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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Marriage of Elinor, by Margaret Oliphant
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Marriage of Elinor
+
+Author: Margaret Oliphant
+
+Release Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #28637]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR
+
+
+BY
+
+MRS. OLIPHANT
+
+
+CHICAGO
+W. B. CONKEY COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1891,
+BY
+UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY
+
+[_All rights reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+John Tatham, barrister-at-law, received one summer morning as he sat at
+breakfast the following letter. It was written in what was once known
+distinctively as a lady's hand, in pointed characters, very fine and
+delicate, and was to this effect:--
+
+
+"DEAR JOHN, Have you heard from Elinor of her new prospects and
+intentions? I suppose she must have written to you on the subject. Do
+you know anything of the man?... You know how hard it is to convince her
+against her will of anything, and also how poorly gifted I am with the
+power of convincing any one. And I don't know him, therefore can speak
+with no authority. If you can do anything to clear things up, come and
+do so. I am very anxious and more than doubtful; but her heart seems set
+upon it.
+
+"Your affect.
+"M. S. D."
+
+
+Mr. Tatham was a well-built and vigorous man of five-and-thirty, with
+health, good behaviour, and well-being in every line of his cheerful
+countenance and every close curl of his brown hair. His hair was very
+curly, and helped to give him the cheerful look which was one of his
+chief characteristics. Nevertheless, when these innocent seeming words,
+"Do you know the man?" which was more certainly demonstrative of
+certain facts than had those facts been stated in the fullest detail,
+met his eye, Mr. Tatham paused and laid down the letter with a start.
+His ruddy colour paled for the moment, and he felt something which was
+like the push or poke of a blunt but heavy weapon somewhere in the
+regions of the heart. For the moment he felt that he could not read any
+more. "Do you know the man?" He did not even ask what man in the
+momentary sickness of his heart. Then he said to himself, almost
+angrily, "Well!" and took up the letter again and read to the end.
+
+Well! of course it was a thing that he knew might happen any day, and
+which he had expected to happen for the last four or five years. It was
+nothing to him one way or another. Nothing could be more absurd than
+that a hearty and strong young man in the full tide of his life and with
+a good breakfast before him should receive a shock from that innocent
+little letter as if he had been a sentimental woman. But the fact is
+that he pushed his plate away with an exclamation of disgust and a
+feeling that everything was bad and uneatable. He drank his tea, though
+that also became suddenly bad too, full of tannin, like tea that has
+stood too long, a thing about which John was very particular. He had
+been half an hour later than usual this morning consequent on having
+been an hour or two later than usual last night. These things have their
+reward, and that very speedily; but as for the letter, what could that
+have to do with the bad toasting of the bacon and the tannin in the tea?
+"Do you know the man?" There was a sort of covert insult, too, in the
+phraseology, as if no explanation was needed, as if he must know by
+instinct what she meant--he who knew nothing about it, who did not know
+there was a man at all!
+
+After a while he began to smile rather cynically to himself. He had got
+up from the breakfast table, where everything was so bad, and had gone
+to look out of one of the windows of his pleasant sitting-room. It was
+in one of the wider ways of the Temple, and looked out upon various
+houses with a pleasant misty light upon the redness of their old
+brickwork, and a stretch of green grass and trees, which were scanty in
+foliage, yet suited very well with the bright morning sun, which was not
+particularly warm, but looked as if it were a good deal for effect and
+not so very much for use. That thought floated across his mind with
+others, and was of the same cynical complexion. It was very well for the
+sun to shine, making the glistening poplars and plane-trees glow, and
+warming all the mellow redness of the old houses, but what did he mean
+by it? No warmth to speak of, only a fictitious gleam--a thing got up
+for effect. And so was the affectionateness of woman--meaning nothing,
+only an effect of warmth and geniality, nothing beyond that. As a matter
+of fact, he reminded himself after a while that he had never wanted
+anything beyond, neither asked for it, nor wished it. He had no desire
+to change the conditions of his life: women never rested till they had
+done so, manufacturing a new event, whatever it might be, pleased even
+when they were not pleased, to have a novelty to announce. That, no
+doubt, was the state of mind in which the lady who called herself his
+aunt was: pleased to have something to tell him, to fire off her big
+guns in his face, even though she was not at all pleased with the event
+itself. But John Tatham, on the other hand, had desired nothing to
+happen; things were very well as they were. He liked to have a place
+where he could run down from Saturday to Monday whenever he pleased, and
+where his visit was always a cheerful event for the womankind. He had
+liked to take them all the news, to carry the picture-papers, quite a
+load; to take down a new book for Elinor; to taste doubtfully his aunt's
+wine, and tell her she had better let him choose it for her. It was a
+very pleasant state of affairs: he wanted no change; not, certainly,
+above everything, the intrusion of a stranger whose very existence had
+been unknown to him until he was thus asked cynically, almost brutally,
+"Do you know the man?"
+
+The hour came when John had to assume the costume of that order of
+workers whom a persistent popular joke nicknames the "Devil's Own:"--that
+is, he had to put on gown and wig and go off to the courts, where he was
+envied of all the briefless as a man who for his age had a great deal to
+do. He "devilled" for Mr. Asstewt, the great Chancery man, which was the
+most excellent beginning: and he was getting into a little practice of
+his own which was not to be sneezed at. But he did not find himself in a
+satisfactory frame of mind to-day. He found himself asking the judge,
+"Do you know anything of the man?" when it was his special business so
+to bewilder that potentate with elaborate arguments that he should not
+have time to consider whether he had ever heard of the particular man
+before him. Thus it was evident that Mr. Tatham was completely _hors de
+son assiette_, as the French say; upset and "out of it," according to
+the equally vivid imagination of the English manufacturer of slang. John
+Tatham was a very capable young lawyer on ordinary occasions, and it was
+all the more remarkable that he should have been so confused in his mind
+to-day.
+
+When he went back to his chambers in the evening, which was not until it
+was time to dress for dinner, he saw a bulky letter lying on his table,
+but avoided it as if it had been an overdue bill. He was engaged to
+dine out, and had not much time: yet all the way, as he drove along the
+streets, just as sunset was over and a subduing shade came over the
+light, and that half-holiday look that comes with evening--he kept
+thinking of the fat letter upon his table. Do you know anything of
+the man? That would no longer be the refrain of his correspondent,
+but some absurd strain of devotion and admiration of the man whom John
+knew nothing of, not even his name. He wondered as he went along in his
+hansom, and even between the courses at dinner, while he listened with
+a smile, but without hearing a word, to what the lady next him was
+saying--what she would tell him about this man? That he was everything
+that was delightful, no doubt; handsome, of course; probably clever; and
+that she was fond of him, confound the fellow! Elinor! to think that she
+should come to that--a girl like her--to tell him, as if she was saying
+that she had caught a cold or received a present, that she was in love
+with a man! Good heavens! when one had thought her so much above
+anything of that kind--a woman, above all women that ever were.
+
+"Not so much as that," John said to himself as he walked home. He always
+preferred to walk home in the evening, and he was not going to change
+his habit now out of any curiosity about Elinor's letter. Oh, not so
+much as that! not above all women, or better than the rest, perhaps--but
+different. He could not quite explain to himself how, except that he
+had always known her to be Elinor and not another, which was a quite
+sufficient explanation. And now it appeared that she was not different,
+although she would still profess to be Elinor--a curious puzzle, which
+his brain in its excited state was scarcely able to tackle. His thoughts
+got somewhat confused and broken as he approached his chambers. He was
+so near the letter now--a few minutes and he would no longer need to
+wonder or speculate about it, but would know exactly what she said. He
+turned and stood for a minute or so at the Temple gates, looking out
+upon the busy Strand. It was still as lovely as a summer night could be
+overhead, but down here it was--well, it was London, which is another
+thing. The usual crowd was streaming by, coming into bright light as it
+streamed past a brilliant shop window, then in the shade for another
+moment, and emerging again. The faces that were suddenly lit up as they
+passed--some handsome faces, pale in the light; some with heads hung
+down, either in bad health or bad humour; some full of cares and troubles,
+others airy and gay--caught his attention. Did any of them all know
+anything of this man, he wondered--knowing how absurd a question it was.
+Had any of them written to-day a letter full of explanations, of a
+matter that could not be explained? There were faces with far more
+tragic meaning in them than could be so easily explained as that--the
+faces of men, alas! and women too, who were going to destruction as fast
+as their hurrying feet could carry them; or else were languidly drifting
+no one knew where--out of life altogether, out of all that was good in
+life. John Tatham knew this very well too, and had it in him to do
+anything a man could to stop the wanderers in their downward career. But
+to-night he was thinking of none of these things. He was only wondering
+how she would explain it, how she could explain it, what she would say;
+and lingering to prolong his suspense, not to know too soon what it was.
+
+At last, however, as there is no delay but must come to an end one time
+or another, he found himself at last in his room, in his smoking-coat
+and slippers, divested of his stiff collar--at his ease, the windows
+open upon the quiet of the Temple Gardens, a little fresh air breathing
+in. He had taken all this trouble to secure ease for himself, to put
+off a little the reading of the letter. Now the moment had come when
+it would be absurd to delay any longer. It was so natural to see her
+familiar handwriting--not a lady's hand, angular and pointed, like her
+mother's, but the handwriting of her generation, which looks as if it
+were full of character, until one perceives that it _is_ the writing of
+the generation, and all the girls and boys write much the same. He took
+time for this reflection still as he tore open the envelope. There were
+two sheets very well filled, and written in at the corners, so that no
+available spot was lost. "My dear old John," were the first words he
+saw. He put down the letter and thought over the address. Well, she had
+always called him so. He was old John when he was fourteen, to little
+Elinor. They had always known each other like that--like brother and
+sister. But not particularly like brother and sister--like cousins twice
+removed, which is a more interesting tie in some particulars. And now
+for the letter.
+
+
+"MY DEAR OLD JOHN: I want to tell you myself of a great thing that has
+happened to me--the very greatest thing that could happen in one's
+life. Oh, John, dear old John, I feel as if I had nobody else I could
+open my heart to; for mamma--well, mamma is mamma, a dear mother and a
+good one; but you know she has her own ways of thinking----"
+
+
+He put down the letter again with a rueful little laugh. "And have not I
+my own ways of thinking, too?" he said to himself.
+
+
+"Jack dear," continued the letter, "you must give me your sympathy, all
+your sympathy. You never were in love, I suppose (oh, what an odious
+way that is of putting it! but it spares one's feelings a little, for
+even in writing it is too tremendous a thing to say quite gravely and
+seriously, as one feels it). Dear John, I know you never were in love,
+or you would have told me; but still----"
+
+
+"Oh," he said to himself, with the merest suspicion of a little quiver
+in his lip, which might, of course, have been a laugh, but, on the other
+hand, might have been something else, "I never was--or I would have told
+her--That's the way she looks at it." Then he took up the letter again.
+
+
+"Because--I see nothing but persecution before me. It was only a week
+ago that it happened, and we wanted to keep it quiet for a time; but
+things get out in spite of all one can do--things of that sort, at
+least. And, oh, dear Jack, fancy! I have got three letters already, all
+warning me against him; raking up trifling things that have occurred
+long ago, long before he met me, and holding them up before me like
+scarecrows--telling me he is not worthy of me, and that I will be
+wretched if I marry him, and other dreadful lies like that, which
+show me quite plainly that they neither know him nor me, and that they
+haven't eyes to see what he really is, nor minds to understand. But
+though I see the folly of it and the wickedness of it, mamma does not.
+She is ready to take other people's words; indeed, there is this to be
+said for her, that she does not know him yet, and therefore cannot be
+expected to be ready to take his own word before all. Dear Jack, my
+heart is so full, and I have so much to tell you, and such perfect
+confidence in your sympathy, and also in your insight and capacity to
+see through all the lies and wicked stories which I foresee are going to
+be poured upon us like a flood that--I don't know how to begin, I have
+so many things to say. I know it is the heart of the season, and that
+you are asked out every night in the week, and are so popular everywhere;
+but if you could but come down from Saturday to Monday, and let me tell
+you everything and show you his picture, and read you parts of his
+letters, I know you would see how false and wrong it all is, and help me
+to face it out with all those horrid people, and to bring round mamma.
+You know her dreadful way of never giving an opinion, but just saying a
+great deal worse, and leaving you to your own responsibility, which
+nearly drives me mad even in little things--so you may suppose what it
+does in this. Of course, she must see him, which is all I want, for I
+know after she has had a half-hour's conversation with him that she will
+be like me and will not believe a word--not one word. Therefore, Jack
+dear, come, oh, come! I have always turned to you in my difficulties,
+since ever I have known what it was to have a difficulty, and you have
+done everything for me. I never remember any trouble I ever had but you
+found some means of clearing it away. Therefore my whole hope is in you.
+I know it is hard to give up all your parties and things; but it would
+only be two nights, after all--Saturday and Sunday. Oh, do come, do
+come, if you ever cared the least little bit for your poor cousin! Come,
+oh, come, dear old John!
+
+"Your affect.
+"E------."
+
+
+"Is that all?" he said to himself; but it was not all, for there
+followed a postscript all about the gifts and graces of the unknown
+lover, and how he was the victim of circumstances, and how, while other
+men might steal the horse, he dared not look over the wall, and other
+convincing pleadings such as these, till John's head began to go round.
+When he had got through this postscript John Tatham folded the letter
+and put it away. He had a smile on his face, but he had the air of a man
+who had been beaten about the head and was confused with the hurry and
+storm of the blows. She had always turned to him in all her difficulties,
+that was true: and he had always stood by her, and often, in the
+freemasonry of youth, had thought her right and vindicated her capacity
+to judge for herself. He had been called often on this errand, and he
+had never refused to obey. For Elinor was very wilful, she had always
+been wilful--"a rosebud set about with wilful thorns, But sweet as
+English air could make her, she." He had come to her aid many a time.
+But he had never thought to be called upon by her in such a way as this.
+He folded the letter up carefully and put it in a drawer. Usually
+when he had a letter from Elinor he put it into his pocket, for the
+satisfaction of reading it over again: for she had a fantastic way of
+writing, adding little postscripts which escaped the eye at first, and
+which it was pleasant to find out afterwards. But with this letter he
+did not do so. He put it in a drawer of his writing-table, so that he
+might find it again when necessary, but he did not put it in his breast
+pocket. And then he sat for some time doing nothing, looking before him,
+with his legs stretched out and his hand beating a little tattoo upon
+the table. "Well: well? well!" That was about what he said to himself,
+but it meant a great deal: it meant a vague but great disappointment, a
+sort of blank and vacuum expressed by the first of these words--and then
+it meant a question of great importance and many divisions. How could it
+ever have come to anything? Am I a man to marry? What could I have done,
+just getting into practice, just getting a few pounds to spend for
+myself? And then came the conclusion. Since I can't do anything else
+for her; since she's done it for herself--shall I be a beast and not
+help her, because it puts my own nose out of joint? Not a bit of it!
+The reader must remember that in venturing to reflect a young man's
+sentiments a dignified style is scarcely possible; they express
+themselves sometimes with much force in their private moments, but not
+as Dr. Johnson would have approved, or with any sense of elegance; and
+one must try to be truthful to nature. He knew very well that Elinor was
+not responsible for his disappointment, and even he was aware that if
+she had been so foolish as to fix her hopes upon him, it would probably
+have been she who would have been disappointed, and left in the lurch.
+But still----
+
+John had gone through an interminable amount of thinking, and a good
+deal of soda-water (with or without, how should I know, some other
+moderate ingredient), and a cigar or two--not to speak of certain hours
+when he ought to have been in bed to keep his head clear for the cases
+of to-morrow: when it suddenly flashed upon him all at once that he was
+not a step further on than when he had received Mrs. Dennistoun's letter
+in the morning, for Elinor, though she had said so much about him, had
+given no indication who her lover was. Who was the man?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+It was a blustering afternoon when John, with his bag in his hand, set
+out from the station at Hurrymere for Mrs. Dennistoun's cottage. Why
+that station should have had "mere" in its name I have never been able
+to divine, for there is no water to be seen for miles, scarcely so much
+as a duckpond: but, perhaps, there are two meanings to the words. It was
+a steep walk up a succession of slopes, and the name of the one upon
+which the cottage stood was Windyhill not an encouraging title on such
+a day, but true enough to the character of the place. The cottage lay,
+however, at the head of a combe or shelving irregular valley, just
+sheltered from the winds on a little platform of its own, and commanding
+a view which was delightful in its long sweeping distance, and varied
+enough to be called picturesque, especially by those who were familiar
+with nothing higher than the swelling slopes of the Surrey hills. It was
+wild, little cultivated, save in the emerald green of the bottom, a
+few fields which lay where a stream ought to have been. Nowadays there
+are red-roofed houses peeping out at every corner, but at that period
+fashion had not even heard of Hurrymere, and, save for a farm-house or
+two, a village alehouse and posting-house at a corner of the high-road,
+and one or two great houses within the circuit of six or seven miles,
+retired within their trees and parks, there were few habitations. Mrs.
+Dennistoun's cottage was red-roofed like the rest, but much subdued by
+lichens, and its walls were covered by climbing plants, so that it
+struck no bold note upon the wild landscape, yet was visible afar off in
+glimpses, from the much-winding road, for a mile or two before it could
+be come at. There was, indeed, a nearer way, necessitating a sharp
+scramble, but when John came just in sight of the house his heart failed
+him a little, and, notwithstanding that his bag had come to feel very
+heavy by this time, he deliberately chose the longer round to gain a
+little time--as we all do sometimes, when we are most anxious to be
+at our journey's end, and hear what has to be told us. It looked very
+peaceful seated in that fold of the hill, no tossing of trees about it,
+though a little higher up the slim oaks and beeches of the copse were
+flinging themselves about against the grey sky in a kind of agonised
+appeal. John liked the sound of the wind sweeping over the hills, rending
+the trees, and filling the horizon as with a crowd of shadows in pain,
+twisting and bending with every fresh sweep of the breeze. Sometimes
+such sounds and sights give a relief to the mind. He liked it better
+than if all had been undisturbed, lying in afternoon quiet as might have
+been expected at the crown of the year--but the winds had always to be
+taken into account at Windyhill.
+
+When he came in sight of the gate, John was aware of some one waiting
+for him, walking up and down the sandy road into which it opened. Her
+face was turned the other way, and she evidently looked for him by way
+of the combe, the scrambling steep road which he had avoided in despite:
+for why should he scramble and make himself hot in order to hear ten
+minutes sooner what he did not wish to hear at all? She turned round
+suddenly as he knocked his foot against a stone upon the rough, but
+otherwise noiseless road, presenting a countenance flushed with sudden
+relief and pleasure to John's remorseful eye. "Oh, there you are!" she
+said; "I am so glad. I thought you could not be coming. You might have
+been here a quarter of an hour ago by the short road."
+
+"I did not think there was any hurry," said John, ungraciously. "The
+wind is enough to carry one off one's feet; though, to be sure, it's
+quiet enough here."
+
+"It's always quiet here," she said, reading his face with her eyes after
+the manner of women, and wondering what the harassed look meant that was
+so unusual in John's cheerful face. She jumped at the idea that he was
+tired, that his bag was heavy, that he had been beaten about by the wind
+till he had lost his temper, always a possible thing to happen to a man.
+Elinor flung herself upon the bag and tried to take possession of it.
+"Why didn't you get a boy at the station to carry it? Let me carry it,"
+she said.
+
+"That is so likely," said John, with a hard laugh, shifting it to his
+other hand.
+
+Elinor caught his arm with both her hands, and looked up with wistful
+eyes into his face. "Oh, John, you are angry," she said.
+
+"Nonsense. I am tired, buffeting about with this wind." Here the
+gardener and man-of-all-work about the cottage came up and took the bag,
+which John parted with with angry reluctance, as if it had been a sort
+of weapon of offence. After it was gone there was nothing for it but to
+walk quietly to the house through the flowers with that girl hanging on
+his arm, begging a hundred pardons with her eyes. The folly of it! as
+if she had not a right to do as she pleased, or he would try to prevent
+her; but finally, the soft, silent apology of that clinging, and the
+look full of petitions touched his surly heart. "Well--Nelly," he said,
+with involuntary softening.
+
+"Oh, if you call me that I am not afraid!" she cried, with an instant
+upleaping of pleasure and confidence in her changeable face, which (John
+tried to say to himself) was not really pretty at all, only so full of
+expression, changing with every breath of feeling. The eyes, which had
+only been brown a moment before, leaped up into globes of light, yet
+not too dazzling, with some liquid medium to soften their shining. Even
+though you know that a girl is in love with another man, that she thinks
+of you no more than of the old gardener who has just hobbled round the
+corner, it is pleasant to be able to change the whole aspect of affairs
+to her and make her light up like that, solely by a little unwilling
+softening of your gruff and surly tone.
+
+"You know, John," she said, holding his arm tight with her two hands,
+"that nobody ever calls me Nelly--except you."
+
+"Possibly I shall call you Nelly no longer. Why? Why, because that
+fellow will object."
+
+"That fellow! Oh, _he_!" Elinor's face grew very red all over, from the
+chin, which almost touched John's arm, to the forehead, bent back a
+little over those eyes suffused with light which were intent upon all
+the changes of John's face. This one was, like the landscape, swept by
+all the vicissitudes of sun and shade. It was radiant now with the
+unexpected splendour of the sudden gleam.
+
+"Oh, John, John, I have so much to say to you! He will object to
+nothing. He knows very well you are like my brother--almost more than my
+brother--for you could help it, John. You almost chose me for your
+friend, which a brother would not. He says, 'Get him to be our friend
+and all will be well!'"
+
+_He_ had not said this, but Elinor had said it to him, and he had
+assented, which was almost the same--in the way of reckoning of a girl,
+at least.
+
+"He is very kind, I am sure," said John, gulping down something which
+had almost made him throw off Elinor's arm, and fling away from her in
+indignation. Her brother----!! But there was no use making any row, he
+said to himself. If anything were to be done for her he must put up with
+all that. There had suddenly come upon John, he knew not how, as he
+scanned her anxious face, a conviction that the man was a scamp, from
+whom at all hazards she should be free.
+
+Said Elinor, unsuspecting, "That is just what he is, John! I knew you
+would divine his character at once. You can't think how kind he is--kind
+to everybody. He never judges anyone, or throws a stone, or makes an
+insinuation." ("Probably because he knows he cannot bear investigation
+himself," John said, in his heart.) "That was the thing that took my
+heart first. Everybody is so censorious--always something to say against
+their neighbours; he, never a word."
+
+"That's a very good quality," said John, reluctantly, "if it doesn't
+mean confounding good with bad, and thinking nothing matters."
+
+Elinor gave him a grieved, reproachful look, and loosened the clasping
+of her hands. "It is not like you to imagine that, John!"
+
+"Well, what is a man to say? Don't you see, if you do nothing but blow
+his trumpet, the only thing left for me to do is to insinuate something
+against him? I don't know the man from Adam. He may be an angel, for
+anything I can say."
+
+"No; I do not pretend he is that," said Elinor, with impartiality. "He
+has his faults, like others, but they are _nice_ faults. He doesn't know
+how to take care of his money (but he hasn't got very much, which makes
+it the less matter), and he is sometimes taken in about his friends.
+Anybody almost that appeals to his kindness is treated like a friend,
+which makes precise people think----but, of course, I don't share that
+opinion in the very least."
+
+("A very wasteful beggar, with a disreputable set," was John's practical
+comment within himself upon this speech.)
+
+"And he doesn't know how to curry favour with people who can help him
+on; so that though he has been for years promised something, it never
+turns up. Oh, I know his faults very well indeed," said Elinor; "but a
+woman can do so much to make up for faults like that. We're naturally
+saving, you know, and we always keep those unnecessary friends that were
+made before our time at a distance; and it's part of our nature to coax
+a patron--that is what Mariamne says."
+
+"Mariamne?" said John.
+
+"His sister, who first introduced him to me; and I am very fond of
+her, so you need not say anything against her, John. I know she
+is--fashionable, but that's no harm."
+
+"Mariamne," he repeated; "it is a very uncommon name. You don't mean
+Lady Mariamne Prestwich, do you? and not--not----Elinor! not Phil
+Compton, for goodness' sake? Don't tell me he's the man?"
+
+Elinor's hands dropped from his arm. She drew herself up until she
+seemed to tower over him. "And why should I say it is not Mr. Compton,"
+she asked, with a scarlet flush of anger, so different from that rosy
+red of love and happiness, covering her face.
+
+"Phil Compton! the _dis_-Honourable Phil! Why, Elinor! you cannot mean
+it! you must not mean it!" he cried.
+
+Elinor said not a word. She turned from him with a look of pathetic
+reproach but with the air of a queen, and walked into the house, he
+following in a ferment of wrath and trouble, yet humbled and miserable
+more than words could say. Oh, the flowery, peaceful house! jasmine and
+rose overleaping each other upon the porch, honeysuckle scenting the
+air, all manner of feminine contrivances to continue the greenness and
+the sweetness into the little bright hall, into the open drawing-room,
+where flowers stood on every table amid the hundred pretty trifles of a
+woman's house. There was no one in this room where she led him, and then
+turned round confronting him, taller than he had ever seen her before,
+pale, with her nostrils dilating and her lips trembling. "I never
+thought it possible that you of all people in the world, you, John--my
+stand-by since ever I was a baby--my---- Oh! what a horrid thing it is
+to be a woman," cried Elinor, stamping her foot, "to be ready to cry for
+everything!--you, John! that I always put my trust in--that you should
+turn against me--and at the very first word!"
+
+"Elinor," he said, "my dear girl! not against you, not against you, for
+all the world!"
+
+"And what is _me_?" she said, with that sudden turning of the tables and
+high scorn of her previous argument which is common with women; "do I
+care what you do to _me_? Oh, nothing, nothing! I am of no account, you
+can trample me down under your feet if you like. But what I will not
+bear," she said, clenching her hands, "is injustice to him: that I will
+not bear, neither from you, Cousin John, who are only my distant cousin,
+after all, and have no right to thrust your advice upon me--or from any
+one in the world."
+
+"What you say is quite true, Elinor, I am only a distant cousin--after
+all: but----"
+
+"Oh, no, no," she cried, flying to him, seizing once more his arm with
+her clinging hands, "I did not mean that--you know I did not mean that,
+my more than brother, my good, good John, whom I have trusted all my
+life!"
+
+And then the poor girl broke out into passionate weeping with her head
+upon his shoulder, as she might have leant upon the handy trunk of a
+tree, or on the nearest door or window, as John Tatham said in his
+heart. He soothed her as best he could, and put her in a chair and stood
+with his hand upon the back of it, looking down upon her as the fit of
+crying wore itself out. Poor little girl! he had seen her cry often
+enough before. A girl cries for anything, for a thorn in her finger,
+for a twist of her foot. He had seen her cry and laugh, and dash the
+tears out of her eyes on such occasions, oh! often and often: there was
+that time when he rushed out of the bushes unexpectedly and frightened
+her pony, and she fell among the grass and vowed, sobbing and laughing,
+it was her fault! and once when she was a little tot, not old enough for
+boy's play, when she fell upon her little nose and cut it and disfigured
+herself, and held up that wounded little knob of a feature to have it
+kissed and made well. Oh, why did he think of that now! the little thing
+all trust and simple confidence! There was that time too when she jumped
+up to get a gun and shoot the tramps who had hurt somebody, if John
+would but give her his hand! These things came rushing into his mind as
+he stood watching Elinor cry, with his hand upon the back of her chair.
+
+She wanted John's hand now when she was going forth to far greater
+dangers. Oh, poor little Nelly! poor little thing! but he could not put
+her on his shoulder and carry her out to face the foe now.
+
+She jumped up suddenly while he was thinking, with the tears still wet
+upon her cheeks, but the paroxysm mastered, and the light of her eyes
+coming out doubly bright like the sun from the clouds. "We poor women,"
+she said with a laugh, "are so badly off, we are so handicapped, as you
+call it! We can't help crying like fools! We can't help caring for what
+other people think, trying to conciliate and bring them round to approve
+us--when we ought to stand by our own conscience and judgment, and sense
+of what is right, like independent beings."
+
+"If that means taking your own way, Elinor, whatever any one may say to
+you, I think women do it at least as much as men."
+
+"No, it does not mean taking our own way," she cried, "and if you do not
+understand any better than that, why should I---- But you do understand
+better, John," she said, her countenance again softening: "you know I
+want, above everything in the world, that you should approve of me and
+see that I am right. That is what I want! I will do what I think right;
+but, oh, if I could only have you with me in doing it, and know that you
+saw with me that it was the best, the only thing to do! Happiness lies
+in that, not in having one's own way."
+
+"My dear Elinor," he said, "isn't that asking a great deal? To prevent
+you from doing what you think right is in nobody's power. You are of
+age, and I am sure my aunt will force nothing; but how can we change our
+opinions, our convictions, our entire points of view? There is nobody in
+the world I would do so much for as you, Elinor: but I cannot do that,
+even for you."
+
+The hot tears were dried from her cheeks, the passion was over. She
+looked at him, her efforts to gain him at an end, on the equal footing
+of an independent individual agreeing to differ, and as strong in her
+own view as he could be.
+
+"There is one thing you can do for me," she said. "Mamma knows nothing
+about--fashionable gossip. She is not acquainted with the wicked things
+that are said. If she disapproves it is only because---- Oh, I suppose
+because one's mother always disapproves a thing that is done without
+her, that she has no hand in, what she calls pledging one's self to a
+stranger, and not knowing his antecedents, his circumstances, and so
+forth! But she hasn't any definite ground for it as you--think you have,
+judging in the uncharitable way of the world--not remembering that if we
+love one another the more there is against him the more need he has of
+me! But all I have to ask of you, John, is not to prejudice my mother. I
+know you can do it if you please--a hint would be enough, an uncertain
+word, even hesitating when you answer a question--that would be quite
+enough! John, if you put things into her head----"
+
+"You ask most extraordinary things of me," said John, turning to bay.
+"To tell her lies about a man whom everybody knows--to pretend I think
+one thing when I think quite another. Not to say that my duty is to
+inform her exactly what things are said, so that she may judge for
+herself, not let her go forth in ignorance--that is my plain duty,
+Elinor."
+
+"But you won't do it; oh, you won't do it!" she said. "Oh, John, for
+the sake of all the time that you have been so good to Nelly--your own
+little Nelly, nobody else's! Remember that I and everybody who loves
+him know these stories to be lies--and don't, don't put things into my
+mother's head! Let her judge for herself--don't, don't prejudice her,
+John. It can be no one's duty to repeat malicious stories when there is
+no possibility of proving or disproving them. Don't make her think----
+Oh, mamma! we couldn't think where you had gone to. Yes, here is John."
+
+"So I perceive," said Mrs. Dennistoun. It was getting towards evening,
+and the room was not very light. She could not distinguish their looks
+or the agitation that scarcely could have been hidden but for the dusk.
+"You seem to have been having a very animated conversation. I heard your
+voices all along the garden walk. Let me have the benefit of it, if
+there is anything to tell."
+
+"You know well enough, mamma, what we must have been talking about,"
+said Elinor, turning half angrily away.
+
+"To be sure," said the mother, "I ought to have known. There is nothing
+so interesting as that sort of thing. I thought, however, you would
+probably have put it off a little, Elinor."
+
+"Put it off a little--when it is the thing that concerns us more than
+anything else in the world!"
+
+"That is true," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a sigh. "Did you walk all the
+way, John? I meant to have sent the pony-cart for you, but the man was
+too late. It is a nice evening though, and coming out of town it is a
+good thing for you to have a good walk."
+
+"Yes, I like it more than anything," said John, "but the evening is not
+so very fine. The wind is high, and I shouldn't wonder if we had rain."
+
+"The wind is always high here," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "We don't have our
+view for nothing; but the sky is quite clear in the west, and all the
+clouds blowing away. I don't think we shall have more than a shower."
+
+Elinor stood listening to this talk with restrained impatience, as if
+waiting for the moment when they should come to something worth talking
+about. Then she gave herself a sort of shake--half weary, half
+indignant--and left the room. There was a moment's silence, until her
+quick step was heard going to the other end of the house and up-stairs,
+and the shutting of a door.
+
+"Oh, John, I am very uneasy, very uneasy," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "I
+scarcely thought she would have begun to you about it at once; but then
+I am doing the very same. We can't think of anything else. I am not
+going to worry you before dinner, for you must be tired with your walk,
+and want to refresh yourself before we enter upon that weary, weary
+business. But my heart misgives me dreadfully about it all. If I only
+had gone with her! It was not for want of an invitation, but just my
+laziness. I could not be troubled to leave my own house."
+
+"I don't see what difference it would have made had you been with her,
+aunt."
+
+"Oh, I should have seen the man: and been able to judge what he was and
+his motive, John."
+
+"Elinor is not rich. He could scarcely have had an interested motive."
+
+"There is some comfort in that. I have said that to myself again and
+again. He could not have an interested motive. But, oh! I am uneasy!
+There is the dressing-bell. I will not keep you any longer, John; but
+in the evening, or to-morrow, when we can get a quiet moment----"
+
+The dusk, was now pervading all the house--that summer dusk which
+there is a natural prejudice everywhere against cutting short by
+lights. He could not see her face, nor she his, as they went out of the
+drawing-room together and along the long passage, which led by several
+arched doorways to the stairs. John had a room on the ground floor which
+was kept for gentlemen visitors, and in which the candles were twinkling
+on the dressing-table. He was more than ever thankful as he caught a
+glimpse of himself in the vague reflected world of the mirror, with its
+lights standing up reflected too, like inquisitors spying upon him, that
+there had not been light enough to show how he was looking: for though
+he was both a lawyer and a man of the world, John Tatham had not been
+able to keep the trouble which his interview with Elinor had caused him
+out of his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The drawing-room of the cottage was large and low, and had that _faux
+air_ of being old-fashioned which is dear to the hearts of superior
+people generally. Mrs. Dennistoun and her daughter scarcely belonged to
+that class, yet they were, as ladies of leisure with a little taste for
+the arts are bound to be, touched by all the fancies of their time,
+which was just beginning to adore Queen Anne. There was still, however,
+a mixture of luxury with the square settees and spindle-legged cabinets
+which were "the fashion:" and partly because that was also "the fashion,"
+and partly because on Windyhill even a July evening was sometimes a
+little chill, or looked so by reason of the great darkness of the
+silent, little-inhabited country outside--there was a log burning on the
+fire-dogs (the newest thing in furnishing in those days though now so
+common) on the hearth. The log burned as little as possible, being,
+perhaps, not quite so thoroughly dry and serviceable as it would have
+been in its proper period, and made a faint hissing sound in the silence
+as it burned, and diffused its pungent odour through the house. The bow
+window was open behind its white curtains, and it was there that the
+little party gathered out of reach of the unnecessary heat and the
+smoke. There was a low sofa on either side of this recess, and in the
+centre the French window opened into the garden, where all the scents
+were balmy in the stillness which had fallen upon the night.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun was tall and slim, a woman with a presence, and sat with
+a sort of dignity on her side of the window, with a little table beside
+her covered with her little requirements, the properties, so to speak,
+without which she was never known to be--a book for moments when there
+was nothing else to interest her, a case for work should there arise
+any necessity for putting in a stitch in time, a bottle of salts should
+she or any one else become suddenly faint, a paper cutter in cases of
+emergency, and finally, for mere ornament, two roses, a red and a white,
+in one of those tall old-fashioned glasses which are so pretty for
+flowers. I do wrong to dismiss the roses with such vulgar qualifications
+as white and red--the one was a _Souvenir de Malmaison_, the other a
+_General_ ---- something or other. If you spoke to Mrs. Dennistoun
+about her flowers she said, "Oh, the Malmaison," or "Oh, the General
+So-and-so." Rose was only the family name, but happily, as we all know,
+under the other appellation they smelt just as sweet. Mrs. Dennistoun
+kept up all this little state because she had been used to do so;
+because it was part of a lady's accoutrements, so to speak. She had also
+a cushion, which was necessary, if not for comfort, yet for her sense of
+being fully equipped, placed behind her back when she sat down. But with
+all this she was not a formal or prim person. She was a woman who had
+not produced a great deal of effect in life; one of those who are not
+accustomed to have their advice taken, or to find that their opinion has
+much weight upon others. Perhaps it was because Elinor resembled her
+father that this peculiarity which had affected all Mrs. Dennistoun's
+married life should have continued into a sphere where she ought to have
+been paramount. But she was with her daughter as she had been with her
+husband, a person of an ineffective character, taking refuge from the
+sensation of being unable to influence those about her whose wills were
+stronger than her own, by relinquishing authority, and in her most
+decided moments offering an opinion only, no more. This was not because
+she was really undecided, for on the contrary she knew her own mind well
+enough; but it had become a matter of habit with her to insist upon no
+opinion, knowing, as she did, how little chance she had of imposing her
+opinion upon the stronger wills about her. She had two other children
+older than Elinor: one, the eldest of all, married in India, a woman
+with many children of her own, practically altogether severed from
+the maternal nest; the other an adventurous son, who was generally
+understood to be at the ends of the earth, but seldom or never had any
+more definite address. This lady had naturally gone through many pangs
+and anxieties on behalf of these children, who had dropped away from her
+side into the unknown; but it belonged to her character to have said
+very little about this, so that she was generally supposed to take
+things very easily, and other mothers were apt to admire the composure
+of Mrs. Dennistoun, whose son might be being murdered by savages at any
+moment, for anything she knew--or minded, apparently. "Now it would have
+driven _me_ out of my senses!" the other ladies said. Mrs. Dennistoun
+perhaps did not feel the back so well fitted to the burden as
+appeared--but she kept her own sentiments on this subject entirely to
+herself.
+
+(I may say too--but this, the young reader may skip without
+disadvantage--by way of explanation of a peculiarity which has lately
+been much remarked as characteristic of those records of human history
+contemptuously called fiction, _i.e._, the unimportance, or ill-report,
+or unjust disapproval of the mother in records of this description--that
+it is almost impossible to maintain her due rank and character in a
+piece of history, which has to be kept within certain limits--and where
+her daughter the heroine must have the first place. To lessen _her_
+pre-eminence by dwelling at length upon the mother, unless that mother
+is a fool, or a termagant, or something thoroughly contrasting with the
+beauty and virtues of the daughter--would in most cases be a mistake in
+art. For one thing the necessary incidents are wanting, for I strongly
+object, and so I think do most people, to mothers who fall in love, or
+think of marriage, or any such vanity in their own person, and unless
+she is to interfere mischievously with the young lady's prospects, or
+take more or less the part of the villain, how is she to be permitted
+any importance at all? For there cannot be two suns in one sphere, or
+two centres to one world. Thus the mother has to be sacrificed to the
+daughter: which is a parable; or else it is the other way, which is
+against all the principles and prepossessions of life.)
+
+Elinor did not sit up like her mother. She had flung herself upon the
+opposite sofa, with her arms flung behind her head, supporting it with
+her fingers half buried in the twists of her hair. She was not tall
+like Mrs. Dennistoun, and there was far more vivid colour than had ever
+been the mother's in her brown eyes and bright complexion, which was
+milk-white and rose-red after an old-fashioned rule of colour, too crude
+perhaps for modern artistic taste. Sometimes these delightful tints go
+with a placid soul which never varies, but in Elinor's case there was a
+demon in the hazel of the eyes, not dark enough for placidity, all fire
+at the best of times, and ready in a moment to burst into flame. She
+it was who had to be in the forefront of the interest, and not her
+mother, though for metaphysical, or what I suppose should now be
+called psychological interests, the elder lady was probably the most
+interesting of the two. Elinor beat her foot upon the carpet, out of
+sheer impatience, while John lingered alone in the dining-room. What did
+he stay there for? When there are several men together, and they drink
+wine, the thing is comprehensible; but one man alone who takes his
+claret with his dinner, and cares for nothing more, why should he stay
+behind when there was so much to say to him, and not one minute too
+much time till Monday morning, should the house be given up to talk not
+only by day but by night? But it was no use beating one's foot, for John
+did not come.
+
+"You spoke to your cousin, Elinor, before dinner?" her mother said.
+
+"Oh, yes, I spoke to him before dinner. What did he come here for but
+that? I sent for him on purpose, you know, mamma, to hear what he would
+say."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+This most natural question produced a small convulsion once more on
+Elinor's side. She loosed the hands that had been supporting her head
+and flung them out in front of her. "Oh, mamma, how can you be so
+exasperating! What did he say? What was he likely to say? If the beggar
+maid that married King Cophetua had a family it would have been exactly
+the same thing--though in that case surely the advantage was all on the
+gentleman's side."
+
+"We know none of the particulars in that case," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+calmly. "I have always thought it quite possible that the beggar maid
+was a princess of an old dynasty and King Cophetua a _parvenu_. But in
+your case, Elinor----"
+
+"You know just as little," said the girl, impetuously.
+
+"That is what I say. I don't know the man who has possessed himself of
+my child's fancy and heart. I want to know more about him. I want----"
+
+"For goodness' sake, whatever you want, don't be sentimental, mamma!"
+
+"Was I sentimental? I didn't mean it. He has got your heart, my dear,
+whatever words may be used."
+
+"Yes--and for ever!" said the girl, turning round upon herself. "I know
+you think I don't know my own mind; but there will never be any change
+in me. Oh, what does John mean, sitting all by himself in that stuffy
+room? He has had time to smoke a hundred cigarettes!"
+
+"Elinor, you must not forget it is rather hard upon John to be brought
+down to settle your difficulties for you. What do you want with him?
+Only that he should advise you to do what you have settled upon doing.
+If he took the other side, how much attention would you give him? You
+must be reasonable, my dear."
+
+"I would give him every attention," said Elinor, "if he said what was
+reasonable. You don't think mere blind opposition is reasonable, I hope,
+mamma. To say Don't, merely, without saying why, what reason is there in
+that?"
+
+"My dear, when you argue I am lost. I am not clever at making out my
+ground. Mine is not mere blind opposition, or indeed opposition at all.
+You have been always trained to use your own faculties, and I have never
+made any stand against you."
+
+"Why not? why not?" said the girl, springing to her feet. "That is just
+the dreadful, dreadful part of it! Why don't you say straight out what
+I am to do and keep to it, and not tell me I must make use of my own
+faculties? When I do, you put on a face and object. Either don't object,
+or tell me point-blank what I am to do."
+
+"Do you think for one moment if I did, you would obey me, Elinor?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know what I might do in that case, for it will never
+happen. You will never take that responsibility. For my part, if you
+locked me up in my room and kept me on bread and water I should think
+_that_ reasonable; but not this kind of letting I dare not wait upon I
+would, saying I am to exercise my own faculties, and then hesitating and
+finding fault."
+
+"I daresay, my dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with great tolerance, "that
+this may be provoking to your impatient mind: but you must put yourself
+in my place a little, as I try to put myself in yours. I have never seen
+Mr. Compton. It is probable, or at least quite possible, that if I knew
+him I might look upon him with your eyes----"
+
+"Probable! Possible! What words to use! when all my happiness, all my
+life, everything I care for is in it: and my own mother thinks it just
+possible that she might be able to tolerate the man that--the man
+who----"
+
+She flung herself down on her seat again, panting and excited. "Did you
+wear out Adelaide like that," she cried, "before she married, papa and
+you----"
+
+"Adelaide was very different, Elinor. She married _salon les règles_ a
+man whom we all knew. There was no trouble about it. Your father was
+the one who was impatient then. He thought it too well arranged, too
+commonplace and satisfactory. You may believe he did not object to that
+in words, but he laughed at them and it worried him. It has done very
+well on the whole," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a faint sigh.
+
+"You say that--and then you sigh. There is always a little reserve. You
+are never wholly satisfied."
+
+"One seldom is in this world," said Mrs. Dennistoun, this time with a
+soft laugh. "This world is not very satisfactory. One makes the best one
+can of it."
+
+"And that is just what I hate to hear," said Elinor, "what I have always
+heard. Oh, yes, when you don't say it you mean it, mamma. One can read
+it in the turn of your head. You put up with things. You think perhaps
+they might have been worse. In every way that's your philosophy. And
+it's killing, killing to all life! I would rather far you said out,
+'Adelaide's husband is a prig and I hate him.'"
+
+"There is only one drawback, that it would not be true. I don't in the
+least hate him. I am glad I was not called upon to marry him myself, I
+don't think I should have liked it. But he makes Adelaide a very good
+husband, and she is quite happy with him--as far as I know."
+
+"The same thing again--never more. I wonder, I wonder after I have been
+married a dozen years what you will say of me?"
+
+"I wonder, too: if we could but know that it would solve the question,"
+the mother said. Elinor looked at her with a provoked and impatient air,
+which softened off after a moment--partly because she heard the door of
+the dining-room open--into a smile.
+
+"I try you in every way," she said, half laughing. "I do everything to
+beguile you into a pleasanter speech. I thought you must at least have
+said then that you hoped you would have nothing to say but happiness.
+No! you are not to be caught, however one tries, mamma."
+
+John came in at this moment, not without a whiff about him of the
+cigarette over which he had lingered so. It relieved him to see the
+two ladies seated opposite each other in the bow window, and to hear
+something like a laugh in the air. Perhaps they were discussing other
+things, and not this momentous marriage question, in which certainly no
+laughter was.
+
+"You have your usual fire," he said, "but the wind has quite gone down,
+and I am sure it is not wanted to-night."
+
+"It looks cheerful always, John."
+
+"Which is the reason, I suppose, why you carefully place yourself out of
+sight of it--one of the prejudices of English life."
+
+And then he came forward into the recess of the window, which was partly
+separated from the room by a table with flowers on it, and a great bush
+in a pot, of delicate maiden-hair fern. It was perhaps significant,
+though he did not mean it for any demonstration of partisanship, that
+he sat down on Elinor's side. Both the ladies felt it so instinctively,
+although, on the contrary, had the truth been known, all John's real
+agreement was with the mother; but in such a conjuncture it is not truth
+but personal sympathy that carries the day. "You are almost in the dark
+here," he said.
+
+"Neither of us is doing anything. One is lazy on a summer night."
+
+"There is a great deal more in it than that," said Elinor, in a voice
+which faltered a little. "You talk about summer nights, and the weather,
+and all manner of indifferent things, but you know all the time there
+is but one real subject to talk of, and that we are all thinking of
+that."
+
+"That is my line, aunt," said John. "Elinor is right. We might sit
+and make conversation, but of course this is the only subject we are
+thinking of. It's very kind of you to take me into the consultation. Of
+course I am in a kind of way the nearest in relation, and the only man
+in the family--except my father--and I know a little about law, and all
+that. Now let me hear formally, as if I knew nothing about it (and, in
+fact, I know very little), what the question is. Elinor has met someone
+who--who has proposed to her--not to put too fine a point upon it," said
+John, with a smile that was somewhat ghastly--"and she has accepted him.
+Congratulations are understood, but here there arises a hitch."
+
+"There arises no hitch. Mamma is dissatisfied (which mamma generally is)
+chiefly because she does not know Mr. Compton; and some wretched old
+woman, who doesn't know him either, has written to her--to her and also
+to me--telling us a pack of lies," said Elinor, indignantly, "to which I
+do not give the least credence for a moment--not for a moment!"
+
+"That's all very well for you," said John, "it's quite simple; but for
+us, Elinor--that is, for your mother and me, as you are good enough to
+allow me to have a say in the matter--it's not so simple. We feel, you
+know, that, like Cæsar's wife, our Elinor's--husband"--he could not help
+making a grimace as he said that word, but no one saw or suspected
+it--"should be above suspicion."
+
+"That is exactly what I feel, John."
+
+"Well, we must do something about it, don't you see? Probably it will be
+as easy as possible for him to clear himself." (The dis-Honourable Phil!
+Good heavens! to think it was a man branded with such a name that was to
+marry Elinor! For a moment he was silenced by the thought, as if some
+one had given him a blow.)
+
+"To clear himself!" said Elinor. "And do you think I will permit him to
+be asked to clear himself? Do you think I will allow him to believe for
+a moment that _I_ believed anything against him? Do you think I will
+take the word of a spiteful old woman?"
+
+"Old women are not always spiteful, and they are sometimes right."
+John put out his hand to prevent Mrs. Dennistoun from speaking, which,
+indeed, she had no intention of doing. "I don't mean so, of course, in
+Mr. Compton's case--and I don't know what has been said."
+
+"Things that are very uncomfortable--very inconsistent with a happy life
+and a comfortable establishment," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"Oh, if you could only hear yourself, mamma! You are not generally a
+Philistine, I must say that for you; but if you only heard the tone
+in which you said 'comfortable establishment!' the most conventional
+match-making in existence could not have done it better; and as for
+what has been said, there has nothing been said but what is said about
+everybody--what, probably, would be said of you yourself, John, for you
+play whist sometimes, I hear, and often billiards, at the club."
+
+A half-audible "God forbid!" had come from John's lips when she said,
+"What would probably be said of yourself"--audible that is to Elinor,
+not to the mother. She sprang up as this murmur came to her ear: "Oh, if
+you are going to prejudge the case, there is nothing for me to say!"
+
+"I should be very sorry to prejudge the case, or to judge it all," said
+John. "I am too closely interested to be judicial. Let somebody who
+knows nothing about it be your judge. Let the accusations be submitted--to
+your Rector, say; he's a sensible man enough, and knows the world. He
+won't be scared by a rubber at the club, or that sort of thing. Let him
+inquire, and then your mind will be at rest."
+
+"There is only one difficulty, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "Mr. Hudson
+would be the best man in the world, only for one thing--that it is from
+his sister and his wife that the warning came."
+
+"Oh!" said John. This fact seemed to take him aback in the most
+ludicrous way. He sat and gazed at them, and had not another word to
+say. Perhaps the fact that he himself who suggested the inquiry was
+still better informed of the true state of the case, and of the truth of
+the accusation, than were those to whom he might have submitted it, gave
+him a sense of the hopelessness and also absurdity of the attempt more
+than anything else could have done.
+
+"And that proves, if there was nothing else," said Elinor, "how false
+it is: for how could Mrs. Hudson and Mary Dale know? They are not
+fashionable people, they are not in society. How could they or any one
+like them know anything of Phil"--she stopped quickly, drew herself up,
+and added--"of Mr. Compton, I mean?"
+
+"They might not know, but they might state their authority," Mrs.
+Dennistoun said; "and if the Rector cannot be used to help us, surely,
+John, you are a man of the world, you are not like a woman, unacquainted
+with evidence. Why should not you do it, though you are, as you kindly
+say, an interested party?"
+
+"He shall not do it. I forbid him to do it. If he takes in hand anything
+of the kind he must say good-by to me."
+
+"You hear?" said John; "but I could not do it in any case, my dear
+Elinor. I am too near. I never could see this thing all round. Why not
+your lawyer, old Lynch, a decent old fellow----"
+
+"I will tell him the same," cried Elinor; "I will never speak to him
+again."
+
+"My dear," said her mother, "you will give everybody the idea that you
+don't want to know the truth."
+
+"I know the truth already," said Elinor, rising with great dignity. "Do
+you think that any slander would for a moment shake my faith in you--or
+you? You don't deserve it, John, for you turn against me--you that I
+thought were going to take my part; but do you think if all the people
+in London set up one story that I would believe it against you? And how
+should I against _him_?" she added, with an emphasis upon the word, as
+expressing something immeasurably more to be loved and trusted than
+either mother or cousin, by which, after having raised John up to a sort
+of heaven of gratified affection, she let him down again to the ground
+like a stone. Oh, yes! trusted in with perfect faith, nothing believed
+against him, whom she had known all her life--but yet not to be mentioned
+in the same breath with the ineffable trust she reposed in the man she
+loved--whom she did not know at all. The first made John's countenance
+beam with emotion and pleasure, the second brought a cold shade over his
+face. For a moment he could scarcely speak.
+
+"She bribes us," he said at last, forcing a smile. "She flatters us, but
+only to let us drop again, Mrs. Dennistoun; it is as good as saying,
+'What are we to _him_?'"
+
+"They all do so," said the elder lady, calmly; "I am used to it."
+
+"But, perhaps, I am not quite--used to it," said John, with something in
+his voice which made them both look at him--Elinor only for a moment,
+carelessly, before she swept away--Mrs. Dennistoun with a more warmly
+awakened sensation, as if she had made some discovery. "Ah!" she said,
+with a tone of pain. But Elinor did not wait for any further disclosures.
+She waved her hand, and went off with her head high, carrying, as she
+felt, the honours of war. They might plot, indeed, behind her back, and
+try to invent some tribunal before which her future husband might be
+arraigned; but John, at least, would say nothing to make things worse.
+John would be true to her--he would not injure Phil Compton. Elinor,
+perhaps, guessed a little of what John was thinking, and felt, though
+she could scarcely have told how, that it would be a point of honour
+with him not to betray her love.
+
+He sat with Mrs. Dennistoun in partial silence for some time after
+this. He felt as if he had been partially discovered--partially, and yet
+more would be discovered than there was to discover; for if either of
+them believed that he was in love with Elinor, they were mistaken, he
+said to himself. He had been annoyed by her engagement, but he had never
+come to the point of asking her that question in his own person. No, nor
+would not, he said to himself--certainly would not--not even to save her
+from the clutches of this gambler and adventurer. No; they might think
+what they liked, but this was the case. He never should have done
+it--never would have exposed himself to refusal--never besought this
+high-tempered girl to have the control of his life. Poor Nelly all the
+same! poor little thing! To think she had so little judgment as to
+ignore what might have been a great deal better, and to pin her faith to
+the dis-Honourable Phil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+In the morning John accompanied Elinor to church. Mrs. Dennistoun had
+found an excuse for not going, which I am sorry to say was a way she
+had. She expressed (and felt) much sorrow for it herself, saying, which
+was quite true, that not to go was a great distress to her, and put the
+household out, and was a custom she did not approve of. But somehow
+it had grown upon her. She regretted this, but did it, saying that
+everybody was illogical, and that when Elinor had some one to go with
+she thought herself justified at her age in this little indulgence.
+Neither Elinor nor John objected to the arrangement. There are things
+that can be said in a walk while both parties are in motion, and when it
+is not necessary to face each other and to be subjected each to the
+other's examination of feature and expression. It is easier in this way
+to say many things, to ask questions which might be embarrassing, to
+receive the fire of an examination which it might be otherwise difficult
+to meet. Thus the two had not walked above half the way to church,
+which was on the other edge of the combe, and stood, a lovely old
+place--but not the trim and restored and well-decorated edifice it is
+nowadays--tinkling its little bells into the sweet moorland air, amid
+such a hum of innumerable bees as seemed to make the very sunshine a
+vehicle for sound--before John began to perceive that he was being
+ingeniously driven to revelations which he had never intended, by a
+process for which he was not at all prepared. She who had been so
+indignant last night and determined not to allow a word to be said
+against the immaculate honour of the man she loved, was now--was it
+possible?--straining all her faculties to obtain from him, whom she
+would not permit to be Phil Compton's judge, such unguarded admissions
+as would enlighten her as to what Phil Compton was accused of. It was
+some time before John perceived her aim; he did not even grasp the idea
+at first that this girl whose whole heart was set upon marrying Phil
+Compton, and defying for his sake every prophecy of evil and all the
+teachings of prudence, did not indeed at all know what it was which Phil
+had been supposed to have done. Had she been a girl in society she could
+scarcely have avoided some glimmerings of knowledge. She would have
+heard an unguarded word here and there, a broken phrase, an expression
+of scorn or dislike, she might even have heard that most unforgettable
+of nicknames, the dis-Honourable Phil. But Elinor, who was not in
+society, heard none of these things. She had been warned in the first
+fervour of her betrothal that he was not a man she ought to marry, but
+why? nobody had told her; how was she to know?
+
+"You don't like Lady Mariamne, John?"
+
+"It matters very little whether I like her or not: we don't meet once in
+a year."
+
+"It will matter if you are to be in a kind of way connected. What has
+she ever done that you shouldn't like her? She is very nice at home;
+she has three nice little children. It's quite pretty to see her with
+them."
+
+"Ah, I daresay; it's pretty to see a tiger with her cubs, I don't
+doubt."
+
+"What do you mean, John? What has she ever done?"
+
+"I cannot tell you, Elinor; nothing perhaps. She does not take my fancy:
+that's all."
+
+"That's not all; you could never be so unjust and so absurd. How
+dreadful you good people are! Pretending to mean kindness," she cried,
+"you put the mark of your dislike upon people, and then you won't say
+why. What have _they_ done?"
+
+It was this "they" that put John upon his guard. Hitherto she had only
+been asking about the sister, who did not matter so very much. If a man
+was to be judged by his sister! but "they" gave him a new light.
+
+"Can't you understand, Elinor," he said, "that without doing anything
+that can be built upon, a woman may set herself in a position of enmity
+to the world, her hand against every one, and every one's hand against
+her?"
+
+"I know that well enough--generally because she does not comply with
+every conventional rule, but does and thinks what commends itself to
+her; I do that myself--so far as I can with mamma behind me."
+
+"You! the question has nothing to do with you."
+
+"Why not with me as much as with another of my family?" said Elinor,
+throwing back her head.
+
+He turned round upon her with something like a snort of indignation: she
+to be compared--but Elinor met his eyes with scornful composure and
+defiance, and John was obliged to calm himself. "There's no analogy,"
+he said; "Lady Mariamne is an old campaigner. She's up to everything.
+Besides, a sister-in-law--if it comes to that--is not a very near
+relation. No one will judge you by her." He would not be led into any
+discussion of the other, whose name, alas! Elinor intended to bear.
+
+"If it comes to that. Perhaps you think," said Elinor, with a smile of
+fine scorn, "that you will prevent it ever coming to that?"
+
+"Oh, no," he said, "I'm very humble; I don't think much of my own powers
+in that way: nothing that I can do will affect it, if Providence doesn't
+take it in hand."
+
+"You really think it's a big enough thing to invoke Providence about?"
+
+"If Providence looks after the sparrows as we are told," said John, "it
+certainly may be expected to step in to save a nice girl like you,
+Nelly, from--from connections you'll soon get to hate--and--and a shady
+man!"
+
+She turned upon him with sparkling eyes in a sudden blaze of indignation.
+"How dare you! how dare you!"
+
+"I dare a great deal more than that to save you. You must hear me,
+Nelly: they're all badly spoken of, not one, but all. They are a shady
+lot--excuse a man's way of talking. I don't know what other words to
+use--partly from misfortune, but more from---- Nelly, Nelly, how could
+you, a high-minded, well-brought-up girl like you, tolerate that?"
+
+She turned upon him again, breathing hard with restrained rage and
+desperation; evidently she was at a loss for words to convey her
+indignant wrath: and at last in sheer inability to express the vehemence
+of her feelings she fastened on one word and repeated "well-brought-up!"
+in accents of scorn.
+
+"Yes," said John, "my aunt and you may not always understand each other,
+but she's proved her case to every fair mind by yourself, Elinor. A girl
+could not be better brought up than you've been: and you could not put
+up with it, not unless you changed your nature as well as your name."
+
+"With what?" she said, "with what?" They had gone up and down the
+sloping sides of the combe, through the rustling copse, sometimes where
+there was a path, sometimes where there was none, treading over the
+big bushes of ling and the bell-heather, all bursting into bloom, past
+groups of primeval firs and seedling beeches, self-sown, over little
+hillocks and hollows formed of rocks or big old roots of trees covered
+with the close glittering green foliage and dark blue clusters of the
+dewberry, with the hum of bees filling the air, the twittering of the
+birds, the sound of the church bells--nothing more like the heart of
+summer, more peaceful, genial, happy than that brooding calm of nature
+amid all the harmonious sounds, could be.
+
+But as Elinor put this impatient question, her countenance all ablaze
+with anger and vehemence and resolution, yet with a gleam of anxiety in
+the puckers of her forehead and the eyes which shone from beneath them,
+they stepped out upon the road by which other groups were passing, all
+bound towards the centre of the church and its tinkling bells. Elinor
+stopped, and drew a longer panting breath, and gave him a look of
+fierce reproach, as if this too were his fault: and then she smoothed
+her ruffled plumes, after the manner of women, and replied to the
+Sunday-morning salutations, with the smiles and nods of use and wont.
+She knew everybody, both the rich and the poor, or rather I should say
+the well-off and the less-well-off, for there were neither rich nor
+poor, formally speaking, on Windyhill. John did not find it so easy to
+put his emotions in his pocket. He cast an admiring glance upon her as
+with heightened colour and a little panting of the breath, but no other
+sign of disturbance, she made her inquiries after this one's mother and
+that one's child. It was wonderful to him to see how the storm was got
+under in a moment. An occasional glance aside at himself from the corner
+of her eye, a sort of dart of defiance as if to bid him remember that
+she was not done with him, was shot at John from time to time over the
+heads of the innocent country people in whom she pretended to be so much
+interested. Pretended!--was it pretence, or was the one as real as the
+other? He heard her promising to come to-morrow to see an invalid, to
+send certain articles as soon as she got home, to look up certain books.
+Would she do so? or was all this a mere veil to cover the other which
+engaged all her soul?
+
+And then there came the service--that soothing routine of familiar
+prayers, which the lips of men and women absorbed in the violence and
+urgency of life murmur over almost without knowing, with now and then an
+awakening to something that touches their own aspirations, to something
+that offers or that asks for help. "Because there is none other that
+fighteth for us but only Thou, O God." That seems to the careless soul
+such a _non sequitur_, as if peace was asked for, only because there
+was none other to fight; but to the man heavily laden, what a cry out
+of the depths! Because there is none other--all resources gone, all
+possibilities: but one that fighteth for us, standing fast, always the
+champion of the perplexed, the overborne, the weak. John was a little
+careless in this respect, as so many young men are. He thought most of
+the music when he joined the fashionable throng in the Temple Church.
+But there was no music to speak of at Windyhill. There was more sound of
+the bees outside, and the birds and the sighing bass of the fir-trees
+than of anything more carefully concerted. The organ was played with a
+curious drone in it, almost like that of the primitive bagpipe. But
+there was that one phrase, a strong strain of human appeal, enough to
+lift the world, nay, to let itself go straight to the blue heavens:
+"Because there is none other that fighteth for us but only Thou, O God."
+
+Mr. Hudson preached his little sermon like a discord in the midst. What
+should he have preached it for, that little sermon, which was only
+composed because he could not help himself, which was about nothing in
+heaven or earth? John gave it a sort of partial attention because he
+could not help it, partly in wonder to think how a sensible man like Mr.
+Hudson could account to himself for such strange little interruption of
+the natural sequence of high human emotion. What theory had he in his
+mind? This was a question John was fond of putting to himself, with
+perhaps an idea peculiar to a lawyer, that every man must be thinking
+what he is about, and be able to produce a clear reason, and, as it
+were, some theory of the meaning of his own actions--which everybody
+must know is nonsense. For the Rector of course preached just because it
+was in his day's work, and the people would have been much surprised,
+though possibly much relieved, had he not done so--feeling that to
+listen was in the day's work too, and to be gone through doggedly as a
+duty. John thought how much better it would be to have some man who
+could preach now and then when he had something to say, instead of
+troubling the Rector, who, good man, had nothing. But it is not to be
+supposed that he was thinking this consecutively while the morning
+went on. It flitted through his mind from time to time among his many
+thinkings about the Compton family and Elinor; poor Nelly, standing upon
+the edge of that precipice and the helplessness of every one to save
+her, and the great refrain like the peal of an organ going through
+everything, "None other that fighteth for us but only Thou, O God."
+Surely, surely to prevent this sacrifice He would interfere.
+
+She turned to him the moment they were out of the church doors with
+that same look of eager defiance yet demand, and as soon as they left
+the road, the first step into the copse, putting out her hand to
+call his attention: "You said I could not put up with it, a girl so
+well-brought-up as I am. What is it a well-brought-up girl can't put
+up with? A disorderly house, late hours, and so forth, hateful to the
+well-brought-up? What is it, what is it, John?"
+
+"Have you been thinking of that all through the morning prayers?" he
+said.
+
+"Yes, I have been thinking about it. What did you expect me to think
+about? Is there anything else so important? Mr. Hudson's sermon,
+perhaps, which I have heard before, which I suppose _you_ listened to,"
+she said, with a troubled laugh.
+
+"I did a little, wondering how a good man like that could go on doing
+it; and there were other things----" John did not like to say what it
+was which was still throbbing through the air to him, and through his
+own being.
+
+"Nothing that is of so much moment to me: come back, John, to the
+well-brought-up girl."
+
+"You think that's a poor sort of description, Elinor; so it is. You are
+of course a great deal more than that. Still it's what one can turn to
+most easily. You don't know what life is in a sort of fast house, where
+there is nothing thought of but amusement or where it's a constant round
+of race meetings, yachting, steeplechases--I don't know if men still
+ride steeplechases--I mean that sort of thing: Monte Carlo in the winter:
+betting all the year round--if not on one thing then on another;
+expedients to raise money, for money's always wanted. You don't
+know--how can you know?--what goes on in a fast life."
+
+"Don't you see, John," she cried, eagerly, "that all that, if put in a
+different way not to their prejudice, if put in the right way would
+sound delightful? There is no harm in these things at all. Betting's not
+a sin in the Bible any more than races are. Don't you see it's only the
+abuse of them that's wrong? One might ruin one's health, I believe, with
+tea, which is the most righteous thing! I should like above all things a
+yacht, say in the Mediterranean, and to go to Monte Carlo, which is a
+beautiful place, and where there is the best music in the world, besides
+the gambling. I should like even to see the gambling once in a way,
+for the fun of the thing. You don't frighten me at all. I have been a
+fortnight at Lady Mariamne's, and the continual 'go' was delightful;
+there was never a dull moment. As for expedients to raise money,
+_there_----"
+
+"To be sure--old Prestwich is as rich as Croesus--or was," said John,
+with significance, "but you are not going to live with Lady Mariamne, I
+suppose."
+
+"Oh, John!" she cried, "oh, John!" suddenly seizing him by the arm,
+clasping her hands on it in the pretty way of earnestness she had,
+though one hand held her parasol, which was inconvenient. The soft face
+was suffused with rosy colour, so different from the angry red, the
+flush of love and tenderness--her eyes swam in liquid light, looking up
+with mingled happiness and entreaty to John's face. "Fancy what he says,
+that he will not object to come here for half the year to let me be with
+my mother! Remember what he is, a man of fashion, and fond of the world,
+and of going out and all that. He has consented to come, nay, he almost
+offered to come for six months in the year to be with mamma."
+
+"Good heavens," cried John to himself, "he must indeed be down on his
+luck!" but what he said was, "Does your mother know of this, Elinor?"
+
+"I have not told her yet. I have reserved it to hear first what you had
+to say: and so far as I can make out you have nothing at all to say,
+only general things, disapproval in the general. What should you say if
+I told you that he disapproves too? He said himself that there had been
+too much of all that--that he had backed something--isn't that what you
+say?--backed it at odds, and stood to win what he calls a pot of money.
+But after that was decided--for he said he could not be off bets that
+were made--never any more. Now that I know you have nothing more to say
+my heart is free, and I can tell you. He has never really liked that
+sort of life, but was led into it when he was very young. And now as
+soon as--we are together, you know"--she looked so bright, so sweet in
+the happiness of her love, that John could have flung her from his arms,
+and felt that she insulted him by that clinging hold--"he means to turn
+entirely to serious things, and to go into politics, John."
+
+"Oh, he is going into politics!"
+
+"Of course, on the people's side--to do everything for them--Home Rule,
+and all that is best: to see that they are heard in Parliament, and have
+their wants attended to, instead of jobs and corruption everywhere. So
+you will see, John, that if he has been fast, and gone a little too
+far, and been very much mixed up in the Turf, and all that, it was only
+in the exuberance of youth, liking the fun of it, as I feel I should
+myself. But that now, now all that is to be changed when he steps into
+settled, responsible life. I should not have told you if you had
+repeated the lies that people say. But as you did not, but only found
+fault with him for being fast----"
+
+"Then you have heard--what people say?" He shifted his arm a little,
+so that she instinctively perceived that the affectionate clasp of her
+hands was no longer agreeable to him, and his face seemed suddenly to
+have become a blank page, absolutely devoid of all expression. He kicked
+vigorously at one of the hillocks he had stumbled against, as if he
+thought he could dislodge it and get it out of his way.
+
+"Mariamne told me there was a lot of lies--that people said--I am so
+glad, John, oh! so thankful, that you have not repeated any of them;
+for now I can feel you are my own good John, as you always were, not a
+slanderer of any one, and we can go on being fond of each other like
+brother and sister. I have told him you have been the best of brothers
+to me."
+
+"Oh," said John, without a sign of wonder or admiration in him, with a
+dead blank in his face.
+
+"And what do you think he said? 'Then I know he must be a capital
+fellow, Ne----'"
+
+"Not Nelly," said poor John, with a foolish pang that seemed to rend his
+heart. Oh, if that scamp, that cheat, that low betting, card-playing
+rascal were but here! he would capital-fellow him. To take not herself
+only, but the dear pet name that she had said was only John's----
+
+"He says Nell sometimes, John. Oh, not Nelly--Nelly is for you only. I
+would never let him call me that. But they are all for short names,
+one syllable--he is Phil, and Mariamne, well at home they call her
+Jew--horrible, isn't it?--because she was called after some Jewess; but
+somehow it seems queer when you see her, so fair and frizzy, like
+anything but a Jew."
+
+"So I have got one letter to myself," said John. "I don't know that I
+think that worth very much, however. And so far as I can see, you seem
+to think everything very fine--the bets, perhaps, and the rows and all."
+
+"Well they are, you know," said Elinor, with a laugh, "to a little
+country mouse like me that has never seen anything. There is always
+something going on, and their slang way of speaking is certainly very
+amusing if it is not at all dignified, and they have such droll ways of
+looking at things. All so entirely different! Don't you know, John,
+sometimes in one's life one longs for something to be quite different. A
+complete change, anything new."
+
+"If that is what you long for, no doubt you will get it, Elinor."
+
+"Well!" she cried, "I have had the other for three-and-twenty years,
+long enough to have exhausted it, don't you think? but I don't mean
+to throw it over, oh, no! Coming back to mamma makes the arrangement
+perfect. Probably in the end it is the old life, the life I was brought
+up in that I shall like best in the long run. That is one thing of being
+well brought up. Phil will laugh till he cries when I tell him of your
+description of me as a well-brought-up girl."
+
+John set his teeth as he walked or rather stumbled along by her side,
+catching in the roots of the trees as he had never done before, and
+swearing under his breath. Her flutter of talk running on, delighted,
+full of laughter and softness, as if he had fully declared his
+satisfaction and was interested in every detail, kept John in a state
+of suppressed fury which made his countenance dark, and almost took the
+sight from his eyes. He did not know how to escape from that false
+position, nor did she give him time, she had so much to say. Mrs.
+Dennistoun looked anxiously at the pair as they came up through the
+copse to the level of the cottage. There were no enclosures in that
+primitive place. From the copse you came straight into the garden with
+its banks of flowers. She was seated near the cottage door in a corner
+sheltered from the sun, with a number of books about her. But I don't
+think she had read anything except some portions of the lessons in the
+morning service. She had been sitting with her eyes vaguely fixed upon
+the horizon and her hands clasped in her lap, and a heavy shadow like an
+overhanging cloud upon her mind. But when she heard Elinor's voice
+approaching so gay and tuneful her heart rose a little. John evidently
+could have had nothing very bad to say. Elinor had been satisfied
+with the morning. Mrs. Dennistoun had expected to see them come back
+estranged and silent. The conclusion she drew was entirely satisfactory.
+After all John must have been moved solely by general disapproval, which
+is so very different from the dreadful hints and warnings that might
+mean any criminality. Elinor was talking to him as freely as she had
+done before this spectre rose. It must, Mrs. Dennistoun concluded, be
+all right.
+
+It was not till he was going away that she had an opportunity of talking
+with him alone. Her satisfaction, it must be allowed, had been a little
+subdued by John's demeanour during the afternoon and evening. But Mrs.
+Dennistoun had said to herself that there might be other ways of
+accounting for this. She had long had a fancy that John was more
+interested in Elinor than he had confessed himself to be. It had been
+her conviction that as soon as he felt it warrantable, as soon as he
+was sufficiently well-established, and his practice secured, he would
+probably declare himself, with, she feared, no particular issue so far
+as Elinor was concerned. And perhaps he was disappointed, poor fellow,
+which was a very natural explanation of his glum looks. But at breakfast
+on Monday Elinor announced her intention of driving her cousin to the
+station, and went out to see that the pony was harnessed, an operation
+which took some time, for the pony was out in the field and had to be
+caught, and the man of all work, who had a hundred affairs to look
+after, had to be caught too to perform this duty; which sometimes,
+however, Elinor performed herself, but always with some expenditure of
+time. Mrs. Dennistoun seized the opportunity, plunging at once into the
+all-important subject.
+
+"You seemed to get on all right together yesterday, John, so I suppose
+you found that after all there was not very much to say."
+
+"I was not allowed to say----anything. You mean----"
+
+"Oh, John, John, do you mean to tell me after all----"
+
+"Aunt Ellen," he said, "stop it if you can; if there is any means in the
+world by which you can stop it, do so. I can't bring accusations against
+the man, for I couldn't prove them. I only know what everybody knows. He
+is not a man fit for Elinor to marry. He is not fit to touch the tie of
+her shoe."
+
+"Oh, don't trouble me with your superlatives, John. Elinor is a good
+girl and a clever girl, but not a lady of romance. Is there anything
+really against him? Tell me, for goodness' sake! Even with these few
+words you have made me very unhappy," Mrs. Dennistoun said, in a half
+resentful tone.
+
+"I can't help it," said the unfortunate man, "I can't bring accusations,
+as I tell you. He is simply a scamp--that is all I know."
+
+"A scamp!" said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a look of alarm. "But then that is
+a word that has so many meanings. A scamp may be only a careless fellow,
+nice in his way. That is not enough to break off a marriage for. And,
+John, as you have said so much, you must say more."
+
+"I have no more to say, that's all I know. Inquire what the Hudsons have
+heard. Stop it if you can."
+
+"Oh, dear, dear, here is Elinor back already," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The next time that John's presence was required at the cottage was for
+the signing of the very simple settlements; which, as there was nothing
+or next to nothing in the power of the man to settle upon his wife,
+were easy enough. He met Mr. Lynch, who was Mrs. Dennistoun's "man of
+business," and a sharp London solicitor, who was for the husband.
+Elinor's fortune was five thousand pounds, no more, not counting her
+expectations from him, which were left out of the question. It was a
+very small matter altogether, and one which the smart solicitor who was
+in Mr. Compton's interest spoke of with a certain contempt, as who
+should say he was not in the habit of being disturbed and brought to the
+country for any such trifle. It was now August--not a time when any man
+was supposed to be available for matters like these. Mr. Lynch was just
+about starting for his annual holiday, but came, at no small personal
+inconvenience, to do his duty by the poor girl whom he had known all his
+life. John and he travelled to the cottage together, and their aspect
+was not cheerful. "Did you ever hear," said Mr. Lynch, "such a piece of
+folly as this--a man with no character at all? This is what it is to
+leave a girl in the sole care of her mother. What does a woman know
+about such things?"
+
+"I don't think it was her mother's fault," said John, anxious to do
+justice all round. "Elinor is very head-strong, and when she has made up
+her mind to a thing----"
+
+"A bit of a girl!" said Mr. Lynch, contemptuously. He was an old bachelor
+and knew nothing about the subject, as the reader will perceive. "Her
+mother ought never to have permitted it for a moment. She should have
+put down her foot: and then Miss Elinor would soon have come to reason.
+What I wonder is the ruffian's own motives? for it can't be a little bit
+of money like that. Five thousand's a mere mouthful to such a man as he
+is. He'll get rid of it all in a week."
+
+"It must be tied up as tight as possible," said John.
+
+Here Mr. Lynch faltered a little. "She has got an idea into her head,
+with the intention, I don't doubt, of defrauding herself if she can. He
+has got some investment for it, it appears. He is on the board of some
+company--a pretty board to take in such a fellow? But the Honourable is
+always something, I suppose."
+
+John did not say the _dis_-Honourable, though it trembled on the edge of
+his tongue. "But you will not permit that?" he said.
+
+"No, no; we will not permit it," said Mr. Lynch, with an emphasis on the
+negative which sounded like failing resolution.
+
+"That would be giving the lamb to the wolf with a vengeance."
+
+"Exactly what I said; exactly what I said. I am very glad, Mr. Tatham,
+that you take the same view."
+
+"There is but one view to be taken," said John. "He must not have the
+slightest power over her money. It must be tied up as tight as the law
+can do it; not that I think it of the least consequence," he added. "Of
+course, he will get it all from her one way or another. Law's but a poor
+barrier against a determined man."
+
+"I'm glad you see that too," said Mr. Lynch, "and you might say a
+determined woman: for she has set her mind on this, and we'll have a
+nice business with her, I can see."
+
+"A bit of a girl!" said John, with a laugh, echoing the previous
+sentiment.
+
+"That's very true," said the old lawyer; "and still I think her
+mother--but I don't put any great confidence in my own power to resist
+Elinor. Poor little thing, I've known her since she was _that_ high;
+indeed, I may say I knew her before she was born. And you are a
+relation, Mr. Tatham?"
+
+"Third or fourth cousin."
+
+"But still, more intimate than a person unconnected with them, and able
+to speak your mind more freely. I wonder now that you never said
+anything. But in family matters sometimes one is very reluctant to
+interfere."
+
+"I said everything I could say, not to offend them mortally; but I could
+only tell them the common talk of society. I told my aunt he was a
+scamp: but after the first shock I am not sure that she thought that was
+any such bad thing. It depended upon the sense you put upon the word,
+she said."
+
+"Oh, women, women!" said Mr. Lynch. "That's their way--a reformed rake
+makes the best husband. It's an old-fashioned sentiment, but it's in the
+background of their minds, a sort of tradition that they can't shake
+off--or else the poor fellow has had so many disadvantages, and they
+think they can make it all right. It's partly ignorance and partly
+vanity. But they are all the same, and their ways in the matter of
+marriage are not to be made out."
+
+"You have a great deal of experience."
+
+"Experience--oh, don't speak of it!" said the old gentleman. "A man has
+a certain idea of the value of money, however great a fool he may be,
+but the women----"
+
+"And yet they are said to stick to money, and to be respectful of it
+beyond anything but a miser. I have myself remarked----"
+
+"In small matters," said Mr. Lynch, "in detail--sixpences to railway
+porters and that sort of thing--so people say at least. But a sum of
+money on paper has no effect on a woman, she will sign it away with a
+wave of her hand. It doesn't touch their imagination. Five pounds in her
+pocket is far more than five thousand on paper, to Elinor, for instance.
+I wish," cried the old gentleman, with a little spitefulness, "that this
+Married Women's Property Bill would push on and get itself made law. It
+would save us a great deal of trouble, and perhaps convince the world at
+the last how little able they are to be trusted with property. A nice
+mess they will make of it, and plenty of employment for young
+solicitors," he said, rubbing his hands.
+
+For this was before that important bill was passed, which has not had
+(like so many other bills) the disastrous consequences which Mr. Lynch
+foresaw.
+
+They were met at the station by the pony carriage, and at the door by
+Elinor herself, who came flying out to meet them. She seized Mr. Lynch
+by both arms, for he was a little old man, and she was bigger than he
+was.
+
+"Now you will remember what I said," she cried in his ear, yet not so
+low but that John heard it too.
+
+"You are a little witch; you mustn't insist upon anything so foolish.
+Leave all that to me, my dear," said Mr. Lynch. "What do you know about
+business? You must leave it to me and the other gentleman, who I suppose
+is here, or coming."
+
+"He is here, but I don't care for him. I care only for you. There are
+such advantages: and I do know a great deal about business; and," she
+said, with her mouth close to the old lawyer's ear, "it will please Phil
+so much if I show my confidence in him, and in the things with which he
+has to do."
+
+"It will not please him so much if the thing bursts, and you are left
+without a penny, my dear."
+
+Elinor laughed. "I don't suppose he will mind a bit: he cares nothing
+for money. But I do," she said. "You know you always say women love
+acquisition. I want good interest, and of course with Phil on it, it
+must be safe for me."
+
+"Oh, that makes it like the Bank of England, you think! but I don't
+share your confidence, my pretty Elinor. I'm an old fellow. No Phil in
+the world has any charm for me. You must trust me to do what I feel is
+best for you. And Mr. Tatham here is quite of my opinion."
+
+"Oh, John! he is sure to be against me," said Elinor, with an angry
+glimmer in her eyes. She had not as yet taken any notice of him while
+she welcomed with such warmth his old companion. And John had stood by
+offering no greeting, with his bag in his hand. But when she said this
+the quick feeling girl was seized with compunction. She turned from Mr.
+Lynch and held out both her hands to her cousin. "John, I didn't mean
+that; it is only that I am excited and cross. And don't, oh, don't go
+against me," she cried.
+
+"I never did, and never will, Elinor," he said gravely. Then he asked,
+after a moment, "Is Mr. Compton here?"
+
+"No; how could he be here? Three gentlemen in the cottage is enough to
+overwhelm us already. Mr. Sharp, fortunately, can't stay," she added,
+lowering her voice; "he has to be driven back to the station to catch
+the last express. And it is August," she said with a laugh; "you forget
+the 15th. Now, could Phil be anywhere but where there is grouse? You
+shall have some to dinner to-night that fell by his gun. That should
+mollify you, for I am sure you never got grouse at the cottage before
+in August. Mamma would as soon think of buying manna for you to eat."
+
+"I think it would have been more respectful, Elinor, if he had been
+here. What is grouse to you?"
+
+"Then I don't think anything of the kind," cried Elinor. "He is much
+better away. And I assure you, John, I never mean to put myself in
+competition with the grouse."
+
+The old lawyer had gone into the drawing-room, where Mrs. Dennistoun was
+holding parley with Mr. Sharp. Elinor and John were standing alone in
+the half light of the summer evening, the sun down, the depths of the
+combe below falling into faint mist, but the sunset-tinted clouds still
+floating like a vapour made of roses upon the clearness of the blue
+above. "Come and take a turn through the copse," said John. "They don't
+want either of us indoors."
+
+She went with a momentary reluctance and a glance back at the bow-window
+of the drawing-room, from which the sound of voices issued. "Don't you
+think I should be there to keep them up to the mark?" she said, half
+laughing. And then, "Well, yes--as you are going to Switzerland too. I
+think you might have stayed and seen me married after all, and made
+acquaintance with Phil."
+
+"I thought I should have met him here to-day, Elinor."
+
+"Now, how could you? You know the accommodation of the cottage just as
+well as I do. We have two spare rooms, and no more."
+
+"You could have sent me out somewhere to sleep. That has been done
+before now."
+
+"Oh, John, how persistent you are, and worrying! When I tell you that
+Phil is shooting, as everybody of his kind is--do you think I want him
+to give up all the habits of his life? He is not like us: we adapt
+ourselves: but these people parcel out their time as if they were in a
+trade, don't you know? So long in London, so long abroad, and in the
+Highlands for the grouse, and somewhere else for the partridges, or they
+would die."
+
+"I think he might have departed from that routine once in a way, Elinor,
+for you."
+
+"I tell you again, John, I shall never put myself in competition"--Elinor
+stopped abruptly, with perhaps, he thought, a little glimmer of
+indignation in her eyes. "I hate women who do that sort of thing," she
+cried. "'Give up your cigar--or me,' as I've heard girls say. Such an
+unworthy thing! When one accepts a man one accepts him as he stands,
+with all his habits. What should I think of him if he said, 'Give up
+your tea--or me!' I should laugh in his face and throw him overboard
+without a pause."
+
+"You would never look at tea again as long as you lived if he did not
+like it; I suppose that is what you mean, Elinor?"
+
+"Perhaps if I found that out, afterwards; but to be given the choice
+beforehand, never! After all, you don't half know me, John."
+
+"Perhaps not," he said, gravely. They had left the garden behind in
+its blaze of flowers, and strayed off into the subdued twilight of the
+copse, where everything was in a half tone of greenness and shadow and
+waning light. "There are always new lights arising on a many-sided
+creature like you--and that makes one think. Do you know you are not at
+all the person to take a great disappointment quietly, if that should
+happen to come to you in your life?"
+
+"A great disappointment?" she said, looking up at him with a wondering
+glance. Then he thought the colour paled a little in her face. "No," she
+said, "I don't suppose I should take it quietly. Who does?"
+
+"Oh, many people--people with less determination and more patience than
+you. You are not very patient by nature, Elinor."
+
+"I never said I was."
+
+"And though no one would give up more generously, as a voluntary matter,
+you could not bear being made a nonentity of, or put in a secondary
+place."
+
+"I should not like it, I suppose."
+
+"You would give everything, flinging it away; but to have all your
+sacrifices taken for granted, your tastes made of no account----"
+
+There was no doubt now that she had grown pale. "May I ask what all
+these investigations into my character mean? I never was so anatomized
+before."
+
+"It was only to say that you are not a good subject for this kind of
+experiment, Elinor. I don't see you putting up with things, making the
+best of everything, submitting to have your sense of right and wrong
+outraged perhaps. Some women would not be much disturbed by that. They
+would put off the responsibility and feel it their duty to accept
+whatever was put before them. But you--it would be a different matter
+with you."
+
+"I should hope so, if I was ever exposed to such dangers. But now may
+I know what you are driving at, John, for you have some meaning in what
+you say!"
+
+He took her hand and drew it through his arm. He was in more moved than
+he wished to show. "Only this, Elinor,"--he said.
+
+"Oh, John, will you never call me Nelly any more?"
+
+"Only this, Nelly, my little Nelly, never mine again--and that never was
+mine, except in my silly thought. Only this: that if you have the least
+doubt, the smallest flutter of an uncertainty, just enough to make you
+hold your breath for a moment, oh, my dear girl, stop! Don't go on with
+it; pause until you can make sure."
+
+"John!" she forced her arm from his with an indignant movement. "Oh, how
+do you dare to say it?" she said. "Doubt of Mr. Compton! Uncertainty
+about Phil!" She laughed out, and the echo seemed to ring into all the
+recesses of the trees. "I would be much more ready to doubt myself," she
+said.
+
+"Doubt yourself; that is what I mean. Think if you are not deceiving
+yourself. I don't think you are so very sure as you believe you are,
+Nelly. You don't feel so certain----"
+
+"Do you know that you are insulting me, John? You say as much as that I
+am a fool carried away by a momentary enthusiasm, with no real love, no
+true feeling in me, tempted, perhaps, as Mrs. Hudson thinks, by the
+Honourable!" Her lip quivered, and the fading colour came back in a rush
+to her face. "It is hard enough to have a woman like that think it, who
+ought to know better, who has always known me--but you, John!"
+
+"You may be sure, Elinor, that I did not put it on that ground."
+
+"No, perhaps: but on ground not much more respectful to me--perhaps that
+I have been fascinated by a handsome man, which is not considered
+derogatory. Oh, John, a girl does not give herself away on an argument
+like that. I may be hasty and self-willed and impatient, as you say; but
+when you--love!" Her face flushed like a rose, so that even in the grey
+of the evening it shone out like one of the clouds full of sunset that
+still lingered on the sky. A few quick tears followed, the natural
+consequence of her emotion. And then she turned to him with the ineffable
+condescension of one farther advanced in life stooping sweetly to his
+ignorance. "You have not yet come to the moment in your experience when
+you can understand that, dear John."
+
+Oh, the insight and the ignorance, the knowledge and the absence of all
+perception! He, too, laughed out, as she had done, with a sense of the
+intolerable ridicule and folly and mistake. "Perhaps that's how it is,"
+he said.
+
+Elinor looked at him gravely, in an elder-sisterly, profoundly-investigating
+way, and then she took his arm quietly and turned towards home. "I shall
+forget what you have said, and you will forget that you ever said it;
+and now we will go home, John, and be just the same dear friends as
+before."
+
+"Will you promise me," he said, "that whatever happens, without pride,
+or recollection of what I've been so foolish as to say, in any need
+or emergency, or whenever you want anything, or if you should be in
+trouble--trouble comes to everybody in this life--you will remember what
+you have said just now, and send for your cousin John?"
+
+Her whole face beamed out in one smile, she clasped her other hand
+round his arm; "I should have done it without being asked, without ever
+doubting for a moment, because it was the most natural thing in the
+world. Whom should I turn to else if not to my dear old---- But call me
+Nelly, John."
+
+"Dear little Nelly!" he said with faltering voice, "then that is a
+bargain."
+
+She held up her cheek to him, and he kissed it solemnly in the shadow of
+the little young oak that fluttered its leaves wistfully in the breeze
+that was getting up--and then very soberly, saying little, they walked
+back to the cottage. He was going abroad for his vacation, not saying to
+himself even that he preferred not to be present at the wedding, but
+resigning himself to the necessity, for it was not to be till the middle
+of September, and it would be breaking up his holiday had he to come
+back at that time. So this little interview was a leave-taking as well
+as a solemn engagement for all the risks and dangers of life. The pain
+in it, after that very sharp moment in the copse, was softened down into
+a sadness not unsweet, as they came silently together from out of the
+shadow into the quiet hemisphere of sky and space, which was over the
+little centre of the cottage with its human glimmer of fire and lights.
+The sky was unusually clear, and among those soft, rose-tinted clouds of
+the sunset, which were no clouds at all, had risen a young crescent of a
+moon, just about to disappear, too, in the short course of one of her
+earliest nights. They lingered for a moment before they went indoors.
+The depth of the combe was filled with the growing darkness, but the
+ridges above were still light and softly edged with the silver of the
+moon, and the distant road, like a long, white line, came conspicuously
+into sight, winding for a little way along the hill-top unsheltered,
+before it plunged into the shadow of the trees--the road that led into
+the world, by which they should both depart presently to stray into such
+different ways.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The drawing-room after dinner always looked cheerful. Perhaps the fact
+that it was a sort of little oasis in the desert, and that the light
+from those windows shone into three counties, made the interior more
+cosy and bright. (There are houses now upon every knoll, and the wind
+cannot blow on Windyhill for the quantity of obstructions it meets
+with.) There was the usual log burning on the hearth, and the party in
+general kept away from it, for the night was warm. Only Mr. Sharp, the
+London lawyer, was equal to bearing the heat. He stood with his back to
+it, and his long legs showing against the glow behind, a sharp-nosed,
+long man in black, who had immediately suggested Mephistopheles to
+Elinor, even though he was on the Compton side. He had taken his coffee
+after dinner, and now he stood over the fire slowly sipping a cup of
+tea. There was a look of acquisitiveness about him which suggested an
+inclination to appropriate anything from the unnecessary heat of the
+fire to the equally unnecessary tea. But Mr. Sharp had been on the
+winning side. He had demonstrated the superior sense of making the
+money--which was not large enough sum to settle--of real use to the
+young pair by an investment which would increase Mr. Compton's
+importance in his company, besides producing very good dividends--much
+better dividends than would be possible if it were treated in the
+old-fashioned way by trustees. This was how the bride wished it, which
+was the most telling of arguments: and surely, to insure good interest
+and an increase of capital to her, through her husband's hands, was
+better than to secure some beggarly hundred and fifty pounds a year for
+her portion, though without any risks at all.
+
+Mr. Sharp had also taken great pains to point out that there were only
+three brothers--one an invalid and the other two soldiers--between Mr.
+Phil and the title, and that even to be the Honourable Mrs. Compton was
+something for a young lady, who was, if he might venture to say so,
+nobody--not to say a word against her charms. Lord St. Serf was hourly
+getting an old man, and the chances that his client might step over a
+hecatomb of dead relations to the height of fortune was a thing quite
+worth taking into account. It was a much better argument, however, to
+return to the analogy of other poor young people, where the bride's
+little fortune would be put into the husband's business, and thus
+their joint advantage considered. Mr. Sharp, at the same time, did not
+hesitate to express politely his opinion that to call him down to the
+country for a discussion which could have been carried on much better
+in one or other of their respective offices was a most uncalled for
+proceeding, especially as even now the other side was wavering, and
+would not consent to conclude matters, and make the signatures that were
+necessary at once. Mr. Lynch, it must be allowed, was of the same
+opinion too.
+
+"Your country is a little bleak at night," said Mr. Sharp, partially
+mollified by a good dinner, but beginning to remember unpleasantly the
+cold drive in a rattletrap of a little rustic pony carriage over the
+hills and hollows. "Do you really remain here all the year? How wonderful!
+Not even a glimpse of the world in summer, or a little escape from the
+chills in winter? How brave of you! What patience and powers of
+endurance must be cultivated in that way!"
+
+"One would think Windyhill was Siberia at least," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+laughing; "we do not give ourselves credit for all these fine
+qualities."
+
+"Some people are heroes--or heroines--without knowing it," said Mr.
+Sharp, with a bow.
+
+"And yet," said the mother, with a little indignation, "there was some
+talk of Mr. Compton doing me the honour to share my hermitage for a part
+of the year."
+
+"Mr. Compton! my dear lady! Mr. Compton would die of it in a week," said
+Mr. Sharp.
+
+"I am quite well aware of it," said Mrs. Dennistoun; and she added,
+after a pause, "so should I."
+
+"What a change it will be for your daughter," said Mr. Sharp. "She will
+see everything that is worth seeing. More in a month than she would see
+here in a dozen years. Trust Mr. Compton for knowing all that's worth
+going after. They have all an instinct for life that is quite remarkable.
+There's Lady Mariamne, who has society at her feet, and the old lord is
+a most remarkable old gentleman. Your daughter, Mrs. Dennistoun, is a
+very fortunate young lady. She has my best congratulations, I am sure."
+
+"Sharp," said Mr. Lynch from the background, "you had better be thinking
+of starting, if you want to catch that train."
+
+"I'll see if the pony is there," said John.
+
+Mr. Sharp put down his teacup with precipitation. "Is it as late as
+that?" he cried.
+
+"It is the last train," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with great satisfaction.
+"And I am afraid, if you missed it, as the house is full, there would be
+nothing but a bed at the public-house to offer----"
+
+"Oh, not another word," the lawyer said: and fortunately he never knew
+how near that rising young man at the bar, John Tatham, who had every
+object in conciliating a solicitor, was to a charge of manslaughter, if
+killing an attorney can thus be called. But the feelings of the party
+were expressed only in actions of the greatest kindness. They helped him
+on with his coat, and covered him with rugs as he got in, shivering, to
+the little pony carriage. It was a beautiful night, but the wind is
+always a thing to be considered on Windyhill.
+
+"Well, that's a good thing over," said Mr. Lynch, going to the fire as
+he came in from the night air at the door and rubbing his hands.
+
+"It would have been a relief to one's feeling to have kicked that fellow
+all the way down and up the other side of the combe, and kept him warm,"
+said John, with a laugh of wrath.
+
+"It is a pity a man should have so little taste," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+Elinor still stood where she had been standing, with every feeling in
+her breast in commotion. She had not taken any part in the insidious
+kindnesses of speeding the parting guest; and now she remembered that he
+was her Phil's representative: whatever she might herself think of the
+man, how could she join in abuse of one who represented Phil?
+
+"He is no worse, I suppose, than others," she said. "He was bound to
+stand up for those in whose interest he was. Mr. Lynch would have made
+himself quite as disagreeable for me."
+
+"Not I," said the old gentleman; "for what is the good of standing up
+for you? You would throw me over on the first opportunity. You have
+taken all the force out of my sword-arm, my dear, as it is. How can I
+make myself disagreeable for those who won't stand up for themselves? I
+suppose you must have it your own way."
+
+"Yes, I suppose it will be the best," said Mrs. Dennistoun, in subdued
+tones.
+
+"It would come to about the same thing, however you settled it," said
+John.
+
+Elinor looked from one to another with eyes that began to glow. "You are
+a cheerful company," she said. "You speak as if you were arranging my
+funeral. On the whole I think I like Mr. Sharp best; for if he was
+contemptuous of me and my little bit of money, he was at all events
+cheerful about the future, and that is always something; whereas you
+all----"
+
+There was a little pause, no one responding. There was no pleasant jest,
+no bright augury for Elinor. The girl's heart rose against this gloom
+that surrounded her. "I think," she said, with an angry laugh, "that I
+had better run after Mr. Sharp and bring him back, for he had at least a
+little sympathy with me!"
+
+"Don't be too sure of that," said Mr. Lynch, "for if we think you are
+throwing yourself away, Elinor, so does he on his side. He thinks the
+Honourable Mr. Compton is going dreadfully cheap for five thousand
+pounds."
+
+"Elinor need not take any of us _au pied de la lettre_--of course we are
+all firm for our own side," said John.
+
+Elinor turned her head from one to another, growing pale and red by
+turns. There was a certain surprise in her look, as she found herself
+thus at bay. The triumph of having got the better of their opposition
+was lost in the sense of isolation with which the girl, so long the
+first object of everybody about her, felt herself thus placed alone. And
+the tears were very ready to start, but were kept back by jealous pride
+which rose to her help. Well! if they put her outside the circle she
+would remain so; if they talked to her as one no longer of them, but
+belonging to another life, so be it! Elinor determined that she would
+make no further appeal. She would not even show how much it hurt her.
+After that pale look round upon them all, she went into the corner of
+the room where the piano stood, and where there was little light. She
+was too proud to go out of the room, lest they should think she was
+going to cry. She went with a sudden, quick movement to the piano
+instead, where perhaps she might cry too, but where nobody should see.
+Poor Elinor! they had made her feel alone by their words, and she made
+herself more alone by this little instinctive withdrawal. She began to
+play softly one thing after another. She was not a great performer. Her
+little "tunes" were of the simplest--no better indeed than tunes, things
+that every musician despises: they made a little atmosphere round her, a
+voluntary hermitage which separated her as if she had been a hundred
+miles away.
+
+"I wish you could have stayed for the marriage," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"My dear lady, it would spoil my holiday--the middle of September.
+You'll have nobody except, of course, the people you have always. To
+tell the truth," John added. "I don't care tuppence for my holiday. I'd
+have come--like a shot: but I don't think I could stand it. She has
+always been such a pet of mine. I don't think I could bear it, to tell
+the truth."
+
+"I shall have to bear it, though she is more than a pet of mine," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"I know, I know! the relatives cannot be let off--especially the mother,
+who must put up with everything. I trust," said Mr. Lynch, with a sigh,
+"that it may all turn out a great deal better than we hope. Where are
+they going after the marriage?"
+
+"Some one has lent them a place--a very pretty place--on the Thames,
+where they can have boating and all that--Lord Sudbury, I think. And
+later they are going on a round of visits, to his father, Lord St. Serf,
+and to Lady Mariamne, and to his aunt, who is Countess of--something or
+other." Mrs. Dennistoun's voice was not untouched by a certain vague
+pleasure in these fine names.
+
+"Ah," said the old lawyer, nodding his head at each, "all among the
+aristocracy, I see. Well, my dear lady, I hope you will be able to find
+some satisfaction in that; it is better than to fall among--nobodies at
+least."
+
+"I hope so," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a sigh.
+
+They were speaking low, and fondly hoped that they were not heard; but
+Elinor's ears and every faculty were quickened and almost every word
+reached her. But she was too proud to take any notice. And perhaps these
+dreary anticipations, on the whole, did her good, for her heart rose
+against them, and any little possible doubts in her own mind were put
+to sudden flight by the opposition and determination which flooded her
+heart. This made her playing a little more unsteady than usual, and she
+broke down several times in the middle of a "tune;" but nobody remarked
+this: they were all fully occupied with their own thoughts.
+
+All, at least, except John, who wandered uneasily about the room, now
+studying the names of the books on the bookshelves--which he knew by
+heart, now pulling the curtain aside to look out at the moonlight, now
+pulling at the fronds of the great maidenhair in his distraction till
+the table round was scattered with little broken leaves. He wanted to
+keep out of that atmosphere of emotion which surrounded Elinor at the
+piano. But it attracted him, all the same, as the light attracts a moth.
+To get away from that, to make the severance which so soon must be a
+perfect severance, was the only true policy he knew; for what was he to
+her, and what could she be to him? He had already said everything which
+a man in his position ought to say. He took out a book at last, and sat
+down doggedly by the table to read, thus making another circle of
+atmosphere, so to speak, another globe of isolated being in the little
+room, while the two elder people talked low in the centre, conventionally
+inaudible to the girl who was playing and the young man who was reading.
+But John might as well have tried to solve some tremendous problem as to
+read that book. He too heard every word the elders were saying. He heard
+them with his own ears, and also he heard them through the ears of
+Elinor, gauging the effect which every word would have upon her. At last
+he could bear it no longer. He was driven to her side to bear a part of
+her burden, even to prevent her from hearing, which would be something.
+He resisted the impulse to throw down his book, and only placed it very
+quietly on the table, and even in a deliberate way, that there might be
+no appearance of feeling about him--and made his way by degrees, pausing
+now and then to look at a picture, though he knew them all by heart.
+Thus he arrived at last at the piano, in what he flattered himself was
+an accidental way.
+
+"Elinor, the stars are so bright over the combe, do come out. It is not
+often they are so clear."
+
+"No," she said, more with the movement of her lips than with any sound.
+
+"Why not? You can't want to play those old pieces just at this moment.
+You will have plenty of time to play them to-morrow."
+
+She said "No" again, with a little impatient movement of her hands on
+the keys and a look towards the others.
+
+"You are listening to what they are saying? Why should you? They don't
+want you to hear. Come along, Elinor. It's far better for you not to
+listen to what is not intended----"
+
+"Oh, go away, John."
+
+"I must say no in my turn. Leave the tunes till to-morrow, and come out
+with me."
+
+"I thought," she said, roused a little, "that you were fond of music,
+John."
+
+This brought John up suddenly in an unexpected way. "Oh, as for
+that,"--he said, in a dubious tone. Poor Elinor's tunes were not music
+in his sense, as she very well knew.
+
+She laughed in a forlorn way. "I know what you mean; but this is quite
+good enough for what I shall want. I am going down, you know, to a
+different level altogether. Oh, you can hear for yourself what mamma and
+Mr. Lynch are saying."
+
+"Going up you mean, Elinor. I thought them both very complaisant over
+all those titles."
+
+"Ah," she said, "they say that mocking. They think I am going down; so
+do you, too, to the land of mere fast people, people with no sense.
+Well; there is nothing but the trial will teach any of us. We shall
+see."
+
+"It is rather a dreadful risk to run, if it's only a trial, Elinor."
+
+"A trial--for you, not for me--I am not the one that thinks so, except
+so far as the tunes are concerned," she said with a laugh. "I confess so
+far as that Lady Mariamne is fond of a comic song. I don't think she
+goes any further. I shall be good enough for them in the way of music."
+
+"I should be content never to hear another note of music all my life,
+Elinor, if----"
+
+"Ah, there you begin again. Not you, John, not you! I can't bear any
+more. Neither stars, nor walks, nor listening; no more! This rather,"
+and she brought down her hands with a great crash upon the piano, making
+every one start. Then Elinor rose, having produced her effect. "I think
+it must be time to go to bed, mamma. John is talking of the stars, which
+means that he wants his cigar, and Mr. Lynch must want just to look at
+the tray in the dining-room. And you are tired by all this fuss, all
+this unnatural fuss about me, that am not worth---- Come, mother, to
+bed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The days in the cottage were full of excitement and of occupation during
+the blazing August weather, not so much indeed as is common in many
+houses in which the expectant bridegroom is always coming and going;
+though perhaps the place of that exhilarating commotion was more or
+less filled by the ever-present diversity of opinion, the excitement
+of a subdued but never-ended conflict in which one was always on the
+defensive, and the other covertly or openly attacking, or at least
+believed to be so doing, the distant and unseen object to which all
+their thoughts turned. Mrs. Dennistoun, indeed, was not always aggressive,
+her opposition was but in fits and starts. Often her feelings of pain
+and alarm were quiescent in that unfeigned and salutary interest in
+clothes and necessities of preparation which is almost always a resource
+to a woman's mind. It is wrong to undervalue this possibility which
+compensates a woman in a small degree for some of her special troubles.
+When the mother's heart was very heavy, it was often diverted a little
+by the discussion of a dinner dress, or made to forget itself for the
+moment in a question about the cut of a sleeve, or which would be most
+becoming to Elinor of two colours for a ball gown. But though Mrs.
+Dennistoun forgot often, Elinor never forgot. The dresses and "things"
+generally occupied her a great deal, but not in the form of the anodyne
+which they supplied to her mother. Her mind was always on the alert,
+looking out for those flying arrows of warfare which your true fighter
+lets fly in the most innocent conversation at the most unexpected
+moments. Elinor thus flung her shield in her mother's face a hundred
+times when that poor lady was thinking no evil, when she was altogether
+occupied by the question of frills and laces, or whether tucks or
+flounces were best, and she was startled many times by that unnecessary
+rattle of Elinor's arms. "I was not thinking of Mr. Compton," she would
+sometimes be driven to say; "he was not in my head at all. I was
+thinking of nothing more important than that walking dress, and what you
+had best wear in the afternoon when you are on those grand visits."
+
+There was one thing which occasioned a little discussion between them,
+and that was the necessary civility of asking the neighbours to inspect
+these "things" when they were finally ready. It was only the argument
+that these neighbours would be Mrs. Dennistoun's sole resource when she
+was left alone that made Elinor assent at last. Perhaps, however,
+as she walked quickly along towards the moorland Rectory, a certain
+satisfaction in showing them how little their hints had been taken,
+mingled with the reluctance to admit those people who had breathed a
+doubt upon the sacred name of Phil, to such a sign of intimacy.
+
+"I have been watching you along the side of the combe, and wondering if
+it was you such a threatening day," said Alice Hudson, coming to the
+door to meet her. "How nice of you to come, Elinor, when you must be so
+busy, and you have not been here since--I don't know how long ago!"
+
+"No, I have not been here," said Elinor with a gravity worthy the bride
+of a maligned man. "But the time is so near when I shall not be able to
+come at all that I thought it was best. Mamma wishes you to come over
+to-morrow, if you will, to see my things."
+
+"Oh!" the three ladies said together; and Mrs. Hudson came forward and
+gave Elinor a kiss. "My dear," she said, "I take it very kind you coming
+yourself to ask us. Many would not have done it after what we felt it
+our duty---- But you always had a beautiful spirit, Elinor, bearing no
+malice, and I hope with all my heart that it will have its reward."
+
+"Well, mother," said Alice, "I don't see how Elinor could do anything
+less, seeing we have been such friends all our lives as girls, she and
+I, and I am sure I have always been ready to give her patterns, or to
+show her how a thing was done. I should have been very much disappointed
+if she had not asked me to see her things."
+
+Mary Dale, who was Mrs. Hudson's sister, said nothing at all, but
+accepted the visit as in the course of nature. Mary was the one who
+really knew something about Phil Compton: but she had been against the
+remonstrance which Mrs. Hudson thought it her duty to make. What was the
+good? Miss Dale had said; and she had refrained from telling two or
+three stories about the Comptons which would have made the hair stand
+upright on the heads of the Rector and the Rectoress. She did not even
+now say that it was kind, but met Elinor in silence, as, in her position
+as the not important member of the family, it was quite becoming for her
+to do.
+
+Then the Rector came in and took her by both hands, and gave her the
+most friendly greeting. "I heard Elinor's voice, and I stopped in the
+middle of my sermon," he said. "You will remark in church on Sunday a
+jerky piece, which shows how I stopped to reflect whether it could be
+you--and then went on for another sentence, and then decided that it
+must be you. There is a big Elinor written across my sermon paper." He
+laughed, but he was a little moved, to see, after the "coolness," the
+little girl whom he had christened come back to her old friends again.
+
+"She has come to ask us to go and see her things, papa," said Mrs.
+Hudson, twinkling an eye to get rid of a suspicion of a tear.
+
+"Am I to come, too?" said the Rector; and thus the little incident of
+the reconciliation was got over, to the great content of all.
+
+Elinor reflected to herself that they were really kind people, as she
+went out again into the grey afternoon where everything was getting up
+for rain. She made up her mind she would just have time to run into the
+Hills', at the Hurst, and leave her message, and so get home before the
+storm began. The clouds lay low like a dark grey hood over the fir-trees
+and moorland shaggy tops of the downs all round. There was not a break
+anywhere in the consistent grey, and the air, always so brisk, had
+fallen still with that ominous lull that comes over everything before
+a convulsion of nature. Some birds were still hurrying home into the
+depths of the copses with a frightened straightness of flight, as if
+they were afraid they would not get back in time, and all the insects
+that are so gay with their humming and booming had disappeared under
+leaves and stones and grasses. Elinor saw a bee burrowing deep in
+the waxen trumpet of a foxglove, as if taking shelter, as she walked
+quickly past. The Hills--there were two middle-aged sisters of them,
+with an old mother, too old for such diversion as the inspection of
+wedding-clothes, in the background--would scarcely let Elinor go out
+again after they had accepted her invitation with rapture. "I was just
+wondering where I should see the new fashions," said Miss Hill, "for
+though we are not going to be married we must begin to think about our
+winter things----" "And this will be such an opportunity," said Miss
+Susan, "and so good of you to come yourself to ask us."
+
+"What has she come to ask you to," said old Mrs. Hill; "the wedding? I
+told you girls, I was sure you would not be left out. Why, I knew her
+mother before she was married. I have known them all, man and boy, for
+nearer sixty than fifty years--before her mother was born! To have left
+you out would have been ridiculous. Yes, yes, Elinor, my dear; tell your
+mother they will come--delighted! They have been thinking for the last
+fortnight what bonnets they would wear----"
+
+"Oh, mother!" and "Oh, Elinor!" said the "girls," "you must not mind
+what mother says. We know very well that you must have worlds of people
+to ask. Don't think, among all your new connections, of such little
+country mice as us. We shall always just take the same interest in you,
+dear child, whether you find you can ask us or not."
+
+"But of course you are asked," said Elinor, in _gaieté de coeur_, not
+reflecting that her mother had begun to be in despair about the number
+of people who could be entertained in the cottage dining-room, "and you
+must not talk about my new grand connections, for nobody will ever be
+like my old friends."
+
+"Dear child!" they said, and "I always knew that dear Elinor's heart was
+in the right place." But it was all that Elinor could do to get free of
+their eager affection and alarm lest she should be caught in the rain.
+Both of the ladies produced waterproofs, and one a large pair of
+goloshes to fortify her, when it was found that she would go; and they
+stood in the porch watching her as she went along into the darkening
+afternoon, without any of their covers and shelters. The Miss Hills were
+apt to cling together, after the manner of those pairs of sweet sisters
+in the "Books of Beauty" which had been the delight of their youth; they
+stood, with arms intertwined, in their porch, watching Elinor as she
+hurried home, with her light half-flying step, like the belated birds.
+"Did you hear what she said about old friends, poor little thing?" "I
+wonder if she is finding out already that her new grand connections are
+but vanity!" they said, shaking their heads. The middle-aged sisters
+looked out of the sheltered home, which perhaps they had not chosen for
+themselves, with a sort of wistful feeling, half pity, perhaps half
+envy, upon the "poor little thing" who was running out so light-hearted
+into the storm. They had long ago retired into waterproofs and goloshes,
+and had much unwillingness to wet their feet--which things are a
+parable. They went back and closed the door, only when the first flash
+of lightning dazzled them, and they remembered that an open door is
+dangerous during a thunderstorm.
+
+Elinor quickened her pace as the storm began and got home breathless
+with running, shaking off the first big drops of thunder-rain from her
+dress. But she did not think of any danger, and sat out in the porch
+watching how the darkness came down on the combe; how it was met with
+the jagged gleam of the great white flash, and how the thunderous
+explosion shook the earth. The combe, with its hill-tops on either side,
+became like the scene of a battle, great armies, invisible in the sharp
+torrents of rain, meeting each other with a fierce shock and recoil,
+with now and then a trumpet-blast, and now the gleam that lit up tree
+and copse, and anon the tremendous artillery. When the lightning came
+she caught a glimpse of the winding line of the white road leading away
+out of all this--leading into the world where she was going--and for a
+moment escaped by it, even amid the roar of all the elements: then came
+back, alighting again with a start in the familiar porch, amid all the
+surroundings of the familiar life, to feel her mother's hand upon her
+shoulder, and her mother's voice saying, "Have you got wet, my darling?
+Did you get much of it? Come in, come in from the storm!"
+
+"It is so glorious, mamma!" Mrs. Dennistoun stood for a few minutes
+looking at it, then, with a shudder, withdrew into the drawing-room. "I
+think I have seen too many storms to like it," she said. But Elinor had
+not seen too many storms. She sat and watched it, now rolling away
+towards the south, and bursting again as though one army or the other
+had got reinforcements; while the flash of the explosions and the roar
+of the guns, and the white blast of the rain, falling like a sheet from
+the leaden skies, wrapped everything in mystery. The only thing that was
+to be identified from time to time was that bit of road leading out of
+it--leading her thoughts away, as it should one day lead her eager feet,
+from all the storm and turmoil out into the bright and shining world.
+Elinor never asked herself, as she sat there, a spectator of this great
+conflict of nature, whether that one human thing, by which her swift
+thoughts traversed the storm, carried any other suggestion as of coming
+back.
+
+Perhaps it is betraying feminine counsels too much to the modest public
+to narrate how Elinor's things were all laid out for the inspection of
+the ladies of the parish, the dresses in one room, the "under things" in
+another, and in the dining-room the presents, which everybody was doubly
+curious to see, to compare their own offerings with those of other
+people, or else to note with anxious eye what was wanting, in order, if
+their present had not yet been procured, to supply the gap. How to get
+something that would look well among the others, and yet not be too
+expensive, was a problem which the country neighbours had much and
+painfully considered. The Hudsons had given Elinor a little tea-kettle
+upon a stand, which they were painfully conscious was only plated, and
+sadly afraid would not look well among all the gorgeous articles with
+which no doubt her grand new connections had loaded her. The Rector came
+himself, with his ladies to see how the kettle looked, with a great line
+of anxiety between his brows; but when they saw that the revolving
+dishes beside it, which were the gift of the wealthy Lady Mariamne, were
+plated too, and not nearly such a pretty design, their hearts went up in
+instant exhilaration, followed a moment after by such indignation as
+they could scarcely restrain. "That rich sister, the woman who married
+the Jew" (which was their very natural explanation of the lady's
+nickname), "a woman who is rolling in wealth, and who actually made up
+the match!" This was crescendo, a height of scorn impossible to describe
+upon a mere printed page. "One would have thought she would have given
+a diamond necklace or something of consequence," said Mrs. Hudson in
+her husband's ear. "Or, at least silver," said the Rector. "These
+fashionable people, though they give themselves every luxury, have
+sometimes not very much money to spend; but silver, at least, she might
+have been expected to give silver." "It is simply disgraceful," said the
+Rector's wife. "I am glad, at all events, my dear," said he, "that our
+little thing looks just as well as any." "It is one of the prettiest
+things she has got," said Mrs. Hudson, with a proud heart. Lord St. Serf
+sent an old-fashioned little ring in a much worn velvet case, and the
+elder brother, Lord Lomond, an album for photographs. The Rector's
+wife indicated these gifts to her husband with little shrugs of her
+shoulders. "If that's all the family can do!" she said: "why Alice's
+cushion, which was worked with floss silks upon satin, was a more
+creditable present than that." The Miss Hills, who as yet had not had
+an opportunity, as they said, of giving their present, roamed about,
+curious, inspecting everything. "What is the child to do with a kettle,
+a thing so difficult to pack, and requiring spirit for the lamp, and all
+that--and only plated!" the Hills said to each other. "Now, that little
+teapot of ours," said Jane to Susan, "if mother would only consent to
+it, is no use to us, and would look very handsome here." "Real silver,
+and old silver, which is so much the rage, and a thing she could use
+every day when she has her visitors for afternoon tea," said Susan to
+Jane. "It is rather small," said Miss Hill, doubtfully. "But quite
+enough for two people," said the other, forgetting that she had just
+declared that the teapot would be serviceable when Elinor had visitors.
+But that was a small matter. Elinor, however, had other things better
+than these--a necklace, worth half a year's income, from John Tatham,
+which he had pinched himself to get for her that she might hold up her
+head among those great friends; and almost all that her mother possessed
+in the way of jewellery, which was enough to make a show among these
+simple people. "Her own family at least have done Elinor justice," said
+the Rector, going again to have a look at the kettle, which was the
+chief of the display to him. Thus the visitors made their remarks. The
+Hills did nothing but stand apart and discuss their teapot and the means
+by which "mother" could be got to assent.
+
+The Rector took his cup of tea, always with a side glance at the kettle,
+and cut his cake, and made his gentle jest. "If Alick and I come over in
+the night and carry them all off you must not be surprised," he said;
+"such valuable things as these in a little poor parish are a dreadful
+temptation, and I don't suppose you have much in the way of bolts and
+bars. Alick is as nimble as a cat, he can get in at any crevice, and
+I'll bring over the box for the collections to carry off the little
+things." This harmless wit pleased the good clergyman much, and he
+repeated it to all the ladies. "I am coming over with Alick one of these
+dark nights to make a sweep of everything," he said. Mr. Hudson retired
+in the gentle laughter that followed this, feeling that he had acquitted
+himself as a man ought who is the only gentleman present, as well as the
+Rector of the parish. "I am afraid I would not be a good judge of the
+'things,'" he said, "and for anything I know there may be mysteries not
+intended for men's eyes. I like to see your pretty dresses when you are
+wearing them, but I can't judge of their effect in the gross." He was a
+man who had a pleasant wit. The ladies all agreed that the Rector was
+sure to make you laugh whatever was the occasion, and he walked home
+very briskly, pleased with the effect of the kettle, and saying to
+himself that from the moment he saw it in Mappin's window he had felt
+sure it was the very thing.
+
+The other ladies were sufficiently impressed with the number and
+splendour of Elinor's gowns. Mrs. Dennistoun explained, with a humility
+which was not, I fear, untinctured by pride, that both number and
+variety were rendered necessary by the fact that Elinor was going upon a
+series of visits among her future husband's great relations, and would
+have to be much in society and among fine people who dressed very much,
+and would expect a great deal from a bride. "Of course, in ordinary
+circumstances the half of them would have been enough: for I don't
+approve of too many dresses."
+
+"They get old-fashioned," said Mrs. Hudson, gravely, "before they are
+half worn out."
+
+"And to do them up again is quite as expensive as getting new ones, and
+not so satisfactory," said the Miss Hills.
+
+The proud mother allowed both of these drawbacks, "But what could I do?"
+she said. "I cannot have my child go away into such a different sphere
+unprovided. It is a sacrifice, but we had to make it. I wish," she said,
+looking round to see that Elinor was out of hearing, "it was the only
+sacrifice that had to be made."
+
+"Let us hope," said the Rector's wife, solemnly, "that it will all turn
+out for the best."
+
+"It will do that however it turns out," said Miss Dale, who was even
+more serious than it was incumbent on a member of a clerical household
+to be, "for we all know that troubles are sent for our advantage as well
+as blessings, and poor dear Elinor may require much discipline----"
+
+"Oh, goodness, don't talk as if the poor child was going to be
+executed," said Susan Hill.
+
+"I am not at all alarmed," said Mrs. Dennistoun. It was unwise of her
+to have left an opening for any such remark. "My Elinor has always been
+surrounded by love wherever she has been. Her future husband's family
+are already very fond of her. I am not at all alarmed on Elinor's
+account."
+
+She laid the covering wrapper over the dresses with an air of pride and
+confidence which was remembered long afterwards--as the pride that goeth
+before a fall by some, but by others with more sympathy, who guessed the
+secret workings of the mother's heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Time went on quickly enough amid all these preparations and the little
+attendant excitements of letters, congratulations, and presents which
+came in on every side. Elinor complained mildly of the fuss, but it was
+a new and far from unpleasant experience. She liked to have the packets
+brought in by the post, or the bigger boxes that arrived from the
+station, and to open them and produce out of the wadding or the saw-dust
+one pretty thing after another. At first it was altogether fresh and
+amusing, this new kind of existence, though after a while she grew
+_blasée_, as may be supposed. Lady Mariamne's present she was a little
+ashamed of: not that she cared much, but because of the look on her
+mother's face when those inferior articles were unpacked; and at the
+ring which old Lord St. Serf sent her she laughed freely.
+
+"I will put it with my own little old baby rings in this little silver
+tray, and they will all look as if they were antiques, or something
+worth looking at," said Elinor. Happily there were other people who
+endowed her more richly with rings fit for a bride to wear. The
+relations at a distance were more or less pleased with Elinor's
+prospects. A few, indeed, from different parts of the world wrote in
+the vein of Elinor's home-advisers, hoping that it was not the Mr.
+Compton who was so well known as a betting man whom she was going to
+marry; but the fact that she was marrying into a noble family, and
+would henceforward be known as the Honourable Mrs. Compton, mollified
+even these critics. Only three brothers--one a great invalid, and two
+soldiers--between him and the title. Elinor's relations promptly
+inaugurated in their imaginations a great war, in which two noble
+regiments were cut to pieces, to dispose of the two Captains Compton;
+and as for the invalid, that he would obligingly die off was a
+contingency which nobody doubted--and behold Elinor Dennistoun Lady
+St. Serf! This greatly calmed criticism among her relations, who
+were all at a distance, and whose approval or disapproval did not
+much affect her spirits anyhow. John Tatham's father, Mrs. Dennistoun's
+cousin, was of more consequence, chiefly as being John's father, but
+also a little for himself, and it was remarked that he said not a
+word against the marriage, but sent a very handsome present, and many
+congratulations--chiefly inspired (but this Elinor did not divine) by an
+unfeigned satisfaction that it was not his son who was the bridegroom.
+Mr. Tatham, senr., did not approve of early marriages for young men
+pushing their way at the bar, unless the bride was, so to speak, in the
+profession and could be of use to her husband. Even in such cases, the
+young man was better off without a wife, he was of opinion. How could he
+get up his cases properly if he had to drag about in society at the tail
+of a gay young woman? Therefore he sent Elinor a very nice present in
+gratitude to her and providence. She was a danger removed out of his
+boy's way.
+
+All this kept a cheerful little commotion about the house, and often
+kept the mother and daughter from thinking more than was good for them.
+These extraneous matters did not indeed preserve Elinor altogether from
+the consciousness that her _fiancé's_ letters were very short and a
+little uncertain in their arrival, sometimes missing several days
+together, and generally written in a hurry to catch the post. But they
+kept Mrs. Dennistoun from remarking that fact, as otherwise she would
+have been sure to do. If any chill of disappointment was in Elinor's
+mind, she said to herself that men were generally bad correspondents,
+not like girls, who had nothing else to do, and other consolations of
+this kind, which to begin with beg the question, and show the beginning
+of that disenchantment which ought to be reserved at least for a later
+period. Elinor had already given up a good deal of her own ideal. She
+would not, as she said, put herself in competition with the grouse, she
+would not give him the choice between her and a cigar; but already the
+consciousness that he preferred the grouse, and even a cigar, to her
+society, had come an unwilling intruder into Elinor's mind. She would
+not allow to herself that she felt it in either case. She said to
+herself that she was proud of it, that it showed the freedom and
+strength of a man, and that love was only one of many things which
+occupied his life. She rebelled against the other deduction that "'tis
+woman's sole existence," protesting loudly (to herself) that she too had
+a hundred things to do, and did not want him always at her apron-strings
+like a tame curate. But as a matter of fact, no doubt the girl would
+have been flattered and happy had he been more with her. The time was
+coming very quickly in which they should be together always, even when
+there was grouse in hand, when his wife would be invited with him, and
+all things would be in common between them; so what did it matter for a
+few days? The marriage was fixed for the 16th of September, and that
+great date was now scarcely a fortnight off. The excitement quickened as
+everything grew towards this central point. Arrangements had to be made
+about the wedding breakfast and where the guests were to be placed. The
+Hudsons had put their spare rooms at the disposition of the Cottage,
+and so had the Hills. The bridegroom was to stay at the Rectory.
+Lady Mariamne must of course, Mrs. Dennistoun felt, be put up at the
+Cottage, where the two rooms on the ground floor--what were called the
+gentlemen's rooms--had to be prepared to receive her. It was with a
+little awe indeed that the ladies of the Cottage endeavoured, by the aid
+of Elinor's recollections, to come to an understanding of what a fine
+lady would want even for a single night. Mrs. Dennistoun's experiences
+were all old-fashioned, and of a period when even great ladies were less
+luxurious than now; and it made her a little angry to think how much
+more was required for her daughter's future sister-in-law than had been
+necessary to herself. But after all, what had herself to do with it?
+The thing was to do Elinor credit, and make the future sister-in-law
+perceive that the Cottage was no rustic establishment, but one in which
+it was known what was what, and all the requirements of the most refined
+life. Elinor's bridesmaid, Mary Tatham, was to have the spare room
+up-stairs, and some other cousins, who were what Mrs. Dennistoun called
+"quiet people," were to receive the hospitalities of the Hills, whose
+house was roomy and old-fashioned. Thus the arrangements of the crisis
+were more or less settled and everything made smooth.
+
+Elinor and her mother were seated together in the drawing-room on one of
+those evenings of which Mrs. Dennistoun desired to make the most, as
+they would be the last, but which, as they actually passed, were--if not
+occupied with discussions of how everything was to be arranged, which
+they went over again and again by instinct as a safe subject--heavy,
+almost dull, and dragged sadly over the poor ladies whose hearts were so
+full, but to whom to be separated, though it would be bitter, would also
+at the same time almost be a relief. They had been silent for some time,
+not because they had not plenty to say, but because it was so difficult
+to say it without awaking too much feeling. How could they talk of the
+future in which one of them would be away in strange places, exposed to
+the risks and vicissitudes of a new life, and one of them be left alone
+in the unbroken silence, sitting over the fire, with nothing but that
+blaze to give her any comfort? It was too much to think of, much more
+to talk about, though it need not be said that it was in the minds of
+both--with a difference, for Elinor's imagination was most employed upon
+the brilliant canvas where she herself held necessarily the first place,
+with a sketch of her mother's lonely life, giving her heart a pang, in
+the distance; while Mrs. Dennistoun could not help but see the lonely
+figure in her own foreground, against the brightness of all the
+entertainments in which Elinor should appear as a queen. They were
+sitting thus, the mother employed at some fine needlework for the
+daughter, the daughter doing little, as is usual nowadays. They had been
+talking over Lady Mariamne and her requirements again, and had come to
+an end of that subject. What a pity that it was so hard to open the door
+of their two hearts, which were so close together, so that each might
+see all the tenderness and compunction in the other; the shame and
+sorrow of the mother to grudge her child's happiness, the remorse
+and trouble of the child to be leaving that mother out in all her
+calculations for the future! How were they to do it on either side? They
+could not talk, these poor loving women, so they were mostly silent,
+saying a word or two at intervals about Mrs. Dennistoun's work (which of
+course, was for Elinor), or of Elinor's village class for sewing, which
+was to be transferred to her mother, skirting the edges of the great
+separation which could neither be dismissed nor ignored.
+
+Suddenly Elinor looked up, holding up her finger. "What was that?" she
+said. "A step upon the gravel?"
+
+"Nonsense, child. If we were to listen to all these noises of the night
+there would always be a step upon---- Oh! I think I did hear something."
+
+"It is someone coming to the door," said Elinor, rising up with that
+sudden prevision of trouble which is so seldom deceived.
+
+"Don't go, Elinor; don't go. It might be a tramp; wait at least till
+they knock at the door."
+
+"I don't think it can be a tramp, mamma. It may be a telegram. It is
+coming straight up to the door."
+
+"It will be the parcel porter from the station. He is always coming and
+going, though I never knew him so late. Pearson is in the house, you
+know. There is not any cause to be alarmed."
+
+"Alarmed!" said Elinor, with a laugh of excitement; "but I put more
+confidence in myself than in Pearson, whoever it may be."
+
+She stood listening with a face full of expectation, and Mrs. Dennistoun
+put down her work and listened too. The step advanced lightly, scattering
+the gravel, and then there was a pause as if the stranger had stopped to
+reconnoitre. Then came a knock at the window, which could only have been
+done by a tall man, and the hearts of the ladies jumped up, and then
+seemed to stop beating. To be sure, there were bolts and bars, but
+Pearson was not much good, and the house was full of valuables and very
+lonely. Mrs. Dennistoun rose up, trembling a little, and went forward to
+the window, bidding Elinor go back and keep quite quiet. But here they
+were interrupted by a voice which called from without, with another
+knock on the window, "Nell! Nell!"
+
+"It is Phil," said Elinor, flying to the door.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun sat down again and said nothing. Her heart sank in her
+breast. She did not know what she feared; perhaps that he had come to
+break off the marriage, perhaps to hurry it and carry her child away.
+There was a pause as was natural at the door, a murmur of voices, a fond
+confusion of words, which made it clear that no breach was likely, and
+presently after that interval, Elinor came back beaming, leading her
+lover. "Here is Phil," she said, in such liquid tones of happiness as
+filled her mother with mingled pleasure, gratitude, and despite. "He has
+found he had a day or two to spare, and he has rushed down here, fancy,
+with an apology for not letting us know!"
+
+"She thinks everyone is like herself, Mrs. Dennistoun, but I am aware
+that I am not such a popular personage as she thinks me, and you have
+least reason of all to approve of the man who is coming to carry her
+away."
+
+"I am glad to see you, Mr. Compton," she said, gravely, giving him her
+hand.
+
+The Hon. Philip Compton was a very tall man, with very black hair. He
+had fine but rather hawk-like features, a large nose, a complexion too
+white to be agreeable, though it added to his romantic appearance. There
+was a furtive look in his big dark eyes, which had a way of surveying
+the country, so to speak, before making a reply to any question,
+like a man whose response depended upon what he saw. He surveyed Mrs.
+Dennistoun in this way while she spoke; but then he took her hand,
+stooped his head over it, and kissed it, not without grace. "Thank you
+very much for that," he said, as if there had been some doubt on his
+mind about his reception. "I was glad enough to get the opportunity, I
+can tell you. I've brought you some birds, Mrs. Dennistoun, and I hope
+you'll give me some supper, for I'm as hungry as a hawk. And now, Nell,
+let's have a look at you," the lover said. He was troubled by no false
+modesty. As soon as he had paid the required toll of courtesy to the
+mother, who naturally ought to have at once proceeded to give orders
+about his supper, he held Elinor at arm's length before the lamp, then,
+having fully inspected her appearance, and expressed by a "Charming, by
+Jove!" his opinion of it, proceeded to demonstrations which the presence
+of the mother standing by did not moderate. There are few mothers to
+whom it would be agreeable to see their child engulfed in the arms of a
+large and strong man, and covered with his bold kisses. Mrs. Dennistoun
+was more fastidious even than most mothers, and to her this embrace was
+a sort of profanation. The Elinor who had been guarded like a flower
+from every contact--to see her gripped in his arms by this stranger,
+made her mother glow with an indignation which she knew was out of the
+question, yet felt to the bottom of her soul. Elinor was abashed before
+her mother, but she was not angry. She forced herself from his embrace,
+but her blushing countenance was full of happiness. What a revolution
+had thus taken place in a few minutes! They had been so dull sitting
+there alone; alone, though each with the other who had filled her life
+for more than twenty years; and now all was lightened, palpitating with
+life. "Be good, sir," said Elinor, pushing him into a chair as if he had
+been a great dog, "and quiet and well-behaved; and then you shall have
+some supper. But tell us first where you have come from, and what put it
+into your head to come here."
+
+"I came up direct from my brother Lomond's shooting-box. Reply No. 1.
+What put it into my head to come? Love, I suppose, and the bright eyes
+of a certain little witch called Nell. I ought to have been in Ireland
+for a sort of a farewell visit there; but when I found I could steal two
+days, you may imagine I knew very well what to do with them. Eh? Oh,
+it's mamma that frightens you, I see."
+
+"It is kind of you to give Elinor two days when you have so many other
+engagements," said Mrs. Dennistoun, turning away.
+
+But he was not in the least abashed. "Yes isn't it?" he said; "my last
+few days of freedom. I consider I deserve the prize for virtue--to cut
+short my very last rampage; and she will not as much as give me a kiss!
+I think she is ashamed before you, Mrs. Dennistoun."
+
+"It would not be surprising if she were," said Mrs. Dennistoun, gravely.
+"I am old-fashioned, as you may perceive."
+
+"Oh, you don't need to tell me that," said he; "one can see it with half
+an eye. Come here, Nell, you little coquette: or I shall tell the Jew
+you were afraid of mamma, and you will never hear an end of it as long
+as you live."
+
+"Elinor, I think you had better see, perhaps, what there is to make up
+as good a meal as possible for Mr. Compton," said her mother, sitting
+down opposite to the stranger, whose long limbs were stretched over
+half the floor, with the intention of tripping up Elinor, it seemed;
+but she glided past him and went on her way--not offended, oh, not at
+all--waving her hand to him as she avoided the very choice joke of his
+stretched-out foot.
+
+"Mr. Compton," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "you will be Elinor's husband in
+less than a fortnight."
+
+"I hope so," he said, displaying the large cavern of a yawn under his
+black moustache as he looked her in the face.
+
+"And after that I will have no right to interfere; but, in the meantime,
+this is my house, and I hope you will remember that these ways are not
+mine, and that I am too old-fashioned to like them. I prefer a little
+more respect to your betrothed."
+
+"Oh, respect," he said. "I have never found that girls like too much
+respect. But as you please. Well, look here, Nell," he said, catching
+her by the arm as she came back and swinging her towards him, "your
+mother thinks I'm too rough with you, my little dear."
+
+"Do you, mamma?" said Elinor, faltering a little; but she had the
+sweetest rose-flush on her cheeks and the moisture of joy in her eyes.
+In all her twenty-three years she had never looked as she looked now.
+Her life had been a happy one, but not like this. She had been always
+beloved, and never had known for a day what it was to be neglected; yet
+love had never appeared to her as it did now, so sweet, nor life so
+beautiful. What strange delusion! what a wonderful incomprehensible
+mistake! or so at least the mother thought, looking at her beautiful
+girl with a pang at her heart.
+
+"It is only his bad manners," said Elinor, in a voice which sounded like
+a caress. "He knows very well how to behave. He can be as nice as any
+one, and as pretty spoken, and careful not to offend. It is only
+arriving so suddenly, and not being expected--or that he has forgotten
+his nice manners to-night. Phil, do you hear what I say?"
+
+Phil made himself into the semblance of a dog, and sat up and begged
+for pardon. It was a trick which made people "shriek with laughing;"
+but Mrs. Dennistoun's gravity remained unbroken. Perhaps her extreme
+seriousness had something in it that was rather ridiculous too. It was a
+relief when he went off to his supper, attended by Elinor, and Mrs.
+Dennistoun was left alone over her fire. She had a slight sense that she
+had been absurd, as well as that Philip Compton had lacked breeding,
+which did not make her more comfortable. Was it possible that she would
+be glad when it was all over, and her child gone--her child gone, and
+with that man! Her child, her little delicately bred, finely nurtured
+girl, who had been wrapped in all the refinements of life from her
+cradle, and had never heard a rough word, never been allowed to know
+anything that would disturb her virginal calm!--yet now in a moment
+passed away beyond her mother to the unceremonious wooer who had no
+reverence for her, none of the worship her mother expected. How strange
+it was! Yet a thing that happened every day. Mrs. Dennistoun sat over
+the fire, though it was not cold, and listened to the voices and
+laughter in the next room. How happy they were to be together! She did
+not, however, dwell upon the fact that she was alone and deserted, as
+many women would have done. She knew that she would have plenty of time
+to dwell on this in the lonely days to come. What occupied her was the
+want of more than manners, of any delicate feeling in the lover who had
+seized with rude caresses upon Elinor in her mother's presence, and the
+fact that Elinor did not object, nor dislike that it should be so. That
+she should feel forlorn was no wonderful thing; that did not disturb her
+mind. It was the other matter about Elinor that pained and horrified
+her, she could not tell why; which, perhaps, was fantastic, which,
+indeed, she felt sure must be so.
+
+They were so long in the dining-room, where Compton had his supper, that
+when that was over it was time to go to bed. Still talking and laughing
+as if they could never exhaust either the fountain of talk or the mirth,
+which was probably much more sheer pleasure in their meeting than
+genuine laughter produced by any wit or _bon mot_, they came out into
+the passage, and stood by Mrs. Dennistoun and the housemaid, who had
+brought her the keys and was now fastening the hall door. A little
+calendar hung on the wall beneath the lamp, and Phil Compton walked up
+to it and with a laugh read out the date. "Sixth September," he said,
+and turned round to Elinor. "Only ten days more, Nell." The housemaid
+stooping down over the bolt blushed and laughed too under her breath in
+sympathy; but Mrs. Dennistoun turning suddenly round caught Compton's
+eye. Why had he given that keen glance about him? There was nothing to
+call for his usual survey of the company in that sentiment. He might
+have known well enough what were the feelings he was likely to call
+forth. A keen suspicion shot through her mind. Suspicion of what? She
+could not tell. There was nothing that was not most natural in his
+sudden arrival, the delightful surprise of his coming, his certainty of
+a good reception. The wonder was that he had come so little, not that he
+should come now.
+
+The next morning the visitor made himself very agreeable: his raptures
+were a little calmed. He talked over all the arrangements, and entered
+into everything with the interest of a man to whom that great day
+approaching was indeed the greatest day in his life. And it turned out
+that he had something to tell which was of practical importance. "I may
+relieve your mind about Nell's money," he said, "for I believe my
+company is going to be wound up. We'll look out for another investment
+which will pay as well and be less risky. It has been found not to be
+doing quite so well as was thought, so we're going to wind up."
+
+"I hope you have not lost anything," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"Oh, nothing to speak of," he said, carelessly.
+
+"I am not fond of speculative companies. I am glad you are done with
+it," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"And I'm glad to be done with it. I shall look out for something
+permanent and decline joint-stock companies. I thought you would like
+to know. But that is the last word I shall say about business. Come,
+Nell, I have only one day; let's spend it in the woods."
+
+Elinor, who felt that the day in the woods was far more important than
+any business, hurried to get her hat and follow him to the door. It
+chanced to her to glance at the calendar as she passed hastily out to
+where he stood awaiting her in the porch. Why that should have happened
+to anyone in the Cottage twice in the twenty-four hours is a coincidence
+which I cannot explain, but so it was. Her eye caught the little white
+plaque in passing, and perceived with surprise that it had moved up two
+numbers, and that it was the figure 8 which was marked upon it now.
+
+"We cannot have slept through a day and night," she said, laughing as
+she joined him. "The calendar says the eighth September now."
+
+"But I arrived on the sixth," he said. "Mind that, Nell, whatever
+happens. You saw it with your own eyes. It may be of consequence to
+remember."
+
+"Of what consequence could it be?" said Elinor, wondering.
+
+"One can never tell. The only thing is I arrived on the sixth--that you
+know. And, Nell, my darling, supposing any fellow should inquire too
+closely into my movements, you'll back me up, won't you, and agree in
+everything I say?"
+
+"Who should inquire into your movements? There is no one here who would
+be so impertinent, Phil."
+
+"Oh," he said, "there is never any telling how impertinent people may
+be."
+
+"And what is there in your movements that any one dare inquire about? I
+hope you are not ashamed of coming to see me."
+
+"That is just what is the saving of me, Nell. I can't explain what I
+mean now, but I will later on. Only mind you don't contradict me if we
+should meet any inquisitive person. I arrived on the sixth, and you'll
+back me like my true love in everything I say."
+
+"As far as--as I know, Phil."
+
+"Oh, we must have no conditions. You must stand by me in everything I
+say."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+This day in the copse was one that Elinor never forgot. At the moment it
+seemed to her the most blissful period of all her life. There had been
+times in which she had longed that Phil knew more and cared more for the
+objects which had always been most familiar, and told for most in her
+own existence--although it is true that at first his very ignorance,
+real or assumed, his careless way of treating all intellectual subjects,
+his indifference to books and pictures, and even nature, had amused and
+pleased her, giving a piquancy to the physical strength and enjoying
+manhood, the perpetual activity and state of doing something in which he
+was. It was not a kind of life which she had ever known before, and it
+dazzled her with its apparent freedom and fulness, the variety in it,
+the constant movement, the crowd of occupations and people. To her who
+had been used to finding a great deal of her amusement in reading, in
+sketching (not very well), in playing (tunes), and generally practising
+with very moderate success arts for which she had no individual
+enthusiasm, it had seemed like a new life to be plunged into the society
+of horses and dogs, into the active world which was made up of a round
+of amusements, race meetings, days on the river, follies of every
+conceivable kind, exercise, and air, and movement. The ignorance of all
+these people dazzled her as if it had been a new science. It had seemed
+something wonderful and piquant to Elinor to find people who knew so
+much of subjects she had never heard of, and nothing at all of those she
+had been trained to know. And then there had come a moment when she had
+begun to sigh under her breath, as it were, and wish that Phil would
+sometimes open a book, that when he took up the newspaper he would look
+at something more than the sporting news and the bits of gossip, that he
+would talk now and then of something different from the racings and the
+startings, and the odds, and the scrapes other men got into, and the
+astonishing "frocks" of the Jew--those things, so wonderful at first,
+like a new language, absurd, yet amusing, came to be a little tiresome,
+especially when scraps of them made up the bulk of the very brief
+letters which Phil scribbled to his betrothed. But during this day,
+after his unexpected arrival, the joy of seeing him suddenly, the
+pleasure of feeling that he had broken through all his engagements to
+come to her, and the fervour of his satisfaction in being with her again
+(that very fervour which shocked her mother), Elinor's first glow of
+delight in her love came fully back. And as they wandered through the
+pleasant paths of the copse, his very talk seemed somehow changed, and
+to have gained just that little mingling of perception of her tastes and
+wishes which she had desired. There was a little autumnal mist about the
+softening haze which was not decay, but only the "mellow fruitfulness"
+of the poet; and the day, notwithstanding this, was as warm as June, the
+sky blue, with only a little white puff of cloud here and there. Phil
+paused to look down the combe, with all the folds of the downs that
+wrapped it about, going off in blue outlines into the distance, and said
+it was "a jolly view"--which amused Elinor more than if he had used the
+finest language, and showed that he was beginning (she thought) to care
+a little for the things which pleased her. "And I suppose you could see
+a man coming by that bit of road."
+
+"Yes," said Elinor, "you could see a man coming--or going: but, unless
+you were to make believe very strong, like the Marchioness, you could
+not make out who the man was."
+
+"What Marchioness?" said Phil. "I didn't know you had anybody with a
+title about here. I say, Nell, it's a very jolly view, but hideously
+dull for you, my pet, to have lived so long here."
+
+"I never found it in the least dull," she said.
+
+"Why, there is nothing to do! I suppose you read books, eh? That's what
+you call amusing yourself. You ought to have made the old lady take you
+about a deal, abroad, and all over the place: but I expect you have
+never stood up for yourself a bit, Nell."
+
+"Don't call mamma the old lady, Phil. She is not old, and far prettier
+than most people I know."
+
+"Well, she should have done it for herself. Might have picked up a good
+match, eh? a father-in-law that would have left you a pot of money. You
+don't mean to say you wouldn't have liked that?"
+
+"Oh, Phil, Phil! I wish you could understand."
+
+"Well, well, I'll let the old girl alone." And then came the point at
+which Phil improved so much. "Tell me what you've been reading last," he
+said. "I should like to know what you are thinking about, even if I
+don't understand it myself. I say, Nell, who do you think that can be
+dashing so fast along the road?"
+
+"It is the people at Reddown," she said. "I know their white horses.
+They always dash along as if they were in the greatest hurry. Do you
+really want to know what I have been reading, Phil? though it is very
+little, I fear, because of the dressmakers and--all the other things."
+
+"You see," he said, "when you have lots to do you can't keep up with
+your books: which is the reason why I never pretend to read--I have no
+time."
+
+"You might find a little time. I have seen you look very much bored, and
+complain that there was nothing to do."
+
+"Never when you were there, Nell, that I'll answer for--but of course
+there are times when a fellow isn't doing anything much. What would you
+have me read? There's always the _Sporting and Dramatic_, you know, the
+_Pink 'un_, and a few more."
+
+"Oh, Phil! you don't call them literature, I hope."
+
+"I don't know much about what you call literature. There's Ruff, and
+Hoyle, and--I say, Nell, there's a dog-cart going a pace! Who can that
+be, do you suppose?"
+
+"I don't know all the dog-carts about. I should think it was some one
+coming from the station."
+
+"Oh!" he said, and made a long pause. "Driving like that, if they don't
+break their necks, they should be here in ten minutes or so."
+
+"Oh, not for twice that time--the road makes such a round--but there is
+no reason to suppose that any dog-cart from the station should be coming
+here."
+
+"Well, to return to the literature, as you call it. I suppose I shall
+have to get a lot of books for you to keep you amused--eh, Nell? even in
+the honeymoon."
+
+"We shall not have time to read very much if we are moving about all the
+time."
+
+"Not me, but you. I know what you'll do. You'll go and leave me planted,
+and run up-stairs to read your book. I've seen the Jew do it with some
+of her confounded novels that she's always wanting to turn over to me."
+
+"But there are some novels that you would like to read, Phil."
+
+"Not a bit. Why, Nell, I know far better stories of fellows in our own
+set than any novel these writing men ever can put on paper: fellows, and
+women, too--stories that would make your hair stand on end, and that
+would make you die with laughing. You can't think what lots I know. That
+cart would have been here by this time if it had been coming here, eh?"
+
+"Oh, no, not yet--the road makes such a long round. Do you expect any
+one, Phil?"
+
+"I don't quite know; there's something on at that confounded office of
+ours; everything, you know, has gone to smash. I didn't think it well to
+say too much to the old lady last night. There's been a regular row, and
+the manager's absconded, and all turns on whether they can find some
+books. I shouldn't wonder if one of the fellows came down here, if they
+find out where I am. I say, Nell, mind you back me up whatever I say."
+
+"But I can't possibly know anything about it," said Elinor, astonished.
+
+"Never mind--about dates and that--if you don't stand by me, there may
+be a fuss, and the wedding delayed. Remember that, my pet, the wedding
+delayed--that's what I want to avoid. Now, come, Nell, let's have
+another go about the books. All English, mind you. I won't buy you any
+of the French rot. They're too spicy for a little girl like you."
+
+"I don't know what you mean, Phil. I hope you don't think that I read
+nothing but novels," Elinor said.
+
+"Nothing but novels! Oh, if you go in for mathematics and that sort of
+thing, Nell! the novels are too deep for me. Don't say poetry, if you
+love me. I could stand most things from you, Nell, you little
+darling--but, Nell, if you come spouting verses all the time----"
+
+His look of horror made Elinor laugh. "You need not be afraid. I never
+spout verses," she said.
+
+"Come along this way a little, where we can see the road. All women seem
+to like poetry. There's a few fellows I don't mind myself. Ingoldsby,
+now that's something fine. We had him at school, and perhaps it was the
+contrast from one's lessons. Do you know Ingoldsby, Nell?"
+
+"A--little--I have read some----"
+
+"Ah, you like the sentimental best. There's Whyte Melville, then,
+there's always something melancholy about him--'When the old horse
+died,' and that sort of thing--makes you cry, don't you know. You all
+like that. Certainly, if that dog-cart had been coming here it must have
+come by this time."
+
+"Yes, it must have come," Elinor admitted, with a little wonder at the
+importance which he gave to this possible incident. "But there is
+another train at two if you are very anxious to see this man."
+
+"Oh, I'm not anxious to see him," said Mr. Compton, with a laugh, "but
+probably he will want to see me. No, Nell, you will not expect me to
+read poetry to you while we're away. There's quite a library at Lomond's
+place. You can amuse yourself there when I'm shooting; not that I shall
+shoot much, or anything that takes me away from my Nell. But you must
+come out with us. There is no such fun as stumping over the moors--the
+Jew has got all the turn-out for that sort of thing--short frocks and
+knickerbockers, and a duck of a little breech-loader. She thinks she's a
+great shot, poor thing, and men are civil and let her imagine that she's
+knocked over a pheasant or a hare, now and then. As for the partridges,
+she lets fly, of course, but to say she hits anything----"
+
+"I should not want to hit anything," said Elinor. "Oh, please Phil! I
+will try anything else you like, but don't make me shoot."
+
+"You little humbug! See what you'll say when you get quite clear of the
+old lady. But I don't want you to shoot, Nell. If you don't get tired
+sitting at home, with all of us out on the hill, I like to come in for
+my part and find a little duck all tidy, not blowzy and blown about by
+the wind, like the Jew with her ridiculous bag, that all the fellows
+snigger at behind her back."
+
+"You should not let any fellow laugh at your sister, Phil----"
+
+"Oh, as for that! they are all as thick with her as I am, and why should
+I interfere? But I promise you nobody shall cut a joke upon my Nell."
+
+"I should hope not, indeed," said Elinor, indignant; "but as for your
+'fellows,' Phil, as you call them, you mustn't be angry with me, but I
+don't much like those gentlemen; they are a little rude and rough. They
+shall not call me by my Christian name, or anything but my own
+formal----"
+
+"Mrs. Compton," he said, seizing her in his arms, "you little duck!
+they'll be as frightened of you as if you were fifty. But you mustn't
+spoil good company, Nell. I shall like you to keep them at a distance,
+but you mustn't go too far; and, above all, my pet, you mustn't put out
+the Jew. I calculate on being a lot there; they have a nice house and a
+good table, and all that, and Prestwich is glad of somebody to help
+about his horses. You mustn't set up any of your airs with the Jew."
+
+"I don't know what you mean by my airs, Phil."
+
+"Oh, but I do, and they're delicious, Nell: half like a little girl and
+half like a queen: but it will never do to make the Jew feel small in
+her own set. Hallo! there's some one tumbling alone over the stones on
+that precious road of yours. I believe it's that cart from the station
+after all."
+
+"No," said Elinor, "it is only one of the tradespeople. You certainly
+are anxious about those carts from the station, Phil."
+
+"Not a bit!" he said, and then, after a moment, he added, "Yes, on the
+whole, I'd much rather the man came, if he's coming while I'm here, and
+while you are with me, Nell; for I want you to stick to me, and back me
+up. They might think I ought to go after that manager fellow and spoil
+the wedding. Therefore mind you back me up."
+
+"I can't think, dear Phil, what there is for me to do. I know nothing
+about the business nor what has happened. You never told me anything,
+and how can I back you up about things I don't know?"
+
+"Oh, yes, you can," he said, "you'll soon see if the fellow comes; just
+you stand by me, whatever I say. You mayn't know--or even I may seem to
+make a mistake; but you know me if you don't know the circumstances, and
+I hope you can trust me, Nell, that it will be all right."
+
+"But----" said Elinor, confused.
+
+"Don't go on with your buts; there's a darling, don't contradict me.
+There is nothing looks so silly to strangers as a woman contradicting
+every word a fellow says. I only want you to stand by me, don't you
+know, that's all; and I'll tell you everything about it after, when
+there's time."
+
+"Tell me about it now," said Elinor; "you may be sure I shall be
+interested; there's plenty of time now."
+
+"Talk about business to you! when I've only a single day, and not half
+time enough, you little duck, to tell you what a darling you are, and
+how I count every hour till I can have you all to myself. Ah, Nell,
+Nell, if that day were only here----"
+
+And then Phil turned to those subjects and those methods which cast so
+much confusion into the mind of Mrs. Dennistoun, when practised under
+her sedate and middle-aged eyes. But Elinor, as has been said, did not
+take exactly the same view.
+
+Presently they went to luncheon, and Phil secured himself a place at
+table commanding the road. "I never knew before how jolly it was," he
+said, "though everything is jolly here. And that peep of the road must
+give you warning when any invasion is coming."
+
+"It is too far off for that," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"Oh, no, not for sharp eyes. Nell there told me who several people
+were--those white horses--the people at--where did you say, Nell?"
+
+"Reddown, mamma--the Philistines, as you call them, that are always
+dashing about the country--_nouveaux riches_, with the finest horses in
+the county."
+
+"I like the _nouveaux riches_ for that," said Phil (he did not go wrong
+in his French, which was a great consolation to Elinor), "they like to
+have the best of everything. Your poor swell has to take what he can
+get, but the _parvenu's_ the man in these days; and then there was a
+dog-cart, which she pronounced to be from the station, but which turned
+out to be the butcher, or the baker, or the candle-stick maker----"
+
+"It is really too far off to make sure of anything, except white
+horses."
+
+"Ah, there's no mistaking them. I see something sweeping along, but
+that's a country wagon, I suppose. It gives me a great deal of diversion
+to see the people on the road--which perhaps you will think a vulgar
+amusement."
+
+"Not at all," said Mrs. Dennistoun, politely, but she thought within
+herself how empty the brain must be which sought diversion from the
+distant carriages passing two miles off: to be sure across the combe,
+as the crow flies, it was not a quarter part so far as that.
+
+"Phil thinks some one may possibly come to him on business--to explain
+things," said Elinor, anxious on her part to make it clear that it was
+not out of mere vacancy that her lover had watched so closely the
+carriages on the road.
+
+"Unfortunately, there is something like a smash," he said; "they'll keep
+it out of the papers if they can, but you may see it in the papers; the
+manager has run away, and there's a question about some books. I don't
+suppose you would understand--they may come to me here about it, or they
+may wait till I go back to town."
+
+"I thought you were going to Ireland, Phil."
+
+"So I shall, probably, just for three days--to fill up the time. One
+wants to be doing something to keep one's self down. You can't keep
+quiet and behave yourself when you are going to be married in a week:
+unless you're a little chit of a girl without any feelings," he said
+with a laugh. And Elinor laughed too; while Mrs. Dennistoun sat as grave
+as a judge at the head of the table. But Phil was not daunted by her
+serious face: so long as the road was quite clear he had all the
+appearance of a perfectly easy mind.
+
+"We have been talking about literature," he said. "I am a stupid fellow,
+as perhaps you know, for that sort of thing. But Nell is to indoctrinate
+me. We mean to take a big box of books, and I'm to be made to read
+poetry and all sorts of fine things in my honeymoon."
+
+"That is a new idea," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "I thought Elinor meant to
+give up reading, on the other hand, to make things square."
+
+There was a little breath of a protest from Elinor. "Oh, mamma!" but she
+left the talk (he could do it so much better) in Compton's hand.
+
+"I expect to figure as a sort of prodigy in my family," he said; "we're
+not bookish. The Jew goes in for French novels, but I don't intend to
+let Nell touch them, so you may be easy in your mind."
+
+"I have no doubt Lady Mariamne makes a good selection," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun.
+
+"Not she! she reads whatever comes, and the more salt the better. The
+Jew is quite an emancipated person. Don't you think she'll bore you
+rather in this little house? She carries bales of rubbish with her
+wherever she goes, and her maid, and her dog, and I don't know what. If
+I were you I'd write, or better wire, and tell her there's a capital
+train from Victoria will bring her here in time for the wedding, and
+that it's a thousand pities she should disturb herself to come for the
+night."
+
+"If your sister can put up with my small accommodation, I shall of
+course be happy to have her, whatever she brings with her," Mrs.
+Dennistoun said.
+
+"Oh! it's not a question of putting up--she'd be delighted, I'm sure:
+but I think you'll find her a great bore. She is exceedingly fussy when
+she has not all her things about her. However, you must judge for
+yourself. But if you think better of it, wire a few words, and it'll be
+all right. I'm to go to the old Rectory, Nell says."
+
+"It is not a particularly old Rectory; it is a very nice, pleasant
+house. I think you will find yourself quite comfortable--you and the
+gentleman----"
+
+"Dick Bolsover, who is going to see me through it: and I daresay I
+should not sleep much, if I were in the most luxurious bed in the world.
+They say a man who is going to be hanged sleeps like a top, but I don't
+think I shall; what do you say, Nell?"
+
+"Elinor, I should think, could have no opinion on the subject," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun, pale with anger. "You will all dine here, of course.
+Some other friends are coming, and a cousin, Mr. Tatham, of Tatham's
+Cross."
+
+"Is that," said Phil, "the Cousin John?"
+
+"John, I am sorry to say, is abroad; the long vacation is the worst
+time. It is his father who is coming, and his sister, Mary Tatham, who
+is Elinor's bridesmaid--she and Miss Hudson at the Rectory."
+
+"Only two; and very sensible, instead of the train one sees, all
+thinking how best to show themselves off. Dick Bolsover is man enough to
+tackle them both. He expects some fun, I can tell you. What is there to
+be after we are gone, Nell?" He stopped and looked round with a laugh.
+"Rather close quarters for a ball," he said.
+
+"There will be no ball. You forget that when you take Elinor away I
+shall be alone. A solitary woman living in a cottage, as you remark,
+does not give balls. I am much afraid that there will be very little fun
+for your friend."
+
+"Oh, he'll amuse himself well enough; he's the sort of fellow who always
+makes himself at home. A Rectory will be great fun for him; I don't
+suppose he was ever in one before, unless perhaps when he was a boy at
+school. Yes, as you say--what a lot of trouble it will be for you to
+be sure: not as if Nell had a sister to enjoy the fun after. It's a
+thousand pities you did not decide to bring her up to town, and get
+us shuffled off there. You might have got a little house for next
+to nothing at this time of the year, and saved all the row, turning
+everything upside down in this nice little place, and troubling yourself
+with visitors and so forth. But one always thinks of that sort of thing
+too late."
+
+"I should not have adopted such an expedient in any case. Elinor must be
+married among her own people, wherever her lot may be cast afterwards.
+Everybody here has known her ever since she was born."
+
+"Ah, that's a thing ladies think of, I suppose," said Compton. He had
+stuck his glass into his eye and was gazing out of the window. "Very
+jolly view," he continued. "And what's that, Nell, raising clouds of
+dust? I haven't such quick eyes as you."
+
+"I should think it must be a circus or a menagerie, or something,
+mamma."
+
+"Very likely," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "They sometimes come this way on
+the road to Portsmouth, and give little representations in all the
+villages, to the great excitement of the country folk."
+
+"We are the country folk, and I feel quite excited," said Phil, dropping
+his glass. "Nell, if there's a representation, you and I will go
+to-night."
+
+"Oh, Phil, what----" Elinor was about to say folly: but she paused,
+seeing a look in his eye which she had already learned to know, and
+added "fun," in a voice which sounded almost like an echo of his own.
+
+"There is nothing like being out in the wilderness like this to make one
+relish a little fun, eh? I daresay you always go. The Jew is the one for
+every village fair within ten miles when she is in the country. She says
+they're better than any play. Hallo! what is that?"
+
+"It is some one coming round the gravel path."
+
+A more simple statement could not be, but it made Compton strangely
+uneasy. He rose up hastily from the table. "It is, perhaps, the man I am
+looking for. If you'll permit me, I'll go and see."
+
+He went out of the room, calling Elinor by a look and slight movement of
+his head, but when he came out into the hall was met by a trim clerical
+figure and genial countenance, the benign yet self-assured looks of the
+Rector of the Parish: none other could this smiling yet important
+personage be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+The Rector came in with his smiling and rosy face. He was, as many of
+his parishioners thought, a picture of a country clergyman. Such a
+healthy colour, as clear as a girl's, limpid blue eyes, with very light
+eyelashes and eyebrows; a nice round face, "beautifully modelled,"
+according to Miss Sarah Hill, who did a little in that way herself, and
+knew how to approve of a Higher Sculptor's work. And then the neatest
+and blackest of coats, and the whitest and stiffest of collars. Mr.
+Hudson, I need scarcely say, was not so left to himself as to permit his
+clerical character to be divined by means of a white tie. He came in, as
+was natural among country neighbours, without thinking of any bell or
+knocker on the easily opened door, and was about to peep into the
+drawing-room with "Anybody in?" upon his smiling lips, when he saw a
+gentleman approaching, picking up his hat as he advanced. Mr. Hudson
+paused a moment in uncertainty. "Mr. Compton, I am sure," he said,
+holding out both of his plump pink hands. "Ah, Elinor too! I was
+sure I could not be mistaken. And I am exceedingly glad to make your
+acquaintance." He shook Phil's hand up and down in a sort of see-saw.
+"Very glad to make your acquaintance! though you are the worst enemy
+Windyhill has had for many a day--carrying off the finest lamb in all
+the fold."
+
+"Yes, I'm a wolf, I suppose," said Phil. He went to the door and took a
+long look out while Elinor led the Rector into the drawing-room. Then
+Mr. Compton lounged in after them, with his hands in his pockets, and
+placed himself in the bow-window, where he could still see the white
+line across the combe of the distant road.
+
+"They'll think I have stolen a march upon them all, Elinor," said the
+Rector, "chancing upon Mr. Compton like this, a quite unexpected
+pleasure. I shall keep them on the tenterhooks, asking them whom they
+suppose I have met? and they will give everybody but the right person.
+What a thing for me to have been the first person to see your intended,
+my dear! and I congratulate you, Elinor," said the Rector, dropping his
+voice; "a fine handsome fellow, and such an air! You are a lucky girl--"
+he paused a little and said, with a slight hesitation, in a whisper, "so
+far as meets the eye."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Hudson, don't spoil everything," said Elinor, in the same tone.
+
+"Well, I cannot tell, can I, my dear?--the first peep I have had." He
+cleaved his throat and raised his voice. "I believe we are to have the
+pleasure of entertaining you, Mr. Compton, on a certain joyful occasion
+(joyful to you, not to us). I need not say how pleased my wife and I
+and the other members of the family will be. There are not very many of
+us--we are only five in number--my son, and my daughter, and Miss Dale,
+my wife's sister, but much younger than Mrs. Hudson--who has done us the
+pleasure of staying with us for part of the year. I think she has met
+you somewhere, or knows some of your family, or--something. She is a
+great authority on noble families. I don't know whether it is because
+she has been a good deal in society, or whether it is out of
+Debrett----"
+
+"Nell, come and tell me what this is," Compton said.
+
+"Oh, Phil! it is nothing, it is a carriage. I don't know what it is. Be
+civil to the Rector, please."
+
+"So I am, perfectly civil."
+
+"You have not answered a single word, and he has been talking to you for
+ten minutes."
+
+"Well, but he hasn't said anything that I can answer. He says Miss
+Something or other knows my family. Perhaps she does. Well, much good
+may it do her! but what can I say to that? I am sure I don't know hers.
+I didn't come here to be talked to by the Rector. Could we slip out and
+leave him with your mother? That would suit his book a great deal
+better. Come, let's go."
+
+"Oh! he is speaking to you, Phil."
+
+Compton turned round and eyed the Rector. "Yes?" he said in so marked an
+interrogative that Mr. Hudson stopped short and flushed. He had been
+talking for some time.
+
+"Oh! I was not precisely asking a question," he said, in his quiet
+tones. "I was saying that we believe and hope that another gentleman is
+coming with you--for the occasion."
+
+"Dick Bolsover," said Compton, "a son of Lord Freshfield's; perhaps Miss
+----, the lady you were talking of, may know his family too. His brother
+got a little talked of in that affair about Fille d'Or, don't you know,
+at Newmarket. But Dick is a rattling good fellow, doesn't race, and has
+no vices. He is coming to stand by me and see that all's right."
+
+"We shall be happy to see Mr. Bolsover, I am sure." The Rector rubbed
+his hands and said to himself with pleasure that two Honourables in his
+quiet house was something to think of, and that he hoped it would not
+turn the heads of the ladies, and make Alice expect--one couldn't tell
+what. And then he said, by way of changing yet continuing the subject,
+"I suppose you've been looking at the presents. Elinor must have shown
+you her presents."
+
+"By Jove, I never thought of the presents. Have you got a lot, Nell?"
+
+"She has got, if I may be allowed to answer for her, having known her
+all her life, a great many pretty things, Mr. Compton. We are not rich,
+to be sure, her old friends here. We have to content ourselves with but
+a small token of a great deal of affection; but still there are a number
+of pretty things. Elinor, what were you thinking of, my dear, not to
+show Mr. Compton the little set out which you showed us? Come, I should
+myself like to look them over again."
+
+Phil gave another long look at the distant road, and then he thrust his
+arm into Elinor's and said, "To be sure, come along, Nell. It will be
+something to do." He did not wait for the Rector to pass first, which
+Elinor thought would have been better manners, but thrust her before him
+quite regardless of the older people. "Let's see the trumpery," he said.
+
+"Don't use such a word, Phil: the Rector will be so hurt."
+
+"Oh, will he? did he work you an--antimacassar or something?"
+
+"Phil, speak low at least. No, but his daughter did; and they gave
+me----"
+
+"I know: a cardcase or a button-hook, or something. And how many
+biscuit-boxes have you got, and clocks, and that sort of thing? I advise
+you to have an auction as soon as we get away. Hallo! that's a nice
+little thing; look pretty on your pretty white neck I should say, Nell.
+Who gave you that?" He took John's necklace out of its box where it had
+lain undisturbed until now, and pulled it through his fingers. "Cost a
+pretty bit of money that, I should say. You can raise the wind on it
+when we're down on our luck, Nell."
+
+"My cousin John, whom you have heard me speak of, gave me that, Phil,"
+said Elinor, with great gravity. She thought it necessary, she could
+scarcely tell why, to make a stand for her cousin John.
+
+"Ah, I thought it was one of the disappointed ones," said Phil, flinging
+it back carelessly onto the bed of white velvet where it had been fitted
+so exactly. "That's how they show their spite; for of course I can't
+give you anything half as good as that."
+
+"There was no disappointment in the matter," said Elinor, almost angry
+with the misconceptions of her lover.
+
+"You are a nice one," said Compton, taking her by the chin, "to tell me!
+as if I didn't know the world a long sight better than you do, my little
+Nell."
+
+The Rector, who was following slowly, for he did not like to go up-stairs
+in a hurry, saw this attitude and drew back, a little scandalized.
+"Perhaps we were indiscreet to--to follow them too closely," he said,
+disconcerted. "Please to go in first, Mrs. Dennistoun--the young couple
+will not mind you."
+
+Mr. Hudson was prim; but he was rather pleased to see that "the young
+couple" were, as he said, so fond of each other. He went into the room
+under the protection of the mother--blushing a little. It reminded him,
+as he said afterwards, of his own young days; but it was only natural
+that he should walk up direct to the place where his kettle stood
+conspicuous, waiting only the spark of a match to begin to boil the
+water for the first conjugal tea. It appeared to him a beautiful
+idea as he put his head on one side and looked at it. It was like the
+inauguration of the true British fireside, the cosy privacy in which,
+after the man had done his work, the lady awaited him at home, with the
+tea-kettle steaming. A generation before Mr. Hudson there would have
+been a pair of slippers airing beside the fire. But neither of these
+preparations supply the ideal of perfect happiness now.
+
+"I say, where did you get these hideous things?" said Compton,
+approaching the table on which "the silver" was laid out. By a special
+dispensation it was Lady Mariamne's dishes which caught Phil's
+attention. "Some old grandmother, I suppose, that had 'em in the house.
+Hallo! if it isn't the Jew! Nell, you don't mean to tell me you got
+these horrors from the Jew?"
+
+"They are supposed to be--quite handsome," said Elinor, with a
+suppressed laugh. "We must not criticise. It is very kind of people to
+send presents at all. We all know it is a very severe tax--to those who
+have a great many friends----"
+
+"The stingy old miser," said Compton. "Rolling in money, and to send you
+these! By Jove! there's a neat little thing now that looks what it is;
+probably one of your nice country friends, Nell----" (It was the kettle,
+as a kind Providence decreed; and both the ladies breathed an internal
+thanksgiving.) "Shows like a little gem beside that old, thundering,
+mean-spirited Jew!"
+
+"That," said the Rector, bridling a little and pink with pleasure, "is
+our little offering: and I'm delighted to think that it should please so
+good a judge. It was chosen with great care. I saw it first myself,
+and the idea flashed upon me--quite an inspiration--that it was the
+very thing for Elinor; and when I went home I told my wife--the very
+thing--for her boudoir, should she not be seeing company--or just for
+your little teas when you are by yourselves. I could at once imagine the
+dear girl looking so pretty in one of those wonderful white garments
+that are in the next room."
+
+"Hallo!" said Compton, with a laugh, "do you show off your things in
+this abandoned way, Nell, to the killingest old cov----"
+
+She put her hand up to his mouth with a cry of dismay and laughter, but
+the Rector, with a smile and another little blush, discreetly turned his
+back. He was truly glad to see that they were so fond of each other, and
+thought it was pretty and innocent that they should not mind showing
+it--but it was a little embarrassing for an old and prim clergyman to
+look on.
+
+"What a pleasure it must be to you, my dear lady," he said when the
+young couple had gone: which took place very soon, for Phil soon grew
+tired of the presents, and he was ill at ease when there was no window
+from which he could watch the road--"what a pleasure to see them so much
+attached! Of course, family advantage and position is always of
+importance--but when you get devoted affection, too----"
+
+"I hope there is devoted affection," said Mrs. Dennistoun; "at all
+events, there is what we are all united in calling 'love,' for the
+present. He is in love with Elinor--I don't think there can be much
+doubt of that."
+
+"I did not of course know that he was here," said the Rector, with some
+hesitation. "I came with the intention of speaking--I am very sorry to
+see in the papers to-day something about that Joint-Stock Company of
+which Mr. Compton was a director. It's rather a mysterious paragraph:
+but it's something about the manager having absconded, and that some of
+the directors are said to be involved."
+
+"Do you mean my future son-in-law?" she said, turning quickly upon him.
+
+"Good heavens, no! I wouldn't for the world insinuate---- It was only
+that one felt a desire to know. Just upon the eve of a marriage
+it's--it's alarming to hear of a business the bridegroom is involved in
+being--what you may call broken up."
+
+"That was one of the things Mr. Compton came to tell us about," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun. "He said he hoped it might be kept out of the papers,
+but that some of the books have got lost or destroyed. I am afraid I
+know very little about business. But he has lost very little--nothing to
+speak of--which was all that concerned me."
+
+"To be sure," said the Rector, but in a tone not so assured as his
+words. "It is not perhaps quite a nice thing to be director of a company
+that--that collapses in this way. I fear some poor people will lose
+their money. I fear there will be things in the papers."
+
+"On what ground?" she said. "Oh, I don't deny there may be some one to
+blame; but Mr. Compton was, I suspect, only on the board for the sake of
+his name. He is not a business man. He did it, as so many do, for the
+sake of a pretence of being in something. And then, I believe, the
+directors got a little by it; they had a few hundreds a year."
+
+"To be sure," said Mr. Hudson, but still doubtfully; and then he
+brightened up. "For my part, I don't believe there is a word of truth in
+it. Since I have seen him, indeed, I have quite changed my opinion--a
+fine figure of a man, looking an aristocrat every inch of him. Such a
+contrast and complement to our dear Elinor--and so fond of her. A man
+like that would never have a hand in any sham concern. If it was really
+a bogus company, as people say, he must be one of the sufferers. That is
+quite my decided opinion; only the ladies, you know--the ladies who have
+not seen him, and who are so much more suspicious by nature (I don't
+know that you are, my dear Mrs. Dennistoun), would give me no rest. They
+thought it was my duty to interfere. But I am sure they are quite
+wrong."
+
+To think that it was the ladies of the Rector's family who were
+interfering made Mrs. Dennistoun very wroth. "Next time they have
+anything to say, you should make them come themselves," she said.
+
+"Oh, they would not do that. They say it is the clergyman's business,
+not theirs. Besides, you know, I have not time to read all the papers.
+We get the _Times_, and Mary Dale has the _Morning Post_, and another
+thing that is all about stocks and shares. She has such a head for
+business--far more than I can pretend to. She thought----"
+
+"Mr. Hudson, I fear I do not wish to know what was thought by Miss
+Dale."
+
+"Well, you are, perhaps, right, Mrs. Dennistoun. She is only a woman,
+of course, and she may make mistakes. It is astonishing, though, how
+often she is right. She has a head for business that might do for a
+Chancellor of the Exchequer. She made me sell out my shares in that Red
+Gulch--those American investments have most horrible names--just a week
+before the smash came, all from what she had read in the papers. She
+knows how to put things together, you see. So I have reason to be
+grateful to her, for my part."
+
+"And what persuaded you, here at Windyhill, a quiet clergyman, to put
+money in any Red Gulch? It is a horrible name!"
+
+"Oh, it was Mary, I suppose," said Mr. Hudson. "She is always looking
+out for new investments. She said we should all make our fortunes. We
+did not, unfortunately. But she is so clever, she got us out of it with
+only a very small loss indeed."
+
+"No doubt she is very clever. I wish, though, that she would let us know
+definitely on what ground----"
+
+"Oh, there is no ground," cried the Rector. "Now that I have seen Mr.
+Compton I am certain of it. I said to her before I left the Rectory,
+'Now, my dear Mary, I am going like a lamb to the slaughter. I have no
+reason to give if Mrs. Dennistoun should ask me, and you have no reason
+to give. And she will probably put me to the door.' If I said that
+before I started, you may fancy how much more I feel it now, when I have
+made Mr. Compton's acquaintance. A fine aristocratic face, and all the
+ease of high breeding. There are only three lives--and those not very
+good ones--between him and the title, I believe?"
+
+"Two robust brothers, and an invalid who will probably outlive them all;
+that is, I believe, the state of the case."
+
+"Dear me, what a pity!" said the Rector, "for our little Elinor would
+have made a sweet little Countess. She would grow a noble lady, like the
+one in Mr. Tennyson's poem. Well, now I must be going, and I am
+extremely glad to have been so lucky as to come in just in time. It has
+been the greatest pleasure to me to see them together--such a loving
+couple. Dear me, like what one reads about, or remembers in old days,
+not like the commonplace pairs one has to do with now."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun accompanied the Rector to the garden gate. She was half
+inclined to laugh and half to be angry, and in neither mood did Mr.
+Hudson's insinuations which he made so innocently have much effect
+upon her mind. But when she took leave of him at the gate and came
+slowly back among her brilliant flower-beds, pausing here and there
+mechanically to pick off a withered leaf or prop up the too heavy head
+of a late rose; her mind began to take another turn. She had always been
+conscious of an instinctive suspicion in respect to her daughter's
+lover. Probably only, she said to herself, because he was her daughter's
+lover, and she was jealous of the new devotion that withdrew from her so
+completely the young creature who had been so fully her own. That is a
+hard trial for a woman to undergo. It is only to be borne when she, too,
+is fascinated by her future son-in-law, as happens in some fortunate
+cases. Otherwise, a woman with an only child is an alarming critic to
+encounter. She was not fascinated at all by Phil. She was disappointed
+in Elinor, and almost thought her child not so perfect as she had
+believed, when it proved that she could be fascinated by this man. She
+disliked almost everything about him--his looks, the very air which the
+Rector thought so aristocratic, his fondness for Elinor, which was not
+reverential enough to please the mother, and his indifference, nay,
+contempt, for herself, which was not calculated to please any woman. She
+had been roused into defence of him in anger at the interference, and at
+the insinuation which had no proof; but as that anger died away, other
+thoughts came into her mind. She began to put the broken facts together
+which already had roused her to suspicion: his sudden arrival, so
+unexpected; walking from the station--a long, very long walk--carrying
+his own bag, which was a thing John Tatham did, but not like Phil
+Compton. And then she remembered, suddenly, his anxiety about the
+carriage on the distant road, his care to place himself where he could
+see it. She had thought with a little scorn that this was a proof of his
+frivolity, of the necessity of seeing people, whoever these people might
+be. But now there began to be in it something that could have a deeper
+meaning. For whom was he looking? Who might be coming? Stories she had
+heard of fugitives from justice, of swindlers taking refuge in the
+innocence of their families, came up into her mind. Could it be possible
+that Elinor's pure name could be entangled in such a guilty web as this?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+"Funny old poop!" said Compton. "And that is your Rector, Nell. I shall
+tell Dick there's rare fun to be had in that house: but not for me. I
+know what I shall be thinking of all the time I'm there. Odious little
+Nell! to interfere like this with a fellow's fun. But I say, who's that
+woman who knows me or my family?--much good may it do her, as I said
+before. Tell me, Nell, did she speak ill of me?"
+
+"Oh, Phil, how could you ask? or what would it matter if she spoke ever
+so ill?"
+
+"She did then," he said with a graver face. "Somebody was bound to do
+it. And what did she say?"
+
+"Oh, what does it matter, Phil? I don't remember; nothing of any
+consequence. We paid no attention, of course, neither mamma nor I."
+
+"That was plucky of the old girl," said Compton. "I didn't suppose you
+would give ear, my Nell. Ain't so sure about her. If I'd been your
+father, my pet, I should never have given you to Phil Compton. And
+that's the fact: I wonder if the old lady would like to reconsider the
+situation now."
+
+"Phil!" said Elinor, clinging to his arm.
+
+"Perhaps it would be best for you if you were to do so, Nell, or if she
+were to insist upon it. Eh! You don't know me, my darling, that's the
+fact. You're too good to understand us. We're all the same, from the old
+governor downwards--a bad lot. I feel a kind of remorseful over you,
+child, to-day. That rosy old bloke, though he's a snob, makes a man
+think of innocence somehow. I do believe you oughtn't to marry me,
+Nell."
+
+"Oh, Phil! what do you mean? You cannot mean what you say."
+
+"I suppose I don't, or I shouldn't say it, Nell. I shouldn't certainly,
+if I thought you were likely to take my advice. It's a kind of luxury to
+tell you we're a bad lot, and bid you throw me over, when I know all
+along you won't."
+
+"I should think not indeed," she said, clinging to him and looking up in
+his face. "Do you know what my cous--I mean a friend, said to me on that
+subject?"
+
+"You mean your cousin John, whom you are always quoting. Let's hear what
+the fellow said."
+
+"He said--that I wasn't a girl to put up with much, Phil. That I wasn't
+one of the patient kind, that I would not bear---- I don't know what it
+was I would not bear; but you see you must consider my defects, which
+you can understand well enough, whether I can understand yours or not."
+
+"That you could not put up with--that you could not bear? that meant me,
+Nell. He had been talking to you on the same subject, me and my faults.
+Why didn't you listen to him? I suppose he wanted you to have him
+instead of me."
+
+"Phil! how dare you even think of such a thing? It is not true."
+
+"Wasn't it? Then he is a greater fool than I took him for, and his
+opinion's no good. So you're a spitfire, are you? Can't put up with
+anything that doesn't suit you? I don't know that I should have found
+that out."
+
+"I am afraid though that it is true," she said, half-laughingly looking
+up at him. "Perhaps you will want to reconsider too."
+
+"If you don't want it any more than I want it, Nell---- What's that?" he
+cried hastily, changing his expression and attitude in a moment. "Is
+that one of your neighbours at the gate?"
+
+Elinor looked round, starting away a little from his side, and saw some
+one--a man she had never seen before--approaching along the path. She
+was just about to say she did not know who it was when Phil, to her
+astonishment, stepped past her, advancing to meet the newcomer. But as
+he did so he put out his hand and caught her as he passed, leading her
+along with him.
+
+"Mind what I said, and stick to me," he said, in a whisper; then--
+
+"Stanfield!" he cried with an air of perfect ease and cordiality, yet
+astonishment. "I thought it looked like you, but I could not believe my
+eyes."
+
+"Mr. Compton!" said the other. "So you are here. I have been hunting
+after you all over the place. I heard only this morning this was a
+likely spot."
+
+"A very likely spot!" said Phil. "I suppose you know the good reason I
+have for being in these parts. Elinor, this is Mr. Stanfield, who has to
+do with our company, don't you know. But I say, Stanfield, what's all
+this row in the papers? Is it true that Brown's bolted? I should have
+taken the first train to see if I could help; but my private affairs are
+most urgent just at this moment, as I suppose you know."
+
+"I wish you had come," said the other; "it would have looked well, and
+pleased the rest of the directors. There has been some queer
+business--some of the books abstracted or destroyed, we can't tell
+which, and no means of knowing how we stand."
+
+"Good Heavens!" said Phil, "to cover that fellow's retreat."
+
+"It you mean Brown, it was not he. They were all there safe enough after
+he was gone; somebody must have got in by night and made off with them,
+some one that knew all about the place; the watchman saw a light, but
+that's all. It's supposed there must have been something compromising
+others besides Brown. He could not have cheated the company to such an
+extent by himself."
+
+"Good Heavens!" cried Phil again in natural horror; "I wish I had
+followed my impulse and gone up to town straight: but it was very vague
+what was in the papers; I hoped it might not have been our place at all.
+And I say, Stanfield--who's the fellow they suspect?" Elinor had
+disengaged herself from Compton's arm; she perceived vaguely that the
+stranger paused before he replied, and that Phil, facing him with a
+certain square attitude of opposition which affected her imagination
+vaguely, though she did not understand why--was waiting with keen
+attention for his reply. She said, a little oppressed by the situation,
+"Phil, perhaps I had better go."
+
+"Don't go," he said; "there's nothing secret to say. If there's anyone
+suspected it must very soon be known."
+
+"It's difficult to say who is suspected," said the stranger, confused.
+"I don't know that there's much evidence. You've been in Scotland?"
+
+"Yes, till the other day, when I came down here to see----" He paused
+and turned upon Elinor a look which gave the girl the most curious
+incomprehensible pang. It was a look of love; but, oh! heaven, was it a
+look called up that the other man might see? He took her hand in his,
+and said lightly yet tenderly, "Let's see, what day was it? the sixth,
+wasn't it the sixth, Nell?"
+
+A flood of conflicting thoughts poured through Elinor's mind. What did
+it mean? It was yesterday, she was about to say, but something stopped
+her, something in Phil's eye--in the touch of his hand. There was
+something warning, almost threatening, in his eye. Stand by me; mind you
+don't contradict me; say what I say. All these things which he had
+repeated again and again were said once more in the look he gave her.
+"Yes," she said timidly, with a hesitation very unlike Elinor, "it was
+the sixth." She seemed to see suddenly as she said the words that
+calendar with the date hanging in the hall: the big 6 seemed to hang
+suspended in the air. It was true, though she could not tell how it
+could be so.
+
+"Oh," said Stanfield, in a tone which betrayed a little surprise, and
+something like disappointment, "the sixth? I knew you had left Scotland,
+but we did not know where you had gone."
+
+"That's not to be wondered at," said Phil, with a laugh, "for I should
+have gone to Ireland, to tell the truth; I ought to have been there now.
+I'm going to-morrow, ain't I, Nell? I had not a bit of business to be
+here. Winding up affairs in the bachelor line, don't you know; but I had
+to come on my way west to see this young lady first. It plays the deuce
+and all with one's plans when there's such a temptation in the way."
+
+"You could have gone from Scotland to Ireland," said Stanfield, gravely,
+"without coming to town at all."
+
+"Very true, old man. You speak like a book. But, as you perceive, I have
+not gone to Ireland at all; I am here. Depends upon your motive, I
+suppose, which way you go."
+
+"It is a good way roundabout," said the other, without relaxing the
+intent look on his face.
+
+"Well," said Phil, "that's as one feels. I go by Holyhead wherever I may
+be--even if I had nowhere else to go to on the way."
+
+"And Mr. Compton got here on the sixth?--this is the eighth," said the
+stranger, pointedly. He turned to Elinor, and it seemed to the girl that
+his eyes, though they were not remarkable eyes, went through and through
+her. He spoke very slowly, with a curious meaning. "But it was on the
+sixth, you say, that he got here?"
+
+That big 6 on the calendar stood out before her eyes; it seemed to cover
+all the man's figure that stood before her. Elinor's heart and mind went
+through the strangest convulsion. Was it false--was it true? What was
+she saying? What did it all mean? She repeated mechanically, "It was on
+the sixth," and then she recovered a kind of desperate courage, and
+throwing off the strange spell that seemed to be upon her, "Is there any
+reason," she asked, suddenly, with a little burst of impatience, looking
+from one to another, "why it should not be the sixth, that you repeat it
+so?"
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the stranger, visibly startled. "I did not
+mean to imply--only thought----Pray, Mr. Compton, tell the lady I had no
+intention of offending. I never supposed----"
+
+Phil's laugh, loud and clear, rang through the stillness of the afternoon.
+"He's so used to fibs, he thinks everybody's in a tale," said Phil, "but
+I can assure you he is a very good fellow, and a great friend of mine,
+and he means no harm, Nell."
+
+Elinor made Mr. Stanfield an extremely dignified bow. "I ought to have
+gone away at once, and left you to talk over your business," she said,
+turning away, and Phil did not attempt to detain her. Then the natural
+rural sense of hospitality came over Elinor. She turned back to find the
+two men looking after her, standing where she had left them. "I am
+sure," she said, "that mamma would wish me to ask the gentleman if he
+would stay to dinner--or at least come in with you, Phil, to tea."
+
+Mr. Stanfield took off his hat with anxious politeness, and exclaimed
+hastily that he must go back to town by the next train, and that the cab
+from the station was waiting to take him. And then she left them, and
+walked quietly away. She was almost out of hearing before they resumed
+their conversation; that is, she was beyond the sound, not of their
+voices, but of what they said. The murmur of the voices was still
+audible when she got to her favourite seat on the side of the copse
+looking down the combe. It was a very retired and silent place, not
+visible from either the cottage or the garden. And there Elinor took
+refuge in the quiet and hush of the declining day. She was in a great
+tremor of agitation and excitement as she sat down upon the rustic
+seat--so great a tremor that she had scarcely been able to walk steadily
+down the roughly-made steps--a tremor which had grown with every step
+she took. She did not in the least understand the transaction in which
+she had been engaged. It was something altogether strange to her
+experiences, without any precedent in her life. What was it she had been
+called upon to do? What had she said, and why had she been made to say
+it? Her heart beat so that she put her two hands upon it crossed over
+her breast to keep it down, lest it should burst away. She had the
+sensation of having been brought before some tribunal, put suddenly
+to the last shift, made to say--what, what? She was so bewildered
+that she could not tell. Was it the truth, said with the intention to
+deceive--was it----? She could not tell. There was that great numeral
+wavering in the air, stalking along with her like a ghost. 6--. She had
+read it in all innocence, they had all read it, and nobody had said it
+was wrong. No one was very careful about the date in the cottage. If it
+was right, if it was wrong, Elinor could not tell. But yet somehow she
+was conscious that the man to whom she had spoken had been deceived.
+And Phil! and Phil! what had he meant, adjuring her to stick to him, to
+stand by him, not to contradict him? Elinor's mind was in such a wild
+commotion that she could not answer these inquiries. She could not feel
+that she had one solid step of ground to place herself upon in the
+whirlwind which swept her about and about. Had she--lied? And why had he
+asked her to lie? And what, oh, what did it all mean?
+
+One thing that at last appeared to her in the chaos which seemed like
+something solid that she could grasp at was that Phil had never changed
+in his aspect. The other man had been very serious, staring at her as if
+to intimidate her, like a man who had something to find out; but Phil
+had been as careless, as indifferent, as he appeared always to be. He
+had not changed his expression. It is true there was that look in which
+there was at once an entreaty and a command--but only she had seen
+that, and perhaps it was merely the emotion, the excitement, the strange
+feeling of having to face the world for him, and say----what, what?
+Was it simply, the truth, nothing but the truth, or was it---- Again
+Elinor's mind began to whirl. It was the truth: she could see now that
+big 6 on the calendar distinct as the sunshine. And yet it was only
+yesterday--and there was 8 this morning. Had she gone through an
+intervening dream for a whole day without knowing it; or had she,
+Elinor--she who would not have done it to save her life--told--a lie for
+Phil? And why should he want her to tell a lie?
+
+Elinor got up from her seat, and stood uncertain, with a cold dew on her
+forehead, and her hands clasping and holding each other. Should she go
+back to them and say there must be some mistake--that though she had
+said the truth it was not true, that there was some mistake, some
+dreadful mistake! There was no longer any sound of voices where she was.
+The whole incident seemed to have died out. The sudden commotion of
+Phil's visit and everything connected with it had passed away. She was
+alone in the afternoon, in the hush of nature, looking over the combe,
+listening to the rustle of the trees, hearing the bees drone homeward.
+Had Phil ever been here at all? Had he watched the distant road winding
+over the slopes for some one whom he had expected to come after him all
+the time? Had he ever told her to stand by him? to say what he said, to
+back him up? Had there ever been another man standing with that big 6
+wavering between her and him like a ghost? Had all that been at all, or
+was it merely a foolish dream? And ought she to go back now, and find
+the man before he disappeared, and tell him it was all true, yet somehow
+a dreadful, dreadful mistake?
+
+Elinor sat down again abruptly on her seat, and put her handkerchief to
+her forehead and pushed back the damp clusters of her hair, turning her
+face to the wind to get a little refreshment and calm, if that were
+possible. She heard in the sunny distance behind her, where the garden
+and the peaceful house lay in the light, the clang of the gate, a sound
+which could not be mistaken. The man then had gone--if there was
+anything to rectify in what she said it certainly could not be rectified
+now--he was gone. The certainty came to her with a feeling of relief. It
+had been horrible to think of standing before the two men again and
+saying--what could she have said? She remembered now that it was not her
+assertion alone, but that it all hung together, a whole structure of
+incidents, which would be put wrong if she had said it was a mistake--a
+whole account of Phil's time, how it had been passed--which was quite
+true, which he had told them on his arrival; how he had been going to
+Ireland, and had stopped, longing for a glimpse of her, his bride,
+feeling that he must have her by him, see her once again before he came
+for her to fetch her away. He had told the ladies at the cottage the
+very same, and of course it was true. Had he not come straight from
+Scotland with his big bundle of game, the grouse and partridges which
+had already been shared with all the friends about? Was he not going off
+to Ireland to-morrow to fulfil his first intention? It was all quite
+right, quite true, hanging perfectly together--except that curious
+falling out of a day. And then again Elinor's brain swam round and
+round. Had he been two days at the cottage instead of one, as he said?
+Was it there that the mistake lay? Had she been in such a fool's
+paradise having him there, that she had not marked the passage of
+time--had it all been one hour of happiness flying like the wind? A
+blush, partly of sweet shame to think that this was possible, that she
+might have been such a happy fool as to ignore the divisions of night
+and day, and partly of stimulating hope that such might be the case, a
+wild snatch at justification of herself and him flushed over her from
+head to foot, wrapping her in warmth and delight; and then this all
+faded away again and left her as in ashes--black and cold. No!
+everything, she saw, now depended upon what she had been impelled to
+say; the whole construction, Phil's account of his time, his story of
+his doings--all would have fallen to pieces had she said otherwise.
+Body and soul, Elinor felt herself become like a machine full of
+clanging wheels and beating pistons, her heart, her pulses, her breath,
+all panting, beating, bursting. What did it mean? What did it mean? And
+then everything stood still in a horrible suspense and pause.
+
+She began to hear voices again in the distance and raised her head,
+which she had buried in her hands--voices that sounded so calmly in the
+westering sunshine, one answering another, everything softened in the
+golden outdoor light. At first as she raised herself up she thought with
+horror that it was the man, the visitor whom she had supposed to be
+gone, returning with Phil to give her the opportunity of contradicting
+herself, of bringing back that whirlwind of doubt and possibility. But
+presently her excited senses perceived that it was her mother who was
+walking calmly through the garden talking with Phil. There was not a
+tone of excitement in the quiet voices that came gradually nearer and
+nearer, till she could hear what they were saying. It was Phil who was
+speaking, while her mother now and then put in a word. Elinor did not
+wish on ordinary occasions for too many private talks between her mother
+and Phil. They rubbed each other the wrong way, they did not understand
+each other, words seemed to mean different things in their comprehension
+of them. She knew that her lover would laugh at "the old girl," which
+was a phrase which offended Elinor deeply, and Mrs. Dennistoun would
+become stiffer and stiffer, declaring that the very language of the
+younger generation had become unintelligible to her. But to hear them
+now together was a kind of anodyne to Elinor, it stayed and calmed
+her. The cold moisture dried from her forehead. She smoothed her hair
+instinctively with her hand, and put herself straight in mind as she did
+with that involuntary action in outward appearance, feeling that no sign
+of agitation, no trouble of demeanour must meet her mother's eye. And
+then the voices came so near that she could hear what they were saying.
+They were coming amicably together to her favourite retreat.
+
+"It's a very queer thing," said Phil, "if it is as they think, that
+somebody went there the night before last and cleared off the books.
+Well, not all the books, some that are supposed to contain the secret
+transactions. Deucedly cleverly done it must have been, if it was done
+at all, for nobody saw the fellow, or fellows, if there were more than
+one----"
+
+"Why do you doubt?" said Mrs. Dennistoun. "Is there any way of
+accounting for it otherwise?"
+
+"Oh, a very good way--that Brown, the manager, simply took them with
+him, as he would naturally do, if he wasn't a fool. Why should he go off
+and leave papers that would convict him, for the pleasure of involving
+other fellows, and ruining them too?"
+
+"Are there others, then, involved with him?" Oh, how calm, how
+inconceivably calm, was Mrs. Dennistoun's voice! Had she been asking the
+gardener about the slugs that eat the young plants it would have been
+more disturbed.
+
+"Well, Stanfield seemed to think so. He's a sort of head clerk, a fellow
+enormously trusted. I shouldn't wonder if he was at the bottom of it
+himself, they're so sure of him," said Phil, with a laugh. "He says
+there's a kind of suspicion of two or three. Clumsy wretches they must
+be if they let themselves be found out like that. But I don't believe
+it. I believe Brown's alone in it, and that it's him that's taken
+everything away. I believe it's far the safest way in those kind of
+dodges to be alone. You get all the swag, and you're in no danger of
+being rounded on, don't you know--till you find things are getting too
+hot, and you cut away."
+
+"I don't understand the words you use, but I think I know what you
+mean," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "How dreadful it is to think that in
+business, where honesty is the very first principle, there should be
+such terrible plots and plans as those!"
+
+"'Tis awful, isn't it?" said Phil, with a laugh that seemed to ring all
+down the combe, and came back in echoes from the opposite slope, where
+in the distance the cab from the station was seen hastening back towards
+the railway in a cloud of dust. The laugh was like a trumpet of triumph
+flung across the distance at the discomfited enemy thus going off
+drooping in the hurry of defeat. He added, "But you may imagine, even if
+I had known anything, he wouldn't have got much out of me. I didn't know
+anything, however, I'm very glad to say."
+
+"That is always the best," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a certain grave
+didactic tone. "And here is Elinor, as I thought. When one cannot find
+her anywhere else she's sure to be found here."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"Well," said Compton, placing himself beside her, "here you are, Nell;
+kind of the old lady to bring me, wasn't it? I should never have found
+you out by myself."
