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Badgered Ministers, bankrupt +merchants, diplomatists with a headache--any of our modern grandees under +difficulties, might have envied that peace over which Mr. Goren presided: +and he was an enviable man. He loved his craft, he believed that he had +not succeeded the millions of antecedent tailors in vain; and, excepting +that trifling coquetry with shirt-fronts, viz., the red crosses, which a +shrewd rival had very soon eclipsed by representing nymphs triangularly +posed, he devoted himself to his business from morning to night; as rigid +in demanding respect from those beneath him, as he was profuse in +lavishing it on his patrons. His public boast was, that he owed no man +a farthing; his secret comfort, that he possessed two thousand pounds in +the Funds. But Mr. Goren did not stop here. Behind these external +characteristics he nursed a passion. Evan was astonished and pleased to +find in him an enthusiastic fern-collector. Not that Mr. Harrington +shared the passion, but the sight of these brown roots spread out, +ticketed, on the stained paper, after supper, when the shutters were up +and the house defended from the hostile outer world; the old man poring +over them, and naming this and that spot where, during his solitary +Saturday afternoon and Sunday excursions, he had lighted on the rare +samples exhibited this contrast of the quiet evening with the sordid day +humanized Mr. Goren to him. He began to see a spirit in the rigid +tradesman not so utterly dissimilar to his own, and he fancied that he, +too, had a taste for ferns. Round Beckley how they abounded! + +He told Mr. Goren so, and Mr. Goren said: + +'Some day we'll jog down there together, as the saying goes.' + +Mr. Goren spoke of it as an ordinary event, likely to happen in the days +to come: not as an incident the mere mention of which, as being probable, +stopped the breath and made the pulses leap. + +For now Evan's education taught him to feel that he was at his lowest +degree. Never now could Rose stoop to him. He carried the shop on his +back. She saw the brand of it on his forehead. Well! and what was Rose +to him, beyond a blissful memory, a star that he had once touched? Self- +love kept him strong by day, but in the darkness of night came his +misery; wakening from tender dreams, he would find his heart sinking +under a horrible pressure, and then the fair fresh face of Rose swam over +him; the hours of Beckley were revived; with intolerable anguish he saw +that she was blameless--that he alone was to blame. Yet worse was it +when his closed eyelids refused to conjure up the sorrowful lovely +nightmare, and he lay like one in a trance, entombed-wretched Pagan! +feeling all that had been blindly; when the Past lay beside him like a +corpse that he had slain. + +These nightly torments helped him to brave what the morning brought. +Insensibly also, as Time hardened his sufferings, Evan asked himself what +the shame of his position consisted in. He grew stiff-necked. His Pagan +virtues stood up one by one to support him. Andrew, courageously evading +the interdict that forbade him to visit Evan, would meet him by +appointment at City taverns, and flatly offered him a place in the +Brewery. Evan declined it, on the pretext that, having received Old +Tom's money for the year, he must at least work out that term according +to the conditions. Andrew fumed and sneered at Tailordom. Evan said +that there was peace in Mr. Goren's shop. His sharp senses discerned in +Andrew's sneer a certain sincerity, and he revolted against it. Mr John +Raikes, too, burlesqued Society so well, that he had the satisfaction of +laughing at his enemy occasionally. The latter gentleman was still a +pensioner, flying about town with the Countess de Saldar, in deadly fear +lest that fascinating lady should discover the seat of his fortune; +happy, notwithstanding. In the mirror of Evan's little world, he beheld +the great one from which he was banished. + +Now the dusk of a winter's afternoon was closing over London, when a +carriage drew up in front of Mr. Goren's shop, out of which, to Mr. +Goren's chagrin, a lady stepped, with her veil down. The lady entered, +and said that she wished to speak to Mr. Harrington. Mr. Goren made way +for her to his pupil; and was amazed to see her fall into his arms, and +hardly gratified to hear her say: 'Pardon me, darling, for coming to you +in this place.' + +Evan asked permission to occupy the parlour. + +'My place,' said Mr. Goren, with humble severity, over his spectacles, +'is very poor. Such as it is, it is at the lady's service.' + +Alone with her, Evan was about to ease his own feelings by remarking to +the effect that Mr. Goren was human like the rest of us, but Caroline +cried, with unwonted vivacity: + +'Yes, yes, I know; but I thought only of you. I have such news for you! +You will and must pardon my coming--that's my first thought, sensitive +darling that you are!' She kissed him fondly. 'Juliana Bonner is in +town, staying with us!' + +'Is that your news?' asked Evan, pressing her against his breast. + +'No, dear love--but still! You have no idea what her fortune-- +Mrs. Bonner has died and left her--but I mustn't tell you. Oh, my +darling! how she admires you! She--she could recompense you; if you +would! We will put that by, for the present. Dear! the Duke has begged +you, through me, to accept--I think it 's to be a sort of bailiff to his +estates--I don't know rightly. It's a very honourable post, that +gentlemen take: and the income you are to have, Evan, will be near a +thousand a year. Now, what do I deserve for my news?' + +She put up her mouth for another kiss, out of breath. + +'True?' looked Evan's eyes. + +'True!' she said, smiling, and feasting on his bewilderment. + +After the bubbling in his brain had a little subsided, Evan breathed as a +man on whom fresh air is blown. Were not these tidings of release? His +ridiculous pride must nevertheless inquire whether Caroline had been +begging this for him. + +'No, dear--indeed!' Caroline asserted with more than natural vehemence. +'It's something that you yourself have done that has pleased him. I +don't know what. Only he says, he believes you are a man to be trusted +with the keys of anything--and so you are. You are to call on him to- +morrow. Will you?' + +While Evan was replying, her face became white. She had heard the +Major's voice in the shop. His military step advanced, and Caroline, +exclaiming, 'Don't let me see him!' bustled to a door. Evan nodded, and +she slipped through. The next moment he was facing the stiff marine. + +'Well, young man,' the Major commenced, and, seating himself, added, 'be +seated. I want to talk to you seriously, sir. You didn't think fit to +wait till I had done with the Directors today. You're devilishly out in +your discipline, whatever you are at two and two. I suppose there's no +fear of being intruded on here? None of your acquaintances likely to be +introducing themselves to me?' + +'There is not one that I would introduce to you,' said Evan. + +The Major nodded a brief recognition of the compliment, and then, +throwing his back against the chair, fired out: 'Come, sir, is this your +doing?' + +In military phrase, Evan now changed front. His first thought had been +that the Major had come for his wife. He perceived that he himself was +the special object of his visitation. + +'I must ask you what you allude to,' he answered. + +'You are not at your office, but you will speak to me as if there was +some distinction between us,' said the Major. 'My having married your +sister does not reduce me to the ranks, I hope.' + +The Major drummed his knuckles on the table, after this impressive +delivery. + +'Hem!' he resumed. 'Now, sir, understand, before you speak a word, that +I can see through any number of infernal lies. I see that you're +prepared for prevarication. By George! it shall come out of you, if I +get it by main force. The Duke compelled me to give you that appointment +in my Company. Now, sir, did you, or did you not, go to him and +deliberately state to him that you believed the affairs of the Company to +be in a bad condition--infamously handled, likely to involve his honour +as a gentleman? I ask you, sir, did you do this, or did you not do it?' + +Evan waited till the sharp rattle of the Major's close had quieted. + +'If I am to answer the wording of your statement, I may say that I did +not.' + +'Very good; very good; that will do. Are you aware that the Duke has +sent in his resignation as a Director of our Company?' + +'I hear of it first from you.' + +'Confound your familiarity!' cried the irritable officer, rising. 'Am I +always to be told that I married your sister? Address me, sir, as +becomes your duty.' + +Evan heard the words 'beggarly tailor' mumbled 'out of the gutters,' and +'cursed connection.' He stood in the attitude of attention, while the +Major continued: + +'Now, young man, listen to these facts. You came to me this day last +week, and complained that you did not comprehend some of our transactions +and affairs. I explained them to your damned stupidity. You went away. +Three days after that, you had an interview with the Duke. Stop, sir! +What the devil do you mean by daring to speak while I am speaking? You +saw the Duke, I say. Now, what took place at that interview?' + +The Major tried to tower over Evan powerfully, as he put this query. +They were of a common height, and to do so, he had to rise on his toes, +so that the effect was but momentary. + +'I think I am not bound to reply,' said Evan. + +'Very well, sir; that will do.' The Major's fingers were evidently +itching for an absent rattan. 'Confess it or not, you are dismissed from +your post. Do you hear? You are kicked in the street. A beggarly +tailor you were born, and a beggarly tailor you will die.' + +'I must beg you to stop, now,' said Evan. 'I told you that I was not +bound to reply: but I will. If you will sit down, Major Strike, you +shall hear what you wish to know.' + +This being presently complied with, though not before a glare of the +Major's eyes had shown his doubt whether it might not be construed into +insolence, Evan pursued: + +'I came to you and informed you that I could not reconcile the cash- +accounts of the Company, and that certain of the later proceedings +appeared to me to jeopardize its prosperity. Your explanations did not +satisfy me. I admit that you enjoined me to be silent. But the Duke, +as a Director, had as strong a right to claim me as his servant, and when +he questioned me as to the position of the Company, I told him what I +thought, just as I had told you.' + +'You told him we were jobbers and swindlers, sir!' + +'The Duke inquired of me whether I would, under the circumstances, while +proceedings were going on which I did not approve of, take the +responsibility of allowing my name to remain--' + +'Ha! ha! ha!' the Major burst out. This was too good a joke. The name +of a miserable young tailor!' Go on, sir, go on!' He swallowed his +laughter like oil on his rage. + +'I have said sufficient.' + +Jumping up, the Major swore by the Lord, that he had said sufficient. + +'Now, look you here, young man.' He squared his finger before Evan, +eyeing him under a hard frown, 'You have been playing your game again, +as you did down at that place in Hampshire. I heard of it--deserved to +be shot, by heaven! You think you have got hold of the Duke, and you +throw me over. You imagine, I dare say, that I will allow my wife to be +talked about to further your interests--you self-seeking young dog! As +long as he lent the Company his name, I permitted a great many things. +Do you think me a blind idiot, sir? But now she must learn to be +satisfied with people who 've got no titles, or carriages, and who can't +give hundred guinea compliments. You're all of a piece-a set of . . .' + +The Major paused, for half a word was on his mouth which had drawn +lightning to Evan's eyes. + +Not to be baffled, he added: 'But look you, sir. I may be ruined. +I dare say the Company will go to the dogs--every ass will follow a Duke. +But, mark, this goes on no more. I will be no woman's tally. Mind, sir, +I take excellent care that you don't traffic in your sister!' + +The Major delivered this culminating remark with a well-timed deflection +of his forefinger, and slightly turned aside when he had done. + +You might have seen Evan's figure rocking, as he stood with his eyes +steadily levelled on his sister's husband. + +The Major, who, whatever he was, was physically no coward, did not fail +to interpret the look, and challenge it. + +Evan walked to the door, opened it, and said, between his teeth, 'You +must go at once.' + +'Eh, sir, eh? what's this?' exclaimed the warrior but the door was open, +Mr. Goren was in the shop; the scandal of an assault in such a house, and +the consequent possibility of his matrimonial alliance becoming bruited +in the newspapers, held his arm after it had given an involuntary jerk. +He marched through with becoming dignity, and marched out into the +street; and if necks unelastic and heads erect may be taken as the sign +of a proud soul and of nobility of mind, my artist has the Major for his +model. + +Evan displayed no such a presence. He returned to the little parlour, +shut and locked the door to the shop, and forgetting that one was near, +sat down, covered his eyes, and gave way to a fit of tearless sobbing. +With one foot in the room Caroline hung watching him. A pain that she +had never known wrung her nerves. His whole manhood seemed to be shaken, +as if by regular pulsations of intensest misery. She stood in awe of the +sight till her limbs failed her, and then staggering to him she fell on +her knees, clasping his, passionately kissing them. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +IN WHICH THE COUNTESS STILL SCENTS GAME + +Mr. Raikes and his friend Frank Remand, surnamed Franko, to suit the +requirements of metre, in which they habitually conversed, were walking +arm-in-arm along the drive in Society's Park on a fine frosty Sunday +afternoon of midwinter. The quips and jokes of Franko were lively, and +he looked into the carriages passing, as if he knew that a cheerful +countenance is not without charms for their inmates. Raikes' face, on +the contrary, was barren and bleak. Being of that nature that when a pun +was made he must perforce outstrip it, he fell into Franko's humour from +time to time, but albeit aware that what he uttered was good, and by +comparison transcendent, he refused to enjoy it. Nor when Franko started +from his arm to declaim a passage, did he do other than make limp efforts +to unite himself to Franko again. A further sign of immense depression +in him was that instead of the creative, it was the critical faculty he +exercised, and rather than reply to Franko in his form of speech, he +scanned occasional lines and objected to particular phrases. He had +clearly exchanged the sanguine for the bilious temperament, and was fast +stranding on the rocky shores of prose. Franko bore this very well, for +he, like Raikes in happier days, claimed all the glances of lovely woman +as his own, and on his right there flowed a stream of Beauties. At last +he was compelled to observe: 'This change is sudden: wherefore so +downcast? With tigrine claw thou mangiest my speech, thy cheeks are like +December's pippin, and thy tongue most sour!' + +'Then of it make a farce!' said Raikes, for the making of farces was +Franko's profession. 'Wherefore so downcast! What a line! There! +let's walk on. Let us the left foot forward stout advance. I care not +for the herd.' + +''Tis love!' cried Franko. + +'Ay, an' it be!' Jack gloomily returned. + +'For ever cruel is the sweet Saldar?' + +Raikes winced at this name. + +'A truce to banter, Franko!' he said sternly: but the subject was opened, +and the wound. + +'Love!' he pursued, mildly groaning. 'Suppose you adored a fascinating +woman, and she knew--positively knew--your manly weakness, and you saw +her smiling upon everybody, and she told you to be happy, and egad, when +you came to reflect, you found that after three months' suit you were +nothing better than her errand-boy? A thing to boast of, is it not, +quotha?' + +'Love's yellow-fever, jealousy, methinks,' Franko commenced in reply; but +Raikes spat at the emphasized word. + +'Jealousy!--who's jealous of clergymen and that crew? Not I, by Pluto! +I carried five messages to one fellow with a coat-tail straight to his +heels, last week. She thought I should drive my curricle--I couldn't +afford an omnibus! I had to run. When I returned to her I was dirty. +She made remarks!' + +'Thy sufferings are severe--but such is woman!' said Franko. 'Gad, it's +a good idea, though.' He took out a note-book and pencilled down a point +or two. Raikes watched the process sardonically. + +'My tragedy is, then, thy farce!' he exclaimed. 'Well, be it so! I +believe I shall come to song-writing again myself shortly-beneath the +shield of Catnach I'll a nation's ballads frame. I've spent my income in +four months, and now I 'm living on my curricle. I underlet it. It 's +like trade--it 's as bad as poor old Harrington, by Jove! But that isn't +the worst, Franko!' Jack dropped his voice: 'I believe I'm furiously +loved by a poor country wench.' + +'Morals!' was Franko's most encouraging reproof. + +'Oh, I don't think I've even kissed her,' rejoined Raikes, who doubted +because his imagination was vivid. 'It 's my intellect that dazzles her. +I 've got letters--she calls me clever. By Jove! since I gave up +driving I've had thoughts of rushing down to her and making her mine in +spite of home, family, fortune, friends, name, position--everything! +I have, indeed.' + +Franko looked naturally astonished at this amount of self-sacrifice. +'The Countess?' he shrewdly suggested. + + 'I'd rather be my Polly's prince, + Than yon great lady's errand-boy!' + +Raikes burst into song. + +He stretched out his hand, as if to discard all the great ladies who were +passing. By the strangest misfortune ever known, the direction taken by +his fingers was toward a carriage wherein, beautifully smiling opposite +an elaborately reverend gentleman of middle age, the Countess de Saldar +was sitting. This great lady is not to be blamed for deeming that her +errand-boy was pointing her out vulgarly on a public promenade. +Ineffable disdain curled off her sweet olive visage. She turned her +head. + +'I 'll go down to that girl to-night,' said Raikes, with compressed +passion. And then he hurried Franko along to the bridge, where, behold, +the Countess alighted with the gentleman, and walked beside him into the +gardens. + +'Follow her,' said Raikes, in agitation. 