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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +EVAN HARRINGTON + +By George Meredith + + + +CONTENTS: + +BOOK 1. +I. ABOVE BUTTONS +II. THE HERITAGE OR THE SOY +III. THE DAUGHTERS OR THE SHEARS +IV. ON BOARD THE JOCASTA +V. THE FAMILY AND THE FUNERAL +VI. MY GENTLEMAN ON THE ROAD +VII. MOTHER AND SON + +BOOK 2. +VIII. INTRODUCES AN ECCENTRIC +IX. THE COUNTESS IN LOW SOCIETY +X. MY GENTLEMAN ON THE ROAD AGAIN +XI. DOINGS AT AN INN +XII. IN WHICH ALE IS SHOWN TO HAVE ONE QUALITY OF WINE +XIII. THE MATCH OF FALLOWFIELD AGAINST BECKLEY + +BOOK 3. +XIV. THE COUNTESS DESCRIBES THE FIELD OF ACTION +XV. A CAPTURE +XVI. LEADS TO A SMALL SKIRMISH BETWEEN ROSE AND EVAN +XVII. IN WHICH EVAN WRITES HIMSELF TAILOR +XVIII. IN WHICH EVAN CALLS HIMSELF GENTLEMAN + +BOOK 4. +XIX. SECOND DESPATCH OF THE COUNTESS +XX. BREAK-NECK LEAP +XXI. TRIBULATIONS AND TACTICS OF THE COUNTESS +XXII. IN WHICH THE DAUGHTERS OF THE GREAT MEL HAVE TO + DIGEST HIM AT DINNER +XXIII. TREATS OF A HANDKERCHIEF +XXIV. THE COUNTESS MAKES HERSELF FELT +XXV. IN WHICH THE STREAM FLOWS MUDDY AND CLEAR + +BOOK 5. +XXVI. MRS. MEL MAKES A BED FOR HERSELF AND FAMILY +XXVII. EXHIBITS ROSE'S GENERALSHIP; EVAN'S PERFORMANCE ON THE SECOND + FIDDLE; AND THE WRETCHEDNESS OF THE COUNTESS +XXVIII. TOM COGGLESBY'S PROPOSITION +XXIX. PRELUDE TO AN ENGAGEMENT +XXX. THE BATTLE OF THE BULL-DOGS. PART I. +XXXI. THE BATTLE OF THE BULL-DOGS. PART II. + +BOOK 6. +XXXII. IN WHICH EVAN'S LIGHT BEGINS TO TWINKLE AGAIN +XXXIII. THE HERO TAKES HIS RANK IN THE ORCHESTRA +XXXIV. A PAGAN SACRIFICE +XXXV. ROSE WOUNDED +XXXVI. BEFORE BREAKFAST +XXXVII. THE RETREAT FROM BECKLEY +XXXVIII. IN WHICH WE HAVE TO SEE IN THE DARK + +BOOK 7. +XXXIX. IN THE DOMAIN OF TAILORDOM +XL. IN WHICH THE COUNTESS STILL SCENTS GAME +XLI. REVEALS AN ABOMINABLE PLOT OF THE BROTHERS COGGLESBY +XLII. JULIANA +XLIII. ROSE +XLIV. CONTAINS A WARNING TO ALL CONSPIRATORS +XLV. IN WHICH THE SHOP BECOMES THE CENTRE OF ATTRACTION +XLVI. A LOVER'S PARTING +XLVII. A YEAR LATER THE COUNTESS DE SALDAR DE SANCORVO TO HER + SISTER CAROLINE + + + + +BOOK 1. + +I. ABOVE BUTTONS +II. THE HERITAGE OR THE SOY +III. THE DAUGHTERS OR THE SHEARS +IV. ON BOARD THE JOCASTA +V. THE FAMILY AND THE FUNERAL +VI. MY GENTLEMAN ON THE ROAD +VII. MOTHER AND SON + + + +CHAPTER I + +ABOVE BUTTONS + +Long after the hours when tradesmen are in the habit of commencing +business, the shutters of a certain shop in the town of Lymport-on-the- +Sea remained significantly closed, and it became known that death had +taken Mr. Melchisedec Harrington, and struck one off the list of living +tailors. The demise of a respectable member of this class does not +ordinarily create a profound sensation. He dies, and his equals debate +who is to be his successor: while the rest of them who have come in +contact with him, very probably hear nothing of his great launch and +final adieu till the winding up of cash-accounts; on which occasions we +may augur that he is not often blessed by one or other of the two great +parties who subdivide this universe. In the case of Mr. Melchisedec it +was otherwise. This had been a grand man, despite his calling, and in +the teeth of opprobrious epithets against his craft. To be both +generally blamed, and generally liked, evinces a peculiar construction of +mortal. Mr. Melchisedec, whom people in private called the great Mel, +had been at once the sad dog of Lymport, and the pride of the town. He +was a tailor, and he kept horses; he was a tailor, and he had gallant +adventures; he was a tailor, and he shook hands with his customers. +Finally, he was a tradesman, and he never was known to have sent in a +bill. Such a personage comes but once in a generation, and, when he +goes, men miss the man as well as their money. + +That he was dead, there could be no doubt. Kilne, the publican opposite, +had seen Sally, one of the domestic servants, come out of the house in +the early morning and rush up the street to the doctor's, tossing her +hands; and she, not disinclined to dilute her grief, had, on her return, +related that her master was then at his last gasp, and had refused, in so +many words, to swallow the doctor. + +'"I won't swallow the doctor!" he says, "I won't swallow the doctor!"' +Sally moaned. '"I never touched him," he says, "and I never will."' + +Kilne angrily declared, that in his opinion, a man who rejected medicine +in extremity, ought to have it forced down his throat: and considering +that the invalid was pretty deeply in Kilne's debt, it naturally assumed +the form of a dishonest act on his part; but Sally scornfully dared any +one to lay hand on her master, even for his own good. 'For,' said she, +'he's got his eyes awake, though he do lie so helpless. He marks ye!' + +'Ah! ah!' Kilne sniffed the air. Sally then rushed back to her duties. + +'Now, there 's a man!' Kilne stuck his hands in his pockets and began +his meditation: which, however, was cut short by the approach of his +neighbour Barnes, the butcher, to whom he confided what he had heard, +and who ejaculated professionally, 'Obstinate as a pig!' As they stood +together they beheld Sally, a figure of telegraph, at one of the windows, +implying that all was just over. + +'Amen!' said Barnes, as to a matter-of-fact affair. + +Some minutes after, the two were joined by Grossby, the confectioner, who +listened to the news, and observed: + +'Just like him! I'd have sworn he'd never take doctor's stuff'; and, +nodding at Kilne, 'liked his medicine best, eh?' + +'Had a-hem!--good lot of it,' muttered Kilne, with a suddenly serious +brow. + +'How does he stand on your books?' asked Barnes. + +Kilne shouldered round, crying: 'Who the deuce is to know?' + +'I don't,' Grossby sighed. 'In he comes with his "Good morning, Grossby, +fine day for the hunt, Grossby," and a ten-pound note. "Have the +kindness to put that down in my favour, Grossby." And just as I am going +to say, "Look here,--this won't do," he has me by the collar, and there's +one of the regiments going to give a supper party, which he's to order; +or the Admiral's wife wants the receipt for that pie; or in comes my +wife, and there's no talking of business then, though she may have been +bothering about his account all the night beforehand. Something or +other! and so we run on.' + +'What I want to know,' said Barnes, the butcher, 'is where he got his +tenners from?' + +Kilne shook a sagacious head: 'No knowing!' + +'I suppose we shall get something out of the fire?' Barnes suggested. + +'That depends!' answered the emphatic Kilne. + +'But, you know, if the widow carries on the business,' said Grossby, +'there's no reason why we shouldn't get it all, eh?' + +'There ain't two that can make clothes for nothing, and make a profit out +of it,' said Kilne. + +'That young chap in Portugal,' added Barnes, 'he won't take to tailoring +when he comes home. D' ye think he will?' + +Kilne muttered: 'Can't say !' and Grossby, a kindly creature in his way, +albeit a creditor, reverting to the first subject of their discourse, +ejaculated, 'But what a one he was!--eh?' + +'Fine!--to look on,' Kilne assented. + +'Well, he was like a Marquis,' said Barnes. + +Here the three regarded each other, and laughed, though not loudly. They +instantly checked that unseemliness, and Kilne, as one who rises from the +depths of a calculation with the sum in his head, spoke quite in a +different voice: + +'Well, what do you say, gentlemen? shall we adjourn? No use standing +here.' + +By the invitation to adjourn, it was well understood by the committee +Kilne addressed, that they were invited to pass his threshold, and +partake of a morning draught. Barnes, the butcher, had no objection +whatever, and if Grossby, a man of milder make, entertained any, the +occasion and common interests to be discussed, advised him to waive them. +In single file these mourners entered the publican's house, where Kilne, +after summoning them from behind the bar, on the important question, what +it should be? and receiving, first, perfect acquiescence in his views as +to what it should be, and then feeble suggestions of the drink best +befitting that early hour and the speaker's particular constitution, +poured out a toothful to each, and one to himself. + +'Here's to him, poor fellow!' said Kilne; and was deliberately echoed +twice. + +'Now, it wasn't that,' Kilne pursued, pointing to the bottle in the midst +of a smacking of lips, 'that wasn't what got him into difficulties. It +was expensive luckshries. It was being above his condition. Horses! +What's a tradesman got to do with horses? Unless he's retired! Then +he's a gentleman, and can do as he likes. It's no use trying to be a +gentleman if you can't pay for it. It always ends bad. Why, there was +he, consorting with gentlefolks--gay as a lark! Who has to pay for it?' + +Kilne's fellow-victims maintained a rather doleful tributary silence. + +'I'm not saying anything against him now,' the publican further observed. +'It 's too late. And there! I'm sorry he's gone, for one. He was as +kind a hearted a man as ever breathed. And there! perhaps it was just +as much my fault; I couldn't say "No" to him,--dash me, if I could!' + +Lymport was a prosperous town, and in prosperity the much-despised +British tradesman is not a harsh, he is really a well-disposed, easy +soul, and requires but management, manner, occasional instalments--just +to freshen the account--and a surety that he who debits is on the spot, +to be a right royal king of credit. Only the account must never drivel. +'Stare aut crescere' appears to be his feeling on that point, and the +departed Mr. Melchisedec undoubtedly understood him there; for the +running on of the account looked deplorable and extraordinary now that +Mr. Melchisedec was no longer in a position to run on with it, and it was +precisely his doing so which had prevented it from being brought to a +summary close long before. Both Barnes, the butcher; and Grossby, the +confectioner, confessed that they, too, found it hard ever to say 'No' +to him, and, speaking broadly, never could. + +'Except once,'said Barnes, 'when he wanted me to let him have a ox to +roast whole out on the common, for the Battle of Waterloo. I stood out +against him on that. "No, no," says I, "I'll joint him for ye, Mr. +Harrington. You shall have him in joints, and eat him at home";-ha! ha!' + +'Just like him!' said Grossby, with true enjoyment of the princely +disposition that had dictated the patriotic order. + +'Oh!--there!' Kilne emphasized, pushing out his arm across the bar, as +much as to say, that in anything of such a kind, the great Mel never had +a rival. + +'That "Marquis" affair changed him a bit,' said Barnes. + +'Perhaps it did, for a time,' said Kilne. 'What's in the grain, you +know. He couldn't change. He would be a gentleman, and nothing 'd stop +him.' + +'And I shouldn't wonder but what that young chap out in Portugal 'll want +to be one, too; though he didn't bid fair to be so fine a man as his +father.' + +'More of a scholar,' remarked Kilne. 'That I call his worst fault-- +shilly-shallying about that young chap. I mean his.' Kilne stretched a +finger toward the dead man's house. 'First, the young chap's to be sent +into the Navy; then it's the Army; then he's to be a judge, and sit on +criminals; then he goes out to his sister in Portugal; and now there's +nothing but a tailor open to him, as I see, if we're to get our money.' + +'Ah! and he hasn't got too much spirit to work to pay his father's +debts,' added Barnes. 'There's a business there to make any man's +fortune-properly directed, I say. But, I suppose, like father like son, +he'll becoming the Marquis, too. He went to a gentleman's school, and +he's had foreign training. I don't know what to think about it. His +sisters over there--they were fine women.' + +'Oh! a fine family, every one of 'em! and married well!' exclaimed the +publican. + +'I never had the exact rights of that "Marquis" affair,' said Grossby; +and, remembering that he had previously laughed knowingly when it was +alluded to, pursued: 'Of course I heard of it at the time, but how did he +behave when he was blown upon?' + +Barnes undertook to explain; but Kilne, who relished the narrative quite +as well, and was readier, said: 'Look here! I 'll tell you. I had it +from his own mouth one night when he wasn't--not quite himself. He was +coming down King William Street, where he stabled his horse, you know, +and I met him. He'd been dining out-somewhere out over Fallow field, I +think it was; and he sings out to me, "Ah! Kilne, my good fellow!" and +I, wishing to be equal with him, says, "A fine night, my lord!" and he +draws himself up--he smelt of good company--says he, "Kilne! I'm not a +lord, as you know, and you have no excuse for mistaking me for one, sir!" +So I pretended I had mistaken him, and then he tucked his arm under mine, +and said, "You're no worse than your betters, Kilne. They took me for +one at Squire Uplift's to-night, but a man who wishes to pass off for +more than he is, Kilne, and impose upon people," he says, "he's +contemptible, Kilne! contemptible!" So that, you know, set me thinking +about "Bath" and the "Marquis," and I couldn't help smiling to myself, +and just let slip a question whether he had enlightened them a bit. +"Kilne," said he, "you're an honest man, and a neighbour, and I'll tell +you what happened. The Squire," he says, "likes my company, and I like +his table. Now the Squire 'd never do a dirty action, but the Squire's +nephew, Mr. George Uplift, he can't forget that I earn my money, and once +or twice I have had to correct him." And I'll wager Mel did it, too! +Well, he goes on: "There was Admiral Sir Jackson Racial and his lady, at +dinner, Squire Falco of Bursted, Lady Barrington, Admiral Combleman"--our +admiral, that was; 'Mr. This and That', I forget their names--and other +ladies and gentlemen whose acquaintance I was not honoured with." You +know his way of talking. "And there was a goose on the table," he says; +and, looking stern at me, "Don't laugh yet!" says he, like thunder. +Well, he goes on: "Mr. George caught my eye across the table, and said, +so as not to be heard by his uncle, 'If that bird was rampant, you would +see your own arms, Marquis.'" And Mel replied, quietly for him to hear, +"And as that bird is couchant, Mr. George, you had better look to your +sauce." Couchant means squatting, you know. That's heraldry! Well, +that wasn't bad sparring of Mel's. But, bless you! he was never taken +aback, and the gentlefolks was glad enough to get him to sit down amongst +'em. So, says Mr. George, "I know you're a fire-eater, Marquis," and his +dander was up, for he began marquising Mel, and doing the mock polite at +such a rate, that, by-and-by, one of the ladies who didn't know Mel +called him "my lord" and "his lordship." "And," says Mel, "I merely +bowed to her, and took no notice." So that passed off: and there sits +Mel telling his anecdotes, as grand as a king. And, by and-by, young Mr. +George, who hadn't forgiven Mel, and had been pulling at the bottle +pretty well, he sings out, "It 's Michaelmas! the death of the goose! +and I should like to drink the Marquis's health!" and he drank it +solemn. But, as far as I can make out, the women part of the company was +a little in the dark. So Mel waited till there was a sort of a pause, +and then speaks rather loud to the Admiral, "By the way, Sir Jackson, may +I ask you, has the title of Marquis anything to do with tailoring?" Now +Mel was a great favourite with the Admiral, and with his lady, too, they +say--and the Admiral played into his hands, you see, and, says he, "I 'm +not aware that it has, Mr. Harrington." And he begged for to know why he +asked the question--called him, "Mister," you understand. So Mel said, +and I can see him now, right out from his chest he spoke, with his head +up "When I was a younger man, I had the good taste to be fond of good +society, and the bad taste to wish to appear different from what I was in +it": that's Mel speaking; everybody was listening; so he goes on: "I was +in the habit of going to Bath in the season, and consorting with the +gentlemen I met there on terms of equality; and for some reason that I am +quite guiltless of," says Mel, "the hotel people gave out that I was a +Marquis in disguise; and, upon my honour, ladies and gentlemen--I was +young then, and a fool--I could not help imagining I looked the thing. +At all events, I took upon myself to act the part, and with some success, +and considerable gratification; for, in my opinion," says Mel, "no real +Marquis ever enjoyed his title so much as I did. One day I was in my +shop--No. 193, Main Street, Lymport--and a gentleman came in to order his +outfit. I received his directions, when suddenly he started back, stared +at me, and exclaimed: + +'My dear Marquis! I trust you will pardon me for having addressed you +with so much familiarity.' I recognized in him one of my Bath +acquaintances. That circumstance, ladies and gentlemen, has been a +lesson to me. Since that time I have never allowed a false impression +with regard to my position to exist. "I desire," says Mel, smiling, "to +have my exact measure taken everywhere; and if the Michaelmas bird is to +be associated with me, I am sure I have no objection; all I can say is, +that I cannot justify it by letters patent of nobility." That's how Mel +put it. Do you think they thought worse of him? I warrant you he came +out of it in flying colours. Gentlefolks like straight-forwardness in +their inferiors--that's what they do. Ah!' said Kilne, meditatively, +'I see him now, walking across the street in the moonlight, after he 'd +told me that. A fine figure of a man! and there ain't many Marquises to +match him.' + +To this Barnes and Grossby, not insensible to the merits of the recital +they had just given ear to, agreed. And with a common voice of praise in +the mouths of his creditors, the dead man's requiem was sounded. