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diff --git a/old/7phls10.txt b/old/7phls10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c80280 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7phls10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14995 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Philistia, by Grant Allen +(#8 in our series by Grant Allen) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Philistia + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6060] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 30, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PHILISTIA *** + + + + +Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team + + + +PHILISTIA + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN + + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER + + I. CHILDREN OF LIGHT + II. THE COASTS OF THE GENTILES + III. MAGDALEN QUAD + IV. A LITTLE MUSIC + V. ASKELON VILLA, GATH + VI. DOWN THE RIVER + VII. GHOSTLY COUNSEL + VIII. IN THE CAMP OF THE PHILISTINES + IX. THE WOMEN OF THE LAND + X. THE DAUGHTERS OF CANAAN + XI. CULTURE AND CULTURE + XII. THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY + XIII. YE MOUNTAINS OF GILBOA + XIV. WHAT DO THESE HEBREWS HERE + XV. EVIL TIDINGS + XVI. FLAT REBELLION + XVII. COME YE OUT AND BE YE SEPARATE! + XVIII. A QUIET WEDDING + XIX. INTO THE FIRE + XX. LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND THE DRAMA + XXI. OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE + XXII. THE PHILISTINES TRIUMPH + XXIII. THE STREETS OF ASKELON + XXIV. THE CLOUDS BEGIN TO BREAK + XXV. HARD PRESSED + XXVI. IRRECLAIMABLE + XXVII. RONALD COMES OF AGE +XXVIII. TELL IT NOT IN GATH + XXIX. A MAN AND A MAID + XXX. THE ENVIRONMENT FINALLY TRIUMPHS + XXXI. DE PROFUNDIS + XXXII. PRECONTRACT OF MARRIAGE +XXXIII. A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE + XXXIV. HOPE + XXXV. THE TIDE TURNS + XXXVI. OUT OF THE HAND OF THE PHILISTINES +XXXVII. LAND AT LAST: BUT WHAT LAND? + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +CHILDREN OF LIGHT. + + +It was Sunday evening, and on Sundays Max Schurz, the chief of the +London Socialists, always held his weekly receptions. That night +his cosmopolitan refugee friends were all at liberty; his French +disciples could pour in from the little lanes and courts in Soho, +where, since the Commune, they had plied their peaceful trades as +engravers, picture-framers, artists'-colourmen, models, pointers, +and so forth--for most of them were hangers-on in one way or another +of the artistic world; his German adherents could stroll round, +pipe in mouth, from their printing-houses, their ham-and-beef shops, +or their naturalists' chambers, where they stuffed birds or set up +exotic butterflies in little cabinets--for most of them were more +or less literary or scientific in their pursuits; and his few English +sympathisers, chiefly dissatisfied philosophical Radicals of the +upper classes, could drop in casually for a chat and a smoke, on +their way home from the churches to which they had been dutifully +escorting their un-emancipated wives and sisters. Max Schurz kept +open house for all on Sunday evenings, and there was not a drawing-room +in London better filled than his with the very advanced and not +undistinguished set who alone had the much-prized entree of his +exclusive salon. + +The salon itself did not form any component part of Max Schurz's +own private residence in any way. The great Socialist, the man whose +mandates shook the thrones of Russia and Austria, whose movements +spread terror in Paris and Berlin, whose dictates were even obeyed +in Kerry and in Chicago, occupied for his own use two small rooms +at the top of a shabby composite tenement in a doubtful district +of Marylebone. The little parlour where he carried on his trade of +a microscope-lens grinder would not have sufficed to hold one-tenth +of the eager half-washed crowd that pressed itself enthusiastically +upon him every Sunday. But a large room on the ground floor of the +tenement, opening towards the main street, was used during the +week by one of his French refugee friends as a dancing-saloon; +and in this room on every Sunday evening the uncrowned king of the +proletariate Socialists was permitted to hold his royal levees. +Thither all that was best and truest in the socially rebellions +classes domiciled in London used to make its way; and there men +calmly talked over the ultimate chances of social revolutions which +would have made the hair of respectable Philistine Marylebone stand +stiffly on end, had it only known the rank political heresies that +were quietly hatching in its unconscious midst. + +While Max Schurz's hall was rapidly filling with the polyglot crowd +of democratic solidarists, Ernest Le Breton and his brother were +waiting in the chilly little drawing-room at Epsilon Terrrace, +Bayswater, for the expected arrival of Harry Oswald. Ernest had +promised to introduce Oswald to Max Schurz's reception; and it +was now past eight o'clock, getting rather a late hour for those +simple-minded, early-rising Communists. 'I'm afraid, Herbert,' +said Ernest to his brother, 'he forgets that Max is a working-man +who has to be at his trade again punctually by seven o'clock +to-morrow. He thinks he's going out to a regular society At Home, +where ten o'clock's considered just the beginning of the evening. Max +won't at all like his turning up so late; it smells of non-productivity.' + +'If Herr Schurz wants to convert the world,' Herbert answered +chillily, rolling himself a tiny cigarette, 'he must convince the +unproductive as well as the proletariate before he can set things +fairly on the roll for better arrangement. The proletariate's +all very well in its way, no doubt, but the unproductive happen to +hold the key of the situation. One convert like you or me is worth +a thousand ignorant East-end labourers, with nothing but their +hands and their votes to count upon.' + +'But you are not a convert, Herbert.' + +'I didn't say I was. I'm a critic. There's no necessity to throw +oneself open-armed into the embrace of either party. The wise man +can wait and watch the progress of the game, backing the winner +for the time being at all the critical moments, and hedging if +necessary when the chances turn momentarily against the favourite. +There's a ring at the bell: that's Oswald; let's go down to the +door to meet him.' + +Ernest ran down the stairs rapidly, as was his wont; Herbert +followed in a more leisurely fashion, still rolling the cigarette +between his delicate finger and thumb. 'Goodness gracious, Oswald!' +Ernest exclaimed as his friend stepped in, 'why, you've actually +come in evening dress! A white tie and all! What on earth will +Max say? He'll be perfectly scandalised at such a shocking and +unprecedented outrage. This will never do; you must dissemble +somehow or other.' + +Oswald laughed. 'I had no idea,' he said, 'Herr Schurz was such +a truculent sans-culotte as that comes to. As it was an evening +reception I thought, of course, one ought to turn up in evening +clothes.' + +'Evening clothes! My dear fellow, how on earth do you suppose a +set of poor Leicester Square outlaws are going to get themselves +correctly set up in black broadcloth coats and trousers? They might +wash their white ties themselves, to be sure; they mostly do their +own washing, I believe, in their own basins.' ('And not much at +that either,' put in Herbert, parenthetically.) 'But as to evening +clothes, why, they'd as soon think of arraying themselves for dinner +in full court dress as of putting on an obscurantist swallow-tail. +It's the badge of a class, a distinct aristocratic outrage; we must +alter it at once, I assure you, Oswald.' + +'At any rate,' said Oswald laughing, 'I've had the pleasure of finding +myself accused for the first time in the course of my existence of +being aristocratic. It's quite worth while going to Max Schurz's +once in one's life, if it were only for the sake of that single +new sensation.' + +'Well, my dear fellow, we must rectify you, anyhow, before you go. +Let me see; luckily you've got your dust-coat on, and you needn't +take that off; it'll do splendidly to hide your coat and waistcoat. +I'll lend you a blue tie, which will at once transform your upper +man entirely. But you show the cloven hoof below; the trousers +will surely betray you. They're absolutely inadmissible under any +circumstances whatsoever, as the Court Circular says, and you must +positively wear a coloured pair of Herbert's instead of them. Run +upstairs quickly, there's a good fellow, and get rid of the mark +of the Beast as fast as you can.' + +Oswald did as he was told without demur, and in about a minute more +presented himself again, with the mark of the Beast certainly most +effectually obliterated, at least so far as outer appearance went. +His blue tie, light dust-coat, and borrowed grey trousers, made up +an ensemble much more like an omnibus conductor out for a holiday +than a gentleman of the period in correct evening dress. 'Now +mind,' Ernest said seriously, as he opened the door, 'whatever you +do, Oswald, if you stew to death for it--and Schurz's rooms are +often very close and hot, I can assure you--don't for heaven's sake +go and unbutton your dust-coat. If you do they'll see at once you're +a wolf in sheep's clothing, and I shouldn't be at all surprised +if they were to turn and rend you. At least, I'm sure Max would be +very much annoyed with me for unsocially introducing a plutocratic +traitor into the bosom of the fold.' + +They walked along briskly in the direction of Marylebone, and +stopped at last at a dull, yellow-washed house, which bore on +its door a very dingy brass plate, inscribed in red letters, 'M. +et Mdlle. Tirard. Salon de Danse.' Ernest opened the door without +ringing, and turned down the passage towards the salon. 'Remember,' +he said, turning to Harry Oswald by way of a last warning, with his +hand on the inner door-handle, 'coute que coute, my dear fellow, +don't on any account open your dust-coat. No anti-social opinions; +and please bear in mind that Max is, in his own way, a potentate.' + +The big hall, badly lighted by a few contribution candles (for the +whole colony subscribed to the best of its ability for the support +of the weekly entertainment), was all alive with eager figures and +the mingled busy hum of earnest conversation. A few chairs ranged +round the wall were mostly occupied by Mdlle. Tirard and the other +ladies of the Socialist party; but the mass of the guests were +men, and they were almost all smoking, in utter indifference to the +scanty presence of the fair sex. Not that they were intentionally +rude or boorish; that they never were; except where an emperor or an +aristocrat is concerned, there is no being on earth more courteous, +kindly, and considerate for the feelings of others than your +exiled Socialist. He has suffered much himself in his own time, and +so miseris succurrere discit. Emperors he mentally classes with +cobras, tarantulas, and scorpions, as outside the pale of humanitarian +sympathies altogether; but, with this slight political exception, +he is the broadest and tenderest and most catholic in his feelings +of all living breathing creatures. However, the ladies of his party +have all been brought up from their childhood onward in a mingled +atmosphere of smoke and democracy; so that he no more thinks +of abstaining from tobacco in their presence than he thinks of +commiserating the poor fish for being so dreadfully wet, or the +unfortunate mole for his unpleasantly slimy diet of live earthworms. + +'Herr Schurz,' said Ernest, singling out the great leader in the +gloom immediately, 'I've brought my brother Herbert here, whom +you know already, to see you, as well as another Oxford friend of +mind, Mr. Harry Oswald, Fellow and Lecturer of Oriel. He's almost +one of us at heart, I'm happy to say, and at any rate I'm sure +you'll be glad to make his acquaintance.' + +The little spare wizened-up grey man, in the threadbare brown velveteen +jacket, who stood in the middle of the hall, caught Ernest's hand +warmly, and held it for a moment fettered in his iron grip. There +was an honesty in that grip and in those hazy blue-spectacled eyes +that nobody could for a second misunderstand. If an emperor had +been introduced to Max Schurz he might have felt a little abashed +one minute at the old Socialist's royal disdain, but he could not +have failed to say to himself as he looked at him from head to +foot, 'Here, at least, is a true man.' So Harry Oswald felt, as +the spare grey thinker took his hand in his, and grasped it firmly +with a kindly pressure, but less friendly than that with which he +had greeted his known admirer, Ernest Le Breton. As for Herbert, he +merely bowed to him politely from a little distance; and Herbert, +who had picked up at once with a Polish exile in a corner, returned +the bow frigidly without coming up to the host himself at all for +a moment's welcome. + +'I'm always pleased to meet friends of the cause from Oxford,' +Herr Schurz said, in almost perfect English. 'We want recruits most +of all among the thinking classes. If we are ever to make headway +against the banded monopolies--against the place-holders, the +land-grabbers, the labour-taxers, the robbers of the poor--we must +first secure the perfect undivided confidence of the brain-workers, +the thinkers, and the writers. At present everything is against us; +we are but a little leaven, trying vainly in our helpless fashion +to leaven the whole lump. The capitalist journals carry off all +the writing talent in the world; they are timid, as capital must +always be; they tremble for their tens of thousands a year, and +their vast circulations among the propertied classes. We cannot +get at the heart of the people, save by the Archimedean lever of +the thinking world. For that reason, my dear Le Breton, I am always +glad to muster here your Oxford neophytes.' + +'And yet, Herr Schurz,' said Ernest gently, 'you know we must not +after all despair. Look at the history of your own people! When +the cause of Jehovah seemed most hopeless, there were still seven +thousand left in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. We are +gaining strength every day, while they are losing it.' + +'Ah yes, my friend. I know that too,' the old man answered, with a +solemn shake of the head; 'but the wheels move slowly, they move +slowly--very surely, but oh, so slowly. You are young, friend +Ernest, and I am growing old. You look forward to the future with +hope; I look back to the past with regret: so many years gone, so +little, so very little done. It will come, it will come as surely +as the next glacial period, but I shall not live to see it. I stand +like Moses on Pisgah; I see the promised land before me; I look +down upon the equally allotted vineyards, and the glebe flowing +with milk and honey in the distance; but I shall not lead you into +it; I shall not even lead you against the Canaanites; another than +I must lead you in. But I am an old man, Mr. Oswald, an old man +now, and I am talking all about myself--an anti-social trick we have +inherited from our fathers. What is your friend's special line at +Oxford, did you say, Ernest?' + +'Oswald is a mathematician, sir,' said Ernest, 'perhaps the greatest +mathematician among the younger men in the whole University.' + +'Ah! that is well. We want exact science. We want clear and definite +thinking. Biologists and physicists and mathematicians, those are +our best recruits, you may depend upon it. We need logic, not mere +gas. Our French friends and our Irish friends--I have nothing in +the world to say against them; they are useful men, ardent men, +full of fire, full of enthusiasm, ready to do and dare anything--but +they lack ballast. You can't take the kingdom of heaven by storm. +The social revolution is not to be accomplished by violence, it is +not even to be carried by the most vivid eloquence; the victory +will be in the end to the clearest brain and the subtlest intellect. +The orthodox political economists are clever sophists; they mask +and confuse the truth very speciously; we must have keen eyes and +sharp noses to spy out and scent out their tortuous fallacies. I'm +glad you're a mathematician, Mr. Oswald. And so you have thought +on social problems?' + +'I have read "Gold and the Proletariate,"' Oswald answered modestly, +'and I learned much from it, and thought more. I won't say you have +quite converted me, Herr Schurz, but you have given me plenty of +food for future reflection.' + +'That is well, said the old man, passing one skinny brown hand +gently up and down over the other. 'That is well. There's no hurry. +Don't make up your mind too fast. Don't jump at conclusions. It's +intellectual dishonesty to do that. Wait till you have convinced +yourself. Spell out your problems slowly; they are not easy ones; +try to see how the present complex system works; try to probe +its inequalities and injustices; try to compare it with the ideal +commonwealth: and you'll find the light in the end, you'll find +the light.' + +As he spoke, Herbert Le Breton lounged up quietly from his farther +corner towards the little group. 'Ah, your brother, Ernest!' said +Max Schurz, drawing himself up a little more stiffly; 'he has found +the light already, I believe, but he neglects it; still he is not +with us, and he that is not with us is against us. You hold aloof +always, Mr. Herbert, is it not so?' + +'Well, not quite aloof, Herr Schurz, I'm certain, but not on +your side exactly either. I like to look on and hold the balance +evenly, not to throw my own weight too lightly into either stale. +The objective attitude of the mere spectator is after all the right +one for an impartial philosopher to take up.' + +'Ah, Mr. Herbert, this philosophy of your Oxford contemplative +Radicals is only another name for a kind of social selfishness, +I fancy,' said the old man solemnly. 'It seems to me your head is +with us, but your heart, your heart is elsewhere.' + +Herbert Le Breton played a moment quietly with the Roman aureus of +Domitian on his watch-chain; then he said slowly in his clear cold +voice, 'There may be something in that, no doubt, Herr Schurz, for +each of us has his own game to play, and while the world remains +unreformed, he must play it on his own gambit to a great extent, +without reference to the independent game of others. We all agree +that the board is too full of counters, and as each counter is not +responsible for its own presence and position on the board, having +been put there without previous consultation by the players, we +must each do the best we can for ourselves in our own fashion. My +sympathies, as you say, are on your side, but perhaps my interests +lie the other way, and after all, till you start your millennium, +we must all rattle along as well as we can in the box together, +jarring against one another in our old ugly round of competition, +and supply and demand, and survival of the fittest, and mutual +accommodation, and all the rest of it, to the end of the chapter. +Every man for himself and God for us all, you know. You have the +logic, to be sure, Herr Schurz, but the monopolists have the law +and the money.' + +'Ah, yes,' said the old Socialist grimly; 'Demas, Demas; he and his +silver mine; you remember your Bunyan, don't you? Well, all faiths +and systems have their Demases. The cares of this world and the +deceitfulness of riches. He's bursar of his college, isn't he, Ernest? +I thought so. "He had the bag, and bare what was put therein." A +dangerous office, isn't it, Mr. Oswald? A very dangerous office. +You can't touch pitch or property without being defiled.' + +'You at least, sir, said Ernest, reverentially, 'have kept yourself +unspotted from the world.' + +The old man sighed, and turned for a moment to speak in French to +a tall, big-bearded new-comer who advanced to meet him. 'Impossible!' +he said quickly; 'I am truly distressed to hear it. It is very +imprudent, very unnecessary.' + +'What is the news?' asked Ernest, also in French. + +The new-comer answered him with a marked South Russian accent. +'There has been another attempt on the life of Alexander Nicolaiovitch.' + +'You don't mean to say so!' cried Ernest in surprise. + +'Yes, I do,' replied the Russian, 'and it has nearly succeeded +too.' + +'An attempt on whom?' asked Oswald, who was new to the peculiar +vocabulary of the Socialists, and not particularly accustomed to +following spoken French. + +'On Alexander Nicolaiovitch,' answered the red-bearded stranger. + +'Not the Czar?' Oswald inquired of Ernest. + +'Yes, the one whom you call Czar,' said the stranger, quickly, in +tolerable English. The confusion of tongues seemed to be treated as +a small matter at Max Schurz's receptions, for everybody appeared +to speak all languages at once, in the true spirit of solidarity, +as though Babel had never been. + +Oswald did not attempt to conceal a slight gesture of horror. The +tall Russian looked down upon him commiseratingly. 'He is of the +Few?' he asked of Ernest, that being the slang of the initiated +for a member of the aristocratic and capitalist oligarchy. + +'Not exactly,' Ernest answered with a smile; 'but he has not entirely +learned the way we here regard these penal measures. His sympathies +are one-sided as to Alexander, no doubt. He thinks merely of the +hunted, wretched life the man bears about with him, and he forgets +poor bleeding, groaning, down-trodden, long-suffering Russia. It +is the common way of Englishmen. They do not realise Siberia and +Poland and the Third Section, and all the rest of it; they think +only of Alexander as of the benevolent despot who freed the serf +and befriended the Bulgarian. They never remember that they have +all the freedom and privileges themselves which you poor Russians +ask for in vain; they do not bear in mind that he has only to sign +his name to a constitution, a very little constitution, and he +might walk abroad as light-hearted in St. Petersburg to-morrow as +you and I walk in Regent Street to-day. We are mostly lopsided, +we English, but you must bear with us in our obliquity; we have +had freedom ourselves so long that we hardly know how to make due +allowance for those unfortunate folks who are still in search of +it.' + +'If you had an Alexander yourselves for half a day,' the Russian +said fiercely, turning to Oswald, 'you would soon see the difference. +You would forget your virtuous indignation against Nihilist assassins +in the white heat of your anger against unendurable tyranny. You +had a King Charles in England once--the mere shadow of a Russian +Czar--and you were not so very ceremonious with him, you order-loving +English, after all.' + +'It is a foolish thing, Borodinsky,' said Max Schurz, looking up +from the long telegram the other had handed him, 'and I told Toroloff +as much a fortnight ago, when he spoke to me about the matter. You +can do no good by these constant attacks, and you only rouse the +minds of the oligarchy against you by your importunity. Bloodshed +will avail us nothing; the world cannot be regenerated by a baptism +like that. Every peasant won over, every student enrolled, every +mother engaged to feed her little ones on the gospel of Socialism +together with her own milk, is worth a thousand times more to +us and to the people than a dead Czar. If your friends had really +blown him up, what then? You would have had another Czar, and +another Third Section, and another reign of terror, and another +raid and massacre; and we should have lost twenty good men from our +poor little side for ever. We must not waste the salt of the earth +in that reckless fashion. Besides, I don't like this dynamite. It's +a bad argument, it smacks too much of the old royal and repressive +method. You know the motto Louis Quatorze used to cast on his +bronze cannon--"Ultima ratio regum." Well, we Socialists ought to +be able to find better logic for our opponents than that, oughtn't +we?' + +'But in Russia,' cried the bearded man hotly, 'in poor stricken-down +groaning Russia, what other argument have they left us? Are we to +be hunted to death without real law or trial, tortured into sham +confessions, deluded with mock pardons, arraigned before hypocritical +tribunals, ensnared by all the chicanery, and lying, and treachery, +and ferreting of the false bureaucracy, with its spies, and its +bloodhounds, and its knout-bearing police-agents; and then are we +not to make war the only way we can--open war, mind you, with fair +declaration, and due formalities, and proper warning beforehand--against +the irresponsible autocrat and his wire-pulled office-puppets who +kill us off mercilessly? You are too hard upon us, Herr Schurz; +even you yourself have no sympathy at all for unhappy Russia.' + +The old man looked up at him tenderly and regretfully. 'My poor +Borodinsky,' he said in a gentle tremulous voice, 'I have indeed +sympathy and pity in abundance for you. I do not blame you; you +will have enough and to spare to do that, even here in free England; +I would not say a harsh word against you or your terrible methods +for all the world. You have been hard-driven, and you stand at +bay like tigers. But I think you are going to work the wrong way, +not using your energies to the best possible advantage for the +proletariate. What we have really got to do is to gain over every +man, woman, and child of the working-classes individually, and to +array on our side all the learning and intellect and economical +science of the thinking classes individually; and then we can present +such a grand united front to the banded monopolists that for very +shame they will not dare to gainsay us. Indeed, if it comes to +that, we can leave them quietly alone, till for pure hunger they +will come and beg our assistance. When we have enticed away all +the workmen from their masters to our co-operative factories, the +masters may keep their rusty empty mills and looms and engines to +themselves as long as they like, but they must come to us in the +end, and ask us to give them the bread they used to refuse us. For +my part, I would kill no man and rob no man; but I would let no +man kill or rob another either.' + +'And how about Alexander Nicolaiovitch, then?' persisted the +Russian, eagerly. 'Has he killed none in his loathsome prisons and +in his Siberian quicksilver mines? Has he robbed none of their own +hardly got earnings by his poisoned vodki and his autocratically +imposed taxes and imposts? Who gave him an absolute hereditary right +to put us to death, to throw us in prison, to take our money from +us against our will and without our leave, to treat us as if we +existed, body and soul, and wives and children, only as chattels +for the greater glory of his own orthodox imperial majesty? If we +may justly slay the highway robber who meets us, arms in hand, in +the outskirts of the city, and demands of us our money or our life, +may we not justly slay Alexander Nicolaiovitch, who comes to our +homes in the person of his tax-gatherers to take the bread out of +our children's mouths and to help himself to whatever he chooses by +the divine right of his Romanoff heirship? I tell you, Herr Max, +we may blamelessly lie in wait for him wherever we find him, and +whoso says us nay is siding with the wolf against the lambs, with +the robber and the slayer against the honest representative of +right and justice.' + +'I never met a Nihilist before,' said Oswald to Ernest, in a +half-undertone,' and it never struck me to think what they might +have to say for themselves from their own side of the question.' + +'That's one of the uses of coming here to Herr Schurz's,' Ernest +answered quickly. 'You may not agree with all you hear, but at +least you learn to see others as they see themselves; whereas if +you mix always in English society, and read only English papers, +you will see them only as we English see them.' + +'But just fancy,' Oswald went on, as they both stood back a little +to make way for others who wished for interviews with the great +man, 'just fancy that this Borodinsky, or whatever his name may be, +has himself very likely helped in dynamite plots, or manufactured +nitro-glycerine cartridges to blow up the Czar; and yet we stand +here talking with him as coolly as if he were an ordinary respectable +innocent Englishman.' + +'What of that?' Ernest answered, smiling. 'Didn't we meet Prince +Strelinoffsky at Oriel last term, and didn't we talk with him too, +as if he was an honest, hard-working, bread-earning Christian? and +yet we knew he was a member of the St. Petersburg office clique, +and at the bottom of half the trouble in Poland for the last ten +years or so. Grant even that Borodinsky is quite wrong in his way +of dealing with noxious autocrats, and yet which do you think is +the worst criminal of the two--he with his little honest glazier's +shop in a back slum of Paddington, or Strelinoffsky with his jewelled +fingers calmly signing accursed warrants to send childing Polish +women to die of cold and hunger and ill-treatment on the way to +Siberia?' + +'Well, really, Le Breton, you know I'm a passably good Radical, +but you're positively just one stage too Radical even for me.' + +'Come here oftener,' answered Ernest; 'and perhaps you'll begin to +think a little differently about some things.' + +An hour later in the evening Max Schurz found Ernest alone in a +quiet corner. 'One moment, my dear Le Breton,' he said; 'you know +I always like to find out all about people's political antecedents; +it helps one to fathom the potentialities of their characters. From +what social stratum, now, do we get your clever friend, Mr. Oswald?' + +'His father's a petty tradesman in a country town in Devonshire, +I believe,' Ernest answered; 'and he himself is a good general +democrat, without any very pronounced socialistic colouring.' + +'A petty tradesman! Hum, I thought so. He has rather the mental +bearing and equipment of a man from the petite bourgeoisie. I have +been talking to him, and drawing him out. Clever, very, and with +good instincts, but not wholly and entirely sound. A fibre wrong +somewhere, socially speaking, a false note suspected in his ideas +of life; too much acquiescence in the thing that is, and too little +faith or enthusiasm for the thing that ought to be. But we shall +make something of him yet. He has read "Gold" and understands it. +That is already a beginning. Bring him again. I shall always be +glad to see him here.' + +'I will,' said Ernest, 'and I believe the more you know him, Herr +Max, the better you will like him.' + +'And what did you think of the sons of the prophets?' asked Herbert +Le Breton of Oswald as they left the salon at the close of the +reception. + +'Frankly speaking,' answered Oswald, looking half aside at Ernest, +'I didn't quite care for all of them--the Nihilists and Communards +took my breath away at first; but as to Max Schurz himself I think +there can be only one opinion possible about him.' + +'And that is----?' + +'That he's a magnificent old man, with a genuine apostolic +inspiration. I don't care twopence whether he is right or wrong, +but he's a perfectly splendid old fellow, as honest and transparent +as the day's long. He believes in it all, and would give his life +for it freely, if he thought he could forward the cause a single +inch by doing it.' + +'You're quite right,' said Herbert calmly. 'He's an Elijah thrown +blankly upon these prosaic latter days; and what's more, his +gospel's all true; but it doesn't matter a sou to you or me, for +it will never come about in our time, no nor for a century after. +"Post nos millennium." So what on earth's the good of our troubling +our poor overworked heads about it?' + +'He's the only really great man I ever knew,' said Ernest +enthusiastically, 'and I consider that his friendship's the one +thing in my life that has been really and truly worth living for. +If a pessimist were to ask me what was the use of human existence, +I should give him a card of introduction to go to Max Schurz's.' + +'Excuse my interrupting your rhapsody, Ernest,' Herbert put in +blandly, 'but will you have your own trousers tonight, Oswald, or +will you wear mine back to your lodgings now, and I'll send one of +the servants round with yours for them in the morning?' + +'Thanks,' said Harry Oswald, slapping the sides of the unopened +dust-coat; 'I think I'll go home as I am at present, and I'll recover +the marks of the Beast again to-morrow. You see, I didn't betray +my evening waistcoat after all, now did I?' + +And they parted at the corner, each of them going his own way in +his own mood and manner. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE COASTS OF THE GENTILES. + + +The decayed and disfranchised borough of Calcombe Pomeroy, or +Calcombe-on-the-Sea, is one of the prettiest and quietest little +out-of-the-way watering-places in the whole smiling southern slope +of the county of Devon. Thank heaven, the Great Western Railway, +when planning its organised devastations along the beautiful rural +region of the South Hams, left poor little Calcombe out in the cold; +and the consequence is that those few people who still love to +linger in the uncontaminated rustic England of our wiser forefathers +can here find a beach unspoiled by goat-carriages or black-faced +minstrels, a tiny parade uninvaded by stucco terraces or German +brass bands, and an ancient stone pier off which swimmers may take +a header direct, in the early morning, before the sumptuary edicts +of his worship the Mayor compel them to resort to the use of +bathing-machines and the decent covering of an approved costume, +between the hours of eight and eight. A board beside the mouth of +the harbour, signed by a Secretary of State to his late Majesty +King William the Fourth, still announces to a heedless world the +tolls to be paid for entry by the ships that never arrive; and a +superannuated official in a wooden leg and a gold cap-band retains +the honourable sinecure of a harbour-mastership, with a hypothetical +salary nominally payable from the non-existent fees and port dues. +The little river Cale, at the bottom of whose combe the wee town +nestles snugly, has cut itself a deep valley in the soft sandstone +hills; and the gap in the cliffs formed by its mouth gives room +for the few hundred yards of level on which the antiquated little +parade is warmly ensconced. On either hand tall bluffs of brilliant +red marl raise their honeycombed faces fronting the sea; and in the +distance the sheeny grey rocks of the harder Devonian promontories +gleam like watered satin in the slant rays of the afternoon sun. +Altogether a very sleepy little old-world place is Calcombe Pomeroy, +specially reserved by the overruling chance of the universe to be +a summer retreat for quiet, peace-loving, old-world people. + +The Londoner who escapes for a while from the great teeming human +ant-hill, with its dark foggy lanes and solid firmament of hanging +smoke, to draw in a little unadulterated atmosphere at Calcombe +Pomeroy, finds himself landed by the Plymouth slow train at Calcombe +Road Station, twelve miles by cross-country highway from his final +destination. The little grey box, described in the time-tables +as a commodious omnibus, which takes him on for the rest of his +journey, crawls slowly up the first six miles to the summit of +the intervening range at the Cross Foxes Inn, and jolts swiftly +down the other six miles, with red hot drag creaking and groaning +lugubriously, till it seems to topple over sheer into the sea +at the clambering High Street of the old borough. As you turn to +descend the seaward slope at the Cross Foxes, you appear to leave +modern industrial England and the nineteenth century well behind +you on the north, and you go down into a little isolated primaeval +dale, cut off from all the outer world by the high ridge that girds +it round on every side, and turned only on the southern front +towards the open Channel and the backing sun. Half-way down the +steep cobble-paved High Street, just after you pass the big dull +russet church, a small shop on the left-hand side bears a signboard +with the painted legend, 'Oswald, Family Grocer and Provision +Dealer.' In the front bay window of that red-brick house, built +out just over the shop, Harry Oswald, Fellow and Lecturer of Oriel +College, Oxford, kept his big oak writing-desk; and at that desk +he might be seen reading or writing on most mornings during the +long vacation, after the end of his three weeks' stay at a London +West-end lodging-house, from which he had paid his first visit to +Max Schurz's Sunday evening receptions. + +'Two pounds of best black tea, good quality--yours is generally +atrocious, Mrs. Oswald--that's the next thing on the list,' said +poor trembling, shaky Miss Luttrell, the Squire's sister, a palsied +old lady with a quavering, querulous, rasping voice. 'Two pounds +of best black tea, and mind you don't send it all dust, as you usually +do. No good tea to be got nowadays, since they took the duties off +and ruined the country. And I see a tall young man lounging about +the place sometimes, and never touching his hat to me as he ought +to do. Young people have no manners in these times, Mrs. Oswald, as +they used to have when you and I were young. Your son, I suppose, +come home from sea or something? He's in the fish-curing line, +isn't he, I think I've heard you say?' + +'I don't rightly know who 'ee may mean, Miss Luttrell,' replied +the mother proudly, 'by a young man lounging about the place; but +my son's at home from Oxford at present for his vacations, and he +isn't in the fish-curing line at all, ma'am, but he's a Fellow of +his college, as I've told 'ee more than once already; but you're +getting old, I see, Miss Luttrell, and your memory isn't just what +it had used to be, dost know.' + +'Oh, at Oxford, is he?' Miss Luttrell chimed on vacantly, wagging +her wrinkled old head in solemn deprecation of tke evil omen. She +knew it as well as Mrs. Oswald herself did, having heard the fact +at least a thousand times before; but she made it a matter of +principle never to encourage these upstart pretensions on the part +of the lower orders, and just to keep them rigorously at their +proper level she always made a feint of forgetting any steps in +advance which they might have been bold enough to take, without +humbly obtaining her previous permission, out of their original +and natural obscurity. 'Fellow of his college is he, really? Fellow +of a college! Dear me, how completely Oxford is going to the dogs. +Admitting all kinds of odd people into the University, I understand. +Why, my second brother--the Archdeacon, you know--was a Fellow of +Magdalen for some time in his younger days. You surprise me, quite. +Fellow of a college! You're perfectly sure he isn't a National +schoolmaster at Oxford instead, and that you and his father haven't +got the two things mixed up together in your heads, Mrs. Oswald?' + +'No, ma'am, we'in perfectly sure of it, and we haven't got the +things mixed up in our heads at all, no more nor you have, Miss +Luttrell. He was a scholar of Trinity first, and now he's got +a Fellowship at Oriel. You must mind hearing all about it at the +time, only you're getting so forgetful like now, with years and +such like.' Mrs. Oswald knew there was nothing that annoyed the old +lady so much as any allusion to her increasing age or infirmities, +and she took her revenge out of her in that simple retributive +fashion. + +'A scholar of Trinity, was he? Ah, yes, patronage will do a great +deal in these days, for certain. The Rector took a wonderful +interest in your boy, I think, Mrs. Oswald. He went to Plymouth +Grammar School, I remember now, with a nomination no doubt; and +there, I dare say, he attracted some attention, being a decent, +hard-working lad, and got sent to Oxford with a sizarship, or +something of the sort; there are all kinds of arrangements like +that at the Universities, I believe, to encourage poor young men +of respectable character. They become missionaries or ushers in +the end, and often get very good salaries, considering everything, +I'm told.' + +'There you're wrong, again, ma'am,' put in Mrs. Oswald, stoutly. +'My husband, he sent Harry to Plymouth School at our own expense; +and after that he got an exhibition from the school, and an open +scholarship, I think they call it, at the college; and he's been no +more beholden to patronage, ma'am, than your brother the Archdeacon +was, nor for the matter o' that not so much neither; for I've a'ways +understood the old Squire sent him first to the Charterhouse, and +afterwards he got a living through Lord Modbury's influence, as +the Squire voted regular with the Modbury people for the borough +and county. But George was always independent, Miss Luttrell, and +beholden to neither Luttrells nor Modburies, and that I tell 'ee +to your face, ma'am, and no shame of it either.' + +'Well, well, Mrs. Oswald,' said the old lady, shaking her head more +violently than ever at this direct discomfiture, 'I don't want to +argue with you about the matter. I dare say your son's a very worthy +young man, and has worked his way up into a position he wasn't +intended for by Providence. But it's no business of mine, thank +heaven, it's no business of mine, for I'm not responsible for all +the vagaries of all the tradespeople on my brother's estate, nor +don't want to be. There's Mrs. Figgins, now, the baker's wife; her +daughter has just chosen to get married to a bank clerk in London; +and I said to her this morning, "Well, Mrs. Figgins, so you've let +your Polly go and pick up with some young fellow from town that +you've never seen before, haven't you? And that's the way of all you +people. You marry your girls to bank clerks without a reference, for +the sake of getting 'em off your hands, and what's the consequence? +They rob their employers to keep up a pretty household for their +wives, as if they were fine ladies; and then at last the thing's +discovered, there comes a smash, they run away to America, and you +have your daughters and their children thrown back again penniless +upon your hands." That's what I said to her, Mrs. Oswald. And how's +YOUR daughter, by the way--Jemima I think you call her; how's she, +eh, tell me?' + +'I beg your pardon, Miss Luttrell, but her name's not Jemima; it's +Edith.' + +'Oh, Edith, is it? Well to be sure! The grand names girls have +dangling about with them nowadays! My name's plain Catherine, and +it's good enough for me, thank goodness. But these young ladies +of the new style must be Ediths and Eleanors and Ophelias, and all +that heathenish kind of thing, as if they were princesses of the +blood or play-actresses, instead of being good Christian Susans +and Janes and Betties, like their grandmothers were before them. +And Miss Edith, now, what is SHE doing?' + +'She's doing nothing in particular at this moment, Miss Luttrell, +leastways not so far as I know of; but she's going up to Oxford +part of this term on a visit to her brother.' + +'Going up to Oxford, my good woman! Why, heaven bless the girl, +she'd much better stop at home and learn her catechism. She should +try to do her duty in that station of life to which it has pleased +Providence to call her, instead of running after young gentlemen +above her own rank and place in society at Oxford. Tell her so +from me, Mrs. Oswald, and mind you don't send the tea dusty. Two +pounds of your best, if you please, as soon as you can send it. +Good-morning.' And Miss Luttrell, having discovered the absolute +truth of the shocking rumour which had reached her about Edith's +projected visit, the confirmation of which was the sole object of +her colloquy, wagged her way out of the shop again successfully, +and was duly assisted by the page-boy into her shambling little +palsied donkey-chair. + +'That was all the old cat came about, you warr'nt you,' muttered +Mr. Oswald himself from behind his biscuit-boxes. 'Must have heard +it from the Rector's wife, and wanted to find out if it was true, +to go and tell Mrs. Walters o' such a bit o' turble presumptiousness.' + +Meanwhile, in the little study with the bow-window over the shop, +Harry and Edie Oswald were busily discussing the necessary preparations +for Edie's long-promised visit to the University. + +'I hope you've got everything nice in the way of dress, you know, +Edie,' said Harry. 'You'll want a decent dinner dress, of course, +for you'll be asked out to dine at least once or twice; and I want +you to have everything exceedingly proper and pretty.' + +'I think I've got all I need in that way, Harry; I've my dark poplin, +cut square in the bodice, for one dinner dress, and my high black +silk to fall back upon for another. Worn open in front, with a lace +handkerchief and a locket, it does really very nicely. Then I've +got three afternoon dresses, the grey you gave me, the sage-greeny +aesthetic one, and the peacock-blue with the satin box-pleats. It's +a charming dress, the peacock-blue; it looks as if it might have +stepped straight out of a genuine Titian. It came home from Miss +Wells's this morning. Wait five minutes, like a dear boy, and I'll +run and put it on and let you see me in it.' + +'That's a good girl, do. I'm so anxious you should have all your +clothes the exact pink of perfection, Popsy. Though I'm afraid I'm +a very poor critic in that matter--if you were only a problem in +space of four dimensions, now! Yet, after all, every man or woman +is more of a problem than anything in x square plus y square you +can possibly set yourself.' + +Edie ran lightly up into her own room, and soon reappeared clad +resplendent in the new peacock-blue dress, with hat and parasol +to match, and a little creamy lamb's-wool scarf thrown with artful +carelessness around her pretty neck and shoulders. Harry looked at +her with unfeigned admiration. Indeed, you would not easily find +many lighter or more fairly-like little girls than Edie Oswald, +even in the beautiful half-Celtic South Hams of Devon. In figure +she was rather small than short, for though she was but a wee thing, +her form was so exactly and delicately modelled that she might have +looked tall if she stood alone at a little distance. She never +walked, but seemed to dance about from place to place, so buoyant +and light, that Harry doubted whether in her case gravitation could +really vary as the square of the distance--it seemed, in fact, +to be almost diminished in the proportions of the cube. Her hair +and eyes--such big bright eyes!--were dark; but her complexion +was scarcely brunette, and the colour in her cheeks was rich and +peach-like, after the true Devonian type. She was dimpled whenever +she smiled, and she smiled often; her full lips giving a peculiar +ripe look to her laughing mouth that suited admirably with her +light and delicate style of beauty. Perhaps some people might have +thought them too full; certainly they irresistibly suggested to +a critical eye the distinct notion of kissability. As she stood +there, faintly blushing, waiting to be admired by her brother, in +her neatly fitting dainty blue dress, her lips half parted, and her +arms held carelessly at her side, she looked about as much like a +fairy picture as it is given to mere human flesh and blood to look. + +'It's delicious, Edie,' said Harry, surveying her from, head +to foot with a smile of satisfaction which made her blush deepen; +'it's simply delicious. Where on earth did you get the idea of it?' + +'Well, it's partly the present style,' said Edie; 'but I took the +notion of the bodice partly too from that Vandyck, you know, in +the Palazzo Bossi at Genoa.' + +'I remember, I remember,' Harry answered, contemplating her with +an admiring eye. 'Now just turn round and show me how it sits +behind, Edie. You recollect Theophile Gautier says the one great +advantage which a beautiful woman possesses over a beautiful statue +is this, that while a man has to walk round the beautiful statue +in order to see it from every side, he can ask the beautiful woman +to turn herself round and let him see her, without requiring to +take that trouble.' + +'Theophile Gautier was a horrid man, and if anybody but my brother +quoted such a thing as that to me I should be very angry with him +indeed.' + +'Theophile Gautier was quite as horrid as you consider him to be, +and if you were anybody but my sister it isn't probable I should +have quoted him to you. But if there is any statue on earth prettier +or more graceful than you are in that dress at this moment, Edie, +then the Venus of Milo ought immediately to be pulverised to ultimate +atoms for a rank artistic impostor.' + +'Thank you, Harry, for the compliment. What pretty things you must +be capable of saying to somebody else's sister, when you're so +polite and courtly to your own.' + +'On the contrary, Popsy, when it comes to somebody else's sister +I'm much too nervous and funky to say anything of the kind. But +you must at least do Gautier the justice to observe that if I had +described a circle round you, instead of allowing you to revolve +once on your own axis, I shouldn't have been able to get the gloss +on the satin in the sunlight as I do now that you turn the panniers +toward the window. That, you must admit, is a very important +aesthetic consideration.' + +'Oh, of course it's essentially a sunshiny dress,' said Edie, +smiling. 'It's meant to be worn out of doors, on a fine afternoon, +when the light is falling slantwise, you know, just as it does now +through the low window. That's the light painters always choose +for doing satin in.' + +'It's certainly very pretty,' Harry went on, musing; 'but I'm afraid +Le Breton would say it was a serious piece of economic hubris.' + +'Piece of what?' asked Edie quickly. + +'Piece of hubris--an economical outrage, don't you see; a gross +anti-social and individualist demonstration. Hubris, you know, is +Greek for insolence; at least, not quite insolence, but a sort +of pride and overweening rebelliousness against the gods, the kind +of arrogance that brings Nemesis after it, you understand. It was +hubris in Agamemnon and Xerxes to go swelling about and ruffling +themselves like turkey-cocks, because they were great conquerors +and all that sort of thing; and it was their Nemesis to get murdered +by Clytemnestra, or jolly well beaten by the Athenians at Salamis. +Well, Le Breton always uses the word for anything that he thinks +socially wrong--and he thinks a good many things socially wrong, +I can tell you--anything that partakes of the nature of a class +distinction, or a mere vulgar ostentation of wealth, or a useless +waste of good, serviceable, labour-gotten material. He would call +it hubris to have silver spoons when electroplate would do just as +well; or to keep a valet for your own personal attendant, making +one man into the mere bodily appanage of another; or to buy anything +you didn't really need, causing somebody else to do work for you +which might otherwise have been avoided.' + +'Which Mr. Le Breton--the elder or the younger one?' + +'Oh, the younger--Ernest. As for Herbert, the Fellow of St. Aldate's, +he's not troubled with any such scruples; he takes the world as he +finds it.' + +'They've both gone in for their degrees, haven't they?' + +'Yes, Herbert has got a fellowship; Ernest's up in residence still +looking about for one.' + + +'It's Ernest that would think my dress a piece of what-you-may-call-it?' + +'Yes, Ernest.' + +'Then I'm sure I shan't like him. I should insist upon every woman's +natural right to wear the dress or hat or bonnet that suits her +complexion best.' + +'You can't tell, Edie, till you've met him. He's a very good +fellow; and of one thing I'm certain, whatever he thinks right he +does, and sticks to it.' + +'But do YOU think, Harry, I oughtn't to wear a new peacock-blue +camel-hair dress on my first visit up to Oxford?' + +'Well, Edie dear, I don't quite know what my own opinions are +exactly upon that matter. I'm not an economist, you see, I'm a man +of science. When I look at you, standing there so pretty in that +pretty dress, I feel inclined to say to myself, "Every woman ought +to do her best to make herself look as beautiful as she can for the +common delectation of all humanity." Your beauty, a Greek would +have said, is a gift from the gods to us all, and we ought all +gratefully to make the most of it. I'm sure _I_ do.' + +'Thank you, Harry, again. You're in your politest humour this +afternoon.' + +'But then, on the other hand, I know if Le Breton were here he'd +soon argue me over to the other side. He has the enthusiasm of +humanity so strong upon him that you can't help agreeing with him +as long as he's talking to you.' + +'Then if he were here you'd probably make me put away the peacock-blue, +for fear of hubris and Nemesis and so forth, and go up to Oxford +a perfect fright in my shabby old Indian tussore!' + +'I don't know that I should do that, even then, Edie. In the first +place, nothing on earth could make you look a perfect fright, or +anything like one, Popsy dear; and in the second place, I don't +know that I'm Socialist enough myself ever to have the courage of +my opinions as Le Breton has. Certainly, I should never attempt to +force them unwillingly upon others. You must remember, Edie, it's +one thing for Le Breton to be so communistic as all that comes to, +and quite another thing for you and me. Le Breton's father was a +general and a knight, you see; and people will never forget that +his mother's Lady Le Breton still, whatever he does. He may do +what he likes in the way of social eccentricities, and the world +will only say he's such a very strange advanced young fellow. But +if I were to take you up to Oxford badly dressed, or out of the +fashion, or looking peculiar in any way, the world wouldn't put it +down to our political beliefs, but would say we were mere country +tradespeople by birth, and didn't know any better. That makes a +lot of difference, you know.' + +'You're quite right, Harry; and yet, do you know, I think there must +be something, too, in sticking to one's own opinions, like Mr. Le +Breton. I should stick to mine, I'm sure, and wear whatever dress +I liked, in spite of anybody. It's a sweet thing, really, isn't +it?' And she turned herself round, craning over her shoulder to look +at the effect, in a vain attempt to assume an objective attitude +towards her own back. + +'I'm glad I'm going to Oxford at last, Harry,' she said, after a +short pause. 'I HAVE so longed to go all these years while you were +an undergraduate; and I'm dying to have got there, now the chance +has really come at last, after all. I shall glory in the place, +I'm certain; and it'll be so nice to make the acquaintance of all +your clever friends.' + +'Well, Edie,' said her brother, smiling gently at the light, joyous, +tremulous little figure, 'I think I've done right in putting it +off till now. It's just as well you haven't gone up to Oxford till +after your trip on the Continent with me. That three months in +Paris, and Switzerland, and Venice, and Florence, did you a lot of +good, you see; improved you, and gave you tone, and supplied you +with things to talk about.' + +'Why, you oughtn't to think I needed any improvement at all, sir,' +Edie answered, pouting; 'and as to talking, I'm not aware I had ever +any dearth of subjects for conversation even before I went on the +Continent. There are things enough to be said about heaven and earth +in England, surely, without one having to hurry through France and +Italy, like Cook's excursionists, just to hunt up something fresh +to chatter about. It's my belief that a person who can't find +anything new to say about the every-day world around her won't +discover much suggestive matter for conversation in a Continental +Bradshaw. It's like that feeble watery lady I met at the table +d'hote at Geneva. From something she said I gathered she'd been +in India, and I asked her how she liked it. "Oh," she said, "it's +very hot." I told her I had heard so before. Presently she said +something casually about having been in Brazil. I asked her what +sort of place Brazil was. "Oh." she said, "it's dreadfully hot." +I told her I'd heard that too. By-and-by she began to talk again +about Barbadoes. "What did you think of the West Indies?" I said. +"Oh," said she, "they're terribly hot, really." I told her I had +gathered as much from previous travellers. And that was positively +all in the end I ever got out of her, for all her travels.' + +'My dear Edie, I've always admitted that you were simply perfect,' +Harry said, glancing at her with visible admiration, 'and I +don't think anything on earth could possibly improve you--except +perhaps a judicious course of differential and integral calculus, +which might possibly serve to tone down slightly your exuberant +and excessive vitality. Still, you know, from the point of view +of society, which is a force we have always to reckon with--a +constant, in fact, that we may call Pi--there can be no doubt in +the world that to have been on the Continent is a differentiating +factor in one's social position. It doesn't matter in the least +what your own private evaluation of Pi may be; if you don't happen +to know the particular things and places that Pi knows, Pi's evaluation +of you will be approximately a minimum, of that you may be certain.' + +'Well, for my part, I don't care twopence about Pi as you call it,' +said Edie, tossing her pretty little head contemptuously; 'but +I'm very glad indeed to have been on the Continent for my own sake, +because of the pictures, and palaces, and mountains, and waterfalls +we've seen, and not because of Pi's opinion of me for having seen +them. I would have been the same person really whether I'd seen +them or not; but I'm so much the richer myself for that view from +the top of the Col de Balme, and for that Murillo--oh, do you +remember the flood of light on that Murillo?--in the far corner +of that delicious gallery at Bologna. Why, mother darling, what on +earth has been vexing you?' + +'Nothing at all, Edie dear; leastways, that is, nothing to speak +of,' said her mother, coming up from the shop hot and flurried from +her desperate encounter with the redoubtable Miss Luttrell. + +'Oh, I know just what it is, darling,' cried the girl, putting her +arm around her mother's waist caressingly, and drawing her down to +kiss her face half a dozen times over in her outburst of sympathy. +'That horrid old Miss Catherine has been here again, I'm sure, for +I saw her going out of the shop just now, and she's been saying +something or other spiteful, as she always does, to vex my dearie. +What did she say to you to-day, now do tell us, duckie mother?' + +'Well, there,' said Mrs. Oswald, half laughing and half crying, 'I +can't tell 'ee exactly what she did say, but it was just the kind +of thing that she mostly does, impudent like, just to hurt a body's +feelings. She said you'd better not go to Oxford, Edie, but stop +at home and learn your catechism.' + +'You might have pointed out to her, mother dear,' said the young +man, smoothing her hair softly with his hand, and kissing her +forehead, 'that in the most advanced intellectual centres the Church +catechism is perhaps no longer regarded as the absolute ultimatum +of the highest and deepest economical wisdom.' + +'Bless your heart, Harry, what'd be the good of talking that way +to the likes of she? She wouldn't understand a single word of what +you were driving at. It must be all plain sailing with her, without +it's in the way of spite, and then she sees her chance to tack round +the hardest corner with half a wind in her sails only, as soon as +look at it. Her sharpness goes all off toward ill-nature, that it +do. Why, she said you'd got on at Oxford by good patronage!' + +'There, you see, Edie,' cried Harry demonstratively, 'that's +an infinitesimal fraction of Pi; that's a minute decimal of this +great, sneering, ugly aggregate "society" that we have to deal with +whether we will or no, and that rends us and grinds us to powder +if only it can once get in the thin end of a chance. Take shaky +bitter old Miss Catherine for your unit, multiply her to the nth, +and there you see the irreducible power we have to fight against. +All one's political economy is very well in its way; but the +practical master of the situation is Pi, sitting autocratically in +many-headed judgment on our poor solitary little individualities, +and crushing us irretrievably with the dead weight of its inexorable +cumulative nothingness. And to think that that quivering old mass of +perambulating jealousy--that living incarnation of envy, hatred, +malice, and all uncharitableness--should be able to make you +uncomfortable for a single moment, mother darling, with her petty, +dribbling, doddering venom, why, it's simply unendurable.' + +'There now, Harry,' said Mrs. Oswald, relenting, 'you mustn't be +too hard, neither, on poor old Miss Catherine. She's a bit soured, +you see, by disappointments and one thing and another. She doesn't +mean it, really, but it's just her nature. Folks can't be blamed +for their nature, now, can they?' + +'It occurs to me,' said Harry quietly, 'that vipers only sting because +it's their nature; and Dr. Watts has made a similar observation +with regard to the growling and fighting of bears and lions. But +I'm not aware that anybody has yet proposed to get up a Society +for the protection of those much-misunderstood creatures, on the +ground that they are not really responsible for their own inherited +dispositions. Mr. William Sikes had a nature (no doubt congenital) +which impelled him to beat his wife--I'm not sure that she was +even his wife at all, now I come to think of it, but that's a mere +detail--and to kick his familiar acquaintances casually about the +head. We, on the other hand, have natures which impel us, when we +catch Mr. William Sikes indulging in these innate idiosyncrasies +by way of recreation, to clap him promptly into prison, and even, +under certain aggravating conditions, to cause him to be hanged +by the neck till he be dead. This may be a regrettable incident of +our own peculiar dispositions, mother dear, but it has at least +the same justification as Mr. Sikes's or the bears' and lions', +that 'tis our nature to. And I feel pretty much the same way about +old Miss Luttrell.' + +'Well, there,' said his mother, kissing him gently, 'you're a bad +rebellious boy to be calling names, like a chatter-mag, and I won't +listen to you any longer. How pretty Edie do look in her new dress, +to be sure, Harry. I'll warr'nt there won't be a prettier girl +in Oxford next week than what she is; no, nor a better one and a +sweeter one neither.' + +Harry put his arms round both their waists at once, with an +affectionate pressure; and they went down to their old-fashioned +tea together in the little parlour behind the shop, looking out over +the garden, and the beach, and the great cliffs beyond on either +hand, to the very farthest edge of the distant clear-cut blue +horizon. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MAGDALEN QUAD. + + +The Reverend Arthur Collingham Berkeley, curate of St. Fredegond's, +lounged lazily in his own neatly padded wickerwork easy-chair, +opposite the large lattice-paned windows of his pretty little +first-floor rooms in the front quad of Magdalen. + +'There's a great deal to be said, Le Breton, in favour of October +term,' he observed, in his soft, musical voice, as he gazed pensively +across the central grass-plot to the crimson drapery of the Founder's +Tower. 'Just look at that magnificent Virginia creeper over there, +now; just look at the way the red on it melts imperceptibly into +Tyrian purple and cloth of gold! Isn't that in itself argument +enough to fling at Hartmann's head, if he ventured to come here +sprinkling about his heresies, with his affected little spray-shooter, +in the midst of a drowsy Oxford autumn? The Cardinal never saw +Virginia creeper, I suppose; a man of his taste wouldn't have been +guilty of committing such a gross practical anachronism as that, +any more than he would have smoked a cigarette before tobacco was +invented; but if only he could have seen the October effect on that +tower yonder, he'd have acknowledged that his own hat and robe were +positively nowhere in the running, for colour, wouldn't he?' + +'Well,' answered Herbert, putting down the Venetian glass goblet +he had been examining closely with due care into its niche in the +over-mantel, 'I've no doubt Wolsey had too much historical sense +ever to step entirely out of his own century, like my brother Ernest, +for instance; but I've never heard his opinion on the subject of +colour-harmonies, and I should suspect it of having been distinctly +tinged with nascent symptoms of renaissance vulgarity. This is a +lovely bit of Venetian, really, Berkeley. How the dickens do you +manage to pick up all these pretty things, I wonder? Why can't I +afford them, now?' + +'What a question for the endowed and established to put to a poor +starving devil of a curate like me!' said Berkeley lightly. 'You, +an incarnate sinecure and vested interest, a creature revelling in +an unearned income of fabulous Oriental magnificence--I dare say, +putting one thing with another, fully as much as five hundred a +year--to ask me, the unbeneficed and insignificant, with my wretched +pittance of eighty pounds per annum and my three pass-men a term +for classical mods, how I scrape together the few miserable, hoarded +ha'pence which I grudgingly invest in my pots and pipkins! I save +them from my dinner, Mr. Bursar--I save them. If the Church only +recognised modest merit as it ought to do!--if the bishops only +listened with due attention to the sound and scholarly exegesis of +my Sunday evening discourses at St. Fredegond's!--then, indeed, I +might be disposed to regard things through a more satisfied medium +--the medium of a nice, fat, juicy country living. But for you, +Le Breton--you, sir, a pluralist and a sanguisorb of the deepest +dye--to reproach me with my Franciscan poverty--oh, it's too +cruel!' + +'I'm an abuse, I know,' Herbert answered, smiling and waving his +hand gracefully. 'I at once admit it. Abuses exist, unhappily; and +while they continue do so, isn't it better they should envisage +themselves as me than as some other and probably less deserving +fellow?' + +'No, it's not, decidedly. I should much prefer that one of them +envisaged itself as me.' + +'Ah, of course. From your own strictly subjective point of view +that's very natural. I also look at the question abstractly from +the side of the empirical ego, and correctly deduce a corresponding +conclusion. Only then, you see, the terms of the minor premiss are +luckily reversed.' + +'Well, my dear fellow,' said the curate, 'the fact about the +tea-things is this. You eat up your income, devour your substance +in riotous living; I prefer to feast my eyes and ears to my grosser +senses. You dine at high table, and fare sumptuously every day; +I take a commons of cold beef for lunch, and have tea off an egg +and roll in my own rooms at seven. You drink St. Emilion or still +hock; I drink water from the well or the cup that cheers but +not obfuscates. The difference goes to pay for the crockery. Do +likewise, and with your untold wealth you might play Aunt Sally at +Oriental blue, and take cock-shots with a boot-jack at hawthorn-pattern +vases.' + +'At any rate, Berkeley, you always manage to get your money's worth +of amusement out of your money.' + +'Of course, because I lay myself out to do it. Buy a bottle of +champagne, drink it off, and there you have to show for your total +permanent investment on the transaction the memory of a noisy evening +and a headache the next morning. Buy a flute, or a book of poems, +or a little picture, or a Palissy platter, and you have something +to turn to with delight and admiration for half a lifetime.' + +'Ah, but it isn't everybody who can isolate himself so utterly +from the workaday world and live so completely in his own little +paradise of art as you can, my dear fellow. Non omnia possumus +omnes. You seem to be always up in the aesthetic clouds, with your +own music automatically laid on, and no need of cherubim or seraphim +to chant continually for your gratification. Play me something of +your own on your flute now, like a good fellow.' + +'No, I won't; because the spirit doesn't move me. It's treachery +to the divine gift to play when you don't want to. Besides, what's +the use of playing before YOU when you're not the dean of a musical +cathedral? David was wiser; he played only before Saul, who had +of course all the livings in his own gift, no doubt. I've got a +new thing running in my head this very minute that you shall hear +though, all the same, as soon as I've hammered it into shape--a +sort of villanette in music, a little whiff of country freshness, +suggested by the new ethereal acquisition, little Miss Butterfly. +Have you seen Miss Butterfly yet?' + +'Not by that name, at any rate. Who is she?' + +'Oh, the name's my own invention. Mademoiselle Volauvent, I +mean--the little bit of whirligig thistledown from Devonshire, +Oswald's sister, you know, of Oriel.' + +'Ah, that one! Yes; just caught a glimpse of her in the High on +Thursday. Very pretty, certainly, and as airy as a humming-bird.' + +'That's her! She's coming here to lunch this morning. If you're +a good boy, and will promise not to say anything naughty, you may +stop and meet her. She's a nice little thing, but rather timid at +seeing so many fresh faces. You mustn't frighten her by discussing +the Absolute and the Unconditioned, or bore her by talking about +Aristotle's Politics, or the revolutions in Corcyra. For you know, +my dear Le Breton, if you HAVE a fault, it is that you're such a +consummate and irrepressible prig; now aren't you really?' + +'I'm hardly a fair judge on that subject, I suppose, Berkeley; but +if YOU have a rudimentary glimmering of a virtue, it is that you're +such a deliciously frank and yet considerate critic. I'll pocket +your rudeness though, and eat your lunch, in spite of it. Is Miss +Butterfly, as you call her, as stand-off as her brother?' + +'Not at all. She's accueillante to the last degree.' + +'Very restricted, I suppose--a country girl of the first water? +Horizon absolutely bounded by the high hedges of her native parish?' + +'Oh dear no! Anything but that. She's like her brother, naturally +quick and adaptive.' + +'Oswald's an excellent fellow in his way,' said Herbert, button-holing +his own waistcoat; 'but he's spoilt by two bad traits. In the first +place, he's so dreadfully conscious of the fact that he has risen +from a lower position; and then, again, he's so engrossingly and +pervadingly mathematical. X square seems to have seized upon him +bodily, and to have wormed its fatal way into his very marrow.' + +'Ah, you must remember, he's true to his first love. Culture came +to him first, while yet he abode in Philistia, under the playful +disguise of a conic section. He scaled his way out of Gath by means +of a treatise on elementary trigonometry, and evaded Askelon on +the wings of an undulatory theory of light. It is different with +us, you know, who have emerged from the land of darkness by the +regular classical and literary highway. We feed upon Rabelais and +Burton; he flits carelessly from flower to flower of the theory of +Quantics. If he were an idealist painter, like Rossetti, he would +paint great allegorical pictures for us, representing an asymptotic +curve appearing to him in a dream, and introducing that blushing +maiden, Hyperbola, to his affectionate consideration.' + +As Berkeley spoke, a rap sounded on the oak, and Ernest Le Breton +entered the room. + +'What, you here, Herbert?' he said with a shade of displeasure in +his tone. 'Are you, too, of the bidden?' + +'Berkeley has asked me to stop and lunch with him, if that's what +you mean.' + +'We shall be quite a party,' said Ernest, seating himself, and looking +abstractedly round the room. 'Why, Berkeley,' as his eye fell upon +the Venetian vase, 'you've positively got some more gew-gaws here. +This one's new, isn't it? Eh!' + +'Yes. I picked it up for a song, this long, at a stranded village +in the Apennines. Literally for a song, for it cost me just what +I got from Fradelli for that last little piece of mine. It's very +pretty, isn't it?' + +'Very; exquisite, really; the blending of the tones is so perfect. +I wish I knew what to think about these things. I can't make up +my mind about them. Sometimes I think it's all right to make them +and buy them; sometimes I think it's all wrong.' + +'Oh, if that's your difficulty,' said Berkeley, pulling his white +tie straight at the tiny round looking-glass, 'I can easily reassure +you. Do you think a hundred and eighty pounds a year an excessive +sum for one person to spend upon his own entire living?' + +'It doesn't seem so, as expenses go amongst US,' said Ernest, seriously, +'though I dare say it would look like shocking extravagance to a +working man with a wife and family.' + +'Very well, that's the very outside I ever spend upon myself in +any one year, for the excellent reason that it's all I ever get to +spend in any way. Now, why shouldn't I spend it on the things that +please me best and are joys for ever, instead of on the things that +disappear at once and perish in the using?' + +'Ah, but that's not the whole question,' Ernest answered, looking +at the curate fixedly. 'What right have you and I to spend so much +when others are wanting for bread? And what right have you or I +to make other people work at producing these useless trinkets for +our sole selfish gratification?' + +'Well now, Le Breton,' said the parson, assuming a more serious tone, +'you know you're a reasonable creature, so I don't mind discussing +this question with you. You've got an ethical foundation to +your nature, and you want to see things done on decent grounds of +distributive justice. There I am one with you. But you've also got +an aesthetic side to your nature, which makes you worth arguing +with upon the matter. I won't argue with your vulgar materialised +socialist, who would break up the frieze of the Parthenon for road +metal, or pull down Giotto's frescoes because they represent scenes +in the fabulous lives of saints and martyrs. You know what a work +of art is when you see it; and therefore you're worth arguing +with, which your vulgar Continental socialist really isn't. The +one cogent argument for him is the whiff of grape-shot.' + +'I recognise,' said Ernest, 'that the works of art, of poetry, or +of music, which we possess are a grand inheritance from the past; +and I would do all I could to preserve them intact for those that +come after us.' + +'I'm sure you would. No restoration or tinkering in you, I'm +certain. Well, then, would you give anything for a world which +hadn't got this aesthetic side to its corporate existence? Would +you give anything for a world which didn't care at all for painting, +sculpture, music, poetry? I wouldn't. I don't want such a world. +I won't countenance such a world. I'll do nothing to further or +advance such a world. It's utterly repugnant to me, and I banish +it, as Themistocles banished the Athenians.' + +'But consider,' said Ernest, 'we live in a world where men and women +are actually starving. How can we reconcile to our consciences the +spending of one penny on one useless thing when others are dying +of sheer want, and cold, and nakedness? That's the great question +that's always oppressing my poor dissatisfied conscience.' + +'So it does everybody's--except Herbert's: he explains it all on +biological grounds as the beautiful discriminative action of natural +selection. Simple, but not consolatory. Still, look at the other +side of the question. Suppose you and everybody else were to give +up all superfluities, and confine all your energies to the unlimited +production of bare necessaries. Suppose you occupy every acre +of land with your corn-fields, or your piggeries; and sweep away +all the parks, and woods, and heaths, and moorlands in England. +Suppose you keep on letting your population multiply as fast as it +chooses--and it WILL multiply, you know, in that ugly, reckless, +anti-Malthusian fashion of its own--till every rood of ground +maintains its man, and only just maintains him; and what will you +have got then?' + +'A dead level of abject pauperism,' put in Herbert blandly; 'a +reductio ad absurdum of all your visionary Schurzian philosophy, +my dear Ernest. Look at it another way, now, and just consider. +Which really and truly matters most to you and me, a great work +of art or a highly respectable horny-handed son of toil, whose +acquaintance we have never had the pleasure of personally making? +Suppose you read in the Times that the respectable horny-handed +one has fallen off a scaffolding and broken his neck; and that the +Dresden Madonna has been burnt by an unexpected accident; which +of the two items of intelligence affects you the most acutely? My +dear fellow, you may push your humanitarian enthusiasm as far as +ever you like; but in your heart of hearts you know as well as I +do that you'll deeply regret the loss of the Madonna, and you'll +never think again about the fate of the respectable horny-handed, +his wife or children.' + +Ernest's answer, if he had any to make, was effectually nipped in +the bud by the entrance of the scout, who came in to announce Mr. +and Miss Oswald and Mrs. Martindale. Edie wore the grey dress, +her brother's present, and flitted into the room after her joyous +fashion, full of her first fresh delight at the cloistered quad of +Magdalen. + +'What a delicious college, Mr. Berkeley!' she said, holding out +her hand to him brightly. 'Good-morning, Mr. Le Breton; this is +your brother, I know by the likeness. I thought New College very +beautiful, but nothing I've seen is quite as beautiful as Magdalen. +What a privilege to live always in such a place! And what an +exquisite view from your window here!' + +'Yes,' said Berkeley, moving a few music-books from the seat in the +window-sill; 'come and sit by it, Miss Oswald. Mrs. Martindale, +won't you put your shawl down? How's the Professor to-day? So sorry +he couldn't come.' + +'Ah, he had to go to sit on one of his Boards,' said the old lady, +seating herself. 'But you know I'm quite accustomed to going out +without him.' + +Arthur Berkeley knew as much; indeed, being a person of minute +strategical intellect, he had purposely looked out a day on which +the Professor had to attend a meeting of the delegates of something +or other, so as to secure Mrs. Martindale's services without the +supplementary drawback of that prodigious bore. Not that he was +particularly anxious for Mrs. Martindale's own society, which was +of the most strictly negative character; but he didn't wish Edie +to be the one lady in a party of four men, and he invited the +Professor's wife as an excellent neutral figure-head, to keep her +in countenance. Ladies were scarcer then in Oxford than they are +nowadays. The married fellow was still a tentative problematical +experiment in those years, and the invasion of the Parks by young +couples had hardly yet begun in earnest. So female society was +still at a considerable local premium, and Berkeley was glad enough +to secure even colourless old Mrs. Martindale to square his party +at any price. + +'And how do you like Oxford, Miss Oswald?' asked Ernest, making +his way towards the window. + +'My dear Le Breton, what a question to put to her!' said Berkeley, +smiling. 'As if Oxford were a place to be appraised offhand, on +three days' acquaintance. You remind me of the American who went +to look at Niagara, and made an approving note in his memorandum +book to say that he found it really a very elegant cataract.' + +'Oh, but you MUST form some opinion of it at least, at first sight,' +cried Edie; 'you can't help having an impression of a place from +the first moment, even if you haven't a judgment on it, can you +now? I think it really surpasses my expectations, Mr. Le Breton, +which is always a pleasant surprise. Venice fell below them; Florence +just came up to them; but Oxford, I think, really surpasses them.' + +'We have three beautiful towns in Britain,' Berkeley said. ('As if +he were a Welsh Triad,' suggested Herbert Le Breton, parenthetically.) +'Torquay, Oxford, Edinburgh. Torquay is all nature, spoilt by what +I won't call art; Oxford is all art, superimposed on a swamp that +I won't call nature; Edinburgh is both nature and art, working pretty +harmoniously together, to make up a unique and exquisite picture.' + +'Just like Naples, Venice, and Heidelberg,' said Edie, half to +herself; but Berkeley caught at the words quickly as she said them. +'Yes,' he answered; 'a very good parallel, only Oxford has a trifle +more nature about it than Venice. The lagoon, without the palaces, +would be simply hideous; the Oseney flats, without the colleges, +would be nothing worse than merely dull.' + +'We owe a great deal,' said Ernest, gazing out towards the quadrangle, +'to the forgotten mass of labouring humanity who piled all those +blocks of shapeless stone into beautiful forms for us who come after +to admire and worship. I often wonder, when I sit here in Berkeley's +window-seat, and look across the quad to the carved pinnacles on +the Founder's Tower there, whether any of us can ever hope to leave +behind to our successors any legacy at all comparable to the one +left us by those nameless old mediaeval masons. It's a very saddening +thought that we for whom all these beautiful things have been put +together--we whom labouring humanity has pampered and petted from +our cradles upward, feeding us on its whitest bread, and toiling +for us with all its weary sinews--that we probably will never do +anything at all for it and for the world in return, but will simply +eat our way through life aimlessly, and die forgotten in the end like +the beasts that perish. It ought to make us, as a class, terribly +ashamed of our own utter and abject inutility.' + +Edie looked at him with a sort of hushed surprise; she was accustomed +to hear Harry talk radical talk enough after his own fashion, but +radicalism of this particular pensive tinge she was not accustomed +to. It interested her, and made her wonder what sort of man Mr. Le +Breton might really be. + +'Well, you know, Mr. Le Breton,' said old Mrs. Martindale, +complacently, 'we must remember that Providence has wisely ordained +that we shouldn't all of us be masons or carpenters. Some of us are +clergymen, now, and look what a useful, valuable life a clergyman's +is, after all, isn't it, Mr. Berkeley?' Berkeley smiled a faint +smile of amusement, but said nothing. 'Others are squires and +landed gentry; and I'm sure the landed gentry are very desirable +in keeping up the tone of the country districts, and setting a +pattern of virtue and refinement to their poorer neighbours. What +would the country villages be, for example, if it weren't for the +centres of culture afforded by the rectory and the hall, eh, Miss +Oswald.' Edith thought of quavering old Miss Catherine Luttrell +gossiping with the rector's wife, and held her peace. 'You may depend +upon it Providence has ordained these distinctions of classes for +its own wise purposes, and we needn't trouble our heads at all +about trying to alter them.' + +'I've always observed,' said Harry Oswald, 'that Providence is +supposed to have ordained the existing order for the time being, +whatever it may be, but not the order that is at that exact moment +endeavouring to supplant it. If I were to visit Central Africa, +I should confidently expect to be told by the rain-doctors that +Providence had ordained the absolute power of the chief, and the +custom of massacring his wives and slaves at his open grave side. +I believe in Russia it's usually allowed that Providence has placed +the orthodox Czar at the head of the nation, and that any attempt +to obtain a constitution from him is simply flat rebellion and +flying in the face of Providence. In England we had a King John +once, and we extracted a constitution out of him and sundry other +kings by main force; and here, it's acquiescence in the present +limited aristocratic government that makes up obedience to +the Providential arrangement of things apparently. But how about +America? eh, Mrs. Martindale? Did Providence ordain that George +Washington was to rebel against his most sacred majesty King George +III., or did it not? And did it ordain that George Washington was +to knock his most sacred majesty's troops into a cocked hat, or +did it not? And did it ordain that Abraham Lincoln was to free the +slaves, or did it not? What I want to know is this: can it be said +that Providence has ordained every class distinction in the whole +world, from Dahomey to San Francisco? And has it ordained every +Government, past and present, from the Chinese Empire to the French +Convention? Did it ordain, for example, the revolution of '89? +That's the question I should like to have answered.' + +'Dear me, Mr. Oswald,' said the old lady meekly, taken aback by +Harry's voluble vehemence: 'I suppose Providence permits some things +and ordains others.' + +'And does it permit American democracy or ordain it?' asked the +merciless Harry. + +'Don't you see, Mrs. Martindale,' put in Berkeley, coming gently +to her rescue, 'your principle amounts in effect to saying that +whatever is, is right.' + +'Exactly,' said the old lady, forgetting at once all about Dahomey +or the Convention, and coming back mentally to her squires and +rectors. 'The existing order is wisely arranged by Providence, and +we mustn't try to set ourselves up against it.' + +'But if whatever is, is right,' Edie said, laughing, 'then Mr. Le +Breton's socialism must be right too, you see, because it exists +in him no doubt for some wise purpose of Providence; and if he and +those who think with him can succeed in changing things generally +according to their own pattern, then the new system that they +introduce will be the one that Providence has shown by the result +to be the favoured one.' + +'In short,' said Ernest, musingly, 'Mrs. Martindale's principle +sanctifies success. It's the old theory of "treason never +prospers--what's the reason? Because whene'er it prospers 'tis not +treason." If we could only introduce a socialist republic, then it +would be the reactionaries who would be setting themselves up against +constituted authority, and so flying in the face of Providence.' + +'Fancy lecturing a recalcitrant archbishop and a remonstrant +ci-devant duchess,' cried Berkeley, lightly, 'upon the moral guilt +and religious sinfulness of rebellion against the constituted +authority of a communist phalanstery. It would be simply charming. +I can imagine myself composing a dignified exhortation to deliver +to his grace, entirely compiled out of his own printed pastorals, on +the duty of submission and the danger of harbouring an insubordinate +spirit. Do make me chaplain-in-ordinary to your house of correction +for irreclaimable aristocrats, Le Breton, as soon as you once get +your coming socialist republic fairly under way.' + +'Luncheon is on the table, sir,' said the scout, breaking in +unceremoniously upon their discussion. + +If Arthur Berkeley lunched by himself upon a solitary commons of +cold beef, he certainly did not treat his friends and guests in +corresponding fashion. His little entertainment was of the daintiest +and airiest character, so airy that, as Edie herself observed +afterwards to Harry, it took away all the sense of meat and drink +altogether, and left one only a pleased consciousness of full +artistic gratification. Even Ernest, though he had his scruples +about the aspic jelly, might eat the famous Magdalen chicken cutlets, +his brother said, 'with a distinct feeling of exalted gratitude to +the arduous culinary evolution of collective humanity.' + +'Consider,' said Herbert, balancing neatly a little pyramid of +whip cream and apricot jam upon his fork, 'consider what ages of +slow endeavour must have gone to the development of such a complex +mixture as this, Ernest, and thank your stars that you were born +in this nineteenth century of Soyer and Francatelli, instead of +being condemned to devour a Homeric feast with the unsophisticated +aid of your own five fingers.' + +'But do tell me, Mr. Le Breton,' asked Edie, with one of her pretty +smiles, 'what will this socialist republic of yours be like when +it actually comes about? I'm dying to know all about it.' + +'Really, Miss Oswald,' Ernest answered, in a half-embarrassed tone, +'I don't quite know how to reply to such a very wide and indefinite +question. I haven't got any cut-and-dried constitutional scheme of +my own for reorganising the whole system of society, any distinct +panacea to cure all the ills that collective flesh is heir to. I +leave the details of the future order to your brother Harry. The +thing that troubles me is not so much how to reform the world at +large as how to shape one's own individual course aright in the +actual midst of it. As a single unit of the whole, I want rather +guidance for my private conduct than a scheme for redressing the +universal dislocation of things in general. It seems to me, every +man's first duty is to see that he himself is in the right attitude +towards society, and afterwards he may proceed to enquire whether +society is in the right attitude towards him and all its other +members. But if we were all to begin by redressing ourselves, +there would be nothing left to redress, I imagine, when we turned +to attack the second half of our problem. The great difficulty I +myself experience is this, that _I_ can't discover any adequate +social justification for my own personal existence. But I really +oughtn't to bore other people with my private embarrassments upon +that head.' + +'You see,' said Herbert Le Breton, carelessly, 'my brother represents +the ethical element in the socialist movement, Miss Oswald, while +Harry represents the political element. Each is valuable in its +way; but Oswald's is the more practical. You can move great masses +into demanding their rights; you can't so easily move them into +cordially recognising their duties. Hammer, hammer, hammer at the +most obvious abuses; that's the way all the political victories +are finally won. If I were a radical at all, I should go with you, +Oswald. But happily I'm not one; I prefer the calm philosophic +attitude of perfectly objective neutrality.' + +'And if I were a radical,' said Berkeley, with a tinge of sadness +in his voice as he poured himself out a glass of hock, 'I should +go with Le Breton. But unfortunately I'm not one, Miss Oswald, I'm +only a parson.' + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A LITTLE MUSIC. + + +After lunch, Herbert Le Breton went off for his afternoon ride--a +grave social misdemeanour, Ernest thought it--and Arthur Berkeley +took Edie round to show her about the college and the shady gardens. +Ernest would have liked to walk with her himself, for there was +something in her that began to interest him somewhat; and besides, +she was so pretty, and so graceful, and so sympathetic: but he +felt he must not take her away from her host for the time being, +who had a sort of proprietary right in the pleasing duty of acting +as showman to her over his own college. So he dropped behind with +Harry Oswald and old Mrs. Martindale, and endeavoured to simulate +a polite interest in the old lady's scraps of conversation upon +the heads of houses, their wives and families. + +'This is Addison's Walk, Miss Oswald,' said Berkeley, taking her +through the gate into the wooded path beside the Cherwell; 'so +called because the ingenious Mr. Addison is said to have specially +patronised it. As he was an undergraduate of this college, and a +singularly lazy person, it's very probable that he really did so; +every other undergraduate certainly does, for it's the nearest walk +an idle man can get without ever taking the trouble to go outside +the grounds of Magdalen.' + +'The ingenious Mr. Addison was quite right then,' Edie answered, +smiling; 'for he couldn't have chosen a lovelier place on earth to +stroll in. How exquisite it looks just now, with the mellow light +falling down upon the path through this beautiful autumnal foliage! +It's just a natural cathedral aisle, with a lot of pale straw-coloured +glass in the painted windows, like that splendid one we went to +see the other day at Merton Chapel.' + +'Yes, there are certainly tones in that window I never saw in any +other,' Berkeley said, 'and the walk to-day is very much the same +in its delicate colouring. You're fond of colour, I should think, +Miss Oswald, from what you say.' + +'Oh, nobody could help being struck by the autumn colouring of the +Thames valley, I should fancy,' said Edie, blushing. 'We noticed +it all the way up as we came in the train from Reading, a perfect +glow of crimson and orange at Pangbourne, Goring, Mapledurham, and +Nuneham. I always thought the Dart in October the loveliest blaze +of warm reds and yellows I had ever seen anywhere in nature, but +the Thames valley beats it hollow, as Harry says. This walk to-day +is just one's ideal picture of Milton's Vallombrosa.' + +'Ah, yes, I always look forward to the first days of October term,' +said Berkeley, slowly, 'as one of the greatest and purest treats +in the whole round workaday twelvemonth. When the creeper on the +Founder's Tower first begins to redden and crimson in the autumn, +I could sit all day long by my open window, and just look at that +glorious sight alone instead of having my dinner. But I'm very fond +of these walks in full summer time too. I often stop up alone all +through the long (being tied to my curacy here permanently, you +know), and then I have the run of the place entirely to myself. +Sometimes I take my flute out, and sit under the shade here and +compose some of my little pieces.' + +'I can easily understand that they were composed here,' said Edie +quickly. 'They've caught exactly the flavour of the place--especially +your exquisite little Penseroso.' + +'Ah, you know my music, then, Miss Oswald?' + +'Oh yes, Harry always brings me home all your pieces whenever he +comes back at the end of term. I can play every one of them without +the notes. But the Penseroso is my special favourite.' + +'It's mine, too. I'm so glad you like it. But I'm working away at +a little thing now which you shall hear as soon as I've finished +it; something lighter and daintier than anything else I've ever +attempted. I shall call it the Butterfly Canzonet.' + +'Why don't you publish your music under your own name, Mr. Berkeley?' + +'Oh, because it would never do. I'm a parson now, and I must +keep up the dignity of the cloth by fighting shy of any aesthetic +heterodoxies. It would be professional suicide for me to be suspected +of artistic leanings. All very well in an archdeacon, you know, +to cultivate his tastes for chants and anthems, but for a simple +curate!--and secular songs too!--why, it would be sheer contumacy. +His chances of a living would shrink at once to what your brother +would call a vanishing quantity.' + +'Well, you can't imagine how much I admire your songs and airs, +Mr. Berkeley. I was so pleased when you invited us, to think I was +going to lunch with a real composer. There's no music I love so +much as yours.' + +'I'm very glad to hear it, Miss Oswald, I assure you. But I'm only +a beginner and a trifler yet. Some day I mean to produce something +that will be worth listening to. Only, do you remember what some +French novelist once said?--"A poet's sweetest poem is always +the one he has never been able to compose." I often think that's +true of music, too. Away up in the higher stories of one's brain +somewhere, there's a tune floating about, or rather a whole oratorio +full of them, that one can never catch and fix upon ruled paper. +The idea's there, such a beautiful and vague idea, so familiar to +one, but so utterly unrealisable on any known instrument--a sort +of musical Ariel, flitting before one and tantalising one for +ever, but never allowing one to come up with it and see its real +features. I'm always dissatisfied with what I've actually written, +and longing to crystallise into a score the imaginary airs I can +never catch. Except in this last piece of mine; that's the only +thing I've ever done that thoroughly and completely pleases me. +Come and see me next week, and I'll play it over to you.' + +They walked all round the meadows, and back again beside the arches +of the beautiful bridge, and then returned to Berkeley's rooms once +more for a cup of afternoon tea, and an air or two of Berkeley's +own composing. Edie enjoyed the walk and the talk immensely; she +enjoyed the music even more. In a way, it was all so new to her. +For though she had always seen much of Harry, and though Harry, who +was the kindest and proudest of brothers, had always instinctively +kept her up to his own level of thought and conversation, still, +she wasn't used to seeing so many intelligent and educated young +men together, and the novelty of their society was delightfully +exhilarating to her eager little mind. To a bright girl of nineteen, +wherever she may come from, the atmosphere of Oxford has a wonderfully +cheering and stimulating effect; to a country tradesman's daughter +from a tiny west-country village it is like a little paradise on +earth with a ceaseless round of intensely enjoyable breakfasts, +luncheons, dinners, and water-parties. + +Ernest, for his part, was not so well pleased. He wanted to have a +little conversation with Oswald's sister; and he was compelled by +politeness to give her up in favour of Arthur Berkeley. However, he +made up for it when he returned, and monopolised the pretty little +visitor himself for almost the entire tea-hour. + +As soon as they had gone, Arthur Berkeley sported his oak, and sat +down by himself in his comfortable crimson-covered basket chair. +'I won't let anybody come and disturb me this evening,' he said to +himself moodily. 'I won't let any of these noisy Magdalen men come +with their racket and riot to cut off the memory of that bright little +dream. No desecration after she has gone. Little Miss Butterfly! +What a pretty, airy, dainty, delicate little morsel it is! How she +flits, and sips, and natters about every possible subject, just +touching the tip of it so gracefully with her tiny white fingers, +and blushing so unfeignedly when she thinks she's paid you a +compliment, or you've paid her one. How she blushed when she said +she liked my music! How she blushed when I said she had a splendid +ear for minute discrimination! Somehow, if I were a falling-in-love +sort of fellow, I half fancy I could manage to fall in love with her +on the spot. Or rather, if I were a good analytical psychologist, +perhaps I ought more correctly to say I AM in love with her already.' + +He sat down idly at the piano and played a few bars softly +to himself--a beautiful, airy sort of melody, as it shaped itself +vaguely in his head at the moment, with a little of the new wine of +first love running like a trill through the midst of its fast-flowing +quavers and dainty undulations. 'That will do,' he said to himself +approvingly. 'That will do very well; that's little Miss Butterfly. +Here she flits, flits, flits, flickers, sip, sip, sip, at her +honeyed flowers; twirl away, whirl away, off in the sunshine--there +you go, Miss Butterfly, eddying and circling with your painted +mate. Flirt, flirt, flirt, coquetting and curvetting, in your +pretty rhythmical aerial quadrille. Down again, down to the hare-bell +on the hill side; sip at it, sip at it, sip at it, sweet little +honey-drops, clear little honey-drops, bright little honey-drops; +oh, for a song to be set to the melody! Tra-la-la, tro-lo-lo, up +again, Butterfly. Little silk handkerchief, little lace neckerchief, +fluttering, fluttering! Feathery wings of her, bright little eyes +of her, flit, flit, flicker! Now, she blushes, blushes, blushes; +deep crimson; oh, what a colour! Paint it, painter! Now she speaks. +Oh, what laughter! Silvery, silvery, treble, treble, treble; trill +away, trill away, silvery treble. Musical, beautiful; beautiful, +musical; little Miss Butterfly--fly--fly--fly away!' And he brought +his fingers down upon the gamut at last, with a hasty, flickering +touch that seemed really as delicate as Edie's own. + +'I can never get words for it in English,' he said again, half +speaking with his parted lips; 'it's too dactylic in rhythm for +English verse to go to it. Beranger might have written a lilt for +it, as far as mere syllables go, but Beranger to write about Miss +Butterfly!--pho, no Frenchman could possibly catch it. Swinburne +could fit the metres, I dare say, but he couldn't fit the feeling. +It shall be a song without words, unless I write some Italian lines +for it myself. Animula, blandula vagula--that's the sort of ring +for it, but Latin's mostly too heavy. Io, Hymen, Hymenae, Io; Io, +Hymen, Hymenae! What's that? A wedding song of Catullus--absit omen. +I must be in love with her indeed.' He got up from the piano, and +paced quickly and feverishly up and down the room. + +'And yet,' he went on, 'if only I weren't bound down so by this +unprofitable trade of parson! A curate on eighty pounds a year, +and a few pupils! The presumptuousness of the man in venturing to +think of falling in love, as if he were actually one of the beneficed +clergy! What are deacons coming to, I wonder! And yet, hath not a +deacon eyes; hath not a deacon hands, organs, dimensions, senses, +affections, passions? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle +us, do we not laugh? And if you show us a little Miss Butterfly, +beautiful to the finger-ends, do we not fall in love with her at +least as unaffectedly as if we were canons residentiary or rural +deans? Fancy little Miss Butterfly a rural deaness! the notion's +too ridiculous. Fly away, little Miss Butterfly; fly away, sweet +little frolicsome, laughsome creature. I won't try to tie you down +to a man in a black clerical coat with a very distant hypothetical +reversionary prospect of a dull and dingy country parsonage. Flit +elsewhere, little Miss Butterfly, flit elsewhere, and find yourself +a gayer, gaudier-coloured mate!' + +He sat down again, and strummed a few more bars of his half-composed, +half-extemporised melody. Then he leant back on the music-stool, +and said gently to himself once more: 'Still, if it were possible, +how happy I should try to make her! Bright little Miss Butterfly, +I would try never to let a cold cloud pass chillily over your +sunshiny head! I would live for you, and work for you, and write +songs for your sake, all full of you, you, you, and so all full of +life and grace and thrilling music. What's my life good for, to me +or to the world? "A clergyman's life is such a useful one," that +amiable old conventionality gurgled out this morning; what's the +good of mine, as it stands now, to its owner or to anybody else, +I should like to know, except the dear old Progenitor? A mere bit +of cracked blue china, a fanciful air from a comic opera, masquerading +in black and white as a piece of sacred music! What good am I to +anyone on earth but the Progenitor (God bless him!), and when he's +gone, dear old fellow, what on earth shall I have left to live +for. A selfish blank, that's all. But with HER, ah, how different! +With her to live for and to cherish, with an object to set before +oneself as worth one's consideration, what mightn't I do at last? +Make her happy--after all, that's the great thing. Make her fond +of my music, that music that floats and evades me now, but would +harden into scores as if by magic with her to help one to spell it +out--I know it would, at last, I know it would. Ah, well, perhaps +some day I may be able; perhaps some day the dream will realise +itself; till then, work, work, work; let me try to work towards +making it possible, a living or a livelihood, no matter which. But +not a breath of it to you meanwhile, Miss Butterfly; flit about +freely and joyously while you may; I would not spoil your untrammelled +flight for worlds by trying to tether it too soon around the fixed +centre of my own poor doubtful diaconal destinies.' + +At the same moment while Arthur Berkeley was thus garrulously conversing +with his heated fancy, Harry and Edie Oswald were strolling lazily +down the High, to Edie's lodgings. + +'Well, what do you think now of Berkeley and Le Breton, Edie?' +asked her brother. 'Which of them do you like the best?' + +'I like them both immensely, Harry; I really can't choose between +them. When Mr. Berkeley plays, he almost makes me fall in love with +him; and when Mr. Le Breton talks, he almost makes me transfer my +affections to him instead... But Mr. Berkeley plays divinely... And +Mr. Le Breton talks beautifully... You know, I've never seen such +clever men before--except you, of course, Harry dear, for you're +cleverer and nicer than anybody. Oh, do let me look at those lovely +silks over there?' And she danced across the road before he could +answer her, like a tripping sylph in a painter's dreamland. + +'Mr. Le Breton's very nice,' she went on, after she had duly examined +and classified the silks, 'but I don't exactly understand what it +is he's got on his conscience.' + +'Nothing whatsoever, except the fact of his own existence,' Harry +answered with a laugh. 'He has conscientious scruples against the +existence of idle people in the community--do-nothings and eat-alls--and +therefore he has conscientious scruples against himself for not +immediately committing suicide. I believe, if he did exactly what +he thought was abstractly right, he'd go away and cut his own throat +incontinently for an unprofitable, unproductive, useless citizen.' + +'Oh, dear, I hope he'll do nothing of the sort,' cried Edie hastily. +'I think I shall really ask him not to for my sake, if not for +anybody else's.' + +'He'd be very much flattered indeed by your interposition on his +behalf, no doubt, Popsy; but I'm afraid it wouldn't produce much +effect upon his ultimate decision.' + +'Tell me, Harry, is Mr. Berkeley High Church?' + +'Oh dear no, I shouldn't say so. I don't suppose he ever gave the +subject a single moment's consideration.' + +'But St. Fredegond's is very High Church, I'm told.' + +'Ah, yes; but Berkeley's curate of St. Fredegond's, not in virtue +of his theology--I never heard he'd got any to speak of--but in +virtue of his musical talents. He went into the Church, I suppose, +on purely aesthetic grounds. He liked a musical service, and it +seemed natural to him to take part in one, just as it seemed natural +to a mediaeval Italian with artistic tendencies to paint Madonnas +and St. Sebastians. There's nothing more in his clerical coat than +that, I fancy, Edie. He probably never thought twice about it on +theological grounds.' + +'Oh, but that's very wrong of him, Harry. I don't mean having +no particular theological beliefs, of course; one expects that +nowadays; but going into the Church without them.' + +'Well, you see, Edie, you mustn't judge Berkeley in quite the same +way as you'd judge other people. In his mind, the aesthetic side +is always uppermost; the logical side is comparatively in abeyance. +Questions of creed, questions of philosophical belief, questions +of science don't interest him at all; he looks at all of them from +the point of view of the impression alone. What he sees in the +Church is not a body of dogmas, like the High Churchmen, nor a set +of opinions, like the Low Churchmen, but a close corporation of +educated and cultivated gentlemen, charged with the duty of caring +for a number of beautiful mediaeval architectural monuments, +and of carrying on a set of grand and impressive musical or oral +services. To him, a cathedral is a magnificent historical heritage; +a sermon is a sort of ingenious literary exercise; and a hymn is +a capital vehicle for very solemn emotional music. That's all; and +we can hardly blame him for not seeing these things as we should +see them.' + +'Well, Harry, I don't know. I like them both immensely. Mr. +Berkeley's very nice, but perhaps I like Mr. Le Breton the best +of the two.' + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ASKELON VILLA, GATH. + + +Number, 28, Epsilon Terrace, Bayswater, was one of the very smallest +houses that a person with any pretensions to move in that Society +which habitually spells itself with a capital initial could ever +possibly have dreamt of condescending to inhabit. Indeed, if +Dame Eleanor, relict of the late Sir Owen Le Breton, Knight, had +consulted merely the length of her purse and the interests of her +personal comfort, she would doubtless have found for the same rental +a far more convenient and roomy cottage in Upper Clapton or Stoke +Newington. But Lady Le Breton was a thoroughly and conscientiously +religious woman, who in all things consulted first and foremost +the esoteric interests of her ingrained creed. It was a prime +article of this cherished social faith that nobody with any shadow +of personal self-respect could endure to live under any other +postal letter than W. or S.W. Better not to be at all than to drag +out a miserable existence in the painful obscurity of N. or S.E. +Happily for people situated like Lady Le Breton, the metropolitan +house-contractor (it would be gross flattery to describe him +as a builder) has divined, with his usual practical sagacity, the +necessity for supplying this felt want for eligible family residences +at once comparatively cheap and relatively fashionable. By driving +little culs-de-sac and re-entrant alleys at the back of his larger +rows of shoddy mansions, he is enabled to run up a smaller terrace, +or crescent, or place, as the case may be, composed of tiny shallow +cottages with the narrowest possible frontage, and the tallest +possible elevation, which will yet entitle their occupiers to feel +themselves within the sacred pale of social salvation, in the blest +security of the mystic W. Narrowest, shallowest, and tallest of +these marginal Society residences is the little block of blank-faced, +stucco-fronted, porticoed rabbit-hutches, which blazons itself +forth in the Court Guide under the imposing designation of Epsilon +Terrace, Bayswater. + +The interior of No. 28 in this eminently respectable back alley was +quite of a piece, it must be confessed, with the vacant Philistinism +of its naked exterior. 'Mother has really an immense amount of +taste,' Herbert Le Breton used to say, blandly, 'and all of it of +the most atrocious description; she picked it up, I believe, when +my poor father was quartered at Lahore, a station absolutely fatal +to the aesthetic faculties; and she will never get rid of it again +as long as she lives.' Indeed, when once Lady Le Breton got anything +whatsoever into her head, it was not easy for anybody else to get +it out again; you might much more readily expect to draw one of her +double teeth than to eliminate one of her pet opinions. Not that +she was a stupid or a near-sighted woman--the mother of clever +sons never is--but she was a perfectly immovable rock of social +and political orthodoxy. The three Le Breton boys--for there was +a third at home--would gladly have reformed the terrors of that +awful drawing-room if they had dared; but they knew it was as much +as their places were worth, Herbert said, to attempt a remonstrance, +and they wisely left it alone, and said nothing. + +Of course the house was not vulgarly furnished, at least in the +conventional sense of the word; Lady Le Breton was far too rigid +in her social orthodoxy to have admitted into her rooms anything +that savoured of what she considered bad form, according to her +lights. It was only vulgar with the underlying vulgarity of mere +tasteless fashionable uniformity. There was nothing in it that any +well-bred footman could object to; nothing that anybody with one +grain of genuine originality could possibly tolerate. The little +occasional chairs and tables set casually about the room were of +the strictest neglige Belgravian type, a sort of studied protest +against the formal stiffness of the ordinary unused middle-class +drawing-room. The portrait of the late Sir Owen in the wee library, +presented by his brother-officers, was painted by that distinguished +R. A., Sir Francis Thomson, a light of the middle of this century; +and an excellent work of art it was too, in its own solemn academic +kind. The dining-room, tiny as it was, possessed that inevitable +Canaletti without which no gentleman's dining-room in England +is ever considered to be complete. Everything spoke at once the +stereotyped Society style of a dozen years ago (before Mr. Morris +had reformed the outer aspect of the West End), entirely free from +anything so startling or indecorous as a gleam of spontaneity in +the possessor's mind. To be sure, it was very far indeed from the +centre round-table and brilliant-flowered-table-cover style of the +utter unregenerate Philistine household; but it was further still +from the simple natural taste acd graceful fancy of Edie Oswald's +cosy little back parlour behind the village grocer's shop at +Calcombe-Pomeroy. + +The portrait and the Canaletti were relics of Lady Le Breton's best +days, when Sir Owen was alive, and the boys were still in their +first babyhood. Sir Owen was an Indian officer of the old school, +a simple-minded, gentle, brave man, very religious after his +own fashion, and an excellent soldier, with the true Anglo-Indian +faculty for administration and organisation. It was partly from +him, no doubt, that the boys inherited their marked intelligence; +and it was wholly from him, beyond any doubt at all, that Ernest +and his younger brother Ronald inherited their moral or religious +sincerity--for that was an element in which poor formally orthodox +Lady Le Breton was wholly deficient. The good General had been +brought up in the strictest doctrines of the Clapham sect; he had +gone to India young, as a cadet from Haileybury; and he had applied +his intellect all his life long rather to the arduous task of +extending 'the blessings of British rule' to Sikhs and Ghoorkas, than +to those abstract ethical or theological questions which agitated +the souls of a later generation. If a new district had to be +assimilated in settlement to the established model of the British +raj, if a tribe of hill-savages had to be conciliated by gentler +means than rifles or bayonets, if a difficult bit of diplomatic +duty had to be performed on the debateable frontiers, Sir Owen Le +Breton was always the person chosen to undertake it. An earnest, +honest, God-fearing man he remained to the end, impressed by a +profound sense of duty as he understood it, and a firm conviction +that his true business in life consisted in serving his Queen and +country, and in bringing more and more of the native populations +within the pale of the Company's empire, and the future evangelisation +that was ultimately to follow. But during the great upheaval of +the Mutiny, he fell at the head of his own unrevolted regiment in +one of the hottest battles of that terrible time, and my Lady Le +Breton found herself left alone with three young children, on little +more than the scanty pension of a general officer's widow on the +late Company's establishment. + +Happily, enough remained to bring up the boys, with the aid +of their terminable annuities (which fell in on their attaining +their majority), in decent respect for the feelings and demands of +exacting Society; and as the two elder were decidedly clever boys, +they managed to get scholarships at Oxford, which enabled them +to tide over the dangerous intermediate period as far as their +degree. Herbert then stepped at once into a fellowship and sundry +other good things of like sort; and Ernest was even now trying to +follow in his brother's steps, in this particular. Only the youngest +boy, Ronald, still remained quite unprovided for. Ronald was a +tall, pale, gentle, weakly, enthusiastic young fellow of nineteen, +with so marked a predisposition to lung disease that it had not been +thought well to let him run the chance of over-reading himself; and +so he had to be content with remaining at home in the uncongenial +atmosphere of Epsilon Terrace, instead of joining his two elder +brothers at the university. Uncongenial, because Ronald alone +followed Sir Owen in the religious half of his nature, and found +the 'worldliness' and conventionality of his unflinching mother a +serious bar to his enjoyment of home society. + +'Ronald,' said my lady, at the breakfast-table on the very morning +of Arthur Berkeley's little luncheon party, 'here's a letter for +you from Mackenzie and Anderson. No doubt your Aunt Sarah's will +has been recovered and proved at last, and I hope it'll turn out +satisfactory, as we wish it.' + +'For my part, I really almost hope it won't, mother,' said Ronald, +turning it over; 'for I don't want to be compelled to profit by +Ernest's excessive generosity. He's too good to me, just because he +thinks me the weaker vessel; but though we must bear one another's +burdens, you know, we should each bear his own cross as well, +shouldn't we, mother?' + +'Well, it can't be much in any case,' said his mother, a little +testily, 'whoever gets it. Open the envelope at once, my boy, and +don't stand looking at it like a goose in that abstracted way.' + +'Oh, mother, she was my father's only sister, and I'm not in such +a hurry to find out how she has disposed of her mere perishing +worldly goods,' answered Ronald, gravely. 'It seems to me a terrible +thing that before poor dear good Aunt Sarah is cold in her grave +almost, we should be speculating and conjecturing as to what she +has done with her poor little trifle of earthly riches.' + +'It's always usual to read the will immediately after the funeral,' +said Lady Le Breton, firmly, to whom the ordinary usage of society +formed an absolutely unanswerable argument; 'and how you, Ronald, +who haven't even the common decency to wear a bit of crape around +your arm for her--a thing that Ernest himself, with all his +nonsensical theories, consents to do--can talk in that absurd way +about what's quite right and proper to be done, I for my part, +really can't imagine.' + +'Ah, but you know, mother, I object to wearing crape on the ground +that it isn't allowable for us to sorrow as them that have no hope: +and I'm sure I'm paying no disrespect to dear Aunt Sarah's memory +in this matter, for she was always the first herself, you remember, +to wish that I should follow the dictates of my own conscience.' + +'I remember she always upheld you in acts of opposition to your own +mother, Ronald,' Lady Le Breton said coldly, 'and I suppose you're +going to do honour to her religious precepts now by not opening +that letter when your mother tells you to do so. In MY Bible, sir, +I find a place for the Fourth Commandment.' + +Ronald looked at her gently and unreprovingly; but though a quiet +smile played involuntarily around the corners of his mouth, he +resisted the natural inclination to correct her mistake, and to +suggest blandly that she probably alluded to the fifth. He knew +he must turn his left cheek also--a Christian virtue which he had +abundant opportunities of practising in that household; and he felt +that to score off his mother for such a verbal mistake as the one +she had just made would not be in keeping with the spirit of the +commandment to which, no doubt, she meant to refer him. So without +another word he opened the envelope and glanced rapidly at the +contents of the letter it enclosed. + +'They've found the second will,' he said, after a moment, with a +rather husky voice, 'and they're taking steps to get it confirmed, +whatever that may be.' + +'Broad Scotch for getting probate, I believe,' said Lady Le Breton, +in a slight tone of irony; for to her mind any departure from the +laws or language she was herself accustomed to use, assumed at once +the guise of a rank and offensive provincialism. 'Your poor Aunt +WOULD go and marry a Scotchman, and he a Scotch business man too; +so of course we must expect to put up with all kinds of ridiculous +technicalities and Edinburgh jargon accordingly. All law's bad +enough in the way of odd words, but commend me to Scotch law for +utter and meaningless incomprehensibility. Well, and what does +the second will say, Ronald?' + +'There, mother,' cried Ronald, flinging the letter down hurriedly +with a burst of tears. 'Read it yourself, if you will, for I can't. +Poor dear Aunt Sarah, and dear, good unselfish Ernest! It makes me +cry even to think of them.' + +Lady Le Breton took the paper up from the table without a word and +read it carefully through. 'I am very glad to hear it,' she said, +'very glad indeed to hear it. "And in order to guard against any +misinterpretation of my reasons for making this disposition of my +property," your Aunt says, "I wish to put it on record that I had +previously drawn up another will, bequeathing my effects to be divided +between my two nephews Ernest and Ronald Le Breton equally; that I +communicated the contents of that will"--a horrid Scotticism--"to +my nephew Ernest; and that at his express desire I have now revoked +it, and drawn up this present testament, leaving the share intended +for him to his brother Ronald." Why, she never even mentions dear +Herbert!' + +'She knew that Herbert had provided for himself,' Ronald answered, +raising his head from his hands, 'while Ernest and I were unprovided +for. But Ernest said he could fight the world for himself, while +I couldn't; and that unearned wealth ought only to be accepted +in trust for those who were incapacitated by nature or misfortune +from earning their own bread. I don't always quite agree with +all Ernest's theories any more than you do, but we must both admit +that at least he always conscientiously acts up to them himself, +mother, mustn't we?' + +'It's a very extraordinary thing,' Lady Le Breton went on, 'that Aunt +Sarah invariably encouraged both you boys in all your absurdities +and Quixotisms. She was Quixotic herself at heart, that's the truth +of it, just like your poor dear father. I remember once, when we +were quartered at Meean Meer in the Punjaub, poor dear Sir Owen +nearly got into disgrace with the colonel--he was only a sub. in +those days--because he wanted to go trying to convert his syces, +which was a most imprudent thing to do, and directly opposed to +the Company's orders. Aunt Sarah was just the same. Herbert's the +only one of you three who has never given me one moment's anxiety, +and of course poor Herbert must be passed over in absolute silence. +However, I'm very glad she's left the money to you, Ronald, as +you need it the most, and Mackenzie and Anderson say it'll come to +about a hundred and sixty a year.' + +'One can do a great deal of good with that much money,' said Ronald +meditatively. 'I mean, after arranging with you, mother, for the +expenses of my maintenance at home, which of course I shall do, as +soon as the pension ceases, and after meeting one's own necessary +expenditure in the way of clothing and so forth. It's more than +any one Christian man ought to spend upon himself, I'm sure.' + +'It's not at all too much for a young man in your position in +society, Ronald; but there--I know you'll want to spend half of +it on indiscriminate charity. However, there'll be time enough to +talk about that when you've actually got it, thank goodness.' + +Ronald murmured a few words softly to himself, of which Lady Le +Breton only caught the last echo--'laid them down at the apostles' +feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had +need.' + +'Just like Ernest's communistic notions,' she murmured in return, +half audibly. 'I do declare, between them both, a plain woman hardly +knows whether she's standing on her head or on her heels. I live +in daily fear that one or other of them will be taken up by the +police, for being implicated in some dynamite plot or other, to blow +up the Queen or destroy the Houses of Parliament.' Ronald smiled +again, gently, but answered nothing. 'There's another letter for +you there, though, with the Exmoor coronet upon it. Why don't you +open it? I hope it's an invitation for you to go down and stop at +Dunbude for a week or two. Nothing on earth would do you so much +good as to get away for a while from your ranters and canters, and +mix occasionally in a little decent and rational society.' + +Ronald took up the second letter with a sigh. He feared as much +himself, and had doleful visions of a painful fortnight to be +spent in a big country house, where the conversation would be all +concerning the slaughter of pheasants and the torture of foxes, +which his soul loathed to listen to. 'It's from Lady Hilda,' he +said, glancing through it, 'and it ISN'T an invitation after all.' +He could hardly keep down a faint tone of gratification as he +discovered this reprieve. 'Here's what she says:-- + +'"DEAR MR. LE BRETON,--Mamma wishes me to write and tell you that +Lynmouth's tutor, Mr. Walsh, is going to leave us at Christmas, +and she thinks it just possible that one of your two brothers at +Oxford might like to come down to Dunbude and give us their kind +aid in taking charge of Lynmouth. He's a dreadful pickle, as you +know; but we are very anxious to get somebody to look after him in +whom mamma can have perfect confidence. We don't know your brothers' +addresses or we would have written to them direct about it. Perhaps +you will kindly let them hear this suggestion; and if they think +the matter worth while, we might afterwards arrange details as to +business and so forth. With kind regards to Lady Le Breton, believe +me, + +'"Yours very sincerely, + +'"HILDA TREGELLIS."' + +'My dear Ronald,' said Lady Le Breton, much more warmly than before, +'this is really quite providential. Are they at Dunbude now?' + +'No, mother. She writes from Wilton Place. They're up in town for +Lord Exmoor's gout, I know. I heard they were on Sunday.' + +'Then I shall go and see Lady Exmoor this very morning about it. +It's exactly the right place for Ernest. A little good society +will get rid of all his nonsensical notions in a month or two. He's +lived too exclusively among his radical set at Oxford. And then +it'll be such a capital thing for him to be in the house continually +with Hilda; she's a girl of such excellent tone. I fancy--I'm not +quite sure, but I fancy--that Ernest has a decided taste for the +company of people, and even of young girls, who are not in Society. +He's so fond of that young man Oswald, who Herbert tells me is +positively the son of a grocer--yes, I'm sure he said a grocer!--and +it seems, from what Herbert writes me, that this Oswald has brought +a sister of his up this term from behind the counter, on purpose +to set her cap at Ernest. Now you boys have, unfortunately, no +sisters, and therefore you haven't seen as much of girls of a good +stamp--not daily and domestically I mean--as is desirable for you, +from the point of view of Society. But if Ernest can only be induced +to take this tutorship at the Exmoors', he'll have an opportunity +of meeting daily with a really nice girl, like Hilda; and though +of course it isn't likely that Hilda would take a fancy to her +brother's tutor--the Exmoors are such VERY conservative people +in matters of rank and wealth and family and so forth--quite +un-Christianly so, I consider--yet it can't fail to improve Ernest's +tone a great deal, and raise his standard of female society generally. +It's really a very distressing thought to me, Ronald, that all my +boys, except dear Herbert, should show such a marked preference for +low and vulgar companionship. It seems to me, you both positively +prefer as far as possible the society of your natural inferiors. +There's Ernest must go and take up with the friendship of that +snuffy old German Socialist glass-cutter; while you are always +running after your Plymouth Brethren and your Bible Christians, +and your other ignorant fanatical people, instead of going with +me respectably to St. Alphege's to hear the dear Archdeacon! It's +very discouraging to a mother, really, very discouraging.' + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +DOWN THE RIVER. + + +'Berkeley couldn't come to-day, Le Breton: it's Thursday, of +course: I forgot about it altogether,' Oswald said, on the barge +at Salter's. 'You know he pays a mysterious flying visit to town +every Thursday afternoon--to see an imprisoned lady-love, I always +tell him.' + +'It's very late in the season for taking ladies on the water, Miss +Oswald,' said Ernest, putting his oar into the rowlock, and secretly +congratulating himself on the deliverance; 'but better go now than +not see Iffley church and Nuneham woods at all. You ought to have +come up in summer term, and let us have the pleasure of showing you +over the place when it was in its full leafy glory. May's decidedly +the time to see Oxford to the greatest advantage.' + +'So Harry tells me, and he wanted me to come up then, but it wasn't +convenient for them at home to spare me just at that moment, so I +was obliged to put it off till late in the autumn. I have to help +my mother a good deal in the house, you know, and I can't always +go dancing about the world whenever I should like to. Which string +must I pull, Harry, to make her turn into the middle of the river? +She always seems to twist round the exact way I don't want her to.' + +'Right, right, hard right,' cried Harry irom the bow--they were in +a tub pair bound down the river for Iffley. 'Keep to the Oxfordshire +shore as far as the willows; then cross over to the Berkshire. Le +Breton'll tell you when and where to change sides; he knows the +river as well as I do.' + +'That'll do splendidly for the present,' Ernest said, looking +ahead over his shoulder. 'Mind the flags there; don't go too near +the corner. You certainly ought to see these meadows in early +spring, when the fritillaries are all out over the spongy places, +Miss Oswald. Has your brother ever sent you any of the fritillaries?' + +'What? snake-heads? Oh, boxes full of them. They're lovely flowers, +but not lovelier than our own Devonshire daffodils. You should see +a Devonshire water-meadow in April! Why don't you come down some +time to Calcombe Pomeroy? It's the dearest little peaceful seaside +corner in all England.' + +Harry bit his lip, for he was not over-fond of bringing people down +to spy out his domestic sanctities; but Ernest answered cordially, +'I should like it above everything in the world, Miss Oswald. If +you will let me, I certainly shall as soon as possible. Mind, quick, +get out of the way of that practising eight, or we shall foul her! +Left, as hard as you can! That'll do. The cox was getting as red +as a salamander, till he saw it was a lady steering. When coxes +catch a man fouling them, their language is apt to be highly +unparliamentary.--Yes, I shall try to get away to Calcombe as soon +as ever I can manage to leave Oxford. It wouldn't surprise me if +I were to run down and spend Christmas there.' + +'You'd find it as dull as ditch-water at Christmas, Le Breton,' +said Harry. 'Much better wait till next summer.' + +'I'm sure I don't think so, Harry dear,' Edie interrupted, with that +tell-tale blush of hers. 'If Mr. Le Breton wants to come then, I +believe he'd really find it quite delightful. Of course he wouldn't +expect theatres, or dances, or anything like that, in a country +village; and we're dreadfully busy just about Christmas day itself, +sending out orders, and all that sort of thing,'--Harry bit his +lip again:--'but if you don't mind a very quiet place and a very +quiet time, Mr. Le Breton, I don't think myself our cliffs ever look +grander, or our sea more impressive, than in stormy winter weather.' + +'I wish to goodness she wasn't so transparently candid and guileless,' +thought Harry to himself. 'I never CAN teach her duly to respect +the prejudices of Pi. Not that it matters twopence to Le Breton, +of course: but if she talks that way to any of the other men here, +they'll be laughing in every common-room in Oxford over my Christmas +raisins and pounds of sugar--commonplace cynics that they are. +I must tell her about it the moment we get home again, and adjure +her by all that's holy not to repeat the indiscretion.' + +'A penny for your thoughts, Harry,' cried Edie, seeing by his look +that she had somehow vexed him. 'What are you thinking of?' + +'Thinking that all Oxford men are horrid cynics,' said Harry, boldly +shaming the devil. + +'Why are they?' Edie asked. + +'I suppose because it's an inexpensive substitute for wit or +intellect,' Harry answered. 'Indeed, I'm a bit of a cynic myself, +I believe, for the same reason and on strictly economical principles. +It saves one the trouble of having any intelligible or original +opinion of one's own upon any subject.' + +Below Iffley Lock they landed for half an hour, in order to give +Edie time for a pencil sketch of the famous old Norman church-tower, +with its quaint variations on the dog-tooth ornament, and its +ancient cross and mouldering yew-tree behind. Harry sat below in +the boat, propped on the cushions, reading the last number of the +'Nineteenth Century;' Ernest and Edie took their seat upon the +bank above, and had a first chance of an unbroken tete-a-tete. + +'How delicious to live in Oxford always!' said Edie, sketching in +the first outline of the great round arches. 'I would give anything +to have the opportunity of settling here for life. Some day I shall +make Harry set up house, and bring me up here as his housekeeper:--I +mean,' she added with a blush, thinking of Harry's warning look +just before, 'as soon as they can spare me from home.' She purposely +avoided saying 'when they retire from business,' the first phrase +that sprang naturally to her simple little lips. 'Let me see, Mr. +Le Breton; you haven't got any permanent appointment here yourself, +have you?' + +'Oh no,' Ernest answered: 'no appointment of any sort at all, Miss +Oswald. I'm loitering up casually on the look-out for a fellowship. +I've been in for two or three already, but haven't got them.' + +'Why didn't you?' asked Edie, with a look of candid surprise. + +'I suppose I wasn't clever enough,' Ernest answered simply. 'Not +so clever, I mean, as the men who actually got them.' + +'Oh, but you MUST be,' Edie replied confidently; 'and a great deal +cleverer, too, I'm sure. I know you must, because Harry told me +you were one of the very cleverest men in the whole 'Varsity. And +besides, I see you are, myself. And Harry says most of the men who +get fellowships are really great donkeys.' + +'Harry must have been talking in one of those cynical moods he +told us about,' said Ernest, laughing. 'At any rate, the examiners +didn't feel satisfied with my papers, and I've never got a fellowship +yet. Perhaps they thought my political economy just a trifle too +advanced for them.' + +'You may depend upon it, that's it,' said Edie, jumping at the +conclusion with the easy omniscience of a girl of nineteen. 'Next +time, make your political economy a little more moderate, you +know, without any sacrifice of principle, just to suit them. What +fellowship are you going in for now?' + +'Pembroke, in November.' + +'Oh, I do hope you'll get it.' + +'Thank you very much. So do I. It would be very nice to have one.' + +'But of course it won't matter so much to you as it did to Harry. +Your family are such very great people, aren't they?' + +Ernest smiled a broad smile at her delicious simplicity. 'If by +very great people you mean rich,' he said, 'we couldn't very well +be poorer--for people of our sort, I mean. My mother lives almost +entirely on her pension; and we boys have only been able to come +up to Oxford, just as Harry was, by the aid of our scholarships. If +we hadn't saved in our first two years, while we had our government +allowances, we shouldn't have been able to stop up for our degrees +at all. So if I don't get a fellowship I shall have to take +to school-mastering or something of the sort, for a livelihood. +Indeed, this at Pembroke will be my very last chance, for I can't +hold on much longer.' + +'And if you got a fellowship you could never marry, could you?' +asked Edie, going on with her work. + +'Not, while I held it, certainly. But I wouldn't hold it long. I +regard it only as a makeshift for a time. Unhappily, I don't know +how to earn my own bread by the labour of my hands, as I think we +ought all to do in a well-constituted society; so unless I choose +to starve (about the rightfulness of which I don't feel quite certain), +I MUST manage somehow to get over the interval. But as soon as I +could I would try to find some useful work to do, in which I could +repay society the debt I owe it for my bringing up. You see, I've +been fed and educated by a Government grant, which of course came +out of the taxes--your people have had to help, whether they would +or not, in paying for my board and lodging--and I feel that I owe +it as a duty to the world to look out some employment in which I +could really repay it for the cost of my maintenance.' + +'How funnily you do look at everything, Mr. Le Breton,' said Edie. +'It would never have struck me to think of a pension from the army +in that light. And yet of course it's the right light; only we don't +most of us take the trouble to go to the bottom of things, as you +do. But what will you do if you don't get the fellowship?' + +'In that case, I've just heard from my mother that she would like +me to take a tutorship at Lord Exmoor's,' Ernest answered. 'Lynmouth, +their eldest son, was my junior at school by six or seven years, +and now he's going to prepare for Christ Church. I don't quite know +whether it's a right place for me to accept or not; but I shall ask +Max Schurz about it, if I don't get Pembroke. I always take Herr +Max's advice in all questions of conscience, for I'm quite sure +whatever he approves of is the thing one ought to do for the greatest +good of humanity.' + +'Harry told me about Herr Schurz,' Edie said, filling in the details +of the doorway. 'He thinks him a very earnest, self-convinced, +good old man, but a terrible revolutionist. For my part, I believe +I rather like revolutionists, provided, of course, they don't cut +off people's heads. Harry made me read Carlyle, and I positively +fell in love with Camille Desmoulins; only I don't really think he +ought to have approved of QUITE so much guillotining, do you? But +why shouldn't you take the tutorship at the Exmoors'?' + +'Oh, because it isn't a very useful work in the world to prepare a +young hereditary loafer like Lynmouth for going to Christ Church. +Lynmouth will be just like his father when he grows up--an amiable +wholesale partridge-slayer; and I don't see that the world at large +will be any the better or the worse off for his being able to grope +his way somehow through two plays of Sophocles and the first six +books of Euclid. If only one were a shoemaker now! What a delightful +thing to sit down at the end of a day and say to oneself, "I have +made two pairs of good, honest boots for a fellow-mortal this +week, and now I deserve to have my supper!" Still, it'll be better, +anyway, than doing nothing at all, and living off my mother.' + +'If you went to Dunbude, when would you go?' + +'After the Christmas vacation, I suppose, from what Lady Hilda +says.' + +'Lady Hilda? Oh, so there's a sister, is there?' + +'Yes. A very pretty girl, about twenty, I should say, and rather +clever too, I believe. My mother knows them a little.' + +Poor little Edie! What made her heart jump so at the mere mention +of Lady Hilda? and what made the last few strokes at the top +of the broken yew-tree look so very weak and shaky? How absurd of +herself, she thought, to feel so much moved at hearing that there +was another girl in the world whom Ernest might possibly fall in +love with! And yet she had never even seen Ernest only ten days +ago! Lady Hilda! What a grand name, to be sure, and what a grand +person she must be. And then Ernest himself belonged by birth to +the same class! For in poor little Edie's mind, innocent as she was +of the nice distinctions of the peerage, Lady So-and-So was Lady +So-and-So still, whoever she might be, from the wife of a premier +marquis to the wife of the latest created knight bachelor. To +her, Lady Hilda Tregellis and Lady Le Breton were both 'ladies of +title'; and the difference between their positions, which seemed +so immense to Ernest, seemed nothing at all to the merry little +country girl who sat sketching beside him. After all, how could +she ever have even vaguely fancied that such a young man as Ernest, +in spite of all his socialistic whims, would ever dream of caring +for a girl of the people like her? No doubt he would go to the +Exmoors', fall naturally in love with Lady Hilda, and marry decorously +in what Edie considered his own proper sphere of life! She went +on with the finishing touches of her little picture in silence, and +folded it up into the tiny portfolio at last with a half-uttered +sigh. So her poor wee castle in the air was knocked down before +she had begun to build it up in any real seriousness, and she turned +to join Harry in the boat almost without speaking. + +'I hope you'll get the Pembroke fellowship,' she said again, a +little later, as they rowed onward down the river to Nuneham. 'But +in any case, Mr. Le Breton, you mustn't forget you've half promised +to come and look us up at Calcombe Pomeroy in the Christmas vacation.' + +Ernest smiled, and nodded acquiescence. + +Meanwhile, on that same Thursday afternoon, Arthur Berkeley had +gone up from Oxford by the fast train to Paddington, as was his +weekly wont, and had dived quickly down one of the small lanes that +open out from the left-hand side of Praed Street. He walked along +it for a little way, humming an air to himself as he went, and +then stopped at last in front of a small, decent brick house, with +a clean muslin blind across the window (clean muslin forms a notable +object in most London back streets), and a printed card hanging from +the central pane, bearing the inscription, 'G. Berkeley, Working +Shoemaker.--The Trade supplied with Ready-closed Uppers.' At the +window a beaming face was watching for his appearance, and Arthur +said to himself as he saw it through the curtain, 'The dear old +Progenitor's looking better again this week, God bless him!' In a +moment he had opened the door, and greeted his father in the old +boyish fashion, with an honest kiss on either cheek. They had kissed +one another so whenever they met from Arthur's childhood upward; +and the Oxford curate had never felt himself grown too much of a +man to keep up a habit which seemed to him by far the most sacred +thing in his whole existence. + +'Well, father dear, I needn't ask you how you are to-day,' said +Arthur, seating himself comfortably in the second easy-chair of +the trim little workshop parlour. 'I can see at once you're a good +deal better. Any more pain in the head and eyes, eh, or any trouble +about the forehead?' + +The old shoemaker passed his hand over his big, bulging brow, bent +outward as it is so often in men of his trade by the constant habit +of stooping over their work, and said briskly, 'No, Artie, my boy, +not a sign of it this week--not a single sign of it. I've been +taking a bit of holiday, you see, and it's done me a lot of good, +I can tell you;--made me feel another man entirely. I've been +playing my violin till the neighbours began to complain of it; and +if I hadn't asked them to come and hear me tune up a bit, I really +believe they'd have been having me up before the magistrate for a +public nuisance.' + +'That's right, Daddy dear; I'm always glad when you've been having +a little music. It does you more good than anything. And the jelly--I +hope you've eaten the jelly?' + +'Oh, I've eaten it right enough, Artie, thank your dear heart; +and the soup too, dearie. Came by a boy from Walters's every day, +addressed to "Berkeley, Esquire, 42 Whalley Street;" and the boy +wouldn't leave it the first day, because he thought there must +have been a mistake about the address. His contention was that a +journeyman shoemaker wasn't an esquire; and my contention was that +the "Berkeley" was essential, and the "Esquire" accidental, which +was beyond his logic, bless you, Artie; for I've often noticed, my +son, that your errand-boy is a naturally illogical and contradictory +creature. Now, shoemakers aren't, you know. I've always taken a just +pride in the profession, and I've always asserted that it develops +logic; it develops logic, Artie, or else why are all cobblers good +Liberals, I should like to know? Eh, can you tell me that; with +all your Oxford training, sir, can you tell me that?' + +'It develops logic beyond the possibility of a doubt. Daddy; +and it develops a good kind heart as well,' said Arthur, smiling. +'And it develops musical taste, and literary talent, and a marked +predilection for the beautiful in art and nature. In fact, whenever +I meet a good man of any sort, anywhere, I always begin now by +inquiring which of his immediate ancestors can have been a journeyman +shoemaker. Depend upon it, Daddy, there's nothing like leather.' + +'There you are, poking fun at your poor old Progenitor again,' said +the old cobbler, with a merry twinkle in the corner of his eye. +'If it weren't for the jelly, and the natural affections always +engendered by shoemaking, I think I should almost feel inclined to +cut you off with a shilling, Artie, my boy--to cut you off with a +shilling. Well, Artie, I'm quite convalescent now (don't you call +it? I'm afraid of my long shoemaker's words before you, nowadays, +you've grown so literary; for I suppose parsons are more literary +than even shoemakers). I'm quite convalescent now, and I think, my +boy, I must get to work again this week, and have no more of your +expensive soups and jellies. If I didn't keep a sharp look-out +upon you, Artie, lad, I believe you'd starve yourself outright up +there at Oxford to pamper your poor old useless father here with +luxuries he's never been accustomed to in his whole life.' + +'My dear simple old Progenitor, you don't know how utterly you're +mistaken,' cried Arthur, eagerly. 'I believe I'm really the most +selfish and unnatural son in all Christendom. I'm positively +rolling in wealth up there at Magdalen; I've had my room papered +again since you saw it last long vacation; and I live like a prince, +absolutely like a Russian prince, upon my present income. I assure +you on my solemn word of honour, Father, that I eat meat for +lunch--that's my dinner--every day; and an egg for tea as regular +as clockwork. I often think when I look around my palatial rooms +in college, what a shame it is that I should let you, who are worth +ten of me, any day, live any longer in a back street up here in +London; and I won't allow it, Daddy, I really won't allow it from +this day forth, I'm determined. I've come up especially to speak +to you about it this afternoon, for I've made up my mind that +this abnormal state of things can't continue.'--'Very good word, +abnormal,' murmured his father.--'And I've also made up my mind,' +Arthur said, almost firmly, for him, 'that you shall come up and +live at Oxford. I can't bear having you so far away from me, now +that you're weaker than you used to be, Father dear, and so often +ailing.' + +The old shoemaker laughed aloud. 'Oh no, Artie, my boy,' he +said cheerily, shaking his head with a continuous series of merry +chuckles. 'It won't do at all, it won't do, I assure you. I may be +a terrible free-thinker and all that kind of thing, as the neighbours +say I am--poor bodies, they never read a word of modern criticism +in their lives, heaven bless 'em--stragglers from the march of +intellect, mere stragglers--but I've too much respect for the cloth +to bring a curate of St. Fredegond's into such disgrace as that +would mean for you, Artie. You shan't have your career at Oxford +spoiled by its being said of you that your father was a working +shoemaker. What with the ready-closed uppers, and what with your +ten shillings a week, and what with all the presents you give me, +and what with the hire of the piano, I'm as comfortable as ever I +want to be, growing into a gentleman in my old age, Artie, and I +even begin to have my doubts as to whether it's quite consistent +in me as a good Radical to continue my own acquaintance with +myself--I'm getting to be such a regular idle do-nothing aristocrat! +Go to Oxford and mend shoes, indeed, with you living there as a +full-fledged parson in your own rooms at Magdalen! No, no, I won't +hear of it. I'll come up for a day or two in long vacation, my boy, +as I've always done hitherto, and take a room in Holywell, and look +in upon you a bit, accidentally, so as not to shame you before the +scouts (who are a servile set of flunkeys, incapable of understanding +the elevated feelings of a journeyman shoemaker); but I wouldn't +dream of going to live in the place, any more than I'd dream of +asking to be presented at court on the occasion of my receiving a +commission for a pair of evening shoes for the Queen's head footman.' + +'Father,' said Arthur, smiling, 'you're absolutely incorrigible. Such +a dreadful old rebel against all constituted authority, human and +divine, I never did meet in the course of my existence, I believe +you're really capable of arguing a point of theology against an +archbishop. But I don't want you to come up to Oxford as a shoemaker; +I mean you to come up and live with me in rooms of our own, out +of college. Whenever I think of you, dear Father--you, who are +so infinitely nobler, and better, and truer, and more really a +gentleman than any other than I ever knew in my life--whenever I +think of you, coming secretly up to Oxford as if you were ashamed +of yourself, and visiting your own son by stealth in his rooms in +college as if you were a dun coming to ask him for money, instead +of the person whom he delights to honour--whenever I think of it, +Father, it makes my cheeks burn with shame, and I loathe myself for +ever allowing you so to bemean your own frank, true, noble nature. +I oughtn't to permit it, Father, I oughtn't to permit it; and I +won't permit it any longer.' + +'Well, you never would have permitted it, Artie, if I hadn't compelled +you; for I've got all the prudence and common sense of the family +bottled up here in my own forehead,' said the old man, tapping +his bulging brow significantly. 'I don't deny that Oxford may be +an excellent school for Greek and Latin, and philosophy, and so +forth; but if you want prudence and sagacity and common-sense it's +a well-known fact that there's nothing like the practice of making +ready-closed uppers, sir, to develop 'em. If I'd taken your advice, +my boy, I'd have come up to visit you when you were an undergraduate, +and ruined your prospects at the very outset. No, no, Artie, I shall +stop here, and stick to my last, my dear boy, stick to my last, to +the end of all things.' + +'You shall do nothing of the sort, Daddy; that I'm determined upon,' +Arthur cried vehemently. 'I'm not going to let you do any more +shoemaking. The time has come when you must retire, and devote all +your undivided energies to the constant study of modern criticism. +Whether you come to Oxford or stop in London, I've made up my mind +that you shan't do another stroke of work as long as you live. Look +here, dear old Daddy, I'm getting to be a perfect millionaire, I +assure you. Do you see this fiver? well, I got that for knocking +out that last trashy little song for Fradelli; and it cost me no +more trouble to compose it than to sit down and write the score out +on a sheet of ruled paper. I'm as rich as Croesus--made a hundred +and eighty pounds last year, and expect to make over two hundred +this one. Now, if a man with that perfectly prodigious fortune +can't afford to keep his own father in comfort and affluence, what +an absolute Sybarite and gourmand of a fellow he must be himself.' + +'It's a lot of money, certainly, Artie,' said the old shoemaker, +turning it over thoughtfully: 'two hundred pounds is a lot of money; +but I doubt very much whether it's more than enough to keep you up +to the standard of your own society, up there at Oxford. As John +Stuart Mill says, these things are all comparative to the standard +of comfort of your class. Now, Artie, I believe you have to stint +yourself of things that everybody else about you has at Oxford, to +keep me in luxuries I was never used to.' + +'My dear Dad, it's only of the nature of a repayment,' cried Arthur, +earnestly. 'You slaved and sacrificed and denied yourself when I +was a boy to send me to school, without which I would never have +got to Oxford at all; and you taught me music in your spare hours +(when you had any); and I owe everything I have or am or ever will +be to your unceasing and indefatigable kindness. So now you've +got to take repayment whether you will or not, for I insist upon +it. And if you won't come up to Oxford, which perhaps would be an +uncongenial place for you in many ways, I'll tell you what I'll do, +Daddy; I'll look out for a curacy somewhere in London, and we'll +take a little house together, and I'll furnish it nicely, and there +we shall live, sir, whatever you say, so not another word about +it. And now I want you to listen to the very best thing I've ever +composed, and tell me what you think of it.' + +He sat down to the little hired cottage piano that occupied the +corner of the neat small room, and began to run his deft fingers +lightly over the keys. It was the Butterfly fantasia. The father +sat back in his red easy-chair, listening with all his ears, first +critically, then admiringly, at last enthusiastically. As Arthur's +closing notes died away softly towards the end, the old shoemaker's +delight could be restrained no longer. 'Artie,' he cried, gloating +over it, 'that's music! That's real music! You're quite right, my +boy; that's far and away the best thing you've ever written. It's +exquisite--so light, so airy, so unearthlike. But, Artie, there's +more than that in it. There's soul in it; and I know what it means. +You don't deceive your poor old Progenitor in a matter of musical +inspiration, I can tell you. I know where you got that fantasia +from as well as if I'd seen you getting it. You got it out of your +own heart, my boy, out of your own heart. And the thing it says to me +as plain as language is just this--you're in love! You're in love, +Artie, and there's no good denying it. If any man ever wrote that fantasia +without being in love at the time--first love--ecstasy--tremor--tiptoe +of expectation--why, then, I tell you, music hasn't got such a +thing as a tongue or a meaning in it.' + +Arthur looked at him gently and smiled, but said nothing. + +'Will you tell me about her, Artie?' asked the old man, caressingly, +laying his hand upon his son's arm. + +'Not now, Father; not just now, please. Some other time, perhaps, +but not now. I hardly know about it myself, yet. It may be +something--it may be nothing; but, at any rate, it was peg enough +to hang a fantasia upon. You've surprised my little secret, Father, +and I dare say it's no real secret at all, but just a passing whiff +of fancy. If it ever comes to anything, you shall know first of +all the world about it. Now take out your violin, there's a dear +old Dad, and give me a tune upon it.' + +The father took the precious instrument from its carefully covered +case with a sort of loving reverence, and began to play a piece +of Arthur's own composition. From the moment the bow touched the +chords it was easy enough to see whence the son got his musical +instincts. Old George Berkeley was a born musician, and he could +make his violin discourse to him with rare power of execution. +There they sat, playing and talking at intervals, till nearly eight, +when Arthur went out hurriedly to catch the last train to Oxford, +and left the old shoemaker once more to his week's solitude. 'Not +for much longer,' the curate whispered to himself, as he got into +his third-class carriage quickly; 'not for much longer, if I can +help it. A curacy in or near London's the only right thing for me +to look out for!' + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +GHOSTLY COUNSEL. + + +November came, and with it came the Pembroke fellowship examination. +Ernest went in manfully, and tried hard to do his best; for +somehow, in spite of the immorality of fellowships, he had a sort +of floating notion in his head that he would like to get one, +because he was beginning to paint himself a little fancy picture +of a home that was to be, with a little fairy Edie flitting through +it, and brightening it all delightfully with her dainty airy +presence. So he even went so far as to mitigate considerably the +native truculence of his political economy paper, after Edie's +advice--not, of course, by making any suggestion of opinions he did +not hold, but by suppressing the too-prominent expression of those +he actually believed in. Max Schurz's name was not once mentioned +throughout the whole ten or twelve pages of closely written foolscap; +'Gold and the Proletariate' was utterly ignored; and in place of +the strong meat served out for men by the apostles of socialism in +the Marylebone dancing-saloon, Ernest dished up for his examiner's +edification merely such watery milk for babes as he had extracted +from the eminently orthodox economical pages of Fawcett, Mill, and +Thorold Rogers. He went back to his rooms, satisfied that he had +done himself full justice, and anxiously waited for the result to +be duly announced on the Saturday morning. + +Was it that piece of Latin prose, too obviously modelled upon the +Annals of Tacitus, while the senior tutor was a confirmed Ciceronian, +with the Second Philippic constitutionally on the brain? Was +it the Greek verse, containing one senarius with a long syllable +before the caesura in the fifth foot, as Herbert pointed out to +his brother on the very evening when that hideous oversight--say +rather crime--had been openly perpetrated in plain black and white +on a virgin sheet of innocent paper? Was it some faint ineffaceable +savour of the Schurzian economics, peeping through in spite of all +disguises, like the garlic in an Italian ragout, from under the +sedulous cloak of Ricardo's theory of rent? Was it some flying +rumour, extra-official, and unconnected with the examination in +any way, to the effect that young Le Breton was a person of very +dubious religious, political, and social orthodoxy? Or was it merely +that fortunate dispensation of Providence whereby Oxford almost +invariably manages to let her best men slip unobserved through her +fingers, and so insures a decent crop of them to fill up her share +of the passing vacancies in politics, literature, science, and art? +Heaven or the Pembroke examiners alone can answer these abstruse +and difficult questions; but this much at least is certain, that +when Ernest Le Breton went into the Pembroke porter's lodge on the +predestined Saturday, he found another name than his placarded upon +the notice board, and turned back, sick at heart and disappointed, +to his lonely lodgings. There he spent an unhappy hour or two, hewing +down what remained of his little aerial castle off-hand; and then +he went out for a solitary row upon the upper river, endeavouring +to work off his disappointment like a man, with a good hard spell +of muscular labour. + +Edie had already returned to Calcombe-Pomeroy, so in the evening +he went to tell his misfortune to Harry Oswald. Harry was really +sorry to hear it, for Ernest was his best friend in Oxford, and +he had hoped to have him settled close by. 'You'll stop up and +try again for Christ Church in February, won't you, Le Breton?' he +asked. + +'No,' said Ernest, shaking his head a little gloomily; 'I don't +think I will. It's clear I'm not up to the Oxford standard for a +fellowship, and I couldn't spend another term in residence without +coming down upon my mother to pay my expenses--a thing she can't +easily afford to do. So I suppose I must fall back for the present +upon the Exmoor tutorship. That'll give me time to look about me, +till I can get something else to do; and after all, it isn't a bit +more immoral than a fellowship, when one comes to look it fairly +in the face. However, I shall go first and ask Herr Max's opinion +upon the matter.' + +'I'm going to spend a fortnight in town in the Christmas vac,' +said Oswald, 'and I should like to go with you to Max's again, if +I may.' + +Ernest coloured up a little, for he would have liked to invite Oswald +to his mother's house; and yet he felt there were two reasons why +he should not do so; he must himself be dependent this time upon +his mother's hospitality, and he didn't think Lady Le Breton would +be perfectly cordial in her welcome to Harry Oswald. + +In the end, however, it was arranged that Harry should engage rooms +at his former lodgings in London, and that Ernest should take him +once more to call upon the old socialist when he went to consult +him on the question of conscience. + +'For my part, Ernest,' said Lady Le Breton to her son, the morning +after his return from Oxford, 'I'm not altogether sorry you didn't +get this Pembroke fellowship. It would have kept you among the +same set you are at present mixing in for an indefinite period. +Of course now you'll accept Lady Exmoor's kind proposal. I saw her +about it the same morning we got Hilda's letter; and she offers +200L. a year, which, of course, is mere pocket money, as your board +and lodging are all found for you, so to speak, and you'll have +nothing to do but to dress and amuse yourself.' + +'Well, mother, I shall see about it. I'm going to consult Herr +Schurz upon the subject this morning.' + +'Herr Schurz!' said Lady Le Breton, in her bitterest tone of irony. +'It appears to me you make that snuffy old German microscope man +your father confessor. It's very disagreeable to a mother to find +that her sons, instead of taking her advice about what is most +material to their own interests, should invariably go to confer +with communist refugees and ignorant ranters. Ronald, what is your +programme, if you please, for this morning's annoyance?' + +Ronald, with the fear of the fifth commandment steadily before +his eyes, took no notice of the last word, and answered calmly, +'You know, mother, this is the regular day for the mission-house +prayer-meeting.' + +'The mission-house prayer-meeting! I know nothing of the sort, I +assure you. I don't keep a perfect calendar in my mind of all your +meetings and your religious engagements. Then I suppose I must go +alone to the Waltons' to see Mr. Walton's water-colours?' + +'I'll give up the prayer-meeting, if you wish it,' Ronald answered, +with his unvarying meekness. 'Only, I'm afraid I must walk very +slowly. My cough's rather bad this morning.' + +'No, no,' Ernest put in, 'you mustn't dream of going, Ronald; +I couldn't allow you to walk so far on any account. I'll put off +my engagement with Oswald, who was going with me to Herr Schurz's, +and I'll take you round to the Waltons', mother, whenever you like.' + +'Dear me, dear me,' moaned Lady Le Breton, piteously, pretending +to wring her hands in lady-like and mitigated despair; 'I can't +do anything without its being made the opportunity for a scene, it +seems. I shall NOT go to the Waltons'; and I shall leave you both +to follow your own particular devices to your heart's content. I'm +sorry I proposed anything whatsoever, I'm sure, and I shall take +care never to do such an imprudent thing again.' And her ladyship +walked in her stateliest and most chilly manner out of the freezing +little dining-room. + +'It's a great cross, living always with poor mother, Ernest,' said +Ronald, his eyes filling with tears as he spoke; 'but we must try +to bear with her, you know, for after all she leads a very lonely +life herself, because she's so very unsympathetic.' Ernest took +the spare white hand in his and smoothed it compassionately. 'My +dear, dear Ronald,' he said, 'I know it's hard for you. I must try +the best I can to make it a little easier!' + +They walked together as far as the mission-house, arm in arm, for +though in some things the two young Le Bretons were wide apart +as the poles, in others they were fundamentally at one in inmost +spirit; and even Ronald, in spite of his occasional little narrow +sectarianisms, felt the underlying unity of purpose no less than +Ernest. He was one of those enthusiastic ethereal natures which +care little for outer forms or ceremonies, and nothing at all for +churches and organisations, but love to commune as pure spirit +with pure spirit, living every day a life of ecstatic spirituality, +and never troubling themselves one whit about theological controversy +or established religious constitutions. As long as Ronald Le Breton +could read his Greek Testament every morning, and talk face to +face in their own tongue with the Paul of First Corinthians or the +John of the Epistles, in the solitude of his own bedroom, he was +supremely indifferent about the serious question, of free-will +and fore-knowledge, or about the important question of apostolical +succession, or even about that other burning question of eternal +punishment, which was just then setting his own little sect of +Apostolic Christian Missioners roundly by the ears. These things +seemed to his enthusiastic mind mere fading echoes of an alien +language; all that he himself really cared for in religion was the +constant sense of essential personal communion with that higher +Power which spoke directly to his soul all day long and always; or +the equally constant sense of moral exaltation which he drew from +the reading of the written Word in its own original language. He +had never BECOME an Apostolic Christian; he had grown up to be one, +unconsciously to himself. 'Your son Ronald's religion, my dear +Lady Le Breton,' Archdeacon Luttrell used often to say, 'is, I +fear, too purely emotional. He cannot be made to feel sufficiently +the necessity for a sound practical grasp of doctrinal Christianity.' +To Ronald himself, he might as well have talked about the necessity +for a sound practical grasp of doctrinal Buddhism. And if Ronald +had really met a devout Buddhist, he would doubtless have found, +after half an hour's conversation, that they were at one in everything +save the petty matter of dialect and vocabulary. + +At Oswald's lodging, Ernest found his friend ready and waiting for +him. They went on together to the same street in Marylebone as +before, and mounted the stair till they reached Herr Schurz's gloomy +little work-room on the third floor. The old apostle was seated +at his small table by the half-open window, grinding the edges of +a lens to fit the brass mounting at his side; while his daughter +Uta, a still good-looking, quiet, broad-faced South German woman, +about forty or a little more, sat close by, busily translating a +scientific book into English by alternate reading and consultation +with her father. Harry saw the title on her page was 'Researches +into the Embryology of the Isopodal Crustaceans,' and conceived +at once an immense respect for the learning and wisdom of the +communist exile's daughter. Herr Schurz hardly stopped a moment +from his work--he never allowed his numerous visitors to interfere +in any way with his daily duties--but motioned them both to seats +on the bare bench beside him, and waited to bear the nature of +their particular business. It was an understood thing that no one +came to see the Socialist leader on week days except for a good +and sufficient reason. + +The talk at first was general and desultory; but after a little time +Ernest brought conversation round to its proper focus, and placed +his case of conscience fairly before his father confessor. Was it +allowable for a consistent socialist to accept the place of tutor +to the son of a peer and a landowner? + +'For my part, Herr Schurz,' Oswald said confidently, 'I don't see +any reason on earth, from the point of view of any political economy +whatsoever, why Ernest shouldn't take the position. The question +isn't how the Exmoors have come by their money, even allowing that +private property in land is in itself utterly indefensible; which +is a proposition I don't myself feel inclined unreservedly to admit, +though I know you and Le Breton do: the real question's this,--since +they've got this money into their hands to distribute, and since +in any case they will have the distribution of it, isn't it better +that some of it should go into Le Breton's pocket than that it +should go into any other person's? That's the way I for my part +look at the matter.' + +'What do you say to that, friend Ernest?' asked the old German, +smiling and waiting to see whether Ernest would detect what from +their own standpoint he regarded as the ethical fallacy of Harry +Oswald's argument. + +'Well, to tell you the truth, Herr Schurz,' answered Ernest, in his +deliberate, quiet way, 'I don't think I've envisaged the subject +to myself from quite the same point of view as Oswald has done. I +have rather asked myself whether it was right of a man to accept +a function in which he would really be doing nothing worthy for +humanity in return for his daily board and lodging. It isn't so much +a question who exactly is to get certain sums out of the Exmoors' +pockets, which ought no doubt never to have been in them; it's more +a question whether a man has any right to live off the collective +labour of the world, and do nothing of any good to the world on +his own part by way of repayment.' + +'That's it, friend Ernest,' cried the old man, with a pleased nod +of his big grey head; 'the socialistic Iliad in a nutshell! That's +the very root of the question. Don't be deceived by capitalist +sophisms. So long as we go on each of us trying to get as much as +we can individually out of the world, instead of asking what the +world is getting out of us, in return, there will be no revolution +and no millennium. We must make sure that we're doing some good +ourselves, instead of sponging upon the people perpetually to feed +us for nothing. What's the first gospel given to man at the creation +in your popular cosmogonies? Why, that in the sweat of his face +shall he eat bread, and till the ground from which he was taken. +That's the native gospel of the toiling many, always; your doctrines +of fair exchange, and honest livelihoods, and free contract, and +all the rest of it, are only the artificial gospel of the political +economists, and of the bourgeoisie and the aristocrats into whose +hands they play--the rascals!' + +'Then you think I oughtn't to take the post?' asked Ernest, a little +ruefully. + +'I don't say that, Le Breton--I don't say that,' said Herr Schurz, +more quietly than before, still grinding away at his lens. 'The +question's a broad one, and it has many aspects. The best work +a man can do is undoubtedly the most useful work--the work that +conduces most to the general happiness. But we of the proletariate +can't take our choice always: as your English proverb plainly puts +it, with your true English bluntness, "beggars mustn't be choosers." +We must, each in his place, do the work that's set before us by the +privileged classes. It's impossible for us to go nicely discriminating +between work that's useful for the community, work that's merely +harmless, and work that's positively detrimental. How can we insure +it? A man's a printer, say. There's a generally useful trade, in +which, on the whole, he labours for the good and enlightenment of +the world--for he may print scientific books, good books, useful +books; and most printing, on the average, is useful. But how's he +to know what sort of thing he's printing? He may be printing "Gold +and the Proletariate," or he may be printing obscurantist and +retrogressive treatises by the enemies of humanity. Look at my own +trade, again. You'd say at first sight, Mr. Oswald, that to make +microscopes must be a good thing in the end for the world at large: +and so it is, no doubt; but half of them--ay, more than half of +them--are thrown away: mere wasted labour, a good workman's time +and skill lavished needlessly on some foolish rich man's caprices +and amusement. Often enough, now, I make a good instrument--an +instrument, with all its fittings, worth fifty or a hundred pounds. +That takes a long time to make, and I'm a skilled workman; and +the instrument may fall into the hands of a scientific man who'll +use it in discovery, in verification, in promoting knowledge, in +lessening disease and mitigating human suffering. That's the good +side of my trade. But, mark you, now,' and the old man wiped his +forehead rapidly with his sleeve, 'it has its bad side too. As often +as not, I know, some rich man will buy that machine, that cost me +so much time and trouble to make, and will buy a few dozen stock +slides with it, and will bring it out once in a moon to show his +children or a few idle visitors the scales on a butterfly's wing, +or the hairs on the leg of a common flea. Uta sets those things +up by the thousand for the dealers to sell to indolent dilettanti. +The appetite of the world at large for the common flea is simply +insatiable. And it's for that, perhaps, that I'm spoiling my +eyesight now, grinding and grinding and grinding at this very lens, +and fitting the thing to an accurate fraction of a millimetre, as +we always fit these things--we who are careful and honest workmen--to +show an idle man's friends the hairs on a flea's fore-leg. If that +isn't enough to make a man ashamed of our present wasteful and +chaotic organisation, I should think he must be a survival from +the preglacial epoch--as, indeed, most of us actually are!' + +'But, after all, Herr Schurz,' said Harry, expostulating, 'you get +paid for your labour, and the rich man is doing better by encouraging +your skill than by encouraging the less useful skill of other +workmen.' + +'Ah, yes,' cried Herr Schurz, warmly, 'that's the doctrine of the +one-eyed economists; that's the capitalist way of looking at it; +but it isn't our way--it isn't ours. Is it nothing, think you, +that all that toil of mine--of a sensible man's--goes to waste, +to gratify the senseless passing whim of a wealthy nobody? Is it +nothing that he uselessly monopolises the valuable product of my +labour, which in other and abler hands might be bringing forth good +fruit for the bettering and furthering of universal humanity? I +tell you, Mr. Oswald, half the best books, half the best apparatus, +half the best appliances in all Europe, are locked up idle in +rich men's cabinets, effecting no good, begetting no discoveries, +bringing forth no interest, doing nothing but foster the anti-social +pride of their wealthy possessors. But that isn't what friend +Ernest wants to ask me about to-day. He wants to know about his own +course in a difficult case; and instead of answering him, here am +I, maundering away, like an old man that I am, into the generalised +platitudes of "Gold and the Proletariate." Well, Le Breton, what +I should say in your particular instance is this. A man with the +fear of right before his eyes may, under existing circumstances, +lawfully accept any work that will keep him alive, provided he sees +no better and more useful work equally open to him. He may take +the job the capitalists impose, if he can get nothing worthier to +do elsewhere. Now, if you don't teach this young Tregellis, what +alternative have you? Why, to become a master in a school--Eton, +perhaps, or Rugby, or Marlborough--and teach other equally useless +members of prospective aristocratic society. That being so, I think +you ought to do what's best for yourself and your family for the +present--for the present--till the time of deliverance comes. You +see, there is one member of your family to whom the matter is of +immediate importance.' + +'Ronald,' said Ernest, interrupting him. + +'Yes, Ronald. A good boy; a socialist, too, though he doesn't know +it--one of us, born of us, and only apart from us in bare externals. +Well, would it be most comfortable for poor Ronald that you should +go to these Exmoor people, or that you should take a mastership, +get rooms somewhere, and let him live with you? He's not very happy +with your mother, you say. Wouldn't he be happier with you? What +think you? Charity begins at home, you know: a good proverb--a +good, sound, sensible, narrow-minded, practical English proverb!' + +'I've thought of that,' Ernest said, 'and I'll ask him about it. +Whichever he prefers, then, I'd better decide upon, had I?' + +'Do so,' Herr Max answered, with a nod. 'Other things equal, our +first duty is to those nearest to us.' + +What Herr Max said was law to his disciples, and Ernest went his +way contented. + +'Mr. Oswald seems a very nice young man,' Uta Schurz said, looking +up from the microscope slides she had begun to mount at the moment +her regular translating work was interrupted by their sudden entry. +She had been taking quiet glances at Harry all the while, in her +unobtrusive fashion; for Uta had learned always to be personally +unobtrusive--'the prophet's donkey,' those irreverent French exiles +used to call her--and she had come to the conclusion that he was +a decidedly handsome and manly fellow. + +'Which do you like best, Uta--Oswald or Le Breton?' asked her +father. + +'Personally,' Uta answered, 'I should prefer Mr. Oswald. To live +always with Mr. Le Breton would be like living with an abstraction. +No woman would ever care for him; she might just as well marry +Spinoza's Ethics or the Ten Commandments. He's a perfect model of +a socialist, and nothing else. Mr. Oswald has some human nature in +him as well.' + +'There are two kinds of socialists,' said Herr Max, bending once +more over his glasses; 'the one kind is always thinking most of +its rights; the other kind is always thinking most of its duties. +Oswald belongs to the first, Le Breton to the second. I've often +observed it so among men of their two sorts. The best socialists +never come from the bourgeoisie, nor even from the proletariate; +they come from among the voluntarily declasses aristocrats. Your +workman or your bourgeois who has risen, and who interests himself +in social or political questions, is always thinking, "Why shouldn't +I have as many rights and privileges as these other people have?" +The aristocrat who descends is always thinking, "Why shouldn't +these other people have as many rights and privileges as I have?" +The one type begets aggressive self-assertion, the other type +begets a certain gentle spirit of self-effacement. You don't often +find men of the aristocratic class with any ethical element in +them--their hereditary antecedents, their breeding, their environment, +are all hostile to it; but when you do find them, mark my words, +Uta, they make the truest and most earnest friends of the popular +cause of any. Their sympathy and interest in it is all unselfish.' + +'And yet,' Uta answered firmly, 'I still prefer Mr. Oswald. And +if you care for my opinion, I should say that the aristocrat does +all the dreaming, but the bourgeois does all the fighting; and +that's the most important thing practically, after all.' + +An hour later, Ernest was talking his future plans over with his +brother Ronald. Would it be best for Ronald that he should take +a mastership, and both should live together, or that he should go +for the present to the Exmoors', and leave the question of Ronald's +home arrangements still unsettled? + +'It's so good of you to think of me in the matter, Ernest,' Ronald +said, pressing his hand gently; 'but I don't think I ought to +go away from mother before I'm twenty-one. To tell you the truth, +Ernest, I hardly flatter myself she'd be really sorry to get rid +of me; I'm afraid I'm a dreadful thorn in her side at present; she +doesn't understand my ways, and perhaps I don't sympathise enough +with hers; but still, if I were to propose to go, I feel sure +she'd be very much annoyed, and treat it as a serious act of +insubordination on my part. While I'm a minor, at least, I ought +to remain with her; the Apostle tells us to obey our parents, in +the Lord; and as long as she requires nothing from me that doesn't +involve a dereliction of principle I think I must bear with it, +though I acknowledge it's a cross, a heavy cross. Thank you so much +for thinking of it, dearest Ernest.' And his eyes filled once more +with tears as he spoke. + +So it was finally arranged that for the present at least Ernest +should accept Lady Exmoor's offer, and that as soon as Ronald +was twenty-one he should look about for a suitable mastership, in +order for the two brothers to go immediately into rooms together. +Lady Le Breton was surprised at the decision; but as it was in her +favour, she wisely abstained from gratifying her natural desire to +make some more uncomplimentary references to the snuffy old German +socialist. Sufficient unto the day was the triumph thereof; and she +had no doubt in her own mind that if once Ernest could be induced +to live for a while in really good society the well-known charms +and graces of that society must finally tame his rugged breast, +and wean him away from his unaccountable devotion to those horrid +continental communists. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +IN THE CAMP OF THE PHILISTINES. + + +Dunbude Castle, Lord Exmoor's family seat, stands on the last spurs +of the great North Devon uplands, overlooking the steep glen of a +little boulder-encumbered stream, and commanding a distant view of +the Severn Sea and the dim outlines of the blue Welsh hills beyond +it. Behind the house, a castle only by courtesy (on the same +principle as that by which every bishop lives in a palace), rises +the jagged summit of the Cleave, a great weather-worn granite hill, +sculptured on top by wind and rain into those fantastic lichen-covered +pillars and tora and logans in which antiquarian fancy used so long +to find the visible monuments of Druidical worship. All around, a +wide brown waste of heather undulates and tosses wildly to the sky; +and on the summit of the rolling moor where it rises and swells in +one of its many rounded bosses, the antlered heads and shoulders +of the red deer may often be seen etched in bold relief against +the clear sky-line to the west, on sunny autumn evenings. But the +castle itself and the surrounding grounds are not planned to harmonise +with the rough moorland English scenery into whose midst they were +unceremoniously pitchforked by the second earl. That distinguished +man of taste, a light of the artistic world in his own day, +had brought back from his Grand Tour his own ideal of a strictly +classical domestic building, formed by impartially compounding a +Palladian palace, a Doric temple, and a square redbrick English +manor-house. After pulling down the original fourteenth-century +castle, he had induced an eminent architect of the time to conspire +with him in giving solid and permanent reality to this his awful +imagining; and when he had completed it all, from portico to attic, +he had extorted even the critical praise of Horace Walpole, who +described it in one of his letters as a 'singular triumph of classical +taste and architectural ingenuity.' It still remains unrivalled in +its kind, the ugliest great country-seat in the county of Devon--some +respectable authorities even say in the whole of England. + +In front of the house an Italian garden, with balustrades of very +doubtful marble, leads down by successive terraces and broad flights +of steps to an artificial octagonal pool, formed by carefully +destroying the whole natural beauty of the wild and rocky little +English glen beneath. To feed it by fitting a conduit, the moss-grown +boulders that strew the bed of the torrent above and below have +been carefully removed, and the unwilling stream, as it runs into +the pool, has been coerced into a long straight channel, bordered +on either side by bedded turf, and planed off at measured intervals +so as to produce a series of eminently regular and classical +cascades. Even Lord Exmoor himself, who was a hunting man, without +any pretence to that stupid rubbish about taste, did not care for +the hopeless exterior of Dunbude Castle: he frankly admitted that +the place was altogether too doosid artificial for the line of +country. If they'd only left it alone, he said, in its own native +condition, it would have been really pretty; but as they'd doctored +it and spoilt it, why, there was nothing on earth to be done but +just put up with it and whistle over it. What with the hounds, and +the mortgages, and the settlements, and the red deer, and Goodwood, +the estate couldn't possibly afford any money for making alterations +down in the gardens. + +The dog-cart was in waiting at the station to carry Ernest up to +the castle; and as he reached the front door, Lady Hilda Tregellis +strolled up the broad flight of steps from the garden to meet him. +Lady Hilda was tall and decidedly handsome, as Ernest had rightly +told Edie, but not pretty, and she was also just twenty. There was +a free, careless, bold look in her face, that showed her at once +a girl of spirit; indeed, if she had not been born a Tregellis, it +was quite clear that she would have been predestined to turn out +a strong-minded woman. There was nothing particularly delicate in +Lady Hilda's features; they were well-modelled, but neither regular +nor cold, nor with that peculiar stamp of artificial breeding which +is so often found in the faces of English ladies. On the contrary, +she looked like a perfectly self-confident handsome actress, too +self-confident to be self-conscious, and accustomed to admiration +wherever she turned. As Ernest jumped down from the dog-cart she +advanced quickly to shake hands with him, and look him over critically +from head to foot like a schoolboy taking stock of a new fellow. + +'I'm so glad you've come, Mr. Le Breton,' she said, with an open +smile upon her frank face. 'I was dreadfully afraid you wouldn't +care for our proposition. Dunbude's the dullest hole in England, +and we want somebody here to brighten it up, sadly. Did you ever +see such an ugly monstrosity before, anywhere?' + +'The country about's lovely,' Ernest answered, 'but the house itself +is certainly rather ugly.' + +'Ugly! It's hideous. And it's as dull as it's big,' said Hilda +vehemently. 'You can't think what a time we have of it here half +the year! I'm always longing for the season to come. Papa fills +the house here with hunting men and shooting men--people without +two ideas in their heads, you know, just like himself; and even THEY +go out all day, and leave us women from morning till night to the +society of their wives and daughters, who are exactly like them. +Mr. Walsh--that's Lynmouth's last tutor--he was a perfect stick, +a Cambridge man; Cambridge men always ARE sticks, I believe; you're +Oxford, of course, aren't you? I thought so. Still, even Mr. Walsh +was a little society, for I assure you, if it hadn't been for him, +I should never have seen anybody, to talk to, from year's end to +year's end. So when Mr. Walsh was going to leave us, I said to +mamma, "Why not ask one of the Mr. Le Bretons?" I wanted to have +somebody sensible here, and so I got her to let me write to your +brother Ronald about the tutorship. Did he send you the letter? I +hope you didn't think it was mine. Mamma dictated it, for I don't +write such formal letters as that on my own account, I can tell +you. I hate conventionality of any sort. At Dunbude we're all +conventional, except me; but I won't be. Come up into the billiard-room, +here, and sit down awhile; William will see about your portmanteau +and things. Papa's out, of course, and so's Lynmouth; and mamma's +somewhere or other, I don't know where; and so there's nobody in +particular at home for you to report yourself to. You may as well +come in here while I ring for them to get you some lunch ready. +Nobody ever gets anything ready beforehand in this house. We +lunched ourselves an hour ago.' + +Ernest smiled at her volubility, and followed her quickly into the +big bare billiard-room. He walked over to the fire and began to +warm himself, while Hilda took down a cue and made stray shots in +extraordinary angles at impossible cannons, all the time, as she +went on talking to him. 'Was it very cold on the way down?' she +asked. + +'Yes, fairly. I'm not sorry to see the fire again. Why, you're +quite an accomplished player.' + +'There's nothing else to do at Dunbude, that's why. I practise +about half my lifetime. So I wrote to your brother Ronald, as I +was telling you, from mamma's dictation; and when I heard you were +really coming, I was quite delighted about it. Do you remember, I +met you twice last year, once at the Dolburys', and once somewhere +else; and I thought you'd be a very good sort of person for Dunbude, +you know, and about as much use to Lynmouth as anybody could be, +which isn't saying much, of course, for he's a dreadful pickle. +I insisted on putting in my letter that he was a dreadful pickle +(that's a good stroke off the red; just enough side on), though +mamma didn't want me to; because I thought you ought to know about +it beforehand. But you remember him at Marlborough, of course; he +was only a little fellow then, but still a pickle. He always was and +he always will be. He's out shooting, now, with papa; and you'll +never get him to settle down to anything, as long as there's a +snipe or a plover banging about on the moor anywhere. He's quite +incorrigible. Do you play at all? Won't you take a cue till your +lunch's ready?' + +'No, I don't play,' Ernest answered, half hesitating, 'or at least +very little.' + +'Oh, then you'll learn here, because you'll find nothing else to +do. Do you shoot?' + +'Oh no, never. I don't think it right.' + +'Ah, yes, I remember. How delightful! Lady Le Breton told me all +about it. You've got notions, haven't you? You're a Nihilist or +a Fenian or something of that sort, and you don't shoot anything +but czars and grand dukes, do you? I believe you want to cut all +our heads off and have a red republic. Well, I'm sure that's very +refreshing; for down here we're all as dull as sticks together; +Tories, every one of us to a man; perfect unanimity; no differences +of opinion; all as conventional and proper as the vicar's sermons. +Now, to have somebody who wants to cut your head off, in the house, +is really delightful. I love originality. Not that I've ever seen +anybody original in all my life, for I haven't, but I'm sure it +would be delightful if I did. One reads about original people in +novels, you know, Dickens and that sort of thing; and I often think +I should like to meet some of them (good stroke again; legs, legs, +legs, if you please--no, it hasn't legs enough); but here, or for +the matter of that, in town either, we never see anybody but the same +eternal round of Algies, and Monties, and Berties, and Hughs--all +very nice young men, no doubt; exceedingly proper, nothing against +them; good shots, capital partners, excellent families, everything on +earth that anybody could desire, except a single atom of personal +originality. I assure you, if they were all shaken up in a bag +together and well mixed, in evening clothes (so as not to tell them +apart by the tweeds, you know), their own mothers wouldn't be able +to separate them afterwards. But if you don't shoot and don't play +billiards, I'm sure I don't know what you'll ever find to do with +yourself here at Dunbude.' + +'Don't you think,' Ernest said quietly, taking down a, cue, 'one +ought to have something better to do with one's time than shooting +and playing billiards? In a world where so many labouring people +are toiling and slaving in poverty and misery on our behalf, don't +you think we should be trying to do something or other in return +for universal humanity, to whom we owe so much for our board and +lodging and clothing and amusement?' + +'Well, now, that's just what I mean,' said Hilda ecstatically, with +a neat shot off the cushion against the red and into the middle +pocket; 'that's such a delightfully original way of looking at +things, you see. We all of us here talk always about the partridges, +and the red deer, and the turnips, and the Church, and dear Lady +This, and that odious Lady That, and the growing insolence of the +farmers, and the shocking insubordination of the lower classes, and +the difficulty of getting really good servants, and the dreadful +way those horrid Irish are shooting their kind-hearted indulgent +landlords; or else we talk--the women especially--about how awfully +bored we are. Lawn-tennis, you know, and dinners, and what a bad +match Ethel Thingumbob has made. But you talk another kind of slang; +I dare say it doesn't mean much; you know you're not working at +anything very much more serious than we are; still it's a novelty. +When we go to a coursing meeting, we're all on the hounds; but +you're on the hare, and that's so delightfully original. I haven't +the least doubt that if we were to talk about the Irish, you'd say +you thought they ought to shoot their landlords. I remember you +shocked mamma by saying something like it at the Dolburys'. Now, of +course, it doesn't matter to me a bit which is right; you say the +poor tenants are starving, and papa says the poor landlords can't +get in their rents, and actually have to give up their hounds, poor +fellows; and I don't know which of you is the most to be believed; +only, what papa says is just the same thing that everybody says, +and what you say has a certain charming freshness and variety +about it. It's so funny to be told that one ought really to take +the tenants into consideration. Exactly like your brother Ronald's +notions about servants!' + +'Your lunch is ready in the dining-room, sir,' said a voice at the +door. + +'Come back here when you've finished, Mr. Le Breton,' Hilda called +after him. 'I'll teach you how to make that cannon you missed +just now. If you mean to exist at Dunbude at all, it's absolutely +necessary for you to learn billiards.' + +Ernest turned in to lunch with an uncomfortable misgiving on his +mind already that Dunbude was not exactly the right place for such +a man as he to live in. + +During the afternoon he saw nothing more of the family, save Lady +Hilda; and it was not till the party assembled in the drawing-room +before dinner that he met Lord and Lady Exmoor and his future pupil. +Lynmouth had grown into a tall, handsome, manly-looking boy since +Ernest last saw him; but he certainly looked exactly what Hilda +had called him--a pickle. A few minutes' introductory conversation +sufficed to show Ernest that whatever mind he possessed was wholly +given over to horses, dogs, and partridges, and that the post of +tutor at Dunbude Castle was not likely to prove a bed of roses. + +'Seen the paper, Connemara?' Lord Exmoor asked of one of his +guests, as they sat down to dinner. 'I haven't had a moment myself +to snatch a look at the "Times" yet this evening; I'm really too +busy almost even to read the daily papers. Anything fresh from +Ireland?' + +'Haven't seen it either,' Lord Connemara answered, glancing towards +Lady Hilda. 'Perhaps somebody else has looked at the papers'?' + +Nobody answered, so Ernest ventured to remark that the Irish news +was rather worse again. Two bailiffs had been murdered near Castlebar. + +'That's bad,' Lord Exmoor said, turning towards Ernest. 'I'm afraid +there's a deal of distress in the West.' + +'A great deal,' Ernest answered; 'positive starvation, I believe, +in some parts of County Galway.' + +'Well, not quite so bad as that,' Lord Exmoor replied, a little +startled. 'I don't think any of the landlords are actually starving +yet, though I've no doubt many of them are put to very great straits +indeed by their inability to get in their rents.' + +Ernest couldn't forbear gently smiling to himself at the misapprehension. +'Oh, I didn't mean the landlords,' he said quickly: 'I meant among +the poor people.' As he spoke he was aware that Lady Hilda's eyes +were fixed keenly upon him, and that she was immensely delighted +at the temerity and originality displayed in the notion of his +publicly taking Irish tenants into consideration at her father's +table. + +'Ah, the poor people,' Lord Exmoor answered with a slight sigh of +relief, as who should say that THEIR condition didn't much matter +to a philosophic mind. 'Yes, to be sure; I've no doubt some of +them are very badly off, poor souls. But then they're such an idle +improvident lot. Why don't they emigrate now, I should like to +know?' + +Ernest reflected silently that the inmates of Dunbude Castle did +not exactly set them a model of patient industry; and that Lady +Hilda's numerous allusions during the afternoon to the fact that +the Dunbude estates were 'mortgaged up to the eyelids' (a condition +of affairs to which she always alluded as though it were rather a +subject of pride and congratulation than otherwise) did not speak +very highly for their provident economy either. But even Ernest Le +Breton had a solitary grain of worldly wisdom laid up somewhere +in a corner of his brain, and he didn't think it advisable to give +them the benefit of his own views upon the subject. + +'There's a great deal of rubbish talked in England about Irish +affairs, you know, Exmoor,' said Lord Connemara confidently. 'People +never understand Ireland, I'm sure, until they've actually lived +there. Would you believe it now, the correspondent of one of the +London papers was quite indignant the other day because my agent +had to evict a man for three years' rent at Ballynamara, and the +man unfortunately went and died a week later on the public roadside. +We produced medical evidence to show that he had suffered for years +from heart disease, and would have died in any case, wherever he +had been; but the editor fellow wanted to make political capital +out of it, and kicked up quite a fuss about my agent's shocking +inhumanity. As if we could possibly help ourselves in the matter! +People must get their rents in somehow, mustn't they?' + +'People must get their rents in somehow, of course,' Lord Exmoor +assented, sympathetically; 'and I know all you men who are unlucky +enough to own property in Ireland have a lot of trouble about it +nowadays. Upon my word, what with Fenians, and what with Nihilists, +and what with Communards, I really don't know what the world is +coming to.' + +'Most unchristian conduct, I call it,' said Lady Exmoor, who went +in for being mildly and decorously religious. 'I really can't +understand how people can believe such wicked doctrines as these +communistic notions that are coming over people in these latter +days.' + +'No better than downright robbery,' Lord Connemara answered. +'Shaking the very foundations of society, I think it. All done so +recklessly, too, without any care or any consideration.' + +Ernest thought of old Max Schurz, with his lifelong economical +studies, and wondered when Lord Connemara had found time to turn +his own attention from foxes and fishing to economical problems; +but, by a perfect miracle, he said nothing. + +'You wouldn't believe the straits we're put to, Lady Exmoor,' the +Irish Earl went on, 'through this horrid no-rent business. Absolute +poverty, I assure you--absolute downright poverty. I've had to +sell the Maid of Garunda this week, you know, and three others of +the best horses in my stable, just to raise money for immediate +necessities. Wanted to buy a most interesting missal, quite +unique in its way, offered me by Menotti and Cicolari, dirt cheap, +for three thousand guineas. It's quite a gem of late miniaturist +art--vellum folio, with borders and head-pieces by Giulio Clovio. +A marvellous bargain!' + +'Giulio Clovio,' said Lord Exmoor, doubtfully. 'Who was he? Never +heard of him in my life before.' + +'Never heard of Giulio Clovio!' cried Lord Connemara, seizing the +opportunity with well-affected surprise. 'You really astonish me. +He was a Croatian, I believe, or an Illyrian--I forget which--and +he studied at Rome under Giulio Romano. Wonderful draughtsman in +the nude, and fine colourist; took hints from Raphael and Michael +Angelo.' So much he had picked up from Menotti and Cicolari, and, +being a distinguished connoisseur, had made a mental note of the +facts at once, for future reproduction upon a fitting occasion. +'Well, this missal was executed for Cardinal Farnese, as a companion +volume to the famous Vita Christi in the Towneley collection. You +know it, of course, Lady Exmoor?' + +'Of course,' Lady Exmoor answered faintly, with a devout hope that +Lord Connemara wouldn't question her any further upon the subject; +in which case she thought it would probably be the safest guess to +say that she had seen it at the British Museum or in the Hamilton +Library. + +But Lord Connemara luckily didn't care to press his advantage. +'The Towneley volume, you see,' he went on fluently--he was primed +to the muzzle with information on that subject--'was given by +the Cardinal to the Pope of that time--Paul the Third, wasn't it, +Mr. Le Breton?--and so got into the possession of old Christopher +Towneley, the antiquary. But this companion folio, it seems, the +Cardinal wouldn't let go out of his own possession; and so it's +been handed down in his own family (with a bar sinister, of course, +Exmoor--you remember the story of Beatrice Malatesta?) to the present +time. It's very existence wasn't suspected till Cicolari--wonderfully +smart fellow, Cicolari--unearthed it the other day from a descendant +of the Malatestas, in a little village in the Campagna. He offered it +to me, quite as an act of friendship, for three thousand guineas; +indeed, he begged me not to let Menotti know how cheap he was +selling it. for fear he might interfere and ask a higher price for +it. Well, I naturally couldn't let such a chance slip me--for the +credit of the family, it ought to be in the collection--and the +consequence was, though I was awfully sorry to part with her, I was +absolutely obliged to sell the Maid for pocket-money, Lady Hilda--I +assure you, for pocket-money. My tenants won't pay up, and nothing +will make them. They've got the cash actually in the bank; but they +keep it there, waiting for a set of sentimentalists in the House +of Commons to interfere between us, and make them a present of +my property. Rolling in money, some of them are, I can tell you. +One man, I know as a positive fact, sold a pig last week, and yet +pretends he can't pay me. All the fault of these horrid communists +that you were speaking of, Lady Exmoor--all the fault of these +horrid communists.' + +'You're rather a communist yourself, aren't you, Mr. Le Breton?' +asked Lady Hilda boldly from across the table. 'I remember you told +me something once about cutting the throats of all the landlords.' + +Lady Exmoor looked as though a bomb-shell had dropped into the +drawing-room. 'My dear Hilda,' she said, 'I'm sure you must have +misunderstood Mr. Le Breton. You can't have meant anything so +dreadful as that, Mr. Le Breton, can you?' + +'Certainly not,' Ernest answered, with a clear conscience. 