'Do you see her? by yon long- +tailed raven's side? Follow her, Franko! See if he kisses her hand- +anything! and meet me here in half an hour. I'll have evidence!' + +Franko did not altogether like the office, but Raikes' dinners, singular +luck, and superiority in the encounter of puns, gave him the upper hand +with his friend, and so Franko went. + +Turning away from the last glimpse of his Countess, Raikes crossed the +bridge, and had not strolled far beneath the bare branches of one of the +long green walks, when he perceived a gentleman with two ladies leaning +on him. + +'Now, there,' moralized this youth; 'now, what do you say to that? Do +you call that fair? He can't be happy, and it's not in nature for them +to be satisfied. And yet, if I went up and attempted to please them all +by taking one away, the probabilities are that he would knock me down. +Such is life! We won't be made comfortable!' + +Nevertheless, he passed them with indifference, for it was merely the +principle he objected to; and, indeed, he was so wrapped in his own +conceptions, that his name had to be called behind him twice before he +recognized Evan Harrington, Mrs. Strike, and Miss Bonner. The +arrangement he had previously thought good, was then spontaneously +adopted. Mrs. Strike reposed her fair hand upon his arm, and Juliana, +with a timid glance of pleasure, walked ahead in Evan's charge. Close +neighbourhood between the couples was not kept. The genius of Mr. Raikes +was wasted in manoeuvres to lead his beautiful companion into places +where he could be seen with her, and envied. It was, perhaps, more +flattering that she should betray a marked disposition to prefer solitude +in his society. But this idea illumined him only near the moment of +parting. Then he saw it; then he groaned in soul, and besought Evan to +have one more promenade, saying, with characteristic cleverness in the +masking of his real thoughts: 'It gives us an appetite, you know.' + +In Evan's face and Juliana's there was not much sign that any protraction +of their walk together would aid this beneficent process of nature. He +took her hand gently, and when he quitted it, it dropped. + +'The Rose, the Rose of Beckley Court!' Raikes sang aloud. 'Why, this is +a day of meetings. Behold John Thomas in the rear-a tower of plush and +powder! Shall I rush-shall I pluck her from the aged stem?' + +On the gravel-walk above them Rose passed with her aristocratic +grandmother, muffled in furs. She marched deliberately, looking coldly +before her. Evan's face was white, and Juliana, whose eyes were fixed on +him, shuddered. + +'I'm chilled,' she murmured to Caroline. 'Let us go.' Caroline eyed Evan +with a meaning sadness. + +'We will hurry to our carriage,' she said. + +They were seen to make a little circuit so as not to approach Rose; after +whom, thoughtless of his cruelty, Evan bent his steps slowly, halting +when she reached her carriage. He believed--rather, he knew that she had +seen him. There was a consciousness in the composed outlines of her face +as she passed: the indifference was too perfect. Let her hate him if she +pleased. It recompensed him that the air she wore should make her +appearance more womanly; and that black dress and crape-bonnet, in some +way, touched him to mournful thoughts of her that helped a partial +forgetfulness of wounded self. + +Rose had driven off. He was looking at the same spot, where Caroline's +hand waved from her carriage. Juliana was not seen. Caroline requested +her to nod to him once, but she would not. She leaned back hiding her +eyes, and moving a petulant shoulder at Caroline's hand. + +'Has he offended you, my child?' + +Juliana answered harshly: + +'No-no.' + +The wheels rolled on, and Caroline tried other subjects, knowing possibly +that they would lead Juliana back to this of her own accord. + +'You saw how she treated him?' the latter presently said, without moving +her hand from before her eyes. + +'Yes, dear. He forgives her, and will forget it.' + +'Oh!' she clenched her long thin hand, ' I pray that I may not die before +I have made her repent it. She shall!' + +Juliana looked glitteringly in Caroline's face, and then fell a-weeping, +and suffered herself to be folded and caressed. The storm was long +subsiding. + +'Dearest! you are better now?' said Caroline. + +She whispered: 'Yes.' + +'My brother has only to know you, dear--' + +'Hush! That's past.' Juliana stopped her; and, on a deep breath that +threatened to break to sobs, she added in a sweeter voice than was common +to her, 'Ah, why--why did you tell him about the Beckley property?' + +Caroline vainly strove to deny that she had told him. Juliana's head +shook mournfully at her; and now Caroline knew what Juliana meant when +she begged so earnestly that Evan should be kept ignorant of her change +of fortune. + + +Some days after this the cold struck Juliana's chest, and she sickened. +The three sisters held a sitting to consider what it was best to do with +her. Caroline proposed to take her to Beckley without delay. Harriet +was of opinion that the least they could do was to write to her relatives +and make them instantly aware of her condition. + +But the Countess said 'No,' to both. Her argument was, that Juliana +being independent, they were by no means bound to 'bundle' her, in her +state, back to a place where she had been so shamefully maltreated: that +here she would live, while there she would certainly die: that absence of +excitement was her medicine, and that here she had it. Mrs. Andrew, +feeling herself responsible as the young lady's hostess, did not +acquiesce in the Countess's views till she had consulted Juliana; and +then apologies for giving trouble were breathed on the one hand; +sympathy, condolences, and professions of esteem, on the other. Juliana +said, she was but slightly ill, would soon recover. Entreated not to +leave them before she was thoroughly re-established, and to consent to be +looked on as one of the family, she sighed, and said it was the utmost +she could hope. Of course the ladies took this compliment to themselves, +but Evan began to wax in importance. The Countess thought it nearly time +to acknowledge him, and supported the idea by a citation of the doctrine, +that to forgive is Christian. It happened, however, that Harriet, who +had less art and more will than her sisters, was inflexible. She, living +in a society but a few steps above Tailordom, however magnificent in +expenditure and resources, abhorred it solemnly. From motives of +prudence, as well as personal disgust, she continued firm in declining to +receive her brother. She would not relent when the Countess pointed out +a dim, a dazzling prospect, growing out of Evan's proximity to the +heiress of Beckley Court; she was not to be moved when Caroline suggested +that the specific for the frail invalid was Evan's presence. As to this, +Juliana was sufficiently open, though, as she conceived, her art was +extreme. + +'Do you know why I stay to vex and trouble you?' she asked Caroline. +'Well, then, it is that I may see your brother united to you all: and +then I shall go, happy.' + +The pretext served also to make him the subject of many conversations. +Twice a week a bunch of the best flowers that could be got were sorted +and arranged by her, and sent namelessly to brighten Evan's chamber. + +'I may do such a thing as this, you know, without incurring blame,' she +said. + +The sight of a love so humble in its strength and affluence, sent +Caroline to Evan on a fruitless errand. What availed it, that accused of +giving lead to his pride in refusing the heiress, Evan should declare +that he did not love her? He did not, Caroline admitted as possible, but +he might. He might learn to love her, and therefore he was wrong in +wounding her heart. She related flattering anecdotes. She drew tearful +pictures of Juliana's love for him: and noticing how he seemed to prize +his bouquet of flowers, said: + +'Do you love them for themselves, or the hand that sent them?' + +Evan blushed, for it had been a struggle for him to receive them, as he +thought, from Rose in secret. The flowers lost their value; the song +that had arisen out of them, 'Thou livest in my memory,' ceased. But +they came still. How many degrees from love gratitude may be, I have not +reckoned. I rather fear it lies on the opposite shore. From a youth to +a girl, it may yet be very tender; the more so, because their ages +commonly exclude such a sentiment, and nature seems willing to make a +transition stage of it. Evan wrote to Juliana. Incidentally he +expressed a wish to see her. Juliana was under doctor's interdict: but +she was not to be prevented from going when Evan wished her to go. They +met in the park, as before, and he talked to her five minutes through the +carriage window. + +'Was it worth the risk, my poor child?' said Caroline, pityingly. + +Juliana cried: 'Oh! I would give anything to live!' + +A man might have thought that she made no direct answer. + +'Don't you think I am patient? Don't you think I am very patient?'she +asked Caroline, winningly, on their way home. + +Caroline could scarcely forbear from smiling at the feverish anxiety she +showed for a reply that should confirm her words and hopes. + +'So we must all be!'she said, tend that common-place remark caused +Juliana to exclaim: 'Prisoners have lived in a dungeon, on bread and +water, for years!' + +Whereat Caroline kissed her so tenderly that Juliana tried to look +surprised, and failing, her thin lips quivered; she breathed a soft +'hush,' and fell on Caroline's bosom. + +She was transparent enough in one thing; but the flame which burned +within her did not light her through. + +Others, on other matters, were quite as transparent to her. + +Caroline never knew that she had as much as told her the moral suicide +Evan had committed at Beckley; so cunningly had she been probed at +intervals with little casual questions; random interjections, that one +who loved him could not fail to meet; petty doubts requiring +elucidations. And the Countess, kind as her sentiments had grown toward +the afflicted creature, was compelled to proclaim her densely stupid in +material affairs. For the Countess had an itch of the simplest feminine +curiosity to know whether the dear child had any notion of accomplishing +a certain holy duty of the perishable on this earth, who might possess +worldly goods; and no hints--not even plain speaking, would do. Juliana +did not understand her at all. + +The Countess exhibited a mourning-ring on her finger, Mrs. Bonner's +bequest to her. + +'How fervent is my gratitude to my excellent departed friend for this! +A legacy, however trifling, embalms our dear lost ones in the memory!' + +It was of no avail. Juliana continued densely stupid. Was she not +worse? The Countess could not, 'in decency,' as she observed, reveal to +her who had prompted Mrs. Bonner so to bequeath the Beckley estates as to +'ensure sweet Juliana's future'; but ought not Juliana to divine it?-- +Juliana at least had hints sufficient. + + +Cold Spring winds were now blowing. Juliana had resided no less than two +months with the Cogglesbys. She was entreated still to remain, and she +did. From Lady Jocelyn she heard not a word of remonstrance; but from +Miss Carrington and Mrs. Shorne she received admonishing letters. +Finally, Mr. Harry Jocelyn presented himself. In London, and without any +of that needful subsistence which a young gentleman feels the want of in +London more than elsewhere, Harry began to have thoughts of his own, +without any instigation from his aunts, about devoting himself to +business. So he sent his card up to his cousin, and was graciously met +in the drawing-room by the Countess, who ruffled him and smoothed him, +and would possibly have distracted his soul from business had his +circumstances been less straitened. Juliana was declared to be too +unwell to see him that day. He called a second time, and enjoyed a +similar greeting. His third visit procured him an audience alone with +Juliana, when, at once, despite the warnings of his aunts, the frank +fellow plunged, 'medias res'. Mrs. Bonner had left him totally dependent +on his parents and his chances. + +'A desperate state of things, isn't it, Juley? I think I shall go for a +soldier--common, you know.' + +Instead of shrieking out against such a debasement of his worth and +gentility, as was to be expected, Juliana said: + +'That's what Mr. Harrington thought of doing.' + +'He! If he'd had the pluck he would.' + +'His duty forbade it, and he did not.' + +'Duty! a confounded tailor! What fools we were to have him at Beckley!' + +'Has the Countess been unkind to you Harry?' + +'I haven't seen her to-day, and don't want to. It's my little dear old +Juley I came for.' + +'Dear Harry!' she thanked him with eyes and hands. 'Come often, won't +you?' + +'Why, ain't you coming back to us, Juley?' + +'Not yet. They are very kind to me here. How is Rose?' + +'Oh, quite jolly. She and Ferdinand are thick again. Balls every night. +She dances like the deuce. They want me to go; but I ain't the sort of +figure for those places, and besides, I shan't dance till I can lead you +out.' + +A spur of laughter at Harry's generous nod brought on Juliana's cough. +Harry watched her little body shaken and her reddened eyes. Some real +emotion--perhaps the fear which healthy young people experience at the +sight of deadly disease--made Harry touch her arm with the softness of a +child's touch. + +'Don't be alarmed, Harry,' she said. 'It's nothing--only Winter. I'm +determined to get well.' + +'That's right,' quoth he, recovering. 'I know you've got pluck, or you +wouldn't have stood that operation.' + +'Let me see: when was that?' she asked slyly. + +Harry coloured, for it related to a time when he had not behaved prettily +to her. + +'There, Juley, that 's all forgotten. I was a fool-a scoundrel, if you +like. I 'm sorry for it now.' + +'Do you want money, Harry?' + +'Oh, money!' + +'Have you repaid Mr. Harrington yet?' + +'There--no, I haven't. Bother it! that fellow's name's always on your +tongue. I'll tell you what, Juley--but it's no use. He's a low, vulgar +adventurer.' + +'Dear Harry,' said Juliana, softly; 'don't bring your aunts with you when +you come to see me.' + +'Well, then I'll tell you, Juley. It's enough that he's a beastly +tailor.' + +'Quite enough,' she responded; 'and he is neither a fool nor a +scoundrel.' + +Harry's memory for his own speech was not quick. When Juliana's calm +glance at him called it up, he jumped from his chair, crying: 'Upon my +honour, I'll tell you what, Juley! If I had money to pay him to-morrow, +I'd insult him on the spot.' + +Juliana meditated, and said: 'Then all your friends must wish you to +continue poor.' + +This girl had once been on her knees to him. She had looked up to him +with admiring love, and he had given her a crumb or so occasionally, +thinking her something of a fool, and more of a pest; but now he could +not say a word to her without being baffled in an elderly-sisterly tone +exasperating him so far that he positively wished to marry her, and +coming to the point, offered himself with downright sincerity, and was +rejected. Harry left in a passion. Juliana confided the secret to +Caroline, who suggested interested motives, which Juliana would not hear +of. + +'Ah,' said the Countess, when Caroline mentioned the case to her, +'of course the poor thing cherishes her first offer. She would believe a +curate to be disinterested! But mind that Evan has due warning when she +is to meet him. Mind that he is dressed becomingly.' + +Caroline asked why. + +'Because, my dear, she is enamoured of his person. These little +unhealthy creatures are always attracted by the person. She thinks it to +be Evan's qualities. I know better: it is his person. Beckley Court may +be lost by a shabby coat!' + +The Countess had recovered from certain spiritual languors into which she +had fallen after her retreat. Ultimate victory hung still in the +balance. Oh! if Evan would only marry this little sufferer, who was so +sure to die within a year! or, if she lived (for marriage has often been +as a resurrection to some poor female invalids), there was Beckley Court, +a splendid basis for future achievements. Reflecting in this fashion, +the Countess pardoned her brother. Glowing hopes hung fresh lamps in her +charitable breast. She stepped across the threshold of Tailordom, won +Mr. Goren's heart by her condescension, and worked Evan into a sorrowful +mood concerning the invalid. Was not Juliana his only active friend? In +return, he said things which only required a little colouring to be very +acceptable to her. + +The game waxed exciting again. The enemy (the Jocelyn party) was alert, +but powerless. The three sisters were almost wrought to perform a +sacrifice far exceeding Evan's. They nearly decided to summon him to the +house: but the matter being broached at table one evening, Major Strike +objected to it so angrily that they abandoned it, with the satisfactory +conclusion that if they did wrong it was the Major's fault. + +Meantime Juliana had much on her conscience. She knew Evan to be +innocent, and she allowed Rose to think him guilty. Could she bring her +heart to join them? That was not in her power: but desiring to be lulled +by a compromise, she devoted herself to make his relatives receive him; +and on days of bitter winds she would drive out to meet him, answering +all expostulations with--'I should not go if he were here.' + +The game waxed hot. It became a question whether Evan should be admitted +to the house in spite of the Major. Juliana now made an extraordinary +move. Having the Count with her in the carriage one day, she stopped in +front of Mr. Goren's shop, and Evan had to come out. The Count returned +home extremely mystified. Once more the unhappy Countess was obliged to +draw bills on the fabulous; and as she had recommenced the system, which +was not without its fascinations to her, Juliana, who had touched the +spring, had the full benefit of it. The Countess had deceived her +before--what of that? She spoke things sweet to hear. Who could be +false that gave her heart food on which it lived? + +One night Juliana returned from her drive alarmingly ill. She was +watched through the night by Caroline and the Countess alternately. +In the morning the sisters met. + +'She has consented to let us send for a doctor,' said Caroline. + +'Her chief desire seems to be a lawyer,' said the Countess. + +'Yes, but the doctor must be sent for first.' + +'Yes, indeed! But it behoves us to previse that the doctor does not kill +her before the lawyer comes.' + +Caroline looked at Louisa, and said: 'Are you ignorant?' + +'No--what?' cried the Countess eagerly. + +'Evan has written to tell Lady Jocelyn the state of her health, and--' + +'And that naturally has aggravated her malady!' The Countess cramped her +long fingers. 