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE HERITAGE OF THE SON + +Toward evening, a carriage drove up to the door of the muted house, and +the card of Lady Racial, bearing a hurried line in pencil, was handed to +the widow. + +It was when you looked upon her that you began to comprehend how great +was the personal splendour of the husband who could eclipse such a woman. +Mrs. Harrington was a tall and a stately dame. Dressed in the high +waists of the matrons of that period, with a light shawl drawn close over +her shoulders and bosom, she carried her head well; and her pale firm +features, with the cast of immediate affliction on them, had much +dignity: dignity of an unrelenting physical order, which need not express +any remarkable pride of spirit. The family gossips who, on both sides, +were vain of this rare couple, and would always descant on their beauty, +even when they had occasion to slander their characters, said, to +distinguish them, that Henrietta Maria had a Port, and Melchisedec a +Presence: and that the union of a Port and a Presence, and such a Port +and such a Presence, was so uncommon, that you might search England +through and you would not find another, not even in the highest ranks of +society. There lies some subtle distinction here; due to the minute +perceptions which compel the gossips of a family to coin phrases that +shall express the nicest shades of a domestic difference. By a Port, one +may understand them to indicate something unsympathetically impressive; +whereas a Presence would seem to be a thing that directs the most affable +appeal to our poor human weaknesses. His Majesty King George IV., for +instance, possessed a Port: Beau Brummel wielded a Presence. Many, it is +true, take a Presence to mean no more than a shirt-frill, and interpret a +Port as the art of walking erect. But this is to look upon language too +narrowly. + +On a more intimate acquaintance with the couple, you acknowledge the, +aptness of the fine distinction. By birth Mrs. Harrington had claims to +rank as a gentlewoman. That is, her father was a lawyer of Lymport. The +lawyer, however, since we must descend the genealogical tree, was known +to have married his cook, who was the lady's mother. Now Mr. Melchisedec +was mysterious concerning his origin; and, in his cups, talked largely +and wisely of a great Welsh family, issuing from a line of princes; and +it is certain that he knew enough of their history to have instructed +them on particular points of it. He never could think that his wife had +done him any honour in espousing him; nor was she the woman to tell him +so. She had married him for love, rejecting various suitors, Squire +Uplift among them, in his favour. Subsequently she had committed the +profound connubial error of transferring her affections, or her thoughts, +from him to his business, which, indeed, was much in want of a mate; and +while he squandered the guineas, she patiently picked up the pence. They +had not lived unhappily. He was constantly courteous to her. But to see +the Port at that sordid work considerably ruffled the Presence--put, as +it were, the peculiar division between them; and to behave toward her as +the same woman who had attracted his youthful ardours was a task for his +magnificent mind, and may have ranked with him as an indemnity for his +general conduct, if his reflections ever stretched so far. The +townspeople of Lymport were correct in saying that his wife, and his wife +alone, had, as they termed it, kept him together. Nevertheless, now that +he was dead, and could no longer be kept together, they entirely forgot +their respect for her, in the outburst of their secret admiration for the +popular man. Such is the constitution of the inhabitants of this dear +Island of Britain, so falsely accused by the Great Napoleon of being a +nation of shopkeepers. Here let any one proclaim himself Above Buttons, +and act on the assumption, his fellows with one accord hoist him on their +heads, and bear him aloft, sweating, and groaning, and cursing, but proud +of him! And if he can contrive, or has any good wife at home to help +him, to die without going to the dogs, they are, one may say, unanimous +in crying out the same eulogistic funeral oration as that commenced by +Kilne, the publican, when he was interrupted by Barnes, the butcher, +'Now, there's a man!--' + + +Mrs. Harrington was sitting in her parlour with one of her married +nieces, Mrs. Fiske, and on reading Lady Racial's card she gave word for +her to be shown up into the drawing-room. It was customary among Mrs. +Harrington's female relatives, who one and all abused and adored the +great Mel, to attribute his shortcomings pointedly to the ladies; which +was as much as if their jealous generous hearts had said that he was +sinful, but that it was not his fault. Mrs. Fiske caught the card from +her aunt, read the superscription, and exclaimed: 'The idea! At least she +might have had the decency! She never set her foot in the house before-- +and right enough too! What can she want now? I decidedly would refuse +to see her, aunt!' + +The widow's reply was simply, 'Don't be a fool, Ann!' + +Rising, she said: 'Here, take poor Jacko, and comfort him till I come +back.' + +Jacko was a middle-sized South American monkey, and had been a pet of her +husband's. He was supposed to be mourning now with the rest of the +family. Mrs. Fiske received him on a shrinking lap, and had found time +to correct one of his indiscretions before she could sigh and say, in the +rear of her aunt's retreating figure, 'I certainly never would let +myself, down so'; but Mrs. Harrington took her own counsel, and Jacko was +of her persuasion, for he quickly released himself from Mrs. Fiske's +dispassionate embrace, and was slinging his body up the balusters after +his mistress. + +'Mrs. Harrington,' said Lady Racial, very sweetly swimming to meet her as +she entered the room, 'I have intruded upon you, I fear, in venturing to +call upon you at such a time?' + +The widow bowed to her, and begged her to be seated. + +Lady Racial was an exquisitely silken dame, in whose face a winning smile +was cut, and she was still sufficiently youthful not to be accused of +wearing a flower too artificial. + +'It was so sudden! so sad!' she continued. 'We esteemed him so much. +I thought you might be in need of sympathy, and hoped I might--Dear Mrs. +Harrington! can you bear to speak of it?' + +'I can tell you anything you wish to hear, my lady,' the widow replied. +Lady Racial had expected to meet a woman much more like what she +conceived a tradesman's wife would be: and the grave reception of her +proffer of sympathy slightly confused her. She said: + +'I should not have come, at least not so early, but Sir Jackson, my +husband, thought, and indeed I imagined--You have a son, Mrs. Harrington? +I think his name is--' + +'Evan, my lady.' + +'Evan. It was of him we have been speaking. I imagined that is, we +thought, Sir Jackson might--you will be writing to him, and will let him +know we will use our best efforts to assist him in obtaining some +position worthy of his--superior to--something that will secure him from +the harassing embarrassments of an uncongenial employment.' + +The widow listened to this tender allusion to the shears without a smile +of gratitude. She replied: 'I hope my son will return in time to bury +his father, and he will thank you himself, my lady.' + +'He has no taste for--a--for anything in the shape of trade, has he, Mrs. +Harrington?' + +'I am afraid not, my lady.' + +'Any position--a situation--that of a clerk even--would be so much better +for him!' + +The widow remained impassive. + +'And many young gentlemen I know, who are clerks, and are enabled to live +comfortably, and make a modest appearance in society; and your son, Mrs. +Harrington, he would find it surely an improvement upon--many would think +it a step for him.' + +'I am bound to thank you for the interest you take in my son, my lady.' + +'Does it not quite suit your views, Mrs. Harrington?' Lady Racial was +surprised at the widow's manner. + +'If my son had only to think of himself, my lady.' + +'Oh! but of course,'--the lady understood her now--'of course! You +cannot suppose, Mrs. Harrington, but that I should anticipate he would +have you to live with him, and behave to you in every way as a dutiful +son, surely? + +'A clerk's income is not very large, my lady.' + +'No; but enough, as I have said, and with the management you would bring, +Mrs. Harrington, to produce a modest, respectable maintenance. My +respect for your husband, Mrs. Harrington, makes me anxious to press my +services upon you.' Lady Racial could not avoid feeling hurt at the +widow's want of common gratitude. + +'A clerk's income would not be more than L100 a year, my lady.' + +'To begin with--no; certainly not more.' The lady was growing brief. + +'If my son puts by the half of that yearly, he can hardly support himself +and his mother, my lady.' + +'Half of that yearly, Mrs. Harrington?' + +'He would have to do so, and be saddled till he dies, my lady.' + +'I really cannot see why.' + +Lady Racial had a notion of some excessive niggardly thrift in the widow, +which was arousing symptoms of disgust. + +Mrs. Harrington quietly said: 'There are his father's debts to pay, my +lady.' + +'His father's debts!' + +'Under L5000, but above L4000, my lady.' + +'Five thousand pounds! Mrs. Harrington!' The lady's delicately gloved +hand gently rose and fell. 'And this poor young man--'she pursued. + +'My son will have to pay it, my lady.' + +For a moment the lady had not a word to instance. Presently she +remarked: 'But, Mrs. Harrington, he is surely under no legal obligation?' + +'He is only under the obligation not to cast disrespect on his father's +memory, my lady; and to be honest, while he can.' + +'But, Mrs. Harrington! surely! what can the poor young man do?' + +'He will pay it, my lady.' + +'But how, Mrs. Harrington?' + +'There is his father's business, my lady.' + +His father's business! Then must the young man become a tradesman in +order to show respect for his father? Preposterous! That was the lady's +natural inward exclamation. She said, rather shrewdly, for one who knew +nothing of such things: 'But a business which produces debts so enormous, +Mrs. Harrington!' + +The widow replied: 'My son will have to conduct it in a different way. +It would be a very good business, conducted properly, my lady.' + +'But if he has no taste for it, Mrs. Harrington? If he is altogether +superior to it?' + +For the first time during the interview, the widow's inflexible +countenance was mildly moved, though not to any mild expression. + +'My son will have not to consult his tastes,' she observed: and seeing +the lady, after a short silence, quit her seat, she rose likewise, and +touched the fingers of the hand held forth to her, bowing. + +'You will pardon the interest I take in your son,' said Lady Racial. +'I hope, indeed, that his relatives and friends will procure him the +means of satisfying the demands made upon him.' + +'He would still have to pay them, my lady,' was the widow's answer. + +'Poor young man! indeed I pity him!' sighed her visitor. 'You have +hitherto used no efforts to persuade him to take such a step,--Mrs. +Harrington?' + +'I have written to Mr. Goren, who was my husband's fellow-apprentice in +London, my lady; and he is willing to instruct him in cutting, and +measuring, and keeping accounts.' + +Certain words in this speech were obnoxious to the fine ear of Lady +Racial, and she relinquished the subject. + +'Your husband, Mrs. Harrington--I should so much have wished!--he did not +pass away in--in pain!' + +'He died very calmly, my lady.' + +'It is so terrible, so disfiguring, sometimes. One dreads to see!--one +can hardly distinguish! I have known cases where death was dreadful! +But a peaceful death is very beautiful! There is nothing shocking to +the mind. It suggests heaven! It seems a fulfilment of our prayers!' + +'Would your ladyship like to look upon him?' said the widow. + +Lady Racial betrayed a sudden gleam at having her desire thus intuitively +fathomed. + +'For one moment, Mrs. Harrington! We esteemed him so much! May I?' + +The widow responded by opening the door, and leading her into the chamber +where the dead man lay. + + +At that period, when threats of invasion had formerly stirred up the +military fire of us Islanders, the great Mel, as if to show the great +Napoleon what character of being a British shopkeeper really was, had, +by remarkable favour, obtained a lieutenancy of militia dragoons: in the +uniform of which he had revelled, and perhaps, for the only time in his +life, felt that circumstances had suited him with a perfect fit. However +that may be, his solemn final commands to his wife, Henrietta Maria, on +whom he could count for absolute obedience in such matters, had been, +that as soon as the breath had left his body, he should be taken from his +bed, washed, perfumed, powdered, and in that uniform dressed and laid +out; with directions that he should be so buried at the expiration of +three days, that havoc in his features might be hidden from men. In this +array Lady Racial beheld him. The curtains of the bed were drawn aside. +The beams of evening fell soft through the blinds of the room, and cast a +subdued light on the figure of the vanquished warrior. The Presence, +dumb now for evermore, was sadly illumined for its last exhibition. But +one who looked closely might have seen that Time had somewhat spoiled +that perfect fit which had aforetime been his pride; and now that the +lofty spirit had departed, there had been extreme difficulty in +persuading the sullen excess of clay to conform to the dimensions of +those garments. The upper part of the chest alone would bear its +buttons, and across one portion of the lower limbs an ancient seam had +started; recalling an incident to them who had known him in his brief +hour of glory. For one night, as he was riding home from Fallow field, +and just entering the gates of the town, a mounted trooper spurred +furiously past, and slashing out at him, gashed his thigh. Mrs. +Melchisedec found him lying at his door in a not unwonted way; carried +him up-stairs in her arms, as she had done many a time before, and did +not perceive his condition till she saw the blood on her gown. The +cowardly assailant was never discovered; but Mel was both gallant and +had, in his military career, the reputation of being a martinet. Hence, +divers causes were suspected. The wound failed not to mend, the trousers +were repaired: Peace about the same time was made, and the affair passed +over. + +Looking on the fine head and face, Lady Racial saw nothing of this. She +had not looked long before she found covert employment for her +handkerchief. The widow standing beside her did not weep, or reply to +her whispered excuses at emotion; gazing down on his mortal length with a +sort of benignant friendliness; aloof, as one whose duties to that form +of flesh were well-nigh done. At the feet of his master, Jacko, the +monkey, had jumped up, and was there squatted, with his legs crossed, +very like a tailor! The imitative wretch had got a towel, and as often +as Lady Racial's handkerchief travelled to her eyes, Jacko's peery face +was hidden, and you saw his lithe skinny body doing grief's convulsions +till, tired of this amusement, he obtained possession of the warrior's +helmet, from a small round table on one side of the bed; a calque of the +barbarous military-Georgian form, with a huge knob of horse-hair +projecting over the peak; and under this, trying to adapt it to his +rogue's head, the tricksy image of Death extinguished himself. + +All was very silent in the room. Then the widow quietly disengaged +Jacko, and taking him up, went to the door, and deposited him outside. +During her momentary absence, Lady Racial had time to touch the dead +man's forehead with her lips, unseen. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DAUGHTERS OF THE SHEARS + +Three daughters and a son were left to the world by Mr. Melchisedec. +Love, well endowed, had already claimed to provide for the daughters: +first in the shape of a lean Marine subaltern, whose days of obscuration +had now passed, and who had come to be a major of that corps: secondly, +presenting his addresses as a brewer of distinction: thirdly, and for a +climax, as a Portuguese Count: no other than the Senor Silva Diaz, Conde +de Saldar: and this match did seem a far more resplendent one than that +of the two elder sisters with Major Strike and Mr. Andrew Cogglesby. But +the rays of neither fell visibly on Lymport. These escaped Eurydices +never reappeared, after being once fairly caught away from the gloomy +realms of Dis, otherwise Trade. All three persons of singular beauty, a +certain refinement, some Port, and some Presence, hereditarily combined, +they feared the clutch of that fell king, and performed the widest +possible circles around him. Not one of them ever approached the house +of her parents. They were dutiful and loving children, and wrote +frequently; but of course they had to consider their new position, and +their husbands, and their husbands' families, and the world, and what it +would say, if to it the dreaded rumour should penetrate! Lymport +gossips, as numerous as in other parts, declared that the foreign +nobleman would rave in an extraordinary manner, and do things after the +outlandish fashion of his country: for from him, there was no doubt, the +shop had been most successfully veiled, and he knew not of Pluto's close +relationship to his lovely spouse. + +The marriages had happened in this way. Balls are given in country +towns, where the graces of tradesmen's daughters may be witnessed and +admired at leisure by other than tradesmen: by occasional country +gentlemen of the neighbourhood, with light minds: and also by small +officers: subalterns wishing to do tender execution upon man's fair +enemy, and to find a distraction for their legs. The classes of our +social fabric have, here and there, slight connecting links, and +provincial public balls are one of these. They are dangerous, for Cupid +is no respecter of class-prejudice; and if you are the son of a retired +tea-merchant, or of a village doctor, or of a half-pay captain, or of +anything superior, and visit one of them, you are as likely to receive +his shot as any shopboy. Even masquerading lords at such places, have +been known to be slain outright; and although Society allows to its +highest and dearest to save the honour of their families, and heal their +anguish, by indecorous compromise, you, if you are a trifle below that +mark, must not expect it. You must absolutely give yourself for what you +hope to get. Dreadful as it sounds to philosophic ears, you must marry. +This, having danced with Caroline Harrington, the gallant Lieutenant +Strike determined to do. Nor, when he became aware of her father's +occupation, did he shrink from his resolve. After a month's hard +courtship, he married her straight out of her father's house. That he +may have all the credit due to him, it must be admitted that he did not +once compare, or possibly permit himself to reflect on, the dissimilarity +in their respective ranks, and the step he had taken downward, till they +were man and wife: and then not in any great degree, before Fortune had +given him his majority; an advance the good soldier frankly told his wife +he did not owe to her. If we may be permitted to suppose the colonel of +a regiment on friendly terms with one of his corporals, we have an +estimate of the domestic life of Major and Mrs. Strike. Among the +garrison males, his comrades, he passed for a disgustingly jealous brute. + +The ladies, in their pretty language, signalized him as a 'finick.' + +Now, having achieved so capital a marriage, Caroline, worthy creature, +was anxious that her sisters should not be less happy, and would have +them to visit her, in spite of her husband's protests. + +'There can be no danger,' she said, for she was in fresh quarters, far +from the nest of contagion. The lieutenant himself ungrudgingly declared +that, looking on the ladies, no one for an instant could suspect; and he +saw many young fellows ready to be as great fools as he had been another +voluntary confession he made to his wife; for the candour of which she +thanked him, and pointed out that it seemed to run in the family; +inasmuch as Mr. Andrew Cogglesby, his rich