss us when we are happy. +Is that right? and are you happy?" + +She lifted a clear full face, to which he bent his mouth. Over the +flowering hawthorn the moon stood like a windblown white rose of the +heavens. The kiss was given and taken. Strange to tell, it was he who +drew away from it almost bashfully, and with new feelings. + +Quite unaware that he played the feminine part, Wilfrid alluded to her +flight from Richford, with the instinct to sting his heart by a revival +of his jealous sensations previously experienced, and so taste the luxury +of present satisfaction. + +"Why did you run away from me?" he said, semi-reproachfully. + +"I promised." + +"Would you not break a promise to stay with me?" + +"Now I would!" + +"You promised Captain Gambier?" + +"No: those poor people." + +"You are sorry that you went?" + +No: she was happy. + +"You have lost your harp by it," said Wilfrid. + +"What do you think of me for not guessing--not knowing who sent it?" she +returned. "I feel guilty of something all those days that I touched it, +not thinking of you. Wicked, filthy little creature that I was! I +despise ungrateful girls." + +"I detest anything that has to do with gratitude," Wilfrid appended, +"pray give me none. Why did you go away with Captain Gambier?" + +"I was very fond of him," she replied unhesitatingly, but speaking as it +were with numbed lips. "I wanted to tell him, to thank him and hold his +hand. I told him of my promise. He spoke to me a moment in the garden, +you know. He said he was leaving to go to London early, and would wait +for me in the carriage: then we might talk. He did not wish to talk to +me in the garden." + +"And you went with him in the carriage, and told him you were so +grateful?" + +"Yes; but men do not like us to be grateful." + +"So, he said he would do all sorts of things on condition that you were +not grateful?" + +"He said--yes: I forget: I do forget! How can I tell what he said?" +Emilia added piteously. "I feel as if I had been emptied out of a sack!" + +Wilfrid was pierced with laughter; and then the plainspoken simile gave +him a chilling sensation while he was rising to the jealous pitch. + +"Did he talk about taking you to Italy? Put your head into the sack, and +think!" + +"Yes," she answered blandly, an affirmative that caused him some +astonishment, for he had struck at once to the farthest end of his +suspicions. + +"He feels as I do about the Italian Schools," said Emilia. "He wishes me +to owe my learning to him. He says it will make him happy, and I thought +so too." She threw in a "then." + +Wilfrid looked moodily into the opposite hedge. + +"Did he name the day for your going?" he asked presently, little +anticipating another "Yes": but it came: and her rather faltering manner +showed her to be conscious too that the word was getting to be a black +one to him. + +"Did you say you would go?" + +"I did." + +Question and answer crossed like two rapiers. + +Wilfrid jumped up. + +"The smell of this tree's detestable," he said, glancing at the shadowing +hawthorn. + +Emilia rose quietly, plucked a flower off the tree, and put it in her +bosom. + +Their way was down a green lane and across long meadow-paths dim in the +moonlight. A nightingale was heard on this side and on that. Overhead +they had a great space of sky with broken cloud full of the glory of the +moon. The meadows dipped to a brook, slenderly spanned by a plank. Then +there was an ascent through a cornfield to a copse. Rounding this they +had sight of Brookfield. But while they were yet at the brook, Wilfrid +said, "When is it you're going to Italy?" + +In return he had an eager look, so that he was half-ashamed to add, "With +Captain Gambier, I mean." He was suffering, and by being brutal he +expected to draw balm on himself; nor was he deceived. + +Emilia just then gave him her hand to be led over, and answered, as she +neared him, "I am never to leave you." + +"You never shall!" Wilfrid caught her in his arms, quite conquered by +her, proud of her. He reflected with a loving rapture that her manner at +that moment was equal to any lady's; and the phantom of her with her hand +out, and her frank look, and trustful footing, while she spoke those +words, kept on advancing to him all the way to Brookfield, at the same +time that the sober reality murmured at his elbow. + +Love, with his accustomed cunning, managed thus to lift her out of the +mire and array her in his golden dress to idealize her, as we say. +Reconciled for the hour were the contesting instincts in the nature of +this youth the adoration of feminine refinement and the susceptibility to +sensuous impressions. But Emilia walked with a hero: the dream of all +her days! one, generous and gentle, as well as brave: who had fought for +her, had thought of her tenderly, was with her now, having raised her to +his level with a touch! How much might they not accomplish together: he +with sword, she with harp? Through shadowy alleys in the clouds, Emilia +saw the bright Italian plains opening out to her: the cities of marble, +such as her imagination had fashioned them, porticos of stately palaces, +and towers, and statues white among cypresses; and farther, minutely- +radiant in the vista as a shining star, Venice of the sea. Fancy made +the flying minutes hours. Now they marched with the regiments of Italy, +under the folds of her free banner; now she sang to the victorious army, +waving the banner over them; and now she floated in a gondola, and +turning to him, the dear home of her heart, yet pale with the bleeding of +his wound for Italy, said softly, in the tone that had power with him, +"Only let me please you!" + +"When? Where? What with?" came the blunt response from England, with +electric speed, and Emilia fell from the clouds. + +"I meant my singing; I thought of how I sang to you. Oh, happy time!" +she exclaimed, to cut through the mist of vision in her mind. + +"To me? down at the booth?" muttered Wilfrid, perplexed. + +"Oh, no! I mean, just now--" and languid with the burden of so full a +heart, she did not attempt to explain herself further, though he said, +invitingly, "I thought I heard you humming?" + +Then he was seized with a desire to have the force of her spirit upon +him, for Brookfield was in view; and with the sight of Brookfield, the +natural fascination waxed a shade fainter, and he feared it might be +going. This (he was happily as ignorant as any other youth of the +working of his machinery) prompted him to bid her sing before they +parted. Emilia checked her steps at once to do as he desired. Her +throat filled, but the voice quavered down again, like a fainting +creature sick unto death. She made another effort and ended with a +sorrowful look at his narrowly-watching eyes. + +"I can't," she said; and, in fear of his anger, took his hand to beg +forgiveness, while her eyelids drooped. + +Wilfrid locked her fingers in a strong pressure, and walked on, silent as +a man who has faced one of the veiled mysteries of life. It struck a +full human blow on his heart, dragging him out of his sentimental +pastures precipitately. He felt her fainting voice to be the intensest +love-cry that could be uttered. The sound of it coursed through his +blood, striking a rare illumination of sparks in his not commonly +brilliant brain. In truth, that little episode showed an image of nature +weak with the burden of new love. I do not charge the young cavalry +officer with the power of perceiving images. He saw no more than that +she could not sing because of what was in her heart toward him; but such +a physical revelation was a divine love-confession, coming involuntarily +from one whose lips had not formed the name of love; and Wilfrid felt it +so deeply, that the exquisite flattery was almost lost, in a certain awed +sense of his being in the presence of an absolute fact: a thing real, +though it was much talked about, and visible, though it did not wear a +hat or a petticoat. + +It searched him thoroughly enough to keep him from any further pledges in +that direction, propitious as the moment was, while the moon slipped over +banks of marble into fields of blue, and all the midnight promised +silence. They passed quickly through the laurel shrubs, and round the +lawn. Lights were in the sleepless ladies' bed-room windows. + +"Do I love her?" thought Wilfrid, as he was about to pull at the bell, +and the thought that he should feel pain at being separated from her for +half-a-dozen hours, persuaded him that he did. The self-restraint which +withheld him from protesting that he did, confirmed it. + +"To-morrow morning," he whispered. + +"I shall be down by daylight," answered Emilia. + +"You are in the shade--I cannot see you," said he. + +The door opened as Emilia was moving out of the line of shadow. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +On the morrow Wilfrid was gone. No one had seen him go. Emilia, while +she touched the keys of a muted piano softly in the morning quiet of the +house, had heard the front-door close. At that hour one attributes every +noise to the servants. She played on and waited patiently, till the +housemaid expelled her into the dewy air. + +The report from his bedchamber, telling the ladies of his absence, added +that he had taken linen for a lengthened journey. + +This curious retreat of my hero belongs to the order of things that are +done 'None know why;' a curtain which drops conveniently upon either the +bewilderment of the showman or the infirmities of the puppet. + +I must own (though I need not be told what odium frowns on such a +pretension to excess of cleverness) that I do know why. I know why, and, +unfortunately for me, I have to tell what I know. If I do not tell, this +narrative is so constituted that there will be no moral to it. + +One who studies man in puppets (in which purpose lies the chief value of +this amusing species), must think that we are degenerating rapidly. The +puppet hero, for instance, is a changed being. We know what he was; but +now he takes shelter in his wits. His organs affect his destiny. +Careless of the fact that the hero's achievement is to conquer nature, he +seems rather to boast of his subservience to her. + +Still, up to this day, the fixture of a nose upon the puppet-hero's +frontispiece has not been attempted. Some one does it at last. When the +alternative came: "No nose to the hero, no moral to the tale;" could +there be hesitation? + +And I would warn our sentimentalists to admit the nose among the features +proper to heroes, otherwise the race will become extinct. There is +already an amount of dropping of the curtain that is positively +wearisome, even to extremely refined persons, in order to save him from +apparent misconduct. He will have to go altogether, unless we boldly +figure him as other men. Manifestly the moment his career as a fairy +prince was at end, he was on the high road to a nose. The beneficent +Power that discriminated for him having vanished utterly, he was, like a +bankrupt gentleman, obliged to do all the work for himself. This is +nothing more than the tendency of the generations downward from the +ideal. + +The springs that moved Wilfrid upon the present occasion were simple. We +will strip him of his heroic trappings for one fleeting instant, and show +them. + +Jumping briskly from a restless bed, his first act was to address his +features to the looking-glass: and he saw surely the most glorious sight +for a hero of the knightly age that could possibly have been offered. +The battle of the previous night was written there in one eloquent big +lump, which would have passed him current as hero from end to end of the +land in the great days of old. These are the tea-table days. His +preference was for the visage of Wilfrid Pole, which he saw not. At the +aspect of the fearful mask, this young man stared, and then cursed; and +then, by an odd transition, he was reminded, as by the force of a sudden +gust, that Emilia's hair was redolent of pipe-smoke. + +His remark was, "I can't be seen in this state." His thought (a dim +reminiscence of poetical readings): "Ambrosial locks indeed!" A sad +irony, which told that much gold-leaf had peeled away from her image in +his heart. + +Wilfrid was a gallant fellow, with good stuff in him. But, he was young. +Ponder on that pregnant word, for you are about to see him grow. He was +less a coxcomb than shamefaced and sentimental; and one may have these +qualities, and be a coxcomb to boot, and yet be a gallant fellow. One +may also be a gallant fellow, and harsh, exacting, double-dealing, and I +know not what besides, in youth. The question asked by nature is, "Has +he the heart to take and keep an impression?" For, if he has, +circumstances will force him on and carve the figure of a brave man out +of that mass of contradictions. In return for such benefits, he pays +forfeit commonly of the dearest of the things prized by him in this +terrestrial life. Whereat, albeit created man by her, he reproaches +nature, and the sculptor, circumstance; forgetting that to make him man +is their sole duty, and that what betrayed him was the difficulty thrown +in their way by his quondam self--the pleasant boonfellow! + +He forgets, in fact, that he was formerly led by his nose, and sacrificed +his deeper feeling to a low disgust. + +When the youth is called upon to look up, he can adore devoutly and +ardently; but when it is his chance to look down on a fair head, he is, +if not worse, a sentimental despot. + +Wilfrid was young, and under the dominion of his senses; which can be, if +the sentimentalists will believe me, as tyrannous and misleading when +super-refined as when ultra-bestial. He made a good stout effort to +resist the pipe-smoke. Emilia's voice, her growing beauty, her +simplicity, her peculiar charms of feature, were all conjured up to +combat the dismal images suggested by that fatal, dragging-down smell. +It was vain. Horrible pipe-smoke pervaded the memory of her. It seemed +to his offended dainty fancy that he could never dissociate her from +smoking-booths and abominably bad tobacco; and, let us add (for this was +part of the secret), that it never could dwell on her without the +companionship of a hideous disfigured countenance, claiming to be Wilfrid +Pole. He shuddered to think that he had virtually almost engaged himself +to this girl. Or, had he? Was his honour bound? Distance appeared to +answer the question favourably. There was safety in being distant from +her. She possessed an incomprehensible attractiveness. She was at once +powerful and pitiable: so that while he feared her, and was running from +her spell, he said, from time to time, "Poor little thing!" and deeply +hoped she would not be unhappy. + +A showman once (a novice in his art, or ambitious beyond the mark), after +a successful exhibition of his dolls, handed them to the company, with +the observation, "satisfy yourselves, ladies and gentlemen." The latter, +having satisfied themselves that the capacity of the lower limbs was +extraordinary, returned them, disenchanted. That showman did ill. But I +am not imitating him. I do not wait