'The child heard it from him yesterday! Oh, I could swear +at that brother!' + +She dropped into a chair and sat rigid and square-jawed, a sculpture of +unutterable rage. + +In the afternoon Lady Jocelyn arrived. The doctor was there--the lawyer +had gone. Without a word of protest Juliana accompanied her ladyship to +Beckley Court. Here was a blow! + +But Andrew was preparing one more mighty still. What if the Cogglesby +Brewery proved a basis most unsound? Where must they fall then? Alas! +on that point whence they sprang. If not to Perdition--Tailordom! + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +REVEALS AN ABOMINABLE PLOT OF THE BROTHERS COGGLESBY + +A lively April day, with strong gusts from the Southwest, and long +sweeping clouds, saluted the morning coach from London to Lymport. +Thither Tailordom triumphant was bearing its victim at a rattling pace, +to settle him, and seal him for ever out of the ranks of gentlemen: +Society, meantime, howling exclusion to him in the background: 'Out of +our halls, degraded youth: The smiles of turbaned matrons: the sighs of +delicate maids; genial wit, educated talk, refined scandal, vice in +harness, dinners sentineled by stately plush: these, the flavour of life, +are not for you, though you stole a taste of them, wretched impostor! +Pay for it with years of remorse!' + +The coach went rushing against the glorious high wind. It stirred his +blood, freshened his cheeks, gave a bright tone of zest to his eyes, as +he cast them on the young green country. Not banished from the breath of +heaven, or from self-respect, or from the appetite for the rewards that +are to follow duties done! Not banished from the help that is always +reached to us when we have fairly taken the right road: and that for him +is the road to Lymport. Let the kingdom of Gilt Gingerbread howl as it +will! We are no longer children, but men: men who have bitten hard at +experience, and know the value of a tooth: who have had our hearts +bruised, and cover them with armour: who live not to feed, but look to +food that we may live! What matters it that yonder high-spiced kingdom +should excommunicate such as we are? We have rubbed off the gilt, and +have assumed the command of our stomachs. We are men from this day! + +Now, you would have thought Evan's companions, right and left of him, +were the wretches under sentence, to judge from appearances. In contrast +with his look of insolent pleasure, Andrew, the moment an eye was on him, +exhibited the cleverest impersonation of the dumps ever seen: while Mr. +Raikes was from head to foot nothing better than a moan made visible. +Nevertheless, they both agreed to rally Evan, and bid him be of good +cheer. + +'Don't be down, Van; don't be down, my boy,' said Andrew, rubbing his +hands gloomily. + +'I? do I look it?' Evan answered, laughing. + +'Capital acting!' exclaimed Raikes. 'Try and keep it up.' + +'Well, I hope you're acting too,' said Evan. + +Raikes let his chest fall like a collapsing bellows. + +At the end of five minutes, he remarked: 'I've been sitting on it the +whole morning! There's violent inflammation, I'm persuaded. Another +hour, and I jump slap from the summit of the coach!' + +Evan turned to Andrew. + +'Do you think he'll be let off?' + +'Mr. Raikes? Can't say. You see, Van, it depends upon how Old Tom has +taken his bad luck. Ahem! Perhaps he'll be all the stricter; and as a +man of honour, Mr. Raikes, you see, can't very well--' + +'By Jove! I wish I wasn't a man of honour!' Raikes interposed, heavily. + +'You see, Van, Old Tom's circumstances'--Andrew ducked, to smother a sort +of laughter--'are now such that he'd be glad of the money to let him off, +no doubt; but Mr. Raikes has spent it, I can't lend it, and you haven't +got it, and there we all are. At the end of the year he's free, and he-- +ha! ha! I'm not a bit the merrier for laughing, I can tell you.' + +Catching another glimpse of Evan's serious face, Andrew fell into louder +laughter; checking it with doleful solemnity. + +Up hill and down hill, and past little homesteads shining with yellow +crocuses; across wide brown heaths, whose outlines raised in Evan's mind +the night of his funeral walk, and tossed up old feelings dead as the +whirling dust. At last Raikes called out: + +'The towers of Fallow field; heigho!' + +And Andrew said: + +'Now then, Van: if Old Tom's anywhere, he's here. You get down at the +Dragon, and don't you talk to me, but let me go in. It'll be just the +hour he dines in the country. Isn't it a shame of him to make me face +every man of the creditors--eh?' + +Evan gave Andrew's hand an affectionate squeeze, at which Andrew had to +gulp down something--reciprocal emotion, doubtless. + +'Hark,' said Raikes, as the horn of the guard was heard. 'Once that +sound used to set me caracoling before an abject multitude. I did +wonders. All London looked on me! It had more effect on me than +champagne. Now I hear it--the whole charm has vanished! I can't see a +single old castle. Would you have thought it possible that a small +circular bit of tin on a man's person could produce such changes in him?' + +'You are a donkey to wear it,' said Evan. + +'I pledged my word as a gentleman, and thought it small, for the money!' +said Raikes. 'This is the first coach I ever travelled on, without +making the old whip burst with laughing. I'm not myself. I'm haunted. +I'm somebody else.' + +The three passengers having descended, a controversy commenced between +Evan and Andrew as to which should pay. Evan had his money out; Andrew +dashed it behind him; Evan remonstrated. + +'Well, you mustn't pay for us two, Andrew. I would have let you do it +once, but--' + +'Stuff!' cried Andrew. 'I ain't paying--it 's the creditors of the +estate, my boy!' + +Evan looked so ingenuously surprised and hurt at his lack of principle, +that Andrew chucked a sixpence at a small boy, saying, + +'If you don't let me have my own way, Van, I 'll shy my purse after it. +What do you mean, sir, by treating me like a beggar?' + +'Our friend Harrington can't humour us,' quoth Raikes. 'For myself, I +candidly confess I prefer being paid for'; and he leaned contentedly +against one of the posts of the inn till the filthy dispute was arranged +to the satisfaction of the ignobler mind. There Andrew left them, and +went to Mrs. Sockley, who, recovered from her illness, smiled her usual +placid welcome to a guest. + +'You know me, ma'am?' + +'Oh, yes! The London Mr. Cogglesby!' + +'Now, ma'am, look here. I've come for my brother. Don't be alarmed. +No danger as yet. But, mind! if you attempt to conceal him from his +lawful brother, I'll summon here the myrmidons of the law.' + +Mrs. Sockley showed a serious face. + +'You know his habits, Mr. Cogglesby; and one doesn't go against any one +of his whimsies, or there's consequences: but the house is open to you, +sir. I don't wish to hide him.' + +Andrew accepted this intelligent evasion of Tom Cogglesby's orders as +sufficient, and immediately proceeded upstairs. A door shut on the first +landing. Andrew went to this door and knocked. No answer. He tried to +open it, but found that he had been forestalled. After threatening to +talk business through the key-hole, the door was unlocked, and Old Tom +appeared. + +'So! now you're dogging me into the country. Be off; make an +appointment. Saturday's my holiday. You know that.' + +Andrew pushed through the doorway, and, by way of an emphatic reply and a +silencing one, delivered a punch slap into Old Tom's belt. + +'Confound you, Nan!' said Old Tom, grimacing, but friendly, as if his +sympathies had been irresistibly assailed. + +'It 's done, Tom! I've done it. Won my bet, now,' Andrew exclaimed. +'The women-poor creatures! What a state they're in. I pity 'em.' + +Old Tom pursed his lips, and eyed his brother incredulously, but with +curious eagerness. + +'Oh, Lord! what a face I've had to wear!' Andrew continued, and while he +sank into a chair and rubbed his handkerchief over his crisp hair, Old +Tom let loose a convinced and exulting, 'ha! ha!' + +'Yes, you may laugh. I've had all the bother,' said Andrew. + +'Serve ye right--marrying such cattle,' Old Tom snapped at him. + +'They believe we're bankrupt--owe fifty thousand clear, Tom!' + +'Ha! ha!' + +'Brewery stock and household furniture to be sold by general auction, +Friday week.' + +'Ha! ha!' + +'Not a place for any of us to poke our heads into. I talked about +"pitiless storms" to my poor Harry--no shelter to be had unless we go +down to Lymport, and stop with their brother in shop!' + +Old Tom did enjoy this. He took a great gulp of air for a tremendous +burst of laughter, and when this was expended and reflection came, his +features screwed, as if the acidest of flavours had ravished his palate. + +'Bravo, Nan! Didn't think you were man enough. Ha! ha! Nan--I say-- +eh? how did ye get on behind. the curtains?' + +The tale, to guess by Andrew's face, appeared to be too strongly infused +with pathos for revelation. + +'Will they go, Nan, eh? d' ye think they 'll go?' + +'Where else can they go, Tom? They must go there, or on the parish, you +know.' + +'They'll all troop down to the young tailor--eh?' + +'They can't sleep in the parks, Tom.' + +'No. They can't get into Buckingham Palace, neither--'cept as +housemaids. 'Gad, they're howling like cats, I'd swear--nuisance to the +neighbourhood--ha! ha!' + +Old Tom's cruel laughter made Andrew feel for the unhappy ladies. He +stuck his forehead, and leaned forward, saying: 'I don't know--'pon my +honour, I don't know--can't think we've--quite done right to punish 'em +so.' + +This acted like cold water on Old Tom's delight. He pitched it back in +the shape of a doubt of what Andrew had told him. Whereupon Andrew +defied him to face three miserable women on the verge of hysterics; and +Old Tom, beginning to chuckle again, rejoined that it would bring them to +their senses, and emancipate him. + +'You may laugh, Mr. Tom,' said Andrew; 'but if poor Harry should find me +out, deuce a bit more home for me.' + +Old Tom looked at him keenly, and rapped the table. 'Swear you did it, +Nan.' + +'You promise you'll keep the secret,' said Andrew. + +'Never make promises.' + +'Then there's a pretty life for me! I did it for that poor dear boy. +You were only up to one of your jokes--I see that. Confound you, Old +Tom, you've been making a fool of me.' + +The flattering charge was not rejected by Old Tom, who now had his +brother to laugh at as well. Andrew affected to be indignant and +desperate. + +'If you'd had a heart, Tom, you'd have saved the poor fellow without any +bother at all. What do you think? When I told him of our smash--ha! +ha! it isn't such a bad joke-well, I went to him, hanging my head, and he +offered to arrange our affairs--that is--' + +'Damned meddlesome young dog!' cried Old Tom, quite in a rage. + +'There--you're up in a twinkling,' said Andrew. 'Don't you see he +believed it, you stupid Old Tom? Lord! to hear him say how sorry he was, +and to see how glad he looked at the chance of serving us!' + +'Serving us!' Tom sneered. + +'Ha!' went Andrew. 'Yes. There. You're a deuced deal prouder than +fifty peers. You're an upside-down old despot!' + +No sharper retort rising to Old Tom's lips, he permitted his brother's +abuse of him to pass, declaring that bandying words was not his business, +he not being a Parliament man. + +'How about the Major, Nan? He coming down, too?' + +'Major!' cried Andrew. 'Lucky if he keeps his commission. Coming down? +No. He's off to the Continent.' + +'Find plenty of scamps there to keep him company,' added Tom. 'So he's +broke--eh? ha! ha!' + +'Tom,' said Andrew, seriously, 'I'll tell you all about it, if you 'll +swear not to split on me, because it would really upset poor Harry so. +She 'd think me such a beastly hypocrite, I couldn't face her +afterwards.' + +'Lose what pluck you have--eh?' Tom jerked out his hand, and bade his +brother continue. + +Compelled to trust in him without a promise, Andrew said: 'Well, then, +after we'd arranged it, I went back to Harry, and begged her to have poor +Van at the house told her what I hoped you'd do for him about getting him +into the Brewery. She's very kind, Tom, 'pon my honour she is. She was +willing, only--' + +'Only--eh?' + +'Well, she was so afraid it'd hurt her sisters to see him there.' + +Old Tom saw he was in for excellent fun, and wouldn't spoil it for the +world. + +'Yes, Nan?' + +'So I went to Caroline. She was easy enough; and she went to the +Countess.' + +'Well, and she--?' + +'She was willing, too, till Lady Jocelyn came and took Miss Bonner home +to Beckley, and because Evan had written to my lady to fetch her, the +Countess--she was angry. That was all. Because of that, you know. +But yet she agreed. But when Miss Bonner had gone, it turned out that +the Major was the obstacle. They were all willing enough to have Evan +there, but the Major refused. I didn't hear him. I wasn't going to ask +him. I mayn't be a match for three women, but man to man, eh, Tom? +You'd back me there? So Harry said the Major 'd make Caroline miserable, +if his wishes were disrespected. By George, I wish I'd know, then. +Don't you think it odd, Tom, now? There's a Duke of Belfield the fellow +had hooked into his Company; and--through Evan I heard--the Duke had his +name struck off. After that, the Major swore at the Duke once or twice, +and said Caroline wasn't to go out with him. Suddenly, he insists that +she shall go. Days the poor thing kept crying! One day, he makes her +go. She hasn't the spirit of my Harry or the Countess. By good luck, +Van, who was hunting ferns for some friends of his, met them on Sunday in +Richmond Park, and Van took her away from the Duke. But, Tom, think of +Van seeing a fellow watching her wherever she went, and hearing the +Duke's coachman tell that fellow he had orders to drive his master and a +lady hard on to the sea that night. I don't believe it--it wasn't +Caroline! But what do you think of our finding out that beast of a spy +to be in the Major's pay? We did. Van put a constable on his track; we +found him out, and he confessed it. A fact, Tom! That decided me. If +it was only to get rid of a brute, I determined I 'd do it, and I did. +Strike came to me to get my name for a bill that night. 'Gad, he looked +blanker than his bill when he heard of us two bankrupt. I showed him one +or two documents I'd got ready. Says he: "Never mind; it'll only be a +couple of hundred more in the schedule." Stop, Tom! he's got some of +our blood. I don't think he meant it. He is hard pushed. Well, I gave +him a twentier, and he was off the next night. You 'll soon see all +about the Company in the papers.' + +At the conclusion of Andrew's recital, Old Tom thrummed and looked on the +floor under a heavy frown. His mouth worked dubiously, and, from moment +to moment, he plucked at his waistcoat and pulled it down, throwing back +his head and glaring. + +'I 've knocked that fellow over once,' he said. 'Wish he hadn't got up +again.' + +Andrew nodded. + +'One good thing, Nan. He never boasted of our connection. Much obliged +to him.' + +'Yes,' said Andrew, who was gladly watching Old Tom's change of mood with +a quiescent aspect. + +'Um!--must keep it quiet from his poor old mother.' + +Andrew again affirmatived his senior's remarks. That his treatment of +Old Tom was sound, he presently had proof of. The latter stood up, and +after sniffing in an injured way for about a minute, launched out his +right leg, and vociferated that he would like to have it in his power to +kick all the villains out of the world: a modest demand Andrew at once +chimed in with; adding that, were such a faculty extended to him, he +would not object to lose the leg that could benefit mankind so +infinitely, and consented to its following them. Then, Old Tom, who was +of a practical turn, meditated, swung his foot, and gave one grim kick at +the imaginary bundle of villains, discharged them headlong straight into +space. Andrew, naturally imitative, and seeing that he had now to kick +them flying, attempted to excel Old Tom in the vigour of his delivery. +No wonder that the efforts of both were heating: they were engaged in the +task of ridding the globe of the larger half of its inhabitants. Tom +perceived Andrew's useless emulation, and with a sound translated by +'yack,' sent his leg out a long way. Not to be outdone, Andrew +immediately, with a still louder 'yack,' committed himself to an effort +so violent that the alternative between his leg coming off, or his being +taken off his leg, was propounded by nature, and decided by the laws of +gravity in a trice. Joyful grunts were emitted by Old Tom at the sight +of Andrew prostrate, rubbing his pate. But Mrs. Sockley, to whom the +noise of Andrew's fall had suggested awful fears of a fratricidal +conflict upstairs, hurried forthwith to announce to them that the +sovereign remedy for human ills, the promoter of concord, the healer of +feuds, the central point of man's destiny in the flesh--Dinner, was +awaiting them. + +To the dinner they marched. + +Of this great festival be it simply told that the supply was copious and +of good quality--much too good and copious for a bankrupt host: that Evan +and Mr. John Raikes were formally introduced to Old Tom before the repast +commenced, and welcomed some three minutes after he had decided the +flavour of his first glass; that Mr. Raikes in due time preferred his +petition for release from a dreadful engagement, and furnished vast +amusement to the company under Old Tom's hand, until, by chance, he +quoted a scrap of Latin, at which the brothers Cogglesby, who would have +faced peers and princes without being disconcerted, or performing mental +genuflexions, shut their mouths and looked injured, unhappy, and in the +presence of a superior: Mr. Raikes not being the man to spare them. +Moreover, a surprise was afforded to Evan. Andrew stated to Old Tom that +the hospitality of Main Street, Lymport,--was open to him. Strange to +say, Old Tom accepted it on the spot, observing, 'You're master of the +house--can do what you like, if you 're man enough,' and adding that he +thanked him, and would come in a day or two. The case of Mr. Raikes was +still left uncertain, for as the bottle circulated, he exhibited such a +faculty for apt, but to the brothers, totally incomprehensible quotation, +that they fled from him without leaving him time to remember what special +calamity was on his mind, or whether this earth was other than an abode +conceived in great jollity for his life-long entertainment. + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +JULIANA + +The sick night-light burned steadily in Juliana's chamber. On a couch, +beside her bed, Caroline lay sleeping, tired with a long watch. Two +sentences had been passed on Juliana: one on her heart: one on her body: +'Thou art not loved'; and, 'Thou must die.' The frail passion of her +struggle against her destiny was over with her. Quiet as that quiet +which Nature was taking her to, her body reposed. Calm as the solitary +night-light before her open eyes, her spirit was wasting away. 