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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7656.txt b/7656.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..527a50a --- /dev/null +++ b/7656.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1819 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Kenelm Chillingly, by E. B. Lytton, Book 7 +#84 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +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: Kenelm Chillingly, Book 7. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7656] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 25, 2004] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILLINGLY, LYTTON, BOOK 7 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Dagny, +and David Widger, + + + + +BOOK VII. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +KENELM did not return home till dusk, and just as he was sitting down +to his solitary meal there was a ring at the bell, and Mrs. Jones +ushered in Mr. Thomas Bowles. + +Though that gentleman had never written to announce the day of his +arrival, he was not the less welcome. + +"Only," said Kenelm, "if you preserve the appetite I have lost, I fear +you will find meagre fare to-day. Sit down, man." + +"Thank you, kindly, but I dined two hours ago in London, and I really +can eat nothing more." + +Kenelm was too well-bred to press unwelcome hospitalities. In a very +few minutes his frugal repast was ended; the cloth removed, the two +men were left alone. + +"Your room is here, of course, Tom; that was engaged from the day I +asked you, but you ought to have given me a line to say when to expect +you, so that I could have put our hostess on her mettle as to dinner +or supper. You smoke still, of course: light your pipe." + +"Thank you, Mr. Chillingly, I seldom smoke now; but if you will excuse +a cigar," and Tom produced a very smart cigar-case. + +"Do as you would at home. I shall send word to Will Somers that you +and I sup there to-morrow. You forgive me for letting out your +secret. All straightforward now and henceforth. You come to their +hearth as a friend, who will grow dearer to them both every year. Ah, +Tom, this love for woman seems to me a very wonderful thing. It may +sink a man into such deeps of evil, and lift a man into such heights +of good." + +"I don't know as to the good," said Tom, mournfully, and laying aside +his cigar. + +"Go on smoking: I should like to keep you company; can you spare me +one of your cigars?" + +Tom offered his case. Kenelm extracted a cigar, lighted it, drew a +few whiffs, and, when he saw that Tom had resumed his own cigar, +recommenced conversation. + +"You don't know as to the good; but tell me honestly, do you think if +you had not loved Jessie Wiles, you would be as good a man as you are +now?" + +"If I am better than I was, it is not because of my love for the +girl." + +"What then?" + +"The loss of her." + +Kenelm started, turned very pale, threw aside the cigar, rose, and +walked the room to and fro with very quick but very irregular strides. + +Tom continued quietly. "Suppose I had won Jessie and married her, I +don't think any idea of improving myself would have entered my head. +My uncle would have been very much offended at my marrying a +day-labourer's daughter, and would not have invited me to Luscombe. I +should have remained at Graveleigh, with no ambition of being more +than a common farrier, an ignorant, noisy, quarrelsome man; and if I +could not have made Jessie as fond of me as I wished, I should not +have broken myself of drinking, and I shudder to think what a brute I +might have been, when I see in the newspapers an account of some +drunken wife-beater. How do we know but what that wife-beater loved +his wife dearly before marriage, and she did not care for him? His +home was unhappy, and so he took to drink and to wife-beating." + +"I was right, then," said Kenelm, halting his strides, when I told you +it would be a miserable fate to be married to a girl whom you loved to +distraction, and whose heart you could never warm to you, whose life +you could never render happy." + +"So right!" + +"Let us drop that part of the subject at present," said Kenelm, +reseating himself, "and talk about your wish to travel. Though +contented that you did not marry Jessie, though you can now, without +anguish, greet her as the wife of another, still there are some +lingering thoughts of her that make you restless; and you feel that +you could more easily wrench yourself from these thoughts in a marked +change of scene and adventure, that you might bury them altogether in +the soil of a strange land. Is it so?" + +"Ay, something of that, sir." + +Then Kenelm roused himself to talk of foreign lands, and to map out a +plan of travel that might occupy some months. He was pleased to find +that Tom had already learned enough of French to make himself +understood at least upon commonplace matters, and still more pleased +to discover that he had been not only reading the proper guide-books +or manuals descriptive of the principal places in Europe worth +visiting, but that he had acquired an interest in the places; interest +in the fame attached to them by their history in the past, or by the +treasures of art they contained. + +So they talked far into the night; and when Tom retired to his room, +Kenelm let himself out of the house noiselessly, and walked with slow +steps towards the old summer-house in which he had sat with Lily. The +wind had risen, scattering the clouds that had veiled the preceding +day, so that the stars were seen in far chasms of the sky +beyond,--seen for a while in one place, and, when the swift clouds +rolled over them there, shining out elsewhere. Amid the varying +sounds of the trees, through which swept the night gusts, Kenelm +fancied he could distinguish the sigh of the willow on the opposite +lawn of Grasmere. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +KENELM despatched a note to Will Somers early the next morning, +inviting himself and Mr. Bowles to supper that evening. His tact was +sufficient to make him aware that in such social meal there would be +far less restraint for each and all concerned than in a more formal +visit from Tom during the day-time; and when Jessie, too, was engaged +with customers to the shop. + +But he led Tom through the town and showed him the shop itself, with +its pretty goods at the plate-glass windows, and its general air of +prosperous trade; then he carried him off into the lanes and fields of +the country, drawing out the mind of his companion, and impressed with +great admiration of its marked improvement in culture, and in the +trains of thought which culture opens out and enriches. + +But throughout all their multiform range of subject Kenelm could +perceive that Tom was still preoccupied and abstracted: the idea of +the coming interview with Jessie weighed upon him. + +When they left Cromwell Lodge at nightfall, to repair to the supper at +Will's; Kenelm noticed that Bowles had availed himself of the contents +of his carpet-bag to make some refined alterations in his dress. The +alterations became him. + +When they entered the parlour, Will rose from his chair with the +evidence of deep emotion on his face, advanced to Tom, took his hand +and grasped and dropped it without a word. Jessie saluted both guests +alike, with drooping eyelids and an elaborate curtsy. The old mother +alone was perfectly self-possessed and up to the occasion. + +"I am heartily glad to see you, Mr. Bowles," said she, "and so all +three of us are, and ought to be; and if baby was older, there would +be four." + +"And where on earth have you hidden baby?" cried Kenelm. "Surely he +might have been kept up for me to-night, when I was expected; the last +time I supped here I took you by surprise, and therefore had no right +to complain of baby's want of respect to her parents' friends." + +Jessie raised the window-curtain, and pointed to the cradle behind it. +Kenelm linked his arm in Tom's, led him to the cradle, and, leaving +him alone to gaze on the sleeping inmate, seated himself at the table, +between old Mrs. Somers and Will. Will's eyes were turned away +towards the curtain, Jessie holding its folds aside, and the +formidable Tom, who had been the terror of his neighbourhood, bending +smiling over the cradle: till at last he laid his large hand on the +pillow, gently, timidly, careful not to awake the helpless sleeper, +and his lips moved, doubtless with a blessing; then he, too, came to +the table, seating himself, and Jessie carried the cradle upstairs. + +Will fixed his keen, intelligent eyes on his bygone rival; and +noticing the changed expression of the once aggressive countenance, +the changed costume in which, without tinge of rustic foppery, there +was the token of a certain gravity of station scarcely compatible with +a return to old loves and old habits in the village world, the last +shadow of jealousy vanished from the clear surface of Will's +affectionate nature. + +"Mr. Bowles," he exclaimed, impulsively, "you have a kind heart, and a +good heart, and a generous heart. And your corning here to-night on +this friendly visit is an honour which--which"--"Which," interrupted +Kenelm, compassionating Will's embarrassment, "is on the side of us +single men. In this free country a married man who has a male baby +may be father to the Lord Chancellor or the Archbishop of Canterbury. +But--well, my friends, such a meeting as we have to-night does not +come often; and after supper let us celebrate it with a bowl of punch. +If we have headaches the next morning none of us will grumble." + +Old Mrs. Somers laughed out jovially. "Bless you, sir, I did