till after the performance, when it +is too late to revive illusion. To avoid having to drop the curtain, I +choose to explain an act on which the story hinges, while it is +advancing: which is, in truth, an impulse of character. Instead of his +being more of a puppet, this hero is less wooden than he was. Certainly +I am much more in awe of him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Mr. Pole was one of those men whose characters are read off at a glance. +He was neat, insignificant, and nervously cheerful; with the eyes of a +bird, that let you into no interior. His friends knew him thoroughly. +His daughters were never in doubt about him. At the period of the +purchase of Brookfield he had been excitable and feverish, but that was +ascribed to the projected change in his habits, and the stern necessity +for an occasional family intercommunication on the subject of money. He +had a remarkable shyness of this theme, and reversed its general +treatment; for he would pay, but would not talk of it. If it had to be +discussed with the ladies, he puffed, and blinked, and looked so much +like a culprit that, though they rather admired him for what seemed to +them the germ of a sense delicate above his condition, they would have +said of any man they had not known so perfectly, that he had painful +reasons for wishing to avoid it. Now that they spoke to him of Besworth, +assuring him that they were serious in their desire to change their +residence, the fit of shyness was manifested, first in outrageous praise +of Brookfield, which was speedily and inexplicably followed by a sort of +implied assent to the proposition to depart from it. For Besworth +displayed numerous advantages over Brookfield, and to contest one was to +plunge headlong into the money question. He ventured to ask his +daughters what good they expected from the change. They replied that it +was simply this: that one might live fifty years at Brookfield and not +get such a circle as in two might be established at Besworth. They were +restricted. They had gathering friends, and no means of bringing them +together. And the beauty of the site of Besworth made them enthusiastic. + +"Well, but," said Mr. Pole: "what does it lead to? Is there nothing to +come after?" + +He explained: "You're girls, you know. You won't always stop with me. +You may do just as well at Brookfield for yourselves, as over there." + +The ladies blushed demurely. + +"You forecast very kindly for us, papa," said Cornelia. "Our object is +entirely different." + +"I wish I could see it," he returned. + +"But, you do see, papa, you do see," interposed Adela, "that a select +life is preferable to that higgledy-piggledy city-square existence so +many poor creatures are condemned to!" + +"Select!" said Mr. Pole, thinking that he had hit upon a weakness in +their argument; "how can it be select when you want to go to a place +where you may have a crowd about you?" + +"Selection can only be made from a crowd," remarked Arabella, with +terrible placidity. "It is where we see few that we are at the mercy of +kind fortune for our acquaintances." + +"Don't you see, papa, that the difference between the aristocracy and the +bourgeoisie is, that the former choose their sets, and the latter are +obliged to take what comes to them?" said Adela. + +This was the first domestic discussion upon Besworth. The visit to +Richford had produced the usual effect on the ladies, who were now +looking to other heights from that level. The ladies said: "We have only +to press it with papa, and we shall quit this place." But at the second +discussion they found that they had not advanced. The only change was in +the emphasis that their father added to the interrogations already +uttered. "What does it lead to? What's to come after? I see your +object. But, am I to go into a new house for the sake of getting you out +of it, and then be left there alone? It's against your interests, too. +Never mind how. Leave that to a business man. If your brother had +proposed it...but he's too reasonable." + +The ladies, upon this hint, wrote to Wilfrid to obtain his concurrence +and assistance. He laughed when he read the simple sentence: "We hope +you will not fancy that we have any peculiar personal interest in view;" +and replied to them that he was sure they had none: that he looked upon +Besworth with favour, "and I may inform you," he pursued, "that your +taste is heartily applauded by Lady Charlotte Chillingworth, she bids me +tell you." The letter was dated from Stornley, the estate of the marquis, +Lady Charlotte's father. Her ladyship's brother was a member of +Wilfrid's Club. "He calls Besworth the most habitable place in the +county, and promises to be there as many months out of the twelve as you +like to have him. I agree with him that Stornley can't hold a candle to +it. There are three residences in England that might be preferred to it, +and, of those, two are ducal." + +The letter was a piece of that easy diplomacy which comes from habit. +The "of those, two are ducal," was masterly. It affected the imagination +of Brookfield. "Which two?" And could Besworth be brought to rival +them? Ultimately, it might be! The neighbourhood to London, too, gave +it noble advantages. Rapid relays of guests, and a metropolitan +reputation for country attractions, would distinguish Besworth above most +English houses. A house where all the chief celebrities might be +encountered: a house under suave feminine rule; a house, a home, to a +chosen set, and a refreshing fountain to a widening circle! + +"We have a dispute," they wrote playfully to Wilfrid "a dispute we wish +you or Lady Charlotte to settle. I, Arabella, know nothing of trout. I, +Cornelia, know nothing of river-beds. I, Adela, know nothing of +engineering. But, we are persuaded, the latter, that the river running +for a mile through Besworth grounds may be deepened: we are persuaded, +the intermediate, that the attempt will damage the channel: we are +persuaded, the first, that all the fish will go." + +In reply, Wilfrid appeared to have taken them in earnest. "I rode over +yesterday with Lady Charlotte," he said. "We think something might be +done, without at all endangering the fish or spoiling the channel. At +all events, the idea of making the mile of broad water serviceable for +boats is too good to give up in a hurry. How about the dining-hall? I +told Lady Charlotte you were sure to insist upon a balcony for musicians. +She laughed. You will like her when you know her." + +Thus the ladies of Brookfield were led on to be more serious concerning +Besworth than they had thought of being, and began to feel that their +honour was pledged to purchase this surpassing family seat. In a +household where every want is supplied, and money as a topic utterly +banished, it is not surprising that they should have had imperial views. + +Adela was Wilfrid's favoured correspondent. She described to him gaily +the struggle with their papa. "But, if you care for Besworth, you may +calculate on it.--Or is it only for our sakes, as I sometimes think?-- +Besworth is won. Nothing but the cost of the place (to be considered you +know!) could withhold it from us; and of that papa has not uttered a +syllable, though he conjures up every possible objection to a change of +abode, and will not (perhaps, poor dear, cannot) see what we intend doing +in the world. Now, you know that rich men invariably make the question +of the cost their first and loudest outcry. I know that to be the case. +They call it their blood. Papa seems indifferent to this part of the +affair. He does not even allude to it. Still, we do not progress. It +is just possible that the Tinleys have an eye on beautiful Besworth. +Their own place is bad enough, but good enough for them. Give them +Besworth, and they will sit upon the neighbourhood. We shall be invaded +by everything that is mean and low, and a great chance will be gone for +us. I think I may say, for the county. The country? Our advice is, +that you write to papa one of your cleverest letters. We know, darling, +what you can do with the pen as well as the sword. Write word that you +have written." + +Wilfrid's reply stated that he considered it unadviseable that he should +add his voice to the request, for the present. + +The ladies submitted to this quietly until they heard from their father +one evening at dinner that he had seen Wilfrid in the city. + +"He doesn't waste his time like some young people I know," said Mr. Pole, +with a wink. + +"Papa; is it possible?" cried Adela. + +"Everything's possible, my dear." + +"Lady Charlotte?" + +"There is a Lady Charlotte." + +"Who would be Lady Charlotte still, whatever occurred!" + +Mr. Pole laughed. "No, no. You get nothing out of me. All I say is, be +practical. The sun isn't always shining." + +He appeared to be elated with some secret good news. + +"Have you been over to Besworth, the last two or three days?" he asked. + +The ladies smiled radiantly, acknowledging Wilfrid's wonderful persuasive +powers, in their hearts. + +"No, papa; we have not been," said Adela. "We are always anxious to go, +as I think you know." + +The merchant chirped over his glass. "Well, well! There's a way." + +"Straight?" + +"Over a gate; ha, ha!" + +His gaiety would have been perplexing, but for the allusion to Lady +Charlotte. + +The sisters, in their unfailing midnight consultation, persuaded one +another that Wilfrid had become engaged to that lady. They wrote +forthwith Fine Shades to him on the subject. His answer was Boeotian, +and all about Besworth. "Press it now," he said, "if you really want it. +The iron is hot. And above all things, let me beg you not to be +inconsiderate to the squire, when he and I are doing all we can for you. +I mean, we are bound to consider him, if there should happen to be +anything he wishes us to do." + +What could the word 'inconsiderate' imply? The ladies were unable to +summon an idea to solve it. They were sure that no daughters could be +more perfectly considerate and ready to sacrifice everything to their +father. In the end, they deputed the volunteering Adela to sit with him +in the library, and put the question of Besworth decisively, in the name +of all. They, meantime, who had a contempt for sleep, waited aloft to +hold debate over the result of the interview. + +An hour after midnight, Adela came to them, looking pale and uncertain: +her curls seeming to drip, and her blue eyes wandering about the room, as +if she had seen a thing that kept her in a quiver between belief and +doubt. + +The two ladies drew near to her, expressing no verbal impatience, from +which the habit of government and great views naturally saved them, but +singularly curious. + +Adela's first exclamation: "I wish I had not gone," alarmed them. + +"Has any change come to papa?" breathed Arabella. + +Cornelia smiled. "Do you not know him too well?" + +An acute glance from Adela made her ask whether Besworth was to be +surrendered. + +"Oh, no! my dear. We may have Besworth." + +"Then, surely!" + +"But, there are conditions?" said Arabella. + +"Yes. Wilfrid's enigma is explained. Bella, that woman has seen papa." + +"What woman?" + +"Mrs. Chump." + +"She has our permission to see him in town, if that is any consolation to +her." + +"She has told him," continued Adela, "that no explanation, or whatever it +may be, was received by her." + +"Certainly not, if it was not sent." + +"Papa," and Adela's voice trembled, "papa will not think of Besworth,-- +not a word of it!-until--until we consent to welcome that woman here as +our guest." + +Cornelia was the first to break the silence that followed this astounding +intelligence. "Then," she said, "Besworth is not to be thought of. You +told him so?" + +Adela's head drooped. "Oh!" she cried, "what shall we do? We shall be a +laughing-stock to the neighbourhood. The house will have to be locked +up. We shall live like hermits worried by a demon. Her brogue! Do you +remember it? It is not simply Irish. It's Irish steeped in brine. It's +pickled Irish!" + +She feigned the bursting into tears of real vexation. + +"You speak," said Cornelia contemptuously, "as if we had very humbly +bowed our heads to the infection." + +"Papa making terms with us!" murmured Arabella. + +"Pray, repeat his words." + +Adela tossed her curls. "I will, as well as I can. I began by speaking +of Besworth cheerfully; saying, that if he really had no strong +affection for Brookfield, that would make him regret quitting it, we saw +innumerable advantages in the change of residence proposed. +Predilection,--not affection--that was what I said. He replied that +Besworth was a large place, and I pointed out that therein lay one of its +principal merits. I expected what would come. He alluded to the +possibility of our changing our condition. You know that idea haunts +him. I told him our opinion of the folly of the thing. I noticed that +he grew red in the face, and I said that of course marriage was a thing +ordained, but that we objected to being submerged in matrimony until we +knew who and what we were. I confess he did not make a bad reply, of its +kind. 'You're like a youngster playing truant that he may gain +knowledge.' What do you think of it?" + +"A smart piece of City-speech," was Arabella's remark: Cornelia placidly +observing, "Vulgarity never contains more than a minimum of the truth." + +"I said," Adela went on, "Think as you will, papa, we know we are right." +He looked really angry. He said, that we have the absurdest ideas--you +tell me to repeat his words--of any girls that ever existed; and then he +put a question: listen: I give it without comment: 'I dare say, you all +object to widows marrying again.' I kept myself quiet. 'Marrying again, +papa! If they marry once they might as well marry a dozen times.' It +was the best way to irritate him. I did not intend it; that is all I can +say. He jumped from his chair, rubbed his hair, and almost ran up and +down the library floor, telling me that I prevaricated. 'You object to a +widow marrying at all--that's my question!' he cried out loud. Of course +I contained my voice all the more. 'Distinctly, papa.' When I had +spoken, I could scarcely help laughing. He went like a pony that is +being broken in, crying, I don't know how many times, 'Why? What's your +reason?' You may suppose, darlings, that I decline to enter upon +explanation. If a person is dense upon a matter of pure sentiment, there +is no ground between us: he has simply a sense wanting. 'What has all +this to do with Besworth?' I asked. 