'If I am +not loved, then let me die!' In such a sense she bowed to her fate. + +At an hour like this, watching the round of light on the ceiling, with +its narrowing inner rings, a sufferer from whom pain has fled looks back +to the shores she is leaving, and would be well with them who walk there. +It is false to imagine that schemers and workers in the dark are +destitute of the saving gift of conscience. They have it, and it is +perhaps made livelier in them than with easy people; and therefore, they +are imperatively spurred to hoodwink it. Hence, their self-delusion is +deep and endures. They march to their object, and gaining or losing it, +the voice that calls to them is the voice of a blind creature, whom any +answer, provided that the answer is ready, will silence. And at an hour +like this, when finally they snatch their minute of sight on the +threshold of black night, their souls may compare with yonder shining +circle on the ceiling, which, as the light below gasps for air, +contracts, and extends but to mingle with the darkness. They would be +nobler, better, boundlessly good to all;--to those who have injured them +to those whom they have injured. Alas! for any definite deed the limit +of their circle is immoveable, and they must act within it. The trick +they have played themselves imprisons them. Beyond it, they cease to be. + +Lying in this utter stillness, Juliana thought of Rose; of her beloved by +Evan. The fever that had left her blood, had left it stagnant, and her +thoughts were quite emotionless. She looked faintly on a far picture. +She saw Rose blooming with pleasures in Elburne House, sliding as a boat +borne by the river's tide to sea, away from her living joy. The breast +of Rose was lucid to her, and in that hour of insight she had clear +knowledge of her cousin's heart; how it scoffed at its base love, and +unwittingly betrayed the power on her still, by clinging to the world and +what it would give her to fill the void; how externally the lake was +untroubled, and a mirror to the passing day; and how within there pressed +a flood against an iron dam. Evan, too, she saw. The Countess was right +in her judgement of Juliana's love. Juliana looked very little to his +qualities. She loved him when she thought him guilty, which made her +conceive that her love was of a diviner cast than Rose was capable of. +Guilt did not spoil his beauty to her; his gentleness and glowing manhood +were unchanged; and when she knew him as he was, the revelation of his +high nature simply confirmed her impression of his physical perfections. +She had done him a wrong; at her death news would come to him, and it +might be that he would bless her name. Because she sighed no longer for +those dear lips and strong arms to close about her tremulous frame, it +seemed to her that she had quite surrendered him. Generous to Evan, she +would be just to Rose. Beneath her pillow she found pencil and paper, +and with difficulty, scarce seeing her letters in the brown light, she +began to trace lines of farewell to Rose. Her conscience dictated to her +thus, 'Tell Rose that she was too ready to accept his guilt; and that in +this as in all things, she acted with the precipitation of her character. +Tell her that you always trusted, and that now you know him innocent. +Give her the proofs you have. Show that he did it to shield his +intriguing sister. Tell her that you write this only to make her just to +him. End with a prayer that Rose may be happy.' + +Ere Juliana had finished one sentence, she resigned the pencil. Was it +not much, even at the gates of death, to be the instrument to send Rose +into his arms? The picture swayed before her, helping her weakness. She +found herself dreaming that he had kissed her once. Dorothy, she +remembered, had danced up to her one day, to relate what the maids of the +house said of the gentleman--(at whom, it is known, they look with the +licence of cats toward kings); and Dorothy's fresh careless mouth had +told how one observant maid, amorously minded, proclaimed of Evan, to a +companion of her sex, that, 'he was the only gentleman who gave you an +idea of how he would look when he was kissing you.' Juliana cherished +that vision likewise. Young ladies are not supposed to do so, if menial +maids are; but Juliana did cherish it, and it possessed her fancy. Bear +in your recollection that she was not a healthy person. Diseased little +heroines may be made attractive, and are now popular; but strip off the +cleverly woven robe which is fashioned to cover them, and you will find +them in certain matters bearing a resemblance to menial maids. + +While the thoughts of his kiss lasted, she could do nothing; but lay with +her two hands out on the bed, and her eyelids closed. Then waking, she +took the pencil again. It would not move: her bloodless fingers fell +from it. + +'If they do not meet, and he never marries, I may claim him in the next +world,' she mused. + +But conscience continued uneasy. She turned her wrist and trailed a +letter from beneath the pillow. It was from Mrs. Shorne. Juliana knew +the contents. She raised it unopened as high as her faltering hands +permitted, and read like one whose shut eyes read syllables of fire on +the darkness. + +'Rose has at last definitely engaged herself to Ferdinand, you will be +glad to hear, and we may now treat her as a woman.' + +Having absorbed these words, Juliana's hand found strength to write, with +little difficulty, what she had to say to Rose. She conceived it to be +neither sublime nor generous: not even good; merely her peculiar duty. +When it was done, she gave a long, low sigh of relief. + +Caroline whispered, 'Dearest child, are you awake?' + +'Yes,' she answered. + +'Sorrowful, dear?' + +' Very quiet.' + +Caroline reached her hand over to her, and felt the paper. 'What is +this?' + +'My good-bye to Rose. I want it folded now.' + +Caroline slipped from the couch to fulfil her wish. She enclosed the +pencilled scrap of paper, sealed it, and asked, ' Is that right?' + +'Now unlock my desk,' Juliana uttered, feebly. 'Put it beside a letter +addressed to a law-gentleman. Post both the morning I am gone.' + +Caroline promised to obey, and coming to Juliana to mark her looks, +observed a faint pleased smile dying away, and had her hand gently +squeezed. Juliana's conscience had preceded her contentedly to its last +sleep; and she, beneath that round of light on the ceiling, drew on her +counted breaths in peace till dawn. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +ROSE + +Have you seen a young audacious spirit smitten to the earth? It is a +singular study; and, in the case of young women, a trap for inexperienced +men. Rose, who had commanded and managed every one surrounding her since +infancy, how humble had she now become!--how much more womanly in +appearance, and more child-like at heart! She was as wax in Lady +Elburne's hands. A hint of that veiled episode, the Beckley campaign, +made Rose pliant, as if she had woven for herself a rod of scorpions. +The high ground she had taken; the perfect trust in one; the scorn of any +judgement, save her own; these had vanished from her. Rose, the tameless +heroine who had once put her mother's philosophy in action, was the +easiest filly that turbaned matron ever yet drove into the straight road +of the world. It even surprised Lady Jocelyn to see how wonderfully she +had been broken in by her grandmother. Her ladyship wrote to Drummond to +tell him of it, and Drummond congratulated her, saying, however: 'Changes +of this sort don't come of conviction. Wait till you see her at home. +I think they have been sticking pins into the sore part.' + +Drummond knew Rose well. In reality there was no change in her. She was +only a suppliant to be spared from ridicule: spared from the application +of the scourge she had woven for herself. + +And, ah! to one who deigned to think warmly still of such a disgraced +silly creature, with what gratitude she turned! He might well suppose +love alone could pour that profusion of jewels at his feet. + +Ferdinand, now Lord Laxley, understood the merits of his finger-nails +better than the nature of young women; but he is not to be blamed for +presuming that Rose had learnt to adore him. Else why did she like his +company so much? He was not mistaken in thinking she looked up to him. +She seemed to beg to be taken into his noble serenity. In truth she +sighed to feel as he did, above everybody!--she that had fallen so low! +Above everybody!--born above them, and therefore superior by grace +divine! To this Rose Jocelyn had come--she envied the mind of Ferdinand. + +He, you may be sure, was quite prepared to accept her homage. Rose he +had always known to be just the girl for him; spirited, fresh, and with +fine teeth; and once tied to you safe to be staunch. They walked +together, rode together, danced together. Her soft humility touched him +to eloquence. Say she was a little hypocrite, if you like, when the +blood came to her cheeks under his eyes. Say she was a heartless minx +for allowing it to be bruited that she and Ferdinand were betrothed. I +can but tell you that her blushes were blushes of gratitude to one who +could devote his time to such a disgraced silly creature, and that she, +in her abject state, felt a secret pleasure in the protection Ferdinand's +name appeared to extend over her, and was hardly willing to lose it. + +So far Lady Elburne's tact and discipline had been highly successful. +One morning, in May, Ferdinand, strolling with Rose down the garden made +a positive appeal to her common sense and friendly feeling; by which she +understood that he wanted her consent to his marriage with her. + +Rose answered: + +'Who would have me?' + +Ferdinand spoke pretty well, and ultimately got possession of her hand. +She let him keep it, thinking him noble for forgetting that another had +pressed it before him. + +Some minutes later the letters were delivered. One of them contained +Juliana's dark-winged missive. + +'Poor, poor Juley!' said Rose, dropping her head, after reading all that +was on the crumpled leaf with an inflexible face. And then, talking on, +long low sighs lifted her bosom at intervals. She gazed from time to +time with a wistful conciliatory air on Ferdinand. Rushing to her +chamber, the first cry her soul framed was: + +'He did not kiss me!' + +The young have a superstitious sense of something incontestably true in +the final protestations of the dead. Evan guiltless! she could not +quite take the meaning this revelation involved. That which had been +dead was beginning to move within her; but blindly: and now it stirred +and troubled; now sank. Guiltless all she had thought him! Oh! she +knew she could not have been deceived. But why, why had he hidden his +sacrifice from her? + +'It is better for us both, of course,' said Rose, speaking the world's +wisdom, parrot-like, and bursting into tears the next minute. Guiltless, +and gloriously guiltless! but nothing--nothing to her! + +She tried to blame him. It would not do. She tried to think of that +grovelling loathsome position painted to her by Lady Elburne's graphic +hand. Evan dispersed the gloomy shades like sunshine. Then in a sort of +terror she rejoiced to think she was partially engaged to Ferdinand, and +found herself crying again with exultation, that he had not kissed her: +for a kiss on her mouth was to Rose a pledge and a bond. + +The struggle searched her through: bared her weakness, probed her +strength; and she, seeing herself, suffered grievously in her self-love. +Am I such a coward, inconstant, cold? she asked. Confirmatory answers +coming, flung her back under the shield of Ferdinand if for a moment her +soul stood up armed and defiant, it was Evan's hand she took. + +To whom do I belong? was another terrible question. In her ideas, if +Evan was not chargeable with that baseness which had sundered them he +might claim her yet, if he would. If he did, what then? Must she go to +him? + +Impossible: she was in chains. Besides, what a din of laughter there +would be to see her led away by him. Twisting her joined hands: weeping +for her cousin, as she thought, Rose passed hours of torment over +Juliana's legacy to her. + +'Why did I doubt him?' she cried, jealous that any soul should have known +and trusted him better. Jealous and I am afraid that the kindling of +that one feature of love relighted the fire of her passion thus fervidly. +To be outstripped in generosity was hateful to her. Rose, naturally, +could not reflect that a young creature like herself, fighting against +the world, as we call it, has all her faculties at the utmost stretch, +and is often betrayed by failing nature when the will is still valiant. + +And here she sat-in chains! 'Yes! I am fit only to be the wife of an +idle brainless man, with money and a title,' she said, in extreme self- +contempt. She caught a glimpse of her whole life in the horrid tomb of +his embrace, and questions whether she could yield her hand to him-- +whether it was right in the eyes of heaven, rushed impetuously to console +her, and defied anything in the shape of satisfactory affirmations. +Nevertheless, the end of the struggle was, that she felt that she was +bound to Ferdinand. + +'But this I will do,' said Rose, standing with heat-bright eyes and deep- +coloured cheeks before the glass. 'I will clear his character at +Beckley. I will help him. I will be his friend. I will wipe out the +injustice I did him.' And this bride-elect of a lord absolutely added +that she was unworthy to be the wife of a tailor! + +'He! how unequalled he is! There is nothing he fears except shame. +Oh! how sad it will be for him to find no woman in his class to +understand him and be his helpmate!' + +Over, this sad subject, of which we must presume her to be accurately +cognizant, Rose brooded heavily. By mid-day she gave her Grandmother +notice that she was going home to Juliana's funeral. + +'Well, Rose, if you think it necessary to join the ceremony,' said Lady +Elburne. 'Beckley is bad quarters for you, as you have learnt. There +was never much love between you cousins.' + +'No, and I don't pretend to it,' Rose answered. 'I am sorry poor Juley's +gone.' + +'She's better gone for many reasons--she appears to have been a little +venomous toad,' said Lady Elburne; and Rose, thinking of a snakelike +death-bite working through her blood, rejoined: 'Yes, she isn't to be +pitied she 's better off than most people.' + +So it was arranged that Rose should go. Ferdinand and her aunt, Mrs. +Shorne, accompanied her. Mrs. Shorne gave them their opportunities, +albeit they were all stowed together in a carriage, and Ferdinand seemed +willing to profit by them; but Rose's hand was dead, and she sat by her +future lord forming the vow on her lips that they should never be touched +by him. + +Arrived at Beckley, she, to her great delight, found Caroline there, +waiting for the funeral. In a few minutes she got her alone, and after +kisses, looked penetratingly into her lovely eyes, shook her head, and +said: 'Why were you false to me?' + +'False?' echoed Caroline. + +'You knew him. You knew why he did that. Why did you not save me?' + +Caroline fell upon her neck, asking pardon. She spared her the recital +of facts further than the broad avowal. Evan's present condition she +plainly stated: and Rose, when the bitter pangs had ceased, made oath to +her soul she would rescue him from it. + +In addition to the task of clearing Evan's character, and rescuing him, +Rose now conceived that her engagement to Ferdinand must stand ice-bound +till Evan had given her back her troth. How could she obtain it from +him? How could she take anything from one so noble and so poor! Happily +there was no hurry; though before any bond was ratified, she decided +conscientiously that it must be done. + +You see that like a lithe snake she turns on herself, and must be +tracked in and out. Not being a girl to solve the problem with tears, +or outright perfidy, she had to ease her heart to the great shock little +by little--sincere as far as she knew: as far as one who loves may be. +The day of the funeral came and went. The Jocelyns were of their +mother's opinion: that for many reasons Juliana was better out of the +way. Mrs. Bonner's bequest had been a severe blow to Sir Franks. +However, all was now well. The estate naturally lapsed to Lady Jocelyn. +No one in the house dreamed of a will, signed with Juliana's name, +attested, under due legal forms, being in existence. None of the members +of the family imagined that at Beckley Court they were then residing on +somebody else's ground. + +Want of hospitable sentiments was not the cause that led to an intimation +from Sir Franks to his wife, that Mrs. Strike must not be pressed to +remain, and that Rose must not be permitted to have her own way in this. +Knowing very well that Mrs. Shorne spoke through her husband's mouth, +Lady Jocelyn still acquiesced, and Rose, who had pressed Caroline +publicly to stay, had to be silent when the latter renewed her faint +objections; so Caroline said she would leave on the morrow morning. + +Juliana, with her fretfulness, her hand bounties, her petty egoisms, and +sudden far-leaping generosities, and all the contradictory impulses of +her malady, had now departed utterly. The joys of a landed proprietor +mounted into the head of Sir Franks. He was up early the next morning, +and he and Harry walked over a good bit of the ground before breakfast. +Sir Franks meditated making it entail, and favoured Harry with a lecture +on the duty of his shaping the course of his conduct at once after the +model of the landed gentry generally. + +'And you may think yourself lucky to come into that catalogue--the son of +a younger son!' said Sir Franks, tapping Mr. Harry's shoulder. Harry +also began to enjoy the look and smell of land. At the breakfast, which, +though early, was well attended, Harry spoke of the adviseability of +felling timber here, planting there, and so forth, after the model his +father held up. Sir Franks nodded approval of his interest in the +estate, but reserved his opinion on matters of detail. + +'All I beg of you is,' said Lady Jocelyn, 'that you won't let us have +turnips within the circuit of a mile'; which was obligingly promised. + +The morning letters were delivered and opened with the customary +calmness. + +'Letter from old George,' Harry sings out, and buzzes over a few lines. +'Halloa!