not +think of the punch; I will go and see about it," and, baby's socks +still in her hands, she hastened from the room. + +What with the supper, what with the punch, and what with Kenelm's art +of cheery talk on general subjects, all reserve, all awkwardness, all +shyness between the convivialists, rapidly disappeared. Jessie +mingled in the talk; perhaps (excepting only Kenelm) she talked more +than the others, artlessly, gayly, no vestige of the old coquetry; +but, now and then, with a touch of genteel finery, indicative of her +rise in life, and of the contact of the fancy shopkeeper with noble +customers. It was a pleasant evening; Kenelm had resolved that it +should be so. Not a hint of the obligations to Mr. Bowles escaped +until Will, following his visitor to the door, whispered to Tom, "You +don't want thanks, and I can't express them. But when we say our +prayers at night, we have always asked God to bless him who brought us +together, and has since made us so prosperous,--I mean Mr. Chillingly. +To-night there will be another besides him, for whom we shall pray, +and for whom baby, when he is older, will pray too." + +Therewith Will's voice thickened; and he prudently receded, with no +unreasonable fear lest the punch might make him too demonstrative of +emotion if he said more. + +Tom was very silent on the return to Cromwell Lodge; it did not seem +the silence of depressed spirits, but rather of quiet meditation, from +which Kenelm did not attempt to rouse him. + +It was not till they reached the garden pales of Grasmere that Tom, +stopping short, and turning his face to Kenelm, said, "I am very +grateful to you for this evening,--very." + +"It has revived no painful thoughts then?" + +"No; I feel so much calmer in mind than I ever believed I could have +been, after seeing her again." + +"Is it possible!" said Kenelm, to himself. "How should I feel if I +ever saw in Lily the wife of another man, the mother of his child?" +At that question he shuddered, and an involuntary groan escaped from +his lips. Just then having, willingly in those precincts, arrested +his steps when Tom paused to address him, something softly touched the +arm which he had rested on the garden pale. He looked, and saw that +it was Blanche. The creature, impelled by its instincts towards +night-wanderings, had, somehow or other, escaped from its own bed +within the house, and hearing a voice that had grown somewhat familiar +to its ear, crept from among the shrubs behind upon the edge of the +pale. There it stood, with arched back, purring low as in pleased +salutation. + +Kenelm bent down and covered with kisses the blue ribbon which Lily's +hand had bound round the favourite's neck. Blanche submitted to the +caress for a moment, and then catching a slight rustle among the +shrubs made by some awaking bird, sprang into the thick of the +quivering leaves and vanished. + +Kenelm moved on with a quick impatient stride, and no further words +were exchanged between him and his companion till they reached their +lodging and parted for the night. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE next day, towards noon, Kenelm and his visitor, walking together +along the brook-side, stopped before Izaak Walton's summer-house, and, +at Kenelm's suggestion, entered therein to rest, and more at their +ease to continue the conversation they had begun. + +"You have just told me," said Kenelm, "that you feel as if a load were +taken off your heart, now that you have again met Jessie Somers, and +that you find her so changed that she is no longer the woman you +loved. As to the change, whatever it be, I own, it seems to me for +the better, in person, in manners, in character; of course I should +not say this, if I were not convinced of your perfect sincerity when +you assured me that you are cured of the old wound. But I feel so +deeply interested in the question how a fervent love, once entertained +and enthroned in the heart of a man so earnestly affectionate and so +warm-blooded as yourself, can be, all of a sudden, at a single +interview, expelled or transferred into the calm sentiment of +friendship, that I pray you to explain." + +"That is what puzzles me, sir," answered Tom, passing his hand over +his forehead. "And I don't know if I can explain it. + +"Think over it, and try." + +Tom mused for some moments and then began. "You see, sir, that I was +a very different man myself when I fell in love with Jessie Wiles, and +said, 'Come what may, that girl shall be my wife. Nobody else shall +have her.'" + +"Agreed; go on." + +"But while I was becoming a different man, when I thought of her--and +I was always thinking of her--I still pictured her to myself as the +same Jessie Wiles; and though, when I did see her again at Graveleigh, +after she had married--the day--" + +"You saved her from the insolence of the Squire." + +"She was but very recently married. I did not realize her as married. +I did not see her husband, and the difference within myself was only +then beginning. Well, so all the time I was reading and thinking, and +striving to improve my old self at Luscombe, still Jessie Wiles +haunted me as the only girl I had ever loved, ever could love; I could +not believe it possible that I could ever marry any one else. And +lately I have been much pressed to marry some one else; all my family +wish it: but the face of Jessie rose up before me, and I said to +myself, 'I should be a base man if I married one woman, while I could +not get another woman out of my head.' I must see Jessie once more, +must learn whether her face is now really the face that haunts me when +I sit alone; and I have seen her, and it is not that face: it may be +handsomer, but it is not a girl's face, it is the face of a wife and a +mother. And, last evening, while she was talking with an +open-heartedness which I had never found in her before, I became +strangely conscious of the difference in myself that had been silently +at work within the last two years or so. Then, sir, when I was but an +ill-conditioned, uneducated, petty village farrier, there was no +inequality between me and a peasant girl; or, rather, in all things +except fortune, the peasant girl was much above me. But last evening +I asked myself, watching her and listening to her talk, 'If Jessie +were now free, should I press her to be my wife?' and I answered +myself, 'No.'" + +Kenelm listened with rapt attention, and exclaimed briefly, but +passionately, "Why?" + +"It seems as if I were giving myself airs to say why. But, sir, +lately I have been thrown among persons, women as well as men, of a +higher class than I was born in; and in a wife I should want a +companion up to their mark, and who would keep me up to mine; and ah, +sir, I don't feel as if I could find that companion in Mrs. Somers." + +"I understand you now, Tom. But you are spoiling a silly romance of +mine. I had fancied the little girl with the flower face would grow +up to supply the loss of Jessie; and, I am so ignorant of the human +heart, I did think it would take all the years required for the little +girl to open into a woman, before the loss of the old love could be +supplied. I see now that the poor little child with the flower face +has no chance." + +"Chance? Why, Mr. Chillingly," cried Tom, evidently much nettled, +"Susey is a dear little thing, but she is scarcely more than a mere +charity girl. Sir, when I last saw you in London you touched on that +matter as if I were still the village farrier's son, who might marry a +village labourer's daughter. But," added Tom, softening down his +irritated tone of voice, "even if Susey were a lady born I think a man +would make a very great mistake, if he thought he could bring up a +little girl to regard him as a father; and then, when she grew up, +expect her to accept him as a lover." + +"Ah, you think that!" exclaimed Kenelm, eagerly, and turning eyes that +sparkled with joy towards the lawn of Grasmere. "You think that; it +is very sensibly said,--well, and you have been pressed to marry, and +have hung back till you had seen again Mrs. Somers. Now you will be +better disposed to such a step; tell me about it?" + +"I said, last evening, that one of the principal capitalists at +Luscombe, the leading corn-merchant, had offered to take me into +partnership. And, sir, he has an only daughter, she is a very amiable +girl, has had a first-rate education, and has such pleasant manners +and way of talk, quite a lady. If I married her I should soon be the +first man in Luscombe, and Luscombe, as you are no doubt aware, +returns two members to Parliament; who knows, but that some day the +farrier's son might be--" Tom stopped abruptly, abashed at the +aspiring thought which, while speaking, had deepened his hardy colour +and flashed from his honest eyes. + +"Ah!" said Kenelm, almost mournfully, "is it so? must each man in his +life play many parts? Ambition succeeds to love, the reasoning brain +to the passionate heart. True, you are changed; my Tom Bowles is +gone." + +"Not gone in his undying gratitude to you, sir," said Tom, with great +emotion. "Your Tom Bowles would give up all his dreams of wealth or +of rising in life, and go through fire and water to serve the friend +who first bid him be a new Tom Bowles! Don't despise me as your own +work: you said to me that terrible day, when madness was on my brow +and crime within my heart, 'I will be to you the truest friend man +ever found in man.' So you have been. You commanded me to read; you +commanded me to think; you taught me that body should be the servant +of mind." + +"Hush, hush, times are altered; it is you who can teach me now. Teach +me, teach me; how does ambition replace love? How does