relative, had seen and had +proposed for Harriet. The lieutenant flatly said he would never allow +it. In fact he had hitherto concealed the non-presentable portion of his +folly very satisfactorily from all save the mess-room, and Mr. Andrew's +passion was a severe dilemma to him. It need scarcely be told that his +wife, fortified by the fervid brewer, defeated him utterly. What was +more, she induced him to be an accomplice in deception. For though the +lieutenant protested that he washed his hands of it, and that it was a +fraud and a snare, he certainly did not avow the condition of his wife's +parents to Mr. Andrew, but alluded to them in passing as 'the country +people.' He supposed 'the country people' must be asked, he said. The +brewer offered to go down to them. But the lieutenant drew an unpleasant +picture of the country people, and his wife became so grave at the +proposal, that Mr. Andrew said he wanted to marry the lady and not the +'country people,' and if she would have him, there he was. There he was, +behaving with a particular and sagacious kindness to the raw lieutenant +since Harriet's arrival. If the lieutenant sent her away, Mr. Andrew +would infallibly pursue her, and light on a discovery. Twice cursed by +Love, twice the victim of tailordom, our excellent Marine gave away +Harriet Harrington in marriage to Mr. Andrew Cogglesby. + +Thus Joy clapped hands a second time, and Horror deepened its shadows. + +From higher ground it was natural that the remaining sister should take a +bolder flight. Of the loves of the fair Louisa Harrington and the +foreign Count, and how she first encountered him in the brewer's saloons, +and how she, being a humorous person, laughed at his 'loaf' for her, and +wore the colours that pleased him, and kindled and soothed his jealousy, +little is known beyond the fact that she espoused the Count, under the +auspices of the affluent brewer, and engaged that her children should be +brought up in the faith of the Catholic Church: which Lymport gossips +called, paying the Devil for her pride. + +The three sisters, gloriously rescued by their own charms, had now to +think of their one young brother. How to make him a gentleman! That was +their problem. + +Preserve him from tailordom--from all contact with trade--they must; +otherwise they would be perpetually linked to the horrid thing they hoped +to outlive and bury. A cousin of Mr. Melchisedec's had risen to be an +Admiral and a knight for valiant action in the old war, when men could +rise. Him they besought to take charge of the youth, and make a +distinguished seaman of him. He courteously declined. They then +attacked the married Marine--Navy or Army being quite indifferent to them +as long as they could win for their brother the badge of one Service, +'When he is a gentleman at once!' they said, like those who see the end +of their labours. Strike basely pretended to second them. It would have +been delightful to him, of course, to have the tailor's son messing at +the same table, and claiming him when he pleased with a familiar 'Ah, +brother!' and prating of their relationship everywhere. Strike had been +a fool: in revenge for it he laid out for himself a masterly career of +consequent wisdom. The brewer--uxorious Andrew Cogglesby--might and +would have bought the commission. Strike laughed at the idea of giving +money for what could be got for nothing. He told them to wait. + +In the meantime Evan, a lad of seventeen, spent the hours not devoted to +his positive profession--that of gentleman--in the offices of the +brewery, toying with big books and balances, which he despised with the +combined zeal of the sucking soldier and emancipated tailor. + +Two years passed in attendance on the astute brother-in-law, to whom +Fortune now beckoned to come to her and gather his laurels from the pig- +tails. About the same time the Countess sailed over from Lisbon on a +visit to her sister Harriet (in reality, it was whispered in the +Cogglesby saloons, on a diplomatic mission from the Court of Lisbon; but +that could not be made ostensible). The Countess narrowly examined Evan, +whose steady advance in his profession both her sisters praised. + +'Yes,' said the Countess, in a languid alien accent. 'He has something +of his father's carriage--something. Something of his delivery--his +readiness.' + +It was a remarkable thing that these ladies thought no man on earth like +their father, and always cited him as the example of a perfect gentleman, +and yet they buried him with one mind, and each mounted guard over his +sepulchre, to secure his ghost from an airing. + +'He can walk, my dears, certainly, and talk--a little. Tete-a-tete, I do +not say. I should think there he would be--a stick! All you English +are. But what sort of a bow has he got, I ask you? How does he enter a +room? And, then his smile! his laugh! He laughs like a horse-- +absolutely! There's no music in his smile. Oh! you should see a +Portuguese nobleman smile. O mio Deus! honeyed, my dears! But Evan has +it not. None of you English have. You go so.' + +The Countess pressed a thumb and finger to the sides of her mouth, and +set her sisters laughing. + +'I assure you, no better! not a bit! I faint in your society. I ask +myself--Where am I? Among what boors have I fallen? But Evan is no +worse than the rest of you; I acknowledge that. If he knew how to dress +his shoulders properly, and to direct his eyes--Oh! the eyes! you +should see how a Portuguese nobleman can use his eyes! Soul! my dears, +soul! Can any of you look the unutterable without being absurd! You +look so.' + +And the Countess hung her jaw under heavily vacuous orbits, something as +a sheep might yawn. + +'But I acknowledge that Evan is no worse than the rest of you,' she +repeated. 'If he understood at all the management of his eyes and mouth! +But that's what he cannot possibly learn in England--not possibly! As +for your poor husband, Harriet! one really has to remember his excellent +qualities to forgive him, poor man! And that stiff bandbox of a man of +yours, Caroline!' addressing the wife of the Marine, 'he looks as if he +were all angles and sections, and were taken to pieces every night and +put together in the morning. He may be a good soldier--good anything you +will--but, Diacho! to be married to that! He is not civilized. None of +you English are. You have no place in the drawing-room. You are like so +many intrusive oxen--absolutely! One of your men trod on my toe the +other night, and what do you think the creature did? Jerks back, then +the half of him forward--I thought he was going to break in two--then +grins, and grunts, "Oh! 'm sure, beg pardon, 'm sure!" I don't know +whether he didn't say, MARM!' + +The Countess lifted her hands, and fell away in laughing horror. When +her humour, or her feelings generally, were a little excited, she spoke +her vernacular as her sisters did, but immediately subsided into the +deliberate delicately-syllabled drawl. + +'Now that happened to me once at one of our great Balls,' she pursued. +'I had on one side of me the Duchesse Eugenia de Formosa de Fontandigua; +on the other sat the Countess de Pel, a widow. And we were talking of +the ices that evening. Eugenia, you must know, my dears, was in love +with the Count Belmarana. I was her sole confidante. The Countess de +Pel--a horrible creature! Oh! she was the Duchess's determined enemy- +would have stabbed her for Belmarana, one of the most beautiful men! +Adored by every woman! So we talked ices, Eugenic and myself, quite +comfortably, and that horrible De Pel had no idea in life! Eugenia had +just said, "This ice sickens me! I do not taste the flavour of the +vanille." I answered, "It is here! It must--it cannot but be here! +You love the flavour of the vanille?" With her exquisite smile, I see +her now saying, "Too well! it is necessary to me! I live on it!"--when +up he came. In his eagerness, his foot just effleured my robe. Oh! +I never shall forget! In an instant he was down on one knee it was so +momentary that none saw it but we three, and done with ineffable grace. +"Pardon!" he said, in his sweet Portuguese; "Pardon!" looking up--the +handsomest man I ever beheld; and when I think of that odious wretch the +other night, with his "Oh! 'm sure, beg pardon, 'm sure! 'pon my honour!" +I could have kicked him--I could, indeed!' + +Here the Countess laughed out, but relapsed into: + +'Alas! that Belmarana should have betrayed that beautiful trusting +creature to De Pel. Such scandal! a duel!--the Duke was wounded. For a +whole year Eugenia did not dare to appear at Court, but had to remain +immured in her country-house, where she heard that Belmarana had married +De Pel! It was for her money, of course. Rich as Croesus, and as wicked +as the black man below! as dear papa used to say. By the way, weren't +we talking of Evan? Ah,--yes!' + +And so forth. The Countess was immensely admired, and though her sisters +said that she was 'foreignized' overmuch, they clung to her desperately. +She seemed so entirely to have eclipsed tailordom, or 'Demogorgon,' as +the Countess was pleased to call it. Who could suppose this grand- +mannered lady, with her coroneted anecdotes and delicious breeding, the +daughter of that thing? It was not possible to suppose it. It seemed to +defy the fact itself. + +They congratulated her on her complete escape from Demogorgon. The +Countess smiled on them with a lovely sorrow. + +'Safe from the whisper, my dears; the ceaseless dread? If you knew what +I have to endure! I sometimes envy you. 'Pon my honour, I sometimes +wish I had married a fishmonger! Silva, indeed, is a most excellent +husband. Polished! such polish as you know not of in England. He has a +way--a wriggle with his shoulders in company--I cannot describe it to +you; so slight! so elegant! and he is all that a woman could desire. +But who could be safe in any part of the earth, my dears, while papa +will go about so, and behave so extraordinarily? I was at dinner at your +English embassy a month ago, and there was Admiral Combleman, then on the +station off Lisbon, Sir Jackson Racial's friend, who was the Admiral at +Lymport formerly. I knew him at once, and thought, oh! what shall I do! +My heart was like a lump of lead. I would have given worlds that we +might one of us have smothered the other! I had to sit beside him-- +it always happens! Thank heaven! he did not identify me. And then +he told an anecdote of Papa. It was the dreadful old "Bath" story. +I thought I should have died. I could not but fancy the Admiral +suspected. Was it not natural? And what do you think I had the audacity +to do? I asked him coolly, whether the Mr. Harrington he mentioned was +not the son of Sir Abraham Harrington, of Torquay,--the gentleman who +lost his yacht in the Lisbon waters last year? I brought it on myself. +"Gentleman, ma'am,--MA'AM!" says the horrid old creature, laughing," +gentleman! he's a--" I cannot speak it: I choke! And then he began +praising Papa. Diacho! what I suffered. But, you know, I can keep my +countenance, if I perish. I am a Harrington as much as any of us!' + +And the Countess looked superb in the pride with which she said she was +what she would have given her hand not to be. But few feelings are +single on this globe, and junction of sentiments need not imply unity in +our yeasty compositions. + +'After it was over--my supplice,' continued the Countess, 'I was +questioned by all the ladies--I mean our ladies--not your English. They +wanted to know how I could be so civil to that intolerable man. I gained +a deal of credit, my dears. I laid it all on--Diplomacy.' The Countess +laughed bitterly. 'Diplomacy bears the burden of it all. I pretended +that Combleman could be useful to Silva! Oh! what hypocrites we all are, +mio Deus!' + +The ladies listening could not gainsay this favourite claim of universal +brotherhood among the select who wear masks instead of faces. + + +With regard to Evan, the Countess had far outstripped her sisters in her +views. A gentleman she had discovered must have one of two things-- +a title or money. He might have all the breeding in the world; he might +be as good as an angel; but without a title or money he was under eclipse +almost total. On a gentleman the sun must shine. Now, Evan had no +title, no money. The clouds were thick above the youth. To gain a title +he would have to scale aged mountains. There was one break in his +firmament through which the radiant luminary might be assisted to cast +its beams on him still young. That divine portal was matrimony. If he +could but make a rich marriage he would blaze transfigured; all would be +well! And why should not Evan marry an heiress, as well as another? + +'I know a young creature who would exactly suit him,' said the Countess. +'She is related to the embassy, and is in Lisbon now. A charming child-- +just sixteen! Dios! how the men rave about her! and she isn't a +beauty,--there's the wonder; and she is a little too gauche too English +in her habits and ways of thinking; likes to be admired, of course, but +doesn't know yet how to set about getting it. She rather scandalizes our +ladies, but when you know her!--She will have, they say, a hundred +'thousand pounds in her own right! Rose Jocelyn, the daughter of Sir +Franks, and that eccentric Lady Jocelyn. She is with her uncle, +Melville, the celebrated diplomate though, to tell you the truth, +we turn him round our fingers, and spin him as the boys used to do the +cockchafers. I cannot forget our old Fallow field school-life, you see, +my dears. Well, Rose Jocelyn would just suit Evan. She is just of an +age to receive an impression. And I would take care she did. Instance +me a case where I have failed? + +'Or there is the Portuguese widow, the Rostral. She's thirty, certainly; +but she possesses millions! Estates all over the kingdom, and the +sweetest creature. But, no. Evan would be out of the way there, +certainly. But--our women are very nice: they have the dearest, +sweetest ways: but I would rather Evan did not marry one of them. +And then there 's the religion!' + +This was a sore of the Countess's own, and she dropped a tear in coming +across it. + +'No, my dears, it shall be Rose Jocelyn!' she concluded: 'I will take +Evan over with me, and see that he has opportunities. It shall be Rose, +and then I can call her mine; for in verity I love the child.' + +It is not my part to dispute the Countess's love for Miss Jocelyn; +and I have only to add that Evan, unaware of the soft training he was +to undergo, and the brilliant chance in store for him, offered no +impediment to the proposition that he should journey to Portugal with his +sister (whose subtlest flattery was to tell him that she should not be +ashamed to own him there); and ultimately, furnished with cash for the +trip by the remonstrating brewer, went. + +So these Parcae, daughters of the shears, arranged and settled the young +man's fate. His task was to learn the management of his mouth, how to +dress his shoulders properly, and to direct his eyes--rare qualities in +man or woman, I assure you; the management of the mouth being especially +admirable, and correspondingly difficult. These achieved, he was to +place his battery in position, and win the heart and hand of an heiress. + +Our comedy opens with his return from Portugal, in company with Miss +Rose, the heiress; the Honourable Melville Jocelyn, the diplomate; and +the Count and Countess de Saldar, refugees out of that explosive little +kingdom. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ON BOARD THE JOCASTA + +From the Tagus to the Thames the Government sloop-of-war, Jocasta, +had made a prosperous voyage, bearing that precious freight, a removed +diplomatist and his family; for whose uses let a sufficient vindication +be found in the exercise he affords our crews in the science of +seamanship. She entered our noble river somewhat early on a fine July +morning. Early as it was, two young people, who had nothing to do with +the trimming or guiding of the vessel, stood on deck, and watched the +double-shore, beginning to embrace them more and more closely as they +sailed onward. One, a young lady, very young in manner, wore a black +felt hat with a floating scarlet feather, and was clad about the +shoulders in a mantle of foreign style and pattern. The other you might +have taken for a wandering Don, were such an object ever known; so simply +he assumed the dusky sombrero and dangling cloak, of which one fold was +flung across his breast and drooped behind him. The line of an +adolescent dark moustache ran along his lip, and only at intervals could +you see that his eyes were blue and of the land he was nearing. For the +youth was meditative, and held his head much down. The young lady, on +the contrary, permitted an open inspection of her countenance, and +seemed, for the moment at least, to be neither caring nor thinking of +what kind of judgement would be passed on her. Her pretty nose was up, +sniffing the still salt breeze with vivacious delight. + +'Oh!' she cried, clapping her hands, 'there goes a dear old English gull! +How I have wished to see him! I haven't seen one for two years and seven +months. When I 'm at home, I 'll leave my window open all night, just to +hear the rooks, when they wake in the morning. There goes another!' + +She tossed up her nose again, exclaiming: + +'I 'm sure I smell England nearer and nearer! I smell the fields, and +the cows in them. I'd have given anything to be a dairy-maid for half an +hour! I used to lie and pant in that stifling air among those stupid +people, and wonder why anybody ever left England. Aren't you glad to +come back?' + +This time the fair speaker lent her eyes to the question, and shut her +lips; sweet, cold, chaste lips she had: a mouth that had not yet dreamed +of kisses, and most honest eyes. + +The young man felt that they were not to be satisfied by his own, and +after seeking to fill them with a doleful look, which was immediately +succeeded by one of superhuman indifference, he answered: + +'Yes! We shall soon have to part!' and commenced tapping with his foot +the cheerful martyr's march. + +Speech that has to be hauled from the depths usually betrays the effort. +Listening an instant to catch the import of this cavernous gasp upon the +brink of sound, the girl said: + +'Part? what do you mean?' + +Apparently it required a yet vaster effort to pronounce an explanation. +The doleful look, the superhuman indifference, were repeated in due +order: sound, a little more distinct, uttered the words: + +'We cannot be as we have been, in England!' and then the cheerful martyr +took a few steps farther. + +'Why, you don't mean to say you're going to give me up, and not be +friends with me, because we've come back to England?' cried the girl +in a rapid breath, eyeing him seriously. + +Most conscientiously he did not mean it! but he replied with the quietest +negative. + +'No?' she mimicked him. 'Why do you say "No" like that? Why are you so +mysterious, Evan? Won't you promise me to come and stop with us for +weeks? Haven't you said we would ride, and hunt, and fish together, +and read books, and do all sorts of things?' + +He replied with the quietest affirmative. + +'Yes? What does "Yes!" mean?' She lifted her chest to shake out the +dead-alive monosyllable, as he had done. 