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diff --git a/4491-0.txt b/4491-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..66c3ca8 --- /dev/null +++ b/4491-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7535 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Celt and Saxon, Complete, by George Meredith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Celt and Saxon, Complete + +Author: George Meredith + +Release Date: October 13, 2006 [EBook #4491] +Last Updated: February 26, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELT AND SAXON, COMPLETE *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +CELT AND SAXON + + +By George Meredith + + +1910. + + + + +CONTENTS + + BOOK 1. + I. WHEREIN AN EXCURSION IS MADE IN A CELTIC MIND + II. MR. ADISTER + III. CAROLINE + IV. THE PRINCESS + V. AT THE PIANOS CHIEFLY WITHOUT MUSIC + VI. A CONSULTATION: WITH OPINIONS UPON WELSH WOMEN AND THE CAMBRIAN + RACE + VII. THE MINIATURE + VIII. CAPTAIN CON AND MRS. ADISTER O'DONNELL + IX. THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN + X. THE BROTHERS + XI. INTRODUCING A NEW CHARACTER + + BOOK 2. + XII. MISS MATTOCK + XIII. THE DINNER-PARTY + XIV. OF ROCKNEY + XV. THE MATTOCK FAMILY + XVI. OF THE GREAT MR. BULL AND THE CELTIC AND SAXON VIEW OF HIM: + AND SOMETHING OF RICHARD ROCKNEY + XVII. CROSSING THE RUBICON + XVIII. CAPTAIN CON'S LETTER + XIX. MARS CONVALESCENT + + + + +CHAPTER I. WHEREIN AN EXCURSION IS MADE IN A CELTIC MIND + +A young Irish gentleman of the numerous clan O'Donnells, and a Patrick, +hardly a distinction of him until we know him, had bound himself, by +purchase of a railway-ticket, to travel direct to the borders of North +Wales, on a visit to a notable landowner of those marches, the Squire +Adister, whose family-seat was where the hills begin to lift and spy +into the heart of black mountains. Examining his ticket with an apparent +curiosity, the son of a greener island debated whether it would not be +better for him to follow his inclinations, now that he had gone so far +as to pay for the journey, and stay. But his inclinations were also +subject to question, upon his considering that he had expended pounds +English for the privilege of making the journey in this very train. He +asked himself earnestly what was the nature of the power which forced +him to do it--a bad genius or a good: and it seemed to him a sort of +answer, inasmuch as it silenced the contending parties, that he had been +the victim of an impetus. True; still his present position involved a +certain outlay of money simply, not at all his bondage to the instrument +it had procured for him, and that was true; nevertheless, to buy a +ticket to shy it away is an incident so uncommon, that if we can but +pause to dwell on the singularity of the act, we are unlikely to abjure +our fellowship with them who would not be guilty of it; and therefore, +by the aid of his reflections and a remainder of the impetus, Mr. +Patrick O'Donnell stepped into a carriage of the train like any +ordinary English traveller, between whom and his destination there is an +agreement to meet if they can. + +It is an experience of hesitating minds, be they Saxon or others, that +when we have submitted our persons to the charge of public companies, +immediately, as if the renouncing of our independence into their +hands had given us a taste of a will of our own, we are eager for the +performance of their contract to do what we are only half inclined to; +the train cannot go fast enough to please us, though we could excuse +it for breaking down; stoppages at stations are impertinences, and the +delivery of us at last on the platform is an astonishment, for it is not +we who have done it--we have not even desired it. To be imperfectly in +accord with the velocity precipitating us upon a certain point, is to +be going without our heads, which have so much the habit of supposing +it must be whither we intend, when we go in a determined manner, that +a doubt of it distracts the understanding--decapitates us; suddenly +to alight, moreover, and find ourselves dropped at the heels of flying +Time, like an unconsidered bundle, is anything but a reconstruction of +the edifice. The natural revelry of the blood in speed suffers a violent +shock, not to speak of our notion of being left behind, quite isolated +and unsound. Or, if you insist, the condition shall be said to belong +exclusively to Celtic nature, seeing that it had been drawn directly +from a scion of one of those tribes. + +Young Patrick jumped from the train as headless as good St. Denis. He +was a juvenile thinker, and to discover himself here, where he both +wished and wished not to be, now deeming the negative sternly in the +ascendant, flicked his imagination with awe of the influence of the +railway service upon the destinies of man. Settling a mental debate +about a backward flight, he drove across the land so foreign to his eyes +and affections, and breasted a strong tide of wishes that it were in a +contrary direction. He would rather have looked upon the desert under +a sand-storm, or upon a London suburb yet he looked thirstingly. Each +variation of landscape of the curved highway offered him in a moment +decisive features: he fitted them to a story he knew: the whole circle +was animated by a couple of pale mounted figures beneath no happy light. +For this was the air once breathed by Adiante Adister, his elder brother +Philip's love and lost love: here she had been to Philip flame along +the hill-ridges, his rose-world in the dust-world, the saintly in his +earthly. And how had she rewarded him for that reverential love of her? +She had forborne to kill him. The bitter sylph of the mountain lures men +to climb till she winds them in vapour and leaves them groping, innocent +of the red crags below. The delicate thing had not picked his bones: +Patrick admitted it; he had seen his brother hale and stout not long +back. But oh! she was merciless, she was a witch. If ever queen-witch +was, she was the crowned one! + +For a personal proof, now: he had her all round him in a strange +district though he had never cast eye on her. Yonder bare hill she came +racing up with a plume in the wind: she was over the long brown moor, +look where he would: and vividly was she beside the hurrying beck where +it made edges and chattered white. He had not seen, he could not imagine +her face: angelic dashed with demon beauty, was his idea of the woman, +and there is little of a portrait in that; but he was of a world where +the elemental is more individual than the concrete, and unconceived +of sight she was a recognised presence for the green-island brain of a +youth whose manner of hating was to conjure her spirit from the air and +let fly his own in pursuit of her. + +It has to be stated that the object of the youngster's expedition to +Earlsfont was perfectly simple in his mind, however much it went against +his nature to perform it. He came for the purpose of obtaining Miss +Adister's Continental address; to gather what he could of her from her +relatives, and then forthwith to proceed in search of her, that he might +plead with her on behalf of his brother Philip, after a four years' +division of the lovers. Could anything be simpler? He had familiarised +himself with the thought of his advocacy during those four years. His +reluctance to come would have been accountable to the Adisters by a +sentiment of shame at his family's dealings with theirs: in fact, a +military captain of the O'Donnells had in old days played the adventurer +and charmed a maid of a certain age into yielding her hand to him; and +the lady was the squire of Earlsfont's only sister: she possessed funded +property. Shortly after the union, as one that has achieved the goal +of enterprise, the gallant officer retired from the service nor did +north-western England put much to his credit the declaration of his +wife's pronouncing him to be the best of husbands. She naturally said it +of him in eulogy; his own relatives accepted it in some contempt, mixed +with a relish of his hospitality: his wife's were constant in citing his +gain by the marriage. Could he possibly have been less than that? they +exclaimed. An excellent husband, who might easily have been less than +that, he was the most devoted of cousins, and the liberal expenditure of +his native eloquence for the furtherance of Philip's love-suit was the +principal cause of the misfortune, if misfortune it could subsequently +be called to lose an Adiante. + +The Adister family were not gifted to read into the heart of a young man +of a fanciful turn. Patrick had not a thought of shame devolving on him +from a kinsman that had shot at a mark and hit it. Who sees the shame +of taking an apple from a garden of the Hesperides? And as England +cultivates those golden, if sometimes wrinkled, fruits, it would have +seemed to him, in thinking about it, an entirely lucky thing for the +finder; while a question of blood would have fired his veins to rival +heat of self-assertion, very loftily towering: there were Kings in +Ireland: cry for one of them in Uladh and you will hear his name, and +he has descendants yet! But the youth was not disposed unnecessarily +to blazon his princeliness. He kept it in modest reserve, as common +gentlemen keep their physical strength. His reluctance to look on +Earlsfont sprang from the same source as unacknowledged craving to see +the place, which had precipitated him thus far upon his road: he had a +horror of scenes where a faithless girl had betrayed her lover. Love was +his visionary temple, and his idea of love was the solitary light in +it, painfully susceptible to coldair currents from the stories of love +abroad over the world. Faithlessness he conceived to be obnoxious to +nature; it stained the earth and was excommunicated; there could be no +pardon of the crime, barely any for repentance. He conceived it in the +feminine; for men are not those holy creatures whose conduct strikes on +the soul with direct edge: a faithless man is but a general villain or +funny monster, a subject rejected of poets, taking no hue in the flat +chronicle of history: but a faithless woman, how shall we speak of her! +Women, sacredly endowed with beauty and the wonderful vibrating note +about the very mention of them, are criminal to hideousness when they +betray. Cry, False! on them, and there is an instant echo of bleeding +males in many circles, like the poor quavering flute-howl of transformed +beasts, which at some remembering touch bewail their higher state. Those +women are sovereignly attractive, too, loathsomely. Therein you may +detect the fiend. + +Our moralist had for some time been glancing at a broad, handsome +old country mansion on the top of a wooded hill backed by a swarm of +mountain heads all purple-dark under clouds flying thick to shallow, +as from a brush of sepia. The dim silver of half-lighted lakewater shot +along below the terrace. He knew the kind of sky, having oftener seen +that than any other, and he knew the house before it was named to him +and he had flung a discolouring thought across it. He contemplated it +placably and studiously, perhaps because the shower-folding armies of +the fields above likened its shadowed stillness to that of his Irish +home. There had this woman lived! At the name of Earlsfont she became +this witch, snake, deception. Earlsfont was the title and summary of her +black story: the reverberation of the word shook up all the chapters to +pour out their poison. + + + + +CHAPTER II. MR. ADISTER + +Mr. Patrick O'Donnell drove up to the gates of Earlsfont notwithstanding +these emotions, upon which light matter it is the habit of men of his +blood too much to brood; though it is for our better future to have a +capacity for them, and the insensible race is the oxenish. + +But if he did so when alone, the second man residing in the Celt put +that fellow by and at once assumed the social character on his being +requested to follow his card into Mr. Adister's library. He took his +impression of the hall that had heard her voice, the stairs she had +descended, the door she had passed through, and the globes she had +perchance laid hand on, and the old mappemonde, and the severely-shining +orderly regiment of books breathing of her whether she had opened them +or not, as he bowed to his host, and in reply to, 'So, sir! I am glad +to see you,' said swimmingly that Earlsfont was the first house he had +visited in this country: and the scenery reminded him of his part of +Ireland: and on landing at Holyhead he had gone off straight to the +metropolis by appointment to meet his brother Philip, just returned +from Canada a full captain, who heartily despatched his compliments and +respects, and hoped to hear of perfect health in this quarter of the +world. And Captain Con the same, and he was very flourishing. + +Patrick's opening speech concluded on the sound of a short laugh coming +from Mr. Adister. + +It struck the young Irishman's ear as injurious and scornful in relation +to Captain Con; but the remark ensuing calmed him: + +'He has no children.' + +'No, sir; Captain Con wasn't born to increase the number of our clan,' +Patrick rejoined; and thought: By heaven! I get a likeness of her out +of you, with a dash of the mother mayhap somewhere. This was his +Puck-manner of pulling a girdle round about from what was foremost in +his head to the secret of his host's quiet observation; for, guessing +that such features as he beheld would be slumped on a handsome family, +he was led by the splendid severity of their lines to perceive an +illimitable pride in the man likely to punish him in his offspring, who +would inherit that as well; so, as is the way with the livelier races, +whether they seize first or second the matter or the spirit of what +they hear, the vivid indulgence of his own ideas helped him to catch +the right meaning by the tail, and he was enlightened upon a domestic +unhappiness, although Mr. Adister had not spoken miserably. The 'dash of +the mother' was thrown in to make Adiante, softer, and leave a loophole +for her relenting. + +The master of Earlsfont stood for a promise of beauty in his issue, +requiring to be softened at the mouth and along the brows, even in men. +He was tall, and had clear Greek outlines: the lips were locked metal, +thin as edges of steel, and his eyes, when he directed them on the +person he addressed or the person speaking, were as little varied by +motion of the lids as eyeballs of a stone bust. If they expressed more, +because they were not sculptured eyes, it was the expression of his +high and frigid nature rather than any of the diversities pertaining to +sentiment and shades of meaning. + +'You have had the bequest of an estate,' Mr. Adister said, to compliment +him by touching on his affairs. + +'A small one; not a quarter of a county,' said Patrick. + +'Productive, sir?' + +''Tis a tramp of discovery, sir, to where bog ends and cultivation +begins.' + +'Bequeathed to you exclusively over the head of your elder brother, I +understand.' + +Patrick nodded assent. 'But my purse is Philip's, and my house, and my +horses.' + +'Not bequeathed by a member of your family?' + +'By a distant cousin, chancing to have been one of my godmothers.' + +'Women do these things,' Mr. Adister said, not in perfect approbation of +their doings. + +'And I think too, it might have gone to the elder,' Patrick replied to +his tone. + +'It is not your intention to be an idle gentleman?' + +'No, nor a vagrant Irishman, sir.' + +'You propose to sit down over there?' + +'When I've more brains to be of service to them and the land, I do.' + +Mr. Adister pulled the arm of his chair. 'The professions are crammed. +An Irish gentleman owning land might do worse. I am in favour of some +degree of military training for all gentlemen. You hunt?' + +Patrick's look was, 'Give me a chance'; and Mr. Adister continued: 'Good +runs are to be had here; you shall try them. You are something of a +shot, I suppose. We hear of gentlemen now who neither hunt nor shoot. +You fence?' + +'That's to say, I've had lessons in the art.' + +'I am not aware that there is now an art of fencing taught in Ireland.' + +'Nor am I,' said Patrick; 'though there's no knowing what goes on in the +cabins.' + +Mr. Adister appeared to acquiesce. Observations of sly import went by +him like the whispering wind. + +'Your priests should know,' he said. + +To this Patrick thought it well not to reply. After a pause between +them, he referred to the fencing. + +'I was taught by a Parisian master of the art, sir.' + +'You have been to Paris?' + +'I was educated in Paris.' + +'How? Ah!' Mr. Adister corrected himself in the higher notes of +recollection. 'I think I have heard something of a Jesuit seminary.' + +'The Fathers did me the service to knock all I know into me, and call it +education, by courtesy,' said Patrick, basking in the unobscured frown +of his host. + +'Then you are accustomed to speak French?' The interrogation was put to +extract some balm from the circumstance. + +Patrick tried his art of fence with the absurdity by saying: 'All but +like a native.' + +'These Jesuits taught you the use of the foils?' + +'They allowed me the privilege of learning, sir.' + +After meditation, Mr. Adister said: 'You don't dance?' He said it +speculating on the' kind of gentleman produced in Paris by the disciples +of Loyola. + +'Pardon me, sir, you hit on another of my accomplishments.' + +'These Jesuits encourage dancing?' + +'The square dance--short of the embracing: the valse is under +interdict.' + +Mr. Adister peered into his brows profoundly for a glimpse of the +devilry in that exclusion of the valse. + +What object had those people in encouraging the young fellow to be a +perfect fencer and dancer, so that he should be of the school of the +polite world, and yet subservient to them? + +'Thanks to the Jesuits, then, you are almost a Parisian,' he remarked; +provoking the retort: + +'Thanks to them, I've stored a little, and Paris is to me as pure a +place as four whitewashed walls:' Patrick added: 'without a shadow of a +monk on them.' Perhaps it was thrown in for the comfort of mundane ears +afflicted sorely, and no point of principle pertained to the slur on a +monk. + +Mr. Adister could have exclaimed, That shadow of the monk! had he been +in an exclamatory mood. He said: 'They have not made a monk of you, +then.' + +Patrick was minded to explain how that the Jesuits are a religious order +exercising worldly weapons. The lack of precise words admonished him of +the virtue of silence, and he retreated--with a quiet negative: 'They +have not.' + +'Then, you are no Jesuit?' he was asked. + +Thinking it scarcely required a response, he shrugged. + +'You would not change your religion, sir?' said Mr. Adister in seeming +anger. + +Patrick thought he would have to rise: he half fancied himself summoned +to change his religion or depart from the house. + +'Not I,' said he. + +'Not for the title of Prince?' he was further pressed, and he replied: + +'I don't happen to have an ambition for the title of Prince.' + +'Or any title!' interjected Mr. Adister, 'or whatever the devil can +offer!--or,' he spoke more pointedly, 'for what fools call a brilliant +marriage?' + +'My religion?' Patrick now treated the question seriously and raised his +head: 'I'd not suffer myself to be asked twice.' + +The sceptical northern-blue eyes of his host dwelt on him with their +full repellent stare. + +The young Catholic gentleman expected he might hear a frenetic zealot +roar out: Be off! + +He was not immediately reassured by the words 'Dead or alive, then, you +have a father!' + +The spectacle of a state of excitement without a show of feeling was +novel to Patrick. He began to see that he was not implicated in a wrath +that referred to some great offender, and Mr. Adister soon confirmed his +view by saying: 'You are no disgrace to your begetting, sir!' + +With that he quitted his chair, and hospitably proposed to conduct his +guest over the house and grounds. + + + + +CHAPTER III. CAROLINE + +Men of the Adister family having taken to themselves brides of a very +dusty pedigree from the Principality, there were curious rough +heirlooms to be seen about the house, shields on the armoury walls and +hunting-horns, and drinking-horns, and spears, and chain-belts bearing +clasps of heads of beasts; old gold ornaments, torques, blue-stone +necklaces, under glass-cases, were in the library; huge rings that must +have given the wearers fearful fists; a shirt of coarse linen with a +pale brown spot on the breast, like a fallen beech-leaf; and many sealed +parchment-skins, very precious, for an inspection of which, as Patrick +was bidden to understand, History humbly knocked at the Earlsfont +hall-doors; and the proud muse made her transcripts of them kneeling. +He would have been affected by these wonders had any relic of Adiante +appeased his thirst. Or had there been one mention of her, it would have +disengaged him from the incessant speculations regarding the daughter of +the house, of whom not a word was uttered. No portrait of her was shown. +Why was she absent from her home so long? where was she? How could her +name be started? And was it she who was the sinner in her father's +mind? But the idolatrous love between Adiante and her father was once +a legend: they could not have been cut asunder. She had offered up her +love of Philip as a sacrifice to it: Patrick recollected that, and now +with a softer gloom on his brooding he released her from the burden +of his grand charge of unfaithfulness to the truest of lovers, by +acknowledging that he was in the presence of the sole rival of his +brother. Glorious girl that she was, her betrayal of Philip had nothing +of a woman's base caprice to make it infamous: she had sacrificed him to +her reading of duty; and that was duty to her father; and the point of +duty was in this instance rather a sacred one. He heard voices murmur +that she might be praised. He remonstrated with them, assuring them, as +one who knew, that a woman's first duty is her duty to her lover; her +parents are her second thought. Her lover, in the consideration of a +real soul among the shifty creatures, is her husband; and have we not +the word of heaven directing her to submit herself to him who is her +husband before all others? That peerless Adiante had previously erred in +the upper sphere where she received her condemnation, but such a sphere +is ladder and ladder and silver ladder high above your hair-splitting +pates, you children of earth, and it is not for you to act on the +verdict in decrying her: rather 'tis for you to raise hymns of worship +to a saint. + +Thus did the ingenious Patrick change his ground and gain his argument +with the celerity of one who wins a game by playing it without an +adversary. Mr. Adister had sprung a new sense in him on the subject of +the renunciation of the religion. No thought of a possible apostasy had +ever occurred to the youth, and as he was aware that the difference +of their faith had been the main cause of the division of Adiante and +Philip, he could at least consent to think well of her down here, that +is, on our flat surface of earth. Up there, among the immortals, he was +compelled to shake his head at her still, and more than sadly in certain +moods of exaltation, reprovingly; though she interested him beyond all +her sisterhood above, it had to be confessed. + +They traversed a banqueting-hall hung with portraits, to two or three +of which the master of Earlsfont carelessly pointed, for his guest to +be interested in them or not as he might please. A reception-hall flung +folding-doors on a grand drawing-room, where the fires in the grates +went through the ceremony of warming nobody, and made a show of keeping +the house alive. A modern steel cuirass, helmet and plume at a corner of +the armoury reminded Mr. Adister to say that he had worn the uniform in +his day. He cast an odd look at the old shell containing him when he was +a brilliant youth. Patrick was marched on to Colonel Arthur's rooms, +and to Captain David's, the sailor. Their father talked of his two sons. +They appeared to satisfy him. If that was the case, they could hardly +have thrown off their religion. Already Patrick had a dread of naming +the daughter. An idea struck him that she might be the person who had +been guilty of it over there on the Continent. What if she had done it, +upon a review of her treatment of her lover, and gone into a convent to +wait for Philip to come and claim her?--saying, 'Philip, I've put the +knife to my father's love of me; love me double'; and so she just half +swoons, enough to show how the dear angel looks in her sleep: a trick +of kindness these heavenly women have, that we heathen may get a peep +of their secret rose-enfolded selves; and dream 's no word, nor drunken, +for the blessed mischief it works with us. + +Supposing it so, it accounted for everything: for her absence, and her +father's abstention from a mention of her, and the pretty good sort of +welcome Patrick had received; for as yet it was unknown that she did it +all for an O'Donnell. + +These being his reflections, he at once accepted a view of her that so +agreeably quieted his perplexity, and he leapt out of his tangle into +the happy open spaces where the romantic things of life are as natural +as the sun that rises and sets. There you imagine what you will; you +live what you imagine. An Adiante meets her lover another Adiante, the +phantom likeness of her, similar to the finger-tips, hovers to a meeting +with some one whose heart shakes your manful frame at but a thought of +it. But this other Adiante is altogether a secondary conception, barely +descried, and chased by you that she may interpret the mystical nature +of the happiness of those two, close-linked to eternity, in advance. You +would learn it, if she would expound it; you are ready to learn it, for +the sake of knowledge; and if you link yourself to her and do as those +two are doing, it is chiefly in a spirit of imitation, in sympathy with +the darting couple ahead.... + +Meanwhile he conversed, and seemed, to a gentleman unaware of the +vaporous activities of his brain, a young fellow of a certain practical +sense. + +'We have not much to teach you in: horseflesh,' Mr. Adister said, +quitting the stables to proceed to the gardens. + +'We must look alive to keep up our breed, sir,' said Patrick. 'We're +breeding too fine: and soon we shan't be able to horse our troopers. +I call that the land for horses where the cavalry's well-mounted on a +native breed.' + +'You have your brother's notions of cavalry, have you!' + +'I leave it to Philip to boast what cavalry can do on the field. He +knows: but he knows that troopers must be mounted: and we're fineing +more and more from bone: with the sales to foreigners! and the only +chance of their not beating us is that they'll be so good as follow our +bad example. Prussia's well horsed, and for the work it's intended to +do, the Austrian light cavalry's a model. So I'm told. I'll see for +myself. Then we sit our horses too heavy. The Saxon trooper runs +headlong to flesh. 'Tis the beer that fattens and swells him. Properly +to speak, we've no light cavalry. The French are studying it, and when +they take to studying, they come to the fore. I'll pay a visit to their +breeding establishments. We've no studying here, and not a scrap of +system that I see. All the country seems armed for bullying the facts, +till the periodical panic arrives, and then it 's for lying flat and +roaring--and we'll drop the curtain, if you please.' + +'You say we,' returned Mr. Adister. 'I hear you launched at us English +by the captain, your cousin, who has apparently yet to learn that we are +one people.' + +'We 're held together and a trifle intermixed; I fancy it's we with +him and with me when we're talking of army or navy,' said Patrick. +'But Captain Con's a bit of a politician: a poor business, when there's +nothing to be done.' + +'A very poor business!' Mr. Adister rejoined, + +'If you'd have the goodness to kindle his enthusiasm, he'd be for the +first person plural, with his cap in the air,' said Patrick. + +'I detest enthusiasm. + +'You're not obliged to adore it to give it a wakener. + +'Pray, what does that mean?' + +Patrick cast about to reply to the formal challenge for an explanation. + +He began on it as it surged up to him: 'Well, sir, the country that's +got hold of us, if we 're not to get loose. We don't count many millions +in Europe, and there's no shame in submitting to force majeure, if a +stand was once made; and we're mixed up, 'tis true, well or ill; and +we're stronger, both of us, united than tearing to strips: and so, +there, for the past! so long as we can set our eyes upon something to +admire, instead of a bundle squatting fat on a pile of possessions and +vowing she won't budge; and taking kicks from a big foot across the +Atlantic, and shaking bayonets out of her mob-cap for a little one's +cock of the eye at her: and she's all for the fleshpots, and calls the +rest of mankind fools because they're not the same: and so long as she +can trim her ribands and have her hot toast and tea, with a suspicion of +a dram in it, she doesn't mind how heavy she sits: nor that 's not the +point, nor 's the land question, nor the potato crop, if only she wore +the right sort of face to look at, with a bit of brightness about it, to +show an idea inside striking alight from the day that's not yet nodding +at us, as the tops of big mountains do: or if she were only braced +and gallant, and cried, Ready, though I haven't much outlook! We'd +be satisfied with her for a handsome figure. I don't know whether we +wouldn't be satisfied with her for politeness in her manners. We'd like +her better for a spice of devotion to alight higher up in politics and +religion. But the key of the difficulty's a sparkle of enthusiasm. It's +part business, and the greater part sentiment. We want a rousing in the +heart of us; or else we'd be pleased with her for sitting so as not +to overlap us entirely: we'd feel more at home, and behold her more +respectfully. We'd see the policy of an honourable union, and be joined +to you by more than a telegraphic cable. That's Captain Con, I think, +and many like him.' + +Patrick finished his airy sketch of the Irish case in a key signifying +that he might be one among the many, but unobtrusive. + +'Stick to horses!' observed Mr. Adister. + +It was pronounced as the termination to sheer maundering. + +Patrick talked on the uppermost topic for the remainder of their stroll. + +He noticed that his host occasionally allowed himself to say, 'You +Irish': and he reflected that the saying, 'You English,' had been hinted +as an offence. + +He forgot to think that he had possibly provoked this alienation in a +scornfully proud spirit. The language of metaphor was to Mr. Adister +fool's froth. He conceded the use of it to the Irish and the Welsh as +a right that stamped them for what they were by adopting it; and they +might look on a country as a 'she,' if it amused them: so long as they +were not recalcitrant, they were to be tolerated, they were a part of +us; doubtless the nether part, yet not the less a part for which we are +bound to exercise a specially considerate care, or else we suffer, +for we are sensitive there: this is justice but the indications by +fiddle-faddle verbiage of anything objectionable to the whole in the +part aroused an irritability that speedily endued him with the sense +of sanity opposing lunacy; when, not having a wide command of the +undecorated plain speech which enjoyed his approval, he withdrew into +the entrenchments of contempt. + +Patrick heard enough to let him understand why the lord of Earlsfont and +Captain Con were not on the best of terms. Once or twice he had a twinge +or suspicion of a sting from the tone of his host, though he was not +political and was of a mood to pity the poor gentleman's melancholy +state of solitariness, with all his children absent, his wife dead, only +a niece, a young lady of twenty, to lend an air of grace and warmth to +his home. + +She was a Caroline, and as he had never taken a liking to a Caroline, +he classed her in the tribe of Carolines. To a Kathleen, an Eveleen, a +Nora, or a Bessy, or an Alicia, he would have bowed more cordially on +his introduction to her, for these were names with portraits and vistas +beyond, that shook leaves of recollection of the happiest of life--the +sweet things dreamed undesiringly in opening youth. A Caroline awakened +no soft association of fancies, no mysterious heaven and earth. The +others had variously tinted skies above them; their features wooed the +dream, led it on as the wooded glen leads the eye till we are deep in +richness. Nor would he have throbbed had one of any of his favourite +names appeared in the place of Caroline Adister. They had not moved +his heart, they had only stirred the sources of wonder. An Eveleen had +carried him farthest to imagine the splendours of an Adiante, and the +announcement of the coming of an Eveleen would perchance have sped a +little wild fire, to which what the world calls curiosity is frozenly +akin, through his veins. + +Mr. Adister had spoken of his niece Caroline. A lacquey, receiving +orders from his master, mentioned Miss Adister. There was but one Miss +Adister for Patrick. Against reason, he was raised to anticipate the +possible beholding of her, and Caroline's entrance into the drawing-room +brought him to the ground. Disappointment is a poor term for the descent +from an immoderate height, but the acknowledgment that we have shot up +irrationally reconciles even unphilosophical youth to the necessity of +the fall, though we must continue sensible of a shock. She was the Miss +Adister; and how, and why? No one else accompanied them on their march +to the dinner-table. Patrick pursued his double task of hunting his +thousand speculations and conversing fluently, so that it is not +astonishing if, when he retired to his room, the impression made on him +by this young Caroline was inefficient to distinguish her from the horde +of her baptismal sisters. And she had a pleasant face: he was able to +see that, and some individuality in the look of it, the next morning; +and then he remembered the niceness of her manners. He supposed her to +have been educated where the interfusion of a natural liveliness with a +veiling retenue gives the title of lady. She had enjoyed the advantage +of having an estimable French lady for her governess, she informed him, +as they sauntered together on the terrace. + +'A Protestant, of course,' Patrick spoke as he thought. + +'Madame Dugue is a Catholic of Catholics, and the most honourable of +women.' + +'That I'll believe; and wasn't for proselytisms,' said he. + +'Oh, no: she was faithful to her trust.' + +'Save for the grand example!' + +'That,' said Caroline, 'one could strive to imitate without embracing +her faith.' + +'There's my mind clear as print!' Patrick exclaimed. 'The Faith of my +fathers! and any pattern you like for my conduct, if it's a good one.' + +Caroline hesitated before she said: 'You have noticed my Uncle Adister's +prepossession; I mean, his extreme sensitiveness on that subject.' + +'He blazed on me, and he seemed to end by a sort of approval.' + +She sighed. 'He has had cause for great unhappiness.' + +'Is it the colonel, or the captain? Forgive me!' + +Her head shook. + +'Is it she? Is it his daughter? I must ask!' + +'You have not heard?' + +Oh! then, I guessed it,' cried Patrick, with a flash of pride in his +arrowy sagacity. 'Not a word have I heard, but I thought it out for +myself; because I love my brother, I fancy. And now, if you'll be so +good, Miss Caroline, let me beg, it's just the address, or the city, or +the country--where she is, can you tell me?--just whereabouts! You're +surprised: but I want her address, to be off, to see her; I'm anxious to +speak to her. It's anywhere she may be in a ring, only show me the +ring, I'll find her, for I've a load; and there's nothing like that for +sending you straight, though it's in the dark; it acts like an instinct. +But you know the clear address, and won't let me be running blindfold. +She's on the Continent and has been a long time, and it was the capital +of Austria, which is a Catholic country, and they've Irish blood in the +service there, or they had. I could drop on my knees to you!' + +The declaration was fortunately hushed by a supplicating ardour, or Mr. +Adister would have looked more surprised than his niece. He stepped out +of the library window as they were passing, and, evidently with a mind +occupied by his own affairs, held up an opened letter for Caroline's +perusal. She took a view of the handwriting. + +'Any others?' she said. + +'You will consider that one enough for the day,' was his answer. + +Patrick descended the terrace and strolled by the waterside, grieved +at their having bad news, and vexed with himself for being a stranger, +unable to console them. + +Half an hour later they were all three riding to the market-town, where +Mr. Adister paid a fruitless call on his lawyer. + +'And never is at home! never was known to be at home when wanted!' he +said, springing back to the saddle. + +Caroline murmured some soothing words. They had a perverse effect. + +'His partner! yes, his partner is at home, but I do not communicate +upon personal business with his partner; and by and by there will be, I +suppose, a third partner. I might as well deposit my family history in +the hands of a club. His partner is always visible. It is my belief that +Camminy has taken a partner that he may act the independent gentleman +at his leisure. I, meantime, must continue to be the mark for these +letters. I shall expect soon to hear myself abused as the positive cause +of the loss of a Crown!' + +'Mr. Camminy will probably appear at the dinner hour,' said Caroline. + +'Claret attracts him: I wish I could say as much of duty,' rejoined her +uncle. + +Patrick managed to restrain a bubbling remark on the respective charms +of claret and duty, tempting though the occasion was for him to throw in +a conversational word or two. + +He was rewarded for listening devoutly. + +Mr. Adister burst out again: 'And why not come over here to settle this +transaction herself?--provided that I am spared the presence of her +Schinderhannes! She could very well come. I have now received three +letters bearing on this matter within as many months. Down to the sale +of her hereditary jewels! I profess no astonishment. The jewels may well +go too, if Crydney and Welvas are to go. Disrooted body and soul!--for +a moonshine title!--a gaming-table foreign knave!--Known for a knave!--A +young gentlewoman?--a wild Welsh...!' + +Caroline put her horse to a canter, and the exclamations ended, leaving +Patrick to shuffle them together and read the riddle they presented, +and toss them to the wind, that they might be blown back on him by the +powers of air in an intelligible form. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE PRINCESS + +Dinner, and a little piano-music and a song closed an evening that was +not dull to Patrick in spite of prolonged silences. The quiet course of +things within the house appeared to him to have a listening ear for big +events outside. He dreaded a single step in the wrong direction, and +therefore forbore to hang on any of his conjectures; for he might +perchance be unjust to the blessedest heroine on the surface of the +earth--a truly awful thought! Yet her name would no longer bear the +speaking of it to himself. It conjured up a smoky moon under confounding +eclipse. + +Who was Schinderhannes? + +Mr. Adister had said, her Schinderhannes. + +Patrick merely wished to be informed who the man was, and whether he had +a title, and was much of a knave: and particularly Patrick would have +liked to be informed of the fellow's religion. But asking was not easy. + +It was not possible. And there was a barrel of powder to lay a fiery +head on, for a pillow! + +To confess that he had not the courage to inquire was as good as an +acknowledgment that he knew too much for an innocent questioner. And +what did he know? His brother Philip's fair angel forbade him to open +the door upon what he knew. He took a peep through fancy's keyhole, and +delighted himself to think that he had seen nothing. + +After a turbulent night with Schinderhannes, who let him go no earlier +than the opening of a December day, Patrick hied away to one of the +dusky nooks by the lake for a bracing plunge. He attributed to his +desire for it the strange deadness of the atmosphere, and his incapacity +to get an idea out of anything he looked on: he had not a sensation of +cold till the stinging element gripped him. It is the finest school for +the cure of dreamers; two minutes of stout watery battle, with the enemy +close all round, laughing, but not the less inveterate, convinced him +that, in winter at least, we have only to jump out of our clothes to +feel the reality of things in a trice. The dip was sharpening; he could +say that his prescription was good for him; his craving to get an idea +ceased with it absolutely, and he stood in far better trim to meet his +redoubtable adversary of overnight; but the rascal was a bandit and had +robbed him of his purse; that was a positive fact; his vision had gone; +he felt himself poor and empty and rejoicing in the keenness of his +hunger for breakfast, singularly lean. A youth despoiled of his Vision +and made sensible by the activity of his physical state that he is a +common machine, is eager for meat, for excess of whatsoever you may +offer him; he is on the highroad of recklessness, and had it been +the bottle instead of Caroline's coffee-cup, Patrick would soon have +received a priming for a delivery of views upon the sex, and upon love, +and the fools known as lovers, acrid enough to win the applause of +cynics. + +Boasting was the best relief that a young man not without modesty could +find. Mr. Adister complimented him on the robustness of his habits, and +Patrick 'would like to hear of the temptation that could keep him from +his morning swim.' + +Caroline's needle-thrust was provoked: + +'Would not Arctic weather deter you, Mr. O'Donnell?' He hummed, and her +eyes filled with the sparkle. + +'Short of Arctic,' he had to say. 'But a gallop, after an Arctic bath, +would soon spin the blood-upon an Esquimaux dog, of course,' he pursued, +to anticipate his critic's remark on the absence of horses, with a bow. + +She smiled, accepting the mental alertness he fastened on her. + +We must perforce be critics of these tear-away wits; which are, +moreover, so threadbare to conceal the character! Caroline led him to +vaunt his riding and his shooting, and a certain time passed before she +perceived that though he responded naturally to her first sly attacks, +his gross exaggerations upon them had not been the triumph of absurdity +she supposed herself to have evoked. + +Her wish was to divert her uncle. Patrick discerned the intention and +aided her. + +'As for entertainment,' he said, in answer to Mr. Adister's courteous +regrets that he would have to be a prisoner in the house until his +legal adviser thought proper to appear, 'I'll be perfectly happy if Miss +Caroline will give me as much of her company as she can spare. It 's +amusing to be shot at too, by a lady who 's a good marksman! And birds +and hares are always willing to wait for us; they keep better alive. I +forgot to say that I can sing.' + +'Then I was in the presence of a connoisseur last night,' said Caroline. +Mr. Adister consulted his watch and the mantelpiece clock for a minute +of difference between them, remarking that he was a prisoner indeed, and +for the whole day, unless Camminy should decide to come. 'There is the +library,' he said, 'if you care for books; the best books on agriculture +will be found there. You can make your choice in the stables, if you +would like to explore the country. I am detained here by a man who seems +to think my business of less importance than his pleasures. And it +is not my business; it is very much the reverse but I am compelled to +undertake it as my own, when I abhor the business. It is hard for me to +speak of it, much more to act a part in it.' + +'Perhaps,' Caroline interposed hurriedly, 'Mr. O'Donnell would not be +unwilling to begin the day with some duets?' + +Patrick eagerly put on his shame-face to accept her invitation, +protesting that his boldness was entirely due to his delight in music. + +'But I've heard,' said he, 'that the best fortification for the exercise +of the a voice is hearty eating, so I 'll pay court again to that +game-pie. I'm one with the pigs for truffles.' + +His host thanked him for spreading the contagion of good appetite, and +followed his example. Robust habits and heartiness were signs with +him of a conscience at peace, and he thought the Jesuits particularly +forbearing in the amount of harm they had done to this young man. So +they were still at table when Mr. Camminy was announced and ushered in. + +The man of law murmured an excuse or two; he knew his client's eye, and +how to thaw it. + +'No, Miss Adister, I have not breakfasted,' he said, taking the chair +placed for him. 'I was all day yesterday at Windlemont, engaged in +assisting to settle the succession. Where estates are not entailed!' + +'The expectations of the family are undisciplined and certain not to be +satisfied,' Mr. Adister carried on the broken sentence. 'That house +will fall! However, you have lost no time this morning.--Mr. Patrick +O'Donnell.' + +Mr. Camminy bowed busily somewhere in the direction between Patrick and +the sideboard. + +'Our lawyers have us inside out, like our physicians,' Mr. Adister +resumed, talking to blunt his impatience for a private discussion with +his own. + +'Surgery's a little in their practice too, we think in Ireland,' said +Patrick. + +Mr. Camminy assented: 'No doubt.' He was hungry, and enjoyed the look of +the table, but the look of his client chilled the prospect, considered +in its genial appearance as a feast of stages; having luminous +extension; so, to ease his client's mind, he ventured to say: 'I thought +it might be urgent.' + +'It is urgent,' was the answer. + +'Ah: foreign? domestic?' + +A frown replied. + +Caroline, in haste to have her duties over, that she might escape the +dreaded outburst, pressed another cup of tea on Mr. Camminy and groaned +to see him fill his plate. She tried to start a topic with Patrick. + +'The princess is well, I hope?' Mr. Camminy asked in the voice of +discretion. 'It concerns her Highness?' + +'It concerns my daughter and her inheritance from her mad grandmother!' +Mr. Adister rejoined loudly; and he continued like a retreating thunder: +'A princess with a title as empty as a skull! At best a princess of +swamps, and swine that fight for acorns, and men that fight for swine!' + +Patrick caught a glance from Caroline, and the pair rose together. + +'They did that in our mountains a couple of thousand years ago,' said +Mr. Camminy, 'and the cause was not so bad, to judge by this ham. Men +must fight: the law is only a quieter field for them.' + +'And a fatter for the ravens,' Patrick joined in softly, as if carrying +on a song. + +'Have at us, Mr. O'Donnell! I'm ashamed of my appetite, Miss Adister, +but the morning's drive must be my excuse, and I'm bounden to you for +not forcing me to detain you. Yes, I can finish breakfast at my leisure, +and talk of business, which is never particularly interesting to +ladies--though,' Mr. Camminy turned to her uncle, 'I know Miss Adister +has a head for it.' + +Patrick hummed a bar or two of an air, to hint of his being fanatico per +la musica, as a pretext for their departure. + +'If you'll deign to give me a lesson,' said he, as Caroline came away +from pressing her lips to her uncle's forehead. + +'I may discover that I am about to receive one,' said she. + +They quitted the room together. + +Mr. Camminy had seen another Miss Adister duetting with a young Irishman +and an O'Donnell, with lamentable results to that union of voices, and +he permitted himself to be a little astonished at his respected +client's defective memory or indifference to the admonition of identical +circumstances. + + + + +CHAPTER V. AT THE PIANO, CHIEFLY WITHOUT MUSIC + +Barely had the door shut behind them when Patrick let his heart out: +'The princess?' He had a famished look, and Caroline glided along +swiftly with her head bent, like one musing; his tone alarmed her; +she lent him her ear, that she might get some understanding of his +excitement, suddenly as it seemed to have come on him; but he was all +in his hungry interrogation, and as she reached her piano and raised the +lid, she saw it on tiptoe straining for her answer. + +'I thought you were aware of my cousin's marriage.' + +'Was I?' said Patrick, asking it of himself, for his conscience would +not acknowledge an absolute ignorance. 