+
+"Has he gone, Phil?" Elinor raised her scared face from her hands, and
+gave him a piteous look.
+
+"Why, Nell! you are trembling like a leaf. Was it frightened, my pretty
+pet, for Stanny? Stanny's gone off with his tail between his legs. Not a
+bit of starch left in him. As limp a lawyer as ever you saw."
+
+"Was he a lawyer?" she said, not knowing why she said it, for it
+mattered nothing at all to Elinor what the man was.
+
+"Not exactly; and yet, I suppose, something of the kind. He is the one
+that knows about law points, and such things. But now he's as quiet as a
+lamb, thanks to you."
+
+"Phil," she cried, "what did you make me say? I don't know what I have
+done. I have done something dreadful--deceived the man, as good as told
+him a lie."
+
+"You told him the truth," said Phil, with a laugh, "in the most
+judgmatical way. You stuck to it like a--woman. There's nothing like a
+woman for sticking to a text. You didn't say a word too much. And I say,
+Nell, that little defiant bit of yours--'Was there any reason why it
+shouldn't be the sixth?' was grand. That was quite magnificent, my pet.
+I never thought you had such spirit in you."
+
+"Oh, Phil," she cried, "why did you make me say it? What was it I said?
+I don't know; I don't understand a bit. Whatever it was, I know that it
+was wrong. I deceived the man."
+
+"That's not so great a sin," he said. "I've known worse things done. Put
+an old reynard off the scent to save his prey. I don't see what's wrong
+in that, especially as the innocent chicken to be saved was your own
+poor old Phil."
+
+"Phil, Phil," she cried, "what could that man have done to you? What had
+put you in his power? You have made me lose all my innocence. I have got
+horrible things in my head. What could he have done to you that you made
+me tell a lie?"
+
+"What lie did I make you tell? be reasonable; I did arrive on the sixth,
+you know that just as well as I do. Don't you really remember the
+calendar in the hall? You saw it, Nell, as well as I."
+
+"I know, I know," she cried, putting her hands up to her eyes, "I see it
+everywhere staring at me, that big, dreadful 6. But how is it the 8th
+now? There is something in it--something I don't understand."
+
+He laughed loudly and long: one of those boisterous laughs which always
+jarred upon Elinor. "I don't in the least mind how it was," he said. "It
+was, and that's quite enough for me; and let it be for you too, Nell. I
+hope you're not going to search into the origin of things like this;
+we've quite enough to do in this world to take things as they come."
+
+"Oh, Phil! if at least I could understand--I don't understand: or if I
+had not been made to say what is so mysterious--what must be false."
+
+"Hush, Nell; how could it be false when you saw with your own eyes it
+was true? Now let us be done with this, my darling. The incident is
+terminated, as the French say. I came here as fast as I could come to
+have a good laugh with you over it, and lo! you're nearer crying. Why
+should you have Stanny on your conscience, Nell? a fellow that would
+like no better than to hang me if he could get the chance."
+
+"But Phil, Phil--oh, tell me, what could this man have done to you? Why
+are you afraid of him? Why, why have you made me tell him----"
+
+"Now, Nell, no exaggerated expression. It was a fact you told him,
+according to the best of evidence; and what he could have done to me is
+just this--he might have given me a deal of trouble, and put off our
+marriage. I should have had to go back to town, and my time would have
+been taken up with finding out about those books, and our marriage would
+have been put off; that's what he could have done."
+
+"Is that all?" cried Elinor, "was that all?"
+
+"All!" he said, with that loud laugh again; "you don't mind a bit how
+you hurt a fellow's pride, and his affections, and all that. Do you mean
+to say, you hard-hearted little coquette, that you wouldn't mind? I
+don't believe you would mind! Here am I counting the hours, and you, you
+little cold puss, you aggravating little----"
+
+"Oh, Phil, don't talk such nonsense. If we were to be separated, for a
+week or a month, what could that matter, in comparison with saying what
+wasn't----"
+
+"Hush," he said, putting his hand to her mouth. "It's not nice of you
+to take it so easily, Nell. I'd tell as many what-d'ye-call-'ems as
+you like, rather than put it off an hour. Why, feeling apart (and I
+don't think you've any feeling, you little piece of ice), think how
+inconvenient it would have been; the people all arriving; the breakfast
+all ready; the Rector with his surplice on; and no wedding! Fancy the
+Jew with all her fallals, on the old lady's hands, and your cousin
+John----"
+
+"I have told you already, Phil, my cousin John will not be there."
+
+"So much the better," he said, with a laugh, "I don't want him to be
+there--shows his sense, when his nose is put out of joint, to keep out
+of the way."
+
+"I wish you would understand," she said, with a little vexation, "that
+John is not put out of joint, as you say in that odious way. He has
+never been anything more to me, nor I to him, than we are now--like
+brother and sister."
+
+"The more fool he," said Compton, "to have the chance of a nice girl
+like you, Nell, and not to go in for it. But I don't believe a bit in
+the brother and sister dodge."
+
+"We will be just the same all our lives," cried Elinor.
+
+"Not if I know it," said Phil. "I'm an easy-going fellow in most ways,
+but you'll find I'm an old Turk about you, my little duck of a Nell. No
+amateur brother for me. If you can't get along with your old Phil,
+without other adorers----"
+
+"Phil! as if I should ever think or care whether there was another man
+in the world!"
+
+"Oh, that's going too far," he said, laughing. "I shan't mind a little
+flirtation. You may have a man or two in your train to fetch and carry,
+get your shawl for you, and call your carriage, and so forth; but no
+serious old hand, Nell--nothing to remind you that there was a time when
+you didn't know Phil Compton." His laugh died away at this point, and
+for a moment his face assumed that grave look which changed its
+character so much. "If you don't come to repent before then that you
+ever saw that fellow's ugly face, Nell----"
+
+"Phil, how could I ever repent? Nobody but you should dare to say such a
+thing to me!"
+
+"I believe that," he said. "If that old John of yours tried it on----
+Well, my pet, he is your old John. You can't change facts, even if you
+do throw the poor fellow over. Now, here's a new chance for all of them,
+Nell. I shouldn't wonder a bit if you had another crop of letters
+bidding you look before you leap. That Rectory woman, what's her name?
+that knows my family. You'll see she'll have some new story before we're
+clear of her. They'll never stop blackguarding me, I know, until you're
+Phil Compton yourself, my beauty. I wish that day was come. I'm afraid
+to go off again and leave you, Nell. They'll be putting something into
+your head, or the old lady's. Let's get it over to-morrow morning, and
+come to Ireland with me; you've never been there."
+
+"Phil, what nonsense! mamma would go out of her senses."
+
+"My pet, what does it matter? She'd come back to them again as soon as
+we were gone, and think what a botheration spared her! All the row of
+receiving people, turning the house upside down. And here I am on the
+spot. And what do you want with bridesmaids and so forth? You've got all
+your things. Suppose we walk out to church to-morrow before breakfast,
+Nell----"
+
+"Phil, you are mad, I think; and why should we do such a thing,
+scandalizing everybody? But of course you don't mean it. You are excited
+after seeing that man."
+
+"Excited about Stanny!--not such a fool; Stanny is all square, thanks
+to---- But what I want is just to take you up in my arms, like this, and
+run off with you, Nell. Why we should call the whole world to watch us
+while we take that swing off--into space."
+
+"Phil!"
+
+"So it is, for you, Nell. You don't know a bit what's going to happen.
+You don't know where I'm going to take you, and what I'm going to do
+with you, you little innocent lamb in the wolf's grip. I want to eat you
+up, straight off. I shall be afraid up to the last moment that you'll
+escape me, Nell."
+
+"I did not know that you were so fond of innocence," said Elinor, half
+afraid of her lover's vehemence, and trying to dispel his gravity with a
+laugh. "You used to say you did not believe in the _ingénue_."
+
+"I believe in you," he said, with an almost fierce pressure of her arm;
+then, after a pause, "No, I don't believe in women at all, Nell, only
+you. They're rather worse than men, which is saying a good deal. What
+would the Jew care if we were all drawn and quartered; so long as she
+had all her paraphernalia about her and got everything she wanted? For
+right-down selfishness commend me to a woman. A fellow may have gleams
+of something better about him, like me, warning you against myself."
+
+"It is a droll way of warning me against yourself to want to carry me
+off to-morrow."
+
+"It's all the same thing," he said. "I've warned you that those old hags
+are right, and I'm not good enough for you, not fit to come near you,
+Nell. But if the sacrifice is to be, let's get it over at once, don't
+let us stand and think of it. I'm capable of jilting you," he said,
+"leaving you _planté là_, all out of remorse of conscience; or else just
+catching you up in my arms, like this, and carrying you off, never to be
+seen more."
+
+"You are very alarming," said Elinor. "I don't know what you mean. You
+can be off with your bargain if you please, Phil; but you had better
+make up your mind at once, so that mamma may countermand her invitations,
+and stop Gunter from sending the cake."
+
+(It was Gunter who was the man in those days. I believe people go to
+Buszard now.)
+
+He gave her again a vehement hug, and burst into a laugh. "I might jilt
+you, Nell; such a thing is on the cards. I might leave you in the lurch
+at the church door; but when you talk of countermanding the cake, I
+can't face that situation. Society would naturally be up in arms about
+that. So you must take your chance like the other innocents. I'll eat
+you up as gently as I can, and hide my tusks as long as it's possible.
+Come on, Nell, don't let us sit here and get the mopes, and think of our
+consciences. Come and see if that show is in the village. Life's better
+than thinking, old girl."
+
+"Do you call the show in the village, life?" she said, half pleased to
+rouse him, half sorry to be thus carried away.
+
+"Every show is life," said Phil, "and everywhere that people meet is
+better than anywhere where you're alone. Mind you take in that axiom,
+Nell. It's our rule of life, you know, among the set you're marrying
+into. That's how the Jew gets on. That's how we all get on. By this time
+next year you'll be well inured into it like all the rest. That's what
+your Rector never taught you, I'll be bound; but you'll see the old
+fellow practises it whenever he has a chance. Why, there they begin,
+tootle-te-too. Come on, Nell, and don't let us lose the fun."
+
+He drew her along hastily, hurrying while the flute and the drum began
+to perform their parts. Sound spreads far in that tranquil country,
+where no railway was visible, and where the winds for the moment were
+still. It was Pan's pipes that were being played, attracting a few
+stragglers from the scattered houses. Within a hundred yards from the
+church, at the corner of four roads, stood the Bull's Head, with a
+cottage or two linked on to its long straggling front. And this was all
+that did duty for a village at Windyhill. The Rectory stood back in its
+own copse, surrounded by a growth of young birches and oak near the
+church. The Hills dwelt intermediate between the Bull's Head and the
+ecclesiastical establishment. The school and schoolmaster's house were
+behind the Bull. The show was surrounded by the children of the place,
+who looked on silent with ecstasy, while a burly showman piped his pipes
+and beat his drum. A couple of ostlers, with their shirt-sleeves rolled
+up to their shoulders, and one of them with a pail in his hand, stood
+arrested in their work. And in the front of the spectators was Alick
+Hudson, a sleepy-looking youth of twenty, who started and took his hands
+out of his pockets at sight of Elinor. Mr. Hudson himself came walking
+briskly round the corner, swinging his cane with the air of a man who
+was afraid of being too late.
+
+"Didn't I tell you?" said Compton, pressing Elinor's arm.
+
+As the tootle-te-too went on, other spectators appeared--the two Miss
+Hills, one putting on her hat, the other hastily buttoning her jacket as
+they hurried up. "Oh, you here, Elinor! What fun! We all run as if we
+were six years old. I'm going to engage the man to come round and do it
+opposite Rosebank to amuse mother. She likes it as much as any of us,
+though she doesn't see very well, poor dear, nor hear either. But we
+must always consider that the old have not many amusements," said the
+elder Miss Hill.
+
+"Though mother amuses herself wonderfully with her knitting," said Miss
+Sarah. "There's a sofa-cover on the stocks for you, Elinor."
+
+It appeared to be only at this moment that the sisters became aware of
+the presence of "the gentleman" by whom Elinor stood. They had been too
+busy with their uncompleted toilettes to observe him at first. But now
+that Miss Hill's hat was settled to her satisfaction, and the blue veil
+tied over her face as she liked it to be, and Miss Sarah had at last
+succeeded, after two false starts, in buttoning her jacket straight,
+their attention was released for other details. They both gave a glance
+over Elinor at the tall figure on the other side, and then looked at
+each other with a mutual little "Oh!" and nod of recognition. Then Miss
+Hill took the initiative as became her dignity. "I hope you are going to
+introduce us to your companion, Elinor," she said. "Oh, Mr. Compton, how
+do you do? We are delighted to make your acquaintance, I am sure. It is
+charming to have an opportunity of seeing a person of so much importance
+to us all, our dear Elinor's intended. I hope you know what a prize you
+are getting. You might have sought the whole country over and you
+wouldn't have found a girl like her. I don't know how we shall endure
+your name when you carry her away."
+
+"Except, indeed," said Miss Sarah, "that it will be Elinor's name too."
+
+"So here we all are again," said the Rector, gazing down tranquilly upon
+his flock, "not able to resist a little histrionic exhibition--and Mr.
+Compton too, fresh from the great world. I daresay our good friend Mrs.
+Basset would hand us out some chairs. No Englishman can resist Punch.
+Alick, my boy, you ought to be at your work. It will not do to neglect
+your lessons when you are so near your exam."
+
+"No Englishman, father, can resist Punch," said the lad: at which the
+two ostlers and the landlord of the Bull's Head, who was standing with
+his hands in his pockets in his own doorway, laughed loud.
+
+"Had the old fellow there," said Compton, which was the first observation
+he had made. The ladies looked at him with some horror, and Alick a
+little flustered, half pleased, half horrified, by this support, while
+the Rector laughed, but stiffly _au bout des lèvres_. He was not
+accustomed to be called an old fellow in his own parish.
+
+"The old fellows, as you elegantly say, Mr. Compton, have always the
+worst of it in a popular assembly. Elinor, here is a chair for you, my
+love. Another one please, Mrs. Basset, for I see Miss Dale coming up
+this way."
+
+"By Jove," said Compton, under his breath. "Elinor, here's the one that
+knows society. I hope she isn't such an old guy as the rest."
+
+"Oh, Phil, be good!" said Elinor, "or let us go away, which would be the
+best."
+
+"Not a bit," he said. "Let's see the show. I say, old man, where are you
+from last?"
+
+"Down from Guildford ways, guv'nor--awful bad trade; not taken a bob,
+s' help me, not for three days, and bed and board to get off o' that,
+me and my mate."
+
+"Well, here is a nice little party for you, my man," said the Rector,
+"it is not often you have such an audience--nor would I encourage it,
+indeed, if it were not so purely English an exhibition."
+
+"Master," said the showman, "worst of it is, nobody pays till we've done
+the show, and then they goes away, and they've got it, don't you see,
+and we can't have it back once it's in their insides, and there ain't
+nothink then, neither for my mate nor me."
+
+"Here's for you, old fellow," said Phil. He took a sovereign from his
+waistcoat pocket and chucked it with his thumbnail into the man's hand,
+who looked at it with astonished delight, tossed it into the air with a
+grin, a "thank'ee, gentleman!" and a call to his "mate" who immediately
+began the ever-exciting, ever-amusing drama. The thrill of sensation
+which ran through the little assembly at this incident was wonderful.
+The children all turned from Punch to regard with large open eyes and
+mouths the gentleman who had given a gold sovereign to the showman.
+Alick Hudson looked at him with a grin of pleasure, a blush of envy on
+his face; the Rector, with an expression of horror, slightly shaking his
+head; the Miss Hills with admiration yet dismay. "Goodness, Sarah,
+they'll never come now and do it for a shilling to amuse mother!" the
+elder of the sisters said.
+
+Miss Dale came hurrying up while still the sensation lasted. "Here is a
+chair for you, Mary," said her brother-in-law, "and the play is just
+going to begin. I can't help shaking my head when I think of it, but
+still you must hear what has just happened. Mr. Compton, let me present
+you to my sister-in-law, Miss Dale. Mr. Compton has made the widow's
+heart, nay, not the widow's, but the showman's heart to sing. He has
+presented our friend with a----"
+
+"Mind you," said Phil, from behind Elinor's shoulders, "I've paid the
+fellow only for two."
+
+At which the showman turned and winked at the Rector. To think that such
+a piece of audacity could be! A dingy fellow in a velveteen coat, with a
+spotted handkerchief round his neck, and a battered hat on his unkempt
+locks, with Pan's pipes at his mouth and a drum tied round his
+waist--winked at the Rector! Mr. Hudson fell back a step, and his very
+lips were livid with the indignity. He had to support himself on the
+back of the chair he had just given to Miss Dale.
+
+"I think we are all forgetting our different positions in this world,"
+he said.
+
+"I ain't," said the showman, "not taking no advantage through the
+gentleman's noble ways. He's a lord, he is, I don't make no doubt. And
+we're paid. Take the good of it, Guv'nor, and welcome; all them as is
+here is welcome. My mate and I are too well paid. A gentleman like that
+good gentleman, as is sweet upon a pretty young lady, and an open 'eart
+a-cause of her, I just wish we could find one at every station; don't
+you, Joe?"
+
+Joe assented, in the person of Mr. Punch, with a horrible squeak from
+within the tent.
+
+The sensations of Elinor during this episode were peculiar and full of
+mingled emotion. It is impossible to deny that she was proud of the
+effect produced by her lover. The sovereign chucked into the showman's
+hand was a cheap way of purchasing a little success, and yet it dazzled
+Elinor, and made her eyelids droop and her cheek light up with the
+glow of pleasure. Amid all the people who would search for pennies,
+or perhaps painfully and not without reluctance produce a sixpence
+to reward the humble artists, there was something in the careless
+familiarity and indifference which tossed a gold coin at them which was
+calculated to charm the youthful observer. Elinor felt the same mixture
+of pleasure and envy which had moved Alick Hudson; yet it was not envy,
+for was not he her own who did this thing which she would have liked to
+have done herself, overwhelming the poor tramps with delight? Elinor
+knew, as Alick also did, that it would never have occurred to her to do
+it. She would have been glad to be kind to the poor men, to give them a
+good meal, to speak to Basset at the Bull's Head in their favour that
+they might be taken in for the night and made comfortable, but to open
+her purse and take a real sovereign from it, a whole potential pound,
+would not have come into her head. Had such a thing been done, for
+instance, by the united subscriptions of the party, in case of some
+peculiarly touching situation, the illness of a wife, the loss of a
+child, it would have been done solemnly, the Rector calling the men up,
+making a little speech to them, telling them how all the ladies and
+gentlemen had united to make up this, and how they must be careful not
+to spend it unworthily. Elinor thought she could see the little scene,
+and the Rector improving the occasion. Whereas Phil spun the money
+through the air into the man's ready hand as if it had been a joke, a
+trick of agility. Elinor saw that everybody was much impressed with the
+incident, and her heart went forth upon a flood of satisfaction and
+content. And it was no premeditated triumph. It was so noble, so
+accidental, so entirely out of his good heart!
+
+When he hurried her home at the end of the performance, that Mrs.
+Dennistoun might not be kept waiting, the previous events of the
+afternoon, and all that happened in the copse and garden, had faded out
+of Elinor's mind. She forgot Stanfield and the 6th and everything about
+it. Her embarrassment and trouble were gone. She went in gayly and told
+her mother all about this wonderful incident. "The Rector was trying for
+a sixpence. But, mamma, Phil must not be so ready with his sovereigns,
+must he? We shall have nothing to live upon if he goes chucking
+sovereigns at every Punch and Judy he may meet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Phil Compton went off next morning by an early train, having in the
+meanwhile improved the impression of him left upon the family in
+general, and specially upon Mrs. Dennistoun, to whom he had talked with
+enthusiasm about Elinor, expressed indeed in terms unusual to her ears,
+but perhaps only more piquant on that account, which greatly conciliated
+the mother. "Don't you think," said the Honourable Phil, "because I
+speak a little free and am not one for tall talk, that I don't know
+what she is. I've got no poetry in me, but for the freest goer and the
+highest spirit, without a bit of vice in her, there never was one like
+Nell. The girls of my set, they're not worthy to tie her shoes--thing I
+most regret is taking her among a lot that are not half good enough for
+her. But you can't help your relations, can you? and you have to stick
+to them for dozens of reasons. There's the Jew, when you know her she's
+not such a bad sort--not generous, as you may see from what she's given
+Nell, the old screw: but yet in her own way she stands by a fellow, and
+we'll need it, not having just the Bank of England behind us. Her
+husband, old Prestwich, isn't bad for a man that has made his own money,
+and they've got a jolly house, always something going on."
+
+"But I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that as soon as these autumn visits
+are over you will have a house of your own."
+
+"Oh, that!" said Compton, with a wave of his hand, which left it in some
+doubt whether he was simply throwing off the suggestion, or treating it
+as a foregone conclusion of which there could be no doubt. "Nell," he
+went on, "gets on with the Jew like a house on fire--you see they don't
+clash. Nell ain't one of the mannish sort, and she doesn't flirt--at
+least not as far as I've seen----"
+
+"I should hope not, indeed," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"Oh, I'm not one of your curmudgeons. Where's the harm? But she don't,
+and there's an end of it. She keeps herself to herself, and lets the Jew
+go ahead, and think she's the attraction. And she'll please the old lord
+down to the ground. For he's an old-fashioned old coon, and likes what
+he calls _tenue_, don't you know: but the end is, there ain't one of
+them that can hold a candle to Nell. And I should not wonder a bit if
+she made a change in the lot of us. Conversion of a family by the
+influence of a pious wife, don't you know. Sort of thing that they make
+tracts out of. Capital thing, it would be," said Phil, philosophically,
+"for some of us have been going a pace----"
+
+"Mr. Compton," said Mrs. Dennistoun, solemnly, "I don't understand very
+well what you mean by these phrases. They may be much more innocent
+than they seem to a country lady's ears. But I implore you to keep my
+Elinor clear of anything that you call going the pace. It must mean
+something very unlike her, whatever it means. She has been used to a
+very quiet, orderly life. Don't hurry her off into a whirl of society,
+or among noisy gay people. Indeed I can assure you that the more you
+have her to herself the more you will be happy in her. She is the
+brightest companion, the most entertaining---- Oh, Mr. Compton!"
+
+"I think it's about time, now, mater, to call me Phil."
+
+She smiled, with the tears in her eyes, and held out her hand. "Philip,
+then," she said, "to make a little difference. Now remember what I say.
+It is only in the sacredness of her home that you will know what is in
+Elinor. One is never dull with her. She has her own opinions--her bright
+way of looking at things--as you know. It is, perhaps, a strange thing
+for a mother to say, but she will amuse you, Philip; she is such
+company. You will never be dull with Elinor: she has so much in her,
+which will come out in society, it is true, but never so brightly as
+between you two alone."
+
+This did not seem to have quite the effect upon the almost-bridegroom
+which the mother intended. "Perhaps" (she said to herself), "he was a
+little affected by the thought" (which she kept so completely out of the
+conversation) "of the loss she herself was about to undergo." At all
+events, his face was not so bright as in the vision of that sweet
+prospect held before him it ought to have been.
+
+"The fact is," he said, "she knows a great deal more than I do, or ever
+will. It's she that will be the one to look blue when she finds herself
+alone with a fool of a follow that doesn't know a book from a brick.
+That's the thing I'm most afraid---- As for society, she can have her
+pick of that," he added, brightening up, "I'll not bind her down."
+
+"You may be sure she'll prefer you to all the world."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders a little.
+
+"They say it's always a leap in the dark," he said, "for how's she to
+know the sort of fellow I am with what she sees of me here? But I
+promise you I'll do my best to take her in, and keep her in that
+delusion, for her good--making believe to be all that's virtuous: and
+perhaps not a bad way--some of it may stick. Come, mater, don't look so
+horrified. I'm not of the Cousin John sort, but there may be something
+decent in me after all."
+
+"I am sure," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that you will try to make her happy,
+Philip." She was crying by this time, which was a thing very odious to
+Phil. He took her by both hands and gave her a hearty kiss, which was a
+thing for which she was not at all prepared.
+
+"I'll do by her----" he said, with a murmur which sounded like an oath,
+"as well as I know how."
+
+Perhaps this was not the very greatest comfort to her mother, but it was
+the best she was at all likely to get from a man so entirely different
+in all ways from her own species. She had her cry out quietly while he
+went off to get his bag. The pony carriage was at the door in which
+Elinor was to drive him to the station, and a minute after Mrs.
+Dennistoun heard his voice in the hall calling to his Nell, his old
+girl, in terms which went against all the mother's prejudices of soft
+and reverent speech. To have her carefully-trained child, her Elinor,
+whom every one had praised and honoured, her maiden-princess so high
+apart from all such familiarity, addressed so, gave the old-fashioned
+lady a pang. It meant nothing but love and kindness, she said to
+herself. He reverenced Elinor as much as it was in such a man to do. He
+meant with all his heart to do by her as well as he knew how. It was as
+fantastic to object to his natural language as it would be to object to
+a Frenchman speaking French. That was his tongue, the only utterance he
+knew---- She dried her eyes and went out to the door to see them start.
+The sun was blazing over all the brilliant autumnal colours Of the
+garden, though it was still full and brilliant summer in the September
+morning, and only the asters and dahlias replacing the roses betrayed
+the turn of the season. And nothing could be more bright than the face
+of Elinor as she sat in the homely little carriage, with the reins
+gathered up in her hand. He was going away, indeed, but in a week he was
+coming back. Philip, as Mrs. Dennistoun now called him with dignity, yet
+a little beginning of affection, packed up his long limbs as well as he
+could in the small space. "I believe she'll spill us on the road," he
+said, "or bring back the shandrydan with a hole in it."
+
+"There is too much of you, Phil," said Elinor, giving the staid pony a
+quiet touch.
+
+"I should like some of those fellows to see me," he said, "joggled off
+to market like a basket of eggs; but don't smash me, Nell, on the way."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun stood on the steps looking after them, or rather,
+listening after them, for they had soon turned the corner of the house
+and were gone. She heard them jogging over the stony road, and the sound
+of their voices in the air for a long time after they were out of
+sight--the air was so still and so close, nothing in it to break the
+sound. The atmosphere was all sunshine, not a cloud upon the sky,
+scarcely a breath stirring over those hill-tops, which had almost the
+effect of a mountainous landscape, being the highest ground in all the
+visible space. Along the other side of the combe, where the road became
+visible, there were gleams of heather brilliant under the dark foliage
+of the firs. She sat down in the porch and waited to see them pass;
+there was a sorrowful background to her thoughts, but for the moment she
+was not actually sad, if perhaps a little forlorn. They had gone away
+leaving her alone, but yet in an hour or two Elinor was coming back.
+Time enough to think of the final parting. Next week Elinor would go and
+would not return. Mrs. Dennistoun held on by both hands to to-day and
+would not think of that future, near as it was. She waited in a hush of
+feeling, so near to great commotions of the heart and mind, but holding
+them at a distance in a suspense of all thought, till the shandrydan
+appeared in the opening of the road. They were thinking of her, for she
+saw a gleam of white, the waving of a handkerchief, as the little
+carriage trundled along the road, and for a moment the tears again
+blinded her eyes. But Mrs. Dennistoun was very reasonable. She got
+up from the cottage porch after the pony carriage had passed in the
+distance, with that determination to make the best of it, which is the
+inspiration of so many women's lives.
+
+And what a drive the others had through the sunshine--or at least
+Elinor! You can never tell by what shadows a man's thoughts may be
+haunted, who is a man of the world, and has had many other things to
+occupy him besides this vision of love. But the girl had no shadows. The
+parting which was before her was not near enough to harm as yet, and
+she was still able to think, in her ignorance of the world, that even
+parting was much more in appearance than in reality, and that she would
+always be running home, always going upon long visits brightening
+everything, instead of saddening. But even had she been going to the end
+of the world with her husband next week, Elinor would still have been
+happy to-day. The sunshine itself was enough to go to any one's head,
+and the pony stepped out so that Phil had the grace to be ashamed of his
+reflections upon "the old girl." They got to the station too early for
+the train, and had half an hour's stroll together, with all the railway
+porters looking on admiring. They all knew Miss Dennistoun from her
+childhood, and they were interested in her "young man."
+
+"And to think you will be in Ireland to-morrow," said Elinor, "over the
+sea, with the Channel between us--in another island!"
+
+"I don't see much that's wonderful in that," said Phil, "the boat goes
+every day."
+
+"Oh, there's nothing wonderful about the boat. Hundreds might go, and I
+shouldn't mind, but you---- It's strange to think of your going off into
+a world I don't know at all--and then coming back."
+
+"To take you off to that world you don't know, Nell; and then the time
+will come when you will know it as well as I do, and more, too; and be
+able to set me down in my proper place."
+
+"What is your proper place? Your place will always be the same. Phil,
+you've been so good to me this time; you've made everybody like you so.
+Mamma--that's the best of all. She was a little--I can't say jealous,
+that is not the right word, but uncertain and frightened--which just
+means that she did not know you, Phil; now you've condescended to let
+yourself be known."
+
+"Have I, Nell? I've had more luck than meaning if that's so."
+
+"'Tis that you've condescended to let yourself be known. A man has such
+odious pride. He likes to show himself all on the wrong side, to brave
+people's opinions--as if it was better to be liked for the badness in
+you than for the goodness in you!"
+
+"What's the goodness in me, Nell? I'd like to know, and then I can have
+it ready in other emergencies and serve it out as it is wanted."
+
+"Oh, Phil! the goodness in you is--yourself. You can't help being nice
+when you throw off those society airs. When you are talking with
+Mariamne and all that set of people----"
+
+"Why can't you call her Jew? life is too short to say all those
+syllables."
+
+"I don't like you to call her Jew. It's unkind. I don't think she
+deserves it. It's a sort of an insult."
+
+"Shut up, Nell. It's her name and that's enough. Mar-ry-am-ne! It's a
+beast of a name to begin with. And do you think any of us has got time
+to say as much as that for one woman? Oh, I suppose I'm fond of her--as
+men are of their sisters. She is not a bad sort--mean as her name, and
+never fond of parting with her money--but stands by a fellow in a kind
+of a way all the same."
+
+"I'll never call her Jew," said Elinor; "and, Phil, all this wonderful
+amount of things you have to do is simply--nothing. What do you ever
+do? It is the people who do things that have time to spare. I know
+one----"
+
+"Don't come down on me, Nell, again with that eternal Cousin John."
+
+"Phil! I never think of him till you put him into my head. I was
+thinking of a gentleman who writes----"
+
+"Rubbish, Nell! What have I to do with men that write, or you either? We
+are none of us of that sort. I do what my set do, and more--for there
+was this director business; and I should never mind a bit of work that
+was well paid, like attending Board meetings and so forth, or signing my
+name to papers."
+
+"What, without reading them, Phil?"
+
+"Don't come over a fellow with your cleverness, Nell! I am not a reader;
+but I should take good care I knew what was in the papers before I
+signed them, I can tell you. Eh! you'd like me to slave, to get you
+luxuries, you little exacting Nell."
+
+"Yes, Phil," she said, "I'd like to think you were working for our
+living. I should indeed. It seems somehow so much finer--so real a life.
+And I should work at home."
+
+"A great deal you would work," he said, laughing, "with those scraps
+of fingers! Let's hear what you would do--bits of little pictures, or
+impossible things in pincushions, or so forth--and walk out in your most
+becoming bonnet to force them down some poor shop-keeper's throat?"
+
+"Phil!" she said, "how contemptuous you are of my efforts. But I never
+thought of either sketches or pincushions. I should work at home to keep
+the house nice--to look after the servants, and guide the cook, and see
+that you had nice dinners."
+
+"And warm my slippers by the parlour fire," said Phil. "That's too
+domestic, Nell, for you and me."
+
+"But we are going to be very domestic, Phil."
+
+"Are we? Not if I knows it; yawn our heads off, and get to hate one
+another. Not for me, Nell. You'll find yourself up to the eyes in
+engagements before you know where you are. No, no, old girl, you may do
+a deal with me, but you don't make a domestic man of Phil Compton. Time
+enough for that when we've had our fling."
+
+"I don't want any fling, Phil," she said, clinging a little closer to
+his arm.
+
+"But I do, my pet, in the person of Benedick the married man. Don't you
+think I want to show all the fellows what a stunning little wife I've
+got? and all the women I used to flirt with----"
+
+"Did you use to flirt much with them, Phil?"
+
+"You didn't think I flirted with the men, did you? like you did," said
+Phil, who was not particular about his grammar. "I want to show you off
+a bit. Nell. When we go down to the governor's, there you can be as
+domestic as you like. That's the line to take with him, and pays too if
+you do it well."
+
+"Oh, don't talk as if you were always calculating for your advantage,"
+she said, "for you are not, Phil. You are not a prudent person, but a
+horrid, extravagant spendthrift; if you go on chucking sovereigns about
+as you did yesterday."
+
+"Well," he said, laughing, "wasn't it well spent? Didn't I make your
+Rector open his old eyes, and stop the mouths of the old maids? I don't
+throw away sovereigns in a general way, Nell, only when there's a
+purpose in it. But I think I did them all finely that time--had them on
+toast, eh?"
+
+"You made an impression, if that is what you mean; but I confess I
+thought you did it out of kindness, Phil."
+
+"To the Punch and Judy? catch me! Sovereigns ain't plentiful enough for
+that. You little exacting thing, ain't you pleased, when I did it to
+please you, and get you credit among your friends?"
+
+"It was very kind of you, I'm sure, Phil," she said, very soberly, "but
+I should so much rather you had not thought of that. A shilling would
+have done just as well and they would have got a bed at the Bull's
+Head, and been quite kindly treated. Is this your train coming? It's a
+little too soon, I think."
+
+"Thanks for the compliment, Nell. It is really late," he said, looking
+at his watch, "but the time flies, don't it, pet, when you and I are
+together? Here, you fellow, put my bag in a smoking carriage. And now,
+you darling, we've got to part; only for a little time, Nell."
+
+"Only for a week," she said, with a smile and a tear.
+
+"Not so long--a rush along the rail, a blow on the sea, and then back
+again; I shall only be a day over there, and then--bless you, Nell.
+Good-bye--take care of yourself, my little duck: take care of yourself
+for me."
+
+"Good-bye," said Elinor, with a little quiver of her lip. A parting at a
+roadside station is a very abrupt affair. The train stops, the passenger
+is shoved in, there is a clanging of the doors, and in a moment it is
+gone. She had scarcely realized that the hour had come before he was
+whirled off from her, and the swinging line of carriages disappeared
+round the next curve. She stood looking vaguely after it till the old
+porter came up, who had known her ever since she was a child.
+
+"Beg your pardon, miss, but the pony is a-waiting," he said. And then he
+uttered his sympathy in the form of a question:--"Coming back very soon,
+miss, ain't the gentleman?" he said.
+
+"Oh, yes; very soon," she said, rousing herself up.
+
+"And if I may make bold to say it, miss," said the porter, "an
+open-hearted gentleman as ever I see. There's many as gives us a
+threepenny for more than I've done for 'im. And look at what he's give
+me," he said, showing the half-crown in his hand.
+
+Did he do that from calculation to please her, ungracious girl as she
+was, who was so hard to please? But he never could have known that
+she would see it. She walked through the little station to the pony
+carriage, feeling that all the eyes of the people about were upon her.
+They were all sympathetic, all equally aware that she had just parted
+with her lover: all ready to cheer her, if she had given them an
+opportunity, by reminding her of his early return. The old porter
+followed her out, and assisted at her ascent into the pony carriage. He
+said, solemnly, "And an 'andsome gentleman, miss, as ever I see," as he
+fastened the apron over her feet. She gave him a friendly nod as she
+drove away.
+
+How dreadful it is to be so sensitive, to receive a wound so easily!
+Elinor was vexed more than she could say by her lover's denial of the
+reckless generosity with which she had credited him. To think that he
+had done it in order to produce the effect which had given her so
+distinct a sensation of pleasure changed that effect into absolute
+pain. And yet in the fantastic susceptibility of her nature, there was
+something in old Judkin's half-crown which soothed her again. A shilling
+would have been generous, Elinor said to herself, with a feminine
+appreciation of the difference of small things as well as great, whereas
+half-a-crown was lavish--ergo, he gave the sovereign also out of natural
+prodigality, as she had hoped, not out of calculation as he said. She
+drove soberly home, thinking over all these things in a mood very
+different from that triumphant happiness with which she started from
+the cottage with Phil by her side. The sunshine was still as bright,
+but it had taken an air of routine and commonplace to Elinor. It had
+come to be only the common day, not the glory and freshness of the
+morning. She felt herself, as she had never done before, on the edge of
+a world unknown, where everything would be new to her, where--it was
+possible--that which awaited her might not be unmixed happiness, might
+even be the reverse. It is seldom that a girl on the eve of marriage
+either thinks this or acknowledges to herself that she thinks it. Elinor
+did so involuntarily, without thinking upon her thought. Perhaps it
+would not be unmixed happiness. Strange clouds seemed to hang upon the
+horizon, ready to roll up in tragic darkness and gloom. Oh, no, not
+tragic, only commonplace, she said to herself; opaqueness, not
+blackness. But yet it was ominous and lowering, that distant sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+The days of the last week hurried along like the grains of sand out of
+an hour-glass when they are nearly gone. It is true that almost
+everything was done--a few little bits of stitching, a few things still
+to be "got up" alone remaining, a handkerchief to mark with Elinor's
+name, a bit of lace to arrange, just enough to keep up a possibility
+of something to do for Mrs. Dennistoun in the blank of all other
+possibilities--for to interest herself or to occupy herself about
+anything that should be wanted beyond that awful limit of the
+wedding-day was of course out of the question. Life seemed to stop there
+for the mother, as it was virtually to begin for the child; though
+indeed to Elinor also, notwithstanding her love, it was visible more in
+the light of a point at which all the known and certain ended, and where
+the unknown and almost inconceivable began. The curious thing was that
+this barrier which was placed across life for them both, got somehow
+between them in those last days which should have been the most tender
+climax of their intercourse. They had a thousand things to say to each
+other, but they said very little. In the evening after dinner, whether
+they went out into the garden together to watch the setting of the young
+moon, or whether they sat together in that room which had witnessed all
+Elinor's commencements of life, free to talk as no one else in the world
+could ever talk to either of them, they said very little to each other,
+and what they said was of the most commonplace kind. "It is a lovely
+night; how clear one can see the road on the other side of the combe!"
+"And what a bright star that is close to the moon! I wish I knew a
+little more about the stars." "They are just as beautiful," Mrs.
+Dennistoun would say, "as if you knew everything about them, Elinor."
+"Are you cold, mamma? I am sure I can see you shiver. Shall I run and
+get you a shawl?" "It is a little chilly: but perhaps it will be as well
+to go in now," the mother said. And then indoors: "Do you think you will
+like this lace made up as a jabot, Elinor?" "You are giving me all your
+pretty things, though you know you understand lace much better than I
+do." "Oh, that doesn't matter," Mrs. Dennistoun said hurriedly; "that is
+a taste which comes with time. You will like it as well as I do when you
+are as old as I am." "You are not so dreadfully old, mamma." "No, that's
+the worst of it," Mrs. Dennistoun would say, and then break out into a
+laugh. "Look at the shadow that handkerchief makes--how fantastic it
+is!" she cried. She neither cared for the moon, nor for the quaintness
+of the shadows, nor for the lace which she was pulling into dainty folds
+to show its delicate pattern--for none of all these things, but for her
+only child, who was going from her, and to whom she had a hundred, and
+yet a hundred, things to say: but none of them ever came from her lips.
+
+"Mary Dale has not seen your things, Elinor: she asked if she might come
+to-morrow."
+
+"I think we might have had to-morrow to ourselves, mamma--the last day
+all by ourselves before those people begin to arrive."
+
+"Yes, I think so too; but it is difficult to say no, and as she was not
+here when the others came---- She is the greatest critic in the parish.
+She will have so much to say."
+
+"I daresay it may be fun," said Elinor, brightening up a little, "and
+of course anyhow Alice must have come to talk about her dress. I am
+tired of those bride's-maids' dresses; they are really of so little
+consequence." Elinor was not vain, to speak of, but she thought it
+improbable that when she was there any one would look much at the
+bride's-maids' dresses. For one thing, to be sure, the bride is always
+the central figure, and there were but two bride's-maids, which
+diminished the interest; and then--well, it had to be allowed at the end
+of all, that, though her closest friends, neither Alice Hudson nor Mary
+Tatham were, to look at, very interesting girls.
+
+"They are of great consequence to them," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with the
+faintest smile.
+
+"I didn't mean that, of course," said Elinor, with a blush; "only I
+never should have worried about my own dress, which after all is the
+most important, as Alice does about hers."
+
+"Which nobody will look at," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"I did not say that: but to tell the truth, it is a pity for the girls
+that the men will not quite be, just of their world, you know. Oh,
+mamma, you know it is not that I think anything of that, but I am sorry
+for Alice and Mary. Mr. Bolsover and the other gentlemen will not take
+that trouble which country neighbours, or--or John's friends from the
+Temple might have done."
+
+"Why do you speak of John's friends from the Temple, Elinor?"
+
+"Mamma! for no reason at all. Why should I? They were the only other men
+I could think of."
+
+"Elinor, did John ever give you any reason to think----"
+
+"Mamma," cried Elinor again, with double vehemence, her countenance all
+ablaze, "of course he never did! how could you think such foolish
+things?"
+
+"Well, my dear," said her mother, "I am very glad he did not; it will
+prevent any embarrassment between him and you--for I must always
+believe----"
+
+"Don't, please, oh, don't! it would make me miserable; it would take all
+my happiness away."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun said nothing, but she sighed--a very small, infinitesimal
+sigh--and there was a moment's silence, during which perhaps that sigh
+pervaded the atmosphere with a sort of breath of what might have been.
+After a moment she spoke again:
+
+"I hope you have not packed up your ornaments yet, Elinor. You must
+leave them to the very last, for Mary would like to see that beautiful
+necklace. What do you think you shall wear on the day?"
+
+"Nothing," said Elinor, promptly. She was about to add, "I have nothing
+good enough," but paused in time.
+
+"Not my little star? It would look very well, my darling, to fix your
+veil on. The diamonds are very good, though perhaps a little
+old-fashioned; you might get them reset. But--your father gave it me
+like that."
+
+"I would not change it a bit, mamma, for anything in the world."
+
+"Thanks, my dearest. I thought that was how you would feel about it. It
+is not very big, of course, but it really is very good."
+
+"Then I will wear it, mamma, if it will please you, but nothing else."
+
+"It would please me: it would be like having something from your father.
+I think we had less idea of ornaments in my day. I cannot tell you how
+proud I was of my diamond star. I should like to put it in for you
+myself, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, mamma!" This was the nearest point they had come to that outburst
+of two full hearts which both of them would have called breaking down.
+Mrs. Dennistoun saw it and was frightened. She thought it would be
+betraying to Elinor what she wished her never to know, the unspeakable
+desolation to which she was looking forward when her child was taken
+from her. Elinor's exclamation, too, was a protest against the imminent
+breaking down. They both came back with a hurry, with a panting breath,
+to safer ground.
+
+"Yes, that's what I regret," she said. "Mr. Bolsover and Harry Compton
+will laugh a little at the Rectory. They will not be so--nice as young
+men of their own kind."
+
+"The Rectory people are just as well born as any of us, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, precisely, mamma: I know that; but we too---- It is what they call
+a different _monde_. I don't think it is half so nice a _monde_," said
+the girl, feeling that she had gone further than she intended to do;
+"but you know, mamma----"
+
+"I know, Elinor: but I scarcely expected from you----"
+
+"Oh," cried Elinor again, in exasperation, "if you think that I share
+that feeling! I think it odious, I think their _monde_ is vulgar, nasty,
+miserable! I think----"
+
+"Don't go too far the other way, Elinor. Your husband will be of it, and
+you must learn to like it. You think, perhaps, all that is new to me?"
+
+"No," said Elinor, her bright eyes, all the brighter for tears, falling
+before her mother's look. "I know, of course, that you have seen--all
+kinds----"
+
+But she faltered a little, for she did not believe that her mother was
+acquainted with Phil's circle and their wonderful ways.
+
+"They will be civil enough," she went on, hurriedly, "and as everybody
+chaffs so much nowadays they will, perhaps, never be found out. But I
+don't like it for my friends."
+
+"They will chaff me also, no doubt," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"Oh, _you_, mamma! they are not such fools as that," cried poor Elinor;
+but in her own mind she did not feel confident that there was any such
+limitation to their folly. Mrs. Dennistoun laughed a little to herself,
+which was, perhaps, more alarming than that other moment when she was
+almost ready to cry.
+
+"You had better wear Lord St. Serf's ring," she said, after a moment,
+with a tone of faint derision which Elinor knew.
+
+"You might as well tell me," cried the bride, "to wear Lady Mariamne's
+revolving dishes. No, I will wear nothing, nothing but your star."
+
+"You have got nothing half so nice," said the mother. Oh yes, it was a
+little revenge upon those people who were taking her daughter from her,
+and who thought themselves at liberty to jeer at all her friends: but as
+was perhaps inevitable it touched Elinor a little too. She restrained
+herself from some retort with a sense of extreme and almost indignant
+self-control: though what retort Elinor could have made I cannot tell.
+It was much "nicer" than anything else she had. None of Phil Compton's
+great friends, who were not of the same _monde_ as the people at
+Windyhill, had offered his bride anything to compare with the diamonds
+which her father had given to her mother before she was born. And Elinor
+was quite aware of the truth of what her mother said. But she would have
+liked to make a retort--to say something smart and piquant and witty in
+return.
+
+And thus the evening was lost, the evening in which there was so much to
+say, one of the three only, no more, that were left.
+
+Miss Dale came next day to see "the things," and was very amiable: but
+the only thing in this visit which affected Elinor's mind was a curious
+little unexpected assault this lady made upon her when she was going
+away. Elinor had gone out with her to the porch, according to the
+courteous usage of the house. But when they had reached that shady
+place, from which the green combe and the blue distance were visible,
+stretching far into the soft autumnal mists of the evening, Mary Dale
+turned upon her and asked her suddenly, "What night was it that Mr.
+Compton came here?"
+
+Elinor was much startled, but she did not lose her self-possession. All
+the trouble about that date had disappeared out of her mind in the
+stress and urgency of other things. She cast back her mind with an
+effort and asked herself what the conflict and uncertainty of which she
+was dimly conscious, had been? It came back to her dimly without any of
+the pain that had been in it. "It was on the sixth," she said quietly,
+without excitement. She could scarcely recall to her mind what it was
+that had moved her so much in respect to this date only a little time
+ago.
+
+"Oh, you must be mistaken, Elinor, I saw him coming up from the station.
+It was later than that. It was, if I were to give my life for it,
+Thursday night."
+
+This was four or five nights before and a haze of uncertainty had
+fallen on all things so remote. But Elinor cast her eyes upon the
+calendar in the hall and calm possessed her breast. "It was the sixth,"
+she said with composed tones, as certain as of anything she had ever
+known in the course of her life.
+
+"Well, I suppose you must know," said Mary Dale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+"Look at that, Elinor," said Mrs. Dennistoun, next day, when she had
+read, twice over, a letter, large and emblazoned with a very big
+monogram, which Elinor, well perceiving from whom it came, had furtively
+watched the effect of from behind an exceeding small letter of her own.
+Phil was not remarkable as a correspondent: his style was that of the
+primitive mind which hopes its correspondent is well, "as this leaves
+me." He had never much more to say.
+
+"From Mariamne, mamma?"
+
+"She takes great pains to make us certain of that fact at least," Mrs.
+Dennistoun said; which indeed was very true, for the name of the writer
+was sprawled in gilt letters half over the sheet. And this was how it
+ran:--
+
+
+"DEAR MRS. DENNISTOUN,--
+
+"I have been thinking what a great pity it would be to bore you with me,
+and my maid, and all my belongings. I am so silly that I can never be
+happy without dragging a lot of things about with me--dogs, and people,
+and so forth. Going to town in September is dreadful, but it is rather
+_chic_ to do a thing that is quite out of the way, and one may perhaps
+pick up a little fun in the evening. So if you don't mind, instead of
+inflicting Fifine and Bijou and Leocadie, not to mention some people
+that might be with me, upon you, and putting your house all out
+of order, as these odious little dogs do when people are not used
+to them--I will come down by the train, which I hope arrives quite
+punctually, in time to see poor Phil turned off. I am sure you will
+be so kind as to send a carriage for me to the railway. We shall be
+probably a party of four, and I hear from Phil you are so hospitable and
+kind that I need not hesitate to bring my friends to breakfast after
+it's all over. I hope Phil will go through it like a man, and I wouldn't
+for worlds deprive him of the support of his family. Love to Nell. I am,
+
+"Yours truly,
+"MARIAMNE PRESTWICH."
+
+
+"The first name very big and the second very small," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun, as she received the letter back.
+
+"I am sure we are much obliged to her for not coming, mamma!"
+
+"Perhaps--but not for this announcement of her not coming. I don't wish
+to say anything against your new relations, Elinor----"
+
+"You need not put any restraint upon yourself in consideration of my
+feelings," said Elinor, with a flush of annoyance.
+
+And this made Mrs. Dennistoun pause. They ate their breakfast, which was
+a very light meal, in silence. It was the day before the wedding. The
+rooms down-stairs had been carefully prepared for Phil's sister. Though
+Mrs. Dennistoun was too proud to say anything about it, she had taken
+great pains to make these pretty rooms as much like a fine lady's
+chamber as had been possible. She had put up new curtains, and a Persian
+carpet, and looked out of her stores all the pretty things she could
+find to decorate the two rooms of the little apartment. She had gone in
+on the way down-stairs to take a final survey, and it seemed to her that
+they were very pretty. No picture could have been more beautiful than
+the view from the long low lattice window, in which, as in a frame, was
+set the foreground of the copse with its glimpses of ruddy heather and
+the long sweep of the heights beyond, which stretched away into the
+infinite. That at least could not be surpassed anywhere; and the Persian
+carpet was like moss under foot, and the chairs luxurious--and there was
+a collection of old china in some open shelves which would have made the
+mouth of an amateur water. Well! it was Lady Mariamne's own loss if she
+preferred the chance of picking up a little fun in the evening, to
+spending the night decorously in that pretty apartment, and making
+further acquaintance with her new sister. It was entirely, Mrs.
+Dennistoun said to herself, a matter for her own choice. But she was
+much affronted all the same.
+
+"It will be very inconvenient indeed sending a carriage for her, Elinor.
+Except the carriage that is to take you to church there is none good
+enough for this fine lady. I had concluded she would go in your uncle
+Tatham's carriage. It may be very fine to have a Lady Mariamne in one's
+party, but it is a great nuisance to have to change all one's
+arrangements at the last moment."
+
+"If you were to send the wagonette from the Bull's Head, as rough as
+possible, with two of the farm horses, she would think it _genre_, if
+not _chic_----"
+
+"I cannot put up with all this nonsense!" cried Mrs. Dennistoun, with a
+flush on her cheek. "You are just as bad as they are, Elinor, to suggest
+such a thing! I have held my own place in society wherever I have been,
+and I don't choose to be condescended to or laughed at, in fact, by any
+visitor in the world!"
+
+"Mamma! do you think any one would ever compare you with Mariamne--the
+Jew?"
+
+"Don't exasperate me with those abominable nicknames. They will give you
+one next. She is an exceedingly ill-bred and ill-mannered woman. Picking
+up a little fun in the evening! What does she mean by picking up a
+little fun----"
+
+"They will perhaps go to the theatre--a number of them; and as nobody is
+in town they will laugh very much at the kind of people, and perhaps the
+kind of play--and it will be a great joke ever after among themselves--for
+of course there will be a number of them together," said Elinor,
+disclosing her acquaintance with the habits of her new family with
+downcast eyes.
+
+"How can well-born people be so vulgar and ill-bred?" cried Mrs.
+Dennistoun. "I must say for Philip that though he is careless and not
+nearly so particular as I should like, still he is not like that. He has
+something of the politeness of the heart."
+
+Elinor did not raise her downcast eyes. Phil had been on his very good
+behaviour on the occasion of his last hurried visit, but she did not
+feel that she could answer even for Phil. "I am very glad anyhow, that
+she is not coming, mamma: at least we shall have the last night and the
+last morning to ourselves."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun shook her head. "The Tathams will be here," she said;
+"and everybody, to dinner--all the party. We must go now and see how we
+can enlarge the table. To-night's party will be the largest we have
+ever had in the cottage." She sighed a little and paused, restraining
+herself. "We shall have no quiet evening--nor morning either--again; it
+will be a bustle and a rush. You and I will never have any more quiet
+evenings, Elinor: for when you come back it will be another thing."
+
+"Oh, mother!" cried Elinor, throwing herself into her mother's arms: and
+for a moment they stood closely clasped, feeling as if their hearts
+would burst, yet very well aware, too, underneath, that any number of
+quiet evenings would be as the last, when, with hearts full of a
+thousand things to say to each other, they said almost nothing--which
+in some respects was worse than having no quiet evenings evermore.
+
+In the afternoon Phil arrived, having returned from Ireland that
+morning, and paused only to refresh himself in the chambers which he
+still retained in town. He had met all his hunting friends during
+the three days he had been away; and though he retained a gallant
+appearance, and looked, as Alice Hudson thought, "very aristocratic,"
+Mrs. Dennistoun caught with anxiety a worn-out look--the look of
+excitement, of nights without sleep, much smoke, and, perhaps, much
+wine, in his eyes. What a woman feels who has to hand over her spotless
+child, the most dear and pure thing upon earth, to a man fresh from
+those indulgences and dissipations which never seem harmless, and always
+are repellent to a woman, is not to be described. Fortunately the bride
+herself, in invincible ignorance and unconsciousness, seldom feels in
+that way. To Elinor her lover looked tired about the eyes, which was
+very well explained by his night journey, and by the agitation of the
+moment. And, indeed, she did not see very much of Phil, who had his
+friends with him--his aide-de-camp, Bolsover, and his brother Harry.
+These three gentlemen carried an atmosphere of smoke and other scents
+with them into the lavender of the Rectory, which was too amazing in
+that hemisphere for words, and talked their own talk in the midst
+of the fringe of rustics who were their hosts, with a calm which was
+extraordinary, breaking into the midst of the Rector's long-winded,
+amiable sentences, and talking to each other over Mrs. Hudson's head.
+"I say, Dick, don't you remember?" "By Jove, Phil, you are too bad!"
+sounded, with many other such expressions and reminders, over the
+Rectory party, strictly silent round their own table, trying to make a
+courteous remark now and then, but confounded, in their simple country
+good manners, by the fine gentlemen. And then there was the dinner-party
+at the cottage in the evening, to which Mr. and Mrs. Hudson were invited.
+Such a dinner-party! Old Mr. Tatham, who was a country gentleman from
+Dorsetshire, with his nice daughter, Mary Tatham, a quiet country young
+lady, accustomed, when she went into the world at all, to the serious
+young men of the Temple, and John's much-occupied friends, who had their
+own asides about cases, and what So-and-So had said in court, but were
+much too well-bred before ladies to fall into "shop;" and Mr. and Mrs.
+Hudson, who were such as we know them; and the bride's mother, a little
+anxious, but always debonair; and Elinor herself, in all the haze and
+sweet confusion of the great era which approached so closely. The three
+men made the strangest addition that can be conceived to the quiet
+guests; but things went better under the discipline of the dinner,
+especially as Sir John Huntingtower, who was a Master of the hounds
+and an old friend of the Dennistouns, was of the party, and Lady
+Huntingtower, who was an impressive person, and knew the world. This
+lady was very warm in her congratulations to Mrs. Dennistoun after
+dinner on the absence of Lady Mariamne. "I think you are the luckiest
+woman that ever was to have got clear of that dreadful creature," she
+said. "Oh, there is nothing wrong about her that I know. She goes
+everywhere with her dogs and her _cavaliers servantes_. There's safety
+in numbers, my dear. She has always two of them at least hanging about
+her to fetch and carry, and she thinks a great deal more of her dogs;
+but I can't think what you could have done with her here."
+
+"And what will my Elinor do in such a sphere?" the troubled mother
+permitted herself to say.
+
+"Oh, if that were all," said Lady Huntingtower, lifting up her fat
+hands--she was one of those who had protested against the marriage, but
+now that it had come to this point, and could not be broken off, the
+judicious woman thought it right to make the best of it--"Elinor need
+not be any the worse," she said. "Thank heaven, you are not obliged to
+be mixed up with your husband's sister. Elinor must take a line of her
+own. You should come to town yourself her first season, and help her on.
+You used to know plenty of people."
+
+"But they say," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that it is so much better to
+leave a young couple to themselves, and that a mother is always in the
+way."
+
+"If I were you I would not pay the least attention to what they say. If
+you hold back too much they will say, 'There was her own mother, knowing
+numbers of nice people, that never took the trouble to lend her a
+hand.'"
+
+"I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, turning round immediately to this other
+aspect of affairs, "that it never will be necessary for the world to
+interest itself at all in my child's affairs."
+
+"Well, of course, that is the best," Lady Huntingtower allowed, "if she
+just goes softly for a year or two till she feels her way."
+
+"But then she is so young, and so little accustomed to act for herself,"
+said the mother, with another change of flank.
+
+"Oh, Elinor has a great deal of spirit. She must just make a stand
+against the Compton set and take her own line."
+
+Mrs. Hudson and Alice and Miss Tatham were at the other end of the room
+exchanging a few criticisms under their breath, and disposed to think
+that they were neglected by their hostess for the greater personage with
+whom she was in such close conversation. And Lady Mariamne's defection
+was a great disappointment to them all. "I should like to have seen a
+fine lady quite close," said Mary (it was not, I think, usual to speak
+of "smart" people in those days), "one there could be no doubt about, a
+little fast and all that. I have seen them in town at a distance, but
+all the people we know are sure country people."
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Hudson, primly, "I don't like to hear you talk of
+any other kind. An English lady, I hope, whatever is her rank, can only
+be of one kind."
+
+"Oh, mamma, you know very well Lady Mariamne is as different from Lady
+Huntingtower as----"
+
+"Don't mention names, my dear; it is not well-bred. The one is young,
+and naturally fond of gayety; the other--well, is not quite so young,
+and stout, and all that."
+
+"Oh, that is all very well," said Alice; "but Aunt Mary says----"
+
+Miss Dale was coming in the evening, and the Miss Hills, and the curate,
+and the doctor, and various other people, who could not be asked to
+dinner, to whom it had been carefully explained (which, indeed, was a
+fact they knew) that to dine twelve people in the little dining-room
+of the cottage was a feat which was accomplished with difficulty,
+and that more was impossible. Society at Windyhill was very tolerant
+and understanding on this point, for all the dining-rooms were small,
+except, indeed, when you come to talk of such places as Huntingtower--and
+they were very glad to be permitted to have a peep at the bridegroom on
+these terms, or rather, if truth were told, of the bride, and how she
+was bearing herself so near the crisis of her fate. The bridegroom is
+seldom very interesting on such occasions. On the present occasion he
+was more interesting than usual, because he was the Honourable Philip,
+and because he had a reputation of which most people had heard something.
+There was a mixture of alarm and suspicion in respect to him which
+increased the excitement; and many remarks of varied kinds were made. "I
+think the fellow's face quite bears out his character," said the doctor
+to the Rector. "What a man to trust a nice girl to!" Mr. Hudson felt
+that as the bridegroom was living under his roof he was partially
+responsible, and discouraged this pessimistic view. "Mr. Compton has
+not, perhaps, had all the advantages one tries to secure for one's own
+son," he said, "but I have reason to believe that the things that have
+been said of him are much exaggerated." "Oh, advantages!" said the
+doctor, thinking of Alick, of whom it was his strongly expressed opinion
+that the fellow should be turned out to rough it, and not coddled up and
+spoiled at home. But while these remarks were going on, Miss Hill had
+been expressing to the curate an entirely different view. "I think he
+has a _beautiful_ face," she said with the emphasis some ladies use; "a
+little worn, perhaps, with being too much in the world, and I wish he
+had a better colour. To me he looks delicate: but what delightful
+features, Mr. Whitebands, and what an aristocratic air!"
+
+"He looks tremendously up to everything," the curate said, with a faint
+tone of envy in his voice.
+
+"Don't he just?" cried Alick Hudson. "I should think there wasn't a
+thing he couldn't do--of things that men _do_ do, don't you know," cried
+that carefully trained boy, whose style was confused, though his meaning
+was good. But probably there were almost as many opinions about Phil
+as there were people in the room. His two backers-up stood in a
+corner--half intimidated, half contemptuous of the country people.
+"Queer lot for Phil to fall among," said Dick Bolsover. "Que diable
+allait-il faire dans cette galère?" said Harry Compton, who had been
+about the world. "Oh, bosh with your French, that nobody understands,"
+said the best man.
+
+But in the meantime Phil was not there at all to be seen of men. He had
+stolen out into the garden, where there was a white vision awaiting him
+in the milky moonlight. The autumn haze had come early this season, and
+the moon was misty, veiled with white amid a jumble of soft floating
+vapours in the sky. Elinor stood among the flowers, which showed some
+strange subdued tints of colours in the flooding of the white light,
+like a bit of consolidated moonlight in her white dress. She had a white
+shawl covering her from head to foot, with a corner thrown over her
+hair. What had they to say to each other that last night? Not much;
+nothing at all that had any information in it--whispers inaudible almost
+to each other. There was something in being together for this stolen
+moment, just on the eve of their being together for always, which had a
+charm of its own. After to-night, no stealing away, no escape to the
+garden, no little conspiracy to attain a meeting--the last of all those
+delightful schemings and devices. They started when they heard a sound
+from the house, and sped along the paths into the shadow like the
+conspirators they were--but never to conspire more after this last
+enthralling time.
+
+"You're not frightened, Nell?"
+
+"No--except a little. There is one thing----"
+
+"What is it, my pet? If it's to the half of my kingdom, it shall be
+done."
+
+"Phil, we are going to be very good when we are together? don't
+laugh--to help each other?"
+
+He did laugh low, not to be heard, but long. "I shall have no
+temptation," he said, "to be anything but good, you little goose of a
+Nell," taking it for a warning of possible jealousy to come.
+
+"Oh, but I mean both of us--to help each other."
+
+"Why, Nell, I know you'll never go wrong----"
+
+She gave him a little impatient shake. "You will not understand me,
+Phil. We will try to be better than we've ever been. To be good--don't
+you know what that means?--in every way, before God."
+
+Her voice dropped very low, and he was for a moment overawed. "You mean
+going to church, Nell?"
+
+"I mean--yes, that for one thing; and many other things."
+
+"That's dropping rather strong upon a fellow," he said, "just at this
+moment, don't you think, when I must say yes to everything you say."
+
+"Oh, I don't mean it in that way; and I was not thinking of church
+particularly; but to be good, very good, true and kind, in our hearts."
+
+"You are all that already, Nell."
+
+"Oh, no, not what I mean. When there are two of us instead of one we can
+do so much more."
+
+"Well, my pet, it's for you to make out the much more. I'm quite content
+with you as you are; it's me that you want to improve, and heaven knows
+there's plenty of room for that."
+
+"No, Phil, not you more than me," she said.
+
+"We'll choose a place where the sermon's short, and we'll see about it.
+You mean little minx, to bind a man down to go to church, the night
+before his wedding day!"
+
+And then there was a sound of movement indoors, and after a little while
+the bride appeared among the guests with a little more colour than
+usual, and an anxiously explanatory description of something she had
+been obliged to do; and the confused hour flew on with much sound of
+talking and very little understanding of what was said. And then all
+the visitors streamed away group after group into the moonlight,
+disappearing like ghosts under the shadow of the trees. Finally, the
+Rectory party went too, the three mild ladies surrounded by an exciting
+circle of cigars; for Alick, of course, had broken all bonds, and even
+the Rector accepted that rare indulgence. Alice Hudson half deplored,
+half exulted for years after in the scent that would cling round one
+particular evening dress. Five gentlemen, all with cigars, and papa as
+bad as any of them! There had never been such an extraordinary
+experience in her life.
+
+And then the Tathams, too, withdrew, and the mother and daughter stood
+alone on their own hearth. Oh, so much, so much as there was to say! but
+how were they to say it?--the last moment, which was so precious and so
+intolerable--the moment that would never come again.
+
+"You were a long time with Philip, Elinor, in the garden. I think all
+your old friends ---- the last night."
+
+"I wanted to say something to him, mamma, that I had never had the
+courage to say."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun had been looking dully into the dim mirror over the
+mantelpiece. She turned half round to her daughter with an inquiring
+look.
+
+"Oh, mamma, I wanted to say to him that we must be good! We're so happy.
+God is so kind to us; and you--if you suppose I don't think of you! It
+was to say to him--building our house upon all this, God's mercy and
+your loss, and all--that we are doubly, doubly bound to serve--and to
+love--and to be good people before God; and like you, mother, like you!"
+
+"My darling!" Mrs. Dennistoun said. And that was all. She asked no
+questions as to how it was to be done, or what he replied. Elinor had
+broken down hysterically, and sobbed out the words one at a time, as
+they would come through the choking in her throat. Needless to say that
+she ended in her mother's arms, her head upon the bosom which had nursed
+her, her slight weight dependent upon the supporter and protector of
+all her life.
+
+That was the last evening. There remained the last morning to come; and
+after that--what? The great sea of an unknown life, a new pilot, and a
+ship untried.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+And now the last morning had come.
+
+The morning of a wedding-day is a flying and precarious moment which
+seems at once as if it never would end, and as if it were a hurried
+preliminary interval in which the necessary preparations never could be
+done. Elinor was not allowed to come down-stairs to help, as she felt it
+would be natural to do. It was Mary Tatham who arranged the flowers on
+the table, and helped Dennistoun to superintend everything. All the
+women in the house, though they were so busy, were devoted at every
+spare moment to the service of Elinor. They brought her simple breakfast
+up-stairs, one maid carrying the tray and another the teapot, that each
+might have their share. The cook, though she was overwhelmed with work,
+had made some cakes for breakfast, such us Elinor liked. "Most like as
+we'll never have her no more--to mind," she said. The gardener sent up
+an untidy bundle of white flowers. And Mrs. Dennistoun came herself to
+pour out the tea. "As if I had been ill, or had turned into a baby
+again," Elinor said. But there was not much said. Mary Tatham was there
+for one thing, and for another and the most important they had said all
+they had to say; the rest which remained could not be said. The wedding
+was to be at a quarter to twelve, in order to give Lady Mariamne time to
+come from town. It was not the fashion then to delay marriages to the
+afternoon, which no doubt would have been much more convenient for
+her ladyship; but the best that could be done was done. Mr. Tatham's
+carriage, which he had brought with him to grace the ceremony, was
+despatched to the station to meet Lady Mariamne, while he, good man,
+had to get to church as he could in one of the flys. And then came the
+important moment, when the dressing of the bride had to be begun. The
+wedding-breakfast was not yet all set out in perfect order, and there
+were many things to do. Yet every woman in the house had a little share
+in the dressing of the bride. They all came to see how it fitted when
+the wedding-dress was put on. It fitted like a glove! The long glossy
+folds of the satin were a wonder to see. Cook stood just within the door
+in a white apron, and wept, and could not say a word to Miss Elinor; but
+the younger maids sent forth a murmur of admiration. And the Missis they
+thought was almost as beautiful as the bride, though her satin was grey.
+Mrs. Dennistoun herself threw the veil over her child's head, and put in
+the diamond star, the old-fashioned ornament, which had been her
+husband's present to herself. And then again she had meant to say
+something to Elinor--a last word--but the word would not come. They were
+both of them glad that somebody should be there all the time, that they
+should not be left alone. And after that the strange, hurried,
+everlasting morning was over, and the carriage was at the door.
+
+Then again it was a relief that old Mr. Tatham had missed his proper
+place in the fly, and had to go on the front seat with the bride and her
+mother. It was far better so. If they had been left even for ten minutes
+alone, who could have answered that one or the other would not have
+cried, and discomposed the bouquet and the veil? It seemed a great
+danger and responsibility over when they arrived at last safely at the
+church door. Lady Mariamne was just then arriving from the station. She
+drew up before them in poor Mr. Tatham's carriage, keeping them back.
+Harry Compton and Mr. Bolsover sprang to the carriage window to talk to
+her, and there was a loud explosion of mirth and laughter in the midst
+of the village people, and the children with their baskets of flowers
+who were already gathered. Lady Mariamne's voice burst out so shrill
+that it overmastered the church bells. "Here I am," she cried, "out in
+the wilderness. And Algy has come with me to take care of me. And how
+are you, dear boys; and how is poor Phil?" "Phil is all ready to be
+turned off, with the halter round his neck," said Dick Bolsover; and
+Harry Compton said, "Hurry up, hurry up, Jew, the bride is behind you,
+waiting to get out." "She must wait, then," said Lady Mariamne, and
+there came leisurely out of the carriage, first, her ladyship's
+companion, by name, Algy, a tall person with an eye-glass, then a little
+pug, which was carefully handed into his arms, and then lightly jumping
+down to the ground, a little figure in black--in black of all things in
+the world! a sight that curdled the blood of the village people, and
+of Mrs. Hudson, who had walked across from the Rectory in a gown of
+pigeon's-breast silk which scattered prismatic reflections as she
+walked. In black! Mrs. Hudson bethought herself that she had a white
+China crape shawl in her cupboard, and wondered if she could offer it to
+conceal this ill omened gown. But if Lady Mariamne's dress was dark, she
+herself was fair enough, with an endless fluff of light hair under her
+little black lace bonnet. Her gloves were off, and her hands were white
+and glistening with rings. "Give me my puggy darling," she said in her
+loud, shrill tone. "I can go nowhere, can I, pet, without my little
+pug!"
+
+"A Jew and a pug, both in church. It is enough," said her brother, "to
+get the poor parson into trouble with his bishop."
+
+"Oh, the bishop's a great friend of mine," said the lady; "he will say
+nothing to me, not if I put Pug in a surplice and make him lead the
+choir." At this speech there was a great laugh of the assembled party,
+which stood in the centre of the path, while Mr. Tatham's carriage edged
+away, and the others made efforts to get forward. The noise of their
+talk disturbed the curious abstraction in which Elinor had been going
+through the morning hours. Mariamne's jarring voice seemed louder than
+the bells. Was this the first voice sent out to greet her by the new
+life which was about to begin? She glanced at her mother, and then
+at old Uncle Tatham, who sat immovable, prevented by decorum from
+apostrophising the coachman who was not his own, but fuming inwardly at
+the interruption. Mrs. Dennistoun did not move at all, but her daughter
+knew very well what was meant by that look straight before her, in which
+her mother seemed to ignore all obstacles in the way.
+
+"I got here very well," Lady Mariamne went on; "we started in the middle
+of the night, of course, before the lamps were out. Wasn't it good of
+Algy to get himself out of bed at such an unearthly hour! But he snapped
+at Puggy as we came down, which was a sign he felt it. Why aren't you
+with the poor victim at the altar, you boys?"
+
+"Phil will be in blue funk," said Harry; "go in and stand by your man,
+Dick: the Jew has enough with two fellows to see her into her place."
+
+The bride's carriage by this time pushed forward, making Lady Mariamne
+start in confusion. "Oh! look here; they have splashed my pretty
+toilette, and upset my nerves," she cried, springing back into her
+supporter's arms.
+
+That gentleman regarded the stain of the damp gravel on the lady's skirt
+through his eye-glass with deep but helpless anxiety. "It's a pity for
+the pretty frock!" he said with much seriousness. And the group gathered
+round and gazed in dismay, as if they expected it to disappear of
+itself--until Mrs. Hudson bustled up. "It will rub off; it will not make
+any mark. If one of you gentlemen will lend me a handkerchief," she
+said. And Algy and Harry and Dick Bolsover, not to speak of Lady
+Mariamne herself, watched with great gravity while the gravel was swept
+off. "I make no doubt," said the Rector's wife, "that I have the
+pleasure of speaking to Lady Mariamne: and I don't doubt that black is
+the fashion and your dress is beautiful: but if you would just throw on
+a white shawl for the sake of the wedding--it's so unlucky to come in
+black----"
+
+"A white shawl!" said Lady Mariamne in dismay.
+
+"The Jew in a white shawl!" echoed the others with a burst of laughter
+which rang into the church itself and made Phil before the altar, alone
+and very anxious, ask himself what was up.
+
+"It's China crape, I assure you, and very nice," Mrs. Hudson said.
+
+Lady Mariamne gave the good Samaritan a stony stare, and took Algy's arm
+and sailed into the church before the Rector's wife, without a word
+said; while all the women from the village looked at each other and
+said, "Well, I never!" under their breath.
+
+"Let me give you my arm, Mrs. Hudson," said Harry Compton, "and please
+pardon me that I did not introduce my sister to you. She is dreadfully
+shy, don't you know, and never does speak to anyone when she has not
+been introduced."
+
+"My observation was a very simple one," said Mrs. Hudson, very angry,
+yet pleased to lean upon an Honourable arm.
+
+"My dear lady!" cried the good-natured Harry, "the Jew never wore a
+shawl in her life----"
+
+And all this time the organ had been pealing, the white vision passing
+up the aisle, the simple villagers chanting forth their song about the
+breath that breathed o'er Eden. Alas! Eden had not much to do with it,
+except perhaps in the trembling heart of the white maiden roused out of
+her virginal dream by the jarring voices of the new life. The laughter
+outside was a dreadful offence to all the people, great and small, who
+had collected to see Elinor married.
+
+"What could you expect? It's that woman whom they call the Jew,"
+whispered Lady Huntingtower to her next neighbour.
+
+"She should be put into the stocks," said Sir John, scarcely under his
+breath, which, to be sure, was also an interruption to the decorum of
+the place.
+
+And then there ensued a pause broken by the voice, a little lugubrious
+in tone, of the Rector within the altar rails, and the tremulous answers
+of the pair outside. The audience held its breath to hear Elinor make
+her responses, and faltered off into suppressed weeping as the low tones
+ceased. Sir John Huntingtower, who was very tall and big, and stood out
+like a pillar among the ladies round, kept nodding his head all the time
+she spoke, nodding as you might do in forced assent to any dreadful vow.
+Poor little thing, poor little thing, he was saying in his heart. His
+face was more like the face of a man at a funeral than a man at a
+wedding. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord"--he might have been
+nodding assent to that instead of to Elinor's low-spoken vow. Phil
+Compton's voice, to tell the truth, was even more tremulous than
+Elinor's. To investigate the thoughts of a bridegroom would be too much
+curiosity at such a moment. But I think if the secrets of the hearts
+could be revealed, Phil for a moment was sorry for poor little Elinor
+too.
+
+And then the solemnity was all over in a moment, and the flutter of
+voices and congratulations began.
+
+I do not mean to follow the proceedings through all the routine of the
+wedding-day. Attempts were made on the part of the bridegroom's party
+to get Lady Mariamne dismissed by the next train, an endeavour into
+which Harry Compton threw himself--for he was always a good-hearted
+fellow--with his whole soul. But the Jew declared that she was dying of
+hunger, and whatever sort of place it was, must have something to eat; a
+remark which naturally endeared her still more to Mrs. Dennistoun, who
+was waiting by the door of Mr. Tatham's carriage, which that anxious old
+gentleman had managed to recover control of, till her ladyship had taken
+her place. Her ladyship stared with undisguised amazement when she was
+followed into the carriage by the bride's mother, and when the neat
+little old gentleman took his seat opposite. "But where is Algy? I want
+Algy," she cried, in dismay. "Absolutely I can't go without Algy, who
+came to take care of me."
+
+"You will be perfectly safe, my dear lady, with Mrs. Dennistoun and me.
+The gentlemen will walk," said Mr. Tatham, waving his hand to the
+coachman.
+
+And thus it was that the forlorn lady found herself without her cavalier
+and without her pug, absolutely stranded among savages, notwithstanding
+her strong protest almost carried the length of tears. She was thus
+carried off in a state of consternation to the cottage over the rough
+road, where the wheels went with a din and lurch over the stones, and
+dug deep into the sand, eliciting a succession of little shrieks from
+her oppressed bosom. "I shall be shaken all to bits," she said, grasping
+the arm of the old gentleman to steady herself. Mr. Tatham was not
+displeased to be the champion of a lady of title. He assured her in
+dulcet tones that his springs were very good and his horses very
+sure--"though it is not a very nice road."
+
+"Oh, it is a dreadful road!" said Lady Mariamne.
+
+But in due time they did arrive at the cottage, where her ladyship could
+not wait for the gathering of the company, but demanded at once
+something to eat. "I can't really go another moment without food. I must
+have something or I shall die. Phil, come here this instant and get me
+something. They have brought me off at the risk of my life, and there's
+nobody to attend to me. Don't stand spooning there," cried Lady Mariamne,
+"but do what I tell you. Do you think I should ever have put myself into
+this position but for you?"
+
+"You would never have been asked here if they had consulted me. I knew
+what a nuisance you'd be. Here, get this lady something to eat, old
+man," said the bridegroom, tapping Mr. Tatham on the back, who did,
+indeed, look rather like a waiter from that point of view.
+
+"I shall have to help myself," said the lady in despair. And she sat
+down at the elaborate table in the bride's place and began to hack at
+the chicken. The gentlemen coming in at the moment roared again with
+laughter over the Jew's impatience; but it was not regarded with the
+same admiration by the rest of the guests.
+
+These little incidents, perhaps, helped to wile away the weary hours
+until it was time for the bridal pair to depart. Mrs. Dennistoun was so
+angry that it kept up a little fire, so to speak, in her heart when the
+light of her house was extinguished. Lady Mariamne, standing in the
+porch with a bag full of rice to throw, kept up the spirit of the
+mistress of the house, which otherwise might, perhaps, have failed her
+altogether at that inconceivable moment; for though she had been looking
+forward to it for months it was inconceivable when it came, as death is
+inconceivable. Elinor going away!--not on a visit, or to be back in a
+week, or a month, or a year--going away for ever! ending, as might be
+said, when she put her foot on the step of the carriage. Her mother
+stood by and looked on with that cruel conviction that overtakes all
+at the last. Up to this moment had it not seemed as if the course of
+affairs was unreal, as if something must happen to prevent it? Perhaps
+the world will end to-night, as the lover says in the "Last Ride." But
+now here was the end: nothing had happened, the world was swinging on in
+space in its old careless way, and Elinor was going--going away for ever
+and ever. Oh, to come back, perhaps--there was nothing against that--but
+never the same Elinor. The mother stood looking, with her hand over her
+eyes to shield them from the sun. Those eyes were quite dry, and she
+stood firm and upright by the carriage door. She was not "breaking down"
+or "giving way," as everybody feared. She was "bearing up," as everybody
+was relieved to see. And in a moment it was all over, and there was
+nothing before her eyes--no carriage, no Elinor. She was so dazed that
+she stood still, looking with that strange kind of smile for a full
+minute after there was nothing to smile at, only the vacant air and the
+prospect of the combe, coming in in a sickly haze which existed only in
+her eyes.
+
+But, by good luck, there was Lady Mariamne behind, and the fire of
+indignation giving a red flicker upon the desolate hearth.
+
+"I caught Phil on the nose," said that lady, in great triumph; "spoilt
+his beauty for him for to-day. But let's hope she won't mind. She thinks
+him beautiful, the little goose. Oh, my Puggy-wuggy, did that cruel Algy
+pull your little, dear tail, you darling? Come to oos own mammy, now
+those silly wedding people are away."
+
+"Your little dog, I presume, is of a very rare sort," said Mr. Tatham,
+to be civil. He had proposed the bride and bridegroom's health in a most
+appropriate speech, and he felt that he had deserved well of his kind,
+which made him more amiable even than usual. "Your ladyship's little
+dog," he added, after a moment, as she did not take any notice, "I
+presume, is of a rare kind?"
+
+Lady Mariamne gave him a look, or rather a stare. "Is Puggy of a rare
+sort?" she said over her shoulder, to one of the attendant tribe.
+
+"Don't be such a duffer, Jew! You know as well as any one what breed
+he's of," Harry Compton said.
+
+"Oh, I forgot," said the fine lady. She was standing full in front of
+the entrance, keeping Mrs. Dennistoun in the full sun outside. "I hope
+there's a train very soon," she said. "Did you look, Algy, as I told
+you? If it hadn't been that Phil would have killed me I should have gone
+now. It would have been such fun to have spied upon the turtle doves!"
+
+The men thought it would have been rare fun with obedient delight, but
+that Phil would have cut up rough, and made a scene. At this Lady
+Mariamne held up her finger, and made a portentous face.
+
+"Oh, you naughty, naughty boy," she cried, "telling tales out of
+school."
+
+"Perhaps, my dear lady," said Mr. Tatham, quietly, "you would let Mrs.
+Dennistoun pass."
+
+"Oh!" said Lady Mariamne, and stared at him again for half a minute;
+then she turned and stared at the tall lady in grey satin. "Anybody can
+pass," she said: "I'm not so very big."
+
+"That is quite true--quite true. There is plenty of room," said the
+little gentleman, holding out his hand to his cousin.
+
+"My dear John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "I am sure you will be kind enough
+to lend your carriage again to Lady Mariamne, who is in a hurry to get
+away. There is another train, which stops at Downforth station, in half
+an hour, and there will just be time to get there, if you will order it
+at once. I told your man to be in readiness: and it would be a thousand
+pities to lose this train, for there is not another for an hour."
+
+"By Jove, Jew! there's a slap in the face for you," said, in an audible
+whisper, one of the train, who had been standing in front of all the
+friends, blocking out the view. As for Lady Mariamne, she stared more
+straight than ever into Mrs. Dennistoun's eyes, but for the moment did
+not seem to find anything to say. She was left in the hall with her band
+while the mistress of the house went into the drawing-room, followed by
+all the country ladies, who had not lost a word, and who were already
+whispering to each other over that terrible betrayal about the temper of
+Phil.
+
+"Cut up rough! Oh! poor little Elinor, poor little Elinor!" the ladies
+said to each other under their breath.
+
+"I am not at all surprised. It is not any news to me. You could see it
+in his eyes," said Miss Mary Dale. And then they all were silent to
+listen to the renewed laughter that came bursting from the hall. Mrs.
+Hudson questioned her husband afterwards as to what it was that made
+everybody laugh, but the Rector had not much to say. "I really could
+not tell you, my dear," he said. "I don't remember anything that was
+said--but it seemed funny somehow, and as they all laughed one had to
+laugh too."
+
+The great lady came in, however, dragged by her brother to say good-by.
+"It has all gone off very well, I am sure, and Nell looked very nice,
+and did you great credit," she said, putting out her hand. "And it's
+very kind of you to take so much trouble to get us off by the first
+train."
+
+"Oh, it is no trouble," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"Shouldn't you like to say good-by to Puggy-muggy?" said Lady Mariamne,
+touching the little black nose upon her arm. "He enjoyed that _pâté_ so
+much. He really never has _foie gras_ at home: but he doesn't at all
+mind if you would like to give him a little kiss just here."
+
+"Good-by, Lady Mariamne," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with one of the curtseys
+of the old school. But there was another gust of laughter as Lady
+Mariamne was placed in the carriage, and a shrill little trumpet gave
+forth the satisfaction of the departing guest at having "got a rise out
+of the old girl." The gentlemen heaped themselves into Mr. Tatham's
+carriage, and swept off along with her, all but civil Harry, who
+waited to make their apologies, and to put up along with his own Dick
+Bolsover's "things." And thus the bridegroom's party, the new associates
+of Elinor, the great family into which the Honourable Mrs. Phil Compton
+had been so lucky as to marry, to the great excitement of all the country
+round, departed and was seen no more. Harry, who was civil, walked home
+with the Hudsons when all was over, and said the best he could for the
+Jew and her friends. "You see, she has been regularly spoiled: and
+then when a girl's so dreadful shy, as often as not it sounds like
+impudence." "Dear me, I should never have thought Lady Mariamne was
+shy," the gentle Rector said. "That's just how it is," said Harry. He
+went over again in the darkening to take his leave of Mrs. Dennistoun.
+He found her sitting out in the garden before the open door, looking
+down the misty walk. The light had gone out of the skies, but the usual
+cheerful lights had not yet appeared in the house, where the hum of a
+great occasion still reigned. The Tathams were at the Rectory, and Mrs.
+Dennistoun was alone. Harry Compton had a good heart, and though he
+could not conceive the possibility of a woman not being glad to have
+married her daughter, the loneliness and darkness touched him a little
+in contrast with the gayety of the previous night. "You must think us a
+dreadful noisy lot," he said, "and as if my sister had no sense. But
+it's only the Jew's way. She's made like that--and at bottom she's not
+at all a bad sort."
+
+"Are you going away?" was all the answer that Mrs. Dennistoun made.
+
+"Oh, yes, and we shall be a good riddance," said Harry; "but please
+don't think any worse of us than you can help---- Phil--well, he's got a
+great deal of good in him--he has indeed, and she'll bring it all out."
+
+It was very good of Harry Compton. He had a little choking in his throat
+as he walked back. "Blest if I ever thought of it in that light before,"
+he said to himself.
+
+But I doubt if what he said, however well meant, brought much comfort to
+Mrs. Dennistoun's heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Thus Elinor Dennistoun disappeared from Windyhill and was no more seen.
+There are many ways in which a marriage is almost like a death,
+especially when the marriage is that of an only child. The young go
+away, the old remain. There is all the dreary routine of the solitary
+life unbrightened by that companionship which is all the world to the
+one who is left behind. So little--only the happy going away into
+brighter scenes of one whose happiness was the whole thought of that
+dreary survivor at the chimney corner--and yet so much. And if that
+survivor is a woman she has to smile and tell her neighbours of the
+bride's happiness, and how great the comfort to herself that her
+Elinor's life is assured, and her own ending is now of no particular
+importance to her daughter; if it is a man, he is allowed to lament,
+which is a curious paradox, but one of the many current in this world.
+Mrs. Dennistoun had to put a very brave face upon it all the more
+because of the known unsatisfactoriness of Elinor's husband: and she had
+to go on with her life, and sit down at her solitary meals, and invent
+lonely occupations for herself, and read and read, till her brains were
+often dazed by the multiplicity of the words, which lost their meaning
+as she turned over page by page. To sit alone in the house, without
+a sound audible, except perhaps the movement of the servants going
+up-stairs or down to minister to the wants, about which she felt she
+cared nothing whether they were ministered to or not, of their solitary
+mistress, where a little while ago there used to be the rhythm of the
+one quick step, the sound of the one gay voice which made the world a
+warm inhabited place to Mrs. Dennistoun--this was more dismal than words
+could say. To be sure, there were some extraordinary and delightful
+differences; there were the almost daily letters, which afforded the
+lonely mother all the pleasure that life could give; and there was
+always the prospect, or at least possibility and hope, of seeing her
+child again. Those two particulars, it need scarcely be said, make a
+difference which is practically infinite: but yet for Mrs. Dennistoun,
+sitting alone all the day and night, walking alone, reading alone,
+with little to do that was of the slightest consequence, not even the
+reading--for what did it matter to her dreary, lonely consciousness
+whether she kept afloat of general literature or improved her mind
+or not? this separation by marriage was dreadfully like the dreary
+separation by death, and in one respect it was almost worse; for death,
+if it reaches our very hearts, takes away at least the gnawing pangs of
+anxiety. He or she who is gone that way is well; never more can trouble
+touch them, their feet cannot err nor their hearts ache; while who can
+tell what troubles and miseries may be befalling, out there in the
+unknown, the child who has embarked upon the troubled sea of mortal
+life?
+
+And it may be imagined with what anxious eyes those letters, which made
+all the difference, were read; how the gradually changing tone in them
+was noted as it came in, slowly but also surely. Sometimes they got
+to be very hurried, and then Mrs. Dennistoun saw as in a glass the
+impatient husband waiting, wondering what she could constantly find
+to say to her mother; sometimes they were long and detailed, and
+that meant, as would appear perhaps by a phrase slurred over in the
+postscript, that Phil had gone away somewhere. There was never a
+complaint in them, never a word that could be twisted into a complaint:
+but the anxious mother read between the lines innumerable things, not
+half of them true. There is perhaps never a half true of what anxiety
+may imagine: but then the half that is true!
+
+John Tatham was very faithful to her during that winter. As soon as he
+came back from Switzerland, at the end of the long vacation, he went
+down to see her, feeling the difference in the house beyond anything he
+had imagined, feeling as if he were stepping into some darkened outer
+chamber of the grave: but with a cheerful face and eager but confident
+interest in "the news from Elinor." "Of course she is enjoying herself
+immensely," he said, and Mrs. Dennistoun was able to reply with a smile
+that was a little wistful, that yes, Elinor was enjoying herself
+immensely. "She seems very happy, and everything is new to her and
+bright," she said. They were both very glad that Elinor was happy, and
+they were very cheerful themselves. Mrs. Dennistoun truly cheered by his
+visit and by the necessity for looking after everything that John might
+be comfortable, and the pleasure of seeing his face opposite to her at
+table. "You can't think what it is to see you there; sitting down to
+dinner is the most horrible farce when one is alone." "Poor aunt!" John
+Tatham said: and nobody would believe how many Saturdays and Sundays he
+gave up to her during the long winter. Somehow he himself did not care
+to go anywhere else. In Elinor's time he had gone about freely enough,
+liking a little variety in his Saturday to Mondays, though always
+happiest when he went to Windyhill: but now somehow the other houses
+seemed to pall upon him. He liked best to go down to that melancholy
+house which his presence made more or less bright, where there was an
+endless talk of Elinor, where she was, what she was doing, and what was
+to be her next move, and, at last, when she was coming to town. Mrs.
+Dennistoun did not say, as she did at first, "when she is coming home."
+That possibility seemed to slip away somehow, and no one suggested it.
+When she was coming to town, that was what they said between themselves.
+She had spent the spring on the Riviera, a great part of it at Monte
+Carlo, and her letters were full of the beauty of the place; but she
+said less and less about people, and more and more about the sea and the
+mountains, and the glorious road which gave at every turn a new and
+beautiful vision of the hills and the sea. It was a little like a
+guide-book, they sometimes felt, but neither said it; but at last it
+became certain that in the month of May she was coming to town.
+
+More than that, oh, more than that! One evening in May, when it was fine
+but a little chilly, when Mrs. Dennistoun was walking wistfully in her
+garden, looking at the moon shining in the west, and wondering if her
+child had arrived in England, and whether she was coming to a house of
+her own, or a lodging, or to be a visitor in some one else's house,
+details which Elinor had not given--her ear was suddenly caught by the
+distant rumbling of wheels, heavy wheels, the fly from the station
+certainly. Mrs. Dennistoun had no expectation of what it could be, no
+sort of hope: and yet a woman has always a sort of hope when her child
+lives and everything is possible. The fly seemed to stop, not coming up
+the little cottage drive; but by and by, when she had almost given up
+hoping, there came a rush of flying feet, and a cry of joy, and Elinor
+was in her mother's arms. Elinor! yes, it was herself, no vision, no
+shadow such as had many a time come into Mrs. Dennistoun's dreams, but
+herself in flesh and blood, the dear familiar figure, the face which,
+between the twilight and those ridiculous tears which come when one is
+too happy, could scarcely be seen at all. "Elinor, Elinor! it is you, my
+darling!" "Yes, mother, it is me, really me. I could not write, because
+I did not know till the last minute whether I could get away."
+
+It may be imagined what a coming home that was. Mrs. Dennistoun, when
+she saw her daughter even by the light of the lamp, was greatly
+comforted. Elinor was looking well; she was changed in that
+indescribable way in which marriage changes (though not always) the
+happiest woman. And her appearance was changed; she was no longer the
+country young lady very well dressed and looking as well as any one
+could in her carefully made clothes. She was now a fashionable young
+woman, about whose dresses there was no question, who wore everything as
+those do who are at the fountain-head, no matter what it was she wore.
+Mrs. Dennistoun's eyes caught this difference at once, which is also
+indescribable to the uninitiated, and a sensation of pride came into her
+mind. Elinor was improved, too, in so many ways. Her mother had never
+thought of calling her anything more, even in her inmost thoughts, than
+very pretty, very sweet; but it seemed to Mrs. Dennistoun now as if
+people might use a stronger word, and call Elinor beautiful. Her face
+had gained a great deal of expression, though it was always an
+expressive face; her eyes looked deeper; her manner had a wonderful
+youthful dignity. Altogether, it was another Elinor, yet, God be
+praised, the same.
+
+It was but for one night, but that was a great deal, a night subtracted
+from the blank, a night that seemed to come out of the old times--those
+old times that had not been known to be so very happy till they were
+over and gone. Elinor had naturally a great deal to tell her mother, but
+in the glory of seeing her, of hearing her voice, of knowing that it was
+actually she who was speaking, Mrs. Dennistoun did not observe, what she
+remembered afterwards, that again it was much more of places than of
+people that Elinor talked, and that though she named Phil when there was
+any occasion for doing so, she did not babble about him as brides do, as
+if he were altogether the sun, and everything revolved round him. It is
+not a good sign, perhaps, when the husband comes down to his "proper
+place" as the representative of the other half of the world too soon.
+Elinor looked round upon her old home with a mingled smile and sigh.
+Undoubtedly it had grown smaller, perhaps even shabbier, since she went
+away: but she did not say so to her mother. She cried out how pretty it
+was, how delightful to come back to it! and that was true too. How often
+it happens in this life that there are two things quite opposed to each
+other, and yet both of them true.
+
+"John will be delighted to hear that you have come, Elinor," her mother
+said.
+
+"John, dear old John! I hope he is well and happy, and all that; and he
+comes often to see you, mother? How sweet of him! You must give him ever
+so much love from his poor Nelly. I always keep that name sacred to
+him."
+
+"But why should I give him messages as if you were not sure to meet? of
+course you will meet--often."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Elinor. She opened her eyes a little in
+surprise, and then shook her head. "I am afraid not, mamma. We are in
+two different worlds."
+
+"I assure you," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "John is a very rising man. He is
+invited everywhere."
+
+"That I don't doubt at all."
+
+"And why then shouldn't you meet?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't fancy we shall go to the same places. John has a
+profession; he has something to do. Now you know we have nothing to do."
+
+She laughed and laid a little emphasis on the _we_, by way of taking off
+the weight of the words.
+
+"I always thought it was a great pity, Elinor."
+
+"It may be a pity or not," said Elinor, "but it is, and it cannot be
+helped. We have got to make up our minds to it. I would rather Phil did
+nothing than mixed himself up with companies. Thank heaven, at present
+he is free of anything of that kind."
+
+"I hope he is free of that one at least, that he was going to invest all
+your money in, Elinor. I hope you found another investment that was
+quite steady and safe."
+
+"Oh, I suppose so," said Elinor, with some of her old petulance: "don't
+let us spoil the little time I have by talking about money, mamma!"
+
+And then it was that Mrs. Dennistoun noticed that what Elinor did talk
+of, hurrying away from this subject, were things of not the least
+importance--the olive woods on the Riviera, the wealth of flowers, the
+strange little old towns upon the hills. Surely even the money, which
+was her own and for her comfort, would be a more interesting subject
+to discuss. Perhaps Elinor herself perceived this, for she began
+immediately to ask questions about the Hudsons and Hills, and all the
+people of the parish, with much eagerness of questioning, but a flagging
+interest in the replies, as her mother soon saw. "And Mary Dale, is she
+still there?" she asked. Mrs. Dennistoun entered into a little history
+of how Mary Dale had gone away to nurse a distant cousin who had been
+ill, and finally had died and left a very comfortable little fortune to
+her kind attendant. Elinor listened with little nods and appropriate
+exclamations, but before the evening was out asked again, "And Mary
+Dale?" then hastily corrected herself with an "Oh, I remember! you told
+me." But it was perhaps safer not to question her how much she
+remembered of what she had been told.
+
+Thus there were notes of disquiet in even that delightful evening, such
+a contrast as it was to all the evenings since she had left home. Even
+when John came, what a poor substitute for Elinor! The ingratitude of
+those whose heart is set on one object made Mrs. Dennistoun thus make
+light of what had been her great consolation. He was very kind, very
+good, and oh, how glad she had been to see him through that heavy
+winter--but he was not Elinor! It was enough for Elinor to step across
+her mother's threshold to make Mrs. Dennistoun feel that there was no
+substitute for her--none: and that John was of no more consequence than
+the Rector or any habitual caller. But, at the same time, in all the
+melody of the home-coming, in the sweetness of Elinor's voice, and look,
+and kiss, in the perfection of seeing her there again in her own place,
+and listening to her dear step running up and down the no longer silent
+house, there were notes of disquiet which could not be mistaken. She was
+not unhappy, the mother thought; her eyes could not be so bright, nor
+her colour so fair unless she was happy. Trouble does not embellish, and
+Elinor was embellished. But yet--there were notes of disquiet in the
+air.
+
+Next day Mrs. Dennistoun drove her child to the railway in order not
+to lose a moment of so short a visit, and naturally, though she had
+received that unexpected visit with rapture, feeling that a whole night
+of Elinor was worth a month, a year of anybody else, yet now that Elinor
+was going she found it very short. "You'll come again soon, my darling?"
+she said, as she stood at the window of the carriage ready to say
+good-bye.
+
+"Whenever I can, mother dear, of that you may be sure; whenever I can
+get away."
+
+"I don't wish to draw you from your husband. Don't get away--come with
+Philip from Saturday to Monday. Give him my love, and tell him so. He
+shall not be bored; but Sunday is a day without engagements."
+
+"Oh, not now, mamma. There are just as many things to do on Sundays as
+on any other day."
+
+There were a great many words on Mrs. Dennistoun's lips, but she did not
+say them; all she did say was, "Well, then, Elinor--when you can get
+away."
+
+"Oh, you need not doubt me, mamma." And the train, which sometimes
+lingers so long, which some people that very day were swearing at as so
+slow, "Like all country trains," they said--that inevitable heartless
+thing got into motion, and Mrs. Dennistoun watched it till it
+disappeared; and--what was that that came over Elinor's face as she sank
+back into the corner of her carriage, not knowing her mother's anxious
+look followed her still--what was it? Oh, dreadful, dreadful life! oh,
+fruitless love and longing!--was it relief? The mother tried to get that
+look out of her mind as she drove silently and slowly home, creeping up
+hill after hill. There was no need to hurry. All that she was going to
+was an empty and silent house, where nobody awaited her. What was that
+look on Elinor's face? Relief! to have it over, to get away again,
+away from her old home and her fond mother, away to her new life. Mrs.
+Dennistoun was not a jealous mother nor unreasonable. She said to
+herself--Well! it was no doubt a trial to the child to come back--to
+come alone. All the time, perhaps, she was afraid of being too closely
+questioned, of having to confess that _he_ did not want to come, perhaps
+grudged her coming. She might be afraid that her mother would divine
+something--some hidden opposition, some dislike, perhaps, on his part.
+Poor Elinor! and when everything had passed over so well, when it was
+ended, and nothing had been between them but love and mutual
+understanding, what wonder if there came over her dear face a look of
+relief! This was how this good woman, who had seen a great many things
+in her passage through life, explained her child's look: and though she
+was sad was not angry, as many less tolerant and less far-seeing might
+have been in her place.
+
+John, that good John, to whom she had been so ungrateful, came down next
+Saturday, and to him she confided her great news, but not all of it.
+"She came down--alone?" he said.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Dennistoun, bravely; "she knew very well it was her I
+wanted to see, and not Philip. They say a great deal about mothers-in-law,
+but why shouldn't we in our turn have our fling at sons-in-law, John? It
+was not him I wanted to see: it was my own child: and Elinor understood
+that, and ran off by herself. Bless her for the thought."
+
+"I understand that," said John. He had given the mother more than one
+look as she spoke, and divined her better than she supposed. "Oh, yes, I
+can understand that. The thing I don't understand is why he let her; why
+he wasn't too proud to bring her back to you, that you might see she had
+taken no harm. If it had been I----"
+
+"Ah, but it was not you," said Mrs. Dennistoun; "you forget that. It
+never could have been you."
+
+He looked quickly at her again, and it was on his lips to ask, "Why
+could it never have been I?" but he did not; for he knew that if it had
+ever been him, it could not have been for years. He was too prudent, and
+Elinor, even if she had escaped Phil Compton, would have met some one
+else. He had no right to say, or even think, what, in the circumstances,
+he would have done. He did not make any answer, but she understood him
+as he understood her.
+
+And later in the evening she asked his advice as to what she should do.
+"I am not fond of asking advice," she said, "and I don't think there is
+another in the world I would ask it from but you. What should I do? It
+would cost me nothing to run up to town for a part of the season at
+least. I might get a little house, and be near her, where she could come
+to me when she pleased. Should I do it, or would it be wise not to do
+it? I don't want to spy upon her or to force her to tell me more than
+she wishes. John, my dear, I will tell you what I would tell no one
+else. I caught a glimpse of her dear face when the train was just going
+out of sight, and she was sinking back in her corner with a look of
+relief----"
+
+"Of relief!" he cried.
+
+"John, don't form any false impression! it was no want of love: but I
+think she was thankful to have seen me, and to have satisfied me, and
+that I had asked no questions that she could not answer--in a way."
+
+John clenched his fist, but he dared not make any gesture of disgust,
+or suggest again, "If it had been I."
+
+"Well, now," she said, "remember I am not angry--fancy being angry with
+Elinor!--and all I mean is for her benefit. Should I go? it might be a
+relief to her to run into me whenever she pleased; or should I not go?
+lest she might think I was bent on finding out more than she chose to
+tell?"
+
+"Wouldn't it be right that you should find out?"
+
+"That is just the point upon which I am doubtful. She is not unhappy,
+for she is--she is prettier than ever she was, John. A girl does not
+get like that--her eyes brighter, her colour clearer, looking--well,
+beautiful!" cried the mother, her eyes filling with bright tears, "if
+she is unhappy. But there may be things that are not quite smooth, that
+she might think it would make me unhappy to know, yet that if let alone
+might come all right. Tell me, John, what should I do?"
+
+And they sat debating thus till far on in the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun did not go up to town. There are some women who would
+have done so, seeing the other side of the subject--at all hazards; and
+perhaps they would have been right--who can tell? She did not--denying
+herself, keeping herself by main force in her solitude, not to interfere
+with the life of her child, which was drawn on lines so different from
+any of hers--and perhaps she was wrong. Who knows, except by the event,
+which is the best or the worst way in any of our human movements, which
+are so short-sighted? And twice during the season Elinor found means to
+come to the cottage for a night as she had done at first. These were
+occasions of great happiness, it need not be said--but of many thoughts
+and wonderings too. She had always an excuse for Phil. He had meant
+until the last moment to come with her--some one had turned up, quite
+unexpectedly, who had prevented him. It was a fatality; especially when
+she came down in July did she insist upon this. He had been invited
+quite suddenly to a political dinner to meet one of the Ministers from
+whom he had hopes of an appointment. "For we find that we can't go on
+enjoying ourselves for ever," she said gayly, "and Phil has made up his
+mind he must get something to do."
+
+"It is always the best way," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"I am not so very sure, mamma, when you have never been used to it. Of
+course, some people would be wretched without work. Fancy John with
+nothing to do! How he would torment his wife--if he had one. But Phil
+never does that. He is very easy to live with. He is always after
+something, and leaves me as free as if he had a day's work in an
+office."
+
+This slipped out, with a smile: but evidently after it was said Elinor
+regretted she had said it, and thought that more might be drawn from the
+admission than she intended. She added quietly, "Of course a settled
+occupation would interfere with many things. We could not go out
+together continually as we do now."
+
+Was there any way of reconciling these two statements? Mrs. Dennistoun
+tried and tried in vain to make them fit into each other: and yet no
+doubt there was some way.
+
+"And perhaps another season, mother, if Phil was in a public office--it
+seems so strange to think of Phil having an office--you might come up,
+don't you think, to town for a time? Would it be a dreadful bore to you
+to leave the country just when it is at its best? I'm afraid it would be
+a dreadful bore: but we could run about together in the mornings when he
+was busy, and go to see the pictures and things. How pleasant it would
+be!"
+
+"It would be delightful for me, Elinor. I shouldn't mind giving up the
+country, if it wouldn't interfere with your engagements, my dear."
+
+"Oh, my engagements! Much I should care for them if Phil was occupied. I
+like, of course, to be with him."
+
+"Of course," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"And it is good for him, too, I think." This was another of the little
+admissions that Elinor regretted the moment they were made. "I mean it's
+a pity, isn't it, when a man likes to have his wife with him that she
+shouldn't always be there, ready to go?"
+
+"A great pity," said Mrs. Dennistoun, and then she changed the subject.
+"I thought it required all sorts of examinations and things for a man to
+get into a public office now."
+
+"So it does for the ordinary grades, which would be far, far too much
+routine for Phil. But they say a minister always has things in his
+power. There are still posts----"
+
+"Sinecures, Elinor?"
+
+"I did not mean exactly sinecures," she said, with an embarrassed laugh,
+"though I think those must have been fine things; but posts where it is
+not merely routine, where a man may have a chance of acting for himself
+and distinguishing himself, perhaps. And to be in the service of the
+country is always better, safer, than that dreadful city. Don't you
+think so?"
+
+"I have never thought the city dreadful, Elinor. I have had many friends
+connected with the city."
+
+"Ah, but not in those horrid companies, mamma. Do you know that company
+which we just escaped, which Phil saved my money out of, when it was all
+but invested--I believe that has ruined people right and left. He got
+out of it, fortunately, just before the smash; that is, of course, he
+never had very much to do with it, he was only on the Board."
+
+"And where is your money now?"
+
+"Oh, I can answer that question this time," said Elinor, gayly. "He had
+just time to get it into another company which pays--beautifully! The
+Jew is in it, too, and the whole lot of them. Oh! I beg your pardon,
+mamma. I tried hard to call her by her proper name, but when one never
+hears any other, one can't help getting into it!"
+
+"I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that Philip was not much mixed up with
+this company if other people have been ruined, and he has escaped?"
+
+"How could that be?" said Elinor, with a sort of tremulous dignity. "You
+don't suppose for a moment that he----. But of course you don't," she
+added with a heightened colour and a momentary cloud over her eyes, "of
+course you don't. There was a dreadful manager who destroyed the books
+and then fled, so that there never could be a right winding up of the
+affairs."
+
+"I hope Philip will take great care never to have to do with anything of
+the kind again."
+
+"Oh, no, he has promised me he will not. I will not have it. He has a
+kind of ornamental directorship on this new company, just for the sake
+of his name: but he has promised me he will have nothing more to do with
+it for my peace of mind."
+
+"I wonder that they should care in the city for so small a matter as a
+peer's younger son."
+
+"Oh, do you think it a small matter, mamma? I don't mean that I care,
+but people give a good deal of weight to it, you know."
+
+"I meant only in the city, Elinor."
+
+"Oh!" Elinor said. She was half offended with her mother's indifference.
+She had found that to be the Hon. Mrs. Compton was something, or so at
+least she supposed: and she began timidly to give her mother a list of
+her engagements, which were indeed many in number, and there were some
+dazzling names among a great many with which Mrs. Dennistoun was
+unacquainted. But how could she know who were the fashionable people
+nowadays, a woman living so completely out of the world?
+
+John Tatham, for his part, went through his engagements that year with a
+constant expectation of seeing Elinor, which preoccupied him more than a
+rising young barrister going everywhere ought to have been preoccupied.
+He thought he went everywhere, and so did his family at home, especially
+his sister, Mary Tatham, who was his father's nurse and attendant, and
+never had any chance of sharing these delights. She made all the more,
+as was natural, of John's privileges and social success from the fact of
+her own seclusion, and was in the habit of saying that she believed
+there was scarcely a party in London to which John was not invited--three
+or four in a night. But it would seem with all this that there were many
+parties to which he was not invited, for the Phil Comptons (how strange
+and on the whole disgusting to think that this now meant Elinor!) also
+went everywhere, and yet they very seldom met. It was true that John
+could not expect to meet them at dinner at a Judge's or in the legal
+society in high places which was his especial sphere, and nothing could
+be more foolish than the tremor of expectation with which this very
+steady-going man would set out to every house in which the fashionable
+world met with the professional, always thinking that perhaps----But it
+was rarely, very rarely, that this perhaps came to pass. When it did it
+was amid the crowd of some prodigious reception to which people "looked
+in" for half an hour, and where on one occasion he found Elinor alone,
+with that curious dignity about her, a little tragical, which comes of
+neglect. He agreed with her mother, that he had never imagined Elinor's
+youthful prettiness could have come to anything so near beauty. There
+was a strained, wide open look in her eyes, which was half done by
+looking out for some one, and half by defying any one to think that she
+felt herself alone, or was pursuing that search with any anxiety. She
+stood exceedingly erect, silent, observing everything, yet endeavouring
+to appear as if she did not observe, altogether a singular and very
+striking figure among the fashionable crowd, in which it seemed
+everybody was chattering, smiling, gay or making believe to be gay,
+except herself. When she saw John a sudden gleam of pleasure, followed
+by a cloud of embarrassment, came over her face: but poor Elinor could
+not help being glad to see some one she knew, some one who more or less
+belonged to her; although it appeared she had the best of reasons for
+being alone. "I was to meet Phil here," she said, "but somehow I must
+have missed him." "Let us walk about a little, and we'll be sure to find
+him," said John. She was so glad to take his arm, almost to cling to
+him, to find herself with a friend. "I don't know many people here,"
+she confided to John, leaning on his arm, with the familiar sisterly
+dependence of old, "and I am so stupid about coming out by myself. It is
+because I have never been used to it. There has always been mamma, and
+then Phil; but I suppose he has been detained somewhere to-night. I
+think I never felt so lost before, among all these strange people. He
+knows everybody, of course."
+
+"But you have a lot of friends, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, yes," she said, brightly enough; "in our own set: but this is what
+Phil calls more serious than our set. I should not wonder in the least
+if he had shirked it at the last, knowing I would be sure to come."
+
+"That is just the reason why I should have thought he would not shirk
+it," said John.
+
+"Ah, that's because you're not married," said Elinor, but with a laugh
+in which there was no bitterness. "Don't you know one good of a wife is
+to do the man's social duties for him, to appear at the dull places and
+save his credit? Oh, I don't object at all; it is quite a legitimate
+division of labour. I shall get into it in time: but I am so stupid
+about coming into a room alone, and instead of looking about to see what
+people I really do know, I just stiffen into a sort of shell. I should
+never have known you if you had not come up to me, John."
+
+"You see I was looking out for you, and you were not looking out for me,
+that makes all the difference."
+
+"You were looking out for us!"
+
+"Ever since the season began I have been looking out for you,
+everywhere," said John, with a rather fierce emphasis on the pronoun,
+which, however, as everybody knows, is plural, and means two as much as
+one, though it was the reverse of this that John Tatham meant to show.
+
+"Ah!" said Elinor. "But then I am afraid our set is different, John.
+There will always be some places--like this, for instance--where I hope
+we shall meet; but our set perhaps is a little frivolous, and your set a
+little--serious, don't you see? You are professional and political, and
+all that; and Phil is--well, I don't know exactly what Phil is--more
+fashionable and frivolous, as I said. A race-going, ball-going, always
+in motion set."
+
+"Most people," said John, "go more or less to races and balls."
+
+"More or less, that makes the whole difference. We go to them all. Now
+you see the distinction, John. You go to Ascot perhaps on the cup day;
+we go all the days and all the other days, at the other places."
+
+"How knowing you have become!"
+
+"Haven't I?" she said, with a smile that was half a sigh.
+
+"But I shouldn't have thought that would have suited you, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, yes, it does," she said, and then she eyed him with something of
+the defiance that had been in her look when she was standing alone. She
+did not avoid his look as a less brave woman might have done. "I like
+the fun of it," she said.
+
+And then there was a pause, for he did not know what to reply.
+
+"We have been through all the rooms," she said at last, "and we have not
+seen a ghost of Phil. He cannot be coming now. What o'clock is it? Oh,
+just the time he will be due at---- I'm sure he can't come now. Do you
+think you could get my carriage for me? It's only a brougham that we
+hire," she said, with a smile, "but the man is such a nice, kind man. If
+he had been an old family coachman he couldn't take more care of me."
+
+"That looks as if he had to take care of you often, Elinor."
+
+"Well," she said, looking him full in the face again, "you don't suppose
+my husband goes out with me in the morning shopping? I hope he has
+something better to do."
+
+"Shouldn't you like to have your mother with you for the shopping,
+etc.?"
+
+"Ah, dearly!" then with a little quick change of manner, "another
+time--not this season, but next, if I can persuade her to come; for next
+year I hope we shall be more settled, perhaps in a house of our own, if
+Phil gets the appointment he is after."
+
+"Oh, he is after an appointment?"
+
+"Yes, John; Phil is not so lucky as to have a profession like you."
+
+This was a new way of looking at the matter, and John Tatham found
+nothing to say. It seemed to him, who had worked very hard for it, a
+little droll to describe his possession of a profession as luck. But he
+made no remark. He took Elinor down-stairs and found her brougham for
+her, and the kind old coachman on the box, who was well used to taking
+care of her, though only hired from the livery stables for the
+season--John thought the old man looked suspiciously at him, and would
+have stopped him from accompanying her, had he designed any such
+proceeding. Poor little Nelly, to be watched over by the paternal
+fly-man on the box! she who might have had---- but he stopped himself
+there, though his heart felt as heavy as a stone to see her go away
+thus, alone from the smart party where she had been doing duty for her
+husband. John could not take upon himself to finish his sentence--she
+who might have had love and care of a very different kind. No, he had
+never offered her that love and care. Had Phil Compton never come in her
+way it is possible that John Tatham might never have offered it to
+her--not, at least, for a long time. He could never have had any right
+to be a dog in the manger, neither would he venture to pretend now that
+it was her own fault if she had chosen the wrong man; was it his fault
+then, who had never put a better man within her choice? but John, who
+was no coxcomb, blushed in the dark to himself as this question flitted
+through his mind. He had no reason to suppose that Elinor would have
+been willing to change the brotherly tie between them into any other.
+Thank heaven for that brotherly tie! He would always be able to befriend
+her, to stand by her, to help her as much as any one could help a woman
+who was married, and thus outside of all ordinary succour. And as for
+that blackguard, that _dis_-Honourable Phil---- But here John, who was a
+man of just mind, paused again. For a man to let his wife go to a party
+by herself was not after all so dreadful a thing. Many men did so, and
+the women did not complain; to be sure they were generally older, more
+accustomed to manage for themselves than Elinor: but still, a man need
+not be a blackguard because he did that. So John stopped his own ready
+judgment, but still I am afraid in his heart pronounced Phil Compton's
+sentence all the same. He did not say a word about this encounter to
+Mrs. Dennistoun; at least, he did tell her that he had met Elinor at the
+So-and-So's, which, as it was one of the best houses in London, was
+pleasing to a mother to hear.
+
+"And how was she looking?" Mrs. Dennistoun cried.
+
+"She was looking--beautiful----" said John. "I don't flatter, and I
+never thought her so in the old times--but it is the only word I can
+use----"
+
+"Didn't I tell you so?" said the mother, pleased. "She is quite
+embellished and improved--therefore she must be happy."
+
+"It is certainly the very best evidence----"
+
+"Isn't it? But it so often happens otherwise, even in happy marriages. A
+girl feels strange, awkward, out of it, in her new life. Elinor must
+have entirely accustomed herself, adapted herself to it, and to them, or
+she would not look so well. That is the greatest comfort I can have."
+
+And John kept his own counsel about Elinor's majestic solitude and the
+watchful old coachman in the hired brougham. Her husband might still be
+full of love and tenderness all the same. It was a great effort of the
+natural integrity of his character to pronounce like this; but he did it
+in the interests of justice, and for Elinor's sake and her mother's said
+nothing of the circumstances at all.
+
+It may be supposed that when Elinor paid the last of her sudden visits
+at the cottage it was a heavy moment both for mother and daughter. It
+was the time when fashionable people finish the season by going to
+Goodwood--and to Goodwood Elinor was going with a party, Lady Mariamne
+and a number of the "set." She told her mother, to amuse her, of the new
+dresses she had got for this important occasion. "Phil says one may go
+in sackcloth and ashes the remainder of the year, but we must be fine
+for Goodwood," she said. "I wanted him to believe that I had too many
+clothes already, but he was inexorable. It is not often, is it, that
+one's husband is more anxious than one's self about one's dress?"
+
+"He wants you to do him credit, Elinor."
+
+"Well, mamma, there is no harm in that. But more than that--he wants me
+to look nice, for myself. He thinks me still a little shy--though I
+never was shy, was I?--and he thinks nothing gives you courage like
+feeling yourself well dressed--but he takes the greatest interest in
+everything I wear."
+
+"And where do you go after Goodwood, Elinor?"
+
+"Oh, mamma, on such a round of visits!--here and there and everywhere. I
+don't know," and the tears sprang into Elinor's eyes, "when I may see
+you again."
+
+"You are not coming back to London," said the mother, with the heart
+sinking in her breast.
+
+"Not now--they all say London is insupportable--it is one of the things
+that everybody says, and I believe that Phil will not set foot in it
+again for many months. Perhaps I might get a moment, when he is
+shooting, or something, to run back to you; but it is a long way from
+Scotland--and he must be there, you know, for the 12th. He would think
+the world was coming to an end if he did not get a shot at the grouse
+on that day."
+
+"But I thought he was looking for an appointment, Elinor?"
+
+A cloud passed over Elinor's face. "The season is over," she said, "and
+all the opportunities are exhausted--and we don't speak of that any
+more."
+
+She gave her mother a very close hug at the railway, and sat with her
+head partly out of the window watching her as she stood on the platform,
+until the train turned round the corner. No relief on her dear face now,
+but an anxious strain in her eyes to see her mother as long as possible.
+Mrs. Dennistoun, as she walked again slowly up the hills that the pony
+might not suffer, said to herself, with a chill at her heart, that she
+would rather have seen her child sinking back in the corner, pleased
+that it was over, as on the first day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+The next winter was more dreary still and solitary than the first at
+Windyhill. The first had been, though it looked so long and dreary as it
+passed, full of hope of the coming summer, which must, it seemed, bring
+Elinor back. But now Mrs. Dennistoun knew exactly what Elinor's coming
+back meant, and the prospect was less cheering. Three days in the whole
+long season--three little escapades, giving so very little hope of more
+sustained intercourse to come. Mrs. Dennistoun, going over all the
+circumstances--she had so little else to do but to go over them in her
+long solitary evenings--came to the conclusion that whatever might
+happen, she herself would go to town when summer came again. She amused
+herself with thinking how she would find a little house--quite a small
+house, as there are so many--in a good situation, where even the most
+fashionable need not be ashamed to come, and where there would be room
+enough for Elinor and her husband if they chose to establish themselves
+there. Mrs. Dennistoun was of opinion, already expressed, that if
+mothers-in-law are obnoxious to men, sons-in-law are very frequently so
+to women, which is a point of view not popularly perceived. And Philip
+Compton was not sympathetic to her in any point of view. But still she
+made up her mind to endure him, and even his family, for the sake of
+Elinor. She planned it all out--it gave a little occupation to the
+vacant time--how they should have their separate rooms and even meals if
+that turned out most convenient; how she would interfere with none of
+their ways: only to have her Elinor under her roof, to have her when the
+husband was occupied--in the evenings, if there were any evenings that
+she spent alone; in the mornings, when perhaps Phil got up late, or had
+engagements of his own; for the moment's freedom when her child should
+be free. She made up her mind that she would ask no questions, would
+never interfere with any of their habits, or oppose or put herself
+between them--only just to have a little of Elinor every day.
+
+"For it will not be the same thing this year," she said to John,
+apologetically. "They have quite settled down into each other's ways.
+Philip must see I have no intention of interfering. For the most
+obdurate opponent of mothers-in-law could not think--could he,
+John?--that I had any desire to put myself between them, or make myself
+troublesome now."
+
+"There is no telling," said John, "what such asses might think."
+
+"But Philip is not an ass; and don't you think I have behaved very well,
+and may give myself this indulgence the second year?"
+
+"I certainly think you will be quite right to come to town: but I should
+not have them to live with you, if I were you."
+
+"Shouldn't you? It might be a risk: but then I shouldn't do it unless
+there was room enough to leave them quite free. The thing I am afraid of
+is that they wouldn't accept."
+
+"Oh, Phil Compton will accept," said John, hurriedly.
+
+"Why are you so sure? I think often you know more about him than you
+ever say."
+
+"I don't know much about him, but I know that a man of uncertain income
+and not very delicate feelings is generally glad enough to have the
+expenses of the season taken off him: and even get all the more pleasure
+out of it when he has his living free."
+
+"That's not a very elevated view to take of the transaction, John."
+
+"My dear aunt, I did not think you expected anything very elevated from
+the Comptons. They are not the sort of family from which one
+expects----"
+
+"And yet it is the family that my Elinor belongs to: she is a Compton."
+
+"I did not think of that," said John, a little disconcerted. Then he
+added, "There is no very elevated standard in such matters. Want of
+money has no law: and of course there are better things involved, for he
+might be very glad that Elinor should have her mother to go out with
+her, to stand by when--a man might have other engagements."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun looked at him closely and shook her head. She was not
+very much reassured by this view of the case. "At all events I shall try
+it," she said.
+
+Quite early in the year, when she was expecting no such pleasure, she
+was rewarded for her patience by another flying visit from her child,
+who this time telegraphed to say she was coming, so that her mother
+could go and meet her at the station, and thus lose no moment of her
+visit. Elinor, however, was not in good spirits on this occasion, nor
+was she in good looks. She told her mother hurriedly that Phil had come
+up upon business; that he was very much engaged with the new company,
+getting far more into it than satisfied her. "I am terrified that
+another catastrophe may come, and that he might share the blame if
+things were to go wrong"--which was by no means a good preface for the
+mission with which it afterwards appeared Elinor herself was charged.
+
+"Phil told me to say to you, mamma, that if you were not satisfied with
+any of your investments, he could help you to a good six or seven per
+cent.----"
+
+She said this with her head turned away, gazing out of the window,
+contemplating the wintry aspect of the combe with a countenance as
+cloudy and as little cheerful as itself.
+
+There was an outcry on Mrs. Dennistoun's lips, but fortunately her
+sympathy with her child was so strong that she felt Elinor's sentiments
+almost more forcibly than her own, and she managed to answer in a quiet,
+untroubled voice.
+
+"Philip is very kind, my dear: but you know my investments are all
+settled for me and I have no will of my own. I get less interest, but
+then I have less responsibility. Don't you know I belong to the time in
+which women were not supposed to be good for anything, and consequently
+I am in the hands of my trustees."
+
+"I think he foresaw that, mother," said Elinor, still with her head
+averted and her eyes far away; "but he thought you might represent to
+the trustees that not only would it give you more money, but it would be
+better in the end for me. Oh, how I hate to have to say this to you,
+mamma!"
+
+How steadily Mrs. Dennistoun kept her countenance, though her daughter
+now flung herself upon her shoulder with uncontrollable tears!
+
+"My darling, it is quite natural you should say it. You must tell Philip
+that I fear I am powerless. I will try, but I don't think anything will
+come of it. I have been glad to be free of responsibility, and I have
+never attempted to interfere."
+
+"Mother, I am so thankful. I oughtn't to go against him, ought I? But I
+would not have you take his advice. It is so dreadful not to appear----"
+
+"My dear, you must try to think that he understands better than you do:
+men generally do: you are only a girl, and they are trained more or less
+to business."
+
+"Not Phil! not Phil!"
+
+"Well, he must have some capacity for it, some understanding, or they
+would not want him on those boards; and you cannot have, Elinor, for you
+know nothing about it. To hear you speak of per cents. makes me laugh."
+It was a somewhat forlorn kind of laugh, yet the mother executed it
+finely: and by and by the subject dropped, and Elinor was turned to talk
+of other things--other things of which there was a great deal to say,
+and over which they cried and laughed together as nature bade.
+
+In the same evening, the precious evening of which she did not like to
+waste a moment, Mrs. Dennistoun unfolded her plan for the season. "I
+feel that I know exactly the kind of house I want; it will probably be
+in some quiet insignificant place, a Chapel Street, or a Queen Street,
+or a Park Street somewhere, but in a good situation. You shall have the
+first floor all to yourself to receive your visitors, and if you think
+that Philip would prefer a separate table----"
+
+"Oh, mamma, mamma!" cried Elinor, clinging to her, kissing passionately
+her mother's cheek, which was still as soft as a child's.
+
+"It is not anything you have told me now that has put this into my head,
+my darling. I had made it all up in my own mind. Then, you know, when
+your husband is engaged with those business affairs--in the city--or
+with his own friends--you would have your mother to fall back upon,
+Elinor. I should have just the _moments perdus_, don't you see, when you
+were doing nothing else, when you were wanted for nothing else. I
+promise you, my darling, I should never be _de trop_, and would never
+interfere."
+
+"Oh, mamma, mamma!" Elinor cried again as if words failed her; and so
+they did, for she said scarcely anything more, and evaded any answer. It
+went to her mother's heart, yet she made her usual excuses for it. Poor
+child, once so ready to decide, accepting or rejecting with the
+certainty that no opposition would be made to her will, but now afraid
+to commit herself, to say anything that her husband would not approve!
+Well! Mrs. Dennistoun said to herself, many a young wife is like that,
+and yet is happy enough. It depends so much on the man. Many a man
+adores his wife and is very good to her, and yet cannot bear that she
+should seem to settle anything without consulting his whim. And Philip
+Compton had never been what might be called an easy-going man. It was
+right of Elinor to give no answer till she knew what he would like. The
+dreadful thing was that she expressed no pleasure in her mother's
+proposal, scarcely looked as if she herself would like it, which was a
+thing which did give an unquestionable wound.
+
+"Mamma," she said, as they were driving to the station, not in the pony
+carriage this time, but in the fly, for the weather was bad, "don't be
+vexed that I don't say more about your wonderful, your more than kind
+offer."
+
+"Kind is scarcely a word to use, Elinor, between you and me."
+
+"I know, I know, mamma--and I as good as refuse it, saying nothing. Oh,
+if I could tell you without telling you! I am so frightened--how can I
+say it?--that you should see things you would not approve!"
+
+"My dear, I am of one generation and you are of another. I am an old
+woman, and your husband is a young man. But what does that matter? We
+can agree to differ. I will never thrust myself into his private
+affairs, and he----"
+
+"Oh, mother, mother darling, it is not that," Elinor said. And she
+went away without any decision. But in a few days there came to Mrs.
+Dennistoun a letter from Philip himself, most nobly expressed, saying
+that Elinor had told him of her mother's kind offer, and that he
+hastened to accept it with the utmost gratitude and devotion. He had
+just been wondering, he wrote, how he was to muster all things necessary
+for Elinor, with the business engagements which were growing upon
+himself. Nobody could understand better than Nell's good mother how
+necessary it was that he should neglect no means of securing their
+position, and he had found that often he would have to leave his darling
+by herself: but this magnificent, this magnanimous offer on her part
+would make everything right. Need he say how gratefully he accepted it?
+Nell and he being on the spot would immediately begin looking out for
+the house, and when they had a list of three or four to look at he hoped
+she would come up to their rooms and select what she liked best. This
+response took away Mrs. Dennistoun's breath, for, to tell the truth, she
+had her own notions as to the house she wanted and as to the time to be
+spent in town, and would certainly have preferred to manage everything
+herself. But in this she had to yield, with thankfulness that in the
+main point she was to have her way.
+
+Did she have her way? It is very much to be doubted whether in such a
+situation of affairs it would have been possible. The house that was
+decided upon was not one which she would have chosen for herself,
+neither would she have taken it from Easter to July. She had meant a
+less expensive place and a shorter season; but after all, what did that
+matter for once if it pleased Elinor? The worst of it was that she could
+not at all satisfy herself that it pleased Elinor. It pleased Philip,
+there was no doubt, but then it had not been intended except in a very
+secondary way to please him. And when the racket of the season began
+Mrs. Dennistoun had a good deal to bear. Philip, though he was supposed
+to be a man of business and employed in the city, got up about noon,
+which was dreadful to all her orderly country habits; the whole afternoon
+through there was a perpetual tumult of visitors, who, when by chance
+she encountered them in the hall or on the stairs, looked at her
+superciliously as if she were the landlady. The man who opened the door,
+and brushed Philip Compton's clothes, and was in his service, looked
+superciliously at her too, and declined to have anything to say to "the
+visitors for down-stairs." A noise of laughter and loud talk was
+(distinctly) in her ears from noon till late at night. When Philip came
+home, always much later than his wife, he was in the habit of bringing
+men with him, whose voices rang through the house after everybody was
+in bed. To be sure, there were compensations. She had Elinor often for
+an hour or two in the morning before her husband was up. She had her in
+the evenings when they were not going out, but these were few. As for
+Philip, he never dined at home. When he had no engagements he dined at
+his club, leaving Elinor with her mother. He gave Mrs. Dennistoun very
+little of his company, and when they did meet there was in his manner
+too a sort of reflection of the superciliousness of the "smart" visitors
+and the "smart" servant. She was to him, too, in some degree the
+landlady, the old lady down-stairs. Elinor, as was natural, redoubled
+her demonstrations of affection, her excuses and sweet words to make up
+for this neglect: but all the time there was in her mother's mind that
+dreadful doubt which assails us when we have committed ourselves to one
+act or another, "Was it wise? Would it not have been better to have
+denied herself and stayed away?" So far as self-denial went, it was more
+exercised in Curzon Street than it would have been at the Cottage. For
+she had to see many things that displeased her and to say no word; to
+guess at the tears, carefully washed away from Elinor's eyes, and to ask
+no questions, and to see what she could not but feel was the violent
+career downward, the rush that must lead to a catastrophe, but make no
+sign. There was one evening when Elinor, not looking well or feeling
+well, had stayed at home, Philip having a whole long list of engagements
+in hand; men's engagements, his wife explained, a stockbroking dinner,
+an adjournment to somebody's chambers, a prolonged sitting, which meant
+play, and a great deal of wine, and other attendant circumstances into
+which she did not enter. Elinor had no engagement for that night, and
+was free to be petted and fêted by her mother. She was put at her ease
+in a soft and rich dressing-gown, and the prettiest little dinner
+served, and the room filled with flowers, and everything done that used
+to be done when she was recovering from some little mock illness, some
+child's malady, just enough to show how dear above everything was the
+child to the mother, and with what tender ingenuity the mother could
+invent new delights for the child. These delights, alas! did not
+transport Elinor now as they once had done, and yet the repose was
+sweet, and the comfort of this nearest and dearest friend to lean upon
+something more than words could say.
+
+On this evening, however, in the quiet of those still hours, poor
+Elinor's heart was opened, or rather her mouth, which on most occasions
+was closed so firmly. She said suddenly, in the midst of something quite
+different, "Oh, I wish Phil was not so much engaged with those dreadful
+city men."
+
+"My dear!" said Mrs. Dennistoun, who was thinking of far other things;
+and then she said, "there surely cannot be much to fear in that respect.
+He is never in the city--he is never up, my dear, when the city men are
+doing their work."
+
+"Ah," said Elinor, "I don't think that matters; he is in with them all
+the same."
+
+"Well, Elinor, there is no reason that there should be any harm in it. I
+would much rather he had some real business in hand than be merely a
+butterfly of fashion. You must not entertain that horror of city men."
+
+"The kind he knows are different from the kind you know, mamma."
+
+"I suppose everything is different from what it was in my time: but it
+need not be any worse for that----"
+
+"Oh, mother! you are obstinate in thinking well of everything; but
+sometimes I am so frightened, I feel as if I must do something dreadful
+myself--to precipitate the ruin which nothing I can do will stop----"
+
+"Elinor, Elinor, this is far too strong language----"
+
+"Mamma, he wants me to speak to you again. He wants you to give your
+money----"
+
+"But I have told you already I cannot give it, Elinor."
+
+"Heaven be praised for that! But he will speak to you himself, he will
+perhaps try to--bully you, mamma."
+
+"Elinor!"
+
+"It is horrible, what I say; yes, it is horrible, but I want to warn
+you. He says things----"
+
+"Nothing that he can say will make me forget that he is your husband,
+Elinor."
+
+"Ah, but don't think too much of that, mamma. Think that he doesn't know
+what he is doing--poor Phil, oh, poor Phil! He is hurried on by these
+people; and then it will break up, and the poor people will be ruined,
+and they will upbraid him, and yet he will not be a whit the better. He
+does not get any of the profit. I can see it all as clear---- And there
+are so many other things."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun's heart sank in her breast, for she too knew what were
+the other things. "We must have patience," she said; "he is in his
+hey-day, full of--high spirits, and thinking everything he touches must
+go right. He will steady down in time."
+
+"Oh, I am not complaining," cried Elinor, hurriedly dashing her tears
+away; "if you were not a dreadfully good mamma, if you would grumble
+sometimes and find fault, that I might defend him! It is the sight of
+you there, seeing everything and not saying a word that is too much for
+me."
+
+"Then I will grumble, Elinor. I will even say something to him for our
+own credit. He should not come in so late--at least when he comes in he
+should come in to rest and not bring men with him to make a noise. You
+see I can find fault as much as heart could desire. I am dreadfully
+selfish. I don't mind when he goes out now and then without you, for
+then I have you; but he should not bring noisy men with him to disturb
+the house in the middle of the night. I think I will speak to him----"
+
+"No," said Elinor, with a clutch upon her mother's arm; "no, don't do
+that. He does not like to be found fault with. Unless in the case--if
+you were giving him that money, mother."
+
+"Which I cannot do: and Elinor, my darling, which I would not do if I
+could. It is all you will have to rely upon, you and----"
+
+"It would have been the only chance," said Elinor. "I don't say it would
+have been much of a chance. But he might have listened, if---- Oh, no,
+dear mother, no. I would not in my sober senses wish that you should
+give him a penny. It would do no good, but only harm. And yet if you had
+done it, you might have said---- and he might have listened to you for
+once----"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+A few days after this Philip Compton came in, in the afternoon, to the
+little room down-stairs which Mrs. Dennistoun had made into a
+sitting-room for herself. Elinor had gone out with her sister-in-law,
+and her mother was alone. It was a very rare thing indeed for Mrs.
+Dennistoun's guest--who, indeed, was to all intents and purposes the
+master of the house, and had probably quite forgotten by this time that
+he was not in reality so--to pay a visit "down-stairs." "Down-stairs"
+had a distinct meaning in the Compton vocabulary. It was spoken of with
+significance, and with a laugh, as something half hostile, half
+ridiculous. It meant a sort of absurd criticism and inspection,
+as of some old crone sitting vigilant, spying upon everything--a
+mother-in-law. Phil's cronies thought it was the most absurd weakness on
+his part to let such an intruder get footing in his house. "You will
+never get rid of her," they said. And Phil, though he was generally
+quite civil to his wife's mother (being actually and at his heart more a
+gentleman than he had the least idea he was), did not certainly in any
+way seek her society. He scarcely ever dined at home, as has been said;
+when he had not an engagement--and he had a great many engagements--he
+found that he was obliged to dine at his club on the evenings when he
+might have been free; and as this was the only meal which was supposed
+to be common, it may be perceived that Phil had little means of meeting
+his mother-in-law; and that he should come to see her of his own free
+will was unprecedented. Phil Compton had not improved since his
+marriage. His nocturnal enjoyments, the noisy parties up-stairs in the
+middle of the night, had not helped to dissipate the effect of the
+anxieties of the city, which his wife so deplored. Mrs. Dennistoun that
+very day, when she came down-stairs in the fresh summer morning to her
+early breakfast, had seen through an open door the room up-stairs which
+was appropriated to Phil, with a lamp still burning in the daylight,
+cards lying strewn about the floor, and all in that direful disorder
+which a room so occupied overnight shows in the clear eye of the day.
+The aspect of the room had given her a shock almost more startling than
+any moral certainty, as was natural to a woman used to all the decorums
+and delicacies of a well-ordered life. There is no sin in going late to
+bed, or even letting a lamp burn into the day; but the impression that
+such a sight makes even upon the careless is always greater than any
+mere apprehension by the mind of the midnight sitting, the eager game,
+the chances of loss and ruin. She had not been able to get that sight
+out of her eyes. Though on ordinary occasions she never entered Phil's
+rooms, on this she had stolen in to put out the lamp, with the sensation
+in her mind of destroying some evidence against him, which someone less
+interested than she might have used to his disadvantage. And she had
+sent up the housemaid to "do" the room, with an admonition. "I cannot
+have Mr. Compton's rooms neglected," she said. "The gentlemen is always
+so late," the housemaid said in self-defence. "I hears them let
+themselves out sometimes after we're all up down-stairs." "I don't want
+to hear anything about the gentlemen. Do your work at the proper time;
+that is all that is asked of you." Phil's servant appeared at the moment
+pulling on his coat, with the air of a man who has been up half the
+night--which, indeed, was the case, for "the gentlemen" when they came
+in had various wants that had to be supplied. "What's up now?" he said
+to the housemaid, within hearing of her mistress, casting an insolent
+look at the old lady, who belonged to "down-stairs." "She've been prying
+and spying about like they all do----" Mrs. Dennistoun had retreated
+within the shelter of her room to escape the end of this sentence, which
+still she heard, with the usual quickness of our faculties in such
+cases. She swallowed her simple breakfast with what appetite she might,
+and her stout spirit for the moment broke down before this insult which
+was ridiculous, she said to herself, from a saucy servant-man. What did
+it matter to her what Johnson did or said? But it was like the lamp
+burning in the sunshine: it gave a moral shock more sharp than many a
+thing of much more importance would have been capable of doing, and she
+had not been able to get over it all day.
+
+It may be supposed, therefore, that it was an unfortunate moment for
+Phil Compton's visit. Mrs. Dennistoun had scarcely seen them that day,
+and she was sitting by herself, somewhat sick at heart, wondering if
+anything would break the routine into which their life was falling; or
+if this was what Elinor must address herself to as its usual tenor. It
+would be better in the country, she said to herself. It was only in the
+bustle of the season, when everybody of his kind was congregated in
+town, that it would be like this. In their rounds of visits, or when the
+whole day was occupied with sport, such nocturnal sittings would be
+impossible--and she comforted herself by thinking that they would not be
+consistent with any serious business in the city such as Elinor feared.
+The one danger must push away the other. He could not gamble at night in
+that way, and gamble in the other among the stockbrokers. They were both
+ruinous, no doubt, but they could not both be carried on at the same
+time--or so, at least, this innocent woman thought. There was enough to
+be anxious and alarmed about without taking two impossible dangers into
+her mind together.
+
+And just then Phil knocked at her door. He came in smiling and gracious,
+and with that look of high breeding and _savoir faire_ which had
+conciliated her before and which she felt the influence of now, although
+she was aware how many drawbacks there were, and knew that the respect
+which her son-in-law showed was far from genuine. "I never see you to
+have a chat," he said; "I thought I would take the opportunity to-day,
+when Elinor was out. I want you to tell me how you think she is."
+
+"I think she is wonderfully well," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"_Wonderfully_ well--you mean considering--that there is too much racket
+in her life?"
+
+"Partly, I mean that--but, indeed, I meant it without condition; she is
+wonderfully well. I am surprised, often----"
+
+"It is rather a racket of a life," said Phil.
+
+"Too much, indeed--it is too much--for a woman who is beginning her
+serious life--but if you think that, it is a great thing gained, for you
+can put a stop to it, or moderate--'the pace' don't you call it?" she
+said, with a smile.
+
+"Well, yes. I suppose we could moderate the pace--but that would mean a
+great deal for me. You see, when a man's launched it isn't always so
+easy to stop. Nell, of course, if you thought she wanted it--might go to
+the country with you."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun's heart gave a leap. "Might go to the country with you!"
+It seemed a glimpse of Paradise that burst upon her. But then she shook
+her head. "You know Elinor would not leave you, Philip."
+
+"Well! she has a ridiculous partiality," he said, with a laugh, "though,
+of course, I'd make her--if it was really for her advantage," he added,
+after a moment; "you don't think I'd let that stand in her way."
+
+"In the meantime," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with hesitation, "without
+proceeding to any such stringent measures--if you could manage to be a
+little less late at night."
+
+"Oh, you listen for my coming in at night?"
+
+His face took a sombre look, as if a cloud had come over it.
+
+"I do not listen--for happily for me I have been asleep for hours. I
+generally jump up thinking the house is on fire at the sound of voices,
+which make listening quite unnecessary, Philip."
+
+"Ah, yes, the fellows are rather noisy," he said, carelessly, "but Nell
+sleeps like a top, and pays no attention--which is the best thing she
+can do."
+
+"I would not be too sure she slept like a top."
+
+"It's true; women are all hypocrites alike. You never know when you have
+them," Phil said.
+
+And then there was a pause; for she feared to say anything more lest she
+should go too far; and he for once in his life was embarrassed, and did
+not know how to begin what he had to say.
+
+"Well," he said, quickly, getting up, "I must be going. I have business
+in the city. And now that I find you're satisfied about Nell's
+health---- By the way, you never show in our rooms; though Nell spends
+every minute she has to spare here."
+
+"I am a little old perhaps for your friends, Philip, and the room is not
+too large."
+
+"Well, no," he said, "they are wretched little rooms. Good-by, then; I'm
+glad you think Nell is all right."
+
+Was this all he meant to say? There was, however, an uncertainty about
+his step, and by the time he had opened the door he came to a pause,
+half closed it again, and said, "Oh, by the bye!"
+
+"What is it?" said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+He closed the door again and came back half a step. "I almost forgot, I
+meant to tell you: if you have any money to invest, I could help you
+to---- The best thing I've heard of for many a day!"
+
+"You are very kind, Philip; but you know everything I have is in the
+hands of trustees."
+
+"Oh, bother trustees. The only thing they do is to keep your dividends
+down to the lowest amount possible and cut short your income. Come,
+you're quite old enough to judge for yourself. You might give them a
+jog. At your time of life they ought to take a hint from you."
+
+"I have never done it, Philip, and they would pay no attention to me."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, mamma. Why, except you, who has a right to be consulted
+except Nell? and if I, her husband, am your adviser----"
+
+"I know they would do nothing but mock at me."
+
+"Rubbish! I'd like to see who would mock at you. Just you send them to
+me, that is all."
+
+"Philip, will you not believe me when I say that it is impossible? I
+have never interfered. They would ask what made me think of such a thing
+now."
+
+"And you could tell them a jolly good opportunity, as safe as the bank,
+and paying six or seven per cent.--none of your fabulous risky ten or
+twelve businesses, but a solid steady---- How could it be to my interest
+to mislead you? It would be Nell who would be the loser. I should be
+simply cutting off my own head."
+
+"That is true, no doubt----"
+
+"And," he said, scarcely waiting for her reply, "Nell is really the
+person who should be consulted: for if there was loss eventually it
+would come upon her--and so upon me. I mean taking into consideration
+all the chances of the future: for it is perfectly safe for your time,
+you may be quite sure of that."
+
+No one, though he might be ninety, likes to have his time limited, and
+his heir's prospects dwelt upon as the only things of any importance,
+and Mrs. Dennistoun was a very long way from ninety. She would have
+sacrificed everything she had to make her child happy, but she did not
+like, all the same, to be set down as unimportant so far as her own
+property was concerned.
+
+"I am afraid," she said, with a slight quaver in her voice, "that my
+trustees would not take Elinor's wishes into consideration in the first
+place, nor yours either, Philip. They think of me, and I suppose that is
+really their duty. If I had anything of my own----"
+
+"Do you mean to say," he said, bluntly, "that with a good income and
+living in the country in a hole, in the most obscure way, you have
+saved nothing all these years?"
+
+"If I had," said Mrs. Dennistoun, roused by his persistent attack, "I
+should be very sorry to fling it away."
+
+"Oh, that is what you think?" he said. "Now we're at the bottom of it.
+You think that to put it in my hands would be to throw it away! I
+thought there must be something at the bottom of all this pretty
+ignorance of business and so forth. Good gracious! that may be well
+enough for a girl; but when a grandmother pretends not to know, not to
+interfere, etc., that's too much. So this is what you meant all the
+time! To put it into my hands would be throwing it away!"
+
+"I did not mean to say so, Philip--I spoke hastily, but I must remind
+you that I am not accustomed to this tone----"
+
+"Oh, no, not at all accustomed to it, you all say that--that's Nell's
+dodge--never was used to anything of the kind, never had a rough word
+said to her, and so forth and so forth."
+
+"Philip--I hope you don't say rough words to my Elinor."
+
+"Oh!" he said, "I have got you there, have I. _Your_ Elinor--no more
+yours than she is--Johnson's. She is my Nell, and what's more, she'll
+cling to me, whatever rough words I may say, or however you may coax or
+wheedle. Do you ever think when you refuse to make a sacrifice of one
+scrap of your hoards for her, that if I were not a husband in a hundred
+I might take it out of her and make her pay?"
+
+"For what?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, standing up and confronting him, her
+face pale, her head very erect--"for what would you make her pay?"
+
+He stood staring at her for a moment and then he broke out into a laugh.
+"We needn't face each other as if we were going to have a stand-up
+fight," he said. "And it wouldn't be fair, mamma, we're not equally
+matched, the knowing ones would all lay their money on you. So you won't
+take my advice about investing your spare cash? Well, if you won't you
+won't, and there's an end of it: only stand up fair and don't bother me
+with nonsense about trustees."
+
+"It is no nonsense," she said.
+
+His eyes flashed, but he controlled himself and turned away, waving his
+hand. "I'll not beat Nell for it when I come home to-night," he said.
+
+Once more Phil dined at his club that evening and Elinor with her
+mother. She was in an eager and excited state, looking anxiously in Mrs.
+Dennistoun's eyes, but it was not till late in the evening that she made
+any remark. At last, just before they parted for the night, she threw
+herself upon her mother with a little cry--"Oh, mamma, I know you are
+right, I know you are quite right. But if you could have done it, it
+would have given you an influence! I don't blame you--not for a
+moment--but it might have given you an opening to speak. It might
+have--given you a little hold on him."
+
+"My darling, my darling!" said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"No," said Elinor, "there's nothing to pity me about, nothing at
+all--Phil is always kind and good to me--but you would have had a
+standing ground. It might have given you a right to speak--about those
+dreadful, dreadful city complications, mamma."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun went to bed that night a troubled woman, and lay awake
+watching and expecting when the usual midnight tumult should arise. But
+that evening there was none. No sound but the key in the latch, the
+shutting of a door or two, and all quiet. Compunctions filled the
+mother's heart. What was the wrong if, perhaps, she could satisfy
+Elinor, perhaps get at the heart of Phil, who had a heart, though it
+was getting strangled in all those intricacies of gambling and wretched
+business. She turned over and over in her mind all that she had, and all
+that she had any power over. And she remembered a small sum she had in a
+mortgage, which was after all in her own power. No doubt it would be to
+throw the money away, which would be so much gone from the future
+provision of Elinor--but if by that means she could acquire an influence
+as Elinor said--be allowed to speak--to protest or perhaps even insist
+upon a change of course? Thinking over such a question for a whole
+sleepless night, and feeling beneath all that at least, at worst, this
+sacrifice would give pleasure to Elinor, which was really the one and
+sole motive, the only thing that could give her any warrant for such a
+proceeding--is not a process which is likely to strengthen the mind. In
+the morning, as soon as she knew he was up, which was not till late
+enough, she sent to ask if Phil would give her five minutes before he
+went out. He appeared after a while, extremely correct and _point
+device_, grave but polite. "I must ask you to excuse me," he said, "if I
+am hurried, for to-day is one of my Board days."
+
+"It was only to say, Philip--you spoke to me yesterday of money--to be
+invested."
+
+"Yes?" he said politely, without moving a muscle.
+
+"I have been thinking it all over, and I remember that there is a
+thousand pounds or two which John Tatham placed for me in a mortgage,
+and which is in my own power."
+
+"Ah!" he said, "a thousand pounds or two," with a shrug of his
+shoulders; "it is scarcely worth while, is it, changing an investment
+for so small a matter as a thousand pounds?"
+
+"If you think so, Philip--it is all I can think of that is in my own
+power."
+
+"It is really not worth the trouble," he said, "and I am in a hurry." He
+made a step towards the door and then turned round again. "Well," he
+said, "just to show there is no ill-feeling, I'll find you something,
+perhaps, to put your tuppenceha'penny in to-day."
+
+And then there was John Tatham to face after that!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+It cost Mrs. Dennistoun a struggle to yield to her daughter and her
+daughter's husband, and with her eyes open and no delusion on the
+subject to throw away her two thousand pounds. Two thousand pounds is a
+big thing to throw away. There are many people much richer than Mrs.
+Dennistoun who would have thought it a wicked thing to do, and some who
+would have quarrelled with both daughter and son-in-law rather than do
+so foolish a thing. For it was not merely making a present, so to speak,
+of the money, it was throwing it away. To have given it to Elinor would
+have been nothing, it would have been a pleasure; but in Phil's
+investment Mrs. Dennistoun had no confidence. It was throwing her money
+after Elinor's money into that hungry sea which swallows up everything
+and gives nothing again.
+
+But if that had been difficult for her, it may be imagined with what
+feelings she contemplated her necessary meeting with John Tatham. She
+knew everything he would say--more, she knew what he would look: his
+astonishment, his indignation, the amazement with which he would regard
+it. John was far from being incapable of a sacrifice. Mrs. Dennistoun,
+indeed, did him more than justice in that respect, for she believed that
+he had himself been on the eve of asking Elinor to marry him when she
+was snatched up by, oh, so much less satisfactory a man! which the
+reader knows is not quite the case, though perhaps it required quite as
+much self-denial on John's part to stand by Elinor and maintain her
+cause under her altered circumstances as if it had been the case. But
+notwithstanding this, she knew that John would be angry with what she
+had done or promised to do, and would put every possible impediment in
+her way: and when she sent for him, in order that she might carry out
+her promise, it was with a heart as sick with fright and as much
+disturbed by the idea of a scolding as ever child's was.
+
+John had been very little to the house at Curzon Street. He had dined
+two or three times with Mrs. Dennistoun alone, and once or twice Elinor
+had been of the party; but the Comptons had never any guests at that
+house, and the fact already mentioned that Philip Compton never dined at
+home made it a difficult matter for Mrs. Dennistoun to ask any but her
+oldest friends to the curious little divided house, which was neither
+hers nor theirs. Thus Cousin John had met, but no more, Elinor's
+husband, and neither of the gentlemen had shown the least desire to
+cultivate the acquaintance. John had not expressed his sentiments
+on the subject to any one, but Phil, as was natural, had been more
+demonstrative. "I don't think much of your relations, Nell," he said,
+"if that's a specimen: a prig if ever there was one--and that old sheep
+that was at the wedding, the father of him, I suppose----"
+
+"As they are my relations, Phil, you might speak of them a little more
+respectfully."
+
+"Oh, respectfully! Bless us all! I have no respect for my own, and why I
+should have for yours, my little dear, I confess I can't see. Oh, by the
+way, this is Cousin John, who I used to think by your blushing and all
+that----"
+
+"Phil, I think you are trying to make me angry. Cousin John is the best
+man in the world; but I never blushed--how ridiculous! I might as well
+have blushed to speak of my brother."
+
+"I put no confidence in brothers, unless they're real ones," said Phil;
+"but I'm glad I've seen him, Nell. I doubt after all that you're such a
+fool, when you see us together--eh?" He laughed that laugh of conscious
+superiority which, when it is not perfectly well-founded, sounds so
+fatuous to the hearer. Elinor did not look at him. She turned her head
+away and made no reply.
+
+John, on his part, as has been said, made no remark. If he had possessed
+a wife at home to whom he could have confided his sentiments, as Phil
+Compton had, it is possible that he might have said something not
+unsimilar. But then had he had a wife at home he would have been more
+indifferent to Phil, and might not have cared to criticise him at all.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun received him when he came in obedience to her call, as a
+child might do who had the power of receiving its future corrector. She
+abased herself before him, servilely choosing his favourite subjects,
+talking of what she thought would please him, of former times at the
+Cottage, of Elinor, and her great affection for Cousin John, and so
+forth. I imagine that he had a suspicion of the cause of all this
+sweetness. He looked at her suspiciously, though he allowed himself to
+be drawn into reminiscences, and to feel a half pleasure, half pain in
+the affectionate things that Elinor had said. At length, after some time
+had passed, he asked, in a pause of the conversation, "Was this all you
+wanted with me, aunt, to talk of old times?"
+
+"Wasn't it a good enough pretext for the pleasure of seeing you, John?"
+
+He laughed a little and shook his head.
+
+"An excellent pretext where none was wanted. It is very kind of you to
+think it a pleasure: but you had something also to say?"
+
+"It seems there is no deceiving you, John," she said, and with many
+hesitations and much difficulty, told him her story. She saw him begin
+to flame. She saw his eyes light up, and Mrs. Dennistoun shook in her
+chair. She was not a woman apt to be afraid, but she was frightened now.
+
+Nevertheless, when she had finished her story, John at first spoke no
+word: and when he did find a tongue it was only to say,
+
+"You want to get back the money you have on that mortgage. My dear aunt,
+why did not you tell me so at once?"
+
+"But I have just told you, John."
+
+"Well, so be it. You know it will take a little time; there are some
+formalities that must be gone through. You cannot make a demand on
+people in that way to pay you cash at once."
+
+"Oh, I thought it was so easy to get money--on such very good security
+and paying such a good adequate rate of interest."
+
+"It is easy," he said, "perfectly easy; but it wants a little time: and
+people will naturally wonder, if it is really good security and good
+interest, why you should be in such a hurry to get out of it."
+
+"But surely, to say private reasons--family reasons, that will be
+enough."
+
+"Oh, there is no occasion for giving any reason at all. You wish to do
+it; that is reason enough."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with diffidence, yet also a little
+self-assertion, "I think it is enough."
+
+"Of course, of course." But his eyes were flaming, and Mrs. Dennistoun
+would not allow herself to believe that she had got off. "And may I
+ask--not that I have any right to ask, for of course you have better
+advisers--what do you mean to put the money in, when you have got it
+back?"
+
+"Oh, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "you are implacable, though you
+pretend different. You know what I want with the money, and you
+disapprove of it, and so do I. I am going to throw it away. I know that
+just as well as you do, and I am ashamed of myself: but I am going to do
+it all the same."
+
+"You are going to give it to Elinor? I don't think there is anything to
+disapprove of in that. It is the most natural thing in the world."
+
+"If I could be sure that Elinor would get any good by it," she said.
+
+And then his face suddenly blazed up, so that the former flame in his
+eyes was nothing. He sat for a moment staring at her, and then he said,
+"Yes, if--but I suppose you take the risk." There were a great many
+things on his lips to say, but he said none of them, except hurriedly,
+"You have a motive, I suppose----"
+
+"I have a motive--as futile probably as my act--if I could by that
+means, or any other, acquire an influence----"
+
+John was very seldom, if ever, rude--it was not in his way--but at this
+moment he was so bitterly exasperated that he forgot his manners
+altogether. He burst out into a loud laugh, and then he jumped up to his
+feet and said, "Forgive me. I really have a dozen engagements. I can't
+stay. I'll see to having this business done for you as soon as possible.
+You would rather old Lynch had no hand in it? I'll get it done for you
+at once."
+
+She followed him out to the door as if they had been in the country, and
+that the flowery cottage door, with the great world of down and sky
+outside, instead of Curzon Street: longing to say something that
+would still, at the last moment, gain her John's approval, or his
+understanding at least. But she could think of nothing to say. He had
+promised to manage it all for her: he had not reproached her; and yet
+not content with that she wanted to extort a favourable word from him
+before he should go. But she could not find a word to say. He it was
+only who spoke. He asked when she was going to return home, with his
+hand upon the street door.
+
+"I don't know. I have not made any plans. The house is taken till July."
+
+"And you have enjoyed it?" he said. "It has answered?"
+
+What a cruel, cruel question to put to her! She going so unsuspectingly
+with him to the very door! Philip Compton's servant, always about when
+he was not wanted, spying about to see whom it was that "down-stairs"
+was letting out, came strolling into sight. Anyhow, whether that was the
+reason or not, she made him no reply. He caught her look--a look that
+said more than words--and turned round quickly and held out his hand. "I
+did not mean to be cruel," he said.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no--you did not mean it--you were not cruel. The
+reverse--you are always so kind. Yes, it has answered--I am more glad
+than I can tell you--that I came."
+
+He it was now that looked at her anxiously, while she smiled that
+well-worn smile which is kept for people in trouble. She went in
+afterwards and sat silent for some time, covering her face with her
+hands; in which attitude Elinor found her after her afternoon visitors
+had gone away.
+
+"What is it, mother? What is it, dear mother? Something has happened to
+vex you."
+
+"Nothing, nothing, Elinor. John Tatham has been here. He is going to do
+that little piece of business for me."
+
+"And he--has been bullying you too? poor mamma!"
+
+"On the contrary, he did not say a word. He considered it--quite
+natural."
+
+Elinor gave her mother a kiss. She had nothing to say. Neither of them
+had a word to say to the other. The thought that passed through both
+their minds was: "After all it is only two thousand pounds"--and then,
+_après_? was Elinor's thought. And then, never more, never more! was
+what passed through Mrs. Dennistoun's mind.
+
+Phil Compton smiled upon her that day she handed him over the money. "It
+is a great pity you took the trouble," he said. "It is a pity to change
+an investment for such a bagatelle as two thousand pounds. Still, if
+you insist upon it, mamma. I suppose Nell's been bragging of the big
+interest, but you never will feel it on a scrap like this. If you would
+let me double your income for you now."
+
+"You know, Philip, I cannot. The trustees would never consent."
+
+"Bother trustees. They are the ruin of women," he said, and as he left
+the room he turned back to ask her how long she was going to stay in
+town.
+
+"How long do you stay?"
+
+"Oh, till Goodwood always," said Phil. "Nell's looking forward to it,
+and there's generally some good things just at the end when the heavy
+people have gone away; but I thought you might not care to stay so
+long."
+
+"I came not for town, but for Elinor, Philip."
+
+"Exactly so. But don't you think Elinor has shown herself quite able to
+take care of herself--not to say that she has me? It's a thousand pities
+to keep you from the country which you prefer, especially as, after all,
+Nell can be so little with you."
+
+"It would be much better for her at present, Philip, to come with me,
+and rest at home, while you go to Goodwood. For the sake of the future
+you ought to persuade her to do it."
+
+"I daresay. Try yourself to persuade her to leave me. She won't, you
+know. But why should you bore yourself to death staying on here? You
+don't like it, and nobody----"
+
+"Wants me, you mean, Philip."
+
+"I never said anything so dashed straightforward. I am not a chap of
+that kind. But what I say is, it's a shame to keep you hanging on,
+disturbed in your rest and all that sort of thing. That noisy beggar,
+Dismar, that came in with us last night must have woke you up with his
+idiotic bellowing."
+
+"It doesn't matter for me; but Elinor, Philip. It does matter for your
+wife. If her rest is broken it will react upon her in every way. I wish
+you would consent to forego those visitors in the middle of the night."
+
+He looked at her with a sort of satirical indifference. "Sorry I can't
+oblige you," he said. "When a girl's friends fork out handsomely a man
+has some reason for paying a little attention. But when there's nothing,
+or next to nothing, on her side, why of course he must pick up a little
+where he can, as much for her sake as his own."
+
+"Pick up a little!" said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't repeat what I say like that. It makes a fellow
+nervous. Yes, of course, a man that knows what he's about does pick up a
+little. About your movements, however. I advise you to take my advice
+and go back to your snug little house. It would kill me in a week, but I
+know it suits you. Why hang on for Nell? She's as well as can be, and
+there's a few things that it would be good for us to do."
+
+"Which you cannot do while I am here? Is that what you mean, Philip?"
+
+"I never saw any good in being what the French call brutal," he said, "I
+hate making a woman cry, or that sort of thing. But you're a woman of
+sense, and I'm sure you must see that a young couple like Nell and me,
+who have our way to make in the world----"
+
+"You know it was for her sake entirely that I came here."
+
+"Yes, oh, yes. To do coddling and that sort of thing--which she doesn't
+require a bit; but if I must be brutal you know there's things of much
+consequence we could do if----"
+
+"If what, Philip?"
+
+"Well," he said, turning on his heel, "if we had the house to
+ourselves."
+
+This was the influence Mrs. Dennistoun hoped to acquire by the sacrifice
+of her two thousand pounds! When he was gone, instead of covering her
+face as she had done when John left her, Mrs. Dennistoun stared into the
+vacant air for a minute and then she burst into a laugh. It was not a
+mirthful laugh, it may be supposed, or harmonious, and it startled her
+as she heard it pealing into the silence. Whether it was loud enough to
+wake Elinor up-stairs, or whether she was already close by and heard it,
+I cannot tell, but she came in with a little tap at the door and a
+smile, a somewhat anxious and forced smile, it is true, upon her face.
+
+"What is the joke?" she said. "I heard you laugh, and I thought I might
+come in and share the fun. Somehow, we don't have so much fun as we used
+to have. What is it, mamma?"
+
+"It is only a witticism of Philip's, who has been in to see me," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun. "I won't repeat it, for probably I should lose the
+point of it--you know I always did spoil a joke in repeating it. I have
+been speaking to him," she said, after a little pause, during which both
+her laugh and Elinor's smile evaporated in the most curious way, leaving
+both of them very grave--"of going away, Elinor."
+
+"Of going away!" Elinor suddenly assumed a startled look; but there is
+a difference between doing that and being really startled, which her
+mother, alas! was quite enlightened enough to see; and surely once more
+there was that mingled relief and relaxation in the lines of her face
+which Mrs. Dennistoun had seen before.
+
+"Yes, my darling," she said, "it is June, and everything at the Cottage
+will be in full beauty. And, perhaps, it would do you more good to come
+down there for a day or two when there is nothing doing than to have me
+here, which, after all, has not been of very much use to you."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, mamma. Use!--it has been of comfort unspeakable.
+But," Elinor added, hurriedly, "I see the force of all you say. To
+remain in London at this time of the year must be a far greater
+sacrifice than I have any right to ask of you, mamma."
+
+Oh, the furtive, hurried, unreal words! which were such pain and horror
+to say with the consciousness of the true sentiment lying underneath;
+which made Elinor's heart sink, yet were brought forth with a sort of
+hateful fervour, to imitate truth.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun saw it all. There are times when the understanding of
+such a woman is almost equal to those "larger other eyes" with which it
+is our fond hope those who have left us for a better country see, if
+they are permitted to see, our petty doings, knowing, better than we
+know ourselves, what excuses, what explanations, they are capable of.
+"As for the sacrifice," she said, "we will say nothing of that, Elinor.
+It is a vain thing to say that if my life would do you any pleasure--for
+you don't want to take my life, and probably the best thing I can do
+for you is to go on as long as I can. But in the meantime there's no
+question at all of sacrifice--and if you can come down now and then for
+a day, and sleep in the fresh air----"
+
+"I will, I will, mamma," said Elinor, hiding her face on her mother's
+shoulder; and they would have been something more than women if they had
+not cried together as they held each other in that embrace--in which
+there was so much more than met either eye or ear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+It was about the 10th of June when Mrs. Dennistoun left London. She had
+been in town for about five weeks, which looked like as many months, and
+it was with a mingled sense of relief, and of that feeling which is like
+death in the heart, the sense of nothing further to be done, of the end
+of opportunity, the conclusion of all power to help, which sometimes
+comes over an anxious mind, without in any respect diminishing the
+anxiety, giving it indeed a depth and pang beyond any other feeling that
+is known to the heart of man. What could she do more for her child?
+Nothing. It was her only policy to remain away, not to see, certainly
+not to remark anything that was happening, to wait if perhaps the moment
+might come when she would be of use, and to hope that perhaps that
+moment might never need to come, that by some wonderful turn of affairs
+all might yet go well. She went back to Windyhill with the promise of a
+visit "soon," Philip himself had said--in the pleasure of getting the
+house, which was her house, which she had paid for and provisioned, to
+himself for his own uses. Mrs. Dennistoun could not help hearing through
+her maid something of the festivities which were in prospect after she
+was gone, the dinners and gay receptions at which she would have been
+_de trop_. She did not wish to hear of them, but these are things that
+will make themselves known, and Mrs. Dennistoun had to face the fact
+that Elinor was more or less consenting to the certainty of her mother
+being _de trop_, which gave her a momentary pang. But after all, what
+did it matter? It was not her fault, poor child. I have known a loving
+daughter in whose mind there was a sentiment almost of relief amid her
+deep grief when her tender mother died. Could such a thing be possible?
+It was; because after then, however miserable she might be, there was no
+conflict over her, no rending of the strained heart both ways. A woman
+who has known life learns to understand and forgive a great many things;
+and Mrs. Dennistoun forgave her Elinor, her only child, for whose
+happiness she had lived, in that she was almost glad when her mother
+went away.
+
+Such things, however, do not make a lonely little house in the country
+more cheerful, or tend to make it easier to content one's self with the
+Rector's family, and the good old, simple-minded, retired people, with
+their little complaints, yet general peacefulness, and incompetence to
+understand what tragedy was. They thought on the whole their neighbour
+at the Cottage ought to be very thankful that she had got her daughter
+well, or, if not very well, at least fashionably, married, with good
+connections and all that, which are always of use in the long run. It
+was better than marrying a poor curate, which was almost the only chance
+a girl had on Windyhill.
+
+It was a little hard upon Mrs. Dennistoun, however, that she lost not
+only Elinor, but John, who had been so good about coming down when she
+was all alone at first. Of course, during the season, a young rising
+man, with engagements growing upon him every day, was very unlikely to
+have his Saturdays to Mondays free. So many people live out of town
+nowadays, or, at least, have a little house somewhere to which they go
+from Saturday to Monday, taking their friends with them. This was no
+doubt the reason why John never came; and yet the poor lady suspected
+another reason, and though she no longer laughed as she had done on
+that occasion when the Honourable Phil gave her her dismissal, a smile
+would come over her face sometimes when she reflected that with her two
+thousand pounds she had purchased the hostility of both Philip and John.
+
+John Tatham was indeed exceedingly angry with her for the weakness with
+which she had yielded to Phil Compton's arguments, though indeed he knew
+nothing of Phil Compton's arguments, nor whether they had been exercised
+at all on the woman who was first of all Elinor's mother and ready to
+sacrifice everything to her comfort. When he found that this foolish
+step on her part had been followed by her retirement from London, he was
+greatly mystified and quite unable to understand. He met Elinor some
+time after at one of those assemblies to which "everybody" goes. It was,
+I think, the soirée at the Royal Academy--where amid the persistent
+crowd in the great room there was a whirling crowd, twisting in and out
+among the others, bound for heaven knows how many other places, and
+pausing here and there on tiptoe to greet an acquaintance, at the tail
+of which, carried along by its impetus, was Elinor. She was not looking
+either well or happy, but she was responding more or less to the impulse
+of her set, exchanging greetings and banal words with dozens of people,
+and sometimes turning a wistful and weary gaze towards the pictures on
+the walls, as if she would gladly escape from the mob of her companions
+to them, or anywhere. It was no impulse of taste or artistic feeling,
+however, it is to be feared, but solely the weariness of her mind. John
+watched her for some time before he approached her. Phil was not of the
+party, which was nothing extraordinary, for little serious as that
+assembly is, it was still of much too serious a kind for Phil; but Lady
+Mariamne was there, and other ladies with whom Elinor was in the habit
+of pursuing that gregarious hunt after pleasure which carries the train
+of votaries along at so breakneck a pace, and with so little time to
+enjoy the pleasure they are pursuing. When he saw indications that the
+stream was setting backwards to the entrance, again to separate and
+take its various ways to other entertainments, he broke into the throng
+and called Elinor's attention to himself. For a moment she smiled with
+genuine pleasure at the sight of him, but then changed her aspect almost
+imperceptibly. "Oh, John!" she said with that smile: but immediately
+looked towards Lady Mariamne, as if undecided what to do.
+
+"You need not look--as if I would try to detain you, Elinor."
+
+"Do you think I am afraid of your detaining me? I thought I should be
+sure to meet you to-night, and was on the outlook. How is it that we
+never see you now?"
+
+He refused the natural retort that she had never asked to see him, and
+only said, with a smile, "I hear my aunt is gone."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you only came for her? That is an unkind
+speech. Yes, she has gone. It was cruel to keep her in town for the best
+part of the year."
+
+"But she intended to stay till July, Elinor."
+
+"Did she? I think you are mistaken, John. She intended to watch over
+me--dear mamma, she thinks too much of me--but when she saw that I was
+quite well----"
+
+"You don't look to me so extraordinarily well."
+
+"Don't I? I must be a fraud then. Nobody could be stronger. I'm going to
+a multitude of places to-night. Wherever my Hebrew leader goes I go,"
+said Elinor, with a laugh. "I have given myself up for to-night, and she
+is never satisfied with less than a dozen."
+
+"Ten minutes to each."
+
+"Oh, half an hour at least: and with having our carriage found for us at
+every place, and the risk of getting into a _queue_, and all the delays
+of coming and going, it cannot be much less than three-quarters of an
+hour. This is the third. I think three more will weary even the Jew."
+
+"You are with Lady Mariamne then, Elinor?"
+
+"Yes--oh, you need not make that face. She is as good as the rest, and
+pretends to nothing, at least. I have no carriage, you know, and Phil
+took fright at my dear old fly. He thought a hired brougham was not good
+when I was alone."
+
+"That was quite true. Nevertheless, I should like above all things to
+keep you here a little longer to look at some of the pictures, and take
+you home in a hansom after."
+
+She laughed. "Oh, so should I--fancy, I have not seen the pictures, not
+at all. We came in a mob to the private view; and then one day I was
+coming with mamma, but was stopped by something, and now---- Always
+people, people--nothing else. 'Did you see So-and-so? There's some one
+bowing to you, Nell. Be sure you speak a word to the Thises or the
+Thats'--while I don't care for one of them. But I fear the hansom would
+not do, John."
+
+"It would have done very well in the old days. Your mother would not
+have been displeased."
+
+"The old days are gone and will never return," she said, half sad, half
+smiling, shaking her head. "So far as I can see, nothing ever returns.
+You have your day, and if you do not make the best of that----"
+
+She stopped, shaking her head again with a laugh, and there were various
+ways in which that speech might be interpreted. John for one knew a
+sense of it which he believed had never entered Elinor's head. He too
+might have had his day and let it slip. "So you are making the most of
+yours," he said. "I hear that you are very gay."
+
+Elinor coloured high under his look. "I don't know who can have told you
+that. We have had a few little dinners since mamma left us, chiefly
+Phil's business friends. I would not have them while she was with
+us--that is to say, to be honest," cried Elinor, "while we were with
+her: which of course was the real state of the case. I myself don't like
+those people, John, but they would have been insupportable to mamma. It
+was for her sake----"
+
+"I understand," he said.
+
+"Oh, but you must not say 'I understand' with that air of knowing a
+great deal more than there is to understand," she said, with heat.
+"Mamma said it would do me much more good to go--home for a night now
+and then and sleep in the fresh air than for her to stay; and though I
+think she is a little insane on the subject of my health, still it was
+certainly better than that she should stay here, making herself
+wretched, her rest broken, and all that. You know we keep such late
+hours."
+
+"I should not have thought she would have minded that."
+
+"But what would you have thought of me if I did not mind it for her?
+There, John, do you see they are all going? Ah, the pictures! I wish I
+could have stayed with you and gone round the rooms. But it must not be
+to-night. Come and see me!" she said, turning round to him with a smile,
+and holding out her hand.
+
+"I would gladly, Elinor--but should not I find myself in the way of your
+fine friends like----"
+
+He had not the heart to finish the sentence when he met her eyes
+brimming full of tears.
+
+"Not my fine friends, but my coarse friends," she said; "not friends at
+all, our worst enemies, I am sure."
+
+"Nell!" cried Lady Mariamne, in her shrill voice.
+
+"You will come and see me, John?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "and in the meantime I will take you down-stairs, let
+your companions think as they please."
+
+It proved when he did so that John had to escort both ladies to the
+carriage, which it was not very easy to find, no other cavalier being at
+hand for the moment; and that Lady Mariamne invited him to accompany
+them to their next stage. "You know the Durfords, of course. You are
+going there? What luck for us, Nell! Jump in, Mr. Tatham, we will take
+you on."
+
+"Unfortunately Lady Durford has not taken the trouble to invite me,"
+said John.
+
+"What does that matter? Jump in, all the same, she'll be delighted to
+see you, and as for not asking you, when you are with me and Nell----"
+
+But John turned a deaf ear to this siren's song.
+
+He went to Curzon Street a little while after to call, as he had been
+invited to do, and went late to avoid the bustle of the tea-table, and
+the usual rabble of that no longer intimate but wildly gregarious house.
+And he was not without his reward. Perhaps a habit he had lately formed
+of passing by Curzon Street in the late afternoon, when he was on his
+way to his club, after work was over, had something to do with his
+choice of this hour. He found Elinor, as he had hoped, alone. She was
+sitting so close to the window that her white dress mingled with the
+white curtains, so that he did not at first perceive her, and so much
+abstracted in her own thoughts that she did not pay any attention to the
+servant's hurried murmur of his name at the door. When she felt rather
+than saw that there was some one in the room, Elinor jumped up with a
+shock of alarm that seemed unnecessary in her own drawing-room; then
+seeing who it was, was so much and so suddenly moved that she shed a few
+tears in some sudden revulsion of feeling as she said, "Oh, it is you,
+John!"
+
+"Yes," he said, "but I am very sorry to see you so nervous."
+
+"Oh, it's nothing. I was always nervous"--which indeed was the purest
+invention, for Elinor Dennistoun had not known what nerves meant. "I
+mean I was always startled by any sudden entrance--in this way," she
+cried, and very gravely asked him to be seated, with a curious
+assumption of dignity. Her demeanour altogether was incomprehensible to
+John.
+
+"I hope," he said, "you were not displeased with me, Elinor, for going
+off the other night. I should have been too happy, you know, to go with
+you anywhere; but Lady Mariamne is more than I can stand."
+
+"I was very glad you did not come," she said with a sigh; then smiling
+faintly, "But you were ungrateful, for Mariamne formed a most favourable
+opinion of you. She said, 'Why didn't you tell me, Nell, you had a
+cousin so presentable as that?'"
+
+"I am deeply obliged, Elinor; but it seems that what was a compliment to
+me personally involved something the reverse for your other relations."
+
+"It is one of their jokes," said Elinor, with a voice that faltered a
+little, "to represent my relations as--not in a complimentary way. I am
+supposed not to mind, and it's all a joke, or so they tell me; but it is
+not a joke I like," she said, with a flash from her eyes.
+
+"All families have jokes of that description," said John; "but tell me,
+Nelly, are you really going down to the cottage, to your mother?"
+
+Her eyes thanked him with a gleam of pleasure for the old familiar name,
+and then the light went out of them. "I don't know," she said, abruptly.
+"Phil was to come; if he will not, I think I will not either. But I will
+say nothing till I make sure."
+
+"Of course your first duty is to him," said John; "but a day now or a
+day then interferes with nothing, and the country would be good for you,
+Elinor. Doesn't your husband see it? You are not looking like yourself."
+
+"Not like myself? I might easily look better than myself. I wish I
+could. I am not so bigoted about myself."
+
+"Your friends are, however," he said: "no one who cares for you wants to
+change you, even for another Elinor. Come, you are nervous altogether
+to-night, not like yourself, as I told you. You always so courageous and
+bright! This depressed state is not one of your moods. London is too
+much for you, my little Nelly."
+
+"Your little Nellie has gone away somewhere John. I doubt if she'll ever
+come back. Yes, London is rather too much for me, I think. It's such a
+racket, as Phil says. But then he's used to it, you know. He was brought
+up to it, whereas I--I think I hate a racket, John--and they all like it
+so. They prefer never having a moment to themselves. I daresay one
+would end by being just the same. It keeps you from thinking, that is
+one very good thing."
+
+"You used not to think so, Elinor."
+
+"No," she said, "not at the Cottage among the flowers, where nothing
+ever happened from one year's end to another. I should die of it now in
+a week--at least if not I, those who belong to me. So on the whole
+perhaps London is the safest--unless Phil will go."
+
+"I can only hope you will be able to persuade him," said John, rising to
+go away, "for whatever you may think, you are a country bird, and you
+want the fresh air."
+
+"Are you going, John? Well, perhaps it is better. Good-by. Don't trouble
+your mind about me whether I go or stay."
+
+"Do you mean I am not to come again, Elinor?"
+
+"Oh, why should I mean that?" she said. "You are so hard upon me in your
+thoughts;" but she did not say that he was wrong, and John went out from
+the door saying to himself that he would not go again. He saw through
+the open door of the dining-room that the table was prepared sumptuously
+for a dinner-party. It was shining with silver and crystal, the silver
+Mrs. Dennistoun's old service, which she had brought up with her from
+Windyhill, and which as a matter of convenience she had left behind with
+her daughter. Would it ever, he wondered, see Windyhill again?
+
+He went on to his club, and there some one began to amuse him with an
+account of Lady Durford's ball, to which Lady Mariamne had wished to
+take him. "Are not those Comptons relations of yours, Tatham?" he said.
+
+"Connections," said John, "by marriage."
+
+"I'm very glad that's all. They are a queer lot. Phil Compton you
+know--the dis-Honourable Phil, as he used to be called--but I hear he's
+turned over a new leaf----"
+
+"What of him?" said John.
+
+"Oh, nothing much: only that he was flirting desperately all the evening
+with a Mrs. Harris, an American widow. I believe he came with her--and
+his own wife there--much younger, much prettier, a beautiful young
+creature--looking on with astonishment. You could see her eyes growing
+bigger and bigger. If it had not been kind of amusing to a looker-on, it
+would be the most pitiful sight in the world."
+
+"I advise you not to let yourself be amused by such trifles," said John
+Tatham, with a look of fire and flame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+As a matter of fact, Elinor did not go to the Cottage for the fresh air
+or anything else. She made one hurried run in the afternoon to bid her
+mother good-by, alone, which was not a visit, but the mere pretence of a
+visit, hurried and breathless, in which there was no time to talk of
+anything. She gave Mrs. Dennistoun an account of the usual lists of
+visits that her husband and she were to make in the autumn, which the
+mother, with the usual instinct of mothers, thought too much. "You will
+wear yourself to death, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, no," she said, "it is not that sort of thing that wears one to
+death. I shall--enjoy it, I suppose, as other people do----"
+
+"I don't know about enjoyment, Elinor, but I am sure it would be much
+better for you to come and stay here quietly with me."
+
+"Oh, don't talk to me of any paradises, mamma. We are in the working-day
+world, and we must make out our life as we can."
+
+"But you might let Philip go by himself and come and stay quietly here
+for a little, for the sake of your health, Elinor."
+
+"Not for the world, not for the world," she cried. "I cannot leave
+Phil:" and then with a laugh that was full of a nervous thrill, "You
+are always thinking of my health, mamma, when my health is perfect:
+better, far better, than almost anybody's. The most of them have
+headaches and that sort of thing, and they stay in bed for a day or two
+constantly, but I never need anything of the kind."
+
+"My darling, it would not be leaving Philip to take, say, a single
+week's rest."
+
+"While he went off without me I should not know where," she said,
+sullenly; then gave her mother a guilty look and laughed again. "No,
+no, mamma; he would not like it. A man does not like his wife to be an
+incapable, to have to leave him and be nursed up by her mother. Besides,
+it is to the country we are going, you know, to Scotland, the finest
+air; better even, if that were possible, than Windyhill."
+
+This was all that was said, and there was indeed time for little more;
+for as the visit was unexpected the Hudsons, by bad luck, appeared to
+take tea with Mrs. Dennistoun by way of cheering her in her loneliness,
+and were of course enchanted to see Elinor, and to hear, as Mrs. Hudson
+said, of all her doings in the great world. "We always look out for your
+name at all the parties. It gives one quite an interest in fashionable
+life," said the Rector's wife, nodding her head, "and Alice was eager to
+hear what the last month's novelties were in the fashions, and if Elinor
+had any nice new patterns, especially for under-things. But what should
+you want with new under-things, with such a trousseau as you had?" she
+added, regretfully. Elinor in fact was quite taken from her mother for
+that hour. Was it not, perhaps, better so? Her mother herself was half
+inclined to think that it was, though with an ache in her heart, and
+there could be no doubt that Elinor herself was thankful that it so
+happened. When there are many questions on one side that must be asked,
+and very little answer possible on the other, is it a good thing when
+the foolish outside world breaks in with its _banal_ interest and
+prevents this dangerous interchange?
+
+So short time did Elinor stay that she had kept the fly waiting which
+brought her from the station: and she took leave of her mother with a
+sort of determination, not allowing it even to be suggested that she
+should accompany her. "I like to bid you good-by here," she said, "at
+our own door, where you have always come all my life to see me off, even
+when I was only going to tea at the Rectory. Good-by, good-by, mother
+dear." She drove off waving her hand, and Mrs. Dennistoun sat out in the
+garden a long time till she saw the fly go round the turn of the road,
+the white line which came suddenly in sight from among the trees and as
+suddenly disappeared again round the side of the hill. Elinor waved her
+handkerchief from the window and her mother answered--and then she was
+gone like a dream, and the loneliness closed down more overwhelming than
+ever before.
+
+Elinor was at Goodwood, her name in all the society papers, and even a
+description of one of her dresses, which delighted and made proud the
+whole population of Windyhill. The paper which contained it, and which,
+I believe, belonged originally to Miss Dale, passed from hand to hand
+through almost the entire community; the servants getting it at last,
+and handing it round among the humbler friends, who read it, half a
+dozen women together round a cottage door, wiping their hands upon their
+aprons before they would touch the paper, with many an exclamation and
+admiring outcry. And then her name appeared among the lists of smart
+people who were going to the North--now here, now there--in company with
+many other fine names. It gave the Windyhill people a great deal of
+amusement, and if Mrs. Dennistoun did not quite share this feeling it
+was a thing for which her friends blamed her gently. "For only think
+what a fine thing for Elinor to go everywhere among the best people, and
+see life like that!" "My dear friend," said the Rector, "you know we
+cannot hope to keep our children always with us. They must go out into
+the world while we old birds stay at home; and we must not--we really
+must not--grudge them their good times, as the Americans say." It was
+more wonderful than words could tell to Mrs. Dennistoun that it should
+be imagined she was grudging Elinor her "good time!"
+
+The autumn went on, with those occasional public means of following her
+footsteps which, indeed, made even John Tatham--who was not in an
+ordinary way addicted to the _Morning Post_, being after his fashion a
+Liberal in politics and far from aristocratical in his sentiments
+generally--study that paper, and also other papers less worthy: and
+with, of course, many letters from Elinor, which gave more trustworthy
+accounts of her proceedings. These letters, however, were far less long,
+far less detailed, than they had once been; often written in a hurry,
+and short, containing notes of where she was going, and of a continual
+change of address, rather than of anything that could be called
+information about herself. John, I think, went only once to the Cottage
+during the interval which followed. He went abroad as usual in
+the Long Vacation, and then he had this on his mind--that he had
+half-surreptitiously obtained a new light upon the position of Elinor,
+which he had every desire to keep from her mother; for Mrs. Dennistoun,
+though she felt that her child was not happy, attributed that to
+any reason rather than a failure in her husband's love. Elinor's
+hot rejection of the very idea of leaving Phil, her dislike of any
+suggestion to that effect, even for a week, even for a day, seemed to
+her mother a proof that her husband, at all events, remained as dear to
+her as ever; and John would rather have cut his tongue out than betray
+any chance rumour he heard--and he heard many--to this effect. He was of
+opinion, indeed, that in London, and especially at a London club, not
+only is everything known that is to be known, but much is known that has
+never existed, and never will exist if not blown into being by those
+whose office it is to invent the grief to come; therefore he thought it
+wisest to keep away, lest by any chance something might drop from him
+which would awaken a new crowd of disquietudes in Mrs. Dennistoun's
+heart. Another incident, even more disquieting than gossip, had indeed
+occurred to John. It had happened to him to meet Lady Mariamne at a
+great _omnium gatherum_ of a country house, where all sorts of people
+were invited, and where that lady claimed his acquaintance as one
+of the least alarming of the grave "set." She not only claimed his
+acquaintance, but set up a sort of friendship on the ground of his
+relationship to Elinor, and in an unoccupied moment after dinner one day
+poured a great many confidences into his ear.
+
+"Isn't it such a pity," she said, "that Phil and she do not get on? Oh,
+they did at first, like a house on fire! And if she had only minded her
+ways they might still have been as thick---- But these little country
+girls, however they may disguise it at first, they all turn like that.
+The horridest little puritan! Phil does no more than a hundred men--than
+almost all men do: amuse himself with anything that throws itself in his
+way, don't you know. And sometimes, perhaps, he does go rather far. I
+think myself he sometimes goes a little too far--for good taste you
+know, and that sort of thing."
+
+It was more amazing to hear Lady Mariamne talk of good taste than
+anything that had ever come in John Tatham's way before, but he was too
+horribly, desperately interested to see the fun.
+
+"She will go following him about wherever he goes. She oughtn't to do
+that, don't you know. She should let him take his swing, and the chances
+are it will bring him back all right. I've told her so a dozen times,
+but she pays no attention to me. You're a great pal of hers. Why don't
+you give her a hint? Phil's not the sort of man to be kept in order like
+that. She ought to give him his head."
+
+"I'm afraid," said John, "it's not a matter in which I can interfere."
+
+"Well, some of her friends should, anyhow, and teach her a little sense.
+You're a cautious man, I see," said Lady Mariamne. "You think it's too
+delicate to advise a woman who thinks herself an injured wife. I didn't
+say to console her, mind you," she said with a shriek of a laugh.
+
+It may be supposed that after this John was still more unwilling to go
+to the Cottage, to run the risk of betraying himself. He did write to
+Elinor, telling her that he had heard of her from her sister-in-law; but
+when he tried to take Lady Mariamne's advice and "give her a hint,"
+John felt his lips sealed. How could he breathe a word even of such a
+suspicion to Elinor? How could he let her know that he thought such a
+thing possible?--or presume to advise her, to take her condition for
+granted? It was impossible. He ended by some aimless wish that he might
+meet her at the Cottage for Christmas; "you and Mr. Compton," he
+said--whom he did not wish to meet, the last person in the world: and of
+whom there was no question that he should go to the Cottage at Christmas
+or any other time. But what could John do or say? To suggest to her that
+he thought her an injured wife was beyond his power.
+
+It was somewhere about Christmas--just before--in that dread moment for
+the lonely and those who are in sorrow and distress, when all the rest
+of the world is preparing for that family festival, or pretending to
+prepare, that John Tatham was told one morning in his chambers that a
+lady wanted to see him. He was occupied, as it happened, with a client
+for whom he had stayed in town longer than he had intended to stay, and
+he paid little more attention than to direct his clerk to ask the lady
+what her business was, or if she could wait. The client was long-winded,
+and lingered, but John's mind was not free enough nor his imagination
+lively enough to rouse much curiosity in him in respect to the lady who
+was waiting. It was only when she was ushered in by his clerk, as the
+other went away, and putting up her veil showed the pale and anxious
+countenance of Mrs. Dennistoun, that the shock as of sudden calamity
+reached him. "Aunt!" he cried, springing from his chair.
+
+"Yes, John--I couldn't come anywhere but here--you will feel for me more
+than any one."
+
+"Elinor?" he said.
+
+Her lips were dry, she spoke with a little difficulty, but she nodded
+her head and held out to him a telegram which was in her hand. It was
+dated from a remote part of Scotland, far in the north. "Ill--come
+instantly," was all it said.
+
+"And I cannot get away till night," cried Mrs. Dennistoun, with a burst
+of subdued sobbing. "I can't start till night."
+
+"Is this all? What was your last news?"
+
+"Nothing, but that they had gone there--to somebody's shooting-box,
+which was lent them, I believe--at the end of the world. I wrote to beg
+her to come to me. She is--near a moment--of great anxiety. Oh, John,
+support me: let me not break down."
+
+"You will not," he said; "you are wanted; you must keep all your wits
+about you. What were they doing there at this time of the year?"
+
+"They have been visiting about--they were invited to Dunorban for
+Christmas, but she persuaded Philip, so she said, to take this little
+house. I think he was to join the party while she--I cannot tell you
+what was the arrangement. She has written very vaguely for some time.
+She ought to have been with me--I told her so--but she has always said
+she could not leave Philip."
+
+Could not leave Philip! The mother, fortunately, had no idea why this
+determination was. "I went so far as to write to Philip," she said, "to
+ask him if she might not come to me, or, at least begging him to bring
+her to town, or somewhere where she could have proper attention. He
+answered me very briefly that he wished her to go, but she would not: as
+he had told me before I left town--that was all. It seemed to fret
+him--he must have known that it was not a fit place for her, in a
+stranger's house, and so far away. And to think I cannot even get away
+till late to-night!"
+
+John had to comfort her as well as he could, to make her eat something,
+to see that she had all the comforts possible for her night journey.
+"You were always like her brother," the poor lady said, finding at last
+relief in tears. And then he went with her to the train, and found her a
+comfortable carriage, and placed her in it with all the solaces his mind
+could think of. A sleeping-carriage on the Scotch lines is not such a
+ghastly pretence of comfort as those on the Continent. The solaces John
+brought her--the quantities of newspapers, the picture papers and
+others, rugs and shawls innumerable--all that he possessed in the shape
+of wraps, besides those which she had with her. What more could a man
+do? If she had been young he would have bought her sugar-plums. All that
+they meant were the dumb anxieties of his own breast, and the vague
+longing to do something, anything that would be a help to her on her
+desolate way.
+
+"You will send me a word, aunt, as soon as you get there?"
+
+"Oh, at once, John."
+
+"You will tell me how she is--say as much as you can--no three words,
+like that. I shall not leave town till I hear."
+
+"Oh, John, why should this keep you from your family? I could telegraph
+there as easily as here."
+
+He made a gesture almost of anger. "Do you think I am likely to put
+myself out of the way--not to be ready if you should want me?"
+
+How should she want him?--a mother summoned to her daughter at such a
+moment--but she did not say so to trouble him more: for John had got to
+that maddening point of anxiety when nothing but doing something, or at
+least keeping ready to do something, flattering yourself that there must
+be something to do, affords any balm to the soul.
+
+He saw her away by that night train, crowded with people going
+home--people noisy with gayety, escaping from their daily cares to the
+family meeting, the father's house, all the associations of pleasure
+and warmth and consolation--cold, but happy, in their third-class
+compartments--not wrapped up in every conceivable solace as she was, yet
+no one, perhaps, so heavy-hearted. He watched for the last glimpse of
+her face just as the train plunged into the darkness, and saw her smile
+and wave her hand to him; then he, too, plunged into the darkness like
+the train. He walked and walked through the solitary streets not knowing
+where he was going, unable to rest. Had he ever been, as people say, in
+love with Elinor? He could not tell--he had never betrayed it by word or
+look if he had. He had never taken any step to draw her near him, to
+persuade her to be his and not another's; on the contrary, he had
+avoided everything that could lead to that. Neither could he say, "She
+was as my sister," which his relationship might have warranted him in
+doing. It was neither the one nor the other--she was not his love nor
+his sister--she was simply Elinor; and perhaps she was dying; perhaps
+the news he would receive next day would be the worst that the heart
+can hear. He walked and walked through those dreary, semi-respectable
+streets of London, the quiet, the sordid, the dismal, mile after mile,
+and street after street, till half the night was over and he was tired
+out, and might have a hope of rest.
+
+But for three whole days--days which he could not reckon, which seemed
+of the length of years--during which he remained closeted in his
+chambers, the whole world having, as it seemed, melted away around him,
+leaving him alone, he did not have a word. He did not go home, feeling
+that he must be on the spot, whatever happened. Finally, when he was
+almost mad, on the morning of the third day, he received the following
+telegram: "Saved--as by a miracle; doing well. Child--a boy."
+
+"Child--a boy!" Good heavens! what did he want with that? it seemed an
+insult to him to tell him. What did he care for the child, if it was
+a boy or not?--the wretched, undesirable brat of such parentage, born
+to perpetuate a name which was dishonoured. Altogether the telegram,
+as so many telegrams, but lighted fresh fires of anxiety in his mind.
+"Saved--as by a miracle!" Then he had been right in the dreadful fancies
+that had gone through his mind. He had passed by Death in the dark; and
+was it now sure that the miracle would last, that the danger would have
+passed away?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+It was not till nearly three weeks after this that John received another
+brief dispatch. "At home: come and see us." He had indeed got a short
+letter or two in the interval, saying almost nothing--a brief report
+of Elinor's health, and of the baby, against whom he had taken an
+unreasoning disgust and repugnance. "Little beast!" he said to himself,
+passing over that part of the bulletin: for the letters were scarcely
+more than bulletins, without a word about the circumstances which
+surrounded her. A shooting lodge in Ross-shire in the middle of the
+winter! What a place for a delicate woman! John was well enough aware
+that many elements of comfort were possible even in such a place; but he
+shut his eyes, as was natural, to anything that went against his own
+point of view.
+
+And now this telegram from Windyhill--"At home: come and see us"--_us_.
+Was it a mistake of the telegraph people?--of course they must make
+mistakes. They had no doubt taken the _me_ in Mrs. Dennistoun's angular
+writing for _us_--or was it possible---- John had no peace in his mind
+until he had so managed matters that he could go and see. There was no
+very pressing business in the middle of January, when people had hardly
+yet recovered the idleness of Christmas. He started one windy afternoon,
+when everything was grey, and arrived at Hurrymere station in the dim
+twilight, still ruddy with tints of sunset. He was in a very contradictory
+frame of mind, so that though his heart jumped to see Mrs. Dennistoun
+awaiting him on the platform, there mingled in his satisfaction in
+seeing her and hearing what she had to tell so much sooner, a perverse
+conviction of cold and discomfort in the long drive up in the pony
+carriage which he felt sure was before him. He was mistaken, however, on
+this point, for the first thing she said was, "I have secured the fly,
+John. Old Pearson will take your luggage. I have so much to tell you."