--Hum!' He was going to make a communication, but catching sight +of Caroline, tossed the letter over to Ferdinand, who read it and tossed +it back with the comment of a careless face. + +'Read it, Rosey?' says Harry, smiling bluntly. + +Rather to his surprise, Rose took the letter. Study her eyes if you wish +to gauge the potency of one strong dose of ridicule on an ingenuous young +heart. She read that Mr. George Uplift had met 'our friend Mr. Snip' +riding, by moonlight, on the road to Beckley. That great orbed night of +their deep tender love flashed luminously through her frame, storming at +the base epithet by which her lover was mentioned, flooding grandly over +the ignominies cast on him by the world. She met the world, as it were, +in a death-grapple; she matched the living heroic youth she felt him to +be, with that dead wooden image of him which it thrust before her. Her +heart stood up singing like a craven who sees the tide of victory setting +toward him. But this passed beneath her eyelids. When her eyes were +lifted, Ferdinand could have discovered nothing in them to complain of, +had his suspicions been light to raise: nor could Mrs. Shorne perceive +that there was the opening for a shrewd bodkin-thrust. Rose had got a +mask at last: her colour, voice, expression, were perfectly at command. +She knew it to be a cowardice to wear any mask: but she had been burnt, +horribly burnt: how much so you may guess from the supple dissimulation +of such a bold clear-visaged girl. She conquered the sneers of the world +in her soul: but her sensitive skin was yet alive to the pangs of the +scorching it had been subjected to when weak, helpless, and betrayed by +Evan, she stood with no philosophic parent to cry fair play for her, +among the skilful torturers of Elburne House. + +Sir Franks had risen and walked to the window. + +'News?' said Lady Jocelyn, wheeling round in her chair. + +The one eyebrow up of the easy-going baronet signified trouble of mind. +He finished his third perusal of a letter that appeared to be written in +a remarkably plain legal hand, and looking as men do when their +intelligences are just equal to the comprehension or expression of an +oath, handed the letter to his wife, and observed that he should be found +in the library. Nevertheless he waited first to mark its effect on Lady +Jocelyn. At one part of the document her forehead wrinkled slightly. + +'Doesn't sound like a joke!' he said. + +She answered: + +'No.' + +Sir Franks, apparently quite satisfied by her ready response, turned on +his heel and left the room quickly. + +An hour afterward it was rumoured and confirmed that Juliana Bonner had +willed all the worldly property she held in her own right, comprising +Beckley Court, to Mr. Evan Harrington, of Lymport, tailor. An abstract +of the will was forwarded. The lawyer went on to say, that he had +conformed to the desire of the testatrix in communicating the existence +of the aforesaid will six days subsequent to her death, being the day +after her funeral. + +There had been railing and jeering at the Countess de Saldar, the clever +outwitted exposed adventuress, at Elburne House and Beckley Court. What +did the crowing cleverer aristocrats think of her now? + +On Rose the blow fell bitterly. Was Evan also a foul schemer? Was he of +a piece with his intriguing sister? His close kinship with the Countess +had led her to think baseness possible to him when it was confessed by +his own mouth once. She heard black names cast at him and the whole of +the great Mel's brood, and incapable of quite disbelieving them merited, +unable to challenge and rebut them, she dropped into her recent state of +self-contempt: into her lately-instilled doubt whether it really was in +Nature's power, unaided by family-portraits, coats-of-arms, ball-room +practice, and at least one small phial of Essence of Society, to make a +Gentleman. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +CONTAINS A WARNING TO ALL CONSPIRATORS + +This, if you have done me the favour to read it aright, has been a +chronicle of desperate heroism on the part of almost all the principal +personages represented. But not the Countess de Saldar, scaling the +embattled fortress of Society; nor Rose, tossing its keys to her lover +from the shining turret-tops; nor Evan, keeping bright the lamp of self- +respect in his bosom against South wind and East; none excel friend +Andrew Cogglesby, who, having fallen into Old Tom's plot to humiliate his +wife and her sisters, simply for Evan's sake, and without any distinct +notion of the terror, confusion, and universal upset he was bringing on +his home, could yet, after a scared contemplation of the scene when he +returned from his expedition to Fallow field, continue to wear his rueful +mask; and persevere in treacherously outraging his lofty wife. + +He did it to vindicate the ties of blood against accidents of position. +Was he justified? I am sufficiently wise to ask my own sex alone. + +On the other side, be it said (since in our modern days every hero must +have his weak heel), that now he had gone this distance it was difficult +to recede. It would be no laughing matter to tell his solemn Harriet +that he had been playing her a little practical joke. His temptations to +give it up were incessant and most agitating; but if to advance seemed +terrific, there was, in stopping short, an awfulness so overwhelming that +Andrew abandoned himself to the current, his real dismay adding to his +acting powers. + +The worst was, that the joke was no longer his: it was Old Tom's. He +discovered that he was in Old Tom's hands completely. Andrew had thought +that he would just frighten the women a bit, get them down to Lymport for +a week or so, and then announce that matters were not so bad with the +Brewery as he had feared; concluding the farce with a few domestic +fireworks. Conceive his dismay when he entered the house, to find there +a man in possession. + +Andrew flew into such a rage that he committed an assault on the man. +So ungovernable was his passion, that for some minutes Harriet's measured +voice summoned him from over the banisters above, quite in vain. The +miserable Englishman refused to be taught that his house had ceased to be +his castle. It was something beyond a joke, this! The intruder, +perfectly docile, seeing that by accurate calculation every shake he got +involved a bottle of wine for him, and ultimate compensation probably to +the amount of a couple of sovereigns, allowed himself to be lugged up +stairs, in default of summary ejection on the point of Andrew's toe into +the street. There he was faced to the lady of the house, who apologized +to him, and requested her husband to state what had made him guilty of +this indecent behaviour. The man showed his papers. They were quite in +order. 'At the suit of Messrs. Grist.' + +'My own lawyers!' cried Andrew, smacking his forehead; and Old Tom's +devilry flashed on him at once. He sank into a chair. + +'Why did you bring this person up here?' said Harriet, like a speaking +statue. + +'My dear!' Andrew answered, and spread out his hand, and waggled his +head; 'My--please!--I--I don't know. We all want exercise.' + +The man laughed, which was kindly of him, but offensive to Mrs. +Cogglesby, who gave Andrew a glance which was full payment for his +imbecile pleasantry, and promised more. + +With a hospitable inquiry as to the condition of his appetite, and a +request that he would be pleased to satisfy it to the full, the man was +dismissed: whereat, as one delivered of noxious presences, the Countess +rustled into sight. Not noticing Andrew, she lisped to Harriet: +'Misfortunes are sometimes no curses! I bless the catarrh that has +confined Silva to his chamber, and saved him from a bestial exhibition.' + +The two ladies then swept from the room, and left Andrew to perspire at +leisure. + +Fresh tribulations awaited him when he sat down to dinner. Andrew liked +his dinner to be comfortable, good, and in plenty. This may not seem +strange. The fact is stated that I may win for him the warm sympathies +of the body of his countrymen. He was greeted by a piece of cold boiled +neck of mutton and a solitary dish of steaming potatoes. The blank +expanse of table-cloth returned his desolate stare. + +'Why, what's the meaning of this?' Andrew brutally exclaimed, as he +thumped the table. + +The Countess gave a start, and rolled a look as of piteous supplication +to spare a lady's nerves, addressed to a ferocious brigand. Harriet +answered: ' It means that I will have no butcher's bills.' + +'Butcher's bills!' butcher's bills!' echoed Andrew; 'why, you must have +butcher's bills; why, confound! why, you'll have a bill for this, won't +you, Harry? eh? of course!' + +'There will be no more bills dating from yesterday,' said his wife. + +'What! this is paid for, then?' + +'Yes, Mr. Cogglesby; and so will all household expenses be, while my +pocket-money lasts.' + +Resting his eyes full on Harriet a minute, Andrew dropped them on the +savourless white-rimmed chop, which looked as lonely in his plate as its +parent dish on the table. The poor dear creature's pocket-money had paid +for it! The thought, mingling with a rush of emotion, made his ideas +spin. His imagination surged deliriously. He fancied himself at the +Zoological Gardens, exchanging pathetic glances with a melancholy +marmoset. Wonderfully like one the chop looked! There was no use in +his trying to eat it. He seemed to be fixing his teeth in solid tears. +He choked. Twice he took up knife and fork, put them down again, and +plucking forth his handkerchief, blew a tremendous trumpet, that sent the +Countess's eyes rolling to the ceiling, as if heaven were her sole refuge +from such vulgarity. + +'Damn that Old Tom!' he shouted at last, and pitched back in his chair. + +'Mr. Cogglesby!' and 'In the presence of ladies!' were the admonishing +interjections of the sisters, at whom the little man frowned in turns. + +'Do you wish us to quit the room, sir?' inquired his wife. + +'God bless your soul, you little darling!' he apostrophized that stately +person. 'Here, come along with me, Harry. A wife's a wife, I say--hang +it! Just outside the room--just a second! or up in a corner will do.' + +Mrs. Cogglesby was amazed to see him jump up and run round to her. She +was prepared to defend her neck from his caress, and refused to go: but +the words, 'Something particular to tell you,' awakened her curiosity, +which urged her to compliance. She rose and went with him to the door. + +'Well, sir; what is it?' + +No doubt he was acting under a momentary weakness he was about to betray +the plot and take his chance of forgiveness; but her towering port, her +commanding aspect, restored his courage. (There may be a contrary view +of the case.) He enclosed her briskly in a connubial hug, and remarked +with mad ecstasy: 'What a duck you are, Harry! What a likeness between +you and your mother.' + +Mrs. Cogglesby disengaged herself imperiously. Had he called her aside +for this gratuitous insult? Contrite, he saw his dreadful error. + +'Harry! I declare!' was all he was allowed to say. Mrs. Cogglesby +marched back to her chair, and recommenced the repast in majestic +silence. + +Andrew sighed; he attempted to do the same. He stuck his fork in the +blanched whiskerage of his marmoset, and exclaimed: 'I can't!' + +He was unnoticed. + +'You do not object to plain diet?' said Harriet to Louisa. + +'Oh, no, in verity!' murmured the Countess. 'However plain it be! +Absence of appetite, dearest. You are aware I partook of luncheon at +mid-day with the Honourable and Reverend Mr. Duffian. You must not look +condemnation at your Louy for that. Luncheon is not conversion!' + +Harriet observed that this might be true; but still, to her mind, it was +a mistake to be too intimate with dangerous people. 'And besides,' she +added, 'Mr. Duffian is no longer "the Reverend." We deprive all +renegades of their spiritual titles. His worldly ones let him keep.' + +Her superb disdain nettled the Countess. + +'Dear Harriet!' she said, with less languor, 'You are utterly and totally +and entirely mistaken. I tell you so positively. Renegade! The +application of such a word to such a man! Oh! and it is false, Harriet +quite! Renegade means one who has gone over to the Turks, my dear. I am +almost certain I saw it in Johnson's Dictionary, or an: improvement upon +Johnson, by a more learned author. But there is the fact, if Harriet can +only bring her--shall I say stiff-necked prejudices to envisage it?' + +Harriet granted her sister permission to apply the phrases she stood in +need of, without impeaching her intimacy with the most learned among +lexicographers. + +'And is there no such thing as being too severe?' the Countess resumed. +'What our enemies call unchristian!' + +'Mr. Duffian has no cause to complain of us,' said Harriet. + +'Nor does he do so, dearest. Calumny may assail him; you may utterly +denude him--' + +'Adam!' interposed Andrew, distractedly listening. He did not disturb +the Countess's flow. + +'You may vilify and victimize Mr. Duffian, and strip him of the honours +of his birth, but, like the Martyrs, he will still continue the perfect +nobleman. Stoned, I assure you that Mr. Duffian would preserve his +breeding. In character he is exquisite; a polish to defy misfortune.' + +'I suppose his table is good?' said Harriet, almost ruffled by the +Countess's lecture. + +'Plate,' was remarked in the cold tone of supreme indifference. + +'Hem! good wines?' Andrew asked, waking up a little and not wishing to +be excluded altogether. + +'All is of the very best,' the Countess pursued her eulogy, not looking +at him. + +'Don't you think you could--eh, Harry?--manage a pint for me, my dear?' +Andrew humbly petitioned. 'This cold water--ha! ha! my stomach don't +like cold bathing.' + +His wretched joke rebounded from the impenetrable armour of the ladies. + +'The wine-cellar is locked,' said his wife. 'I have sealed up the key +till an inventory can be taken by some agent of the creditors.' + +'What creditors?' roared Andrew. + +'You can have some of the servants' beer,' Mrs. Cogglesby appended. + +Andrew studied her face to see whether she really was not hoisting him +with his own petard. Perceiving that she was sincerely acting according +to her sense of principle, he fumed, and departed to his privacy, unable +to stand it any longer. + +Then like a kite the Countess pounced upon his character. Would the +Honourable and Reverend Mr. Duflian decline to participate in the sparest +provender? Would he be guilty of the discourtesy of leaving table +without a bow or an apology, even if reduced to extremest poverty? No, +indeed! which showed that, under all circumstances, a gentleman was a +gentleman. And, oh! how she pitied her poor Harriet--eternally tied +to a most vulgar little man, without the gilding of wealth. + +'And a fool in his business to boot, dear!' + +'These comparisons do no good,' said Harriet. 'Andrew at least is not a +renegade, and never shall be while I live. I will do my duty by him, +however poor we are. And now, Louisa, putting my husband out of the +question, what are your intentions? I don't understand bankruptcy, but +I imagine they can do nothing to wife and children. My little ones must +have a roof over their heads; and, besides, there is little Maxwell. You +decline to go down to Lymport, of course.' + +'Decline!' cried the Countess, melodiously; 'and do not you?' + +'As far as I am concerned--yes. But I am not to think of myself.' + +The Countess meditated, and said: 'Dear Mr. Duflian has offered me his +hospitality. Renegades are not absolutely inhuman. They may be +generous. I have no moral doubt that Mr. Duflian would, upon my +representation--dare I venture?' + +'Sleep in his house! break bread with him!' exclaimed Harriet. 'What do +you think I am made of? I would perish--go to the workhouse, rather!' + +'I see you trooping there,' said the Countess, intent on the vision. + +'And have you accepted his invitation for yourself, Louisa?' + +The Countess was never to be daunted by threatening aspects. She gave +her affirmative with calmness and a deliberate smile. + +'You are going to live with him?' + +'Live with him! What expressions! My husband accompanies me.' + +Harriet drew up. + +'I know nothing, Louisa, that could give me more pain.' + +The Countess patted Harriet's knee. 'It succeeds to bankruptcy, +assuredly. But would you have me drag Silva to the--the shop, Harriet, +love? Alternatives!' + +Mrs. Andrew got up and rang the bell to have the remains of their dinner +removed. When this was done, she said, + +'Louisa, I don't know whether I am justified: you told me to-day I might +keep my jewels, trinkets, and lace, and such like. To me, I know they do +not belong now: but I will dispose of them to procure you an asylum +somewhere--they will fetch, I should think, L400,--to prevent your going +to Mr. Duffian.' + +No exhibition of great-mindedness which the Countess could perceive, ever +found her below it. + +'Never, love, never!' she said. + +'Then, will you go to Evan?' + +'Evan? I hate him!' The olive-hued visage was dark. It brightened as +she added, 'At least as much as my religious sentiments permit me to. A +boy who has thwarted me at every turn!