'No: I fought it, I wouldn't have +a blot on her be suspected. She's married! She's married to one of +their princes!--married for a title!--and changed her religion! And Miss +Adister, you're speaking of Adiante?' + +'My cousin Adiante.' + +'Well did I hate the name! I heard it first over in France. Our people +wrote to me of her; and it's a name to set you thinking: Is she tender, +or nothing like a woman,--a stone? And I put it to my best friend there, +Father Clement, who's a scholar, up in everything, and he said it was a +name with a pretty sound and an ill meaning--far from tender; and a bad +history too, for she was one of the forty-nine Danaides who killed +their husbands for the sake of their father and was not likely to be the +fiftieth, considering the name she bore. It was for her father's sake +she as good as killed her lover, and the two Adiantes are like enough: +they're as like as a pair of hands with daggers. So that was my brother +Philip's luck! She's married! It's done; it's over, like death: no hope. +And this time it's against her father; it's against her faith. There's +the end of Philip! I could have prophesied it; I did; and when they +broke, from her casting him off--true to her name! thought I. She cast +him off, and she couldn't wait for him, and there's his heart broken. +And I ready to glorify her for a saint! And now she must have loved the +man, or his title, to change her religion. She gives him her soul! No +praise to her for that: but mercy! what a love it must be. Or else it's +a spell. But wasn't she rather one for flinging spells than melting? +Except that we're all of us hit at last, and generally by our own +weapon. But she loved Philip: she loved him down to shipwreck and +drowning: she gave battle for him, and against her father; all the place +here and the country's alive with their meetings and partings:--she +can't have married! She wouldn't change her religion for her lover: +how can she have done it for this prince? Why, it's to swear false +oaths!--unless it's possible for a woman to slip out of herself and be +another person after a death like that of a love like hers.' + +Patrick stopped: the idea demanded a scrutiny. + +'She's another person for me,' he said. 'Here's the worst I ever +imagined of her!--thousands of miles and pits of sulphur beyond the +worst and the very worst! I thought her fickle, I thought her heartless, +rather a black fairy, perched above us, not quite among the stars +of heaven. I had my ideas. But never that she was a creature to +jump herself down into a gulf and be lost for ever. She's gone, +extinguished--there she is, under the penitent's hoodcap with eyeholes, +before the faggots! and that's what she has married!--a burning torment, +and none of the joys of martyrdom. Oh! I'm not awake. But I +never dreamed of such a thing as this--not the hard, bare, +lump-of-earth-fact:--and that's the only thing to tell me I'm not +dreaming now.' + +He subsided again; then deeply beseeching asked: + +'Have you by chance a portrait of the gentleman, Miss Adister? Is there +one anywhere?' + +Caroline stood at her piano, turning over the leaves of a music-book, +with a pressure on her eyelids. She was near upon being thrilled in +spite of an astonishment almost petrifying: and she could nearly +have smiled, so strange was his fraternal adoption, amounting to a +vivification--of his brother's passion. He seemed quite naturally to +impersonate Philip. She wondered, too, in the coolness of her alien +blood, whether he was a character, or merely an Irish character. As to +the unwontedness of the scene, Ireland was chargeable with that; and +Ireland also, a little at his expense as a citizen of the polite world, +relieved him of the extreme ridicule attached to his phrases and images. + +She replied: 'We have no portrait.' + +'May I beg to know, have you seen him?' said Patrick. Caroline shook her +head. + +'Is there no telling what he is like, Miss Adister?' + +'He is not young.' + +'An old man!' + +She had not said that, and she wished to defend her cousin from +the charge of contracting such an alliance, but Patrick's face had +brightened out of a gloom of stupefaction; he assured her he was now +ready to try his voice with hers, only she was to excuse a touch of +hoarseness; he felt it slightly in his throat: and could he, she asked +him, wonder at it after his morning's bath? + +He vindicated the saneness of the bath as well as he was able, +showing himself at least a good reader of music. On the whole, he sang +pleasantly, particularly French songs. She complimented him, with an +emphasis on the French. He said, yes, he fancied he did best in French, +and he had an idea of settling in France, if he found that he could not +live quietly in his own country. + +'And becoming a Frenchman?' said Caroline. + +'Why not?' said he. 'I 'm more at home with French people; they're +mostly of my creed; they're amiable, though they weren't quite kind +to poor Lally Tollendal. I like them. Yes, I love France, and when I'm +called upon to fix myself, as I suppose I shall be some day, I shan't +have the bother over there that I should find here.' + +She spoke reproachfully: 'Have you no pride in the title of Englishman?' + +'I 'm an Irishman.' + +'We are one nation.' + +'And it's one family where the dog is pulled by the collar.' + +There was a retort on him: she saw, as it were, the box, but the lid +would not open to assist her to it, and she let it go by, thinking in +her patriotic derision, that to choose to be likened to the unwilling +dog of the family was evidence of a want of saving pride. + +Besides, she could not trust to the glibness of her tongue in a contest +with a young gentleman to whom talking was as easy as breathing, even if +sometimes his volubility exposed him to attack. A superior position was +offered her by her being silent and critical. She stationed herself +on it: still she was grieved to think of him as a renegade from his +country, and she forced herself to say: 'Captain O'Donnell talks in that +manner.' + +'Captain Con is constitutionally discontented because he's a bard by +nature, and without the right theme for his harp,' said Patrick. 'He has +a notion of Erin as the unwilling bride of Mr. Bull, because her lord is +not off in heroics enough to please her, and neglects her, and won't let +her be mistress of her own household, and she can't forget that he once +had the bad trick of beating her: she sees the marks. And you mayn't +believe it, but the Captain's temper is to praise and exalt. It is. +Irony in him is only eulogy standing on its head: a sort of an upside +down; a perversion: that's our view of him at home. All he desires is to +have us on the march, and he'd be perfectly happy marching, never +mind the banner, though a bit of green in it would put him in tune, of +course. The banner of the Cid was green, Miss Adister: or else it's his +pennon that was. And there's a quantity of our blood in Spain too. We've +watered many lands.' + +The poor young English lady's brain started wildly on the effort to be +with him, and to understand whether she listened to humour or emotion: +she reposed herself as well as she could in the contemplation of an +electrically-flashing maze, where every line ran losing itself in +another. + +He added: 'Old Philip!' in a visible throb of pity for his brother; +after the scrupulous dubitation between the banner and the pennon of the +Cid! + +It would have comforted her to laugh. She was closer upon tears, and +without any reason for them in her heart. + +Such a position brings the hesitancy which says that the sitting is at +an end. + +She feared, as she laid aside her music-books, that there would be more +to come about Adiante, but he spared her. He bowed to her departing, and +strolled off by himself. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. A CONSULTATION: WITH OPINIONS UPON WELSHWOMEN AND THE +CAMBRIAN RACE + +Later in the day she heard that he was out scouring the country on one +of her uncle's horses. She had too many distressing matters to think of +for so singular a young man to have any other place than that which is +given to the fantastical in a troubled and serious mind. He danced +there like the whimsy sunbeam of a shaken water below. What would be his +opinion of Adiante if he knew of her determination to sell the two fair +estates she inherited from a grandmother whom she had venerated; +that she might furnish arms to her husband to carry out an audacious +enterprise likely to involve both of them in blood and ruin? Would he +not bound up aloft and quiver still more wildly? She respected, quaint +though it was, his imaginative heat of feeling for Adiante sufficiently +to associate him with her so far; and she lent him in fancy her own +bewilderment and grief at her cousin's conduct, for the soothing that +his exaggeration of them afforded her. She could almost hear his outcry. + +The business of the hour demanded more of her than a seeking for +refreshment. She had been invited to join the consultation of her uncle +with his lawyer. Mr. Adister tossed her another letter from Vienna, of +that morning's delivery. She read it with composure. It became her task +to pay no heed to his loss of patience, and induce him to acquiesce in +his legal adviser's view which was, to temporise further, present an +array of obstacles, and by all possible suggestions induce the princess +to come over to England, where her father's influence with her would +have a chance of being established again; and it might then be hoped +that she, who had never when under sharp temptation acted disobediently +to his wishes at home, and who certainly would not have dreamed of +contracting the abhorred alliance had she been breathing the air of +common sense peculiar to her native land, would see the prudence, if not +the solemn obligation, of retaining to herself these family possessions. +Caroline was urgent with her uncle to act on such good counsel. She +marvelled at his opposition, though she detected the principal basis of +it. + +Mr. Adister had no ground of opposition but his own intemperateness. The +Welsh grandmother's legacy of her estates to his girl, overlooking her +brothers, Colonel Arthur and Captain David, had excessively vexed him, +despite the strong feeling he entertained for Adiante; and not simply +because of the blow he received in it unexpectedly from that old lady, +as the last and heaviest of the long and open feud between them, but +also, chiefly, that it outraged and did permanent injury to his ideas of +the proper balance of the sexes. Between himself and Mrs. Winnion Rhys +the condition of the balance had been a point of vehement disputation, +she insisting to have it finer up to equality, and he that the +naturally lighter scale should continue to kick the beam. Behold now the +consequence of the wilful Welshwoman's insanest of legacies! The estates +were left to Adiante Adister for her sole use and benefit, making almost +a man of her, and an unshackled man, owing no dues to posterity. Those +estates in the hands of a woman are in the hands of her husband; and +the husband a gambler and a knave, they are in the hands of the Jews--or +gone to smoke. Let them go. A devilish malignity bequeathed them: let +them go back to their infernal origin. And when they were gone, his girl +would soon discover that there was no better place to come to than her +home; she would come without an asking, and alone, and without much +prospect of the intrusion of her infamous Hook-nose in pursuit of her at +Earlsfont. The money wasted, the wife would be at peace. Here she would +have leisure to repent of all the steps she had taken since that fatal +one of the acceptance of the invitation to the Embassy at Vienna. Mr. +Adister had warned her both against her going and against the influence +of her friend Lady Wenchester, our Ambassadress there, another Welsh +woman, with the weathervane head of her race. But the girl would accept, +and it was not for him to hold out. It appeared to be written that the +Welsh, particularly Welsh women, were destined to worry him up to the +end of his days. Their women were a composition of wind and fire. They +had no reason, nothing solid in their whole nature. Englishmen allied +to them had to learn that they were dealing with broomstick witches and +irresponsible sprites. Irishwomen were models of propriety beside them: +indeed Irishwomen might often be patterns to their English sisterhood. +Mr. Adister described the Cambrian ladies as a kind of daughters of the +Fata Morgana, only half human, and deceptive down to treachery, +unless you had them fast by their spinning fancy. They called it being +romantic. It was the ante-chamber of madness. Mad, was the word for +them. You pleased them you knew not how, and just as little did you know +how you displeased them. And you were long hence to be taught that in +a certain past year, and a certain month, and on a certain day of the +month, not forgetting the hour of the day to the minute of the hour, and +attendant circumstances to swear loud witness to it, you had mortally +offended them. And you receive your blow: you are sure to get it: the +one passion of those women is for vengeance. They taste a wound from the +lightest touch, and they nurse the venom for you. Possibly you may in +their presence have had occasion to praise the military virtues of the +builder of Carnarvon Castle. You are by and by pierced for it as hard +as they can thrust. Or you have incidentally compared Welsh mutton with +Southdown:--you have not highly esteemed their drunken Bards:--you have +asked what the Welsh have done in the world; you are supposed to have +slighted some person of their family--a tenth cousin!--anything turns +their blood. Or you have once looked straight at them without speaking, +and you discover years after that they have chosen to foist on you +their idea of your idea at the moment; and they have the astounding +presumption to account this misreading of your look to the extent of a +full justification, nothing short of righteous, for their treachery and +your punishment! O those Welshwomen! + +The much-suffering lord of Earlsfont stretched forth his open hand, palm +upward, for a testifying instrument to the plain truth of his catalogue +of charges. He closed it tight and smote the table. 'Like mother--and +grandmother too--like daughter!' he said, and generalised again to +preserve his dignity: 'They're aflame in an instant. You may see them +quiet for years, but it smoulders. You dropped the spark, and they time +the explosion.' + +Caroline said to Mr. Camminy: 'You are sure you can give us the day?' + +'All of it,' he replied, apologising for some show of restlessness. +'The fact is, Miss Adister, I married a lady from over the borders, and +though I have never had to complain of her yet, she may have a finale in +store. It's true that I love wild Wales.' + +'And so do I' Caroline raised her eyes to imagined mountains. + +'You will pardon me, Camminy,' said Mr. Adister. + +The lawyer cracked his back to bow to the great gentleman so +magnanimously humiliating himself. 'Sir! Sir!' he said. 'Yes, Welsh +blood is queer blood, I own. They find it difficult to forgive; and +trifles offend; and they are unhappily just as secretive as they are +sensitive. The pangs we cause them, without our knowing it, must be +horrible. They are born, it would seem, with more than the common +allowance of kibes for treading on: a severe misfortune for them. Now +for their merits: they have poetry in them; they are valiant; they are +hospitable to teach the Arab a lesson: I do believe their life is their +friend's at need--seriously, they would lay it down for him: or the +wherewithal, their money, their property, excepting the three-stringed +harp of three generations back, worth now in current value sixpence +halfpenny as a curiosity, or three farthings for firewood; that they'll +keep against their own desire to heap on you everything they have--if +they love you, and you at the same time have struck their imaginations. +Offend them, however, and it's war, declared or covert. And I must admit +that their best friend can too easily offend them. I have lost excellent +clients, I have never understood why; yet I respect the remains of +their literature, I study their language, I attend their gatherings and +subscribe the expenses; I consume Welsh mutton with relish; I enjoy the +Triads, and can come down on them with a quotation from Catwg the Wise: +but it so chanced that I trod on a kibe, and I had to pay the penalty. +There's an Arabian tale, Miss Adister, of a peaceful traveller who ate a +date in the desert and flung away the stone, which hit an invisible son +of a genie in the eye, and the poor traveller suffered for it. Well, you +commit these mortal injuries to the invisible among the Welsh. Some +of them are hurt if you call them Welsh. They scout it as the original +Saxon title for them. No, they are Cymry, Cambrians! They have forgiven +the Romans. Saxon and Norman are still their enemies. If you stir their +hearts you find it so. And, by the way, if King Edward had not trampled +them into the mire so thoroughly, we should hear of it at times even +now. Instead of penillions and englyns, there would be days for fiery +triplets. Say the worst of them, they are soundheaded. They have a ready +comprehension for great thoughts. The Princess Nikolas, I remember, had +a special fondness for the words of Catwg the Wise.' + +'Adiante,' had murmured Caroline, to correct his indiscretion. + +She was too late. + +'Nikolas!' Mr. Adister thundered. 'Hold back that name in this house, +title and all, if you speak of my daughter. I refuse admission to it +here. She has given up my name, and she must be known by the one her +feather-brained grandmother proposed for her, to satisfy her pleasure +in a fine sound. English Christian names are my preference. I conceded +Arthur to her without difficulty. She had a voice in David, I recollect; +with very little profit to either of the boys. I had no voice in +Adiante; but I stood at my girl's baptism, and Adiante let her be. At +least I saved the girl from the addition of Arianrod. It was to have +been Adiante Arianrod. Can you credit it? Prince-pah! Nikolas? Have you +a notion of the sort of prince that makes an English lady of the best +blood of England his princess?' + +The lawyer had a precise notion of the sort of prince appearing to Mr. +Adister in the person of his foreign son-in-law. Prince Nikolas had been +described to him before, with graphic touches upon the quality of the +reputation he bore at the courts and in the gambling-saloons of Europe. +Dreading lest his client's angry heat should precipitate him on the +prince again, to the confusion of a lady's ears, Mr. Camminy gave an +emphatic and short affirmative. + +'You know what he is like?' said Mr. Adister, with a face of disgust +reflected from the bare thought of the hideous likeness. + +Mr. Camminy assured him that the description of the prince's lineaments +would not be new. It was, as he was aware, derived from a miniature +of her husband, transmitted by the princess, on its flight out of her +father's loathing hand to the hearthstone and under his heel. + +Assisted by Caroline, he managed to check the famous delineation of the +adventurer prince in which a not very worthy gentleman's chronic fever +of abomination made him really eloquent, quick to unburden himself in +the teeth of decorum. + +'And my son-in-law! My son-in-law!' ejaculated Mr. Adister, tossing his +head higher, and so he stimulated his amazement and abhorrence of the +portrait he rather wondered at them for not desiring to have sketched +for their execration of it, alluringly foul as it was: while they in +concert drew him back to the discussion of his daughter's business, +reiterating prudent counsel, with a knowledge that they had only to wait +for the ebbing of his temper. + +'Let her be informed, sir, that by coming to England she can settle the +business according to her wishes in one quarter of the time it would +take a Commission sent out to her--if we should be authorised to send +out one,' said Mr. Camminy. 'By committing the business to you, I +fancy I perceive your daughter's disposition to consider your feelings: +possibly to a reluctance to do the deed unsanctioned by her father. It +would appear so to a cool observer, notwithstanding her inattention to +your remonstrances.' + +The reply was: 'Dine here and sleep here. I shall be having more of +these letters,' Mr. Adister added, profoundly sighing. + +Caroline slipped away to mark a conclusion to the debate; and Mr. +Camminy saw his client redden fast and frown. + +'Besides,' he spoke in a husky voice, descending upon a subject hateful, +'she tells me to-day she is not in a state to travel! Do you hear? Make +what you can of it.' + +The proud and injured gentleman had the aspect of one who receives a +blow that it is impossible for him to resent. He could not speak the +shame he felt: it was literally in his flesh. But the cause had been +sufficiently hinted to set the lawyer staring as men do when they +encounter situations of grisly humour, where certain of the passions +of man's developed nature are seen armed and furious against our mild +prevailing ancient mother nature; and the contrast is between our utter +wrath and her simple exposition of the circumstances and consequences +forming her laws. There are situations which pass beyond the lightly +stirred perceptive wits to the quiet court of the intellect, to be +received there as an addition to our acquaintance with mankind. We know +not of what substance to name them. Humour in its intense strain has +a seat somewhere about the mouth of tragedy, giving it the enigmatical +faint wry pull at a corner visible at times upon the dreadful mask. + +That Mr. Adister should be astonished at such a communication from the +princess, after a year of her marriage: and that he should take it for +a further outrage of his paternal sentiments, should actually redden and +be hoarse in alluding to it: the revelation of such points in our human +character set the humane old lawyer staring at the reserve space within +himself apart from his legal being, whereon he by fits compared his own +constitution with that of the individuals revealed to him by their acts +and confidential utterances. For him, he decided that he would have +rejoiced at the news. + +Granting the prince a monster, however, as Mr. Adister unforcedly +considered him, it was not so cheering a piece of intelligence that +involved him yet closer with that man's rank blood: it curdled his own. +The marriage had shocked and stricken him, cleaving, in his love for his +daughter, a goodly tree and withering many flowers. Still the marriage +was but Adiante's gulf: he might be called father-in-law of her spangled +ruffian; son-in-law, the desperado-rascal would never be called by him. +But the result of the marriage dragged him bodily into the gulf: he +became one of four, numbering the beast twice among them. The subtlety +of his hatred so reckoned it; for he could not deny his daughter in +the father's child; he could not exclude its unhallowed father in the +mother's: and of this man's child he must know and own himself the +grandfather. If ever he saw the child, if drawn to it to fondle it, +some part of the little animal not his daughter's would partake of his +embrace. And if neither of his boys married, and his girl gave birth +to a son! darkness rolled upon that avenue of vision. A trespasser and +usurper-one of the demon's brood chased his very name out of Earlsfont! + +'Camminy, you must try to amuse yourself,' he said briskly. 'Anything +you may be wanting at home shall be sent for. I must have you here to +make sure that I am acting under good advice. You can take one of the +keepers for an hour or two of shooting. I may join you in the afternoon. +You will find occupation for your gun in the north covers.' + +He wandered about the house, looking into several rooms, and only +partially at rest when he discovered Caroline in one, engaged upon some +of her aquarelle sketches. He asked where the young Irishman was. + +'Are you in search of him?' said she. 'You like him, uncle? He is out +riding, they tell me.' + +'The youngster is used to south-western showers in that climate of +his,' Mr. Adister replied. 'I dare say we could find the Jesuit in him +somewhere. There's the seed. His cousin Con O'Donnell has filled him +with stuff about Ireland and England: the man has no better to do than +to train a parrot. What do you think of him, my love?' + +The judgement was not easily formed for expression. 'He is not quite +like what I remember of his brother Philip. He talks much more, does +he not? He seems more Irish than his brother. He is very strange. His +feelings are strong; he has not an idea of concealing them. For a young +man educated by the Jesuits, he is remarkably open.' + +'The Jesuits might be of service to me just now!' Mr. Adister addressed +his troubled soul, and spoke upon another conception of them: 'How has +he shown his feelings?' + +Caroline answered quickly: 'His love of his brother. Anything that +concerns his brother moves him; it is like a touch on a musical +instrument. Perhaps I should say a native one.' + +'Concerns his brother?' Mr. Adister inquired, and his look requesting +enlightenment told her she might speak. + +'Adiante,' she said softly. She coloured. + +Her uncle mused awhile in a half-somnolent gloom. 'He talks of this at +this present day?' + +'It is not dead to him. He really appears to have hoped... he is +extraordinary. He had not heard before of her marriage. I was a witness +of the most singular scene this morning, at the piano. He gathered +it from what he had heard. He was overwhelmed by it. I could not +exaggerate. It was impossible to help being a little touched, though it +was curious, very strange.' + +Her uncle's attentiveness incited her to describe the scene, and as it +visibly relieved his melancholy, she did it with a few vivid indications +of the quaint young Irishman's manner of speech. She concluded: 'At last +he begged to see a portrait of her husband.' + +'Not of her?' said Mr. Adister abruptly. + +'No; only of her husband.' + +'Show him her portrait.' + +A shade of surprise was on Caroline's forehead. 'Shall I?' She had a dim +momentary thought that the sight of the beautiful face would not be good +for Patrick. + +'Yes; let him see the woman who could throw herself away on that branded +villain called a prince, abjuring her Church for a little fouler than +hangman to me and every gentleman alive. I desire that he should see it. +Submission to the demands of her husband's policy required it of her, +she says! Show it him when he returns; you have her miniature in your +keeping. And to-morrow take him to look at the full-length of her before +she left England and ceased to be a lady of our country. I will order it +to be placed in the armoury. Let him see the miniature of her this day.' + +Mr. Adister resolved at the same time that Patrick should have his +portrait of the prince for a set-off to the face of his daughter. He +craved the relief it would be to him to lay his colours on the prince +for the sparkling amazement of one whom, according to Caroline's +description, he could expect to feel with him acutely, which neither +his niece nor his lawyer had done: they never did when he painted the +prince. He was unstrung, heavily plunged in the matter of his chagrin +and grief: his unhealed wound had been scraped and strewn with salt +by his daughter's letter; he had a thirst for the kind of sympathy he +supposed he would find in the young Irishman's horror at the husband +of the incomparable beauty now past redemption degraded by her hideous +choice; lost to England and to her father and to common respect. For +none, having once had the picture of the man, could dissociate them; +they were like heaven and its reverse, everlastingly coupled in the mind +by their opposition of characters and aspects. Her father could not, +and he judged of others by himself. He had been all but utterly solitary +since her marriage, brooded on it until it saturated him; too proud +to speak of the thing in sadness, or claim condolence for this wound +inflicted on him by the daughter he had idolised other than through the +indirect method of causing people to wonder at her chosen yoke-fellow. +Their stupefaction refreshed him. Yet he was a gentleman capable of +apprehending simultaneously that he sinned against his pride in the +means he adopted to comfort his nature. But the wound was a perpetual +sickness needing soul-medicine. Proud as he was, and unbending, he +was not stronger than his malady, and he could disguise, he could not +contain, the cry of immoderate grief. Adiante had been to him something +beyond a creature beloved; she had with her glorious beauty and +great-heartedness been the sole object which had ever inspirited his +imagination. He could have thought no man, not the most illustrious, +worthy of her. And there she was, voluntarily in the hands of a monster! +'Husband!' Mr. Adister broke away from Caroline, muttering: 'Her +husband's policy!' + +She was used to his interjections; she sat thinking more of the strange +request to her to show Mr. O'Donnell the miniature of Adiante. She +had often thought that her uncle regretted his rejection of Philip. +It appeared so to her now, though not by any consecutive process of +reasoning. She went to fetch the miniature, and gazing on it, she tried +to guess at Mr. O'Donnell's thoughts when doing the same; for who so +inflammable as he? And who, woman or man, could behold this lighted +face, with the dark raised eyes and abounding auburn tresses, where the +contrast of colours was in itself thrilling, and not admire, or more, +half worship, or wholly worship? She pitied the youth: she fancied +that he would not continue so ingenuously true to his brother's love +of Adiante after seeing it; unless one might hope that the light +above beauty distinguishing its noble classic lines, and the energy +of radiance, like a morning of chivalrous promise, in the eyes, would +subdue him to distant admiration. These were her flitting thoughts +under the spell of her queenly cousin's visage. She shut up the +miniature-case, and waited to hand it to young Mr. O'Donnell. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE MINIATURE + +Patrick returned to Earlsfont very late; he had but ten minutes to dress +for dinner; a short allowance after a heated ride across miry tracks, +though he would have expended some of them, in spite of his punctilious +respect for the bell of the house entertaining him, if Miss Adister had +been anywhere on the stairs or corridors as he rushed away to his room. +He had things to tell; he had not been out over the country for nothing. + +Fortunately for his good social principles, the butler at Earlsfont was +a wary supervisor of his man; great guest or little guest; Patrick's +linen was prepared for him properly studded; he had only to spring out +of one suit into another; and still more fortunately the urgency for a +rapid execution of the manoeuvre prevented his noticing a large square +envelope posted against the looking-glass of his toilette-table. He +caught sight of it first when pulling down his shirt-cuffs with an air +of recovered ease, not to say genial triumph, to think that the feat +of grooming himself, washing, dressing and stripping, the accustomed +persuasive final sweep of the brush to his hair-crop, was done before +the bell had rung. His name was on the envelope; and under his name, in +smaller letters, + +Adiante. + +'Shall I?' said he, doing the thing he asked himself about doing tearing +open the paper cover of the portrait of her who had flitted in his head +for years unseen. And there she was, remote but present. + +His underlip dropped; he had the look of those who bate breath and swarm +their wits to catch a sound. At last he remembered that the summoning +bell had been in his ears a long time back, without his having been +sensible of any meaning in it. He started to and fro. The treasure he +held declined to enter the breast-pocket of his coat, and the other +pockets he perhaps, if sentimentally, justly discarded as being beneath +the honour of serving for a temporary casket. He locked it up, with a +vow to come early to rest. Even then he had thoughts whether it might be +safe. + +Who spoke, and what they uttered at the repast, and his own remarks, he +was unaware of. He turned right and left a brilliant countenance that +had the glitter of frost-light; it sparkled and was unreceptive. No +wonder Miss Adister deemed him wilder and stranger than ever. She +necessarily supposed the excess of his peculiarities to be an effect of +the portrait, and would have had him, according to her ideas of a young +man of some depth of feeling, dreamier. On the contrary, he talked sheer +commonplace. He had ridden to the spur of the mountains, and had put up +the mare, and groomed and fed her, not permitting another hand to touch +her: all very well, and his praises of the mare likewise, but he had not +a syllable for the sublime of the mountains. He might have careered over +midland flats for any susceptibility that he betrayed to the grandeur +of the scenery she loved. Ultimately she fancied the miniature had been +overlooked in his hurry to dress, and that he was now merely excited by +his lively gallop to a certain degree of hard brightness noticeable in +hunting men at their dinner. + +The elixir in Patrick carried him higher than mountain crests. Adiante +illumined an expanded world for him, miraculous, yet the real one, only +wanting such light to show its riches. She lifted it out of darkness +with swift throbs of her heavenliness as she swam to his eyelids, +vanished and dazzled anew, and made these gleams of her and the dark +intervals his dream of the winged earth on her flight from splendour +to splendour, secresy to secresy;--follow you that can, the youth whose +heart is an opened mine, whose head is an irradiated sky, under the +spell of imagined magical beauty. She was bugle, banner, sunrise, of his +inmost ambition and rapture. + +And without a warning, she fled; her features were lost; his power of +imagining them wrestled with vapour; the effort contracted his outlook. +But if she left him blind of her, she left him with no lessened bigness +of heart. He frankly believed in her revelation of a greater world and +a livelier earth, a flying earth and a world wealthier than grouped +history in heroic marvels: he fell back on the exultation of his having +seen her, and on the hope for the speedy coming of midnight, when the +fountain of her in the miniature would be seen and drunk of at his full +leisure, and his glorious elation of thrice man almost up to mounting +spirit would be restored to make him worthy of the vision. + +Meanwhile Caroline had withdrawn and the lord of Earlsfont was fretting +at his theme. He had decided not to be a party in the sale of either of +his daughter's estates: let her choose other agents: if the iniquity was +committed, his hands would be clean of it. Mr. Adister spoke by way of +prelude to the sketch of 'this prince' whose title was a lurid delusion. +Patrick heard of a sexagenarian rake and Danube adventurer, in person +a description of falcon-Caliban, containing his shagginess in a frogged +hussar-jacket and crimson pantaloons, with hook-nose, fox-eyes, grizzled +billow of frowsy moustache, and chin of a beast of prey. This fellow, +habitually one of the dogs lining the green tables of the foreign Baths, +snapping for gold all day and half the night, to spend their winnings +in debauchery and howl threats of suicide, never fulfilled early enough, +when they lost, claimed his princedom on the strength of his father's +murder of a reigning prince and sitting in his place for six months, +till a merited shot from another pretender sent him to his account. +'What do you say to such a nest of assassins, and one of them, an +outcast and blackleg, asking an English gentleman to acknowledge him as +a member of his family! I have,' said Mr. Adister, 'direct information +that this gibbet-bird is conspiring to dethrone--they call it--the +present reigning prince, and the proceeds of my daughter's estates +are, by her desire--if she has not written under compulsion of the +scoundrel--intended to speed their blood-mongering. There goes a +Welshwoman's legacy to the sea, with a herd of swine with devils in +them!' + +Mr. Camminy kept his head bent, his hand on his glass of port. Patrick +stared, and the working of his troubled brows gave the unhappy gentleman +such lean comfort as he was capable of taking. Patrick in sooth was +engaged in the hard attempt at the same time to do two of the most +difficult things which can be proposed to the ingenuity of sensational +youth: he was trying to excuse a respected senior for conduct that he +could not approve, while he did inward battle to reconcile his feelings +with the frightful addition to his hoard of knowledge: in other words, +he sought strenuously to mix the sketch of the prince with the dregs of +the elixir coming from the portrait of Adiante; and now she sank into +obscurity behind the blackest of brushes, representing her incredible +husband; and now by force of some natural light she broke through +the ugly mist and gave her adored the sweet lines and colours of the +features he had lost. There was an ebb and flow of the struggle, until, +able to say to himself that he saw her clearly as though the portrait +was in the palm of his hand, the battle of the imagination ceased +and she was fairer for him than if her foot had continued pure of its +erratic step: fairer, owing to the eyes he saw with; he had shaken +himself free of the exacting senses which consent to the worship of +women upon the condition of their possessing all the precious and the +miraculous qualities; among others, the gift of an exquisite fragility +that cannot break; in short, upon terms flattering to the individual +devotee. Without knowing it he had done it and got some of the upholding +strength of those noblest of honest men who not merely give souls to +women--an extraordinary endowment of them--but also discourse to them +with their souls. + +Patrick accepted Adiante's husband: the man was her husband. Hideous +(for there was no combating her father's painting of him), he was almost +interesting through his alliance:--an example of how much earth the +worshipper can swallow when he is quite sincere. Instead of his going +under eclipse, the beauty of his lady eclipsed her monster. He believed +in her right to choose according to her pleasure since her lover was +denied her. Sitting alone by his fire, he gazed at her for hours and +bled for Philip. There was a riddle to be answered in her cutting +herself away from Philip; he could not answer it; her face was the +vindication and the grief. The usual traverses besetting true lovers +were suggested to him, enemies and slanders and intercepted letters. He +rejected them in the presence of the beautiful inscrutable. Small +marvel that Philip had loved her. 'Poor fellow' Patrick cried aloud, and +drooped on a fit of tears. + +The sleep he had was urgently dream-ridden to goals that eluded him and +broadened to fresh races and chases waving something to be won which +never was won, albeit untiringly pursued amid a series of adventures, +tragic episodes; wild enthusiasm. The whole of it was featureless, +a shifting agitation; yet he must have been endowed to extricate a +particular meaning applied to himself out of the mass of tumbled +events, and closely in relation to realities, for he quitted his bed +passionately regretting that he had not gone through a course of drill +and study of the military art. He remembered Mr. Adister's having said +that military training was good for all gentlemen. + +'I could join the French Foreign Legion,' he thought. + +Adiante was as beautiful by day as by night. He looked. The riddle of +her was more burdensome in the daylight. + +He sighed, and on another surging of his admiration launched the resolve +that he would serve her blindly, without one question. How, when, where, +and the means and the aim, he did not think of. There was she, and here +was he, and heaven and a great heart would show the way. + +Adiante at eighteen, the full length of her, fresh in her love of +Philip, was not the same person to him, she had not the same secret; she +was beautiful differently. By right he should have loved the portrait +best: but he had not seen it first; he had already lived through a life +of emotions with the miniature, and could besides clasp the frame; +and moreover he fondled an absurd notion that the miniature would be +entrusted to him for a time, and was almost a possession. The pain of +the thought of relinquishing it was the origin of this foolishness. And +again, if it be fair to prove him so deeply, true to his brother though +he was (admiration of a woman does thus influence the tides of our blood +to render the noblest of us guilty of some unconscious wavering of our +loyalty), Patrick dedicated the full-length of Adiante to Philip, and +reserved the other, her face and neck, for himself. + +Obediently to Mr. Adister's order, the portrait had been taken from one +of his private rooms and placed in the armoury, the veil covering the +canvas of late removed. Guns and spears and swords overhead and about, +the youthful figure of Adiante was ominously encompassed. Caroline stood +with Patrick before the portrait of her cousin; she expected him to show +a sign of appreciation. He asked her to tell him the Church whose forms +of faith the princess had embraced. She answered that it was the Greek +Church. 'The Greek,' said he, gazing harder at the portrait. Presently +she said: 'It was a perfect likeness.' She named the famous artist who +had painted it. Patrick's 'Ah' was unsatisfactory. + +'We,' said she, 'think it a living image of her as she was then.' + +He would not be instigated to speak. + +'You do not admire it, Mr. O'Donnell?' she cried. + +'Oh, but I do. That's how she looked when she was drawing on her gloves +with good will to go out to meet him. You can't see her there and not +be sure she had a heart. She part smiles; she keeps her mouth shut, but +there's the dimple, and it means a thought, like a bubble bursting up +from the heart in her breast. She's tall. She carries herself like a +great French lady, and nothing beats that. It's the same colour, dark +eyebrows and fair hair. And not thinking of her pride. She thinks of her +walk, and the end of it, where he's waiting. The eyes are not the same.' + +'The same?' said Caroline. + +'As this.' He tapped on the left side. She did not understand it at all. + +'The bit of work done in Vienna,' said he. + +She blushed. 'Do you admire that so much?' + +'I do.' + +'We consider it not to be compared to this.' + +'Perhaps not. I like it better.' + +'But why do you like that better?' said Caroline, deeming it his +wilfulness. + +Patrick put out a finger. 'The eyes there don't seem to say, “I'm +yours to make a hero of you.” But look,' he drew forth from under his +waistcoat the miniature, 'what don't they say here! It's a bright day +for the Austrian capital that has her by the river Danube. Yours has a +landscape; I've made acquaintance with the country, I caught the print +of it on my ride yesterday; and those are your mountains. But mine has +her all to herself while she's thinking undisturbed in her boudoir. +I have her and her thoughts; that's next to her soul. I've an idea +it ought to be given to Philip.' He craned his head round to woo some +shadow of assent to the daring suggestion. 'Just to break the shock +'twill be to my brother, Miss Adister. If I could hand him this, and +say, “Keep it, for you'll get nothing more of her; and that's worth a +kingdom.”' + +Caroline faltered: 'Your brother does not know?' + +'Pity him. His blow 's to come. He can't or he 'd have spoken of it to +me. I was with him a couple of hours and he never mentioned a word of +it, nor did Captain Con. We talked of Ireland, and the service, and some +French cousins we have.' + +'Ladies?' Caroline inquired by instinct. + +'And charming,' said Patrick, 'real dear girls. Philip might have one, +if he would, and half my property, to make it right with her parents. +There'd be little use in proposing it. He was dead struck when the shaft +struck him. That's love! So I determined the night after I'd shaken his +hand I'd be off to Earlsfont and try my hardest for him. It's hopeless +now. Only he might have the miniature for his bride. I can tell him a +trifle to help him over his agony. She would have had him, she would, +Miss Adister, if she hadn't feared he'd be talked of as Captain Con +has been--about the neighbourhood, I mean, because he,' Patrick added +hurriedly, 'he married an heiress and sank his ambition for distinction +like a man who has finished his dinner. I'm certain she would. I have it +on authority.' + +'What authority?' said Caroline coldly. + +'Her own old nurse.' + +'Jenny Williams?' + +'The one! I had it from her. And how she loves her darling Miss Adiante! +She won't hear of “princess.” She hates that marriage. She was all for +my brother Philip. She calls him “Our handsome lieutenant.” She'll keep +the poor fellow a subaltern all his life.' + +'You went to Jenny's inn?' + +'The Earlsfont Arms, I went to. And Mrs. Jenny at the door, watching the +rain. Destiny directed me. She caught the likeness to Philip on a lift +of her eye, and very soon we sat conversing like old friends. We were +soon playing at old cronies over past times. I saw the way to bring her +out, so I set to work, and she was up in defence of her darling, ready +to tell me anything to get me to think well of her. And that was the +main reason, she said, why Miss Adiante broke with him and went abroad +her dear child wouldn't have Mr. Philip abused for fortune-hunting. As +for the religion, they could each have practised their own: her father +would have consented to the fact, when it came on him in that undeniable +shape of two made one. She says, Miss Adiante has a mighty soul; she has +brave ideas. Miss Deenly, she calls her. Ay, and so has Philip: though +the worst is, they're likely to drive him out of the army into politics +and Parliament; and an Irishman there is a barrow trolling a load of +grievances. Ah, but she would have kept him straight. Not a soldier +alive knows the use of cavalry better than my brother. He wanted just +that English wife to steady him and pour drops of universal fire into +him; to keep him face to face with the world, I mean; letting him be +true to his country in a fair degree, but not an old rainpipe and spout. +She would have held him to his profession. And, Oh dear! She's a friend +worth having, lost to Ireland. I see what she could have done there. +Something bigger than an island, too, has to be served in our days: that +is, if we don't forget our duty at home. Poor Paddy, and his pig, and +his bit of earth! If you knew what we feel for him! I'm a landlord, but +I'm one with my people about evictions. We Irish take strong root. And +honest rent paid over to absentees, through an agent, if you think of +it, seems like flinging the money that's the sweat of the brow into a +stone conduit to roll away to a giant maw hungry as the sea. It's the +bleeding to death of our land! Transactions from hand to hand of warm +human flesh-nothing else will do: I mean, for men of our blood. Ah! she +would have kept my brother temperate in his notions and his plans. And +why absentees, Miss Adister? Because we've no centre of home life: the +core has been taken out of us; our country has no hearth-fire. I'm for +union; only there should be justice, and a little knowledge to make +allowance for the natural cravings of a different kind of people. Well, +then, and I suppose that inter-marriages are good for both. But here +comes a man, the boldest and handsomest of his race, and he offers +himself to the handsomest and sweetest of yours, and she leans to him, +and the family won't have him. For he's an Irishman and a Catholic. Who +is it then opposed the proper union of the two islands? Not Philip. He +did his best; and if he does worse now he's not entirely to blame. +The misfortune is, that when he learns the total loss of her on that +rock-promontory, he'll be dashing himself upon rocks sure to shiver him. +There's my fear. If I might take him this...?' Patrick pleaded with the +miniature raised like the figure of his interrogation. + +Caroline's inward smile threw a soft light of humour over her features +at the simple cunning of his wind-up to the lecture on his country's +case, which led her to perceive a similar cunning simplicity in his +identification of it with Philip's. It startled her to surprise, for +the reason that she'd been reviewing his freakish hops from Philip to +Ireland and to Adiante, and wondering in a different kind of surprise, +how and by what profitless ingenuity he contrived to weave them +together. Nor was she unmoved, notwithstanding her fancied perception +of his Jesuitry: his look and his voice were persuasive; his love of his +brother was deep; his change of sentiment toward Adiante after the +tale told him by her old nurse Jenny, stood for proof of a generous +manliness. + +Before she had replied, her uncle entered the armoury, and Patrick was +pleading still, and she felt herself to be a piece of damask, a very +fiery dye. + +To disentangle herself, she said on an impulse, desperately + +'Mr. O'Donnell begs to have the miniature for his brother.' + +Patrick swung instantly to Mr. Adister. 