'A great deal more than you fancy,' +was his answer. He seemed to speak every word at me in capital letters. +Then, as if a little ashamed, he sat down, and reached out his hand to +mine, and I saw his eyes were moist. I drew my chair nearer to him. +Now, whether I did right or wrong in this, I do not know I leave it +entirely to your judgement. If you consider how I was placed, you will +at all events excuse me. What I did was--you know, the very farthest +suspicion one has of an extreme possibility one does not mind mentioning: +I said 'Papa, if it should so happen that money is the objection to +Besworth, we will not trouble you.' At this, I can only say that he +behaved like an insane person. He denounced me as wilfully insulting him +that I might avoid one subject." + +"And what on earth can that be?" interposed Arabella. + +"You may well ask. Could a genie have guessed that Mrs. Chump was at the +bottom of it all? The conclusion of the dreadful discussion is this, +that papa offers to take the purchase of Besworth into his consideration, +if we, as I said before, will receive Mrs. Chump as our honoured guest. +I am bound to say, poor dear old man, he spoke kindly, as he always does, +and kissed me, and offered to give me anything I might want. I came from +him stupefied. I have hardly got my senses about me yet." + +The ladies caressed her, with grave looks; but neither of them showed a +perturbation of spirit like that which distressed Adela. + +"Wilfrid's meaning is now explained," said Cornelia. "He is in league +with papa; or has given in his adhesion to papa's demands, at least. He +is another example of the constant tendency in men to be what they call +'practical' at the expense of honour and sincerity." + +"I hope not," said Arabella. "In any case, that need not depress you so +seriously, darling." + +She addressed Adela. + +"Do you not see?" Adela cried, in response. "What! are you both blind to +the real significance of papa's words? I could not have believed it! Or +am I this time too acute? I pray to heaven it may be so!" + +Both ladies desired her to be explicit; Arabella, eagerly; Cornelia with +distrust. + +"The question of a widow marrying! What is this woman, whom papa wishes +to force on us as our guest? Why should he do that? Why should he +evince anxiety with regard to our opinion of the decency of widows +contemplating re-union? Remember previous words and hints when we lived +in the city!" + +"This at least you may spare us," said Cornelia, ruffling offended. + +Adela smiled in tenderness for her beauty. + +"But, it is important, if we are following a track, dear. Think over +it." + +"No!" cried Arabella. "It cannot be true. We might easily have guessed +this, if we ever dreamed of impossibilities." + +"In such cases, when appearances lean in one direction, set principles in +the opposite balance," added Cornelia. "What Adela apprehends may seem +to impend, but we know that papa is incapable of doing it. To know that, +shuts the gates of suspicion. She has allowed herself to be troubled by +a ghastly nightmare." + +Adela believed in her own judgement too completely not to be sure that +her sisters were, perhaps unknowingly, disguising a slowness of +perception they were ashamed of, by thus partially accusing her of +giddiness. She bit her lip. + +"Very well; if you have no fears whatever, you need not abandon the idea +of Besworth." + +"I abandon nothing," said Arabella. "If I have to make a choice, I take +that which is least objectionable. I am chagrined, most, at the idea +that Wilfrid has been treacherous." + +"Practical," Cornelia suggested. "You are not speaking of one of our +sex." + +Questions were then put to Adela, whether Mr. Pole had spoken in the +manner of one who was prompted: whether he hesitated as he spoke: +whether, in short, Wilfrid was seen behind his tongue. Adela resolved +that Wilfrid should have one protectress. + +"You are entirely mistaken in ascribing treachery to him," she said. "It +is papa that is changed. You may suppose it to be without any reason, if +you please. I would tell you to study him for yourselves, only I am +convinced that these special private interviews are anything but good +policy, and are strictly to be avoided, unless of course, as in the +present instance, we have something directly to do." + +Toward dawn the ladies had decreed that it was policy to be quite +passive, and provoke no word of Mrs. Chump by making any allusion to +Besworth, and by fencing with the mention of the place. + +As they rarely failed to carry out any plan deliberately conceived by +them, Mr. Pole was astonished to find that Besworth was altogether +dropped. After certain scattered attempts to bring them upon Besworth, +he shrugged, and resigned himself, but without looking happy. + +Indeed he looked so dismal that the ladies began to think he had a great +longing for Besworth. And yet he did not go there, or even praise it to +the discredit of Brookfield! They were perplexed. + +"Let me ask you how it is," said Cornelia to Mr. Barrett, "that a person +whom we know--whose actions and motives are as plain to us as though +discerned through a glass, should at times produce a completer +mystification than any other creature? Or have you not observed it?" + +"I have had better opportunities of observing it than most people," Mr. +Barren replied, with one of his saddest amused smiles. "I have come to +the conclusion that the person we know best is the one whom we never +understand." + +"You answer me with a paradox." + +"Is it not the natural attendant on an assumption?" + +"What assumption?" + +"That you know a person thoroughly." + +"May we not?" + +"Do you, when you acknowledge this 'complete mystification'?" + +"Yes." Cornelia smiled when she had said it. "And no." + +Mr. Barrett, with his eyes on her, laughed softly. "Which is paradox at +the fountain-head! But, when we say we know any one, we mean commonly +that we are accustomed to his ways and habits of mind; or, that we can +reckon on the predominant influence of his appetites. Sometimes we can +tell which impulse is likely to be the most active, and which principle +the least restraining. The only knowledge to be trusted is a grounded or +scientific study of the springs that move him, side by side with his +method of moving the springs. If you fail to do this, you have two +classes under your eyes: you have sane and madman: and it will seem to +you that the ranks of the latter are constantly being swollen in an +extraordinary manner. The customary impression, as we get older, is that +our friends are the maddest people in the world. You see, we have grown +accustomed to them; and now, if they bewilder us, our judgement, in self- +defence, is compelled to set them down lunatic." + +Cornelia bowed her stately head with gentle approving laughter. + +"They must go, or they despatch us thither," she said, while her fair +face dimpled into serenity. The remark was of a lower nature than an +intellectual discussion ordinarily drew from her: but could Mr. Barrett +have read in her heart, he might have seen that his words were beginning +to rob that organ of its native sobriety. So that when he spoke a cogent +phrase, she was silenced, and became aware of a strange exultation in her +blood that obscured grave thought. Cornelia attributed this display of +mental weakness altogether to Mr. Barrett's mental force. The +interposition of a fresh agency was undreamt of by the lady. + +Meanwhile, it was evident that Mr. Pole was a victim to one of his fevers +of shyness. He would thrum on the table, frowning; and then, as he met +the look of one of the ladies, try to disguise the thought in his head +with a forced laugh. Occasionally, he would turn toward them, as if he +had just caught a lost idea that was peculiarly precious. The ladies +drawing up to attend to the communication, had a most trivial matter +imparted to them, and away he went. Several times he said to them "You +don't make friends, as you ought;" and their repudiation of the charge +made him repeat: "You don't make friends--home friends." + +"The house can be as full as we care to have it, papa." + +"Yes, acquaintances! All very well, but I mean friends--rich friends." + +"We will think of it, papa," said Adela, "when we want money." + +"It isn't that," he murmured. + +Adela had written to Wilfrid a full account of her interview with her +father. Wilfrid's reply was laconic. "If you cannot stand a week of the +brogue, give up Besworth, by all means." He made no further allusion to +the place. They engaged an opera-box, for the purpose of holding a +consultation with him in town. He wrote evasively, but did not appear, +and the ladies, with Emilia between them, listened to every foot-fall by +the box-door, and were too much preoccupied to marvel that Emilia was +just as inattentive to the music as they were. When the curtain dropped +they noticed her dejection. + +"What ails you?" they asked. + +"Let us go out of London to-night," she whispered, and it was difficult +to persuade her that she would see Brookfield again. + +"Remember," said Adela, "it is you that run away from us, not we from +you." + +Soft chidings of this description were the only reproaches for her +naughty conduct. She seemed contrite very still and timid, since that +night of adventure. The ladies were glad to observe it, seeing that it +lent her an air of refinement, and proved her sensible to correction. + +At last Mr. Pole broke the silence. He had returned from business, +humming and rubbing his hands, like one newly primed with a suggestion +that was the key of a knotty problem. Observant Adela said: "Have you +seen Wilfrid, papa?" + +"Saw him in the morning," Mr. Pole replied carelessly. + +Mr. Barrett was at the table. + +"By the way, what do you think of our law of primogeniture?" Mr. Pole +addressed him. + +He replied with the usual allusion to a basis of aristocracy. + +"Well, it's the English system," said Mr. Pole. "That's always in its +favour at starting. I'm Englishman enough to think that. There ought to +be an entail of every decent bit of property, eh?" + +It was observed that Mr. Barrett reddened as he said, "I certainly think +that a young man should not be subject to his father's caprice." + +"Father's caprice! That isn't common. But, if you're founding a family, +you must entail." + +"We agree, sir, from my point of view, and from yours." + +"Knits the family bond, don't you think? I mean, makes the trunk of the +tree firm. It makes the girls poor, though!" + +Mr. Barrett saw that he had some confused legal ideas in his head, and +that possibly there were personal considerations in the background; so he +let the subject pass. + +When the guest had departed, Mr. Pole grew demonstrative in his paternal +caresses. He folded Adela in one arm, and framed her chin in his +fingers: marks of affection dear to her before she had outgrown them. + +"So!" he said, "you've given up Besworth, have you?" + +At the name, Arabella and Cornelia drew nearer to his chair. + +"Given up Besworth, papa? It is not we who have given it up," said +Adela. + +"Yes, you have; and quite right too. You say, 'What's the use of it, for +that's a sort of thing that always goes to the son.'" + +"You suppose, papa, that we indulge in ulterior calculations?" came from +Cornelia. + +"Well, you see, my love!--no, I don't suppose it at all. But to buy a +place and split it up after two or three years--I dare say they wouldn't +insure me for more, that's nonsense. And it seems unfair to you, as you +must think--" + +"Darling papa! we are not selfish!" it rejoiced Adela to exclaim. + +His face expressed a transparent simple-mindedness that won the +confidence of the ladies and awakened their ideal of generosity. + +"I know what you mean, papa," said Arabella. "But, we love Besworth; and +if we may enjoy the place for the time that we are all together, I shall +think it sufficient. I do not look beyond." + +Her sisters echoed the sentiment, and sincerely. They were as little +sordid as creatures could be. If deeply questioned, it would have been +found that their notion of the position Providence had placed them in (in +other words, their father's unmentioned wealth), permitted them to be as +lavish as they pleased. Mr. Pole had endowed them with a temperament +similar to his own; and he had educated it. In feminine earth it +flourished wonderfully. Shy as himself, their shyness took other forms, +and developed with warm youth. Not only did it shut them up from others +(which is the first effect of this disease), but it tyrannized over them +internally: so that there were subjects they had no power to bring their +minds to consider. Money was in the list. The Besworth question, as at +present considered, involved the money question. All of them felt that; +father and children. It is not surprising, therefore, that they hurried +over it as speedily as they could, and by a most comical exhibition of +implied comprehension of meanings and motives. + +"Of course, we're only in the opening stage of the business," said Mr. +Pole. "There's nothing decided, you know. Lots of things got to be +considered. You mean what you say, do you? Very well. And you want me +to think of it? So I will. And look, my dears, you know that--" (here +his voice grew husky, as was the case with it when touching a shy topic +even beneath the veil; but they were above suspicion) "you know that--a-- +that we must all give way a little to the other, now and then. Nothing +like being kind." + +"Pray, have no fear, papa dear!" rang the clear voice of Arabella. + +"Well, then, you're all for Besworth, even though it isn't exactly for +your own interest? All right." + +The ladies kissed him. + +"We'll each stretch a point," he continued. "We shall get on better if +we do. Much! You're a little hard on people who're not up to the mark. +There's an end to that. Even your old father will like you better." + +These last remarks were unintelligible to the withdrawing ladies. + +On the morning that followed, Mr. Pole expressed a hope that his +daughters intended to give him a good dinner that day; and he winked +humorously and kindly by which they understood him to be addressing a +sort of propitiation to them for the respect he paid to his appetite. + +"Papa," said Adela, "I myself will speak to Cook." + +She added, with a smile thrown to her sisters, without looking at them, +"I dare say, she will know who I am." + +Mr. Pole went down to his wine-cellar, and was there busy with bottles +till the carriage came for him. A bason was fetched that he might wash +off the dust and cobwebs in the passage. Having rubbed his hands briskly +with soap, he dipped his head likewise, in an oblivious fit, and then +turning round to the ladies, said, "What have I forgotten?" looking +woebegone with his dripping vacant face. "Oh, ah! I remember now;" and +he chuckled gladly. + +He had just for one moment forgotten that he was acting, and a pang of +apprehension had caught him when the water covered his face, to the +effect that he must forfeit the natural artistic sequence of speech and +conduct which disguised him so perfectly. Away he drove, nodding and +waving his hand. + +"Dear, simple, innocent old man!" was the pitiful thought in the bosoms +of the ladies; and if it was accompanied by the mute exclamation, "How +singular that we should descend from him!" it would not have been for the +first time. + +They passed one of their delightful quiet days, in which they paved the +future with gold, and, if I may use so bold a figure, lifted parasols +against the great sun that was to shine on them. Now they listened to +Emilia, and now strolled in the garden; conversed on the social skill of +Lady Gosstre, who was nevertheless narrow in her range; and on the +capacities of mansions, on the secret of mixing people in society, and +what to do with the women! A terrible problem, this latter one. Not +terrible (to hostesses) at a mere rout or drum, or at a dance pure and +simple, but terrible when you want good talk to circulate for then they +are not, as a body, amused; and when they are not amused, you know, they +are not inclined to be harmless; and in this state they are vipers; and +where is society then? And yet you cannot do without them!