the desire to +rise in life become the all-mastering passion, and, should it prosper, +the all-atoning consolation of our life? We can never be as happy, +though we rose to the throne of the Caesars, as we dream that we could +have been, had Heaven but permitted us to dwell in the obscurest +village, side by side with the woman we love." + +Tom was exceedingly startled by such a burst of irrepressible passion +from the man who had told him that, though friends were found only +once in a life, sweethearts were as plentiful as blackberries. + +Again he swept his hand over his forehead, and replied hesitatingly: I +can't pretend to say what maybe the case with others. But to judge by +my own case, it seems to me this: a young man who, out of his own +business, has nothing to interest or excite him, finds content, +interest, and excitement when he falls in love; and then, whether for +good or ill, he thinks there is nothing like love in the world, he +don't care a fig for ambition then. Over and over again did my poor +uncle ask me to come to him at Luscombe, and represent all the worldly +advantage it would be to me; but I could not leave the village in +which Jessie lived, and, besides, I felt myself unfit to be anything +higher than I was. But when I had been some time at Luscombe, and +gradually got accustomed to another sort of people, and another sort +of talk, then I began to feel interest in the same objects that +interested those about me; and when, partly by mixing with better +educated men, and partly by the pains I took to educate myself, I felt +that I might now more easily rise above my uncle's rank of life than +two years ago I could have risen above a farrier's forge, then the +ambition to rise did stir in me, and grew stronger every day. Sir, I +don't think you can wake up a man's intellect but what you wake with +it emulation. And, after all, emulation is ambition." + +"Then, I suppose, I have no emulation in me, for certainly I have no +ambition." + +"That I can't believe, sir; other thoughts may cover it over and keep +it down for a time. But sooner or later, it will force its way to the +top, as it has done with me. To get on in life, to be respected by +those who know you, more and more as you grow older, I call that a +manly desire. I am sure it comes as naturally to an Englishman +as--as--" + +"As the wish to knock down some other Englishman who stands in his way +does. I perceive now that you were always a very ambitious man, Tom; +the ambition has only taken another direction. Caesar might have been + + + "'But the first wrestler on the green.' + + +"And now, I suppose, you abandon the idea of travel: you will return to +Luscombe, cured of all regret for the loss of Jessie; you will marry +the young lady you mention, and rise, through progressive steps of +alderman and mayor, into the rank of member for Luscombe." + +"All that may come in good time," answered Tom, not resenting the tone +of irony in which he was addressed, "but I still intend to travel: a +year so spent must render me all the more fit for any station I aim +at. I shall go back to Luscombe to arrange my affairs, come to terms +with Mr. Leland the corn-merchant, against my return, and--" + +"The young lady is to wait till then." + +"Emily--" + +"Oh, that is the name? Emily! a much more elegant name than Jessie." + +"Emily," continued Tom, with an unruffled placidity,--which, +considering the aggravating bitterness for which Kenelm had exchanged +his wonted dulcitudes of indifferentism, was absolutely saintlike, +"Emily knows that if she were my wife I should be proud of her, and +will esteem me the more if she feels how resolved I am that she shall +never be ashamed of me." + +"Pardon me, Tom," said Kenelm softened, and laying his hand on his +friend's shoulder with brotherlike tenderness. "Nature has made you a +thorough gentleman; and you could not think and speak more nobly if +you had come into the world as the head of all the Howards." + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +TOM went away the next morning. He declined to see Jessie again, +saying curtly, "I don't wish the impression made on me the other +evening to incur a chance of being weakened." + +Kenelm was in no mood to regret his friend's departure. Despite all +the improvement in Tom's manners and culture, which raised him so much +nearer to equality with the polite and instructed heir of the +Chillinglys, Kenelm would have felt more in sympathy and rapport with +the old disconsolate fellow-wanderer who had reclined with him on the +grass, listening to the minstrel's talk or verse, than he did with the +practical, rising citizen of Luscombe. To the young lover of Lily +Mordaunt there was a discord, a jar, in the knowledge that the human +heart admits of such well-reasoned, well-justified transfers of +allegiance; a Jessie to-day, or an Emily to-morrow; "La reine est +morte: vive la reine" + +An hour or two after Tom had gone, Kenelm found himself almost +mechanically led towards Braefieldville. He had instinctively divined +Elsie's secret wish with regard to himself and Lily, however skilfully +she thought she had concealed it. + +At Braefieldville he should hear talk of Lily, and in the scenes where +Lily had been first beheld. + +He found Mrs. Braefield alone in the drawing-room, seated by a table +covered with flowers, which she was assorting and intermixing for the +vases to which they were destined. + +It struck him that her manner was more reserved than usual and +somewhat embarrassed; and when, after a few preliminary matters of +small talk, he rushed boldly /in medias res/ and asked if she had seen +Mrs. Cameron lately, she replied briefly, "Yes, I called there the +other day," and immediately changed the conversation to the troubled +state of the Continent. + +Kenelm was resolved not to be so put off, and presently returned to +the charge. + +"The other day you proposed an excursion to the site of the Roman +villa, and said you would ask Mrs. Cameron to be of the party. +Perhaps you have forgotten it?" + +"No; but Mrs. Cameron declines. We can ask the Emlyns instead. He +will be an excellent /cicerone/." + +"Excellent! Why did Mrs. Cameron decline?" + +Elsie hesitated, and then lifted her clear brown eyes to his face, +with a sudden determination to bring matters to a crisis. + +"I cannot say why Mrs. Cameron declined, but in declining she acted +very wisely and very honourably. Listen to me, Mr. Chillingly. You +know how highly I esteem, and how cordially I like you, and judging by +what I felt for some weeks, perhaps longer, after we parted at Tor +Hadham--" Here again she hesitated, and, with a half laugh and a +slight blush, again went resolutely on. "If I were Lily's aunt or +elder sister, I should do as Mrs. Cameron does; decline to let Lily +see much more of a young gentleman too much above her in wealth and +station for--" + +"Stop," cried Kenelm, haughtily, "I cannot allow that any man's wealth +or station would warrant his presumption in thinking himself above +Miss Mordaunt." + +"Above her in natural grace and refinement, certainly not. But in the +world there are other considerations which, perhaps, Sir Peter and +Lady Chillingly might take into account." + +"You did not think of that before you last saw Mrs. Cameron." + +"Honestly speaking, I did not. Assured that Miss Mordaunt was a +gentlewoman by birth, I did not sufficiently reflect upon other +disparities." + +"You know, then, that she is by birth a gentlewoman?" + +"I only know it as all here do, by the assurance of Mrs. Cameron, whom +no one could suppose not to be a lady. But there are different +degrees of lady and of gentleman, which are little heeded in the +ordinary intercourse of society, but become very perceptible in +questions of matrimonial alliance; and Mrs. Cameron herself says very +plainly that she does not consider her niece to belong to that station +in life from which Sir Peter and Lady Chillingly would naturally wish +their son should select his bride. Then (holding out her hand) pardon +me if I have wounded or offended you. I speak as a true friend to you +and to Lily both. Earnestly I advise you, if Miss Mordaunt be the +cause of your lingering here, earnestly I advise you to leave while +yet in time for her peace of mind and your own." + +"Her peace of mind," said Kenelm, in low faltering tones, scarcely +hearing the rest of Mrs. Braefield's speech. "Her peace of mind? Do +you sincerely think that she cares for me,--could care for me,--if I +stayed?" + +"I wish I could answer you decidedly. I am not in the secrets of her +heart. I can but conjecture that it might be dangerous for the peace +of any young girl to see too much of a man like yourself, to divine +that he loved her, and not to be aware that he could not, with the +approval of his family, ask her to become his wife." + +Kenelm bent his face down, and covered it with his right hand. He did +not speak for some moments. Then he rose, the fresh cheek very pale, +and said,-- + +"You are right. Miss Mordaunt's peace of mind must be the first +consideration. Excuse me if I quit you thus abruptly. You have given +me much to think of, and I can only think of it adequately when +alone." + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +FROM KENELM CHILLINGLY TO SIR PETER CHILLINGLY. + + +MY FATHER, MY DEAR FATHER,--This is no reply to your letters. I know +not if itself can be called a letter. I cannot yet decide whether it +be meant to reach your hands. Tired with talking to myself, I sit +down to talk to you. Often have I reproached myself for not seeing +every fitting occasion to let you distinctly know how warmly I love, +how deeply I reverence you; you, O friend, O