'I presumed to ask for it, sir, +to carry it to Philip. He is ignorant about the princess as yet; he +would like to have a bit of the wreck. I shan't be a pleasant messenger +to him. I should be glad to take him something. It could be returned +after a time. She was a great deal to Philip--three parts of his life. +He has nothing of her to call his own.' + +'That!' said Mr. Adister. He turned to the virgin Adiante, sat down and +shut his eyes, fetching a breath. He looked vacantly at Patrick. + +'When you find a man purely destructive, you think him a devil, don't +you?' he said. + +'A good first cousin to one,' Patrick replied, watchful for a hint to +seize the connection. + +'If you think of hunting to-day, we have not many minutes to spare +before we mount. The meet is at eleven, five miles distant. Go and +choose your horse. Caroline will drive there.' + +Patrick consulted her on a glance for counsel. 'I shall be glad to join +you, sir, for to-morrow I must be off to my brother.' + +'Take it,' Mr. Adister waved his hand hastily. He gazed at his idol of +untouched eighteen. 'Keep it safe,' he said, discarding the sight of the +princess. 'Old houses are doomed to burnings, and a devil in the family +may bring us to ashes. And some day...!' he could not continue his +thought upon what he might be destined to wish for, and ran it on to, +'Some day I shall be happy to welcome your brother, when it pleases him +to visit me.' + +Patrick bowed, oppressed by the mighty gift. 'I haven't the word to +thank you with, sir.' + +Mr. Adister did not wait for it. + +'I owe this to you, Miss Adister,' said Patrick. + +Her voice shook: 'My uncle loves those who loved her.' + +He could see she was trembling. When he was alone his ardour of +gratefulness enabled him to see into her uncle's breast: the inflexible +frigidity; lasting regrets and remorse; the compassion for Philip in +kinship of grief and loss; the angry dignity; the stately generosity. + +He saw too, for he was clear-eyed when his feelings were not +over-active, the narrow pedestal whereon the stiff figure of a man +of iron pride must accommodate itself to stand in despite of tempests +without and within; and how the statue rocks there, how much more +pitiably than the common sons of earth who have the broad common field +to fall down on and our good mother's milk to set them on their legs +again. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. CAPTAIN CON AND MRS. ADISTER O'DONNELL + +Riding homeward from the hunt at the leisurely trot of men who have +steamed their mounts pretty well, Mr. Adister questioned Patrick +familiarly about his family, and his estate, and his brother's prospects +in the army, and whither he intended first to direct his travels: +questions which Patrick understood to be kindly put for the sake of +promoting conversation with a companion of unripe age by a gentleman who +had wholesomely excited his blood to run. They were answered, except the +last one. Patrick had no immediate destination in view. + +'Leave Europe behind you,' said Mr. Adister warming, to advise him, +and checking the trot of his horse. 'Try South America.' The lordly +gentleman plotted out a scheme of colonisation and conquest in that +region with the coolness of a practised freebooter. 'No young man is +worth a job,' he said, 'who does not mean to be a leader, and as leader +to have dominion. Here we are fettered by ancestry and antecedents. +Had I to recommence without those encumbrances, I would try my fortune +yonder. I stood condemned to waste my youth in idle parades, and hunting +the bear and buffalo. The estate you have inherited is not binding on +you. You can realise it, and begin by taking over two or three hundred +picked Irish and English--have both races capable of handling spade and +musket; purchasing some thousands of acres to establish a legal footing +there. + +'You increase your colony from the mother country in the ratio of your +prosperity, until your power is respected, and there is a necessity for +the extension of your territory. When you are feared you will be on your +mettle. They will favour you with provocation. I should not doubt the +result, supposing myself to have under my sole command a trained body of +men of English blood--and Irish.' + +'Owners of the soil,' rejoined Patrick, much marvelling. + +'Undoubtedly, owners of the soil, but owing you service.' + +'They fight sir' + +'It is hardly to be specified in the calculation, knowing them. Soldiery +who have served their term, particularly old artillerymen, would be my +choice: young fellows and boys among them. Women would have to be taken. +Half-breeds are the ruin of colonists. Our men are born for conquest. +We were conquerors here, and it is want of action and going physically +forward that makes us a rusty people. There are--Mr. Adister's +intonation told of his proposing a wretched alternative,--'the Pacific +Islands, but they will soon be snapped up by the European and North +American Governments, and a single one of them does not offer space. It +would require money and a navy.' He mused. 'South America is the quarter +I should decide for, as a young man. You are a judge of horses; you ride +well; you would have splendid pastures over there; you might raise a +famous breed. The air is fine; it would suit our English stock. We are +on ground, Mr. O'Donnell, which my forefathers contested sharply and did +not yield.' + +'The owners of the soil had to do that,' said Patrick. 'I can show the +same in my country, with a difference.' + +'Considerably to your benefit.' + +'Everything has been crushed there barring the contrary opinion.' + +'I could expect such a remark from a rebel.' + +'I'm only interpreting the people, sir.' + +'Jump out of that tinder-box as soon as you can.' + +'When I was in South America, it astonished me that no Englishman had +cast an eye on so inviting a land. Australia is not comparable with +it. And where colonisations have begun without system, and without hard +fighting to teach the settlers to value good leadership and respect +their chiefs, they tumble into Republics.' + +Patrick would have liked to fling a word in about the Englishman's cast +of his eye upon inviting lands, but the trot was resumed, the lord of +Earlsfont having delivered his mind, and a minute made it happily too +late for the sarcastic bolt. Glad that his tongue had been kept from +wagging, he trotted along beside his host in the dusky evening over the +once contested land where the gentleman's forefathers had done their +deeds and firmly fixed their descendants. A remainder of dull red fire +prolonged the half-day above the mountain strongholds of the former +owners of the soil, upon which prince and bard and priest, and +grappling natives never wanting for fierceness, roared to-arms in the +beacon-flames from ridge to peak: and down they poured, and back they +were pushed by the inveterate coloniser--stationing at threatened points +his old 'artillerymen' of those days and so it ends, that bard and +priest and prince; holy poetry, and divine prescription, and a righteous +holding; are as naught against him. They go, like yonder embers of the +winter sunset before advancing night: and to morrow the beacon-heaps +are ashes, the conqueror's foot stamps on them, the wind scatters them; +strangest of all, you hear victorious lawlessness appealing solemnly to +God the law. + +Patrick was too young to philosophise upon his ideas; or else the series +of pictures projected by the troops of sensations running through +him were not of a solidity to support any structure of philosophy. He +reverted, though rather in name than in spirit, to the abstractions, +justice, consistency, right. They were too hard to think of, so +he abandoned the puzzle of fitting them to men's acts and their +consciences, and he put them aside as mere titles employed for the uses +of a police and a tribunal to lend an appearance of legitimacy to the +decrees of them that have got the upper hand. An insurrectionary rising +of his breast on behalf of his country was the consequence. He kept +it down by turning the whole hubbub within him to the practical +contemplation of a visionary South America as the region for him and a +fighting tenantry. With a woman, to crown her queen there, the prospect +was fair. But where dwelt the woman possessing majesty suitable to such +a dream in her heart or her head? The best he had known in Ireland and +in France, preferred the charms of society to bold adventure. + +All the same, thought he, it's queer counsel, that we should set to work +by buying a bit of land to win a clean footing to rob our neighbours: +and his brains took another shot at Mr. Adister, this time without +penetrating. He could very well have seen the matter he disliked in a +man that he disliked; but the father of Adiante had touched him with the +gift of the miniature. + +Patrick was not asked to postpone his departure from Earlsfont, nor was +he invited to come again. Mr. Adister drove him to the station in the +early morning, and gave him a single nod from the phaeton-box for a +good-bye. Had not Caroline assured him at the leave-taking between them +that he had done her uncle great good by his visit, the blank of the +usual ceremonial phrases would have caused him to fancy himself an +intruder courteously dismissed, never more to enter the grand old Hall. +He was further comforted by hearing the stationmaster's exclamation +of astonishment and pleasure at the sight of the squire 'in his place' +handling the reins, which had not been witnessed for many a day and so +it appeared that the recent guest had been exceptionally complimented. +'But why not a warm word, instead of turning me off to decipher a bit of +Egyptian on baked brick,' he thought, incurably Celtic as he was. + +From the moment when he beheld Mr. Adister's phaeton mounting a hill +that took the first leap for the Cambrian highlands, up to his arrival +in London, scarcely one of his 'ideas' darted out before Patrick, as +they were in the habit of doing, like the enchanted bares of fairyland, +tempting him to pursue, and changing into the form of woman ever, at +some turn of the chase. For as he had travelled down to Earlsfont in the +state of ignorance and hopefulness, bearing the liquid brains of that +young condition, so did his acquisition of a particular fact destructive +of hope solidify them about it as he travelled back: in other words, +they were digesting what they had taken in. Imagination would not have +stirred for a thousand fleeting hares: and principally, it may be, +because he was conscious that no form of woman would anywhere come of +them. Woman was married; she had the ring on her finger! He could at his +option look on her in the miniature, he could think of her as being in +the city where she had been painted; but he could not conjure her out +of space; she was nowhere in the ambient air. Secretly she was a feeling +that lay half slumbering very deep down within him, and he kept the +secret, choosing to be poor rather than call her forth. He was in truth +digesting with difficulty, as must be the case when it is allotted to +the brains to absorb what the soul abhors. + +'Poor old Philip!' was his perpetual refrain. 'Philip, the girl you +loved is married; and here's her portrait taken in her last blush; and +the man who has her hasn't a share in that!' Thus, throwing in the ghost +of a sigh for sympathy, it seemed to Patrick that the intelligence would +have to be communicated. Bang is better, thought he, for bad news than +snapping fire and feinting, when you're bound half to kill a fellow, and +a manly fellow. + +Determined that bang it should be, he hurried from the terminus to +Philip's hotel, where he had left him, and was thence despatched to the +house of Captain Con O'Donnell, where he created a joyful confusion, +slightly dashed with rigour on the part of the regnant lady; which is +not to be wondered at, considering that both the gentlemen attending +her, Philip and her husband, quitted her table with shouts at the +announcement of his name, and her husband hauled him in unwashed before +her, crying that the lost was found, the errant returned, the Prodigal +Pat recovered by his kinsman! and she had to submit to the introduction +of the disturber: and a bedchamber had to be thought of for the +unexpected guest, and the dinner to be delayed in middle course, and her +husband corrected between the discussions concerning the bedchamber, and +either the guest permitted to appear at her table in sooty day-garb, +or else a great gap commanded in the service of her dishes, vexatious +extreme for a lady composed of orderliness. She acknowledged Patrick's +profound salute and his excuses with just so many degrees in the +inclining of her head as the polite deem a duty to themselves when the +ruffling world has disarranged them. + +'Con!' she called to her chattering husband, 'we are in England, if you +please.' + +'To be sure, madam,' said the captain, 'and so 's Patrick, thanks to +the stars. We fancied him gone, kidnapped, burned, made a meal of and +swallowed up, under the earth or the water; for he forgot to give us +his address in town; he stood before us for an hour or so, and then the +fellow vanished. We've waited for him gaping. With your permission I'll +venture an opinion that he'll go and dabble his hands and sit with us as +he is, for the once, as it happens.' + +'Let it be so,' she rejoined, not pacified beneath her dignity. She +named the bedchamber to a footman. + +'And I'll accompany the boy to hurry him on,' said the captain, hurrying +Patrick on as he spoke, till he had him out of the dining-room, when +he whispered: 'Out with your key, and if we can scramble you into your +evening-suit quick we shall heal the breach in the dinner. You dip your +hands and face, I'll have out the dress. You've the right style for her, +my boy: and mind, she is an excellent good woman, worthy of all respect: +but formality's the flattery she likes: a good bow and short speech. +Here we are, and the room's lighted. Off to the basin, give me the key; +and here's hot water in tripping Mary's hands. The portmanteau opens +easy. Quick! the door's shut on rosy Mary. The race is for domestic +peace, my boy. I sacrifice everything I can for it, in decency. 'Tis the +secret of my happiness.' + +Patrick's transformation was rapid enough to satisfy the impatient +captain, who said: 'You'll tell her you couldn't sit down in her +presence undressed. I married her at forty, you know, when a woman has +reached her perfect development, and leans a trifle more to ceremonies +than to substance. And where have you been the while?' + +'I'll tell you by and by,' said Patrick. + +'Tell me now, and don't be smirking at the glass; your necktie's as +neat as a lady's company-smile, equal at both ends, and warranted not to +relax before the evening 's over. And mind you don't set me off talking +over-much downstairs. I talk in her presence like the usher of the Court +to the judge. 'Tis the secret of my happiness.' + +'Where are those rascally dress-boots of mine?' cried Patrick. + +Captain Con pitched the contents of the portmanteau right and left. +'Never mind the boots, my boy. Your legs will be under the table during +dinner, and we'll institute a rummage up here between that and the +procession to the drawing-room, where you'll be examined head to foot, +devil a doubt of it. But say, where have you been? She'll be asking, and +we're in a mess already, and may as well have a place to name to her, +somewhere, to excuse the gash you've made in her dinner. Here they are, +both of 'm, rolled in a dirty shirt!' + +Patrick seized the boots and tugged them on, saying 'Earlsfont, then.' + +'You've been visiting Earlsfont? Whack! but that's the saving of us! +Talk to her of her brother he sends her his love. Talk to her of the +ancestral hall--it stands as it was on the day of its foundation. Just +wait about five minutes to let her punish us, before you out with it. +'Twill come best from you. What did you go down there for? But don't +stand answering questions; come along. Don't heed her countenance at +the going in: we've got the talisman. As to the dressing, it's a perfect +trick of harlequinade, and she'll own it after a dose of Earlsfont. And, +by the way, she's not Mrs. Con, remember; she's Mrs. Adister O'Donnell: +and that's best rolled out to Mistress. She's a worthy woman, but she +was married at forty, and I had to take her shaped as she was, for +moulding her at all was out of the question, and the soft parts of me +had to be the sufferers, to effect a conjunction, for where one won't +and can't, poor t' other must, or the union's a mockery. She was cast in +bronze at her birth, if she wasn't cut in bog-root. Anyhow, you'll study +her. Consider her for my sake. Madam, it should be--madam, call her, +addressing her, madam. She hasn't a taste for jokes, and she chastises +absurdities, and England's the foremost country of the globe, indirect +communication with heaven, and only to be connected with such a country +by the tail of it is a special distinction and a comfort for us; we're +that part of the kite!--but, Patrick, she's a charitable soul; she's +a virtuous woman and an affectionate wife, and doesn't frown to see me +turn off to my place of worship while she drum-majors it away to her +own; she entertains Father Boyle heartily, like the good woman she is +to good men; and unfortunate females too have a friend in her, a real +friend--that they have; and that 's a wonder in a woman chaste as ice. +I do respect her; and I'd like to see the man to favour me with an +opportunity of proving it on him! So you'll not forget, my boy; and +prepare for a cold bath the first five minutes. Out with Earlsfont early +after that. All these things are trifles to an unmarried man. I have +to attend to 'm, I have to be politic and give her elbow-room for her +natural angles. 'Tis the secret of my happiness.' + +Priming his kinsman thus up to the door of the diningroom, Captain Con +thrust him in. + +Mistress Adister O'Donnell's head rounded as by slow attraction to the +clock. Her disciplined husband signified an equal mixture of contrition +and astonishment at the passing of time. He fell to work upon his plate +in obedience to the immediate policy dictated to him. + +The unbending English lady contrasted with her husband so signally +that the oddly united couple appeared yoked in a common harness for +a perpetual display of the opposition of the races. She resembled her +brother, the lord of Earlsfont, in her remarkable height and her calm +air of authority and self-sustainment. From beneath a head-dress built +of white curls and costly lace, half enclosing her high narrow forehead, +a pale, thin, straight bridge of nose descended prominently over her +sunken cheeks to thin locked lips. Her aspect suggested the repose of +a winter landscape, enjoyable in pictures, or on skates, otherwise +nipping.... Mental directness, of no greater breadth than her principal +feature, was the character it expressed; and candour of spirit shone +through the transparency she was, if that mild taper could be said to +shine in proof of a vitality rarely notified to the outer world by the +opening of her mouth; chiefly then, though not malevolently to command: +as the portal of some snow-bound monastery opens to the outcast, bidding +it be known that the light across the wolds was not deceptive and a +glimmer of light subsists among the silent within. The life sufficed to +her. She was like a marble effigy seated upright, requiring but to be +laid at her length for transport to the cover of the tomb. + +Now Captain Con was by nature ruddy as an Indian summer flushed in all +its leaves. The corners of his face had everywhere a frank ambush, or +child's hiding-place, for languages and laughter. He could worm with a +smile quite his own the humour out of men possessing any; and even under +rigorous law, and it could not be disputed that there was rigour in the +beneficent laws imposed upon him by his wife, his genius for humour and +passion for sly independence came up and curled away like the smoke of +the illicit still, wherein the fanciful discern fine sprites indulging +in luxurious grimaces at a government long-nosed to no purpose. Perhaps, +as Patrick said of him to Caroline Adister, he was a bard without a +theme. He certainly was a man of speech, and the having fearfully to +contain himself for the greater number of the hours of the day, for the +preservation of the domestic felicity he had learnt to value, fathered +the sentiment of revolt in his bosom. + +By this time, long after five minutes had elapsed, the frost presiding +at the table was fast withering Captain Con; and he was irritable to +hear why Patrick had gone off to Earlsfont, and what he had done there, +and the adventures he had tasted on the road; anything for warmth. His +efforts to fish the word out of Patrick produced deeper crevasses in the +conversation, and he cried to himself: Hats and crape-bands! mightily +struck by an idea that he and his cousins were a party of hired mourners +over the meat they consumed. Patrick was endeavouring to spare his +brother a mention of Earlsfont before they had private talk together. He +answered neither to a dip of the hook nor to a pull. + +'The desert where you 've come from 's good,' said the captain, sharply +nodding. + +Mrs. Adister O'Donnell ejaculated: 'Wine!' for a heavy comment upon one +of his topics, and crushed it. + +Philip saw that Patrick had no desire to spread, and did not trouble +him. + +'Good horses in the stable too,' said the captain. + +Patrick addressed Mrs. Adister: 'I have hardly excused myself to you, +madam.' + +Her head was aloft in dumb apostrophe of wearifulness over another of +her husband's topics. + +'Do not excuse yourself at all,' she said. + +The captain shivered. He overhauled his plotting soul publicly: 'Why +don't you out with it yourself!' and it was wonderful why he had not +done so, save that he was prone to petty conspiracy, and had thought +reasonably that the revelation would be damp, gunpowder, coming from +him. And for when he added: 'The boy's fresh from Earlsfont; he went +down to look at the brav old house of the Adisters, and was nobly +welcomed and entertained, and made a vast impression,' his wife sedately +remarked to Patrick, 'You have seen my brother Edward.' + +'And brings a message of his love to you, my dear,' the Captain bit his +nail harder. + +'You have a message for me?' she asked; and Patrick replied: 'The +captain is giving a free translation. I was down there, and I took the +liberty of calling on Mr. Adister, and I had a very kind reception. We +hunted, we had a good day with the hounds. I think I remember hearing +that you go there at Christmas, madam.' + +'Our last Christmas at Earlsfont was a sad meeting for the family. My +brother Edward is well?' + +'I had the happiness to be told that I had been of a little service in +cheering him.' + +'I can believe it,' said Mrs. Adister, letting her eyes dwell on the +young man; and he was moved by the silvery tremulousness of her voice. + +She resumed: 'You have the art of dressing in a surprisingly short +time.' + +'There!' exclaimed Captain Con: for no man can hear the words which +prove him a prophet without showing excitement. 'Didn't I say so? +Patrick's a hero for love or war, my dear. He stood neat and trim from +the silk socks to the sprig of necktie in six minutes by my watch. +And that's witness to me that you may count on him for what the great +Napoleon called two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage; not too common even +in his immortal army:--when it's pitch black and frosty cold, and you're +buried within in a dream of home, and the trumpet springs you to your +legs in a trice, boots and trowsers, coat and sword-belt and shako, and +one twirl to the whiskers, and away before a second snap of the fingers +to where the great big bursting end of all things for you lies crouching +like a Java-Tiger--a ferocious beast painted undertaker's colour--for a +leap at you in particular out of the dark;--never waiting an instant to +ask what's the matter and pretend you don't know. That's rare, Philip; +that's bravery; Napoleon knew the thing; and Patrick has it; my hand's +on the boy's back for that.' + +The captain was permitted to discourse as he pleased: his wife was +wholly given to the recent visitor to Earlsfont, whom she informed +that Caroline was the youngest daughter of General Adister, her second +brother, and an excellent maiden, her dear Edward's mainstay in his +grief. At last she rose, and was escorted to the door by all present. +But Captain Con rather shame-facedly explained to Patrick that it was +a sham departure; they had to follow without a single spin to the +claretjug: he closed the door merely to state his position; how at +half-past ten he would be a free man, according to the convention, to +which his wife honourably adhered, so he had to do likewise, as regarded +his share of it. Thereupon he apologised to the brothers, bitterly +regretting that, with good wine in the cellar, his could be no house for +claret; and promising them they should sit in their shirts and stretch +their legs, and toast the old country and open their hearts, no later +than the minute pointing to the time for his deliverance. + +Mrs. Adister accepted her husband's proffered arm unhesitatingly at the +appointed stroke of the clock. She said: 'Yes,' in agreement with him, +as if she had never heard him previously enunciate the formula, upon his +pious vociferation that there should be no trifling with her hours of +rest. + +'You can find your way to my cabin,' he said to Philip over his +shoulder, full of solicitude for the steps of the admirable lady now +positively departing. + +As soon as the brothers were alone, Philip laid his hand on Patrick, +asking him, 'What does it mean?' + +Patrick fired his cannon-shot: 'She's married!' Consulting his feelings +immediately after, he hated himself for his bluntness. + +Philip tossed his head. 'But why did you go down there?' + +'I went,' said Patrick, 'well, I went.... I thought you looked wretched, +and I went with an idea of learning where she was, and seeing if I +couldn't do something. It's too late now; all's over.' + +'My dear boy, I've worse than that to think of.' + +'You don't mind it?' + +'That's old news, Patrick.' + +'You don't care for her any more, Philip?' + +'You wouldn't have me caring for a married woman?' + +'She has a perfect beast for a husband.' + +'I'm sorry she didn't make a better choice.' + +'He's a prince.' + +'So I hear.' + +'Ah! And what worse, Philip, can you be having to think of?' + +'Affairs,' Philip replied, and made his way to the cabin of Captain Con, +followed in wonderment by Patrick, who would hardly have been his dupe +to suppose him indifferent and his love of Adiante dead, had not the +thought flashed on him a prospect of retaining the miniature for his +own, or for long in his custody. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN + +Patrick left his brother at the second flight of stairs to run and fling +on a shooting-jacket, into which he stuffed his treasure, after one peep +that eclipsed his little dream of being allowed to keep it; and so he +saw through Philip. + +The captain's cabin was the crown of his house-top, a builder's addition +to the roof, where the detestable deeds he revelled in, calling them +liberty, could be practised, according to the convention, and no one +save rosy Mary, in her sense of smell, when she came upon her morning +business to clean and sweep, be any the wiser of them, because, as it +is known to the whole world, smoke ascends, and he was up among the +chimneys. Here, he would say to his friends and fellow-sinners, you can +unfold, unbosom, explode, do all you like, except caper, and there 's a +small square of lead between the tiles outside for that, if the spirit +of the jig comes upon you with violence, as I have had it on me, and +eased myself mightily there, to my own music; and the capital of the +British Empire below me. Here we take our indemnity for subjection to +the tyrannical female ear, and talk like copious rivers meandering at +their own sweet will. Here we roll like dogs in carrion, and no one to +sniff at our coats. Here we sing treason, here we flout reason, night is +out season at half-past ten. + +This introductory ode to Freedom was his throwing off of steam, the +foretaste of what he contained. He rejoined his cousins, chirping +variations on it, and attired in a green silken suit of airy Ottoman +volume, full of incitement to the legs and arms to swing and set him up +for a Sultan. 'Now Phil, now Pat,' he cried, after tenderly pulling +the door to and making sure it was shut, 'any tale you've a mind +for--infamous and audacious! You're licensed by the gods up here, and +may laugh at them too, and their mothers and grandmothers, if the fit +seizes ye, and the heartier it is the greater the exemption. We're +pots that knock the lid and must pour out or boil over and destroy the +furniture. My praties are ready for peelin', if ever they were in this +world! Chuck wigs from sconces, and off with your buckram. Decency's a +dirty petticoat in the Garden of Innocence. Naked we stand, boys! we're +not afraid of nature. You're in the annexe of Erin, Pat, and devil a +constable at the keyhole; no rats; I'll say that for the Government, +though it's a despotism with an iron bridle on the tongue outside to a +foot of the door. Arctic to freeze the boldest bud of liberty! I'd +like a French chanson from ye, Pat, to put us in tune, with a right +revolutionary hurling chorus, that pitches Kings' heads into the basket +like autumn apples. Or one of your hymns in Gaelic sung ferociously to +sound as horrid to the Saxon, the wretch. His reign 's not for ever; he +can't enter here. You're in the stronghold defying him. And now cigars, +boys, pipes; there are the boxes, there are the bowls. I can't smoke +till I have done steaming. I'll sit awhile silently for the operation. +Christendom hasn't such a man as your cousin Con for feeling himself +a pig-possessed all the blessed day, acting the part of somebody +else, till it takes me a quarter of an hour of my enfranchisement and +restoration of my natural man to know myself again. For the moment, I'm +froth, scum, horrid boiling hissing dew of the agony of transformation; +I am; I'm that pig disgorging the spirit of wickedness from his poor +stomach.' + +The captain drooped to represent the state of the self-relieving victim +of the evil one; but fearful lest either of his cousins should usurp +the chair and thwart his chance of delivering himself, he rattled +away sympathetically with his posture in melancholy: 'Ay, we're +poor creatures; pigs and prophets, princes and people, victors and +vanquished, we 're waves of the sea, rolling over and over, and calling +it life! There's no life save the eternal. Father Boyle's got the truth. +Flesh is less than grass, my sons; 'tis the shadow that crosses the +grass. I love the grass. I could sit and watch grassblades for hours. I +love an old turf mound, where the grey grass nods and seems to know the +wind and have a whisper with it, of ancient times maybe and most like; +about the big chief lying underneath in the last must of his bones that +a breath of air would scatter. They just keep their skeleton shape as +they are; for the turf mound protects them from troubles: 'tis the nurse +to that delicate old infant!--Waves of the sea, did I say? We're wash in +a hog-trough for Father Saturn to devour; big chief and suckling babe, +we all go into it, calling it life! And what hope have we of reading +the mystery? All we can see is the straining of the old fellow's hams to +push his old snout deeper into the gobble, and the ridiculous curl of a +tail totally devoid of expression! You'll observe that gluttons have no +feature; they're jaws and hindquarters; which is the beginning and end +of 'm; and so you may say to Time for his dealing with us: so let it +be a lesson to you not to bother your wits, but leave the puzzle to +the priest. He understands it, and why? because he was told. There 's +harmony in his elocution, and there's none in the modern drivel about +where we're going and what we came out of. No wonder they call it an +age of despair, when you see the big wigs filing up and down the +thoroughfares with a great advertisement board on their shoulders, +proclaiming no information to the multitude, but a blank note of +interrogation addressed to Providence, as if an answer from above would +be vouchsafed to their impudence! They haven't the first principles of +good manners. And some of 'm in a rage bawl the answer for themselves. +Hear that! No, Phil; No, Pat, no: devotion's good policy.--You're not +drinking! Are you both of ye asleep? why do ye leave me to drone away +like this, when it 's conversation I want, as in the days of our first +parents, before the fig-leaf?--and you might have that for scroll +and figure on the social banner of the hypocritical Saxon, who's a +gormandising animal behind his decency, and nearer to the Arch-devourer +Time than anything I can imagine: except that with a little exertion +you can elude him. The whisky you've got between you 's virgin of the +excise. I'll pay double for freepeaty any day. Or are you for claret, my +lads? No? I'm fortified up here to stand a siege in my old round tower, +like the son of Eremon that I am. Lavra Con! Con speaks at last! I don't +ask you, Pat, whether you remember Maen, who was born dumb, and had +for his tutors Ferkelne the bard and Crafting the harper, at pleasant +Dinree: he was grandson of Leary Lore who was basely murdered by his +brother Cova, and Cova spared the dumb boy, thinking a man without a +tongue harmless, as fools do: being one of their savings-bank tricks, to +be repaid them, their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns at +compound interest, have no fear. So one day Maen had an insult put on +him; and 'twas this for certain: a ruffian fellow of the Court swore he +couldn't mention the name of his father; and in a thundering fury Maen +burst his tongue-tie, and the Court shouted Lavra Maen: and he had to go +into exile, where he married in the middle of delicious love-adventures +the beautiful Moira through the cunning of Craftine the harper. There's +been no harper in my instance but plenty of ruffians to swear I'm too +comfortable to think of my country.' The captain holloaed. 'Do they hear +that? Lord! but wouldn't our old Celtic fill the world with poetry if +only we were a free people to give our minds to 't, instead of to the +itch on our backs from the Saxon horsehair shirt we're forced to wear. +For, Pat, as you know, we're a loving people, we're a loyal people, we +burn to be enthusiastic, but when our skins are eternally irritated, how +can we sing? In a freer Erin I'd be the bard of the land, never doubt +it. What am I here but a discontented idle lout crooning over the empty +glories of our isle of Saints! You feel them, Pat. Phil's all for his +British army, his capabilities of British light cavalry. Write me the +history of the Enniskillens. I'll read it. Aha, my boy, when they 're +off at the charge! And you'll oblige me with the tale of Fontenoy. Why, +Phil has an opportunity stretching forth a hand to him now more than +halfway that comes to a young Irishman but once in a century: backed by +the entire body of the priesthood of Ireland too! and if only he was a +quarter as full of the old country as you and I, his hair would stand up +in fire for the splendid gallop at our head that's proposed to him. His +country's gathered up like a crested billow to roll him into Parliament; +and I say, let him be there, he 's the very man to hurl his gauntlet, +and tell 'm, Parliament, so long as you are parliamentary, which means +the speaking of our minds, but if you won't have it, then-and it 's on +your heads before Europe and the two Americas. We're dying like a nun +that 'd be out of her cloister, we're panting like the wife who hears of +her husband coming home to her from the field of honour, for that young +man. And there he is; or there he seems to be; but he's dead: and the +fisherman off the west coast after dreaming of a magical haul, gets more +fish than disappointment in comparison with us when we cast the net for +Philip. Bring tears of vexation at the emptiness we pull back for our +pains. Oh, Phil! and to think of your youth! We had you then. At least +we had your heart. And we should have had the length and strength of +you, only for a woman fatal to us as the daughter of Rhys ap Tudor, +the beautiful Nesta:--and beautiful she was to match the mother of the +curses trooping over to Ireland under Strongbow, that I'll grant you. +But she reined you in when you were a real warhorse ramping and snorting +flame from your nostrils, challenging any other to a race for Ireland; +ay, a Cuchullin you were, Philip, Culann's chain-bound: but she unmanned +you. She soaked the woman into you and squeezed the hero out of you. All +for Adiante! or a country left to slavery! that's the tale. And what +are you now? A paltry captain of hussars on the General's staff! One +O'Donnell in a thousand! And what is she?--you needn't frown, Phil; I'm +her relative by marriage, and she 's a lady. More than that, she shot +a dart or two into my breast in those days, she did, I'll own it: I +had the catch of the breath that warns us of convulsions. She was the +morning star for beauty, between night and day, and the best colour of +both. Welshmen and Irishmen and Englishmen tumbled into the pit, which +seeing her was, and there we jostled for a glimpse quite companionably; +we were too hungry for quarrelling; and to say, I was one of 'm, is a +title to subsequent friendship. True; only mark me, Philip, and you, +Patrick: they say she has married a prince, and I say no; she's took to +herself a husband in her cradle; she's married ambition. I tell you, and +this prince of hers is only a step she has taken, and if he chases her +first mate from her bosom, he'll prove himself cleverer than she, and +I dare him to the trial. For she's that fiery dragon, a beautiful woman +with brains--which Helen of Troy hadn't, combustible as we know her +to have been: but brains are bombshells in comparison with your +old-fashioned pine-brands for kindling men and cities. Ambition's the +husband of Adiante Adister, and all who come nigh her are steps to her +aim. She never consulted her father about Prince Nikolas; she had begun +her march and she didn't mean to be arrested. She simply announced her +approaching union; and as she couldn't have a scion of one of the Royal +House of Europe, she put her foot on Prince Nikolas. And he 's not to +fancy he 's in for a peaceful existence; he's a stone in a sling, and +probably mistaken the rocking that's to launch him through the air for +a condition of remarkable ease, perfectly remarkable in its lullaby +motion; ha! well, and I've not heard of ambition that didn't kill its +votary: somehow it will; 'tis sure to. There she lies!' + +The prophetic captain pointed at the spot. He then said: 'And now I'm +for my pipe, and the blackest clay of the party, with your permission. +I'll just go to the window to see if the stars are out overhead. They're +my blessed guardian angels.' + +There was a pause. Philip broke from a brown study to glance at his +brother. Patrick made a queer face. + +'Fun and good-fellowship to-night, Con,' said Philip, as the captain +sadly reported no star visible. + +'Have I ever flown a signal to the contrary?' retorted the captain. + +'No politics, and I 'll thank you,' said Philip: 'none of your early +recollections. Be jovial.' + +'You should have seen me here the other night about a month ago; I +smuggled up an old countrywoman of ours, with the connivance of rosy +Mary,' said Captain Con, suffused in the merriest of grins. 'She sells +apples at a stall at a corner of a street hard by, and I saw her sitting +pulling at her old pipe in the cold October fog morning and evening for +comfort, and was overwhelmed with compassion and fraternal sentiment; +and so I invited her to be at the door of the house at half-past ten, +just to have a roll with her in Irish mud, and mend her torn soul with +a stitch or two of rejoicing. She told me stories; and one was pretty +good, of a relative of hers, or somebody's--I should say, a century old, +but she told it with a becoming air of appropriation that made it family +history, for she's come down in the world, and this fellow had a stain +of red upon him, and wanted cleaning; and, “What!” says the good father, +“Mika! you did it in cold blood?” And says Mika, “Not I, your Riverence. +I got myself into a passion 'fore I let loose.” I believe she smoked +this identical pipe. She acknowledged the merits of my whisky, as +poets do hearing fine verses, never clapping hands, but with the +expressiveness of grave absorption. That's the way to make good things +a part of you. She was a treat. I got her out and off at midnight, rosy +Mary sneaking her down, and the old girl quiet as a mouse for the fun's +sake. The whole intrigue was exquisitely managed.' + +'You run great risks,' Philip observed. + +'I do,' said the captain. + +He called on the brothers to admire the 'martial and fumial' decorations +of his round tower, buzzing over the display of implements, while +Patrick examined guns and Philip unsheathed swords. An ancient clay pipe +from the bed of the Thames and one from the bed of the Boyne were +laid side by side, and strange to relate, the Irish pipe and English +immediately, by the mere fact of their being proximate, entered into +rivalry; they all but leapt upon one another. The captain judicially +decided the case against the English pipe, as a newer pipe of grosser +manufacture, not so curious by any means. + +'This,' Philip held up the reputed Irish pipe, and scanned as he twirled +it on his thumb, 'This was dropped in Boyne Water by one of William's +troopers. It is an Orange pipe. I take it to be of English make.' + +'If I thought that, I'd stamp my heel on the humbug the neighbour +minute,' said Captain Con. 'Where's the sign of English marks?' + +'The pipes resemble one another,' said Philip, 'like tails of +Shannon-bred retrievers.' + +'Maybe they 're both Irish, then?' the captain caught at analogy to +rescue his favourite from reproach. + +'Both of them are Saxon.' + +'Not a bit of it!' + +'Look at the clay.' + +'I look, and I tell you, Philip, it's of a piece with your lukewarmness +for the country, or you wouldn't talk like that.' + +'There is no record of pipe manufactories in Ireland at the period you +name.' + +'There is: and the jealousy of rulers caused them to be destroyed by +decrees, if you want historical evidence.' + +'Your opposition to the Saxon would rob him of his pipe, Con!' + +'Let him go to the deuce with as many pipes as he can carry; but he +shan't have this one.' + +'Not a toss-up of difference is to be seen in the pair.' + +'Use your eyes. The Irish bowl is broken, and the English has an inch +longer stem!' + +'O the Irish bowl is broken!' Philip sang. + +'You've the heart of a renegade-foreigner not to see it!' cried the +captain. + +Patrick intervened saying: 'I suspect they're Dutch.' + +'Well, and that 's possible.' Captain Con scrutinised them to calm his +temper: 'there's a Dutchiness in the shape.' + +He offered Philip the compromise of 'Dutch' rather plaintively, but it +was not accepted, and the pipes would have mingled their fragments on +the hearthstone if Patrick had not stayed his arm, saying: 'Don't hurt +them.' + +'And I won't,' the captain shook his hand gratefully. + +'But will Philip O'Donnell tell me that Ireland should lie down with +England on the terms of a traveller obliged to take a bedfellow? Come! +He hasn't an answer. Put it to him, and you pose him. But he 'll not +stir, though he admits the antagonism. And Ireland is asked to lie down +with England on a couch blessed by the priest! Not she. Wipe out our +grievances, and then we'll begin to talk of policy. Good Lord!--love? +The love of Ireland for the conquering country will be the celebrated +ceremony in the concluding chapter previous to the inauguration of the +millennium. Thousands of us are in a starving state at home this winter, +Patrick. And it's not the fault of England?