'Lady +Hilda has put her own interpretation upon my casual words. I haven't +the least desire to cut anybody's throat, even metaphorically.' + +Hilda looked a little disappointed; she had hoped for a good rattling +discussion, in which Ernest was to shock the whole table--it does +people such a lot of good, you know, to have a nice round shocking; +but Ernest was evidently not inclined to show fight for her sole +gratification, and so she proceeded to her alternative amusement +of getting Lord Connemara to display the full force of his own +inanity. This was an easy and unending source of innocent enjoyment +to Lady Hilda, enhanced by the fact that she knew her father and +mother were anxious to see her Countess of Connemara, and that they +would be annoyed by her public exposition of that eligible young +man's intense selfishness and empty-headedness. + +Altogether, Ernest did not enjoy his first week at the Exmoors'. +Nor did he enjoy the second, or the third, or the fourth week much +better. The society was profoundly distasteful to him: the world +was not his world, nor the talk his talk; and he grew so sick of +the perpetual discussion of horses, dogs, pheasants, dances, and +lawn tennis, with occasional digressions on Giulio Clovio and the +Connemara gallery, that he found even a chat with Lady Hilda (who +knew and cared for nothing, but liked to chat with him because +he was 'so original') a pleasant relief, by comparison, from the +eternal round of Lord Exmoor's anecdotes about famous racers or +celebrated actresses. But worst of all he did not like his work; +he felt that, useless as he considered it, he was not successfully +performing even the useless function he was paid to fulfil. Lynmouth +couldn't learn, wouldn't learn, and wasn't going to learn. Ernest +might as well have tried to din the necessary three plays of Euripides +into the nearest lamp-post. Nobody encouraged him to learn in any +way, indeed Lord Exmoor remembered that he himself had scraped +through somehow at Christ Church, with the aid of a private tutor +and the magic of his title, and he hadn't the least doubt that +Lynmouth would scrape through in his turn in like manner. And so, +though most young men would have found the Dunbude tutorship the +very acme of their wishes--plenty of amusements and nothing to do +for them--Ernest Le Breton found it to the last degree irksome and +unsatisfactory. Not that he had ever to complain of any unkindliness +on the part of the Exmoor family; they were really in their own +way very kind-hearted, friendly sort of people--that is to say, +towards all members of their own circle; and as they considered +Ernest one of themselves, in virtue of their acquaintance with +his mother, they really did their best to make him as happy and +comfortable as was in their power. But then he was such a very +strange young man! 'For what on earth can you do,' as Lord Exmoor +justly asked, 'with a young fellow who won't shoot, and who won't +fish, and who won't hunt, and who won't even play lansquenet?' +Such a case was clearly hopeless. He would have liked to see more +of Miss Merivale, little Lady Sybil's governess (for there were three +children in the family); but Miss Merivale was a timid, sensitive +girl, and she did not often encourage his advances, lest my lady +should say she was setting her cap at the tutor. The consequence +was that he was necessarily thrown much upon Lady Hilda's society; +and as Lady Hilda was laudably eager to instruct him in billiards, +lawn tennis, and sketching, he rapidly grew to be quite an adept at +those relatively moral and innocuous amusements, under her constant +instruction and supervision. + +'It seems to me,' said that acute observer, Lord Lynmouth, to his +special friend and confidante, the lady's-maid, 'that Hilda makes +a doocid sight too free with that fellow Le Breton. Don't you think +so, Euphemia?' + +'I should hope, my lord,' Euphemia answered demurely, 'that Lady +Hilda would know her own place too well to demean herself with such +as your lordship's tutor. If I didn't feel sure of that, I should +have to mention the matter seriously to my lady.' + +Nevertheless, the lady's-maid immediately stored up a mental note +on the subject in the lasting tablets of her memory, and did not fail +gently to insinuate her views upon the question to Lady Exmoor, as +she arranged the pearls in the false plaits for dinner that very +evening. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE WOMEN OF THE LAND. + + +'Mr. Le Breton! Mr. Le Breton! Papa says Lynmouth may go +out trout-fishing with him this afternoon. Come up with me to the +Clatter. I'm going to sketch there.' + +'Very well, Lady Hilda; if you want my criticism, I don't mind if +I do. Let me carry your things; it's rather a pull up, even for +you, with your box and easel!' + +Hilda gave him her sketch-book and colours, and they turned together +up the Cleave behind the Castle. + +A Clatter is a peculiar Devonshire feature, composed of long loose +tumbled granite blocks piled in wild disorder along the narrow summit +of a saddle-backed hill. It differs from a tor in being less high +and castellated, as well as in its longer and narrower contour. +Ernest and Hilda followed the rough path up through the gorse +and heather to the top of the ridge, and then scrambled over the +grey lichen-covered rooks together to the big logan-stone whose +evenly-poised and tilted mass crowned the actual summit. The granite +blocks were very high and rather slippery in places, for it was +rainy April weather, so that Ernest had to take his companion's +hand more than once in his to help her over the tallest boulders. +It was a small delicate hand, though Hilda was a tall well-grown +woman; ungloved, too, for the sake of the sketching; and Hilda +didn't seem by any means unwilling to accept Ernest's proffered help, +though if it had been Lord Connemara who was with her instead, she +would have scorned assistance, and scaled the great mossy masses +by herself like a mountain antelope. Light-footed and lithe of +limb was Lady Hilda, as befitted a Devonshire lass accustomed to +following the Exmoor stag-hounds across their wild country on her +own hunter. Yet she seemed to find a great deal of difficulty in +clambering up the Clatter on that particular April morning, and +move than once Ernest half fancied to himself that she leaned on his +arm longer than was absolutely necessary for support or assistance +over the stiffest places. + +'Here, by the logan, Mr. Le Breton,' she said, motioning him where +to put her camp-stool and papers. 'That's a good point of view +for the rocks yonder. You can lie down on the rug and give me the +benefit of your advice and assistance.' + +'My advice is not worth taking,' said Ernest. 'I'm a regular duffer +at painting and sketching. You should ask Lord Connemara. He knows +all about art and that sort of thing.' + +'Lord Connemara!' echoed Hilda contemptuously. 'He has a lot of +pictures in his gallery at home, and he's been told by sensible men +what's the right thing for him to say about them; but he knows no +more about art, really, than he knows about fiddlesticks.' + +'Doesn't he, indeed?' Ernest answered languidly, not feeling any +burning desire to discuss Lord Connemara's artistic attainments or +deficiencies. + +'No, he doesn't,' Hilda went on, rather defiantly, as though Ernest +had been Lady Exmoor; 'and most of these people that come here +don't either. They have galleries, and they get artists and people +who understand about pictures to talk with them, and so they learn +what's considered the proper thing to say of each of them. But +as to saying anything spontaneous or original of their own about a +picture or any other earthly thing--why, you know, Mr. Le Breton, +they couldn't possibly do it to save their lives.' + +'Well, there I should think you do them, as a class, a great +injustice,' said Ernest, quietly; 'you're evidently prejudiced +against your own people. I should think that if there's any subject +on which our old families really do know anything, it's art. Look +at their great advantages.' + +'Nonsense,' Hilda answered, decisively. 'Fiddlesticks for their +advantages. What's the good of advantages without a head on your +shoulders, I should like to know. And they haven't got heads on +their shoulders, Mr. Le Breton; you know they haven't.' + +'Why, surely,' said Ernest, in his simple fashion, looking the +question straight in the face as a matter of abstract truth, 'there +must be a great deal of ability among peers and peers' sons. All +history shows it; and it would be absurd if it weren't so; for the +mass of peers have got their peerages by conspicuous abilities of +one sort or another, as barristers, or soldiers, or politicians, +or diplomatists, and they would naturally hand on their powers to +their different descendants.' + +'Oh, yes, there are some of them with brains, I suppose,' Hilda +answered, as one who makes a great concession. 'There's Herbert +Alderney, who's member for somewhere or other--Church Stretton, I +think--and makes speeches in the House; he's clever, they say, but +such a conceited fellow to talk to. And there's Wilfrid Faunthorp, +who writes poems, and gets them printed in the magazines, too, +because he knows the editors. And there's Randolph Hastings, who +goes in for painting, and has little red and blue daubs at the +Grosvenor by special invitation of the director. But somehow they +none of them strike me as being really original. Whenever I meet +anybody worth talking to anywhere--in a railway train or so on--I +feel sure at once he's an ordinary commoner, not even Honourable; +and he is invariably, you may depend upon it.' + +'That would naturally happen on the average of instances,' Ernest +put in, smiling, 'considering the relative frequency of peers +and commoners in this realm of England. Peers, you know, or even +Honourables are not common objects of the country, numerically +speaking.' + +'They are to me, unfortunately,' Hilda replied, looking at him +inquiringly. 'I hardly ever meet anybody else, you know, and I'm +positively bored to death by them, and that's the truth, really. +It's most unlucky, under the circumstances, that I should happen +to be the daughter of one peer, and be offered promiscuously as +wife to the highest bidder among half a dozen others, if only I +would have them. But I won't, Mr. Le Breton, I really won't. I'm +not going to marry a fool, just to please my mother. Nothing on +earth would induce me to marry Lord Connemara, for example.' + +Ernest looked at her and smiled, but said nothing. + +Lady Hilda put in a stroke or two more to her pencil outline, and +then continued her unsolicited confidences. 'Do you know, Mr. Le +Breton,' she went on, 'there's a conspiracy--the usual conspiracy, +but still a regular conspiracy I call it--between Papa and Mamma +to make me marry that stick of a Connemara. What is there in him, +I should like to know, to make any girl admire or love him? And +yet half the girls in London would be glad to get him, for all his +absurdity. It's monstrous, it's incomprehensible, it's abominable; +but it's the fact. For my part, I must say I do like a little +originality. And whenever I hear Papa, and Uncle Sussex, and Lord +Connemara talking at dinner, it does seem to me too ridiculously +absurd that they should each have a separate voice in Parliament, +and that you shouldn't even have a fraction of a vote for a county +member. What sort of superiority has Lord Connemara over you, I +wonder?' And she looked at Ernest again with a searching glance, +to see whether he was to be moved by such a personal and emphatic +way of putting the matter. + +Ernest looked back at her curiously in his serious simplicity, +and only answered, 'There are a great many queer inequalities and +absurdities in all our existing political systems, Lady Hilda.' + +Hilda smiled to herself--a quiet smile, half of disappointment, +half of complacent feminine superiority. What a stupid fellow he +was in some ways, after all! Even that silly Lord Connemara would +have guessed what she was driving at, with only a quarter as much +encouragement. But Ernest must be too much afraid of the social +barrier clearly; so she began again, this time upon a slightly +different but equally obvious tack. + +'Yes, there are; absurd inequalities really, Mr. Le Breton; very +absurd inequalities. You'd get rid of them all, I know. You told me +that about cutting all the landlords' heads off, I'm sure, though +you said when I spoke about it before Mamma, the night you first +came here, that you didn't mean it. I remember it perfectly well, +because I recollect thinking at the time the idea was so charmingly +and deliciously original.' + +'You must be quite mistaken, Lady Hilda,' Ernest answered calmly. 'You +misunderstood my meaning. I said I would get rid of landlords--by +which I meant to say, get rid of them as landlords, not as individuals. +I don't even know that I'd take away the land from them all at once, +you know (though I don't think it's justly theirs); I'd deprive +them of it tentatively and gradually.' + +'Well, I can't see the justice of that, I'm sure,' Hilda answered +carelessly. 'Either the land's ours by right, or it isn't ours. If +it's ours, you ought to leave it to us for ever; and if it isn't +ours, you ought to take it away from us at once, and make it over +to the people to whom it properly belongs. Why on earth should you +keep them a day longer out of their own?' + +Ernest laughed heartily at this vehement and uncompromising +sans-culottism. 'You're a vigorous convert, anyhow,' he said, with +some amusement; 'I see you've profited by my instruction. You've +put the question very plump and straightforward. But in practice it +would be better, no doubt, gradually to educate out the landlords, +rather than to dispossess them at one blow of what they honestly, +though wrongly, imagine to be their own. Let all existing holders +keep the land during their own lifetime and their heirs', and resume +it for the nation after their lives, allowing for the rights of +all children born of marriages between people now living.' + +'Not at all,' Hilda answered in a tone of supreme conviction. 'I'm +in favour of simply cutting our heads off once for all, and making +our families pay all arrears of rent from the very beginning. +That or nothing. Put the case another way. Suppose, Mr. Le Breton, +there was somebody who had got a grant from a king a long time ago, +allowing him to hang any three persons he chose annually. Well, +suppose this person and his descendants went on for a great many +generations extorting money out of other people by threatening to +kill them and letting them off on payment of a ransom. Suppose, +too, they always killed three a year, some time or other, pour +encourager les autres--just to show that they really meant it. +Well, then, if one day the people grew wise enough to inquire into +the right of these licensed extortioners to their black mail, would +you say, "Don't deprive them of it too unexpectedly. Let them keep +it during their own lifetime. Let their children hang three of us +annually after them. But let us get rid of this fine old national +custom in the third generation." Would that be fair to the people +who would be hanged for the sake of old prescription in the interval, +do you think?' + +Ernest laughed again at the serious sincerity with which ehe +was ready to acquiesce in his economical heresies. 'You're quite +right,' he said: 'the land is the people's, and there's no reason +on earth why they should starve a minute longer in order to let +Lord Connemara pay three thousand guineas for spurious copies of +early Italian manuscripts. And yet it would be difficult to get +most people to see it. I fancy, Lady Hilda, you must really be +rather cleverer than most people.' + +'I score one,' thought Hilda to herself, 'and whatever happens, +whether I marry a peer or a revolutionist, I certainly won't marry +a fool.' 'I'm glad you think so,' she went on aloud, 'because I +know your opinion's worth having. I should like to be clever, Mr. +Le Breton, and I should like to know all about everything, but +what chance has one at Dunbude? Do you know, till you came here, I +never got any sensible conversation with anybody.' And she sighed +gently as she put her head on one side to take a good view of her +sketchy little picture. Lady Hilda's profile was certainly very +handsome, and she showed it to excellent advantage when she put her +head on one side. Ernest looked at her and thought so to himself; +and Lady Hilda's quick eye, glancing sideways for a second from +the paper, noted immediately that he thought so. + +'Mr. Le Breton,' she began again, more confidentially than ever, +'one thing I've quite made up my mind to; I won't be tied for life +to a stick like Lord Connemara. In fact, I won't marry a man in +that position at all. I shall choose for myself, and marry a man +for the worth that's in him, I assure you it's a positive fact, I've +been proposed to by no fewer than six assorted Algies and Berties +and Monties in a single season; besides which some of them follow +me even down here to Dunbude. Papa and mamma are dreadfully angry +because I won't have any of them: but I won't. I mean to wait, and +marry whoever I choose, as soon as I find a man I can really love +and honour.' + +She paused and looked hard at Ernest. 'I can't speak much plainer +than that,' she thought to herself, 'and really he must be stupider +than the Algies and the Monties themselves if he doesn't see I want +him to propose to me. I suppose all women would say it's awfully +unwomanly of me to lead up to his cards in this way--throwing myself +at his head they'd call it; but what does that matter? I WON'T +marry a fool, and I WILL marry a man of some originality. That's +the only thing in the world worth troubling one's head about. Why +on earth doesn't he take my hand, I wonder? What further can he +be waiting for?' Lady Hilda was perfectly accustomed to the usual +preliminaries of a declaration, and only awaited Ernest's first +step to proceed in due order to the second. Strange to say, her +heart was actually beating a little by anticipation. It never even +occurred to her--the belle of three seasons--that possibly Ernest +mightn't wish to marry her. So she sat looking pensively at her +picture, and sighed again quietly. + +But Ernest, wholly unsuspicious, only answered, 'You will do quite +right, Lady Hilda, to marry the man of your own choice, irrespective +of wealth or station.' + +Hilda glanced up at him curiously, with a half-disdainful smile, +and was just on the point of saying, 'But suppose the man of my +own choice won't propose to me?' However, as the words rose to her +lips, she felt there was a point at which even she should yield +to convention: and there were plenty of opportunities still before +her, without displaying her whole hand too boldly and immediately. +So she merely turned with another sigh, this time a genuine one, to +her half-sketched outline. 'I shall bring him round in time,' she +said to herself, blushing a little at her unexpected discomfiture. +'I shall bring him round in time; I shall make him propose to me! +I don't care if I have to live in a lodging with him, and wash up +my own tea-things; I shall marry him; that I'm resolved upon. He's +as mad as a March hare about his Communism and his theories and +things; but I don't care for that; I could live with him in comfort, +and I couldn't live in comfort with the Algies and Monties. In fact, +I believe--in a sort of way--I believe I'm almost in love with him. +I have a kind of jumpy feeling in my heart when I'm talking with +him that I never feel when I'm talking with other young men, even +the nicest of them. He's not nice; he's a bear; and yet, somehow, +I should like to marry him.' + +'Mr. Le Breton,' she said aloud, 'the sun's all wrong for sketching +to-day, and besides it's too chilly. I must run about a bit among +the rocks.' ('At least I shall take his hand to help me,' she +thought, blushing.) 'Come and walk with me? It's no use trying to +draw with one's hands freezing.' And she crumpled up the unfinished +sketch hastily between her fingers. Ernest jumped up to follow her; +and they spent the next hour scrambling up and down the Clatter, +and talking on less dangerous subjects than Lady Hilda's matrimonial +aspirations. + +'Still I shall make him ask me yet,' Lady Hilda thought to herself, +as she parted from him to go up and dress for dinner. 'I shall +manage to marry him, somehow; or if I don't marry him, at any rate +I'll marry somebody like him.' For it was really the principle, +not the person, that Lady Hilda specially insisted upon. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE DAUGHTERS OF CANAAN. + + +May, beautiful May, had brought the golden flowers, and the trees +in the valley behind the sleepy old town of Calcombe Pomeroy were +decking themselves in the first wan green of their early spring +foliage. The ragged robins were hanging out, pinky red, from the +hedgerows; the cuckoo was calling from the copse beside the mill +stream; and the merry wee hedge-warblers were singing lustily from +the topmost sprays of hawthorn, with their full throats bursting +tremulously in the broad sunshine. And Ernest Le Breton, too, +filled with the season, had come down from Dunbude for a fortnight's +holiday, on his premised visit to his friend Oswald, or, to say +the truth more plainly, to Oswald's pretty little sister Edie. For +Ernest had fully made up his mind by this time what it was he had +come for, and he took the earliest possible opportunity of taking +a walk with Edie alone, through the tiny glen behind the town, where +the wee stream tumbles lazily upon the big slow-turning vanes of +the overshot mill-wheel. + +'Let us sit down a bit on the bank here, Miss Oswald,' he said to +his airy little companion, as they reached the old stone bridge that +crosses the stream just below the mill-house; 'it's such a lovely +day one feels loath to miss any of it, and the scenery here looks +so bright and cheerful after the endless brown heather and russet +bracken about Dunbude. Not that Exmoor isn't beautiful in its way, +too--all Devonshire is beautiful alike for that matter; but then +it's more sombre and woody in the north, and much less spring-like +than this lovely quiet South Devon country.' + +'I'm so glad you like Calcombe,' Edie said, with one of her unfailing +blushes at the indirect flattery to herself implied in praise of +her native county; 'and you think it prettier than Dunbude, then, +do you?' + +'Prettier in its own way, yes, though not so grand of course; +everything here is on a smaller scale. Dunbude, you know, is almost +mountainous.' + +'And the Castle?' Edie asked, bringing round the conversation to +her own quarter, 'is that very fine? At all like Warwick, or our +dear old Arlingford?' + +'Oh, it isn't a castle at all, really,' Ernest answered; 'only +a very big and ugly house. As architecture it's atrocious, though +it's comfortable enough inside for a place of the sort.' + +'And the Exmoors, are they nice people? What kind of girl is Lady +Hilda, now?' Poor little Edie? she asked the question shyly, but +with a certain deep beating in her heart, for she had often canvassed +with herself the vague possibility that Ernest might actually fall +in love with Lady Hilda. Had he fallen in love with her already, +or had he not? She knew she would be able to guess the truth by his +voice and manner the moment he answered her. No man can hide that +secret from a woman who loves him. Yet it was not without a thrill +and a flutter that she asked him, for she thought to herself, what +must she seem to him after all the grand people he had been mixing +with so lately at Dunbude? Was it possible he could see anything +in her, a little country village girl, coming to her fresh from +the great ladies of that unknown and vaguely terrible society? + +'Lady Hilda!' Ernest answered, laughing--and as he said the words +Edie knew in her heart that her question was answered, and blushed +once more in her bewitching fashion. 'Lady Hilda! Oh, she's a +very queer girl, indeed; she's not at all clever, really, but she +has the one virtue of girls of her class--their perfect frankness. +She's frank all over--no reserve or reticence at all about her. +Whatever she thinks she says, without the slightest idea that you'll +see anything to laugh at or to find fault with in it. In matters +of knowledge, she's frankly ignorant. In matters of taste, she's +frankly barbaric. In matters of religion, she's frankly heathen. And +in matters of ethics, she's frankly immoral--or rather extra-moral,' +he added, quickly correcting himself for the misleading expression. + +'I shouldn't think from your description she can be a very +nice person,' Edie said, greatly relieved, and pulling a few tall +grasses at her side by way of hiding her interest in the subject. +'She can't be a really nice girl if she's extra-moral, as you call +it.' + +'Oh, I don't mean she'd cut one's throat or pick one's pocket, +you know,' Ernest went on quickly, with a gentle smile. 'She's got +a due respect for the ordinary conventional moralities like other +people, no doubt; but in her case they're only social prejudices, +not genuine ethical principles. I don't suppose she ever seriously +asked herself whether anything was right or wrong or not in her +whole lifetime. In fact, I'm sure she never did; and if anybody +else were to do so, she'd be immensely surprised and delighted at +the startling originality and novelty of thought displayed in such +a view of the question.' + +'But she's very handsome, isn't she?' Edie asked, following up +her inquiry with due diligence. + +'Handsome? oh, yes, in a bold sort of actress fashion. Very handsome, +but not, to me at least, pleasing. I believe most men admire her a +great deal; but she lacks a feminine touch dreadfully. She dashes +away through everything as if she was hunting; and she DOES hunt +too, which I think bad enough in anybody, and horrible in a woman.' + +'Then you haven't fallen in love with her, Mr. Le Breton? I half +imagined you would, you know, as I'm told she's so very attractive.' + +'Fallen in love with HER, Miss Oswald! Fallen in love with Hilda +Tregellis! What an absurd notion! Heaven forbid it!' + +'Why so, please?' + +'Why, in the first place, what would be the use of it? Fancy Lady +Exmoor's horror at the bare idea of her son's tutor falling in love +with Lady Hilda! I assure you, Miss Oswald, she would evaporate at +the very mention of such an unheard-of enormity. A man must be, if +not an earl, at least a baronet with five thousand a year, before +he dare face the inexpressible indignation of Lady Exmoor with an +offer of marriage for Lady Hilda.' + +'But people don't always fall in love by tables of precedence,' +Edie put in simply. 'It's quite possible, I suppose, for a man +who isn't a duke himself to fall in love with a duke's daughter, +even though the duke her papa mayn't personally happen to approve +of the match. However, you don't seem to think Lady Hilda herself +a pleasant girl, even apart from the question of Lady Exmoor's +requirements?' + +'Miss Oswald,' Ernest said, looking at her suddenly, as she sat +half hiding her face with her parasol, and twitching more violently +than ever at the tall grasses; 'Miss Oswald, to tell you the truth, +I haven't been thinking much about Hilda Tregellis or any of the +other girls I've met at Dunbude, and for a very sufficient reason, +because I've had my mind too much preoccupied by somebody else +elsewhere.' + +Edie blushed even more prettily than before, and held her peace, +half raising her eyes for a second in an enquiring glance at his, +and then dropping them hastily as they met, in modest trepidation. +At that moment Ernest had never seen anything so beautiful or so +engaging as Edie Oswald. + +'Edie,' he said, beginning again more boldly, and taking her little +gloved hand almost unresistingly in his; 'Edie, you know my secret. +I love you. Can you love me?' + +Edie looked up at him shyly, the tears glistening and trembling a +little in the corner of her big bright eyes, and for a moment she +answered nothing. Then she drew away her hand hastily and said with +a sigh, 'Mr. Le Breton, we oughtn't to be talking so. We mustn't. +Don't let us. Take me home, please, at once, and don't say anything +more about it.' But her heart beat within her bosom with a violence +that was not all unpleasing, and her looks half belied her words +to Ernest's keen glance even as she spoke them. + +'Why not, Edie?' he said, drawing her down again gently by her +little hand as she tried to rise hesitatingly. 'Why not? tell me. +I've looked into your face, and though I can hardly dare to hope +it or believe it, I do believe I read in it that you really might +love me.' + +'Oh, Mr. Le Breton,' Edie answered, a tear now quivering visibly +on either eyelash, 'don't ask me, please don't ask me. I wish you +wouldn't. Take me home, won't you?' + +Ernest dropped her hand quietly, with a little show of despondency +that was hardly quite genuine, for his eyes had already told him +better. 'Then you can't love me, Miss Oswald,' he said, looking at +her closely. 'I'm sorry for it, very sorry for it; but I'm grieved +if I have seemed presumptuous in asking you.' + +This time the two tears trickled slowly down Edie's cheek--not very +sad tears either--and she answered hurriedly, 'Oh, I don't mean +that, Mr. Le Breton, I don't mean that. You misunderstand me, I'm +sure you misunderstand me.' + +Ernest caught up the trembling little hand again. 'Then you CAN +love me, Edie?' he said eagerly, 'you can love me?' + +Edie answered never a word, but bowed her head and cried a little, +silently. Ernest took the dainty wee gloved hand between his own two +hands and pressed it tenderly. He felt in return a faint pressure. + +'Then why won't you let me love you, Edie?' he asked, looking at +the blushing girl once more. + +'Oh, Mr. Le Breton,' Edie said, rising and moving away from +the path a little under the shade of the big elm-tree, 'it's very +wrong of me to let you talk so. I mustn't think of marrying you, +and you mustn't think of marrying me. Consider the difference in +our positions.' + +'Is that all?' Ernest answered gaily. 'Oh, Edie, if that's all, +it isn't a very difficult matter to settle. My position's exactly +nothing, for I've got no money and no prospects; and if I ask you +to marry me, it must be in the most strictly speculative fashion, +with no date and no certainty. The only question is, will you +consent to wait for me till I'm able to offer you a home to live +in? It's asking you a great deal, I know; and you've made me only +too happy and too grateful already; but if you'll wait for me till +we can marry, I shall live all my life through to repay you for +your sacrifice.' + +'But, Mr. Le Breton,' Edie said, turning towards the path and +drying her eyes quickly, 'I really don't think you ought to marry +me. The difference in station is so great--even Harry would allow +the difference in station. Your father was a great man, and a general +and a knight, you know; and though my dear father is the best and +kindest of men, he isn't anything of that sort, of course.' + +A slight shade of pain passed across Ernest's face. 'Edie,' he said, +'please don't talk about that--please don't. My father was a just +and good man, whom I loved and honoured deeply; if there's anything +good in any of us boys, it comes to us from my dear father. But +please don't speak to me about his profession. It's one of the +griefs and troubles of my life. He was a soldier, and an Indian +soldier too; and if there's anything more certain to me than the +principle that all fighting is very wrong and indefensible, it's +the principle that our rule in India is utterly unjust and wicked. +So instead of being proud of my father's profession, much as +I respected him, I'm profoundly ashamed of it; and it has been a +great question to me always how far I was justified at all in living +upon the pension given me for his Indian services.' + +Edie looked at him half surprised and half puzzled. It was to her +such an odd and unexpected point of view. But she felt instinctively +that Ernest really and deeply meant what he said, and she knew she +must not allude to the subject again. 'I beg your pardon,' she said +simply, 'if I've put it wrong; yet you know I can't help feeling +the great disparity in our two situations.' + +'Edie,' said Ernest, looking at her again with all his eyes--'I'm +going to call you "Edie" always now, so that's understood between +us. Well, I shall tell you exactly how I feel about this matter. +From the first moment I saw you I felt drawn towards you, I felt that +I couldn't help admiring you and sympathising with you and loving +you. If I dared I would have spoken to you that day at Iffley; but +I said to myself "She will not care for me; and besides, it would +be wrong of me to ask her just yet." I had nothing to live upon, +and I oughtn't to ask you to wait for me--you who are so pretty, +and sweet and good, and clever--I ought to leave you free to your +natural prospect of marrying some better man, who would make you +happier than I can ever hope to do. So I tried to put the impulse +aside; I waited, saying to myself that if you really cared for me +a little bit, you would still care for me when I came to Calcombe +Pomeroy. But then my natural selfishness overcame me--you +can forgive me for it, Edie; how could I help it when I had once +seen you? I began to be afraid some other man would be beforehand +with you; and I liked you so much I couldn't bear to think of the +chance that you might be taken away from me before I asked you. +All day long, as I've been walking alone on those high grey moors +at Dunbude, I've been thinking of you; and at last I made up my +mind that I MUST come and ask you to be my wife--some time--whenever +we could afford to marry. I know I'm asking you to make a great +sacrifice for me; it's more than I have any right to ask you; I'm +ashamed of myself for asking it; I can only make you a poor man's +wife, and how long I may have to wait even for that I can't say; +but if you'll only consent to wait for me, Edie, I'll do the best +that lies in me to make you as happy and to love you as well as +any man on earth could ever do.' + +Edie turned her face towards his, and said softly, 'Mr. Le Breton, +I will wait for you as long as ever you wish; and I'm so happy, oh +so happy.' + +There was a pause for a few moments, and then, as they walked +homeward down the green glen, Edie said, with something more of +her usual archness, 'So after all you haven't fallen in love with +Lady Hilda! Do you know, Mr. Le Breton, I rather fancied at Oxford +you liked me just a little tiny bit; but when I heard you were +going to Dunbude I said to myself, "Ah, now he'll never care for a +quiet country girl like me!" And when I knew you were coming down +here to Calcombe, straight from all those grand ladies at Dunbude, +I felt sure you'd be disenchanted as soon as you saw me, and never +think anything more about me.' + +'Then you liked me, Edie?' Ernest asked eagerly. 'You wanted me +really to come to Calcombe to see you?' + +'Of course I did, Mr. Le Breton. I've liked you from the first +moment I saw you.' + +'I'm so glad,' Ernest went on quickly. 'I believe all real love +is love at first sight. I wouldn't care myself to be loved in any +other way. And you thought I might fall in love with Lady Hilda?' + +'Well, you know, she is sure to be so handsome, and so accomplished, +and to have had so many advantages that I have never had. I was +afraid I should seem so very simple to you after Lady Hilda.' + +'Oh, Edie!' cried Ernest, stopping a moment, and gazing at the +little light airy figure. 'I only wish you could know the difference. +Coming from Dunbude to Calcombe is like coming from darkness into +light. Up there one meets with nobody but essentially vulgar-minded +selfish people--people whose whole life is passed in thinking and +talking about nothing but dogs, and horses, and partridges, and +salmon; racing, and hunting, and billiards, and wines; amusements, +amusements, amusements, all of them coarse and most of them cruel, +all day long. Their talk is just like the talk of grooms and +gamekeepers in a public-house parlour, only a little improved by +better English and more money. Will So-and-so win the Derby? What +a splendid run we had with the West Somerset on Wednesday! Were +you in at the death of that big fox at Coulson's Corner? Ought the +new vintages of Madeira to be bottled direct or sent round the Cape +like the old ones? Capital burlesque at the Gaiety, but very slow +at the Lyceum. Who will go to the Duchess of Dorsetshire's dance +on the twentieth:--and so forth for ever. Their own petty round +of selfish pleasures from week's end to week's end--no thought of +anybody else, no thought of the world at large, no thought even +of any higher interest in their own personalities. Their politics +are just a selfish calculation of their own prospects--land, Church, +capital, privilege. Their religion (when they have any) is just +a selfish regard for their own personal future welfare. From the +time I went to Dunbude to this day, I've never heard a single word +about any higher thought of any sort--I don't mean only about the +troubles or the aspirations of other people, but even about books, +about science, about art, about natural beauty. They live in a world +of amusing oneself and of amusing oneself in vulgar fashions--as a +born clown would do if he came suddenly into a large fortune. The +women are just as bad as the men, only in a different way--not +always even that; for most of them think only of the Four-in-hand +Club and the pigeon-shooting at Hurlingham--things to sicken one. +Now, I've known selfish people before, but not selfish people +utterly without any tincture of culture. I come away from Dunbude, +and come down here to Calcombe: and the difference in the atmosphere +makes one's very breath come and go freer. And I look at you, Edie, +and think of you beside Lady Hilda Tregellis, and I laugh in my +heart at the difference that artificial rules have made between +you. I wish you knew how immeasurably her superior you are in +every way. The fact is, it's a comfort to escape from Dunbude for +a while and get down here to feel oneself once more, in the only +true sense of the word, in a little good society.' + +While these things were happening in the Bourne Close, palsied old +Miss Luttrell, mumbling and grumbling inarticulately to herself, +was slowly tottering down the steep High Street of Calcombe Pomeroy, +on her way to the village grocer's. She shambled in tremulously +to Mrs. Oswald's counter, and seating herself on a high stool, as +was her wont, laid herself out distinctly for a list of purchases +and a good deliberate ill-natured gossip. + +'Two pounds of coffee, if you please, Mrs. Oswald,' she began with +a quaver; 'coffee, mind, I say, not chicory; your stuff always has +the smallest possible amount of flavour in it, it seems to me, for +the largest possible amount of quantity; all chicory, all chicory--no +decent coffee to be had now in Calcombe Pomeroy. So your son's at +home this week, is he? Out of work, I suppose? I saw him lounging +about on the beach, idling away his time, yesterday; pity he wasn't +at some decent trade, instead of hanging about and doing nothing, +as if he was a gentleman. Five pounds of lump sugar, too; good lump +sugar, though I expect I shall get nothing but beetroot; it's all +beetroot now, my brother tells me; they've ruined the West Indies +with their emancipation fads and their differential duties and +the Lord knows what--we had estates in the West Indies ourselves, +all given up to our negroes nowadays--and now I believe they have +to pay the French a bounty or something of the sort to induce +them to make sugar out of beetroot, because the negroes won't work +without whipping, so I understand; that's what comes in the end of +your Radical fal-lal notions. Well, five pounds of lump, and five +pounds of moist, though the one's as bad as the other, really. A +great pity about your son. I hope he'll get a place again soon. It +must be a trial to you to have him so idle!' + +'Well, no, ma'am, it's not,' Mrs. Oswald answered, with such +self-restraint as she could command. 'It's not much of a trial to +his father and me, for we're glad to let him have a little rest +after working so hard at Oxford. He works too hard, ma'am, but he +gets compensation for it, don't 'ee see, Miss Luttrell, for he's +just been made a Fellow of the Royal Society--"for his mathematical +eminence," the "Times" says--a Fellow of the Royal Society.' + +Even this staggering blow did not completely crush old Miss Luttrell. +'Fellow of the Royal Society,' she muttered feebly through her +remaining teeth. 'Must be some mistake somewhere, Mrs. Oswald--quite +impossible. A very meritorious young man, your son, doubtless; +but a National schoolmaster's hardly likely to be made a Fellow of +the Royal Society. Oh, I remember you told me he's not a National +schoolmaster, but has something to do at one of the Oxford colleges. +Yes, yes; I see what it is--Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. +You subscribe a guinea, and get made a Fellow by subscription, +just for the sake of writing F.R.G.S. after your name; it gives a +young man a look of importance.' + +'No, Miss Luttrell, it isn't that; it's THE Royal Society; and if +you'll wait a moment, ma'am, I'll fetch you the president's letter, +and the diploma, to let you see it.' + +'Oh, no occasion to trouble yourself, Mrs. Oswald!' the old lady put +in, almost with alacrity, for she had herself seen the announcement +of Harry Oswald's election in the 'Times' a few days before. 'No +occasion to trouble yourself, I'm sure; I daresay you may be right, +and at any rate it's no business of mine, thank heaven. I never +want to poke my nose into anybody else's business. Well, talking +of Oxford, Mrs. Oswald, there's a very nice young man down here +at present; I wonder if you know where he's lodging? I want to ask +him to dinner. He's a young Mr. Le Breton--one of the Cheshire Le +Bretons, you know. His father was Sir Owen Le Breton, a general in +the Indian army--brother officer of Major Standish Luttrell's and +very nice people in every way. Lady Le Breton's a great friend of +the Archdeacon's, so I should like to show her son some little +attention. He's had a very distinguished career at Oxford--your +boy may have heard his name, perhaps--and now he's acting as tutor +to Lord Lynmouth, the eldest son of Lord Exmoor, you know; Lady +Exmoor was a second cousin of my brother's wife; very nice people, +all of them. The Le Bretons are a really good family, you see; and +the Archdeacon's exceedingly fond of them. So I thought if you could +tell me where this young man is lodging--you shop-people pick up +all the gossip in the place, always--I'd ask him to dinner to meet +the Rector and Colonel Turnbull and my nephew, who would probably +be able to offer him a little shooting.' + +'There's no partridges about in May, Miss Luttrell,' said Mrs. +Oswald, quietly smiling to herself at the fancy picture of Ernest +seated in congenial converse with the Rector, Colonel Turnbull, +and young Luttrell; 'but as to Mr. Le Breton, I DO happen to know +where he's stopping, though it's not often that I know any Calcombe +gossip, save and except what you're good enough to tell me when you +drop in, ma'am; for Mr. Le Breton's stopping here, in this house, +with us, ma'am, this very minute.' + +'In this house, Mrs. Oswald!' the old lady cried with a start, +wagging her unsteady old head this time in genuine surprise; 'why, +I didn't know you let lodgings. I thought you and your daughter +were too much of fine ladies for THAT, really. I'm glad to hear +it. I'll leave a note for him.' + +'No, Miss Luttrell, we don't let lodgings, ma'am, and we don't need +to,' Mrs. Oswald answered, proudly. 'Mr. Le Breton's stopping here +as my son's guest. They were friends at Oxford together: and now +that Mr. Le Breton has got his holiday, like, Harry's asked him +down to spend a fortnight at Calcombe Pomeroy. And if you'll leave +a note I'll be very happy to give it to him as soon as he comes +in, for he's out walking now with Harry and Edith.' + +Old Miss Luttrell sat for half a minute in unwonted silence, +revolving in her poor puzzled head what line of tactics she ought +to adopt under such a very singular and annoying combination of +circumstances. Stopping at the village grocer's!--this was really +too atrocious! The Le Bretons were all as mad as hatters, that she +knew well; all except the mother, who was a sensible person, and +quite rational. But old Sir Owen was a man with the most absurd +religious fancies--took an interest in the souls of the soldiers; +quite right and proper, of course, in a chaplain, but really too +ridiculous in a regular field officer. No doubt Ernest Le Breton +had taken up some equally extraordinary notions--liberty, equality, +fraternity, and a general massacre, probably; and he had picked up +Harry Oswald as a suitable companion in his revolutionary schemes +and fancies. There was no knowing what stone wall one of those +mad Le Bretons might choose to run his head against. Still, the +practical difficulty remained--how could she extricate herself from +this awkward dilemma in such a way as to cover herself with glory, +and inflict another bitter humiliation on poor Mrs. Oswald? If only +she had known sooner that Ernest was stopping at the Oswalds, she +wouldn't have been so loud in praise of the Le Breton family; she +would in that case have dexterously insinuated that Lady Le Breton +was only a half-pay officer's widow, living on her pension; and +that her boys had got promotion at Oxford as poor scholars, through +the Archdeacon's benevolent influence. It was too late now, however, +to adopt that line of defence; and she fell back accordingly upon +the secondary position afforded her by the chance of taking down +Mrs. Oswald's intolerable insolence in another fashion. + +'Oh, he's out walking with your daughter, is he?' she said, maliciously. +'Out walking with your daughter, Mrs. Oswald, NOT with your son. +I saw her passing down the meadows half an hour ago with a strange +young man; and her brother stopped behind near the millpond. A +strange young man; yes, I noticed particularly that he looked like +a gentleman, and I was quite surprised that you should let her walk +out with him in that extraordinary manner. Depend upon it, Mrs. +Oswald, when young gentlemen in Mr. Le Breton's position go out +walking with young women in your daughter's position, they mean no +good by it--they mean no good by it. Take my advice, Mrs. Oswald, +and don't permit it. Mr. Le Breton's a very nice young man, and well +brought up no doubt--I know his mother's a woman of principle--still, +young men will be young men; and if your son goes bringing down +his fine Oxford acquaintances to Calcombe Pomeroy, and you and your +husband go flinging Miss Jemima--her name's Jemima, I think--at +the young men's heads, why, then, of course, you must take +the consequences--you must take the consequences!' And with this +telling Parthian shot discharged carefully from the shadow of the +doorway, accompanied by a running comment of shrugs, nods, and +facial distortions, old Miss Luttrell successfully shuffled herself +out of the shop, her list unfinished, leaving poor Mrs. Oswald +alone and absolutely speechless with indignation. Ernest Le Breton +never got a note of invitation from the Squire's sister: but before +nightfall all that was visitable in Calcombe Pomeroy had heard at +full length of the horrid conspiracy by which those pushing upstart +Oswalds had inveigled a son of poor Lady Le Breton's down to stop +with them, and were now trying to ruin his prospects by getting +him to marry their brazen-faced hussey, Jemima Edith. + +When Edie returned from her walk that afternoon, Mrs. Oswald went +up into her bedroom to see her daughter. She knew at once from +Edie's radiant blushing face and moist eyes what had taken place, +and she kissed the pretty shrinking girl tenderly on her forehead. +'Edie darling, I hope you will be happy,' she whispered significantly. + +'Then you guess it all, mother dear?' asked Edie, relieved that +she need not tell her story in set words. + +'Yes, darling,' said the mother, kissing her again. 'And you said +"yes."' + +Edie coloured once more. 'I said "yes," mother, for I love him +dearly.' + +'He's a dear fellow,' the mother answered gently; 'and I'm sure +he'll do his best to make you happy.' + +Later on in the day, Harry came up and knocked at Edie's door. His +mother had told him all about it, and so had Ernest. 'Popsy,' he +said, kissing her also, 'I congratulate you. I'm so glad about +it. Le Breton's the best fellow I know, and I couldn't wish you a +better or a kinder husband. You'll have to wait for him, but he's +worth waiting for. He's a good fellow and a clever fellow, and an +affectionate fellow; and his family are everything that could be +desired. It'll be a splendid thing for you to be able to talk in +future about "my mother-in law, Lady Le Breton." Depend upon it, +Edie dear, that always counts for something in society.' + +Edie blushed again, but this time with a certain tinge of shame +and disappointment. She had never thought of that herself, and she +was hurt that Harry should think and speak of it at such a moment. +She felt with a sigh it was unworthy of him and unworthy of the +occasion. Truly the iron of Pi and its evaluations had entered +deeply into his soul! + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CULTURE AND CULTURE. + + +'I wonder, Berkeley,' said Herbert Le Breton, examining a coin +curiously, 'what on earth can ever have induced you, with your +ideas and feelings, to become a parson!' + +'My dear Le Breton, your taste, like good wine, improves with +age,' answered Berkeley, coldly. 'There are many reasons, any one +of which may easily induce a sensible man to go into the Church. +For example, he may feel a disinterested desire to minister to +the souls of his poorer neighbours; or he may be first cousin to a +bishop; or he may be attracted by an ancient and honourable national +institution; or he may possess a marked inclination for albs and +chasubles; or he may reflect upon the distinct social advantages +of a good living; or he may have nothing else in particular to do; +or he may simply desire to rouse the impertinent curiosity of all +the indolent quidnuncs of his acquaintance, without the remotest +intention of ever gratifying their underbred Paul Pry proclivities.' + +Herbert Le Breton winced a little--he felt he had fairly laid himself +open to this unmitigated rebuff--but he did not retire immediately +from his untenable position. 'I suppose,' he said quietly, 'there +are still people who really do take a practical interest in other +people's souls--my brother Ronald does for one--but the idea +is positively too ridiculous. Whenever I read any argument upon +immortality it always seems to me remarkably cogent, if the souls +in question were your soul and my soul; but just consider the +transparent absurdity of supposing that every Hodge Chawbacon, and +every rheumatic old Betty Martin, has got a soul, too, that must +go on enduring for all eternity! The notion's absolutely ludicrous. +What an infinite monotony of existence for the poor old creatures +to endure for ever--being bored by their own inane personalities +for a million aeons! It's simply appalling to think of!' + +But Berkeley wasn't going to be drawn into a theological discussion--that +was a field which he always sedulously and successfully avoided. +'The immortality of the soul,' he said quietly, 'is a Platonic dogma +too frequently confounded, even by moderately instructed persons +like yourself, Le Breton, with the Church's very different doctrine +of the resurrection of the body. Upon this latter subject, my dear +fellow, about which you don't seem to be quite clear or perfectly +sound in your views, you'll find some excellent remarks in Bishop +Pearson on the Creed--a valuable work which I had the pleasure of +studying intimately for my ordination examination.' + +'Really, Berkeley, you're the most incomprehensible and mysterious +person I ever met in my whole lifetime!' said Herbert, dryly. 'I +believe you take a positive delight in deceiving and mystifying +one. Do you seriously mean to tell me you feel any interest at the +present time of day in books written by bishops?' + +'A modern bishop,' Berkeley answered calmly, 'is an unpicturesque +but otherwise estimable member of a very distinguished ecclesiastical +order, who ought not lightly to be brought into ridicule by lewd +or lay persons. On that ground, I have always been in favour myself +of gradually reforming his hat, his apron, and even his gaiters, +which doubtless serve to render him at least conspicuous if not +positively absurd in the irreverent eyes of a ribald generation. +But as to criticising his literary or theological productions, my +dear fellow, that would be conduct eminently unbecoming in a simple +curate, and savouring of insubordination even in the person of an +elderly archdeacon. I decline, therefore, to discuss the subject, +especially with a layman on whose orthodoxy I have painful +doubts.--Where's Oswald? Is he up yet?' + +'No; he's down in Devonshire, my brother Ernest writes me.' + +'What, at Dunbude? What's Oswald doing there?' + +'Oh dear no; not at Dunbude: the peerage hasn't yet adopted him--at +a place called Calcombe Pomeroy, where it seems he lives. Ernest +has gone down there from Exmoor for a fortnight's holiday. You +remember, Oswald has a pretty sister--I met her here in your rooms +last October, in fact--and I apprehend she may possibly form a +measurable portion of the local attractions. A pretty face goes a +long way with some people.' + +Berkeley drew a deep breath, and looked uneasily out of the window. +This was dangerous news, indeed! What, little Miss Butterfly, has +the boy with the gauze net caught sight of you already? Will he +trap you and imprison you so soon in his little gilded matrimonial +cage, enticing you thereinto with soft words and, sugared compliments +to suit your dainty, delicate palate? and must I, who have meant to +chase you for the chief ornament of my own small cabinet, be only +in time to see you pinioned and cabined in your white lace veils +and other pretty disguised entanglements, for his special and +particular delectation? This must be looked into, Miss Butterfly; +this must be prevented. Off to Calcombe Pomeroy, then, or other +parts unknown, this very next to-morrow; and let us fight out the +possession of little Miss Butterfly with our two gauze nets in +opposition--mine tricked as prettily as I can trick it with tags +and ends of art-allurements and hummed to in a delicate tune--before +this interloping anticipating Le Breton has had time to secure you +absolutely for himself. Too austere for you, little Miss Butterfly; +good in his way, and kindly meaning, but too austere. Better come +and sun yourself in the modest wee palace of art that I mean to +build myself some day in some green, sunny, sloping valley, where +your flittings will not be rudely disturbed by breath of poverty, +nor your pretty feathery wings ruthlessly clipped with a pair +of doctrinaire, ethico-socialistic scissors. To Calcombe, then, +to Calcombe--and not a day's delay before I get there. So much of +thought, in his own quaint indefinite fashion, flitted like lightning +through Arthur Berkeley's perturbed mind, as he stood gazing +wistfully for one second out of his pretty latticed creeper-clad +window. Then he remembered himself quickly with a short little +sigh, and turned to answer Herbert Le Breton's last half-sneering +innuendo. + +'Something more than a pretty face merely,' he said, surveying +Herbert coldly from head to foot; 'a heart too, and a mind, for +all her flitting, not wholly unfurnished with good, sensible, solid +mahogany English furniture. You may be sure Harry Oswald's sister +isn't likely to be wanting in wits, at any rate.' + +'Oswald's a curious fellow,' Herbert went on, changing the venue, +as he always did when he saw Berkeley was really in earnest; 'he's +very clever, certainly, but he can never outlive his bourgeois +origin. The smell of tea sticks about him somehow to the end of +the chapter. Don't you know, Berkeley, there are some fellows whose +clothes seem to have been born with them, they fit so perfectly +and impede their movement so little; while there are other fellows +whose clothes look at once as if they'd been made for them by a +highly respectable but imperfectly successful tailor. That's just +what I always think about Harry Oswald in the matter of culture. +He's got a great deal of culture, the very best culture, from the +very best shop--Oxford, in fact--dressed himself up in the finest +suit of clothes from the most fashionable mental tailor; but it +doesn't seem to fit him naturally. He moves about in it uneasily, +like a man unaccustomed to be clothed by a good workman. He looks +in his mental upholstery like a greengrocer in evening dress. Now +there's all the difference in the world between that sort of put-on +culture and culture in the grain, isn't there? You may train up a +grocer's son to read Dante, and to play Mendelssohn's Lieder, and +to admire Fra Angelico; but you can't train him up to wear these +things lightly and gracefully upon him as you and I do, who come +by them naturally. WE are born to the sphere; HE rises to it.' + +'You think so, Le Breton?' asked the curate with a quiet and +suppressed smile, as he thought silently of the placid old shoemaker. + +'Think so! my dear fellow, I'm sure of it. I can spot a man of +birth from a man of mere exterior polish any day, anywhere. Talk +as much nonsense as you like about all men being born free and +equal--they're not. They're born with natural inequalities in their +very nerve and muscle. When I was an undergraduate, I startled +one of the tutors of that time by beginning my English essay once, +"All men are by nature born free and unequal." I stick to it still; +it's the truth. They say it takes three generations to make a +gentleman; nonsense utterly; it takes at least a dozen. You can't +work out the common fibre in such a ridiculous hurry. That results +as a simple piece of deductive reasoning from all modern theories +of heredity and variation.' + +'I agree with you in part, Le Breton,' the parson said, eyeing him +closely; 'in part but not altogether. What you say about Oswald's +very largely true. His culture sits upon him like a suit made to +order, not like a skin in which he was born. But don't you think +that's due more to the individual man than to the class he happens +to belong to? It seems to me there are other men who come from the +same class as Oswald, or even from lower classes, but whose culture +is just as much ingrained as, say, my dear fellow, yours is. They +were born, no doubt, of naturally cultivated parents. And that's how +your rule about the dozen generations that go to make a gentleman +comes really true. I believe myself it takes a good many generations; +but then none of them need have been gentlemen, in the ordinary sense +of the word, before him. A gentleman, if I'm to use the expression +as implying the good qualities conventionally supposed to be associated +with it, a gentleman may be the final outcome and efflorescence of +many past generations of quiet, unobtrusive, working-man culture--don't +you think so?' + +Herbert Le Breton smiled incredulously. 'I don't know that I do, +quite,' he answered languidly. 'I confess I attach more importance +than you do to the mere question of race and family. A thoroughbred +differs from a cart-horse, and a greyhound from a vulgar mongrel, +in mind and character as well as in body. Oswald seems to me in +all essentials a bourgeois at heart even now.' + +'But remember,' Berkeley said, rather warmly for him, 'the bourgeois +class in England is just the class which must necessarily find +it hardest to throw off the ingrained traces of its early origin. +It has intermarried for a long time--long enough to have produced +a distinct racial type like those you speak of among dogs and +horses--the Philistine type, in fact--and when it tries to emerge, +it must necessarily fight hard against the innate Philistinism of +which it is conscious in its own constitution. No class has had +its inequality with others, its natural inferiority, so constantly +and cruelly thrust in its face; certainly the working-man has not. +The working-man who makes efforts to improve himself is encouraged; +the working-man who rises is taken by the hand; the working-man, +whatever he does, is never sneered at. But it's very different with +the shopkeeper. Naturally a little prone to servility--that comes +from the very necessities of the situation--and laudably anxious +to attain the level of those he considers his superiors, he gets +laughed at on every hand. Being the next class below society, +society is always engaged in trying to keep him out and keep him +down. On the other hand, he naturally forms his ideal of what is +fine and worth imitating from the example of the class above him; +and therefore, considering what that class is, he has unworthy aims +and snobbish desires. Either in his own person, or in the persons +of his near relations, the wholesale merchant and the manufacturer--all +bourgeois alike--he supplies the mass of nouveaux riches who are +the pet laughing-stock of all our playwrights, and novelists, and +comic papers. So the bourgeois who really knows he has something +in him, like Harry Oswald, feels from the beginning painfully +conscious of the instability of his position, and of the fact that +men like you are cutting jokes behind his back about the smell of +tea that still clings to him. That's a horrible drag to hold a man +back--the sense that he must always be criticised as one of his +own class--and that a class with many recognised failings. It makes +him self-conscious, and I believe self-consciousness is really at +the root of that slight social awkwardness you think you notice +in Harry Oswald. A working-man's son need never feel that. I feel +sure there are working-men's sons who go through the world as +gentlemen mixing with gentlemen, and never give the matter of their +birth one moment's serious consideration. Their position never +troubles them, and it never need trouble them. Put it to yourself, +now, Le Breton. Suppose I were to tell you my father was a working +shoemaker, for example, or a working carpenter, you'd never think +anything more about it; but if I were to tell you he was a grocer, +or a baker, or a confectioner, or an ironmonger, you'd feel a certain +indefinable class barrier set up between us two immediately and +ever after. Isn't it so, now?' + +'Perhaps it is,' Herbert answered dubitatively. 'But as he's +probably neither the one nor the other, the hypothesis isn't worth +seriously discussing. I must go off now; I've got a lecture at +twelve. Good-bye. Don't forget the tickets for Thursday's concert.' + +Arthur Berkeley looked after him with a contemptuous smile. 'The +outcome of a race himself,' he thought, 'and not the best side +of that race either. I was half tempted, in the heat of argument, +to blurt out to him the whole truth about the dear gentle old +Progenitor; but I'm glad I didn't now. After all, it's no use to +cast your pearls before swine. For Herbert's essentially a pig--a +selfish self-centred pig; no doubt a very refined and cultivated +specimen of pigdom--the best breed; but still a most emphatic and +consummate pig for all that. Not the same stuff in him that there is +in Ernest--a fibre or two wanting somewhere. But I mustn't praise +Ernest--a rival! a rival! It's war to the death between us two +now, and no quarter. He's a good fellow, and I like him dearly; +but all's fair in love and war; and I must go down to Calcombe +to-morrow morning and forestall him immediately. Dear little Miss +Butterfly, 'tis for your sake; you shall not be pinched and cramped +to suit the Procrustean measure of Ernest Le Breton's communistic +fancies. You shall fly free in the open air, and flash your bright +silken wings, decked out bravely in scales of many hues, not toned +down to too sober and quaker-like a suit of drab and dove-colour. +You were meant by nature for the sunshine and the summer; you +shall not be worried and chilled and killed with doses of heterodox +political economy and controversial ethics. Better even a country +rectory (though with a bad Late Perpendicular church), and flowers, +and picnics, and lawn-tennis, and village small-talk, and the +squire's dinner-parties, than bread and cheese and virtuous poverty +in a London lodging with Ernest Le Breton. Romance lives again. The +beautiful maiden is about to be devoured by a goggle-eyed monster, +labelled on the back "Experimental Socialism"; the red cross knight +flies to her aid, and drives away the monster by his magic music. +Lance in rest! lyre at side! third class railway ticket in pocket! +A Berkeley to the rescue! and there you have it.' And as he spoke, +he tilted with his pen at an imaginary dragon supposed to be seated +in the crimson rocking-chair by the wainscotted fireplace. + +'Yes, I must certainly go down to Calcombe. No use putting it off +any longer. I've arranged to go next summer to London, to keep +house for the dear old Progenitor; the music is getting asked for, +two requests for more this very morning; trade is looking up. I +shall throw the curacy business overboard (what chance for modest +merit that ISN'T first cousin to a Bishop in the Church as at present +constituted?) and take to composing entirely for a livelihood. I +wouldn't ask Miss Butterfly before, because I didn't wish to tie +her pretty wings prematurely; but a rival! that's quite a different +matter. What right has he to go poaching on my preserves, I should +like to know, and trying to catch the little gold fish I want to +entice for my own private and particular fish-pond! An interloper, to +be turned out unmercifully. So off to Calcombe, and that quickly.' + +He sat down to his desk, and taking out some sheets of blank +music-paper, began writing down the score of a little song at which +he had been working. So he continued till lunch-time, and then, +turning to the table when the scout called him, took his solitary +lunch of bread and butter, with a volume of Petrarch set open +before him as he eat. He was lazily Englishing the soft lines of +the original into such verse as suited his fastidious ear, when the +scout came in suddenly once more, bringing in his hand the mid-day +letters. One of them bore the Calcombe postmark. 'Strange,' +Berkeley said to himself; 'at the very moment when I was thinking +of going there. An invitation perhaps; the age of miracles is not +yet past--don't they see spirits in a conjuror's room in Regent +Street?--from Oswald, too; by Jove, it must be an invitation.' +And he ran his eye down the page rapidly, to see if there was any +mention of little Miss Butterfly. Yes; there was her name on the +second sheet; what could her brother have to say to him about her? + +'We have Ernest Le Breton down here now,' Oswald wrote, 'on a +holiday from the Exmoors', and you may be surprised to hear that +I shall probably have him sooner or later for a brother-in-law. He +has proposed to and been accepted by my sister Edith; and though +it is likely, as things stand at present, to be a rather long +engagement (for Le Breton has nothing to marry upon), we are all +very much pleased about it here at Calcombe. He is just the exact +man I should wish my sister to marry; so pleasant and good and +clever, and so very well connected. Felicitate us, my dear Berkeley!' + +Arthur Berkeley laid the letter down with a quiet sigh, and folded +his hands despondently before him. He hadn't seen very much of +Edie, yet the disappointment was to him a very bitter one. It had +been a pleasant day-dream, truly, and he was both to part with it +so unexpectedly. 'Poor little Miss Butterfly,' he said to himself, +tenderly and compassionately; 'poor, airy, flitting, bright-eyed +little Miss Butterfly. I must give you up, must I, and Ernest Le +Breton must take you for better, for worse, must he? La reyne le +veult, it seems, and her word is law. I'm afraid he's hardly the +man to make you happy, little lady; kind-hearted, well-meaning, +but too much in earnest, too much absorbed in his ideas of right +for a world where right's impossible, and every man for himself +is the wretched sordid rule of existence. He will overshadow and +darken your bright little life, I fear me; not intentionally--he +couldn't do that--but by his Quixotic fads and fancies; good fads, +honest fads, but fads wholly impracticable in this jarring universe +of clashing interests, where he who would swim must keep his own +head steadily above water, and he who minds his neighbour must sink +like lead to the unfathomable bottom. He will sink, I doubt not, +poor little Miss Butterfly; he will sink inevitably, and drag you +down with him, down, down, down to immeasurable depths of poverty +and despair. Oh, my poor little butterfly, I'm sorry for you, and +sorry for myself. It was a pretty dream, and I loved it dearly. +I had made you a queen in my fancy, and throned you in my heart, +and now I have to dethrone you again, me miserable, and have my +poor lonely heart bare and queenless!' + +The piano was open, and he went over to it instinctively, strumming +a few wild bars out of his own head, made up hastily on the spur +of the moment. 'No, not dethrone you,' he went on, leaning back +on the music-stool, and letting his hand wander aimlessly over the +keys; 'not dethrone you; I shall never, never be able to do that. +Little Miss Butterfly, your image is stamped there too deep for +dethronement, stamped there for ever, indelibly, ineffaceably, not +to be washed out by tears or laughter. Ernest Le Breton may take +you and keep you; you are his; you have chosen him, and you have +chosen in most things not unwisely, for he's a good fellow and +true (let me be generous in the hour of disappointment even to the +rival, the goggle-eyed impracticable dragon monstrosity), but you +are mine, too, for I won't give you up; I can't give you up; I must +live for you still, even if you know it not. Little woman, I will +work for you and I will watch over you; I will be your earthly +Providence; I will try to extricate you from the quagmires into +which the well-meaning, short-sighted dragon will infallibly lead +you. Dear little bright soul, my heart aches for you; I know the +trouble you are bringing upon yourself; but la reyne le veult, and +it is not your humble servitor's business to interfere with your +royal pleasure. Still, you are mine, for I am yours; yours, body +and soul; what else have I to live for? The dear old Progenitor +can't be with us many years longer; and when he is gone there will +be nothing left me but to watch over little Miss Butterfly and her +Don Quixote of a future husband. A man can't work and slave and +compose sonatas for himself alone--the idea's disgusting, piggish, +worthy only of Herbert Le Breton; I must do what I can for the +little queen, and for her balloon-navigating Utopian Ernest. Thank +heaven, no law prevents you from loving in your own heart the one +woman whom you have once loved, no matter who may chance to marry +her. Go, day-dream, fly, vanish, evaporate; the solid core remains +still--my heart, and little Miss Butterfly. I have loved her once, +and I shall love her, I shall love her for ever!' + +He crumpled the letter up in his fingers, and flung it half angrily +into the waste-paper basket, as though it were the embodied day-dream +he was mentally apostrophising. It was sermon-day, and he had to +write his discourse that very afternoon. A quaint idea seized him. +'Aha,' he said, almost gaily, in his volatile irresponsible fashion, +'I have my text ready; the hour brings it to me unsought; a quip, +a quip! I shall preach on the Pool of Bethesda: "While I am coming, +another steppeth down before me." The verse seems as if it were +made on purpose for me; what a pity nobody else will understand +it!' And he smiled quietly at the conceit, as he got the scented +sheets of sermon-paper out of his little sandalwood davenport. +For Arthur Berkeley was one of those curiously compounded natures +which can hardly ever be perfectly serious, and which can enjoy +a quaintness or a neat literary allusion even at a moment of the +bitterest personal disappointment. He could solace himself for +a minute for the loss of Edie by choosing a text for his Sunday's +sermon with a prettily-turned epigram on his own position. + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY. + + +At the very top of the winding footpath cut deeply into the +sandstone side of the East Cliff Hill at Hastings, a wooden seat, +set a little back from the road, invites the panting climber to rest +for five minutes after his steep ascent from the primitive fisher +village of Old Hastings, which nestles warmly in the narrow sun-smitten +gulley at his feet. On this seat, one bright July morning, Herbert +Le Breton lay at half length, basking in the brilliant open sunshine +and evidently waiting for somebody whom he expected to arrive by the +side path from the All Saints' Valley. Even the old coastguardsman, +plodding his daily round over to Ecclesbourne, noticed the obvious +expectation implied in his attentive attitude, and ventured to +remark, in his cheery familiar fashion, 'She won't be long a-comin' +now, sir, you may depend upon it: the gals is sure to be out +early of a fine mornin' like this 'ere.' Herbert stuck his double +eye-glass gingerly upon the tip of his nose, and surveyed the +bluff old sailor through it with a stony British stare of mingled +surprise and indignation, which drove the poor man hastily off, with +a few muttered observations about some people being so confounded +stuck up that they didn't even understand the point of a little +good-natured seafarin' banter. + +As the coastguardsman disappeared round the corner of the flagstaff, +a young girl came suddenly into sight by the jutting edge of +sandstone bluff near the High Wickham; and Herbert, jumping up at +once from his reclining posture, raised his bat to her with stately +politeness, and moved forward in his courtly graceful manner +to meet her as she approached. 'Well, Selah,' he said, taking her +hand a little warmly (judged at least by Herbert Le Breton's usual +standard), 'so you've come at last! I've been waiting here for you +for fully half an hour. You see, I've come down to Hastings again +as I promised, the very first moment I could possibly get away +from my pressing duties at Oxford.' + +The girl withdrew her hand from his, blushing deeply, but looking +into his face with evident pleasure and admiration. She was tall +and handsome, with a certain dashing air of queenliness about her, +too; and she was dressed in a brave, outspoken sort of finery, +which, though cheap enough in its way, was neither common nor wholly +wanting in a touch of native good taste and even bold refinement of +contrast and harmony. 'It's very kind of you to come, Mr. Walters,' +she answered in a firm but delicate voice. 'I'm so sorry I've +kept you waiting. I got your letter, and tried to come in time; but +father he's been more aggravating than usual, almost, this morning, +and kept saying he'd like to know what on earth a young woman could +want to go out walking for, instead of stopping at home at her work +and minding her Bible like a proper Christian. In HIS time young +women usen't to be allowed to go walking except on Sundays, and then +only to chapel or Bible class. So I've not been able to get away +till this very minute, with all this bundle of tracts, too, to give +to the excursionists on the way. Father feels a most incomprehensible +interest, somehow, in the future happiness of the Sunday excursionists.' + +'I wish he'd feel a little more interest in the present happiness +of his own daughter,' Herbert said smiling. 'But it hasn't mattered +your keeping me waiting here, Selah. Of course I'd have enjoyed it +all far better in your society--I don't think I need tell you that +now, dear--but the sunshine, and the sea breeze, and the song of +the larks, and the plash of the waves below, and the shouts of the +fishermen down there on the beach mending their nets and putting +out their smacks, have all been so delightful after our humdrum +round of daily life at Oxford, that I only wanted your presence +here to make it all into a perfect paradise.--Why, Selah, how pretty +you look in that sweet print! It suits your complexion admirably. +I never saw you wear anything before so perfectly becoming.' + +Selah drew herself up with the conscious pride of an unaffected +pretty girl. 'I'm so glad you think so, Mr. Walters,' she said, +playing nervously with the handle of her dark-blue parasol. 'You +always say such very flattering things.' + +'No, not flattering,' Herbert answered, smiling; 'not flattering, +Selah, simply truthful. You always extort the truth from me with +your sweet face, Selah. Nobody can look at it and not forget the +stupid conventions of ordinary society. But please, dear, don't +call me Mr. Walters. Call me Herbert. You always do, you know, when +you write to me.' + +'But it's so much harder to do it to your face, Mr. Walters,' Selah +said, again blushing. 'Every time you go away I say to myself, "I +shall call him Herbert as soon as ever he comes back again;" and +every time you come back, I feel too much afraid of you, the moment +I see you, ever to do it. And yet of course I ought to, you know, +for when we're married, why, naturally, then I shall have to learn +to call you Herbert, shan't I?' + +'You will, I suppose,' Herbert answered, rather chillily: 'but +that subject is one upon which we shall be able to form a better +opinion when the time comes for actually deciding it. Meanwhile, +I want you to call me Herbert, if you please, as a personal favour +and a mark of confidence. Suppose I were to go on calling you Miss +Briggs all the time! a pretty sort of thing that would be! what +inference would you draw as to the depth of my affection? Well, +now, Selah, how have these dreadful home authorities of yours been +treating you, my dear girl, all the time since I last saw you?' + +'Much the same as usual, Mr. Walters--Herbert, I mean,' Selah +answered, hastily correcting herself. 'The regular round. Prayers; +clean the shop; breakfast, with a chapter; serve in the shop all +morning; dinner, with a chapter; serve in the shop all afternoon; +tea, with a chapter; prayer meeting in the evening; supper, with a +chapter; exhortation; and go to bed, sick of it all, to get up next +morning and repeat the entire performance da capo, as they always +say in the music to the hymn-books. Occasional relaxations,--Sunday +at chapel three times, and Wednesday evening Bible class; mothers' +assembly, Dorcas society, missionary meeting, lecture on the Holy +Land, dissolving views of Jerusalem, and Primitive Methodist +district conference in the Mahanaim Jubilee meeting hall. Salvation +privileges every day and all the year round, till I'm ready to drop +with it, and begin to wish I'd only been lucky enough to have been +born one of those happy benighted little pagans in a heathen land +where they don't know the value of the precious Sabbath, and haven't +yet been taught to build Primitive Methodist district chapels for +crushing the lives out of their sons and daughters!' + +Herbert smiled a gentle smile of calm superiority at this vehement +outburst of natural irreligion. 'You must certainly be bored +to death with it all, Selah,' he said, laughingly. 'What a funny +sort of creed it really is, after all, for rational beings! Who on +earth could believe that the religion these people use to render +your life so absolutely miserable is meant for the same thing as +the one that makes my poor dear brother Ronald so perfectly and +inexpressibly serene and happy? The formalism of lower natures, like +your father's, has turned it into a machine for crushing all the +spontaneity out of your existence. What a regime for a high-spirited +girl like you to be compelled to live under, Selah!' + +'It is, it is!' Selah answered, vehemently. 'I wish you could only +see the way father goes on at me all the time about chapel, and so +on, Mr. Wal--Herbert, I mean. You wouldn't wonder, if you were to +hear him, at my being anxious for the time to come when you can +leave Oxford and we can get comfortably married. What between the +drudgery of the shop and the drudgery of the chapel my life's +positively getting almost worn out of me.' + +Herbert took her hand in his, quietly. It was not a very small hand, +but it was prettily, though cheaply, gloved, and the plain silver +bracelet that encircled the wrist, though simple and inexpensive, +was not wanting in rough tastefulness. 'You're a bad philosopher, +Selah,' he said, turning with her along the path towards Ecclesbourne; +'you're always anxious to hurry on too fast the lagging wheels of +an unknown future. After all, how do you know whether we should +be any the happier if we were really and truly married? Don't you +know what Swinburne says, in "Dolores"--you've read it in the Poems +and Ballads I gave you-- + + + Time turns the old days to derision, + Our loves into corpses or wives, + And marriage and death and division + Make barren our lives?' + + +'I've read it,' Selah answered, carelessly, 'and I thought it all +very pretty. Of course Swinburne always is very pretty: but I'm +sure I never try to discover what on earth he means by it. I suppose +father would say I don't read him tearfully and prayerfully--at +any rate, I'm quite sure I never understand what he's driving at.' + +'And yet he's worth understanding,' Herbert answered in his clear +musical voice--'well worth understanding, Selah, especially for +you, dearest. If, in imitation of obsolete fashions, you wished +to read a few verses of some improving volume every night and +morning, as a sort of becoming religious exercise in the elements +of self-culture, I don't know that I could recommend you a better +book to begin upon than the Poems and Ballads. Don't you see the +moral of those four lines I've just quoted to you? Why should we +wish to change from anything so free and delightful and poetical +as lovers into anything so fettered, and commonplace, and prosaic, +and BANAL, as wives and husbands? Why should we wish to give up +the fanciful paradise of fluttering hope and expectation for the +dreary reality of housekeeping and cold mutton on Mondays? Why +should we not be satisfied with the real pleasure of the passing +moment, without for ever torturing our souls about the imaginary +but delusive pleasure of the unrealisable, impossible future?' + +'But we MUST get married some time or other, Herbert,' Selah +said, turning her big eyes full upon him with a doubtful look +of interrogation. 'We can't go on courting in this way for ever +and ever, without coming to any definite conclusion. We MUST get +married by-and-by, now mustn't we?' + +'Je n'en vois pas la necessite, moi,' Herbert answered with just a +trace of cynicism in his curling lip. 'I don't see any MUST about +it, that is to say, in English, Selah. The fact is, you see, I'm +above all things a philosopher; you're a philosopher, too, but only +an instinctive one, and I want to make your instinctive philosophy +assume a rather more rational and extrinsic shape. Why should we +really be in any hurry to go and get married? Do the actual married +people of our acquaintance, as a matter of fact, seem so very much +more ethereally happy--with their eight children to be washed and +dressed and schooled daily, for example--than the lovers, like you +and me, who walk arm-in-arm out here in the sunshine, and haven't +yet got over their delicious first illusions? Depend upon it, the +longer you can keep your illusions the better. You haven't read +Aristotle in all probability; but as Aristotle would put it, it +isn't the end that is anything in love-making, it's the energy, the +active pursuit, the momentary enjoyment of it. I suppose we shall +have to get married some day, Selah, though I don't know when; but +I confess to you I don't look forward to the day quite so rapturously +as you do. Shall we feel more the thrill of possession, do you +think, than I feel it now when I hold your hand in mine, so, and +catch the beating of your pulse in your veins, even through the +fingers of your pretty little glove? Shall we look deeper into +one another's eyes and hearts than I look now into the very inmost +depths of yours? Shall we drink in more fully the essence of love +than when I touch your lips here--one moment, Selah, the gorse is +very deep here--now don't be foolish--ah, there, what's the use +of philosophising, tell me, by the side of that? Come over here to +the bench, Selah, by the edge of the cliff; look down yonder into +Ecclesbourne glen; hear the waves dashing on the shore below, and +your own heart beating against your bosom within--and then ask +yourself what's the good of living in any moment, in any moment +but the present.' + +Selah turned her great eyes admiringly upon him once more. 'Oh, +Herbert,' she said, looking at him with a clever uneducated girl's +unfeigned and undisguised admiration for any cultivated gentleman +who takes the trouble to draw out her higher self. 'Oh, Herbert, how +can you talk so beautifully to me, and then ask me why it is I'm +longing for the day to come when I can be really and truly married +to you? Do you think I don't feel the difference between spending +my life with such a man as you, and spending it for years and years +together with a ranting, canting Primitive Methodist?' + +Herbert smiled to himself a quiet, unobtrusive, self-satisfied +smile. 'She appreciates me,' he thought silently in his own heart, +'she appreciates me at my true worth; and, after all, that's a great +thing. Well, Selah,' he went on aloud, toying unreproved with her +pretty little silver bracelet, 'let us be practical. You belong to +a business family and you know the necessity for being practical. +There's a great deal to be said in favour of my hanging on at Oxford +a little longer. I must get a situation somewhere else as soon +as possible, in which I can get married; but I can't give up my +fellowship without having found something else to do which would +enable me to put my wife in the position I should like her to +occupy.' + +'A very small income would do for me, with you, Herbert,' Selah +put in eagerly. 'You see, I've been brought up economically enough, +heaven knows, and I could live extremely well on very little.' + +'But _I_ could not, Selah,' Herbert answered, in his colder tone. +'Pardon me, but I could not. I've been accustomed to a certain +amount of comfort, not to say luxury, which I couldn't readily +do without. And then, you know, dear,' he added, seeing a certain +cloud gathering dimly on Selah's forehead, 'I want to make my wife +a real lady.' + +Selah looked at him tenderly, and gave the hand she hold in hers +a faint pressure. And then Herbert began to talk about the waves, +and the cliffs, and the sun, and the great red sails, and to quote +Shelley and Swinburne; and the conversation glided off into more +ordinary everyday topics. + +They sat for a couple of hours together on the edge of the cliff, +talking to one another about such and other subjects, till, at last, +Selah asked the time, hurriedly, and declared she must go off at +once, or father'd be in a tearing passion. Herbert walked back +with her through the green lanes in the golden mass of gorse, till +he reached the brow of the hill by the fisher village. Then Selah +said lightly, 'Not any nearer, Herbert--you see I can say Herbert +quite naturally now--the neighbours will go talking about it +if they see me standing here with a strange gentleman. Good-bye, +good-bye, till Friday.' Herbert held her face up to his in his +hands, and kissed her twice over in spite of a faint resistance. +Then they each went their own way, Selah to the little green-grocer's +shop in a back street of the red-brick fisher village, and Herbert +to his big fashionable hotel on the Marine Parade in the noisy +stuccoed modern watering place. + +'It's an awkward sort of muddle to have got oneself into.' he thought +to himself as he walked along the asphalte pavement in front of +the sea-wall: 'a most confoundedly awkward fix to have got oneself +into with a pretty girl of the lower classes. She's beautiful +certainly; that there's no denying; the handsomest woman on the +whole I ever remember to have seen at any time anywhere; and when +I'm actually by her side--though it's a weakness to confess it--I'm +really not quite sure that I'm not positively quite in love with +her! She'd make a grand sort of Messalina, without a doubt, a +model for a painter, with her frank imperious face, and her splendid +voluptuous figure; a Faustina, a Catherine of Russia, an Ann +Boleyn--to be fitly painted only by a Rubens or a Gustave Courbet. +Yet how I can ever have been such a particular fool as to go and +get myself entangled with her I can't imagine. Heredity, heredity; +it must run in the family, for certain. There's Ernest has gone and +handed himself over bodily to this grocer person somewhere down in +Devonshire; and I myself, who perfectly see the folly of his absurd +proceeding, have independently put myself into this very similar +awkward fix with Selah Briggs here. Selah Briggs, indeed! The very +name reeks with commingled dissent, vulgarity, and greengrocery. Her +father's deacon of his chapel, and goes out at night when there's +no missionary meeting on, to wait at serious dinner parties! Or +rather, I suppose he'd desert the most enticing missionary to earn +a casual half-crown at even an ungodly champagne-drinking dinner! +Then that's the difference between me and Ernest. Ernest's selfish, +incurably and radically selfish. Because this Oswald girl happens +to take his passing fancy, and to fit in with his impossible +Schurzian notions, he'll actually go and marry her. Not only will +he have no consideration for mother--who really is a very decent +sort of body in her own fashion, if you don't rub her up the wrong +way or expect too much from her--but he'll also interfere, without +a thought, with MY prospects and my advancement. Now, THAT I call +really selfish; and selfishness is a vulgar piggish vice that I +thoroughly abominate. I don't deny that I'm a trifle selfish myself, +of course, in a refined and cultivated manner--I flatter myself, +in fact, that introspective analysis is one of my strong points; +and I don't conceal my own failings from my own consciousness with +any weak girlish prevarications. But after all, as Hobbes very well +showed (though our shallow modern philosophers pretend to laugh at +him), selfishness in one form or another is at the very base of +all human motives; the difference really is between sympathetic +and unsympathetic selfishness--between piggishness and cultivated +feelings. Now _I_ will NOT give way to the foolish and selfish +impulses which would lead me to marry Selah Briggs. I will put a +curb upon my inclinations, and do what is really best in the end +for all the persons concerned--and for myself especially.' + +He strolled down on to the beach, and began throwing pebbles +carelessly into the plashing water. 'Yes,' he went on in his internal +colloquy, 'I can only account for my incredible stupidity in this +matter by supposing that it depends somehow upon some incomprehensible +hereditary leaning in the Le Breton family idiosyncrasy. It's awfully +unlike me, I will do myself the justice to say, to have got myself +into such a silly dilemma all for nothing. It was all very well a +few years ago, when I first met Selah. I was an undergraduate in +those days, and even if somebody had caught me walking with a young +lady of unknown antecedents and doubtful aspirates on the East +Cliff at Hastings, it really wouldn't have much mattered. She was +beautiful even then--though not so beautiful as now, for she grows +handsomer every day; and it was natural enough I should have taken +to going harmless walks about the place with her. She attracted me +by her social rebelliousness--another family trait, in me passive +not active, contemplative not personal; but she certainly attracted +me. She attracts me still. A man must have some outlet for the +natural and instinctive emotions of our common humanity; and if a +monastic Oxford community imposes celibacy upon one with mediaeval +absurdity--why, Selah Briggs is, for the time being, the only +possible sort of outlet. One needn't marry her in the end; but for +the moment it is certainly very excellent fooling. Not unsentimental +either--for my part I could never care for mere coarse, commonplace, +venal wretches. Indeed, when I spoke to her just now about my wishing +to make my wife a lady, upon my word, at the time, I almost think +I was just then quite in earnest. The idea flitted across my mind +vaguely--"Why not send her for a year or two to be polished up +at Paris or somewhere, and really marry her afterwards for good +and always?" But on second thoughts, it won't hold water. She's +magnificent, she's undeniable, she's admirable, but she isn't +possible. The name alone's enough to condemn her. Fancy marrying +somebody with a Christian name out of the hundred and somethingth +psalm! It's too atrocious! I really couldn't inflict her for a +moment on poor suffering innocent society.' + +He paused awhile, watching the great russet sails of the fishing +vessels flapping idly in the breeze as the men raised them to catch +the faint breath of wind, and then he thought once more, 'But how +to get rid of her, that's the question. Every time I come here now +she goes on more and more about the necessity of our getting soon +married--and I don't wonder at it either, for she has a perfect +purgatory of a life with that snivelling Methodistical father of +hers, one may be sure of it. It would be awfully awkward if any +Oxford people were to catch me here walking with her on the cliff over +yonder--some sniggering fellow of Jesus or Worcester, for example, +or, worse than all, some prying young Pecksniff of a third-year +undergraduate! Somehow, she seems to fascinate me, and I can't get +away from her; but I must really do it and be done with it. It's +no use going on this way much longer. I must stop here for a few +days more only, and then tell her that I'm called away on important +college business, say to Yorkshire or Worcestershire, or somewhere. +I needn't tell her in person, face to face: I can write hastily at +the last moment to the usual name at the Post Office--to be left +till called for. And as a matter of fact I won't go to Yorkshire +either--very awkward and undignified, though, these petty +prevarications; when a man once begins lowering himself by making +love to a girl in an inferior position, he lets himself in for +all kinds of disagreeable necessities afterwards;--I shall go to +Switzerland. Yes, no place better after the bother of running away +like a coward from Selah: in the Alps, one would forget all petty +human degradations; I shall go to Switzerland. Of course I won't +break off with her altogether--that would be cruel; and I really +like her; upon my word, even when she isn't by, up to her own +level, I really like her; but I'll let the thing die a natural +death of inanition. As they always put it in the newspapers, with +their stereotyped phraseology, a gradual coldness shall intervene +between us. That'll be the best and only way out of it. + +'And if I go to Switzerland, why not ask Oswald of Oriel to go +with me? That, I fancy, wouldn't be a bad stroke of social policy. +Ernest WILL marry this Oswald girl; unfortunately he's as headstrong +as an allegory on the banks of the Nile; and as he's going to drag +her inevitably into the family, I may as well put the best possible +face upon the disagreeable matter. Let's make a virtue of necessity. +The father and mother are old: they'll die soon, and be gathered +to their fathers (if they had any), and the world will straightway +forget all about them. But Oswald will always be there en evidence, +and the safest thing to do will be to take him as much as possible +into the world, and let the sister rest upon HIS reputation for +her place in society. It's quite one thing to say that Ernest has +married the daughter of a country grocer down in Devonshire, and +quite another thing to say that he has married the sister of Oswald +of Oriel, the distinguished mathematician and fellow of the Royal +Society. How beautifully that warm brown sail stands out in a +curve against the cold grey line of the horizon--a bulging curve +just like the swell of Selah's neck, when she throws her head +back, so, and lets you see the contour of her throat, her beautiful +rounded throat--ah, that's not giving her up now, is it?--What a +confounded fool I am, to be sure! Anybody would say, if they could +only have read my thoughts that moment, that I was really in love +with this girl Selah!' + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +YE MOUNTAINS OF GILBOA! + + +The old Englischer Hof at Pontresina looked decidedly sleepy and +misty at five o'clock on an August morning, when two sturdy British +holiday-seekers, in knickerbockers and regular Alpine climbing rig, +sat drinking their parting cup of coffee in the salle-a-manger, +before starting to make the ascent of the Piz Margatsch, one of +the tallest and by far the most difficult among the peaks of the +Bernina range. There are few prettier villages in the Engadine than +Pontresina, and few better hotels in all Switzerland than the old +ivy-covered Englischer Hof. Yet on this particular morning, and +at that particular hour, it certainly did look just a trifle cold +and cheerless. 'He never makes very warm in the Engadine,' Carlo +the waiter observed with a shudder, in his best English, to one +of the two early risers: 'and he makes colder on an August morning +here than he makes at Nice in full December.' For poor Carlo was +one of those cosmopolitan waiters who follow the cosmopolitan +tourist clientele round all the spas, health resorts, kurs and winter +quarters of fashionable Europe. In January he and his brother, as +Charles and Henri, handed round absinthes and cigarettes at the +Cercle Nautique at Nice; in April, as Carlo and Enrico, they turned +up again with water ices and wafer cakes in the Caffe Manzoni at +Milan; and in August, the observant traveller might recognise them +once more under the disguise of Karl and Heinrich, laying the table +d'hote in the long and narrow old-fashioned dining-room of the +Englischer Hof at Pontresina. Though their native tongue was the +patois of the Canton Ticino, they spoke all the civilised languages +of the world, 'and also German,' with perfect fluency, and without +the slightest attempt at either grammar or idiomatic accuracy. +And they both profoundly believed in their hearts that the rank, +wealth, youth, beauty and fashion of all other nations were wisely +ordained by the inscrutable designs of Providence for a single +purpose, to enrich and reward the active, intelligent, and industrious +natives of the Canton Ticino. + +'Are the guides come yet?' asked Harry Oswald of the waiter in +somewhat feeble and hesitating German. He made it a point to speak +German to the waiters, because he regarded it as the only proper +and national language of the universal Teutonic Swiss people. + +'They await the gentlemans in the corridor,' answered Carlo, in +his own peculiar and racy English; for he on his side resented the +imputation that any traveller need ever converse with him in any +but that traveller's own tongue, provided only it was one of the +recognised and civilised languages of the world, or even German. +They are a barbarous and disgusting race, those Tedeschi, look +you well, Signor; they address you as though you were the dust in +the piazza; yet even from them a polite and attentive person may +confidently look for a modest, a very modest, but still a welcome +trink-geld. + +'Then we'd better hurry up, Oswald,' said Herbert Le Breton, 'for +guides are the most tyrannical set of people on the entire face +of this planet. I shall have another cup of coffee before I go, +though, if the guides swear at me roundly in the best Roumansch +for it, anyhow.' + +'Your acquaintance with the Roumansch dialect being probably limited,' +Harry Oswald answered, 'the difference between their swearing and +their blessing would doubtless be reduced to a vanishing point. +Though I've noticed that swearing is really a form of human speech +everywhere readily understanded of the people in spite of all +differences of race or language. One touch of nature, you see; and +swearing, after all, is extremely natural.' + +'Are you ready?' asked Herbert, having tossed off his coffee. +'Yes? Then come along at once. I can feel the guides frowning at +us through the partition.' + +They turned out into the street, with its green-shuttered windows +all still closed in the pale grey of early morning, and walked +along with the three guides by the high road which leads through +rocks and fir-trees up to the beginning of the steep path to the +Piz Margatsch. Passing the clear emerald-green waterfall that rushes +from under the lower melting end of the Morteratsch glacier, they +took at once to the narrow track by the moraine along the edge +of the ice, and then to the glacier itself, which is easy enough +climbing, as glaciers go, for a good pedestrian. Herbert Le Breton, +the older mountaineer of the two, got over the big blocks readily +enough; but Harry, less accustomed to Swiss expeditions, lagged +and loitered behind a little, and required more assistance from +the guides every now and again than his sturdy companion. + +'I'm getting rather blown at starting,' Harry called out at last +to Herbert, some yards in front of him. 'Do you think the despotic +guide would let us sit down and rest a bit if we asked him very +prettily?' + +'Offer him a cigar first,' Herbert shouted back, 'and then after a +short and decent interval, prefer your request humbly in your politest +French. The savage potentate always expects to be propitiated by +gifts, as a preliminary to answering the petitions of his humble +subjects.' + +'I see,' Harry said, laughing. 'Supply before grievances, not +grievances before supply.' And he halted a moment to light a cigar, +and to offer one to each of the two guides who were helping him +along on either side. + +Thus mollified, the senior guide grudgingly allowed ten minutes' +halt and a drink of water at the bend by the corner of the glacier. +They sat down upon the great translucent sea-green blocks and began +talking with the taciturn chief guide. + +'Is this glacier dangerous?' Harry asked. + +'Dangerous, monsieur? Oh no, not as one counts glaciers. It is very +safe. There are seldom accidents.' + +'But there have been some?' + +'Some, naturally. You don't climb mountains always without accidents. +There was one the first time anyone ever made the ascent of the Piz +Margatsch. That was fifty years ago. My uncle was killed in it.' + +'Killed in it?' Harry echoed. 