'Why are you so singular this +morning, Evan? Have I offended you? You are so touchy!' + +The slur on his reputation for sensitiveness induced the young man to +attempt being more explicit. + +'I mean,' he said, hesitating; 'why, we must part. We shall not see each +other every day. Nothing more than that.' And away went the cheerful +martyr in sublimest mood. + +'Oh! and that makes you, sorry?' A shade of archness was in her voice. + +The girl waited as if to collect something in her mind, and was now a +patronizing woman. + +'Why, you dear sentimental boy! You don't suppose we could see each +other every day for ever?' + +It was perhaps the cruelest question that could have been addressed to +the sentimental boy from her mouth. But he was a cheerful martyr! + +'You dear Don Doloroso!' she resumed. 'I declare if you are not just +like those young Portugals this morning; and over there you were such a +dear English fellow; and that's why I liked you so much! Do change! +Do, please, be lively, and yourself again. Or mind; I'll call you Don +Doloroso, and that shall be your name in England. See there!--that's-- +that's? what's the name of that place? Hoy! Mr. Skerne!' She hailed the +boatswain, passing, 'Do tell me the name of that place.' + +Mr. Skerne righted about to satisfy her minutely, and then coming up to +Evan, he touched his hat, and said: + +'I mayn't have another opportunity--we shall be busy up there--of +thankin' you again, sir, for what you did for my poor drunken brother +Bill, and you may take my word I won't forget it, sir, if he does; and +I suppose he'll be drowning his memory just as he was near drowning +himself.' + +Evan muttered something, grimaced civilly, and turned away. The girl's +observant brows were moved to a faintly critical frown, and nodding +intelligently to the boatswain's remark, that the young gentleman did not +seem quite himself, now that he was nearing home, she went up to Evan, +and said: + +'I'm going to give you a lesson in manners, to be quits with you. +Listen, sir. Why did you turn away so ungraciously from Mr. Skerne, +while he was thanking you for having saved his brother's life? Now +there's where you're too English. Can't you bear to be thanked?' + +'I don't want to be thanked because I can swim,' said Evan. + +'But it is not that. Oh, how you trifle!' she cried. 'There's nothing +vexes me so much as that way you have. Wouldn't my eyes have sparkled if +anybody had come up to me to thank me for such a thing? I would let them +know how glad I was to have done such a thing! Doesn't it make them +happier, dear Evan?' + +'My dear Miss Jocelyn!' + +'What?' + +The honest grey eyes fixed on him, narrowed their enlarged lids. She +gazed before her on the deck, saying: + +'I'm sure I can't understand you. I suppose it's because I'm a girl, and +I never shall till I'm a woman. Heigho!' + +A youth who is engaged in the occupation of eating his heart, cannot +shine to advantage, and is as much a burden to himself as he is an enigma +to others. Evan felt this; but he could do nothing and say nothing; so +he retired deeper into the folds of the Don, and remained picturesque and +scarcely pleasant. + +They were relieved by a summons to breakfast from below. + +She brightened and laughed. 'Now, what will you wager me, Evan, that the +Countess doesn't begin: + +"Sweet child! how does she this morning? blooming?" when she kisses +me?' + +Her capital imitation of his sister's manner constrained him to join in +her laugh, and he said: + +'I'll back against that, I get three fingers from your uncle, and +"Morrow, young sir!"' + +Down they ran together, laughing; and, sure enough, the identical words +of the respective greetings were employed, which they had to enjoy with +all the discretion they could muster. + +Rose went round the table to her little cousin Alec, aged seven, kissed +his reluctant cheek, and sat beside him, announcing a sea appetite and +great capabilities, while Evan silently broke bread. The Count de +Saldar, a diminutive tawny man, just a head and neck above the +tablecloth, sat sipping chocolate and fingering dry toast, which he would +now and then dip in jelly, and suck with placidity, in the intervals of a +curt exchange of French with the wife of the Hon. Melville, a ringleted +English lady, or of Portuguese with the Countess; who likewise sipped +chocolate and fingered dry toast, and was mournfully melodious. The Hon. +Melville, as became a tall islander, carved beef, and ate of it, like a +ruler of men. Beautiful to see was the compassionate sympathy of the +Countess's face when Rose offered her plate for a portion of the world- +subjugating viand, as who should say: 'Sweet child! thou knowest not yet +of sorrows, thou canst ballast thy stomach with beef!' In any other than +an heiress, she would probably have thought: 'This is indeed a disgusting +little animal, and most unfeminine conduct!' + +Rose, unconscious of praise or blame, rivalled her uncle in enjoyment of +the fare, and talked of her delight in seeing England again, and anything +that belonged to her native land. Mrs. Melville perceived that it pained +the refugee Countess, and gave her the glance intelligible; but the +Countess never missed glances, or failed to interpret them. She said: + +'Let her. I love to hear the sweet child's prattle.' + +'It was fortunate' (she addressed the diplomatist) 'that we touched at +Southampton and procured fresh provision!' + +'Very lucky for US!' said he, glaring shrewdly between a mouthful. + +The Count heard the word 'Southampton,' and wished to know how it was +comprised. A passage of Portuguese ensued, and then the Countess said: + +'Silva, you know, desired to relinquish the vessel at Southampton. He +does not comprehend the word "expense," but' (she shook a dumb Alas!) +'I must think of that for him now!' + +'Oh! always avoid expense,' said the Hon. Melville, accustomed to be +paid for by his country. + +'At what time shall we arrive, may I ask, do you think?' the Countess +gently inquired. + +The watch of a man who had his eye on Time was pulled out, and she was +told it might be two hours before dark. Another reckoning, keenly +balanced, informed the company that the day's papers could be expected on +board somewhere about three o'clock in the afternoon. + +'And then,' said the Hon. Melville, nodding general gratulation, 'we +shall know how the world wags.' + +How it had been wagging the Countess's straining eyes under closed +eyelids were eloquent of. + +'Too late, I fear me, to wait upon Lord Livelyston to-night?' she +suggested. + +'To-night?' The Hon. Melville gazed blank astonishment at the notion. +'Oh! certainly, too late tonight. A-hum! I think, madam, you had better +not be in too great a hurry to see him. Repose a little. Recover your +fatigue.' + +'Oh !' exclaimed the Countess, with a beam of utter confidence in him, +'I shall be too happy to place myself in your hands--believe me.' + +This was scarcely more to the taste of the diplomatist. He put up his +mouth, and said, blandly: + +'I fear--you know, madam, I must warn you beforehand--I, personally, +am but an insignificant unit over here, you know; I, personally, +can't guarantee much assistance to you--not positive. What I can do-- +of course, very happy!' And he fell to again upon the beef. + +'Not so very insignificant!' said the Countess, smiling, as at a softly +radiant conception of him. + +'Have to bob and bow like the rest of them over here,' he added, proof +against the flattery. + +'But that you will not forsake Silva, I am convinced,' said the Countess; +and, paying little heed to his brief 'Oh! what I can do,' continued: +'For over here, in England, we are almost friendless. My relations--such +as are left of them--are not in high place.' She turned to Mrs. +Melville, and renewed the confession with a proud humility. 'Truly, I +have not a distant cousin in the Cabinet!' + +Mrs. Melville met her sad smile, and returned it, as one who understood +its entire import. + +'My brother-in-law-my sister, I think, you know--married a--a brewer! +He is rich; but, well! such was her taste! My brother-in-law is indeed +in Parliament, and he--' + +'Very little use, seeing he votes with the opposite party,' the +diplomatist interrupted her. + +'Ah! but he will not,' said the Countess, serenely. 'I can trust with +confidence that, if it is for Silva's interest, he will assuredly so +dispose of his influence as to suit the desiderations of his family, and +not in any way oppose his opinions to the powers that would willingly +stoop to serve us!' + +It was impossible for the Hon. Melville to withhold a slight grimace at +his beef, when he heard this extremely alienized idea of the nature of a +member of the Parliament of Great Britain. He allowed her to enjoy her +delusion, as she pursued: + +'No. So much we could offer in repayment. It is little! But this, in +verity, is a case. Silva's wrongs have only to be known in England, and +I am most assured that the English people will not permit it. In the +days of his prosperity, Silva was a friend to England, and England should +not--should not--forget it now. Had we money! But of that arm our +enemies have deprived us: and, I fear, without it we cannot hope to have +the justice of our cause pleaded in the English papers. Mr. Redner, you +know, the correspondent in Lisbon, is a sworn foe to Silva. And why but +because I would not procure him an invitation to Court! The man was so +horridly vulgar; his gloves were never clean; I had to hold a bouquet to +my nose when I talked to him. That, you say, was my fault! Truly so. +But what woman can be civil to a low-bred, pretentious, offensive man?' + +Mrs. Melville, again appealed to, smiled perfect sympathy, and said, to +account for his character: + +'Yes. He is the son of a small shopkeeper of some kind, in Southampton, +I hear.' + +'A very good fellow in his way,' said her husband. + +'Oh! I can't bear that class of people,' Rose exclaimed. 'I always keep +out of their way. You can always tell them.' + +The Countess smiled considerate approbation of her exclusiveness and +discernment. So sweet a smile! + +'You were on deck early, my dear?' she asked Evan, rather abruptly. + +Master Alec answered for him: 'Yes, he was, and so was Rose. They made +an appointment, just as they used to do under the oranges.' + +'Children!' the Countess smiled to Mrs. Melville. + +'They always whisper when I'm by,' Alec appended. + +'Children!' the Countess's sweetened visage entreated Mrs. Melville to +re-echo; but that lady thought it best for the moment to direct Rose to +look to her packing, now that she had done breakfast. + +'And I will take a walk with my brother on deck,' said the Countess. +'Silva is too harassed for converse.' + +The parties were thus divided. The silent Count was left to meditate on +his wrongs in the saloon; and the diplomatist, alone with his lady, +thought fit to say to her, shortly: 'Perhaps it would be as well to draw +away from these people a little. We 've done as much as we could for +them, in bringing them over here. They may be trying to compromise us. +That woman's absurd. She 's ashamed of the brewer, and yet she wants to +sell him--or wants us to buy him. Ha! I think she wants us to send a +couple of frigates, and threaten bombardment of the capital, if they +don't take her husband back, and receive him with honours.' + +'Perhaps it would be as well,' said Mrs. Melville. 'Rose's invitation to +him goes for nothing.' + +'Rose? inviting the Count? down to Hampshire?' The diplomatist's brows +were lifted. + +'No, I mean the other,' said the diplomatist's wife. + +'Oh! the young fellow! very good young fellow. Gentlemanly. No harm in +him.' + +'Perhaps not,' said the diplomatist's wife. + +'You don't suppose he expects us to keep him on, or provide for him over +here--eh?' + +The diplomatist's wife informed him that such was not her thought, that +he did not understand, and that it did not matter; and as soon as the +Hon. Melville saw that she was brooding something essentially feminine, +and which had no relationship to the great game of public life, curiosity +was extinguished in him. + +On deck the Countess paced with Evan, and was for a time pleasantly +diverted by the admiration she could, without looking, perceive that her +sorrow-subdued graces had aroused in the breast of a susceptible naval +lieutenant. At last she spoke: + +'My dear! remember this. Your last word to Mr. Jocelyn will be: "I will +do myself the honour to call upon my benefactor early." To Rose you will +say: "Be assured, Miss Jocelyn "Miss Jocelyn--"I shall not fail in +hastening to pay my respects to your family in Hampshire." You will +remember to do it, in the exact form I speak it.' + +Evan laughed: 'What! call him benefactor to his face? I couldn't do it.' + +'Ah! my child!' + +'Besides, he isn't a benefactor at all. His private secretary died, and +I stepped in to fill the post, because nobody else was handy.' + +'And tell me of her who pushed you forward, Evan?' + +'My dear sister, I'm sure I'm not ungrateful.' + +'No; but headstrong: opinionated. Now these people will endeavour--Oh! +I have seen it in a thousand little things--they wish to shake us off. +Now, if you will but do as I indicate! Put your faith in an older head, +Evan. It is your only chance of society in England. For your brother- +in-law--I ask you, what sort of people will you meet at the Cogglesbys? +Now and then a nobleman, very much out of his element. In short, you +have fed upon a diet which will make you to distinguish, and painfully to +know the difference! Indeed! Yes, you are looking about for Rose. It +depends upon your behaviour now, whether you are to see her at all in +England. Do you forget? You wished once to inform her of your origin. +Think of her words at the breakfast this morning!' + +The Countess imagined she had produced an impression. Evan said: 'Yes, +and I should have liked to have told her this morning that I'm myself +nothing more than the son of a--' + +'Stop! cried his sister, glancing about in horror. The admiring +lieutenant met her eye. Blandishingly she smiled on him: 'Most beautiful +weather for a welcome to dear England?' and passed with majesty. + +'Boy!' she resumed, 'are you mad?' + +'I hate being such a hypocrite, madam.' + +'Then you do not love her, Evan?' + +This may have been dubious logic, but it resulted from a clear sequence +of ideas in the lady's head. Evan did not contest it. + +'And assuredly you will lose her, Evan. Think of my troubles! I have to +intrigue for Silva; I look to your future; I smile, Oh heaven! how do I +not smile when things are spoken that pierce my heart! This morning at +the breakfast!' + +Evan took her hand, and patted it. + +'What is your pity?' she sighed. + +'If it had not been for you, my dear sister, I should never have held my +tongue.' + +'You are not a Harrington! You are a Dawley!' she exclaimed, +indignantly. + +Evan received the accusation of possessing more of his mother's spirit +than his father's in silence. + +'You would not have held your tongue,' she said, with fervid severity: +'and you would have betrayed yourself! and you would have said you were +that! and you in that costume! Why, goodness gracious! could you bear to +appear so ridiculous?' + +The poor young man involuntarily surveyed his person. The pains of an +impostor seized him. The deplorable image of the Don making confession +became present to his mind. It was a clever stroke of this female +intriguer. She saw him redden grievously, and blink his eyes; and not +wishing to probe him so that he would feel intolerable disgust at his +imprisonment in the Don, she continued: + +'But you have the sense to see your duties, Evan. You have an excellent +sense, in the main. No one would dream--to see you. You did not, I must +say, you did not make enough of your gallantry. A Portuguese who had +saved a man's life, Evan, would he have been so boorish? You behaved as +if it was a matter of course that you should go overboard after anybody, +in your clothes, on a dark night. So, then, the Jocelyns took it. I +barely heard one compliment to you. And Rose--what an effect it should +have had on her! But, owing to your manner, I do believe the girl thinks +it nothing but your ordinary business to go overboard after anybody, in +your clothes, on a dark night. 'Pon my honour, I believe she expects to +see you always dripping!' The Countess uttered a burst of hysterical +humour. 'So you miss your credit. That inebriated sailor should really +have been gold to you. Be not so young and thoughtless.' + +The Countess then proceeded to tell him how foolishly he had let slip his +great opportunity. A Portuguese would have fixed the young lady long +before. By tender moonlight, in captivating language, beneath the +umbrageous orange-groves, a Portuguese would have accurately calculated +the effect of the perfume of the blossom on her sensitive nostrils, and +know the exact moment when to kneel, and declare his passion sonorously. + +'Yes,' said Evan, 'one of them did. She told me.' + +'She told you? And you--what did you do?' + +'Laughed at him with her, to be sure.' + +'Laughed at him! She told you, and you helped her to laugh at love! +Have you no perceptions? Why did she tell you?' + +'Because she thought him such a fool, I suppose.' + +'You never will know a woman,' said the Countess, with contempt. + +Much of his worldly sister at a time was more than Evan could bear. +Accustomed to the symptoms of restiveness, she finished her discourse, +enjoyed a quiet parade up and down under the gaze of the lieutenant, and +could find leisure to note whether she at all struck the inferior seamen, +even while her mind was absorbed by the multiform troubles and anxieties +for which she took such innocent indemnification. + +The appearance of the Hon. Melville Jocelyn on deck, and without his +wife, recalled her to business. It is a peculiarity of female +diplomatists that they fear none save their own sex. Men they regard as +their natural prey: in women they see rival hunters using their own +weapons. The Countess smiled a slowly-kindling smile up to him, set her +brother adrift, and delicately linked herself to Evan's benefactor. + +'I have been thinking,' she said, 'knowing your kind and most considerate +attentions, that we may compromise you in England.' + +He at once assured her he hoped not, he thought not at all. + +'The idea is due to my brother,' she went on; 'for I--women know so +little!--and most guiltlessly should we have done so. My brother perhaps +does not think of us foremost; but his argument I can distinguish. I can +see, that were you openly to plead Silva's cause, you might bring +yourself into odium, Mr. Jocelyn; and heaven knows I would not that! +May I then ask, that in England we may be simply upon the same footing +of private friendship?' + +The diplomatist looked into her uplifted visage, that had all the sugary +sparkles of a crystallized preserved fruit of the Portugal clime, and +observed, confidentially, that, with every willingness in the world to +serve her, he did think it would possibly be better, for a time, to be +upon that footing, apart from political considerations. + +'I was very sure my brother would apprehend your views,' said the +Countess. 