--landlordism 's not? Who +caused the ruin of all Ireland's industries? You might as well say that +it 's the fault of the poor beggar to go limping and hungry because his +cruel master struck him a blow to cripple him. We don't want half and +half doctoring, and it's too late in the day for half and half oratory. +We want freedom, and we'll have it, and we won't leave it to the Saxon +to think about giving it. And if your brother Philip won't accept this +blazing fine offer, then I will, and you'll behold me in a new attitude. +The fellow yawns! You don't know me yet, Philip. They tell us over here +we ought to be satisfied. Fall upon our list of wrongs, and they set to +work yawning. You can only move them by popping at them over hedges and +roaring on platforms. They're incapable of understanding a complaint +a yard beyond their noses. The Englishman has an island mind, and when +he's out of it he's at sea.' + +'Mad, you mean,' said Philip. + +'I repeat my words, Captain Philip O'Donnell, late of the staff of the +General commanding in Canada.' + +'The Irishman too has an island mind, and when he's out of it he's at +sea, and unable to manage his craft,' said Philip. + +'You'll find more craft in him when he's buffeted than you reckoned on,' +his cousin flung back. 'And if that isn't the speech of a traitor sold +to the enemy, and now throwing off the mask, traitors never did mischief +in Ireland! Why, what can you discover to admire in these people? Isn't +their army such a combination of colours in the uniforms, with their +yellow facings on red jackets, I never saw out of a doll-shop, and never +saw there. And their Horse Guards, weedy to a man! fit for a doll-shop +they are, by my faith! And their Foot Guards: Have ye met the fellows +marching? with their feet turned out, flat as my laundress's irons, and +the muscles of their calves depending on the joints to get 'm along, for +elasticity never gave those bones of theirs a springing touch; and their +bearskins heeling behind on their polls; like pot-house churls daring +the dursn't to come on. Of course they can fight. Who said no? But they +'re not the only ones: and they 'll miss their ranks before they can +march like our Irish lads. The look of their men in line is for all +the world to us what lack-lustre is to the eye. The drill they 've had +hasn't driven Hodge out of them, it has only stiffened the dolt; and +dolt won't do any longer; the military machine requires intelligence +in all ranks now. Ay, the time for the Celt is dawning: I see it, and +I don't often spy a spark where there isn't soon a blaze. Solidity and +stupidity have had their innings: a precious long innings it has been; +and now they're shoved aside like clods of earth from the risin flower. +Off with our shackles! We've only to determine it to be free, and we'll +bloom again; and I'll be the first to speak the word and mount the +colours. Follow me! Will ye join in the toast to the emblem of Erin--the +shamrock, Phil and Pat?' + +'Oh, certainly,' said Philip. 'What 's that row going on?' Patrick also +called attention to the singular noise in the room. 'I fancy the time +for the Celt is not dawning, but setting,' said Philip, with a sharp +smile; and Patrick wore an artful look. + +A corner of the room was guilty of the incessant alarum. Captain Con +gazed in that direction incredulously and with remonstrance. 'The +tinkler it is!' he sighed. 'But it can't be midnight yet?' Watches were +examined. Time stood at half-past the midnight. He groaned: 'I must go. +I haven't heard the tinkler for months. It signifies she's cold in her +bed. The thing called circulation's unknown to her save by the aid of +outward application, and I 'm the warming pan, as legitimately I should +be, I'm her husband and her Harvey in one. Goodbye to my hop and skip. +I ought by rights to have been down beside her at midnight. She's the +worthiest woman alive, and I don't shirk my duty. Be quiet!' he bellowed +at the alarum; 'I 'm coming. Don't be in such a fright, my dear,' he +admonished it as his wife, politely. 'Your hand'll take an hour to +warm if you keep it out on the spring that sets the creature going.' +He turned and informed his company: 'Her hand'll take an hour to warm. +Dear! how she runs ahead: d' ye hear? That's the female tongue, and once +off it won't stop. And this contrivance for fetching me from my tower to +her bed was my own suggestion, in a fit of generosity! Ireland all over! +I must hurry and wash my hair, for she can't bear a perfume to kill a +stink; she carries her charitable heart that far. Good-night, I'll be +thinking of ye while I'm warming her. Sit still, I can't wait; 'tis the +secret of my happiness.' He fled. Patrick struck his knee on hearing the +expected ballad-burden recur. + + + + +CHAPTER X. THE BROTHERS + +'Con has learnt one secret,' said Philip, quitting his chair. + +Patrick went up to him, and, 'Give us a hug,' he said, and the hug was +given. + +They were of an equal height, tall young men, alert, nervously braced +from head to foot, with the differences between soldier and civilian +marked by the succintly military bearing of the elder brother, whose +movements were precise and prompt, and whose frame was leopardlike in +indolence. Beside him Patrick seemed cubbish, though beside another +he would not have appeared so. His features were not so brilliantly +regular, but were a fanciful sketch of the same design, showing a wider +pattern of the long square head and the forehead, a wavering at the dip +of the nose, livelier nostrils: the nostrils dilated and contracted, and +were exceeding alive. His eyelids had to do with the look of his eyes, +and were often seen cutting the ball. Philip's eyes were large on the +pent of his brows, open, liquid, and quick with the fire in him. Eyes +of that quality are the visible mind, animated both to speak it and +to render it what comes within their scope. They were full, unshaded +direct, the man himself, in action. Patrick's mouth had to be studied +for an additional index to the character. To symbolise them, they were +as a sword-blade lying beside book. + +Men would have thought Patrick the slippery one of the two: women would +have inclined to confide in him the more thoroughly; they bring feeling +to the test, and do not so much read a print as read the imprinting on +themselves; and the report that a certain one of us is true as steel, +must be unanimous at a propitious hour to assure them completely that +the steel is not two-edged in the fully formed nature of a man whom they +have not tried. They are more at home with the unformed, which lends +itself to feeling and imagination. Besides Patrick came nearer to them; +he showed sensibility. They have it, and they deem it auspicious of +goodness, or of the gentleness acceptable as an equivalent. Not the less +was Philip the one to inspire the deeper and the wilder passion. + +'So you've been down there?' said Philip. 'Tell us of your welcome. +Never mind why you went: I think I see. You're the Patrick of fourteen, +who tramped across Connaught for young Dermot to have a sight of you +before he died, poor lad. How did Mr. Adister receive you?' + +Patrick described the first interview. + +Philip mused over it. 'Yes, those are some of his ideas: gentlemen are +to excel in the knightly exercises. He used to fence excellently, and he +was a good horseman. The Jesuit seminary would have been hard for him to +swallow once. The house is a fine old house: lonely, I suppose.' + +Patrick spoke of Caroline Adister and pursued his narrative. Philip was +lost in thought. At the conclusion, relating to South America, he raised +his head and said: 'Not so foolish as it struck you, Patrick. You and I +might do that,--without the design upon the original owner of the +soil! Irishmen are better out of Europe, unless they enter one of the +Continental services.' + +'What is it Con O'Donnell proposes to you?' Patrick asked him earnestly. + +'To be a speaking trumpet in Parliament. And to put it first among the +objections, I haven't an independence; not above two hundred a year.' + +'I'll make it a thousand,' said Patrick, 'that is, if my people can +pay.' + +'Secondly, I don't want to give up my profession. Thirdly, fourthly, +fifthly, once there, I should be boiling with the rest. I never could +go half way. This idea of a commencement gives me a view of the finish. +Would you care to try it?' + +'If I'm no wiser after two or three years of the world I mean to make +a better acquaintance with,' Patrick replied. 'Over there at home one +catches the fever, you know. They have my feelings, and part of my +judgement, and whether that's the weaker part I can't at present decide. +My taste is for quiet farming and breeding.' + +'Friendship, as far as possible; union, if the terms are fair,' said +Philip. 'It's only the name of union now; supposing it a concession that +is asked of them; say, sacrifice; it might be made for the sake of what +our people would do to strengthen the nation. But they won't try to +understand our people. Their laws, and their rules, their systems are +forced on a race of an opposite temper, who would get on well enough, +and thrive, if they were properly consulted. Ireland 's the sore place +of England, and I'm sorry for it. We ought to be a solid square, with +Europe in this pickle. So I say, sitting here. What should I be saying +in Parliament?' + +'Is Con at all likely, do you think, Philip?' + +'He might: and become the burlesque Irishman of the House. There must be +one, and the lot would be safe to fall on him.' + +'Isn't he serious about it?' + +'Quite, I fancy; and that will be the fun. A serious fellow talking +nonsense with lively illustrations, is just the man for House of Commons +clown. Your humorous rogue is not half so taking. Con would be the +porpoise in a fish tank there, inscrutably busy on his errand and +watched for his tumblings. Better I than he; and I should make a worse +of it--at least for myself.' + +'Wouldn't the secret of his happiness interfere?' + +'If he has the secret inside his common sense. The bulk of it I suspect +to be, that he enjoys his luxuries and is ashamed of his laziness; and +so the secret pulls both ways. One day a fit of pride may have him, or +one of his warm impulses, and if he's taken in the tide of it, I shall +grieve for the secret.' + +'You like his wife, Philip?' + +'I respect her. They came together,--I suppose, because they were near +together, like the two islands, in spite of the rolling waves between. +I would not willingly see the union disturbed. He warms her, and she +houses him. And he has to control the hot blood that does the warming, +and she to moderate the severity of her principles, which are an +essential part of the housing. Oh! shiver politics, Patrice. I wish I +had been bred in France: a couple of years with your Pere Clement, and +I could have met Irishmen and felt to them as an Irishman, whether they +were disaffected or not. I wish I did. When I landed the other day, I +thought myself passably cured, and could have said that rhetoric is +the fire-water of our country, and claptrap the springboard to send +us diving into it. I like my comrades-in-arms, I like the character of +British officers, and the men too--I get on well with them. I declare +to you, Patrice, I burn to live in brotherhood with them, not a rift of +division at heart! I never show them that there is one. But our early +training has us; it comes on us again; three or four days with Con have +stirred me; I don't let him see it, but they always do: these tales of +starvations and shootings, all the old work just as when I left, act on +me like a smell of powder. I was dipped in “Ireland for the Irish”; and +a contented Irishman scarcely seems my countryman.' + +'I suppose it 's like what I hear of as digesting with difficulty,' +Patrick referred to the state described by his brother. + +'And not the most agreeable of food,' Philip added. + +'It would be the secret of our happiness to discover how to make the +best of it, if we had to pay penance for the discovery by living in an +Esquimaux shanty,' said Patrick. + +'With a frozen fish of admirable principles for wife,' said Philip. + +'Ah, you give me shudders!' + +'And it's her guest who talks of her in that style! and I hope to be +thought a gentleman!' Philip pulled himself up. 'We may be all in the +wrong. The way to begin to think so, is to do them an injury and forget +it. The sensation's not unpleasant when it's other than a question of +good taste. But politics to bed, Patrice. My chief is right--soldiers +have nothing to do with them. What are you fiddling at in your coat +there?' + +'Something for you, my dear Philip.' Patrick brought out the miniature. +He held it for his brother to look. 'It was the only thing I could get. +Mr. Adister sends it. The young lady, Miss Caroline, seconded me. They +think more of the big portrait: I don't. And it 's to be kept carefully, +in case of the other one getting damaged. That's only fair.' + +Philip drank in the face upon a swift shot of his eyes. + +'Mr. Adister sends it?' His tone implied wonder at such a change in +Adiante's father. + +'And an invitation to you to visit him when you please.' + +'That he might do,' said Philip: it was a lesser thing than to send her +likeness to him. + +Patrick could not help dropping his voice: 'Isn't it very like?' For +answer the miniature had to be inspected closely. + +Philip was a Spartan for keeping his feelings under. + +'Yes,' he said, after an interval quick with fiery touches on the +history of that face and his life. 'Older, of course. They are the +features, of course. The likeness is not bad. I suppose it resembles her +as she is now, or was when it was painted. You 're an odd fellow to have +asked for it.' + +'I thought you would wish to have it, Philip.' + +'You're a good boy, Patrice. Light those candles we'll go to bed. I want +a cool head for such brains as I have, and bumping the pillow all night +is not exactly wholesome. We'll cross the Channel in a few days, and see +the nest, and the mother, and the girls.' + +'Not St. George's Channel. Mother would rather you would go to France +and visit the De Reuils. She and the girls hope you will keep out of +Ireland for a time: it's hot. Judge if they're anxious, when it's to +stop them from seeing you, Philip!' + +'Good-night, dear boy.' Philip checked the departing Patrick. 'You can +leave that.' He made a sign for the miniature to be left on the table. + +Patrick laid it there. His brother had not touched it, and he could have +defended himself for having forgotten to leave it, on the plea that it +might prevent his brother from having his proper share of sleep; and +also, that Philip had no great pleasure in the possession of it. The +two pleas, however, did not make one harmonious apology, and he went +straight to the door in an odd silence, with the step of a decorous +office-clerk, keeping his shoulders turned on Philip to conceal his look +of destitution. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. INTRODUCING A NEW CHARACTER + +Letters and telegrams and morning journals lay on the breakfast-table, +awaiting the members of the household with combustible matter. Bad news +from Ireland came upon ominous news from India. Philip had ten words +of mandate from his commanding officer, and they signified action, +uncertain where. He was the soldier at once, buckled tight and buttoned +up over his private sentiments. Vienna shot a line to Mrs. Adister +O'Donnell. She communicated it: 'The Princess Nikolas has a son!' Captain +Con tossed his newspaper to the floor, crying: + +'To-day the city'll be a chimney on fire, with the blacks in everybody's +faces; but I must go down. It's hen and chicks with the director of a +City Company. I must go.' + +Did you say, madam?' Patrick inquired. 'A son,' said Mrs. Adister. + +'And the military holloaing for reinforcements,' exclaimed Con. 'Pheu! +Phil!' + +'That's what it comes to,' was Philip's answer. 'Precautionary measures, +eh?' + +'You can make them provocative.' 'Will you beg for India?' 'I shall hear +in an hour.' 'Have we got men?' + +'Always the question with us.' + +'What a country!' sighed the captain. 'I'd compose ye a song of old +Drowsylid, except that it does no good to be singing it at the only time +when you can show her the consequences of her sluggery. A country of +compromise goes to pieces at the first cannon-shot of the advance, and +while she's fighting on it's her poor business to be putting herself +together again: So she makes a mess of the beginning, to a certainty. If +it weren't that she had the army of Neptune about her--' + +'The worst is she may some day start awake to discover that her +protecting deity 's been napping too.--A boy or girl did you say, my +dear?' + +His wife replied: 'A son.' + +'Ah! more births.' The captain appeared to be computing. 'But this +one's out of England: and it's a prince I suppose they'll call him: and +princes don't count in the population for more than finishing touches, +like the crossing of t's and dotting of i's, though true they're the +costliest, like some flowers and feathers, and they add to the lump on +Barney's back. But who has any compassion for a burdened donkey? unless +when you see him standing immortal meek! Well, and a child of some sort +must have been expected? Because it's no miracle after marriage: worse +luck for the crowded earth!' + +'Things may not be expected which are profoundly distasteful,' Mrs. +Adister remarked. + +'True,' said her sympathetic husband. ''Tis like reading the list of the +dead after a battle where you've not had the best of it--each name 's a +startling new blow. I'd offer to run to Earlsfont, but here's my company +you would have me join for the directoring of it, you know, my dear, to +ballast me, as you pretty clearly hinted; and all 's in the city to-day +like a loaf with bad yeast, thick as lead, and sour to boot. And a howl +and growl coming off the wilds of Old Ireland! We're smitten to-day in +our hearts and our pockets, and it 's a question where we ought to feel +it most, for the sake of our families.' + +'Do you not observe that your cousins are not eating?' said his +wife, adding, to Patrick: 'I entertain the opinion that a sound +breakfast-appetite testifies to the proper vigour of men.' + +'Better than a doctor's pass: and to their habits likewise,' Captain Con +winked at his guests, begging them to steal ten minutes out of the fray +for the inward fortification of them. + +Eggs in the shell, and masses of eggs, bacon delicately thin and curling +like Apollo's locks at his temples, and cutlets, caviar, anchovies in +the state of oil, were pressed with the captain's fervid illustrations +upon the brothers, both meditatively nibbling toast and indifferent to +the similes he drew and applied to life from the little fish which had +their sharpness corrected but not cancelled by the improved liquid they +swam in. 'Like an Irishman in clover,' he said to his wife to pay her a +compliment and coax an acknowledgement: 'just the flavour of the salt of +him.' + +Her mind was on her brother Edward, and she could not look sweet-oily, +as her husband wooed her to do, with impulse to act the thing he was +imagining. + +'And there is to-morrow's dinner-party to the Mattocks: I cannot travel +to Earlsfont,' she said. + +'Patrick is a disengaged young verderer, and knows the route, and has a +welcome face there, and he might go, if you're for having it performed +by word of mouth. But, trust me, my dear, bad news is best communicated +by telegraph, which gives us no stupid articles and particles to quarrel +with. “Boy born Vienna doctor smiling nurse laughing.” That tells it +all, straight to the understanding, without any sickly circumlocutory +stuff; and there's nothing more offensive to us when we're hurt at +intelligence. For the same reason, Colonel Arthur couldn't go, since +you'll want him to meet the Mattocks?' + +Captain Con's underlip shone with a roguish thinness. + +'Arthur must be here,' said Mrs. Adister. 'I cannot bring myself to +write it. I disapprove of telegrams.' + +She was asking to be assisted, so her husband said: + +'Take Patrick for a secretary. Dictate. He has a bold free hand and'll +supply all the fiorituri and arabesques necessary to the occasion +running.' + +She gazed at Patrick as if to intimate that he might be enlisted, and +said: 'It will be to Caroline. She will break it to her uncle.' + +'Right, madam, on the part of a lady I 've never known to be wrong! And +so, my dear, I must take leave of you, to hurry down to the tormented +intestines of that poor racked city, where the winds of panic are +violently engaged in occupying the vacuum created by knocking over what +the disaster left standing; and it 'll much resemble a colliery accident +there, I suspect, and a rescue of dead bodies. Adieu, my dear.' He +pressed his lips on her thin fingers. + +Patrick placed himself at Mrs. Adister's disposal as her secretary. She +nodded a gracious acceptance of him. + +'I recommended the telegraph because it's my wife's own style, and comes +better from wires,' said the captain, as they were putting on their +overcoats in the hall. 'You must know the family. “Deeds not words” + would serve for their motto. She hates writing, and doesn't much love +talking. Pat 'll lengthen her sentences for her. She's fond of Adiante, +and she sympathises with her brother Edward made a grandfather through +the instrumentality of that foreign hooknose; and Patrick must turn the +two dagger sentiments to a sort of love-knot and there's the task he'll +have to work out in his letter to Miss Caroline. It's fun about Colonel +Arthur not going. He's to meet the burning Miss Mattock, who has gold +on her crown and a lot on her treasury, Phil, my boy! but I'm bound in +honour not to propose it. And a nice girl, a prize; afresh healthy girl; +and brains: the very girl! But she's jotted down for the Adisters, if +Colonel Arthur can look lower than his nose and wag his tongue a bit. +She's one to be a mother of stout ones that won't run up big doctors' +bills or ask assistance in growing. Her name's plain Jane, and she 's a +girl to breed conquerors; and the same you may say of her brother John, +who 's a mighty fit man, good at most things, though he counts his +fortune in millions, which I've heard is lighter for a beggar to perform +than in pounds, but he can count seven, and beat any of us easy by +showing them millions! We might do something for them at home with +a million or two, Phil. It all came from the wedding of a railway +contractor, who sprang from the wedding of a spade and a clod--and +probably called himself Mattock at his birth, no shame to him.' + +'You're for the city,' said Philip, after they had walked down the +street. + +'Not I,' said Con. 'Let them play Vesuvius down there. I've got another +in me: and I can't stop their eruption, and they wouldn't relish mine. +I know a little of Dick Martin, who called on the people to resist, and +housed the man Liffey after his firing the shot, and I'm off to Peter +M'Christy, his brother-in-law. I'll see Distell too. I must know if it +signifies the trigger, or I'm agitated about nothing. Dr. Forbery'll be +able to tell how far they mean going for a patriotic song. + + “For we march in ranks to the laurelled banks, + On the bright horizon shining, + Though the fields between run red on the green, + And many a wife goes pining.” + +Will you come, Phil?' + +'I 'm under orders.' + +'You won't engage yourself by coming.' + +'I'm in for the pull if I join hands.' + +'And why not?--inside the law, of course.' + +'While your Barney skirmishes outside!' + +'And when the poor fellow's cranium's cracking to fling his cap in the +air, and physician and politician are agreed it's good for him to do it, +or he'll go mad and be a dangerous lunatic! Phil, it must be a blow +now and then for these people over here, else there's no teaching their +imaginations you're in earnest; for they've got heads that open only to +hard raps, these English; and where injustice rules, and you'd spread a +light of justice, a certain lot of us must give up the ghost--naturally +on both sides. Law's law, and life's life, so long as you admit that the +law is bad; and in that case, it's big misery and chronic disease to let +it be and at worst a jump and tumble into the next world, of a score or +two of us if we have a wrestle with him. But shake the old villain; hang +on him and shake him. Bother his wig, if he calls himself Law. That 's +how we dust the corruption out of him for a bite or two in return. Such +is humanity, Phil: and you must allow for the roundabout way of moving +to get into the straight road at last. And I see what you're for saying: +a roundabout eye won't find it! You're wrong where there are dozens of +corners. Logic like yours, my boy, would have you go on picking at the +Gordian Knot till it became a jackasses' race between you and the rope +which was to fall to pieces last.--There 's my old girl at the stall, +poor soul! See her!' + +Philip had signalled a cabman to stop. He stood facing his cousin with a +close-lipped smile that summarised his opinion and made it readable. + +'I have no time for an introduction to her this morning,' he said. + +'You won't drop in on Distell to hear the latest brewing? And, by the +by, Phil, tell us, could you give us a hint for packing five or six +hundred rifles and a couple of pieces of cannon?' + +Philip stared; he bent a lowering frown on his cousin, with a twitch at +his mouth. + +'Oh! easy!' Con answered the look; 'it's for another place and harder to +get at.' + +He was eyed suspiciously and he vowed the military weapons were for +another destination entirely, the opposite Pole. + +'No, you wouldn't be in for a crazy villainy like that!' said Philip. + +'No, nor wink to it,' said Con. 'But it's a question about packing +cannon and small arms; and you might be useful in dropping a hint or +two. The matter's innocent. It's not even a substitution of one form of +Government for another: only a change of despots, I suspect. And here's +Mr. John Mattock himself, who'll corroborate me, as far as we can +let you into the secret before we've consulted together. And he's an +Englishman and a member of Parliament, and a Liberal though a landlord, +a thorough stout Briton and bulldog for the national integrity, not +likely to play at arms and ammunition where his country's prosperity +'s concerned. How d' ye do, Mr. Mattock--and opportunely, since it's +my cousin, Captain Philip O'Donnell, aide-de-camp to Sir Charles, fresh +from Canada, of whom you've heard, I'd like to make you acquainted with, +previous to your meeting at my wife's table tomorrow evening.' + +Philip bowed to a man whose notion of the ceremony was to nod. + +Con took him two steps aside and did all the talking. Mr. Mattock +listened attentively the first half-minute, after which it could be +perceived that the orator was besieging a post, or in other words a +Saxon's mind made up on a point of common sense. His appearance was +redolently marine; his pilot coat, flying necktie and wideish trowsers, +a general airiness of style on a solid frame, spoke of the element his +blue eyes had dipped their fancy in, from hereditary inclination. The +colour of a sandpit was given him by hair and whiskers of yellow-red on +a ruddy face. No one could express a negative more emphatically without +wording it, though he neither frowned nor gesticulated to that effect. + +'Ah!' said Con, abruptly coming to an end after an eloquent appeal. 'And +I think I'm of your opinion: and the sea no longer dashes at the rock, +but makes itself a mirror to the same. She'll keep her money and nurse +her babe, and not be trying risky adventures to turn him into a reigning +prince. Only this: you'll have to persuade her the thing is impossible. +She'll not take it from any of us. She looks on you as Wisdom in the +uniform of a great commander, and if you say a thing can be done it 's +done.' + +'The reverse too, I hope,' said Mr. Mattock, nodding and passing on his +way. + +'That I am not so sure of,' Con remarked to himself. 'There's a change +in a man through a change in his position! Six months or so back, Phil, +that man came from Vienna, the devoted slave of the Princess Nikolas. +He'd been there on his father's business about one of the Danube +railways, and he was ready to fill the place of the prince at the head +of his phantom body of horse and foot and elsewhere. We talked of his +selling her estates for the purchase of arms and the enemy--as many +as she had money for. We discussed it as a matter of business. She +had bewitched him: and would again, I don't doubt, if she were here to +repeat the dose. But in the interim his father dies, he inherits; and +he enters Parliament, and now, mind you, the man who solemnly calculated +her chances and speculates on the transmission of rifled arms of the +best manufacture and latest invention by his yacht and with his loads +of rails, under the noses of the authorities, like a master rebel, and a +chivalrous gentleman to boot, pooh poohs the whole affair. You saw him. +Grave as an owl, the dead contrary of his former self!' + +'I thought I heard you approve him,' said Philip. + +'And I do. But the poor girl has ordered her estates to be sold to +cast the die, and I 'm taking the view of her disappointment, for she +believes he can do anything; and if I know the witch, her sole comfort +lying in the straw is the prospect of a bloody venture for a throne. +The truth is, to my thinking, it's the only thing she has to help her to +stomach her husband.' + +'But it's rank idiocy to suppose she can smuggle cannon!' cried Philip. + +'But that man Mattock's not an idiot and he thought she could. And it 's +proof he was under a spell. She can work one.' + +'The country hasn't a port.' + +'Round the Euxine and up the Danube, with the British flag at the stern. +I could rather enjoy the adventure. And her prince is called for. He's +promised a good reception when he drops down the river, they say. A bit +of a scrimmage on the landing-pier may be, and the first field or two, +and then he sits himself, and he waits his turn. The people change their +sovereigns as rapidly as a London purse. Two pieces of artillery and +two or three hundred men and a trumpet alter the face of the land +there. Sometimes a trumpet blown by impudence does it alone. They're +enthusiastic for any new prince. He's their Weekly Journal or Monthly +Magazine. Let them make acquaintance with Adiante Adister, I'd not swear +she wouldn't lay fast hold of them.' + +Philip signalled to his driver, and Captain Con sang out his dinner-hour +for a reminder to punctuality, thoughtful of the feelings of his wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. MISS MATTOCK + +Mrs. Adister O'Donnell, in common with her family, had an extreme +dislike of the task of composing epistles, due to the circumstance that +she was unable, unaided, to conceive an idea disconnected with the main +theme of her communication, and regarded, as an art of conjuring, the +use of words independent of ideas. Her native superiority caused her +to despise the art, but the necessity for employing it at intervals +subjected her to fits of admiration of the conjurer, it being then +evident that a serviceable piece of work, beyond her capacity to do, was +lightly performed by another. The lady's practical intelligence admitted +the service, and at the same time her addiction to the practical +provoked disdain of so flimsy a genius, which was identified by her +with the genius of the Irish race. If Irishmen had not been notoriously +fighters, famous for their chivalry, she would have looked on them as +a kind of footmen hired to talk and write, whose volubility might be +encouraged and their affectionateness deserved by liberal wages. The +promptitude of Irish blood to deliver the war-cry either upon a glove +flung down or taken up, raised them to a first place in her esteem: and +she was a peaceful woman abhorring sanguinary contention; but it was in +her own blood to love such a disposition against her principles. + +She led Patrick to her private room, where they both took seats and +he selected a pen. Mr. Patrick supposed that his business would be to +listen and put her words to paper; a mechanical occupation permitting +the indulgence of personal phantasies; and he was flying high on them +until the extraordinary delicacy of the mind seeking to deliver itself +forced him to prick up all his apprehensiveness. She wished to convey +that she was pleased with the news from Vienna, and desired her +gratification to be imparted to her niece Caroline, yet not so as to be +opposed to the peculiar feelings of her brother Edward, which had her +fullest sympathy; and yet Caroline must by no means be requested to +alter a sentence referring to Adiante, for that would commit her and the +writer jointly to an insincerity. + +'It must be the whole truth, madam,' said Patrick, and he wrote: 'My +dear Caroline,' to get the start. At once a magnificently clear course +for the complicated letter was distinguished by him. 'Can I write on and +read it to you afterward? I have the view,' he said. + +Mrs. Adister waved to him to write on. + +Patrick followed his 'My dear Caroline' with greetings very warm, +founded on a report of her flourishing good looks. The decision of +Government to send reinforcements to Ireland was mentioned as a prelude +to the information from Vienna of the birth of a son to the Princess +Nikolas: and then; having conjoined the two entirely heterogeneous +pieces of intelligence, the composer adroitly interfused them by a +careless transposition of the prelude and the burden that enabled him to +play ad libitum on regrets and rejoicings; by which device the lord of +Earlsfont might be offered condolences while the lady could express her +strong contentment, inasmuch as he deplored the state of affairs in +the sister island, and she was glad of a crisis concluding a term of +suspense thus the foreign-born baby was denounced and welcomed, the +circumstances lamented and the mother congratulated, in a breath, +all under cover of the happiest misunderstanding, as effective as +the cabalism of Prospero's wand among the Neapolitan mariners, by the +skilful Irish development on a grand scale of the rhetorical figure +anastrophe, or a turning about and about. + +He read it out to her, enjoying his composition and pleased with his +reconcilement of differences. 'So you say what you feel yourself, madam, +and allow for the feelings on the other side,' he remarked. 'Shall I +fold it? + +There was a smoothness in the letter particularly agreeable to her +troubled wits, but with an awful taste. She hesitated to assent: it +seemed like a drug that she was offered. + +Patrick sketched a series of hooked noses on the blotter. He heard a +lady's name announced at the door, and glancing up from his work he +beheld a fiery vision. + +Mrs. Adister addressed her affectionately: 'My dear Jane!' Patrick was +introduced to Miss Mattock. + +His first impression was that the young lady could wrestle with him +and render it doubtful of his keeping his legs. He was next engaged +in imagining that she would certainly burn and be a light in the +dark. Afterwards he discovered her feelings to be delicate, her looks +pleasant. Thereupon came one of the most singular sensations he had +ever known: he felt that he was unable to see the way to please her. She +confirmed it by her remarks and manner of speaking. Apparently she was +conducting a business. + +'You're right, my dear Mrs. Adister, I'm on my way to the Laundry, and +I called to get Captain Con to drive there with me and worry the +manageress about the linen they turn out: for gentlemen are complaining +of their shirt-fronts, and if we get a bad name with them it will ruin +us. Women will listen to a man. I hear he has gone down to the city. I +must go and do it alone. Our accounts are flourishing, I'm glad to say, +though we cannot yet afford to pay for a secretary, and we want one. +John and I verified them last night. We're aiming at steam, you know. +In three or four years we may found a steam laundry on our accumulated +capital. If only we can establish it on a scale to let us give +employment to at least as many women as we have working now! That is +what I want to hear of. But if we wait for a great rival steam laundry +to start ahead of us, we shall be beaten and have to depend on the +charitable sentiments of rich people to support the Institution. And +that won't do. So it's a serious question with us to think of taking +the initiative: for steam must come. It 's a scandal every day that it +doesn't while we have coal. I'm for grand measures. At the same time we +must not be imprudent: turning off hands, even temporarily, that have to +feed infants, would be quite against my policy.' + +Her age struck Patrick as being about twenty-three. + +'Could my nephew Arthur be of any use to you?' said Mrs. Adister. + +'Colonel Adister?' Miss Mattock shook her head. 'No.' + +'Arthur can be very energetic when he takes up a thing.' 'Can he? But, +Mrs. Adister, you are looking a little troubled. Sometimes you confide +in me. You are so good to us with your subscriptions that I always feel +in your debt.' + +Patrick glanced at his hostess for a signal to rise and depart. + +She gave none, but at once unfolded her perplexity, and requested Miss +Mattock to peruse the composition of Mr. Patrick O'Donnell and deliver +an opinion upon it. + +The young lady took the letter without noticing its author. She read +it through, handed it back, and sat with her opinion evidently formed +within. + +'What do you think of it?' she was asked. + +'Rank jesuitry,' she replied. + +'I feared so!' sighed Mrs. Adister. 'Yet it says everything I wish to +have said. It spares my brother and it does not belie me. The effect of +a letter is often most important. I cannot but consider this letter very +ingenious. But the moment I hear it is jesuitical I forswear it. But +then my dilemma remains. I cannot consent to give pain to my brother +Edward: nor will I speak an untruth, though it be to save him from a +wound. I am indeed troubled. Mr. Patrick, I cannot consent to despatch a +jesuitical letter. You are sure of your impression, my dear Jane?' + +'Perfectly,' said Miss Mattock. + +Patrick leaned to her. 'But if the idea in the mind of the person +supposed to be writing the letter is accurately expressed? Does it +matter, if we call it jesuitical, if the emotion at work behind it +happens to be a trifle so, according to your definition?' + +She rejoined: 'I should say, distinctly it matters.' + +'Then you'd not express the emotions at all?' + +He flashed a comical look of astonishment as he spoke. She was not to be +diverted; she settled into antagonism. + +'I should write what I felt.' + +'But it might be like discharging a bullet.' + +'How?' + +'If your writing in that way wounded the receiver.' + +'Of course I should endeavour not to wound!' + +'And there the bit of jesuitry begins. And it's innocent while it 's +no worse than an effort to do a disagreeable thing as delicately as you +can.' + +She shrugged as delicately as she could: + +'We cannot possibly please everybody in life.' + +'No: only we may spare them a shock: mayn't we?' + +'Sophistries of any description, I detest.' + +'But sometimes you smile to please, don't you?' + +'Do you detect falseness in that?' she answered, after the demurest of +pauses. + +'No: but isn't there a soupcon of sophistry in it?' + +'I should say that it comes under the title of common civility.' + +'And on occasion a little extra civility is permitted!' + +'Perhaps: when we are not seeking a personal advantage.' + +'On behalf of the Steam Laundry?' + +Miss Mattock grew restless: she was too serious in defending her +position to submit to laugh, and his goodhumoured face forbade her +taking offence. + +'Well, perhaps, for that is in the interest of others.' + +'In the interests of poor and helpless females. And I agree with you +with all my heart. But you would not be so considerate for the sore +feelings of a father hearing what he hates to hear as to write a +roundabout word to soften bad news to him?' + +She sought refuge in the reply that nothing excused jesuitry. + +'Except the necessities of civilisation,' said Patrick. + +'Politeness is one thing,' she remarked pointedly. + +'And domestic politeness is quite as needful as popular, you'll admit. +And what more have we done in the letter than to be guilty of that? And +people declare it's rarer: as if we were to be shut up in families to +tread on one another's corns! Dear me! and after a time we should be +having rank jesuitry advertised as the specific balsam for an unhappy +domesticated population treading with hard heels from desperate habit +and not the slightest intention to wound.' + +'My dear Jane,' Mrs. Adister interposed while the young lady sat between +mildly staring and blinking, 'you have, though still of a tender age, so +excellent a head that I could trust to your counsel blindfolded. It is +really deep concern for my brother. I am also strongly in sympathy +with my niece, the princess, that beautiful Adiante: and my conscience +declines to let me say that I am not.' + +'We might perhaps presume to beg for Miss Mattock's assistance in the +composition of a second letter more to her taste,' Patrick said slyly. + +The effect was prompt: she sprang from her seat. + +'Dear Mrs. Adister! I leave it to you. I am certain you and Mr. +O'Donnell know best. It's too difficult and delicate for me. I am +horribly blunt. Forgive me if I seemed to pretend to casuistry. I am +sure I had no such meaning. I said what I thought. I always do. I never +meant that it was not a very clever letter; and if it does exactly what +you require it should be satisfactory. To-morrow evening John and I dine +with you, and I look forward to plenty of controversy and amusement. At +present I have only a head for work.' + +'I wish I had that,' said Patrick devoutly. + +She dropped her eyes on him, but without letting him perceive that he +was a step nearer to the point of pleasing her. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. THE DINNER-PARTY + +Miss Mattock ventured on a prediction in her mind: + +She was sure the letter would go. And there was not much to signify +if it did. But the curious fatality that a person of such a native +uprightness as Mrs. Adister should have been drawn in among Irishmen, +set her thoughts upon the composer of the letter, and upon the contrast +of his ingenuous look with the powerful cast of his head. She fancied a +certain danger about him; of what kind she could not quite distinguish, +for it had no reference to woman's heart, and he was too young to be +much of a politician, and he was not in the priesthood. His transparency +was of a totally different order from Captain Con's, which proclaimed +itself genuine by the inability to conceal a shoal of subterfuges. The +younger cousin's features carried a something invisible behind them, and +she was just perceptive enough to spy it, and it excited her suspicions. +Irishmen both she and her brother had to learn to like, owing to their +bad repute for stability: they are, moreover, Papists: they are not +given to ideas: that one of the working for the future has not struck +them. In fine, they are not solid, not law-supporting, not disposed to +be (humbly be it said) beneficent, like the good English. These were her +views, and as she held it a weakness to have to confess that Irishmen +are socially more fascinating than the good English, she was on her +guard against them. + +Of course the letter had gone. She heard of it before the commencement +of the dinner, after Mrs. Adister had introduced Captain Philip +O'Donnell to her, and while she was exchanging a word or two with +Colonel Adister, who stood ready to conduct her to the table. If he +addressed any remarks to the lady under his charge, Miss Mattock did not +hear him; and she listened--who shall say why? His unlike likeness to +his brother had struck her. Patrick opposite was flowing in speech. But +Captain Philip O'Donnell's taciturnity seemed no uncivil gloom: it wore +nothing of that look of being beneath the table, which some of our good +English are guilty of at their social festivities, or of towering aloof +a Matterhorn above it, in the style of Colonel Adister. Her discourse +with the latter amused her passing reflections. They started a subject, +and he punctuated her observations, or she his, and so they speedily ran +to earth. + +'I think,' says she, 'you were in Egypt this time last winter.' + +He supplies her with a comma: 'Rather later.' + +Then he carries on the line. 'Dull enough, if you don't have the right +sort of travelling crew in your boat.' + +'Naturally,' she puts her semicolon, ominous of the full stop. + +'I fancy you have never been in Egypt?' + +'No' + +There it is; for the tone betrays no curiosity about Egypt and her Nile, +and he is led to suppose that she has a distaste for foreign places. + +Condescending to attempt to please, which he has reason to wish to +succeed in doing, the task of pursuing conversational intercourse +devolves upon him-- + +'I missed Parlatti last spring. What opinion have you formed of her?' + +'I know her only by name at present.' + +'Ah, I fancy you are indifferent to Opera.' + +'Not at all; I enjoy it. I was as busy then as I am now.' + +'Meetings? Dorcas, so forth.' + +'Not Dorcas, I assure you. You might join if you would.' + +'Your most obliged.' + +A period perfectly rounded. At the same time Miss Mattock exchanged a +smile with her hostess, of whose benignant designs in handing her to the +entertaining officer she was not conscious. She felt bound to look happy +to gratify an excellent lady presiding over the duller half of a table +of eighteen. She turned slightly to Captain O'Donnell. He had committed +himself to speech at last, without tilting his shoulders to exclude the +company by devoting himself to his partner, and as he faced the table +Miss Mattock's inclination to listen attracted him. He cast his eyes on +her: a quiet look, neither languid nor frigid seeming to her both open +and uninviting. She had the oddest little shiver, due to she knew +not what. A scrutiny she could have borne, and she might have read a +signification; but the look of those mild clear eyes which appeared +to say nothing save that there was fire behind them, hit on some +perplexity, or created it; for she was aware of his unhappy passion for +the beautiful Miss Adister; the whole story had been poured into her +ears; she had been moved by it. Possibly she had expected the eyes +of such a lover to betray melancholy, and his power of containing the +expression where the sentiment is imagined to be most transparent may +have surprised her, thrilling her as melancholy orbs would not have +done. + +Captain Con could have thumped his platter with vexation. His wife's +diplomacy in giving the heiress to Colonel Adister for the evening +had received his cordial support while he manoeuvred cleverly to place +Philip on the other side of her; and now not a step did the senseless +fellow take, though she offered him his chance, dead sick of her man on +the right; not a word did he have in ordinary civility; he was a burning +disgrace to the chivalry of Erin. She would certainly be snapped up by +a man merely yawning to take the bite. And there's another opportunity +gone for the old country!