--disgraced us! Indeed, I find it +difficult to pardon you the supposition of such a possibility as your own +consent to look on him ever again, Harriet.' + +'You have no children,' said Mrs. Andrew. + +The Countess mournfully admitted it. + +'There lies your danger with Mr. Duffian, Louisa!' + +'What! do you doubt my virtue?' asked the Countess. + +'Pish! I fear something different. You understand me. Mr. Duflian's +moral reputation is none of the best, perhaps.' + +'That was before he renegaded,' said the Countess. + +Harriet bluntly rejoined: 'You will leave that house a Roman Catholic.' + +'Now you have spoken,' said the Countess, pluming. ' Now let me explain +myself. My dear, I have fought worldly battles too long and too +earnestly. I am rightly punished. I do but quote Herbert Duffian's own +words: he is no flatterer though you say he has such soft fingers. I am +now engaged in a spiritual contest. He is very wealthy! I have resolved +to rescue back to our Church what can benefit the flock of which we form +a portion, so exceedingly!' + +At this revelation of the Countess's spiritual contest, Mrs. Andrew shook +a worldly head. + +'You have no chance with men there, Louisa.' + +'My Harriet complains of female weakness!' + +'Yes. We are strong in our own element, Louisa. Don't be tempted out of +it.' + +Sublime, the Countess rose: + +'Element! am I to be confined to one? What but spiritual solaces +could assist me to live, after the degradations I have had heaped on me? +I renounce the world. I turn my sight to realms where caste is unknown. +I feel no shame there of being a tailor's daughter. You see, I can bring +my tongue to name the thing in its actuality. Once, that member would +have blistered. Confess to me that, in spite of your children, you are +tempted to howl at the idea of Lymport--' + +The Countess paused, and like a lady about to fire off a gun, appeared to +tighten her nerves, crying out rapidly: + +'Shop! Shears! Geese! Cabbage! Snip! Nine to a man!' + +Even as the silence after explosions of cannon, that which reigned in the +room was deep and dreadful. + +'See,' the Countess continued, 'you are horrified you shudder. I name +all our titles, and if I wish to be red in my cheeks, I must rouge. It +is, in verity, as if my senseless clay were pelted, as we heard of Evan +at his first Lymport boys' school. You remember when he told us the +story? He lisped a trifle then. "I'm the thon of a thnip." Oh! it was +hell-fire to us, then; but now, what do I feel? Why, I avowed it to +Herbert Duffian openly, and he said, that the misfortune of dear Papa's +birth did not the less enable him to proclaim himself in conduct a +nobleman's offspring--' + +'Which he never was.' Harriet broke the rhapsody in a monotonous low +tone: the Countess was not compelled to hear: + +'--and that a large outfitter--one of the very largest, was in reality a +merchant, whose daughters have often wedded nobles of the land, and +become ancestresses! Now, Harriet, do you see what a truly religious +mind can do for us in the way of comfort? Oh! I bow in gratitude to +Herbert Duffian. I will not rest till I have led him back to our fold, +recovered from his error. He was our own preacher and pastor. He +quitted us from conviction. He shall return to us from conviction.' + +The Countess quoted texts, which I respect, and will not repeat. She +descanted further on spiritualism, and on the balm that it was to tailors +and their offspring; to all outcasts from Society. + +Overpowered by her, Harriet thus summed up her opinions: 'You were always +self-willed, Louisa.' + +'Say, full of sacrifice, if you would be just,' added the Countess; 'and +the victim of basest ingratitude.' + +'Well, you are in a dangerous path, Louisa.' + +Harriet had the last word, which usually the Countess was not disposed to +accord; but now she knew herself strengthened to do so, and was content +to smile pityingly on her sister. + +Full upon them in this frame of mind, arrived Caroline's great news from +Beckley. + +It was then that the Countess's conduct proved a memorable refutation of +cynical philosophy: she rejoiced in the good fortune of him who had +offended her! Though he was not crushed and annihilated (as he deserved +to be) by the wrong he had done, the great-hearted woman pardoned him! + +Her first remark was: 'Let him thank me for it or not, I will lose no +moment in hastening to load him with my congratulations.' + +Pleasantly she joked Andrew, and defended him from Harriet now. + +'So we are not all bankrupts, you see, dear brother-in-law.' + +Andrew had become so demoralized by his own plot, that in every turn of +events he scented a similar piece of human ingenuity. Harriet was angry +with his disbelief, or say, the grudging credit he gave to the glorious +news. Notwithstanding her calmness, the thoughts of Lymport had sickened +her soul, and it was only for the sake of her children, and from a sense +of the dishonesty of spending a farthing of the money belonging, as she +conceived, to the creditors, that she had consented to go. + +'I see your motive, Mr. Cogglesby,' she observed. 'Your measures are +disconcerted. I will remain here till my brother gives me shelter.' + +'Oh, that'll do,, my love; that's all I want,' said Andrew, sincerely. + +'Both of you, fools!' the Countess interjected. 'Know you Evan so +little? He will receive us anywhere: his arms are open to his kindred: +but to his heart the road is through humiliation, and it is to his heart +we seek admittance.' + +'What do you mean?' Harriet inquired. + +'Just this,' the Countess answered in bold English and her eyes were +lively, her figure elastic: ' We must all of us go down to the old shop +and shake his hand there--every man Jack of us!--I'm only quoting the +sailors, Harriet--and that's the way to win him.' + +She snapped her fingers, laughing. Harriet stared at her, and so did +Andrew, though for a different reason. She seemed to be transformed. +Seeing him inclined to gape, she ran up to him, caught up his chin +between her ten fingers, and kissed him on both cheeks, saying: + +'You needn't come, if you're too proud, you know, little man!' + +And to Harriet's look of disgust, the cause for which she divined with +her native rapidity, she said: 'What does it matter? They will talk, but +they can't look down on us now. Why, this is my doing!' + +She came tripping to her tall sister, to ask plaintively 'Mayn't I be +glad?' and bobbed a curtsey. + +Harriet desired Andrew to leave them. Flushed and indignant she then +faced the Countess. + +'So unnecessary!' she began. 'What can excuse your indiscretion, +Louisa?' + +The Countess smiled to hear her talking to her younger sister once more. +She shrugged. + +'Oh, if you will keep up the fiction, do. Andrew knows--he isn't an +idiot--and to him we can make light of it now. What does anybody's birth +matter, who's well off!' + +It was impossible for Harriet to take that view. The shop, if not the +thing, might still have been concealed from her husband, she thought. + +'It mattered to me when I was well off,' she said, sternly. + +'Yes; and to me when I was; but we've had a fall and a lesson since +that, my dear. Half the aristocracy of England spring from shops!-- +Shall I measure you?' + +Harriet never felt such a desire to inflict a slap upon mortal cheek. +She marched away from her in a tiff. On the other hand, Andrew was half +fascinated by the Countess's sudden re-assumption of girlhood, and +returned--silly fellow! to have another look at her. She had ceased, on +reflection, to be altogether so vivacious: her stronger second nature had +somewhat resumed its empire: still she was fresh, and could at times be +roguishly affectionate and she patted him, and petted him, and made much +of him; slightly railed at him for his uxoriousness and domestic +subjection, and proffered him her fingers to try the taste of. The truth +must be told: Mr. Duflian not being handy, she in her renewed earthly +happiness wanted to see her charms in a woman's natural mirror: namely, +the face of man: if of man on his knees, all the better and though a +little man is not much of a man, and a sister's husband is, or should be, +hardly one at all, still some sort of a reflector he must be. Two or +three jests adapted to Andrew's palate achieved his momentary +captivation. + +He said: 'Gad, I never kissed you in my life, Louy.' + +And she, with a flavour of delicate Irish brogue, 'Why don't ye catch +opportunity by the tail, then?' + +Perfect innocence, I assure you, on both sides. + +But mark how stupidity betrays. Andrew failed to understand her, and act +on the hint immediately. Had he done so, the affair would have been over +without a witness. As it happened, delay permitted Harriet to assist at +the ceremony. + +'It wasn't your mouth, Louy,' said Andrew. + +'Oh, my mouth!--that I keep for, my chosen,' was answered. + +'Gad, you make a fellow almost wish--' Andrew's fingers worked over his +poll, and then the spectre of righteous wrath flashed on him--naughty +little man that he was! He knew himself naughty, for it was the only +time since his marriage that he had ever been sorry to see his wife. +This is a comedy, and I must not preach lessons of life here: but I am +obliged to remark that the husband must be proof, the sister-in-law +perfect, where arrangements exist that keep them under one roof. She may +be so like his wife! Or, from the knowledge she has of his +circumstances, she may talk to him almost as his wife. He may forget +that she is not his wife! And then again, the small beginnings, which +are in reality the mighty barriers, are so easily slid over. But what is +the use of telling this to a pure generation? My constant error is in +supposing that I write for the wicked people who begat us. + +Note, however, the difference between the woman and the man! Shame +confessed Andrew's naughtiness; he sniggered pitiably: whereas the +Countess jumped up, and pointing at him, asked her sister what she +thought of that. Her next sentence, coolly delivered, related to some +millinery matter. If this was not innocence, what is? + +Nevertheless, I must here state that the scene related, innocent as it +was, and, as one would naturally imagine, of puny consequence, if any, +did no less a thing than, subsequently, to precipitate the Protestant +Countess de Saldar into the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church. A little +bit of play! + +It seems barely just. But if, as I have heard, a lady has trod on a +pebble and broken her nose, tremendous results like these warn us to be +careful how we walk. As for play, it was never intended that we should +play with flesh and blood. + +And, oh, be charitable, matrons of Britain! See here, Andrew Cogglesby, +who loved his wife as his very soul, and who almost disliked her sister; +in ten minutes the latter had set his head spinning! The whole of the +day he went about the house meditating frantically on the possibility of +his Harriet demanding a divorce. + +She was not the sort of woman to do that. But one thing she resolved to +do; and it was, to go to Lymport with Louisa, and having once got her out +of her dwelling-place, never to allow her to enter it, wherever it might +be, in the light of a resident again. Whether anything but the menace of +a participation in her conjugal possessions could have despatched her to +that hateful place, I doubt. She went: she would not let Andrew be out +of her sight. Growing haughtier toward him at every step, she advanced +to the strange old shop. EVAN HARRINGTON over the door! There the +Countess, having meantime returned to her state of womanhood, shared her +shudders. They entered, and passed in to Mrs. Mel, leaving their +footman, apparently, in the rear. Evan was not visible. A man in the +shop, with a yard measure negligently adorning his shoulders, said that +Mr. Harrington was in the habit of quitting the shop at five. + +'Deuced good habit, too,' said Andrew. + +'Why, sir,' observed another, stepping forward, 'as you truly say--yes. +But--ah! Mr. Andrew Cogglesby? Pleasure of meeting you once in Fallow +field! Remember Mr. Perkins?--the lawyer, not the maltster. Will you do +me the favour to step out with me?' + +Andrew followed him into the street. + +'Are you aware of our young friend's good fortune?' said Lawyer Perkins. +'Yes. Ah! Well!--Would you believe that any sane person in his +condition, now--nonsense apart--could bring his mind wilfully to continue +a beggar? No. Um! Well; Mr. Cogglesby, I may tell you that I hold here +in my hands a document by which Mr. Evan Harrington transfers the whole +of the property bequeathed to him to Lady Jocelyn, and that I have his +orders to execute it instantly, and deliver it over to her ladyship, +after the will is settled, probate, and so forth: I presume there will be +an arrangement about his father's debts. Now what do you think of that?' + +'Think, sir,--think!' cried Andrew, cocking his head at him like an +indignant bird, 'I think he's a damned young idiot to do so, and you're a +confounded old rascal to help him.' + +Leaving Mr. Perkins to digest his judgement, which he had solicited, +Andrew bounced back into the shop. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +IN WHICH THE SHOP BECOMES THE CENTRE OF ATTRACTION + +Under the first lustre of a May-night, Evan was galloping over the moon- +shadowed downs toward Beckley. At the ridge commanding the woods, the +park, and the stream, his horse stopped, as if from habit, snorted, and +puffed its sides, while he gazed steadily across the long lighted vale. +Soon he began to wind down the glaring chalk-track, and reached grass +levels. Here he broke into a round pace, till, gaining the first +straggling cottages of the village, he knocked the head of his whip +against the garden-gate of one, and a man came out, who saluted him, and +held the reins. + +'Animal does work, sir,' said the man. + +Evan gave directions for it to be looked to, and went on to the doorway, +where he was met by a young woman. She uttered a respectful greeting, +and begged him to enter. + +The door closed, he flung himself into a chair, and said: + +'Well, Susan, how is the child?' + +' Oh! he's always well, Mr. Harrington; he don't know the tricks o' +trouble yet.' + +'Will Polly be here soon?' + +'At a quarter after nine, she said, sir.' + +Evan bade her sit down. After examining her features quietly, he said: + +'I 'm glad to see you here, Susan. You don't regret that you followed my +advice?' + +' No, sir; now it's over, I don't. Mother's kind enough, and father +doesn't mention anything. She's a-bed with bile--father's out.' + +'But what? There's something on your mind.' + +'I shall cry, if I begin, Mr. Harrington.' + +'See how far you can get without.' + +'Oh! Sir, then,' said Susan, on a sharp rise of her bosom, 'it ain't my +fault. I wouldn't cause trouble to Mr. Harry, or any friend of yours; +but, sir, father have got hold of his letters to me, and he says, there +'s a promise in 'em--least, one of 'em; and it's as good as law, he says +--he heard it in a public-house; and he's gone over to Fall'field to a +law-gentleman there.' Susan was compelled to give way to some sobs. 'It +ain't for me--father does it, sir,' she pleaded. 'I tried to stop him, +knowing how it'd vex you, Mr. Harrington; but he's heady about points, +though a quiet man ordinary; and he says he don't expect--and I know now +no gentleman 'd marry such as me--I ain't such a stupid gaper at words as +I used to be; but father says it's for the child's sake, and he does it +to have him provided for. Please, don't ye be angry with me, sir.' + +Susan's half-controlled spasms here got the better of her. + +While Evan was awaiting the return of her calmer senses, the latch was +lifted, and Polly appeared. + +'At it again!' was her sneering comment, after a short survey of her +apron-screened sister; and then she bobbed to Evan. + +'It's whimper, whimper, and squeak, squeak, half their lives with some +girls. After that they go wondering they can't see to thread a needle! +The neighbours, I suppose. I should like to lift the top off some o' +their houses. I hope I haven't kept you, sir.' + +'No, Polly,' said Evan; 'but you must be charitable, or I shall think you +want a lesson yourself. Mr. Raikes tells me you want to see me. What is +it? You seem to be correspondents.' + +Polly replied: 'Oh, no, Mr. Harrington: only accidental ones--when +something particular's to be said. And he dances-like on the paper, so +that you can't help laughing. Isn't he a very eccentric gentleman, sir?' + +'Very,' said Evan. 'I 've no time to lose, Polly.' + +'Here, you must go,' the latter called to her sister. 'Now pack at once, +Sue. Do rout out, and do leave off thinking you've got a candle at your +eyes, for Goodness' sake!' + +Susan was too well accustomed to Polly's usage to complain. She murmured +a gentle 'Good night, sir,' and retired. Whereupon Polly exclaimed: +'Bless her poor dear soft heart! It 's us hard ones that get on best in +the world. I'm treated better than her, Mr. Harrington, and I know I +ain't worth half of her. It goes nigh to make one religious, only to see +how exactly like Scripture is the way Beckley treats her, whose only sin +is her being so soft as to believe in a man! Oh, dear! Mr. Harrington! +I wish I had good news for you.' + +In spite of all his self-control, Evan breathed quickly and looked +eagerly. + +'Speak it out, Polly.' + +'Oh, dear! I must, I suppose,' Polly answered. 'Mr. Laxley's become a +lord now, Mr. Harrington.' + +Evan tasted in his soul the sweets of contrast. 