'How did it all happen, and where?' + +'Yonder, monsieur, in a crevasse that was then situated near the +bend at the corner, just where the great crevasse you see before +you now stands. That was fifty years ago; since then the glacier +has moved much. Its substance, in effect, has changed entirely.' + +'Tell us all about it,' Herbert put in carelessly. He knew the +guide wouldn't go on again till he had finished his whole story. + +'It's a strange tale,' the guide answered, taking a puff or two +at his cigar pensively and then removing it altogether for his set +narrative--he had told the tale before a hundred times, and he had +the very words of it now regularly by heart. 'It was the first time +anyone ever tried to climb the Piz Margatsch. At that time, nobody +in the valley knew the best path; it is my father who afterwards +discovered it. Two English gentlemen came to Pontresina one morning; +one might say you two gentlemen; but in those days there were not +many tourists in the Engadine; the exploitation of the tourist had +not yet begun to be developed. My father and my uncle were then the +only two guides at Pontresina. The English gentlemen asked them +to try with them the scaling of the Piz Margatsch. My uncle was +afraid of it, but my father laughed down his fears. So they started. +My uncle was dressed in a blue coat with brass buttons, and a pair +of brown velvet breeches. Ah, heaven, I can see him yet, his white +corpse in the blue coat and the brown velvet breeches!' + +'But you can't be fifty yourself,' Harry said, looking at the tall +long-limbed man attentively; 'no, nor forty, nor thirty either.' + +'No, monsieur, I am twenty-seven,' the chief guide answered, taking +another puff at his cigar very deliberately; 'and this was fifty +years ago: yet I have seen his corpse just as the accident happened. +You shall hear all about it. It is a tale from the dead; it is +worth hearing.' + +'This begins to grow mysterious,' said Herbert in English, hammering +impatiently at the ice with the shod end of his alpenstock. 'Sounds +for all the world just like the introduction to a Christmas number.' + +'A young girl in the village loved my uncle,' the guide went on +imperturhably; 'and she begged him not to go on this expedition. She +was betrothed to him. But he wouldn't listen: and they all started +together for the top of the Piz Margatsch. After many trials, my +father and my uncle and the two tourists reached the summit. "So +you see, Andreas," said my father, "your fears were all folly." +"Half-way through the forest," said my uncle, "one is not yet safe +from the wolf." Then they began to descend again. They got down past +all the dangerous places, and on to this glacier, so well known, +so familiar. And then my uncle began indeed to get careless. He +laughed at his own fears; "Cathrein was all wrong," he said to my +father, "we shall get down again safely, with Our Lady's assistance." +So they reached at last the great crevasse. My father and one of +the Englishmen got over without difficulty; but the other Englishman +slipped; his footing failed him; and he was sinking, sinking, down, +down, down, slipping quickly into the deep dark green abyss below. +My uncle stretched out his hand over the edge: the Englishman caught +it; and then my uncle missed his foothold, they both fell together +and were lost to sight at once completely, in the invisible depths +of the great glacier!' + +'Well,' Herbert Le Breton said, as the man paused a moment. 'Is +that all?' + +'No,' the guide answered, with a tone of deep solemnity. 'That is +not all. The glacier went on moving, moving, slowly, slowly, but +always downward, for years and years. Yet no one ever heard anything +more of the two lost bodies. At last one day, when I was seven +years old, I went out playing with my brother, among the pine-woods, +near the waterfall that rushes below there, from under the glacier. +We saw something lying in the ice-cold water, just beneath the +bottom of the ice-sheet. We climbed over the moraine; and there, +oh heaven! we could see two dead bodies. They were drowned, just +drowned, we thought: it might have been yesterday. One of them +was short and thick-set, with the face of an Englishman: he was +close-shaven, and, what seemed odd to us, he had on clothes which, +though we were but children, we knew at once for the clothes of +a long past fashion--in fact, a suit of the Louis dix-huit style. +Tha other was a tall and handsome man, dressed in the unchangeable +blue coat and brown velvet breeches of our own canton, of the +Graubunden. We were very frightened about it, and so we ran away +trembling and told an old woman who lived close by; her name was +Cathrein, and her grandchildren used to play with us, though she +herself was about the age of my father, for my father married very +late. Old Cathrein came out with us to look; and the moment she +saw the bodies, she cried out with a great cry, "It is he! It is +Andreas! It is my betrothed, who was lost on the very day week when +I was to be married. I should know him at once among ten thousand. +It is many, many years now, but I have not forgotten his face--ah, +my God, that face; I know it well!" And she took his hand in hers, +that fair white young hand in her own old brown withered one, and +kissed it gently. "And yet," she said, "he is five years older than +me, this fair young man here; five years older than me!" We were +frightened to hear her talk so, for we said to ourselves, "She +must be mad;" so we ran home and brought our father. He looked at +the dead bodies and at old Cathrein, and he said, "It is indeed +true. He is my brother." Ah, monsieur, you would not have forgotten +it if you had seen those two old people standing there beside +the fresh corpses they had not seen for all those winters! They +themselves had meanwhile grown old and grey and wrinkled; but the +ice of the glacier had kept those others young, and fresh, and +fair, and beautiful as on the day they were first engulfed in it. +It was terrible to look at!' + +'A most ghastly story, indeed,' Herbert Le Breton said, yawning; +'and now I think we'd better be getting under way again, hadn't +we, Oswald?' + +Harry Oswald rose from his seat on the block of ice unwillingly, and +proceeded on his road up the mountain with a distinct and decided +feeling of nervousness. Was it the guide's story that made his knees +tremble slightly? was it his own inexperience in climbing? or was +it the cold and the fatigue of the first ascent of the season to +a man not yet in full pedestrian Alpine training? He did not feel +at all sure about it in his own mind: but this much he knew with +perfect certainty, that his footing was not nearly so secure under +him as it had been during the earlier part of the climb over the +lower end of the glacier. + +By-and-by they reached the long sheer snowy slope near the Three +Brothers. This slope is liable to slip, and requires careful walking, +so the guides began roping them together. 'The stout monsieur +in front, next after me,' said the chief guide, knotting the rope +soundly round Herbert Le Breton: 'then Kaspar; then you, monsieur,' +to Harry Oswald, 'and finally Paolo, to bring up the rear. The +thin monsieur is nervous, I think; it's best to place him most in +the middle.' + +'If you really ARE nervous, Oswald,' Herbert said, not unkindly, +'you'd better stop behind, I think, and let me go on with two of the +guides. The really hard work, you know, has scarcely begun yet.' + +'Oh dear, no,' Harry answered lightly (he didn't care to confess +his timidity before Herbert Le Breton of all men in the world): 'I +do feel just a little groggy about the knees, I admit; but it's not +nervousness, it's only want of training. I haven't got accustomed +to glacier-work yet, and the best way to overcome it is by constant +practice. "Solvitur ambulando," you know, as Aldrich says about +Achilles and the tortoise.' + +'Very good,' Herbert answered drily; 'only mind, whatever you do, +for Heaven's sake don't go and stumble and pull ME down on the top +of you. It's the clear duty of a good citizen to respect the lives +of the other men who are roped together with him on the side of a +mountain.' + +They set to work again, in single file, with cautious steps planted +firmly on the treacherous snow, to scale the great white slope that +stretched so temptingly before them. Harry felt his knees becoming +at every step more and more ungovernable, while Herbert didn't +improve matters by calling out to him from time to time, 'Now, then, +look out for a hard bit here,' or 'Mind that loose piece of ice +there,' or 'Be very careful how you put your foot down by the yielding +edge yonder,' and so forth. At last, they had almost reached the +top of the slope, and were just above the bare gulley on the side, +when Harry's insecure footing on a stray scrap of ice gave way +suddenly, and he begain to slip rapidly down the sheer slope of +the mountain. In a second he had knocked against Paolo, and Paolo +had begun to slip too, so that both were pulling with all their +weight against Kaspar and the others in front. 'For Heaven's sake, +man,' Herbert cried hastily, 'dig your alpenstock deep into the +snow.' At the same instant, the chief guide shouted in Roumansch +to the same effect to Kaspar. But even as they spoke, Kaspar, +pushing his feet hard against the snow, began to give way too; and +the whole party seemed about to slip together down over the sheer +rocky precipice of the great gulley on the right. It was a moment +of supreme anxiety; but Herbert Le Breton, looking back with blood +almost unstirred and calmly observant eye, saw at once the full +scope of the threatening danger. 'There's only one chance,' he +said to himself quietly. 'Oswald is lost already! Unless the rope +breaks, we are all lost together!' At that very second, Harry Oswald, +throwing his arms up wildly, had reached the edge of the terrible +precipice; he went over with a piercing cry into the abyss, with +the last guide beside him, and Kaspar following him close in mute +terror. Then Herbert Le Breton felt the rope straining, straining, +straining, upon the sharp frozen edge of the rock; for an inappreciable +point of time it strained and crackled: one loud snap, and it was +gone for ever. Herbert and the chief guide, almost upset by the +sudden release from the heavy pull that was steadily dragging them +over, threw themselves flat on their faces in the drifted snow, +and checked their fall by a powerful muscular effort. The rope +was broken and their lives were saved, but what had become of the +three others? + +They crept cautiously on hands and knees to the most practicable +spot at the edge of the precipice, and the guide peered over into +the great white blank below with eager eyes of horrid premonition. +As he did so, he recoiled with awe, and made a rapid gesture with +his hands, half prayer, half speechless terror. 'What do you see?' +asked Herbert, not daring himself to look down upon the blank +beneath him, lest he should be tempted to throw himself over in a +giddy moment. + +'Jesu, Maria,' cried the guide, crossing himself instinctively +over and over again, 'they have all fallen to the very foot of the +second precipice! They are lying, all three, huddled together on +the ledge there just above the great glacier. They are dead, quite +dead, dead before they reached the ground even. Great God, it is +too terrible!' + +Herbert Le Breton looked at the white-faced guide with just the +faintest suspicion of a sneering curl upon his handsome features. +The excitement of the danger was over now, and he had at once +recovered his usual philosophic equanimity. 'Quite dead,' he said, +in French, 'quite dead, are they? Then we can't be of any further +use to them. But I suppose we must go down again at once to help +recover the dead bodies!' + +The guide gazed at him blankly with simple open-mouthed undisguised +amazement. 'Naturally,' he said, in a very quiet voice of utter +disgust and loathing. 'You wouldn't leave them lying there alone +on the cold snow, would you?' + +'This is really most annoying,' thought Herbert Le Breton to himself, +in his rational philosophic fashion: 'here we are, almost at the +summit, and now we shall have to turn back again from the very +threshold of our goal, without having seen the view for which we've +climbed up, and risked our lives too--all for a purely sentimental +reason, because we won't leave those three dead men alone on the +snow for an hour or two longer! it's a very short climb to the +top now, and I could manage it by myself in twenty minutes. If +only the chief guide had slid over with the others, I should have +gone on alone, and had the view at least for my trouble. I could +have pretended the accident happened on the way down again. As it +is, I shall have to turn back ingloriously, re infecta. The guide +will tell everybody at Pontresina that I went on, in spite of the +accident; and then it would get into the English papers, and all +the world would say that I was so dreadfully cruel and heartless. +People are always so irrational in their ethical judgments. Oswald's +quite dead, that's certain; nobody could fall over such a precipice +as that without being killed a dozen times over before he even +reached the bottom. A very painless and easy death too; I couldn't +myself wish for a better one. We can't do them the slightest good +by picking up their lifeless bodies, and yet a foolishly sentimental +public opinion positively compels one to do it. Poor Oswald! Upon +my soul I'm sorry for him, and for that pretty little sister of his +too; but what's the use of bothering about it? The thing's done, +and nothing that I can do or say will ever make it any better.' + +So they turned once more in single file down by the great glacier, +and retraced their way to Pontresina without exchanging another word. +To say the truth, the chief guide felt appalled and frightened by +the presence of this impassive, unemotional British traveller, and +did not even care to conceal his feelings. But then he wasn't an +educated philosopher and man of culture like Herbert Le Breton. + +Late that evening a party of twelve villagers brought back three +stiff and mangled corpses on loose cattle hurdles into the village +of Pontresina. Two of them were the bodies of two local Swiss guides, +and the third, with its delicate face unscathed by the fall, and +turned calmly upwards to the clear moonlight, was the body of Harry +Oswald. Alas, alas, Gilboa! The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy +high places. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +'WHAT DO THESE HEBREWS HERE?' + + +From Calcombe Pomeroy Ernest had returned, not to Dunbude, but to +meet the Exmoor party in London. There he had managed somehow--he +hardly knew how himself--to live through a whole season without an +explosion in his employer's family. That an explosion must come, +sooner or later, he felt pretty sure in his own mind for several +reasons: his whole existence there was a mistake and an anomaly, +and he could no more mix in the end with the Exmoor family than oil +can mix with vinegar, or vice versa. The round of dances and dinners +to which he had to accompany his pupil was utterly distasteful to +him. Lynmouth never learnt anything; so Ernest felt his own function +in the household a perfectly useless one; and he was always on the +eve of a declaration that he couldn't any longer put up with this, +that, or the other 'gross immorality' in which Lynmouth was actively +or passively encouraged by his father and mother. Still, there were +two things which indefinitely postponed the smouldering outbreak. +In the first place, Ernest wrote to, and heard from, Edie every +day; and he believed he ought for Edie's sake to give the situation +a fair trial, as long as he was able, or at least till he saw some +other opening, which might make it possible within some reasonable +period to marry her. In the second place, Lady Hilda had perceived +with her intuitive quickness the probability that a cause of +dispute might arise between her father and Ernest, and had made +up her mind as far as in her lay to prevent its ever coming to a +head. She didn't wish Ernest to leave his post in the household--so +much originality was hardly again to be secured in a hurry--and +therefore she laid herself out with all her ingenuity to smooth +over all the possible openings for a difference of opinion whenever +they occurred. If Ernest's scruples were getting the upper hand +of his calmer judgment, Lady Hilda read the change in his face at +once, and managed dexterously to draw off Lynmouth, or to talk over +her mother quietly to acquiesce in Ernest's view of the question. +If Lord Exmoor was beginning to think that this young man's confounded +fads were really getting quite unbearable, Lady Hilda interposed +some casual remark about how much better Lynmouth was kept out of +the way now than he used to be in Mr. Walsh's time. Ernest himself +never even suspected this unobtrusive diplomatist and peacemaker; +but as a matter of fact it was mainly owing to Lady Hilda's constant +interposition that he contrived to stop in Wilton Place through +all that dreary and penitential London season. + +At last, to Ernest's intense joy, the season began to show premonitory +symptoms of collapsing from inanition. The twelfth of August was +drawing nigh, and the coming-of-age of grouse, that most important +of annual events in the orthodox British social calendar, would +soon set free Lord Exmoor and his brother hereditary legislators +from their arduous duty of acting as constitutional drag on the +general advance of a great, tolerant, and easy-going nation. Soon +the family would be off again to Dunbude, or away to its other moors +in Scotland; and among the rocks and the heather Ernest felt he +could endure Lord Exmoor and Lord Lynmouth a little more resignedly +than among the reiterated polite platitudes and monotonous gaieties +of the vacuous London drawing-rooms. + +Lady Hilda, too, was longing in her own way for the season to be +over. She had gone through another of them, thank goodness, she +said to herself at times with a rare tinge of pensiveness, only to +discover that the Hughs, and the Guys, and the Algies, and the Montys +were just as fatuously inane as ever; and were just as anxious as +before to make her share their fatuous inanity for a whole lifetime. +Only fancy living with an unadulterated Monty from the time you +were twenty to the time you were seventy-five--at which latter date +he, being doubtless some five years older than one-self to begin +with, would probably drop off quietly with suppressed gout, and +leave you a mourning widow to deplore his untimely and lamented +extinction for the rest of your existence! Why, long before that +time you would have got to know his very thoughts by heart (if he +had any, poor fellow!) and would be able to finish all his sentences +and eke out all his stories for him, the moment he began them. +Much better marry a respectable pork-butcher outright, and have +at least the healthful exercise of chopping sausage-meat to fill +up the stray gaps in the conversation. In that condition of life, +they say, people are at any rate perfectly safe from the terrors +of ennui. However, the season was over at last, thank Heaven; and +in a week or so more they would be at dear old ugly Dunbude again +for the whole winter. There Hilda would go sketching once more on +the moorland, and if this time she didn't make that stupid fellow +Ernest see what she was driving at, why, then her name certainly +wasn't Hilda Tregellis. + +A day or two before the legal period fixed for the beginning of +the general grouse-slaughter, Ernest was sitting reading in the +breakfast room at Wilton Place, when Lynmouth burst unexpectedly +into the room in his usual boisterous fashion. + +'Oh, I say, Mr. Le Breton,' he began, holding the door in his hand +like one in a hurry, 'I want leave to miss work this morning. Gerald +Talfourd has called for me in his dog-cart, and wants me to go out +with him now immediately.' + +'Not to-day, Lynmouth,' Ernest answered quietly. 'You were out +twice last week, you know, and you hardly ever get your full hours +for work at all since we came to London.' + +'Oh, but look here, you know, Mr. Le Breton; I really MUST go +to-day, because Talfourd has made an appointment for me. It's awful +fun--he's going to have some pigeon-shooting.' + +Ernest's countenance fell a little, and he answered in a graver +voice than before, 'If that's what you want to go for, Lynmouth, I +certainly can't let you go. You shall never have leave from me to +go pigeon-shooting.' + +'Why not?' Lynmouth asked, still holding the door-handle at the +most significant angle. + +'Because it's a cruel and brutal sport,' Ernest replied, looking +him in the face steadily; 'and as long as you're under my charge +I can't allow you to take part in it.' + +'Oh, you can't,' said Lynmouth mischievously, with a gentle touch +of satire in his tone. 'You can't, can't you! Very well, then, +never mind about it.' And he shut the door after him with a bang, +and ran off upstairs without further remonstrance. + +'It's time for study, Lynmouth,' Ernest called out, opening the +door and speaking to him as he retreated. 'Come down again at +once, please, will you?' + +But Lynmouth made no answer, and went straight off upstairs to +the drawing-room. In a few minutes more he came back, and said in +a tone of suppressed triumph, 'Well, Mr. Le Breton, I'm going with +Talfourd. I've been up to papa, and he says I may "if I like to."' + +Ernest bit his lip in a moment's hesitation. If it had been any +ordinary question, he would have pocketed the contradiction of +his authority--after all, if it didn't matter to them, it didn't +matter to him--and let Lynmouth go wherever they allowed him. But +the pigeon-shooting was a question of principle. As long as the +boy was still nominally his pupil, he couldn't allow him to take +any part in any such wicked and brutal amusement, as he thought it. +So he answered back quietly, 'No, Lynmouth, you are not to go. I +don't think your father can have understood that I had forbidden +you.' + +'Oh!' Lynmouth said again, without a word of remonstrance, and +went up a second time to the drawing-room. + +In a few minutes a servant came down and spoke to Ernest. 'My lord +would like to see you upstairs for a few minutes, if you please, +sir.' + +Ernest followed the man up with a vague foreboding that the deferred +explosion was at last about to take place. Lord Exmoor was sitting +on the sofa. 'Oh, I say, Le Breton,' he began in his good-humoured +way, 'what's this that Lynmouth's been telling me about +the pigeon-shooting? He says you won't let him go out with Gerald +Talfourd.' + +'Yes,' Ernest answered; 'he wanted to miss his morning's work, +and I told him I couldn't allow him to do so.' + +'But I said he might if he liked, Le Breton. Young Talfourd has +called for him to go pigeon-shooting. And now Lynmouth tells me +you refuse to let him go, after I've given him leave. Is that so?' + +'Certainly,' said Ernest. 'I said he couldn't go, because before he +asked you I had refused him permission, and I supposed you didn't +know he was asking you to reverse my decision.' + +'Oh, of course,' Lord Exmoor answered, for he was not an unreasonable +man after his lights. 'You're quite right, Le Breton, quite right, +certainly. Discipline's discipline, we all know, and must be kept +up under any circumstances. You should have told me, Lynmouth, that +Mr. Le Breton had forbidden you to go. However, as young Talfourd +has made the engagement, I suppose you don't mind letting him have +a holiday now, at my request, Le Breton, do you?' + +Here was a dilemma indeed for Ernest. He hardly knew what to +answer. He looked by chance at Lady Hilda, seated on the ottoman +in the corner; and Lady Hilda, catching his eye, pursed up her lips +visibly into the one word, 'Do.' But Ernest was inexorable. If he +could possibly prevent it, he would not let those innocent pigeons +be mangled and slaughtered for a lazy boy's cruel gratification. +That was the one clear duty before him; and whether he offended +Lord Exmoor or not, he had no choice save to pursue it. + +'No, Lord Exmoor,' he said resolutely, after a long pause. 'I should +have no objection to giving him a holiday, but I can't allow him +to go pigeon-shooting.' + +'Why not?' asked Lord Exmoor warmly. + +Ernest did not answer. + +'He says it's a cruel, brutal sport, papa,' Lynmouth put in +parenthetically, in spite of an angry glance from Hilda; 'and he +won't let me go while I'm his pupil.' + +Lord Exmoor's face grew very red indeed, and he rose from the sofa +angrily. 'So that's it, Mr. Le Breton!' he said, in a short sharp +fashion. 'You think pigeon-shooting cruel and brutal, do you? Will +you have the goodness to tell me, sir, do you know that I myself +am in the habit of shooting pigeons at matches?' + +'Yes,' Ernest answered, without flinching a muscle. + +'Yes!' cried Lord Exmoor, growing redder and redder. 'You knew +that, Mr. Le Breton, and yet you told my son you considered the +practice brutal and cruel! Is that the way you teach him to honour +his parents? Who are you, sir, that you dare set yourself up +as a judge of me and my conduct? How dare you speak to him of his +father in that manner? How dare you stir him up to disobedience +and insubordination against his elders? How dare you, sir; how dare +you?' + +Ernest's face began to get red in return, and he answered with +unwonted heat, 'How dare you address me so, yourself, Lord Exmoor? +How dare you speak to me in that imperious manner? You're forgetting +yourself, I think, and I had better leave you for the present, till +you remember how to be more careful in your language. But Lynmouth +is not to go pigeon-shooting. I object to his going, because the +sport is a cruel and a brutal one, whoever may practise it. If +I have any authority over him, I insist upon it that he shall not +go. If he goes, I shall not stop here any longer. You can do as +you like about it, of course, but you have my final word upon the +matter. Lynmouth, go down to the study.' + +'Stop, Lynmouth,' cried his father, boiling over visibly with +indignation: 'Stop. Never mind what Mr. Le Breton says to you; do +you hear me? Go out if you choose with Gerald Talfourd.' + +Lynmouth didn't wait a moment for any further permission. He ran +downstairs at once and banged the front door soundly after him +with a resounding clatter. Lady Hilda looked imploringly at Ernest, +and whispered half audibly, 'Now you've done it.' Ernest stood a +second irresolute, while the Earl tramped angrily up and down the +drawing-room, and then he said in a calmer voice, 'When would it +be convenient, Lord Exmoor, that I should leave you?' + +'Whenever you like,' Lord Exmoor answered violently. 'To-day if +you can manage to get your things together. This is intolerable, +absolutely intolerable! Gross and palpable impertinence; in my +own house, too! "Cruel and brutal," indeed! "Cruel and brutal." +Fiddlesticks! Why, it's not a bit different from partridge-shooting!' +And he went out, closely followed by Ernest, leaving Lady Hilda +alone and frightened in the drawing-room. + +Ernest ran lightly upstairs to his own little study sitting-room. +'I've done it this time, certainly, as Lady Hilda said,' he thought +to himself; 'but I don't see how I could possibly have avoided it. +Even now, when all's done, I haven't succeeded in saving the lives +of the poor innocent tortured pigeons. They'll be mangled and hunted +for their poor frightened lives, anyhow. Well, now I must look out +for that imaginary schoolmastership, and see what I can do for dear +Edie. I shan't be sorry to get out of this after all, for the place +was an impossible one for me from the very beginning. I shall sit +down this moment and write to Edie, and after that I shall take out +my portmanteau and get the man to help me put my luggage up to go +away this very evening. Another day in the house after this would +be obviously impossible.' + +At that moment there came a knock at the door--a timid, tentative +sort of knock, and somebody put her head inquiringly halfway through +the doorway. Ernest looked up in sudden surprise. It was Lady Hilda. + +'Mr. Le Breton,' she said, coming over towards the table where +Ernest had just laid out his blotting-book and writing-paper: 'I +couldn't prevent myself from coming up to tell you how much I admire +your conduct in standing up so against papa for what you thought +was right and proper. I can't say how greatly I admire it. I'm so +glad you did as you did do. You have acted nobly.' And Hilda looked +straight into his eyes with the most speaking and most melting +of glances. 'Now,' she said to herself, 'according to all correct +precedents, he ought to seize my hand fervently with a gentle +pressure, and thank me with tears in his eyes for my kind sympathy.' + +But Ernest, only looking puzzled and astonished, answered in the +quietest of voices, 'Thank you very much, Lady Hilda: but I assure +you there was really nothing at all noble, nothing at all to admire, +in what I said or did in any way. In fact, I'm rather afraid, +now I come to think of it, that I lost my temper with your father +dreadfully.' + +'Then you won't go away?' Hilda put in quickly. 'You think better +of it now, do you? You'll apologise to papa, and go with us to +Dunbude for the autumn? Do say you will, please, Mr. Le Breton.' + +'Oh dear, no,' Ernest answered, smiling quietly at the bare idea +of his apologising to Lord Exmoor. 'I certainly won't do that, +whatever I do. To tell you the truth, Lady Hilda, I have not been +very anxious to stop with Lynmouth all along: I've found it a most +unprofitable tutorship--no sense of any duty performed, or any +work done for society: and I'm not at all sorry that this accident +should have broken up the engagement unexpectedly. At the same time, +it's very kind of you to come up and speak to me about it, though +I'm really quite ashamed you should have thought there was anything +particularly praiseworthy or commendable in my standing out against +such an obviously cruel sport as pigeon-shooting.' + +'Ah, but I do think so, whatever you may say, Mr. Le Breton,' Hilda +went on eagerly. 'I do think so, and I think it was very good of +you to fight it out so against papa for what you believe is right +and proper. For my own part, you know, I don't see any particular +harm in pigeon-shooting. Of course it's very dreadful that the +poor dear little things should be shot and wounded and winged and +so forth; but then everything, almost, gets shot, you see--rabbits, +and grouse, and partridges, and everything; so that really it's +hardly worth while, it seems to me, making a fuss about it. Still, +that's not the real question. You think it's wrong; which is very +original and nice and proper of you; and as you think it's wrong, +you won't countenance it in any way. I don't care, myself, whether +it's wrong or not--I'm not called upon, thank goodness, to decide +the question; but I do care very much that you should suffer for +what you think the right course of action.' And Lady Hilda in her +earnestness almost laid her hand upon his arm, and looked up to +him in the most unmistakable and appealing fashion. + +'You're very good, I'm sure, Lady Hilda,' Ernest replied, half +hesitatingly, wondering much in his own mind what on earth she +could be driving at. + +There was a moment's pause, and then Hilda said pensively, 'And +so we shall never walk together at Dunbude on the Clatter any more, +Mr. Le Breton! We shall never climb again among the big boulders +on those Devonshire hillsides! We shall never watch the red deer +from the big pool on top of the sheep-walk! I'm sorry for it, Mr. +Le Breton, very sorry for it. Oh, I do wish you weren't going to +leave us!' + +Ernest began to feel that this was really growing embarrassing. 'I +dare say we shall often see one another,' he said evasively; for +simple-minded as he was, a vague suspicion of what Lady Hilda wanted +him to say had somehow forced itself timidly upon him. 'London's +a very big place, no doubt; but still, people are always running +together unexpectedly in it.' + +Hilda sighed and looked at him again intently without speaking. +She stood so, face to face with him across the table for fully two +minutes; and then, seeming suddenly to awake from a reverie, she +started and sighed once more, and turned at last reluctantly to leave +the little study. 'I must go,' she said hastily; 'mamma would be +very angry indeed with me if she knew I'd come here; but I couldn't +let you leave the house without coming up to tell you how greatly +I admire your spirit, and how very, very much I shall always miss +you, Mr. Le Breton. Will you take this, and keep it as a memento?' +As she spoke, she laid an envelope upon the table, and glided +quietly out of the room. + +Ernest took the envelope up with a smile, and opened it with some +curiosity. It contained a photograph, with a brief inscription on +the back, 'E. L. B., from Hilda Tregellis.' + +As he did so, Hilda Tregellis, red and pale by turns, had rushed +into her own room, locked the door wildly, and flung herself in a +perfect tempest of tears on her own bed, where she lay and tossed +about in a burning agony of shame and self-pity for twenty minutes. +'He doesn't love me,' she said to herself bitterly; 'he doesn't +love me, and he doesn't care to love me, or want to marry me either! +I'm sure he understood what I meant, this time; and there was no +response in his eyes, no answer, no sympathy. He's like a block +of wood--a cold, impassive, immovable, lifeless creature! And yet +I could love him--oh, if only he would say a word to me in answer, +how I could love him! I loved him when he stood up there and bearded +papa in his own drawing-room, and asked him how dare he speak so, +how dare he address him in such a manner; I KNEW then that I really +loved him. If only he would let me! But he won't! To think that I +could have half the Algies and Berties in London at my feet for the +faintest encouragement, and I can't have this one poor penniless Ernest +Le Breton, though I go down on my knees before him and absolutely +ask him to marry me! That's the worst of it! I've humiliated myself +before him by letting him see, oh, ever so much too plainly, that +I wanted him to ask me; and I've been repulsed, rejected, positively +refused and slighted by him! And yet I love him! I shall never love +any other man as I love Ernest Le Breton.' + +Poor Lady Hilda Tregellis! Even she too had, at times, her sentimental +moments! And there she lay till her eyes were red and swollen with +crying, and till it was quite hopeless to expect she could ever +manage to make herself presentable for the Cecil Faunthorpes' +garden-party that afternoon at Twickenham. + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +EVIL TIDINGS. + + +Ernest had packed his portmanteau, and ordered a hansom, meaning +to take temporary refuge at Number 28 Epsilon Terrace; and he went +down again for a few minutes to wait in the breakfast-room, where +he saw the 'Times' lying casually on the little table by the front +window. He took it up, half dreamily, by way of having something to +do, and was skimming the telegrams in an unconcerned manner, when +his attention was suddenly arrested by the name Le Breton, printed +in conspicuous type near the bottom of the third column. He looked +closer at the paragraph, and saw that it was headed 'Accident +to British Tourists in Switzerland.' A strange tremor seized him +immediately. Could anything have happened, then, to Herbert? He +read the telegram through at once, and found this bald and concise +summary before him of the fatal Pontresina accident:-- + +'As Mr. H. Oswald, F.R.S., of Oriel College, Oxford, and Mr. +Le Breton, Fellow and Bursar of St. Aldate's College, along with +three guides, were making the ascent of the Piz Margatsch, in the +Bernina Alps, this morning, one of the party happened to slip near +the great gulley known as the Gouffre. Mr. Oswald and two of the +guides were precipitated over the edge of the cliff and killed +immediately: the breaking of the rope at a critical moment alone +saved the lives of Mr. Le Breton and the remaining guide. The bodies +have been recovered this evening, and brought back to Pontresina.' + +Ernest laid down the paper with a thrill of horror. Poor Edie! How +absolutely his own small difficulties with Lord Exmoor faded out +of has memory at once in the face of that terrible, irretrievable +calamity. Harry dead! The hope and mainstay of the family--the +one great pride and glory of all the Oswalds, on whom their whole +lives and affections centred, taken from them unexpectedly, without +a chance of respite, without a moment's warning! Worst of all, they +would probably learn it, as he did, for the first time by reading +it accidentally in the curt language of the daily papers. Pray +heaven the shock might not kill poor Edie! + +There was only a minute in which to make up his mind, but in that +minute Ernest had fully decided what he ought to do, and how to +do it. He must go at once down to Calcombe Pomeroy, and try to +lighten this great affliction for poor little Edie. Nay, lighten +it he could not, but at least he could sympathise with her in it, +and that, though little, was still some faint shade better than +nothing at all. How fortunate that his difference with the Exmoors +allowed him to go that very evening without a moment's delay. When +the hansom arrived at the door, Ernest told the cabman to drive +at once to Paddington Station. Almost before he had had time to +realise the full meaning of the situation, he had taken a third-class +ticket for Calcombe Road, and was rushing out of London by the +Plymouth express, in one of the convenient and commodious little +wooden horse-boxes which the Great Western Railway Company provide +as a wholesome deterrent for economical people minded to save half +their fare by going third instead of first or second. + +Didcot, Swindon, Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Newton Abbot, all followed +one after another, and by the time Ernest had reached Calcombe +Road Station he had begun to frame for himself a definite plan of +future action. He would stop at the Red Lion Inn that evening, send +a telegram from Exeter beforehand to Edie, to say he was coming +next day, and find out as much as possible about the way the family +had borne the shock before he ventured actually to see them. + +The Calcombe omnibus, drawn by two lean and weary horses, toiled +its way slowly up the long steep incline for six miles to the +Cross Foxes, and then rattled down the opposite slope, steaming and +groaning, till it drew up at last with a sudden jerk and a general +collapse in front of the old Red Lion Inn in the middle of the +High Street. There Ernest put up for the present, having seen by +the shutters at the grocer's shop on his way down that the Oswalds +had already heard of Harry's accident. He had dinner by himself, +with a sick heart, in the gloomy, close little coffee-room of the +village inn, and after dinner he managed to draw in the landlord +in person for a glass of sherry and half an hour's conversation. + +'Very sad thing, sir, this 'ere causality in Switzerland,' said +the red-faced landlord, coming round at once to the topic of the +day at Calcombe, after a few unimportant preliminary generalities. +'Young Mr. Oswald, as has been killed, he lived here, sir; +leastways his parents do. He was a very promising young gentleman +up at Oxford, they do tell me--not much of a judge of horses, I +should say, but still, I understand, quite the gentleman for all +that. Very sad thing, the causality, sir, for all his family. 'Pears +he was climbing up some of these 'ere Alps they have over there in +them parts, covered with snow from head to foot in the manner of +speaking, and there was another gentleman from Oxford with him, a +Mr. Le Breton----' + +'My brother,' Ernest put in, interrupting him; for he thought it +best to let the landlord know at once who he was talking to. + +'Oh, your brother, sir!' said the red-faced landlord, with a gleam +of recognition, growing redder and hotter than ever; 'well, now you +mention it, sir, I find I remember your face somehow. No offence, +sir, but you're the young gentleman as come down in the spring to +see young Mr. Oswald, aren't you?' + +Ernest nodded assent. + +'Ah, well, sir,' the landlord went on more freely--for of course +all Calcombe had heard long since that Ernest was engaged to Edie +Oswald--'you're one of the family like, in that case, if I may make +bold to say so. Well, sir, this is a shocking trouble for poor old +Mr. Oswald, and no mistake. The old gentleman was sort of centred +on his son, you see, as the saying is: never thought of nobody else +hardly, he didn't. Old Mr. Oswald, sir, was always a wonderful hand +at figgers hisself, and powerful fond of measurements and such kinds +of things. I've heard tell, indeed, as how he knew more mathematics, +and trigononomy, and that, than the rector and the schoolmaster both +put together. There's not one in fifty as knows as much mathematics +as he do, I'll warrant. Well, you see, he brought up this son of +his, little Harry as was--I can remember him now, running to and +from the school, and figgerin' away on the slates, doin' the sums in +algemer for the other boys when they went a-mitchin'--he brought +him up like a gentleman, as you know very well, sir, and sent him to +Oxford College: "to develop his mathematical talents, Mr. Legge," +his father says to me here in this very parlour. What's the +consequence? He develops that boy's talent sure enough, sir, till +he comes to be a Fellow of Oxford College, they tell me, and even +admitted into the Royal Society up in London. But this is how he +did it, sir: and as you're a friend of the family like, and want +to know all about it, no doubt, I don't mind tellin' you on the +strict confidential, in the manner of speakin'.' Here the landlord +drew his chair closer, and sipped the last drop in his glass of sherry +with a mysterious air of very private and important disclosures. +Ernest listened to his roundabout story with painful attention. + +'Well, sir,' the landlord went on after a short and pensive pause, +'old Mr. Oswald's business ain't never been a prosperous one--though +he was such a clover hand at figgers, he never made it remunerative; +a bare livin' for the family, I don't mind sayin'; and he always +spent more'n he ought to 'a done on Mr. Harry, and on the young +lady too, sir, savin' your presence. So when Mr. Harry was goin' to +Oxford to college, he come to me, and he says to me, "Mr. Legge," +says he, "it's a very expensive thing sending my boy to the University," +says he, "and I'm going to borrow money to send him with." "Don't +you go a-doin' that, Mr. Oswald," says I; "your business don't +justify you in doin' it, sir," says I. For you see, I knowed all +the ins and outs of that there business, and I knowed he hadn't +never made more'n enough just to keep things goin' decent like, as +you may say, without any money saved or put by against a emergence. +"Yes, I will, Mr. Legge," says he; "I can trust confidentially in +my son's abilities," says he; "and I feel confidential he'll be +in a position to repay me before long." So he borrowed the money on +an insurance of Mr. Harry's life. Mr. Harry he always acted very +honourable, sir; he was a perfect gentleman in every way, as YOU +know, sir; and he began repayin' his father the loan as fast as +he was able, and I daresay doin' a great deal for the family, and +especially for the young lady, sir, out of his own pocket besides. +But he still owed his father a couple of hundred pound an' more +when this causality happened, while the business, I know, had been +a-goin' to rack and ruin for the last three year. To-day I seen the +agent of the insurance, and he says to me, "Legge," says he, most +private like, "this is a bad job about young Oswald, I'm afeard, +worse'n they know for." "Why, sir?" says I. "Well, Legge," says +he, "they'll never get a penny of that there insurance, and the +old gentleman'll have to pay up the defissit on his own account," +says he. "How's that, Mr. Micklethwaite?" says I. "Because," says +he, "there's a clause in the policy agin exceptional risks, in +which is included naval and military services, furrin residences, +topical voyages, and mountain-climbin'," says he; "and you mark my +words," says he, "they'll never get a penny of it." In which case, +sir, it's my opinion that old Mr. Oswald'll be clean broke, for he +can't never make up the defissit out of his own business, can he +now?' + +Ernest listened with sad forebodings to the red-faced landlord's +pitiful story, and feared in his heart that it was a bad look-out +for the poor Oswalds. He didn't sleep much that evening, and next +day he went round early to see Edie. The telegram he found would +be a useless precaution, for the gossip of Calcombe Pomeroy had +recognised him at once, and news had reached the Oswalds almost +as soon as he arrived that young Mr. Le Breton was stopping that +evening at the Red Lion. + +Edie opened the door for him herself, pale of face and with eyes +reddened by tears, yet looking beautiful even so in her simple black +morning dress, her mourning of course hadn't yet come home--and +her deep white linen collar. 'It's very good of you to have come +so soon, Mr. Le Breton,' she said, taking his hand quietly--he +respected her sorrow too deeply to think of kissing her; 'he will +be back with us to-morrow. Your brother is bringing him back to us, +to lay him in our little churchyard, and we are all so very very +grateful to him for it.' + +Ernest was more than half surprised to hear it. It was an unusual +act of kindly thoughtfulness on the part of Herbert. + +Next day the body came home as Edie had said, and Ernest helped +to lay it reverently to rest in Calcombe churchyard. Poor old Mr. +Oswald, standing bowed and broken-hearted by the open grave side, +looked as though he could never outlive that solemn burial of all +his hopes and aspirations in a single narrow coffin. Yet it was +wonderful to Ernest to see how much comfort he took, even in this +terrible grief, from the leader which appeared in the 'Times' that +morning on the subject of the Pontresina accident. It contained +only a few of the stock newspaper platitudes of regret at the loss +of a distinguished and rising young light of science--the ordinary +glib commonplaces of obituary notices which a practised journalist +knows so well how to adapt almost mechanically to the passing event +of the moment; but they seemed to afford the shattered old country +grocer an amount of consolation and solemn relief that no mere +spoken condolences could ever possibly have carried with them. 'See +what a wonderful lot they thought of our boy up in London, Mr. Le +Breton,' he said, looking up from the paper tearfully, and wiping +his big gold spectacles, dim with moisture. 'See what the "Times" +says about him: "One of the ablest among our young academical +mathematicians, a man who, if his life had been spared to us, might +probably have attained the highest distinction in his own department +of pure science." That's our Harry, Mr. Le Breton; that's what +the "Times" says about our dear, dead Harry! I wish he could have +lived to read it himself, Edie--"a scholar of singularly profound +attainments, whose abilities had recently secured him a place upon +the historic roll of the Royal Society, and whom even the French +Academy of Sciences had held worthy out of all the competitors +of the civilised world, to be adjudged the highest mathematical +honours of the present season." My poor boy! my poor, dear, lost +boy! I wish you could have lived to hear it! We must keep the paper, +Edie: we must keep all the papers; they'll show us at least what +people who are real judges of these things thought about our dear, +loved, lost Harry.' + +Ernest dared hardly glance towards poor Edie, with the tears trickling +slowly down her face; but he felt thankful that the broken-hearted +old father could derive so much incomprehensible consolation from +those cold and stereotyped conventional phrases. Truly a wonderful +power there is in mere printer's ink properly daubed on plain +absorbent white paper. And truly the human heart, full to bursting +and just ready to break will allow itself to be cheated and cajoled +in marvellous fashions by extraordinary cordials and inexplicable +little social palliatives. The concentrated hopes of that old man's +life were blasted and blighted for ever; and he found a temporary +relief from that stunning shock in the artificial and insincere +condolences of a stock leader-writer on a daily paper! + +Walking back by himself in such sad meditations to the Red Lion, +and sitting there by the open window, Ernest overheard a tremulous +chattering voice mumbling out a few incoherent words at the Rector's +doorway opposite. 'Oh, yes,' chirped out the voice in a tone of +cheerful resignation, 'it's very sad indeed, very sad and shocking, +and I'm naturally very sorry for it, of course. I always knew +how it would be: I warned them of it; but they're a pig-headed, +heedless, unmannerly family, and they wouldn't be guided by me. I +said to him, "Now, Oswald, this is all very wrong and foolish of +you. You go and put your son to Oxford, when he ought to be stopping +at home, minding the shop and learning your business. You borrow +money foolishly to send him there with. He'll go to Oxford; he'll +fall in with a lot of wealthy young gentlemen--people above his +own natural station--he'll take up expensive, extravagant ways, and +in the end he'll completely ruin himself. He won't pay you back a +penny, you may depend upon it--these boys never do, when you make +fine gentlemen of them; they think only of their cigars and their +horses, and their dog-carts and so forth, and neglect their poor +old fathers and mothers, that brought them up and scraped and saved +to make fine gentlemen of them. You just take my advice, Oswald, and +don't send him to college." But Oswald was always a presumptuous, +high-headed, independent sort of man, and instead of listening to +me, what does he do but go and send this sharp boy of his up to +Oxford. Well, now the boy's gone to Switzerland with one of the +young Le Bretons--brother of the poor young man they've inveigled +into what they call an engagement with Miss Edith, or Miss Jemima, +or whatever the girl's name is--very well-connected people, the Le +Bretons, and personal friends of the Archdeacon's--and there he's +thrown himself over a precipice or something of the sort, no doubt +to avoid his money-matters and debts and difficulties. At any +rate, Micklethwaite tells me the poor old father'll have to pay +up a couple of hundred pound to the insurance company: and how on +earth he's ever to do it _I_ don't know, for to my certain knowledge +the rent of the shop is in arrears half-a-year already. But it's +no business of mine, thank goodness!--and I only hope that exposure +will serve to open that poor young Le Breton's eyes, and to warn him +against having anything further to say to Miss Jemima. A designing +young minx, if ever there was one! Poor young Le Breton's come down +here for the funeral, I hear, which I must say was very friendly +and proper and honourable of him; but now it's over, I hope he'll +go back again, and see Miss Jemima in her true colours.' + +Ernest turned back into the stuffy little coffee-room with his face +on fire and his ears tingling with mingled shame and indignation. +'Whatever happens,' he thought to himself, 'I can't permit Edie +to be subjected any longer to such insolence as this! Poor, dear, +guileless, sorrowing little maiden! One would have thought her +childish innocence and her terrible loss would have softened the +heart even of such a cantankerous, virulent old harridan as that, +till a few weeks were over, at least. She spoke of the Archdeacon: +it must be old Miss Luttrell! Whoever it is, though, Edie shan't +much longer be left where she can possibly come in contact with +such a loathsome mass of incredible and unprovoked malice. That +Edie should lose her dearly-loved brother is terrible enough; but +that she should be exposed afterwards to be triumphed over in her +most sacred grief by that bad old woman's querulous "I told you +so" is simply intolerable!' And he paced up and down the room with +a boiling heart, unable to keep down his righteous anger. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +FLAT REBELLION. + + +For the next fortnight Ernest remained at the Red Lion, though +painfully conscious that he was sadly wasting his little reserve of +funds from his late tutorship, in order to find out exactly what +the Oswalds' position would be after the loss of poor Harry. Towards +the end of that time he took Edie, pale and pretty in her simple +new mourning, out once more into the Bourne Close for half an hour's +quiet conversation. Very delicate and sweet and refined that tiny +girlish face and figure looked in the plain unostentatious black +and white of her great sorrow, and Ernest felt as he walked along +by her side that she seemed to lean upon him naturally now; the +loss of her main support and chief advisor in life seemed to draw +her closer and closer every day to her one remaining prop and future +husband. + +'Edie,' he said to her, as they rested once more beside the +old wooden bridge across the little river, 'I think it's time now +we should begin to talk definitely over our common plans for the +future. I know you'd naturally rather wait a little longer before +discussing them; I wish for both our sakes we could have deferred +it; but time presses, and I'm afraid from what I hear in the village +that things won't go on henceforth exactly as they used to do with +your dear father and mother.' + +Edie coloured slightly as she answered, 'Then you've heard of all +that already, Ernest'--she was learning to call him 'Ernest' now +quite naturally. 'The Calcombe tattle has got round to you so soon! +I'm glad of it, though, for it saves me the pain of having to tell +you. Yes, it's quite true, and I'm afraid it will be a terrible, +dreadful struggle for poor darling father and mother.' And the +tears came up afresh, as she spoke, into her big black eyes--too +familiar with them of late to make her even try to brush them away +hastily from Ernest's sight with her little handkerchief. + +'I'm sorry to know it's true,' Ernest said, taking her hand gently; +'very, very sorry. We must do what we can to lighten the trouble +for them.' + +'Yes,' Edie replied, looking at him through her tears; 'I mean to +try. At any rate, I won't be a burden to them myself any longer. +I've written already up to an agency in London to see whether they +can manage to get me a place as a nursery-governess.' + +'You a governess, Edie!' Ernest exclaimed hastily, with a gesture +of deprecation. 'You a governess! Why, my own precious darling, +you would never do for it!' + +'Oh yes, indeed,' Edie answered quickly, 'I really think I could, +Ernest. Of course I don't know very much--not judged by a standard +like yours or our dear Harry's. Harry used to say all a woman +could ever know was to find out how ignorant she was. Dear fellow! +he was so very learned himself he couldn't understand the complacency +of little perky, half-educated schoolmistresses. But still, I know +quite as much, I think, in my little way, as a great many girls +who get good places in London as governesses. I can speak French +fairly well, you know, and read German decently; and then dear +Harry took such a lot of pains to make me get up books that he +thought were good for me--history and so forth--and even to teach +me a little, a very little, Latin. Of course I know I'm dreadfully +ignorant; but not more so, I really believe, than a great many +girls whom people consider quite well-educated enough to teach +their daughters. After all, the daughters themselves are only women, +too, you see, Ernest, and don't expect more than a smattering of +book-knowledge, and a few showy fashionable accomplishments.' + +'My dear Edie,' Ernest answered, smiling at her gently in spite +of her tearful earnestness; 'you quite misunderstand me. It wasn't +THAT I was thinking of at all. There are very few governesses and +very few women anywhere who have half the knowledge and accomplishments +and literary taste and artistic culture that you have; very few +who have had the advantage of associating daily with such a man as +poor Harry; and if you really wanted to get a place of the sort, +the mere fact that you're Harry's sister, and that he interested +himself in superintending your education, ought, by itself, to +ensure your getting a very good one. But what I meant was rather +this--I couldn't endure to think that you should be put to all the +petty slights and small humiliations that a governess has always +to endure in rich families. You don't know what it is, Edie; you +can't imagine the endless devices for making her feel her dependence +and her artificial inferiority that these great people have devised +in their cleverness and their Christian condescension. You don't +know what it is, Edie, and I pray heaven you may never know; but +_I_ do, for I've seen it--and, darling, I CAN'T let you expose +yourself to it.' + +To say the truth, at that moment there rose very vividly before +Ernest's eyes the picture of poor shy Miss Merivale, the governess +at Dunbude to little Lady Sybil, Lynmouth's younger sister. Miss +Merivale was a rector's daughter--an orphan, and a very nice girl +in her way; and Ernest had often thought to himself while he lived +at the Exmoors', 'With just the slightest turn of Fortune's wheel +that might be my own Edie.' Now, for himself he had never felt any +sense of social inferiority at all at Dunbude; he was an Oxford +man, and by the ordinary courtesy of English society he was always +treated accordingly in every way as an equal. But there were +galling distinctions made in Miss Merivale's case which he could +not think of even at the time without a blush of ingenuous shame, +and which he did not like now even to mention to pretty, shrinking, +eager little Edie. One thing alone was enough to make his cheeks burn +whenever he thought of it--a little thing, and yet how unendurable! +Miss Merivale lunched with the family and with her pupil in the +middle of the day, but she did not dine with them in the evening. +She had tea by herself instead in Lady Sybil's little school-room. +Many a time when Ernest had been out walking with her on the +terrace just before dinner, and the dressing-gong sounded, he had +felt almost too ashamed to go in at the summons and leave the poor +little governess out there alone with her social disabilities. +The gong seemed to raise such a hideous artificial barrier between +himself and that delicately-bred, sensitive, cultivated English +lady. That Edie should be subjected to such a life of affronts as +that was simply unendurable. True, there are social distinctions +of the sort which even Ernest Le Breton, communist as he was, +could not practically get over; but then they were distinctions +familiarised to the sufferers from childhood upward, and so perhaps +a little less insupportable. But that Harry Oswald's sister--that +Edie, his own precious delicate little Edie, a dainty English +wild-flower of the tenderest, should be transplanted from her own +appreciative home to such a chilly and ungenial soil as that--the +very idea of it was horribly unspeakable. + +'But, Ernest,' Edie answered, breaking in upon his bitter meditation, +'I assure you I wouldn't mind it a bit. I know--it's very dreadful, +but then,'--and here she blushed one of her pretty apologetic little +blushes--'you know I'm used to it. People in business always are. +They expect to be treated just like servant--now THAT, I know you'll +say, is itself a piece of hubris, the expression of a horrid class +prejudice. And so it is, no doubt. But they do, for all that. As +dear Harry used to say, even the polypes in aristocratic useless +sponges at the sea-bottom won't have anything to say to the sponges +of commerce. I'm sure nobody I could meet in a governess's place +could possibly be worse in that respect than poor old Miss Catherine +Luttrell.' + +'That may be true, Edie darling,' Ernest answered, not caring +to let her know that he had overheard a specimen of the Calcombe +squirearchy, 'but in any case I don't want you to be troubled now, +either with old Miss Luttrell or any other bitter old busybodies. +I want to speak seriously to you about a very different project. +Just look at this advertisement.' + +He took a scrap of paper from his pocket and handed it to Edie. It +ran thus:-- + + + 'WANTED at Pilbury Regis Grammar School, Dorset, a + Third Classical Master. Must be a Graduate of Oxford or + Cambridge; University Prizeman preferred. If unmarried, + to take house duty. Commence September 20th. Salary, + 200L a year. Apply, as above, to the Rev. J. Greatrex, + D.D., Head Master.' + + +Edie read it through slowly. 'Well, Ernest?' she said, looking up +from it into his face. 'Do you think of taking this mastership?' + +'If I can get it,' Ernest answered. 'You see, I'm not a University +Prizeman, and that may be a difficulty in the way; but otherwise +I'm not unlikely to suit the requirements. Herbert knows something +of the school--he's been down there to examine; and Mrs. Greatrex +had a sort of distant bowing acquaintance with my mother; so I hope +their influence might help me into it.' + +'Well, Ernest?' Edie cried again, feeling pretty certain in her +own heart what was coming next, and reddening accordingly. + +'Well, Edie, in that case, would you care to marry at once, and try +the experiment of beginning life with me upon two hundred a year? +I know it's very little, darling, for our wants and necessities, +brought up as you and I have been: but Herr Max says, you know, +it's as much as any one family ought ever to spend upon its own +gratifications; and at any rate I dare say you and I could manage +to be very happy upon it, at least for the present. In any case it +wnuld be better than being a governess. Will you risk it, Edie?' + +'To me, Ernest,' Edie answered with her unaffected simplicity, +'it really seems quite a magnificent income. I don't suppose any +of our friends or neighbours in Calcombe spend nearly as much as +two hundred a year upon their own families.' + +'Ah, yes, they do, darling. But that isn't the only thing. Two +hundred a year is a very different matter in quiet, old-world, +little Calcombe and in a fashionable modern watering-place like +Pilbury Regis. We shall have to live in lodgings, Edie, and live +very quietly indeed; but epen so I think it will be better than for +you to go out and endure the humiliation of becoming a governess. +Then I may understand that, if I can get this mastership, you'll +consent to be married, Edie, before the end of September?' + +'Oh, Ernest, that's dreadfully soon!' + +'Yes, it is, darling; but you must have a very quiet wedding; and +I can't bear to leave you here now any longer without Harry to +cheer and protect you. Shall we look upon it as settled?' + +Edie blushed and looked down as she answered almost inaudibly, +'As you think best, dear Ernest.' + +So that very evening Ernest sent off an application to Pilbury +Regis, together with such testimonials as he had by him, mentioning +at the same time his intention to marry, and his recent engagement +at Lord Exmoor's. 'I hope they won't make a point about the +University Prize, Edie,' he said timidly; 'but I rather think they +don't mean to insist upon it. I'm afraid it may be put in to some +extent mainly as a bait to attract parents. Advertisements are often +so very dishonest. At any rate, we can only try; and if I get it, +I shall be able to call you my little wife in September.' + +So soon after poor Harry's death he hardly liked to say much about +how happy that consciousness would make him; but he sent off the +letter with a beating heart, and waited anxiously for the head +master's answer. + +'Maria,' said Dr. Greatrex to his wife next morning, turning over +the pile of letters at the breakfast table, 'who do you think has +applied for the third mastership? Very lucky, really, isn't it?' + +'Considering that there are some thirty millions of people +in England, I believe, Dr. Greatrex,' said his wife with dignity, +'that some seventy of those have answered your advertisement, and +that you haven't yet given me an opportunity even of guessing which +it is of them all, I'm sure I can't say so far whether it's lucky +or otherwise.' + +'You're pleased to be satirical, my dear,' the doctor answered +blandly; he was in too good a humour to pursue the opening further. +'But no matter. Well, I'll tell you, then; it's young Le Breton.' + +'Not Lady Le Breton's son!' cried Mrs. Greatrex, forgetting her +dignity in her surprise. 'Well, that certainly is very lucky. Now, +if we could only get her to come down and stay with us for a week +sometimes, after he's been here a little while, what a splendid +advertisement it would be for the place, to be sure, Joseph!' + +'Capital!' the head master said, eyeing the letter complacently +as he sipped his coffee. 'A perfect jewel of a master, I should +say, from every possible point of view. Just the sort of person +to attract parents and pupils. "Allow me to introduce you to our +third master, Mr. Le Breton; I hope Lady Le Breton was quite well +when you heard from her last, Le Breton?" and all that sort of +thing. Depend upon it, Maria, there's nothing in the world that +makes a middle-class parent--and our parents are unfortunately +all middle-class--prick up his ears like the faintest suspicion or +echo of a title. "Very good school," he goes back and says to his +wife immediately; "we'll send Tommy there; they have a master who's +an honourable or something of the sort; sure to give the boys a +thoroughly high gentlemanly tone." It's snobbery, I admit, sheer +snobbery: but between ourselves, Maria, most people are snobs, +and we have to live, professionally, by accommodating ourselves +to their foolish prejudices.' + +'At the same time, doctor,' said his wife severely, 'I don't think +we ought to allow it too freely, at least with the door open.' + +'You're quite right, my dear,' the head master answered submissively, +rising at the same time to shut the door. 'But what makes this +particular application all the better is that young Le Breton would +come here straight from the Earl of Exmoor's where he has been +acting as tutor to the son and heir, Viscount Lynmouth. That's +really admirable, now, isn't it? Just consider the advantages of +the situation. A doubtful parent comes to inspect the arrangements; +sniffs at the dormitories, takes the gauge of the studies, snorts +over the playground, condescends to approve of the fives courts. +Then, after doing the usual Christian principles business and +working in the high moral tone a little, we invite him to lunch, +and young Le Breton to meet him. You remark casually in the most +unconscious and natural fashion--I admit, my dear, that you do these +little things much better than I do--"Oh, talking of cricket, Mr. +Le Breton, your old pupil, Lord Lynmouth, made a splendid score the +other day at the Eton and Harrow." Fixes the wavering parent like +a shot. "Third master something or other in the peerage, and has +been tutor to a son of Lord Exmoor's. Place to send your boys to +if you want to make perfect gentlemen of them." I think we'd better +close at once with this young man's offer, Maria. He's got a very +decent degree, too; a first in Mods and Greats; really very decent.' + +'But will he take a house-mastership do you think, doctor?' asked +the careful lady. + +'No, he won't; he's married or soon going to be. We must let him +off the house duty.' + +'Married!' said Mrs. Greatrex, turning it over cautiously. 'Who's +he going to marry, I wonder? I hope somebody presentable.' + +'Why, of course!' Dr. Greatrex answered, as who should feel shocked +at the bare suggestion that a young man of Ernest Le Breton's +antecedents could conceivably marry otherwise. + +'His wife, or rather his wife that is to be, is a sister, he tells +me, of that poor Mr. Oswald--the famous mathematician, you know, +of Oriel--who got killed, you remember, by falling off the Matterhorn +or somewhere, just the other day. You must have seen about it in +the "Times."' + +'I remember,' Mrs. Greatrex answered, in placid contentment; 'and +I should say you can't do better than take him immediately. It'd +be an excellent thing for the school, certainly. As the third +mastership's worth only two hundred a year, of course he can't +intend to marry upon THAT; so he must have means of his own, which +is always a good thing to encourage in an under-master: or if his +wife has money, that comes in the end to the same thing. They'll take +a house of their own, no doubt; and she'll probably entertain--very +quietly, I daresay; still, a small dinner now and then gives a very +excellent tone to the school in its own way. Social considerations, +as I always say, Joseph, are all-important in school management; +and I think we may take it for granted that Mr. Le Breton would be +socially a real acquisition.' + +So it was shortly settled that Dr. Greatrex should write back +accepting Ernest Le Breton as third master; and Mrs. Greatrex +began immediately dropping stray allusions to 'Lady Le Breton, our +new master's mother, you know,' among her various acquaintance, +especially those with rising young families. The doctor and she +thought a good deal of this catch they were making in the person of +Ernest Le Breton. Poor souls, they little knew what sort of social +qualities they were letting themselves in for. A firebrand or a +bombshell would really have been a less remarkable guest to drop +down straight into the prim and proper orthodox society of Pilbury +Regis. + +When Ernest received the letter in which Dr. Greatrex informed him +that he might have the third mastership, he hardly knew how to contain +his joy. He kissed Edie a dozen times over in his excitement, and +sat up late making plans with her which would have been delightful +but for poor Edie's lasting sorrow. In a short time it was all duly +arranged, and Ernest began to think that he must go back to London +for a day or two, to let Lady Le Breton hear of his change of plans, +and got everything in order for their quiet wedding. He grudged the +journey sadly, for he was beginning to understand now that he must +take care of the pence for Edie's sake as well as for humanity's--his +abstraction was individualising itself in concrete form--but +he felt so much at least was demanded of him by filial duty, and, +besides, he had one or two little matters to settle at Epsilon +Terrace which could not so well be managed in his absence even +by his trusty deputy, Ronald. So he ran up to town once more in a +hurry, and dropped in as if nothing had happened, at his mother's +house. It was no unusual matter for him to pass a fortnight at +Wilton Place without finding time to call round at Epsilon Terrace +to see Ronald, and his mother had not heard at all as yet of his +recent change of engagement. + +Lady Le Breton listened with severe displeasure to Ernest's account of +his quarrel with Lord Exmoor. It was quite unnecessary and wrong, +she said, to prevent Lynmnouth from his innocent boyish amusements. +Pigeon-shooting was practised by the very best people, and she was +quite sure, therefore, there could be no harm of any sort in it. +She believed the sport was countenanced, not only by bishops, but +even by princes. Pigeons, she supposed, had been specially created +by Providence for our use and enjoyment--'their final cause +being apparently the manufacture of pigeon-pie,' Ronald suggested +parenthetically: but we couldn't use them without killing them, +unfortunately; and shooting was probably as painless a form of +killing as any other. Peter or somebody, she distinctly remembered, +had been specially commanded to arise, kill, and eat. To object to +pigeon-shooting indeed, in Lady Le Breton's opinion, was clearly +flying in the face of Providence. Of Ronald's muttered reference +to five sparrows being sold for two farthings, and yet not one of +them being forgotten, she would not condescend to take any notice. +However, thank goodness, the fault was none of hers; she could +wash her hands entirely of all responsibility in the matter. She +had done her best to secure Ernest a good place in a thoroughly +nice family, and if he chose to throw it up at a moment's notice +for one of his own absurd communistical fads, it was happily none +of her business. She was glad, at any rate, that he'd got another +berth, with a conscientious, earnest, Christian man like Dr. +Greatrex. 'And indeed, Ernest,' she said, returning once more to +the pigeon-shooting question, 'even your poor dear papa, who was +full of such absurd religious fancies, didn't think that sport +was unchristian, I'm certain; for I remember once, when we were +quartered at Moozuffernugger in the North-West Provinces, he went +out into a nullah near our compound one day, and with his own hand +shot a man-eating tiger, which had carried off three little native +children from the thanah; so that shows that he couldn't really +object to sport; and I hope you don't mean to cast disrespect upon +the memory of your own poor father!'. All of which profound moral +and religious observations Ernest, as in duty bound, received with +the most respectful and acquiescent silence. + +And now he had to approach the more difficult task of breaking +to his mother his approaching marriage with Edie Oswald. He began +the subject as delicately as he could, dwelling strongly upon poor +Harry Oswald's excellent position as an Oxford tutor, and upon +Herbert's visit with him to Switzerland--he knew his mother too +well to suppose that the real merits of the Oswald family would +impress her in any way, as compared with their accidental social +status; and then he went on to speak as gently as possible about +his engagement with little Edie. At this point, to his exceeding +discomfiture, Lady Le Breton adopted the unusual tactics of bursting +suddenly into a flood of tears. + +'Oh, Ernest,' she sobbed out inarticulately through her scented +cambric handkerchief, 'for heaven's sake don't tell me that you've +gone and engaged yourself to that designing girl! Oh, my poor, +poor, misguided boy! Is there really no way to save you?' + +'No way to save me!' exclaimed Ernest, astonished and disconcerted +by this unexpected outburst. + +'Yes, yes!' Lady Le Breton went on, almost passionately. 'Can't +you manage somehow to get yourself out of it? I hope you haven't +utterly compromised yourself! Couldn't dear Herbert go down +to What's-his-name Pomeroy, and induce the father--a grocer, if +I remember right--induce him, somehow or other, to compromise the +matter?' + +'Compromise!' cried Ernest, uncertain whether to laugh or be angry. + +'Yes, compromise it!' Lady Le Breton answered, endeavouring to +calm herself. 'Of course that Machiavellian girl has tried to drag +you into it; and the family have aided and abetted her; and you've +been weak and foolish--though not, I trust, wicked--and allowed them +to get their net closed almost imperceptibly around you. But it +isn't too late to withdraw even now, my poor, dear, deluded Ernest. +It isn't too late to withdraw even now. Think of the disgrace and +shame to the family! Think of your dear brothers and their blighted +prospects! Don't allow this designing girl to draw you helplessly +into such an ill-assorted marriage! Reflect upon your own future +happiness! Consider what it will be to drag on years of your life +with a woman, no longer perhaps externally attractive, whom you +could never possibly respect or love for her own internal qualities! +Don't go and wreck your own life, and your brothers' lives, for any +mistaken and Quixotic notions of false honour! You mayn't like to +throw her over, after you've once been inveigled into saying "Yes" +(and the feeling, though foolish, does your heart credit); but +reflect, my dear boy, such a promise, so obtained, can hardly be +considered binding upon your conscience! I've no doubt dear Herbert, +who's a capital man of business, would get them readily enough to +agree to a compromise or a compensation.' + +'My dear mother,'said Ernest white with indignation, but speaking +very quietly, as soon as he could edge in a word, 'you quite +misunderstand the whole question. Edie Oswald is a lady by nature, +with all a lady's best feelings--I hate the word because of its +false implications, but I can't use any other that will convey to +you my meaning--and I love and admire and respect and worship her +with all my heart and with all my soul. She hasn't inveigled me or +set her cap at me, as you call it, in any way; she's the sweetest, +timidest, most shrinking little thing that ever existed; on the contrary, +it is I who have humbly asked her to accept me, because I know no +other woman to whom I could give my whole heart so unreservedly. +To tell you the truth, mother, with my ideas and opinions, I could +hardly be happy with any girl of the class that you would call +distinctively ladies: their class prejudices and their social +predilections would jar and grate upon me at every turn. But Edie +Oswald's a girl whom I could worship and love without any reserve--whom +I can reverence for her beautiful character, her goodness, and her +delicacy of feeling. She has honoured me by accepting me, and I'm +going to marry her at the end of this month, and I want, if possible, +to get your consent to the marriage before I do so. She's a wife +of whom I shall be proud in every way; I wish I could think she +would have equal cause to be proud of her husband.' + +Lady Le Breton threw herself once more into a paroxysm of tears. +'Oh, Ernest,' she cried, 'do spare me! do spare me! This is too +wicked, too unfeeling, too cruel of you altogether! I knew already +you were very selfish and heartless and headstrong, but I didn't +know you were quite so unmanageable and so unkind as this. I appeal +to your better nature--for you HAVE a better nature--I'm sure you +have a better nature: you're MY son, and you can't be utterly devoid +of good impulses. I appeal confidently to your better nature to +throw off this unhappy, designing, wicked girl before it is too +late! She has made you forget your duty to your mother, but not, +I hope, irrevocably. Oh, my poor, dear, wandering boy, won't you +listen to the voice of reason? won't you return once more like the +prodigal son, to your neglected mother and your forgotten duty?' + +'My dear mother,' Ernest said, hardly knowing how to answer, 'you +WILL persist in completely misunderstanding me. I love Edie Oswald +with all my heart; I have promised to marry her, because she has +done me the great and undeserved honour of accepting me as her +future husband; and even if I wanted to break off the engagement +(which it would break my own heart to do), I certainly couldn't +break it off now without the most disgraceful and dishonourable +wickedness. That is quite fixed and certain, and I can't go back +upon it in any way.' + +'Then you insist, you unnatural boy,' said Lady Le Breton, wiping +her eyes, and assuming the air of an injured parent, 'you insist, +against my express wish, in marrying this girl Osborne, or whatever +you call her?' + +'Yes, I do, mother,' Ernest answered quietly. + +'In that case,' said Lady Le Breton, coldly, 'I must beg of you +that you won't bring this lady, whether as your wife or otherwise, +under my roof. I haven't been accustomed to associate with the +daughters of tradesmen, and I don't wish to associate with them +now in any way.' + +'If so,' Ernest said, very softly, 'I can't remain under your roof +myself any longer. I can go nowhere at all where my future wife +will not be received on exactly the same terms that I am.' + +'Then you had bettor go,' said Lady Le Breton, in her chilliest +manner. 'Ronald, do me the favour to ring ihe bell for a cab for +your brother Ernest.' + +'I shall walk, thank you, mother,' said Ernest quietly. 'Good +morning, dear Ronald.' + +Ronald rose solemnly and opened the door for him. 'Therefore shall +a man leave his father and mother,' he said in his clear, soft +voice, 'and shall cleave unto his wife; and they twain shall be +one flesh. Amen.' + +Lady Le Breton darted a withering glance at her younger son as +Ernest shut the door after him, and burst once more into a sudden +flood of uncontrollable tears. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +'COME YE OUT AND BE YE SEPARATE.' + + +Arthur Berkeley's London lodgings were wonderfully snug and +comfortable for the second floor of a second-rate house in a small +retired side street near the Embankment at Chelsea. He had made +the most of the four modest little rooms, with his quick taste and +his deft, cunning fingers:--four rooms, or rather boxes, one might +almost call them; a bedroom each for himself and the Progenitor; +a wee sitting-room for meals and music--the two Berkeleys would +doubtless as soon have gone without the one as the other; and a tiny +study where Arthur might work undisturbed at his own desk upon his +new and original magnum opus, destined to form the great attraction +of the coming season at the lately-opened Ambiguities Theatre. Things +had prospered well with the former Oxford curate during the last +twelve-month. His cantata at Leeds had proved a wonderful success, +and had finally induced him to remove to London, and take to +composing as a regular profession. He had his qualms about it, to +be sure, as one who had put his hand to the plough and then turned +back; he did not feel quite certain in his own mind how far he +was justified in giving up the more spiritual for the more worldly +calling; but natures like Arthur Berkeley's move rather upon passing +feeling than upon deeper sentiment; and had he not ample ground, he +asked himself, for this reconsideration of the monetary position? +He had the Progenitor's happiness to insure before thinking of the +possible injury to his non-existent parishioners. If he was doing +Whippingham Parva or Norton-cum-Sutton out of an eloquent and +valuable potential rector, if he was depriving the Church in the +next half-century of a dignified and portly prospective archdeacon, +he is at least making his father's last days brighter and more +comfortable than his early ones had ever been. And then, was not +music, too, in its own way, a service, a liturgy, a worship? Surely +he could do higher good to men's souls--as they call them--to +whatever little spark of nobler and better fire there might lurk +within those dull clods of common clay he saw all around him--by +writing such a work as his Leeds cantata, than by stringing together +for ever those pretty centos of seventeenth-century conceits and +nineteenth-century doubts or hesitations which he was accustomed +to call his sermons! Whatever came of it, he must give up the +miserable pittance of a curacy, and embrace the career open to the +musical talents. + +So he fitted up his little Chelsea rooms in his own economically +sumptuous fashion with some bits of wall paper, a few jugs and vases, +and an etching or two after Meissonier; planted the Progenitor down +comfortably in a large easy-chair, with a melodious fiddle before +him; and set to work himself to do what he could towards elevating +the British stage and pocketing a reasonable profit on his own +account from that familiar and ever-rejuvenescent process. He was +quite in earnest, now, about producing a totally new effect of his +own; and believing in his work, as a good workman ought to do, +he wrought at it indefatigably and well in the retirement of a +second-pair back, overlooking a yardful of fluttering clothes, and +a fine skyline vista of bare, yellowish brick chimneys. + +'What part are you working at to-day, Artie?' said the old shoemaker, +looking over his son's shoulder at the blank music paper before +him. 'Quartette of Biological Professors, eh?' + +'Yes, father,' Berkeley answered with a smile. 'How do you think +it runs now?' and he hummed over a few lines of his own words, set +with a quaint lilt to his own inimitable and irresistible music:-- + + + And though in unanimous chorus + We mourn that from ages before us + No single enaliosaurus + To-day should survive, + + Yet joyfully may we bethink us, + With the earliest mammal to link us, + We still have the ornithorhyncus + Extant and alive! + + +'How do you think the score does for that, father, eh? Catching +air rather, isn't it?' + +'Not a better air in the whole piece, Artie; but, my boy, who do +you think will ever understand the meaning of the words. The gods +themselves won't know what you're driving at.' + +'But I'm going to strike out a new line, Daddie dear. I'm not going +to play to the gallery; I mean to play to the stalls and boxes.' + +'Was there ever such a born aristocrat as this young parson is!' cried +the old man, lifting up both his hands with a playful gesture of +mock-deprecation. 'He's hopeless! He's terrible! He's incorrigible! +Why, you unworthy son of a respectable Paddington shoemaker, if even +the intelligent British artizans in the gallery don't understand +you, how the dickens do you suppose the oiled and curled Assyrian +bulls in the stalls and boxes will have a glimmering idea of what +you're driving at? The supposition's an insult to the popular +intelligence--in other words, to me, sir, your Progenitor.' + +Berkeley laughed. 'I don't know about that, father,' he said, holding +up the page of manuscript music at arm's length admiringly before +him; 'but I do know one thing: this comic opera of mine is going +to be a triumphant success.' + +'So I've thought ever since you began it, Artie. You see, my boy, +there's a great many points in its favour. In the first place you +can write your own libretto, or whatever you call it; and you know +I've always held that though that Wagner man was wrong in practice--a +most inflated thunder-bomb, his Lohengrin--yet he was right in +theory, right in theory, Artie; every composer ought to be his own +poet. Well, then, again, you've got a certain peculiar vein of +humour of your own, a kind of delicate semi-serious burlesque turn +about you that's quite original, both in writing and in composing; +you're a humourist in verse and a humourist in music, that's the +long and the short of it. Now, you've hit upon a fresh lode of +dramatic ore in this opera of yours, and if my judgment goes for +anything, it'll bring the house down the first evening. I'm a bit +of a critic, Artie; by hook or by crook, you know, paper or money, +I've heard every good opera, comic or serious, that's been given +in London these last thirty years, and I flatter myself I know +something by this time about operatic criticism.' + +'You're wrong about Wagner, father,' said Arthur, still glancing +with paternal partiality at his sheet of manuscript: 'Lohengrin's +a very fine work, a grand work, I assure you. I won't let you run +it down. But, barring that, I think you're pretty nearly right in +your main judgment. I'm not modest, and it strikes me somehow that +I've invented a genre. That's about what it comes to.' + +'If you'd confine yourself to your native tongue, Mr. Parson, +your ignorant old father might have some chance of agreeing or +disagreeing with you; but as he doesn't even know what the thingumbob +you say you've invented may happen to be, he can't profitably +continue the discussion of that subject. However, my only fear is +that you may perhaps be writing above the heads of the audience. +Not in the music, Artie; they can't fail to catch that; it rings +in one's head like the song of a hedge warbler--tirree, tirree, +lu-lu-lu, la-la, tirree, tu-whit, tu-whoo, tra-la-la--but in the +words and the action. I'm half afraid that'll be over their heads, +even in the gallery. What do you think you'll finally call it?' + +'I'm hesitating, Daddy, between "Evolution" and "The Primate of +Fiji." Which do you recommend--tell me?' + +'The Primate, by all means,' said the old man gaily. 'And you +still mean to open with the debate in the Fijian Parliament on the +Deceased Grandmother's Second Cousin Bill?' + +'No, I don't, Daddy. I've written a new first scene this week, in +which the President of the Board of Trade remonstrates with the +mermaids on their remissness in sending their little ones to the +Fijian Board Schools, in order to receive primary instruction in the +art of swimming. I've got a capital chorus of mermaids to balance +the other chorus of Biological Professors on the Challenger Expedition. +I consider it's a happy cross between Ariosto and Aristophanes. +If you like, I'll give you the score, and read over the words to +you.' 'Do,' said the old man, settling himself down in comfort in +his son's easy-chair, and assuming the sternest air of an impartial +critic. Arthur Berkeley read on dramatically, in his own clever +airy fashion, suiting accent and gesture to the subject matter +through the whole first three acts of that exquisitely humorous +opera, the Primate of Fiji. Sometimes he hummed the tune over to +himself as he went; sometimes he played a few notes upon his flute +by way of striking the key-note; sometimes he rose from his seat in +his animation, and half acted the part he was reading with almost +unconscious and spontaneous mimicry. He read through the famous +song of the President of the Local Government Board, that everybody +has since heard played by every German band at the street corners; +through the marvellously catching chorus of the superannuated +tide-waiters; through the culminating dialogue between the London +Missionary Society's Agent and the Hereditary Grand Sacrificer to +the King of Fiji. Of course the recital lacked everything of the +scenery and dresses that give it so much vogue upon the stage; but +it had at least the charmingly suggestive music, the wonderful +linking of sound to sense, the droll and inimitable intermixture +of the plausible and the impossible which everybody has admired +and laughed at in the acted piece. + +The old shoemaker listened in breathless silence, keeping his eye +fixed steadily all the time upon the clean copy of the score. Only +once he made a wry face to himself, and that was in the chorus to +the debate in the Fijian Parliament on the proposal to leave off +the practice of obligatory cannibalism. The conservative party +were of opinion that if you began by burying instead of eating your +deceased wife, you might end by the atrocious practice of marrying +your deceased wife's sister; and they opposed the revolutionary +measure in that well known refrain:-- + + + Of change like this we're naturally chary, + Nolumus leges Fijiae mutari. + + +That passage evidently gave the Progenitor deep pain. + +'Stick to your own language, my boy,' he murmured; 'stick to your +own language. The Latin may be very fine, but the gallery wil never +understand it.' However, when Arthur finished at last, he drew a +long breath, and laid down the roll of manuscript with an involuntary +little cry of half-stifled applause. + +'Artie,' he said rising from the chair slowly, 'Artie, that's not +so bad for a parson, I can tell you. I hope the Archbishop won't +be tempted to cite you for displaying an amount of originality +unworthy of your cloth.' + +'Father,' said Arthur, suddenly, after a short pause, with a tinge +of pensiveness in his tone that was not usual with him, in speaking +at least; 'Father, I often think I ought never to have become a +parson at all.' + +'Well, my boy,' said the old man, looking up at him sharply with +his keen eyes, 'I knew that long ago. You've never really believed +in the thing, and you oughtn't to have gone in for it from the very +beginning. It was the music, and the dresses, and the decorations +that enticed you, Artie, and not the doctrine.' + +Arthur turned towards him with a pained expression. 'Father,' he +said, half reproachfully, 'Father, dear father, dou't talk to me +like that. Don't think I'm so shallow or so dishonest as to subscribe +to opinions I don't believe in. It's a curious thing to say, a +curious thing in this unbelieving age, and I'm half ashamed to say +it, even to you; but do you know, father, I really do believe it: +in my very heart of hearts, I fancy I believe every word of it.' + +The old man listened to him compassionately and tenderly, as +a woman listens to the fears and troubles of a little child. To +him, that plain confession of faith was, in truth, a wonder and a +stumbling-block. Good, simple-hearted, easy-going, logical-minded, +sceptical shoemaker that he was, with his head all stuffed full of +Malthus, and John Stuart Mill, and political economy, and the hard +facts of life and science, how could he hope to understand the +complex labyrinth of metaphysical thinking, and childlike faith, +and aesthetic attraction, and historical authority, which made a +sensitive man like Arthur Berkeley, in his wayward, half-serious, +emotional fashion, turn back lovingly and regretfully to the fair +old creed that his father had so long deserted? How strange that +Artie, a full-grown male person, with all the learning of the schools +behind him, should relapse at last into these childish and exploded +mediaeval superstitions! How incredible that, after having been +brought up from his babyhood upward on the strong meat of the agnostic +philosophers, he should fall back in his manhood on the milk for +babes administered to him by orthodox theology! The simple-minded +old sceptic could hardly credit it, now that Arthur told him so +with his own lips, though he had more than once suspected it when he +heard him playing sacred music with that last touch of earnestness +in his execution which only the sincerest conviction and most intimate +realisation of its import can ever give. Ah well, ah well, good +sceptical old shoemaker; there are perhaps more things in heaven +and earth and in the deep soul of man than are dreamt of in your +philosophy. + +Still, though the avowal shocked and disappointed him a little, the +old man could not find it in his heart to say one word of sorrow +or disapproval, far less of ridicule or banter, to his dearly loved +boy. He felt instinctively, what Herbert Le Breton could not feel, +that this sentimental tendency of his son's, as he thought it, +lay far too deep and seemed far too sacred for mere argument or +common discussion. 'Perhaps,' he said to himself softly, 'Artie's +emotional side has got the better of his intellectual. I brought +him up without telling him any thing of these things, except +negatively, and by way of warning against superstitious tendencies; +and when he went to Oxford, and saw the doctrines tricked out in +all the authority of a great hierarchy, with its cathedrals, and +chapels, and choirs, and altars, and robes, and fal-lal finery, +it got the better of him; got the better of him, very naturally. +Artie's a cleverer fellow than his old father--had more education, +and so on; and I'm fond of him, very fond of him; but his logical +faculty isn't quite straight, somehow: he lets his feelings have +too much weight and prominence against his calmer reason! I can +easily understand how, with his tastes and leanings, the clericals +should have managed to get a hold over him. The clericals are such +insinuating cunning fellows. A very impressionable boy Artie was, +always; the poetical temperament and the artistic temperament +always is impressionable, I suppose; but shoemaking certainly does +develop the logical faculties. Seems as though the logical faculties +were situated in the fore-part of the brain, as they mark them +out on the phrenological heads; and the leaning forward that gives +us the shoemaker's forehead must tend to enlarge them--give them +plenty of room to expand and develop!' Saying which thing to himself +musingly, the father took his son's hand gently in his, and only +smoothed it quietly as he looked deep into Arthur's eyes, without +uttering a single word. + +As for Arthur Berkeley, he sat silent, too, half averting his face +from his father's gaze, and feeling a little blush of shame upon his +cheek at having been surprised unexpectedly into such an unwonted +avowal. How could he ever expect his father to understand the nature +of his feelings! To him, good old man that he was, all these things +were just matters of priestcraft and obscurantism--fables invented +by the ecclesiastical mind as a means of getting fat livings and +comfortable deaneries out of the public pocket. And, indeed, Arthur +was well accustomed at Oxford to keeping his own opinions to himself +on such subjects. What chance of sympathy or response was there for +such a man as he in that coldly critical and calmly deliberative +learned society? Not, of course, that all Oxford was wholly given +over even then to extreme agnosticism. There were High Churchmen, +and Low Churchmen, and Broad Churchmen enough, to be sure: men +learned in the Fathers, and the Canons, and the Acts of the General +Councils; men ready to argue on the intermediate state, or on the +three witnesses, or on the heretical nature of the Old Catholic +schism; men prepared with minute dogmatic opinions upon every +conceivable or inconceivable point of abstract theology. There were +people who could trace the Apostolic succession of the old Cornish +bishops, and people who could pronounce authoritatively upon the +exact distinction between justification and remission of sins. But +for all these things Arthur Berkeley cared nothing. Where, then, +among those learned exegetical theologians, was there room for one +whose belief was a matter, not of reason and argument, but of feeling +and of sympathy? He did not want to learn what the Council of Trent +had said about such and such a dogma; he wanted to be conscious +of an inner truth, to find the world permeated by an informing +righteousness, to know himself at one with the inner essence of +the entire universe. And though he could never feel sure whether +it was all illusion or not, he had hungered and thirsted after +believing it, till, as he told his father timidly that day, he +actually did believe it somehow in his heart of hearts. Let us not +seek to probe too deeply into those inner recesses, whose abysmal +secrets are never perfectly clear even to the introspective eyes +of the conscious self-dissector himself. + +After a pause Arthur spoke again. He spoke this time in a very low +voice, as one afraid to open his soul too much, even to his father. +'Dear, dear father,' he said, releasing his hand softly, 'you don't +quite understand what I mean about it. It isn't because I don't +believe, or try to believe, or hope I believe, that I think I ought +never to have become a parson. In my way, as in a glass, darkly, +I do strive my best to believe, though perhaps my belief is hardly +more in its way than Ernest Le Breton's unbelieving. I do want to +think that this great universe we see around us isn't all a mistake +and an abortion. I want to find a mind and an order and a purpose +in it; and, perhaps because I want it, I make myself believe that +I have really found it. In that hope and belief, with the ultimate +object of helping on whatever is best and truest in the world, I +took orders. But I feel now that it was an error for me. I'm not +the right man to make a parson. There are men who are born for that +role; men who know how to conduct themselves in it decently and +in seemly fashion; men who can quietly endure all its restraints, +and can fairly rise to the height of all its duties. But I can't. +I was intended for something lighter and less onerous than that. +If I stop in the Church I shall do no good to myself or to it; if +I come out of it, I shall make both parties freer, and shall be able +to do more good in my own generation. And so, father, for the very +same reasons that made me go into it, I mean to come out again. Not +in any quarrel with it, nor as turning my back upon it, but just +as the simple acknowledgment of a mistaken calling. It wouldn't +be seemly, for example, for a parson to write comic operas. But +I feel I can do more good by writing comic operas than by talking +dogmatically about things I hardly understand to people who hardly +understand me. So before I get this opera acted I mean to leave off +my white tie, and be known in future, henceforth and for ever, as +plain Arthur Berkeley.' + +The old shoemaker listened in respectful silence. 