--one's family to boot! + +Those two were in the middle of the table, and it is beyond mortal, +beyond Irish, capacity, from one end of a table of eighteen to whip up +the whole body of them into a lively unanimous froth, like a dish of +cream fetched out of thickness to the airiest lightness. Politics, in +the form of a firebrand or apple of Discord, might knead them together +and cut them in batches, only he had pledged his word to his wife to +shun politics as the plague, considering Mr. Mattock's presence. And yet +it was tempting: the recent Irish news had stung him; he could say sharp +things from the heart, give neat thrusts; and they were fairly +divided and well matched. There was himself, a giant; and there was an +unrecognised bard of his country, no other than himself too; and there +was a profound politician, profoundly hidden at present, like powder +in a mine--the same person. And opposite to him was Mr. John Mattock, a +worthy antagonist, delightful to rouse, for he carried big guns and took +the noise of them for the shattering of the enemy, and this champion +could be pricked on to a point of assertion sure to fire the phlegm in +Philip; and then young Patrick might be trusted to warm to the work. +Three heroes out skirmishing on our side. Then it begins to grow hot, +and seeing them at it in earnest, Forbery glows and couches his gun, the +heaviest weight of the Irish light brigade. Gallant deeds! and now Mr. +Marbury Dyke opens on Forbery's flank to support Mattock hardpressed, +and this artillery of English Rockney resounds, with a similar object: +the ladies to look on and award the crown of victory, Saxon though they +be, excepting Rockney's wife, a sure deserter to the camp of the brave, +should fortune frown on them, for a punishment to Rockney for his +carrying off to himself a flower of the Green Island and holding +inveterate against her native land in his black ingratitude. Oh! but +eloquence upon a good cause will win you the hearts of all women, Saxon +or other, never doubt of it. And Jane Mattock there, imbibing forced +doses of Arthur Adister, will find her patriotism dissolving in the +natural human current; and she and Philip have a pretty wrangle, +and like one another none the worse for not agreeing: patriotically +speaking, she's really unrooted by that half-thawed colonel, a creature +snow-bound up to his chin; and already she's leaping to be transplanted. +Jane is one of the first to give her vote for the Irish party, in spite +of her love for her brother John: in common justice, she says, and +because she hopes for complete union between the two islands. And +thereupon we debate upon union. On the whole, yes: union, on the +understanding that we have justice, before you think of setting to work +to sow the land with affection:--and that 's a crop in a clear soil will +spring up harvest-thick in a single summer night across St. George's +Channel, ladies!... + +Indeed a goodly vision of strife and peace: but, politics forbidden, it +was entirely a dream, seeing that politics alone, and a vast amount of +blowing even on the topic of politics, will stir these English to enter +the arena and try a fall. You cannot, until you say ten times more than +you began by meaning, and have heated yourself to fancy you mean more +still, get them into any state of fluency at all. Forbery's anecdote now +and then serves its turn, but these English won't take it up as a start +for fresh pastures; they lend their ears and laugh a finale to it; you +see them dwelling on the relish, chewing the cud, by way of mental note +for their friends to-morrow, as if they were kettles come here merely +for boiling purposes, to make tea elsewhere, and putting a damper on +the fire that does the business for them. They laugh, but they laugh +extinguishingly, and not a bit to spread a general conflagration and +illumination. + +The case appeared hopeless to Captain Con, bearing an eye on Philip. He +surveyed his inanimate eights right and left, and folded his combative +ardour around him, as the soldier's martial cloak when he takes his rest +on the field. Mrs. Marbury Dyke, the lady under his wing, honoured wife +of the chairman of his imagined that a sigh escaped him, and said in +sympathy: 'Is the bad news from India confirmed?' + +He feared it was not bright, and called to Philip for the latest. + +'Nothing that you have not had already in the newspapers,' Philip +replied, distinctly from afar, but very bluntly, as through a trumpet. + +Miss Mattock was attentive. She had a look as good as handsome when she +kindled. + +The captain persevered to draw his cousin out. + +'Your chief has his orders?' + +'There's a rumour to that effect.' + +'The fellow's training for diplomacy,' Con groaned. + +Philip spoke to Miss Mattock: he was questioned and he answered, and +answered dead as a newspaper telegraphic paragraph, presenting simply +the corpse of the fact, and there an end. He was a rival of Arthur +Adister for military brevity. + +'Your nephew is quite the diplomatist,' said Mrs. Dyke, admiring +Philip's head. + +'Cousin, ma'am. Nephews I might drive to any market to make the most +of them. Cousins pretend they're better than pigs, and diverge bounding +from the road at the hint of the stick. You can't get them to grunt more +than is exactly agreeable to them.' + +'My belief is that if our cause is just our flag will triumph,' Miss +Grace Barrow, Jane Mattock's fellow-worker and particular friend, +observed to Dr. Forbery. + +'You may be enjoying an original blessing that we in Ireland missed in +the cradle,' said he. + +She emphasised: 'I speak of the just cause; it must succeed.' + +'The stainless flag'll be in the ascendant in the long run,' he +assented. + +'Is it the flag of Great Britain you're speaking of, Forbery?' the +captain inquired. + +'There's a harp or two in it,' he responded pacifically. + +Mrs. Dyke was not pleased with the tone. 'And never will be out of it!' +she thumped her interjection. + +'Or where 's your music?' said the captain, twinkling for an adversary +among the males, too distant or too dull to distinguish a note of +challenge. 'You'd be having to mount your drum and fife in their places, +ma'am.' + +She saw no fear of the necessity. + +'But the fife's a pretty instrument,' he suggested, and with a candour +that seduced the unwary lady to think dubiously whether she quite liked +the fife. Miss Barrow pronounced it cheerful. + +'Oh, and martial!' he exclaimed, happy to have caught Rockney's +deliberate gaze. 'The effect of it, I'm told in the provinces is +astonishing for promoting enlistment. Hear it any morning in your London +parks, at the head of a marching regiment of your giant foot-Guards. +Three bangs of the drum, like the famous mountain, and the fife +announces himself to be born, and they follow him, left leg and right +leg and bearskin. And what if he's a small one and a trifle squeaky; so +'s a prince when the attendant dignitaries receive him submissively +and hear him informing the nation of his advent. It 's the idea that 's +grand.' + +'The idea is everything in military affairs,' a solemn dupe, a Mr. +Rumford, partly bald, of benevolent aspect, and looking more copious +than his flow, observed to the lady beside him. 'The flag is only an +idea.' + +She protested against the barbarism of war, and he agreed with her, +but thought it must be: it had always been: he deplored the fatality. +Nevertheless, he esteemed our soldiers, our sailors too. A city man +himself and a man of peace, he cordially esteemed and hailed the +victories of a military body whose idea was Duty instead of Ambition. + +'One thing,' said Mrs. Dyke, evading the ambiguous fife, 'patriotic as +I am, I hope, one thing I confess; I never have yet brought myself to +venerate thoroughly our Royal Standard. I dare say it is because I do +not understand it.' + +A strong fraternal impulse moved Mr. Rumford to lean forward and show +her the face of one who had long been harassed by the same incapacity +to digest that one thing. He guessed it at once, without a doubt of +the accuracy of the shot. Ever since he was a child the difficulty had +haunted him; and as no one hitherto had even comprehended his dilemma, +he beamed like a man preparing to embrace a recovered sister. + +'The Unicorn!' he exclaimed. + +'It is the Unicorn!' she sighed. 'The Lion is noble.' + +'The Unicorn, if I may speak by my own feelings, certainly does not +inspire attachment, that is to say, the sense of devotion, which we +should always be led to see in national symbols,' Mr. Rumford resumed, +and he looked humorously rueful while speaking with some earnestness; to +show that he knew the subject to be of the minor sort, though it was not +enough to trip and jar a loyal enthusiasm in the strictly meditative. + +'The Saxon should carry his White Horse, I suppose,' Dr. Forbery said. + +'But how do we account for the horn on his forehead?' Mr. Rumford sadly +queried. + +'Two would have been better for the harmony of the Unicorn's +appearance,' Captain Con remarked, desirous to play a floundering fish, +and tender to the known simple goodness of the ingenuous man. 'What do +you say, Forbery? The poor brute had a fall on his pate and his horn +grew of it, and it 's to prove that he has got something in his head, +and is dangerous both fore and aft, which is not the case with other +horses, who're usually wicked at the heels alone. That's it, be sure, +or near it. And his horn's there to file the subject nation's grievances +for the Lion to peruse at his leisure. And his colour's prophetic of the +Horse to come, that rides over all.' + +'Lion and Unicorn signify the conquest of the two hemispheres, Matter +and Mind,' said Dr. Forbery. 'The Lion there's no mistake about. The +Unicorn sets you thinking. So it's a splendid Standard, and means the +more for not being perfectly intelligible at a glance.' + +'But if the Lion, as they've whispered of late, Forbery, happens to be +stuffed with straw or with what's worse, with sawdust, a fellow bearing +a pointed horn at close quarters might do him mortal harm; and it must +be a situation trying to the patience of them both. The Lion seems to +say “No prancing!” as if he knew his peril; and the Unicorn to threaten +a playful dig at his flank, as if he understood where he's ticklish.' + +Mr. Rumford drank some champagne and murmured with a shrug to the +acquiescent lady beside him: 'Irishmen!' implying that the race could +not be brought to treat serious themes as befitted the seriousness of +the sentiments they stir in their bosoms. He was personally a little +hurt, having unfolded a shy secret of his feelings, which were keenly +patriotic in a phlegmatic frame, and he retired within himself, assuring +the lady that he accepted our standard in its integrity; his objection +was not really an objection; it was, he explained to her, a ridiculous +desire to have a perfect comprehension of the idea in the symbol. But +where there was no seriousness everything was made absurd. He could, he +said, laugh as well as others on the proper occasion. As for the Lion +being stuffed, he warned England's enemies for their own sakes not to +be deluded by any such patent calumny. The strong can afford to be +magnanimous and forbearing. Only let not that be mistaken for weakness. +A wag of his tail would suffice. + +The lady agreed. But women are volatile. She was the next moment +laughing at something she had heard with the largest part of her ear, +and she thought the worthy gentleman too simple, though she knew him for +one who had amassed wealth. Captain Con and Dr. Forbery had driven the +Unicorn to shelter, and were now baiting the Lion. The tremendous import +of that wag of his tail among the nations was burlesqued by them, and it +came into collision with Mr. Rumford's legendary forefinger threat. She +excused herself for laughing: + +'They are so preposterous!' + +'Yes, yes, I can laugh,' said he, soberly performing the act: and Mr. +Rumford covered the wound his delicate sensations had experienced under +an apology for Captain Con, that would redound to the credit of his +artfulness were it not notorious our sensations are the creatures and +born doctors of art in discovering unguents for healing their bruises. +'O'Donnell has a shrewd head for business. He is sound at heart. There +is not a drop of gout in his wine.' + +The lady laughed again, as we do when we are fairly swung by the tide, +and underneath her convulsion she quietly mused on the preference she +would give to the simple English citizen for soundness. + +'What can they be discussing down there?' Miss Mattock said to Philip, +enviously as poor Londoners in November when they receive letters from +the sapphire Riviera. + +'I will venture to guess at nonsense,' he answered. + +'Nothing political, then.' + +'That scarcely follows; but a host at his own table may be trusted to +shelve politics.' + +'I should not object.' + +'To controversy?' + +'Temperately conducted.' + +'One would go a long way to see the exhibition.' + +'But why cannot men be temperate in their political arguments?' + +'The questions raised are too close about the roots of us.' + +'That sounds very pessimist.' + +'More duels come from politics than from any other source.' + +'I fear it is true. Then women might set you an example.' + +'By avoiding it?' + +'I think you have been out of England for some time.' + +'I have been in America.' + +'We are not exactly on the pattern of the Americans.' Philip hinted a +bow. He praised the Republican people. + +'Yes, but in our own way we are working out our own problems over here,' +said she. 'We have infinitely more to contend with: old institutions, +monstrous prejudices, and a slower-minded people, I dare say: much +slower, I admit. We are not shining to advantage at present. Still, that +is not the fault of English women.' + +'Are they so spirited?' + +Spirited was hardly the word Miss Mattock would have chosen to designate +the spirit in them. She hummed a second or two, deliberating; it flashed +through her during the pause that he had been guilty of irony, and she +reddened: and remembering a foregoing strange sensation she reddened +more. She had been in her girlhood a martyr to this malady of youth; it +had tied her to the stake and enveloped her in flames for no accountable +reason, causing her to suffer cruelly and feel humiliated. She knew the +pangs of it in public, and in private as well. And she had not conquered +it yet. She was angered to find herself such a merely physical victim +of the rushing blood: which condition of her senses did not immediately +restore her natural colour. + +'They mean nobly,' she said, to fill an extending gap in the +conversation under a blush; and conscious of an ultra-swollen phrase, +she snatched at it nervously to correct it: 'They are becoming alive to +the necessity for action.' But she was talking to a soldier! 'I mean, +their heads are opening.' It sounded ludicrous. 'They are educating +themselves differently.' Were they? 'They wish to take their part in +the work of the world.' That was nearer the proper tone, though it had +a ring of claptrap rhetoric hateful to her: she had read it and shrunk +from it in reports of otherwise laudable meetings. + +'Well, spirited, yes. I think they are. I believe they are. One has need +to hope so.' + +Philip offered a polite affirmative, evidently formal. + +Not a sign had he shown of noticing her state of scarlet. His grave +liquid eyes were unalterable. She might have been grateful, but the +reflection that she had made a step to unlock the antechamber of her +dearest deepest matters to an ordinary military officer, whose notions +of women were probably those of his professional brethren, impelled her +to transfer his polished decorousness to the burden of his masculine +antagonism-plainly visible. She brought the dialogue to a close. Colonel +Adister sidled an eye at a three-quarter view of her face. 'I fancy +you're feeling the heat of the room,' he said. + +Jane acknowledged a sensibility to some degree of warmth. + +The colonel was her devoted squire on the instant for any practical +service. His appeal to his aunt concerning one of the windows was +answered by her appeal to Jane's countenance for a disposition to rise +and leave the gentlemen. Captain Con, holding the door for the passage +of his wife and her train of ladies, received the injunction: + +'Ten,' from her, and remarked: 'Minutes,' as he shut it. The shortness +of the period of grace proposed dejection to him on the one hand, and on +the other a stimulated activity to squeeze it for its juices without any +delay. Winding past Dr. Forbery to the vacated seat of the hostess he +frowned forbiddingly. + +'It's I, is it!' cried the doctor. Was it ever he that endangered the +peace and placability of social gatherings! He sat down prepared +rather for a bout with Captain Con than with their common opponents, +notwithstanding that he had accurately read the mock thunder of his +brows. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. OF ROCKNEY + +Battles have been won and the streams of History diverted to new +channels in the space of ten minutes. Ladies have been won, a fresh +posterity founded, and grand financial schemes devised, revolts +arranged, a yoke shaken off, in less of mortal time. Excepting an +inspired Epic song and an original Theory of the Heavens, almost +anything noteworthy may be accomplished while old Father Scythe is +taking a trot round a courtyard; and those reservations should allow the +splendid conception to pass for the performance, when we bring to mind +that the conception is the essential part of it, as a bard poorly known +to fame was constantly urging. Captain Con had blown his Epic bubbles, +not to speak of his projected tuneful narrative of the adventures of the +great Cuchullin, and his Preaching of St. Patrick, and other national +triumphs. He could own, however, that the world had a right to the +inspection of the Epic books before it awarded him his crown. The +celestial Theory likewise would have to be worked out to the last figure +by the illustrious astronomers to whom he modestly ranked himself second +as a benefactor of his kind, revering him. So that, whatever we may +think in our own hearts, Epic and Theory have to remain the exception. +Battles indeed have been fought, but when you survey the field +in preparation for them you are summoned to observe the preluding +courtesies of civilised warfare in a manner becoming a chivalrous +gentleman. It never was the merely flinging of your leg across a +frontier, not even with the abrupt Napoleon. You have besides to drill +your men; and you have often to rouse your foe with a ringing slap, if +he's a sleepy one or shamming sleepiness. As here, for example: and that +of itself devours more minutes than ten. Rockney and Mattock could be +roused; but these English, slow to kindle, can't subside in a twinkling; +they are for preaching on when they have once begun; betray the past +engagement, and the ladies are chilled, and your wife puts you the +pungent question: 'Did you avoid politics, Con?' in the awful solitude +of domestic life after a party. Now, if only there had been freedom +of discourse during the dinner hour, the ten disembarrassed minutes +allotted to close it would have afforded time sufficient for hearty +finishing blows and a soothing word or so to dear old innocent Mr. +Rumford, and perhaps a kindly clap of the shoulder to John Mattock, +no bad fellow at bottom. Rockney too was no bad fellow in his way. He +wanted no more than a beating and a thrashing. He was a journalist, a +hard-headed rascal, none of your good old-fashioned order of regimental +scribes who take their cue from their colonel, and march this way and +that, right about face, with as little impediment of principles to +hamper their twists and turns as the straw he tosses aloft at midnight +to spy the drift of the wind to-morrow. Quite the contrary; Rockney was +his own colonel; he pretended to think independently, and tried to be +the statesman of a leading article, and showed his intention to stem +the current of liberty, and was entirely deficient in sympathy with the +oppressed, a fanatical advocate of force; he was an inveterate Saxon, +good-hearted and in great need of a drubbing. Certain lines Rockney had +written of late about Irish affairs recurred to Captain Con, and the +political fires leaped in him; he sparkled and said: 'Let me beg you to +pass the claret over to Mr. Rockney, Mr. Rumford; I warrant it for the +circulating medium of amity, if he'll try it.' + +''Tis the Comet Margaux,' said Dr. Forbery, topping anything Rockney +might have had to say, and anything would have served. The latter +clasped the decanter, poured and drank in silence. + +''Tis the doctor's antidote, and best for being antedated,' Captain Con +rapped his friend's knuckles. + +'As long as you're contented with not dating in double numbers,' +retorted the doctor, absolutely scattering the precious minutes to the +winds, for he hated a provocation. + +'There's a golden mean, is there!' + +'There is; there's a way between magnums of good wine and gout, and it's +generally discovered too late.' + +'At the physician's door, then! where the golden mean is generally +discovered to be his fee. I've heard of poor souls packed off by +him without an obolus to cross the ferry. Stripped they were in all +conscience.' + +'You remind me of a fellow in Dublin who called on me for medical +advice, and found he'd forgotten his purse. He offered to execute a deed +to bequeath me his body, naked and not ashamed.' + +'You'd a right to cut him up at once, Forbery. Any Jury 'd have +pronounced him guilty of giving up the ghost before he called.' + +'I let him go, body and all. I never saw him again.' + +'The fellow was not a lunatic. As for your golden mean, there's a +saying: Prevention is better than cure: and another that caps it: Drink +deep or taste not.' + +'That's the Pierian Spring.' + +'And what is the wine on my table, sir?' + +'Exhaustless if your verses come of it.' + +'And pure, you may say of the verses and the fount.' + +'And neither heady nor over-composed; with a blush like Diana confessing +her love for the young shepherd: it's one of your own comparisons.' + +'Oh!' Con could have roared his own comparisons out of hearing. He was +angry with Forbery for his obstructive dulness and would not taste the +sneaking compliment. What could Forbery mean by paying compliments +and spoiling a game! The ten minutes were dancing away like harmless +wood-nymphs when the Satyr slumbers. His eyes ranged over his guests +despondently, and fixed in desperation on Mr. Rumford, whom his +magnanimous nature would have spared but for the sharp necessity to +sacrifice him. + +The wine in Rumford at any rate let loose his original nature, if it +failed to unlock the animal in these other unexcitable Saxons. + +'By the way, now I think of it, Mr. Rumford, the interpretation of your +Royal Standard, which perplexes you so much, strikes me as easy if you +'ll examine the powerfully different colours of the two beasts in it.' + +Mr. Rumford protested that he had abandoned his inquiry: it was a piece +of foolishness: he had no feeling in it whatever, none. + +The man was a perfect snail's horn for coyness. + +The circumstances did not permit of his being suffered to slip away: and +his complexion showed that he might already be classed among the roast. + +'Your Lion:--Mr. Rumford, you should know, is discomposed, as a +thoughtful patriot, by the inexplicable presence of the Unicorn in the +Royal Standard, and would be glad to account for his one horn and +the sickly appearance of the beast. I'm prepared to say he's there to +represent the fair one half of the population. + +Your Lion, my dear sir, may have nothing in his head, but his tawniness +tells us he imbibes good sound stuff, worthy of the reputation of a +noble brewery. Whereas your Unicorn, true to the character of the +numberless hosts he stands for, is manifestly a consumer of doctor's +drugs. And there you have the symbolism of your country. Right or +left of the shield, I forget which, and it is of no importance to the +point--you have Grandgosier or Great Turk in all his majesty, mane and +tail; and on the other hand, you behold, as the showman says, Dyspepsia. +And the pair are intended to indicate that you may see yourselves +complete by looking at them separately; and so your Royal Standard is +your national mirror; and when you gaze on it fondly you're playing the +part of a certain Mr. Narcissus, who got liker to the Lion than to the +Unicorn in the act. Now will that satisfy you?' + +'Quite as you please, quite as you please,' Mr. Rumford replied. 'One +loves the banner of one's country--that is all.' He rubbed his hands. 'I +for one am proud of it.' + +'Far be it from me to blame you, my dear sir. Or there's the alternative +of taking him to stand for your sole great festival holiday, and +worshipping him as the personification of your Derbyshire race.' + +A glittering look was in Captain Con's eye to catch Rockney if he would +but rise to it. + +That doughty Saxon had been half listening, half chatting to Mr. +Mattock, and wore on his drawn eyelids and slightly drawn upper lip a +look of lambent pugnacity awake to the challenge, indifferent to the +antagonist, and disdainful of the occasion. + +'We have too little of your enthusiasm for the flag,' Philip said to Mr. +Rumford to soothe him, in a form of apology for his relative. + +'Surely no! not in England?' said Mr. Rumford, tempted to open his +heart, for he could be a bellicose gentleman by deputy of the flag. He +recollected that the speaker was a cousin of Captain Con's, and withdrew +into his wound for safety. 'Here and there, perhaps; not when we are +roused; we want rousing, we greatly prefer to live at peace with the +world, if the world will let us.' + +'Not at any price?' Philip fancied his tone too quakerly. + +'Indeed I am not one of that party!' said Mr. Rumford, beginning to +glow; but he feared a snare, and his wound drew him in again. + +'When are you ever at peace!' quoth his host, shocked by the +inconsiderate punctuality of Mrs. Adister O'Donnell's household, for +here was the coffee coming round, and Mattock and Rockney escaping +without a scratch. 'There's hardly a day in the year when your scarlet +mercenaries are not popping at niggers.' + +Rockney had the flick on the cheek to his manhood now, it might be +hoped. + +'Our what?' asked Mr. Rumford, honestly unable to digest the opprobrious +term. + +'Paid soldiery, hirelings, executioners, whom you call volunteers, by +a charming euphemism, and send abroad to do the work of war while you +propound the doctrines of peace at home.' + +Rockney's forehead was exquisitely eruptive, red and swelling. Mattock +lurched on his chair. The wine was in them, and the captain commended +the spiriting of it, as Prospero his Ariel. + +Who should intervene at this instant but the wretched Philip, pricked +on the point of honour as a soldier! Are we inevitably to be thwarted by +our own people? + +'I suppose we all work for pay,' said he. 'It seems to me a cry of the +streets to call us by hard names. The question is what we fight for.' + +He spoke with a witless moderation that was most irritating, considering +the latest news from the old country. + +'You fight to subjugate, to enslave,' said Con, 'that's what you're +doing, and at the same time your journals are venting their fine irony +at the Austrians and the Russians and the Prussians for tearing Poland +to strips with their bloody beaks.' + +'We obey our orders, and leave you to settle the political business,' +Philip replied. + +Forbery declined the fray. Patrick was eagerly watchful and dumb. +Rockney finished his coffee with a rap of the cup in the saucer, an +appeal for the close of the sitting; and as Dr. Forbery responded to +it by pushing back his chair, he did likewise, and the other made a +movement. + +The disappointed hero of a fight unfought had to give the signal for +rising. Double the number of the ten minutes had elapsed. He sprang up, +hearing Rockney say: 'Captain Con O'Donnell is a politician or nothing,' +and as he was the most placable of men concerning his personality, he +took it lightly, with half a groan that it had not come earlier, and +said, 'He thinks and he feels, poor fellow!' + +All hope of a general action was over. + +'That shall pass for the epitaph of the living,' said Rockney. + +It was too late to catch at a trifle to strain it to a tussle. Con was +obliged to subjoin: 'Inscribe it on the dungeon-door of tyranny.' But +the note was peaceful. + +He expressed a wish that the fog had cleared for him to see the stars of +heaven before he went to bed, informing Mr. Mattock that a long look in +among them was often his prayer at night, and winter a holy season to +him, for the reason of its showing them bigger and brighter. + +'I can tell my wife with a conscience we've had a quiet evening, and +you're a witness to it,' he said to Patrick. That consolation remained. + +'You know the secret of your happiness,' Patrick answered. + +'Know you one of the secrets of a young man's fortune in life, and give +us a thrilling song at the piano, my son,' said Con: 'though we don't +happen to have much choice of virgins for ye to-night. Irish or French. +Irish are popular. They don't mind having us musically. And if we'd go +on joking to the end we should content them, if only by justifying their +opinion that we're born buffoons.' + +His happy conscience enabled him to court his wife with assiduity +and winsomeness, and the ladies were once more elated by seeing how +chivalrously lover-like an Irish gentleman can be after years of +wedlock. + +Patrick was asked to sing. Miss Mattock accompanied him at the piano. +Then he took her place on the music-stool, and she sang, and with an +electrifying splendour of tone and style. + +'But it's the very heart of an Italian you sing with!' he cried. + +'It will surprise you perhaps to hear that I prefer German music,' said +she. + +'But where--who had the honour of boasting you his pupil?' + +She mentioned a famous master. Patrick had heard of him in Paris. He +begged for another song and she complied, accepting the one he selected +as the favourite of his brother Philip's, though she said: 'That one?' +with a superior air. It was a mellifluous love-song from a popular +Opera somewhat out of date. 'Well, it's in Italian!' she summed up her +impressions of the sickly words while scanning them for delivery. +She had no great admiration of the sentimental Sicilian composer, +she confessed, yet she sang as if possessed by him. Had she, Patrick +thought, been bent upon charming Philip, she could not have thrown more +fire into the notes. And when she had done, after thrilling the room, +there was a gesture in her dismissal of the leaves displaying critical +loftiness. Patrick noticed it and said, with the thrill of her voice +lingering in him: 'What is it you do like? I should so like to know.' + +She was answering when Captain Con came up to the piano and remarked in +an undertone to Patrick: 'How is it you hit on the song Adiante Adister +used to sing?' + +Miss Mattock glanced at Philip. He had applauded her mechanically, and +it was not that circumstance which caused the second rush of scarlet +over her face. This time she could track it definitely to its origin. +A lover's favourite song is one that has been sung by his love. She +detected herself now in the full apprehension of the fact before she +had sung a bar: it had been a very dim fancy: and she denounced herself +guilty of the knowledge that she was giving pain by singing the stuff +fervidly, in the same breath that accused her of never feeling things +at the right moment vividly. The reminiscences of those pale intuitions +made them always affectingly vivid. + +But what vanity in our emotional state in a great jarring world where we +are excused for continuing to seek our individual happiness only if +we ally it and subordinate it to the well being of our fellows! The +interjection was her customary specific for the cure of these little +tricks of her blood. Leaving her friend Miss Barrow at the piano, she +took a chair in a corner and said; 'Now, Mr. O'Donnell, you will hear +the music that moves me.' + +'But it's not to be singing,' said Patrick. 'And how can you sing so +gloriously what you don't care for? It puzzles me completely.' + +She assured him she was no enigma: she hushed to him to hear. + +He dropped his underlip, keeping on the conversation with his eyes until +he was caught by the masterly playing of a sonata by the chief of the +poets of sound. + +He was caught by it, but he took the close of the introductory section, +an allegro con brio, for the end, and she had to hush at him again, and +could not resist smiling at her lullaby to the prattler. Patrick smiled +in response. Exchanges of smiles upon an early acquaintance between two +young people are peeps through the doorway of intimacy. She lost +sight of the Jesuit. Under the influence of good music, too, a not +unfavourable inclination towards the person sitting beside us and +sharing that sweetness, will soften general prejudices--if he was Irish, +he was boyishly Irish, not like his inscrutable brother; a better, or +hopefuller edition of Captain Con; one with whom something could be done +to steady him, direct him, improve him. He might be taught to appreciate +Beethoven and work for his fellows. 'Now does not that touch you more +deeply than the Italian?' said she, delicately mouthing: 'I, mio tradito +amor!' + +'Touch, I don't know,' he was honest enough to reply. 'It's you that +haven't given it a fair chance I'd like to hear it again. There's a +forest on fire in it.' + +'There is,' she exclaimed. 'I have often felt it, but never seen it. You +exactly describe it. How true!' + +'But any music I could listen to all day and all the night,' said he. + +'And be as proud of yourself the next morning?' + +Patrick was rather at sea. What could she mean? + +Mrs. Adister O'Donnell stepped over to them, with the object of +installing Colonel Adister in Patrick's place. + +The object was possibly perceived. Mrs. Adister was allowed no time to +set the manoeuvre in motion. + +'Mr. O'Donnell is a great enthusiast for music, and could listen to it +all day and all night, he tells me,' said Miss Mattock. 'Would he not +sicken of it in a week, Mrs. Adister?' + +'But why should I?' cried Patrick. 'It's a gift of heaven.' + +'And, like other gifts of heaven, to the idle it would turn to evil.' + +'I can't believe it.' + +'Work, and you will believe it.' + +'But, Miss Mattock, I want to work; I'm empty-handed. It 's true I want +to travel and see a bit of the world to help me in my work by and by. +I'm ready to try anything I can do, though.' + +'Has it ever struck you that you might try to help the poor?' + +'Arthur is really anxious, and only doubts his ability,' said Mrs. +Adister. + +'The doubt throws a shadow on the wish,' said Miss Mattock. 'And can +one picture Colonel Adister the secretary of a Laundry Institution, +receiving directions from Grace and me! We should have to release him +long before the six months' term, when we have resolved to incur the +expense of a salaried secretary.' + +Mrs. Adister turned her head to the colonel, who was then looking down +the features of Mrs. Rockney. + +Patrick said: 'I'm ready, for a year, Miss Mattock.' + +She answered him, half jocosely: 'A whole year of free service? Reflect +on what you are undertaking.' + +'It's writing and accounts, no worse?' + +'Writing and accounts all day, and music in the evening only now and +then.' + +'I can do it: I will, if you'll have me.' + +'Do you hear Mr. O'Donnell, Mrs. Adister?' + +Captain Con fluttered up to his wife, and heard the story from Miss +Mattock. + +He fancied he saw a thread of good luck for Philip in it. 'Our house +could be Patrick's home capitally,' he suggested to his wife. She was +not a whit less hospitable, only hinting that she thought the refusal of +the post was due to Arthur. + +'And if he accepts, imagine him on a stool, my dear madam; he couldn't +sit it!' + +Miss Mattock laughed. 'No, that is not to be thought of seriously. And +with Mr. O'Donnell it would be probationary for the first fortnight or +month. Does he know anything about steam?' + +'The rudimentary idea,' said Patrick. + +'That's good for a beginning,' said the captain; and he added: 'Miss +Mattock, I'm proud if one of my family can be reckoned worthy of +assisting in your noble work.' + +She replied: 'I warn everybody that they shall be taken at their word if +they volunteer their services.' + +She was bidden to know by the captain that the word of an Irish +gentleman was his bond. 'And not later than to-morrow evening I'll land +him at your office. Besides, he'll find countrywomen of his among you, +and there's that to enliven him. You say they work well, diligently, +intelligently.' + +She deliberated. 'Yes, on the whole; when they take to their work. +Intelligently certainly compared with our English. We do not get the +best of them in London. For that matter, we do not get the best of the +English--not the women of the north. We have to put up with the rejected +of other and better-paying departments of work. It breaks my heart +sometimes to see how near they are to doing well, but for such a little +want of ballast.' + +'If they're Irish,' said Patrick, excited by the breaking of her heart, +'a whisper of cajolery in season is often the secret.' + +Captain Con backed him for diplomacy. 'You'll learn he has a head, Miss +Mattock.' + +'I am myself naturally blunt, and prefer the straightforward method,' +said she. + +Patrick nodded. 'But where there's an obstruction in the road, it's +permissible to turn a corner.' + +'Take 'em in flank when you can't break their centre,' said Con. + +'Well, you shall really try whether you can endure the work for a short +time if you are in earnest,' Miss Mattock addressed the volunteer. + +'But I am,' he said. + +'We are too poor at present to refuse the smallest help.' + +'And mine is about the smallest.' + +'I did not mean that, Mr. O'Donnell.' + +'But you'll have me?' + +'Gladly.' + +Captain Con applauded the final words between them. They had the genial +ring, though she accepted the wrong young man for but a shadow of the +right sort of engagement. + +This being settled, by the sudden combination of enthusiastic Irish +impulse and benevolent English scheming, she very considerately resigned +herself to Mrs. Adister's lead and submitted herself to a further +jolting in the unprogressive conversational coach with Colonel Adister, +whose fault as a driver was not in avoiding beaten ways, but whipping +wooden horses. + +Evidently those two were little adapted to make the journey of life +together, though they were remarkably fine likenesses of a pair in the +dead midway of the journey, Captain Con reflected, and he could have +jumped at the thought of Patrick's cleverness: it was the one bright +thing of the evening. There was a clear gain in it somewhere. And if +there was none, Jane Mattock was a good soul worth saving. Why not +all the benefaction on our side, and a figo for rewards! Devotees or +adventurers, he was ready in imagination to see his cousins play the +part of either, as the cross-roads offered, the heavens appeared to +decree. We turn to the right or the left, and this way we're voluntary +drudges, and that way we're lucky dogs; it's all according to the turn, +the fate of it. But never forget that old Ireland is weeping! + + O never forget that old Ireland is weeping + The bitter salt tears of the mother bereft! + +He hummed the spontaneous lines. He was accused of singing to himself, +and a song was vigorously demanded of him by the ladies. + +He shook his head. 'I can't,' he sighed. 'I was plucking the drowned +body of a song out of the waters to give it decent burial. And if I sing +I shall be charged with casting a firebrand at Mr. Rockney.' + +Rockney assured him that he could listen to anything in verse. + +'Observe the sneer:--for our verses are smoke,' said Con. + +Miss Mattock pressed him to sing. + +But he had saddened his mind about old Ireland: the Irish news weighed +heavily on him, unrelieved by a tussle with Rockney. If he sang, it +would be an Irish song, and he would break down in it, he said; and he +hinted at an objection of his wife's to spirited Irish songs of the sort +which carry the sons of Erin bounding over the fences of tyranny and the +brook of tears. And perhaps Mr. Rockney might hear a tale in verse as +hard to bear as he sometimes found Irish prose!--Miss Mattock perceived +that his depression was genuine, not less than his desire to please her. +'Then it shall be on another occasion,' she said. + +'Oh! on another occasion I'm the lark to the sky, my dear lady.' + +Her carriage was announced. She gave Patrick a look, with a smile, for +it was to be a curious experiment. He put on the proper gravity of a +young man commissioned, without a dimple of a smile. Philip bowed to her +stiffly, as we bow to a commanding officer who has insulted us and will +hear of it. But for that, Con would have manoeuvred against his wife +to send him downstairs at the lady's heels. The fellow was a perfect +riddle, hard to read as the zebra lines on the skin of a wild +jackass--if Providence intended any meaning when she traced them! and +it's a moot point: as it is whether some of our poets have meaning +and are not composers of zebra. 'No one knows but them above!' he said +aloud, apparently to his wife. + +'What can you be signifying?' she asked him. She had deputed Colonel +Arthur to conduct Miss Mattock and Miss Barrow to their carriage, and +she supposed the sentence might have a mysterious reference to the plan +she had formed; therefore it might be a punishable offence. Her small +round eyes were wide-open, her head was up and high. + +She was easily appeased, too easily. + +'The question of rain, madam,' he replied to her repetition of his +words. 'I dare say that was what I had in my mind, hearing Mr. Mattock +and Mr. Rockney agree to walk in company to their clubs.' + +He proposed to them that they should delay the march on a visit to his +cabin near the clouds. They were forced to decline his invitation to the +gentle lion's mouth; as did Mr. Rumford, very briskly and thankfully. +Mr. Rockney was taken away by Mr. and Mrs. Marbury Dyke. So the party +separated, and the Englishmen were together, and the Irishmen together; +and hardly a syllable relating to the Englishmen did the Irishmen say, +beyond an allusion to an accident to John Mattock's yacht off the Irish +west-coast last autumn; but the Irishmen were subjected to some remarks +by the Englishmen, wherein their qualities as individuals and specimens +of a race were critically and neatly packed. Common sense is necessarily +critical in its collision with vapours, and the conscious possessors of +an exclusive common sense are called on to deliver a summary verdict, +nor is it an unjust one either, if the verdict be taken simply for an +estimate of what is presented upon the plain surface of to-day. Irishmen +are queer fellows, never satisfied, thirsting for a shindy. Some of them +get along pretty well in America. The air of their Ireland intoxicates +them. They require the strong hand: fair legislation, but no show of +weakness. Once let them imagine you are afraid of them, and they see +perfect independence in their grasp. And what would be the spectacle if +they were to cut themselves loose from England? The big ship might be +inconvenienced by the loss of the tender; the tender would fall adrift +on the Atlantic, with pilot and captain at sword and pistol, the crew +playing Donnybrook freely. Their cooler heads are shrewd enough to see +the folly, but it catches the Irish fancy to rush to the extreme, and +we have allowed it to be supposed that it frightens us. There is the +capital blunder, fons et origo. + +Their leaders now pretend to work upon the Great Scale; they demand +everything on the spot upon their own interpretation of equity. +Concessions, hazy speeches, and the puling nonsense of our present +Government, have encouraged them so far and got us into the mess. Treat +them as policemen treat highwaymen: give them the law: and the law must +be tightened, like the hold on a rogue by his collar, if they kick at +it. Rockney was for sharp measures in repression, fair legislation in +due course. + +'Fair legislation upon your own interpretation of fair,' said Mattock, +whose party opposed Rockney's. 'As to repression, you would have missed +that instructive scene this evening at Con O'Donnell's table, if you +had done him the kindness to pick up his glove. It 's wisest to let them +exhaust their energies upon one another. Hold off, and they're soon at +work.' + +'What kind of director of a City Company does he make?' said Rockney. + +Mattock bethought him that, on the whole, strange to say, Con O'Donnell +comported himself decorously as a director, generally speaking on the +reasonable side, not without shrewdness: he seemed to be sobered by the +money question. + +'That wife of his is the salvation of him,' Rockney said, to account for +the Captain's shrewdness. 'She manages him cleverly. He knows the length +of his line. She's a woman of principle, and barring the marriage, good +sense too. His wife keeps him quiet, or we should be hearing of him. +Forbery 's a more dangerous man. There's no intentional mischief in +Con O'Donnell; it's only effervescence. I saw his game, and declined +to uncork him. He talks of a niece of his wife's: have you ever seen +her?--married to some Servian or Roumanian prince.' + +Mattock answered: 'Yes.' + +'Is she such a beauty?' + +Again Mattock answered: 'Yes,' after affecting thoughtfulness. + +'They seem to marry oddly in that family.' + +Mattock let fly a short laugh at the remark, which had the ring of some +current phrase. 'They do,' he said. + +Next morning Jane Mattock spoke to her brother of her recruit. He +entirely trusted to her discretion; the idea of a young Irish secretary +was rather comical, nevertheless. He had his joke about it, requesting +to have a sight of the secretary's books at the expiry of the week, +which was the length of time he granted this ardent volunteer for +evaporating and vanishing. + +'If it releases poor Grace for a week, it will be useful to us,' Jane +said. 'Women are educated so shamefully that we have not yet found one +we can rely on as a competent person. And Mr. O'Donnell--did you notice +him? I told you I met him a day or two back--seems willing to be of use. +It cannot hurt him to try. Grace has too much on her hands.' + +'She has a dozen persons.' + +'They are zealous when they are led.' + +'Beware of letting them suspect that they are led.' + +'They are anxious to help the poor if they can discover how.' + +'Good men, I don't doubt,' said John Mattock. 'Any proposals from +curates recently?' + +'Not of late. Captain O'Donnell, the brother of our secretary, is +handsomer, but we do not think him so trustworthy. Did you observe him +at all?--he sat by me. He has a conspirator's head.' + +'What is that?' her brother asked her. + +'Only a notion of mine.' + +She was directed to furnish a compendious report of the sayings, doings, +and behaviour of the Irish secretary in the evening. + +'If I find him there,' she said. + +Her brother was of opinion that Mr. Patrick O'Donnell would be as good +as his word, and might be expected to appear there while the novelty +lasted. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. THE MATTOCK FAMILY + +That evening's report of the demeanour of the young Irish secretary in +harness was not so exhilarating as John Mattock had expected, and he +inclined to think his sister guilty of casting her protecting veil +over the youth. It appeared that Mr. O'Donnell had been studious of his +duties, had spoken upon no other topic, had asked pertinent questions, +shown no flippancy, indulged in no extravagances. He seemed, Jane said, +eager to master details. A certain eagerness of her own in speaking +of it sharpened her clear features as if they were cutting through +derision. She stated it to propitiate her brother, as it might have +done but for the veracious picture of Patrick in the word 'eager,' which +pricked the scepticism of a practical man. He locked his mouth, looking +at her with a twinkle she refused to notice. 