father. But we +Chillinglys are not a demonstrative race. I don't remember that you, +by words, ever expressed to me the truth that you loved your son +infinitely more than he deserves. Yet, do I not know that you would +send all your beloved old books to the hammer rather than I should +pine in vain for some untried, if sinless, delight on which I had set +my heart? And do you not know equally well, that I would part with +all my heritage, and turn day-labourer, rather than you should miss +the beloved old books? + +That mutual knowledge is taken for granted in all that my heart yearns +to pour forth to your own. But, if I divine aright, a day is coming +when, as between you and me, there must be a sacrifice on the part of +one to the other. If so, I implore that the sacrifice may come from +you. How is this? How am I so ungenerous, so egotistical, so +selfish, so ungratefully unmindful of all I already owe to you, and +may never repay? I can only answer, "It is fate, it is nature, it is +love "-- + + . . . . . . . . . + +Here I must break off. It is midnight, the moon halts opposite to the +window at which I sit, and on the stream that runs below there is a +long narrow track on which every wave trembles in her light; on either +side of the moonlit track all the other waves, running equally to +their grave in the invisible deep, seem motionless and dark. I can +write no more. + + . . . . . . . . . + + (Dated two days later.) + +They say she is beneath us in wealth and station. Are we, my +father--we, two well-born gentlemen--coveters of gold or lackeys of +the great? When I was at college, if there were any there more +heartily despised than another it was the parasite and the +tuft-hunter; the man who chose his friends according as their money or +their rank might be of use to him. If so mean where the choice is so +little important to the happiness and career of a man who has +something of manhood in him, how much more mean to be the parasite and +tuft-hunter in deciding what woman to love, what woman to select as +the sweetener and ennobler of one's everyday life! Could she be to my +life that sweetener, that ennobler? I firmly believe it. Already +life itself has gained a charm that I never even guessed in it before; +already I begin, though as yet but faintly and vaguely, to recognize +that interest in the objects and aspirations of my fellow-men which is +strongest in those whom posterity ranks among its ennoblers. In this +quiet village it is true that I might find examples enough to prove +that man is not meant to meditate upon life, but to take active part +in it, and in that action to find his uses. But I doubt if I should +have profited by such examples; if I should not have looked on this +small stage of the world as I have looked on the large one, with the +indifferent eyes of a spectator on a trite familiar play carried on by +ordinary actors, had not my whole being suddenly leaped out of +philosophy into passion, and, at once made warmly human, sympathized +with humanity wherever it burned and glowed. Ah, is there to be any +doubt of what station, as mortal bride, is due to her,--her, my +princess, my fairy? If so, how contented you shall be, my father, +with the worldly career of your son! how perseveringly he will strive +(and when did perseverance fail?) to supply all his deficiencies of +intellect, genius, knowledge, by the energy concentrated on a single +object which--more than intellect, genius, knowledge, unless they +attain to equal energy equally concentrated--commands what the world +calls honours. + +Yes, with her, with her as the bearer of my name, with her to whom I, +whatever I might do of good or of great, could say, "It is thy work," +I promise that you shall bless the day when you took to your arms a +daughter. + + . . . . . . . . . + +"Thou art in contact with the beloved in all that thou feelest +elevated above thee." So it is written by one of those weird Germans +who search in our bosoms for the seeds of buried truths, and conjure +them into flowers before we ourselves were even aware of the seeds. + +Every thought that associates itself with my beloved seems to me born +with wings. + + . . . . . . . . . + +I have just seen her, just parted from her. Since I had been +told--kindly, wisely told--that I had no right to hazard her peace of +mind unless I were privileged to woo and to win her, I promised myself +that I would shun her presence until I had bared my heart to you, as I +am doing now, and received that privilege from yourself; for even had +I never made the promise that binds my honour, your consent and +blessing must hallow my choice. I do not feel as if I could dare to +ask one so innocent and fair to wed an ungrateful, disobedient son. +But this evening I met her, unexpectedly, at the vicar's, an excellent +man, from whom I have learned much; whose precepts, whose example, +whose delight in his home, and his life at once active and serene, are +in harmony with my own dreams when I dream of her. + +I will tell you the name of the beloved; hold it as yet a profound +secret between you and me. But oh for the day when I may hear you +call her by that name, and print on her forehead the only kiss by man +of which I should not be jealous. + +It is Sunday, and after the evening service it is my friend's custom +to gather his children round him, and, without any formal sermon or +discourse, engage their interests in subjects harmonious to +associations with the sanctity of the day; often not directly bearing +upon religion; more often, indeed, playfully starting from some little +incident or some slight story-book which had amused the children in +the course of the past week, and then gradually winding into reference +to some sweet moral precept or illustration from some divine example. +It is a maxim with him that, while much that children must learn they +can only learn well through conscious labour, and as positive +task-work, yet Religion should be connected in their minds not with +labour and task-work, but should become insensibly infused into their +habits of thought, blending itself with memories and images of peace +and love; with the indulgent tenderness of the earliest teachers, the +sinless mirthfulness of the earliest home; with consolation in after +sorrows, support through after trials, and never parting company with +its twin sister, Hope. + +I entered the vicar's room this evening just as the group had +collected round him. By the side of his wife sat a lady in whom I +feel a keen interest. Her face wears that kind of calm which speaks +of the lassitude bequeathed by sorrow. She is the aunt of my beloved +one. Lily had nestled herself on a low ottoman, at the good pastor's +feet, with one of his little girls, round whose shoulder she had wound +her arm. She is much more fond of the companionship of children than +that of girls of her own age. The vicar's wife, a very clever woman, +once, in my hearing, took her to task for this preference, asking her +why she persisted in grouping herself with mere infants who could +teach her nothing? Ah! could you have seen the innocent, angel-like +expression of her face when she answered simply, "I suppose because +with them I feel safer, I mean nearer to God." + +Mr. Emlyn--that is the name of the vicar--deduced his homily this +evening from a pretty fairy tale which Lily had been telling to his +children the day before, and which he drew her on to repeat. + +Take, in brief, the substance of the story:-- + +"Once on a time, a king and queen made themselves very unhappy because +they had no heir to their throne; and they prayed for one; and lo, on +some bright summer morning, the queen, waking from sleep, saw a cradle +beside her bed, and in the cradle a beautiful sleeping babe. Great +day throughout the kingdom! But as the infant grew up, it became very +wayward and fretful: it lost its beauty; it would not learn its +lessons; it was as naughty as a child could be. The parents were very +sorrowful; the heir, so longed for, promised to be a great plague to +themselves and their subjects. At last one day, to add to their +trouble, two little bumps appeared on the prince's shoulders. All the +doctors were consulted as to the cause and the cure of this deformity. +Of course they tried the effect of back-bands and steel machines, +which gave the poor little prince great pain, and made him more +unamiable than ever. The bumps, nevertheless, grew larger, and as +they increased, so the prince sickened and pined away. At last a +skilful surgeon proposed, as the only chance of saving the prince's +life, that the bumps should be cut out; and the next morning was fixed +for that operation. But at night the queen saw, or dreamed she saw, a +beautiful shape standing by her bedside. And it said to her +reproachfully, 'Ungrateful woman! How wouldst thou repay me for the +precious boon that my favour bestowed on thee! In me behold the Queen +of the Fairies. For the heir to thy kingdom, I consigned to thy +charge an infant from Fairyland, to become a blessing to thee and to +thy people; and thou wouldst inflict upon it a death of torture by the +surgeon's knife.' And the queen answered, 'Precious indeed thou mayest +call the boon,--a miserable, sickly, feverish changeling.' + +"'Art thou so dull,' said the beautiful visitant, 'as not to +comprehend that the earliest instincts of the fairy child would be +those of discontent, at the exile from its native home? and in that +discontent it would have pined itself to death, or grown up, soured +and malignant, a fairy still in its power but a fairy of wrath and +evil, had not the strength of its inborn nature sufficed to develop +the growth of its wings. That which