'Well?' + +'And my Miss Rose--she--' + +'What?' + +Moved by the keen hunger of his eyes, Polly hesitated. Her face betrayed +a sudden change of mind. + +'Wants to see you, sir,' she said, resolutely. + +'To see me?' + +Evan stood up, so pale that Polly was frightened. + +'Where is she? Where can I meet her?' + +'Please don't take it so, Mr. Harrington.' + +Evan commanded her to tell him what her mistress had said. + +Now up to this point Polly had spoken truth. She was positive her +mistress did want to see him. Polly, also, with a maiden's tender guile, +desired to bring them together for once, though it were for the last +time, and for no good on earth. She had been about to confide to him +her young mistress's position toward Lord Laxley, when his sharp +interrogation stopped her. Shrinking from absolute invention, she +remarked that of course she could not exactly remember Miss Rose's words; +which seemed indeed too much to expect of her. + +'She will see me to-night?' said Evan. + +'I don't know about to-night,' Polly replied. + +'Go to her instantly. Tell her I am ready. I will be at the West park- +gates. This is why you wrote, Polly? Why did you lose time? Don't +delay, my good girl! Come!' + +Evan had opened the door. He would not allow Polly an instant for +expostulation; but drew her out, saying, 'You will attend to the gates +yourself. Or come and tell me the day, if she appoints another.' + +Polly made a final effort to escape from the pit she was being pushed +into. + +'Mr. Harrington! it wasn't to tell you this I wrote. + +Miss Rose is engaged, sir.' + +'I understand,' said Evan, hoarsely, scarcely feeling it, as is the case +with men who are shot through the heart. + +Ten minutes later he was on horseback by the Fallow field gates, with the +tidings shrieking through his frame. The night was still, and stiller in +the pauses of the nightingales. He sat there, neither thinking of them +nor reproached in his manhood for the tears that rolled down his cheeks. +Presently his horse's ears pricked, and the animal gave a low neigh. +Evan's eyes fixed harder on the length of gravel leading to the house. +There was no sign, no figure. Out from the smooth grass of the lane a +couple of horsemen issued, and came straight to the gates. He heard +nothing till one spoke. It was a familiar voice. + +'By Jove, Ferdy, here is the fellow, and we've been all the way to +Lymport!' + +Evan started from his trance. + +'It 's you, Harrington?' + +'Yes, Harry.' + +'Sir!' exclaimed that youth, evidently flushed with wine, 'what the devil +do you mean by addressing me by my Christian name?' + +Laxley pushed his horse's head in front of Harry. In a manner apparently +somewhat improved by his new dignity, he said: 'We have ridden to Lymport +to speak to you, sir. Favour me by moving a little ahead of the lodge.' + +Evan bowed, and moved beside him a short way down the lane, Harry +following. + +'The purport of my visit, sir,' Laxley began, 'was to make known to you +that Miss Jocelyn has done me the honour to accept me as her husband. +I learn from her that during the term of your residence in the house, you +contrived to extract from her a promise to which she attaches certain +scruples. She pleases to consider herself bound to you till you release +her. My object is to demand that you will do so immediately.' + +There was no reply. + +'Should you refuse to make this reparation for the harm you have done to +her and her family,' Laxley pursued, 'I must let you know that there are +means of compelling you to it, and that those means will be employed.' + +Harry, fuming at these postured sentences, burst out: + +'What do you talk to the fellow in that way for? A fellow who makes a +fool of my cousin, and then wants to get us to buy off my sister! What's +he spying after here? The place is ours till we troop. I tell you +there's only one way of dealing with him, and if you don't do it, I +will.' + +Laxley pulled his reins with a jerk that brought him to the rear. + +'Miss Jocelyn has commissioned you to make this demand on me in her +name?' said Evan. + +'I make it in my own right,' returned--Laxley. 'I demand a prompt +reply.' + +'My lord, you shall have it. Miss Jocelyn is not bound to me by any +engagement. Should she entertain scruples which I may have it in my +power to obliterate, I shall not hesitate to do so--but only to her. +What has passed between us I hold sacred.' + +'Hark at that!' shouted Harry. 'The damned tradesman means money! You +ass, Ferdinand! What did we go to Lymport for? Not to bandy words. +Here! I've got my own quarrel with you, Harrington. You've been setting +that girl's father on me. Can you deny that?' + +It was enough for Harry that Evan did not deny it. The calm disdain +which he read on Evan's face acted on his fury, and digging his heels +into his horse's flanks he rushed full at him and dealt him a sharp flick +with his whip. Evan's beast reared. + +'Accept my conditions, sir, or afford me satisfaction,' cried Laxley. + +'You do me great honour, my lord; but I have told you I cannot,' said +Evan, curbing his horse. + +At that moment Rose came among them. Evan raised his hat, as did Laxley. +Harry, a little behind the others, performed a laborious mock salute, and +then ordered her back to the house. A quick altercation ensued; the end +being that Harry managed to give his sister the context of the previous +conversation. + +'Now go back, Rose,' said Laxley. 'I have particular business with Mr. +Harrington.' + +'I came to see him,' said Rose, in a clear voice. + +Laxley reddened angrily. + +'Then tell him at once you want to be rid of him,' her brother called to +her. + +Rose looked at Evan. Could he not see that she had no word in her soul +for him of that kind? Yes: but love is not always to be touched to +tenderness even at the sight of love. + +'Rose,' he said, 'I hear from Lord Laxley, that you fancy yourself not at +liberty; and that you require me to disengage you.' + +He paused. Did he expect her to say there that she wished nothing of the +sort? Her stedfast eyes spoke as much: but misery is wanton, and will +pull all down to it. Even Harry was checked by his tone, and Laxley sat +silent. The fact that something more than a tailor was speaking seemed +to impress them. + +'Since I have to say it, Rose, I hold you in no way bound to me. The +presumption is forced upon me. May you have all the happiness I pray God +to give you. + +Gentlemen, good night!' + +He bowed and was gone. How keenly she could have retorted on that false +prayer for her happiness! Her limbs were nerveless, her tongue +speechless. He had thrown her off--there was no barrier now between +herself and Ferdinand. Why did Ferdinand speak to her with that air of +gentle authority, bidding her return to the house? She was incapable of +seeing, what the young lord acutely felt, that he had stooped very much +in helping to bring about such a scene. She had no idea of having +trifled with him and her own heart, when she talked feebly of her bondage +to another, as one who would be warmer to him were she free. Swiftly she +compared the two that loved her, and shivered as if she had been tossed +to the embrace of a block of ice. + +'You are cold, Rose,' said Laxley, bending to lay his hand on her +shoulder. + +'Pray, never touch me,' she answered, and walked on hastily to the house. + +Entering it, she remembered that Evan had dwelt there. A sense of +desolation came over her. She turned to Ferdinand remorsefully, saying: +'Dear Ferdinand!' and allowed herself to be touched and taken close to +him. When she reached her bed-room, she had time to reflect that he had +kissed her on the lips, and then she fell down and shed such tears as had +never been drawn from her before. + +Next day she rose with an undivided mind. Belonging henceforth to +Ferdinand, it was necessary that she should invest him immediately with +transcendent qualities. The absence of character in him rendered this +easy. What she had done for Evan, she did for him. But now, as if the +Fates had been lying in watch to entrap her and chain her, that they +might have her at their mercy, her dreams of Evan's high nature--hitherto +dreams only--were to be realized. With the purposeless waywardness of +her sex, Pony Wheedle, while dressing her young mistress, and though +quite aware that the parting had been spoken, must needs relate her +sister's story and Evan's share in it. Rose praised him like one forever +aloof from him. Nay, she could secretly congratulate herself on not +being deceived. Upon that came a letter from Caroline: + +'Do not misjudge my brother. He knew Juliana's love for him and rejected +it. You will soon have proofs of his disinterestedness. Then do not +forget that he works to support us all. I write this with no hope save +to make you just to him. That is the utmost he will ever anticipate.' + +It gave no beating of the heart to Rose to hear good of Evan now: but an +increased serenity of confidence in the accuracy of her judgement of +persons. + +The arrival of Lawyer Perkins supplied the key to Caroline's +communication. No one was less astonished than Rose at the news that +Evan renounced the estate. She smiled at Harry's contrite stupefaction, +and her father's incapacity of belief in conduct so singular, caused her +to lift her head and look down on her parent. + +'Shows he knows nothing of the world, poor young fellow!' said Sir +Franks. + +'Nothing more clearly,' observed Lady Jocelyn. 'I presume I shall cease +to be blamed for having had him here?' + +'Upon my honour, he must have the soul of a gentleman!' said the baronet. +'There's nothing he can expect in return, you know!' + +'One would think, Papa, you had always been dealing with tradesmen!' +remarked Rose, to whom her father now accorded the treatment due to a +sensible girl. + +Laxley was present at the family consultation. What was his opinion? +Rose manifested a slight anxiety to hear it. + +'What those sort of fellows do never surprises me,' he said, with a semi- +yawn. + +Rose felt fire on her cheeks. + +'It's only what the young man is bound to do,' said Mrs. Shorne. + +'His duty, aunt? I hope we may all do it!' Rose interjected. + +'Championing him again?' + +Rose quietly turned her face, too sure of her cold appreciation of him to +retort. But yesterday night a word from him might have made her his; and +here she sat advocating the nobility of his nature with the zeal of a +barrister in full swing of practice. Remember, however, that a kiss +separates them: and how many millions of leagues that counts for in love, +in a pure girl's thought, I leave you to guess. + +Now, in what way was Evan to be thanked? how was he to be treated? Sir +Franks proposed to go down to him in person, accompanied by Harry. Lady +Jocelyn acquiesced. But Rose said to her mother: + +'Will not you wound his sensitiveness by going to him there?' + +'Possibly,' said her ladyship. 'Shall we write and ask him to come to +us?' + +'No, Mama. Could we ask him to make a journey to receive our thanks?' + +'Not till we have solid ones to offer, perhaps.' + +'He will not let us help him, Mama, unless we have all given him our +hands.' + +'Probably not. There's always a fund of nonsense in those who are +capable of great things, I observe. It shall be a family expedition, if +you like.' + +'What!' exclaimed Mrs. Shorne. 'Do you mean that you intend to allow +Rose to make one of the party? Franks! is that your idea?' + +Sir Franks looked at his wife. + +'What harm?' Lady Jocelyn asked; for Rose's absence of conscious guile in +appealing to her reason had subjugated that great faculty. + +'Simply a sense of propriety, Emily,' said Mrs. Shorne, with a glance at +Ferdinand. + +'You have no objection, I suppose!' Lady Jocelyn addressed him. + +'Ferdinand will join us,' said Rose. + +'Thank you, Rose, I'd rather not,' he replied. 'I thought we had done +with the fellow for good last night.' + +'Last night?' quoth Lady Jocelyn. + +No one spoke. The interrogation was renewed. Was it Rose's swift +instinct which directed her the shortest way to gain her point? or that +she was glad to announce that her degrading engagement was at an end? +She said: + +'Ferdinand and Mr. Harrington came to an understanding last night, in my +presence.' + +That, strange as it struck on their ears, appeared to be quite sufficient +to all, albeit the necessity for it was not so very clear. The carriage +was ordered forthwith; Lady Jocelyn went to dress; Rose drew Ferdinand +away into the garden. Then, with all her powers, she entreated him to +join her. + +'Thank you, Rose,' he said; 'I have no taste for the genus.' + +'For my sake, I beg it, Ferdinand.' + +'It's really too much to ask of me, Rose.' + +'If you care for me, you will.' + +''Pon my honour, quite impossible!' + +'You refuse, Ferdinand?' + +'My London tailor 'd find me out, and never forgive me.' + +This pleasantry stopped her soft looks. Why she wished him to be with +her, she could not have said. For a thousand reasons: which implies no +distinct one something prophetically pressing in her blood. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +A LOVERS' PARTING + +Now, to suppose oneself the fashioner of such a chain of events as this +which brought the whole of the Harrington family in tender unity together +once more, would have elated an ordinary mind. But to the Countess de +Saldar, it was simply an occasion for reflecting that she had +misunderstood--and could most sincerely forgive--Providence. She +admitted to herself that it was not entirely her work; for she never +would have had their place of meeting to be the Shop. Seeing, however, +that her end was gained, she was entitled to the credit of it, and could +pardon the means adopted. Her brother lord of Beckley Court, and all of +them assembled in the old 193, Main Street, Lymport! What matter for +proud humility! Providence had answered her numerous petitions, but in +its own way. Stipulating that she must swallow this pill, Providence +consented to serve her. She swallowed it with her wonted courage. In +half an hour subsequent to her arrival at Lymport, she laid siege to the +heart of Old Tom Cogglesby, whom she found installed in the parlour, +comfortably sipping at a tumbler of rum-and-water. Old Tom was +astonished to meet such an agreeable unpretentious woman, who talked of +tailors and lords with equal ease, appeared to comprehend a man's habits +instinctively, and could amuse him while she ministered to them. + +'Can you cook, ma'am?' asked Old Tom. + +'All but that,' said the Countess, with a smile of sweet meaning. + +'Ha! then you won't suit me as well as your mother.' + +'Take care you do not excite my emulation,' she returned, graciously, +albeit disgusted at his tone. + +To Harriet, Old Tom had merely nodded. There he sat, in the arm-chair, +sucking the liquor, with the glimpse of a sour chuckle on his cheeks. +Now and then, during the evening, he rubbed his hands sharply, but spoke +little. The unbending Harriet did not conceal her disdain of him. When +he ventured to allude to the bankruptcy, she cut him short. + +'Pray, excuse me--I am unacquainted with affairs of business--I cannot +even understand my husband.' + +'Lord bless my soul!' Old Tom exclaimed, rolling his eyes. + +Caroline had informed her sisters up-stairs that their mother was +ignorant of Evan's change of fortune, and that Evan desired her to +continue so for the present. Caroline appeared to be pained by the +subject, and was glad when Louisa sounded his mysterious behaviour by +saying: + +'Evan has a native love of concealment--he must be humoured.' + +At the supper, Mr. Raikes made his bow. He was modest and reserved. It +was known that this young gentleman acted as shopman there. With a +tenderness for his position worthy of all respect, the Countess spared +his feelings by totally ignoring his presence; whereat he, unaccustomed +to such great-minded treatment, retired to bed, a hater of his kind. +Harriet and Caroline went next. The Countess said she would wait up for +Evan, but hearing that his hours of return were about the chimes of +matins, she cried exultingly: 'Darling Papa all over!' and departed +likewise. Mrs. Mel, when she had mixed Old Tom's third glass, wished the +brothers good night, and they were left to exchange what sentiments they +thought proper for the occasion. The Countess had certainly, +disappointed Old Tom's farce, in a measure; and he expressed himself +puzzled by her. 'You ain't the only one,' said his brother. Andrew, +with some effort, held his tongue concerning the news of Evan--his +fortune and his folly, till he could talk to the youth in person. + +All took their seats at the early breakfast next morning. + +'Has Evan not come--home yet?' was the Countess's first question. + +Mrs. Mel replied, 'No.' + +'Do you know where he has gone, dear Mama?' + +'He chooses his own way.' + +'And you fear that it leads somewhere?' added the Countess. + +'I fear that it leads to knocking up the horse he rides.' + +'The horse, Mama! He is out on a horse all night! But don't you see, +dear old pet! his morals, at least, are safe on horseback.' + +'The horse has to be paid for, Louisa,' said her mother, sternly; and +then, for she had a lesson to read to the guests of her son, 'Ready money +doesn't come by joking. What will the creditors think? If he intends to +be honest in earnest, he must give up four-feet mouths.' + +'Fourteen-feet, ma'am, you mean,' said Old Tom, counting the heads at +table. + +'Bravo, Mama!' cried the Countess, and as she was sitting near her +mother, she must show how prettily she kissed, by pouting out her playful +lips to her parent. 'Do be economical always! And mind! for the sake +of the wretched animals, I will intercede for you to be his inspector of +stables.' + +This, with a glance of intelligence at her sisters. + +'Well, Mr. Raikes,' said Andrew, 'you keep good hours, at all events-- +eh?' + +'Up with the lark,' said Old Tom. 'Ha! 'fraid he won't be so early when +he gets rid of his present habits--eh?' + +'Nec dierum numerum, ut nos, sed noctium computant,' said Mr. Raikes, and +both the brothers sniffed like dogs that have put their noses to a hot +coal, and the Countess, who was less insensible to the aristocracy of the +dead languages than are women generally, gave him the recognition that is +occasionally afforded the family tutor. + +About the hour of ten Evan arrived. He was subjected to the hottest +embrace he had ever yet received from his sister Louisa. + +'Darling!' she called him before them all. 'Oh! how I suffer for this +ignominy I see you compelled for a moment to endure. But it is but for a +moment. They must vacate; and you will soon be out of this horrid hole.' + +'Where he just said he was glad to give us a welcome,' muttered Old Tom. + +Evan heard him, and laughed. The Countess laughed too. + +'No, we will not be impatient. We are poor insignificant people!' she +said; and turning to her mother, added: 'And yet I doubt not you think +the smallest of our landed gentry equal to great continental seigneurs. +I do not say the contrary.' + +'You will fill Evan's head with nonsense till you make him knock up a +horse a week, and never go to his natural bed,' said Mrs. Mel, angrily. +'Look at him! Is a face like that fit for business?' + +'Certainly, certainly not!' said the Countess. + +'Well, Mother, the horse is dismissed,--you won't have to complain any +more,' said Evan, touching her hand. 