'Determined to master +details' he could have accepted. One may be determined to find a needle +in a dust-heap; one does not with any stiffness of purpose go at a +dust-heap eagerly. Hungry men have eaten husks; they have not betrayed +eagerness for such dry stuff. Patrick's voracity after details exhibited +a doubtfully genuine appetite, and John deferred his amusement until the +termination of the week or month when his dear good Jane would visit +the office to behold a vacated seat, or be assailed by the customary +proposal. Irishmen were not likely to be far behind curates in besieging +an heiress. For that matter, Jane was her own mistress and could very +well take care of herself; he had confidence in her wisdom. + +He was besides of an unsuspicious and an unexacting temperament. The +things he would strongly object to he did not specify to himself because +he was untroubled by any forethought of them. Business, political, +commercial and marine, left few vacancies in his mind other than for +the pleasures he could command and enjoy. He surveyed his England with +a ruddy countenance, and saw the country in the reflection. His England +saw much of itself in him. Behind each there was more, behind the +country a great deal more, than could be displayed by a glass. The +salient features wore a resemblance. Prosperity and heartiness; a ready +hand on, and over, a full purse; a recognised ability of the second-rate +order; a stout hold of patent principles; inherited and embraced, to +make the day secure and supply a somniferous pillow for the night; +occasional fits of anxiety about affairs, followed by an illuminating +conviction that the world is a changing one and our construction not of +granite, nevertheless that a justifiable faith in the ship, joined to +a constant study of the chart, will pull us through, as it has done +before, despite all assaults and underminings of the common enemy and +the particular; these, with the humorous indifference of familiarity and +constitutional annoyances, excepting when they grew acute and called for +drugs, and with friendliness to the race of man of both colours, in the +belief that our Creator originally composed in black and white, together +with a liking for matters on their present footing in slow motion, +partly under his conductorship, were the prominent characteristics of +the grandson of the founder of the house, who had built it from a spade. + +The story of the building was notorious; popular books for the inciting +of young Englishmen to dig to fortune had a place for it among the +chapters, where we read of the kind of man, and the means by which the +country has executed its later giant strides of advancement. The first +John Mattock was a representative of his time; he moved when the +country was moving, and in the right direction, finding himself at the +auspicious moment upon a line of rail. Elsewhere he would have moved, +we may suppose, for the spade-like virtues bear their fruits; persistent +and thrifty, solid and square, will fetch some sort of yield out of any +soil; but he would not have gone far. The Lord, to whom an old man of a +mind totally Hebrew ascribed the plenitude of material success, the +Lord and he would have reared a garden in the desert; in proximity to an +oasis, still on the sands, against obstacles. An accumulation of upwards +of four hundred thousand pounds required, as the moral of the popular +books does not sufficiently indicate, a moving country, an ardent +sphere, to produce the sum: and since, where so much was done, we are +bound to conceive others at work as well as he, it seems to follow that +the exemplar outstripping them vastly must have profited by situation at +the start, which is a lucky accident; and an accident is an indigestible +lump in a moral tale, real though the story be. It was not mentioned in +the popular books; nor did those worthy guides to the pursuit of wealth +contain any reminder of old John Mattock's dependence upon the conjoint +labour of his fellows to push him to his elevation. As little did they +think of foretelling a day, generations hence, when the empty heirs +of his fellows might prefer a modest claim (confused in statement) to +compensation against the estate he bequeathed: for such prophecy as that +would have hinted at a tenderness for the mass to the detriment of the +individual, and such tenderness as that is an element of our religion, +not the drift of our teaching. + +He grumbled at the heavy taxation of his estate during life: yearly this +oppressed old man paid thousands of pounds to the Government. It was +poor encouragement to shoulder and elbow your way from a hovel to a +mansion! + +He paid the money, dying sour; a splendid example of energy on the road, +a forbidding one at the terminus. And here the moral of the popular +books turned aside from him to snatch at humanity for an instance of our +frailness and dealt in portentous shadows:--we are, it should be known, +not the great creatures we assume ourselves to be. Six months before his +death he appeared in the garb of a navvy, humbly soliciting employment +at his own house-door. There he appealed to the white calves of his +footmen for a day's work, upon the plea that he had never been a +democrat. + +The scene had been described with humanely-moralising pathos in the +various books of stories of Men who have come to Fortune, and it had +for a length of seasons an annual position in the foremost rank (on the +line, facing the door) in our exhibition of the chosen artists, where, +as our popular words should do, it struck the spectator's eye and his +brain simultaneously with pugilistic force: a reference to the picture +in the catalogue furnishing a recapitulation of the incident. 'I've +worked a good bit in my time, gentlemen, and I baint done yet':--SEE +PROFESSOR SUMMIT'S 'MEN WHO HAVE COME TO FORTUNE.' There is, we perceive +at a glance, a contrast in the bowed master of the Mansion applying +to his menials for a day's work at the rate of pay to able-bodied +men:--which he is not, but the deception is not disingenuous. The +contrast flashed with the rapid exchange of two prizefighters in a ring, +very popularly. The fustian suit and string below the knee, on the +one side, and the purple plush breeches and twinkling airy calves +(fascinating his attention as he makes his humble request to his own, +these domestic knights) to right and left of the doorway and in front, +hit straight out of the canvas. And as quickly as you perceive the +contrast you swallow the moral. The dreaded thing is down in a trice, to +do what salutary work it may within you. That it passed into the blood +of England's middle-class population, and set many heads philosophically +shaking, and filled the sails of many a sermon, is known to those +who lived in days when Art and the classes patronising our Native Art +existed happily upon the terms of venerable School-Dame and studious +pupils, before the sickly era displacing Exhibitions full of meaning for +tricks of colour, monstrous atmospherical vagaries that teach nothing, +strange experiments on the complexion of the human face divine--the +feminine hyper-aethereally. Like the first John Mattock, it was formerly +of, and yet by dint of sturdy energy, above the people. They learnt from +it; they flocked to it thirsting and retired from it thoughtful, with +some belief of having drunk of nature in art, as you will see the +countless troops of urchins about the one cow of London, in the Great +City's Green Park. + +A bequest to the nation of the best of these pictures of Old John, by +a very old Yorkshire collector, makes it milk for all time, a perpetual +contrast, and a rebuke. Compared with the portrait of Jane Mattock in +her fiery aureole of hair on the walls of the breakfast-room, it marks +that fatal period of degeneracy for us, which our critics of Literature +as well as Art are one voice in denouncing, when the complex overwhelms +the simple, and excess of signification is attempted, instead of letting +plain nature speak her uncorrupted tongue to the contemplative mind. +Degeneracy is the critical history of the Arts. Jane's hair was of a +reddish gold-inwoven cast that would, in her grandfather's epoch, have +shone unambiguously as carrots. The girl of his day thus adorned by +Nature, would have been shown wearing her ridiculous crown with some +decent sulkiness; and we should not have had her so unsparingly crowned; +the truth would have been told in a dexterous concealment--a rope of +it wound up for a bed of the tortoise-shell comb behind, and a pair of +tight cornucopias at the temples. What does our modern artist do but +flare it to right and left, lift it wavily over her forehead, revel in +the oriental superabundance, and really seem to swear we shall admire +it, against our traditions of the vegetable, as a poetical splendour. +The head of the heiress is in a Jovian shower. Marigolds are in her +hand. The whole square of canvas is like a meadow on the borders of +June. It causes blinking. + +Her brother also is presented: a fine portrait of him, with clipped +red locks, in blue array, smiling, wearing the rose of briny breezes, a +telescope under his left arm, his right forefinger on a map, a view +of Spitzbergen through a cabin-window: for John had notions about the +north-west passage, he had spent a winter in the ice, and if an amateur, +was not the less a true sailor. + +With his brass-buttoned blue coat, and his high coloured cheeks, and his +convict hair--a layer of brickdust--and his air of princely wealth, and +the icebergs and hummocks about him, he looks for adventure without a +thought of his heroism--the country all over. + +There he stands, a lover of the sea, and a scientific seaman and +engineer to boot, practical in every line of his face, defying mankind +to suspect that he cherishes a grain of romance. On the wall, just above +his shoulder, is a sketch of a Viking putting the lighted brand to his +ship in mid sea, and you are to understand that his time is come and +so should a Viking die: further, if you will, the subject is a modern +Viking, ready for the responsibilities of the title. Sketches of +our ancient wooden walls and our iron and plated defences line the +panellings. These degenerate artists do work hard for their money. + +The portrait of John's father, dated a generation back, is just the man +and little else, phantomly the man. His brown coat struggles out of the +obscurity of the background, but it is chiefly background clothing him. +His features are distinguishable and delicate: you would suppose +him appearing to you under the beams of a common candle, or cottage +coalfire--ferruginously opaque. The object of the artist (apart from +the triumph of tone on the canvas) is to introduce him as an elegant and +faded gentleman, rather retiring into darkness than emerging. He is the +ghost of the painter's impasto. Yet this is Ezra Mattock, who multipled +the inheritance of the hundreds of thousands into millions, and died, +after covering Europe, Asia, and the Americas with iron rails, one of +the few Christians that can hold up their heads beside the banking +Jew as magnates in the lists of gold. The portrait is clearly no +frontispiece of his qualities. He married an accomplished and charitable +lady, and she did not spoil the stock in refining it. His life passed +quietly; his death shook the country: for though it had been known +that he had been one of our potentates, how mightily he was one had not +entered into the calculations of the public until the will of the +late Ezra Mattock, cited in our prints, received comments from various +newspaper articles. A chuckle of collateral satisfaction ran through the +empire. All England and her dependencies felt the state of cousinship +with the fruits of energy; and it was an agreeable sentiment, coming +opportunely, as it did, at the tail of articles that had been discussing +a curious manifestation of late--to-wit, the awakening energy of the +foreigner--a prodigious apparition on our horizon. Others were energetic +too! We were not, the sermon ran, to imagine we were without rivals +in the field. We were possessed of certain positive advantages; we had +coal, iron, and an industrious population, but we were, it was to be +feared, by no means a thrifty race, and there was reason for doubt +whether in the matter of industry we were quite up to the mark of our +forefathers. No deterioration of the stock was apprehended, still the +nation must be accused of a lack of vigilance. We must look round us, +and accept the facts as they stood. So accustomed had we become to the +predominance of our position that it was difficult at first to realise a +position of rivalry that threatened our manufacturing interests in their +hitherto undisputed lead in the world's markets. The tale of our exports +for the last five years conveys at once its moral and its warning. +Statistics were then cited. + +As when the gloomy pedagogue has concluded his exhortation, statistics +birched the land. They were started at our dinner-tables, and scourged +the social converse. Not less than in the articles, they were perhaps +livelier than in the preface; they were distressing nevertheless; they +led invariably to the question of our decadence. Carthage was named; a +great mercantile community absolutely obliterated! Senatorial men were +led to propose in their thoughtfullest tones that we should turn our +attention to Art. Why should we not learn to excel in Art? We excelled +in Poetry. Our Poets were cited: not that there was a notion that poems +would pay as an export but to show that if we excel in one of the +Arts we may in others of them. The poetry was not cited, nor was it +necessary, the object being to inflate the balloon of paradox with +a light-flying gas, and prove a poem-producing people to be of their +nature born artists; if they did but know it. The explosion of a +particular trade points to your taking up another. Energy is adapted to +flourish equally in every branch of labour. + +It is the genius of the will, commanding all the crossroads. A country +breeding hugely must prove its energy likewise in the departments of the +mind, or it will ultimately be unable to feed its young--nay, to feast +its aldermen! Let us be up and alive.--Such was the exhortation of a +profound depression. Outside these dismal assemblies, in the streets, +an ancient song of raven recurrence croaked of 'Old England a-going down +the hill'; for there is a link of electricity between the street-boy and +the leading article in days when the Poles exchange salutations. + +Mr. Ezra's legacy of his millions to son and daughter broke like a +golden evening on the borders of the raincloud. Things could not be so +bad when a plain untitled English gentleman bequeathed in the simplest +manner possible such giant heaps, a very Pelion upon Ossa, of wealth to +his children. The minds of the readers of journals were now directed +to think of the hoarded treasures of this favoured country. They +might approximately be counted, but even if counted they would be past +conception, like the sidereal system. The contemplation of a million +stupefies: consider the figures of millions and millions! Articles were +written on Lombard Street, the world's gold-mine, our granary of energy, +surpassing all actual and fabulous gold-mines ever spoken of: Aladdin's +magician would find his purse contracting and squeaking in the +comparison. Then, too, the store of jewels held by certain private +families called for remark and an allusion to Sindbad the sailor, whose +eyes were to dilate wider than they did in the valley of diamonds. Why, +we could, if we pleased, lie by and pass two or three decades as jolly +cricketers and scullers, and resume the race for wealth with the rest +of mankind, hardly sensible of the holiday in our pockets though we were +the last people to do it, we were the sole people that had the option. +Our Fortunatus' cap was put to better purposes, but to have the cap, +and not to be emasculated by the possession, might excuse a little +reasonable pride in ourselves. + +Thus did Optimism and Pessimism have their turn, like the two great +parties in the State, and the subsiding see-saw restored a proper +balance, much to the nation's comfort. Unhappily, it was remembered, +there are spectators of its method of getting to an equipoise out of +the agitation of extremes. The peep at our treasures to regain composure +had, we fear, given the foreigner glimpses, and whetted the appetite of +our masses. No sooner are we at peace than these are heard uttering low +howls, and those are seen enviously glaring. The spectre, Panic, that +ever dogs the optimistic feast, warns us of a sack under our beds, and +robbers about to try a barely-bolted door... Then do we, who have so +sweetly sung our senses to sleep, start up, in their grip, rush to the +doctor and the blacksmith, rig alarums, proclaim ourselves intestinally +torn, defenceless, a prey to foes within and without. It is discovered +to be no worse than an alderman's dream, but the pessimist frenzy of +the night has tossed a quieting sop to the Radical, and summoned the +volunteers to a review. Laudatory articles upon the soldierly 'march +past' of our volunteers permit of a spell of soft repose, deeper than +prudent, at the end of it, India and Ireland consenting. + +So much for a passing outline of John Bull--the shadow on the wall +of John Mattock. The unostentatious millionaire's legacy to his two +children affected Mr. Bull thrillingly, pretty nearly as it has here +been dotted in lining. That is historical. Could he believe in the +existence of a son of his, a master of millions, who had never sighed +(and he had only to sigh) to die a peer, or a baronet, or simple Knight? +The downright hard-nailed coffin fact was there; the wealthiest man +in the country had flown away to Shadowland a common Mr.! You see the +straight deduction from the circumstances:--we are, say what you will, +a Republican people! Newspaper articles on the watch sympathetically for +Mr. Bull's latest view of himself, preached on the theme of our peculiar +Republicanism. Soon after he was observed fondling the Crown Insignia. +His bards flung out their breezy columns, reverentially monarchial. The +Republican was informed that they were despised as a blatant minority. A +maudlin fit of worship of our nobility had hold of him next, and English +aristocracy received the paean. Lectures were addressed to democrats; +our House of Lords was pledged solemnly in reams of print. We were told +that 'blood' may always be betted on to win the race; blood that is blue +will beat the red hollow. Who could pretend to despise the honour of +admission to the ranks of the proudest peerage the world has known! Is +not a great territorial aristocracy the strongest guarantee of national +stability? The loudness of the interrogation, like the thunder of Jove, +precluded thought of an answer. + +Mr. Bull, though he is not of lucid memory, kept an eye on the owner of +those millions. His bards were awake to his anxiety, and celebrated John +Mattock's doings with a trump and flourish somewhat displeasing to a +quietly-disposed commoner. John's entry into Parliament as a Liberal +was taken for a sign of steersman who knew where the tide ran. But +your Liberals are sometimes Radicals in their youth, and his choice +of parties might not be so much sagacity as an instance of unripe +lightheadedness. A young conservative millionaire is less disturbing. +The very wealthy young peer is never wanton in his politics, which seems +to admonish us that the heir of vast wealth should have it imposed on +him to accept a peerage, and be locked up as it were. A coronet steadies +the brain. You may let out your heels at the social laws, you are +almost expected to do it, but you are to shake that young pate of yours +restively under such a splendid encumbrance. Private reports of John, +however, gave him credit for sound opinions: he was moderate, merely +progressive. When it was added that the man had the habit of taking +counsel with his sister, he was at once considered as fast and safe, not +because of any public knowledge of the character of Jane Mattock. We pay +this homage to the settled common sense of women. Distinctly does +she discountenance leaps in the dark, wild driving, and the freaks of +Radicalism. + +John, as it happened, had not so grave a respect for the sex as for the +individual Jane. He thought women capable of acts of foolishness; his +bright-faced sister he could thoroughly trust for prudent conduct. He +gave her a good portion of his heart in confidence, and all of it in +affection. There were matters which he excluded from confidence, even +from intimate communication with himself. These he could not reveal; +nor could she perfectly open her heart to him, for the same reason. They +both had an established ideal of their personal qualities, not far above +the positive, since they were neither of them pretentious, yet it was a +trifle higher and fairer than the working pattern; and albeit they were +sincere enough, quite sincere in their mutual intercourse, they had, +by what each knew at times of the thumping organ within them, cause for +doubting that they were as transparent as the other supposed; and +they were separately aware of an inward smile at one another's partial +deception; which did not thwart their honest power of working up to the +respected ideal. The stroke of the deeper self-knowledge rarely shook +them; they were able to live with full sensations in the animated +picture they were to the eyes best loved by them. This in fact was +their life. Anything beside it was a dream, and we do not speak of +our dreams--not of every dream. Especially do we reserve our speech +concerning the dream in which we had a revelation of the proud frame +deprived of a guiding will, flung rudderless on the waves. Ah that +abject! The dismantled ship has the grandeur of the tempest about it, +but the soul swayed by passion is ignominiously bare-poled, detected, +hooted by its old assumption. If instinct plays fantastical tricks when +we are sleeping, let it be ever behind a curtain. We can be held +guilty only if we court exposure. The ideal of English gentleman and +gentlewoman is closely Roman in the self-repression it exacts, and that +it should be but occasionally difficult to them shows an affinity with +the type. Do you perchance, O continental observers of the race, call it +hypocritical? It is their nature disciplined to the regimental step of +civilisation. Socially these island men and women of a certain middle +rank are veterans of an army, and some of the latest enrolled are the +stoutest defenders of the flag. + +Brother and sister preserved their little secrets of character apart. +They could not be expected to unfold what they declined personally to +examine. But they were not so successful with the lady governing the +household, their widowed maternal aunt, Mrs. Lackstraw, a woman +of decisive penetration, and an insubordinate recruit of the army +aforesaid. To her they were without a mask; John was passion's slave, +Jane the most romantic of Eve's daughters. She pointed to incidents of +their youth; her vision was acutely retrospective. The wealth of her +nephew and niece caused such a view of them to be, as she remarked, +anxious past endurance. She had grounds for fearing that John, who might +step to an alliance with any one of the proudest houses in the Kingdom, +would marry a beggar-maid. As for Jane, she was the natural prey of +a threadbare poet. Mrs. Lackstraw heard of Mr. Patrick O'Donnell, +and demanded the right to inspect him. She doubted such perfect +disinterestedness in any young man as that he should slave at +account-keeping to that Laundry without a prospect of rich remuneration, +and the tale of his going down to the city for a couple of hours each +day to learn the art of keeping books was of very dubious import in a +cousin of Captain Con O'Donnell. 'Let me see your prodigy,' she said, +with the emphasis on each word. Patrick was presented at her table. She +had steeled herself against an Irish tongue. He spoke little, appeared +simple, professed no enthusiasm for the Laundry. And he paid no +compliments to Jane: of the two he was more interested by the elder +lady, whose farm and dairy in Surrey he heard her tell of with a shining +glance, observing that he liked thick cream: there was a touch of +home in it. The innocent sensuality in the candid avowal of his tastes +inspired confidence. Mrs. Lackstraw fished for some account of his home. +He was open to flow on the subject; he dashed a few sketches of mother +and sisters, dowerless girls, fresh as trout in the stream, and of his +own poor estate, and the peasantry, with whom he was on friendly terms. +He was an absentee for his education. Sweet water, pure milk, potatoes +and bread, were the things he coveted in plenty for his people and +himself, he said, calling forth an echo from Mrs. Lackstraw, and +an invitation to come down to her farm in the Spring. 'That is, Mr. +O'Donnell, if you are still in London.' + +'Oh, I'm bound apprentice for a year,' said he. + +He was asked whether he did not find it tiresome work. + +'A trifle so,' he confessed. + +Then why did he pursue it, the question was put. + +He was not alive for his own pleasure, and would like to feel he was +doing a bit of good, was the answer. + +Could one, Mrs. Lackstraw asked herself, have faith in this young +Irishman? He possessed an estate. His brogue rather added to his air +of truthfulness. His easy manners and the occasional streak of correct +French in his dialogue cast a shadow on it. Yet he might be an ingenuous +creature precisely because of the suspicion roused by his quaint +unworldliness that he might be a terrible actor. Why not?--his heart was +evidently much more interested in her pursuits than in her niece's. The +juvenility of him was catching, if it was indeed the man, and not one of +the actor's properties. Mrs. Lackstraw thought it prudent to hint at the +latter idea to Jane while she decided in her generosity to embrace the +former. Oh! if all Irishmen shared his taste for sweet water, pure milk +and wholesome bread, what a true Union we should have! She had always +insisted on those three things as most to be desired on earth for the +masses, and she reminded Jane of it as a curious fact. Jane acquiesced, +having always considered it a curious fact that her aunt should combine +the relish of a country life with the intensest social ambition--a +passion so sensitive as to make the name her husband had inflicted on +her a pain and a burden. The name of Mattock gave her horrors. She spoke +of it openly to prove that Jane must marry a title and John become a +peer. Never was there such a name to smell of the soil. She declared her +incapacity to die happy until the two had buried Mattock. Her own +one fatal step condemned her, owing to the opinion she held upon the +sacredness of marriage, as Lackstraw on her tombstone, and to Lackstraw +above the earthly martyr would go bearing the designation which marked +her to be claimed by him. But for John and Jane the index of Providence +pointed a brighter passage through life. They had only to conquer the +weakness native to them--the dreadful tendency downward. They had, in +the spiritual sense, frail hearts. The girl had been secretive about the +early activity of hers, though her aunt knew of two or three adventures +wanting in nothing save boldness to have put an end to her independence +and her prospects:--hence this Laundry business! a clear sign of some +internal disappointment. The boy, however, had betrayed himself in +his mother's days, when it required all her influence and his father's +authority, with proof positive of the woman's unworthiness, to rescue +him from immediate disaster. + +Mrs. Lackstraw's confidences on the theme of the family she watched over +were extended to Patrick during their strolls among the ducks and fowls +and pheasants at her farm. She dealt them out in exclamations, as much +as telling him that now they knew him they trusted him, notwithstanding +the unaccountable part he played as honorary secretary to that Laundry. +The confidences, he was aware, were common property of the visitors +one after another, but he had the knowledge of his being trusted as +not every Irishman would have been. A service of six months to the +secretaryship established his reputation as the strange bird of a queer +species: not much less quiet, honest, methodical, than an Englishman, +and still impulsive, Irish still; a very strange bird. + +The disposition of the English to love the children of Erin, when not +fretted by them, was shown in the treatment Patrick received from the +Mattock family. It is a love resembling the affection of the stage-box +for a set of favourite performers, and Patrick, a Celt who had schooled +his wits to observe and meditate, understood his position with them as +one of the gallant and amusing race, as well as the reason why he had +won their private esteem. They are not willingly suspicious: it agitates +their minds to be so; and they are most easily lulled by the flattery +of seeing their special virtues grafted on an alien stock: for in this +admiration of virtues that are so necessary to the stalwart growth of +man, they become just sensible of a minor deficiency; the tree, if we +jump out of it to examine its appearance, should not be all trunk. Six +months of ungrudging unremunerated service, showing devotion to the good +cause and perfect candour from first to last, was English, and a poetic +touch beyond: so that John Mattock, if he had finished the sentence +instead of lopping it with an interjection, would have said: 'These +Irish fellows, when they're genuine and first rate!--are pretty well +the pick of the land.' Perhaps his pause on the interjection expressed +a doubt of our getting them genuine. Mr. O'Donnell was a sort of +exceptional Irishman, not devoid of practical ability in a small way--he +did his duties of secretary fairly well; apparently sincere--he had +refrained from courting Jane; an odd creature enough, what with his +mixture of impulsiveness and discretion; likeable, pleasant to entertain +and talk to; not one of your lunatics concerning his country--he could +listen to an Englishman's opinion on that head, listen composedly to +Rockney, merely seeming to take notes; and Rockney was, as Captain Con +termed him, Press Dragoon about Ireland, a trying doctor for a child of +the patient. + +On the whole, John Mattock could shake his hand heartily when he +was leaving our shores. Patrick was released by Miss Grace Barrow's +discovery at last of a lady capable of filling his place: a circumstance +that he did not pretend to regret. He relinquished his post and stood +aside with the air of a disciplined soldier. This was at the expiration +of seven months and two weeks of service. Only after he had gone, upon +her receiving his first letter from the Continent, did Jane distinguish +in herself the warmth of friendliness she felt for him, and know that +of all around her she, reproaching every one who had hinted a doubt, had +been the most suspicious of his pure simplicity. It was the vice of her +condition to be suspicious of the honesty of men. She thought of her +looks as less attractive than they were; of her wealth she had reason +to think that the scent transformed our sad sex into dogs under various +disguises. Remembering her chill once on hearing Patrick in a green lane +where they botanised among spring flowers call himself her Irish cousin, +as if he had advanced a step and betrayed the hoof, she called him +her Irish cousin now in good earnest. Her nation was retrospectively +enthusiastic. The cordiality of her letter of reply to the wandering +Patrick astonished him on the part of so cool a young lady; and Captain +Con, when he heard Miss Mattock speak of Patrick to his wife, came to +the conclusion that the leery lad had gone a far way toward doing the +trick for himself, though Jane said his correspondence was full of the +deeds of his brother in India. She quite sparkled in speaking of this +boy. + +She and the captain had an interchange of sparklings over absent +Patrick, at a discovery made by Miss Colesworth, the lady replacing +him, in a nook of the amateur secretary's official desk, under heaps of +pamphlets and slips, French and English and Irish journals, not at all +bearing upon the business of the Laundry. It was a blotting-pad stuffed +with Patrick's jottings. Jane brought it to Con as to the proper keeper +of the reliquary. He persuaded her to join him in examining it, and +together they bent their heads, turning leaf by leaf, facing, laughing, +pursuing the search for more, sometimes freely shouting. + +Her inspection of the contents had previously been shy; she had just +enough to tell her they were funny. Dozens of scraps, insides of torn +envelopes, invitation-cards, ends of bills received from home, whatever +was handy to him at the moment, had done service for the overflow of Mr. +Secretary's private notes and reflections; the blotting-paper as well; +though that was devoted chiefly to sketches of the human countenance, +the same being almost entirely of the fair. Jane fancied she spied +herself among the number. Con saw the likeness, but not considering it +a complimentary one, he whisked over the leaf. Grace Barrow was +unmistakeable. Her dimpled cushion features, and very intent eyes gazing +out of the knolls and dingles, were given without caricature. Miss +Colesworth appeared on the last page, a half-length holding a big key, +demure between curls. The key was explained by a cage on a stool, and a +bird flying out. She had unlocked the cage for Patrick. + +'He never seemed anxious to be released while he was at work,' said +Jane, after she and the captain had spelt the symbolling in turns. + +'And never thirsted to fly till he flew, I warrant him,' said Con. + +A repeated sketch of some beauty confused them both; neither of them +could guess the proud owner of those lineaments. Con proclaimed it to be +merely one of the lad's recollections, perhaps a French face. He thought +he might have seen a face rather resembling it, but could not call to +mind whose face it was. + +'I dare say it's just a youngster's dream on a stool at a desk, as +poets write sonnets in their youth to nobody, till they're pierced by +somebody, and then there's a difference in their handwriting,' he said, +vexed with Patrick for squandering his opportunity to leave a compliment +to the heiress behind him. + +Jane flipped the leaves back to the lady with stormy hair. + +'But you'll have the whole book, and hand it to him when he returns; +it 'll come best from you,' said Con. 'The man on horseback, out of +uniform, 's brother Philip, of course. And man and horse are done to the +life. Pray, take it, Miss Mattock. I should lose it to a certainty; I +should; I can't be trusted. You'll take it!' + +He pressed her so warmly to retain the bundle in her custody that she +carried it away. + +Strange to say the things she had laughed at had been the things which +struck her feelings and sympathies. Patrick's notes here and there +recalled conversations he had more listened to than taken part in +between herself and Grace Barrow. Who could help laughing at his ideas +about women! But if they were crude, they were shrewd--or so she thought +them; and the jejuneness was, to her mind, chiefly in the dressing of +them. Grace agreed with her, for Grace had as good a right to inspect +the papers as she, and a glance had shown that there was nothing of +peculiar personal import in his notes: he did not brood on himself. + +Here was one which tickled the ladies and formed a text for discussion. + +'Women must take the fate of market-fruit till they earn their own +pennies, and then they 'll regulate the market. It is a tussle for money +with them as with us, meaning power. They'd do it as little by oratory +as they have done by millinery, for their oratory, just like their +millinery, appeals to a sentiment, and to a weaker; and nothing solid +comes of a sentiment. Power is built on work.' + +To this was appended: 'The better for mankind in the developing process, +ay, and a bad day for us, boys, when study masks the charming eyes in +gig-lamps, and there is no pretty flying before us. Good-night to Cupid, +I fear. May be I am not seeing far enough, and am asking for the devil +to have the loveliest women as of old. Retro S. M.' + +The youthful eye on their sex, the Irish voice, and the perceptible +moral earnestness in the background, made up a quaint mixture. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. OF THE GREAT MR. BULL AND THE CELTIC AND SAXON VIEW OF HIM: +AND SOMETHING OF RICHARD ROCKNEY + +Meanwhile India, our lubber giant, had ceased to kick a leg, and +Ireland, our fever-invalid, wore the aspect of an opiate slumber. The +volcano we couch on was quiet, the gritty morsel unabsorbed within us at +an armistice with the gastric juices. Once more the personification of +the country's prosperity had returned to the humming state of roundness. +Trade whipped him merrily, and he spun. + +A fuller sketch of the figure of this remarkable emanation of us +and object of our worship, Bull, is required that we may breathe the +atmosphere of a story dealing with such very different views of the +idol, and learn to tolerate plain-speaking about him. + +Fancy yourself delayed by stress of weather at an inn or an excursion, +and snapped up by some gossip drone of the district, who hearing whither +you are bound, recounts the history and nature of the place, to +your ultimate advantage, though you groan for the outer downpour to +abate.--Of Bull, then: our image, before the world: our lord and tyrant, +ourself in short--the lower part of us. Coldly worshipped on the whole, +he can create an enthusiasm when his roast-beef influence mounts up to +peaceful skies and the domestic English world spins with him. What +he does not like will then be the forbidding law of a most governable +people, what he does like the consenting. If it is declared that +argument will be inefficacious to move him, he is adored in the form of +post. A hint of his willingness in any direction, causes a perilous +rush of his devotees. Nor is there reason to suppose we have drawn the +fanatical subserviency from the example of our subject India. We may +deem it native; perhaps of its origin Aryan, but we have made it our +own. Some have been so venturesome as to trace the lordliness of Bull to +the protecting smiles of the good Neptune, whose arms are about him to +encourage the development of a wanton eccentricity. Certain weeds of +the human bosom are prompt to flourish where safeness would seem to be +guaranteed. Men, for instance, of stoutly independent incomes are prone +to the same sort of wilfulness as Bull's, the salve abject submission to +it which we behold in his tidal bodies of supporters. Neptune has done +something. One thinks he has done much, at a rumour of his inefficiency +to do the utmost. Spy you insecurity?--a possibility of invasion? Then +indeed the colossal creature, inaccessible to every argument, is open to +any suggestion: the oak-like is a reed, the bull a deer. But as there is +no attack on his shores, there is no proof that they are invulnerable. +Neptune is appealed to and replies by mouth of the latest passenger +across the Channel on a windy night:--Take heart, son John! They will +have poor stomachs for blows who intrude upon you. The testification to +the Sea-God's watchfulness restores his darling who is immediately +as horny to argument as before. Neptune shall have his share of the +honours. + +Ideal of his country Bull has none--he hates the word; it smells of +heresy, opposition to his image. It is an exercise of imagination to +accept an ideal, and his digestive organs reject it, after the manner +of the most beautiful likeness of him conjurable to the mind--that +flowering stomach, the sea-anemone, which opens to anything and speedily +casts out what it cannot consume. He is a positive shape, a practical +corporation, and the best he can see is the mirror held up to him by +his bards of the Press and his jester Frank Guffaw. There, begirt +by laughing ocean-waves, manifestly blest, he glorifies his handsome +roundness, like that other Foam-Born, whom the decorative Graces +robed in vestments not so wonderful as printed sheets. Rounder at each +inspection, he preaches to mankind from the text of a finger curved upon +the pattern spectacles. Your Frenchmen are revolutionising, wagering +on tentative politics; your Germans ploughing in philosophy, thumbing +classics, composing music of a novel order: both are marching, +evolutionising, learning how to kill. Ridiculous Germans! capricious +Frenchmen! We want nothing new in musical composition and abstract +speculation of an indecent mythology, or political contrivances and +schemes of Government, and we do not want war. Peace is the Goddess we +court for the hand of her daughter Plenty, and we have won that jolly +girl, and you are welcome to the marriage-feast; but avaunt new-fangled +theories and howlings: old tunes, tried systems, for us, my worthy +friends. + +Roundness admiring the growth of its globe may address majestic +invitation to the leaner kine. It can exhibit to the world that Peace +is a most desirable mother-in-law; and it is tempted to dream of capping +the pinnacle of wisdom when it squats on a fundamental truth. Bull's +perusal of the Horatian carpe diem is acute as that of the cattle in fat +meads; he walks like lusty Autumn carrying his garner to drum on, for +a sign of his diligent wisdom in seizing the day. He can read the page +fronting him; and let it be of dining, drinking, toasting, he will +vociferously confute the wiseacre bookworms who would have us believe +there is no such thing as a present hour for man. + +In sad fact, the member for England is often intoxicate. Often do we +have him whirling his rotundity like a Mussulman dervish inflated by the +spirit to agitate the shanks, until pangs of a commercial crisis awaken +him to perceive an infructuous past and an unsown future, without +one bit of tracery on its black breast other than that which his +apprehensions project. As for a present hour, it swims, it vanishes, +thinner than the phantom banquets of recollection. What has he done +for the growth of his globe of brains?