thy blindness condemns as the +deformity of the human-born, is to the fairy-born the crowning +perfection of its beauty. Woe to thee, if thou suffer not the wings +of the fairy child to grow.' + +"And the next morning the queen sent away the surgeon when he came +with his horrible knife, and removed the back-board and the steel +machines from the prince's shoulders, though all the doctors predicted +that the child would die. And from that moment the royal heir began +to recover bloom and health. And when at last, out of those deforming +bumps, budded delicately forth the plumage of snow-white wings, the +wayward peevishness of the prince gave place to sweet temper. Instead +of scratching his teachers, he became the quickest and most docile of +pupils, grew up to be the joy of his parents and the pride of their +people; and people said, 'In him we shall have hereafter such a king +as we have never yet known.'" + +Here ended Lily's tale. I cannot convey to you a notion of the +pretty, playful manner in which it was told. Then she said, with a +grave shake of the head, "But you do not seem to know what happened +afterwards. Do you suppose that the prince never made use of his +wings? Listen to me. It was discovered by the courtiers who attended +on His Royal Highness that on certain nights, every week, he +disappeared. In fact, on these nights, obedient to the instinct of +the wings, he flew from palace halls into Fairyland; coming back +thence all the more lovingly disposed towards the human home from +which he had escaped for a while." + +"Oh, my children," interposed the preacher earnestly, "the wings would +be given to us in vain if we did not obey the instinct which allures +us to soar; vain, no less, would be the soaring, were it not towards +the home whence we came, bearing back from its native airs a stronger +health, and a serener joy; more reconciled to the duties of earth by +every new flight into heaven." + +As he thus completed the moral of Lily's fairy tale, the girl rose +from her low seat, took his hand, kissed it reverently, and walked +away towards the window. I could see that she was affected even to +tears, which she sought to conceal. Later in the evening, when we +were dispersed on the lawn, for a few minutes before the party broke +up, Lily came to my side timidly and said, in a low whisper,-- + +"Are you angry with me? what have I done to displease you?" + +"Angry with you; displeased? How can you think of me so unjustly?" + +"It is so many days since you have called, since I have seen you," she +said so artlessly, looking up at me with eyes in which tears still +seemed to tremble. + +Before I could trust myself to reply, her aunt approached, and +noticing me with a cold and distant "Good-night," led away her niece. + +I had calculated on walking back to their home with them, as I +generally have done when we met at another house. But the aunt had +probably conjectured I might be at the vicarage that evening, and in +order to frustrate my intention had engaged a carriage for their +return. No doubt she has been warned against permitting further +intimacy with her niece. + +My father, I must come to you at once, discharge my promise, and +receive from your own lips your consent to my choice; for you will +consent, will you not? But I wish you to be prepared beforehand, and +I shall therefore put up these disjointed fragments of my commune with +my own heart and with yours, and post them to-morrow. Expect me to +follow them after leaving you a day free to consider them +alone,--alone, my dear father: they are meant for no eye but yours. + +K. C. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE next day Kenelm walked into the town, posted his voluminous letter +to Sir Peter, and then looked in at the shop of Will Somers, meaning +to make some purchases of basket-work or trifling fancy goods in +Jessie's pretty store of such articles, that might please the taste of +his mother. + +On entering the shop his heart beat quicker. He saw two young forms +bending over the counter, examining the contents of a glass case. One +of these customers was Clemmy; in the other there was no mistaking the +slight graceful shape of Lily Mordaunt. Clemmy was exclaiming, "Oh, +it is so pretty, Mrs. Somers! but," turning her eyes from the counter +to a silk purse in her hand, she added sorrowfully, "I can't buy it. +I have not got enough, not by a great deal." + +"And what is it, Miss Clemmy?" asked Kenelm. + +The two girls turned round at his voice, and Clemmy's face brightened. + +"Look here," she said, "is it not too lovely?" + +The object thus admired and coveted was a little gold locket, enriched +by a cross composed of small pearls. + +"I assure you, miss," said Jessie, who had acquired all the coaxing +arts of her trade, "it is really a great bargain. Miss Mary Burrows, +who was here just before you came, bought one not nearly so pretty and +gave ten shillings more for it." + +Miss Mary Burrows was the same age as Miss Clementina Emlyn, and there +was a rivalry as to smartness between those youthful beauties. "Miss +Burrows!" sighed Clemmy, very scornfully. + +But Kenelm's attention was distracted from Clemmy's locket to a little +ring which Lily had been persuaded by Mrs. Somers to try on, and which +she now drew off and returned with a shake of the head. Mrs. Somers, +who saw that she had small chance of selling the locket to Clemmy, was +now addressing herself to the elder girl more likely to have +sufficient pocket-money, and whom, at all events, it was quite safe to +trust. + +"The ring fits you so nicely, Miss Mordaunt, and every young lady of +your age wears at least one ring; allow me to put it up." She added +in a lower voice, "Though we only sell the articles in this case on +commission, it is all the same to us whether we are paid now or at +Christmas." + +"'Tis no use tempting me, Mrs. Somers," said Lily, laughing, and then +with a grave air, "I promised Lion, I mean my guardian, never to run +into debt, and I never will." + +Lily turned resolutely from the perilous counter, taking up a paper +that contained a new ribbon she had bought for Blanche, and Clemmy +reluctantly followed her out of the shop. + +Kenelm lingered behind and selected very hastily a few trifles, to be +sent to him that evening with some specimens of basket-work left to +Will's tasteful discretion; then purchased the locket on which Clemmy +had set her heart; but all the while his thoughts were fixed on the +ring which Lily had tried on. It was no sin against etiquette to give +the locket to a child like Clemmy, but would it not be a cruel +impertinence to offer a gift to Lily? + +Jessie spoke: "Miss Mordaunt took a great fancy to this ring, Mr. +Chillingly. I am sure her aunt would like her to have it. I have a +great mind to put it by on the chance of Mrs. Cameron's calling here. +It would be a pity if it were bought by some one else." + +"I think," said Kenelm, "that I will take the liberty of showing it to +Mrs. Cameron. No doubt she will buy it for her niece. Add the price +of it to my bill." He seized the ring and carried it off; a very poor +little simple ring, with a single stone shaped as a heart, not half +the price of the locket. + +Kenelm rejoined the young ladies just where the path split into two, +the one leading direct to Grasmere, the other through the churchyard +to the vicarage. He presented the locket to Clemmy with brief kindly +words which easily removed any scruple she might have had in accepting +it; and, delighted with her acquisition, she bounded off to the +vicarage, impatient to show the prize to her mamma and sisters, and +more especially to Miss Mary Burrows, who was coming to lunch with +them. + +Kenelm walked on slowly by Lily's side. + +"You have a good heart, Mr. Chillingly," said she, somewhat abruptly. +"How it must please you to give such pleasure! Dear little Clemmy!" + +This artless praise, and the perfect absence of envy or thought of +self evinced by her joy that her friend's wish was gratified, though +her own was not, enchanted Kenelm. + +"If it pleases to give pleasure," said he, "it is your turn to be +pleased now; you can confer such pleasure upon me." + +"How?" she asked, falteringly, and with quick change of colour. + +"By conceding to me the same right your little friend has allowed." + +And he drew forth the ring. + +Lily reared her head with a first impulse of haughtiness. But when +her eyes met his the head drooped down again, and a slight shiver ran +through her frame. + +"Miss Mordaunt," resumed Kenelm, mastering his passionate longing to +fall at her feet and say, "But, oh! in this ring it is my love that I +offer,--it is my troth that I pledge!" "Miss Mordaunt, spare me the +misery of thinking that I have offended you; least of all would I do +so on this day, for it may be some little while before I see you +again. I am going home for a few days upon a matter which may affect +the happiness of my life, and on which I should be a bad son and an +unworthy gentleman if I did not consult him who, in all that concerns +my affections, has trained me to turn to him, the father; in all that +concerns my honour to him, the gentleman." + +A speech more unlike that which any delineator of manners and morals +in the present day would put into the mouth of a lover, no critic in +"The Londoner" could ridicule. But, somehow or other, this poor +little tamer of butterflies and teller of fairy tales comprehended on +the instant all that this most eccentric of human beings thus frigidly +left untold. Into her innermost heart it sank more deeply than would +the most ardent declaration put into the lips of the boobies or the +scamps in whom delineators of manners