+There was an air of excitement in her face, but not that air of subdued
+and silent depression which comes with solitude. She was evidently full
+of the report she had to make; but yet the first thing she did when she
+was ensconced in the fly with John beside her was to cover her face with
+her hands, and subside into her corner in a silent passion of tears.
+
+"For mercy's sake tell me what is the matter. What has happened? Is
+Elinor ill?"
+
+He had almost asked is Elinor dead?
+
+She uncovered her face, which had suddenly lighted up with a strange
+gleam of joy underneath the tears. "John, Elinor is here," she said.
+
+"Here?"
+
+"At home--safe. I have brought her back--and the child."
+
+"Confound the child!" John said in his excitement. "Brought her back!
+What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, John, it is a long story. I have a hundred things to tell you, and
+to ask your advice upon; but the main thing is that she is here. I have
+brought her away from him. She will go back no more."
+
+"She has left her husband?" he said, with a momentary flicker of
+exultation in his dismay. But the dismay, to do him justice, was the
+strongest. He looked at his companion almost sternly. "Things," he said,
+"must have been very serious to justify that."
+
+"They were more than serious--they had become impossible," Mrs.
+Dennistoun said.
+
+And she told him her story, which was a long one. She had arrived to
+find Elinor alone in the little solitary lodge in the midst of the
+wilds, not without attention indeed or comfort, but alone, her husband
+absent. She had been very ill, and he had been at the neighbouring
+castle, where a great party was assembled, and where, the mother
+discovered at last, there was--the woman who had made Elinor's life a
+burden to her. "I don't know with what truth. I don't know whether there
+is what people call any harm in it. It is possible he is only amusing
+himself. I can't tell. But it has made Elinor miserable this whole
+autumn through, that and a multitude of other things. She would not let
+me send for him when I got there. It had gone so far as that. She said
+that the whole business disgusted him, that he had lost all interest in
+her, that to hear it was over might be a relief to him, but nothing
+more. Her heart has turned altogether against him, John, in every way.
+There have been a hundred things. You think I am almost wickedly glad to
+have her home. And so I am. I cannot deny it. To have her here even in
+her trouble makes all the difference to me. But I am not so careless as
+you think. I can look beyond to other things. I shrink as much as you do
+from such a collapse of her life. I don't want her to give up her duty,
+and now that there is the additional bond of the child----"
+
+"Oh, for heaven's sake," said John, "leave the child out of it! I want
+to hear nothing of the child!"
+
+"That is one chief point, however, that we want your advice about, John.
+A man, I suppose, does not understand it; but her baby is everything to
+Elinor: and I suppose--unless he can really be proved as guilty as she
+thinks--he could take the child away."
+
+John smiled to himself a little bitterly: this was why he was sent for
+in such a hurry, not for the sake of his society, or from any affection
+for him, but that he might tell them what steps to take to secure them
+in possession of the child. He said nothing for some time, nor did Mrs.
+Dennistoun, whose disappointment in the coldness of his response was
+considerable, and who waited in vain for him to speak. At length she
+said, almost tremblingly, "I am afraid you disapprove very much of the
+whole business, John."
+
+"I hope it has not been done rashly," he said. "The husband's mere
+absence, though heartless as--as I should have expected of the
+fellow--would yet not be reason enough to satisfy any--court."
+
+"Any court! You don't think she means to bring him before any court? She
+wants only to be left alone. We ask nothing from him, not a penny, not
+any money--surely, surely no revenge--only not to be molested. There
+shall not be a word said on our side, if he will but let her alone."
+
+John shook his head. "It all depends upon the view the man takes of it,"
+he said.
+
+Now this was very cold comfort to Mrs. Dennistoun, who had by this time
+become very secure in her position, feeling herself entirely justified
+in all that she had done. "The man," she said, "the man is not the
+sufferer: and surely the woman has some claim to be heard."
+
+"Every claim," said John. "That is not what I was thinking of. It is
+this: if the man has a leg to stand upon, he will show fight. If he
+hasn't--why that will make the whole difference, and probably Elinor's
+position will be quite safe. But you yourself say----"
+
+"John, don't throw back upon me what I myself said. I said that perhaps
+things were not so bad as she believed. In my experience I have found
+that folly, and playing with everything that is right is more common
+than absolute wrong--and men like Philip Compton are made up of levity
+and disregard of everything that is serious."
+
+"In that case," said John, "if you are right, he will not let her go."
+
+"Oh, John! oh, John! don't make me wish that he may be a worse man than
+I think. He could not force her to go back to him, feeling as she does."
+
+"Nobody can force a woman to do that; but he could perhaps make her
+position untenable; he would, perhaps, take away the child."
+
+"John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, in alarm, "if you tell her that, she will
+fly off with him to the end of the world. She will die before she will
+part with the child."
+
+"I suppose that's how women are made," said John, not yet cured of his
+personal offence.
+
+"Yes," she said, "that's how women are made."
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, coming to himself; "but you know, aunt, a
+man may be pardoned for not understanding that supreme fascination of
+the baby who cares no more for one than another, poor little animal, so
+long as it gets its food and is warm enough. We must await and see what
+the man will do."
+
+"Is that the best?--is there nothing we can do to defend ourselves in
+the meantime--to make any sort of barricade against him?"
+
+"We must wait and see what he is going to do," said John; and they went
+over and over the question, again and again, as they climbed the hills.
+It grew quite dark as they drove along, and when they came out upon the
+open part of the road, from which the Cottage was visible, they both
+looked out across the combe to the lights in the windows with an
+involuntary movement. The Cottage was transformed; instead of the one
+lonely lighted window which had indicated to John in former visits where
+Mrs. Dennistoun sat alone, there was now a twinkle from various points,
+a glow of firelight, a sensation of warmth, and company. Mrs. Dennistoun
+looked out upon it and her face shone. It was not a happy thing that
+Elinor should have made shipwreck of her life, should have left her
+husband and sought refuge in her mother's house. But how could it be
+otherwise than happy that Elinor was there--Elinor and the other little
+creature who was something more than Elinor, herself and yet another?
+As for John, he looked at it too, with an interest which stopped all
+arguments on the cause of it. She was there--wrong, perhaps, impatient;
+too quick to fly as she had been too quick to go--but still Elinor all
+the same, whether she was right or wrong.
+
+The cab arrived soberly at the door, where Pearson with the pony
+carriage, coming by the shorter way with the luggage, had just arrived
+also. Mrs. Dennistoun said, hurriedly, "You will find Elinor in the
+drawing-room, John," and herself went hastily through the house and up
+the stairs. She was going to the baby! John guessed this with a smile of
+astonishment and half contempt. How strange it was! There could not be
+a more sad position than that in which, in their rashness, these two
+women had placed themselves; and yet the mother, a woman of experience,
+who ought to have known better, got out of the carriage like a girl,
+without waiting to be helped or attended to, and went up-stairs like
+the wind, forgetting everything else for that child--that child, the
+inheritor of Phil Compton's name and very likely of his qualities--fated
+from his birth (most likely) to bring trouble to everybody connected
+with him! And yet Elinor was of less interest to her mother. What
+strange caprices of nature! what extraordinary freaks of womankind!
+
+The Cottage down-stairs was warm and bright with firelight and
+lamplight, and in the great chair by the fire was reclining, lying back
+with her book laid on her lap and her face full of eager attention to
+the sounds outside, a pale young woman, surrounded by cushions and warm
+wraps and everything an invalid could require, who raised to him eyes
+more large and shining than he had ever seen before, suffused with a dew
+of pain and pleasure and eager welcome. Elinor, was it Elinor? He had
+never seen her in any way like an invalid before--never knew her to
+be ill, or weak, or unable to walk out to the door and meet him or
+anyone she cared for. The sight of her ailing, weak, with those large
+glistening eyes, enlarged by feebleness, went to his very heart.
+Fortunately he did not in any way connect this enfeebled state with the
+phenomenon up-stairs, which was best for all parties. He hurried up to
+her, taking her thin hands into his own.
+
+"Elinor! my poor little Nelly--can this be you!"
+
+The water that was in her eyes rolled over in two great tears; a brief
+convulsion went over her face. "Yes, John," she said, almost in a
+whisper. "Strange as it may seem, this is all that is left of me."
+
+He sat down beside her and for a moment neither of them spoke. Pity,
+tenderness, wrath, surged up together in John's breast; pity, tender
+compassion, most strong of all. Poor little thing; this was how she had
+come back to her home; her heart broken, her wings broken, as it were;
+all her soaring and swiftness and energy gone. He could scarcely look
+upon her for the pity that overflowed his heart. But underneath lay
+wrath, not only against the man who had brought her to such a pass, but
+against herself too.
+
+"John," she said, after a while, "do you remember saying to me that I
+was not one to bear, to put up with things, to take the consequences if
+I tried a dangerous experiment and failed?"
+
+"Did I ever say anything so silly and so cruel?"
+
+"Oh, no, no; it was neither silly nor unkind, but quite, quite true. I
+have thought of it so often. I used to think of it to stir up my pride,
+to remind myself that I ought to try to be better than my nature, not to
+allow you to be a true prophet. But it was so, and I couldn't change it.
+You can see you were right, John, for I have not been like a strong
+woman, able to endure; I have only been able to run away."
+
+"My poor little Nelly!"
+
+"Don't pity me," she said, the tears running over again. "I am too well
+off; I am too well taken care of. A prodigal should not be made so much
+of as I am."
+
+"Don't call yourself a prodigal, Nelly! Perhaps things may not be as bad
+as they appear. At least, it is but the first fall--the greatest athlete
+gets many before he can stand against the world."
+
+"I'll never be an athlete, John. Besides, I'm a woman, you know, and a
+fall of any kind is fatal to a woman, especially anything of this kind.
+No, I know very well it's all over; I shall never hold up my head again.
+But that's not the question--the question is, to be safe and as free as
+can be. Mamma takes me in, you know, just as if nothing had happened.
+She is quite willing to take the burden of me on her shoulders--and of
+baby. She has told you that there are two of me, now, John--my baby, as
+well as myself."
+
+John could only nod an assent; he could not speak.
+
+"It's a wonderful thing to come out of a wreck with a treasure in one's
+arms; everything going to pieces behind one; the rafters coming down,
+the walls falling in and yet one's treasure in one's arms. Oh, I had not
+the heart or the strength to come out of the tumbling house. My mother
+did it all, dragged me out, wrapped me up in love and kindness, carried
+me away. I don't want you to think I was good for anything. I should
+just have lain there and died. One thing, I did not mind dying at all--I
+had quite made up my mind. That would not have been so disgraceful as
+running away."
+
+"There is nothing that is disgraceful," said John, "for heaven's sake
+don't say so, Nelly. It is unfortunate--beyond words--but that is all.
+Nobody can think that you are in any way disgraced. And if you are
+allowed just to stay quietly here in your natural home, I suppose you
+desire nothing more."
+
+"What should I desire more, John? You don't suppose I should like to go
+and live in the world again, and go into society and all that? I have
+had about enough of society. Oh, I want nothing but to be quiet and
+unmolested, and bring up my baby. They could not take my baby from me,
+John?"
+
+"I do not think so," he said, with a grave face.
+
+"You do not--think so? Then you are not _sure_? My mother says dreadful
+things, but I cannot believe them. They would never take an infant from
+its mother to give it to--to give it to--a man--who could do nothing,
+nothing for it. What could a man do with a young child? a man always on
+the move, who has no settled home, who has no idea what an infant wants?
+John, I know law is inhuman, but surely, surely not so inhuman as that."
+
+"My dear Nelly," he said, "the law, you know, which, as you say, is
+often inhuman, recognizes the child as belonging to the father. He is
+responsible for it. For instance, they never could come upon you for its
+maintenance or education, or anything of that kind, until it had been
+proved that the father----"
+
+"May I ask," said Elinor, with uplifted head, "of what or of whom you
+are talking when you say _it_?"
+
+It was all John could do not to burst into a peal of aggrieved and
+indignant laughter. He who had been brought from town, from his own
+comforts such as they were, to be consulted about this brat, this child
+which belonged to the dis-Honourable Phil; and Elinor, _Elinor_, of all
+people in the world, threw up her head and confronted him with disdain
+because he called the brat it, and not him or her, whichever it was.
+John recollected well enough that sentence at which he had been so
+indignant in the telegram--"child, a boy "--but he affected to himself
+not to know what it was for the indulgence of a little contumely: and
+the reward he had got was contumely upon his own head. But when he
+looked at Elinor's pale face, the eyes so much larger than they ought
+to be, with tears welling out unawares, dried up for a moment by
+indignation or quick hasty temper, the temper which made her sweeter
+words all the more sweet he had always thought--then rising again
+unawares under the heavy lids, the lips so ready to quiver, the pathetic
+lines about the mouth: when he looked at all these John's heart smote
+him. He would have called the child anything, if there had been a sex
+superior to him the baby should have it. And what was there that man
+could do that he would not do for the deliverance of the mother and the
+child?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+It cannot be said that this evening at the Cottage was an agreeable one.
+To think that Elinor should be there, and yet that there should be so
+little pleasure in the fact that the old party, which had once been so
+happy together, should be together again, was bewildering. And yet there
+was one member of it who was happy with a shamefaced unacknowledged joy.
+To think that that which made her child miserable should make her happy
+was a dreadful thought to Mrs. Dennistoun, and yet how could she help
+it? Elinor was there, and the baby was there, the new unthought-of
+creature which had brought with it a new anxiety, a rush of new thoughts
+and wishes. Already everything else in the mind of Elinor's mother began
+to yield to the desire to retain these two--the new mother and the
+child. But she did not avow this desire. She was mostly silent,
+taking little part in the discussion, which was indeed a very curious
+discussion, since Elinor, debating the question how she was to abandon
+her husband and defend herself against him, never mentioned his name.
+
+She did not come in to dinner, which Mrs. Dennistoun and John Tatham ate
+solemnly alone, saying but little, trying to talk upon indifferent
+topics, with that very wretched result which is usual when people at one
+of the great crises of life have to make conversation for each other
+while servants are about and the restraints of common life are around
+them. Whether it is the terrible flood of grief which has to be barred
+and kept within bounds so that the functions of life may not altogether
+be swept away, or the sharper but warmer pang of anxiety, that which
+cuts like a serpent's tooth, yet is not altogether beyond the reach of
+hope, what poor pretences these are at interest in ordinary subjects;
+what miserable gropings after something that can furnish a thread of
+conversation just enough to keep the intercourse of life going! These
+two were not more successful than others in this dismal pursuit. Mrs.
+Dennistoun found a moment when the meal was over before she left John,
+poor pretence! to his wine. "Remember that she will not mention his
+name; nothing must be said about him," she said. "How can we discuss him
+and what he is likely to do without speaking of him?" said John, with a
+little scorn. "I don't know," replied the poor lady. "But you will find
+that she will not have his name mentioned. You must try and humour her.
+Poor Elinor! For I know that you are sorry for her, John."
+
+Sorry for her! He sat over his glass of mild claret in the little
+dining-room that had once been so bright; even now it was the cosiest
+little room, the curtains all drawn, shutting out the cold wind, which
+in January searches out every crevice, the firelight blazing fitfully,
+bringing out all the pretty warm decorations, the gleam of silver on the
+side-board, the pictures on the wall, the mirror over the mantelpiece.
+There was nothing wanted under that roof to make it the very home of
+domestic warmth and comfort. And yet--sorry for Elinor! That was not
+the word. His heart was sore for her, torn away from all her moorings,
+drifting back a wreck to the little youthful home, where all had been so
+tranquil and so sweet. John had nothing in him of that petty sentiment
+which derives satisfaction from a calamity it has foreseen, nor had he
+even an old lover's thrill of almost pleasure in the downfall of the
+clay idol that has been preferred to his gold. His pain for Elinor, the
+constriction in his heart at thought of her position, were unmixed with
+any baser feeling. Sorry for her! He would have given all he possessed
+to restore her happiness--not in his way, but in the way she had chosen,
+even, last abnegation of all, to make the man worthy of her who had
+never been worthy. Even his own indignation and wrath against that
+man were subservient in John's honest breast to the desire of somehow
+finding that it might be possible to whitewash him, nay to reform him,
+to make him as near as possible something which she could tolerate for
+life. I doubt if a woman, notwithstanding the much more ready power of
+sacrifice which women possess, could have so fully desired this renewal
+and amendment as John did. It was scarcely too much to say that he hated
+Phil Compton: yet he would have given the half of his substance at this
+moment to make Phil Compton a good man; nay, even to make him a passable
+man--to rehabilitate him in his wife's eyes.
+
+John stayed a long time over "his wine," the mild glass of claret (or
+perhaps it was Burgundy) which was all that was offered him--partly to
+think the matter over, but also partly perhaps because he heard certain
+faint gurglings, and the passage of certain steps, active and full of
+energy, past the door of the room within which he sat, going now to the
+drawing-room, now up-stairs, from which he divined that the new inmate
+of the house was at present in possession of the drawing-room, and of
+all attention there. He smiled at himself for his hostility to the
+child, which, of course, was entirely innocent of all blame. Here the
+man was inferior to the woman in comprehension and sympathy; for he not
+only could not understand how they could possibly obtain solace in their
+trouble from this unconscious little creature, but he was angry and
+scornful of them for doing so. Phil Compton's brat, no doubt the germ of
+a thousand troubles to come, but besides that a nothing, a being without
+love or thought, or even consciousness, a mere little animal feeding
+and sleeping--and yet the idol and object of all the thoughts of two
+intelligent women, capable of so much better things! This irritated John
+and disgusted him in the midst of all his anxious thoughts, and his
+profound compassion and deliberations how best to help: and it was
+not till the passage of certain feeble sounds outside his door, which
+proceeded audibly up-stairs, little bleatings in which, if they had come
+from a lamb, or even a puppy, John would have been interested, assured
+him that the small enemy had disappeared--that he finally rose and
+proceeded to "join the ladies," as if he had been holding a little
+private debauch all by himself.
+
+There was a little fragrance and air of the visitor still in the room, a
+little disturbance of the usual arrangements, a surreptitious, quite
+unjustifiable look as of pleasure in Elinor's eyes, which were less
+expanded, and if as liquid as ever, more softly bright than before.
+Something white actually lay on the sofa, a small garment which Mrs.
+Dennistoun whisked away. They were conscious of John's critical eye
+upon them, and received him with a warmth of conciliatory welcome which
+betrayed that consciousness. Mrs. Dennistoun drew a chair for him to
+the other side of the fire. She took her own place in the middle at the
+table with a large piece of white knitting, to which she gave her whole
+attention, and thus the deliberation began.
+
+"Elinor wants to know, John, what you think we ought to do--to make
+quite sure--that there will be no risk, about the baby."
+
+"I must know more of the details of the question before I can give any
+advice," said John.
+
+"John," said Elinor, raising herself in her chair, "here are all the
+details that are necessary. I have come away. I have come home, finding
+that life was impossible there. That is the whole matter. It may be,
+probably it is, my own fault. It is simply that life became impossible.
+You know you said that I was not one to endure, to put up with things. I
+scoffed at you then, for I did not expect to have anything to put up
+with; but you were quite right, and life had become impossible--that is
+all there is any need to say."
+
+"To me, yes," said John, "but not enough, Elinor, if it ever has to come
+within the reach of the law."
+
+"But why should it come within the reach of the law? You, John, you are
+a lawyer; you know the rights of everything. I thought you might have
+arranged it all. Couldn't you try to make a kind of a bargain? What
+bargain? Oh, am I a lawyer, do I know? But you, John, who have it all at
+your fingers' ends, who know what can be done and what can't be done,
+and the rights that one has and that another has! Dear John! if you were
+to try, don't you think that you could settle it all, simply as between
+people who don't want any exposure, any struggle, but only to be quiet
+and to be let alone?"
+
+"Elinor, I don't know what I could do with so little information as I
+have. To know that you found your life impossible is enough for me. But
+you know most people are right in their own eyes. If we have some one
+opposed to us who thinks, for instance, that the fault was yours?"
+
+"Well," she cried, eagerly, "I am willing to accept that: say that the
+fault was mine! You could confirm it, that it was likely to be mine. You
+could tell them what an impatient person I was, and that you said I
+was not one to try an experiment, for I never, never could put up with
+anything. John, you could be a witness as well as an advocate. You could
+prove that you always expected--and that I am quite, quite willing to
+allow that it was I----"
+
+"Elinor, if I could only make you understand what I mean! I am told that
+I am not to mention any names?"
+
+"No, no names, no names! What is the good? We both know very well what
+we mean."
+
+"But I don't know very well what you mean. Don't you see that if it is
+your fault--if the other party is innocent--there can be no reason in
+the world why he should consent to renounce his rights. It is not a mere
+matter of feeling. There is right in it one way or another--either on
+your side or else on the other side; and if it is on the other side, why
+should a man give up what belongs to him, why should he renounce what
+is--most dear to him?"
+
+"Oh, John, John, John!" she made this appeal and outcry, clasping her
+hands together with a mixture of supplication and impatience. Then
+turning to her mother--"Oh, tell him," she cried, "tell him!"--always
+clasping those impatient yet beseeching hands.
+
+"You see, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "Elinor knows that the right
+is on her side: but she will consent to say nothing about it to any
+one--to give herself out as the offender rather--that is to say, as an
+ill-disciplined person that cannot put up with anything, as you seem to
+have said."
+
+John laughed with vexation, yet a kind of amusement. "I never said it
+nor thought it: still if it pleases her to think so---- The wiser thing
+if this separation is final----"
+
+"If it is final!" Elinor cried. She raised herself up again in her
+chair, and contemplated the unfortunate John with a sort of tragic
+superiority. "Do you think that of me," she said, "that I would take
+such a step as this and that it should not be final? Is dying final?
+Could one do such a thing as this and change?"
+
+"Such things have been done," said John. "Elinor, forgive me. I must say
+it--it is all your life that is in the balance, and another life. There
+is this infant to be struggled over, perhaps rent in two by those who
+should have united to take care of him--and it's a boy, I hear. There's
+his name and his after-life to think of--a child without a father,
+perhaps the heir of a family to which he will not belong. Elinor--tell
+her, aunt, you understand: is it my wish to hand her back to--to---- No,
+I'll speak no names. But you know I disliked it always, opposed it always.
+It is not out of any favour to--to the other side. But she ought to take
+all these things into account. Her own position, and the position in the
+future of the child----"
+
+Elinor had crushed her fan with her hands, and Mrs. Dennistoun let the
+knitting with which she had gone on in spite of all fall at last in her
+lap. There was a little pause. John Tatham's voice itself had began to
+falter, or rather swelled in sound as when a stream swells in flood.
+
+"I do not go into the question about women and what they ought to put up
+with," said John, resuming. "There's many things that law can do nothing
+for--and nature in many ways makes it harder for women, I acknowledge.
+We cannot change that. Think what her position will be--neither a wife
+nor with the freedom of a widow; and the boy, bearing the name of one he
+must almost be taught to think badly of--for one of them must be in the
+wrong----"
+
+"He shall never, never hear that name; he shall know nothing, he shall
+be free of every bond; his mind shall never be cramped or twisted or
+troubled by any--man--if I live."
+
+This Elinor said, lifting her pale face from her hands with eyes that
+flashed and shone with a blaze of excitement and weakness.
+
+"There already," said John, "is a tremendous condition--if you live! Who
+can make sure that they will live? We must all die--some sooner, some
+later--and you wearing yourself out with excitement, that never were
+strong; you exposing your heart, the weakest organ----"
+
+"John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, grasping him by the arm, "you are talking
+nonsense, you don't know what you are saying. My darling! she was never
+weak nor had a feeble heart, nor--anything! She will live to bring up
+_his_ children, her baby's children, upon her knees."
+
+"And what would it matter?" said Elinor--looking at him with clear eyes,
+from which the tears had disappeared in the shock of this unlooked-for
+suggestion--"suppose I have no more strength than that, suppose I were
+to die? you shall be his guardian, John, bring him up a good man; and
+his Heavenly Father will take care of him. I am not afraid."
+
+A man had better not deal with such subjects between two women. What
+with Mrs. Dennistoun's indignant protest and Elinor's lofty submission,
+John was at his wits' end. "I did not mean to carry things to such a
+bitter end as that," he said. "You want to force me into a corner and
+make me say things I never meant. The question is serious enough without
+that."
+
+There was again a little pause, and then Elinor, with one of those
+changes which are so perplexing to sober-minded people, suddenly turned
+to him, holding out both her hands.
+
+"John--we'll leave that in God's hands whatever is to happen to me. But
+in the meantime, while I am living--and perhaps my life depends upon
+being quiet and having a little peace and rest. It is not that I care
+very much for my life," said Elinor, with that clear, open-eyed look,
+like the sky after rain--"I am shipwrecked, John, as you say--but my
+mother does, and it's of--some--consequence--to baby; and if it depends
+upon whether I am left alone, you are too good a friend to leave me in
+the lurch. And you said--one night--whatever happened I was to send for
+you."
+
+John sprang up from his seat, dropping the hands which he had taken into
+his own. She was like Queen Katherine, "about to weep," and her breast
+strained with the sobbing effort to keep it down.
+
+"For God's sake," he cried, "don't play upon our hearts like this! I
+will do anything--everything--whatever you choose to tell me. Aunt,
+don't let her cry, don't let her go on like that. Why, good heavens!" he
+cried, bursting himself into a kind of big sob, "won't it be bad for
+that little brat of a baby or something if she keeps going on in this
+way?"
+
+Thus John Tatham surrendered at discretion. What could he do more? A
+man cannot be played upon like an instrument without giving out sounds
+of which he will, perhaps, be ashamed. And this woman appealing to
+him--this girl--looking like the little Elinor he remembered, younger
+and softer in her weakness and trouble than she had been in her beauty
+and pride--was the creature after all, though she would never know it,
+whom he loved best in the world. He had wanted to save her, in the
+one worldly way of saving her, from open shipwreck, for her own sake,
+against every prejudice and prepossession of his mind. But if she would
+not have that, why it was his business to save her as she wished, to do
+for her whatever she wanted; to act as her agent, her champion, whatever
+she pleased.
+
+He was sent away presently, and accepted his dismissal with thankfulness,
+to smoke his cigar. This is one amusing thing in a feminine household. A
+man is supposed to want all manner of little indulgences and not to be
+able to do without them. He is carefully left alone over "his wine"--the
+aforesaid glass of claret; and ways and means are provided for him to
+smoke his cigar, whether he wishes it or not. He had often laughed at
+these regulations of his careful relatives, but he was rather glad of
+them to-night. "I am going to get Elinor to bed," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+"It has, perhaps, been a little too much for her: but when you have
+finished your cigar, John, if you will come back to the drawing-room for
+a few minutes you will find me here."
+
+John did not smoke any cigar. It is all very well to be soothed and
+consoled by tobacco in your own room, at your own ease: but when you are
+put into a lady's dining-room, where everything is nice, and where the
+curtains will probably smell of smoke next morning: and when your mind
+is exercised beyond even the power of the body to keep still, that is
+not a time to enjoy such calm and composing delights. But he walked
+about the room in which he was shut up like a wild beast in his cage,
+sometimes with long strides from wall to wall, sometimes going round,
+with that abstract trick of his, staring at the pictures, as if he did
+not know every picture in the place by heart. He forgot that he was to
+go back to the drawing-room again after Elinor had been taken to bed,
+and it was only after having waited for him a long time that Mrs.
+Dennistoun came, almost timidly, knocking at her own dining-room door,
+afraid to disturb her visitor in the evening rites which she believed in
+so devoutly. She did go in, however, and they stood together over the
+fire for a few minutes, he staring down upon the glow at his feet, she
+contemplating fitfully, unconsciously, her own pale face and his in the
+dim mirror on the mantelpiece. They talked in low tones about Elinor and
+her health, and her determination which nothing would change.
+
+"Of course I will do it," said John; "anything--whatever she may require
+of me--there are no two words about that. There is only one thing: I
+will not compromise her by taking any initiative. Let us wait and see
+what they are going to do----"
+
+"But, John, might it not be better to disarm him by making overtures?
+anything, I would do anything if he would but let her remain
+unmolested--and the baby."
+
+"Do you mean money?" he said.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun gave him an abashed look, deprecatory and wistful, but
+did not make any reply.
+
+"Phil Compton is a cad, and a brute, and a scamp of the first water,"
+said John, glad of some way to get rid of his excitement; "but I do not
+think that even he would sell his wife and his child for money. I
+wouldn't do him so much discredit as that."
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, John," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+John left the Cottage next morning with the full conduct of the affairs
+of the family placed in his hands. The ladies were both a little
+doubtful if his plan was the best--they were still frightened for what
+might happen, and kept up a watch, as John perceived, fearing every
+step that approached, trembling at every shadow. They remembered many
+stories, such as rush to the minds of persons in trouble, of similar
+cases, of the machinations of the bad father whose only object was to
+overcome and break down his wife, and who stole his child away to let it
+languish and die. There are some circumstances in which people forget
+all the shades of character, and take it for granted that a man who can
+go wrong in one matter will act like a very demon in all. This was
+doubly strong in Mrs. Dennistoun, a woman full of toleration and
+experience; but the issues were so momentous to her, and the possible
+results so terrible, that she lost her accustomed good sense. It was
+more natural, perhaps, that Elinor, who was weak in health and still
+full of the arbitrariness of youth, should entertain this fear--without
+considering that Phil was the very last man in the world to burden
+himself with an infant of the most helpless age--which seemed to John
+an almost quite unreasonable one. Almost--for, of course, he too was
+compelled to allow, when driven into a corner, that there was nothing
+that an exasperated man might not do. Elinor had come down early to see
+her cousin before he left the house, bringing with her in her arms the
+little bundle of muslin and flannel upon the safety of which her very
+life seemed to depend. John looked at it, and at the small pink face and
+unconscious flickering hands that formed the small centre to all those
+wrappings, with a curious mixture of pity and repugnance. It was like
+any other blind new-born kitten or puppy, he thought, but not so
+amusing--no, it was not blind, to be sure. At one moment, without any
+warning, it suddenly opened a pair of eyes, which by a lively exercise
+of fancy might be supposed like Elinor's, and seemed to look him in the
+face, which startled him very much, with a curious notification of the
+fact that the thing was not a kitten or a puppy. But then a little
+quiver came over the small countenance, and the attendant said it was
+"the wind." Perhaps the opening of the eyes was the wind too, or some
+other automatic effect. He would not hold out his finger to be clasped
+tight by the little flickering fist, as Elinor would have had him. He
+would none of those follies; he turned away from it not to allow himself
+to be moved by the effect, quite a meretricious one, of the baby in the
+young mother's arms. That was all poetry, sentiment, the trick of the
+painter, who had found the combination beautiful. Such ideas belonged,
+indeed, to the conventional-sacred, and he had never felt any profane
+resistance of mind against the San Sisto picture or any of its kind.
+But Phil Compton's brat was a very different thing. What did it matter
+what became of it? If it were not for Elinor's perverse feeling on
+the subject, and that perfectly imbecile prostration of her mother,
+a sensible woman who ought to have known better, before the little
+creature, he would himself have been rather grateful to Phil Compton for
+taking it away. But when he saw the look of terror upon Elinor's face
+when an unexpected step came to the door, when he saw her turn and fly,
+wrapping the child in her arms, on her very heart as it seemed, bending
+over it, covering it so that it disappeared altogether in her embrace,
+John's heart was a little touched. It was only a hawking tramp with pins
+and needles, who came by mistake to the hall door, but her panic and
+anguish of alarm were a spectacle which he could not get out of his
+eyes.
+
+"You see, she never feels safe for a moment. It will be hard to persuade
+her that that man, though I've seen him about the roads for years, is
+not an emissary--or a spy--to find out if she is here."
+
+"I am sure it is quite an unnecessary panic," said John. "In the first
+place, Phil Compton's the last man to burden himself with a child; in
+the second, he's not a brute nor a monster."
+
+"You called him a brute last night, John."
+
+"I did not mean in that way. I don't mean to stand by any rash word that
+may be forced from me in a moment of irritation. Aunt, get her to give
+over that. She'll torture herself to death for nothing. He'll not try to
+take the child away--not just now, at all events, not while it is a
+mere---- Bring her to her senses on that point. You surely can do that?"
+
+"If I was quite sure of being in my own," Mrs. Dennistoun said, with a
+forlorn smile. "I am as much frightened as she is, John. And, remember,
+if there is anything to be done--anything----"
+
+"There is nothing but a little common sense wanted," said John. But as
+he drove away from the door, and saw the hawker with the needles still
+about, the ladies had so infected him that it was all he could do to
+restrain an inclination to take the vagrant by the collar and throw him
+down the combe.
+
+"Who's that fellow hanging about?" he said to Pearson, who was driving
+him; "and what does he want here?"
+
+"Bless you, sir! that's Joe," Pearson said. "He's after no harm. He's
+honest enough as long as there ain't nothing much in his way; and he's
+waiting for the pieces as cook gives him once a week when he comes his
+rounds. There's no harm in poor Joe."
+
+"I suppose not, since you say so," said John; "but you know the ladies
+are rather nervous, Pearson. You must keep a look-out that no
+suspicious-looking person hangs about the house."
+
+"Bless us! Mr. John," said Pearson, "what are they nervous about?--the
+baby? But nobody wants to steal a baby, bless your soul!"
+
+"I quite agree with you," said John, much relieved (though he considered
+Pearson an old fool, in a general way) to have his own opinion confirmed.
+"But, all the same, I wish you would be doubly particular not to admit
+anybody you don't know; and if any man should appear to bother them send
+for me on the moment. Do you hear?"
+
+"What do you call any man, sir?" said Pearson, smartly. He had ideas of
+his own, though he might be a fool.
+
+"I mean what I say," said John, more sharply still. "Any one that
+molests or alarms them. Send me off a telegram at once--'You're wanted!'
+That will be quite enough. But don't go with it to the office yourself;
+send somebody--there's always your boy about the place--and keep about
+like a dragon yourself."
+
+"I'll do my best, sir," said Pearson, "though I don't know what a dragon
+is, except it's the one in the Bible; and that's not a thing anybody
+would want about the place."
+
+It was a comfort to John, after all his troubles, to be able to laugh,
+which he did with a heartiness which surprised Pearson, who was quite
+unaware that he had made any joke.
+
+These fears, however, which were imposed upon him by the contagion
+of the terrors of the others, soon passed from John's mind. He was
+convinced that Phil Compton would take no such step; and that, however
+much he might wish his wife to return, the possession of the baby was
+not a thing which he would struggle over. It cannot be denied, however,
+that he was anxious, and eagerly inspected his letters in the morning,
+and looked out for telegrams during the day. Fortunately, however, no
+evil tidings came. Mrs. Dennistoun reported unbroken peace in the
+Cottage and increasing strength on the part of Elinor; and, in a
+parenthesis with a sort of apology, of the baby. Nobody had come near
+them to trouble them. Elinor had received no letters. The tie between
+her and her husband seemed to be cut as with a knife. "We cannot of
+course," she said, "expect this tranquillity to last."
+
+And it came to be a very curious thought with John, as week after week
+passed, whether it was to last--whether Phil Compton, who had never been
+supposed wanting in courage, intended to let his wife and child drop
+off from him as if they had never been. This seemed a thing impossible
+to conceive: but John said to himself with much internal contempt that
+he knew nothing of the workings of the mind of such a man, and that it
+might for aught he knew be a common incident in life with the Phil
+Comptons thus to shake off their belongings when they got tired of them.
+The fool! the booby! to get tired of Elinor! That rumour which flies
+about the world so strangely and communicates information about
+everybody to the vacant ear, to be retailed to those whom it may
+concern, provided him, as the days went by, with many particulars which
+he had not been able to obtain from Elinor. Phil, it appeared, had gone
+to Glenorban--the great house to which he had been invited--alone, with
+an excuse for his wife, whose state of health was not appropriate to a
+large party, and had stayed there spending Christmas with a brilliant
+houseful of guests, among whom was the American lady who had captivated
+him. Phil had paid one visit to the lodge to see Elinor, by her mother's
+summons, at the crisis of her illness, but had not hesitated to go away
+again when informed that the crisis was over. Mrs. Dennistoun never told
+what had passed between them on that occasion, but the gossips of the
+club were credibly informed that she had bullied and stormed at Phil,
+after the fashion of mothers-in-law, till she had driven him away. Upon
+which he had returned to his party and flirted with Mrs. Harris more
+than ever. John discovered also that the party having dispersed some
+time ago, Phil had gone abroad. Whether in ignorance of his wife's
+flight or not he could not discover; but it was almost impossible to
+believe that he would have gone to Monte Carlo without finding out
+something about Elinor--how and where she was. But whether this was the
+cause of his utter silence, or whether it was the habit of men of his
+class to treat such tremendous incidents in domestic life with levity,
+John Tatham could not make out. He was congratulating himself, however,
+upon keeping perfectly quiet, and leaving the conduct of the matter to
+the other party, when the silence was disturbed in what seemed to him
+the most curious way.
+
+One afternoon when he returned from the court he was aware, when he
+entered the outer office in which his clerk abode, of what he described
+afterwards as a smell fit to knock you down. It would have been
+described more appropriately in a French novel as the special perfume,
+subtle and exquisite, by which a beautiful woman may be recognised
+wherever she goes. It was, indeed, neither more nor less than the
+particular scent used by Lady Mariamne, who came forward with a sweep
+and rustle of her draperies, and the most ingratiating of her smiles.
+
+"It appears to be fated that I am to wait for you," she said. "How do
+you do, Mr. Tatham? Take me out of this horrible dirty place. I am quite
+sure you have some nice rooms in there." She pointed as she spoke to
+the inner door, and moved towards it with the air of a person who knew
+where she was going, and was fully purposed to be admitted. John said
+afterwards, that to think of this woman's abominable scent being left in
+his room in which he lived (though he also received his clients in it)
+was almost more than he could bear. But, in the meantime, he could do
+nothing but open the door to her, and offer her his most comfortable
+chair.
+
+She seated herself with all those little tricks of movement which are
+also part of the stock-in-trade of the pretty woman. Lady Mariamne's
+prettiness was not of a kind which had the slightest effect upon John,
+but still it was a kind which received credit in society, being the
+product of a great deal of pains and care and exquisite arrangement and
+combination. She threw her fur cloak back a little, arranged the strings
+of her bonnet under her chin, which threw up the daintiness and rosiness
+of a complexion about which there were many questions among her closest
+friends. She shook up, with what had often been commented upon as the
+prettiest gesture, the bracelets from her wrists. She arranged the veil,
+which just came over the tip of her delicate nose, she put out her foot
+as if searching for a footstool--which John made haste to supply, though
+he remained unaffected otherwise by all these pretty preliminaries.
+
+"Sit down, Mr. Tatham," then said Lady Mariamne. "It makes me wretchedly
+uncomfortable, as if you were some dreadful man waiting to be paid or
+something, to see you standing there."
+
+Though John's first impulse was that of wrath to be thus requested to
+sit down in his own chambers, the position was amusing as well as
+disagreeable, and he laughed and drew a chair towards his writing-table,
+which was as crowded and untidy as the writing-table of a busy man
+usually is, and placed himself in an attitude of attention, though
+without asking any question.
+
+"Well," said Lady Mariamne, slowly drawing off her glove; "you know, of
+course, why I have come, Mr. Tatham--to talk over with you, as a man who
+knows the world, this deplorable business. You see it has come about
+exactly as I said. I knew what would happen: and though I am not one of
+those people who always insist upon being proved right, you remember
+what I said----"
+
+"I remember that you said something--to which, perhaps, had I thought I
+should have been called upon to give evidence as to its correctness--I
+should have paid more attention, Lady Mariamne."
+
+"How rude you are!" she said, with her whole interest concentrated upon
+the slow removal of her glove. Then she smoothed a little, softly, the
+pretty hand which was thus uncovered, and said, "How red one's hands
+get in this weather," and then laughed. "You don't mean to tell me, Mr.
+Tatham," she said, suddenly raising her eyes to his, "that, considering
+what a very particular person we were discussing, you can't remember
+what I said?"
+
+John was obliged to confess that he remembered more or less the gist of
+her discourse, and Lady Mariamne nodded her head many times in
+acceptance of his confession.
+
+"Well," she said, "you see what it has come to. An open scandal, a
+separation, and everything broken up. For one thing, I knew if she did
+not give him his head a little that's what would happen. I don't believe
+he cares a brass farthing for that other woman. She makes fun of
+everybody, and that amused him. And it amused him to put Nell in a
+state--that as much as anything. Why couldn't she see that and learn to
+_prendre son parti_ like other people? She was free to say, 'You go your
+way and I'll go mine:' the most of us do that sooner or later: but to
+make a vulgar open rupture, and go off--like this."
+
+"I fail to see the vulgarity in it," said John.
+
+"Oh, of course; everything she does is perfect to you. But just think,
+if it had been your own case--followed about and bullied by a jealous
+woman, in a state of health that of itself disgusts a man----"
+
+"Lady Mariamne, you must pardon me if I refuse to listen to anything
+more of this kind," said John, starting to his feet.
+
+"Oh, I warn you, you'll be compelled to listen to a great deal more if
+you're her agent as I hear! Phil will find means of compelling you to
+hear if you don't like to take your information from me."
+
+"I should like to know how Mr. Phil Compton will succeed in compelling
+me--to anything I don't choose to do."
+
+"You think, perhaps, because there's no duelling in this country he
+can't do anything. But there is, all the same. He would shame you into
+it--he could say you were--sheltering yourself----"
+
+"I am not a man to fight duels," said John, very angry, but smiling, "in
+any circumstances, even were such a thing not utterly ridiculous; but
+even a fighting man might feel that to put himself on a level with the
+dis-Hon----"
+
+He stopped himself as he said it. How mean it was--to a
+woman!--descending to their own methods. But Lady Mariamne was too quick
+for him.
+
+"Oh," she said; "so you've heard of that, a nickname that no
+gentleman----" then she too paused and looked at him, with a momentary
+flush. He was going to apologize abjectly, when with a slight laugh she
+turned the subject aside.
+
+"Pretty fools we are, both of us, to talk such nonsense. I didn't come
+here carrying Phil on my shoulders, to spring at your throat if you
+expressed your opinion. Look here--tell me, don't let us go beating
+about the bush, Mr. Tatham--I suppose you have seen Nell?"
+
+"I know my cousin's mind, at least," he said.
+
+"Well, then, just tell me as between friends--there's no need we should
+quarrel because they have done so. Tell me this, is she going to get up
+a divorce case----"
+
+"A divorce----!"
+
+"Because," said Lady Mariamne, "she'll find it precious difficult to
+prove anything. I know she will. She may prove the flirting and so
+forth--but what's that? You can tell her from me, it wants somebody far
+better up to things than she is to prove anything. I warn her as a
+friend she'll not get much good by that move."
+
+"I am not aware," said John, "whether Mrs. Compton has made up her mind
+about the further steps----"
+
+"Then just you advise her not," cried Lady Mariamne. "It doesn't matter
+to me: I shall be none the worse whatever she does: but if you are her
+true friend you will advise her not. She might tell what she thinks, but
+that's no proof. Mr. Tatham, I know you have great influence with Nell."
+
+"Not in a matter like this," said John, with great gravity. "Of course
+she alone can be the judge."
+
+"What nonsense you talk, you men! Of course she is not the least the
+judge, and of course she will be guided by you."
+
+"You may be sure she shall have the best advice that I can give," John
+said with a bow.
+
+"You want me to go, I see," said Lady Mariamne; "you are dreadfully
+rude, standing up all the time to show me I had better go." Hereupon she
+recommenced her little _manège_, drawing on her glove, letting her
+bracelets drop again, fastening the fur round her throat. "Well, Mr.
+Tatham," she said, "I hope you mean to have the civility to see after my
+carriage. I can't go roaming about hailing it as if it were a hansom
+cab--in this queer place."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+John went down to Windyhill that evening. His appearance alarmed the
+little household more than words could say. As he was admitted at once
+by the servants, delighted to see him, he walked in suddenly into the
+midst of a truly domestic scene. The baby lay on Elinor's knee in the
+midst of a mass of white wrappings, kicking out a pair of pink little
+legs in the front of the fire. Elinor herself was seated on a very low
+chair, and illuminated by the cheerful blaze, which threw a glare upon
+her countenance, and called out unthought-of lights in her hair, there
+was no appearance in her looks of anxiety or trouble. She was altogether
+given up to the baby and the joy of its new life. The little kicking
+limbs, the pleasure of the little creature in the warmth, the curling
+of its rosy little toes in the agreeable sensation of the heat, were
+more to Elinor and to her mother, who was kneeling beside her on the
+hearth-rug, than the most refined and lofty pleasures in the world. The
+most lofty of us have to come down to those primitive sources of bliss,
+if we are happy enough to have them placed in our way. The greatest poet
+by her side, the music of the spheres sounding in her ear, would not
+have made Elinor forget her troubles like the stretching out towards the
+fire of those little pink toes.
+
+When the door opened, and the voice and step of a man--dreaded
+sounds--were audible, a thrill of terror ran over this little group.
+Mrs. Dennistoun sprang to her feet and placed herself between the
+intruder and the young mother, while Elinor gathered up, covering him
+all over, so that he disappeared altogether, her child in her arms.
+
+"It is John," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "God be thanked, it is only John."
+
+But Elinor, quite overcome by the shock, burst suddenly into tears, to
+which the baby responded by a vigorous cry, not at all relishing the
+sudden huddling up among its shawls to which it had been subjected. It
+may be supposed what an effect this cloudy side of the happiness, which
+he had not been able to deny to himself made a very pretty scene, had
+upon John. He said, not without a little offence, "I am sure I beg your
+pardon humbly. I'll go away."
+
+Elinor turned round her head, smiling through her tears. "It was only
+that you gave me a fright," she said. "I am quite right again; don't,
+oh, don't go away! unless you object to the sight of baby, and to hear
+him cry; but he'll not cry now, any more than his silly mother. Mamma,
+make John sit down and tell us--Oh, I am sure he has something to tell
+us--Perhaps I took comfort too soon; but the very sight of John is a
+protection and a strength," she said, holding out her hand to him. This
+sudden change of front reduced John, who had been perhaps disposed for a
+moment to stand on his dignity, to utter subjection. He neither said nor
+even thought a word against the baby, who was presently unfolded again,
+and turned once more the toes of comfort towards the fire. He did not
+approach too near, feeling that he had no particular share in the scene,
+and indeed cut an almost absurd figure in the midst of that group, but
+sat behind, contemplating it from a little distance against the fire.
+The evening had grown dark by this time, but the two women, absorbed
+by their worship, had wanted no light. It had happened to John by an
+extreme piece of luck to catch the express train almost as soon as Lady
+Mariamne had left him, and to reach the station at Hurrymere before the
+February day was done.
+
+"You have something to tell us, John--good news or bad?" Mrs. Dennistoun
+said.
+
+"Good; or I should not have come like this unannounced," he said. "The
+post is quick enough for bad. I think you may be quite at your ease
+about the child--no claim will be made on the child. Elinor, I think,
+will not be disturbed if--she means to take no steps on her side."
+
+"What steps?" said Mrs. Dennistoun. Elinor turned her head to look at
+him anxiously over the back of her chair.
+
+"I have had a visit this afternoon," he said.
+
+"From--" Elinor drew a long hurried breath. She said no name, but it was
+evident that one was on her lips--a name she never meant to pronounce
+more, but to which her whole being thrilled still even when it was
+unspoken. She looked at him full of eagerness to hear yet with a hand
+uplifted, as if to forbid any utterance.
+
+"From Lady Mariamne."
+
+How her countenance fell! She turned round again, and bent over her
+baby. It was a pang of acute disappointment, he could not but see, that
+went through her, though she would not have allowed him to say that
+name. Strange inconsistency! it ran over John too with a sense of keen
+indignation, as if he had taken from her an electric touch.
+
+"----Whose object in coming to me was to ascertain whether you intended
+to bring a suit for--divorce."
+
+A cry rang through the room. Elinor turned upon him for a moment a face
+blazing with hot and painful colour. The lamp had been brought in, and
+he saw the fierce blush and look of horror. Then she turned round and
+buried it in her hands.
+
+"Divorce!" said Mrs. Dennistoun. "Elinor----! To drag her private
+affairs before the world. Oh, John, John, that could not be. You would
+not wish that to be."
+
+"I!" he cried with a laugh of tuneless mirth. "Is it likely that I would
+wish to drag Elinor before the world?"
+
+Elinor did not say anything, but withdrew one hand from her burning
+cheek and put it into his. These women treated John as if he were a man
+of wood. What he might be feeling, or if he were feeling anything, did
+not enter their minds.
+
+"It was like her," said Elinor after a time in a low hurried voice, "to
+think of that. She is the only one who would think of it. As if I had
+ever thought or dreamed----"
+
+"It is possible, however," he said, "that it might be reasonable enough.
+I don't speak to Elinor," who had let go his hand hastily, "but to you,
+aunt. If it is altogether final, as she says, to be released would
+perhaps be better, from a bond that was no bond."
+
+"John, John, would you have her add shame to pain?"
+
+"The shame would not be to her, aunt."
+
+"The shame is to every one concerned--to every one! My Elinor's name,
+her dear name, dragged through all that mud! She a party, perhaps, to
+revelations--Oh, never, never! We would bear anything rather."
+
+"This of course," said John, "is perhaps a still more bitter punishment
+for the other side."
+
+She looked round at him again. Looking up with a look of pale horror,
+her eyelids in agonised curves over her eyes, her mouth quivering. "What
+did you say, John?"
+
+"I said it might be a more bitter punishment still for--the other side."
+
+Elinor lifted up her baby to her breast, raising herself with a new
+dignity, with her head high. "I meant no punishment," she said, "I want
+none. I have left--what killed me--behind me; many things, not one only.
+I have brought my boy away that he may never--never-- But if it would be
+better that--another should be free--"
+
+"I will never give my consent to it, Elinor."
+
+"Nor I with my own mind; but if it is vindictive--if it is revenge,
+mother! I am not alone to think of myself. If it were better for ----
+that he should be free; speak to John about it and tell me. I cannot,
+cannot discuss it. I will leave it all to John and you. It will kill me!
+but what does that matter?--it is not revenge that I seek."
+
+She turned with the baby pressed to her breast and walked away, her
+every movement showing the strain and excitement of her soul.
+
+"Why did you do this, John, without at least consulting me? You have
+thrown a new trouble into her mind. She will never, never do this
+thing--nor would I permit it. There are some things in which I must take
+a part. I could not forbid her marriage; God grant that I had had the
+strength to do it--but this I will forbid, to expose her to the whole
+world, when everything we have done has been with the idea of concealing
+what had happened. Never, never. I will never consent to it, John."
+
+"I had no intention of proposing such a step; but the other side--as we
+are bound to call him--are frightened about it. And when I saw her look
+up, so young still, so sweet, with all her life before her, and thought
+how she must spend it--alone; with no expanding, no development, in this
+cottage or somewhere else, a life shipwrecked, a being so capable, so
+full of possibilities--lost."
+
+"I have spent my life in this cottage," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "My
+husband died when I was thirty--my life was over, and still I was young;
+but I had Elinor. There were some who pitied me too, but their pity was
+uncalled for. Elinor will live like her mother, she has her boy."
+
+"But it is different; you cannot but see the difference."
+
+"Yes, I see it--it is different; but not so different that my Elinor's
+name should be placarded about the streets and put in all the
+newspapers. Oh, never, never, John. If the man suffers, it is his fault.
+She will suffer, and it is not her fault; but I will not, to release
+him, drag my child before the world."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun was so much excited that she began to pace about the
+room, she who was usually so sober and self restrained. She had borne
+much, but this she was unable even to contemplate with calm. For once in
+her life she had arrived at something which she would not bear. John
+felt his own position very strange sitting looking on as a spectator,
+while this woman, usually so self-controlled, showed her impatience of
+circumstances and fate. It was ruefully comic that this should be, so to
+speak, his doing, though he was the last in the world to desire any
+exposure of Elinor, or to have any sympathy with those who sought
+justice for themselves or revenge on others at such a cost.
+
+"I was rash perhaps to speak as I did," he said; "I had no intention of
+doing it when I came. It was a mere impulse, seeing Elinor: but you must
+know that I agree with you perfectly. I see that Elinor's lot is fixed
+anyhow. I believe that no decree of a court would make any difference to
+her, and she would not change the name that is the child's name. All
+that I recognise. And one thing more, that neither you nor Elinor has
+recognised. They--he is afraid of any proceedings--I suppose I may
+mention him to you. It's rather absurd, don't you think, speaking of a
+fellow of that sort, or rather, not speaking of him at all, as if his
+name was sacred? He is afraid of proceedings--whatever may be the
+cause."
+
+"John, can't you understand that she cannot bear to speak of him, a man
+she so fought for, against us all? And now her eyes are opened, she is
+undeceived, she knows him all through and through, more, far more, than
+we do. She opened her mind to me once, and only once. It was not _that_
+alone; oh, no, no. There are things that rankle more than that, something
+he did before they were married, and made her help him to conceal.
+Something dishon--I can't say the word, John."
+
+"Oh," said John, grimly, "you need not mind me."
+
+"Well, the woman--I blush to have to speak to you even of such a
+thing--the woman, John, was not the worst. She almost might, I think,
+have forgiven that. It was one thing after another, and that, that first
+business the worst of all. She found it out somehow, and he had made her
+take a part--I can't tell what. She would never open her lips on the
+subject again. Only that once it all burst forth. Oh, divorce! What
+would that do to her, besides the shame? You understand some things,
+John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a smile, "though you are a man. She
+would never do anything to give herself a name different from her
+child's."
+
+"Yes," said John, with a laugh, "I think I understand a thing or two,
+though, as you say, my dear aunt, I am only a man. However, it is
+just as well I am that imperfect creature, to take care of you. It
+understands the tactics of the wicked better than you do. And now you
+must persuade Elinor and persuade yourself of what I came here on
+purpose to tell you--not to disturb you, as I have been so unfortunate
+as to do. You are perfectly safe from him. I will not let the enemy know
+your sentiments, or how decided you are on the subject. I will perhaps,
+if you will let me, crack the whip a little over their heads, and keep
+them in a pleasing uncertainty. But as long as he is afraid that she
+will take proceedings against him, he will take none, you may be sure,
+against her. So you may throw aside all your precautions and be happy
+over your treasure in your own way."
+
+"Thank God for what you say, John; you take a weight off my heart. But
+happy--how can you speak of being happy after such a catastrophe?"
+
+"I thought I came in upon a very happy little scene. It might be only
+pretence, but it looked uncommonly like the real thing."
+
+"You mean the baby, John, the dear infant that knows no harm. He does
+take off our thoughts a little, and enable us to bear----"
+
+"Oh, aunt, don't be a hypocrite; that was never a fault of yours.
+Confess that with all your misery about Elinor you are happy to have her
+here and her child--notwithstanding everything--happy as you have not
+been for many a day."
+
+She sat down by him and gave him her hand. "John, to be a man you have
+wonderful insight, and it's I who am a very, very imperfect creature.
+You don't think worse of me to be glad to have her, even though it is
+purchased by such misery and trouble? God knows," cried the poor lady,
+drying her eyes, "that I would give her up to-morrow, and with joy, and
+consent never to see her again, if that would be for her happiness.
+John! I've not thrust myself upon them, have I, nor done anything
+against him, nor said a word? But now that she is here, and the baby,
+and all to myself--which I never hoped--would I not be an ungrateful
+woman if I did not thank God for it, John?"
+
+"You are an excellent special pleader, aunt," he said, with a laugh, "as
+most women whom I have known are: and I agree with you in everything.
+You behaved to them, while it was _them_, angelically: you effaced
+yourself, and I fully believe you never said a word against him. Also, I
+believe that if circumstances changed, if anything happened to make her
+see that she could go back to him----"
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun started in spite of herself, and pressed her hands
+together, with a half sob of dismay.
+
+"I don't think it likely, but if it were so, you would sacrifice
+yourself again--I haven't a doubt of it. Why, then, set up this piece of
+humbug to me who know you so well, and pretend that you are not very
+happy for the moment? You are, and you have a good right to be: and I
+say enjoy it, my dear aunt; take all the good of it, you will have no
+trouble from him."
+
+"You think so, you really think so, John?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it: and you must persuade Elinor. Don't think I am
+making light of the situation: you'll have plenty to trouble you no
+doubt, when that little shaver grows up----"
+
+"John!"
+
+"Well, he is a little shaver (whatever that may mean I'm sure I don't
+know), if he were a little prince. When he grows up you will have your
+business laid out for you, and I don't envy you the clearing up----"
+
+"John don't speak as if a time would come when you would not stand by
+us. I mean stand by Elinor."
+
+"Your first phrase was much the best. I will stand by you both as a
+matter of course."
+
+"You must consider I shall be an old woman then; and who knows if I may
+live to see the poor little darling grow up?"
+
+"The poor little darling may never grow up, and none of us may live to
+see it. One prediction is as good as another: but I think better things
+of you, aunt, than that you would go and die and desert Elinor, unless
+'so be as you couldn't help it,' as Pearson says. But, however, in the
+meantime, dying of anybody is not in the question, and I hope both you
+and she will take as much pleasure out of the baby and be as happy as
+circumstances will allow. And I'll tell Pearson that there is no need
+for him to act the dragon--either the Bible one, whom he did not think
+you would like to have about the house, or any other--for the danger is
+over. Trust me at least for that."
+
+"I trust you for everything, John; but," added Mrs. Dennistoun, "I
+wouldn't say anything to Pearson. If you've told him to be a dragon, let
+him be a dragon still. I am sure you are right, and I will tell Elinor
+so, and comfort her heart; but we may as well keep a good look out, and
+our eyes about us, all the same."
+
+"They are sure I am right, but think it better to go on as if I
+were wrong," John said to himself as he went to dress for dinner.
+And while he went through this ceremony, he had a great many
+thoughts--half-impatient, half-tender--of the wonderful ways of women
+which are so amazing to men in general, as the ways of men are amazing
+to women, and will be so, no doubt, as long as the world goes on. The
+strange mixture of the wise and the foolish, the altogether heroic,
+and the involuntarily fictitious, struck his keen perception with
+a humourous understanding, and amusement, and sympathy. That Mrs.
+Dennistoun should pose a little as a sufferer while she was unmitigatedly
+happy in the possession of Elinor and the child, and be abashed when
+she was forced to confess how ecstatic was the fearful joy which she
+snatched in the midst of danger, was strange enough. But that Elinor,
+at this dreadful crisis of her life, when every bond was rent asunder,
+and all that is ordinarily called happiness wrecked for ever, should be
+moved to the kind of rapture he had seen in her face by the reaching out
+and curling in of those little pink toes in the warm light of the fire,
+was inconceivable--a thing that was not in any philosophy. She had made
+shipwreck of her life. She had torn the man whom she loved out of her
+heart, and fled from his neglect and treachery--a fugitive to her
+mother's house. And yet as she sat before the fire with this little
+infant cooing in the warmth--like a puppy or a little pig, or any
+other little animal you can suggest--this was the thought of the
+irreverent man--there was a look of almost more than common happiness,
+of blessedness, in her face. Who can fathom these things? They were at
+least beyond the knowledge, though not the sympathy, of this very rising
+member of the bar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Thus there came a sort of settling down and composure of affairs. Phil
+Compton and all belonging to him disappeared from the scene, and Elinor
+returned to all the habits of her old life--all the habits, with one
+extraordinary and incalculable addition which changed all these habits.
+The baby--so inconsiderable a little creature, not able to show a
+feeling, or express a thought, or make even a tremulous step from one
+pair of loving arms to another--an altogether helpless little bundle,
+but nevertheless one who had already altered the existence of the
+cottage and its inhabitants, and made life a totally different thing for
+them. Can I tell how this was done? No doubt for the wisest objects, to
+guard the sacred seed of the race as mere duty could never guard it,
+rendering it the one thing most precious in the world to those to whom
+it is confided--at least to most of them. When that love fails, then is
+the deepest abyss of misery reached. I do not say that Elinor was happy
+in this dreadful breaking up of her life, or that her heart did
+not go back, with those relentings which are the worst part of every
+disruption, to the man who had broken her heart and unsettled her
+nature. The remembrance of him in his better moments would flash upon
+her, and bear every resentment away. Dreadful thoughts of how she might
+herself have done otherwise, have rendered their mutual life better,
+would come over her; and next moment recollections still more terrible
+of what he had done and said, the scorn she had borne, the insults, the
+neglect, and worse of all the complicity he had forced upon her, by
+which he had made her guilty when she knew and feared nothing--when
+these thoughts overcame her, as they did twenty times in a day, for it
+is the worst of such troubles that they will not be settled by one
+struggle, but come back and back, beginning over again at the same
+point, after we have wrestled through them, and have thought that we had
+come to a close--when these thoughts, I say, overcame her, she would
+rush to the room in which the baby held his throne, and press him to the
+heart which was beating so hotly, till it grew calm. And in the midst of
+all to sit down by the fire with the little atom of humanity in her lap,
+and see it spread and stretch its rosy limbs, would suffice to bring
+again to her face that beatitude which had filled John Tatham with
+wonder unspeakable. She took the baby and laid him on her heart to take
+the pain away: and so after a minute or two there was no more question
+of pain, but of happiness, and delicious play, and the raptures of
+motherhood. How strange were these things! She could not understand it
+herself, and fortunately did not try, but accepted that solace provided
+by God. As for Mrs. Dennistoun, she made no longer any pretences to
+herself, but allowed herself, as John had advised, to take her
+blessedness frankly without hypocrisy. When Elinor's dear face was
+veiled by misery her mother was sympathetically miserable, but at all
+other moments her heart sang for joy. She had her child again, and she
+had her child's child, an endless occupation, amusement, and delight.
+All this might come to an end--who can tell when?--but for the moment
+her house was no more lonely, the requirements of her being were
+satisfied. She had her Elinor--what more was to be said? And yet there
+was more to be said, for in addition there was the boy.
+
+This was very well so far as the interior of the house and of their
+living was concerned, but very soon other difficulties arose. It had
+been Mrs. Dennistoun's desire, when she returned home, to communicate
+some modified version of what had happened to the neighbours around. She
+had thought it would not only be wise, but easier for themselves, that
+their position should be understood in the little parish society which,
+if it did not know authoritatively, would certainly inquire and
+investigate and divine, with the result of perhaps believing more than
+the truth, perhaps setting up an entirely fictitious explanation which
+it would be impossible to set aside, and very hard to bear. It is the
+worst of knowing a number of people intimately, and being known by them
+from the time your children were in their cradles, that every domestic
+incident requires some sort of explanation to this close little circle
+of spectators. But Elinor, who had not the experience of her mother in
+such matters, nor the knowledge of life, made a strenuous opposition to
+this. She would not have anything said. It was better, she thought, to
+leave it to their imagination, if they chose to interfere with their
+neighbours' concerns and imagine anything. "But why should they occupy
+themselves about us? And they have no imaginations," she said, with a
+contempt of her neighbours which is natural to young people, though very
+unjustifiable. "But, my darling," Mrs. Dennistoun would say, "the
+position is so strange. There are not many young women who--And there
+must be some way of accounting for it. Let us just tell them----"
+
+"For heaven's sake, mamma, tell them nothing! I have come to pay you
+a long visit after my neglect of you for these two years, which, of
+course, they know well enough. What more do they want to know? It is a
+very good reason: and while baby is so young of course it is far better
+for him to be in a settled home, where he can be properly attended to,
+than moving about. Isn't that enough?"
+
+"Well, Elinor; at least you will let me say as much as that----"
+
+"Oh, they can surely make it out for themselves. What is the use of
+always talking a matter over, to lead to a little more, and a little
+more, till the appetite for gossip is satisfied? Surely, in our
+circumstances, least said is soonest mended," Elinor said, with that air
+of superior understanding which almost always resides in persons of the
+younger generation. Mrs. Dennistoun said no more to her, but she did
+take advantage of the explanation thus suggested. She informed the
+anxious circle at the Rectory that Elinor had come to her on a long
+visit, "partly for me, and partly for the baby," she said, with one
+of those smiles which are either the height of duplicity or the most
+pathetic evidence of self-control, according as you choose to regard
+them. "She thinks she has neglected her mother, though I am sure I have
+never blamed her; and she thinks--of which there can be no doubt--that
+to carry an infant of that age moving about from place to place is the
+worst thing in the world; and that I am very thankful she should think
+so, I need not say."
+
+"It is very nice for you, dear Mrs. Dennistoun," Mrs. Hudson said.
+
+"And a good thing for Elinor," said Alice, "for she is looking very
+poorly. I have always heard that fashionable life took a great deal out
+of you if you are not quite brought up to it. I am sure I couldn't
+stand it," the young lady said with fervour, who had never had that
+painful delight in her power.
+
+"That is all very well," said the Rector, rubbing his hands, "but what
+does Mr. Compton say to it? I don't want to say a word against your
+arrangements, my dear lady, but you know there must be some one on the
+husband's side. Now, I am on the husband's side, and I am sorry for the
+poor young man. I hope he is going to join his wife. I hope, excuse me
+for saying it, that Elinor--though we are all so delighted to see
+her--will not forsake him, for too long."
+
+And then Mrs. Dennistoun felt herself compelled to embroider a little
+upon her theme.
+
+"He has to be a great deal abroad during this year," she said; "he has a
+great many things to do. Elinor does not know when he will be--home.
+That is one reason----"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure," the Rector said, rubbing his hands still
+more, and coming to her aid just as she was breaking down. "Something
+diplomatic, of course. Well, we must not inquire into the secrets of the
+State. But what an ease to his mind, my dear lady, to think that his
+wife and child will be safe with you while he's away!"
+
+Mary Dale not being present could not of course say anything. She was a
+person who was always dreadfully well informed. It was a comfort
+unspeakable that at this moment she was away!
+
+This explanation made the spring pass quietly enough, but not without
+many questions that brought the blood to Elinor's face. When she was
+asked by some one, for the first time, "When do you expect Mr. Compton,
+Elinor?" the sudden wild flush of colour which flooded her countenance
+startled the questioner as much as the question did herself. "Oh, I beg
+your pardon!" said the injudicious but perfectly innocent seeker for
+information. I fear that Elinor fell upon her mother after this, and
+demanded to know what she had said. But as Mrs. Dennistoun was innocent
+of anything but having said that Philip was abroad, there was no
+satisfaction to be got out of that. Some time after, one of the Miss
+Hills congratulated Elinor, having seen in the papers that Mr. Compton
+was returning to town for the season. "I suppose, dear Elinor, we shan't
+have you with us much longer," this lady said. And then it became known
+at the Cottage that Mary Dale was returning to the Rectory. This was the
+last aggravation, and Elinor, who had now recovered her strength and
+energy, and temper along with it, received the news with an outburst of
+impatience which frightened her mother. "You may as well go through the
+parish and ring the bell, and tell everybody everything," she said.
+"Mary Dale will have heard all, and a great deal more than all; she will
+come with her budget, and pour it out far and wide; she will report
+scenes that never took place: and quarrels, and all that--that woman
+insinuated to John--and she will be surrounded with people who will
+shake their heads, and sink their voices when we come in and say, 'Poor
+Elinor!' I cannot bear it, I cannot bear it," she cried.
+
+"My darling! that was bound to come sooner or later. We must set our
+faces like a rock, and look as if we were unaware of anything----"
+
+"I cannot look as if I were unaware. I cannot meet all their cruel eyes.
+I can see, now, the smile on Mary Dale's face, that will say, 'I told
+you so.' I shall hear her say it even when I am in my room, with the
+combe between. I know exactly how she will say it--'If Elinor had
+listened to me----'"
+
+"Elinor," said poor Mrs. Dennistoun, "I cannot contradict you, dear. It
+will be so--but none of them are cruel, not even Mary Dale. They will
+make their remarks--who could help it? we should ourselves if it were
+some one else's case: but they will not be cruel--don't think so--they
+will be full of sympathy----"
+
+"Which is a great deal worse," Elinor said, in her unreason; "the one
+might be borne, but the other I will not endure. Sympathy, yes! They
+will all be sorry for me--they will say they knew how it would be. Oh, I
+know I have not profited as I ought by what has happened to me. I am
+unsubdued. I am as impatient and as proud as ever. It is quite true, but
+it cannot be mended. It is more than I can bear."
+
+"My darling," said her mother, again. "We all say that in our trouble,
+and yet we know that we have got to bear it all the same. It is
+intolerable--one says that a thousand times--and yet it has to be put up
+with. All the time that we have been flattering ourselves that nobody
+took any notice it has been a delusion, Elinor. How could it be
+otherwise? We must set our faces----"
+
+"Not I, mamma!" she said. "Not I! I must go away----"
+
+"Go away? Elinor!"
+
+"Among strangers; where nobody has heard of me before--where nobody can
+make any remark. To live like this, among a crowd of people who think
+they ought to know everything that one is doing--who are nothing to you,
+and yet whom you stand in awe of and must explain everything to!--it is
+this that is intolerable. I cannot, cannot bear it. Mother, I will take
+my baby, and I will go away----"
+
+"Where?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, with all the colour fading out of her
+face. What panic had taken her I cannot tell. She grew pale to her lips,
+and the words were almost inaudible which she breathed forth. I think
+she thought for a moment that Elinor's heart had turned, that she was
+going back to her husband to find refuge with him from the strife of
+tongues which she could not encounter alone. All the blood went back
+upon the mother's heart--yet she set herself to suppress all emotion,
+and if this should be so, not to oppose it--for was it not the thing of
+all others to be desired--the thing which everybody would approve, the
+reuniting of those whom God had put together? Though it might be death
+to her, not a word of opposition would she say.
+
+"Where? how can I tell where--anywhere, anywhere out of the world,"
+cried Elinor, in the boiling tide of her impatience and wretchedness,
+"where nobody ever heard of us before, where there will be no one to
+ask, no one to require a reason, where we should be free to move when we
+please and do as we please. Let me go, mother. It seemed too dear, too
+peaceful to come home, but now home itself has become intolerable. I
+will take my baby and I will go--to the farthest point the railway can
+take me to--with no servant to betray me, not even an address. Mother,
+let me go away and be lost; let me be as if I had never been."
+
+"And me--am I to remain to bear the brunt behind?"
+
+"And you--mamma! Oh, I am the most unworthy creature. I don't deserve to
+have you, I that am always giving you pain. Why should I unroot you from
+your place where you have lived so long--from your flowers, and your
+landscape, and your pretty rooms that were always a comfort to think of
+in that horrible time when I was away? I always liked to think of you
+here, happy and quiet, in the place you had chosen."
+
+"Flowers and landscapes are pretty things," said Mrs. Dennistoun, whose
+colour had begun to come again a little, "but they don't make up for
+one's children. We must not do anything rashly, Elinor; but if what you
+mean is really that you will go away to a strange place among
+strangers----"
+
+"What else could I mean?" Elinor said, and then she in her turn grew
+pale. "If you thought I could mean that I would go--back----"
+
+"Oh, my darling, my darling! God knows if we are right or wrong--I not
+to advise you so, or you not to take my advice. Elinor, it is my duty,
+and I will say it though it were to break my heart. There only could you
+avoid this strife of tongues. John spoke the truth. He said, as the
+boy grew up we should have--many troubles. I have known women endure
+everything that their children might grow up in a natural situation,
+in their proper sphere. Think of this--I am saying it against my own
+interest, against my own heart. But think of it, Elinor. Whatever you
+might have to bear, you would be in your natural place."
+
+Elinor received this agitated address standing up, holding her head
+high, her nostrils expanded, her lips apart. "Have you quite done,
+mother?" she said.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun made an appealing movement with her hands, and sank,
+without any power to add a word, into a chair.
+
+"I am glad you said it against your heart. Now you must feel that your
+conscience is clear. Mother, if I had to wander the world from place to
+place, without even a spot of ground on which to rest my foot, I would
+never, never do what you say. What! take my child to grow up in that
+tainted air; give him up to be taught such things as they teach! Never,
+never, never! His natural place, did you say? I would rather the slums
+of London were his natural place. He would have some chance there! If I
+could bear it for myself, yet I could not for him--for him most of all.
+I will take him up in my arms. Thank God, I am strong now and can carry
+him--and go away--among strangers, I don't care where--where there can
+be no questions and no remarks."
+
+"But not without me, Elinor!"
+
+"Oh, mother, mother! What a child I am to you, to rend your heart as I
+have done, and now to tear you out of your house and home!"
+
+"My home is where my children are," Mrs. Dennistoun said: and then she
+made a little pause. "But we must think it over, Elinor. Such a step as
+this must not be taken rashly. We will ask John to come down and advise
+us. My dear----"
+
+"No, mother, not John or any one. I will go first if you like and find a
+place, and you will join me after. That woman" (it was poor Mary Dale,
+who was indeed full of information, but meant no harm) "is coming
+directly. I will not wait here to see her, or their faces after she has
+told them all the lies she will have heard. I am not going to take
+advice from any one. Let me alone, mother. I must, I must go away."
+
+"But not by yourself, Elinor," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+This was how it happened that John Tatham, who had meant to go down to
+the Cottage the very next Saturday to see how things were going, was
+driven into a kind of stupefaction one morning in May by a letter which
+reached him from the North, a letter conveying news so unexpected and
+sudden, so unlike anything that had seemed possible, that he laid it
+down, when it was half read, with a gasp of astonishment, unable to
+believe his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+It was Mrs. Dennistoun whose letter brought John Tatham such dismay. It
+was dated Lakeside, Waterdale, Penrith--an address with which he had no
+associations whatever, and which he gazed at blankly for a moment before
+he attempted to read the letter, not knowing how to connect it with the
+well-known writing which was as familiar as the common day.
+
+
+"You will wonder to see this address," she wrote. "You will wonder still
+more, dear John, when I tell you we have come here for good. I have left
+the Cottage in an agent's hands with the hope of letting it. Windyhill
+is such a healthy place that I hope somebody will soon be found to take
+it. You know Elinor would not let me make any explanation. And the
+constant questions and allusions to _his_ movements which people had
+seen in the papers, and so forth, had got on her nerves, poor child. You
+can understand how easily this might come about. At last she got that
+she could not bear it longer. Mary Dale, who always lives half the year
+with her sister at the Rectory, was coming back. You know it was she who
+brought the first tale about him, and she knows, I think, all the gossip
+that ever was got up about any one. Poor Elinor--though I don't believe
+Mary had any bad meaning; and it would, alas! have been for all our good
+had we listened to what she said--Elinor cannot bear her; and when she
+heard she was coming, she declared she would take her baby and go away.
+I tried to bring her to reason, but I could not. Naturally it was she
+who convinced me--you know the process, John. Indeed, in many things I
+can see it is the best thing we could do. I am not supremely attached to
+Windyhill. The Cottage had got to be very homelike after living in it so
+long, but home is where those are whom one loves. And to live among one
+set of people for so many years, if it has great advantages, has at the
+same time very great disadvantages too. You can't keep anything to
+yourself. You must explain every step you take, and everything that
+happens to you. This is a lovely country, a little cold as yet, and a
+little damp perhaps, being so near the lake--but the mountains are
+beautiful, and the air delicious. Elinor is out all the day long, and
+baby grows like a flower. You must come and see us as soon as ever you
+can. That is one dreadful drawback, that we shall not have you running
+up and down from Saturday to Monday: and I am afraid you will be vexed
+with us that we did not take your advice first--you, who have always
+been our adviser. But Elinor would not hear a word of any advice. I
+think she was afraid you would disapprove: and it would have been worse
+to fly in your face if you had disapproved than to come away without
+consulting you: and you know how impetuous she is. At all events the die
+is cast. Write kindly to her; don't say anything to vex her. You can let
+yourself out, if you are very angry, upon me.
+
+"One thing more. She desires that if you write you should address her as
+_Mrs. Compton_ only, no Honourable. That might attract attention, and
+what we desire is to escape notice altogether, which I am sure is a
+thing you will thoroughly understand, now that we have transplanted
+ourselves so completely. Dear John, form the most favourable idea you
+can of this sudden step, and come and see us as soon as it is possible.
+
+"Yours affectly.,
+"M. D."
+
+
+To say that John was thunderstruck by this letter is to describe his
+sensations mildly, for he was for a time bitterly angry, wounded,
+disappointed, disturbed to the bottom of his soul; but perhaps if truth
+were told it could scarcely be said that he disapproved. He thought it
+over, which he naturally did all that day, to the great detriment of his
+work, first with a sort of rage against Elinor and her impetuosity,
+which presently shaded down into understanding of her feelings, and
+ended in a sense that he might have known it from the first, and that
+really no other conclusion was possible. He came gradually to acquiesce
+in the step the ladies had taken. To have to explain everything to the
+Hudsons, and Hills, and Mary Dales, to open up your most sacred heart in
+order that they might be able to form a theory sufficient for their
+outside purposes of your motives and methods, or, what was perhaps worse
+still--to know that they were on the watch, guessing what you did not
+tell them, putting things together, explaining this and that in their
+own way--would have been intolerable. "That is the good of having
+attached friends," John exclaimed to himself, very unjustly: for it is
+human nature that is to blame, if there is any blame attaching to an
+exercise of ingenuity so inevitable. As a matter of fact, when Miss Dale
+brought the true or something like the true account to Windyhill, the
+warmth of the sympathy for Elinor, the wrath of the whole community with
+her unworthy husband, was almost impassioned. Had she been there it
+would not have been possible for those good people altogether to conceal
+from her how sorry and how indignant they were; even perhaps there might
+have been some who could not have kept out of their eyes, who must have
+betrayed in some word or shake of the head the "I told you so" which is
+so dear to human nature. But how was it possible that they could remain
+uninterested, unaffected by the trouble in the midst of them, or even
+appear to be so? John, like Elinor, threw a fiery dart of impatience at
+the country neighbours, not allowing that everywhere in the greatest
+town, in the most cosmopolitan community, this would have been the
+same.
+
+"The chattering gossips!" he said, as if a club would not have been a
+great deal worse, as if indeed his own club, vaguely conscious of a
+connection by marriage between him and the dis-Honourable Phil, had not
+discussed it all, behind his back, long ago.
+
+But on the whole John was forced not to disapprove. To say that he went
+the length of approving would be too much, and to deny that he launched
+forth a tremendous letter upon Mrs. Dennistoun, who always bore the
+brunt, is more than my conscience would permit. He did do this, throwing
+out, as the French say, fire and flame, but a few days after followed it
+up by a much milder letter (need I say this was addressed to Elinor?),
+allowing that he understood their motives, and that perhaps, from their
+own point of view, they were not so very much to blame. "You will find
+it very damp, very cold, very different from Windyhill," he said, with a
+sort of savage satisfaction. But as it happened to be unusually good
+weather among the lakes when his letter came, this dart did not do much
+harm. And that John felt the revolution in his habits consequent upon
+this move very much, it would be futile to deny. To have nowhere to go
+to freely when he pleased from Saturday to Monday (he had at least a
+score of places, but none like the Cottage) made a wonderful difference
+in his life. But perhaps when he came to think of it soberly, as he did
+so often in the brilliant Saturday afternoons of early summer, when the
+sunshine on the trees made his heart a little sick with the idea that he
+had, as he said to himself, nowhere to go to, he was not sure that the
+difference was not on the whole to his advantage. A man perhaps should
+not have it in his power to enjoy, in the most fraternal intimacy, the
+society of another man's wife whenever he pleased, even if to her he
+was, as he knew, of as little importance (notwithstanding that she was,
+as she would have said, so fond of John) as the postman, say, or any
+other secondary (yet sufficiently interesting) figure in the country
+neighbourhood. John knew in his heart of hearts that this was not a
+good thing nor a wholesome thing for him. He was not a man, as has been
+said, who would ever have hurried events, or insisted upon appropriating
+a woman, even when he loved her, and securing her as his very own. He
+would always have been able to put that off, to subordinate it to the
+necessity of getting on in the world, and securing his position: and he
+was by no means sure when he questioned his own heart (which was a thing
+he did seldom, knowing, like a wise man, that that shifty subject
+often made queer revelations, and was not at all an easy object to
+cross-examine), that the intercourse which he had again dropped into
+with Elinor was not on the whole as much as he required. There was no
+doubt that it kept him alive from one period to another; kept his heart
+moderately light and his mind wonderfully contented--as nothing else had
+ever done. He looked forward to his fortnightly or monthly visit to the
+Cottage (sometimes one, and sometimes the other; he never indulged
+himself so far as to go every week), and it gave him happiness enough
+to tide over all the dull moments between: and if anything came in
+his way and detained him even from his usual to a later train, he was
+ridiculously, absurdly angry. What right had he to feel so in respect to
+another man's wife? What right had he to watch the child--the child whom
+he disliked so much to begin with--developing its baby faculties with an
+interest he was half ashamed of, but which went on increasing? Another
+man's wife and another man's child. He saw now that it was not a
+wholesome thing for him, and he could never have given it up had they
+remained. It had become too much a part of his living; should he not be
+glad therefore that they had taken it into their own hands, and gone
+away? When it suddenly occurred to John, however, that this perhaps had
+some share in the ladies' hasty decision, that Mrs. Dennistoun perhaps
+(all that was objectionable was attributed to this poor lady) had been
+so abominably clear-sighted, so odiously presuming as to have suspected
+this, his sudden blaze of anger was _foudroyant_. Perhaps she had
+settled upon it for his sake, to take temptation out of his way. John
+could scarcely contain himself when this view of the case flashed upon
+him, although he was quite aware for himself that though it was a bitter
+wrench, yet it was perhaps good for him that Elinor should go away.
+
+It was probably this wave of fierce and, as we are aware, quite
+unreasonable anger rushing over him that produced the change which
+everybody saw in John's life about this time. It was about the beginning
+of the season when people's enjoyments begin to multiply, and for the
+first time in his life John plunged into society like a very novice. He
+went everywhere. By this time he had made a great start in life, had
+been brought into note in one or two important cases, and was, as
+everybody knew, a young man very well thought of, and likely to do great
+things at the bar; so that he was free of many houses, and had so many
+invitations for his Sundays that he could well afford to be indifferent
+to the loss of such a humble house as the Cottage at Windyhill. Perhaps
+he wanted to persuade himself that this was the case, and that there
+really was nothing to regret. And it is certain that he did visit a
+great deal during that season at one house where there were two or three
+agreeable daughters; the house, indeed, of Sir John Gaythorne, who was
+Solicitor-General at that time, and a man who had always looked upon
+John Tatham with a favourable eye. The Gaythornes had a house near
+Dorking, where they often went from Saturday to Monday with a few choice
+_convives_, and "picknicked," as they themselves said, but it was a
+picknicking of a highly comfortable sort. John went down with them the
+very Saturday after he received that letter--the Saturday on which he
+had intended to go to Windyhill. And the party was very gay. To compare
+it for a moment with the humdrum family at the Cottage would have been
+absurd. The Gaythornes prided themselves on always having pleasant
+people with them, and they had several remarkably pleasant people
+that day, among whom John himself was welcomed by most persons; and
+the family themselves were lively and agreeable to a high degree. A
+distinguished father, a very nice mother, and three charming girls, up
+to everything and who knew everybody; who had read or skimmed all the
+new books of any importance, and had seen all the new pictures; who
+could talk of serious things as well as they could talk nonsense, and
+who were good girls to boot, looking after the poor, and visiting at
+hospitals, in the intervals of their gaieties, as was then the highest
+fashion in town. I do not for a moment mean to imply that the Miss
+Gaythornes did their good work because it was the fashion: but the fact
+that it is the fashion has liberated many girls, and allowed them to
+carry out their natural wishes in that way, who otherwise would have
+been restrained and hampered by parents and friends, who would have
+upbraided them with making themselves remarkable, if in a former
+generation they had attempted to go to Whitechapel or St. Thomas's with
+any active intentions. And Elinor had never done anything of this kind,
+any more than she had pursued music almost as a profession, which was
+what Helena Gaythorne had done; or learned to draw, like Maud (who once
+had a little thing in the Royal Academy); or studied the Classics,
+like Gertrude. John thought of her little tunes as he listened to Miss
+Gaythorne's performance, and almost laughed out at the comparison. He
+was very fond of music, and Miss Gaythorne's playing was something which
+the most cultivated audience might have been glad to listen to. He was
+ashamed to confess to himself that he liked the "tunes" best. No, he
+would not confess it even to himself; but when he stood behind the
+performer listening, it occurred to him that he was capable of walking
+all the miles of hill and hollow which divided the one place from the
+other, only for the inane satisfaction of seeing that baby spread on
+Elinor's lap, or hearing her play to him one of her "tunes."
+
+He went with the Gaythornes to their country-place twice in the month of
+June, and dined at the house several times, and was invited on other
+occasions, becoming, in short, one of the _habitués_ when there was
+anything going on in the house--till people began to ask, which was it?
+It was thought generally that Helena was the attraction, for John was
+known to be a musical man, always to be found where specially good music
+was going. Some friends of the family had even gone so far as to say
+among themselves what a good thing it was that dear Helena's lot was
+likely to be cast with one who would appreciate her gift. "It generally
+happens in these cases that a girl marries somebody who does not know
+one note from another," they said to each other. When, all at once, John
+flagged in his visits; went no more to Dorking; and finally ceased to be
+more assiduous or more remarked than the other young men who were on
+terms of partial intimacy at the Gaythorne house. He had, indeed, tried
+very hard to make himself fall in love with one of Sir John's girls. It
+would have been an excellent connection, and the man might think himself
+fortunate who secured any one of the three for his wife. Proceeding from
+his certainty on these points, and also a general liking for their
+company, John had gone into it with a settled purpose, determined to
+fall in love if he could: but he found that the thing was not to be
+done. It was a pity; but it could not be helped. He was in a condition
+now when it would no longer be rash to marry, and he knew now that there
+was the makings of a domestic man in him. He never could have believed
+that he would take an interest in the sprawling of the baby upon its
+mother's knee, and he allowed to himself that it might be sweet to have
+that scene taking place in a house of his own. Ah! but the baby would
+have to be Elinor's. It must be Elinor who should sit on that low
+chair with the firelight on her face. And that was impossible. Helena
+Gaythorne was an exceedingly nice girl, and he wished her every
+success in life (which she attained some time after by marrying Lord
+Ballinasloe, the eldest son of the Earl of Athenree, a marriage which
+everybody approved), but he could not persuade himself to be in love
+with her, though with the best will in the world.
+
+During this time he did not correspond much with his relations in the
+country. He had, indeed, some letters to answer from his father, in
+which the interrogatories were very difficult: "Where has Mary
+Dennistoun gone? What's become of Elinor and her baby? Has that
+fashionable fellow of a husband deserted her? What's the meaning of the
+move altogether?" And, "Mind you keep yourself out of it," his father
+wrote. John had great trouble in wording his replies so as to convey as
+little information as possible. "I believe Aunt Mary has got a house
+somewhere in the North, probably to suit Elinor, who would be able to be
+more with her if she were in that neighbourhood." (It must be confessed
+that he thought this really clever as a way of getting over the question.)
+"As for Compton, I know very little about him. He was never a man much
+in my way." Mr. Tatham's household saw nothing remarkable in these
+replies; upon which, however, they built an explanation, such as it was,
+of the other circumstances. They concluded that it must be in order to
+be near Elinor that Mrs. Dennistoun had gone to the North, and that it
+was a very good thing that Elinor's husband was not a man who was in
+John's way. "A scamp, if I ever saw one!" Mr. Tatham said. "But what's
+that Jack says about Gaythorne? Mary, I remember Gaythorne years ago; a
+capital friend for a young man. I'm glad your brother's making such nice
+friends for himself; far better than mooning about that wretched little
+cottage with Mary Dennistoun and her girl."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+It happened thus that it was not till the second autumn after the
+settlement of the ladies in Waterdale, when all the questions had died
+out, and there was no more talk of them, except on occasions when a
+sudden recollection cropped up among their friends at Windyhill, that
+John Tatham paid them his first visit. He had been very conscientious
+in his proposed bestowal of himself. Perhaps it is scarcely quite
+complimentary to a woman when she is made choice of by a man who is
+consciously to himself "on the outlook," thinking that he ought to
+marry, and investigating all the suitable persons about with an eye to
+finding one who will answer his requirements. This sensible way of
+approaching the subject of matrimony does not somehow commend itself to
+our insular notions. It is the right way in every country except our
+own, but it has a cold-blooded look to the Anglo-Saxon; and a girl is
+not flattered (though perhaps she ought to be) by being the subject of
+this sensible choice. "As if I were a housekeeper or a cook!" she is apt
+to say, and is far better pleased to be fallen in love with in the most
+rash and irresponsible way than to be thus selected from the crowd:
+though that, everybody must allow, after due comparison and inspection,
+is by far the greater compliment. John having arrived at the conclusion
+that it would be better for him in many ways to marry, and specially
+in the way of Elinor, fortifying him for ever from all possible
+complications, and making it possible for him to regard her evermore
+with the placid feelings of a brother, which was, he expected, to be the
+consequence--worked at the matter really with great pertinacity and
+consistency. He kept his eyes open upon the whole generation of girls
+whom he met with in society. When he went abroad during the long
+vacation (instead of going to Lakeside, as he was invited to do), he
+directed his steps rather to the fashionable resorts, where families
+disport themselves at the foot of the mountains, than to the Alpine
+heights where he had generally found a more robust amusement. And
+wherever he went he bent his attention on the fairer portion of the
+creation, the girls who fill all the hotels with the flutter of their
+fresh toilettes and the babble of their pleasant voices. It was very
+mean and poor of him, seeing he was a mountaineer himself--but still it
+must be recorded that the only young ladies he systematically neglected
+were those in very short petticoats, with very sunburnt faces and nails
+in their boots, who ought to have been most congenial to him as sharing
+his own tastes. It is said, I don't know with what truth, that at Ouch,
+or Interlachen, or some other of the most mundane and banal resorts of
+the tourists, he came upon one girl who he thought might make him a
+suitable wife: and that, though with much moderation and prudence, he
+more or less followed her party for some time, meeting them over and
+over again, with expressions of astonishment, round the most well-known
+corners, and persisting for a considerable time in this quest. But
+whether he ever came the length of proposing at all, or whether the
+young lady was engaged beforehand, or if she thought the prospect of
+making a suitable wife not good enough, I cannot say, and I doubt
+whether any one knows--except, of course, the parties immediately
+concerned. It is very clear, at all events, that it came to nothing.
+John did not altogether give it up, I fancy, for he went a great deal
+into society still, especially in that _avant saison_, which people who
+live in London declare to be the most enjoyable, and when it is supposed
+you can enjoy the best of company at your ease without the hurry and
+rush of the summer crowd. He would have been very glad, thankful,
+indeed, if he could have fallen in love. How absurd to think that any
+silly boy can do it, to whom it is probably nothing but a disadvantage
+and the silliest of pastimes, and that he, a reasonable man with a good
+income, and arrived at a time of life when it is becoming and rational
+to marry, could not do it, let him try as he would! There was something
+ludicrous in it, when you came to think, as well as something very
+depressing. Mothers who wanted a good position for their daughters
+divined him, and many of them were exceedingly civil to John, this man
+in search of a wife; and many of the young ladies themselves divined
+him, and with the half indignation, half mockery, appropriate to the
+situation, were some of them not unaverse to profit by it, and
+accordingly turned to him their worst side in the self-consciousness
+produced by that knowledge. And thus the second year turned round
+towards the wane, and John was farther from success than ever.
+
+He said to himself then that it was clear he was not a marrying man. He
+liked the society of ladies well enough, but not in that way. He was
+not made for falling in love. He might very well, he was aware, have
+dispensed with the tradition, and found an excellent wife, who would not
+at all have insisted upon it from her side. But he had his prejudices,
+and could not do this. Love he insisted upon, and love would not come.
+Accordingly, when the second season was over he gave up both the quest
+and the idea, and resolved to think of marrying no more, which was a
+sensible relief to him. For indeed he was exceedingly comfortable as he
+was; his chambers were excellent, and he did not think that any street
+or square in Belgravia would have reconciled him to giving up the
+Temple. He had excellent servants, a man and his wife, who took the
+greatest care of him. He had settled into a life which was arranged as
+he liked, with much freedom, and yet an agreeable routine which John
+was too wise to despise. He relinquished the idea of marrying then and
+there. To be sure there is never any prophesying what may happen. A
+little laughing gipsy of a girl may banish such a resolution out of a
+man's mind in the twinkling of an eye, at any moment. But short of such
+accidents as that, and he smiled at the idea of anything of the kind, he
+quite made up his mind on this point with a great sensation of relief.
+
+It is curious how determined the mind of the English public at least is
+on this subject--that the man or woman who does not marry (especially
+the woman, by-the-bye) has an unhappy life, and that a story which does
+not end in a wedding is no story at all, or at least ends badly, as
+people say. It happened to myself on one occasion to put together in a
+book the story of some friends of mine, in which this was the case. They
+were young, they were hopeful, they had all life before them, but they
+did not marry. And when the last chapter came to the consciousness of
+the publisher he struck, with the courage of a true Briton, not ashamed
+of his principles, and refused to pay. He said it was no story at
+all--so beautiful is marriage in the eyes of our countrymen. I hope,
+however, that nobody will think any harm of John Tatham because he
+concluded, after considerable and patient trial, that he was not a
+marrying man. There is no harm in that. A great number of those Catholic
+priests whom it was the habit in my youth to commiserate deeply, as if
+they were vowed to the worst martyrdom, live very happy lives in their
+celibacy and prefer it, as John Tatham did. It will be apparent to the
+reader that he really preferred it to Elinor, while Elinor was in his
+power. And though afterwards it gave a comfort and grace to his life to
+think that it was his faithful but subdued love for Elinor which made
+him a bachelor all his days, I am by no means certain that this was
+true. Perhaps he never would have made up his mind had she remained
+always within his reach. Certain it is that he was relieved when he
+found that to give up the idea of marriage was the best thing for him.
+He adopted the conclusion with pleasure. His next brother had already
+married, though he was younger than John; but then he was a clergyman,
+which is a profession naturally tending to that sort of thing. There
+was, however, no kind of necessity laid upon him to provide for the
+continuance of the race. And he was a happy man.
+
+By what sequence of ideas it was that he considered himself justified,
+having come to this conclusion, in immediately paying his long-promised
+visit to Lakeside, is a question which I need not enter into, and indeed
+do not feel entirely able to cope with. It suited him, perhaps, as
+he had been so long a time in Switzerland last year: and he had an
+invitation to the far north for the grouse, which he thought it would be
+pleasant to accept. Going to Scotland or coming from it, Waterdale of
+course lies full in the way. He took it last on his way home, which was
+more convenient, and arrived there in the latter part of September,
+when the hills were golden with the yellow bracken. The Cumberland hills
+are a little cold, in my opinion, without the heather, which clothes
+with such a flush of life and brightness our hills in the north. The
+greenness is chilly in the frequent rain; one feels how sodden and
+slippery it is--a moisture which does not belong to the heather: but
+when the brackens have all turned, and the slopes reflect themselves in
+the tranquil water like hills of gold, then the landscape reaches its
+perfect point. Lakeside was a white house standing out on a small
+projection at the head of the lake, commanding the group of hills above
+and part of the winding body of water below, in which all these golden
+reflections lay. A little steamer passed across the reflected glory, and
+came to a stop not a hundred yards from the gate of the house. It was a
+scene as unlike as could be conceived to the Cottage at Windyhill: the
+trees were all glorious in colour; yellow birches like trees made of
+light, oaks all red and fiery, chestnuts and elms and beeches in a
+hundred hues. The house was white, with a sort of broad verandah round,
+supported on pillars, furnishing a sheltered walk below and a broad
+balcony above, which gave it a character of more importance than perhaps
+its real size warranted. When John approached there ran out to meet him
+into the wide gravel drive before the door a little figure upon two
+sturdy legs, calling out, in inarticulate shoutings, something that
+sounded a little like his own name. It was, "'tle John! 'tle John!"
+made into a sort of song by the baby, nearly two years old, and "very
+forward," as everybody assured the stranger, for his age. Uncle John!
+his place was thus determined at once by that little potentate and
+master of the house. Behind the child came Elinor, no longer pale and
+languid as he had seen her last, but matured into vigorous beauty,
+bright-eyed, a little sober, as might have become maturer years than
+hers. Perhaps there was something in the style of her dress that
+favoured the idea, not of age indeed, but of matronly years, and beyond
+those which Elinor counted. She was dressed in black, of the simplest
+description, not of distinctive character like a widow's, yet something
+like what an ideal widow beyond fashion or conventionalities of woe
+might wear. It seemed to give John the key-note of the character she had
+assumed in this new sphere.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun, who had not changed in the least, stood in the open
+door. They gave him a welcome such as John had not had, he said to
+himself, since he had seen them before. They were unfeignedly glad to
+see him, not wounded (which, to think of afterwards, wounded him a
+little) that he had not come sooner, but delighted that he was here now.
+Even when he went home it was not usual to John to be met at the door in
+this way by all his belongings. His sister might come running down the
+stairs when she heard the dog-cart draw up, but that was all. And Mary's
+eagerness to see him was generally tempered by the advice she had to
+give, to say that or not to say this, because of papa. But in the
+present case it was the sight of himself which was delightful to all,
+and, above all, though the child could have no reason for it, to the
+little shouting excited boy. "'Tle John! 'tle John!" What was Uncle John
+to him? yet his little voice filled the room with shouts of joy.
+
+"What does he know about me, the little beggar, that he makes such a
+noise in my honour?" said John, touched in spite of himself. "But I
+suppose anything is good enough for a cry at that age."
+
+"Come," said Elinor, "you are not to be contemptuous of my boy any
+longer. You called him _it_ when he was a baby."
+
+"And what is he now?" said John, whose heart was affected by strange
+emotions, he, the man who had just decided (with relief) that he was not
+a marrying man. There came over him a curious wave of sensation which he
+had no right to. If he had had a right to it, if he had been coming home
+to those who belonged to him, not distantly in the way of cousinship,
+but by a dearer right, what sensations his would have been! But sitting
+at the corner of the fire (which is very necessary in Waterdale in the
+end of September) a little in the shadow, his face was not very clearly
+perceptible: though indeed had it been so the ladies would have thought
+nothing but that John's kind heart was touched, as was so natural, by
+this sight.
+
+"What is he now? Your nephew! Tell Uncle John what you are now," said
+Elinor, lifting her child on her lap; at which the child between the
+kisses which were his encouragement and reward produced, in a large
+infant voice, very treble, yet simulating hers, the statement, "Mamma's
+bhoy."
+
+"Now, Elinor," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "he has played his part
+beautifully; he has done everything you taught him. He has told you who
+he is and who Uncle John is. Let him go to his nursery now."
+
+"Come up-stairs, Pippo. Mother will carry her boy," said Elinor. "They
+don't want us any more, these old people. Say good-night to Uncle John,
+and come to bed."
+
+"Dood-night, 'tle John," said the child; which, however, was not enough,
+for he tilted himself out of his mother's arms and put his rosy face and
+open mouth, sweet but damp, upon John's face. This kiss was one of the
+child's accomplishments. He himself was aware that he had been good, and
+behaved himself in every way as a child should do, as he was carried off
+crowing and jabbering in his mother's arms. He had formed a sort of
+little human bridge between them when he made that dive from Elinor's
+arms upon John's face. Ah, heaven! if it had been the other way, if the
+child and the mother had both been his!
+
+"He has grown up very sweet. You may think we are foolish, John; but you
+can't imagine what a delight that child is. Hasn't he grown up sweet?"
+
+"If you call that grown up!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know he is only a baby still; but so forward for his age,
+such a little man, taking care of his mother before he is two years
+old!"
+
+"What did I hear her call him?" John asked, and it seemed to Mrs.
+Dennistoun that there was something severe in the sound of his voice.
+
+"He had to be Philip. It is a pretty name, though we may have reason to
+mourn the day--and belongs to his family. We must not forget that he
+belongs to a known family, however he may have suffered by it."
+
+"Then you intend the child to know about his family? I am glad to hear
+it," said John, though his voice perhaps was not so sweet as his words.
+
+"Oh, John, that is quite another thing! to know about his family--at
+two! He has his mother--and me to take care of them both, and what does
+he want more?"
+
+"But he will not always be two," said John, the first moment almost of
+his arrival, before he had seen the house, or said a word about the
+lake, or anything. She was so disappointed and cast down that she made
+him no reply.
+
+"I am a wretched croaker," he said, after a moment, "I know. I ought
+after all this time to try to make myself more agreeable; but you must
+pardon me if this was the first thing that came into my mind. Elinor is
+looking a great deal better than when I saw her last."
+
+"Isn't she! another creature. I don't say that I am satisfied, John. Who
+would be satisfied in such a position of affairs? but while the child is
+so very young nothing matters very much. And she is quite happy. I do
+think she is quite happy. And so well--this country suits them both
+perfectly. Though there is a good deal of rain, they are both out every
+day. And little Pippo thrives, as you see, like a flower."
+
+"That is a very fantastic name to give the child."
+
+"How critical you are, John! perhaps it is, but what does it matter at
+his age? any name does for a baby. Why, you yourself, as grave as you
+are now----"
+
+"Don't, aunt," said John. "It is a grave matter enough as it appears to
+me."
+
+"Not for the present; not for the present, John."
+
+"Perhaps not for the present: if you prefer to put off all the
+difficulties till they grow up and crush you. Have there been any
+overtures, all this time, from--the other side?"
+
+"Dear John, don't overwhelm me all in a moment, in the first pleasure of
+seeing you, both with the troubles that are behind and the troubles that
+are in front of us," the poor lady said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+The weather was fine, which was by no means always a certainty at
+Waterdale, and Elinor had become a great pedestrian, and was ready to
+accompany John in his walks, which were long and varied. It was rather a
+curious test to which to subject himself after the long time he had been
+away, and the other tests through which he had gone. Never had he been
+so entirely the companion of Elinor, never before had they spent so many
+hours together without other society. At Windyhill, indeed, their
+interviews had been quite unrestrained, but then Elinor had many friends
+and interests in the parish and outside of it, visits to pay and duties
+to perform. Now she had her child, which occupied her mornings and
+evenings, but left her free for hours of rambling among the hills, for
+long walks, from which she came back blooming with the fresh air and
+breezes which had blown her about, ruffling her hair, and stirring up
+her spirits and thoughts. Sometimes when there has been heavy and
+premature suffering there occurs thus in the young another spring-time,
+an almost childhood of natural, it may be said superficial pleasure--the
+power of being amused, and of enjoying every simple satisfaction without
+any _arrière pensée_ like a child. She had recovered her strength and
+vigour in the mountain air--and in that freedom of being unknown, with
+no look ever directed to her which reminded her of the past, no question
+which brought back her troubles, had blossomed out into that fine
+youthful maturity of twenty-six, which has already an advantage over the
+earlier girlhood, the perfection of the woman grown. Elinor had thought
+of many things and understood many things, which she had still regarded
+with the high assumptions of ignorance three or four years ago. And poor
+John, who had tried so hard to find himself a mate that suited him, who
+had studied so many girls more beautiful, more accomplished than Elinor,
+in the hope of goading himself, so to speak, into love, and had not
+succeeded--and who had felt so strongly that another man's wife must not
+occupy so much of his thoughts, nor another man's child give him an
+unwilling pleasure which was almost fatherly--poor John felt himself
+placed in a position more trying than any he had known before, more
+difficult to steer his way through. He had never had so much of her
+company, and she did not conceal the pleasure it was to her to have some
+one to walk with, to talk with, who understood what she said and what
+she did not say, and was in that unpurchasable sympathy with herself
+which is not to be got by beauty, or by will, or even by love itself,
+but comes by nature. Elinor felt this with simple pleasure. Without any
+complicating suspicion, she said, "What a brother John is! I always felt
+him so, but now more than ever." "You have been, so to speak, brought up
+together," said Mrs. Dennistoun, whose mind was by no means so easy on
+the subject. "That is the reason, I suppose," said Elinor, with happy
+looks.
+
+But poor John said nothing of this kind. What he felt was that he might
+have spared himself the trouble of all those researches of his; that to
+roam about looking for a young lady whom he might--not devour, but learn
+to love, was pains as unnecessary as ever man took. He still hugged
+himself, however, over the thought that in no circumstances would he
+have been a marrying man; that if Elinor had been free he would have
+found plenty of reasons why they should remain on their present terms
+and go no farther. As it was clear that they must remain on their
+present terms, and could go no farther, it was certainly better that he
+should cherish that thought.
+
+And curiously enough, though they heard so little from the outside
+world, they had heard just so much as this, that John's assiduities to
+the Miss Gaythornes (which the reader may remember was the first of all
+his attempts, and quite antiquated in his recollection) had occasioned
+remarks, and he had not been many evenings at Lakeside before he was
+questioned on the subject. Had it been true, or had he changed his mind
+or had the lady----? It vexed him that there was not the least little
+opposition or despite in their tones, such as a man's female friends
+often show towards the objects of his admiration, not from any feeling
+on their own part, except that most natural one, which is surprised and
+almost hurt to find that, "having known me, he could decline"--a feeling
+which, in its original expression, was not a woman's sentiment, but a
+man's, and therefore is, I suppose, common to both sides. But the ladies
+at Lakeside did not even betray this feeling. They desired to know if
+there had been anything in it--with smiles, it is true; but Mrs.
+Dennistoun at the same time expressed her regret warmly.
+
+"We were in great hopes something would come of it, John. Elinor has met
+the Gaythornes, and thought them very nice; and if there is a thing in
+the world that would give me pleasure, it would be to see you with a
+nice wife, John."
+
+"I am sure I am much obliged to you, aunt; but there really was nothing
+in it. That is, I was seized with various impulses on the subject, and
+rather agreed with you: but I never mentioned the matter to any of the
+Miss Gaythornes. They are charming girls, and I don't suppose would have
+looked at me. At the same time, I did not feel it possible to imagine
+myself in love with any of them. That's quite a long time since," he
+added with a laugh.
+
+"Then there have been others since then? Let us put him in the
+confessional, mother," cried Elinor with a laugh. "He ought not to have
+any secrets of that description from you and me."
+
+"Oh, yes, there have been others since," said John. "To tell the truth,
+I have walked round a great many nice girls asking myself whether I
+shouldn't find it very delightful to have one of them belonging to me. I
+wasn't worthy the least attractive of them all, I quite knew; but still
+I am about the same as other men. However, as I've said, I never
+mentioned the matter to any of them."
+
+"Never?" cried Mrs. Dennistoun, feeling a hesitation in his tone.
+
+He laughed a little, shamefaced: "Well, if you like, I will say hardly
+ever," he said. "There was one that might, perhaps, have taken pity upon
+me--but fortunately an old lover of hers, who was much more
+enterprising, turned up before anything decisive had been said."
+
+"Fortunately, John?"
+
+"Well, yes, I thought so. You see I am not a marrying man. I tried to
+screw myself up to the point, but it was altogether, I am afraid, as a
+matter of principle. I thought it would be a good thing, perhaps, to
+have a wife."
+
+"That was a very cold-blooded idea. No wonder you--it never came to
+anything. That is not the way to go about it," said Elinor with the
+ringing laugh of a child.
+
+And yet her way of going about it had been far from a success. How
+curious that she did not remember that!
+
+"Yes," he said, "I am quite aware that I did not go about it in the
+right way, but then that was the only way in which it presented itself
+to me; and when I had made up my mind at last that it was a failure, I
+confess it was with a certain sense of relief. I suppose I was born to
+live and die an old bachelor."
+
+"Do not be so sure of that," said Elinor. "Some day or other, in the
+most unlooked-for moment, the fairy princess will bound upon the scene,
+and the old bachelor will be lost."
+
+"We'll wait quite contentedly for that day--which I don't believe in,"
+he said.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun did not take any part in the later portion of this
+discussion; her smile was feeble at the places where Elinor laughed. She
+said seriously after this fireside conference, when he got up to prepare
+for dinner, putting her hand tenderly on his shoulder, "I wish you had
+found some one you could have loved, John."
+
+"So did I--for a time," he said, lightly. "But you see, it was not to
+be."
+
+She shook her head, standing against the firelight in the dark room, so
+that he could not see her face. "I wish," she said, "I wish--that I saw
+you with a nice wife, John."
+
+"You might wish--to see me on the woolsack, aunt."
+
+"Well--and it might come to pass. I shall see you high up--if I live
+long enough; but I wish I was as sure of the other, John."
+
+"Well," he said with a laugh, "I did my best; but there is no use in
+struggling against fate."
+
+No, indeed! how very, very little use there was. He had kept away from
+them for nearly two years; while he had done his best in the meantime to
+get a permanent tenant for his heart which should prevent any wandering
+tendencies. But he had not succeeded; and now if ever a man could be put
+in circumstances of danger it was he. If he did not appear in time for
+their walk Elinor would call him. "Aren't you coming, John?" And she
+overflowed in talk to him of everything--excepting always of that one
+dark passage in her life of which she never breathed a word. She asked
+him about his work, and about his prospects, insisting upon having
+everything explained to her--even politics, to which he had a tendency,
+not without ideas of their use in reaching the higher ranks of his
+profession. Elinor entered into all with zest and almost enthusiasm. She
+wrapped him up in her sympathy and interest. There was nothing he did
+that she did not wish to know about, did not desire to have a part in.
+A sister in this respect is, as everybody knows, often more full of
+enthusiasm than a wife, and Elinor, who was vacant of all concerns of
+her own (except the baby) was delighted to take up these subjects of
+excitement, and follow John through them, hastening after him on every
+line of indication or suggestion which he gave--nay, often with her
+lively intelligence hastening before him, making incursions into
+undiscovered countries of which he had not yet perceived the importance.
+They walked over all the country, into woods which were a little damp,
+and up hill-sides where the scramble was often difficult enough, and
+along the side of the lake--or, for a variety, went rowing across to
+the other side, or far down the gleaming water, out of sight, round
+the wooded corner which, with all its autumnal colours, blazed like
+a brilliant sentinel into the air above and the water below. Mrs.
+Dennistoun watched them, sometimes with a little trouble on her face.
+She would not say a word to throw suspicions or doubts between them.
+She would not awaken in Elinor's mind the thought that any such
+possibilities as arise between two young people free of all bonds could
+be imagined as affecting her and any man such as her cousin John. Poor
+John! if he must be the victim, the victim he must be. Elinor could
+not be disturbed that he might go free. And indeed, what good would it
+have done to disturb Elinor? It would but have brought consciousness,
+embarrassment, and a sense of danger where no such sense was. She was
+trebly protected, and without a thought of anything but the calm yet
+close relations that had existed so long. He---- but he could take care
+of himself, Mrs. Dennistoun reflected in despair; he must take care of
+himself. He was a man and must understand what his own risks and perils
+were.
+
+"And do you think this plan is a success?" John asked her one day as
+they were rowing homeward up the lake. The time of his visit was drawing
+to a close; indeed it had drawn to a close several times, and been
+lengthened very unadvisedly, yet very irresistibly as he felt.
+
+Her face grew graver than usual, as with a sudden recollection of that
+shadow upon her life which Elinor so often seemed to have forgotten. "As
+much of a success," she said, "as anything of the kind is likely to be."
+
+"It suits you better than Windyhill?"
+
+"Only in being more out of the world. It is partially out of the world
+for a great part of the year; but I suppose no place is so wholly. It
+seems impossible to keep from making acquaintances."
+
+"Of course," he said, "I have noticed. You know people here already."
+
+"How can we keep from knowing people? Mamma says it is the same thing
+everywhere. If we lived up in that little house which they say is the
+highest in England--at the head of the pass--we should meet people I
+suppose even there."
+
+"Most likely," he replied; "but the same difficulties can hardly arise."
+
+"You mean we shall not know people so well as at--at home, and will not
+be compelled to give an account of ourselves whatever we do? Heaven
+knows! There is a vicarage here, and there is a squire's house: and
+there are two or three people besides who already begin to inquire if we
+are related to So-and-So, if we are the Scotch Dennistouns, or the Irish
+Comptons, or I don't know what; and whether we are going to Penrith or
+any other capital city for the winter." Elinor ended with a laugh.
+
+"So soon?" John said.
+
+"So soon--very much sooner, the first year: with mamma so friendly as
+she is and with me so silly, unable to keep myself from smiling at
+anybody who smiles at me!"
+
+"Poor Elinor!"
+
+"Oh, you may laugh; but it is a real disadvantage. I am sure there was
+not very much smile in me when we came; and yet, notwithstanding, the
+first pleasant look is enough for me, I cannot but respond; and I shall
+always be so, I suppose," she said, with a sigh.
+
+"I hope so, Elinor. It would be an evil day for all of us if you did not
+respond."
+
+"For how many, John? For my mother and--ah, you are so good, more like
+my brother than my cousin--for you, perhaps, a little; but what is it to
+anybody else in the world whether I smile or sigh? It does not matter,
+however," she said, flinging back her head; "there it is, and I can't
+help it. If you smile at me I must smile back again--and so we make
+friends; and already I get a great deal of advice about little Pippo.
+If we live here till he grows up, the same thing will happen as at the
+Cottage. We will require to account to everybody for what we do with
+him--for the school he goes to, and all he does; to explain why he has
+one kind of training or another; and, in short, all that I ran away
+from: the world wherever one goes seems to be so much the same."
+
+"The world is very much the same everywhere; and you cannot get out of
+it were you to take refuge in a cave on the hill. The best thing is
+generally to let it know all that can be known, and so save the
+multitude of guesses it always makes."
+
+Elinor looked at him for a moment with her lips pressed tightly
+together, and a light in her eyes; then she looked away across the water
+to the golden hills, and said nothing; but there was a great deal in
+that look of eager contradiction, yet forced agreement, of determination
+above all, with which right and wrong had nothing to do.
+
+"Elinor," he said, "do you mean that child to grow up here between your
+mother and you--in ignorance of all that there is in the world besides
+you two?"
+
+"That child!" she cried. "John, I think you dislike my boy; for, of
+course, it is Pippo you mean."
+
+"I wish you would not call him by that absurd name."
+
+"You are hard to please," she said, with an angry laugh. "I think it is
+a very sweet little name."
+
+"The child will not always be a baby," said John.
+
+"Oh, no: I suppose if we all live long enough he will some time be
+a--possibly disagreeable man, and punish us well for all the care we
+have spent upon him," Elinor said.
+
+"I don't want to make you angry, Elinor----"
+
+"No, I don't suppose you do. You have been very nice to me, John. You
+have neither scolded me nor given me good advice. I never expected you
+would have been so forbearing. But I have always felt you must mean to
+give me a good knock at the end."
+
+"You do me great injustice," he said, much wounded. "You know that I
+think only of what is best for you--and the child."
+
+They were approaching the shore, and Mrs. Dennistoun's white cap was
+visible in the waning light, looking out for them from the door. Elinor
+said hastily, "And the child? I don't think that you care much for the
+child."
+
+"There you are mistaken, Elinor. I did not perhaps at first: but I
+acknowledge that a little thing like that does somehow creep into one's
+heart."
+
+Her face, which had been gloomy, brightened up as if a sunbeam had
+suddenly burst upon it. "Oh, bless you, John--Uncle John; how good and
+how kind, and what a dear friend and brother you are! And I such a
+wretch, ready to quarrel with those I love best! But, John, let me keep
+quiet, let me keep still, don't make me rake up the past. He is such a
+baby, such a baby! There cannot be any question of telling him anything
+for years and years!"
+
+"I thought you were lost," said Mrs. Dennistoun, calling to them. "I
+began to think of all kinds of things that might have happened--of the
+steamboat running into you, or the boat going on a rock, or----"
+
+"You need not have had any fear when I was with John," Elinor said, with
+a smile that made him warm at once, like the sun. He knew very well,
+however, that it was only because he had made that little pleasant
+speech about her boy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+There passed after this a number of years of which I can make no record.
+The ladies remained at Lakeside, seldom moving. When they took a holiday
+now and then, it was more for the sake of the little community which,
+just as in Windyhill, had gathered round them, and which inquired,
+concerned, "Are you not going to take a little change? Don't you think,
+dear Mrs. Dennistoun, your daughter would be the better for a change? Do
+you really think that a little sea air and variety wouldn't be good for
+the boy?" Forced by these kind speeches they did go away now and then to
+unknown seaside places in the north when little Philip was still a
+child, and to quiet places abroad when he grew a boy, and it was thought
+a good thing for him to learn languages, and to be taught that there
+were other countries in the world besides England. They were absent for
+one whole winter in France and another in Germany with this motive, that
+Philip should learn these languages, which he did _tant bien que mal_
+with much assistance from his mother, who taught herself everything
+that she thought the boy should know, and shared his lessons in order
+to push him gently forward. And on the whole, he did very well in this
+particular of language, showing much aptitude, though not perhaps much
+application. I would not assert that the ladies, with an opinion very
+common among women, and also among youth in general, did not rather
+glory in the thought that he could do almost anything he liked (which
+was their opinion, and in some degree while he was very young, the
+opinion of his masters), with the appearance of doing nothing at all.
+But on the whole, his education was the most difficult matter in which
+they had yet been engaged. How was he to be educated? His birth and
+condition pointed to one of the great public schools, and Mrs. Dennistoun,
+who had made many economics in that retirement, was quite able to give
+the child what they both called the best education. But how could they
+send him to Eton or Harrow? A boy who knew nothing about his parentage
+or his family, a boy bearing a well-known name, who would be subject to
+endless questions where he came from, who he belonged to? a hundred
+things which neither in Waterdale nor in their travels had ever been
+asked of him. What the Waterdale people thought on the subject, or how
+much they knew, I should not like to inquire. There are ways of finding
+out everything, and people who possess family secrets are often
+extraordinarily deceived in respect to what is known and what is not
+known of those secrets. My own opinion is that there is scarcely such a
+thing as a secret in the world. If any moment of great revolution comes
+in your life you generally find that your neighbours are not much
+surprised. They have known it, or they have suspected it, all along, and
+it is well if they have not suspected more than the truth. So it is
+quite possible that these excellent people knew all about Elinor: but
+Elinor did not think so, which was the great thing.
+
+However, there cannot be any question that Philip's education was a very
+great difficulty. John Tatham, who paid them a visit soberly from time
+to time, but did not now come as of old, never indeed came as on that
+first occasion when he had been so happy and so undeceived. To be sure,
+as Philip grew up it was of course impossible for any one to be like
+that. From the time Pippo was five or six he went everywhere with his
+mother, her sole companion in general, and when there was a visitor
+always making a third in the party, a third who was really the first,
+for he appealed to his mother on every occasion, directed her attention
+to everything. He only learned with the greatest difficulty that it was
+possible she should find it necessary to give her attention in a greater
+degree to any one else. When she said, "You know, Pippo, I must talk to
+Uncle John," Pippo opened his great eyes, "Not than to me, mamma?"
+
+"Yes, dearest, more than to you for the moment: for he has come a long
+way to see us, and he will soon have to go away again." When this was
+first explained to him, Pippo inquired particularly when his Uncle John
+was going away, and was delighted to hear that it was to be very soon.
+However, as he grew older the boy began to take great pleasure in Uncle
+John, and hung upon his arm when they went out for their walks, and
+instead of endeavouring to monopolise his mother, turned the tables upon
+her by monopolising this the only man who belonged to him, and to whom
+he turned with the instinct of budding manhood. John too was very
+willing to be thus appropriated, and it came to pass that now and then
+Elinor was left out, or left herself out of the calculation, urging that
+the walk they were planning was too far for her, or too steep for her,
+or too something, so that the boy might have the enjoyment of the man's
+society all to himself. This changed the position in many ways, and I am
+not sure that at first it did not cost Elinor a little thus to stand
+aside and put herself out of that first place which had always been by
+all of them accorded to her. But if this was so, it was soon lost in the
+consideration of how good it was for Pippo to have a man like John to
+talk to and to influence him in every way. A man like John! That was the
+thing; not a common man, not one who might teach him the baseness, or
+the frivolity, or the falsehood of the world, but a good man, who was
+also a distinguished man, a man of the world in the best sense, knowing
+life in the best sense, and able to modify the boy's conception of what
+he was to find in the world, as women could never do.
+
+"For after all that can be said, we are not good for much on those
+points, mother," Mrs. Compton would say.
+
+"I don't know, Elinor; I doubt whether I would exchange my own ideas for
+John's," the elder lady replied.
+
+"Ah, perhaps, mother; but for Pippo his experience and his knowledge
+will do so much. A boy should not be brought up entirely with women any
+more than a girl should be with men."
+
+"I have often thought, my dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "if in God's
+providence it had been a girl instead of a boy----"
+
+"Oh!" said the younger mother, with a flush, "how can you speak--how
+could you think of any possible child but Pippo? I would not give him
+for a score of girls."
+
+"And if he had been a girl you would not have changed him for scores of
+boys," said Mrs. Dennistoun, who added after a while, with a curious
+sense of competition, and a determination to allow no inferiority, "You
+forget, Elinor, that my only child is a girl." The elder lady (whom they
+began to call the old lady) showed a great deal of spirit in defence of
+her own.
+
+But Philip was approaching fourteen, and the great question had to be
+decided now or never; where was he to be sent to school? It was
+difficult now to send him to bed to get him out of the way, he who was
+used to be the person of first importance in the house--in order that
+the others might settle what was to be his fate. And accordingly the two
+ladies came down-stairs again after the family had separated in the
+usual way, in order to have their consultation with their adviser. There
+was now a room in the house furnished as a library in order that Philip
+might have a place in which to carry on his studies, and where "the
+gentlemen" might have their talks by themselves, when there was any one
+in the house. And here they found John when they stole in one after the
+other, soft-footed, that the boy might suspect no complot. They had
+their scheme, it need not be doubted, and John had his. He pronounced at
+once for one of the great public schools, while the ladies on their part
+had heard of one in the north, an old foundation as old as Eton, where
+there was at the moment a head master who was quite exceptional, and
+where boys were winning honours in all directions. There Pippo would
+be quite safe. He was not likely to meet with anybody who would put
+awkward questions, and yet he would receive an education as good as any
+one's. "Probably better," said Elinor: "for Mr. Sage will have few
+pupils like him, and therefore will give him the more attention."
+
+"That means," said John, "that the boy will not be among his equals,
+which is of all things I know the worst for a boy."
+
+"We are not aristocrats, as you are, John. They will be more than his
+equal in one way, because many of them will be bigger and stronger than
+he, and that is what counts most among boys. Besides, we have no
+pretensions."
+
+"My dear Elinor," said John Tatham (who was by this time an exceedingly
+successful lawyer, member for his native borough, and within sight of a
+Solicitor-Generalship), "your modesty is a little out of character,
+don't you think? There can be no two opinions about what the boy is: an
+aristocrat--if you choose to use that word, every inch of him--a little
+gentleman, down to his fingers' ends."
+
+"Oh, thank you, John," cried Pippo's inconsistent mother; "that is the
+thing of all others that we hoped you would say."
+
+"And yet you are going to send him among the farmers' sons. Fine
+fellows, I grant you, but not of his kind. Have you heard," he said,
+more gravely, "that Reginald Compton died last year?"
+
+"We saw it in the papers," said Mrs. Dennistoun. Elinor said nothing,
+but turned her head away.
+
+"And neither of the others are married, or likely to marry; one of them
+is very much broken down----"
+
+"Oh, John, John, for God's sake don't say anything more!"
+
+"I must, Elinor. There is but one good life, and that in a dangerous
+climate, and with all the risks of possible fighting, between the boy
+and----"
+
+"Don't, don't, John!"
+
+"And he does not know who he is. He is ignorant of everything, even the
+fact, the great fact, which you have no right to keep from him----"
+
+"John," she cried, starting to her feet, "the boy is mine: I have a
+right to deal with him as I think best. I will not hear a word you have
+to say."
+
+"It is vain to say anything," said Mrs. Dennistoun; "she will not hear a
+word."
+
+"That is all very well, so far as she is concerned," said John, "but I
+have a part of my own to play. You give me the name of adviser and so
+forth--a man cannot be your adviser if his mouth is closed before he
+speaks. I have a right to speak, being summoned for that purpose. I tell
+you, Elinor, that you have no right to conceal from the boy who he is,
+and that his father is alive."
+
+She gave a cry as if he had struck her, and shrank away behind her
+mother, hiding her face in her hands.
+
+"I am, more or less, of your opinion, John. I have told her the same.
+While he was a baby it mattered nothing, now that he is a rational
+creature with an opinion of his own, like any one of us----"
+
+"Mother," cried Elinor, "you are unkind. Oh, you are unkind! What did it
+matter so long as he was a baby? But now he is just at the age when he
+would be--if you don't wish to drive me out of my senses altogether,
+don't say a word more to me of this kind."
+
+"Elinor," said John, "I have said nothing on the subject for many years,
+though I have thought much: and you must for once hear reason. The boy
+belongs--to his father as much as to you. I have said it! I cannot take
+it back. He belongs to the family of which he may one day be the head.
+You cannot throw away his birthright. And think, if you let him grow up
+like this, not knowing that he has a family or a--unaware whom he
+belongs to."
+
+"Have you done, John?" asked Elinor, who had made two or three efforts
+to interrupt, and had been beating her foot impatiently upon the ground.
+
+"If you ask me in that tone, I suppose I must say yes: though I have a
+great deal more that I should like to say."
+
+"Then hear me speak," cried Elinor. "Of us three at least, I am the
+only one to whom he belongs. I only have power to decide for him. And I
+say, No, no: whatever argument there may be, whatever plea you may bring
+forward, No and no, and after that No! What! at fourteen, just the age
+when anything that was said to him would tell the most; when he would
+learn a lesson the quickest, learn what I would die to keep him from!
+When he would take everything for gospel that was said to him, when the
+very charm of--of that unknown name----"
+
+She stopped for a moment to take breath, half choked by her own words.
+
+"And you ought to remember no one has ever laid claim to him. Why should
+I tell him of one that never even inquired---- No, John, no, no, no!
+A baby he might have been told, and it would have done him no harm.
+Perhaps you were right, you and mother, and I was wrong. He might have
+known it from the first, and thought very little of it, and he may know
+when he is a man, and his character is formed and he knows what things
+mean--but a boy of fourteen! Imagine the glamour there would be about
+the very name; how he would feel we must all have been unjust and
+the--the other injured. You know from yourself, John, how he clings to
+you--you who are only a cousin; he knows that, yet he insists upon Uncle
+John, the one man who belongs to him, and looks up to you, and thinks
+nothing of any of us in comparison. I like it! I like it!" cried Elinor,
+dashing the tears from her eyes. "I am not jealous: but fancy what it
+would be with the--other, the real, the---- I cannot, cannot, say the
+word; yes, the father. If it is so with you, what would it be with him?"
+
+John listened with his head bent down, leaning on his hand: every word
+went to his heart. Yes, he was nothing but a cousin, it was true. The
+boy did not belong to him, was nothing to him. If the father stepped in,
+the real father, the man of whom Philip had never heard, in all the
+glory of his natural rights and the novelty and wonder of his existence,
+how different would that be from any feeling that could be raised by a
+cousin, an uncle, with whom the boy had played all his life! No doubt it
+was true: and Phil Compton would probably charm the inexperienced boy
+with his handsome, disreputable grace, and the unknown ways of the man
+of the world. And yet, he thought to himself, there is a perspicacity
+about children which is not always present in a man. Philip had no
+precocious instincts to be tempted by his father's habits; he had the
+true sight of a boy trained amid everything that was noble and pure.
+Would it indeed be more dangerous now, when the boy was a boy, with all
+those safeguards of nature, than when he was a man? John kept his mind
+to this question with the firmness of a trained intelligence, not
+letting himself go off into other matters, or pausing to feel the sting
+that was in Elinor's words, the reminder that though he had been so
+much, he was still nothing to the family to whom he had consecrated so
+much of his life, so much now of his thoughts.
+
+"I do not think I agree with you, Elinor," he said at last. "I think it
+would have been better had he always known that his father lived, and
+who he was, and what family he belonged to; that is not to say that you
+were to thrust him into his father's arms. And I think now that, though
+we cannot redeem the past, it should be done as soon as possible, and
+that he should know before he goes to school. I think the effect will be
+less now than if the discovery bursts upon him when he is a young man,
+when he finds, perhaps, as may well be, that his position and all his
+prospects are changed in a moment, when he may be called upon without
+any preparation to assume a name and a rank of which he knows nothing."
+
+"Not a name. He has always borne his true name."
+
+"His true name may be changed at any moment, Elinor. He may become Lord
+Lomond, and the heir----"
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, growing red, "that is a chance we have
+never taken into account."
+
+"What has that to do with it?" she said. "Is his happiness and his
+honour to be put in comparison with a chance, a possibility that may
+never come true? John, for the sake of everything that is good, let him
+wait till he is a man and knows good from evil."
+
+"It is that I am thinking of, Elinor; a boy of fourteen often knows good
+from evil much better than a youth of twenty-one, which is, I suppose,
+what you call a man. My opinion is that it would be better and safer
+now."
+
+"No!" she said. "And no! I will never consent to it. If you go and
+poison my boy's mind I will never forgive you, John."
+
+"I have no right to do anything," he said; "it is of course you who must
+decide, Elinor: I advise only; and I might as well give that up," he
+added, "don't you think? for you are not to be guided by me."
+
+And she was of course supreme in everything that concerned her son.
+John, when he could do no more, knew how to be silent, and Mrs.
+Dennistoun, if not so wise in this respect, was yet more easily silenced
+than John. And Philip Compton went to the old grammar-school among the
+dales, where was the young and energetic head-master, who, as Elinor
+anticipated, found this one pupil like a pearl among the pebbles of the
+shore, and spared no pains to polish him and perfect him in every way
+known to the ambitious schoolmaster of modern times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+It is needless to say that the years which developed Elinor's child into
+a youth on the verge of manhood, had not passed by the others of the
+family without full evidence of its progress. John Tatham was no longer
+within the elastic boundaries of that conventional youth which is
+allowed to stretch so far when a man remains unmarried. He might have
+been characterized as _encore jeune_, according to the fine distinction
+of our neighbours in France, had he desired it. But he did not desire
+it. He had never altogether neglected society, having a wholesome liking
+for the company of his fellow creatures, but neither had he ever plunged
+into it as those do who must keep their places in the crowd or die.
+John had pursued the middle path, which is the most difficult. He had
+cultivated friends, not a mob of acquaintances, although as people say
+he "knew everybody," as a man who had attained his position and won his
+success could scarcely fail to do. He had succeeded indeed, not in the
+fabulous way that some men do, but in a way which most men in his
+profession looked upon as in the highest degree satisfactory. He had a
+silk gown like any dowager. He had been leading counsel in many cases
+which were now of note. He was among, not the two or three perhaps, but
+the twenty or thirty, who were at the head of his profession. If he had
+not gone further it was perhaps more from lack of ambition than from
+want of power. He had been for years in Parliament, but preferred his
+independence to the chance of office. It is impossible to tell how
+John's character and wishes might have been modified had he married and
+had children round him like other men. Had the tall boy in the north,
+the young hero of Lakeside, been his, what a difference would that
+have made in his views of life! But Philip was not his, nor Philip's
+mother--probably, as he always said to himself, from his own fault.
+This, as the reader is aware, had always been fully recognised by John
+himself. Perhaps in the old days, in those days when everything was
+possible, he had not even recognised that there was but one woman in
+the world whom he could ever wish to marry. Probably it was only
+her appropriation by another that revealed this fact to him. There
+are men like this to be found everywhere; not so hotly constituted
+as to seize for themselves what is most necessary for their personal
+happiness--possessed by so many other subjects that this seems a thing
+to be thought of by-and-by--which by-and-by is generally too late.
+
+But John Tatham was neither a disappointed nor an unhappy man. He might
+have attained a higher development and more brilliant and full life, but
+that was all; and how few men are there of whom this could not be said!
+He had become Mr. Tatham of Tatham's Cross, as well as Q.C. and M.P.,
+a county gentleman of modest but effective standing, a lawyer of high
+reputation, quite eligible either for the bench or for political
+elevation, had he cared for either, a member of Parliament with a
+distinct standing, and therefore importance of his own. There was
+probably throughout England no society in which he could have found
+himself where his position and importance would have been unknown. He
+was a man approaching fifty, who had not yet lost any of the power of
+enjoyment or begun to feel the inroads of decay, at the very height of
+life, and unconscious that the ground would shortly begin to slope
+downwards under his feet; indeed, it showed no such indication as yet,
+and probably would not do so for years. The broad plateau of middle age
+lasts often till sixty, or even beyond. There was no reason to doubt
+that for John Tatham it would last as long as for any man. His health
+was perfect, and his habits those of a man whose self had never demanded
+indulgences of the vulgar kind. He had given up with some regret, but
+years before, his chambers in the Temple: that is, he retained them as
+chambers, but lived in them no longer. He had a house in one of the
+streets about Belgrave Square, one of those little bits of awkward,
+three-cornered streets where there are some of the pleasantest houses
+of a moderate kind in London; furnished from top to bottom, the stairs,
+the comfortable quaint landings, the bits of corridor and passage,
+nothing naked or neglected about it--no cold corner; but nothing
+fantastic; not very much ornament, a few good pictures, a great deal
+of highly-polished, old-fashioned dark mahogany, with a general flavour
+of Sherraton and Chippendale: and abundance of books everywhere. John
+was able to permit himself various little indulgences on which wives
+are said to look with jealous eyes. He had a fancy for rare editions
+(in which I sympathise) and also for bindings, which seems to me a
+weakness--however, it was one which he indulged in moderation. He
+possessed in his drawing-room (which was not very much used) a beautiful
+old-fashioned harpsichord, and also he had belonging to him a fiddle
+of value untold. I ought, of course, to say violin, or rather to
+distinguish the instrument by its family name; I have no doubt it was a
+Stradivarius. But there is an affectionate humour in the fiddle which
+does not consist with fine titles. He had always been fond of music, but
+even the Stradivarius did not beguile him, in the days of which I speak,
+to play, nor perhaps was his performance worthy of it, though his taste
+was said to be excellent. It will be perceived by all this that John
+Tatham's life had many pleasures.
+
+And I am not myself sorry for him because he was not married, as many
+people will be. Perhaps it is a little doleful coming home, when there
+is never anybody looking out for you, expecting you. But then he had
+never been accustomed to look for that, and the effect might have been
+irksome rather than pleasant. His household went on velvet under the
+care of a respectable couple who had "done for" Mr. Tatham for years. He
+would not have submitted to extortion or waste, but everything was ample
+in the house; the cook by no means stinted in respect to butter or any
+of those condiments which are as necessary to good cooking as air is to
+life. Mr. Tatham would not have understood a lack of anything, or that
+what was served to him should not have been the best, supplied and
+served in the best way. Failure on such points would have so much
+surprised him that he would scarcely have known what steps to take. But
+Jervis, his butler, knew what was best as well as Mr. Tatham did, and
+was quite as little disposed to put up with any shortcoming. I say I am
+not sorry for him that he was not married--up to this time. But, as a
+matter of fact, the time does come when one becomes sorry for the
+well-to-do, highly respectable, refined, and agreeable man who has
+everything that heart can desire, except the best things in life--love,
+and the companionship of those who are his very own. When old age looms
+in sight everything is changed. But Mr. Tatham, as has been said, was
+not quite fifty, and old age seemed as far off as if it could never be.
+
+He was a man who was very good to a number of people, and spent almost
+as much money in being kind as if he had possessed extravagant children
+of his own. His sister Mary, for instance, had married a clergyman not
+very well off, and the natural result had followed. How they could have
+existed without Uncle John, much less how they could have stumbled into
+public schools, scholarships, and all the rest of it, would be difficult
+to tell, especially now in these days when a girl's schooling ought, we
+are told, to cost as much as a boy's. This latter is a grievance which
+must be apparent to the meanest capacity. Unless the girl binds herself
+by the most stringent vows _not_ to marry a poor curate or other
+penniless man the moment that you have completed her expensive education,
+I do not think she should in any case be permitted to go to Girton.
+It is all very well when the parents are rich or the girls have a
+sufficiency of their own. But to spend all that on a process which,
+instead of fructifying in other schools and colleges, or producing in
+life a highly accomplished woman, is to be lost at once and swallowed up
+in another nursery, is the most unprofitable of benefactions. This is
+what Mary Tatham's eldest girl had just done, almost before her bills at
+Newnham had been paid. A wedding present had, so to speak, been demanded
+from Uncle John at the end of the bayonet to show his satisfaction in
+the event which had taken all meaning out of his exertions for little
+Mary. He had given it indeed--in the shape not of a biscuit-box, which
+is what she would have deserved, but of a cheque--but he was not
+pleased. Neither was he pleased, as has been seen, by the proceedings of
+Elinor, who had slighted all his advice yet clung to himself in a way
+some women have. I do not know whether men expect you to be quite as
+much their friend as ever after they have rejected your counsel and
+taken their own (exactly opposite) way: but women do, and indeed I think
+expect you to be rather grateful that they have not taken amiss the
+advice which they have rejected and despised. This was Elinor's case.
+She hoped that John was ashamed of advising her to make her boy
+acquainted with his family and the fact of his father's existence, and
+that he duly appreciated the fact that she did not resent that advice;
+and then she expected from him the same attention to herself and her son
+as if the boy had been guided in his and not in her way. Thus it will be
+seen his friends and relations expected a very great deal from John.
+
+He had gone to his chambers one afternoon after he left the law courts,
+and was there very busily engaged in getting up his notes for to-morrow's
+work, when he received a visit which awakened at once echoes of the past
+and alarms for the future in John's mind. It was very early in the year,
+the end of January, and the House was not sitting, so that his public
+duties were less overwhelming than usual. His room was the same in which
+we have already seen on various occasions, and which Elinor in her
+youth, before anything had happened to make life serious for her, had
+been in the habit of calling the Star Chamber, for no reason in the
+world except that law and penalties or judgments upon herself in her
+unripe conviction, and suggestions of what ought to be done, came from
+that place to which Mrs. Dennistoun had made resort in her perplexities
+almost from the very beginning of John's reign there. Mr. Tatham had
+been detained beyond his usual time by the importance of the case for
+which he was preparing, and a clerk, very impatient to get free, yet
+obliged to simulate content, had lighted the lamp and replenished the
+fire. It had always been a comfortable room. The lamp by which John
+worked had a green shade which concentrated the light upon a table
+covered with that litter of papers in which there seemed so little
+order, yet which Mr. Tatham knew to the last scrap as if they had been
+the tidiest in the world. The long glazed book-case which filled up one
+side of the room gave a dark reflection of the light and of the leaping
+brightness of the fire. The curtains were drawn over the windows. If the
+clerk fumed in the outer rooms, here all was studious life and quiet.
+No spectator could have been otherwise than impressed by the air of
+absolute self-concentration with which the eminent lawyer gave himself
+up to his work. He was like his lamp, giving all the light in him to the
+special subject, indifferent to everything outside.
+
+"What is it, Simmons?" he said abruptly, without looking up.
+
+"A lady, sir, who says she has urgent business and must see you."
+
+"A lady--who _must_ see me." John Tatham smiled at the very ineffectual
+_must_, which meant coercion and distraction to him. "I don't see how
+she is going to accomplish that."
+
+"I told her so," said the clerk.
+
+"Well, you must tell her so again." He had scarcely lifted his head from
+his work, so that it was unnecessary to return to it when the door
+closed, and Mr. Tatham went on steadily as before.
+
+It is easy to concentrate the light of the lamp when it is duly shaded
+and no wind to blow it about, and it is easy to concentrate a man's
+attention in the absolute quiet when nothing interrupts him; but when
+there suddenly rises up a wind of talk in the room which is separated
+from him only by a door, a tempest of chattering words and laughter,
+shrill and bursting forth in something like shrieks, making the student
+start, that is altogether a different business. The lady outside, who
+evidently had multiplied herself--unless it was conceivable that the
+serious Simmons had made himself her accomplice--had taken the cleverest
+way of showing that she was not to be beat by any passive resistance of
+busy man, though not even an audible conversation with Simmons would
+have startled or disturbed his master, to whom it would have been
+apparent that his faithful vassal was thus defending his own stronghold
+and innermost retirement. But this was quite independent of Simmons, a
+discussion in two voices, one high-pitched and shrill, the other softer,
+but both absolutely unrestrained by any consciousness of being in a
+place where the chatter of strange voices is forbidden, and stillness
+and quiet a condition of being. The sound of the talk rang through Mr.
+Tatham's head as if all the city bells were ringing. One of the unseen
+ladies had a very shrill laugh, to which she gave vent freely. John
+fidgeted in his chair, raised up his eyes above the level of his
+spectacles (he wore spectacles, alas! by this time habitually when he
+worked) as if lifting a voiceless appeal to those powers who interest
+themselves in law cases to preserve him from disturbance, then made a
+manly effort to disregard the sounds that filled the air, returning with
+a shake of his head to his reading. But at the end of a long day, and in
+the dulness of the afternoon, perhaps a man is less capable than at
+other moments to fight against interruption of this kind and finally he
+threw down his papers and touched his bell. Simmons came in full of pale
+indignation, which made itself felt even beyond the circle illuminated
+by the lamp.
+
+"What can I do?" he said. "They've planted themselves by the fire, and
+there they mean to stay. 'Oh, very well, we'll wait,' they said, quite
+calm. And I make no doubt they will, having nothing else to do, till all
+is blue."
+
+Mr. Simmons had a gift of expression of which all his friends were
+flatteringly sensible, and he was very friendly and condescending to
+John, of whom he had taken care for many years.
+
+"What is to be done?" said Mr. Tatham. "Can't you do anything to get
+them away?"
+
+Simmons shook his head. "There's two of them," he said, "and they
+entertain each other, and they think it's fun to jabber like that in a
+lawyer's office. The young one says, 'What a queer place!' and the
+other, she holds forth about other times when she's been here."
+
+"Oh, she's been here other times---- Do you know her, Simmons?"
+
+"Not from Adam, Mr. Tatham--or, I should say, from Eve, as she's a
+lady. But a real lady I should say, though she don't behave herself as
+such--one of the impudent ones. They are never impudent like that," said
+Mr. Simmons, with profound observation, "unless they are real high
+or--real low."
+
+"Hum!" said John, hesitating. And then he added, "There is a young one,
+you say?"
+
+But I do not myself think, though the light-minded may imagine it to be
+so, that it was because there was a young one that John gave in. It was
+because he could do nothing else, the noise and chatter of the voices
+being entirely destructive of that undisturbed state of the atmosphere
+in which work can be done. It was not merely the sounds but the vibration
+they made in the air, breaking all its harmony and concentration. He
+tried a little longer, but was unsuccessful, and finally in despair he
+said to Simmons, "You had better show them in, and let me get done with
+them," in an angry tone.
+
+"Oh, he will see us after all," said the high-pitched voice. "So good of
+Mr. Tatham; but of course I should have waited all the same. Dolly, take
+Toto; I can't possibly get up while I have him on my knee. You can tell
+Mr. Tatham I did not send in my name to disturb him, which makes it all
+the more charitable of him to receive me; but, dear me, of course I can
+tell him that himself as he consents to see us. Dolly, don't strangle my
+poor darling! I never saw a girl that didn't know how to take up a dear
+dog before."
+
+"He's only a snappish little demon, and you spoil him so," said the
+other voice. This was attended by the sound of movement as if the party
+were getting under weigh.
+
+"My poor darling pet, it is only her jealousy: is that the way? Yes, to
+be sure it is the next room. Now, Dolly, remember this is where all the
+poor people are ruined and done for. Leave hope behind all ye who enter
+here." A little shriek of laughter ended this speech. And John, looking
+up, taking off his spectacles, and raising a little the shade of the
+lamp, saw in the doorway Lady Mariamne, altered as was inevitable by the
+strain and stress of nearly twenty years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+I do not mean to assert that John Tatham had not seen Lady Mariamne
+during these twenty years, or that her changed appearance burst upon him
+with anything like a shock. In society, when you are once a member of
+that little world within a world, everybody sees everybody else from
+time to time. He had not recognised her voice, for he was not in the
+smallest degree thinking of Lady Mariamne or of any member of her
+family, notwithstanding that they now and then did make a very marked
+appearance in his mind in respect of the important question of that
+connection which Elinor in her foolishness tried to ignore. And John was
+not at all shocked by the progress of that twenty years, as reflected in
+the appearance of this lady, who was about his own standing, a woman
+very near fifty, but who had fought strenuously against every sign of
+her age, as some women foolishly do. The result was in Lady Mariamne's
+case, as in many others, that the number of her years looked more like a
+hundred and fifty than their natural limit. A woman of her class has but
+two alternatives as she gets old. She must get stout, in which case,
+though she becomes unwieldy, she preserves something of her bloom; or
+she may grow thin, and become a spectre upon which art has to do so much
+that nature, flouted and tortured, becomes vindictive, and withdraws
+every modifying quality. Lady Mariamne had, I fear, false hair, false
+teeth, false complexion, everything that invention could do in a
+poor little human countenance intended for no such manipulation. The
+consequence was that every natural advantage (and there are some which
+age confers, as well as many that age takes away) was lost. The skin was
+parchment, the eyes were like eyes of fishes, the teeth--too white and
+too perfect--looked like the horrible things in the dentists' windows,
+which was precisely what they were. On such a woman, the very height
+of the fashion, to which she so often attaches herself with desperation,
+has an antiquated air. Everything "swears," as the French say,
+with everything else. The softness, the whiteness, the ease, the
+self-abnegation of advancing age are all so many ornaments if people
+but knew. But Lady Mariamne had none of these. She wore a warm cloak
+in her carriage, it is true, but that had dropped from her shoulders,
+leaving her in all the bound-up rigidity in which youth is trim and
+slim and elastic, as becomes it. It is true that many a woman of fifty
+is, as John Tatham was, serenely dwelling on that tableland which
+shows but little difference between thirty-five, the crown of life, and
+fifty-five; but Lady Mariamne was not one of these. She had gone "too
+fast," she would herself have allowed; "the pace" had been too much for
+such survivals. She was of the awful order of superannuated beauties of
+which Mr. Rider Haggard would in vain persuade us "She" was not one. I
+am myself convinced that "She's" thousands of years were all written on
+her fictitious complexion, and that other people saw them clearly if not
+her unfortunate lover. And Lady Mariamne had come to be of the order of
+"She." By dint of wiping out the traces of her fifty years, she had made
+herself look as if she might have been a thousand, and in this guise she
+appeared to the robust, ruddy, well-preserved man of her own age, as she
+stood, with a fantastic little giggle, calling his attention, on the
+threshold of his door.
+
+Behind Lady Mariamne was a very different figure--that of the serious
+and independent girl without any illusions, who is in so many cases the
+child of such a mother, and who is in revolt so complete from all that
+mother's traditions, so highly set on the crown of every opposite
+principle, that nature vindicates itself by the possibility that she
+may at any moment topple over and become again what her mother was. He
+would have been a bold man, however, who in the present stage would
+have prophesied any such fate for Dolly Prestwich, who between working
+at Whitechapel, attending on a ward in St. Thomas's, drawing three
+days a week in the Slade School, and other labours of equally varied
+descriptions, had her time very fully taken up, and only on special
+occasions had time to accompany her mother. She had been beguiled on
+this occasion by the family history which was concerned, and which, _fin
+de siècle_ as Dolly was, excited her curiosity almost as much as if she
+had been born in the "forties." Dolly was never unkind, sometimes indeed
+was quite the reverse, to her mother. When Mr. Tatham, with a man's
+brutal unconsciousness of what is desirable, placed a chair for Lady
+Mariamne in front of the fire, Dolly twisted it round with a dexterous
+movement so as to shield the countenance which was not adapted for any
+such illumination. For herself, Dolly cared nothing, whether it was the
+noonday sun or the blaze of a furnace that shone upon her; she defied
+them both to make her wink. As for complexion, she scorned that
+old-fashioned vanity. She had not very much, it is true. Having been
+scorched red and brown in Alpine expeditions in the autumn, she was now
+of a somewhat dry whitish-greyish hue, the result of much loss of
+cuticle and constant encounter with London fogs and smoke. She carried
+Toto--who was a shrinking, chilly Italian greyhound--in a coat,
+carelessly under one arm, and sat down beside her mother, studying the
+papers on John's table with exceedingly curious eyes. She would have
+liked to go over all his notes about his case, and form her own opinion
+on it--which she would have done, we may be sure, much more rapidly, and
+with more decision, than Mr. Tatham could do.
+
+"So here I am again, you will say," said Lady Mariamne. She had taken
+off her gloves, and was smoothing her hands, from the points of the
+fingers downwards, not, I believe, with any intention of demonstrating
+their whiteness, but solely because she had once done so, and the habit
+remained. She wore several fine rings, and her hands were still pretty,
+and--unlike the rest of her--younger than her age. They made a little
+show with their sparkling diamonds, just catching the edge of the light
+from John's shaded lamp. Her face by Dolly's help was in the shadow of
+the green shade. "You will say so, Mr. Tatham, I know: here she is
+again--without thinking how self-denying I have been, never to come,
+never to ask a single question, for all these years."
+
+"The loss is mine, Lady Mariamne," said John, gravely.
+
+"It's very pretty of you to say that, isn't it, Dolly? One's old flirts
+don't always show up so well." And here the lady gave a laugh, such as
+had once been supposed to be one of Lady Mariamne's charms, but which
+was rather like a giggle now--an antiquated giggle, which is much less
+satisfactory than the genuine article. "How I used to worry you about
+poor Phil, and that little spitfire of a Nell--and what a mess they have
+made of it! I suppose you know what changes have happened in the family,
+Mr. Tatham, since those days?"
+
+"I heard indeed, with regret, Lady Mariamne, that you had lost a
+brother----"
+
+"A brother! two!" she cried. "Isn't it extraordinary--poor Hal, that was
+the picture of health? How little one knows! He just went, don't you
+know, without any one ever thinking he would go. Regg in India was
+different--you expect that sort of thing when a man is in India. But
+poor Hal! I told you Mr. Tatham wouldn't have heard of it, Dolly, not
+being in our own set, don't you know."
+
+"It was in all the papers," said Miss Dolly.
+
+"Ah, well, you didn't notice it, I suppose: or perhaps you were away. I
+always say it is of no use being married or dying or anything else in
+September--your friends never hear of it. You will wonder that I am not
+in black, but black was always very unbecoming to me, and dark grey is
+just as good, and doesn't make one quite so ghastly. But the funny thing
+is that now Phil--who looked as if he never could be in the running,
+don't you know--is heir presumptive. Isn't it extraordinary? Two gone,
+and Phil, that lived much faster than either of them, and at one time
+kept up an awful pace, has seen them both out. And St. Serf has never
+married. He won't now, though I have been at him on the subject for
+years. He says, not if he knows it, in the horrid way men have. And I
+don't wonder much, for he has had some nasty experiences, poor fellow.
+There was Lady---- Oh, I almost forgot you were there, Dolly."
+
+"You needn't mind me," said Dolly, gravely; "I've heard just as bad."
+
+"Well," said Lady Mariamne, with a giggle, "did you ever know anything
+like those girls? They are not afraid of anything. Now, when I was a
+girl--don't you remember what an innocent dear I was, Mr. Tatham?--like
+a lamb; never suspecting that there was any naughtiness in the
+world----"
+
+John endeavoured to put on a smile, in feeble sympathy with the
+uproariousness of Lady Mariamne's laugh--but her daughter took no such
+trouble. She sat as grave as a young judge, never moving a muscle. The
+dog, however, held in her arms, and not at all comfortable, then making
+prodigious efforts to struggle on to its mistress's more commodious lap,
+burst out into a responsive bark, as shrill and not much unlike.
+
+"Darling Toto," said Lady Mariamne, "come!--it always knows what
+it's mummy means. Did you ever see such a darling little head, Mr.
+Tatham?--and the faithful pet always laughs when I laugh. What was I
+talking of?--St. Serf and his ladies. Well, it is not much wonder, you
+know, is it? for he has always been a sort of an invalid, and he will
+never marry now--and poor Hal being gone there's only Phil. Phil's been
+going a pace, Mr. Tatham; but he has had a bad illness, too, and the
+other boys going has sobered him a bit; and I do believe, _now_, that
+he'll probably mend. And there he is, you know, tied to a---- Oh, of
+course, _she_ is as right as a--as right as a--trivet, whatever that may
+be. Those sort of heartless people always are: and then there's the
+child. Is it living, Mr. Tatham?--that's what I want to know."
+
+"Philip is alive and well, Lady Mariamne, if that is what you want to
+know."
+
+"Philip!--she called him after Phil, after all! Well, that is something
+wonderful. I expected to hear he was John, or Jonathan, or something.
+Now, where is he?" said Lady Mariamne, with the most insinuating air.
+
+John burst into a short laugh. "I don't suppose you expect me to tell
+you," he said.
+
+"Why not?--you can't hide a boy that is heir to a peerage, Mr. Tatham!--it
+is impossible. Nell has done the best she could in that way. They know
+nothing about her in that awful place she was married from--of course
+you remember it--a dreadful place, enough to make one commit suicide,
+don't you know. The Cottage, or whatever they call it, is let, and
+nobody knows anything about them. I took the trouble to go there, I
+assure you, on my own hook, to see if I could find out something. Toto
+nearly died of it, didn't you, darling? Not a drop of cream to be had
+for him, the poor angel; only a little nasty skim milk. But Mr. Tatham
+has the barbarity to smile," she went on, with a shrill outcry. "Fancy,
+Toto--the cruelty to smile!"
+
+"No cream for the angel, and no information for his mistress," said
+John.
+
+"You horrid, cruel, cold-blooded man!--and you sit there at your ease,
+and will do nothing for us----"
+
+"Should you like me," said John, "to send out for cream for your dog,
+Lady Mariamne?"
+
+"Cream in the Temple?" said the lady. "What sort of a compound would it
+be, Dolly? All plaster of Paris, or stuff of that sort. Perhaps you have
+tea sometimes in these parts----"
+
+"Very seldom," said John; "but it might be obtainable if you would like
+it." He put forward his hand, but not with much alacrity, to the bell.
+
+"Mother never takes any tea," said Miss Dolly, hastily; "she only
+crumbles down cake into it for that little brute."
+
+"It is you who are a little brute, you unnatural child. Toto likes his
+tea very much--he is dying for it. But you must have patience, my pet,
+for probably it would be very bad, and the cream all stucco, or something.
+Mr. Tatham, do tell us what has become of Nell? Now, have you hidden her
+somewhere in London, St. John's Wood, and that sort of thing, don't you
+know? or where is she? Is the old woman living? and how has that boy
+been brought up? At a dame's school, or something of that sort, I
+suppose."
+
+"Mother," said Dolly, "you ought to know there are now no dame's
+schools. There's Board Schools, which is what you mean, I suppose; and
+it would be very good for him if he had been there. They would teach him
+a great deal more than was ever taught to Uncle Phil."
+
+"Teach him!" said Lady Mariamne, with another shriek. "Did I ask
+anything about teaching? Heaven forbid! Mr. Tatham knows what I mean,
+Dolly. Has he been at any decent place--or has he been where it will
+never be heard of? Eton and Harrow one knows, and the dame's schools one
+knows, but horrible Board Schools, or things, where they might say young
+Lord Lomond was brought up--oh, goodness gracious! One has to bear a
+great many things, but I could not bear that."
+
+"It does not matter much, does it, so long as he does not come within
+the range of his nearest relations?" This was from John, who was almost
+at the end of his patience. He began to put his papers back in a
+portfolio, with the intention of carrying them home with him, for his
+hour's work had been spoilt as well as his temper. "I am afraid," he
+added, "that I cannot give you any information, Lady Mariamne."
+
+"Oh, such nonsense, Mr. Tatham!--as if the heir to a peerage could be
+hid."
+
+It was not often that Lady Mariamne produced an unanswerable effect,
+but against this last sentence of hers John had absolutely nothing to
+say. He stared at her for a moment, and then he returned to his papers,
+shovelling them into the portfolio with vehemence. Fortunately, she did
+not herself see how potent was her argument. She went on diluting it
+till it lost all its power.
+
+"There is the 'Peerage,' if it was nothing else--they must have the
+right particulars for that. Why, Dolly is at full length in it, her age
+and all, poor child; and Toto, too, for anything I know. Is du in the
+'Peerage,' dear Toto, darling? And yet Toto can't succeed, nor Dolly
+either. And this year Phil will be in as heir presumptive and his
+marriage and all--and then a blank line. It's ridiculous, it's horrible,
+it's a thing that can't, can't be! Only think of all the troops of
+people, nice people, the best people, that read the 'Peerage,' Mr.
+Tatham!--and that know Phil is married, and that there is a child, and
+yet will see nothing but that blank line. Nell was always a little fool,
+and never could see things in a common-sense way. But a man ought to
+know better--and a lawyer, with chambers in the Temple! Why, people come
+and consult you on such matters--I might be coming to ask you to send
+out detectives, and that sort of thing. How do you dare to hide away
+that boy?"
+
+Lady Mariamne stamped her foot at John, but this proceeding very much
+incommoded Toto, who, disturbed in his position on her knee, got upon
+his feet and began to bark furiously, first at his mistress and then,
+following her impulse, at the gentleman opposite to her, backing against
+the lady's shoulder and setting up his little nose furiously with
+vibrations of rage against John, while stumbling upon the uncertain
+footing of the lap, volcanically shaken by the movement. The result of
+this onslaught was to send Lady Mariamne into shrieks of laughter, in
+the midst of which she half smothered Toto with mingled endearments and
+attempts at restraint, until Dolly, coming to the rescue, seized him
+summarily and snatched him away.
+
+"The darling!" cried Lady Mariamne, "he sees it, and you can't see it, a
+great big lawyer though you are. Dolly, don't throttle my angel child.
+Stands up for his family, don't he, the dear? Mr. Tatham, how can you be
+so bigoted and stubborn, when our dear little Toto---- But you always
+were the most obstinate man. Do you remember once, when I wanted to take
+you to Lady Dogberry's dance--wasn't it Lady Dogberry's?--well, it was
+Lady Somebody's--and you said you were not asked, and I said, what did
+it matter: but to make you go, and Nell was with me--we might as well
+have tried to make St. Paul's go----"
+
+"My dear Lady Mariamne," said John.
+
+She held up a finger at him with the engaging playfulness of old. "How
+can I be your dear Lady Mariamne, Mr. Tatham, when you won't do a thing
+I ask you? What, Dolly? Yes, we must go, of course, or I shall not have
+my nap before dinner. I always have a nap before dinner, for the sake of
+my complexion, don't you know--my beauty nap, they call it. Now, Mr.
+Tatham, come to me to-morrow, and you shall give Toto his cream, to show
+you bear no malice, and tell me all about the boy. Don't be an obstinate
+pig, Mr. Tatham. Now, I shall look for you--without fail. Shan't we look
+for him, Dolly?--and Toto will give you a paw and forgive you--and you
+must tell me all about the boy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+To tell her all about the boy!
+
+John Tatham shovelled his papers into his portfolio, and shut it up with
+a snap of embarrassment, a sort of confession of weakness. He pushed
+back his chair with the same sharpness, almost making a noise upon the
+old Turkey carpet, and he touched his bell so that it sounded with a
+shrill electric ping, almost like a pistol-shot. Simmons understood all
+these signs, and he was very sympathetic when he came in to take Mr.
+Tatham's last orders and help him on with his coat.
+
+"Spoilt your evening's work," said Simmons, compassionately. "I knew
+they would. Ladies never should enter a gentleman's chambers if I could
+help it. They've got nothing to do in the Temple."
+
+"You forget some men in the Temple are married, Simmons."
+
+"What does that matter?" said the clerk; "let 'em see their wives at
+home, sir. What I will maintain is that ladies have no business here."
+
+This was a little ungrateful, it must be said, for Simmons probably got
+off three-quarters of an hour earlier than he would have done had Mr.
+Tatham remained undisturbed. As it was, John had some ten minutes to
+wait before his habitual hansom drew up at the door.
+
+It was not the first time by many times that Mr. Tatham had considered
+the question which he now took with him into his hansom, and which
+occupied him more or less all the way to Halkin Street. Lady Mariamne,
+however, had put it very neatly and very conclusively when she said that
+you can't hide the heir to a peerage--more concisely at least than John
+had himself put it in his many thoughts on the subject--for, to tell the
+truth, John had never considered the boy in this aspect. That he should
+ever be the heir to a peerage had seemed one of those possibilities
+which so outrage nature, and are so very like fiction, that the sober
+mind rejects them with almost a fling of impatience. And yet how often
+they come true! He had never heard--a fact of which he felt partly
+ashamed, for it was an event of too much importance to be ignored
+by any one connected with Elinor--of Hal Compton's death. John was not
+acquainted with Hal Compton any more than he was with other men who come
+and go in society, occasionally seen, but open to no particular remark.
+A son of Lord St. Serf--the best of the lot--a Compton with very little
+against him: these were things which he had heard said and had taken
+little notice of. Hal was healthier, less objectionable, a better life
+than Phil's, and yet Hal was gone, who ought by all rights to have
+succeeded his invalid brother. It was true that the invalid brother, who
+had seen the end of two vigorous men, might also see out Phil. But that
+would make little difference in the position, unless indeed by modifying
+Elinor's feelings and removing her reluctance to make her boy known.
+John shook his head as he went on with his thoughts, and decided within
+himself that this was the very reason why Phil Compton should survive
+and become Lord St. Serf, and make the imbroglio worse, if worse were
+possible. It had not required this to make it a hideous imbroglio, the
+most foolish and wanton that ever a woman made. He wondered at himself
+when he thought of it how he had ever consented to it, ever permitted
+such a state of affairs; and yet what could he have done? He had no
+right to interfere even in the way of advice, which he had given until
+everybody was sick of him and his counsels. He could not have betrayed
+his cousin. To tell her that she was conducting her affairs very
+foolishly, laying up untold troubles for herself, was what he had done
+freely, going to the very edge of a breach. And he had no right to do
+any more. He could not force her to adopt his method, neither could he
+betray her when she took her own way. Nevertheless, there can be no
+doubt that John felt himself almost an accomplice, involved in this
+unwise folly, with a sort of responsibility for it, and almost guilt. It
+did not indeed change young Philip's moral position in any way, or
+make the discovery that he had a father living more likely to shock
+and bewilder him that this discovery should come mingled with many
+extraneous wonders. And yet these facts did alter the circumstances.
+"You cannot hide the heir to a peerage." Lady Mariamne was far, very
+far, from being a philosopher or a person of genius, and yet this which
+she had said was in reality quite unanswerable. Phil Compton might have
+been ignored for ever by his wife and child had he remained only the
+_dis_-Honourable Phil, a younger son and a nobody. But Phil Compton as
+Lord St. Serf could not be ignored. Elinor had been wise enough never to
+change her name, that is to say, she had been too proud to do so, though
+nobody knew of the existence of that prefix which was so inappropriate
+to her husband's character. But now Mrs. Compton would no longer be her
+name; and Philip, the boy at the big northern grammar-school, would be
+Lord Lomond. An unlooked-for summons like this has sometimes the power
+of turning the heads of the heirs so suddenly ennobled, but it did
+anything but convey elation to John's mind in the prospect of its effect
+upon his relations. Would she see reason _now?_ Would she be brought to
+allow that something must be done, or would she remain obdurate to the
+end of the chapter? A great impatience with Elinor filled John's mind.
+She was, as the reader knows, the only woman to John Tatham; but what
+does that matter? He did not approve of her any more on that account. He
+was even more conscious of the faults of which she was guilty. He was
+aware of her obstinacy, her determined adherence to her own way as no
+other man in the world was. Would she acknowledge now at last that she
+was wrong, and give in? I am obliged to confess that the giving in of
+Elinor was the last spectacle in heaven or earth which John Tatham could
+conceive.
+
+He went over these circumstances as he drove through all of London that
+is to some people worth calling London, on that dark January night,
+passing from the light of the busy streets into the comparative darkness
+of those in which people live, without in the least remarking where he
+was going, except in his thoughts. He had not the least intention of
+accepting the invitation of Lady Mariamne, nor did his mind dwell upon
+her or the change that age had wrought in her. But yet the Compton
+family had gained an interest in John's eyes which it did not possess
+even at the time when Elinor's marriage first brought its name into his
+thoughts. Philip--young Philip--the boy, as John called him in his own
+mind, in fond identification--was as near John's own child as anything
+ever could be in this world. He had many nephews and nieces belonging to
+him by a more authentic title, but none of these was in the least like
+Philip, whom none of all the kindred knew but himself, and who, so
+far as he was aware, had but one kinsman in the world, who was Uncle
+John. He had followed the development of the boy's mind always with a
+reference to those facts of which Philip knew nothing, which would be
+so wonderful to him when the revelation came. To John that little world
+at Lakeside--where the ladies had made an artificial existence for
+themselves, which was at the same time so natural, so sweet, so full
+of all the humanities and charities--was something like what we might
+suppose this erring world to be to some archangel great enough to see
+how everything is, not great enough to give the impulse that would put
+it right. If the great celestial intelligences are allowed to know and
+mark out perverse human ways, how much impatience with us must mingle
+with their tenderness and pity! John Tatham had little perhaps that was
+heavenly about him, but he loved Elinor and her son, and was absolutely
+free of selfishness in respect to them. Never, he was aware, could
+either woman or child be more to him than they were now. Nay, they were
+everything to him, but on their own account, not his; he desired their
+welfare absolutely, and not his own through them. Elinor was capable at
+any moment of turning upon him, of saying, if not in words, yet in
+undeniable inference, what is it to you? and the boy, though he gladly
+referred to Uncle John when Uncle John was in the way, took him with
+perfect composure as a being apart from his life. They were everything
+to him, but he was nothing to them. His whole heart was set upon their
+peace, upon their comfort and well-being, but as much apart from himself
+as if he had not been.
+
+Mr. Tatham was dining out that night, which was a good thing for him to
+distract his thoughts from this problem, which he could only torment
+himself about and could not solve; and there was an evening party at the
+same house--one of those quieter, less-frequented parties which are,
+people in London tell you, so much more agreeable than in the crowd of
+the season. It was a curious kind of coincidence that at this little
+assembly, which might have been thought not at all in her way, he met
+Lady Mariamne, accompanied by her daughter, again. It was not in her
+way, being a judge's house, where frivolity, though it had a certain
+place, was not the first element. But then when there are few things to
+choose from, people must not be too particular, and those who cannot
+have society absolutely of their own choosing, are bound, as in other
+cases of necessity, to take what they can get. And then Dolly liked to
+hear people talking of things which she did not understand. When Lady
+Mariamne saw that John Tatham was there she gave a little shriek of
+satisfaction, and rushed at him as if they had been the dearest friends
+in the world. "So delighted to see you _again_," she cried, giving
+everybody around the idea of the most intimate relationship. "It was the
+most wonderful good fortune that I got my Toto home in safety, poor
+darling; for you know, Mr. Tatham, you would not give him any tea, and
+Dolly, who is quite unnatural, pitched him into the carriage and simply
+sat upon him--sat upon him, Mr. Tatham! before I could interfere. Oh,
+you do not know half the trials a woman has to go through! And now
+please take me to have some coffee or something, and let us finish the
+conversation we were having when Dolly made me go away."
+
+John could not refuse his arm, nor his services in respect to the
+coffee, but he was mute on the subject on which his companion was bent.
+He tried to divert her attention by some questions on the subject of
+Dolly instead.
+
+"Dolly! oh, yes, she's a girl of the period, don't you know--not what a
+girl of the period used to be in _our_ day, Mr. Tatham, when those nasty
+newspaper people wrote us down. Look at her talking to those two men,
+and laying down the law. Now, we never laid down the law; we knew best
+about things in our sphere--dress, and the drawing-room, and what people
+were doing in society. But Dolly would tell you how to manage your next
+great case, Mr. Tatham, or she could give one of those doctor-men a
+wrinkle about cutting off a leg. Gracious, I should have fainted only to
+hear of such a thing! Tell me, are those doctor-men supposed to be in
+society?" Lady Mariamne cried, putting up her thin shoulder (which was
+far too like a specimen of anatomy) in the direction of a famous
+physician who was blandly smiling upon the instruction which Miss Dolly
+assuredly intended to convey.
+
+"As much as lawyer-men are in society," replied John.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Tatham, such nonsense! Lawyers have always been in society.
+What are the Attorney General and Lord Chancellor and so forth? They
+are all lawyers; but I never heard of a doctor that was in the Cabinet,
+which makes all the difference. Here is a quiet corner, where nobody can
+disturb us. Sit down; it will be for all the world like sitting out a
+dance together: and tell me about Nell and her boy."
+
+"And what if I have nothing to tell?" said John, who did not feel at all
+like sitting out a dance; but, on the contrary, was much more upright
+and perpendicular than even a queen's counsel of fifty has any need to
+be.
+
+"Oh, sit down, _please!_ I never could bear a man standing over me, as
+if he had swallowed a poker. Why did she go off and leave Phil? Where
+did she go to? I told you I went off on my own hook to that horrid place
+where they lived, and knocked up the old clergyman and the woman who
+wanted me to put on a shawl over one of the prettiest gowns I ever had.
+Fancy, the Vandal! But they knew nothing at all of her there. Where is
+Nell, Mr. Tatham? You don't pretend not to know. And the boy? Why he
+must be about eighteen--and if St. Serf were to die---- Mr. Tatham, you
+know it is quite, quite intolerable, and not to be borne! I don't know
+what steps Phil has taken. He has been awfully good--he has never said
+a word. To hear him you would think she was far too nice to be mixed up
+with a set of people like us. But now, you know, he must be got hold
+of--he must, he must! Why, he'd be Lomond if St. Serf were to die! and
+everybody would be crying out, 'Where's the heir?' After Phil there's
+the Bagley Comptons, and they would set up for being heirs presumptive,
+unless you can produce that boy."
+
+"But the boy is not mine that I should produce him," said John.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Tatham! when Nell is your relation, and always, always was
+advised by you. You may tell that to the Marines, or anybody that will
+believe it. You need not think you can take me in."
+
+"I hope not to take in anybody. If being advised by me means
+persistently declining to do what I suggest and recommend----"
+
+"Oh, then, you are of the same opinion as I am!" said Lady Mariamne.
+"Bravo! now we shall manage something. If you had been like that years
+ago when I used to go to you, don't you remember, to beg you to smooth
+things down--but you would never see it, till the smash came."
+
+"I wish," said John, not without a little bitterness, "that I could
+persuade you how little influence I have. There are some women, I
+suppose, who take advice when it is given to them; but the women whom I
+have ever had anything to do with, I am sorry to say----"
+
+"I'll promise," cried Lady Mariamne, putting her hands and rings
+together in an attitude of supplication, "to do what you tell me
+faithfully, if you'll advise me where I'll find the boy. Oh, let Nell
+alone, if you want to keep her to yourself--I sha'n't spoil sport, Mr.
+Tatham, I promise you," she cried, with her shrill laugh; "only tell me
+where I'll find the boy. What is it you want, Dolly, coming after me
+like a policeman? Don't you see I am busy? We are sitting out the dance,
+Mr. Tatham and I."
+
+Dolly did not join in her mother's laugh nor unbend in the least. "As
+there is no dancing," she said, "and everybody is going, I thought you
+would prefer to go too."
+
+"But we shall see you to-morrow, Mr. Tatham? Now, I cannot take any
+refusal. You must come, if it were only for Toto's sake; and Dolly will
+go out, I hope, on one of her great works and will not come to disturb
+us, just when I have persuaded you to speak--for you were just going
+to open your mouth. Now you know you were! Five o'clock to-morrow,
+Mr. Tatham, whatever happens. Now remember! and you are to tell me
+everything." She held up her finger to him, half threatening, half
+coaxing, and then, with a peal of laughter, yielded to Dolly, and was
+taken away.
+
+"I did not know, Tatham," said the Judge who was his host, "that you
+were on terms of such friendship with Lady Mariamne."
+
+"Nor did I," said John Tatham, with a yawn.
+
+"Queer thing this is about that old business, in which her brother was
+mixed up--haven't you heard? one of those companies that came to smash
+somewhere about twenty years ago. The manager absconded, and there was
+something queer about the books. Well, the fellow, the manager, has been
+caught at last, and there will be a trial. It's in your way--you will be
+offered a brief, no doubt, with refreshers every day, you lucky fellow.
+I have just as much trouble and no refreshers. What a fool a man is,
+Tatham, ever to change the Bar for the Bench! Don't you do it, my dear
+fellow--take a man's advice who knows."
+
+"At least I shall wait till I am asked," said John.
+
+"Oh, you will be asked sooner or later--but don't do it--take example by
+those who have gone before you," said the great functionary, shaking his
+learned head.
+
+And the Judge's wife had also a word to say. "Mr. Tatham," she said, as
+he took his leave, "I know now what I have to do when I want to secure
+Lady Mariamne--I shall ask you."
+
+"Do you often want to secure Lady Mariamne?" said John.
+
+"Oh, it is all very well to look as if you didn't care! She is, perhaps,
+a little _passée_, but still a great many people think her charming.
+Isn't there a family connection?" Lady Wigsby said, with a curiosity
+which she tried not to make too apparent, for she was acquainted with
+the ways of the profession, and knew that was the last thing likely to
+procure her the information she sought.
+
+"It cannot be called a connection. There was a marriage--which turned
+out badly."
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr. Tatham, if the question was indiscreet! I
+hear Lord St. Serf is worse again, and not likely to last long; and
+there is some strange story about a lost heir."
+
+"Good-night, Lady Wigsby," John replied.
+
+And he added, "Confound Lord St. Serf," under his breath, as he went
+down-stairs.
+
+But it was not Lord St. Serf, poor man, who had done him no harm, whom
+John wished to be confounded because at last, after many threatenings,
+he was about to be so ill-advised as to die. It was some one very
+different. It was the woman who for much more than twenty years had been
+the chief object of John Tatham's thoughts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+Things relapsed into quietness for some time after that combination
+which seemed to be directed against John's peace of mind. If I said that
+it is not unusual for the current of events to run very quietly before
+a great crisis, I should not be saying anything original, since the
+torrent's calmness ere it dash below has been remarked before now. But
+it certainly was so in this instance. John, I need scarcely say, did not
+present himself at Lady Mariamne's on the afternoon at five when he was
+expected. He wrote a very civil note to say that he was unable to come,
+and still less able to give the information her ladyship required; and,
+to tell the truth, in his alarm lest Lady Mariamne should repeat her
+invasion, Mr. Tatham was guilty of concerting with his clerk, the
+excellent Simmons, various means of eluding such a danger. And he
+exercised the greatest circumspection in regard to his own invitations,
+and went nowhere where there was the least danger of meeting her. In
+this way for a few months he had kept himself safe.
+
+It may be imagined, then, how great was his annoyance when Simmons came
+in again, very diffident, coughing behind his hand, and taking shelter
+in the shaded part of the room, with the hesitating statement that a
+lady--who would take no denial, who looked as if she knew the chambers
+as well as he did, and could hardly be kept from walking straight in--was
+waiting to see Mr. Tatham. John sprang to his feet with words which were
+not benedictions. "I thought," he said, "you ass, that you knew exactly
+what to say."
+
+"But, sir," said Simmons, "it is not the same lady--it is not at all the
+same lady. It is a lady who----"
+
+But here the question was summarily settled, for the door was pushed
+open though Simmons still held it with his hand, and a voice, which was
+more like the voice of Elinor Dennistoun at eighteen than that of Mrs.
+Compton, said quickly, "I know, John, that your door can't be shut for
+me."
+
+"Elinor!" he said, getting up from his chair.
+
+"I know," she repeated, "that there must be some mistake--that your door
+could not be shut for me."
+
+"No, of course not," he said. "It is all right, Simmons; but who
+could have thought of seeing you here? It was a contingency I never
+anticipated. When did you come? where are you staying? Is Philip with
+you?" He overwhelmed her with questions, perhaps by way of stopping her
+mouth lest she should put questions still more difficult to answer to
+himself.
+
+"Let me take breath a little," she said. "I scarcely have taken breath
+since the--thing happened which has brought me here; but I feel a little
+confidence now with the strong backing I have in you, John."
+
+"My dear Elinor," he said, "I am afraid you must not look for any strong
+backing in me."
+
+"Why?" she cried. "Have you judged it all beforehand? And do you
+know--are you quite, quite sure, John, that I cannot avoid it in any
+way, that I am obliged at all costs to appear? I would rather fly the
+country, I would rather leave Lakeside altogether and settle abroad.
+There is nothing in the world that I would not rather do."
+
+"Elinor," said John, with some sternness, "you cannot believe that I
+would oppose you in any possible thing. Your pleasure has been a law to
+me. I may have differed with you, but I have never made any difference."
+
+"John! you do not mean to say," she cried, turning pale, "that you are
+going to abandon me now?"
+
+"Of course, that is merely a figure of speech," he said. "How could I
+abandon you? But it is quite true what that woman says, and I entirely
+agree with her and not with you in this respect, that the heir to a
+peerage cannot be hid----"
+
+"The heir to a peerage!" she faltered, looking at him astonished.
+Gradually a sort of slowly growing light seemed to diffuse itself over
+her face. "The heir to a peerage, John! I don't know what you mean."
+
+"Is this not your reason for coming to town?"
+
+"There is nothing--that I know of--about the heir to a peerage. Who is
+this heir to a peerage? I don't know what you mean, but you frighten me.
+Is that a reason why I should be dragged out of my seclusion and made to
+appear in his defence? Oh, no--surely no; if he is _that_, they will let
+him off. They will not press it. I shall not be wanted. John, the more
+reason that you should stand by me----"
+
+"We are at cross-purposes, Elinor. What has brought you to London? Let
+me know on your side and then I shall understand what I have got to
+do."
+
+"_That_ has brought me to London." She handed him a piece of paper which
+John knew very well the appearance of. He understood it better than she
+did, and he was not afraid of it, which she was, but he opened it all
+the same with a great deal of surprise. It was a subpoena charging
+Elinor Compton to appear and bear testimony--in the case of the _Queen_
+versus _Brown_.
+
+"The _Queen_ versus _Brown!_ What have you got to do with such a case?
+You, Elinor, of all people in the world! Oh!" he said suddenly as a
+light, but a dim one, began to break upon him. It was the case of which
+his friend the judge had spoken, and in which he had been offered a
+retainer, as a matter of fact, shortly after that talk. He had been
+obliged to refuse, his time being already fully taken up, and he had not
+looked into the case. But now it began slowly to dawn upon him that the
+trial was that of the once absconded manager of a certain joint-stock
+company, and that this was precisely the company in which Elinor's money
+had been all but invested by her husband. It might be upon that subject
+that she had to appear.
+
+"Well," he said, "I can imagine a possible reason why you should be
+called, and yet not a good one; for it was not of course you who were
+acting, but your--husband for you. It is he that should appear, and not
+you."
+
+"Oh, John," she cried. "Oh, John!" wringing her hands. She had followed
+his looks eagerly, noticing the light that seemed to dawn over his face
+with a strange anxiety and keen interest. But John, it was evident, had
+not got the clue which she expected, and her face changed into
+impatience, disappointment, exasperation. "You have not heard anything
+about it," she said; "you don't know."
+
+"It was brought to me," he said, "but I could not take it up--no, I
+don't know--except that it's curious from the lapse of time--twenty
+years or thereabouts: that's all I know."
+
+"The question is," she said, "about a date. There were some books
+destroyed, and it is not known who did it. Suspicion fell upon one--who
+might have been guilty: but that on that day--he arrived at the house of
+the girl--whom he was going to marry: and consequently could not have
+been there----"
+
+"Elinor!"
+
+"Yes," she said, "that is what I am wanted for, John, an excellent
+reason after all these years. I must appear to--clear my husband: and
+that is how Pippo will find out that I have a husband and he a father.
+Oh, John, John! support me with your approval, and help me, oh, help me
+to go away."
+
+"Good gracious!" was all that John could say.
+
+"I should have gone first and asked you after," she cried, "for you are
+a lawyer, and I suppose you will think you must not advise any one to
+fly in the face of the law. And I don't even know whether it will be of
+any use to fly. Will they have it in the papers all the same? Will they
+put it in that his wife refused to appear on his behalf, that she had
+gone away to avoid the summons? Will it be all there for Pippo to guess
+and wonder at the name and come to me with questions, mother, who is
+this? and mother, what is that? John, can't you answer me, you that I
+came to to guide me, to tell me what I must do; have you nothing,
+nothing to say?"
+
+"I am too much bewildered to know what I am doing, Elinor. This is all
+sprung upon me like a mine: and there was plenty before."
+
+"There was nothing before," she cried, indignantly, "it was all plain
+sailing before. He knew nothing of family troubles--how should he, poor
+child, being so young? That was simple enough. And I think I see a way
+still, John. I will take him off at Easter for a trip abroad, and when
+we have started to go to Switzerland or somewhere, I will change my
+mind, and make him think of Greece or somewhere far, far away--the East
+where there will be no newspapers. Tell me when the trial will come on,
+and how long you think it will last, and I will keep him away till it is
+all over. John! you have nothing surely to say against that? Think from
+how much it will save the boy."
+
+"It is impossible, Elinor, that the boy can be saved. I never knew of
+this complication, but there are other circumstances, of which I have
+lately heard."
+
+"What can any other circumstances have to do with it, John, even if he
+must hear? I know, I know, you have always been determined upon that. Is
+that the way you would have him hear, not only that he has a father, but
+that his father was involved in--in transactions like that before ever
+he was born?"
+
+"Elinor, let us understand each other," said Mr. Tatham. "You mean that
+you have it in your power to exonerate your husband, and he has had you
+subpoenaed, knowing this?"
+
+She looked at him with a look which he could not fathom. Was it reluctance
+to save Phil Compton that was in Elinor's eyes? Was she ready to leave
+her husband to destruction when she could prevent it, in order to save
+her boy from the knowledge of his existence? John Tatham was horrified
+by the look she fixed upon him, though he could not read it. He thought
+he could read it, and read it that way, in the way of hate and deliberate
+preference of her own will to all law and justice. There could be
+no such tremendous testimony to the power of that long continued,
+absolutely-faithful, visionary love which John Tatham bore to Elinor
+than that this discovery which he thought he had made did not destroy
+it. He was greatly shocked, but it made no difference in his feelings.
+Perhaps there was more of the brotherly character in them than he
+thought. For a moment they looked at each other, and he thought he made
+this discovery--while she met his eyes with that look which she did not
+know was inscrutable, which she feared was full of self-betrayal. "I
+believe," she said, bending her head, "that that is what he thinks."
+
+"If it had been me," said John Tatham, moved out of his habitual calm,
+"I would rather be proved guilty of anything than owe my safety to such
+an expedient as that. Drag in a woman who hates me to prove my alibi as
+if she loved me! By Jove, Elinor! you women have the gift of drawing out
+everything that's worst in men."
+
+"It seems to make you hate me, John, which I don't think I have
+deserved."
+
+"Oh, no, I don't hate you. It's a consequence, I suppose, of use and
+wont. It makes little difference to me----"
+
+She gave him another look which he did not understand--a wistful look,
+appealing to something, he did not know what--to his ridiculous
+partiality, he thought, and that stubborn domestic affection to which it
+was of so little importance what she did, as long as she was Elinor; and
+then she said with a woman's soft, endless pertinacity, "Then you think
+I may go?"
+
+He sprang from his seat with that impatient despair which is equally
+characteristic of the man. "Go!" he said, "when you are called upon by
+law to vindicate a man's character, and that man your husband! I ought
+not to be surprised at anything with my experience, but, Elinor, you
+take away my breath."
+
+She only smiled, giving him once more that look of appeal.
+
+"How can you think of it?" he said. "The subpoena is enough to keep any
+reasonable being, besides the other motive. You must not budge. I should
+feel my own character involved, as well as yours, if after consulting me
+on the subject you were guilty of an evasion after all."
+
+"It would not be your fault, John."
+
+"Elinor! you are mad--it must not be done," he cried. "Don't defy me, I
+am capable of informing upon you, and having you stopped--by force--if
+you do not give this idea up."
+
+"By force!" she said, with her nostril dilating. "I shall go, of course,
+if I am threatened."
+
+"Then Philip must not go. Do you know what has happened in the family to
+which he belongs, and must belong, whether you like it or not? Do you
+know--that the boy may be Lord Lomond before the week is out? that his
+uncle is dying, and that your husband is the heir?"
+
+She turned round upon him slowly, fixing her eyes upon his, with simple
+astonishment and no more in her look. Her mind, so absorbed in other
+thoughts, hardly took in what he could mean.
+
+"Have you not heard this, Elinor?"
+
+"But there is Hal," she said, "Hal--the other brother--who comes first."
+
+"Hal is dead, and the one in India is dead, and Lord St. Serf is dying.
+The boy is the heir. You must not, you cannot, take him away. It is
+impossible, Elinor, it is against all nature and justice. You have had
+him for all these years; his father has a right to his heir."
+
+"Oh, John!" she cried, in a bitter note of reproach, "oh, John, John!"
+
+"Well," he cried, "is not what I tell you the truth? Would Philip give
+it up if it were offered to him? He is almost a man--let him judge for
+himself."
+
+"Oh, John, John! when you know that the object of my life has been to
+keep him from knowing--to shut that chapter of my life altogether; to
+bring him up apart from all evil influences, from all instructions----"
+
+"And from his birthright, Elinor?"
+
+She stopped, giving him another sudden look, the natural language
+of a woman brought to bay. She drew a long breath in impatience and
+desperation, not knowing what to reply; for what could she reply? His
+birthright! to be Lord Lomond, Lord St. Serf, the head of the house.
+What was that? Far, far better Philip Dennistoun, of Lakeside, the heir
+of his mother and his grandmother, two stainless women, with enough
+for everything that was honest and of good report, enough to permit
+him to be an unworldly scholar, a lover of art, a traveller, any
+play-profession that he chose if he did not incline to graver work. Ah!
+but she had not been so wise as that, she had not brought him up as
+Philip Dennistoun. He was Philip Compton, she had not been bold enough
+to change his name. She stood at bay, surrounded as it were by her
+enemies, and confronted John Tatham, who had been her constant companion
+and defender, as if all that was hostile to her, all that was against
+her peace was embodied in him.
+
+"I must go a little further, Elinor," said John, "though God knows that
+to add to your pain is the last thing in the world I wish. You have
+been left unmolested for a very long time, and we have all thought your
+retreat was unknown. I confess it has surprised me, for my experience
+has always been that everything is known. But you have been subpoenaed
+for this trial, therefore, my dear girl, we must give up that idea.
+Everybody, that is virtually everybody, all that are of any consequence,
+know where you are and all you are about now."
+
+She sank into a chair, still keeping her eyes upon him, as if it were
+possible that he might take some advantage of her if she withdrew them;
+then, still not knowing what to reply, seized at the last words because
+they were the last, and had little to do with the main issue. "All about
+me?" she said faintly, as if there had been something else besides the
+place of her refuge to conceal.
+
+"You know what I mean, Elinor. The moment that your home is known all is
+known. That Philip lives and is well, a promising boy; that you have
+brought him up to do honour to any title or any position."
+
+He could not help saying this, and partly in the testimony to her,
+partly for love of the boy, John Tatham's voice faltered a little and
+the water came into his eyes.
+
+"Ah, John! you say that!" she cried, as if it had been an admission
+forced from him against his will.
+
+"What could I say otherwise? Elinor, because I don't approve of all your
+proceedings, because I don't think you have been wise in one respect, is
+that to say that I do not understand and know _you?_ I am not such a
+fool or a formalist as you give me credit for being. You have made him
+all that the fondest and proudest could desire. You have done far
+better for him, I do not doubt for a moment, than---- But, my dear
+cousin, my dear girl, my poor Nellie----"
+
+"Yes, John?"
+
+He paused a moment, and then he said, "Right is right, and justice is
+justice at the end of all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+When Elinor received the official document which had so extraordinary an
+effect upon her life, and overturned in a moment all the fabric of
+domestic quiet and security which she had been building up for years, it
+was outside the tranquil walls of the house at Lakeside, in the garden
+which lay between it and the high-road, opening upon that not very
+much-frequented road by a pair of somewhat imposing gates, which gave
+the little establishment an air of more pretension than it really
+possessed. Some fine trees shrouded the little avenue, and Elinor was
+standing under one of them, stooping over a little nest of primroses at
+its roots, from which the yellow buds were peeping forth, when she heard
+behind her the sound of a vehicle at the gates, and the quick leap to
+the ground of someone who opened them. Then there was a pause; the
+carriage, whatever it was, did not come farther, and presently she
+herself, a little curious, turned round to see a man approaching her,
+whom she did not know. A dog-cart driven by another, whose face she
+recognized, waited in the road while the stranger came forward. "You are
+Mrs. Compton, ma'am?" he said. A swift thrill of alarm, she could
+scarcely tell why, ran over Elinor from head to foot. She had been
+settled for nearly eighteen years at Lakeside. What could happen to
+frighten her now? but it tingled to her very fingers' ends. And then he
+said something to her which she scarcely understood, but which sent that
+tingle to her very heart and brain, and gave her the suspicious looking
+blue paper which he held in his hand. It all passed in a moment of time
+to her dazed yet excited consciousness. The early primrose which she had
+gathered had not had time to droop in her grasp, though she crushed the
+stalk unconsciously in her fingers, before the gates were closed again,
+the sound of the departing wheels growing faint on the road, and she
+herself standing like one paralyzed with that thing in her hand. A
+subpoena!--what was a subpoena? She knew as little, perhaps less, than
+the children in the parish school, who began to troop along the road in
+their resounding clogs at their dinner hour. The sound of this awoke her
+a little to a frightened sense that she had better put this document out
+of sight, at least until she could manage to understand it. And then she
+sped swiftly away past the pretty white house lying in the sunshine,
+with all its doors and windows open, to the little wood behind, where it
+would be possible to think and find out at her leisure what this was. It
+was a small wood and a public path ran through it; but where the public
+was so limited as at Lakeside this scarcely impaired the privacy of the
+inhabitants, at least in the morning, when everybody in the parish was
+at work. Elinor hurried past the house that her mother might not see
+her, and climbed the woody hillock to a spot which was peculiarly her
+own, and where a seat had been placed for her special use. It was a
+little mount of vision from which she could look out, up and down, at
+the long winding line of the lake cleaving the green slopes, and away to
+the rugged and solemn peaks among which lay, in his mountain fastnesses,
+Helvellyn, with his hoary brethren crowding round him. Elinor had
+watched the changes of many a north-country day, full of endless
+vicissitudes, of flying clouds and gleams of sunshine, from that seat,
+and had hoped and tried to believe that nothing, save these vicissitudes
+of nature, would ever again disturb her. Had she really believed that?
+Her heart thumping against her breast, and the pulses of her brain
+beating loud in her ears, answered "No." She had never believed it--she
+had known, notwithstanding all her obstinacy, and indignant opposition
+to all who warned her, that some day or other her home must be broken
+up, and the storm burst upon her. But even such a conviction, desperately
+fought against and resisted, is a very different matter from the awful
+sense of certainty that it has come, _now_----
+
+The trees were thick enough to conceal her from any passer-by on the
+path, the young half-unfolded foliage of the birches fluttered over her
+head, while a solid fir or two stood, grim guardians, yet catching
+pathetic airs from every passing wind to soothe her. But Elinor neither
+heard nor saw lake, mountain, nor sunshine, nor spring breezes, but only
+the bit of paper in her hand, and the uncomprehended words she had heard
+when it was given to her. It was not long, however, before she perceived
+and knew exactly what it meant. It was a subpoena in the case of "The
+Queen _versus_ Brown," to attend and give evidence on a certain day in
+May, in London. It was for a few minutes a mystery to her as great as it
+was alarming, notwithstanding the swift and certain mental conviction
+she had that it concerned infallibly the one secret and mystery of
+her life. But as she sat there pondering, those strange strays of
+recollection that come to the mind, of things unnoted, yet unconsciously
+stored by memory, drew gradually about her, piecing out the threads of
+conviction. She remembered to have heard her mother read, among the many
+scraps which Mrs. Dennistoun loved to read out when the newspaper
+arrived, something about a man who had absconded, whose name was Brown,
+who had brought ruin on many, and had at length, after a number of
+years, ventured back to England and had been caught. It was one of the
+weaknesses of Mrs. Dennistoun's advancing years to like these bits
+of news, though there might be little interest in them to so quiet
+a household; and her daughter was wont to listen with a very vague
+attention, noting but a word now and then, answering vaguely the lively
+remarks her mother would make on the subjects. In this case even she had
+paid no attention; and yet, the moment that strong keynote had been
+struck, which vibrated through her whole being, this echo suddenly woke
+up and resounded as if it had been thundered in her ears--"Brown!" She
+began to remember bit by bit--and yet what had she to do with Brown?
+He had not defrauded her; she had never seen him; she knew nothing
+about his delinquencies. Then there came another note faintly out
+of the distance of the years: her husband's image, I need not say,
+had come suddenly into her sight with the first burst of this new
+event. His voice seemed to be in the air saying half-forgotten things.
+What had he to do with this man? Oh, she knew very well there was
+something--something! which she would have given her life not to
+recollect; which she knew in another moment would flash completely upon
+her as she tried not to remember it. And then suddenly her working mind
+caught another string which was not that; which was a relief to that for
+the moment. Brown!--who was it that had talked of Brown?--and the books
+that were destroyed--and the----and the----day that Phil Compton arrived
+at Windyhill?
+
+Elinor rose up from her seat with a gasp. She put her arm round the
+rough stem of the fir-tree to support herself, but it shook with her
+though there was no wind, only the softest of morning airs. She saw
+before her a scene very different from this--the flowery garden at the
+cottage with the copse and the sandy road beyond, and the man whom Phil
+had expected, whom he had been so anxious to see--and his fingers
+catching hers, keeping her by him, and the questions to which she had
+replied. Twenty years! What a long time it is! time enough for a boy to
+grow into almost a man who had not been born or thought of--and yet what
+a moment, what a nothing! Her mind flashed from that scene in the garden
+to the little hall in the cottage, the maid stooping down fastening the
+bolt of the door, the calendar hanging on the wall with the big 6
+showing so visible, so obtrusive, forcing itself as it were on the
+notice of all. "Only ten days, Nell!" And the maid's glance upwards of
+shy sympathy, and the blank of Mrs. Dennistoun's face, and his look. Oh,
+that look of his! which was true and yet so false; which meant so much
+besides, and yet surely, surely meant love too!