'It isn't for me, +Artie,' he said, as his son finished, 'to stand between a man and +his conscience. As John Stuart Mill says in his essay on "Liberty," +we must allow full play to every man's individuality. Wonderful +man, John Stuart Mill; I understand his grandfather was a shoemaker. +Well, I won't talk with you about the matter of conviction; but I +never wanted you to be a parson, and I shall feel all the happier +myself when you've ceased to be one.' + +'And I,' said Arthur, 'shall feel all the freer; but if I had been +able to remain where I was, I should have felt all the worthier, +for all that.' + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A QUIET WEDDING. + + +Fate was adverse for the moment to Arthur Berkeley's well meant +designs for shuffling off the trammels of his ecclesiastical habit. +He was destined to appear in public at least once more, not only in +the black coat and white tie of his everyday professional costume, +but even in the flowing snowy surplice of a solemn and decorous +spiritual function. The very next morning's post brought him +a little note from Ernest Le Breton specially begging him, in his +own name and Edie's, to come down to Calcombe Pomeroy, and officiate +as parson at their approaching wedding. The note had cost Ernest +a conscientious struggle, for he would have personally preferred +to be married at a Registry Office, as being more in accordance +with the duties of a good citizen, and savouring less of effete +ecclesiastical superstition; but he felt he couldn't even propose +such a step to Edie; she wouldn't have considered herself married +at all, unless she were married quite regularly by a duly qualified +clerk in holy orders of the Church of England as by law established. +Already, indeed, Ernest was beginning to recognise with a sigh +that if he was going to live in the world at all, he must do so by +making at least a partial sacrifice of political consistency. You +may step out of your own century, if you choose, yourself, but you +can't get all the men and women with whom you come in contact to +step out of it also in unison just to please you. + +So Ernest had sat down reluctantly to his desk, and consented +to ask Arthur Berkeley to assist at the important ceremony in his +professional clerical capacity. If he was going to have a medicine +man or a priest at all to marry him to the girl of his choice--a +barbaric survival, at the best, he thought it--he would, at any +rate, prefer having his friend Arthur--a good man and true--to +having the fat, easy-going, purse-proud rector of the parish; the +younger son of a wealthy family who had gone into the Church for +the sake of the living, and who rolled sumptuously down the long +hilly High Street every day in his comfortable carriage, leaning +back with his fat hands folded complacently over his ample knees, +and gazing abstractedly, with his little pigs'-eyes half buried +in his cheek, at the beautiful prospect afforded him by the broad +livery-covered backs of his coachman and his footman. Ernest could +never have consented to lot that lazy, overfed, useless encumbrance +on a long-suffering commonwealth, that idle gorger of dainty meats +and choice wines from the tithes of the tolling, suffering people, +bear any part in what was after all the most solemn and serious +contract of his whole lifetime. And, to say the truth, Edie quite +agreed with him on that point, too. Though her moral indignation +against poor, useless, empty-headed old Mr. Walters didn't burn +quite so fierce or so clear as Ernest's--she regarded the fat +old parson, indeed, rather from the social point of view, as a +ludicrously self-satisfied specimen of the lower stages of humanity, +than from the political point of view, as a greedy swallower of +large revenues for small work inefficiently performed--she would +still have felt that his presence at her wedding jarred and grated +on all the finer sensibilities of her nature, as out of accord +with the solemn and tender associations of that supreme moment. +To have been married by prosy old Mr. Walters, to have taken the +final benediction on the greatest act of her life from those big +white fat fingers, would have spoilt the reminiscence of the wedding +day for her as long as she lived. But when Ernest suggested Arthur +Berkeley's name to her, she acquiesced with all her heart in the +happy selection. She liked Berkeley better than anybody else she +had ever met, except Ernest; and she knew that his presence would +rather add one more bright association to the day than detract from +it in the coming years. Her poor little wedding would want all the +additions that friends could make to its cheerfulness, to get over +the lasting gloom and blank of dear Harry's absence. + +'You will come and help us, I know, Berkeley,' Ernest wrote to +Arthur in his serious fashion. 'We feel there is nobody else we +should so like to have present at our wedding as yourself. Come +soon, too, for there are lots of things I want to talk over with +you. It's a very solemn responsibility, getting married: you +have to take upon yourself the duty of raising up future citizens +for the state; and with our present knowledge of how nature works +through the laws of heredity, you have to think whether you two +who contemplate marriage are well fitted to act as parents to the +generations that are to be. When I remember that all my own faults +and failings may be handed on relentlessly to those that come after +us--built up in the very fibre of their being--I am half appalled +at my own temerity. Then, again, there is the inexorable question +of money; is it prudent or is it wrong of us to marry on such +an uncertainty? I'm afraid that Schurz and Malthas would tell us +--very wrong. I have turned over these things by myself till I'm +tired of arguing them out in my own head, and I want you to come +down beforehand, so as to cheer me up a bit with your lighter and +brighter philosophy. On the very eve of my marriage, I'm somehow +getting dreadfully pessimistic.' + +Arthur read the letter through impatiently and crumpled it up in his +hands with a gesture of despondency. 'Poor little Miss Butterfly,' +he said to himself, pityingly, 'was there ever such an abstraction +of an ethical unit as this good, solemn, self-torturing Ernest! How +will she ever live with him? How will he ever live with her? Poor +little soul! Harry is gone like the sunshine out of her life; and +now this well-meaning, gloomy, conscientious cloud comes caressingly +to overspread her with the shadowing pall of its endless serious +doubts and hesitations. Fancy a man who has won little Miss +Butterfly's heart--dear little Miss Butterfly's gay, laughing, +tender little heart--writing such a letter as that to the friend +who's going to marry them! Upon my word, I've half a mind to go +into the concientious scruples business on my own account! Have I +any right to be a party to fettering poor airy fairy little Miss +Butterfly, with a heavy iron chain for life and always, to this +great lumbering elephantine moral Ernest? Am I justified in tying +the cable round her dainty little neck with a silken thread, and +then fastening it round his big leg with rivets of hardened steel +on the patent Bessemer process? If a couple of persons, duly called +by banns in their own respective parishes, or furnished with the +right reverend's perquisite, a licence, come to me, a clerk in holy +orders, and ask me to marry them, I've a vague idea that unless I +comply I lay myself open to the penalties of praemunire, or something +else equally awful and mysterious. But if the couple write and +ask me to come down into Devonshire and marry them, that's quite +another matter. I can lawfully answer, 'Non possumus.' There's a +fine ecclesiastical ring, by the way, about answering 'Non possumus;' +it sums up the entire position of the Church in a nutshell! Well, +I doubt whether I ought to go; but as a matter of friendship, I'll +throw overboard my poor conscience. It's used to the process by +this time, no doubt, like eels to skinning; and as Hudibras says, + + + However tender it may be, + 'Tis passing blind where 'twill not see. + + +If she'd only have taken ME, now, who knows but I might in time +have risen to be a Prebendary or even a Dean? 'They that have used +the office of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree,' +Paul wrote to Timothy once; but it's not so now, it's not so now; +preferment goes by favour, and the deacon must e'en shift as best +he can on his own account.' So, in the end, Arthur packed up his +surplice in his little handbag, and took his way peacefully down +to Calcombe Pomeroy. + +It was a very quiet, almost a sombre wedding, for the poor Oswalds +were still enveloped in the lasting gloom of their great loss, +and not much outward show or preparation, such as the female heart +naturally delights in, could possibly be made under these painful +circumstances. Still, all the world of Calcombe came to see little +Miss Oswald married to the grave gentleman from Oxford; and most +of them gave her their hearty good wishes, for Edie was a general +favourite with gentle and simple throughout the whole borough. +Herbert was there, like a decorous gentleman, to represent the +bridegroom's family, and so was Ronald, who had slipped away from +London without telling Lady Le Breton, for fear of another distressful +scone at the last moment. Arthur Berkeley read the service in +his beautiful impressive manner, and looked his part well in his +flowing white surplice. But as he uttered the solemn words, 'Whom +God hath joined together, let no man put asunder,' the musical +ring of his own voice sounded to his heart like the knell of his +own one love--the funeral service over the only romance he could +ever mix in throughout his whole lifetime. Poor fellow, he had +taken the duty upon him with all friendly heartiness; but he felt +an awful and lonely feeling steal over him when it was all finished, +and when he knew that his little Miss Butterfly was now Ernest Le +Breton's lawful wife for ever and ever. + +In the vestry, after signing the books, Herbert and Ronald and +some of the others insisted on their ancient right of kissing the +bride in good old English fashion. But Arthur did not. It would +not have been loyal. He felt in his heart that he had loved little +Miss Butterfly too deeply himself for that; to claim a kiss would +be abusing the formal dues of his momentary position. Henceforth +he would not even think of her to himself in that little pet name +of his brief Oxford dream: he would call her nothing in his own +mind but Mrs. Le Breton. + +Edie's simple little presents were all arranged in the tiny parlour +behind the shop. Most of them were from her own personal friends: +a few were from the gentry of the surrounding neighbourhood: but +there were two handsomer than the rest: they came from outside the +narrow little circle of Calcombe Pomeroy society. One was a plain +gold bracelet from Arthur Berkeley; and on the gold of the inner +face, though neither Edie nor Ernest noticed it, he had lightly +cut with his knife on the soft metal the one word, 'Frustra.' The +other was a dressing-case, with a little card inside, 'Miss Oswald, +from Lady Hilda Tregellis.' Hilda had heard of Ernest's approaching +wedding from Herbert (who took an early opportunity of casually +lunching at Dunbude, in order to show that he mustn't be identified +with his socialistic brother); and the news had strangely proved a +slight salve to poor Hilda's wounded vanity--or, perhaps it would +be fairer to say, to her slighted higher instincts. 'A country +grocer's daughter!' she said to herself: 'the sister of a great +mathematical scholar! How very original of him to think of marrying +a grocer's daughter! Why, of course, he must have been engaged to +her all along before he came here! And even if he hadn't been, +one might have known at once that such a man as he is would never +go and marry a girl whose name's in the peerage, when he could strike +out a line for himself by marrying a grocer's daughter. I really +like him better than ever for it. I must positively send her a +little present. They'll be as poor as church mice, I've no doubt. +I ought to send her something that'll be practically useful.' And +by way of sending something practically useful, Lady Hilda chose +at last a handsome silver-topped Russia leather dressing-case. + +It was not such a wedding as Edie had pictured to herself in her +first sweet maidenly fancies; but still, when they drove away alone +in the landau from the side-door of the Red Lion to Calcombe Road +Station, she felt a quiet pride and security in her heart from the +fact that she was now the wedded wife of a man she loved so dearly +as Ernest Le Breton. And even Ernest so far conquered his social +scruples that he took first-class tickets, for the first time in +his life, to Ilfracombe, where they were to spend their brief and +hasty fragment of a poor little honeymoon. It's so extremely hard +to be a consistent socialist where women are concerned, especially +on the very day of your own wedding! + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +INTO THE FIRE. + + +'Let me see, Le Breton,' Dr. Greatrex observed to the new master, +'you've taken rooms for yourself in West Street for the present--you'll +take a house on the parade by-and-by, no doubt. Now, which church +do you mean to go to?' + +'Well, really,' Ernest answered, taken a little aback at the +suddenness of the question, 'I haven't had time to think about it +yet.' + +The doctor frowned slightly. 'Not had time to think about it,' +he repeated, rather severely. 'Not had time to think about such +a serious question as your particular place of worship! You quite +surprise me. Well, if you'll allow me to make a suggestion in the +matter it would be that you and Mrs. Le Breton should take seats, +for the present at least, at St. Martha's. The parish church is high, +decidedly high, and I wouldn't recommend you to go there; most of +our parents don't approve of it. You're an Oxford man, I know, and +so I suppose you're rather high yourself; but in this particular +matter I would strongly advise you to subordinate your own personal +feelings to the parents' wishes. Then there's St. Jude's; St. +Jude's is distinctly low--quite Evangelical in fact: indeed, I may +say, scarcely what I should consider sound church principles at +all in any way; and I think you ought most certainly to avoid it +sedulously. Evangelicism is on the decline at present in Pilbury +Regis. As to St. Barnabas--Barabbas they call it generally, a most +irreverent joke, but, of course, inevitable--Barabbas is absolutely +Ritualistic. Many of our parents object to it most strongly. But +St. Martha's is a quiet, moderate, inoffensive church in every +respect--sound and sensible, and free from all extremes. You can +give no umbrage to anybody, even the most cantankerous, by going +to St. Martha's. The High Church people fraternise with it on the +one hand, and the moderate church people fraternise with it on the +other, while as to the Evangelicals and the dissenters, they hardly +contribute any boys to the school, or if they do, they don't object +to unobtrusive church principles. Indeed, my experience has been, +Le Breton, that even the most rabid dissenters prefer to have their +sons educated by a sound, moderate, high-principled, and, if I may +say so, neutral-tinted church clergyman.' And the doctor complacently +pulled his white tie straight before the big gilt-framed drawing-room +mirror. + +'Then, again,' the doctor went on placidly in a bland tone of +mild persuasion, 'there's the question of politics. Politics are +a very ticklish matter, I can assure you, in Pilbury Regis. Have +you any fixed political opinions of your own, Le Breton, or are +you waiting to form them till you've had some little experience in +your profession?' + +'My opinions,' Ernest answered timidly, 'so far as they can be +classed under any of the existing political formulas at all, are +decidedly Liberal--I may even say Radical.' + +The doctor bit his lip and frowned severely. 'Radical,' he said, +slowly, with a certain delicate tinge of acerbity in his tone. +'That's bad. If you will allow me to interpose in the matter, I +should strongly advise you, for your own sake, to change them at +once and entirely. I don't object to moderate Liberalism--perhaps +as many as one-third of our parents are moderate Liberals; +but decidedly the most desirable form of political belief for a +successful schoolmaster is a quiet and gentlemanly, but unswerving +Conservatism. I don't say you ought to be an uncompromising +old-fashioned Tory--far from it: that alienates not only the +dissenters, but even the respectable middle-class Liberals. What +is above all things expected in a schoolmaster is a central position +in politics, so to speak--a careful avoidance of all extremes--a +readiness to welcome all reasonable progress, while opposing in +a conciliatory spirit all revolutionary or excessive changes--in +short, an attitude of studied moderation. That, if you will allow +me to advise you, Le Breton, is the sort of thing, you may depend +upon it, that most usually meets the wishes of the largest possible +number of pupils' parents.' + +'I'm afraid,' Ernest answered, as respectfully as possible, 'my +political convictions are too deeply seated to be subordinated to +my professional interests.' + +'Eh! What!' the doctor cried sharply. 'Subordinate your principles +to your personal interests! Oh, pray don't mistake me so utterly +as that! Not at all, not at all, my dear Le Breton. I don't mean +that for the shadow of a second. What I mean is rather this,' and +here the doctor cleared his throat and pulled round his white tie +a second time, 'that a schoolmaster, considering attentively what +is best for his pupils, mark you--we all exist for our pupils, you +know, my dear fellow, don't we?--a schoolmaster should avoid such +action as may give any unnecessary scandal, you see, or seem to +clash with the ordinary opinion of the pupils' parents. Of course, if +your views are fully formed, and are of a mildly Liberal complexion +(put it so, I beg of you, and don't use that distressful word +Radical), I wouldn't for the world have you act contrary to them. +But I wouldn't have you obtrude them too ostentatiously--for your +own sake, Le Breton, for your own sake, I assure you. Remember, +you're a very young man yet: you have plenty of time before you to +modify your opinions in: as you go on, you'll modify them--moderate +them--bring them into harmony with the average opinions of ordinary +parents. Don't commit yourself at present--that's all I would +say to you--don't commit yourself at present. When you're as old +as I am, my dear fellow, you'll see through all these youthful +extravagances.' + +'And as to the church, Mr. Le Breton,' said Mrs. Greatrex, with +bland suggestiveness from the ottoman, 'of course, we regard the +present very unsatisfactory arrangement as only temporary. The +doctor hopes in time to get a chapel built, which is much nicer +for the boys, and also more convenient for the masters and their +families--they all have seats, of course, in the chancel. At Charlton +College, where the doctor was an assistant for some years, before +we came to Pilbury, there was one of the under-masters, a young man +of very good family, who took such an interest in the place that +he not only contributed a hundred pounds out of his own pocket +towards building a chapel, but also got ever so many of his wealthy +friends elsewhere to subscribe, first to that, and then to the organ +and stained-glass window. We've got up a small building fund here +ourselves already, of which the doctor's treasurer, and we hope +before many years to have a really nice chapel, with good music +and service well done--the kind of thing that'll be of use to the +school, and have an excellent moral effect upon the boys in the +way of religious training.' + +'No doubt,' Ernest answered evasively, 'you'll soon manage to raise +the money in such a place as Pilbury.' + +'No doubt,' the doctor replied, looking at him with a searching +glance, and evidently harbouring an uncomfortable suspicion, +already, that this young man had not got the moral and religious +welfare of the boys quite so deeply at heart as was desirable in +a model junior assistant master. 'Well, well, we shall see you at +school to-morrow morning, Le Breton: till then I hope you'll find +yourselves quite comfortable in your new lodgings.' + +Ernest went back from this visit of ceremony with a doubtful heart, +and left Dr. and Mrs. Greatrex alone to discuss their new acquisition. + +'Well, Maria,' said the doctor, in a dubious tone of voice, as soon +as Ernest was fairly out of hearing, 'what do you think of him?' + +'Think!' answered Mrs. Greatrex, energetically. 'Why, I don't think +at all. I feel sure he'll never, never, never make a schoolmaster!' + +'I'm afraid not,' the doctor responded, pensively. 'I'm afraid +not, Maria. He's got ideas of his own, I regret to say; and, what's +worse, they're not the right ones.' + +'Oh, he'll never do,' Mrs. Greatrex continued, scornfully. 'Nothing +at all professional about him in any way. No interest or enthusiasm +in the matter of the chapel; not a spark of responsiveness even +about the stained-glass window; hardly a trace of moral or religious +earnestness, of care for the welfare and happiness of the dear boys. +He wouldn't in the least impress intending parents--or, rather, I +feel sure he'd impress them most unfavourably. The best thing we +can do, now we've got him, is to play off his name on relations in +society, but to keep the young man himself as far as possible in +the background. I confess he's a disappointment--a very great and +distressing disappointment.' + +'He is, he is certainly,' the doctor acquiesced, with a sigh of +regretfulness. 'I'm afraid we shall never be able to make much of +him. But we must do our best--for his own sake, and the sake of the +boys and parents, it's our duty, Maria, to do our best with him.' + +'Oh, of course,' Mrs. Greatrex replied, languidly: 'but I'm bound +to say, I'm sure it'll prove a very thankless piece of duty. Young +men of his sort have never any proper sense of gratitude.' + +Meanwhile, Edie, in the little lodgings in a side street near the +school-house, had run out quickly to open the door for Ernest, and +waited anxiously to hear his report upon their new employers. + +'Well, Ernest dear,' she asked, with something of the old childish +brightness in her eager manner, 'and what do you think of them?' + +'Why, Edie,' Ernest answered, kissing her white forehead gently, +'I don't want to judge them too hastily, but I'm inclined to +fancy, on first sight, that both the doctor and his wife are most +egregious and unmitigated humbugs.' + +'Humbugs, Ernest! why, how do you mean?' + +'Well, Edie, they've got the moral and religious welfare of the +boys at their very finger ends; and, do you know--I don't want to +be uncharitable--but I somehow imagine they haven't got it at heart +as well. However, we must do our best, and try to fall in with +them.' + +And for a whole year Ernest and Edie did try to fall in with them +to the best of their ability. It was hard work, for though the +doctor himself was really at bottom a kind-hearted man, with a mere +thick veneer of professional humbug inseparable from his unhappy +calling, Mrs. Greatrex was a veritable thorn in the flesh to poor +little natural honest-hearted Edie. When she found that the Le +Bretons didn't mean to take a house on the Parade or elsewhere, +but were to live ingloriously in wee side street lodgings, her +disappointment was severe and extreme; but when she incidentally +discovered that Mrs. Le Breton was positively a grocer's daughter +from a small country town, her moral indignation against the baseness +of mankind rose almost to white heat. To think that young Le Breton +should have insinuated himself into the position of third master +under false pretences--should have held out as qualifications for +the post his respectable connections, when he knew perfectly well +all the time that he was going to marry somebody who was not in +Society--it was really quite too awfully wicked and deceptive and +unprincipled of him! A very bad, dishonest young man, she was very +much afraid; a young man with no sense of truth or honour about +him, though, of course, she wouldn't say so for the world before +any of the parents, or do anything to injure the poor young fellow's +future prospects if she could possibly help it. But Mrs. Greatrex +felt sure that Ernest had come to Pilbury of malice prepense, as +part of a deep-laid scheme to injure and ruin the doctor by his +horrid revolutionary notions. 'He does it on purpose,' she used to +say; 'he talks in that way because he knows it positively shocks +and annoys us. He pretends to be very innocent all the time; but +at heart he's a malignant, jealous, uncharitable creature. I'm sure +I wish he had never come to Pilbury Regis! And to go quarrelling +with his own mother, too--the unnatural man! The only respectable +relation he had, and the only one at all likely to produce any good +or salutary effect upon intending parents!' + +'My dear,' the doctor would answer apologetically, 'you're really +quite too hard upon young Le Breton. As far as school-work goes, he's +a capital master, I assure you--so conscientious, and hard-working, +and systematic. He does his very best with the boys, even with that +stupid lout, Blenkinsopp major; and he has managed to din something +into them in mathematics somehow, so that I'm sure the fifth form +will pass a better examination this term than any term since we +first came here. Now that, you know, is really a great thing, even +if he doesn't quite fall in with our preconceived social requirements.' + +'I'm sure I don't know about the mathematics or the fifth form, +Joseph,' Mrs. Geatrex used to reply, with great dignity. 'That +sort of thing falls under your department, I'm aware, not under +mine. But I'm sure that for all social purposes, Mr. Le Breton +is really a great deal worse than useless. A more unchristian, +disagreeable, self-opinionated, wrong-headed, objectionable young +man I never came across in the whole course of my experience. However, +you wouldn't listen to my advice upon the subject, so it's no use +talking any longer about it. I always advised you not to take him +without further enquiry into his antecedents; and you overbore me: +you said he was so well-connected, and so forth, and would hear +nothing against him; so I wish you joy now of your precious bargain. +The only thing left for us is to find some good opportunity of +getting rid of him.' + +'I like the young man, as far as he goes,' Dr. Greatrex replied +once, with unwonted spirit, 'and I won't get rid of him at all, my +dear, unless he obliges me to. He's really well meaning, in spite +of all his absurdities, and upon my word, Maria, I believe he's +thoroughly honest in his opinions.' + +Mrs. Greatrex only met this flat rebellion by an indirect remark +to the effect that some people seemed absolutely destitute of the +very faintest glimmering power of judging human character. + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND THE DRAMA. + + +'The Primate of Fiji' was duly accepted and put into rehearsal by +the astute and enterprising manager of the Ambiguities Theatre. +'It's a risk,' he said candidly, when he read the manuscript over, +'a decided risk, Mr. Berkeley; I acknowledge the riskiness, but I +don't mind trying it for all that. You see, you've staked everything +upon the doubtful supposition that the Public possesses a certain +amount of elementary intelligence, and a certain appreciation +of genuine original wit and humour. Your play's literature, good +literature; and that's rather a speculative element to introduce +into the regular theatre nowadays. Illegitimate, I should call it; +decidedly illegitimate--but still, perhaps, worth trying. Do you +know the story about old Simon Burbury, the horsedealer? Young Simon +says to him one morning, "Father, don't you think we might manage +to conduct this business of ours without always telling quite +so many downright lies about it?" The old man looks back at him +reproachfully, and says with a solemn shake of the head, "Ah, Simon, +Simon, little did I ever think I should live to see a son of mine +go in for speculation!" Well, my dear sir, that's pretty much how +a modern manager feels about the literary element in the drama. +The Public isn't accustomed to it, and there's no knowing how they +may take it. Shakespeare, now, they stand readily enough, because +he's an old-established and perfectly respectable family purveyor. +Sheridan, too, of course, and one play of Goldsmith's, and a trifle +or so of George Colman--all recognised and all tolerated because +of their old prescriptive respectability. But for a new author to +aim at being literary's rather presumptuous; now tell me yourself, +isn't it? Seems as if he was setting himself up for a heaven-sent +genius, and trying to sit upon the older dramatists of the present +generation. Melodrama, sensation, burlesque--that's all right +enough--perfectly legitimate; but a real literary comic opera, with +good words and good music--it IS a little strong, for a beginner, +Mr. Berkeley, you WILL acknowledge.' + +'But don't you think,' Arthur answered, smiling good-humouredly at +his cynical frankness, 'an educated and cultured Public is beginning +to grow up that may, perhaps, really prefer a little literature, +provided it's made light enough and attractive enough for their +rapid digestion? Don't you think intelligent people are beginning +to get just a trifle sick of burlesque, and spectacle, and sensation, +and melodrama?' + +'Why, my dear sir,' the manager answered promptly, 'that's the exact +chance on which I'm calculating when I venture to accept your comic +opera from an unknown beginner. It's clever, there's no denying +that, and I hope the fact won't be allowed to tell against it: but +the music's bright and lively; the songs are quaint and catching; +the dialogue's brisk and not too witty; and there's plenty of +business--plenty of business in it. I incline to think we can get +together a house at the Ambiguities that'll enter into the humour +of the thing, and see what your play's driving at. How did you learn +all about stage requirements, though? I never saw a beginner's +play with so little in it that was absolutely impossible.' + +'I was a Shooting Star at Oxford,' Berkeley answered simply, +'so that I know something--like a despised amateur--about stage +necessities; and I've written one or two little pieces before for +private acting. Besides, Watkiss has helped me with all the technical +arrangements of the little opera.' + +'It'll do,' the manager answered, more confidently; 'I won't predict +a success, because you know a manager should never prophesy unless +he knows; but I think there's a Public in London that'll take it +in, just as they took in "Caste" and "Society," twenty years back, +at the Prince of Wales's. Anyhow, I'm quite prepared to give it +a fair trial.' + +On the first night, Arthur Berkeley and the Progenitor went down +in fear and trembling to the stage door of the Ambiguities. There +was a full house, and the critics were all present, in some surprise +at the temerity of this new man; for it was noised abroad already +by those who had seen the rehearsals that 'The Primate of Fiji' was +a fresh departure, after its own fashion, in the matter of English +comic opera. The curtain rose upon the chorus of mermaids, and +the first song was a decided hit. Still the Public, as becomes a +first night, maintained a dignified and critical reserve. When the +President of the Board of Trade, in full court costume, appeared +upon the scene, in the midst of the very realistic long-haired +sea-ladies, the audience was half shocked for a moment by the +utter incongruity of the situation; but after a while they began +to discover that the incongruity was part of the joke, and they +laughed quietly a sedate and moderate laugh of suspended judgment. +As the Progenitor had predicted, the gods were the first to enter +into the spirit of the fun, and to give a hand to the Primate's +first sermon. The scuntific professors on the Challenger Expedition +took the fancy of the house a little more decidedly; and even the +stalls thawed visibly when the professor of biology delivered his +famous exposition of the evolution hypothesis to the assembled +chiefs of Raratouga. But it was the one feeble second-hand old joke +of the piece that really brought pit and boxes down together in a +sudden fit of inextinguishable laughter. The professor of political +economy enquired diligently, with note book in hand, of the Princess +of Fiji, whether she thought the influence of the missionaries +beneficial or otherwise; whether she considered these preachers +of a new religion really good or not; to which the unsophisticated +child of nature responded naively, 'Good, very good--roasted; but +not quite so good boiled,' and the professor gravely entered the +answer in his philosophic note-book. It was a very ancient jest +indeed, but it tickled the ribs of the house mightily, as ancient +jests usually do, and they burst forthwith into a hearty roar of +genuine approval. Then Arthur began to breathe more freely. After +that the house toned down again quietly, and gave no decided token +of approbation till the end of the piece. When the curtain dropped +there was a lull of hushed expectation for poor Arthur Berkeley; +and at its close the house broke out into a storm of applause, and +'The Primate of Fiji' had firmly secured its position as the one +great theatrical success of the present generation. + +There was a loud cry of 'Author! Author!' and Arthur Berkeley, +hardly knowing how he got there, or what he was standing on, found +himself pushed from behind by friendly hands, on to the narrow +space between the curtain and the footlights. He became aware that +a very hot and red body, presumably himself, was bowing mechanically +to a seething and clapping mass of hands and faces over the whole +theatre. Backing out again, in the same semi-conscious fashion, +with the universe generally reeling on more than one distinct axis +all around him, he was seized and hand-shaken violently, first +by the Progenitor, then by the manager, and then by half a dozen +other miscellaneous and unknown persons. At last, after a lot more +revolutions of the universe, he found himself comfortably pitched +into a convenient hansom, with the Progenitor by his side; and +hardly knew anything further till he discovered his own quiet supper +table at the Chelsea lodgings, and saw his father mixing a strong +glass of brandy and seltzer for him. to counteract the strength of +the excitement. + +Next morning Arthur Berkeley 'awoke, and found himself famous.' +'The Primate of Fiji' was the rage of the moment. Everybody went to +hear it--everybody played its tunes at their own pianos--everybody +quoted it, and adapted it, and used its clever catchwords as the +pet fashionable slang expressions of the next three seasons. Arthur +Berkeley was the lion of the hour; and the mantelpiece of the +quiet little Chelsea study was ranged three rows deep with cards +of invitation from people whose very names Arthur had never heard +of six months before, and whom the Progenitor declared it was a +sin and shame for any respectable young man of sound economical +education even to countenance. There were countesses, and marchionesses, +too, among the senders of those coronetted parallelograms of waste +pasteboard, as the Progenitor called them--nay, there was even one +invitation on the mantelpiece that bore the three strawberry leaves +and other insignia of Her Grace the Duchess of Leicestershire. + +'Can't you give us just ONE evening, Mr. Berkeley,' said Lady +Hilda Tregellis, as she sat on the centre ottoman in Mrs. Campbell +Moncrieff's drawing-room with Arthur Berkeley talking lightly +to her about the nothings which constitute polite conversation in +the nineteenth century. 'Just one evening, any day after the next +fortnight? We should be so delighted if you could manage to favour +us.' + +'No, I'm afraid I can't, Lady Hilda,' Arthur answered. 'My evenings +are so dreadfully full just now; and besides, you know, I'm not +accustomed to so much society, and it unsettles me for my daily work. +After all, you see, I'm a journeyman playwright now, and I have to +labour at my unholy calling just like the theatrical carpenter.' + +'How delightfully frank,' thought Lady Hilda. 'Really I like him +quite immensely.--Not even the afternoon on Wednesday fortnight?' +she went on aloud. 'You might come to our garden party on Wednesday +fortnight.' + +'Quite impossible,' Arthur Berkeley answered. 'That's my regular +day at Pilbury Regis.' + +'Pilbury Regis!' cried Lady Hilda, starting a little. 'You don't +mean to say you have engagements, and in the thick of the season, +too, at Pilbury Regis!' + +'Yes, I have, every Wednesday fortnight,' Berkeley answered, with +a smile. 'I go there regularly. You see, Lady Hilda, Wednesday's +a half-holiday at Pilbury Grammar School; so every second week I +run down for the day to visit an old friend of mine, who's also an +acquaintance of yours, I believe,--Ernest Le Breton. He's married +now, you know, and has got a mastership at the Pilbury Grammar +School.' + +'Then you know Mr. Le Breton!' cried Lady Hilda, charmed at this +rapprochement of two delightfully original men. 'He is so nice. +I like him immensely, and I'm so glad you're a friend of his. And +Mrs. Le Breton, too; wasn't it nice of him? Tell me, Mr. Berkeley, +was she really and truly a grocer's daughter?' + +Berkeley's voice grew a little stiffer and colder as he answered, +'She was a sister of Oswald of Oriel, the great mathematician, who +was killed last year by falling from the summit of a peak in the +Bernina.' + +'Oh, yes, yes, I know all about that, of course,' said Lady Hilda, +quickly and carelessly. 'I know her brother was very clever and +all that sort of thing; but then there are so many men who are very +clever, aren't there? The really original thing about it all, you +know, was that he actually married a grocer's daughter. That was +really quite too delightfully original. I was charmed when I heard +about it: I thought it was so exactly like dear Mr. Le Breton. +He's so deliciously unconventional in every way. He was Lynmouth's +tutor for a while, as you've heard, of course; and then he went +away from us, at a moment's notice, so nicely, because he wouldn't +stand papa's abominable behaviour, and quite right, too, when it +was a matter of conscience--I dare say he's told you all about it, +that horrid pigeon-shooting business. Well, and so you know Mrs. +Le Breton--do tell me, what sort of person is she?' + +'She's very nice, and very good, and very pretty, and very clever,' +Arthur answered, a little constrainedly. 'I don't know that I can +tell you anything more about her than that.' + +'Then you really like her?' said Lady Hilda, warmly. 'You think +her a fit wife for Mr. Le Breton, do you?' + +'I think him a very lucky fellow indeed to have married such a +charming and beautiful woman,' Arthur answered, quietly. + +Lady Hilda noticed his manner, and read through it at once with a +woman's quickness. 'Aha!' she said to herself: 'the wind blows that +way, does it? What a very remarkable girl she must be, really, +to have attracted two such men as Mr. Berkeley and Mr. Le Breton. +I've lost one of them to her; I can't very well lose the other, +too: for after Ernest Le Breton, I've never seen any man I should +care to marry so much as Mr. Arthur Berkeley.' + +'Lady Hilda,' said the hostess, coming up to her at that moment, +'you'll play us something, won't you? You know you promised to +bring your music.' + +Hilda rose at once with stately alacrity. Nothing could have pleased +her better. She went to the piano, and, to the awe and astonishment +of Mrs. Campbell Moncrieff, took out an arrangement of the Fijian +war-dance from 'The Primate of Fiji.' It suited her brilliant +slap-dash style of execution admirably; and she felt she had never +played so well in her life before. The presence of the composer, +which would have frightened and unnerved most girls of her age, only +made Hilda Tregellis the bolder and the more ambitious. Here was +somebody at least who knew something about it; none of your ordinary +fashionable amateurs and mere soulless professional performers, +but the very man who had made the music--the man in whose brain the +notes had first gathered themselves together into speaking melody, +and who could really judge the comparative merits of her rapid +execution. She played with wonderful verve and spirit, so that +Lady Exmoor, seated on the side sofa opposite, though shocked at +first at Hilda's choice of a piece, glanced more than once at the +wealthiest young commoner present (she had long since mentally +resigned herself to the prospect of a commoner for that poor dear +foolish Hilda), and closely watched his face to see what effect +this unwonted outburst of musical talent might succeed in producing +upon his latent susceptibilities. But Lady Hilda herself wasn't +thinking of the wealthy commoner; she was playing straight at Arthur +Berkeley: and when she saw that Arthur Berkeley's mouth had melted +slowly into an approving smile, she played even more brilliantly +and better than ever, after her bold, smart, vehement fashion. As +she left the piano, Arthur said, 'Thank you; I have never heard +the piece better rendered.' And Lady Hilda felt that that was a +triumph which far outweighed any number of inane compliments from +a whole regiment of simpering Algies, Monties, and Berties. + +'You can't say any evening, then, Mr. Berkeley?' she said once +more, as she held out her hand to him to say 'Good-night' a little +later: 'not any evening at all, or part of an evening? You might +really reconsider your engagements.' + +Arthur hesitated visibly. 'Well, possibly I might manage it,' he +said, wavering, 'though, I assure you, my evenings are very much +more than full already.' + +'Then don't make it an evening,' said Lady Hilda, pressingly. +'Make it lunch. After all, Mr. Berkeley, it's we ourselves who want +to see you; not to show you off as a curiosity to all the rest of +London. We have silly people enough in the evenings; but if you'll +come to lunch with us alone one day, we shall have an opportunity +of talking to you on our own account.' + +Lady Hilda was tall and beautiful, and Lady Hilda spoke. as she +always used to speak, with manifest sincerity. Now, it is not in +human nature not to feel flattered when a beautiful woman pays +one genuine homage; and Arthur Berkeley was quite as human, after +all, as most other people. 'You're very kind,' he said, smiling. +'I must make it lunch, then, though I really ought to be working +in the mornings instead of running about merely to amuse myself. +What day will suit you best?' + +'Oh, not to amuse yourself, Mr. Berkeley,' Hilda answered pointedly, +'but to gratify us. That, you know, is a work of benevolence. Say +Monday next, then, at two o'clock. Will that do for you?' + +'Perfectly,' Berkeley answered, taking her proffered hand extended +to him with just that indefinable air of frankness which Lady +Hilda knew so well how to throw into all her actions. 'Good evening. +Wilton Place, isn't it!--Gracious heavens!' he thought to himself, +as he glanced after her satin train sweeping slowly down the grand +staircase, 'what on earth would the dear old Progenitor say if only +he saw me in the midst of these meaningless aristocratic orgies. I +am positively half-wheedled, it seems, into making love to an earl's +daughter! If this sort of thing continues, I shall find myself, +before I know it, connected by marriage with two-thirds of the +British peerage. A beautiful woman, really, and quite queen-like +in her manner when she doesn't choose rather to be unaffectedly +gracious. How she sat upon that tall young man with the brown +moustaches over by the mantelpiece! I didn't hear what she said +to him, but I could see he was utterly crushed by the way he slank +away with his tail between his legs, like a whipped spaniel. A +splendid woman--and no doubt about it; looks as if she'd stepped +straight out of the canvas of Titian, with the pearls in her hair +and everything else exactly as he painted them. The handsomest +girl I ever saw in my life--but not like Edie Le Breton. They say +a man can only fall in love once in a lifetime. I wonder whether +there's any truth in it! Well, well, you won't often see a finer +woman in her own style than Lady Hilda Tregellis. Monday next, at +two precisely; I needn't make a note of it--no fear of my forgetting.' + +'I really do think,' Lady Hilda said to herself as she unrolled +the pearls from her thick hair in her own room that winter evening, +'I almost like him better than I did Ernest Le Breton. The very +first night I saw him at Lady Mary's I fell quite in love with his +appearance, before I knew even who he was; and now that I've found +out all about him, I never did hear anything so absolutely and +delightfully original. His father a common shoemaker! That, to +begin with, throws Ernest Le Breton quite into the shade! HIS father +was a general in the Indian army--nothing could be more BANAL. +Then Mr. Berkeley began life as a clergyman; but now he's taken off +his white choker, and wears a suit of grey tweed like any ordinary +English gentleman. So delightfully unconventional, isn't it? At +last, to crown it all, he not only composes delicious music, but +goes and writes a comic opera--such a comic opera! And the best +of it is, success hasn't turned his head one atom. He doesn't run +with vulgar eagerness after the great people, like your ordinary +everyday successful nobody. He took no more notice of me, myself, +at first, because I was Lady Hilda Tregellis, than if I'd been a +common milkmaid; and he wouldn't come to our garden party because +he wanted to go down to Pilbury Regis to visit the Le Bretons at +their charity school or something! It was only after I played the +war-dance arrangement so well--I never played so brilliantly in my +life before--that he began to alter and soften a little. Certainly, +these pearls do thoroughly become me. I think he looked after me +when I was leaving the room just a tiny bit, as if he was really +pleased with me for my own sake, and not merely because I happen +to be called Lady Hilda Tregellis.' + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE. + + +'It's really very annoying, this letter from Selah,' Herbert Le +Breton murmured to himself, as he carefully burnt the compromising +document, envelope and all, with a fusee from his oriental silver +pocket match-case. 'I had hoped the thing had all been forgotten +by this time, after her long silence, and my last two judiciously +chilly letters--a sort of slow refrigerating process for poor +shivering naked little Cupid. But here, just at the very moment +when I fancied the affair had quite blown over, comes this most +objectionable letter, telling me that Selah has actually betaken +herself to London to meet me; and what makes it more annoying +still, I wanted to go up myself this week to dine at home with +Ethel Faucit. Mother's plan about Ethel Faucit is exceedingly +commendable; a girl with eight hundred a year, cultivated tastes, +and no father or other encumbrances dragging after her. I always +said I should like to marry a poor orphan. A very desirable young +woman to annex in every way! And now, here's Selah Briggs--ugh! +how could I ever have gone and entangled myself in my foolish days +with a young woman burdened by such a cognomen!--here's Selah +Briggs must needs run away from Hastings, and try to hunt me up on +her own account in London. If I dared, I wouldn't go up to see her +at all, and would let the thing die a natural death of inanition--sine +Cerere et Baccho, and so forth--(I'm afraid, poor girl, she'll be +more likely to find Bacchus than Ceres if she sticks in London); +but the plain fact is, I don't dare--that's the long and the short +of it. If I did, Selah'd be tracking me to earth here in Oxford, +and a nice mess that'd make of it! She doesn't know my name, to +be sure; but as soon as she called at college and found nobody of +the name of Walters was known there, she'd lie in wait for me about +the gates, as sure as my name's Herbert Le Breton, and sooner or +later she'd take it out of me, one way or the other. Selah has as +many devils in her as the Gergesene who dwelt among the tombs, I'll +be sworn to it; and if she's provoked, she'll let them all loose in +a legion to crush me. I'd better see her and have it out quietly, +once for all, than try to shirk it here in Oxford and let myself +in at the end for the worse condemnation.' + +Under this impression, Herbert Le Breton, leaning back in his +well-padded oak armchair, ordered his scout to pack his portmanteau, +and set off by the very first fast train for Paddington station. +He would get over his interview with Selah Briggs in the afternoon, +and return to Epsilon Terrace in good time for Lady Le Breton's +dinner. Say what you like of it, Ethel Faucit and eight hundred a +year, certe redditum, was a thing in no wise to be sneezed at by +a judicious and discriminating person. + +Herbert left his portmanteau in the cloakroom at Paddington, and +drove off in a hansom to the queer address which Selah had given +him. It was a fishy lodging of the commoner sort in a back street +at Notting Hill, not far from the Portobello Road. At the top of the +stairs, Selah stood waiting to meet him, and seemed much astonished +when, instead of kissing her, as was his wont, he only shook her +hand somewhat coolly. But she thought to herself that probably +he didn't wish to be too demonstrative before the eyes of the +lodging-house people, and so took no further notice of it. + +'Well, Selah,' Herbert said, as soon as he entered the room, and +seated himself quietly on one of the straight-backed wooden chairs, +'why on earth have you come to London?' + +'Goodness gracious, Herbert,' Selah answered, letting loose the +floodgates of her rapid speech after a week's silence, 'don't you +go and ask me why I've done it. Ask me rather why I didn't go and +do it long ago. Father, he's got more and more aggravating every +day for the last twelve-month, till at last I couldn't atand him any +longer. Prayer meetings, missionary meetings, convention meetings, +all that sort of thing I could put up with somehow; but when it +came to private exhortations and prayer over me with three or four +of the godliest neighbours, I made up my mind not to put up with +it one day longer. So last week I packed up two or three little +things hurriedly, and left a note behind to say I felt I was too +unregenerate to live in such spiritual company any longer; and +came straight up here to London, and took these lodgings. Emily +Lucas, she wrote to me from Hastings--she's the daughter of the +hairdresser in our street, you know, and I told her to write to me +to the Post-office. Emily Lucas wrote to me that there was weeping +and gnashing of teeth, and swearing almost, when they found out +I'd really left them. And well there might be, indeed, for I did +more work for them (mostly just to get away for a while from the +privileges) than they'll ever get a hired servant to do for them in +this world, Herbert.' Herbert moved uneasily on his chair, as he +noticed how glibly she called him now by his Christian name instead +of saying 'Mr. Walters.' 'And Emily says,' Selah went on, without +stopping to take breath for a second, 'that father put an advertisement +at once into the "Christian Mirror"--pah, as if it was likely +I should go buying or reading the "Christian Mirror," indeed--to +say that if "S. B." would return at once to her affectionate and +injured parents, the whole past would be forgotten and forgiven. +Forgotten and forgiven! I should think it would, indeed! But he +didn't ask me whether their eternal bothering and plaguing of me +about my precious soul for twenty years past would also be forgotten +and forgiven! He didn't ask me whether all their meetings, and +conventions, and prayers, and all the rest of it, would be forgotten +and forgiven! My precious soul! In Turkey they say the women have +no souls! I often wished it had been my happy lot to be born in +Turkey, and then, perhaps, they wouldn't have worried me so much +about it. I'm sure I often said to them, "Oh don't bother on account +of my poor unfortunate misguided little soul any longer. It's lost +altogether, I don't doubt, and it doesn't in the least trouble me. +If it was somebody else's, I could understand your being in such +a fearful state of mind about it; but as it's only mine, you know, +I'm sure it really doesn't matter." And then they'd only go off +worse than ever,--mother doing hysterics, and so forth--and say I +was a wicked, bad, abominable scoffer, and that it made them horribly +frightened even to listen to me. As if I wasn't more likely to +know the real value of my own soul than anybody else was!' + +Herbert looked at her curiously and anxiously as she delivered +this long harangue in a voluble stream, without a single pause +or break; and then he said, in his quiet voice, 'How old are you, +Selah?' + +'Twenty-two,' Selah answered, carelessly. 'Why, Herbert?' + +'Oh, nothing,' Herbert replied, turning away his eyes from her keen, +searching gaze uncomfortably. He congratulated himself inwardly +on the lucky fact that she was fully of age, for then at least he +could only get into a row with her, and not with her parents. 'And +now, Selah, do you know what I strongly advise you?' + +'To get married at once,' Selah put in promptly. + +Herbert drew himself up stiffly, and looked at her cautiously +out of the corner of his eyes. 'No,' he said slowly, 'not to get +married, but to go back again for the present to your people at +Hastings. Consider, Selah, you've done a very foolish thing indeed +by coming here alone in this way. You've compromised yourself, +and you've compromised me. Indeed, if it weren't for the lasting +affection I bear you'--he put this in awkwardly, but he felt it +necessary to do so, for the flash of Selah's eyes fairly cowed him +for the moment--'I wouldn't have come here at all this afternoon +to see you. It might get us both into very serious trouble, +and--and--and delay the prospect of our marriage. You see, everything +depends upon my keeping my fellowship until I can get an appointment +to marry on. Anything that risks loss of the fellowship is really +a measurable danger for both of us.' + +Selah looked at him very steadily with her big eyes, and Herbert +felt that he was quailing a little under their piercing, withering +inquisition. By Jove, what a splendid woman she was, though, when +she was angry! 'Herbert,' she said, rising from her chair and +standing her full height imperiously before him, 'Herbert, you're +deceiving me. I almost believe you're shilly-shallying with me. +I almost believe you don't ever really mean to marry me.' + +Herbert moved uneasily upon his wooden seat. What was he to do? +Should he make a clean breast of it forthwith, and answer boldly, +'Well, Selah, you have exactly diagnosed my mental attitude'? +Or should he try to put her off a little with some meaningless +explanatory platitudes? Or should he--by Jove, she was a very +splendid woman!--should he take her in his arms that moment, kiss +her doubts and fears away like a donkey, and boldly and sincerely +promise to marry her? Pooh! not such a fool as all that comes to! +not even with Selah before him now; for he was no boy any longer, +and not to be caught by the mere vulgar charms of a flashy, +self-asserting greengrocer's daughter. + +'Selah,' he said at last, after a long pause, 'I strongly advise +you once more to return to Hastings for the present. You'll find +it better for you in the end. If your people are quite unendurable--as +I don't doubt they are from what you tell me--you could look about +meanwhile for a temporary appointment, say as'--he checked himself +from uttering the word 'shop girl,' and substituted for it, 'draper's +assistant.' + +Selah looked at him angrily. 'What fools you men are about such +things!' she said in a voice of utter scorn. 'When do you suppose +I ever learnt the drapery? Or who do you suppose would ever give me +a place in a shop of that sort without having learnt the drapery? +I dare say you think it takes ten years to make one of you fine +gentlemen at college, with your Greek and your Latin, but that the +drapery, or the millinery, or the confectionery, comes by nature! +However, that's not the question now. The question's simply +this--Herbert Walters, do you or don't you mean to marry me?' + +'I must temporise,' Herbert thought to himself, placidly. 'This +girl's quite too unreservedly categorical! She eliminates modality +with a vengeance!' 'Well, Selah,' he said in his calmest and most +deliberate manner, 'we must take a great many points into consideration +before deciding on that matter.' And then he went on to tell her +what seemed to him the pros and cons of an immediate marriage. +Couldn't she get a place meanwhile of some sort? Couldn't she let +him have time to look about him? Couldn't she go back just for +a few days to Hastings, until he could hear of something feasible +for either of them? Selah interrupted him more than once with +forcible interjectional observations such as 'bosh!' and 'rubbish!' +and when he had finished she burst out once more into a long and +voluble statement. + +For more than an hour Herbert Le Breton and Selah Briggs fenced +with one another, each after their own fashion, in the little fishy +lodgings; and at every fresh thrust, Herbert parried so much the +worse that at last Selah lost patience utterly, and rose in the +end to the dignity of the situation. 'Herbert Walters,' she said, +looking at him with unspeakable contempt, 'I see through your +flimsy excuses now, and I feel certain you don't mean to marry me! +You never did mean to marry me! You wanted to amuse yourself by +making love to a poor girl in a country town, and now you'd like +to throw her overboard and leave her alone to her own devices. +I knew you meant that when you didn't write to me; but I wouldn't +condemn you unheard; I gave you a chance to clear yourself. I see +now you were trying to drop the acquaintance quietly, and make it +seem as if I had backed out of it as well as you.' + +Herbert felt the moment for breaking through all reserve had finally +arrived. 'You admirably interpret my motives in the matter, Selah,' +he said coldly. 'I don't think it would be just of me to interfere +with your prospects in life any longer. I can't say how long it +may be before I am able to afford marriage; and, meanwhile, I'm +preventing you from forming a natural alliance with some respectable +and estimable young man in your own station. I should be sorry to +stand in your way any further; but if I could offer you any small +pecuniary assistance at any time, either now or hereafter, you know +I'd be very happy indeed to do so, Selah.' + +The angry girl turned upon him fiercely. 'Selah!' she cried in a +tone of crushing contempt. 'What do you mean by calling me Selah, +sir? How dare you speak to me by my Christian name in the same +breath you tell me you don't mean to marry me? How dare you have +the insolence and impertinence to offer me money! Never say another +word to me as long as you live, Herbert Walters; and leave me now, +for I don't want to have anything more to say to you or your money +for ever.' + +Herbert took up his hat doubtfully. 'Selah!--Selah!--Miss Briggs, +I mean,' he said, falteringly, for at that moment Selah's face was +terrible to look at. 'I'm very sorry, I can assure you, that this +interview--and our pleasant acquaintance--should unfortunately +have had such a disagreeable termination. For my own part'--Herbert +was always politic--'I should have wished to part with you in no +unfriendly spirit. I should have wished to learn your plans for +the future, and to aid you in forming a suitable settlement in life +hereafter. May I venture to ask, before I go, whether you mean +to remain in London or to return to Hastings? As one who has been +your sincere friend, I should at least like to know what are your +movements for the immediate present. How long do you mean to stop +here, and when you leave these rooms where do you think you will +next go to?'--'Confoundedly awkward,' he thought to himself, 'to +have her prowling about and dogging one's footsteps here in London.' + +Selah read through his miserable transparent little pretences at +once with a woman's quick instinctive insight. 'Ugh!' she cried, +pushing him away from her, figuratively, with a gesture of disgust, +'do you think, you poor suspicious creature, I want to go spying +you or following you all over London? Are you afraid, in your sordid +little respectable way, that I'll come up to Oxford to pry and peep +into that snug comfortable fellowship of yours? Do you suppose I'm +so much in love with you, Herbert Walters, that I can't let you go +without wanting to fawn upon you and run after you ever afterwards! +Pah! you miserable, pitiable, contemptible cur and coward, are you +afraid even of a woman! Go away, and don't be frightened. I never +want to see you or speak to you again as long as I live, you +wretched, lying, shuffling hypocrite. I'd rather go back to my own +people at Hastings a thousand times over than have anything more to +do with you. They may be narrow-minded, and bigoted, and ignorant, +and stupid, but at least they're honest--they're not liars and +hypocrites. Go this minute, Herbert Walters, go away this minute, +and don't stand there fiddling and quivering with your hat like +a whipped schoolboy, but go at once, and take my eternal loathing +and contempt for a parting present with you!' + +Herbert held the door gingerly ajar for half a second, trying to +think of a neat and appropriate epigram, but at that particular +moment, for the life of him, he couldn't hit on one. So he closed +the door after him quietly, and walking out alone into the street, +immediately nailed a passing hansom. 'I didn't come out of that +dilemma very creditably to myself, I must admit,' he thought with +a burning face, as he rolled along quickly in the hansom; 'but +anyhow, now I'm well out of it. The coast's all clear at last for +Ethel Faucit. It's well to be off with the old love before you're +on with the new, as that horrid vulgar practical proverb justly +though somewhat coarsely puts it. Still, she's a perfectly magnificent +creature, is Selah; and by Jove, when she got into that towering +rage (and no wonder, for I won't be unjust to her in that respect), +her tone and attitude would have done credit to any theatre. I should +think Mrs. Siddons must have looked like that, say as Constance. +Poor girl, I'm really sorry for her; from the very bottom of my +heart, I'm really sorry for her. If it rested with me alone, hang +me if I don't think I would positively have married her. But after +all, the environment, you know, the environment is always too strong +for us!' + +Meanwhile, in the shabby lodgings near the Portobello Road, poor +Selah, the excitement once over, was lying with her proud face +buried in the pillows, and crying her very life out in great sobs +of utter misery. The daydream of her whole existence was gone for +ever: the bubble was burst; and nothing stood before her but a +future of utter drudgery. 'The brute, the cur, the mean wretch,' +she said aloud between her sobs; 'and yet I loved him. How beautifully +he talked, and how he made me love him. If it had only been a common +everyday Methodist sweetheart, now! but Herbert Walters! Oh, God, +how I hate him, and how I did love him!' + +When Herbert reached his mother's house in Epsilon Terrace, Lady Le +Breton met him anxiously at the door. 'Herbert,' she said, almost +weeping, 'my dear boy, what on earth should I do if it were not +for you! You're the one comfort I have in all my children. Would +you believe it--no, you won't believe it--as I was walking back +here this afternoon with Mrs. Faucit (Ethel's aunt, of all people +in the world), what do you think I saw, in our own main street, +too, but a young man, decently dressed, in his shirt sleeves. No +coat, I assure you, but only his shirt sleeves. Imagine my horror +when he came up to us--Mrs. Faucit, too, you know--and said to me +out loud, in the most unconcerned voice, "Well, mother!" I couldn't +believe my eyes. Herbert, but I solemnly declare to you it was +positively Ronald! You really could have knocked me down with a +feather. Disgraceful, wasn't it, perfectly disgraceful!' + +'How on earth did he come so?' asked Herbert, almost smiling in +spite of himself. + +'Why, do you know, Herbert,' Lady Le Breton answered somewhat +obliquely, 'a few days since, I met him wheeling along a barrow full +of coals for a dirty, grimy, ragged little girl from some alley or +gutter somewhere. I believe they call the place the Mews--at the +back of the terrace, you remember. He pretended the child wasn't +big enough to wheel the coals, which was absurd, of course, or else +her parents wouldn't have sent her; but I'm sure he really did it +on purpose to annoy me. He never does these things when I'm not by +to see; or if he does, I never see him. Now, that was bad enough in +all conscience, wasn't it? but to-day what he did was still more +outrageous. He met a poor man, as he calls him, in Westbourne +Grove, who was one of his Christian brethren (is that the right +expression?) and who declared he was next door to starving. So +what must Ronald do, but run into a pawnbroker's--I shouldn't have +thought he could ever have heard of such a place--and sell his +coat, or something of the sort, and give the man (who was doubtless +an impostor) all the money. Then he positively walked home in his +shirt sleeves. I call it a most unchristian thing to do--and to +walk straight into my very arms, too, as I was coming along with +Mrs. Faucit.' + +Herbert offered at once such condolences as were in his power. 'And +are the Faucits coming to night?' he asked eagerly. + +Lady Le Breton kissed him again gently on the forehead. 'Oh, +Herbert,' she said warmly, 'I can't tell you what a comfort you +always are to me. Oh yes, the Faucits are coming; and do you know, +Herbert, my dear boy, I'm quite sure that old Mr. Faucit, the uncle, +wouldn't at all object to the match, and that Ethel's really very +much disposed indeed to like you immensely. You've only to follow +up the advantage, my dear boy, and I don't for a moment think she'd +ever refuse you. And I've been talking to Sir Sydney Weatherhead +about your future, too, and he tells me (quite privately, of course) +that, with your position and honours at Oxford, he fully believes +he can easily push you into the first good vacant post at the +Education Office; only you must be careful to say nothing about it +beforehand, or the others will say it's a job, as they call it. +Oh, Herbert, I really and truly can't tell you what a joy and a +comfort you always are to me!' + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE PHILISTINES TRIUMPH. + + +'My dear,' said Dr. Greatrex, looking up in alarm from the lunch +table one morning, in the third term of Ernest Le Breton's stay +at Pilbury, 'what an awful apparition! Do you know, I positively +see Mr. Blenkinsopp, father of that odious boy Blenkinsopp major, +distinctly visible to the naked eye, walking across the front lawn--on +the grass too--to our doorway. The pupil's parent is really the +very greatest bane of all the banes that beset a poor harassed +overdriven schoolmaster's unfortunate existence!' + +'Blenkinsopp?' Mrs. Greatrex said reflectively. 'Blenkinsopp? Who +is he? Oh, I remember, a tobacco-pipe manufacturer somewhere in the +midland counties, isn't he? Mr. Blenkinsopp, of Staffordshire, I +always say to other parents--not Brosely--Brosely sounds decidedly +commercial and unpresentable. No nice people would naturally +like their sons to mix with miscellaneous boys from a place called +Brosely. Now, what on earth can he be coming here for, I wonder, +Joseph?' + +'Oh, _I_ know,' the doctor answered with a deep-drawn sigh. 'I +know, Maria, only too well. It's the way of all parents. He's come +to inquire after Blenkinsopp major's health and progress. They +all do it. They seem to think the sole object of a head-master's +existence is to look after the comfort and morals of their own +particular Tommy, or Bobby, or Dicky, or Harry. For heaven's sake, +what form is Blenkinsopp major in? For heaven's sake, what's his +Christian name, and age last birthday, and place in French and +mathematics, and general state of health for past quarter? Where's +the prompt-book, with house-master's and form-master's report, +Maria? Oh, here it is, thank goodness! Let me see; let me see--he's +ringing at the door this very instant. "Blenkinsopp... major... +Charles Warrington... fifteen... fifth form... average, twelfth boy +of twelve... idle, inattentive, naturally stupid; bad disposition... +health invariably excellent... second eleven... bats well." That'll +do. Run my eye down once again, and I shall remember all about him. +How about the other? "Blenkinsopp... minor... Cyril Anastasius +Guy Waterbury Macfarlane"--heavens, what a name!... "thirteen... +fourth form... average, seventh boy of eighteen... industrious and +well-meaning, but heavy and ineffective... health good... fourth +eleven... fields badly." Ah, that's the most important one. Now I'm +primed. Blenkinsopp major I remember something about, for he's one +of the worst and most hopelessly stupid boys in the whole school--I've +caned him frequently this term, and that keeps a boy green in one's +memory; but Blenkinsopp minor, Cyril Anastasius Guy Thingumbob +Whatyoumaycallit,--I don't remember HIM a bit. I suppose he's one +of those inoffensive, mildly mediocre sort of boys who fail to +impress their individuality upon one in any way. My experience is +that you can always bear in mind the three cleverest boys at the +top of each form, and the three stupidest or most mischievous boys +at the bottom; but the nine or a dozen meritorious nobodies in the +middle of the class are all so like one another in every way that +you might as well try to discriminate between every individual +sheep of a flock in a pasture. And yet, such is the natural +contradictiousness and vexatious disposition of the British parent, +that you'll always find him coming to inquire after just one of +those very particular Tommies or Bobbies. Charles Warrington:--Cyril +Anastasius Guy Whatyoumay--call it: that'll do: I shall remember now +all about them.' And the doctor arranged his hair before the looking +glass into the most professional stiffness, as a preparatory step +to facing Mr. Blenkinsopp's parental inquiries in the head-master's +study. + +'What! Mr. Blenkinsopp! Yes, it is really. My dear sir, how DO you +do? This is a most unexpected pleasure. We hadn't the least idea +you were in Pilbury. When did you come here?' + +'I came last night, Dr. Greatrex,' answered the dreaded parent +respectfully: 'we've come down from Staffordshire for a week at +the seaside, and we thought we might as well be within hail of Guy +and Charlie.' + +'Quite right, quite right, my dear sir,' said the doctor, mentally +noting that Blenkinsopp minor was familiarly known as Guy, not +Cyril; 'we're delighted to see you. And now you want to know all +about our two young friends, don't you?' + +'Well, yes, Dr. Greatrex; I SHOULD like to know how they are getting +on.' + +'Ah, of course, of course. Very right. It's such a pleasure to us +when parents give us their active and hearty co-operation! You'd +hardly believe, Mr. Blenkinsopp, how little interest some parents +seem to feel in their boys' progress. To us, you know, who devote +our whole time and energy assiduously to their ultimate welfare, +it's sometimes quite discouraging to see how very little the +parents themselves seem to care about it. But your boys are both +doing capitally. The eldest--Blenkinsopp major, we call him; Charles +Warrington, isn't it? (His home name's Charlie, if I recollect +right. Ah, quite so.) Well, Charlie's the very picture of perfect +health, as usual.' ('Health is his only strong point, it seems to +me,' the doctor thought to himself instinctively. 'We must put that +first and foremost.') 'In excellent health and very good spirits. +He's in the second eleven now, and a capital batter: I've no doubt +he'll go into the first eleven next term, if we lose Biddlecomb +Tertius to the university. In work, as you know, he's not very +great; doesn't do his abilities full justice, Mr. Blenkinsopp, +through his dreadful inattention. He's generally near the bottom of +the form, I'm sorry to say; generally near the bottom of the form.' + +'Well, I dare say there's no harm in that, sir,' said Mr. Blenkinsopp, +senior, warmly. 'I was always at the bottom of the form at school +myself, Doctor, but I've picked it up in after life; I've picked +it up, sir, as you see, and I'm fully equal with most other people +nowadays, as you'll find if you inquire of any town councilman or +man of position down our way, at Brosely.' + +'Ah, I dare say you were, Mr. Blenkinsopp,' the doctor answered +blandly, with just the faintest tinge of unconscious satire, peering +at his square unintelligent features as a fancier peers at the +face of a bull-dog; 'I dare say you were now. After all, however +clever a set of boys may be, one of them MUST be at the bottom of +the form, in the nature of things, mustn't he? And your Charlie, +I think, is only fifteen. Ah, yes; well, well; he'll do better, no +doubt, if we keep him here a year or two longer. So then there's +the second: Guy, you call him, if I remember right--Cyril Anastasius +Guy--our Blenkinsopp minor. Guy's a good boy; an excellent boy: to +tell you the plain truth, Mr. Blenkinsopp, I don't know much of him +personally myself, which is a fact that tells greatly in his favour. +Charlie I must admit I have to call up some times for reproof: Guy, +never. Charlie's in the fifth form: Guy's seventh in the fourth. +A capital place for a boy of his age! He's very industrious, you +know--what we call a plodder. They call it a plodder, you see, +at thirteen, Mr. Blenkinsopp, but a man of ability at forty.' Dr. +Greatrex delivered that last effective shot point-blank at the eyes +of the inquiring parent, and felt in a moment that its delicate +generalised flattery had gone home straight to the parent's +susceptible heart. + +'But there's one thing, Doctor,' Mr. Blenkinsopp began, after a +few minutes' further conversation on the merits and failings of Guy +and Charlie, 'there's one other thing I feel I should like to speak +to you about, and that's the teaching of your fifth form master, +Mr. Le Breton. From what Charlie tells me, I don't quite like that +young man's political ideas and opinions. It's said things to his +form sometimes that are quite horrifying, I assure you; things +about Property, and about our duty to the poor, and so on, that are +positively enough to appal you. Now, for example, he told them--I +don't quite like to repeat it, for it's sheer blasphemy I call +it--but he told them in a Greek Testament lesson that the Apostles +themselves were a sort of Republicans--Socialists, I think Charlie +said, or else Chartists, or dynamiters. I'm not sure he didn't say +St. Peter himself was a regular communist!' + +Dr. Greatrex drew a long breath. 'I should think, Mr. Blenkinsopp,' +he suggested blandly, 'Charlie must really have misunderstood Mr. +Le Breton. You see, they've been reading the Acts of the Apostles +in their Greek Testament this term. Now, of course, you remember that, +during the first days of the infant Church, while its necessities +were yet so great, as many as were possessors of lands or houses +sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, +and laid them down at the apostles' feet; and distribution was +made unto every man according as he had need. You see, here's the +passage, Mr. Blenkinsopp, in the authorised version. I won't trouble +you with the original. You've forgotten most of your Greek, I dare +say: ah, I thought go. It doesn't stick to us like the Latin, does +it? Now, perhaps, in expounding that passage, Mr. Le Breton may have +referred in passing--as an illustration merely--to the unhappily +prevalent modern doctrines of socialism and communism. He may +have warned his boys, for example, against confounding a Christian +communism like this, if I may so style it, with the rapacious, +aggressive, immoral forms of communism now proposed to us, which are +based upon the forcible disregard of all Property and all vested +interests of every sort. I don't say he did, you know, for I +haven't conferred with him upon the subject: but he may have done +so; and he may even have used, as I have used, the phrase "Christian +communism," to define the temporary attitude of the apostles and +the early Church in this matter. That, perhaps, my dear sir, may +be the origin of the misapprehension.' + +Mr. Blenkinsopp looked hard at the three verses in the big Bible +the doctor had handed him, with a somewhat suspicious glare. He +was a self-made man, with land and houses of his own in plenty, +and he didn't quite like this suggestive talk about selling them +and laying the prices at the apostles' feet. It savoured to him both +of communism and priestcraft. 'That's an awkward text, you know,' +he said, looking up curiously from the Bible in his hand into the +doctor's face, 'a very awkward text; and I should say it was rather +a dangerous one to set too fully before young people. It seems +to me to make too little altogether of Property. You know, Dr. +Greatrex, at first sight it DOES look just a little like communism.' + +'Precisely what Mr. Le Breton probably said,' the doctor answered, +following up his advantage quickly. 'At first sight, no doubt, but +at first sight only, I assure you, Mr. Blenkinsopp. If you look +on to the fourth verse of the next chapter, you'll see that St. +Peter, at least, was no communist,--which is perhaps what Mr. Le +Breton really said. St. Peter there argues in favour of purely +voluntary beneficence, you observe; as when you, Mr. Blenkinsopp, +contribute a guinea to our chapel window:--you see, we're grateful +to our kind benefactors: we don't forget them. And if you'll look +at the Thirty-eighth Article of the Church of England, my dear sir, +you'll find that the riches and goods of Christians are not common, +as touching the right, title, and possession of the same as certain +Anabaptists--(Gracious heavens, is he a Baptist, I wonder?--if +so, I've put my foot in it)--certain Anabaptists do falsely +boast--referring, of course, to sundry German fanatics of the +time--followers of one Kniperdoling, a crazy enthusiast, not to +the respectable English Baptist denomination; but that nevertheless +every man ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally to +give alms to the poor. That, you see, is the doctrine of the Church +of England, and that, I've no doubt, is the doctrine that Mr. Le +Breton pointed out to your boys as the true Christian communism of +St. Peter and the apostles.' + +'Well, I hope so, Dr. Greatrex,' Mr. Blenkinsopp answered resignedly. +'I'm sure I hope so, for his own sake, as well as for his pupils'. +Still, in these days, you know, when infidelity and Radicalism +are so rife, one ought to be on one's guard against atheism and +revolution, and attacks on Property in every form; oughtn't one, +Doctor? These opinions are getting so rampant all around us, Property +itself isn't safe. One really hardly knows what people are coming +to nowadays. Why, last night I came down here and stopped at the +Royal Marine, on the Parade, and having nothing else to do, while +my wife was looking after the little ones, I turned into a hall +down in Combe Street, where I saw a lot of placards up about a +Grand National Social Democratic meeting. Well, I turned in, Dr. +Greatrex, and there I heard a German refugee fellow from London--a +white-haired man of the name of Schurts, or something of the +sort'--Mr. Blenkinsopp pronounced it to rhyme with 'hurts'--'who +was declaiming away in a fashion to make your hair stand on end, and +frighten you half out of your wits with his dreadful communistic +notions. I assure you, he positively took my breath away. I ran out +of the hall at last, while he was still speaking, for fear the roof +should fall in upon our heads and crush us to pieces. I declare to +you, sir, I quite expected a visible judgment!' + +'Did you really now?' said Dr. Greatrex, languidly. 'Well, I dare +say, for I know there's a sad prevalence of revolutionary feeling +among our workmen here, Mr, Blenkinsopp. Now, what was this man +Schurz talking about?' + +'Why, sheer communism, sir,' said Mr. Blenkinsopp, severely: 'sheer +communism, I can tell you. Co-operation of workmen to rob their +employers of profits; gross denunciation of capital and capitalists; +and regular inciting of them against the Property of the landlords, +by quoting Scripture, too, Doctor, by quoting the very words +of Scripture. They say the devil can quote Scripture to his own +destruction, don't they, Doctor? Well, he quoted something out of +the Bible about woe unto them that join field to field, or words +to that effect, to make themselves a solitude in the midst of the +earth. Do you know, it strikes me that it's a very dangerous book, +the Bible--in the hands of these socialistic demagogues, I mean. +Look now, at that passage, and at what Mr. Le Breton said about +Christian communism!' + +'But, my dear Mr. Blenkinsopp,' the doctor cried, in a tone of +gentle deprecation, 'I hope you don't confound a person like this +man Schurz, a German refugee of the worst type, with our Mr. Le +Breton, an Oxford graduate and an English gentleman of excellent +family. I know Schurz by name through the papers: he's the author +of a dreadful book called "Gold and the Proletariate," or something +of that sort--a revolutionary work like Tom Paine's "Age of Reason," +I believe--and he goes about the country now and then, lecturing +and agitating, to make money, no doubt, out of the poor, misguided, +credulous workmen. You quite pain me when you mention him in the +same breath with a hard-working, conscientious, able teacher like +our Mr. Le Breton.' + +'Oh,' Mr. Blenkinsopp went on, a little mollified, 'then Mr. Le +Breton's of a good family, is he? That's a great safeguard, at any +rate, for you don't find people of good family running recklessly +after these bloodthirsty doctrines, and disregarding the claims of +Property.' + +'My dear sir,' the doctor continued, 'we know his mother, Lady +Le Breton, personally. His father, Sir Owen, was a distinguished +officer-general in the Indian army in fact; and all his people are +extremely well connected with some of our best county families. +Nothing wrong about him in any way, I can answer for it. He came +here direct from Lord Exmoor's, where he'd been acting as tutor +to Viscount Lynmouth, the eldest son of the Tregellis family: and +you may be sure THEY wouldn't have anybody about them in any capacity +who wasn't thoroughly and perfectly responsible, and free from +any prejudice against the just rights of property.' + +At each successive step of this collective guarantee to Ernest +Le Breton's perfect respectability, Mr. Blenkinsopp's square face +beamed brighter and brighter, till at last when the name of Lord +Exmour was finally reached, his mouth relaxed slowly into a broad +smile, and he felt that he might implicitly trust the education +of his boys to a person so intimately bound up with the best and +highest interests of religion and Property in this kingdom. 'Of +course,' he said placidly, 'that puts quite a different complexion +upon the matter, Dr. Greatrex. I'm very glad to hear young Mr. Le +Breton's such an excellent and trustworthy person. But the fact +is, that Schurts man gave me quite a turn for the moment, with +his sanguinary notions. I wish you could see the man, sir; a long +white-haired, savage-bearded, fierce-eyed old revolutionist if ever +there was one. It made me shudder to look at him, not raving and +ranting like a madman--I shouldn't have minded so much if he'd a +done that; but talking as cool and calm and collected, Doctor, about +"eliminating the capitalist"--cutting off my head, in fact--as we +two are talking here together at this moment. His very words were, +sir, "we must eliminate the capitalist." Why, bless my soul,'--and +here Mr. Blenkinsopp rushed to the window excitedly--'who on earth's +this coming across your lawn, here, arm in arm with Mr. Le Breton, +into the school-house? Man alive, Dr. Greatrex, whatever you choose +to say, hanged if it isn't realty that German cut-throat fellow +himself, and no mistake at all about it!' + +Dr. Greatrex rose from his magisterial chair and glanced with +dignified composure out of the window. Yes, there was positively no +denying it! Ernest Le Breton, in cap and gown, with Edie by his side, +was walking arm in arm up to the school-house with a long-bearded, +large-headed German-looking man, whose placid powerful face the Doctor +immediately recognised as the one he had seen in the illustrated +papers above the name of Max Schurz, the defendant in the coming state +trial for unlawfully uttering a seditious libel! He could hardly +believe his eyes. Though he knew Ernest's opinions were dreadfully +advanced, he could not have suspected him of thus consorting with +positive murderous political criminals. In spite of his natural and +kindly desire to screen his own junior master, he felt that this +public exhibition of irreconcilable views was quite unpardonable +and irretrievable. 'Mr. Blenkinsopp,' he said gravely, turning to +the awe-struck tobacco-pipe manufacturer with an expression of +sympathetic dismay upon his practised face, 'I must retract all +I have just been saying to you about our junior master. I was not +aware of this. Mr. Le Breton must no longer retain his post as an +assistant at Pilbury Regis Grammar School.' + +Mr. Blenkinsopp sank amazed into an easy-chair, and sat in dumb +astonishment to see the end of this extraordinary and unprecedented +adventure. The Doctor walked out severely to the school porch, and +stood there in solemn state to await the approach of the unsuspecting +offender. + +'It's so delightful, dear Herr Max,' Ernest was saying at that exact +moment, 'to have you down here with us even for a single night. +You can't imagine what an oasis your coming has been to us both. +I'm sure Edie has enjoyed it just as much as I have, and is just +as anxious you should stop a little time here with us as I myself +could possibly be. + +'Oh, yes, Herr Schurz,' Edie put in persuasively with her sweet +little pleading manner; 'do stay a little longer. I don't know +when dear Ernest has enjoyed anything in the world so much as he +has enjoyed seeing you. You've no idea how dull it is down here for +him, and for me too, for that matter; everybody here is so borne, +and narrow-minded and self-centred; nothing expansive or sympathetic +about them, as there used to be about Ernest's set in dear, quiet, +peaceable old Oxford. It's been such a pleasure to us to hear some +conversation again that wasn't about the school, and the rector, and +the Haigh Park people, and the flower show, and old Mrs. Jenkins's +quarrel with the vicar of St. Barnabas. Except when Mr. Berkeley +runs down sometimes for a Saturday to Monday trip to see us, and +takes Ernest out for a good blow with him on the top of the breezy +downs over yonder, we really never hear anything at all except the +gossip and the small-talk of Pilbury Regis.' + +'And what makes it worse, Herr Max,' said Ernest, looking up in +the old man's calm strong face with the same reverent almost filial +love and respect as ever, 'is the fact that I can't feel any real +interest and enthusiasm in the work that's set before me. I try +to do it as well as I can, and I believe Dr. Greatrex, who's a +kind-hearted good sort of man in his way, is perfectly satisfied +with it; but my heart isn't in it, you see, and can't be in it. +What sort of good is one doing the world by dinning the same foolish +round of Horace and Livy and Latin elegiacs into the heads of all +these useless, eat-all, do-nothing young fellows, who'll only be +fit to fight or preach or idle as soon as we've finished cramming +them with our indigestible unserviceable nostrums!' + +'Ah, Ernest, Ernest,' said Herr Max, nodding his heavy head gravely, +'you always WILL look too seriously altogether at your social +duties. I can't get other people to do it enough; and I can't get +you not to do it too much entirely. Remember, my dear boy, my pet +old saying about a little leaven. You're doing more good by just +unobtrusively holding your own opinions here at Pilbury, and getting +in the thin end of the wedge by slowly influencing the minds of +a few middle-class boys in your form, than you could possibly be +doing by making shoes or weaving clothes for the fractional benefit +of general humanity. Don't be so abstract, Ernest; concrete yourself a +little; isn't it enough that you're earning a livelihood for your +dear little wife here, whom I'm glad to know at last and to receive +as a worthy daughter? I may call you, Edie, mayn't I, my daughter? +So this is your school, is it? A pleasant building! And that +stern-looking old gentleman yonder, I suppose, is your head master?' + +'Dr. Greatrex,' said Edie innocently, stepping up to him in her bright +elastic fashion, 'let me introduce you to our friend Herr Schurz, +whose name I dare say you know--the German political economist. +He's come down to Pilbury to deliver a lecture here, and we've been +fortunate enough to put him up at our little lodging.' + +The doctor bowed very stiffly. 'I have heard of Herr Schurz's +reputation already,' he said with as much diplomatic politeness +as he could command, fortunately bethinking himself at the right +moment of the exact phrase that would cover the situation without +committing him to any further courtesy towards the terrible stranger. +'Will you excuse my saying, Mrs. Le Breton, that we're very busy +this afternoon, and I want to have a few words with your husband +in private immediately? Perhaps you'd better take Herr Schurz on +to the downs' ('safer there than on the Parade, at any rate,' he +thought to himself quickly), 'and Le Breton will join you in the +combe a little later in the afternoon. I'll take the fifth form +myself, and let him have a holiday with his friend here if he'd +like one. Le Breton, will you step this way please?' And lifting +his square cap with stern solemnity to Edie, the doctor disappeared +under the porch into the corridor, closely followed by poor frightened +and wondering Ernest. + +Edie looked at Herr Max in dismay, for she saw clearly there was +something serious the matter with the doctor. The old man shook +his head sadly. 'It was very wrong of me,' he said bitterly: 'very +wrong and very thoughtless. I ought to have remembered it and +stopped away. I'm a caput lupinum, it seems, in Pilbury Regis, a +sort of moral scarecrow or political leper, to be carefully avoided +like some horrid contagion by a respectable, prosperous head-master. +I might have known it, I might have known it, Edie; and now I'm +afraid by my stupidity I've got dear Ernest unintentionally into +a pack of troubles. Come on, my child, my poor dear child, come on +to the downs, as he told us; I won't compromise you any longer by +being seen with you in the streets, in the decent decorous whited +sepulchres of Pilbury Regis.' And the grey old apostle, with two +tears trickling unreproved down his wrinkled cheek, took Edie's arm +tenderly in his, and led her like a father up to the green grassy +slope that overlooks the little seaward combe by the nestling +village of Nether Pilbury. + +Meanwhile, Dr. Greatrex had taken Ernest into the breakfast-room--the +study was already monopolised by Mr. Blenkinsopp--and had seated himself +nervously, with his hands folded before him, on a straight-backed +chair There was a long and awkward pause, for the doctor didn't +care to begin the interview; but at last he sighed deeply and said +in a tone of genuine disappointment and difficulty, 'My dear Le +Breton, this is really very unpleasant.' + +Ernest looked at him, and said nothing. + +'Do you know,' the doctor went on kindly after a minute, 'I really +do like you and sympathise with you. But what am I to do after +this? I can't keep you at the school any longer, can I now? I put +it to your own common-sense. I'm afraid, Le Breton--it gives me +sincere pain to say so--but I'm afraid we must part at the end of +the quarter.' + +Ernest only muttered that he was very sorry. + +'But what are we to do about it, Le Breton?' the doctor continued +more kindly than ever. 'What are we ever to do about it? For my own +sake, and for the boys' sake, and for respectability's pake, it's +quite impossible to let you remain here any longer. The first thing +you must do is to send away this Schurz creature'--Ernest started +a little--'and then we must try to let it blow over as best we can. +Everybody'll be talking about it; you know the man's become quite +notorious lately; and it'll be quite necessary to say distinctly, +Le Breton, before the whole of Pilbury, that we've been obliged to +dismiss you summarily. So much we positively MUST do for our own +protection. But what on earth are we to do for you, my poor fellow? +I'm afraid you've cut your own throat, and I don't see any way on +earth out of it.' + +'How so?' asked Ernest, half stunned by the suddenness of this +unexpected dismissal. + +'Why, just look the thing in the face yourself, Le Breton. I can't +very well give you a recommendation to any other head master without +mentioning to him why I had to ask you for your resignation. And +I'm afraid if I told them, nobody else would ever take you.' + +'Indeed?' said Ernest, very softly. 'Is it such a heinous offence +to know so good a man as Herr Schurz--the best follower of the +apostles I ever knew?' + +'My dear fellow,' said the doctor, confidentially, with an unusual +burst of outspoken frankness, 'so far as my own private feelings +are concerned, I don't in the least object to your knowing Herr +Schurz or any other socialist whatsoever. To tell you the truth, +I dare say he really is an excellent and most well-meaning person +at bottom. Between ourselves, I've always thought that there was +nothing very heterodox in socialism; in fact, I often think, Le +Breton, the Bible's the most thoroughly democratic book that ever +was written. But we haven't got to deal in practice with first +principles; we have to deal with Society--with men and women as we +find them. Now, Society doesn't like your Herr Schurz, objects to +him, anathematises him, wants to imprison him. If you walk about +with him in public, Society won't send its sons to your school. +Therefore, you should disguise your affection, and if you want to +visit him, you should visit him, like Nicodemus, by night only.' + +'I'm afraid,' said Ernest very fixedly, 'I shall never be able so +far to accommodate myself to the wishes of Society.' + +'I'm afraid not, myself, Le Breton,' the doctor went on with +imperturbable good temper. 'I'm afraid not, and I'm sorry for +it. The fact is, you've chosen the wrong profession. You haven't +pliability enough for a schoolmaster; you're too isolated, too much +out of the common run; your ideas are too peculiar. Now, you've got +me to-day into a dreadful pickle, and I might very easily be angry +with you about it, and part with you in bad blood; but I really +like you, Le Breton, and I don't want to do that; so I only tell +you plainly, you've mistaken your natural calling. What it can be +I don't know; but we must put our two heads together, and see what +we can do for you before the end of the quarter. Now, go up to the +combe to your wife, and try to get that terrible bugbear of a German +out of Pilbury as quickly and as quietly as possible. Good-bye for +to-day, Le Breton; no coolness between us, for this, I hope, my +dear fellow.' + +Ernest grasped his hand warmly. 'You're very kind, Dr. Greatrex,' +he said with genuine feeling. 'I see you mean well by me, and I'm +very, very sorry if I've unintentionally caused you any embarrassment.' + +'Not at all, not at all, my dear fellow. Don't mention it. We'll +tide it over somehow, and I'll see whether I can get you anything +else to do that you're better fitted for.' + +As the door closed on Ernest, the doctor just gently wiped a certain +unusual dew off his gold spectacles with a corner of his spotless +handkerchief. 'He's a good fellow,' he murmured to himself, +'an excellent fellow; but he doesn't manage to combine with the +innocence of the dove the wisdom of the serpent. Poor boy, poor +boy, I'm afraid he'll sink, but we must do what we can to keep his +chin floating above the water. And now I must go back to the study +to have out my explanation with that detestable thick-headed old +pig of a Blenkinsopp! "Your views about young Le Breton," I must +say to him, "are unfortunately only too well founded; and I have +been compelled to dismiss him this very hour from Pilbury Grammar +School." Ugh--how humiliating! the profession's really enough to +give one a perfect sickening of life altogether!' + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE STREETS OF ASKELON. + + +Before the end of the quarter, two things occurred which made +almost as serious a difference to Ernest's and Edie's lives as the +dismissal from Pilbury Regis Grammar School. It was about a week +or ten days after Herr Max's unfortunate visit that Ernest awoke +one morning with a very curious and unpleasant taste in his mouth, +accompanied by a violent fit of coughing. He knew what the taste +was well enough; and he mentioned the matter casually to Edie a +little later in the morning. Edie was naturally frightened at the +symptoms, and made him go to see the school doctor. The doctor felt +his pulse attentively, listened with his stethoscope at the chest, +punched and pummelled the patient all over in the most orthodox +fashion, and asked the usual inquisitorial personal questions about +all the other members of his family. When he heard about Ronald's +predisposition, he shook his head seriously, and feared there was +really something in it. Increased vocal resonance at the top of +the left lung, he must admit. Some tendency to tubercular deposit +there, and perhaps even a slight deep-seated cavity. Ernest must +take care of himself for the present, and keep himself as free as +possible from all kind of worry or anxiety. + +'Is it consumption, do you think, Dr. Sanders?' Edie asked +breathlessly. + +'Well, consumption, Mrs. Le Breton, is a very vague and indefinite +expression,' said the doctor, tapping his white shirtcuff with +his nail in his slowest and most deliberate manner. 'It may mean +a great deal, or it may mean very little. I don't want in any way +to alarm you, or to alarm your husband; but there's certainly a +marked incipient tendency towards tubercular deposit. Yes, tubercular +deposit... Well, if you ask me the question point-blank, I should +say so... certainly... I should say it was phthisis, very little +doubt of it... In short, what some people would call consumption.' + +Ernest went home with Edie, comforting her all the way as well as +he was able, and trying to make light of it, but feeling in his own +heart that the look-out was decidedly beginning to gather blacker +and darker than ever before them. Through the rest of that term +he worked as well as he could; but Edie noticed every morning that +the cough was getting worse and worse; and long before the time +came for them to leave Pilbury he had begun to look distinctly +delicate. Care for Edie and for the future was telling on him: his +frame had never been very robust, and the anxieties of the last +year had brought out the same latent hereditary tendency which had +shown itself earlier and more markedly in the case of his brother +Ronald. + +Meanwhile, Dr. Greatrex was assiduous in looking about for something +or other that Ernest could turn his hand to, and writing letters +with indefatigable kindness to all his colleagues and correspondents: +for though he was, as Ernest said, a most unmitigated humbug, that +was really his only fault; and when his sympathies were once really +aroused, as the Le Bretons had aroused them, there was no stone he +would leave unturned if only his energy could be of any service to +those whom he wished to benefit. But unfortunately in this case +it couldn't. 'I'm at my wit's end what to do with you, Le Breton,' +he said kindly one morning to Ernest: 'but how on earth I'm to +manage anything, I can't imagine. For my own part, you know, though +your conduct about that poor man Schurz (a well-meaning harmless +fanatic, I dare say) was really a public scandal--from the point +of view of parents I mean, my dear fellow, from the point of view +of parents--I should almost be inclined to keep you on here in +spite of it, and brave the public opinion of Pilbury Regis, if it +depended entirely upon my own judgment. But in the management of +a school, my dear boy, as you yourself must be aware, a head master +isn't the sole and only authority; there are the governors, for +example, Le Breton, and--and--and, ur, there's Mrs. Greatrex. Now, +in all matters of social discipline and attitude, Mrs. Greatrex is +justly of equal authority with me; and Mrs. Greatrex thinks it would +never do to keep you at Pilbury. So, of course, that practically +settles the question. I'm awfully sorry, Le Breton, dreadfully sorry, +but I don't see my way out of it. The mischief's done already, to +some extent, for all Pilbury knows now that Schurz came down here +to stop with you at your lodgings: but if I were to keep you on +they'd say I didn't disapprove of Schurz's opinions, and that would +naturally be simple ruination for the school--simple ruination.' + +Ernest thanked him sincerely for the trouble he had taken, but +wondered desperately in his own heart what sort of future could +ever be in store for them. + +The second event was less unexpected, though quite equally +embarrassing under existing circumstances. Hardly more than a month +before the end of the quarter, a little black-eyed baby daughter +came to add to the prospective burdens of the Le Breton family. +She was a wee, fat, round-faced, dimpled Devonshire lass to look +at, as far surpassing every previous baby in personal appearance +as each of those previous babies, by universal admission, had +surpassed all their earlier predecessors--a fact which, as Mr. +Sanders remarked, ought to be of most gratifying import both to +evolutionists and to philanthropists in general, as proving the +continuous and progressive amelioration of the human race: and +Edie was very proud of her indeed, as she lay placidly in her very +plain little white robes on the pillow of her simple wickerwork +cradle. But Ernest, though he learned to love the tiny intruder +dearly afterwards, had no heart just then to bear the conventional +congratulations of his friends and fellow-masters. Another mouth +to feed, another life dependent upon him, and little enough, +as it seemed, for him to feed it with. When Edie asked him what +they should name the baby--he had just received an adverse answer +to his application for a vacant secretaryship--he crumpled up the +envelope bitterly in his hand, and cried out in his misery, 'Call +her Pandora, Edie, call her Pandora; for we've got to the very +bottom of the casket, and there is nothing at all left for us now +but hope--and even of that very little!' + +So they duly registered her name as Pandora; but her mother shortened +it familiarly into Dot; and as little Dot she was practically known +ever after. + +Almost as soon as poor Edie was able to get about again, the time +came when they would have to leave Pilbury Regis. The doctor's +search had been quite ineffectual, and he had heard of absolutely +nothing that was at all likely to suit Ernest Le Breton. He had +tried Government offices, Members of Parliament, colonial friends, +every body he knew in any way who miyht possibly know of vacant +posts or appointments, but each answer was only a fresh disappointment +for him and for Ernest. In the end, he was fain to advise his +peccant under-master, since nothing else remained for it, that +he had better go up to London for the present, take lodgings, and +engage in the precarious occupation known as 'looking about for +something to turn up.' On the morning when Edie and he were to +leave the town, Dr. Greatrex saw Ernest privately in his own study. + +'I wish very much I could have gone to the station to see you off, +Le Breton,' he said, pressing his hand warmly; 'but it wouldn't +do, you know, it wouldn't do, and Mrs. Greatrex wouldn't like it. +People would say I sympathised secretly with your political opinions, +which might offend Sir Matthew Ogle and others of our governors. +But I'm sorry to get rid of you, really and sincerely sorry, my dear +fellow; and apart from personal feeling, I'm sure you'd have made +a good master in most ways, if it weren't for your most unfortunate +socialistic notions. Get rid of them, Le Breton, I beg of you: do +get rid of them. Well, the only thing I can advise you now is to +try your hand, for the present only--till something turns up, you +know--at literature and journalism. I shall be on the look-out for +you still, and shall tell you at once of anything I may happen to +hear of. But meanwhile, you must try to be earning something. And +if at any time, my dear friend, you should be temporarily in want +of money,'--the doctor said this in a shame-faced, hesitating sort +of way, with not a little humming and hawing--'in want of money +for immediate necessities merely, if you'll only be so kind as to +write and tell me, I should consider it a pleasure and a privilege +to lend you a ten pound note, you know--just for a short time, till +you saw your way clear before you. Don't hesitate to ask me now, +be sure; and I may as well say, write to me at the school, Le +Breton, not at the school-house, so that even Mrs. Greatrex need +never know anything about it. In fact, if you'll excuse me, I've +put a small sum into this envelope--only twenty pounds--which +may be of service to you, as a loan, as a loan merely; if you'll +take it--only till something turns up, you know--you'll really be +conferring a great favour upon me. There, there, my dear boy; now +don't be offended: I've borrowed money myself at times, when I was +a young man like you, and I hadn't a wife and family then as an +excuse for it either. Put it in your pocket, there's a good fellow; +you'll need it for Mrs. Le Breton and the baby, you see; now do +please put it in your pocket.' + +The tears rode fast and hot in Ernest's eyes, and he grasped the +doctor's other hand with grateful fervour. 