--which is the +revolting mystery. I need not say that I am not responsible for these +critical remarks. Such tenderness to the sex comes only from its +sisters. + +So went a day rich in fair dreams to the ladies; and at the hour of their +father's return they walked across the parvenu park, in a state of +enthusiasm for Besworth, that threw some portion of its decorative light +on the, donor of Besworth. When his carriage was heard on the road, they +stood fast, and greeted his appearance with a display of pocket- +handkerchiefs in the breeze, a proceeding that should have astonished +him, being novel; but seemed not to do so, for it was immediately +responded to by the vigorous waving of a pair of pocket-handkerchiefs +from the carriage-window! The ladies smiled at this piece of simplicity +which prompted him to use both his hands, as if one would not have been +enough. Complacently they continued waving. Then Adela looked at her +sisters; Cornelia's hand dropped and Arabella, the last to wave, was the +first to exclaim: "That must be a woman's arm!" + +The carriage stopped at the gate, and it was one in the dress of a woman +at least, and of the compass of a big woman, who descended by the aid of +Mr. Pole. Safely alighted, she waved her pocket-handkerchief afresh. +The ladies of Brookfield did not speak to one another; nor did they move +their eyes from the object approaching. A simultaneous furtive +extinction of three pocket-handkerchiefs might have been noticed. There +was no further sign given. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A letter from Brookfield apprised Wilfrid that Mr. Pole had brought Mrs. +Chump to the place as a visitor, and that she was now in the house. +Formal as a circular, the idea of it appeared to be that the bare fact +would tell him enough and inspire him with proper designs. No reply +being sent, a second letter arrived, formal too, but pointing out his +duty to succour his afflicted family, and furnishing a few tragic +particulars. Thus he learnt, that while Mr. Pole was advancing toward +the three grouped ladies, on the day of Mrs. Chump's arrival, he called +Arabella by name, and Arabella went forward alone, and was engaged in +conversation by Mrs. Chump. Mr. Pole left them to make his way to Adela +and Cornelia. "Now, mind, I expect you to keep to your agreement," he +said. Gradually they were led on to perceive that this simple-minded man +had understood their recent talk of Besworth to signify a consent to the +stipulation he had previously mentioned to Adela. "Perfect simplicity is +as deceiving as the depth of cunning," Adela despairingly wrote, much to +Wilfrid's amusement. + +A third letter followed. It was of another tenor, and ran thus, in +Adela's handwriting: + +"My Darling Wilfrid, + +"We have always known that some peculiar assistance would never be wanting +in our extremity--aid, or comfort, or whatever you please to call it. At +all events, something to show we are not neglected. That old notion of +ours must be true. I shall say nothing of our sufferings in the house. +They continue. Yesterday, papa came from town, looking important. He +had up some of his best wine for dinner. All through the service his +eyes were sparkling on Cornelia. I spare you a family picture, while +there is this huge blot on it. Naughty brother! But, listen! your place +is here, for many reasons, as you will be quick enough to see. After +dinner, papa took Cornelia into the library alone, and they were together +for ten minutes. She came out very pale. She had been proposed for by +Sir Twickenham Pryme, our Member for the borough. I have always been +sure that Cornelia was born for Parliament, and he will be lucky if he +wins her. We know not yet, of course, what her decision will be. The +incident is chiefly remarkable to us as a relief to what I need not +recount to you. But I wish to say one thing, dear Wilfrid. You are +gazetted to a lieutenancy, and we congratulate you: but what I have to +say is apparently much more trifling, and it is, that--will you take it +to heart?--it would do Arabella and myself infinite good if we saw a +little more of our brother, and just a little less of a very gentlemanly +organ-player phenomenon, who talks so exceedingly well. He is a very +pleasant man, and appreciates our ideas, and so forth; but it is our duty +to love our brother best, and think of him foremost, and we wish him to +come and remind us of our duty. + +"At our Cornelia's request, with our concurrence, papa is silent in the +house as to the purport of the communication made by Sir T.P. + +"By the way, are you at all conscious of a sound-like absurdity in a +Christian name of three syllables preceding a surname of one? Sir +Twickenham Pryme! Cornelia's pronunciation of the name first gave me the +feeling. The 'Twickenham' seems to perform a sort of educated monkey +kind of ridiculously decorous pirouette and entrechat before the 'Pryme.' +I think that Cornelia feels it also. You seem to fancy elastic limbs +bending to the measure of a solemn church-organ. Sir Timothy? But Sir +Timothy does not jump with the same grave agility as Sir Twickenham! If +she rejects him, it will be half attributable to this. + +"My own brother! I expect no confidences, but a whisper warns me that +you have not been to Stornley twice without experiencing the truth of our +old discovery, that the Poles are magnetic? Why should we conceal it +from ourselves, if it be so? I think it a folly, and fraught with +danger, for people not to know their characteristics. If they attract, +they should keep in a circle where they will have no reason to revolt at, +or say, repent of what they attract. My argumentative sister does not +coincide. If she did, she would lose her argument. + +"Adieu! Such is my dulness, I doubt whether I have made my meaning +clear. + + "Your thrice affectionate + + "Adela. + +"P.S.--Lady Gosstre has just taken Emilia to Richford for a week. Papa +starts for Bidport to-morrow." + +This short and rather blunt exercise in Fine Shades was read impatiently +by Wilfrid. "Why doesn't she write plain to the sense?" he asked, with +the usual injustice of men, who demand a statement of facts, forgetting +how few there are to feed the post; and that indication and suggestion +are the only language for the multitude of facts unborn and possible. +Twilight best shows to the eye what may be. + +"I suppose I must go down there," he said to himself, keeping a +meditative watch on the postscript, as if it possessed the capability of +slipping away and deceiving him. "Does she mean that Cornelia sees too +much of this man Barrett? or, what does she mean?" And now he saw +meanings in the simple passages, and none at all in the intricate ones; +and the double-meanings were monsters that ate one another up till +nothing remained of them. In the end, however, he made a wrathful guess +and came to a resolution, which brought him to the door of the house next +day at noon. He took some pains in noting the exact spot where he had +last seen Emilia half in moonlight, and then dismissed her image +peremptorily. The house was apparently empty. Gainsford, the footman, +gave information that he thought the ladies were upstairs, but did not +volunteer to send a maid to them. He stood in deferential footman's +attitude, with the aspect of a dog who would laugh if he could, but being +a footman out of his natural element, cannot. + +"Here's a specimen of the new plan of treating servants!" thought +Wilfrid, turning away. "To act a farce for their benefit! That fellow +will explode when he gets downstairs. I see how it is. This woman, +Chump, is making them behave like schoolgirls." + +He conceived the idea sharply, and forthwith, without any preparation, he +was ready to treat these high-aspiring ladies like schoolgirls. Nor was +there a lack of justification; for when they came down to his shouts in +the passage, they hushed, and held a finger aloft, and looked altogether +so unlike what they aimed at being, that Wilfrid's sense of mastery +became almost contempt. + +"I know perfectly what you have to tell me," he said. "Mrs. Chump is +here, you have quarrelled with her, and she has shut her door, and you +have shut yours. It's quite intelligible and full of dignity. I really +can't smother my voice in consequence." + +He laughed with unnecessary abandonment. The sensitive young women +wanted no other schooling to recover themselves. In a moment they were +seen leaning back and contemplating him amusedly, as if he had been the +comic spectacle, and were laughing for a wager. There are few things so +sour as the swallowing of one's own forced laugh. Wilfrid got it down, +and commenced a lecture to fill the awkward pause. His sisters +maintained the opera-stall posture of languid attention, contesting his +phrases simply with their eyebrows, and smiling. He was no match for +them while they chose to be silent: and indeed if the business of life +were conducted in dumb show, women would beat men hollow. They posture +admirably. In dumb show they are equally good for attack and defence. +But this is not the case in speech. So, when Arabella explained that +their hope was to see Mrs. Chump go that day, owing to the rigorous +exclusion of all amusement and the outer world from the house, Wilfrid +regained his superior footing and made his lecture tell. In the middle +of it, there rang a cry from the doorway that astonished even him, it was +so powerfully Irish. + +"The lady you have called down is here," said Arabella's cold glance, in +answer to his. + +They sat with folded hands while Wilfrid turned to Mrs. Chump, who +advanced, a shock of blue satin to the eye, crying, on a jump: "Is ut Mr. +Wilfrud?" + +"It's I, ma'am." Wilfrid bowed, and the censorious ladies could not deny +that, his style was good, if his object was to be familiar. And if that +was his object, he was paid for it. A great thick kiss was planted on +his cheek, with the motto: "Harm to them that thinks ut." + +Wilfrid bore the salute like a man who presumes that he is flattered. + +"And it's you!" said Mrs. Chump. "I was just off. I'm packed, and +bonnutted, and ready for a start; becas, my dear, where there's none but +women, I don't think it natural to stop. You're splendud! How a little +fella like Pole could go and be father to such a mighty big son, with +your bit of moustache and your blue eyes! Are they blue or a bit of grey +in 'em?" Mrs. Chump peered closely. "They're kill'n', let their colour +be annyhow. And I that knew ye when ye were no bigger than my garter! +Oh, sir! don't talk of ut; I'll be thinkin', of my coffin. Ye're glad +to see me? Say, yes. Do!" + +"Very glad," quoth Wilfrid. + +"Upon your honour, now?" + +"Upon my honour!" + +"My dears" (Mrs. Chump turned to the ladies), "I'll stop; and just thank +your brother for't, though you can't help being garls." + +Reduced once more to demonstrate like schoolgirls by this woman, the +ladies rose together, and were retiring, when Mrs. Chump swung round and +caught Arabella's hand. "See heer," she motioned to Wilfrid. Arabella +made a bitter effort to disengage herself. "See, now! It's jeal'sy of +me, Mr. Wilfrud, becas I'm a widde and just an abom'nation to garls, poor +darlin's! And twenty shindies per dime we've been havin', and me such a +placable body, if ye'll onnly let m' explode. I'm all powder, avery bit! +and might ha' been christened Saltpetre, if born a boy. She hasn't so +much as a shot to kill a goose, says Chump, poor fella! But he went, +annyway. I must kiss somebody when I talk of 'm. Mr. Wilfrud, I'll take +the girls, and entitle myself to you." + +Arabella was the first victim. Her remonstrance was inarticulate. +Cornelia's "Madam!" was smothered. Adela behaved better, being more +consciously under Wilfrid's eye; she prepared her pocket-handkerchief, +received the salute, and deliberately effaced it. + +"There!" said Mrs. Chump; "duty to begin with. And now for you, Mr. +Wilfrud." + +The ladies escaped. Their misery could not be conveyed to the mind. The +woman was like a demon come among them. They felt chiefly degraded, not +by her vulgarity, but by their inability to cope with it, and by the +consequent sickening sense of animal inefficiency--the block that was put +to all imaginative delight in the golden hazy future they figured for +themselves, and which was their wine of life. An intellectual adversary +they could have combated; this huge brogue-burring engine quite +overwhelmed them. Wilfrid's worse than shameful behaviour was a common +rallying-point; and yet, so absolutely critical were they by nature, +their blame of him was held mentally in restraint by the superior ease of +his manner as contrasted with their own lamentably silly awkwardness. +Highly civilized natures do sometimes, and keen wits must always, feel +dissatisfied when they are not on the laughing side: their dread of +laughter is an instinctive respect for it. + +Dinner brought them all together again. Wilfrid took his father's seat, +facing his Aunt Lupin, and increased the distress of his sisters by his +observance of every duty of a host to the dreadful intruder, whom he thus +established among them. He was incomprehensible. His visit to Stornley +had wrought in him a total change. He used to like being petted, and +would regard everything as right that his sisters did, before he went +there; and was a languid, long-legged, indifferent cavalier, representing +men to them: things made to be managed, snubbed, admired, but always +virtually subservient and in the background. Now, without perceptible +gradation, his superiority was suddenly manifest; so that, irritated and +apprehensive as they were, they could not, by the aid of any of their +intricate mental machinery, look down on him. They tried to; they tried +hard to think him despicable as well as treacherous. His style was too +good. When he informed Mrs. Chump that he had hired a yacht for the +season, and added, after enlarging on the merits of the vessel, "I am +under your orders," his sisters were as creatures cut in twain--one half +abominating his conduct, the other approving his style. The bow, the +smile, were perfect. The ladies had to make an effort to recover their +condemnatory judgement. + +"Oh!" cried Mrs. Chump; "and if you've got a yacht, Mr. Wilfrud, won't ye +have a great parcel o' the arr'stocracy on board?" + +"You may spy a title by the aid of a telescope," said Wilfrid. + +"And I'm to come, I am?" + +"Are you not elected captain?" + +"Oh, if ye've got lords and real ladies