in the present day too often +debase the magnificent chivalry embodied in the name of "lover." + +Where these two had, while speaking, halted on the path along the +brook-side, there was a bench, on which it so happened that they had +seated themselves weeks before. A few moments later on that bench +they were seated again. + +And the trumpery little ring with its turquoise heart was on Lily's +finger, and there they continued to sit for nearly half an hour; not +talking much, but wondrously happy; not a single vow of troth +interchanged. No, not even a word that could be construed into "I +love." And yet when they rose from the bench, and went silently along +the brook-side, each knew that the other was beloved. + +When they reached the gate that admitted into the garden of Grasmere, +Kenelm made a slight start. Mrs. Cameron was leaning over the gate. +Whatever alarm at the appearance Kenelm might have felt was certainly +not shared by Lily; she advanced lightly before him, kissed her aunt +on the cheek, and passed on across the lawn with a bound in her step +and the carol of a song upon her lips. + +Kenelm remained by the gate, face to face with Mrs. Cameron. She +opened the gate, put her arm in his, and led him back along the +brook-side. + +"I am sure, Mr. Chillingly," she said, "that you will not impute to my +words any meaning more grave than that which I wish them to convey, +when I remind you that there is no place too obscure to escape from +the ill-nature of gossip, and you must own that my niece incurs the +chance of its notice if she be seen walking alone in these by-paths +with a man of your age and position, and whose sojourn in the +neighbourhood, without any ostensible object or motive, has already +begun to excite conjecture. I do not for a moment assume that you +regard my niece in any other light than that of an artless child, +whose originality of tastes or fancy may serve to amuse you; and still +less do I suppose that she is in danger of misrepresenting any +attentions on your part. But for her sake I am bound to consider what +others may say. Excuse me, then, if I add that I think you are also +bound in honour and in good feeling to do the same. Mr. Chillingly, +it would give me a great sense of relief if it suited your plans to +move from the neighbourhood." + +"My dear Mrs. Cameron," answered Kenelm, who had listened to this +speech with imperturbable calm of visage, "I thank you much for your +candour, and I am glad to have this opportunity of informing you that +I am about to move from this neighbourhood, with the hope of returning +to it in a very few days and rectifying your mistake as to the point +of view in which I regard your niece. In a word," here the expression +of his countenance and the tone of his voice underwent a sudden +change, "it is the dearest wish of my heart to be empowered by my +parents to assure you of the warmth with which they will welcome your +niece as their daughter, should she deign to listen to my suit and +intrust me with the charge of her happiness." + +Mrs. Cameron stopped short, gazing into his face with a look of +inexpressible dismay. + +"No! Mr. Chillingly," she exclaimed, "this must not be,--cannot be. +Put out of your mind an idea so wild. A young man's senseless +romance. Your parents cannot consent to your union with my niece; I +tell you beforehand they cannot." + +"But why?" asked Kenelm, with a slight smile, and not much impressed +by the vehemence of Mrs. Cameron's adjuration. + +"Why?" she repeated passionately; and then recovering something of her +habitual weariness of quiet. "The why is easily explained. Mr. +Kenelm Chillingly is the heir of a very ancient house and, I am told, +of considerable estates. Lily Mordaunt is a nobody, an orphan, +without fortune, without connection, the ward of a humbly born artist, +to whom she owes the roof that shelters her; she is without the +ordinary education of a gentlewoman; she has seen nothing of the world +in which you move. Your parents have not the right to allow a son so +young as yourself to throw himself out of his proper sphere by a rash +and imprudent alliance. And, never would I consent, never would +Walter Melville consent, to her entering into any family reluctant to +receive her. There,--that is enough. Dismiss the notion so lightly +entertained. And farewell." + +"Madam," answered Kenelm very earnestly, "believe me, that had I not +entertained the hope approaching to conviction that the reasons you +urge against my presumption will not have the weight with my parents +which you ascribe to them, I should not have spoken to you thus +frankly. Young though I be, still I might fairly claim the right to +choose for myself in marriage. But I gave to my father a very binding +promise that I would not formally propose to any one till I had +acquainted him with my desire to do so, and obtained his approval of +my choice; and he is the last man in the world who would withhold that +approval where my heart is set on it as it is now. I want no fortune +with a wife, and should I ever care to advance my position in the +world, no connection would help me like the approving smile of the +woman I love. There is but one qualification which my parents would +deem they had the right to exact from my choice of one who is to bear +our name. I mean that she should have the appearance, the manners, +the principles, and--my mother at least might add--the birth of a +gentlewoman. Well, as to appearance and manners, I have seen much of +fine society from my boyhood, and found no one among the highest born +who can excel the exquisite refinement of every look, and the inborn +delicacy of every thought, in her of whom, if mine, I shall be as +proud as I shall be fond. As to defects in the frippery and tinsel of +a boarding-school education, they are very soon remedied. Remains +only the last consideration,--birth. Mrs. Braefield informs me that +you have assured her that, though circumstances into which as yet I +have no right to inquire, have made her the ward of a man of humble +origin, Miss Mordaunt is of gentle birth. Do you deny that?" + +"No," said Mrs. Cameron, hesitating, but with a flash of pride in her +eyes as she went on. "No. I cannot deny that my niece is descended +from those who, in point of birth, were not unequal to your own +ancestors. But what of that?" she added, with a bitter despondency of +tone. "Equality of birth ceases when one falls into poverty, +obscurity, neglect, nothingness!" + +"Really this is a morbid habit on your part. But, since we have thus +spoken so confidentially, will you not empower me to answer the +question which will probably be put to me, and the answer to which +will, I doubt not, remove every obstacle in the way of my happiness? +Whatever the reasons which might very sufficiently induce you to +preserve, whilst living so quietly in this place, a discreet silence +as to the parentage of Miss Mordaunt and your own,--and I am well +aware that those whom altered circumstances of fortune have compelled +to altered modes of life may disdain to parade to strangers the +pretensions to a higher station than that to which they reconcile +their habits,--whatever, I say, such reasons for silence to strangers, +should they preclude you from confiding to me, an aspirant to your +niece's hand, a secret which, after all, cannot be concealed from her +future husband?" + +"From her future husband? of course not," answered Mrs. Cameron. "But +I decline to be questioned by one whom I may never see again, and of +whom I know so little. I decline, indeed, to assist in removing any +obstacle to a union with my niece, which I hold to be in every way +unsuited to either party. I have no cause even to believe that my +niece would accept you if you were free to propose to her. You have +not, I presume, spoken to her as an aspirant to her hand. You have +not addressed to her any declaration of your attachment, or sought to +extract from her inexperience any words that warrant you in thinking +that her heart will break if she never sees you again." + +"I do not merit such cruel and taunting questions," said Kenelm, +indignantly. "But I will say no more now. When we again meet let me +hope you will treat me less unkindly. Adieu!" + +"Stay, sir. A word or two more. You persist in asking your father +and Lady Chillingly to consent to your proposal to Miss Mordaunt?" + +"Certainly I do." + +"And you will promise me, on your word as a gentleman, to state fairly +all the causes which might fairly operate against their consent,--the +poverty, the humble rearing, the imperfect education of my niece,--so +that they might not hereafter say you had entrapped their consent, and +avenge themselves for your deceit by contempt for her?" + +"Ah, madam, madam, you really try my patience too far. But take my +promise, if you can hold that of value from one whom you can suspect +of deliberate deceit." + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Chillingly. Bear with my rudeness. I have +been so taken by surprise, I scarcely know what I am saying. But let +us understand each other completely before we part. If your parents +withhold their consent you will communicate it to me; me only, not to +Lily. I repeat I know nothing of the state of her affections. But it +might embitter any girl's life to be led on to love one whom she could +not marry." + +"It shall be as you say. But if they do consent?" + +"Then you will speak to me before you seek an interview with Lily, for +then comes another question: Will her guardian consent?