'Dear Dr. Greatrex,' +he said as well as he was able, 'it's too kind of you, too kind of +you altogether. But I really can't take the money. Even after the +expenses of Edie's illness and of baby Dot's wardrobe, we have +a little sum, a very little sum laid by, that'll help us to tide +over the immediate present. It's too good of you, too good of you +altogether. I shall remember your kindness for ever with the most +sincere and heartfelt gratitude.' + +As Ernest looked into the doctor's half-averted eyes, swimming +and glistening just a little with sympathetic moisture, his heart +smote him when he thought that he had ever described that good, +kindly, generous man as an unmitigated humbug. 'It shows how little +one can trust the mere outside shell of human beings,' he said to +Edie, self-reproachfully, as they sat together in their hare third-class +carriage an hour later. 'The humbug's just the conventional mask +of his profession--necessary enough, I suppose, for people who +are really going to live successfully in the world as we find it: +the heart within him's a thousand times warmer and truer and more +unspoiled than one could ever have imagined from the outer covering. +He offered me his twenty pounds so delicately and considerately that +but for my father's blood in me, Edie, for your sake, I believe I +could almost have taken it.' + +When they got to London, Ernest wished to leave Edie and Dot +at Arthur Berkeley's rooms (he knew nowhere else to leave them), +while he went out by himself to look about for cheap lodgings. Edie +was still too weak, he said, to carry her baby about the streets +of London in search of apartments. But Edie wouldn't hear of this +arrangement; she didn't quite like going to Arthur's, and she felt +sure she could bargain with the London landladies a great deal +more effectually than a man like Ernest--which was an important +matter in the present very reduced condition of the family finances. +In the end it was agreed that they should both go out on the hunt +together, but that Ernest should be permitted to relieve Edie by +turns in taking care of the precious baby. + +'They're dreadful people, I believe, London landladies,' said Edie, +in her most housewifely manner; 'regular cheats and skinflints, +I've always heard, who try to take you in on every conceivable point +and item. We must be very careful not to let them get the better +of us, Ernest, and to make full inquiries about all extras, and so +forth, beforehand.' + +They turned towards Holloway and the northern district, to look +for cheap rooms, and they saw a great many, more or less dear, and +more or less dirty and unsuitable, until their poor hearts really +began to sink within them. At last, in despair, Edie turned up a +small side street in Holloway, and stopped at a tiny house with a +clean white curtain in its wee front bay window. 'This is awfully +small, Ernest,' she said, despondently, 'but perhaps, after all, +it might really suit us.' + +The door was opened for them by a tall, raw-boned, hard-faced woman, +the very embodiment and personification of Edie's ideal skinflint +London landlady. Might they see the lodgings, Edie asked dubiously. +Yes, they might, indeed, mum, answered the hard-faced woman. Edie +glanced at Ernest significantly, as who should say that these would +really never do. + +The lodgings were very small, but they were as clean as a new pin. +Edie began to relent, and thought, perhaps in spite of the landlady, +they might somehow manage to put up with them. 'What was the rent?' + +The hard-faced landlady looked at Edie steadily, and then answered +'Fifteen shillings, mum.' + +'Oh, that's too much for us, I'm afraid,' said Edie ruefully. 'We +don't want to go as high as that. We're very poor and quiet people.' + +'Well, mum,' the landlady assented quickly, 'it is 'igh for the +rooms, perhaps, mum, though I've 'ad more; but it IS 'igh, mum. I +won't deny it. Still, for you, mum, and the baby, I wouldn't mind +making it twelve and sixpence.' + +'Couldn't you say half-a-sovereign?' Edie asked timidly, emboldened +by success. + +'Arf a suvveran, mum? Well, I 'ardly rightly know,' said the +hard-faced landlady deliberately. 'I can't say without askin' of +my 'usband whether he'll let me. Excuse me a minnit, mum; I'll just +run down and ask 'im.' + +Edie glanced at Ernest, and whispered doubtfully, 'They'll do, but +I'm afraid she's a dreadful person.' + +Meanwhile, the hard-faced landlady had run downstairs quickly, +and called out in a pleasant voice of childish excitement to her +husband. 'John, John,' she cried--'drat that man, where's he gone +to. Oh, a smokin' of course, in the back kitching. Oh, John, there's +the sweetest little lady you ever set eyes on, all in black, with +a dear baby, a dear little speechless infant, and a invalid 'usband, +I should say by the look of 'im, 'as come to ask the price of the +ground floor lodgin's. And seein' she was so nice and kindlike, I +told her fifteen shillings, instead of a suvveran; and she says, +can't you let 'em for less? says she; and she was that pretty and +engagin' that I says, well, for you I'll make it twelve and sixpence, +mum, says I: and says she, you couldn't say 'arf a suvveran, could +you? and says I, I'll ask my 'usband: and oh, John, I DO wish you'd +let me take 'em at that, for a kinder, sweeter-lookin' dearer family +I never did, an' that I tell you.' + +John drew his pipe slowly out of his mouth--he was a big, heavy, +coachman-built sort of person, in waistcoat and shirt-sleeves--and +answered with a kindly smile, 'Why, Martha, if you want to take 'em +for 'arf a suvveran, in course you'd ought to do it. Got a baby, +pore thing, 'ave she now? Well, there, there, you just go this very +minnit, and tell 'em as you'll take 'em.' + +The hard-faced landlady went up the stairs again, only stopping a +moment to observe parenthetically that a sweeter little lady she +never did, and what was 'arf-a-crown a week to you and me, John? +and then, holding the corner of her apron in her hand, she informed +Edie that her 'usband was prepared to accept the ten shillings +weekly. + +'I'll try to make you and the gentleman comfortable, mum,' she +said, eagerly; 'the gentleman don't look strong, now do he? We must +try to feed 'im up and keep 'im cheerful. And we've got plenty of +flowers to make the room bright, you see: I'm very fond of flowers +myself, mum: seems to me as if they was sort of company to one, like, +and when you water 'em and tend 'em always, I feel as if they was +alive, and got to know one again, I do, and that makes one love +'em, now don't it, mum? To see 'em brighten up after you've watered +'em, like that there maiden-'air fern there, why it's enough to +make one love 'em the same as if they was Christians, mum.' There +was a melting tenderness in her voice when she talked about the +flowers that half won over Edie's heart, even in spite of her hard +features. + +'I'm glad you're so fond of flowers, Mrs.----. Oh, you haven't +told us your name yet,' Edie said, beginning vaguely to suspect that +perhaps the hard-faced landlady wasn't quite as bad as she looked +to a casual observer. + +'Alliss, mum,' the landlady answered, filling up Edie's interrogatory +blank. 'My name is 'Alliss.' + +'Alice what?' Edie asked again. + +'Oh, no, mum, you don't rightly understand me,' the landlady replied, +getting very red, and muddling up her aspirates more decidedly +than ever, as people with her failing always do when they want to +be specially deliberate and emphatic: 'not Halice, but 'Alliss; +haitch, hay, hell, hell, hi, double hess--'Alliss: my full name's +Martha 'Alliss, mum; my 'usband's John 'Alliss. When would you like +to come in?' + +'At once,' Edie answered. 'We've left our luggage at the cloak-room +at Waterloo, and my husband will go back and fetch it, while I stop +here with the baby.' + +'Not that, he shan't, indeed, mum,' cried the hard-faced landlady, +hastily; 'beggin' your pardon for sayin' so. Our John shall go--that's +my 'usband, mum; and you shall give 'im the ticket. I wouldn't let +your good gentleman there go, and 'im so tired, too, not for the +world, I wouldn't. Just you give me the ticket, mum, and John +shall go this very minnit and fetch it.' + +'But perhaps your husband's busy,' said Ernest, reflecting upon +the probable cost of cab hire; 'and he'll want a cab to fetch it +in.' + +'Bless your 'eart, sir,' said the landlady, busily arranging things +all round the room meanwhile for the better accommodation of the +baby, ''e ain't noways busy 'e ain't. 'E's a lazy man, nowadays, John +is: retired from business, 'e says, sir, and ain't got nothink to +do but clean the knives, and lay the fires, and split the firewood, +and such like. John were a coachman, sir, in a gentleman's family +for most of 'is life, man and boy, these forty year, come Christmas; +and we've saved a bit o' money between us, so as we don't need for +nothink: and 'e don't want the cab, puttin' you to expense, sir, +onnecessary, to bring the luggage round in. 'E'll just borrer the +hand-barrer from the livery in the mews, sir, and wheel it round +'isself, in 'arf an hour, and make nothink of it. Just you give +me the ticket, and set you right down there, and I'll make you and +the lady a cup of tea at once, and John'll bring round the luggage +by the time you've got your things off.' + +Ernest looked at Edie, and Edie looked at Ernest. Could they +have judged too hastily once more, after their determination to +be lenient in first judgments for the future? So Ernest gave Mrs. +Halliss the cloak-room ticket, and Mrs. Halliss ran downstairs +with it immediately. 'John,' the cried again, '--drat that man, +where's 'e gone to? Oh, there you are, dearie! Just you put on +your coat an' 'at as fast as ever you can, and borrer Tom Wood's +barrer, and run down to Waterloo, and fetch up them two portmanteaus, +will you? And you drop in on the way at the Waterfield. dairy--not +Jenkins's: Jenkins's milk ain't good enough for them--and tell 'em +to send round two penn'orth of fresh this very minnit, do y'ear, +John, this very minnit, as it's extremely pertickler. And a good thing +I didn't give you them two eggs for your dinner, as is fresh-laid +by our own 'ens this mornin', and no others like 'em to be 'ad in +London for love or money; and they shall 'ave 'em boiled light for +their tea this very evenin'. And you look sharp, John,--drat the +man, 'ow long 'e is--for I tell yon, these is reel gentlefolk, and +them pore too, which makes it all the 'arder; and they've got to +be treated the same in every respect as if they was paying a 'ole +suvverin, bless their 'earts, the pore creechurs.' + +'Pore,' said John, vainly endeavouring to tear on his coat with +becoming rapidity under the influence of Mrs. Halliss's voluble +exhortations. 'Pore are they, pore things? and so they may be. I've +knowed the sons of country gentlemen, and that baronights too, +Martha, as 'ad kep' their 'ounds, redooced to be that pore as +they couldn't have afforded to a took our lodgings, even 'umble as +they may be. Pore ain't nothink to do with it noways, as respecks +gentility. I've lived forty years in gentlemen's families, up an' +down, Martha, and I think I'd ought to know somethink about the +'abits and manners of the aristocracy. Pore ain't in the question +at all, it ain't, as far as breedin' goes: and if they're pore, and +got to be gentlefolks too all the same'--John spoke of this last +serious disability in a tone of unfeigned pity--'why, Martha, wot +I says is, we'd ought to do the very best we can for 'em any 'ow, +now, oughtn't we?' + +'Drat the man!' cried Mrs. Halliss again, impatiently; 'don't stand +talkin' and sermonin' about it there no longer like a poll parrot, +but just you run along and send in the milk, like a dear, will you? +or that dear little lady'll have to be waitin' for her tea--and her +with a month-old baby, too, the pretty thing, just to think of it!' + +And indeed, long before John Halliss had got back again with the +two wee portmanteaus--'I could 'a carried that lot on my 'ead,' he +soliloquised when he saw them, 'without 'avin' troubled to wheel +round a onnecessary encumbrance in the way of a barrer'--Mrs. Halliss +had put the room tidy, and laid the baby carefully in a borrowed +cradle in the corner, and brought up Edie and Ernest a big square +tray covered by a snow-white napkin--'My own washin', mum'--and +conveying a good cup of tea, a couple of crisp rolls, and two +such delicious milky eggs as were never before known in the whole +previous history of the county of Middlesex. And while they drank +their tea, Mrs. Halliss insisted upon taking the baby down into +the kitchen, so that they mightn't be bothered, pore things; for +the pore lady must be tired with nursin' of it herself the livelong +day, that she must: and when she got it into the kitchen, she was +compelled to call over the back yard wall to Mrs. Bollond, the +greengrocer's wife next door, with the ultimate view to getting a +hare's brain for the dear baby to suck at through a handkerchief. +And Mrs. Bollond, being specially so invited, came in by the area +door, and inspected the dear baby; and both together arrived at +the unanimous conclusion that little Dot was the very prettiest +and sweetest child that ever sucked its fat little fingers, Lord +bless her! + +And in the neat wee parlour upstairs, Edie, pouring out tea from +the glittering tin teapot into one of the scrupulously clean small +whitey-gold teacups, was saying meanwhile to Ernest, 'Well, after +all, Ernest dear, perhaps London landladies aren't all quite as +black as they're usually painted.' A conclusion which neither Edie +nor Ernest had ever after any occasion for altering in any way. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE CLOUDS BEGIN TO BREAK. + + +And now, what were Ernest and Edie to do for a living! That was +the practical difficulty that stared them at last plainly in the +face--no mere abstract question of right and justice, of socialistic +ideals or of political economy, but the stern, uncompromising, +pressing domestic question of daily bread. They had come from +Pilbury Regis with a very small reserve indeed in their poor lean +little purses; and though Mrs. Halliss's lodgings might be cheap +enough as London lodgings go, their means wouldn't allow them to +stop there for many weeks together unless that hypothetical something +of which they were in search should happen to turn up with most +extraordinary and unprecedented rapidity. As soon as they were +settled in at their tiny rooms, therefore, Ernest began a series +of weary journeys into town, in search of work of some sort or +another; and he hunted up all his old Oxford acquaintances in the +Temple or elsewhere, to see if they could give him any suggestions +towards a possible means of earning a livelihood. Most of them, he +found to his surprise, though they had been great chums of his at +college, seemed a little shy of him nowadays: one old Oxford friend, +in particular, an impeccable man in close-cut frock coat and hat +of shiny perfection, he overheard saying to another, he followed +him accidentally up a long staircase in King's Bench Walk, 'Ah, +yes, I met Le Breton in the Strand yesterday, when I was walking +with a Q.C., too; he's married badly, got no employment, and looks +awfully seedy. So very embarrassing, you know, now wasn't it?' And +the other answered lightly, in the same unconcerned tone, 'Oh, of +course, dreadfully embarrassing, really.' Ernest slank down the +staircase again with a sinking heart, and tried to get no further +hints from the respectabilities of King's Bench Walk, at least in +this his utmost extremity. + +Night after night, as the dusk was beginning to throw its pall +over the great lonely desert of London--one vast frigid expanse of +living souls that knew and cared nothing about him--Ernest turned +back, foot-sore and heart-sick, to the cheery little lodgings in +the short side-street at Holloway. There good Mrs. Halliss, whose +hard face seemed to grow softer the longer you looked at it, had +a warm clip of tea always ready against his coming: and Edie, with +wee Dot sleeping placidly on her arm, stood at the door to welcome +him back again in wife-like fashion. The flowers in the window +bloomed bright and gay in the tiny parlour: and Edie, with her +motherly cares for little Dot, seemed more like herself than ever +she had done before since poor Harry's death had clouded the morning +of her happy lifetime. But to Ernest, even that pretty picture of +the young mother and her sleeping baby looked only like one more +reminder of the terrible burden he had unavoidably yet too lightly +taken upon him. Those two dear lives depended wholly upon him for +their daily bread, and where that daily bread was ever to come from +he had absolutely not the slightest notion. + +There is no place in which it is more utterly dreary to be quite +friendless than in teeming London. Still, they were not absolutely +friendless even in that great lurid throng of jarring humanity, +all eagerly intent on its own business, and none of it troubling +its collective head about two such nonentities as Ernest and +Edie. Ronald used to come round daily to see them and cheer them +up with his quiet confidence in the Disposer of all things: and +Arthur Berkeley, neglecting his West End invitations and his lady +admirers, used to drop in often of an evening for a friendly chat +and a rational suggestion or two. + +'Why don't you try journalism, Le Breton?' he said to Ernest one +night, as they sat discussing possibilities for the future in the +little parlour together. 'Literature in some form or other's clearly +the best thing for a man like you to turn his hand to. It demands +less compliance with conventional rules than any other profession. +No editor or publisher would ever dream of dismissing you, for +example, because you invited your firebrand friend Max Schurz to +dinner. On the contrary, if it comes to that, he'd ask you what +Herr Max thought about the future of trades unions and the socialist +movement in Germany, and he'd advise you to turn it into a column +and a half of copy, with a large type sensational heading, "A +Communistic Leader Interviewed. From our Special Correspondent."' + +'But it's such a very useless, unsocialistic trade,' Ernest answered +doubtfully. 'Do you think it would be quite right, Arthur, for +a man to try and earn money by it? Of course it isn't much worse +than school-mastering, I dare say; nobody can say he's performing +a very useful function for the world by hammering a few lines of +Ovid into the skull of poor stupid Blenkinsopp major, who after +all will only use what he calls his education, if he uses it in +any way at all, to enable him to make rather more money than any +other tobacco-pipe manufacturer in the entire trade. Still, one +does feel for all that, that mere writing of books and papers is a +very unsatisfactory kind of work for an ethical being to perform for +humanity. How much better, now, if one could only be a farm-labourer +or a shoemaker!' + +Arthur Berkeley looked across at him half angrily. 'My dear Ernest,' +he said, in a severer voice than he often used, 'the time has gone +by now for this economical puritanism of yours. It won't do any +longer. You have to think of your child and of Mrs. Le Breton. +Your first duty is to earn a livelihood for them and yourself; +when you've done that satisfactorily, you may begin to think of the +claims of humanity. Don't be vexed with me, my dear fellow, if I +speak to you very plainly. You've lost your place at Pilbury because +you wouldn't be practical. You might have known they wouldn't let +you go hobnobbing publicly before the very eyes of boys and parents +with a firebrand German Socialist. Mind, I don't say anything +against Herr Schurz myself--what little I know about him is all in +his favour--that he's a thorn in the side of those odious prigs, +the political economists. I've often noticed that when a man wants +to dogmatise to his heart's content without fear of contradiction, +he invariably calls himself a political economist. Then if people +differ from him, he smiles at them the benign smile of superior +wisdom, and says superciliously, "Ah, I see you don't understand +political economy!" Now, your Herr Schurz is a dissenter among +economists, I believe--a sort of embryo Luther come to tilt with +a German toy lance against their economical infallibilities; and +I'm told he knows more about the subject than all the rest of them +put together. Of course, if you like him and respect him--and I know +you have one superstition left, my dear fellow--there's no reason +on earth why you shouldn't do so; but you mustn't parade him too +openly before the scandalised faces of respectable Pilbury. In +future, you must be practical. Turn your hand to whatever you can +get to do, and leave humanity at large to settle the debtor and +creditor account with you hereafter.' + +'I'll do my best, Berkeley,' Ernest answered submissively; 'and if +you like, I'll strangle my conscience and try my hand at journalism.' + +'Do, there's a good man,' Arthur Berkeley said, delighted at his +late conversion. 'I know two or three editor fellows pretty well, +and if you'll only turn off something, I'll ask them to have a look +at it.' + +Next morning, at breakfast, Ernest discussed the possibilities +of this new venture very seriously with sympathising Edie. 'It's +a great risk,' he said, turning it over dubiously in his mind; 'a +great risk, and a great expense too, for nothing certain. Let me +see, there'll be a quire of white foolscap to start with; that'll +be a shilling--a lot of money as things go at present, Edie, isn't +it?' + +'Why not begin with half a quire, Ernest?' said his little wife, +cautiously. 'That'd be only sixpence, you see.' + +'Do they halve quires at the stationer's, I wonder?' Ernest went +on still mentally reckoning. 'Well, suppose we put it at sixpence. +Then we've got pens already by us, but not any ink--that's a +penny--and there's postage, say about twopence; total ninepence. +That's a lot of money, isn't it, now, for a pure uncertainty?' + +'I'd try it, Ernest dear, if I were you,' Edie answered. 'We must +do something, mustn't we, dear, to earn our living.' + +'We must,' Ernest said, sighing. 'I wish it were anything but +that; but I suppose what must be must be. Well, I'll go out a walk +by myself in the quietest streets I can find, and try if I can +think of anything on earth a man can write about. Arthur Berkeley +says I ought to begin with a social article for a paper; he knows +the "Morning Intelligence" people, and he'll try to get them to +take something if I can manage to write it. I wonder what on earth +would do as a social article for the "Morning Intelligence"! If +only they'd let me write about socialism now! but Arthur says they +won't take that; the times aren't yet ripe for it. I wish they were, +Edie, I wish they were; and then perhaps you and I would find some +way to earn ourselves a decent living.' + +So Ernest went out, and ruminated quietly by himself, as well as he +was able, in the least frequented streets of Holloway and Highgate. +After about half an hour's excogitation, a brilliant idea at last +flashed across him; he had found in a tobacconist's window something +to write about! Your practised journalist doesn't need to think at +all; he writes whatever comes uppermost without the unnecessarily +troublesome preliminary of deliberate thinking. But Ernest Le +Breton was only making his first experiment in the queer craft, +and he looked upon himself as a veritable Watt or Columbus when he +had actually discovered that hitherto unknown object, a thing to +write about. He went straight back to good Mrs. Halliss's with his +discovery whirling in his head, stopping only by the way at the +stationer's, to invest in half a quire of white foolscap. 'The +best's a shilling a quire, mister,' said the shopman; 'second best, +tenpence.' Communist as he was, Ernest couldn't help noticing the +unusual mode of address; but he took the cheaper quality quietly, +and congratulated himself on his good luck in saving a penny upon +the original estimate. + +When he got home, he sat down at the plain wooden table by the +window, and began with nervous haste to write away rapidly at his +first literary venture. Edie sat by in her little low chair and +watched him closely with breathless interest. Would it be a success +or a failure? That was the question they were both every moment +intently asking themselves. It was not a very important piece +of literary workmanship, to be sure; only a social leader for a +newspaper, to be carelessly skimmed to-day and used to light the +fire to-morrow, if even that; and yet had it been the greatest +masterpiece ever produced by the human intellect Ernest could not +have worked at it with more conscientious care, or Edie watched +him with profounder admiration. When Shakespeare sat down to write +'Hamlet,' it may be confidently asserted that neither Mistress Anne +Shakespeare nor anybody else awaited the result of his literary +labours with such unbounded and feverish anxiety. By the time +Ernest had finished his second sheet of white foolscap--much erased +and interlined with interminable additions and corrections--Edie +ventured for a moment briefly to interrupt his creative efforts. +'Don't you think you've written as much as makes an ordinary leader +now, Ernest?' she asked, apologetically. 'I'm afraid you're making +it a good deal longer than it ought to be by rights.' + +'I'm sure I don't know, Edie,' Ernest answered, gazing at the two +laboured sheets with infinite dubitation and searching of spirit. +'I suppose one ought properly to count the words in an average +leader, and make it the same length as they always are in the +"Morning Intelligence." I think they generally run to just a column.' + +'Of course you ought, dear,' Edie answered. 'Run out this minute +and buy one before you go a single line further.' + +Ernest looked back at his two pages of foolscap somewhat ruefully. +'That's a dreadful bore,' he said, with a sigh: 'it'll just run +away with the whole penny I thought I'd managed to save in getting +the second quality of foolscap for fivepence. However, I suppose +it can't be helped, and after all, if the thing succeeds, one can +look upon the penny in the light of an investment. It's throwing +a sprat to catch a whale, as the proverb says: though I'm afraid +Herr Max would say that that was a very immoral capitalist proverb. +How horribly low we must be sinking, Edie, when we come to use the +anti-social language of those dreadful capitalists!' + +'I don't think capitalists deal much in proverbs, dear,' said Edie, +smiling in spite of herself; 'but you needn't go to the expense +of buying a "Morning Intelligence," I dare say, for perhaps Mrs. +Halliss may have an old one in the house; or if not, she might +be able to borrow one from a neighbour. She has a perfect genius +for borrowing, Mrs. Halliss; she borrows everything I want from +somebody or other. I'll just run down to the kitchen this minute +and ask her.' + +In a few seconds Edie returned in triumph with an old soiled and +torn copy of the 'Morning Intelligence,' duly procured by the +ingenious Mrs. Halliss from the dairy opposite. It was a decidedly +antiquated copy, and it had only too obviously been employed by +its late possessor to wrap up a couple of kippered herrings; but +it was still entire, so far as regarded the leaders at least, and +it was perfectly legible in spite of its ancient and fish-like +smell. To ensure accuracy, Ernest and Edie took a leader apiece, and +carefully counted up the number of words that went to the column. +They came on an average to fifteen hundred. Then Ernest counted +his own manuscript with equal care--no easy task when one took +into consideration the interlined or erased passages--and, to his +infinite disgust, discovered that it only extended to seven hundred +and fifty words. 'Why, Edie,' he said, in a very disappointed +tone, 'how little it prints into! I should certainly have thought +I'd written at least a whole column. And the worst of it is, I +believe I've really said all I have to say about the subject.' + +'What is it, Ernest dear?' asked Edie. + +'Italian organ-boys,' Ernest answered. 'I saw on a placard in +the news shop that one of them had been taken to a hospital in a +starving condition.' He hardly liked to tell even Edie that he had +stood for ten minutes at a tobacconist's window and read the case +in a sheet of 'Lloyd's News' conspicuously hung up there for public +perusal. + +'Well, let me hear what you have written, Ernest dear, and then +see if you couldn't expand it.' + +Ernest read it over most seriously and solemnly--it was only a +social leader, of the ordinary commonplace talky-talky sort; but +to those two poor young people it was a very serious and solemn +matter indeed--no less a matter than their own two lives and little +Dot's into the bargain. It began with the particular case of the +particular organ-boy who formed the peg on which the whole article +was to be hung; it went on to discourse on the lives and manners +of organ-boys in general; it digressed into the natural history of +the common guinea-pig, with an excursus on the scenery of the Lower +Apennines; and. it finished off with sundry abstract observations +on the musical aspect of the barrel-organ and the aesthetic value of +hurdygurdy performances. Edie listened to it all with deep attention. + +'It's very good, Ernest dear,' she said, with wifely admiration, +as soon as he had finished. 'Just like a real leader exactly; only, +do you know, there aren't any anecdotes in it. I think a social +leader of that sort ought always to have a lot of anecdotes. Couldn't +you manage to bring in something about Fox and Sheridan, or about +George IV. and Beau Brummel? They always do, you know, in most of +the papers.' + +Ernest gazed at her in silent admiration. 'How clever of you, Edie,' +he said, 'to think of that! Why, of course there ought to be some +anecdotes. They're the very breath of life to this sort of meaningless +writing. Only, somehow, George IV. and Beau Brummel don't seem +exactly relevant to Italian organ-grinders, now do they?' + +'I thought,' said Edie, with hardly a touch of unintentional satire, +'that the best thing about anecdotes of that kind in a newspaper +was their utter irrelevancy. But if Beau Brummel won't do, couldn't +you manage to work in Guicciardini and the galleys? That's strictly +Italian, you know, and therefore relevant; and I'm sure the newspaper +leaders are extremely fond of that story about Guiccardini.' + +'They are,' Ernest answered,'most undoubtedly; but perhaps for that +very reason readers may be beginning to get just a little tired of +it by this time.' + +'I don't think the readers matter much,' said Edie, with a +brilliant, flash of practical common-sense; 'at least, not nearly +half as much, Ernest, as the editor.' + +'Quite true,' Ernest replied, with another admiring look; 'but +probably the editor more or less consults the taste and feelings +of the readers. Well, I'll try to expand it a bit, and I'll manage +to drag in an anecdote or two somehow--if not Guicciardini, at +least something or other else Italian. You see Italy's a tolerably +rich subject, because you can do any amount about Raffael, and Michael +Angelo, and Leonardo, and so forth, not to mention Botticelli. The +papers have made a dreadful run lately on Botticelli.' + +So Ernest sat down once more at the table by the window, and began +to interlard the manuscript with such allusions to Italy and the +Italians as could suggest themselves on the spur of the moment to +his anxious imagination. At the end of half an hour--about the +time a practised hand would have occupied in writing the whole +article--he counted words once more, and found there were still +two hundred wanting. Two hundred more words to say about Italian +organ-boys! Alas for the untrained human fancy! A master leader +writer at the office of the 'Morning Intelligence' could have run +on for ever on so fertile and suggestive a theme--a theme pregnant +with unlimited openings for all the cheap commonplaces of abstract +journalistic philanthropy; but poor Ernest, a 'prentice hand at the +trade, had yet to learn the fluent trick of the accomplished news +purveyor; he absolutely could not write without thinking about +it. A third time he was obliged to recommit his manuscript, and a +third time to count the words over. This time, oh joy, the reckoning +came out as close as possible to the even fifteen hundred. Ernest +gave a sigh of relief, and turned to read it all over again, +as finally enlarged and amended, to the critical ears of admiring +Edie. + +There was anecdote enough now, in all conscience, in the article; +and allusions enough to stock a whole week's numbers of the 'Morning +Intelligence.' Edie listened to the whole tirade with an air of +the most severe and impartial criticism. When Ernest had finished, +she rose up and kissed him. 'I'm sure it'll do, Ernest,' she said +confidently. 'It's exactly like a real leader. It's quite beautiful--a +great deal more beautiful, in fact, than anything else I ever read +in a newspaper: it's good enough to print in a volume.' + +'I hope the editor'll think so,' Ernest answered, dubiously. 'If +not, what a lot of valuable tenpenny foolscap wasted all for nothing! +Now I must write it all out again clean, Edie, on fresh pieces.' + +Newspaper men, it must be candidly admitted, do not usually write +their articles twice over; indeed, to judge by the result, it may +be charitably believed that they do not even, as a rule, read them +through when written, to correct their frequent accidental slips +of logic or English; but Ernest wrote out his organ-boy leader in +his most legible and roundest hand, copperplate fashion, with as +much care and precision as if it were his first copy for presentation +to the stern writing-master of a Draconian board school. 'Editors +are more likely to read your manuscript if it's legible, I should +think, Edie,' he said, looking up at her with more of hope in his +face than had often been seen in it of late. 'I wonder, now, whether +they prefer it sent in a long envelope, folded in three; or in a +square envelope, folded twice over; or in a paper cover, open like +a pamphlet. There must be some recognised professional way of doing +it, and I should think one's more likely to get it taken if one +sends it in the regular professional fashion, than if one makes +it look too amateurish. I shall go in for the long envelope; at +any rate, if not journalistic, it's at least official.' + +The editor of the 'Morning Intelligence' is an important personage +in contemporary politics, and a man of more real weight in the +world than half-a-dozen Members of Parliament for obscure country +boroughs; but even that mighty man himself would probably have been +a little surprised as well as amused (if he could have seen it) at +the way in which Ernest and Edie Le Breton anxiously endeavoured +to conciliate beforehand his merest possible personal fads and +fancies. As a matter of fact, the question of the particular paper +on which the article was written mattered to him absolutely less +than nothing, inasmuch as he never looked at anything whatsoever +until it had been set up in type for him to pass off-hand judgment +upon its faults or its merits. His time was far too valuable to be +lightly wasted on the task of deciphering crabbed manuscript. + +In the afternoon, Berkeley called to see whether Ernest had followed +his suggestion, and was agreeably surprised to find a whole article +already finished. He glanced through the neatly written pages, and +was still more pleased to discover that Ernest, with an unsuspected +outburst of practicality and practicability, had really hit upon +a possible subject. 'This may do, Ernest,' he said with a sigh of +relief. 'I dare say it will. I know Lancaster wants leader writers, +and I think this is quite good enough to serve his turn. I've +spoken to him about you: come round with me now--he'll be at the +office by four o'clock--and we'll see what we can do for you. It's +absolutely useless sending anything to the editor of a daily paper +without an introduction. You might write with the pen of the angel +Gabriel, or turn out leaders which were a judicious mean between +Gladstone, Burke, and Herbert Spencer, and it would profit you +nothing, for the simple reason that he hasn't got the time to read +them. He would toss Junius and Montesquieu into the waste paper +basket, and accept copy on the shocking murder in the Borough +Road from one of his regular contributors instead. He can't help +himself: and what you must do, Ernest, is to become one of the +regular ring, and combine to keep Junius and Montesquieu permanently +outside.' + +'The struggle for existence gives no quarter,' Ernest said sadly +with half a sigh. + +'And takes none,' Berkeley answered quickly. 'So for your wife's +sake you must try your best to fight your way through it on your +own account, for yourself and your family.' + +The editor of the 'Morning Intelligence,' Mr. Hugh Lancaster, was +a short, thick-set, hard-headed sort of man, with a kindly twinkle +in his keen grey eyes, and a harassed smile playing continually +around the corners of his firm and dose mouth. He looked as though +he was naturally a good-humoured benevolent person, overdriven +at the journalistic mill till half the life was worn out of him, +leaving the benevolence as a wearied remnant, without energy +enough to express itself in any other fashion than by the perpetual +harassed smile. He saw Arthur Berkeley and Ernest Le Breton at once +in his own sanctum, and took the manuscript from their hands with +a languid air of perfect resignation. 'This is the friend you +spoke of, is it, Berkeley?' he said in a wearied way. 'Well, well, +we'll see what we can do for him.' At the same time he rang a tiny +hand-bell. A boy, rather the worse for printer's ink, appeared at +the summons. Mr. Lancaster handed him Ernest's careful manuscript +unopened, with the laconic order, 'Press. Proof immediately.' The +boy took it without a word. 'I'm very busy now,' Mr. Lancaster went +on in the same wearied dispirited manner: 'come again in thirty-five +minutes. Jones, show these gentlemen into a room somewhere.' And +the editor fell back forthwith into his easy-chair and his original +attitude of listless indifference. Berkeley and Ernest followed +the boy into a bare back room, furnished only with a deal table and +two chairs, and there anxiously awaited the result of the editor's +critical examination. + +'Don't be afraid of Lancaster, Ernest,' Arthur said kindly. 'His +manner's awfully cold, I know, but he means well, and I really +believe he'd go out of his way, rather than not, to do a kindness +for anybody he thought actually in want of occupation. With most +men, that's an excellent reason for not employing you: with Lancaster +I do truly think it's a genuine recommendation.' + +At the end of thirty-five minutes the grimy-faced office-boy +returned with a friendly nod. 'Editor'll see you,' he said, with +the Spartan brevity of the journalistic world--nobody connected +with newspapers ever writes or speaks a single word unnecessarily, +if he isn't going to be paid for it at so much per thousand--and +Ernest followed him, trembling from head to foot, into Mr. +Lancaster's private study. + +The great editor took up the steaming hot proof that had just been +brought him, and glanced down it carelessly with a rapid scrutiny. +Then he turned to Ernest, and said in a dreamy fashion, 'This will +do. We'll print this to-morrow. You may send us a middle very +occasionally. Come here at four o'clock, when a subject suggests +itself to you, and speak to me about it. My time's very fully +occupied. Good morning, Mr. Le Breton. Berkeley, stop a minute, I +want to talk with you.' + +It was all done in a moment, and almost before Ernest knew what +had happened he was out in the street again, with tears filling his +eyes, and joy his heart, for here at last was bread, bread, bread, +for Edie and the baby! He ran without stopping all the way back +to Holloway, rushed headlong into the house and fell into Edie's +arms, calling out wildly, 'He's taken it! He's taken it!' Edie +kissed him half-a-dozen times over, and answered bravely, 'I knew +he would, Ernest. It was such a splendid article.' And yet thousands +of readers of the 'Morning Intelligence' next day skimmed lightly +over the leader on organ-boys in their ordinary casual fashion, +without even thinking what hopes and fears and doubts and terrors +had gone to the making of that very commonplace bit of newspaper +rhetoric. For if the truth must be told, Edie's first admiring +criticism was perfectly correct, and Ernest Le Breton's leader was +just for all the world exactly the same as anybody else's. + +Meanwhile, Arthur Berkeley had stayed behind as requested in Mr. +Lancaster's study, and waited to hear what Mr. Lancaster had to say +to him. The editor looked up at him wearily from his chair, passed +his bread hand slowly across his bewildered forehead, and then said +the one word, 'Poor?' + +'Nothing on earth to do,' Berkeley answered. + +'He might make a journalist, perhaps,' the editor gaid, sleepily. +'This social's up to the average. At any rate, I'll do my very best +for him. But he can't live upon socials. We have too many social +men already. What can he do? That's the question. It won't do to +say he can write pretty nearly as well about anything that turns +up as any other man in England can do. I can get a hundred young +fellows in the Temple to do that, any day. The real question's this: +is there anything he can write about a great deal better than all +the other men in all England put together?' + +'Yes, there is,' Berkeley answered with commendable promptitude, +undismayed by Mr. Lancaster's excessive requirements. 'He knows +more about communists, socialists, and political exiles generally, +than anybody else in the whole of London.' + +'Good,' the editor answered, brightening up, and speaking for +a moment a little less languidly. 'That's good. There's this man +Schurz, now, the German agitator. He's going to be tried soon for +a seditious libel it seems, and he'll be sent to prison, naturally. +Now, does your friend know anything at all of this fellow?' + +'He knows him personally and intimately,' Berkeley replied, +delighted to find that the card which had proved so bad a one at +Pilbury Regis was turning up trumps in the more Bohemian neighbourhood +of the Temple and Fleet Street. 'He can give you any information +you want about Schurz or any of the rest of those people. He +has associated with them all familiarly for the last six or seven +years.' + +'Then he takes an interest in politics,' said Mr. Lancaster, almost +waking up now. 'That's good again. It's so very difficult to find +young men nowadays, able to write, who take a genuine interest in +politics. They all go off after literature and science and aesthetics, +and other dry uninteresting subjects. Now, what does your average +intelligent daily paper reader care, I should like to know, about +literature and science and aesthetics and so forth? Well, he'll do, +I've very little doubt: at any rate, I'll give him a trial. Perhaps +he might be able to undertake this Great Widgerly disenfranchising +case. Stop! he's poor, isn't he? I daresay he'd just as soon not +wait for his money for this social. In the ordinary course, he +wouldn't get paid till the end of the quarter; but I'll give you a +cheque to take back to him now; perhaps he wants it. Poor fellow, +poor fellow! he really looks very delicate. Depend upon it, Berkeley, +I'll do anything on earth for him, if only he'll write tolerably.' + +'You're awfully good,' Arthur said, taking the proffered cheque +gratefully. 'I'm sure the money will be of great use to him: and +it's very kind indeed of you to have thought of it.' + +'Not at all, not at all,'the editor answered, collapsing dreamily. +'Good morning, good morning.' + +At Mrs. Halliss's lodgings in Holloway, Edie was just saying to +Ernest over their simple tea, 'I wonder what they'll give you for +it, Ernest.' And Ernest had just answered, big with hope, 'Well, +I should think it would be quite ten shillings, but I shouldn't +be surprised, Edie, if it was as much as a pound;' when the door +opened, and in walked Arthur Berkeley, with a cheque in his hand, +which he laid by Edie's teacup. Edie took it up and gave a little +cry of delight and astonishment. Ernest caught it from her hand in +his eagerness, and gazed upon it with dazed and swimming vision. +Did he read the words aright, and could it be really, 'Pay E. Le +Breton, Esq., or order, three guineas'? Three guineas! Three guineas! +Three real actual positive gold and silver guineas! It was almost +too much for either of them to believe, and all for a single +morning's light labour! What a perfect Eldorado of wealth and +happiness seemed now to be opening out unexpectedly before them! + +So much Arthur Berkeley, his own eyes glistening too with a sympathetic +moisture, saw and heard before he went away in a happier mood and +left them to their own domestic congratulations. But he did not see +or know the reaction that came in the dead of night, after all that +day's unwonted excitement, to poor, sickening, weary, over-burdened +Ernest. Even Edie never knew it all, for Ernest was careful to +hide it as much as possible from her knowledge. But he knew himself, +though he would not even light the candle to see it, that he had +got those three glorious guineas--the guineas they had so delighted +in--with something more than a morning's labour. He had had to pay +for them, not figuratively but literally, with some of his very +life-blood. + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +HARD PRESSED. + + +A week or two later, while 'The Primate of Fiji' was still running +vigorously at the Ambiguities Theatre, Arthur Berkeley's second +opera, 'The Duke of Bermondsey; or, the Bold Buccaneers of the Isle +of Dogs,' was brought out with vast success and immense exultation +at the Marlborough. There is always a strong tendency to criticise +a little severely the second work of a successful beginner: people +like to assume a knowing air, and to murmur self-complacently that +they felt sure from the beginning he couldn't keep up permanently +to his first level. But in spite of that natural tendency of the +unregenerate human mind, and in spite, too, of a marked political +bias on the author's part, 'The Duke of Bermondsey' took the town +by storm almost as completely as 'The Primate of Fiji' had done before +it. Everybody said that though the principles of the piece were +really quite atrocious, when one came to think of them seriously, +yet the music and the dialogue were crisp and brisk enough to float +any amount of social or economical heresy that that clever young +man, Mr. Arthur Berkeley, might choose to put into one of his +amusing and original operas. + +The social and economical heresies, of course, were partly due +to Ernest Le Breton's insidious influence. At the same time that +Berkeley was engaged in partially converting Ernest, Ernest was +engaged in the counter process of partially converting Berkeley. +To say the truth, the conversion was not a very difficult matter +to effect; the neophyte had in him implicitly already the chief +saving doctrines of the socialistic faith, or, if one must put it +conversely, the germs of the disease were constitutionally implanted +in his system, and only needed a little external encouragement +to cring the poison out fully in the most virulent form of the +complaint. The great point of 'The Duke of Bermondsey' consisted in +the ridiculous contrast it exhibited between the wealth, dignity, +and self-importance of the duke himself, and the squalid, miserable, +shrinking poverty of the East-end purlieus from which he drew his +enormous revenues. Ernest knew a little about the East-end from +practical experience; he had gone there often with Ronald, on his +rounds of mercy, and had seen with his own eyes those dens of misery +which most people have only heard or read about. It was Ernest who +had suggested this light satirical treatment of the great social +problem, whose more serious side he himself had learnt to look +at in Max Schurz's revolutionary salon; and it was to Ernest that +Arthur Berkeley owed the first hint of that famous scene where the +young Countess of Coalbrookdale converses familiarly on the natural +beauties of healthful labour with the chorus of intelligent colliery +hands, in the most realistic of grimy costumes, from her father's +estates in Staffordshire. The stalls hardly knew whether to laugh +or frown when the intelligent colliers respectfully invited the +countess, in her best Ascot flounces and furbelows, to enjoy the +lauded delights of healthful mine labour in propria persona: but +they quite recovered their good humour when the band of theatrical +buccaneers, got up by the duke in Spanish costumes, with intent +to deceive his lawless tenants in the East-end, came unexpectedly +face to face with the genuine buccaneers of the Isle of Dogs, +clothed in real costermonger caps and second-hand pilot-jackets +of the marine-storedealers' fashionable pattern. It was all only +the ridiculous incongruity of our actual society represented in the +very faintest shades of caricature upon the stage; but it made the +incongruities more incongruous still to see them crowded together +so closely in a single concentrated tableau. Unthinking people +laughed uproariously at the fun and nonsense of the piece; thinking +people laughed too, but not without an uncomfortable side twinge of +conscientious remorse at the pity of it all. Some wise heads even +observed with a shrug that when this sort of thing was applauded +upon the stage, the fine old institutions of England were getting +into dangerous contact with these pernicious continental socialistic +theories. And no doubt those good people were really wise in their +generation. 'When Figaro came,' Arthur Berkeley said himself +to Ernest, 'the French revolution wasn't many paces behind on the +track of the ages.' + +'Better even than the Primate, Mr. Berkeley,' said Hilda Tregellis, +as she met him in a London drawing-room a few days later. 'What +a delightful scene, that of the Countess of Coalbrookdale! You're +doing real good, I do believe, by making people think about +these things more seriously, you know. As poor dear Mr. Le Breton +would have said, you've got an ethical purpose--isn't that the +word?--underlying even your comic operas. By the way, do you ever +see the Le Bretons now? Poor souls, I hear they're doing very +badly. The elder brother, Herbert Le Breton--horrid wretch!--he's +here to-night; going to marry that pretty Miss Faucit, they say; +daughter of old Mr. Faucit, the candle-maker--no, not candles, +soap I think it is--but it doesn't matter twopence nowadays, does +it? Well, as I was saying, you're doing a great deal of good +with characters like this Countess of Coalbrookdale. We want more +mixture of classes, don't we? more free intercourse between them; +more familiarity of every sort. For my part, now, I should really +very much like to know more of the inner life of the working classes.' +'If only he'd ask me to go to lunch,' she thought, 'with his dear +old father, the superannuated shoemaker! so very romantic, really!' + +But Arthur only smiled a sphinx-like smile, and answered lightly, +'You would probably object to their treatment of you as much as the +countess objected to the uupleasant griminess of the too-realistic +coal galleries. Suppose you were to fall into the hands of a logical +old radical workman, for example, who tore you to pieces, mentally +speaking, with a shake or two of his big teeth, and calmly +informed you that in his opinion you were nothing more than a very +empty-headed, pretentious, ignorant young woman--perhaps even, +after the plain-spoken vocabulary of hie kind, a regular downright +minx and hussey?' + +'Charming,' Lady Hilda answered, with perfect candour; 'so very +different from the senseless adulation of all the Hughs, and Guys, +and Berties! What I do love in talking to clever men, Mr. Berkeley, +is their delicious frankness and transparency. If they think one +a fool, they tell one so plainly, or at least they let one see it +without any reserve. Now that, you know, is really such a very +delightful trait in clever people's characters!' + +'I don't know how you can have had the opportunity of judging, Lady +Hilda,' Arthur answered, looking at her handsome open face with a +momentary glance of passing admiration--Hilda Tregellis was improving +visibly as she matured--'for no one can possibly ever have thought +anything of the sort with you, I'm certain: and that I can say +quite candidly, without the slightest tinge of flattery or adulation.' + +'What! YOU don't think me a fool, Mr. Berkeley,' cried Lady Hilda, +delighted even with that very negative bit of favourable appreciation. +'Now, that I call a real compliment, I assure you, because I know +you clever people pitch your standard of intelligence so very, +very high! You consider everybody fools, I'm sure, except the few +people who are almost as clever as you yourselves are. However, to +return to the countess: I do think there ought to be more mixture +of classes in England, and somebody told me'--this was a violent +effort to be literary on Hilda's part, by way of rising to the +height of the occasion--'somebody told me that Mr. Matthew Arnold, +who's so dreadfully satirical, and cultivated, and so forth, +thinks exactly the same thing, you know. Why shouldn't the Countess +of Coalbrookdale have really married the foreman of the colliers? +I daresay she'd have been a great deal happier with a kind-hearted +sensible man like him than with that lumbering, hunting, +pheasant-shooting, horse-racing lout of a Lord Coalbrookdale, who +would go to Norway on a fishing tour without her--now wouldn't +she?' + +'Very probably,' Berkeley answered: 'but in these matters we don't +regard happiness only,--that, you see, would be mere base, vulgar, +commonplace utilitarianism:--we regard much more that grand +impersonal overruling entity, that unseen code of social morals, +which we commonly call the CONVENANCES. Proper people don't +take happiness into consideration at all, comparatively: they act +religiously after the fashion that the CONVENANCES impose upon +them.' + +'Ah, but why, Mr. Berkeley,' Lady Hilda said, vehemently, 'why +should the whole world always take it for granted that because +a girl happens to be born the daughter of people whose name's in +the peerage, she must necessarily be the slave of the proprieties, +devoid of all higher or better instincts? Why should they take it +for granted that she's destitute of any appreciation for any kind +of greatness except the kind that's represented by a million and a +quarter in the three per cents., or a great-great-grandfather who +fought at the battle of Naseby? Why mayn't she have a spark of +originality? Why mayn't she be as much attracted by literature, +by science, by art, by... by... by beautiful music, as, say, the +daughter of a lawyer, a doctor, or, or, or a country shopkeeper? +What I want to know is just this, Mr. Berkeley: if people don't +believe in distinctions of birth, why on earth should they suppose +that Lady Mary, or Lady Betty, or Lady Winifred, must necessarily +be more banale and vulgar-minded, and common-place than plain Miss +Jones, or Miss Brown, or Miss Robinson? You admit that these other +girls may possibly care for higher subjects: then why on earth +shouldn't we, can you tell me?' + +'Certainly,' Arthur Berkeley answered, looking down into Lady +Hilda's beautiful eyes after a dreamy fashion, 'certainly there's no +inherent reason why one person shouldn't have just as high tastes +by nature as another. Everything depends, I suppose, upon inherited +qualities, variously mixed, and afterwards modified by society and +education.--It's very hot here, to-night, Lady Hilda, isn't it?' + +'Very,' Lady Hilda echoed, taking his arm as she spoke. 'Shall we +go into the conservatory?' + +'I was just going to propose it myself,' Berkeley said, with a faint +tremor thrilling in his voice. She was a very beautiful woman, +certainly, and her unfeigned appreciation of his plays and his +music was undeniably very flattering to him. + +'Unless I bring him fairly to book this evening,' Hilda thought to +herself as she swept with him gracefully into the conservatory, 'I +shall have to fall back upon the red-haired hurlyburlying Scotch +professor, after all--if I don't want to end by getting into the +clutches of one of those horrid Monties or Algies!' + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +IRRECLAIMABLE. + + +The occasional social articles for the 'Morning Intelligence' supplied +Ernest with work enough for the time being to occupy part of his +leisure, and income enough to keep the ship floating somehow, if +not securely, at least in decent fair-weather fashion. His frequent +trips with Ronald into the East-end gave him something comparatively +fresh to write about, and though he was compelled to conceal his own +sentiments upon many points, in order to conform to that impersonal +conscience, 'the policy of the paper,' he was still able to deal +with subjects that really interested him, and in which he fancied +he might actually be doing a little good. A few days after he had +taken seriously to the new occupation, good Mrs. Halliss made her +appearance in the tiny sitting-room one morning, and with many +apologies and much humming and hawing ventured to make a slight +personal representation to wondering little Edie. + +'If you please, mum,' she said nervously, fumbling all the while with +the corner of the table cloth she was folding on the breakfast-table, +'if I might make so bold, mum, without offence, I should like to +say as me an' John 'as been talkin' it hover, an' we think now as +your good gentleman 'as so much writin' to do, at 'is littery work, +mum, as I may make bold to call it, perhaps you wouldn't mind, so +as not to disturb 'im with the blessed baby--not as that dear child +couldn't never disturb nobody, bless 'er dear 'eart, the darling, +not even when she's cryin', she's that sweet and gentle,--but we +thought, mum, as littery gentlemen likes to 'ave the coast clear, +in the manner of speakin', and perhaps you wouldn't mind bein' so +good as to use the little front room upstairs, mum, for a sort o' +nursery, as I may call it, for the dear baby. It was our bedroom, +that was, where John an' me used to sleep; but we've been an' +putt our things into the front hattic, mum, as is very nice and +comfortable in every way, so as to make room for the dear baby. An' +if you won't take it as a liberty, mum, me an' John 'ud be more'n +glad if you'd kindly make use of that there room for a sort of +occasional nursery for the dear baby.' + +Edie bit her lip hard in her momentary confusion. 'Oh, dear, Mrs. +Halliss,' she said, almost crying at the kindly meant offer, 'I'm +afraid we can't afford to have THREE rooms all for ourselves as +things go at present. How much do you propose to charge us for the +additional nursery?' + +'Charge you for it, mum,' Mrs. Halliss echoed, almost indignantly; +'charge our lodgers for any little hextry accommodation like the +small front room upstairs, mum--now, don't you go and say that to +John, mum, I beg of you; for 'is temper's rather short at times, +mum, thro' boin' asmatic and the rheumatiz, though you wouldn't +think it to look at 'im, that you wouldn't; an' I'm reely afraid, +mum, he might get angry if anybody was to holler 'im anythink for +a little bit of hextry accommodation like that there. Lord bless +your dear 'eart, mum, don't you say nothink more about that, I beg +of you; for if John was to 'ear of it, he'd go off in a downright +tearin' tantrum at the bare notion. An' about dinner, mum, you'll +'ave the cold mutton an' potatoes, and a bit of biled beetroot; and +I'll just run round to the greengrocer's this moment to order it +for early dinner.' And before Edie had time to thank her, the good +woman was out of tha room again, and down in the kitchen at her +daily preparations, with tears trickling slowly down both her hard +red cheeks in her own motherly fashion. + +So from that time forth, Ernest had the small sitting-room entirely +to himself, whenever he was engaged in his literary labours, while +Edie and Dot turned the front bedroom on the first floor into +a neat and commodious nursery. As other work did not turn up so +rapidly as might have been expected, and as Ernest grew tired after +a while of writing magazine articles on 'The Great Social Problem,' +which were invariably 'declined with thanks' so promptly as to lead +to a well-founded suspicion that they had never even been opened by +the editor, he determined to employ his spare time in the production +of an important economical volume, a treatise on the ultimate ethics +of a labouring community, to be entitled 'The Final Rule of Social +Right Living.' This valuable economical work he continued to toil +at for many months in the intervals of his other occupations; and +when at last it was duly completed, he read it over at full length +to dear little Edie, who considered it one of the most profoundly +logical and convincing political treatises ever written. The various +leading firms, however, to whom it was afterwards submitted with +a view to publication, would appear, oddly enough, to have doubted +its complete suitability to the tastes and demands of the reading +public in the present century; for they invariably replied to Ernest's +inquiries that they would be happy to undertake its production +for the trilling sum of one hundred guineas, payable in advance; +but that they did not see their way to accepting the risk and +responsibility of floating so speculative a volume on their own +account. In the end, the unhappy manuscript, after many refusals, +was converted into cock-boats, hats, and paper dollies for little +Dot; and its various intermediate reverses need enter no further +into the main thread of this history. It kept Ernest busy in the +spare hours of several months, and prevented him from thinking too +much of his own immediate prospects, in his dreams for the golden +future of humanity; and insomuch it did actually subserve some +indirectly useful function; but on the other hand it wasted a +considerable quantity of valuable tenpenny foolscap, and provided +him after all with one more severe disappointment, to put on top of +all the others to which he was just then being subjected. Clearly, +the reading public took no paying interest in political economy; or +if they did, then the article practically affected by the eternal +laws of supply and demand was at least not the one meted out to +them from the enthusiastic Schurzian pen of Ernest Le Breton. + +One afternoon, not long after Ernest and Edie had taken rooms at +Mrs. Halliss's, they were somewhat surprised at receiving the honour +of a casual visit from a very unexpected and unusual quarter. Ronald +was with them, talking earnestly over the prospects of the situation, +when a knock came at the door, and to their great astonishment +the knock was quickly followed by the entrance of Herbert. He had +never been there before, and Ernest felt sure he had come now for +some very definite and sufficient purpose. And so he had indeed: +it was a strange one for him; but Herbert Le Breton was actually +bound upon a mission of charity. We have all of us our feelings, +no doubt, and Herbert Le Breton, too, in his own fashion, had his. +Ernest was after all a good fellow enough at bottom, and his own +brother: (a man can't for very rospectability's sake let his own +brother go utterly to the dogs if he can possibly help it); and so +Herbert had made up his mind, much against his natural inclination, +to warn Ernest of the danger he incurred in having anything more +to do or say with this insane, disreputable old Schurz fellow. For +his own part, he hated giving advice; people never took it; and that +was a deadly offence against his amour propre and a gross insult to +his personal dignity; but still, in this case, for Ernest's sake, +he determined after an inward struggle to swallow his own private +scruples, and make an effort to check his brother on the edge of +the abyss. Not that he would come to the point at once; Herbert +was a careful diplomatic agent, and he didn't spoil his hand +by displaying all his cards too openly at the outset; he would +begin upon comparatively indifferent subjects, and lead round the +conversation gradually to the perils and errors of pure Schurzianism. +So he set out by admiring his niece's fat arms--a remarkable stretch +of kindliness on Herbert's part, for of course other people's babies +are well known to be really the most uninteresting objects in the +whole animate universe--and then he passed on by natural transitions +to Ernest's housekeeping arrangements, and to the prospects of +journalism as a trade, and finally to the necessity for a journalist +to consult the tastes of his reading public. 'And by the way, +Ernest,' he said quietly at last, 'of course after this row at +Pilbury, you'll drop the acquaintance of your very problematical +German socialist.' + +Edie started in surprise. 'What? Herr Schurz?' she said eagerly. +'Dear simple, kindly old Herr Schurz! Oh no, Herbert, that I'm sure +he won't; Ernest will never drop HIS acquaintance, whatever happens.' + +Herbert coughed drily. 'Then there are two of them for me to contend +against,' he said to himself with an inward smile. 'I should really +hardly have expected that, now. One would have said a priori +that the sound common-sense and practical regard for the dominant +feelings of society, which is so justly strong in most women, +would have kept HER at any rate--with her own social disabilities, +too--from aiding and abetting her husband in such a piece of +egregious folly'--'I'm sorry to hear it, Mrs. Le Breton,' he went +on aloud,--he never called her by her Christian name, and Edie was +somehow rather pleased that he didn't: 'for you know Herr Schurz +is far from being a desirable acquaintance. Quite apart from his +own personal worth, of course--which is a question that I for my part +am not called upon to decide--he's a snare and a stumbling-block +in the eyes of society, and very likely indeed to injure Ernest's +future prospects, as he has certainly injured his career in the +past. You know he's going to be tried in a few weeks for a seditious +libel and for inciting to murder the Emperor of Russia. Now, you +will yourself admit, Mrs. Le Breton, that it's an awkward thing +to be mixed up with people who are tried on a criminal charge for +inciting to murder. Of course, we all allow that the Czar's a very +despotic and autocratic sovereign, that his existence is an anomaly, +and that the desire to blow him up is a very natural desire for +every intelligent Russian to harbour privately in the solitude of +his own bosom. If we were Russians ourselves, no doubt we'd try to +blow him up too, if we could conveniently do so without detection. +So much, every rational Englishman, who isn't blinded by prejudice +or frightened by the mere sound of words, must at once frankly +acknowledge. But unfortunately, you see, the mass of Englishmen +ARE blinded by prejudice, and ARE frightened by the mere sound +of words. To them, blowing up a Czar is murder (though of course +blowing up any number of our own black people isn't); and inciting +to blow up the Czar, or doing what seems to most Englishmen +equivalent to such incitement, as for example, saying in print +that the Czar's government isn't quite ideally perfect and ought +gradually and tentatively to be abolished--why, that, I say, +is a criminal offence, and is naturally punishable by a term of +imprisonment. Now, is it worth while to mix oneself up with people +like that, Ernest, when you can just as easily do without having +anything on earth to say to them?' + +Edie's face burnt scarlet as she listened, but Ernest only answered +more quietly--he never allowed anything that Herbert said to disturb +his equanimity--'We don't think alike upon this subject, you know, +Herbert; and I'm afraid the disagreement is fundamental. It doesn't +matter so much to us what the world thinks as what is abstractly +right; and Edie would prefer to cling to Herr Schurz, through good +report and evil report, rather than to be applauded by your mass +of Englishmen for having nothing to do with inciting to murder. We +know that Herr Max never did anything of the kind; that he is the +gentlest and best of men; and that in Russian affairs he has always +been on the side of the more merciful methods, as against those +who would have meted out to the Czar the harsher measure of pure +justice.' + +'Well,' Herbert answered bravely, with a virtuous determination not +to be angry at this open insult to his own opinion, but to persevere +in his friendly efforts for his brother's sake, 'we won't take Herr +Max into consideration at all, but will look merely at the general +question. The fact is, Ernest, you've chosen the wrong side. The +environment is too strong for you; and if you set yourself up against +it, it'll crush you between the upper and the nether mill-stone. +It isn't your business to reform the world; it's your business to +live in it; and if you go on as you're doing now, it strikes me that +you'll fail at the outset in that very necessary first particular.' + +'If I fail,' Ernest answered with a heavy heart, 'I can only die +once; and after all every man can do no more than till to the best +of his ability the niche in nature that he finds already cut out +for him by circumstances.' + +'My dear Ernest,' Herbert continued quietly, twisting himself +a cigarette with placid deliberateness, as a preliminary to his +departure; 'your great mistake in life is that you WILL persist in +considering the universe as a cosmos. Now the fact is, it isn't +a cosmos; it's a chaos, and a very poor one at that.' + +'Ah, yes,' Ernest answered gravely; 'nobody recognises that fact +more absolutely than I do; but surely it's the duty of man to try +as far as in him lies to cosmise his own particular little corner +of it.' + +'In the abstract, certainly: as a race, most distinctly so; but as +individuals, why, the thing's clearly impossible. There was one +man who once tried to do it, and his name was Don Quixote.' + +'There was another, I always thought,' Ernest replied more solemnly, +'and after his name we've all been taught as children to call +ourselves Christians. At bottom, my ideal is only the Christian +ideal.' + +'But, my dear fellow, don't you see that the survival of the fittest +must succeed in elbowing your ideal, for the present at least, out +of existence? Look here, Ernest, you're going the wrong way to work +altogether for your own happiness and comfort. It doesn't matter +to me, of course; you can do as you like with yourself, and I oughtn't +to interfere with you; but I do it because I'm your brother, and +because I take a certain amount of interest in you accordingly. +Now, I quite grant with you that the world's in a very unjust social +condition at present. I'm not a fool, and I can't help seeing that +wealth is very badly distributed, and that happiness is very unequally +meted. But I don't feel called upon to make myself the martyr of +the cause of readjustment for all that. If I were a working man, +I should take up the side that you're taking up now; I should have +everything to gain, and nothing to lose by it. But your mistake +is just this, that when you might identify your own interests with +the side of the "haves," as I do, you go out of your way to identify +them with the side of the "have-nots," out of pure idealistic Utopian +philanthropy. You belong by birth to the small and intrinsically +weak minority of persons specially gifted by nature and by fortune; +and why do you lay yourself out with all your might to hound on the +mass of your inferiors till they trample down and destroy whatever +gives any special importance, interest, or value to intellectual +superiority, vigour of character, political knowledge, or even +wealth? I can understand that the others should wish to do this; +I can understand that they will inevitably do it in the long run; +but why on earth do you, of all men, want to help them in pulling +down a platform on which you yourself might, if you chose, stand +well above their heads and shoulders?' + +'Because I feel the platform's an unjust one,' Ernest answered, +warmly. + +'An excellent answer for them,' Herbert chimed in, in his coldest +and calmest tone, 'but a very insufficient one for you. The injustice, +if any, tells all in your own favour. As long as the mob doesn't +rise up and tear the platform down (as it will one day), why on +earth should you be more anxious about it than they are?' + +'Because, Herbert, if there must be injustice, I would rather suffer +it than do it.' + +'Well, go your own way,' Herbert answered, with a calm smile +of superior wisdom; 'go your own way and let it land you where it +will. For my part, I back the environment. But it's no business +of mine; I have done my best to warn you. Liberavi animam meam. You +won't take my advice, and I must leave you to your own devices.' +And with just a touch of the hand to Edie, and a careless nod to +his two brothers, he sauntered out of the room without another +word. 'As usual,' he thought to himself as he walked down the stairs, +'I go out of my way to give good advice to a fellow-creature, and +I get only the black ingratitude of a snubbing in return. This is +really almost enough to make even me turn utterly and completely +selfish!' + +'I wonder, Ernest,' said Ronald, looking up as Herbert shut the +door gently behind him, 'how you and I ever came to have such a +brother as Herbert!' + +'I think it's easy enough to understand, Ronald, on plain hereditary +principles.' + +Ronald sighed. 'I see what you mean,' he said; 'it's poor mother's +strain--the Whitaker strain--coming out in him.' + +'I often fancy, Ronald, I can see the same two strains in varying +intensity, running through all three of us alike. In Herbert the +Whitaker strain is uppermost, and the Le Breton comparatively in +abeyance; in me, they're both more or less blended; in you, the +Le Breton strain comes out almost unadulterated. Yet even Herbert +has more of a Le Breton in him than one might imagine, for he's with +us intellectually; it's the emotional side only that's wanting to +him. Even when members of a family are externally very much unlike +one another in the mere surface features of their characters, +I believe you can generally see the family likeness underlying it +for all that.' + +'Only you must know how to analyse the character to see it,' said +Edie. 'I don't think it ever struck me before that there was anything +in common between you and Herbert, Ernest, and yet now you point +it out I believe there really is something after all. I'm sorry +you told me, for I can't bear to think that you're like Herbert.' + +'Oh, no,' Ronald put in hastily; 'it isn't Ernest who has something +in him like Herbert; it's Herbert who has something in him like +Ernest. There's a great deal of difference between the one thing +and the other. Besides, he hasn't got enough of it, Edie, and Ernest +has.' + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +RONALD COMES OF AGE. + + +'Strange,' Ronald Le Breton thought to himself, as he walked +along the Embankment between Westminster and Waterloo, some weeks +later--the day of Herr Max's trial,--'I had a sort of impulse +to come down here alone this afternoon: I felt as if there was an +unseen Hand somehow impelling me. Depend upon it, one doesn't have +instincts of that sort utterly for nothing. The Finger that guides +us guides us always aright for its own wise and unfathomable +purposes. What a blessing and a comfort it is to feel that one's +steps are continually directed from above, and that even an +afternoon stroll through the great dreary town is appointed to us +for some fit and sufficient reason! Look at that poor girl over +there now, at the edge of the Embankment! I wonder what on earth +she can have come here for. Why...how pale and excited she looks. +What's she going so near the edge for? Gracious heavens! it can't +be...yes...it is... no, no, but still it must be...that's what the +Finger was guiding me here for this afternoon. There's no denying +it. The poor creature's tempted to destroy herself. My instinct +tells me so at once, and it never tells me wrong. Oh, Inscrutable +Wisdom, help me, help me: give me light to act rightly! I must go +up this very moment and speak to her!' + +The girl was walking moodily along the edge of the bank, and looking +in a dreamy fashion over the parapet into the sullen fast-flowing +brown water below. An eye less keen than Ronald's might have seen +in a moment, from her harassed weary face and her quick glance +to right and left after the disappearing policeman, that she was +turning over in her own mind something more desperate than any +common everyday venture. Ronald stepped up to her hastily, and, +firm in his conviction that the Finger was guiding him aright, +spoke out at once with boldness on the mere strength of his rapid +instinctive conjecture. + +'Stop, stop,' he said, laying his hand gently on her shoulder: 'not +for a moment, I beg of you, not for a moment. Not till you've at +least told me what is your trouble.' + +Selah turned round sharply and looked up in his face with a vague +feeling of indefinable wonder. 'What do you mean?' she asked, in +a husky voice. 'Don't do what? How do you know I was going to do +anything?' + +'You were going to throw yourself into the river,'Ronald answered +confidently; 'or at least you were debating about it in your own +soul. I know you were, because a sure Guide tells me so.' + +Selah's lip curled a little at the sound of that familiar language. +'And suppose I was,' she replied, defiantly, in her reckless +fashion; 'suppose I was: what's that to you or anybody, I should +like to know? Are you your brother's keeper, as your own Bible puts +it? Well, yes, then, perhaps I WAS going to drown myself: and if I +choose, as soon as your back's turned, I shall go and do it still; +so there; and that's all I have to say about it.' + +Ronald turned his face towards her with an expression of the +intensest interest, but before he could put in a single word, Selah +interrupted him. + +'I know what you're going to say,' she went on, looking up at him +rebelliously. 'I know what you're going to say every bit as well +as if you'd said it. You're one of these city missionary sort of +people, you are; and you're going to tell me it's awfully wicked +of me to try and destroy myself, and ain't I afraid of a terrible +hereafter! Ugh! I hate and detest all that mummery.' + +Ronald looked down upon her in return with a sort of silent +wondering pity. 'Awfully wicked,' he said slowly, 'awfully wicked! +How meaningless! How incomprehensible! Awfully wicked to be +friendless, or poor, or wretched, or unhappy! Awfully wicked to be +driven by despair, or by heartlessness, to such a pitch of misery +or frenzy that you want to fling yourself wildly into the river, +only to be out of it all, anywhere, in a minute! Why you poor, +unhappy girl, how on earth can you possibly help it?' + +There was something in the tone of his earnest voice that melted +for a moment even Selah Briggs's pride and vehemence. It was very +impertinent of him to try and interfere with her purely personal +business, no doubt, but he seemed to do so in a genuinely +kindly rather than in a fussy interfering spirit. At any rate he +didn't begin by talking to her that horrid cant about the attempt +to commit suicide being so extremely wicked! If he had done that, +Selah would have felt it was not only an unwarrantable intrusion +upon her liberty of action, but a grotesque insult to her natural +intelligence as well. + +'I've a right to drown myself if I choose,' she faltered out, +leaning faintly as she spoke against the parapet, 'and nobody else +has any possible right to hinder or prevent me. If you people make +laws against my rights in that matter, I shall set your laws aside +whenever and wherever it happens to suit my personal convenience.' + +'Exactly so,' Ronald answered, in the same tone of gentle and +acquiescent persuasion. 'I quite agree with you. It's as clear +as daylight that every individual human being has a perfect right +to put an end to his own life whenever it becomes irksome or +unpleasant to him; and nobody else has any right whatever to interfere +with him. The prohibitions that law puts upon our freedom in that +respect are only of a piece with the other absurd restrictions of +our existing unchristian legislation--as opposed to the spirit of +the Word as the old rule that made us bury a suicide at four cross +roads with a hideously barbarous and brutal ceremonial. They're +all mere temporary survivals from a primitive paganism: the truth +shall make us free. But though we mayn't rightly interfere, we may +surely inquire in a brotherly spirit of interest, whether it isn't +possible for us to make life less irksome for those who, unhappily, +want to get rid of it. After all, the causes of our discontent are +often quite removable. Tell me, at least, what yours are, and let +me see whether I'm able to do anything towards removing them.' + +Selah hung back a little sullenly. This was a wonderful mixture of +tongues that the strange young man was talking in! When he spoke +about the right and wrong of suicide, ethically considered, it +might have been Herbert Walters himself who was addressing her: +when he glided off sideways to the truth and the Word, it might +have been her Primitive Methodist friends at Hastings, in full +meeting assembled. And, by the way, he reminded her strangely, +somehow, of Herbert Walters! What manner of man could he be, she +wondered, and what strange sort of new Gospel was this that he was +preaching to her? + +'How do I know who you are?' she asked him, carelessly. 'How do +I know what you want to know my story for? Perhaps you're only +trying to get something out of me.' + +'Trust me,' Ronald said simply. 'By faith we live, you know. Only +trust me.' + +Selah answered nothing. + +'Come over here to the bench by the garden,' Ronald went on earnestly. +'We can talk there more at our leisure. I don't like to see you +leaning so close to the parapet. It's a temptation; I know it's a +temptation.' + +Seiah looked at him again inquiringly. She had never before met +anybody so curious, she fancied. 'Aren't you afraid of being seen +sitting with me like this,' she said, 'on the Embankment benches? +Some of your fine friends might come by and wonder who on earth you +had got here with you.' And, indeed, Selah's dress had grown vory +shabby and poor-looking during a long and often fruitless search +for casual work or employment in London. + +But Ronald only surveyed her gently from head to foot with a quiet +smile, and answered softly, 'Oh, no; there's no reason on earth why +we shouldn't sit down and talk together; and even if there were, +my friends all know me far too well by this time to be surprised +at anything I may do, when the Hand guides me. If you will only sit +down and tell me your story, I should like to see whether I could +possibly do anything to help you.' + +Selah let him lead her in his gentle half-womanly fashion to the +bench, and sat down beside him mechanically. Still, she made no +attempt to begin her pitiful story. Ronald suspected for a second +some special cause for her embarrassment, and ventured to suggest +a possible way out of it. 'Perhaps,' he said timidly, 'you would +rather speak to some older and more fatherly man about it, or to +some kind lady. If so, I have many good friends in London who would +listen to you with as much interest and attention as I should.' + +The old spirit flared up in Selah for a second, as she answered +quickly, 'No, no, sir, it's nothing of that sort. I can tell YOU +as well as I can tell anybody. If I've been unfortunate, it's been +through no fault of my own, thank goodness, but only through the +hard-heartedness and unkindness of other people. I'd rather speak +to you than to anyone else, because I feel somehow--why, I don't +know--as if you had something or other really good in you.' + +'I beg your pardon,' Ronald said hastily, 'for even suggesting it +but you see, I often have to meet a great many people who've been +unhappy through a great many different causes, and that leads one +occasionally for a time into mistaken inferences. Let me hear all +your history, please, and I firmly believe, through the aid that +never forsakes us, I shall be able to do something or other to help +you in your difficulties.' + +Thus adjured, Selah began and told her whole unhappy history +through, without pause or break, into Ronald's quietly sympathetic +ear. She told him quite frankly and fully how she had picked up +the acquaintance of a young Mr. Walters from Oxford at Hastings: +how this Mr. Walters had led her to believe he would marry her: +how she had left her home hurriedly, under the belief that he would +be induced to keep his promise: how he had thrown her over to her +own devices: and how she had ever since been trying to pick up a +precarious livelihood for herself in stray ways as a sempstress, +work for which she wag naturally very ill-fitted, and for which +she had no introductions. She slurred over nothing on either side +of the story; and especially she did not forget to describe the +full measure of her troubles and trials from her Methodist friends +at Hastings. Ronald shook his head sympathetically at this stage +of the story. 'Ah, I know, I know,' he muttered, half under his +breath; 'nasty pious people! Very well meaning, very devout, very +earnest, one may be sure of it--but oh! what terrible soul-killing +people to live among! I can understand all about it, for I've met +them often--Sabbath-keeping folks; preaching and praying folks; +worrying, bothering, fussy-religious folks: formalists, Pharisees, +mint-anise and-cummin Christians: awfully anxious about your soul, +and so forth, and doing their very best to make you as miserable +all the time as a slave at the torture! I don't wonder you ran away +from them.' + +'And I wasn't really going to drown myself, you know, when you +spoke to me.' Selah said, quite apologetically. 'I was only just +looking over into the beautiful brown water, and thinking how +delicious it would be to fling oneself in there, and be carried +off down to the sea, and rolled about for ever into pebbles on +the shingle, and there would be an end of one altogether--oh, how +lovely!' + +'Very natural,' Ronald answered calmly. 'Very natural. Of course +it would. I've often thought the same thing myself. Still, one +oughtn't, if possible, to give way to these impulses: one ought to +do all that's in one's power to prevent such a miserable termination +to one's divinely allotted existence. After all, it is His will, +you see, that we should be happy.' + +When Selah had quite finished all her story, Ronald began drawing +circles in the road with the end of his stick, and perpending +within himself what had better be done about it, now that all was +told him. 'No work,' he said, half to himself; 'no money; no food. +Why, why, I suppose you must be hungry.' + +Selah nodded assent. + +'Will you allow me to offer you a little lunch?' he asked, hesitatingly, +with something of Herbert's stately politeness. Even in this last +extremity, Ronald felt instinctively what was due to Selah Briggs's +natural sentiments of pride and delicacy. He must speak to her +deferentially as if she were a lady, not give her alms as if she +were a beggar. + +Then for the first time that day Selah burst suddenly into tears. +'Oh, sir,' she said, sobbing, 'you are very kind to me.' + +Ronald waited a moment or two till her eyes were dry, and then took +her across the gardens and into Gatti's. Any other man might have +chosen some other place of entertainment under the circumstances, +but Ronald, in his perfect simplicity of heart, looked only for +the first shop where he could get Selah the food she needed. He +ordered something hot hastily, and, when it came, though he had had +his own lunch already, he played a little with a knife and fork +himself for show's sake, in order not to seem as if he were merely +looking on while Selah was eating. These little touches of feeling +were not lost upon Selah: she noticed them at once, and recognised +in what Ernest would have called her aboriginal unregenerate +vocabulary that she was dealing with a true gentleman. + +'Walters,' Ronald said, pausing a second with a bit of chop poised +lightly on the end of his fork; 'let me see--Walters. I don't know +any man of that name, myself, but I've had two brothers at Oxford, +and perhaps one of them could tell me who he is. Walters--Walters. +You said your own name was Miss Briggs, I think, didn't you? My +name's Ronald Le Breton.' + +'How curious,' Selah said, colouring up. 'I'm sure I remember Mr. +Walters talking more than once to me about his brother Ronald.' + +'Indeed,' Ronald answered, without even a passing tinge of suspicion. +That any man should give a false name to other people with intent +to deceive was a thing that would never have entered into his simple +head--far less that his own brother Herbert should be guilty of +such a piece of disgraceful meanness. + +'I think,' Ronald went on, as soon as Selah had finished her lunch, +'you'd better come with me back to my mother's house for the present. +I suppose, now you've talked it over a little, you won't think of +throwing yourself into the river any more for to-day. You'll postpone +your intention for the present, won't you? Adjourn it sine die till +we can see what can be done for you.' + +Selah smiled faintly. Even with the slight fresh spring of hope +that this chance rencontre had roused anew within her, it seemed +rather absurd and childish of her to have meditated suicide only +an hour ago. Besides, she had eaten and drunk since then, and the +profoundest philosophers have always frankly admitted that the +pessimistic side of human nature is greatly mitigated after a good +dinner. + +Ronald called a hansom, and drove up rapidly to Epsilon Terrace. +When he got there, he took Selah into the little back breakfast +room, regardless of the proprieties, and began once more to consider +the prospects of the future. + +'Is Lady Le Breton in?' he asked the servant: and Selah noticed +with surprise and wonder that this strange young man's mother was +actually 'a lady of title,' as she called it to herself in her +curious ordinary language. + +'No, sir,' the girl answered; 'she have been gone out about an +hour.' + +'Then I must leave you here while I go out and get you lodgings for +the present,' Ronald said, quietly; 'you won't object to my doing +that, of course: you can easily pay me back from your salary as +soon as we succeed in finding you some suitable occupation. Let +me see, where can I put you for the next fortnight? Naturally you +wouldn't like to live with religious people, would you?' + +'I hate them,' Selah answered vigorously. + +'Of course, of course,' Ronald went on, as if to himself. 'Perfectly +natural. She hates them! So should I if I'd been bothered and worried +out of my life by them in the way she has. I hate them myself--that +kind: or, rather, it's wrong to say that of them, poor creatures, +for they mean well, they really mean well at bottom, in their +blundering, formal, pettifogging way. They think they can take the +kingdom of Heaven, not by storm, but by petty compliances, like +servile servants who have to deal with a capricious, exacting +master. Poor souls, they know no better. They measure the universe +by the reflection in their muddy mill-pond. Nasty pious people is +what I always call them; nasty pious people: little narrow souls, +trying hard to be Christians after their lights, and only attaining, +after all, to a sort of second-hand diluted Judaism, a religion +of cup-washing, and phylacteries, and new moons, and sabbaths, and +daily sacrifices. However, that's neither here nor there. I won't +hand you over, Miss Briggs, to any of those poor benighted people. +No, nor to any religious people at all. It wouldn't suit you: you +want to be well out of it. I know the very place for you. There +are the Baumanns: they'd be glad to let a room: Baumann's a German +refugee, and a friend of Ernest's: a good man, but a secularist. +THEY wouldn't bother you with any religion: poor things, they +haven't got any. Mrs. Baumann's an excellent woman--educated, too; +no objection at all in any way to the Baumanns. They're people I +like and respect immensely--every good quality they have; and I'm +often grieved to think such excellent people should be deprived of +the comfort and pleasure of believing. But, then, so's my dear brother +Ernest; and you know, they're none the worse for it, apparently, +any of them: indeed, I don't know that there's anybody with whom +I can talk more sympathetically on spiritual matters than dear +Ernest. Depend upon it, most of the most spiritually-minded people +nowadays are outside all the churches altogether.' + +Selah listened in blank amazement to this singular avowal of +heterodox opinion from an obviously religious person. What Ronald +Le Breton could be she couldn't imagine; and she thought with +an inward smile of the very different way in which her friends at +Hastings would have discussed the spiritual character of a wicked +secularist. + +Just at that moment a latch-key turned lightly in the street door, +and two sets of footsteps came down the passage to Lady Le Breton's +little back breakfast-room. One set turned up the staircase, the +other halted for a second at the breakfast-room doorway. Then the +door opened gently, and Herbert Le Breton and Selah Briggs stood +face to face again in blank astonishment. + +There was a moment's pause, as Selah rose with burning cheeks from +the chair where she was sitting; and neither spoke a word as they +looked with eyes of mutual suspicion and dislike into each other's +faces. At last Herbert Le Breton turned with some acerbity to his +brother Ronald, and asked in a voice of affected contempt, 'Who is +this woman?' + +'This LADY'S name is Miss Briggs,' Ronald answered, pointedly, but, +of course, quite innocently. + +'I needn't ask you who this man is,' Selah said, with bitter +emphasis. 'It's Herbert Walters.' + +A horrible light burst in upon Ronald instantaneously as she uttered +the name; but he could not believe it; he would not believe it: it +was too terrible, too incredible. 'No, no,' he said falteringly, +turning to Selah; 'you must be mistaken. This is not Mr. Walters. +This is my brother, Herbert Le Breton.' + +Selah gazed into Herbert's slinking eyes with a concentrated +expression of scorn and disgust. 'Then he gave me a false name,' +she said, slowly, fronting him like a tigress. 'He gave me a false +name, it seems, from the very beginning. All through, the false +wretch, all through, he actually meant to deceive me. He laid his +vile scheme for it beforehand. I never wish to see you again, +you miserable cur, Herbert Le Breton, if that's your real name at +last. I never wish to see you again: but I'm glad I've done it now +by accident, if it were only to inflict upon you the humiliation +of knowing that I have measured the utmost depth of your infamy! +You mean, common, false scoundrel, I have measured to the bottom +the depth of your infamy!' + +'Oh, don't,' Ronald said imploringly, laying his hand upon her arm. +'He deserves it, no doubt; but don't glory over his humiliation.' +He had no need to ask whether she spoke the truth; his brother's +livid and scarlet face was evidence enough against him. + +Herbert, however, answered nothing. He merely turned angrily +to Ronald. 'I won't bandy words,' he said constrainedly in his +coldest tone, 'with this infamous woman whom you have brought here +on purpose to insult me; but I must request you to ask her to leave +the house immediately. Your mother's home is no place to which to +bring people of such a character.' + +As he spoke, the door opened again, and Lady Le Breton, attracted +by the sound of angry voices, entered unexpectedly. 'What does all +this riot mean, Herbert?' she asked, imperiously. 'Who on earth +is this young woman that Ronald has brought into my own house, +actually without my permission?' + +Herbert whispered a few words quietly into her ear, and then left +the room hurriedly with a stiff and formal bow to his brother +Ronald. Lady Le Breton turned round to the culprit severely. + +'Disgraceful, Ronald!' she cried in her sternest and most angry +voice; 'perfectly disgraceful! You aid and abet this wretched +creature--whose object is only to extort money by false pretences +out of your brother Herbert--you aid and abet her in her abominable +stratagems, and you even venture to introduce her clandestinely +into my own breakfast-room. I wonder you're not ashamed of yourself. +What on earth can you mean by such extraordinary, such unChristian +conduct? Go to your own room this moment, sir, and ask this young +woman to leave the house immediately.' + +'I shall go without being asked,' Selah said, proudly, her big eyes +flashing defiance haughtily into Lady Le Breton's. 'I don't know +who you all may be, or what this gentleman who brought me here may +have to do with you: but if you are in any way connected with that +wretch Herbert Le Breton, who called himself Herbert Walters for +the sake of deceiving me, I don't want to have anything further to +say to any of the whole pack of you. Please stand out of my way,' +she went on to Ronald, 'and I shall have done with you all together +this very instant. I wish to God I had never seen a single one of +you.' + +'No, no, not just yet, please,' Ronald put in hastily. 'You mustn't +go just yet, I implore you, I beg of you, till I have explained to +my mother, before you, how this all happened; and then, when you +go, I shall go with you. Though I have the misfortune to be the +brother of the man who gave you a false name in order to deceive +you, I trust you will still allow me to help you as far as I am +able, and to take you to my German friends of whom I spoke to you.' + +'Ronald,' Lady Le Breton cried, in her most commanding tone, 'you +must have taken leave of your senses. How dare you keep this person +a moment longer in my house against my wish, when even she herself +is anxious to quit it? Let her go at once, let her go at once, +sir.' + +'No, mother,' Ronald answered firmly. 