--the lesser, but in our rightful +posture the upper, and justly the directing globe, through whose +directions we do, by feeding on the past to sow the future, create a +sensible present composed of both--the present of the good using of +our powers. What can he show in the Arts? What in Arms? His +bards--O faithless! but they are men--his bards accuse him of sheer +cattle-contentedness in the mead, of sterility of brain, drowsihood, +mid-noddyism, downright carcase-dulness. They question him to deafen him +of our defences, our intellectual eminence, our material achievements, +our poetry, our science; they sneer at his trust in Neptune, doubt the +scaly invulnerability of the God. They point over to the foreigner, the +clean-stepping, braced, self-confident foreigner, good at arms, good +at the arts, and eclipsing us in industriousness manual and mental, and +some dare to say, in splendour of verse=-our supreme accomplishment. + +Then with one big fellow, the collapse of pursiness, he abandons his +pedestal of universal critic; prostrate he falls to the foreigner; he +is down, he is roaring; he is washing his hands of English performances, +lends ear to foreign airs, patronises foreign actors, browses on reports +from camps of foreign armies. He drops his head like a smitten ox to all +great foreign names, moaning 'Shakespeare!' internally for a sustaining +apostrophe. He well-nigh loves his poets, can almost understand what +poetry means. If it does not pay, it brings him fame, respectfulness +in times of reverse. Brains, he is reduced to apprehend, brains are +the generators of the conquering energies. He is now for brains at +all costs, he has gained a conception of them. He is ready to knock +knighthood on the heads of men of brains--even literary brains. +They shall be knights, an ornamental body. To make them peers, and a +legislative, has not struck him, for he has not yet imagined them a +stable body. They require petting, to persuade them to flourish and +bring him esteem. + +This is Mr. Bull, our image before the world, whose pranks are passed +as though the vivid display of them had no bad effect on the nation. +Doubtless the perpetual mirror, the slavish mirror, is to blame, but his +nakedness does not shrink from the mirror, he likes it and he is proud +of it. Beneath these exhibitions the sober strong spirit of the country, +unfortunately not a prescient one, nor an attractively loveable, albeit +of a righteous benevolence, labours on, doing the hourly duties for +the sake of conscience, little for prospective security, little to win +affection. Behold it as the donkey of a tipsy costermonger, obedient to +go without the gift of expression. Its behaviour is honourable under +a discerning heaven, and there is ever something pathetic in a toilful +speechlessness; but it is of dogged attitude in the face of men. Salt is +in it to keep our fleshly grass from putrefaction; poets might proclaim +its virtues. They will not; they are averse. The only voice it has is +the Puritan bray, upon which one must philosophise asinically to unveil +the charm. So the world is pleased to let it be obscured by the paunch +of Bull. We have, however, isolated groups, individuals in all classes, +by no means delighting in his representation of them. When such is felt +to be the case among a sufficient number, his bards blow him away as +a vapour; we hear that he is a piece of our English humour--we enjoy +grotesques and never should agree to paint ourselves handsome: our +subtle conceit insists on the reverse. Nevertheless, no sooner are the +hours auspicious to fatness than Bull is back on us; he is our family +goat, ancestral ghost, the genius of our comfortable sluggishness. And +he is at times a mad Bull: a foaming, lashing, trampling, horn-driving, +excessive, very parlous Bull. It is in his history that frenzies catch +him, when to be yoked to him is to suffer frightful shakings, not to +mention a shattering of our timbers. It is but in days of the rousing +of the under-spirit of the country, days of storm imprudent to pray the +advent of, that we are well rid of him for a while. In the interim he +does mischief, serious mischief; he does worse than when, a juvenile, he +paid the Dannegelt for peace. Englishmen of feeling do not relish +him. For men with Irish and Cambrian blood in their veins the rubicund +grotesque, with his unimpressionable front and his noisy benevolence of +the pocket, his fits of horned ferocity and lapses of hardheartedness, +is a shame and a loathing. You attach small importance to images and +symbols; yet if they seem representative, and they sicken numbers of +us, they are important. The hat we wear, though it is not a part of +the head, stamps the character of our appearance and has a positive +influence on our bearing. Symbolical decorations will stimulate the +vacant-minded to act up to them, they encircle and solidify the mass; +they are a sword of division between Celts and Saxons if they are +abhorrent to one section. And the Celtic brotherhood are not invariably +fools in their sensitiveness. They serve you on the field of Mars, and +on other fields to which the world has given glory. These execrate him +as the full-grown Golden Calf of heathenish worship. And they are so +restive because they are so patriotic. Think a little upon the ideas of +unpatriotic Celts regarding him. You have heard them. You tell us +they are you: accurately, they affirm, succinctly they see you in his +crescent outlines, tame bulk, spasms of alarm and foot on the weaker; +his imperviousness to whatsoever does not confront the sensual eye of +him with a cake or a fist, his religious veneration of his habitual +indulgences, his peculiar forms of nightmare. They swear to his +perfect personification of your moods, your Saxon moods, which their +inconsiderate spleen would have us take for unmixedly Saxon. They are +unjust, but many of them speak with a sense of the foot on their necks, +and they are of a blood demanding a worshipworthy idea. And they dislike +Bull's bellow of disrespect for their religion, much bruited in the +meadows during his periods of Arcadia. They dislike it, cannot forget +the sound: it hangs on the afflicted drum of the ear when they are in +another land, perhaps when the old devotion to their priest has expired. +For this, as well as for material reasons, they hug the hatred they +packed up among their bundles of necessaries and relics, in the flight +from home, and they instruct their children to keep it burning. They +transmit the sentiment of the loathing of Bull, as assuredly they would +be incapable of doing, even with the will, were a splendid fire-eyed +motherly Britannia the figure sitting in the minds of men for our +image--a palpitating figure, alive to change, penetrable to thought, +and not a stolid concrete of our traditional old yeoman characteristic. +Verily he lives for the present, all for the present, will be taught +in sorrow that there is no life for him but of past and future: his +delusion of the existence of a present hour for man will not outlast +the season of his eating and drinking abundantly in security. He will +perceive that it was no more than the spark shot out from the clash +of those two meeting forces; and penitently will he gaze back on that +misleading spark-the spectral planet it bids wink to his unreceptive +stars--acknowledging him the bare machine for those two to drive, +no instrument of enjoyment. He lives by reading rearward and seeing +vanward. He has no actual life save in power of imagination. He has to +learn this fact, the great lesson of all men. Furthermore there may be a +future closed to him if he has thrown too extreme a task of repairing on +that bare machine of his. The sight of a broken-down plough is mournful, +but the one thing to do with it is to remove it from the field. + +Among the patriotic of stout English substance, who blew in the trumpet +of the country, and were not bards of Bull to celebrate his firmness and +vindicate his shiftings, Richard Rockney takes front rank. A journalist +altogether given up to his craft, considering the audience he had +gained, he was a man of forethought besides being a trenchant writer, +and he was profoundly, not less than eminently, the lover of Great +Britain. He had a manner of utterance quite in the tone of the familiar +of the antechamber for proof of his knowing himself to be this person. +He did not so much write articles upon the health of his mistress as +deliver Orphic sentences. He was in one her physician, her spiritual +director, her man-at-arms. Public allusions to her were greeted with his +emphatic assent in a measured pitch of the voice, or an instantaneous +flourish of the rapier; and the flourish was no vain show. He meant hard +steel to defend the pill he had prescribed for her constitutional state, +and the monition for her soul's welfare. Nor did he pretend to special +privileges in assuming his militant stand, but simply that he had +studied her case, was intimate with her resources, and loved her hotly, +not to say inspiredly. Love her as well, you had his cordial hand; as +wisely, then all his weapons to back you. There were occasions when +distinguished officials and Parliamentary speakers received the impetus +of Rockney's approval and not hesitatingly he stepped behind them to +bestow it. The act, in whatever fashion it may have been esteemed by the +objects propelled, was a sign of his willingness to let the shadow of +any man adopting his course obscure him, and of the simplicity of +his attachment. If a bitter experience showed that frequently, indeed +generally, they travelled scarce a tottering stagger farther than they +were precipitated, the wretched consolation afforded by a side glance at +a more enlightened passion, solitary in its depth, was Rockney's. Others +perchance might equal his love, none the wisdom of it; actually none the +vigilant circumspection, the shaping forethought. That clear knowledge +of the right thing for the country was grasped but by fits by others. +Enough to profit them this way and yonder as one best can! You know the +newspaper Press is a mighty engine. Still he had no delight in shuffling +a puppetry; he would have preferred automatic figures. His calls for +them resounded through the wilderness of the wooden. + +Any solid conviction of a capable head of a certainty impressed upon the +world, and thus his changes of view were not attributed to a fluctuating +devotion; they passed out of the range of criticism upon inconsistency, +notwithstanding that the commencement of his journalistic career smelt +of sources entirely opposed to the conclusions upon which it broadened. +One secret of the belief in his love of his country was the readiness +of Rockney's pen to support our nobler patriotic impulses, his relish of +the bluff besides. His eye was on our commerce, on our courts of Law, on +our streets and alleys, our army and navy, our colonies, the vaster than +the island England, and still he would be busy picking up needles and +threads in the island. Deeds of valour were noted by him, lapses of +cowardice: how one man stood against a host for law or humanity, +how crowds looked on at the beating of a woman, how a good fight +was maintained in some sly ring between two of equal brawn: and +manufacturers were warned of the consequences of their iniquities, +Government was lashed for sleeping upon shaky ordinances, colonists were +gibbeted for the maltreating of natives: the ring and fervour of +the notes on daily events told of Rockney's hand upon the national +heart--with a faint, an enforced, reluctant indication of our not being +the men we were. + +But after all, the main secret was his art of writing round English, +instead of laborious Latinised periods: and the secret of the art was +his meaning what he said. It was the personal throb. The fire of a mind +was translucent in Press columns where our public had been accustomed +to the rhetoric of primed scribes. He did away with the Biscay billow +of the leading article--Bull's favourite prose--bardic construction +of sentences that roll to the antithetical climax, whose foamy top is +offered and gulped as equivalent to an idea. Writing of such a kind as +Rockney's was new to a land where the political opinions of Joint Stock +Companies had rattled Jovian thunders obedient to the nod of Bull. +Though not alone in working the change, he was the foremost. And he was +not devoid of style. Fervidness is the core of style. He was a tough +opponent for his betters in education, struck forcibly, dexterously, was +always alert for debate. An encounter between Swift and Johnson, were it +imaginable, would present us probably the most prodigious Gigantomachy +in literary polemics. It is not imaginable among comparative pygmies. +But Rockney's combat with his fellow-politicians of the Press partook +of the Swiftian against the Johnsonian in form. He was a steam ram that +drove straight at the bulky broadside of the enemy. + +Premiers of parties might be Captains of the State for Rockney: Rockney +was the premier's pilot, or woe to him. Woe to the country as well, +if Rockney's directions for steering were unheeded. He was a man of +forethought, the lover of Great Britain: he shouted his directions in +the voice of the lover of his mistress, urged to rebuke, sometimes to +command, the captain by the prophetic intimations of a holier alliance, +a more illumined prescience. Reefs here, shallows there, yonder a foul +course: this is the way for you! The refusal of the captain to go this +way caused Rockney sincerely to discredit the sobriety of his intellect. +It was a drunken captain. Or how if a traitorous? We point out the +danger to him, and if he will run the country on to it, we proclaim him +guilty either of inebriety or of treason--the alternatives are named: +one or the other has him. Simple unfitness can scarcely be conceived of +a captain having our common senses and a warranted pilot at his elbow. + +Had not Rockney been given to a high expression of opinion, plain in +fervour, he would often have been exposed bare to hostile shafts. Style +cast her aegis over him. He wore an armour in which he could walk, run +and leap-a natural style. The ardour of his temperament suffused the +directness of his intelligence to produce it, and the two qualities made +his weakness and strength. Feeling the nerve of strength, the weakness +was masked to him, while his opponents were equally insensible to the +weakness under the force of his blows. Thus there was nothing to teach +him, or reveal him, except Time, whose trick is to turn corners of +unanticipated sharpness, and leave the directly seeing and ardent to +dash at walls. + +How rigidly should the man of forethought govern himself, question +himself! how constantly wrestle with himself! And if he be a writer +ebullient by the hour, how snappishly suspect himself, that he may feel +in conscience worthy of a hearing and have perpetually a conscience in +his charge! For on what is his forethought founded? Does he try the ring +of it with our changed conditions? Bus a man of forethought who has to +be one of our geysers ebullient by the hour must live days of fever. His +apprehensions distemper his blood; the scrawl of them on the dark of +the undeveloped dazzles his brain. He sees in time little else; his +very sincereness twists him awry. Such a man has the stuff of the born +journalist, and journalism is the food of the age. Ask him, however, +midway in his running, what he thinks of quick breathing: he will +answer that to be a shepherd on the downs is to be more a man. As to the +gobbling age, it really thinks better of him than he of it. + +After a term of prolonged preachification he is compelled to lash +that he may less despise the age. He has to do it for his own sake. +O gobbling age! swallowing all, digesting nought, us too you have +swallowed, O insensate mechanism! and we will let you know you have a +stomach. Furiously we disagree with you. We are in you to lead you or +work you pangs! + +Rockney could not be a mild sermoniser commenting on events. Rather no +journalism at all for him! He thought the office of the ordinary daily +preacher cowlike. His gadfly stung him to warn, dictate, prognosticate; +he was the oracle and martyr of superior vision: and as in affairs of +business and the weighing of men he was of singularly cool +sagacity, hard on the downright, open to the humours of the distinct +discrimination of things in their roughness, the knowledge of the +firmly-based materialism of his nature caused him thoroughly to trust to +his voice when he delivered it in ardour--circumstance coming to be of +daily recurrence. Great love creates forethoughtfulness, without which +incessant journalism is a gabble. He was sure of his love, but who gave +ear to his prescience? Few: the echo of the country now and then, the +Government not often. And, dear me! those jog-trot sermonisers, mere +commentators upon events, manage somehow to keep up the sale of their +journals: advertisements do not flow and ebb with them as under the +influence of a capricious moon. Ah, what a public! Serve it honourably, +you are in peril of collapsing: show it nothing but the likeness of its +dull animal face, you are steadily inflated. These reflections within +us! Might not one almost say that the retreat for the prophet is the +wilderness, far from the hustled editor's desk; and annual should be the +uplifting of his voice instead of diurnal, if only to spare his blood +the distemper? A fund of gout was in Rockney's, and he had begun to +churn it. Between gouty blood and luminous brain the strife had set +in which does not conduce to unwavering sobriety of mind, though ideas +remain closely consecutive and the utterance resonant. + +Never had he been an adulator of Bull. His defects as well as his +advantages as a politician preserved to him this virtue. Insisting on a +future, he could not do homage to the belying simulacrum of the present. +In the season of prosperity Rockney lashed the old fellow with the +crisis he was breeding for us; and when prostration ensued no English +tongue was loftier in preaching dignity and the means of recovery. Our +monumental image of the Misuse of Peace he pointed out unceasingly as at +a despot constructed by freemen out of the meanest in their natures +to mock the gift of liberty. His articles of foregone years were an +extraordinary record of events or conditions foreseen: seductive in the +review of them by a writer who has to be still foreseeing: nevertheless, +that none of them were bardic of Bull, and that our sound man would have +acted wisely in heeding some of the prescriptions, constituted their +essential merit, consolatory to think of, though painful. The country +has gone the wrong road, but it may yet cross over to the right one, +when it perceives that we were prophetic. + +Compared with the bolts discharged at Bull by Rockney's artillery, +Captain Con O'Donnell's were popgun-pellets. Only Rockney fired to +chasten, Con O'Donnell for a diversion, to appease an animus. The +revolutionist in English journalism was too devoutly patriotic to +belabour even a pantomime mask that was taken as representative of us +for the disdainful fun of it. Behind the plethoric lamp, now blown +with the fleshpots, now gasping puffs of panic, he saw the well-minded +valorous people, issue of glorious grandsires; a nation under a +monstrous defacement, stupefied by the contemplation of the mask: his +vision was of the great of old, the possibly great in the graver strife +ahead, respecters of life, despisers of death, the real English whereas +an alienated Celtic satirist, through his vivid fancy and his disesteem, +saw the country incarnate in Bull, at most a roguish screw-kneed clown +to be whipped out of him. Celt and Saxon are much inmixed with us, but +the prevalence of Saxon blood is evinced by the public disregard of any +Celtic conception of the honourable and the loveable; so that the Celt +anxious to admire is rebutted, and the hatred of a Celt, quick as he is +to catch at images, has a figure of hugeous animalism supplied to his +malign contempt. Rockney's historic England, and the living heroic +England to slip from that dull hide in a time of trial, whether of war +or social suffering, he cannot see, nor a people hardening to Spartan +lineaments in the fire, iron men to meet disaster, worshippers of a +discerned God of Laws, and just men too, thinking to do justice; he +has Bull on the eye, the alternately braggart and poltroon, sweating in +labour that he may gorge the fruits, graceless to a scoffer. And this is +the creature to whose tail he is tied! Hereditary hatred is approved by +critical disgust. Some spirited brilliancy, some persistent generosity +(other than the guzzle's flash of it), might soften him; something +sweeter than the slow animal well-meaningness his placable brethren +point his attention to. It is not seen, and though he can understand the +perils of a severance, he prefers to rub the rawness of his wound and be +ready to pitch his cap in the air for it, out of sheer bloodloathing of +a connection that offers him nothing to admire, nothing to hug to his +heart. Both below and above the blind mass of discontent in his island, +the repressed sentiment of admiration-or passion of fealty and thirst +to give himself to a visible brighter--is an element of the division: +meditative young Patrick O'Donnell early in his reflections had noted +that:--and it is partly a result of our daily habit of tossing the straw +to the monetary world and doting on ourselves in the mirror, until +our habitual doings are viewed in a bemused complacency by us, and the +scum-surface of the country is flashed about as its vital being. A man +of forethought using the Press to spur Parliament to fitly represent the +people, and writing on his daily topics with strenuous original vigour, +even though, like Rockney, he sets the teeth of the Celt gnashing at +him, goes a step nearer to the bourne of pacification than Press and +Parliament reflecting the popular opinion that law must be passed to +temper Ireland's eruptiveness; for that man can be admired, and the +Celt, in combating him, will like an able and gallant enemy better than +a grudgingly just, lumbersome, dull, politic friend. The material points +in a division are always the stronger, but the sentimental are here +very strong. Pass the laws; they may put an extinguisher on the Irish +Vesuvian; yet to be loved you must be a little perceptibly admirable. +You may be so self-satisfied as to dispense with an ideal: your +yoke-fellow is not; it is his particular form of strength to require one +for his proper blooming, and he does bloom beautifully in the rays he +courts. + +Ah then, seek to be loved, and banish Bull. Believe in a future +and banish that gross obscuration of you. Decline to let that +old-yeoman-turned alderman stand any longer for the national man. +Speaking to the brain of the country, one is sure of the power of a +resolute sign from it to dismiss the brainless. Banish him your revels +and your debatings, prohibit him your Christmas, lend no ear either to +his panics or his testiness, especially none to his rages; do not +report him at all, and he will soon subside into his domestic, varied by +pothouse, privacy. The brain should lead, if there be a brain. Once free +of him, you will know that for half a century you have appeared bottom +upward to mankind. And you have wondered at the absence of love for you +under so astounding a presentation. Even in a Bull, beneficent as he can +dream of being, when his notions are in a similar state of inversion, +should be sheepish in hope for love. + +He too, whom you call the Welshman, and deride for his delight in +songful gatherings, harps to wild Wales, his Cambrian highlands, and +not to England. You have not yet, though he is orderly and serviceable, +allured his imagination to the idea of England. Despite the passion for +his mountains and the boon of your raising of the interdict (within a +hundred years) upon his pastors to harangue him in his native tongue, he +gladly ships himself across the waters traversed by his Prince Madoc of +tradition, and becomes contentedly a transatlantic citizen, a member +of strange sects--he so inveterate in faithfulness to the hoar and the +legendary!--Anything rather than Anglican. The Cymry bear you no hatred; +their affection likewise is undefined. But there is reason to think +that America has caught the imagination of the Cambrian Celt: names of +Welshmen are numerous in the small army of the States of the Union; and +where men take soldier-service they are usually fixed, they and their +children. Here is one, not very deeply injured within a century, of +ardent temperament, given to be songful and loving; he leaves you and +forgets you. Be certain that the material grounds of division are not +all. To pronounce it his childishness provokes the retort upon your +presented shape. He cannot admire it. Gaelic Scots wind the same note of +repulsion. + +And your poets are in a like predicament. Your poets are the most +persuasive of springs to a lively general patriotism. They are in the +Celtic dilemma of standing at variance with Bull; they return him +his hearty antipathy, are unable to be epical or lyrical of him, are +condemned to expend their genius upon the abstract, the quaint, +the picturesque. Nature they read spiritually or sensually, always +shrinkingly apart from him. They swell to a resemblance of their patron +if they stoop to woo his purse. He has, on hearing how that poets bring +praise to nations, as in fact he can now understand his Shakespeare +to have done, been seen to thump the midriff and rally them for their +shyness of it, telling them he doubts them true poets while they abstain +from singing him to the world-him, and the things refreshing the centre +of him. Ineffectual is that encouragement. Were he in the fire, melting +to the iron man, the backbone of him, it would be different. At his +pleasures he is anti-hymnic, repellent to song. He has perceived the +virtues of Peace, without the brother eye for the need of virtuousness +to make good use of them and inspire the poet. His own enrolled +unrhythmical bardic troops (humorous mercenaries when Celts) do his +trumpeting best, and offend not the Pierides. + +This interlude, or rather inter-drone, repulsive to write, can hardly be +excluded from a theme dramatising Celtic views, and treating of a blood, +to which the idea of country must shine resplendently if we would have +it running at full tide through the arteries. Preserve your worship, if +the object fills your optics. Better worship that than nothing, as it is +better for flames to be blown out than not to ascend, otherwise it will +wreak circular mischief instead of illumining. You are requested simply +to recollect that there is another beside you who sees the object +obliquely, and then you will not be surprised by his irreverence. +What if, in the end, you were conducted to a like point of view? +Self-worship, it has been said, is preferable to no trimming of the +faculty, but worship does not necessarily cease with the extinction of +this of the voraciously carnal. An ideal of country, of Great Britain, +is conceivable that will be to the taste of Celt and Saxon in common, +to wave as a standard over their fraternal marching. Let Bull boo his +drumliest at such talk: it is, I protest, the thing we want and can +have. He is the obstruction, not the country; and against him, not +against the country, the shots are aimed which seem so malignant. Him +the gay manipulators propitiate who look at him through Literature +and the Press, and across the pulpit-cushions, like airy Macheath at +Society, as carrion to batten on. May plumpness be their portion, and +they never hanged for it! But the flattering, tickling, pleasantly +pinching of Bull is one of those offices which the simple starveling +piper regards with afresh access of appetite for the well-picked bone of +his virtue. That ghastly apparition of the fleshly present is revealed +to him as a dead whale, having the harpoon of the inevitable slayer of +the merely fleshly in his oils. To humour him, and be his piper for his +gifts, is to descend to a carnival deep underneath. While he reigns, +thinks this poor starveling, Rome burns, or the explosive powders are +being secretly laid. He and his thousand Macheaths are dancing the +country the giddy pace, and there will, the wretch dreads, be many +a crater of scoria in the island, before he stretches his inanimate +length, his parasites upon him. The theme is chosen and must be treated +as a piper involved in his virtue conceives it: that is, realistically; +not with Bull's notion of the realism of the butcher's shop and the +pendent legs of mutton and blocks of beef painted raw and glaring +in their streaks, but with the realism of the active brain and heart +conjoined. The reasons for the division of Celt and Saxon, what they +think and say of one another, often without knowing that they are +divided, and the wherefore of our abusing of ourselves, brave England, +our England of the ancient fortitude and the future incarnation, +can afford to hear. Why not in a tale? It is he, your all for animal +pleasure in the holiday he devours and cannot enjoy, whose example +teaches you to shun the plaguey tale that carries fright: and so you +find him sour at business and sick of his relaxings, hating both because +he harnesses himself in turn bestially to each, growling at the smallest +admixture of them, when, if he would but chirp a little over his work, +and allow his pleasures to inspire a dose of thoughtfulness, he would +be happier, and--who knows?-become a brighter fellow, one to be rescued +from the pole-axe. + +Now the rain is over, your carriage is at the door, the country smiles +and the wet highway waves a beckoning hand. We have worn through a +cloud with cloudy discourses, but we are in a land of shifting weathers, +'coelum crebris imbribus ac nebulis foedum,' not every chapter can be +sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. CROSSING THE RUBICON + +Rough weather on the Irish sea discharged a pallid file of passengers +from the boat at Holyhead just as the morning sun struck wave +and mountain with one of the sudden sparkling changes which our +South-welters have in their folds to tell us after a tumultuous night +that we have only been worried by Puck. The scene of frayed waters all +rosy-golden, and golden-banded heathery height, with the tinted sand, +breaking to flights of blue, was resplendent for those of our recent +sea-farers who could lift an eye to enjoy it. Freshness, illumination, +then salt air, vivid distances, were a bath for every sense of life. You +could believe the breast of the mountain to be heaving, the billows to +be kissing fingers to him, the rollers shattered up the cliff to have +run to extinction to scale him. He seemed in his clear-edged mass King +of this brave new boundless world built in a minute out of the wreck of +the old. + +An hour back the vessel was labouring through rueful chasms under +darkness, and then did the tricksy Southwest administer grisly slaps to +right and left, whizzing spray across the starboard beam, and drenching +the locks of a young lady who sat cloaked and hooded in frieze to teach +her wilfulness a lesson, because she would keep her place on deck from +beginning to end of the voyage. Her faith in the capacity of Irish +frieze to turn a deluge of the deeps driven by an Atlantic gale was +shaken by the time she sighted harbour, especially when she shed showers +by flapping a batlike wing of the cloak, and had a slight shudder to +find herself trickling within. + +'Dear! and I'm wet to the skin,' she confided the fact to herself +vocally. + +'You would not be advised,' a gentleman beside her said after a delicate +pause to let her impulsive naturalism of utterance fly by unwounded. + +'And aren't you the same and worse? And not liking it either, I fear, +Sir!' she replied, for despite a manful smile his complexion was +tell-tale. 'But there 's no harm in salt. But you should have gone +down to the cabin with Father Boyle and you would have been sure of not +catching cold. But, Oh! the beautiful... look at it! And it's my first +view of England. Well, then, I'll say it's a beautiful country.' + +Her companion looked up at the lighted sky, and down at the pools in +tarpaulin at his feet. He repressed a disposition to shudder, and with +the anticipated ecstasy of soon jumping out of wet clothes into dry, he +said: 'I should like to be on the top of that hill now.' + +The young lady's eyes flew to the top. + +'They say he looks on Ireland; I love him; and his name is Caer Gybi; +and it was one of our Saints gave him the name, I 've read in books. +I'll be there before noon.' + +'You want to have a last gaze over to Erin?' + +'No, it's to walk and feel the breeze. But I do, though.' + +'Won't you require a little rest?' + +'Sure and I've had it sitting here all night!' said she. + +He laughed: the reason for the variation of exercise was conclusive. + +Father Boyle came climbing up the ladder, uncertain of his legs; he +rolled and snatched and tottered on his way to them, and accepted +the gentleman's help of an arm, saying: 'Thank ye, thank ye, and good +morning, Mr. Colesworth. And my poor child! what sort of a night has it +been above, Kathleen?' + +He said it rather twinkling, and she retorted: + +'What sort of a night has it been below, Father Boyle?' Her twinkle was +livelier than his, compassionate in archness. + +'Purgatory past is good for contemplation, my dear. 'Tis past, and +there's the comfort! You did well to be out of that herring-barrel, Mr. +Colesworth. I hadn't the courage, or I would have burst from it to take +a ducking with felicity. I haven't thrown up my soul; that's the most I +can say. I thought myself nigh on it once or twice. And an amazing kind +steward it was, or I'd have counted the man for some one else. Surely +'tis a glorious morning?' + +Mr. Colesworth responded heartily in praise of the morning. He was +beginning to fancy that he felt the warmth of spring sunshine on his +back. He flung up his head and sniffed the air, and was very like a +horse fretful for the canter; so like as to give Miss Kathleen an idea +of the comparison. She could have rallied him; her laughing eyes showed +the readiness, but she forbore, she drank the scene. Her face, with the +threaded locks about forehead and cheeks, and the dark, the blue, the +rosy red of her lips, her eyes, her hair, was just such a south-western +sky as April drove above her, the same in colour and quickness; and much +of her spirit was the same, enough to stand for a resemblance. But who +describes the spirit? No one at the gates of the field of youth. When +Time goes reaping he will gather us a sheaf, out of which the picture +springs. + +'There's our last lurch, glory to the breakwater!' exclaimed Father +Boyle, as the boat pitched finally outside the harbour fence, where a +soft calm swell received them with the greeting of civilised sea-nymphs. +'The captain'll have a quieter passage across. You may spy him on the +pier. We'll be meeting him on the landing.' + +'If he's not in bed, from watching the stars all night,' said Miss +Kathleen. + +'He must have had a fifty-lynx power of sight for that, my dear.' + +'They did appear, though, and wonderfully bright,' she said. 'I saw them +come out and go in. It's not all cloud when the high wind blows.' + +'You talk like a song, Kathleen.' + +'Couldn't I rattle a throat if I were at home, Father!' + +'Ah! we're in the enemy's country now.' + +Miss Kathleen said she would go below to get the handbags from the +stewardess. + +Mr. Colesworth's brows had a little darkened over the Rev. Gentleman's +last remark. He took two or three impatient steps up and down with his +head bent. 'Pardon me; I hoped we had come to a better understanding,' +he said. 'Is it quite fair to the country and to Miss O'Donnell to +impress on her before she knows us that England is the enemy?' + +'Habit, Mr. Colesworth, habit! we've got accustomed to the perspective +and speak accordingly. There's a breach visible.' + +'I thought you agreed with me that good efforts are being made on our +side to mend the breach.' + +'Sir, you have a noble minority at work, no doubt; and I take you for +one of the noblest, as not objecting to stand next to alone.' + +'I really thought, judging from our conversation at Mrs. O'Donnell's +that evening, that you were going to hold out a hand and lead your flock +to the right sort of fellowship with us.' + +'To submission to the laws, Mr. Colesworth; 'tis my duty to do it as +pastor and citizen.' + +'No, to more than that, sir. You spoke with friendly warmth.' + +'The atmosphere was genial, if you remember the whisky and the fumes of +our tobacco at one o'clock!' + +'I shall recollect the evening with the utmost pleasure. You were kind +enough to instruct me in a good many things I shall be sure to profit +by. I wish I could have spent more time in Ireland. As it is, I like +Irishmen so well that if the whole land were in revolt I should never +call it the enemy's country.' + +'Excellently spoken, Mr. Colesworth,' said the priest. 'We 'll hope your +writings may do service to mend the breach. For there is one, as you +know, and more 's the pity; there's one, and it's wide and deep. As my +friend Captain Con O'Donnell says, it's plain to the naked eye as a pair +of particularly fat laundry drawers hung out to dry and ballooned +in extension--if mayhap you've ever seen the sight of them in that +state:--just held together by a narrow neck of thread or button, and +stretching away like a corpulent frog in the act of swimming on the +wind. His comparison touches the sentiment of disunion, sir.' + +Mr. Colesworth had not ever seen such a pair of laundry drawers inflated +to symbolise the breach between Ireland and England; nor probably, if he +had, would the sentiment of national disunion have struck his mind: it +was difficult to him in the description. He considered his Rev. friend +to be something of a slippery fish, while Father Boyle's opinion of him +likewise referred him to an elemental substance, of slow movement-earth, +in short: for he continued to look argumentative after all had been +said. + +Or perhaps he threw a coveting eye on sweet Miss Kathleen and had his +own idea of mending a stitch of the breach in a quite domestic way. If +so, the Holy Father would have a word to say, let alone Kathleen. The +maids of his Church do not espouse her foes. For the men it is another +matter: that is as the case may be. Temporarily we are in cordial +intercourse, Mr. Colesworth. + +Miss Kathleen returned to deck carrying her bags. The gentleman had to +descend, and subsequently an amiable dissension arose on the part of the +young lady and Mr. Colesworth. She, however, yielded one of her bags, +and he, though doubly laden, was happy. All very transparent to pastoral +observation, but why should they not be left to their chirruping +youthfulness? The captain was not in view, and Father Boyle wanted to +go to bed for refreshment, and Kathleen was an airy gossamer, with a boy +running after it, not by any means likely to catch it, or to keep it if +he did. Proceed and trip along, you young ones! + +At the hotel they heard that Captain Con O'Donnell was a snug sleeper +upstairs. This, the captain himself very soon informed them, had not +been the kernel of the truth. He had fancied they would not cross the +Channel on so rattlesome a night, or Kathleen would have had an Irish +kiss to greet her landing in England. But the cousinly salute was little +delayed, news of the family in Ireland and England was exchanged, and +then Mr. Colesworth and the captain bowed to an introduction; and +the captain, at mention of his name, immediately cried out that Mr. +Colesworth might perchance be a relative of the highly intelligent +admirable lady who had undertaken the secretaryship, and by her +vast ability got the entire management, of Miss Mattock's benevolent +institution, and was conducting it with such success that it was fast +becoming a grief to the generous heart of the foundress of the same to +find it not only self-paying, but on the road to a fortune, inasmuch as +it was already an article in the decrees of fashion among the nobility +and gentry of both sexes in the metropolis to have their linen and laces +washed at the Mattock laundry. + +Mr. Colesworth said he was the brother of the lady in question, he +had also the pleasure of an acquaintance with Miss Mattock. He was +vehemently congratulated on the relationship, which bore witness, the +captain armed, to a certain hereditary share of brains greatly to be +envied: brother of Miss Colesworth, a title of distinction in itself! +He was congratulated not less cordially for his being so fortunate as to +know Miss Mattock, one of a million. + +Captain Con retained the hand of Father Boyle and squeezed it during his +eulogies, at the same time dispensing nods and winks and sunny sparkles +upon Kathleen. Mr. Colesworth went upstairs to his room not unflattered. +The flattery enveloped him in the pleasant sense of a somehow now +established companionship for the day with a pleasant person from whom +he did not wish to separate. + +'You made the gentleman's acquaintance, my dear...?' said Con. + +Kathleen answered: 'He made friends with our Patrick on the Continent, +I think it was in Germany, and came to us to study the old country, +bearing a letter from Patrick. He means to be one of their writers on +the newspapers. He studies everything; he has written books. He called +on us coming and called on us going and we came over together,' said +Miss Kathleen. 'But tell me: our Philip?' + +'Books!' Con exclaimed. 'It's hard to discover a man in these days who +hasn't written books. Oh! Philip! Ease your heart about Philip. They're +nursing him, round. He was invalided at the right moment for him, no +fear. I gave him his chance of the last vacant seat up to the last hour, +and now the die is cast and this time I 'm off to it. Poor Philip--yes, +yes! we 're sorry to see him flat all his length, we love him; he's +a gallant soldier; alive to his duty; and that bludgeon sun of India +knocked him down, and that fall from his horse finished the business, +and there he lies. But he'll get up, and he might have accepted the seat +and spared me my probation: he's not married, I am, I have a wife, and +Master Philip divides me against my domestic self, he does. But let that +be: I serve duty too. Not a word to our friend up yonder. It's a secret +with a time-fuse warranted to explode safe enough when the minutes are +up, and make a powerful row when it does. It is all right over there, +Father Boyle, I suppose?' + +'A walk over! a pure ceremonial,' said the priest, and he yawned +frightfully. + +'You're for a nap to recompose you, my dear friend,' remarked the +captain. + +'But you haven't confided anything of it to Mrs. Adister?' + +'Not a syllable; no. That's to come. There's my contest! I had urgent +business in Ireland, and she 's a good woman, always willing to let me +go. I count on her kindness, there 's no mightier compliment to one's +wife. She'll know it when it's history. She's fond of history. Ay, she +hates fiction, and so I'm proud to tell her I offer her none. She likes +a trifling surprise too, and there she has it. Oh! we can whip up the +business to a nice little bowl of froth-flummery. But it's when the +Parliamentary voting is on comes the connubial pull. She's a good woman, +a dear good soul, but she's a savage patriot; and Philip might have +saved his kinsman if he had liked. He had only to say the word: I could +have done all the business for him, and no contest to follow by +my fireside. He's on his couch--Mars convalescent: a more dreadful +attraction to the ladies than in his crimson plumes! If the fellow +doesn't let slip his opportunity! with his points of honour and being an +Irish Bayard. Why Bayard in the nineteenth century's a Bedlamite, Irish +or no. So I tell him. There he is; you'll see him, Kathleen: and one +of them as big an heiress as any in England. Philip's no fool, you'll +find.' + +'Then he's coming all right, is he?' said Kathleen. + +'He 's a soldier, and a good one, but he 's nothing more, and as for +patriotic inflammation, doesn't know the sensation.' + +'Oh! but he's coming round, and you'll go and stroke down mother with +that,' Kathleen cried. 'Her heart's been heavy, with Patrick wandering +and Philip on his back. I'll soon be dressed for breakfast.' + +Away she went. + +'She's got an appetite, and looks like a strapped bit of steel after the +night's tumbling,' said the captain, seeing her trip aloft. 'I'm young +as that too, or not far off it. Stay, I'll order breakfast for four in a +quiet corner where we can converse--which, by the way, won't be possible +in the presence of that gaping oyster of a fellow, who looks as if he +were waiting the return of the tide.' + +Father Boyle interposed his hand. + +'Not for...' he tried to add 'four.' The attempt at a formation of the +word produced a cavernous yawn a volume of the distressful deep to the +beholder. + +'Of course,' Captain Con assented. He proposed bed and a sedative +therein, declaring that his experience overnight could pronounce it +good, and that it should be hot. So he led his tired old friend to +the bedroom, asked dozens of questions, flurried a withdrawal of +them, suggested the answers, talked of his Rubicon, praised his wife, +delivered a moan on her behalf, and after assisting to half disrobe the +scarce animate figure, which lent itself like an artist's lay-model to +the operation, departed on his mission of the sedative. + +At the breakfast for three he was able to tell Kathleen that the worthy +Father was warm, and on his way to complete restoration. + +'Full fathom five the Father lies, in the ocean of sleep, by this time,' +said Con. 'And 'tis a curious fact that every man in that condition +seems enviable to men on their legs. And similarly with death; we'd +rather not, because of a qualm, but the picture of the finish of the +leap across is a taking one. These chops are done as if Nature had +mellowed their juiciness.' + +'They are so nice,' Kathleen said. + +'You deserve them, if ever girl in this world!' + +'I sat on deck all night, and Mr. Colesworth would keep me company.' + +'He could hardly do less, having the chance. But that notwithstanding, +I'm under an obligation to your cavalier. And how did you find Ireland, +sir? You've made acquaintance with my cousin, young Mr. Patrick +O'Donnell, I rejoice to hear.' + +'Yes, through his hearing or seeing my name and suspecting I had a +sister,' said Mr. Colesworth, who was no longer in the resemblance of a +gaping oyster on the borders of the ebb. 'The country is not disturbed.' + +'So the doctor thinks his patient is doing favourably! And you cottoned +to Patrick? And I don't wonder. Where was it?' + +'We met in Trieste. He was about to start by one of the Austrian boats +for the East.' + +'Not disturbed! no! with a rotten potato inside it paralysing +digestion!' exclaimed Con. 'Now Patrick had been having a peep at +Vienna, hadn't he?' + +'He had; he was fresh from Vienna when I met him. As to Ireland, the +harvest was only middling good last year.' + +'And that's the bit of luck we depend on. A cloud too much, and it's +drowned! Had he seen, do you know, anybody in Vienna?--you were not long +together at Trieste?' + +Mr. Colesworth had sufficient quickness to perceive that the two +questions could be answered as one, and saying: 'He was disappointed,' +revealed that he and Patrick had been long enough together to come to +terms of intimacy. + +'To be sure, he gave you a letter of introduction to his family!' said +Con. 'And permit me to add, that Patrick's choice of a friend is mine +on trust. The lady he was for seeing, Mr. Colesworth, was just then +embarking on an adventure of a romantic character, particularly well +suited to her nature, and the end of it was a trifle sanguinary, and she +suffered a disappointment also, though not perhaps on that account.' + +'I heard of it in England last year,' said Mr. Colesworth. 'Did she come +through it safely?' + +'Without any personal disfigurement: and is in England now, under her +father's roof, meditating fresh adventures.' + +Kathleen cried: 'Ye 're talking of the lady who was Miss Adister--I can +guess--Ah!' She humped her shoulders and sent a shudder up her neck. + +'But she's a grand creature, Mr. Colesworth, and you ought to know her,' +said Con. 'That is, if you'd like to have an idea of a young Catherine +or a Semiramisminus an army and a country. There's nothing she's not +capable of aiming at. And there's pretty well nothing and nobody she +wouldn't make use of. She has great notions of the power of the British +Press and the British purse--each in turn as a key to the other. Now for +an egg, Kathleen.' + +'I think I'll eat an egg,' Kathleen replied. + +'Bless the honey heart of the girl! Life's in you, my dear, and calls +for fuel. I'm glad to see that Mr. Colesworth too can take a sight at +the Sea-God after a night of him. It augurs magnificently for a future +career. And let me tell you that the Pen demands it of us. The first of +the requisites is a stout stomach--before a furnished head! I'd not pass +a man to be anything of a writer who couldn't step ashore from a tempest +and consume his Titan breakfast.' + +'We are qualifying for the literary craft, Miss O'Donnell,' said Mr. +Colesworth. + +'It's for a walk in the wind up Caer Gybi, and along the coast I mean to +go,' said Kathleen. + +'This morning?' the captain asked her. + +She saw his dilemma in his doubtful look. + +'When I've done. While you're discussing matters with Father Boyle. +I--know you're burning to. Sure it's yourself knows as well as anybody, +Captain Con, that I can walk a day long and take care of my steps. I've +walked the better half of Donegal alone, and this morning I'll have a +protector.' + +Captain Con eyed the protector, approved of him, disapproved of himself, +thought of Kathleen as a daughter of Erin--a privileged and inviolate +order of woman in the minds of his countrymen--and wriggling internally +over a remainder scruple said: 'Mr. Colesworth mayhap has to write a bit +in the morning.' + +'I'm unattached at present,' the latter said. 'I am neither a +correspondent nor a reporter, and if I were, the event would be +wanting.' + +'That remark, sir, shows you to be eminently a stranger to the official +duties,' observed the captain. 'Journalism is a maw, and the journalist +has to cram it, and like anything else which perpetually distends for +matter, it must be filled, for you can't leave it gaping, so when nature +and circumstance won't combine to produce the stuff, we have recourse to +the creative arts. 'Tis the necessity of the profession.' + +'The profession will not impose that necessity upon me,' remarked the +young practitioner. + +'Outside the wheels of the machine, sir, we indulge our hallucination +of immunity. I've been one in the whirr of them, relating what I hadn't +quite heard, and capitulating what I didn't think at all, in spite of +the cry of my conscience--a poor infant below the waters, casting up +ejaculatory bubbles of protestation. And if it is my reproach that I +left it to the perils of drowning, it's my pride that I continued to +transmit air enough to carry on the struggle. Not every journalist can +say as much. The Press is the voice of the mass, and our private opinion +is detected as a discord by the mighty beast, and won't be endured by +him.' + +'It's better not to think of him quite as a beast,' said Mr. Colesworth. + +'Infinitely better: and I like your “guile,” sir: But wait and tell me +what you think of him after tossing him his meat for a certain number of +years. There's Rockney. Do you know Rockney? He's the biggest single +gun they've got, and he's mad for this country, but ask him about the +public, you'll hear the menagerie-keeper's opinion of the brute that +mauled his loins.' + +'Rockney,' said Mr. Colesworth, 'has the tone of a man disappointed of +the dictatorship.' + +'Then you do know Rockney!' shouted Captain Con. 'That's the man in a +neat bit of drawing. He's a grand piece of ordnance. But wait for him +too, and tell me by and by. If it isn't a woman, you'll find, that +primes him, ay, and points him, and what's more, discharges him, I'm not +Irish born. Poor fellow! I pity him. He had a sweet Irish lady for his +wife, and lost her last year, and has been raging astray politically +ever since. I suppose it's hardly the poor creature's fault. None +the less, you know, we have to fight him. And now he 's nibbling at a +bait--it 's fun: the lady I mentioned, with a turn for adventure and +enterprise: it's rare fun: he 's nibbling, he'll be hooked. You must +make her acquaintance, Mr. Colesworth, and hold your own against her, if +you can. She's a niece of my wife's and I'll introduce you. I shall find +her in London, or at our lodgings at a Surrey farm we've taken to +nurse my cousin Captain Philip O'Donnell invalided from Indian awful +climate!