'He, poor boy! his career is closed. He must sink into a +different sphere. He will greatly miss the intercourse with you and your +sweet family.' + +Further relieved, the diplomatist delivered a high opinion of the young +gentleman, his abilities, and his conduct, and trusted he should see him +frequently. + +By an apparent sacrifice, the lady thus obtained what she wanted. + +Near the hour speculated on by the diplomatist, the papers came on board, +and he, unaware how he had been manoeuvred for lack of a wife at his +elbow, was quickly engaged in appeasing the great British hunger for +news; second only to that for beef, it seems, and equally acceptable +salted when it cannot be had fresh. + +Leaving the devotee of statecraft with his legs crossed, and his face +wearing the cognizant air of one whose head is above the waters of +events, to enjoy the mighty meal of fresh and salted at discretion, +the Countess dived below. + +Meantime the Jocasta, as smoothly as before she was ignorant of how the +world wagged, slipped up the river with the tide; and the sun hung red +behind the forest of masts, burnishing a broad length of the serpentine +haven of the nations of the earth. A young Englishman returning home can +hardly look on this scene without some pride of kinship. Evan stood at +the fore part of the vessel. Rose, in quiet English attire, had escaped +from her aunt to join him, singing in his ears, to spur his senses: +'Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it beautiful? Dear old England!' + +'What do you find so beautiful?' he asked. + +'Oh, you dull fellow! Why the ships, and the houses, and the smoke, to +be sure.' + +'The ships? Why, I thought you despised trade, mademoiselle?' + +'And so I do. That is, not trade, but tradesmen. Of course, I mean +shopkeepers.' + +'It's they who send the ships to and fro, and make the picture that +pleases you, nevertheless.' + +'Do they?' said she, indifferently, and then with a sort of fervour, 'Why +do you always grow so cold to me whenever we get on this subject?' + +'I cold?' Evan responded. The incessant fears of his diplomatic sister +had succeeded in making him painfully jealous of this subject. He turned +it off. 'Why, our feelings are just the same. Do you know what I was +thinking when you came up? I was thinking that I hoped I might never +disgrace the name of an Englishman.' + +'Now, that's noble!' cried the girl. 'And I'm sure you never will. Of +an English gentleman, Evan. I like that better.' + +'Would your rather be called a true English lady than a true English +woman, Rose?' + +'Don't think I would, my dear,' she answered, pertly; 'but "gentleman" +always means more than "man" to me.' + +'And what's a gentleman, mademoiselle?' + +'Can't tell you, Don Doloroso. Something you are, sir,' she added, +surveying him. + +Evan sucked the bitter and the sweet of her explanation. His sister in +her anxiety to put him on his guard, had not beguiled him to forget his +real state. + +His sister, the diplomatist and his lady, the refugee Count, with ladies' +maids, servants, and luggage, were now on the main-deck, and Master Alec, +who was as good as a newspaper correspondent for private conversations, +put an end to the colloquy of the young people. They were all assembled +in a circle when the vessel came to her moorings. The diplomatist +glutted with news, and thirsting for confirmations; the Count dumb, +courteous, and quick-eyed; the honourable lady complacent in the +consciousness of boxes well packed; the Countess breathing mellifluous +long-drawn adieux that should provoke invitations. Evan and Rose +regarded each other. + +The boat to convey them on shore was being lowered, and they were +preparing to move forward. Just then the vessel was boarded by a +stranger. + +'Is that one of the creatures of your Customs? I did imagine we were +safe from them,' exclaimed the Countess. + +The diplomatist laughingly requested her to save herself anxiety on that +score, while under his wing. But she had drawn attention to the +intruder, who was seen addressing one of the midshipmen. He was a man in +a long brown coat and loose white neckcloth, spectacles on nose, which he +wore considerably below the bridge and peered over, as if their main use +were to sight his eye; a beaver hat, with broadish brim, on his head. +A man of no station, it was evident to the ladies at once, and they would +have taken no further notice of him had he not been seen stepping toward +them in the rear of the young midshipman. + +The latter came to Evan, and said: 'A fellow of the name of Goren wants +you. Says there's something the matter at home.' + +Evan advanced, and bowed stiffly. + +Mr. Goren held out his hand. 'You don't remember me, young man? I cut +out your first suit for you when you were breeched, though! Yes-ah! +Your poor father wouldn't put his hand to it. Goren!' + +Embarrassed, and not quite alive to the chapter of facts this name should +have opened to him, Evan bowed again. + +'Goren!' continued the possessor of the name. He had a cracked voice, +that when he spoke a word of two syllables, commenced with a lugubrious +crow, and ended in what one might have taken for a curious question. + +'It is a bad business brings me, young man. I 'm not the best messenger +for such tidings. It's a black suit, young man! It's your father!' + +The diplomatist and his lady gradually edged back but Rose remained +beside the Countess, who breathed quick, and seemed to have lost her +self-command. + +Thinking he was apprehended, Mr. Goren said: 'I 'm going down to-night to +take care of the shop. He 's to be buried in his old uniform. You had +better come with me by the night-coach, if you would see the last of him, +young man.' + +Breaking an odd pause that had fallen, the Countess cried aloud, suddenly: + +'In his uniform!' + +Mr. Goren felt his arm seized and his legs hurrying him some paces into +isolation. 'Thanks! thanks!' was murmured in his ear. 'Not a word +more. Evan cannot bear it. Oh! you are good to have come, and we are +grateful. My father! my father!' + +She had to tighten her hand and wrist against her bosom to keep herself +up. She had to reckon in a glance how much Rose had heard, or divined. +She had to mark whether the Count had understood a syllable. She had to +whisper to Evan to hasten away with the horrible man. + +She had to enliven his stunned senses, and calm her own. And with +mournful images of her father in her brain, the female Spartan had to +turn to Rose, and speculate on the girl's reflective brows, while she +said, as over a distant relative, sadly, but without distraction: +'A death in the family!' and preserved herself from weeping her heart +out, that none might guess the thing who did not positively know it. +Evan touched the hand of Rose without meeting her eyes. He was soon cast +off in Mr. Goren's boat. Then the Countess murmured final adieux; +twilight under her lids, but yet a smile, stately, affectionate, almost +genial. Rose, her sweet Rose, she must kiss. She could have slapped +Rose for appearing so reserved and cold. She hugged Rose, as to hug +oblivion of the last few minutes into her. The girl leant her cheek, and +bore the embrace, looking on her with a kind of wonder. + +Only when alone with the Count, in the brewer's carriage awaiting her on +shore, did the lady give a natural course to her grief; well knowing that +her Silva would attribute it to the darkness of their common exile. She +wept: but in the excess of her misery, two words of strangely opposite +signification, pronounced by Mr. Goren; two words that were at once +poison and antidote, sang in her brain; two words that painted her dead +father from head to foot, his nature and his fortune: these were the +Shop, and the Uniform. + +Oh! what would she not have given to have-seen and bestowed on her +beloved father one last kiss! Oh! how she hoped that her inspired echo +of Uniform, on board the Jocasta, had drowned the memory, eclipsed the +meaning, of that fatal utterance of Shop! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE FAMILY AND THE FUNERAL + +It was the evening of the second day since the arrival of the black +letter in London from Lymport, and the wife of the brewer and the wife of +the Major sat dropping tears into one another's laps, in expectation of +their sister the Countess. Mr. Andrew Cogglesby had not yet returned +from his office. The gallant Major had gone forth to dine with General +Sir George Frebuter, the head of the Marines of his time. It would have +been difficult for the Major, he informed his wife, to send in an excuse +to the General for non-attendance, without entering into particulars; +and that he should tell the General he could not dine with him, because +of the sudden decease of a tailor, was, as he let his wife understand, +and requested her to perceive, quite out of the question. So he dressed +himself carefully, and though peremptory with his wife concerning his +linen, and requiring natural services from her in the button department, +and a casual expression of contentment as to his ultimate make-up, he +left her that day without any final injunctions to occupy her mind, and +she was at liberty to weep if she pleased, a privilege she did not enjoy +undisturbed when he was present; for the warrior hated that weakness, and +did not care to hide his contempt for it. + +Of the three sisters, the wife of the Major was, oddly enough, the one +who was least inveterately solicitous of concealing the fact of her +parentage. Reticence, of course, she had to study with the rest; the +Major was a walking book of reticence and the observances; he professed, +also, in company with herself alone, to have had much trouble in drilling +her to mark and properly preserve them. She had no desire to speak of +her birthplace. But, for some reason or other, she did not share her +hero's rather petulant anxiety to keep the curtain nailed down on that +part of her life which preceded her entry into the ranks of the Royal +Marines. Some might have thought that those fair large blue eyes of hers +wandered now and then in pleasant unambitious walks behind the curtain, +and toyed with little flowers of palest memory. Utterly tasteless, +totally wanting in discernment, not to say gratitude, the Major could not +presume her to be; and yet his wits perceived that her answers and the +conduct she shaped in accordance with his repeated protests and long- +reaching apprehensions of what he called danger, betrayed acquiescent +obedience more than the connubial sympathy due to him. Danger on the +field the Major knew not of; he did not scruple to name the word in +relation to his wife. For, as he told her, should he, some day, as in +the chapter of accidents might occur, sally into the street a Knight +Companion of the Bath and become known to men as Sir Maxwell Strike, it +would be decidedly disagreeable for him to be blown upon by a wind from +Lymport. Moreover she was the mother of a son. The Major pointed out to +her the duty she owed her offspring. Certainly the protecting aegis of +his rank and title would be over the lad, but she might depend upon it +any indiscretion of hers would damage him in his future career, the Major +assured her. Young Maxwell must be considered. + +For all this, the mother and wife, when the black letter found them in +the morning at breakfast, had burst into a fit of grief, and faltered +that she wept for a father. Mrs. Andrew, to whom the letter was +addressed, had simply held the letter to her in a trembling hand. The +Major compared their behaviour, with marked encomiums of Mrs. Andrew. +Now this lady and her husband were in obverse relative positions. The +brewer had no will but his Harriet's. His esteem for her combined the +constitutional feelings of an insignificantly-built little man for a +majestic woman, and those of a worthy soul for the wife of his bosom. +Possessing, or possessed by her, the good brewer was perfectly happy. +She, it might be thought, under these circumstances, would not have +minded much his hearing what he might hear. It happened, however, +that she was as jealous of the winds of Lymport as the Major himself; +as vigilant in debarring them from access to the brewery as now the +Countess could have been. We are not dissecting human nature suffice it, +therefore, from a mere glance at the surface, to say, that just as +moneyed men are careful of their coin, women who have all the advantages +in a conjunction, are miserly in keeping them, and shudder to think that +one thing remains hidden, which the world they move in might put down +pityingly in favour of their spouse, even though to the little man 'twere +naught. She assumed that a revelation would diminish her moral stature; +and certainly it would not increase that of her husband. So no good +could come of it. Besides, Andrew knew, his whole conduct was a tacit +admission, that she had condescended in giving him her hand. The +features of their union might not be changed altogether by a revelation, +but it would be a shock to her. + +Consequently, Harriet tenderly rebuked Caroline, for her outcry at the +breakfast-table; and Caroline, the elder sister, who had not since +marriage grown in so free an air, excused herself humbly, and the two +were weeping when the Countess joined them and related what she had just +undergone. + +Hearing of Caroline's misdemeanour, however, Louisa's eyes rolled aloft +in a paroxysm of tribulation. It was nothing to Caroline; it was +comparatively nothing to Harriet; but the Count knew not Louisa had a +father: believed that her parents had long ago been wiped out. And the +Count was by nature inquisitive: and if he once cherished a suspicion he +was restless; he was pointed in his inquiries: he was pertinacious in +following out a clue: there never would be peace with him! And then, +as they were secure in their privacy, Louisa cried aloud for her father, +her beloved father! Harriet wept silently. Caroline alone expressed +regret that she had not set eyes on him from the day she became a wife. + +'How could we, dear?' the Countess pathetically asked, under drowning +lids. + +'Papa did not wish it,' sobbed Mrs. Andrew. + +'I never shall forgive myself!' said the wife of the Major, drying her +cheeks. Perhaps it was not herself whom she felt she never could +forgive. + +Ah! the man their father was! Incomparable Melchisedec! he might well +be called. So generous! so lordly! When the rain of tears would +subside for a moment, one would relate an anecdote or childish +reminiscence of him, and provoke a more violent outburst. + +'Never, among the nobles of any land, never have I seen one like him!' +exclaimed the Countess, and immediately requested Harriet to tell her +how it would be possible to stop Andrew's tongue in Silva's presence. + +'At present, you know, my dear, they may talk as much as they like--they +can't understand one another one bit.' + +Mrs. Cogglesby comforted her by the assurance that Andrew had received an +intimation of her wish for silence everywhere and toward everybody; and +that he might be reckoned upon to respect it, without demanding a reason +for the restriction. In other days Caroline and Louisa had a little +looked down on Harriet's alliance with a dumpy man--a brewer--and had +always kind Christian compassion for him if his name were mentioned. +They seemed now, by their silence, to have a happier estimate of Andrew's +qualities. + +While the three sisters sat mingling their sorrows and alarms, their +young brother was making his way to the house. As he knocked at the door +he heard his name pronounced behind him, and had no difficulty in +recognizing the worthy brewer. + +'What, Van, my boy! how are you? Quite a foreigner! By George, what a +hat!' + +Mr. Andrew bounced back two or three steps to regard the dusky sombrero. + +'How do you do, sir?' said Evan. + +'Sir to you!' Mr. Andrew briskly replied. 'Don't they teach you to give +your fist in Portugal, eh? I'll "sir" you. Wait till I'm Sir Andrew, +and then "sir" away. You do speak English still, Van, eh? Quite jolly, +my boy?' + +Mr. Andrew rubbed his hands to express that state in himself. Suddenly +he stopped, blinked queerly at Evan, grew pensive, and said, 'Bless my +soul! I forgot.' + +The door opened, Mr. Andrew took Evan's arm, murmured a 'hush!' and trod +gently along the passage to his library. + +'We're safe here,' he said. 'There--there's something the matter up- +stairs. The women are upset about something. Harriet--' Mr. Andrew +hesitated, and branched off: 'You 've heard we 've got a new baby?' + +Evan congratulated him; but another inquiry was in Mr. Andrew's aspect, +and Evan's calm, sad manner answered it. + +'Yes,'--Mr. Andrew shook his head dolefully--'a splendid little chap! +a rare little chap! a we can't help these things, Van! They will +happen. Sit down, my boy.' + +Mr. Andrew again interrogated Evan with his eyes. + +'My father is dead,' said Evan. + +'Yes!' Mr. Andrew nodded, and glanced quickly at the ceiling, as if to +make sure that none listened overhead. 'My parliamentary duties will +soon be over for the season,' he added, aloud; pursuing, in an under- +breath: + +'Going down to-night, Van?' + +'He is to be buried to-morrow,' said Evan. + +'Then, of course, you go. Yes: quite right. Love your father and +mother! always love your father and mother! Old Tom and I never knew +ours. Tom's quite well-same as ever. I'll,' he rang the bell, 'have my +chop in here with you. You must try and eat a bit, Van. Here we are, +and there we go. Old Tom's wandering for one of his weeks. You'll see +him some day. He ain't like me. No dinner to-day, I suppose, Charles?' + +This was addressed to the footman. He announced: + +'Dinner to-day at half-past six, as usual, sir,' bowed, and retired. + +Mr. Andrew pored on the floor, and rubbed his hair back on his head. +'An odd world!' was his remark. + +Evan lifted up his face to sigh: 'I 'm almost sick of it!' + +'Damn appearances!' cried Mr. Andrew, jumping on his legs. + +The action cooled him. + +'I 'm sorry I swore,' he said. 'Bad habit! The Major's here--you know +that?' and he assumed the Major's voice, and strutted in imitation of the +stalwart marine. 'Major--a--Strike! of the Royal Marines! returned from +China! covered with glory!--a hero, Van! We can't expect him to be much +of a mourner. And we shan't have him to dine with us to-day--that's +something.' He sank his voice: 'I hope the widow 'll bear it.' + +'I hope to God my mother is well!' Evan groaned. + +'That'll do,' said Mr. Andrew. 'Don't say any more.' + +As he spoke, he clapped Evan kindly on the back. + +A message was brought from the ladies, requiring Evan to wait on them. +He returned after some minutes. + +'How do you think Harriet's looking?' asked Mr. Andrew. And, not waiting +for an answer, whispered, + +'Are they going down to the funeral, my boy?' + +Evan's brow was dark, as he replied: 'They are not decided.' + +'Won't Harriet go?' + +'She is not going--she thinks not.' + +'And the Countess--Louisa's upstairs, eh?