--and--and--" + +"And what?" + +"No matter. I rely on your honour in this request, as in all else. +Good-day." + +She turned back with hurried footsteps, muttering to herself, "But +they will not consent. Heaven grant that they will not consent, or if +they do, what--what is to be said or done? Oh, that Walter Melville +were here, or that I knew where to write to him!" + +On his way back to Cromwell Lodge, Kenelm was overtaken by the vicar. + +"I was coming to you, my dear Mr. Chillingly, first to thank you for +the very pretty present with which you have gladdened the heart of my +little Clemmy, and next to ask you to come with me quietly to-day to +meet Mr. -----, the celebrated antiquarian, who came to Moleswich this +morning at my request to examine that old Gothic tomb in our +churchyard. Only think, though he cannot read the inscription any +better than we can, he knows all about its history. It seems that a +young knight renowned for feats of valour in the reign of Henry IV. +married a daughter of one of those great Earls of Montfichet who were +then the most powerful family in these parts. He was slain in +defending the church from an assault by some disorderly rioters of the +Lollard faction; he fell on the very spot where the tomb is now +placed. That accounts for its situation in the churchyard, not within +the fabric. Mr. ----- discovered this fact in an old memoir of the +ancient and once famous family to which the young knight Albert +belonged, and which came, alas! to so shameful an end, the Fletwodes, +Barons of Fletwode and Malpas. What a triumph over pretty Lily +Mordaunt, who always chose to imagine that the tomb must be that of +some heroine of her own romantic invention! Do come to dinner; Mr. +----- is a most agreeable man, and full of interesting anecdotes." + +"I am so sorry I cannot. I am obliged to return home at once for a +few days. That old family of Fletwode! I think I see before me, +while we speak, the gray tower in which they once held sway; and the +last of the race following Mammon along the Progress of the Age,--a +convicted felon! What a terrible satire on the pride of birth!" + +Kenelm left Cromwell Lodge that evening, but he still kept on his +apartments there, saying he might be back unexpectedly any day in the +course of the next week. + +He remained two days in London, wishing all that he had communicated +to Sir Peter in writing to sink into his father's heart before a +personal appeal to it. + +The more he revolved the ungracious manner in which Mrs. Cameron had +received his confidence, the less importance he attached to it. An +exaggerated sense of disparities of fortune in a person who appeared +to him to have the pride so common to those who have known better +days, coupled with a nervous apprehension lest his family should +ascribe to her any attempt to ensnare a very young man of considerable +worldly pretensions into a marriage with a penniless niece, seemed to +account for much that had at first perplexed and angered him. And if, +as he conjectured, Mrs. Cameron had once held a much higher position +in the world than she did now,--a conjecture warranted by a certain +peculiar conventional undeniable elegance which characterized her +habitual manner,--and was now, as she implied, actually a dependant on +the bounty of a painter who had only just acquired some professional +distinction, she might well shrink from the mortification of becoming +an object of compassion to her richer neighbours; nor, when he came to +think of it, had he any more right than those neighbours to any +confidence as to her own or Lily's parentage, so long as he was not +formally entitled to claim admission into her privity. + +London seemed to him intolerably dull and wearisome. He called +nowhere except at Lady Glenalvon's; he was glad to hear from the +servants that she was still at Exmundham. He relied much on the +influence of the queen of the fashion with his mother, whom he knew +would be more difficult to persuade than Sir Peter, nor did he doubt +that he should win to his side that sympathizing and warm-hearted +queen. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +IT is somewhere about three weeks since the party invited by Sir Peter +and Lady Chillingly assembled at Exmundham, and they are still there, +though people invited to a country house have seldom compassion enough +for the dulness of its owner to stay more than three days. Mr. +Chillingly Mivers, indeed, had not exceeded that orthodox limit. +Quietly observant, during his stay, of young Gordon's manner towards +Cecilia, and hers towards him, he had satisfied himself that there was +no cause to alarm Sir Peter, or induce the worthy baronet to regret +the invitation he had given to that clever kinsman. For all the +visitors remaining Exmundham had a charm. + +To Lady Glenalvon, because in the hostess she met her most familiar +friend when both were young girls, and because it pleased her to note +the interest which Cecilia Travers took in the place so associated +with memories of the man to whom it was Lady Glenalvon's hope to see +her united. To Chillingly Gordon, because no opportunity could be so +favourable for his own well-concealed designs on the hand and heart of +the heiress. To the heiress herself the charm needs no explanation. + +To Leopold Travers the attractions of Exmundham were unquestionably +less fascinating. Still even he was well pleased to prolong his stay. +His active mind found amusement in wandering over an estate the +acreage of which would have warranted a much larger rental, and +lecturing Sir Peter on the old-fashioned system of husbandry which +that good-natured easy proprietor permitted his tenants to adopt, as +well as on the number of superfluous hands that were employed on the +pleasure-grounds and in the general management of the estate, such as +carpenters, sawyers, woodmen, bricklayers, and smiths. + +When the Squire said, "You could do just as well with a third of those +costly dependants," Sir Peter, unconsciously plagiarizing the answer +of the old French grand seigneur, replied, "Very likely. But the +question is, could the rest do just as well without me?" + +Exmundham, indeed, was a very expensive place to keep up. The house, +built by some ambitious Chillingly three centuries ago, would have +been large for an owner of thrice the revenues; and though the +flower-garden was smaller than that at Braefieldville, there were +paths and drives through miles of young plantations and old woodlands +that furnished lazy occupation to an army of labourers. No wonder +that, despite his nominal ten thousand a year, Sir Peter was far from +being a rich man. Exmundham devoured at least half the rental. The +active mind of Leopold Travers also found ample occupation in the +stores of his host's extensive library. + +Travers, never much of a reader, was by no means a despiser of +learning, and he soon took to historical and archaeological researches +with the ardour of a man who must always throw energy into any pursuit +that occasion presents as an escape from indolence. Indolent Leopold +Travers never could be. But, more than either of these resources of +occupation, the companionship of Chillingly Gordon excited his +interest and quickened the current of his thoughts. Always fond of +renewing his own youth in the society of the young, and of the +sympathizing temperament which belongs to cordial natures, he had, as +we have seen, entered very heartily into the ambition of George +Belvoir, and reconciled himself very pliably to the humours of Kenelm +Chillingly. But the first of these two was a little too commonplace, +the second a little too eccentric, to enlist the complete +good-fellowship which, being alike very clever and very practical, +Leopold Travers established with that very clever and very practical +representative of the rising generation, Chillingly Gordon. Between +them there was this meeting-ground, political and worldly, a great +contempt for innocuous old-fashioned notions; added to which, in the +mind of Leopold Travers, was a contempt--which would have been +complete, but that the contempt admitted dread--of harmful +new-fashioned notions which, interpreted by his thoughts, threatened +ruin to his country and downfall to the follies of existent society, +and which, interpreted by his language, tamed itself into the man of +the world's phrase, "Going too far for me." Notions which, by the +much more cultivated intellect and the immeasurably more soaring +ambition of Chillingly Gordon, might be viewed and criticised thus: +"Could I accept these doctrines? I don't see my way to being Prime +Minister of a country in which religion and capital are still powers +to be consulted. And, putting aside religion and capital, I don't see +how, if these doctrines passed into law, with a good coat on my back I +should not be a sufferer. Either I, as having a good coat, should +have it torn off my back as a capitalist, or, if I remonstrated in the +name of moral honesty, be put to death as a religionist." + +Therefore when Leopold Travers said, "Of course we must go on," +Chillingly Gordon smiled and answered, "Certainly, go on." And when +Leopold Travers added, "But we may go too far," Chillingly Gordon +shook his dead, and replied, "How true that is! Certainly too far." + +Apart from the congeniality of political sentiment, there were other +points of friendly contact between the older and younger man. Each +was an exceedingly pleasant man of the world; and, though Leopold +Travers could not have plumbed certain deeps in Chillingly Gordon's +nature,--and in every man's nature there are deeps which his ablest +observer cannot fathom,--yet he was not wrong when he said to himself, +"Gordon is a gentleman." + +Utterly would my readers misconceive that very clever young man, if +they held him to be a hypocrite like