'Another history commences from +to-day.' + +The Countess watched him admiringly. Such powers of acting she could not +have ascribed to him. + +'Another history, indeed!' she said. 'By the way, Van, love! was it out +of Glamorganshire--were we Tudors, according to Papa? or only Powys +chieftains? It's of no moment, but it helps one in conversation.' + +'Not half so much as good ale, though!' was Old Tom's comment. + +The Countess did not perceive its fitness, till Evan burst into a laugh, +and then she said: + +'Oh! we shall never be ashamed of the Brewery. Do not fear that, Mr. +Cogglesby.' + +Old Tom saw his farce reviving, and encouraged the Countess to patronize +him. She did so to an extent that called on her Mrs. Mel's reprobation, +which was so cutting and pertinent, that Harriet was compelled to defend +her sister, remarking that perhaps her mother would soon learn that +Louisa was justified in not permitting herself and family to be classed +too low. At this Andrew, coming from a private interview with Evan, +threw up his hands and eyes as one who foretold astonishment but +counselled humility. What with the effort of those who knew a little to +imply a great deal; of those who knew all to betray nothing; and of those +who were kept in ignorance to strain a fact out of the conflicting +innuendos the general mystification waxed apace, and was at its height, +when a name struck on Evan's ear that went through his blood like a touch +of the torpedo. + +He had been called into the parlour to assist at a consultation over the +Brewery affairs. Raikes opened the door, and announced, 'Sir Franks and +Lady Jocelyn.' + +Them he could meet, though it was hard for his pride to pardon their +visit to him there. But when his eyes discerned Rose behind them, the +passions of his lower nature stood up armed. What could she have come +for but to humiliate, or play with him? + +A very few words enabled the Countess to guess the cause for this visit. +Of course, it was to beg time! But they thanked Evan. For something +generous, no doubt. + +Sir Franks took him aside, and returning remarked to his wife that she +perhaps would have greater influence with him. All this while Rose sat +talking to Mrs. Andrew Cogglesby, Mrs. Strike, and Evan's mother. She +saw by his face the offence she had committed, and acted on by one of her +impulses, said: 'Mama, I think if I were to speak to Mr. Harrington--' + +Ere her mother could make light of the suggestion, Old Tom had jumped up, +and bowed out his arm. + +'Allow me to conduct ye to the drawing room, upstairs, young lady. He'll +follow, safe enough!' + +Rose had not stipulated for that. Nevertheless, seeing no cloud on her +mother's face, or her father's, she gave Old Tom her hand, and awaited a +movement from Evan. It was too late to object to it on either side. Old +Tom had caught the tide at the right instant. Much as if a grim old +genie had planted them together, the lovers found themselves alone. + +'Evan, you forgive me?' she began, looking up at him timidly. + +'With all my heart, Rose,' he answered, with great cheerfulness. + +'No. I know your heart better. Oh, Evan! you must be sure that we +respect you too much to wound you. We came to thank you for your +generosity. Do you refuse to accept anything from us? How can we take +this that you thrust on us, unless in some way--' + +'Say no more,' he interposed. 'You see me here. You know me as I am, +now.' + +'Yes, yes!' the tears stood in her eyes. 'Why did I come, you would ask? +That is what you cannot forgive! I see now how useless it was. Evan! +why did you betray me?' + +'Betray you, Rose?' + +'You said that you loved me once.' + +She was weeping, and all his spirit melted, and his love cried out: 'I +said "till death," and till death it will be, Rose.' + +'Then why, why did you betray me, Evan? I know it all. But if you +blackened yourself to me, was it not because you loved something better +than me? And now you think me false! Which of us two has been false? +It 's silly to talk of these things now too late! But be just. I wish +that we may be friends. Can we, unless you bend a little?' + +The tears streamed down her cheeks, and in her lovely humility he saw the +baseness of that pride of his which had hitherto held him up. + +'Now that you are in this house where I was born and am to live, can you +regret what has come between us, Rose?' + +Her lips quivered in pain. + +'Can I do anything else but regret it all my life, Evan?' + +How was it possible for him to keep his strength? + +'Rose!' he spoke with a passion that made her shrink, 'are you bound to +this man?' and to the drooping of her eyes, 'No. Impossible, for you do +not love him. Break it. Break the engagement you cannot fulfil. Break +it and belong to me. It sounds ill for me to say that in such a place. +But Rose, I will leave it. I will accept any assistance that your +father--that any man will give me. Beloved--noble girl! I see my +falseness to you, though I little thought it at the time--fool that I +was! Be my help, my guide-as the soul of my body! Be mine!' + +'Oh, Evan!' she clasped her hands in terror at the change in him, that +was hurrying her she knew not whither, and trembling, held them +supplicatingly. + +'Yes, Rose: you have taught me what love can be. You cannot marry that +man.' + +'But, my honour, Evan! No. I do not love him; for I can love but one. +He has my pledge. Can I break it?' + +The stress on the question choked him, just as his heart sprang to her. + +'Can you face the world with me, Rose?' + +'Oh, Evan! is there an escape for me? Think Decide!--No--no! there is +not. My mother, I know, looks on it so. Why did she trust me to be with +you here, but that she thinks me engaged to him, and has such faith in +me? Oh, help me!--be my guide. Think whether you would trust me +hereafter! I should despise myself.' + +Not if you marry him!' said Evan, bitterly. And then thinking as men +will think when they look on the figure of a fair girl marching serenely +to a sacrifice, the horrors of which they insist that she ought to know: +half-hating her for her calmness--adoring her for her innocence: he said: +'It rests with you, Rose. The world will approve you, and if your +conscience does, why--farewell, and may heaven be your help.' + +She murmured, 'Farewell.' + +Did she expect more to be said by him? What did she want or hope for +now? And yet a light of hunger grew in her eyes, brighter and brighter, +as it were on a wave of yearning. + +'Take my hand once,' she faltered. + +Her hand and her whole shape he took, and she with closed eyes let him +strain her to his breast. + +Their swoon was broken by the opening of the door, where Old Tom +Cogglesby and Lady Jocelyn appeared. + +'Gad! he seems to have got his recompense--eh, my lady?' cried Old Tom. +However satisfactorily they might have explained the case, it certainly +did seem so. + +Lady Jocelyn looked not absolutely displeased. Old Tom was chuckling at +her elbow. The two principal actors remained dumb. + +'I suppose, if we leave young people to settle a thing, this is how they +do it,' her ladyship remarked. + +'Gad, and they do it well!' cried Old Tom. + +Rose, with a deep blush on her cheeks, stepped from Evan to her mother. +Not in effrontery, but earnestly, and as the only way of escaping from +the position, she said: 'I have succeeded, Mama. He will take what I +offer.' + +'And what's that, now?' Old Tom inquired. + +Rose turned to Evan. He bent and kissed her hand. + +'Call it "recompense" for the nonce,' said Lady Jocelyn. 'Do you still +hold to your original proposition, Tom?' + +'Every penny, my lady. I like the young fellow, and she's a jolly little +lass--if she means it:--she's a woman.' + +'True,' said Lady Jocelyn. 'Considering that fact, you will oblige me by +keeping the matter quiet.' + +'Does she want to try whether the tailor's a gentleman still, my lady- +eh?' + +'No. I fancy she will have to see whether a certain nobleman may be +one.' + +The Countess now joined them. Sir Franks had informed her of her +brother's last fine performance. After a short, uneasy pause, she said, +glancing at Evan:-- + +'You know his romantic nature. I can assure you he was sincere; and even +if you could not accept, at least--' + +'But we have accepted, Countess,' said Rose. + +'The estate!' + +'The estate, Countess. And what is more, to increase the effect of his +generosity, he has consented to take a recompense.' + +'Indeed!' exclaimed the Countess, directing a stony look at her brother. + +'May I presume to ask what recompense?' + +Rose shook her head. 'Such a very poor one, Countess! He has no idea of +relative value.' + +The Countess's great mind was just then running hot on estates, and +thousands, or she would not have played goose to them, you may be sure. +She believed that Evan had been wheedled by Rose into the acceptance of a +small sum of money, in return for his egregious gift. + +With an internal groan, the outward aspect of which she had vast +difficulty in masking, she said: 'You are right--he has no head. Easily +cajoled!' + +Old Tom sat down in a chair, and laughed outright. Lady Jocelyn, in pity +for the poor lady, who always amused her, thought it time to put an end +to the scene. + +'I hope your brother will come to us in about a week,' she said. 'May I +expect the favour of your company as well?' + +The Countess felt her dignity to be far superior as she responded: +'Lady Jocelyn, when next I enjoy the gratification of a visit to your +hospitable mansion, I must know that I am not at a disadvantage. +I cannot consent to be twice pulled down to my brother's level.' + +Evan's heart was too full of its dim young happiness to speak, or care +for words. The cold elegance of the Countess's curtsey to Lady Jocelyn: +her ladyship's kindly pressure of his hand: Rose's stedfast look into his +eyes: Old Tom's smothered exclamation that he was not such a fool as he +seemed: all passed dream-like, and when he was left to the fury of the +Countess, he did not ask her to spare him, nor did he defend himself. +She bade adieu to him and their mutual relationship that very day. But +her star had not forsaken her yet. Chancing to peep into the shop, to +intrust a commission to Mr. John Raikes, who was there doing penance for +his career as a gentleman, she heard Old Tom and Andrew laughing, utterly +unlike bankrupts. + +'Who 'd have thought the women such fools! and the Countess, too!' + +This was Andrew's voice. He chuckled as one emancipated. The Countess +had a short interview with him (before she took her departure to join her +husband, under the roof of the Honourable Herbert Duffian), and Andrew +chuckled no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +A YEAR LATER, THE COUNTESS DE SALDAR DE SANCORVO TO HER SISTER CAROLINE + + 'Rome. +'Let the post-mark be my reply to your letter received through the +Consulate, and most courteously delivered with the Consul's compliments. +We shall yet have an ambassador at Rome--mark your Louisa's words. Yes, +dearest! I am here, body and spirit! I have at last found a haven, a +refuge, and let those who condemn me compare the peace of their spirits +with mine. You think that you have quite conquered the dreadfulness of +our origin. My love, I smile at you! I know it to be impossible for the +Protestant heresy to offer a shade of consolation. Earthly-born, it +rather encourages earthly distinctions. It is the sweet sovereign +Pontiff alone who gathers all in his arms, not excepting tailors. Here, +if they could know it, is their blessed comfort! + +'Thank Harriet for her message. She need say nothing. By refusing me +her hospitality, when she must have known that the house was as free of +creditors as any foreigner under the rank of Count is of soap, she drove +me to Mr. Duflian. Oh! how I rejoice at her exceeding unkindness! How +warmly I forgive her the unsisterly--to say the least--vindictiveness of +her unaccountable conduct! Her sufferings will one day be terrible. +Good little Andrew supplies her place to me. Why do you refuse his +easily afforded bounty? No one need know of it. I tell you candidly, I +take double, and the small good punch of a body is only too delighted. +But then, I can be discreet. + +'Oh! the gentlemanliness of these infinitely maligned Jesuits! They +remind me immensely of Sir Charles Grandison, and those frontispiece +pictures to the novels we read when girls--I mean in manners and the +ideas they impose--not in dress or length of leg, of course. The same +winning softness; the same irresistible ascendancy over the female mind! +They require virtue for two, I assure you, and so I told Silva, who +laughed. + +'But the charms of confession, my dear! I will talk of Evan first. +I have totally forgiven him. Attache to the Naples embassy, sounds tol- +lol. In such a position I can rejoice to see him, for it permits me to +acknowledge him. I am not sure that, spiritually, Rose will be his most +fitting helpmate. However, it is done, and I did it, and there is no +more to be said. The behaviour of Lord Laxley in refusing to surrender +a young lady who declared that her heart was with another, exceeds all I +could have supposed. One of the noble peers among his ancestors must +have been a pig! Oh! the Roman nobility! Grace, refinement, intrigue, +perfect comprehension of your ideas, wishes--the meanest trifles! Here +you have every worldly charm, and all crowned by Religion! This is my +true delight. I feel at last that whatsoever I do, I cannot go far wrong +while I am within hail of my gentle priest. I never could feel so +before. + +'The idea of Mr. Parsley proposing for the beautiful widow Strike! It +was indecent to do so so soon--widowed under such circumstances! But I +dare say he was as disinterested as a Protestant curate ever can be. +Beauty is a good dowry to bring a poor, lean, worldly curate of your +Church, and he knows that. Your bishops and arches are quite susceptible +to beautiful petitioners, and we know here how your livings and benefices +are dispensed. What do you intend to do? Come to me; come to the bosom +of the old and the only true Church, and I engage to marry you to a Roman +prince the very next morning or two. That is, if you have no ideas about +prosecuting a certain enterprise which I should not abandon. In that +case, stay. As Duchess of B., Mr. Duffian says you would be cordially +welcome to his Holiness, who may see women. That absurd report is all +nonsense. We do not kiss his toe, certainly, but we have privileges +equally enviable. Herbert is all charm. I confess he is a little +wearisome with his old ruins, and his Dante, the poet. He is quite of my +opinion, that Evan will never wash out the trade stain on him until he +comes over to the Church of Rome. I adjure you, Caroline, to lay this +clearly before our dear brother. In fact, while he continues a +Protestant, to me he is a tailor. But here Rose is the impediment. +I know her to be just one of those little dogged minds that are incapable +of receiving new impressions. Was it not evident in the way she stuck to +Evan after I had once brought them together? I am not at all astonished +that Mr. Raikes should have married her maid. It is a case of natural +selection. But it is amusing to think of him carrying on the old +business in 193, and with credit! I suppose his parents are to be +pitied; but what better is the creature fit for? Mama displeases me in +consenting to act as housekeeper to old Grumpus. I do not object to the +fact, for it is prospective; but she should have insisted on another +place of resort than Fallow field. I do not agree with you in thinking +her right in refusing a second marriage. Her age does not shelter her +from scandal in your Protestant communities. + +'I am every day expecting Harry Jocelyn to turn up. + +He was rightly sent away, for to think of the folly Evan put into his +empty head! No; he shall have another wife, and Protestantism shall be +his forsaken mistress! + +'See how your Louy has given up the world and its vanities! You expected +me to creep up to you contrite and whimpering? On the contrary, I never +felt prouder. And I am not going to live a lazy life, I can assure you. +The Church hath need of me! If only for the peace it hath given me on +one point, I am eternally bound to serve it. + +'Postscript: I am persuaded of this; that it is utterly impossible for a +man to be a true gentleman who is not of the true Church. What it is I +cannot say; but it is as a convert that I appreciate my husband. Love is +made to me, dear, for Catholics are human. The other day it was a +question whether a lady or a gentleman should be compromised. It +required the grossest fib. The gentleman did not hesitate. And why? +His priest was handy. Fancy Lord Laxley in such a case. I shudder. +This shows that your religion precludes any possibility of the being the +real gentleman, and whatever Evan may think of himself, or Rose think of +him, I KNOW THE THING.' + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A man to be trusted with the keys of anything +Because you loved something better than me +Bitten hard at experience, and know the value of a tooth +From head to foot nothing better than a moan made visible +Glimpse of her whole life in the horrid tomb of his embrace +Gratuitous insult +How many degrees from love gratitude may be +In truth she sighed to feel as he did, above everybody +It 's us hard ones that get on best in the world +It is better for us both, of course +Never intended that we should play with flesh and blood +She was unworthy to be the wife of a tailor +Sincere as far as she knew: as far as one who loves may be +Small beginnings, which are in reality the mighty barriers +Spiritualism, and on the balm that it was +We deprive all renegades of their spiritual titles + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Evan Harrington, v7 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4433.zip b/4433.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..be9ca96 --- /dev/null +++ b/4433.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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