--on my return, when I hope to renew the acquaintance. She has +beauty, she has brains. Resist her, and you 'll make a decent stand +against Lucifer. And supposing she rolls you up and pitches you over, +her noticing you is a pretty compliment to your pen. That 'll be +consoling.' + +Mr. Colesworth fancied, he said, that he was proof against feminine +blandishments in the direction of his writings. + +He spoke as one indicating a thread to suggest a cable. The captain +applauded the fancy as a pleasing delusion of the young sprigs of +Journalism. + +Upon this, Mr. Colesworth, with all respect for French intelligence, +denied the conclusiveness of French generalisations, which ascribed to +women universal occult dominion, and traced all great affairs to small +intrigues. + +The captain's eyes twinkled on him, thinking how readily he would back +smart Miss Kathleen to do the trick, if need were. + +He said to her before she started: 'Don't forget he may be a clever +fellow with that pen of his, and useful to our party.' + +'I'll not forget,' said she. + +For the good of his party, then, Captain Con permitted her to take the +walk up Caer Gybi alone with Mr. Colesworth: a memorable walk in the +recollections of the scribe, because of the wonderful likeness of the +young lady to the breezy weather and the sparkles over the deep, the +cloud that frowned, the cloud that glowed, the green of the earth +greening out from under wings of shadow, the mountain ranges holding +hands about an immensity of space. It was one of our giant days to his +emotions, and particularly memorable to him through the circumstance +that it insisted on a record in verse, and he was unused to the fetters +of metre: and although the verse was never seen by man, his attempt +at it confused his ideas of his expressive powers. Oddly too, while +scourging the lines with criticism, he had a fondness for them: they +stamped a radiant day in his mind, beyond the resources of rhetoric to +have done it equally. + +This was the day of Captain Con's crossing the Rubicon between the +secret of his happiness and a Parliamentary career. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. CAPTAIN CON'S LETTER + +Women may be able to tell you why the nursing of a military invalid +awakens tenderer anxieties in their bosoms than those called forth by +the drab civilian. If we are under sentence of death we are all of us +pathetic of course; but stretched upon the debateable couch of sickness +we are not so touching as the coloured coat: it has the distinction +belonging to colour. It smites a deeper nerve, or more than one; and +this, too, where there is no imaginary subjection to the charms of +military glory, in minds to which the game of war is lurid as the plumes +of the arch-slayer. + +Jane Mattock assisting Mrs. Adister O'Donnell to restore Captain Philip +was very singularly affected, like a person shut off on a sudden +from her former theories and feelings. Theoretically she despised the +soldier's work as much as she shrank abhorrently from bloodshed. She +regarded him and his trappings as an ensign of our old barbarism, and +could peruse platitudes upon that theme with enthusiasm. The soldier +personally, she was accustomed to consider an inferior intelligence: +a sort of schoolboy when young, and schoolmaster when mature a visibly +limited creature, not a member of our broader world. Without dismissing +any of these views she found them put aside for the reception of others +of an opposite character; and in her soul she would have ascribed it to +her cares of nursing that she had become thoughtful, doubtful, hopeful, +even prayerful, surcharged with zeal, to help to save a good sword for +the country. If in a world still barbarous we must have soldiers, +here was one whom it would be grievous to lose. He had fallen for the +country; and there was a moving story of how he had fallen. She inclined +to think more highly of him for having courted exposure on a miserable +frontier war where but a poor sheaf of glory could be gathered. And +he seemed to estimate his professional duties apart from an aim at the +laurels. A conception of the possibility of a man's being both a soldier +and morally a hero edged its way into her understanding. It stood +edgeways within, desirous of avoiding a challenge to show every feature. + +The cares of nursing were Jane's almost undividedly, except for the +aid she had from her friend Grace Barrow and from Miss Colesworth. Mrs. +Adister O'Donnell was a nurse in name only. 'She'll be seen by Philip +like as if she were a nightmare apparition of his undertaker's wraith,' +Captain Con said to Jane, when recommending his cousin to her charitable +nature, after he had taken lodgings at a farmhouse near Mrs. Lackstraw's +model farm Woodside on the hills. 'Barring the dress,' as he added, some +such impression of her frigid mournfulness might have struck a recumbent +invalid. Jane acknowledged it, and at first induced her aunt to join her +in the daily walk of half a mile to sit with him. Mrs. Lackstraw was +a very busy lady at her farm; she was often summoned to London by +her intuition of John's wish to have her presiding at table for the +entertainment of his numerous guests; she confessed that she supervised +the art of nursing better than she practised it, and supervision can be +done at a distance if the subordinate is properly attentive to the rules +we lay down, as Jane appeared to be. So Jane was left to him. She loved +the country; Springtide in the country set her singing; her walk to her +patient at Lappett's farm and homeward was an aethereal rapture for a +heart rocking easy in fulness. There was nothing to trouble it, no hint +of wild winds and heavy seas, not even the familiar insinuation from the +vigilant monitress, her aunt, to bid her be on her guard, beware of +what it is that great heiresses are courted for, steel her heart against +serpent speeches, see well to have the woman's precious word No at the +sentinel's post, and alert there. Mrs. Lackstraw, the most vigilant and +plain-spoken of her sex, had forborne to utter the usual warnings which +were to preserve Miss Mattock for her future Earl or Duke and the reason +why she forbore was a double one; a soldier and Papist could never be +thought perilous to a young woman scorning the sons of Mars and slaves +of sacerdotalism. The picture of Jane bestowing her hand on a Roman +Catholic in military uniform, refused to be raised before the mind. +Charitableness, humaneness, the fact that she was an admirable nurse and +liked to exercise her natural gift, perfectly accounted for Jane's trips +to Lappett's farm, and the jellies and fresh dairy dainties and neat +little dishes she was constantly despatching to the place. A suggestion +of possible danger might prove more dangerous than silence, by rendering +it attractive. Besides, Jane talked of poor Captain Philip as Patrick +O'Donnell's brother, whom she was bound to serve in return for Patrick's +many services to her; and of how unlike Patrick he was. Mrs. Lackstraw +had been apprehensive about her fancy for Patrick. Therefore if Captain +Philip was unlike him, and strictly a Catholic, according to report, +the suspicion of danger dispersed, and she was allowed to enjoy the +pleasures of the metropolis as frequently as she chose. The nursing of a +man of Letters, or of the neighbour to him, a beggar in rags, would not +have been so tolerated. Thus we perceive that wits actively awake inside +the ring-fence of prepossessions they have erected may lull themselves +with their wakefulness. Who would have thought!--is the cry when the +strongest bulwark of the fence is broken through. + +Jane least of any would have thought what was coming to pass. The pale +square-browed young officer, so little Irish and winning in his brevity +of speech, did and said nothing to alarm her or strike the smallest +light. Grace Barrow noticed certain little changes of mood in Jane she +could scarcely have had a distinct suspicion at the time. After a recent +observation of him, on an evening stroll from Lappett's to Woodside, she +pronounced him interesting, but hard. 'He has an interesting head... +I should not like to offend him.' They agreed as to his unlikeness to +fluid Patrick; both eulogistic of the absent brother; and Jane, who +could be playful in privacy with friends, clapped a brogue on her tongue +to discourse of Patrick and apostrophise him: 'Oh! Pat, Pat, my dear +cousin Pat! why are you so long away from your desponding Jane? I 'll +take to poetry and write songs, if you don't come home soon. You've +put seas between us, and are behaving to me as an enemy. I know you 'll +bring home a foreign Princess to break the heart of your faithful. But +I'll always praise you for a dear boy, Pat, and wish you happy, and beg +the good gentleman your brother to give me a diploma as nurse to your +first-born. There now!' + +She finished smiling brightly, and Grace was a trifle astonished, for +her friend's humour was not as a rule dramatic. + +'You really have caught a twang of it from your friend Captain Con; only +you don't rattle the eighteenth letter of the alphabet in the middle of +words.' + +'I've tried, and can't persuade my tongue to do it “first off,” as boys +say, and my invalid has no brogue whatever to keep me in practice,' Jane +replied. 'One wonders what he thinks of as he lies there by the window. +He doesn't confide it to his hospital nurse.' + +'Yes, he would treat her courteously, just in that military style,' said +Grace, realising the hospital attendance. + +'It 's the style I like best:--no perpetual personal thankings and +allusions to the trouble he gives!' Jane exclaimed. 'He shows perfect +good sense, and I like that in all things, as you know. A red-haired +young woman chooses to wait on him and bring him flowers--he's brother +to Patrick in his love of wild flowers, at all events!--and he takes it +naturally and simply. These officers bear illness well. I suppose it 's +the drill.' + +'Still I think it a horrid profession, dear.' + +Grace felt obliged to insist on that: and her 'I think,' though it was +not stressed, tickled Jane's dormant ear to some drowsy wakefulness. + +'I think too much honour is paid to it, certainly. But soldiers, of all +men, one would expect to be overwhelmed by a feeling of weakness. He has +never complained; not once. I doubt if he would have complained if Mrs. +Adister had been waiting on him all the while, or not a soul. I can +imagine him lying on the battle-field night after night quietly, +resolving not to groan.' + +'Too great a power of self-repression sometimes argues the want of any +emotional nature,' said Grace. + +Jane shook her head. She knew a story of him contradicting that. + +The story had not recurred to her since she had undertaken her service. +It coloured the remainder of an evening walk home through the beechwoods +and over the common with Grace, and her walk across the same tracks +early in the morning, after Grace had gone to London. Miss Colesworth +was coming to her next week, with her brother if he had arrived in +England. Jane remembered having once been curious about this adventurous +man of Letters who lived by the work of his pen. She remembered +comparing him to one who was compelled to swim perpetually without a +ship to give him rest or land in view. He had made a little money by a +book, and was expending it on travels--rather imprudently, she fancied +Emma Colesworth to be thinking. He talked well, but for the present she +was happier in her prospect of nearly a week of loneliness. The day was +one of sunshine, windless, odorous: one of the rare placid days of April +when the pettish month assumes a matronly air of summer and wears it +till the end of the day. The beech twigs were strongly embrowned, the +larches shot up green spires by the borders of woods and on mounds +within, deep ditchbanks unrolled profuse tangles of new blades, +and sharp eyes might light on a late white violet overlooked by the +children; primroses ran along the banks. Jane had a maxim that flowers +should be spared to live their life, especially flowers of the wilds; +she had reared herself on our poets; hence Mrs. Lackstraw's dread of +the arrival of one of the minstrel order: and the girl, who could +deliberately cut a bouquet from the garden, if requested, would refuse +to pluck a wildflower. But now they cried out to her to be plucked in +hosts, they claimed the sacrifice, and it seemed to her no violation +of her sentiment to gather handfuls making a bunch that would have done +honour to the procession of the children's May-day--a day she excused +for the slaughter because her idol and prophet among the poets, wild +nature's interpreter, was that day on the side of the children. How like +a bath of freshness would the thick faintly-fragrant mass shine to her +patient! Only to look at it was medicine! She believed, in her lively +healthfulness, that the look would give him a spring to health, and she +hurried forward to have them in water-the next sacred obligation to the +leaving of them untouched. + +She had reared herself on our poets. If much brooding on them will +sometimes create a sentimentalism of the sentiment they inspire, that +also, after our manner of developing, leads to finer civilisation; and +as her very delicate feelings were not always tyrants over her clear and +accurate judgement, they rather tended to stamp her character than +lead her into foolishness. Blunt of speech, quick in sensibility, +imaginative, yet idealistic, she had the complex character of diverse +brain and nerve, and was often a problem to the chief person interested +in it. She thought so decisively, felt so shrinkingly; spoke so flatly, +brooded so softly! Such natures, in the painful effort to reconcile +apparent antagonism and read themselves, forget that they are not full +grown. Longer than others are they young: but meanwhile they are of an +age when we are driven abroad to seek and shape our destinies. + +Passing through the garden-gate of Lappett's farm she made her way +to the south-western face of the house to beg a bowl of water of the +farmer's wife, and had the sweet surprise of seeing her patient lying +under swallows' eaves on a chair her brother had been commissioned to +send from London for coming uses. He was near the farm-wife's kitchen, +but to windward of the cooking-reek, pleasantly warmed, sufficiently +shaded, and alone, with open letter on the rug covering his legs. +He whistled to Jane's dog Wayland, a retriever, having Newfoundland +relationships, of smithy redness and ruggedness; it was the whistle that +startled her to turn and see him as she was in the act of handing Mrs. +Lappett her primroses. + +'Out? I feared it would be a week. Is it quite prudent?' Jane said, +toning down her delight. + +He answered with the half-smile that refers these questions to the +settled fact. Air had always brought him round; now he could feel he was +embarked for recovery: and he told her how the farmer and one of his +men had lent a shoulder to present him to his old and surest +physician--rather like a crippled ghost. M. Adister was upstairs in bed +with one of her headaches. Captain Con, then, was attending her, Jane +supposed: She spoke of him as the most devoted of husbands. + +A slight hardening of Philip's brows, well-known to her by this time, +caused her to interrogate his eyes. They were fixed on her in his manner +of gazing with strong directness. She read the contrary opinion, and +some hieroglyphic matter besides. + +'We all respect him for his single-hearted care of her,' she said. 'I +have a great liking for him. His tirades about the Saxon tyrant are not +worth mentioning, they mean nothing. He would be one of the first to +rush to the standard if there were danger; I know he would. He is truly +chivalrous, I am sure.' + +Philip's broad look at her had not swerved. The bowl of primroses placed +beside him on a chair by the farmer's dame diverted it for a moment. + +'You gathered them?' he said. + +Jane drank his look at the flowers. + +'Yes, on my way,' she replied. 'We can none of us live for ever; and +fresh water every day will keep them alive a good long time. They had +it from the clouds yesterday. Do they not seem a bath of country +happiness!' Evidently they did their service in pleasing him. + +Seeing his fingers grope on the rug, she handed him his open letters. + +He selected the second, passing under his inspection, and asked her to +read it. + +She took the letter, wondering a little that it should be in Captain +Con's handwriting. + +'I am to read it through?' she said, after a run over some lines. + +He nodded. She thought it a sign of his friendliness in sharing family +secrets with her, and read: + +'MY DEAR PHILIP,--Not a word of these contents, which will be delivered +seasonably to the lady chiefly concerned, by the proper person. She +hears this morning I 'm off on a hasty visit to Ireland, as I have been +preparing her of late to expect I must, and yours the blame, if any, +though I will be the last to fling it at you. I meet Father B. and +pretty Kitty before I cross. Judging by the wind this morning, the +passage will furnish good schooling for a spell of the hustings. But if +I am in the nature of things unable to command the waves, trust me for +holding a mob in leash; and they are tolerably alike. My spirits are +up. Now the die is cast. My election to the vacancy must be reckoned +beforehand. I promise you a sounding report from the Kincora Herald. +They will not say of me after that (and read only the speeches reported +in the local paper) “what is the man but an Irish adventurer!” He is +a lover of his country, Philip O'Donnell, and one of millions, we will +hope. And that stigmatic title of long standing, more than anything +earthly, drove him to the step-to the ruin of his domestic felicity +perhaps. But we are past sighing. + +'Think you, when he crossed the tide, Caius Julius Caesar sighed? + +'No, nor thought of his life, nor his wife, but of the thing to be done. +Laugh, my boy! I know what I am about when I set my mind on a powerful +example. As the chameleon gets his colour, we get our character from the +objects we contemplate...' + +Jane glanced over the edge of the letter sheet rosily at Philip. + +His dryness in hitting the laughable point diverted her, and her mind +became suffused with a series of pictures of the chameleon captain +planted in view of the Roman to become a copy of him, so that she did +not peruse the terminating lines with her wakefullest attention: + +'The liege lady of my heart will be the earliest to hail her hero +triumphant, or cherish him beaten--which is not in the prospect. Let +Ireland be true to Ireland. We will talk of the consolidation of the +Union by and by. You are for that, you say, when certain things are +done; and you are where I leave you, on the highway, though seeming to +go at a funeral pace to certain ceremonies leading to the union of the +two countries in the solidest fashion, to their mutual benefit, after a +shining example. Con sleeps with a corner of the eye open, and you are +not the only soldier who is a strategist, and a tactician too, aware of +when it is best to be out of the way. Now adieu and pax vobiscum. Reap +the rich harvest of your fall to earth. I leave you in the charge of +the kindest of nurses, next to the wife of my bosom the best of women. +Appreciate her, sir, or perish in my esteem. She is one whom not to +love is to be guilty of an offence deserving capital punishment, and +a bastinado to season the culprit for his execution. Have I not +often informed her myself that a flower from her hand means more than +treasures from the hands of others. Expect me absent for a week. The +harangues will not be closely reported. I stand by the truth, which is +my love of the land of my birth. A wife must come second to that if she +would be first in her husband's consideration. Hurrah me on, Philip, now +it is action, and let me fancy I hear you shouting it.' + +The drop of the letter to the signature fluttered affectionately on +a number of cordial adjectives, like the airy bird to his home in the +corn. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. MARS CONVALESCENT + +Jane's face was clear as the sky when she handed the letter back to +Philip. In doing so, it struck her that the prolonged directness of his +look was peculiar: she attributed it to some effect of the fresh Spring +atmosphere on a weakened frame. She was guessing at his reasons for +showing her the letter, and they appeared possibly serious. + +'An election to Parliament! Perhaps Mrs. Adister should have a hint +of it, to soften the shock I fear it may be: but we must wait till her +headache has passed,' she said. + +'You read to the end?' said Philip. + +'Yes, Captain Con always amuses me, and I am bound to confess I have no +positive disrelish of his compliments. But this may prove a desperate +step. The secret of his happiness is in extreme jeopardy. Nothing would +stop him, I suppose?' + +Philip signified that it was too late. He was moreover of opinion, +and stated it in his briefest, that it would be advisable to leave the +unfolding of the present secret to the captain. + +Jane wondered why the letter had been shown. Her patient might be +annoyed and needing sympathy? + +'After all,' she said, 'Captain Con may turn out to be a very good sort +of member of Parliament in his way.' + +Philip's eyebrows lifted, and he let fall a breath, eloquent of his +thoughts. + +'My brother says he is a serviceable director of the Company they are +associated in.' + +'He finds himself among reasonable men, and he is a chameleon.' + +'Parliament may steady him.' + +'It is too much of a platform for Con's head.' + +'Yes, there is more of poet than politician,' said she. 'That is a +danger. But he calls himself our friend; I think he really has a liking +for John and me.' + +'For you he has a real love,' said Philip. + +'Well, then, he may listen to us at times; he may be trusted not to +wound us. I am unmitigatedly for the one country--no divisions. We want +all our strength in these days of monstrous armies directed by banditti +Councils. England is the nation of the Christian example to nations. Oh! +surely it is her aim. At least she strives to be that. I think it, and I +see the many faults we have.' + +Her patient's eyelids were down. + +She proposed to send her name up to Mrs. Adister. + +On her return from the poor lady racked with headache and lying little +conscious of her husband's powder-barrel under the bed, Jane found her +patient being worried by his official nurse, a farm-labourer's wife, a +bundle of a woman, whose lumbering assiduities he fenced with reiterated +humourous negatives to every one of her propositions, until she +prefaced the last two or three of the list with a 'Deary me!' addressed +consolatorily to herself. She went through the same forms each day, at +the usual hours of the day, and Jane, though she would have felt the +apathetic doltishness of the woman less, felt how hard it must be for +him to bear. + +'Your sister will be with you soon,' she said. 'I am glad, and yet I +hope you will not allow her to put me aside altogether?' + +'You shall do as you wish,' said Philip. + +'Is she like Patrick? Her name is Kathleen, I know.' + +'She is a raw Irish girl, of good Irish training, but Irish.' + +'I hope she will be pleased with England. Like Patrick in face, I mean.' + +'We think her a good-looking girl.' + +'Does she play? sing?' + +'Some of our ballads.' + +'She will delight my brother. John loves Irish ballads.' + +A silence of long duration fell between them. She fancied he would like +to sleep, and gently rose to slip away, that she might consult with Mrs. +Lappett about putting up some tentcover. He asked her if she was going. +'Not home,' she said. His hand moved, but stopped. It seemed to have +meant to detain her. She looked at a white fleece that came across the +sun, desiring to conjure it to stay and shadow him. It sailed by. She +raised her parasol. + +His eyelids were shut, and she thought him asleep. Meditating on +her unanswered question of Miss Kathleen's likeness to Patrick, Jane +imagined a possibly greater likeness to her patient, and that he did not +speak of his family's exclamations on the subject because of Kathleen's +being so good-looking a girl. For if good-looking, a sister must +resemble these handsome features here, quiescent to inspection in their +marble outlines as a corse. So might he lie on the battle-field, with no +one to watch over him! + +While she watched, sitting close beside him to shield his head from the +sunbeams, her heart began to throb before she well knew the secret of +it. She had sight of a tear that grew big under the lashes of each of +his eyelids, and rolled heavily. Her own eyes overflowed. + +The fit of weeping was momentary, April's, a novelty with her. She +accused her silly visions of having softened her. A hasty smoothing +to right and left removed the traces; they were unseen; and when she +ventured to look at him again there was no sign of fresh drops falling. +His eyelids kept shut. + +The arrival of her diurnal basket of provisions offered a refreshing +intervention of the commonplace. Bright air had sharpened his appetite: +he said he had been sure it would, and anticipated cheating the doctor +of a part of the sentence which condemned him to lie on his back up +to the middle of June, a log. Jane was hungry too, and they feasted +together gaily, talking of Kathleen on her journey, her strange +impressions and her way of proclaiming them, and of Patrick and where he +might be now; ultimately of Captain Con and Mrs. Adister. + +'He has broken faith with her,' Philip said sternly. 'She will have the +right to tell him so. He never can be anything but a comic politician. +Still he was bound to consult his wife previous to stepping before the +public. He knows that he married a fortune.' + +'A good fortune,' said Jane. + +Philip acquiesced. 'She is an excellent woman, a model of uprightness; +she has done him all the good in the world, and here is he deceiving +her, lying--there is no other word: and one lie leads to another. When +he married a fortune he was a successful adventurer. The compact was +understood. His duty as a man of honour is to be true to his bond and +serve the lady. Falseness to his position won't wash him clean of the +title.' + +Jane pleaded for Captain Con. 'He is chivalrously attentive to her.' + +'You have read his letter,' Philip replied. + +He crushed her charitable apologies with references to the letter. + +'We are not certain that Mrs. Adister will object,' said she. + +'Do you see her reading a speech of her husband's?' he remarked. +Presently with something like a moan: + +'And I am her guest!' + +'Oh! pray, do not think Mrs. Adister will ever allow you to feel the +lightest shadow...' said Jane. + +'No; that makes it worse.' + +Had this been the burden of his thoughts when those two solitary tears +forced their passage? + +Hardly: not even in his physical weakness would he consent to weep for +such a cause. + +'I forgot to mention that Mrs. Adister has a letter from her husband +telling her he has been called over to Ireland on urgent business,' she +said. + +Philip answered: 'He is punctilious.' + +'I wish indeed he had been more candid,' Jane assented to the sarcasm. + +'In Ireland he is agreeably surprised by the flattering proposal of +a vacant seat, and not having an instant to debate on it, assumes the +consent of the heavenliest wife in Christendom.' + +Philip delivered the speech with a partial imitation of Captain Con +addressing his wife on his return as the elected among the pure Irish +party. The effort wearied him. + +She supposed he was regretting his cousin's public prominence in the +ranks of the malcontents. 'He will listen to you,' she said, while she +smiled at his unwonted display of mimicry. + +'A bad mentor for him. Antics are harmless, though they get us laughed +at,' said Philip. + +'You may restrain him from excesses.' + +'Were I in that position, you would consider me guilty of greater than +any poor Con is likely to commit.' + +'Surely you are not for disunion?' + +'The reverse. I am for union on juster terms, that will hold it fast.' + +'But what are the terms?' + +He must have desired to paint himself as black to her as possible. He +stated the terms, which were hardly less than the affrighting ones blown +across the Irish sea by that fierce party. He held them to be just, +simply sensible terms. True, he spoke of the granting them as a sure +method to rally all Ireland to an ardent love of the British flag. +But he praised names of Irish leaders whom she had heard Mr. Rockney +denounce for disloyal insolence: he could find excuses for them and +their dupes--poor creatures, verily! And his utterances had a shocking +emphasis. Then she was not wrong in her idea of the conspirator's head, +her first impression of him! + +She could not quit the theme: doing that would have been to be +indifferent: something urged her to it. + +'Are they really your opinions?' + +He seemed relieved by declaring that they were. + +'Patrick is quite free of them,' said she. + +'We will hope that the Irish fever will spare Patrick. He was at a +Jesuit college in France when he was wax. Now he's taking the world.' + +'With so little of the Jesuit in him!' + +'Little of the worst: a good deal of the best.' + +'What is the best?' + +'Their training to study. They train you to concentrate the brain upon +the object of study. And they train you to accept service: they fit you +for absolute service: they shape you for your duties in the world; and +so long as they don't smelt a man's private conscience, they are model +masters. Happily Patrick has held his own. Not the Jesuits would have a +chance of keeping a grasp on Patrick! He'll always be a natural boy and +a thoughtful man.' + +Jane's features implied a gentle shudder. + +'I shake a scarlet cloak to you?' said Philip. + +She was directed by his words to think of the scarlet coat. 'I reflect +a little on the substance of things as well,' she said. 'Would not +Patrick's counsels have an influence?' + +'Hitherto our Patrick has never presumed to counsel his elder brother.' + +'But an officer wearing...' + +'The uniform! That would have to be stripped off. There'd be an end to +any professional career.' + +'You would not regret it?' + +'No sorrow is like a soldier's bidding farewell to flag and comrades. +Happily politics and I have no business together. If the country favours +me with active service I'm satisfied for myself. You asked me for my +opinions: I was bound to give them. Generally I let them rest.' + +Could she have had the temerity? Jane marvelled at herself. + +She doubted that the weighty pair of tears had dropped for the country. +Captain Con would have shed them over Erin, and many of them. Captain +Philip's tone was too plain and positive: he would be a most practical +unhistrionic rebel. + +'You would countenance a revolt?' she said, striking at that extreme to +elicit the favourable answer her tones angled for. And it was instantly: + +'Not in arms.' He tried an explanation by likening the dissension to a +wrangle in a civilised family over an unjust division of property. + +And here, as he was marking the case with some nicety and difficulty, an +itinerant barrel-organ crashed its tragic tale of music put to torture +at the gate. It yelled of London to Jane, throttled the spirits of the +woods, threw a smoke over the country sky, befouled the pure air she +loved. + +The instrument was one of the number which are packed to suit all +English tastes and may be taken for a rough sample of the jumble of +them, where a danceless quadrille-tune succeeds a suicidal Operatic +melody and is followed by the weariful hymn, whose last drawl pert polka +kicks aside. Thus does the poor Savoyard compel a rich people to pay for +their wealth. Not without pathos in the abstract perhaps do the wretched +machines pursue their revolutions of their factory life, as incapable of +conceiving as of bestowing pleasure: a bald cry for pennies through the +barest pretence to be agreeable but Jane found it hard to be tolerant of +them out of London, and this one affecting her invalid and Mrs. Adister +must be dismissed. Wayland was growling; he had to be held by the +collar. He spied an objectionable animal. A jerky monkey was attached +to the organ; and his coat was red, his kepi was blue; his tailor had +rigged him as a military gentleman. Jane called to the farm-wife. Philip +assured her he was not annoyed. Jane observed him listening, and by +degrees she distinguished a maundering of the Italian song she had one +day sung to Patrick in his brother's presence. + +'I remember your singing that the week before I went to India,' said +Philip, and her scarlet blush flooded her face. + +'Can you endure the noise?' she asked him. + +'Con would say it shrieks “murder.” But I used to like it once.' + +Mrs. Lappett came answering to the call. Her children were seen up +the garden setting to one another with squared aprons, responsive to a +livelier measure. + +'Bless me, miss, we think it so cheerful!' cried Mrs. Lappett, and +glanced at her young ones harmonious and out of mischief. + +'Very well,' said Jane, always considerate for children. She had +forgotten the racked Mrs. Adister. + +Now the hymn of Puritanical gloom-the peacemaker with Providence +performing devotional exercises in black bile. The leaps of the children +were dashed. A sallow two or three minutes composed their motions, and +then they jumped again to the step for lively legs. The similarity to +the regimental band heading soldiers on the march from Church might have +struck Philip. + +'I wonder when I shall see Patrick!' he said, quickened in spite of +himself by the sham sounds of music to desire changes and surprises. + +Jane was wondering whether he could be a man still to brood tearfully +over his old love. + +She echoed him. 'And I! Soon, I hope.' + +The appearance of Mrs. Adister with features which were the acutest +critical summary of the discord caused toll to be paid instantly, and +they beheld a flashing of white teeth and heard Italian accents. The +monkey saluted militarily, but with painful suggestions of his foregone +drilling in the ceremony. + +'We are safe nowhere from these intrusions,' Mrs. Adister said; 'not on +these hills!--and it must be a trial for the wretched men to climb them, +that thing on their backs.' + +'They are as accustomed to it as mountain smugglers bearing packs of +contraband,' said Philip. + +'Con would have argued him out of hearing before he ground a second +note,' she resumed. 'I have no idea when Con returns from his unexpected +visit to Ireland.' + +'Within a fortnight, madam.' + +'Let me believe it! You have heard from him? But you are in the air! +exposed! My head makes me stupid. It is now five o'clock. The air begins +to chill. Con will never forgive me if you catch a cold, and I would not +incur his blame.' + +The eyes of Jane and Philip shot an exchange. + +'Anything you command, madam,' said Philip. + +He looked up and breathed his heaven of fresh air. Jane pitied, she +could not interpose to thwart his act of resignation. The farmer, home +for tea, and a footman, took him between them, crutched, while Mrs. +Adister said to Jane: 'The doctor's orders are positive:--if he is to be +a man once more, he must rest his back and not use his legs for months. +He was near to being a permanent cripple from that fall. My brother +Edward had one like it in his youth. Soldiers are desperate creatures.' + +'I think Mr. Adister had his fall when hunting, was it not?' said Jane. + +'Hunting, my dear.' + +That was rather different from a fall on duty before the enemy, incurred +by severe exhaustion after sunstroke!... + +Jane took her leave of Philip beside his couch of imprisonment in his +room, promising to return in the early morning. He embraced her old dog +Wayland tenderly. Hard men have sometimes a warm affection for dogs. + +Walking homeward she likewise gave Wayland a hug. She called him 'dear +old fellow,' and questioned him of his fondness for her, warning him +not to be faithless ever to the mistress who loved him. Was not her old +Wayland as good a protector as the footman Mrs. Adister pressed her to +have at her heels? That he was! + +Captain Con's behaviour grieved her. And it certainly revived an ancient +accusation against his countrymen. If he cared for her so much, why had +he not placed confidence in her and commissioned her to speak of his +election to his wife? Irishmen will never be quite sincere!--But why had +his cousin exposed him to one whom he greatly esteemed? However angry he +might be with Con O'Donnell in his disapproval of the captain's conduct, +it was not very considerate to show the poor man to her in his natural +colours. Those words: 'The consolidation of the Union:' sprang up. She +had a dim remembrance of words ensuing: 'ceremonies going at a funeral +pace... on the highway to the solidest kind of union:'--Yes, he wrote: +'I leave you to...' And Captain Philip showed her the letter: + +She perceived motives beginning to stir. He must have had his intention: +and now as to his character!--Jane was of the order of young women +possessing active minds instead of figured paste-board fronts, who see +what there is to be seen about them and know what may be known instead +of decorously waiting for the astonishment of revelations. As soon as +she had asked herself the nature of the design of so honourable a man as +Captain Philip in showing her his cousin's letter, her blood spun +round and round, waving the reply as a torch; and the question of his +character confirmed it. + +But could he be imagined seeking to put her on her guard? There may be +modesty in men well aware of their personal attractions: they can credit +individual women with powers of resistance. He was not vain to the +degree which stupefies the sense of there being weight or wisdom in +others. And he was honour's own. By these lights of his character she +read the act. His intention was... and even while she saw it accurately, +the moment of keen perception was overclouded by her innate distrust of +her claim to feminine charms. For why should he wish her to understand +that he was no fortune-hunter and treated heiresses with greater reserve +than ordinary women! How could it matter to him? + +She saw the tears roll. Tears of men sink plummet-deep; they find their +level. The tears of such a man have more of blood than of water in +them.--What was she doing when they fell? She was shading his head from +the sun. What, then, if those tears came of the repressed desire to +thank her with some little warmth? He was honour's own, and warmhearted +Patrick talked of him as a friend whose heart was, his friend's. +Thrilling to kindness, and, poor soul! helpless to escape it, he felt +perhaps that he had never thanked her, and could not. He lay there, +weak and tongue-tied: hence those two bright volumes of his condition of +weakness. + +So the pursuit of the mystery ended, as it had commenced, in confusion, +but of a milder sort and partially transparent at one or two of the +gates she had touched. A mind capable of seeing was twisted by a nature +that would not allow of open eyes; yet the laden emotions of her nature +brought her round by another channel to the stage neighbouring sight, +where facts, dimly recognised for such--as they may be in truth, are +accepted under their disguises, because disguise of them is needed by +the bashful spirit which accuses itself of audaciousness in presuming to +speculate. Had she asked herself the reason of her extended speculation, +her foot would not have stopped more abruptly on the edge of a torrent +than she on that strange road of vapours and flying lights. She did not; +she sang, she sent her voice through the woods and took the splendid +ring of it for an assurance of her peculiarly unshackled state. She +loved this liberty. Of the men who had 'done her the honour,' not one +had moved her to regret the refusal. She lived in the hope of simply +doing good, and could only give her hand to a man able to direct and +help her; one who would bear to be matched with her brother. Who was he? +Not discoverable; not likely to be. + +Therefore she had her freedom, an absolutely unflushed freedom, happier +than poor Grace Barrow's. Rumour spoke of Emma Colesworth having a +wing clipped. How is it that sensible women can be so susceptible? For, +thought Jane, the moment a woman is what is called in love, she can give +her heart no longer to the innocent things about her; she is cut away +from Nature: that pure well-water is tasteless to her. To me it is wine! + +The drinking of the pure well-water as wine is among the fatal signs +of fire in the cup, showing Nature at work rather to enchain the victim +than bid her daughter go. Jane of course meant the poet's 'Nature.' She +did not reflect that the strong glow of poetic imagination is wanted +to hallow a passionate devotion to the inanimate for this evokes the +spiritual; and passionateness of any kind in narrower brains should be +a proclamation to us of sanguine freshets not coming from a spiritual +source. But the heart betraying deluded her. She fancied she had not +ever been so wedded to Nature as on that walk through the bursting +beechwoods, that sweet lonely walk, perfect in loneliness, where even +a thought of a presence was thrust away as a desecration and images of +souls in thought were shadowy. + +Her lust of freedom gave her the towering holiday. She took the delirium +in her own pure fashion, in a love of the bankside flowers and the downy +edges of the young beech-buds fresh on the sprays. And it was no unreal +love, though too intent and forcible to win the spirit from the object. +She paid for this indulgence of her mood by losing the spirit entirely. +At night she was a spent rocket. What had gone she could not tell: her +very soul she almost feared. Her glorious walk through the wood seemed +burnt out. She struck a light to try her poet on the shelf of the elect +of earth by her bed, and she read, and read flatness. Not his the fault! +She revered him too deeply to lay it on him. Whose was it? She had a +vision of the gulfs of bondage. + +Could it be possible that human persons were subject to the spells of +persons with tastes, aims, practices, pursuits alien to theirs? It was a +riddle taxing her to solve it for the resistance to a monstrous iniquity +of injustice, degrading her conception of our humanity. She attacked it +in the abstract, as a volunteer champion of our offended race. And Oh! +it could not be. The battle was won without a blow. + +Thereupon came glimpses of the gulfs of bondage, delicious, +rose-enfolded, foreign; they were chapters of soft romance, appearing +interminable, an endless mystery, an insatiable thirst for the mystery. +She heard crashes of the opera-melody, and despising it even more than +the wretched engine of the harshness, she was led by it, tyrannically +led a captive, like the organ-monkey, until perforce she usurped the +note, sounded the cloying tune through her frame, passed into the vulgar +sugariness, lost herself. + +And saying to herself: This is what moves them! she was moved. One +thrill of appreciation drew her on the tide, and once drawn from shore +she became submerged. Why am I not beautiful, was her thought. Those +voluptuous modulations of melting airs are the natural clothing of +beautiful women. Beautiful women may believe themselves beloved. They +are privileged to believe, they are born with the faith. + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS + + A country of compromise goes to pieces at the first cannon-shot + A lady's company-smile + A superior position was offered her by her being silent + A whisper of cajolery in season is often the secret + A contented Irishman scarcely seems my countryman + Ah! we're in the enemy's country now + And it's one family where the dog is pulled by the collar + Arch-devourer Time + As secretive as they are sensitive + As if she had never heard him previously enunciate the formula + Be politic and give her elbow-room for her natural angles + Beautiful women may believe themselves beloved + Becoming air of appropriation that made it family history + Constitutionally discontented + Could peruse platitudes upon that theme with enthusiasm + Decency's a dirty petticoat in the Garden of Innocence + England's the foremost country of the globe + Enjoys his luxuries and is ashamed of his laziness + Fires in the grates went through the ceremony of warming nobody + Foamy top is offered and gulped as equivalent to an idea + Foist on you their idea of your idea at the moment + Grimaces at a government long-nosed to no purpose + Hard men have sometimes a warm affection for dogs + He judged of others by himself + He was not alive for his own pleasure + Hear victorious lawlessness appealing solemnly to God the law + Her aspect suggested the repose of a winter landscape + Here, where he both wished and wished not to be + Hug the hatred they packed up among their bundles + I never saw out of a doll-shop, and never saw there + I 'm the warming pan, as legitimately I should be + I detest enthusiasm + I baint done yet + Indirect communication with heaven + Ireland 's the sore place of England + Irishman there is a barrow trolling a load of grievances + Irishmen will never be quite sincere + Irony in him is only eulogy standing on its head + Lack of precise words admonished him of the virtue of silence + Loudness of the interrogation precluded thought of an answer + Love the children of Erin, when not fretted by them + Loves his poets, can almost understand what poetry means + Married at forty, and I had to take her shaped as she was + May lull themselves with their wakefulness + Men must fight: the law is only a quieter field for them + Mika! you did it in cold blood? + Never forget that old Ireland is weeping + No man can hear the words which prove him a prophet (quietly) + Not every chapter can be sunshine + Not likely to be far behind curates in besieging an heiress + Not the great creatures we assume ourselves to be + Not so much read a print as read the imprinting on themselves + Not to bother your wits, but leave the puzzle to the priest + Nursing of a military invalid awakens tenderer anxieties + Old houses are doomed to burnings + Our lawyers have us inside out, like our physicians + Paying compliments and spoiling a game! + Philip was a Spartan for keeping his feelings under + Secret of the art was his meaning what he said + Suggestion of possible danger might more dangerous than silence + Taste a wound from the lightest touch, and they nurse the venom + Tears of men sink plummet-deep + Tears of such a man have more of blood than of water in them + That fiery dragon, a beautiful woman with brains + The race is for domestic peace, my boy + They laugh, but they laugh extinguishingly + Time, whose trick is to turn corners of unanticipated sharpness + Twisted by a nature that would not allow of open eyes + We're all of us hit at last, and generally by our own weapon + We're smitten to-day in our hearts and our pockets + Welsh blood is queer blood + Where one won't and can't, poor t' other must + Winds of panic are violently engaged in occupying the vacuum + With a frozen fish of admirable principles for wife + With death; we'd rather not, because of a qualm + Withdrew into the entrenchments of contempt + Woman's precious word No at the sentinel's post, and alert + Would like to feel he was doing a bit of good + You'll tell her you couldn't sit down in her presence undressed + You'll tell her you couldn't sit down in her presence undressed + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Celt and Saxon, Complete, by George Meredith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELT AND SAXON, COMPLETE *** + +***** This file should be named 4491-0.txt or 4491-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/9/4491/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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