on board, I'll come, be sure of +ut! I'll be as sick as a cat, I will. But, I'll come, if it's the rroon +of my stomach. I'd say to Chump, "Oh, if ye'd only been born a lord, or +would just get yourself struck a knight on one o' your shoulders,--oh, +Chump!" I'd say, 'it wouldn't be necessary to be rememberin' always the +words of the cerr'mony about lovin' and honourin' and obeyin' of a little +whistle of a fella like you." Poor lad! he couldn't stop for his luck! +Did ye ask me to take wine, Mr. Wilfrud? I'll be cryin', else, as a +widde should, ye know!" + +Frequent administrations of wine arrested the tears of Mrs. Chump, until +it is possible that the fulness of many a checked flow caused her to +redden and talk slightly at random. At the first mention of their +father's name, the ladies went out from the room. It was foolish, for +they might have watched the effect of certain vinous innuendoes addressed +to Wilfrid's apprehensiveness; but they were weakened and humbled, and +everything they did was foolish. From the fact that they offended their +keen critical taste, moreover, they were targets to the shaft that wounds +more fatally than all. No ridicule knocks the strength out of us so +thoroughly as our own. + +Whether or not he guessed their condition favourable for his plans, +Wilfrid did not give them time to call back their scattered powers. At +the hour of eleven he sent for Arabella to come to him in the library. +The council upstairs permitted Arabella to go, on the understanding that +she was prepared for hostilities, and ready to tear the mask from +Wilfrid's face. + +He commenced, without a shadow of circumlocution, and in a matter-of-fact +way, as if all respect for the peculiar genius of the house of Pole had +vanished: "I sent for you to talk a word or two about this woman, who, I +see, troubles you a little. I'm sorry she's in the house." + +"Indeed!" said Arabella. + +"I'm sorry she's in the house, not for my sake, but for yours, since the +proximity does not seem to... I needn't explain. It comes of your +eternal consultations. You are the eldest. Why not act according to +your judgement, which is generally sound? You listen to Adela, young as +she is; or a look of Cornelia's leads you. The result is the sort of +scene I saw this afternoon. I confess it has changed my opinion of you; +it has, I grieve to say it. This woman is your father's guest; you can't +hurt her so much as you hurt him, if you misbehave to her. You can't +openly object to her and not cast a slur upon him. There is the whole +case. He has insisted, and you must submit. You should have fought the +battle before she came." + +"She is here, owing to a miserable misconception," said Arabella. + +"Ah! she is here, however. That is the essential, as your old governess +Madame Timpan would have said." + +"Nor can a protest against coarseness be sweepingly interpreted as a +piece of unfilial behaviour," said Arabella. + +"She is coarse," Wilfrid nodded his head. "There are some forms of +coarseness which dowagers would call it coarseness to notice. + +"Not if you find it locked up in the house with you--not if you suffer +under a constant repulsion. Pray, do not use these phrases to me, +Wilfrid. An accusation of coarseness cannot touch us." + +"No, certainly," assented Wilfrid. "And you have a right to protest. I +disapprove the form of your protest nothing more. A schoolgirl's...but +you complain of the use of comparisons." + +"I complain, Wilfrid, of your want of sympathy." + +"That for two or three weeks you must hear a brogue at your elbow? The +poor creature is not so bad; she is good-hearted. It's hard that you +should have to bear with her for that time and receive nothing better +than Besworth as your reward." + +"Very; seeing that we endure the evil and decline the sop with it." + +"How?" + +"We have renounced Besworth." + +"Have you! And did this renunciation make you all sit on the edge of +your chairs, this afternoon, as if Edward Buxley had arranged you? You +give up Besworth? I'm afraid it's too late." + +"Oh, Wilfrid! can you be ignorant that something more is involved in the +purchase of Besworth?" + +Arabella gazed at him with distressful eagerness, as one who believes in +the lingering of a vestige of candour. + +"Do you mean that my father may wish to give this woman his name?" said +Wilfrid coolly. "You have sense enough to know that if you make his home +disagreeable, you are taking the right method to drive him into such a +course. Ha! I don't think it's to be feared, unless you pursue these +consultations. And let me say, for my part, we have gone too far about +Besworth, and can't recede." + +"I have given out everywhere that the place is ours. I did so almost at +your instigation. Besworth was nothing to me till you cried it up. And +now I won't detain you. I know I can rely on your sense, if you will +rely on it. Good night, Bella." + +As she was going a faint spark of courage revived Arabella's wits. +Seeing that she was now ready to speak, he opened the door wide, and she +kissed him and went forth, feeling driven. + +But while Arabella was attempting to give a definite version of the +interview to her sisters, a message came requesting Adela to descend. +The ladies did not allow her to depart until two or three ingenuous +exclamations from her made them share her curiosity. + +"Ah?" Wilfrid caught her hand as she came in. "No, I don't intend to let +it go. You may be a fine lady, but you're a rogue, you know, and a +charming one, as I hear a friend of mine has been saying. Shall I call +him out? Shall I fight him with pistols, or swords, and leave him +bleeding on the ground, because he thinks you a pretty rogue?" + +Adela struggled against the blandishment of this old familiar style of +converse--part fun, part flattery--dismissed since the great idea had +governed Brookfield. + +"Please tell me what you called me down for, dear?" + +"To give you a lesson in sitting on chairs. 'Adela, or the Puritan +sister,' thus: you sit on the extremest edge, and your eyes peruse the +ceiling; and..." + +"Oh! will you ever forget that perfectly ridiculous scene?" Adela cried +in anguish. + +She was led by easy stages to talk of Besworth. + +"Understand," said Wilfrid, "that I am indifferent about it. The idea +sprang from you--I mean from my pretty sister Adela, who is President of +the Council of Three. I hold that young woman responsible for all that +they do. Am I wrong? Oh, very well. You suggested Besworth, at all +events. And--if we quarrel, I shall cut off one of your curls." + +"We never will quarrel, my darling," quoth Adela softly. "Unless--" she +added. + +Wilfrid kissed her forehead. + +"Unless what?" + +"Well, then, you must tell me who it is that talks of me in that +objectionable manner; I do not like it." + +"Shall I convey that intimation?" + +"I choose to ask, simply that I may defend myself." + +"I choose to keep him buried, then, simply to save his life." + +Adela made a mouth, and Wilfrid went on: "By the way, I want you to know +Lady Charlotte; you will take to one another. She likes you, already-- +says you want dash; but on that point there may be two opinions." + +"If dash," said Adela, quite beguiled, "--that is, dash!--what does it +mean? But, if Lady Charlotte means by dash--am I really wanting in it? +I should define it, the quality of being openly natural without +vulgarity; and surely...!" + +"Then you two differ a little, and must meet and settle your dispute. +You don't differ about Besworth: or, didn't. I never saw a woman so much +in love with a place as she is." + +"A place?" emphasized Adela. + +"Don't be too arch. I comprehend. She won't take me minus Besworth, you +may be sure." + +"Did you, Wilfrid!--but you did not--offer yourself as owner of +Besworth?" + +Wilfrid kept his eyes slanting on the floor. + +"Now I see why you should still wish it," continued Adela. "Perhaps you +don't know the reason which makes it impossible, or I would say--Bacchus! +it must be compassed. You remember your old schoolboy oath which you +taught me? We used to swear always, by Bacchus!" + +Adela laughed and blushed, like one who petitions pardon for this her +utmost sin, that is not regretted as it should be. + +"Mrs. Chump again, isn't it?" said Wilfrid. "Pole would be a preferable +name. If she has the ambition, it elevates her. And it would be rather +amusing to see the dear old boy in love." + +Adela gave her under-lip a distressful bite. + +"Why do you, Wilfrid--why treat such matters with levity?" + +"Levity? I am the last to treat ninety thousand pounds with levity." + +"Has she so much?" Adela glanced at him. + +"She will be snapped up by some poor nobleman. If I take her down to the +yacht, one of Lady Charlotte's brothers or uncles will bite; to a +certainty." + +"It would be an excellent idea to take her!" cried Adela. + +"Excellent! and I'll do it, if you like." + +"Could you bear the reflex of the woman?" + +"Don't you know that I am not in the habit of sitting on the extreme +edge...?" + +Adela started, breathing piteously: "Wilfrid, dear! you want something of +me--what is it?" + +"Simply that you should behave civilly to your father's guest." + +"I had a fear, dear; but I think too well of you to entertain it for a +moment. If civility is to win Besworth for you, there is my hand." + +"Be civil--that's all," said Wilfrid, pressing the hand given. "These +consultations of yours and acting in concert--one tongue for three women- +-are a sort of missish, unripe nonsense, that one sees only in bourgeoise +girls--eh? Give it up. Lady Charlotte hit on it at a glance." + +"And I, my chameleon brother, will return her the compliment, some day," +Adela said to herself, as she hurried back to her sisters, bearing a +message for Cornelia. This lady required strong persuasion. A word from +Adela: "He will think you have some good reason to deny him a private +interview," sent her straight to the stairs. + +Wilfrid was walking up and down, with his arms folded and his brows bent. +Cornelia stood in the doorway. + +"You desire to speak to me, Wilfrid? And in private?" + +"I didn't wish to congratulate you publicly, that's all. I know it's +rather against your taste. We'll shut the door, and sit down, if you +don't mind. Yes, I congratulate you with all my heart," he said, placing +a chair for Cornelia. + +"May I ask, wherefore?" + +"You don't think marriage a matter for congratulation?" + +"Sometimes: as the case may be." + +"Well, it's not marriage yet. I congratulate you on your offer." + +"I thank you." + +"You accept it, of course." + +"I reject it, certainly." + +After this preliminary passage, Wilfrid remained silent long enough for +Cornelia to feel uneasy. + +"I want you to congratulate me also," he recommenced. "We poor fellows +don't have offers, you know. To be frank, I think Lady Charlotte +Chillingworth will have me, if--She's awfully fond of Besworth, and I +need not tell you that as she has position in the world, I ought to show +something in return. When you wrote about Besworth, I knew it was as +good as decided. I told her so and--Well, I fancy there's that sort of +understanding between us. She will have me when... You know how the +poorer members of the aristocracy are situated. Her father's a peer, and +has a little influence. He might push me; but she is one of a large +family; she has nothing. I am certain you will not judge of her as +common people might. She does me a particular honour." + +"Is she not much older than you, Wilfrid?" said Cornelia. + +"Or, in other words," he added, "is she not a very mercenary person?" + +"That, I did not even imply." + +"Honestly, was it not in your head?" + +"Now you put it so plainly, I do say, it strikes me disagreeably; I have +heard of nothing like it." + +"Do you think it unreasonable that I should marry into a noble family?" + +"That is, assuredly, not my meaning." + +"Nevertheless, you are, on the whole, in favour of beggarly alliances." + +"No, Wilfrid." + +"Why do you reject this offer that has been made to you?" + +Cornelia flushed and trembled; the traitorous feint had thrown her off +her guard. She said, faltering: + +"Would you have me marry one I do not love?" + +"Well, well!" He drew back. "You are going to do your best to stop the +purchase of Besworth?" + +"No; I am quiescent." + +"Though I tell you how deeply it concerns me!" + +"Wilfrid, my own brother!" (Cornelia flung herself before him, catching +his hand,) "I wish you to be loved, first of all. Think of the horror of +a loveless marriage, however gilded! Does a woman make stipulations ere +she gives her hand? Does not love seek to give, to bestow? I wish you +to marry well, but chiefly that you should be loved." + +Wilfrid pressed her head in both his hands. + +"I never saw you look so handsome," he said. "You've got back your old +trick of blushing, too! Why do you tremble? By the way, you seem to +have been learning a great deal about that business, lately?" + +"What business?" + +"Love." + +A river of blood overflowed her fair cheeks. + +"How long has this been?" his voice came to her. + +There was no escape. She was at his knees, and must look up, or confess +guilt. + +"This?" + +"Come, my dearest girl!" Wilfrid soothed her. "I can help you, and will, +if you'll take advice. I've always known your heart was generous and +tender, under that ice you wear so well. How long has this been going +on?" + +"Wilfrid!" + +"You want plain speech?" + +She wanted that still less. + +"We'll call it 'this,'" he said. "I have heard of it, guessed it, and +now see it. How far have you pledged yourself in 'this?'" + +"How far?" + +Wilfrid held silent. Finding that her echo was not accepted as an +answer, she moaned his name lovingly. It touched his heart, where a +great susceptibility to passion lay. As if the ghost of Emilia were +about him, he kissed his sister's hand, and could not go on with his +cruel interrogations. + +His next question was dew of relief to her. + +"Has your Emilia been quite happy, of late?" + +"Oh, quite, dear! very. And sings with more fire." + +"She's cheerful?" + +"She does not romp. Her eyes are full and bright." + +"She's satisfied with everything here?" + +"How could she be otherwise?" + +"Yes, yes! You weren't severe on her for that escapade--I mean, when she +ran away from Lady Gosstre's?" + +"We scarcely alluded to the subject, or permitted her to." + +"Or permitted her to!" Wilfrid echoed, with a grimace. "And she's +cheerful now?" + +"Quite." + +"I mean, she doesn't mope?" + +"Why should she?" + +Cornelia had been too hard-pressed to have suspicion the questions were +an immense relief. + +Wilfrid mused gloomily. Cornelia spoke further of Emilia, and her +delight in the visits of Mr. Powys, who spent hours with her, like a man +fascinated. She flowed on, little aware that she was fast restoring to +Wilfrid all his judicial severity. + +He said, at last: "I suppose there's no engagement existing?" + +"Engagement?" + +"You have not, what they call, plighted your troth to the man?" + +Cornelia struggled for evasion. She recognized the fruitlessness of the +effort, and abandoning it stood up. + +"I am engaged to no one." + +"Well, I should hope not," said Wilfrid. "An engagement might be +broken." + +"Not by me." + +"It might, is all that I say. A romantic sentiment is tougher. Now, I +have been straightforward with you: will you be with me? I shall not +hurt the man, or wound his feelings." + +He paused; but it was to find that no admission of the truth, save what +oozed out in absence of speech, was to be expected. She seemed, after +the fashion of women, to have got accustomed to the new atmosphere into +which he had dragged her, without any conception of a forward movement. + +"I see I must explain to you how we are situated," said Wilfrid. "We are +in a serious plight. You should be civil to this woman for several +reasons--for your father's sake and your own. She is very rich." + +"Oh, Wilfrid!" + +"Well, I find money well thought of everywhere." + +"Has your late school been good for you?" + +"This woman, I repeat, is rich, and we want money. Oh! not the ordinary +notion of wanting money, but the more we have the more power we have. +Our position depends on it." + +"Yes, if we can be tempted to think so," flashed Cornelia. + +"Our position depends on it. If you posture, and are poor, you provoke +ridicule: and to think of scorning money, is a piece of folly no girls of +condition are guilty of. Now, you know I am fond of you; so I'll tell +you this: you have a chance; don't miss it. Something unpleasant is +threatening; but you may escape it. It would be madness to throw such a +chance away, and it is your duty to take advantage of it. What is there +plainer? You are engaged to no one." + +Cornelia came timidly close to him. "Pray, be explicit!" + +"Well!