--will she go?' + +'She cannot leave the Count--she thinks not.' + +'Won't Caroline go? Caroline can go. She--he--I mean--Caroline can go?' + +'The Major objects. She wishes to.' + +Mr. Andrew struck out his arm, and uttered, 'the Major!'--a compromise +for a loud anathema. But the compromise was vain, for he sinned again in +an explosion against appearances. + +'I'm a brewer, Van. Do you think I'm ashamed of it? Not while I brew +good beer, my boy!--not while I brew good beer! They don't think worse +of me in the House for it. It isn't ungentlemanly to brew good beer, +Van. But what's the use of talking?' + +Mr. Andrew sat down, and murmured, 'Poor girl! poor girl!' + +The allusion was to his wife; for presently he said: 'I can't see why +Harriet can't go. What's to prevent her?' + +Evan gazed at him steadily. Death's levelling influence was in Evan's +mind. He was ready to say why, and fully. + +Mr. Andrew arrested him with a sharp 'Never mind! Harriet does as she +likes. I'm accustomed to--hem! what she does is best, after all. She +doesn't interfere with my business, nor I with hers. Man and wife.' + +Pausing a moment or so, Mr. Andrew intimated that they had better be +dressing for dinner. With his hand on the door, which he kept closed, he +said, in a businesslike way, 'You know, Van, as for me, I should be very +willing--only too happy--to go down and pay all the respect I could.' +He became confused, and shot his head from side to side, looking anywhere +but at Evan. 'Happy now and to-morrow, to do anything in my power, if +Harriet--follow the funeral--one of the family--anything I could do: +but--a--we 'd better be dressing for dinner.' And out the enigmatic +little man went. + +Evan partly divined him then. But at dinner his behaviour was +perplexing. He was too cheerful. He pledged the Count. He would have +the Portuguese for this and that, and make Anglican efforts to repeat it, +and laugh at his failures. He would not see that there was a father +dead. At a table of actors, Mr. Andrew overdid his part, and was the +worst. His wife could not help thinking him a heartless little man. + +The poor show had its term. The ladies fled to the boudoir sacred to +grief. Evan was whispered that he was to join them when he might, +without seeming mysterious to the Count. Before he reached them, they +had talked tearfully over the clothes he should wear at Lymport, agreeing +that his present foreign apparel, being black, would be suitable, and +would serve almost as disguise, to the inhabitants at large; and as Evan +had no English wear, and there was no time to procure any for him, that +was well. They arranged exactly how long he should stay at Lymport, whom +he should visit, the manner he should adopt toward the different +inhabitants. By all means he was to avoid the approach of the gentry. +For hours Evan, in a trance, half stupefied, had to listen to the +Countess's directions how he was to comport himself in Lymport. + +'Show that you have descended among them, dear Van, but are not of them. +Our beautiful noble English poet expresses it so. You have come to pay +the last mortal duties, which they will respect, if they are not brutes, +and attempt no familiarities. Allow none: gently, but firmly. Imitate +Silva. You remember, at Dona Risbonda's ball? When he met the Comte de +Dartigues, and knew he was to be in disgrace with his Court on the +morrow? Oh! the exquisite shade of difference in Silva's behaviour +towards the Comte. So finely, delicately perceptible to the Comte, and +not a soul saw it but that wretched Frenchman! He came to me: "Madame," +he said, "is a question permitted?" I replied, "As-many as you please, +M. le Comte, but no answers promised." He said: "May I ask if the +Courier has yet come in?"--"Nay, M. le Comte," I replied, "this is +diplomacy. Inquire of me, or better, give me an opinion on the new glace +silk from Paris."--"Madame," said he, bowing, "I hope Paris may send me +aught so good, or that I shall grace half so well." I smiled, "You shall +not be single in your hopes, M. le Comte. The gift would be base that +you did not embellish." He lifted his hands, French-fashion: "Madame, it +is that I have received the gift."--"Indeed! M. le Comte."--"Even now +from the Count de Saldar, your husband." I looked most innocently, "From +my husband, M. le Comte?"--"From him, Madame. A portrait. An Ambassador +without his coat! The portrait was a finished performance." I said: +"And may one beg the permission to inspect it?"--"Mais," said he, +laughing: "were it you alone, it would be a privilege to me." I had to +check him. "Believe me, M. le Comte, that when I look upon it, my praise +of the artist will be extinguished by my pity for the subject." He +should have stopped there; but you cannot have the last word with a +Frenchman--not even a woman. Fortunately the Queen just then made her +entry into the saloon, and his mot on the charity of our sex was lost. +We bowed mutually, and were separated.' (The Countess employed her +handkerchief.) 'Yes, dear Van! that is how you should behave. Imply +things. With dearest Mama, of course, you are the dutiful son. Alas! +you must stand for son and daughters. Mama has so much sense! She will +understand how sadly we are placed. But in a week I will come to her for +a day, and bring you back.' + +So much his sister Louisa. His sister Harriet offered him her house for +a home in London, thence to project his new career. His sister Caroline +sought a word with him in private, but only to weep bitterly in his arms, +and utter a faint moan of regret at marriages in general. He loved this +beautiful creature the best of his three sisters (partly, it may be, +because he despised her superior officer), and tried with a few smothered +words to induce her to accompany him: but she only shook her fair locks +and moaned afresh. Mr. Andrew, in the farewell squeeze of the hand at +the street-door, asked him if he wanted anything. He negatived the +requirement of anything whatever, with an air of careless decision, +though he was aware that his purse barely contained more than would take +him the distance, but the instincts of this amateur gentleman were very +fine and sensitive on questions of money. His family had never known him +beg for a shilling, or admit his necessity for a penny: nor could he be +made to accept money unless it was thrust into his pocket. Somehow his +sisters had forgotten this peculiarity of his. Harriet only remembered +it when too late. + +'But I dare say Andrew has supplied him,' she said. + +Andrew being interrogated, informed her what had passed between them. + +'And you think a Harrington would confess he wanted money!' was her +scornful exclamation. 'Evan would walk--he would die rather. It was +treating him like a mendicant.' + +Andrew had to shrink in his brewer's skin. + +By some fatality all who were doomed to sit and listen to the Countess de +Saldar, were sure to be behindhand in an appointment. + +When the young man arrived at the coach-office, he was politely informed +that the vehicle, in which a seat had been secured for him, was in close +alliance with time and tide, and being under the same rigid laws, could +not possibly have waited for him, albeit it had stretched a point to the +extent of a pair of minutes, at the urgent solicitation of a passenger. + +'A gentleman who speaks so, sir,' said a volunteer mimic of the office, +crowing and questioning from his throat in Goren's manner. 'Yok! yok! +That was how he spoke, sir.' + +Evan reddened, for it brought the scene on board the Jocasta vividly to +his mind. The heavier business obliterated it. He took counsel with the +clerks of the office, and eventually the volunteer mimic conducted him to +certain livery stables, where Evan, like one accustomed to command, +ordered a chariot to pursue the coach, received a touch of the hat for a +lordly fee, and was soon rolling out of London. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MY GENTLEMAN ON THE ROAD + +The postillion had every reason to believe that he carried a real +gentleman behind him; in other words, a purse long and liberal. He +judged by all the points he knew of: a firm voice, a brief commanding +style, an apparent indifference to expense, and the inexplicable minor +characteristics, such as polished boots, and a striking wristband, and so +forth, which will show a creature accustomed to step over the heads of +men. He had, therefore, no particular anxiety to part company, and +jogged easily on the white highway, beneath a moon that walked high and +small over marble clouds. + +Evan reclined in the chariot, revolving his sensations. In another mood +he would have called, them thoughts, perhaps, and marvelled at their +immensity. The theme was Love and Death. One might have supposed, from +his occasional mutterings at the pace regulated by the postillion, that +he was burning with anxiety to catch the flying coach. He had forgotten +it: forgotten that he was giving chase to anything. A pair of wondering +feminine eyes pursued him, and made him fret for the miles to throw a +thicker veil between him and them. The serious level brows of Rose +haunted the poor youth; and reflecting whither he was tending, and to +what sight, he had shadowy touches of the holiness there is in death, +from which came a conflict between the imaged phantoms of his father and +of Rose, and he sided against his love with some bitterness. His +sisters, weeping for their father and holding aloof from his ashes, +Evan swept from his mind. He called up the man his father was: the +kindliness, the readiness, the gallant gaiety of the great Mel. Youths +are fascinated by the barbarian virtues; and to Evan, under present +influences, his father was a pattern of manhood. He asked himself: +Was it infamous to earn one's bread? and answered it very strongly in +his father's favour. The great Mel's creditors were not by to show him +another feature of the case. + +Hitherto, in passive obedience to the indoctrination of the Countess, +Evan had looked on tailors as the proscribed race of modern society. He +had pitied his father as a man superior to his fate; but despite the +fitfully honest promptings with Rose (tempting to him because of the +wondrous chivalry they argued, and at bottom false probably as the +hypocrisy they affected to combat), he had been by no means sorry that +the world saw not the spot on himself. Other sensations beset him now. +Since such a man was banned by the world, which was to be despised? + +The clear result of Evan's solitary musing was to cast a sort of halo +over Tailordom. Death stood over the pale dead man, his father, and +dared the world to sneer at him. By a singular caprice of fancy, Evan +had no sooner grasped this image, than it was suggested that he might as +well inspect his purse, and see how much money he was master of. + +Are you impatient with this young man? He has little character for the +moment. Most youths are like Pope's women; they have no character at +all. And indeed a character that does not wait for circumstances to +shape it, is of small worth in the race that must be run. To be set too +early, is to take the work out of the hands of the Sculptor who fashions +men. Happily a youth is always at school, and if he was shut up and +without mark two or three hours ago, he will have something to show you +now: as I have seen blooming seaflowers and other graduated organisms, +when left undisturbed to their own action. Where the Fates have designed +that he shall present his figure in a story, this is sure to happen. + +To the postillion Evan was indebted for one of his first lessons. + +About an hour after midnight pastoral stillness and the moon begat in the +postillion desire for a pipe. Daylight prohibits the dream of it to +mounted postillions. At night the question is more human, and allows +appeal. The moon smiles assentingly, and smokers know that she really +lends herself to the enjoyment of tobacco. + +The postillion could remember gentlemen who did not object: who had even +given him cigars. Turning round to see if haply the present inmate of +the chariot might be smoking, he observed a head extended from the +window. + +'How far are we?' was inquired. + +The postillion numbered the milestones passed. + +'Do you see anything of the coach?' + +'Can't say as I do, sir.' + +He was commanded to stop. Evan jumped out. + +'I don't think I'll take you any farther,' he said. + +The postillion laughed to scorn the notion of his caring how far he went. +With a pipe in his mouth, he insinuatingly remarked, he could jog on all +night, and throw sleep to the dogs. Fresh horses at Hillford; fresh at +Fallow field: and the gentleman himself would reach Lymport fresh in the +morning. + +'No, no; I won't take you any farther,' Evan repeated. + +'But what do it matter, sir?' urged the postillion. + +'I'd rather go on as I am. I--a--made no arrangement to take you the +whole way.' + +'Oh!' cried the postillion, 'don't you go troublin' yourself about that, +sir. Master knows it 's touch-and-go about catchin' the coach. I'm all +right.' + +So infatuated was the fellow in the belief that he was dealing with a +perfect gentleman--an easy pocket! + +Now you would not suppose that one who presumes he has sufficient, would +find a difficulty in asking how much he has to pay. With an effort, +indifferently masked, Evan blurted: + +'By the way, tell me--how much--what is the charge for the distance we've +come?' + +There are gentlemen-screws: there are conscientious gentlemen. They +calculate, and remonstrating or not, they pay. The postillion would +rather have had to do with the gentleman royal, who is above base +computation; but he knew the humanity in the class he served, and with +his conception of Evan only partially dimmed, he remarked: + +'Oh-h-h! that won't hurt you, sir. Jump along in,--settle that by-and- +by.' + +But when my gentleman stood fast, and renewed the demand to know the +exact charge for the distance already traversed, the postillion +dismounted, glanced him over, and speculated with his fingers tipping up +his hat. Meantime Evan drew out his purse, a long one, certainly, but +limp. Out of this drowned-looking wretch the last spark of life was +taken by the sum the postillion ventured to name; and if paying your +utmost farthing without examination of the charge, and cheerfully +stepping out to walk fifty miles, penniless, constituted a postillion's +gentleman, Evan would have passed the test. The sight of poverty, +however, provokes familiar feelings in poor men, if you have not had +occasion to show them you possess particular qualities. The postillion's +eye was more on the purse than on the sum it surrendered. + +'There,' said Evan, 'I shall walk. Good night.' And he flung his cloak +to step forward. + +'Stop a bit, sir!' arrested him. + +The postillion rallied up sideways, with an assumption of genial respect. +'I didn't calc'late myself in that there amount.' + +Were these words, think you, of a character to strike a young man hard +on the breast, send the blood to his head, and set up in his heart a +derisive chorus? My gentleman could pay his money, and keep his footing +gallantly; but to be asked for a penny beyond what he possessed; to be +seen beggared, and to be claimed a debtor-aleck! Pride was the one +developed faculty of Evan's nature. The Fates who mould us, always work +from the main-spring. I will not say that the postillion stripped off +the mask for him, at that instant completely; but he gave him the first +true glimpse of his condition. From the vague sense of being an +impostor, Evan awoke to the clear fact that he was likewise a fool. + +It was impossible for him to deny the man's claim, and he would not have +done it, if he could. Acceding tacitly, he squeezed the ends of his +purse in his pocket, and with a 'Let me see,' tried his waistcoat. Not +too impetuously; for he was careful of betraying the horrid emptiness +till he was certain that the powers who wait on gentlemen had utterly +forsaken him. They had not. He discovered a small coin, under ordinary +circumstances not contemptible; but he did not stay to reflect, and was +guilty of the error of offering it to the postillion. + +The latter peered at it in the centre of his palm; gazed queerly in the +gentleman's face, and then lifting the spit of silver for the disdain of +his mistress, the moon, he drew a long breath of regret at the original +mistake he had committed, and said: + +'That's what you're goin' to give me for my night's work?' + +The powers who wait on gentlemen had only helped the pretending youth to +try him. A rejection of the demand would have been infinitely wiser and +better than this paltry compromise. The postillion would have fought it: +he would not have despised his fare. + +How much it cost the poor pretender to reply, 'It 's the last farthing I +have, my man,' the postillion could not know. + +'A scabby sixpence?' The postillion continued his question. + +'You heard what I said,' Evan remarked. + +The postillion drew another deep breath, and holding out the coin at +arm's length: + +'Well, sir !' he observed, as one whom mental conflict has brought to the +philosophy of the case, 'now, was we to change places, I couldn't a' done +it! I couldn't a' done it!' he reiterated, pausing emphatically. + +'Take it, sir!' he magnanimously resumed; 'take it! You rides when you +can, and you walks when you must. Lord forbid I should rob such a +gentleman as you!' + +One who feels a death, is for the hour lifted above the satire of +postillions. A good genius prompted Evan to avoid the silly squabble +that might have ensued and made him ridiculous. He took the money, +quietly saying, 'Thank you.' + +Not to lose his vantage, the postillion, though a little staggered by the +move, rejoined: 'Don't mention it.' + +Evan then said: 'Good night, my man. I won't wish, for your sake, that +we changed places. You would have to walk fifty miles to be in time for +your father's funeral. Good night.' + +'You are it to look at!' was the postillion's comment, seeing my +gentleman depart with great strides. He did not speak offensively; +rather, it seemed, to appease his conscience for the original mistake he +had committed, for subsequently came, 'My oath on it, I don't get took in +again by a squash hat in a hurry !' + +Unaware of the ban he had, by a sixpenny stamp, put upon an unoffending +class, Evan went ahead, hearing the wheels of the chariot still dragging +the road in his rear. The postillion was in a dissatisfied state of +mind. He had asked and received more than his due. But in the matter of +his sweet self, he had been choused, as he termed it. And my gentleman +had baffled him, he could not quite tell how; but he had been got the +better of; his sarcasms had not stuck, and returned to rankle in the +bosom of their author. As a Jew, therefore, may eye an erewhile bondsman +who has paid the bill, but stands out against excess of interest on legal +grounds, the postillion regarded Evan, of whom he was now abreast, eager +for a controversy. + +'Fine night,' said the postillion, to begin, and was answered by a short +assent. 