'We are commanded in the Word +to obey our parents in all things, "in the Lord." I think you've +forgotten that proviso, mother, "in the Lord." Now, mother, I will +tell you all about it.' And then, in a rapid sketch, Ronald, with +his back planted solidly against the door, told his mother briefly +all he knew about Selah Briggs, how he had found her, how he had +brought her home not knowing who she was, and how she had recognised +Herbert as her unfaithful lover. Lady Le Breton, when she saw +that escape was practically impossible, flung herself back in an +easy-chair, where she swayed herself backward and forward gently +all the while, without once lifting her eyes towards Ronald, and +sighed impatiently from time to time audibly, as if the story merely +bored her. As for poor Selah, she stood upright in front of Ronald +without a word, looking neither to the right nor to the left, and +waiting eagerly for the story to be finished. + +When Ronald had said his say, Lady Le Breton looked up at last and +said simply, with a pretended yawn, 'Now, Ronald, will you go to +your own room?' + +'I will not,' Ronald answered, in a soft whisper. 'I will go with +this lady to the rooms of which I have spoken to her.' + +'Then,' Lady Le Breton said coldly, 'you shall not return here. +It seems I'm to lose all my children, one after another, by their +extraordinary rebelliousness!' + +'By your own act--yes,' Ronald answered, very calmly. 'You +forgot that last Thursday was my birthday, I daresay, mother; but +I didn't forget it; it was; and I came of age then. I'm my own +master now. I've stopped here as long as I could, mother, because +of the commandment: but I can't stop here any longer. I shall go +to Ernest's for to-night as soon as I've got rooms for this lady.' + +'Good evening,' Lady Le Breton said, bowing frigidly, without +another word. + +'Good evening, mother,' Ronald replied, in his natural voice. 'Miss +Briggs, will you come with me? I'm very sorry that this unhappy +scene should have been inflicted upon you against my will; but I +hope and pray that you won't have lost all confidence in my wish +to help you, in spite of these unfortunate accidents.' + +Selah followed him blindly, in a dazzled fashion, out on to the +flagstones of Epsilon Terrace. + +'Dear me, dear me,' moaned Lady Le Breton, sinking back vacantly +once more, with an air of resignation after her efforts, into the +easy-chair: 'was there ever a mother so plagued and burdened with +unnatural and undutiful sons as I am? If it weren't for dear Herbert, +I'm sure I don't know what I should ever do between them. Ronald, +too, who always pretended to be so very, very religious! To think +that he should go and uphold the word of a miserable, abandoned, +improper adventuress against his own brother Herbert! Atrocious, +perfectly atrocious! Where on earth he can have picked up such a +woman I'm positively at a loss to imagine. But it's exactly like +his poor dear father: I remember once when we were stationed at +Moozuffernugger, in the North-West Provinces, with the 14th Bengal, +poor Owen absolutely insisted on taking up the case of some Eurasian +waman, who pretended she'd been badly treated by young Walker of +our regiment! I call it quite improper--almost unseemly--to meddle +in the affairs of such people. I daresay Herbert has had something +or other to say to this horrid girl; young men will be young men, +and in the army we know how to make allowances for that sort of +thing: but that Ronald should positively think of bringing such a +person into my breakfast-room is not to be heard of. Ronald's a pure +Le Breton--that's undeniable, thank goodness; not a single one of +the good Whitaker points to be found in all his nature. However, +poor dear Sir Owen, in spite of all his nonsense, was at least +an officer and a gentleman; whereas the nonsense these boys have +picked up at Oxford and among their German refugee people is both +irreligious, and, I may even say, indecent, or, to put it in the +mildest way, indecorous. I wish with all my heart I'd never sent +them to Oxford. I've always thought that if only Ernest had gone +in for a direct commission, he'd soon have got all that absurd +revolutionary rubbish knocked out of him in a mess-room! But it's +a great comfort to me to think I have one real blessing in dear +Herbert, who's just such a son as any mother might well be thoroughly +proud of in every way!' + +While Lady Le Breton was thus communing with herself in the +breakfast-room, and while Herbert was trying to patch up a hollow +truce with his own much-bruised self-respect in his own bedroom, +Ronald was taking poor dazed and wearied Selah round to the refuge +of the Baumanns' hospitable roof. As soon as that matter was +temporarily arranged to the mutual satisfaction of all the parties +concerned, Ronald walked over alone to Ernest's little lodgings at +Holloway. He would sleep there that night, and send round a letter +to Amelia, the housemaid, in the morning, asking her to pack up his +things and forward them at once to Mrs. Halliss's. For himself, +he did not propose, unless circumstances compelled it, again to +enter his mother's rooms, except by her own express invitation. +After all, he thought, even his little income, if clubbed with Edie +and Ernest's, would probably help them all to live now in tolerable +comfort. + +So he told Edie all his story, and Edie listened to it with an +approving smile. 'I think, dear Ronald,' she said, taking his hand +in hers, 'you did quite right--quite as Ernest himself would have +done under the circumstances.' + +'Where's Ernest?' asked Ronald, half smiling at that naive wifely +standard of right conduct. + +'Gone with Mr. Berkeley to the trial,' Edie answered. + +'The trial! What trial?' + +'Oh, don't you know? Herr Max's. They're trying him to-day for +littering a seditious libel and inciting to murder the chief of +the Third Section at St. Petersburg.' + +'But he said nothing at all,' Ronald cried in astonishment. 'I read +the article myself. He said nothing that any Englishman mightn't +have said under the same circumstances. Why, I could have written +the libel, as they call it, myself, even, and I'm not much of a +politician either! They can't ever be trying him in a country like +England for anything so ridiculously little as that!' + +'But they are,' Edie answered quietly; 'and dear Ernest's dreadfully +afraid the verdict will go against him.' + +'Nonsense,' Ronald answered with natural confidence. 'No English +jury would ever convict a man for speaking up like that against +an odious and abominable tyranny.' + +Very late in the afternoon, Ernest and Berkeley returned to the +lodgings. Ernest's face was white with excitement, and his lips +were trembling violently with suppressed emotion. His eyes were red +and swollen. Edie hardly needed to ask in a breathless whisper of +Arthur Berkeley, 'What verdict?' + +'Guilty,' Arthur Berkeley answered with a look of unfeigned horror +and indignation. He had learnt by this time quite to take the +communistic view of such questions. + +'Guilty,' Ronald cried, jumping up from his chair in astonishment. +'Impossible! And what sentence?' + +'Twelve months' hard labour,' Berkeley answered, slowly and +remorsefully. + +'An atrocious sentence!' Ronald exclaimed, turning red with excitement. +'An abominable sentence! A most malignant and vindictive sentence! +Who was the judge, Arthur?' + +'Bassenthwaite,' Berkeley replied half under his breath. + +'And may the Lord have mercy upon his soul!' said Ronald solemnly, + +But Ernest never said a single word. He only sat down and ate his +supper in silence, like one stunned and dazzled. He didn't even +notice Ronald's coming. And Edie knew by his quick breath and his +face alternately flushed and pallid that there would be another +crisis in his gathering complaint before the next morning. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +TELL IT NOT IN OATH. + + +As they sat silent in that little sitting-room after supper, a double +knock at the door suddenly announced the arrival of a telegram +for Ernest. He opened it with trembling lingers. It was from +Lancaster:--'Come down to the office at once. Schurz has been +sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and we want a leader about +him for to-morrow.' The telegram roused Ernest at once from his +stupefied lethargy. Here was a chance at last of doing something +for Max Schurz and for the cause of freedom! Here was a chance +of waking up all England to a sense of the horrible crime it had +just committed through the voice of its duly accredited judicial +mouthpiece! The country was trembling on the brink of an abyss, and +he, Ernest Le Breton, might just be in time to save it. The Home +Secretary must be compelled by the unanimous clamour of thirty +millions of free working people to redress the gross injustice of +the law in sending Max Sohurz, the greatest, noblest, and purest-minded +of mankind, to a common felon's prison! Nothing else on earth could +have moved Ernest, jaded and dispirited as he was at that moment, +to the painful exertion of writing a newspaper leader after the +day's fatigues and excitements, except the thought that by doing so +he might not only blot out this national disgrace, as he considered +it, but might also help to release the martyr of the people's rights +from his incredible, unspeakable punishment. Flushed and feverish +though he was, he rose straight up from the table, handed the +telegram to Edie without a word, and started off alone to hail a +hansom cab and drive down immediately to the office. Arthur Berkeley, +fearful of what might happen to him in his present excited state, +stole out after him quietly, and followed him unperceived in another +hansom at a little distance. + +When Ernest got to the 'Morning Intelligence' buildings, he was +shown up at once into the editorial room. He expected to find Mr. +Lancaster at the same white heat of indignation as himself; but +to his immense surprise he actually found him in the usual sleepy +languid condition of apathetic impartiality. 'I wired for you, Le +Breton,' the impassive editor said calmly, 'because I understand +you know all about this man Schurz, who has just got his twelve +months' imprisonment this evening. I suppose, of course, you've +heard already all about it.' + +'I've been at the trial all day,' Ernest answered, 'and myself +heard the verdict and sentence.' + +'Good,' Mr. Lancaster said, with a dreamy touch of approval in his +tone. 'That's good journalism, certainly, and very smart of you. +Helps you to give local colour and realistic touches to the matter. +But you ought to have called in here to see me immediately. We +shall have a regular reporter's report of the trial, of course; +but reporters' reports are fearfully and wonderfully lifeless. If +you like, besides the leader, you might work up a striking headed +article on the Scene in Court. This is an important case, and we +want something more about it than mere writing, you know; a little +about the man himself and his personal history, which Berkeley tells +me you're well acquainted with. He's written something called "Gold +and the Proletariate," or whatever it is; just tell our readers +all about it. As to the leader, say what you like in it--of course +I shall look over the proof, and tone it down a bit to suit the +taste of our public--we appeal mainly to the mercantile middle class, +I need hardly say; but you know the general policy of the paper, +and you can just write what you think best, subject to subsequent +editorial revision. Get to work at once, please, as the articles +are wanted immediately, and send down slips as fast as they're +written to the printers.' + +Ernest could hardly contain his surprise at Mr. Lancaster's calmness +under such unheard-of circumstances, when the whole laborious +fabric of British liberties was tottering visibly to its base--but +he wisely concluded to himself that the editor had to see articles +written about every possible subject every evening--from a European +convulsion to a fire at a theatre,--and that use must have made +it in him a property of easiness. When a man's obliged to work +himself up perpetually into a state of artificial excitement about +every railway accident, explosion, shipwreck, earthquake, or volcanic +eruption, in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and the islands of the +Pacific Ocean, why then, Ernest charitably said to himself, his +sympathies must naturally end by getting a trifle callous, especially +when he's such a very apathetic person to start with as this laconic +editorial Lancaster. So he turned into the little bare box devoted +to his temporary use, and began writing with perfectly unexampled +and extraordinary rapidity at his leader and his article about the +injured and martyred apostle of the slighted communistic religion. + +It was only a few months since Ernest had, with vast toil and +forethought, spun slowly out his maiden newspaper article on the +Italian organ-boy, and now he found himself, to his own immense +surprise, covering sheet after sheet of paper in feverish haste +with a long account of Max Schurz's splendid life and labours, and +with a really fervid and eloquent appeal to the English people not +to suffer such a man as he to go helplessly and hopelessly to an +English prison, at the bare bidding of a foreign despot. He never +stopped for one moment to take thought, or to correct what he had +written; in the excitement of the moment his pen travelled along +over the paper as if inspired, and he found the words and thoughts +thronging his brain almost faster than his lagging hand could +suffice to give them visible embodiment. As each page was thrown +off hurriedly, he sent it down, still pale and wet, to the printers +in the office; and before two o'clock in the morning, he had full +proofs of all he had written sent up to him for final correction. It +was a stirring and vigorous leader, he felt quite certain himself +as he read it over; and he thought with a swelling breast that +it would appear next day, with all the impersonal authority of +the 'Morning Intelligence' stamped upon its face, at ten thousand +English breakfast tables, where it might rouse the people in their +millions to protest sternly before it was too late against this +horrid violation of our cherished and boasted national hospitality. + +Meanwhile, Arthur Berkeley had stopped at the office, and run in +hastily for five minutes' talk with the terrible editor. 'Don't +say anything to shock Le Breton, I beg of you, Lancaster,' he said, +'about this poor man Schurz who has just been sent for a year to +prison. It's a very hard case, and I'm awfully sorry for the man +myself, though that's neither here nor there. I can see from your +face that you, for your part, don't sympathise with him; but at +any rate, don't say anything about it to hurt Le Breton's feelings. +He's in a dreadfully feverish and excited condition this evening; +Max Schurz has always been to him almost like a father, and he +naturally takes his sentence very bitterly to heart. To tell you +the truth, I regret it a great deal myself, I know a little of +Schurz, through Le Breton, and I know what a well-meaning, ardent, +enthusiastic person he really is, and how much good actually +underlies all his chaotic socialistic notions. But at any rate, I +do beg of you, don't say anything to further excite and hurt poor +Le Breton.' + +'Certainly not,' the editor answered, smoothing his large hands +softly one over the other. 'Certainly not; though I confess, as a +practical man, I don't sympathise in the least with this preposterous +German refugee fellow. So far as I can learn, he's been at the +bottom of half the revolutionary and insurrectionary movements of +the last twenty years--a regular out-and-out professional socialistic +incendiary.' + +'You wouldn't say so,' Berkeley replied quietly, 'if you'd seen +more of him, Lancaster.' But being a man of the world, and having +come mainly on Ernest's account, he didn't care to press the abstract +question of Herr Max's political sincerity any further. + +'Well,' the editor went on, a little testily, 'be that as it may, I +won't discuss the subject with your friend Le Breton, who's really +a nice, enthusiastic young fellow, I think, as far as I've seen +him. I'll simply let him write to-night whatever he pleases, and +make the necessary alterations in proof afterwards, without talking +it over with him personally at all. That'll avoid any needless +discussion and ruffling of his supersensitive communistic feelings. +Poor fellow, he looks very ill indeed to-night. I'm really extremely +sorry for him.' + +'When will he be finished?' asked Arthur. + +'At two,' the editor answered. + +'I'll send a cab for him,' Arthur said; 'there'll be none about +at that hour, probably. Will you kindly tell him it's waiting for +him?' + +At two o'clock or a little after, Ernest drove home with his heart +on fire, full of eagerness and swelling hope for to-morrow morning. +He found Edie waiting for him, late as it was, with a little bottle +of wine--an unknown luxury at Mrs. Halliss's lodgings--and such +light supper as she thought he could manage to swallow in his +excitement. Ernest drank a glass of the wine, but left the supper +untasted. Then he went to bed, and tossed about uneasily till +morning. He couldn't sleep through his anxiety to see his great +leader appear in all the added dignity of printer's ink and rouse +the slumbering world of England up to a due sense of Max Schurz's +wrongs and the law's incomprehensible iniquity. + +Before seven, he rose very quietly, dressed himself without +saying a word, and stole out to buy an early copy of the 'Morning +Intelligence.' He got one at the small tobacconist's shop round the +corner, where he had taken his first hint for the Italian organ-boy +leader. It was with difficulty that he could contain himself till +he was back in Mrs. Halliss's little front parlour; and there +he tore open the paper eagerly, and turned to the well-remembered +words at the beginning of his desperate appealing article. He could +recollect the very run of every clause and word he had written: 'No +Englishman can read without a thrill of righteous indignation,' it +began,'the sentence passed last night upon Max Schurz, the author +of that remarkable economical work, "Gold and the Proletariate." +Herr Schurz is one of those numerous refugees from German despotism +who have taken advantage of the hospitable welcome usually afforded +by England to the oppressed of all creeds or nations'--and so forth, +and so forth. Where was it now? Yes, that was it, in the place of +honour, of course--the first leader under the clock in the 'Morning +Intelligence.' His eye caught at once the opening key-words, 'No +Englishman.' Sinking down into the easy-chair by the flowers in the +window he prepared to run it through at his leisure with breathless +anxiety. + +'No Englishman can read without a feeling of the highest approval +the sentence passed last night upon Max Schurz, the author of that +misguided economical work, "Gold and the Proletariate." Herr Schurz +is one of those numerous refugees from German authority, who have +taken advantage of the hospitable welcome usually afforded by England +to the oppressed of all creeds or nations, in order to hatch plots +in security against the peace of sovereigns or governments with +which we desire always to maintain the most amicable and cordial +relations.' Ernest's eyes seemed to fail him. The type on the paper +swam wildly before his bewildered vision. What on earth could +this mean? It was his own leader, indeed, with the very rhythm and +cadence of the sentences accurately preserved, but with all the +adjectives and epithets so ingeniously altered that it was turned +into a crushing condemnation of Max Schurz, his principles, +his conduct, and his ethical theories. From beginning to end, the +article appealed to the common-sense of intelligent Englishmen to +admire the dignity of the law in thus vindicating itself against +the atrocious schemes of a dangerous and ungrateful political exile +who had abused the hospitality of a great fres country to concoct +vile plots against the persons of friendly sovereigns and innocent +ministers on the European continent. + +Ernest laid down the paper dreamily, and leant back for a moment +in his chair, to let his brain recover a little from the reeling +dizziness of that crushing disappointment. Then he turned in a +giddy mechanical fashion to the headed article on the fourth page. +There the self-same style of treatment met once more his astonished +gaze. All the minute facts as to Max Schurz's history and personality +were carefully preserved; the description of his simple artisan +life, his modest household, his Sunday evening receptions, his great +following of earnest and enthusiastic refugees--every word of all +this, which hardly anyone else could have equally well supplied, +was retained intact in the published copy; yet the whole spirit +of the thing had utterly evaporated, or rather had been perverted +into the exact opposite unsympathetic channel. Where Ernest had +written 'enthusiasm,' Lancaster had simply altered the word to +'fanaticism;' where Ernest had spoken of Herr Max's 'single-hearted +devotion,' Lancaster had merely changed the phrase into 'undisguised +revolutionary ardour.' The whole paper was one long sermon against +Max Schurz's Utopian schemes, imputing to him not only folly but +even positive criminality as well. We all know how we all in England +look upon the foreign political refugee--a man to be hit again with +impunity, because he has no friends; but to Ernest, who had lived +so long in his own little socialistic set, the discovery that people +could openly say such things against his chosen apostle at the very +moment of his martyrdom, was a hideous and blinding disillusionment. +He put the paper down upon the table once more, and buried his face +helplessly between his burning hands. + +The worst of it all was this: if Herr Max ever saw those articles +he would naturally conclude that Ernest had been guilty of the +basest treachery, and that too on the very day when he most needed +the aid and sympathy of all his followers. With a thrill of horror +he thought in his own soul that the great leader might suspect him +for an hour of being the venal Judas of the little sect. + +How Ernest ever got through that weary day he did not know himself; +nothing kept him up through it except his burning indignation +against Lancaster's abominable conduct. About eleven o'clock, +Arthur Berkeley called in to see him. 'I'm afraid you've been a +little disappointed,' he said, 'about the turn Lancaster has given +to your two articles. He told me he meant to alter the tone so +as to suit the policy of the paper, and I see he's done so very +thoroughly. You can't look for much sympathy from commonplace, +cold, calculating Englishmen for enthusiastic natures like Herr +Max's.' + +Ernest turned to him in blank amazement. He had expected Berkeley +to be as angry as himself at Lancaster's shameful mutilation of his +appealing leader; and he found now that even Berkeley accepted it +as an ordinary incident in the course of journalistic business. His +heart sank within him as he thought how little hope there could be +of Herr Max's liberation, when even his own familiar friend Berkeley +looked upon the matter in such a casual careless fashion. + +'I shall never write another word for the "Morning Intelligence,"' +he cried vehemently, after a moment's pause. 'If we starve for +it, I shall never write another word in that wicked, abominable, +dishonourable paper. I can die easily enough, heaven knows, without +a murmur: but I can't be disloyal to dear Herr Max, and to all my +innate ingrained principles.' + +'Don't say that, Ernest,' Berkeley answered gently. 'Think of +Mrs. Le Breton and the baby. The luxury of starvation for the sake +of a cause is one you might venture to allow yourself if you were +alone in the world as I am, but not one which you ought to force +unwillingly upon your wife and children. You've been getting a +trifle more practical of late under the spur of necessity; don't go +and turn impossible again at the supreme moment. Whatever happens, +it's your plain duty to go on writing for the "Morning Intelligence." +You say with your own hand only what you think and believe yourself: +the editor alone is responsible for the final policy of the paper.' + +Ernest only muttered slowly to himself,--'Never, never, never!' + +Still, though the first attempt had failed, Ernest did not wholly +give up his hopes of doing something towards the release of Herr Max +from that unutterable imprisonment. He drew up a form of petition +to the Home Secretary, in which he pointed out the reasons for +setting aside the course of the law in the case of this particular +political prisoner. With feverish anxiety he ran about London +for the next two days, trying to get influential signatures to his +petition, and to rouse the people in their millions to demand the +release of the popular martyr. Alas for the stolid indifference of +the British public! The people in their millions sat down to eat +and drink, and rose up to play, exactly as if nothing unusual in +any way had happened. Most of them had never heard at all of Herr +Max, or of 'Gold and the Proletariate,' and those who had heard +understood for the most part that he was a bad lot who was imprisoned +for trying nefariously to blow up the Emperor of Rooshia. Crowds +of people nightly besieged the doors of the Ambiguities and the +Marlborough, to hear the fate of 'The Primate of Fiji' and 'The Duke +of Bermondsey;' but very few among the millions took the trouble to +sign their names to Ernest Le Breton's despairing petition. Even +the advanced radicals of the market-place, the men who figured +largely at Trafalgar Square meetings and Agricultural Labourers' +Unions, feared to damage their reputation for moderation and sobriety +by getting themselves mixed up with a continental agitator like +this man Schurz that people were talking about. The Irish members +expressed a pious horror of the very word dynamite: the working-man +leaders hemmed and hawed, and regretted their inability, in their +very delicate position, to do anything which might seem like +countenancing Russian nihilism. In the end, Ernest sent, in his +petition with only half a dozen unknown signatures; and the Home +Secretary's private prompter threw it into the waste-paper basket +entire, without even taking the trouble to mention its existence +to his harassed and overburdened chief. Just a Marylebone communist +refugee in prison! How could a statesman with half the bores and +faddists of England on his troubled hands, find time to look at +uninfluential petitions about an insignificant worthless nobody +like that? + +So gentle, noble-natured, learned Herr Max went to prison and served +his year there uncomplainingly, like any other social malefactor; +and Society talked about his case with languid interest for nearly +a fortnight, and then straightway found a new sensation, and forgot +all about him. But there are three hundred and sixty-five days of +twenty-four hours each in every year; and for every one of those days +Herr Max and Herr Max's friends never forgot for an hour together +that he was in prison. + +And at the end of the week Ernest got a letter from Lancaster, +enclosing a cheque for eight guineas. That is a vast sum of money, +eight guineas: just think of all the bread, and meat, and tea, +and clothing one can buy with it for a small family! 'My dear Le +Breton,' the editor wrote--in his own hand, too; a rare honour; +for he was a kindly man, and he had learned, much to his surprise, +from Arthur Berkeley, that Ernest was angry at his treatment of the +Schurzian leader: 'My dear Le Breton, I enclose cheque for eight +guineas, for your two articles. I hope you didn't mind the way +I was obliged to cut them up in some unessential details, so as +to suit the policy of the paper. I kept whatever was really most +distinctive as embodying special information in them. You know +we are above all things strictly moderate. Please send us another +social shortly.' + +It was a kind letter, undoubtedly a kind and kindly-meant letter: +but Ernest flung it from him as though he had been stung by a +serpent or a scorpion. Then he handed the cheque to Edie in solemn +silence, to see what she would do with it. He merely wanted to try +her constancy. For himself, he would have felt like a Judas indeed +if he had taken and used their thirty pieces of silver. + +Edie looked at the cheque intently and sighed a deep sigh of regret. +How could she do otherwise? They were so very poor, and it was +such an immense sum of money! Then she rose quietly without saying +a word, and lighted a match from the box on the mantelpiece. She +held the cheque firmly between her finger and thumb till it was +nearly burnt, end let it drop slowly at last into the empty fireplace. +Ernest rose up and kissed her tenderly. The leaden weight of the +thirty pieces of silver was fairly off their united conscience. They +had made what reparation they could for the evil of that unhappy, +undesigned leader. After all Ernest had wasted the last remnant of +his energy on one eventful evening, all for nothing. + +As Edie sat looking wistfully at the smouldering fragments of the +burnt cheque, Ernest roused her again by saying quietly, 'To-day's +Saturday. Have we got anything for to-morrow's dinner, Edie?' + +'Nothing,' Edie answered, simply. 'How much money have you left, +Ernest?' + +'Sixpence,' Ernest said, without needing to consult his empty +purse for confirmation--he had counted the pence, as they went, too +carefully for that already. 'Edie, I'm afraid we must go at last +to the poor man's banker till I can get some more money.' + +'Oh, Ernest--not--not--not the pawnbroker!' + +'Yes, Edie, the pawnbroker.' + +The tears came quickly into Edie's eyes, but she answered nothing. +They must have food, and there was no other way open before them. +They rose together and went quietly into the bedroom. There they +gathered together the few little trinkets and other things that might +be of use to them, and Ernest took down his hat from the stand to +go out with them to the pawnbroker's. + +As he turned out he was met energetically on the landing by a +stout barricade from good Mrs. Halliss. 'No, sir, not you, sir,' +the landlady said firmly, trying to take the parcel from him as he +went towards the door. 'I beg your pardon, sir, for 'avin' over'eard +what wasn't meant for me to 'ear, no doubt, but I couldn't 'elp it, +sir, and John an' me can't allow nothink of this sort, we can't. +We're used to this sort o' things, sir, John and me is; but you +and the dear lady isn't used to 'em, sir, and didn't nought to be +neither, and John an' me can't allow it, not anyhow.' + +Ernest turned scarlet with shame, but could say nothing. Edie only +whispered softly, 'Dear, dear Mrs. Halliss, we're so sorry, but we +can't help it.' + +''Elp it, ma'am,' said Mrs. Halliss, herself almost crying, 'nor +there ain't no reason why you should try to 'elp it neither. As I +says to John, "John," says I, "there ain't no 'arm in it, noways," +says I, "but I can't stand by," says I, "and see them two poor dear +young creechurs," meanin' no offence, ma'am, "a-pawning of their +own jewelry and things to go and pay for their Sunday's dinner." +And John, 'e says, says 'e, "Quite right, Martha," says 'e; "don't +let 'em, my dear," says 'e. "The Lord has prospered us a bit in our +'umble way, Martha," says 'e, "and we ain't got no cause to want, +we ain't; and if the dear lady and the good gentleman wouldn't +take it as a liberty," says 'e, "it 'ud be better they should just +borrer a pound or two for a week from us," says 'e, beggin' your +pardon, ma'am, for 'intin' of it, "than that there Mr. Le Breting, +as ain't accustomed to such places nohow, should go a-makin' +acquaintance, for the fust time of his life, as you may say, with +the inside of a pawnbroker's shop," says 'e. "John," says I, "it's +my belief the lady and gentleman 'ud be insulted," says I, "though +they ARE the sweetest unassoomin'est young gentlefolk I ever did +see," says I, "if we were to go as tin' them to accept the loan +of money from the likes of you and me, John, as is no better, by +the side of them, nor old servants, in the manner o' speakin'." +"Insulted," says 'e; "not a bit of it, they needn't, Martha," +says 'e, "for I knows the ways of the aristocracy," says 'e, "and +I knows as there's many a gentleman as owns 'is own 'osses and +'is own 'ounds as isn't afraid to borrer a pound or so from 'is own +coachman, or even from 'is own groom--not but what to borrer from +a groom is lowerin'," says 'e, "in a tempory emergency. Mind you, +Martha," says 'e, "a tempory emergency is a thing as may 'appen +to landed gentlefolks any day," says 'e. "It's like a 'ole in your +coat made by a tear," says 'e; "a haccident as may 'appen to-morrer +to the Prince of Wales 'isself upon the 'untin' field," 'e says. +"Well, then, John," says I, "I'll just go an' speak to 'em about +it, this very minnit," says I, and if I might make so bold, ma'am, +without seemin' too presumptious, I should be very glad if you'd +kindly allow me, ma'am, to lend Mr. Le Breting a few suvverins till +'e gets 'is next remittances, ma'am.' + +Edie looked at Ernest, and Ernest looked at Edie and the landlady; +and then they all three burst out crying together without further +apology. Perhaps it was the old Adam left in Ernest a little; +but though he could stand kindness from Dr. Greatrex or from Mr. +Lancaster stoically enough, he couldn't watch the humble devotion +of those two honest-hearted simple old servants without a mingled +thrill of shame and tenderness. 'Mrs. Halliss,' he said, catching +up the landlady's hard red hand gratefully in his own, 'you are too +good and too kind, and too considerate for us altogether. I feel +we have done nothing to deserve such great kindness from you. But +I really don't think it would be right of us to borrow from you when +we don't even know how long it may be before we're able to return +your money or whether we shall ever be able to return it at all. +We're so much obliged to you, so very very much obliged to you, +dear Mrs. Halliss, but I think we ought as a matter of duty to pawn +these few little things rather than run into debt which we've no +fair prospect at present of ever redeeming.' + +'HAS you please, sir,' Mrs. Halliss said gently, wiping her eyes +with her snow-white apron, for she saw at once that Ernest really +meant what he said. 'Not that John an' me would think of it for a +minnit, sir, so long as you wouldn't mind our takin' the liberty; +but any'ow, sir, we can't allow you to go out yourself and go to +the pawnbroker's. It ain't no fit place for the likes of you, sir, +a pawnbroker's ain't, in all that low company; and I don't suppose +you'd rightly know 'ow much to hask on the articles, neither. +John, 'e ain't afeard of goin'; an' 'e says, 'e insists upon it as +'e's to go, for 'e don't think, sir, for the honour of the 'ouse, +'e says, sir, as a lodger of ours ought to be seen a-goin' to the +pawnbroker's. Just you give them things right over to John, sir, +and 'e'll get you a better price on 'em by a long way nor they'd +ever think of giving a gentleman like you, sir.' + +Ernest fought off the question in a half-hearted fashion for a +little while, but Mrs. Halliss insisted upon it, and after a short +time Ernest gave way, for to say the truth he had very vague ideas +himself as to how he ought to proceed in a pawnbroking expedition. +Mrs. Halliss ran down the kitchen stairs quickly, for fear he +should change his mind as soon as her back was turned, and called +out gaily to her husband in the first delight of her unexpected +triumph. + +'John,' she cried, '--drat that man, where is 'e? John, dear, you +just putt your 'at on, and purtend to run round the corner a bit +to Aston's the pawnbroker's. The Lord have mercy upon me for the +stories I've been a-tellin' of 'em, but I couldn't bear to see them +two pore things a-pawnin' their little bits of jewelry and sich, +and Mr. Le Breting, too, 'im as ain't fit to go knockin' together +with underbred folks like pawnbrokers. So I told 'im as you'd take +'em round and pawn 'em for 'im yourself; not as I don't suppose +you've never pawned nothink in your 'ole life, John, leastways not +since ever you an' me kep' company, for afore that I suppose you +was purty much like other young men is, John, for all you shakes +your 'ead at it now so innocent like. But you just run round, +there's a dear, and make as if you was goin' to the pawnbroker's, +and then you come straight 'ome again unbeknown to 'em. I ain't +a goin' to let them two pore dears go pawnin' their things for a +dinner nohow. You take them two suvverins out of your box, John, +and putt away these 'ere little things for the present time till +the pore souls is able to pay us, and if they never don't, small +matter neither. Now you go fast, John, there's a dear, and come +back, and mind you give them two suvverins to Mr. Le Breting as +natural like as ever you're able.' + +'Pawn 'em,' John said in a pitying voice, 'no indeed, it ain't +come to that yet, I should 'ope, that they need go a-pawnin' their +effects while we've got a suvverin or two laid by in our box, +Martha. Not as anybody need be ashamed of pawnin' on occasions, for +that matter,--I don't say as a reg'lar thing, but now an' then on +occasions, as you may call it; for even in the best dookal families, +I've 'eard tell they DO sometimes 'ave to pawn the dimonds, so +that pawnin' ain't in the runnin' noways, bless you, as respects +gentility. Not as I'd like to go into a pawnshop myself, Martha, +as I've always been brought up respectable; but when you send for +Mr. Hattenborough to your own ressydence and say quite commandin' +like, "'Er Grace 'ud be obleeged if you'd wait upon 'er in Belgrave +Square to hinspeck 'er dimonds as I want to raise the wind on 'em," +why, that's quite another matter nat'rally.' + +When honest John came back in a few minutes and handed the +two sovereigns over to Ernest, he did it with such an unblushing +face as might have won him applause on any stage for its perfect +naturalness. 'Lor' bless your 'eart, sir,' he said in answer to +Ernest's shamefaced thanks, touching the place where his hat ought +to be mechanically, 'it ain't nothing, sir, that ain't. If it +weren't for the dookal families of England, sir, it's my belief the +pawnbrokin' business wouldn't be worth mentioning in the manner o' +speakin'.' + +That evening, Ernest paced up and down the little parlour rather +moodily for half an hour with three words ringing perpetually in his +dizzy ears-the 'Never, never, never,' he had used so short a tune +since about the 'Morning Intelligence.' He must get money somehow +for Dot and Edie! he must get money somehow to pay good Mrs. Halliss +for their board and lodging! There was only one way possible. +Fight against it as he would, in the end he must come back to that +inevitable conclusion. At last he sat down with a gloomy face at +the centre table, and pulled out a sheet of blank foolscap. + +'What are you going to do, Ernest?' Edie asked him. + +Ernest groaned. 'I'm writing a social for the "Morning Intelligence," +Edie,' he answered bitterly. + +'Oh, Ernest!' Edie said with a face of horror and surprise. 'Not +after the shameful way they've treated poor Max Schurz!' + +Ernest groaned again. 'There's nothing else to be done, Edie,' he +said, looking up at her despondently. 'I must earn money somehow +to keep the house going.' + +It is the business of the truthful historian to narrate facts, not +to palliate or extenuate the conduct of the various actors. Whether +Ernest did right or wrong, at least he did it; he wrote a playful +social for Monday's 'Morning Intelligence,' and carried it into +the office on Sunday afternoon himself, beause there was no postal +delivery in the London district. + +That night, he lay awake once more for hours together, tossing +and turning, and reflecting bitterly on his own baseness and his +final moral downfall. Herbert was right, after all. The environment +was beginning to conquer. He could hold out no longer. Herr Max +was in prison; the world was profoundly indifferent; he himself +had fallen away like Peter; and there was nothing left for him now +but to look about and find himself a dishonourable grave. + +And Dot? And Edie? What was to become of them after? Ah me, for +the pity of it when a man cannot even crawl quietly into a corner +and die in peace like a dog, without being tortured by fears +and terrors beforehand as to what will come to those he loves far +better than life when he himself is quietly dead and buried out of +the turmoil! + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +A MAN AND A MAID. + + +IF Ernest and Edie had permitted it, Ronald Le Breton would have +gone at once, after his coming of age, to club income and expenditure +with his brother's household. But, as Edie justly remarked, when +he proposed it, such a course would pretty nearly have amounted to +clubbing HIS income with THEIR expenditure; and even in their last +extreme of poverty that was an injustice which neither she nor her +husband could possibly permit. Ronald needed all his little fortune +for his own simple wants, and though they themselves starved, +they couldn't bear to deprive him of the small luxuries which had +grown into absolute necessaries for one so feeble and weak. Indeed, +ill as Ernest himself now was, he had never outgrown the fixed +habit of regarding Ronald as the invalid of the family; and to have +taken anything, though in the direst straits, from him, would have +seemed like robbing the helpless poor of their bare necessities. +So Ronald was fain at last to take lodgings for himself with +a neighbour of good Mrs. Halliss's, and only to share in Ernest's +troubles to the small extent of an occasional loan, which Edie +would have repaid to time if she had to go without their own poor +little dinner for the sake of the repayment. + +Meanwhile, Ronald had another interest on hand which to his +enthusiastic nature seemed directly imposed upon him by the finger +of Providence--to provide a home and occupation for poor Selah, +whom Herbert had cast aside as a legacy to him. As soon as he +had got settled down to his own new mode of life in the Holloway +lodgings, he began to look about for a fit place for the homeless +girl--a place, he thought to himself, which must combine several +special advantages; plenty of work--she wanted that to take her +mind off brooding; good, honest, upright people; and above all, no +religion. Ronald recognised that last undoubted requirement as of +absolutely paramount importance. 'She'll stand any amount of talk +or anything else from me,' he said to himself often, 'because she +knows I'm really in earnest; but she wouldn't stand it for a moment +from those well-meaning, undiscriminating, religious busy-bodies, +who are so awfully anxious about other people's souls, though +they never seem for a single minute to consider in any way other +people's feelings.' After a little careful hunting among his +various acquaintances, however, he found at last a place that would +exactly suit Selah at a stationer's in Netting Hill; and there he +put her--with full confidence that Selah would do the work entrusted +to her well and ably, if not from conscientiousness, at least from +personal pride, 'which, after all,' Roland soliloquised dreamily, +'is as good a substitute for the genuine article as one can +reasonably expect to find in poor fallen human nature.' + +'I wish, Mr. Le Breton,' Selah said, quite timidly for her (maidenly +reserve, it must be admitted, was not one of Selah Briggs's strong +points), 'that I wasn't going to be quite so far from you as Notting +Hill. If I could see you sometimes, you know, I should feel that +it might keep me more straight--keep me away from the river in +future, I mean. I can't stand most people's preaching, but somehow, +your preaching seems to do me more good than harm, really, which is +just the exact opposite way, it seems to me, from everybody else's.' + +Ronald smiled sedately. 'I'm glad you want to see me sometimes,' +he said, with a touch of something very like gallantry in his tone +that was wholly unusual with him. 'I shall walk over every now and +then, and look you up at your lodgings over yonder; and besides, +you can come on Sundays to dear Edie's, and I shall be able to +meet you there once a fortnight or thereabouts. But I'm not going +to let you call me Mr. Le Breton any longer; it isn't friendly: +and, what's more, it isn't Christian. Why should there be these +artificial barriers between soul and soul, eh, Selah? I shall +call you Selah in future: it seems more genuine and heartfelt, and +unencumbered with needless conventions, than your misters and +misses. After all, why should we keep up such idle formalities +between brethren and fellow-workers?' + +Selah started a little--she knew better than Ronald himself did +what such first advances really led to. 'Oh, Mr. Le Breton,' she +said quickly, 'I really can't call you Ronald. I can never call +any other man by his Christian name as long as I live, after--your +brother.' + +'You mistake me, Selah,' Ronald put in hastily, with his quaint +gravity. 'I mean it merely as a sign of confidence and a mark of +Christian friendship. Sisters call their brothers by their Christian +names, don't they? So there can be no harm in that, surely. It seems +to me that if you call me Mr. Le Breton, you're putting me on the +footing of a man merely; if you call me Ronald, you're putting me +on the footing of a brother, which is really a much more harmless +and unequivocal position for me to stand in. Do, please, Selah, +call me Ronald.' + +'I'm afraid I can't,' Selah answered. 'I daren't. I mustn't.' But +she faltered a little for a moment, notwithstanding. + +'You must, Selah,' Ronald said, with all the force of his enthusiastic +nature, fixing his piercing eyes full upon her. 'You must, I tell +you. Call me Ronald.' + +'Very well--Ronald,' Selah said at last, after a long pause. +'Good-bye, now. I must be going. Good-bye, and thank you. Thank +you. Thank you.' There was a tear quivering even in Selah Briggs's +eye, as she held his hand lingeringly a moment in hers before +releasing it. He was a very good fellow, really, and he had been +so very kind, too, in interesting himself about her future. + +'What a marvellous thread of sameness,' Ronald thought to himself, +as he walked back rapidly to his solitary lodgings, 'runs through +the warp and woof of a single family, after all! What an underlying +unity of texture there must be throughout, in all its members, +however outwardly dissimilar they may seem to be from one another! +One would say at first sight there was very little, if anything, +in common between me and Herbert. And yet this girl interests me +wonderfully. Of course I'm not in love with her--the notion of +MY falling in love with anybody is clearly too ridiculous. But I'm +attracted by her, drawn towards her, fascinated as it were; I feel +a sort of curious spell upon me whenever I look into her deep big +eyes, flashing out upon one with their strange luminousness. It +isn't merely that the Hand has thrown her in my way: that counts +for something, no doubt, but not for everything. Besides, the +Hand doesn't act blindly--nay, rather, acts with supreme wisdom, +surpassing the powers or the comprehension of man. When it threw +Selah Briggs in my way, depend upon it, it was because the Infinite +saw in me something that was specially adapted to her, and in her +something that was specially adapted to me. The instrument is duly +shaped by inscrutable Wisdom for its own proper work. Now, whatever +interests ME in her, must have also interested Herbert in her +equally and for the same reason. We're drawn towards her, clearly; +she exercises over both of us some curious electric power that she +doesn't exercise, presumably, over other people. For Herbert must +have been really in love with her--not that I'm in love with her, +of course; but still, the phenomena are analogous, even if on +a slightly different plane--Herbert must have been really in love +with her, I'm sure, or such a prudent man as he is would never have +let himself get into what he would consider such a dangerous and +difficult entanglement. Yes, clearly, there's something in Selah +Briggs that seems to possess a singular polarity, as Ernest would +call it, for the Le Breton character and individuality! + +'And then, it cuts both ways, too, for Selah was once desperately +in love with Herbert: of that I'm certain. She must have been, to +judge from the mere strength of the final revulsion. She's a girl +of intensely deep passions--I like people to have some depth to +their character, even if it's only in the way of passion--and she'd +never have loved him at all without loving him fervently and almost +wildly: hers is a fervent, wild, indomitable nature. Yes, she was +certainly in love with Herbert; and now, though of course I don't +mean to say she's in love with me (I hope it isn't wrong to think +in this way about an unmarried girl), still I can't help seeing +that I have a certain influence over her in return--that she pays +much attention to what I say and think, considers me a person +worth considering, which she doesn't do, I'm sure, with most other +people. Ah, well, there's a vast deal of truth, no doubt, in these +new hereditary doctrines of Darwin's and Galton's that Herbert +and Ernest talk about so much; a family's a family, that's certain, +not a mere stray collection of casual acquaintances. How the +likeness runs through the very inmost structure of our hearts and +natures! I see in Selah very much what Herbert saw in Selah: Selah +sees in me very much what she saw in Herbert. Extraordinary insight +into human nature men like Darwin and Galton have, to be sure? And +David, too, what a marvellous thinker he was, really! What unfathomed +depths of meaning lie unexpected in that simple sentence of his, +"I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Fearfully and wonderfully, +indeed, when one remembers that from one father and mother Herbert +and I have both been compounded, so unlike in some things that we +scarcely seem to be comparable with one another (look at Herbert's +splendid intellect beside mine!), so like in others that Selah +Briggs--goodness gracious, what am I thinking of? I was just going +to say that Selah Briggs falls in love first with one of us and +then with the other. I do hope and trust it isn't wrong of me to +fill my poor distracted head so much with these odd thoughts about +that unfortunate girl, Selah!' + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE ENVIRONMENT FINALLY TRIUMPHS. + + +Winter had come, and on a bitter cold winter's night, Ernest +Le Breton once more received an unexpected telegram asking him to +hurry down without a moment's delay on important business to the +'Morning Intelligence' office. The telegram didn't state at all +what the business was; it merely said it was urgent and immediate +without in any way specifying its nature. Ernest sallied forth +in some perturbation, for his memories of the last occasion when +the 'Morning Intelligence' required his aid on important business +were far from pleasant ones; but for Edie's sake he felt he must +go, and so he went without a murmur. + +'Sit down, Le Breton,' Mr. Lancaster said slowly when Ernest +entered. 'The matter I want to see you about's a very peculiar one. +I understand from some of my friends that you're a son of Sir Owen +Le Breton, the Indian general.' + +'Yes, I am,' Ernest answered, wondering within himself to what +end this curious preamble could possibly be leading up. If there's +any one profession, he thought, which is absolutely free from the +slightest genealogical interest in the persons of its professors, +surely that particular calling ought to be the profession of +journalism. + +'Well, so I hear, Le Breton. Now, I believe I'm right in saying, +am I not, that it was your father who first subdued and organised +a certain refractory hill-tribe on the Tibetan frontier, known as +the Bodahls, wasn't it?' + +'Quite right,' Ernest replied, with a glimmering idea slowly rising +in his mind as to what Mr. Lancaster was now driving at. + +'Ah, that's good, very good indeed, certainly. Well, tell me, +Le Breton, do you yourself happen to know anything on earth about +these precious insignificant people?' + +'I know all about them,' Ernest answered quickly. 'I've read all +my father's papers and despatches, and seen his maps and plans and +reports in our house at home from my boyhood upward. I know as much +about the Bodahls, in fact, as I know about Bayswater, or Holborn, +or Fleet Street.' + +'Capital, capital,' the editor said, fondling his big hands softly; +'that'll exactly suit us. And could you get at these plans and papers +now, this very evening, just to refresh the gaps in your memory?' + +'I could have them all down here,' Ernest answered, 'at an hour's +notice.' + +'Good,' the editor said again. 'I'll send a boy for them with a +cab. Meanwhile, you'd better be perpending this telegram from our +Simla correspondent, just received. It's going to be the question +of the moment, and we should very much like you to give us a leader +of a full column about the matter.' + +Ernest took the telegram and read it over carefully. It ran in the +usual very abbreviated newspaper fashion: 'Russian agents revolted +Bodahls Tibetan frontier. Advices Peshawur state Russian army +marching on Merv. Bodahls attacked Commissioner, declared independence +British raj.' + +'Will you write us a leader?' the editor asked, simply. + +Ernest drew a long breath. Three guineas! Edie, Dot, an empty +exchequer! If he could only have five minutes to make his mind up! +But he couldn't. After all, what did it matter what he said about +these poor unknown Bodahls? If HE didn't write the leader, somebody +else who knew far less about the subject than he did would be sure +to do it. He wasn't responsible for that impalpable entity 'the +policy of the paper.' Beside the great social power of the 'Morning +Intelligence,' of the united English people, what was he, Ernest +Le Breton, but a miserable solitary misplaced unit? One way or the +other, he could do very little indeed, for good or for evil. After +half a minute's internal struggle, he answered back the editor +faintly, 'Yes, I will.' 'For Edie,' he muttered half audibly to +himself; 'I must do it for dear Edie.' + +'And you'll allow me to make whatever alterations I think necessary +in the article to suit the policy of the paper?' the editor asked +once more, looking through him with his sleepy keen grey eyes. +'You see, Le Breton, I don't want to annoy you, and I know your +own principles are rather peculiar; but of course all we want you +for is just to give us the correct statement of facts about these +outlandish people. All that concerns our own attitude towards them +as a nation falls naturally under the head of editorial matter. +You must see yourself that it's quite impossible for us to let any +one single contributor dictate from his own standpoint the policy +of the paper.' + +Ernest bent his head slowly. 'You're very kind to argue out the +matter with me so, Mr. Lancaster,' he said, trembling with excitement. +'Yes, I suppose I must bury my scruples. I'll write a leader about +these Bodahls, and let you deal with it afterwards as you think +proper.' + +They showed him into the bare little back room, and sent a boy +up with a hastily written note to Ronald for the maps and papers. +There Ernest sat for an hour or two, writing away for very life, +and putting on paper everything that he knew about the poor Bodahls. +By two o'clock, the proofs had all come up to him, and he took +his hat in a shamefaced manner to sally out into the cold street, +where he hoped to hide his rising remorse and agony under cover of +the solitary night. He knew too well what 'the policy of the paper' +would be, to venture upon asking any questions about it. As he +left the office, a boy brought him down a sealed envelope from Mr. +Lancaster. With his usual kindly thoughtfulness the editor had sent +him at once the customary cheque for three guineas. Ernest folded +it up with quivering fingers, and felt the blood burn in his cheeks +as he put it away in his waistcoat pocket. That accursed money! +For it he had that night sold his dearest principles! And yet, not +for it, not for it, not for it--oh, no, not for it, but for Dot +and Edie! + +The boy had a duplicate proof in his other hand, and Ernest saw at +once that it was his own leader, as altered and corrected by Mr. +Lancaster. He asked the boy whether he might see it; and the boy, +knowing it was Ernest's own writing, handed it to him at once +without further question. Ernest did not dare to look at it then +and there for fear he should break down utterly before the boy; he +put it for the moment into his inner pocket, and buttoned his thin +overcoat tightly around him. It was colder still in the frosty air +of early morning, and the contrast to the heated atmosphere of the +printing house struck him with ominous chill as he issued slowly +forth into the silent precincts of unpeopled Fleet Street. + +It was a terrible memorable night, that awful Tuesday; the coldest +night known for many years in any English winter. Snow lay deep upon +the ground, and a few flakes were falling still from the cloudy +sky, for it was in the second week of January. The wind was drifting +it in gusty eddies down the long streets, and driving the drifts +before it like whirling dust in an August storm. Not a cab was to +be seen anywhere, not even a stray hansom crawling home from clubs +or theatres; and Ernest set out with a rueful countenance to walk +as best he might alone through the snow all the way to Holloway. +It is a long and dreary trudge at any time; it seemed very long +and dreary indeed to Ernest Le Breton, with his delicate frame and +weak chest, battling against the fierce wind on a dark and snowy +winter's night, and with the fever of a great anxiety and a great +remorse silently torturing his distracted bosom. At each step he +took through the snow, he almost fancied himself a hunted Bodahl. +Would British soldiers drive those poor savage women and children +to die so of cold and hunger on their snowy hilltops? Would English +fathers and mothers, at home at their ease, applaud the act with +careless thoughtlessness as a piece of our famous spirited foreign +policy? And would his own article, written with his own poor thin +cold fingers in that day's 'Morning Intelligence,' help to spur +them on upon that wicked and unnecessary war? What right had we to +conquer the Bodahls? What right had we to hold them in subjection +or to punish them for revolting? And above all, what right had +he, Ernest Le Breton, upon whose head the hereditary guilt of the +first conquest ought properly to have weighed with such personal +heaviness--what right had he, of all men, directly or indirectly, +to aid or abet the English people in their immoral and inhuman +resolve? Oh, God, his sin was worse than theirs; for they sinned, +thinking they did justly; but as for him, he sinned against the +light; he knew the better, and, bribed by gold, he did the worse. +At that moment, the little slip of printed paper in his waistcoat +pocket seemed to burn through all the frosts of that awful evening +like a chain of molten steel into his very marrow! + +Trudging on slowly through the white stainless snow, step by +step,--snow that cast a sheet of pure white even over the narrow +lanes behind the Farringdon Road,--cold at foot and hot at heart, +he reached at last the wide corner by the Angel at Islington. The +lights in the windows were all out long ago, of course, but the +lamps outside were still flaring brightly, and a solitary policeman +was standing under one of them, trying to warm his frozen hands by +breathing rapidly on the curved and distorted fingers. Ernest was +very tired of his tramp by that time, and emboldened by companionship +he stopped awhile to rest himself in the snow and wind under the +opposite lamplight. Putting his back against the post, he drew the +altered proof of his article slowly out of his inner pocket. It +had a strange fascination for him, and yet he dreaded to look at +it. With an effort, he unfolded it in his stiff fingers, and held +the paper up to the light, regardless of the fact that the policeman +was watching his proceedings with the interest naturally due from +a man of his profession to a suspicious-looking character who +was probably a convicted pickpocket. The first sentence once more +told him the worst. There was no doubt at all about it. The three +guineas in his pocket were the price of blood! + +'The insult to British prestige in the East,' ran that terrible +opening paragraph, 'implied in the brief telegram which we publish +this morning from our own Correspondent at Simla, calls for a speedy +and a severe retribution. It must be washed out in blood.' Blood, +blood, blood! The letters swam before his eyes. It was this, then, +that he, the disciple of peace-loving Max Schurz, the hater of war +and conquest, the foe of unjust British domination over inferior +races--it was this that he had helped to make plausible with his +special knowledge and his ready pen! Oh, heaven, what reparation +could he make for this horrid crime he had knowingly and wilfully +committed? What could he do to avoid the guilt of those poor +savages' blood upon his devoted head? In one moment he thought out +a hundred scenes of massacre and pillage--scenes such as he knew +only too well always precede and accompany the blessings of British +rule in distant dependencies. The temptation had been strong--the +money had been sorely wanted--there was very little food in +the house; but how could he ever have yielded to such a depth of +premeditated wickedness! He folded the piece of paper into his +pocket once more, and buried his face in his hands for a whole +minute. The policeman now began to suspect that he was not so much +a pickpocket as an escaped lunatic. + +And so he was, no doubt. Of course we who are practical men of +the world know very well that all this foolish feeling on Ernest +Le Breton's part was very womanish and weak and overwrought; that +he ought to have done the work that was set before him, asking no +questions for conscience' sake; and that he might honestly have +pocketed the three guineas, letting his supposed duty to a few +naked brown people somewhere up in the Indian hill-country take +care of itself, as all the rest of us always do. But some allowance +must naturally be made for his peculiar temperament and for his +particular state of health. Consumptive people are apt to take a +somewhat hectic view of life in every way; they lack the common-sense +ballast that makes most of us able to value the lives of a few +hundred poor distant savages at their proper infinitesimal figure. +At any rate, Ernest Le Breton, as a matter of fact, rightly or +wrongly, did take this curious standpoint about things in general; +and did then and there turn back through the deep snow, all his +soul burning within him, fired with dire remorse, and filled only +with one idea--how to prevent this wicked article to which he had +contributed so many facts and opinions from getting printed in +to-morrow's paper. True, it was not he who had put in the usual +newspaper platitudes about the might of England, and the insult to +the British flag, and the immediate necessity for a stern retaliation; +but all that vapouring wicked talk (as he thought it) would go +forth to the world fortified by the value of his special facts and +his obviously intimate acquaintance with the whole past history of +the Bodahl people. So he turned back and battled once more with the +wind and snow as far as Fleet Street; and then he rushed excitedly +into the 'Morning Intelligence' office, and asked with the wildness +of despair to see the editor. + +Mr. Lancaster had gone home an hour since, the porter said; but +Mr. Wilks, the sub-editor, was still there, superintending the +printing of the paper, and if Ernest liked, Mr. Wilks would see +him immediately. + +Ernest nodded assent at once, and was forthwith ushered up into Mr. +Wilks's private sanctum. The sub-editor was a dry, grizzly-bearded +man, with a prevailing wolfish greyness of demeanour about his whole +person; and he shook Ernest's proffered hand solemnly, in the dreary +fashion that is always begotten of the systematic transposition of +night and day. + +'For heaven's sake, Mr. Wilks,' Ernest cried imploringly, 'I want +to know whether you can possibly suppress or at least alter my +leader on the Bodahl insurrection!' + +Mr. Wilks looked at him curiously, as one might look at a person +who had suddenly developed violent symptoms of dangerous insanity. +'Suppress the Bodahl leader,' he said slowly like one dreaming. +'Suppress the Bodahl leader! Impossible! Why, it's the largest type +heading in the whole of to-day's paper, is this Bodahl business. +"Shocking Outrage upon a British Commissioner on the Indian +Frontier. Revolt of the Entire Bodahl Tribe. Russian Intrigue +in Central Asia. Dangerous Position of the Viceroy at Simla." Oh, +dear me, no; not to have a leader upon THAT, my dear sir, would be +simply suicidal!' + +'But can't you cut out my part of it, at least,' Ernest said +anxiously. 'Oh, Mr. Wilks, you don't know what I've suffered to-night +on account of this dreadful unmerited leader. It's wicked, it's +unjust, it's abominable, and I can't bear to think that I have had +anything to do with sending it out into the world to inflame the +passions of unthinking people! Do please try to let my part of it +be left out, and only Mr. Lancaster's, at least, be printed.' + +Mr. Wilks looked at him again with the intensest suspicion. + +'A sub-editor,' he answered evasively, 'has nothing at all to do with +the politics of a paper. The editor alone manages that department +on his own responsibility. But what on earth would you have me do? +I can't stop the machines for half an hour, can I, just to let you +have the chance of doctoring your leader? If you thought it wrong +to write it, you ought never to have written it; now it's written +it must certainly stand.' + +Ernest sank into a chair, and said nothing; but he turned so deadly +pale that Mr. Wilks was fain to have recourse to a little brown +flask he kept stowed away in a corner of his desk, and to administer +a prompt dose of brandy and water. + +'There, there,' he said, in the kindest manner of which he was +capable, 'what are you going to do now? You can't be going out +again in this state and in this weather, can you?' + +'Yes, I am,' Ernest answered feebly. 'I'm going to walk home at +once to Holloway.' + +'To Holloway!' the sub-editor said in a tone of comparative +horror. 'Oh! no, I can't allow that. Wait here an hour or two till +the workmen's trains begin running. Or, stay; Lancaster left his +brougham here for me to-night, as I have to be off early to-morrow +on business; I'll send you home in that, and let Hawkins get me a +cab from the mews by order.' + +Ernest made no resistance; and so the sub-editor sent him home at +once in Lancaster's brougham. + +When he got home in the early grey of morning, he found Edie still +sitting up for him in her chair, and wondering what could be +detaining him so long at the newspaper office. He threw himself +wildly at her feet, and, in such broken sentences as he was able +to command, he told her all the pitiful story. Edie soothed him +and kissed him as he went along, but never said a word for good or +evil till he had finished. + +'It was a terrible temptation, darling,' she said softly: 'a terrible +temptation, indeed, and I don't wonder you gave way to it; but we +mustn't touch the three guineas. As you say rightly, it's blood-money.' + +Ernest drew the cheque slowly from his pocket, and held it hesitatingly +a moment in his hand. Edie looked at him curiously. + +'What are you going to do with it, darling?' she asked in a low +voice, as he gazed vacantly at the last dying embers in the little +smouldering fireplace. + +'Nothing, Edie dearest,' Ernest answered huskily, folding it +up and putting it away in the drawer by the window. They neither +of them dared to look the other in the face, but they bad not the +heart to burn it boldly. It was blood-money, to be sure; but three +guineas are really so very useful! + +Four days later, little Dot was taken with a sudden illness. Ernest +and Edie sat watching by her little cradle throughout the night, +and saw with heavy hearts that she was rapidly growing feebler. Poor +wee soul, they had nothing to keep her for: it would be better, +perhaps, if she were gone; and yet, the human heart cannot be stifled +by such calm deliverances of practical reason; it WILL let its hot +emotions overcome the cold calculations of better and worse supplied +it by the unbiassed intellect. + +All night long they sat there tearfully, fearing she would not +live till morning; and in the early dawn they sent round hastily +for a neighbouring doctor. They had no money to pay him with, to +be sure; but that didn't much matter; they could leave it over for +the present, and perhaps some day before long Ernest might write +another social, and earn an honest three guineas. Anyhow, it was +a question of life and death, and they could not help sending for +the doctor, whatever difficulty they might afterwards find in paying +him. + +The doctor came, and looked with the usual professional seriousness +at the baby patient. Did they feed her entirely on London milk? he +asked doubtfully. Yes, entirely. Ah! then that was the sole root +of the entire mischief. She was very dangerously ill, no doubt, +and he didn't know whether he could pull her through anyhow; but +if anything would do it, it was a change to goat's milk. There was +a man who sold goat's milk round the corner. He would show Ernest +where to find him. + +Ernest looked doubtfully at Edie, and Edie looked back again +at Ernest. One thought rose at once in both their minds. They had +no money to pay for it with, except--except that dreadful cheque. +For four days it had lain, burning a hole in Ernest's heart from +its drawer by the window, and he had not dared to change it. Now +he rose without saying a word, and opened the drawer in a solemn, +hesitating fashion. He looked once more at Edie inquiringly; Edie +nodded a faint approval. Ernest, pale as death, put on his hat, +and went out totteringly with the doctor. He stopped on the way +to change the cheque at the baker's where they usually dealt, and +then went on to the goat's milk shop. How that sovereign he flung +upon the counter seemed to ring the knell of his seif-respect! The +man who changed it noticed the strangeness of Ernest's look, and +knew at once he had not come by the money honestly. He rang it twice +to make sure it was good, and then gave the change to Ernest. But +Dot, at least, was saved; that was a great thing. The milk arrived +duly every morning for some weeks, and, after a severe struggle, +Dot grew gradually better. While the danger lasted, neither of +them dared think much of the cheque; but when Dot had got quite +well again, Ernest was concious of a certain unwonted awkwardness +of manner in talking to Edie. He knew perfectly well what it meant; +they were both accomplices in crime together. + +When Ernest wrote his 'social' after Max Schurz's affair, he felt +he had already touched the lowest depths of degradation. He knew +now that he had touched a still lower one. Oh! horrible abyss of +self-abasement!--he had taken the blood-money. And yet, it was to +save Dot's life! Herbert was right, after all: quite right. Yes, +yes, all hope was gone: the environment had finally triumphed. + +In the awful self-reproach of that deadly remorse for the acceptance +of the blood-money, Ernest Le Breton felt at last in his heart +that surely the bitterness of death was past. It would be better +for them all to die together than to live on through such a life of +shame and misery. Ah, Peter, Peter, you are not the only one that +has denied his Lord and Master! + +And yet, Ernest Le Breton had only written part of a newspaper +leader about a small revolt of the Bodahls. And he suffered more +agony for it than many a sensitive man, even, has suffered for the +commission of some obvious crime. + +'I say, Berkeley,' Lancaster droned out in the lobby of their club +one afternoon shortly afterwards, 'what on earth am I ever to do +about that socialistic friend of yours, Le Breton? I can't ever +give him any political work again, you know. Just fancy! first, you +remember, I set him upon the Schurz imprisonment business, and he +nearly went mad then because I didn't back up Schurz for wanting to +murder the Emperor of Russia. After that, just now the other day, +I tried him on the Bodahl business, and hang me if he didn't have +qualms of conscience about it afterwards, and trudge back through +all the snow that awful Tuesday, to see if he couldn't induce Wilks +to stop the press, and let him cut it all out at the last moment! +He's as mad as a March hare, you know, and if it weren't that I'm +really sorry for him I wouldn't go on taking socials from him any +longer. But I will; I'll give him work as long as he'll do it for +me on any terms; though, of course, it's obviously impossible under +the circumstances to let him have another go at politics, isn't +it?' + +'You're really awfully kind, Lancaster,' Berkeley answered warmly. +'No other fellow would do as much for Le Breton as you do. I admit +he's absolutely impracticable, but I would give more than I can +tell you if only I thought he could be made to pull through somehow.' + +'Impracticable!' the editor said shortly, 'I believe you, indeed. +Why, do you remember that ridiculous Schurz business? Well, I sent +Le Breton a cheque for eight guineas for that lot, and can you +credit it, it's remained uncashed from that day to this. I really +think he must have destroyed it.' + +'No doubt,' Arthur answered, with a smile. 'And the Bodahls? What +about them?' + +'Oh! he kept that cheque for a few days uncashed--though I'm sure +he wanted money at the time; but in the end, I'm happy to say, he +cashed it.' + +Arthur's countenance fell ominously. + +'He did!' he said gloomily. 'He cashed it! That's bad news indeed, +then. I must go and see them to-morrow morning early. I'm afraid +they must be at the last pitch of poverty before they'd consent to +do that. And yet, Solomon says, men do not despise a thief if he +steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry. And Le Breton, after +all, has a wife and child to think of.' + +Lancaster stared at him blankly, and turned aside to glance at +the telegrams, saying to himself meanwhile, that all these young +fellows of the new school alike were really quite too incomprehensible +for a sensible, practical man like himself to deal with comfortably. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +DE PROFUNDIS. + + +After all Ernest didn't get many more socials to write for the +'Morning Intelligence,' as it happened; for the war that came on +shortly after crowded such trifles as socials fairly out of all the +papers, and he had harder work than ever to pick up a precarious +living somehow by the most casual possible contributions. Of course +he tried many other channels; but he had few introductions, and then +his views were really so absurdly ultra that no reasonable editor +could ever be expected to put up with them. He got tired at last of +seeing his well-meant papers return to him, morning after morning, +with the unvarying legend, 'Declined with thanks;' and he might have +gone to the wall utterly but for the kindly interest which Arthur +Berkeley still took in his and Edie's future. On the very day +after his conversation with Lancaster at the club Arthur dropped +round casually at Holloway, and brought with him a proposal which +he said had just been made him by a colonial newsagent. It was a +transparent little ruse enough; but Ernest and Edie were not learned +in the ways of the world and did not suspect it so readily as older +and wiser heads might probably have done. Would Ernest supply a +fortnightly letter, to go by the Australian mail, to the Paramatta +'Chronicle and News,' containing London political and social gossip +of a commonplace kind--just the petty chit-chat he could pick up +easily out of 'Truth' and the 'World'--for the small sum of thirty +shillings a letter? + +Yes, Ernest thought he could manage that. + +Very well, then. The letter must be sent on alternate Wednesdays +to the colonial newsagent's address, and it would be duly forwarded +by mail to the office of the Paramatta 'Chronicle.' A little +suspicious, that item, Berkeley thought, but Ernest swallowed it +like a child and made no comment. It must be addressed to 'Paramatta, +care of Lane & Co.,' and the payments would be made fortnightly +through the same agency. Arthur watched his friend's face narrowly +at this point again; but Ernest in his simple-minded, unsuspecting +wasy, never noticed the obvious meaning of this little deception. +He thanked Arthur over and over again for his kindness, but he +never guessed how far it extended. The letters kept him employed +for two days a week, or thereabouts, and though they never got +to Paramatta, nor any farther than Arthur Berkeley's own study in +the little house he had taken for himself at Chelsea, they were +regularly paid for through the colonial newsagents, by means of +a cheque which really owed its ultimate origin to Arthur Berkeley +himsslf. Fifteen shillings a week is not a large fortune, certainly; +but still it is considerably better than nothing, when you come to +try both methods of living by practical experience. + +Even so, however, Ernest and Edie had a hard struggle, with their +habits of life and Ernest's delicate health, to make both ends meet +upon that modest income. They found the necessity for recourse to +the imaginary pawnbroker growing upon them with alarming rapidity; +and though the few small articles that they sent out for that purpose +never really went beyond kind Mrs. Halliss's kitchen dresser, yet +so far as Ernest and Edie were concerned, the effect was much the +same as if they had been really pledged to the licensed broker. +The good woman hid them away carefully in the back drawers of the +dresser, sending up as much money for the poor little trinkets as +she thought it at all credible that any man in his senses could +possibly advance--if she had given altogether too much, she thought +it probable that even the unsuspicious Le Bretons would detect the +kindly deception--at the time remarking to John that 'if ever them +pore dear young creechurs was able to redeem 'em again, why, well +an' good; an' if not, why, they could just find some excuse to +give 'em back to the dear lady after pore Mr. Le Breting was dead +an' gone, as he must be, no doubt, afore many months was over.' +What wretched stuff that is that some narrow-minded cynics love +to talk, after their cheap moralising fashion, about the coldness +and cruelty of the world! The world is not cold and cruel; it is +brimming over everywhere with kindliness and warmth of heart; and +you have only got to put yourself into the proper circumstances +in order to call forth at once on every hand, and in all classes, +its tenderest and truest sympathies. None but selfish, unsympathetic +people themselves ever find it otherwise in the day of trouble. It +is not the world that is cold and heartless--it is not the individual +members of the world that are cruel and unkind--it is the relentless +march of circumstances--the faulty organisation which none of us +can control, and for which none of us is personally responsible, +that grinds us to powder under its Juggernaut wheels. Private +kindliness is for ever trying, feebly and unsuccessfully, but with +its best efforts, to undo the evil that general mismanagement is +for ever perpetrating in its fateful course. + +One day, a few weeks later, Arthur Berkeley called in again, and on +the stairs he met a child playing--a neighbour's child whom good +Mrs. Halliss allowed to come in and amuse herself while the mother +went out charing. The girl had a bright gold object in her hand; +and Arthur, wondering how she came by it, took it from her and +looked at it curiously. He recognised it in a moment for what it +was--a gold bracelet, a well remembered gold bracelet--the very +one that he himself had given as a wedding present to poor Edie. +He turned it over and looked closely at the inside: cut into the +soft gold he saw the one word 'Frustra,' that he himself had carved +into it with his penknife the night before the memorable wedding. + +'Where did you get this?' he asked the child. + +'Mrs. 'Alliss give it me,' the little one answered, beginning to +cry. + +Arthur ran lightly down the steps again, and knocked at the door of +Mrs. Halliss's kitchen, with the tell-tale bracelet in his hand. +Mrs. Halliss opened the dcor to him respectfully, and after a faint +attempt at innocent prevarication, felt bound to let out all the +pitiful little secret without further preamble. So Arthur, good, +kind-hearted, delicate-souled Arthur, took his seat sadly upon one +of the hard wooden kitchen chairs, and waited patiently while Mrs. +Halliss and honest John, in their roundabout inarticulate fashion, +slowly unfolded the story how them two pore young creechurs upstairs +had been druv that low through want of funs that Mrs. Le Breting, +God bless 'er 'eart, 'ad 'ad to pawn her poor little bits of +jewelry and such like: and how they 'adn't 'ad the face to go an' +pawn it for her, and so 'ad locked it up in their drawers, and +waited hopefully for better times. Arthur listened to all this with +an aching heart, and went home alone to ponder on the best way of +still further assisting them. + +The only thing that occurred to him was a plan for giving Edie, +too, a little relief, in the way of what she might suppose to be +money-getting occupation. She used to paint a little in water-colours, +he remembered, in the old days; so he put an advertisement in a +morning paper, which he got Mrs. Halliss to show Edie, asking for +drawings of orchids, the flowers to be supplied and accurately copied +by an amateur at a reasonable price. Edie fell into the harmless +friendly trap readily enough, and was duly supplied with orchids by +a florist in Regent Street, who professed to receive his instructions +from the advertiser. The pictures were all produced in due time, +and were sent to a fixed address, where a gentleman in a hansom used +to call for them at regular intervals. Arthur Berkeley kept those +poor little water-colours long afterwards locked up in a certain +drawer all by themselves: they were sacred mementoes to him of that +old hopeless love for the little Miss Butterfly of his Oxford days. + +With the very first three guineas that Edie earned, carefully +saved and hoarded out of her payments for the water-colours, she +insisted in the pride of her heart that Ernest should go and visit +a great London consulting physician. Sir Antony Wraxall was the +best specialist in town on the subject of consumption, she had heard, +and she was quite sure so clever a man must do Ernest a great deal +of good, if he didn't even permanently cure him. + +'It's no use, Edie darling,' Ernest said to her imploringly. 'You'll +only be wasting your hard-earned money. What I want is not advice +or medicine; I want what no doctor on earth can possibly give +me--relief from this terrible crushing responsibility.' + +But Edie would bear no refusal. It was HER money, she said, the +first she had ever earned in her whole life, and she should certainly +do as she herself liked with it. Sir Antony Wraxall, she was quite +confident, would soon be able to make him better. + +So Ernest, overborne by her intreaties, yielded at last, and made +an appointment with Sir Antony Wraxall. He took his quarter-hour in +due form, and told the great physician all his symptoms as though +he believed in the foolish farce. Sir Antony held his head solemnly +on one side, weighed him with puritanical scrupulosity to a quarter +of an ounce on his delicate balance, listened attentively at the +chest with his silver-mounted stethoscope, and perpended the net +result of his investigation with professional gravity; then he gave +Edie his full advice and opinion to the maximum extent of five +minutes. + +'Your husband's case is not a hopeful one, Mrs. Le Breton,' he said +solemnly, 'but still, a great deal may be done for him.' Edie's face +brightened visibly. 'With care, his life may be prolonged for many +years,--I may even say, indeed, quite indefinitely.' Edie smiled +with joy and gratitude. 'But you must strictly observe my rules +and directions--the same that I've just given in a similar case to +the Crown Prince of Servia who was here before you. In the first +place, your husband must give up work altogether. He must be +content to live perfectly and absolutely idle. Then, secondly, he +must live quite away from England. I should recommend the Engadine +in summer, and Algeria or the Nile trip every winter; but, if that's +beyond your means--and I understand from Mr. Le Breton that you're +in somewhat straitened circumstances--I don't object to Catania, +or Malaga, or even Mentone and the Riviera. You can rent furnished +villas for very little on the Riviera. But he must in no case come +farther north, even in summer, than the Lake of Geneva. That, I +assure you, is quite indispensable, if he wishes to live another +twelvemonth. Take him south at once, in a coupe-lit of course, and +break the journey once or twice at Lyons and Marseilles. Next, as +to diet, he must live generously--very generously. Don't let him +drink claret; claret's poor sour stuff; a pint of good champagne +daily, or a good, full-bodied, genial vintage Burgundy would be +far better and more digestible for him. Oysters, game, sweetbreads, +red mullet, any little delicacy of that sort as much as possible. +Don't let him walk; let him have carriage exercise daily; you can +hire carriages for a mere trifle monthly at Cannes and Mentone. +Above all things, give him perfect freedom from anxiety. Allow him +to concentrate his whole attention on the act of getting well, +and you'll find he'll improve astonishingly in no time. But if you +keep him here in England and feed him badly and neglect my directions, +I can't answer for his getting through another winter....Don't +disturb yourself, I beg of you; don't, pray, give way to tears; +there is really no occasion for it, my dear madam, no occasion for +it at all, if you'll only do as I tell you....Quite right, thank +you. Good morning.--Next case, McFarlane.--Good morning. Good +morning.' + +So that was the end of weeping little Edie's poor hardly-spared +three guineas. + +The very next day Arthur Berkeley happened to mount the stairs +quietly, at an earlier hour than usual, and knocked at the door +of Ernest's lodging. There was no answer, so he turned the handle, +and entered by himself. The remains of breakfast lay upon the +table. Arthur did not want to spy, but he couldn't help remarking +that these remains were extremely meagre and scanty. Half a loaf +of bread stood upon a solitary plate in the centre; a teapot and +two cups occupied one side; and--that was all. In spite of himself, +he couldn't restrain his curiosity, and he looked more closely at +the knives and plates. Not a mark of anything but crumbs upon them, +not even butter! He looked into the cups. Nothing but milkless +tea at the bottom! Yes, the truth was only too evident; they had +had no meat for breakfast, no butter, no milk, no sugar; it was +quite clear that the meal had consisted entirely of dry bread with +plain tea--call it hot water--and that for a dying man and a delicate +over-worked lady! Arthur looked at that pitiable breakfast-table with +a twinge of remorse, and the tears rose sharply and involuntarily +into his eyes. He had not done enough for them, then; he had not +done enough for them. + +Poor little Miss Butterfly! and had it really come to this! You, +so bright, so light, so airy, in want, in positive want, in hunger +even, with your good, impossible, impracticable Ernest! Had it +come to this! Bread and water; dry bread and water! Down tears, +down; a man must be a man; but, oh, what a bitter sight for Arthur +Berkeley! And yet, what could he do to mend it? Money they would +not take; he dare not even offer it; and he was at his wit's end +for any other contrivance for serving them without their knowledge. +He must do what he could; but how he was to do it, he couldn't +imagine. + +As he stood there, ruminating bitterly over that poor bare table, +he thought he heard sounds above, as of Edie coming downstairs +with Dot on her shoulder. He knew she would not like to know that +he had surprised the secret of their dire poverty; and he turned +silently and cautiously to descend the stair. There was only just +time enough to get away, for Edie was even then opening the door +of the nursery. Noiselessly, with cat-like tread, he crept down +the steps once more, and heard Edie descending, and singing as she +came down to Dot. It was a plaintive little song, in a sad key--a +plaintive little song of his own--but not wholly distressful, +Arthur thought; she could still sing, then, to her baby! With the +hot tears rising a second time to his eyes, he groped his way to +the foot of the staircase. There he brushed them hurriedly aside +with his hand, and turned out into the open street. The children +were playing and tumbling in the sun, and a languid young man +in a faultless frock coat and smooth silk hat was buying a showy +button-hole flower from the little suburban florist's opposite. + +With a heavy heart Arthur Berkeley turned homeward to his own cosy +little cottage; that modest palace of art which he had once hoped +little Miss Butterfly might have shared with him. He went up the +steps, and turned quickly into his own small study. The Progenitor +was there, sitting reading in an easy-chair. 'At least,' Arthur +thought to himself, 'I have made HIS old age happy. If I could only +do as much for little Miss Butterfly! for little Miss Butterfly! +for little Miss Butterfly! If I could only do as much for her, oh, +how happy and contented I should be!' + +He flung himself down on his own sofa, and brushed big eyes nervously +with his handkerchief before he dared lookup again towards the +Progenitor. 'Father,' he said, clutching his watchchain hard and +playing with it nervously to keep down his emotion, 'I'm afraid +those poor Le Bretons are in an awfully bad way. I'm afraid, do you +know, that they actually haven't enough to eat! I went into their +rooms just now, and, would you believe it, I found nothing on the +table for breakfast but dry bread and tea!' + +The Progenitor looked up quietly from the volume of Morley's 'Voltaire' +which he was at that moment placidly engaged in devouring. 'Nothing +but dry bread and tea,' he said, in what seemed to Arthur a horribly +unconcerned tone. 'Really, hadn't they? Well, I dare say they ARE +very badly off, poor people. But after all, you know, Artie, they +can't be really poor, for Le Breton told me himself he was generally +earning fifteen shillings or a pound a week, and that, you see, is +really for three people a very good income, now isn't it?' + +Arthur, delicate-minded, gentle, chivalrous Arthur, gazed in surprise +and sudden distress at that dear, good, unselfish old father of +his. How extraordinary that the kindly old man couldn't grasp the +full horror of the situation! How strange that he, who would himself +have been so tender, so considerate, so womanly in his care and +sympathy towards anything that seemed to him like real poverty +or real suffering, should have been so blinded by his long hard +workingman life towards the peculiar difficulties and trials of +classes other than his own as not to recognise the true meaning of +that dreadful disclosure! Arthur was not angry with him--he felt +too fully at that moment what depths of genuine silent hardship +uncomplainingly endured were implied in the stoically calm frame +of mind which could treat Edie Le Breton's penury of luxuries as +a comparatively slight matter: after all, his father was right at +bottom; such mere sentimental middle-class poverty is as nothing +to the privations of the really poor; yet he could not help feeling +a little disappointed for all that. He wanted sympathy in his +pity, and he could clearly expect none here. 'Why, father,' he +cried bitterly, 'you don't throw yourself into the position as you +ought to do. A pound a week, paid regularly, would be a splendid +income of course for people brought up like you or me. But just +consider how those two young people have been brought up! Consider +their wants and their habits! Consider the luxury they have been +accustomed to! And then think of their being obliged to want now +almost for food in their last extremity!' + +His father answered in the same quiet tone--not hardly, but calmly, +as though he were discussing a problem in political economy instead +of the problem of Edie Le Breton's happiness--'Well, you see, it's +all a matter of the standard of comfort. These two friends of yours +have been brought up above their future; and now that they're got +to come down to their natural level, why, of course, they feel it, +depend upon it, they feel it. Their parents, of course, shouldn't +have accustomed them to a style of life above their station. Good +dry bread, not too stale, does nobody any harm: still, I dare say +they don't like coming down to it. But bless your heart, Artie, +if you'd seen the real want and poverty that I've seen, my boy--the +actual hunger and cold and nakedness that I've known honest working +people brought down to by no work, and nothing but the House open +before them, or not that even, you wouldn't think so much of the +sentimental grievances of people who are earning fifteen shillings +a week in ease and comfort.' + +'But, Father,' Arthur went on, scarcely able to keep down the +rising tone of indignation at such seeming heartlessness, 'Ernest +doesn't earn even that always. Sometimes he earns nothing, or next +to nothing; and it's the uncertainty and insecurity that tells +upon them even more than the poverty itself. Oh, Father, Father, +you who have always been so good and kind, I never heard you speak +so cruelly about anyone before as you're speaking now about that +poor, friendless, helpless, penniless, heart-broken little woman!' + +The old shoemaker caught at the word suddenly, and looking him +through and through with an unexpected gleam of discovery, laid +down the life of Voltaire on the table with a bang, and sat straight +upright in his chair, nodding his head, and muttering slowly to +himself, 'Little woman--he said "little woman!" Poor Artie, Poor +Artie!' in a tone of inexpressible pity. At last he turned to Arthur +and cried with a voice of womanly tenderness, 'My boy, my boy, I +didn't know before it was the lassie you were thinking of; I thought +it was only poor young Le Breton. I see it all now; I've surprised +your secret; you've let it out to me without knowing it. Oh, Artie, +if that's She, I'm sorry for her, and I'm sorry for you, my boy, +from the bottom of my heart. If that's She, Artie, we'll put our +heads together, and see what plan we can manage to save her from +what she has never been accustomed to. Don't think too hardly of +your old Progenitor, Artie; he hasn't mixed with these people all +his life, and learned to sympathise with them as you've done, my +son; he doesn't understand them or know their troubles as you do: +but if that's her that you told me about one day, we shall find the +means to make her happy and comfortable yet, if we have to starve +for it. Dear Arthur, do not think I could be harsh or unfeeling +for a moment to the woman that you ever once in passing fixed your +heart upon. Let's talk it over and think it over, and sooner or +later we'll surely find the way to accomplish it.' + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +PRECONTRACT OF MARRIAGE. + + +Whether Ronald Le Breton's abstruse speculations on the theory of +heredity were well founded or not, it certainly did happen, at any +rate, that the more he saw of Selah Briggs the better he liked her; +and the more Selah saw of him the better she liked him in return. +Curiously enough, too, Selah did actually recognise in him what +he fancied he recognised in himself, that part of his brother's +nature (not all wholly assumed) which was just what Selah had +first been drawn to admire in Herbert himself. It wasn't merely +the originality of his general point of view: it was something more +deep-seated and undefinable than that--in a word, his idiosyncrasy. +Selah Briggs, with her peculiar fiery soul and rebellious nature, +found in both the Le Bretons something that seemed at once to satisfy +her wants, to fulfil her desires, to saturate her affinities: and +with Ronald, as with Herbert before, she was conscious of a certain +awe and respect which was all the more pleasant to her because +her untamed spirit had never felt anything like it with any other +human being. She didn't understand them, and she didn't want to +understand them: that constituted just the very charm of their +whole personality to her peculiar fancy. All the other people she +had ever met were as transparent as glass, for good or for evil; +she could see through all their faults and virtues as easily as +one sees through a window: the Le Bretons were to her inscrutable, +novel, incomprehensible, inexplicable, and she prized them for +their very inscrutability. And so it came to pass, that almost by +a process of natural and imperceptible transference, she passed on +at last to Ronald's account very much the same intensity of feeling +that she had formerly felt towards his brother Herbert. + +But at the same time, Selah never for a moment let him see it. She +was too proud to confess now that she could ever love another man: +the Mr. Walters she had once believed in had never, never, never +existed: and she would raise no other idol in future to take the +place of that vanished ideal. She was grateful to Ronald, and even +fond of him: but that was all-outwardly at least. She never let him +see, by word or act, that in her heart of hearts she was beginning +to love him. And yet Ronald instinctively knew it. He himself +could not have told you why; but he knew it. Even a woman cannot +hide a secret from a man with that peculiarly penetrating intuitive +temperament which belongs to sensitive, delicate types like Ronald +Le Breton's. + +One Sunday evening, when Selah had been spending a few hours at +Edie's lodgings (Ronald always made it an excuse for finding them +a supper, on the ground that Selah was really his guest, though he +could not conveniently ask her to his own rooms), he walked home +towards Notting Hill with Selah; and as they crossed the Regent's +Park, he took the opportunity to say something to her that he had +had upon his mind for a few weeks past, in some vague, indefinite, +half-unconscious fashion. + +'Selah,' he began, a little timidly, 'don't you think it's very +probable we shan't have Ernest here much longer with us?' + +'I'm afraid it is, Ronald,' Selah answered. She had got quite +accustomed now to calling him Ronald. With such a poor, weak, sickly +fellow as that, why really, after all, it did not much matter. + +'Well, Selah,' Ronald went on, gravely, his eyes filling with +tears as he spoke, 'in that case, you know, I can't think what's +to become of poor Edie. It's a dreadful contingency to talk about, +Selah, and I can't bear talking about it; but we MUST face these +things, however terrible, mustn't we? and in this case one's +absolutely bound to face it for poor Edie's sake as well as for +Ernest's. Selah, she must have a home to go to, when dear Ernest's +taken from us.' + +'I'm very sorry for her, Ronald,' Selah answered, with unusual +softness of manner, 'but I really don't see how a home can possibly +be provided for her.' + +'I do,' Ronald answered, more calmly; 'and for their sakes, Selah, +I want you to help me in trying to provide it.' + +'How?' Selah asked, looking up in his face curiously, as they passed +into a ray of lamplight. + +'Listen, Selah, and I'll tell you. Why, by marrying me.' + +'Never?' Selah answered, firmly, and with a decided tinge of the old +Adam in her trembling voice. 'Never, Ronald! Never, never, never!' + +'Wait a minute, Selah,' Ronald pleaded, 'till you've heard the +end of what I have to say to you. Consider that when dear Ernest's +gone (oh! Selah, you must excuse me; it makes me cry so to think +of it), there'll be nowhere on earth for poor little Edie and Dot +to go to.' + +'Did ever a man propose to a girl so extraordinarily in all this +world,' Selah thought to herself, angrily. 'He actually expects me +to marry him in order to provide a home for his precious sister-in-law. +That's really carrying unselfishness a step too far, I call it.' + +'Edie couldn't come and live with me, of course,' Ronald went on, +quickly, 'if I were a bachelor; but if I were married, why then, +naturally, she and Dot could come and live with us; and she could +earn a little money somehow, no doubt; and, at any rate, it'd be +better for her than starvation.' + +Selah stopped a minute, and tapped the hard ground two or three +times angrily with the point of her umbrella. 'And me, Ronald?' +she said in a curious defiant voice. 'And ME? I suppose you've +forgotten all about ME. You don't ask me to marry you because +you love me; you don't ask me whether I love you or not; you only +propose to me that I should quietly turn domestic housekeeper for +Mrs. Ernest Le Breton. And for my part, I answer you plainly, once +for all, that I'm not going to do it--no, never, never, never!' + +She spoke haughtily, flashing her eyes at him in the fierce old +fashion, and Ronald was almost frightened at the angry intensity +of her contemptuous gestures. 