--this offer." + +"Yes; but what--there is something to escape from." + +Wilfrid deliberately replied: "There is no doubt of the Pater's +intentions with regard to Mrs. Chump." + +"He means...?" + +"He means to marry her." + +"And you, Wilfrid?" + +"Well, of course, he cuts me out. There--there! forgive me: but what can +I do?" + +"Do you conspire--Wilfrid, is it possible?--are you an accomplice in the +degradation of our house?" + +Cornelia had regained her courage, perforce of wrath. Wilfrid's singular +grey eyes shot an odd look at her. He is to be excused for not +perceiving the grandeur of the structure menaced; for it was invisible to +all the world, though a real fabric. + +"If Mrs. Chump were poor, I should think the Pater demented," he said. +"As it is--! well, as it is, there's grist to the mill, wind to the +organ. You must be aware" (and he leaned over to her with his most +suspicious gentleness of tone) "you are aware that all organs must be +fed; but you will make a terrible mistake if you suppose for a moment +that the human organ requires the same sort of feeding as the one in +Hillford Church." + +"Good-night," said Cornelia, closing her lips, as if for good. + +Wilfrid pressed her hand. As she was going, the springs of kindness in +his heart caused him to say "Forgive me, if I seemed rough." + +"Yes, dear Wilfrid; even brutality, rather than your exultation over the +wreck of what was noble in you." + +With which phrase Cornelia swept from the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"Seen Wilfrid?" was Mr. Pole's first cheery call to his daughters, on his +return. An answer on that head did not seem to be required by him, for +he went on: "Ah the boy's improved. That place over there, Stornley, +does him as much good as the Army did, as to setting him up, you know; +common sense, and a ready way of speaking and thinking. He sees a thing +now. Well, Martha, what do you,--eh? what's your opinion?" + +Mrs. Chump was addressed. "Pole," she said, fanning her cheek with +vehement languor, "don't ask me! my heart's gone to the young fella." + +In pursuance of a determination to which the ladies of Brookfield had +come, Adela, following her sprightly fancy, now gave the lead in +affability toward Mrs. Chump. + +"Has the conqueror run away with it to bury it?" she laughed. + +"Och! won't he know what it is to be a widde!" cried Mrs. Chump. "A +widde's heart takes aim and flies straight as a bullet; and the hearts o' +you garls, they're like whiffs o' tobacca, curlin' and wrigglin' and not +knowin' where they're goin'. Marry 'em, Pole! marry 'em!" Mrs. Chump +gesticulated, with two dangling hands. "They're nice garls; but, lord! +they naver see a man, and they're stuputly contented, and want to remain +garls; and, don't ye see, it was naver meant to be? Says I to Mr. +Wilfrud (and he agreed with me), ye might say, nice sour grapes, as well +as nice garls, if the creatures think o' stoppin' where they are, and +what they are. It's horrud; and, upon my honour, my heart aches for 'm!" + +Mr. Pole threw an uneasy side-glance of inquisition at his daughters, to +mark how they bore this unaccustomed language, and haply intercede +between the unworthy woman and their judgement of her. But the ladies +merely smiled. Placidly triumphant in its endurance, the smile said: "We +decline even to feel such a martyrdom as this." + +"Well, you know, Martha; I," he said, "I--no father could wish--eh? if +you could manage to persuade them not to be so fond of me. They must +think of their future, of course. They won't always have a home--a +father, a father, I mean. God grant they may never want!--eh? the +dinner; boh! let's in to dinner. Ma'am!" + +He bowed an arm to Mrs. Chump, who took it, with a scared look at him: +"Why, if ye haven't got a tear in your eye, Pole?" + +"Nonsense, nonsense," quoth he, bowing another arm to Adela. + +"Papa, I'm not to be winked at," said she, accepting convoy; and there +was some laughter, all about nothing, as they went in to dinner. + +The ladies were studiously forbearing in their treatment of Mrs. Chump. +Women are wonderfully quick scholars under ridicule, though it half-kills +them. Wilfrid's theory had impressed the superior grace of civility upon +their minds, and, now that they practised it, they were pleased with the +contrast they presented. Not the less were they maturing a serious +resolve. The suspicion that their father had secret vile designs in +relation to Mrs. Chump, they kept in the background. It was enough for +them that she was to be a visitor, and would thus destroy the great +circle they had projected. To accept her in the circle, they felt, was +out of the question. Wilfrid's plain-speaking broke up the air-bubble, +which they had so carefully blown, and in which they had embarked all +their young hopes. They had as much as given one another a pledge that +their home likewise should be broken up. + +"Are you not almost too severe a student?" Mr. Barrett happened to say to +Cornelia, the day after Wilfrid had worried her. + +"Do I show the signs?" she replied. + +"By no means. But last night, was it not your light that was not +extinguished till morning?" + +"We soon have morning now," said Cornelia; and her face was pale as the +first hour of the dawn. "Are you not a late foot-farer, I may ask in +return?" + +"Mere restlessness. I have no appetite for study. I took the liberty to +cross the park from the wood, and saw you--at least I guessed it your +light, and then I met your brother." + +"Yes? you met him?" + +Mr. Barrett gestured an affirmative. + +"And he--did he speak?" + +"He nodded. He was in some haste." + +"But, then, you did not go to bed at all that night? It is almost my +turn to be lecturer, if I might expect to be listened to." + +"Do you not know--or am I constitutionally different from others?" Mr. +Barrett resumed: "I can't be alone in feeling that there are certain +times and periods when what I would like to call poisonous influences are +abroad, that touch my fate in the days to come. I know I am helpless. I +can only wander up and down." + +"That sounds like a creed of fatalism." + +"It is not a creed; it is a matter of nerves. A creed has its 'kismet.' +The nerves are wild horses." + +"It is something to be fought against," said Cornelia admonishingly. + +"Is it something to be distrusted?" + +"I should say, yes." + +"Then I was wrong?" + +He stooped eagerly, in his temperate way, to catch sight of her answering +face. Cornelia's quick cheeks took fire. She fenced with a question of +two, and stood in a tremble, marvelling at his intuition. For possibly, +at that moment when he stood watching her window-light (ah, poor heart!) +she was half-pledging her word to her sisters (in a whirl of wrath at +Wilfrid, herself, and the world), that she would take the lead in +breaking up Brookfield. + +An event occurred that hurried them on. They received a visit from their +mother's brother, John Pierson, a Colonel of Uhlans, in the Imperial- +Royal service. He had rarely been in communication with them; his visit +was unexpected. His leave of absence from his quarters in Italy was not +longer than a month, and he was on his way to Ireland, to settle family +business; but he called, as he said, to make acquaintance with his +nieces. The ladies soon discovered, in spite of his foreign-cut chin and +pronounced military habit of speech and bearing, that he was at heart +fervidly British. His age was about fifty: a man of great force of +shoulder and potent length of arm, courteous and well-bred in manner, he +was altogether what is called a model of a cavalry officer. Colonel +Pierson paid very little attention to his brother-in-law, but the ladies +were evidently much to his taste; and when he kissed Cornelia's hand, his +eyes grew soft, as at a recollection. + +"You are what your mother once promised to be," he said. To her he gave +that mother's portrait, taking it solemnly from his breast-pocket, and +attentively contemplating it before it left his hands. The ladies +pressed him for a thousand details of their mama's youthful life; they +found it a strange consolation to talk of her and image her like +Cornelia. The foreign halo about the Colonel had an effect on them that +was almost like what nobility produces; and by degrees they heated their +minds to conceive that they were consenting to an outrage on that +mother's memory, in countenancing Mrs. Chump's transparent ambition to +take her place, as they did by staying in the house with the woman. The +colonel's few expressive glances at Mrs. Chump, and Mrs. Chump's +behaviour before the colonel, touched them with intense distaste for +their present surly aspect of life. Civilized little people are moved to +fulfil their destinies and to write their histories as much by distaste +as by appetite. This fresh sentimental emotion, which led them to +glorify their mother's image in their hearts, heightened and gave an acid +edge to their distaste for the think they saw. Nor was it wonderful that +Cornelia, said to be so like that mother, should think herself bound to +accept the office of taking the initiative in a practical protest against +the desecration of the name her mother had borne. At times, I see that +sentiment approaches too near the Holy of earthly Holies for us to laugh +at it; it has too much truth in it to be denounced--nay, if we are not +alert and quick of wit, we shall be deceived by it, and wonder in the +end, as the fool does, why heaven struck that final blow; concluding that +it was but another whimsy of the Gods. The ladies prayed to their +mother. They were indeed suffering vile torture. Ethereal eyes might +pardon the unconscious jugglery which made their hearts cry out to her +that the step they were about to take was to save her children from +seeming to acquiesce in a dishonour to her memory. Some such words +Adela's tongue did not shrink from; and as it is a common habit for us to +give to the objects we mentally address just as much brain as is wanted +for the occasion, she is not to be held singular. + +Colonel Pierson promised to stay a week on his return from Ireland. +"Will that person be here?" he designated Mrs. Chump; who, among other +things, had reproached him for fighting with foreign steel and wearing +any uniform but the red. + +The ladies and Colonel Pierson were soon of one mind in relation to Mrs. +Chump. Certain salient quiet remarks dropped by him were cherished after +his departure; they were half-willing to think that he had been directed +to come to them, bearer of a message from a heavenly world to urge them +to action. They had need of a spiritual exaltation, to relieve them from +the palpable depression caused by the weight of Mrs. Chump. They +encouraged one another with exclamations on the oddness of a visit from +their mother's brother, at such a time of tribulation, indecision, and +general darkness. + +Mrs. Chump remained on the field. When Adela begged her papa to tell her +how long the lady was to stay, he replied: "Eh? By the way, I haven't +asked her;" and retreated from this almost too obvious piece of +simplicity, with, "I want you to know her: I want you to like her--want +you to get to understand her. Won't talk about her going just yet." + +If they could have seen a limit to that wholesale slaughter of the Nice +Feelings, they might have summoned patience to avoid the desperate step +to immediate relief: but they saw none. Their father's quaint kindness +and Wilfrid's treachery had fixed her there, perhaps for good. The +choice was, to let London come and see them dragged through the mire by +the monstrous woman, or to seek new homes. London, they contended, could +not further be put off, and would come, especially now that the season +was dying. After all, their parting from one another was the bitterest +thing to bear, and as each seemed content to endure it for the good of +all, and as, properly considered, they did not bury their ambition by +separating, they said farewell to the young delicious dawn of it. By +means of Fine Shades it was understood that Brookfield was to be +abandoned. Not one direct word was uttered. There were expressions of +regret that the village children of Ipley would miss the supervizing eyes +that had watched over them--perchance! at any rate, would lose them. All +went on in the household as before, and would have continued so, but that +they had a chief among them. This was Adela Pole, who found her powers +with the occasion. + +Adela thought decisively: "People never move unless they are pushed." +And when you have got them to move ever so little, then propel; but by no +means expect that a movement on their part means progression. Without +propulsion nothing results. Adela saw what Cornelia meant to do. It was +not to fly to Sir Twickenham, but to dismiss Mr. Barrett. Arabella +consented to write to Edward Buxley, but would not speak of old days, and +barely alluded to a misunderstanding; though if she loved one man, this +was he. Adela was disengaged. She had moreover to do penance, for a +wrong committed; and just as children will pinch themselves, pleased up +to the verge of unendurable pain, so do sentimentalists find a keen +relish in performing secret penance for self-accused offences. Thus they +become righteous to their own hearts, and evade, as they hope, the public +scourge. The wrong committed was (translated out of Fine Shades), that +she had made love to her sister's lover. In the original tongue--she had +innocently played with the sacred fire of a strange affection; a child in +the temple!