'Lateish for a poor man to be out--don't you think sir, eh?' + +'I ought to think so,' said Evan, mastering the shrewd unpleasantness he +felt in the colloquy forced on him. + +'Oh, you! you're a gentleman!' the postillion ejaculated. + +'You see I have no money.' + +'Feel it, too, sir.' + +'I am sorry you should be the victim.' + +'Victim!' the postillion seized on an objectionable word. 'I ain't no +victim, unless you was up to a joke with me, sir, just now. Was that the +game?' + +Evan informed him that he never played jokes with money, or on men. + +'Cause it looks like it, sir, to go to offer a poor chap sixpence.' The +postillion laughed hollow from the end of his lungs. 'Sixpence for a +night's work! It is a joke, if you don't mean it for one. Why, do you +know, sir, I could go--there, I don't care where it is!--I could go before +any magistrate livin', and he'd make ye pay. It's a charge, as custom +is, and he'd make ye pay. Or p'rhaps you're a goin' on my generosity, +and 'll say, he gev back that sixpence! Well! I shouldn't a' thought a +gentleman'd make that his defence before a magistrate. But there, my +man! if it makes ye happy, keep it. But you take my advice, sir. When +you hires a chariot, see you've got the shiners. And don't you go never +again offerin' a sixpence to a poor man for a night's work. They don't +like it. It hurts their feelin's. Don't you forget that, sir. Lay that +up in your mind.' + +Now the postillion having thus relieved himself, jeeringly asked +permission to smoke a pipe. To which Evan said, 'Pray, smoke, if it +pleases you.' And the postillion, hardly mollified, added, 'The baccy's +paid for,' and smoked. + +As will sometimes happen, the feelings of the man who had spoken out and +behaved doubtfully, grew gentle and Christian, whereas those of the man +whose bearing under the trial had been irreproachable were much the +reverse. The postillion smoked--he was a lord on his horse; he beheld my +gentleman trudging in the dust. Awhile he enjoyed the contrast, dividing +his attention between the footfarer and moon. To have had the last word +is always a great thing; and to have given my gentleman a lecture, +because he shunned a dispute, also counts. And then there was the poor +young fellow trudging to his father's funeral! The postillion chose to +remember that now. In reality, he allowed, he had not very much to +complain of, and my gentleman's courteous avoidance of provocation (the +apparent fact that he, the postillion, had humbled him and got the better +of him, equally, it may be), acted on his fine English spirit. I should +not like to leave out the tobacco in this good change that was wrought in +him. However, he presently astonished Evan by pulling up his horses, and +crying that he was on his way to Hillford to bait, and saw no reason why +he should not take a lift that part of the road, at all events. Evan +thanked him briefly, but declined, and paced on with his head bent. + +'It won't cost you nothing-not a sixpence!' the postillion sang out, +pursuing him. 'Come, sir! be a man! I ain't a hintin' at anything-- +jump in.' + +Evan again declined, and looked out for a side path to escape the fellow, +whose bounty was worse to him than his abuse, and whose mention of the +sixpence was unlucky. + +'Dash it!' cried the postillion, 'you're going down to a funeral-- +I think you said your father's, sir--you may as well try and get there +respectable--as far as I go. It's one to me whether you're in or out; +the horses won't feel it, and I do wish you'd take a lift and welcome. +It's because you're too much of a gentleman to be beholden to a poor man, +I suppose!' + +Evan's young pride may have had a little of that base mixture in it, and +certainly he would have preferred that the invitation had not been made +to him; but he was capable of appreciating what the rejection of a piece +of friendliness involved, and as he saw that the man was sincere, he did +violence to himself, and said: 'Very well; then I'll jump in.' + +The postillion was off his horse in a twinkling, and trotted his bandy +legs to undo the door, as to a gentleman who paid. This act of service +Evan valued. + +'Suppose I were to ask you to take the sixpence now?' he said, turning +round, with one foot on the step. + +'Well, sir,' the postillion sent his hat aside to answer. 'I don't want +it--I'd rather not have it; but there! I'll take it--dash the sixpence! +and we'll cry quits.' + +Evan, surprised and pleased with him, dropped the bit of money in his +hand, saying: 'It will fill a pipe for you. While you 're smoking it, +think of me as in your debt. You're the only man I ever owed a penny +to.' + +The postillion put it in a side pocket apart, and observed: 'A sixpence +kindly meant is worth any crown-piece that's grudged--that it is! In you +jump, sir. It's a jolly night!' + +Thus may one, not a conscious sage, play the right tune on this human +nature of ours: by forbearance, put it in the wrong; and then, by not +refusing the burden of an obligation, confer something better. The +instrument is simpler than we are taught to fancy. But it was doubtless +owing to a strong emotion in his soul, as well as to the stuff he was +made of, that the youth behaved as he did. We are now and then above our +own actions; seldom on a level with them. Evan, I dare say, was long in +learning to draw any gratification from the fact that he had achieved +without money the unparalleled conquest of a man. Perhaps he never knew +what immediate influence on his fortune this episode effected. + +At Hillford they went their different ways. The postillion wished him +good speed, and Evan shook his hand. He did so rather abruptly, for the +postillion was fumbling at his pocket, and evidently rounding about a +proposal in his mind. + +My gentleman has now the road to himself. Money is the clothing of a +gentleman: he may wear it well or ill. Some, you will mark, carry great +quantities of it gracefully: some, with a stinted supply, present a +decent appearance: very few, I imagine, will bear inspection, who are +absolutely stripped of it. All, save the shameless, are toiling to +escape that trial. My gentleman, treading the white highway across the +solitary heaths, that swell far and wide to the moon, is, by the +postillion, who has seen him, pronounced no sham. Nor do I think the +opinion of any man worthless, who has had the postillion's authority for +speaking. But it is, I am told, a finer test to embellish much +gentleman-apparel, than to walk with dignity totally unadorned. This +simply tries the soundness of our faculties: that tempts them in erratic +directions. It is the difference between active and passive excellence. +As there is hardly any situation, however, so interesting to reflect upon +as that of a man without a penny in his pocket, and a gizzard full of +pride, we will leave Mr. Evan Harrington to what fresh adventures may +befall him, walking toward the funeral plumes of the firs, under the soft +midsummer flush, westward, where his father lies. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MOTHER AND SON + +Rare as epic song is the man who is thorough in what he does. And +happily so; for in life he subjugates us, and he makes us bondsmen to his +ashes. It was in the order of things that the great Mel should be borne +to his final resting-place by a troop of creditors. You have seen (since +the occasion demands a pompous simile) clouds that all day cling about +the sun, and, in seeking to obscure him, are compelled to blaze in his +livery at fall of night they break from him illumined, hang mournfully +above him, and wear his natural glories long after he is gone. Thus, +then, these worthy fellows, faithful to him to the dust, fulfilled Mel's +triumphant passage amongst them, and closed his career. + +To regale them when they returned, Mrs. Mel, whose mind was not intent on +greatness, was occupied in spreading meat and wine. Mrs. Fiske assisted +her, as well as she could, seeing that one hand was entirely engaged by +her handkerchief. She had already stumbled, and dropped a glass, which +had brought on her sharp condemnation from her aunt, who bade her sit +down, or go upstairs to have her cry out, and then return to be +serviceable. + +'Oh! I can't help it!' sobbed Mrs. Fiske. 'That he should be carried +away, and none of his children to see him the last time! I can +understand Louisa--and Harriet, too, perhaps? But why could not +Caroline? And that they should be too fine ladies to let their brother +come and bury his father. Oh! it does seem----' + +Mrs. Fiske fell into a chair, and surrendered to grief. + +'Where is the cold tongue?' said Mrs. Mel to Sally, the maid, in a brief +under-voice. + +'Please mum, Jacko----!' + +'He must be whipped. You are a careless slut.' + +'Please, I can't think of everybody and everything, and poor master----' + +Sally plumped on a seat, and took sanctuary under her apron. Mrs. Mel +glanced at the pair, continuing her labour. + +'Oh, aunt, aunt!' cried Mrs. Fiske, 'why didn't you put it off for +another day, to give Evan a chance?' + +'Master 'd have kept another two days, he would!' whimpered Sally. + +'Oh, aunt! to think !' cried Mrs. Fiske. + +'And his coffin not bearin' of his spurs!' whimpered Sally. + +Mrs. Mel interrupted them by commanding Sally to go to the drawing-room, +and ask a lady there, of the name of Mrs. Wishaw, whether she would like +to have some lunch sent up to her. Mrs. Fiske was requested to put +towels in Evan's bedroom. + +'Yes, aunt, if you're not infatuated!' said Mrs. Fiske, as she prepared +to obey; while Sally, seeing that her public exhibition of sorrow and +sympathy could be indulged but an instant longer, unwound herself for a +violent paroxysm, blurting between stops: + +'If he'd ony've gone to his last bed comfortable! . . . If he'd ony +'ve been that decent as not for to go to his last bed with his clothes +on! . . . If he'd ony've had a comfortable sheet! . . . It makes +a woman feel cold to think of him full dressed there, as if he was goin' +to be a soldier on the Day o' Judgement!' + +To let people speak was a maxim of Mrs. Mel's, and a wise one for any +form of society when emotions are very much on the surface. She +continued her arrangements quietly, and, having counted the number of +plates and glasses, and told off the guests on her fingers, she, sat down +to await them. + +The first one who entered the room was her son. + +'You have come,' said Mrs. Mel, flushing slightly, but otherwise +outwardly calm. + +'You didn't suppose I should stay away from you, mother?' + +Evan kissed her cheek. + +'I knew you would not.' + +Mrs. Mel examined him with those eyes of hers that compassed objects in a +single glance. She drew her finger on each side of her upper lip, and +half smiled, saying: + +'That won't do here.' + +'What?' asked Evan, and proceeded immediately to make inquiries about her +health, which she satisfied with a nod. + +'You saw him lowered, Van?' + +'Yes, mother.' + +'Then go and wash yourself, for you are dirty, and then come and take +your place at the head of the table.' + +'Must I sit here, mother?' + +'Without a doubt--you must. You know your room. Quick!' + +In this manner their first interview passed. + +Mrs. Fiske rushed in to exclaim: + +'So, you were right, aunt--he has come. I met him on the stairs. Oh! +how like dear uncle Mel he looks, in the militia, with that moustache. +I just remember him as a child; and, oh, what a gentleman he is!' + +At the end of the sentence Mrs. Mel's face suddenly darkened: she said, +in a deep voice: + +'Don't dare to talk that nonsense before him, Ann.' + +Mrs. Fiske looked astonished. + +'What have I done, aunt?' + +'He shan't be ruined by a parcel of fools,' said Mrs. Mel. 'There, go! +Women have no place here.' + +'How the wretches can force themselves to touch a morsel, after this +morning!' Mrs. Fiske exclaimed, glancing at the table. + +'Men must eat,' said Mrs. Mel. + +The mourners were heard gathering outside the door. Mrs. Fiske escaped +into the kitchen. Mrs. Mel admitted them into the parlour, bowing much +above the level of many of the heads that passed her. + +Assembled were Messrs. Barnes, Kilne, and Grossby, whom we know; Mr. +Doubleday, the ironmonger; Mr. Joyce, the grocer; Mr. Perkins, commonly +called Lawyer Perkins; Mr. Welbeck, the pier-master of Lymport; +Bartholomew Fiske; Mr. Coxwell, a Fallow field maltster, brewer, and +farmer; creditors of various dimensions, all of them. Mr. Goren coming +last, behind his spectacles. + +'My son will be with you directly, to preside,' said Mrs. Mel. 'Accept +my thanks for the respect you have shown my husband. I wish you good +morning.' + +'Morning, ma'am,' answered several voices, and Mrs. Mel retired. + +The mourners then set to work to relieve their hats of the appendages of +crape. An undertaker's man took possession of the long black cloaks. +The gloves were generally pocketed. + +'That's my second black pair this year,' said Joyce. + +'They'll last a time to come. I don't need to buy gloves while +neighbours pop off.' + +'Undertakers' gloves seem to me as if they're made for mutton fists,' +remarked Welbeck; upon which Kilne nudged Barnes, the butcher, with a +sharp 'Aha!' and Barnes observed: + +'Oh! I never wear 'em--they does for my boys on Sundays. I smoke a pipe +at home.' + +The Fallow field farmer held his length of crape aloft and inquired: +'What shall do with this?' + +'Oh, you keep it,' said one or two. + +Coxwell rubbed his chin. 'Don't like to rob the widder.' + +'What's left goes to the undertaker?' asked Grossby. + +'To be sure,' said Barnes; and Kilne added: 'It's a job': Lawyer Perkins +ejaculating confidently, 'Perquisites of office, gentlemen; perquisites +of office!' which settled the dispute and appeased every conscience. + +A survey of the table ensued. The mourners felt hunger, or else thirst; +but had not, it appeared, amalgamated the two appetites as yet. Thirst +was the predominant declaration; and Grossby, after an examination of the +decanters, unctuously deduced the fact, which he announced, that port and +sherry were present. + +'Try the port,' said Kilne. + +'Good?' Barnes inquired. + +A very intelligent 'I ought to know,' with a reserve of regret at the +extension of his intimacy with the particular vintage under that roof, +was winked by Kilne. + +Lawyer Perkins touched the arm of a mourner about to be experimental on +Kilne's port + +'I think we had better wait till young Mr. Harrington takes the table, +don't you see?' + +'Yes,-ah!' croaked Goren. 'The head of the family, as the saying goes!' + +'I suppose we shan't go into business to-day?' Joyce carelessly observed. + +Lawyer Perkins answered: + +'No. You can't expect it. Mr. Harrington has led me to anticipate that +he will appoint a day. Don't you see?' + +'Oh! I see,' returned Joyce. 'I ain't in such a hurry. What's he +doing?' + +Doubleday, whose propensities were waggish, suggested 'shaving,' but half +ashamed of it, since the joke missed, fell to as if he were soaping his +face, and had some trouble to contract his jaw. + +The delay in Evan's attendance on the guests of the house was caused by +the fact that Mrs. Mel had lain in wait for him descending, to warn him +that he must treat them with no supercilious civility, and to tell him +partly the reason why. On hearing the potential relations in which they +stood toward the estate of his father, Evan hastily and with the +assurance of a son of fortune, said they should be paid. + +'That's what they would like to hear,' said Mrs. Mel. 'You may just +mention it when they're going to leave. Say you will fix a day to meet +them.' + +'Every farthing!' pursued Evan, on whom the tidings were beginning to +operate. 'What! debts? my poor father!' + +'And a thumping sum, Van. You will open your eyes wider.' + +'But it shall be paid, mother,--it shall be paid. Debts? I hate them. +I'd slave night and day to pay them.' + +Mrs. Mel spoke in a more positive tense: 'And so will I, Van. Now, go.' + +It mattered little to her what sort of effect on his demeanour her +revelation produced, so long as the resolve she sought to bring him to +was nailed in his mind; and she was a woman to knock and knock again, +till it was firmly fixed there. With a strong purpose, and no plans, +there were few who could resist what, in her circle, she willed; not even +a youth who would gaily have marched to the scaffold rather than stand +behind a counter. A purpose wedded to plans may easily suffer shipwreck; +but an unfettered purpose that moulds circumstances as they arise, +masters us, and is terrible. Character melts to it, like metal in the +steady furnace. The projector of plots is but a miserable gambler and +votary of chances. Of a far higher quality is the will that can subdue +itself to wait, and lay no petty traps for opportunity. Poets may fable +of such a will, that it makes the very heavens conform to it; or, I may +add, what is almost equal thereto, one who would be a gentleman, to +consent to be a tailor. The only person who ever held in his course +against Mrs. Mel, was Mel,--her husband; but, with him, she was under the +physical fascination of her youth, and it never left her. In her heart +she barely blamed him. What he did, she took among other inevitable +matters. + +The door closed upon Evan, and waiting at the foot, of the stairs a +minute to hear how he was received, Mrs. Mel went to the kitchen and +called the name of Dandy, which brought out an ill-built, low-browed, +small man, in a baggy suit of black, who hopped up to her with a surly +salute. Dandy was a bird Mrs. Mel had herself brought down, and she had +for him something of a sportsman's regard for his victim. Dandy was the +cleaner of boots and runner of errands in the household of Melchisedec, +having originally entered it on a dark night by the cellar. Mrs. Mel, +on that occasion, was sleeping in her dressing-gown, to be ready to give +the gallant night-hawk, her husband, the service he might require on his +return to the nest. Hearing a suspicious noise below, she rose, and +deliberately loaded a pair of horse-pistols, weapons Mel had worn in his +holsters in the heroic days gone; and with these she stepped downstairs +straight to the cellar, carrying a lantern at her girdle. She could not +only load, but present and fire. Dandy was foremost in stating that she +called him forth steadily, three times, before the pistol was discharged. +He admitted that he was frightened, and incapable of speech, at the +apparition of the tall, terrific woman. After the third time of asking +he had the ball lodged in his leg and fell. Mrs. Mel was in the habit of +bearing heavier weights than Dandy. She made no ado about lugging him to +a chamber, where, with her own hands (for this woman had some slight +knowledge of surgery, and was great in herbs and drugs) she dressed his +wound, and put him to bed; crying contempt (ever present in Dandy's +memory) at such a poor creature undertaking the work of housebreaker. +Taught that he really was a poor creature for the work, Dandy, his +nursing over, begged to be allowed to stop and wait on Mrs. Mel; and she +who had, like many strong natures, a share of pity for the objects she +despised, did not cast him out. A jerk in his gait, owing to the bit of +lead Mrs. Mel had dropped into him, and a little, perhaps, to her self- +satisfied essay in surgical science on his person, earned him the name he +went by. + +When her neighbours remonstrated with her for housing a reprobate, Mrs. +Mel would say: 'Dandy is well-fed and well-physicked: there's no harm in +Dandy'; by which she may have meant that the food won his gratitude, and +the physic reduced his humours. She had observed human nature. At any +rate, Dandy was her creature; and the great Mel himself rallied her about +her squire. + +'When were you drunk last?, was Mrs. Mel's address to Dandy, as he stood +waiting for orders. + +He replied to it in an altogether injured way: + +'There, now; you've been and called me away from my dinner to ask me +that. Why, when I had the last chance, to be sure.' + +'And you were at dinner in your new black suit?' + +'Well,' growled Dandy, 'I borrowed Sally's apron. Seems I can't please +ye.' + +Mrs. Mel neither enjoined nor cared for outward forms of respect, where +she was sure of complete subserviency. If Dandy went beyond the limits, +she gave him an extra dose. Up to the limits he might talk as he +pleased, in accordance with Mrs. Mel's maxim, that it was a necessary +relief to all talking creatures. + +'Now, take off your apron,' she said, 'and wash your hands, dirty pig, +and go and wait at table in there'; she pointed to the parlour-door: +'Come straight to me when everybody has left.' + +'Well, there I am with the bottles again,' returned Dandy. 