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diff --git a/4491-h/4491-h.htm b/4491-h/4491-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce9a4aa --- /dev/null +++ b/4491-h/4491-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8704 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Celt and Saxon, by George Meredith + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +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 + + + + + + +</pre> + + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + CELT AND SAXON + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By George Meredith + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + 1910. + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> WHEREIN AN + EXCURSION IS MADE IN A CELTIC MIND <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> + CHAPTER II. </a> MR. ADISTER <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> CAROLINE <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> THE PRINCESS <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> AT THE PIANO, + CHIEFLY WITHOUT MUSIC <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. + </a> A CONSULTATION: WITH OPINIONS UPON WELSHWOMEN AND THE + CAMBRIAN RACE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> THE + MINIATURE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> CAPTAIN + CON AND MRS. ADISTER O'DONNELL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> + CHAPTER IX. </a> THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a> THE BROTHERS <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a> INTRODUCING A NEW + CHARACTER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a> MISS + MATTOCK <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a> THE + DINNER-PARTY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a> OF + ROCKNEY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a> THE + MATTOCK FAMILY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a> OF + THE GREAT MR. BULL AND THE CELTIC AND SAXON VIEW OF HIM <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a> CROSSING THE RUBICON + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a> CAPTAIN + CON'S LETTER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a> MARS + CONVALESCENT <br /><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. WHEREIN AN EXCURSION IS MADE IN A CELTIC MIND + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. MR. ADISTER + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Patrick's opening speech concluded on the sound of a short laugh coming + from Mr. Adister. + </p> + <p> + It struck the young Irishman's ear as injurious and scornful in relation + to Captain Con; but the remark ensuing calmed him: + </p> + <p> + 'He has no children.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'You have had the bequest of an estate,' Mr. Adister said, to compliment + him by touching on his affairs. + </p> + <p> + 'A small one; not a quarter of a county,' said Patrick. + </p> + <p> + 'Productive, sir?' + </p> + <p> + ''Tis a tramp of discovery, sir, to where bog ends and cultivation + begins.' + </p> + <p> + 'Bequeathed to you exclusively over the head of your elder brother, I + understand.' + </p> + <p> + Patrick nodded assent. 'But my purse is Philip's, and my house, and my + horses.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not bequeathed by a member of your family?' + </p> + <p> + 'By a distant cousin, chancing to have been one of my godmothers.' + </p> + <p> + 'Women do these things,' Mr. Adister said, not in perfect approbation of + their doings. + </p> + <p> + 'And I think too, it might have gone to the elder,' Patrick replied to his + tone. + </p> + <p> + 'It is not your intention to be an idle gentleman?' + </p> + <p> + 'No, nor a vagrant Irishman, sir.' + </p> + <p> + 'You propose to sit down over there?' + </p> + <p> + 'When I've more brains to be of service to them and the land, I do.' + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + 'That's to say, I've had lessons in the art.' + </p> + <p> + 'I am not aware that there is now an art of fencing taught in Ireland.' + </p> + <p> + 'Nor am I,' said Patrick; 'though there's no knowing what goes on in the + cabins.' + </p> + <p> + Mr. Adister appeared to acquiesce. Observations of sly import went by him + like the whispering wind. + </p> + <p> + 'Your priests should know,' he said. + </p> + <p> + To this Patrick thought it well not to reply. After a pause between them, + he referred to the fencing. + </p> + <p> + 'I was taught by a Parisian master of the art, sir.' + </p> + <p> + 'You have been to Paris?' + </p> + <p> + 'I was educated in Paris.' + </p> + <p> + 'How? Ah!' Mr. Adister corrected himself in the higher notes of + recollection. 'I think I have heard something of a Jesuit seminary.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'Then you are accustomed to speak French?' The interrogation was put to + extract some balm from the circumstance. + </p> + <p> + Patrick tried his art of fence with the absurdity by saying: 'All but like + a native.' + </p> + <p> + 'These Jesuits taught you the use of the foils?' + </p> + <p> + 'They allowed me the privilege of learning, sir.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'Pardon me, sir, you hit on another of my accomplishments.' + </p> + <p> + 'These Jesuits encourage dancing?' + </p> + <p> + 'The square dance—short of the embracing: the valse is under + interdict.' + </p> + <p> + Mr. Adister peered into his brows profoundly for a glimpse of the devilry + in that exclusion of the valse. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 'Thanks to the Jesuits, then, you are almost a Parisian,' he remarked; + provoking the retort: + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Then, you are no Jesuit?' he was asked. + </p> + <p> + Thinking it scarcely required a response, he shrugged. + </p> + <p> + 'You would not change your religion, sir?' said Mr. Adister in seeming + anger. + </p> + <p> + Patrick thought he would have to rise: he half fancied himself summoned to + change his religion or depart from the house. + </p> + <p> + 'Not I,' said he. + </p> + <p> + 'Not for the title of Prince?' he was further pressed, and he replied: + </p> + <p> + 'I don't happen to have an ambition for the title of Prince.' + </p> + <p> + 'Or any title!' interjected Mr. Adister, 'or whatever the devil can offer!—or,' + he spoke more pointedly, 'for what fools call a brilliant marriage?' + </p> + <p> + 'My religion?' Patrick now treated the question seriously and raised his + head: 'I'd not suffer myself to be asked twice.' + </p> + <p> + The sceptical northern-blue eyes of his host dwelt on him with their full + repellent stare. + </p> + <p> + The young Catholic gentleman expected he might hear a frenetic zealot roar + out: Be off! + </p> + <p> + He was not immediately reassured by the words 'Dead or alive, then, you + have a father!' + </p> + <p> + 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!' + </p> + <p> + With that he quitted his chair, and hospitably proposed to conduct his + guest over the house and grounds. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. CAROLINE + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.... + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile he conversed, and seemed, to a gentleman unaware of the vaporous + activities of his brain, a young fellow of a certain practical sense. + </p> + <p> + 'We have not much to teach you in: horseflesh,' Mr. Adister said, quitting + the stables to proceed to the gardens. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'You have your brother's notions of cavalry, have you!' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'A very poor business!' Mr. Adister rejoined, + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'I detest enthusiasm. + </p> + <p> + 'You're not obliged to adore it to give it a wakener. + </p> + <p> + 'Pray, what does that mean?' + </p> + <p> + Patrick cast about to reply to the formal challenge for an explanation. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + Patrick finished his airy sketch of the Irish case in a key signifying + that he might be one among the many, but unobtrusive. + </p> + <p> + 'Stick to horses!' observed Mr. Adister. + </p> + <p> + It was pronounced as the termination to sheer maundering. + </p> + <p> + Patrick talked on the uppermost topic for the remainder of their stroll. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'A Protestant, of course,' Patrick spoke as he thought. + </p> + <p> + 'Madame Dugue is a Catholic of Catholics, and the most honourable of + women.' + </p> + <p> + 'That I'll believe; and wasn't for proselytisms,' said he. + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, no: she was faithful to her trust.' + </p> + <p> + 'Save for the grand example!' + </p> + <p> + 'That,' said Caroline, 'one could strive to imitate without embracing her + faith.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Caroline hesitated before she said: 'You have noticed my Uncle Adister's + prepossession; I mean, his extreme sensitiveness on that subject.' + </p> + <p> + 'He blazed on me, and he seemed to end by a sort of approval.' + </p> + <p> + She sighed. 'He has had cause for great unhappiness.' + </p> + <p> + 'Is it the colonel, or the captain? Forgive me!' + </p> + <p> + Her head shook. + </p> + <p> + 'Is it she? Is it his daughter? I must ask!' + </p> + <p> + 'You have not heard?' + </p> + <p> + 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!' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'Any others?' she said. + </p> + <p> + 'You will consider that one enough for the day,' was his answer. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Half an hour later they were all three riding to the market-town, where + Mr. Adister paid a fruitless call on his lawyer. + </p> + <p> + 'And never is at home! never was known to be at home when wanted!' he + said, springing back to the saddle. + </p> + <p> + Caroline murmured some soothing words. They had a perverse effect. + </p> + <p> + '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!' + </p> + <p> + 'Mr. Camminy will probably appear at the dinner hour,' said Caroline. + </p> + <p> + 'Claret attracts him: I wish I could say as much of duty,' rejoined her + uncle. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + He was rewarded for listening devoutly. + </p> + <p> + 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...!' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. THE PRINCESS + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Who was Schinderhannes? + </p> + <p> + Mr. Adister had said, her Schinderhannes. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + It was not possible. And there was a barrel of powder to lay a fiery head + on, for a pillow! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + Caroline's needle-thrust was provoked: + </p> + <p> + 'Would not Arctic weather deter you, Mr. O'Donnell?' He hummed, and her + eyes filled with the sparkle. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + She smiled, accepting the mental alertness he fastened on her. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Her wish was to divert her uncle. Patrick discerned the intention and + aided her. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Perhaps,' Caroline interposed hurriedly, 'Mr. O'Donnell would not be + unwilling to begin the day with some duets?' + </p> + <p> + Patrick eagerly put on his shame-face to accept her invitation, protesting + that his boldness was entirely due to his delight in music. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + The man of law murmured an excuse or two; he knew his client's eye, and + how to thaw it. + </p> + <p> + '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!' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Mr. Camminy bowed busily somewhere in the direction between Patrick and + the sideboard. + </p> + <p> + 'Our lawyers have us inside out, like our physicians,' Mr. Adister + resumed, talking to blunt his impatience for a private discussion with his + own. + </p> + <p> + 'Surgery's a little in their practice too, we think in Ireland,' said + Patrick. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'It is urgent,' was the answer. + </p> + <p> + 'Ah: foreign? domestic?' + </p> + <p> + A frown replied. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'The princess is well, I hope?' Mr. Camminy asked in the voice of + discretion. 'It concerns her Highness?' + </p> + <p> + '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!' + </p> + <p> + Patrick caught a glance from Caroline, and the pair rose together. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'And a fatter for the ravens,' Patrick joined in softly, as if carrying on + a song. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Patrick hummed a bar or two of an air, to hint of his being fanatico per + la musica, as a pretext for their departure. + </p> + <p> + 'If you'll deign to give me a lesson,' said he, as Caroline came away from + pressing her lips to her uncle's forehead. + </p> + <p> + 'I may discover that I am about to receive one,' said she. + </p> + <p> + They quitted the room together. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. AT THE PIANO, CHIEFLY WITHOUT MUSIC + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'I thought you were aware of my cousin's marriage.' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 'My cousin Adiante.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Patrick stopped: the idea demanded a scrutiny. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + He subsided again; then deeply beseeching asked: + </p> + <p> + 'Have you by chance a portrait of the gentleman, Miss Adister? Is there + one anywhere?' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + She replied: 'We have no portrait.' + </p> + <p> + 'May I beg to know, have you seen him?' said Patrick. Caroline shook her + head. + </p> + <p> + 'Is there no telling what he is like, Miss Adister?' + </p> + <p> + 'He is not young.' + </p> + <p> + 'An old man!' + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'And becoming a Frenchman?' said Caroline. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + She spoke reproachfully: 'Have you no pride in the title of Englishman?' + </p> + <p> + 'I 'm an Irishman.' + </p> + <p> + 'We are one nation.' + </p> + <p> + 'And it's one family where the dog is pulled by the collar.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + It would have comforted her to laugh. She was closer upon tears, and + without any reason for them in her heart. + </p> + <p> + Such a position brings the hesitancy which says that the sitting is at an + end. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. A CONSULTATION: WITH OPINIONS UPON WELSHWOMEN AND THE CAMBRIAN + RACE + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + Caroline said to Mr. Camminy: 'You are sure you can give us the day?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'And so do I' Caroline raised her eyes to imagined mountains. + </p> + <p> + 'You will pardon me, Camminy,' said Mr. Adister. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Adiante,' had murmured Caroline, to correct his indiscretion. + </p> + <p> + She was too late. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'You know what he is like?' said Mr. Adister, with a face of disgust + reflected from the bare thought of the hideous likeness. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + The reply was: 'Dine here and sleep here. I shall be having more of these + letters,' Mr. Adister added, profoundly sighing. + </p> + <p> + Caroline slipped away to mark a conclusion to the debate; and Mr. Camminy + saw his client redden fast and frown. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'Are you in search of him?' said she. 'You like him, uncle? He is out + riding, they tell me.' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Concerns his brother?' Mr. Adister inquired, and his look requesting + enlightenment told her she might speak. + </p> + <p> + 'Adiante,' she said softly. She coloured. + </p> + <p> + Her uncle mused awhile in a half-somnolent gloom. 'He talks of this at + this present day?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not of her?' said Mr. Adister abruptly. + </p> + <p> + 'No; only of her husband.' + </p> + <p> + 'Show him her portrait.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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!' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. THE MINIATURE + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + Adiante. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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!' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'I could join the French Foreign Legion,' he thought. + </p> + <p> + Adiante was as beautiful by day as by night. He looked. The riddle of her + was more burdensome in the daylight. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'We,' said she, 'think it a living image of her as she was then.' + </p> + <p> + He would not be instigated to speak. + </p> + <p> + 'You do not admire it, Mr. O'Donnell?' she cried. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'The same?' said Caroline. + </p> + <p> + 'As this.' He tapped on the left side. She did not understand it at all. + </p> + <p> + 'The bit of work done in Vienna,' said he. + </p> + <p> + She blushed. 'Do you admire that so much?' + </p> + <p> + 'I do.' + </p> + <p> + 'We consider it not to be compared to this.' + </p> + <p> + 'Perhaps not. I like it better.' + </p> + <p> + 'But why do you like that better?' said Caroline, deeming it his + wilfulness. + </p> + <p> + 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.”' + </p> + <p> + Caroline faltered: 'Your brother does not know?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ladies?' Caroline inquired by instinct. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'What authority?' said Caroline coldly. + </p> + <p> + 'Her own old nurse.' + </p> + <p> + 'Jenny Williams?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'You went to Jenny's inn?' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + To disentangle herself, she said on an impulse, desperately + </p> + <p> + 'Mr. O'Donnell begs to have the miniature for his brother.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'That!' said Mr. Adister. He turned to the virgin Adiante, sat down and + shut his eyes, fetching a breath. He looked vacantly at Patrick. + </p> + <p> + 'When you find a man purely destructive, you think him a devil, don't + you?' he said. + </p> + <p> + 'A good first cousin to one,' Patrick replied, watchful for a hint to + seize the connection. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Patrick bowed, oppressed by the mighty gift. 'I haven't the word to thank + you with, sir.' + </p> + <p> + Mr. Adister did not wait for it. + </p> + <p> + 'I owe this to you, Miss Adister,' said Patrick. + </p> + <p> + Her voice shook: 'My uncle loves those who loved her.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. CAPTAIN CON AND MRS. ADISTER O'DONNELL + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Owners of the soil,' rejoined Patrick, much marvelling. + </p> + <p> + 'Undoubtedly, owners of the soil, but owing you service.' + </p> + <p> + 'They fight sir' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'The owners of the soil had to do that,' said Patrick. 'I can show the + same in my country, with a difference.' + </p> + <p> + 'Considerably to your benefit.' + </p> + <p> + 'Everything has been crushed there barring the contrary opinion.' + </p> + <p> + 'I could expect such a remark from a rebel.' + </p> + <p> + 'I'm only interpreting the people, sir.' + </p> + <p> + 'Jump out of that tinder-box as soon as you can.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'Con!' she called to her chattering husband, 'we are in England, if you + please.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Let it be so,' she rejoined, not pacified beneath her dignity. She named + the bedchamber to a footman. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + 'I'll tell you by and by,' said Patrick. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Where are those rascally dress-boots of mine?' cried Patrick. + </p> + <p> + 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!' + </p> + <p> + Patrick seized the boots and tugged them on, saying 'Earlsfont, then.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Priming his kinsman thus up to the door of the diningroom, Captain Con + thrust him in. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'The desert where you 've come from 's good,' said the captain, sharply + nodding. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Adister O'Donnell ejaculated: 'Wine!' for a heavy comment upon one of + his topics, and crushed it. + </p> + <p> + Philip saw that Patrick had no desire to spread, and did not trouble him. + </p> + <p> + 'Good horses in the stable too,' said the captain. + </p> + <p> + Patrick addressed Mrs. Adister: 'I have hardly excused myself to you, + madam.' + </p> + <p> + Her head was aloft in dumb apostrophe of wearifulness over another of her + husband's topics. + </p> + <p> + 'Do not excuse yourself at all,' she said. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'And brings a message of his love to you, my dear,' the Captain bit his + nail harder. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Our last Christmas at Earlsfont was a sad meeting for the family. My + brother Edward is well?' + </p> + <p> + 'I had the happiness to be told that I had been of a little service in + cheering him.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + She resumed: 'You have the art of dressing in a surprisingly short time.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + As soon as the brothers were alone, Philip laid his hand on Patrick, + asking him, 'What does it mean?' + </p> + <p> + Patrick fired his cannon-shot: 'She's married!' Consulting his feelings + immediately after, he hated himself for his bluntness. + </p> + <p> + Philip tossed his head. 'But why did you go down there?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'My dear boy, I've worse than that to think of.' + </p> + <p> + 'You don't mind it?' + </p> + <p> + 'That's old news, Patrick.' + </p> + <p> + 'You don't care for her any more, Philip?' + </p> + <p> + 'You wouldn't have me caring for a married woman?' + </p> + <p> + 'She has a perfect beast for a husband.' + </p> + <p> + 'I'm sorry she didn't make a better choice.' + </p> + <p> + 'He's a prince.' + </p> + <p> + 'So I hear.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ah! And what worse, Philip, can you be having to think of?' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 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!' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + There was a pause. Philip broke from a brown study to glance at his + brother. Patrick made a queer face. + </p> + <p> + 'Fun and good-fellowship to-night, Con,' said Philip, as the captain sadly + reported no star visible. + </p> + <p> + 'Have I ever flown a signal to the contrary?' retorted the captain. + </p> + <p> + 'No politics, and I 'll thank you,' said Philip: 'none of your early + recollections. Be jovial.