--Our penitent child took a keen pinching pleasure in +dictating words for Arabella to employ toward Edward. + +And then, recurring to her interview with Wilfrid, it struck her: +"Suppose that, after all, Money!..." Yes, Mammon has acted Hymen before +now. Nothing else explained Mrs. Chump; so she thought, in one clear +glimpse. Inveterate sentimental habit smeared the picture with two +exclamations--"Impossible!" and "Papa!" I desire it to be credited that +these simple interjections absolutely obscured her judgement. Little +people think either what they are made to think, or what they choose to +think; and the education of girls is to make them believe that facts are +their enemies-a naughty spying race, upon whom the dogs of Pudeur are to +be loosed, if they surprise them without note of warning. Adela silenced +her suspicion, easily enough; but this did not prevent her taking a +measure to satisfy it. Petting her papa one evening, she suddenly asked +him for ninety pounds. + +"Ninety!" said Mr. Pole, taking a sharp breath. He was as composed as +possible. + +"Is that too much, papa, darling?" + +"Not if you want it--not if you want it, of course not." + +"You seemed astonished." + +"The sum! it's an odd sum for a girl to want. Ten, twenty, fifty--a +hundred; but you never hear of ninety, never! unless it's to pay a debt; +and I have all the bills, or your aunt has them." + +"Well, papa, if it excites you, I will do without it. It is for a +charity, chiefly." + +Mr. Pole fumbled in his pocket, muttering, "No money here--cheque-book in +town. I'll give it you," he said aloud, "to-morrow morning--morrow +morning, early." + +"That will do, papa;" and Adela relieved him immediately by shooting far +away from the topic. + +The ladies retired early to their hall of council in the bedchamber of +Arabella, and some time after midnight Cornelia went to her room; but she +could not sleep. She affected, in her restlessness, to think that her +spirits required an intellectual sedative, so she went down to the +library for a book; where she skimmed many--a fashion that may be +recommended, for assisting us to a sense of sovereign superiority to +authors, and also of serene contempt for all mental difficulties. +Fortified in this way, Cornelia took a Plutarch and an Encyclopaedia +under her arm, to return to her room. But one volume fell, and as she +stooped to recover it, her candle shared its fate. She had to find her +way back in the dark. On the landing of the stairs, she fancied that she +heard a step and a breath. The lady was of unshaken nerves. She moved +on steadily, her hand stretched out a little before her. What it touched +was long in travelling to her brain; but when her paralyzed heart beat +again, she knew that her hand clasped another hand. Her nervous horror +calmed as the feeling came to her of the palpable weakness of the hand. + +"Who are you?" she asked. Some hoarse answer struck her ear. She asked +again, making her voice distincter. The hand now returned her pressure +with force. She could feel that the person, whoever it was, stood +collecting strength to speak. Then the words came-- + +"What do you mean by imitating that woman's brogue?" + +"Papa!" said Cornelia. + +"Why do you talk Irish in the dark? There, goodnight. I've just come up +from the library; my candle dropped. I shouldn't have been frightened, +but you talked with such a twang." + +"But I have just come from the library myself," said Cornelia. + +"I mean from the dining-room," her father corrected himself hastily. +"I can't sit in the library; shall have it altered--full of draughts. +Don't you think so, my dear? Good-night. What's this in your arm? +Books! Ah, you study! I can get a light for myself." + +The dialogue was sustained in the hard-whispered tones prescribed by +darkness. Cornelia kissed her father's forehead, and they parted. + +At breakfast in the morning it was the habit of all the ladies to +assemble, partly to countenance the decency of matin-prayers, and also to +give the head of the household their dutiful society till business called +him away. Adela, in earlier days, had maintained that early rising was +not fashionable; but she soon grasped the idea that a great rivalry with +Fashion, in minor matters (where the support of the satirist might be +counted on), was the proper policy of Brookfield. Mrs. Chump was given +to be extremely fashionable in her hours, and began her Brookfield career +by coming downstairs at ten and eleven o'clock, when she found a desolate +table, well stocked indeed, but without any of the exuberant smiles of +nourishment which a morning repast should wear. + +"You are a Protestant, ma'am, are you not?" Adela mildly questioned, +after informing her that she missed family prayer by her late descent. +Mrs. Chump assured her that she was a firm Protestant, and liked to see +faces at the breakfast-table. The poor woman was reduced to submit to +the rigour of the hour, coming down flustered, and endeavouring to look +devout, while many uncertainties as to the condition of the hooks of her +attire distracted her mind and fingers. On one occasion, Gainsford, the +footman, had been seen with his eye on her; and while Mr. Pole read of +sacred things, at a pace composed of slow march and amble, this unhappy +man was heard struggling to keep under and extinguish a devil of +laughter, by which his human weakness was shaken: He retired from the +room with the speed of a voyager about to pay tribute on high seas. Mr. +Pole cast a pregnant look at the servants' row as he closed the book; but +the expression of his daughters' faces positively signified that no +remark was to be made, and he contained himself. Later, the ladies told +him that Gainsford had done no worse than any uneducated man would have +been guilty of doing. Mrs. Chump had, it appeared, a mother's feeling +for one flat curl on her rugged forehead, which was often fondly caressed +by her, for the sake of ascertaining its fixity. Doubts of the precision +of outline and general welfare of this curl, apparently, caused her to +straighten her back and furtively raise her head, with an easy upward +motion, as of a cork alighted in water, above the level of the looking- +glass on her left hand--an action she repeated, with a solemn aspect, +four times; at which point Gainsford gave way. The ladies accorded him +every extenuation for the offence. They themselves, but for the heroism +of exalted natures, must have succumbed to the gross temptation. "It is +difficult, dear papa, to bring one's mind to religious thoughts in her +company, even when she is quiescent," they said. Thus, by the prettiest +exercise of charity that can be conceived, they pleaded for the man +Gainsford, while they struck a blow at Mrs. Chump; and in performing one +of the virtues laid down by religion, proved their enemy to be hostile to +its influences. + +Mrs. Chump was this morning very late. The office of morning reader was +new to Mr. Pole, who had undertaken it, when first Squire of Brookfield, +at the dictate of the ladies his daughters; so that, waiting with the +book before him and his audience expectant, he lacked composure, spoke +irritably in an under-breath of 'that woman,' and asked twice whether she +was coming or not. At last the clump of her feet was heard approaching. +Mr. Pole commenced reading the instant she opened the door. She stood +there, with a face like a petrified Irish outcry. An imploring sound of +"Pole! Pole!" issued from her. Then she caught up one hand to her mouth, +and rolled her head, in evident anguish at the necessitated silence. A +convulsion passed along the row of maids, two of whom dipped to their +aprons; but the ladies gazed with a sad consciousness of wicked glee at +the disgust she was exciting in the bosom of their father. + +"Will you shut the door?" Mr. Pole sternly addressed Mrs. Chump, at the +conclusion of the first prayer. + +"Pole! ye know that money ye gave me in notes? I must speak, Pole!" + +"Shut the door." + +Mrs. Chump let go the door-handle with a moan. The door was closed by +Gainsford, now one of the gravest of footmen. A chair was placed for +her, and she sat down, desperately watching the reader for the fall of +his voice. The period was singularly protracted. The ladies turned to +one another, to question with an eyelid why it was that extra allowance +was given that morning. Mr. Pole was in a third prayer, stumbling on and +picking himself up, apparently unaware that he had passed the limit. +This continued until the series of ejaculations which accompanied him +waxed hotter--little muffled shrieks of: "Oh!--Deer--Oh, Lard!--When will +he stop? Oh, mercy! Och! And me burrstin' to speak!--Oh! what'll I do? +I can't keep 't in!--Pole! ye're kill'n me--Oh, deer! I'll be sayin' +somethin' to vex the prophets presently. Pole!" + +If it was a race that he ran with Mrs. Chump, Mr. Pole was beaten. He +came to a sudden stop. + +Mrs. Chump had become too deeply absorbed in her impatience to notice the +change in his tone; and when he said, "Now then, to breakfast, quick!" +she was pursuing her lamentable interjections. At sight of the servants +trooping forth, she jumped up and ran to the door. + +"Ye don't go.--Pole, they're all here. And I've been robbed, I have. +Avery note I had from ye, Pole, all gone. And my purse left behind, like +the skin of a thing. Lord forbid I accuse annybody; but when I get up, +my first rush is to feel in my pocket. And, ask 'em!--If ye didn't keep +me so poor, Pole, they'd know I'm a generous woman, but I cann't bear to +be robbed. And pinmoney 's for spendin;' annybody'll tell you that. And +I ask ye t' examine 'em, Pole; for last night I counted my notes, wantin' +change, and I thought of a salmon I bought on the banks of the Suir to +make a present to Chump, which was our onnly visit to Waterford together: +for he naver went t' Ireland before or after--dyin' as he did! and it's +not his ingrat'tude, with his talk of a Severrn salmon-to the deuce with +'m! that makes me soft-poor fella!--I didn't mean to the deuce;--but +since he's gone, his widde's just unfit to bargain for a salmon at all, +and averybody robs her, and she's kept poor, and hatud!--D'ye heer, Pole? +I've lost my money, my money! and I will speak, and ye shann't interrupt +me!" + +During the delivery of this charge against the household, Mr. Pole had +several times waved to the servants to begone; but as they had always the +option to misunderstand authoritative gestures, they preferred remaining, +and possibly he perceived that they might claim to do so under +accusation. + +"How can you bring this charge against the inmates of my house--eh? I +guarantee the honesty of all who serve me. Martha! you must be mad, +mad!--Money? why, you never have money; you waste it if you do." + +"Not money, Pole? Oh! and why? Becas ye keep me low o' purpose, till I +cringe like a slut o' the scullery, and cry out for halfpence. But, oh! +that seventy-five pounds in notes!" + +Mr. Pole shook his head, as one who deals with a gross delusion: "I +remember nothing about it." + +"Not about--?" Mrs. Chump dropped her chin. "Ye don't remember the +givin' of me just that sum of seventy-five, in eight notes, Pole?" + +"Eh? I daresay I have given you the amount, one time or other. Now, +let's be quiet about it." + +"Yesterday mornin', Pole! And the night I go to bed I count my money, +and, says I, I'll not lock ut up, for I'll onnly be unlockin' again to- +morrow; and doin' a thing and undoin' ut's a sign of a brain that's +addled--like yours, Pole, if ye say ye didn't go to give me the notes." + +Mr. Pole frowned at her sagaciously. "Must change your diet, Martha!" + +"My dite? And what's my dite to do with my money?" + +"Who went into Mrs. Chump's bedchamber this morning?" asked Mr. Pole +generally. + +A pretty little housemaid replied, with an indignant flush, that she was +the person. Mrs. Chump acknowledged to being awake when the shutters +were opened, and agreed that it was not possible her pockets could have +been rifled then. + +"So, you see, Martha, you're talking nonsense," said Mr. Pole. "Do you +know the numbers of those notes?" + +"The numbers at the sides, ye mean, Pole?" + +"Ay, the numbers at the sides, if you like; the 21593, and so on?" + +"The 21593! Oh! I can't remember such a lot as that, if ever I leave off +repeatin' it." + +"There! you see, you're not fit to have money in your possession, Martha. +Everybody who has bank-notes looks at the numbers. You have a trick of +fancying all sorts of sums in your pocket; and when you don't find them +there, of course they're lost! Now, let's have some breakfast." + +Arabella told the maids to go out. Mr. Pole turned to the breakfast- +table, rubbing his hands. Seeing herself and her case abandoned, Mrs. +Chump gave a deplorable shout. "Ye're crool! and young women that look +on at a fellow-woman's mis'ry. Oh! how can ye do ut! But soft hearts +can be the hardest. And all my seventy-five gone, gone! and no law out +of annybody. And no frightenin' of 'em off from doin' the like another +time! Oh, I will, I will have my money!" + +"Tush! Come to breakfast, Martha," said Mr. Pole. "You shall have +money, if you want it; you have only to ask. Now, will you promise to be +quiet? and I'll give you this money--the amount you've been dreaming +about last night. I'll fetch it. Now, let us have no scenes. Dry your +eyes." + +Mr. Pole went to his private room, and returned just as Mrs. Chump had +got upon a succession of quieter sobs with each one of which she +addressed a pathetic roll of her eyes to the utterly unsympathetic ladies +respectively. + +"There, Martha; there's exactly the sum for you--free gift. Say thank +you, and eat a good breakfast to show your gratitude. Mind, you take +this money on condition that you let the servants know you made a +mistake." + +Mrs. Chump sighed heavily, crumpling the notes, that the crisp sweet +sound might solace her for the hard condition. + +"And don't dream any more--not about money, I mean," said Mr: Pole. + +"Oh! if I dream like that I'll be living double." Mrs. Chump put her +hand to the notes, and called him kind, and pitied him for being the +loser. The sight of a fresh sum in her possession intoxicated her. It +was but feebly that she regretted the loss to her Samuel Bolton Pole. +"Your memory's worth more than that!" she said as she filled her purse +with the notes. "Anyhow, now I can treat somebody," and she threw a wink +of promise at Adela. Adela's eyes took refuge with her papa, who leaned +over to her, and said: "You won't mind waiting till you see me again? +She's taken all I had." Adela nodded blankly, and the next moment, with +an angry glance toward Mrs. Chump, "Papa," said she, "if you wish to see +servants in the house on your return, you must yourself speak to them, +and tell them that we, their master and mistresses, do not regard them as +thieves." Out of this there came a quarrel as furious as