+
+The young fir-tree creaked and swayed in Elinor's grip. She unloosed it
+as if the slim thing had cried under the pressure, and sat down again.
+She had nothing to grasp at, nothing. Oh, her life had not been without
+support! Her mother--how extraordinary had been her good fortune to have
+her mother to fall back upon when she was shipwrecked in her life--to
+have a home, a shelter, a perpetual protector and champion, who, whether
+she approved or disapproved, would forsake her never. And then the boy,
+God bless him! who might quiver like the little fir if she flung herself
+upon him, but who, she knew, would stand as true. Oh, God forbid, God
+forbid that he should ever know! Oh, God help her, God help her! how was
+she to keep it from his knowledge? Elinor flung herself down upon the
+mossy knoll in her despair as this came pouring into her mind a flood of
+horrible light, of unimaginable bitterness. He must not know, he must
+not know; and yet how was it to be kept from his knowledge? It was a
+public thing; it could not be hid. It would be in all the papers, his
+father's name: and the boy did not know he had a father living. And his
+mother's evidence on behalf of her husband; and the boy thought she had
+no husband.
+
+This was what had been said to her again and again and again. Sometime
+the boy must know--and she had pushed it from her angrily, indignantly
+asking why should he know? though in the bottom of her own heart she too
+was aware that it was the delusion of a fool, and that the time must
+come---- But how could she ever have thought that it would come like
+this, that the boy would discover his father through the summons of his
+mother to a public court to defend her husband from a criminal
+accusation? Oh, life that pardons nothing! Oh, severe, unchanging
+heaven!--that this should be the way!
+
+And then there came into Elinor's mind wild thoughts of flight. She
+was not a woman whose nature it was to endure. When things became
+intolerable to her she fled from them, as the reader knows; escaped,
+shutting her ears to all advice and her heart to all thoughts except
+that life had become intolerable, and that she could bear it no longer.
+It is not easy to hold the balance even in such matters. Had Elinor
+fulfilled what would appear to many her first duty, and stood by Phil
+through neglect, ill-treatment, and misery, as she had vowed, for
+better, for worse, she would by this time have been not only a wretched
+but a deteriorated woman, and her son most probably would have been
+injured both in his moral and intellectual being. What she had done was
+not the abstract duty of her marriage vow, but it had been better--had
+it not been better for them both? In such a question who is to be the
+judge? And now again there came surging up into Elinor's veins the
+impulse of flight. To take the boy and fly. She could take him where he
+wished most to go, to the scenes of that literature and history of which
+his schoolboy head was full, to the happiest ideal wandering, his mother
+and he, two companions almost better than lovers. How his eyes would
+brighten at the thought! among the summer seas, the golden islands, the
+ideal countries--away from all the trouble and cares, all the burdens of
+the past, all the fears of the future! Why should she be held by that
+villainous paper and obey that dreadful summons? Why allow all her
+precautions, all the fabric of her life to fall in a moment? Why pour
+upon the boy the horror of that revelation, when everything she had done
+and planned all his life had been to keep it from him? In the sudden
+energy of that new possibility of escape Elinor rose up again from the
+prostration of despair. She saw once more the line of shining water at
+her feet full of heavenly splendour, the mountain tops sunning
+themselves in the morning light, the peace and the beauty that was over
+all. And there was nothing needed but a long journey, which would be
+delightful, full of pleasure and refreshment, to secure her peace to
+her, and to save her boy.
+
+When she had calmed herself with this new project, which, the moment it
+took form in her mind seemed of itself, without reference to the cause,
+the most delightful project in the world and full of pleasure--Elinor
+smoothed back her hair, put her garden hat, which had got a little out
+of order, straight, and took her way again towards the house. Her heart
+had already escaped from the shock and horror and was beating softly,
+exhausted yet refreshed, in her bosom. She felt almost like a child who
+had sobbed all its troubles out, or like a convalescent recovering from
+a brief but violent illness, and pathetically happy in the cessation of
+pain. She went along quietly, slowly, by the woodland path among the
+trees full of the sweetness of the morning which seemed to have come
+back to her. Should she say anything about it to her mother, or only by
+degrees announce to her the plan she had begun to form for Pippo's
+pleasure, the long delightful ramble which would come between his
+school-time and the university? She had almost decided that she would do
+this when she went into the house; but she had not been half an hour
+with her mother when her intention became untenable, for the good reason
+that she had already told Mrs. Dennistoun of the new incident. They were
+not in the habit of keeping secrets from each other, and in that case
+there is nothing in the world so difficult. It requires training to keep
+one's affairs to one's self in the constant presence of those who are
+our nearest and dearest. Some people may be capable of this effort of
+self-control, but Elinor was not. She had showed that alarming paper to
+her mother with a partial return of her own terror at the sight of it
+before she knew. And I need not say that for a short time Mrs.
+Dennistoun was overwhelmed by that natural horror too.
+
+"But," she said, "what do you know, what can you tell about this Mr.
+Brown, Elinor? You never saw him in your life."
+
+"I think I know what it means," said Elinor, with a sudden dark glow
+of colour, which faded instantly, leaving her quite pale. She added
+hurriedly, "There were some books destroyed. I cannot tell you the
+rights of the story. It is too dreadful altogether, but--another was
+exculpated by the date of the day he arrived at Windyhill. This must be
+the reason I am called."
+
+"The date he arrived--before your marriage, Elinor? But then they might
+call me, and you need not appear."
+
+"Not for the world, mother!" cried Elinor. The colour rose again and
+faded. "Besides, you do not remember."
+
+"Oh, I could make it out," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "It was when he came
+from Scotland, and went off in the evening next day. I don't at this
+moment remember what the day was, but I could make it out. It was about
+a fortnight before, it was----"
+
+"Do you remember, mother, the little calendar in the hall, and what it
+marked, and what he said?"
+
+"I remember, of course, perfectly well the little calendar in the hall.
+You gave it me at Christmas, and it was always out of order, and never
+kept right. But I could make it out without that."
+
+"You must not think of it for a moment," cried Elinor, with a shudder.
+There had been so many things to think of that it had scarcely occurred
+to her what it was to which she had to bear witness. She told her mother
+hurriedly the story of that incident, and then she added, without stopping
+to take breath, "But I will not appear. I cannot appear. We must keep it
+out of the papers, at every cost. Mother, do not think it dreadful of
+me. I will run away with Pippo; far away, if you will not be anxious.
+This is just his chance between school and college. I will take him to
+Greece."
+
+"To Greece, Elinor?" Mrs. Dennistoun cried, with almost a shriek.
+
+"Mother, dear, it is not so very far away."
+
+"I am not thinking how far away it is, Elinor. And leave his father's
+reputation to suffer? Leave him perhaps to be ruined--by a false
+charge?"
+
+"Oh, mother," cried Elinor, starting to her feet. She was quite
+unprepared for such remonstrance.
+
+"My dear, I have not opposed you; though there have been many things I
+have scarcely approved of. But, Elinor, this must not be. Run away from
+the law? Allow another to suffer when you can clear him? Elinor, Elinor,
+this must not be--unless I can go and be his witness in your place. I
+might do that," said Mrs. Dennistoun, seriously. She paused a moment,
+and then she said, "But I think you are wrong about the sixth. He stayed
+only one night, and the night he went away was the night that Alick
+Hudson--who was going up for his examination. I can make it out exactly,
+if you will give me a little time to think it over. My poor child! that
+you should have this to disturb your peace. But I will go, Elinor. I can
+clear him as well as you."
+
+Elinor stood up before her, pallid as a ghost. "For God's sake, mother,
+not another word," she said, with a dreadful solemnity. "The burden is
+mine, and I must bear it. Let us not say a word more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+I will not confuse the reader with a description of all Elinor's
+thoughts during the slow progress of that afternoon and evening, which
+were as the slow passing of a year to her impatient spirit. She
+took the usual afternoon walk with her mother soberly, as became Mrs.
+Dennistoun's increasing years, and then she made a pretext of some
+errands in the village to occupy her until dark, or rather to leave
+her free to twist the thread of her own thoughts as she went along the
+silent country road. Her thoughts varied in the afternoon from those
+which had seized upon her with such vulture's claws in the morning; but
+they were not less overwhelming in that respect. Her mother's suggestion
+that _she_ and not Elinor should be the witness of that date, and then
+her ponderings as to that date, her slow certainty that she could make
+it out, or puzzle it out, as Elinor in her impatience said, which was
+the last of all things to be desired--had stung the daughter into a new
+and miserable realization of what it was that was demanded of her, which
+nobody could do but she. What was it that would be demanded of her? To
+stand up in the face of God and man and swear to tell the truth, and
+tell--a lie: or else let the man who had been her husband, the love of
+her youth, the father of her boy, sink into an abyss of shame. She
+thought rapidly, knowing nothing, that surely there could be no
+punishment for him, even if it were proved, at the long interval of
+twenty years. But, shame--there would be shame. Nothing could save him
+from that. Shame which would descend more or less to his son. And then
+Elinor reflected, with hot moisture coming out upon her forehead against
+the cold breeze of the spring night, on what would be asked of her.
+Oh, no doubt, it would be cleverly done! She would be asked if she
+remembered his visit, and why she remembered it. She would be led on
+carefully to tell the story of the calendar in the hall, and of how it
+was but ten days before her marriage--the last hurried, unexpected visit
+of the lover before he came as a bridegroom to take her away. It would
+be all true, every word, and yet it would be a lie. And standing up
+there in that public place, she would be made to repeat it, as she had
+done in the flowery garden, in the sunshine, twenty years ago--then
+dazed and bewildered, not knowing what she did, and with something of
+the blind confidence of youth and love in saying what she was told to
+say; but now with clearer insight, with a horrible certainty of the
+falsehood of that true story, and the object with which it was required
+of her. Happily for herself, Elinor did not think of the ordeal of
+cross-examination through which witnesses have to pass. She would not,
+I think, have feared that if the instinct of combativeness had been
+roused in her: her quick wit and ready spirit would not have failed in
+defending herself, and in maintaining the accuracy of the fact to which
+she had to bear witness. It was herself, and not an opposing counsel,
+that was alarming to Elinor. But I have promised that the reader should
+not be compelled to go through all the trouble and torment of her
+thoughts.
+
+Dinner, with the respect which is necessary for the servant who waits,
+whether that may be a solemn butler with his myrmidons, or a little
+maid--always makes a pause in household communications; but when the
+ladies were established afterwards by the pleasant fireside which had
+been their centre of life for so many years, and with the cheerful lamp
+on the table between them which had lighted so many cheerful talks,
+readings, discussions, and consultations, the new subject of anxiety and
+interest immediately came forth again. It was Mrs. Dennistoun who spoke
+first. She had grown older, as we all do; she wore spectacles as she
+worked, and often a white shawl on her shoulders, and was--as sometimes
+her daughter felt, with shame of herself to remark it--a little slower
+in speech, a little more pertinacious and insistent, not perhaps
+perceiving with such quick sympathy the changes and fluctuations of
+other minds, and whether it was advisable or not to follow a subject to
+the bitter end. She said, looking up from her knitting, with a little
+rhetorical movement of her hand which Elinor feared, and which showed
+that she felt herself on assured and certain ground:
+
+"My dear, I have been thinking. I have made it out day by day. God knows
+there were plenty of landmarks in it to keep any one from forgetting. I
+can now make out certainly the day--of which we were speaking; and if
+you will give me your attention for a minute or two, Elinor, you will
+see that whatever the calendar said--which I never noticed, for it was
+as often wrong as right--you are making a mis----"
+
+"Oh, for Heaven's sake, mother," cried Elinor, "don't let us talk of
+that any more!"
+
+"I have no desire to talk of it, my dear child; but for what you said
+I should never---- But of course we must take some action about this
+thing--this paper you have got. And it seems to me that the best thing
+would be to write to John, and see whether he could not manage to get it
+transferred from you to me. I can't see what difficulty there could be
+about that."
+
+"I would not have it for the world, mother! And what good would it do?
+The great thing in it, the dreadful thing, would be unchanged. Whether
+you appear or me, Pippo would be made to know, all the same, what it has
+been our joint object to conceal from him all his life."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun did not say anything, but she would not have been mortal
+if she had not, very slightly, but yet very visibly to keen eyes, shaken
+her head.
+
+"I know what you mean," said Elinor, vehemently, "that it has been I,
+and not we, whose object has been to conceal it from him. Oh, yes, I
+know you are right; but at least you consented to it, you have helped in
+it, it is your doing as well as mine."
+
+"Elinor, Elinor!" cried her mother, who, having always protested, was
+not prepared for this accusation.
+
+"Is there any advantage to be got," said Elinor, like an injured and
+indignant champion of the right, "in opening up the whole question over
+again now?"
+
+What could poor Mrs. Dennistoun do? She was confounded, as she often had
+been before, by those swift and sudden tactics. She gave a glance up at
+her daughter over her spectacles, but she said nothing. Argument, she
+knew by long experience, was difficult to keep up with such an opponent.
+
+"But John is an idea," said Elinor. "I don't know why I should not have
+thought of him. He may suggest something that could be done."
+
+"I thought of him, of course, at once," said Mrs. Dennistoun, not able
+to refrain from that small piece of self-assertion. "It is not a time
+that it would be easy for him to leave town; but at least you could
+write and lay your difficulties before him, and suggest----"
+
+"Oh, you may be sure, mother," cried Elinor, "I know what I have to
+say."
+
+"I never doubted it, my dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, gently.
+
+And then there was a little pause. They sat and worked, the elder lady
+stumbling a little over her knitting, her thoughts being so much engaged;
+the younger one plying a flying needle, the passion and impetus of her
+thoughts lending only additional swiftness and vigour to everything she
+did. And for ten minutes or more there was nothing to be heard in the
+room but the little drop of ashes from the fire, the sudden burst of a
+little gas-flame from the coals, the rustle of Elinor's arm as it moved.
+The cat sat with her tail curled round her before the fire, the image of
+dignified repose, winking at the flames. The two human inhabitants, save
+for the movements of their hands, might have been in wax, they were so
+still. Suddenly, however, the quietness was broken by an energetic
+movement. Elinor threw her work down on the table and rose from her
+chair. She went to the window and drew the curtain aside, and looked
+out upon the night. She shut it carefully again, and going to the
+writing-table, struck a match and lighted the candles there, and sat
+down and began, or appeared to begin, to write. Then she rose quickly
+again and returned to the table at which Mrs. Dennistoun was still
+seated, knitting on, but watching every movement of her restless
+companion. "Mother," she said, "I can't write, I have far too much to
+say. I will run up to town to-morrow myself and see John."
+
+"To town, Elinor, by yourself? My dear, you forget it is not an hour's
+journey, as it was to Windyhill."
+
+"I know that very well, mother. But even the journey will be an
+advantage. The movement will do me good, and I can tell John much better
+than I could write. Who could write about a complicated business like
+this? He will understand me when he sees me at half a word; whereas in
+writing one can never explain. Don't oppose me, please, mother! I feel
+that to do something, to get myself in motion, is the only thing for me
+now."
+
+"I will not oppose you, Elinor. I have done so, perhaps, too little, my
+dear; but we will not speak of that. No doubt, as you say, you will
+understand each other better if you tell him the circumstances face to
+face. But, oh, my dear child, do nothing rash! Be guided by John; he is
+a prudent adviser. The only thing is that he, no more than I, has ever
+been able to resist you, Elinor, if you had set your heart upon any
+course. Oh, my dear, don't go to John with a foregone conclusion. Hear
+first what he has to say!"
+
+Elinor came behind her mother with one of those quick returns of
+affectionate impulse which were natural to her, and put her arms
+suddenly round Mrs. Dennistoun. "You have always been far too good to
+me, mamma," she said, kissing her tenderly, "both John and you."
+
+And next morning she carried out her swiftly conceived intention and
+went to town, as the reader is aware. A long railway journey is
+sometimes soothing to one distracted with agitation and trouble. The
+quiet and the noise, which serves as a kind of accompaniment, half
+silencing, half promoting too active thought; the forced abstraction
+and silence, and semi-imprisonment of mind and body, which are equally
+restless, but which in that enclosure are bound to self-restraint,
+exercise, in spite of all struggles of the subject, a subduing effect.
+And it was a strange thing that in the seclusion of the railway
+compartment in which she travelled alone there came for the first time
+to Elinor a softening thought, the sudden sensation of a feeling, of
+which she had not been sensible for years, towards the man whose name
+she bore. It occurred to her quite suddenly, she could not tell how, as
+if some one invisible had thrown that reflection into her mind (and I
+confess that I am of opinion they do: those who are around us, who are
+unseen, darting into our souls thoughts which do not originate with us,
+thoughts not always of good, blasphemies as well as blessings)--it
+occurred to her, I say, coming into her mind like an arrow, that after
+all she had not been so well hidden as she thought all these years,
+seeing that she had been found at once without difficulty, it appeared,
+when she was wanted. Did this mean that he had known where she was all
+the time--known, but never made any attempt to disturb her quiet? The
+thought startled her very much, revealing to her a momentary glimpse of
+something that looked like magnanimity, like consideration and generous
+self-restraint. Could these things be? He could have hurt her very much
+had he pleased, even during the time she had remained at Windyhill, when
+certainly he knew where she was: and he had not done so. He might have
+taken her child from her: at least he might have made her life miserable
+with fears of losing her child: and he had not done so. If indeed it was
+true that he had known where she was all the time and had never done
+anything to disturb her, what did that mean? This thought gave Elinor
+perhaps the first sense of self-reproach and guilt that she had ever
+known towards this man, who was her husband, yet whom she had not seen
+for more than eighteen years.
+
+And then there was another thing. After that interval he was not afraid
+to put himself into her hands--to trust to her loyalty for his
+salvation. He knew that she could betray him--and he knew equally well
+that she would not do so, notwithstanding the eighteen years of
+estrangement and mutual wrong that lay between. It did not matter that
+the loyalty he felt sure of would be a false loyalty, an upholding of
+what was not true. He would think little of that, as likely as not he
+had forgotten all about that. He would know that her testimony would
+clear him, and he would not think of anything else; and even did he
+think of it the fact of a woman making a little mis-statement like that
+would never have affected Philip. But the strange thing was that he had
+no fear she would revenge herself by standing up against him--no doubt
+of her response to his appeal; he was as ready to put his fate in her
+hands as if she had been the most devoted of wives--his constant
+companion and champion. This had the most curious effect upon her mind,
+almost greater than the other. She had shown no faith in him, but he had
+faith in her. Reckless and guilty as he was, he had not doubted her. He
+had put it in her power to convict him not only of the worst accusation
+that was brought against him, but of a monstrous trick to prove his
+_alibi_, and a cruel wrong to her compelling her to uphold that as true.
+She was able to expose him, if she chose, as no one else could do; but
+he had not been afraid of that. This second thought, which burst upon
+Elinor without any volition of her own, had the most curious effect
+upon her. She abstained carefully, anxiously, from allowing herself
+to be drawn into making any conclusion from these darts of unintended
+thoughts. But they moved her in spite of herself. They made her think of
+him, which she had for a long time abstained from doing. She had shut
+her heart for years from any recollection of her husband, trying to
+ignore his existence in thought as well as in fact. And she had
+succeeded for a long time in doing this. But now in a moment all her
+precautions were thrown to the winds. He came into her memory with a
+sudden rush for which she was no way responsible, breaking all the
+barriers she had put up against him: that he should have known where she
+was all this time, and never disturbed her, respected her solitude all
+these years--that when the moment of need came he should, without a word
+to conciliate her, without an explanation or an apology, have put his
+fate into her hands---- To the reader who understands I need not say
+more of the effect upon the mind of Elinor, hasty, generous, impatient
+as she was of these two strange facts. There are many in the world who
+would have given quite a different explanation--who would have made out
+of the fact that he had not disturbed her only the explanation that
+Phil Compton was tired of his wife and glad to get rid of her at any
+price: and who would have seen in his appeal to her now only audacity
+combined with the conviction that she would not compromise herself by
+saying anything more than she could help about him. I need not say which
+of these interpretations would have been the true one. But the first
+will understand and not the other what it was that for the first time
+for eighteen years awakened a struggle and controversy which she could
+not ignore, and vainly endeavoured to overcome, in Elinor's heart.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+Elinor had not been three days gone, indeed her mother had but just
+received a hurried note announcing her arrival in London, when as she
+sat alone in the house which had become so silent, Mrs. Dennistoun
+suddenly became aware of a rising of sound of the most jubilant, almost
+riotous description. It began by the barking of Yarrow, the old colley,
+who was fond of lying at the gate watching in a philosophic way of his
+own the mild traffic of the country road, the children trooping by to
+school, who hung about him in clusters, with lavish offerings of crust
+and scraps of biscuit, and all the leisurely country _flâneurs_ whom the
+good dog despised, not thinking that he himself did nothing but _flâner_
+at his own door in the sun. A bark from Yarrow was no small thing in
+the stillness of the spring afternoon, and little Urisk, the terrier,
+who lay wrapt in dreams at Mrs. Dennistoun's feet, heard where he lay
+entranced in the folds of sleep and cocked up an eager ear and uttered a
+subdued interrogation under his breath. The next thing was no bark, but
+a shriek of joy from Yarrow, such as could mean nothing in the world but
+"Philip!" or Pippo, which was what no doubt the dogs called him between
+following their mistress. Urisk heard and understood. He made but one
+spring from the footstool on which he lay and flung himself against the
+door. Mrs. Dennistoun sat for a moment and listened, much disturbed.
+When some troublous incident occurs in the deep quiet of domestic life
+how often is it followed by another, and her heart turned a little sick.
+She was not comforted even by the fact that Urisk was waggling not his
+tail only, but his whole little form in convulsions of joy, barking,
+crying aloud for the door to open, to let him forth. By this time all
+the friendly dogs about had taken up the sound out of sympathy with
+Yarrow's yells of delight--and into this came the clang of the gate,
+the sound of wheels, an outcry in a human voice, that of Barbara, the
+maid--and then a young shout that rang through the air--"Where's my
+mother, Barbara, where's granny?" Philip, it may be imagined, did not
+wait for any answer, but came in headlong. Yarrow leaping after him,
+Urisk springing into the air to meet him--himself in too great a hurry
+to heed either, flinging himself upon the astonished lady who rose to
+meet him, with a sudden kiss, and a "Where's my mother, granny?" of
+eager greeting.
+
+"Pippo! Good gracious, boy, what's brought you home now?"
+
+"Nothing but good news," he said, "so good I thought I must come. I've
+got it, granny: where _is_ my mother----"
+
+"You've got it?" she said, so full of other thoughts that she could not
+recollect what it was he meant. Pippo thought, as Elinor sometimes
+thought, that his granny was getting slow of understanding--not so
+bright as she used to be in her mind.
+
+"Oh, granny, you've been dozing: the scholarship! I've got it--I thought
+you would know the moment you heard me at the door----"
+
+"My dear boy," she said, putting her arms about him, while the tall boy
+stood for the homage done to him--the kiss of congratulation. "You have
+got the scholarship! notwithstanding Howard and Musgrave and the hard
+fight there was to be----"
+
+Pippo nodded, with a bright face of pleasure. "But," he said--"I can't
+say I'm sorry I've got it, granny--but I wish there had been another for
+Musgrave: for he worked harder than I did, and he wanted so to win. But
+so did I, for that matter. And where is my mother all this time?"
+
+"How delighted she will be: and what a comfort to her just now when she
+is upset and troubled! My dear, it'll be a dreadful disappointment to
+you: your mother is in London. She had to hurry off the day before
+yesterday--on business."
+
+"In London!" cried Pippo. His countenance fell: he was so much
+disappointed that for a moment, big boy as he was, he looked ready to
+cry. He had come in bursting with his news, expecting a reception almost
+as tumultuous as that given him by the dogs outside. And he found only
+his grandmother, who forgot what it was he was "in for"--and no mother
+at all!
+
+"It is a disappointment, Pippo--and it will be such a disappointment to
+her not to hear it from your own lips: but you must telegraph at once,
+and that will be next best. She has some worrying business--things that
+she hates to look after--and this will give her a little heart."
+
+"What a bore!" said Pippo, with his crest down and the light gone out of
+him. He gave himself up to the dogs who had been jumping about him,
+biding their time. "Yarrow knew," he said, laughing, to get the water
+out of his eyes. "He gave me a cheer whenever he saw me, dear old
+fellow--and little Risky too----"
+
+"And only granny forgot," said Mrs. Dennistoun; "that was very hard upon
+you, Pippo; my thoughts were all with your mother. And I couldn't think
+how you could get back at this time----"
+
+"Well," said the boy, "my work's over, you know. There's nothing for a
+fellow to do after he's got the scholarship. I needn't go back at
+all--unless you and my mother wish it. I've--in a sort of a way, done
+everything that I can do. Don't laugh at me, granny!"
+
+"Laugh at you, my boy! It is likely I should laugh at you. Don't you
+know I am as proud of you as your mother herself can be? I am glad and
+proud," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "for I am glad for her as well as for you.
+Now, Pippo, you want something to eat."
+
+The boy looked up with a laugh. "Yes, granny," he said, "you always
+divine that sort of thing. I do."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun did not occupy her mind with any thought of that little
+unintentional and grateful jibe--that she always divined that sort of
+thing. Among the other great patiences of her life she had learnt to
+know that the mother and son, loving and tender as they were, had put
+her back unconsciously into the proper place of the old woman--always
+consulted, always thought of, never left out; but divining chiefly _that
+sort of thing_, the actual needs, the more apparent thoughts of those
+about her. She knew it, but she did not dwell upon it--sometimes it
+made her smile, but it scarcely hurt her, and never made her bitter,
+she comprehended it all so well. Meanwhile Pippo, left alone, devoted
+himself to the dogs for a minute or two, making them almost too happy.
+Then, at the very climax of riotous enjoyment, cast them off with a
+sudden, "Down, Yarrow!" which took all the curl in a moment out of the
+noble tail with which Yarrow was sweeping all the unconsidered trifles
+off Mrs. Dennistoun's work-table. The young autocrat walked to the
+window as he shook off his adoring vassal, and stared out for a little
+with his hands deeply dug into his pockets. And then a new idea came
+into Pippo's head; the most brilliant new idea, which restored at once
+the light to his eyes and elevation to his crest. He said nothing of
+this, however, till he had done justice to the excellent luncheon, while
+his grandmother, seated beside him in the dining-room with her knitting,
+looked on with pride and pleasure and saw him eat. This was a thing,
+they were all of accord, which she always thoroughly understood.
+
+"You will run out now and telegraph to your mother. She is in the old
+rooms in Ebury Street, Pippo."
+
+"Yes, granny; don't you think now a fellow of my age, having done pretty
+well and all that, might be trusted to--make a little expedition out of
+his own head?"
+
+"My dear! you have always been trusted, Pippo, you know. I can't
+remember when your mother or I either have shown any want of trust----"
+
+"Oh, it's not that," said Pippo, confused. "I know I've had lots,
+lots--far more than most fellows--of my own way. It was not that
+exactly. I meant without consulting any one, just to do a thing out of
+my own head."
+
+"I have no doubt it will be quite a right thing, Pippo; but I should
+know better if you were to tell me."
+
+"That would scarcely be doing it out of my own head, would it, granny?
+But I can't keep a thing to myself; now Musgrave can, you know; that's
+the great difference. I suppose it is having nobody but my mother and
+you, who always spoil me, that has made me that I can't keep a secret."
+
+"It is something about making it up to Musgrave for not winning the
+scholarship?"
+
+Philip grew red all over with a burning blush of shame. "What a beast I
+am!" he said. "You will scarcely believe me, but I had forgotten
+that--though I do wish I could. I do wish there was any way----No,
+granny, it was all about myself."
+
+"Well, my dear?" she said, in her benignant, all-indulgent grandmother's
+voice.
+
+"It is no use going beating about the bush," he said. "Granny, I'm not
+going to telegraph to mamma. I'll run up to London by the night mail."
+
+"Pippo!"
+
+"Well, it isn't so extraordinary; naturally I should like to tell her
+better than to write. It didn't quite come off, my telling it to you,
+did it? but my mother will be excited about it--and then it will be a
+surprise seeing me at all--and then if she is worried by business it
+will be a good thing to have me to stand by her. And--why there are a
+hundred reasons, granny, as you must see. And then I should like it
+above all."
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, trembling a little. She had time during
+this long speech to collect herself, to get over the first shock, but
+her nerves still vibrated. "In ordinary circumstances, I should think it
+an excellent plan. And you have worked well for it, and won your
+holiday; and your mother always enjoys wandering about town with you.
+Still, Pippo----"
+
+"Now what can there be against it?" the boy said, with the same spark of
+fire coming into his blue eyes which had often been seen in Elinor's
+hazel ones. He was like the Comptons, a refined image of his father,
+with the blue eyes and very dark hair which had once made Phil Compton
+irresistible. Pippo had the habit, I am sorry to say, of being a little
+impatient with his grandmother. Her objections seemed old-world and
+obsolete at the first glance.
+
+"The chief thing against it is that I don't think your mother--would
+wish it, Pippo."
+
+"Mamma--think me a bore, perhaps!" the lad cried, with a laugh of almost
+scornful amusement at this ridiculous idea.
+
+"She would never, of course, think you a bore in any circumstances--but
+she will be very much confined--she could not take you with her
+to--lawyers' offices. She will scarcely have any time to herself."
+
+"What is this mysterious business, granny?"
+
+"Indeed, Pippo, I can scarcely tell you. It is something connected with
+old times--that she wishes to have settled and done with. I did not
+inquire very closely; neither, I think, should you. You know your poor
+mother has had troubles in her life----"
+
+"Has she?" said Pippo, with wide open eyes. "I have never seen any. I
+think, perhaps, don't you know, granny, ladies--make mountains of
+molehills--or so at least people say----"
+
+"Do they?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a laugh. "So you have begun to
+learn that sort of thing already, Pippo, even here at the end of the
+world!"
+
+Pippo was a little mortified by her laugh, and a little ashamed of what
+he had said. It is very tempting at eighteen to put on a man's
+superiority, yet he was conscious that it was perhaps a little
+ungenerous, he who owed all that he was and had to these two ladies; but
+naturally he was the more angry because of this.
+
+"I suppose," he said, "that what is in every book that ever was written
+is likely to be true! But that has nothing to do with the question. I
+won't do anything against you if you forbid me absolutely, granny; but
+short of that I will go----"
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun looked at the boy with all the heat in him of his first
+burst of independence. It is only wise to compute the forces opposed to
+one before one launches a command which one may not have force to ensure
+obedience to. He said that he would not disobey her "absolutely" with
+his lips; but his eyes expressed a less dutiful sentiment. She had no
+mind to be beaten in such a struggle. Elinor had complained of her
+mother in her youth that she was too reasonable, too unwilling to
+command, too reluctant to assume the responsibility of an act; and it
+was not to be supposed that she had mended of this, in all the experience
+she had had of her impatient daughter, and under the influence of so
+many additional years. She looked at Philip, and concluded that he would
+at least find some way of eluding her authority if she exercised it, and
+it did not consist with her dignity to be either "absolutely" or
+partially disobeyed.
+
+"You forget," she said, "that I have never taken such authority upon me
+since you were a child. I will not forbid you to do what you have set
+your heart upon. I can only say, Philip, that I don't think your mother
+would wish you to go----"
+
+"If that's all, granny," said the boy, "I think I can take my mother
+into my own hands. But why do you call me Philip? You never call me that
+but when you are angry."
+
+"Was I ever angry?" she said, with a smile; "but if we are to consider
+you a man, looking down upon women, and taking your movements upon your
+own responsibility, my dear, it would be ridiculous that you should be
+little Pippo any more."
+
+"Not little Pippo," he said, with a boyish, complacent laugh, rising up
+to his full height. A young man nearly six feet high, with a scholarship
+in his pocket, how is he to be expected to take the law from his old
+grandmother as to what he is to do?
+
+And young Philip did go to town triumphantly by the night mail. He had
+never done such a thing before, and his sense of manly independence, of
+daring, almost of adventure, was more delightful than words could say.
+There was not even any one, except the man who had driven him into
+Penrith, to see him away, he who was generally accompanied to the last
+minute by precautions, and admonitions, and farewells. To feel himself
+dart away into the night with nobody to look back to on the platform,
+no gaze, half smiling, half tearful, to follow him, was of itself an
+emancipation to Pippo. He was a good boy and no rebel against the double
+maternal bond which had lain so lightly yet so closely upon him all his
+life. It was only for a year or two that he had suspected that this was
+unusual, or even imagined that for a growing man the sway of two ladies,
+and even their devotion, might make others smile. Perhaps he had been a
+little more particular in his notions, in his manners, in his fastidious
+dislike to dirt and careless habits, than was common in the somewhat
+rough north country school which had so risen in scholastic note under
+the last head master, but which was very far from the refinements of
+Eton. And lately it had begun to dawn upon him that a mother and a
+grandmother to watch over him and care for him in everything might be
+perhaps a little absurd for a young man of his advanced age. Thus his
+escapade, which was against the will of his elder guardian, and without
+the knowledge of his mother--which was entirely his own act, and on
+his own responsibility, went to Philip's head, and gave him a sort of
+intoxication of pleasure. That his mother should be displeased, really
+displeased, should not want him--incredible thought! never entered into
+his mind save as an accountable delusion of granny's. His mother not
+want him! All the arguments in the world would never have got that into
+young Pippo's head.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun waking up in the middle of the night to think of the boy
+rushing on through the dark on his adventurous way, recollected only
+then with much confusion and pain that she ought to have telegraphed to
+Elinor, who might be so engaged as to make it very embarrassing for her
+in her strange circumstances to see Pippo--that the boy was coming. In
+her agitation she had forgotten this precaution. Was it perhaps true, as
+the young ones thought, that she was getting a little slower in her
+movements, a little dulled in her thoughts?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+John Tatham had in vain attempted to persuade Elinor to come to his
+house, to dine there in comfort--he was going out himself--so that
+at least in this time of excitement and trouble she might have the
+careful service and admirable comfort of his well-managed house. Elinor
+preferred her favourite lodgings and a cup of tea to all the luxuries of
+Halkin Street. And she was fit for no more consultations that night. She
+had many, many things to think of, and some new which as yet she barely
+comprehended. The rooms in Ebury Street were small, and they were more
+or less dingy, as such rooms are; but they were comfortable enough, and
+had as much of home to Elinor as repeated visits there with all her
+belongings could give them. The room in which she slept was next to
+that in which her boy had usually slept. That was enough to make it
+no strange place. And I need not say that it became the scene of many
+discussions during the few days that followed. The papers by this time
+were full of the strange trial which was coming on: the romance of
+commercial life and ruin--the guilty man who had been absent so long,
+enjoying his ill-gotten gains, and who now was dragged back into the
+light to give an account of himself--and of other guilt perhaps less
+black than his own, yet dreadful enough to hear of. The story of the
+destroyed books was a most remarkable and picturesque incident in the
+narrative. The leading papers looked up their own account of the facts
+given at the time, and pointed out how evidently justified by the new
+facts made known to the public was the theory they had themselves given
+forth. As these theories, however, were very different, and as all
+claimed to be right, perhaps the conclusion was less certain than
+this announcement gave warrant to believe. But each and all promised
+"revelations" of the most surprising kind--involving some of the highest
+aristocracy, the democratic papers said--bringing to light an exciting
+story of the private relations between husband and wife, said those of
+society, and revealing a piquant chapter of social history hushed up at
+the time. It was a modest print indeed that contented itself with the
+statement that its readers would find a romance of real life involved in
+the trial which was about to take place. Elinor did not, fortunately,
+see all these comments. The _Times_ and the _Morning Post_ were
+dignified and reticent, and she did not read, and was indeed scarcely
+cognisant of the existence of most of the others. But the faintest
+reference to the trial was enough, it need hardly be said, to make the
+blood boil in her veins.
+
+It was a curious thing in her state of mind, and with the feelings she
+had towards her husband's family, that one of the first things she did
+on establishing herself in her Ebury Street rooms, was to look for an
+old "Peerage" which had lain for several years she remembered on a
+certain shelf. Genteel lodgings in Ebury Street which did not possess
+somewhere an old "Peerage" would be out of the world indeed. She found
+it in the same corner as of old, where she had noted it so often and
+avoided it as if it had been a serpent; but now the first thing she did,
+as soon as her tray was brought her, and all necessary explanations
+given, and the door shut, was to take the book furtively from its place,
+almost as if she were afraid of what she should see. What a list there
+was of sons of Lord St. Serf! some she had never known, who died young:
+and Reginald in India, and Hal, who was so kind--what a good laugh
+he had, she remembered, not a joyless cackle like Mariamne's, a good
+natural laugh, and a kind light in his eyes: and he had been kind. She
+could remember ever so many things, nothings, things that made a little
+difference in the dull, dull cloudy sky of a neglected wife. Poor Hal!
+and he too was gone, and St. Serf dying, and---- Pippo the heir!--Pippo
+was perhaps, for any thing she knew, Lord Lomond now.
+
+To say that this did not startle Elinor, did not make her heart beat,
+did not open new complications and vistas in life, would be a thing
+impossible. Pippo Lord Lomond! Pippo, whom she had feared to expose to
+his father's influence, whom she had kept apart, who did not know
+anything about himself except that he was her son--had she kept and
+guarded the boy thus in the very obscurity of life, in the stillest
+and most protected circumstances, only to plunge him suddenly at last,
+without preparation, without warning, into the fiery furnace of
+temptation, into a region where he might pardonably (perhaps) put
+himself beyond her influence, beyond her guidance? Poor Elinor! and yet
+she was not wholly to be pitied either. For her heart was fired by the
+thought of her boy's elevation in spite of herself. It did not occur to
+her that such an elevation for him meant something also for her. That
+view of the case she did not take into consideration for a moment. Nay,
+she did not think of it. But that Pippo should be Lord Lomond went
+through her like an arrow--like an arrow that gave a wound, acute and
+sharp, yet no pain, if such a thing could be said. That he should
+discover his father had been the danger before her all his life, but if
+he must find out that he had a father that was a way in which it might
+not be all pain. I do not pretend that she was very clear in all these
+thoughts. Indeed, she was not clear at all. John Tatham, knowing but one
+side, had begun to think vaguely of Elinor what Elinor thought of her
+mother, that her mind was not quite as of old, not so bright nor so
+vivid, not so clear in coming to a conclusion; had he known everything
+he might not have been so sure even on that point. But then had he known
+everything that Elinor knew, and been aware of what it was which Elinor
+had been summoned by all the force of old fidelity and the honour of
+her name to do, John would have been too much horrified to have been
+able to form an opinion. No, poor Elinor was not at all clear in her
+thoughts--less clear than ever after these revelations--the way before
+her seemed dark in whatever way she looked at it, complications were
+round her on every side. She had instinctively, without a word said,
+given up that idea of flight. Who was it that said the heir to a peerage
+could not be hid? John had said it, she remembered, and John was always
+right. If she was to take him away to the uttermost end of the earth,
+they would seek him out and find him. And then there was--his father,
+who had known all the time, had known and never disturbed her----No
+wonder that poor Elinor's thoughts were mixed and complicated. She
+walked up and down the room, not thinking, but letting crowds and
+flights of thoughts like birds fly through her mind; no longer clear
+indeed as she had been wont to be, no longer coming to sudden, sharp
+conclusions, admitting possibilities of which Elinor once upon a time
+would never have thought.
+
+And day by day as he saw her, John Tatham understood her less and less.
+He did not know what she meant, what she was going to do, what were her
+sentiments towards her husband, what were her intentions towards her
+son. He had found out a great deal about the case, merely as a case, and
+it began to be clear to him where Elinor's part came in. Elinor Compton
+could not have appeared on her husband's behalf, and whether there might
+not arise a question whether, being now his wife, her evidence could be
+taken on what had happened before she was his wife, was by no means
+sure--"Why didn't they call your mother?" John said, as Mrs. Dennistoun
+also had said--but he did not at all understand, how could he? the dismay
+that came over Elinor, and the "Not for the world," which came from her
+lips. He had come in to see her in the morning as he went down to his
+chambers, on the very morning when Pippo, quite unexpected and also not
+at all desired, was arriving at Euston Square.
+
+"It would have been much better," he said, "in every way if they had
+called your mother--who of course must know exactly what you know,
+Elinor, in respect to this matter----"
+
+"No," said Elinor with dry lips. "She knows nothing. She--calculates
+back by little incidents--she does not remember: I--do----"
+
+"That's natural, I suppose," said John, with an impatient sigh and a
+half-angry look. "Still--my aunt----"
+
+"Would do no good at all: you may believe me, John. Don't let us speak
+of this any more. I know what has to be done: my mother would twist
+herself up among her calculations--about Alick Hudson's examination and
+I know not what. Whereas I--there is nothing, nothing more to be said. I
+thought I could escape, and it is your doing if I now see that I cannot
+escape. I can but hope that Providence will protect my boy. He is at
+school, where they have little time for reading the papers. He may never
+even see--or at least if he does he may think it is another
+Compton--some one whom he never heard of----"
+
+"And how if he becomes Lord Lomond, as I said, before the secret is
+out?"
+
+"Oh, John," cried Elinor, wringing her hands--"don't, don't torment me
+with that idea now--let only this be past and then: Oh, I see, I see--I
+am not a fool--I perceive that I cannot hide him as you say if that
+happens. But oh, John, for pity's sake let this be over first! Let us
+not hurry everything on at the same time. He is at school. What do
+schoolboys care for the newspapers, especially for trials in the law
+courts? Oh, let this be over first! A boy at school--and he need never
+know----"
+
+It was at this moment that a hansom drew up, and a rattling peal came at
+the door. Hansoms are not rare in Ebury Street, and how can one tell in
+these small houses if the peal is at one's door or the next? Elinor
+was not disturbed. She paid no attention. She expected no one, she was
+afraid of nothing new for the present. Surely, surely, as she said,
+there was enough for the present. It did not seem possible that any new
+incident should come now.
+
+"I do not want to torment you, Elinor--you may imagine I would be the
+last--I would only save you if I could from what must be---- What! what?
+who's this?--PHILIP! the boy!"
+
+The door had burst open with an eager, impatient hand upon it, and there
+stood upon the threshold, in all the mingled excitement and fatigue of
+his night journey, pale, sleep in his eyes, yet happy expectation,
+exultation, the certainty of open arms to receive him, and cries of
+delight--the boy. He stood for a second looking into the strange yet
+familiar room. John Tatham had sprung to his feet and stood startled,
+hesitating, while young Philip's eyes, noting him with a glance, flashed
+past him to the other more important, more beloved, the mother whom he
+had expected to rush towards him with an outcry of joy.
+
+And Elinor sat still in her chair, struck dumb, grown pale like a ghost,
+her eyes wide open, her lips apart. The sight of the boy, her beloved
+child, her pride and delight, was as a horrible spectacle to Elinor. She
+stared at him like one horrified, and neither moved nor spoke.
+
+"Elinor!" cried John, terrified, "there's nothing wrong. Don't you see
+it's Philip? Boy, what do you mean by giving her such a fright? She's
+fainting, I believe."
+
+"I--give her a fright!" cried, half in anguish, half in indignation, the
+astonished boy.
+
+"No, I'm not fainting. Pippo! there's nothing wrong--at home?" Elinor
+cried, holding out her hand to him--coming to herself, which meant only
+awakening to the horror of a danger far more present than she had ever
+dreamt, and to the sudden sight not of her boy, but of that Nemesis
+which she had so carefully prepared for herself, and which had been
+awaiting her for years. She was not afraid of anything wrong at home.
+It was the first shield she could find in the shock which had almost
+paralysed her, to conceal her terror and distress at the sight of him
+from the astonished, disappointed, mortified, and angry boy.
+
+"I thought," he said, "you would have been glad to see me, mother! No,
+there's nothing wrong at home."
+
+"Thank heaven for that!" cried Elinor, feeling herself more and more a
+hypocrite as she recovered from the shock. "Pippo, I was saying this
+moment that you were at school. The words were scarcely off my lips--and
+then to see you in a moment, standing there."
+
+"I thought," he repeated again, trembling with the disappointment and
+mortification, wounded in his cheerful, confident affection, and in his
+young pride, the monarch of all he surveyed--"I thought you would have
+been pleased to see me, mother!"
+
+"Of course," said John, cheerfully, "your mother is glad to see you: and
+so am I, you impetuous boy, though you don't take the trouble of shaking
+hands with me. He wants to be kissed and coddled, Elinor, and I must be
+off to my chambers. But I should like to know first what's up, boy?
+You've got something to say."
+
+"Pippo, what is it, my dearest? You did give me a great fright, and I am
+still nervous a little. Tell me, Pippo; something has brought you--your
+uncle John is right. I can see it in your eyes. You've got something to
+tell me!"
+
+The tired and excited boy looked from one to another, two faces both
+full of a veiled but intense anxiety, looking at him as if what they
+expected was no good news. He burst out into a big, hoarse laugh, the
+only way to keep himself from crying. "You don't even seem to remember
+anything about it," he cried, flinging himself down in the nearest
+chair; "and for my part I don't care any longer whether any one knows or
+not."
+
+And Elinor, whose thoughts were on such different things--whose whole
+mind was absorbed in the question of what he could have heard about
+the trial, about his father, about the new and strange future before
+him--gazed at him with eyes that seemed hollowed out all round with
+devouring anxiety. "What is it?" she said, "what is it? For God's sake
+tell me! What have you heard?"
+
+It goes against all prejudices to imagine that John Tatham, a man who
+never had had a child, an old bachelor not too tolerant of youth, should
+have divined the boy better than his mother. But he did, perhaps because
+he was a lawyer, and accustomed to investigate the human countenance and
+eye. He saw that Philip was full of something of his own, immediately
+interesting to himself; and he cast about quickly in his mind what it
+could be. Not that the boy was heir to a peerage: he would never have
+come like _this_ to announce _that_: but something that Philip was
+cruelly disappointed his mother did not remember. This passed through
+John's mind like a flash, though it takes a long time to describe. "Ah,"
+he said, "I begin to divine. Was not there something about
+a--scholarship?"
+
+"Pippo!" cried Elinor, lighting up great lamps of relief, of sudden ease
+and quick coming joy, in her brightened eyes and face. "My boy! you've
+won your battle! You've got it, you've got it, Pippo! And your foolish,
+stupid mother that thought for a moment you could rush to her like this
+with anything but good news!"
+
+It took a few moments to soothe Pippo down, and mend his wounded
+feelings. "I began to think nobody cared," he said, "and that made me
+that I didn't care myself. I'd rather Musgrave had got it, if it had not
+been to please you all. And you never seemed so much as to
+remember--only Uncle John!" he added after a moment, with a half scorn
+which made John laugh at the never-failing candour of youth.
+
+"Only the least important of all," he said. "It was atrocious of the
+ladies, Philip. Shake hands, my boy, I owe you five pounds for the
+scholarship. And now I'll take myself off, which will please you most of
+all."
+
+He went down-stairs laughing to himself all the way, but got suddenly
+quite grave as he stepped outside--whether because he remembered that it
+does not become a Q.C. and M.P. to laugh in the street, or for other
+causes, it does not become us to attempt to say.
+
+And Elinor meanwhile made it up to her boy amply, and while her heart
+ached with the question what to do with him, how to dispose of him during
+those dreadful following days, behaved herself as if her head too was
+half turned with joy and exultation, only tempered by the regret that
+Musgrave, who had worked so hard, could not have got the scholarship
+too.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+Elinor made much of her boy during that day and the following days, to
+take away the sense of disappointment which even after the first great
+mortification was got over still haunted young Philip's mind. It
+surprised him beyond measure to find that she did not wish to go out
+with him, indeed in so far as was possible avoided it altogether, save
+for a hurried drive to a few places, during which she kept her veil
+down and sheltered herself with an umbrella in the most ridiculous way.
+"Are you afraid of your complexion, mother?" the boy asked of her with
+disdain. "It looks like it," she said, but with a laugh that was full of
+embarrassment, "though it is a little late in the day." Elinor was
+perhaps better aware than Pippo was that she had a complexion which a
+girl might have envied, and was still as fresh as a rose, notwithstanding
+that she was a year or two over forty; but I need not say it was not of
+her complexion she was thinking. She had been careful to choose her time
+on previous visits to London so as to risk as little as possible the
+chance of meeting her husband. But now there was no doubt that he was in
+town, and not the least that if he met her anywhere with Pippo, her
+secret, so far as it had ever been a secret, would be in his hands. Even
+when John took the boy out it was with a beating heart that his mother
+saw him go, for John was too well known to make any secret possible
+about his movements, or who it was who was with him. Perhaps it was for
+this reason that John desired to take him out, and even cut short his
+day's work on one or two occasions to act as cicerone to Philip. He took
+him to the House, to the great excitement and delight of the boy, who
+only wished that the entertainment could have been made complete by a
+speech from Uncle John, which was a point in which his guide, philosopher,
+and friend, though in every other way so complaisant, did not humour
+Pippo. On one occasion during the first week they had an encounter which
+made John's middle-aged pulses move a little quicker. When they were
+walking along through Hyde Park, having strolled that way in the fading
+of the May afternoon, when the carriages were still promenading up and
+down, before they returned to Halkin Street to dinner, where Elinor
+awaited them--it happened to Mr. Tatham to meet the roving eyes of
+Lady Mariamne, who lay back languidly in her carriage, wrapped in a
+fur cloak, and shivering in the chill of the evening. She was not
+particularly interested in anything or any person whom she had seen,
+and was a little cross and desirous of getting home. But when she saw
+John she roused up immediately, and gave a sign to Dolly, who sat by
+her, to pull the check-string. "Mr. Tatham!" she cried, in her shrill
+voice. Lady Mariamne was not one of the people who object to hear
+their voice in public or are reluctant to make their wishes known to
+everybody. She felt herself to be of the cast in which everybody is
+interested, and that the public liked to know whom she honoured with her
+acquaintance. "Mr. Tatham! are you going to carry your rudeness so far
+as not to seem to know me? Oh, come here this moment, you impertinent
+man!"
+
+"Can I be of any use to you, Lady Mariamne?" said John, gravely, at the
+carriage door.
+
+"Oh, dear no; you can't be of any use. What should I have those men for
+if I wanted you to be of use? Come and talk a moment, that's all; or get
+into the carriage and I'll take you anywhere. Dolly and I have driven
+round and round, and we have not seen a creature we cared to see. Yes!
+there was a darling, darling little Maltese terrier, with white silk
+curls hanging over his eyes, on an odious woman's lap; but I cannot
+expect you to find that angel for me. Mr. Tatham, who is that tall boy?"
+
+"Pippo," said John, quickly (though probably he had never in his life
+before used that name, which he disapproved of angrily, as people often
+do of a childish name which does not please them), "go on. I'll come
+after you directly. The boy is a cousin of mine, Lady Mariamne, just
+from school."
+
+"Mr. Tatham, I am quite sure it is Nell's boy. Call after him. What's
+his name? Bring him back! John Thomas, run after that young gentleman,
+and say with my compliments----"
+
+"Nothing," said John, stopping the footman with a lifted hand and a
+still more emphatic look. "He is hastening home to--an engagement. And
+it's evident I had better go too--for your little friend there is
+showing his teeth."
+
+"The darling!" said Lady Mariamne, "did it show its little pearls at the
+wicked man that will not do what its mummy says? Dolly, can't you jump
+down and run after that boy? I am sure it is your Uncle Philip's boy."
+
+"He is out of sight, mother," said Miss Dolly, calmly.
+
+"You are the most dreadful, wicked, unkind people, all of you. Show its
+little teeth, then, darling! Oo's the only one that has any feeling. Mr.
+Tatham, do tell me something about this trial. What is going to be
+done? Phil is mixed up in it. I know he is. Can they do anything to
+anybody--after all this time? They can't make you pay up, I know, after
+a certain time. Oh, couldn't it all be hushed up and stopped and kept
+out of the newspapers? I hate the newspapers, always chuckling over
+every new discovery. But this cannot be called a new discovery. If it's
+true it's old, as old as the old beginning of the world. Don't you think
+somebody could get at the newspaper men and have it hushed up?"
+
+"I doubt if you could get hold of all of them, their name is legion,"
+said John.
+
+"Oh, I don't care what their name is. If you will help me, Mr. Tatham,
+we could get hold of most of them--won't you? You know, don't you, poor
+St. Serf is so bad; it may be over any day--and then only think what a
+complication! Dolly, turn your head the other way; look at that silly
+young Huntsfield capering about to catch your eye. I don't want you to
+hear what I have got to say."
+
+"I don't in the least way want to hear what you have got to say, dear
+mamma," said Dolly.
+
+"That would have made me listen to every word," said Lady Mariamne;
+"but girls are more queer nowadays than anything that ever was. Mr.
+Tatham"--she put her hand upon his, which was on the carriage door, and
+bent her perfumed, powdered face towards him--"for goodness' sake--think
+how awkward it would be--a man just succeeding to a title and that sort
+of thing put in all the papers about him. Do, do stop it, or try
+something to stop it, for goodness' sake!"
+
+"I assure you," said John, "I can do nothing to stop it. I am as
+powerless as you are."
+
+"Oh, I don't say that I am powerless," said Lady Mariamne, with her
+shrill laugh. "One has one's little ways of influence." Then she put her
+hand again upon John with a sudden grip. "Mr. Tatham," she said, "tell
+me, in confidence, was that Phil's boy?"
+
+"I have told you, Lady Mariamne, it is a nephew of mine."
+
+"A nephew--oh, I know what kind of a nephew--_à la mode de Bretagne_!"
+
+She turned her head to the other side, where her daughter was gazing
+calmly in front of her.
+
+"Dolly! I was sure of it," she cried, "don't you hear? Dolly, don't you
+hear?"
+
+"Which, mamma?" said Dolly, gravely; "of course I could not help hearing
+it all. Which part was I to notice? about the newspapers or about the
+boy?"
+
+Lady Mariamne appealed to earth and heaven with the loud cackle of her
+laugh. "He can't deny it," she said; "he as good as owns it. I am
+certain that's the boy that will be Lomond."
+
+"Uncle St. Serf is not dead yet," said Dolly, reprovingly.
+
+"Poor Serf!--but he's so very bad," said Lady Mariamne, "that it's
+almost the same thing. Mr. Tatham, can't we take you anywhere? I'm so
+glad I've seen Nell's boy. Can't we drive you home? Perhaps you've got
+Nell there too?"
+
+John stood back from the carriage door, just in time to escape the start
+of the horses as the remorseless string was touched and the footman
+clambered up into his seat. Lady Mariamne's smile went off her face, and
+she had forgotten all about it, to judge from appearances, before he had
+got himself in motion again. And a little farther on, behind the next
+tree, he found young Philip waiting, full of curiosity and questions.
+
+"Who was that lady, Uncle John? Was she asking about me? I thought I
+heard her call. I had half a mind to run back and say 'Here I am.'"
+
+"It was much better that you didn't do anything of the kind. Never pay
+any attention when you think you hear a fine lady calling you, Philip.
+It is better not to hear the Siren's call."
+
+"When they're elderly Sirens like that!" said the boy, with a laugh.
+"But I say, Uncle John, if you won't tell me who the lady is, who is the
+girl? She has a pair of eyes!--not like Sirens though--eyes that go
+through you--like--like a pair of lancets."
+
+"A surgical operation in fact: and I shouldn't wonder if she meant
+to be a doctor," said John. "The mother has done nothing all her life,
+therefore the daughter means to do much. It is the natural reaction of
+the generations. But I never noticed that Miss Dolly had any eyes--to
+speak of," said the highly indifferent middle-aged man.
+
+The boy flushed with a sense of indignation. "Perhaps you think the old
+lady's were finer?" he said.
+
+"I never admired the old lady, as you call her," said John, shortly; and
+then he turned Philip's attention to something, possibly with the easily
+satisfied conviction of a spectator that the boy thought of it no more.
+
+"We met my Lady Mariamne in the park," he said to Elinor when they sat
+at dinner an hour later at that bachelor table in Halkin Street, where
+everything was so exquisitely cared for. It was like Elinor, but most
+unlike the place in which she found herself, that she started so violently
+as to shake the whole table, crying out in a tone of consternation,
+"John!" as if he did not know very well what he might venture to say,
+or as if he had any intention of betraying her to her son.
+
+"She was very anxious," he said, perhaps playing a little with her
+excitement, "to have Philip presented to her: but I sent him on--that is
+to say, I thought I sent him on. The fellow went no farther than to the
+next tree, where he stood and watched Miss Dolly, not feeling any
+interest in the old lady, as he said."
+
+"Well, Uncle John--did you expect me to look at the old lady? You are
+not so fond of old ladies yourself."
+
+"And who is Miss Dolly?" said Elinor, trying to conceal the beating of
+her heart and the quiver on her lips with a smile; and then she added,
+with a little catch of her breath, "Oh, yes, I remember there was a
+little girl."
+
+"You will be surprised to hear that we are by way of being great
+friends. Her ladyship visits me in my chambers----"
+
+Again Elinor uttered that startled cry, "John!" but she tried this time
+to cover it with a tremulous laugh. "Are you becoming a flirt in your
+old age?"
+
+"It appears so," said John. And then he added, "That aphorism, which
+struck you as it struck me, Elinor, by its good sense--about the heir to
+a peerage--is really her production, and not mine."
+
+"Miss Dolly's? And what was the aphorism, Uncle John?" cried Philip.
+
+"No, it was not Miss Dolly's, my young man. It was the mother's, and so
+of course does not interest you any more."
+
+It did not as a matter of fact: the old lady was supremely indifferent
+to Pippo; but as he looked up saying something else which did not bear
+upon the subject, it occurred to the boy, as it will sometimes occur by
+the merest chance to a young observer, to notice his mother. She caught
+his eye somehow in the most accidental way; and Pippo was too well
+acquainted with her looks not to perceive that there was a thrill in
+every line of her countenance, a slight nervous tremble in her hands
+and entire person, such as was in no way to be accounted for (he thought)
+by anything that had been said or done. There was nothing surely to
+disquiet her in dining at Uncle John's, the three alone, not even one
+other guest to fill up the vacant side of the table. Philip had himself
+thought that Uncle John might have asked some one to meet them. He should
+have remembered that he himself, Philip, was now of an age to dine out,
+and see a little society, and go into the world. But what in the name
+of all that was wonderful was there in this entertainment to agitate his
+mother? And John Tatham had a look--which Philip did not understand--the
+look of a man who was successful in argument, who was almost crushing an
+opponent. It was as if a duel had been going on between them, and the
+man was the victor, which, as was natural, immediately threw Philip
+violently on the other side.
+
+"You're not well, mother," he said.
+
+"Do you think not, Pippo? Well, perhaps you are right. London is too
+much for me. I am a country bird," said Elinor, with smiling yet
+trembling lips.
+
+"You shall not go to the theatre if you are not up to it," said the boy
+in his imperious way.
+
+She gave him an affectionate look, and then she looked across the table
+at John. What did that look mean? There was a faint smile in it: and
+there was a great deal which Philip did not understand, things understood
+by Uncle John--who was after all what you might call an outsider, no
+more--and not by him, her son! Could anything be so monstrous? Philip
+blazed up with sudden fire.
+
+"No," said John Tatham; "I think Philip's right. We'll take her home to
+be coddled by her maid, and we'll go off, two wild young fellows, to the
+play by ourselves."
+
+"No," said Philip, "I'll leave her to be coddled by no maid. I can take
+care of my mother myself."
+
+"My dear boy," said Elinor, "I want no coddling. But I doubt whether I
+could stand the play. I like you to go with Uncle John."
+
+And then it began to dawn upon Philip that his mother had never meant
+to be of the party, and that this was what had been settled all along.
+He was more angry; more wounded and hurt in his spirit than he had of
+course the least occasion to be. He was of opinion that his mother
+had never had any secrets from him, that she had taken him into her
+confidence since he was a small boy, even things that Granny did not
+know! And here all at once there was rising between them a cloud, a
+mist, which there was no reason for. If he had done anything to make him
+less worthy he would have understood; had there been a bad report from
+school, had he failed in his work and disappointed her, there might have
+been some reason for it. But he had done nothing of the kind! Never
+before had he been so deserving of confidence; he had got his scholarship,
+he had finished the first phase of his education in triumph, and
+fulfilled all her expectations. And now just at this point of all
+others, just when he was most fit to understand, most worthy of trust,
+she turned from him. His heart swelled as if it would burst, with anger
+first, almost too strong to be repressed, and with that sense of injured
+merit which is of all things the most hard to bear. It is hard enough
+even when one is aware one deserves no better. But to be conscious of
+your worth and to feel that you are not appreciated, that is indeed too
+much for any one. There was not even the satisfaction of giving up the
+play which he had looked forward to, making a sacrifice of it to his
+mother, in which there would have been a severe pleasure. But she did
+not want him! She preferred that he should leave her by herself to be
+coddled by her maid, as Uncle John (vulgarly) said. Or perhaps was there
+somebody else coming, some old friend whom he knew nothing of, somebody,
+some one or other like that old witch in the carriage whom Pippo was not
+meant to know?
+
+It ended, however, in the carrying out of the plan settled beforehand by
+those old conspirators. The old conspirators do generally manage to
+carry out their plans for the management of rebellious youth, however
+injured the latter may feel. Pippo wound himself up in solemn dignity
+and silence when he understood that it was ordained that he should
+proceed to the play with John Tatham. And the pair had got half way to
+Drury Lane--or it may have been the Lyceum, or the Haymarket, or any of
+half-a-dozen other theatres, for here exact information fails--before he
+condescended to open his lips for more than Yes or No. But Philip's
+gloom did not survive the raising of the curtain, and he had forgotten
+all offences and had taken his companion into favour again, and was
+talking to Uncle John between the acts with all the excitement of a
+country youth to whom a play still was the greatest of novelties and
+delights, when he suddenly saw a change come over John Tatham's
+countenance and a slight bow of recognition directed towards a box,
+which made Philip turn round and look too. And there was the old witch
+of the carriage, and, what was more interesting, the girl with the keen
+eyes, who looked out suddenly from the shade of the draperies, and fixed
+upon Philip--Philip himself--a look which startled that young hero much.
+Nor was this all; for later in the evening, after another act of the
+play, some one else appeared in the same box, and fixed the dark and
+impassive stare of a long pair of opera-glasses upon Philip. It amused
+him at first, and afterwards it half frightened him, and finally made
+him very angry. The gazer was a man, of whom, however, Philip could make
+nothing out but his white shirt front and his tall stature, and the long
+black tubes of the opera-glass. Was it at him the man was looking, or
+perhaps at Uncle John? But the boy thought it on the whole unlikely that
+anybody should stare in that way at anything so little out of the
+ordinary as Uncle John.
+
+"I say," he said, in the next interval, "who is that fellow staring at
+us out of your old lady's box?"
+
+"Staring at the ladies behind us, you mean," said John. "Pippo, do you
+think we could make a rush for it the moment the play's over? I've got
+something to look over when I get home. Are you game to be out the very
+first before the curtain's down?"
+
+"Certainly I'm game," said Philip, delighted, "if you wish it, Uncle
+John."
+
+"Yes, I wish it," said the other, and he put his hand on the boy's
+shoulder as the act finished and the characters of the piece drew
+together for the final tableau. And the pair managed it triumphantly,
+and were the very first to get out at the head of the crowd, to Philip's
+immense amusement and John Tatham's great relief. The elder hurried the
+younger into the first hansom, all in the twinkling of an eye: and then
+for the first time his gravity relaxed. Philip took it all for a great
+joke till they reached Ebury Street. But when his companion left him,
+and he had time to think of it, he began to ask himself why?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+I will not say that Philip's sleep was broken by this question, but it
+undoubtedly recurred to his mind the first thing in the morning when he
+jumped out of bed very late for breakfast, and the events of the past
+night and the lateness of the hour at which he got to rest came back
+upon him as excuses in the first place for his tardiness. And then,
+which was remarkable, it was not the scene in the play in which he had
+been most interested which came to his mind, but a vision of that box
+and the man standing in front of it staring at him through the black
+tubes of the opera-glass which came before Philip like a picture. Uncle
+John had said it was at the ladies behind, but the boy felt sure it was
+no lady behind, but himself, on whom that stare was fixed. Who would
+care to stare so at him? It faintly gleamed across his thoughts that it
+might be some one who had heard of the scholarship, but he dismissed
+that thought instantly with a blush. It also gleamed upon him with
+equal vagueness like a momentary but entirely futile light, consciously
+derived from story books, and of which he was much ashamed, that the
+inexplicable attention given to himself might have something to do with
+the girl who had such keen eyes. Philip blushed fiery red at this
+involuntary thought, and chased it from his mind like a mad dog; but he
+could not put away the picture of the box, the girl putting aside the
+curtain to look at him, and the opera-glass fixed upon his face. And
+then why was Uncle John in such a hurry to get away? It had seemed a
+capital joke at that moment, but when he came to think of it, it was
+rather strange that a man who might be Solicitor-General to-morrow if
+he liked, and probably Lord Chancellor in a few years, should make a
+schoolboy rush from the stalls of a theatre with the object of being
+first out. Philip disapproved of so undignified a step on the part of
+his elderly relation. And he saw now in the serious morning that Uncle
+John was very unlikely to have done it for fun. What, then, did it mean?
+
+He came down full of these thoughts, and rather ashamed of being late,
+wondering whether his mother would have waited for him (which would have
+annoyed him), or if she would have finished her breakfast (which would
+have annoyed him still more). Happily for Elinor, she had hit the golden
+mean, and was pouring out for herself a second cup of coffee (but Philip
+was not aware it was the second) when the boy appeared. She was quite
+restored to her usual serenity and freshness, and as eager to know how
+he had enjoyed himself as she always was. He gave her a brief sketch of
+the play and of what pleased him in it as in duty bound. "But," he
+added, "what interested me almost more was that we had a sort of
+a--little play of our own."
+
+"What?" she cried, with a startled look in her eyes. One thing that
+puzzled him was that she was so very easily startled, which it seemed to
+Philip had never been the case before.
+
+"Well," he said, "the lady was there whom Uncle John met in the
+park--and the girl with her--and I believe the little dog. She made all
+sorts of signs to him, but he took scarcely any notice. But that's not
+all, mother----"
+
+"It's a good deal, Pippo----"
+
+"Is it? Why do you speak in that choked voice, mother? I suppose it is
+just one of his society acquaintances. But the thing was that before
+the last act somebody else came forward to the front of the box, and
+fixed--I was going to say his eyes, I mean his opera-glasses upon us."
+
+Philip had meant to say upon me--but he had produced already so great
+an effect on his mother's face that he moderated instinctively the point
+of this description. "And stared at us," he added, "all the rest of the
+time, paying not the least attention to anything that was going on.
+It's a queer sensation," he went on, with a laugh, "to feel that black
+mysterious-looking thing like the eyes of some monster with no speculation
+in them, fixed upon you. Now, I want you to tell me---- What's the
+matter, mother?"
+
+"Nothing, Pippo; nothing," said Elinor, faintly, stooping to lift up a
+book she had let fall. "Go on with your story. I am very much
+interested; and then, my dear?"
+
+"Mother," cried Philip, "I don't know what has come over you, or over
+me. There's something going on I can't understand. You never used to
+have any secrets from me. I was always in your confidence--wasn't I,
+mother?"
+
+It was not a book she had let fall, but a ring that she had dropped from
+her finger, and which had to be followed over the carpet. It made her
+red and flushed when she half raised her head to say, "Yes, Pippo--you
+know--I have always told you----"
+
+Philip did not remark that what his mother said was nothing after all.
+He got up to help her to look for her ring, and put his arm round her
+waist as she knelt on the floor.
+
+"Yes, mamma," he said, tenderly, protectingly, "I do know: but
+something's changed; either it's in me that makes you feel you can't
+trust me--or else it is in you. And I don't know which would be worst."
+
+"There is no change," she said, after a moment, for she could not help
+the ring being found, and immediately when his quick, young eyes came
+to the search: but she did not look him in the face. "There is no
+change, dear. There is only some worrying business which involves a
+great many troubles of my old life before you were born. You shall
+hear--everything--in a little while: but I cannot enter into it all at
+this moment. It is full of complications and--secrets that belong to
+other people. Pippo, you must promise me to wait patiently, and to
+believe--to believe--always the best you can--of your mother."
+
+The boy laughed as he raised her up, still holding her with his arm.
+"Believe the best I can! Well, I don't think that will be a great
+effort, mother. Only to think that you can't trust me as you always have
+done makes me wretched. We've been such friends, haven't we, mamma?
+I've always told you everything, or at least everything except just the
+nonsense at school: and you've told me everything. And if we are going
+to be different now----"
+
+"You've told me everything!" the boy was as sure of it as that he was
+born. She had to hold by him to support herself, and it cost her a
+strong effort to restrain the shiver that ran through her. "We are not
+going to be different," she said, "as soon as we leave London--or
+before--you shall know everything about this business of mine, Pippo.
+Will that satisfy you? In the meantime it is not pleasant business,
+dear; and you must bear with me if I am abstracted sometimes, and
+occupied, and cross."
+
+"But, mother," said Philip, bending over her with that young celestial
+foolish look of gravity and good advice with which a neophyte will
+sometimes address the much-experienced and heavily-laden pilgrim, "don't
+you think it would be easier if it was all open between us, and I took
+my share? If it is other people's secrets I would not betray them, you
+know that."
+
+Unfortunately Elinor here murmured, scarcely knowing what words came
+from her lips, "That is what John says."
+
+"John," said the boy, furious with the quick rage of injured tenderness
+and pride, "Uncle John! and you tell him more, him, an outsider, than
+you tell me!"
+
+He let her go then, which was a great relief to Elinor, for she could
+command herself better when he was a little farther off, and could not
+feel the thrill that was in her, and the thumping of her heart.
+
+"You must remember, Pippo," she said, "what I have told you, that my
+present very disagreeable, very painful business is about things that
+happened before you were born, which John knew everything about. He was
+my adviser then, as far as I would take any advice, which I am afraid
+never was much, Pippo," she said; "never, alas! all my life. Granny will
+tell you that. But John, always the kindest friend and the best brother
+in the world, did everything he could. And it would have been better for
+us all if I had taken his advice instead of always, I fear, always my
+own way."
+
+Strangely enough this cheered Pippo and swept the cloud from his face.
+"I'm glad you didn't take anybody's advice, mother. I shouldn't have
+liked it. I've more faith in you than anybody. Well, then, now about
+this man. What man in the world--I really mean in the world, in what is
+called society, for that is the kind of people they were--could have
+such a curiosity about--me?"
+
+She had resumed her seat, and her face was turned away from him. Also
+the exquisite tone of complacency and innocent self-appreciation with
+which Philip expressed this wonder helped her a little to surmount the
+situation. Elinor could have laughed had her heart been only a trifle
+less burdened. She said: "Are you sure it was at you?"
+
+"Uncle John said something about ladies behind us, but I am sure it was
+no ladies behind. It might, of course," the boy added, cautiously, "have
+been _him_, you know. I suppose Uncle John's a personage, isn't he? But
+after all, you know, hang it, mother, it isn't easy to believe that a
+fellow like that would stare so at Uncle John."
+
+"Poor John! It is true there is not much novelty about him," said
+Elinor, with a tremble in her voice, which, if it was half agitation,
+was yet a little laughter too: for there are scarcely any circumstances,
+however painful, in which those who are that way moved by nature are
+quite able to quench the unconquerable laugh. She added, with a falter
+in which there was no laughter, "and what--was the--fellow like?"
+
+"All that I could see was that he was a tall man. I saw his large
+shirt-front and his black evening clothes, and something like grey hair
+above those two big, black goggles----"
+
+"Grey hair!" Elinor said, with a low suppressed cry.
+
+"He never took them away from his eyes for a moment, so of course I
+could not see his face, or anything much except that he was more than
+common tall--like myself," Pippo said, with a little air of pleased
+vanity in the comparison.
+
+Like himself! She did not make any remark. It is very doubtful whether
+she could have done so. There came before her so many visions of the
+past, and such a vague, confused, bewildering future, of which she could
+form no definite idea what it would be. Was it with a pang that she
+foresaw that drawing towards another influence: that mingled instinct,
+curiosity, perhaps admiration and wonder, which already seemed to move
+her boy's unconscious mind? Elinor did not even know whether that would
+hurt her at all. Even now there seemed a curious pungent sense of
+half-pleasure in the pain. Like himself! So he was. And if it should be
+that it was his father, who for hours had stood there, not taking his
+eyes off the boy (for hours her imagination said, though Pippo had not
+said so), his father who had known where she was and never disturbed
+her, never interfered with her; the man who had summoned her to perform
+her martyrdom for him, never doubting--Phil, with grey hair! To say what
+mingled feelings swept through Elinor's mind, with all these elements in
+them, is beyond my power. She saw him with his face concealed, standing
+up unconscious of the crowded place and of the mimic life on the stage,
+his eyes fixed upon his son whom he had never seen before. Where was
+there any drama in which there was a scene like this? His son, his
+only child, the heir! Unconsciously even to herself that fact had some
+influence, no doubt, on Elinor's thoughts. And it would be impossible to
+say how much influence had that unexpected subduing touch of the grey
+hair: and the strange change in the scene altogether. The foolish,
+noisy, "fast" woman, with her _tourbillon_ of men and dogs about her,
+turned into the old lady of Pippo's careless remark, with her daughter
+beside her far more important than she: and the tall figure in the front
+of the box, with grey hair----
+
+Young Philip had not the faintest light or guidance in the discovery of
+his mother's thoughts. He was much more easy and comfortable now that
+there had been an explanation between them, though it was one of those
+explanations which explained nothing. He even forgave Uncle John for
+knowing more than he did, moved thereto by the consolatory thought that
+John's advice had never been taken, and that his mother had always
+followed her own way. This was an incalculable comfort to Pippo's mind,
+and gave him composure to wait calmly for the clearing up of the
+mystery, and the restoration of that perfect confidence between his
+mother and himself which he was so firmly convinced had existed all his
+life. He was a great deal happier after, and gave her an excellent
+account of the play, which he had managed to see quite satisfactorily,
+notwithstanding the other "little play of our own" which ran through
+everything. At Philip's age one can see two things at once well enough.
+I knew a boy who at one and the same moment got the benefit of (1st)
+his own story book, which he read lying at full length before the fire,
+half buried in the fur of a great rug; and (2nd) of the novel which was
+being read out over his head for the benefit of the other members of
+the family--or at least he strenuously asserted he did, and indeed
+proved himself acquainted with both. Philip in the same way had taken
+in everything in the play, even while his soul was intent upon the
+opera-glass in the box. He had not missed anything of either. He gave an
+account of the first, from which the drama might have been written down
+had fate destroyed it: and had noticed the _minauderies_ of the heroine,
+and the eager determination not to be second to her in anything which
+distinguished the first gentleman, as if he had nothing else in his
+mind: while all the time he had been under the fascination of the two
+black eyeholes _braqués_ upon him, the mysterious gaze as of a ghost
+from eyes which he never saw.
+
+This occupied some part of the forenoon, and Philip was happy. But when
+he had completed his tale and began to feel the necessity of going out,
+and remembered that he had nowhere to go and nothing to do, the prospect
+was not alluring. He tried very hard to persuade his mother to go out
+with him, but this was a risk from which Elinor shrank. She shrank, too,
+from his proposal at last to go out to the park by himself.
+
+"To the Row. I sha'n't know the people except those who are in _Punch_
+every week, and I shall envy the fellows riding--but at least it will be
+something to see."
+
+"I wish you would not go to the Row, Pippo."
+
+"Why, mother? Doesn't everybody go? And you never were here at this time
+of the year before."
+
+"No," she said, with a long breath of despair. No; of all times of the
+year this was the one in which she had never risked him in London. And,
+oh! that he had been anywhere in the world except London now!
+
+Philip, who had been watching her countenance with great interest,
+here patted her on the shoulder with condescending, almost paternal,
+kindness. "Don't you be frightened, mother. I'll not get into any
+mischief. I'll neither be rode over, nor robbed, nor run away. I'll
+take as great care of myself as if you had been there."
+
+"I'm not afraid that you will be ridden over or robbed," she said,
+forcing a smile; "but there is one thing, Pippo. Don't talk to anybody
+whom you--don't know. Don't let yourself be drawn into---- If you should
+meet, for instance, that lady--who was in the theatre last night."
+
+"Yes, mother?"
+
+"Don't let her make acquaintance with you; don't speak to her, nor the
+girl, nor any one that may be with her. At the risk even of being
+uncivil----"
+
+"Why, mother," he said, elevating his eyebrows, "how could I be uncivil
+to a lady?"
+
+"Because I tell you," she cried, "because you must--because I shall sit
+here in terror counting every moment till you come back, if you don't
+promise me this."
+
+He looked at her with the most wondering countenance, half disapproving,
+half pitying. Was she going mad? what was happening to her? was she
+after all, though his mother, no better than the jealous foolish women
+in books, who endeavoured at all costs to separate their children from
+every influence but their own? How could Pippo think such things of his
+mother? and yet what else could he think?
+
+"I had better," he said, "if that is how you feel, mother, not go to the
+Row at all."
+
+"Much better, much better!" she cried. "I'll tell you what we'll do,
+Pippo--you have never been to see--the Tower." She had run over all the
+most far-off and unlikely places in her mind, and this occurred to her
+as the most impossible of all to attract any visitor of whom she could
+be afraid. "I have changed my mind," she added. "Well have a hansom, and
+I will go with you to see the Tower."
+
+"So long as you go with me," said Pippo, "I don't care where I go."
+
+And they set out almost joyfully as in their old happy expeditions of
+old, for that long drive through London in the hansom. And yet the boy
+was only lulled for the moment, and in his heart was more and more
+perplexed what his mother could mean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+
+Fortune was favourable to Elinor that day. At the Tower, where she duly
+went over everything that was to be seen with Pippo, conscious all the
+time of his keen observance of her through all that he was doing, and
+even through his interest in what he saw--and feeling for the first time
+in her life that there was between her boy and her something that he
+felt, something that was not explained by anything she had said, and
+that awaited the dreadful moment when everything would have to be
+told--at the Tower, as I say, they met some friends from the north, the
+rector of the parish, who had come up with his son to see town, and was
+naturally taking his boy, as Elinor took hers, to see all that was not
+town, in the usual sense of the word. They were going to Woolwich and
+Greenwich next day, and with a pang of mingled trouble and relief in her
+mind Elinor contrived to engage Pippo to accompany them. On the second
+day I think they were to go to St. Katherine's Docks, or the Isle of
+Dogs, or some other equally important and interesting sight--far better
+no doubt for the two youths than to frequent such places as the Row, and
+gaze at the stream of gaiety and luxury which they could not join. Pippo
+in ordinary circumstances would have been delighted to see Woolwich and
+the docks--but it was so evident to him that his mother was anxiously
+desirous to dispose of him so, that his satisfaction was much lessened.
+The boy, however, was magnanimous enough to consent without any appearance
+of reluctance. In the many thoughts which filled his mind Philip showed
+his fine nature, by having already come to consent to the possibility
+that his mother might have business of her own into which he had no
+right to enter unless at her own time and with her full consent. It
+cost him an effort, I allow, to come to that: but yet he did so, and
+resolved, a little pride helping him, to inquire no more, and if possible
+to wonder or be offended no more, but to wait the time she had promised,
+when the old rule of perfect confidence should be re-established between
+them. The old rule! if Pippo had but known! nothing yet had given
+Elinor such a sense of guilt as his conviction that she had told him
+everything, that there had been no secrets between them during all the
+happy life that was past.
+
+How entirely relieved Elinor was when he started to join his friends
+next morning it would be impossible to put into words. She watched all
+his lingering movements before he went with eyes in which she tried to
+quench the impatience, and look only with the fond admiration and
+interest she felt upon all his little preparations, his dawning sense of
+what was becoming in apparel, the flower in his coat, the carefully
+rolled umbrella, the hat brushed to the most exquisite smoothness, the
+handkerchief just peeping from his breast-pocket. It is always a
+revelation to a woman to find that these details occupy as much of a
+young man's attention as her own toilette occupies hers; and that he is
+as tremulously alive to "what is worn" in many small particulars that
+never catch her eye, as she is to details which entirely escape him. She
+smiles at him as he does at her, each in that conscious superiority to
+the other, which is on the whole an indulgent sentiment. Underneath all
+her anxiety to see him go, to get rid of him (was that the dreadful
+truth in this terrible crisis of her affairs?), she felt the amusement
+of the boy's little coquetries, and the mother's admiration of his fresh
+looks, his youthful brightness, his air of distinction; how different
+from the Rector's boy, who was a nice fellow enough, and a credit to his
+rectory, and whose mother, I do not doubt, felt in his ruddy good looks
+something much superior in robustness, and strength, and manhood to the
+too-tall and too-slight golden youth of the ladies at Lakeside! It even
+flitted across Elinor's mind to give him within herself the title that
+was to be his, everybody said--Lord Lomond! And then she asked herself
+indignantly what honour it could add to her spotless boy to have such a
+vain distinction; a name that had been soiled by so much ignoble use?
+Elinor had prided herself all her life on an indifference to, almost a
+contempt for, the distinctions of rank: and that it should occur to her
+to think of that title as an embellishment to Pippo--nay, to think
+furtively, without her own knowledge, so to speak, that Pippo looked
+every inch a lord and heir to a peerage, was an involuntary weakness
+almost incredible. She blushed for herself as she realised it:--a
+peerage which had meant so little that was excellent--a name connected
+with so many undesirable precedents: still I suppose when it is his own
+even the veriest democrat is conscious at least of the picturesqueness,
+the superiority, as a mode of distinguishing one man from another, of
+anything that can in the remotest sense be called a historical name.
+
+When Pippo was out of sight Elinor turned from the window with a sigh,
+and came back to the dark chamber of her own life, full at this moment
+of all the gathered blackness of the past and of the future. She put her
+hands over her eyes, and sank down upon a seat, as if to shut out from
+herself all that was before her. But shut it out as she might, there it
+was--the horrible court with the judgment-seat, the rows of faces bent
+upon her, the silence through which her own voice must rise alone,
+saying--what? What was it she was called there to say? Oh, how little
+they knew who suggested that her mother should have been called instead
+of her, with all her minute old-fashioned calculations and exact memory,
+who even now, when all was over, would probably convict Elinor of a
+mistake! Even at that penalty what would not she give to have it over,
+the thing said, the event done with, whatever it might bring after it!
+And it could now be only a very short time till the moment of the
+ordeal would come, when she should stand up in the face of her country,
+before the solemn judge on his bench, before all the gaping, wondering
+people--before, oh! thought most dreadful of all, which we would not,
+could not, contemplate--before one who knew everything, and say---- She
+picked herself up trembling as it were, and uncovered her eyes, and
+protested to herself that she would say nothing that was not true.
+Nothing that was not true! She would tell her story--so well remembered,
+so often conned; that story that had been put into her lips twenty years
+ago which she had repeated then confused, not knowing how it was that
+what was a simple fact should nevertheless not be true. Alas! she knew
+that very well now, and yet would have to repeat it before God and the
+world. But thinking would make it no better--thinking could only make it
+worse. She sprang up again, and began to occupy herself with something
+she had to do: the less it was thought over the better: for now the
+trial had begun, and her ordeal would soon be done too. If only the boy
+could be occupied, kept away--if only she could be left alone to do what
+she had to do! That he should be there was the last aggravation of which
+her fate was capable; there in idleness, reading the papers in the
+morning, which was a thing she had so lately calculated a boy at school
+was unlikely to do; and what so likely as that his eye would be caught
+by his own name in the report of the trial, which would be an exciting
+trial and fully reported--a trial which interested society. The boy
+would see his own name: she could almost hear him cry out, looking up
+from his breakfast, "Hallo, mother! here's something about a Philip
+Compton!" And all the questions that would follow--"Is he the same
+Comptons that we are? What Comptons do we belong to? You never told
+me anything about my family. Is this man any relation, I wonder?
+Both surname and Christian name the same. It's strange if there is no
+connection!" She could almost hear the words he would say--all that
+and more--and what should she reply?
+
+"I have only one thing to say, Elinor," said John, to whom in her
+desperation she turned again, as she always did, disturbing him, poor
+man, in his chambers as he was collecting his notes and his thoughts
+in the afternoon after his work was over: "it is the same as I have
+always said; even now make a clean breast of it to the boy. Tell him
+everything; better that he should hear it from your own lips than that
+it should burst upon him as a discovery. He has but to meet Lady
+Mariamne in the park, the most likely thing in the world----"
+
+"No, John," cried Elinor, "no; the Marshalls are here, our Rector from
+Lakeside, and he is taking his boy to see all the sights. I have got
+Pippo to go with them. They are going to Woolwich to-day, and afterwards
+to quite a long list of things--oh, entirely out of everybody's way."
+
+Her little look of uneasy triumph and satisfaction made John smile. She
+was not half so sure as she tried to look; but, all the same, had a little
+pride, a little pleasure in her own management, and in the happy chance
+of the Marshalls being in London, which was a thing that could not have
+been planned, an intervention of Providence. He could not refuse to
+smile--partly with her, partly at her simplicity--but, all the same, he
+shook his head.
+
+"The only way in which there is any safety--the only chance of preserving
+him from a shock, a painful shock, Elinor, that may upset him for
+life----"
+
+"How do you mean, upset him for life?"
+
+"By showing him that his mother, whom he believes in like heaven, has
+deceived him since ever he was born."
+
+She covered her face with her hands, and burst into a sobbing cry. "Oh,
+John, you don't know how true that is! He said to me only yesterday,
+'You have always told me everything, mother. There has never been any
+secret between us.' Oh! John, John, only think of having that said to
+me, and knowing what I know!"
+
+"Well, Elinor; believe me, my dear, there is but one thing to do. The
+boy is a good boy, full of love and kindness."
+
+"Oh, isn't he, John? the best boy, the dearest----"
+
+"And adores his mother, as a boy should," John got up from his chair and
+walked about the room for a little, and then he came behind her and put
+his hand on her shoulder. "Tell him, Elinor: my dear Nelly, as if I had
+never said a word on the subject before, I beseech you tell him, trust
+him fully, even now, at the eleventh hour."
+
+She raised her head with a quivering, wistful smile. "The moment the
+trial is over, the moment it is over! I give you my word, John."
+
+"Do not wait till it is over, do it now; to-night when he comes home."
+
+She began to tremble so that John Tatham was alarmed--and kept looking
+at him with an imploring look, her lips quivering and every line in her
+countenance. "Oh, not to-night. Spare me to-night! After the trial;
+after my part of it. At least--after--after--oh, give me till to-morrow
+to think of it!"
+
+"My dear Elinor, I count for nothing in it. I am not your judge; I am
+your partisan, you know, whatever you do. But I am sure it will be the
+better done, and even the easier done, the sooner you do it."
+
+"I will--I will: at the very latest the day after I have done my part at
+the trial. Is not that enough to think of at one time, for a poor woman
+who has never stood up before the public in all her life, never had a
+question put to her? Oh, John! oh, John!"
+
+"Elinor, Elinor! you are too sensible a woman to make a fuss about a
+simple duty like this."
+
+"There speaks the man who has stood before the world all his life, and
+is not afraid of any public," she said, with a tremulous laugh. But she
+had won her moment's delay, and thus was victorious after a fashion, as
+it was her habit to be.
+
+I do not know that young Philip much amused himself at Woolwich that
+day. He did and he did not. He could not help being interested in
+all he saw, and he liked the Marshalls well enough, and in ordinary
+circumstances would have entered very heartily into any sight-seeing.
+But he kept thinking all the time what his mother was doing, and
+wondering over the mysterious business which was to be explained to him
+sooner or later, and which he had so magnanimously promised to wait for
+the revelation of, and entertain no suspicions about in the meantime.
+The worst of such magnanimity is that it is subject to dreadful failings
+of the heart in its time of waiting--never giving in, indeed, but yet
+feeling the pressure whenever there is a moment to think. This matter
+mixed itself up so with all Philip saw that he never in after life
+saw a great cannon, or a pyramid of balls (which is not, to be sure, an
+every-day sight) without a vague sensation of trouble, as of something
+lying behind which was concealed from him, and which he would scarcely
+endure to have concealed. When he left his friends in the evening,
+however, it was with another engagement for to-morrow, and several
+to-morrows after, and great jubilation on the part of both father and
+son, as to their good luck in meeting, and having his companionship in
+their pleasures. And, in fact, these pleasures were carried on for
+several days, always with the faint bitter in them to Philip, of that
+consciousness that his mother was pleased to be rid of him, glad to see
+his back turned, the most novel, extraordinary sensation to the boy.
+And it must also be confessed that he kept a very keen eye on all the
+passing carriages, always hoping to see that one in which the witch,
+as he called her, and the girl with the keen eyes were--for he had not
+picked up the name of Lady Mariamne, keen as his young ears were, and
+though John had mentioned it in his presence, partly, perhaps, because
+it was so very unlikely a name. As for the man with the opera-glasses,
+he had not seen his face at all, and therefore could not hope to
+recognise him. And yet he felt a little thrill run through him when any
+tall man with grey hair passed in the street. He almost thought he could
+have known the tall slim figure with a certain swaying movement in it,
+which was not like anybody else. I need not say, however, that even had
+these indications been stronger, Woolwich and the Isle of Dogs were
+unlikely places in which to meet Lady Mariamne, or any gentleman likely
+to be in attendance on her. In Whitechapel, indeed, had he but known, he
+might have met Miss Dolly: but then in Whitechapel there were no
+sights which virtuous youth is led to see. And Philip's man with the
+opera-glass was, during these days, using that aid to vision in a very
+different place, and had neither leisure nor inclination to move vaguely
+about the world.
+
+For three days this went on successfully enough: young Philip Compton
+and Ralph Marshall saw enough to last them all the rest of their lives,
+and there was no limit to the satisfaction of the good country clergyman,
+who felt that he never could have succeeded so completely in improving
+his son's mind, instead of delivering him over to the frivolous amusements
+of town, if it had not been for the companionship of Philip, who made
+Ralph feel that it was all right, and that he was not being victimised
+for nothing. But on the fourth day a hitch occurred. John Tatham had
+been made to give all sorts of orders and admissions for the party
+to see every nook and corner of the Temple, much to Elinor's alarm,
+who felt that place was too near to be safe; but she was herself in
+circumstances too urgent to permit her dwelling upon it. She had left
+the house on that particular morning long before Philip was ready, and
+every anxiety was dulled in her mind for the moment by the overwhelming
+sense of the crisis arrived. She went to his room before he had left it,
+and gave him a kiss, and told him that she might be detained for a long
+time; that she did know exactly at what hour she should return. She
+was very pale, paler than he had ever seen her, and her manner had a
+suppressed agitation in it which startled Philip; but she managed to
+smile as she assured him she was quite well, and that there was nothing
+troubling her. "Nothing, nothing that has to do with us--a little
+disturbed for a friend--but that will be all over," she said, "to-night,
+I hope." Philip made a leisurely breakfast after she was gone, and it
+happened to him that morning for the first time as he was alone to make
+a study of the papers. And the consequence was that he said to himself
+really those words which his mother in imagination had so often heard
+him say, "Hallo! Philip Compton, my name! I wonder if he is any relation.
+I wonder if we have anything to do with those St. Serf Comptons." Then
+he reflected, but vaguely, that he did not know to what Comptons he
+belonged, nor even what county he came from, to tell the truth. And then
+it was time to hurry over his breakfast, to swallow his cup of tea, to
+snatch up his hat and gloves, and to rush off to meet his friends. But
+on that day Philip was unlucky. When he got to the place of meeting he
+found nothing but a telegram from Ralph, announcing that his father was
+so knocked up with his previous exertions that they were obliged to take
+a quiet day. And thus Philip was left in the Temple, of all places in
+the world, on the day when his mother was to appear in the law-courts
+close by--on the day of all others when if she could have sent him for
+twenty-four hours to the end of the earth she would have done so--on the
+day when so terrible was the stress and strain upon herself that for
+once in the world even Pippo had gone as completely out of her mind as
+if he had not been.
+
+The boy looked about him for awhile, and reflected what to do, and
+then he started out into the Strand, conscientiously waiting for the
+Marshalls before he should visit the Temple and all its historical ways;
+and then he was amused and excited by seeing a barrister or two in wig
+and gown pass by; and then he thought of the trial in the newspapers,
+in which somebody who, like himself, was called Philip Compton, was
+involved. Philip was still lingering, wondering if he could get into the
+court, a little shy of trying, but gradually growing eager, thinking at
+least that he would try and get a sight of the wonderful grand building,
+still so new, when he suddenly saw Simmons, his uncle John's clerk,
+passing through the quadrangle of the law-courts. Here was his chance.
+He rushed forward and caught the clerk by the arm, who was in a great
+hurry, as everybody seemed to be. "Oh, Simmons, can you get me into that
+Brown trial?" cried Philip. "Brown!" Simmons said. "Mr. Tatham is not on
+in that." "Oh, never mind about Mr. Tatham," said the boy. "Can't you
+get me in? I have never seen a trial, and I take an interest in that."
+"I advise you," said Simmons, "to wait for one that your uncle's in."
+"Can't you get me in?" said Philip, impatiently: and this touched the
+pride of Simmons, who had many friends, if not in high places, yet in
+low.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+
+Philip had never been in a court of law before. I am almost as ignorant
+as he was, yet I cannot imagine anything more deeply interesting than
+to find one's self suddenly one of a crowded assembly trying more or
+less--for is not the public but a larger jury, sometimes contradicting
+the verdict of the other, and when it does so almost invariably winning
+the cause?--a fellow-creature, following out the traces of his crime or
+his innocence, looking on while a human drama is unrolled, often far
+more interesting than any dramatic representation of life. He was
+confused for the moment by the crowd, by the new and unusual spectacle,
+by the bewilderment of seeing for the first time what he had so often
+heard of, the judge on the bench, the wigged barristers below, the one
+who was speaking, so different from any other public speaker Philip had
+ever heard, addressing not the assembly, but the smaller circle round
+him, interrupted by other voices: the accused in his place and the
+witness--standing there more distinctly at the bar than the culprit
+was--bearing his testimony before earth and heaven, with the fate
+of another hanging on his words. The boy was so full of the novel
+sight--which yet he had heard of so often that he could identify every
+part of it, and soon perceived the scope of what was going on--that he
+did not at first listen, so full was he of the interest of what he saw.
+The imperturbable judge, grave, letting no emotion appear on his face;
+the jury, just the reverse, showing how this and that piece of evidence
+affected them; the barristers who were engaged, so keenly alive to
+everything, starting up now and then when the witness swerved from the
+subject, when the opposition proposed a leading question, or one that
+was irrelevant to the issue; the others who were not "in it," as Simmons
+said, so indifferent; and then the spectators who had places about or
+near the central interest. Philip saw, with a sudden leap of his heart,
+the ladies of the theatre and park, the witch and the girl with the keen
+eyes, in a conspicuous place; the old lady, as he called her, full of
+movement and gesture, making signs to others near her, keeping up an
+interrupted whispering, the girl at her side as impassive as the judge
+himself. And then Pippo's roving eye caught a figure seated among the
+barristers with an opera-glass, which made his heart jump still more.
+Was that the man? He had, at the moment Philip perceived him, his
+opera-glass in his hand: a tall man leaning back with a look of
+interest, very conspicuous among the wigged heads about him, with grey
+hair in a mass on his forehead as if it had grown thin and had been
+coaxed to cover some denuded place, and a face which it seemed to Philip
+he had seen before, a face worn--was it with study, was it with trouble?
+Pippo knew of no other ways in which the eyes could be so hollowed out,
+and the lines so deeply drawn. A man, perhaps, hard worn with life and
+labor and sorrow. A strange sympathy sprang up in the boy's mind: he was
+sure he knew the face. It was a face full of records, though young
+Philip could not read them--the face, he thought, of a man who had had
+much to bear. Was it the same man who had fixed so strange a gaze upon
+himself at the theatre? And what interest could this man have in the
+trial that was going on?
+
+The accused at the bar was certainly not of a kind to arouse the
+interest which sprang into being at sight of this worn and noble hero.
+He had the air of a comfortable man of business, a man evidently well
+off, surprised at once and indignant to find himself there, sometimes
+bursting with eagerness to explain, sometimes leaning back with an air
+of affected contempt--not a good man in trouble, as Philip would have
+liked to think him, nor a criminal fully conscious of what might be
+awaiting him; but a man of the first respectability, indignant and
+incredulous that anything should be brought against him. Philip felt
+himself able to take no interest whatever in Mr. Brown.
+
+It was not till he had gone through all these surprises and observations
+that he began to note what was being said. Philip was not learned in the
+procedure of the law, nor did he know anything about the case; but it
+became vaguely apparent to him after awhile that the immediate question
+concerned the destruction of the books of a joint-stock company, of
+which Brown was the manager, an important point which the prosecution
+had some difficulty in bringing home to him. After it had been proved
+that the books had been destroyed, and that so far as was known it
+was to Brown's interest alone to destroy them, the evidence as to what
+had been seen on the evening on which this took place suddenly took a
+new turn, and seemed to introduce a new actor on the scene. Some one
+had been seen to enter the office in the twilight who could not be
+identified with Brown; whom, indeed, even Philip, with his boyish
+interest in the novelty of the proceedings, vaguely perceived to be
+another man. The action of the piece, so to speak (for it was like a
+play to Philip), changed and wavered here--and he began to be sensible
+of the character of the different players in it. The counsel for the
+prosecution was a well-known and eminent barrister, one of the most
+noted of the time, a man before whom witnesses trembled, and even the
+Bench itself was sometimes known to quail. That this was the case on the
+present occasion Philip vaguely perceived. There were points continually
+arising which the opposing counsel made objections to, appealing to the
+judge; but it rarely failed that the stronger side, which was that of
+the prosecution, won the day. The imperious accuser, whose resources of
+precedent and argument seemed boundless, carried everything with a
+high hand. The boy, of course, was not aware of the weakness of the
+representative of the majesty of the law, nor the inferiority, in force
+and skill, of the defence; but he gradually came to a practical
+perception of how the matter stood.
+
+Philip listened with growing interest, sometimes amused, sometimes
+indignant, as the remorseless prosecutor ploughed his way through the
+witnesses, whom he bullied into admissions that they were certain of
+nothing, and that in the dusk of that far-off evening, the man whom they
+had sworn at the time to be quite unlike him, might in reality have been
+Brown. Philip got greatly interested in this question. He took up the
+opposite side himself with much heat, feeling as sure as if he had been
+there that it was not Brown: and he was delighted in his excitement,
+when there stood up one man who would not be bullied, a man who had the
+air of a respectable clerk of the lower class, and who held his own. He
+had been an office boy, the son apparently of the housekeeper in charge
+of the premises referred to when the incident occurred, and the gist of
+his evidence was that the prisoner at the bar--so awful a personage once
+to the little office boy, so curtly discussed now as Brown--had left the
+office at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 6th of September, and had
+not appeared again.
+
+"A different gentleman altogether came in the evening, a much taller
+man, with a large moustache."
+
+"Where was it that you saw this man?"
+
+"Slipping in at the side door of the office as if he didn't want to be
+seen."
+
+"Was that a door which was generally open, or used by the public?"
+
+"Never, sir; but none of the doors were used at that time of night."
+
+"And how, then, could any one get admittance there?"
+
+"Only those that had private keys; the directors had their private
+keys."
+
+"Then your conclusion was that it was a director, and that he had a
+right to be there?"
+
+"I knew it was a director, sir, because I knew the gentleman," the
+witness said.
+
+"You say it was late in the evening of the 6th of September. Was it
+daylight at the time?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir; nearly dark--a sort of a half light."
+
+"Did the person you saw go in openly, or make any attempt at concealment?"
+
+"He had a light coat on, like the coats gentlemen wear when they go to
+the theatre, and something muffled round his throat, and his hat pulled
+down over his face."
+
+"Like a person who wished to conceal himself?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the witness.
+
+"And how, then, if he was muffled about the throat, and his hat pulled
+over his face, in the half light late in the evening, could you see that
+he had a large moustache?"
+
+The witness stood and stared with his mouth open, and made no reply.
+
+The counsel, with a louder voice and those intonations of contemptuous
+insinuation which are calculated to make a man feel that he is convicted
+of the basest perjury, and is being held up to the reprobation of the
+world, repeated the question, "How could you see that he had a large
+moustache?"
+
+"I saw it," said the witness, hotly, "because I knew the gentleman."
+
+"And how did you know the gentleman? You thought you recognised the
+gentleman, and therefore, though you could not possibly perceive it, you
+saw his moustache? I fear that is not an answer that will satisfy the
+jury."
+
+"I submit," said the counsel for the defence, "that it is very evident
+what the witness means. He recognised a man with whose appearance he was
+perfectly familiar."
+
+"I saw him," said the witness, "as clear as I see you, sir."
+
+"What! in the dark, late on a September night, with a coat collar up to
+his ears, and a hat pulled down over his face! You see my learned friend
+in broad daylight, and with the full advantage of standing opposite
+to him and studying his looks at your leisure. You might as well say
+because you know the gentleman that you could see his half was dark and
+abundant under his wig."
+
+At this a laugh ran through the court, at which Philip, listening, was
+furiously indignant, as it interrupted the course of the investigation.
+It was through the sound of this laugh that he heard the witness demand
+loudly, "How could I be mistaken, when I saw Mr. Compton every day?"
+
+Mr. Compton! Philip's heart began to beat like the hammers of a
+steam-engine. Was this, then, the real issue? And who was Mr. Compton?
+He could not have told how it was that he somehow identified the man
+whom the witness had seen, or had not seen, with the man who had the
+opera-glass, and who had fixed a dreadful blank stare upon the other in
+the witness-box during a great part of this discussion. Was it he who
+was on his trial, and not Brown? And who was he? And where was it that
+Philip had known and grown familiar with that face, which, so far as he
+could remember, he had never seen before, but which belonged to the man
+who bore his own name?
+
+When the counsel for the prosecution had turned the unfortunate witness
+outside in, and proved that he knew nothing and had seen nobody: and
+that, besides, he was a man totally unworthy of credit, who had lied
+from his cradle, and whose own mother and friends put no trust in him,
+the court adjourned for lunch. But Philip forgot that he required any
+lunch. His mind was filled with echoes of that name. He began to feel a
+strange certainty that it was the same man who had fixed him with the
+same gaze in the theatre. Who was Mr. Compton, and what was he? The
+question took the boy's breath away.
+
+He sat through the interval, finding a place where he could see better,
+through the kind offices of the usher to whom Simmons had commended him,
+and waiting with impatience till the trial should be resumed. Nobody
+remarked the boy among the crowd of the ordinary public, many of whom
+remained, as he did, to see it out, Philip cared nothing about Brown:
+all that he wanted to know was about this namesake of his--this Compton,
+this other man, who was not Brown. If it was the man with the opera-glass,
+he was not so much excited as his young namesake, for he went to
+luncheon with the rest; while the boy remained counting the minutes,
+eager to begin the story, the drama, again. The impression left,
+however, on Philip's impartial mind was that the last witness, though
+driven and badgered out of what wits he had by the examination, had
+really seen a man whom he perfectly knew, his recognition of whom was
+not really affected either by the twilight or the disguise.
+
+The thrill of interest which he felt running through all his veins as
+the court filled again was like, but stronger than, the interest with
+which he had ever seen the curtain rise in the theatre. His heart beat:
+he felt as if in some sort it was his own fate that was going to be
+decided: all his prepossessions were in favour of that other accused,
+yet not openly accused, person who was not Brown; and yet he felt almost
+as sure as if he had been there that the office boy of twenty years ago
+had seen that man stealing in at the side door.
+
+Young Philip did not catch the name of the next witness who was called;
+such a thing will happen sometimes even with the quickest ear at a
+moment when every whisper is important. If he had heard he would
+probably have thought that he was deceived by his excitement, impossible
+as it was that such a name should have anything to do with this or any
+other trial. The shock therefore was unbroken when, watching with all
+the absorbed interest of a spectator at the most exciting play, the boy
+saw a lady come slowly forward into the witness-box. Philip had the
+same strange sense of knowing who it was that he had felt the previous
+witness to have in respect to the man whom he could not see, but yet had
+infallibly recognised: but he said to himself, No! it was not possible!
+No! it was not possible! She came forward slowly, put up the veil that
+had covered her face, and grasped the bar before her to support herself;
+and then the boy sprang to his feet, in the terrible shock which
+electrified him from head to feet! His movements, and the stifled cry
+he uttered, made a little commotion in the crowd, and called forth the
+cry of "Silence in the court." His neighbours around him hustled him
+back into his place, where he sank down incapable indeed of movement,
+knowing that he could not go and pluck her from that place--could not
+rush to her side, could do nothing but sit there and gasp and gaze
+at his mother. His mother, in such a place! in such a case! with
+which--surely, surely--she could have nothing to do. Elinor Compton, at
+the time referred to Elinor Dennistoun, of Windyhill, in Surrey--there
+was no doubt about the name now. And Philip had time enough to
+identify everything, name and person, for there rose a vague surging
+of contention about the first questions put to her, which were not
+evidence, according to the counsel on the other side, which he felt with
+fury was done on purpose to prolong the agony. During this time she
+stood immovable, holding on by the rail before her, her eyes fixed upon
+it, perfectly pale, like marble, and as still. Among all the moving,
+rustling, palpitating crowd, and the sharp volleys of the lawyers'
+voices, and even the contradictory opinions elicited from the harassed
+judge himself--to look at that figure standing there, which scarcely
+seemed to breathe, had the most extraordinary effect. For a time Philip
+was like her, scarcely breathing, holding on in an unconscious sympathy
+to the back of the seat before him, his eyes wide open, fixed upon her.
+But as his nerves began to accustom themselves to that extraordinary,
+inconceivable sight, the other particulars of the scene came out of
+the mist, and grew apparent to him in a lurid light that did not seem
+the light of day. He saw the eager looks at her of the ladies in the
+privileged places, the whispers that were exchanged among them. He saw
+underneath the witness-box, almost within reach of her, John Tatham,
+with an anxious look on his face. And then he saw, what was the most
+extraordinary of all, the man--who had been the centre of his interest
+till now--the man whose name was Philip Compton, like his own; he who
+fixed the last witness with the stare of his opera-glass, who had kept
+it in perpetual use. He had put it down now on the table before him, his
+arms were folded on his breast, and his head bent. Philip thought he
+detected now and then a furtive look under his brows at the motionless
+witness awaiting through the storm of words the moment when her turn
+would come; but though he had leant forward all the time, following
+every point of the proceedings with interest, he now drew back, effaced
+himself, retired as it were from the scene. What was there between these
+two? Was there any link between them? What was the drama about to be
+played out before Pippo's innocent and ignorant eyes? At last the storm
+and wrangling seemed to come to an end, and there came out low but clear
+the sound of her voice. It seemed only now, when he heard his mother
+speak, that he was certified that so inconceivable a thing as that she
+should be here was a matter of fact: his mother here! Philip fixed his
+whole being upon her--eyes, thoughts, absorbed attention, he scarcely
+seemed to breathe except through her. Could she see him, he wondered,
+through all that crowd? But then he perceived that she saw nothing with
+those eyes that looked steadily in front of her, not turning a glance
+either to the right or left.
+
+For some time Philip was baffled completely by the questions put, which
+were those to which the counsel on the other side objected as not
+evidence, and which seemed, even to the boy's inexperienced mind, to be
+mere play upon the subject, attempts to connect her in some way with the
+question as to Brown's guilt or innocence. Something in the appearance,
+at this stage, of a lady so unlike the other witnesses, seemed to
+exercise a certain strange effect, however, quickening everybody's
+interest, and when the examining counsel approached the question of the
+date which had already been shown to be so momentous, all interruptions
+were silenced, and the court in general, like Philip, held its breath.
+There were many there expecting what are called in the newspapers
+"revelations:" the defence was taken by surprise, and did not know what
+new piece of evidence was about to be produced: and even the examining
+counsel was, for such a man, subdued a little by the other complicating
+threads of the web among which he had to pick his way.
+
+"You recollect," he said in his most soothing tones; "the evening of the
+6th September, 1863?"
+
+She bowed her head in reply. And then as if that was sparing herself too
+much, added a low "Yes."
+
+"As I am instructed, you were not then married, but engaged to Mr.
+Philip Compton. Is that so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"One of the directors of the company of which the defendant was
+manager?"
+
+"I believe so."
+
+"I am sorry to have to enter upon matters so private: but there was some
+question, I believe, about an investment to be made of a portion of your
+fortune in the hands of this company?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You received a visit from Mr. Compton on the subject on the day I have
+mentioned."
+
+The witness made a slight movement and pause: then answered as before,
+but more firmly, "Yes:" she added, "not on this subject," in a lower
+tone.
+
+"You can recollect, more or less exactly, the time of his arrival?"
+
+"Yes. It was in the evening, after dinner; in the darkening before the
+lamps were lit."
+
+"Were you looking for him on that night?"
+
+"No; it was an unexpected visit. He was going to Ireland, and paused on
+his way through town to come down to Windyhill."
+
+"You have particular reasons for remembering the date, which make it
+impossible that there could be any mistake?"
+
+"No; there could be no mistake."
+
+"You will perhaps inform the court, Mrs. Compton, why your memory is so
+exact on this point."
+
+Once more she hesitated for a moment, and then replied--
+
+"It was exactly ten days before my marriage."
+
+"I think that will do, Mrs. Compton. I will trouble you no further," the
+counsel said.
+
+The hubbub which sprang up upon this seemed to Philip for the moment as
+if it were directed against his mother, which, of course, was not the
+case, but intended to express the indignant surprise of the defence at
+the elaborate examination of a witness who had nothing to say on the
+main subject.
+
+The leader on the other side, however, though taken by surprise, and
+denouncing the trick which his learned brother had played upon the court
+by producing evidence which had really nothing to do with the matter,
+announced his intention to put a further question or two to Mrs.
+Compton. Young Philip in the crowd started again from his seat with the
+feeling that he would like to fly at that man's throat.
+
+"Twenty years is a long time," he said, "and it is difficult to be sure
+of any circumstance at such a distance. Perhaps the witness will kindly
+inform us what were the circumstances which fixed this, no doubt one of
+many visits, on her mind?"
+
+Elinor turned for the first time to the side from which the question
+came with a little movement of that impatience which was habitual to
+her, which three persons in that crowd recognised in a moment as
+characteristic. One of these was John Tatham, who had brought her to the
+court, and kept near that she might feel that she was not alone; the
+other was her son, of whose presence there nobody knew; the third, sat
+with his eyes cast down, and his arms folded on his breast, not looking
+at her, yet seeing every movement she made.
+
+"It was a very simple circumstance," she said with the added spirit of
+that impetuous impulse: but then the hasty movement failed her, and she
+came back to herself and to a consciousness of the scene in which she
+stood. A sort of tremulous shiver came into her voice. She paused and
+then resumed, "There was a calendar hanging in the hall; it caught Mr.
+Compton's eye, and he pointed it out to me. It marked the 6th. He said,
+'Just ten days----'"
+
+Here her voice stopped altogether. She could say no more. And there was
+an answering pause throughout the whole crowded court, a holding of the
+general breath, the response to a note of passion seldom struck in such
+a place. Even in the cross-examination there was a pause.
+
+"Till when? What was the other date referred to?"
+
+"The sixteenth of September," she said in a voice that was scarcely
+audible to the crowd. She added still more low so that the judge curved
+his hand over his ear to hear her, "Our wedding-day."
+
+"I regret to enter into private matters, Mrs. Compton, but I believe it
+is not a secret that your married life came to a--more rapid conclusion
+than could have been augured from such a beginning. May I ask what your
+reasons were for----"
+
+But here the other counsel sprang to his feet, and the contention arose
+again. Such a question was not clearly permissible. And the prosecution
+was perfectly satisfied with the evidence. It narrowed the question by
+the production of this clear and unquestionable testimony--the gentleman
+whom it had been attempted to involve being thus placed out of the
+question, and all the statements of the previous witness about the
+moustache which he could not see, etc., set aside.
+
+Philip, it may be supposed, paid little attention to this further
+discussion. His eyes and thoughts were fixed upon his mother, who for a
+minute or two stood motionless through it, as pale as ever, but with her
+head a little thrown back, facing, though not looking at, the circling
+lines of faces. Had she seen anything she must have seen the tall boy
+standing up as pale as she, following her movements with an unconscious
+repetition which was more than sympathy, never taking his gaze from her
+face.
+
+And then presently her place was empty, and she was gone.
+
+Philip was not aware how the discussion of the lawyers ended, but only
+that in a moment there was vacancy where his mother had been standing,
+and his gaze seemed thrown back to him by the blank where she had been.
+He was left in the midst of the crowd, which, after that one keen
+sensation, fell back upon the real trial with interest much less keen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+
+Philip did not know how long he remained, almost paralysed, in the
+court, dazed in his mind, incapable of movement. He was in the centre of
+a long row of people, and to make his way out was difficult. He felt
+that the noise would call attention to him, and that he might be somehow
+identified--identified, as what? He did not know--his head was not clear
+enough to give any reason. When he came more to himself, and his eyes
+regained a little their power of vision, it seemed to him that everybody
+had stolen away. There was the judge, indeed, still sitting imperturbable,
+the jury restless in their box, the lawyers going on with their eternal
+quarrel over a bewildered witness, all puppets carrying on some
+unintelligible, wearisome, automaton process, contending, contending for
+ever about nothing. But all that had secured Philip's attention was
+gone. John Tatham's head was no longer visible under the witness-box;
+the ladies had disappeared from their elevated seats; the man with the
+opera-glass was gone. They were all gone, and the empty husks of a
+question which only concerned the comfort and life of the commonplace
+culprit in the dock were being turned over and over like chaff by
+the wind. And yet it was some time before poor young Pippo, shy of
+attracting attention, feeling some subtle change even in himself which
+he did not understand, afraid to have people look at him and divine him,
+knowing more of him perhaps than he himself knew, could make up his mind
+to move. He might have remained there till the court broke up but for
+the movement of some one beside him, who gathered up his hat and
+umbrella, and with some commotion pushed his way between the rows
+of seats. Philip followed, thankful of the opportunity, and, as it
+happened, the sensation of the day being over, many others followed too,
+and thus he got out into the curious, wondering daylight, which seemed
+to look him in the face, as if this Philip had never been seen by it
+before. That was the impression given him--that when he first came out
+the atmosphere quivered round him with a strange novelty, as if he were
+some other being, some one without a name, new to the world, new to
+himself. He did not seem sure that he would know his way home, and yet
+he did not call a passing hansom, as he would have done yesterday, with
+a schoolboy's pleasure in assuming a man's careless, easy ways. It is a
+long way from the Law Courts to Ebury Street, but it seemed a kind of
+satisfaction to be in motion, to walk on along the crowded streets. And,
+as a matter of fact, Philip did lose his way, and got himself entangled
+in a web of narrow streets and monotonous little openings, all so like
+each other that it took him a long time to extricate himself and find
+again the thread of a locality known to him. He did not know what he was
+to do when he got in. Should he find her there, in the little dingy
+drawing-room as usual, with the tea on the table? Would she receive him
+with her usual smile, and ask where he had been and what he had seen,
+and if the Musgraves had enjoyed it, exactly as if nothing had happened?
+Even this wonder was faint in Philip's mind, for the chief wonder to him
+was himself, and to find out how he had changed since the morning--what
+he was now, who he was? what were the relations to him of other people,
+of that other Philip Compton who had been seated in the court with the
+opera-glass, who had arrived at Windyhill to visit Elinor Dennistoun on
+the 6th of September, 1863, twenty years ago? Who was that man? and what
+was he, himself Philip Compton, of Lakeside, named Pippo, whom his
+mother had never once in all his life called by his real name?
+
+To his great wonder, and yet almost relief, Philip found that his mother
+had not yet returned when he got to Ebury Street. "Mrs. Compton said as
+she would very likely be late. Can I get you some tea, sir? or, perhaps
+you haven't had your lunch? you're looking tired and worrited," said the
+landlady, who had known Pippo all his life. He consented to have tea,
+partly to fill up the time, and went up languidly to the deserted room,
+which looked so miserable and desert a place without her who put a soul
+into it and made it home. He did not know what to do with himself,
+poor boy, but sat down vacantly, and stared into empty space, seeing,
+wherever he turned, the rows of faces, the ladies making signs to each
+other, the red robes of the judge, the lawyers contending, and that
+motionless pale figure in the witness-box. He shut his eyes and saw the
+whole scene, then opened them again, and still saw it--the dingy walls
+disappearing, the greyness of the afternoon giving a depth and distance
+to the limited space. Should he always carry it about with him wherever
+he went, the vision of that court, the shock of that revelation? And yet
+he did not yet know what the revelation was; the confusion in his mind
+was too great, and the dust and mist that rose up about him as all the
+old building of his life crumbled and fell away.
+
+"I'm sure as it's that nasty trial, sir, as has been turning your mamma
+all out of her usual ways," said the landlady, appearing with her tray.
+
+"Oh, the trial! Did you know about the trial?" said Philip.
+
+"Not, Mr. Pippo, as ever she mentioned it to me. Mrs. Compton is a lady
+as isn't that confidential, though always an affable lady, and not a bit
+proud; but when you've known folks for years and years, and take an
+interest, and put this and that together---- Dear, dear, I hope as you
+don't think it's taking a liberty. It's more kindness nor curiosity, and
+I hope as you won't mention it to your mamma."
+
+Pippo shook his head and waved his hand, at once to satisfy the woman
+and dismiss her if possible; but this was not so easy to do.
+
+"And Lord St. Serf so bad, sir," she said. "Lord, to think that before
+we know where we are there may be such changes, and new names, and no
+knowing what to say! But it's best not to talk of it till it comes to
+pass, for there's many a slip between the cup and the lip, and there's
+no saying what will happen with a man that's been a-dying for years and
+years."
+
+What did the woman mean? He got rid of her at length, chiefly by dint of
+making no reply: and then, to tell the truth, Pippo's eye had been
+caught by the pile of sandwiches which the kind woman, pitying his tired
+looks, had brought up with the tea. He was ashamed of himself for being
+hungry in such a dreadful emergency as this, but he was so, and could
+not help it, though nothing would have made him confess so much, or even
+touch the sandwiches till she had gone away. He pretended to ignore them
+till the door was shut after her, but could not help vividly remembering
+that he had eaten nothing since the morning. The sandwiches did him a
+little good in his mind as well as in his body. He got rid of the vision
+of the faces and of the red figure on the bench. He began to believe
+that when he saw her she would tell him. Had she not said so? That after
+awhile he should hear everything, and that all should be as it was
+before? All as it was before--in the time when she told him everything,
+even things that Granny did not know. But she had never told him this,
+and the other day she had told him that it was other people's secrets,
+not her own, that she was keeping from him. "Other people's secrets"--the
+secrets of the man who was Philip Compton, who went to Windyhill on the
+6th of September, ten days before Elinor Dennistoun's marriage day.
+"What Philip Compton? Who was he? What had he to do with her? What, oh,
+what," Pippo said to himself, "has he to do with me?" After all, that
+was the most tremendous question. The others, or anything that had
+happened twenty years ago, were nothing to that.
+
+Meanwhile Elinor, of all places in the world, was in John Tatham's
+chambers, to which he had taken her to rest. I cannot tell how Mr.
+Tatham, a man so much occupied, managed to subtract from all he had to
+do almost a whole day to see his cousin through the trial, and stand by
+her, sparing her all the lesser annoyances which surround and exaggerate
+such a great fact. He had brought her out into the fresh air, feeling
+that movement was the best thing for her, and instead of taking her home
+in the carriage which was waiting, had made her walk with him, supported
+on his arm, on which she hung in a sort of suspended life, across the
+street to the Temple, hoping thus to bring her back, by the necessity of
+exertion, to herself. And indeed she was almost more restored to herself
+by this remedy than John Tatham had expected or hoped. For though he
+placed her in the great easy-chair, in which her slender person was
+engulfed and supported, expecting her to rest there and lie motionless,
+perhaps even to faint, as women are supposed to do when it is particularly
+inconvenient and uncomfortable, Elinor had not been there two minutes
+before she rose up again and began to walk about the room, with an
+aspect so unlike that of an exhausted and perhaps fainting woman, that
+even John, used as he was to her capricious ways, was confounded.
+Instead of being subdued and thankful that it was over, and this
+dreadful crisis in her life accomplished, Elinor walked up and down,
+wringing her hands, moaning and murmuring to herself; what was it she
+was saying? "God forgive me! God forgive me!" over and over and over,
+unconscious apparently that she was not alone, that any one heard or
+observed her. No doubt there is in all our actions, the very best, much
+for God to forgive; mingled motives, imperfect deeds, thoughts full of
+alloy and selfishness; but in what her conscience could accuse her
+now he could not understand. She might be to blame in respect to her
+husband, though he was very loth to allow the possibility; but in this
+act of her life, which had been so great a strain upon her, it was
+surely without any selfishness, for his interest only, not for her own.
+And yet John had never seen such a fervour of penitence, so strong a
+consciousness of evil done. He went up to her and laid his hand upon her
+arm.
+
+"Elinor, you are worn out. You have done too much. Will you try and rest
+a little here, or shall I take you home?"
+
+She started violently when he touched her. "What was I saying?" she
+said.
+
+"It does not matter what you were saying. Sit down and rest. You will
+wear yourself out. Don't think any more. Take this and rest a little,
+and then I will take you home."
+
+"It is easy to say so," she said, with a faint smile. "Don't think! Is
+it possible to stop thinking at one's pleasure?"
+
+"Yes," said John, "quite possible; we must all do it or we should die.
+And now your trial's over, Nelly, for goodness' sake exert yourself and
+throw it off. You have done your duty."
+
+"My duty! do you think that was my duty? Oh, John, there are so many
+ways to look at it."
+
+"Only one way, when you have a man's safety in your hands."
+
+"Only one way--when one has a man's safety--his honour, honour! Do you
+think a woman is justified in whatever she does, to save that?"
+
+"I don't understand you, Elinor; in anything you have done, or could do,
+certainly you are justified. My dear Nelly, sit down and take this. And
+then I will take you home."
+
+She took the wine from his hand and swallowed a little of it; and then
+looking up into his face with the faint smile which she put on when she
+expected to be blamed, and intended to deprecate and disarm him, as she
+had done so often: "I don't know," she said, "that I am so anxious to
+get home, John. You were to take Pippo to dine with you, and to the
+House to-night."
+
+"So I was," he said. "We did not know what day you would be called. It
+is a great nuisance, but if you think the boy would be disappointed not
+to go----"
+
+"He would be much, much disappointed. The first chance he has had of
+hearing a debate."
+
+"He would be much better at home, taking care of you."
+
+"As if I wanted taking care of! or as if the boy, who has always been
+the object of everybody's care himself, would be the proper person to do
+it! If he had been a girl, perhaps--but it is a little late at this time
+of day to wish for that now."
+
+"You were to tell him everything to-night, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, I was to tell him! Do you think I have not had enough for one day?
+enough to wear me out body and soul? You have just been telling me so,
+John."
+
+He shook his head. "You know," he said, "and I know, that in any case
+you will have it your own way, Elinor; but you have promised to tell
+him."
+
+"John, you are unkind. You take advantage of me being here, and so
+broken down, to say that I will have my own way. Has this been my own
+way at all? I would have fled if I could, and taken the boy far, far
+away from it all; but you would not let me. Yes, yes, I have promised.
+But I am tired to death. How could I look him in the face and tell
+him----" She hid her face suddenly in her hands with a moan.
+
+"It will be in the papers to-morrow morning, Elinor."
+
+"Well! I will tell him to-morrow morning," she said.
+
+John shook his head again; but it was done behind her, where she could
+not see the movement. He had more pity of her than words could say. When
+she covered her face with her hands in that most pathetic of attitudes,
+there was nothing that he would not have forgiven her. What was to
+become of her now? Her position through all these years had never been
+so dangerous, in John's opinion, never so sad, as now. Philip Compton
+had been there looking on while she put his accusers to silence, at what
+cost to herself John only began dimly to guess--to divine, to forbid
+himself to inquire. The fellow had been there all the time. He had
+the grace not to look at her, not to distract her with the sight of
+him--probably for his own sake, John thought bitterly, that she might
+not risk breaking down. But he was there, and knew where she was to be
+found. And he had seen the boy, and had cared enough to fix his gaze
+upon him, that gaze which John had found intolerable at the theatre. And
+he was on the eve of becoming Lord St. Serf, and Pippo his heir. What
+was to be the issue of these complications? What was to happen to her
+who had hid the boy so long, who certainly could hide him no more?
+
+He took her home to Ebury Street shortly after, where Philip, weary of
+waiting, and having made a meal he much wanted off the sandwiches, had
+gone out again in his restlessness and unhappiness. Elinor, who had
+become paler and paler as the carriage approached Ebury Street, and who
+by the time she reached the house looked really as if at last she must
+swoon, her heart choking her, her breathing quick and feverish, had
+taken hold of John to support herself, clutching at his arm, when she
+was told that Philip was out. She came to herself instantly on the
+strength of that news. "Tell him when he comes in to make haste," she
+said, "for Mr. Tatham is waiting for him. As for me I am fit for nothing
+but bed. I have had a very tiring day."
+
+"You do look tired, ma'am," said the sympathetic landlady. "I'll run up
+and put your room ready, and then I'll make you a nice cup of tea."
+
+John Tatham thought that, notwithstanding her exhaustion, her anxiety,
+all the realities of troubles present and to come that were in her mind
+and in her way, there was a flash something like triumph in Elinor's
+eyes. "Tell Pippo," she said, "he can come up and say good-night to me
+before he goes. I am good for nothing but my bed. If I can sleep I shall
+be able for all that is before me to-morrow." The triumph was quenched,
+however, if there had been triumph, when she gave him her hand, with a
+wistful smile, and a sigh that filled that to-morrow with the terror and
+the trouble that must be in it, did she do what she said. John went up
+to the little drawing-room to wait for Pippo, with a heavy heart. It
+seemed to him that never had Elinor been in so much danger. She had
+exposed herself to the chance of losing the allegiance of her son: she
+was at the mercy of her husband, that husband whom she had renounced,
+yet whom she had not refused to save, whose call she had obeyed to help
+him, though she had thrown off all the bonds of love and duty towards
+him. She had not had the strength either way to be consistent, to carry
+out one steady policy. It was cruel of John to say this, for but for him
+and his remonstrances Elinor would, or might have, fled, and avoided
+this last ordeal. But he had not done so, and now here she was in the
+middle of her life, her frail ship of safety driven about among the
+rocks, dependent upon the magnanimity of the husband from whom she had
+fled, and the child whom she had deceived.
+
+"Your mother is very tired, Philip," he said, when the boy appeared. "I
+was to tell you to go up and bid her good-night before you went out; for
+it will probably be late before you get back, if you think you are game
+to sit out the debate."
+
+"I will sit it out," said Philip, with no laughter in his eye, with
+an almost solemn air, as if announcing a grave resolution. He went
+up-stairs, not three steps at a time, as was his wont, but soberly,
+as if his years had been forty instead of eighteen. And he showed no
+surprise to find the room darkened, though Elinor was a woman who loved
+the light. He gave his mother a kiss and smoothed her pillow with a
+tender touch of pity. "Is your head very bad?" he said.
+
+"It is only that I am dreadfully tired, Pippo. I hope I shall sleep: and
+it will help me to think you are happy with Uncle John."
+
+"Then I shall try to be happy with Uncle John," he said, with a sort of
+smile. "Good-night, mother; I hope you'll be better to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, yes," she said. "To-morrow is always a new day."
+
+He seemed in the half light to nod his head, and then to shake it, as
+one that assents, but doubts--having many troubled thoughts and
+questions in his mind. But Pippo did not at all expect to be happy with
+Uncle John.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+
+It cannot be said that Uncle John was very happy with Philip, but that
+was a thing the others did not take into account. John Tatham was doing
+for the boy as much as a man could do. A great debate was expected that
+evening, in which many eminent persons were to speak, and Mr. Tatham
+gave Philip a hasty dinner in the House so that he should lose nothing,
+and he found him a corner in the distinguished strangers' gallery,
+telling him with a smile that he expected him hereafter to prove his
+title to such a place. But Philip's smile in return was very unlike the
+flush of pleasure that would have lighted it up only yesterday. John
+felt that the boy was not at all the delightful young companion, full of
+interest in everything, that he had been. Perhaps he was on his good
+behaviour, on his dignity, bent upon showing how much of a man he was
+and how little influenced by passing sentiments, as some boys do. Anyhow
+it was certain that he was much less agreeable in his self-subdued
+condition. But John was fortunately much interested in the discussion,
+in which, indeed, he took himself a slight part, and, save for a passing
+wonder and the disappointment of the moment, did not occupy himself so
+very much with Pippo. When he looked into the corner, however, in a lull
+of the debate, when one of those fools who rush in at unguarded moments,
+when the Speaker chances to look their way, had managed to get upon his
+foolish feet to the despair of all around, the experienced man of the
+world received a curious shock from the sight of young Philip's intense
+gravity, and the self-absorbed, unconscious look he wore. The boy had
+the look of hearing nothing, seeing nothing that was around him, of
+being lost in thoughts of his own, thoughts far too serious and troubled
+for his age. Had he discovered something? What did he know? This was the
+instinctive question that rose in John's mind, and not an amused
+anticipation of Pippo's original boyish view of the question and the
+speakers, such as had delighted him on the boy's previous visits to the
+House. And indeed Philip's attention was little fixed upon the debate.
+He tried hard to bring it back, to keep it there, to get the question
+into his mind, but in spite of himself his thoughts flew back to the
+other public assembly in which he had sat unnoticed that day: till
+gradually the aspect of things changed to him, the Speaker became the
+judge, the wigged secretaries the pleaders, and he almost expected to
+see that sudden apparition, that sight that had plucked him out of his
+careless life of boyhood and trust, the sight of his mother standing
+before the world on trial for her life. Oh, no, no, not on trial at all!
+he was aware of that: a harmless witness, doing only good. The judge
+could have nothing but polite regard for her, the jury admiration and
+thanks for the clear testimony which took a weight from their shoulders.
+But before her son she was on her trial, her trial for more than
+life--and he who said with so much assurance that his mother had no
+secrets from him! until the moment arrived, without any warning, in the
+midst of his security, which proved that everything had been secret, and
+that all was mystery--all mystery! and nothing sure in life.
+
+It crossed Philip's mind more than once to question John Tatham upon
+this dreadful discovery of his--John, who was a relation, who had been
+the universal referee of the household as long as he could remember,
+Uncle John must know. But there were two things which held him back:
+first, the recollection of his own disdainful offence at the suggestion
+that Uncle John, an outsider, could know more than he did of the family
+concerns; and partly from the proud determination to ask no questions,
+to seek no information that was not freely given to him. He made up his
+mind to this while he looked out from his corner upon the lighted House,
+seeing men move up and down, and voices going on, and the sound of
+restless members coming and going, while the business of the country
+went on. It was far more important than any private affairs that could
+be passing in an individual brain, and Philip knew with what high-handed
+certainty he would have put down the idea that to himself at his age
+there could be anything private half so exciting, half so full of
+interest, as a debate on the policy of the country which might carry
+with it the highest issues. But conviction comes readily on such
+subjects when the personal interest comes which carries every other
+away. It was while a minister was speaking, and everything hanging on
+his words, that the boy made up his mind finally that he would ask no
+questions. He would ignore that scene in the Law Courts, as if it had
+not been. He would say nothing, try to look as if nothing had passed,
+and wait to see if any explanation would come.
+
+It was not, perhaps, then to be wondered at if John found him a much
+less interesting companion than ever before, as they walked home
+together in the small hours of the night. Mr. Tatham's own speech had
+been short, but he had the agreeable consciousness that it had been an
+effective one, and he was prepared to find the boy excited by it, and
+full of applause and satisfaction. But Philip did not say a word about
+the speech. He was only a boy, and it may be supposed that any applause
+from him would have had little importance for the famous lawyer--the
+highly-esteemed member who kept his independence, and whose speeches
+always secured the attention of the House, and carried weight as among
+the few utterances which concerned the real import of a question and not
+its mere party meaning. But John was hurt more than he could have thought
+possible by Philip's silence. He even tried to lead the conversation
+artfully to that point in the debate, thinking perhaps the boy was shy
+of speaking on the subject--but with no effect. It was exceedingly
+strange. Had he been deceived in Philip? had the boy really no interest
+in subjects of an elevated description? or was he ill? or what was the
+matter with him? It troubled John to let him go on alone from Halkin
+Street to his lodging, with a vague sense that something might happen.
+But that was, of course, too absurd. "Tell your mother I'll come round
+in the afternoon to-morrow, as soon as I am free," he said, holding
+Philip's hand. And then he added, paternally, still holding that hand,
+"Go to bed at once, boy. You've had a tiring day."
+
+"Yes--I suppose so," said Philip, drawing his hand away.
+
+"I hope you haven't done too much," said John, still lingering. "You're
+too young for politics--and to sit up so late. I was wrong to keep you
+out of bed."
+
+"I hope I'm not such a child as that," said Philip, with a half-smile:
+and then he went away, and John Tatham, with an anxious heart, closed
+behind him his own door. If it were not for Elinor and her boy what a
+life free of anxiety John would have had! Never any need to think with
+solicitude of anything outside that peaceful door, no trouble with other
+people's feelings, with investigations what this or that look or word
+meant. But perhaps it was Elinor and her boy, after all (none of his!
+thinking of him as an outsider, having nothing to do with their most
+intimate circle of confidence and natural defence), who, by means of
+that very anxiety, kept alive the higher principles of humanity in John
+Tatham's heart.
+
+Philip went home, walking quickly through the silent streets. They were
+very silent at that advanced hour, yet not so completely but that there
+was a woman who came up to the boy at the corner. Philip neither knew
+nor desired to know what she said. He thought nothing about her one way
+or another. He took a shilling out of his pocket and threw it to her as
+he passed--walking on with the quick, elastic step which the sudden
+acquaintance he had made with care had not been able to subdue. He saw
+that there was still a faint light in his mother's window when he
+reached the house, but he would not disturb her. How little would he
+have thought of disturbing her on any other occasion! "Are you asleep,
+mother?" he would have said, looking in; and the time had never been
+when Elinor was asleep. She had always heard him, always replied,
+always been delighted to hear the account of what he had been doing,
+and how he had enjoyed himself. But not to-night. With a heart full of
+longing, yet of a sick revolt against the sight of her, he went past her
+door to his room. He did not want to see her, and yet--oh, if she had
+only called to him, if she had but said a word!
+
+Elinor for her part was not asleep. She had slept a little while she was
+sure that Philip was safely disposed of and herself secured from all
+interruption; but when the time came for his return she slept no longer,
+and had been lying for a long time holding her breath, listening to
+every sound, when she heard his key in the latch and his foot on the
+stair. Would he come in as he always did? or would he remember her
+complaint of being tired, a complaint she so seldom made? It was as a
+blow to Elinor when she heard his step go on past her door: and yet she
+was glad. Had he come in there was a desperate thought in her mind that
+she would call him to her bedside and in the dark, with his hand in
+hers, tell him--all that there was to tell. But it was again a relief
+when he passed on, and she felt that she was spared for an hour or two,
+spared for the new day, which perhaps would give her courage. It was an
+endless night, long hours of dark, and then longer hours of morning
+light, too early for anything, while still nobody in the house was
+stirring. She had scarcely slept at all during that long age of weary
+and terrible thought. For it was not as if she had but one thing to
+think of. When her mind turned, like her restless body, from one side to
+another, it was only to a change of pain. What was it she had said,
+standing up before earth and heaven, and calling God to witness that
+what she said was true? It had been true, and yet she knew that it was
+not, and that she had saved her husband's honour at the cost of her own.
+Oh, not in those serious and awful watches of the night can such a
+defence be accepted as that the letter of her testimony was true! She
+did not attempt to defend herself. She only tried to turn to another
+thought that might be less bitter: and then she was confronted by the
+confession that she must make to her boy. She must tell him that she had
+deceived him all his life, hid from him what he ought to have known,
+separated him from his father and his family, kept him in ignorance,
+despite all that had been said to her, despite every argument. And when
+Elinor in her misery fled from that thought, what was there else to
+think of? There was her husband, Pippo's father, from whom he could no
+longer be kept. If she had thought herself justified in stealing her
+child away out of fear of the influence that father might have upon him,
+how would it be now when they must be restored to each other, at an age
+much more dangerous for the boy than in childhood, and with all the
+attractions of mystery and novelty and the sense that his father had
+been wronged! When she escaped from that, the most terrible thought of
+all, feeling her brain whirl and her heart burn as she imagined her
+child turning from the mother who had deceived him to the father who had
+been deprived of him, her mind went off to that father himself, from
+whom she had fled, whom she had judged and condemned, but who had repaid
+her by no persecution, no interference, no pursuit, but an acceptance of
+her verdict, never molesting her, leaving her safe in the possession
+of her boy. Perhaps there were other ways in which Phil Compton's
+magnanimity have been looked at, in which it would have shown in less
+favourable colours. But Elinor was not ready to take that view. Her
+tower of justice and truth and honour had crumbled over her head. She
+was standing among her ruins, feeling that nothing was left to her,
+nothing upon which she could build herself a structure of self-defence.
+All was wrong; a series of mistakes and failures, to say no worse. She
+had driven on ever wilful all through, escaping from every pang she
+could avoid, throwing off every yoke that she did not choose to bear:
+until now here she stood to face all that she had fled from, unable to
+elude them more, meeting them as so many ghosts in her way. Oh, how true
+it was what John had said to her so long, so long ago--that she was not
+one who would bear, who if she were disappointed and wronged could
+endure and surmount her trouble by patience! Oh, no, no! She had been
+one who had put up with nothing, who had taken her own way. And now she
+was surrounded on every side by the difficulties she had thrust away
+from her, but which now could be thrust away no more.
+
+It may be imagined what the night was which Elinor spent sleepless,
+struggling one after another with these thoughts, finding no comfort
+anywhere wherever she turned. She had not been without many a struggle
+even in the most quiet of the years that had passed--in one long dream
+of peace as it seemed now; but never as now had she been met wherever
+she turned by another and another lion in the way. She got up very
+early, with a feeling that movement had something lulling and soothing
+in it, and that to lie there a prey to all these thoughts was like lying
+on the rack--to the great surprise of the kind landlady, who came
+stealing into her room with the inevitable cup of tea, and whose inquiry
+how the poor lady was, was taken out of her mouth by the unexpected
+apparition of the supposed invalid, fully dressed, moving about the
+room, with all the air of having been up for hours. Elinor asked, with a
+sudden precaution, that the newspapers might be brought up to her, not
+so much for her own satisfaction--for it made her heart sick to think
+of reading over in dreadful print, as would be done that morning at
+millions of breakfast-tables, her own words: perhaps with comments on
+herself and her history, which might fall into Pippo's hands, and be
+read by him before he knew: which was a sudden spur to herself and
+evidence of the dread necessity of letting him know that story from her
+own lips, which had not occurred to her before. She glanced over the
+report with a sickening sense that all the privacy of sheltered life and
+honourable silence was torn off from her, and that she was exposed as on
+a pillory to the stare and the remarks of the world, and crushed the
+paper away like a noxious thing into a drawer where the boy at least
+would never find it. Vain thought! as if there was but one paper in the
+world, as if he could not find it at every street corner, thrust into
+his hand even as he walked along; but at all events for the moment he
+would not see it, and she would have time--time to tell him before that
+revelation could come in his way. She went down-stairs, with what a
+tremor in her and sinking of her heart it would be impossible to say. To
+have to condemn herself to her only child; to humble herself before him,
+her boy, who thought there was no one like his mother; to let him know
+that he had been deceived all his life, he who thought she had always
+told him everything. Oh, poor mother! and oh, poor boy!
+
+She was still sitting by the breakfast-table, waiting, in a chill fever,
+if such a thing can be, for Philip, when a thing occurred which no one
+could have thought of, and yet which was the most natural thing in the
+world--which came upon Elinor like a thunderbolt, shattering all her
+plans again just at the moment when, after so much shrinking and delay,
+she had at last made up her mind to the one thing that must be done at
+once. The sound of the driving up of a cab to the door made her go to
+the window to look out, without producing any expectation in her mind:
+for people were coming and going in Ebury Street all day long. She saw,
+however, a box which she recognised upon the cab, and then the door was
+opened and Mrs. Dennistoun stepped out. Her mother! the wonder was not
+that she came now, but that she had not come much sooner. No letters for
+several days, her child and her child's child in town, and trouble in
+the air! Mrs. Dennistoun had borne it as long as she could, but there
+had come a moment when she could bear it no longer, and she too had
+followed Pippo's example and taken the night mail. Elinor stood
+motionless at the window, and saw her mother arrive, and did not feel
+capable of going to meet her, or of telling whether it was some dreadful
+aggravation of evil, or an interposition of Providence to save her for
+another hour at least from the ordeal before her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun had a great deal to say about herself and the motives
+which had at the last been too much for her, which had forced her to
+come after her children at a moment's notice, feeling that she could
+bear the uncertainty about them no longer; and it was a thing so unusual
+with her to have much to say about herself that there was certainly
+something apologetic, something self-defensive in this unaccustomed
+outburst. Perhaps she had begun to feel a little the unconscious
+criticism that gathers round the elder person in a house, the inclination
+involuntarily--which every one would repudiate, yet which nevertheless
+is true--to attribute to her a want of perception, perhaps--oh, not
+unkindly!--a little blunting of the faculties, a suggestion quite
+unintentional that she is not what she once was. She explained herself
+so distinctly that there was no doubt there was some self-defence in it.
+"I had not had a letter for three days."
+
+And Elinor was far more humble than her wont. "I know, mother: I felt as
+if it were impossible to write--till it was over----"
+
+"My darling! I thought at last I must come and stand by you. I felt that
+I ought to have seen that all the time--that you should have had your
+mother by your side to give you countenance."
+
+"I had John with me, mother."
+
+"Then it is over!" Mrs. Dennistoun cried.
+
+And at that moment Pippo, very late, pale, and with eyes which were red
+with sleeplessness, and perhaps with tears, came in. Elinor gave her
+mother a quick look, almost of blame, and then turned to the boy. She
+did not mean it, and yet Mrs. Dennistoun felt as if the suggestion, "He
+might never have known had you not called out like that," was in her
+daughter's eyes.
+
+"Pippo!" she said. "Why, Elinor! what have you been doing to the boy?"
+
+"He does not look well," said Elinor, suddenly waking up to that anxiety
+which had been always so easily roused in respect to Pippo. "He was very
+late last night. He was at the House with John," she added, involuntarily,
+with an apology to her mother for the neglect which had extended to
+Pippo too.
+
+"There is nothing the matter with me," he said, with a touch of
+sullenness in his tone.
+
+The two women looked at each other with all the vague trouble in their
+eyes suddenly concentrated upon young Philip, but they said nothing
+more, as he sat down at table and began to play with the breakfast, for
+which he had evidently no appetite. No one had ever seen that sullen
+look in Pippo's face before. He bent his head over the table as if he
+were intent upon the food which choked him when he tried to eat, and
+which he loathed the very sight of--and did not say a word. They had
+certainly not been very light-hearted before, but the sight of the boy
+thus obscured and changed made all the misery more evident. There was
+always a possibility of over-riding the storm so long as all was well
+with Pippo: but his changed countenance veiled the very sun in the
+skies.
+
+"You don't seem surprised to see me here," his grandmother said.
+
+"Oh!--no, I am not surprised. I wonder you did not come sooner. Have you
+been travelling all night?" he said.
+
+"Just as you did, Pippo. I drove into Penrith last night and caught the
+mail train. I was seized with a panic about you, and felt that I must
+see for myself."
+
+"It is not the first time you have taken a panic about us, mother," said
+Elinor, forcing a smile.
+
+"No; but it is almost the first time I have acted upon it," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun, with that faint instinct of self-defence; "but I think you
+must have needed me more than usual to keep you in order. You must have
+been going out too much, keeping late hours. You are pale enough,
+Elinor, but Pippo--Pippo has suffered still more."
+
+"I tell you," said Philip, raising his shoulders and stooping his head
+over the table, "granny, that there is nothing the matter with me."
+
+And he took no part in the conversation as they went on talking, of any
+subjects but those that were most near their hearts. They had, indeed,
+no thoughts at all to spare but those that were occupied with the
+situation, and with this new feature in it, Pippo's worn and troubled
+looks, yet had to talk of something, of nothing, while the meal went on,
+which was no meal at all for any of them. When it was over at last Pippo
+rose abruptly from the table.
+
+"Are you going out?" Elinor said, alarmed, rising too. "Have you any
+engagement with the Marshalls for to-day?"
+
+"I don't know," Philip said; "Mr. Marshall was ill yesterday. I didn't
+see them. I'm not going out. I am going to my room."
+
+"You've got a headache, Pippo!"
+
+"Nothing of the kind! I tell you there is nothing the matter with me.
+I'm only going to my room."
+
+Elinor put her hands on his arm. "Pippo, I have something to say to you
+before you go out. Will you promise to let me know before you go out? I
+don't want to keep you back from anything, but I have something that I
+must say."
+
+He did not ask with his usual interest what it was. He showed no
+curiosity; on the contrary, he drew his arm out of her hold almost
+rudely. "Of course," he said, "I will come in here before I go out. I
+have no intention of going out now."
+
+And thus he left them, and went with a heavy step, oh, how different
+from Pippo's flying foot: so that they could count every step,
+up-stairs.
+
+"What is the matter, what is the matter, Elinor?"
+
+"I know nothing," she said; "nothing! He was like himself yesterday
+morning, full of life. Unless he is ill, I cannot understand it. But,
+mother, I have to tell him--everything to-day."
+
+"God grant it may not be too late, Elinor!" Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"Too late? How can it be too late? Yes; perhaps you are right, John and
+you. He ought to have known from the beginning; he ought to have been
+told when he was a child. I acknowledge that I was wrong; but it is no
+use," she said, wiping away some fiery tears, "to go back upon that
+now."
+
+"John could not have told him anything?" Mrs. Dennistoun said,
+doubtfully.
+
+"John! my best friend, who has always stood by me. Oh, never, never. How
+little you know him, mother! He has been imploring me every day, almost
+upon his knees, to tell Pippo everything; and I promised to do it as
+soon as the time was come. And then last night I was so glad to think
+that he was engaged with John, and I so worn out, not fit for anything.
+And then this morning----"
+
+"Then--this morning I arrived, just when I would have been better away!"
+
+"Don't say that, mother. It is always, always well you should be with
+your children. And, oh, if I had but taken your advice years and years
+ago!"
+
+How easy it is to wish this when fate overtakes us, when the thing so
+long postponed, so long pushed away from us, has to be done at last!
+There is, I fear, no repentance in it, only the intolerable sense that
+the painful act might have been over long ago, and the soul free now of
+a burden which is so terrible to bear.
+
+Philip did not leave his room all the morning. His mother, overwhelmed
+now by the new anxiety about his health, which had no part in her
+thoughts before, went to his door and knocked several times, always with
+the intention of going in, of insisting upon the removal of all
+barriers, and of telling her story, the story which now was as fire in
+her veins and had to be told. But he had locked his door, and only
+answered from within that he was reading--getting up something that he
+had forgotten--and begged her to leave him undisturbed till lunch. Poor
+Elinor! Her story was, as I have said, like fire in her veins; but
+when the moment came, and a little more delay, an hour, a morning was
+possible, she accepted it like a boon from heaven, though she knew very
+well all the same that it was but prolonging the agony, and that to get
+it accomplished--to get it over--was the only thing to desire. She
+tried to arrange her thoughts, to think how she was to tell it, in the
+hurrying yet flying minutes when she sat alone, listening now and then
+to Philip's movements over her head, for he was not still as a boy
+should be who was reading, but moved about his room, with a nervous
+restlessness that seemed almost equal to her own. Mrs. Dennistoun, to
+leave her daughter free for the conversation that ought to take place
+between Elinor and her son, had gone to lie down, and lay in Elinor's
+room, next door to the boy, listening to every sound, and hoping, hoping
+that they would get it over before she went down-stairs again. She did
+not believe that Philip would stand out against his mother, whom he
+loved. Oh, if they could but get it over, that explanation--if the boy
+but knew! But it was apparent enough, when she came down to luncheon,
+where Elinor awaited her, pale and anxious, and where Philip followed,
+so unlike himself, that no explanation had yet taken place between them.
+And the luncheon was as miserable a pretence at a meal as the breakfast
+had been--worse as a repetition, yet better in so far that poor Pippo,
+with his boyish wholesome appetite, was by this time too hungry to be
+restrained even by the unusual burden of his unhappiness, and ate
+heartily, although he was bitterly ashamed of so doing: which perhaps
+made him a little better, and certainly did a great deal of good to the
+ladies, who thus were convinced that whatever the matter might be, he
+was not ill at least. He was about to return up-stairs after luncheon
+was over, but Elinor caught him by the arm: "You are not going to your
+room again, Pippo?"
+
+"I--have not finished my reading," he said.
+
+"I have a claim before your reading. I have a great deal to say to you,
+and I cannot put it off any longer. It must be said----"
+
+"As you please, mother," he replied, with an air of endurance. And he
+opened the door for her and followed her up to the drawing-room, the
+three generations going one before the other, the anxious grandmother
+first, full of sympathy for both; the mother trembling in every limb,
+feeling the great crisis of her life before her; the boy with his heart
+seared, half bitter, half contemptuous of the explanation which he had
+forestalled, which came too late. Mrs. Dennistoun turned and kissed
+first one and then the other with quivering lips. "Oh, Pippo, be kind
+to your mother; she never will have such need of your kindness again in
+all your life." The boy could almost have struck her for this advice.
+It raised a kind of savage passion in him to be told to be kind to his
+mother--kind to her, when he had held her above all beings on the earth,
+and prided himself all his life upon his devotion to her! What Mrs.
+Dennistoun said to Elinor I cannot tell, but she clasped her hands and
+gave her an imploring look, which was almost as bitterly taken as her
+appeal to Philip. It besought her to tell everything, to hide nothing;
+and what was Elinor's meaning but to tell everything, to lay bare her
+heart?
+
+But once more at this moment an interruption--the most wonderful and
+unthought-of of all interruptions--came. I suppose it must have been
+announced by the usual summons at the street-door, and that in their
+agitation they had not heard it. But all that I know is, that when Mrs.
+Dennistoun turned to leave the mother and son to their conversation,
+which was so full of fate, the door of the drawing-room opened almost
+upon her as she was about to go out, and with a little demonstration and
+pride, as of a name which it was a distinction even to be permitted
+to say, of a visitor whose arrival could not be but an honour and
+delightful surprise, the husband of the landlady--the man of the house,
+once a butler of the highest pretensions, now only condescending to
+serve his lodgers when the occasion was dignified--swept into the room,
+noiseless and solemn, holding open the door, and announced "Lord St.
+Serf." Mrs. Dennistoun fell back as if she had met a ghost; and Elinor,
+too, drew back a step, becoming as pale as if she had been the ghost her
+mother saw. The gasp of the long breath they both drew made a sound in
+the room where the very air seemed to tingle; and young Philip, raising
+his head, saw, coming in, the man whom he had seen in court--the man who
+had gazed at him in the theatre, the man of the opera-glass. But was
+this then not the Philip Compton for whom Elinor Dennistoun had stood
+forth, and borne witness before all the world?
+
+He came in and stood without a word, waiting for a moment till the
+servant was gone and the door closed; and then he advanced with a step,
+the very assurance and quickness of which showed his hesitation and
+uncertainty. He did not hold out his hands--much less his arms--to her.
+"Nell?" he said, as if he had been asking a question, "Nell?"
+
+She seemed to open her lips to speak, but brought forth no sound; and
+then Mrs. Dennistoun came in with the grave voice of every day, "Will
+you sit down?"
+
+He looked round at her, perceiving her for the first time. "Ah," he
+said, "mamma! how good that you are here. It is a little droll though,
+don't you think, when a man comes into the bosom of his family after
+an absence of eighteen years, that the only thing that is said to him
+should be, 'Will you sit down?' Better that, however, a great deal, than
+'Will you go away?'"
+
+He sat down as she invited him, with a short laugh. He was perfectly
+composed in manner. Looking round him with curious eyes, "Was this one
+of the places," he said, "Nell, that we stayed in in the old times?"
+
+She answered "No" under her breath, her paleness suddenly giving way
+to a hot flush of feverish agitation. And then she took refuge in a
+vacant chair, unable to support herself, and he sat too, and the party
+looked--but for that agitation in Elinor's face, which she could not
+master--as if the ladies were receiving and he paying a morning call.
+The other two, however, did not sit down. Young Philip, confused and
+excited, went away to the second room, the little back drawing-room of
+the little London house, which can never be made to look anything but
+an anteroom--never a habitable place--and went to the window, and stood
+there as if he were looking out, though the window was of coloured
+glass, and there was nothing to be seen. Mrs. Dennistoun stood with her
+hand upon the back of a chair, her heart beating too, and yet the most
+collected of them all, waiting, with her eyes on Elinor, for a sign to
+know her will, whether she should go or stay. It was the visitor who was
+the first to speak.
+
+"Let me beg you," he said, with a little impatience in his voice, "to
+sit down too. It is evident that Nell's reception of me is not likely to
+be so warm as to make it unpleasant for a third party. There was a
+fourth party in the room a minute ago, if my eyes did not deceive me.
+Ah!"--his glance went rapidly to where Philip's tall boyish figure, with
+his back turned, was visible against the further window--"that's all
+right," he said, "now I presume everybody's here."
+
+"Had we expected your visit," said Mrs. Dennistoun, faltering, after a
+moment, as Elinor did not speak, "we should have been--better prepared
+to receive you, Mr. Compton."
+
+"That's not spoken with your usual cleverness," he said, with a laugh.
+"You used to be a great deal too clever for me, you and Nell too. But if
+she did not expect to see me, I don't know what she thought I was made
+of--everything that is bad, I suppose: and yet you know I could have
+worried your life out of you if I had liked, Nell."
+
+She turned to him for the first time, and, putting her hands together,
+said almost inaudibly, "I know--I know. I have thought of that, and I am
+not ungrateful."
+
+"Grateful! Well, perhaps you have not much call for that, poor little
+woman. I don't doubt I behaved like a brute, and you were quite right in
+doing what you did; but you've taken it out of me since, Nell, all the
+same."
+
+Then there was again a silence, broken only by the labouring, which she
+could not quite conceal, of her breath.
+
+"You wouldn't believe me," he resumed after a moment, "if I were to set
+up a sentimental pose, like a sort of a disconsolate widower, eh, would
+you? Of course it was a position that was not without its advantages. I
+was not much made for a family man, and both in the way of expense and
+in--other ways, it suited me well enough. Nobody could expect me to
+marry them or their daughters, don't you see, when they knew I had a
+wife alive? So I was allowed my little amusements. You never went in for
+that kind of thing, Nell? Don't snap me up. You know I told you I never
+was against a little flirtation. It makes a woman more tolerant, in my
+opinion, just to know how to amuse herself a little. But Nell was never
+one of that kind----"
+
+"I hope not, indeed," said Mrs. Dennistoun, to whom he had turned, with
+indignation.
+
+"I don't see where the emphasis comes in. She was one that a man could
+be as sure of as of Westminster Abbey. The heart of her husband rests
+upon her--isn't that what the fellow in the Bible says, or words to that
+effect? Nell was always a kind of a Bible to me. And you may say that
+in that case to think of her amusing herself! But you will allow she
+always did take everything too much _au grand serieux_. No? to be sure,
+you'll allow nothing. But still that was the truth. However, I'll allow
+something if you won't. I'm past my first youth. Oh, you, not a bit of
+it! You're just as fresh and as pretty, by George! as ever you were.
+When I saw you stand up in that court yesterday looking as if--not a
+week had passed since I saw you last, by Jove! Nell---- And how you were
+hating it, poor old girl, and had come out straining your poor little
+conscience, and saying what you didn't want to say--for the sake of a
+worthless fellow like me----"
+
+A sob came out of Elinor's breast, and something half inaudible besides,
+like a name.
+
+"I can tell you this," he said, turning to Mrs. Dennistoun again, "I
+couldn't look at her. I'm an unlikely brute for that sort of thing, but
+if I had looked at her I should have cried. I daresay you don't believe
+me. Never mind, but it's true."
+
+"I do believe you," said the mother, very low.
+
+"Thank you," he said, with a laugh. "I have always said for a
+mother-in-law you were the least difficult to get on with I ever saw. Do
+you remember giving me that money to make ducks and drakes of? It was
+awfully silly of you. You didn't deserve to be trusted with money to
+throw it away like that, but still I have not forgotten it. Well! I came
+to thank you for yesterday, Nell. And there are things, you know, that
+we must talk over. You never gave up your name. That was like your
+pluck. But you will have to change it now. It was indecent of me to have
+myself announced like that and poor old St. Serf not in his grave yet.
+But I daresay you didn't pay any attention. You are Lady St. Serf
+now, my dear. You don't mind, I know, but it's a change not without
+importance. Well, who is that fellow behind there, standing in the
+window? I think you ought to present him to me. Or I'll present him to
+you instead. I saw him in the theatre, by Jove! with that fellow Tatham,
+that cousin John of yours that I never could bear, smirking and smiling
+at him as if it were _his_ son! but _I_ saw the boy then for the first
+time. Nell, I tell you there are some things in which you have taken it
+well out of me----"
+
+"Mr. Compton," she said, labouring to speak. "Lord St. Serf. Oh, Phil,
+Phil!----"
+
+"Ah," he said, with a start, "do you remember at last? the garden at
+that poky old cottage with all the flowers, and the days when you looked
+out for wild Phil Compton that all the world warned you against? And
+here I am an old fogey, without either wife or child, and Tatham taking
+my boy about and Nell never looking me in the face."
+
+Philip, at the window looking out at nothing through the
+hideous-coloured glass, had heard every word, with wonder, with horror,
+with consternation, with dreadful disappointment and sinking of the
+heart. For indeed he had a high ideal of a father, the highest, such as
+fatherless boys form in their ignorance. And every word made it more
+sure that this was his father, this man who had so caught his eyes and
+filled him with such a fever of interest. But to hear Phil Compton talk
+had brought the boy's soaring imagination down, down to the dust. He had
+not been prepared for anything like this. Some tragic rending asunder he
+could have believed in, some wild and strange mystery. But this man of
+careless speech, of chaff and slang, so little noble, so little serious,
+so far from tragic! The disappointment had been too sudden and dreadful
+to leave him with any ears for those tones that went to his mother's
+heart. He had no pity or sense of the pathos that was in them. He stood
+in his young absolutism disgusted, miserable. This man his father!--this
+man! so talking, so thinking. Young Philip stood with his back to the
+group, more miserable than words could say. He heard some movement
+behind, but he was too sick of heart to think what it was, until suddenly
+he felt a hand on his shoulder, and most unwillingly suffered himself to
+be turned round to meet his father's eyes. He gave one glance up at the
+face, which he did not now feel was worn with study and care--which
+now that he saw it near was full of lines and wrinkles which meant
+something else, and which even the emotion in it, emotion of a kind
+which Pippo did not understand, hidden by a laugh, did not make more
+prepossessing--and then he stood with his eyes cast down, not caring to
+see it again.
+
+The elder Philip Compton had, I think, though he was, as he said, an
+unlikely subject for that mood, tears in his eyes--and he had no
+inclination to see anything that was painful in the face of his son,
+whose look he had never read, whose voice he had never heard, till now.
+He held the boy with his hands on his shoulders, with a grasp more full
+perhaps of the tender strain of love (though he did not know him) than
+ever he had laid upon any human form before. The boy's looks were not
+only satisfactory to him, but filled his own heart with an unaccustomed
+spring of pride and delight--his stature, his complexion, his features,
+making up as it were the most wonderful compliment, the utmost sweetness
+of flattery that he had ever known. For the boy was himself over again,
+not like his mother, like the unworthy father whom he had never seen.
+It took him some time to master the sudden rush of this emotion which
+almost overwhelmed him: and then he drew the boy's arm through his own
+and led him back to where the two ladies sat, Elinor still too much
+agitated for speech. "I said I'd present my son to you, Nell--if you
+wouldn't present him to me," he said, with a break in his voice which
+sounded like a chuckle to that son's angry ears. "I don't know what you
+call the fellow--but he's big enough to have a name of his own, and he's
+Lomond from this day."
+
+Pippo did not know what was meant by those words: but he drew his arm
+from his father's and went and stood behind Elinor's chair, forgetting
+in a moment all grievances against her, taking her side with an energy
+impossible to put into words, clinging to his mother as he had done when
+he was a little child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+
+It was while this conversation was going on that John Tatham, anxious
+and troubled about many things, knocked at the door in Ebury Street.
+He was anxious to know how the explanations had got accomplished, how
+the boy took it, how Elinor had borne the strain upon her of such a
+revelation. Well as he knew Elinor, he still thought, as is generally
+thought in circumstances so painful, that a great crisis, a great mental
+effort, would make her ill. He wanted to know how she was, he wanted to
+know how Pippo had borne it, what the boy thought. It had glanced across
+him that young Philip might be excited by so wonderful a new thing,
+and form some false impression of his father (whom doubtless she would
+represent under the best light, taking blame upon herself, not to
+destroy the boy's ideal), and be eager to know him--which was a thing,
+John felt, which would be very difficult to bear.
+
+The door was opened to him not by good Mrs. Jones, the kind landlady,
+but by the magnificent Jones himself, who rarely appeared. John said
+"Mrs. Compton?" as a matter of course, and was about to pass in, in his
+usual familiar way. But something in the man's air made him pause. He
+looked at Jones again, who was bursting with importance. "Perhaps she's
+engaged?" he said.
+
+"I think, sir," said John, "that her ladyship is engaged--his lordship
+is with her ladyship up-stairs."
+
+"His--what?" John Tatham cried.
+
+"His lordship, Mr. Tatham. I know, sir, as the title is not usually
+assumed till after the funeral; but in the very 'ouse where her ladyship
+is residing for the moment, there's allowances to be made. Naturally
+we're a little excited over it, being, if I may make so bold as to say
+so, a sort of 'umble friends, and long patronized by her ladyship, and
+young Lord Lomond too."
+
+"Young Lord Lomond too!" John Tatham stood for a moment and stared at
+Mr. Jones; and then he laughed out, and turned his back and walked away.
+
+Young Lord Lomond too! The boy! who had been more like John's boy than
+anything else, but now tricked out in a new name, a new position, his
+father's heir. Oh, yes, it was John himself who had insisted on that
+only a few days ago! "The heir to a peerage can't be hid." It was he
+that had quoted this as an aphorism worthy of a social sage. But when
+the moment came and the boy was taken from him, and introduced into
+that other sphere, by the side of that man who had once been the
+_dis_-Honourable Phil! Good heavens, what changes life is capable
+of! What wrongs, what cruelties, what cuttings-off, what twists and
+alterations of every sane thought and thing! John Tatham was a sensible
+man as well as an eminent lawyer, and knew that between Elinor's son,
+who was Phil Compton's son, and himself, there was no external link at
+all--nothing but affection and habit, and the ever-strengthening link
+that had been twisted closer and closer with the progress of these
+years; but nothing real, the merest shadow of relationship, a cousin,
+who could count how often removed? And it was he who had insisted,
+forced upon Elinor the necessity of making his father known to Philip,
+of informing him of his real position. Nobody had interfered in this
+respect but John. He had made himself a weariness to her by insisting,
+never giving over, blaming her hourly for her delay. And yet now, when
+the thing he had so worked for, so constantly urged, was done----!
+
+He smiled grimly to himself as he walked away: they were all together,
+the lordship and the ladyship, young Lord Lomond too!--and Phil Compton,
+whitewashed, a peer of the realm, and still, the scoundrel! a handsome
+fellow enough: with an air about him, a man who might still dazzle a
+youngster unaccustomed to the world. He had re-entered the bosom of his
+family, and doubtless was weeping upon Philip's neck, and bandying about
+that name of "Nell" which had always seemed to John an insult--an insult
+to himself. And in that moment of bitterness John did not know how she
+would take it, what effect it would produce upon her. Perhaps the very
+sight of the fellow who had once won her heart, the lover of her youth,
+with whom John had never for a moment put himself in competition,
+notwithstanding the bitter wonder in his heart that Elinor--Elinor of
+all people!--could ever have loved such a man. Yet she had loved him,
+and the sight of him again after so many years, what effect might it
+not produce? As he walked away, it was the idea of a happy family that
+came into John Tatham's mind--mutual forgiveness, mutual return to
+the old traditions which are the most endearing of all; expansions,
+confessions, recollections, and lives of reunion. Something more than
+a prodigal's return, the return of a sinner bringing a coronet in his
+hand, bringing distinction, a place and position enough to dazzle any
+boy, enough to make a woman forgive. And was not this what John wished
+above all things, every advancement for the boy, and an assured place in
+the world, as well as every happiness that might be possible--happiness!
+yet it was possible she might think it so--for Elinor? Yes, this was
+what he had wished for, been ready to make any sacrifice to secure.
+In the sudden shock Mr. Tatham thought of the only other person who
+perhaps--yet only perhaps--might feel a little as he did--the mother,
+Mrs. Dennistoun, upon whom he thought all this would come like a
+thunder-clap, not knowing that she was up-stairs in the family party,
+among the lordships and the ladyship too.
+
+He went home and into his handsome library, and shut the door upon
+himself, to have it out there--or rather to occupy himself in some more
+sensible way and shut this foolish subject out of his mind. It occurred
+to him, however, when he sat down that the best thing to do would be
+to write an account of it all to Mrs. Dennistoun, who doubtless in the
+excitement would have a long time to wait for news of this great change.
+He drew his blotting-book towards him with this object, and opened it,
+and dipped his pen in the ink, and wrote "My dear Aunt;" but he did not
+get much further. He raised his head, thinking how to introduce his
+narrative, for which she would in all likelihood be wholly unprepared,
+and in so doing looked round upon his book-cases, on one shelf of which
+the reflection of a ray of afternoon sunshine caught in the old Louis
+Treize mirror over the mantelpiece was throwing a shaft of light. He got
+up to make sure that it was only a reflection, nothing that would harm
+the binding of a particular volume upon which he set great store--though
+of course he knew very well that it could only be a reflection, no
+impertinent reality of sunshine being permitted to penetrate there. And
+then he paused a little to draw his hand lovingly over the line of
+choice books--very choice--worth a little fortune, which he laughed at
+himself a little for being proud of, fully knowing that what was inside
+them (which generally is the cream of a book, as of a letter, according
+to Tony Lumpkin) was in many cases worth nothing at all. And then John
+went and stood upon the hearth-rug, and looked round him upon this the
+heart of his domain. It was a noble library, any man might have been
+proud of it. He asked himself whether it did not suit him better, with
+all the comforts and luxuries beyond it, than if he had been like other
+men, with an entirely different centre of life up-stairs in the empty
+drawing-room, and the burden upon him of setting out children, boys and
+girls, upon the world.
+
+When a man asks himself this question, however complacent may be the
+reply, it betrays perhaps a doubt whether the assurance he has is so
+very sure after all; and he returned to his letter to Mrs. Dennistoun,
+which would be quite easy to write if it were only once well begun. But
+he had not written above a few words, having spent some time in his
+previous reflections, when he paused again at the sound of a tumultuous
+summons at the street-door. As may be well supposed, his servant took
+more time than usual to answer it, resenting a noise so out of character
+with the house, during which John listened half-angrily, fearing, yet
+wishing for, a diversion. And then his own door burst open, not, I need
+not say, by any intervention of legitimate hands, but by the sudden rush
+of Philip, who seemed to come in in a whirl of long limbs and eager eyes,
+flinging himself into a chair and fixing his gaze across the corner of
+the table upon his astonished yet expectant friend. "Oh, Uncle John!"
+the boy cried, and had not breath to say any more.
+
+John put forth his hand across the table, and grasped the young flexible
+warm hand that wanted something to hold. "Well, my boy," he said.
+
+"I suppose you know," said Philip. "I have nothing to tell you, though
+it is all so strange to me."
+
+"I know--nothing about what interests me most at present--yourself,
+Pippo, and what has happened to you."
+
+John had always made a great stand against that particular name, but
+several times had used it of late, not knowing why.
+
+"I don't know what you thought of me last night," said the boy, "I was
+so miserable. May I tell you everything, Uncle John?"
+
+What balm that question was! He clasped Pippo's hand in his own, but
+scarcely could answer to bid him go on.
+
+"It was unnecessary, all she wanted to tell me. I fought it off all the
+morning. I was there yesterday in the court and heard it all."
+
+"In the court! At the trial?"
+
+"I had no meaning in it," said Philip. "I went by chance, as people say,
+because the Marshalls had not turned up. I got Simmons to get me into
+the court. I had always wanted to see a trial. And there I saw my mother
+stand up--my mother, that I never could bear the wind to blow on,
+standing up there alone with all these people staring at her to be
+tried--for her life."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Philip," said John Tatham, dropping his hand; "tried!
+she was only a witness. And she was not alone. I was there to take care
+of her."
+
+"I saw you--but what was that? She was alone all the same; and for me,
+it was she who was on her trial. What did I know about any other? I
+heard it, every word."
+
+"Poor boy!"
+
+"So what was the use of making herself miserable to tell me? She tried
+to all this morning, and I fought it off. I was miserable enough. Why
+should I be made more miserable to hear her perhaps excusing herself to
+me? But at last she had driven me into a corner, angry as I was--Uncle
+John, I was angry, furious, with my mother--fancy! with my mother."
+
+John did not say anything, but he nodded his head in assent. How well he
+understood it all!
+
+"And just then, at that moment, he came. I am angry with her no more.
+I know whatever happened she was right. Angry with her, my poor dear,
+dearest mother! Whatever happened she was right. It was best that she
+should not tell me. I am on her side all through--all through! Do you
+hear me, Uncle John! I have seen you look as if you blamed her. Don't
+again while I am there. Whatever she has done it has been the right
+thing all through!"
+
+"Pippo," said John, with a little quivering about the mouth, "give me
+your hand again, old fellow, you're my own boy."
+
+"Nobody shall so much as look as if they blamed her," cried the boy,
+"while I am alive!"
+
+Oh, how near he was to crying, and how resolute not to break down,
+though something got into his throat and almost choked him, and his eyes
+were so full that it was a miracle they did not brim over. Excitement,
+distress, pain, the first touch of human misery he had ever known almost
+overmastered Philip. He got up and walked about the room, and talked and
+talked. He who had never concealed anything, who had never had anything
+to conceal. And for four-and-twenty hours he had been silent with a
+great secret upon his soul. John was too wise to check the outpouring.
+He listened to everything, assented, soothed, imperceptibly led him to
+gentler thoughts.
+
+"And what does he mean," cried the boy at last, "with his new name? I
+shall have no name but my own, the one my mother gave me. I am Philip
+Compton, and nothing else. What right has he, the first time he ever saw
+me, to put upon me another name?"
+
+"What name?"
+
+"He called me Lomond--or something like that," said young Philip: and
+then there came a sort of stillness over his excitement, a lull in the
+storm. Some vague idea what it meant came all at once into the boy's
+mind: and a thrill of curiosity, of another kind of excitement, of
+rising thoughts which he did not hardly understand, struggled up through
+the other zone of passion. He was half ashamed, having just poured forth
+all his feelings, to show that there was something else, something
+that was no longer indignation, nor anger, nor the shock of discovery,
+something that had a tremor perhaps of pleasure in it, behind. But John
+was far too experienced a man not to read the boy through and through.
+He liked him better in the first phase, but this was natural too.
+
+"It happens very strangely," he said, "that all these things should
+come upon you at once: but it is well you should know now all about it.
+Lomond is the second title of the Comptons, Earls of St. Serf. Haven't I
+heard you ask what Comptons you belonged to, Philip? It has all happened
+within a day or two. Your father was only Philip Compton yesterday at
+the trial, and a poor man. Now he is Lord St. Serf, if not rich, at
+least no longer poor. Everything has changed for you--your position,
+your importance in the world. The last Lord Lomond bore the name
+creditably enough. I hope you will make it shine." He took the boy by
+the hand and grasped it heartily again. "I am thankful for it," said
+John. "I would rather you were Lord Lomond than----"
+
+"What! Uncle John?"
+
+"Steady, boy. I was going to say Philip Compton's son; but Lord St. Serf
+is another man."
+
+There was a long pause in the room where John Tatham's life was centred
+among his books. He had so much to do with all this business, and yet so
+little. It would pass away with all its tumults, and he after being
+absorbed by it for a moment would be left alone to his own thoughts and
+his own unbroken line of existence. So much the better! It is not good
+for any man to be swept up and put down again at the will of others in
+matters in which he has no share. As for Philip, he was silent chiefly
+to realise this great thing that had come upon him. He, Lord Lomond,
+a peer's son, who was only Pippo of Lakeside like any other lad in
+the parish, and not half so important at school as Musgrave, who did not
+get that scholarship. What the school would say! the tempest that would
+arise! They would ask a holiday, and the head master would grant it.
+Compton a lord! Philip could hear the roar and rustle among the boys,
+the scornful incredulity, the asseverations of those who knew it was
+true. And a flush that was pleasure had come over his musing face. It
+would have been strange if in the wonder of it there had not been some
+pleasure too.
+
+He had begun to tolerate his father before many days were over, to
+cease to be indignant and angry that he was not the ideal father of his
+dreams. That was not Lord St. Serf's fault, who was not at all aware
+of his son's dreams, and had never had an ideal in his life. But John
+Tatham was right in saying that Lord St. Serf was another man. The shock
+of a new responsibility, of a position to occupy and duties to fulfil,
+were things that might not have much moved the dis-Honourable Phil two
+years before. But he was fifty, and beginning to feel himself an old
+fogey, as he confessed. And his son overawed Lord St. Serf. His son, who
+was so like him, yet had the mother's quick, impetuous eyes, so rapid to
+see through everything, so disdainful of folly, so keen in perception.
+He was afraid to bring upon himself one of those lightning flashes from
+the eyes of his boy, and doubly afraid to introduce his son anywhere, to
+show him anything that might bring upon him the reproach of doing harm
+to Pippo. His house, which had been very decent and orderly in the late
+Lord St. Serf's time, became almost prim in the terror Phil had lest
+they should say that it was bad for the boy.
+
+As for Lady St. Serf, it was popularly reported that the reason why she
+almost invariably lived in the country was her health, which kept her
+out of society--a report, I need not say, absolutely rejected by society
+itself, which knew all the circumstances better than you or I do: but
+which sufficed for the outsiders who knew nothing. When Elinor did
+appear upon great occasions, which she consented to do, her matured
+beauty gave the fullest contradiction to the pretext on which she
+continued to live her own life. But old Lord St. Serf, who got old
+so long before he need to have done, with perhaps the same sort of
+constitutional weakness which had carried off all his brothers before
+their time, or perhaps because he had too much abused a constitution
+which was not weak--grew more and more fond in his latter days of the
+country too, and kept appearing at Lakeside so often that at last the
+ladies removed much nearer town, to the country-house of the St. Serfs,
+which had not been occupied for ages, where they presented at last
+the appearance of a united family; and where "Lomond" (who would have
+thought it very strange now to be addressed by any other name) brought
+his friends, and was not ill-pleased to hear his father discourse, in a
+way which sometimes still offended the home-bred Pippo, but which the
+other young men found very amusing. It was not in the way of morals,
+however, that Lord St. Serf ever offended. The fear of Elinor kept him
+as blameless as any good-natured preacher of the endless theme, that
+all is vanity, could do.
+
+These family arrangements, however, and the modified happiness obtained
+by their means, were still all in the future, when John Tatham, a little
+afraid of the encounter, yet anxious to have it over, went to Ebury Street
+the day after these occurrences, to see Elinor for the first time under
+her new character as Lady St. Serf. He found her in a languor and
+exhaustion much unlike Elinor, doing nothing, not even a book near,
+lying back in her chair, fallen upon herself, as the French say. Some of
+those words that mean nothing passed between them, and then she said,
+"John, did Pippo tell you that he had been there?"
+
+He nodded his head, finding nothing to say.
+
+"Without any warning, to see his mother stand up before all the world to
+be tried--for her life."
+
+"Elinor," said John, "you are as fantastic as the boy."
+
+"I was--being tried for my life--before him as the judge. And he has
+acquitted me; but, oh, I wonder, I wonder if he would have done so had
+he known all that I know?"
+
+"I do so," said John, "perhaps a little more used to the laws of
+evidence than Pippo."
+
+"Ah, you!" she said, giving him her hand, with a look which John did
+not know how to take, whether as the fullest expression of trust, or an
+affectionate disdain of the man in whose partial judgment no justice
+was. And then she asked a question which threw perhaps the greatest
+perplexity he had ever known into John Tatham's life. "When you tell a
+fact--that is true: with the intention to deceive: John, you that know
+the laws of evidence, is that a lie?"
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+ BY THE SAME AUTHOR IN UNIFORM STYLE
+
+ MARRIAGE OF ELINOR
+ WHITELADIES
+ THE MAKERS OF VENICE
+
+ CHICAGO
+ W. B. CONKEY COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+ We are the Sole Publishers of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's Books
+
+
+ The Poetical and Prose Works of
+
+ _ELLA WHEELER WILCOX_
+
+ Mrs. Wilcox's writings have been the inspiration of many young men and
+ women. Her hopeful, practical, masterful views of life give the reader
+ new courage in the very reading and are a wholesome spur to flagging
+ effort. Words of truth so vital that they live in the reader's memory
+ and cause him to think--to his own betterment and the lasting improvement
+ of his own work in the world, in whatever line it lies--flow from this
+ talented woman's pen.
+
+
+ MAURINE
+
+ Is a love story told in exquisite verse. "An ideal poem about as true
+ and lovable a woman as ever poet created." It has repeatedly been
+ compared with Owen Meredith's _Lucile_. In point of human interest it
+ excels that noted story.
+
+ "Maurine" is issued in an _edition de luxe_, where the more important
+ incidents of the story are portrayed by means of photographic studies
+ from life.
+
+ Presentation Edition, 12mo, olive green cloth                $1.00
+ De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top                       1.50
+ New Illustrated Edition, extra cloth, gold top                1.50
+ De Luxe New Illustrated Edition, white vellum, gold top       2.00
+
+
+ POEMS OF POWER.
+
+ New and revised edition. This beautiful volume contains more than _one
+ hundred new poems_, displaying this popular poet's well-known taste,
+ cultivation, and originality. The author says: "The final word in the
+ title of the volume refers to the Divine power in every human being,
+ the recognition of which is the secret of all success and happiness.
+ It is this idea which many of the verses endeavor to inculcate and
+ to illustrate."
+
+ "The lines of Mrs. Wilcox show both sweetness and strength."--_Chicago
+ American_. "Ella Wheeler Wilcox has a strong grip upon the affections of
+ thousands all over the world. Her productions are read to-day just as
+ eagerly as they were when her fame was new, no other divinity having yet
+ risen to take her place."--_Chicago Record-Herald._
+
+
+ Presentation Edition, 12mo, dark blue cloth                  $1.00
+ De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top                       1.50
+
+
+ THREE WOMEN. A STORY IN VERSE.
+
+ "THREE WOMEN is the best thing I have ever done."--_Ella Wheeler
+ Wilcox._
+
+ This marvelous dramatic poem will compel instant praise because it
+ touches every note in the scale of human emotion. It is intensely
+ interesting, and will be read with sincere relish and admiration.
+
+ Presentation Edition, 12mo, light red cloth                  $1.00
+ De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top                       1.50
+
+
+ AN ERRING WOMAN'S LOVE.
+
+ There is always a fascination in Mrs. Wilcox's verse, but in these
+ beautiful examples of her genius she shows a wonderful knowledge of the
+ human heart.
+
+ "Ella Wheeler Wilcox has impressed many thousands of people with the
+ extreme beauty of her philosophy and the exceeding usefulness of her
+ point of view."--_Boston Globe._
+
+ "Mrs. Wilcox stands at the head of feminine writers, and her verses and
+ essays are more widely copied and read than those of any other American
+ literary woman."--_New York World._ "Power and pathos characterize this
+ magnificent poem. A deep understanding of life and an intense sympathy
+ are beautifully expressed."--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+ Presentation Edition, 12mo, light brown cloth                $1.00
+ De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top                       1.50
+
+
+ MEN, WOMEN AND EMOTIONS.
+
+ A skilful analysis of social habits, customs, and follies. A
+ common-sense view of life from its varied standpoints, ... full of
+ sage advice.
+
+ "These essays tend to meet difficulties that arise in almost every
+ life.... Full of sound and helpful admonition, and is sure to assist
+ in smoothing the rough ways of life wherever it be read and
+ heeded."--_Pittsburg Times._
+
+ 12mo, heavy enameled paper                                   $0.50
+ Presentation Edition, dark brown cloth                        1.00
+
+
+ THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF NOD.
+
+ A collection of poems, songs, stories, and allegories dealing with child
+ life. The work is profusely illustrated with dainty line engravings and
+ photographs from life.
+
+ "The delight of the nursery; the foremost baby's book in the
+ world."--_N. O. Picayune._
+
+ Quarto, sage green cloth                                     $1.00
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+Contemporary spellings have been retained even when inconsistent. A
+small number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected, and
+missing punctuation has been silently added. The list of additional
+works by the author has been moved to the end.
+
+The following additional changes have been made:
+
+I seemed too dear                       _It_ seemed too dear
+
+do a thing that its                     do a thing that _is_
+
+three tittle escapades                  three _little_ escapades
+
+"you gave me a fright,"                 "you gave me a fright,"
+she she said                            _she_ said
+
+waiting, with her eyes                  waiting, with her eyes
+on Elinora, sign                        on Elinor, for a sign
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Marriage of Elinor, by Margaret Oliphant
+
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Marriage of Elinor, by Mrs Oliphant.</title>
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Marriage of Elinor, by Margaret Oliphant
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Marriage of Elinor
+
+Author: Margaret Oliphant
+
+Release Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #28637]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1><i>THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR</i></h1>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><i>BY</i></h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><i>MRS. OLIPHANT</i></h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h5><i>CHICAGO</i></h5>
+<h4><i>W. B. CONKEY COMPANY</i></h4>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h6><span class="smallcaps">Copyright</span>, 1891,<br />
+<br />
+BY</h6>
+
+<h5>UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY</h5>
+
+<h6>[<i>All rights reserved.</i>]</h6>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="narrow" />
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+<div class="center">
+<table class="sm" style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="3" summary="contents">
+
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">CHAPTER XXXIX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XL">CHAPTER XL.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">CHAPTER XLI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">CHAPTER XLII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">CHAPTER XLIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV">CHAPTER XLIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLV">CHAPTER XLV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI">CHAPTER XLVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII">CHAPTER XLVII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII">CHAPTER XLVIII.</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR.</h2>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>John Tatham, barrister-at-law, received one summer
+morning as he sat at breakfast the following letter. It
+was written in what was once known distinctively as a
+lady's hand, in pointed characters, very fine and delicate,
+and was to this effect:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smallcaps">Dear John</span>, Have you heard from Elinor of her
+new prospects and intentions? I suppose she must
+have written to you on the subject. Do you know anything
+of the man?&#8230; You know how hard it is to
+convince her against her will of anything, and also how
+poorly gifted I am with the power of convincing any
+one. And I don't know him, therefore can speak with
+no authority. If you can do anything to clear things
+up, come and do so. I am very anxious and more than
+doubtful; but her heart seems set upon it.</p>
+
+<p class="signature">
+<span class="ind4r">"Your affect.</span><br />
+"M. S. D."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Mr. Tatham was a well-built and vigorous man of
+five-and-thirty, with health, good behaviour, and well-being
+in every line of his cheerful countenance and
+every close curl of his brown hair. His hair was very
+curly, and helped to give him the cheerful look which
+was one of his chief characteristics. Nevertheless,
+when these innocent seeming words, "Do you know
+the man?" which was more certainly demonstrative of
+certain facts than had those facts been stated in the
+fullest detail, met his eye, Mr. Tatham paused and laid
+down the letter with a start. His ruddy colour paled
+for the moment, and he felt something which was like
+the push or poke of a blunt but heavy weapon somewhere
+in the regions of the heart. For the moment he
+felt that he could not read any more. "Do you know
+the man?" He did not even ask what man in the momentary
+sickness of his heart. Then he said to himself,
+almost angrily, "Well!" and took up the letter
+again and read to the end.</p>
+
+<p>Well! of course it was a thing that he knew might
+happen any day, and which he had expected to happen
+for the last four or five years. It was nothing to him
+one way or another. Nothing could be more absurd
+than that a hearty and strong young man in the full
+tide of his life and with a good breakfast before him
+should receive a shock from that innocent little letter
+as if he had been a sentimental woman. But the fact
+is that he pushed his plate away with an exclamation of
+disgust and a feeling that everything was bad and uneatable.
+He drank his tea, though that also became
+suddenly bad too, full of tannin, like tea that has stood
+too long, a thing about which John was very particular.
+He had been half an hour later than usual this
+morning consequent on having been an hour or two
+later than usual last night. These things have their
+reward, and that very speedily; but as for the letter,
+what could that have to do with the bad toasting of the
+bacon and the tannin in the tea? "Do you know the
+man?" There was a sort of covert insult, too, in the
+phraseology, as if no explanation was needed, as if he
+must know by instinct what she meant&mdash;he who knew
+nothing about it, who did not know there was a man at
+all!</p>
+
+<p>After a while he began to smile rather cynically to
+himself. He had got up from the breakfast table,
+where everything was so bad, and had gone to look out
+of one of the windows of his pleasant sitting-room. It
+was in one of the wider ways of the Temple, and looked
+out upon various houses with a pleasant misty light
+upon the redness of their old brickwork, and a stretch
+of green grass and trees, which were scanty in foliage,
+yet suited very well with the bright morning sun,
+which was not particularly warm, but looked as if it
+were a good deal for effect and not so very much for
+use. That thought floated across his mind with others,
+and was of the same cynical complexion. It was very
+well for the sun to shine, making the glistening poplars
+and plane-trees glow, and warming all the mellow redness
+of the old houses, but what did he mean by it?
+No warmth to speak of, only a fictitious gleam&mdash;a thing
+got up for effect. And so was the affectionateness of
+woman&mdash;meaning nothing, only an effect of warmth
+and geniality, nothing beyond that. As a matter of
+fact, he reminded himself after a while that he had
+never wanted anything beyond, neither asked for it, nor
+wished it. He had no desire to change the conditions
+of his life: women never rested till they had done so,
+manufacturing a new event, whatever it might be,
+pleased even when they were not pleased, to have a
+novelty to announce. That, no doubt, was the state of
+mind in which the lady who called herself his aunt was:
+pleased to have something to tell him, to fire off her
+big guns in his face, even though she was not at all
+pleased with the event itself. But John Tatham, on the
+other hand, had desired nothing to happen; things
+were very well as they were. He liked to have a place
+where he could run down from Saturday to Monday
+whenever he pleased, and where his visit was always a
+cheerful event for the womankind. He had liked to
+take them all the news, to carry the picture-papers,
+quite a load; to take down a new book for Elinor; to
+taste doubtfully his aunt's wine, and tell her she had
+better let him choose it for her. It was a very pleasant
+state of affairs: he wanted no change; not, certainly,
+above everything, the intrusion of a stranger whose
+very existence had been unknown to him until he was
+thus asked cynically, almost brutally, "Do you know
+the man?"</p>
+
+<p>The hour came when John had to assume the costume
+of that order of workers whom a persistent popular
+joke nicknames the "Devil's Own:"&mdash;that is, he
+had to put on gown and wig and go off to the courts,
+where he was envied of all the briefless as a man who
+for his age had a great deal to do. He "devilled" for
+Mr. Asstewt, the great Chancery man, which was the
+most excellent beginning: and he was getting into a
+little practice of his own which was not to be sneezed
+at. But he did not find himself in a satisfactory frame
+of mind to-day. He found himself asking the judge,
+"Do you know anything of the man?" when it was his
+special business so to bewilder that potentate with
+elaborate arguments that he should not have time to
+consider whether he had ever heard of the particular
+man before him. Thus it was evident that Mr. Tatham
+was completely <i>hors de son assiette</i>, as the French say;
+upset and "out of it," according to the equally vivid
+imagination of the English manufacturer of slang.
+John Tatham was a very capable young lawyer on
+ordinary occasions, and it was all the more remarkable
+that he should have been so confused in his mind to-day.</p>
+
+<p>When he went back to his chambers in the evening,
+which was not until it was time to dress for dinner, he
+saw a bulky letter lying on his table, but avoided it as
+if it had been an overdue bill. He was engaged to dine
+out, and had not much time: yet all the way, as he
+drove along the streets, just as sunset was over and a
+subduing shade came over the light, and that half-holiday
+look that comes with evening&mdash;he kept thinking of
+the fat letter upon his table. Do you know anything
+of the man? That would no longer be the refrain of
+his correspondent, but some absurd strain of devotion
+and admiration of the man whom John knew nothing
+of, not even his name. He wondered as he went along
+in his hansom, and even between the courses at dinner,
+while he listened with a smile, but without hearing a
+word, to what the lady next him was saying&mdash;what she
+would tell him about this man? That he was everything
+that was delightful, no doubt; handsome, of
+course; probably clever; and that she was fond of him,
+confound the fellow! Elinor! to think that she should
+come to that&mdash;a girl like her&mdash;to tell him, as if she was
+saying that she had caught a cold or received a present,
+that she was in love with a man! Good heavens! when
+one had thought her so much above anything of that
+kind&mdash;a woman, above all women that ever were.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so much as that," John said to himself as he
+walked home. He always preferred to walk home in
+the evening, and he was not going to change his habit
+now out of any curiosity about Elinor's letter. Oh, not
+so much as that! not above all women, or better than
+the rest, perhaps&mdash;but different. He could not quite
+explain to himself how, except that he had always
+known her to be Elinor and not another, which was a
+quite sufficient explanation. And now it appeared that
+she was not different, although she would still profess
+to be Elinor&mdash;a curious puzzle, which his brain in its
+excited state was scarcely able to tackle. His thoughts
+got somewhat confused and broken as he approached
+his chambers. He was so near the letter now&mdash;a few
+minutes and he would no longer need to wonder or
+speculate about it, but would know exactly what she
+said. He turned and stood for a minute or so at the
+Temple gates, looking out upon the busy Strand. It
+was still as lovely as a summer night could be overhead,
+but down here it was&mdash;well, it was London, which is
+another thing. The usual crowd was streaming by,
+coming into bright light as it streamed past a brilliant
+shop window, then in the shade for another moment,
+and emerging again. The faces that were suddenly lit
+up as they passed&mdash;some handsome faces, pale in the
+light; some with heads hung down, either in bad health
+or bad humour; some full of cares and troubles, others
+airy and gay&mdash;caught his attention. Did any of them all
+know anything of this man, he wondered&mdash;knowing how
+absurd a question it was. Had any of them written to-day
+a letter full of explanations, of a matter that could
+not be explained? There were faces with far more
+tragic meaning in them than could be so easily explained
+as that&mdash;the faces of men, alas! and women too,
+who were going to destruction as fast as their hurrying
+feet could carry them; or else were languidly drifting
+no one knew where&mdash;out of life altogether, out of all
+that was good in life. John Tatham knew this very
+well too, and had it in him to do anything a man could
+to stop the wanderers in their downward career. But
+to-night he was thinking of none of these things. He
+was only wondering how she would explain it, how she
+could explain it, what she would say; and lingering to
+prolong his suspense, not to know too soon what it was.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, as there is no delay but must come
+to an end one time or another, he found himself at last
+in his room, in his smoking-coat and slippers, divested
+of his stiff collar&mdash;at his ease, the windows open upon
+the quiet of the Temple Gardens, a little fresh air
+breathing in. He had taken all this trouble to secure
+ease for himself, to put off a little the reading of the
+letter. Now the moment had come when it would be
+absurd to delay any longer. It was so natural to see
+her familiar handwriting&mdash;not a lady's hand, angular
+and pointed, like her mother's, but the handwriting of
+her generation, which looks as if it were full of character,
+until one perceives that it <i>is</i> the writing of the generation,
+and all the girls and boys write much the same.
+He took time for this reflection still as he tore open the
+envelope. There were two sheets very well filled, and
+written in at the corners, so that no available spot was
+lost. "My dear old John," were the first words he
+saw. He put down the letter and thought over the
+address. Well, she had always called him so. He was
+old John when he was fourteen, to little Elinor. They
+had always known each other like that&mdash;like brother
+and sister. But not particularly like brother and sister&mdash;like
+cousins twice removed, which is a more interesting
+tie in some particulars. And now for the letter.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smallcaps">My Dear Old John</span>: I want to tell you myself of a
+great thing that has happened to me&mdash;the very greatest
+thing that could happen in one's life. Oh, John, dear
+old John, I feel as if I had nobody else I could open
+my heart to; for mamma&mdash;well, mamma is mamma, a
+dear mother and a good one; but you know she has
+her own ways of thinking<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>He put down the letter again with a rueful little
+laugh. "And have not I my own ways of thinking,
+too?" he said to himself.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Jack dear," continued the letter, "you must give
+me your sympathy, all your sympathy. You never
+were in love, I suppose (oh, what an odious way that
+is of putting it! but it spares one's feelings a little, for
+even in writing it is too tremendous a thing to say
+quite gravely and seriously, as one feels it). Dear
+John, I know you never were in love, or you would
+have told me; but still<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he said to himself, with the merest suspicion
+of a little quiver in his lip, which might, of course,
+have been a laugh, but, on the other hand, might have
+been something else, "I never was&mdash;or I would have
+told her&mdash;That's the way she looks at it." Then he
+took up the letter again.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;I see nothing but persecution before me.
+It was only a week ago that it happened, and we wanted
+to keep it quiet for a time; but things get out in spite
+of all one can do&mdash;things of that sort, at least. And,
+oh, dear Jack, fancy! I have got three letters already,
+all warning me against him; raking up trifling things
+that have occurred long ago, long before he met me,
+and holding them up before me like scarecrows&mdash;telling
+me he is not worthy of me, and that I will be
+wretched if I marry him, and other dreadful lies like
+that, which show me quite plainly that they neither
+know him nor me, and that they haven't eyes to see
+what he really is, nor minds to understand. But
+though I see the folly of it and the wickedness of it,
+mamma does not. She is ready to take other people's
+words; indeed, there is this to be said for her, that
+she does not know him yet, and therefore cannot be
+expected to be ready to take his own word before all.