Blifil or Joseph Surface. +Chillingly Gordon, in every private sense of the word, was a +gentleman. If he had staked his whole fortune on a rubber at whist, +and an undetected glance at his adversary's hand would have made the +difference between loss and gain, he would have turned away his head +and said, "Hold up your cards." Neither, as I have had occasion to +explain before, was he actuated by any motive in common with the +vulgar fortune-hunter in his secret resolve to win the hand of the +heiress. He recognized no inequality of worldly gifts between them. +He said to himself, "Whatever she may give me in money, I shall amply +repay in worldly position if I succeed, and succeed I certainly shall. +If I were as rich as Lord Westminster, and still cared about being +Prime Minister, I should select her as the most fitting woman I have +seen for a Prime Minister's wife." + +It must be acknowledged that this sort of self-commune, if not that of +a very ardent lover, is very much that of a sensible man setting high +value on himself, bent on achieving the prizes of a public career, and +desirous of securing in his wife a woman who would adorn the station +to which he confidently aspired. In fact, no one so able as +Chillingly Gordon would ever have conceived the ambition of being +Minister of England if in all that in private life constitutes the +English gentleman he could be fairly subject to reproach. + +He was but in public life what many a gentleman honest in private life +has been before him, an ambitious, resolute egotist, by no means +without personal affections, but holding them all subordinate to the +objects of personal ambition, and with no more of other principle than +that of expediency in reference to his own career than would cover a +silver penny. But expediency in itself he deemed the statesman's only +rational principle. And to the consideration of expediency he brought +a very unprejudiced intellect, quite fitted to decide whether the +public opinion of a free and enlightened people was for turning St. +Paul's Cathedral into an Agapemone or not. + +During the summer weeks he had thus vouchsafed to the turfs and groves +of Exmundham, Leopold Travers was not the only person whose good +opinion Chillingly Gordon had ingratiated. He had won the warmest +approbation from Mrs. Campion. His conversation reminded her of that +which she had enjoyed in the house of her departed spouse. In talking +with Cecilia she was fond of contrasting him to Kenelm, not to the +favour of the latter, whose humours she utterly failed to understand, +and whom she pertinaciously described as "so affected." "A most +superior young man Mr. Gordon, so well informed, so sensible,--above +all, so natural." Such was her judgment upon the unavowed candidate +to Cecilia's hand; and Mrs. Campion required no avowal to divine the +candidature. Even Lady Glenalvon had begun to take friendly interest +in the fortunes of this promising young man. Most women can +sympathize with youthful ambition. He impressed her with a deep +conviction of his abilities, and still more with respect for their +concentration upon practical objects of power and renown. She too, +like Mrs. Campion, began to draw comparisons unfavourable to Kenelm +between the two cousins: the one seemed so slothfully determined to +hide his candle under a bushel, the other so honestly disposed to set +his light before men. She felt also annoyed and angry that Kenelm was +thus absenting himself from the paternal home at the very time of her +first visit to it, and when he had so felicitous an opportunity of +seeing more of the girl in whom he knew that Lady Glenalvon deemed he +might win, if he would properly woo, the wife that would best suit +him. So that when one day Mrs. Campion, walking through the gardens +alone with Lady Glenalvon while from the gardens into the park went +Chillingly Gordon, arm-in-arm with Leopold Travers, abruptly asked, +"Don't you think that Mr. Gordon is smitten with Cecilia, though he, +with his moderate fortune, does not dare to say so? And don't you +think that any girl, if she were as rich as Cecilia will be, would be +more proud of such a husband as Chillingly Gordon than of some silly +earl?" + +Lady Glenalvon answered curtly, but somewhat sorrowfully, "Yes." + +After a pause she added, "There is a man with whom I did once think +she would have been happier than with any other. One man who ought to +be dearer to me than Mr. Gordon, for he saved the life of my son, and +who, though perhaps less clever than Mr. Gordon, still has a great +deal of talent within him, which might come forth and make him--what +shall I say?--a useful and distinguished member of society, if married +to a girl so sure of raising any man she marries as Cecilia Travers. +But if I am to renounce that hope, and look through the range of young +men brought under my notice, I don't know one, putting aside +consideration of rank and fortune, I should prefer for a clever +daughter who went heart and soul with the ambition of a clever man. +But, Mrs. Campion, I have not yet quite renounced my hope; and, unless +I do, I yet think there is one man to whom I would rather give +Cecilia, if she were my daughter." + +Therewith Lady Glenalvon so decidedly broke off the subject of +conversation that Mrs. Campion could not have renewed it without such +a breach of the female etiquette of good breeding as Mrs. Campion was +the last person to adventure. + +Lady Chillingly could not help being pleased with Gordon. He was +light in hand, served to amuse her guests, and made up a rubber of +whist in case of need. + +There were two persons, however, with whom Gordon made no ground; +namely, Parson John and Sir Peter. When Travers praised him one day +for the solidity of his parts and the soundness of his judgment, the +Parson replied snappishly, "Yes, solid and sound as one of those +tables you buy at a broker's; the thickness of the varnish hides the +defects in the joints: the whole framework is rickety." But when the +Parson was indignantly urged to state the reason by which he arrived +at so harsh a conclusion, he could only reply by an assertion which +seemed to his questioner a declamatory burst of parsonic intolerance. + +"Because," said Parson John, "he has no love for man, and no reverence +for God. And no character is sound and solid which enlarges its +surface at the expense of its supports." + +On the other hand, the favour with which Sir Peter had at first +regarded Gordon gradually vanished, in proportion as, acting on the +hint Mivers had originally thrown out but did not deem it necessary to +repeat, he watched the pains which the young man took to insinuate +himself into the good graces of Mr. Travers and Mrs. Campion, and the +artful and half-suppressed gallantry of his manner to the heiress. + +Perhaps Gordon had not ventured thus "to feel his way" till after +Mivers had departed; or perhaps Sir Peter's parental anxiety rendered +him, in this instance, a shrewder observer than was the man of the +world, whose natural acuteness was, in matters of affection, not +unfrequently rendered languid by his acquired philosophy of +indifferentism. + +More and more every day, every hour, of her sojourn beneath his roof, +did Cecilia become dearer to Sir Peter, and stronger and stronger +became his wish to secure her for his daughter-in-law. He was +inexpressibly flattered by her preference for his company: ever at +hand to share his customary walks, his kindly visits to the cottages +of peasants or the homesteads of petty tenants; wherein both were sure +to hear many a simple anecdote of Master Kenelm in his childhood, +anecdotes of whim or good-nature, of considerate pity or reckless +courage. + +Throughout all these varieties of thought or feeling in the social +circle around her, Lady Chillingly preserved the unmoved calm of her +dignified position. A very good woman certainly, and very ladylike. +No one could detect a flaw in her character, or a fold awry in her +flounce. She was only, like the gods of Epicurus, too good to trouble +her serene existence with the cares of us simple mortals. Not that +she was without a placid satisfaction in the tribute which the world +laid upon her altars; nor was she so supremely goddess-like as to soar +above the household affections which humanity entails on the dwellers +and denizens of earth. She liked her husband as much as most elderly +wives like their elderly husbands. She bestowed upon Kenelm a liking +somewhat more warm, and mingled with compassion. His eccentricities +would have puzzled her, if she had allowed herself to be puzzled: it +troubled her less to pity them. She did not share her husband's +desire for his union with Cecilia. She thought that her son would +have a higher place in the county if he married Lady Jane, the Duke of +Clanville's daughter; and "that is what he ought to do," said Lady +Chillingly to herself. She entertained none of the fear that had +induced Sir Peter to extract from Kenelm the promise not to pledge his +hand before he had received his father's consent. That the son of +Lady Chillingly should make a /mesalliance/, however crotchety he +might be in other respects, was a thought that it would have so +disturbed her to admit that she did not admit it. + +Such was the condition of things at Exmundham when the lengthy +communication of Kenelm reached Sir Peter's hands. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILLINGLY, LYTTON, BOOK 7 *** + +******** This file should be named 7656.txt or 7656.zip ******* + +This eBook was produced by Dagny, +and David Widger, + +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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