the ladies +would permit it to be. For Mrs. Chump, though willing to condone the +offence for the sum she had received, stuck infamy upon the whole list of +them. "The Celtic nature," murmured Cornelia. And the ladies maintained +that their servants should be respected, at any cost. "You, ma'am," said +Arabella, with a clear look peculiar to her when vindictive--"you may +have a stain on your character, and you are not ruined by it. But these +poor creatures..." + +"Ye dare to compar' me--!" + +"Contrast you, ma'am." + +"It's just as imp'dent." + +"I say, our servants, ma'am..." + +"Oh! to the deuce with your 'ma'am;' I hate the word. It's like fittin' +a cap on me. Ye want to make one a turbaned dow'ger, ye malicious young +woman!" + +"Those are personages that are, I believe, accepted in society!" + +So the contest raged, Mrs. Chump being run clean through the soul twenty +times, without touching the consciousness of that sensitive essence. Mr. +Pole appeared to take the part of his daughters, and by-and-by Mrs. +Chump, having failed to arouse Mrs. Lupin's involuntary laugh (which +always consoled her in such cases), huffed out of the room. Then Mr. +Pole, in an abruptly serious way, bashfully entreated the ladies to be +civil to Martha, who had the best heart in the world. It sounded as if +he were going to say more. After a pause, he added emphatically, "Do!" +and went. He was many days absent: nor did he speak to Adela of the +money she had asked for when he returned. Adela had not the courage to +allude to it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Emilia sat in her old place under the dwarf pine. Mr. Powys had brought +her back to Brookfield, where she heard that Wilfrid had been seen; and +now her heart was in contest with an inexplicable puzzle: "He was here, +and did not come to me!" Since that night when they had walked home from +Ipley Green, she had not suffered a moment of longing. Her senses had +lain as under a charm, with heart at anchor and a mind free to work. No +one could have guessed that any human spell was on the girl. "Wherever +he is, he thinks of me. I find him everywhere. He is safe, for I pray +for him and have my arms about him. He will come." So she waited, as +some grey lake lies, full and smooth, awaiting the star below the +twilight. If she let her thoughts run on to the hour of their meeting, +she had to shut her eyes and press at her heart; but as yet she was not +out of tune for daily life, and she could imagine how that hour was to be +strewn with new songs and hushed surprises. And 'thus' he would look: +and 'thus.' "My hero!" breathed Emilia, shuddering a little. But now +she was perplexed. Now that he had come and gone, she began to hunger +bitterly for the sight of his face, and that which had hitherto nourished +her grew a sickly phantom of delight. She wondered how she had forced +herself to be patient, and what it was that she had found pleasure in. + +None of the ladies were at home when Emilia returned. She went out to +the woods, and sat, shadowed by the long bent branch; watching +mechanically the slow rounding and yellowing of the beam of sunlight over +the thick floor of moss, up against the fir-stems. The chaffinch and the +linnet flitted off the grey orchard twigs, singing from new stations; and +the bee seemed to come questioning the silence of the woods and droning +disappointed away. The first excess of any sad feeling is half +voluntary. Emilia could not help smiling, when she lifted her head out +of a musing fit, to find that she had composed part of a minuet for the +languid dancing motes in the shaft of golden light at her feet. "Can I +remember it?" she thought, and forgot the incident with the effort. + +Down at her right hand, bordering a water, stood a sallow, a dead tree, +channelled inside with the brown trail of a goat-moth. Looking in this +direction, she saw Cornelia advancing to the tree. When the lady had +reached it, she drew a little book from her bosom, kissed it, and dropped +it in the hollow. This done, she passed among the firs. Emilia had +perceived that she was agitated: and with that strange instinct of hearts +beginning to stir, which makes them divine at once where they will come +upon the secret of their own sensations, she ran down to the tree and +peered on tiptoe at the embedded volume. On a blank page stood +pencilled: "This is the last fruit of the tree. Come not to gather +more." There was no meaning for her in that sentimental chord but she +must have got some glimpse of a meaning; for now, as in an agony, her +lips fashioned the words: "If I forget his face I may as well die;" and +she wandered on, striving more and more vainly to call up his features. +The--"Does he think of me?" and--"What am I to him?"--such timorous +little feather-play of feminine emotion she knew nothing of: in her heart +was the strong flood of a passion. + +She met Edward Buxley and Freshfield Sumner at a cross-path, on their way +to Brookfield; and then Adela joined the party, which soon embraced Mr. +Barrett, and subsequently Cornelia. All moved on in a humming leisure, +chattering by fits. Mr. Sumner was delicately prepared to encounter Mrs. +Chump, "whom," said Adela, "Edward himself finds it impossible to +caricature;" and she affected to laugh at the woman. + +"Happy the pencil that can reproduce!" Mr. Barrett exclaimed; and, +meeting his smile, Cornelia said: "Do you know, my feeling is, and I +cannot at all account for it, that if she were a Catholic she would not +seem so gross?" + +"Some of the poetry of that religion would descend upon her, possibly," +returned Mr. Barrett. + +"Do you mean," Freshfield said quickly, "that she would stand a fair +chance of being sainted?" + +Out of this arose some polite fencing between the two. Freshfield might +have argued to advantage in a Court of law; but he was no match, on such +topics and before such an audience, for a refined sentimentalist. More +than once he betrayed a disposition to take refuge in his class (he being +son to one of the puisne Judges). Cornelia speedily punished him, and to +any correction from her he bowed his head. + +Adela was this day gifted with an extraordinary insight. Emilia alone of +the party was as a blot to her; but the others she saw through, as if +they had been walking transparencies. She divined that Edward and +Freshfield had both come, in concert, upon amorous business--that it was +Freshfield's object to help Edward to a private interview with her, and, +in return, Edward was to perform the same service for him with Cornelia. +So that Mr. Barrett was shockingly in the way of both; and the perplexity +of these stupid fellows--who would insist upon wondering why the man +Barrett and the girl Emilia (musicians both: both as it were, vagrants) +did not walk together and talk of quavers and minims--was extremely +comic. Passing the withered tree, Mr. Barrett deserved thanks from +Freshfield, if he did not obtain them; for he lingered, surrendering his +place. And then Adela knew that the weight of Edward Buxley's +remonstrative wrath had fallen on silent Emilia, to whom she clung +fondly. + +"I have had a letter," Edward murmured, in the voice that propitiates +secresy. + +"A letter?" she cried loud; and off flew the man like a rabbit into his +hole, the mask of him remaining. + +Emilia presently found Mr. Barrett at her elbow. His hand clasped the +book Cornelia had placed in the tree. + +"It is hers," said Emilia. + +He opened it and pointed to his initials. She looked in his face. + +"Are you very ill?" + +Adela turned round from Edward's neighbouring head. "Who is ill?" + +Cornelia brought Freshfield to a stop: "Ill?" + +Before them all, book in hand, Mr. Barrett had to give assurance that he +was hearty, and to appear to think that his words were accepted, in spite +of blanched jowl and reddened under-lid. Cornelia threw him one glance: +his eyes closed under it. Adela found it necessary to address some such +comforting exclamation as 'Goodness gracious!' to her observant spirit. + +In the park-path, leading to the wood, Arabella was seen as they came out +the young branches that fringed the firs. She hurried up. + +"I have been looking for you. Papa has arrived with Sir Twickenham +Pryme, who dines with us." + +Adela unhesitatingly struck a blow. + +"Lady Pryme, we make place for you." + +And she crossed to Cornelia. Cornelia kept her eyes fixed on Adela's +mouth, as one looks at a place whence a venomous reptile has darted out. +Her eyelids shut, and she stood a white sculpture of pain, pitiable to +see. Emilia took her hand, encouraging the tightening fingers with a +responsive pressure. The group shuffled awkwardly together, though Adela +did her best. She was very angry with Mr. Barrett for wearing that +absurdly pale aspect. She was even angry with his miserable bankrupt +face for mounting a muscular edition of the smile Cornelia had shown. +"His feelings!" she cried internally; and the fact presented itself to +her, that feelings were a luxury utterly unfit for poor men, who were to +be accused of presumption for indulging in them. + +"Now, I suppose you are happy?" she spoke low between Arabella and +Edward. + +The effect of these words was to colour violently two pair of cheeks. +Arabella's behaviour did not quite satisfy the fair critic. Edward +Buxley was simply caught in a trap: He had the folly to imagine that by +laughing he released himself. + +"Is not that the laugh of an engaged?" said Adela to Freshfield. + +He replied: "That would have been my idea under other conditions," and +looked meaningly. + +She met the look with: "There are harsh conditions in life, are there +not?" and left him sufficiently occupied by his own sensations. + +"Mr. Barrett," she inquired (partly to assist the wretch out of his +compromising depression, and also that the question represented a real +matter of debate in her mind), "I want your opinion; will you give it me? +Apropos of slang, why does it sit well on some people? It certainly does +not vulgarize them. After all, in many cases, it is what they call 'racy +idiom.' Perhaps our delicacy is strained?" + +Now, it was Mr. Barrett's established manner to speak in a deliberately +ready fashion upon the introduction of a new topic. Habit made him, on +this occasion, respond instantly; but the opening of the gates displayed +the confusion of ideas within and the rageing tumult. + +He said: "In many cases. There are two sorts. If you could call it the +language of nature! which anything...I beg your pardon, Slang! Polite +society rightly excludes it, because..." + +"Yes, yes," returned Adela; "but do we do rightly in submitting to the +absolute tyranny?--I mean, I think, originality flies from us in +consequence." + +The pitiable mortal became a trifle more luminous: "The objection is to +the repetition of risked phrases. A happy audacity of expression may +pass. It is bad taste to repeat it, that is all. Then there is the +slang of heavy boorishness, and the slang of impatient wit..." + +"Is there any fine distinction between the extremes?" said Cornelia, in +as clear a tone as she could summon. + +"I think," observed Arabella, "that whatever shows staleness speedily is +self-condemned; and that is the case with slang." + +"And yet it's to avoid some feeling of the sort that people employ it," +was Adela's remark; and the discussion of this theme dropped lifelessly, +and they walked on as before. + +Coming to a halt near the garden gate, Adela tapped Emilia's cheek, +addressing her: "How demure she has become!" + +"Ah!" went Arabella, "does she know papa has had a letter from Mr. +Pericles, who wrote from Milan to say that he has made arrangements for +her to enter the Academy there, and will come to fetch her in a few +days?" + +Emilia's wrists crossed below her neck, while she gave ear. + +"To take me away?" she said. + +The tragic attitude and outcry, with the mournful flash of her eyes, +might have told Emilia's tale. + +Adela unwillingly shielded her by interpreting the scene. "See! she +must be a born actress. They always exaggerate in that style, so that +you would really think she had a mighty passion for Brookfield." + +"Or in it," suggested Freshfield. + +"Or in it!" she laughed assentingly. + +Mr. Pole was perceived entering the garden, rubbing his hands a little +too obsequiously to some remark of the baronet's, as the critical ladies +imagined. Sir Twickenham's arm spread out in a sweep; Mr. Pole's head +nodded. After the ceremony of the salute, the ladies were informed of +Sir Twickenham's observation: Sir Twickenham Pryme, a statistical member +of Parliament, a well-preserved half-century in age, a gentleman in +bearing, passably grey-headed, his whiskers brushed out neatly, as if he +knew them individually and had the exact amount of them collectively at +his fingers' ends: Sir Twickenham had said of Mr. Pole's infant park that +if devoted to mangold-wurzel it would be productive and would pay: +whereas now it was not ornamental and was waste. + +"Sir Twickenham calculates," said Mr. Pole, "that we should have a crop +of--eh?" + +"The average?" Sir Twickenham asked, on the evident upward mounting of a +sum in his brain. And then, with a relaxing look upon Cornelia: "Perhaps +you might have fifteen, sixteen, perhaps for the first year; or, say--you +see, the exact acreage is unknown to me. Say roughly, ten thousand sacks +the first year." + +"Of what?" inquired Cornelia. + +"Mangold-wurzel," said the baronet. + +She gazed about her. Mr. Barrett was gone. + +"But, no doubt, you take no interest in such reckonings?" Sir Twickenham +added. + +"On the contrary, I take every interest in practical details." + +Practical men believe this when they hear it from the lips of +gentlewomen, and without philosophically analyzing the fact that it is +because the practical quality possesses simply the fascination of a form +of strength. Sir Twickenham pursued his details. Day closed on +Brookfield blankly. Nevertheless, the ladies felt that the situation was +now dignified by tragic feeling, and remembering keenly how they had been +degraded of late, they had a sad enjoyment of the situation. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Emilia alone of the party was as a blot to her +I cannot delay; but I request you, that are here privileged +I detest anything that has to do with gratitude +Love, with his accustomed cunning +No nose to the hero, no moral to the tale +Nor can a protest against coarseness be sweepingly interpreted +One of those men whose characters are read off at a glance +The majority, however, had been snatched out of this bliss +Their way was down a green lane and across long meadow-paths +They, meantime, who had a contempt for sleep +Women are wonderfully quick scholars under ridicule + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Sandra Belloni, v2 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4414.zip b/4414.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6beb847 --- /dev/null +++ b/4414.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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