+Dear Jack, my heart is so full, and I have so much to
+tell you, and such perfect confidence in your sympathy,
+and also in your insight and capacity to see through
+all the lies and wicked stories which I foresee are going
+to be poured upon us like a flood that&mdash;I don't know
+how to begin, I have so many things to say. I know
+it is the heart of the season, and that you are asked out
+every night in the week, and are so popular everywhere;
+but if you could but come down from Saturday
+to Monday, and let me tell you everything and show
+you his picture, and read you parts of his letters, I
+know you would see how false and wrong it all is, and
+help me to face it out with all those horrid people, and
+to bring round mamma. You know her dreadful way
+of never giving an opinion, but just saying a great deal
+worse, and leaving you to your own responsibility,
+which nearly drives me mad even in little things&mdash;so
+you may suppose what it does in this. Of course, she
+must see him, which is all I want, for I know after she
+has had a half-hour's conversation with him that she
+will be like me and will not believe a word&mdash;not one
+word. Therefore, Jack dear, come, oh, come! I have
+always turned to you in my difficulties, since ever I
+have known what it was to have a difficulty, and you
+have done everything for me. I never remember any
+trouble I ever had but you found some means of clearing
+it away. Therefore my whole hope is in you. I
+know it is hard to give up all your parties and things;
+but it would only be two nights, after all&mdash;Saturday
+and Sunday. Oh, do come, do come, if you ever cared
+the least little bit for your poor cousin! Come, oh,
+come, dear old John!</p>
+<p class="signature">
+<span class="ind4r">"Your affect.</span><br />
+E&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>"Is that all?" he said to himself; but it was not all,
+for there followed a postscript all about the gifts and
+graces of the unknown lover, and how he was the victim
+of circumstances, and how, while other men might steal
+the horse, he dared not look over the wall, and other
+convincing pleadings such as these, till John's head began
+to go round. When he had got through this postscript
+John Tatham folded the letter and put it away.
+He had a smile on his face, but he had the air of a man
+who had been beaten about the head and was confused
+with the hurry and storm of the blows. She had always
+turned to him in all her difficulties, that was
+true: and he had always stood by her, and often, in
+the freemasonry of youth, had thought her right and
+vindicated her capacity to judge for herself. He had
+been called often on this errand, and he had never refused
+to obey. For Elinor was very wilful, she had
+always been wilful&mdash;"a rosebud set about with wilful
+thorns, But sweet as English air could make her, she."
+He had come to her aid many a time. But he had
+never thought to be called upon by her in such a way
+as this. He folded the letter up carefully and put it in
+a drawer. Usually when he had a letter from Elinor
+he put it into his pocket, for the satisfaction of reading
+it over again: for she had a fantastic way of writing,
+adding little postscripts which escaped the eye at
+first, and which it was pleasant to find out afterwards.
+But with this letter he did not do so. He put it in a
+drawer of his writing-table, so that he might find it
+again when necessary, but he did not put it in his
+breast pocket. And then he sat for some time doing
+nothing, looking before him, with his legs stretched
+out and his hand beating a little tattoo upon the table.
+"Well: well? well!" That was about what he said
+to himself, but it meant a great deal: it meant a vague
+but great disappointment, a sort of blank and vacuum
+expressed by the first of these words&mdash;and then it
+meant a question of great importance and many divisions.
+How could it ever have come to anything? Am
+I a man to marry? What could I have done, just getting
+into practice, just getting a few pounds to spend
+for myself? And then came the conclusion. Since I
+can't do anything else for her; since she's done it for
+herself&mdash;shall I be a beast and not help her, because it
+puts my own nose out of joint? Not a bit of it! The
+reader must remember that in venturing to reflect a
+young man's sentiments a dignified style is scarcely
+possible; they express themselves sometimes with
+much force in their private moments, but not as Dr.
+Johnson would have approved, or with any sense of
+elegance; and one must try to be truthful to nature.
+He knew very well that Elinor was not responsible for
+his disappointment, and even he was aware that if
+she had been so foolish as to fix her hopes upon him,
+it would probably have been she who would have been
+disappointed, and left in the lurch. But still<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span></p>
+
+<p>John had gone through an interminable amount of
+thinking, and a good deal of soda-water (with or without,
+how should I know, some other moderate ingredient),
+and a cigar or two&mdash;not to speak of certain hours
+when he ought to have been in bed to keep his head
+clear for the cases of to-morrow: when it suddenly
+flashed upon him all at once that he was not a step further
+on than when he had received Mrs. Dennistoun's
+letter in the morning, for Elinor, though she had said
+so much about him, had given no indication who her
+lover was. Who was the man?</p>
+
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It was a blustering afternoon when John, with his bag
+in his hand, set out from the station at Hurrymere for
+Mrs. Dennistoun's cottage. Why that station should
+have had "mere" in its name I have never been able to
+divine, for there is no water to be seen for miles, scarcely
+so much as a duckpond: but, perhaps, there are two
+meanings to the words. It was a steep walk up a succession
+of slopes, and the name of the one upon which
+the cottage stood was Windyhill not an encouraging
+title on such a day, but true enough to the character of
+the place. The cottage lay, however, at the head of a
+combe or shelving irregular valley, just sheltered from
+the winds on a little platform of its own, and commanding
+a view which was delightful in its long sweeping
+distance, and varied enough to be called picturesque,
+especially by those who were familiar with nothing
+higher than the swelling slopes of the Surrey hills. It
+was wild, little cultivated, save in the emerald green of
+the bottom, a few fields which lay where a stream ought
+to have been. Nowadays there are red-roofed houses
+peeping out at every corner, but at that period fashion
+had not even heard of Hurrymere, and, save for a farm-house
+or two, a village alehouse and posting-house at a
+corner of the high-road, and one or two great houses
+within the circuit of six or seven miles, retired within
+their trees and parks, there were few habitations. Mrs.
+Dennistoun's cottage was red-roofed like the rest, but
+much subdued by lichens, and its walls were covered by
+climbing plants, so that it struck no bold note upon the
+wild landscape, yet was visible afar off in glimpses, from
+the much-winding road, for a mile or two before it could
+be come at. There was, indeed, a nearer way, necessitating
+a sharp scramble, but when John came just in
+sight of the house his heart failed him a little, and, notwithstanding
+that his bag had come to feel very heavy
+by this time, he deliberately chose the longer round to
+gain a little time&mdash;as we all do sometimes, when we are
+most anxious to be at our journey's end, and hear what
+has to be told us. It looked very peaceful seated in
+that fold of the hill, no tossing of trees about it, though
+a little higher up the slim oaks and beeches of the copse
+were flinging themselves about against the grey sky in
+a kind of agonised appeal. John liked the sound of the
+wind sweeping over the hills, rending the trees, and
+filling the horizon as with a crowd of shadows in pain,
+twisting and bending with every fresh sweep of the
+breeze. Sometimes such sounds and sights give a relief
+to the mind. He liked it better than if all had been
+undisturbed, lying in afternoon quiet as might have been
+expected at the crown of the year&mdash;but the winds had
+always to be taken into account at Windyhill.</p>
+
+<p>When he came in sight of the gate, John was aware
+of some one waiting for him, walking up and down the
+sandy road into which it opened. Her face was turned
+the other way, and she evidently looked for him by way
+of the combe, the scrambling steep road which he had
+avoided in despite: for why should he scramble and
+make himself hot in order to hear ten minutes sooner
+what he did not wish to hear at all? She turned round
+suddenly as he knocked his foot against a stone upon
+the rough, but otherwise noiseless road, presenting a
+countenance flushed with sudden relief and pleasure to
+John's remorseful eye. "Oh, there you are!" she said;
+"I am so glad. I thought you could not be coming.
+You might have been here a quarter of an hour ago by
+the short road."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not think there was any hurry," said John,
+ungraciously. "The wind is enough to carry one
+off one's feet; though, to be sure, it's quiet enough
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"It's always quiet here," she said, reading his face
+with her eyes after the manner of women, and wondering
+what the harassed look meant that was so unusual
+in John's cheerful face. She jumped at the idea that
+he was tired, that his bag was heavy, that he had been
+beaten about by the wind till he had lost his temper,
+always a possible thing to happen to a man. Elinor
+flung herself upon the bag and tried to take possession
+of it. "Why didn't you get a boy at the station to
+carry it? Let me carry it," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"That is so likely," said John, with a hard laugh,
+shifting it to his other hand.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor caught his arm with both her hands, and looked
+up with wistful eyes into his face. "Oh, John, you are
+angry," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense. I am tired, buffeting about with this
+wind." Here the gardener and man-of-all-work about
+the cottage came up and took the bag, which John parted
+with with angry reluctance, as if it had been a sort of
+weapon of offence. After it was gone there was nothing
+for it but to walk quietly to the house through the flowers
+with that girl hanging on his arm, begging a hundred
+pardons with her eyes. The folly of it! as if she had
+not a right to do as she pleased, or he would try to prevent
+her; but finally, the soft, silent apology of that
+clinging, and the look full of petitions touched his surly
+heart. "Well&mdash;Nelly," he said, with involuntary softening.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you call me that I am not afraid!" she cried,
+with an instant upleaping of pleasure and confidence in
+her changeable face, which (John tried to say to himself)
+was not really pretty at all, only so full of expression,
+changing with every breath of feeling. The eyes, which
+had only been brown a moment before, leaped up into
+globes of light, yet not too dazzling, with some liquid
+medium to soften their shining. Even though you know
+that a girl is in love with another man, that she thinks
+of you no more than of the old gardener who has just
+hobbled round the corner, it is pleasant to be able to
+change the whole aspect of affairs to her and make her
+light up like that, solely by a little unwilling softening
+of your gruff and surly tone.</p>
+
+<p>"You know, John," she said, holding his arm tight
+with her two hands, "that nobody ever calls me Nelly&mdash;except
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly I shall call you Nelly no longer. Why?
+Why, because that fellow will object."</p>
+
+<p>"That fellow! Oh, <i>he</i>!" Elinor's face grew very red
+all over, from the chin, which almost touched John's
+arm, to the forehead, bent back a little over those eyes
+suffused with light which were intent upon all the
+changes of John's face. This one was, like the landscape,
+swept by all the vicissitudes of sun and shade.
+It was radiant now with the unexpected splendour of the
+sudden gleam.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, John, I have so much to say to you! He
+will object to nothing. He knows very well you are
+like my brother&mdash;almost more than my brother&mdash;for you
+could help it, John. You almost chose me for your
+friend, which a brother would not. He says, 'Get him
+to be our friend and all will be well!'"</p>
+
+<p><i>He</i> had not said this, but Elinor had said it to him,
+and he had assented, which was almost the same&mdash;in
+the way of reckoning of a girl, at least.</p>
+
+<p>"He is very kind, I am sure," said John, gulping
+down something which had almost made him throw off
+Elinor's arm, and fling away from her in indignation.
+Her brother<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>!! But there was no use making any
+row, he said to himself. If anything were to be done
+for her he must put up with all that. There had suddenly
+come upon John, he knew not how, as he scanned
+her anxious face, a conviction that the man was a scamp,
+from whom at all hazards she should be free.</p>
+
+<p>Said Elinor, unsuspecting, "That is just what he is,
+John! I knew you would divine his character at once.
+You can't think how kind he is&mdash;kind to everybody.
+He never judges anyone, or throws a stone, or makes an
+insinuation." ("Probably because he knows he cannot
+bear investigation himself," John said, in his heart.)
+"That was the thing that took my heart first. Everybody
+is so censorious&mdash;always something to say against
+their neighbours; he, never a word."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a very good quality," said John, reluctantly,
+"if it doesn't mean confounding good with bad, and
+thinking nothing matters."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor gave him a grieved, reproachful look, and
+loosened the clasping of her hands. "It is not like you
+to imagine that, John!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is a man to say? Don't you see, if you
+do nothing but blow his trumpet, the only thing left for
+me to do is to insinuate something against him? I
+don't know the man from Adam. He may be an angel,
+for anything I can say."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I do not pretend he is that," said Elinor, with
+impartiality. "He has his faults, like others, but they
+are <i>nice</i> faults. He doesn't know how to take care of
+his money (but he hasn't got very much, which makes
+it the less matter), and he is sometimes taken in about
+his friends. Anybody almost that appeals to his kindness
+is treated like a friend, which makes precise people
+think<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>but, of course, I don't share that opinion in
+the very least."</p>
+
+<p>("A very wasteful beggar, with a disreputable set,"
+was John's practical comment within himself upon this
+speech.)</p>
+
+<p>"And he doesn't know how to curry favour with people
+who can help him on; so that though he has been
+for years promised something, it never turns up. Oh,
+I know his faults very well indeed," said Elinor; "but
+a woman can do so much to make up for faults like that.
+We're naturally saving, you know, and we always keep
+those unnecessary friends that were made before our
+time at a distance; and it's part of our nature to coax
+a patron&mdash;that is what Mariamne says."</p>
+
+<p>"Mariamne?" said John.</p>
+
+<p>"His sister, who first introduced him to me; and
+I am very fond of her, so you need not say anything
+against her, John. I know she is&mdash;fashionable, but
+that's no harm."</p>
+
+<p>"Mariamne," he repeated; "it is a very uncommon
+name. You don't mean Lady Mariamne Prestwich, do
+you? and not&mdash;not<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>Elinor! not Phil Compton, for
+goodness' sake? Don't tell me he's the man?"</p>
+
+<p>Elinor's hands dropped from his arm. She drew herself
+up until she seemed to tower over him. "And why
+should I say it is not Mr. Compton," she asked, with a
+scarlet flush of anger, so different from that rosy red of
+love and happiness, covering her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Phil Compton! the <i>dis</i>-Honourable Phil! Why,
+Elinor! you cannot mean it! you must not mean it!"
+he cried.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor said not a word. She turned from him with
+a look of pathetic reproach but with the air of a queen,
+and walked into the house, he following in a ferment of
+wrath and trouble, yet humbled and miserable more
+than words could say. Oh, the flowery, peaceful house!
+jasmine and rose overleaping each other upon the porch,
+honeysuckle scenting the air, all manner of feminine
+contrivances to continue the greenness and the sweetness
+into the little bright hall, into the open drawing-room,
+where flowers stood on every table amid the hundred
+pretty trifles of a woman's house. There was no
+one in this room where she led him, and then turned
+round confronting him, taller than he had ever seen
+her before, pale, with her nostrils dilating and her lips
+trembling. "I never thought it possible that you of
+all people in the world, you, John&mdash;my stand-by since
+ever I was a baby&mdash;my<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Oh! what a horrid thing
+it is to be a woman," cried Elinor, stamping her foot,
+"to be ready to cry for everything!&mdash;you, John! that I
+always put my trust in&mdash;that you should turn against
+me&mdash;and at the very first word!"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor," he said, "my dear girl! not against you,
+not against you, for all the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"And what is <i>me</i>?" she said, with that sudden turning
+of the tables and high scorn of her previous argument
+which is common with women; "do I care what
+you do to <i>me</i>? Oh, nothing, nothing! I am of no account,
+you can trample me down under your feet if you
+like. But what I will not bear," she said, clenching her
+hands, "is injustice to him: that I will not bear, neither
+from you, Cousin John, who are only my distant cousin,
+after all, and have no right to thrust your advice upon
+me&mdash;or from any one in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"What you say is quite true, Elinor, I am only a distant
+cousin&mdash;after all: but<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no," she cried, flying to him, seizing once
+more his arm with her clinging hands, "I did not mean
+that&mdash;you know I did not mean that, my more than
+brother, my good, good John, whom I have trusted all
+my life!"</p>
+
+<p>And then the poor girl broke out into passionate
+weeping with her head upon his shoulder, as she might
+have leant upon the handy trunk of a tree, or on the
+nearest door or window, as John Tatham said in his
+heart. He soothed her as best he could, and put her
+in a chair and stood with his hand upon the back of it,
+looking down upon her as the fit of crying wore itself
+out. Poor little girl! he had seen her cry often enough
+before. A girl cries for anything, for a thorn in her
+finger, for a twist of her foot. He had seen her cry and
+laugh, and dash the tears out of her eyes on such occasions,
+oh! often and often: there was that time when
+he rushed out of the bushes unexpectedly and frightened
+her pony, and she fell among the grass and vowed, sobbing
+and laughing, it was her fault! and once when she
+was a little tot, not old enough for boy's play, when she
+fell upon her little nose and cut it and disfigured herself,
+and held up that wounded little knob of a feature
+to have it kissed and made well. Oh, why did he think
+of that now! the little thing all trust and simple confidence!
+There was that time too when she jumped up
+to get a gun and shoot the tramps who had hurt somebody,
+if John would but give her his hand! These
+things came rushing into his mind as he stood watching
+Elinor cry, with his hand upon the back of her
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>She wanted John's hand now when she was going
+forth to far greater dangers. Oh, poor little Nelly!
+poor little thing! but he could not put her on his
+shoulder and carry her out to face the foe now.</p>
+
+<p>She jumped up suddenly while he was thinking, with
+the tears still wet upon her cheeks, but the paroxysm
+mastered, and the light of her eyes coming out doubly
+bright like the sun from the clouds. "We poor women,"
+she said with a laugh, "are so badly off, we are so handicapped,
+as you call it! We can't help crying like fools!
+We can't help caring for what other people think, trying
+to conciliate and bring them round to approve us&mdash;when
+we ought to stand by our own conscience and
+judgment, and sense of what is right, like independent
+beings."</p>
+
+<p>"If that means taking your own way, Elinor, whatever
+any one may say to you, I think women do it at
+least as much as men."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it does not mean taking our own way," she cried,
+"and if you do not understand any better than that,
+why should I<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But you do understand better, John,"
+she said, her countenance again softening: "you know
+I want, above everything in the world, that you should
+approve of me and see that I am right. That is what I
+want! I will do what I think right; but, oh, if I could
+only have you with me in doing it, and know that you
+saw with me that it was the best, the only thing to do!
+Happiness lies in that, not in having one's own way."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Elinor," he said, "isn't that asking a great
+deal? To prevent you from doing what you think right
+is in nobody's power. You are of age, and I am sure
+my aunt will force nothing; but how can we change
+our opinions, our convictions, our entire points of view?
+There is nobody in the world I would do so much for as
+you, Elinor: but I cannot do that, even for you."</p>
+
+<p>The hot tears were dried from her cheeks, the passion
+was over. She looked at him, her efforts to gain him at
+an end, on the equal footing of an independent individual
+agreeing to differ, and as strong in her own view as
+he could be.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one thing you can do for me," she said.
+"Mamma knows nothing about&mdash;fashionable gossip.
+She is not acquainted with the wicked things that are
+said. If she disapproves it is only because<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Oh, I
+suppose because one's mother always disapproves a
+thing that is done without her, that she has no hand in,
+what she calls pledging one's self to a stranger, and not
+knowing his antecedents, his circumstances, and so
+forth! But she hasn't any definite ground for it as
+you&mdash;think you have, judging in the uncharitable way
+of the world&mdash;not remembering that if we love one
+another the more there is against him the more need
+he has of me! But all I have to ask of you, John, is
+not to prejudice my mother. I know you can do it if
+you please&mdash;a hint would be enough, an uncertain
+word, even hesitating when you answer a question&mdash;that
+would be quite enough! John, if you put things
+into her head<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"You ask most extraordinary things of me," said John,
+turning to bay. "To tell her lies about a man whom
+everybody knows&mdash;to pretend I think one thing when I
+think quite another. Not to say that my duty is to
+inform her exactly what things are said, so that she may
+judge for herself, not let her go forth in ignorance&mdash;that
+is my plain duty, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"But you won't do it; oh, you won't do it!" she
+said. "Oh, John, for the sake of all the time that you
+have been so good to Nelly&mdash;your own little Nelly, nobody
+else's! Remember that I and everybody who
+loves him know these stories to be lies&mdash;and don't,
+don't put things into my mother's head! Let her
+judge for herself&mdash;don't, don't prejudice her, John.
+It can be no one's duty to repeat malicious stories
+when there is no possibility of proving or disproving
+them. Don't make her think<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Oh, mamma! we
+couldn't think where you had gone to. Yes, here is
+John."</p>
+
+<p>"So I perceive," said Mrs. Dennistoun. It was getting
+towards evening, and the room was not very light.
+She could not distinguish their looks or the agitation
+that scarcely could have been hidden but for the dusk.
+"You seem to have been having a very animated conversation.
+I heard your voices all along the garden
+walk. Let me have the benefit of it, if there is anything
+to tell."</p>
+
+<p>"You know well enough, mamma, what we must have
+been talking about," said Elinor, turning half angrily
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure," said the mother, "I ought to have
+known. There is nothing so interesting as that sort of
+thing. I thought, however, you would probably have
+put it off a little, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Put it off a little&mdash;when it is the thing that concerns
+us more than anything else in the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is true," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a sigh.
+"Did you walk all the way, John? I meant to have
+sent the pony-cart for you, but the man was too late.
+It is a nice evening though, and coming out of town it
+is a good thing for you to have a good walk."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I like it more than anything," said John, "but
+the evening is not so very fine. The wind is high, and
+I shouldn't wonder if we had rain."</p>
+
+<p>"The wind is always high here," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+"We don't have our view for nothing; but the
+sky is quite clear in the west, and all the clouds blowing
+away. I don't think we shall have more than a
+shower."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor stood listening to this talk with restrained impatience,
+as if waiting for the moment when they
+should come to something worth talking about. Then
+she gave herself a sort of shake&mdash;half weary, half indignant&mdash;and
+left the room. There was a moment's
+silence, until her quick step was heard going to the
+other end of the house and up-stairs, and the shutting
+of a door.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, I am very uneasy, very uneasy," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun. "I scarcely thought she would have
+begun to you about it at once; but then I am doing the
+very same. We can't think of anything else. I am not
+going to worry you before dinner, for you must be tired
+with your walk, and want to refresh yourself before we
+enter upon that weary, weary business. But my heart
+misgives me dreadfully about it all. If I only had gone
+with her! It was not for want of an invitation, but
+just my laziness. I could not be troubled to leave my
+own house."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see what difference it would have made had
+you been with her, aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I should have seen the man: and been able to
+judge what he was and his motive, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor is not rich. He could scarcely have had an
+interested motive."</p>
+
+<p>"There is some comfort in that. I have said that to
+myself again and again. He could not have an interested
+motive. But, oh! I am uneasy! There is the dressing-bell.
+I will not keep you any longer, John; but in
+the evening, or to-morrow, when we can get a quiet
+moment<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>The dusk, was now pervading all the house&mdash;that
+summer dusk which there is a natural prejudice everywhere
+against cutting short by lights. He could not
+see her face, nor she his, as they went out of the
+drawing-room together and along the long passage, which
+led by several arched doorways to the stairs. John had
+a room on the ground floor which was kept for gentlemen
+visitors, and in which the candles were twinkling
+on the dressing-table. He was more than ever thankful
+as he caught a glimpse of himself in the vague reflected
+world of the mirror, with its lights standing up
+reflected too, like inquisitors spying upon him, that
+there had not been light enough to show how he was
+looking: for though he was both a lawyer and a man
+of the world, John Tatham had not been able to keep
+the trouble which his interview with Elinor had caused
+him out of his face.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The drawing-room of the cottage was large and low,
+and had that <i>faux air</i> of being old-fashioned which is
+dear to the hearts of superior people generally. Mrs.
+Dennistoun and her daughter scarcely belonged to that
+class, yet they were, as ladies of leisure with a little
+taste for the arts are bound to be, touched by all the
+fancies of their time, which was just beginning to adore
+Queen Anne. There was still, however, a mixture of
+luxury with the square settees and spindle-legged cabinets
+which were "the fashion:" and partly because
+that was also "the fashion," and partly because on
+Windyhill even a July evening was sometimes a little
+chill, or looked so by reason of the great darkness of
+the silent, little-inhabited country outside&mdash;there was a
+log burning on the fire-dogs (the newest thing in
+furnishing in those days though now so common) on
+the hearth. The log burned as little as possible, being,
+perhaps, not quite so thoroughly dry and serviceable as
+it would have been in its proper period, and made a
+faint hissing sound in the silence as it burned, and diffused
+its pungent odour through the house. The bow
+window was open behind its white curtains, and it was
+there that the little party gathered out of reach of the
+unnecessary heat and the smoke. There was a low sofa
+on either side of this recess, and in the centre the
+French window opened into the garden, where all the
+scents were balmy in the stillness which had fallen upon
+the night.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun was tall and slim, a woman with a
+presence, and sat with a sort of dignity on her side of
+the window, with a little table beside her covered with
+her little requirements, the properties, so to speak,
+without which she was never known to be&mdash;a book for
+moments when there was nothing else to interest her, a
+case for work should there arise any necessity for putting
+in a stitch in time, a bottle of salts should she or
+any one else become suddenly faint, a paper cutter in
+cases of emergency, and finally, for mere ornament, two
+roses, a red and a white, in one of those tall old-fashioned
+glasses which are so pretty for flowers. I do
+wrong to dismiss the roses with such vulgar qualifications
+as white and red&mdash;the one was a <i>Souvenir de
+Malmaison</i>, the other a <i>General</i> <span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> something or other.
+If you spoke to Mrs. Dennistoun about her flowers she
+said, "Oh, the Malmaison," or "Oh, the General So-and-so."
+Rose was only the family name, but happily,
+as we all know, under the other appellation they smelt
+just as sweet. Mrs. Dennistoun kept up all this little
+state because she had been used to do so; because it
+was part of a lady's accoutrements, so to speak. She
+had also a cushion, which was necessary, if not for comfort,
+yet for her sense of being fully equipped, placed
+behind her back when she sat down. But with all this
+she was not a formal or prim person. She was a woman
+who had not produced a great deal of effect in life; one
+of those who are not accustomed to have their advice
+taken, or to find that their opinion has much weight
+upon others. Perhaps it was because Elinor resembled
+her father that this peculiarity which had affected all
+Mrs. Dennistoun's married life should have continued
+into a sphere where she ought to have been paramount.
+But she was with her daughter as she had been with
+her husband, a person of an ineffective character, taking
+refuge from the sensation of being unable to influence
+those about her whose wills were stronger than
+her own, by relinquishing authority, and in her most
+decided moments offering an opinion only, no more.
+This was not because she was really undecided, for on
+the contrary she knew her own mind well enough; but
+it had become a matter of habit with her to insist upon
+no opinion, knowing, as she did, how little chance she
+had of imposing her opinion upon the stronger wills
+about her. She had two other children older than
+Elinor: one, the eldest of all, married in India, a woman
+with many children of her own, practically altogether
+severed from the maternal nest; the other an adventurous
+son, who was generally understood to be at the
+ends of the earth, but seldom or never had any more
+definite address. This lady had naturally gone through
+many pangs and anxieties on behalf of these children,
+who had dropped away from her side into the unknown;
+but it belonged to her character to have said very little
+about this, so that she was generally supposed to take
+things very easily, and other mothers were apt to admire
+the composure of Mrs. Dennistoun, whose son
+might be being murdered by savages at any moment,
+for anything she knew&mdash;or minded, apparently. "Now
+it would have driven <i>me</i> out of my senses!" the other
+ladies said. Mrs. Dennistoun perhaps did not feel the
+back so well fitted to the burden as appeared&mdash;but she
+kept her own sentiments on this subject entirely to
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>(I may say too&mdash;but this, the young reader may skip
+without disadvantage&mdash;by way of explanation of a
+peculiarity which has lately been much remarked as
+characteristic of those records of human history contemptuously
+called fiction, <i>i.e.</i>, the unimportance, or ill-report,
+or unjust disapproval of the mother in records
+of this description&mdash;that it is almost impossible to maintain
+her due rank and character in a piece of history,
+which has to be kept within certain limits&mdash;and where
+her daughter the heroine must have the first place. To
+lessen <i>her</i> pre-eminence by dwelling at length upon the
+mother, unless that mother is a fool, or a termagant, or
+something thoroughly contrasting with the beauty and
+virtues of the daughter&mdash;would in most cases be a
+mistake in art. For one thing the necessary incidents
+are wanting, for I strongly object, and so I think do
+most people, to mothers who fall in love, or think of
+marriage, or any such vanity in their own person, and
+unless she is to interfere mischievously with the young
+lady's prospects, or take more or less the part of the
+villain, how is she to be permitted any importance at
+all? For there cannot be two suns in one sphere, or
+two centres to one world. Thus the mother has to be
+sacrificed to the daughter: which is a parable; or else
+it is the other way, which is against all the principles
+and prepossessions of life.)</p>
+
+<p>Elinor did not sit up like her mother. She had flung
+herself upon the opposite sofa, with her arms flung behind
+her head, supporting it with her fingers half buried
+in the twists of her hair. She was not tall like Mrs.
+Dennistoun, and there was far more vivid colour than
+had ever been the mother's in her brown eyes and
+bright complexion, which was milk-white and rose-red
+after an old-fashioned rule of colour, too crude perhaps
+for modern artistic taste. Sometimes these delightful
+tints go with a placid soul which never varies, but in
+Elinor's case there was a demon in the hazel of the
+eyes, not dark enough for placidity, all fire at the best
+of times, and ready in a moment to burst into flame.
+She it was who had to be in the forefront of the interest,
+and not her mother, though for metaphysical, or
+what I suppose should now be called psychological interests,
+the elder lady was probably the most interesting
+of the two. Elinor beat her foot upon the carpet, out
+of sheer impatience, while John lingered alone in the
+dining-room. What did he stay there for? When there
+are several men together, and they drink wine, the thing
+is comprehensible; but one man alone who takes his
+claret with his dinner, and cares for nothing more, why
+should he stay behind when there was so much to say
+to him, and not one minute too much time till Monday
+morning, should the house be given up to talk not only
+by day but by night? But it was no use beating one's
+foot, for John did not come.</p>
+
+<p>"You spoke to your cousin, Elinor, before dinner?"
+her mother said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I spoke to him before dinner. What did
+he come here for but that? I sent for him on purpose,
+you know, mamma, to hear what he would say."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did he say?"</p>
+
+<p>This most natural question produced a small convulsion
+once more on Elinor's side. She loosed the hands
+that had been supporting her head and flung them out
+in front of her. "Oh, mamma, how can you be so exasperating!
+What did he say? What was he likely to
+say? If the beggar maid that married King Cophetua
+had a family it would have been exactly the same thing&mdash;though
+in that case surely the advantage was all on
+the gentleman's side."</p>
+
+<p>"We know none of the particulars in that case," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun, calmly. "I have always thought it
+quite possible that the beggar maid was a princess of
+an old dynasty and King Cophetua a <i>parvenu</i>. But in
+your case, Elinor<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"You know just as little," said the girl, impetuously.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I say. I don't know the man who has
+possessed himself of my child's fancy and heart. I
+want to know more about him. I want<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"For goodness' sake, whatever you want, don't be
+sentimental, mamma!"</p>
+
+<p>"Was I sentimental? I didn't mean it. He has
+got your heart, my dear, whatever words may be
+used."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;and for ever!" said the girl, turning round
+upon herself. "I know you think I don't know my own
+mind; but there will never be any change in me. Oh,
+what does John mean, sitting all by himself in that
+stuffy room? He has had time to smoke a hundred
+cigarettes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, you must not forget it is rather hard upon
+John to be brought down to settle your difficulties for
+you. What do you want with him? Only that he
+should advise you to do what you have settled upon
+doing. If he took the other side, how much attention
+would you give him? You must be reasonable, my
+dear."</p>
+
+<p>"I would give him every attention," said Elinor, "if
+he said what was reasonable. You don't think mere
+blind opposition is reasonable, I hope, mamma. To
+say Don't, merely, without saying why, what reason is
+there in that?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, when you argue I am lost. I am not
+clever at making out my ground. Mine is not mere
+blind opposition, or indeed opposition at all. You
+have been always trained to use your own faculties, and
+I have never made any stand against you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? why not?" said the girl, springing to
+her feet. "That is just the dreadful, dreadful part of
+it! Why don't you say straight out what I am to do
+and keep to it, and not tell me I must make use of
+my own faculties? When I do, you put on a face and
+object. Either don't object, or tell me point-blank
+what I am to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think for one moment if I did, you would
+obey me, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know what I might do in that case, for
+it will never happen. You will never take that responsibility.
+For my part, if you locked me up in my room
+and kept me on bread and water I should think <i>that</i>
+reasonable; but not this kind of letting I dare not wait
+upon I would, saying I am to exercise my own faculties,
+and then hesitating and finding fault."</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay, my dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with
+great tolerance, "that this may be provoking to your
+impatient mind: but you must put yourself in my
+place a little, as I try to put myself in yours. I have
+never seen Mr. Compton. It is probable, or at least
+quite possible, that if I knew him I might look upon
+him with your eyes<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Probable! Possible! What words to use! when
+all my happiness, all my life, everything I care for is in
+it: and my own mother thinks it just possible that she
+might be able to tolerate the man that&mdash;the man
+who<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>She flung herself down on her seat again, panting
+and excited. "Did you wear out Adelaide like that,"
+she cried, "before she married, papa and you<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Adelaide was very different, Elinor. She married
+<i>salon les r&egrave;gles</i> a man whom we all knew. There was
+no trouble about it. Your father was the one who was
+impatient then. He thought it too well arranged, too
+commonplace and satisfactory. You may believe he
+did not object to that in words, but he laughed at them
+and it worried him. It has done very well on the
+whole," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a faint sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"You say that&mdash;and then you sigh. There is always
+a little reserve. You are never wholly satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>"One seldom is in this world," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+this time with a soft laugh. "This world is not very
+satisfactory. One makes the best one can of it."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is just what I hate to hear," said Elinor,
+"what I have always heard. Oh, yes, when you don't
+say it you mean it, mamma. One can read it in the
+turn of your head. You put up with things. You
+think perhaps they might have been worse. In every
+way that's your philosophy. And it's killing, killing to
+all life! I would rather far you said out, 'Adelaide's
+husband is a prig and I hate him.'"</p>
+
+<p>"There is only one drawback, that it would not be
+true. I don't in the least hate him. I am glad I was
+not called upon to marry him myself, I don't think I
+should have liked it. But he makes Adelaide a very
+good husband, and she is quite happy with him&mdash;as far
+as I know."</p>
+
+<p>"The same thing again&mdash;never more. I wonder, I
+wonder after I have been married a dozen years what
+you will say of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder, too: if we could but know that it would
+solve the question," the mother said. Elinor looked at
+her with a provoked and impatient air, which softened
+off after a moment&mdash;partly because she heard the door
+of the dining-room open&mdash;into a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I try you in every way," she said, half laughing.
+"I do everything to beguile you into a pleasanter
+speech. I thought you must at least have said then
+that you hoped you would have nothing to say but
+happiness. No! you are not to be caught, however
+one tries, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>John came in at this moment, not without a
+whiff about him of the cigarette over which he had
+lingered so. It relieved him to see the two ladies
+seated opposite each other in the bow window, and to
+hear something like a laugh in the air. Perhaps they
+were discussing other things, and not this momentous
+marriage question, in which certainly no laughter
+was.</p>
+
+<p>"You have your usual fire," he said, "but the wind
+has quite gone down, and I am sure it is not wanted
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"It looks cheerful always, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is the reason, I suppose, why you carefully
+place yourself out of sight of it&mdash;one of the prejudices
+of English life."</p>
+
+<p>And then he came forward into the recess of the
+window, which was partly separated from the room by
+a table with flowers on it, and a great bush in a pot, of
+delicate maiden-hair fern. It was perhaps significant,
+though he did not mean it for any demonstration of
+partisanship, that he sat down on Elinor's side. Both
+the ladies felt it so instinctively, although, on the
+contrary, had the truth been known, all John's real
+agreement was with the mother; but in such a conjuncture
+it is not truth but personal sympathy that
+carries the day. "You are almost in the dark here,"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Neither of us is doing anything. One is lazy on a
+summer night."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a great deal more in it than that," said
+Elinor, in a voice which faltered a little. "You talk
+about summer nights, and the weather, and all manner
+of indifferent things, but you know all the time there is
+but one real subject to talk of, and that we are all
+thinking of that."</p>
+
+<p>"That is my line, aunt," said John. "Elinor is
+right. We might sit and make conversation, but of
+course this is the only subject we are thinking of. It's
+very kind of you to take me into the consultation. Of
+course I am in a kind of way the nearest in relation,
+and the only man in the family&mdash;except my father&mdash;and
+I know a little about law, and all that. Now let
+me hear formally, as if I knew nothing about it (and,
+in fact, I know very little), what the question is. Elinor
+has met someone who&mdash;who has proposed to her&mdash;not
+to put too fine a point upon it," said John, with a
+smile that was somewhat ghastly&mdash;"and she has accepted
+him. Congratulations are understood, but here
+there arises a hitch."</p>
+
+<p>"There arises no hitch. Mamma is dissatisfied
+(which mamma generally is) chiefly because she does
+not know Mr. Compton; and some wretched old
+woman, who doesn't know him either, has written to
+her&mdash;to her and also to me&mdash;telling us a pack of lies,"
+said Elinor, indignantly, "to which I do not give the
+least credence for a moment&mdash;not for a moment!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well for you," said John, "it's quite
+simple; but for us, Elinor&mdash;that is, for your mother
+and me, as you are good enough to allow me to have a
+say in the matter&mdash;it's not so simple. We feel, you
+know, that, like C&aelig;sar's wife, our Elinor's&mdash;husband"&mdash;he
+could not help making a grimace as he said that
+word, but no one saw or suspected it&mdash;"should be
+above suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>"That is exactly what I feel, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we must do something about it, don't you
+see? Probably it will be as easy as possible for him
+to clear himself." (The dis-Honourable Phil! Good
+heavens! to think it was a man branded with such a
+name that was to marry Elinor! For a moment he was
+silenced by the thought, as if some one had given him
+a blow.)</p>
+
+<p>"To clear himself!" said Elinor. "And do you
+think I will permit him to be asked to clear himself?
+Do you think I will allow him to believe for a moment
+that <i>I</i> believed anything against him? Do you think I
+will take the word of a spiteful old woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Old women are not always spiteful, and they are
+sometimes right." John put out his hand to prevent
+Mrs. Dennistoun from speaking, which, indeed, she had
+no intention of doing. "I don't mean so, of course, in
+Mr. Compton's case&mdash;and I don't know what has been
+said."</p>
+
+<p>"Things that are very uncomfortable&mdash;very inconsistent
+with a happy life and a comfortable establishment,"
+said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you could only hear yourself, mamma!
+You are not generally a Philistine, I must say that for
+you; but if you only heard the tone in which you said
+'comfortable establishment!' the most conventional
+match-making in existence could not have done it
+better; and as for what has been said, there has nothing
+been said but what is said about everybody&mdash;what,
+probably, would be said of you yourself, John, for you
+play whist sometimes, I hear, and often billiards, at the
+club."</p>
+
+<p>A half-audible "God forbid!" had come from John's
+lips when she said, "What would probably be said of
+yourself"&mdash;audible that is to Elinor, not to the mother.
+She sprang up as this murmur came to her ear: "Oh,
+if you are going to prejudge the case, there is nothing
+for me to say!"</p>
+
+<p>"I should be very sorry to prejudge the case, or to
+judge it all," said John. "I am too closely interested to
+be judicial. Let somebody who knows nothing about it
+be your judge. Let the accusations be submitted&mdash;to
+your Rector, say; he's a sensible man enough, and
+knows the world. He won't be scared by a rubber at
+the club, or that sort of thing. Let him inquire, and
+then your mind will be at rest."</p>
+
+<p>"There is only one difficulty, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+"Mr. Hudson would be the best man in the
+world, only for one thing&mdash;that it is from his sister and
+his wife that the warning came."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said John. This fact seemed to take him
+aback in the most ludicrous way. He sat and gazed
+at them, and had not another word to say. Perhaps
+the fact that he himself who suggested the inquiry was
+still better informed of the true state of the case, and
+of the truth of the accusation, than were those to
+whom he might have submitted it, gave him a sense of
+the hopelessness and also absurdity of the attempt
+more than anything else could have done.</p>
+
+<p>"And that proves, if there was nothing else," said
+Elinor, "how false it is: for how could Mrs. Hudson
+and Mary Dale know? They are not fashionable
+people, they are not in society. How could they or
+any one like them know anything of Phil"&mdash;she stopped
+quickly, drew herself up, and added&mdash;"of Mr. Compton,
+I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"They might not know, but they might state their
+authority," Mrs. Dennistoun said; "and if the Rector
+cannot be used to help us, surely, John, you are a man
+of the world, you are not like a woman, unacquainted
+with evidence. Why should not you do it, though you
+are, as you kindly say, an interested party?"</p>
+
+<p>"He shall not do it. I forbid him to do it. If he
+takes in hand anything of the kind he must say good-by
+to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You hear?" said John; "but I could not do it in
+any case, my dear Elinor. I am too near. I never
+could see this thing all round. Why not your lawyer,
+old Lynch, a decent old fellow<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell him the same," cried Elinor; "I will
+never speak to him again."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," said her mother, "you will give everybody
+the idea that you don't want to know the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"I know the truth already," said Elinor, rising with
+great dignity. "Do you think that any slander would
+for a moment shake my faith in you&mdash;or you? You
+don't deserve it, John, for you turn against me&mdash;you
+that I thought were going to take my part; but do you
+think if all the people in London set up one story that
+I would believe it against you? And how should I
+against <i>him</i>?" she added, with an emphasis upon the
+word, as expressing something immeasurably more to
+be loved and trusted than either mother or cousin, by
+which, after having raised John up to a sort of heaven
+of gratified affection, she let him down again to the
+ground like a stone. Oh, yes! trusted in with perfect
+faith, nothing believed against him, whom she had
+known all her life&mdash;but yet not to be mentioned in the
+same breath with the ineffable trust she reposed in the
+man she loved&mdash;whom she did not know at all. The
+first made John's countenance beam with emotion and
+pleasure, the second brought a cold shade over his face.
+For a moment he could scarcely speak.</p>
+
+<p>"She bribes us," he said at last, forcing a smile.
+"She flatters us, but only to let us drop again, Mrs.
+Dennistoun; it is as good as saying, 'What are we to
+<i>him</i>?'"</p>
+
+<p>"They all do so," said the elder lady, calmly; "I am
+used to it."</p>
+
+<p>"But, perhaps, I am not quite&mdash;used to it," said
+John, with something in his voice which made them
+both look at him&mdash;Elinor only for a moment, carelessly,
+before she swept away&mdash;Mrs. Dennistoun with a
+more warmly awakened sensation, as if she had made
+some discovery. "Ah!" she said, with a tone of pain.
+But Elinor did not wait for any further disclosures.
+She waved her hand, and went off with her head high,
+carrying, as she felt, the honours of war. They might
+plot, indeed, behind her back, and try to invent some
+tribunal before which her future husband might be
+arraigned; but John, at least, would say nothing to
+make things worse. John would be true to her&mdash;he
+would not injure Phil Compton. Elinor, perhaps,
+guessed a little of what John was thinking, and felt,
+though she could scarcely have told how, that it
+would be a point of honour with him not to betray her
+love.</p>
+
+<p>He sat with Mrs. Dennistoun in partial silence for
+some time after this. He felt as if he had been partially
+discovered&mdash;partially, and yet more would be discovered
+than there was to discover; for if either of them
+believed that he was in love with Elinor, they were mistaken,
+he said to himself. He had been annoyed by
+her engagement, but he had never come to the point
+of asking her that question in his own person. No,
+nor would not, he said to himself&mdash;certainly would not&mdash;not
+even to save her from the clutches of this gambler
+and adventurer. No; they might think what they
+liked, but this was the case. He never should have
+done it&mdash;never would have exposed himself to refusal&mdash;never
+besought this high-tempered girl to have the
+control of his life. Poor Nelly all the same! poor
+little thing! To think she had so little judgment as to
+ignore what might have been a great deal better, and
+to pin her faith to the dis-Honourable Phil.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>In the morning John accompanied Elinor to church.
+Mrs. Dennistoun had found an excuse for not going,
+which I am sorry to say was a way she had. She expressed
+(and felt) much sorrow for it herself, saying,
+which was quite true, that not to go was a great distress
+to her, and put the household out, and was a custom
+she did not approve of. But somehow it had grown
+upon her. She regretted this, but did it, saying that
+everybody was illogical, and that when Elinor had some
+one to go with she thought herself justified at her age
+in this little indulgence. Neither Elinor nor John
+objected to the arrangement. There are things that
+can be said in a walk while both parties are in motion,
+and when it is not necessary to face each other and to
+be subjected each to the other's examination of feature
+and expression. It is easier in this way to say many
+things, to ask questions which might be embarrassing,
+to receive the fire of an examination which it might be
+otherwise difficult to meet. Thus the two had not
+walked above half the way to church, which was on the
+other edge of the combe, and stood, a lovely old place&mdash;but
+not the trim and restored and well-decorated
+edifice it is nowadays&mdash;tinkling its little bells into the
+sweet moorland air, amid such a hum of innumerable
+bees as seemed to make the very sunshine a vehicle
+for sound&mdash;before John began to perceive that he was
+being ingeniously driven to revelations which he had
+never intended, by a process for which he was not at all
+prepared. She who had been so indignant last night
+and determined not to allow a word to be said
+against the immaculate honour of the man she loved,
+was now&mdash;was it possible?&mdash;straining all her faculties
+to obtain from him, whom she would not permit to be
+Phil Compton's judge, such unguarded admissions as
+would enlighten her as to what Phil Compton was
+accused of. It was some time before John perceived
+her aim; he did not even grasp the idea at first that
+this girl whose whole heart was set upon marrying
+Phil Compton, and defying for his sake every prophecy
+of evil and all the teachings of prudence, did not
+indeed at all know what it was which Phil had been
+supposed to have done. Had she been a girl in society
+she could scarcely have avoided some glimmerings of
+knowledge. She would have heard an unguarded word
+here and there, a broken phrase, an expression of
+scorn or dislike, she might even have heard that
+most unforgettable of nicknames, the dis-Honourable
+Phil. But Elinor, who was not in society, heard none
+of these things. She had been warned in the first
+fervour of her betrothal that he was not a man she
+ought to marry, but why? nobody had told her;
+how was she to know?</p>
+
+<p>"You don't like Lady Mariamne, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"It matters very little whether I like her or not: we
+don't meet once in a year."</p>
+
+<p>"It will matter if you are to be in a kind of way
+connected. What has she ever done that you shouldn't
+like her? She is very nice at home; she has three
+nice little children. It's quite pretty to see her with
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I daresay; it's pretty to see a tiger with her
+cubs, I don't doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, John? What has she ever
+done?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you, Elinor; nothing perhaps. She
+does not take my fancy: that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not all; you could never be so unjust and
+so absurd. How dreadful you good people are! Pretending
+to mean kindness," she cried, "you put the
+mark of your dislike upon people, and then you won't
+say why. What have <i>they</i> done?"</p>
+
+<p>It was this "they" that put John upon his guard.
+Hitherto she had only been asking about the sister,
+who did not matter so very much. If a man was to be
+judged by his sister! but "they" gave him a new light.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you understand, Elinor," he said, "that
+without doing anything that can be built upon, a
+woman may set herself in a position of enmity to the
+world, her hand against every one, and every one's
+hand against her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know that well enough&mdash;generally because she
+does not comply with every conventional rule, but does
+and thinks what commends itself to her; I do that myself&mdash;so
+far as I can with mamma behind me."</p>
+
+<p>"You! the question has nothing to do with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not with me as much as with another of my
+family?" said Elinor, throwing back her head.</p>
+
+<p>He turned round upon her with something like a
+snort of indignation: she to be compared&mdash;but Elinor
+met his eyes with scornful composure and defiance, and
+John was obliged to calm himself. "There's no analogy,"
+he said; "Lady Mariamne is an old campaigner.
+She's up to everything. Besides, a sister-in-law&mdash;if it
+comes to that&mdash;is not a very near relation. No one
+will judge you by her." He would not be led into any
+discussion of the other, whose name, alas! Elinor intended
+to bear.</p>
+
+<p>"If it comes to that. Perhaps you think," said Elinor,
+with a smile of fine scorn, "that you will prevent
+it ever coming to that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," he said, "I'm very humble; I don't think
+much of my own powers in that way: nothing that I
+can do will affect it, if Providence doesn't take it in
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>"You really think it's a big enough thing to invoke
+Providence about?"</p>
+
+<p>"If Providence looks after the sparrows as we are
+told," said John, "it certainly may be expected to step
+in to save a nice girl like you, Nelly, from&mdash;from connections
+you'll soon get to hate&mdash;and&mdash;and a shady
+man!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned upon him with sparkling eyes in a sudden
+blaze of indignation. "How dare you! how dare you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare a great deal more than that to save you.
+You must hear me, Nelly: they're all badly spoken of,
+not one, but all. They are a shady lot&mdash;excuse a man's
+way of talking. I don't know what other words to use&mdash;partly
+from misfortune, but more from<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Nelly,
+Nelly, how could you, a high-minded, well-brought-up
+girl like you, tolerate that?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned upon him again, breathing hard with restrained
+rage and desperation; evidently she was at a
+loss for words to convey her indignant wrath: and at
+last in sheer inability to express the vehemence of her
+feelings she fastened on one word and repeated "well-brought-up!"
+in accents of scorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said John, "my aunt and you may not always
+understand each other, but she's proved her case to
+every fair mind by yourself, Elinor. A girl could not
+be better brought up than you've been: and you could
+not put up with it, not unless you changed your nature
+as well as your name."</p>
+
+<p>"With what?" she said, "with what?" They had
+gone up and down the sloping sides of the combe,
+through the rustling copse, sometimes where there was
+a path, sometimes where there was none, treading over
+the big bushes of ling and the bell-heather, all bursting
+into bloom, past groups of primeval firs and seedling
+beeches, self-sown, over little hillocks and hollows
+formed of rocks or big old roots of trees covered with
+the close glittering green foliage and dark blue clusters
+of the dewberry, with the hum of bees filling the air,
+the twittering of the birds, the sound of the church
+bells&mdash;nothing more like the heart of summer, more
+peaceful, genial, happy than that brooding calm of
+nature amid all the harmonious sounds, could be.</p>
+
+<p>But as Elinor put this impatient question, her countenance
+all ablaze with anger and vehemence and resolution,
+yet with a gleam of anxiety in the puckers of
+her forehead and the eyes which shone from beneath
+them, they stepped out upon the road by which other
+groups were passing, all bound towards the centre of
+the church and its tinkling bells. Elinor stopped, and
+drew a longer panting breath, and gave him a look of
+fierce reproach, as if this too were his fault: and then
+she smoothed her ruffled plumes, after the manner of
+women, and replied to the Sunday-morning salutations,
+with the smiles and nods of use and wont. She knew
+everybody, both the rich and the poor, or rather I
+should say the well-off and the less-well-off, for there
+were neither rich nor poor, formally speaking, on
+Windyhill. John did not find it so easy to put his
+emotions in his pocket. He cast an admiring glance
+upon her as with heightened colour and a little panting
+of the breath, but no other sign of disturbance, she
+made her inquiries after this one's mother and that one's
+child. It was wonderful to him to see how the storm
+was got under in a moment. An occasional glance
+aside at himself from the corner of her eye, a sort of
+dart of defiance as if to bid him remember that she was
+not done with him, was shot at John from time to time
+over the heads of the innocent country people in whom
+she pretended to be so much interested. Pretended!&mdash;was
+it pretence, or was the one as real as the other?
+He heard her promising to come to-morrow to see an
+invalid, to send certain articles as soon as she got home,
+to look up certain books. Would she do so? or was
+all this a mere veil to cover the other which engaged
+all her soul?</p>
+
+<p>And then there came the service&mdash;that soothing
+routine of familiar prayers, which the lips of men and
+women absorbed in the violence and urgency of life
+murmur over almost without knowing, with now and
+then an awakening to something that touches their own
+aspirations, to something that offers or that asks for
+help. "Because there is none other that fighteth for
+us but only Thou, O God." That seems to the careless
+soul such a <i>non sequitur</i>, as if peace was asked for, only
+because there was none other to fight; but to the man
+heavily laden, what a cry out of the depths! Because
+there is none other&mdash;all resources gone, all possibilities:
+but one that fighteth for us, standing fast, always the
+champion of the perplexed, the overborne, the weak.
+John was a little careless in this respect, as so many
+young men are. He thought most of the music when
+he joined the fashionable throng in the Temple Church.
+But there was no music to speak of at Windyhill.
+There was more sound of the bees outside, and the
+birds and the sighing bass of the fir-trees than of anything
+more carefully concerted. The organ was played
+with a curious drone in it, almost like that of the primitive
+bagpipe. But there was that one phrase, a strong
+strain of human appeal, enough to lift the world, nay,
+to let itself go straight to the blue heavens: "Because
+there is none other that fighteth for us but only Thou,
+O God."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hudson preached his little sermon like a discord
+in the midst. What should he have preached it for,
+that little sermon, which was only composed because he
+could not help himself, which was about nothing in
+heaven or earth? John gave it a sort of partial attention
+because he could not help it, partly in wonder to
+think how a sensible man like Mr. Hudson could account
+to himself for such strange little interruption of
+the natural sequence of high human emotion. What
+theory had he in his mind? This was a question John
+was fond of putting to himself, with perhaps an idea
+peculiar to a lawyer, that every man must be thinking
+what he is about, and be able to produce a clear reason,
+and, as it were, some theory of the meaning of his own
+actions&mdash;which everybody must know is nonsense. For
+the Rector of course preached just because it was in
+his day's work, and the people would have been much
+surprised, though possibly much relieved, had he not
+done so&mdash;feeling that to listen was in the day's work
+too, and to be gone through doggedly as a duty. John
+thought how much better it would be to have some man
+who could preach now and then when he had something
+to say, instead of troubling the Rector, who, good man,
+had nothing. But it is not to be supposed that he was
+thinking this consecutively while the morning went on.
+It flitted through his mind from time to time among
+his many thinkings about the Compton family and Elinor;
+poor Nelly, standing upon the edge of that precipice
+and the helplessness of every one to save her, and
+the great refrain like the peal of an organ going through
+everything, "None other that fighteth for us but only
+Thou, O God." Surely, surely to prevent this sacrifice
+He would interfere.</p>
+
+<p>She turned to him the moment they were out of the
+church doors with that same look of eager defiance yet
+demand, and as soon as they left the road, the first step
+into the copse, putting out her hand to call his attention:
+"You said I could not put up with it, a girl so
+well-brought-up as I am. What is it a well-brought-up
+girl can't put up with? A disorderly house, late hours,
+and so forth, hateful to the well-brought-up? What is
+it, what is it, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been thinking of that all through the
+morning prayers?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have been thinking about it. What did you
+expect me to think about? Is there anything else so
+important? Mr. Hudson's sermon, perhaps, which I
+have heard before, which I suppose <i>you</i> listened to,"
+she said, with a troubled laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I did a little, wondering how a good man like that
+could go on doing it; and there were other things<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"
+John did not like to say what it was which was still
+throbbing through the air to him, and through his own
+being.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing that is of so much moment to me: come
+back, John, to the well-brought-up girl."</p>
+
+<p>"You think that's a poor sort of description, Elinor;
+so it is. You are of course a great deal more than that.
+Still it's what one can turn to most easily. You don't
+know what life is in a sort of fast house, where there is
+nothing thought of but amusement or where it's a constant
+round of race meetings, yachting, steeplechases&mdash;I
+don't know if men still ride steeplechases&mdash;I mean
+that sort of thing: Monte Carlo in the winter: betting
+all the year round&mdash;if not on one thing then on another;
+expedients to raise money, for money's always wanted.
+You don't know&mdash;how can you know?&mdash;what goes on in
+a fast life."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you see, John," she cried, eagerly, "that all
+that, if put in a different way not to their prejudice, if
+put in the right way would sound delightful? There
+is no harm in these things at all. Betting's not a sin
+in the Bible any more than races are. Don't you see
+it's only the abuse of them that's wrong? One might
+ruin one's health, I believe, with tea, which is the most
+righteous thing! I should like above all things a yacht,
+say in the Mediterranean, and to go to Monte Carlo,
+which is a beautiful place, and where there is the best
+music in the world, besides the gambling. I should like
+even to see the gambling once in a way, for the fun of
+the thing. You don't frighten me at all. I have been
+a fortnight at Lady Mariamne's, and the continual 'go'
+was delightful; there was never a dull moment. As for
+expedients to raise money, <i>there</i><span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure&mdash;old Prestwich is as rich as Cr&oelig;sus&mdash;or
+was," said John, with significance, "but you are not
+going to live with Lady Mariamne, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John!" she cried, "oh, John!" suddenly seizing
+him by the arm, clasping her hands on it in the
+pretty way of earnestness she had, though one hand
+held her parasol, which was inconvenient. The soft
+face was suffused with rosy colour, so different from the
+angry red, the flush of love and tenderness&mdash;her eyes
+swam in liquid light, looking up with mingled happiness
+and entreaty to John's face. "Fancy what he says,
+that he will not object to come here for half the year to
+let me be with my mother! Remember what he is, a
+man of fashion, and fond of the world, and of going out
+and all that. He has consented to come, nay, he almost
+offered to come for six months in the year to be with
+mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens," cried John to himself, "he must
+indeed be down on his luck!" but what he said was,
+"Does your mother know of this, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not told her yet. I have reserved it to hear
+first what you had to say: and so far as I can make out
+you have nothing at all to say, only general things,
+disapproval in the general. What should you say if I
+told you that he disapproves too? He said himself
+that there had been too much of all that&mdash;that he had
+backed something&mdash;isn't that what you say?&mdash;backed it
+at odds, and stood to win what he calls a pot of money.
+But after that was decided&mdash;for he said he could not be
+off bets that were made&mdash;never any more. Now that I
+know you have nothing more to say my heart is free,
+and I can tell you. He has never really liked that sort
+of life, but was led into it when he was very young.
+And now as soon as&mdash;we are together, you know"&mdash;she
+looked so bright, so sweet in the happiness of her
+love, that John could have flung her from his arms,
+and felt that she insulted him by that clinging hold&mdash;"he
+means to turn entirely to serious things, and to go
+into politics, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he is going into politics!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, on the people's side&mdash;to do everything
+for them&mdash;Home Rule, and all that is best: to see that
+they are heard in Parliament, and have their wants attended
+to, instead of jobs and corruption everywhere.
+So you will see, John, that if he has been fast, and gone
+a little too far, and been very much mixed up in the
+Turf, and all that, it was only in the exuberance of
+youth, liking the fun of it, as I feel I should myself.
+But that now, now all that is to be changed when he
+steps into settled, responsible life. I should not have
+told you if you had repeated the lies that people say.
+But as you did not, but only found fault with him for
+being fast<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have heard&mdash;what people say?" He
+shifted his arm a little, so that she instinctively perceived
+that the affectionate clasp of her hands was no
+longer agreeable to him, and his face seemed suddenly
+to have become a blank page, absolutely devoid of all
+expression. He kicked vigorously at one of the hillocks
+he had stumbled against, as if he thought he
+could dislodge it and get it out of his way.</p>
+
+<p>"Mariamne told me there was a lot of lies&mdash;that
+people said&mdash;I am so glad, John, oh! so thankful, that
+you have not repeated any of them; for now I can feel
+you are my own good John, as you always were, not a
+slanderer of any one, and we can go on being fond of
+each other like brother and sister. I have told him you
+have been the best of brothers to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said John, without a sign of wonder or admiration
+in him, with a dead blank in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you think he said? 'Then I know he
+must be a capital fellow, Ne<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>'"</p>
+
+<p>"Not Nelly," said poor John, with a foolish pang
+that seemed to rend his heart. Oh, if that scamp,
+that cheat, that low betting, card-playing rascal were
+but here! he would capital-fellow him. To take not
+herself only, but the dear pet name that she had said
+was only John's<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span></p>
+
+<p>"He says Nell sometimes, John. Oh, not Nelly&mdash;Nelly
+is for you only. I would never let him call me
+that. But they are all for short names, one syllable&mdash;he
+is Phil, and Mariamne, well at home they call her
+Jew&mdash;horrible, isn't it?&mdash;because she was called after
+some Jewess; but somehow it seems queer when you
+see her, so fair and frizzy, like anything but a Jew."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have got one letter to myself," said John. "I
+don't know that I think that worth very much, however.
+And so far as I can see, you seem to think everything
+very fine&mdash;the bets, perhaps, and the rows and all."</p>
+
+<p>"Well they are, you know," said Elinor, with a laugh,
+"to a little country mouse like me that has never seen
+anything. There is always something going on, and
+their slang way of speaking is certainly very amusing if
+it is not at all dignified, and they have such droll ways
+of looking at things. All so entirely different! Don't
+you know, John, sometimes in one's life one longs for
+something to be quite different. A complete change,
+anything new."</p>
+
+<p>"If that is what you long for, no doubt you will get
+it, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" she cried, "I have had the other for three-and-twenty
+years, long enough to have exhausted it,
+don't you think? but I don't mean to throw it over, oh,
+no! Coming back to mamma makes the arrangement
+perfect. Probably in the end it is the old life, the life
+I was brought up in that I shall like best in the long
+run. That is one thing of being well brought up.
+Phil will laugh till he cries when I tell him of your
+description of me as a well-brought-up girl."</p>
+
+<p>John set his teeth as he walked or rather stumbled
+along by her side, catching in the roots of the trees as
+he had never done before, and swearing under his
+breath. Her flutter of talk running on, delighted, full of
+laughter and softness, as if he had fully declared his
+satisfaction and was interested in every detail, kept
+John in a state of suppressed fury which made his
+countenance dark, and almost took the sight from his
+eyes. He did not know how to escape from that false
+position, nor did she give him time, she had so much
+to say. Mrs. Dennistoun looked anxiously at the pair
+as they came up through the copse to the level of the
+cottage. There were no enclosures in that primitive
+place. From the copse you came straight into the
+garden with its banks of flowers. She was seated near
+the cottage door in a corner sheltered from the sun,
+with a number of books about her. But I don't think
+she had read anything except some portions of the lessons
+in the morning service. She had been sitting
+with her eyes vaguely fixed upon the horizon and her
+hands clasped in her lap, and a heavy shadow like an
+overhanging cloud upon her mind. But when she heard
+Elinor's voice approaching so gay and tuneful her
+heart rose a little. John evidently could have had
+nothing very bad to say. Elinor had been satisfied
+with the morning. Mrs. Dennistoun had expected to
+see them come back estranged and silent. The conclusion
+she drew was entirely satisfactory. After all
+John must have been moved solely by general disapproval,
+which is so very different from the dreadful
+hints and warnings that might mean any criminality.
+Elinor was talking to him as freely as she had done
+before this spectre rose. It must, Mrs. Dennistoun
+concluded, be all right.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till he was going away that she had an opportunity
+of talking with him alone. Her satisfaction,
+it must be allowed, had been a little subdued by John's
+demeanour during the afternoon and evening. But Mrs.
+Dennistoun had said to herself that there might be
+other ways of accounting for this. She had long had a
+fancy that John was more interested in Elinor than he
+had confessed himself to be. It had been her conviction
+that as soon as he felt it warrantable, as soon as he
+was sufficiently well-established, and his practice secured,
+he would probably declare himself, with, she
+feared, no particular issue so far as Elinor was concerned.
+And perhaps he was disappointed, poor fellow,
+which was a very natural explanation of his glum looks.
+But at breakfast on Monday Elinor announced her intention
+of driving her cousin to the station, and went
+out to see that the pony was harnessed, an operation
+which took some time, for the pony was out in the field
+and had to be caught, and the man of all work, who
+had a hundred affairs to look after, had to be caught
+too to perform this duty; which sometimes, however,
+Elinor performed herself, but always with some expenditure
+of time. Mrs. Dennistoun seized the opportunity,
+plunging at once into the all-important subject.</p>
+
+<p>"You seemed to get on all right together yesterday,
+John, so I suppose you found that after all there was
+not very much to say."</p>
+
+<p>"I was not allowed to say<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>anything. You
+mean<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, John, do you mean to tell me after
+all<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Ellen," he said, "stop it if you can; if there
+is any means in the world by which you can stop it, do
+so. I can't bring accusations against the man, for I
+couldn't prove them. I only know what everybody
+knows. He is not a man fit for Elinor to marry. He
+is not fit to touch the tie of her shoe."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't trouble me with your superlatives, John.
+Elinor is a good girl and a clever girl, but not a lady of
+romance. Is there anything really against him? Tell
+me, for goodness' sake! Even with these few words you
+have made me very unhappy," Mrs. Dennistoun said, in
+a half resentful tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help it," said the unfortunate man, "I can't
+bring accusations, as I tell you. He is simply a scamp&mdash;that
+is all I know."</p>
+
+<p>"A scamp!" said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a look of
+alarm. "But then that is a word that has so many
+meanings. A scamp may be only a careless fellow, nice
+in his way. That is not enough to break off a marriage
+for. And, John, as you have said so much, you must
+say more."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no more to say, that's all I know. Inquire
+what the Hudsons have heard. Stop it if you can."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, dear, here is Elinor back already," Mrs.
+Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The next time that John's presence was required at
+the cottage was for the signing of the very simple settlements;
+which, as there was nothing or next to nothing
+in the power of the man to settle upon his wife,
+were easy enough. He met Mr. Lynch, who was Mrs.
+Dennistoun's "man of business," and a sharp London
+solicitor, who was for the husband. Elinor's fortune
+was five thousand pounds, no more, not counting her
+expectations from him, which were left out of the question.
+It was a very small matter altogether, and one
+which the smart solicitor who was in Mr. Compton's
+interest spoke of with a certain contempt, as who
+should say he was not in the habit of being disturbed
+and brought to the country for any such trifle. It was
+now August&mdash;not a time when any man was supposed
+to be available for matters like these. Mr. Lynch was
+just about starting for his annual holiday, but came, at
+no small personal inconvenience, to do his duty by the
+poor girl whom he had known all his life. John and
+he travelled to the cottage together, and their aspect
+was not cheerful. "Did you ever hear," said Mr.
+Lynch, "such a piece of folly as this&mdash;a man with no
+character at all? This is what it is to leave a girl in
+the sole care of her mother. What does a woman
+know about such things?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it was her mother's fault," said John,
+anxious to do justice all round. "Elinor is very head-strong,
+and when she has made up her mind to a
+thing<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"A bit of a girl!" said Mr. Lynch, contemptuously.
+He was an old bachelor and knew nothing about the
+subject, as the reader will perceive. "Her mother
+ought never to have permitted it for a moment. She
+should have put down her foot: and then Miss Elinor
+would soon have come to reason. What I wonder is
+the ruffian's own motives? for it can't be a little bit of
+money like that. Five thousand's a mere mouthful to
+such a man as he is. He'll get rid of it all in a week."</p>
+
+<p>"It must be tied up as tight as possible," said
+John.</p>
+
+<p>Here Mr. Lynch faltered a little. "She has got an
+idea into her head, with the intention, I don't doubt,
+of defrauding herself if she can. He has got some investment
+for it, it appears. He is on the board of
+some company&mdash;a pretty board to take in such a fellow?
+But the Honourable is always something, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>John did not say the <i>dis</i>-Honourable, though it trembled
+on the edge of his tongue. "But you will not
+permit that?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; we will not permit it," said Mr. Lynch,
+with an emphasis on the negative which sounded like
+failing resolution.</p>
+
+<p>"That would be giving the lamb to the wolf with a
+vengeance."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly what I said; exactly what I said. I am
+very glad, Mr. Tatham, that you take the same view."</p>
+
+<p>"There is but one view to be taken," said John.
+"He must not have the slightest power over her
+money. It must be tied up as tight as the law can do
+it; not that I think it of the least consequence," he
+added. "Of course, he will get it all from her one
+way or another. Law's but a poor barrier against a
+determined man."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you see that too," said Mr. Lynch, "and
+you might say a determined woman: for she has set
+her mind on this, and we'll have a nice business with
+her, I can see."</p>
+
+<p>"A bit of a girl!" said John, with a laugh, echoing
+the previous sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>"That's very true," said the old lawyer; "and still
+I think her mother&mdash;but I don't put any great confidence
+in my own power to resist Elinor. Poor little
+thing, I've known her since she was <i>that</i> high; indeed,
+I may say I knew her before she was born. And you
+are a relation, Mr. Tatham?"</p>
+
+<p>"Third or fourth cousin."</p>
+
+<p>"But still, more intimate than a person unconnected
+with them, and able to speak your mind more freely.
+I wonder now that you never said anything. But in
+family matters sometimes one is very reluctant to interfere."</p>
+
+<p>"I said everything I could say, not to offend them
+mortally; but I could only tell them the common talk
+of society. I told my aunt he was a scamp: but after
+the first shock I am not sure that she thought that was
+any such bad thing. It depended upon the sense you
+put upon the word, she said."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, women, women!" said Mr. Lynch. "That's
+their way&mdash;a reformed rake makes the best husband.
+It's an old-fashioned sentiment, but it's in the background
+of their minds, a sort of tradition that they
+can't shake off&mdash;or else the poor fellow has had so
+many disadvantages, and they think they can make it
+all right. It's partly ignorance and partly vanity. But
+they are all the same, and their ways in the matter of
+marriage are not to be made out."</p>
+
+<p>"You have a great deal of experience."</p>
+
+<p>"Experience&mdash;oh, don't speak of it!" said the old
+gentleman. "A man has a certain idea of the value of
+money, however great a fool he may be, but the
+women<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet they are said to stick to money, and to
+be respectful of it beyond anything but a miser. I
+have myself remarked<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"In small matters," said Mr. Lynch, "in detail&mdash;sixpences
+to railway porters and that sort of thing&mdash;so
+people say at least. But a sum of money on paper has
+no effect on a woman, she will sign it away with a wave
+of her hand. It doesn't touch their imagination. Five
+pounds in her pocket is far more than five thousand on
+paper, to Elinor, for instance. I wish," cried the old
+gentleman, with a little spitefulness, "that this Married
+Women's Property Bill would push on and get itself
+made law. It would save us a great deal of trouble, and
+perhaps convince the world at the last how little able
+they are to be trusted with property. A nice mess they
+will make of it, and plenty of employment for young
+solicitors," he said, rubbing his hands.</p>
+
+<p>For this was before that important bill was passed,
+which has not had (like so many other bills) the disastrous
+consequences which Mr. Lynch foresaw.</p>
+
+<p>They were met at the station by the pony carriage,
+and at the door by Elinor herself, who came flying out
+to meet them. She seized Mr. Lynch by both arms,
+for he was a little old man, and she was bigger than he
+was.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you will remember what I said," she cried in
+his ear, yet not so low but that John heard it too.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a little witch; you mustn't insist upon anything
+so foolish. Leave all that to me, my dear," said
+Mr. Lynch. "What do you know about business?
+You must leave it to me and the other gentleman, who
+I suppose is here, or coming."</p>
+
+<p>"He is here, but I don't care for him. I care only
+for you. There are such advantages: and I do know a
+great deal about business; and," she said, with her
+mouth close to the old lawyer's ear, "it will please Phil
+so much if I show my confidence in him, and in the
+things with which he has to do."</p>
+
+<p>"It will not please him so much if the thing bursts,
+and you are left without a penny, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor laughed. "I don't suppose he will mind a
+bit: he cares nothing for money. But I do," she said.
+"You know you always say women love acquisition.
+I want good interest, and of course with Phil on it, it
+must be safe for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that makes it like the Bank of England, you
+think! but I don't share your confidence, my pretty
+Elinor. I'm an old fellow. No Phil in the world has
+any charm for me. You must trust me to do what I
+feel is best for you. And Mr. Tatham here is quite of
+my opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John! he is sure to be against me," said Elinor,
+with an angry glimmer in her eyes. She had not
+as yet taken any notice of him while she welcomed with
+such warmth his old companion. And John had stood
+by offering no greeting, with his bag in his hand. But
+when she said this the quick feeling girl was seized
+with compunction. She turned from Mr. Lynch and
+held out both her hands to her cousin. "John, I
+didn't mean that; it is only that I am excited and
+cross. And don't, oh, don't go against me," she cried.</p>
+
+<p>"I never did, and never will, Elinor," he said
+gravely. Then he asked, after a moment, "Is Mr.
+Compton here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; how could he be here? Three gentlemen in
+the cottage is enough to overwhelm us already. Mr.
+Sharp, fortunately, can't stay," she added, lowering her
+voice; "he has to be driven back to the station to
+catch the last express. And it is August," she said
+with a laugh; "you forget the 15th. Now, could Phil
+be anywhere but where there is grouse? You shall
+have some to dinner to-night that fell by his gun.
+That should mollify you, for I am sure you never got
+grouse at the cottage before in August. Mamma
+would as soon think of buying manna for you to eat."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would have been more respectful, Elinor,
+if he had been here. What is grouse to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I don't think anything of the kind," cried
+Elinor. "He is much better away. And I assure you,
+John, I never mean to put myself in competition with
+the grouse."</p>
+
+<p>The old lawyer had gone into the drawing-room,
+where Mrs. Dennistoun was holding parley with Mr.
+Sharp. Elinor and John were standing alone in the
+half light of the summer evening, the sun down, the
+depths of the combe below falling into faint mist, but
+the sunset-tinted clouds still floating like a vapour made
+of roses upon the clearness of the blue above. "Come
+and take a turn through the copse," said John. "They
+don't want either of us indoors."</p>
+
+<p>She went with a momentary reluctance and a glance
+back at the bow-window of the drawing-room, from
+which the sound of voices issued. "Don't you think I
+should be there to keep them up to the mark?" she
+said, half laughing. And then, "Well, yes&mdash;as you
+are going to Switzerland too. I think you might have
+stayed and seen me married after all, and made acquaintance
+with Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I should have met him here to-day,
+Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, how could you? You know the accommodation
+of the cottage just as well as I do. We have two
+spare rooms, and no more."</p>
+
+<p>"You could have sent me out somewhere to sleep.
+That has been done before now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, how persistent you are, and worrying!
+When I tell you that Phil is shooting, as everybody of
+his kind is&mdash;do you think I want him to give up all the
+habits of his life? He is not like us: we adapt ourselves:
+but these people parcel out their time as if they
+were in a trade, don't you know? So long in London,
+so long abroad, and in the Highlands for the grouse,
+and somewhere else for the partridges, or they would
+die."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he might have departed from that routine
+once in a way, Elinor, for you."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you again, John, I shall never put myself in
+competition"&mdash;Elinor stopped abruptly, with perhaps,
+he thought, a little glimmer of indignation in her eyes.
+"I hate women who do that sort of thing," she cried.
+"'Give up your cigar&mdash;or me,' as I've heard girls say.
+Such an unworthy thing! When one accepts a man
+one accepts him as he stands, with all his habits.
+What should I think of him if he said, 'Give up your tea&mdash;or
+me!' I should laugh in his face and throw him
+overboard without a pause."</p>
+
+<p>"You would never look at tea again as long as you
+lived if he did not like it; I suppose that is what you
+mean, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps if I found that out, afterwards; but to be
+given the choice beforehand, never! After all, you
+don't half know me, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not," he said, gravely. They had left the
+garden behind in its blaze of flowers, and strayed off
+into the subdued twilight of the copse, where everything
+was in a half tone of greenness and shadow and
+waning light. "There are always new lights arising on
+a many-sided creature like you&mdash;and that makes one
+think. Do you know you are not at all the person to
+take a great disappointment quietly, if that should
+happen to come to you in your life?"</p>
+
+<p>"A great disappointment?" she said, looking up at
+him with a wondering glance. Then he thought the
+colour paled a little in her face. "No," she said, "I
+don't suppose I should take it quietly. Who does?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, many people&mdash;people with less determination
+and more patience than you. You are not very patient
+by nature, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"I never said I was."</p>
+
+<p>"And though no one would give up more generously,
+as a voluntary matter, you could not bear being made
+a nonentity of, or put in a secondary place."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not like it, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"You would give everything, flinging it away; but
+to have all your sacrifices taken for granted, your tastes
+made of no account<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubt now that she had grown pale.
+"May I ask what all these investigations into my character
+mean? I never was so anatomized before."</p>
+
+<p>"It was only to say that you are not a good subject
+for this kind of experiment, Elinor. I don't see you
+putting up with things, making the best of everything,
+submitting to have your sense of right and wrong outraged
+perhaps. Some women would not be much disturbed
+by that. They would put off the responsibility
+and feel it their duty to accept whatever was put before
+them. But you&mdash;it would be a different matter
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I should hope so, if I was ever exposed to such
+dangers. But now may I know what you are driving
+at, John, for you have some meaning in what you say!"</p>
+
+<p>He took her hand and drew it through his arm. He
+was in more moved than he wished to show. "Only this,
+Elinor,"&mdash;he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, will you never call me Nelly any more?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only this, Nelly, my little Nelly, never mine again&mdash;and
+that never was mine, except in my silly thought.
+Only this: that if you have the least doubt, the smallest
+flutter of an uncertainty, just enough to make you hold
+your breath for a moment, oh, my dear girl, stop!
+Don't go on with it; pause until you can make sure."</p>
+
+<p>"John!" she forced her arm from his with an indignant
+movement. "Oh, how do you dare to say it?"
+she said. "Doubt of Mr. Compton! Uncertainty
+about Phil!" She laughed out, and the echo seemed
+to ring into all the recesses of the trees. "I would be
+much more ready to doubt myself," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Doubt yourself; that is what I mean. Think if
+you are not deceiving yourself. I don't think you are
+so very sure as you believe you are, Nelly. You don't
+feel so certain<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know that you are insulting me, John?
+You say as much as that I am a fool carried away by a
+momentary enthusiasm, with no real love, no true feeling
+in me, tempted, perhaps, as Mrs. Hudson thinks, by
+the Honourable!" Her lip quivered, and the fading
+colour came back in a rush to her face. "It is hard
+enough to have a woman like that think it, who ought
+to know better, who has always known me&mdash;but you,
+John!"</p>
+
+<p>"You may be sure, Elinor, that I did not put it on
+that ground."</p>
+
+<p>"No, perhaps: but on ground not much more respectful
+to me&mdash;perhaps that I have been fascinated by
+a handsome man, which is not considered derogatory.
+Oh, John, a girl does not give herself away on an argument
+like that. I may be hasty and self-willed and
+impatient, as you say; but when you&mdash;love!" Her
+face flushed like a rose, so that even in the grey of the
+evening it shone out like one of the clouds full of sunset
+that still lingered on the sky. A few quick tears
+followed, the natural consequence of her emotion.
+And then she turned to him with the ineffable condescension
+of one farther advanced in life stooping sweetly
+to his ignorance. "You have not yet come to the
+moment in your experience when you can understand
+that, dear John."</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the insight and the ignorance, the knowledge
+and the absence of all perception! He, too, laughed
+out, as she had done, with a sense of the intolerable
+ridicule and folly and mistake. "Perhaps that's how
+it is," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor looked at him gravely, in an elder-sisterly,
+profoundly-investigating way, and then she took his
+arm quietly and turned towards home. "I shall forget
+what you have said, and you will forget that you ever
+said it; and now we will go home, John, and be just
+the same dear friends as before."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you promise me," he said, "that whatever
+happens, without pride, or recollection of what I've
+been so foolish as to say, in any need or emergency, or
+whenever you want anything, or if you should be in
+trouble&mdash;trouble comes to everybody in this life&mdash;you
+will remember what you have said just now, and send
+for your cousin John?"</p>
+
+<p>Her whole face beamed out in one smile, she clasped
+her other hand round his arm; "I should have done
+it without being asked, without ever doubting for a
+moment, because it was the most natural thing in the
+world. Whom should I turn to else if not to my dear
+old<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But call me Nelly, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear little Nelly!" he said with faltering voice,
+"then that is a bargain."</p>
+
+<p>She held up her cheek to him, and he kissed it
+solemnly in the shadow of the little young oak that
+fluttered its leaves wistfully in the breeze that was getting
+up&mdash;and then very soberly, saying little, they
+walked back to the cottage. He was going abroad for
+his vacation, not saying to himself even that he preferred
+not to be present at the wedding, but resigning
+himself to the necessity, for it was not to be till the
+middle of September, and it would be breaking up his
+holiday had he to come back at that time. So this
+little interview was a leave-taking as well as a solemn
+engagement for all the risks and dangers of life. The
+pain in it, after that very sharp moment in the copse,
+was softened down into a sadness not unsweet, as they
+came silently together from out of the shadow into the
+quiet hemisphere of sky and space, which was over the
+little centre of the cottage with its human glimmer of
+fire and lights. The sky was unusually clear, and
+among those soft, rose-tinted clouds of the sunset, which
+were no clouds at all, had risen a young crescent of a
+moon, just about to disappear, too, in the short course
+of one of her earliest nights. They lingered for a moment
+before they went indoors. The depth of the
+combe was filled with the growing darkness, but the
+ridges above were still light and softly edged with the
+silver of the moon, and the distant road, like a long,
+white line, came conspicuously into sight, winding for
+a little way along the hill-top unsheltered, before it
+plunged into the shadow of the trees&mdash;the road that
+led into the world, by which they should both depart
+presently to stray into such different ways.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The drawing-room after dinner always looked cheerful.
+Perhaps the fact that it was a sort of little oasis
+in the desert, and that the light from those windows
+shone into three counties, made the interior more cosy
+and bright. (There are houses now upon every knoll,
+and the wind cannot blow on Windyhill for the quantity
+of obstructions it meets with.) There was the usual
+log burning on the hearth, and the party in general
+kept away from it, for the night was warm. Only Mr.
+Sharp, the London lawyer, was equal to bearing the
+heat. He stood with his back to it, and his long legs
+showing against the glow behind, a sharp-nosed, long
+man in black, who had immediately suggested Mephistopheles
+to Elinor, even though he was on the
+Compton side. He had taken his coffee after dinner,
+and now he stood over the fire slowly sipping a cup of
+tea. There was a look of acquisitiveness about him
+which suggested an inclination to appropriate anything
+from the unnecessary heat of the fire to the equally
+unnecessary tea. But Mr. Sharp had been on the
+winning side. He had demonstrated the superior
+sense of making the money&mdash;which was not large
+enough sum to settle&mdash;of real use to the young pair by
+an investment which would increase Mr. Compton's
+importance in his company, besides producing very
+good dividends&mdash;much better dividends than would be
+possible if it were treated in the old-fashioned way by
+trustees. This was how the bride wished it, which was
+the most telling of arguments: and surely, to insure
+good interest and an increase of capital to her, through
+her husband's hands, was better than to secure some
+beggarly hundred and fifty pounds a year for her portion,
+though without any risks at all.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sharp had also taken great pains to point out
+that there were only three brothers&mdash;one an invalid and
+the other two soldiers&mdash;between Mr. Phil and the title,
+and that even to be the Honourable Mrs. Compton was
+something for a young lady, who was, if he might venture
+to say so, nobody&mdash;not to say a word against her
+charms. Lord St. Serf was hourly getting an old man,
+and the chances that his client might step over a hecatomb
+of dead relations to the height of fortune was a
+thing quite worth taking into account. It was a much
+better argument, however, to return to the analogy of
+other poor young people, where the bride's little fortune
+would be put into the husband's business, and
+thus their joint advantage considered. Mr. Sharp, at
+the same time, did not hesitate to express politely his
+opinion that to call him down to the country for a discussion
+which could have been carried on much better
+in one or other of their respective offices was a most
+uncalled for proceeding, especially as even now the
+other side was wavering, and would not consent to conclude
+matters, and make the signatures that were necessary
+at once. Mr. Lynch, it must be allowed, was of
+the same opinion too.</p>
+
+<p>"Your country is a little bleak at night," said Mr.
+Sharp, partially mollified by a good dinner, but beginning
+to remember unpleasantly the cold drive in a rattletrap
+of a little rustic pony carriage over the hills and
+hollows. "Do you really remain here all the year?
+How wonderful! Not even a glimpse of the world in
+summer, or a little escape from the chills in winter?
+How brave of you! What patience and powers of endurance
+must be cultivated in that way!"</p>
+
+<p>"One would think Windyhill was Siberia at least,"
+said Mrs. Dennistoun, laughing; "we do not give ourselves
+credit for all these fine qualities."</p>
+
+<p>"Some people are heroes&mdash;or heroines&mdash;without
+knowing it," said Mr. Sharp, with a bow.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet," said the mother, with a little indignation,
+"there was some talk of Mr. Compton doing me the
+honour to share my hermitage for a part of the year."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Compton! my dear lady! Mr. Compton
+would die of it in a week," said Mr. Sharp.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite well aware of it," said Mrs. Dennistoun;
+and she added, after a pause, "so should I."</p>
+
+<p>"What a change it will be for your daughter," said
+Mr. Sharp. "She will see everything that is worth seeing.
+More in a month than she would see here in a
+dozen years. Trust Mr. Compton for knowing all that's
+worth going after. They have all an instinct for life
+that is quite remarkable. There's Lady Mariamne,
+who has society at her feet, and the old lord is a most
+remarkable old gentleman. Your daughter, Mrs. Dennistoun,
+is a very fortunate young lady. She has my
+best congratulations, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Sharp," said Mr. Lynch from the background,
+"you had better be thinking of starting, if you want to
+catch that train."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see if the pony is there," said John.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sharp put down his teacup with precipitation.
+"Is it as late as that?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the last train," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with
+great satisfaction. "And I am afraid, if you missed it,
+as the house is full, there would be nothing but a bed
+at the public-house to offer<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not another word," the lawyer said: and fortunately
+he never knew how near that rising young man
+at the bar, John Tatham, who had every object in conciliating
+a solicitor, was to a charge of manslaughter, if
+killing an attorney can thus be called. But the feelings
+of the party were expressed only in actions of the greatest
+kindness. They helped him on with his coat, and
+covered him with rugs as he got in, shivering, to the
+little pony carriage. It was a beautiful night, but the
+wind is always a thing to be considered on Windyhill.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's a good thing over," said Mr. Lynch,
+going to the fire as he came in from the night air at
+the door and rubbing his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been a relief to one's feeling to have
+kicked that fellow all the way down and up the other
+side of the combe, and kept him warm," said John,
+with a laugh of wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pity a man should have so little taste," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor still stood where she had been standing, with
+every feeling in her breast in commotion. She had not
+taken any part in the insidious kindnesses of speeding
+the parting guest; and now she remembered that he
+was her Phil's representative: whatever she might herself
+think of the man, how could she join in abuse of
+one who represented Phil?</p>
+
+<p>"He is no worse, I suppose, than others," she said.
+"He was bound to stand up for those in whose interest
+he was. Mr. Lynch would have made himself quite as
+disagreeable for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Not I," said the old gentleman; "for what is the
+good of standing up for you? You would throw me
+over on the first opportunity. You have taken all the
+force out of my sword-arm, my dear, as it is. How
+can I make myself disagreeable for those who won't
+stand up for themselves? I suppose you must have it
+your own way."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I suppose it will be the best," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+in subdued tones.</p>
+
+<p>"It would come to about the same thing, however
+you settled it," said John.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor looked from one to another with eyes that began
+to glow. "You are a cheerful company," she
+said. "You speak as if you were arranging my funeral.
+On the whole I think I like Mr. Sharp best; for if he
+was contemptuous of me and my little bit of money, he
+was at all events cheerful about the future, and that is
+always something; whereas you all<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>There was a little pause, no one responding. There
+was no pleasant jest, no bright augury for Elinor. The
+girl's heart rose against this gloom that surrounded
+her. "I think," she said, with an angry laugh, "that
+I had better run after Mr. Sharp and bring him back,
+for he had at least a little sympathy with me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be too sure of that," said Mr. Lynch, "for
+if we think you are throwing yourself away, Elinor, so
+does he on his side. He thinks the Honourable Mr.
+Compton is going dreadfully cheap for five thousand
+pounds."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor need not take any of us <i>au pied de la lettre</i>&mdash;of
+course we are all firm for our own side," said
+John.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor turned her head from one to another, growing
+pale and red by turns. There was a certain surprise
+in her look, as she found herself thus at bay. The triumph
+of having got the better of their opposition was
+lost in the sense of isolation with which the girl, so
+long the first object of everybody about her, felt herself
+thus placed alone. And the tears were very ready to
+start, but were kept back by jealous pride which rose
+to her help. Well! if they put her outside the circle
+she would remain so; if they talked to her as one no
+longer of them, but belonging to another life, so be it!
+Elinor determined that she would make no further appeal.
+She would not even show how much it hurt her.
+After that pale look round upon them all, she went into
+the corner of the room where the piano stood, and
+where there was little light. She was too proud to go
+out of the room, lest they should think she was going
+to cry. She went with a sudden, quick movement to
+the piano instead, where perhaps she might cry too,
+but where nobody should see. Poor Elinor! they had
+made her feel alone by their words, and she made herself
+more alone by this little instinctive withdrawal.
+She began to play softly one thing after another. She
+was not a great performer. Her little "tunes" were
+of the simplest&mdash;no better indeed than tunes, things
+that every musician despises: they made a little atmosphere
+round her, a voluntary hermitage which separated
+her as if she had been a hundred miles away.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you could have stayed for the marriage,"
+Mrs. Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear lady, it would spoil my holiday&mdash;the
+middle of September. You'll have nobody except, of
+course, the people you have always. To tell the truth,"
+John added. "I don't care tuppence for my holiday.
+I'd have come&mdash;like a shot: but I don't think I could
+stand it. She has always been such a pet of mine. I
+don't think I could bear it, to tell the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have to bear it, though she is more than a
+pet of mine," said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know! the relatives cannot be let off&mdash;especially
+the mother, who must put up with everything.
+I trust," said Mr. Lynch, with a sigh, "that it
+may all turn out a great deal better than we hope.
+Where are they going after the marriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some one has lent them a place&mdash;a very pretty
+place&mdash;on the Thames, where they can have boating
+and all that&mdash;Lord Sudbury, I think. And later they
+are going on a round of visits, to his father, Lord St.
+Serf, and to Lady Mariamne, and to his aunt, who is
+Countess of&mdash;something or other." Mrs. Dennistoun's
+voice was not untouched by a certain vague pleasure
+in these fine names.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said the old lawyer, nodding his head at each,
+"all among the aristocracy, I see. Well, my dear lady,
+I hope you will be able to find some satisfaction in
+that; it is better than to fall among&mdash;nobodies at
+least."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>They were speaking low, and fondly hoped that they
+were not heard; but Elinor's ears and every faculty
+were quickened and almost every word reached her.
+But she was too proud to take any notice. And perhaps
+these dreary anticipations, on the whole, did her
+good, for her heart rose against them, and any little
+possible doubts in her own mind were put to sudden
+flight by the opposition and determination which
+flooded her heart. This made her playing a little more
+unsteady than usual, and she broke down several times
+in the middle of a "tune;" but nobody remarked
+this: they were all fully occupied with their own
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>All, at least, except John, who wandered uneasily
+about the room, now studying the names of the books
+on the bookshelves&mdash;which he knew by heart, now pulling
+the curtain aside to look out at the moonlight, now
+pulling at the fronds of the great maidenhair in his distraction
+till the table round was scattered with little
+broken leaves. He wanted to keep out of that atmosphere
+of emotion which surrounded Elinor at the
+piano. But it attracted him, all the same, as the light
+attracts a moth. To get away from that, to make the
+severance which so soon must be a perfect severance,
+was the only true policy he knew; for what was he to
+her, and what could she be to him? He had already
+said everything which a man in his position ought to
+say. He took out a book at last, and sat down doggedly
+by the table to read, thus making another circle
+of atmosphere, so to speak, another globe of isolated
+being in the little room, while the two elder people
+talked low in the centre, conventionally inaudible to
+the girl who was playing and the young man who was
+reading. But John might as well have tried to solve
+some tremendous problem as to read that book. He
+too heard every word the elders were saying. He heard
+them with his own ears, and also he heard them
+through the ears of Elinor, gauging the effect which
+every word would have upon her. At last he could
+bear it no longer. He was driven to her side to bear a
+part of her burden, even to prevent her from hearing,
+which would be something. He resisted the impulse to
+throw down his book, and only placed it very quietly
+on the table, and even in a deliberate way, that there
+might be no appearance of feeling about him&mdash;and
+made his way by degrees, pausing now and then to
+look at a picture, though he knew them all by heart.
+Thus he arrived at last at the piano, in what he flattered
+himself was an accidental way.</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, the stars are so bright over the combe, do
+come out. It is not often they are so clear."</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, more with the movement of her lips
+than with any sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? You can't want to play those old
+pieces just at this moment. You will have plenty of time
+to play them to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>She said "No" again, with a little impatient movement
+of her hands on the keys and a look towards the
+others.</p>
+
+<p>"You are listening to what they are saying? Why
+should you? They don't want you to hear. Come
+along, Elinor. It's far better for you not to listen to
+what is not intended<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go away, John."</p>
+
+<p>"I must say no in my turn. Leave the tunes till to-morrow,
+and come out with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought," she said, roused a little, "that you
+were fond of music, John."</p>
+
+<p>This brought John up suddenly in an unexpected
+way. "Oh, as for that,"&mdash;he said, in a dubious tone.
+Poor Elinor's tunes were not music in his sense, as she
+very well knew.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed in a forlorn way. "I know what you
+mean; but this is quite good enough for what I shall
+want. I am going down, you know, to a different level
+altogether. Oh, you can hear for yourself what mamma
+and Mr. Lynch are saying."</p>
+
+<p>"Going up you mean, Elinor. I thought them both
+very complaisant over all those titles."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," she said, "they say that mocking. They
+think I am going down; so do you, too, to the land of
+mere fast people, people with no sense. Well; there is
+nothing but the trial will teach any of us. We shall
+see."</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather a dreadful risk to run, if it's only a
+trial, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"A trial&mdash;for you, not for me&mdash;I am not the one that
+thinks so, except so far as the tunes are concerned,"
+she said with a laugh. "I confess so far as that Lady
+Mariamne is fond of a comic song. I don't think she
+goes any further. I shall be good enough for them in
+the way of music."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be content never to hear another note of
+music all my life, Elinor, if<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there you begin again. Not you, John, not
+you! I can't bear any more. Neither stars, nor walks,
+nor listening; no more! This rather," and she
+brought down her hands with a great crash upon the
+piano, making every one start. Then Elinor rose, having
+produced her effect. "I think it must be time to go
+to bed, mamma. John is talking of the stars, which
+means that he wants his cigar, and Mr. Lynch must
+want just to look at the tray in the dining-room. And
+you are tired by all this fuss, all this unnatural fuss
+about me, that am not worth<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Come, mother, to
+bed."</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The days in the cottage were full of excitement and
+of occupation during the blazing August weather, not
+so much indeed as is common in many houses in which
+the expectant bridegroom is always coming and going;
+though perhaps the place of that exhilarating commotion
+was more or less filled by the ever-present diversity
+of opinion, the excitement of a subdued but never-ended
+conflict in which one was always on the defensive,
+and the other covertly or openly attacking, or at
+least believed to be so doing, the distant and unseen
+object to which all their thoughts turned. Mrs. Dennistoun,
+indeed, was not always aggressive, her opposition
+was but in fits and starts. Often her feelings of pain
+and alarm were quiescent in that unfeigned and salutary
+interest in clothes and necessities of preparation
+which is almost always a resource to a woman's mind.
+It is wrong to undervalue this possibility which compensates
+a woman in a small degree for some of her
+special troubles. When the mother's heart was very
+heavy, it was often diverted a little by the discussion of
+a dinner dress, or made to forget itself for the moment
+in a question about the cut of a sleeve, or which would
+be most becoming to Elinor of two colours for a ball
+gown. But though Mrs. Dennistoun forgot often,
+Elinor never forgot. The dresses and "things" generally
+occupied her a great deal, but not in the form of
+the anodyne which they supplied to her mother. Her
+mind was always on the alert, looking out for those flying
+arrows of warfare which your true fighter lets fly in
+the most innocent conversation at the most unexpected
+moments. Elinor thus flung her shield in her mother's
+face a hundred times when that poor lady was thinking
+no evil, when she was altogether occupied by the question
+of frills and laces, or whether tucks or flounces
+were best, and she was startled many times by that unnecessary
+rattle of Elinor's arms. "I was not thinking
+of Mr. Compton," she would sometimes be driven to
+say; "he was not in my head at all. I was thinking of
+nothing more important than that walking dress, and
+what you had best wear in the afternoon when you are
+on those grand visits."</p>
+
+<p>There was one thing which occasioned a little discussion
+between them, and that was the necessary civility
+of asking the neighbours to inspect these "things" when
+they were finally ready. It was only the argument that
+these neighbours would be Mrs. Dennistoun's sole
+resource when she was left alone that made Elinor assent
+at last. Perhaps, however, as she walked quickly along
+towards the moorland Rectory, a certain satisfaction in
+showing them how little their hints had been taken,
+mingled with the reluctance to admit those people who
+had breathed a doubt upon the sacred name of Phil, to
+such a sign of intimacy.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been watching you along the side of the
+combe, and wondering if it was you such a threatening
+day," said Alice Hudson, coming to the door to meet
+her. "How nice of you to come, Elinor, when you must
+be so busy, and you have not been here since&mdash;I don't
+know how long ago!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have not been here," said Elinor with a gravity
+worthy the bride of a maligned man. "But the
+time is so near when I shall not be able to come at all
+that I thought it was best. Mamma wishes you to
+come over to-morrow, if you will, to see my things."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" the three ladies said together; and Mrs.
+Hudson came forward and gave Elinor a kiss. "My
+dear," she said, "I take it very kind you coming yourself
+to ask us. Many would not have done it after what
+we felt it our duty<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But you always had a beautiful
+spirit, Elinor, bearing no malice, and I hope with all
+my heart that it will have its reward."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mother," said Alice, "I don't see how Elinor
+could do anything less, seeing we have been such
+friends all our lives as girls, she and I, and I am sure I
+have always been ready to give her patterns, or to show
+her how a thing was done. I should have been very
+much disappointed if she had not asked me to see her
+things."</p>
+
+<p>Mary Dale, who was Mrs. Hudson's sister, said nothing
+at all, but accepted the visit as in the course of
+nature. Mary was the one who really knew something
+about Phil Compton: but she had been against the remonstrance
+which Mrs. Hudson thought it her duty to
+make. What was the good? Miss Dale had said; and
+she had refrained from telling two or three stories
+about the Comptons which would have made the hair
+stand upright on the heads of the Rector and the Rectoress.
+She did not even now say that it was kind, but
+met Elinor in silence, as, in her position as the not important
+member of the family, it was quite becoming
+for her to do.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Rector came in and took her by both hands,
+and gave her the most friendly greeting. "I heard
+Elinor's voice, and I stopped in the middle of my
+sermon," he said. "You will remark in church on
+Sunday a jerky piece, which shows how I stopped to
+reflect whether it could be you&mdash;and then went on for
+another sentence, and then decided that it must be
+you. There is a big Elinor written across my sermon
+paper." He laughed, but he was a little moved, to see,
+after the "coolness," the little girl whom he had
+christened come back to her old friends again.</p>
+
+<p>"She has come to ask us to go and see her things,
+papa," said Mrs. Hudson, twinkling an eye to get rid
+of a suspicion of a tear.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to come, too?" said the Rector; and thus
+the little incident of the reconciliation was got over, to
+the great content of all.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor reflected to herself that they were really kind
+people, as she went out again into the grey afternoon
+where everything was getting up for rain. She made
+up her mind she would just have time to run into the
+Hills', at the Hurst, and leave her message, and so get
+home before the storm began. The clouds lay low
+like a dark grey hood over the fir-trees and moorland
+shaggy tops of the downs all round. There was not a
+break anywhere in the consistent grey, and the air,
+always so brisk, had fallen still with that ominous lull
+that comes over everything before a convulsion of
+nature. Some birds were still hurrying home into the
+depths of the copses with a frightened straightness of
+flight, as if they were afraid they would not get back in
+time, and all the insects that are so gay with their humming
+and booming had disappeared under leaves and
+stones and grasses. Elinor saw a bee burrowing deep
+in the waxen trumpet of a foxglove, as if taking shelter,
+as she walked quickly past. The Hills&mdash;there were
+two middle-aged sisters of them, with an old mother,
+too old for such diversion as the inspection of wedding-clothes,
+in the background&mdash;would scarcely let Elinor
+go out again after they had accepted her invitation with
+rapture. "I was just wondering where I should see the
+new fashions," said Miss Hill, "for though we are not
+going to be married we must begin to think about our
+winter things<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" "And this will be such an opportunity,"
+said Miss Susan, "and so good of you to come
+yourself to ask us."</p>
+
+<p>"What has she come to ask you to," said old Mrs.
+Hill; "the wedding? I told you girls, I was sure you
+would not be left out. Why, I knew her mother before
+she was married. I have known them all, man
+and boy, for nearer sixty than fifty years&mdash;before her
+mother was born! To have left you out would have
+been ridiculous. Yes, yes, Elinor, my dear; tell your
+mother they will come&mdash;delighted! They have been
+thinking for the last fortnight what bonnets they would
+wear<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother!" and "Oh, Elinor!" said the "girls,"
+"you must not mind what mother says. We know
+very well that you must have worlds of people to ask.
+Don't think, among all your new connections, of such
+little country mice as us. We shall always just take
+the same interest in you, dear child, whether you find
+you can ask us or not."</p>
+
+<p>"But of course you are asked," said Elinor, in <i>gaiet&eacute;
+de c&oelig;ur</i>, not reflecting that her mother had begun to
+be in despair about the number of people who could be
+entertained in the cottage dining-room, "and you must
+not talk about my new grand connections, for nobody
+will ever be like my old friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear child!" they said, and "I always knew that
+dear Elinor's heart was in the right place." But it was
+all that Elinor could do to get free of their eager affection
+and alarm lest she should be caught in the rain.
+Both of the ladies produced waterproofs, and one a
+large pair of goloshes to fortify her, when it was found
+that she would go; and they stood in the porch watching
+her as she went along into the darkening afternoon,
+without any of their covers and shelters. The Miss
+Hills were apt to cling together, after the manner of
+those pairs of sweet sisters in the "Books of Beauty"
+which had been the delight of their youth; they stood,
+with arms intertwined, in their porch, watching Elinor
+as she hurried home, with her light half-flying step,
+like the belated birds. "Did you hear what she said
+about old friends, poor little thing?" "I wonder if
+she is finding out already that her new grand connections
+are but vanity!" they said, shaking their heads.
+The middle-aged sisters looked out of the sheltered
+home, which perhaps they had not chosen for themselves,
+with a sort of wistful feeling, half pity, perhaps
+half envy, upon the "poor little thing" who was running
+out so light-hearted into the storm. They had
+long ago retired into waterproofs and goloshes, and had
+much unwillingness to wet their feet&mdash;which things are
+a parable. They went back and closed the door, only
+when the first flash of lightning dazzled them, and they
+remembered that an open door is dangerous during a
+thunderstorm.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor quickened her pace as the storm began and
+got home breathless with running, shaking off the first
+big drops of thunder-rain from her dress. But she did
+not think of any danger, and sat out in the porch watching
+how the darkness came down on the combe; how
+it was met with the jagged gleam of the great white
+flash, and how the thunderous explosion shook the
+earth. The combe, with its hill-tops on either side, became
+like the scene of a battle, great armies, invisible
+in the sharp torrents of rain, meeting each other with
+a fierce shock and recoil, with now and then a trumpet-blast,
+and now the gleam that lit up tree and copse,
+and anon the tremendous artillery. When the lightning
+came she caught a glimpse of the winding line of
+the white road leading away out of all this&mdash;leading
+into the world where she was going&mdash;and for a moment
+escaped by it, even amid the roar of all the elements:
+then came back, alighting again with a start in the familiar
+porch, amid all the surroundings of the familiar
+life, to feel her mother's hand upon her shoulder, and
+her mother's voice saying, "Have you got wet, my darling?
+Did you get much of it? Come in, come in
+from the storm!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is so glorious, mamma!" Mrs. Dennistoun
+stood for a few minutes looking at it, then, with a shudder,
+withdrew into the drawing-room. "I think I have
+seen too many storms to like it," she said. But Elinor
+had not seen too many storms. She sat and watched it,
+now rolling away towards the south, and bursting again
+as though one army or the other had got reinforcements;
+while the flash of the explosions and the roar
+of the guns, and the white blast of the rain, falling like
+a sheet from the leaden skies, wrapped everything in
+mystery. The only thing that was to be identified from
+time to time was that bit of road leading out of it&mdash;leading
+her thoughts away, as it should one day lead
+her eager feet, from all the storm and turmoil out into
+the bright and shining world. Elinor never asked herself,
+as she sat there, a spectator of this great conflict
+of nature, whether that one human thing, by which
+her swift thoughts traversed the storm, carried any
+other suggestion as of coming back.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it is betraying feminine counsels too much
+to the modest public to narrate how Elinor's things
+were all laid out for the inspection of the ladies of the
+parish, the dresses in one room, the "under things" in
+another, and in the dining-room the presents, which
+everybody was doubly curious to see, to compare their
+own offerings with those of other people, or else to
+note with anxious eye what was wanting, in order, if
+their present had not yet been procured, to supply the
+gap. How to get something that would look well
+among the others, and yet not be too expensive, was
+a problem which the country neighbours had much and
+painfully considered. The Hudsons had given Elinor
+a little tea-kettle upon a stand, which they were painfully
+conscious was only plated, and sadly afraid would
+not look well among all the gorgeous articles with which
+no doubt her grand new connections had loaded her.
+The Rector came himself, with his ladies to see how the
+kettle looked, with a great line of anxiety between his
+brows; but when they saw that the revolving dishes
+beside it, which were the gift of the wealthy Lady
+Mariamne, were plated too, and not nearly such a pretty
+design, their hearts went up in instant exhilaration, followed
+a moment after by such indignation as they could
+scarcely restrain. "That rich sister, the woman who
+married the Jew" (which was their very natural explanation
+of the lady's nickname), "a woman who is rolling
+in wealth, and who actually made up the match!" This
+was crescendo, a height of scorn impossible to describe
+upon a mere printed page. "One would have thought
+she would have given a diamond necklace or something
+of consequence," said Mrs. Hudson in her husband's
+ear. "Or, at least silver," said the Rector. "These
+fashionable people, though they give themselves every
+luxury, have sometimes not very much money to spend;
+but silver, at least, she might have been expected to
+give silver." "It is simply disgraceful," said the
+Rector's wife. "I am glad, at all events, my dear,"
+said he, "that our little thing looks just as well as
+any." "It is one of the prettiest things she has got,"
+said Mrs. Hudson, with a proud heart. Lord St. Serf
+sent an old-fashioned little ring in a much worn velvet
+case, and the elder brother, Lord Lomond, an album
+for photographs. The Rector's wife indicated these
+gifts to her husband with little shrugs of her shoulders.
+"If that's all the family can do!" she said: "why Alice's
+cushion, which was worked with floss silks upon satin,
+was a more creditable present than that." The Miss
+Hills, who as yet had not had an opportunity, as they
+said, of giving their present, roamed about, curious, inspecting
+everything. "What is the child to do with a
+kettle, a thing so difficult to pack, and requiring spirit
+for the lamp, and all that&mdash;and only plated!" the
+Hills said to each other. "Now, that little teapot of
+ours," said Jane to Susan, "if mother would only
+consent to it, is no use to us, and would look very handsome
+here." "Real silver, and old silver, which is so
+much the rage, and a thing she could use every day
+when she has her visitors for afternoon tea," said Susan
+to Jane. "It is rather small," said Miss Hill, doubtfully.
+"But quite enough for two people," said the
+other, forgetting that she had just declared that the
+teapot would be serviceable when Elinor had visitors.
+But that was a small matter. Elinor, however, had
+other things better than these&mdash;a necklace, worth half
+a year's income, from John Tatham, which he had
+pinched himself to get for her that she might hold up
+her head among those great friends; and almost all
+that her mother possessed in the way of jewellery,
+which was enough to make a show among these simple
+people. "Her own family at least have done Elinor
+justice," said the Rector, going again to have a look at
+the kettle, which was the chief of the display to him.
+Thus the visitors made their remarks. The Hills did
+nothing but stand apart and discuss their teapot and
+the means by which "mother" could be got to assent.</p>
+
+<p>The Rector took his cup of tea, always with a side
+glance at the kettle, and cut his cake, and made his
+gentle jest. "If Alick and I come over in the night and
+carry them all off you must not be surprised," he said;
+"such valuable things as these in a little poor parish
+are a dreadful temptation, and I don't suppose you
+have much in the way of bolts and bars. Alick is as
+nimble as a cat, he can get in at any crevice, and I'll
+bring over the box for the collections to carry off the
+little things." This harmless wit pleased the good
+clergyman much, and he repeated it to all the ladies.
+"I am coming over with Alick one of these dark nights
+to make a sweep of everything," he said. Mr. Hudson
+retired in the gentle laughter that followed this, feeling
+that he had acquitted himself as a man ought who is
+the only gentleman present, as well as the Rector of the
+parish. "I am afraid I would not be a good judge of
+the 'things,'" he said, "and for anything I know there
+may be mysteries not intended for men's eyes. I like
+to see your pretty dresses when you are wearing them,
+but I can't judge of their effect in the gross." He was
+a man who had a pleasant wit. The ladies all agreed
+that the Rector was sure to make you laugh whatever
+was the occasion, and he walked home very briskly,
+pleased with the effect of the kettle, and saying to himself
+that from the moment he saw it in Mappin's window
+he had felt sure it was the very thing.</p>
+
+<p>The other ladies were sufficiently impressed with the
+number and splendour of Elinor's gowns. Mrs. Dennistoun
+explained, with a humility which was not, I fear,
+untinctured by pride, that both number and variety
+were rendered necessary by the fact that Elinor was
+going upon a series of visits among her future husband's
+great relations, and would have to be much in society
+and among fine people who dressed very much, and
+would expect a great deal from a bride. "Of course, in
+ordinary circumstances the half of them would have been
+enough: for I don't approve of too many dresses."</p>
+
+<p>"They get old-fashioned," said Mrs. Hudson, gravely,
+"before they are half worn out."</p>
+
+<p>"And to do them up again is quite as expensive as
+getting new ones, and not so satisfactory," said the Miss
+Hills.</p>
+
+<p>The proud mother allowed both of these drawbacks,
+"But what could I do?" she said. "I cannot have my
+child go away into such a different sphere unprovided.
+It is a sacrifice, but we had to make it. I wish," she
+said, looking round to see that Elinor was out of hearing,
+"it was the only sacrifice that had to be made."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hope," said the Rector's wife, solemnly,
+"that it will all turn out for the best."</p>
+
+<p>"It will do that however it turns out," said Miss
+Dale, who was even more serious than it was incumbent
+on a member of a clerical household to be, "for we all
+know that troubles are sent for our advantage as well as
+blessings, and poor dear Elinor may require much discipline<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, goodness, don't talk as if the poor child was
+going to be executed," said Susan Hill.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not at all alarmed," said Mrs. Dennistoun. It
+was unwise of her to have left an opening for any such
+remark. "My Elinor has always been surrounded by
+love wherever she has been. Her future husband's
+family are already very fond of her. I am not at all
+alarmed on Elinor's account."</p>
+
+<p>She laid the covering wrapper over the dresses with
+an air of pride and confidence which was remembered
+long afterwards&mdash;as the pride that goeth before a fall by
+some, but by others with more sympathy, who guessed
+the secret workings of the mother's heart.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Time went on quickly enough amid all these preparations
+and the little attendant excitements of letters,
+congratulations, and presents which came in on every
+side. Elinor complained mildly of the fuss, but it was
+a new and far from unpleasant experience. She liked
+to have the packets brought in by the post, or the
+bigger boxes that arrived from the station, and to open
+them and produce out of the wadding or the saw-dust
+one pretty thing after another. At first it was altogether
+fresh and amusing, this new kind of existence,
+though after a while she grew <i>blas&eacute;e</i>, as may be supposed.
+Lady Mariamne's present she was a little
+ashamed of: not that she cared much, but because of
+the look on her mother's face when those inferior articles
+were unpacked; and at the ring which old Lord
+St. Serf sent her she laughed freely.</p>
+
+<p>"I will put it with my own little old baby rings in
+this little silver tray, and they will all look as if they
+were antiques, or something worth looking at," said
+Elinor. Happily there were other people who endowed
+her more richly with rings fit for a bride to wear. The
+relations at a distance were more or less pleased with
+Elinor's prospects. A few, indeed, from different parts
+of the world wrote in the vein of Elinor's home-advisers,
+hoping that it was not the Mr. Compton who was
+so well known as a betting man whom she was going
+to marry; but the fact that she was marrying into a noble
+family, and would henceforward be known as the
+Honourable Mrs. Compton, mollified even these critics.
+Only three brothers&mdash;one a great invalid, and two soldiers&mdash;between
+him and the title. Elinor's relations
+promptly inaugurated in their imaginations a great war,
+in which two noble regiments were cut to pieces, to dispose
+of the two Captains Compton; and as for the invalid,
+that he would obligingly die off was a contingency
+which nobody doubted&mdash;and behold Elinor
+Dennistoun Lady St. Serf! This greatly calmed criticism
+among her relations, who were all at a distance,
+and whose approval or disapproval did not much affect
+her spirits anyhow. John Tatham's father, Mrs. Dennistoun's
+cousin, was of more consequence, chiefly as
+being John's father, but also a little for himself, and it
+was remarked that he said not a word against the
+marriage, but sent a very handsome present, and many
+congratulations&mdash;chiefly inspired (but this Elinor did
+not divine) by an unfeigned satisfaction that it was not
+his son who was the bridegroom. Mr. Tatham, senr.,
+did not approve of early marriages for young men pushing
+their way at the bar, unless the bride was, so to
+speak, in the profession and could be of use to her husband.
+Even in such cases, the young man was better
+off without a wife, he was of opinion. How could he
+get up his cases properly if he had to drag about in
+society at the tail of a gay young woman? Therefore
+he sent Elinor a very nice present in gratitude to her
+and providence. She was a danger removed out of his
+boy's way.</p>
+
+<p>All this kept a cheerful little commotion about the
+house, and often kept the mother and daughter from
+thinking more than was good for them. These extraneous
+matters did not indeed preserve Elinor altogether
+from the consciousness that her <i>fianc&eacute;'s</i> letters were very
+short and a little uncertain in their arrival, sometimes
+missing several days together, and generally written in
+a hurry to catch the post. But they kept Mrs. Dennistoun
+from remarking that fact, as otherwise she would
+have been sure to do. If any chill of disappointment
+was in Elinor's mind, she said to herself that men were
+generally bad correspondents, not like girls, who had
+nothing else to do, and other consolations of this kind,
+which to begin with beg the question, and show the
+beginning of that disenchantment which ought to be reserved
+at least for a later period. Elinor had already
+given up a good deal of her own ideal. She would not,
+as she said, put herself in competition with the grouse,
+she would not give him the choice between her and a
+cigar; but already the consciousness that he preferred
+the grouse, and even a cigar, to her society, had come an
+unwilling intruder into Elinor's mind. She would not
+allow to herself that she felt it in either case. She said
+to herself that she was proud of it, that it showed the
+freedom and strength of a man, and that love was only
+one of many things which occupied his life. She rebelled
+against the other deduction that "'tis woman's
+sole existence," protesting loudly (to herself) that she
+too had a hundred things to do, and did not want him
+always at her apron-strings like a tame curate. But as
+a matter of fact, no doubt the girl would have been
+flattered and happy had he been more with her. The
+time was coming very quickly in which they should be
+together always, even when there was grouse in hand,
+when his wife would be invited with him, and all things
+would be in common between them; so what did it
+matter for a few days? The marriage was fixed for
+the 16th of September, and that great date was now
+scarcely a fortnight off. The excitement quickened as
+everything grew towards this central point. Arrangements
+had to be made about the wedding breakfast and
+where the guests were to be placed. The Hudsons had
+put their spare rooms at the disposition of the Cottage,
+and so had the Hills. The bridegroom was to stay at
+the Rectory. Lady Mariamne must of course, Mrs.
+Dennistoun felt, be put up at the Cottage, where the two
+rooms on the ground floor&mdash;what were called the gentlemen's
+rooms&mdash;had to be prepared to receive her. It
+was with a little awe indeed that the ladies of the Cottage
+endeavoured, by the aid of Elinor's recollections, to
+come to an understanding of what a fine lady would want
+even for a single night. Mrs. Dennistoun's experiences
+were all old-fashioned, and of a period when even great
+ladies were less luxurious than now; and it made her a
+little angry to think how much more was required for
+her daughter's future sister-in-law than had been necessary
+to herself. But after all, what had herself to do
+with it? The thing was to do Elinor credit, and make
+the future sister-in-law perceive that the Cottage was
+no rustic establishment, but one in which it was known
+what was what, and all the requirements of the most refined
+life. Elinor's bridesmaid, Mary Tatham, was to
+have the spare room up-stairs, and some other cousins,
+who were what Mrs. Dennistoun called "quiet people,"
+were to receive the hospitalities of the Hills, whose
+house was roomy and old-fashioned. Thus the arrangements
+of the crisis were more or less settled and everything
+made smooth.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor and her mother were seated together in the
+drawing-room on one of those evenings of which Mrs.
+Dennistoun desired to make the most, as they would be
+the last, but which, as they actually passed, were&mdash;if
+not occupied with discussions of how everything was
+to be arranged, which they went over again and again
+by instinct as a safe subject&mdash;heavy, almost dull, and
+dragged sadly over the poor ladies whose hearts were
+so full, but to whom to be separated, though it would
+be bitter, would also at the same time almost be a relief.
+They had been silent for some time, not because
+they had not plenty to say, but because it was so difficult
+to say it without awaking too much feeling. How
+could they talk of the future in which one of them
+would be away in strange places, exposed to the risks
+and vicissitudes of a new life, and one of them be left
+alone in the unbroken silence, sitting over the fire,
+with nothing but that blaze to give her any comfort?
+It was too much to think of, much more to talk about,
+though it need not be said that it was in the minds of
+both&mdash;with a difference, for Elinor's imagination was
+most employed upon the brilliant canvas where she herself
+held necessarily the first place, with a sketch of her
+mother's lonely life, giving her heart a pang, in the distance;
+while Mrs. Dennistoun could not help but see
+the lonely figure in her own foreground, against the
+brightness of all the entertainments in which Elinor
+should appear as a queen. They were sitting thus, the
+mother employed at some fine needlework for the
+daughter, the daughter doing little, as is usual nowadays.
+They had been talking over Lady Mariamne and
+her requirements again, and had come to an end of that
+subject. What a pity that it was so hard to open the
+door of their two hearts, which were so close together,
+so that each might see all the tenderness and compunction
+in the other; the shame and sorrow of the mother
+to grudge her child's happiness, the remorse and
+trouble of the child to be leaving that mother out in
+all her calculations for the future! How were they to
+do it on either side? They could not talk, these poor
+loving women, so they were mostly silent, saying a word
+or two at intervals about Mrs. Dennistoun's work (which
+of course, was for Elinor), or of Elinor's village class
+for sewing, which was to be transferred to her mother,
+skirting the edges of the great separation which could
+neither be dismissed nor ignored.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Elinor looked up, holding up her finger.
+"What was that?" she said. "A step upon the
+gravel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, child. If we were to listen to all these
+noises of the night there would always be a step
+upon<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Oh! I think I did hear something."</p>
+
+<p>"It is someone coming to the door," said Elinor,
+rising up with that sudden prevision of trouble which
+is so seldom deceived.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go, Elinor; don't go. It might be a tramp;
+wait at least till they knock at the door."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it can be a tramp, mamma. It
+may be a telegram. It is coming straight up to the
+door."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be the parcel porter from the station. He
+is always coming and going, though I never knew him
+so late. Pearson is in the house, you know. There is
+not any cause to be alarmed."</p>
+
+<p>"Alarmed!" said Elinor, with a laugh of excitement;
+"but I put more confidence in myself than in
+Pearson, whoever it may be."</p>
+
+<p>She stood listening with a face full of expectation,
+and Mrs. Dennistoun put down her work and listened
+too. The step advanced lightly, scattering the gravel,
+and then there was a pause as if the stranger had
+stopped to reconnoitre. Then came a knock at the
+window, which could only have been done by a tall
+man, and the hearts of the ladies jumped up, and then
+seemed to stop beating. To be sure, there were bolts
+and bars, but Pearson was not much good, and the
+house was full of valuables and very lonely. Mrs. Dennistoun
+rose up, trembling a little, and went forward
+to the window, bidding Elinor go back and keep quite
+quiet. But here they were interrupted by a voice
+which called from without, with another knock on the
+window, "Nell! Nell!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is Phil," said Elinor, flying to the door.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun sat down again and said nothing.
+Her heart sank in her breast. She did not know what
+she feared; perhaps that he had come to break off the
+marriage, perhaps to hurry it and carry her child away.
+There was a pause as was natural at the door, a murmur
+of voices, a fond confusion of words, which made
+it clear that no breach was likely, and presently after
+that interval, Elinor came back beaming, leading her
+lover. "Here is Phil," she said, in such liquid tones
+of happiness as filled her mother with mingled pleasure,
+gratitude, and despite. "He has found he had a
+day or two to spare, and he has rushed down here, fancy,
+with an apology for not letting us know!"</p>
+
+<p>"She thinks everyone is like herself, Mrs. Dennistoun,
+but I am aware that I am not such a popular
+personage as she thinks me, and you have least reason of
+all to approve of the man who is coming to carry her
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to see you, Mr. Compton," she said,
+gravely, giving him her hand.</p>
+
+<p>The Hon. Philip Compton was a very tall man, with
+very black hair. He had fine but rather hawk-like
+features, a large nose, a complexion too white to be
+agreeable, though it added to his romantic appearance.
+There was a furtive look in his big dark eyes, which
+had a way of surveying the country, so to speak, before
+making a reply to any question, like a man whose response
+depended upon what he saw. He surveyed Mrs.
+Dennistoun in this way while she spoke; but then he
+took her hand, stooped his head over it, and kissed it,
+not without grace. "Thank you very much for that,"
+he said, as if there had been some doubt on his mind
+about his reception. "I was glad enough to get the
+opportunity, I can tell you. I've brought you some
+birds, Mrs. Dennistoun, and I hope you'll give me some
+supper, for I'm as hungry as a hawk. And now, Nell,
+let's have a look at you," the lover said. He was
+troubled by no false modesty. As soon as he had paid
+the required toll of courtesy to the mother, who naturally
+ought to have at once proceeded to give orders
+about his supper, he held Elinor at arm's length before
+the lamp, then, having fully inspected her appearance,
+and expressed by a "Charming, by Jove!" his opinion
+of it, proceeded to demonstrations which the presence
+of the mother standing by did not moderate. There
+are few mothers to whom it would be agreeable to see
+their child engulfed in the arms of a large and strong
+man, and covered with his bold kisses. Mrs. Dennistoun
+was more fastidious even than most mothers, and
+to her this embrace was a sort of profanation. The
+Elinor who had been guarded like a flower from every
+contact&mdash;to see her gripped in his arms by this stranger,
+made her mother glow with an indignation which
+she knew was out of the question, yet felt to the bottom
+of her soul. Elinor was abashed before her mother,
+but she was not angry. She forced herself from his
+embrace, but her blushing countenance was full of happiness.
+What a revolution had thus taken place in a
+few minutes! They had been so dull sitting there
+alone; alone, though each with the other who had
+filled her life for more than twenty years; and now all
+was lightened, palpitating with life. "Be good, sir,"
+said Elinor, pushing him into a chair as if he had been
+a great dog, "and quiet and well-behaved; and then
+you shall have some supper. But tell us first where
+you have come from, and what put it into your head to
+come here."</p>
+
+<p>"I came up direct from my brother Lomond's shooting-box.
+Reply No. 1. What put it into my head to
+come? Love, I suppose, and the bright eyes of a certain
+little witch called Nell. I ought to have been in
+Ireland for a sort of a farewell visit there; but when I
+found I could steal two days, you may imagine I knew
+very well what to do with them. Eh? Oh, it's mamma
+that frightens you, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"It is kind of you to give Elinor two days when you
+have so many other engagements," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+turning away.</p>
+
+<p>But he was not in the least abashed. "Yes isn't it?"
+he said; "my last few days of freedom. I consider I
+deserve the prize for virtue&mdash;to cut short my very last
+rampage; and she will not as much as give me a kiss!
+I think she is ashamed before you, Mrs. Dennistoun."</p>
+
+<p>"It would not be surprising if she were," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun, gravely. "I am old-fashioned, as you may
+perceive."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you don't need to tell me that," said he; "one
+can see it with half an eye. Come here, Nell, you little
+coquette: or I shall tell the Jew you were afraid of
+mamma, and you will never hear an end of it as long as
+you live."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, I think you had better see, perhaps, what
+there is to make up as good a meal as possible for Mr.
+Compton," said her mother, sitting down opposite to
+the stranger, whose long limbs were stretched over half
+the floor, with the intention of tripping up Elinor, it
+seemed; but she glided past him and went on her way&mdash;not
+offended, oh, not at all&mdash;waving her hand to him
+as she avoided the very choice joke of his stretched-out
+foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Compton," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "you will be
+Elinor's husband in less than a fortnight."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," he said, displaying the large cavern of a
+yawn under his black moustache as he looked her in the
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"And after that I will have no right to interfere; but,
+in the meantime, this is my house, and I hope you will
+remember that these ways are not mine, and that I am
+too old-fashioned to like them. I prefer a little more
+respect to your betrothed."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, respect," he said. "I have never found that
+girls like too much respect. But as you please. Well,
+look here, Nell," he said, catching her by the arm as she
+came back and swinging her towards him, "your mother
+thinks I'm too rough with you, my little dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you, mamma?" said Elinor, faltering a little;
+but she had the sweetest rose-flush on her cheeks and
+the moisture of joy in her eyes. In all her twenty-three
+years she had never looked as she looked now. Her
+life had been a happy one, but not like this. She had
+been always beloved, and never had known for a day
+what it was to be neglected; yet love had never appeared
+to her as it did now, so sweet, nor life so beautiful.
+What strange delusion! what a wonderful incomprehensible
+mistake! or so at least the mother thought, looking
+at her beautiful girl with a pang at her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"It is only his bad manners," said Elinor, in a voice
+which sounded like a caress. "He knows very well
+how to behave. He can be as nice as any one, and as
+pretty spoken, and careful not to offend. It is only arriving
+so suddenly, and not being expected&mdash;or that he
+has forgotten his nice manners to-night. Phil, do you
+hear what I say?"</p>
+
+<p>Phil made himself into the semblance of a dog, and
+sat up and begged for pardon. It was a trick which
+made people "shriek with laughing;" but Mrs. Dennistoun's
+gravity remained unbroken. Perhaps her extreme
+seriousness had something in it that was rather
+ridiculous too. It was a relief when he went off to his
+supper, attended by Elinor, and Mrs. Dennistoun was
+left alone over her fire. She had a slight sense that she
+had been absurd, as well as that Philip Compton had
+lacked breeding, which did not make her more comfortable.
+Was it possible that she would be glad when it
+was all over, and her child gone&mdash;her child gone, and
+with that man! Her child, her little delicately bred,
+finely nurtured girl, who had been wrapped in all the
+refinements of life from her cradle, and had never heard
+a rough word, never been allowed to know anything that
+would disturb her virginal calm!&mdash;yet now in a moment
+passed away beyond her mother to the unceremonious
+wooer who had no reverence for her, none of the worship
+her mother expected. How strange it was! Yet
+a thing that happened every day. Mrs. Dennistoun sat
+over the fire, though it was not cold, and listened to the
+voices and laughter in the next room. How happy they
+were to be together! She did not, however, dwell upon
+the fact that she was alone and deserted, as many women
+would have done. She knew that she would have plenty
+of time to dwell on this in the lonely days to come.
+What occupied her was the want of more than manners,
+of any delicate feeling in the lover who had seized with
+rude caresses upon Elinor in her mother's presence, and
+the fact that Elinor did not object, nor dislike that
+it should be so. That she should feel forlorn was
+no wonderful thing; that did not disturb her mind.
+It was the other matter about Elinor that pained
+and horrified her, she could not tell why; which, perhaps,
+was fantastic, which, indeed, she felt sure must
+be so.</p>
+
+<p>They were so long in the dining-room, where Compton
+had his supper, that when that was over it was time to
+go to bed. Still talking and laughing as if they could
+never exhaust either the fountain of talk or the mirth,
+which was probably much more sheer pleasure in their
+meeting than genuine laughter produced by any wit or
+<i>bon mot</i>, they came out into the passage, and stood by
+Mrs. Dennistoun and the housemaid, who had brought
+her the keys and was now fastening the hall door. A
+little calendar hung on the wall beneath the lamp, and
+Phil Compton walked up to it and with a laugh read
+out the date. "Sixth September," he said, and turned
+round to Elinor. "Only ten days more, Nell." The
+housemaid stooping down over the bolt blushed and
+laughed too under her breath in sympathy; but Mrs.
+Dennistoun turning suddenly round caught Compton's
+eye. Why had he given that keen glance about him?
+There was nothing to call for his usual survey of the
+company in that sentiment. He might have known well
+enough what were the feelings he was likely to call forth.
+A keen suspicion shot through her mind. Suspicion of
+what? She could not tell. There was nothing that was
+not most natural in his sudden arrival, the delightful
+surprise of his coming, his certainty of a good reception.
+The wonder was that he had come so little, not that he
+should come now.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning the visitor made himself very agreeable:
+his raptures were a little calmed. He talked over
+all the arrangements, and entered into everything with
+the interest of a man to whom that great day approaching
+was indeed the greatest day in his life. And it
+turned out that he had something to tell which was of
+practical importance. "I may relieve your mind about
+Nell's money," he said, "for I believe my company is
+going to be wound up. We'll look out for another investment
+which will pay as well and be less risky. It
+has been found not to be doing quite so well as was
+thought, so we're going to wind up."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you have not lost anything," said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing to speak of," he said, carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not fond of speculative companies. I am glad
+you are done with it," Mrs. Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+<p>"And I'm glad to be done with it. I shall look
+out for something permanent and decline joint-stock
+companies. I thought you would like to know. But
+that is the last word I shall say about business. Come,
+Nell, I have only one day; let's spend it in the
+woods."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor, who felt that the day in the woods was far
+more important than any business, hurried to get her
+hat and follow him to the door. It chanced to her to
+glance at the calendar as she passed hastily out to where
+he stood awaiting her in the porch. Why that should
+have happened to anyone in the Cottage twice in the
+twenty-four hours is a coincidence which I cannot explain,
+but so it was. Her eye caught the little white
+plaque in passing, and perceived with surprise that it
+had moved up two numbers, and that it was the figure
+8 which was marked upon it now.</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot have slept through a day and night," she
+said, laughing as she joined him. "The calendar says
+the eighth September now."</p>
+
+<p>"But I arrived on the sixth," he said. "Mind that,
+Nell, whatever happens. You saw it with your own
+eyes. It may be of consequence to remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Of what consequence could it be?" said Elinor,
+wondering.</p>
+
+<p>"One can never tell. The only thing is I arrived on
+the sixth&mdash;that you know. And, Nell, my darling, supposing
+any fellow should inquire too closely into my
+movements, you'll back me up, won't you, and agree in
+everything I say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who should inquire into your movements? There
+is no one here who would be so impertinent, Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he said, "there is never any telling how impertinent
+people may be."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is there in your movements that any one
+dare inquire about? I hope you are not ashamed of
+coming to see me."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just what is the saving of me, Nell. I can't
+explain what I mean now, but I will later on. Only
+mind you don't contradict me if we should meet any inquisitive
+person. I arrived on the sixth, and you'll back
+me like my true love in everything I say."</p>
+
+<p>"As far as&mdash;as I know, Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we must have no conditions. You must stand
+by me in everything I say."</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>This day in the copse was one that Elinor never forgot.
+At the moment it seemed to her the most blissful
+period of all her life. There had been times in which
+she had longed that Phil knew more and cared more
+for the objects which had always been most familiar,
+and told for most in her own existence&mdash;although it is
+true that at first his very ignorance, real or assumed,
+his careless way of treating all intellectual subjects, his
+indifference to books and pictures, and even nature,
+had amused and pleased her, giving a piquancy to the
+physical strength and enjoying manhood, the perpetual
+activity and state of doing something in which he was.
+It was not a kind of life which she had ever known before,
+and it dazzled her with its apparent freedom and fulness,
+the variety in it, the constant movement, the crowd
+of occupations and people. To her who had been used to
+finding a great deal of her amusement in reading, in
+sketching (not very well), in playing (tunes), and generally
+practising with very moderate success arts for which she
+had no individual enthusiasm, it had seemed like a new
+life to be plunged into the society of horses and dogs,
+into the active world which was made up of a round of
+amusements, race meetings, days on the river, follies of
+every conceivable kind, exercise, and air, and movement.
+The ignorance of all these people dazzled her as if it had
+been a new science. It had seemed something wonderful
+and piquant to Elinor to find people who knew so
+much of subjects she had never heard of, and nothing
+at all of those she had been trained to know. And then
+there had come a moment when she had begun to sigh
+under her breath, as it were, and wish that Phil would
+sometimes open a book, that when he took up the
+newspaper he would look at something more than the
+sporting news and the bits of gossip, that he would talk
+now and then of something different from the racings
+and the startings, and the odds, and the scrapes other
+men got into, and the astonishing "frocks" of the Jew&mdash;those
+things, so wonderful at first, like a new language,
+absurd, yet amusing, came to be a little tiresome,
+especially when scraps of them made up the bulk of the
+very brief letters which Phil scribbled to his betrothed.
+But during this day, after his unexpected arrival, the joy
+of seeing him suddenly, the pleasure of feeling that he
+had broken through all his engagements to come to her,
+and the fervour of his satisfaction in being with her again
+(that very fervour which shocked her mother), Elinor's
+first glow of delight in her love came fully back. And as
+they wandered through the pleasant paths of the copse,
+his very talk seemed somehow changed, and to have
+gained just that little mingling of perception of her
+tastes and wishes which she had desired. There was a
+little autumnal mist about the softening haze which
+was not decay, but only the "mellow fruitfulness" of
+the poet; and the day, notwithstanding this, was as
+warm as June, the sky blue, with only a little white
+puff of cloud here and there. Phil paused to look down
+the combe, with all the folds of the downs that wrapped
+it about, going off in blue outlines into the distance,
+and said it was "a jolly view"&mdash;which amused Elinor
+more than if he had used the finest language, and
+showed that he was beginning (she thought) to care a
+little for the things which pleased her. "And I suppose
+you could see a man coming by that bit of road."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Elinor, "you could see a man coming&mdash;or
+going: but, unless you were to make believe very
+strong, like the Marchioness, you could not make out
+who the man was."</p>
+
+<p>"What Marchioness?" said Phil. "I didn't know
+you had anybody with a title about here. I say, Nell,
+it's a very jolly view, but hideously dull for you, my
+pet, to have lived so long here."</p>
+
+<p>"I never found it in the least dull," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, there is nothing to do! I suppose you read
+books, eh? That's what you call amusing yourself.
+You ought to have made the old lady take you about a
+deal, abroad, and all over the place: but I expect you
+have never stood up for yourself a bit, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call mamma the old lady, Phil. She is not
+old, and far prettier than most people I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she should have done it for herself. Might
+have picked up a good match, eh? a father-in-law that
+would have left you a pot of money. You don't mean
+to say you wouldn't have liked that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil, Phil! I wish you could understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, I'll let the old girl alone." And then
+came the point at which Phil improved so much. "Tell
+me what you've been reading last," he said. "I should
+like to know what you are thinking about, even if I
+don't understand it myself. I say, Nell, who do you
+think that can be dashing so fast along the road?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the people at Reddown," she said. "I know
+their white horses. They always dash along as if they
+were in the greatest hurry. Do you really want to
+know what I have been reading, Phil? though it is very
+little, I fear, because of the dressmakers and&mdash;all the
+other things."</p>
+
+<p>"You see," he said, "when you have lots to do you
+can't keep up with your books: which is the reason
+why I never pretend to read&mdash;I have no time."</p>
+
+<p>"You might find a little time. I have seen you look
+very much bored, and complain that there was nothing
+to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Never when you were there, Nell, that I'll answer
+for&mdash;but of course there are times when a fellow isn't
+doing anything much. What would you have me read?
+There's always the <i>Sporting and Dramatic</i>, you know,
+the <i>Pink 'un</i>, and a few more."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil! you don't call them literature, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know much about what you call literature.
+There's Ruff, and Hoyle, and&mdash;I say, Nell, there's a dog-cart
+going a pace! Who can that be, do you suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know all the dog-carts about. I should
+think it was some one coming from the station."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" he said, and made a long pause. "Driving
+like that, if they don't break their necks, they should
+be here in ten minutes or so."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not for twice that time&mdash;the road makes such
+a round&mdash;but there is no reason to suppose that any
+dog-cart from the station should be coming here."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, to return to the literature, as you call it. I
+suppose I shall have to get a lot of books for you to
+keep you amused&mdash;eh, Nell? even in the honeymoon."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall not have time to read very much if we are
+moving about all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Not me, but you. I know what you'll do. You'll
+go and leave me planted, and run up-stairs to read your
+book. I've seen the Jew do it with some of her confounded
+novels that she's always wanting to turn over
+to me."</p>
+
+<p>"But there are some novels that you would like to
+read, Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit. Why, Nell, I know far better stories of
+fellows in our own set than any novel these writing men
+ever can put on paper: fellows, and women, too&mdash;stories
+that would make your hair stand on end, and that would
+make you die with laughing. You can't think what lots
+I know. That cart would have been here by this time
+if it had been coming here, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, not yet&mdash;the road makes such a long round.
+Do you expect any one, Phil?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't quite know; there's something on at that
+confounded office of ours; everything, you know, has
+gone to smash. I didn't think it well to say too much
+to the old lady last night. There's been a regular row,
+and the manager's absconded, and all turns on whether
+they can find some books. I shouldn't wonder if one
+of the fellows came down here, if they find out where I
+am. I say, Nell, mind you back me up whatever I say."</p>
+
+<p>"But I can't possibly know anything about it," said
+Elinor, astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind&mdash;about dates and that&mdash;if you don't
+stand by me, there may be a fuss, and the wedding delayed.
+Remember that, my pet, the wedding delayed&mdash;that's
+what I want to avoid. Now, come, Nell, let's
+have another go about the books. All English, mind
+you. I won't buy you any of the French rot. They're
+too spicy for a little girl like you."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you mean, Phil. I hope you
+don't think that I read nothing but novels," Elinor
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing but novels! Oh, if you go in for mathematics
+and that sort of thing, Nell! the novels are too
+deep for me. Don't say poetry, if you love me. I could
+stand most things from you, Nell, you little darling&mdash;but,
+Nell, if you come spouting verses all the time<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>His look of horror made Elinor laugh. "You need
+not be afraid. I never spout verses," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along this way a little, where we can see the
+road. All women seem to like poetry. There's a few
+fellows I don't mind myself. Ingoldsby, now that's
+something fine. We had him at school, and perhaps
+it was the contrast from one's lessons. Do you know
+Ingoldsby, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>"A&mdash;little&mdash;I have read some<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you like the sentimental best. There's Whyte
+Melville, then, there's always something melancholy
+about him&mdash;'When the old horse died,' and that sort of
+thing&mdash;makes you cry, don't you know. You all like
+that. Certainly, if that dog-cart had been coming here
+it must have come by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it must have come," Elinor admitted, with a
+little wonder at the importance which he gave to this
+possible incident. "But there is another train at two
+if you are very anxious to see this man."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not anxious to see him," said Mr. Compton,
+with a laugh, "but probably he will want to see me.
+No, Nell, you will not expect me to read poetry to you
+while we're away. There's quite a library at Lomond's
+place. You can amuse yourself there when I'm shooting;
+not that I shall shoot much, or anything that takes
+me away from my Nell. But you must come out with
+us. There is no such fun as stumping over the moors&mdash;the
+Jew has got all the turn-out for that sort of thing&mdash;short
+frocks and knickerbockers, and a duck of a little
+breech-loader. She thinks she's a great shot, poor
+thing, and men are civil and let her imagine that she's
+knocked over a pheasant or a hare, now and then. As for
+the partridges, she lets fly, of course, but to say she hits
+anything<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I should not want to hit anything," said Elinor.
+"Oh, please Phil! I will try anything else you like,
+but don't make me shoot."</p>
+
+<p>"You little humbug! See what you'll say when you
+get quite clear of the old lady. But I don't want you
+to shoot, Nell. If you don't get tired sitting at home,
+with all of us out on the hill, I like to come in for my
+part and find a little duck all tidy, not blowzy and
+blown about by the wind, like the Jew with her ridiculous
+bag, that all the fellows snigger at behind her
+back."</p>
+
+<p>"You should not let any fellow laugh at your sister,
+Phil<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, as for that! they are all as thick with her as I
+am, and why should I interfere? But I promise you
+nobody shall cut a joke upon my Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"I should hope not, indeed," said Elinor, indignant;
+"but as for your 'fellows,' Phil, as you call them, you
+mustn't be angry with me, but I don't much like those
+gentlemen; they are a little rude and rough. They
+shall not call me by my Christian name, or anything
+but my own formal<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Compton," he said, seizing her in his arms,
+"you little duck! they'll be as frightened of you as
+if you were fifty. But you mustn't spoil good company,
+Nell. I shall like you to keep them at a distance, but
+you mustn't go too far; and, above all, my pet, you
+mustn't put out the Jew. I calculate on being a lot
+there; they have a nice house and a good table, and all
+that, and Prestwich is glad of somebody to help about
+his horses. You mustn't set up any of your airs with
+the Jew."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you mean by my airs, Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I do, and they're delicious, Nell: half like
+a little girl and half like a queen: but it will never do
+to make the Jew feel small in her own set. Hallo!
+there's some one tumbling alone over the stones on that
+precious road of yours. I believe it's that cart from the
+station after all."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Elinor, "it is only one of the tradespeople.
+You certainly are anxious about those carts from the
+station, Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit!" he said, and then, after a moment, he
+added, "Yes, on the whole, I'd much rather the man
+came, if he's coming while I'm here, and while you are
+with me, Nell; for I want you to stick to me, and back
+me up. They might think I ought to go after that
+manager fellow and spoil the wedding. Therefore mind
+you back me up."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't think, dear Phil, what there is for me to do.
+I know nothing about the business nor what has happened.
+You never told me anything, and how can I
+back you up about things I don't know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, you can," he said, "you'll soon see if the
+fellow comes; just you stand by me, whatever I say.
+You mayn't know&mdash;or even I may seem to make a mistake;
+but you know me if you don't know the circumstances,
+and I hope you can trust me, Nell, that it will
+be all right."</p>
+
+<p>"But<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" said Elinor, confused.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go on with your buts; there's a darling,
+don't contradict me. There is nothing looks so silly to
+strangers as a woman contradicting every word a fellow
+says. I only want you to stand by me, don't you know,
+that's all; and I'll tell you everything about it after,
+when there's time."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me about it now," said Elinor; "you may
+be sure I shall be interested; there's plenty of time
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"Talk about business to you! when I've only a single
+day, and not half time enough, you little duck, to tell
+you what a darling you are, and how I count every
+hour till I can have you all to myself. Ah, Nell, Nell,
+if that day were only here<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>And then Phil turned to those subjects and those
+methods which cast so much confusion into the mind of
+Mrs. Dennistoun, when practised under her sedate and
+middle-aged eyes. But Elinor, as has been said, did
+not take exactly the same view.</p>
+
+<p>Presently they went to luncheon, and Phil secured
+himself a place at table commanding the road. "I
+never knew before how jolly it was," he said, "though
+everything is jolly here. And that peep of the road
+must give you warning when any invasion is coming."</p>
+
+<p>"It is too far off for that," said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, not for sharp eyes. Nell there told me who
+several people were&mdash;those white horses&mdash;the people at&mdash;where
+did you say, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Reddown, mamma&mdash;the Philistines, as you call
+them, that are always dashing about the country&mdash;<i>nouveaux
+riches</i>, with the finest horses in the county."</p>
+
+<p>"I like the <i>nouveaux riches</i> for that," said Phil (he
+did not go wrong in his French, which was a great consolation
+to Elinor), "they like to have the best of everything.
+Your poor swell has to take what he can get,
+but the <i>parvenu's</i> the man in these days; and then
+there was a dog-cart, which she pronounced to be from
+the station, but which turned out to be the butcher, or
+the baker, or the candle-stick maker<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"It is really too far off to make sure of anything, except
+white horses."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there's no mistaking them. I see something
+sweeping along, but that's a country wagon, I suppose.
+It gives me a great deal of diversion to see the people
+on the road&mdash;which perhaps you will think a vulgar
+amusement."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said Mrs. Dennistoun, politely, but she
+thought within herself how empty the brain must be
+which sought diversion from the distant carriages passing
+two miles off: to be sure across the combe, as the
+crow flies, it was not a quarter part so far as that.</p>
+
+<p>"Phil thinks some one may possibly come to him on
+business&mdash;to explain things," said Elinor, anxious on
+her part to make it clear that it was not out of mere
+vacancy that her lover had watched so closely the carriages
+on the road.</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately, there is something like a smash," he
+said; "they'll keep it out of the papers if they can, but
+you may see it in the papers; the manager has run
+away, and there's a question about some books. I don't
+suppose you would understand&mdash;they may come to me
+here about it, or they may wait till I go back to town."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were going to Ireland, Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"So I shall, probably, just for three days&mdash;to fill up
+the time. One wants to be doing something to keep
+one's self down. You can't keep quiet and behave yourself
+when you are going to be married in a week: unless
+you're a little chit of a girl without any feelings,"
+he said with a laugh. And Elinor laughed too; while
+Mrs. Dennistoun sat as grave as a judge at the head of
+the table. But Phil was not daunted by her serious
+face: so long as the road was quite clear he had all the
+appearance of a perfectly easy mind.</p>
+
+<p>"We have been talking about literature," he said.
+"I am a stupid fellow, as perhaps you know, for that
+sort of thing. But Nell is to indoctrinate me. We
+mean to take a big box of books, and I'm to be made to
+read poetry and all sorts of fine things in my honeymoon."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a new idea," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "I
+thought Elinor meant to give up reading, on the other
+hand, to make things square."</p>
+
+<p>There was a little breath of a protest from Elinor.
+"Oh, mamma!" but she left the talk (he could do it so
+much better) in Compton's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect to figure as a sort of prodigy in my family,"
+he said; "we're not bookish. The Jew goes in for
+French novels, but I don't intend to let Nell touch
+them, so you may be easy in your mind."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt Lady Mariamne makes a good selection,"
+said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"Not she! she reads whatever comes, and the more
+salt the better. The Jew is quite an emancipated person.
+Don't you think she'll bore you rather in this
+little house? She carries bales of rubbish with her
+wherever she goes, and her maid, and her dog, and I
+don't know what. If I were you I'd write, or better
+wire, and tell her there's a capital train from Victoria
+will bring her here in time for the wedding, and that
+it's a thousand pities she should disturb herself to come
+for the night."</p>
+
+<p>"If your sister can put up with my small accommodation,
+I shall of course be happy to have her, whatever
+she brings with her," Mrs. Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! it's not a question of putting up&mdash;she'd be
+delighted, I'm sure: but I think you'll find her a great
+bore. She is exceedingly fussy when she has not all
+her things about her. However, you must judge for
+yourself. But if you think better of it, wire a few
+words, and it'll be all right. I'm to go to the old Rectory,
+Nell says."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a particularly old Rectory; it is a very
+nice, pleasant house. I think you will find yourself
+quite comfortable&mdash;you and the gentleman<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Dick Bolsover, who is going to see me through it:
+and I daresay I should not sleep much, if I were in the
+most luxurious bed in the world. They say a man who
+is going to be hanged sleeps like a top, but I don't
+think I shall; what do you say, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, I should think, could have no opinion on
+the subject," said Mrs. Dennistoun, pale with anger.
+"You will all dine here, of course. Some other friends
+are coming, and a cousin, Mr. Tatham, of Tatham's
+Cross."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that," said Phil, "the Cousin John?"</p>
+
+<p>"John, I am sorry to say, is abroad; the long vacation
+is the worst time. It is his father who is coming,
+and his sister, Mary Tatham, who is Elinor's bridesmaid&mdash;she
+and Miss Hudson at the Rectory."</p>
+
+<p>"Only two; and very sensible, instead of the train
+one sees, all thinking how best to show themselves off.
+Dick Bolsover is man enough to tackle them both. He
+expects some fun, I can tell you. What is there to be
+after we are gone, Nell?" He stopped and looked
+round with a laugh. "Rather close quarters for a ball,"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>"There will be no ball. You forget that when you
+take Elinor away I shall be alone. A solitary woman
+living in a cottage, as you remark, does not give balls.
+I am much afraid that there will be very little fun for
+your friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he'll amuse himself well enough; he's the sort
+of fellow who always makes himself at home. A Rectory
+will be great fun for him; I don't suppose he was
+ever in one before, unless perhaps when he was a boy
+at school. Yes, as you say&mdash;what a lot of trouble it
+will be for you to be sure: not as if Nell had a sister
+to enjoy the fun after. It's a thousand pities you did
+not decide to bring her up to town, and get us shuffled
+off there. You might have got a little house for next
+to nothing at this time of the year, and saved all the
+row, turning everything upside down in this nice little
+place, and troubling yourself with visitors and so forth.
+But one always thinks of that sort of thing too late."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not have adopted such an expedient in any
+case. Elinor must be married among her own people,
+wherever her lot may be cast afterwards. Everybody
+here has known her ever since she was born."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that's a thing ladies think of, I suppose," said
+Compton. He had stuck his glass into his eye and was
+gazing out of the window. "Very jolly view," he continued.
+"And what's that, Nell, raising clouds of dust?
+I haven't such quick eyes as you."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think it must be a circus or a menagerie,
+or something, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "They sometimes
+come this way on the road to Portsmouth, and
+give little representations in all the villages, to the
+great excitement of the country folk."</p>
+
+<p>"We are the country folk, and I feel quite excited,"
+said Phil, dropping his glass. "Nell, if there's a representation,
+you and I will go to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil, what<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" Elinor was about to say folly:
+but she paused, seeing a look in his eye which she had
+already learned to know, and added "fun," in a voice
+which sounded almost like an echo of his own.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing like being out in the wilderness
+like this to make one relish a little fun, eh? I daresay
+you always go. The Jew is the one for every village
+fair within ten miles when she is in the country. She
+says they're better than any play. Hallo! what is
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is some one coming round the gravel path."</p>
+
+<p>A more simple statement could not be, but it made
+Compton strangely uneasy. He rose up hastily from
+the table. "It is, perhaps, the man I am looking for.
+If you'll permit me, I'll go and see."</p>
+
+<p>He went out of the room, calling Elinor by a look
+and slight movement of his head, but when he came
+out into the hall was met by a trim clerical figure and
+genial countenance, the benign yet self-assured looks
+of the Rector of the Parish: none other could this
+smiling yet important personage be.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The Rector came in with his smiling and rosy face.
+He was, as many of his parishioners thought, a picture
+of a country clergyman. Such a healthy colour, as clear
+as a girl's, limpid blue eyes, with very light eyelashes
+and eyebrows; a nice round face, "beautifully modelled,"
+according to Miss Sarah Hill, who did a little in
+that way herself, and knew how to approve of a Higher
+Sculptor's work. And then the neatest and blackest of
+coats, and the whitest and stiffest of collars. Mr. Hudson,
+I need scarcely say, was not so left to himself as to
+permit his clerical character to be divined by means of
+a white tie. He came in, as was natural among country
+neighbours, without thinking of any bell or knocker
+on the easily opened door, and was about to peep into
+the drawing-room with "Anybody in?" upon his smiling
+lips, when he saw a gentleman approaching, picking
+up his hat as he advanced. Mr. Hudson paused a moment
+in uncertainty. "Mr. Compton, I am sure," he
+said, holding out both of his plump pink hands. "Ah,
+Elinor too! I was sure I could not be mistaken. And
+I am exceedingly glad to make your acquaintance."
+He shook Phil's hand up and down in a sort of see-saw.
+"Very glad to make your acquaintance! though
+you are the worst enemy Windyhill has had for many a
+day&mdash;carrying off the finest lamb in all the fold."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'm a wolf, I suppose," said Phil. He went to
+the door and took a long look out while Elinor led the
+Rector into the drawing-room. Then Mr. Compton
+lounged in after them, with his hands in his pockets,
+and placed himself in the bow-window, where he could
+still see the white line across the combe of the distant
+road.</p>
+
+<p>"They'll think I have stolen a march upon them all,
+Elinor," said the Rector, "chancing upon Mr. Compton
+like this, a quite unexpected pleasure. I shall keep
+them on the tenterhooks, asking them whom they suppose
+I have met? and they will give everybody but the
+right person. What a thing for me to have been the
+first person to see your intended, my dear! and I congratulate
+you, Elinor," said the Rector, dropping his
+voice; "a fine handsome fellow, and such an air! You
+are a lucky girl&mdash;" he paused a little and said, with a
+slight hesitation, in a whisper, "so far as meets the
+eye."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Hudson, don't spoil everything," said Elinor,
+in the same tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I cannot tell, can I, my dear?&mdash;the first peep
+I have had." He cleaved his throat and raised his
+voice. "I believe we are to have the pleasure of entertaining
+you, Mr. Compton, on a certain joyful occasion
+(joyful to you, not to us). I need not say how pleased
+my wife and I and the other members of the family will
+be. There are not very many of us&mdash;we are only five
+in number&mdash;my son, and my daughter, and Miss Dale,
+my wife's sister, but much younger than Mrs. Hudson&mdash;who
+has done us the pleasure of staying with us for
+part of the year. I think she has met you somewhere,
+or knows some of your family, or&mdash;something. She is
+a great authority on noble families. I don't know
+whether it is because she has been a good deal in society,
+or whether it is out of Debrett<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Nell, come and tell me what this is," Compton
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil! it is nothing, it is a carriage. I don't
+know what it is. Be civil to the Rector, please."</p>
+
+<p>"So I am, perfectly civil."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not answered a single word, and he has
+been talking to you for ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, but he hasn't said anything that I can answer.
+He says Miss Something or other knows my family.
+Perhaps she does. Well, much good may it do her!
+but what can I say to that? I am sure I don't know
+hers. I didn't come here to be talked to by the Rector.
+Could we slip out and leave him with your
+mother? That would suit his book a great deal better.
+Come, let's go."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! he is speaking to you, Phil."</p>
+
+<p>Compton turned round and eyed the Rector. "Yes?"
+he said in so marked an interrogative that Mr. Hudson
+stopped short and flushed. He had been talking for
+some time.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I was not precisely asking a question," he
+said, in his quiet tones. "I was saying that we believe
+and hope that another gentleman is coming with you&mdash;for
+the occasion."</p>
+
+<p>"Dick Bolsover," said Compton, "a son of Lord
+Freshfield's; perhaps Miss <span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>, the lady you were talking
+of, may know his family too. His brother got a
+little talked of in that affair about Fille d'Or, don't you
+know, at Newmarket. But Dick is a rattling good
+fellow, doesn't race, and has no vices. He is coming to
+stand by me and see that all's right."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall be happy to see Mr. Bolsover, I am sure."
+The Rector rubbed his hands and said to himself with
+pleasure that two Honourables in his quiet house was
+something to think of, and that he hoped it would not
+turn the heads of the ladies, and make Alice expect&mdash;one
+couldn't tell what. And then he said, by way of
+changing yet continuing the subject, "I suppose you've
+been looking at the presents. Elinor must have shown
+you her presents."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, I never thought of the presents. Have
+you got a lot, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>"She has got, if I may be allowed to answer for her,
+having known her all her life, a great many pretty
+things, Mr. Compton. We are not rich, to be sure, her
+old friends here. We have to content ourselves with
+but a small token of a great deal of affection; but still
+there are a number of pretty things. Elinor, what were
+you thinking of, my dear, not to show Mr. Compton
+the little set out which you showed us? Come, I
+should myself like to look them over again."</p>
+
+<p>Phil gave another long look at the distant road, and
+then he thrust his arm into Elinor's and said, "To be
+sure, come along, Nell. It will be something to do."
+He did not wait for the Rector to pass first, which Elinor
+thought would have been better manners, but
+thrust her before him quite regardless of the older people.
+"Let's see the trumpery," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't use such a word, Phil: the Rector will be
+so hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, will he? did he work you an&mdash;antimacassar or
+something?"</p>
+
+<p>"Phil, speak low at least. No, but his daughter
+did; and they gave me<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I know: a cardcase or a button-hook, or something.
+And how many biscuit-boxes have you got, and clocks,
+and that sort of thing? I advise you to have an auction
+as soon as we get away. Hallo! that's a nice little
+thing; look pretty on your pretty white neck I should
+say, Nell. Who gave you that?" He took John's
+necklace out of its box where it had lain undisturbed
+until now, and pulled it through his fingers. "Cost a
+pretty bit of money that, I should say. You can raise
+the wind on it when we're down on our luck, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"My cousin John, whom you have heard me speak
+of, gave me that, Phil," said Elinor, with great gravity.
+She thought it necessary, she could scarcely tell why,
+to make a stand for her cousin John.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I thought it was one of the disappointed ones,"
+said Phil, flinging it back carelessly onto the bed of
+white velvet where it had been fitted so exactly.
+"That's how they show their spite; for of course I
+can't give you anything half as good as that."</p>
+
+<p>"There was no disappointment in the matter," said
+Elinor, almost angry with the misconceptions of her
+lover.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a nice one," said Compton, taking her by
+the chin, "to tell me! as if I didn't know the world a
+long sight better than you do, my little Nell."</p>
+
+<p>The Rector, who was following slowly, for he did not
+like to go up-stairs in a hurry, saw this attitude and
+drew back, a little scandalized. "Perhaps we were indiscreet
+to&mdash;to follow them too closely," he said, disconcerted.
+"Please to go in first, Mrs. Dennistoun&mdash;the
+young couple will not mind you."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hudson was prim; but he was rather pleased to
+see that "the young couple" were, as he said, so fond
+of each other. He went into the room under the protection
+of the mother&mdash;blushing a little. It reminded
+him, as he said afterwards, of his own young days; but
+it was only natural that he should walk up direct to the
+place where his kettle stood conspicuous, waiting only
+the spark of a match to begin to boil the water for the
+first conjugal tea. It appeared to him a beautiful idea
+as he put his head on one side and looked at it. It
+was like the inauguration of the true British fireside,
+the cosy privacy in which, after the man had done his
+work, the lady awaited him at home, with the tea-kettle
+steaming. A generation before Mr. Hudson there
+would have been a pair of slippers airing beside the
+fire. But neither of these preparations supply the
+ideal of perfect happiness now.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, where did you get these hideous things?"
+said Compton, approaching the table on which "the
+silver" was laid out. By a special dispensation it was
+Lady Mariamne's dishes which caught Phil's attention.
+"Some old grandmother, I suppose, that had 'em in
+the house. Hallo! if it isn't the Jew! Nell, you don't
+mean to tell me you got these horrors from the Jew?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are supposed to be&mdash;quite handsome," said
+Elinor, with a suppressed laugh. "We must not criticise.
+It is very kind of people to send presents at all.
+We all know it is a very severe tax&mdash;to those who have
+a great many friends<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"The stingy old miser," said Compton. "Rolling in
+money, and to send you these! By Jove! there's a
+neat little thing now that looks what it is; probably
+one of your nice country friends, Nell<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" (It was the
+kettle, as a kind Providence decreed; and both the
+ladies breathed an internal thanksgiving.) "Shows
+like a little gem beside that old, thundering, mean-spirited
+Jew!"</p>
+
+<p>"That," said the Rector, bridling a little and pink
+with pleasure, "is our little offering: and I'm delighted
+to think that it should please so good a judge. It was
+chosen with great care. I saw it first myself, and the
+idea flashed upon me&mdash;quite an inspiration&mdash;that it
+was the very thing for Elinor; and when I went home
+I told my wife&mdash;the very thing&mdash;for her boudoir,
+should she not be seeing company&mdash;or just for your
+little teas when you are by yourselves. I could at
+once imagine the dear girl looking so pretty in one of
+those wonderful white garments that are in the next
+room."</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo!" said Compton, with a laugh, "do you
+show off your things in this abandoned way, Nell, to
+the killingest old cov<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand up to his mouth with a cry of dismay
+and laughter, but the Rector, with a smile and another
+little blush, discreetly turned his back. He was
+truly glad to see that they were so fond of each other,
+and thought it was pretty and innocent that they should
+not mind showing it&mdash;but it was a little embarrassing
+for an old and prim clergyman to look on.</p>
+
+<p>"What a pleasure it must be to you, my dear lady,"
+he said when the young couple had gone: which took
+place very soon, for Phil soon grew tired of the presents,
+and he was ill at ease when there was no window
+from which he could watch the road&mdash;"what a pleasure
+to see them so much attached! Of course, family advantage
+and position is always of importance&mdash;but
+when you get devoted affection, too<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope there is devoted affection," said Mrs. Dennistoun;
+"at all events, there is what we are all united
+in calling 'love,' for the present. He is in love with
+Elinor&mdash;I don't think there can be much doubt of
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not of course know that he was here," said
+the Rector, with some hesitation. "I came with the
+intention of speaking&mdash;I am very sorry to see in the
+papers to-day something about that Joint-Stock Company
+of which Mr. Compton was a director. It's rather
+a mysterious paragraph: but it's something about the
+manager having absconded, and that some of the directors
+are said to be involved."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean my future son-in-law?" she said,
+turning quickly upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, no! I wouldn't for the world insinuate<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> It
+was only that one felt a desire to know. Just
+upon the eve of a marriage it's&mdash;it's alarming to hear
+of a business the bridegroom is involved in being&mdash;what
+you may call broken up."</p>
+
+<p>"That was one of the things Mr. Compton came to
+tell us about," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "He said he
+hoped it might be kept out of the papers, but that
+some of the books have got lost or destroyed. I am
+afraid I know very little about business. But he has
+lost very little&mdash;nothing to speak of&mdash;which was all
+that concerned me."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure," said the Rector, but in a tone not so
+assured as his words. "It is not perhaps quite a nice
+thing to be director of a company that&mdash;that collapses
+in this way. I fear some poor people will lose their
+money. I fear there will be things in the papers."</p>
+
+<p>"On what ground?" she said. "Oh, I don't deny
+there may be some one to blame; but Mr. Compton
+was, I suspect, only on the board for the sake of his
+name. He is not a business man. He did it, as so
+many do, for the sake of a pretence of being in something.
+And then, I believe, the directors got a little
+by it; they had a few hundreds a year."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure," said Mr. Hudson, but still doubtfully;
+and then he brightened up. "For my part, I don't
+believe there is a word of truth in it. Since I have
+seen him, indeed, I have quite changed my opinion&mdash;a
+fine figure of a man, looking an aristocrat every inch
+of him. Such a contrast and complement to our dear
+Elinor&mdash;and so fond of her. A man like that would
+never have a hand in any sham concern. If it was really
+a bogus company, as people say, he must be one of the
+sufferers. That is quite my decided opinion; only the
+ladies, you know&mdash;the ladies who have not seen him,
+and who are so much more suspicious by nature (I
+don't know that you are, my dear Mrs. Dennistoun),
+would give me no rest. They thought it was my
+duty to interfere. But I am sure they are quite
+wrong."</p>
+
+<p>To think that it was the ladies of the Rector's family
+who were interfering made Mrs. Dennistoun very wroth.
+"Next time they have anything to say, you should
+make them come themselves," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they would not do that. They say it is the
+clergyman's business, not theirs. Besides, you know, I
+have not time to read all the papers. We get the <i>Times</i>,
+and Mary Dale has the <i>Morning Post</i>, and another thing
+that is all about stocks and shares. She has such a
+head for business&mdash;far more than I can pretend to. She
+thought<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hudson, I fear I do not wish to know what
+was thought by Miss Dale."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you are, perhaps, right, Mrs. Dennistoun.
+She is only a woman, of course, and she may make
+mistakes. It is astonishing, though, how often she is
+right. She has a head for business that might do for a
+Chancellor of the Exchequer. She made me sell out
+my shares in that Red Gulch&mdash;those American investments
+have most horrible names&mdash;just a week before
+the smash came, all from what she had read in the
+papers. She knows how to put things together, you
+see. So I have reason to be grateful to her, for my
+part."</p>
+
+<p>"And what persuaded you, here at Windyhill, a
+quiet clergyman, to put money in any Red Gulch? It
+is a horrible name!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it was Mary, I suppose," said Mr. Hudson.
+"She is always looking out for new investments. She
+said we should all make our fortunes. We did not,
+unfortunately. But she is so clever, she got us out of
+it with only a very small loss indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt she is very clever. I wish, though, that
+she would let us know definitely on what ground<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there is no ground," cried the Rector. "Now
+that I have seen Mr. Compton I am certain of it. I
+said to her before I left the Rectory, 'Now, my dear
+Mary, I am going like a lamb to the slaughter. I have
+no reason to give if Mrs. Dennistoun should ask me,
+and you have no reason to give. And she will probably
+put me to the door.' If I said that before I started,
+you may fancy how much more I feel it now, when I
+have made Mr. Compton's acquaintance. A fine aristocratic
+face, and all the ease of high breeding. There
+are only three lives&mdash;and those not very good ones&mdash;between
+him and the title, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two robust brothers, and an invalid who will probably
+outlive them all; that is, I believe, the state of the
+case."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, what a pity!" said the Rector, "for our
+little Elinor would have made a sweet little Countess.
+She would grow a noble lady, like the one in Mr. Tennyson's
+poem. Well, now I must be going, and I am extremely
+glad to have been so lucky as to come in just
+in time. It has been the greatest pleasure to me to see
+them together&mdash;such a loving couple. Dear me, like
+what one reads about, or remembers in old days, not
+like the commonplace pairs one has to do with now."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun accompanied the Rector to the
+garden gate. She was half inclined to laugh and half
+to be angry, and in neither mood did Mr. Hudson's insinuations
+which he made so innocently have much
+effect upon her mind. But when she took leave of him
+at the gate and came slowly back among her brilliant
+flower-beds, pausing here and there mechanically to
+pick off a withered leaf or prop up the too heavy head
+of a late rose; her mind began to take another turn.
+She had always been conscious of an instinctive suspicion
+in respect to her daughter's lover. Probably
+only, she said to herself, because he was her daughter's
+lover, and she was jealous of the new devotion that
+withdrew from her so completely the young creature
+who had been so fully her own. That is a hard trial
+for a woman to undergo. It is only to be borne when
+she, too, is fascinated by her future son-in-law, as happens
+in some fortunate cases. Otherwise, a woman
+with an only child is an alarming critic to encounter.
+She was not fascinated at all by Phil. She was disappointed
+in Elinor, and almost thought her child not so
+perfect as she had believed, when it proved that she
+could be fascinated by this man. She disliked almost
+everything about him&mdash;his looks, the very air which the
+Rector thought so aristocratic, his fondness for Elinor,
+which was not reverential enough to please the mother,
+and his indifference, nay, contempt, for herself, which
+was not calculated to please any woman. She had been
+roused into defence of him in anger at the interference,
+and at the insinuation which had no proof; but as that
+anger died away, other thoughts came into her mind.
+She began to put the broken facts together which already
+had roused her to suspicion: his sudden arrival,
+so unexpected; walking from the station&mdash;a long, very
+long walk&mdash;carrying his own bag, which was a thing
+John Tatham did, but not like Phil Compton. And
+then she remembered, suddenly, his anxiety about the
+carriage on the distant road, his care to place himself
+where he could see it. She had thought with a little
+scorn that this was a proof of his frivolity, of the necessity
+of seeing people, whoever these people might be.
+But now there began to be in it something that could
+have a deeper meaning. For whom was he looking?
+Who might be coming? Stories she had heard of
+fugitives from justice, of swindlers taking refuge in the
+innocence of their families, came up into her mind.
+Could it be possible that Elinor's pure name could be
+entangled in such a guilty web as this?</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Funny old poop!" said Compton. "And that is
+your Rector, Nell. I shall tell Dick there's rare fun to
+be had in that house: but not for me. I know what I
+shall be thinking of all the time I'm there. Odious
+little Nell! to interfere like this with a fellow's fun.
+But I say, who's that woman who knows me or my
+family?&mdash;much good may it do her, as I said before.
+Tell me, Nell, did she speak ill of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil, how could you ask? or what would it
+matter if she spoke ever so ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"She did then," he said with a graver face. "Somebody
+was bound to do it. And what did she say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what does it matter, Phil? I don't remember;
+nothing of any consequence. We paid no attention, of
+course, neither mamma nor I."</p>
+
+<p>"That was plucky of the old girl," said Compton.
+"I didn't suppose you would give ear, my Nell. Ain't
+so sure about her. If I'd been your father, my pet, I
+should never have given you to Phil Compton. And
+that's the fact: I wonder if the old lady would like to
+reconsider the situation now."</p>
+
+<p>"Phil!" said Elinor, clinging to his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it would be best for you if you were to do
+so, Nell, or if she were to insist upon it. Eh! You
+don't know me, my darling, that's the fact. You're too
+good to understand us. We're all the same, from the
+old governor downwards&mdash;a bad lot. I feel a kind of
+remorseful over you, child, to-day. That rosy old bloke,
+though he's a snob, makes a man think of innocence
+somehow. I do believe you oughtn't to marry me,
+Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil! what do you mean? You cannot mean
+what you say."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I don't, or I shouldn't say it, Nell. I
+shouldn't certainly, if I thought you were likely to take
+my advice. It's a kind of luxury to tell you we're a
+bad lot, and bid you throw me over, when I know all
+along you won't."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think not indeed," she said, clinging to
+him and looking up in his face. "Do you know what
+my cous&mdash;I mean a friend, said to me on that subject?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean your cousin John, whom you are always
+quoting. Let's hear what the fellow said."</p>
+
+<p>"He said&mdash;that I wasn't a girl to put up with much,
+Phil. That I wasn't one of the patient kind, that I
+would not bear<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> I don't know what it was I would
+not bear; but you see you must consider my defects,
+which you can understand well enough, whether I can
+understand yours or not."</p>
+
+<p>"That you could not put up with&mdash;that you could
+not bear? that meant me, Nell. He had been talking
+to you on the same subject, me and my faults. Why
+didn't you listen to him? I suppose he wanted you to
+have him instead of me."</p>
+
+<p>"Phil! how dare you even think of such a thing? It
+is not true."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it? Then he is a greater fool than I took
+him for, and his opinion's no good. So you're a spitfire,
+are you? Can't put up with anything that doesn't
+suit you? I don't know that I should have found that
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid though that it is true," she said,
+half-laughingly looking up at him. "Perhaps you will
+want to reconsider too."</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't want it any more than I want it,
+Nell<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> What's that?" he cried hastily, changing his
+expression and attitude in a moment. "Is that one of
+your neighbours at the gate?"</p>
+
+<p>Elinor looked round, starting away a little from his
+side, and saw some one&mdash;a man she had never seen before&mdash;approaching
+along the path. She was just about
+to say she did not know who it was when Phil, to her
+astonishment, stepped past her, advancing to meet the
+newcomer. But as he did so he put out his hand and
+caught her as he passed, leading her along with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mind what I said, and stick to me," he said, in a
+whisper; then&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Stanfield!" he cried with an air of perfect ease and
+cordiality, yet astonishment. "I thought it looked like
+you, but I could not believe my eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Compton!" said the other. "So you are here.
+I have been hunting after you all over the place. I
+heard only this morning this was a likely spot."</p>
+
+<p>"A very likely spot!" said Phil. "I suppose you
+know the good reason I have for being in these parts.
+Elinor, this is Mr. Stanfield, who has to do with our
+company, don't you know. But I say, Stanfield, what's
+all this row in the papers? Is it true that Brown's
+bolted? I should have taken the first train to see if I
+could help; but my private affairs are most urgent just
+at this moment, as I suppose you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you had come," said the other; "it would
+have looked well, and pleased the rest of the directors.
+There has been some queer business&mdash;some of the
+books abstracted or destroyed, we can't tell which, and
+no means of knowing how we stand."</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens!" said Phil, "to cover that fellow's
+retreat."</p>
+
+<p>"It you mean Brown, it was not he. They were all
+there safe enough after he was gone; somebody must
+have got in by night and made off with them, some one
+that knew all about the place; the watchman saw a
+light, but that's all. It's supposed there must have
+been something compromising others besides Brown.
+He could not have cheated the company to such an extent
+by himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens!" cried Phil again in natural horror;
+"I wish I had followed my impulse and gone up to
+town straight: but it was very vague what was in the
+papers; I hoped it might not have been our place at
+all. And I say, Stanfield&mdash;who's the fellow they suspect?"
+Elinor had disengaged herself from Compton's
+arm; she perceived vaguely that the stranger paused
+before he replied, and that Phil, facing him with a certain
+square attitude of opposition which affected her
+imagination vaguely, though she did not understand
+why&mdash;was waiting with keen attention for his reply.
+She said, a little oppressed by the situation, "Phil,
+perhaps I had better go."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go," he said; "there's nothing secret to say.
+If there's anyone suspected it must very soon be
+known."</p>
+
+<p>"It's difficult to say who is suspected," said the
+stranger, confused. "I don't know that there's much
+evidence. You've been in Scotland?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, till the other day, when I came down here to
+see<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" He paused and turned upon Elinor a look
+which gave the girl the most curious incomprehensible
+pang. It was a look of love; but, oh! heaven, was it a
+look called up that the other man might see? He took
+her hand in his, and said lightly yet tenderly, "Let's
+see, what day was it? the sixth, wasn't it the sixth,
+Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>A flood of conflicting thoughts poured through
+Elinor's mind. What did it mean? It was yesterday,
+she was about to say, but something stopped her, something
+in Phil's eye&mdash;in the touch of his hand. There
+was something warning, almost threatening, in his eye.
+Stand by me; mind you don't contradict me; say what
+I say. All these things which he had repeated again
+and again were said once more in the look he gave her.
+"Yes," she said timidly, with a hesitation very unlike
+Elinor, "it was the sixth." She seemed to see suddenly
+as she said the words that calendar with the date hanging
+in the hall: the big 6 seemed to hang suspended in
+the air. It was true, though she could not tell how it
+could be so.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Stanfield, in a tone which betrayed a little
+surprise, and something like disappointment, "the
+sixth? I knew you had left Scotland, but we did not
+know where you had gone."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not to be wondered at," said Phil, with a
+laugh, "for I should have gone to Ireland, to tell the
+truth; I ought to have been there now. I'm going to-morrow,
+ain't I, Nell? I had not a bit of business to be
+here. Winding up affairs in the bachelor line, don't
+you know; but I had to come on my way west to see
+this young lady first. It plays the deuce and all with
+one's plans when there's such a temptation in the way."</p>
+
+<p>"You could have gone from Scotland to Ireland,"
+said Stanfield, gravely, "without coming to town at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Very true, old man. You speak like a book. But,
+as you perceive, I have not gone to Ireland at all; I am
+here. Depends upon your motive, I suppose, which
+way you go."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a good way roundabout," said the other, without
+relaxing the intent look on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Phil, "that's as one feels. I go by
+Holyhead wherever I may be&mdash;even if I had nowhere
+else to go to on the way."</p>
+
+<p>"And Mr. Compton got here on the sixth?&mdash;this is
+the eighth," said the stranger, pointedly. He turned to
+Elinor, and it seemed to the girl that his eyes, though
+they were not remarkable eyes, went through and
+through her. He spoke very slowly, with a curious
+meaning. "But it was on the sixth, you say, that he
+got here?"</p>
+
+<p>That big 6 on the calendar stood out before her eyes;
+it seemed to cover all the man's figure that stood before
+her. Elinor's heart and mind went through the
+strangest convulsion. Was it false&mdash;was it true? What
+was she saying? What did it all mean? She repeated
+mechanically, "It was on the sixth," and then she recovered
+a kind of desperate courage, and throwing off
+the strange spell that seemed to be upon her, "Is there
+any reason," she asked, suddenly, with a little burst of
+impatience, looking from one to another, "why it
+should not be the sixth, that you repeat it so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," said the stranger, visibly
+startled. "I did not mean to imply&mdash;only thought<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>Pray,
+Mr. Compton, tell the lady I had no intention of
+offending. I never supposed<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Phil's laugh, loud and clear, rang through the stillness
+of the afternoon. "He's so used to fibs, he thinks
+everybody's in a tale," said Phil, "but I can assure you
+he is a very good fellow, and a great friend of mine, and
+he means no harm, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor made Mr. Stanfield an extremely dignified
+bow. "I ought to have gone away at once, and left you
+to talk over your business," she said, turning away, and
+Phil did not attempt to detain her. Then the natural
+rural sense of hospitality came over Elinor. She turned
+back to find the two men looking after her, standing
+where she had left them. "I am sure," she said, "that
+mamma would wish me to ask the gentleman if he
+would stay to dinner&mdash;or at least come in with you,
+Phil, to tea."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stanfield took off his hat with anxious politeness,
+and exclaimed hastily that he must go back to town by
+the next train, and that the cab from the station was
+waiting to take him. And then she left them, and
+walked quietly away. She was almost out of hearing
+before they resumed their conversation; that is, she
+was beyond the sound, not of their voices, but of what
+they said. The murmur of the voices was still audible
+when she got to her favourite seat on the side of the
+copse looking down the combe. It was a very retired
+and silent place, not visible from either the cottage or
+the garden. And there Elinor took refuge in the quiet
+and hush of the declining day. She was in a great
+tremor of agitation and excitement as she sat down
+upon the rustic seat&mdash;so great a tremor that she had
+scarcely been able to walk steadily down the roughly-made
+steps&mdash;a tremor which had grown with every step
+she took. She did not in the least understand the transaction
+in which she had been engaged. It was something
+altogether strange to her experiences, without any
+precedent in her life. What was it she had been called
+upon to do? What had she said, and why had she been
+made to say it? Her heart beat so that she put her two
+hands upon it crossed over her breast to keep it down,
+lest it should burst away. She had the sensation of
+having been brought before some tribunal, put suddenly
+to the last shift, made to say&mdash;what, what? She
+was so bewildered that she could not tell. Was it the
+truth, said with the intention to deceive&mdash;was it<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>?
+She could not tell. There was that great numeral
+wavering in the air, stalking along with her like a ghost.
+6&mdash;. She had read it in all innocence, they had all read
+it, and nobody had said it was wrong. No one was very
+careful about the date in the cottage. If it was right, if
+it was wrong, Elinor could not tell. But yet somehow
+she was conscious that the man to whom she had spoken
+had been deceived. And Phil! and Phil! what had he
+meant, adjuring her to stick to him, to stand by him,
+not to contradict him? Elinor's mind was in such a
+wild commotion that she could not answer these inquiries.
+She could not feel that she had one solid step
+of ground to place herself upon in the whirlwind which
+swept her about and about. Had she&mdash;lied? And why
+had he asked her to lie? And what, oh, what did it all
+mean?</p>
+
+<p>One thing that at last appeared to her in the chaos
+which seemed like something solid that she could grasp
+at was that Phil had never changed in his aspect. The
+other man had been very serious, staring at her as if to
+intimidate her, like a man who had something to find
+out; but Phil had been as careless, as indifferent, as he
+appeared always to be. He had not changed his expression.
+It is true there was that look in which there
+was at once an entreaty and a command&mdash;but only she
+had seen that, and perhaps it was merely the emotion,
+the excitement, the strange feeling of having to face the
+world for him, and say<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>what, what? Was it simply,
+the truth, nothing but the truth, or was it<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Again
+Elinor's mind began to whirl. It was the truth: she
+could see now that big 6 on the calendar distinct as the
+sunshine. And yet it was only yesterday&mdash;and there
+was 8 this morning. Had she gone through an intervening
+dream for a whole day without knowing it; or
+had she, Elinor&mdash;she who would not have done it to
+save her life&mdash;told&mdash;a lie for Phil? And why should he
+want her to tell a lie?</p>
+
+<p>Elinor got up from her seat, and stood uncertain,
+with a cold dew on her forehead, and her hands clasping
+and holding each other. Should she go back to them
+and say there must be some mistake&mdash;that though she
+had said the truth it was not true, that there was some
+mistake, some dreadful mistake! There was no longer
+any sound of voices where she was. The whole incident
+seemed to have died out. The sudden commotion of
+Phil's visit and everything connected with it had passed
+away. She was alone in the afternoon, in the hush of
+nature, looking over the combe, listening to the rustle
+of the trees, hearing the bees drone homeward. Had
+Phil ever been here at all? Had he watched the distant
+road winding over the slopes for some one whom he had
+expected to come after him all the time? Had he ever
+told her to stand by him? to say what he said, to back
+him up? Had there ever been another man standing
+with that big 6 wavering between her and him like a
+ghost? Had all that been at all, or was it merely a
+foolish dream? And ought she to go back now, and
+find the man before he disappeared, and tell him it was
+all true, yet somehow a dreadful, dreadful mistake?</p>
+
+<p>Elinor sat down again abruptly on her seat, and put
+her handkerchief to her forehead and pushed back the
+damp clusters of her hair, turning her face to the wind
+to get a little refreshment and calm, if that were possible.
+She heard in the sunny distance behind her,
+where the garden and the peaceful house lay in the
+light, the clang of the gate, a sound which could not be
+mistaken. The man then had gone&mdash;if there was anything
+to rectify in what she said it certainly could not
+be rectified now&mdash;he was gone. The certainty came to
+her with a feeling of relief. It had been horrible to
+think of standing before the two men again and saying&mdash;what
+could she have said? She remembered now that
+it was not her assertion alone, but that it all hung together,
+a whole structure of incidents, which would be
+put wrong if she had said it was a mistake&mdash;a whole
+account of Phil's time, how it had been passed&mdash;which
+was quite true, which he had told them on his arrival;
+how he had been going to Ireland, and had stopped,
+longing for a glimpse of her, his bride, feeling that he
+must have her by him, see her once again before he
+came for her to fetch her away. He had told the ladies
+at the cottage the very same, and of course it was true.
+Had he not come straight from Scotland with his big
+bundle of game, the grouse and partridges which had
+already been shared with all the friends about? Was
+he not going off to Ireland to-morrow to fulfil his first
+intention? It was all quite right, quite true, hanging
+perfectly together&mdash;except that curious falling out of a
+day. And then again Elinor's brain swam round and
+round. Had he been two days at the cottage instead of
+one, as he said? Was it there that the mistake lay?
+Had she been in such a fool's paradise having him
+there, that she had not marked the passage of time&mdash;had
+it all been one hour of happiness flying like the
+wind? A blush, partly of sweet shame to think that
+this was possible, that she might have been such a
+happy fool as to ignore the divisions of night and day,
+and partly of stimulating hope that such might be the
+case, a wild snatch at justification of herself and him
+flushed over her from head to foot, wrapping her in
+warmth and delight; and then this all faded away again
+and left her as in ashes&mdash;black and cold. No! everything,
+she saw, now depended upon what she had been
+impelled to say; the whole construction, Phil's account
+of his time, his story of his doings&mdash;all would have fallen
+to pieces had she said otherwise. Body and soul, Elinor
+felt herself become like a machine full of clanging
+wheels and beating pistons, her heart, her pulses, her
+breath, all panting, beating, bursting. What did it
+mean? What did it mean? And then everything stood
+still in a horrible suspense and pause.</p>
+
+<p>She began to hear voices again in the distance and
+raised her head, which she had buried in her hands&mdash;voices
+that sounded so calmly in the westering sunshine,
+one answering another, everything softened in
+the golden outdoor light. At first as she raised herself
+up she thought with horror that it was the man,
+the visitor whom she had supposed to be gone, returning
+with Phil to give her the opportunity of contradicting
+herself, of bringing back that whirlwind of doubt
+and possibility. But presently her excited senses perceived
+that it was her mother who was walking calmly
+through the garden talking with Phil. There was not
+a tone of excitement in the quiet voices that came gradually
+nearer and nearer, till she could hear what they
+were saying. It was Phil who was speaking, while her
+mother now and then put in a word. Elinor did not
+wish on ordinary occasions for too many private talks
+between her mother and Phil. They rubbed each
+other the wrong way, they did not understand each
+other, words seemed to mean different things in their
+comprehension of them. She knew that her lover
+would laugh at "the old girl," which was a phrase
+which offended Elinor deeply, and Mrs. Dennistoun
+would become stiffer and stiffer, declaring that the
+very language of the younger generation had become
+unintelligible to her. But to hear them now together
+was a kind of anodyne to Elinor, it stayed and calmed
+her. The cold moisture dried from her forehead. She
+smoothed her hair instinctively with her hand, and
+put herself straight in mind as she did with that involuntary
+action in outward appearance, feeling that
+no sign of agitation, no trouble of demeanour must
+meet her mother's eye. And then the voices came
+so near that she could hear what they were saying.
+They were coming amicably together to her favourite
+retreat.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a very queer thing," said Phil, "if it is as they
+think, that somebody went there the night before last
+and cleared off the books. Well, not all the books,
+some that are supposed to contain the secret transactions.
+Deucedly cleverly done it must have been, if it
+was done at all, for nobody saw the fellow, or fellows,
+if there were more than one<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you doubt?" said Mrs. Dennistoun. "Is
+there any way of accounting for it otherwise?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a very good way&mdash;that Brown, the manager,
+simply took them with him, as he would naturally do,
+if he wasn't a fool. Why should he go off and leave
+papers that would convict him, for the pleasure of involving
+other fellows, and ruining them too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are there others, then, involved with him?" Oh,
+how calm, how inconceivably calm, was Mrs. Dennistoun's
+voice! Had she been asking the gardener about
+the slugs that eat the young plants it would have been
+more disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Stanfield seemed to think so. He's a sort of
+head clerk, a fellow enormously trusted. I shouldn't
+wonder if he was at the bottom of it himself, they're so
+sure of him," said Phil, with a laugh. "He says there's
+a kind of suspicion of two or three. Clumsy wretches
+they must be if they let themselves be found out like
+that. But I don't believe it. I believe Brown's alone in
+it, and that it's him that's taken everything away. I
+believe it's far the safest way in those kind of dodges
+to be alone. You get all the swag, and you're in no
+danger of being rounded on, don't you know&mdash;till you
+find things are getting too hot, and you cut away."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand the words you use, but I think
+I know what you mean," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "How
+dreadful it is to think that in business, where honesty
+is the very first principle, there should be such terrible
+plots and plans as those!"</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis awful, isn't it?" said Phil, with a laugh that
+seemed to ring all down the combe, and came back in
+echoes from the opposite slope, where in the distance
+the cab from the station was seen hastening back towards
+the railway in a cloud of dust. The laugh was
+like a trumpet of triumph flung across the distance at
+the discomfited enemy thus going off drooping in the
+hurry of defeat. He added, "But you may imagine,
+even if I had known anything, he wouldn't have got
+much out of me. I didn't know anything, however,
+I'm very glad to say."</p>
+
+<p>"That is always the best," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+with a certain grave didactic tone. "And here is Elinor,
+as I thought. When one cannot find her anywhere
+else she's sure to be found here."</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Compton, placing himself beside her,
+"here you are, Nell; kind of the old lady to bring me,
+wasn't it? I should never have found you out by myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he gone, Phil?" Elinor raised her scared face
+from her hands, and gave him a piteous look.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Nell! you are trembling like a leaf. Was it
+frightened, my pretty pet, for Stanny? Stanny's gone
+off with his tail between his legs. Not a bit of starch
+left in him. As limp a lawyer as ever you saw."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he a lawyer?" she said, not knowing why she
+said it, for it mattered nothing at all to Elinor what
+the man was.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly; and yet, I suppose, something of the
+kind. He is the one that knows about law points, and
+such things. But now he's as quiet as a lamb, thanks
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Phil," she cried, "what did you make me say? I
+don't know what I have done. I have done something
+dreadful&mdash;deceived the man, as good as told him a
+lie."</p>
+
+<p>"You told him the truth," said Phil, with a laugh,
+"in the most judgmatical way. You stuck to it like a&mdash;woman.
+There's nothing like a woman for sticking
+to a text. You didn't say a word too much. And I
+say, Nell, that little defiant bit of yours&mdash;'Was there
+any reason why it shouldn't be the sixth?' was grand.
+That was quite magnificent, my pet. I never thought
+you had such spirit in you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil," she cried, "why did you make me say
+it? What was it I said? I don't know; I don't understand
+a bit. Whatever it was, I know that it was
+wrong. I deceived the man."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not so great a sin," he said. "I've known
+worse things done. Put an old reynard off the scent
+to save his prey. I don't see what's wrong in that, especially
+as the innocent chicken to be saved was your
+own poor old Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"Phil, Phil," she cried, "what could that man have
+done to you? What had put you in his power? You
+have made me lose all my innocence. I have got horrible
+things in my head. What could he have done to
+you that you made me tell a lie?"</p>
+
+<p>"What lie did I make you tell? be reasonable; I
+did arrive on the sixth, you know that just as well as I
+do. Don't you really remember the calendar in the
+hall? You saw it, Nell, as well as I."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know," she cried, putting her hands up
+to her eyes, "I see it everywhere staring at me, that
+big, dreadful 6. But how is it the 8th now? There is
+something in it&mdash;something I don't understand."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed loudly and long: one of those boisterous
+laughs which always jarred upon Elinor. "I don't
+in the least mind how it was," he said. "It was, and
+that's quite enough for me; and let it be for you too,
+Nell. I hope you're not going to search into the origin
+of things like this; we've quite enough to do in this
+world to take things as they come."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil! if at least I could understand&mdash;I don't
+understand: or if I had not been made to say what is
+so mysterious&mdash;what must be false."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Nell; how could it be false when you saw
+with your own eyes it was true? Now let us be done
+with this, my darling. The incident is terminated, as
+the French say. I came here as fast as I could come to
+have a good laugh with you over it, and lo! you're
+nearer crying. Why should you have Stanny on your
+conscience, Nell? a fellow that would like no better
+than to hang me if he could get the chance."</p>
+
+<p>"But Phil, Phil&mdash;oh, tell me, what could this man
+have done to you? Why are you afraid of him? Why,
+why have you made me tell him<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Nell, no exaggerated expression. It was a
+fact you told him, according to the best of evidence;
+and what he could have done to me is just this&mdash;he
+might have given me a deal of trouble, and put off our
+marriage. I should have had to go back to town, and
+my time would have been taken up with finding out
+about those books, and our marriage would have been
+put off; that's what he could have done."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?" cried Elinor, "was that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"All!" he said, with that loud laugh again; "you
+don't mind a bit how you hurt a fellow's pride, and his
+affections, and all that. Do you mean to say, you hard-hearted
+little coquette, that you wouldn't mind? I
+don't believe you would mind! Here am I counting
+the hours, and you, you little cold puss, you aggravating
+little<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil, don't talk such nonsense. If we were to
+be separated, for a week or a month, what could that
+matter, in comparison with saying what wasn't<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush," he said, putting his hand to her mouth.
+"It's not nice of you to take it so easily, Nell. I'd tell
+as many what-d'ye-call-'ems as you like, rather than put
+it off an hour. Why, feeling apart (and I don't think
+you've any feeling, you little piece of ice), think how
+inconvenient it would have been; the people all arriving;
+the breakfast all ready; the Rector with his surplice
+on; and no wedding! Fancy the Jew with all
+her fallals, on the old lady's hands, and your cousin
+John<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you already, Phil, my cousin John will
+not be there."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better," he said, with a laugh, "I
+don't want him to be there&mdash;shows his sense, when his
+nose is put out of joint, to keep out of the way."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would understand," she said, with a little
+vexation, "that John is not put out of joint, as you
+say in that odious way. He has never been anything
+more to me, nor I to him, than we are now&mdash;like
+brother and sister."</p>
+
+<p>"The more fool he," said Compton, "to have the
+chance of a nice girl like you, Nell, and not to go in
+for it. But I don't believe a bit in the brother and sister
+dodge."</p>
+
+<p>"We will be just the same all our lives," cried Elinor.</p>
+
+<p>"Not if I know it," said Phil. "I'm an easy-going
+fellow in most ways, but you'll find I'm an old Turk
+about you, my little duck of a Nell. No amateur
+brother for me. If you can't get along with your old
+Phil, without other adorers<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Phil! as if I should ever think or care whether
+there was another man in the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's going too far," he said, laughing. "I
+shan't mind a little flirtation. You may have a man or
+two in your train to fetch and carry, get your shawl for
+you, and call your carriage, and so forth; but no serious
+old hand, Nell&mdash;nothing to remind you that there
+was a time when you didn't know Phil Compton." His
+laugh died away at this point, and for a moment his
+face assumed that grave look which changed its character
+so much. "If you don't come to repent before
+then that you ever saw that fellow's ugly face, Nell<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Phil, how could I ever repent? Nobody but you
+should dare to say such a thing to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that," he said. "If that old John of yours
+tried it on<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Well, my pet, he is your old John.
+You can't change facts, even if you do throw the poor
+fellow over. Now, here's a new chance for all of them,
+Nell. I shouldn't wonder a bit if you had another crop
+of letters bidding you look before you leap. That
+Rectory woman, what's her name? that knows my family.