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'You run great risks,' Philip observed. + </p> + <p> + 'I do,' said the captain. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 'The pipes resemble one another,' said Philip, 'like tails of Shannon-bred + retrievers.' + </p> + <p> + 'Maybe they 're both Irish, then?' the captain caught at analogy to rescue + his favourite from reproach. + </p> + <p> + 'Both of them are Saxon.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not a bit of it!' + </p> + <p> + 'Look at the clay.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'There is no record of pipe manufactories in Ireland at the period you + name.' + </p> + <p> + 'There is: and the jealousy of rulers caused them to be destroyed by + decrees, if you want historical evidence.' + </p> + <p> + 'Your opposition to the Saxon would rob him of his pipe, Con!' + </p> + <p> + 'Let him go to the deuce with as many pipes as he can carry; but he shan't + have this one.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not a toss-up of difference is to be seen in the pair.' + </p> + <p> + 'Use your eyes. The Irish bowl is broken, and the English has an inch + longer stem!' + </p> + <p> + 'O the Irish bowl is broken!' Philip sang. + </p> + <p> + 'You've the heart of a renegade-foreigner not to see it!' cried the + captain. + </p> + <p> + Patrick intervened saying: 'I suspect they're Dutch.' + </p> + <p> + 'Well, and that 's possible.' Captain Con scrutinised them to calm his + temper: 'there's a Dutchiness in the shape.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'And I won't,' the captain shook his hand gratefully. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Mad, you mean,' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + 'I repeat my words, Captain Philip O'Donnell, late of the staff of the + General commanding in Canada.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. THE BROTHERS + </h2> + <h3> + 'Con has learnt one secret,' said Philip, quitting his chair. + </h3> + <p> + Patrick went up to him, and, 'Give us a hug,' he said, and the hug was + given. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + Patrick described the first interview. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'What is it Con O'Donnell proposes to you?' Patrick asked him earnestly. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'I'll make it a thousand,' said Patrick, 'that is, if my people can pay.' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 'Is Con at all likely, do you think, Philip?' + </p> + <p> + 'He might: and become the burlesque Irishman of the House. There must be + one, and the lot would be safe to fall on him.' + </p> + <p> + 'Isn't he serious about it?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Wouldn't the secret of his happiness interfere?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'You like his wife, Philip?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'I suppose it 's like what I hear of as digesting with difficulty,' + Patrick referred to the state described by his brother. + </p> + <p> + 'And not the most agreeable of food,' Philip added. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'With a frozen fish of admirable principles for wife,' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + 'Ah, you give me shudders!' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Philip drank in the face upon a swift shot of his eyes. + </p> + <p> + 'Mr. Adister sends it?' His tone implied wonder at such a change in + Adiante's father. + </p> + <p> + 'And an invitation to you to visit him when you please.' + </p> + <p> + 'That he might do,' said Philip: it was a lesser thing than to send her + likeness to him. + </p> + <p> + Patrick could not help dropping his voice: 'Isn't it very like?' For + answer the miniature had to be inspected closely. + </p> + <p> + Philip was a Spartan for keeping his feelings under. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'I thought you would wish to have it, Philip.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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!' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. INTRODUCING A NEW CHARACTER + </h2> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Did you say, madam?' Patrick inquired. 'A son,' said Mrs. Adister. + </p> + <p> + 'And the military holloaing for reinforcements,' exclaimed Con. 'Pheu! + Phil!' + </p> + <p> + 'That's what it comes to,' was Philip's answer. 'Precautionary measures, + eh?' + </p> + <p> + 'You can make them provocative.' 'Will you beg for India?' 'I shall hear + in an hour.' 'Have we got men?' + </p> + <p> + 'Always the question with us.' + </p> + <p> + '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—' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + His wife replied: 'A son.' + </p> + <p> + '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!' + </p> + <p> + 'Things may not be expected which are profoundly distasteful,' Mrs. + Adister remarked. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'And there is to-morrow's dinner-party to the Mattocks: I cannot travel to + Earlsfont,' she said. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + Captain Con's underlip shone with a roguish thinness. + </p> + <p> + 'Arthur must be here,' said Mrs. Adister. 'I cannot bring myself to write + it. I disapprove of telegrams.' + </p> + <p> + She was asking to be assisted, so her husband said: + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + Patrick placed himself at Mrs. Adister's disposal as her secretary. She + nodded a gracious acceptance of him. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'You're for the city,' said Philip, after they had walked down the street. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “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.” + </pre> + <p> + Will you come, Phil?' + </p> + <p> + 'I 'm under orders.' + </p> + <p> + 'You won't engage yourself by coming.' + </p> + <p> + 'I'm in for the pull if I join hands.' + </p> + <p> + 'And why not?—inside the law, of course.' + </p> + <p> + 'While your Barney skirmishes outside!' + </p> + <p> + '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!' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'I have no time for an introduction to her this morning,' he said. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + Philip stared; he bent a lowering frown on his cousin, with a twitch at + his mouth. + </p> + <p> + 'Oh! easy!' Con answered the look; 'it's for another place and harder to + get at.' + </p> + <p> + He was eyed suspiciously and he vowed the military weapons were for + another destination entirely, the opposite Pole. + </p> + <p> + 'No, you wouldn't be in for a crazy villainy like that!' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Philip bowed to a man whose notion of the ceremony was to nod. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'The reverse too, I hope,' said Mr. Mattock, nodding and passing on his + way. + </p> + <p> + '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!' + </p> + <p> + 'I thought I heard you approve him,' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'But it's rank idiocy to suppose she can smuggle cannon!' cried Philip. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'The country hasn't a port.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. MISS MATTOCK + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Adister waved to him to write on. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Adister addressed her affectionately: 'My dear Jane!' Patrick was + introduced to Miss Mattock. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Her age struck Patrick as being about twenty-three. + </p> + <p> + 'Could my nephew Arthur be of any use to you?' said Mrs. Adister. + </p> + <p> + 'Colonel Adister?' Miss Mattock shook her head. 'No.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Patrick glanced at his hostess for a signal to rise and depart. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'What do you think of it?' she was asked. + </p> + <p> + 'Rank jesuitry,' she replied. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 'Perfectly,' said Miss Mattock. + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + She rejoined: 'I should say, distinctly it matters.' + </p> + <p> + 'Then you'd not express the emotions at all?' + </p> + <p> + He flashed a comical look of astonishment as he spoke. She was not to be + diverted; she settled into antagonism. + </p> + <p> + 'I should write what I felt.' + </p> + <p> + 'But it might be like discharging a bullet.' + </p> + <p> + 'How?' + </p> + <p> + 'If your writing in that way wounded the receiver.' + </p> + <p> + 'Of course I should endeavour not to wound!' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + She shrugged as delicately as she could: + </p> + <p> + 'We cannot possibly please everybody in life.' + </p> + <p> + 'No: only we may spare them a shock: mayn't we?' + </p> + <p> + 'Sophistries of any description, I detest.' + </p> + <p> + 'But sometimes you smile to please, don't you?' + </p> + <p> + 'Do you detect falseness in that?' she answered, after the demurest of + pauses. + </p> + <p> + 'No: but isn't there a soupcon of sophistry in it?' + </p> + <p> + 'I should say that it comes under the title of common civility.' + </p> + <p> + 'And on occasion a little extra civility is permitted!' + </p> + <p> + 'Perhaps: when we are not seeking a personal advantage.' + </p> + <p> + 'On behalf of the Steam Laundry?' + </p> + <p> + Miss Mattock grew restless: she was too serious in defending her position + to submit to laugh, and his goodhumoured face forbade her taking offence. + </p> + <p> + 'Well, perhaps, for that is in the interest of others.' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + She sought refuge in the reply that nothing excused jesuitry. + </p> + <p> + 'Except the necessities of civilisation,' said Patrick. + </p> + <p> + 'Politeness is one thing,' she remarked pointedly. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + The effect was prompt: she sprang from her seat. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'I wish I had that,' said Patrick devoutly. + </p> + <p> + She dropped her eyes on him, but without letting him perceive that he was + a step nearer to the point of pleasing her. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. THE DINNER-PARTY + </h2> + <h3> + Miss Mattock ventured on a prediction in her mind: + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'I think,' says she, 'you were in Egypt this time last winter.' + </p> + <p> + He supplies her with a comma: 'Rather later.' + </p> + <p> + Then he carries on the line. 'Dull enough, if you don't have the right + sort of travelling crew in your boat.' + </p> + <p> + 'Naturally,' she puts her semicolon, ominous of the full stop. + </p> + <p> + 'I fancy you have never been in Egypt?' + </p> + <p> + 'No' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Condescending to attempt to please, which he has reason to wish to succeed + in doing, the task of pursuing conversational intercourse devolves upon + him— + </p> + <p> + 'I missed Parlatti last spring. What opinion have you formed of her?' + </p> + <p> + 'I know her only by name at present.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ah, I fancy you are indifferent to Opera.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not at all; I enjoy it. I was as busy then as I am now.' + </p> + <p> + 'Meetings? Dorcas, so forth.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not Dorcas, I assure you. You might join if you would.' + </p> + <p> + 'Your most obliged.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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!... + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + He feared it was not bright, and called to Philip for the latest. + </p> + <p> + 'Nothing that you have not had already in the newspapers,' Philip replied, + distinctly from afar, but very bluntly, as through a trumpet. + </p> + <p> + Miss Mattock was attentive. She had a look as good as handsome when she + kindled. + </p> + <p> + The captain persevered to draw his cousin out. + </p> + <p> + 'Your chief has his orders?' + </p> + <p> + 'There's a rumour to that effect.' + </p> + <p> + 'The fellow's training for diplomacy,' Con groaned. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'Your nephew is quite the diplomatist,' said Mrs. Dyke, admiring Philip's + head. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'You may be enjoying an original blessing that we in Ireland missed in the + cradle,' said he. + </p> + <p> + She emphasised: 'I speak of the just cause; it must succeed.' + </p> + <p> + 'The stainless flag'll be in the ascendant in the long run,' he assented. + </p> + <p> + 'Is it the flag of Great Britain you're speaking of, Forbery?' the captain + inquired. + </p> + <p> + 'There's a harp or two in it,' he responded pacifically. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Dyke was not pleased with the tone. 'And never will be out of it!' + she thumped her interjection. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + She saw no fear of the necessity. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'The Unicorn!' he exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + 'It is the Unicorn!' she sighed. 'The Lion is noble.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'The Saxon should carry his White Horse, I suppose,' Dr. Forbery said. + </p> + <p> + 'But how do we account for the horn on his forehead?' Mr. Rumford sadly + queried. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 'They are so preposterous!' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'I will venture to guess at nonsense,' he answered. + </p> + <p> + 'Nothing political, then.' + </p> + <p> + 'That scarcely follows; but a host at his own table may be trusted to + shelve politics.' + </p> + <p> + 'I should not object.' + </p> + <p> + 'To controversy?' + </p> + <p> + 'Temperately conducted.' + </p> + <p> + 'One would go a long way to see the exhibition.' + </p> + <p> + 'But why cannot men be temperate in their political arguments?' + </p> + <p> + 'The questions raised are too close about the roots of us.' + </p> + <p> + 'That sounds very pessimist.' + </p> + <p> + 'More duels come from politics than from any other source.' + </p> + <p> + 'I fear it is true. Then women might set you an example.' + </p> + <p> + 'By avoiding it?' + </p> + <p> + 'I think you have been out of England for some time.' + </p> + <p> + 'I have been in America.' + </p> + <p> + 'We are not exactly on the pattern of the Americans.' Philip hinted a bow. + He praised the Republican people. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Are they so spirited?' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'Well, spirited, yes. I think they are. I believe they are. One has need + to hope so.' + </p> + <p> + Philip offered a polite affirmative, evidently formal. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Jane acknowledged a sensibility to some degree of warmth. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. OF ROCKNEY + </h2> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + ' '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. + </p> + <p> + ''Tis the doctor's antidote, and best for being antedated,' Captain Con + rapped his friend's knuckles. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'There's a golden mean, is there!' + </p> + <p> + 'There is; there's a way between magnums of good wine and gout, and it's + generally discovered too late.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'I let him go, body and all. I never saw him again.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'That's the Pierian Spring.' + </p> + <p> + 'And what is the wine on my table, sir?' + </p> + <p> + 'Exhaustless if your verses come of it.' + </p> + <p> + 'And pure, you may say of the verses and the fount.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + The wine in Rumford at any rate let loose his original nature, if it + failed to unlock the animal in these other unexcitable Saxons. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Mr. Rumford protested that he had abandoned his inquiry: it was a piece of + foolishness: he had no feeling in it whatever, none. + </p> + <p> + The man was a perfect snail's horn for coyness. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + A glittering look was in Captain Con's eye to catch Rockney if he would + but rise to it. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not at any price?' Philip fancied his tone too quakerly. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Rockney had the flick on the cheek to his manhood now, it might be hoped. + </p> + <p> + 'Our what?' asked Mr. Rumford, honestly unable to digest the opprobrious + term. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + He spoke with a witless moderation that was most irritating, considering + the latest news from the old country. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'We obey our orders, and leave you to settle the political business,' + Philip replied. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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!' + </p> + <p> + All hope of a general action was over. + </p> + <p> + 'That shall pass for the epitaph of the living,' said Rockney. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'You know the secret of your happiness,' Patrick answered. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'But it's the very heart of an Italian you sing with!' he cried. + </p> + <p> + 'It will surprise you perhaps to hear that I prefer German music,' said + she. + </p> + <p> + 'But where—who had the honour of boasting you his pupil?' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + She assured him she was no enigma: she hushed to him to hear. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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!' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'There is,' she exclaimed. 'I have often felt it, but never seen it. You + exactly describe it. How true!' + </p> + <p> + 'But any music I could listen to all day and all the night,' said he. + </p> + <p> + 'And be as proud of yourself the next morning?' + </p> + <p> + Patrick was rather at sea. What could she mean? + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Adister O'Donnell stepped over to them, with the object of installing + Colonel Adister in Patrick's place. + </p> + <p> + The object was possibly perceived. Mrs. Adister was allowed no time to set + the manoeuvre in motion. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 'But why should I?' cried Patrick. 'It's a gift of heaven.' + </p> + <p> + 'And, like other gifts of heaven, to the idle it would turn to evil.' + </p> + <p> + 'I can't believe it.' + </p> + <p> + 'Work, and you will believe it.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Has it ever struck you that you might try to help the poor?' + </p> + <p> + 'Arthur is really anxious, and only doubts his ability,' said Mrs. + Adister. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Adister turned her head to the colonel, who was then looking down the + features of Mrs. Rockney. + </p> + <p> + Patrick said: 'I'm ready, for a year, Miss Mattock.' + </p> + <p> + She answered him, half jocosely: 'A whole year of free service? Reflect on + what you are undertaking.' + </p> + <p> + 'It's writing and accounts, no worse?' + </p> + <p> + 'Writing and accounts all day, and music in the evening only now and + then.' + </p> + <p> + 'I can do it: I will, if you'll have me.' + </p> + <p> + 'Do you hear Mr. O'Donnell, Mrs. Adister?' + </p> + <p> + Captain Con fluttered up to his wife, and heard the story from Miss + Mattock. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'And if he accepts, imagine him on a stool, my dear madam; he couldn't sit + it!' + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + 'The rudimentary idea,' said Patrick. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + She replied: 'I warn everybody that they shall be taken at their word if + they volunteer their services.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'If they're Irish,' said Patrick, excited by the breaking of her heart, 'a + whisper of cajolery in season is often the secret.' + </p> + <p> + Captain Con backed him for diplomacy. 'You'll learn he has a head, Miss + Mattock.' + </p> + <p> + 'I am myself naturally blunt, and prefer the straightforward method,' said + she. + </p> + <p> + Patrick nodded. 'But where there's an obstruction in the road, it's + permissible to turn a corner.' + </p> + <p> + 'Take 'em in flank when you can't break their centre,' said Con. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'But I am,' he said. + </p> + <p> + 'We are too poor at present to refuse the smallest help.' + </p> + <p> + 'And mine is about the smallest.' + </p> + <p> + 'I did not mean that, Mr. O'Donnell.' + </p> + <p> + 'But you'll have me?' + </p> + <p> + 'Gladly.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + O never forget that old Ireland is weeping + The bitter salt tears of the mother bereft! +</pre> + <p> + He hummed the spontaneous lines. He was accused of singing to himself, and + a song was vigorously demanded of him by the ladies. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + Rockney assured him that he could listen to anything in verse. + </p> + <p> + 'Observe the sneer:—for our verses are smoke,' said Con. + </p> + <p> + Miss Mattock pressed him to sing. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'Oh! on another occasion I'm the lark to the sky, my dear lady.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + She was easily appeased, too easily. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'What kind of director of a City Company does he make?' said Rockney. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Mattock answered: 'Yes.' + </p> + <p> + 'Is she such a beauty?' + </p> + <p> + Again Mattock answered: 'Yes,' after affecting thoughtfulness. + </p> + <p> + 'They seem to marry oddly in that family.' + </p> + <p> + Mattock let fly a short laugh at the remark, which had the ring of some + current phrase. 'They do,' he said. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'She has a dozen persons.' + </p> + <p> + 'They are zealous when they are led.' + </p> + <p> + 'Beware of letting them suspect that they are led.' + </p> + <p> + 'They are anxious to help the poor if they can discover how.' + </p> + <p> + 'Good men, I don't doubt,' said John Mattock. 'Any proposals from curates + recently?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'What is that?' her brother asked her. + </p> + <p> + 'Only a notion of mine.' + </p> + <p> + She was directed to furnish a compendious report of the sayings, doings, + and behaviour of the Irish secretary in the evening. + </p> + <p> + 'If I find him there,' she said. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. THE MATTOCK FAMILY + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, I'm bound apprentice for a year,' said he. + </p> + <p> + He was asked whether he did not find it tiresome work. + </p> + <p> + 'A trifle so,' he confessed. + </p> + <p> + Then why did he pursue it, the question was put. + </p> + <p> + He was not alive for his own pleasure, and would like to feel he was doing + a bit of good, was the answer. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'And never thirsted to fly till he flew, I warrant him,' said Con. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + Jane flipped the leaves back to the lady with stormy hair. + </p> + <p> + '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!' + </p> + <p> + He pressed her so warmly to retain the bundle in her custody that she + carried it away. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Here was one which tickled the ladies and formed a text for discussion. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + The youthful eye on their sex, the Irish voice, and the perceptible moral + earnestness in the background, made up a quaint mixture. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. OF THE GREAT MR. BULL AND THE CELTIC AND SAXON VIEW OF HIM: + AND SOMETHING OF RICHARD ROCKNEY + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII. CROSSING THE RUBICON + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'Dear! and I'm wet to the skin,' she confided the fact to herself vocally. + </p> + <p> + 'You would not be advised,' a gentleman beside her said after a delicate + pause to let her impulsive naturalism of utterance fly by unwounded. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + The young lady's eyes flew to the top. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'You want to have a last gaze over to Erin?' + </p> + <p> + 'No, it's to walk and feel the breeze. But I do, though.' + </p> + <p> + 'Won't you require a little rest?' + </p> + <p> + 'Sure and I've had it sitting here all night!' said she. + </p> + <p> + He laughed: the reason for the variation of exercise was conclusive. + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + He said it rather twinkling, and she retorted: + </p> + <p> + 'What sort of a night has it been below, Father Boyle?' Her twinkle was + livelier than his, compassionate in archness. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'If he's not in bed, from watching the stars all night,' said Miss + Kathleen. + </p> + <p> + 'He must have had a fifty-lynx power of sight for that, my dear.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'You talk like a song, Kathleen.' + </p> + <p> + 'Couldn't I rattle a throat if I were at home, Father!' + </p> + <p> + 'Ah! we're in the enemy's country now.' + </p> + <p> + Miss Kathleen said she would go below to get the handbags from the + stewardess. + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + 'Habit, Mr. Colesworth, habit! we've got accustomed to the perspective and + speak accordingly. There's a breach visible.' + </p> + <p> + 'I thought you agreed with me that good efforts are being made on our side + to mend the breach.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'To submission to the laws, Mr. Colesworth; 'tis my duty to do it as + pastor and citizen.' + </p> + <p> + 'No, to more than that, sir. You spoke with friendly warmth.' + </p> + <p> + 'The atmosphere was genial, if you remember the whisky and the fumes of + our tobacco at one o'clock!' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'You made the gentleman's acquaintance, my dear...?' said Con. + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 'A walk over! a pure ceremonial,' said the priest, and he yawned + frightfully. + </p> + <p> + 'You're for a nap to recompose you, my dear friend,' remarked the captain. + </p> + <p> + 'But you haven't confided anything of it to Mrs. Adister?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Then he's coming all right, is he?' said Kathleen. + </p> + <p> + 'He 's a soldier, and a good one, but he 's nothing more, and as for + patriotic inflammation, doesn't know the sensation.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Away she went. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Father Boyle interposed his hand. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + At the breakfast for three he was able to tell Kathleen that the worthy + Father was warm, and on his way to complete restoration. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'They are so nice,' Kathleen said. + </p> + <p> + 'You deserve them, if ever girl in this world!' + </p> + <p> + 'I sat on deck all night, and Mr. Colesworth would keep me company.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'So the doctor thinks his patient is doing favourably! And you cottoned to + Patrick? And I don't wonder. Where was it?' + </p> + <p> + 'We met in Trieste. He was about to start by one of the Austrian boats for + the East.' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 'He had; he was fresh from Vienna when I met him. As to Ireland, the + harvest was only middling good last year.' + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'I heard of it in England last year,' said Mr. Colesworth. 'Did she come + through it safely?' + </p> + <p> + 'Without any personal disfigurement: and is in England now, under her + father's roof, meditating fresh adventures.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'I think I'll eat an egg,' Kathleen replied. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'We are qualifying for the literary craft, Miss O'Donnell,' said Mr. + Colesworth. + </p> + <p> + 'It's for a walk in the wind up Caer Gybi, and along the coast I mean to + go,' said Kathleen. + </p> + <p> + 'This morning?' the captain asked her. + </p> + <p> + She saw his dilemma in his doubtful look. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'The profession will not impose that necessity upon me,' remarked the + young practitioner. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'It's better not to think of him quite as a beast,' said Mr. Colesworth. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Rockney,' said Mr. Colesworth, 'has the tone of a man disappointed of the + dictatorship.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Mr. Colesworth fancied, he said, that he was proof against feminine + blandishments in the direction of his writings. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + The captain's eyes twinkled on him, thinking how readily he would back + smart Miss Kathleen to do the trick, if need were. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'I'll not forget,' said she. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + This was the day of Captain Con's crossing the Rubicon between the secret + of his happiness and a Parliamentary career. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII. CAPTAIN CON'S LETTER + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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!' + </p> + <p> + She finished smiling brightly, and Grace was a trifle astonished, for her + friend's humour was not as a rule dramatic. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, he would treat her courteously, just in that military style,' said + Grace, realising the hospital attendance. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Still I think it a horrid profession, dear.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Too great a power of self-repression sometimes argues the want of any + emotional nature,' said Grace. + </p> + <p> + Jane shook her head. She knew a story of him contradicting that. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'Out? I feared it would be a week. Is it quite prudent?' Jane said, toning + down her delight. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'You gathered them?' he said. + </p> + <p> + Jane drank his look at the flowers. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + Seeing his fingers grope on the rug, she handed him his open letters. + </p> + <p> + He selected the second, passing under his inspection, and asked her to + read it. + </p> + <p> + She took the letter, wondering a little that it should be in Captain Con's + handwriting. + </p> + <p> + 'I am to read it through?' she said, after a run over some lines. + </p> + <p> + He nodded. She thought it a sign of his friendliness in sharing family + secrets with her, and read: + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'Think you, when he crossed the tide, Caius Julius Caesar sighed? + </p> + <p> + '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...' + </p> + <p> + Jane glanced over the edge of the letter sheet rosily at Philip. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX. MARS CONVALESCENT + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + 'You read to the end?' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Jane wondered why the letter had been shown. Her patient might be annoyed + and needing sympathy? + </p> + <p> + 'After all,' she said, 'Captain Con may turn out to be a very good sort of + member of Parliament in his way.' + </p> + <p> + Philip's eyebrows lifted, and he let fall a breath, eloquent of his + thoughts. + </p> + <p> + 'My brother says he is a serviceable director of the Company they are + associated in.' + </p> + <p> + 'He finds himself among reasonable men, and he is a chameleon.' + </p> + <p> + 'Parliament may steady him.' + </p> + <p> + 'It is too much of a platform for Con's head.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'For you he has a real love,' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Her patient's eyelids were down. + </p> + <p> + She proposed to send her name up to Mrs. Adister. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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?' + </p> + <p> + 'You shall do as you wish,' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + 'Is she like Patrick? Her name is Kathleen, I know.' + </p> + <p> + 'She is a raw Irish girl, of good Irish training, but Irish.' + </p> + <p> + 'I hope she will be pleased with England. Like Patrick in face, I mean.' + </p> + <p> + 'We think her a good-looking girl.' + </p> + <p> + 'Does she play? sing?' + </p> + <p> + 'Some of our ballads.' + </p> + <p> + 'She will delight my brother. John loves Irish ballads.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'A good fortune,' said Jane. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + Jane pleaded for Captain Con. 'He is chivalrously attentive to her.' + </p> + <p> + 'You have read his letter,' Philip replied. + </p> + <p> + He crushed her charitable apologies with references to the letter. + </p> + <p> + 'We are not certain that Mrs. Adister will object,' said she. + </p> + <p> + 'Do you see her reading a speech of her husband's?' he remarked. Presently + with something like a moan: + </p> + <p> + 'And I am her guest!' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh! pray, do not think Mrs. Adister will ever allow you to feel the + lightest shadow...' said Jane. + </p> + <p> + 'No; that makes it worse.' + </p> + <p> + Had this been the burden of his thoughts when those two solitary tears + forced their passage? + </p> + <p> + Hardly: not even in his physical weakness would he consent to weep for + such a cause. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + Philip answered: 'He is punctilious.' + </p> + <p> + 'I wish indeed he had been more candid,' Jane assented to the sarcasm. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'A bad mentor for him. Antics are harmless, though they get us laughed + at,' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + 'You may restrain him from excesses.' + </p> + <p> + 'Were I in that position, you would consider me guilty of greater than any + poor Con is likely to commit.' + </p> + <p> + 'Surely you are not for disunion?' + </p> + <p> + 'The reverse. I am for union on juster terms, that will hold it fast.' + </p> + <p> + 'But what are the terms?' + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + She could not quit the theme: doing that would have been to be + indifferent: something urged her to it. + </p> + <p> + 'Are they really your opinions?' + </p> + <p> + He seemed relieved by declaring that they were. + </p> + <p> + 'Patrick is quite free of them,' said she. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'With so little of the Jesuit in him!' + </p> + <p> + 'Little of the worst: a good deal of the best.' + </p> + <p> + 'What is the best?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Jane's features implied a gentle shudder. + </p> + <p> + 'I shake a scarlet cloak to you?' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + 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?' + </p> + <p> + 'Hitherto our Patrick has never presumed to counsel his elder brother.' + </p> + <p> + 'But an officer wearing...' + </p> + <p> + 'The uniform! That would have to be stripped off. There'd be an end to any + professional career.' + </p> + <p> + 'You would not regret it?' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + Could she have had the temerity? Jane marvelled at herself. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'You would countenance a revolt?' she said, striking at that extreme to + elicit the favourable answer her tones angled for. And it was instantly: + </p> + <p> + 'Not in arms.' He tried an explanation by likening the dissension to a + wrangle in a civilised family over an unjust division of property. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'I remember your singing that the week before I went to India,' said + Philip, and her scarlet blush flooded her face. + </p> + <p> + 'Can you endure the noise?' she asked him. + </p> + <p> + 'Con would say it shrieks “murder.” But I used to like it once.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 'Bless me, miss, we think it so cheerful!' cried Mrs. Lappett, and glanced + at her young ones harmonious and out of mischief. + </p> + <p> + 'Very well,' said Jane, always considerate for children. She had forgotten + the racked Mrs. Adister. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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. + </p> + <p> + Jane was wondering whether he could be a man still to brood tearfully over + his old love. + </p> + <p> + She echoed him. 'And I! Soon, I hope.' + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'They are as accustomed to it as mountain smugglers bearing packs of + contraband,' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + 'Within a fortnight, madam.' + </p> + <p> + '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.' + </p> + <p> + The eyes of Jane and Philip shot an exchange. + </p> + <p> + 'Anything you command, madam,' said Philip. + </p> + <p> + 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.' + </p> + <p> + 'I think Mr. Adister had his fall when hunting, was it not?' said Jane. + </p> + <p> + 'Hunting, my dear.' + </p> + <p> + That was rather different from a fall on duty before the enemy, incurred + by severe exhaustion after sunstroke!... + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 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 +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + +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-h.htm or 4491-h.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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