'It 's your +fault this time, mind! I'll come as straight as I can.' + +Dandy turned away to perform her bidding, and Mrs. Mel ascended to the +drawing-room to sit with Mrs. Wishaw, who was, as she told all who chose +to hear, an old flame of Mel's, and was besides, what Mrs. Mel thought +more of, the wife of Mel's principal creditor, a wholesale dealer in +cloth, resident in London. + +The conviviality of the mourners did not disturb the house. Still, men +who are not accustomed to see the colour of wine every day, will sit and +enjoy it, even upon solemn occasions, and the longer they sit the more +they forget the matter that has brought them together. Pleading their +wives and shops, however, they released Evan from his miserable office +late in the afternoon. + +His mother came down to him,--and saying, 'I see how you did the journey +--you walked it,' told him to follow her. + +'Yes, mother,' Evan yawned, 'I walked part of the way. I met a fellow in +a gig about ten miles out of Fallow field, and he gave me a lift to +Flatsham. I just reached Lymport in time, thank Heaven! I wouldn't have +missed that! By the way, I've satisfied these men.' + +'Oh!' said Mrs. Mel. + +'They wanted--one or two of them--what a penance it is to have to sit +among those people an hour!--they wanted to ask me about the business, +but I silenced them. I told them to meet me here this day week.' + +Mrs. Mel again said 'Oh!' and, pushing into one of the upper rooms, +'Here's your bedroom, Van, just as you left it.' + +'Ah, so it is,' muttered Evan, eyeing a print. 'The Douglas and the +Percy: "he took the dead man by the hand." What an age it seems since I +last saw that. There's Sir Hugh Montgomery on horseback--he hasn't +moved. Don't you remember my father calling it the Battle of Tit-for- +Tat? Gallant Percy! I know he wished he had lived in those days of +knights and battles.' + +'It does not much signify whom one has to make clothes for,' observed +Mrs. Mel. Her son happily did not mark her. + +'I think we neither of us were made for the days of pence and pounds,' he +continued. 'Now, mother, sit down, and talk to me about him. Did he +mention me? Did he give me his blessing? I hope he did not suffer. +I'd have given anything to press his hand,' and looking wistfully at the +Percy lifting the hand of Douglas dead, Evan's eyes filled with big +tears. + +'He suffered very little,' returned Mrs. Mel, 'and his last words were +about you.' + +'What were they?' Evan burst out. + +'I will tell you another time. Now undress, and go to bed. When I talk +to you, Van, I want a cool head to listen. You do nothing but yawn yard- +measures.' + +The mouth of the weary youth instinctively snapped short the abhorred +emblem. + +'Here, I will help you, Van.' + +In spite of his remonstrances and petitions for talk, she took off his +coat and waistcoat, contemptuously criticizing the cloth of foreign +tailors and their absurd cut. + +'Have you heard from Louisa?' asked Evan. + +'Yes, yes--about your sisters by-and-by. Now, be good, and go to bed.' + +She still treated him like a boy, whom she was going to force to the +resolution of a man. + +Dandy's sleeping-room was on the same floor as Evan's. Thither, when she +had quitted her son, she directed her steps. She had heard Dandy tumble +up-stairs the moment his duties were over, and knew what to expect when +the bottles had been in his way; for drink made Dandy savage, and a +terror to himself. It was her command to him that, when he happened to +come across liquor, he should immediately seek his bedroom and bolt the +door, and Dandy had got the habit of obeying her. On this occasion he +was vindictive against her, seeing that she had delivered him over to his +enemy with malice prepense. A good deal of knocking, and summoning of +Dandy by name, was required before she was admitted, and the sight of her +did not delight him, as he testified. + +'I 'm drunk!' he bawled. 'Will that do for ye?' + +Mrs. Mel stood with her two hands crossed above her apron-string, noting +his sullen lurking eye with the calm of a tamer of beasts. + +'You go out of the room; I'm drunk!' Dandy repeated, and pitched forward +on the bed-post, in the middle of an oath. + +She understood that it was pure kindness on Dandy's part to bid her go +and be out of his reach; and therefore, on his becoming so abusive as to +be menacing, she, without a shade of anger, and in the most unruffled +manner, administered to him the remedy she had reserved, in the shape of +a smart box on the ear, which sent him flat to the floor. He rose, after +two or three efforts, quite subdued. + +'Now, Dandy, sit on the edge of the bed.' + +Dandy sat on the extreme edge, and Mrs. Mel pursued: + +'Now, Dandy, tell me what your master said at the table.' + +'Talked at 'em like a lord, he did,' said Dandy, stupidly consoling the +boxed ear. + +'What were his words?' + +Dandy's peculiarity was, that he never remembered anything save when +drunk, and Mrs. Mel's dose had rather sobered him. By degrees, +scratching at his head haltingly, he gave the context. + +"'Gentlemen, I hear for the first time, you've claims against my poor +father. Nobody shall ever say he died, and any man was the worse for it. +I'll meet you next week, and I'll bind myself by law. Here's Lawyer +Perkins. No; Mr. Perkins. I'll pay off every penny. Gentlemen, look +upon me as your debtor, and not my father."' + +Delivering this with tolerable steadiness, Dandy asked, 'Will that do?' + +'That will do,' said Mrs. Mel. 'I'll send you up some tea presently. +Lie down, Dandy.' + +The house was dark and silent when Evan, refreshed by his rest, descended +to seek his mother. She was sitting alone in the parlour. With a +tenderness which Mrs. Mel permitted rather than encouraged, Evan put his +arm round her neck, and kissed her many times. One of the symptoms of +heavy sorrow, a longing for the signs of love, made Evan fondle his +mother, and bend over her yearningly. Mrs. Mel said once: 'Dear Van; +good boy!' and quietly sat through his caresses. + +'Sitting up for me, mother?' he whispered. + +'Yes, Van; we may as well have our talk out.' + +'Ah!' he took a chair close by her side, 'tell me my father's last +words.' + +'He said he hoped you would never be a tailor.' + +Evan's forehead wrinkled up. 'There's not much fear of that, then!' + +His mother turned her face on him, and examined him with a rigorous +placidity; all her features seeming to bear down on him. Evan did not +like the look. + +'You object to trade, Van?' + +'Yes, decidedly, mother-hate it; but that's not what I want to talk to +you about. Didn't my father speak of me much?' + +'He desired that you should wear his militia sword, if you got a +commission.' + +'I have rather given up hope of the Army,' said Evan. + +Mrs. Mel requested him to tell her what a colonel's full pay amounted to; +and again, the number of years it required, on a rough calculation, to +attain that grade. In reply to his statement she observed: 'A tailor +might realize twice the sum in a quarter of the time.' + +'What if he does-double, or treble?' cried Evan, impetuously; and to +avoid the theme, and cast off the bad impression it produced on him, he +rubbed his hands, and said: 'I want to talk to you about my prospects, +mother.' + +'What are they?' Mrs. Mel inquired. + +The severity of her mien and sceptical coldness of her speech caused him +to inspect them suddenly, as if she had lent him her eyes. He put them +by, till the gold should recover its natural shine, saying: 'By the way, +mother, I 've written the half of a History of Portugal.' + +'Have you?' said Mrs. Mel. 'For Louisa?' + +'No, mother, of course not: to sell it. Albuquerque! what a splendid +fellow he was!' + +Informing him that he knew she abominated foreign names, she said: 'And +your prospects are, writing Histories of Portugal?' + +'No, mother. I was going to tell you, I expect a Government appointment. +Mr. Jocelyn likes my work--I think he likes me. You know, I was his +private secretary for ten months.' + +'You write a good hand,' his mother interposed. + +'And I'm certain I was born for diplomacy.' + +'For an easy chair, and an ink-dish before you, and lacqueys behind. +What's to be your income, Van?' + +Evan carelessly remarked that he must wait and see. + +'A very proper thing to do,' said Mrs. Mel; for now that she had fixed +him to some explanation of his prospects, she could condescend in her +stiff way to banter. + +Slightly touched by it, Evan pursued, half laughing, as men do who wish +to propitiate common sense on behalf of what seems tolerably absurd: +'It 's not the immediate income, you know, mother: one thinks of one's +future. In the diplomatic service, as Louisa says, you come to be known +to Ministers gradually, I mean. That is, they hear of you; and if you +show you have some capacity--Louisa wants me to throw it up in time, +and stand for Parliament. Andrew, she thinks, would be glad to help me +to his seat. Once in Parliament, and known to Ministers, you--your +career is open to you.' + +In justice to Mr. Evan Harrington, it must be said, he built up this +extraordinary card-castle to dazzle his mother's mind: he had lost his +right grasp of her character for the moment, because of an undefined +suspicion of something she intended, and which sent him himself to take +refuge in those flimsy structures; while the very altitude he reached +beguiled his imagination, and made him hope to impress hers. + +Mrs. Mel dealt it one fillip. 'And in the meantime how are you to live, +and pay the creditors?' + +Though Evan answered cheerfully, 'Oh, they will wait, and I can live on +anything,' he was nevertheless floundering on the ground amid the ruins +of the superb edifice; and his mother, upright and rigid, continuing, +'You can live on anything, and they will wait, and call your father a +rogue,' he started, grievously bitten by one of the serpents of earth. + +'Good heaven, mother! what are you saying?' + +'That they will call your father a rogue, and will have a right to,' said +the relentless woman. + +'Not while I live!' Evan exclaimed. + +'You may stop one mouth with your fist, but you won't stop a dozen, Van.' + +Evan jumped up and walked the room. + +'What am I to do?' he cried. 'I will pay everything. I will bind myself +to pay every farthing. What more can I possibly do?' + +'Make the money,' said Mrs. Mel's deep voice. + +Evan faced her: 'My dear mother, you are very unjust and inconsiderate. +I have been working and doing my best. I promise---- what do the debts +amount to?' + +'Something like L5000 in all, Van.' + +'Very well.' Youth is not alarmed by the sound of big sums. 'Very well +--I will pay it.' + +Evan looked as proud as if he had just clapped down the full amount on +the table. + +'Out of the History of Portugal, half written, and the prospect of a +Government appointment?' + +Mrs. Mel raised her eyelids to him. + +'In time-in time, mother!' + +'Mention your proposal to the creditors when you meet them this day +week,' she said. + +Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Then Evan came close to her, +saying: + +'What is it you want of me, mother?' + +'I want nothing, Van--I can support myself.' + +'But what would you have me do, mother?' + +'Be honest; do your duty, and don't be a fool about it.' + +'I will try,' he rejoined. 'You tell me to make the money. Where and +how can I make it? I am perfectly willing to work.' + +'In this house,' said Mrs. Mel; and, as this was pretty clear speaking, +she stood up to lend her figure to it. + +'Here?' faltered Evan. 'What! be a ----' + +'Tailor!' The word did not sting her tongue. + +'I? Oh, that's quite impossible!' said Evan. And visions of leprosy, +and Rose shrinking her skirts from contact with him, shadowed out and +away in his mind. + +'Understand your choice!' Mrs. Mel imperiously spoke. 'What are brains +given you for? To be played the fool with by idiots and women? You have +L5000 to pay to save your father from being called a rogue. You can only +make the money in one way, which is open to you. This business might +produce a thousand pounds a-year and more. In seven or eight years you +may clear your father's name, and live better all the time than many of +your bankrupt gentlemen. You have told the creditors you will pay them. +Do you think they're gaping fools, to be satisfied by a History of +Portugal? If you refuse to take the business at once, they will sell me +up, and quite right too. Understand your choice. There's Mr. Goren has +promised to have you in London a couple of months, and teach you what he +can. He is a kind friend. Would any of your gentlemen acquaintance do +the like for you? Understand your choice. You will be a beggar--the son +of a rogue--or an honest man who has cleared his father's name!' + +During this strenuously uttered allocution, Mrs. Mel, though her chest +heaved but faintly against her crossed hands, showed by the dilatation of +her eyes, and the light in them, that she felt her words. There is that +in the aspect of a fine frame breathing hard facts, which, to a youth who +has been tumbled headlong from his card-castles and airy fabrics, is +masterful, and like the pressure of a Fate. Evan drooped his head. + +'Now,' said Mrs. Mel, 'you shall have some supper.' + +Evan told her he could not eat. + +'I insist upon your eating,' said Mrs. Mel; 'empty stomachs are foul +counsellors.' + +'Mother! do you want to drive me mad?' cried Evan. + +She looked at him to see whether the string she held him by would bear +the slight additional strain: decided not to press a small point. + +'Then go to bed and sleep on it,' she said--sure of him--and gave her +cheek for his kiss, for she never performed the operation, but kept her +mouth, as she remarked, for food and speech, and not for slobbering +mummeries. + +Evan returned to his solitary room. He sat on the bed and tried to +think, oppressed by horrible sensations of self-contempt, that caused +whatever he touched to sicken him. + +There were the Douglas and the Percy on the wall. It was a happy and a +glorious time, was it not, when men lent each other blows that killed +outright; when to be brave and cherish noble feelings brought honour; +when strength of arm and steadiness of heart won fortune; when the fair +stars of earth--sweet women--wakened and warmed the love of squires of +low degree. This legacy of the dead man's hand! Evan would have paid it +with his blood; but to be in bondage all his days to it; through it to +lose all that was dear to him; to wear the length of a loathed +existence!--we should pardon a young man's wretchedness at the prospect, +for it was in a time before our joyful era of universal equality. Yet he +never cast a shade of blame upon his father. + +The hours moved on, and he found himself staring at his small candle, +which struggled more and more faintly with the morning light, like his +own flickering ambition against the facts of life. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A man who rejected medicine in extremity +A share of pity for the objects she despised +A sixpence kindly meant is worth any crown-piece that's grudged +A youth who is engaged in the occupation of eating his heart +Accustomed to be paid for by his country +British hunger for news; second only to that for beef +Brotherhood among the select who wear masks instead of faces +By forbearance, put it in the wrong +Cheerful martyr +Common voice of praise in the mouths of his creditors +Embarrassments of an uncongenial employment +Empty stomachs are foul counsellors +Equally acceptable salted when it cannot be had fresh +Far higher quality is the will that can subdue itself to wait +Few feelings are single on this globe +Gentlefolks like straight-forwardness in their inferiors +He squandered the guineas, she patiently picked up the pence +His wife alone, had, as they termed it, kept him together +I'll come as straight as I can +Informed him that he never played jokes with money, or on men +It was in a time before our joyful era of universal equality +It's no use trying to be a gentleman if you can't pay for it +Lay no petty traps for opportunity +Looked as proud as if he had just clapped down the full amount +Man without a penny in his pocket, and a gizzard full of pride +Men they regard as their natural prey +Most youths are like Pope's women; they have no character +Occasional instalments--just to freshen the account +Oh! I can't bear that class of people +Partake of a morning draught +Patronizing woman +Propitiate common sense on behalf of what seems tolerably absurd +Rare as epic song is the man who is thorough in what he does +Requiring natural services from her in the button department +Said she was what she would have given her hand not to be +She was at liberty to weep if she pleased +She, not disinclined to dilute her grief +Speech that has to be hauled from the depths usually betrays +Such a man was banned by the world, which was to be despised? +Tenderness which Mrs. Mel permitted rather than encouraged +To be both generally blamed, and generally liked +To let people speak was a maxim of Mrs. Mel's, and a wise one +Toyed with little flowers of palest memory +Tradesman, and he never was known to have sent in a bill +True enjoyment of the princely disposition +What he did, she took among other inevitable matters +Whose bounty was worse to him than his abuse +With a proud humility +You rides when you can, and you walks when you must +Youth is not alarmed by the sound of big sums + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Evan Harrington, v1 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4427.zip b/4427.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d95eda7 --- /dev/null +++ b/4427.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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