+You'll see she'll have some new story before we're clear
+of her. They'll never stop blackguarding me, I know,
+until you're Phil Compton yourself, my beauty. I wish
+that day was come. I'm afraid to go off again and
+leave you, Nell. They'll be putting something into
+your head, or the old lady's. Let's get it over to-morrow
+morning, and come to Ireland with me; you've
+never been there."</p>
+
+<p>"Phil, what nonsense! mamma would go out of her
+senses."</p>
+
+<p>"My pet, what does it matter? She'd come back to
+them again as soon as we were gone, and think what a
+botheration spared her! All the row of receiving people,
+turning the house upside down. And here I am
+on the spot. And what do you want with bridesmaids
+and so forth? You've got all your things. Suppose
+we walk out to church to-morrow before breakfast,
+Nell<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Phil, you are mad, I think; and why should we do
+such a thing, scandalizing everybody? But of course
+you don't mean it. You are excited after seeing that
+man."</p>
+
+<p>"Excited about Stanny!&mdash;not such a fool; Stanny is
+all square, thanks to<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But what I want is just to
+take you up in my arms, like this, and run off with you,
+Nell. Why we should call the whole world to watch us
+while we take that swing off&mdash;into space."</p>
+
+<p>"Phil!"</p>
+
+<p>"So it is, for you, Nell. You don't know a bit what's
+going to happen. You don't know where I'm going to
+take you, and what I'm going to do with you, you little
+innocent lamb in the wolf's grip. I want to eat you up,
+straight off. I shall be afraid up to the last moment
+that you'll escape me, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know that you were so fond of innocence,"
+said Elinor, half afraid of her lover's vehemence, and
+trying to dispel his gravity with a laugh. "You used
+to say you did not believe in the <i>ing&eacute;nue</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe in you," he said, with an almost fierce
+pressure of her arm; then, after a pause, "No, I don't
+believe in women at all, Nell, only you. They're rather
+worse than men, which is saying a good deal. What
+would the Jew care if we were all drawn and quartered;
+so long as she had all her paraphernalia about her and
+got everything she wanted? For right-down selfishness
+commend me to a woman. A fellow may have
+gleams of something better about him, like me, warning
+you against myself."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a droll way of warning me against yourself to
+want to carry me off to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all the same thing," he said. "I've warned
+you that those old hags are right, and I'm not good
+enough for you, not fit to come near you, Nell. But if
+the sacrifice is to be, let's get it over at once, don't let
+us stand and think of it. I'm capable of jilting you,"
+he said, "leaving you <i>plant&eacute; l&agrave;</i>, all out of remorse of
+conscience; or else just catching you up in my arms,
+like this, and carrying you off, never to be seen more."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very alarming," said Elinor. "I don't
+know what you mean. You can be off with your bargain
+if you please, Phil; but you had better make up
+your mind at once, so that mamma may countermand her
+invitations, and stop Gunter from sending the cake."</p>
+
+<p>(It was Gunter who was the man in those days. I
+believe people go to Buszard now.)</p>
+
+<p>He gave her again a vehement hug, and burst into a
+laugh. "I might jilt you, Nell; such a thing is on the
+cards. I might leave you in the lurch at the church
+door; but when you talk of countermanding the cake,
+I can't face that situation. Society would naturally be
+up in arms about that. So you must take your chance
+like the other innocents. I'll eat you up as gently as I
+can, and hide my tusks as long as it's possible. Come
+on, Nell, don't let us sit here and get the mopes, and
+think of our consciences. Come and see if that show
+is in the village. Life's better than thinking, old girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you call the show in the village, life?" she
+said, half pleased to rouse him, half sorry to be thus
+carried away.</p>
+
+<p>"Every show is life," said Phil, "and everywhere
+that people meet is better than anywhere where you're
+alone. Mind you take in that axiom, Nell. It's our
+rule of life, you know, among the set you're marrying
+into. That's how the Jew gets on. That's how we all
+get on. By this time next year you'll be well inured
+into it like all the rest. That's what your Rector never
+taught you, I'll be bound; but you'll see the old fellow
+practises it whenever he has a chance. Why, there
+they begin, tootle-te-too. Come on, Nell, and don't let
+us lose the fun."</p>
+
+<p>He drew her along hastily, hurrying while the flute
+and the drum began to perform their parts. Sound
+spreads far in that tranquil country, where no railway
+was visible, and where the winds for the moment were
+still. It was Pan's pipes that were being played, attracting
+a few stragglers from the scattered houses.
+Within a hundred yards from the church, at the corner
+of four roads, stood the Bull's Head, with a cottage or
+two linked on to its long straggling front. And this
+was all that did duty for a village at Windyhill. The
+Rectory stood back in its own copse, surrounded by a
+growth of young birches and oak near the church.
+The Hills dwelt intermediate between the Bull's Head
+and the ecclesiastical establishment. The school and
+schoolmaster's house were behind the Bull. The show
+was surrounded by the children of the place, who
+looked on silent with ecstasy, while a burly showman
+piped his pipes and beat his drum. A couple of ostlers,
+with their shirt-sleeves rolled up to their shoulders, and
+one of them with a pail in his hand, stood arrested in
+their work. And in the front of the spectators was
+Alick Hudson, a sleepy-looking youth of twenty, who
+started and took his hands out of his pockets at sight of
+Elinor. Mr. Hudson himself came walking briskly
+round the corner, swinging his cane with the air of a
+man who was afraid of being too late.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I tell you?" said Compton, pressing Elinor's
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>As the tootle-te-too went on, other spectators
+appeared&mdash;the two Miss Hills, one putting on her hat, the
+other hastily buttoning her jacket as they hurried up.
+"Oh, you here, Elinor! What fun! We all run
+as if we were six years old. I'm going to engage the
+man to come round and do it opposite Rosebank to
+amuse mother. She likes it as much as any of us,
+though she doesn't see very well, poor dear, nor hear
+either. But we must always consider that the old have
+not many amusements," said the elder Miss Hill.</p>
+
+<p>"Though mother amuses herself wonderfully with
+her knitting," said Miss Sarah. "There's a sofa-cover
+on the stocks for you, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>It appeared to be only at this moment that the
+sisters became aware of the presence of "the gentleman"
+by whom Elinor stood. They had been too
+busy with their uncompleted toilettes to observe him
+at first. But now that Miss Hill's hat was settled
+to her satisfaction, and the blue veil tied over her face
+as she liked it to be, and Miss Sarah had at last succeeded,
+after two false starts, in buttoning her jacket
+straight, their attention was released for other details.
+They both gave a glance over Elinor at the tall figure
+on the other side, and then looked at each other with a
+mutual little "Oh!" and nod of recognition. Then
+Miss Hill took the initiative as became her dignity.
+"I hope you are going to introduce us to your companion,
+Elinor," she said. "Oh, Mr. Compton, how do
+you do? We are delighted to make your acquaintance,
+I am sure. It is charming to have an opportunity of
+seeing a person of so much importance to us all, our
+dear Elinor's intended. I hope you know what a prize
+you are getting. You might have sought the whole
+country over and you wouldn't have found a girl like
+her. I don't know how we shall endure your name
+when you carry her away."</p>
+
+<p>"Except, indeed," said Miss Sarah, "that it will be
+Elinor's name too."</p>
+
+<p>"So here we all are again," said the Rector, gazing
+down tranquilly upon his flock, "not able to resist a
+little histrionic exhibition&mdash;and Mr. Compton too,
+fresh from the great world. I daresay our good friend
+Mrs. Basset would hand us out some chairs. No
+Englishman can resist Punch. Alick, my boy, you
+ought to be at your work. It will not do to neglect
+your lessons when you are so near your exam."</p>
+
+<p>"No Englishman, father, can resist Punch," said the
+lad: at which the two ostlers and the landlord of
+the Bull's Head, who was standing with his hands in his
+pockets in his own doorway, laughed loud.</p>
+
+<p>"Had the old fellow there," said Compton, which
+was the first observation he had made. The ladies
+looked at him with some horror, and Alick a little
+flustered, half pleased, half horrified, by this support,
+while the Rector laughed, but stiffly <i>au bout des
+l&egrave;vres</i>. He was not accustomed to be called an old
+fellow in his own parish.</p>
+
+<p>"The old fellows, as you elegantly say, Mr. Compton,
+have always the worst of it in a popular assembly.
+Elinor, here is a chair for you, my love. Another one
+please, Mrs. Basset, for I see Miss Dale coming up this
+way."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove," said Compton, under his breath. "Elinor,
+here's the one that knows society. I hope she isn't
+such an old guy as the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil, be good!" said Elinor, "or let us go
+away, which would be the best."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit," he said. "Let's see the show. I say,
+old man, where are you from last?"</p>
+
+<p>"Down from Guildford ways, guv'nor&mdash;awful bad
+trade; not taken a bob, s' help me, not for three days,
+and bed and board to get off o' that, me and my mate."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here is a nice little party for you, my man,"
+said the Rector, "it is not often you have such an
+audience&mdash;nor would I encourage it, indeed, if it were
+not so purely English an exhibition."</p>
+
+<p>"Master," said the showman, "worst of it is, nobody
+pays till we've done the show, and then they goes away,
+and they've got it, don't you see, and we can't have
+it back once it's in their insides, and there ain't nothink
+then, neither for my mate nor me."</p>
+
+<p>"Here's for you, old fellow," said Phil. He took a
+sovereign from his waistcoat pocket and chucked it with
+his thumbnail into the man's hand, who looked at it
+with astonished delight, tossed it into the air with a
+grin, a "thank'ee, gentleman!" and a call to his
+"mate" who immediately began the ever-exciting, ever-amusing
+drama. The thrill of sensation which ran
+through the little assembly at this incident was wonderful.
+The children all turned from Punch to regard
+with large open eyes and mouths the gentleman who
+had given a gold sovereign to the showman. Alick
+Hudson looked at him with a grin of pleasure, a blush
+of envy on his face; the Rector, with an expression of
+horror, slightly shaking his head; the Miss Hills with
+admiration yet dismay. "Goodness, Sarah, they'll
+never come now and do it for a shilling to amuse
+mother!" the elder of the sisters said.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dale came hurrying up while still the sensation
+lasted. "Here is a chair for you, Mary," said her
+brother-in-law, "and the play is just going to begin.
+I can't help shaking my head when I think of it, but
+still you must hear what has just happened. Mr.
+Compton, let me present you to my sister-in-law, Miss
+Dale. Mr. Compton has made the widow's heart, nay,
+not the widow's, but the showman's heart to sing. He
+has presented our friend with a<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Mind you," said Phil, from behind Elinor's shoulders,
+"I've paid the fellow only for two."</p>
+
+<p>At which the showman turned and winked at the
+Rector. To think that such a piece of audacity could
+be! A dingy fellow in a velveteen coat, with a spotted
+handkerchief round his neck, and a battered hat on his
+unkempt locks, with Pan's pipes at his mouth and a
+drum tied round his waist&mdash;winked at the Rector!
+Mr. Hudson fell back a step, and his very lips were
+livid with the indignity. He had to support himself on
+the back of the chair he had just given to Miss Dale.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we are all forgetting our different positions
+in this world," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't," said the showman, "not taking no advantage
+through the gentleman's noble ways. He's a lord,
+he is, I don't make no doubt. And we're paid. Take
+the good of it, Guv'nor, and welcome; all them as is
+here is welcome. My mate and I are too well paid. A
+gentleman like that good gentleman, as is sweet upon
+a pretty young lady, and an open 'eart a-cause of her,
+I just wish we could find one at every station; don't
+you, Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>Joe assented, in the person of Mr. Punch, with a
+horrible squeak from within the tent.</p>
+
+<p>The sensations of Elinor during this episode were
+peculiar and full of mingled emotion. It is impossible
+to deny that she was proud of the effect produced by
+her lover. The sovereign chucked into the showman's
+hand was a cheap way of purchasing a little success,
+and yet it dazzled Elinor, and made her eyelids droop
+and her cheek light up with the glow of pleasure.
+Amid all the people who would search for pennies, or
+perhaps painfully and not without reluctance produce a
+sixpence to reward the humble artists, there was something
+in the careless familiarity and indifference which
+tossed a gold coin at them which was calculated to
+charm the youthful observer. Elinor felt the same
+mixture of pleasure and envy which had moved Alick
+Hudson; yet it was not envy, for was not he her own
+who did this thing which she would have liked to have
+done herself, overwhelming the poor tramps with delight?
+Elinor knew, as Alick also did, that it would
+never have occurred to her to do it. She would have
+been glad to be kind to the poor men, to give them a
+good meal, to speak to Basset at the Bull's Head in
+their favour that they might be taken in for the night
+and made comfortable, but to open her purse and take
+a real sovereign from it, a whole potential pound, would
+not have come into her head. Had such a thing been
+done, for instance, by the united subscriptions of the
+party, in case of some peculiarly touching situation,
+the illness of a wife, the loss of a child, it would have
+been done solemnly, the Rector calling the men up,
+making a little speech to them, telling them how all
+the ladies and gentlemen had united to make up
+this, and how they must be careful not to spend it
+unworthily. Elinor thought she could see the little
+scene, and the Rector improving the occasion. Whereas
+Phil spun the money through the air into the man's
+ready hand as if it had been a joke, a trick of agility.
+Elinor saw that everybody was much impressed with
+the incident, and her heart went forth upon a flood of
+satisfaction and content. And it was no premeditated
+triumph. It was so noble, so accidental, so entirely out
+of his good heart!</p>
+
+<p>When he hurried her home at the end of the performance,
+that Mrs. Dennistoun might not be kept waiting,
+the previous events of the afternoon, and all that
+happened in the copse and garden, had faded out of
+Elinor's mind. She forgot Stanfield and the 6th and
+everything about it. Her embarrassment and trouble
+were gone. She went in gayly and told her mother all
+about this wonderful incident. "The Rector was trying
+for a sixpence. But, mamma, Phil must not be
+so ready with his sovereigns, must he? We shall have
+nothing to live upon if he goes chucking sovereigns at
+every Punch and Judy he may meet."</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Phil Compton went off next morning by an early
+train, having in the meanwhile improved the impression
+of him left upon the family in general, and specially
+upon Mrs. Dennistoun, to whom he had talked with enthusiasm
+about Elinor, expressed indeed in terms unusual
+to her ears, but perhaps only more piquant on
+that account, which greatly conciliated the mother.
+"Don't you think," said the Honourable Phil, "because
+I speak a little free and am not one for tall talk, that
+I don't know what she is. I've got no poetry in me,
+but for the freest goer and the highest spirit, without a
+bit of vice in her, there never was one like Nell. The
+girls of my set, they're not worthy to tie her shoes&mdash;thing
+I most regret is taking her among a lot that are
+not half good enough for her. But you can't help your
+relations, can you? and you have to stick to them for
+dozens of reasons. There's the Jew, when you know
+her she's not such a bad sort&mdash;not generous, as you
+may see from what she's given Nell, the old screw: but
+yet in her own way she stands by a fellow, and we'll
+need it, not having just the Bank of England behind
+us. Her husband, old Prestwich, isn't bad for a man
+that has made his own money, and they've got a jolly
+house, always something going on."</p>
+
+<p>"But I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that as soon
+as these autumn visits are over you will have a house
+of your own."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that!" said Compton, with a wave of his hand,
+which left it in some doubt whether he was simply
+throwing off the suggestion, or treating it as a foregone
+conclusion of which there could be no doubt. "Nell,"
+he went on, "gets on with the Jew like a house on fire&mdash;you
+see they don't clash. Nell ain't one of the mannish
+sort, and she doesn't flirt&mdash;at least not as far as
+I've seen<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I should hope not, indeed," said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not one of your curmudgeons. Where's
+the harm? But she don't, and there's an end of it.
+She keeps herself to herself, and lets the Jew go ahead,
+and think she's the attraction. And she'll please the old
+lord down to the ground. For he's an old-fashioned
+old coon, and likes what he calls <i>tenue</i>, don't you know:
+but the end is, there ain't one of them that can hold a
+candle to Nell. And I should not wonder a bit if she
+made a change in the lot of us. Conversion of a family
+by the influence of a pious wife, don't you know. Sort
+of thing that they make tracts out of. Capital thing, it
+would be," said Phil, philosophically, "for some of us
+have been going a pace<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Compton," said Mrs. Dennistoun, solemnly, "I
+don't understand very well what you mean by these
+phrases. They may be much more innocent than they
+seem to a country lady's ears. But I implore you to
+keep my Elinor clear of anything that you call going
+the pace. It must mean something very unlike her,
+whatever it means. She has been used to a very quiet,
+orderly life. Don't hurry her off into a whirl of society,
+or among noisy gay people. Indeed I can assure you
+that the more you have her to herself the more you will
+be happy in her. She is the brightest companion, the
+most entertaining<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Oh, Mr. Compton!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's about time, now, mater, to call me
+Phil."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled, with the tears in her eyes, and held out
+her hand. "Philip, then," she said, "to make a little
+difference. Now remember what I say. It is only in
+the sacredness of her home that you will know what is
+in Elinor. One is never dull with her. She has her
+own opinions&mdash;her bright way of looking at things&mdash;as
+you know. It is, perhaps, a strange thing for a mother
+to say, but she will amuse you, Philip; she is such
+company. You will never be dull with Elinor: she has
+so much in her, which will come out in society, it is
+true, but never so brightly as between you two alone."</p>
+
+<p>This did not seem to have quite the effect upon the
+almost-bridegroom which the mother intended. "Perhaps"
+(she said to herself), "he was a little affected by
+the thought" (which she kept so completely out of the
+conversation) "of the loss she herself was about to undergo."
+At all events, his face was not so bright as in
+the vision of that sweet prospect held before him it
+ought to have been.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is," he said, "she knows a great deal more
+than I do, or ever will. It's she that will be the one to
+look blue when she finds herself alone with a fool of a
+follow that doesn't know a book from a brick. That's
+the thing I'm most afraid<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> As for society, she can
+have her pick of that," he added, brightening up, "I'll
+not bind her down."</p>
+
+<p>"You may be sure she'll prefer you to all the world."</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders a little.</p>
+
+<p>"They say it's always a leap in the dark," he said,
+"for how's she to know the sort of fellow I am with
+what she sees of me here? But I promise you I'll do
+my best to take her in, and keep her in that delusion,
+for her good&mdash;making believe to be all that's virtuous:
+and perhaps not a bad way&mdash;some of it may stick.
+Come, mater, don't look so horrified. I'm not of the
+Cousin John sort, but there may be something decent
+in me after all."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that you will
+try to make her happy, Philip." She was crying by
+this time, which was a thing very odious to Phil. He
+took her by both hands and gave her a hearty kiss,
+which was a thing for which she was not at all prepared.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do by her<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" he said, with a murmur which
+sounded like an oath, "as well as I know how."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this was not the very greatest comfort to her
+mother, but it was the best she was at all likely to get
+from a man so entirely different in all ways from her
+own species. She had her cry out quietly while he
+went off to get his bag. The pony carriage was at the
+door in which Elinor was to drive him to the station,
+and a minute after Mrs. Dennistoun heard his voice in
+the hall calling to his Nell, his old girl, in terms which
+went against all the mother's prejudices of soft and
+reverent speech. To have her carefully-trained child,
+her Elinor, whom every one had praised and honoured,
+her maiden-princess so high apart from all such familiarity,
+addressed so, gave the old-fashioned lady a
+pang. It meant nothing but love and kindness, she
+said to herself. He reverenced Elinor as much as it
+was in such a man to do. He meant with all his heart
+to do by her as well as he knew how. It was as fantastic
+to object to his natural language as it would be to
+object to a Frenchman speaking French. That was his
+tongue, the only utterance he knew<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> She dried her
+eyes and went out to the door to see them start. The
+sun was blazing over all the brilliant autumnal colours
+Of the garden, though it was still full and brilliant
+summer in the September morning, and only the asters and
+dahlias replacing the roses betrayed the turn of the
+season. And nothing could be more bright than the
+face of Elinor as she sat in the homely little carriage,
+with the reins gathered up in her hand. He was going
+away, indeed, but in a week he was coming back.
+Philip, as Mrs. Dennistoun now called him with dignity,
+yet a little beginning of affection, packed up his long
+limbs as well as he could in the small space. "I believe
+she'll spill us on the road," he said, "or bring
+back the shandrydan with a hole in it."</p>
+
+<p>"There is too much of you, Phil," said Elinor, giving
+the staid pony a quiet touch.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like some of those fellows to see me," he
+said, "joggled off to market like a basket of eggs; but
+don't smash me, Nell, on the way."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun stood on the steps looking after
+them, or rather, listening after them, for they had soon
+turned the corner of the house and were gone. She
+heard them jogging over the stony road, and the sound
+of their voices in the air for a long time after they were
+out of sight&mdash;the air was so still and so close, nothing
+in it to break the sound. The atmosphere was all sunshine,
+not a cloud upon the sky, scarcely a breath stirring
+over those hill-tops, which had almost the effect of
+a mountainous landscape, being the highest ground in
+all the visible space. Along the other side of the
+combe, where the road became visible, there were
+gleams of heather brilliant under the dark foliage of the
+firs. She sat down in the porch and waited to see them
+pass; there was a sorrowful background to her thoughts,
+but for the moment she was not actually sad, if perhaps
+a little forlorn. They had gone away leaving her alone,
+but yet in an hour or two Elinor was coming back.
+Time enough to think of the final parting. Next week
+Elinor would go and would not return. Mrs. Dennistoun
+held on by both hands to to-day and would not
+think of that future, near as it was. She waited in a
+hush of feeling, so near to great commotions of the
+heart and mind, but holding them at a distance in a
+suspense of all thought, till the shandrydan appeared in
+the opening of the road. They were thinking of her,
+for she saw a gleam of white, the waving of a handkerchief,
+as the little carriage trundled along the road, and
+for a moment the tears again blinded her eyes. But
+Mrs. Dennistoun was very reasonable. She got up from
+the cottage porch after the pony carriage had passed in
+the distance, with that determination to make the best
+of it, which is the inspiration of so many women's lives.</p>
+
+<p>And what a drive the others had through the sunshine&mdash;or
+at least Elinor! You can never tell by what shadows
+a man's thoughts may be haunted, who is a man of
+the world, and has had many other things to occupy
+him besides this vision of love. But the girl had no
+shadows. The parting which was before her was not
+near enough to harm as yet, and she was still able to
+think, in her ignorance of the world, that even parting
+was much more in appearance than in reality, and that
+she would always be running home, always going upon
+long visits brightening everything, instead of saddening.
+But even had she been going to the end of the world
+with her husband next week, Elinor would still have
+been happy to-day. The sunshine itself was enough to
+go to any one's head, and the pony stepped out so that
+Phil had the grace to be ashamed of his reflections upon
+"the old girl." They got to the station too early for
+the train, and had half an hour's stroll together, with all
+the railway porters looking on admiring. They all knew
+Miss Dennistoun from her childhood, and they were
+interested in her "young man."</p>
+
+<p>"And to think you will be in Ireland to-morrow,"
+said Elinor, "over the sea, with the Channel between
+us&mdash;in another island!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see much that's wonderful in that," said
+Phil, "the boat goes every day."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there's nothing wonderful about the boat.
+Hundreds might go, and I shouldn't mind, but you<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> It's
+strange to think of your going off into a world I
+don't know at all&mdash;and then coming back."</p>
+
+<p>"To take you off to that world you don't know, Nell;
+and then the time will come when you will know it as
+well as I do, and more, too; and be able to set me down
+in my proper place."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your proper place? Your place will always
+be the same. Phil, you've been so good to me this
+time; you've made everybody like you so. Mamma&mdash;that's
+the best of all. She was a little&mdash;I can't say jealous,
+that is not the right word, but uncertain and
+frightened&mdash;which just means that she did not know
+you, Phil; now you've condescended to let yourself be
+known."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I, Nell? I've had more luck than meaning if
+that's so."</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis that you've condescended to let yourself be
+known. A man has such odious pride. He likes to
+show himself all on the wrong side, to brave people's
+opinions&mdash;as if it was better to be liked for the badness
+in you than for the goodness in you!"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the goodness in me, Nell? I'd like to
+know, and then I can have it ready in other emergencies
+and serve it out as it is wanted."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil! the goodness in you is&mdash;yourself. You
+can't help being nice when you throw off those society
+airs. When you are talking with Mariamne and all
+that set of people<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't you call her Jew? life is too short to say
+all those syllables."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like you to call her Jew. It's unkind.
+I don't think she deserves it. It's a sort of an insult."</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up, Nell. It's her name and that's enough.
+Mar-ry-am-ne! It's a beast of a name to begin with.
+And do you think any of us has got time to say as
+much as that for one woman? Oh, I suppose I'm fond
+of her&mdash;as men are of their sisters. She is not a bad
+sort&mdash;mean as her name, and never fond of parting
+with her money&mdash;but stands by a fellow in a kind of a
+way all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll never call her Jew," said Elinor; "and, Phil,
+all this wonderful amount of things you have to do is
+simply&mdash;nothing. What do you ever do? It is the
+people who do things that have time to spare. I know
+one<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't come down on me, Nell, again with that eternal
+Cousin John."</p>
+
+<p>"Phil! I never think of him till you put him
+into my head. I was thinking of a gentleman who
+writes<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish, Nell! What have I to do with men that
+write, or you either? We are none of us of that sort.
+I do what my set do, and more&mdash;for there was this director
+business; and I should never mind a bit of work
+that was well paid, like attending Board meetings and
+so forth, or signing my name to papers."</p>
+
+<p>"What, without reading them, Phil?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't come over a fellow with your cleverness,
+Nell! I am not a reader; but I should take good care
+I knew what was in the papers before I signed them, I
+can tell you. Eh! you'd like me to slave, to get you
+luxuries, you little exacting Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Phil," she said, "I'd like to think you were
+working for our living. I should indeed. It seems
+somehow so much finer&mdash;so real a life. And I should
+work at home."</p>
+
+<p>"A great deal you would work," he said, laughing,
+"with those scraps of fingers! Let's hear what you
+would do&mdash;bits of little pictures, or impossible things
+in pincushions, or so forth&mdash;and walk out in your most
+becoming bonnet to force them down some poor shop-keeper's
+throat?"</p>
+
+<p>"Phil!" she said, "how contemptuous you are of
+my efforts. But I never thought of either sketches or
+pincushions. I should work at home to keep the house
+nice&mdash;to look after the servants, and guide the cook,
+and see that you had nice dinners."</p>
+
+<p>"And warm my slippers by the parlour fire," said
+Phil. "That's too domestic, Nell, for you and me."</p>
+
+<p>"But we are going to be very domestic, Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we? Not if I knows it; yawn our heads off,
+and get to hate one another. Not for me, Nell. You'll
+find yourself up to the eyes in engagements before you
+know where you are. No, no, old girl, you may do a
+deal with me, but you don't make a domestic man of
+Phil Compton. Time enough for that when we've had
+our fling."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want any fling, Phil," she said, clinging a
+little closer to his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"But I do, my pet, in the person of Benedick the
+married man. Don't you think I want to show all the
+fellows what a stunning little wife I've got? and all the
+women I used to flirt with<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you use to flirt much with them, Phil?"</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't think I flirted with the men, did you?
+like you did," said Phil, who was not particular about
+his grammar. "I want to show you off a bit. Nell.
+When we go down to the governor's, there you can be
+as domestic as you like. That's the line to take with
+him, and pays too if you do it well."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't talk as if you were always calculating for
+your advantage," she said, "for you are not, Phil. You
+are not a prudent person, but a horrid, extravagant
+spendthrift; if you go on chucking sovereigns about as
+you did yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, laughing, "wasn't it well spent?
+Didn't I make your Rector open his old eyes, and stop
+the mouths of the old maids? I don't throw away sovereigns
+in a general way, Nell, only when there's a purpose
+in it. But I think I did them all finely that time&mdash;had
+them on toast, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"You made an impression, if that is what you mean;
+but I confess I thought you did it out of kindness,
+Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"To the Punch and Judy? catch me! Sovereigns
+ain't plentiful enough for that. You little exacting
+thing, ain't you pleased, when I did it to please you,
+and get you credit among your friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was very kind of you, I'm sure, Phil," she said,
+very soberly, "but I should so much rather you had
+not thought of that. A shilling would have done just
+as well and they would have got a bed at the Bull's
+Head, and been quite kindly treated. Is this your train
+coming? It's a little too soon, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks for the compliment, Nell. It is really late,"
+he said, looking at his watch, "but the time flies, don't
+it, pet, when you and I are together? Here, you fellow,
+put my bag in a smoking carriage. And now, you
+darling, we've got to part; only for a little time, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"Only for a week," she said, with a smile and a tear.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so long&mdash;a rush along the rail, a blow on the
+sea, and then back again; I shall only be a day over
+there, and then&mdash;bless you, Nell. Good-bye&mdash;take care
+of yourself, my little duck: take care of yourself for
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," said Elinor, with a little quiver of her
+lip. A parting at a roadside station is a very abrupt
+affair. The train stops, the passenger is shoved in,
+there is a clanging of the doors, and in a moment it is
+gone. She had scarcely realized that the hour had
+come before he was whirled off from her, and the
+swinging line of carriages disappeared round the next
+curve. She stood looking vaguely after it till the old
+porter came up, who had known her ever since she was
+a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Beg your pardon, miss, but the pony is a-waiting,"
+he said. And then he uttered his sympathy in the
+form of a question:&mdash;"Coming back very soon, miss,
+ain't the gentleman?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; very soon," she said, rousing herself up.</p>
+
+<p>"And if I may make bold to say it, miss," said the
+porter, "an open-hearted gentleman as ever I see.
+There's many as gives us a threepenny for more than
+I've done for 'im. And look at what he's give me," he
+said, showing the half-crown in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Did he do that from calculation to please her, ungracious
+girl as she was, who was so hard to please? But
+he never could have known that she would see it. She
+walked through the little station to the pony carriage,
+feeling that all the eyes of the people about were upon
+her. They were all sympathetic, all equally aware that
+she had just parted with her lover: all ready to cheer
+her, if she had given them an opportunity, by reminding
+her of his early return. The old porter followed her
+out, and assisted at her ascent into the pony carriage.
+He said, solemnly, "And an 'andsome gentleman, miss,
+as ever I see," as he fastened the apron over her feet.
+She gave him a friendly nod as she drove away.</p>
+
+<p>How dreadful it is to be so sensitive, to receive a wound
+so easily! Elinor was vexed more than she could say
+by her lover's denial of the reckless generosity with
+which she had credited him. To think that he had
+done it in order to produce the effect which had given
+her so distinct a sensation of pleasure changed that effect
+into absolute pain. And yet in the fantastic susceptibility
+of her nature, there was something in old Judkin's
+half-crown which soothed her again. A shilling would
+have been generous, Elinor said to herself, with a feminine
+appreciation of the difference of small things as
+well as great, whereas half-a-crown was lavish&mdash;ergo,
+he gave the sovereign also out of natural prodigality,
+as she had hoped, not out of calculation as he said.
+She drove soberly home, thinking over all these things
+in a mood very different from that triumphant happiness
+with which she started from the cottage with
+Phil by her side. The sunshine was still as bright, but
+it had taken an air of routine and commonplace to Elinor.
+It had come to be only the common day, not the
+glory and freshness of the morning. She felt herself, as
+she had never done before, on the edge of a world unknown,
+where everything would be new to her, where&mdash;it
+was possible&mdash;that which awaited her might not be
+unmixed happiness, might even be the reverse. It is
+seldom that a girl on the eve of marriage either thinks
+this or acknowledges to herself that she thinks it. Elinor
+did so involuntarily, without thinking upon her
+thought. Perhaps it would not be unmixed happiness.
+Strange clouds seemed to hang upon the horizon, ready
+to roll up in tragic darkness and gloom. Oh, no, not
+tragic, only commonplace, she said to herself; opaqueness,
+not blackness. But yet it was ominous and lowering,
+that distant sky.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The days of the last week hurried along like the
+grains of sand out of an hour-glass when they are
+nearly gone. It is true that almost everything was
+done&mdash;a few little bits of stitching, a few things still to
+be "got up" alone remaining, a handkerchief to mark
+with Elinor's name, a bit of lace to arrange, just enough
+to keep up a possibility of something to do for Mrs.
+Dennistoun in the blank of all other possibilities&mdash;for
+to interest herself or to occupy herself about anything
+that should be wanted beyond that awful limit of the
+wedding-day was of course out of the question. Life
+seemed to stop there for the mother, as it was virtually
+to begin for the child; though indeed to Elinor also,
+notwithstanding her love, it was visible more in the
+light of a point at which all the known and certain
+ended, and where the unknown and almost inconceivable
+began. The curious thing was that this barrier
+which was placed across life for them both, got somehow
+between them in those last days which should
+have been the most tender climax of their intercourse.
+They had a thousand things to say to each other, but
+they said very little. In the evening after dinner,
+whether they went out into the garden together to
+watch the setting of the young moon, or whether they
+sat together in that room which had witnessed all Elinor's
+commencements of life, free to talk as no one else
+in the world could ever talk to either of them, they said
+very little to each other, and what they said was of the
+most commonplace kind. "It is a lovely night; how
+clear one can see the road on the other side of the
+combe!" "And what a bright star that is close to the
+moon! I wish I knew a little more about the stars."
+"They are just as beautiful," Mrs. Dennistoun would
+say, "as if you knew everything about them, Elinor."
+"Are you cold, mamma? I am sure I can see you
+shiver. Shall I run and get you a shawl?" "It is a
+little chilly: but perhaps it will be as well to go in now,"
+the mother said. And then indoors: "Do you think
+you will like this lace made up as a jabot, Elinor?"
+"You are giving me all your pretty things, though you
+know you understand lace much better than I do."
+"Oh, that doesn't matter," Mrs. Dennistoun said hurriedly;
+"that is a taste which comes with time. You
+will like it as well as I do when you are as old as I am."
+"You are not so dreadfully old, mamma." "No,
+that's the worst of it," Mrs. Dennistoun would say, and
+then break out into a laugh. "Look at the shadow
+that handkerchief makes&mdash;how fantastic it is!" she
+cried. She neither cared for the moon, nor for the
+quaintness of the shadows, nor for the lace which she
+was pulling into dainty folds to show its delicate pattern&mdash;for
+none of all these things, but for her only
+child, who was going from her, and to whom she had a
+hundred, and yet a hundred, things to say: but none
+of them ever came from her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary Dale has not seen your things, Elinor: she
+asked if she might come to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I think we might have had to-morrow to ourselves,
+mamma&mdash;the last day all by ourselves before those
+people begin to arrive."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think so too; but it is difficult to say no,
+and as she was not here when the others came<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> She
+is the greatest critic in the parish. She will have so
+much to say."</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay it may be fun," said Elinor, brightening
+up a little, "and of course anyhow Alice must have
+come to talk about her dress. I am tired of those
+bride's-maids' dresses; they are really of so little consequence."
+Elinor was not vain, to speak of, but she
+thought it improbable that when she was there any one
+would look much at the bride's-maids' dresses. For
+one thing, to be sure, the bride is always the central
+figure, and there were but two bride's-maids, which
+diminished the interest; and then&mdash;well, it had to be
+allowed at the end of all, that, though her closest
+friends, neither Alice Hudson nor Mary Tatham were,
+to look at, very interesting girls.</p>
+
+<p>"They are of great consequence to them," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun, with the faintest smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean that, of course," said Elinor, with a
+blush; "only I never should have worried about my
+own dress, which after all is the most important, as
+Alice does about hers."</p>
+
+<p>"Which nobody will look at," Mrs. Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say that: but to tell the truth, it is a pity
+for the girls that the men will not quite be, just of
+their world, you know. Oh, mamma, you know it is
+not that I think anything of that, but I am sorry for
+Alice and Mary. Mr. Bolsover and the other gentlemen
+will not take that trouble which country neighbours,
+or&mdash;or John's friends from the Temple might
+have done."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you speak of John's friends from the
+Temple, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma! for no reason at all. Why should I?
+They were the only other men I could think of."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, did John ever give you any reason to
+think<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma," cried Elinor again, with double vehemence,
+her countenance all ablaze, "of course he never
+did! how could you think such foolish things?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear," said her mother, "I am very glad
+he did not; it will prevent any embarrassment between
+him and you&mdash;for I must always believe<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, please, oh, don't! it would make me miserable;
+it would take all my happiness away."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun said nothing, but she sighed&mdash;a
+very small, infinitesimal sigh&mdash;and there was a moment's
+silence, during which perhaps that sigh pervaded
+the atmosphere with a sort of breath of what
+might have been. After a moment she spoke again:</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you have not packed up your ornaments
+yet, Elinor. You must leave them to the very last, for
+Mary would like to see that beautiful necklace. What
+do you think you shall wear on the day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," said Elinor, promptly. She was about to
+add, "I have nothing good enough," but paused in time.</p>
+
+<p>"Not my little star? It would look very well, my
+darling, to fix your veil on. The diamonds are very
+good, though perhaps a little old-fashioned; you
+might get them reset. But&mdash;your father gave it me
+like that."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not change it a bit, mamma, for anything
+in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, my dearest. I thought that was how you
+would feel about it. It is not very big, of course, but
+it really is very good."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will wear it, mamma, if it will please you,
+but nothing else."</p>
+
+<p>"It would please me: it would be like having something
+from your father. I think we had less idea of ornaments
+in my day. I cannot tell you how proud I was
+of my diamond star. I should like to put it in for you
+myself, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma!" This was the nearest point they
+had come to that outburst of two full hearts which both
+of them would have called breaking down. Mrs. Dennistoun
+saw it and was frightened. She thought it
+would be betraying to Elinor what she wished her never
+to know, the unspeakable desolation to which she was
+looking forward when her child was taken from her.
+Elinor's exclamation, too, was a protest against the imminent
+breaking down. They both came back with a
+hurry, with a panting breath, to safer ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's what I regret," she said. "Mr. Bolsover
+and Harry Compton will laugh a little at the Rectory.
+They will not be so&mdash;nice as young men of their
+own kind."</p>
+
+<p>"The Rectory people are just as well born as any of
+us, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, precisely, mamma: I know that; but we
+too<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> It is what they call a different <i>monde</i>. I don't
+think it is half so nice a <i>monde</i>," said the girl, feeling
+that she had gone further than she intended to do;
+"but you know, mamma<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I know, Elinor: but I scarcely expected from
+you<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," cried Elinor again, in exasperation, "if you
+think that I share that feeling! I think it odious, I
+think their <i>monde</i> is vulgar, nasty, miserable! I
+think<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go too far the other way, Elinor. Your
+husband will be of it, and you must learn to like it.
+You think, perhaps, all that is new to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Elinor, her bright eyes, all the brighter
+for tears, falling before her mother's look. "I know, of
+course, that you have seen&mdash;all kinds<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>But she faltered a little, for she did not believe that
+her mother was acquainted with Phil's circle and their
+wonderful ways.</p>
+
+<p>"They will be civil enough," she went on, hurriedly,
+"and as everybody chaffs so much nowadays they will,
+perhaps, never be found out. But I don't like it for my
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>"They will chaff me also, no doubt," Mrs. Dennistoun
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, <i>you</i>, mamma! they are not such fools as that,"
+cried poor Elinor; but in her own mind she did not
+feel confident that there was any such limitation to
+their folly. Mrs. Dennistoun laughed a little to herself,
+which was, perhaps, more alarming than that other
+moment when she was almost ready to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better wear Lord St. Serf's ring," she said,
+after a moment, with a tone of faint derision which
+Elinor knew.</p>
+
+<p>"You might as well tell me," cried the bride, "to
+wear Lady Mariamne's revolving dishes. No, I will
+wear nothing, nothing but your star."</p>
+
+<p>"You have got nothing half so nice," said the mother.
+Oh yes, it was a little revenge upon those people who
+were taking her daughter from her, and who thought
+themselves at liberty to jeer at all her friends: but as
+was perhaps inevitable it touched Elinor a little too.
+She restrained herself from some retort with a sense of
+extreme and almost indignant self-control: though what
+retort Elinor could have made I cannot tell. It was
+much "nicer" than anything else she had. None of
+Phil Compton's great friends, who were not of the same
+<i>monde</i> as the people at Windyhill, had offered his bride
+anything to compare with the diamonds which her
+father had given to her mother before she was born.
+And Elinor was quite aware of the truth of what her
+mother said. But she would have liked to make a
+retort&mdash;to say something smart and piquant and witty
+in return.</p>
+
+<p>And thus the evening was lost, the evening in which
+there was so much to say, one of the three only, no
+more, that were left.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dale came next day to see "the things," and
+was very amiable: but the only thing in this visit which
+affected Elinor's mind was a curious little unexpected
+assault this lady made upon her when she was going
+away. Elinor had gone out with her to the porch, according
+to the courteous usage of the house. But when
+they had reached that shady place, from which the
+green combe and the blue distance were visible, stretching
+far into the soft autumnal mists of the evening,
+Mary Dale turned upon her and asked her suddenly,
+"What night was it that Mr. Compton came here?"</p>
+
+<p>Elinor was much startled, but she did not lose her
+self-possession. All the trouble about that date had disappeared
+out of her mind in the stress and urgency of
+other things. She cast back her mind with an effort and
+asked herself what the conflict and uncertainty of which
+she was dimly conscious, had been? It came back to
+her dimly without any of the pain that had been in it.
+"It was on the sixth," she said quietly, without excitement.
+She could scarcely recall to her mind what it
+was that had moved her so much in respect to this date
+only a little time ago.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you must be mistaken, Elinor, I saw him
+coming up from the station. It was later than that.
+It was, if I were to give my life for it, Thursday
+night."</p>
+
+<p>This was four or five nights before and a haze of
+uncertainty had fallen on all things so remote. But Elinor
+cast her eyes upon the calendar in the hall and calm
+possessed her breast. "It was the sixth," she said with
+composed tones, as certain as of anything she had ever
+known in the course of her life.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose you must know," said Mary Dale.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Look at that, Elinor," said Mrs. Dennistoun, next
+day, when she had read, twice over, a letter, large and
+emblazoned with a very big monogram, which Elinor,
+well perceiving from whom it came, had furtively
+watched the effect of from behind an exceeding small
+letter of her own. Phil was not remarkable as a correspondent:
+his style was that of the primitive mind
+which hopes its correspondent is well, "as this leaves
+me." He had never much more to say.</p>
+
+<p>"From Mariamne, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p>"She takes great pains to make us certain of that
+fact at least," Mrs. Dennistoun said; which indeed was
+very true, for the name of the writer was sprawled in
+gilt letters half over the sheet. And this was how it
+ran:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">"<span class="smallcaps">Dear Mrs. Dennistoun</span>,&mdash;<br />
+
+<span class="ind2">"I </span>have been thinking what a great pity it would be
+to bore you with me, and my maid, and all my belongings.
+I am so silly that I can never be happy without
+dragging a lot of things about with me&mdash;dogs, and
+people, and so forth. Going to town in September is
+dreadful, but it is rather <i>chic</i> to do a thing that <ins title="original has its">is</ins> quite
+out of the way, and one may perhaps pick up a little
+fun in the evening. So if you don't mind, instead of
+inflicting Fifine and Bijou and Leocadie, not to mention
+some people that might be with me, upon you, and
+putting your house all out of order, as these odious little
+dogs do when people are not used to them&mdash;I will come
+down by the train, which I hope arrives quite punctually,
+in time to see poor Phil turned off. I am sure
+you will be so kind as to send a carriage for me to the
+railway. We shall be probably a party of four, and I
+hear from Phil you are so hospitable and kind that I
+need not hesitate to bring my friends to breakfast
+after it's all over. I hope Phil will go through it like
+a man, and I wouldn't for worlds deprive him of the
+support of his family. Love to Nell. I am,</p>
+
+<p class="signature"><span class="ind4r">"Yours truly,</span><br />
+"<span class="smallcaps">Mariamne Prestwich</span>."</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>"The first name very big and the second very
+small," said Mrs. Dennistoun, as she received the letter
+back.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure we are much obliged to her for not
+coming, mamma!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps&mdash;but not for this announcement of her not
+coming. I don't wish to say anything against your new
+relations, Elinor<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"You need not put any restraint upon yourself in
+consideration of my feelings," said Elinor, with a flush
+of annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>And this made Mrs. Dennistoun pause. They ate
+their breakfast, which was a very light meal, in silence.
+It was the day before the wedding. The rooms down-stairs
+had been carefully prepared for Phil's sister.
+Though Mrs. Dennistoun was too proud to say anything
+about it, she had taken great pains to make these
+pretty rooms as much like a fine lady's chamber as had
+been possible. She had put up new curtains, and a
+Persian carpet, and looked out of her stores all the
+pretty things she could find to decorate the two rooms
+of the little apartment. She had gone in on the way
+down-stairs to take a final survey, and it seemed to her
+that they were very pretty. No picture could have
+been more beautiful than the view from the long low
+lattice window, in which, as in a frame, was set the
+foreground of the copse with its glimpses of ruddy
+heather and the long sweep of the heights beyond,
+which stretched away into the infinite. That at least
+could not be surpassed anywhere; and the Persian
+carpet was like moss under foot, and the chairs luxurious&mdash;and
+there was a collection of old china in some
+open shelves which would have made the mouth of an
+amateur water. Well! it was Lady Mariamne's own loss
+if she preferred the chance of picking up a little fun in
+the evening, to spending the night decorously in that
+pretty apartment, and making further acquaintance
+with her new sister. It was entirely, Mrs. Dennistoun
+said to herself, a matter for her own choice. But she
+was much affronted all the same.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be very inconvenient indeed sending a
+carriage for her, Elinor. Except the carriage that is to
+take you to church there is none good enough for this
+fine lady. I had concluded she would go in your
+uncle Tatham's carriage. It may be very fine to have
+a Lady Mariamne in one's party, but it is a great
+nuisance to have to change all one's arrangements at
+the last moment."</p>
+
+<p>"If you were to send the wagonette from the Bull's
+Head, as rough as possible, with two of the farm horses,
+she would think it <i>genre</i>, if not <i>chic</i><span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot put up with all this nonsense!" cried Mrs.
+Dennistoun, with a flush on her cheek. "You are just
+as bad as they are, Elinor, to suggest such a thing! I
+have held my own place in society wherever I have been,
+and I don't choose to be condescended to or laughed at,
+in fact, by any visitor in the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma! do you think any one would ever compare
+you with Mariamne&mdash;the Jew?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't exasperate me with those abominable nicknames.
+They will give you one next. She is an exceedingly
+ill-bred and ill-mannered woman. Picking
+up a little fun in the evening! What does she mean
+by picking up a little fun<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"They will perhaps go to the theatre&mdash;a number of
+them; and as nobody is in town they will laugh very
+much at the kind of people, and perhaps the kind of
+play&mdash;and it will be a great joke ever after among themselves&mdash;for
+of course there will be a number of them
+together," said Elinor, disclosing her acquaintance with
+the habits of her new family with downcast eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"How can well-born people be so vulgar and ill-bred?"
+cried Mrs. Dennistoun. "I must say for Philip
+that though he is careless and not nearly so particular
+as I should like, still he is not like that. He has something
+of the politeness of the heart."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor did not raise her downcast eyes. Phil had
+been on his very good behaviour on the occasion of his
+last hurried visit, but she did not feel that she could
+answer even for Phil. "I am very glad anyhow, that
+she is not coming, mamma: at least we shall have the
+last night and the last morning to ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun shook her head. "The Tathams will
+be here," she said; "and everybody, to dinner&mdash;all the
+party. We must go now and see how we can enlarge
+the table. To-night's party will be the largest we have
+ever had in the cottage." She sighed a little and
+paused, restraining herself. "We shall have no quiet
+evening&mdash;nor morning either&mdash;again; it will be a bustle
+and a rush. You and I will never have any more quiet
+evenings, Elinor: for when you come back it will be
+another thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother!" cried Elinor, throwing herself into
+her mother's arms: and for a moment they stood closely
+clasped, feeling as if their hearts would burst, yet very
+well aware, too, underneath, that any number of quiet
+evenings would be as the last, when, with hearts full of
+a thousand things to say to each other, they said almost
+nothing&mdash;which in some respects was worse than having
+no quiet evenings evermore.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon Phil arrived, having returned from
+Ireland that morning, and paused only to refresh himself
+in the chambers which he still retained in town.
+He had met all his hunting friends during the three
+days he had been away; and though he retained a gallant
+appearance, and looked, as Alice Hudson thought,
+"very aristocratic," Mrs. Dennistoun caught with
+anxiety a worn-out look&mdash;the look of excitement, of
+nights without sleep, much smoke, and, perhaps, much
+wine, in his eyes. What a woman feels who has to hand
+over her spotless child, the most dear and pure thing
+upon earth, to a man fresh from those indulgences and
+dissipations which never seem harmless, and always are
+repellent to a woman, is not to be described. Fortunately
+the bride herself, in invincible ignorance and
+unconsciousness, seldom feels in that way. To Elinor
+her lover looked tired about the eyes, which was very
+well explained by his night journey, and by the agitation
+of the moment. And, indeed, she did not see very
+much of Phil, who had his friends with him&mdash;his aide-de-camp,
+Bolsover, and his brother Harry. These three
+gentlemen carried an atmosphere of smoke and other
+scents with them into the lavender of the Rectory,
+which was too amazing in that hemisphere for words,
+and talked their own talk in the midst of the fringe of
+rustics who were their hosts, with a calm which was extraordinary,
+breaking into the midst of the Rector's
+long-winded, amiable sentences, and talking to each
+other over Mrs. Hudson's head. "I say, Dick, don't you
+remember?" "By Jove, Phil, you are too bad!"
+sounded, with many other such expressions and reminders,
+over the Rectory party, strictly silent round
+their own table, trying to make a courteous remark now
+and then, but confounded, in their simple country good
+manners, by the fine gentlemen. And then there was
+the dinner-party at the cottage in the evening, to which
+Mr. and Mrs. Hudson were invited. Such a dinner-party!
+Old Mr. Tatham, who was a country gentleman
+from Dorsetshire, with his nice daughter, Mary Tatham,
+a quiet country young lady, accustomed, when she went
+into the world at all, to the serious young men of the
+Temple, and John's much-occupied friends, who had
+their own asides about cases, and what So-and-So had
+said in court, but were much too well-bred before
+ladies to fall into "shop;" and Mr. and Mrs. Hudson,
+who were such as we know them; and the bride's
+mother, a little anxious, but always debonair; and
+Elinor herself, in all the haze and sweet confusion of the
+great era which approached so closely. The three men
+made the strangest addition that can be conceived to
+the quiet guests; but things went better under the discipline
+of the dinner, especially as Sir John Huntingtower,
+who was a Master of the hounds and an old
+friend of the Dennistouns, was of the party, and Lady
+Huntingtower, who was an impressive person, and knew
+the world. This lady was very warm in her congratulations
+to Mrs. Dennistoun after dinner on the absence
+of Lady Mariamne. "I think you are the luckiest
+woman that ever was to have got clear of that dreadful
+creature," she said. "Oh, there is nothing wrong about
+her that I know. She goes everywhere with her dogs
+and her <i>cavaliers servantes</i>. There's safety in numbers,
+my dear. She has always two of them at least hanging
+about her to fetch and carry, and she thinks a great
+deal more of her dogs; but I can't think what you
+could have done with her here."</p>
+
+<p>"And what will my Elinor do in such a sphere?"
+the troubled mother permitted herself to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if that were all," said Lady Huntingtower, lifting
+up her fat hands&mdash;she was one of those who had
+protested against the marriage, but now that it had
+come to this point, and could not be broken off, the
+judicious woman thought it right to make the best of
+it&mdash;"Elinor need not be any the worse," she said.
+"Thank heaven, you are not obliged to be mixed up
+with your husband's sister. Elinor must take a line of
+her own. You should come to town yourself her first
+season, and help her on. You used to know plenty of
+people."</p>
+
+<p>"But they say," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that it is so
+much better to leave a young couple to themselves, and
+that a mother is always in the way."</p>
+
+<p>"If I were you I would not pay the least attention to
+what they say. If you hold back too much they will
+say, 'There was her own mother, knowing numbers of
+nice people, that never took the trouble to lend her a
+hand.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, turning round immediately
+to this other aspect of affairs, "that it never
+will be necessary for the world to interest itself at all in
+my child's affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course, that is the best," Lady Huntingtower
+allowed, "if she just goes softly for a year or two
+till she feels her way."</p>
+
+<p>"But then she is so young, and so little accustomed
+to act for herself," said the mother, with another change
+of flank.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Elinor has a great deal of spirit. She must
+just make a stand against the Compton set and take her
+own line."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hudson and Alice and Miss Tatham were at the
+other end of the room exchanging a few criticisms
+under their breath, and disposed to think that they
+were neglected by their hostess for the greater personage
+with whom she was in such close conversation. And
+Lady Mariamne's defection was a great disappointment
+to them all. "I should like to have seen a fine lady
+quite close," said Mary (it was not, I think, usual to
+speak of "smart" people in those days), "one there
+could be no doubt about, a little fast and all that. I
+have seen them in town at a distance, but all the people
+we know are sure country people."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," said Mrs. Hudson, primly, "I don't like
+to hear you talk of any other kind. An English lady,
+I hope, whatever is her rank, can only be of one kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma, you know very well Lady Mariamne is
+as different from Lady Huntingtower as<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mention names, my dear; it is not well-bred.
+The one is young, and naturally fond of gayety; the
+other&mdash;well, is not quite so young, and stout, and all
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is all very well," said Alice; "but Aunt
+Mary says<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dale was coming in the evening, and the Miss
+Hills, and the curate, and the doctor, and various other
+people, who could not be asked to dinner, to whom it
+had been carefully explained (which, indeed, was a fact
+they knew) that to dine twelve people in the little dining-room
+of the cottage was a feat which was accomplished
+with difficulty, and that more was impossible.
+Society at Windyhill was very tolerant and understanding
+on this point, for all the dining-rooms were
+small, except, indeed, when you come to talk of such
+places as Huntingtower&mdash;and they were very glad to be
+permitted to have a peep at the bridegroom on these
+terms, or rather, if truth were told, of the bride, and
+how she was bearing herself so near the crisis of her
+fate. The bridegroom is seldom very interesting on
+such occasions. On the present occasion he was more
+interesting than usual, because he was the Honourable
+Philip, and because he had a reputation of which most
+people had heard something. There was a mixture of
+alarm and suspicion in respect to him which increased
+the excitement; and many remarks of varied kinds
+were made. "I think the fellow's face quite bears out
+his character," said the doctor to the Rector. "What a
+man to trust a nice girl to!" Mr. Hudson felt that as
+the bridegroom was living under his roof he was partially
+responsible, and discouraged this pessimistic view.
+"Mr. Compton has not, perhaps, had all the advantages
+one tries to secure for one's own son," he said, "but I
+have reason to believe that the things that have been
+said of him are much exaggerated." "Oh, advantages!"
+said the doctor, thinking of Alick, of whom it
+was his strongly expressed opinion that the fellow
+should be turned out to rough it, and not coddled up
+and spoiled at home. But while these remarks were
+going on, Miss Hill had been expressing to the curate
+an entirely different view. "I think he has a <i>beautiful</i>
+face," she said with the emphasis some ladies use; "a
+little worn, perhaps, with being too much in the world,
+and I wish he had a better colour. To me he looks
+delicate: but what delightful features, Mr. Whitebands,
+and what an aristocratic air!"</p>
+
+<p>"He looks tremendously up to everything," the curate
+said, with a faint tone of envy in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't he just?" cried Alick Hudson. "I should
+think there wasn't a thing he couldn't do&mdash;of things
+that men <i>do</i> do, don't you know," cried that carefully
+trained boy, whose style was confused, though his
+meaning was good. But probably there were almost as
+many opinions about Phil as there were people in the
+room. His two backers-up stood in a corner&mdash;half intimidated,
+half contemptuous of the country people.
+"Queer lot for Phil to fall among," said Dick Bolsover.
+"Que diable allait-il faire dans cette gal&egrave;re?" said
+Harry Compton, who had been about the world. "Oh,
+bosh with your French, that nobody understands," said
+the best man.</p>
+
+<p>But in the meantime Phil was not there at all to be
+seen of men. He had stolen out into the garden,
+where there was a white vision awaiting him in the
+milky moonlight. The autumn haze had come early
+this season, and the moon was misty, veiled with white
+amid a jumble of soft floating vapours in the sky. Elinor
+stood among the flowers, which showed some
+strange subdued tints of colours in the flooding of the
+white light, like a bit of consolidated moonlight in her
+white dress. She had a white shawl covering her from
+head to foot, with a corner thrown over her hair.
+What had they to say to each other that last night?
+Not much; nothing at all that had any information in
+it&mdash;whispers inaudible almost to each other. There
+was something in being together for this stolen moment,
+just on the eve of their being together for always,
+which had a charm of its own. After to-night, no
+stealing away, no escape to the garden, no little conspiracy
+to attain a meeting&mdash;the last of all those delightful
+schemings and devices. They started when
+they heard a sound from the house, and sped along the
+paths into the shadow like the conspirators they were&mdash;but
+never to conspire more after this last enthralling
+time.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not frightened, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;except a little. There is one thing<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, my pet? If it's to the half of my kingdom,
+it shall be done."</p>
+
+<p>"Phil, we are going to be very good when we are
+together? don't laugh&mdash;to help each other?"</p>
+
+<p>He did laugh low, not to be heard, but long. "I
+shall have no temptation," he said, "to be anything
+but good, you little goose of a Nell," taking it for a
+warning of possible jealousy to come.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I mean both of us&mdash;to help each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Nell, I know you'll never go wrong<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>She gave him a little impatient shake. "You will
+not understand me, Phil. We will try to be better
+than we've ever been. To be good&mdash;don't you know
+what that means?&mdash;in every way, before God."</p>
+
+<p>Her voice dropped very low, and he was for a moment
+overawed. "You mean going to church, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean&mdash;yes, that for one thing; and many other
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"That's dropping rather strong upon a fellow," he
+said, "just at this moment, don't you think, when I
+must say yes to everything you say."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't mean it in that way; and I was not
+thinking of church particularly; but to be good, very
+good, true and kind, in our hearts."</p>
+
+<p>"You are all that already, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, not what I mean. When there are two of
+us instead of one we can do so much more."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my pet, it's for you to make out the much
+more. I'm quite content with you as you are; it's me
+that you want to improve, and heaven knows there's
+plenty of room for that."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Phil, not you more than me," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll choose a place where the sermon's short, and
+we'll see about it. You mean little minx, to bind a
+man down to go to church, the night before his wedding
+day!"</p>
+
+<p>And then there was a sound of movement indoors,
+and after a little while the bride appeared among the
+guests with a little more colour than usual, and an anxiously
+explanatory description of something she had
+been obliged to do; and the confused hour flew on
+with much sound of talking and very little understanding
+of what was said. And then all the visitors streamed
+away group after group into the moonlight, disappearing
+like ghosts under the shadow of the trees. Finally,
+the Rectory party went too, the three mild ladies surrounded
+by an exciting circle of cigars; for Alick, of
+course, had broken all bonds, and even the Rector
+accepted that rare indulgence. Alice Hudson half deplored,
+half exulted for years after in the scent that
+would cling round one particular evening dress. Five
+gentlemen, all with cigars, and papa as bad as any of
+them! There had never been such an extraordinary experience
+in her life.</p>
+
+<p>And then the Tathams, too, withdrew, and the mother
+and daughter stood alone on their own hearth. Oh,
+so much, so much as there was to say! but how were
+they to say it?&mdash;the last moment, which was so precious
+and so intolerable&mdash;the moment that would never
+come again.</p>
+
+<p>"You were a long time with Philip, Elinor, in the
+garden. I think all your old friends <span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> the last
+night."</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to say something to him, mamma, that I
+had never had the courage to say."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun had been looking dully into the dim
+mirror over the mantelpiece. She turned half round
+to her daughter with an inquiring look.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma, I wanted to say to him that we must
+be good! We're so happy. God is so kind to us; and
+you&mdash;if you suppose I don't think of you! It was to
+say to him&mdash;building our house upon all this, God's
+mercy and your loss, and all&mdash;that we are doubly,
+doubly bound to serve&mdash;and to love&mdash;and to be good
+people before God; and like you, mother, like you!"</p>
+
+<p>"My darling!" Mrs. Dennistoun said. And that was
+all. She asked no questions as to how it was to be
+done, or what he replied. Elinor had broken down
+hysterically, and sobbed out the words one at a time,
+as they would come through the choking in her throat.
+Needless to say that she ended in her mother's arms,
+her head upon the bosom which had nursed her, her
+slight weight dependent upon the supporter and protector
+of all her life.</p>
+
+<p>That was the last evening. There remained the last
+morning to come; and after that&mdash;what? The great
+sea of an unknown life, a new pilot, and a ship untried.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>And now the last morning had come.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of a wedding-day is a flying and precarious
+moment which seems at once as if it never
+would end, and as if it were a hurried preliminary interval
+in which the necessary preparations never could
+be done. Elinor was not allowed to come down-stairs
+to help, as she felt it would be natural to do. It was
+Mary Tatham who arranged the flowers on the table,
+and helped Dennistoun to superintend everything.
+All the women in the house, though they were so busy,
+were devoted at every spare moment to the service of
+Elinor. They brought her simple breakfast up-stairs,
+one maid carrying the tray and another the teapot,
+that each might have their share. The cook, though
+she was overwhelmed with work, had made some cakes
+for breakfast, such us Elinor liked. "Most like as
+we'll never have her no more&mdash;to mind," she said.
+The gardener sent up an untidy bundle of white flowers.
+And Mrs. Dennistoun came herself to pour out
+the tea. "As if I had been ill, or had turned into a
+baby again," Elinor said. But there was not much said.
+Mary Tatham was there for one thing, and for another
+and the most important they had said all they had to
+say; the rest which remained could not be said. The
+wedding was to be at a quarter to twelve, in order to
+give Lady Mariamne time to come from town. It was
+not the fashion then to delay marriages to the afternoon,
+which no doubt would have been much more
+convenient for her ladyship; but the best that could
+be done was done. Mr. Tatham's carriage, which he
+had brought with him to grace the ceremony, was despatched
+to the station to meet Lady Mariamne, while
+he, good man, had to get to church as he could in one
+of the flys. And then came the important moment,
+when the dressing of the bride had to be begun. The
+wedding-breakfast was not yet all set out in perfect
+order, and there were many things to do. Yet every
+woman in the house had a little share in the dressing
+of the bride. They all came to see how it fitted when
+the wedding-dress was put on. It fitted like a glove!
+The long glossy folds of the satin were a wonder to see.
+Cook stood just within the door in a white apron, and
+wept, and could not say a word to Miss Elinor; but
+the younger maids sent forth a murmur of admiration.
+And the Missis they thought was almost as beautiful
+as the bride, though her satin was grey. Mrs. Dennistoun
+herself threw the veil over her child's head, and
+put in the diamond star, the old-fashioned ornament,
+which had been her husband's present to herself. And
+then again she had meant to say something to Elinor&mdash;a
+last word&mdash;but the word would not come. They were
+both of them glad that somebody should be there all
+the time, that they should not be left alone. And after
+that the strange, hurried, everlasting morning was
+over, and the carriage was at the door.</p>
+
+<p>Then again it was a relief that old Mr. Tatham had
+missed his proper place in the fly, and had to go on
+the front seat with the bride and her mother. It was
+far better so. If they had been left even for ten minutes
+alone, who could have answered that one or the
+other would not have cried, and discomposed the bouquet
+and the veil? It seemed a great danger and responsibility
+over when they arrived at last safely at the
+church door. Lady Mariamne was just then arriving
+from the station. She drew up before them in poor
+Mr. Tatham's carriage, keeping them back. Harry
+Compton and Mr. Bolsover sprang to the carriage window
+to talk to her, and there was a loud explosion of
+mirth and laughter in the midst of the village people,
+and the children with their baskets of flowers who
+were already gathered. Lady Mariamne's voice burst
+out so shrill that it overmastered the church bells.
+"Here I am," she cried, "out in the wilderness. And
+Algy has come with me to take care of me. And how
+are you, dear boys; and how is poor Phil?" "Phil is
+all ready to be turned off, with the halter round his
+neck," said Dick Bolsover; and Harry Compton said,
+"Hurry up, hurry up, Jew, the bride is behind you,
+waiting to get out." "She must wait, then," said Lady
+Mariamne, and there came leisurely out of the carriage,
+first, her ladyship's companion, by name, Algy, a tall
+person with an eye-glass, then a little pug, which was
+carefully handed into his arms, and then lightly jumping
+down to the ground, a little figure in black&mdash;in black of
+all things in the world! a sight that curdled the blood
+of the village people, and of Mrs. Hudson, who had
+walked across from the Rectory in a gown of pigeon's-breast
+silk which scattered prismatic reflections as she
+walked. In black! Mrs. Hudson bethought herself that
+she had a white China crape shawl in her cupboard, and
+wondered if she could offer it to conceal this ill omened
+gown. But if Lady Mariamne's dress was dark, she
+herself was fair enough, with an endless fluff of light
+hair under her little black lace bonnet. Her gloves
+were off, and her hands were white and glistening with
+rings. "Give me my puggy darling," she said in her
+loud, shrill tone. "I can go nowhere, can I, pet, without
+my little pug!"</p>
+
+<p>"A Jew and a pug, both in church. It is enough,"
+said her brother, "to get the poor parson into trouble
+with his bishop."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the bishop's a great friend of mine," said the
+lady; "he will say nothing to me, not if I put Pug in
+a surplice and make him lead the choir." At this
+speech there was a great laugh of the assembled party,
+which stood in the centre of the path, while Mr.
+Tatham's carriage edged away, and the others made efforts
+to get forward. The noise of their talk disturbed
+the curious abstraction in which Elinor had been going
+through the morning hours. Mariamne's jarring voice
+seemed louder than the bells. Was this the first voice
+sent out to greet her by the new life which was about
+to begin? She glanced at her mother, and then at old
+Uncle Tatham, who sat immovable, prevented by decorum
+from apostrophising the coachman who was not
+his own, but fuming inwardly at the interruption. Mrs.
+Dennistoun did not move at all, but her daughter knew
+very well what was meant by that look straight before
+her, in which her mother seemed to ignore all obstacles
+in the way.</p>
+
+<p>"I got here very well," Lady Mariamne went on;
+"we started in the middle of the night, of course, before
+the lamps were out. Wasn't it good of Algy to
+get himself out of bed at such an unearthly hour! But
+he snapped at Puggy as we came down, which was a
+sign he felt it. Why aren't you with the poor victim
+at the altar, you boys?"</p>
+
+<p>"Phil will be in blue funk," said Harry; "go in and
+stand by your man, Dick: the Jew has enough with
+two fellows to see her into her place."</p>
+
+<p>The bride's carriage by this time pushed forward,
+making Lady Mariamne start in confusion. "Oh! look
+here; they have splashed my pretty toilette, and upset
+my nerves," she cried, springing back into her supporter's
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>That gentleman regarded the stain of the damp
+gravel on the lady's skirt through his eye-glass with
+deep but helpless anxiety. "It's a pity for the pretty
+frock!" he said with much seriousness. And the
+group gathered round and gazed in dismay, as if they
+expected it to disappear of itself&mdash;until Mrs. Hudson
+bustled up. "It will rub off; it will not make any
+mark. If one of you gentlemen will lend me a handkerchief,"
+she said. And Algy and Harry and Dick
+Bolsover, not to speak of Lady Mariamne herself,
+watched with great gravity while the gravel was swept
+off. "I make no doubt," said the Rector's wife, "that
+I have the pleasure of speaking to Lady Mariamne: and
+I don't doubt that black is the fashion and your dress
+is beautiful: but if you would just throw on a white
+shawl for the sake of the wedding&mdash;it's so unlucky to
+come in black<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"A white shawl!" said Lady Mariamne in dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"The Jew in a white shawl!" echoed the others with
+a burst of laughter which rang into the church itself
+and made Phil before the altar, alone and very anxious,
+ask himself what was up.</p>
+
+<p>"It's China crape, I assure you, and very nice," Mrs.
+Hudson said.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Mariamne gave the good Samaritan a stony
+stare, and took Algy's arm and sailed into the church
+before the Rector's wife, without a word said; while all
+the women from the village looked at each other and
+said, "Well, I never!" under their breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me give you my arm, Mrs. Hudson," said Harry
+Compton, "and please pardon me that I did not introduce
+my sister to you. She is dreadfully shy, don't
+you know, and never does speak to anyone when she
+has not been introduced."</p>
+
+<p>"My observation was a very simple one," said Mrs.
+Hudson, very angry, yet pleased to lean upon an Honourable
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear lady!" cried the good-natured Harry,
+"the Jew never wore a shawl in her life<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>And all this time the organ had been pealing, the
+white vision passing up the aisle, the simple villagers
+chanting forth their song about the breath that breathed
+o'er Eden. Alas! Eden had not much to do with it,
+except perhaps in the trembling heart of the white
+maiden roused out of her virginal dream by the jarring
+voices of the new life. The laughter outside was a
+dreadful offence to all the people, great and small, who
+had collected to see Elinor married.</p>
+
+<p>"What could you expect? It's that woman whom
+they call the Jew," whispered Lady Huntingtower to her
+next neighbour.</p>
+
+<p>"She should be put into the stocks," said Sir John,
+scarcely under his breath, which, to be sure, was also
+an interruption to the decorum of the place.</p>
+
+<p>And then there ensued a pause broken by the voice,
+a little lugubrious in tone, of the Rector within the
+altar rails, and the tremulous answers of the pair outside.
+The audience held its breath to hear Elinor
+make her responses, and faltered off into suppressed
+weeping as the low tones ceased. Sir John Huntingtower,
+who was very tall and big, and stood out like a
+pillar among the ladies round, kept nodding his head
+all the time she spoke, nodding as you might do in
+forced assent to any dreadful vow. Poor little thing,
+poor little thing, he was saying in his heart. His face
+was more like the face of a man at a funeral than a man
+at a wedding. "Blessed are the dead that die in the
+Lord"&mdash;he might have been nodding assent to that instead
+of to Elinor's low-spoken vow. Phil Compton's
+voice, to tell the truth, was even more tremulous than
+Elinor's. To investigate the thoughts of a bridegroom
+would be too much curiosity at such a moment. But I
+think if the secrets of the hearts could be revealed,
+Phil for a moment was sorry for poor little Elinor
+too.</p>
+
+<p>And then the solemnity was all over in a moment,
+and the flutter of voices and congratulations began.</p>
+
+<p>I do not mean to follow the proceedings through all
+the routine of the wedding-day. Attempts were made
+on the part of the bridegroom's party to get Lady Mariamne
+dismissed by the next train, an endeavour into
+which Harry Compton threw himself&mdash;for he was
+always a good-hearted fellow&mdash;with his whole soul.
+But the Jew declared that she was dying of hunger,
+and whatever sort of place it was, must have something
+to eat; a remark which naturally endeared her still
+more to Mrs. Dennistoun, who was waiting by the door
+of Mr. Tatham's carriage, which that anxious old
+gentleman had managed to recover control of, till her
+ladyship had taken her place. Her ladyship stared
+with undisguised amazement when she was followed
+into the carriage by the bride's mother, and when the
+neat little old gentleman took his seat opposite. "But
+where is Algy? I want Algy," she cried, in dismay.
+"Absolutely I can't go without Algy, who came to take
+care of me."</p>
+
+<p>"You will be perfectly safe, my dear lady, with Mrs.
+Dennistoun and me. The gentlemen will walk," said
+Mr. Tatham, waving his hand to the coachman.</p>
+
+<p>And thus it was that the forlorn lady found herself
+without her cavalier and without her pug, absolutely
+stranded among savages, notwithstanding her strong
+protest almost carried the length of tears. She was
+thus carried off in a state of consternation to the cottage
+over the rough road, where the wheels went with a
+din and lurch over the stones, and dug deep into the
+sand, eliciting a succession of little shrieks from her
+oppressed bosom. "I shall be shaken all to bits," she
+said, grasping the arm of the old gentleman to steady
+herself. Mr. Tatham was not displeased to be the
+champion of a lady of title. He assured her in dulcet
+tones that his springs were very good and his horses
+very sure&mdash;"though it is not a very nice road."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is a dreadful road!" said Lady Mariamne.</p>
+
+<p>But in due time they did arrive at the cottage, where
+her ladyship could not wait for the gathering of the
+company, but demanded at once something to eat. "I
+can't really go another moment without food. I must
+have something or I shall die. Phil, come here this instant
+and get me something. They have brought me
+off at the risk of my life, and there's nobody to attend
+to me. Don't stand spooning there," cried Lady
+Mariamne, "but do what I tell you. Do you think I
+should ever have put myself into this position but for
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You would never have been asked here if they had
+consulted me. I knew what a nuisance you'd be. Here,
+get this lady something to eat, old man," said the bridegroom,
+tapping Mr. Tatham on the back, who did,
+indeed, look rather like a waiter from that point of
+view.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have to help myself," said the lady in despair.
+And she sat down at the elaborate table in the
+bride's place and began to hack at the chicken.
+The gentlemen coming in at the moment roared again
+with laughter over the Jew's impatience; but it was not
+regarded with the same admiration by the rest of the
+guests.</p>
+
+<p>These little incidents, perhaps, helped to wile away
+the weary hours until it was time for the bridal pair to
+depart. Mrs. Dennistoun was so angry that it kept up
+a little fire, so to speak, in her heart when the light of
+her house was extinguished. Lady Mariamne, standing
+in the porch with a bag full of rice to throw, kept up
+the spirit of the mistress of the house, which otherwise
+might, perhaps, have failed her altogether at that inconceivable
+moment; for though she had been looking
+forward to it for months it was inconceivable when it
+came, as death is inconceivable. Elinor going away!&mdash;not
+on a visit, or to be back in a week, or a month, or a
+year&mdash;going away for ever! ending, as might be said,
+when she put her foot on the step of the carriage. Her
+mother stood by and looked on with that cruel conviction
+that overtakes all at the last. Up to this moment
+had it not seemed as if the course of affairs was unreal,
+as if something must happen to prevent it? Perhaps
+the world will end to-night, as the lover says in the
+"Last Ride." But now here was the end: nothing had
+happened, the world was swinging on in space in its
+old careless way, and Elinor was going&mdash;going away
+for ever and ever. Oh, to come back, perhaps&mdash;there
+was nothing against that&mdash;but never the same Elinor.
+The mother stood looking, with her hand over her eyes
+to shield them from the sun. Those eyes were quite
+dry, and she stood firm and upright by the carriage
+door. She was not "breaking down" or "giving way,"
+as everybody feared. She was "bearing up," as everybody
+was relieved to see. And in a moment it was all
+over, and there was nothing before her eyes&mdash;no carriage,
+no Elinor. She was so dazed that she stood still,
+looking with that strange kind of smile for a full minute
+after there was nothing to smile at, only the vacant
+air and the prospect of the combe, coming in in a sickly
+haze which existed only in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But, by good luck, there was Lady Mariamne behind,
+and the fire of indignation giving a red flicker upon the
+desolate hearth.</p>
+
+<p>"I caught Phil on the nose," said that lady, in great
+triumph; "spoilt his beauty for him for to-day. But
+let's hope she won't mind. She thinks him beautiful,
+the little goose. Oh, my Puggy-wuggy, did that cruel
+Algy pull your little, dear tail, you darling? Come to
+oos own mammy, now those silly wedding people are
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"Your little dog, I presume, is of a very rare sort,"
+said Mr. Tatham, to be civil. He had proposed the
+bride and bridegroom's health in a most appropriate
+speech, and he felt that he had deserved well of his
+kind, which made him more amiable even than usual.
+"Your ladyship's little dog," he added, after a moment,
+as she did not take any notice, "I presume, is of a rare
+kind?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Mariamne gave him a look, or rather a stare.
+"Is Puggy of a rare sort?" she said over her shoulder,
+to one of the attendant tribe.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be such a duffer, Jew! You know as well as
+any one what breed he's of," Harry Compton said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I forgot," said the fine lady. She was standing
+full in front of the entrance, keeping Mrs. Dennistoun
+in the full sun outside. "I hope there's a train very
+soon," she said. "Did you look, Algy, as I told you?
+If it hadn't been that Phil would have killed me I
+should have gone now. It would have been such fun to
+have spied upon the turtle doves!"</p>
+
+<p>The men thought it would have been rare fun with
+obedient delight, but that Phil would have cut up
+rough, and made a scene. At this Lady Mariamne held
+up her finger, and made a portentous face.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you naughty, naughty boy," she cried, "telling
+tales out of school."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, my dear lady," said Mr. Tatham, quietly,
+"you would let Mrs. Dennistoun pass."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Lady Mariamne, and stared at him again
+for half a minute; then she turned and stared at the
+tall lady in grey satin. "Anybody can pass," she said:
+"I'm not so very big."</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite true&mdash;quite true. There is plenty of
+room," said the little gentleman, holding out his hand
+to his cousin.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "I am sure
+you will be kind enough to lend your carriage again to
+Lady Mariamne, who is in a hurry to get away. There
+is another train, which stops at Downforth station, in
+half an hour, and there will just be time to get there, if
+you will order it at once. I told your man to be in
+readiness: and it would be a thousand pities to lose
+this train, for there is not another for an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, Jew! there's a slap in the face for you,"
+said, in an audible whisper, one of the train, who had
+been standing in front of all the friends, blocking out
+the view. As for Lady Mariamne, she stared more
+straight than ever into Mrs. Dennistoun's eyes, but for
+the moment did not seem to find anything to say. She
+was left in the hall with her band while the mistress of
+the house went into the drawing-room, followed by all
+the country ladies, who had not lost a word, and who
+were already whispering to each other over that terrible
+betrayal about the temper of Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"Cut up rough! Oh! poor little Elinor, poor little
+Elinor!" the ladies said to each other under their
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not at all surprised. It is not any news to
+me. You could see it in his eyes," said Miss Mary
+Dale. And then they all were silent to listen to the renewed
+laughter that came bursting from the hall. Mrs.
+Hudson questioned her husband afterwards as to what
+it was that made everybody laugh, but the Rector had
+not much to say. "I really could not tell you, my
+dear," he said. "I don't remember anything that was
+said&mdash;but it seemed funny somehow, and as they all
+laughed one had to laugh too."</p>
+
+<p>The great lady came in, however, dragged by her
+brother to say good-by. "It has all gone off very well,
+I am sure, and Nell looked very nice, and did you
+great credit," she said, putting out her hand. "And
+it's very kind of you to take so much trouble to get us
+off by the first train."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is no trouble," Mrs. Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+<p>"Shouldn't you like to say good-by to Puggy-muggy?"
+said Lady Mariamne, touching the little
+black nose upon her arm. "He enjoyed that <i>p&acirc;t&eacute;</i> so
+much. He really never has <i>foie gras</i> at home: but he
+doesn't at all mind if you would like to give him a little
+kiss just here."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Lady Mariamne," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+with one of the curtseys of the old school. But there
+was another gust of laughter as Lady Mariamne was
+placed in the carriage, and a shrill little trumpet gave
+forth the satisfaction of the departing guest at having
+"got a rise out of the old girl." The gentlemen heaped
+themselves into Mr. Tatham's carriage, and swept off
+along with her, all but civil Harry, who waited to make
+their apologies, and to put up along with his own Dick
+Bolsover's "things." And thus the bridegroom's party,
+the new associates of Elinor, the great family into
+which the Honourable Mrs. Phil Compton had been so
+lucky as to marry, to the great excitement of all the
+country round, departed and was seen no more. Harry,
+who was civil, walked home with the Hudsons when all
+was over, and said the best he could for the Jew and
+her friends. "You see, she has been regularly spoiled:
+and then when a girl's so dreadful shy, as often as not
+it sounds like impudence." "Dear me, I should never
+have thought Lady Mariamne was shy," the gentle Rector
+said. "That's just how it is," said Harry. He went
+over again in the darkening to take his leave of Mrs.
+Dennistoun. He found her sitting out in the garden
+before the open door, looking down the misty walk.
+The light had gone out of the skies, but the usual
+cheerful lights had not yet appeared in the house,
+where the hum of a great occasion still reigned. The
+Tathams were at the Rectory, and Mrs. Dennistoun was
+alone. Harry Compton had a good heart, and though
+he could not conceive the possibility of a woman not
+being glad to have married her daughter, the loneliness
+and darkness touched him a little in contrast with the
+gayety of the previous night. "You must think us a
+dreadful noisy lot," he said, "and as if my sister had
+no sense. But it's only the Jew's way. She's made
+like that&mdash;and at bottom she's not at all a bad sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going away?" was all the answer that
+Mrs. Dennistoun made.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, and we shall be a good riddance," said
+Harry; "but please don't think any worse of us than
+you can help<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Phil&mdash;well, he's got a great deal of
+good in him&mdash;he has indeed, and she'll bring it all
+out."</p>
+
+<p>It was very good of Harry Compton. He had a little
+choking in his throat as he walked back. "Blest if I
+ever thought of it in that light before," he said to himself.</p>
+
+<p>But I doubt if what he said, however well meant,
+brought much comfort to Mrs. Dennistoun's heart.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Thus Elinor Dennistoun disappeared from Windyhill
+and was no more seen. There are many ways in
+which a marriage is almost like a death, especially when
+the marriage is that of an only child. The young go
+away, the old remain. There is all the dreary routine
+of the solitary life unbrightened by that companionship
+which is all the world to the one who is left behind.
+So little&mdash;only the happy going away into brighter
+scenes of one whose happiness was the whole thought
+of that dreary survivor at the chimney corner&mdash;and yet
+so much. And if that survivor is a woman she has to
+smile and tell her neighbours of the bride's happiness,
+and how great the comfort to herself that her Elinor's
+life is assured, and her own ending is now of no particular
+importance to her daughter; if it is a man, he is
+allowed to lament, which is a curious paradox, but one
+of the many current in this world. Mrs. Dennistoun
+had to put a very brave face upon it all the more because
+of the known unsatisfactoriness of Elinor's husband:
+and she had to go on with her life, and sit down at her
+solitary meals, and invent lonely occupations for herself,
+and read and read, till her brains were often dazed
+by the multiplicity of the words, which lost their
+meaning as she turned over page by page. To sit
+alone in the house, without a sound audible, except
+perhaps the movement of the servants going up-stairs
+or down to minister to the wants, about which she felt
+she cared nothing whether they were ministered to or
+not, of their solitary mistress, where a little while ago
+there used to be the rhythm of the one quick step, the
+sound of the one gay voice which made the world a
+warm inhabited place to Mrs. Dennistoun&mdash;this was
+more dismal than words could say. To be sure, there
+were some extraordinary and delightful differences;
+there were the almost daily letters, which afforded the
+lonely mother all the pleasure that life could give; and
+there was always the prospect, or at least possibility
+and hope, of seeing her child again. Those two particulars,
+it need scarcely be said, make a difference which
+is practically infinite: but yet for Mrs. Dennistoun, sitting
+alone all the day and night, walking alone, reading
+alone, with little to do that was of the slightest
+consequence, not even the reading&mdash;for what did it
+matter to her dreary, lonely consciousness whether she
+kept afloat of general literature or improved her mind
+or not? this separation by marriage was dreadfully
+like the dreary separation by death, and in one respect
+it was almost worse; for death, if it reaches our very
+hearts, takes away at least the gnawing pangs of anxiety.
+He or she who is gone that way is well; never
+more can trouble touch them, their feet cannot err nor
+their hearts ache; while who can tell what troubles and
+miseries may be befalling, out there in the unknown,
+the child who has embarked upon the troubled sea of
+mortal life?</p>
+
+<p>And it may be imagined with what anxious eyes
+those letters, which made all the difference, were read;
+how the gradually changing tone in them was noted as
+it came in, slowly but also surely. Sometimes they got
+to be very hurried, and then Mrs. Dennistoun saw as in
+a glass the impatient husband waiting, wondering what
+she could constantly find to say to her mother; sometimes
+they were long and detailed, and that meant, as
+would appear perhaps by a phrase slurred over in the
+postscript, that Phil had gone away somewhere. There
+was never a complaint in them, never a word that could
+be twisted into a complaint: but the anxious mother
+read between the lines innumerable things, not half of
+them true. There is perhaps never a half true of what
+anxiety may imagine: but then the half that is true!</p>
+
+<p>John Tatham was very faithful to her during that
+winter. As soon as he came back from Switzerland, at
+the end of the long vacation, he went down to see her,
+feeling the difference in the house beyond anything he
+had imagined, feeling as if he were stepping into some
+darkened outer chamber of the grave: but with a
+cheerful face and eager but confident interest in "the
+news from Elinor." "Of course she is enjoying herself
+immensely," he said, and Mrs. Dennistoun was able
+to reply with a smile that was a little wistful, that yes,
+Elinor was enjoying herself immensely. "She seems
+very happy, and everything is new to her and bright,"
+she said. They were both very glad that Elinor was
+happy, and they were very cheerful themselves. Mrs.
+Dennistoun truly cheered by his visit and by the necessity
+for looking after everything that John might be
+comfortable, and the pleasure of seeing his face opposite
+to her at table. "You can't think what it is to
+see you there; sitting down to dinner is the most horrible
+farce when one is alone." "Poor aunt!" John
+Tatham said: and nobody would believe how many Saturdays
+and Sundays he gave up to her during the long
+winter. Somehow he himself did not care to go anywhere
+else. In Elinor's time he had gone about freely
+enough, liking a little variety in his Saturday to
+Mondays, though always happiest when he went to Windyhill:
+but now somehow the other houses seemed to
+pall upon him. He liked best to go down to that melancholy
+house which his presence made more or less
+bright, where there was an endless talk of Elinor,
+where she was, what she was doing, and what was to
+be her next move, and, at last, when she was coming to
+town. Mrs. Dennistoun did not say, as she did at first,
+"when she is coming home." That possibility seemed
+to slip away somehow, and no one suggested it. When
+she was coming to town, that was what they said between
+themselves. She had spent the spring on the
+Riviera, a great part of it at Monte Carlo, and her letters
+were full of the beauty of the place; but she said
+less and less about people, and more and more
+about the sea and the mountains, and the glorious road
+which gave at every turn a new and beautiful vision of
+the hills and the sea. It was a little like a guide-book,
+they sometimes felt, but neither said it; but at last it
+became certain that in the month of May she was coming
+to town.</p>
+
+<p>More than that, oh, more than that! One evening
+in May, when it was fine but a little chilly, when Mrs.
+Dennistoun was walking wistfully in her garden, looking
+at the moon shining in the west, and wondering if
+her child had arrived in England, and whether she was
+coming to a house of her own, or a lodging, or to be a
+visitor in some one else's house, details which Elinor
+had not given&mdash;her ear was suddenly caught by the distant
+rumbling of wheels, heavy wheels, the fly from the
+station certainly. Mrs. Dennistoun had no expectation
+of what it could be, no sort of hope: and yet a
+woman has always a sort of hope when her child lives
+and everything is possible. The fly seemed to stop, not
+coming up the little cottage drive; but by and by,
+when she had almost given up hoping, there came a
+rush of flying feet, and a cry of joy, and Elinor was in
+her mother's arms. Elinor! yes, it was herself, no vision,
+no shadow such as had many a time come into Mrs.
+Dennistoun's dreams, but herself in flesh and blood,
+the dear familiar figure, the face which, between the
+twilight and those ridiculous tears which come when
+one is too happy, could scarcely be seen at all. "Elinor,
+Elinor! it is you, my darling!" "Yes, mother, it
+is me, really me. I could not write, because I did not
+know till the last minute whether I could get away."</p>
+
+<p>It may be imagined what a coming home that was.
+Mrs. Dennistoun, when she saw her daughter even by
+the light of the lamp, was greatly comforted. Elinor
+was looking well; she was changed in that indescribable
+way in which marriage changes (though not always)
+the happiest woman. And her appearance was
+changed; she was no longer the country young lady
+very well dressed and looking as well as any one could
+in her carefully made clothes. She was now a fashionable
+young woman, about whose dresses there was no
+question, who wore everything as those do who are at
+the fountain-head, no matter what it was she wore.
+Mrs. Dennistoun's eyes caught this difference at once,
+which is also indescribable to the uninitiated, and a
+sensation of pride came into her mind. Elinor was improved,
+too, in so many ways. Her mother had never
+thought of calling her anything more, even in her inmost
+thoughts, than very pretty, very sweet; but it
+seemed to Mrs. Dennistoun now as if people might use
+a stronger word, and call Elinor beautiful. Her face
+had gained a great deal of expression, though it was
+always an expressive face; her eyes looked deeper;
+her manner had a wonderful youthful dignity. Altogether,
+it was another Elinor, yet, God be praised, the
+same.</p>
+
+<p>It was but for one night, but that was a great deal, a
+night subtracted from the blank, a night that seemed
+to come out of the old times&mdash;those old times that had
+not been known to be so very happy till they were over
+and gone. Elinor had naturally a great deal to tell her
+mother, but in the glory of seeing her, of hearing her
+voice, of knowing that it was actually she who was
+speaking, Mrs. Dennistoun did not observe, what she
+remembered afterwards, that again it was much more
+of places than of people that Elinor talked, and that
+though she named Phil when there was any occasion
+for doing so, she did not babble about him as brides
+do, as if he were altogether the sun, and everything
+revolved round him. It is not a good sign, perhaps,
+when the husband comes down to his "proper place"
+as the representative of the other half of the world too
+soon. Elinor looked round upon her old home with a
+mingled smile and sigh. Undoubtedly it had grown
+smaller, perhaps even shabbier, since she went away:
+but she did not say so to her mother. She cried out
+how pretty it was, how delightful to come back to it!
+and that was true too. How often it happens in this
+life that there are two things quite opposed to each
+other, and yet both of them true.</p>
+
+<p>"John will be delighted to hear that you have come,
+Elinor," her mother said.</p>
+
+<p>"John, dear old John! I hope he is well and happy,
+and all that; and he comes often to see you, mother?
+How sweet of him! You must give him ever so much
+love from his poor Nelly. I always keep that name
+sacred to him."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should I give him messages as if you were
+not sure to meet? of course you will meet&mdash;often."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so?" said Elinor. She opened her
+eyes a little in surprise, and then shook her head. "I
+am afraid not, mamma. We are in two different
+worlds."</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "John is a
+very rising man. He is invited everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"That I don't doubt at all."</p>
+
+<p>"And why then shouldn't you meet?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I don't fancy we shall go to the
+same places. John has a profession; he has something
+to do. Now you know we have nothing to do."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed and laid a little emphasis on the <i>we</i>, by
+way of taking off the weight of the words.</p>
+
+<p>"I always thought it was a great pity, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be a pity or not," said Elinor, "but it is,
+and it cannot be helped. We have got to make up our
+minds to it. I would rather Phil did nothing than
+mixed himself up with companies. Thank heaven, at
+present he is free of anything of that kind."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he is free of that one at least, that he was
+going to invest all your money in, Elinor. I hope you
+found another investment that was quite steady and
+safe."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I suppose so," said Elinor, with some of her
+old petulance: "don't let us spoil the little time I have
+by talking about money, mamma!"</p>
+
+<p>And then it was that Mrs. Dennistoun noticed that
+what Elinor did talk of, hurrying away from this subject,
+were things of not the least importance&mdash;the olive
+woods on the Riviera, the wealth of flowers, the strange
+little old towns upon the hills. Surely even the money,
+which was her own and for her comfort, would be a
+more interesting subject to discuss. Perhaps Elinor
+herself perceived this, for she began immediately to ask
+questions about the Hudsons and Hills, and all the people
+of the parish, with much eagerness of questioning,
+but a flagging interest in the replies, as her mother
+soon saw. "And Mary Dale, is she still there?" she
+asked. Mrs. Dennistoun entered into a little history
+of how Mary Dale had gone away to nurse a distant
+cousin who had been ill, and finally had died and left a
+very comfortable little fortune to her kind attendant.
+Elinor listened with little nods and appropriate exclamations,
+but before the evening was out asked again,
+"And Mary Dale?" then hastily corrected herself with
+an "Oh, I remember! you told me." But it was perhaps
+safer not to question her how much she remembered
+of what she had been told.</p>
+
+<p>Thus there were notes of disquiet in even that delightful
+evening, such a contrast as it was to all the
+evenings since she had left home. Even when John
+came, what a poor substitute for Elinor! The ingratitude
+of those whose heart is set on one object made
+Mrs. Dennistoun thus make light of what had been her
+great consolation. He was very kind, very good, and
+oh, how glad she had been to see him through that heavy
+winter&mdash;but he was not Elinor! It was enough for
+Elinor to step across her mother's threshold to make
+Mrs. Dennistoun feel that there was no substitute for
+her&mdash;none: and that John was of no more consequence
+than the Rector or any habitual caller. But, at the
+same time, in all the melody of the home-coming, in the
+sweetness of Elinor's voice, and look, and kiss, in the
+perfection of seeing her there again in her own place,
+and listening to her dear step running up and down
+the no longer silent house, there were notes of disquiet
+which could not be mistaken. She was not unhappy,
+the mother thought; her eyes could not be so bright,
+nor her colour so fair unless she was happy. Trouble
+does not embellish, and Elinor was embellished. But
+yet&mdash;there were notes of disquiet in the air.</p>
+
+<p>Next day Mrs. Dennistoun drove her child to the
+railway in order not to lose a moment of so short a
+visit, and naturally, though she had received that unexpected
+visit with rapture, feeling that a whole night
+of Elinor was worth a month, a year of anybody else,
+yet now that Elinor was going she found it very short.
+"You'll come again soon, my darling?" she said, as
+she stood at the window of the carriage ready to say
+good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>"Whenever I can, mother dear, of that you may be
+sure; whenever I can get away."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wish to draw you from your husband.
+Don't get away&mdash;come with Philip from Saturday to
+Monday. Give him my love, and tell him so. He
+shall not be bored; but Sunday is a day without engagements."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not now, mamma. There are just as many
+things to do on Sundays as on any other day."</p>
+
+<p>There were a great many words on Mrs. Dennistoun's
+lips, but she did not say them; all she did say was,
+"Well, then, Elinor&mdash;when you can get away."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you need not doubt me, mamma." And the
+train, which sometimes lingers so long, which some
+people that very day were swearing at as so slow,
+"Like all country trains," they said&mdash;that inevitable
+heartless thing got into motion, and Mrs. Dennistoun
+watched it till it disappeared; and&mdash;what was that
+that came over Elinor's face as she sank back into the
+corner of her carriage, not knowing her mother's
+anxious look followed her still&mdash;what was it? Oh,
+dreadful, dreadful life! oh, fruitless love and longing!&mdash;was
+it relief? The mother tried to get that look out
+of her mind as she drove silently and slowly home,
+creeping up hill after hill. There was no need to
+hurry. All that she was going to was an empty and
+silent house, where nobody awaited her. What was
+that look on Elinor's face? Relief! to have it over, to
+get away again, away from her old home and her fond
+mother, away to her new life. Mrs. Dennistoun was
+not a jealous mother nor unreasonable. She said to
+herself&mdash;Well! it was no doubt a trial to the child to
+come back&mdash;to come alone. All the time, perhaps, she
+was afraid of being too closely questioned, of having to
+confess that <i>he</i> did not want to come, perhaps grudged
+her coming. She might be afraid that her mother
+would divine something&mdash;some hidden opposition,
+some dislike, perhaps, on his part. Poor Elinor! and
+when everything had passed over so well, when it was
+ended, and nothing had been between them but love
+and mutual understanding, what wonder if there came
+over her dear face a look of relief! This was how this
+good woman, who had seen a great many things in
+her passage through life, explained her child's look:
+and though she was sad was not angry, as many less
+tolerant and less far-seeing might have been in her
+place.</p>
+
+<p>John, that good John, to whom she had been so ungrateful,
+came down next Saturday, and to him she
+confided her great news, but not all of it. "She came
+down&mdash;alone?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Mrs. Dennistoun, bravely; "she knew
+very well it was her I wanted to see, and not Philip.
+They say a great deal about mothers-in-law, but why
+shouldn't we in our turn have our fling at sons-in-law,
+John? It was not him I wanted to see: it was my
+own child: and Elinor understood that, and ran off by
+herself. Bless her for the thought."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand that," said John. He had given the
+mother more than one look as she spoke, and divined
+her better than she supposed. "Oh, yes, I can understand
+that. The thing I don't understand is why he
+let her; why he wasn't too proud to bring her back to
+you, that you might see she had taken no harm. If it
+had been I<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but it was not you," said Mrs. Dennistoun;
+"you forget that. It never could have been you."</p>
+
+<p>He looked quickly at her again, and it was on his
+lips to ask, "Why could it never have been I?" but he
+did not; for he knew that if it had ever been him, it
+could not have been for years. He was too prudent,
+and Elinor, even if she had escaped Phil Compton,
+would have met some one else. He had no right to
+say, or even think, what, in the circumstances, he
+would have done. He did not make any answer, but
+she understood him as he understood her.</p>
+
+<p>And later in the evening she asked his advice as to
+what she should do. "I am not fond of asking advice,"
+she said, "and I don't think there is another in the
+world I would ask it from but you. What should I
+do? It would cost me nothing to run up to town for a
+part of the season at least. I might get a little house,
+and be near her, where she could come to me when
+she pleased. Should I do it, or would it be wise not to
+do it? I don't want to spy upon her or to force her to
+tell me more than she wishes. John, my dear, I will
+tell you what I would tell no one else. I caught a
+glimpse of her dear face when the train was just going
+out of sight, and she was sinking back in her corner
+with a look of relief<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Of relief!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"John, don't form any false impression! it was no
+want of love: but I think she was thankful to have
+seen me, and to have satisfied me, and that I had asked
+no questions that she could not answer&mdash;in a way."</p>
+
+<p>John clenched his fist, but he dared not make
+any gesture of disgust, or suggest again, "If it had
+been I."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now," she said, "remember I am not angry&mdash;fancy
+being angry with Elinor!&mdash;and all I mean is
+for her benefit. Should I go? it might be a relief to
+her to run into me whenever she pleased; or should I
+not go? lest she might think I was bent on finding out
+more than she chose to tell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't it be right that you should find out?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is just the point upon which I am doubtful.
+She is not unhappy, for she is&mdash;she is prettier than ever
+she was, John. A girl does not get like that&mdash;her eyes
+brighter, her colour clearer, looking&mdash;well, beautiful!"
+cried the mother, her eyes filling with bright tears, "if
+she is unhappy. But there may be things that are not
+quite smooth, that she might think it would make me
+unhappy to know, yet that if let alone might come all
+right. Tell me, John, what should I do?"</p>
+
+<p>And they sat debating thus till far on in the night.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun did not go up to town. There are
+some women who would have done so, seeing the other
+side of the subject&mdash;at all hazards; and perhaps they
+would have been right&mdash;who can tell? She did not&mdash;denying
+herself, keeping herself by main force in her
+solitude, not to interfere with the life of her child,
+which was drawn on lines so different from any of hers&mdash;and
+perhaps she was wrong. Who knows, except by
+the event, which is the best or the worst way in any of
+our human movements, which are so short-sighted?
+And twice during the season Elinor found means to
+come to the cottage for a night as she had done at first.
+These were occasions of great happiness, it need not be
+said&mdash;but of many thoughts and wonderings too. She
+had always an excuse for Phil. He had meant until the
+last moment to come with her&mdash;some one had turned
+up, quite unexpectedly, who had prevented him. It
+was a fatality; especially when she came down in July
+did she insist upon this. He had been invited quite
+suddenly to a political dinner to meet one of the Ministers
+from whom he had hopes of an appointment.
+"For we find that we can't go on enjoying ourselves
+for ever," she said gayly, "and Phil has made up his
+mind he must get something to do."</p>
+
+<p>"It is always the best way," said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so very sure, mamma, when you have
+never been used to it. Of course, some people would
+be wretched without work. Fancy John with nothing
+to do! How he would torment his wife&mdash;if he had
+one. But Phil never does that. He is very easy to
+live with. He is always after something, and leaves me
+as free as if he had a day's work in an office."</p>
+
+<p>This slipped out, with a smile: but evidently after it
+was said Elinor regretted she had said it, and thought
+that more might be drawn from the admission than she
+intended. She added quietly, "Of course a settled occupation
+would interfere with many things. We could
+not go out together continually as we do now."</p>
+
+<p>Was there any way of reconciling these two statements?
+Mrs. Dennistoun tried and tried in vain to
+make them fit into each other: and yet no doubt there
+was some way.</p>
+
+<p>"And perhaps another season, mother, if Phil was in
+a public office&mdash;it seems so strange to think of Phil
+having an office&mdash;you might come up, don't you think,
+to town for a time? Would it be a dreadful bore to
+you to leave the country just when it is at its best?
+I'm afraid it would be a dreadful bore: but we could
+run about together in the mornings when he was busy,
+and go to see the pictures and things. How pleasant
+it would be!"</p>
+
+<p>"It would be delightful for me, Elinor. I shouldn't
+mind giving up the country, if it wouldn't interfere
+with your engagements, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my engagements! Much I should care for
+them if Phil was occupied. I like, of course, to be
+with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is good for him, too, I think." This was
+another of the little admissions that Elinor regretted
+the moment they were made. "I mean it's a pity,
+isn't it, when a man likes to have his wife with him that
+she shouldn't always be there, ready to go?"</p>
+
+<p>"A great pity," said Mrs. Dennistoun, and then she
+changed the subject. "I thought it required all sorts
+of examinations and things for a man to get into a public
+office now."</p>
+
+<p>"So it does for the ordinary grades, which would be
+far, far too much routine for Phil. But they say a minister
+always has things in his power. There are still
+posts<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Sinecures, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean exactly sinecures," she said, with an
+embarrassed laugh, "though I think those must have
+been fine things; but posts where it is not merely routine,
+where a man may have a chance of acting for himself
+and distinguishing himself, perhaps. And to be in
+the service of the country is always better, safer, than
+that dreadful city. Don't you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have never thought the city dreadful, Elinor. I
+have had many friends connected with the city."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but not in those horrid companies, mamma.
+Do you know that company which we just escaped,
+which Phil saved my money out of, when it was all but
+invested&mdash;I believe that has ruined people right and
+left. He got out of it, fortunately, just before the
+smash; that is, of course, he never had very much to
+do with it, he was only on the Board."</p>
+
+<p>"And where is your money now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can answer that question this time," said
+Elinor, gayly. "He had just time to get it into another
+company which pays&mdash;beautifully! The Jew is in it,
+too, and the whole lot of them. Oh! I beg your pardon,
+mamma. I tried hard to call her by her proper
+name, but when one never hears any other, one can't
+help getting into it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that Philip was
+not much mixed up with this company if other people
+have been ruined, and he has escaped?"</p>
+
+<p>"How could that be?" said Elinor, with a sort of
+tremulous dignity. "You don't suppose for a moment
+that he<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>. But of course you don't," she added with
+a heightened colour and a momentary cloud over her
+eyes, "of course you don't. There was a dreadful manager
+who destroyed the books and then fled, so that
+there never could be a right winding up of the affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope Philip will take great care never to have to
+do with anything of the kind again."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, he has promised me he will not. I will not
+have it. He has a kind of ornamental directorship on
+this new company, just for the sake of his name: but
+he has promised me he will have nothing more to do
+with it for my peace of mind."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder that they should care in the city for so
+small a matter as a peer's younger son."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do you think it a small matter, mamma? I
+don't mean that I care, but people give a good deal of
+weight to it, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I meant only in the city, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" Elinor said. She was half offended with her
+mother's indifference. She had found that to be the
+Hon. Mrs. Compton was something, or so at least she
+supposed: and she began timidly to give her mother a
+list of her engagements, which were indeed many in
+number, and there were some dazzling names among
+a great many with which Mrs. Dennistoun was unacquainted.
+But how could she know who were the
+fashionable people nowadays, a woman living so completely
+out of the world?</p>
+
+<p>John Tatham, for his part, went through his engagements
+that year with a constant expectation of seeing
+Elinor, which preoccupied him more than a rising
+young barrister going everywhere ought to have been
+preoccupied. He thought he went everywhere, and so
+did his family at home, especially his sister, Mary Tatham,
+who was his father's nurse and attendant, and
+never had any chance of sharing these delights. She
+made all the more, as was natural, of John's privileges
+and social success from the fact of her own seclusion,
+and was in the habit of saying that she believed there
+was scarcely a party in London to which John was not
+invited&mdash;three or four in a night. But it would seem
+with all this that there were many parties to which he
+was not invited, for the Phil Comptons (how strange and
+on the whole disgusting to think that this now meant
+Elinor!) also went everywhere, and yet they very seldom
+met. It was true that John could not expect to
+meet them at dinner at a Judge's or in the legal society
+in high places which was his especial sphere, and nothing
+could be more foolish than the tremor of expectation
+with which this very steady-going man would set
+out to every house in which the fashionable world met
+with the professional, always thinking that perhaps<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>But
+it was rarely, very rarely, that this perhaps came
+to pass. When it did it was amid the crowd of some
+prodigious reception to which people "looked in" for
+half an hour, and where on one occasion he found Elinor
+alone, with that curious dignity about her, a little
+tragical, which comes of neglect. He agreed with her
+mother, that he had never imagined Elinor's youthful
+prettiness could have come to anything so near beauty.
+There was a strained, wide open look in her eyes, which
+was half done by looking out for some one, and half by
+defying any one to think that she felt herself alone, or
+was pursuing that search with any anxiety. She stood
+exceedingly erect, silent, observing everything, yet endeavouring
+to appear as if she did not observe, altogether
+a singular and very striking figure among the
+fashionable crowd, in which it seemed everybody was
+chattering, smiling, gay or making believe to be gay,
+except herself. When she saw John a sudden gleam of
+pleasure, followed by a cloud of embarrassment, came
+over her face: but poor Elinor could not help being
+glad to see some one she knew, some one who more or
+less belonged to her; although it appeared she had the
+best of reasons for being alone. "I was to meet Phil
+here," she said, "but somehow I must have missed
+him." "Let us walk about a little, and we'll be sure
+to find him," said John. She was so glad to take his
+arm, almost to cling to him, to find herself with a
+friend. "I don't know many people here," she confided
+to John, leaning on his arm, with the familiar sisterly
+dependence of old, "and I am so stupid about
+coming out by myself. It is because I have never been
+used to it. There has always been mamma, and then
+Phil; but I suppose he has been detained somewhere
+to-night. I think I never felt so lost before, among all
+these strange people. He knows everybody, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have a lot of friends, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," she said, brightly enough; "in our own
+set: but this is what Phil calls more serious than our
+set. I should not wonder in the least if he had shirked
+it at the last, knowing I would be sure to come."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just the reason why I should have thought
+he would not shirk it," said John.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that's because you're not married," said Elinor,
+but with a laugh in which there was no bitterness.
+"Don't you know one good of a wife is to do the man's
+social duties for him, to appear at the dull places and
+save his credit? Oh, I don't object at all; it is quite a
+legitimate division of labour. I shall get into it in
+time: but I am so stupid about coming into a room
+alone, and instead of looking about to see what people
+I really do know, I just stiffen into a sort of shell. I
+should never have known you if you had not come up
+to me, John."</p>
+
+<p>"You see I was looking out for you, and you were
+not looking out for me, that makes all the difference."</p>
+
+<p>"You were looking out for us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since the season began I have been looking
+out for you, everywhere," said John, with a rather fierce
+emphasis on the pronoun, which, however, as everybody
+knows, is plural, and means two as much as one, though
+it was the reverse of this that John Tatham meant to
+show.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Elinor. "But then I am afraid our set
+is different, John. There will always be some places&mdash;like
+this, for instance&mdash;where I hope we shall meet;
+but our set perhaps is a little frivolous, and your set a
+little&mdash;serious, don't you see? You are professional
+and political, and all that; and Phil is&mdash;well, I don't
+know exactly what Phil is&mdash;more fashionable and frivolous,
+as I said. A race-going, ball-going, always in
+motion set."</p>
+
+<p>"Most people," said John, "go more or less to races
+and balls."</p>
+
+<p>"More or less, that makes the whole difference. We
+go to them all. Now you see the distinction, John.
+You go to Ascot perhaps on the cup day; we go all the
+days and all the other days, at the other places."</p>
+
+<p>"How knowing you have become!"</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't I?" she said, with a smile that was half a
+sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"But I shouldn't have thought that would have
+suited you, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, it does," she said, and then she eyed him
+with something of the defiance that had been in her
+look when she was standing alone. She did not avoid
+his look as a less brave woman might have done. "I
+like the fun of it," she said.</p>
+
+<p>And then there was a pause, for he did not know
+what to reply.</p>
+
+<p>"We have been through all the rooms," she said at
+last, "and we have not seen a ghost of Phil. He cannot
+be coming now. What o'clock is it? Oh, just the
+time he will be due at<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> I'm sure he can't come now.
+Do you think you could get my carriage for me? It's
+only a brougham that we hire," she said, with a smile,
+"but the man is such a nice, kind man. If he had
+been an old family coachman he couldn't take more
+care of me."</p>
+
+<p>"That looks as if he had to take care of you often,
+Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said, looking him full in the face again,
+"you don't suppose my husband goes out with me in
+the morning shopping? I hope he has something better
+to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Shouldn't you like to have your mother with you
+for the shopping, etc.?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, dearly!" then with a little quick change of
+manner, "another time&mdash;not this season, but next, if I
+can persuade her to come; for next year I hope we
+shall be more settled, perhaps in a house of our own, if
+Phil gets the appointment he is after."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he is after an appointment?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, John; Phil is not so lucky as to have a profession
+like you."</p>
+
+<p>This was a new way of looking at the matter, and
+John Tatham found nothing to say. It seemed to him,
+who had worked very hard for it, a little droll to describe
+his possession of a profession as luck. But he
+made no remark. He took Elinor down-stairs and
+found her brougham for her, and the kind old coachman
+on the box, who was well used to taking care of
+her, though only hired from the livery stables for the
+season&mdash;John thought the old man looked suspiciously
+at him, and would have stopped him from accompanying
+her, had he designed any such proceeding. Poor
+little Nelly, to be watched over by the paternal fly-man
+on the box! she who might have had<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> but he
+stopped himself there, though his heart felt as heavy as
+a stone to see her go away thus, alone from the smart
+party where she had been doing duty for her husband.
+John could not take upon himself to finish his sentence&mdash;she
+who might have had love and care of a very different
+kind. No, he had never offered her that love
+and care. Had Phil Compton never come in her way
+it is possible that John Tatham might never have
+offered it to her&mdash;not, at least, for a long time. He
+could never have had any right to be a dog in the
+manger, neither would he venture to pretend now that
+it was her own fault if she had chosen the wrong man;
+was it his fault then, who had never put a better man
+within her choice? but John, who was no coxcomb,
+blushed in the dark to himself as this question flitted
+through his mind. He had no reason to suppose that
+Elinor would have been willing to change the brotherly
+tie between them into any other. Thank heaven for
+that brotherly tie! He would always be able to befriend
+her, to stand by her, to help her as much as any
+one could help a woman who was married, and thus
+outside of all ordinary succour. And as for that blackguard,
+that <i>dis</i>-Honourable Phil<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But here John,
+who was a man of just mind, paused again. For a man
+to let his wife go to a party by herself was not after all
+so dreadful a thing. Many men did so, and the women
+did not complain; to be sure they were generally older,
+more accustomed to manage for themselves than Elinor:
+but still, a man need not be a blackguard because he
+did that. So John stopped his own ready judgment,
+but still I am afraid in his heart pronounced Phil Compton's
+sentence all the same. He did not say a word
+about this encounter to Mrs. Dennistoun; at least, he
+did tell her that he had met Elinor at the So-and-So's,
+which, as it was one of the best houses in London, was
+pleasing to a mother to hear.</p>
+
+<p>"And how was she looking?" Mrs. Dennistoun cried.</p>
+
+<p>"She was looking&mdash;beautiful<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" said John. "I
+don't flatter, and I never thought her so in the old
+times&mdash;but it is the only word I can use<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I tell you so?" said the mother, pleased.
+"She is quite embellished and improved&mdash;therefore she
+must be happy."</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly the very best evidence<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it? But it so often happens otherwise, even
+in happy marriages. A girl feels strange, awkward,
+out of it, in her new life. Elinor must have entirely
+accustomed herself, adapted herself to it, and to them,
+or she would not look so well. That is the greatest
+comfort I can have."</p>
+
+<p>And John kept his own counsel about Elinor's majestic
+solitude and the watchful old coachman in the
+hired brougham. Her husband might still be full of
+love and tenderness all the same. It was a great effort
+of the natural integrity of his character to pronounce
+like this; but he did it in the interests of justice, and
+for Elinor's sake and her mother's said nothing of the
+circumstances at all.</p>
+
+<p>It may be supposed that when Elinor paid the last of
+her sudden visits at the cottage it was a heavy moment
+both for mother and daughter. It was the time when
+fashionable people finish the season by going to Goodwood&mdash;and
+to Goodwood Elinor was going with a
+party, Lady Mariamne and a number of the "set."
+She told her mother, to amuse her, of the new dresses
+she had got for this important occasion. "Phil says
+one may go in sackcloth and ashes the remainder of the
+year, but we must be fine for Goodwood," she said.
+"I wanted him to believe that I had too many clothes
+already, but he was inexorable. It is not often, is it,
+that one's husband is more anxious than one's self
+about one's dress?"</p>
+
+<p>"He wants you to do him credit, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mamma, there is no harm in that. But more
+than that&mdash;he wants me to look nice, for myself. He
+thinks me still a little shy&mdash;though I never was shy,
+was I?&mdash;and he thinks nothing gives you courage like
+feeling yourself well dressed&mdash;but he takes the greatest
+interest in everything I wear."</p>
+
+<p>"And where do you go after Goodwood, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma, on such a round of visits!&mdash;here and
+there and everywhere. I don't know," and the tears
+sprang into Elinor's eyes, "when I may see you
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not coming back to London," said the
+mother, with the heart sinking in her breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Not now&mdash;they all say London is insupportable&mdash;it
+is one of the things that everybody says, and I believe
+that Phil will not set foot in it again for many
+months. Perhaps I might get a moment, when he is
+shooting, or something, to run back to you; but it is a
+long way from Scotland&mdash;and he must be there, you
+know, for the 12th. He would think the world was
+coming to an end if he did not get a shot at the grouse
+on that day."</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought he was looking for an appointment,
+Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>A cloud passed over Elinor's face. "The season is
+over," she said, "and all the opportunities are exhausted&mdash;and
+we don't speak of that any more."</p>
+
+<p>She gave her mother a very close hug at the railway,
+and sat with her head partly out of the window watching
+her as she stood on the platform, until the train
+turned round the corner. No relief on her dear face
+now, but an anxious strain in her eyes to see her mother
+as long as possible. Mrs. Dennistoun, as she walked
+again slowly up the hills that the pony might not suffer,
+said to herself, with a chill at her heart, that she would
+rather have seen her child sinking back in the corner,
+pleased that it was over, as on the first day.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The next winter was more dreary still and solitary
+than the first at Windyhill. The first had been, though
+it looked so long and dreary as it passed, full of hope
+of the coming summer, which must, it seemed, bring
+Elinor back. But now Mrs. Dennistoun knew exactly
+what Elinor's coming back meant, and the prospect was
+less cheering. Three days in the whole long season&mdash;three
+<ins title="original has tittle">little</ins> escapades, giving so very little hope of more
+sustained intercourse to come. Mrs. Dennistoun, going
+over all the circumstances&mdash;she had so little else to do
+but to go over them in her long solitary evenings&mdash;came
+to the conclusion that whatever might happen, she herself
+would go to town when summer came again. She
+amused herself with thinking how she would find a little
+house&mdash;quite a small house, as there are so many&mdash;in a
+good situation, where even the most fashionable need
+not be ashamed to come, and where there would be room
+enough for Elinor and her husband if they chose to establish
+themselves there. Mrs. Dennistoun was of opinion,
+already expressed, that if mothers-in-law are obnoxious
+to men, sons-in-law are very frequently so to
+women, which is a point of view not popularly perceived.
+And Philip Compton was not sympathetic to her in any
+point of view. But still she made up her mind to endure
+him, and even his family, for the sake of Elinor.
+She planned it all out&mdash;it gave a little occupation to the
+vacant time&mdash;how they should have their separate rooms
+and even meals if that turned out most convenient; how
+she would interfere with none of their ways: only to
+have her Elinor under her roof, to have her when the
+husband was occupied&mdash;in the evenings, if there were
+any evenings that she spent alone; in the mornings,
+when perhaps Phil got up late, or had engagements of
+his own; for the moment's freedom when her child
+should be free. She made up her mind that she would
+ask no questions, would never interfere with any of their
+habits, or oppose or put herself between them&mdash;only
+just to have a little of Elinor every day.</p>
+
+<p>"For it will not be the same thing this year," she
+said to John, apologetically. "They have quite settled
+down into each other's ways. Philip must see I have no
+intention of interfering. For the most obdurate opponent
+of mothers-in-law could not think&mdash;could he,
+John?&mdash;that I had any desire to put myself between
+them, or make myself troublesome now."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no telling," said John, "what such asses
+might think."</p>
+
+<p>"But Philip is not an ass; and don't you think I have
+behaved very well, and may give myself this indulgence
+the second year?"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly think you will be quite right to come to
+town: but I should not have them to live with you, if I
+were you."</p>
+
+<p>"Shouldn't you? It might be a risk: but then I
+shouldn't do it unless there was room enough to leave
+them quite free. The thing I am afraid of is that they
+wouldn't accept."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil Compton will accept," said John, hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you so sure? I think often you know
+more about him than you ever say."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know much about him, but I know that a
+man of uncertain income and not very delicate feelings
+is generally glad enough to have the expenses of the
+season taken off him: and even get all the more pleasure
+out of it when he has his living free."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not a very elevated view to take of the transaction,
+John."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear aunt, I did not think you expected anything
+very elevated from the Comptons. They are not
+the sort of family from which one expects<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet it is the family that my Elinor belongs to:
+she is a Compton."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not think of that," said John, a little disconcerted.
+Then he added, "There is no very elevated
+standard in such matters. Want of money has no law:
+and of course there are better things involved, for he
+might be very glad that Elinor should have her mother
+to go out with her, to stand by when&mdash;a man might
+have other engagements."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun looked at him closely and shook her
+head. She was not very much reassured by this view
+of the case. "At all events I shall try it," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Quite early in the year, when she was expecting no
+such pleasure, she was rewarded for her patience by another
+flying visit from her child, who this time telegraphed
+to say she was coming, so that her mother
+could go and meet her at the station, and thus lose no
+moment of her visit. Elinor, however, was not in good
+spirits on this occasion, nor was she in good looks. She
+told her mother hurriedly that Phil had come up upon
+business; that he was very much engaged with the new
+company, getting far more into it than satisfied her.
+"I am terrified that another catastrophe may come, and
+that he might share the blame if things were to go
+wrong"&mdash;which was by no means a good preface for the
+mission with which it afterwards appeared Elinor herself
+was charged.</p>
+
+<p>"Phil told me to say to you, mamma, that if you
+were not satisfied with any of your investments, he could
+help you to a good six or seven per cent.<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>She said this with her head turned away, gazing out
+of the window, contemplating the wintry aspect of the
+combe with a countenance as cloudy and as little cheerful
+as itself.</p>
+
+<p>There was an outcry on Mrs. Dennistoun's lips, but
+fortunately her sympathy with her child was so strong
+that she felt Elinor's sentiments almost more forcibly
+than her own, and she managed to answer in a quiet,
+untroubled voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Philip is very kind, my dear: but you know my investments
+are all settled for me and I have no will of my
+own. I get less interest, but then I have less responsibility.
+Don't you know I belong to the time in which
+women were not supposed to be good for anything, and
+consequently I am in the hands of my trustees."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he foresaw that, mother," said Elinor, still
+with her head averted and her eyes far away; "but he
+thought you might represent to the trustees that not
+only would it give you more money, but it would be
+better in the end for me. Oh, how I hate to have to
+say this to you, mamma!"</p>
+
+<p>How steadily Mrs. Dennistoun kept her countenance,
+though her daughter now flung herself upon her
+shoulder with uncontrollable tears!</p>
+
+<p>"My darling, it is quite natural you should say it.
+You must tell Philip that I fear I am powerless. I will
+try, but I don't think anything will come of it. I have
+been glad to be free of responsibility, and I have never
+attempted to interfere."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, I am so thankful. I oughtn't to go against
+him, ought I? But I would not have you take his advice.
+It is so dreadful not to appear<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, you must try to think that he understands
+better than you do: men generally do: you are only a
+girl, and they are trained more or less to business."</p>
+
+<p>"Not Phil! not Phil!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he must have some capacity for it, some
+understanding, or they would not want him on those
+boards; and you cannot have, Elinor, for you know
+nothing about it. To hear you speak of per cents. makes
+me laugh." It was a somewhat forlorn kind of laugh,
+yet the mother executed it finely: and by and by the
+subject dropped, and Elinor was turned to talk of other
+things&mdash;other things of which there was a great deal to
+say, and over which they cried and laughed together as
+nature bade.</p>
+
+<p>In the same evening, the precious evening of which
+she did not like to waste a moment, Mrs. Dennistoun
+unfolded her plan for the season. "I feel that I know
+exactly the kind of house I want; it will probably be in
+some quiet insignificant place, a Chapel Street, or a
+Queen Street, or a Park Street somewhere, but in a
+good situation. You shall have the first floor all to
+yourself to receive your visitors, and if you think that
+Philip would prefer a separate table<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma, mamma!" cried Elinor, clinging to
+her, kissing passionately her mother's cheek, which was
+still as soft as a child's.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not anything you have told me now that has
+put this into my head, my darling. I had made it all up
+in my own mind. Then, you know, when your husband
+is engaged with those business affairs&mdash;in the city&mdash;or
+with his own friends&mdash;you would have your mother to
+fall back upon, Elinor. I should have just the <i>moments
+perdus</i>, don't you see, when you were doing nothing
+else, when you were wanted for nothing else. I promise
+you, my darling, I should never be <i>de trop</i>, and would
+never interfere."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma, mamma!" Elinor cried again as if
+words failed her; and so they did, for she said scarcely
+anything more, and evaded any answer. It went to her
+mother's heart, yet she made her usual excuses for it.
+Poor child, once so ready to decide, accepting or rejecting
+with the certainty that no opposition would be
+made to her will, but now afraid to commit herself, to
+say anything that her husband would not approve!
+Well! Mrs. Dennistoun said to herself, many a young
+wife is like that, and yet is happy enough. It depends
+so much on the man. Many a man adores his wife and
+is very good to her, and yet cannot bear that she should
+seem to settle anything without consulting his whim.
+And Philip Compton had never been what might be
+called an easy-going man. It was right of Elinor to
+give no answer till she knew what he would like. The
+dreadful thing was that she expressed no pleasure in
+her mother's proposal, scarcely looked as if she herself
+would like it, which was a thing which did give an unquestionable
+wound.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma," she said, as they were driving to the
+station, not in the pony carriage this time, but in the
+fly, for the weather was bad, "don't be vexed that I
+don't say more about your wonderful, your more than
+kind offer."</p>
+
+<p>"Kind is scarcely a word to use, Elinor, between you
+and me."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know, mamma&mdash;and I as good as refuse
+it, saying nothing. Oh, if I could tell you without telling
+you! I am so frightened&mdash;how can I say it?&mdash;that
+you should see things you would not approve!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, I am of one generation and you are of
+another. I am an old woman, and your husband is a
+young man. But what does that matter? We can
+agree to differ. I will never thrust myself into his
+private affairs, and he<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother, mother darling, it is not that," Elinor
+said. And she went away without any decision. But
+in a few days there came to Mrs. Dennistoun a letter
+from Philip himself, most nobly expressed, saying that
+Elinor had told him of her mother's kind offer, and that
+he hastened to accept it with the utmost gratitude and
+devotion. He had just been wondering, he wrote, how
+he was to muster all things necessary for Elinor, with
+the business engagements which were growing upon
+himself. Nobody could understand better than Nell's
+good mother how necessary it was that he should
+neglect no means of securing their position, and he had
+found that often he would have to leave his darling by
+herself: but this magnificent, this magnanimous offer
+on her part would make everything right. Need he
+say how gratefully he accepted it? Nell and he being
+on the spot would immediately begin looking out for
+the house, and when they had a list of three or four to
+look at he hoped she would come up to their rooms and
+select what she liked best. This response took away
+Mrs. Dennistoun's breath, for, to tell the truth, she had
+her own notions as to the house she wanted and as to
+the time to be spent in town, and would certainly have
+preferred to manage everything herself. But in this
+she had to yield, with thankfulness that in the main
+point she was to have her way.</p>
+
+<p>Did she have her way? It is very much to be
+doubted whether in such a situation of affairs it would
+have been possible. The house that was decided upon
+was not one which she would have chosen for herself,
+neither would she have taken it from Easter to
+July. She had meant a less expensive place and a
+shorter season; but after all, what did that matter for
+once if it pleased Elinor? The worst of it was that she
+could not at all satisfy herself that it pleased Elinor.
+It pleased Philip, there was no doubt, but then it had
+not been intended except in a very secondary way to
+please him. And when the racket of the season began
+Mrs. Dennistoun had a good deal to bear. Philip,
+though he was supposed to be a man of business and
+employed in the city, got up about noon, which was
+dreadful to all her orderly country habits; the whole
+afternoon through there was a perpetual tumult of visitors,
+who, when by chance she encountered them in the
+hall or on the stairs, looked at her superciliously as if she
+were the landlady. The man who opened the door, and
+brushed Philip Compton's clothes, and was in his service,
+looked superciliously at her too, and declined to have anything
+to say to "the visitors for down-stairs." A noise of
+laughter and loud talk was (distinctly) in her ears from
+noon till late at night. When Philip came home,
+always much later than his wife, he was in the habit of
+bringing men with him, whose voices rang through the
+house after everybody was in bed. To be sure, there
+were compensations. She had Elinor often for an hour
+or two in the morning before her husband was up.
+She had her in the evenings when they were not going
+out, but these were few. As for Philip, he never dined
+at home. When he had no engagements he dined at
+his club, leaving Elinor with her mother. He gave
+Mrs. Dennistoun very little of his company, and when
+they did meet there was in his manner too a sort of
+reflection of the superciliousness of the "smart" visitors
+and the "smart" servant. She was to him, too, in
+some degree the landlady, the old lady down-stairs.
+Elinor, as was natural, redoubled her demonstrations of
+affection, her excuses and sweet words to make up for
+this neglect: but all the time there was in her mother's
+mind that dreadful doubt which assails us when we
+have committed ourselves to one act or another, "Was
+it wise? Would it not have been better to have
+denied herself and stayed away?" So far as self-denial
+went, it was more exercised in Curzon Street than it
+would have been at the Cottage. For she had to see
+many things that displeased her and to say no word;
+to guess at the tears, carefully washed away from Elinor's
+eyes, and to ask no questions, and to see what she
+could not but feel was the violent career downward, the
+rush that must lead to a catastrophe, but make no sign.
+There was one evening when Elinor, not looking well
+or feeling well, had stayed at home, Philip having a
+whole long list of engagements in hand; men's engagements,
+his wife explained, a stockbroking dinner, an
+adjournment to somebody's chambers, a prolonged sitting,
+which meant play, and a great deal of wine, and
+other attendant circumstances into which she did not
+enter. Elinor had no engagement for that night, and
+was free to be petted and f&ecirc;ted by her mother. She
+was put at her ease in a soft and rich dressing-gown,
+and the prettiest little dinner served, and the room
+filled with flowers, and everything done that used to be
+done when she was recovering from some little mock
+illness, some child's malady, just enough to show how
+dear above everything was the child to the mother, and
+with what tender ingenuity the mother could invent
+new delights for the child. These delights, alas! did
+not transport Elinor now as they once had done, and
+yet the repose was sweet, and the comfort of this nearest
+and dearest friend to lean upon something more
+than words could say.</p>
+
+<p>On this evening, however, in the quiet of those still
+hours, poor Elinor's heart was opened, or rather her
+mouth, which on most occasions was closed so firmly.
+She said suddenly, in the midst of something quite
+different, "Oh, I wish Phil was not so much engaged
+with those dreadful city men."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear!" said Mrs. Dennistoun, who was thinking
+of far other things; and then she said, "there
+surely cannot be much to fear in that respect. He is
+never in the city&mdash;he is never up, my dear, when the
+city men are doing their work."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Elinor, "I don't think that matters; he
+is in with them all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Elinor, there is no reason that there should
+be any harm in it. I would much rather he had some
+real business in hand than be merely a butterfly of
+fashion. You must not entertain that horror of city
+men."</p>
+
+<p>"The kind he knows are different from the kind you
+know, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose everything is different from what it was
+in my time: but it need not be any worse for that<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother! you are obstinate in thinking well of
+everything; but sometimes I am so frightened, I feel
+as if I must do something dreadful myself&mdash;to precipitate
+the ruin which nothing I can do will stop<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, Elinor, this is far too strong language<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, he wants me to speak to you again. He
+wants you to give your money<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"But I have told you already I cannot give it, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven be praised for that! But he will speak to
+you himself, he will perhaps try to&mdash;bully you, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is horrible, what I say; yes, it is horrible, but
+I want to warn you. He says things<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing that he can say will make me forget that
+he is your husband, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but don't think too much of that, mamma.
+Think that he doesn't know what he is doing&mdash;poor
+Phil, oh, poor Phil! He is hurried on by these people;
+and then it will break up, and the poor people will be
+ruined, and they will upbraid him, and yet he will not
+be a whit the better. He does not get any of the profit.
+I can see it all as clear<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> And there are so many
+other things."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun's heart sank in her breast, for she
+too knew what were the other things. "We must have
+patience," she said; "he is in his hey-day, full of&mdash;high
+spirits, and thinking everything he touches must go
+right. He will steady down in time."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am not complaining," cried Elinor, hurriedly
+dashing her tears away; "if you were not a dreadfully
+good mamma, if you would grumble sometimes and
+find fault, that I might defend him! It is the sight of
+you there, seeing everything and not saying a word
+that is too much for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will grumble, Elinor. I will even say something
+to him for our own credit. He should not come
+in so late&mdash;at least when he comes in he should come in
+to rest and not bring men with him to make a noise.
+You see I can find fault as much as heart could desire.
+I am dreadfully selfish. I don't mind when he goes
+out now and then without you, for then I have you;
+but he should not bring noisy men with him to disturb
+the house in the middle of the night. I think I will
+speak to him<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Elinor, with a clutch upon her mother's
+arm; "no, don't do that. He does not like to be found
+fault with. Unless in the case&mdash;if you were giving
+him that money, mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Which I cannot do: and Elinor, my darling, which
+I would not do if I could. It is all you will have to rely
+upon, you and<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been the only chance," said Elinor.
+"I don't say it would have been much of a chance.
+But he might have listened, if<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Oh, no, dear mother,
+no. I would not in my sober senses wish that
+you should give him a penny. It would do no good,
+but only harm. And yet if you had done it, you might
+have said<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> and he might have listened to you for
+once<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this Philip Compton came in, in the
+afternoon, to the little room down-stairs which Mrs.
+Dennistoun had made into a sitting-room for herself.
+Elinor had gone out with her sister-in-law, and her
+mother was alone. It was a very rare thing indeed for
+Mrs. Dennistoun's guest&mdash;who, indeed, was to all intents
+and purposes the master of the house, and had
+probably quite forgotten by this time that he was not
+in reality so&mdash;to pay a visit "down-stairs." "Down-stairs"
+had a distinct meaning in the Compton vocabulary.
+It was spoken of with significance, and with a
+laugh, as something half hostile, half ridiculous. It
+meant a sort of absurd criticism and inspection, as of
+some old crone sitting vigilant, spying upon everything&mdash;a
+mother-in-law. Phil's cronies thought it was the
+most absurd weakness on his part to let such an intruder
+get footing in his house. "You will never get
+rid of her," they said. And Phil, though he was generally
+quite civil to his wife's mother (being actually and
+at his heart more a gentleman than he had the least
+idea he was), did not certainly in any way seek her society.
+He scarcely ever dined at home, as has been
+said; when he had not an engagement&mdash;and he had a
+great many engagements&mdash;he found that he was obliged
+to dine at his club on the evenings when he might have
+been free; and as this was the only meal which was
+supposed to be common, it may be perceived that Phil
+had little means of meeting his mother-in-law; and
+that he should come to see her of his own free will was
+unprecedented. Phil Compton had not improved since
+his marriage. His nocturnal enjoyments, the noisy
+parties up-stairs in the middle of the night, had not
+helped to dissipate the effect of the anxieties of the city,
+which his wife so deplored. Mrs. Dennistoun that very
+day, when she came down-stairs in the fresh summer
+morning to her early breakfast, had seen through an
+open door the room up-stairs which was appropriated to
+Phil, with a lamp still burning in the daylight, cards
+lying strewn about the floor, and all in that direful disorder
+which a room so occupied overnight shows in the
+clear eye of the day. The aspect of the room had given
+her a shock almost more startling than any moral certainty,
+as was natural to a woman used to all the decorums
+and delicacies of a well-ordered life. There is no
+sin in going late to bed, or even letting a lamp burn
+into the day; but the impression that such a sight
+makes even upon the careless is always greater than any
+mere apprehension by the mind of the midnight sitting,
+the eager game, the chances of loss and ruin. She
+had not been able to get that sight out of her eyes.
+Though on ordinary occasions she never entered Phil's
+rooms, on this she had stolen in to put out the lamp,
+with the sensation in her mind of destroying some
+evidence against him, which someone less interested
+than she might have used to his disadvantage. And
+she had sent up the housemaid to "do" the room,
+with an admonition. "I cannot have Mr. Compton's
+rooms neglected," she said. "The gentlemen is always
+so late," the housemaid said in self-defence. "I hears
+them let themselves out sometimes after we're all up
+down-stairs." "I don't want to hear anything about
+the gentlemen. Do your work at the proper time; that
+is all that is asked of you." Phil's servant appeared at
+the moment pulling on his coat, with the air of a man
+who has been up half the night&mdash;which, indeed, was
+the case, for "the gentlemen" when they came in had
+various wants that had to be supplied. "What's up
+now?" he said to the housemaid, within hearing of her
+mistress, casting an insolent look at the old lady, who
+belonged to "down-stairs." "She've been prying and
+spying about like they all do<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" Mrs. Dennistoun
+had retreated within the shelter of her room to escape
+the end of this sentence, which still she heard, with
+the usual quickness of our faculties in such cases.
+She swallowed her simple breakfast with what appetite
+she might, and her stout spirit for the moment
+broke down before this insult which was ridiculous,
+she said to herself, from a saucy servant-man. What
+did it matter to her what Johnson did or said? But it
+was like the lamp burning in the sunshine: it gave a
+moral shock more sharp than many a thing of much
+more importance would have been capable of doing, and
+she had not been able to get over it all day.</p>
+
+<p>It may be supposed, therefore, that it was an unfortunate
+moment for Phil Compton's visit. Mrs. Dennistoun
+had scarcely seen them that day, and she was
+sitting by herself, somewhat sick at heart, wondering if
+anything would break the routine into which their life
+was falling; or if this was what Elinor must address
+herself to as its usual tenor. It would be better in the
+country, she said to herself. It was only in the bustle
+of the season, when everybody of his kind was congregated
+in town, that it would be like this. In their
+rounds of visits, or when the whole day was occupied
+with sport, such nocturnal sittings would be impossible&mdash;and
+she comforted herself by thinking that they
+would not be consistent with any serious business in
+the city such as Elinor feared. The one danger must
+push away the other. He could not gamble at night in
+that way, and gamble in the other among the stockbrokers.
+They were both ruinous, no doubt, but they
+could not both be carried on at the same time&mdash;or so,
+at least, this innocent woman thought. There was
+enough to be anxious and alarmed about without taking
+two impossible dangers into her mind together.</p>
+
+<p>And just then Phil knocked at her door. He came
+in smiling and gracious, and with that look of high
+breeding and <i>savoir faire</i> which had conciliated her before
+and which she felt the influence of now, although
+she was aware how many drawbacks there were, and
+knew that the respect which her son-in-law showed was
+far from genuine. "I never see you to have a chat,"
+he said; "I thought I would take the opportunity to-day,
+when Elinor was out. I want you to tell me how
+you think she is."</p>
+
+<p>"I think she is wonderfully well," said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Wonderfully</i> well&mdash;you mean considering&mdash;that
+there is too much racket in her life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Partly, I mean that&mdash;but, indeed, I meant it without
+condition; she is wonderfully well. I am surprised,
+often<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather a racket of a life," said Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"Too much, indeed&mdash;it is too much&mdash;for a woman
+who is beginning her serious life&mdash;but if you think that,
+it is a great thing gained, for you can put a stop to it,
+or moderate&mdash;'the pace' don't you call it?" she said,
+with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes. I suppose we could moderate the pace&mdash;but
+that would mean a great deal for me. You see,
+when a man's launched it isn't always so easy to stop.
+Nell, of course, if you thought she wanted it&mdash;might go
+to the country with you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun's heart gave a leap. "Might go to
+the country with you!" It seemed a glimpse of Paradise
+that burst upon her. But then she shook her
+head. "You know Elinor would not leave you,
+Philip."</p>
+
+<p>"Well! she has a ridiculous partiality," he said, with
+a laugh, "though, of course, I'd make her&mdash;if it was
+really for her advantage," he added, after a moment;
+"you don't think I'd let that stand in her way."</p>
+
+<p>"In the meantime," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with hesitation,
+"without proceeding to any such stringent measures&mdash;if
+you could manage to be a little less late at
+night."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you listen for my coming in at night?"</p>
+
+<p>His face took a sombre look, as if a cloud had come
+over it.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not listen&mdash;for happily for me I have been
+asleep for hours. I generally jump up thinking the
+house is on fire at the sound of voices, which make
+listening quite unnecessary, Philip."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, the fellows are rather noisy," he said, carelessly,
+"but Nell sleeps like a top, and pays no attention&mdash;which
+is the best thing she can do."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not be too sure she slept like a top."</p>
+
+<p>"It's true; women are all hypocrites alike. You
+never know when you have them," Phil said.</p>
+
+<p>And then there was a pause; for she feared to say
+anything more lest she should go too far; and he for
+once in his life was embarrassed, and did not know how
+to begin what he had to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, quickly, getting up, "I must be
+going. I have business in the city. And now that
+I find you're satisfied about Nell's health<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> By
+the way, you never show in our rooms; though Nell
+spends every minute she has to spare here."</p>
+
+<p>"I am a little old perhaps for your friends, Philip,
+and the room is not too large."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no," he said, "they are wretched little rooms.
+Good-by, then; I'm glad you think Nell is all right."</p>
+
+<p>Was this all he meant to say? There was, however,
+an uncertainty about his step, and by the time he had
+opened the door he came to a pause, half closed it
+again, and said, "Oh, by the bye!"</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>He closed the door again and came back half a step.
+"I almost forgot, I meant to tell you: if you have any
+money to invest, I could help you to<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> The best
+thing I've heard of for many a day!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind, Philip; but you know everything
+I have is in the hands of trustees."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, bother trustees. The only thing they do is to
+keep your dividends down to the lowest amount possible
+and cut short your income. Come, you're quite old
+enough to judge for yourself. You might give them a
+jog. At your time of life they ought to take a hint from
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never done it, Philip, and they would pay no
+attention to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense, mamma. Why, except you, who has
+a right to be consulted except Nell? and if I, her husband,
+am your adviser<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I know they would do nothing but mock at me."</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish! I'd like to see who would mock at you.
+Just you send them to me, that is all."</p>
+
+<p>"Philip, will you not believe me when I say that it is
+impossible? I have never interfered. They would ask
+what made me think of such a thing now."</p>
+
+<p>"And you could tell them a jolly good opportunity,
+as safe as the bank, and paying six or seven per cent.&mdash;none
+of your fabulous risky ten or twelve businesses,
+but a solid steady<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> How could it be to my interest
+to mislead you? It would be Nell who would be the
+loser. I should be simply cutting off my own head."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true, no doubt<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"And," he said, scarcely waiting for her reply, "Nell
+is really the person who should be consulted: for if
+there was loss eventually it would come upon her&mdash;and
+so upon me. I mean taking into consideration all the
+chances of the future: for it is perfectly safe for your
+time, you may be quite sure of that."</p>
+
+<p>No one, though he might be ninety, likes to have his
+time limited, and his heir's prospects dwelt upon as the
+only things of any importance, and Mrs. Dennistoun was
+a very long way from ninety. She would have sacrificed
+everything she had to make her child happy, but
+she did not like, all the same, to be set down as unimportant
+so far as her own property was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," she said, with a slight quaver in her
+voice, "that my trustees would not take Elinor's wishes
+into consideration in the first place, nor yours either,
+Philip. They think of me, and I suppose that is really
+their duty. If I had anything of my own<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say," he said, bluntly, "that with a
+good income and living in the country in a hole, in the
+most obscure way, you have saved nothing all these
+years?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I had," said Mrs. Dennistoun, roused by his persistent
+attack, "I should be very sorry to fling it
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is what you think?" he said. "Now
+we're at the bottom of it. You think that to put it in
+my hands would be to throw it away! I thought there
+must be something at the bottom of all this pretty ignorance
+of business and so forth. Good gracious! that
+may be well enough for a girl; but when a grandmother
+pretends not to know, not to interfere, etc., that's too
+much. So this is what you meant all the time! To put
+it into my hands would be throwing it away!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean to say so, Philip&mdash;I spoke hastily,
+but I must remind you that I am not accustomed to
+this tone<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, not at all accustomed to it, you all say
+that&mdash;that's Nell's dodge&mdash;never was used to anything
+of the kind, never had a rough word said to her, and
+so forth and so forth."</p>
+
+<p>"Philip&mdash;I hope you don't say rough words to my
+Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" he said, "I have got you there, have I.
+<i>Your</i> Elinor&mdash;no more yours than she is&mdash;Johnson's.
+She is my Nell, and what's more, she'll cling to me,
+whatever rough words I may say, or however you may
+coax or wheedle. Do you ever think when you refuse
+to make a sacrifice of one scrap of your hoards for her,
+that if I were not a husband in a hundred I might take
+it out of her and make her pay?"</p>
+
+<p>"For what?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, standing up
+and confronting him, her face pale, her head very erect&mdash;"for
+what would you make her pay?"</p>
+
+<p>He stood staring at her for a moment and then he
+broke out into a laugh. "We needn't face each other
+as if we were going to have a stand-up fight," he said.
+"And it wouldn't be fair, mamma, we're not equally
+matched, the knowing ones would all lay their money
+on you. So you won't take my advice about investing
+your spare cash? Well, if you won't you won't, and
+there's an end of it: only stand up fair and don't
+bother me with nonsense about trustees."</p>
+
+<p>"It is no nonsense," she said.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes flashed, but he controlled himself and turned
+away, waving his hand. "I'll not beat Nell for it when
+I come home to-night," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Once more Phil dined at his club that evening and
+Elinor with her mother. She was in an eager and excited
+state, looking anxiously in Mrs. Dennistoun's eyes,
+but it was not till late in the evening that she made any
+remark. At last, just before they parted for the
+night, she threw herself upon her mother with a little
+cry&mdash;"Oh, mamma, I know you are right, I know you
+are quite right. But if you could have done it, it would
+have given you an influence! I don't blame you&mdash;not
+for a moment&mdash;but it might have given you an opening
+to speak. It might have&mdash;given you a little hold on
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"My darling, my darling!" said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Elinor, "there's nothing to pity me about,
+nothing at all&mdash;Phil is always kind and good to me&mdash;but
+you would have had a standing ground. It might
+have given you a right to speak&mdash;about those dreadful,
+dreadful city complications, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun went to bed that night a troubled
+woman, and lay awake watching and expecting when
+the usual midnight tumult should arise. But that
+evening there was none. No sound but the key in the
+latch, the shutting of a door or two, and all quiet.
+Compunctions filled the mother's heart. What was
+the wrong if, perhaps, she could satisfy Elinor, perhaps
+get at the heart of Phil, who had a heart, though it was
+getting strangled in all those intricacies of gambling
+and wretched business. She turned over and over in
+her mind all that she had, and all that she had any
+power over. And she remembered a small sum she had
+in a mortgage, which was after all in her own power.
+No doubt it would be to throw the money away, which
+would be so much gone from the future provision of
+Elinor&mdash;but if by that means she could acquire an influence
+as Elinor said&mdash;be allowed to speak&mdash;to protest
+or perhaps even insist upon a change of course?
+Thinking over such a question for a whole sleepless
+night, and feeling beneath all that at least, at worst,
+this sacrifice would give pleasure to Elinor, which was
+really the one and sole motive, the only thing that could
+give her any warrant for such a proceeding&mdash;is not a
+process which is likely to strengthen the mind. In the
+morning, as soon as she knew he was up, which was
+not till late enough, she sent to ask if Phil would give
+her five minutes before he went out. He appeared after
+a while, extremely correct and <i>point device</i>, grave but
+polite. "I must ask you to excuse me," he said, "if I
+am hurried, for to-day is one of my Board days."</p>
+
+<p>"It was only to say, Philip&mdash;you spoke to me yesterday
+of money&mdash;to be invested."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?" he said politely, without moving a muscle.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been thinking it all over, and I remember
+that there is a thousand pounds or two which John
+Tatham placed for me in a mortgage, and which is in
+my own power."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" he said, "a thousand pounds or two," with a
+shrug of his shoulders; "it is scarcely worth while, is it,
+changing an investment for so small a matter as a thousand
+pounds?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you think so, Philip&mdash;it is all I can think of that
+is in my own power."</p>
+
+<p>"It is really not worth the trouble," he said, "and I
+am in a hurry." He made a step towards the door and
+then turned round again. "Well," he said, "just to
+show there is no ill-feeling, I'll find you something, perhaps,
+to put your tuppenceha'penny in to-day."</p>
+
+<p>And then there was John Tatham to face after that!</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It cost Mrs. Dennistoun a struggle to yield to her
+daughter and her daughter's husband, and with her
+eyes open and no delusion on the subject to throw away
+her two thousand pounds. Two thousand pounds is a
+big thing to throw away. There are many people much
+richer than Mrs. Dennistoun who would have thought
+it a wicked thing to do, and some who would have
+quarrelled with both daughter and son-in-law rather
+than do so foolish a thing. For it was not merely
+making a present, so to speak, of the money, it was
+throwing it away. To have given it to Elinor would
+have been nothing, it would have been a pleasure; but
+in Phil's investment Mrs. Dennistoun had no confidence.
+It was throwing her money after Elinor's money into
+that hungry sea which swallows up everything and
+gives nothing again.</p>
+
+<p>But if that had been difficult for her, it may be imagined
+with what feelings she contemplated her necessary
+meeting with John Tatham. She knew everything
+he would say&mdash;more, she knew what he would look: his
+astonishment, his indignation, the amazement with
+which he would regard it. John was far from being
+incapable of a sacrifice. Mrs. Dennistoun, indeed, did
+him more than justice in that respect, for she believed
+that he had himself been on the eve of asking Elinor to
+marry him when she was snatched up by, oh, so much
+less satisfactory a man! which the reader knows is not
+quite the case, though perhaps it required quite as
+much self-denial on John's part to stand by Elinor and
+maintain her cause under her altered circumstances as
+if it had been the case. But notwithstanding this, she
+knew that John would be angry with what she had
+done or promised to do, and would put every possible
+impediment in her way: and when she sent for him, in
+order that she might carry out her promise, it was with
+a heart as sick with fright and as much disturbed by
+the idea of a scolding as ever child's was.</p>
+
+<p>John had been very little to the house at Curzon
+Street. He had dined two or three times with Mrs.
+Dennistoun alone, and once or twice Elinor had been
+of the party; but the Comptons had never any guests
+at that house, and the fact already mentioned that
+Philip Compton never dined at home made it a difficult
+matter for Mrs. Dennistoun to ask any but her
+oldest friends to the curious little divided house, which
+was neither hers nor theirs. Thus Cousin John had
+met, but no more, Elinor's husband, and neither of the
+gentlemen had shown the least desire to cultivate the
+acquaintance. John had not expressed his sentiments
+on the subject to any one, but Phil, as was natural, had
+been more demonstrative. "I don't think much of
+your relations, Nell," he said, "if that's a specimen: a
+prig if ever there was one&mdash;and that old sheep that was
+at the wedding, the father of him, I suppose<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"As they are my relations, Phil, you might speak
+of them a little more respectfully."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, respectfully! Bless us all! I have no respect
+for my own, and why I should have for yours, my little
+dear, I confess I can't see. Oh, by the way, this is
+Cousin John, who I used to think by your blushing and
+all that<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Phil, I think you are trying to make me angry.
+Cousin John is the best man in the world; but I never
+blushed&mdash;how ridiculous! I might as well have blushed
+to speak of my brother."</p>
+
+<p>"I put no confidence in brothers, unless they're real
+ones," said Phil; "but I'm glad I've seen him, Nell. I
+doubt after all that you're such a fool, when you see us
+together&mdash;eh?" He laughed that laugh of conscious
+superiority which, when it is not perfectly well-founded,
+sounds so fatuous to the hearer. Elinor did not
+look at him. She turned her head away and made no
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>John, on his part, as has been said, made no remark.
+If he had possessed a wife at home to whom he could
+have confided his sentiments, as Phil Compton had, it
+is possible that he might have said something not unsimilar.
+But then had he had a wife at home he would
+have been more indifferent to Phil, and might not have
+cared to criticise him at all.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun received him when he came in obedience
+to her call, as a child might do who had the
+power of receiving its future corrector. She abased
+herself before him, servilely choosing his favourite subjects,
+talking of what she thought would please him, of
+former times at the Cottage, of Elinor, and her great
+affection for Cousin John, and so forth. I imagine
+that he had a suspicion of the cause of all this sweetness.
+He looked at her suspiciously, though he allowed
+himself to be drawn into reminiscences, and to feel
+a half pleasure, half pain in the affectionate things
+that Elinor had said. At length, after some time had
+passed, he asked, in a pause of the conversation, "Was
+this all you wanted with me, aunt, to talk of old times?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it a good enough pretext for the pleasure of
+seeing you, John?"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed a little and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"An excellent pretext where none was wanted. It is
+very kind of you to think it a pleasure: but you had
+something also to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems there is no deceiving you, John," she
+said, and with many hesitations and much difficulty,
+told him her story. She saw him begin to flame. She
+saw his eyes light up, and Mrs. Dennistoun shook in
+her chair. She was not a woman apt to be afraid, but
+she was frightened now.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, when she had finished her story, John
+at first spoke no word: and when he did find a tongue
+it was only to say,</p>
+
+<p>"You want to get back the money you have on that
+mortgage. My dear aunt, why did not you tell me so
+at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"But I have just told you, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so be it. You know it will take a little
+time; there are some formalities that must be gone
+through. You cannot make a demand on people in
+that way to pay you cash at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I thought it was so easy to get money&mdash;on
+such very good security and paying such a good
+adequate rate of interest."</p>
+
+<p>"It is easy," he said, "perfectly easy; but it wants a
+little time: and people will naturally wonder, if it is
+really good security and good interest, why you should
+be in such a hurry to get out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely, to say private reasons&mdash;family reasons,
+that will be enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there is no occasion for giving any reason at
+all. You wish to do it; that is reason enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with diffidence, yet
+also a little self-assertion, "I think it is enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course." But his eyes were flaming,
+and Mrs. Dennistoun would not allow herself to believe
+that she had got off. "And may I ask&mdash;not that I have
+any right to ask, for of course you have better advisers&mdash;what
+do you mean to put the money in, when you
+have got it back?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "you are implacable,
+though you pretend different. You know what I
+want with the money, and you disapprove of it, and so
+do I. I am going to throw it away. I know that just
+as well as you do, and I am ashamed of myself: but I
+am going to do it all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"You are going to give it to Elinor? I don't think
+there is anything to disapprove of in that. It is the
+most natural thing in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"If I could be sure that Elinor would get any good
+by it," she said.</p>
+
+<p>And then his face suddenly blazed up, so that the
+former flame in his eyes was nothing. He sat for a
+moment staring at her, and then he said, "Yes, if&mdash;but
+I suppose you take the risk." There were a great
+many things on his lips to say, but he said none of
+them, except hurriedly, "You have a motive, I suppose<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I have a motive&mdash;as futile probably as my act&mdash;if I
+could by that means, or any other, acquire an influence<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>John was very seldom, if ever, rude&mdash;it was not in
+his way&mdash;but at this moment he was so bitterly exasperated
+that he forgot his manners altogether. He
+burst out into a loud laugh, and then he jumped up to
+his feet and said, "Forgive me. I really have a dozen
+engagements. I can't stay. I'll see to having this
+business done for you as soon as possible. You would
+rather old Lynch had no hand in it? I'll get it done
+for you at once."</p>
+
+<p>She followed him out to the door as if they had been
+in the country, and that the flowery cottage door, with
+the great world of down and sky outside, instead of
+Curzon Street: longing to say something that would
+still, at the last moment, gain her John's approval, or
+his understanding at least. But she could think of
+nothing to say. He had promised to manage it all for
+her: he had not reproached her; and yet not content
+with that she wanted to extort a favourable word from
+him before he should go. But she could not find a
+word to say. He it was only who spoke. He asked
+when she was going to return home, with his hand
+upon the street door.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I have not made any plans. The
+house is taken till July."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have enjoyed it?" he said. "It has answered?"</p>
+
+<p>What a cruel, cruel question to put to her! She
+going so unsuspectingly with him to the very door!
+Philip Compton's servant, always about when he was
+not wanted, spying about to see whom it was that
+"down-stairs" was letting out, came strolling into
+sight. Anyhow, whether that was the reason or not, she
+made him no reply. He caught her look&mdash;a look that
+said more than words&mdash;and turned round quickly and
+held out his hand. "I did not mean to be cruel," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no, no&mdash;you did not mean it&mdash;you were
+not cruel. The reverse&mdash;you are always so kind. Yes,
+it has answered&mdash;I am more glad than I can tell you&mdash;that
+I came."</p>
+
+<p>He it was now that looked at her anxiously, while she
+smiled that well-worn smile which is kept for people in
+trouble. She went in afterwards and sat silent for some
+time, covering her face with her hands; in which attitude
+Elinor found her after her afternoon visitors had
+gone away.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, mother? What is it, dear mother?
+Something has happened to vex you."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, nothing, Elinor. John Tatham has been
+here. He is going to do that little piece of business
+for me."</p>
+
+<p>"And he&mdash;has been bullying you too? poor
+mamma!"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, he did not say a word. He considered
+it&mdash;quite natural."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor gave her mother a kiss. She had nothing to
+say. Neither of them had a word to say to the other.
+The thought that passed through both their minds
+was: "After all it is only two thousand pounds"&mdash;and
+then, <i>apr&egrave;s</i>? was Elinor's thought. And then,
+never more, never more! was what passed through Mrs.
+Dennistoun's mind.</p>
+
+<p>Phil Compton smiled upon her that day she handed
+him over the money. "It is a great pity you took the
+trouble," he said. "It is a pity to change an investment
+for such a bagatelle as two thousand pounds.
+Still, if you insist upon it, mamma. I suppose Nell's
+been bragging of the big interest, but you never will
+feel it on a scrap like this. If you would let me double
+your income for you now."</p>
+
+<p>"You know, Philip, I cannot. The trustees would
+never consent."</p>
+
+<p>"Bother trustees. They are the ruin of women,"
+he said, and as he left the room he turned back to ask
+her how long she was going to stay in town.</p>
+
+<p>"How long do you stay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, till Goodwood always," said Phil. "Nell's
+looking forward to it, and there's generally some good
+things just at the end when the heavy people have gone
+away; but I thought you might not care to stay so
+long."</p>
+
+<p>"I came not for town, but for Elinor, Philip."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly so. But don't you think Elinor has shown
+herself quite able to take care of herself&mdash;not to say
+that she has me? It's a thousand pities to keep you
+from the country which you prefer, especially as, after
+all, Nell can be so little with you."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be much better for her at present, Philip,
+to come with me, and rest at home, while you go to
+Goodwood. For the sake of the future you ought to
+persuade her to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay. Try yourself to persuade her to leave
+me. She won't, you know. But why should you bore
+yourself to death staying on here? You don't like it,
+and nobody<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Wants me, you mean, Philip."</p>
+
+<p>"I never said anything so dashed straightforward.
+I am not a chap of that kind. But what I say is, it's a
+shame to keep you hanging on, disturbed in your rest
+and all that sort of thing. That noisy beggar, Dismar,
+that came in with us last night must have woke you up
+with his idiotic bellowing."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't matter for me; but Elinor, Philip. It
+does matter for your wife. If her rest is broken it will
+react upon her in every way. I wish you would consent
+to forego those visitors in the middle of the
+night."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with a sort of satirical indifference.
+"Sorry I can't oblige you," he said. "When a girl's
+friends fork out handsomely a man has some reason for
+paying a little attention. But when there's nothing, or
+next to nothing, on her side, why of course he must
+pick up a little where he can, as much for her sake as
+his own."</p>
+
+<p>"Pick up a little!" said Mrs. Dennistoun.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you wouldn't repeat what I say like that.
+It makes a fellow nervous. Yes, of course, a man that
+knows what he's about does pick up a little. About
+your movements, however. I advise you to take my
+advice and go back to your snug little house. It
+would kill me in a week, but I know it suits you.
+Why hang on for Nell? She's as well as can be, and
+there's a few things that it would be good for us
+to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Which you cannot do while I am here? Is that
+what you mean, Philip?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw any good in being what the French
+call brutal," he said, "I hate making a woman cry, or
+that sort of thing. But you're a woman of sense, and
+I'm sure you must see that a young couple like Nell
+and me, who have our way to make in the world<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"You know it was for her sake entirely that I came
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, oh, yes. To do coddling and that sort of
+thing&mdash;which she doesn't require a bit; but if I must
+be brutal you know there's things of much consequence
+we could do if<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"If what, Philip?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, turning on his heel, "if we had the
+house to ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>This was the influence Mrs. Dennistoun hoped to acquire
+by the sacrifice of her two thousand pounds!
+When he was gone, instead of covering her face as she
+had done when John left her, Mrs. Dennistoun stared
+into the vacant air for a minute and then she burst
+into a laugh. It was not a mirthful laugh, it may be
+supposed, or harmonious, and it startled her as she
+heard it pealing into the silence. Whether it was loud
+enough to wake Elinor up-stairs, or whether she was
+already close by and heard it, I cannot tell, but she
+came in with a little tap at the door and a smile, a
+somewhat anxious and forced smile, it is true, upon
+her face.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the joke?" she said. "I heard you laugh,
+and I thought I might come in and share the fun.
+Somehow, we don't have so much fun as we used to
+have. What is it, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is only a witticism of Philip's, who has been in
+to see me," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "I won't repeat it,
+for probably I should lose the point of it&mdash;you know I
+always did spoil a joke in repeating it. I have been
+speaking to him," she said, after a little pause, during
+which both her laugh and Elinor's smile evaporated in
+the most curious way, leaving both of them very grave&mdash;"of
+going away, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Of going away!" Elinor suddenly assumed a
+startled look; but there is a difference between doing
+that and being really startled, which her mother, alas!
+was quite enlightened enough to see; and surely once
+more there was that mingled relief and relaxation in
+the lines of her face which Mrs. Dennistoun had seen
+before.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my darling," she said, "it is June, and everything
+at the Cottage will be in full beauty. And, perhaps,
+it would do you more good to come down there
+for a day or two when there is nothing doing than to
+have me here, which, after all, has not been of very
+much use to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't say that, mamma. Use!&mdash;it has been of
+comfort unspeakable. But," Elinor added, hurriedly,
+"I see the force of all you say. To remain in London
+at this time of the year must be a far greater sacrifice
+than I have any right to ask of you, mamma."</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the furtive, hurried, unreal words! which were
+such pain and horror to say with the consciousness of
+the true sentiment lying underneath; which made Elinor's
+heart sink, yet were brought forth with a sort of
+hateful fervour, to imitate truth.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun saw it all. There are times when
+the understanding of such a woman is almost equal to
+those "larger other eyes" with which it is our fond
+hope those who have left us for a better country see, if
+they are permitted to see, our petty doings, knowing,
+better than we know ourselves, what excuses, what explanations,
+they are capable of. "As for the sacrifice,"
+she said, "we will say nothing of that, Elinor. It is a
+vain thing to say that if my life would do you any
+pleasure&mdash;for you don't want to take my life, and probably
+the best thing I can do for you is to go on as long
+as I can. But in the meantime there's no question at
+all of sacrifice&mdash;and if you can come down now and
+then for a day, and sleep in the fresh air<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I will, I will, mamma," said Elinor, hiding her face
+on her mother's shoulder; and they would have been
+something more than women if they had not cried together
+as they held each other in that embrace&mdash;in
+which there was so much more than met either eye or
+ear.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It was about the 10th of June when Mrs. Dennistoun
+left London. She had been in town for about five
+weeks, which looked like as many months, and it was
+with a mingled sense of relief, and of that feeling which
+is like death in the heart, the sense of nothing further
+to be done, of the end of opportunity, the conclusion of
+all power to help, which sometimes comes over an anxious
+mind, without in any respect diminishing the anxiety,
+giving it indeed a depth and pang beyond any
+other feeling that is known to the heart of man. What
+could she do more for her child? Nothing. It was
+her only policy to remain away, not to see, certainly
+not to remark anything that was happening, to wait if
+perhaps the moment might come when she would be of
+use, and to hope that perhaps that moment might never
+need to come, that by some wonderful turn of affairs
+all might yet go well. She went back to Windyhill
+with the promise of a visit "soon," Philip himself had
+said&mdash;in the pleasure of getting the house, which was
+her house, which she had paid for and provisioned, to
+himself for his own uses. Mrs. Dennistoun could not
+help hearing through her maid something of the festivities
+which were in prospect after she was gone, the
+dinners and gay receptions at which she would have
+been <i>de trop</i>. She did not wish to hear of them, but
+these are things that will make themselves known, and
+Mrs. Dennistoun had to face the fact that Elinor was
+more or less consenting to the certainty of her mother
+being <i>de trop</i>, which gave her a momentary pang. But
+after all, what did it matter? It was not her fault,
+poor child. I have known a loving daughter in whose
+mind there was a sentiment almost of relief amid her
+deep grief when her tender mother died. Could such a
+thing be possible? It was; because after then, however
+miserable she might be, there was no conflict over
+her, no rending of the strained heart both ways. A
+woman who has known life learns to understand and
+forgive a great many things; and Mrs. Dennistoun forgave
+her Elinor, her only child, for whose happiness she
+had lived, in that she was almost glad when her mother
+went away.</p>
+
+<p>Such things, however, do not make a lonely little
+house in the country more cheerful, or tend to make it
+easier to content one's self with the Rector's family,
+and the good old, simple-minded, retired people, with
+their little complaints, yet general peacefulness, and incompetence
+to understand what tragedy was. They
+thought on the whole their neighbour at the Cottage
+ought to be very thankful that she had got her daughter
+well, or, if not very well, at least fashionably, married,
+with good connections and all that, which are
+always of use in the long run. It was better than
+marrying a poor curate, which was almost the only
+chance a girl had on Windyhill.</p>
+
+<p>It was a little hard upon Mrs. Dennistoun, however,
+that she lost not only Elinor, but John, who had been
+so good about coming down when she was all alone at
+first. Of course, during the season, a young rising
+man, with engagements growing upon him every day,
+was very unlikely to have his Saturdays to Mondays
+free. So many people live out of town nowadays, or,
+at least, have a little house somewhere to which they
+go from Saturday to Monday, taking their friends with
+them. This was no doubt the reason why John never
+came; and yet the poor lady suspected another reason,
+and though she no longer laughed as she had done on
+that occasion when the Honourable Phil gave her her
+dismissal, a smile would come over her face sometimes
+when she reflected that with her two thousand pounds
+she had purchased the hostility of both Philip and John.</p>
+
+<p>John Tatham was indeed exceedingly angry with her
+for the weakness with which she had yielded to Phil
+Compton's arguments, though indeed he knew nothing
+of Phil Compton's arguments, nor whether they had
+been exercised at all on the woman who was first of all
+Elinor's mother and ready to sacrifice everything to her
+comfort. When he found that this foolish step on her
+part had been followed by her retirement from London,
+he was greatly mystified and quite unable to understand.
+He met Elinor some time after at one of
+those assemblies to which "everybody" goes. It was,
+I think, the soir&eacute;e at the Royal Academy&mdash;where amid
+the persistent crowd in the great room there was a
+whirling crowd, twisting in and out among the others,
+bound for heaven knows how many other places, and
+pausing here and there on tiptoe to greet an acquaintance,
+at the tail of which, carried along by its impetus,
+was Elinor. She was not looking either well or happy,
+but she was responding more or less to the impulse of
+her set, exchanging greetings and banal words with
+dozens of people, and sometimes turning a wistful and
+weary gaze towards the pictures on the walls, as if she
+would gladly escape from the mob of her companions
+to them, or anywhere. It was no impulse of taste or
+artistic feeling, however, it is to be feared, but solely
+the weariness of her mind. John watched her for some
+time before he approached her. Phil was not of the
+party, which was nothing extraordinary, for little serious
+as that assembly is, it was still of much too serious
+a kind for Phil; but Lady Mariamne was there, and
+other ladies with whom Elinor was in the habit of pursuing
+that gregarious hunt after pleasure which carries
+the train of votaries along at so breakneck a pace, and
+with so little time to enjoy the pleasure they are pursuing.
+When he saw indications that the stream was
+setting backwards to the entrance, again to separate
+and take its various ways to other entertainments, he
+broke into the throng and called Elinor's attention to
+himself. For a moment she smiled with genuine
+pleasure at the sight of him, but then changed her aspect
+almost imperceptibly. "Oh, John!" she said
+with that smile: but immediately looked towards Lady
+Mariamne, as if undecided what to do.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not look&mdash;as if I would try to detain you,
+Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I am afraid of your detaining me?
+I thought I should be sure to meet you to-night, and
+was on the outlook. How is it that we never see you
+now?"</p>
+
+<p>He refused the natural retort that she had never
+asked to see him, and only said, with a smile, "I hear
+my aunt is gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that you only came for her?
+That is an unkind speech. Yes, she has gone. It was
+cruel to keep her in town for the best part of the year."</p>
+
+<p>"But she intended to stay till July, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she? I think you are mistaken, John. She
+intended to watch over me&mdash;dear mamma, she thinks
+too much of me&mdash;but when she saw that I was quite
+well<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't look to me so extraordinarily well."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't I? I must be a fraud then. Nobody could
+be stronger. I'm going to a multitude of places to-night.
+Wherever my Hebrew leader goes I go," said
+Elinor, with a laugh. "I have given myself up for to-night,
+and she is never satisfied with less than a
+dozen."</p>
+
+<p>"Ten minutes to each."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, half an hour at least: and with having our carriage
+found for us at every place, and the risk of getting
+into a <i>queue</i>, and all the delays of coming and
+going, it cannot be much less than three-quarters of an
+hour. This is the third. I think three more will weary
+even the Jew."</p>
+
+<p>"You are with Lady Mariamne then, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;oh, you need not make that face. She is as
+good as the rest, and pretends to nothing, at least. I
+have no carriage, you know, and Phil took fright at my
+dear old fly. He thought a hired brougham was not
+good when I was alone."</p>
+
+<p>"That was quite true. Nevertheless, I should like
+above all things to keep you here a little longer to look
+at some of the pictures, and take you home in a hansom
+after."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed. "Oh, so should I&mdash;fancy, I have not
+seen the pictures, not at all. We came in a mob to
+the private view; and then one day I was coming with
+mamma, but was stopped by something, and now<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Always
+people, people&mdash;nothing else. 'Did you see
+So-and-so? There's some one bowing to you, Nell.
+Be sure you speak a word to the Thises or the Thats'&mdash;while
+I don't care for one of them. But I fear the
+hansom would not do, John."</p>
+
+<p>"It would have done very well in the old days.
+Your mother would not have been displeased."</p>
+
+<p>"The old days are gone and will never return," she
+said, half sad, half smiling, shaking her head. "So far
+as I can see, nothing ever returns. You have your
+day, and if you do not make the best of that<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped, shaking her head again with a laugh,
+and there were various ways in which that speech
+might be interpreted. John for one knew a sense of
+it which he believed had never entered Elinor's head.
+He too might have had his day and let it slip. "So
+you are making the most of yours," he said. "I hear
+that you are very gay."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor coloured high under his look. "I don't
+know who can have told you that. We have had a few
+little dinners since mamma left us, chiefly Phil's business
+friends. I would not have them while she was
+with us&mdash;that is to say, to be honest," cried Elinor,
+"while we were with her: which of course was the real
+state of the case. I myself don't like those people,
+John, but they would have been insupportable to
+mamma. It was for her sake<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but you must not say 'I understand' with that
+air of knowing a great deal more than there is to understand,"
+she said, with heat. "Mamma said it would
+do me much more good to go&mdash;home for a night now
+and then and sleep in the fresh air than for her to stay;
+and though I think she is a little insane on the subject
+of my health, still it was certainly better than that she
+should stay here, making herself wretched, her rest
+broken, and all that. You know we keep such late
+hours."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not have thought she would have minded
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"But what would you have thought of me if I did
+not mind it for her? There, John, do you see they
+are all going? Ah, the pictures! I wish I could have
+stayed with you and gone round the rooms. But it
+must not be to-night. Come and see me!" she said,
+turning round to him with a smile, and holding out her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I would gladly, Elinor&mdash;but should not I find myself
+in the way of your fine friends like<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>He had not the heart to finish the sentence when he
+met her eyes brimming full of tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Not my fine friends, but my coarse friends," she
+said; "not friends at all, our worst enemies, I am
+sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Nell!" cried Lady Mariamne, in her shrill voice.</p>
+
+<p>"You will come and see me, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "and in the meantime I will take
+you down-stairs, let your companions think as they
+please."</p>
+
+<p>It proved when he did so that John had to escort
+both ladies to the carriage, which it was not very easy
+to find, no other cavalier being at hand for the moment;
+and that Lady Mariamne invited him to accompany
+them to their next stage. "You know the
+Durfords, of course. You are going there? What
+luck for us, Nell! Jump in, Mr. Tatham, we will take
+you on."</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately Lady Durford has not taken the
+trouble to invite me," said John.</p>
+
+<p>"What does that matter? Jump in, all the same,
+she'll be delighted to see you, and as for not asking you,
+when you are with me and Nell<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>But John turned a deaf ear to this siren's song.</p>
+
+<p>He went to Curzon Street a little while after to call,
+as he had been invited to do, and went late to avoid the
+bustle of the tea-table, and the usual rabble of that no
+longer intimate but wildly gregarious house. And he
+was not without his reward. Perhaps a habit he had
+lately formed of passing by Curzon Street in the late
+afternoon, when he was on his way to his club, after
+work was over, had something to do with his choice of
+this hour. He found Elinor, as he had hoped, alone.
+She was sitting so close to the window that her white
+dress mingled with the white curtains, so that he did
+not at first perceive her, and so much abstracted in her
+own thoughts that she did not pay any attention to the
+servant's hurried murmur of his name at the door.
+When she felt rather than saw that there was some one
+in the room, Elinor jumped up with a shock of alarm
+that seemed unnecessary in her own drawing-room;
+then seeing who it was, was so much and so suddenly
+moved that she shed a few tears in some sudden revulsion
+of feeling as she said, "Oh, it is you, John!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "but I am very sorry to see you so
+nervous."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's nothing. I was always nervous"&mdash;which
+indeed was the purest invention, for Elinor Dennistoun
+had not known what nerves meant. "I mean I was
+always startled by any sudden entrance&mdash;in this way,"
+she cried, and very gravely asked him to be seated,
+with a curious assumption of dignity. Her demeanour
+altogether was incomprehensible to John.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," he said, "you were not displeased with
+me, Elinor, for going off the other night. I should
+have been too happy, you know, to go with you anywhere;
+but Lady Mariamne is more than I can stand."</p>
+
+<p>"I was very glad you did not come," she said
+with a sigh; then smiling faintly, "But you were ungrateful,
+for Mariamne formed a most favourable opinion
+of you. She said, 'Why didn't you tell me, Nell, you
+had a cousin so presentable as that?'"</p>
+
+<p>"I am deeply obliged, Elinor; but it seems that
+what was a compliment to me personally involved something
+the reverse for your other relations."</p>
+
+<p>"It is one of their jokes," said Elinor, with a voice
+that faltered a little, "to represent my relations as&mdash;not
+in a complimentary way. I am supposed not to
+mind, and it's all a joke, or so they tell me; but it is
+not a joke I like," she said, with a flash from her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"All families have jokes of that description," said
+John; "but tell me, Nelly, are you really going down
+to the cottage, to your mother?"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes thanked him with a gleam of pleasure for
+the old familiar name, and then the light went out of
+them. "I don't know," she said, abruptly. "Phil was
+to come; if he will not, I think I will not either. But
+I will say nothing till I make sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course your first duty is to him," said John;
+"but a day now or a day then interferes with nothing,
+and the country would be good for you, Elinor. Doesn't
+your husband see it? You are not looking like yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Not like myself? I might easily look better than
+myself. I wish I could. I am not so bigoted about
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Your friends are, however," he said: "no one who
+cares for you wants to change you, even for another
+Elinor. Come, you are nervous altogether to-night, not
+like yourself, as I told you. You always so courageous
+and bright! This depressed state is not one of your
+moods. London is too much for you, my little Nelly."</p>
+
+<p>"Your little Nellie has gone away somewhere John.
+I doubt if she'll ever come back. Yes, London is rather
+too much for me, I think. It's such a racket, as Phil
+says. But then he's used to it, you know. He was
+brought up to it, whereas I&mdash;I think I hate a racket,
+John&mdash;and they all like it so. They prefer never having
+a moment to themselves. I daresay one would
+end by being just the same. It keeps you from thinking,
+that is one very good thing."</p>
+
+<p>"You used not to think so, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, "not at the Cottage among the
+flowers, where nothing ever happened from one year's
+end to another. I should die of it now in a week&mdash;at
+least if not I, those who belong to me. So on the
+whole perhaps London is the safest&mdash;unless Phil will
+go."</p>
+
+<p>"I can only hope you will be able to persuade him,"
+said John, rising to go away, "for whatever you may
+think, you are a country bird, and you want the fresh
+air."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going, John? Well, perhaps it is better.
+Good-by. Don't trouble your mind about me whether
+I go or stay."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean I am not to come again, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, why should I mean that?" she said. "You
+are so hard upon me in your thoughts;" but she did
+not say that he was wrong, and John went out from the
+door saying to himself that he would not go again. He
+saw through the open door of the dining-room that the
+table was prepared sumptuously for a dinner-party.
+It was shining with silver and crystal, the silver Mrs.
+Dennistoun's old service, which she had brought up
+with her from Windyhill, and which as a matter of
+convenience she had left behind with her daughter.
+Would it ever, he wondered, see Windyhill again?</p>
+
+<p>He went on to his club, and there some one began to
+amuse him with an account of Lady Durford's ball, to
+which Lady Mariamne had wished to take him. "Are
+not those Comptons relations of yours, Tatham?" he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Connections," said John, "by marriage."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very glad that's all. They are a queer lot.
+Phil Compton you know&mdash;the dis-Honourable Phil, as he
+used to be called&mdash;but I hear he's turned over a new
+leaf<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"What of him?" said John.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing much: only that he was flirting desperately
+all the evening with a Mrs. Harris, an American
+widow. I believe he came with her&mdash;and his own
+wife there&mdash;much younger, much prettier, a beautiful
+young creature&mdash;looking on with astonishment. You
+could see her eyes growing bigger and bigger. If it
+had not been kind of amusing to a looker-on, it would
+be the most pitiful sight in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I advise you not to let yourself be amused by such
+trifles," said John Tatham, with a look of fire and
+flame.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, Elinor did not go to the Cottage
+for the fresh air or anything else. She made one hurried
+run in the afternoon to bid her mother good-by,
+alone, which was not a visit, but the mere pretence of a
+visit, hurried and breathless, in which there was no
+time to talk of anything. She gave Mrs. Dennistoun an
+account of the usual lists of visits that her husband and
+she were to make in the autumn, which the mother,
+with the usual instinct of mothers, thought too much.
+"You will wear yourself to death, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," she said, "it is not that sort of thing that
+wears one to death. I shall&mdash;enjoy it, I suppose, as
+other people do<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about enjoyment, Elinor, but I am
+sure it would be much better for you to come and stay
+here quietly with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't talk to me of any paradises, mamma.
+We are in the working-day world, and we must make
+out our life as we can."</p>
+
+<p>"But you might let Philip go by himself and come
+and stay quietly here for a little, for the sake of your
+health, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Not for the world, not for the world," she cried.
+"I cannot leave Phil:" and then with a laugh that was
+full of a nervous thrill, "You are always thinking of
+my health, mamma, when my health is perfect: better,
+far better, than almost anybody's. The most of them
+have headaches and that sort of thing, and they stay in
+bed for a day or two constantly, but I never need anything
+of the kind."</p>
+
+<p>"My darling, it would not be leaving Philip to take,
+say, a single week's rest."</p>
+
+<p>"While he went off without me I should not know
+where," she said, sullenly; then gave her mother a
+guilty look and laughed again. "No, no, mamma; he
+would not like it. A man does not like his wife to be
+an incapable, to have to leave him and be nursed up by
+her mother. Besides, it is to the country we are going,
+you know, to Scotland, the finest air; better even, if
+that were possible, than Windyhill."</p>
+
+<p>This was all that was said, and there was indeed time
+for little more; for as the visit was unexpected the
+Hudsons, by bad luck, appeared to take tea with Mrs.
+Dennistoun by way of cheering her in her loneliness,
+and were of course enchanted to see Elinor, and to
+hear, as Mrs. Hudson said, of all her doings in the
+great world. "We always look out for your name at
+all the parties. It gives one quite an interest in fashionable
+life," said the Rector's wife, nodding her head,
+"and Alice was eager to hear what the last month's
+novelties were in the fashions, and if Elinor had any
+nice new patterns, especially for under-things. But
+what should you want with new under-things, with such
+a trousseau as you had?" she added, regretfully.
+Elinor in fact was quite taken from her mother for that
+hour. Was it not, perhaps, better so? Her mother
+herself was half inclined to think that it was, though
+with an ache in her heart, and there could be no doubt
+that Elinor herself was thankful that it so happened.
+When there are many questions on one side that must
+be asked, and very little answer possible on the other,
+is it a good thing when the foolish outside world breaks
+in with its <i>banal</i> interest and prevents this dangerous
+interchange?</p>
+
+<p>So short time did Elinor stay that she had kept the
+fly waiting which brought her from the station: and
+she took leave of her mother with a sort of determination,
+not allowing it even to be suggested that she
+should accompany her. "I like to bid you good-by
+here," she said, "at our own door, where you have
+always come all my life to see me off, even when I was
+only going to tea at the Rectory. Good-by, good-by,
+mother dear." She drove off waving her hand, and
+Mrs. Dennistoun sat out in the garden a long time till
+she saw the fly go round the turn of the road, the white
+line which came suddenly in sight from among the trees
+and as suddenly disappeared again round the side of
+the hill. Elinor waved her handkerchief from the
+window and her mother answered&mdash;and then she was
+gone like a dream, and the loneliness closed down more
+overwhelming than ever before.</p>
+
+<p>Elinor was at Goodwood, her name in all the society
+papers, and even a description of one of her dresses,
+which delighted and made proud the whole population
+of Windyhill. The paper which contained it, and which,
+I believe, belonged originally to Miss Dale, passed from
+hand to hand through almost the entire community; the
+servants getting it at last, and handing it round among
+the humbler friends, who read it, half a dozen women
+together round a cottage door, wiping their hands upon
+their aprons before they would touch the paper, with
+many an exclamation and admiring outcry. And then
+her name appeared among the lists of smart people who
+were going to the North&mdash;now here, now there&mdash;in
+company with many other fine names. It gave the
+Windyhill people a great deal of amusement, and if
+Mrs. Dennistoun did not quite share this feeling it was
+a thing for which her friends blamed her gently. "For
+only think what a fine thing for Elinor to go everywhere
+among the best people, and see life like that!"
+"My dear friend," said the Rector, "you know we
+cannot hope to keep our children always with us.
+They must go out into the world while we old birds
+stay at home; and we must not&mdash;we really must not&mdash;grudge
+them their good times, as the Americans say."
+It was more wonderful than words could tell to Mrs.
+Dennistoun that it should be imagined she was grudging
+Elinor her "good time!"</p>
+
+<p>The autumn went on, with those occasional public
+means of following her footsteps which, indeed, made
+even John Tatham&mdash;who was not in an ordinary way
+addicted to the <i>Morning Post</i>, being after his fashion a
+Liberal in politics and far from aristocratical in his
+sentiments generally&mdash;study that paper, and also other
+papers less worthy: and with, of course, many letters
+from Elinor, which gave more trustworthy accounts of
+her proceedings. These letters, however, were far less
+long, far less detailed, than they had once been; often
+written in a hurry, and short, containing notes of where
+she was going, and of a continual change of address,
+rather than of anything that could be called information
+about herself. John, I think, went only once to the
+Cottage during the interval which followed. He went
+abroad as usual in the Long Vacation, and then he had
+this on his mind&mdash;that he had half-surreptitiously obtained
+a new light upon the position of Elinor, which
+he had every desire to keep from her mother; for Mrs.
+Dennistoun, though she felt that her child was not
+happy, attributed that to any reason rather than a
+failure in her husband's love. Elinor's hot rejection of
+the very idea of leaving Phil, her dislike of any suggestion
+to that effect, even for a week, even for a day,
+seemed to her mother a proof that her husband, at all
+events, remained as dear to her as ever; and John
+would rather have cut his tongue out than betray any
+chance rumour he heard&mdash;and he heard many&mdash;to this
+effect. He was of opinion, indeed, that in London, and
+especially at a London club, not only is everything
+known that is to be known, but much is known that has
+never existed, and never will exist if not blown into
+being by those whose office it is to invent the grief to
+come; therefore he thought it wisest to keep away, lest
+by any chance something might drop from him which
+would awaken a new crowd of disquietudes in Mrs.
+Dennistoun's heart. Another incident, even more disquieting
+than gossip, had indeed occurred to John. It
+had happened to him to meet Lady Mariamne at a great
+<i>omnium gatherum</i> of a country house, where all sorts of
+people were invited, and where that lady claimed his
+acquaintance as one of the least alarming of the grave
+"set." She not only claimed his acquaintance, but set
+up a sort of friendship on the ground of his relationship
+to Elinor, and in an unoccupied moment after dinner
+one day poured a great many confidences into his
+ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it such a pity," she said, "that Phil and she do
+not get on? Oh, they did at first, like a house on fire!
+And if she had only minded her ways they might still
+have been as thick<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But these little country girls,
+however they may disguise it at first, they all turn like
+that. The horridest little puritan! Phil does no more
+than a hundred men&mdash;than almost all men do: amuse
+himself with anything that throws itself in his way, don't
+you know. And sometimes, perhaps, he does go rather
+far. I think myself he sometimes goes a little too far&mdash;for
+good taste you know, and that sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>It was more amazing to hear Lady Mariamne talk of
+good taste than anything that had ever come in John
+Tatham's way before, but he was too horribly, desperately
+interested to see the fun.</p>
+
+<p>"She will go following him about wherever he goes.
+She oughtn't to do that, don't you know. She should
+let him take his swing, and the chances are it will bring
+him back all right. I've told her so a dozen times, but
+she pays no attention to me. You're a great pal of hers.
+Why don't you give her a hint? Phil's not the sort of
+man to be kept in order like that. She ought to give
+him his head."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid," said John, "it's not a matter in which
+I can interfere."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, some of her friends should, anyhow, and teach
+her a little sense. You're a cautious man, I see," said
+Lady Mariamne. "You think it's too delicate to advise
+a woman who thinks herself an injured wife. I didn't
+say to console her, mind you," she said with a shriek of
+a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>It may be supposed that after this John was still more
+unwilling to go to the Cottage, to run the risk of betraying
+himself. He did write to Elinor, telling her
+that he had heard of her from her sister-in-law; but
+when he tried to take Lady Mariamne's advice and
+"give her a hint," John felt his lips sealed. How could
+he breathe a word even of such a suspicion to Elinor?
+How could he let her know that he thought such a thing
+possible?&mdash;or presume to advise her, to take her condition
+for granted? It was impossible. He ended by
+some aimless wish that he might meet her at the
+Cottage for Christmas; "you and Mr. Compton," he
+said&mdash;whom he did not wish to meet, the last person in
+the world: and of whom there was no question that he
+should go to the Cottage at Christmas or any other time.
+But what could John do or say? To suggest to her that
+he thought her an injured wife was beyond his power.</p>
+
+<p>It was somewhere about Christmas&mdash;just before&mdash;in
+that dread moment for the lonely and those who are in
+sorrow and distress, when all the rest of the world
+is preparing for that family festival, or pretending to
+prepare, that John Tatham was told one morning in his
+chambers that a lady wanted to see him. He was occupied,
+as it happened, with a client for whom he had
+stayed in town longer than he had intended to stay,
+and he paid little more attention than to direct his clerk
+to ask the lady what her business was, or if she could
+wait. The client was long-winded, and lingered, but
+John's mind was not free enough nor his imagination
+lively enough to rouse much curiosity in him in respect
+to the lady who was waiting. It was only when
+she was ushered in by his clerk, as the other went
+away, and putting up her veil showed the pale and
+anxious countenance of Mrs. Dennistoun, that the shock
+as of sudden calamity reached him. "Aunt!" he cried,
+springing from his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, John&mdash;I couldn't come anywhere but here&mdash;you
+will feel for me more than any one."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Her lips were dry, she spoke with a little difficulty,
+but she nodded her head and held out to him a telegram
+which was in her hand. It was dated from a
+remote part of Scotland, far in the north. "Ill&mdash;come
+instantly," was all it said.</p>
+
+<p>"And I cannot get away till night," cried Mrs.
+Dennistoun, with a burst of subdued sobbing. "I
+can't start till night."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this all? What was your last news?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, but that they had gone there&mdash;to somebody's
+shooting-box, which was lent them, I believe&mdash;at
+the end of the world. I wrote to beg her to come to
+me. She is&mdash;near a moment&mdash;of great anxiety. Oh,
+John, support me: let me not break down."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not," he said; "you are wanted; you
+must keep all your wits about you. What were they
+doing there at this time of the year?"</p>
+
+<p>"They have been visiting about&mdash;they were invited to
+Dunorban for Christmas, but she persuaded Philip, so
+she said, to take this little house. I think he was to
+join the party while she&mdash;I cannot tell you what was
+the arrangement. She has written very vaguely for
+some time. She ought to have been with me&mdash;I told
+her so&mdash;but she has always said she could not leave
+Philip."</p>
+
+<p>Could not leave Philip! The mother, fortunately,
+had no idea why this determination was. "I went so far
+as to write to Philip," she said, "to ask him if she
+might not come to me, or, at least begging him to bring
+her to town, or somewhere where she could have proper
+attention. He answered me very briefly that he
+wished her to go, but she would not: as he had told me
+before I left town&mdash;that was all. It seemed to fret him&mdash;he
+must have known that it was not a fit place for
+her, in a stranger's house, and so far away. And to
+think I cannot even get away till late to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>John had to comfort her as well as he could, to make
+her eat something, to see that she had all the comforts
+possible for her night journey. "You were always like
+her brother," the poor lady said, finding at last relief in
+tears. And then he went with her to the train, and
+found her a comfortable carriage, and placed her in it
+with all the solaces his mind could think of. A sleeping-carriage
+on the Scotch lines is not such a ghastly pretence
+of comfort as those on the Continent. The solaces
+John brought her&mdash;the quantities of newspapers, the
+picture papers and others, rugs and shawls innumerable&mdash;all
+that he possessed in the shape of wraps, besides
+those which she had with her. What more could
+a man do? If she had been young he would have
+bought her sugar-plums. All that they meant were the
+dumb anxieties of his own breast, and the vague longing
+to do something, anything that would be a help to
+her on her desolate way.</p>
+
+<p>"You will send me a word, aunt, as soon as you get
+there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, at once, John."</p>
+
+<p>"You will tell me how she is&mdash;say as much as you
+can&mdash;no three words, like that. I shall not leave town
+till I hear."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, why should this keep you from your
+family? I could telegraph there as easily as here."</p>
+
+<p>He made a gesture almost of anger. "Do you think
+I am likely to put myself out of the way&mdash;not to be
+ready if you should want me?"</p>
+
+<p>How should she want him?&mdash;a mother summoned to
+her daughter at such a moment&mdash;but she did not say so
+to trouble him more: for John had got to that maddening
+point of anxiety when nothing but doing something,
+or at least keeping ready to do something, flattering
+yourself that there must be something to do, affords any
+balm to the soul.</p>
+
+<p>He saw her away by that night train, crowded with
+people going home&mdash;people noisy with gayety, escaping
+from their daily cares to the family meeting, the father's
+house, all the associations of pleasure and warmth and
+consolation&mdash;cold, but happy, in their third-class compartments&mdash;not
+wrapped up in every conceivable solace
+as she was, yet no one, perhaps, so heavy-hearted. He
+watched for the last glimpse of her face just as the train
+plunged into the darkness, and saw her smile and wave
+her hand to him; then he, too, plunged into the darkness
+like the train. He walked and walked through the
+solitary streets not knowing where he was going, unable
+to rest. Had he ever been, as people say, in love with
+Elinor? He could not tell&mdash;he had never betrayed it
+by word or look if he had. He had never taken any
+step to draw her near him, to persuade her to be his
+and not another's; on the contrary, he had avoided
+everything that could lead to that. Neither could he
+say, "She was as my sister," which his relationship
+might have warranted him in doing. It was neither the
+one nor the other&mdash;she was not his love nor his sister&mdash;she
+was simply Elinor; and perhaps she was dying;
+perhaps the news he would receive next day would be
+the worst that the heart can hear. He walked and
+walked through those dreary, semi-respectable streets
+of London, the quiet, the sordid, the dismal, mile after
+mile, and street after street, till half the night was
+over and he was tired out, and might have a hope of
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>But for three whole days&mdash;days which he could not
+reckon, which seemed of the length of years&mdash;during
+which he remained closeted in his chambers, the whole
+world having, as it seemed, melted away around him,
+leaving him alone, he did not have a word. He did not
+go home, feeling that he must be on the spot, whatever
+happened. Finally, when he was almost mad, on the
+morning of the third day, he received the following
+telegram: "Saved&mdash;as by a miracle; doing well.
+Child&mdash;a boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Child&mdash;a boy!" Good heavens! what did he want
+with that? it seemed an insult to him to tell him. What
+did he care for the child, if it was a boy or not?&mdash;the
+wretched, undesirable brat of such parentage, born to
+perpetuate a name which was dishonoured. Altogether
+the telegram, as so many telegrams, but lighted fresh
+fires of anxiety in his mind. "Saved&mdash;as by a miracle!"
+Then he had been right in the dreadful fancies that had
+gone through his mind. He had passed by Death in
+the dark; and was it now sure that the miracle would
+last, that the danger would have passed away?</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It was not till nearly three weeks after this that John
+received another brief dispatch. "At home: come and
+see us." He had indeed got a short letter or two in the
+interval, saying almost nothing&mdash;a brief report of
+Elinor's health, and of the baby, against whom he had
+taken an unreasoning disgust and repugnance. "Little
+beast!" he said to himself, passing over that part of the
+bulletin: for the letters were scarcely more than bulletins,
+without a word about the circumstances which surrounded
+her. A shooting lodge in Ross-shire in the
+middle of the winter! What a place for a delicate
+woman! John was well enough aware that many elements
+of comfort were possible even in such a place;
+but he shut his eyes, as was natural, to anything that
+went against his own point of view.</p>
+
+<p>And now this telegram from Windyhill&mdash;"At home:
+come and see us"&mdash;<i>us</i>. Was it a mistake of the telegraph
+people?&mdash;of course they must make mistakes.
+They had no doubt taken the <i>me</i> in Mrs. Dennistoun's
+angular writing for <i>us</i>&mdash;or was it possible<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> John had
+no peace in his mind until he had so managed matters
+that he could go and see. There was no very pressing
+business in the middle of January, when people had
+hardly yet recovered the idleness of Christmas. He
+started one windy afternoon, when everything was grey,
+and arrived at Hurrymere station in the dim twilight,
+still ruddy with tints of sunset. He was in a very contradictory
+frame of mind, so that though his heart
+jumped to see Mrs. Dennistoun awaiting him on the
+platform, there mingled in his satisfaction in seeing her
+and hearing what she had to tell so much sooner, a perverse
+conviction of cold and discomfort in the long
+drive up in the pony carriage which he felt sure was before
+him. He was mistaken, however, on this point,
+for the first thing she said was, "I have secured the fly,
+John. Old Pearson will take your luggage. I have so
+much to tell you." There was an air of excitement in
+her face, but not that air of subdued and silent depression
+which comes with solitude. She was evidently full
+of the report she had to make; but yet the first thing
+she did when she was ensconced in the fly with John beside
+her was to cover her face with her hands, and subside
+into her corner in a silent passion of tears.</p>
+
+<p>"For mercy's sake tell me what is the matter. What
+has happened? Is Elinor ill?"</p>
+
+<p>He had almost asked is Elinor dead?</p>
+
+<p>She uncovered her face, which had suddenly lighted
+up with a strange gleam of joy underneath the tears.
+"John, Elinor is here," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Here?"</p>
+
+<p>"At home&mdash;safe. I have brought her back&mdash;and the
+child."</p>
+
+<p>"Confound the child!" John said in his excitement.
+"Brought her back! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, it is a long story. I have a hundred
+things to tell you, and to ask your advice upon; but the
+main thing is that she is here. I have brought her away
+from him. She will go back no more."</p>
+
+<p>"She has left her husband?" he said, with a momentary
+flicker of exultation in his dismay. But the dismay,
+to do him justice, was the strongest. He looked
+at his companion almost sternly. "Things," he said,
+"must have been very serious to justify that."</p>
+
+<p>"They were more than serious&mdash;they had become
+impossible," Mrs. Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+<p>And she told him her story, which was a long one.
+She had arrived to find Elinor alone in the little solitary
+lodge in the midst of the wilds, not without attention
+indeed or comfort, but alone, her husband absent. She
+had been very ill, and he had been at the neighbouring
+castle, where a great party was assembled, and where,
+the mother discovered at last, there was&mdash;the woman
+who had made Elinor's life a burden to her. "I don't
+know with what truth. I don't know whether there is
+what people call any harm in it. It is possible he is
+only amusing himself. I can't tell. But it has made
+Elinor miserable this whole autumn through, that and a
+multitude of other things. She would not let me send
+for him when I got there. It had gone so far as that.