'Selah,' he cried, trying to take +her hand, which she tore away from him hurriedly: 'Selah, you +misunderstand me. I only approached the subject that way because +I didn't want to seem overweening and presumptuous. It's a very +great piece of vanity, it seems to me, for any man to ask a woman +whether she loves him. I'm too conscious of all my own faults and +failings, Selah, to venture upon asking you ever to love me; but +I do love you, Selah, I'm sure I do love you; and I hoped, I somehow +fancied--it may have been mere fancy, but I DID imagine--that I +detected, I can't say how, that you did really love me, too, just +a very very little. Oh, Selah, it's because I really love you that +I ask you whether you'll marry me, such as I am; I know I'm a poor +sort of person to marry, but I ventured to hope you might love me +just a little for all that.' + +He looked so frail and gentle as he stood there pleading in the +pale moonlight, that Selah could have taken him to her bosom then +and there and fondled him as one would pet a sick child, for pure +womanliness; but the devil in her blood kept her from doing it, and +she answered haughtily, instead: 'Ronald, if you wanted to marry +me, you ought to have asked me for my own sake. Now that you've +asked me for another's, you can't expect me to give you an answer. +Keep your money, my poor boy; you'll want it all for you and her +hereafter; don't go sharing it and spending it on perfect strangers +such as me. And don't go talking to me again about this business +as long as your sister-in-law is unprovided for. I'm not going to +take the bread out of her mouth, and I'm not going to marry a man +who doesn't utterly and entirely love me.' + +'But I do,' Ronald answered, earnestly; 'I do, Selah; I love you +truly and faithfully from the very bottom of my heart.' + +'Leave off, Roland,' Selah said in the same angry tone. 'If you +ever talk to me of this again, I give you my word of honour about +it, I'll never speak another word to you.' + +And Ronald, who deeply respected the sanctity of a promise, were +it only a threat, bided his time, and said no more about it for +the present. + +Next day, as Ronald sat reading in his own rooms, he was much +surprised at hearing a well-known voice at the door, inquiring +with some asperity whether Mr. Le Breton was at home. He listened +to the voice in intense astonishment. It was his mother's. + +'Ronald,' Lady Le Breton began, the moment she had been shown into +his little sitting-room, 'I didn't think, after your undutiful, +ungrateful conduct--with that abominable woman, too--that I should +ever have come to see you, unless you came first, as you ought +clearly to do, and begged my pardon penitently for your disgraceful +behaviour. It's hard, I know, to acknowledge oneself in the wrong, +but every Christian ought to be above vindictiveness and obstinate +self-will; and I expect you, therefore, sooner or later, to come +and ask forgiveness for your dreadful unkindness to me. Till then, +as I said, I didn't expect to call upon you in any way. But I've +felt compelled to-day to come and speak to you about a matter +of duty, and as a matter of duty strictly I regard it, not as any +relaxation of my just attitude of indignant expectancy towards +yourself; no parent ought rightly to overlook such conduct as +yours on the part of a son.' Ronald inclined his head respectfully. +'Well, what I've come to speak to you about to-day, Ronald, is +about your poor misguided brother Ernest. He, too, as you know, +has behaved very badly to me.' + +'No,' Ronald answered stoutly, without further note or comment. +Where the matter touched himself only he could maintain a decent +silence, but where it touched poor dying Ernest he couldn't possibly +restrain himself, even from a sense of filial obligation. + +'Very badly to me,' Lady Le Breton went on sternly, without in any +way noticing the brief interruption, 'and I can't, of course, go +to see him either, especially not as I should by so doing expose +myself to meeting the person whom he has chosen to make his wife. +Still, as I hear that Ernest a in a very serious or even dangerous +condition----' + +'He's dying,' Ronald answered, the quick tears once more finding +the easy road to his eyes as usual. + +'I considered, as a mother, it was my duty to warn him to take a +little thought about his soul.' + +'His soul!' Ronald exclaimed in astonishment. 'Ernest's soul! Why, +mother, dear Ernest has no need to look after his soul. He doesn't +take that sordid, petty, limited view of our relations with +eternity, and of our relations with the Infinite, which makes them +all consist of the miserable, selfish, squalid desire to save our +own poor personal little souls at all hazards. Ernest has something +better and nobler to think of, I can assure you, than such a mere +self-centred idea as that.' + +'Ronald!' Lady Breton exclaimed, drawing herself up with much +dignity; 'how on earth you, who have always pretended to be a +religious person, can utter such a shocking and wicked sentiment +as that, really passes my comprehension. What in the world is +religion for, I should like to know, if it isn't to teach us how +to save our own souls? But the particular thing I want to speak +to you about is just this: couldn't you manage to induce Ernest to +see the Archdeacon a little, and let the Archdeacon speak to him +about his deplorable spiritual condition? I thought about you both +so much at church yesterday, when the dear Archdeacon was preaching +such a beautiful sermon; his text was like this, as far as I can +remember it. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but +the end thereof are the ways of death." I couldn't help thinking +all the time of my own two poor rebellious boys, and of the path +that their misguided notions were leading them on. For I believe +Ernest does really somehow persuade himself that he's in the +right--it's inconceivable, but it's the fact; and I'm afraid the end +thereof will be the ways of death; and then, as the dear Archdeacon +said, "After death the judgment." Oh, Ronald, when I think of your +poor dear brother Ernest's open unbelief, it makes me tremble for +his future, so that I couldn't rest upon my bed until I'd been to +see you and urged you to go and try to save him.' + +'Mother,' Ronald said with that tone in which he was well accustomed +to answering Lady Le Breton's religious harangues; 'I don't think +you need feel any uneasiness whatever on dear Ernest's account, +so far as all that's concerned. What does HE want with saving +his soul, mother? "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it." +Remember what is written: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, +Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."' + +'But, Ronald,' Lady Le Breton continued, half angrily, 'consider +his unbelief, his dreadful opinions, his errors of doctrine! How +on earth can we be happy about him when we think of those?' + +'I don't think, Mother,' Ronald answered gently, 'that Infinite +Justice and Infinite Love take much account of a man's opinions. +They take account of his life and soul only, not of the correctness +of his propositions in dogmatic theology; "Other sheep have I which +are not of this fold--them also must I bring."' + +'It seems to me, Ronald,' Lady Le Breton rejoined coldly, 'that +you don't in the least care for whatever is most distinctive and +characteristic in the whole of Christian doctrine. You talk so +very very differently on religious subjects from that dear, good, +excellent Archdeacon.' + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE. + + +Lady Hilda Tregellis rang the bell resolutely. 'I shall have no +more nonsense about it,' she said to herself in her most decisive +and determined manner. 'Whether mamma wishes it or not, I shall go +and see them this very day without another word upon the subject.' + +The servant answered the bell and stood waiting for his orders by +the doorway. + +'Harris, will you tell Jenkins at once that I shall want +the carriage at half-past eleven?' + +'Yes, my lady.' + +'All right then. That'll do. Don't stand staring at me there like +an image, but go this minute and do as I tell you.' + +'Beg pardon, my lady, but her ladyship said she wanted the carriage +herself at twelve puncshual.' + +'She can't have it, then, Harris. That's all. Go and give my message +to Jenkins at once, and I'll settle about the carriage with my lady +myself.' + +'She's the rummest young lady ever I come across,' the man murmured +to himself in a dissatisfied fashion, as he went down the stairs +again: 'but there, it's none of my business, thank goodness. The +places and the people she does go and hunt up when she's got the +fit on are truly ridic'lous: blest if she didn't acshally make Mr. +Jenkins drive her down into Camberwell the other mornin', to see +'ow the poor lived, she said; as if it mattered tuppence to us in +our circles of society 'ow the poor live. I wonder what little game +she's up to now? Well, well, what the aristocracy is coming to in +these days is more'n I can fathom, as sure as my name's William +'Arris.' + +The little game that Lady Hilda was up to that morning was one that +a gentleman in Mr. Harris's position was certainly hardly like to +appreciate or sympathise with. + +The evening before, she had met Arthur Berkeley once more at a small +At Home, and had learned from him full particulars as to the dire +straits into which the poor Le Bretons had finally fallen. Now, +Hilda Tregellis was a kind-hearted girl at bottom, and when she +heard all about it, she said at once to Arthur, 'I shall go and +see them myself to-morrow, Mr. Berkeley, whether mamma allows me +or not.' + +'What good will it do?' Arthur had answered her quickly. 'You +can't find work for poor Le Breton, can you? and of course if you +can't do that you can be of no earthly use in any way to the poor +creatures.' + +'I don't know about that,' Hilda responded warmly. 'Sympathy's +always something, isn't it, Mr. Berkeley? Nobody ought to know that +better than you do. Besides, there's no saying when one may happen +to turn up useful. Of course, I've never been of the slightest use +to anybody in all my life, myself, I know, and I dare say I never +shall be, but at least there's no harm in trying, is there? I'm on +speaking terms with such an awful lot of people, all of them rich +and many of them influential--Parliament, and Government offices, +and all that sort of nonsense, you know--people who have no end +of things to give away, and can't tell who on earth they'd better +give them to, for fear of offending all the others, that I might +possibly hear of something or other.' + +'I'm afraid, Lady Hilda,' Berkeley answered smiling, 'none of those +people would have anything to offer that could possibly be of the +slightest use to poor Le Breton. If he's to be saved at all, he +must be saved in his own time and by his own methods. For my own +part, I don't see what conceivable chance of success in life there +is left for him. You can't imagine a man like him making money +and living comfortably. It's a tragedy--all the dramas of real life +always ARE tragedies; but I'm terribly afraid there's no conceivable +way out of it.' + +Lady Hilda only looked at him with bold good humour. 'Nonsense,' +she said bravely. 'All pure rubbishing pessimistic nonsense. (I +hope pessimistic's the right word--it's a very good word, anyhow, +even if it isn't in the proper place.) Well, I don't agree with you +at all about this question, Mr. Berkeley. I'm very fond of Mr. Le +Breton, really very fond of him; and I believe there's a corner +somewhere for every man if only he can jog down properly into his +own corner instead of being squeezed forcibly into somebody else's. +The worst of it is, all the holes are round, and Mr. Le Breton's +a square man, I allow: he wants all the angles cutting down off +him.' + +'But you can't cut them off; that's the very trouble,' Arthur answered, +with just a faint rising suspicion that he was half jealous of the +interest Hilda showed even in poor lonely Ernest Le Breton. Gracious +heavens! could he be playing false at last to the long-cherished +memory of little Miss Butterfly? could he be really beginning to +fall just a little in love, after all, with this bold beautiful +Lady Hilda Tregellis? He didn't know, and yet he somehow hardly +liked himself to think it. And while Edie was still so poor too! + +'No, you can't cut them off; I know that perfectly well,' Hilda +rejoined quickly. 'I wouldn't care twopence for him if I thought +you could. It's the angles that give him all his charming delicious +originality. But you can look out a square hole for him somewhere, +you know, and that of course would be a great deal better. Depend +upon it, Mr. Berkeley, there are square holes up and down in the +world, if only we knew where to look for them; and the mistake +that everybody has made in poor Mr. Le Breton's case has been that +instead of finding one to suit him, they've gone on trying to poke +him down anyhow by main force into one of the round ones. That +goes against the grain, you know; besides which I call it a clear +waste of the very valuable solid mahogany corners.' + +Arthur Berkeley looked at her silently for a moment, as if a gleam +of light had burst suddenly in upon him. Then he said to her slowly +and deliberately, 'Perhaps you're right, Lady Hilda, though I never +thought of it quite in that light before. But one thing certainly +strikes me now, and that is that you're a great deal cleverer after +all than I ever thought you.' + +Lady Hilda made a little mock curtsey. 'It's very good of you to +say so,' she answered, half-saucily. 'Only the compliment is rather +double-edged, you must confess, because it implies that up to now +you've had a dreadfully low opinion of my poor little intelligence.' + +So after that conversation Lady Hilda made up her mind that she +would certainly go the very next day and call as soon as possible +upon Edie Le Breton. Nobody could tell what good might possibly +come of it; but at least there could come no harm. And so, when the +carriage drew up it the door at half-past eleven, Hilda Tregellis +stepped into it with a vague consciousness of an important mission, +and ordered Jenkins to drive at once to the side street in Holloway, +whose address Arthur Berkeley had last night given her. Jenkins +touched his hat with mechanical respect, but inwardly wondered what +the dickens my lady would think if only she came to know of these +'ere extrornary goin's on. + +At the door of the lodgings Hilda alighted and rang the bell herself. +Good Mrs. Halliss opened the door, and answered quickly that Mrs. +Le Breton was at home. Her woman's eye detected at once the coronet +on the carriage, and she was ready to burst with delight when the +tall visitor handed her a card for Edie, bearing the name of Lady +Hilda Tregellis. It was almost the first time that Edie had had +any lady callers; certainly the first time she had had any of such +social distinction; and Mrs. Halliss made haste to usher her up in +due form, and then ran down hastily to communicate the good news +to honest John, who in his capacity of past coachman was already +gazing out of the area window with deep interest at the carriage +and horses. + +'There, John dear,' she cried, with tears of joy in her eyes, +forgetting in her excitement to drat the man for not being in the +back kitchen, 'to think that we should see a carriage an' pair like +that there a-drawin' up in front of out own very 'ouse, and Lady +'Ilder Tergellis, or summat o' the sort, a-comin' 'ere to see that +dear little lady in the parlour, why, it's enough to make one's +'eart burst, nearly, just you see now if it reelly isn't. You could +a' knocked me down with a feather, a'most, when that there Lady +'Ilder 'anded me 'er curd, and asked so sweet-like if Mrs. Le +Breting was at 'ome. Mr. Le Breting's people is comin' round, you +may be sure of it; 'is mother's a lady of title, that much we know +for certing; and she wouldn't go and let 'er own flesh an' blood +die 'ere of downright poverty, as they're like to do and won't let +us 'elp it, pore dears, without sendin' round to inquire and assist +'em. Married against 'er will, I understand, from what that dear +Mr. Berkeley, bless 'is kind 'eart, do tell me; not as I can believe +'e married beneath 'im, no, not no ways; for a sweeter, dearer, +nicer little lady than our Mrs. Le Breting I never did, an' that +I tell you. Sweeter manners you never did see yourself, John, for +all you've lived among the aristocracy: an' I always knew 'is people +'ud come round at last, and do what was right by 'im. An' you may +depend upon it, John, this 'ere Lady 'Ilder's one of his relations, +an' she's come round on a message from Lady Le Breting, to begin +a reconciliation. And though we should be sorry to lose 'em, as +'as stood by 'em through all their troubles, I'm glad to 'ear it, +John, that I am, for I can't a-bear to see that dear young fellow +a-eatin' 'is life out with care and anxiety.' And Mrs. Halliss, who +had always felt convinced in her own mind that Ernest must really +be the unacknowledged heir to a splendid fortune, began to wipe +her eyes violently in her delight at this evident realisation of +her wildest fancies and wishes. + +Meanwhile, upstairs in the little parlour, Edie had risen in some +trepidation as Mrs. Halliss placed in her hands Lady Hilda Tregellis's +card. Ernest was out, gone to walk feebly around the streets of +Holloway, and she hardly knew at first what to say to so unexpected +a visitor. But Lady Hilda put her almost at her ease at once +by coming up to her with both her arms outstretched, as to an old +friend, and saying, with one of her pleasantest smiles: + +'You must forgive me, Mrs. Le Breton, for never having come to +call on you before; but I have been long meaning to, and doubting +whether you would care to see me or not. You know, I'm a very old +friend of your husband's--he was SO kind to me always when he was +down at our place in dear old Devonshire. (You're a Devonshire girl +yourself, aren't you? just as I am. I thought so. I'm so glad of +it. I always get on so well with the dear old Devonshire folk.) +Well, I've been meaning to come for ever so long, and putting +it off, and putting it off, and putting it off, as one WILL put +things off, you know, when you're not quite sure about them, until +last evening. And then our friend, Mr. Arthur Berkeley, who knows +everybody, talked to me about your husband and you, and told me +he thought you wouldn't mind my coming to see you, for he fancied +you hadn't much society up here that you cared for or sympathised +with: though, of course, I'm dreadfully afraid of coming to call +upon you, because I know you're the sister of that very clever Mr. +Oswald, whose sad death we were all so sorry to hear about in the +papers; and naturally, as you've lived so much with him and with +Mr. Le Breton, you must be so awfully learned and all that sort of +thing, and no doubt despise ignorant people like myself dreadfully. +But you really mustn't despise me, Mrs. Le Breton, because, you +see, I haven't had all the advantages that you've had; indeed, the +only clever people I've ever met in all my life are your husband +and Mr. Arthur Berkeley, except, of course, Cabinet ministers and +so forth, and they don't count, because they're political, and so +very old, and solemn, and grand, and won't take any notice of us +girls, except to sit upon us. So that's what's made me rather afraid +to call upon you, because I thought you'd be quite too much in +the higher education way for a girl like me; and I haven't got any +education at all, except in rubbish, as your husband used always +to tell me. And now I want you to tell me all about Mr. Le Breton, +and the baby--Dot, you call her, Mr. Berkeley told me--and yourself, +too; for, though I've never seen you before, I feel, of course, +like an old friend of the family, having known your husband so very +intimately.' + +Lady Hilda designedly delivered all this long harangue straight +off without a break, in her go-ahead, breathless, voluble fashion, +because she felt sure Edie wouldn't feel perfectly at her ease at +first, and she wanted to give her time to recover from the first +foolish awe of that meaningless prefix, Lady. Moreover, Lady Hilda, +in spite of her offhand manner was a good psychologist, and a true +woman: and she had concocted her little speech on the spur of the +moment with some cleverness, so as just to suit her instinctive +reading of Edie's small personal peculiarities. She saw in a moment +that that slight, pale, delicate girl was lost in London, far from +her own home and surroundings; and that the passing allusion to +their common Devonshire origin would please and conciliate her, as +it always does with the clannish, warm-hearted, simple-minded West +Country folk. Then again, the deft hints as to their friendship +with Arthur Berkeley, as to Ernest's stay at Dunbude, and as to +her own fear lest Edie should be too learned for her, all tended +to bring out whatever points of interest they had together: while +the casual touch about poor Harry's reputation, and the final +mention of little Dot by name, completed the conquest of Edie's +simple, gentle little woman's heart. So this was the great Lady +Hilda Tregellis, she thought, of whom she had heard so much, and +whom she had dreaded so greatly as a grand rival! Why, after all, +she was exactly like any other Devonshire girl in Calcombe Pomeroy, +except, perhaps, that she was easier to get on with, and smiled a +great deal more pleasantly than ten out of a dozen. + +'It's very kind indeed of you to come,' Edie answered, smiling back +as well as she was able the first moment that Lady Hilda allowed +her a chance to edge in a word sideways. 'Ernest will be so very +very sorry that he's missed you when he comes in. He's spoken to +me a great deal about you ever so many times.' + +'No, has he really?' Lady Hilda asked quickly, with unmistakable +interest and pleasure. 'Well, now, I'm so glad of that, for to tell +you the truth, Mrs. Le Breton, though he was really always very +kind to me, and so patient with all my stupidity, I more than +half fancied he didn't exactly like me. In fact, I was dreadfully +afraid he thought me a perfect nuisance. I'm so sorry he isn't in, +because the truth is, I came partly to see him as well as to see +you, and I should be awfully disappointed if I had to miss him. +Where's he gone, if I may ask? Perhaps I may be able to wait and +see him.' + +'Oh, he's only out walking somewhere--ur--somewhere about Holloway,' +Edie answered, half blushing at the nature of their neighbourhood, +and glancing round the little room to see how it was likely to +strike so grand a person as Lady Hilda Tregellis. + +Hilda noticed the glance, and made as if she did not notice it. Her +heart had begun to warm at once to this poor, pale, eager-looking +little woman, who had had the doubtful happiness of winning Ernest +Le Breton's love. 'Then I shall certainly wait and see him, Mrs. Le +Breton.' she said cordially. 'What a dear cosy little room you've +got here, to be sure. I do so love those nice bright little +cottage parlours, with their pretty pots of flowers and cheerful +furniture--so much warmer and more comfortable, you know, than the +great dreary empty barns that most people go and do penance by +living in. If ever I marry--which I don't suppose I ever shall do, +for nobody'll have me, I'm sorry to say: at least, nobody but stupid +people in the peerage, Algies and Berties and Monties I always call +them--well, if I ever do marry, I shall have a cosy little house +just like this one, with no unnecessary space to walk over every +time you come in or out, and with a chance of keeping yourself +warm without having to crone over the fire in order to get safely +out of the horrid draughts. And Dot, now let me see, how old is +she by this time? I ought to remember, I'm sure, for Mr. Berkeley +told me all about her at the time; and I said should I write and +ask if I might stand as godmother; and Mr. Berkeley laughed at +me, and said what could I be dreaming of, and did I think you were +going to make your baby liable to fine and imprisonment if it ever +published works hereafter on philosophy or something of the sort. +So delightfully original of all of you, really.' + +Once started on that fertile theme of female conversation, Edie and +Hilda got on well enough in all conscience to satisfy the most +exacting mind. Dot was duly brought in and exhibited by Mrs. Halliss; +and was pronounced to be the very sweetest, dearest, darlingest +little duck ever seen on earth since the beginning of all things. +Her various points of likeness to all her relations were duly +discussed; and Hilda took particular pains to observe that she +didn't in the very faintest degree resemble that old horror, Lady +Le Breton. Then her whole past history was fully related, she had +been fed on, and what illnesses she had had, and how many teeth +she had got, and all the other delightful nothings so perennially +interesting to the maternal heart. Hilda listened to the whole +account with unfeigned attention, and begged leave to be allowed +to dance Dot in her own strong arms, and tickled her fat cheek with +her slender forefinger, and laughed with genuine delight when the +baby smiled again at her and turned her face to be tickled a second +time. Gradually Hilda brought the conversation round to Ernest's +journalistic experiences, and at last she said very quietly, 'I'm +sorry to learn from Mr. Berkeley, dear, that your husband doesn't +get quite as much work to do as he would like to have.' + +Edie's tender eyes filled at once with swimming tears. That one +word 'dear,' said so naturally and simply, touched her heart at +once with its genuine half unspoken sympathy. 'Oh, Lady Hilda,' +she answered falteringly, 'please don't make me talk about that. +We are so very, very, very poor. I can't bear to talk about it to +you. Please, please don't make me.' + +Hilda looked at her with the moisture welling up in her own eyes +too, and said softly, 'I'm SO sorry: dear, dear little Mrs. Le +Breton, I'm so very, very, very sorry for you! from the bottom of +my heart I'm sorry for you.' + +'It isn't for myself, you know,' Edie answered quickly: 'for +myself, of course, I could stand anything; but it's the trouble +and privations for darling Ernest. Oh, Lady Hilda, I can't bear to +say it, but he's dying, he's dying.' + +Hilda took the pretty small hand affectionately in hers. 'Don't, +dear, don't,' she said, brushing away a tear from her own eyes at +the same time. 'He isn't, believe me, he isn't. And don't call +me by that horrid stiff name, dear, please don't. Call me Hilda. +I should be so pleased and flattered if you would call me Hilda. +And may I call you Edie? I know your husband calls you Edie, because +Mr. Ronald Le Breton told me so. I want to be a friend of yours; +and I feel sure, if only you will let me, that we might be very +good and helpful friends indeed together.' + +Edie pressed her hand softly. How very different from the imaginary +Lady Hilda she had. pictured to herself in her timid, girlish fancy! +How much even dear Ernest had been mistaken as to what there was +of womanly really in her. 'Oh, don't speak so kindly to me,' she +said imploringly; 'don't speak so kindly, or else you'll make me +cry. I can't bear to hear you speak so kindly.' + +'Cry, dear,' Lady Hilda whispered in a gentle tone, kissing her +forehead delicately as she spoke: 'cry and relieve yourself. There'a +nothing gives one so much comfort when one's heart is bursting as a +regular good downright cry.' And, suiting the action to the word, +forthwith Lady Hilda laid her own statuesque head down beside Edie's, +and so those two weeping women, rivals once in a vague way, and +now bound to one another by a new-found tie, mingled their tears +silently together for ten minutes in unuttered sympathy. + +As they sat there, both tearful and speechless, with Lady Hilda +soothing Edie's wan hand tenderly in hers, and leaning above her, +and stroking her hair softly with a sister's fondness, the door +opened very quietly, and Arthur Berkeley stood for a moment pausing +in the passage, and looking in without a word upon the unexpected +sight that greeted his wondering vision. He had come to call upon +Ernest about some possible opening for a new writer on a paper lately +started; and hearing the sound of sobs within had opened the door +quietly and tentatively. He could hardly believe his own eyes when +he actually saw Lady Hilda Tregellis sitting there side by side +with Edie Le Breton, kissing her pale forehead a dozen times in +a minute, and crying over her like a child with unwonted tears of +unmistakable sympathy. For ten seconds Arthur held the door ajar +in his hands, and gazed silently with the awe of chivalrous respect +upon the tearful, beautiful picture. Then he shut the door again +noiselessly and unperceived, and stole softly out into the street +to wait alone for Ernest's return. It was not for him to intrude +his unbidden presence upon the sacred sorrow of those two weeping +sister-women. + +He lighted a cigar outside, and walked up and down a neighbouring +street feverishly till he thought it likely the call would be +finished. 'Dear little Mrs. Le Breton,' he said to himself softly, +'dear little Miss Butterfly of the days that are dead; softened +and sweetened still more by suffering, with the beauty of holiness +glowing in your face, how I wish some good for you could unexpectedly +come out of this curious visit. Though I don't see how it's +possible: I don't see how it's possible. The stream carries us all +down unresistingly before its senseless flood, and sweeps us at +last, sooner or later, like helpless logs, into the unknown sea. +Poor Ernest is drifting fast thitherwards before the current, and +nothing on earth, it seems to me, can conceivably stop him!' + +He paced up and down a little, with a quick, unsteady tread, and +took a puff or two again at his cigar abstractedly. Then he held +it thoughtfully between his fingers for a while and began to hum +a few bars from his own new opera then in course of composition--a +stately long-drawn air, it was. something like the rustle of Hilda +Tregellis's satin train as she swept queenlike down the broad marble +staircase of some great Elizabethan country palace. 'And dear Lady +Hilda too,' he went on, musingly: 'dear, kind, sympathising Lady +Hilda. Who on earth would ever have thought she had it in her to +comfort that poor, weeping, sorrowing girl as I just now saw her +doing? Dear Lady Hilda! Kind Lady Hilda! I have undervalued you +and overlooked you, because of the mere accident of your titled +birth, but I could have kissed you myself, for pure gratitude, +that very minute, Hilda Tregellis, when I saw you stooping down and +kissing that dear white forehead that looked so pale and womanly +and beautiful. Yes, Hilda, I could have kissed you. I could have +kissed your own grand, smooth, white marble forehead. And no very +great trial of endurance, either, Arthur Berkeley, if it comes to +that; for say what you will of her, she's a beautiful, stately, +queenlike woman indeed; and it somehow strikes me she's a truer +and better woman, too, than you have ever yet in your shallow +superficiality imagined. Not like little Miss Butterfly! Oh, no, +not like little Miss Butterfly! But still, there are keys and keys +in music; and if every tune was pitched to the self-same key, even +the tenderest, what a monotonous, dreary world it would be to live +and sing in after all. Perhaps a man might make himself a little +shrine not wholly without sweet savour of pure incense for beautiful, +stately, queenlike Hilda Tregellis too! But no; I mustn't think +of it. I have no other duty or prospect in life possible as yet +while dear little Miss Butterfly still remains practically unprovided +for!' + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +HOPE. + + +From Edie Le Breton's lodgings, Hilda Tregellis drove straight, +without stopping all the way, to Arthur Berkeley's house at Chelsea; +for Arthur had long since risen to the dignity of an enfranchised +householder, and had bought himself a pretty cottage near the +Embankment, with room enough for himself and the Progenitor, and +even for any possible future domestic contingency in the way of +wife and children. It was a very unconventional thing for her to +do, no doubt; but Lady Hilda was certainly not the person to be +deterred from doing anything she contemplated on the bare ground +of its extreme unconventionally; and so far was she from objecting +personally to her visit on this score, that before she rang the +Berkeleys' bell she looked quietly at her little bijou watch, and +said with a bland smile to the suspicious Mr. Jenkins, 'Let me see, +Jenkins; it's one o'clock. I shall lunch with my friends here this +morning; so you may take the carriage home now for my lady, and I +shall cab it back, or come round by Metropolitan.' Jenkins was too +much accustcmed to Lady Hilda's unaccountable vagaries to express +any surprise at her wildest resolutions, even if she had proposed +to go home on a costermonger's barrow; so he only touched his hat +respectfully, in his marionette fashion, and drove away at once +without further colloquy. + +'Is Mr. Berkeley at home?' Hilda asked of the pretty servant girl +who opened the door to her, mentally taking note at the same time +that Arthur's aesthetic tendencies evidently extended even to his +human surroundings. + +'Which Mr. Berkeley?' the girl asked in reply. 'Mr. Berkeley +senerer, 'e's at 'ome, but Mr. Arthur, 'e's gone up this mornin' +to 'Olloway.' + +Hilda seized with avidity upon this unexpected and almost providential +opening. 'No, is he?' she said, delighted. 'Then I'll go in and see +Mr. Berkeley senior. No card, thank you: no name: tell him merely +a lady would like to see him. I dare say Mr. Arthur'll be back +before long from Holloway.' + +The girl hesitated a moment as if in doubt, and surveyed Lady Hilda +from head to foot. Hilda, whose eyes were still red from crying, +couldn't help laughing outright at the obvious cause of the girl's +hesitation. 'Do as I tell you,' she said in her imperious way. 'Who +on earth do you take me for, my good girl? That's my card, see: but +you needn't give it to Mr. Berkeley senior. Now go and tell him at +once that a lady is waiting to see him.' + +The innate respect of the English working classes for the kind of +nobility that is supposed to be represented by the British peerage +made the girl drop an instinctive curtsey as she looked at the card, +and answer in a voice of hushed surprise, 'Yes, my lady.' She had +heard Lady Hilda Tregellis spoken of more than once at her master's +table, and she knew, of course, that so great a personage as that +could do no wrong. So she merely ushered her visitor at once into +Arthur Berkeley's beautiful little study, with its delicate grey +pomegranate wall paper and its exquisite unpolished oak fittings, +and said simply, in an overawed manner, 'A lady wishes to speak to +you, sir.' + +The old shoemaker looked up from the English translation of Ribot's +'Psychologie Anglaise Contemporaine,' with whose intricacies he +was manfully struggling, and rose with native politeness to welcome +Hilda. + +'Good morning,' Hilda said, extending her hand to him with one of +her beaming disarming smiles, and annihilating all that was most +obtrusively democratic in him at once by her pleasant manner. 'I'm +a friend of your son's, Mr. Berkeley, and I've come here to see +him about very particular private business--in short, on an errand +of charity. Will he be long gone, do you know?' + +'Not very,' the Progenitor answered, in a somewhat embarrassed +manner, surveying her curiously. 'At least, I should think not. +He's gone to Holloway for an hour or two, but I fancy he'll be back +for two o'clock luncheon, Miss----ur, I don't think I caught your +name, did I?' + +'To Holloway,' Hilda echoed, taking no notice of his suggested +query. 'Oh, then he's gone to see the poor dear Le Bretons, of +course. Why, that's just what I wanted to see him about. If you'll +allow me then, I'll just stop and have lunch with you.' + +'The dickens you will,' the Progenitor thought to himself in speechless +astonishment. 'That's really awfully cool of you. However, I dare +say it's usual to invite oneself in the state of life that that boy +Artie has gone and hoisted himself into, most unnaturally. A fine +lady, no doubt, of their modern pattern; but in my day, up in +Paddington, we should have called her a brazen hussey.--Certainly, +if you will,' he added aloud. 'If you've come on any errand that +will do any good to the Le Bretons, I'm sure my son'll be delighted +to see you. He's greatly grieved at their unhappy condition.' + +'I'm afraid I've nothing much to suggest of any very practical +sort,' Hilda answered, with a slight sigh; 'but at least I should +like to talk with him about the matter. Something must be done +for these two poor young people, you know, Mr. Berkeley. Something +must really be done to help them.' + +'Then you're interested in them, Miss--ur--ur--ah, yes--are you?' + +'Look at my eyes,' Hilda said plumply. 'Are they very red, Mr. +Berkeley?' + +'Well....ur...yes, if I may venture to say so to a lady,' the old +shoemaker answered hesitatingly, with unwonted gallantry. 'I should +say they were a trifle, ur, just a trifle roseate, you know.' + +'Quite so,' Hilda went on, seriously. 'That's it. They're red with +crying. I've been crying like a baby all the morning with that +poor, dear, sweet little angel of a Mrs. Le Breton.' + +'Then you're a great friend of hers, I suppose,' the Progenitor +suggested mildly. + +'Never set eyes on her in my life before this morning, on the +contrary,' Hilda continued in her garrulous fashion. 'But, oh, Mr. +Berkeley, if you'd only seen that dear little woman, crying as if +her heart would break, and telling me that dear Ernest was dying, +actually dying; why--there--excuse me--I can't help it, you know; +we women are always crying about something or other, aren't we?' + +The old man laid his hand on hers quietly. 'Don't mind ME, my +dear,' he said with genuine tenderness. 'Don't mind me a bit; I'm +only an old shoemaker, as I dare say you've heard before now; but +I know you'll be the better for crying--women always are--and tears +shed on somebody else's account are never thrown away, my dear, +are they?' + +Hilda took his hand between hers, and wiping her eyes once more +whispered softly, 'No, Mr. Berkeley, no; perhaps they're not; but +oh, they're so useless; so very, very, very useless. Do you know, +I never felt my own powerlessness and helplessness in all my life +so much as I did at that dear, patient little Mrs. Le Breton's +this very morning. There I sat, knowing she was in dire need of +money for her poor husband, and wanting sufficient food and drink, +perhaps, for herself, and him, and the dear darling baby; and in +my hand in my muff I had my purse there with five tenners--Bank of +England ten-pound uotes, you know--fifty pounds altogether, rolled +up inside it; and I would have given anything if only I could have +pulled them out and made them a present to her then and there; and +I couldn't, you see: and, oh, Mr. Berkeley, isn't it terrible to +look at them? And then, before I left, poor Mr. Le Breton himself +came in, and I was quite shocked to see him. I used to know him a +few years ago, and even then he wasn't what you'd call robust by +any means; but now, oh, dear me, he does look so awfully ill and +haggard and miserable that it quite made me break down again, and I +cried about him before his very face; and the moment I got away, I +said to the coachman, "Jenkins, drive straight off to the Embankment +at Chelsea;" and here I am, you see, waiting to talk with your +clever son about it; for, really, Mr. Berkeley, the poor Le Bretons +haven't got a single friend anywhere like your son Arthur.' + +And then Lady Hilda went on to praise Arthur's music to the +Progenitor, and to speak of how much admired he was everywhere, +and to hint that so much genius and musical power must of course be +largely hereditary. Whereat the old man, not unmoved by her gentle +insinuating flattery, at last confessed to his own lifelong musical +tastes, and even casually acknowledged that the motive for one or +two of the minor songs in the famous operas was not entirely of +Arthur's own unaided invention. And so, from one subject to another, +they passed on so quickly, and hit it off with one another so exactly +(for Hilda had a wonderful knack of leading up to everybody's strong +points), that long before lunch was ready, the Progenitor had been +quite won over by the fascinations of the brazen hussey, and was +prepared to admit that she was really a very nice, kind, tender-hearted, +intelligent, appreciative, and discriminating young lady. True, +she had not read Mill or Fawcett, and was ignorant of the very name +of Herbert Spencer; but she had a vast admiration for his dear boy +Artie, and she saw that he himself knew a thing or two in his own +modest way, though he was only what the grand world she moved in +would doubtless call an old superannuated journeyman shoemaker. + +'Ah, yes, a shoemaker! so I've heard somewhere, I fancy,' Lady +Hilda remarked brightly, when for the third time in the course of +their conversation he informed her with great dignity of the interesting +fact; 'how very delightful and charming that is, really, now isn't +it? So original, you know, to make shoes instead of going into some +useless profession, especially when you're such a great reader +and student and thinker as you are--for I see you're a philosopher +and a psychologist already, Mr. Berkeley'--Hilda considered it rather +a bold effort on her part to pronounce the word 'psychologist' at +the very first trial without stumbling; but though she was a little +doubtful about the exact pronunciation of that fearful vocable, +she felt quite at her ease about the fact at least, because +she carefully noticed him lay down Ribot on the table beside him, +name upward; 'one can't help finding that much out on a very short +acquaintance, can one? Though, indeed, now I come to think of it, +I believe I've heard often that men of your calling generally ARE +very fond of reading, and are very philosophical, and clever, and +political, and all that sort of thing; and they say that's the +reason, of course, why Northampton's such an exceptionally intelligent +constituency, and always returns such thoroughgoing able logical +Radicals.' + +The old man's eyes beamed, as she spoke, with inexpressible pride +and pleasure. 'I'm very glad indeed to hear you say so,' he answered +promptly with a complacent self-satisfied smile, 'and I believe +you're right too, Miss, ur--ur--ur--quite so. The practice of +shoemaking undoubtedly tends to develop a very high and exceptional +level of general intelligence and logical power.' + +'I'm sure of it,' Hilda answered demurely, in a tone of the deepest +and sincerest conviction; 'and when I heard somebody say somewhere, +that your son was...--well, WAS your son, I said to myself at once, +"Ah, well, there now, that quite accounts, of course, for young +Mr. Berkeley's very extraordinary and unusual abilities!"' + +'She's really a most sensible, well-informed young woman, whoever +she is,' the Progenitor thought to himself silently; 'and it's +certainly a pity that dear Artie couldn't take a fancy to some nice, +appreciative, kind-hearted, practical girl like that now, instead +of wearing away all the best days of his life in useless regret +for that poor slender, unsubstantial nonentity of a watery little +Mrs. Le Breton.' + +By two o'clock lunch was ready, and just as it had been announced, +Arthur Berkeley ran up the front steps, and let himself in with +his proprietory latch-key. Turning straight into the dining-room, +he was just in time to see his own father walking into lunch arm +in arm with Lady Hilda Tregellis. As Mrs. Hallis had graphically +expressed it, he felt as if you might have knocked him down with +a feather! Was she absolutely ubiquitous, then, this pervasive +Lady Hilda? and was he destined wherever he went to come upon her +suddenly in the most unexpected and incomprehensible situations? + +'Will you sit down here, my dear,' the Progenitor was saying to +Hilda at the exact moment he entered, 'or would you prefer your +back to the fire?' + +Arthur Berkeley opened his eyes wide with unspeakable amazement. +'What, YOU here,' he exclaimed, coming forward suddenly to shake +hands with Hilda; 'why, I saw you only a couple of hours since at +the Le Bretons' at Holloway.' + +'You did!' Hilda cried with almost equal astonishment, 'Why, how +was that? I never saw YOU.' + +Arthur sighed quietly. 'No,' he answered, with a curious look at +the Progenitor; 'you were engaged when I opened the door, and I +didn't like to disturb you. You were--you were speaking with poor +little Mrs. Le Breton. But I'm so much obliged to you for your +kindness to them, Lady Hilda; so very much obliged to you for your +great kindness to them.' + +It was the Progenitor's turn now to start in surprise. 'What! Lady +Hilda!' he cried with a bewildered look. 'Lady Hilda! Did I hear +you say "Lady Hilda"? Is this Lady Hilda Tregellis, then, that I've +heard you talk about so often, Artie?' + +'Why, of course, Father. You didn't know who it was, then, didn't +you? Lady Hilda, I'm afraid you've been stealing a march upon the +poor unsuspecting hostile Progenitor.' + +'Not quite that, Mr. Berkeley,' Hilda replied, laughing; 'only +after the very truculent character I had heard of your father as +a regular red-hot militant Radical, I thought I'd better not send +in my name to him at once for fear it might prejudice him against +me before first acquaintance.' + +The Progenitor looked at her steadfastly from head to foot, standing +before him there in her queenly beauty, as if she were some strange +wild beast that he had been requested to inspect and report upon +for a scientific purpose. 'Lady Hilda Tregellis!' he said slowly +and deliberately; 'Lady Hilda Tregellis! So this is Lady Hilda +Tregellis, is it? Well, all I can say is this, then, that as far as +I can judge her, Lady Hilda Tregellis is a very sensible, modest, +intelligent, well-conducted young woman, which is more than I +could possibly have expected from a person of her unfortunate and +distressing hereditary antecedents. But you know, my dear, it was +a very mean trick of you to go and take an old man's heart by guile +and stratagem in that way!' + +Hilda laughed a little uneasily. The Progenitor's manner was perhaps +a trifle too open and unconventional even for her. 'It wasn't for +that I came, Mr. Berkeley,' she said again with one of her sunny +smiles, which brought the Progenitor metaphorically to her feet +again, 'but to talk over this matter of the poor Le Bretons with +your son. Oh, Mr. Arthur, something must really be done to help +them. I know you say there's nothing to be done; but there must be; +we must find it out; we must invent it; we must compel it. When +I sat there this morning with that dear little woman and saw +her breaking her full heart over her husband's trouble, I said to +myself, somehow, Hilda Tregellis, if you can't find a way out of +this, you're not worth your salt in this world, and you'd better +make haste and take a rapid through-ticket at once to the next, if +there is one.' + +'Which is more than doubtful, really,' the Progenitor muttered +softly half under his breath; 'which, as Strauss has conclusively +shown, is certainly a good deal more than doubtful.' + +Arthur took no notice of the interruption, but merely answered +imploringly, with a despairing gesture of his hands, 'What are we +to do, Lady Hilda? What can we possibly do?' + +'Why, sit down and have some lunch first,' Hilda rejoined with +practical common-sense, 'and then talk it over rationally afterwards, +instead of wringing our hands helplessly like a pair of Frenchmen +in a street difficulty.' (Hilda had a fine old crusted English +contempt, by the way, for those vastly inferior and foolish creatures +known as foreigners.) + +Thus adjured, Berkeley sat down promptly, and they proceeded to take +counsel together in this hard matter over the cutlets and claret +provided before them. 'Ernest and Mrs. Le Breton told me all about +your visit,' Arthur went on, soon after; 'and they're so much obliged +to you for having taken the trouble to look them up in their sore +distress. Do you know, Lady Hilda, I think you've quite made a +conquest of our dear little friend, Mrs. Le Breton.' + +'I don't know about that,' Hilda responded with a smile, 'but I'm +sure, at any rate, that the sweet little woman quite made a conquest +of me, Mr. Berkeley. In fact, I can't say what you think, but for +my part I'm determined an effort must be made one way or another +to save them.' + +'It's no use,' Arthur answered, shaking his head sadly; 'it can't +be done. There's nothing for it but to let them float down helplessly +with the tide, wherever it may bear them.' + +'Stuff and nonsense,' Hilda replied energetically. 'All rubbish, +utter rubbish, and if I were a man as you are, Mr. Berkeley, I +should be ashamed to take such a desponding view of the situation. +If we say it's got to be done, it will be done, and that's an end +of it. Work must and can be found for him somehow or somewhere.' + +'But the man's dying,' Arthur interrupted with a vehement gesture. +'There's no more work left in him. The only thing that's any use +is to send him off to Madeira, or Egypt, or Catania, or somewhere +of that sort, and let him die quietly among the palms and cactuses +and aloes. That's Sir Antony Wraxall's opinion, and surely nobody +in London can know half as well as he does about the matter.' + +'Sir Antony's a fool,' Hilda responded with refreshing bluntness. +'He knows nothing on earth at all about it. He's accustomed to +prescribing for a lot of us idle good-for-nothing rich people'--('Very +true,' the Progenitor assented parenthetically;) 'and he's got +into a fixed habit of prescribing a Nile voyage, just as he's got +into a fixed habit of prescribing old wine, and carriage exercise, +and ten thousand a year to all his patients. What Mr. Le Breton +really wants is not Egypt, or old wine, or Sir Antony, or anything +of the sort, but relief from this pressing load of anxiety and +responsibility. Put him in my hands for six months, and I'll back +myself at a hundred to six against Sir Antony to cure him for a +monkey.' + +'For a what!' the Progenitor asked with a puzzled expression of +countenance. + +'Back myself for a monkey, you know,' Hilda answered, without +perceiving the cause of the old man's innocent confusion. + +The Progenitor was evidently none the wiser still for Hilda's +answer, though he forbore to pursue the subject any farther, lest +he should betray his obvious ignorance of aristocratic manners and +dialect. + +But Arthur looked up at Lady Hilda with something like the gleam of +a new-born hope on his distressed features. 'Lady Hilda,' he said +almost cheerfully, 'you really speak as if you had some practicable +plan actually in prospect. It seems to me, if anybody can pull +them through, you can, because you've got such a grand reserve of +faith and energy. What is it, now, you think of doing?' + +'Well,' Hilda answered, taken a little aback at this practical +question, 'I've hardly got my plan matured yet; but I've got a +plan; and I thought it all out as far as it went as I came along +here just now in the carriage. The great thing is, we must inspire +Mr. Le Breton with a new confidence; we must begin by showing him +we believe in him, and letting him see that he may still manage +in some way or other to retrieve himself. He has lost all hope: we +must begin with him over again. I've got an idea, but it'll take +money. Now, I can give up half my allowance for the next year--the +Le Bretons need never know anything about it--that'll be something: +you're a rich man now, I believe, Mr. Berkeley; will you make up +as much as I do, if my plan seems a feasible one to you for retrieving +the position?' + +The Progenitor answered quickly for him: 'Miss Tregellis,' he +said, with a little tremor in his voice, '--you'll excuse me, my +dear, but it's against my principles to call anybody my lady:--he +will, I know he will; and if he wouldn't, why, my dear, I'd go +back to my cobbling and earn it myself rather than that you or your +friends should go without it for a single minute.' + +Arthur said nothing, but he bowed his head silently. What a lot of +good there was really in that splendid woman, and what a commanding, +energetic, masterful way she had about her! To a feckless, undecided, +faltering man like Arthur Berkeley there was something wonderfully +attractive and magnificent, after all, in such an imperious resolute +woman as Lady Hilda. + +'Then this is my plan,' Hilda went on hastily. 'We must do +something that'll take Mr. Le Breton out of himself for a short +time entirely--that'll give him occupation of a kind he thinks +right, and at the same time put money in his pocket. Now, he's +always talking about this socialistic business of his; but why +doesn't he tell us what he has actually seen about the life and +habits of the really poor? Mrs. Le Breton tells me he knows the +East End well: why doesn't he sit down and give us a good rattling, +rousing, frightening description of all that's in it? Of course, +I don't care twopence about the poor myself--not in the lump, I +mean--I beg your pardon, Mr. Berkeley,'--for the Progenitor gave +a start of surprise and astonishment--'you know we women are nothing +if not concrete; we never care for anything in the abstract, Mr. Le +Breton used to tell me; we want the particular case brought home +to our sympathies before we can interest ourselves about it. After +all, even YOU who are men don't feel very much for all the miserable +wretched people there are in China, you know; they're too far away +for even you to bother your heads about. But I DO care about the +Le Bretons, and it strikes me we might help them a little in this +way. I know a lot of artists, Mr. Berkeley; and I know one who +I think would just do for the very work I want to set him. (He's +poor, too, by the way, and I don't mind giving him a lift at the +same time and killing two birds with one stone.) Very well, then; +I go to him, and say, "Mr. Verney," I say,--there now, I didn't mean +to tell you his name, but no matter; "Mr. Verney," I shall say, "a +friend of mine in the writing line is going to pay some visits to +the very poor quarters in the East End, and write about it, which +will make a great noise in the world as sure as midday."' + +'But how do you know it will?' asked the Progenitor, simply. + +Hilda turned round upon him with an unfeigned look of startled +astonishment. 'How do I know it will?' she said confidently. 'Why, +because I mean it to, Mr. Berkeley. Because I say it shall. Because +I choose to make it. Two Cabinet ministers shall quote it in the +House, and a duke shall write letters to the "Times" denouncing it +as an intensely wicked and revolutionary publication. If I choose +to float it, I WILL float it.--Well, "Mr. Verney," I say for example, +"will you undertake to accompany him and make sketches? It'll be +unpleasant work, I know, because I've been there myself to see, +and the places don't smell nice at all--worse than Genoa or the +old town at Nice even, I can tell you: but it'll make you a name; +and in any case the publisher who's getting it up'll pay you well +for it." Of course, Mr. Verney says "Yes." Then we go on to Mr. +Le Breton and say, "A young artist of my acquaintance is making a +pilgrimage into the East End to see for himself how the people live, +and to make pictures of them to stir up the sluggish consciences of +the lazy aristocrats"--that's me and my people, of course: that'll +be the way to work it. Play upon Mr. Le Breton's tenderest feelings. +Make him feel he's fighting for the Cause; and he'll be ready to +throw himself, heart and soul, into the spirit of the project. I +don't care twopence about the Cause myself, of course, so that's +flat, and I don't pretend to, either, Mr. Berkeley; but I care a +great deal for the misery of that poor, dear, pale little woman, +sitting there with me this morning and regularly sobbing her heart +out; and if I can do anything to help her, why, I shall be only +too delighted.' + +'Le Breton's a well-meaning young fellow, certainly,' the Progenitor +murmured gently in a voice of graceful concession; 'and I believe +his heart's really in the Cause, as you call it; but you know, my +dear, he's very far from being sound in his economical views as to +the relations of capital and labour. Far from sound, as John Stuart +Mill would have judged the question, I can solemnly assure you.' + +'Very well,' Hilda went on, almost without noticing the interruption. +'We shall say to him, or rather we shall get our publisher to say +to him, that as he's interested in the matter, and knows the East +End well, he has been selected--shall we put it on somebody's +recommendation?--to accompany the artist, and to supply the reading +matter, the letter-press I think you call it; in fact, to write up +to our illustrator's pictures; and that he is to be decently paid +for his trouble. He must do something graphic, something stirring, +something to wake up lazy people in the West End to a passing +sense of what he calls their responsibilities. That'll seem like +real work to Mr. Le Breton. It'll put new heart into him; he'll take +up the matter vigorously; he'll do it well; he'll write a splendid +book; and I shall guarantee its making a stir in the world this +very dull season. What's the use of knowing half the odiously +commonplace bores and prigs in all London if you can't float a +single little heterodox pamphlet for a particular purpose? What do +you think of it, Mr. Berkeley?' + +Arthur sighed again. 'It seems to me, Lady Hilda,' he said, regretfully, +'a very slender straw indeed to hang Ernest Le Breton's life on: +but any straw is better than nothing to a drowning man. And you +have so much faith yourself, and mean to fling yourself into it so +earnestly, that I shouldn't be wholly surprised if you were somehow +to pull it through. If you do, Lady Hilda--if you manage to save +these two poor young people from the verge of starvation--you'll +have done a very great good work in your day, and you'll have made +me personally eternally your debtor.' + +Was it mere fancy, the Progenitor wondered, or did Hilda cast her +eyes down a little and half blush as she answered in a lower and +more tremulous tone than usual, 'I hope I shall, Mr. Berkeley; +for their sakes, I hope I shall.' The Progenitor didn't feel quite +certain about it, but somehow, more than once that evening, as he +sat reading Spencer's 'Data of Ethics' in his easy-chair, a curious +vision of Lady Hilda as a future daughter-in-law floated vaguely +with singular persistence before the old shoemaker's bewildered +eyes. 'It'd be a shocking falling away on Artie's part from his +father's principles,' he muttered inarticulately to himself several +times over; 'and yet, on the other hand, I can't deny that this bit +of a Tregellis girl is really a very tidy, good-looking, respectable, +well-meaning, intelligent, and appreciative sort of a young woman, +who'd, maybe, make Artie as good a wife as anybody else he'd be +likely to pitch on.' + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THE TIDE TURNS. + + +When Ernest Le Breton got a letter from the business house of a +well-known publishing firm, asking him whether he would consent to +supply appropriate letterpress for an illustrated work on the poor +of London, then in course of preparation, his delight and relief +were positively unbounded. That anyone should come and ask him for +work, instead of his asking them, was in itself a singular matter +for surprise and congratulation; that the request should be based +on the avowed ground of his known political and social opinions +was almost incredible. Ernest felt that it was a triumph, not only +for him, but for his dearly-loved principles and beliefs as well. +For the first time in his life, he was going to undertake a piece +of work which he not only thought not wrong, but even considered +hopeful and praise-worthy. Arthur Berkeley, who called round as if +by accident the same morning, saw with delight that Lady Hilda's +prognostication seemed likely to be fulfilled, and that if only +Ernest could be given some congenial occupation there was still +a chance, after all, for his permanent recovery; for it was clear +enough that as there was hope, there must be a little life yet left +in him. + +It was Lady Hilda who, as she herself expressively phrased it, +had squared the publishers. She had called upon the head of the +well-known house in person, and had told him fully and frankly +exactly what was the nature of the interest she took in the poor +of London. At first the publisher was scandalised and obdurate: the +thing was not regular, he said--not in the ordinary way of business; +his firm couldn't go writing letters of that sort to unknown young +authors and artists. If she wanted the work done, she must let them +give her own name as the promoter of the undertaking. But Hilda +persevered, as she always did; she smiled, pleaded, cajoled, +threatened, and made desperate love to the publisher to gain his +acquiescence in her benevolent scheme. After all, even publishers +are only human (though authors have been frequently known to deny +the fact); and human nature, especially in England, is apt to +be very little proof against the entreaties of a pretty girl who +happens also to be an earl's daughter. So in the end, when Lady Hilda +said most bewitchingly, 'I put it upon the grounds of a personal +favour, Mr. Percival,' the obdurate publisher gave way at last, +and consented to do her bidding gladly. + +For six weeks Ernest went daily with Ronald and the young artist into +the familiar slums of Bethnal Green, and Bermondsey, and Lambeth, +whose ins and outs he was beginning to know with painful accuracy; +and every night he came back, and wrote down with a glowing pen all +that he had seen and heard of distressing and terrible during his +day's peregrination. It was an awful task from one point of view, +for the scenes he had to visit and describe were often heart-rending; +and Arthur feared more than once that the air of so many loathsome +and noxious dens might still further accelerate the progress of +Ernest's disease; but Lady Hilda said emphatically, No; and somehow +Arthur was beginning now to conceive an immense respect for the +practical value of Lady Hilda's vehement opinions. As a matter of +fact, indeed, Ernest did not visibly suffer at all either from the +unwonted hard work or from the strain upon mind and body to which +he had been so little accustomed. Distressing as it all was, it +was change, it was variety, it was occupation, it was relief from +that terrible killing round of perpetual personal responsibility. +Above all, Ernest really believed that here at last was an +opportunity of doing some practical good in his generation, and he +threw himself into it with all the passionate ardour of a naturally +eager and vivid nature. The enthusiasm of humanity was upon him, and +it kept him going at high-pressure rate, with no apparent loss of +strength and vigour throughout the whole ordeal. To Arthur Berkeley's +intense delight, he was even visibly fatter to the naked eye at the +end of his six weeks' exploration of the most dreary and desolate +slums in all London. + +The book was written at white heat, as the best of such books always +are, and it was engraved and printed at the very shortest possible +notice. Terrible and ghastly it certainly was at last--instinct +with all the grim local colouring of those narrow, squalid, +fever-stricken dens, where misfortune and crime huddle together +indiscriminately in dirt and misery--a book to make one's blood run +cold with awe and disgust, and to stir up even the callous apathy +of the great rich capitalist West End to a passing moment's +ineffective remorse; but very clever and very graphic after its +own sort beyond the shadow of a question, for all its horror. When +Arthur Berkeley turned over the first proof-sheets of 'London's +Shame,' with its simple yet thrilling recital of true tales taken +down from the very lips of outcast children or stranded women, with +its awful woodcuts and still more awful descriptions--word-pictures +reeking with the vice and filth and degradation of the most +pestilent, overcrowded, undrained tenements--he felt instinctively +that Ernest Le Breton's book would not need the artificial aid of +Lady Hilda's influential friends in order to make it successful +and even famous. The Cabinet ministers might be as silent as they +chose, the indignant duke might confine his denunciations to the +attentive and sympathetic ear of his friend Lord Connemara; but +nothing on earth could prevent Ernest Le Breton's fiery and scathing +diatribe from immediately enthralling the public attention. Lady +Hilda had hit upon the exact subject which best suited his peculiar +character and temperament, and he had done himself full justice in +it. Not that Ernest had ever thought of himself, or even of his +style, or the effect he was producing by his narrative; it was just +the very non-self-consciousness of the thing that gave it its power. +He wrote down the simple thoughts that came up into his own eager +mind at the sight of so much inequality and injustice; and the +motto that Arthur prefixed upon the title-page, 'Facit indignatio +versum,' aptly described the key-note of that fierce and angry +final denunciation. 'Yes, Lady Hilda had certainly hit the right +nail on the head,' Arthur Berkeley said to himself more than once: +'A wonderful woman, truly, that beautiful, stately, uncompromising, +brilliant, and still really tender Hilda Tregellis.' + +Hilda, on her part, worked hard and well for the success of Ernest's +book as soon as it appeared. Nay, she even condescended (not being +what Ernest himself would have described as an ethical unit) to +practise a little gentle hypocrisy in suiting her recommendations +of 'London's Shame' to the tastes and feelings of her various +acquaintances. To her Radical Cabinet minister friend, she openly +praised its outspoken zeal for the cause of the people, and its +value as a wonderful storehouse of useful facts at first hand for +political purposes in the increasingly important outlying Metropolitan +boroughs. 'Just think, Sir Edmund,' she said, persuasively, 'how +you could crush any Conservative candidate for Hackney or the Tower +Hamlets out of that awful chapter on the East End match-makers;' +while with the Duke, to whom she presented a marked copy as a +sample of what our revolutionary thinkers were really coming to, +she insisted rather upon its wicked interference with the natural +rights of landlords, and its abominable insinuation (so subversive +of all truly English ideas as to liberty and property) that they +were bound not to poison their tenants by total neglect of sanitary +precautions. 'If I were you, now,' she said to the Duke in the +most seemingly simple-minded manner possible, 'I'd just quote those +passages I've marked in pencil in the House to-night on the Small +Urban Holdings Bill, and point out how the wave of Continental +Socialism is at last invading England with its devastating flood.' +And the Duke, who was a complacent, thick-headed, obstinate old +gentleman, congenitally incapable of looking at any question from +any other point of view whatsoever except that of his own order, +fell headlong passively into Lady Hilda's cruel little trap, and +murmured to himself as he rolled down luxuriously to the august +society of his peers that evening, 'Tremendous clever girl, Hilda +Tregellis, really. "Wave of Continental Socialism at last invading +England with its what-you-may-call-it flood," she said, if I remember +rightly. Capital sentence to end off one's speech with, I declare. +Devizes'll positively wonder where I got it from. I'd no idea before +that girl took such an intelligent interest in political questions. +So they want their cottages whitewashed, do they? What'll they ask +for next, I wonder? Do they think we're to be content at last with +one and a-half per cent, upon the fee-simple value of our estates, +I should like to know? Why, some of the places this writer-fellow +talks about are on my own property in The Rookery--"one of the most +noisome court-yards in all London," he actually calls it. Whitewash +their cottages, indeed! The lazy improvident creatures! They'll +be asking us to put down encaustic tiles upon the floors next, and +to paper their walls with Japanese leather or fashionable dados. +Really, the general ignorance that prevails among the working classes +as to the clearest principles of political economy is something +absolutely appalling, absolutely appalling.' And his Grace scribbled +a note in his memorandum-book of Hilda's ready-made peroration, for +fear he should forget its precise wording before he began to give +the House the benefit of his views that night upon the political +economy of Small Urban Holdings. + +Next morning, all London was talking of the curious coincidence +by which a book from the pen of an unknown author, published only +one day previously, had been quoted and debated upon simultaneously +in both Houses of Parliament on a single evening. In the Commons, +Sir Edmund Calverley, the distinguished Radical minister, had read +a dozen pages from the unknown work in his declamatory theatrical +fashion, and had so electrified the House with its graphic and +horrible details that even Mr. Fitzgerald-Grenville, the well-known +member for the Baroness Drummond-Lloyd (whose rotten or at least +decomposing borough of Cherbury Minor he faithfully represented in +three successive Parliaments), had mumbled out a few half-inaudible +apologetic sentences about this state of things being truly +deplorable, and about the necessity for meeting such a distressing +social crisis by the prompt and vigorous application of that excellent +specific and familiar panacea, a spirited foreign policy. In the +Lords, the Duke himself, by some untoward coincidence, had been +moved to make a few quotations, accompanied by a running fire of +essentially ducal criticism, from the very selfsame obscure author; +and to his immense surprise, even the members of his own party +moved uneasily in their seats during the course of his speech; while +later in the evening, Lord Devizes muttered to him angrily in the +robing-room, 'Look here, Duke, you've been and put your foot in it, +I assure you, about that Radical book you were ill-advised enough +to quote from. You ought never to have treated the Small Urban +Holdings Bill in the way you did; and just you mark my words, +the papers'll all be down upon you to-morrow morning, as sure as +daylight. You've given the "Bystander" such an opening against +you as you'll never forget till your dying day, I can tell you.' +And as the Duke drove back again after his arduous legislative +efforts that evening, he said to himself between the puffs at his +Havana, 'This comes, now, of allowing oneself to be made a fool +of by a handsome woman. How the dooce I could ever have gone and +taken Hilda Tregellis's advice on a political question is really +more than I can fathom:--and at my time of life too! And yet, all +the same, there's no denying that she's a devilish fine woman, by +Jove, if ever there was one.' + +Of course, everybody asked themselves next day what this book +'London's Shame' was like, and who on earth its author could be; +so much so, indeed, that a large edition was completely exhausted +within a fortnight. It was the great sensational success of that +London season. Everybody read it, discussed it, dissected it, +corroborated it, refuted it, fought over it, and wrote lengthy +letters to all the daily papers about its faults and its merits. +Imitators added their sincerest flattery: rivals proclaimed themselves +the original discoverers of 'London's Shame': one enterprising author +even thought of going to law about it as a question of copyright. +Owners of noisome lanes in the East End trembled in their shoes, +and sent their agents to inquire into the precise degree of squalor +to be found in the filthy courts and alleys where they didn't care +to trust their own sensitive aristocratic noses. It even seemed as +if a little real good was going to come at last out of Ernest Le +Breton's impassioned pleading--as if the sensation were going to +fall not quite flat at the end of its short run in the clubs and +drawing-rooms of London as a nine days' wonder. + +And Ernest Le Breton? and Edie? In the little lodgings at Holloway, +they sat first trembling for the result, and ready to burst with +excitement when Lady Hilda, up at the unwonted hour of six in the +morning, tore into their rooms with an early copy of the 'Times' +to show them the Duke's speech, and Sir Edmund's quotations, and +the editorial leader in which even that most dignified and reticent +of British journals condescended to speak with studiously moderated +praise of the immense collection of facts so ably strung together +by Mr. Ernest Le Breton (in all the legible glory of small capitals, +too,) as to the undoubtedly disgraceful condition of some at +least among our London alleys. How Edie clung around Lady Hilda +and kissed her! and how Lady Hilda kissed her back and cried over +her with tears of happier augury! and how they both kissed and +cried over unconscious wondering little Dot! And how Lady Hilda +could almost have fallen upon Ernest, too, as he sat gazing in +blank astonishment and delight at his own name in the magnificent +small capitals of a 'Times' leader. Between crying and laughing, +with much efficient aid in both from good Mrs. Halliss, they hardly +knew how they ever got through the long delightful hours of that +memorable epoch-making morning. + +And then there came the gradual awakening to the fact that this +was really fame--fame, and perhaps also competence. First in the +field, of course, was the editor of the 'Cosmopolitan Review,' +with a polite request that Ernest would give the readers of that +intensely hot-and-hot and thoughtful periodical the opportunity of +reading his valuable views on the East End outcast question, before +they had had time to be worth nothing for journalistic purposes, +through the natural and inevitable cooling of the public interest +in this new sensation. Then his old friends of the 'Morning +Intelligence' once more begged that he would be good enough to +contribute a series of signed and headed articles to their columns, +on the slums and fever dens of poverty-stricken London. Next, +an illustrated weekly asked him to join with his artist friend in +getting up another pilgrimage into yet undiscovered metropolitan +plague-spots. And so, before the end of a month, Ernest Le Breton, +for the first time in his life, had really got more work to do +than he could easily manage, and work, too, that he felt he could +throw his whole life and soul into with perfect honesty. + +When the first edition of 'London's Shame' was exhausted, there +was already a handsome balance to go to Ernest and his artist +coadjutor, who, by the terms of the agreement, were to divide +between them half the profits. The other half, for appearance' +sake, Lady Hilda and Arthur had been naturally compelled to reserve +for themselves: for of course it would not have been probable that +any publisher would have undertaken the work without any hope of +profit in any way. Arthur called upon Hilda at Lord Exmoor's house +in Wilton Place to show her the first balance-sheet and accompanying +cheque. 'What on earth can we do with it?' he asked seriously. 'We +can't divide it between us: and yet we can't give it to the poor +Le Bretons. I don't see how we're to manage.' + +'Why, of course,' Hilda answered promptly. 'Put it into the Consols +or whatever you call it, for the benefit of little Dot.' + +'The very thing!' Arthur answered in a tone of obvious admiration. +'What a wonderfully practical person you really are, Lady Hilda.' + +As to Ernest and Edie, when they got their own cheque for their +quarter of the proceeds, they gazed in awe and astonishment at the +bigness of the figure; and then they sat down and cried together +like two children, with their hands locked in one another's. + +'And you'll get well, now, Ernest dear,' Edie whispered gently. +'Why, you're ever so much fatter, darling, already. I'm sure you'll +get well in no time, now, Ernest.' + +'Upon my word, Edie,' Ernest answered, kissing her white forehead +tenderly, 'I really and truly believe I shall. It's my opinion +that Sir Antony Wraxall's an unmitigated ignorant humbug.' + +A few weeks later, when Ernest's remarkable article on 'How to Improve +the Homes of the Poor' appeared in one of the leading magazines, +Mr. Herbert Le Breton of the Education Office looked up from his +cup of post-prandial coffee in his comfortable dining-room at South +Kensington, and said musingly to his young wife, 'Do you know, +Ethel, it seems to me that my brother Ernest's going to score a +success at last with this slum-hunting business that he's lately +invented. There's an awful lot about it now in all the papers +and reviews. Perhaps it might be as well, after all, to scrape an +acquaintance with him again, especially as he's my own brother. +There's no knowing, really, when a man of his peculiar ill-regulated +mercurial temperament may be going to turn out famous. Don't you +think you'd better find out where they're living now--they've left +Holloway, no doubt, since this turn of the tide--and go and call +upon Mrs. Ernest?' + +Whereto Mrs. Herbert Le Breton, raising her eyes for a moment from +the pages of her last new novel, answered languidly: 'Don't you +think, Herbert, it'd be better to wait a little while and see how +things turn out with them in the long run, you know, before we +commit ourselves by going to call upon them? One swallow, you see, +doesn't make a summer, does it, dear, ever?' Whence the acute and +intelligent reader will doubtless conclude that Mrs. Herbert Le +Breton was a very prudent sensible young woman, and that perhaps +even Herbert himself had met at last with his fitting Nemesis. For +what worse purgatory could his bitterest foe wish for a selfishly +prudent and cold-hearted man, than that he should pass his whole +lifetime in congenial intercourse with a selfishly prudent and +cold-hearted wife, exactly after his own pattern? + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +OUT OF THE HAND OP THE PHILISTINES. + + +Ernest's unexpected success with 'London's Shame' was not, as Arthur +Berkeley at first feared it might be, the mere last dying flicker +of a weak and failing life. Arthur was quite right, indeed, when +he said one day to Lady Hilda that its very brilliancy and fervour +had the hectic glow about it, as of a man who was burning himself +out too fiercely and rapidly; you could read the feverish eagerness +of the writer in every line; but still, Lady Hilda answered with +her ordinary calm assurance that it was all going well, and that +Ernest only needed the sense of security to pull him round again; +and as usual, Lady Hilda's practical sagacity was not at fault. +The big pamphlet--for it was hardly more than that--soon proved +an opening for further work, in procuring which Hilda and Arthur +were again partially instrumental. An advanced Radical member +of Parliament, famous for his declamations against the capitalist +faction, and his enormous holding of English railway stock, was +induced to come forward as the founder of a new weekly paper, +'in the interest of social reform.' Of course the thing was got +up solely with an idea to utilising Ernest as editor, for, said +the great anti-capitalist with his usual charming frankness, 'the +young fellow has a positive money-value, now, if he's taken in hand +at once before the sensation's over, and there can be no harm in +turning an honest penny by exploiting him, you know, and starting +a popular paper.' When Ernest was offered the post of editor to +the new periodical, at a salary which almost alarmed him by its +plutocratic magnificence (for it was positively no less than six +hundred a year), he felt for a moment some conscientious scruples +about accepting so splendid a post. And when Lady Hilda in her +emphatic fashion promptly over-ruled these nascent scruples by the +application of the very simple solvent formula, 'Bosh!' he felt +bound at least to stipulate that he should be at perfect liberty +to say whatever he liked in the new paper, without interference or +supervision from the capitalist proprietor. To which the Radical +member, in his business capacity, immediately responded, 'Why, +certainly. What we want to pay you for is just your power of startling +people, which, in its proper place, is a very useful marketable +commodity. Every pig has its value--if only you sell it in the +best market.' + +'The Social Reformer, a Weekly Advocate of the New Economy,' achieved +at once an immense success among the working classes, and grew +before long to be one of the most popular journals of the second +rank in all London. The interest that Ernest had aroused by his big +pamphlet was carried on to his new venture, which soon managed to +gain many readers by its own intrinsic merits. 'Seen your brother's +revolutionary broadsheet, Le Breton?' asked a friend at the club +of Herbert not many weeks later--he was the same person who had +found it 'so very embarrassing' to recognise Ernest--in his shabby +days when walking with a Q.C.--'It's a dreadful tissue of the +reddest French communism, I believe, but still, it's scored the +biggest success of its sort in journalism, I'm told, since the +days of Kenealy's "Englishman." Bradbury, who's found the money to +start it--deuced clever fellow in his way, Bradbury!--is making an +awful lot out of the speculation, they say. What do you think of +the paper, eh?' + +Herbert drew himself up grimly. 'To tell you the truth,' he said +in his stiffest style, 'I haven't yet had time to look at a copy. +Ernest Le Breton's not a man in whose affairs I feel called upon to +take any special interest; and I haven't put myself to the trouble +of reading his second-hand political lucubrations. Faint echoes of +Max Schurz, all of it, no doubt; and having read and disposed of +Schurz himself long ago, I don't feel inclined now to go in for a +second supplementary course of Schurz and water.' + +'Well, well, that may be so,' the friend answered, turning over the +pages of the peccant periodical carelessly; 'but all the same I'm +afraid your brother's really going to do an awful lot of mischief +in the way of setting class against class, and stirring up the +dangerous orders to recognise their own power. You see, Le Breton, +the real danger of this sort of thing lies in the fact that your +brother Ernest's a more or less educated and cultivated person. I +don't say he's really got any genuine depth of culture--would you +believe it, he told me once he'd never read Rabelais, and didn't +want to?--and of course a man of true culture in the grain, like +you and me now, my dear fellow, would never dream of going and +mistaking these will-o'-the-wisps of socialism for the real guiding +light of regenerated humanity--of course not. But the dangerous +symptom at the present day lies just in the fact that while the +papers written for the mob used to be written by vulgar, noisy, +self-made, half-educated demagogues, they're sent out now with all +the authority and specious respectability of decently instructed +and comparatively literary English gentlemen. Now, nobody can +deny that that's a thing very seriously to be regretted; and for my +part I'm extremely sorry your brother has been ill-advised enough +to join the mob that's trying to pull down our comfortably built +and after all eminently respectable, even if somewhat patched up, +old British constitution.' + +'The subject's one,' Herbert answered curtly, 'in which I for my +part cannot pretend to feel the remotest personal interest.' + +Ernest and Edie, howerer, in the little lodgings up at Holloway, +which they couldn't bear to desert even now in this sudden burst +of incredible prosperity, went their own way as self-containedly +as usual, wholly unconcerned by the non-arrival of Mrs. Herbert +on a visit of ceremony, or the failure of the 'Social Reformer' to +pierce the lofty ethereal regions of abstract contemplation where +Herbert himself sat throned like an Epicurean god in the pure halo +of cultivated pococurantism. Every day, as that eminent medical +authority, Hilda Tregellis, had truly prophesied, Ernest's cheeks +grew less and less sunken, and a little colour returned slowly +to their midst; while Edie's face was less pale than of old, and +her smile began to recover something of its old-fashioned girlish +joyousness. She danced about once more as of old, and Arthur Berkeley, +when he dropped in of a Sunday afternoon for a chat with Ernest, +noticed with pleasure that little Miss Butterfly was beginning to +flit round again almost as naturally as in the old days when he +first saw her light little form among the grey old pillars of Magdalen +Cloisters. Yet he couldn't help observing, too, that his feeling +towards her was more one of mere benevolence now, and less of tender +regret, than it used to be even a few short months before, in the +darkest days of Edie's troubles. Could it be, he asked himself +more than once, that the tall stately picture of Hilda Tregellis +was overshadowing in his heart the natural photograph of that +unwedded Edie Oswald that he once imagined was so firmly imprinted +there? Ah well, ah well, it may be true that a man can love really +but once in his whole lifetime; and yet, the second spurious +imitation is positively sometimes a very good facsimile of the +genuine first impression, for all that. + +As the months went slowly round, too, the time came in the end for +good Herr Max to be released at last from his long imprisonment. +On the day that he came out, there was a public banquet at the +Marylebone dancing saloon; and all the socialists and communards +were there, and all the Russian nihilists, and all the other +wicked revolutionary plotters in all London: and in the chair sat +Ernest Le Breton, now the editor of an important social paper, while +at his left hand, to balance the guest of the evening, sat Arthur +Berkeley, the well-known dramatic author, who was himself more than +suspected of being the timid Nicodemus of the new faith. And when +Ernest announced that Herr Schurz had consented to aid him on the +'Social Reformer,' and to add the wisdom of age to the impetuosity +of youth in conducting its future, the simple enthusiasm of the wicked +revolutionists knew no bounds. And they cried 'Hoch!' and 'Viva!' +and 'Hooray!' and many other like inarticulate shouts in many +varieties of interjectional dialect all the evening; and everybody +agreed that after all Herr Max was VERY little grayer than before +the trial, in spite of his long and terrible term of imprisonment. + +He WAS a little embittered by his troubles, no doubt;--what can +you expect if you clap men in prison for the expression of their +honest political convictions?--but Ernest tried to keep his eye +steadily rather on the future than on the past; and with greater +ease and unwonted comforts the old man's cheerfulness as well as +his enthusiasm gradually returned. 'I'm too old now to do anything +more worth doing myself before I die,' he used to say, holding +Ernest's arm tightly in his vice-like grip: 'but I have great hopes +in spite of everything for friend Ernest; I have very great hopes +indeed for friend Ernest here. There's no knowing yet what he may +accomplish.' + +Ernest only smiled a trifle sadly, and murmured half to himself that +this was a hard world, and he began himself to fear there was no +fitting feeling for a social reformer except one of a brave despair. +'We can do little or nothing, after all,' he said slowly; 'and +our only consolation must be that even that little is perhaps just +worth doing.' + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +LAND AT LAST: BUT WHAT LAND? + + +Long before the 'Social Reformer' had fully made its mark in the +world, another event had happened of no less importance to some +of the chief actors in the little drama whose natural termination +it seemed to form. While the pamphlet and the paper were in course +of maturation, Arthur Berkeley had been running daily in and out +of the house in Wilton Place in what Lady Exmoor several times +described as a positively disgraceful and unseemly manner. ('What +Hilda can mean,' her ladyship observed to her husband more than +once, 'by encouraging that odd young man's extraordinary advances +in the way she does is really more than I can understand even in +her.') But when the Le Bretons were fairly launched at last on the +favourable flood of full prosperity, both Hilda and Arthur began to +feel as though they had suddenly been deprived of a very pleasant +common interest. After all, benevolent counsel on behalf of other +people is not so entirely innocent and impersonal in certain cases +as it seems to be at first sight. 'Do you know, Lady Hilda,' +Berkeley said one afternoon, when he had come to pay, as it were, +a sort of farewell visit, on the final completion of their joint +schemes for restoring happiness to the home of the Le Bretons, +'our intercourse together has been very delightful, and I'm quite +sorry to think that in future we must see so much less of one another +than we've been in the habit of doing for the last month or so.' + +Hilda looked at him straight and said in her own frank unaffected +fashion, 'So am I, Mr. Berkeley, very sorry, very sorry indeed.' + +Arthur looked back at her once more, and their eyes met. His +look was full of admiration, and Hilda saw it. She moved a little +uneasily upon the ottoman, waiting apparently as though she expected +Arthur to say something else. But Arthur looked at her long and +steadfastly, and said nothing. + +At last he seemed to wake from his reverie, and make up his mind +for a desperate venture. Could he be mistaken? Could he have read +either record wrong--his own heart, or Hilda's eyes? No, no, both +of them spoke to him too plainly and evidently. His heart was +fluttering like a wind-shaken aspen-leaf; and Hilda's eyes were +dimming visibly with a tender moisture. Yes, yes, yes, there was +no misreading possible. He knew he loved her! he knew she loved +him! + +Bending over towards where Hilda sat, he took her hand in +his dreamily: and Hilda let him take it without a movement. Then +he looked deeply into her eyes, and felt a curious speechlessness +coming over him, deep down in the ball of his throat. + +'Lady Hilda,' he began at last with an effort, in a low voice, not +wholly untinged with natural timidity, 'Lady Hilda, is a working +man's son----' + +Hilda looked back at him with a sudden look of earnest deprecation. +'Not that way, Mr. Berkeley,' she said quietly: 'not that way, +please: you'll hurt me if you do: you know that's not the way _I_ +look at the matter. Why not simply "Hilda"?' + +Berkeley clasped her hand eagerly and raised it to his lips. 'Hilda, +then,' he said, kissing it twice over. 'It SHALL be Hilda.' + +Hilda rose and stood before him erect in all her queenlike beauty. +'So now that's settled,' she said, with a vain endeavour to control +her tears of joy. 'Don't let's talk about it any more, now; I can't +bear to talk about it: there's nothing to arrange, Arthur. Whenever +you like will suit me. But, oh, I'm so happy, so happy, so happy--I +never thought I could be so happy.' + +'Nor I,' Arthur answered, holding her hand a moment in his tenderly. + +'How strange,' Hilda said again, after a minute's delicious silence; +'it's the poor Le Bretons who have brought us two thus together. +And yet, they were both once our dearest rivals. YOU were in love +with Edie Le Breton: _I_ was half in love with Ernest Le Breton: +and now--why, now, Arthur, I DO believe we're both utterly in love +with one another. What a curious little comedy of errors!' + +'And yet only a few months ago it came very near being a tragedy, +rather,' Arthur put in softly. + +'Never mind!' Hilda answered in her brightest and most joyous tone, +as she wiped the joyful tears from her eyes. 'It isn't a tragedy, +now, after all, Arthur, and all's well that ends well!' + +When the Countess heard of Hilda's determination--Hilda didn't +pretend to go through the domestic farce of asking her mother's +consent to her approaching marriage--she said that so far as she +was concerned a more shocking or un-Christian piece of conduct on +the part of a well-brought-up girl had never yet been brought to +her knowledge. To refuse Lord Connemara, and then go and marry the +son of a common cobbler! But the Earl only puffed away vigorously +at his cheroot, and observed philosophically that for his part he +just considered himself jolly well out of it. This young fellow +Berkeley mightn't be a man of the sort of family Hilda would +naturally expect to marry into, but he was decently educated and +in good society, and above all, a gentleman, you know, don't you +know: and, hang it all, in these days that's really everything. +Besides, Berkeley was making a pot of money out of these operas +of his, the Earl understood, and as he had always expected that +Hilda'd marry some penniless painter or somebody of that sort, and +be a perpetual drag upon the family exchequer, he really didn't see +why they need trouble their heads very much about it. By George, +if it came to that, he rather congratulated himself that the girl +hadn't taken it into her nonsensical head to run away with the groom +or the stable-boy! As to Lynmouth, he merely remarked succinctly in +his own dialect, 'Go it, Hilda, go it, my beauty! You always were +a one-er, you know, and it's my belief you always will be.' + +It was somewhere about the same time that Ronald Le Breton, coming +back gladdened in soul from a cheerful talk with Ernest, called +round of an evening in somewhat unwonted exultation at Selah's +lodgings. 'Selah,' he said to her calmly, as she met him at the door +to let him in herself, 'I want to have a little talk with you.' + +'What is it about, Ronald?' Selah asked, with a perfect consciousness +in her own mind of what the subject he wished to discourse about +was likely to be. + +'Why, Selah,' Ronald went on in his quiet, matter-of-fact, unobtrusive +manner, 'do you know, I think we may fairly consider Ernest and +Edie out of danger now.' + +'I hope so, Ronald,' Selah answered imperturbably. 'I've no doubt +your brother'll get along all right in future, and I'm sure at least +that he's getting stronger, for he looks ten per cent. better than +he did three months ago.' + +'Well, Selah!' + +'Well, Ronald!' + +'Why, in that case, you see, your objection falls to the ground. +There can be no possible reason on either side why you should any +longer put off marrying me. We needn't consider Edie now; and you +can't have any reasonable doubt that I want to marry you for your +own sake this time.' + +'What a nuisance the man is!' Selah cried impetuously. 'Always +bothering a body out of her nine senses to go and marry him. Have +you never read what Paul says, that it's good for the unmarried +and widows to abide? He was always dead against the advisability +of marriage, Paul was.' + +'Brother Paul was an able and earnest preacher,' Ronald murmured +gravely, 'from whose authority I should be sorry to dissent except +for sufficient and weighty reason; but you must admit that on this +particular question he was prejudiced, Selah, decidedly prejudiced, +and that the balance of the best opinion goes distinctly the other +way.' + +Selah laughed lightly. 'Oh, does it?' she said, in her provoking, +mocking manner. 'Then you propose to marry me, I suppose, on the +balance of the best Scriptural opinion.' + +'Not at all, Selah,' Ronald replied without a touch of anything +but grave earnestness in his tone--it must be admitted Ronald was +distinctly lacking in the sense of humour. 'Not at all, I assure +you. I propose to marry you because I love you, and I believe in +your heart of hearts you love me, too, you provoking girl, though +you're too proud or too incomprehensible ever to acknowledge it.' + +'And even if I do?' Selah asked. 'What then?' + +'Why, then, Selah,' Ronald answered confidently, taking her hand +boldly in his own and actually kissing her--yes, kissing her; 'why, +then, Selah, suppose we say Monday fortnight?' + +'It's awfully soon,' Selah replied, half grumbling. 'You don't give +a body time to think it over.' + +'Certainly not,' Ronald responded, quickly, taking the handsome +face firmly between his two spare hands, and kissing her lips half +a dozen times over in rapid succession. + +'Let me go, Ronald,' Selah cried, struggling to be free, and trying +in vain to tear down his thin wiry arms with her own strong shapely +hands. 'Let me go at once,--there's a good boy, and I'll marry you +on Monday fortnight, or do anything else you like, just to keep +you quiet. After all, you're a kind-hearted fellow enough, and you +want looking after and taking care of, and if you insist upon it, +I don't mind giving way to you in this small matter.' + +Ronald stepped back a pace or two, and stood looking at her a little +sadly with his hands folded. 'Oh, Selah,' he cried in a tone of +bitter disappointment, 'don't speak like that to me, don't, please. +Don't, don't tell me that you don't really love me--that you're +going to marry me for nothing else but out of mere compassion for +my weakness and helplessness!' + +Selah burst at once into a wild flood of uncontrollable tears: 'Oh, +Ronald,' she cried in her old almost fiercely passionate manner, +flinging her arms around his neck and covering him with kisses; +'Oh, Ronald, how can you ever ask me whether I really really love +you! You know I love you! You know I love you! You've given me back +life and everything that's dear in it, and I never want to live +for anything any longer except to love you, and wait upon you, +and make you happy. I'm stronger than you, Ronald, and I shall be +able to do a little to make you happy, I do believe. My ways are +not your ways, nor my thoughts your thoughts, my darling; but I +love you all the better for that, Ronald, I love you all the better +for that; and if you were to kick me, beat me, trample on me now, +Ronald, I should love you, love you, love you for ever still.' + +So they two were quietly married, with no audience save Ernest and +Edie, on that very Monday fortnight. + +When Herbert Le Breton heard of it from his mother a few days later, +he went home at once to his own eminently cultured home and told +Mrs. Le Breton the news, of course without much detailed allusion +to Selah's earlier antecedents. 'And do you know, Ethel,' he added +significantly, 'I think it was an excellent thing that you decided +not to call after all upon Ernest's wife, for I'm sure it'll be +a great deal safer for you and me to have nothing to say in any +way to the whole faction of them. A greengrocer's daughter, you +know--quite unpresentable. They'll be all mixed up together in +future, which'll make it quite impossible to know the one without +at the same time knowing the other. Now, it'd be just practicable +for you to call upon Mrs. Ernest, I must admit, but to call upon +Mrs. Ronald would be really and truly too inconceivable.' + +At the end of the first year of the 'Social Reformer,' the annual +balance was duly audited, and it showed a very considerable and +solid surplus to go into the pocket of the enterprising Radical +proprietor. Ernest and Herr Max scanned it closely together, and +even Ernest could not refrain from a smile of pleasure when he saw +how thoroughly successful the doubtful venture had finally turned +out. 'And yet,' he said regretfully, as he looked at the heavy +balance-sheet, 'what a strange occupation after all for the author +of "Gold and the Proletariate," to be looking carefully over the +sum-total of a capitalist's final balance! To think, too, that all +that money has come out of the hard-earned scraped-up pennies of +the toiling poor! I often wish, Herr Max, that even so I had been +brought up an honest shoemaker! But whether I'm really earning my +salt at the hands of humanity now or not is a deep problem I often +have many an uncomfortable internal sigh over to this day.' + +'There is work and work, friend Ernest,' Herr Max answered, as gently +as had been his wont in older years; 'and for my part it seems to +me you are better here writing your Social Reformers than making +shoes for a single generation. One man builds for to-day, another +man builds for to-morrow; and he that plants a fruit tree for his +children to eat of is doing as much good work in the world as he +that sows the corn in spring to be reaped and eaten at this autumn's +harvest.' + +'Perhaps so,' Ernest answered softly. 'I wish I could think so. +But after all I'm not quite sure whether, if we had all starved +eighteen months ago together, as seemed so likely then, it wouldn't +have been the most right thing in the end that could possibly have +happened to all of us. As things are constituted now, there seems +only one life that's really worth living for an honest man, and +that's a martyr's. A martyr's or else a worker's. And I, I greatly +fear, have managed somehow to miss being either. The wind carries +us this way and that, and when we would do that which is right, it +drifts us away incontinently into that which is only profitable.' + +'Dear Ernest,' Edie cried in her bright old-fashioned manner from +the ofice door, 'Dot has come in her new frock to bring Daddy home +for her birthday dinner as she was promised. Come quick, or your +little daughter'll be very angry with you. And Lady Hilda Berkeley +has come, too, to drive us back in her own brougham. Now don't +be a silly, there's a dear, or say that you can't drive away from +the office of the "Social Reformer" in Lady Hilda's brougham!' + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PHILISTIA *** + +This file should be named 7phls10.txt or 7phls10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7phls11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7phls10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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