+She said that the whole business disgusted him, that he
+had lost all interest in her, that to hear it was over
+might be a relief to him, but nothing more. Her heart
+has turned altogether against him, John, in every way.
+There have been a hundred things. You think I am
+almost wickedly glad to have her home. And so I am.
+I cannot deny it. To have her here even in her trouble
+makes all the difference to me. But I am not so careless
+as you think. I can look beyond to other things.
+I shrink as much as you do from such a collapse of her
+life. I don't want her to give up her duty, and now that
+there is the additional bond of the child<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for heaven's sake," said John, "leave the child
+out of it! I want to hear nothing of the child!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is one chief point, however, that we want your
+advice about, John. A man, I suppose, does not understand
+it; but her baby is everything to Elinor: and I
+suppose&mdash;unless he can really be proved as guilty as
+she thinks&mdash;he could take the child away."</p>
+
+<p>John smiled to himself a little bitterly: this was why
+he was sent for in such a hurry, not for the sake of his
+society, or from any affection for him, but that he
+might tell them what steps to take to secure them in
+possession of the child. He said nothing for some time,
+nor did Mrs. Dennistoun, whose disappointment in the
+coldness of his response was considerable, and who
+waited in vain for him to speak. At length she said,
+almost tremblingly, "I am afraid you disapprove very
+much of the whole business, John."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it has not been done rashly," he said. "The
+husband's mere absence, though heartless as&mdash;as I
+should have expected of the fellow&mdash;would yet not be
+reason enough to satisfy any&mdash;court."</p>
+
+<p>"Any court! You don't think she means to bring
+him before any court? She wants only to be left alone.
+We ask nothing from him, not a penny, not any money&mdash;surely,
+surely no revenge&mdash;only not to be molested.
+There shall not be a word said on our side, if he will
+but let her alone."</p>
+
+<p>John shook his head. "It all depends upon the view
+the man takes of it," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Now this was very cold comfort to Mrs. Dennistoun,
+who had by this time become very secure in her position,
+feeling herself entirely justified in all that she had
+done. "The man," she said, "the man is not the sufferer:
+and surely the woman has some claim to be
+heard."</p>
+
+<p>"Every claim," said John. "That is not what I was
+thinking of. It is this: if the man has a leg to stand
+upon, he will show fight. If he hasn't&mdash;why that will
+make the whole difference, and probably Elinor's position
+will be quite safe. But you yourself say<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"John, don't throw back upon me what I myself said.
+I said that perhaps things were not so bad as she believed.
+In my experience I have found that folly, and
+playing with everything that is right is more common
+than absolute wrong&mdash;and men like Philip Compton are
+made up of levity and disregard of everything that is
+serious."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case," said John, "if you are right, he will
+not let her go."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John! oh, John! don't make me wish that he
+may be a worse man than I think. He could not force
+her to go back to him, feeling as she does."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody can force a woman to do that; but he
+could perhaps make her position untenable; he would,
+perhaps, take away the child."</p>
+
+<p>"John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, in alarm, "if you
+tell her that, she will fly off with him to the end of the
+world. She will die before she will part with the child."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that's how women are made," said John,
+not yet cured of his personal offence.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, "that's how women are made."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," he said, coming to himself;
+"but you know, aunt, a man may be pardoned for not
+understanding that supreme fascination of the baby
+who cares no more for one than another, poor little
+animal, so long as it gets its food and is warm enough.
+We must await and see what the man will do."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the best?&mdash;is there nothing we can do to
+defend ourselves in the meantime&mdash;to make any sort of
+barricade against him?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must wait and see what he is going to do," said
+John; and they went over and over the question, again
+and again, as they climbed the hills. It grew quite
+dark as they drove along, and when they came out upon
+the open part of the road, from which the Cottage was
+visible, they both looked out across the combe to the
+lights in the windows with an involuntary movement.
+The Cottage was transformed; instead of the one
+lonely lighted window which had indicated to John in
+former visits where Mrs. Dennistoun sat alone, there was
+now a twinkle from various points, a glow of firelight, a
+sensation of warmth, and company. Mrs. Dennistoun
+looked out upon it and her face shone. It was not a
+happy thing that Elinor should have made shipwreck
+of her life, should have left her husband and sought
+refuge in her mother's house. But how could it be
+otherwise than happy that Elinor was there&mdash;Elinor
+and the other little creature who was something more
+than Elinor, herself and yet another? As for John, he
+looked at it too, with an interest which stopped all
+arguments on the cause of it. She was there&mdash;wrong,
+perhaps, impatient; too quick to fly as she had been
+too quick to go&mdash;but still Elinor all the same, whether
+she was right or wrong.</p>
+
+<p>The cab arrived soberly at the door, where Pearson
+with the pony carriage, coming by the shorter way with
+the luggage, had just arrived also. Mrs. Dennistoun
+said, hurriedly, "You will find Elinor in the drawing-room,
+John," and herself went hastily through the
+house and up the stairs. She was going to the baby!
+John guessed this with a smile of astonishment and
+half contempt. How strange it was! There could not
+be a more sad position than that in which, in their
+rashness, these two women had placed themselves; and
+yet the mother, a woman of experience, who ought to
+have known better, got out of the carriage like a girl,
+without waiting to be helped or attended to, and went
+up-stairs like the wind, forgetting everything else for
+that child&mdash;that child, the inheritor of Phil Compton's
+name and very likely of his qualities&mdash;fated from his
+birth (most likely) to bring trouble to everybody connected
+with him! And yet Elinor was of less interest
+to her mother. What strange caprices of nature! what
+extraordinary freaks of womankind!</p>
+
+<p>The Cottage down-stairs was warm and bright with
+firelight and lamplight, and in the great chair by the
+fire was reclining, lying back with her book laid on her
+lap and her face full of eager attention to the sounds
+outside, a pale young woman, surrounded by cushions
+and warm wraps and everything an invalid could require,
+who raised to him eyes more large and shining
+than he had ever seen before, suffused with a dew of
+pain and pleasure and eager welcome. Elinor, was it
+Elinor? He had never seen her in any way like an invalid
+before&mdash;never knew her to be ill, or weak, or unable
+to walk out to the door and meet him or anyone
+she cared for. The sight of her ailing, weak, with those
+large glistening eyes, enlarged by feebleness, went to
+his very heart. Fortunately he did not in any way connect
+this enfeebled state with the phenomenon up-stairs,
+which was best for all parties. He hurried up to
+her, taking her thin hands into his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor! my poor little Nelly&mdash;can this be you!"</p>
+
+<p>The water that was in her eyes rolled over in two
+great tears; a brief convulsion went over her face.
+"Yes, John," she said, almost in a whisper. "Strange
+as it may seem, this is all that is left of me."</p>
+
+<p>He sat down beside her and for a moment neither of
+them spoke. Pity, tenderness, wrath, surged up together
+in John's breast; pity, tender compassion, most
+strong of all. Poor little thing; this was how she had
+come back to her home; her heart broken, her wings
+broken, as it were; all her soaring and swiftness and
+energy gone. He could scarcely look upon her for the
+pity that overflowed his heart. But underneath lay
+wrath, not only against the man who had brought her
+to such a pass, but against herself too.</p>
+
+<p>"John," she said, after a while, "do you remember
+saying to me that I was not one to bear, to put up with
+things, to take the consequences if I tried a dangerous
+experiment and failed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did I ever say anything so silly and so cruel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no; it was neither silly nor unkind, but
+quite, quite true. I have thought of it so often. I
+used to think of it to stir up my pride, to remind myself
+that I ought to try to be better than my nature, not
+to allow you to be a true prophet. But it was so, and
+I couldn't change it. You can see you were right, John,
+for I have not been like a strong woman, able to endure;
+I have only been able to run away."</p>
+
+<p>"My poor little Nelly!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't pity me," she said, the tears running over
+again. "I am too well off; I am too well taken care of.
+A prodigal should not be made so much of as I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call yourself a prodigal, Nelly! Perhaps
+things may not be as bad as they appear. At least, it is
+but the first fall&mdash;the greatest athlete gets many before
+he can stand against the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll never be an athlete, John. Besides, I'm a woman,
+you know, and a fall of any kind is fatal to a woman,
+especially anything of this kind. No, I know very
+well it's all over; I shall never hold up my head again.
+But that's not the question&mdash;the question is, to be safe
+and as free as can be. Mamma takes me in, you know,
+just as if nothing had happened. She is quite willing
+to take the burden of me on her shoulders&mdash;and of
+baby. She has told you that there are two of me, now,
+John&mdash;my baby, as well as myself."</p>
+
+<p>John could only nod an assent; he could not speak.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a wonderful thing to come out of a wreck with
+a treasure in one's arms; everything going to pieces
+behind one; the rafters coming down, the walls falling in
+and yet one's treasure in one's arms. Oh, I had not the
+heart or the strength to come out of the tumbling
+house. My mother did it all, dragged me out, wrapped
+me up in love and kindness, carried me away. I don't
+want you to think I was good for anything. I should
+just have lain there and died. One thing, I did not
+mind dying at all&mdash;I had quite made up my mind.
+That would not have been so disgraceful as running
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing that is disgraceful," said John,
+"for heaven's sake don't say so, Nelly. It is unfortunate&mdash;beyond
+words&mdash;but that is all. Nobody can
+think that you are in any way disgraced. And if you
+are allowed just to stay quietly here in your natural
+home, I suppose you desire nothing more."</p>
+
+<p>"What should I desire more, John? You don't suppose
+I should like to go and live in the world again,
+and go into society and all that? I have had about
+enough of society. Oh, I want nothing but to be quiet
+and unmolested, and bring up my baby. They could
+not take my baby from me, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think so," he said, with a grave face.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not&mdash;think so? Then you are not <i>sure</i>?
+My mother says dreadful things, but I cannot believe
+them. They would never take an infant from its mother
+to give it to&mdash;to give it to&mdash;a man&mdash;who could do
+nothing, nothing for it. What could a man do with a
+young child? a man always on the move, who has no
+settled home, who has no idea what an infant wants?
+John, I know law is inhuman, but surely, surely not so
+inhuman as that."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Nelly," he said, "the law, you know, which,
+as you say, is often inhuman, recognizes the child as
+belonging to the father. He is responsible for it. For
+instance, they never could come upon you for its maintenance
+or education, or anything of that kind, until it
+had been proved that the father<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask," said Elinor, with uplifted head, "of
+what or of whom you are talking when you say <i>it</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>It was all John could do not to burst into a peal of
+aggrieved and indignant laughter. He who had been
+brought from town, from his own comforts such as they
+were, to be consulted about this brat, this child which
+belonged to the dis-Honourable Phil; and Elinor, <i>Elinor</i>,
+of all people in the world, threw up her head and
+confronted him with disdain because he called the brat
+it, and not him or her, whichever it was. John recollected
+well enough that sentence at which he had been
+so indignant in the telegram&mdash;"child, a boy "&mdash;but he
+affected to himself not to know what it was for the indulgence
+of a little contumely: and the reward he had
+got was contumely upon his own head. But when he
+looked at Elinor's pale face, the eyes so much larger
+than they ought to be, with tears welling out unawares,
+dried up for a moment by indignation or quick hasty
+temper, the temper which made her sweeter words all
+the more sweet he had always thought&mdash;then rising
+again unawares under the heavy lids, the lips so ready
+to quiver, the pathetic lines about the mouth: when he
+looked at all these John's heart smote him. He would
+have called the child anything, if there had been a sex
+superior to him the baby should have it. And what
+was there that man could do that he would not do for
+the deliverance of the mother and the child?</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It cannot be said that this evening at the Cottage was
+an agreeable one. To think that Elinor should be
+there, and yet that there should be so little pleasure in
+the fact that the old party, which had once been so
+happy together, should be together again, was bewildering.
+And yet there was one member of it who was
+happy with a shamefaced unacknowledged joy. To
+think that that which made her child miserable should
+make her happy was a dreadful thought to Mrs. Dennistoun,
+and yet how could she help it? Elinor was there,
+and the baby was there, the new unthought-of creature
+which had brought with it a new anxiety, a rush of new
+thoughts and wishes. Already everything else in the
+mind of Elinor's mother began to yield to the desire to
+retain these two&mdash;the new mother and the child. But
+she did not avow this desire. She was mostly silent,
+taking little part in the discussion, which was indeed
+a very curious discussion, since Elinor, debating the
+question how she was to abandon her husband and defend
+herself against him, never mentioned his name.</p>
+
+<p>She did not come in to dinner, which Mrs. Dennistoun
+and John Tatham ate solemnly alone, saying but
+little, trying to talk upon indifferent topics, with that
+very wretched result which is usual when people at one
+of the great crises of life have to make conversation for
+each other while servants are about and the restraints
+of common life are around them. Whether it is the
+terrible flood of grief which has to be barred and kept
+within bounds so that the functions of life may not
+altogether be swept away, or the sharper but warmer
+pang of anxiety, that which cuts like a serpent's tooth,
+yet is not altogether beyond the reach of hope, what
+poor pretences these are at interest in ordinary subjects;
+what miserable gropings after something that
+can furnish a thread of conversation just enough to keep
+the intercourse of life going! These two were not
+more successful than others in this dismal pursuit.
+Mrs. Dennistoun found a moment when the meal was
+over before she left John, poor pretence! to his wine.
+"Remember that she will not mention his name;
+nothing must be said about him," she said. "How can
+we discuss him and what he is likely to do without
+speaking of him?" said John, with a little scorn. "I
+don't know," replied the poor lady. "But you will find
+that she will not have his name mentioned. You must
+try and humour her. Poor Elinor! For I know that
+you are sorry for her, John."</p>
+
+<p>Sorry for her! He sat over his glass of mild claret
+in the little dining-room that had once been so bright;
+even now it was the cosiest little room, the curtains all
+drawn, shutting out the cold wind, which in January
+searches out every crevice, the firelight blazing fitfully,
+bringing out all the pretty warm decorations, the gleam
+of silver on the side-board, the pictures on the wall, the
+mirror over the mantelpiece. There was nothing wanted
+under that roof to make it the very home of domestic
+warmth and comfort. And yet&mdash;sorry for Elinor!
+That was not the word. His heart was sore for her,
+torn away from all her moorings, drifting back a wreck
+to the little youthful home, where all had been so tranquil
+and so sweet. John had nothing in him of that
+petty sentiment which derives satisfaction from a calamity
+it has foreseen, nor had he even an old lover's
+thrill of almost pleasure in the downfall of the clay idol
+that has been preferred to his gold. His pain for
+Elinor, the constriction in his heart at thought of her
+position, were unmixed with any baser feeling. Sorry
+for her! He would have given all he possessed to
+restore her happiness&mdash;not in his way, but in the way
+she had chosen, even, last abnegation of all, to make
+the man worthy of her who had never been worthy.
+Even his own indignation and wrath against that man
+were subservient in John's honest breast to the desire
+of somehow finding that it might be possible to whitewash
+him, nay to reform him, to make him as near as
+possible something which she could tolerate for life.
+I doubt if a woman, notwithstanding the much more
+ready power of sacrifice which women possess, could
+have so fully desired this renewal and amendment as
+John did. It was scarcely too much to say that he
+hated Phil Compton: yet he would have given the half
+of his substance at this moment to make Phil Compton
+a good man; nay, even to make him a passable man&mdash;to
+rehabilitate him in his wife's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>John stayed a long time over "his wine," the mild
+glass of claret (or perhaps it was Burgundy) which was
+all that was offered him&mdash;partly to think the matter
+over, but also partly perhaps because he heard certain
+faint gurglings, and the passage of certain steps, active
+and full of energy, past the door of the room within
+which he sat, going now to the drawing-room, now up-stairs,
+from which he divined that the new inmate of
+the house was at present in possession of the drawing-room,
+and of all attention there. He smiled at himself
+for his hostility to the child, which, of course, was
+entirely innocent of all blame. Here the man was inferior
+to the woman in comprehension and sympathy;
+for he not only could not understand how they could
+possibly obtain solace in their trouble from this unconscious
+little creature, but he was angry and scornful
+of them for doing so. Phil Compton's brat, no
+doubt the germ of a thousand troubles to come, but
+besides that a nothing, a being without love or thought,
+or even consciousness, a mere little animal feeding and
+sleeping&mdash;and yet the idol and object of all the thoughts
+of two intelligent women, capable of so much better
+things! This irritated John and disgusted him in the
+midst of all his anxious thoughts, and his profound
+compassion and deliberations how best to help: and it
+was not till the passage of certain feeble sounds outside
+his door, which proceeded audibly up-stairs, little
+bleatings in which, if they had come from a lamb, or
+even a puppy, John would have been interested, assured
+him that the small enemy had disappeared&mdash;that
+he finally rose and proceeded to "join the ladies," as
+if he had been holding a little private debauch all by
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little fragrance and air of the visitor still
+in the room, a little disturbance of the usual arrangements,
+a surreptitious, quite unjustifiable look as of
+pleasure in Elinor's eyes, which were less expanded,
+and if as liquid as ever, more softly bright than before.
+Something white actually lay on the sofa, a
+small garment which Mrs. Dennistoun whisked away.
+They were conscious of John's critical eye upon them,
+and received him with a warmth of conciliatory welcome
+which betrayed that consciousness. Mrs. Dennistoun
+drew a chair for him to the other side of the fire.
+She took her own place in the middle at the table
+with a large piece of white knitting, to which she gave
+her whole attention, and thus the deliberation began.</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor wants to know, John, what you think we
+ought to do&mdash;to make quite sure&mdash;that there will be no
+risk, about the baby."</p>
+
+<p>"I must know more of the details of the question
+before I can give any advice," said John.</p>
+
+<p>"John," said Elinor, raising herself in her chair,
+"here are all the details that are necessary. I have
+come away. I have come home, finding that life was
+impossible there. That is the whole matter. It may
+be, probably it is, my own fault. It is simply that life
+became impossible. You know you said that I was not
+one to endure, to put up with things. I scoffed at you
+then, for I did not expect to have anything to put up
+with; but you were quite right, and life had become
+impossible&mdash;that is all there is any need to say."</p>
+
+<p>"To me, yes," said John, "but not enough, Elinor,
+if it ever has to come within the reach of the law."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should it come within the reach of the
+law? You, John, you are a lawyer; you know the
+rights of everything. I thought you might have
+arranged it all. Couldn't you try to make a kind of a
+bargain? What bargain? Oh, am I a lawyer, do I
+know? But you, John, who have it all at your fingers'
+ends, who know what can be done and what can't be
+done, and the rights that one has and that another has!
+Dear John! if you were to try, don't you think that you
+could settle it all, simply as between people who don't
+want any exposure, any struggle, but only to be quiet
+and to be let alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, I don't know what I could do with so little
+information as I have. To know that you found your
+life impossible is enough for me. But you know most
+people are right in their own eyes. If we have some
+one opposed to us who thinks, for instance, that the
+fault was yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she cried, eagerly, "I am willing to accept
+that: say that the fault was mine! You could confirm
+it, that it was likely to be mine. You could tell them
+what an impatient person I was, and that you said I
+was not one to try an experiment, for I never, never
+could put up with anything. John, you could be a
+witness as well as an advocate. You could prove that
+you always expected&mdash;and that I am quite, quite willing
+to allow that it was I<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, if I could only make you understand what I
+mean! I am told that I am not to mention any names?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no names, no names! What is the good? We
+both know very well what we mean."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't know very well what you mean. Don't
+you see that if it is your fault&mdash;if the other party is
+innocent&mdash;there can be no reason in the world why he
+should consent to renounce his rights. It is not a
+mere matter of feeling. There is right in it one way
+or another&mdash;either on your side or else on the other side;
+and if it is on the other side, why should a man give up
+what belongs to him, why should he renounce what is&mdash;most
+dear to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, John, John!" she made this appeal and
+outcry, clasping her hands together with a mixture of
+supplication and impatience. Then turning to her
+mother&mdash;"Oh, tell him," she cried, "tell him!"&mdash;always
+clasping those impatient yet beseeching hands.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "Elinor knows
+that the right is on her side: but she will consent to say
+nothing about it to any one&mdash;to give herself out as the
+offender rather&mdash;that is to say, as an ill-disciplined person
+that cannot put up with anything, as you seem to
+have said."</p>
+
+<p>John laughed with vexation, yet a kind of amusement.
+"I never said it nor thought it: still if it pleases her
+to think so<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> The wiser thing if this separation is
+final<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"If it is final!" Elinor cried. She raised herself up
+again in her chair, and contemplated the unfortunate
+John with a sort of tragic superiority. "Do you think
+that of me," she said, "that I would take such a step as
+this and that it should not be final? Is dying final?
+Could one do such a thing as this and change?"</p>
+
+<p>"Such things have been done," said John. "Elinor,
+forgive me. I must say it&mdash;it is all your life that
+is in the balance, and another life. There is this infant
+to be struggled over, perhaps rent in two by those who
+should have united to take care of him&mdash;and it's a boy,
+I hear. There's his name and his after-life to think of&mdash;a
+child without a father, perhaps the heir of a family
+to which he will not belong. Elinor&mdash;tell her, aunt,
+you understand: is it my wish to hand her back to&mdash;to<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> No,
+I'll speak no names. But you know I
+disliked it always, opposed it always. It is not out of
+any favour to&mdash;to the other side. But she ought to
+take all these things into account. Her own position,
+and the position in the future of the child<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Elinor had crushed her fan with her hands, and Mrs.
+Dennistoun let the knitting with which she had gone on
+in spite of all fall at last in her lap. There was a little
+pause. John Tatham's voice itself had began to falter,
+or rather swelled in sound as when a stream swells in
+flood.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not go into the question about women and
+what they ought to put up with," said John, resuming.
+"There's many things that law can do nothing for&mdash;and
+nature in many ways makes it harder for women, I acknowledge.
+We cannot change that. Think what her
+position will be&mdash;neither a wife nor with the freedom
+of a widow; and the boy, bearing the name of one he
+must almost be taught to think badly of&mdash;for one of
+them must be in the wrong<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"He shall never, never hear that name; he shall
+know nothing, he shall be free of every bond; his mind
+shall never be cramped or twisted or troubled by any&mdash;man&mdash;if
+I live."</p>
+
+<p>This Elinor said, lifting her pale face from her hands
+with eyes that flashed and shone with a blaze of excitement
+and weakness.</p>
+
+<p>"There already," said John, "is a tremendous condition&mdash;if
+you live! Who can make sure that they will
+live? We must all die&mdash;some sooner, some later&mdash;and
+you wearing yourself out with excitement, that never
+were strong; you exposing your heart, the weakest
+organ<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, grasping him by the
+arm, "you are talking nonsense, you don't know what
+you are saying. My darling! she was never weak nor
+had a feeble heart, nor&mdash;anything! She will live to bring
+up <i>his</i> children, her baby's children, upon her knees."</p>
+
+<p>"And what would it matter?" said Elinor&mdash;looking
+at him with clear eyes, from which the tears had disappeared
+in the shock of this unlooked-for suggestion&mdash;"suppose
+I have no more strength than that, suppose I
+were to die? you shall be his guardian, John, bring him
+up a good man; and his Heavenly Father will take
+care of him. I am not afraid."</p>
+
+<p>A man had better not deal with such subjects between
+two women. What with Mrs. Dennistoun's indignant
+protest and Elinor's lofty submission, John was at his
+wits' end. "I did not mean to carry things to such a
+bitter end as that," he said. "You want to force me
+into a corner and make me say things I never meant.
+The question is serious enough without that."</p>
+
+<p>There was again a little pause, and then Elinor, with
+one of those changes which are so perplexing to sober-minded
+people, suddenly turned to him, holding out
+both her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"John&mdash;we'll leave that in God's hands whatever is
+to happen to me. But in the meantime, while I am living&mdash;and
+perhaps my life depends upon being quiet and
+having a little peace and rest. It is not that I care
+very much for my life," said Elinor, with that clear,
+open-eyed look, like the sky after rain&mdash;"I am shipwrecked,
+John, as you say&mdash;but my mother does, and
+it's of&mdash;some&mdash;consequence&mdash;to baby; and if it depends
+upon whether I am left alone, you are too good a friend
+to leave me in the lurch. And you said&mdash;one night&mdash;whatever
+happened I was to send for you."</p>
+
+<p>John sprang up from his seat, dropping the hands
+which he had taken into his own. She was like Queen
+Katherine, "about to weep," and her breast strained
+with the sobbing effort to keep it down.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake," he cried, "don't play upon our
+hearts like this! I will do anything&mdash;everything&mdash;whatever
+you choose to tell me. Aunt, don't let her
+cry, don't let her go on like that. Why, good
+heavens!" he cried, bursting himself into a kind of big
+sob, "won't it be bad for that little brat of a baby or
+something if she keeps going on in this way?"</p>
+
+<p>Thus John Tatham surrendered at discretion. What
+could he do more? A man cannot be played upon like
+an instrument without giving out sounds of which he
+will, perhaps, be ashamed. And this woman appealing
+to him&mdash;this girl&mdash;looking like the little Elinor he remembered,
+younger and softer in her weakness and
+trouble than she had been in her beauty and pride&mdash;was
+the creature after all, though she would never know
+it, whom he loved best in the world. He had wanted
+to save her, in the one worldly way of saving her, from
+open shipwreck, for her own sake, against every prejudice
+and prepossession of his mind. But if she would
+not have that, why it was his business to save her as
+she wished, to do for her whatever she wanted; to act
+as her agent, her champion, whatever she pleased.</p>
+
+<p>He was sent away presently, and accepted his dismissal
+with thankfulness, to smoke his cigar. This is
+one amusing thing in a feminine household. A man is
+supposed to want all manner of little indulgences and
+not to be able to do without them. He is carefully left
+alone over "his wine"&mdash;the aforesaid glass of claret;
+and ways and means are provided for him to smoke
+his cigar, whether he wishes it or not. He had often
+laughed at these regulations of his careful relatives, but
+he was rather glad of them to-night. "I am going to
+get Elinor to bed," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "It has,
+perhaps, been a little too much for her: but when you
+have finished your cigar, John, if you will come back to
+the drawing-room for a few minutes you will find me
+here."</p>
+
+<p>John did not smoke any cigar. It is all very well to
+be soothed and consoled by tobacco in your own room,
+at your own ease: but when you are put into a lady's
+dining-room, where everything is nice, and where the
+curtains will probably smell of smoke next morning:
+and when your mind is exercised beyond even the
+power of the body to keep still, that is not a time to
+enjoy such calm and composing delights. But he
+walked about the room in which he was shut up like a
+wild beast in his cage, sometimes with long strides from
+wall to wall, sometimes going round, with that abstract
+trick of his, staring at the pictures, as if he did not know
+every picture in the place by heart. He forgot that he
+was to go back to the drawing-room again after Elinor
+had been taken to bed, and it was only after having
+waited for him a long time that Mrs. Dennistoun came,
+almost timidly, knocking at her own dining-room door,
+afraid to disturb her visitor in the evening rites which
+she believed in so devoutly. She did go in, however,
+and they stood together over the fire for a few minutes,
+he staring down upon the glow at his feet, she contemplating
+fitfully, unconsciously, her own pale face and
+his in the dim mirror on the mantelpiece. They talked
+in low tones about Elinor and her health, and her determination
+which nothing would change.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will do it," said John; "anything&mdash;whatever
+she may require of me&mdash;there are no two
+words about that. There is only one thing: I will not
+compromise her by taking any initiative. Let us wait
+and see what they are going to do<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"But, John, might it not be better to disarm him by
+making overtures? anything, I would do anything if he
+would but let her remain unmolested&mdash;and the baby."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean money?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun gave him an abashed look, deprecatory
+and wistful, but did not make any reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Phil Compton is a cad, and a brute, and a scamp of
+the first water," said John, glad of some way to get rid
+of his excitement; "but I do not think that even he
+would sell his wife and his child for money. I wouldn't
+do him so much discredit as that."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon, John," Mrs. Dennistoun
+said.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>John left the Cottage next morning with the full conduct
+of the affairs of the family placed in his hands.
+The ladies were both a little doubtful if his plan was
+the best&mdash;they were still frightened for what might
+happen, and kept up a watch, as John perceived, fearing
+every step that approached, trembling at every
+shadow. They remembered many stories, such as rush
+to the minds of persons in trouble, of similar cases, of
+the machinations of the bad father whose only object
+was to overcome and break down his wife, and who
+stole his child away to let it languish and die. There
+are some circumstances in which people forget all the
+shades of character, and take it for granted that a man
+who can go wrong in one matter will act like a very
+demon in all. This was doubly strong in Mrs. Dennistoun,
+a woman full of toleration and experience; but
+the issues were so momentous to her, and the possible
+results so terrible, that she lost her accustomed good
+sense. It was more natural, perhaps, that Elinor, who
+was weak in health and still full of the arbitrariness of
+youth, should entertain this fear&mdash;without considering
+that Phil was the very last man in the world to burden
+himself with an infant of the most helpless age&mdash;which
+seemed to John an almost quite unreasonable one. Almost&mdash;for,
+of course, he too was compelled to allow,
+when driven into a corner, that there was nothing that
+an exasperated man might not do. Elinor had come
+down early to see her cousin before he left the house,
+bringing with her in her arms the little bundle of muslin
+and flannel upon the safety of which her very life
+seemed to depend. John looked at it, and at the small
+pink face and unconscious flickering hands that formed
+the small centre to all those wrappings, with a curious
+mixture of pity and repugnance. It was like any other
+blind new-born kitten or puppy, he thought, but not so
+amusing&mdash;no, it was not blind, to be sure. At one
+moment, without any warning, it suddenly opened a
+pair of eyes, which by a lively exercise of fancy might
+be supposed like Elinor's, and seemed to look him in
+the face, which startled him very much, with a curious
+notification of the fact that the thing was not a kitten
+or a puppy. But then a little quiver came over the
+small countenance, and the attendant said it was "the
+wind." Perhaps the opening of the eyes was the wind
+too, or some other automatic effect. He would not
+hold out his finger to be clasped tight by the little
+flickering fist, as Elinor would have had him. He would
+none of those follies; he turned away from it not to
+allow himself to be moved by the effect, quite a meretricious
+one, of the baby in the young mother's arms.
+That was all poetry, sentiment, the trick of the painter,
+who had found the combination beautiful. Such ideas
+belonged, indeed, to the conventional-sacred, and he
+had never felt any profane resistance of mind against
+the San Sisto picture or any of its kind. But Phil Compton's
+brat was a very different thing. What did it matter
+what became of it? If it were not for Elinor's perverse
+feeling on the subject, and that perfectly imbecile
+prostration of her mother, a sensible woman who ought
+to have known better, before the little creature, he would
+himself have been rather grateful to Phil Compton for
+taking it away. But when he saw the look of terror
+upon Elinor's face when an unexpected step came to
+the door, when he saw her turn and fly, wrapping the
+child in her arms, on her very heart as it seemed, bending
+over it, covering it so that it disappeared altogether
+in her embrace, John's heart was a little touched. It
+was only a hawking tramp with pins and needles, who
+came by mistake to the hall door, but her panic and
+anguish of alarm were a spectacle which he could not
+get out of his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, she never feels safe for a moment. It will
+be hard to persuade her that that man, though I've seen
+him about the roads for years, is not an emissary&mdash;or
+a spy&mdash;to find out if she is here."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure it is quite an unnecessary panic," said
+John. "In the first place, Phil Compton's the last man
+to burden himself with a child; in the second, he's not
+a brute nor a monster."</p>
+
+<p>"You called him a brute last night, John."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean in that way. I don't mean to stand
+by any rash word that may be forced from me in a moment
+of irritation. Aunt, get her to give over that.
+She'll torture herself to death for nothing. He'll not
+try to take the child away&mdash;not just now, at all events,
+not while it is a mere<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Bring her to her senses on
+that point. You surely can do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I was quite sure of being in my own," Mrs. Dennistoun
+said, with a forlorn smile. "I am as much
+frightened as she is, John. And, remember, if there
+is anything to be done&mdash;anything<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing but a little common sense wanted,"
+said John. But as he drove away from the door, and
+saw the hawker with the needles still about, the ladies
+had so infected him that it was all he could do to restrain
+an inclination to take the vagrant by the collar
+and throw him down the combe.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's that fellow hanging about?" he said to
+Pearson, who was driving him; "and what does he
+want here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bless you, sir! that's Joe," Pearson said. "He's
+after no harm. He's honest enough as long as there
+ain't nothing much in his way; and he's waiting for
+the pieces as cook gives him once a week when he
+comes his rounds. There's no harm in poor Joe."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not, since you say so," said John; "but
+you know the ladies are rather nervous, Pearson. You
+must keep a look-out that no suspicious-looking person
+hangs about the house."</p>
+
+<p>"Bless us! Mr. John," said Pearson, "what are they
+nervous about?&mdash;the baby? But nobody wants to
+steal a baby, bless your soul!"</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree with you," said John, much relieved
+(though he considered Pearson an old fool, in a general
+way) to have his own opinion confirmed. "But, all
+the same, I wish you would be doubly particular not to
+admit anybody you don't know; and if any man should
+appear to bother them send for me on the moment.
+Do you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you call any man, sir?" said Pearson,
+smartly. He had ideas of his own, though he might be
+a fool.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean what I say," said John, more sharply still.
+"Any one that molests or alarms them. Send me off
+a telegram at once&mdash;'You're wanted!' That will be
+quite enough. But don't go with it to the office yourself;
+send somebody&mdash;there's always your boy about
+the place&mdash;and keep about like a dragon yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best, sir," said Pearson, "though I don't
+know what a dragon is, except it's the one in the Bible;
+and that's not a thing anybody would want about the
+place."</p>
+
+<p>It was a comfort to John, after all his troubles, to be
+able to laugh, which he did with a heartiness which
+surprised Pearson, who was quite unaware that he had
+made any joke.</p>
+
+<p>These fears, however, which were imposed upon him
+by the contagion of the terrors of the others, soon
+passed from John's mind. He was convinced that
+Phil Compton would take no such step; and that, however
+much he might wish his wife to return, the possession
+of the baby was not a thing which he would
+struggle over. It cannot be denied, however, that he
+was anxious, and eagerly inspected his letters in the
+morning, and looked out for telegrams during the day.
+Fortunately, however, no evil tidings came. Mrs. Dennistoun
+reported unbroken peace in the Cottage and increasing
+strength on the part of Elinor; and, in a parenthesis
+with a sort of apology, of the baby. Nobody had
+come near them to trouble them. Elinor had received
+no letters. The tie between her and her husband
+seemed to be cut as with a knife. "We cannot of
+course," she said, "expect this tranquillity to last."</p>
+
+<p>And it came to be a very curious thought with John,
+as week after week passed, whether it was to last&mdash;whether
+Phil Compton, who had never been supposed
+wanting in courage, intended to let his wife and child
+drop off from him as if they had never been. This
+seemed a thing impossible to conceive: but John said
+to himself with much internal contempt that he knew
+nothing of the workings of the mind of such a man,
+and that it might for aught he knew be a common incident
+in life with the Phil Comptons thus to shake off
+their belongings when they got tired of them. The
+fool! the booby! to get tired of Elinor! That rumour
+which flies about the world so strangely and communicates
+information about everybody to the vacant
+ear, to be retailed to those whom it may concern, provided
+him, as the days went by, with many particulars
+which he had not been able to obtain from Elinor.
+Phil, it appeared, had gone to Glenorban&mdash;the great
+house to which he had been invited&mdash;alone, with an
+excuse for his wife, whose state of health was not appropriate
+to a large party, and had stayed there spending
+Christmas with a brilliant houseful of guests, among
+whom was the American lady who had captivated him.
+Phil had paid one visit to the lodge to see Elinor, by
+her mother's summons, at the crisis of her illness, but
+had not hesitated to go away again when informed that
+the crisis was over. Mrs. Dennistoun never told what
+had passed between them on that occasion, but the
+gossips of the club were credibly informed that she
+had bullied and stormed at Phil, after the fashion of
+mothers-in-law, till she had driven him away. Upon
+which he had returned to his party and flirted with
+Mrs. Harris more than ever. John discovered also that
+the party having dispersed some time ago, Phil had
+gone abroad. Whether in ignorance of his wife's
+flight or not he could not discover; but it was almost
+impossible to believe that he would have gone to
+Monte Carlo without finding out something about Elinor&mdash;how
+and where she was. But whether this was
+the cause of his utter silence, or whether it was the
+habit of men of his class to treat such tremendous incidents
+in domestic life with levity, John Tatham could
+not make out. He was congratulating himself, however,
+upon keeping perfectly quiet, and leaving the conduct
+of the matter to the other party, when the silence
+was disturbed in what seemed to him the most curious
+way.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon when he returned from the court he
+was aware, when he entered the outer office in which
+his clerk abode, of what he described afterwards as a
+smell fit to knock you down. It would have been described
+more appropriately in a French novel as the
+special perfume, subtle and exquisite, by which a beautiful
+woman may be recognised wherever she goes. It
+was, indeed, neither more nor less than the particular
+scent used by Lady Mariamne, who came forward with
+a sweep and rustle of her draperies, and the most ingratiating
+of her smiles.</p>
+
+<p>"It appears to be fated that I am to wait for you,"
+she said. "How do you do, Mr. Tatham? Take me
+out of this horrible dirty place. I am quite sure you
+have some nice rooms in there." She pointed as she
+spoke to the inner door, and moved towards it with
+the air of a person who knew where she was going,
+and was fully purposed to be admitted. John said
+afterwards, that to think of this woman's abominable
+scent being left in his room in which he lived (though
+he also received his clients in it) was almost more than
+he could bear. But, in the meantime, he could do
+nothing but open the door to her, and offer her his
+most comfortable chair.</p>
+
+<p>She seated herself with all those little tricks of movement
+which are also part of the stock-in-trade of the
+pretty woman. Lady Mariamne's prettiness was not of
+a kind which had the slightest effect upon John, but
+still it was a kind which received credit in society, being
+the product of a great deal of pains and care and exquisite
+arrangement and combination. She threw her fur
+cloak back a little, arranged the strings of her bonnet
+under her chin, which threw up the daintiness and rosiness
+of a complexion about which there were many
+questions among her closest friends. She shook up,
+with what had often been commented upon as the
+prettiest gesture, the bracelets from her wrists. She
+arranged the veil, which just came over the tip of her
+delicate nose, she put out her foot as if searching for a
+footstool&mdash;which John made haste to supply, though he
+remained unaffected otherwise by all these pretty preliminaries.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Mr. Tatham," then said Lady Mariamne.
+"It makes me wretchedly uncomfortable, as if you were
+some dreadful man waiting to be paid or something, to
+see you standing there."</p>
+
+<p>Though John's first impulse was that of wrath to be
+thus requested to sit down in his own chambers, the
+position was amusing as well as disagreeable, and he
+laughed and drew a chair towards his writing-table,
+which was as crowded and untidy as the writing-table
+of a busy man usually is, and placed himself in an
+attitude of attention, though without asking any question.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Lady Mariamne, slowly drawing off her
+glove; "you know, of course, why I have come, Mr.
+Tatham&mdash;to talk over with you, as a man who knows
+the world, this deplorable business. You see it has
+come about exactly as I said. I knew what would happen:
+and though I am not one of those people who always
+insist upon being proved right, you remember
+what I said<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember that you said something&mdash;to which,
+perhaps, had I thought I should have been called upon
+to give evidence as to its correctness&mdash;I should have
+paid more attention, Lady Mariamne."</p>
+
+<p>"How rude you are!" she said, with her whole interest
+concentrated upon the slow removal of her glove.
+Then she smoothed a little, softly, the pretty hand which
+was thus uncovered, and said, "How red one's hands
+get in this weather," and then laughed. "You don't
+mean to tell me, Mr. Tatham," she said, suddenly raising
+her eyes to his, "that, considering what a very
+particular person we were discussing, you can't remember
+what I said?"</p>
+
+<p>John was obliged to confess that he remembered
+more or less the gist of her discourse, and Lady
+Mariamne nodded her head many times in acceptance
+of his confession.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said, "you see what it has come to. An
+open scandal, a separation, and everything broken up.
+For one thing, I knew if she did not give him his head
+a little that's what would happen. I don't believe he
+cares a brass farthing for that other woman. She makes
+fun of everybody, and that amused him. And it amused
+him to put Nell in a state&mdash;that as much as anything.
+Why couldn't she see that and learn to <i>prendre son parti</i>
+like other people? She was free to say, 'You go your
+way and I'll go mine:' the most of us do that sooner or
+later: but to make a vulgar open rupture, and go off&mdash;like
+this."</p>
+
+<p>"I fail to see the vulgarity in it," said John.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course; everything she does is perfect to
+you. But just think, if it had been your own case&mdash;followed
+about and bullied by a jealous woman, in a
+state of health that of itself disgusts a man<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Mariamne, you must pardon me if I refuse to
+listen to anything more of this kind," said John, starting
+to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I warn you, you'll be compelled to listen to a
+great deal more if you're her agent as I hear! Phil will
+find means of compelling you to hear if you don't like
+to take your information from me."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know how Mr. Phil Compton will
+succeed in compelling me&mdash;to anything I don't choose
+to do."</p>
+
+<p>"You think, perhaps, because there's no duelling in
+this country he can't do anything. But there is, all the
+same. He would shame you into it&mdash;he could say you
+were&mdash;sheltering yourself<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not a man to fight duels," said John, very
+angry, but smiling, "in any circumstances, even were
+such a thing not utterly ridiculous; but even a fighting
+man might feel that to put himself on a level with the
+dis-Hon<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped himself as he said it. How mean it was&mdash;to
+a woman!&mdash;descending to their own methods. But
+Lady Mariamne was too quick for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said; "so you've heard of that, a nickname
+that no gentleman<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" then she too paused and looked
+at him, with a momentary flush. He was going to
+apologize abjectly, when with a slight laugh she turned
+the subject aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty fools we are, both of us, to talk such nonsense.
+I didn't come here carrying Phil on my
+shoulders, to spring at your throat if you expressed
+your opinion. Look here&mdash;tell me, don't let us go beating
+about the bush, Mr. Tatham&mdash;I suppose you have
+seen Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know my cousin's mind, at least," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, just tell me as between friends&mdash;there's
+no need we should quarrel because they have done so.
+Tell me this, is she going to get up a divorce case<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"A divorce<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," said Lady Mariamne, "she'll find it precious
+difficult to prove anything. I know she will. She
+may prove the flirting and so forth&mdash;but what's that?
+You can tell her from me, it wants somebody far better
+up to things than she is to prove anything. I warn her
+as a friend she'll not get much good by that move."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not aware," said John, "whether Mrs. Compton
+has made up her mind about the further steps<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Then just you advise her not," cried Lady Mariamne.
+"It doesn't matter to me: I shall be none
+the worse whatever she does: but if you are her true
+friend you will advise her not. She might tell what she
+thinks, but that's no proof. Mr. Tatham, I know you
+have great influence with Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"Not in a matter like this," said John, with great
+gravity. "Of course she alone can be the judge."</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense you talk, you men! Of course she
+is not the least the judge, and of course she will be
+guided by you."</p>
+
+<p>"You may be sure she shall have the best advice that
+I can give," John said with a bow.</p>
+
+<p>"You want me to go, I see," said Lady Mariamne;
+"you are dreadfully rude, standing up all the time to
+show me I had better go." Hereupon she recommenced
+her little <i>man&egrave;ge</i>, drawing on her glove, letting her
+bracelets drop again, fastening the fur round her throat.
+"Well, Mr. Tatham," she said, "I hope you mean to
+have the civility to see after my carriage. I can't go
+roaming about hailing it as if it were a hansom cab&mdash;in
+this queer place."</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>John went down to Windyhill that evening. His appearance
+alarmed the little household more than words
+could say. As he was admitted at once by the servants,
+delighted to see him, he walked in suddenly into the
+midst of a truly domestic scene. The baby lay on
+Elinor's knee in the midst of a mass of white wrappings,
+kicking out a pair of pink little legs in the front of the
+fire. Elinor herself was seated on a very low chair, and
+illuminated by the cheerful blaze, which threw a glare
+upon her countenance, and called out unthought-of
+lights in her hair, there was no appearance in her looks
+of anxiety or trouble. She was altogether given up to
+the baby and the joy of its new life. The little kicking
+limbs, the pleasure of the little creature in the warmth,
+the curling of its rosy little toes in the agreeable sensation
+of the heat, were more to Elinor and to her mother,
+who was kneeling beside her on the hearth-rug, than the
+most refined and lofty pleasures in the world. The
+most lofty of us have to come down to those primitive
+sources of bliss, if we are happy enough to have them
+placed in our way. The greatest poet by her side, the
+music of the spheres sounding in her ear, would not
+have made Elinor forget her troubles like the stretching
+out towards the fire of those little pink toes.</p>
+
+<p>When the door opened, and the voice and step of a
+man&mdash;dreaded sounds&mdash;were audible, a thrill of terror
+ran over this little group. Mrs. Dennistoun sprang to
+her feet and placed herself between the intruder and
+the young mother, while Elinor gathered up, covering
+him all over, so that he disappeared altogether, her
+child in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"It is John," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "God be
+thanked, it is only John."</p>
+
+<p>But Elinor, quite overcome by the shock, burst
+suddenly into tears, to which the baby responded by a
+vigorous cry, not at all relishing the sudden huddling
+up among its shawls to which it had been subjected.
+It may be supposed what an effect this cloudy side of
+the happiness, which he had not been able to deny to
+himself made a very pretty scene, had upon John. He
+said, not without a little offence, "I am sure I beg your
+pardon humbly. I'll go away."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor turned round her head, smiling through her
+tears. "It was only that you gave me a fright,"
+<ins title="original has she she">she</ins> said. "I am quite right again; don't, oh, don't go
+away! unless you object to the sight of baby, and to
+hear him cry; but he'll not cry now, any more than his
+silly mother. Mamma, make John sit down and tell
+us&mdash;Oh, I am sure he has something to tell us&mdash;Perhaps
+I took comfort too soon; but the very sight of
+John is a protection and a strength," she said, holding
+out her hand to him. This sudden change of front reduced
+John, who had been perhaps disposed for a moment
+to stand on his dignity, to utter subjection. He
+neither said nor even thought a word against the baby,
+who was presently unfolded again, and turned once
+more the toes of comfort towards the fire. He did not
+approach too near, feeling that he had no particular
+share in the scene, and indeed cut an almost absurd
+figure in the midst of that group, but sat behind, contemplating
+it from a little distance against the fire.
+The evening had grown dark by this time, but the two
+women, absorbed by their worship, had wanted no
+light. It had happened to John by an extreme piece of
+luck to catch the express train almost as soon as Lady
+Mariamne had left him, and to reach the station at
+Hurrymere before the February day was done.</p>
+
+<p>"You have something to tell us, John&mdash;good news
+or bad?" Mrs. Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+<p>"Good; or I should not have come like this unannounced,"
+he said. "The post is quick enough for
+bad. I think you may be quite at your ease about the
+child&mdash;no claim will be made on the child. Elinor, I
+think, will not be disturbed if&mdash;she means to take no
+steps on her side."</p>
+
+<p>"What steps?" said Mrs. Dennistoun. Elinor turned
+her head to look at him anxiously over the back of her
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had a visit this afternoon," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"From&mdash;" Elinor drew a long hurried breath. She
+said no name, but it was evident that one was on her
+lips&mdash;a name she never meant to pronounce more, but
+to which her whole being thrilled still even when it was
+unspoken. She looked at him full of eagerness to hear
+yet with a hand uplifted, as if to forbid any utterance.</p>
+
+<p>"From Lady Mariamne."</p>
+
+<p>How her countenance fell! She turned round again,
+and bent over her baby. It was a pang of acute disappointment,
+he could not but see, that went through her,
+though she would not have allowed him to say that
+name. Strange inconsistency! it ran over John too
+with a sense of keen indignation, as if he had taken
+from her an electric touch.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>Whose object in coming to me was to ascertain
+whether you intended to bring a suit for&mdash;divorce."</p>
+
+<p>A cry rang through the room. Elinor turned upon
+him for a moment a face blazing with hot and painful
+colour. The lamp had been brought in, and he saw the
+fierce blush and look of horror. Then she turned round
+and buried it in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Divorce!" said Mrs. Dennistoun. "Elinor<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>!
+To drag her private affairs before the world. Oh, John,
+John, that could not be. You would not wish that to
+be."</p>
+
+<p>"I!" he cried with a laugh of tuneless mirth. "Is
+it likely that I would wish to drag Elinor before the
+world?"</p>
+
+<p>Elinor did not say anything, but withdrew one hand
+from her burning cheek and put it into his. These
+women treated John as if he were a man of wood.
+What he might be feeling, or if he were feeling anything,
+did not enter their minds.</p>
+
+<p>"It was like her," said Elinor after a time in a low
+hurried voice, "to think of that. She is the only one
+who would think of it. As if I had ever thought or
+dreamed<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"It is possible, however," he said, "that it might be
+reasonable enough. I don't speak to Elinor," who had
+let go his hand hastily, "but to you, aunt. If it is altogether
+final, as she says, to be released would perhaps
+be better, from a bond that was no bond."</p>
+
+<p>"John, John, would you have her add shame to
+pain?"</p>
+
+<p>"The shame would not be to her, aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"The shame is to every one concerned&mdash;to every
+one! My Elinor's name, her dear name, dragged
+through all that mud! She a party, perhaps, to revelations&mdash;Oh,
+never, never! We would bear anything
+rather."</p>
+
+<p>"This of course," said John, "is perhaps a still more
+bitter punishment for the other side."</p>
+
+<p>She looked round at him again. Looking up with a
+look of pale horror, her eyelids in agonised curves over
+her eyes, her mouth quivering. "What did you say,
+John?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said it might be a more bitter punishment still
+for&mdash;the other side."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor lifted up her baby to her breast, raising herself
+with a new dignity, with her head high. "I meant
+no punishment," she said, "I want none. I have left&mdash;what
+killed me&mdash;behind me; many things, not one
+only. I have brought my boy away that he may never&mdash;never&mdash; But
+if it would be better that&mdash;another
+should be free&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I will never give my consent to it, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I with my own mind; but if it is vindictive&mdash;if
+it is revenge, mother! I am not alone to think of
+myself. If it were better for <span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> that he should be free;
+speak to John about it and tell me. I cannot, cannot
+discuss it. I will leave it all to John and you. It will
+kill me! but what does that matter?&mdash;it is not revenge
+that I seek."</p>
+
+<p>She turned with the baby pressed to her breast and
+walked away, her every movement showing the strain
+and excitement of her soul.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you do this, John, without at least consulting
+me? You have thrown a new trouble into her
+mind. She will never, never do this thing&mdash;nor would
+I permit it. There are some things in which I must
+take a part. I could not forbid her marriage; God
+grant that I had had the strength to do it&mdash;but this I
+will forbid, to expose her to the whole world, when
+everything we have done has been with the idea of concealing
+what had happened. Never, never. I will
+never consent to it, John."</p>
+
+<p>"I had no intention of proposing such a step; but
+the other side&mdash;as we are bound to call him&mdash;are frightened
+about it. And when I saw her look up, so young
+still, so sweet, with all her life before her, and thought
+how she must spend it&mdash;alone; with no expanding, no
+development, in this cottage or somewhere else, a life
+shipwrecked, a being so capable, so full of possibilities&mdash;lost."</p>
+
+<p>"I have spent my life in this cottage," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun. "My husband died when I was thirty&mdash;my
+life was over, and still I was young; but I had Elinor.
+There were some who pitied me too, but their
+pity was uncalled for. Elinor will live like her mother,
+she has her boy."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is different; you cannot but see the difference."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I see it&mdash;it is different; but not so different
+that my Elinor's name should be placarded about the
+streets and put in all the newspapers. Oh, never,
+never, John. If the man suffers, it is his fault. She
+will suffer, and it is not her fault; but I will not, to release
+him, drag my child before the world."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun was so much excited that she began
+to pace about the room, she who was usually so sober
+and self restrained. She had borne much, but this she
+was unable even to contemplate with calm. For once
+in her life she had arrived at something which she
+would not bear. John felt his own position very strange
+sitting looking on as a spectator, while this woman, usually
+so self-controlled, showed her impatience of circumstances
+and fate. It was ruefully comic that this should
+be, so to speak, his doing, though he was the last in the
+world to desire any exposure of Elinor, or to have any
+sympathy with those who sought justice for themselves
+or revenge on others at such a cost.</p>
+
+<p>"I was rash perhaps to speak as I did," he said; "I
+had no intention of doing it when I came. It was a
+mere impulse, seeing Elinor: but you must know that
+I agree with you perfectly. I see that Elinor's lot is
+fixed anyhow. I believe that no decree of a court would
+make any difference to her, and she would not change
+the name that is the child's name. All that I recognise.
+And one thing more, that neither you nor Elinor has
+recognised. They&mdash;he is afraid of any proceedings&mdash;I
+suppose I may mention him to you. It's rather absurd,
+don't you think, speaking of a fellow of that sort, or
+rather, not speaking of him at all, as if his name was
+sacred? He is afraid of proceedings&mdash;whatever may be
+the cause."</p>
+
+<p>"John, can't you understand that she cannot bear to
+speak of him, a man she so fought for, against us all?
+And now her eyes are opened, she is undeceived, she
+knows him all through and through, more, far more,
+than we do. She opened her mind to me once, and
+only once. It was not <i>that</i> alone; oh, no, no. There
+are things that rankle more than that, something he
+did before they were married, and made her help him
+to conceal. Something dishon&mdash;I can't say the word,
+John."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said John, grimly, "you need not mind
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the woman&mdash;I blush to have to speak to you
+even of such a thing&mdash;the woman, John, was not the
+worst. She almost might, I think, have forgiven that.
+It was one thing after another, and that, that first business
+the worst of all. She found it out somehow, and
+he had made her take a part&mdash;I can't tell what. She
+would never open her lips on the subject again. Only
+that once it all burst forth. Oh, divorce! What would
+that do to her, besides the shame? You understand
+some things, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a smile,
+"though you are a man. She would never do anything
+to give herself a name different from her child's."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said John, with a laugh, "I think I understand
+a thing or two, though, as you say, my dear aunt, I am
+only a man. However, it is just as well I am that imperfect
+creature, to take care of you. It understands
+the tactics of the wicked better than you do. And now
+you must persuade Elinor and persuade yourself of
+what I came here on purpose to tell you&mdash;not to disturb
+you, as I have been so unfortunate as to do. You
+are perfectly safe from him. I will not let the enemy
+know your sentiments, or how decided you are on the
+subject. I will perhaps, if you will let me, crack the
+whip a little over their heads, and keep them in a pleasing
+uncertainty. But as long as he is afraid that she
+will take proceedings against him, he will take none, you
+may be sure, against her. So you may throw aside all
+your precautions and be happy over your treasure in
+your own way."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God for what you say, John; you take a
+weight off my heart. But happy&mdash;how can you speak
+of being happy after such a catastrophe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I came in upon a very happy little scene.
+It might be only pretence, but it looked uncommonly
+like the real thing."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the baby, John, the dear infant that
+knows no harm. He does take off our thoughts a little,
+and enable us to bear<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, aunt, don't be a hypocrite; that was never a
+fault of yours. Confess that with all your misery about
+Elinor you are happy to have her here and her
+child&mdash;notwithstanding everything&mdash;happy as you have not
+been for many a day."</p>
+
+<p>She sat down by him and gave him her hand. "John,
+to be a man you have wonderful insight, and it's I who
+am a very, very imperfect creature. You don't think
+worse of me to be glad to have her, even though it is
+purchased by such misery and trouble? God knows,"
+cried the poor lady, drying her eyes, "that I would give
+her up to-morrow, and with joy, and consent never to
+see her again, if that would be for her happiness. John!
+I've not thrust myself upon them, have I, nor done anything
+against him, nor said a word? But now that she
+is here, and the baby, and all to myself&mdash;which I never
+hoped&mdash;would I not be an ungrateful woman if I did
+not thank God for it, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are an excellent special pleader, aunt," he said,
+with a laugh, "as most women whom I have known
+are: and I agree with you in everything. You behaved
+to them, while it was <i>them</i>, angelically: you effaced
+yourself, and I fully believe you never said a word
+against him. Also, I believe that if circumstances
+changed, if anything happened to make her see that she
+could go back to him<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun started in spite of herself, and
+pressed her hands together, with a half sob of dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it likely, but if it were so, you would
+sacrifice yourself again&mdash;I haven't a doubt of it. Why,
+then, set up this piece of humbug to me who know you
+so well, and pretend that you are not very happy for the
+moment? You are, and you have a good right to be:
+and I say enjoy it, my dear aunt; take all the good of
+it, you will have no trouble from him."</p>
+
+<p>"You think so, you really think so, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt of it: and you must persuade
+Elinor. Don't think I am making light of the situation:
+you'll have plenty to trouble you no doubt, when that
+little shaver grows up<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"John!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he is a little shaver (whatever that may mean
+I'm sure I don't know), if he were a little prince.
+When he grows up you will have your business laid out
+for you, and I don't envy you the clearing up<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"John don't speak as if a time would come when you
+would not stand by us. I mean stand by Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Your first phrase was much the best. I will stand
+by you both as a matter of course."</p>
+
+<p>"You must consider I shall be an old woman then;
+and who knows if I may live to see the poor little
+darling grow up?"</p>
+
+<p>"The poor little darling may never grow up, and
+none of us may live to see it. One prediction is as
+good as another: but I think better things of you, aunt,
+than that you would go and die and desert Elinor, unless
+'so be as you couldn't help it,' as Pearson says.
+But, however, in the meantime, dying of anybody is
+not in the question, and I hope both you and she will
+take as much pleasure out of the baby and be as happy
+as circumstances will allow. And I'll tell Pearson that
+there is no need for him to act the dragon&mdash;either the
+Bible one, whom he did not think you would like to
+have about the house, or any other&mdash;for the danger is
+over. Trust me at least for that."</p>
+
+<p>"I trust you for everything, John; but," added Mrs.
+Dennistoun, "I wouldn't say anything to Pearson. If
+you've told him to be a dragon, let him be a dragon
+still. I am sure you are right, and I will tell Elinor so,
+and comfort her heart; but we may as well keep a good
+look out, and our eyes about us, all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"They are sure I am right, but think it better to go
+on as if I were wrong," John said to himself as he went
+to dress for dinner. And while he went through this
+ceremony, he had a great many thoughts&mdash;half-impatient,
+half-tender&mdash;of the wonderful ways of women
+which are so amazing to men in general, as the ways of
+men are amazing to women, and will be so, no doubt,
+as long as the world goes on. The strange mixture of
+the wise and the foolish, the altogether heroic, and the
+involuntarily fictitious, struck his keen perception with
+a humourous understanding, and amusement, and
+sympathy. That Mrs. Dennistoun should pose a little
+as a sufferer while she was unmitigatedly happy in the
+possession of Elinor and the child, and be abashed when
+she was forced to confess how ecstatic was the fearful
+joy which she snatched in the midst of danger, was
+strange enough. But that Elinor, at this dreadful
+crisis of her life, when every bond was rent asunder,
+and all that is ordinarily called happiness wrecked for
+ever, should be moved to the kind of rapture he had
+seen in her face by the reaching out and curling in of
+those little pink toes in the warm light of the fire, was
+inconceivable&mdash;a thing that was not in any philosophy.
+She had made shipwreck of her life. She had torn the
+man whom she loved out of her heart, and fled from
+his neglect and treachery&mdash;a fugitive to her mother's
+house. And yet as she sat before the fire with this little
+infant cooing in the warmth&mdash;like a puppy or a little
+pig, or any other little animal you can suggest&mdash;this was
+the thought of the irreverent man&mdash;there was a look
+of almost more than common happiness, of blessedness,
+in her face. Who can fathom these things? They
+were at least beyond the knowledge, though not the
+sympathy, of this very rising member of the bar.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Thus there came a sort of settling down and composure
+of affairs. Phil Compton and all belonging to
+him disappeared from the scene, and Elinor returned
+to all the habits of her old life&mdash;all the habits, with one
+extraordinary and incalculable addition which changed
+all these habits. The baby&mdash;so inconsiderable a little
+creature, not able to show a feeling, or express a
+thought, or make even a tremulous step from one pair
+of loving arms to another&mdash;an altogether helpless little
+bundle, but nevertheless one who had already altered
+the existence of the cottage and its inhabitants, and
+made life a totally different thing for them. Can I tell
+how this was done? No doubt for the wisest objects,
+to guard the sacred seed of the race as mere duty could
+never guard it, rendering it the one thing most precious
+in the world to those to whom it is confided&mdash;at least
+to most of them. When that love fails, then is the deepest
+abyss of misery reached. I do not say that Elinor
+was happy in this dreadful breaking up of her life, or
+that her heart did not go back, with those relentings
+which are the worst part of every disruption, to the man
+who had broken her heart and unsettled her nature.
+The remembrance of him in his better moments would
+flash upon her, and bear every resentment away.
+Dreadful thoughts of how she might herself have done
+otherwise, have rendered their mutual life better, would
+come over her; and next moment recollections still
+more terrible of what he had done and said, the scorn
+she had borne, the insults, the neglect, and worse of all
+the complicity he had forced upon her, by which he
+had made her guilty when she knew and feared nothing&mdash;when
+these thoughts overcame her, as they did
+twenty times in a day, for it is the worst of such
+troubles that they will not be settled by one struggle,
+but come back and back, beginning over again at the
+same point, after we have wrestled through them, and
+have thought that we had come to a close&mdash;when these
+thoughts, I say, overcame her, she would rush to the
+room in which the baby held his throne, and press him
+to the heart which was beating so hotly, till it grew
+calm. And in the midst of all to sit down by the fire
+with the little atom of humanity in her lap, and see it
+spread and stretch its rosy limbs, would suffice to bring
+again to her face that beatitude which had filled John
+Tatham with wonder unspeakable. She took the baby
+and laid him on her heart to take the pain away: and
+so after a minute or two there was no more question
+of pain, but of happiness, and delicious play, and the
+raptures of motherhood. How strange were these
+things! She could not understand it herself, and
+fortunately did not try, but accepted that solace provided
+by God. As for Mrs. Dennistoun, she made no
+longer any pretences to herself, but allowed herself, as
+John had advised, to take her blessedness frankly without
+hypocrisy. When Elinor's dear face was veiled by
+misery her mother was sympathetically miserable, but
+at all other moments her heart sang for joy. She had
+her child again, and she had her child's child, an endless
+occupation, amusement, and delight. All this
+might come to an end&mdash;who can tell when?&mdash;but for
+the moment her house was no more lonely, the requirements
+of her being were satisfied. She had
+her Elinor&mdash;what more was to be said? And yet there
+was more to be said, for in addition there was the
+boy.</p>
+
+<p>This was very well so far as the interior of the house
+and of their living was concerned, but very soon other
+difficulties arose. It had been Mrs. Dennistoun's desire,
+when she returned home, to communicate some modified
+version of what had happened to the neighbours
+around. She had thought it would not only be wise,
+but easier for themselves, that their position should be
+understood in the little parish society which, if it did
+not know authoritatively, would certainly inquire and
+investigate and divine, with the result of perhaps believing
+more than the truth, perhaps setting up an entirely
+fictitious explanation which it would be impossible
+to set aside, and very hard to bear. It is the worst
+of knowing a number of people intimately, and being
+known by them from the time your children were in
+their cradles, that every domestic incident requires
+some sort of explanation to this close little circle of
+spectators. But Elinor, who had not the experience of
+her mother in such matters, nor the knowledge of life,
+made a strenuous opposition to this. She would not
+have anything said. It was better, she thought, to leave
+it to their imagination, if they chose to interfere with
+their neighbours' concerns and imagine anything. "But
+why should they occupy themselves about us? And
+they have no imaginations," she said, with a contempt
+of her neighbours which is natural to young people,
+though very unjustifiable. "But, my darling," Mrs.
+Dennistoun would say, "the position is so strange.
+There are not many young women who&mdash;And there
+must be some way of accounting for it. Let us just
+tell them<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"For heaven's sake, mamma, tell them nothing! I
+have come to pay you a long visit after my neglect of
+you for these two years, which, of course, they know
+well enough. What more do they want to know? It is
+a very good reason: and while baby is so young of
+course it is far better for him to be in a settled home,
+where he can be properly attended to, than moving
+about. Isn't that enough?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Elinor; at least you will let me say as much
+as that<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they can surely make it out for themselves.
+What is the use of always talking a matter over, to lead
+to a little more, and a little more, till the appetite for
+gossip is satisfied? Surely, in our circumstances, least
+said is soonest mended," Elinor said, with that air of
+superior understanding which almost always resides in
+persons of the younger generation. Mrs. Dennistoun
+said no more to her, but she did take advantage of the
+explanation thus suggested. She informed the anxious
+circle at the Rectory that Elinor had come to her on a
+long visit, "partly for me, and partly for the baby," she
+said, with one of those smiles which are either the
+height of duplicity or the most pathetic evidence of
+self-control, according as you choose to regard them.
+"She thinks she has neglected her mother, though I am
+sure I have never blamed her; and she thinks&mdash;of which
+there can be no doubt&mdash;that to carry an infant of that
+age moving about from place to place is the worst thing
+in the world; and that I am very thankful she should
+think so, I need not say."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very nice for you, dear Mrs. Dennistoun,"
+Mrs. Hudson said.</p>
+
+<p>"And a good thing for Elinor," said Alice, "for she
+is looking very poorly. I have always heard that
+fashionable life took a great deal out of you if you are
+not quite brought up to it. I am sure I couldn't stand
+it," the young lady said with fervour, who had never
+had that painful delight in her power.</p>
+
+<p>"That is all very well," said the Rector, rubbing his
+hands, "but what does Mr. Compton say to it? I don't
+want to say a word against your arrangements, my dear
+lady, but you know there must be some one on the husband's
+side. Now, I am on the husband's side, and I
+am sorry for the poor young man. I hope he is going
+to join his wife. I hope, excuse me for saying it, that
+Elinor&mdash;though we are all so delighted to see her&mdash;will
+not forsake him, for too long."</p>
+
+<p>And then Mrs. Dennistoun felt herself compelled to
+embroider a little upon her theme.</p>
+
+<p>"He has to be a great deal abroad during this year,"
+she said; "he has a great many things to do. Elinor
+does not know when he will be&mdash;home. That is one
+reason<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, to be sure," the Rector said, rubbing
+his hands still more, and coming to her aid just as she
+was breaking down. "Something diplomatic, of course.
+Well, we must not inquire into the secrets of the State.
+But what an ease to his mind, my dear lady, to think
+that his wife and child will be safe with you while he's
+away!"</p>
+
+<p>Mary Dale not being present could not of course say
+anything. She was a person who was always dreadfully
+well informed. It was a comfort unspeakable that at
+this moment she was away!</p>
+
+<p>This explanation made the spring pass quietly
+enough, but not without many questions that brought
+the blood to Elinor's face. When she was asked by some
+one, for the first time, "When do you expect Mr.
+Compton, Elinor?" the sudden wild flush of colour
+which flooded her countenance startled the questioner
+as much as the question did herself. "Oh, I beg your
+pardon!" said the injudicious but perfectly innocent
+seeker for information. I fear that Elinor fell upon her
+mother after this, and demanded to know what she had
+said. But as Mrs. Dennistoun was innocent of anything
+but having said that Philip was abroad, there was no
+satisfaction to be got out of that. Some time after, one
+of the Miss Hills congratulated Elinor, having seen in
+the papers that Mr. Compton was returning to town for
+the season. "I suppose, dear Elinor, we shan't have
+you with us much longer," this lady said. And then it
+became known at the Cottage that Mary Dale was returning
+to the Rectory. This was the last aggravation,
+and Elinor, who had now recovered her strength and
+energy, and temper along with it, received the news
+with an outburst of impatience which frightened her
+mother. "You may as well go through the parish and
+ring the bell, and tell everybody everything," she said.
+"Mary Dale will have heard all, and a great deal more
+than all; she will come with her budget, and pour it
+out far and wide; she will report scenes that never took
+place: and quarrels, and all that&mdash;that woman insinuated
+to John&mdash;and she will be surrounded with people
+who will shake their heads, and sink their voices when
+we come in and say, 'Poor Elinor!' I cannot bear it, I
+cannot bear it," she cried.</p>
+
+<p>"My darling! that was bound to come sooner or
+later. We must set our faces like a rock, and look as if
+we were unaware of anything<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot look as if I were unaware. I cannot meet
+all their cruel eyes. I can see, now, the smile on Mary
+Dale's face, that will say, 'I told you so.' I shall hear
+her say it even when I am in my room, with the combe
+between. I know exactly how she will say it&mdash;'If Elinor
+had listened to me<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>'"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor," said poor Mrs. Dennistoun, "I cannot contradict
+you, dear. It will be so&mdash;but none of them are
+cruel, not even Mary Dale. They will make their remarks&mdash;who
+could help it? we should ourselves if it
+were some one else's case: but they will not be cruel&mdash;don't
+think so&mdash;they will be full of sympathy<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Which is a great deal worse," Elinor said, in her
+unreason; "the one might be borne, but the other I
+will not endure. Sympathy, yes! They will all be sorry
+for me&mdash;they will say they knew how it would be. Oh,
+I know I have not profited as I ought by what has
+happened to me. I am unsubdued. I am as impatient and
+as proud as ever. It is quite true, but it cannot be
+mended. It is more than I can bear."</p>
+
+<p>"My darling," said her mother, again. "We all say
+that in our trouble, and yet we know that we have got
+to bear it all the same. It is intolerable&mdash;one says that
+a thousand times&mdash;and yet it has to be put up with.
+All the time that we have been flattering ourselves that
+nobody took any notice it has been a delusion, Elinor.
+How could it be otherwise? We must set our
+faces<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Not I, mamma!" she said. "Not I! I must go
+away<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Go away? Elinor!"</p>
+
+<p>"Among strangers; where nobody has heard of me
+before&mdash;where nobody can make any remark. To live
+like this, among a crowd of people who think they ought
+to know everything that one is doing&mdash;who are nothing
+to you, and yet whom you stand in awe of and must explain
+everything to!&mdash;it is this that is intolerable. I
+cannot, cannot bear it. Mother, I will take my baby,
+and I will go away<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, with all the colour
+fading out of her face. What panic had taken her I
+cannot tell. She grew pale to her lips, and the words
+were almost inaudible which she breathed forth. I
+think she thought for a moment that Elinor's heart had
+turned, that she was going back to her husband to find
+refuge with him from the strife of tongues which she
+could not encounter alone. All the blood went back
+upon the mother's heart&mdash;yet she set herself to suppress
+all emotion, and if this should be so, not to oppose it&mdash;for
+was it not the thing of all others to be desired&mdash;the
+thing which everybody would approve, the reuniting of
+those whom God had put together? Though it might
+be death to her, not a word of opposition would she
+say.</p>
+
+<p>"Where? how can I tell where&mdash;anywhere, anywhere
+out of the world," cried Elinor, in the boiling tide of
+her impatience and wretchedness, "where nobody ever
+heard of us before, where there will be no one to ask,
+no one to require a reason, where we should be free to
+move when we please and do as we please. Let me go,
+mother. <ins title="original has I">It</ins> seemed too dear, too peaceful to come home,
+but now home itself has become intolerable. I will
+take my baby and I will go&mdash;to the farthest point the
+railway can take me to&mdash;with no servant to betray me,
+not even an address. Mother, let me go away and be
+lost; let me be as if I had never been."</p>
+
+<p>"And me&mdash;am I to remain to bear the brunt behind?"</p>
+
+<p>"And you&mdash;mamma! Oh, I am the most unworthy
+creature. I don't deserve to have you, I that am always
+giving you pain. Why should I unroot you from your
+place where you have lived so long&mdash;from your flowers,
+and your landscape, and your pretty rooms that were
+always a comfort to think of in that horrible time when
+I was away? I always liked to think of you here,
+happy and quiet, in the place you had chosen."</p>
+
+<p>"Flowers and landscapes are pretty things," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun, whose colour had begun to come
+again a little, "but they don't make up for one's children.
+We must not do anything rashly, Elinor; but
+if what you mean is really that you will go away to a
+strange place among strangers<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"What else could I mean?" Elinor said, and then
+she in her turn grew pale. "If you thought I could
+mean that I would go&mdash;back<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my darling, my darling! God knows if we
+are right or wrong&mdash;I not to advise you so, or you not
+to take my advice. Elinor, it is my duty, and I will
+say it though it were to break my heart. There only
+could you avoid this strife of tongues. John spoke the
+truth. He said, as the boy grew up we should have&mdash;many
+troubles. I have known women endure everything
+that their children might grow up in a natural
+situation, in their proper sphere. Think of this&mdash;I am
+saying it against my own interest, against my own
+heart. But think of it, Elinor. Whatever you might
+have to bear, you would be in your natural place."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor received this agitated address standing up,
+holding her head high, her nostrils expanded, her lips
+apart. "Have you quite done, mother?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun made an appealing movement with
+her hands, and sank, without any power to add a word,
+into a chair.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you said it against your heart. Now you
+must feel that your conscience is clear. Mother, if I
+had to wander the world from place to place, without
+even a spot of ground on which to rest my foot, I would
+never, never do what you say. What! take my child
+to grow up in that tainted air; give him up to be
+taught such things as they teach! Never, never, never!
+His natural place, did you say? I would rather the
+slums of London were his natural place. He would
+have some chance there! If I could bear it for myself,
+yet I could not for him&mdash;for him most of all. I
+will take him up in my arms. Thank God, I am strong
+now and can carry him&mdash;and go away&mdash;among
+strangers, I don't care where&mdash;where there can be no
+questions and no remarks."</p>
+
+<p>"But not without me, Elinor!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother, mother! What a child I am to you,
+to rend your heart as I have done, and now to tear you
+out of your house and home!"</p>
+
+<p>"My home is where my children are," Mrs. Dennistoun
+said: and then she made a little pause. "But
+we must think it over, Elinor. Such a step as this
+must not be taken rashly. We will ask John to come
+down and advise us. My dear<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"No, mother, not John or any one. I will go first if
+you like and find a place, and you will join me after.
+That woman" (it was poor Mary Dale, who was indeed
+full of information, but meant no harm) "is coming
+directly. I will not wait here to see her, or their faces
+after she has told them all the lies she will have heard.
+I am not going to take advice from any one. Let me
+alone, mother. I must, I must go away."</p>
+
+<p>"But not by yourself, Elinor," Mrs. Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+<p>This was how it happened that John Tatham, who
+had meant to go down to the Cottage the very next
+Saturday to see how things were going, was driven
+into a kind of stupefaction one morning in May by a
+letter which reached him from the North, a letter conveying
+news so unexpected and sudden, so unlike anything
+that had seemed possible, that he laid it down,
+when it was half read, with a gasp of astonishment,
+unable to believe his eyes.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It was Mrs. Dennistoun whose letter brought John
+Tatham such dismay. It was dated Lakeside, Waterdale,
+Penrith&mdash;an address with which he had no associations
+whatever, and which he gazed at blankly for a
+moment before he attempted to read the letter, not
+knowing how to connect it with the well-known writing
+which was as familiar as the common day.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"You will wonder to see this address," she wrote.
+"You will wonder still more, dear John, when I tell
+you we have come here for good. I have left the
+Cottage in an agent's hands with the hope of letting it.
+Windyhill is such a healthy place that I hope somebody
+will soon be found to take it. You know Elinor would
+not let me make any explanation. And the constant
+questions and allusions to <i>his</i> movements which people
+had seen in the papers, and so forth, had got on her
+nerves, poor child. You can understand how easily
+this might come about. At last she got that she could
+not bear it longer. Mary Dale, who always lives half
+the year with her sister at the Rectory, was coming
+back. You know it was she who brought the first tale
+about him, and she knows, I think, all the gossip that
+ever was got up about any one. Poor Elinor&mdash;though
+I don't believe Mary had any bad meaning; and it
+would, alas! have been for all our good had we listened
+to what she said&mdash;Elinor cannot bear her; and when
+she heard she was coming, she declared she would take
+her baby and go away. I tried to bring her to reason,
+but I could not. Naturally it was she who convinced
+me&mdash;you know the process, John. Indeed, in many
+things I can see it is the best thing we could do. I am
+not supremely attached to Windyhill. The Cottage
+had got to be very homelike after living in it so long,
+but home is where those are whom one loves. And to
+live among one set of people for so many years, if it has
+great advantages, has at the same time very great disadvantages
+too. You can't keep anything to yourself.
+You must explain every step you take, and everything
+that happens to you. This is a lovely country, a little
+cold as yet, and a little damp perhaps, being so near
+the lake&mdash;but the mountains are beautiful, and the air
+delicious. Elinor is out all the day long, and baby
+grows like a flower. You must come and see us as
+soon as ever you can. That is one dreadful drawback,
+that we shall not have you running up and down from
+Saturday to Monday: and I am afraid you will be vexed
+with us that we did not take your advice first&mdash;you,
+who have always been our adviser. But Elinor would
+not hear a word of any advice. I think she was afraid
+you would disapprove: and it would have been worse
+to fly in your face if you had disapproved than to come
+away without consulting you: and you know how impetuous
+she is. At all events the die is cast. Write
+kindly to her; don't say anything to vex her. You can
+let yourself out, if you are very angry, upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"One thing more. She desires that if you write you
+should address her as <i>Mrs. Compton</i> only, no Honourable.
+That might attract attention, and what we desire
+is to escape notice altogether, which I am sure is a
+thing you will thoroughly understand, now that we
+have transplanted ourselves so completely. Dear John,
+form the most favourable idea you can of this sudden
+step, and come and see us as soon as it is possible.</p>
+
+<p class="signature"><span class="ind4r">"Yours affectly.,</span><br />
+"M. D."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>To say that John was thunderstruck by this letter is
+to describe his sensations mildly, for he was for a time
+bitterly angry, wounded, disappointed, disturbed to the
+bottom of his soul; but perhaps if truth were told
+it could scarcely be said that he disapproved. He
+thought it over, which he naturally did all that day, to
+the great detriment of his work, first with a sort of rage
+against Elinor and her impetuosity, which presently
+shaded down into understanding of her feelings, and
+ended in a sense that he might have known it from the
+first, and that really no other conclusion was possible.
+He came gradually to acquiesce in the step the ladies
+had taken. To have to explain everything to the Hudsons,
+and Hills, and Mary Dales, to open up your most
+sacred heart in order that they might be able to form a
+theory sufficient for their outside purposes of your
+motives and methods, or, what was perhaps worse still&mdash;to
+know that they were on the watch, guessing what
+you did not tell them, putting things together, explaining
+this and that in their own way&mdash;would have been
+intolerable. "That is the good of having attached
+friends," John exclaimed to himself, very unjustly: for
+it is human nature that is to blame, if there is any
+blame attaching to an exercise of ingenuity so inevitable.
+As a matter of fact, when Miss Dale brought the true
+or something like the true account to Windyhill, the
+warmth of the sympathy for Elinor, the wrath of the
+whole community with her unworthy husband, was
+almost impassioned. Had she been there it would not
+have been possible for those good people altogether to
+conceal from her how sorry and how indignant they
+were; even perhaps there might have been some who
+could not have kept out of their eyes, who must have
+betrayed in some word or shake of the head the "I told
+you so" which is so dear to human nature. But how
+was it possible that they could remain uninterested,
+unaffected by the trouble in the midst of them, or even
+appear to be so? John, like Elinor, threw a fiery dart
+of impatience at the country neighbours, not allowing
+that everywhere in the greatest town, in the most
+cosmopolitan community, this would have been the same.</p>
+
+<p>"The chattering gossips!" he said, as if a club would
+not have been a great deal worse, as if indeed his own
+club, vaguely conscious of a connection by marriage between
+him and the dis-Honourable Phil, had not discussed
+it all, behind his back, long ago.</p>
+
+<p>But on the whole John was forced not to disapprove.
+To say that he went the length of approving would be
+too much, and to deny that he launched forth a tremendous
+letter upon Mrs. Dennistoun, who always
+bore the brunt, is more than my conscience would
+permit. He did do this, throwing out, as the French
+say, fire and flame, but a few days after followed it up
+by a much milder letter (need I say this was addressed
+to Elinor?), allowing that he understood their motives,
+and that perhaps, from their own point of view, they
+were not so very much to blame. "You will find it
+very damp, very cold, very different from Windyhill,"
+he said, with a sort of savage satisfaction. But as it
+happened to be unusually good weather among the
+lakes when his letter came, this dart did not do much
+harm. And that John felt the revolution in his habits
+consequent upon this move very much, it would be
+futile to deny. To have nowhere to go to freely when
+he pleased from Saturday to Monday (he had at least
+a score of places, but none like the Cottage) made a
+wonderful difference in his life. But perhaps when he
+came to think of it soberly, as he did so often in the
+brilliant Saturday afternoons of early summer, when the
+sunshine on the trees made his heart a little sick with
+the idea that he had, as he said to himself, nowhere to
+go to, he was not sure that the difference was not on the
+whole to his advantage. A man perhaps should not
+have it in his power to enjoy, in the most fraternal intimacy,
+the society of another man's wife whenever he
+pleased, even if to her he was, as he knew, of as little
+importance (notwithstanding that she was, as she would
+have said, so fond of John) as the postman, say, or any
+other secondary (yet sufficiently interesting) figure in
+the country neighbourhood. John knew in his heart
+of hearts that this was not a good thing nor a wholesome
+thing for him. He was not a man, as has been
+said, who would ever have hurried events, or insisted
+upon appropriating a woman, even when he loved her,
+and securing her as his very own. He would always
+have been able to put that off, to subordinate it to the
+necessity of getting on in the world, and securing his
+position: and he was by no means sure when he questioned
+his own heart (which was a thing he did seldom,
+knowing, like a wise man, that that shifty subject often
+made queer revelations, and was not at all an easy object
+to cross-examine), that the intercourse which he had
+again dropped into with Elinor was not on the whole as
+much as he required. There was no doubt that it kept
+him alive from one period to another; kept his heart
+moderately light and his mind wonderfully contented&mdash;as
+nothing else had ever done. He looked forward to his
+fortnightly or monthly visit to the Cottage (sometimes
+one, and sometimes the other; he never indulged himself
+so far as to go every week), and it gave him happiness
+enough to tide over all the dull moments between:
+and if anything came in his way and detained him even
+from his usual to a later train, he was ridiculously,
+absurdly angry. What right had he to feel so in respect
+to another man's wife? What right had he to
+watch the child&mdash;the child whom he disliked so much to
+begin with&mdash;developing its baby faculties with an interest
+he was half ashamed of, but which went on increasing?
+Another man's wife and another man's child. He saw
+now that it was not a wholesome thing for him, and he
+could never have given it up had they remained. It had
+become too much a part of his living; should he not
+be glad therefore that they had taken it into their own
+hands, and gone away? When it suddenly occurred
+to John, however, that this perhaps had some share in
+the ladies' hasty decision, that Mrs. Dennistoun perhaps
+(all that was objectionable was attributed to this poor
+lady) had been so abominably clear-sighted, so odiously
+presuming as to have suspected this, his sudden blaze
+of anger was <i>foudroyant</i>. Perhaps she had settled
+upon it for his sake, to take temptation out of his way.
+John could scarcely contain himself when this view of
+the case flashed upon him, although he was quite aware
+for himself that though it was a bitter wrench, yet it
+was perhaps good for him that Elinor should go away.</p>
+
+<p>It was probably this wave of fierce and, as we are
+aware, quite unreasonable anger rushing over him that
+produced the change which everybody saw in John's life
+about this time. It was about the beginning of the
+season when people's enjoyments begin to multiply,
+and for the first time in his life John plunged into
+society like a very novice. He went everywhere. By
+this time he had made a great start in life, had been
+brought into note in one or two important cases, and
+was, as everybody knew, a young man very well thought
+of, and likely to do great things at the bar; so that he
+was free of many houses, and had so many invitations
+for his Sundays that he could well afford to be indifferent
+to the loss of such a humble house as the Cottage
+at Windyhill. Perhaps he wanted to persuade himself
+that this was the case, and that there really was nothing
+to regret. And it is certain that he did visit a great
+deal during that season at one house where there were
+two or three agreeable daughters; the house, indeed, of
+Sir John Gaythorne, who was Solicitor-General at that
+time, and a man who had always looked upon John
+Tatham with a favourable eye. The Gaythornes had a
+house near Dorking, where they often went from Saturday
+to Monday with a few choice <i>convives</i>, and "picknicked,"
+as they themselves said, but it was a picknicking
+of a highly comfortable sort. John went down with
+them the very Saturday after he received that letter&mdash;the
+Saturday on which he had intended to go to Windyhill.
+And the party was very gay. To compare it for
+a moment with the humdrum family at the Cottage
+would have been absurd. The Gaythornes prided themselves
+on always having pleasant people with them, and
+they had several remarkably pleasant people that day,
+among whom John himself was welcomed by most persons;
+and the family themselves were lively and agreeable
+to a high degree. A distinguished father, a very
+nice mother, and three charming girls, up to everything
+and who knew everybody; who had read or skimmed
+all the new books of any importance, and had seen all
+the new pictures; who could talk of serious things as
+well as they could talk nonsense, and who were good
+girls to boot, looking after the poor, and visiting at
+hospitals, in the intervals of their gaieties, as was then
+the highest fashion in town. I do not for a moment
+mean to imply that the Miss Gaythornes did their good
+work because it was the fashion: but the fact that it is
+the fashion has liberated many girls, and allowed them
+to carry out their natural wishes in that way, who
+otherwise would have been restrained and hampered by
+parents and friends, who would have upbraided them
+with making themselves remarkable, if in a former generation
+they had attempted to go to Whitechapel or St.
+Thomas's with any active intentions. And Elinor had
+never done anything of this kind, any more than she
+had pursued music almost as a profession, which was
+what Helena Gaythorne had done; or learned to draw,
+like Maud (who once had a little thing in the Royal
+Academy); or studied the Classics, like Gertrude.
+John thought of her little tunes as he listened to Miss
+Gaythorne's performance, and almost laughed out at the
+comparison. He was very fond of music, and Miss Gaythorne's
+playing was something which the most cultivated
+audience might have been glad to listen to. He
+was ashamed to confess to himself that he liked the
+"tunes" best. No, he would not confess it even to
+himself; but when he stood behind the performer listening,
+it occurred to him that he was capable of walking
+all the miles of hill and hollow which divided the
+one place from the other, only for the inane satisfaction
+of seeing that baby spread on Elinor's lap, or hearing
+her play to him one of her "tunes."</p>
+
+<p>He went with the Gaythornes to their country-place
+twice in the month of June, and dined at the house several
+times, and was invited on other occasions, becoming,
+in short, one of the <i>habitu&eacute;s</i> when there was
+anything going on in the house&mdash;till people began to ask,
+which was it? It was thought generally that Helena
+was the attraction, for John was known to be a musical
+man, always to be found where specially good music
+was going. Some friends of the family had even gone
+so far as to say among themselves what a good thing it
+was that dear Helena's lot was likely to be cast with
+one who would appreciate her gift. "It generally happens
+in these cases that a girl marries somebody who
+does not know one note from another," they said to
+each other. When, all at once, John flagged in his visits;
+went no more to Dorking; and finally ceased to
+be more assiduous or more remarked than the other
+young men who were on terms of partial intimacy at the
+Gaythorne house. He had, indeed, tried very hard to
+make himself fall in love with one of Sir John's girls.
+It would have been an excellent connection, and the
+man might think himself fortunate who secured any
+one of the three for his wife. Proceeding from his certainty
+on these points, and also a general liking for
+their company, John had gone into it with a settled
+purpose, determined to fall in love if he could: but he
+found that the thing was not to be done. It was a pity;
+but it could not be helped. He was in a condition now
+when it would no longer be rash to marry, and he knew
+now that there was the makings of a domestic man in
+him. He never could have believed that he would take
+an interest in the sprawling of the baby upon its
+mother's knee, and he allowed to himself that it might
+be sweet to have that scene taking place in a house of
+his own. Ah! but the baby would have to be Elinor's.
+It must be Elinor who should sit on that low chair with
+the firelight on her face. And that was impossible.
+Helena Gaythorne was an exceedingly nice girl, and he
+wished her every success in life (which she attained
+some time after by marrying Lord Ballinasloe, the eldest
+son of the Earl of Athenree, a marriage which everybody
+approved), but he could not persuade himself to
+be in love with her, though with the best will in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>During this time he did not correspond much with
+his relations in the country. He had, indeed, some letters
+to answer from his father, in which the interrogatories
+were very difficult: "Where has Mary Dennistoun
+gone? What's become of Elinor and her baby?
+Has that fashionable fellow of a husband deserted her?
+What's the meaning of the move altogether?" And,
+"Mind you keep yourself out of it," his father wrote.
+John had great trouble in wording his replies so as to
+convey as little information as possible. "I believe
+Aunt Mary has got a house somewhere in the North,
+probably to suit Elinor, who would be able to be more
+with her if she were in that neighbourhood." (It must
+be confessed that he thought this really clever as a way
+of getting over the question.) "As for Compton, I know
+very little about him. He was never a man much in
+my way." Mr. Tatham's household saw nothing remarkable
+in these replies; upon which, however, they built
+an explanation, such as it was, of the other circumstances.
+They concluded that it must be in order to be
+near Elinor that Mrs. Dennistoun had gone to the
+North, and that it was a very good thing that Elinor's
+husband was not a man who was in John's way. "A
+scamp, if I ever saw one!" Mr. Tatham said. "But
+what's that Jack says about Gaythorne? Mary, I remember
+Gaythorne years ago; a capital friend for a
+young man. I'm glad your brother's making such nice
+friends for himself; far better than mooning about
+that wretched little cottage with Mary Dennistoun and
+her girl."</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It happened thus that it was not till the second
+autumn after the settlement of the ladies in Waterdale,
+when all the questions had died out, and there was no
+more talk of them, except on occasions when a sudden
+recollection cropped up among their friends at Windyhill,
+that John Tatham paid them his first visit. He
+had been very conscientious in his proposed bestowal
+of himself. Perhaps it is scarcely quite complimentary
+to a woman when she is made choice of by a man who
+is consciously to himself "on the outlook," thinking
+that he ought to marry, and investigating all the suitable
+persons about with an eye to finding one who will
+answer his requirements. This sensible way of approaching
+the subject of matrimony does not somehow
+commend itself to our insular notions. It is the right
+way in every country except our own, but it has a cold-blooded
+look to the Anglo-Saxon; and a girl is not
+flattered (though perhaps she ought to be) by being the
+subject of this sensible choice. "As if I were a housekeeper
+or a cook!" she is apt to say, and is far better
+pleased to be fallen in love with in the most rash and
+irresponsible way than to be thus selected from the
+crowd: though that, everybody must allow, after due
+comparison and inspection, is by far the greater compliment.
+John having arrived at the conclusion that it
+would be better for him in many ways to marry, and
+specially in the way of Elinor, fortifying him for ever
+from all possible complications, and making it possible
+for him to regard her evermore with the placid feelings
+of a brother, which was, he expected, to be the consequence&mdash;worked
+at the matter really with great pertinacity
+and consistency. He kept his eyes open upon
+the whole generation of girls whom he met with in society.
+When he went abroad during the long vacation
+(instead of going to Lakeside, as he was invited to do),
+he directed his steps rather to the fashionable resorts,
+where families disport themselves at the foot of the
+mountains, than to the Alpine heights where he had
+generally found a more robust amusement. And
+wherever he went he bent his attention on the fairer
+portion of the creation, the girls who fill all the hotels
+with the flutter of their fresh toilettes and the babble
+of their pleasant voices. It was very mean and poor of
+him, seeing he was a mountaineer himself&mdash;but still it
+must be recorded that the only young ladies he
+systematically neglected were those in very short petticoats,
+with very sunburnt faces and nails in their boots, who
+ought to have been most congenial to him as sharing
+his own tastes. It is said, I don't know with what truth,
+that at Ouch, or Interlachen, or some other of the most
+mundane and banal resorts of the tourists, he came
+upon one girl who he thought might make him a suitable
+wife: and that, though with much moderation and
+prudence, he more or less followed her party for some
+time, meeting them over and over again, with expressions
+of astonishment, round the most well-known corners,
+and persisting for a considerable time in this
+quest. But whether he ever came the length of proposing
+at all, or whether the young lady was engaged beforehand,
+or if she thought the prospect of making a
+suitable wife not good enough, I cannot say, and I
+doubt whether any one knows&mdash;except, of course, the
+parties immediately concerned. It is very clear, at all
+events, that it came to nothing. John did not altogether
+give it up, I fancy, for he went a great deal into
+society still, especially in that <i>avant saison</i>, which people
+who live in London declare to be the most enjoyable,
+and when it is supposed you can enjoy the best of
+company at your ease without the hurry and rush of
+the summer crowd. He would have been very glad,
+thankful, indeed, if he could have fallen in love. How
+absurd to think that any silly boy can do it, to whom it
+is probably nothing but a disadvantage and the silliest
+of pastimes, and that he, a reasonable man with a good
+income, and arrived at a time of life when it is becoming
+and rational to marry, could not do it, let him try
+as he would! There was something ludicrous in it,
+when you came to think, as well as something very depressing.
+Mothers who wanted a good position for
+their daughters divined him, and many of them were
+exceedingly civil to John, this man in search of a wife;
+and many of the young ladies themselves divined him,
+and with the half indignation, half mockery, appropriate
+to the situation, were some of them not unaverse to
+profit by it, and accordingly turned to him their worst
+side in the self-consciousness produced by that knowledge.
+And thus the second year turned round towards
+the wane, and John was farther from success than ever.</p>
+
+<p>He said to himself then that it was clear he was not
+a marrying man. He liked the society of ladies well
+enough, but not in that way. He was not made for falling
+in love. He might very well, he was aware, have dispensed
+with the tradition, and found an excellent wife,
+who would not at all have insisted upon it from her
+side. But he had his prejudices, and could not do
+this. Love he insisted upon, and love would not come.
+Accordingly, when the second season was over he gave
+up both the quest and the idea, and resolved to think
+of marrying no more, which was a sensible relief to him.
+For indeed he was exceedingly comfortable as he was;
+his chambers were excellent, and he did not think that
+any street or square in Belgravia would have reconciled
+him to giving up the Temple. He had excellent servants,
+a man and his wife, who took the greatest care
+of him. He had settled into a life which was arranged
+as he liked, with much freedom, and yet an agreeable
+routine which John was too wise to despise. He relinquished
+the idea of marrying then and there. To be
+sure there is never any prophesying what may happen.
+A little laughing gipsy of a girl may banish such a resolution
+out of a man's mind in the twinkling of an eye,
+at any moment. But short of such accidents as that,
+and he smiled at the idea of anything of the kind, he
+quite made up his mind on this point with a great sensation
+of relief.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious how determined the mind of the English
+public at least is on this subject&mdash;that the man or woman
+who does not marry (especially the woman, by-the-bye)
+has an unhappy life, and that a story which does
+not end in a wedding is no story at all, or at least ends
+badly, as people say. It happened to myself on one
+occasion to put together in a book the story of some
+friends of mine, in which this was the case. They
+were young, they were hopeful, they had all life before
+them, but they did not marry. And when the last
+chapter came to the consciousness of the publisher he
+struck, with the courage of a true Briton, not ashamed
+of his principles, and refused to pay. He said it was
+no story at all&mdash;so beautiful is marriage in the eyes of
+our countrymen. I hope, however, that nobody will
+think any harm of John Tatham because he concluded,
+after considerable and patient trial, that he was not a
+marrying man. There is no harm in that. A great
+number of those Catholic priests whom it was the habit
+in my youth to commiserate deeply, as if they were
+vowed to the worst martyrdom, live very happy lives in
+their celibacy and prefer it, as John Tatham did. It
+will be apparent to the reader that he really preferred
+it to Elinor, while Elinor was in his power. And
+though afterwards it gave a comfort and grace to his life
+to think that it was his faithful but subdued love for
+Elinor which made him a bachelor all his days, I am
+by no means certain that this was true. Perhaps he
+never would have made up his mind had she remained
+always within his reach. Certain it is that he was relieved
+when he found that to give up the idea of marriage
+was the best thing for him. He adopted the
+conclusion with pleasure. His next brother had already
+married, though he was younger than John;
+but then he was a clergyman, which is a profession
+naturally tending to that sort of thing. There was,
+however, no kind of necessity laid upon him to provide
+for the continuance of the race. And he was a happy
+man.</p>
+
+<p>By what sequence of ideas it was that he considered
+himself justified, having come to this conclusion, in immediately
+paying his long-promised visit to Lakeside,
+is a question which I need not enter into, and indeed do
+not feel entirely able to cope with. It suited him, perhaps,
+as he had been so long a time in Switzerland last
+year: and he had an invitation to the far north for the
+grouse, which he thought it would be pleasant to
+accept. Going to Scotland or coming from it, Waterdale
+of course lies full in the way. He took it last on
+his way home, which was more convenient, and arrived
+there in the latter part of September, when the hills
+were golden with the yellow bracken. The Cumberland
+hills are a little cold, in my opinion, without the
+heather, which clothes with such a flush of life and
+brightness our hills in the north. The greenness is
+chilly in the frequent rain; one feels how sodden and
+slippery it is&mdash;a moisture which does not belong to the
+heather: but when the brackens have all turned, and
+the slopes reflect themselves in the tranquil water like
+hills of gold, then the landscape reaches its perfect
+point. Lakeside was a white house standing out on a
+small projection at the head of the lake, commanding
+the group of hills above and part of the winding body
+of water below, in which all these golden reflections
+lay. A little steamer passed across the reflected glory,
+and came to a stop not a hundred yards from the gate
+of the house. It was a scene as unlike as could be conceived
+to the Cottage at Windyhill: the trees were all
+glorious in colour; yellow birches like trees made of
+light, oaks all red and fiery, chestnuts and elms and
+beeches in a hundred hues. The house was white, with
+a sort of broad verandah round, supported on pillars,
+furnishing a sheltered walk below and a broad balcony
+above, which gave it a character of more importance
+than perhaps its real size warranted. When John approached
+there ran out to meet him into the wide
+gravel drive before the door a little figure upon two
+sturdy legs, calling out, in inarticulate shoutings, something
+that sounded a little like his own name. It was,
+"'tle John! 'tle John!" made into a sort of song by
+the baby, nearly two years old, and "very forward," as
+everybody assured the stranger, for his age. Uncle
+John! his place was thus determined at once by
+that little potentate and master of the house. Behind
+the child came Elinor, no longer pale and languid as he
+had seen her last, but matured into vigorous beauty,
+bright-eyed, a little sober, as might have become maturer
+years than hers. Perhaps there was something
+in the style of her dress that favoured the idea, not of
+age indeed, but of matronly years, and beyond those
+which Elinor counted. She was dressed in black, of
+the simplest description, not of distinctive character
+like a widow's, yet something like what an ideal widow
+beyond fashion or conventionalities of woe might wear.
+It seemed to give John the key-note of the character
+she had assumed in this new sphere.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun, who had not changed in the least,
+stood in the open door. They gave him a welcome
+such as John had not had, he said to himself, since he
+had seen them before. They were unfeignedly glad to
+see him, not wounded (which, to think of afterwards,
+wounded him a little) that he had not come sooner, but
+delighted that he was here now. Even when he went
+home it was not usual to John to be met at the door in
+this way by all his belongings. His sister might come
+running down the stairs when she heard the dog-cart
+draw up, but that was all. And Mary's eagerness to
+see him was generally tempered by the advice she had
+to give, to say that or not to say this, because of papa.
+But in the present case it was the sight of himself
+which was delightful to all, and, above all, though the
+child could have no reason for it, to the little shouting
+excited boy. "'Tle John! 'tle John!" What was
+Uncle John to him? yet his little voice filled the room
+with shouts of joy.</p>
+
+<p>"What does he know about me, the little beggar,
+that he makes such a noise in my honour?" said John,
+touched in spite of himself. "But I suppose anything
+is good enough for a cry at that age."</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said Elinor, "you are not to be contemptuous
+of my boy any longer. You called him <i>it</i> when he
+was a baby."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is he now?" said John, whose heart
+was affected by strange emotions, he, the man who
+had just decided (with relief) that he was not a
+marrying man. There came over him a curious wave
+of sensation which he had no right to. If he had had a
+right to it, if he had been coming home to those who
+belonged to him, not distantly in the way of cousinship,
+but by a dearer right, what sensations his would have
+been! But sitting at the corner of the fire (which is
+very necessary in Waterdale in the end of September) a
+little in the shadow, his face was not very clearly perceptible:
+though indeed had it been so the ladies would
+have thought nothing but that John's kind heart was
+touched, as was so natural, by this sight.</p>
+
+<p>"What is he now? Your nephew! Tell Uncle John
+what you are now," said Elinor, lifting her child on her
+lap; at which the child between the kisses which were
+his encouragement and reward produced, in a large
+infant voice, very treble, yet simulating hers, the statement,
+"Mamma's bhoy."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Elinor," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "he has played
+his part beautifully; he has done everything you taught
+him. He has told you who he is and who Uncle
+John is. Let him go to his nursery now."</p>
+
+<p>"Come up-stairs, Pippo. Mother will carry her boy,"
+said Elinor. "They don't want us any more, these old
+people. Say good-night to Uncle John, and come to
+bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Dood-night, 'tle John," said the child; which, however,
+was not enough, for he tilted himself out of his
+mother's arms and put his rosy face and open mouth,
+sweet but damp, upon John's face. This kiss was one
+of the child's accomplishments. He himself was aware
+that he had been good, and behaved himself in every
+way as a child should do, as he was carried off crowing
+and jabbering in his mother's arms. He had formed a
+sort of little human bridge between them when he
+made that dive from Elinor's arms upon John's face.
+Ah, heaven! if it had been the other way, if the child
+and the mother had both been his!</p>
+
+<p>"He has grown up very sweet. You may think we
+are foolish, John; but you can't imagine what a delight
+that child is. Hasn't he grown up sweet?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you call that grown up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I know he is only a baby still; but so forward
+for his age, such a little man, taking care of his
+mother before he is two years old!"</p>
+
+<p>"What did I hear her call him?" John asked, and it
+seemed to Mrs. Dennistoun that there was something
+severe in the sound of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"He had to be Philip. It is a pretty name, though
+we may have reason to mourn the day&mdash;and belongs to
+his family. We must not forget that he belongs to a
+known family, however he may have suffered by it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you intend the child to know about his
+family? I am glad to hear it," said John, though his
+voice perhaps was not so sweet as his words.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, that is quite another thing! to know
+about his family&mdash;at two! He has his mother&mdash;and
+me to take care of them both, and what does he want
+more?"</p>
+
+<p>"But he will not always be two," said John, the first
+moment almost of his arrival, before he had seen the
+house, or said a word about the lake, or anything.
+She was so disappointed and cast down that she made
+him no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a wretched croaker," he said, after a moment,
+"I know. I ought after all this time to try to make
+myself more agreeable; but you must pardon me if
+this was the first thing that came into my mind. Elinor
+is looking a great deal better than when I saw her
+last."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't she! another creature. I don't say that I am
+satisfied, John. Who would be satisfied in such a position
+of affairs? but while the child is so very young
+nothing matters very much. And she is quite happy.
+I do think she is quite happy. And so well&mdash;this country
+suits them both perfectly. Though there is a good
+deal of rain, they are both out every day. And little
+Pippo thrives, as you see, like a flower."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a very fantastic name to give the child."</p>
+
+<p>"How critical you are, John! perhaps it is, but what
+does it matter at his age? any name does for a baby.
+Why, you yourself, as grave as you are now<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, aunt," said John. "It is a grave matter
+enough as it appears to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Not for the present; not for the present, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not for the present: if you prefer to put
+off all the difficulties till they grow up and crush you.
+Have there been any overtures, all this time, from&mdash;the
+other side?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear John, don't overwhelm me all in a moment,
+in the first pleasure of seeing you, both with the
+troubles that are behind and the troubles that are in
+front of us," the poor lady said.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The weather was fine, which was by no means always
+a certainty at Waterdale, and Elinor had become a
+great pedestrian, and was ready to accompany John in
+his walks, which were long and varied. It was rather a
+curious test to which to subject himself after the long
+time he had been away, and the other tests through
+which he had gone. Never had he been so entirely the
+companion of Elinor, never before had they spent so
+many hours together without other society. At Windyhill,
+indeed, their interviews had been quite unrestrained,
+but then Elinor had many friends and interests
+in the parish and outside of it, visits to pay and duties
+to perform. Now she had her child, which occupied
+her mornings and evenings, but left her free for hours
+of rambling among the hills, for long walks, from which
+she came back blooming with the fresh air and breezes
+which had blown her about, ruffling her hair, and stirring
+up her spirits and thoughts. Sometimes when
+there has been heavy and premature suffering there
+occurs thus in the young another spring-time, an almost
+childhood of natural, it may be said superficial pleasure&mdash;the
+power of being amused, and of enjoying every
+simple satisfaction without any <i>arri&egrave;re pens&eacute;e</i> like a
+child. She had recovered her strength and vigour in
+the mountain air&mdash;and in that freedom of being unknown,
+with no look ever directed to her which reminded
+her of the past, no question which brought
+back her troubles, had blossomed out into that fine
+youthful maturity of twenty-six, which has already an
+advantage over the earlier girlhood, the perfection of
+the woman grown. Elinor had thought of many things
+and understood many things, which she had still regarded
+with the high assumptions of ignorance three
+or four years ago. And poor John, who had tried so
+hard to find himself a mate that suited him, who had
+studied so many girls more beautiful, more accomplished
+than Elinor, in the hope of goading himself, so to
+speak, into love, and had not succeeded&mdash;and who
+had felt so strongly that another man's wife must not
+occupy so much of his thoughts, nor another man's
+child give him an unwilling pleasure which was almost
+fatherly&mdash;poor John felt himself placed in a position
+more trying than any he had known before, more
+difficult to steer his way through. He had never had
+so much of her company, and she did not conceal the
+pleasure it was to her to have some one to walk with,
+to talk with, who understood what she said and what
+she did not say, and was in that unpurchasable sympathy
+with herself which is not to be got by beauty,
+or by will, or even by love itself, but comes by nature.
+Elinor felt this with simple pleasure. Without any complicating
+suspicion, she said, "What a brother John is!
+I always felt him so, but now more than ever." "You
+have been, so to speak, brought up together," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun, whose mind was by no means so easy on
+the subject. "That is the reason, I suppose," said
+Elinor, with happy looks.</p>
+
+<p>But poor John said nothing of this kind. What he
+felt was that he might have spared himself the trouble
+of all those researches of his; that to roam about looking
+for a young lady whom he might&mdash;not devour, but
+learn to love, was pains as unnecessary as ever man
+took. He still hugged himself, however, over the
+thought that in no circumstances would he have been a
+marrying man; that if Elinor had been free he would
+have found plenty of reasons why they should remain
+on their present terms and go no farther. As it was
+clear that they must remain on their present terms,
+and could go no farther, it was certainly better that he
+should cherish that thought.</p>
+
+<p>And curiously enough, though they heard so little from
+the outside world, they had heard just so much as this,
+that John's assiduities to the Miss Gaythornes (which
+the reader may remember was the first of all his
+attempts, and quite antiquated in his recollection) had
+occasioned remarks, and he had not been many evenings
+at Lakeside before he was questioned on the subject.
+Had it been true, or had he changed his mind
+or had the lady<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>? It vexed him that there was
+not the least little opposition or despite in their tones,
+such as a man's female friends often show towards
+the objects of his admiration, not from any feeling on
+their own part, except that most natural one, which is
+surprised and almost hurt to find that, "having known
+me, he could decline"&mdash;a feeling which, in its original
+expression, was not a woman's sentiment, but a man's,
+and therefore is, I suppose, common to both sides. But
+the ladies at Lakeside did not even betray this feeling.
+They desired to know if there had been anything in it&mdash;with
+smiles, it is true; but Mrs. Dennistoun at the
+same time expressed her regret warmly.</p>
+
+<p>"We were in great hopes something would come of
+it, John. Elinor has met the Gaythornes, and thought
+them very nice; and if there is a thing in the world
+that would give me pleasure, it would be to see you
+with a nice wife, John."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I am much obliged to you, aunt; but
+there really was nothing in it. That is, I was seized
+with various impulses on the subject, and rather agreed
+with you: but I never mentioned the matter to any of
+the Miss Gaythornes. They are charming girls, and I
+don't suppose would have looked at me. At the same
+time, I did not feel it possible to imagine myself in love
+with any of them. That's quite a long time since," he
+added with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there have been others since then? Let us
+put him in the confessional, mother," cried Elinor with
+a laugh. "He ought not to have any secrets of that description
+from you and me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, there have been others since," said John.
+"To tell the truth, I have walked round a great many
+nice girls asking myself whether I shouldn't find it
+very delightful to have one of them belonging to me.
+I wasn't worthy the least attractive of them all, I
+quite knew; but still I am about the same as other
+men. However, as I've said, I never mentioned the
+matter to any of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Never?" cried Mrs. Dennistoun, feeling a hesitation
+in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed a little, shamefaced: "Well, if you like,
+I will say hardly ever," he said. "There was one that
+might, perhaps, have taken pity upon me&mdash;but fortunately
+an old lover of hers, who was much more enterprising,
+turned up before anything decisive had been
+said."</p>
+
+<p>"Fortunately, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, I thought so. You see I am not a marrying
+man. I tried to screw myself up to the point, but
+it was altogether, I am afraid, as a matter of principle.
+I thought it would be a good thing, perhaps, to have a
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>"That was a very cold-blooded idea. No wonder
+you&mdash;it never came to anything. That is not the way
+to go about it," said Elinor with the ringing laugh of a
+child.</p>
+
+<p>And yet her way of going about it had been far from
+a success. How curious that she did not remember that!</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I am quite aware that I did not go
+about it in the right way, but then that was the only
+way in which it presented itself to me; and when I had
+made up my mind at last that it was a failure, I confess
+it was with a certain sense of relief. I suppose I was
+born to live and die an old bachelor."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be so sure of that," said Elinor. "Some day
+or other, in the most unlooked-for moment, the fairy
+princess will bound upon the scene, and the old bachelor
+will be lost."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll wait quite contentedly for that day&mdash;which I
+don't believe in," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun did not take any part in the later
+portion of this discussion; her smile was feeble at the
+places where Elinor laughed. She said seriously after
+this fireside conference, when he got up to prepare for
+dinner, putting her hand tenderly on his shoulder, "I
+wish you had found some one you could have loved,
+John."</p>
+
+<p>"So did I&mdash;for a time," he said, lightly. "But you
+see, it was not to be."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head, standing against the firelight in
+the dark room, so that he could not see her face. "I
+wish," she said, "I wish&mdash;that I saw you with a nice
+wife, John."</p>
+
+<p>"You might wish&mdash;to see me on the woolsack, aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;and it might come to pass. I shall see you
+high up&mdash;if I live long enough; but I wish I was as
+sure of the other, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said with a laugh, "I did my best; but
+there is no use in struggling against fate."</p>
+
+<p>No, indeed! how very, very little use there was.
+He had kept away from them for nearly two years;
+while he had done his best in the meantime to get a
+permanent tenant for his heart which should prevent
+any wandering tendencies. But he had not succeeded;
+and now if ever a man could be put in circumstances of
+danger it was he. If he did not appear in time for
+their walk Elinor would call him. "Aren't you coming,
+John?" And she overflowed in talk to him of
+everything&mdash;excepting always of that one dark passage
+in her life of which she never breathed a word. She
+asked him about his work, and about his prospects, insisting
+upon having everything explained to her&mdash;even
+politics, to which he had a tendency, not without ideas
+of their use in reaching the higher ranks of his profession.
+Elinor entered into all with zest and almost
+enthusiasm. She wrapped him up in her sympathy
+and interest. There was nothing he did that she did
+not wish to know about, did not desire to have a part
+in. A sister in this respect is, as everybody knows,
+often more full of enthusiasm than a wife, and Elinor,
+who was vacant of all concerns of her own (except the
+baby) was delighted to take up these subjects of excitement,
+and follow John through them, hastening after
+him on every line of indication or suggestion which he
+gave&mdash;nay, often with her lively intelligence hastening
+before him, making incursions into undiscovered countries
+of which he had not yet perceived the importance.
+They walked over all the country, into woods which
+were a little damp, and up hill-sides where the scramble
+was often difficult enough, and along the side of the
+lake&mdash;or, for a variety, went rowing across to the other
+side, or far down the gleaming water, out of sight,
+round the wooded corner which, with all its autumnal
+colours, blazed like a brilliant sentinel into the air
+above and the water below. Mrs. Dennistoun watched
+them, sometimes with a little trouble on her face. She
+would not say a word to throw suspicions or doubts between
+them. She would not awaken in Elinor's mind
+the thought that any such possibilities as arise between
+two young people free of all bonds could be imagined
+as affecting her and any man such as her cousin John.
+Poor John! if he must be the victim, the victim he
+must be. Elinor could not be disturbed that he might
+go free. And indeed, what good would it have done to
+disturb Elinor? It would but have brought consciousness,
+embarrassment, and a sense of danger where no
+such sense was. She was trebly protected, and without
+a thought of anything but the calm yet close relations
+that had existed so long. He<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> but he could take
+care of himself, Mrs. Dennistoun reflected in despair;
+he must take care of himself. He was a man and must
+understand what his own risks and perils were.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you think this plan is a success?" John
+asked her one day as they were rowing homeward up
+the lake. The time of his visit was drawing to a close;
+indeed it had drawn to a close several times, and been
+lengthened very unadvisedly, yet very irresistibly as he
+felt.</p>
+
+<p>Her face grew graver than usual, as with a sudden
+recollection of that shadow upon her life which Elinor
+so often seemed to have forgotten. "As much of a
+success," she said, "as anything of the kind is likely
+to be."</p>
+
+<p>"It suits you better than Windyhill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only in being more out of the world. It is partially
+out of the world for a great part of the year; but I suppose
+no place is so wholly. It seems impossible to keep
+from making acquaintances."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he said, "I have noticed. You know
+people here already."</p>
+
+<p>"How can we keep from knowing people? Mamma
+says it is the same thing everywhere. If we lived up in
+that little house which they say is the highest in England&mdash;at
+the head of the pass&mdash;we should meet people
+I suppose even there."</p>
+
+<p>"Most likely," he replied; "but the same difficulties
+can hardly arise."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean we shall not know people so well as at&mdash;at
+home, and will not be compelled to give an account
+of ourselves whatever we do? Heaven knows! There
+is a vicarage here, and there is a squire's house: and
+there are two or three people besides who already begin
+to inquire if we are related to So-and-So, if we are the
+Scotch Dennistouns, or the Irish Comptons, or I don't
+know what; and whether we are going to Penrith or
+any other capital city for the winter." Elinor ended
+with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"So soon?" John said.</p>
+
+<p>"So soon&mdash;very much sooner, the first year: with
+mamma so friendly as she is and with me so silly, unable
+to keep myself from smiling at anybody who smiles
+at me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Elinor!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you may laugh; but it is a real disadvantage.
+I am sure there was not very much smile in me when
+we came; and yet, notwithstanding, the first pleasant
+look is enough for me, I cannot but respond; and I
+shall always be so, I suppose," she said, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, Elinor. It would be an evil day for all
+of us if you did not respond."</p>
+
+<p>"For how many, John? For my mother and&mdash;ah,
+you are so good, more like my brother than my cousin&mdash;for
+you, perhaps, a little; but what is it to anybody
+else in the world whether I smile or sigh? It does not
+matter, however," she said, flinging back her head;
+"there it is, and I can't help it. If you smile at me I
+must smile back again&mdash;and so we make friends; and
+already I get a great deal of advice about little Pippo.
+If we live here till he grows up, the same thing will
+happen as at the Cottage. We will require to account
+to everybody for what we do with him&mdash;for the school
+he goes to, and all he does; to explain why he has
+one kind of training or another; and, in short, all that
+I ran away from: the world wherever one goes seems
+to be so much the same."</p>
+
+<p>"The world is very much the same everywhere; and
+you cannot get out of it were you to take refuge in a
+cave on the hill. The best thing is generally to let it
+know all that can be known, and so save the multitude
+of guesses it always makes."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor looked at him for a moment with her lips
+pressed tightly together, and a light in her eyes; then
+she looked away across the water to the golden hills,
+and said nothing; but there was a great deal in that
+look of eager contradiction, yet forced agreement, of determination
+above all, with which right and wrong had
+nothing to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor," he said, "do you mean that child to grow
+up here between your mother and you&mdash;in ignorance
+of all that there is in the world besides you two?"</p>
+
+<p>"That child!" she cried. "John, I think you dislike
+my boy; for, of course, it is Pippo you mean."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would not call him by that absurd
+name."</p>
+
+<p>"You are hard to please," she said, with an angry
+laugh. "I think it is a very sweet little name."</p>
+
+<p>"The child will not always be a baby," said John.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no: I suppose if we all live long enough he
+will some time be a&mdash;possibly disagreeable man, and
+punish us well for all the care we have spent upon
+him," Elinor said.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to make you angry, Elinor<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't suppose you do. You have been very
+nice to me, John. You have neither scolded me nor
+given me good advice. I never expected you would
+have been so forbearing. But I have always felt you
+must mean to give me a good knock at the end."</p>
+
+<p>"You do me great injustice," he said, much wounded.
+"You know that I think only of what is best for you&mdash;and
+the child."</p>
+
+<p>They were approaching the shore, and Mrs. Dennistoun's
+white cap was visible in the waning light, looking
+out for them from the door. Elinor said hastily,
+"And the child? I don't think that you care much
+for the child."</p>
+
+<p>"There you are mistaken, Elinor. I did not perhaps
+at first: but I acknowledge that a little thing like
+that does somehow creep into one's heart."</p>
+
+<p>Her face, which had been gloomy, brightened up as
+if a sunbeam had suddenly burst upon it. "Oh, bless
+you, John&mdash;Uncle John; how good and how kind, and
+what a dear friend and brother you are! And I such
+a wretch, ready to quarrel with those I love best! But,
+John, let me keep quiet, let me keep still, don't make
+me rake up the past. He is such a baby, such a baby!
+There cannot be any question of telling him anything
+for years and years!"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were lost," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+calling to them. "I began to think of all kinds of
+things that might have happened&mdash;of the steamboat
+running into you, or the boat going on a rock, or<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"You need not have had any fear when I was with
+John," Elinor said, with a smile that made him warm at
+once, like the sun. He knew very well, however, that
+it was only because he had made that little pleasant
+speech about her boy.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>There passed after this a number of years of which I
+can make no record. The ladies remained at Lakeside,
+seldom moving. When they took a holiday now
+and then, it was more for the sake of the little community
+which, just as in Windyhill, had gathered round
+them, and which inquired, concerned, "Are you not
+going to take a little change? Don't you think, dear
+Mrs. Dennistoun, your daughter would be the better
+for a change? Do you really think that a little sea
+air and variety wouldn't be good for the boy?"
+Forced by these kind speeches they did go away
+now and then to unknown seaside places in the north
+when little Philip was still a child, and to quiet places
+abroad when he grew a boy, and it was thought a good
+thing for him to learn languages, and to be taught
+that there were other countries in the world besides
+England. They were absent for one whole winter in
+France and another in Germany with this motive,
+that Philip should learn these languages, which he did
+<i>tant bien que mal</i> with much assistance from his mother,
+who taught herself everything that she thought the
+boy should know, and shared his lessons in order to
+push him gently forward. And on the whole, he did
+very well in this particular of language, showing much
+aptitude, though not perhaps much application. I
+would not assert that the ladies, with an opinion very
+common among women, and also among youth in general,
+did not rather glory in the thought that he could
+do almost anything he liked (which was their opinion,
+and in some degree while he was very young, the
+opinion of his masters), with the appearance of doing
+nothing at all. But on the whole, his education was
+the most difficult matter in which they had yet been engaged.
+How was he to be educated? His birth and
+condition pointed to one of the great public schools,
+and Mrs. Dennistoun, who had made many economics
+in that retirement, was quite able to give the child what
+they both called the best education. But how could
+they send him to Eton or Harrow? A boy who knew
+nothing about his parentage or his family, a boy bearing
+a well-known name, who would be subject to endless
+questions where he came from, who he belonged
+to? a hundred things which neither in Waterdale nor
+in their travels had ever been asked of him. What the
+Waterdale people thought on the subject, or how
+much they knew, I should not like to inquire. There
+are ways of finding out everything, and people who
+possess family secrets are often extraordinarily deceived
+in respect to what is known and what is not known of
+those secrets. My own opinion is that there is scarcely
+such a thing as a secret in the world. If any moment
+of great revolution comes in your life you generally
+find that your neighbours are not much surprised.
+They have known it, or they have suspected it, all
+along, and it is well if they have not suspected more
+than the truth. So it is quite possible that these excellent
+people knew all about Elinor: but Elinor did not
+think so, which was the great thing.</p>
+
+<p>However, there cannot be any question that Philip's
+education was a very great difficulty. John Tatham,
+who paid them a visit soberly from time to time, but
+did not now come as of old, never indeed came as on
+that first occasion when he had been so happy and so
+undeceived. To be sure, as Philip grew up it was of
+course impossible for any one to be like that. From
+the time Pippo was five or six he went everywhere with
+his mother, her sole companion in general, and when
+there was a visitor always making a third in the party,
+a third who was really the first, for he appealed to his
+mother on every occasion, directed her attention to
+everything. He only learned with the greatest difficulty
+that it was possible she should find it necessary
+to give her attention in a greater degree to any one
+else. When she said, "You know, Pippo, I must talk
+to Uncle John," Pippo opened his great eyes, "Not
+than to me, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dearest, more than to you for the moment:
+for he has come a long way to see us, and he will soon
+have to go away again." When this was first explained
+to him, Pippo inquired particularly when his Uncle
+John was going away, and was delighted to hear that
+it was to be very soon. However, as he grew older
+the boy began to take great pleasure in Uncle John,
+and hung upon his arm when they went out for their
+walks, and instead of endeavouring to monopolise his
+mother, turned the tables upon her by monopolising
+this the only man who belonged to him, and to whom
+he turned with the instinct of budding manhood.
+John too was very willing to be thus appropriated, and
+it came to pass that now and then Elinor was left out,
+or left herself out of the calculation, urging that the
+walk they were planning was too far for her, or too
+steep for her, or too something, so that the boy might
+have the enjoyment of the man's society all to himself.
+This changed the position in many ways, and I am not
+sure that at first it did not cost Elinor a little thus to
+stand aside and put herself out of that first place
+which had always been by all of them accorded to her.
+But if this was so, it was soon lost in the consideration
+of how good it was for Pippo to have a man like John
+to talk to and to influence him in every way. A man
+like John! That was the thing; not a common man,
+not one who might teach him the baseness, or the frivolity,
+or the falsehood of the world, but a good man,
+who was also a distinguished man, a man of the world
+in the best sense, knowing life in the best sense, and
+able to modify the boy's conception of what he was to
+find in the world, as women could never do.</p>
+
+<p>"For after all that can be said, we are not good for
+much on those points, mother," Mrs. Compton would
+say.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, Elinor; I doubt whether I would exchange
+my own ideas for John's," the elder lady replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, perhaps, mother; but for Pippo his experience
+and his knowledge will do so much. A boy should not
+be brought up entirely with women any more than a
+girl should be with men."</p>
+
+<p>"I have often thought, my dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+"if in God's providence it had been a girl instead
+of a boy<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said the younger mother, with a flush, "how
+can you speak&mdash;how could you think of any possible
+child but Pippo? I would not give him for a score of
+girls."</p>
+
+<p>"And if he had been a girl you would not have
+changed him for scores of boys," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+who added after a while, with a curious sense of competition,
+and a determination to allow no inferiority,
+"You forget, Elinor, that my only child is a girl."
+The elder lady (whom they began to call the old lady)
+showed a great deal of spirit in defence of her own.</p>
+
+<p>But Philip was approaching fourteen, and the great
+question had to be decided now or never; where was
+he to be sent to school? It was difficult now to send
+him to bed to get him out of the way, he who was used
+to be the person of first importance in the house&mdash;in
+order that the others might settle what was to be his
+fate. And accordingly the two ladies came down-stairs
+again after the family had separated in the usual way,
+in order to have their consultation with their adviser.
+There was now a room in the house furnished as a library
+in order that Philip might have a place in which to
+carry on his studies, and where "the gentlemen" might
+have their talks by themselves, when there was any one
+in the house. And here they found John when they
+stole in one after the other, soft-footed, that the boy
+might suspect no complot. They had their scheme, it
+need not be doubted, and John had his. He pronounced
+at once for one of the great public schools, while the
+ladies on their part had heard of one in the north,
+an old foundation as old as Eton, where there was at
+the moment a head master who was quite exceptional,
+and where boys were winning honours in all directions.
+There Pippo would be quite safe. He was not likely
+to meet with anybody who would put awkward
+questions, and yet he would receive an education as good
+as any one's. "Probably better," said Elinor: "for
+Mr. Sage will have few pupils like him, and therefore
+will give him the more attention."</p>
+
+<p>"That means," said John, "that the boy will not be
+among his equals, which is of all things I know the
+worst for a boy."</p>
+
+<p>"We are not aristocrats, as you are, John. They will
+be more than his equal in one way, because many of
+them will be bigger and stronger than he, and that is
+what counts most among boys. Besides, we have no
+pretensions."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Elinor," said John Tatham (who was by
+this time an exceedingly successful lawyer, member for
+his native borough, and within sight of a Solicitor-Generalship),
+"your modesty is a little out of character,
+don't you think? There can be no two opinions about
+what the boy is: an aristocrat&mdash;if you choose to use that
+word, every inch of him&mdash;a little gentleman, down to
+his fingers' ends."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you, John," cried Pippo's inconsistent
+mother; "that is the thing of all others that we hoped
+you would say."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you are going to send him among the farmers'
+sons. Fine fellows, I grant you, but not of his
+kind. Have you heard," he said, more gravely, "that
+Reginald Compton died last year?"</p>
+
+<p>"We saw it in the papers," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+Elinor said nothing, but turned her head away.</p>
+
+<p>"And neither of the others are married, or likely to
+marry; one of them is very much broken down<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, John, for God's sake don't say anything
+more!"</p>
+
+<p>"I must, Elinor. There is but one good life, and that
+in a dangerous climate, and with all the risks of possible
+fighting, between the boy and<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, don't, John!"</p>
+
+<p>"And he does not know who he is. He is ignorant
+of everything, even the fact, the great fact, which you
+have no right to keep from him<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"John," she cried, starting to her feet, "the boy is
+mine: I have a right to deal with him as I think best.
+I will not hear a word you have to say."</p>
+
+<p>"It is vain to say anything," said Mrs. Dennistoun;
+"she will not hear a word."</p>
+
+<p>"That is all very well, so far as she is concerned,"
+said John, "but I have a part of my own to play. You
+give me the name of adviser and so forth&mdash;a man cannot
+be your adviser if his mouth is closed before he
+speaks. I have a right to speak, being summoned for
+that purpose. I tell you, Elinor, that you have no right
+to conceal from the boy who he is, and that his father
+is alive."</p>
+
+<p>She gave a cry as if he had struck her, and shrank
+away behind her mother, hiding her face in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I am, more or less, of your opinion, John. I have
+told her the same. While he was a baby it mattered
+nothing, now that he is a rational creature with an opinion
+of his own, like any one of us<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Mother," cried Elinor, "you are unkind. Oh, you
+are unkind! What did it matter so long as he was a
+baby? But now he is just at the age when he would
+be&mdash;if you don't wish to drive me out of my senses altogether,
+don't say a word more to me of this kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor," said John, "I have said nothing on the
+subject for many years, though I have thought much:
+and you must for once hear reason. The boy belongs&mdash;to
+his father as much as to you. I have said it! I
+cannot take it back. He belongs to the family of which
+he may one day be the head. You cannot throw away
+his birthright. And think, if you let him grow up like
+this, not knowing that he has a family or a&mdash;unaware
+whom he belongs to."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you done, John?" asked Elinor, who had
+made two or three efforts to interrupt, and had been
+beating her foot impatiently upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"If you ask me in that tone, I suppose I must say
+yes: though I have a great deal more that I should like
+to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Then hear me speak," cried Elinor. "Of us three
+at least, I am the only one to whom he belongs. I only
+have power to decide for him. And I say, No, no: whatever
+argument there may be, whatever plea you may
+bring forward, No and no, and after that No! What!
+at fourteen, just the age when anything that was said
+to him would tell the most; when he would learn a lesson
+the quickest, learn what I would die to keep him
+from! When he would take everything for gospel that
+was said to him, when the very charm of&mdash;of that unknown
+name<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped for a moment to take breath, half choked
+by her own words.</p>
+
+<p>"And you ought to remember no one has ever laid
+claim to him. Why should I tell him of one that never
+even inquired<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> No, John, no, no, no! A baby he
+might have been told, and it would have done him no
+harm. Perhaps you were right, you and mother, and
+I was wrong. He might have known it from the first,
+and thought very little of it, and he may know when he
+is a man, and his character is formed and he knows
+what things mean&mdash;but a boy of fourteen! Imagine
+the glamour there would be about the very name; how
+he would feel we must all have been unjust and the&mdash;the
+other injured. You know from yourself, John, how
+he clings to you&mdash;you who are only a cousin; he knows
+that, yet he insists upon Uncle John, the one man who
+belongs to him, and looks up to you, and thinks nothing
+of any of us in comparison. I like it! I like it!" cried
+Elinor, dashing the tears from her eyes. "I am not
+jealous: but fancy what it would be with the&mdash;other,
+the real, the<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> I cannot, cannot, say the word; yes,
+the father. If it is so with you, what would it be with
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>John listened with his head bent down, leaning on
+his hand: every word went to his heart. Yes, he was
+nothing but a cousin, it was true. The boy did not belong
+to him, was nothing to him. If the father stepped
+in, the real father, the man of whom Philip had never
+heard, in all the glory of his natural rights and the
+novelty and wonder of his existence, how different would
+that be from any feeling that could be raised by a
+cousin, an uncle, with whom the boy had played all his
+life! No doubt it was true: and Phil Compton would
+probably charm the inexperienced boy with his handsome,
+disreputable grace, and the unknown ways of the
+man of the world. And yet, he thought to himself,
+there is a perspicacity about children which is not always
+present in a man. Philip had no precocious instincts
+to be tempted by his father's habits; he had the
+true sight of a boy trained amid everything that was
+noble and pure. Would it indeed be more dangerous
+now, when the boy was a boy, with all those safeguards
+of nature, than when he was a man? John kept his
+mind to this question with the firmness of a trained intelligence,
+not letting himself go off into other matters,
+or pausing to feel the sting that was in Elinor's words,
+the reminder that though he had been so much, he was
+still nothing to the family to whom he had consecrated
+so much of his life, so much now of his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think I agree with you, Elinor," he said
+at last. "I think it would have been better had he
+always known that his father lived, and who he was,
+and what family he belonged to; that is not to say that
+you were to thrust him into his father's arms. And I
+think now that, though we cannot redeem the past, it
+should be done as soon as possible, and that he should
+know before he goes to school. I think the effect will
+be less now than if the discovery bursts upon him when
+he is a young man, when he finds, perhaps, as may well
+be, that his position and all his prospects are changed
+in a moment, when he may be called upon without any
+preparation to assume a name and a rank of which he
+knows nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a name. He has always borne his true name."</p>
+
+<p>"His true name may be changed at any moment,
+Elinor. He may become Lord Lomond, and
+the heir<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, growing red, "that
+is a chance we have never taken into account."</p>
+
+<p>"What has that to do with it?" she said. "Is his
+happiness and his honour to be put in comparison with
+a chance, a possibility that may never come true? John,
+for the sake of everything that is good, let him wait
+till he is a man and knows good from evil."</p>
+
+<p>"It is that I am thinking of, Elinor; a boy of fourteen
+often knows good from evil much better than a
+youth of twenty-one, which is, I suppose, what you call
+a man. My opinion is that it would be better and safer
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" she said. "And no! I will never consent to
+it. If you go and poison my boy's mind I will never
+forgive you, John."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no right to do anything," he said; "it is of
+course you who must decide, Elinor: I advise only; and
+I might as well give that up," he added, "don't you
+think? for you are not to be guided by me."</p>
+
+<p>And she was of course supreme in everything that
+concerned her son. John, when he could do no more,
+knew how to be silent, and Mrs. Dennistoun, if not so
+wise in this respect, was yet more easily silenced than
+John. And Philip Compton went to the old grammar-school
+among the dales, where was the young and energetic
+head-master, who, as Elinor anticipated, found
+this one pupil like a pearl among the pebbles of the
+shore, and spared no pains to polish him and perfect
+him in every way known to the ambitious schoolmaster
+of modern times.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to say that the years which developed
+Elinor's child into a youth on the verge of manhood,
+had not passed by the others of the family without full
+evidence of its progress. John Tatham was no longer
+within the elastic boundaries of that conventional youth
+which is allowed to stretch so far when a man remains
+unmarried. He might have been characterized as
+<i>encore jeune</i>, according to the fine distinction of our
+neighbours in France, had he desired it. But he did
+not desire it. He had never altogether neglected society,
+having a wholesome liking for the company of
+his fellow creatures, but neither had he ever plunged
+into it as those do who must keep their places in the
+crowd or die. John had pursued the middle path,
+which is the most difficult. He had cultivated friends,
+not a mob of acquaintances, although as people say he
+"knew everybody," as a man who had attained his position
+and won his success could scarcely fail to do.
+He had succeeded indeed, not in the fabulous way that
+some men do, but in a way which most men in his
+profession looked upon as in the highest degree satisfactory.
+He had a silk gown like any dowager. He
+had been leading counsel in many cases which were
+now of note. He was among, not the two or three perhaps,
+but the twenty or thirty, who were at the head of
+his profession. If he had not gone further it was perhaps
+more from lack of ambition than from want of
+power. He had been for years in Parliament, but preferred
+his independence to the chance of office. It is
+impossible to tell how John's character and wishes
+might have been modified had he married and had
+children round him like other men. Had the tall boy
+in the north, the young hero of Lakeside, been his,
+what a difference would that have made in his views of
+life! But Philip was not his, nor Philip's mother&mdash;probably,
+as he always said to himself, from his own
+fault. This, as the reader is aware, had always been
+fully recognised by John himself. Perhaps in the old
+days, in those days when everything was possible, he
+had not even recognised that there was but one woman
+in the world whom he could ever wish to marry. Probably
+it was only her appropriation by another that revealed
+this fact to him. There are men like this to be
+found everywhere; not so hotly constituted as to seize
+for themselves what is most necessary for their personal
+happiness&mdash;possessed by so many other subjects that
+this seems a thing to be thought of by-and-by&mdash;which
+by-and-by is generally too late.</p>
+
+<p>But John Tatham was neither a disappointed nor an
+unhappy man. He might have attained a higher development
+and more brilliant and full life, but that was
+all; and how few men are there of whom this could not
+be said! He had become Mr. Tatham of Tatham's
+Cross, as well as Q.C. and M.P., a county gentleman
+of modest but effective standing, a lawyer of high reputation,
+quite eligible either for the bench or for political
+elevation, had he cared for either, a member of Parliament
+with a distinct standing, and therefore importance
+of his own. There was probably throughout England
+no society in which he could have found himself where
+his position and importance would have been unknown.
+He was a man approaching fifty, who had not yet lost
+any of the power of enjoyment or begun to feel the inroads
+of decay, at the very height of life, and unconscious
+that the ground would shortly begin to slope downwards
+under his feet; indeed, it showed no such indication
+as yet, and probably would not do so for years.
+The broad plateau of middle age lasts often till sixty,
+or even beyond. There was no reason to doubt that for
+John Tatham it would last as long as for any man.
+His health was perfect, and his habits those of a man
+whose self had never demanded indulgences of the vulgar
+kind. He had given up with some regret, but years
+before, his chambers in the Temple: that is, he retained
+them as chambers, but lived in them no longer. He
+had a house in one of the streets about Belgrave Square,
+one of those little bits of awkward, three-cornered
+streets where there are some of the pleasantest houses
+of a moderate kind in London; furnished from top to
+bottom, the stairs, the comfortable quaint landings, the
+bits of corridor and passage, nothing naked or neglected
+about it&mdash;no cold corner; but nothing fantastic; not
+very much ornament, a few good pictures, a great deal
+of highly-polished, old-fashioned dark mahogany, with
+a general flavour of <ins title="sic">Sherraton</ins> and Chippendale: and
+abundance of books everywhere. John was able to permit
+himself various little indulgences on which wives
+are said to look with jealous eyes. He had a fancy for
+rare editions (in which I sympathise) and also for bindings,
+which seems to me a weakness&mdash;however, it was
+one which he indulged in moderation. He possessed in
+his drawing-room (which was not very much used) a
+beautiful old-fashioned harpsichord, and also he had belonging
+to him a fiddle of value untold. I ought, of
+course, to say violin, or rather to distinguish the instrument
+by its family name; I have no doubt it was a
+Stradivarius. But there is an affectionate humour in
+the fiddle which does not consist with fine titles. He
+had always been fond of music, but even the Stradivarius
+did not beguile him, in the days of which I speak,
+to play, nor perhaps was his performance worthy of it,
+though his taste was said to be excellent. It will be
+perceived by all this that John Tatham's life had many
+pleasures.</p>
+
+<p>And I am not myself sorry for him because he was
+not married, as many people will be. Perhaps it is a
+little doleful coming home, when there is never anybody
+looking out for you, expecting you. But then he
+had never been accustomed to look for that, and the effect
+might have been irksome rather than pleasant.
+His household went on velvet under the care of a respectable
+couple who had "done for" Mr. Tatham for
+years. He would not have submitted to extortion or
+waste, but everything was ample in the house; the
+cook by no means stinted in respect to butter or any of
+those condiments which are as necessary to good cooking
+as air is to life. Mr. Tatham would not have understood
+a lack of anything, or that what was served to
+him should not have been the best, supplied and served
+in the best way. Failure on such points would have so
+much surprised him that he would scarcely have known
+what steps to take. But Jervis, his butler, knew what
+was best as well as Mr. Tatham did, and was quite as
+little disposed to put up with any shortcoming. I say I
+am not sorry for him that he was not married&mdash;up to
+this time. But, as a matter of fact, the time does come
+when one becomes sorry for the well-to-do, highly respectable,
+refined, and agreeable man who has
+everything that heart can desire, except the best things in
+life&mdash;love, and the companionship of those who are his
+very own. When old age looms in sight everything is
+changed. But Mr. Tatham, as has been said, was not
+quite fifty, and old age seemed as far off as if it could
+never be.</p>
+
+<p>He was a man who was very good to a number of
+people, and spent almost as much money in being kind
+as if he had possessed extravagant children of his
+own. His sister Mary, for instance, had married a
+clergyman not very well off, and the natural result had
+followed. How they could have existed without Uncle
+John, much less how they could have stumbled into
+public schools, scholarships, and all the rest of it, would
+be difficult to tell, especially now in these days when a
+girl's schooling ought, we are told, to cost as much as a
+boy's. This latter is a grievance which must be apparent
+to the meanest capacity. Unless the girl binds
+herself by the most stringent vows <i>not</i> to marry a poor
+curate or other penniless man the moment that you
+have completed her expensive education, I do not think
+she should in any case be permitted to go to Girton.
+It is all very well when the parents are rich or the girls
+have a sufficiency of their own. But to spend all that on
+a process which, instead of fructifying in other schools
+and colleges, or producing in life a highly accomplished
+woman, is to be lost at once and swallowed up in another
+nursery, is the most unprofitable of benefactions.
+This is what Mary Tatham's eldest girl had just done,
+almost before her bills at Newnham had been paid. A
+wedding present had, so to speak, been demanded from
+Uncle John at the end of the bayonet to show his satisfaction
+in the event which had taken all meaning out
+of his exertions for little Mary. He had given it indeed&mdash;in
+the shape not of a biscuit-box, which is what
+she would have deserved, but of a cheque&mdash;but he was
+not pleased. Neither was he pleased, as has been seen,
+by the proceedings of Elinor, who had slighted all his
+advice yet clung to himself in a way some women have.
+I do not know whether men expect you to be quite as
+much their friend as ever after they have rejected your
+counsel and taken their own (exactly opposite) way:
+but women do, and indeed I think expect you to be
+rather grateful that they have not taken amiss the advice
+which they have rejected and despised. This was
+Elinor's case. She hoped that John was ashamed of
+advising her to make her boy acquainted with his family
+and the fact of his father's existence, and that he duly
+appreciated the fact that she did not resent that advice;
+and then she expected from him the same attention to
+herself and her son as if the boy had been guided in his
+and not in her way. Thus it will be seen his friends
+and relations expected a very great deal from John.</p>
+
+<p>He had gone to his chambers one afternoon after he
+left the law courts, and was there very busily engaged
+in getting up his notes for to-morrow's work, when he
+received a visit which awakened at once echoes of the
+past and alarms for the future in John's mind. It
+was very early in the year, the end of January, and the
+House was not sitting, so that his public duties were
+less overwhelming than usual. His room was the same
+in which we have already seen on various occasions, and
+which Elinor in her youth, before anything had happened
+to make life serious for her, had been in the
+habit of calling the Star Chamber, for no reason in the
+world except that law and penalties or judgments upon
+herself in her unripe conviction, and suggestions of
+what ought to be done, came from that place to which
+Mrs. Dennistoun had made resort in her perplexities almost
+from the very beginning of John's reign there.
+Mr. Tatham had been detained beyond his usual time by
+the importance of the case for which he was preparing,
+and a clerk, very impatient to get free, yet obliged to
+simulate content, had lighted the lamp and replenished
+the fire. It had always been a comfortable room. The
+lamp by which John worked had a green shade which
+concentrated the light upon a table covered with that litter
+of papers in which there seemed so little order, yet
+which Mr. Tatham knew to the last scrap as if they had
+been the tidiest in the world. The long glazed book-case
+which filled up one side of the room gave a dark
+reflection of the light and of the leaping brightness of
+the fire. The curtains were drawn over the windows.
+If the clerk fumed in the outer rooms, here all was
+studious life and quiet. No spectator could have been
+otherwise than impressed by the air of absolute self-concentration
+with which the eminent lawyer gave himself
+up to his work. He was like his lamp, giving all
+the light in him to the special subject, indifferent to
+everything outside.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Simmons?" he said abruptly, without
+looking up.</p>
+
+<p>"A lady, sir, who says she has urgent business and
+must see you."</p>
+
+<p>"A lady&mdash;who <i>must</i> see me." John Tatham smiled
+at the very ineffectual <i>must</i>, which meant coercion and
+distraction to him. "I don't see how she is going to
+accomplish that."</p>
+
+<p>"I told her so," said the clerk.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you must tell her so again." He had scarcely
+lifted his head from his work, so that it was unnecessary
+to return to it when the door closed, and Mr.
+Tatham went on steadily as before.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to concentrate the light of the lamp when
+it is duly shaded and no wind to blow it about, and it
+is easy to concentrate a man's attention in the absolute
+quiet when nothing interrupts him; but when there
+suddenly rises up a wind of talk in the room which is
+separated from him only by a door, a tempest of chattering
+words and laughter, shrill and bursting forth in
+something like shrieks, making the student start, that
+is altogether a different business. The lady outside,
+who evidently had multiplied herself&mdash;unless it was
+conceivable that the serious Simmons had made himself
+her accomplice&mdash;had taken the cleverest way of
+showing that she was not to be beat by any passive resistance
+of busy man, though not even an audible conversation
+with Simmons would have startled or disturbed
+his master, to whom it would have been apparent
+that his faithful vassal was thus defending his own
+stronghold and innermost retirement. But this was
+quite independent of Simmons, a discussion in two
+voices, one high-pitched and shrill, the other softer, but
+both absolutely unrestrained by any consciousness of
+being in a place where the chatter of strange voices is
+forbidden, and stillness and quiet a condition of being.
+The sound of the talk rang through Mr. Tatham's head
+as if all the city bells were ringing. One of the unseen
+ladies had a very shrill laugh, to which she gave
+vent freely. John fidgeted in his chair, raised up his
+eyes above the level of his spectacles (he wore spectacles,
+alas! by this time habitually when he worked) as
+if lifting a voiceless appeal to those powers who interest
+themselves in law cases to preserve him from disturbance,
+then made a manly effort to disregard the sounds
+that filled the air, returning with a shake of his head to
+his reading. But at the end of a long day, and in the
+dulness of the afternoon, perhaps a man is less capable
+than at other moments to fight against interruption of
+this kind and finally he threw down his papers and
+touched his bell. Simmons came in full of pale indignation,
+which made itself felt even beyond the circle
+illuminated by the lamp.</p>
+
+<p>"What can I do?" he said. "They've planted themselves
+by the fire, and there they mean to stay. 'Oh,
+very well, we'll wait,' they said, quite calm. And I
+make no doubt they will, having nothing else to do, till
+all is blue."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Simmons had a gift of expression of which all
+his friends were flatteringly sensible, and he was very
+friendly and condescending to John, of whom he had
+taken care for many years.</p>
+
+<p>"What is to be done?" said Mr. Tatham. "Can't
+you do anything to get them away?"</p>
+
+<p>Simmons shook his head. "There's two of them,"
+he said, "and they entertain each other, and they think
+it's fun to jabber like that in a lawyer's office. The
+young one says, 'What a queer place!' and the other,
+she holds forth about other times when she's been
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she's been here other times<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Do you know
+her, Simmons?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not from Adam, Mr. Tatham&mdash;or, I should say,
+from Eve, as she's a lady. But a real lady I should say,
+though she don't behave herself as such&mdash;one of the
+impudent ones. They are never impudent like that,"
+said Mr. Simmons, with profound observation, "unless
+they are real high or&mdash;real low."</p>
+
+<p>"Hum!" said John, hesitating. And then he added,
+"There is a young one, you say?"</p>
+
+<p>But I do not myself think, though the light-minded
+may imagine it to be so, that it was because there was
+a young one that John gave in. It was because he
+could do nothing else, the noise and chatter of the
+voices being entirely destructive of that undisturbed
+state of the atmosphere in which work can be done.
+It was not merely the sounds but the vibration they
+made in the air, breaking all its harmony and concentration.
+He tried a little longer, but was unsuccessful,
+and finally in despair he said to Simmons, "You had
+better show them in, and let me get done with them,"
+in an angry tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he will see us after all," said the high-pitched
+voice. "So good of Mr. Tatham; but of course I
+should have waited all the same. Dolly, take Toto; I
+can't possibly get up while I have him on my knee.
+You can tell Mr. Tatham I did not send in my name to
+disturb him, which makes it all the more charitable of
+him to receive me; but, dear me, of course I can tell
+him that himself as he consents to see us. Dolly, don't
+strangle my poor darling! I never saw a girl that didn't
+know how to take up a dear dog before."</p>
+
+<p>"He's only a snappish little demon, and you spoil
+him so," said the other voice. This was attended by
+the sound of movement as if the party were getting
+under weigh.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor darling pet, it is only her jealousy: is
+that the way? Yes, to be sure it is the next room.
+Now, Dolly, remember this is where all the poor people
+are ruined and done for. Leave hope behind all ye
+who enter here." A little shriek of laughter ended
+this speech. And John, looking up, taking off his
+spectacles, and raising a little the shade of the lamp,
+saw in the doorway Lady Mariamne, altered as was inevitable
+by the strain and stress of nearly twenty years.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>I do not mean to assert that John Tatham had not
+seen Lady Mariamne during these twenty years, or that
+her changed appearance burst upon him with anything
+like a shock. In society, when you are once a member
+of that little world within a world, everybody sees
+everybody else from time to time. He had not recognised
+her voice, for he was not in the smallest degree
+thinking of Lady Mariamne or of any member of her
+family, notwithstanding that they now and then did
+make a very marked appearance in his mind in respect
+of the important question of that connection which
+Elinor in her foolishness tried to ignore. And John
+was not at all shocked by the progress of that twenty
+years, as reflected in the appearance of this lady, who
+was about his own standing, a woman very near fifty,
+but who had fought strenuously against every sign of
+her age, as some women foolishly do. The result was
+in Lady Mariamne's case, as in many others, that the
+number of her years looked more like a hundred and
+fifty than their natural limit. A woman of her class
+has but two alternatives as she gets old. She must get
+stout, in which case, though she becomes unwieldy, she
+preserves something of her bloom; or she may grow
+thin, and become a spectre upon which art has to do so
+much that nature, flouted and tortured, becomes vindictive,
+and withdraws every modifying quality. Lady
+Mariamne had, I fear, false hair, false teeth, false complexion,
+everything that invention could do in a poor
+little human countenance intended for no such manipulation.
+The consequence was that every natural advantage
+(and there are some which age confers, as well as
+many that age takes away) was lost. The skin was
+parchment, the eyes were like eyes of fishes, the teeth&mdash;too
+white and too perfect&mdash;looked like the horrible
+things in the dentists' windows, which was precisely
+what they were. On such a woman, the very height
+of the fashion, to which she so often attaches herself
+with desperation, has an antiquated air. Everything
+"swears," as the French say, with everything else.
+The softness, the whiteness, the ease, the self-abnegation
+of advancing age are all so many ornaments if
+people but knew. But Lady Mariamne had none of
+these. She wore a warm cloak in her carriage, it is
+true, but that had dropped from her shoulders, leaving
+her in all the bound-up rigidity in which youth is trim
+and slim and elastic, as becomes it. It is true that many
+a woman of fifty is, as John Tatham was, serenely dwelling
+on that tableland which shows but little difference
+between thirty-five, the crown of life, and fifty-five;
+but Lady Mariamne was not one of these. She had
+gone "too fast," she would herself have allowed; "the
+pace" had been too much for such survivals. She was
+of the awful order of superannuated beauties of which
+Mr. Rider Haggard would in vain persuade us "She"
+was not one. I am myself convinced that "She's"
+thousands of years were all written on her fictitious
+complexion, and that other people saw them clearly if
+not her unfortunate lover. And Lady Mariamne had
+come to be of the order of "She." By dint of wiping
+out the traces of her fifty years, she had made herself
+look as if she might have been a thousand, and in this
+guise she appeared to the robust, ruddy, well-preserved
+man of her own age, as she stood, with a fantastic little
+giggle, calling his attention, on the threshold of his
+door.</p>
+
+<p>Behind Lady Mariamne was a very different figure&mdash;that
+of the serious and independent girl without any illusions,
+who is in so many cases the child of such a
+mother, and who is in revolt so complete from all that
+mother's traditions, so highly set on the crown of every
+opposite principle, that nature vindicates itself by the
+possibility that she may at any moment topple over
+and become again what her mother was. He would
+have been a bold man, however, who in the present stage
+would have prophesied any such fate for Dolly Prestwich,
+who between working at Whitechapel, attending
+on a ward in St. Thomas's, drawing three days a week
+in the Slade School, and other labours of equally varied
+descriptions, had her time very fully taken up, and only
+on special occasions had time to accompany her mother.
+She had been beguiled on this occasion by the family
+history which was concerned, and which, <i>fin de si&egrave;cle</i>
+as Dolly was, excited her curiosity almost as much as
+if she had been born in the "forties." Dolly was never
+unkind, sometimes indeed was quite the reverse, to her
+mother. When Mr. Tatham, with a man's brutal unconsciousness
+of what is desirable, placed a chair for
+Lady Mariamne in front of the fire, Dolly twisted it
+round with a dexterous movement so as to shield the
+countenance which was not adapted for any such illumination.
+For herself, Dolly cared nothing, whether it
+was the noonday sun or the blaze of a furnace that shone
+upon her; she defied them both to make her wink. As
+for complexion, she scorned that old-fashioned vanity.
+She had not very much, it is true. Having been scorched
+red and brown in Alpine expeditions in the autumn,
+she was now of a somewhat dry whitish-greyish hue,
+the result of much loss of cuticle and constant encounter
+with London fogs and smoke. She carried Toto&mdash;who
+was a shrinking, chilly Italian greyhound&mdash;in a coat,
+carelessly under one arm, and sat down beside her
+mother, studying the papers on John's table with exceedingly
+curious eyes. She would have liked to go
+over all his notes about his case, and form her own opinion
+on it&mdash;which she would have done, we may be sure,
+much more rapidly, and with more decision, than Mr.
+Tatham could do.</p>
+
+<p>"So here I am again, you will say," said Lady Mariamne.
+She had taken off her gloves, and was smoothing
+her hands, from the points of the fingers downwards,
+not, I believe, with any intention of demonstrating their
+whiteness, but solely because she had once done so,
+and the habit remained. She wore several fine rings,
+and her hands were still pretty, and&mdash;unlike the rest
+of her&mdash;younger than her age. They made a little show
+with their sparkling diamonds, just catching the edge
+of the light from John's shaded lamp. Her face by
+Dolly's help was in the shadow of the green shade.
+"You will say so, Mr. Tatham, I know: here she is
+again&mdash;without thinking how self-denying I have been,
+never to come, never to ask a single question, for all
+these years."</p>
+
+<p>"The loss is mine, Lady Mariamne," said John,
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very pretty of you to say that, isn't it, Dolly?
+One's old flirts don't always show up so well." And
+here the lady gave a laugh, such as had once been supposed
+to be one of Lady Mariamne's charms, but which
+was rather like a giggle now&mdash;an antiquated giggle,
+which is much less satisfactory than the genuine article.
+"How I used to worry you about poor Phil, and that
+little spitfire of a Nell&mdash;and what a mess they have
+made of it! I suppose you know what changes have
+happened in the family, Mr. Tatham, since those
+days?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard indeed, with regret, Lady Mariamne, that
+you had lost a brother<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"A brother! two!" she cried. "Isn't it extraordinary&mdash;poor
+Hal, that was the picture of health? How
+little one knows! He just went, don't you know, without
+any one ever thinking he would go. Regg in India
+was different&mdash;you expect that sort of thing when a man
+is in India. But poor Hal! I told you Mr. Tatham
+wouldn't have heard of it, Dolly, not being in our own
+set, don't you know."</p>
+
+<p>"It was in all the papers," said Miss Dolly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, you didn't notice it, I suppose: or perhaps
+you were away. I always say it is of no use being married
+or dying or anything else in September&mdash;your
+friends never hear of it. You will wonder that I am not
+in black, but black was always very unbecoming to me,
+and dark grey is just as good, and doesn't make one
+quite so ghastly. But the funny thing is that now Phil&mdash;who
+looked as if he never could be in the running,
+don't you know&mdash;is heir presumptive. Isn't it extraordinary?
+Two gone, and Phil, that lived much faster
+than either of them, and at one time kept up an awful
+pace, has seen them both out. And St. Serf has never
+married. He won't now, though I have been at him on
+the subject for years. He says, not if he knows it, in
+the horrid way men have. And I don't wonder much,
+for he has had some nasty experiences, poor fellow.
+There was Lady<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Oh, I almost forgot you were
+there, Dolly."</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't mind me," said Dolly, gravely; "I've
+heard just as bad."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Lady Mariamne, with a giggle, "did
+you ever know anything like those girls? They are not
+afraid of anything. Now, when I was a girl&mdash;don't you
+remember what an innocent dear I was, Mr. Tatham?&mdash;like
+a lamb; never suspecting that there was any
+naughtiness in the world<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>John endeavoured to put on a smile, in feeble sympathy
+with the uproariousness of Lady Mariamne's laugh&mdash;but
+her daughter took no such trouble. She sat as
+grave as a young judge, never moving a muscle. The
+dog, however, held in her arms, and not at all comfortable,
+then making prodigious efforts to struggle on to its
+mistress's more commodious lap, burst out into a responsive
+bark, as shrill and not much unlike.</p>
+
+<p>"Darling Toto," said Lady Mariamne, "come!&mdash;it
+always knows what it's mummy means. Did you ever
+see such a darling little head, Mr. Tatham?&mdash;and the
+faithful pet always laughs when I laugh. What was I
+talking of?&mdash;St. Serf and his ladies. Well, it is not
+much wonder, you know, is it? for he has always been
+a sort of an invalid, and he will never marry now&mdash;and
+poor Hal being gone there's only Phil. Phil's been going
+a pace, Mr. Tatham; but he has had a bad illness,
+too, and the other boys going has sobered him a bit;
+and I do believe, <i>now</i>, that he'll probably mend. And
+there he is, you know, tied to a<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Oh, of course, <i>she</i>
+is as right as a&mdash;as right as a&mdash;trivet, whatever that may
+be. Those sort of heartless people always are: and then
+there's the child. Is it living, Mr. Tatham?&mdash;that's what
+I want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Philip is alive and well, Lady Mariamne, if that is
+what you want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Philip!&mdash;she called him after Phil, after all! Well,
+that is something wonderful. I expected to hear he
+was John, or Jonathan, or something. Now, where is
+he?" said Lady Mariamne, with the most insinuating
+air.</p>
+
+<p>John burst into a short laugh. "I don't suppose you
+expect me to tell you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?&mdash;you can't hide a boy that is heir to a
+peerage, Mr. Tatham!&mdash;it is impossible. Nell has done
+the best she could in that way. They know nothing
+about her in that awful place she was married from&mdash;of
+course you remember it&mdash;a dreadful place, enough to
+make one commit suicide, don't you know. The Cottage,
+or whatever they call it, is let, and nobody knows
+anything about them. I took the trouble to go there,
+I assure you, on my own hook, to see if I could find out
+something. Toto nearly died of it, didn't you, darling?
+Not a drop of cream to be had for him, the poor angel;
+only a little nasty skim milk. But Mr. Tatham has the
+barbarity to smile," she went on, with a shrill outcry.
+"Fancy, Toto&mdash;the cruelty to smile!"</p>
+
+<p>"No cream for the angel, and no information for his
+mistress," said John.</p>
+
+<p>"You horrid, cruel, cold-blooded man!&mdash;and you sit
+there at your ease, and will do nothing for us<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Should you like me," said John, "to send out for
+cream for your dog, Lady Mariamne?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cream in the Temple?" said the lady. "What
+sort of a compound would it be, Dolly? All plaster of
+Paris, or stuff of that sort. Perhaps you have tea sometimes
+in these parts<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Very seldom," said John; "but it might be obtainable
+if you would like it." He put forward his hand,
+but not with much alacrity, to the bell.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother never takes any tea," said Miss Dolly, hastily;
+"she only crumbles down cake into it for that
+little brute."</p>
+
+<p>"It is you who are a little brute, you unnatural child.
+Toto likes his tea very much&mdash;he is dying for it. But
+you must have patience, my pet, for probably it would
+be very bad, and the cream all stucco, or something.
+Mr. Tatham, do tell us what has become of Nell? Now,
+have you hidden her somewhere in London, St. John's
+Wood, and that sort of thing, don't you know? or where
+is she? Is the old woman living? and how has that
+boy been brought up? At a dame's school, or something
+of that sort, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother," said Dolly, "you ought to know there are
+now no dame's schools. There's Board Schools, which
+is what you mean, I suppose; and it would be very
+good for him if he had been there. They would teach
+him a great deal more than was ever taught to Uncle
+Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"Teach him!" said Lady Mariamne, with another
+shriek. "Did I ask anything about teaching? Heaven
+forbid! Mr. Tatham knows what I mean, Dolly. Has
+he been at any decent place&mdash;or has he been where it
+will never be heard of? Eton and Harrow one knows,
+and the dame's schools one knows, but horrible Board
+Schools, or things, where they might say young Lord
+Lomond was brought up&mdash;oh, goodness gracious! One
+has to bear a great many things, but I could not bear
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"It does not matter much, does it, so long as he does
+not come within the range of his nearest relations?"
+This was from John, who was almost at the end of his
+patience. He began to put his papers back in a portfolio,
+with the intention of carrying them home with
+him, for his hour's work had been spoilt as well as his
+temper. "I am afraid," he added, "that I cannot give
+you any information, Lady Mariamne."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, such nonsense, Mr. Tatham!&mdash;as if the heir to
+a peerage could be hid."</p>
+
+<p>It was not often that Lady Mariamne produced an
+unanswerable effect, but against this last sentence of
+hers John had absolutely nothing to say. He stared at
+her for a moment, and then he returned to his papers,
+shovelling them into the portfolio with vehemence.
+Fortunately, she did not herself see how potent was her
+argument. She went on diluting it till it lost all its
+power.</p>
+
+<p>"There is the 'Peerage,' if it was nothing else&mdash;they
+must have the right particulars for that. Why, Dolly
+is at full length in it, her age and all, poor child; and
+Toto, too, for anything I know. Is du in the 'Peerage,'
+dear Toto, darling? And yet Toto can't succeed,
+nor Dolly either. And this year Phil will be in as heir
+presumptive and his marriage and all&mdash;and then a blank
+line. It's ridiculous, it's horrible, it's a thing that can't,
+can't be! Only think of all the troops of people, nice
+people, the best people, that read the 'Peerage,' Mr.
+Tatham!&mdash;and that know Phil is married, and that
+there is a child, and yet will see nothing but that blank
+line. Nell was always a little fool, and never could see
+things in a common-sense way. But a man ought to
+know better&mdash;and a lawyer, with chambers in the Temple!
+Why, people come and consult you on such matters&mdash;I
+might be coming to ask you to send out detectives,
+and that sort of thing. How do you dare to hide
+away that boy?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Mariamne stamped her foot at John, but this
+proceeding very much incommoded Toto, who, disturbed
+in his position on her knee, got upon his feet
+and began to bark furiously, first at his mistress and
+then, following her impulse, at the gentleman opposite
+to her, backing against the lady's shoulder and setting
+up his little nose furiously with vibrations of rage
+against John, while stumbling upon the uncertain footing
+of the lap, volcanically shaken by the movement.
+The result of this onslaught was to send Lady Mariamne
+into shrieks of laughter, in the midst of which
+she half smothered Toto with mingled endearments and
+attempts at restraint, until Dolly, coming to the rescue,
+seized him summarily and snatched him away.</p>
+
+<p>"The darling!" cried Lady Mariamne, "he sees it,
+and you can't see it, a great big lawyer though you
+are. Dolly, don't throttle my angel child. Stands up
+for his family, don't he, the dear? Mr. Tatham, how
+can you be so bigoted and stubborn, when our dear little
+Toto<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But you always were the most obstinate
+man. Do you remember once, when I wanted to
+take you to Lady Dogberry's dance&mdash;wasn't it Lady
+Dogberry's?&mdash;well, it was Lady Somebody's&mdash;and you
+said you were not asked, and I said, what did it matter:
+but to make you go, and Nell was with me&mdash;we might
+as well have tried to make St. Paul's go<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Lady Mariamne," said John.</p>
+
+<p>She held up a finger at him with the engaging playfulness
+of old. "How can I be your dear Lady Mariamne,
+Mr. Tatham, when you won't do a thing I ask
+you? What, Dolly? Yes, we must go, of course, or I
+shall not have my nap before dinner. I always have a
+nap before dinner, for the sake of my complexion, don't
+you know&mdash;my beauty nap, they call it. Now, Mr. Tatham,
+come to me to-morrow, and you shall give Toto his
+cream, to show you bear no malice, and tell me all
+about the boy. Don't be an obstinate pig, Mr. Tatham.
+Now, I shall look for you&mdash;without fail. Shan't we look
+for him, Dolly?&mdash;and Toto will give you a paw and forgive
+you&mdash;and you must tell me all about the boy."</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>To tell her all about the boy!</p>
+
+<p>John Tatham shovelled his papers into his portfolio,
+and shut it up with a snap of embarrassment, a sort of
+confession of weakness. He pushed back his chair with
+the same sharpness, almost making a noise upon the old
+Turkey carpet, and he touched his bell so that it
+sounded with a shrill electric ping, almost like a pistol-shot.
+Simmons understood all these signs, and he was
+very sympathetic when he came in to take Mr. Tatham's
+last orders and help him on with his coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Spoilt your evening's work," said Simmons, compassionately.
+"I knew they would. Ladies never should
+enter a gentleman's chambers if I could help it. They've
+got nothing to do in the Temple."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget some men in the Temple are married,
+Simmons."</p>
+
+<p>"What does that matter?" said the clerk; "let 'em
+see their wives at home, sir. What I will maintain is
+that ladies have no business here."</p>
+
+<p>This was a little ungrateful, it must be said, for Simmons
+probably got off three-quarters of an hour earlier
+than he would have done had Mr. Tatham remained
+undisturbed. As it was, John had some ten minutes to
+wait before his habitual hansom drew up at the door.</p>
+
+<p>It was not the first time by many times that Mr. Tatham
+had considered the question which he now took
+with him into his hansom, and which occupied him
+more or less all the way to Halkin Street. Lady Mariamne,
+however, had put it very neatly and very conclusively
+when she said that you can't hide the heir to
+a peerage&mdash;more concisely at least than John had himself
+put it in his many thoughts on the subject&mdash;for, to
+tell the truth, John had never considered the boy in
+this aspect. That he should ever be the heir to a peerage
+had seemed one of those possibilities which so outrage
+nature, and are so very like fiction, that the sober
+mind rejects them with almost a fling of impatience.
+And yet how often they come true! He had never
+heard&mdash;a fact of which he felt partly ashamed, for it was
+an event of too much importance to be ignored by any
+one connected with Elinor&mdash;of Hal Compton's death.
+John was not acquainted with Hal Compton any more
+than he was with other men who come and go in society,
+occasionally seen, but open to no particular
+remark. A son of Lord St. Serf&mdash;the best of the lot&mdash;a
+Compton with very little against him: these were
+things which he had heard said and had taken little
+notice of. Hal was healthier, less objectionable, a
+better life than Phil's, and yet Hal was gone, who ought
+by all rights to have succeeded his invalid brother. It
+was true that the invalid brother, who had seen the end
+of two vigorous men, might also see out Phil. But
+that would make little difference in the position, unless
+indeed by modifying Elinor's feelings and removing her
+reluctance to make her boy known. John shook his
+head as he went on with his thoughts, and decided
+within himself that this was the very reason why Phil
+Compton should survive and become Lord St. Serf, and
+make the imbroglio worse, if worse were possible. It
+had not required this to make it a hideous imbroglio,
+the most foolish and wanton that ever a woman made.
+He wondered at himself when he thought of it how he
+had ever consented to it, ever permitted such a state
+of affairs; and yet what could he have done? He had
+no right to interfere even in the way of advice, which
+he had given until everybody was sick of him and his
+counsels. He could not have betrayed his cousin. To
+tell her that she was conducting her affairs very foolishly,
+laying up untold troubles for herself, was what
+he had done freely, going to the very edge of a breach.
+And he had no right to do any more. He could not
+force her to adopt his method, neither could he betray
+her when she took her own way. Nevertheless, there
+can be no doubt that John felt himself almost an accomplice,
+involved in this unwise folly, with a sort of
+responsibility for it, and almost guilt. It did not indeed
+change young Philip's moral position in any way,
+or make the discovery that he had a father living more
+likely to shock and bewilder him that this discovery
+should come mingled with many extraneous wonders.
+And yet these facts did alter the circumstances. "You
+cannot hide the heir to a peerage." Lady Mariamne
+was far, very far, from being a philosopher or a person
+of genius, and yet this which she had said was in reality
+quite unanswerable. Phil Compton might have been
+ignored for ever by his wife and child had he remained
+only the <i>dis</i>-Honourable Phil, a younger son and a nobody.
+But Phil Compton as Lord St. Serf could not
+be ignored. Elinor had been wise enough never to
+change her name, that is to say, she had been too proud
+to do so, though nobody knew of the existence of that
+prefix which was so inappropriate to her husband's
+character. But now Mrs. Compton would no longer be
+her name; and Philip, the boy at the big northern
+grammar-school, would be Lord Lomond. An unlooked-for
+summons like this has sometimes the power
+of turning the heads of the heirs so suddenly ennobled,
+but it did anything but convey elation to John's mind
+in the prospect of its effect upon his relations. Would
+she see reason <i>now?</i> Would she be brought to allow
+that something must be done, or would she remain obdurate
+to the end of the chapter? A great impatience
+with Elinor filled John's mind. She was, as the reader
+knows, the only woman to John Tatham; but what
+does that matter? He did not approve of her any more
+on that account. He was even more conscious of the
+faults of which she was guilty. He was aware of her
+obstinacy, her determined adherence to her own way
+as no other man in the world was. Would she acknowledge
+now at last that she was wrong, and give in? I
+am obliged to confess that the giving in of Elinor was
+the last spectacle in heaven or earth which John Tatham
+could conceive.</p>
+
+<p>He went over these circumstances as he drove through
+all of London that is to some people worth calling London,
+on that dark January night, passing from the light
+of the busy streets into the comparative darkness of
+those in which people live, without in the least remarking
+where he was going, except in his thoughts. He
+had not the least intention of accepting the invitation
+of Lady Mariamne, nor did his mind dwell upon her or
+the change that age had wrought in her. But yet the
+Compton family had gained an interest in John's eyes
+which it did not possess even at the time when Elinor's
+marriage first brought its name into his thoughts.
+Philip&mdash;young Philip&mdash;the boy, as John called him in
+his own mind, in fond identification&mdash;was as near John's
+own child as anything ever could be in this world. He
+had many nephews and nieces belonging to him by a
+more authentic title, but none of these was in the least
+like Philip, whom none of all the kindred knew but himself,
+and who, so far as he was aware, had but one kinsman
+in the world, who was Uncle John. He had followed
+the development of the boy's mind always with
+a reference to those facts of which Philip knew nothing,
+which would be so wonderful to him when the revelation
+came. To John that little world at Lakeside&mdash;where
+the ladies had made an artificial existence for themselves,
+which was at the same time so natural, so sweet, so full
+of all the humanities and charities&mdash;was something like
+what we might suppose this erring world to be to some
+archangel great enough to see how everything is, not
+great enough to give the impulse that would put it
+right. If the great celestial intelligences are allowed
+to know and mark out perverse human ways, how much
+impatience with us must mingle with their tenderness
+and pity! John Tatham had little perhaps that was
+heavenly about him, but he loved Elinor and her son,
+and was absolutely free of selfishness in respect to them.
+Never, he was aware, could either woman or child be
+more to him than they were now. Nay, they were everything
+to him, but on their own account, not his; he
+desired their welfare absolutely, and not his own through
+them. Elinor was capable at any moment of turning
+upon him, of saying, if not in words, yet in undeniable
+inference, what is it to you? and the boy, though he
+gladly referred to Uncle John when Uncle John was in
+the way, took him with perfect composure as a being
+apart from his life. They were everything to him, but
+he was nothing to them. His whole heart was set upon
+their peace, upon their comfort and well-being, but as
+much apart from himself as if he had not been.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tatham was dining out that night, which was a
+good thing for him to distract his thoughts from this
+problem, which he could only torment himself about
+and could not solve; and there was an evening party at
+the same house&mdash;one of those quieter, less-frequented
+parties which are, people in London tell you, so much
+more agreeable than in the crowd of the season. It was
+a curious kind of coincidence that at this little assembly,
+which might have been thought not at all in her way,
+he met Lady Mariamne, accompanied by her daughter,
+again. It was not in her way, being a judge's house,
+where frivolity, though it had a certain place, was not
+the first element. But then when there are few things
+to choose from, people must not be too particular, and
+those who cannot have society absolutely of their own
+choosing, are bound, as in other cases of necessity, to
+take what they can get. And then Dolly liked to hear
+people talking of things which she did not understand.
+When Lady Mariamne saw that John Tatham was there
+she gave a little shriek of satisfaction, and rushed at him
+as if they had been the dearest friends in the world.
+"So delighted to see you <i>again</i>," she cried, giving everybody
+around the idea of the most intimate relationship.
+"It was the most wonderful good fortune that I got
+my Toto home in safety, poor darling; for you know,
+Mr. Tatham, you would not give him any tea, and Dolly,
+who is quite unnatural, pitched him into the carriage
+and simply sat upon him&mdash;sat upon him, Mr. Tatham!
+before I could interfere. Oh, you do not know half the
+trials a woman has to go through! And now please
+take me to have some coffee or something, and let us
+finish the conversation we were having when Dolly made
+me go away."</p>
+
+<p>John could not refuse his arm, nor his services in
+respect to the coffee, but he was mute on the subject
+on which his companion was bent. He tried to divert
+her attention by some questions on the subject of Dolly
+instead.</p>
+
+<p>"Dolly! oh, yes, she's a girl of the period, don't you
+know&mdash;not what a girl of the period used to be in <i>our</i>
+day, Mr. Tatham, when those nasty newspaper people
+wrote us down. Look at her talking to those two men,
+and laying down the law. Now, we never laid down the
+law; we knew best about things in our sphere&mdash;dress,
+and the drawing-room, and what people were doing in
+society. But Dolly would tell you how to manage your
+next great case, Mr. Tatham, or she could give one of
+those doctor-men a wrinkle about cutting off a leg.
+Gracious, I should have fainted only to hear of such a
+thing! Tell me, are those doctor-men supposed to be
+in society?" Lady Mariamne cried, putting up her thin
+shoulder (which was far too like a specimen of anatomy)
+in the direction of a famous physician who was blandly
+smiling upon the instruction which Miss Dolly assuredly
+intended to convey.</p>
+
+<p>"As much as lawyer-men are in society," replied
+John.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Tatham, such nonsense! Lawyers have
+always been in society. What are the Attorney General
+and Lord Chancellor and so forth? They are all
+lawyers; but I never heard of a doctor that was in the
+Cabinet, which makes all the difference. Here is a quiet
+corner, where nobody can disturb us. Sit down; it
+will be for all the world like sitting out a dance together:
+and tell me about Nell and her boy."</p>
+
+<p>"And what if I have nothing to tell?" said John,
+who did not feel at all like sitting out a dance; but, on
+the contrary, was much more upright and perpendicular
+than even a queen's counsel of fifty has any need to be.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sit down, <i>please!</i> I never could bear a man
+standing over me, as if he had swallowed a poker. Why
+did she go off and leave Phil? Where did she go to?
+I told you I went off on my own hook to that horrid
+place where they lived, and knocked up the old clergyman
+and the woman who wanted me to put on a shawl
+over one of the prettiest gowns I ever had. Fancy, the
+Vandal! But they knew nothing at all of her there.
+Where is Nell, Mr. Tatham? You don't pretend not
+to know. And the boy? Why he must be about eighteen&mdash;and
+if St. Serf were to die<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Mr. Tatham,
+you know it is quite, quite intolerable, and not to be
+borne! I don't know what steps Phil has taken. He
+has been awfully good&mdash;he has never said a word. To
+hear him you would think she was far too nice to be
+mixed up with a set of people like us. But now, you
+know, he must be got hold of&mdash;he must, he must! Why,
+he'd be Lomond if St. Serf were to die! and everybody
+would be crying out, 'Where's the heir?' After Phil
+there's the Bagley Comptons, and they would set up
+for being heirs presumptive, unless you can produce
+that boy."</p>
+
+<p>"But the boy is not mine that I should produce him,"
+said John.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Tatham! when Nell is your relation, and
+always, always was advised by you. You may tell that
+to the Marines, or anybody that will believe it. You
+need not think you can take me in."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not to take in anybody. If being advised by
+me means persistently declining to do what I suggest
+and recommend<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then, you are of the same opinion as I am!"
+said Lady Mariamne. "Bravo! now we shall manage
+something. If you had been like that years ago when
+I used to go to you, don't you remember, to beg you to
+smooth things down&mdash;but you would never see it, till
+the smash came."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish," said John, not without a little bitterness,
+"that I could persuade you how little influence I have.
+There are some women, I suppose, who take advice
+when it is given to them; but the women whom I have
+ever had anything to do with, I am sorry to say<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll promise," cried Lady Mariamne, putting her
+hands and rings together in an attitude of supplication,
+"to do what you tell me faithfully, if you'll advise me
+where I'll find the boy. Oh, let Nell alone, if you want
+to keep her to yourself&mdash;I sha'n't spoil sport, Mr. Tatham,
+I promise you," she cried, with her shrill laugh;
+"only tell me where I'll find the boy. What is it you
+want, Dolly, coming after me like a policeman? Don't
+you see I am busy? We are sitting out the dance, Mr.
+Tatham and I."</p>
+
+<p>Dolly did not join in her mother's laugh nor unbend
+in the least. "As there is no dancing," she said, "and
+everybody is going, I thought you would prefer to go
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"But we shall see you to-morrow, Mr. Tatham?
+Now, I cannot take any refusal. You must come, if it
+were only for Toto's sake; and Dolly will go out, I
+hope, on one of her great works and will not come to
+disturb us, just when I have persuaded you to speak&mdash;for
+you were just going to open your mouth. Now
+you know you were! Five o'clock to-morrow, Mr.
+Tatham, whatever happens. Now remember! and you
+are to tell me everything." She held up her finger to
+him, half threatening, half coaxing, and then, with a
+peal of laughter, yielded to Dolly, and was taken
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know, Tatham," said the Judge who was
+his host, "that you were on terms of such friendship
+with Lady Mariamne."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor did I," said John Tatham, with a yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Queer thing this is about that old business, in
+which her brother was mixed up&mdash;haven't you heard?
+one of those companies that came to smash somewhere
+about twenty years ago. The manager absconded, and
+there was something queer about the books. Well,
+the fellow, the manager, has been caught at last, and
+there will be a trial. It's in your way&mdash;you will be offered
+a brief, no doubt, with refreshers every day, you
+lucky fellow. I have just as much trouble and no refreshers.
+What a fool a man is, Tatham, ever to
+change the Bar for the Bench! Don't you do it, my
+dear fellow&mdash;take a man's advice who knows."</p>
+
+<p>"At least I shall wait till I am asked," said John.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you will be asked sooner or later&mdash;but don't
+do it&mdash;take example by those who have gone before
+you," said the great functionary, shaking his learned
+head.</p>
+
+<p>And the Judge's wife had also a word to say. "Mr.
+Tatham," she said, as he took his leave, "I know now
+what I have to do when I want to secure Lady Mariamne&mdash;I
+shall ask you."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you often want to secure Lady Mariamne?"
+said John.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is all very well to look as if you didn't care!
+She is, perhaps, a little <i>pass&eacute;e</i>, but still a great many
+people think her charming. Isn't there a family connection?"
+Lady Wigsby said, with a curiosity which
+she tried not to make too apparent, for she was acquainted
+with the ways of the profession, and knew
+that was the last thing likely to procure her the information
+she sought.</p>
+
+<p>"It cannot be called a connection. There was a
+marriage&mdash;which turned out badly."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr. Tatham, if the question
+was indiscreet! I hear Lord St. Serf is worse again,
+and not likely to last long; and there is some strange
+story about a lost heir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Lady Wigsby," John replied.</p>
+
+<p>And he added, "Confound Lord St. Serf," under his
+breath, as he went down-stairs.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not Lord St. Serf, poor man, who had
+done him no harm, whom John wished to be confounded
+because at last, after many threatenings, he was
+about to be so ill-advised as to die. It was some one
+very different. It was the woman who for much more
+than twenty years had been the chief object of John
+Tatham's thoughts.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Things relapsed into quietness for some time after
+that combination which seemed to be directed against
+John's peace of mind. If I said that it is not unusual
+for the current of events to run very quietly before a
+great crisis, I should not be saying anything original,
+since the torrent's calmness ere it dash below has
+been remarked before now. But it certainly was so in
+this instance. John, I need scarcely say, did not present
+himself at Lady Mariamne's on the afternoon at
+five when he was expected. He wrote a very civil note
+to say that he was unable to come, and still less able to
+give the information her ladyship required; and, to tell
+the truth, in his alarm lest Lady Mariamne should repeat
+her invasion, Mr. Tatham was guilty of concerting
+with his clerk, the excellent Simmons, various means
+of eluding such a danger. And he exercised the greatest
+circumspection in regard to his own invitations, and
+went nowhere where there was the least danger of
+meeting her. In this way for a few months he had
+kept himself safe.</p>
+
+<p>It may be imagined, then, how great was his annoyance
+when Simmons came in again, very diffident,
+coughing behind his hand, and taking shelter in the
+shaded part of the room, with the hesitating statement
+that a lady&mdash;who would take no denial, who looked as if
+she knew the chambers as well as he did, and could
+hardly be kept from walking straight in&mdash;was waiting
+to see Mr. Tatham. John sprang to his feet with
+words which were not benedictions. "I thought," he
+said, "you ass, that you knew exactly what to say."</p>
+
+<p>"But, sir," said Simmons, "it is not the same lady&mdash;it
+is not at all the same lady. It is a lady who<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>But here the question was summarily settled, for the
+door was pushed open though Simmons still held it
+with his hand, and a voice, which was more like the
+voice of Elinor Dennistoun at eighteen than that of
+Mrs. Compton, said quickly, "I know, John, that your
+door can't be shut for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor!" he said, getting up from his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," she repeated, "that there must be some
+mistake&mdash;that your door could not be shut for me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not," he said. "It is all right, Simmons;
+but who could have thought of seeing you
+here? It was a contingency I never anticipated.
+When did you come? where are you staying? Is Philip
+with you?" He overwhelmed her with questions, perhaps
+by way of stopping her mouth lest she should put
+questions still more difficult to answer to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me take breath a little," she said. "I scarcely
+have taken breath since the&mdash;thing happened which
+has brought me here; but I feel a little confidence now
+with the strong backing I have in you, John."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Elinor," he said, "I am afraid you must
+not look for any strong backing in me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" she cried. "Have you judged it all beforehand?
+And do you know&mdash;are you quite, quite sure,
+John, that I cannot avoid it in any way, that I am
+obliged at all costs to appear? I would rather fly the
+country, I would rather leave Lakeside altogether and
+settle abroad. There is nothing in the world that I
+would not rather do."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor," said John, with some sternness, "you cannot
+believe that I would oppose you in any possible
+thing. Your pleasure has been a law to me. I may
+have differed with you, but I have never made any difference."</p>
+
+<p>"John! you do not mean to say," she cried, turning
+pale, "that you are going to abandon me now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, that is merely a figure of speech," he
+said. "How could I abandon you? But it is quite
+true what that woman says, and I entirely agree with
+her and not with you in this respect, that the heir to a
+peerage cannot be hid<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"The heir to a peerage!" she faltered, looking at
+him astonished. Gradually a sort of slowly growing
+light seemed to diffuse itself over her face. "The heir
+to a peerage, John! I don't know what you mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this not your reason for coming to town?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing&mdash;that I know of&mdash;about the heir
+to a peerage. Who is this heir to a peerage? I don't
+know what you mean, but you frighten me. Is that a
+reason why I should be dragged out of my seclusion
+and made to appear in his defence? Oh, no&mdash;surely
+no; if he is <i>that</i>, they will let him off. They will not
+press it. I shall not be wanted. John, the more reason
+that you should stand by me<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"We are at cross-purposes, Elinor. What has
+brought you to London? Let me know on your side
+and then I shall understand what I have got to do."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>That</i> has brought me to London." She handed
+him a piece of paper which John knew very well the
+appearance of. He understood it better than she did,
+and he was not afraid of it, which she was, but he
+opened it all the same with a great deal of surprise.
+It was a subp&#339;na charging Elinor Compton to appear
+and bear testimony&mdash;in the case of the <i>Queen</i> versus
+<i>Brown</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Queen</i> versus <i>Brown!</i> What have you got to
+do with such a case? You, Elinor, of all people in the
+world! Oh!" he said suddenly as a light, but a dim
+one, began to break upon him. It was the case of which
+his friend the judge had spoken, and in which he had
+been offered a retainer, as a matter of fact, shortly after
+that talk. He had been obliged to refuse, his time being
+already fully taken up, and he had not looked into
+the case. But now it began slowly to dawn upon him
+that the trial was that of the once absconded manager
+of a certain joint-stock company, and that this was precisely
+the company in which Elinor's money had been
+all but invested by her husband. It might be upon
+that subject that she had to appear.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "I can imagine a possible reason
+why you should be called, and yet not a good one; for
+it was not of course you who were acting, but your&mdash;husband
+for you. It is he that should appear, and not
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John," she cried. "Oh, John!" wringing her
+hands. She had followed his looks eagerly, noticing
+the light that seemed to dawn over his face with a
+strange anxiety and keen interest. But John, it was
+evident, had not got the clue which she expected, and
+her face changed into impatience, disappointment, exasperation.
+"You have not heard anything about it,"
+she said; "you don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"It was brought to me," he said, "but I could not
+take it up&mdash;no, I don't know&mdash;except that it's curious
+from the lapse of time&mdash;twenty years or thereabouts:
+that's all I know."</p>
+
+<p>"The question is," she said, "about a date. There
+were some books destroyed, and it is not known who
+did it. Suspicion fell upon one&mdash;who might have been
+guilty: but that on that day&mdash;he arrived at the house
+of the girl&mdash;whom he was going to marry: and consequently
+could not have been there<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, "that is what I am wanted for, John,
+an excellent reason after all these years. I must appear
+to&mdash;clear my husband: and that is how Pippo
+will find out that I have a husband and he a father.
+Oh, John, John! support me with your approval, and
+help me, oh, help me to go away."</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious!" was all that John could say.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have gone first and asked you after," she
+cried, "for you are a lawyer, and I suppose you will
+think you must not advise any one to fly in the face of
+the law. And I don't even know whether it will be of
+any use to fly. Will they have it in the papers all
+the same? Will they put it in that his wife refused
+to appear on his behalf, that she had gone away
+to avoid the summons? Will it be all there for Pippo
+to guess and wonder at the name and come to me with
+questions, mother, who is this? and mother, what is
+that? John, can't you answer me, you that I came to
+to guide me, to tell me what I must do; have you nothing,
+nothing to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am too much bewildered to know what I am doing,
+Elinor. This is all sprung upon me like a mine:
+and there was plenty before."</p>
+
+<p>"There was nothing before," she cried, indignantly,
+"it was all plain sailing before. He knew nothing of
+family troubles&mdash;how should he, poor child, being so
+young? That was simple enough. And I think I see
+a way still, John. I will take him off at Easter for a
+trip abroad, and when we have started to go to Switzerland
+or somewhere, I will change my mind, and make
+him think of Greece or somewhere far, far away&mdash;the
+East where there will be no newspapers. Tell me when
+the trial will come on, and how long you think it will
+last, and I will keep him away till it is all over. John!
+you have nothing surely to say against that? Think
+from how much it will save the boy."</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible, Elinor, that the boy can be saved.
+I never knew of this complication, but there are other
+circumstances, of which I have lately heard."</p>
+
+<p>"What can any other circumstances have to do with
+it, John, even if he must hear? I know, I know, you
+have always been determined upon that. Is that the
+way you would have him hear, not only that he has a
+father, but that his father was involved in&mdash;in transactions
+like that before ever he was born?"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, let us understand each other," said Mr.
+Tatham. "You mean that you have it in your power
+to exonerate your husband, and he has had you subp&oelig;naed,
+knowing this?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with a look which he could not
+fathom. Was it reluctance to save Phil Compton that
+was in Elinor's eyes? Was she ready to leave her husband
+to destruction when she could prevent it, in order
+to save her boy from the knowledge of his existence?
+John Tatham was horrified by the look she fixed upon
+him, though he could not read it. He thought he
+could read it, and read it that way, in the way of hate
+and deliberate preference of her own will to all law and
+justice. There could be no such tremendous testimony
+to the power of that long continued, absolutely-faithful,
+visionary love which John Tatham bore to Elinor than
+that this discovery which he thought he had made did
+not destroy it. He was greatly shocked, but it made
+no difference in his feelings. Perhaps there was more
+of the brotherly character in them than he thought.
+For a moment they looked at each other, and he
+thought he made this discovery&mdash;while she met his
+eyes with that look which she did not know was inscrutable,
+which she feared was full of self-betrayal. "I
+believe," she said, bending her head, "that that is
+what he thinks."</p>
+
+<p>"If it had been me," said John Tatham, moved out
+of his habitual calm, "I would rather be proved guilty
+of anything than owe my safety to such an expedient as
+that. Drag in a woman who hates me to prove my alibi
+as if she loved me! By Jove, Elinor! you women have
+the gift of drawing out everything that's worst in men."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to make you hate me, John, which I don't
+think I have deserved."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I don't hate you. It's a consequence, I
+suppose, of use and wont. It makes little difference to
+me<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>She gave him another look which he did not understand&mdash;a
+wistful look, appealing to something, he did
+not know what&mdash;to his ridiculous partiality, he thought,
+and that stubborn domestic affection to which it was of
+so little importance what she did, as long as she was
+Elinor; and then she said with a woman's soft, endless
+pertinacity, "Then you think I may go?"</p>
+
+<p>He sprang from his seat with that impatient despair
+which is equally characteristic of the man. "Go!" he
+said, "when you are called upon by law to vindicate a
+man's character, and that man your husband! I ought
+not to be surprised at anything with my experience,
+but, Elinor, you take away my breath."</p>
+
+<p>She only smiled, giving him once more that look of
+appeal.</p>
+
+<p>"How can you think of it?" he said. "The subp&oelig;na
+is enough to keep any reasonable being, besides the
+other motive. You must not budge. I should feel my
+own character involved, as well as yours, if after consulting
+me on the subject you were guilty of an evasion
+after all."</p>
+
+<p>"It would not be your fault, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor! you are mad&mdash;it must not be done," he
+cried. "Don't defy me, I am capable of informing
+upon you, and having you stopped&mdash;by force&mdash;if you
+do not give this idea up."</p>
+
+<p>"By force!" she said, with her nostril dilating. "I
+shall go, of course, if I am threatened."</p>
+
+<p>"Then Philip must not go. Do you know what has
+happened in the family to which he belongs, and must
+belong, whether you like it or not? Do you know&mdash;that
+the boy may be Lord Lomond before the week is
+out? that his uncle is dying, and that your husband is
+the heir?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned round upon him slowly, fixing her eyes
+upon his, with simple astonishment and no more in her
+look. Her mind, so absorbed in other thoughts, hardly
+took in what he could mean.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not heard this, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"But there is Hal," she said, "Hal&mdash;the other
+brother&mdash;who comes first."</p>
+
+<p>"Hal is dead, and the one in India is dead, and Lord
+St. Serf is dying. The boy is the heir. You must not,
+you cannot, take him away. It is impossible, Elinor, it
+is against all nature and justice. You have had him
+for all these years; his father has a right to his heir."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John!" she cried, in a bitter note of reproach,
+"oh, John, John!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he cried, "is not what I tell you the truth?
+Would Philip give it up if it were offered to him? He
+is almost a man&mdash;let him judge for himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John, John! when you know that the object
+of my life has been to keep him from knowing&mdash;to
+shut that chapter of my life altogether; to bring him
+up apart from all evil influences, from all instructions<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"And from his birthright, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped, giving him another sudden look, the
+natural language of a woman brought to bay. She
+drew a long breath in impatience and desperation, not
+knowing what to reply; for what could she reply? His
+birthright! to be Lord Lomond, Lord St. Serf, the
+head of the house. What was that? Far, far better
+Philip Dennistoun, of Lakeside, the heir of his mother
+and his grandmother, two stainless women, with
+enough for everything that was honest and of good report,
+enough to permit him to be an unworldly scholar,
+a lover of art, a traveller, any play-profession that he
+chose if he did not incline to graver work. Ah! but
+she had not been so wise as that, she had not brought
+him up as Philip Dennistoun. He was Philip Compton,
+she had not been bold enough to change his name.
+She stood at bay, surrounded as it were by her enemies,
+and confronted John Tatham, who had been her
+constant companion and defender, as if all that was
+hostile to her, all that was against her peace was embodied
+in him.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go a little further, Elinor," said John,
+"though God knows that to add to your pain is the
+last thing in the world I wish. You have been left unmolested
+for a very long time, and we have all thought
+your retreat was unknown. I confess it has surprised
+me, for my experience has always been that everything
+is known. But you have been subp&oelig;naed for this trial,
+therefore, my dear girl, we must give up that idea.
+Everybody, that is virtually everybody, all that are of
+any consequence, know where you are and all you are
+about now."</p>
+
+<p>She sank into a chair, still keeping her eyes upon
+him, as if it were possible that he might take some advantage
+of her if she withdrew them; then, still not
+knowing what to reply, seized at the last words because
+they were the last, and had little to do with the main
+issue. "All about me?" she said faintly, as if there
+had been something else besides the place of her refuge
+to conceal.</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean, Elinor. The moment that
+your home is known all is known. That Philip lives
+and is well, a promising boy; that you have brought
+him up to do honour to any title or any position."</p>
+
+<p>He could not help saying this, and partly in the testimony
+to her, partly for love of the boy, John Tatham's
+voice faltered a little and the water came into his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, John! you say that!" she cried, as if it had
+been an admission forced from him against his will.</p>
+
+<p>"What could I say otherwise? Elinor, because I
+don't approve of all your proceedings, because I don't
+think you have been wise in one respect, is that to say
+that I do not understand and know <i>you?</i> I am not
+such a fool or a formalist as you give me credit for being.
+You have made him all that the fondest and
+proudest could desire. You have done far better for
+him, I do not doubt for a moment, than<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But, my
+dear cousin, my dear girl, my poor Nellie<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, John?"</p>
+
+<p>He paused a moment, and then he said, "Right is
+right, and justice is justice at the end of all."</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>When Elinor received the official document which
+had so extraordinary an effect upon her life, and overturned
+in a moment all the fabric of domestic quiet
+and security which she had been building up for years,
+it was outside the tranquil walls of the house at Lakeside,
+in the garden which lay between it and the high-road,
+opening upon that not very much-frequented road
+by a pair of somewhat imposing gates, which gave the
+little establishment an air of more pretension than it
+really possessed. Some fine trees shrouded the little
+avenue, and Elinor was standing under one of them,
+stooping over a little nest of primroses at its roots, from
+which the yellow buds were peeping forth, when she
+heard behind her the sound of a vehicle at the gates,
+and the quick leap to the ground of someone who
+opened them. Then there was a pause; the carriage,
+whatever it was, did not come farther, and presently
+she herself, a little curious, turned round to see a man
+approaching her, whom she did not know. A dog-cart
+driven by another, whose face she recognized, waited
+in the road while the stranger came forward. "You
+are Mrs. Compton, ma'am?" he said. A swift thrill of
+alarm, she could scarcely tell why, ran over Elinor from
+head to foot. She had been settled for nearly eighteen
+years at Lakeside. What could happen to frighten her
+now? but it tingled to her very fingers' ends. And
+then he said something to her which she scarcely understood,
+but which sent that tingle to her very heart
+and brain, and gave her the suspicious looking blue
+paper which he held in his hand. It all passed in a
+moment of time to her dazed yet excited consciousness.
+The early primrose which she had gathered had not
+had time to droop in her grasp, though she crushed the
+stalk unconsciously in her fingers, before the gates were
+closed again, the sound of the departing wheels growing
+faint on the road, and she herself standing like one
+paralyzed with that thing in her hand. A subp&oelig;na!&mdash;what
+was a subp&oelig;na? She knew as little, perhaps less,
+than the children in the parish school, who began to
+troop along the road in their resounding clogs at their
+dinner hour. The sound of this awoke her a little to a
+frightened sense that she had better put this document
+out of sight, at least until she could manage to understand
+it. And then she sped swiftly away past the
+pretty white house lying in the sunshine, with all its
+doors and windows open, to the little wood behind,
+where it would be possible to think and find out at her
+leisure what this was. It was a small wood and a public
+path ran through it; but where the public was so
+limited as at Lakeside this scarcely impaired the privacy
+of the inhabitants, at least in the morning, when
+everybody in the parish was at work. Elinor hurried
+past the house that her mother might not see her, and
+climbed the woody hillock to a spot which was peculiarly
+her own, and where a seat had been placed for
+her special use. It was a little mount of vision from
+which she could look out, up and down, at the long
+winding line of the lake cleaving the green slopes, and
+away to the rugged and solemn peaks among which lay,
+in his mountain fastnesses, Helvellyn, with his hoary
+brethren crowding round him. Elinor had watched the
+changes of many a north-country day, full of endless
+vicissitudes, of flying clouds and gleams of sunshine,
+from that seat, and had hoped and tried to believe that
+nothing, save these vicissitudes of nature, would ever
+again disturb her. Had she really believed that? Her
+heart thumping against her breast, and the pulses of her
+brain beating loud in her ears, answered "No." She
+had never believed it&mdash;she had known, notwithstanding
+all her obstinacy, and indignant opposition to all who
+warned her, that some day or other her home must be
+broken up, and the storm burst upon her. But even
+such a conviction, desperately fought against and resisted,
+is a very different matter from the awful sense
+of certainty that it has come, <i>now</i><span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span></p>
+
+<p>The trees were thick enough to conceal her from any
+passer-by on the path, the young half-unfolded foliage
+of the birches fluttered over her head, while a solid fir
+or two stood, grim guardians, yet catching pathetic
+airs from every passing wind to soothe her. But Elinor
+neither heard nor saw lake, mountain, nor sunshine,
+nor spring breezes, but only the bit of paper in
+her hand, and the uncomprehended words she had
+heard when it was given to her. It was not long, however,
+before she perceived and knew exactly what it
+meant. It was a subp&#339;na in the case of "The Queen
+<i>versus</i> Brown," to attend and give evidence on a certain
+day in May, in London. It was for a few minutes a
+mystery to her as great as it was alarming, notwithstanding
+the swift and certain mental conviction she
+had that it concerned infallibly the one secret and mystery
+of her life. But as she sat there pondering, those
+strange strays of recollection that come to the mind, of
+things unnoted, yet unconsciously stored by memory,
+drew gradually about her, piecing out the threads of
+conviction. She remembered to have heard her mother
+read, among the many scraps which Mrs. Dennistoun
+loved to read out when the newspaper arrived, something
+about a man who had absconded, whose name
+was Brown, who had brought ruin on many, and had at
+length, after a number of years, ventured back to England
+and had been caught. It was one of the weaknesses
+of Mrs. Dennistoun's advancing years to like
+these bits of news, though there might be little interest
+in them to so quiet a household; and her daughter
+was wont to listen with a very vague attention, noting
+but a word now and then, answering vaguely the lively
+remarks her mother would make on the subjects. In
+this case even she had paid no attention; and yet, the
+moment that strong keynote had been struck, which vibrated
+through her whole being, this echo suddenly
+woke up and resounded as if it had been thundered in
+her ears&mdash;"Brown!" She began to remember bit by
+bit&mdash;and yet what had she to do with Brown? He had
+not defrauded her; she had never seen him; she knew
+nothing about his delinquencies. Then there came another
+note faintly out of the distance of the years: her
+husband's image, I need not say, had come suddenly
+into her sight with the first burst of this new event.
+His voice seemed to be in the air saying half-forgotten
+things. What had he to do with this man? Oh, she
+knew very well there was something&mdash;something!
+which she would have given her life not to recollect;
+which she knew in another moment would flash completely
+upon her as she tried not to remember it. And
+then suddenly her working mind caught another string
+which was not that; which was a relief to that for
+the moment. Brown!&mdash;who was it that had talked
+of Brown?&mdash;and the books that were destroyed&mdash;and
+the<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>and the<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>
+day that Phil Compton arrived at
+Windyhill?</p>
+
+<p>Elinor rose up from her seat with a gasp. She put
+her arm round the rough stem of the fir-tree to support
+herself, but it shook with her though there was no
+wind, only the softest of morning airs. She saw before
+her a scene very different from this&mdash;the flowery garden
+at the cottage with the copse and the sandy road
+beyond, and the man whom Phil had expected, whom
+he had been so anxious to see&mdash;and his fingers catching
+hers, keeping her by him, and the questions to which
+she had replied. Twenty years! What a long time it
+is! time enough for a boy to grow into almost a man
+who had not been born or thought of&mdash;and yet what a
+moment, what a nothing! Her mind flashed from that
+scene in the garden to the little hall in the cottage, the
+maid stooping down fastening the bolt of the door, the
+calendar hanging on the wall with the big 6 showing so
+visible, so obtrusive, forcing itself as it were on the
+notice of all. "Only ten days, Nell!" And the maid's
+glance upwards of shy sympathy, and the blank of Mrs.
+Dennistoun's face, and his look. Oh, that look of his!
+which was true and yet so false; which meant so much
+besides, and yet surely, surely meant love too!</p>
+
+<p>The young fir-tree creaked and swayed in Elinor's
+grip. She unloosed it as if the slim thing had cried
+under the pressure, and sat down again. She had
+nothing to grasp at, nothing. Oh, her life had not been
+without support! Her mother&mdash;how extraordinary had
+been her good fortune to have her mother to fall back
+upon when she was shipwrecked in her life&mdash;to have a
+home, a shelter, a perpetual protector and champion,
+who, whether she approved or disapproved, would forsake
+her never. And then the boy, God bless him!
+who might quiver like the little fir if she flung herself
+upon him, but who, she knew, would stand as true.
+Oh, God forbid, God forbid that he should ever know!
+Oh, God help her, God help her! how was she to keep
+it from his knowledge? Elinor flung herself down upon
+the mossy knoll in her despair as this came pouring into
+her mind a flood of horrible light, of unimaginable
+bitterness. He must not know, he must not know; and
+yet how was it to be kept from his knowledge? It was
+a public thing; it could not be hid. It would be in all
+the papers, his father's name: and the boy did not
+know he had a father living. And his mother's evidence
+on behalf of her husband; and the boy thought
+she had no husband.</p>
+
+<p>This was what had been said to her again and again
+and again. Sometime the boy must know&mdash;and she had
+pushed it from her angrily, indignantly asking why
+should he know? though in the bottom of her own
+heart she too was aware that it was the delusion of a
+fool, and that the time must come<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But how could
+she ever have thought that it would come like this, that
+the boy would discover his father through the summons
+of his mother to a public court to defend her husband
+from a criminal accusation? Oh, life that pardons
+nothing! Oh, severe, unchanging heaven!&mdash;that this
+should be the way!</p>
+
+<p>And then there came into Elinor's mind wild thoughts
+of flight. She was not a woman whose nature it was
+to endure. When things became intolerable to her
+she fled from them, as the reader knows; escaped,
+shutting her ears to all advice and her heart to all
+thoughts except that life had become intolerable, and
+that she could bear it no longer. It is not easy to hold
+the balance even in such matters. Had Elinor fulfilled
+what would appear to many her first duty, and stood by
+Phil through neglect, ill-treatment, and misery, as she
+had vowed, for better, for worse, she would by this
+time have been not only a wretched but a deteriorated
+woman, and her son most probably would have been
+injured both in his moral and intellectual being. What
+she had done was not the abstract duty of her marriage
+vow, but it had been better&mdash;had it not been better
+for them both? In such a question who is to be the
+judge? And now again there came surging up into
+Elinor's veins the impulse of flight. To take the boy
+and fly. She could take him where he wished most to
+go, to the scenes of that literature and history of which
+his schoolboy head was full, to the happiest ideal wandering,
+his mother and he, two companions almost better
+than lovers. How his eyes would brighten at the
+thought! among the summer seas, the golden islands,
+the ideal countries&mdash;away from all the trouble and
+cares, all the burdens of the past, all the fears of the
+future! Why should she be held by that villainous
+paper and obey that dreadful summons? Why allow
+all her precautions, all the fabric of her life to fall in a
+moment? Why pour upon the boy the horror of that
+revelation, when everything she had done and planned
+all his life had been to keep it from him? In the sudden
+energy of that new possibility of escape Elinor rose
+up again from the prostration of despair. She saw
+once more the line of shining water at her feet full of
+heavenly splendour, the mountain tops sunning themselves
+in the morning light, the peace and the beauty
+that was over all. And there was nothing needed but
+a long journey, which would be delightful, full of pleasure
+and refreshment, to secure her peace to her, and to
+save her boy.</p>
+
+<p>When she had calmed herself with this new project,
+which, the moment it took form in her mind seemed of
+itself, without reference to the cause, the most delightful
+project in the world and full of pleasure&mdash;Elinor
+smoothed back her hair, put her garden hat, which had
+got a little out of order, straight, and took her way
+again towards the house. Her heart had already escaped
+from the shock and horror and was beating
+softly, exhausted yet refreshed, in her bosom. She
+felt almost like a child who had sobbed all its troubles
+out, or like a convalescent recovering from a brief but
+violent illness, and pathetically happy in the cessation
+of pain. She went along quietly, slowly, by the woodland
+path among the trees full of the sweetness of the
+morning which seemed to have come back to her.
+Should she say anything about it to her mother, or only
+by degrees announce to her the plan she had begun to
+form for Pippo's pleasure, the long delightful ramble
+which would come between his school-time and the
+university? She had almost decided that she would do
+this when she went into the house; but she had not
+been half an hour with her mother when her intention
+became untenable, for the good reason that she had
+already told Mrs. Dennistoun of the new incident.
+They were not in the habit of keeping secrets from
+each other, and in that case there is nothing in the
+world so difficult. It requires training to keep one's
+affairs to one's self in the constant presence of those
+who are our nearest and dearest. Some people may be
+capable of this effort of self-control, but Elinor was
+not. She had showed that alarming paper to her
+mother with a partial return of her own terror at the
+sight of it before she knew. And I need not say that
+for a short time Mrs. Dennistoun was overwhelmed by
+that natural horror too.</p>
+
+<p>"But," she said, "what do you know, what can you
+tell about this Mr. Brown, Elinor? You never saw him
+in your life."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I know what it means," said Elinor, with a
+sudden dark glow of colour, which faded instantly,
+leaving her quite pale. She added hurriedly, "There
+were some books destroyed. I cannot tell you the
+rights of the story. It is too dreadful altogether, but&mdash;another
+was exculpated by the date of the day he arrived
+at Windyhill. This must be the reason I am
+called."</p>
+
+<p>"The date he arrived&mdash;before your marriage, Elinor?
+But then they might call me, and you need not appear."</p>
+
+<p>"Not for the world, mother!" cried Elinor. The
+colour rose again and faded. "Besides, you do not remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I could make it out," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+"It was when he came from Scotland, and went off in
+the evening next day. I don't at this moment remember
+what the day was, but I could make it out. It was
+about a fortnight before, it was<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember, mother, the little calendar in
+the hall, and what it marked, and what he said?"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember, of course, perfectly well the little calendar
+in the hall. You gave it me at Christmas, and it
+was always out of order, and never kept right. But I
+could make it out without that."</p>
+
+<p>"You must not think of it for a moment," cried
+Elinor, with a shudder. There had been so many
+things to think of that it had scarcely occurred to her
+what it was to which she had to bear witness. She
+told her mother hurriedly the story of that incident,
+and then she added, without stopping to take breath,
+"But I will not appear. I cannot appear. We must
+keep it out of the papers, at every cost. Mother, do
+not think it dreadful of me. I will run away with
+Pippo; far away, if you will not be anxious. This is
+just his chance between school and college. I will take
+him to Greece."</p>
+
+<p>"To Greece, Elinor?" Mrs. Dennistoun cried, with
+almost a shriek.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, dear, it is not so very far away."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not thinking how far away it is, Elinor. And
+leave his father's reputation to suffer? Leave him perhaps
+to be ruined&mdash;by a false charge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother," cried Elinor, starting to her feet.
+She was quite unprepared for such remonstrance.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, I have not opposed you; though there
+have been many things I have scarcely approved of.
+But, Elinor, this must not be. Run away from the
+law? Allow another to suffer when you can clear him?
+Elinor, Elinor, this must not be&mdash;unless I can go and
+be his witness in your place. I might do that," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun, seriously. She paused a moment,
+and then she said, "But I think you are wrong about
+the sixth. He stayed only one night, and the night he
+went away was the night that Alick Hudson&mdash;who was
+going up for his examination. I can make it out exactly,
+if you will give me a little time to think it over.
+My poor child! that you should have this to disturb
+your peace. But I will go, Elinor. I can clear him as
+well as you."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor stood up before her, pallid as a ghost. "For
+God's sake, mother, not another word," she said, with
+a dreadful solemnity. "The burden is mine, and I
+must bear it. Let us not say a word more."</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>I will not confuse the reader with a description of
+all Elinor's thoughts during the slow progress of that
+afternoon and evening, which were as the slow passing
+of a year to her impatient spirit. She took the usual
+afternoon walk with her mother soberly, as became
+Mrs. Dennistoun's increasing years, and then she made
+a pretext of some errands in the village to occupy her
+until dark, or rather to leave her free to twist the
+thread of her own thoughts as she went along the silent
+country road. Her thoughts varied in the afternoon
+from those which had seized upon her with such vulture's
+claws in the morning; but they were not less
+overwhelming in that respect. Her mother's suggestion
+that <i>she</i> and not Elinor should be the witness of
+that date, and then her ponderings as to that date, her
+slow certainty that she could make it out, or puzzle it
+out, as Elinor in her impatience said, which was the
+last of all things to be desired&mdash;had stung the daughter
+into a new and miserable realization of what it was that
+was demanded of her, which nobody could do but she.
+What was it that would be demanded of her? To
+stand up in the face of God and man and swear to tell
+the truth, and tell&mdash;a lie: or else let the man who had
+been her husband, the love of her youth, the father of
+her boy, sink into an abyss of shame. She thought
+rapidly, knowing nothing, that surely there could be no
+punishment for him, even if it were proved, at the long
+interval of twenty years. But, shame&mdash;there would be
+shame. Nothing could save him from that. Shame
+which would descend more or less to his son. And
+then Elinor reflected, with hot moisture coming out
+upon her forehead against the cold breeze of the
+spring night, on what would be asked of her. Oh, no
+doubt, it would be cleverly done! She would be
+asked if she remembered his visit, and why she remembered
+it. She would be led on carefully to tell the
+story of the calendar in the hall, and of how it was but
+ten days before her marriage&mdash;the last hurried, unexpected
+visit of the lover before he came as a bridegroom
+to take her away. It would be all true, every word,
+and yet it would be a lie. And standing up there in
+that public place, she would be made to repeat it, as
+she had done in the flowery garden, in the sunshine,
+twenty years ago&mdash;then dazed and bewildered, not
+knowing what she did, and with something of the
+blind confidence of youth and love in saying what she
+was told to say; but now with clearer insight, with a
+horrible certainty of the falsehood of that true story,
+and the object with which it was required of her.
+Happily for herself, Elinor did not think of the ordeal
+of cross-examination through which witnesses have to
+pass. She would not, I think, have feared that if the
+instinct of combativeness had been roused in her:
+her quick wit and ready spirit would not have failed in
+defending herself, and in maintaining the accuracy
+of the fact to which she had to bear witness. It was
+herself, and not an opposing counsel, that was alarming
+to Elinor. But I have promised that the reader
+should not be compelled to go through all the trouble
+and torment of her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Dinner, with the respect which is necessary for the
+servant who waits, whether that may be a solemn butler
+with his myrmidons, or a little maid&mdash;always makes
+a pause in household communications; but when the
+ladies were established afterwards by the pleasant fireside
+which had been their centre of life for so many
+years, and with the cheerful lamp on the table between
+them which had lighted so many cheerful talks, readings,
+discussions, and consultations, the new subject of
+anxiety and interest immediately came forth again. It
+was Mrs. Dennistoun who spoke first. She had grown
+older, as we all do; she wore spectacles as she worked,
+and often a white shawl on her shoulders, and was&mdash;as
+sometimes her daughter felt, with shame of herself to
+remark it&mdash;a little slower in speech, a little more pertinacious
+and insistent, not perhaps perceiving with
+such quick sympathy the changes and fluctuations of
+other minds, and whether it was advisable or not to
+follow a subject to the bitter end. She said, looking
+up from her knitting, with a little rhetorical movement
+of her hand which Elinor feared, and which showed
+that she felt herself on assured and certain ground:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, I have been thinking. I have made it
+out day by day. God knows there were plenty of landmarks
+in it to keep any one from forgetting. I can
+now make out certainly the day&mdash;of which we were
+speaking; and if you will give me your attention for a
+minute or two, Elinor, you will see that whatever the
+calendar said&mdash;which I never noticed, for it was as
+often wrong as right&mdash;you are making a mis<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for Heaven's sake, mother," cried Elinor, "don't
+let us talk of that any more!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no desire to talk of it, my dear child; but
+for what you said I should never<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> But of course we
+must take some action about this thing&mdash;this paper you
+have got. And it seems to me that the best thing
+would be to write to John, and see whether he could
+not manage to get it transferred from you to me. I
+can't see what difficulty there could be about that."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not have it for the world, mother! And
+what good would it do? The great thing in it, the
+dreadful thing, would be unchanged. Whether you
+appear or me, Pippo would be made to know, all the
+same, what it has been our joint object to conceal from
+him all his life."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun did not say anything, but she would
+not have been mortal if she had not, very slightly, but
+yet very visibly to keen eyes, shaken her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you mean," said Elinor, vehemently,
+"that it has been I, and not we, whose object has been
+to conceal it from him. Oh, yes, I know you are right;
+but at least you consented to it, you have helped in it,
+it is your doing as well as mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, Elinor!" cried her mother, who, having
+always protested, was not prepared for this accusation.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any advantage to be got," said Elinor, like
+an injured and indignant champion of the right, "in
+opening up the whole question over again now?"</p>
+
+<p>What could poor Mrs. Dennistoun do? She was
+confounded, as she often had been before, by those
+swift and sudden tactics. She gave a glance up at her
+daughter over her spectacles, but she said nothing.
+Argument, she knew by long experience, was difficult
+to keep up with such an opponent.</p>
+
+<p>"But John is an idea," said Elinor. "I don't know
+why I should not have thought of him. He may suggest
+something that could be done."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought of him, of course, at once," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun, not able to refrain from that small piece
+of self-assertion. "It is not a time that it would be
+easy for him to leave town; but at least you could
+write and lay your difficulties before him, and suggest<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you may be sure, mother," cried Elinor, "I
+know what I have to say."</p>
+
+<p>"I never doubted it, my dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+gently.</p>
+
+<p>And then there was a little pause. They sat and
+worked, the elder lady stumbling a little over her knitting,
+her thoughts being so much engaged; the
+younger one plying a flying needle, the passion and
+impetus of her thoughts lending only additional swiftness
+and vigour to everything she did. And for ten
+minutes or more there was nothing to be heard in the
+room but the little drop of ashes from the fire, the sudden
+burst of a little gas-flame from the coals, the rustle
+of Elinor's arm as it moved. The cat sat with her tail
+curled round her before the fire, the image of dignified
+repose, winking at the flames. The two human inhabitants,
+save for the movements of their hands, might
+have been in wax, they were so still. Suddenly, however,
+the quietness was broken by an energetic movement.
+Elinor threw her work down on the table and
+rose from her chair. She went to the window and
+drew the curtain aside, and looked out upon the night.
+She shut it carefully again, and going to the writing-table,
+struck a match and lighted the candles there,
+and sat down and began, or appeared to begin, to
+write. Then she rose quickly again and returned to
+the table at which Mrs. Dennistoun was still seated,
+knitting on, but watching every movement of her restless
+companion. "Mother," she said, "I can't write, I
+have far too much to say. I will run up to town to-morrow
+myself and see John."</p>
+
+<p>"To town, Elinor, by yourself? My dear, you forget
+it is not an hour's journey, as it was to Windyhill."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that very well, mother. But even the journey
+will be an advantage. The movement will do me
+good, and I can tell John much better than I could
+write. Who could write about a complicated business
+like this? He will understand me when he sees me at
+half a word; whereas in writing one can never explain.
+Don't oppose me, please, mother! I feel that to do
+something, to get myself in motion, is the only thing
+for me now."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not oppose you, Elinor. I have done so,
+perhaps, too little, my dear; but we will not speak of
+that. No doubt, as you say, you will understand each
+other better if you tell him the circumstances face to
+face. But, oh, my dear child, do nothing rash! Be
+guided by John; he is a prudent adviser. The only
+thing is that he, no more than I, has ever been able to
+resist you, Elinor, if you had set your heart upon any
+course. Oh, my dear, don't go to John with a foregone
+conclusion. Hear first what he has to say!"</p>
+
+<p>Elinor came behind her mother with one of those
+quick returns of affectionate impulse which were natural
+to her, and put her arms suddenly round Mrs.
+Dennistoun. "You have always been far too good to
+me, mamma," she said, kissing her tenderly, "both
+John and you."</p>
+
+<p>And next morning she carried out her swiftly conceived
+intention and went to town, as the reader is
+aware. A long railway journey is sometimes soothing
+to one distracted with agitation and trouble. The
+quiet and the noise, which serves as a kind of accompaniment,
+half silencing, half promoting too active
+thought; the forced abstraction and silence, and semi-imprisonment
+of mind and body, which are equally
+restless, but which in that enclosure are bound to
+self-restraint, exercise, in spite of all struggles of the
+subject, a subduing effect. And it was a strange thing
+that in the seclusion of the railway compartment in
+which she travelled alone there came for the first time
+to Elinor a softening thought, the sudden sensation of
+a feeling, of which she had not been sensible for years,
+towards the man whose name she bore. It occurred
+to her quite suddenly, she could not tell how, as if
+some one invisible had thrown that reflection into her
+mind (and I confess that I am of opinion they do:
+those who are around us, who are unseen, darting into
+our souls thoughts which do not originate with us,
+thoughts not always of good, blasphemies as well as
+blessings)&mdash;it occurred to her, I say, coming into her
+mind like an arrow, that after all she had not been so
+well hidden as she thought all these years, seeing that
+she had been found at once without difficulty, it appeared,
+when she was wanted. Did this mean that he
+had known where she was all the time&mdash;known, but
+never made any attempt to disturb her quiet? The
+thought startled her very much, revealing to her a
+momentary glimpse of something that looked like magnanimity,
+like consideration and generous self-restraint.
+Could these things be? He could have hurt her very
+much had he pleased, even during the time she had
+remained at Windyhill, when certainly he knew where
+she was: and he had not done so. He might have
+taken her child from her: at least he might have made
+her life miserable with fears of losing her child: and
+he had not done so. If indeed it was true that he had
+known where she was all the time and had never done
+anything to disturb her, what did that mean? This
+thought gave Elinor perhaps the first sense of self-reproach
+and guilt that she had ever known towards this
+man, who was her husband, yet whom she had not seen
+for more than eighteen years.</p>
+
+<p>And then there was another thing. After that
+interval he was not afraid to put himself into her
+hands&mdash;to trust to her loyalty for his salvation. He
+knew that she could betray him&mdash;and he knew equally
+well that she would not do so, notwithstanding the
+eighteen years of estrangement and mutual wrong that
+lay between. It did not matter that the loyalty he
+felt sure of would be a false loyalty, an upholding of
+what was not true. He would think little of that, as
+likely as not he had forgotten all about that. He
+would know that her testimony would clear him, and
+he would not think of anything else; and even did he
+think of it the fact of a woman making a little mis-statement
+like that would never have affected Philip.
+But the strange thing was that he had no fear she
+would revenge herself by standing up against him&mdash;no
+doubt of her response to his appeal; he was as ready
+to put his fate in her hands as if she had been the most
+devoted of wives&mdash;his constant companion and champion.
+This had the most curious effect upon her mind,
+almost greater than the other. She had shown no
+faith in him, but he had faith in her. Reckless and
+guilty as he was, he had not doubted her. He had put
+it in her power to convict him not only of the worst
+accusation that was brought against him, but of a
+monstrous trick to prove his <i>alibi</i>, and a cruel wrong to
+her compelling her to uphold that as true. She was
+able to expose him, if she chose, as no one else could
+do; but he had not been afraid of that. This second
+thought, which burst upon Elinor without any volition
+of her own, had the most curious effect upon her.
+She abstained carefully, anxiously, from allowing
+herself to be drawn into making any conclusion
+from these darts of unintended thoughts. But they
+moved her in spite of herself. They made her think
+of him, which she had for a long time abstained from
+doing. She had shut her heart for years from any
+recollection of her husband, trying to ignore his existence
+in thought as well as in fact. And she had succeeded
+for a long time in doing this. But now in a
+moment all her precautions were thrown to the winds.
+He came into her memory with a sudden rush for
+which she was no way responsible, breaking all the
+barriers she had put up against him: that he should
+have known where she was all this time, and never disturbed
+her, respected her solitude all these years&mdash;that
+when the moment of need came he should, without a
+word to conciliate her, without an explanation or an
+apology, have put his fate into her hands<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> To the
+reader who understands I need not say more of the
+effect upon the mind of Elinor, hasty, generous, impatient
+as she was of these two strange facts. There
+are many in the world who would have given quite a
+different explanation&mdash;who would have made out of
+the fact that he had not disturbed her only the explanation
+that Phil Compton was tired of his wife and
+glad to get rid of her at any price: and who would
+have seen in his appeal to her now only audacity combined
+with the conviction that she would not compromise
+herself by saying anything more than she
+could help about him. I need not say which of these
+interpretations would have been the true one. But the
+first will understand and not the other what it was that
+for the first time for eighteen years awakened a struggle
+and controversy which she could not ignore, and vainly
+endeavoured to overcome, in Elinor's heart.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Elinor had not been three days gone, indeed her
+mother had but just received a hurried note announcing
+her arrival in London, when as she sat alone in the
+house which had become so silent, Mrs. Dennistoun
+suddenly became aware of a rising of sound of the most
+jubilant, almost riotous description. It began by the
+barking of Yarrow, the old colley, who was fond of
+lying at the gate watching in a philosophic way of his
+own the mild traffic of the country road, the children
+trooping by to school, who hung about him in clusters,
+with lavish offerings of crust and scraps of biscuit, and
+all the leisurely country <i>fl&acirc;neurs</i> whom the good dog
+despised, not thinking that he himself did nothing but
+<i>fl&acirc;ner</i> at his own door in the sun. A bark from Yarrow
+was no small thing in the stillness of the spring afternoon,
+and little Urisk, the terrier, who lay wrapt in
+dreams at Mrs. Dennistoun's feet, heard where he lay
+entranced in the folds of sleep and cocked up an eager
+ear and uttered a subdued interrogation under his
+breath. The next thing was no bark, but a shriek of
+joy from Yarrow, such as could mean nothing in the
+world but "Philip!" or Pippo, which was what no
+doubt the dogs called him between following their
+mistress. Urisk heard and understood. He made but
+one spring from the footstool on which he lay and
+flung himself against the door. Mrs. Dennistoun sat
+for a moment and listened, much disturbed. When
+some troublous incident occurs in the deep quiet of
+domestic life how often is it followed by another, and
+her heart turned a little sick. She was not comforted
+even by the fact that Urisk was waggling not his tail
+only, but his whole little form in convulsions of joy,
+barking, crying aloud for the door to open, to let him
+forth. By this time all the friendly dogs about had
+taken up the sound out of sympathy with Yarrow's yells
+of delight&mdash;and into this came the clang of the gate,
+the sound of wheels, an outcry in a human voice, that
+of Barbara, the maid&mdash;and then a young shout that rang
+through the air&mdash;"Where's my mother, Barbara, where's
+granny?" Philip, it may be imagined, did not wait for
+any answer, but came in headlong. Yarrow leaping after
+him, Urisk springing into the air to meet him&mdash;himself
+in too great a hurry to heed either, flinging himself
+upon the astonished lady who rose to meet him,
+with a sudden kiss, and a "Where's my mother,
+granny?" of eager greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"Pippo! Good gracious, boy, what's brought you
+home now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing but good news," he said, "so good I
+thought I must come. I've got it, granny: where <i>is</i> my
+mother<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"You've got it?" she said, so full of other thoughts
+that she could not recollect what it was he meant.
+Pippo thought, as Elinor sometimes thought, that his
+granny was getting slow of understanding&mdash;not so
+bright as she used to be in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, granny, you've been dozing: the scholarship!
+I've got it&mdash;I thought you would know the moment you
+heard me at the door<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy," she said, putting her arms about
+him, while the tall boy stood for the homage done to
+him&mdash;the kiss of congratulation. "You have got the
+scholarship! notwithstanding Howard and Musgrave
+and the hard fight there was to be<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Pippo nodded, with a bright face of pleasure.
+"But," he said&mdash;"I can't say I'm sorry I've got it,
+granny&mdash;but I wish there had been another for Musgrave:
+for he worked harder than I did, and he wanted
+so to win. But so did I, for that matter. And where
+is my mother all this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"How delighted she will be: and what a comfort to
+her just now when she is upset and troubled! My
+dear, it'll be a dreadful disappointment to you: your
+mother is in London. She had to hurry off the day
+before yesterday&mdash;on business."</p>
+
+<p>"In London!" cried Pippo. His countenance fell:
+he was so much disappointed that for a moment, big
+boy as he was, he looked ready to cry. He had come
+in bursting with his news, expecting a reception almost
+as tumultuous as that given him by the dogs outside.
+And he found only his grandmother, who forgot what
+it was he was "in for"&mdash;and no mother at all!</p>
+
+<p>"It is a disappointment, Pippo&mdash;and it will be such
+a disappointment to her not to hear it from your own
+lips: but you must telegraph at once, and that will be
+next best. She has some worrying business&mdash;things
+that she hates to look after&mdash;and this will give her a
+little heart."</p>
+
+<p>"What a bore!" said Pippo, with his crest down and
+the light gone out of him. He gave himself up to the
+dogs who had been jumping about him, biding their
+time. "Yarrow knew," he said, laughing, to get the
+water out of his eyes. "He gave me a cheer whenever
+he saw me, dear old fellow&mdash;and little Risky too<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"And only granny forgot," said Mrs. Dennistoun;
+"that was very hard upon you, Pippo; my thoughts
+were all with your mother. And I couldn't think how
+you could get back at this time<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the boy, "my work's over, you know.
+There's nothing for a fellow to do after he's got the
+scholarship. I needn't go back at all&mdash;unless you
+and my mother wish it. I've&mdash;in a sort of a way,
+done everything that I can do. Don't laugh at me,
+granny!"</p>
+
+<p>"Laugh at you, my boy! It is likely I should
+laugh at you. Don't you know I am as proud of you
+as your mother herself can be? I am glad and proud,"
+said Mrs. Dennistoun, "for I am glad for her as well
+as for you. Now, Pippo, you want something to eat."</p>
+
+<p>The boy looked up with a laugh. "Yes, granny," he
+said, "you always divine that sort of thing. I do."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun did not occupy her mind with any
+thought of that little unintentional and grateful jibe&mdash;that
+she always divined that sort of thing. Among the
+other great patiences of her life she had learnt to know
+that the mother and son, loving and tender as they
+were, had put her back unconsciously into the proper
+place of the old woman&mdash;always consulted, always
+thought of, never left out; but divining chiefly <i>that
+sort of thing</i>, the actual needs, the more apparent
+thoughts of those about her. She knew it, but she did
+not dwell upon it&mdash;sometimes it made her smile, but it
+scarcely hurt her, and never made her bitter, she comprehended
+it all so well. Meanwhile Pippo, left alone,
+devoted himself to the dogs for a minute or two, making
+them almost too happy. Then, at the very climax
+of riotous enjoyment, cast them off with a sudden,
+"Down, Yarrow!" which took all the curl in a moment
+out of the noble tail with which Yarrow was sweeping
+all the unconsidered trifles off Mrs. Dennistoun's work-table.
+The young autocrat walked to the window as
+he shook off his adoring vassal, and stared out for a
+little with his hands deeply dug into his pockets. And
+then a new idea came into Pippo's head; the most
+brilliant new idea, which restored at once the light to
+his eyes and elevation to his crest. He said nothing of
+this, however, till he had done justice to the excellent
+luncheon, while his grandmother, seated beside him in
+the dining-room with her knitting, looked on with
+pride and pleasure and saw him eat. This was a thing,
+they were all of accord, which she always thoroughly
+understood.</p>
+
+<p>"You will run out now and telegraph to your mother.
+She is in the old rooms in Ebury Street, Pippo."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, granny; don't you think now a fellow of my
+age, having done pretty well and all that, might be
+trusted to&mdash;make a little expedition out of his own
+head?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear! you have always been trusted, Pippo,
+you know. I can't remember when your mother or I
+either have shown any want of trust<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's not that," said Pippo, confused. "I know
+I've had lots, lots&mdash;far more than most fellows&mdash;of my
+own way. It was not that exactly. I meant without
+consulting any one, just to do a thing out of my own
+head."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt it will be quite a right thing,
+Pippo; but I should know better if you were to tell
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"That would scarcely be doing it out of my own
+head, would it, granny? But I can't keep a thing to
+myself; now Musgrave can, you know; that's the great
+difference. I suppose it is having nobody but my
+mother and you, who always spoil me, that has made
+me that I can't keep a secret."</p>
+
+<p>"It is something about making it up to Musgrave
+for not winning the scholarship?"</p>
+
+<p>Philip grew red all over with a burning blush of
+shame. "What a beast I am!" he said. "You will
+scarcely believe me, but I had forgotten that&mdash;though
+I do wish I could. I do wish there was any way<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>
+No, granny, it was all about myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear?" she said, in her benignant, all-indulgent
+grandmother's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"It is no use going beating about the bush," he
+said. "Granny, I'm not going to telegraph to mamma.
+I'll run up to London by the night mail."</p>
+
+<p>"Pippo!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it isn't so extraordinary; naturally I should
+like to tell her better than to write. It didn't quite
+come off, my telling it to you, did it? but my mother
+will be excited about it&mdash;and then it will be a surprise
+seeing me at all&mdash;and then if she is worried by business
+it will be a good thing to have me to stand by her.
+And&mdash;why there are a hundred reasons, granny, as you
+must see. And then I should like it above all."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, trembling a little.
+She had time during this long speech to collect
+herself, to get over the first shock, but her nerves still
+vibrated. "In ordinary circumstances, I should think
+it an excellent plan. And you have worked well for it,
+and won your holiday; and your mother always enjoys
+wandering about town with you. Still, Pippo<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Now what can there be against it?" the boy said,
+with the same spark of fire coming into his blue eyes
+which had often been seen in Elinor's hazel ones. He
+was like the Comptons, a refined image of his father,
+with the blue eyes and very dark hair which had once
+made Phil Compton irresistible. Pippo had the habit,
+I am sorry to say, of being a little impatient with his
+grandmother. Her objections seemed old-world and
+obsolete at the first glance.</p>
+
+<p>"The chief thing against it is that I don't think your
+mother&mdash;would wish it, Pippo."</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma&mdash;think me a bore, perhaps!" the lad cried,
+with a laugh of almost scornful amusement at this ridiculous
+idea.</p>
+
+<p>"She would never, of course, think you a bore in
+any circumstances&mdash;but she will be very much confined&mdash;she
+could not take you with her to&mdash;lawyers' offices.
+She will scarcely have any time to herself."</p>
+
+<p>"What is this mysterious business, granny?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Pippo, I can scarcely tell you. It is something
+connected with old times&mdash;that she wishes to
+have settled and done with. I did not inquire very
+closely; neither, I think, should you. You know your
+poor mother has had troubles in her life<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Has she?" said Pippo, with wide open eyes. "I
+have never seen any. I think, perhaps, don't you know,
+granny, ladies&mdash;make mountains of molehills&mdash;or so
+at least people say<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Do they?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a laugh.
+"So you have begun to learn that sort of thing already,
+Pippo, even here at the end of the world!"</p>
+
+<p>Pippo was a little mortified by her laugh, and a little
+ashamed of what he had said. It is very tempting at
+eighteen to put on a man's superiority, yet he was conscious
+that it was perhaps a little ungenerous, he who
+owed all that he was and had to these two ladies; but
+naturally he was the more angry because of this.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," he said, "that what is in every book
+that ever was written is likely to be true! But that
+has nothing to do with the question. I won't do anything
+against you if you forbid me absolutely, granny;
+but short of that I will go<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun looked at the boy with all the heat
+in him of his first burst of independence. It is only
+wise to compute the forces opposed to one before one
+launches a command which one may not have force to
+ensure obedience to. He said that he would not disobey
+her "absolutely" with his lips; but his eyes expressed
+a less dutiful sentiment. She had no mind to
+be beaten in such a struggle. Elinor had complained
+of her mother in her youth that she was too reasonable,
+too unwilling to command, too reluctant to assume the
+responsibility of an act; and it was not to be supposed
+that she had mended of this, in all the experience she
+had had of her impatient daughter, and under the influence
+of so many additional years. She looked at
+Philip, and concluded that he would at least find some
+way of eluding her authority if she exercised it, and it
+did not consist with her dignity to be either "absolutely"
+or partially disobeyed.</p>
+
+<p>"You forget," she said, "that I have never taken
+such authority upon me since you were a child. I will
+not forbid you to do what you have set your heart
+upon. I can only say, Philip, that I don't think your
+mother would wish you to go<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"If that's all, granny," said the boy, "I think I can
+take my mother into my own hands. But why do you
+call me Philip? You never call me that but when you
+are angry."</p>
+
+<p>"Was I ever angry?" she said, with a smile; "but
+if we are to consider you a man, looking down upon
+women, and taking your movements upon your own
+responsibility, my dear, it would be ridiculous that you
+should be little Pippo any more."</p>
+
+<p>"Not little Pippo," he said, with a boyish, complacent
+laugh, rising up to his full height. A young man
+nearly six feet high, with a scholarship in his pocket,
+how is he to be expected to take the law from his old
+grandmother as to what he is to do?</p>
+
+<p>And young Philip did go to town triumphantly by
+the night mail. He had never done such a thing before,
+and his sense of manly independence, of daring,
+almost of adventure, was more delightful than words
+could say. There was not even any one, except the
+man who had driven him into Penrith, to see him
+away, he who was generally accompanied to the last
+minute by precautions, and admonitions, and farewells.
+To feel himself dart away into the night with nobody
+to look back to on the platform, no gaze, half smiling,
+half tearful, to follow him, was of itself an emancipation
+to Pippo. He was a good boy and no rebel against the
+double maternal bond which had lain so lightly yet so
+closely upon him all his life. It was only for a year or
+two that he had suspected that this was unusual, or
+even imagined that for a growing man the sway of two
+ladies, and even their devotion, might make others
+smile. Perhaps he had been a little more particular in
+his notions, in his manners, in his fastidious dislike to
+dirt and careless habits, than was common in the somewhat
+rough north country school which had so risen in
+scholastic note under the last head master, but which
+was very far from the refinements of Eton. And lately
+it had begun to dawn upon him that a mother and a
+grandmother to watch over him and care for him in
+everything might be perhaps a little absurd for a young
+man of his advanced age. Thus his escapade, which
+was against the will of his elder guardian, and without
+the knowledge of his mother&mdash;which was entirely his
+own act, and on his own responsibility, went to Philip's
+head, and gave him a sort of intoxication of pleasure.
+That his mother should be displeased, really displeased,
+should not want him&mdash;incredible thought! never entered
+into his mind save as an accountable delusion of
+granny's. His mother not want him! All the arguments
+in the world would never have got that into
+young Pippo's head.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun waking up in the middle of the
+night to think of the boy rushing on through the dark
+on his adventurous way, recollected only then with
+much confusion and pain that she ought to have telegraphed
+to Elinor, who might be so engaged as to
+make it very embarrassing for her in her strange circumstances
+to see Pippo&mdash;that the boy was coming.
+In her agitation she had forgotten this precaution.
+Was it perhaps true, as the young ones thought, that
+she was getting a little slower in her movements, a
+little dulled in her thoughts?</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>John Tatham had in vain attempted to persuade Elinor
+to come to his house, to dine there in comfort&mdash;he
+was going out himself&mdash;so that at least in this time of
+excitement and trouble she might have the careful
+service and admirable comfort of his well-managed
+house. Elinor preferred her favourite lodgings and a
+cup of tea to all the luxuries of Halkin Street. And
+she was fit for no more consultations that night. She
+had many, many things to think of, and some new
+which as yet she barely comprehended. The rooms in
+Ebury Street were small, and they were more or less
+dingy, as such rooms are; but they were comfortable
+enough, and had as much of home to Elinor as repeated
+visits there with all her belongings could give them.
+The room in which she slept was next to that in which
+her boy had usually slept. That was enough to make
+it no strange place. And I need not say that it became
+the scene of many discussions during the few days that
+followed. The papers by this time were full of the
+strange trial which was coming on: the romance of
+commercial life and ruin&mdash;the guilty man who had been
+absent so long, enjoying his ill-gotten gains, and who
+now was dragged back into the light to give an account
+of himself&mdash;and of other guilt perhaps less black than
+his own, yet dreadful enough to hear of. The story of
+the destroyed books was a most remarkable and picturesque
+incident in the narrative. The leading papers
+looked up their own account of the facts given at the
+time, and pointed out how evidently justified by the
+new facts made known to the public was the theory
+they had themselves given forth. As these theories,
+however, were very different, and as all claimed to be
+right, perhaps the conclusion was less certain than this
+announcement gave warrant to believe. But each and
+all promised "revelations" of the most surprising
+kind&mdash;involving some of the highest aristocracy, the
+democratic papers said&mdash;bringing to light an exciting
+story of the private relations between husband and
+wife, said those of society, and revealing a piquant
+chapter of social history hushed up at the time. It
+was a modest print indeed that contented itself with
+the statement that its readers would find a romance of
+real life involved in the trial which was about to take
+place. Elinor did not, fortunately, see all these comments.
+The <i>Times</i> and the <i>Morning Post</i> were dignified
+and reticent, and she did not read, and was indeed
+scarcely cognisant of the existence of most of the
+others. But the faintest reference to the trial was
+enough, it need hardly be said, to make the blood boil
+in her veins.</p>
+
+<p>It was a curious thing in her state of mind, and with
+the feelings she had towards her husband's family, that
+one of the first things she did on establishing herself in
+her Ebury Street rooms, was to look for an old "Peerage"
+which had lain for several years she remembered
+on a certain shelf. Genteel lodgings in Ebury Street
+which did not possess somewhere an old "Peerage"
+would be out of the world indeed. She found it in the
+same corner as of old, where she had noted it so often
+and avoided it as if it had been a serpent; but now the
+first thing she did, as soon as her tray was brought her,
+and all necessary explanations given, and the door shut,
+was to take the book furtively from its place, almost as
+if she were afraid of what she should see. What a list
+there was of sons of Lord St. Serf! some she had
+never known, who died young: and Reginald in India,
+and Hal, who was so kind&mdash;what a good laugh he had,
+she remembered, not a joyless cackle like Mariamne's,
+a good natural laugh, and a kind light in his eyes:
+and he had been kind. She could remember ever so
+many things, nothings, things that made a little difference
+in the dull, dull cloudy sky of a neglected wife.
+Poor Hal! and he too was gone, and St. Serf dying,
+and<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Pippo the heir!&mdash;Pippo was perhaps, for any
+thing she knew, Lord Lomond now.</p>
+
+<p>To say that this did not startle Elinor, did not make
+her heart beat, did not open new complications and
+vistas in life, would be a thing impossible. Pippo
+Lord Lomond! Pippo, whom she had feared to expose
+to his father's influence, whom she had kept apart, who
+did not know anything about himself except that he
+was her son&mdash;had she kept and guarded the boy thus
+in the very obscurity of life, in the stillest and most
+protected circumstances, only to plunge him suddenly
+at last, without preparation, without warning, into the
+fiery furnace of temptation, into a region where he
+might pardonably (perhaps) put himself beyond her
+influence, beyond her guidance? Poor Elinor! and
+yet she was not wholly to be pitied either. For her
+heart was fired by the thought of her boy's elevation
+in spite of herself. It did not occur to her that such
+an elevation for him meant something also for her.
+That view of the case she did not take into consideration
+for a moment. Nay, she did not think of it.
+But that Pippo should be Lord Lomond went through
+her like an arrow&mdash;like an arrow that gave a wound,
+acute and sharp, yet no pain, if such a thing could be
+said. That he should discover his father had been the
+danger before her all his life, but if he must find out that
+he had a father that was a way in which it might not be
+all pain. I do not pretend that she was very clear in
+all these thoughts. Indeed, she was not clear at all.
+John Tatham, knowing but one side, had begun to
+think vaguely of Elinor what Elinor thought of her
+mother, that her mind was not quite as of old, not so
+bright nor so vivid, not so clear in coming to a conclusion;
+had he known everything he might not have been
+so sure even on that point. But then had he known
+everything that Elinor knew, and been aware of what
+it was which Elinor had been summoned by all the
+force of old fidelity and the honour of her name to do,
+John would have been too much horrified to have been
+able to form an opinion. No, poor Elinor was not at
+all clear in her thoughts&mdash;less clear than ever after these
+revelations&mdash;the way before her seemed dark in whatever
+way she looked at it, complications were round her
+on every side. She had instinctively, without a word
+said, given up that idea of flight. Who was it that
+said the heir to a peerage could not be hid? John
+had said it, she remembered, and John was always
+right. If she was to take him away to the uttermost
+end of the earth, they would seek him out and find
+him. And then there was&mdash;his father, who had known
+all the time, had known and never disturbed her<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>No
+wonder that poor Elinor's thoughts were mixed
+and complicated. She walked up and down the room,
+not thinking, but letting crowds and flights of thoughts
+like birds fly through her mind; no longer clear indeed
+as she had been wont to be, no longer coming to
+sudden, sharp conclusions, admitting possibilities of
+which Elinor once upon a time would never have
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>And day by day as he saw her, John Tatham understood
+her less and less. He did not know what she
+meant, what she was going to do, what were her sentiments
+towards her husband, what were her intentions
+towards her son. He had found out a great deal about
+the case, merely as a case, and it began to be clear to
+him where Elinor's part came in. Elinor Compton
+could not have appeared on her husband's behalf, and
+whether there might not arise a question whether,
+being now his wife, her evidence could be taken on
+what had happened before she was his wife, was by no
+means sure&mdash;"Why didn't they call your mother?"
+John said, as Mrs. Dennistoun also had said&mdash;but he
+did not at all understand, how could he? the dismay
+that came over Elinor, and the "Not for the world,"
+which came from her lips. He had come in to see her
+in the morning as he went down to his chambers, on
+the very morning when Pippo, quite unexpected and
+also not at all desired, was arriving at Euston Square.</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been much better," he said, "in
+every way if they had called your mother&mdash;who of
+course must know exactly what you know, Elinor, in
+respect to this matter<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Elinor with dry lips. "She knows nothing.
+She&mdash;calculates back by little incidents&mdash;she
+does not remember: I&mdash;do<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"That's natural, I suppose," said John, with an impatient
+sigh and a half-angry look. "Still&mdash;my
+aunt<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Would do no good at all: you may believe me,
+John. Don't let us speak of this any more. I know
+what has to be done: my mother would twist herself
+up among her calculations&mdash;about Alick Hudson's examination
+and I know not what. Whereas I&mdash;there
+is nothing, nothing more to be said. I thought I
+could escape, and it is your doing if I now see that I
+cannot escape. I can but hope that Providence will
+protect my boy. He is at school, where they have little
+time for reading the papers. He may never even
+see&mdash;or at least if he does he may think it is another
+Compton&mdash;some one whom he never heard of<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"And how if he becomes Lord Lomond, as I said,
+before the secret is out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John," cried Elinor, wringing her hands&mdash;"don't,
+don't torment me with that idea now&mdash;let only this
+be past and then: Oh, I see, I see&mdash;I am not a fool&mdash;I
+perceive that I cannot hide him as you say if that happens.
+But oh, John, for pity's sake let this be over
+first! Let us not hurry everything on at the same
+time. He is at school. What do schoolboys care for
+the newspapers, especially for trials in the law courts?
+Oh, let this be over first! A boy at school&mdash;and he
+need never know<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>It was at this moment that a hansom drew up, and a
+rattling peal came at the door. Hansoms are not rare
+in Ebury Street, and how can one tell in these small
+houses if the peal is at one's door or the next? Elinor
+was not disturbed. She paid no attention. She expected
+no one, she was afraid of nothing new for the
+present. Surely, surely, as she said, there was enough
+for the present. It did not seem possible that any new
+incident should come now.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not want to torment you, Elinor&mdash;you may
+imagine I would be the last&mdash;I would only save you if
+I could from what must be<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> What! what? who's
+this?&mdash;<span class="smallcaps">Philip!</span> the boy!"</p>
+
+<p>The door had burst open with an eager, impatient
+hand upon it, and there stood upon the threshold, in
+all the mingled excitement and fatigue of his night
+journey, pale, sleep in his eyes, yet happy expectation,
+exultation, the certainty of open arms to receive him,
+and cries of delight&mdash;the boy. He stood for a second
+looking into the strange yet familiar room. John
+Tatham had sprung to his feet and stood startled, hesitating,
+while young Philip's eyes, noting him with a
+glance, flashed past him to the other more important,
+more beloved, the mother whom he had expected to
+rush towards him with an outcry of joy.</p>
+
+<p>And Elinor sat still in her chair, struck dumb, grown
+pale like a ghost, her eyes wide open, her lips apart.
+The sight of the boy, her beloved child, her pride and
+delight, was as a horrible spectacle to Elinor. She
+stared at him like one horrified, and neither moved nor
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor!" cried John, terrified, "there's nothing
+wrong. Don't you see it's Philip? Boy, what do you
+mean by giving her such a fright? She's fainting, I
+believe."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;give her a fright!" cried, half in anguish, half
+in indignation, the astonished boy.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not fainting. Pippo! there's nothing
+wrong&mdash;at home?" Elinor cried, holding out her hand
+to him&mdash;coming to herself, which meant only awakening
+to the horror of a danger far more present than she
+had ever dreamt, and to the sudden sight not of her
+boy, but of that Nemesis which she had so carefully
+prepared for herself, and which had been awaiting her
+for years. She was not afraid of anything wrong at
+home. It was the first shield she could find in the
+shock which had almost paralysed her, to conceal her
+terror and distress at the sight of him from the astonished,
+disappointed, mortified, and angry boy.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought," he said, "you would have been glad to
+see me, mother! No, there's nothing wrong at home."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank heaven for that!" cried Elinor, feeling herself
+more and more a hypocrite as she recovered from
+the shock. "Pippo, I was saying this moment that
+you were at school. The words were scarcely off my
+lips&mdash;and then to see you in a moment, standing
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought," he repeated again, trembling with the
+disappointment and mortification, wounded in his
+cheerful, confident affection, and in his young pride,
+the monarch of all he surveyed&mdash;"I thought you would
+have been pleased to see me, mother!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said John, cheerfully, "your mother is
+glad to see you: and so am I, you impetuous boy,
+though you don't take the trouble of shaking hands
+with me. He wants to be kissed and coddled, Elinor,
+and I must be off to my chambers. But I should like
+to know first what's up, boy? You've got something
+to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Pippo, what is it, my dearest? You did give me a
+great fright, and I am still nervous a little. Tell me,
+Pippo; something has brought you&mdash;your uncle John
+is right. I can see it in your eyes. You've got something
+to tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>The tired and excited boy looked from one to another,
+two faces both full of a veiled but intense anxiety,
+looking at him as if what they expected was no
+good news. He burst out into a big, hoarse laugh, the
+only way to keep himself from crying. "You don't
+even seem to remember anything about it," he cried,
+flinging himself down in the nearest chair; "and for
+my part I don't care any longer whether any one knows
+or not."</p>
+
+<p>And Elinor, whose thoughts were on such different
+things&mdash;whose whole mind was absorbed in the question
+of what he could have heard about the trial, about
+his father, about the new and strange future before
+him&mdash;gazed at him with eyes that seemed hollowed out
+all round with devouring anxiety. "What is it?" she
+said, "what is it? For God's sake tell me! What
+have you heard?"</p>
+
+<p>It goes against all prejudices to imagine that John
+Tatham, a man who never had had a child, an old
+bachelor not too tolerant of youth, should have divined
+the boy better than his mother. But he did, perhaps
+because he was a lawyer, and accustomed to investigate
+the human countenance and eye. He saw that Philip
+was full of something of his own, immediately interesting
+to himself; and he cast about quickly in his mind
+what it could be. Not that the boy was heir to a peerage:
+he would never have come like <i>this</i> to announce
+<i>that</i>: but something that Philip was cruelly disappointed
+his mother did not remember. This passed
+through John's mind like a flash, though it takes a
+long time to describe. "Ah," he said, "I begin to
+divine. Was not there something about a&mdash;scholarship?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pippo!" cried Elinor, lighting up great lamps of
+relief, of sudden ease and quick coming joy, in her
+brightened eyes and face. "My boy! you've won
+your battle! You've got it, you've got it, Pippo!
+And your foolish, stupid mother that thought for a moment
+you could rush to her like this with anything but
+good news!"</p>
+
+<p>It took a few moments to soothe Pippo down, and
+mend his wounded feelings. "I began to think nobody
+cared," he said, "and that made me that I didn't
+care myself. I'd rather Musgrave had got it, if it had
+not been to please you all. And you never seemed so
+much as to remember&mdash;only Uncle John!" he added
+after a moment, with a half scorn which made John
+laugh at the never-failing candour of youth.</p>
+
+<p>"Only the least important of all," he said. "It was
+atrocious of the ladies, Philip. Shake hands, my boy,
+I owe you five pounds for the scholarship. And now
+I'll take myself off, which will please you most of all."</p>
+
+<p>He went down-stairs laughing to himself all the way,
+but got suddenly quite grave as he stepped outside&mdash;whether
+because he remembered that it does not become
+a Q.C. and M.P. to laugh in the street, or for
+other causes, it does not become us to attempt to say.</p>
+
+<p>And Elinor meanwhile made it up to her boy amply,
+and while her heart ached with the question what to do
+with him, how to dispose of him during those dreadful
+following days, behaved herself as if her head too was
+half turned with joy and exultation, only tempered by
+the regret that Musgrave, who had worked so hard,
+could not have got the scholarship too.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Elinor made much of her boy during that day and
+the following days, to take away the sense of disappointment
+which even after the first great mortification was
+got over still haunted young Philip's mind. It surprised
+him beyond measure to find that she did not
+wish to go out with him, indeed in so far as was possible
+avoided it altogether, save for a hurried drive to a few
+places, during which she kept her veil down and sheltered
+herself with an umbrella in the most ridiculous
+way. "Are you afraid of your complexion, mother?"
+the boy asked of her with disdain. "It looks like it,"
+she said, but with a laugh that was full of embarrassment,
+"though it is a little late in the day." Elinor
+was perhaps better aware than Pippo was that she had
+a complexion which a girl might have envied, and was
+still as fresh as a rose, notwithstanding that she was a
+year or two over forty; but I need not say it was not of
+her complexion she was thinking. She had been careful
+to choose her time on previous visits to London so
+as to risk as little as possible the chance of meeting her
+husband. But now there was no doubt that he was in
+town, and not the least that if he met her anywhere with
+Pippo, her secret, so far as it had ever been a secret,
+would be in his hands. Even when John took the boy
+out it was with a beating heart that his mother saw him
+go, for John was too well known to make any secret
+possible about his movements, or who it was who was
+with him. Perhaps it was for this reason that John
+desired to take him out, and even cut short his day's
+work on one or two occasions to act as cicerone to
+Philip. He took him to the House, to the great excitement
+and delight of the boy, who only wished that
+the entertainment could have been made complete by a
+speech from Uncle John, which was a point in which
+his guide, philosopher, and friend, though in every
+other way so complaisant, did not humour Pippo. On
+one occasion during the first week they had an encounter
+which made John's middle-aged pulses move a
+little quicker. When they were walking along through
+Hyde Park, having strolled that way in the fading of
+the May afternoon, when the carriages were still promenading
+up and down, before they returned to Halkin
+Street to dinner, where Elinor awaited them&mdash;it happened
+to Mr. Tatham to meet the roving eyes of Lady
+Mariamne, who lay back languidly in her carriage,
+wrapped in a fur cloak, and shivering in the chill of the
+evening. She was not particularly interested in
+anything or any person whom she had seen, and was a
+little cross and desirous of getting home. But when
+she saw John she roused up immediately, and gave a
+sign to Dolly, who sat by her, to pull the check-string.
+"Mr. Tatham!" she cried, in her shrill voice. Lady
+Mariamne was not one of the people who object to hear
+their voice in public or are reluctant to make their
+wishes known to everybody. She felt herself to be of
+the cast in which everybody is interested, and that the
+public liked to know whom she honoured with her acquaintance.
+"Mr. Tatham! are you going to carry
+your rudeness so far as not to seem to know me? Oh,
+come here this moment, you impertinent man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can I be of any use to you, Lady Mariamne?" said
+John, gravely, at the carriage door.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear no; you can't be of any use. What
+should I have those men for if I wanted you to be of
+use? Come and talk a moment, that's all; or get into the
+carriage and I'll take you anywhere. Dolly and I have
+driven round and round, and we have not seen a
+creature we cared to see. Yes! there was a darling,
+darling little Maltese terrier, with white silk curls hanging
+over his eyes, on an odious woman's lap; but I cannot
+expect you to find that angel for me. Mr. Tatham,
+who is that tall boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pippo," said John, quickly (though probably he had
+never in his life before used that name, which he disapproved
+of angrily, as people often do of a childish
+name which does not please them), "go on. I'll come
+after you directly. The boy is a cousin of mine, Lady
+Mariamne, just from school."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Tatham, I am quite sure it is Nell's boy. Call
+after him. What's his name? Bring him back! John
+Thomas, run after that young gentleman, and say with
+my compliments<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," said John, stopping the footman with a
+lifted hand and a still more emphatic look. "He is
+hastening home to&mdash;an engagement. And it's evident
+I had better go too&mdash;for your little friend there is showing
+his teeth."</p>
+
+<p>"The darling!" said Lady Mariamne, "did it show
+its little pearls at the wicked man that will not do what
+its mummy says? Dolly, can't you jump down and run
+after that boy? I am sure it is your Uncle Philip's
+boy."</p>
+
+<p>"He is out of sight, mother," said Miss Dolly, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the most dreadful, wicked, unkind people,
+all of you. Show its little teeth, then, darling! Oo's
+the only one that has any feeling. Mr. Tatham, do tell
+me something about this trial. What is going to be
+done? Phil is mixed up in it. I know he is. Can they
+do anything to anybody&mdash;after all this time? They
+can't make you pay up, I know, after a certain time.
+Oh, couldn't it all be hushed up and stopped and kept
+out of the newspapers? I hate the newspapers, always
+chuckling over every new discovery. But this cannot
+be called a new discovery. If it's true it's old, as old
+as the old beginning of the world. Don't you think
+somebody could get at the newspaper men and have it
+hushed up?"</p>
+
+<p>"I doubt if you could get hold of all of them, their
+name is legion," said John.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't care what their name is. If you will
+help me, Mr. Tatham, we could get hold of most of
+them&mdash;won't you? You know, don't you, poor St.
+Serf is so bad; it may be over any day&mdash;and then only
+think what a complication! Dolly, turn your head the
+other way; look at that silly young Huntsfield capering
+about to catch your eye. I don't want you to hear
+what I have got to say."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't in the least way want to hear what you have
+got to say, dear mamma," said Dolly.</p>
+
+<p>"That would have made me listen to every word,"
+said Lady Mariamne; "but girls are more queer nowadays
+than anything that ever was. Mr. Tatham"&mdash;she
+put her hand upon his, which was on the carriage
+door, and bent her perfumed, powdered face towards
+him&mdash;"for goodness' sake&mdash;think how awkward it
+would be&mdash;a man just succeeding to a title and that
+sort of thing put in all the papers about him. Do,
+do stop it, or try something to stop it, for goodness'
+sake!"</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you," said John, "I can do nothing to stop
+it. I am as powerless as you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't say that I am powerless," said Lady
+Mariamne, with her shrill laugh. "One has one's little
+ways of influence." Then she put her hand again upon
+John with a sudden grip. "Mr. Tatham," she said,
+"tell me, in confidence, was that Phil's boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you, Lady Mariamne, it is a nephew of
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>"A nephew&mdash;oh, I know what kind of a nephew&mdash;<i>&agrave;
+la mode de Bretagne</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head to the other side, where her
+daughter was gazing calmly in front of her.</p>
+
+<p>"Dolly! I was sure of it," she cried, "don't you hear?
+Dolly, don't you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which, mamma?" said Dolly, gravely; "of course
+I could not help hearing it all. Which part was I to
+notice? about the newspapers or about the boy?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Mariamne appealed to earth and heaven with
+the loud cackle of her laugh. "He can't deny it," she
+said; "he as good as owns it. I am certain that's the
+boy that will be Lomond."</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle St. Serf is not dead yet," said Dolly, reprovingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Serf!&mdash;but he's so very bad," said Lady Mariamne,
+"that it's almost the same thing. Mr. Tatham,
+can't we take you anywhere? I'm so glad I've seen
+Nell's boy. Can't we drive you home? Perhaps you've
+got Nell there too?"</p>
+
+<p>John stood back from the carriage door, just in time
+to escape the start of the horses as the remorseless
+string was touched and the footman clambered up into
+his seat. Lady Mariamne's smile went off her face,
+and she had forgotten all about it, to judge from appearances,
+before he had got himself in motion again.
+And a little farther on, behind the next tree, he found
+young Philip waiting, full of curiosity and questions.</p>
+
+<p>"Who was that lady, Uncle John? Was she asking
+about me? I thought I heard her call. I had half a
+mind to run back and say 'Here I am.'"</p>
+
+<p>"It was much better that you didn't do anything of
+the kind. Never pay any attention when you think you
+hear a fine lady calling you, Philip. It is better not to
+hear the Siren's call."</p>
+
+<p>"When they're elderly Sirens like that!" said the
+boy, with a laugh. "But I say, Uncle John, if you
+won't tell me who the lady is, who is the girl? She
+has a pair of eyes!&mdash;not like Sirens though&mdash;eyes that
+go through you&mdash;like&mdash;like a pair of lancets."</p>
+
+<p>"A surgical operation in fact: and I shouldn't
+wonder if she meant to be a doctor," said John. "The
+mother has done nothing all her life, therefore the
+daughter means to do much. It is the natural reaction
+of the generations. But I never noticed that Miss Dolly
+had any eyes&mdash;to speak of," said the highly indifferent
+middle-aged man.</p>
+
+<p>The boy flushed with a sense of indignation. "Perhaps
+you think the old lady's were finer?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I never admired the old lady, as you call her," said
+John, shortly; and then he turned Philip's attention to
+something, possibly with the easily satisfied conviction
+of a spectator that the boy thought of it no more.</p>
+
+<p>"We met my Lady Mariamne in the park," he said
+to Elinor when they sat at dinner an hour later at that
+bachelor table in Halkin Street, where everything was
+so exquisitely cared for. It was like Elinor, but most
+unlike the place in which she found herself, that she
+started so violently as to shake the whole table, crying
+out in a tone of consternation, "John!" as if he did
+not know very well what he might venture to say, or
+as if he had any intention of betraying her to her son.</p>
+
+<p>"She was very anxious," he said, perhaps playing a
+little with her excitement, "to have Philip presented to
+her: but I sent him on&mdash;that is to say, I thought I sent
+him on. The fellow went no farther than to the next
+tree, where he stood and watched Miss Dolly, not feeling
+any interest in the old lady, as he said."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Uncle John&mdash;did you expect me to look at
+the old lady? You are not so fond of old ladies yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is Miss Dolly?" said Elinor, trying to
+conceal the beating of her heart and the quiver on her
+lips with a smile; and then she added, with a little
+catch of her breath, "Oh, yes, I remember there was a
+little girl."</p>
+
+<p>"You will be surprised to hear that we are by way
+of being great friends. Her ladyship visits me in my
+chambers<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Again Elinor uttered that startled cry, "John!" but
+she tried this time to cover it with a tremulous laugh.
+"Are you becoming a flirt in your old age?"</p>
+
+<p>"It appears so," said John. And then he added,
+"That aphorism, which struck you as it struck me, Elinor,
+by its good sense&mdash;about the heir to a peerage&mdash;is
+really her production, and not mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dolly's? And what was the aphorism, Uncle
+John?" cried Philip.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it was not Miss Dolly's, my young man. It
+was the mother's, and so of course does not interest
+you any more."</p>
+
+<p>It did not as a matter of fact: the old lady was supremely
+indifferent to Pippo; but as he looked up saying
+something else which did not bear upon the subject,
+it occurred to the boy, as it will sometimes occur
+by the merest chance to a young observer, to notice his
+mother. She caught his eye somehow in the most accidental
+way; and Pippo was too well acquainted with
+her looks not to perceive that there was a thrill in every
+line of her countenance, a slight nervous tremble in her
+hands and entire person, such as was in no way to be
+accounted for (he thought) by anything that had been
+said or done. There was nothing surely to disquiet
+her in dining at Uncle John's, the three alone, not even
+one other guest to fill up the vacant side of the table.
+Philip had himself thought that Uncle John might have
+asked some one to meet them. He should have remembered
+that he himself, Philip, was now of an age
+to dine out, and see a little society, and go into the
+world. But what in the name of all that was wonderful
+was there in this entertainment to agitate his
+mother? And John Tatham had a look&mdash;which Philip
+did not understand&mdash;the look of a man who was successful
+in argument, who was almost crushing an opponent.
+It was as if a duel had been going on between
+them, and the man was the victor, which, as was natural,
+immediately threw Philip violently on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not well, mother," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think not, Pippo? Well, perhaps you are
+right. London is too much for me. I am a country
+bird," said Elinor, with smiling yet trembling lips.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not go to the theatre if you are not up to
+it," said the boy in his imperious way.</p>
+
+<p>She gave him an affectionate look, and then she
+looked across the table at John. What did that look
+mean? There was a faint smile in it: and there was a
+great deal which Philip did not understand, things understood
+by Uncle John&mdash;who was after all what you
+might call an outsider, no more&mdash;and not by him, her
+son! Could anything be so monstrous? Philip blazed
+up with sudden fire.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said John Tatham; "I think Philip's right.
+We'll take her home to be coddled by her maid, and
+we'll go off, two wild young fellows, to the play by
+ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Philip, "I'll leave her to be coddled by no
+maid. I can take care of my mother myself."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy," said Elinor, "I want no coddling.
+But I doubt whether I could stand the play. I like
+you to go with Uncle John."</p>
+
+<p>And then it began to dawn upon Philip that his mother
+had never meant to be of the party, and that this was
+what had been settled all along. He was more angry;
+more wounded and hurt in his spirit than he had of
+course the least occasion to be. He was of opinion that
+his mother had never had any secrets from him, that
+she had taken him into her confidence since he was a
+small boy, even things that Granny did not know!
+And here all at once there was rising between them a
+cloud, a mist, which there was no reason for. If he had
+done anything to make him less worthy he would have
+understood; had there been a bad report from school,
+had he failed in his work and disappointed her, there
+might have been some reason for it. But he had done
+nothing of the kind! Never before had he been so deserving
+of confidence; he had got his scholarship, he
+had finished the first phase of his education in triumph,
+and fulfilled all her expectations. And now just at this
+point of all others, just when he was most fit to understand,
+most worthy of trust, she turned from him. His
+heart swelled as if it would burst, with anger first, almost
+too strong to be repressed, and with that sense of
+injured merit which is of all things the most hard to
+bear. It is hard enough even when one is aware one
+deserves no better. But to be conscious of your worth
+and to feel that you are not appreciated, that is indeed
+too much for any one. There was not even the satisfaction
+of giving up the play which he had looked forward
+to, making a sacrifice of it to his mother, in which
+there would have been a severe pleasure. But she did
+not want him! She preferred that he should leave her
+by herself to be coddled by her maid, as Uncle John
+(vulgarly) said. Or perhaps was there somebody else
+coming, some old friend whom he knew nothing of,
+somebody, some one or other like that old witch in the
+carriage whom Pippo was not meant to know?</p>
+
+<p>It ended, however, in the carrying out of the plan
+settled beforehand by those old conspirators. The old
+conspirators do generally manage to carry out their
+plans for the management of rebellious youth, however
+injured the latter may feel. Pippo wound himself up
+in solemn dignity and silence when he understood that
+it was ordained that he should proceed to the play with
+John Tatham. And the pair had got half way to Drury
+Lane&mdash;or it may have been the Lyceum, or the Haymarket,
+or any of half-a-dozen other theatres, for here
+exact information fails&mdash;before he condescended to open
+his lips for more than Yes or No. But Philip's gloom
+did not survive the raising of the curtain, and he had
+forgotten all offences and had taken his companion into
+favour again, and was talking to Uncle John between the
+acts with all the excitement of a country youth to whom
+a play still was the greatest of novelties and delights,
+when he suddenly saw a change come over John Tatham's
+countenance and a slight bow of recognition directed
+towards a box, which made Philip turn round and look
+too. And there was the old witch of the carriage, and,
+what was more interesting, the girl with the keen eyes,
+who looked out suddenly from the shade of the draperies,
+and fixed upon Philip&mdash;Philip himself&mdash;a look which
+startled that young hero much. Nor was this all; for
+later in the evening, after another act of the play, some
+one else appeared in the same box, and fixed the dark
+and impassive stare of a long pair of opera-glasses upon
+Philip. It amused him at first, and afterwards it half
+frightened him, and finally made him very angry. The
+gazer was a man, of whom, however, Philip could make
+nothing out but his white shirt front and his tall stature,
+and the long black tubes of the opera-glass. Was it at
+him the man was looking, or perhaps at Uncle John?
+But the boy thought it on the whole unlikely that anybody
+should stare in that way at anything so little out
+of the ordinary as Uncle John.</p>
+
+<p>"I say," he said, in the next interval, "who is that
+fellow staring at us out of your old lady's box?"</p>
+
+<p>"Staring at the ladies behind us, you mean," said
+John. "Pippo, do you think we could make a rush for
+it the moment the play's over? I've got something to
+look over when I get home. Are you game to be out
+the very first before the curtain's down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I'm game," said Philip, delighted, "if you
+wish it, Uncle John."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I wish it," said the other, and he put his hand
+on the boy's shoulder as the act finished and the characters
+of the piece drew together for the final tableau.
+And the pair managed it triumphantly, and were the
+very first to get out at the head of the crowd, to Philip's
+immense amusement and John Tatham's great relief.
+The elder hurried the younger into the first hansom, all
+in the twinkling of an eye: and then for the first time
+his gravity relaxed. Philip took it all for a great joke
+till they reached Ebury Street. But when his companion
+left him, and he had time to think of it, he began
+to ask himself why?</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII"></a>CHAPTER XLII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>I will not say that Philip's sleep was broken by this
+question, but it undoubtedly recurred to his mind the
+first thing in the morning when he jumped out of bed
+very late for breakfast, and the events of the past
+night and the lateness of the hour at which he got to
+rest came back upon him as excuses in the first place
+for his tardiness. And then, which was remarkable, it
+was not the scene in the play in which he had been
+most interested which came to his mind, but a vision
+of that box and the man standing in front of it staring
+at him through the black tubes of the opera-glass
+which came before Philip like a picture. Uncle John
+had said it was at the ladies behind, but the boy felt
+sure it was no lady behind, but himself, on whom that
+stare was fixed. Who would care to stare so at him?
+It faintly gleamed across his thoughts that it might be
+some one who had heard of the scholarship, but he dismissed
+that thought instantly with a blush. It also
+gleamed upon him with equal vagueness like a momentary
+but entirely futile light, consciously derived from
+story books, and of which he was much ashamed, that
+the inexplicable attention given to himself might have
+something to do with the girl who had such keen eyes.
+Philip blushed fiery red at this involuntary thought,
+and chased it from his mind like a mad dog; but he
+could not put away the picture of the box, the girl putting
+aside the curtain to look at him, and the opera-glass
+fixed upon his face. And then why was Uncle
+John in such a hurry to get away? It had seemed a
+capital joke at that moment, but when he came to think
+of it, it was rather strange that a man who might be
+Solicitor-General to-morrow if he liked, and probably
+Lord Chancellor in a few years, should make a schoolboy
+rush from the stalls of a theatre with the object of
+being first out. Philip disapproved of so undignified
+a step on the part of his elderly relation. And he saw
+now in the serious morning that Uncle John was very
+unlikely to have done it for fun. What, then, did it
+mean?</p>
+
+<p>He came down full of these thoughts, and rather
+ashamed of being late, wondering whether his mother
+would have waited for him (which would have annoyed
+him), or if she would have finished her breakfast (which
+would have annoyed him still more). Happily for
+Elinor, she had hit the golden mean, and was pouring
+out for herself a second cup of coffee (but Philip was
+not aware it was the second) when the boy appeared.
+She was quite restored to her usual serenity and freshness,
+and as eager to know how he had enjoyed himself
+as she always was. He gave her a brief sketch of the
+play and of what pleased him in it as in duty bound.
+"But," he added, "what interested me almost more
+was that we had a sort of a&mdash;little play of our own."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" she cried, with a startled look in her eyes.
+One thing that puzzled him was that she was so very
+easily startled, which it seemed to Philip had never
+been the case before.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "the lady was there whom Uncle
+John met in the park&mdash;and the girl with her&mdash;and I
+believe the little dog. She made all sorts of signs to
+him, but he took scarcely any notice. But that's not
+all, mother<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a good deal, Pippo<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it? Why do you speak in that choked voice,
+mother? I suppose it is just one of his society acquaintances.
+But the thing was that before the last act
+somebody else came forward to the front of the box,
+and fixed&mdash;I was going to say his eyes, I mean his
+opera-glasses upon us."</p>
+
+<p>Philip had meant to say upon me&mdash;but he had
+produced already so great an effect on his mother's face
+that he moderated instinctively the point of this description.
+"And stared at us," he added, "all the
+rest of the time, paying not the least attention to anything
+that was going on. It's a queer sensation," he
+went on, with a laugh, "to feel that black mysterious-looking
+thing like the eyes of some monster with no
+speculation in them, fixed upon you. Now, I want you
+to tell me<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> What's the matter, mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, Pippo; nothing," said Elinor, faintly,
+stooping to lift up a book she had let fall. "Go on
+with your story. I am very much interested; and
+then, my dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mother," cried Philip, "I don't know what has
+come over you, or over me. There's something going
+on I can't understand. You never used to have any
+secrets from me. I was always in your confidence&mdash;wasn't
+I, mother?"</p>
+
+<p>It was not a book she had let fall, but a ring that
+she had dropped from her finger, and which had to be
+followed over the carpet. It made her red and flushed
+when she half raised her head to say, "Yes, Pippo&mdash;you
+know&mdash;I have always told you<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Philip did not remark that what his mother said was
+nothing after all. He got up to help her to look for
+her ring, and put his arm round her waist as she knelt
+on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma," he said, tenderly, protectingly, "I
+do know: but something's changed; either it's in me
+that makes you feel you can't trust me&mdash;or else it is in
+you. And I don't know which would be worst."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no change," she said, after a moment, for
+she could not help the ring being found, and immediately
+when his quick, young eyes came to the search:
+but she did not look him in the face. "There is no
+change, dear. There is only some worrying business
+which involves a great many troubles of my old life before
+you were born. You shall hear&mdash;everything&mdash;in a
+little while: but I cannot enter into it all at this moment.
+It is full of complications and&mdash;secrets that
+belong to other people. Pippo, you must promise me
+to wait patiently, and to believe&mdash;to believe&mdash;always
+the best you can&mdash;of your mother."</p>
+
+<p>The boy laughed as he raised her up, still holding
+her with his arm. "Believe the best I can! Well, I
+don't think that will be a great effort, mother. Only
+to think that you can't trust me as you always have
+done makes me wretched. We've been such friends,
+haven't we, mamma? I've always told you everything,
+or at least everything except just the nonsense at
+school: and you've told me everything. And if we
+are going to be different now<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"You've told me everything!" the boy was as sure
+of it as that he was born. She had to hold by him to
+support herself, and it cost her a strong effort to restrain
+the shiver that ran through her. "We are not
+going to be different," she said, "as soon as we leave
+London&mdash;or before&mdash;you shall know everything about
+this business of mine, Pippo. Will that satisfy you?
+In the meantime it is not pleasant business, dear; and
+you must bear with me if I am abstracted sometimes,
+and occupied, and cross."</p>
+
+<p>"But, mother," said Philip, bending over her with
+that young celestial foolish look of gravity and good
+advice with which a neophyte will sometimes address
+the much-experienced and heavily-laden pilgrim, "don't
+you think it would be easier if it was all open between
+us, and I took my share? If it is other people's secrets
+I would not betray them, you know that."</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately Elinor here murmured, scarcely knowing
+what words came from her lips, "That is what
+John says."</p>
+
+<p>"John," said the boy, furious with the quick rage of
+injured tenderness and pride, "Uncle John! and you
+tell him more, him, an outsider, than you tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>He let her go then, which was a great relief to Elinor,
+for she could command herself better when he
+was a little farther off, and could not feel the thrill that
+was in her, and the thumping of her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"You must remember, Pippo," she said, "what I
+have told you, that my present very disagreeable, very
+painful business is about things that happened before
+you were born, which John knew everything about.
+He was my adviser then, as far as I would take any advice,
+which I am afraid never was much, Pippo," she
+said; "never, alas! all my life. Granny will tell you
+that. But John, always the kindest friend and the
+best brother in the world, did everything he could.
+And it would have been better for us all if I had taken
+his advice instead of always, I fear, always my own way."</p>
+
+<p>Strangely enough this cheered Pippo and swept the
+cloud from his face. "I'm glad you didn't take anybody's
+advice, mother. I shouldn't have liked it. I've
+more faith in you than anybody. Well, then, now
+about this man. What man in the world&mdash;I really
+mean in the world, in what is called society, for that is
+the kind of people they were&mdash;could have such a curiosity
+about&mdash;me?"</p>
+
+<p>She had resumed her seat, and her face was turned
+away from him. Also the exquisite tone of complacency
+and innocent self-appreciation with which Philip expressed
+this wonder helped her a little to surmount
+the situation. Elinor could have laughed had her heart
+been only a trifle less burdened. She said: "Are you
+sure it was at you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle John said something about ladies behind us,
+but I am sure it was no ladies behind. It might, of
+course," the boy added, cautiously, "have been <i>him</i>,
+you know. I suppose Uncle John's a personage, isn't
+he? But after all, you know, hang it, mother, it isn't
+easy to believe that a fellow like that would stare so at
+Uncle John."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor John! It is true there is not much novelty
+about him," said Elinor, with a tremble in her voice,
+which, if it was half agitation, was yet a little laughter
+too: for there are scarcely any circumstances, however
+painful, in which those who are that way moved by
+nature are quite able to quench the unconquerable
+laugh. She added, with a falter in which there was no
+laughter, "and what&mdash;was the&mdash;fellow like?"</p>
+
+<p>"All that I could see was that he was a tall man. I
+saw his large shirt-front and his black evening clothes,
+and something like grey hair above those two big, black
+goggles<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Grey hair!" Elinor said, with a low suppressed cry.</p>
+
+<p>"He never took them away from his eyes for a moment,
+so of course I could not see his face, or anything
+much except that he was more than common tall&mdash;like
+myself," Pippo said, with a little air of pleased vanity in
+the comparison.</p>
+
+<p>Like himself! She did not make any remark. It is
+very doubtful whether she could have done so. There
+came before her so many visions of the past, and such
+a vague, confused, bewildering future, of which she
+could form no definite idea what it would be. Was it
+with a pang that she foresaw that drawing towards another
+influence: that mingled instinct, curiosity, perhaps
+admiration and wonder, which already seemed to
+move her boy's unconscious mind? Elinor did not
+even know whether that would hurt her at all. Even
+now there seemed a curious pungent sense of half-pleasure
+in the pain. Like himself! So he was. And
+if it should be that it was his father, who for hours had
+stood there, not taking his eyes off the boy (for hours
+her imagination said, though Pippo had not said so),
+his father who had known where she was and never
+disturbed her, never interfered with her; the man who
+had summoned her to perform her martyrdom for him,
+never doubting&mdash;Phil, with grey hair! To say what
+mingled feelings swept through Elinor's mind, with all
+these elements in them, is beyond my power. She saw
+him with his face concealed, standing up unconscious
+of the crowded place and of the mimic life on the stage,
+his eyes fixed upon his son whom he had never seen
+before. Where was there any drama in which there
+was a scene like this? His son, his only child, the
+heir! Unconsciously even to herself that fact had some
+influence, no doubt, on Elinor's thoughts. And it
+would be impossible to say how much influence had
+that unexpected subduing touch of the grey hair: and
+the strange change in the scene altogether. The foolish,
+noisy, "fast" woman, with her <i>tourbillon</i> of men
+and dogs about her, turned into the old lady of Pippo's
+careless remark, with her daughter beside her far more
+important than she: and the tall figure in the front of
+the box, with grey hair<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span></p>
+
+<p>Young Philip had not the faintest light or guidance
+in the discovery of his mother's thoughts. He was
+much more easy and comfortable now that there had
+been an explanation between them, though it was one of
+those explanations which explained nothing. He even
+forgave Uncle John for knowing more than he did,
+moved thereto by the consolatory thought that John's
+advice had never been taken, and that his mother had
+always followed her own way. This was an incalculable
+comfort to Pippo's mind, and gave him composure
+to wait calmly for the clearing up of the mystery, and
+the restoration of that perfect confidence between his
+mother and himself which he was so firmly convinced
+had existed all his life. He was a great deal happier
+after, and gave her an excellent account of the play,
+which he had managed to see quite satisfactorily, notwithstanding
+the other "little play of our own" which
+ran through everything. At Philip's age one can see
+two things at once well enough. I knew a boy who at
+one and the same moment got the benefit of (1st) his
+own story book, which he read lying at full length before
+the fire, half buried in the fur of a great rug; and
+(2nd) of the novel which was being read out over his
+head for the benefit of the other members of the family&mdash;or
+at least he strenuously asserted he did, and indeed
+proved himself acquainted with both. Philip in the
+same way had taken in everything in the play, even
+while his soul was intent upon the opera-glass in the
+box. He had not missed anything of either. He gave
+an account of the first, from which the drama might
+have been written down had fate destroyed it: and had
+noticed the <i>minauderies</i> of the heroine, and the eager
+determination not to be second to her in anything
+which distinguished the first gentleman, as if he had
+nothing else in his mind: while all the time he had
+been under the fascination of the two black eyeholes
+<i>braqu&eacute;s</i> upon him, the mysterious gaze as of a ghost
+from eyes which he never saw.</p>
+
+<p>This occupied some part of the forenoon, and Philip
+was happy. But when he had completed his tale and
+began to feel the necessity of going out, and remembered
+that he had nowhere to go and nothing to do,
+the prospect was not alluring. He tried very hard to
+persuade his mother to go out with him, but this was a
+risk from which Elinor shrank. She shrank, too, from
+his proposal at last to go out to the park by himself.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Row. I sha'n't know the people except
+those who are in <i>Punch</i> every week, and I shall envy the
+fellows riding&mdash;but at least it will be something to see."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would not go to the Row, Pippo."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, mother? Doesn't everybody go? And you
+never were here at this time of the year before."</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, with a long breath of despair. No;
+of all times of the year this was the one in which she
+had never risked him in London. And, oh! that he
+had been anywhere in the world except London now!</p>
+
+<p>Philip, who had been watching her countenance with
+great interest, here patted her on the shoulder with
+condescending, almost paternal, kindness. "Don't you
+be frightened, mother. I'll not get into any mischief.
+I'll neither be rode over, nor robbed, nor run away. I'll
+take as great care of myself as if you had been there."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not afraid that you will be ridden over or
+robbed," she said, forcing a smile; "but there is one
+thing, Pippo. Don't talk to anybody whom you&mdash;don't
+know. Don't let yourself be drawn into<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> If you
+should meet, for instance, that lady&mdash;who was in the
+theatre last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let her make acquaintance with you; don't
+speak to her, nor the girl, nor any one that may be with
+her. At the risk even of being uncivil<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, mother," he said, elevating his eyebrows,
+"how could I be uncivil to a lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I tell you," she cried, "because you must&mdash;because
+I shall sit here in terror counting every moment
+till you come back, if you don't promise me this."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with the most wondering countenance,
+half disapproving, half pitying. Was she going
+mad? what was happening to her? was she after all,
+though his mother, no better than the jealous foolish
+women in books, who endeavoured at all costs to separate
+their children from every influence but their own?
+How could Pippo think such things of his mother? and
+yet what else could he think?</p>
+
+<p>"I had better," he said, "if that is how you feel,
+mother, not go to the Row at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Much better, much better!" she cried. "I'll tell
+you what we'll do, Pippo&mdash;you have never been to see&mdash;the
+Tower." She had run over all the most far-off
+and unlikely places in her mind, and this occurred to
+her as the most impossible of all to attract any visitor
+of whom she could be afraid. "I have changed my
+mind," she added. "Well have a hansom, and I will
+go with you to see the Tower."</p>
+
+<p>"So long as you go with me," said Pippo, "I don't
+care where I go."</p>
+
+<p>And they set out almost joyfully as in their old happy
+expeditions of old, for that long drive through London
+in the hansom. And yet the boy was only lulled for
+the moment, and in his heart was more and more perplexed
+what his mother could mean.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>CHAPTER XLIII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Fortune was favourable to Elinor that day. At the
+Tower, where she duly went over everything that was
+to be seen with Pippo, conscious all the time of his
+keen observance of her through all that he was doing,
+and even through his interest in what he saw&mdash;and feeling
+for the first time in her life that there was between
+her boy and her something that he felt, something that
+was not explained by anything she had said, and that
+awaited the dreadful moment when everything would
+have to be told&mdash;at the Tower, as I say, they met some
+friends from the north, the rector of the parish, who
+had come up with his son to see town, and was naturally
+taking his boy, as Elinor took hers, to see all that
+was not town, in the usual sense of the word. They
+were going to Woolwich and Greenwich next day, and
+with a pang of mingled trouble and relief in her mind
+Elinor contrived to engage Pippo to accompany them.
+On the second day I think they were to go to St. Katherine's
+Docks, or the Isle of Dogs, or some other equally
+important and interesting sight&mdash;far better no doubt
+for the two youths than to frequent such places as the
+Row, and gaze at the stream of gaiety and luxury which
+they could not join. Pippo in ordinary circumstances
+would have been delighted to see Woolwich and the
+docks&mdash;but it was so evident to him that his mother
+was anxiously desirous to dispose of him so, that his
+satisfaction was much lessened. The boy, however,
+was magnanimous enough to consent without any appearance
+of reluctance. In the many thoughts which
+filled his mind Philip showed his fine nature, by having
+already come to consent to the possibility that his
+mother might have business of her own into which he
+had no right to enter unless at her own time and with
+her full consent. It cost him an effort, I allow, to come
+to that: but yet he did so, and resolved, a little pride
+helping him, to inquire no more, and if possible to
+wonder or be offended no more, but to wait the time
+she had promised, when the old rule of perfect confidence
+should be re-established between them. The
+old rule! if Pippo had but known! nothing yet had
+given Elinor such a sense of guilt as his conviction that
+she had told him everything, that there had been no
+secrets between them during all the happy life that was
+past.</p>
+
+<p>How entirely relieved Elinor was when he started to
+join his friends next morning it would be impossible to
+put into words. She watched all his lingering movements
+before he went with eyes in which she tried to
+quench the impatience, and look only with the fond admiration
+and interest she felt upon all his little preparations,
+his dawning sense of what was becoming in
+apparel, the flower in his coat, the carefully rolled
+umbrella, the hat brushed to the most exquisite smoothness,
+the handkerchief just peeping from his breast-*pocket.
+It is always a revelation to a woman to find
+that these details occupy as much of a young man's
+attention as her own toilette occupies hers; and that he
+is as tremulously alive to "what is worn" in many small
+particulars that never catch her eye, as she is to details
+which entirely escape him. She smiles at him as he
+does at her, each in that conscious superiority to the
+other, which is on the whole an indulgent sentiment.
+Underneath all her anxiety to see him go, to get rid of
+him (was that the dreadful truth in this terrible crisis
+of her affairs?), she felt the amusement of the boy's
+little coquetries, and the mother's admiration of his
+fresh looks, his youthful brightness, his air of distinction;
+how different from the Rector's boy, who was a
+nice fellow enough, and a credit to his rectory, and
+whose mother, I do not doubt, felt in his ruddy good
+looks something much superior in robustness, and
+strength, and manhood to the too-tall and too-slight
+golden youth of the ladies at Lakeside! It even flitted
+across Elinor's mind to give him within herself the title
+that was to be his, everybody said&mdash;Lord Lomond! And
+then she asked herself indignantly what honour it could
+add to her spotless boy to have such a vain distinction;
+a name that had been soiled by so much ignoble use?
+Elinor had prided herself all her life on an indifference
+to, almost a contempt for, the distinctions of rank: and
+that it should occur to her to think of that title as an
+embellishment to Pippo&mdash;nay, to think furtively, without
+her own knowledge, so to speak, that Pippo looked
+every inch a lord and heir to a peerage, was an involuntary
+weakness almost incredible. She blushed for
+herself as she realised it:&mdash;a peerage which had meant
+so little that was excellent&mdash;a name connected with so
+many undesirable precedents: still I suppose when it is
+his own even the veriest democrat is conscious at least
+of the picturesqueness, the superiority, as a mode of
+distinguishing one man from another, of anything
+that can in the remotest sense be called a historical
+name.</p>
+
+<p>When Pippo was out of sight Elinor turned from the
+window with a sigh, and came back to the dark chamber
+of her own life, full at this moment of all the gathered
+blackness of the past and of the future. She put her
+hands over her eyes, and sank down upon a seat, as if
+to shut out from herself all that was before her. But
+shut it out as she might, there it was&mdash;the horrible court
+with the judgment-seat, the rows of faces bent upon her,
+the silence through which her own voice must rise alone,
+saying&mdash;what? What was it she was called there to say?
+Oh, how little they knew who suggested that her mother
+should have been called instead of her, with all her
+minute old-fashioned calculations and exact memory,
+who even now, when all was over, would probably convict
+Elinor of a mistake! Even at that penalty what
+would not she give to have it over, the thing said, the
+event done with, whatever it might bring after it! And
+it could now be only a very short time till the moment
+of the ordeal would come, when she should stand up in
+the face of her country, before the solemn judge on his
+bench, before all the gaping, wondering people&mdash;before,
+oh! thought most dreadful of all, which we would not,
+could not, contemplate&mdash;before one who knew everything,
+and say<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> She picked herself up trembling as
+it were, and uncovered her eyes, and protested to herself
+that she would say nothing that was not true. Nothing
+that was not true! She would tell her story&mdash;so
+well remembered, so often conned; that story that
+had been put into her lips twenty years ago which
+she had repeated then confused, not knowing how it
+was that what was a simple fact should nevertheless
+not be true. Alas! she knew that very well now,
+and yet would have to repeat it before God and
+the world. But thinking would make it no better&mdash;thinking
+could only make it worse. She sprang up
+again, and began to occupy herself with something
+she had to do: the less it was thought over the better:
+for now the trial had begun, and her ordeal would soon
+be done too. If only the boy could be occupied, kept
+away&mdash;if only she could be left alone to do what she
+had to do! That he should be there was the last aggravation
+of which her fate was capable; there in idleness,
+reading the papers in the morning, which was a thing
+she had so lately calculated a boy at school was unlikely
+to do; and what so likely as that his eye would be
+caught by his own name in the report of the trial, which
+would be an exciting trial and fully reported&mdash;a trial
+which interested society. The boy would see his own
+name: she could almost hear him cry out, looking up
+from his breakfast, "Hallo, mother! here's something
+about a Philip Compton!" And all the questions that
+would follow&mdash;"Is he the same Comptons that we are?
+What Comptons do we belong to? You never told me
+anything about my family. Is this man any relation, I
+wonder? Both surname and Christian name the same.
+It's strange if there is no connection!" She could
+almost hear the words he would say&mdash;all that and more&mdash;and
+what should she reply?</p>
+
+<p>"I have only one thing to say, Elinor," said John, to
+whom in her desperation she turned again, as she always
+did, disturbing him, poor man, in his chambers as he was
+collecting his notes and his thoughts in the afternoon
+after his work was over: "it is the same as I have always
+said; even now make a clean breast of it to the
+boy. Tell him everything; better that he should hear
+it from your own lips than that it should burst upon
+him as a discovery. He has but to meet Lady
+Mariamne in the park, the most likely thing in the
+world<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"No, John," cried Elinor, "no; the Marshalls are
+here, our Rector from Lakeside, and he is taking his
+boy to see all the sights. I have got Pippo to go with
+them. They are going to Woolwich to-day, and
+afterwards to quite a long list of things&mdash;oh, entirely out of
+everybody's way."</p>
+
+<p>Her little look of uneasy triumph and satisfaction
+made John smile. She was not half so sure as she
+tried to look; but, all the same, had a little pride, a little
+pleasure in her own management, and in the happy
+chance of the Marshalls being in London, which was a
+thing that could not have been planned, an intervention
+of Providence. He could not refuse to smile&mdash;partly
+with her, partly at her simplicity&mdash;but, all the
+same, he shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"The only way in which there is any safety&mdash;the
+only chance of preserving him from a shock, a painful
+shock, Elinor, that may upset him for life<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean, upset him for life?"</p>
+
+<p>"By showing him that his mother, whom he believes
+in like heaven, has deceived him since ever he was born."</p>
+
+<p>She covered her face with her hands, and burst into
+a sobbing cry. "Oh, John, you don't know how true
+that is! He said to me only yesterday, 'You have always
+told me everything, mother. There has never
+been any secret between us.' Oh! John, John, only
+think of having that said to me, and knowing what I
+know!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Elinor; believe me, my dear, there is but
+one thing to do. The boy is a good boy, full of love
+and kindness."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, isn't he, John? the best boy, the dearest<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"And adores his mother, as a boy should," John
+got up from his chair and walked about the room for
+a little, and then he came behind her and put his hand
+on her shoulder. "Tell him, Elinor: my dear Nelly,
+as if I had never said a word on the subject before, I
+beseech you tell him, trust him fully, even now, at the
+eleventh hour."</p>
+
+<p>She raised her head with a quivering, wistful smile.
+"The moment the trial is over, the moment it is over!
+I give you my word, John."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not wait till it is over, do it now; to-night
+when he comes home."</p>
+
+<p>She began to tremble so that John Tatham was
+alarmed&mdash;and kept looking at him with an imploring
+look, her lips quivering and every line in her countenance.
+"Oh, not to-night. Spare me to-night! After
+the trial; after my part of it. At least&mdash;after&mdash;after&mdash;oh,
+give me till to-morrow to think of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Elinor, I count for nothing in it. I am
+not your judge; I am your partisan, you know, whatever
+you do. But I am sure it will be the better done, and
+even the easier done, the sooner you do it."</p>
+
+<p>"I will&mdash;I will: at the very latest the day after I
+have done my part at the trial. Is not that enough to
+think of at one time, for a poor woman who has never
+stood up before the public in all her life, never had a
+question put to her? Oh, John! oh, John!"</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, Elinor! you are too sensible a woman to
+make a fuss about a simple duty like this."</p>
+
+<p>"There speaks the man who has stood before the
+world all his life, and is not afraid of any public," she
+said, with a tremulous laugh. But she had won her
+moment's delay, and thus was victorious after a fashion,
+as it was her habit to be.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know that young Philip much amused himself
+at Woolwich that day. He did and he did not.
+He could not help being interested in all he saw, and he
+liked the Marshalls well enough, and in ordinary circumstances
+would have entered very heartily into any
+sight-seeing. But he kept thinking all the time what
+his mother was doing, and wondering over the mysterious
+business which was to be explained to him sooner
+or later, and which he had so magnanimously promised
+to wait for the revelation of, and entertain no suspicions
+about in the meantime. The worst of such magnanimity
+is that it is subject to dreadful failings of the heart
+in its time of waiting&mdash;never giving in, indeed, but yet
+feeling the pressure whenever there is a moment to
+think. This matter mixed itself up so with all Philip
+saw that he never in after life saw a great cannon, or a
+pyramid of balls (which is not, to be sure, an every-day
+sight) without a vague sensation of trouble, as of
+something lying behind which was concealed from him, and
+which he would scarcely endure to have concealed.
+When he left his friends in the evening, however, it was
+with another engagement for to-morrow, and several
+to-morrows after, and great jubilation on the part of
+both father and son, as to their good luck in meeting,
+and having his companionship in their pleasures. And,
+in fact, these pleasures were carried on for several days,
+always with the faint bitter in them to Philip, of that
+consciousness that his mother was pleased to be rid of
+him, glad to see his back turned, the most novel, extraordinary
+sensation to the boy. And it must also be
+confessed that he kept a very keen eye on all the passing
+carriages, always hoping to see that one in which
+the witch, as he called her, and the girl with the keen
+eyes were&mdash;for he had not picked up the name of Lady
+Mariamne, keen as his young ears were, and though
+John had mentioned it in his presence, partly, perhaps,
+because it was so very unlikely a name. As for the
+man with the opera-glasses, he had not seen his face at
+all, and therefore could not hope to recognise him.
+And yet he felt a little thrill run through him when any
+tall man with grey hair passed in the street. He almost
+thought he could have known the tall slim figure
+with a certain swaying movement in it, which was not
+like anybody else. I need not say, however, that even
+had these indications been stronger, Woolwich and the
+Isle of Dogs were unlikely places in which to meet
+Lady Mariamne, or any gentleman likely to be in attendance
+on her. In Whitechapel, indeed, had he but
+known, he might have met Miss Dolly: but then in
+Whitechapel there were no sights which virtuous youth
+is led to see. And Philip's man with the opera-glass was,
+during these days, using that aid to vision in a very different
+place, and had neither leisure nor inclination to
+move vaguely about the world.</p>
+
+<p>For three days this went on successfully enough:
+young Philip Compton and Ralph Marshall saw enough
+to last them all the rest of their lives, and there was no
+limit to the satisfaction of the good country clergyman,
+who felt that he never could have succeeded so completely
+in improving his son's mind, instead of delivering
+him over to the frivolous amusements of town, if it
+had not been for the companionship of Philip, who
+made Ralph feel that it was all right, and that he was
+not being victimised for nothing. But on the fourth
+day a hitch occurred. John Tatham had been made
+to give all sorts of orders and admissions for the party
+to see every nook and corner of the Temple, much to
+Elinor's alarm, who felt that place was too near to be
+safe; but she was herself in circumstances too urgent
+to permit her dwelling upon it. She had left the
+house on that particular morning long before Philip
+was ready, and every anxiety was dulled in her mind
+for the moment by the overwhelming sense of the crisis
+arrived. She went to his room before he had left it,
+and gave him a kiss, and told him that she might be detained
+for a long time; that she did know exactly at
+what hour she should return. She was very pale, paler
+than he had ever seen her, and her manner had a suppressed
+agitation in it which startled Philip; but she
+managed to smile as she assured him she was quite
+well, and that there was nothing troubling her.
+"Nothing, nothing that has to do with us&mdash;a little disturbed
+for a friend&mdash;but that will be all over," she said,
+"to-night, I hope." Philip made a leisurely breakfast
+after she was gone, and it happened to him that morning
+for the first time as he was alone to make a study
+of the papers. And the consequence was that he said
+to himself really those words which his mother in
+imagination had so often heard him say, "Hallo!
+Philip Compton, my name! I wonder if he is any
+relation. I wonder if we have anything to do with
+those St. Serf Comptons." Then he reflected, but
+vaguely, that he did not know to what Comptons he belonged,
+nor even what county he came from, to tell the
+truth. And then it was time to hurry over his breakfast,
+to swallow his cup of tea, to snatch up his hat and
+gloves, and to rush off to meet his friends. But on
+that day Philip was unlucky. When he got to the
+place of meeting he found nothing but a telegram from
+Ralph, announcing that his father was so knocked up
+with his previous exertions that they were obliged
+to take a quiet day. And thus Philip was left in the
+Temple, of all places in the world, on the day when his
+mother was to appear in the law-courts close by&mdash;on
+the day of all others when if she could have sent him
+for twenty-four hours to the end of the earth she
+would have done so&mdash;on the day when so terrible was
+the stress and strain upon herself that for once in the
+world even Pippo had gone as completely out of her
+mind as if he had not been.</p>
+
+<p>The boy looked about him for awhile, and reflected
+what to do, and then he started out into the Strand,
+conscientiously waiting for the Marshalls before he
+should visit the Temple and all its historical ways; and
+then he was amused and excited by seeing a barrister
+or two in wig and gown pass by; and then he thought
+of the trial in the newspapers, in which somebody who,
+like himself, was called Philip Compton, was involved.
+Philip was still lingering, wondering if he could get into
+the court, a little shy of trying, but gradually growing
+eager, thinking at least that he would try and get a
+sight of the wonderful grand building, still so new,
+when he suddenly saw Simmons, his uncle John's clerk,
+passing through the quadrangle of the law-courts.
+Here was his chance. He rushed forward and caught
+the clerk by the arm, who was in a great hurry, as
+everybody seemed to be. "Oh, Simmons, can you get
+me into that Brown trial?" cried Philip. "Brown!"
+Simmons said. "Mr. Tatham is not on in that." "Oh,
+never mind about Mr. Tatham," said the boy. "Can't
+you get me in? I have never seen a trial, and I take
+an interest in that." "I advise you," said Simmons,
+"to wait for one that your uncle's in." "Can't you get
+me in?" said Philip, impatiently: and this touched
+the pride of Simmons, who had many friends, if not in
+high places, yet in low.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>CHAPTER XLIV.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Philip had never been in a court of law before. I
+am almost as ignorant as he was, yet I cannot imagine
+anything more deeply interesting than to find one's self
+suddenly one of a crowded assembly trying more or
+less&mdash;for is not the public but a larger jury, sometimes
+contradicting the verdict of the other, and when it does
+so almost invariably winning the cause?&mdash;a fellow-creature,
+following out the traces of his crime or his
+innocence, looking on while a human drama is unrolled,
+often far more interesting than any dramatic representation
+of life. He was confused for the moment by the
+crowd, by the new and unusual spectacle, by the bewilderment
+of seeing for the first time what he had so
+often heard of, the judge on the bench, the wigged
+barristers below, the one who was speaking, so different
+from any other public speaker Philip had ever heard,
+addressing not the assembly, but the smaller circle
+round him, interrupted by other voices: the accused
+in his place and the witness&mdash;standing there more distinctly
+at the bar than the culprit was&mdash;bearing his testimony
+before earth and heaven, with the fate of another
+hanging on his words. The boy was so full of the
+novel sight&mdash;which yet he had heard of so often that
+he could identify every part of it, and soon perceived
+the scope of what was going on&mdash;that he did not at
+first listen, so full was he of the interest of what he saw.
+The imperturbable judge, grave, letting no emotion appear
+on his face; the jury, just the reverse, showing
+how this and that piece of evidence affected them; the
+barristers who were engaged, so keenly alive to everything,
+starting up now and then when the witness
+swerved from the subject, when the opposition proposed
+a leading question, or one that was irrelevant to
+the issue; the others who were not "in it," as Simmons
+said, so indifferent; and then the spectators who had
+places about or near the central interest. Philip saw,
+with a sudden leap of his heart, the ladies of the theatre
+and park, the witch and the girl with the keen eyes, in
+a conspicuous place; the old lady, as he called her, full
+of movement and gesture, making signs to others near
+her, keeping up an interrupted whispering, the girl at
+her side as impassive as the judge himself. And then
+Pippo's roving eye caught a figure seated among the
+barristers with an opera-glass, which made his heart
+jump still more. Was that the man? He had, at the
+moment Philip perceived him, his opera-glass in his
+hand: a tall man leaning back with a look of interest,
+very conspicuous among the wigged heads about him,
+with grey hair in a mass on his forehead as if it had
+grown thin and had been coaxed to cover some denuded
+place, and a face which it seemed to Philip he
+had seen before, a face worn&mdash;was it with study, was it
+with trouble? Pippo knew of no other ways in which
+the eyes could be so hollowed out, and the lines so
+deeply drawn. A man, perhaps, hard worn with life
+and labor and sorrow. A strange sympathy sprang up
+in the boy's mind: he was sure he knew the face. It
+was a face full of records, though young Philip could
+not read them&mdash;the face, he thought, of a man who
+had had much to bear. Was it the same man who had
+fixed so strange a gaze upon himself at the theatre?
+And what interest could this man have in the trial that
+was going on?</p>
+
+<p>The accused at the bar was certainly not of a kind to
+arouse the interest which sprang into being at sight of
+this worn and noble hero. He had the air of a comfortable
+man of business, a man evidently well off, surprised
+at once and indignant to find himself there,
+sometimes bursting with eagerness to explain, sometimes
+leaning back with an air of affected contempt&mdash;not
+a good man in trouble, as Philip would have liked
+to think him, nor a criminal fully conscious of what
+might be awaiting him; but a man of the first respectability,
+indignant and incredulous that anything
+should be brought against him. Philip felt himself
+able to take no interest whatever in Mr. Brown.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till he had gone through all these surprises
+and observations that he began to note what was
+being said. Philip was not learned in the procedure
+of the law, nor did he know anything about the case;
+but it became vaguely apparent to him after awhile
+that the immediate question concerned the destruction
+of the books of a joint-stock company, of which
+Brown was the manager, an important point which the
+prosecution had some difficulty in bringing home to
+him. After it had been proved that the books had
+been destroyed, and that so far as was known it was to
+Brown's interest alone to destroy them, the evidence
+as to what had been seen on the evening on which this
+took place suddenly took a new turn, and seemed to
+introduce a new actor on the scene. Some one had
+been seen to enter the office in the twilight who could
+not be identified with Brown; whom, indeed, even
+Philip, with his boyish interest in the novelty of the
+proceedings, vaguely perceived to be another man.
+The action of the piece, so to speak (for it was like a
+play to Philip), changed and wavered here&mdash;and he began
+to be sensible of the character of the different
+players in it. The counsel for the prosecution was a
+well-known and eminent barrister, one of the most
+noted of the time, a man before whom witnesses trembled,
+and even the Bench itself was sometimes known
+to quail. That this was the case on the present occasion
+Philip vaguely perceived. There were points continually
+arising which the opposing counsel made objections
+to, appealing to the judge; but it rarely failed
+that the stronger side, which was that of the prosecution,
+won the day. The imperious accuser, whose resources
+of precedent and argument seemed boundless,
+carried everything with a high hand. The boy, of
+course, was not aware of the weakness of the representative
+of the majesty of the law, nor the inferiority, in
+force and skill, of the defence; but he gradually came
+to a practical perception of how the matter stood.</p>
+
+<p>Philip listened with growing interest, sometimes
+amused, sometimes indignant, as the remorseless
+prosecutor ploughed his way through the witnesses, whom
+he bullied into admissions that they were certain of
+nothing, and that in the dusk of that far-off evening,
+the man whom they had sworn at the time to be quite
+unlike him, might in reality have been Brown. Philip
+got greatly interested in this question. He took up
+the opposite side himself with much heat, feeling as
+sure as if he had been there that it was not Brown:
+and he was delighted in his excitement, when there
+stood up one man who would not be bullied, a man
+who had the air of a respectable clerk of the lower
+class, and who held his own. He had been an office
+boy, the son apparently of the housekeeper in charge
+of the premises referred to when the incident occurred,
+and the gist of his evidence was that the prisoner at
+the bar&mdash;so awful a personage once to the little office
+boy, so curtly discussed now as Brown&mdash;had left the
+office at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 6th of September,
+and had not appeared again.</p>
+
+<p>"A different gentleman altogether came in the evening,
+a much taller man, with a large moustache."</p>
+
+<p>"Where was it that you saw this man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Slipping in at the side door of the office as if he
+didn't want to be seen."</p>
+
+<p>"Was that a door which was generally open, or used
+by the public?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never, sir; but none of the doors were used at
+that time of night."</p>
+
+<p>"And how, then, could any one get admittance there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only those that had private keys; the directors
+had their private keys."</p>
+
+<p>"Then your conclusion was that it was a director,
+and that he had a right to be there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it was a director, sir, because I knew the
+gentleman," the witness said.</p>
+
+<p>"You say it was late in the evening of the 6th of
+September. Was it daylight at the time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, sir; nearly dark&mdash;a sort of a half light."</p>
+
+<p>"Did the person you saw go in openly, or make any
+attempt at concealment?"</p>
+
+<p>"He had a light coat on, like the coats gentlemen
+wear when they go to the theatre, and something muffled
+round his throat, and his hat pulled down over his
+face."</p>
+
+<p>"Like a person who wished to conceal himself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said the witness.</p>
+
+<p>"And how, then, if he was muffled about the throat,
+and his hat pulled over his face, in the half light late in
+the evening, could you see that he had a large moustache?"</p>
+
+<p>The witness stood and stared with his mouth open,
+and made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>The counsel, with a louder voice and those intonations
+of contemptuous insinuation which are calculated to
+make a man feel that he is convicted of the basest perjury,
+and is being held up to the reprobation of the
+world, repeated the question, "How could you see that
+he had a large moustache?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw it," said the witness, hotly, "because I knew
+the gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"And how did you know the gentleman? You
+thought you recognised the gentleman, and therefore,
+though you could not possibly perceive it, you saw his
+moustache? I fear that is not an answer that will satisfy
+the jury."</p>
+
+<p>"I submit," said the counsel for the defence, "that
+it is very evident what the witness means. He recognised
+a man with whose appearance he was perfectly
+familiar."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw him," said the witness, "as clear as I see you,
+sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What! in the dark, late on a September night, with
+a coat collar up to his ears, and a hat pulled down over
+his face! You see my learned friend in broad daylight,
+and with the full advantage of standing opposite to him
+and studying his looks at your leisure. You might as
+well say because you know the gentleman that you could
+see his half was dark and abundant under his wig."</p>
+
+<p>At this a laugh ran through the court, at which Philip,
+listening, was furiously indignant, as it interrupted the
+course of the investigation. It was through the sound
+of this laugh that he heard the witness demand loudly,
+"How could I be mistaken, when I saw Mr. Compton
+every day?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Compton! Philip's heart began to beat like the
+hammers of a steam-engine. Was this, then, the real
+issue? And who was Mr. Compton? He could not
+have told how it was that he somehow identified the
+man whom the witness had seen, or had not seen, with
+the man who had the opera-glass, and who had fixed a
+dreadful blank stare upon the other in the witness-box
+during a great part of this discussion. Was it he who
+was on his trial, and not Brown? And who was he?
+And where was it that Philip had known and grown
+familiar with that face, which, so far as he could remember,
+he had never seen before, but which belonged
+to the man who bore his own name?</p>
+
+<p>When the counsel for the prosecution had turned the
+unfortunate witness outside in, and proved that he knew
+nothing and had seen nobody: and that, besides, he was
+a man totally unworthy of credit, who had lied from his
+cradle, and whose own mother and friends put no trust in
+him, the court adjourned for lunch. But Philip forgot
+that he required any lunch. His mind was filled with
+echoes of that name. He began to feel a strange certainty
+that it was the same man who had fixed him with the
+same gaze in the theatre. Who was Mr. Compton, and
+what was he? The question took the boy's breath away.</p>
+
+<p>He sat through the interval, finding a place where he
+could see better, through the kind offices of the usher
+to whom Simmons had commended him, and waiting
+with impatience till the trial should be resumed. Nobody
+remarked the boy among the crowd of the ordinary
+public, many of whom remained, as he did, to see
+it out, Philip cared nothing about Brown: all that he
+wanted to know was about this namesake of his&mdash;this
+Compton, this other man, who was not Brown. If it
+was the man with the opera-glass, he was not so much
+excited as his young namesake, for he went to luncheon
+with the rest; while the boy remained counting the
+minutes, eager to begin the story, the drama, again.
+The impression left, however, on Philip's impartial mind
+was that the last witness, though driven and badgered
+out of what wits he had by the examination, had really
+seen a man whom he perfectly knew, his recognition of
+whom was not really affected either by the twilight or
+the disguise.</p>
+
+<p>The thrill of interest which he felt running through
+all his veins as the court filled again was like, but
+stronger than, the interest with which he had ever seen
+the curtain rise in the theatre. His heart beat: he felt
+as if in some sort it was his own fate that was going to
+be decided: all his prepossessions were in favour of that
+other accused, yet not openly accused, person who was
+not Brown; and yet he felt almost as sure as if he had
+been there that the office boy of twenty years ago had
+seen that man stealing in at the side door.</p>
+
+<p>Young Philip did not catch the name of the next witness
+who was called; such a thing will happen sometimes
+even with the quickest ear at a moment when
+every whisper is important. If he had heard he would
+probably have thought that he was deceived by his excitement,
+impossible as it was that such a name should
+have anything to do with this or any other trial. The
+shock therefore was unbroken when, watching with all
+the absorbed interest of a spectator at the most exciting
+play, the boy saw a lady come slowly forward into the
+witness-box. Philip had the same strange sense of knowing
+who it was that he had felt the previous witness to
+have in respect to the man whom he could not see, but
+yet had infallibly recognised: but he said to himself, No!
+it was not possible! No! it was not possible! She
+came forward slowly, put up the veil that had covered
+her face, and grasped the bar before her to support herself;
+and then the boy sprang to his feet, in the terrible
+shock which electrified him from head to feet! His
+movements, and the stifled cry he uttered, made a little
+commotion in the crowd, and called forth the cry of
+"Silence in the court." His neighbours around him
+hustled him back into his place, where he sank down
+incapable indeed of movement, knowing that he could
+not go and pluck her from that place&mdash;could not rush
+to her side, could do nothing but sit there and gasp and
+gaze at his mother. His mother, in such a place! in
+such a case! with which&mdash;surely, surely&mdash;she could have
+nothing to do. Elinor Compton, at the time referred
+to Elinor Dennistoun, of Windyhill, in Surrey&mdash;there
+was no doubt about the name now. And Philip had
+time enough to identify everything, name and person,
+for there rose a vague surging of contention about the
+first questions put to her, which were not evidence, according
+to the counsel on the other side, which he felt
+with fury was done on purpose to prolong the agony.
+During this time she stood immovable, holding on by
+the rail before her, her eyes fixed upon it, perfectly pale,
+like marble, and as still. Among all the moving, rustling,
+palpitating crowd, and the sharp volleys of the
+lawyers' voices, and even the contradictory opinions
+elicited from the harassed judge himself&mdash;to look at
+that figure standing there, which scarcely seemed to
+breathe, had the most extraordinary effect. For a time
+Philip was like her, scarcely breathing, holding on in an
+unconscious sympathy to the back of the seat before
+him, his eyes wide open, fixed upon her. But as his
+nerves began to accustom themselves to that extraordinary,
+inconceivable sight, the other particulars of the
+scene came out of the mist, and grew apparent to him
+in a lurid light that did not seem the light of day. He
+saw the eager looks at her of the ladies in the privileged
+places, the whispers that were exchanged among them.
+He saw underneath the witness-box, almost within reach
+of her, John Tatham, with an anxious look on his face.
+And then he saw, what was the most extraordinary of
+all, the man&mdash;who had been the centre of his interest
+till now&mdash;the man whose name was Philip Compton,
+like his own; he who fixed the last witness with the
+stare of his opera-glass, who had kept it in perpetual
+use. He had put it down now on the table before him,
+his arms were folded on his breast, and his head bent.
+Philip thought he detected now and then a furtive look
+under his brows at the motionless witness awaiting
+through the storm of words the moment when her turn
+would come; but though he had leant forward all the
+time, following every point of the proceedings with interest,
+he now drew back, effaced himself, retired as it
+were from the scene. What was there between these
+two? Was there any link between them? What was
+the drama about to be played out before Pippo's innocent
+and ignorant eyes? At last the storm and
+wrangling seemed to come to an end, and there came
+out low but clear the sound of her voice. It seemed
+only now, when he heard his mother speak, that he was
+certified that so inconceivable a thing as that she should
+be here was a matter of fact: his mother here! Philip
+fixed his whole being upon her&mdash;eyes, thoughts, absorbed
+attention, he scarcely seemed to breathe except
+through her. Could she see him, he wondered, through
+all that crowd? But then he perceived that she saw
+nothing with those eyes that looked steadily in front of
+her, not turning a glance either to the right or left.</p>
+
+<p>For some time Philip was baffled completely by the
+questions put, which were those to which the counsel
+on the other side objected as not evidence, and which
+seemed, even to the boy's inexperienced mind, to be
+mere play upon the subject, attempts to connect her in
+some way with the question as to Brown's guilt or innocence.
+Something in the appearance, at this stage, of
+a lady so unlike the other witnesses, seemed to exercise
+a certain strange effect, however, quickening everybody's
+interest, and when the examining counsel approached
+the question of the date which had already been shown
+to be so momentous, all interruptions were silenced, and
+the court in general, like Philip, held its breath. There
+were many there expecting what are called in the newspapers
+"revelations:" the defence was taken by surprise,
+and did not know what new piece of evidence
+was about to be produced: and even the examining
+counsel was, for such a man, subdued a little by the
+other complicating threads of the web among which he
+had to pick his way.</p>
+
+<p>"You recollect," he said in his most soothing tones;
+"the evening of the 6th September, 1863?"</p>
+
+<p>She bowed her head in reply. And then as if that
+was sparing herself too much, added a low "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"As I am instructed, you were not then married, but
+engaged to Mr. Philip Compton. Is that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"One of the directors of the company of which the
+defendant was manager?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe so."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to have to enter upon matters so private:
+but there was some question, I believe, about an
+investment to be made of a portion of your fortune in
+the hands of this company?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You received a visit from Mr. Compton on the subject
+on the day I have mentioned."</p>
+
+<p>The witness made a slight movement and pause:
+then answered as before, but more firmly, "Yes:" she
+added, "not on this subject," in a lower tone.</p>
+
+<p>"You can recollect, more or less exactly, the time of
+his arrival?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It was in the evening, after dinner; in the
+darkening before the lamps were lit."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you looking for him on that night?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; it was an unexpected visit. He was going to
+Ireland, and paused on his way through town to come
+down to Windyhill."</p>
+
+<p>"You have particular reasons for remembering the
+date, which make it impossible that there could be any
+mistake?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; there could be no mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"You will perhaps inform the court, Mrs. Compton,
+why your memory is so exact on this point."</p>
+
+<p>Once more she hesitated for a moment, and then replied&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It was exactly ten days before my marriage."</p>
+
+<p>"I think that will do, Mrs. Compton. I will trouble
+you no further," the counsel said.</p>
+
+<p>The hubbub which sprang up upon this seemed to
+Philip for the moment as if it were directed against his
+mother, which, of course, was not the case, but intended
+to express the indignant surprise of the defence at the
+elaborate examination of a witness who had nothing to
+say on the main subject.</p>
+
+<p>The leader on the other side, however, though taken
+by surprise, and denouncing the trick which his learned
+brother had played upon the court by producing evidence
+which had really nothing to do with the matter,
+announced his intention to put a further question or
+two to Mrs. Compton. Young Philip in the crowd
+started again from his seat with the feeling that he
+would like to fly at that man's throat.</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty years is a long time," he said, "and it is
+difficult to be sure of any circumstance at such a distance.
+Perhaps the witness will kindly inform us what
+were the circumstances which fixed this, no doubt one
+of many visits, on her mind?"</p>
+
+<p>Elinor turned for the first time to the side from
+which the question came with a little movement of that
+impatience which was habitual to her, which three persons
+in that crowd recognised in a moment as characteristic.
+One of these was John Tatham, who had
+brought her to the court, and kept near that she might
+feel that she was not alone; the other was her son, of
+whose presence there nobody knew; the third, sat with
+his eyes cast down, and his arms folded on his breast,
+not looking at her, yet seeing every movement she made.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a very simple circumstance," she said with
+the added spirit of that impetuous impulse: but then
+the hasty movement failed her, and she came back to
+herself and to a consciousness of the scene in which she
+stood. A sort of tremulous shiver came into her voice.
+She paused and then resumed, "There was a calendar
+hanging in the hall; it caught Mr. Compton's eye, and
+he pointed it out to me. It marked the 6th. He said,
+'Just ten days<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>'"</p>
+
+<p>Here her voice stopped altogether. She could say no
+more. And there was an answering pause throughout the
+whole crowded court, a holding of the general breath,
+the response to a note of passion seldom struck in such a
+place. Even in the cross-examination there was a pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Till when? What was the other date referred to?"</p>
+
+<p>"The sixteenth of September," she said in a voice
+that was scarcely audible to the crowd. She added
+still more low so that the judge curved his hand over
+his ear to hear her, "Our wedding-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I regret to enter into private matters, Mrs. Compton,
+but I believe it is not a secret that your married
+life came to a&mdash;more rapid conclusion than could have
+been augured from such a beginning. May I ask what
+your reasons were for<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>But here the other counsel sprang to his feet, and the
+contention arose again. Such a question was not clearly
+permissible. And the prosecution was perfectly satisfied
+with the evidence. It narrowed the question by
+the production of this clear and unquestionable testimony&mdash;the
+gentleman whom it had been attempted to
+involve being thus placed out of the question, and all
+the statements of the previous witness about the moustache
+which he could not see, etc., set aside.</p>
+
+<p>Philip, it may be supposed, paid little attention to
+this further discussion. His eyes and thoughts were
+fixed upon his mother, who for a minute or two stood
+motionless through it, as pale as ever, but with her
+head a little thrown back, facing, though not looking
+at, the circling lines of faces. Had she seen anything
+she must have seen the tall boy standing up as pale as
+she, following her movements with an unconscious repetition
+which was more than sympathy, never taking his
+gaze from her face.</p>
+
+<p>And then presently her place was empty, and she
+was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Philip was not aware how the discussion of the lawyers
+ended, but only that in a moment there was
+vacancy where his mother had been standing, and his
+gaze seemed thrown back to him by the blank where
+she had been. He was left in the midst of the crowd,
+which, after that one keen sensation, fell back upon the
+real trial with interest much less keen.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV"></a>CHAPTER XLV.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Philip did not know how long he remained, almost
+paralysed, in the court, dazed in his mind, incapable of
+movement. He was in the centre of a long row of
+people, and to make his way out was difficult. He felt
+that the noise would call attention to him, and that he
+might be somehow identified&mdash;identified, as what?
+He did not know&mdash;his head was not clear enough to
+give any reason. When he came more to himself, and
+his eyes regained a little their power of vision, it seemed
+to him that everybody had stolen away. There was the
+judge, indeed, still sitting imperturbable, the jury restless
+in their box, the lawyers going on with their eternal
+quarrel over a bewildered witness, all puppets carrying
+on some unintelligible, wearisome, automaton process,
+contending, contending for ever about nothing. But all
+that had secured Philip's attention was gone. John
+Tatham's head was no longer visible under the witness-box;
+the ladies had disappeared from their elevated
+seats; the man with the opera-glass was gone. They
+were all gone, and the empty husks of a question which
+only concerned the comfort and life of the commonplace
+culprit in the dock were being turned over and over
+like chaff by the wind. And yet it was some time before
+poor young Pippo, shy of attracting attention, feeling
+some subtle change even in himself which he did
+not understand, afraid to have people look at him and
+divine him, knowing more of him perhaps than he himself
+knew, could make up his mind to move. He might
+have remained there till the court broke up but for the
+movement of some one beside him, who gathered up his
+hat and umbrella, and with some commotion pushed his
+way between the rows of seats. Philip followed, thankful
+of the opportunity, and, as it happened, the sensation
+of the day being over, many others followed too,
+and thus he got out into the curious, wondering
+daylight, which seemed to look him in the face, as if this
+Philip had never been seen by it before. That was the
+impression given him&mdash;that when he first came out the
+atmosphere quivered round him with a strange novelty,
+as if he were some other being, some one without a
+name, new to the world, new to himself. He did not
+seem sure that he would know his way home, and yet
+he did not call a passing hansom, as he would have
+done yesterday, with a schoolboy's pleasure in assuming
+a man's careless, easy ways. It is a long way from the
+Law Courts to Ebury Street, but it seemed a kind of
+satisfaction to be in motion, to walk on along the
+crowded streets. And, as a matter of fact, Philip did
+lose his way, and got himself entangled in a web of
+narrow streets and monotonous little openings, all so
+like each other that it took him a long time to extricate
+himself and find again the thread of a locality known to
+him. He did not know what he was to do when he got
+in. Should he find her there, in the little dingy drawing-room
+as usual, with the tea on the table? Would she receive
+him with her usual smile, and ask where he had
+been and what he had seen, and if the Musgraves had
+enjoyed it, exactly as if nothing had happened? Even
+this wonder was faint in Philip's mind, for the chief
+wonder to him was himself, and to find out how he had
+changed since the morning&mdash;what he was now, who he
+was? what were the relations to him of other people, of
+that other Philip Compton who had been seated in the
+court with the opera-glass, who had arrived at Windyhill
+to visit Elinor Dennistoun on the 6th of September,
+1863, twenty years ago? Who was that man? and
+what was he, himself Philip Compton, of Lakeside,
+named Pippo, whom his mother had never once in all
+his life called by his real name?</p>
+
+<p>To his great wonder, and yet almost relief, Philip
+found that his mother had not yet returned when he
+got to Ebury Street. "Mrs. Compton said as she would
+very likely be late. Can I get you some tea, sir? or,
+perhaps you haven't had your lunch? you're looking
+tired and worrited," said the landlady, who had known
+Pippo all his life. He consented to have tea, partly to
+fill up the time, and went up languidly to the deserted
+room, which looked so miserable and desert a place
+without her who put a soul into it and made it home.
+He did not know what to do with himself, poor boy,
+but sat down vacantly, and stared into empty space,
+seeing, wherever he turned, the rows of faces, the ladies
+making signs to each other, the red robes of the judge,
+the lawyers contending, and that motionless pale figure
+in the witness-box. He shut his eyes and saw the whole
+scene, then opened them again, and still saw it&mdash;the
+dingy walls disappearing, the greyness of the afternoon
+giving a depth and distance to the limited space. Should
+he always carry it about with him wherever he went,
+the vision of that court, the shock of that revelation?
+And yet he did not yet know what the revelation was;
+the confusion in his mind was too great, and the dust
+and mist that rose up about him as all the old building
+of his life crumbled and fell away.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure as it's that nasty trial, sir, as has been turning
+your mamma all out of her usual ways," said the
+landlady, appearing with her tray.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the trial! Did you know about the trial?"
+said Philip.</p>
+
+<p>"Not, Mr. Pippo, as ever she mentioned it to me.
+Mrs. Compton is a lady as isn't that confidential, though
+always an affable lady, and not a bit proud; but when
+you've known folks for years and years, and take an interest,
+and put this and that together<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Dear, dear,
+I hope as you don't think it's taking a liberty. It's
+more kindness nor curiosity, and I hope as you won't
+mention it to your mamma."</p>
+
+<p>Pippo shook his head and waved his hand, at once to
+satisfy the woman and dismiss her if possible; but this
+was not so easy to do.</p>
+
+<p>"And Lord St. Serf so bad, sir," she said. "Lord,
+to think that before we know where we are there may
+be such changes, and new names, and no knowing what
+to say! But it's best not to talk of it till it comes to
+pass, for there's many a slip between the cup and the
+lip, and there's no saying what will happen with a man
+that's been a-dying for years and years."</p>
+
+<p>What did the woman mean? He got rid of her at
+length, chiefly by dint of making no reply: and then,
+to tell the truth, Pippo's eye had been caught by the
+pile of sandwiches which the kind woman, pitying his
+tired looks, had brought up with the tea. He was
+ashamed of himself for being hungry in such a dreadful
+emergency as this, but he was so, and could not help
+it, though nothing would have made him confess so
+much, or even touch the sandwiches till she had gone
+away. He pretended to ignore them till the door was
+shut after her, but could not help vividly remembering
+that he had eaten nothing since the morning. The
+sandwiches did him a little good in his mind as well as
+in his body. He got rid of the vision of the faces and
+of the red figure on the bench. He began to believe
+that when he saw her she would tell him. Had she
+not said so? That after awhile he should hear everything,
+and that all should be as it was before? All as
+it was before&mdash;in the time when she told him everything,
+even things that Granny did not know. But she
+had never told him this, and the other day she had told
+him that it was other people's secrets, not her own, that
+she was keeping from him. "Other people's secrets"&mdash;the
+secrets of the man who was Philip Compton, who
+went to Windyhill on the 6th of September, ten days
+before Elinor Dennistoun's marriage day. "What
+Philip Compton? Who was he? What had he to do
+with her? What, oh, what," Pippo said to himself, "has
+he to do with me?" After all, that was the most tremendous
+question. The others, or anything that had
+happened twenty years ago, were nothing to that.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Elinor, of all places in the world, was in
+John Tatham's chambers, to which he had taken her to
+rest. I cannot tell how Mr. Tatham, a man so much
+occupied, managed to subtract from all he had to do
+almost a whole day to see his cousin through the trial,
+and stand by her, sparing her all the lesser annoyances
+which surround and exaggerate such a great fact. He
+had brought her out into the fresh air, feeling that
+movement was the best thing for her, and instead of
+taking her home in the carriage which was waiting, had
+made her walk with him, supported on his arm, on
+which she hung in a sort of suspended life, across the
+street to the Temple, hoping thus to bring her back, by
+the necessity of exertion, to herself. And indeed she
+was almost more restored to herself by this remedy than
+John Tatham had expected or hoped. For though he
+placed her in the great easy-chair, in which her slender
+person was engulfed and supported, expecting her to
+rest there and lie motionless, perhaps even to faint, as
+women are supposed to do when it is particularly inconvenient
+and uncomfortable, Elinor had not been
+there two minutes before she rose up again and began
+to walk about the room, with an aspect so unlike that
+of an exhausted and perhaps fainting woman, that even
+John, used as he was to her capricious ways, was confounded.
+Instead of being subdued and thankful that
+it was over, and this dreadful crisis in her life accomplished,
+Elinor walked up and down, wringing her
+hands, moaning and murmuring to herself; what was it
+she was saying? "God forgive me! God forgive me!"
+over and over and over, unconscious apparently that she
+was not alone, that any one heard or observed her. No
+doubt there is in all our actions, the very best, much
+for God to forgive; mingled motives, imperfect deeds,
+thoughts full of alloy and selfishness; but in what her
+conscience could accuse her now he could not understand.
+She might be to blame in respect to her husband,
+though he was very loth to allow the possibility;
+but in this act of her life, which had been so great a
+strain upon her, it was surely without any selfishness,
+for his interest only, not for her own. And yet John
+had never seen such a fervour of penitence, so strong a
+consciousness of evil done. He went up to her and laid
+his hand upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor, you are worn out. You have done too
+much. Will you try and rest a little here, or shall I
+take you home?"</p>
+
+<p>She started violently when he touched her. "What
+was I saying?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"It does not matter what you were saying. Sit
+down and rest. You will wear yourself out. Don't
+think any more. Take this and rest a little, and then
+I will take you home."</p>
+
+<p>"It is easy to say so," she said, with a faint smile.
+"Don't think! Is it possible to stop thinking at one's
+pleasure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said John, "quite possible; we must all do
+it or we should die. And now your trial's over, Nelly,
+for goodness' sake exert yourself and throw it off. You
+have done your duty."</p>
+
+<p>"My duty! do you think that was my duty? Oh,
+John, there are so many ways to look at it."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one way, when you have a man's safety in
+your hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one way&mdash;when one has a man's safety&mdash;his
+honour, honour! Do you think a woman is justified in
+whatever she does, to save that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand you, Elinor; in anything you
+have done, or could do, certainly you are justified.
+My dear Nelly, sit down and take this. And then I
+will take you home."</p>
+
+<p>She took the wine from his hand and swallowed a
+little of it; and then looking up into his face with the
+faint smile which she put on when she expected to be
+blamed, and intended to deprecate and disarm him, as
+she had done so often: "I don't know," she said,
+"that I am so anxious to get home, John. You were
+to take Pippo to dine with you, and to the House to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"So I was," he said. "We did not know what day
+you would be called. It is a great nuisance, but if you
+think the boy would be disappointed not to go<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"He would be much, much disappointed. The first
+chance he has had of hearing a debate."</p>
+
+<p>"He would be much better at home, taking care of
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"As if I wanted taking care of! or as if the boy,
+who has always been the object of everybody's care
+himself, would be the proper person to do it! If he
+had been a girl, perhaps&mdash;but it is a little late at this
+time of day to wish for that now."</p>
+
+<p>"You were to tell him everything to-night, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I was to tell him! Do you think I have not
+had enough for one day? enough to wear me out body
+and soul? You have just been telling me so, John."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head. "You know," he said, "and I
+know, that in any case you will have it your own way,
+Elinor; but you have promised to tell him."</p>
+
+<p>"John, you are unkind. You take advantage of me
+being here, and so broken down, to say that I will have
+my own way. Has this been my own way at all? I
+would have fled if I could, and taken the boy far, far
+away from it all; but you would not let me. Yes, yes,
+I have promised. But I am tired to death. How
+could I look him in the face and tell him<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" She
+hid her face suddenly in her hands with a moan.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be in the papers to-morrow morning, Elinor."</p>
+
+<p>"Well! I will tell him to-morrow morning," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>John shook his head again; but it was done behind
+her, where she could not see the movement. He had
+more pity of her than words could say. When she
+covered her face with her hands in that most pathetic
+of attitudes, there was nothing that he would not have
+forgiven her. What was to become of her now? Her
+position through all these years had never been so
+dangerous, in John's opinion, never so sad, as now.
+Philip Compton had been there looking on while she
+put his accusers to silence, at what cost to herself John
+only began dimly to guess&mdash;to divine, to forbid himself
+to inquire. The fellow had been there all the time.
+He had the grace not to look at her, not to distract her
+with the sight of him&mdash;probably for his own sake,
+John thought bitterly, that she might not risk breaking
+down. But he was there, and knew where she was
+to be found. And he had seen the boy, and had cared
+enough to fix his gaze upon him, that gaze which John
+had found intolerable at the theatre. And he was on
+the eve of becoming Lord St. Serf, and Pippo his heir.
+What was to be the issue of these complications?
+What was to happen to her who had hid the boy so
+long, who certainly could hide him no more?</p>
+
+<p>He took her home to Ebury Street shortly after,
+where Philip, weary of waiting, and having made a meal
+he much wanted off the sandwiches, had gone out again
+in his restlessness and unhappiness. Elinor, who had
+become paler and paler as the carriage approached
+Ebury Street, and who by the time she reached the
+house looked really as if at last she must swoon, her
+heart choking her, her breathing quick and feverish, had
+taken hold of John to support herself, clutching at his arm,
+when she was told that Philip was out. She came to
+herself instantly on the strength of that news. "Tell
+him when he comes in to make haste," she said, "for
+Mr. Tatham is waiting for him. As for me I am fit for
+nothing but bed. I have had a very tiring day."</p>
+
+<p>"You do look tired, ma'am," said the sympathetic
+landlady. "I'll run up and put your room ready, and
+then I'll make you a nice cup of tea."</p>
+
+<p>John Tatham thought that, notwithstanding her exhaustion,
+her anxiety, all the realities of troubles present
+and to come that were in her mind and in her way, there
+was a flash something like triumph in Elinor's eyes.
+"Tell Pippo," she said, "he can come up and say good-night
+to me before he goes. I am good for nothing but
+my bed. If I can sleep I shall be able for all that is
+before me to-morrow." The triumph was quenched,
+however, if there had been triumph, when she gave him
+her hand, with a wistful smile, and a sigh that filled
+that to-morrow with the terror and the trouble that
+must be in it, did she do what she said. John went up
+to the little drawing-room to wait for Pippo, with a
+heavy heart. It seemed to him that never had Elinor
+been in so much danger. She had exposed herself to
+the chance of losing the allegiance of her son: she was
+at the mercy of her husband, that husband whom she
+had renounced, yet whom she had not refused to save,
+whose call she had obeyed to help him, though she had
+thrown off all the bonds of love and duty towards him.
+She had not had the strength either way to be consistent,
+to carry out one steady policy. It was cruel of
+John to say this, for but for him and his remonstrances
+Elinor would, or might have, fled, and avoided this last
+ordeal. But he had not done so, and now here she was
+in the middle of her life, her frail ship of safety driven
+about among the rocks, dependent upon the magnanimity
+of the husband from whom she had fled, and the
+child whom she had deceived.</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother is very tired, Philip," he said, when
+the boy appeared. "I was to tell you to go up and bid
+her good-night before you went out; for it will probably
+be late before you get back, if you think you are
+game to sit out the debate."</p>
+
+<p>"I will sit it out," said Philip, with no laughter in
+his eye, with an almost solemn air, as if announcing a
+grave resolution. He went up-stairs, not three steps at
+a time, as was his wont, but soberly, as if his years had
+been forty instead of eighteen. And he showed no
+surprise to find the room darkened, though Elinor was a
+woman who loved the light. He gave his mother a kiss
+and smoothed her pillow with a tender touch of pity.
+"Is your head very bad?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"It is only that I am dreadfully tired, Pippo. I
+hope I shall sleep: and it will help me to think you are
+happy with Uncle John."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall try to be happy with Uncle John," he
+said, with a sort of smile. "Good-night, mother; I
+hope you'll be better to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," she said. "To-morrow is always a new
+day."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed in the half light to nod his head, and then
+to shake it, as one that assents, but doubts&mdash;having
+many troubled thoughts and questions in his mind.
+But Pippo did not at all expect to be happy with Uncle
+John.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>CHAPTER XLVI.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It cannot be said that Uncle John was very happy
+with Philip, but that was a thing the others did not
+take into account. John Tatham was doing for the boy
+as much as a man could do. A great debate was expected
+that evening, in which many eminent persons
+were to speak, and Mr. Tatham gave Philip a hasty
+dinner in the House so that he should lose nothing, and
+he found him a corner in the distinguished strangers'
+gallery, telling him with a smile that he expected him
+hereafter to prove his title to such a place. But Philip's
+smile in return was very unlike the flush of pleasure
+that would have lighted it up only yesterday. John felt
+that the boy was not at all the delightful young companion,
+full of interest in everything, that he had been. Perhaps
+he was on his good behaviour, on his dignity, bent
+upon showing how much of a man he was and how little
+influenced by passing sentiments, as some boys do.
+Anyhow it was certain that he was much less agreeable
+in his self-subdued condition. But John was fortunately
+much interested in the discussion, in which, indeed, he
+took himself a slight part, and, save for a passing
+wonder and the disappointment of the moment, did not
+occupy himself so very much with Pippo. When he
+looked into the corner, however, in a lull of the debate,
+when one of those fools who rush in at unguarded
+moments, when the Speaker chances to look their way,
+had managed to get upon his foolish feet to the despair
+of all around, the experienced man of the world
+received a curious shock from the sight of young
+Philip's intense gravity, and the self-absorbed, unconscious
+look he wore. The boy had the look of hearing
+nothing, seeing nothing that was around him, of being
+lost in thoughts of his own, thoughts far too serious
+and troubled for his age. Had he discovered something?
+What did he know? This was the instinctive
+question that rose in John's mind, and not an amused
+anticipation of Pippo's original boyish view of the
+question and the speakers, such as had delighted him
+on the boy's previous visits to the House. And indeed
+Philip's attention was little fixed upon the debate. He
+tried hard to bring it back, to keep it there, to get the
+question into his mind, but in spite of himself his
+thoughts flew back to the other public assembly in
+which he had sat unnoticed that day: till gradually the
+aspect of things changed to him, the Speaker became
+the judge, the wigged secretaries the pleaders, and he
+almost expected to see that sudden apparition, that
+sight that had plucked him out of his careless life of
+boyhood and trust, the sight of his mother standing
+before the world on trial for her life. Oh, no, no, not
+on trial at all! he was aware of that: a harmless witness,
+doing only good. The judge could have nothing but
+polite regard for her, the jury admiration and thanks for
+the clear testimony which took a weight from their shoulders.
+But before her son she was on her trial, her trial
+for more than life&mdash;and he who said with so much assurance
+that his mother had no secrets from him! until the
+moment arrived, without any warning, in the midst of
+his security, which proved that everything had been
+secret, and that all was mystery&mdash;all mystery! and
+nothing sure in life.</p>
+
+<p>It crossed Philip's mind more than once to question
+John Tatham upon this dreadful discovery of his&mdash;John,
+who was a relation, who had been the universal referee
+of the household as long as he could remember, Uncle
+John must know. But there were two things which
+held him back: first, the recollection of his own disdainful
+offence at the suggestion that Uncle John, an
+outsider, could know more than he did of the family
+concerns; and partly from the proud determination to
+ask no questions, to seek no information that was not
+freely given to him. He made up his mind to this
+while he looked out from his corner upon the lighted
+House, seeing men move up and down, and voices
+going on, and the sound of restless members coming
+and going, while the business of the country went on.
+It was far more important than any private affairs that
+could be passing in an individual brain, and Philip
+knew with what high-handed certainty he would have
+put down the idea that to himself at his age there could
+be anything private half so exciting, half so full of interest,
+as a debate on the policy of the country which
+might carry with it the highest issues. But conviction
+comes readily on such subjects when the personal interest
+comes which carries every other away. It was
+while a minister was speaking, and everything hanging
+on his words, that the boy made up his mind finally
+that he would ask no questions. He would ignore
+that scene in the Law Courts, as if it had not been. He
+would say nothing, try to look as if nothing had passed,
+and wait to see if any explanation would come.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, perhaps, then to be wondered at if John
+found him a much less interesting companion than ever
+before, as they walked home together in the small
+hours of the night. Mr. Tatham's own speech had been
+short, but he had the agreeable consciousness that it
+had been an effective one, and he was prepared to find
+the boy excited by it, and full of applause and satisfaction.
+But Philip did not say a word about the
+speech. He was only a boy, and it may be supposed
+that any applause from him would have had little importance
+for the famous lawyer&mdash;the highly-esteemed
+member who kept his independence, and whose
+speeches always secured the attention of the House,
+and carried weight as among the few utterances which
+concerned the real import of a question and not its
+mere party meaning. But John was hurt more than
+he could have thought possible by Philip's silence. He
+even tried to lead the conversation artfully to that
+point in the debate, thinking perhaps the boy was shy
+of speaking on the subject&mdash;but with no effect. It was
+exceedingly strange. Had he been deceived in Philip?
+had the boy really no interest in subjects of an elevated
+description? or was he ill? or what was the matter
+with him? It troubled John to let him go on alone
+from Halkin Street to his lodging, with a vague sense
+that something might happen. But that was, of course,
+too absurd. "Tell your mother I'll come round in the
+afternoon to-morrow, as soon as I am free," he said,
+holding Philip's hand. And then he added, paternally,
+still holding that hand, "Go to bed at once, boy.
+You've had a tiring day."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;I suppose so," said Philip, drawing his hand
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you haven't done too much," said John, still
+lingering. "You're too young for politics&mdash;and to sit
+up so late. I was wrong to keep you out of bed."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope I'm not such a child as that," said Philip, with
+a half-smile: and then he went away, and John Tatham,
+with an anxious heart, closed behind him his own door.
+If it were not for Elinor and her boy what a life free of
+anxiety John would have had! Never any need to
+think with solicitude of anything outside that peaceful
+door, no trouble with other people's feelings, with investigations
+what this or that look or word meant.
+But perhaps it was Elinor and her boy, after all (none
+of his! thinking of him as an outsider, having nothing
+to do with their most intimate circle of confidence and
+natural defence), who, by means of that very anxiety,
+kept alive the higher principles of humanity in John
+Tatham's heart.</p>
+
+<p>Philip went home, walking quickly through the silent
+streets. They were very silent at that advanced hour,
+yet not so completely but that there was a woman who
+came up to the boy at the corner. Philip neither knew
+nor desired to know what she said. He thought nothing
+about her one way or another. He took a shilling
+out of his pocket and threw it to her as he passed&mdash;walking
+on with the quick, elastic step which the sudden
+acquaintance he had made with care had not been
+able to subdue. He saw that there was still a faint
+light in his mother's window when he reached the
+house, but he would not disturb her. How little
+would he have thought of disturbing her on any other
+occasion! "Are you asleep, mother?" he would have
+said, looking in; and the time had never been when
+Elinor was asleep. She had always heard him, always
+replied, always been delighted to hear the account of
+what he had been doing, and how he had enjoyed himself.
+But not to-night. With a heart full of longing,
+yet of a sick revolt against the sight of her, he went
+past her door to his room. He did not want to see
+her, and yet&mdash;oh, if she had only called to him, if she
+had but said a word!</p>
+
+<p>Elinor for her part was not asleep. She had slept a
+little while she was sure that Philip was safely disposed
+of and herself secured from all interruption; but when
+the time came for his return she slept no longer, and
+had been lying for a long time holding her breath,
+listening to every sound, when she heard his key in the
+latch and his foot on the stair. Would he come in as
+he always did? or would he remember her complaint
+of being tired, a complaint she so seldom made? It
+was as a blow to Elinor when she heard his step go on
+past her door: and yet she was glad. Had he come in
+there was a desperate thought in her mind that she
+would call him to her bedside and in the dark, with his
+hand in hers, tell him&mdash;all that there was to tell. But
+it was again a relief when he passed on, and she felt
+that she was spared for an hour or two, spared for the
+new day, which perhaps would give her courage. It
+was an endless night, long hours of dark, and then
+longer hours of morning light, too early for anything,
+while still nobody in the house was stirring. She had
+scarcely slept at all during that long age of weary and
+terrible thought. For it was not as if she had but one
+thing to think of. When her mind turned, like her
+restless body, from one side to another, it was only to
+a change of pain. What was it she had said, standing
+up before earth and heaven, and calling God to witness
+that what she said was true? It had been true, and yet
+she knew that it was not, and that she had saved her
+husband's honour at the cost of her own. Oh, not in
+those serious and awful watches of the night can such a
+defence be accepted as that the letter of her testimony
+was true! She did not attempt to defend herself. She
+only tried to turn to another thought that might be less
+bitter: and then she was confronted by the confession
+that she must make to her boy. She must tell him that
+she had deceived him all his life, hid from him what he
+ought to have known, separated him from his father and
+his family, kept him in ignorance, despite all that had
+been said to her, despite every argument. And when
+Elinor in her misery fled from that thought, what was
+there else to think of? There was her husband, Pippo's
+father, from whom he could no longer be kept. If she
+had thought herself justified in stealing her child away
+out of fear of the influence that father might have upon
+him, how would it be now when they must be restored
+to each other, at an age much more dangerous for the
+boy than in childhood, and with all the attractions of
+mystery and novelty and the sense that his father had
+been wronged! When she escaped from that, the most
+terrible thought of all, feeling her brain whirl and her
+heart burn as she imagined her child turning from the
+mother who had deceived him to the father who had been
+deprived of him, her mind went off to that father himself,
+from whom she had fled, whom she had judged and
+condemned, but who had repaid her by no persecution,
+no interference, no pursuit, but an acceptance of her
+verdict, never molesting her, leaving her safe in the
+possession of her boy. Perhaps there were other ways
+in which Phil Compton's magnanimity have been looked
+at, in which it would have shown in less favourable
+colours. But Elinor was not ready to take that view.
+Her tower of justice and truth and honour had crumbled
+over her head. She was standing among her ruins,
+feeling that nothing was left to her, nothing upon which
+she could build herself a structure of self-defence. All
+was wrong; a series of mistakes and failures, to say no
+worse. She had driven on ever wilful all through,
+escaping from every pang she could avoid, throwing off
+every yoke that she did not choose to bear: until now
+here she stood to face all that she had fled from, unable
+to elude them more, meeting them as so many ghosts
+in her way. Oh, how true it was what John had said
+to her so long, so long ago&mdash;that she was not one who
+would bear, who if she were disappointed and wronged
+could endure and surmount her trouble by patience!
+Oh, no, no! She had been one who had put up with
+nothing, who had taken her own way. And now she
+was surrounded on every side by the difficulties she had
+thrust away from her, but which now could be thrust
+away no more.</p>
+
+<p>It may be imagined what the night was which Elinor
+spent sleepless, struggling one after another with these
+thoughts, finding no comfort anywhere wherever she
+turned. She had not been without many a struggle
+even in the most quiet of the years that had passed&mdash;in
+one long dream of peace as it seemed now; but never
+as now had she been met wherever she turned by another
+and another lion in the way. She got up very
+early, with a feeling that movement had something lulling
+and soothing in it, and that to lie there a prey to all
+these thoughts was like lying on the rack&mdash;to the great
+surprise of the kind landlady, who came stealing into
+her room with the inevitable cup of tea, and whose inquiry
+how the poor lady was, was taken out of her
+mouth by the unexpected apparition of the supposed
+invalid, fully dressed, moving about the room, with all
+the air of having been up for hours. Elinor asked, with
+a sudden precaution, that the newspapers might be
+brought up to her, not so much for her own satisfaction&mdash;for
+it made her heart sick to think of reading
+over in dreadful print, as would be done that morning
+at millions of breakfast-tables, her own words: perhaps
+with comments on herself and her history, which might
+fall into Pippo's hands, and be read by him before he
+knew: which was a sudden spur to herself and evidence
+of the dread necessity of letting him know that story
+from her own lips, which had not occurred to her before.
+She glanced over the report with a sickening
+sense that all the privacy of sheltered life and honourable
+silence was torn off from her, and that she was exposed
+as on a pillory to the stare and the remarks of
+the world, and crushed the paper away like a noxious
+thing into a drawer where the boy at least would never
+find it. Vain thought! as if there was but one paper
+in the world, as if he could not find it at every street
+corner, thrust into his hand even as he walked along;
+but at all events for the moment he would not see it,
+and she would have time&mdash;time to tell him before that
+revelation could come in his way. She went down-stairs,
+with what a tremor in her and sinking of her heart it
+would be impossible to say. To have to condemn herself
+to her only child; to humble herself before him,
+her boy, who thought there was no one like his mother;
+to let him know that he had been deceived all his life,
+he who thought she had always told him everything.
+Oh, poor mother! and oh, poor boy!</p>
+
+<p>She was still sitting by the breakfast-table, waiting,
+in a chill fever, if such a thing can be, for Philip, when
+a thing occurred which no one could have thought of,
+and yet which was the most natural thing in the world&mdash;which
+came upon Elinor like a thunderbolt, shattering
+all her plans again just at the moment when, after
+so much shrinking and delay, she had at last made up
+her mind to the one thing that must be done at once.
+The sound of the driving up of a cab to the door made
+her go to the window to look out, without producing
+any expectation in her mind: for people were coming
+and going in Ebury Street all day long. She saw, however,
+a box which she recognised upon the cab, and then
+the door was opened and Mrs. Dennistoun stepped out.
+Her mother! the wonder was not that she came now,
+but that she had not come much sooner. No letters for
+several days, her child and her child's child in town,
+and trouble in the air! Mrs. Dennistoun had borne it
+as long as she could, but there had come a moment
+when she could bear it no longer, and she too had followed
+Pippo's example and taken the night mail. Elinor
+stood motionless at the window, and saw her mother
+arrive, and did not feel capable of going to meet her,
+or of telling whether it was some dreadful aggravation
+of evil, or an interposition of Providence to save her
+for another hour at least from the ordeal before her.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>CHAPTER XLVII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dennistoun had a great deal to say about herself
+and the motives which had at the last been too much
+for her, which had forced her to come after her children
+at a moment's notice, feeling that she could bear the
+uncertainty about them no longer; and it was a thing
+so unusual with her to have much to say about herself
+that there was certainly something apologetic, something
+self-defensive in this unaccustomed outburst.
+Perhaps she had begun to feel a little the unconscious
+criticism that gathers round the elder person in a house,
+the inclination involuntarily&mdash;which every one would
+repudiate, yet which nevertheless is true&mdash;to attribute
+to her a want of perception, perhaps&mdash;oh, not unkindly!&mdash;a
+little blunting of the faculties, a suggestion quite
+unintentional that she is not what she once was. She
+explained herself so distinctly that there was no doubt
+there was some self-defence in it. "I had not had a
+letter for three days."</p>
+
+<p>And Elinor was far more humble than her wont. "I
+know, mother: I felt as if it were impossible to write&mdash;till
+it was over<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"My darling! I thought at last I must come and
+stand by you. I felt that I ought to have seen that all
+the time&mdash;that you should have had your mother by
+your side to give you countenance."</p>
+
+<p>"I had John with me, mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is over!" Mrs. Dennistoun cried.</p>
+
+<p>And at that moment Pippo, very late, pale, and with
+eyes which were red with sleeplessness, and perhaps
+with tears, came in. Elinor gave her mother a quick
+look, almost of blame, and then turned to the boy. She
+did not mean it, and yet Mrs. Dennistoun felt as if the
+suggestion, "He might never have known had you not
+called out like that," was in her daughter's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Pippo!" she said. "Why, Elinor! what have you
+been doing to the boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"He does not look well," said Elinor, suddenly waking
+up to that anxiety which had been always so easily
+roused in respect to Pippo. "He was very late last
+night. He was at the House with John," she added,
+involuntarily, with an apology to her mother for the
+neglect which had extended to Pippo too.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing the matter with me," he said, with
+a touch of sullenness in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>The two women looked at each other with all the
+vague trouble in their eyes suddenly concentrated upon
+young Philip, but they said nothing more, as he sat
+down at table and began to play with the breakfast, for
+which he had evidently no appetite. No one had ever
+seen that sullen look in Pippo's face before. He bent
+his head over the table as if he were intent upon the
+food which choked him when he tried to eat, and which
+he loathed the very sight of&mdash;and did not say a word.
+They had certainly not been very light-hearted before,
+but the sight of the boy thus obscured and changed
+made all the misery more evident. There was always a
+possibility of over-riding the storm so long as all was
+well with Pippo: but his changed countenance veiled
+the very sun in the skies.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't seem surprised to see me here," his grandmother
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!&mdash;no, I am not surprised. I wonder you did
+not come sooner. Have you been travelling all night?"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you did, Pippo. I drove into Penrith last
+night and caught the mail train. I was seized with a
+panic about you, and felt that I must see for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not the first time you have taken a panic about
+us, mother," said Elinor, forcing a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"No; but it is almost the first time I have acted upon
+it," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with that faint instinct of
+self-defence; "but I think you must have needed me
+more than usual to keep you in order. You must have
+been going out too much, keeping late hours. You are
+pale enough, Elinor, but Pippo&mdash;Pippo has suffered
+still more."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you," said Philip, raising his shoulders and
+stooping his head over the table, "granny, that there
+is nothing the matter with me."</p>
+
+<p>And he took no part in the conversation as they went
+on talking, of any subjects but those that were most
+near their hearts. They had, indeed, no thoughts at
+all to spare but those that were occupied with the situation,
+and with this new feature in it, Pippo's worn and
+troubled looks, yet had to talk of something, of nothing,
+while the meal went on, which was no meal at
+all for any of them. When it was over at last Pippo
+rose abruptly from the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going out?" Elinor said, alarmed, rising
+too. "Have you any engagement with the Marshalls
+for to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," Philip said; "Mr. Marshall was ill
+yesterday. I didn't see them. I'm not going out. I
+am going to my room."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got a headache, Pippo!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing of the kind! I tell you there is nothing
+the matter with me. I'm only going to my
+room."</p>
+
+<p>Elinor put her hands on his arm. "Pippo, I have
+something to say to you before you go out. Will you
+promise to let me know before you go out? I don't
+want to keep you back from anything, but I have something
+that I must say."</p>
+
+<p>He did not ask with his usual interest what it was.
+He showed no curiosity; on the contrary, he drew his
+arm out of her hold almost rudely. "Of course," he
+said, "I will come in here before I go out. I have no
+intention of going out now."</p>
+
+<p>And thus he left them, and went with a heavy step,
+oh, how different from Pippo's flying foot: so that they
+could count every step, up-stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, what is the matter, Elinor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing," she said; "nothing! He was
+like himself yesterday morning, full of life. Unless he
+is ill, I cannot understand it. But, mother, I have to
+tell him&mdash;everything to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"God grant it may not be too late, Elinor!" Mrs.
+Dennistoun said.</p>
+
+<p>"Too late? How can it be too late? Yes; perhaps
+you are right, John and you. He ought to have known
+from the beginning; he ought to have been told when
+he was a child. I acknowledge that I was wrong; but
+it is no use," she said, wiping away some fiery tears,
+"to go back upon that now."</p>
+
+<p>"John could not have told him anything?" Mrs.
+Dennistoun said, doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"John! my best friend, who has always stood by me.
+Oh, never, never. How little you know him, mother!
+He has been imploring me every day, almost upon his
+knees, to tell Pippo everything; and I promised to do
+it as soon as the time was come. And then last night I
+was so glad to think that he was engaged with John,
+and I so worn out, not fit for anything. And then this
+morning<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;this morning I arrived, just when I would
+have been better away!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say that, mother. It is always, always well
+you should be with your children. And, oh, if I had
+but taken your advice years and years ago!"</p>
+
+<p>How easy it is to wish this when fate overtakes us,
+when the thing so long postponed, so long pushed
+away from us, has to be done at last! There is, I fear,
+no repentance in it, only the intolerable sense that
+the painful act might have been over long ago, and
+the soul free now of a burden which is so terrible to
+bear.</p>
+
+<p>Philip did not leave his room all the morning. His
+mother, overwhelmed now by the new anxiety about
+his health, which had no part in her thoughts before,
+went to his door and knocked several times, always
+with the intention of going in, of insisting upon the removal
+of all barriers, and of telling her story, the story
+which now was as fire in her veins and had to be told.
+But he had locked his door, and only answered from
+within that he was reading&mdash;getting up something that
+he had forgotten&mdash;and begged her to leave him undisturbed
+till lunch. Poor Elinor! Her story was, as I
+have said, like fire in her veins; but when the moment
+came, and a little more delay, an hour, a morning was
+possible, she accepted it like a boon from heaven,
+though she knew very well all the same that it was but
+prolonging the agony, and that to get it accomplished&mdash;to
+get it over&mdash;was the only thing to desire. She
+tried to arrange her thoughts, to think how she was
+to tell it, in the hurrying yet flying minutes when she
+sat alone, listening now and then to Philip's movements
+over her head, for he was not still as a boy should
+be who was reading, but moved about his room, with a
+nervous restlessness that seemed almost equal to her
+own. Mrs. Dennistoun, to leave her daughter free for
+the conversation that ought to take place between
+Elinor and her son, had gone to lie down, and lay in
+Elinor's room, next door to the boy, listening to every
+sound, and hoping, hoping that they would get it over
+before she went down-stairs again. She did not believe
+that Philip would stand out against his mother, whom
+he loved. Oh, if they could but get it over, that explanation&mdash;if
+the boy but knew! But it was apparent
+enough, when she came down to luncheon, where Elinor
+awaited her, pale and anxious, and where Philip
+followed, so unlike himself, that no explanation had yet
+taken place between them. And the luncheon was as
+miserable a pretence at a meal as the breakfast had
+been&mdash;worse as a repetition, yet better in so far that
+poor Pippo, with his boyish wholesome appetite, was
+by this time too hungry to be restrained even by the
+unusual burden of his unhappiness, and ate heartily,
+although he was bitterly ashamed of so doing: which
+perhaps made him a little better, and certainly did a
+great deal of good to the ladies, who thus were convinced
+that whatever the matter might be, he was not
+ill at least. He was about to return up-stairs after
+luncheon was over, but Elinor caught him by the arm:
+"You are not going to your room again, Pippo?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;have not finished my reading," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a claim before your reading. I have a great
+deal to say to you, and I cannot put it off any longer.
+It must be said<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"As you please, mother," he replied, with an air of
+endurance. And he opened the door for her and
+followed her up to the drawing-room, the three generations
+going one before the other, the anxious grandmother
+first, full of sympathy for both; the mother
+trembling in every limb, feeling the great crisis of her
+life before her; the boy with his heart seared, half bitter,
+half contemptuous of the explanation which he had
+forestalled, which came too late. Mrs. Dennistoun
+turned and kissed first one and then the other with
+quivering lips. "Oh, Pippo, be kind to your mother;
+she never will have such need of your kindness again in
+all your life." The boy could almost have struck her for
+this advice. It raised a kind of savage passion in him
+to be told to be kind to his mother&mdash;kind to her, when
+he had held her above all beings on the earth, and
+prided himself all his life upon his devotion to her!
+What Mrs. Dennistoun said to Elinor I cannot tell, but
+she clasped her hands and gave her an imploring look,
+which was almost as bitterly taken as her appeal to
+Philip. It besought her to tell everything, to hide nothing;
+and what was Elinor's meaning but to tell everything,
+to lay bare her heart?</p>
+
+<p>But once more at this moment an interruption&mdash;the
+most wonderful and unthought-of of all interruptions&mdash;came.
+I suppose it must have been announced by
+the usual summons at the street-door, and that in their
+agitation they had not heard it. But all that I know
+is, that when Mrs. Dennistoun turned to leave the
+mother and son to their conversation, which was so full
+of fate, the door of the drawing-room opened almost
+upon her as she was about to go out, and with a little
+demonstration and pride, as of a name which it was a
+distinction even to be permitted to say, of a visitor
+whose arrival could not be but an honour and delightful
+surprise, the husband of the landlady&mdash;the man of
+the house, once a butler of the highest pretensions, now
+only condescending to serve his lodgers when the occasion
+was dignified&mdash;swept into the room, noiseless and
+solemn, holding open the door, and announced "Lord
+St. Serf." Mrs. Dennistoun fell back as if she had met
+a ghost; and Elinor, too, drew back a step, becoming
+as pale as if she had been the ghost her mother saw.
+The gasp of the long breath they both drew made a
+sound in the room where the very air seemed to tingle;
+and young Philip, raising his head, saw, coming in, the
+man whom he had seen in court&mdash;the man who had
+gazed at him in the theatre, the man of the opera-glass.
+But was this then not the Philip Compton for whom
+Elinor Dennistoun had stood forth, and borne witness
+before all the world?</p>
+
+<p>He came in and stood without a word, waiting for a
+moment till the servant was gone and the door closed;
+and then he advanced with a step, the very assurance
+and quickness of which showed his hesitation and uncertainty.
+He did not hold out his hands&mdash;much less
+his arms&mdash;to her. "Nell?" he said, as if he had been
+asking a question, "Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to open her lips to speak, but brought
+forth no sound; and then Mrs. Dennistoun came in
+with the grave voice of every day, "Will you sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked round at her, perceiving her for the first
+time. "Ah," he said, "mamma! how good that you
+are here. It is a little droll though, don't you think,
+when a man comes into the bosom of his family after
+an absence of eighteen years, that the only thing that is
+said to him should be, 'Will you sit down?' Better
+that, however, a great deal, than 'Will you go away?'"</p>
+
+<p>He sat down as she invited him, with a short laugh.
+He was perfectly composed in manner. Looking round
+him with curious eyes, "Was this one of the places," he
+said, "Nell, that we stayed in in the old times?"</p>
+
+<p>She answered "No" under her breath, her paleness
+suddenly giving way to a hot flush of feverish agitation.
+And then she took refuge in a vacant chair, unable to
+support herself, and he sat too, and the party looked&mdash;but
+for that agitation in Elinor's face, which she could
+not master&mdash;as if the ladies were receiving and he paying
+a morning call. The other two, however, did not sit
+down. Young Philip, confused and excited, went away
+to the second room, the little back drawing-room of the
+little London house, which can never be made to look
+anything but an anteroom&mdash;never a habitable place&mdash;and
+went to the window, and stood there as if he were
+looking out, though the window was of coloured glass,
+and there was nothing to be seen. Mrs. Dennistoun
+stood with her hand upon the back of a chair, her
+heart beating too, and yet the most collected of them
+all, waiting, with her eyes on <ins title="original has Elinora">Elinor, for a</ins> sign to know her
+will, whether she should go or stay. It was the visitor
+who was the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me beg you," he said, with a little impatience
+in his voice, "to sit down too. It is evident that Nell's
+reception of me is not likely to be so warm as to make
+it unpleasant for a third party. There was a fourth
+party in the room a minute ago, if my eyes did not deceive
+me. Ah!"&mdash;his glance went rapidly to where
+Philip's tall boyish figure, with his back turned, was
+visible against the further window&mdash;"that's all right,"
+he said, "now I presume everybody's here."</p>
+
+<p>"Had we expected your visit," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+faltering, after a moment, as Elinor did not speak, "we
+should have been&mdash;better prepared to receive you, Mr.
+Compton."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not spoken with your usual cleverness," he
+said, with a laugh. "You used to be a great deal too
+clever for me, you and Nell too. But if she did not expect
+to see me, I don't know what she thought I was
+made of&mdash;everything that is bad, I suppose: and yet
+you know I could have worried your life out of you if I
+had liked, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>She turned to him for the first time, and, putting her
+hands together, said almost inaudibly, "I know&mdash;I
+know. I have thought of that, and I am not ungrateful."</p>
+
+<p>"Grateful! Well, perhaps you have not much call
+for that, poor little woman. I don't doubt I behaved
+like a brute, and you were quite right in doing what
+you did; but you've taken it out of me since, Nell, all
+the same."</p>
+
+<p>Then there was again a silence, broken only by the
+labouring, which she could not quite conceal, of her
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't believe me," he resumed after a moment,
+"if I were to set up a sentimental pose, like a
+sort of a disconsolate widower, eh, would you? Of
+course it was a position that was not without its advantages.
+I was not much made for a family man, and
+both in the way of expense and in&mdash;other ways, it
+suited me well enough. Nobody could expect me to
+marry them or their daughters, don't you see, when
+they knew I had a wife alive? So I was allowed my
+little amusements. You never went in for that kind of
+thing, Nell? Don't snap me up. You know I told you
+I never was against a little flirtation. It makes a woman
+more tolerant, in my opinion, just to know how to
+amuse herself a little. But Nell was never one of that
+kind<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not, indeed," said Mrs. Dennistoun, to whom
+he had turned, with indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see where the emphasis comes in. She was
+one that a man could be as sure of as of Westminster
+Abbey. The heart of her husband rests upon her&mdash;isn't
+that what the fellow in the Bible says, or words to that
+effect? Nell was always a kind of a Bible to me. And
+you may say that in that case to think of her amusing
+herself! But you will allow she always did take everything
+too much <i>au grand serieux</i>. No? to be sure, you'll
+allow nothing. But still that was the truth. However,
+I'll allow something if you won't. I'm past my first
+youth. Oh, you, not a bit of it! You're just as fresh
+and as pretty, by George! as ever you were. When
+I saw you stand up in that court yesterday looking as
+if&mdash;not a week had passed since I saw you last, by Jove!
+Nell<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> And how you were hating it, poor old girl,
+and had come out straining your poor little conscience,
+and saying what you didn't want to say&mdash;for the sake of
+a worthless fellow like me<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>A sob came out of Elinor's breast, and something half
+inaudible besides, like a name.</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you this," he said, turning to Mrs. Dennistoun
+again, "I couldn't look at her. I'm an unlikely
+brute for that sort of thing, but if I had looked at her I
+should have cried. I daresay you don't believe me.
+Never mind, but it's true."</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe you," said the mother, very low.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," he said, with a laugh. "I have always
+said for a mother-in-law you were the least difficult to
+get on with I ever saw. Do you remember giving me
+that money to make ducks and drakes of? It was awfully
+silly of you. You didn't deserve to be trusted
+with money to throw it away like that, but still I have
+not forgotten it. Well! I came to thank you for yesterday,
+Nell. And there are things, you know, that we
+must talk over. You never gave up your name. That
+was like your pluck. But you will have to change it
+now. It was indecent of me to have myself announced
+like that and poor old St. Serf not in his grave yet. But
+I daresay you didn't pay any attention. You are Lady
+St. Serf now, my dear. You don't mind, I know, but it's
+a change not without importance. Well, who is that
+fellow behind there, standing in the window? I think
+you ought to present him to me. Or I'll present him
+to you instead. I saw him in the theatre, by Jove!
+with that fellow Tatham, that cousin John of yours that
+I never could bear, smirking and smiling at him as if it
+were <i>his</i> son! but <i>I</i> saw the boy then for the first time.
+Nell, I tell you there are some things in which you have
+taken it well out of me<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Compton," she said, labouring to speak.
+"Lord St. Serf. Oh, Phil, Phil!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he said, with a start, "do you remember at
+last? the garden at that poky old cottage with all the
+flowers, and the days when you looked out for wild
+Phil Compton that all the world warned you against?
+And here I am an old fogey, without either wife or
+child, and Tatham taking my boy about and Nell never
+looking me in the face."</p>
+
+<p>Philip, at the window looking out at nothing through
+the hideous-coloured glass, had heard every word, with
+wonder, with horror, with consternation, with dreadful
+disappointment and sinking of the heart. For indeed
+he had a high ideal of a father, the highest, such
+as fatherless boys form in their ignorance. And every
+word made it more sure that this was his father, this
+man who had so caught his eyes and filled him with such
+a fever of interest. But to hear Phil Compton talk had
+brought the boy's soaring imagination down, down to
+the dust. He had not been prepared for anything like
+this. Some tragic rending asunder he could have
+believed in, some wild and strange mystery. But this
+man of careless speech, of chaff and slang, so little
+noble, so little serious, so far from tragic! The disappointment
+had been too sudden and dreadful to
+leave him with any ears for those tones that went to
+his mother's heart. He had no pity or sense of the
+pathos that was in them. He stood in his young absolutism
+disgusted, miserable. This man his father!&mdash;this
+man! so talking, so thinking. Young Philip
+stood with his back to the group, more miserable than
+words could say. He heard some movement behind,
+but he was too sick of heart to think what it was, until
+suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder, and most unwillingly
+suffered himself to be turned round to meet
+his father's eyes. He gave one glance up at the face,
+which he did not now feel was worn with study and
+care&mdash;which now that he saw it near was full of lines
+and wrinkles which meant something else, and which
+even the emotion in it, emotion of a kind which Pippo
+did not understand, hidden by a laugh, did not make
+more prepossessing&mdash;and then he stood with his eyes
+cast down, not caring to see it again.</p>
+
+<p>The elder Philip Compton had, I think, though he
+was, as he said, an unlikely subject for that mood, tears
+in his eyes&mdash;and he had no inclination to see anything
+that was painful in the face of his son, whose look he
+had never read, whose voice he had never heard, till
+now. He held the boy with his hands on his shoulders,
+with a grasp more full perhaps of the tender strain of
+love (though he did not know him) than ever he had
+laid upon any human form before. The boy's looks
+were not only satisfactory to him, but filled his own
+heart with an unaccustomed spring of pride and delight&mdash;his
+stature, his complexion, his features, making up
+as it were the most wonderful compliment, the utmost
+sweetness of flattery that he had ever known. For the
+boy was himself over again, not like his mother, like
+the unworthy father whom he had never seen. It took
+him some time to master the sudden rush of this emotion
+which almost overwhelmed him: and then he drew
+the boy's arm through his own and led him back to
+where the two ladies sat, Elinor still too much agitated
+for speech. "I said I'd present my son to you, Nell&mdash;if
+you wouldn't present him to me," he said, with a
+break in his voice which sounded like a chuckle to that
+son's angry ears. "I don't know what you call the fellow&mdash;but
+he's big enough to have a name of his own,
+and he's Lomond from this day."</p>
+
+<p>Pippo did not know what was meant by those words:
+but he drew his arm from his father's and went and
+stood behind Elinor's chair, forgetting in a moment all
+grievances against her, taking her side with an energy
+impossible to put into words, clinging to his mother as
+he had done when he was a little child.</p>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>It was while this conversation was going on that
+John Tatham, anxious and troubled about many things,
+knocked at the door in Ebury Street. He was anxious
+to know how the explanations had got accomplished,
+how the boy took it, how Elinor had borne the strain
+upon her of such a revelation. Well as he knew Elinor,
+he still thought, as is generally thought in circumstances
+so painful, that a great crisis, a great mental
+effort, would make her ill. He wanted to know how she
+was, he wanted to know how Pippo had borne it, what
+the boy thought. It had glanced across him that young
+Philip might be excited by so wonderful a new thing,
+and form some false impression of his father (whom
+doubtless she would represent under the best light,
+taking blame upon herself, not to destroy the boy's
+ideal), and be eager to know him&mdash;which was a thing,
+John felt, which would be very difficult to bear.</p>
+
+<p>The door was opened to him not by good Mrs. Jones,
+the kind landlady, but by the magnificent Jones himself,
+who rarely appeared. John said "Mrs. Compton?"
+as a matter of course, and was about to pass in, in his
+usual familiar way. But something in the man's air
+made him pause. He looked at Jones again, who was
+bursting with importance. "Perhaps she's engaged?"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I think, sir," said John, "that her ladyship is engaged&mdash;his
+lordship is with her ladyship up-stairs."</p>
+
+<p>"His&mdash;what?" John Tatham cried.</p>
+
+<p>"His lordship, Mr. Tatham. I know, sir, as the title
+is not usually assumed till after the funeral; but in the
+very 'ouse where her ladyship is residing for the moment,
+there's allowances to be made. Naturally we're
+a little excited over it, being, if I may make so bold as
+to say so, a sort of 'umble friends, and long patronized
+by her ladyship, and young Lord Lomond too."</p>
+
+<p>"Young Lord Lomond too!" John Tatham stood
+for a moment and stared at Mr. Jones; and then he
+laughed out, and turned his back and walked away.</p>
+
+<p>Young Lord Lomond too! The boy! who had been
+more like John's boy than anything else, but now tricked
+out in a new name, a new position, his father's heir.
+Oh, yes, it was John himself who had insisted on that
+only a few days ago! "The heir to a peerage can't be
+hid." It was he that had quoted this as an aphorism
+worthy of a social sage. But when the moment came
+and the boy was taken from him, and introduced into
+that other sphere, by the side of that man who had once
+been the <i>dis</i>-Honourable Phil! Good heavens, what
+changes life is capable of! What wrongs, what cruelties,
+what cuttings-off, what twists and alterations of
+every sane thought and thing! John Tatham was a
+sensible man as well as an eminent lawyer, and knew
+that between Elinor's son, who was Phil Compton's son,
+and himself, there was no external link at all&mdash;nothing
+but affection and habit, and the ever-strengthening link
+that had been twisted closer and closer with the progress
+of these years; but nothing real, the merest
+shadow of relationship, a cousin, who could count how
+often removed? And it was he who had insisted, forced
+upon Elinor the necessity of making his father known
+to Philip, of informing him of his real position. Nobody
+had interfered in this respect but John. He had
+made himself a weariness to her by insisting, never giving
+over, blaming her hourly for her delay. And yet
+now, when the thing he had so worked for, so constantly
+urged, was done<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>!</p>
+
+<p>He smiled grimly to himself as he walked away: they
+were all together, the lordship and the ladyship, young
+Lord Lomond too!&mdash;and Phil Compton, whitewashed,
+a peer of the realm, and still, the scoundrel! a handsome
+fellow enough: with an air about him, a man who
+might still dazzle a youngster unaccustomed to the
+world. He had re-entered the bosom of his family, and
+doubtless was weeping upon Philip's neck, and bandying
+about that name of "Nell" which had always
+seemed to John an insult&mdash;an insult to himself. And
+in that moment of bitterness John did not know how
+she would take it, what effect it would produce upon
+her. Perhaps the very sight of the fellow who had
+once won her heart, the lover of her youth, with
+whom John had never for a moment put himself in
+competition, notwithstanding the bitter wonder in his
+heart that Elinor&mdash;Elinor of all people!&mdash;could ever
+have loved such a man. Yet she had loved him, and
+the sight of him again after so many years, what effect
+might it not produce? As he walked away, it was the
+idea of a happy family that came into John Tatham's
+mind&mdash;mutual forgiveness, mutual return to the old
+traditions which are the most endearing of all; expansions,
+confessions, recollections, and lives of reunion.
+Something more than a prodigal's return, the return of
+a sinner bringing a coronet in his hand, bringing distinction,
+a place and position enough to dazzle any boy,
+enough to make a woman forgive. And was not this
+what John wished above all things, every advancement
+for the boy, and an assured place in the world, as well as
+every happiness that might be possible&mdash;happiness!
+yet it was possible she might think it so&mdash;for Elinor?
+Yes, this was what he had wished for, been ready to
+make any sacrifice to secure. In the sudden shock Mr.
+Tatham thought of the only other person who perhaps&mdash;yet
+only perhaps&mdash;might feel a little as he did&mdash;the
+mother, Mrs. Dennistoun, upon whom he thought all
+this would come like a thunder-clap, not knowing that
+she was up-stairs in the family party, among the lordships
+and the ladyship too.</p>
+
+<p>He went home and into his handsome library, and
+shut the door upon himself, to have it out there&mdash;or
+rather to occupy himself in some more sensible way
+and shut this foolish subject out of his mind. It occurred
+to him, however, when he sat down that the best
+thing to do would be to write an account of it all to
+Mrs. Dennistoun, who doubtless in the excitement
+would have a long time to wait for news of this great
+change. He drew his blotting-book towards him with
+this object, and opened it, and dipped his pen in the
+ink, and wrote "My dear Aunt;" but he did not get
+much further. He raised his head, thinking how to
+introduce his narrative, for which she would in all likelihood
+be wholly unprepared, and in so doing looked
+round upon his book-cases, on one shelf of which the
+reflection of a ray of afternoon sunshine caught in the
+old Louis Treize mirror over the mantelpiece was throwing
+a shaft of light. He got up to make sure that it
+was only a reflection, nothing that would harm the
+binding of a particular volume upon which he set great
+store&mdash;though of course he knew very well that it could
+only be a reflection, no impertinent reality of sunshine
+being permitted to penetrate there. And then he paused
+a little to draw his hand lovingly over the line of choice
+books&mdash;very choice&mdash;worth a little fortune, which he
+laughed at himself a little for being proud of, fully
+knowing that what was inside them (which generally is
+the cream of a book, as of a letter, according to Tony
+Lumpkin) was in many cases worth nothing at all. And
+then John went and stood upon the hearth-rug, and
+looked round him upon this the heart of his domain.
+It was a noble library, any man might have been proud
+of it. He asked himself whether it did not suit him
+better, with all the comforts and luxuries beyond it, than
+if he had been like other men, with an entirely different
+centre of life up-stairs in the empty drawing-room,
+and the burden upon him of setting out children, boys
+and girls, upon the world.</p>
+
+<p>When a man asks himself this question, however complacent
+may be the reply, it betrays perhaps a doubt
+whether the assurance he has is so very sure after all;
+and he returned to his letter to Mrs. Dennistoun, which
+would be quite easy to write if it were only once well
+begun. But he had not written above a few words,
+having spent some time in his previous reflections, when
+he paused again at the sound of a tumultuous summons
+at the street-door. As may be well supposed, his servant
+took more time than usual to answer it, resenting
+a noise so out of character with the house, during which
+John listened half-angrily, fearing, yet wishing for, a
+diversion. And then his own door burst open, not, I
+need not say, by any intervention of legitimate hands,
+but by the sudden rush of Philip, who seemed to come
+in in a whirl of long limbs and eager eyes, flinging
+himself into a chair and fixing his gaze across the corner
+of the table upon his astonished yet expectant
+friend. "Oh, Uncle John!" the boy cried, and had not
+breath to say any more.</p>
+
+<p>John put forth his hand across the table, and grasped
+the young flexible warm hand that wanted something
+to hold. "Well, my boy," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you know," said Philip. "I have nothing
+to tell you, though it is all so strange to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I know&mdash;nothing about what interests me most at
+present&mdash;yourself, Pippo, and what has happened to
+you."</p>
+
+<p>John had always made a great stand against that particular
+name, but several times had used it of late, not
+knowing why.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you thought of me last night,"
+said the boy, "I was so miserable. May I tell you
+everything, Uncle John?"</p>
+
+<p>What balm that question was! He clasped Pippo's
+hand in his own, but scarcely could answer to bid him
+go on.</p>
+
+<p>"It was unnecessary, all she wanted to tell me. I
+fought it off all the morning. I was there yesterday in
+the court and heard it all."</p>
+
+<p>"In the court! At the trial?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had no meaning in it," said Philip. "I went by
+chance, as people say, because the Marshalls had not
+turned up. I got Simmons to get me into the court.
+I had always wanted to see a trial. And there I saw
+my mother stand up&mdash;my mother, that I never could
+bear the wind to blow on, standing up there alone with
+all these people staring at her to be tried&mdash;for her life."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be a fool, Philip," said John Tatham, dropping
+his hand; "tried! she was only a witness. And
+she was not alone. I was there to take care of her."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw you&mdash;but what was that? She was alone all
+the same; and for me, it was she who was on her trial.
+What did I know about any other? I heard it, every
+word."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor boy!"</p>
+
+<p>"So what was the use of making herself miserable
+to tell me? She tried to all this morning, and I fought
+it off. I was miserable enough. Why should I be
+made more miserable to hear her perhaps excusing herself
+to me? But at last she had driven me into a corner,
+angry as I was&mdash;Uncle John, I was angry, furious,
+with my mother&mdash;fancy! with my mother."</p>
+
+<p>John did not say anything, but he nodded his head
+in assent. How well he understood it all!</p>
+
+<p>"And just then, at that moment, he came. I am angry
+with her no more. I know whatever happened
+she was right. Angry with her, my poor dear, dearest
+mother! Whatever happened she was right. It was
+best that she should not tell me. I am on her side all
+through&mdash;all through! Do you hear me, Uncle John!
+I have seen you look as if you blamed her. Don't again
+while I am there. Whatever she has done it has been
+the right thing all through!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pippo," said John, with a little quivering about the
+mouth, "give me your hand again, old fellow, you're
+my own boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody shall so much as look as if they blamed
+her," cried the boy, "while I am alive!"</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how near he was to crying, and how resolute not
+to break down, though something got into his throat
+and almost choked him, and his eyes were so full that
+it was a miracle they did not brim over. Excitement,
+distress, pain, the first touch of human misery he had
+ever known almost overmastered Philip. He got up
+and walked about the room, and talked and talked. He
+who had never concealed anything, who had never had
+anything to conceal. And for four-and-twenty hours
+he had been silent with a great secret upon his soul.
+John was too wise to check the outpouring. He listened
+to everything, assented, soothed, imperceptibly
+led him to gentler thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"And what does he mean," cried the boy at last,
+"with his new name? I shall have no name but my
+own, the one my mother gave me. I am Philip Compton,
+and nothing else. What right has he, the first time
+he ever saw me, to put upon me another name?"</p>
+
+<p>"What name?"</p>
+
+<p>"He called me Lomond&mdash;or something like that,"
+said young Philip: and then there came a sort of stillness
+over his excitement, a lull in the storm. Some
+vague idea what it meant came all at once into the boy's
+mind: and a thrill of curiosity, of another kind of excitement,
+of rising thoughts which he did not hardly
+understand, struggled up through the other zone of
+passion. He was half ashamed, having just poured
+forth all his feelings, to show that there was something
+else, something that was no longer indignation, nor
+anger, nor the shock of discovery, something that had
+a tremor perhaps of pleasure in it, behind. But John
+was far too experienced a man not to read the boy
+through and through. He liked him better in the first
+phase, but this was natural too.</p>
+
+<p>"It happens very strangely," he said, "that all these
+things should come upon you at once: but it is well
+you should know now all about it. Lomond is the
+second title of the Comptons, Earls of St. Serf. Haven't
+I heard you ask what Comptons you belonged to, Philip?
+It has all happened within a day or two. Your father
+was only Philip Compton yesterday at the trial, and a
+poor man. Now he is Lord St. Serf, if not rich, at least
+no longer poor. Everything has changed for you&mdash;your
+position, your importance in the world. The last Lord
+Lomond bore the name creditably enough. I hope you
+will make it shine." He took the boy by the hand and
+grasped it heartily again. "I am thankful for it," said
+John. "I would rather you were Lord Lomond
+than<span class="norewrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"What! Uncle John?"</p>
+
+<p>"Steady, boy. I was going to say Philip Compton's
+son; but Lord St. Serf is another man."</p>
+
+<p>There was a long pause in the room where John Tatham's
+life was centred among his books. He had so
+much to do with all this business, and yet so little. It
+would pass away with all its tumults, and he after being
+absorbed by it for a moment would be left alone to his
+own thoughts and his own unbroken line of existence.
+So much the better! It is not good for any man to be
+swept up and put down again at the will of others in
+matters in which he has no share. As for Philip, he
+was silent chiefly to realise this great thing that had
+come upon him. He, Lord Lomond, a peer's son, who
+was only Pippo of Lakeside like any other lad in the
+parish, and not half so important at school as Musgrave,
+who did not get that scholarship. What the school
+would say! the tempest that would arise! They would
+ask a holiday, and the head master would grant it.
+Compton a lord! Philip could hear the roar and rustle
+among the boys, the scornful incredulity, the asseverations
+of those who knew it was true. And a flush
+that was pleasure had come over his musing face. It
+would have been strange if in the wonder of it there
+had not been some pleasure too.</p>
+
+<p>He had begun to tolerate his father before many days
+were over, to cease to be indignant and angry that he
+was not the ideal father of his dreams. That was not
+Lord St. Serf's fault, who was not at all aware of his
+son's dreams, and had never had an ideal in his life.
+But John Tatham was right in saying that Lord St.
+Serf was another man. The shock of a new responsibility,
+of a position to occupy and duties to fulfil, were
+things that might not have much moved the dis-Honourable
+Phil two years before. But he was fifty,
+and beginning to feel himself an old fogey, as he confessed.
+And his son overawed Lord St. Serf. His
+son, who was so like him, yet had the mother's quick,
+impetuous eyes, so rapid to see through everything, so
+disdainful of folly, so keen in perception. He was
+afraid to bring upon himself one of those lightning
+flashes from the eyes of his boy, and doubly afraid to
+introduce his son anywhere, to show him anything that
+might bring upon him the reproach of doing harm to
+Pippo. His house, which had been very decent and
+orderly in the late Lord St. Serf's time, became almost
+prim in the terror Phil had lest they should say that it
+was bad for the boy.</p>
+
+<p>As for Lady St. Serf, it was popularly reported that
+the reason why she almost invariably lived in the
+country was her health, which kept her out of society&mdash;a
+report, I need not say, absolutely rejected by
+society itself, which knew all the circumstances better
+than you or I do: but which sufficed for the outsiders
+who knew nothing. When Elinor did appear upon
+great occasions, which she consented to do, her matured
+beauty gave the fullest contradiction to the pretext on
+which she continued to live her own life. But old
+Lord St. Serf, who got old so long before he need to
+have done, with perhaps the same sort of constitutional
+weakness which had carried off all his brothers before
+their time, or perhaps because he had too much abused
+a constitution which was not weak&mdash;grew more and more
+fond in his latter days of the country too, and kept appearing
+at Lakeside so often that at last the ladies removed
+much nearer town, to the country-house of the
+St. Serfs, which had not been occupied for ages, where
+they presented at last the appearance of a united family;
+and where "Lomond" (who would have thought
+it very strange now to be addressed by any other
+name) brought his friends, and was not ill-pleased to
+hear his father discourse, in a way which sometimes
+still offended the home-bred Pippo, but which the other
+young men found very amusing. It was not in the way
+of morals, however, that Lord St. Serf ever offended.
+The fear of Elinor kept him as blameless as any good-*natured
+preacher of the endless theme, that all is vanity,
+could do.</p>
+
+<p>These family arrangements, however, and the modified
+happiness obtained by their means, were still all
+in the future, when John Tatham, a little afraid of the
+encounter, yet anxious to have it over, went to Ebury
+Street the day after these occurrences, to see Elinor for
+the first time under her new character as Lady St. Serf.
+He found her in a languor and exhaustion much unlike
+Elinor, doing nothing, not even a book near, lying
+back in her chair, fallen upon herself, as the French
+say. Some of those words that mean nothing passed
+between them, and then she said, "John, did Pippo
+tell you that he had been there?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded his head, finding nothing to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Without any warning, to see his mother stand up
+before all the world to be tried&mdash;for her life."</p>
+
+<p>"Elinor," said John, "you are as fantastic as the
+boy."</p>
+
+<p>"I was&mdash;being tried for my life&mdash;before him as the
+judge. And he has acquitted me; but, oh, I wonder, I
+wonder if he would have done so had he known all that
+I know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do so," said John, "perhaps a little more used to
+the laws of evidence than Pippo."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you!" she said, giving him her hand, with a
+look which John did not know how to take, whether as
+the fullest expression of trust, or an affectionate disdain
+of the man in whose partial judgment no justice
+was. And then she asked a question which threw perhaps
+the greatest perplexity he had ever known into
+John Tatham's life. "When you tell a fact&mdash;that is
+true: with the intention to deceive: John, you that
+know the laws of evidence, is that a lie?"</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>THE END.</h4>
+
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<p class="noindent"><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i><br />
+<span class="small"><i>IN UNIFORM STYLE</i></span></p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><i>MARRIAGE OF ELINOR</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><i>WHITELADIES</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><i>THE MAKERS OF VENICE</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="small"><i>CHICAGO</i></span><br />
+<i>W. B. CONKEY COMPANY</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>We are the Sole Publishers of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's Books</h4>
+
+<h3><i>The Poetical and Prose Works of</i></h3>
+
+<h2><i>ELLA WHEELER WILCOX</i></h2>
+
+<p><b>Mrs. Wilcox's writings have been the inspiration of many young
+men and women. Her hopeful, practical, masterful views of life
+give the reader new courage in the very reading and are a wholesome
+spur to flagging effort. Words of truth so vital that they live in the
+reader's memory and cause him to think&mdash;to his own betterment and
+the lasting improvement of his own work in the world, in whatever
+line it lies&mdash;flow from this talented woman's pen.</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>MAURINE</h3>
+
+<p class="noindent"><small>Is a love story told in exquisite verse. "An ideal poem about
+as true and lovable a woman as ever poet created." It has
+repeatedly been compared with Owen Meredith's <i>Lucile</i>. In
+point of human interest it excels that noted story.</small></p>
+
+<p><small>"Maurine" is issued in an <i>edition de luxe</i>, where the more
+important incidents of the story are portrayed by means of
+photographic studies from life.</small></p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table class="sm" style="margin : auto" border="0" cellpadding="1" summary="prices">
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">Presentation Edition, 12mo, olive green cloth</td><td align="right">$1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">New Illustrated Edition, extra cloth, gold top</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">De Luxe New Illustrated Edition, white vellum, gold top&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">2.00</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>POEMS OF POWER.</h3>
+
+<p><small>New and revised edition. This beautiful volume contains
+more than <i>one hundred new poems</i>, displaying this popular
+poet's well-known taste, cultivation, and originality. The
+author says: "The final word in the title of the volume refers
+to the Divine power in every human being, the recognition of
+which is the secret of all success and happiness. It is this
+idea which many of the verses endeavor to inculcate and to
+illustrate."</small></p>
+
+<p><small>"The lines of Mrs. Wilcox show both sweetness and
+strength."&mdash;<i>Chicago American</i>. "Ella Wheeler Wilcox has a
+strong grip upon the affections of thousands all over the
+world. Her productions are read to-day just as eagerly as
+they were when her fame was new, no other divinity having
+yet risen to take her place."&mdash;<i>Chicago Record-Herald.</i></small></p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table class="sm" style="margin : auto" border="0" cellpadding="1" summary="prices">
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">Presentation Edition, 12mo, dark blue cloth&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">$1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h3>THREE WOMEN. A STORY IN VERSE.</h3>
+
+<p><small>"<span class="smallcaps">Three Women</span> is the best thing I have ever done."&mdash;<i>Ella
+Wheeler Wilcox.</i></small></p>
+
+<p><small>This marvelous dramatic poem will compel instant praise
+because it touches every note in the scale of human emotion.
+It is intensely interesting, and will be read with sincere
+relish and admiration.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table class="sm" style="margin : auto" border="0" cellpadding="1" summary="prices">
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">Presentation Edition, 12mo, light red cloth&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">$1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h3>AN ERRING WOMAN'S LOVE.</h3>
+
+<p><small>There is always a fascination in Mrs. Wilcox's verse, but in
+these beautiful examples of her genius she shows a wonderful
+knowledge of the human heart.</small></p>
+
+<p><small>"Ella Wheeler Wilcox has impressed many thousands of
+people with the extreme beauty of her philosophy and the
+exceeding usefulness of her point of view."&mdash;<i>Boston Globe.</i></small></p>
+
+<p><small>"Mrs. Wilcox stands at the head of feminine writers, and
+her verses and essays are more widely copied and read than
+those of any other American literary woman."&mdash;<i>New York
+World.</i> "Power and pathos characterize this magnificent
+poem. A deep understanding of life and an intense sympathy
+are beautifully expressed."&mdash;<i>Chicago Tribune.</i></small></p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table class="sm" style="margin : auto" border="0" cellpadding="1" summary="prices">
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">Presentation Edition, 12mo, light brown cloth&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">$1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>MEN, WOMEN AND EMOTIONS.</h3>
+
+<p><small>A skilful analysis of social habits, customs, and follies. A
+common-sense view of life from its varied standpoints, &#8230; full
+of sage advice.</small></p>
+
+<p><small>"These essays tend to meet difficulties that arise in almost
+every life&#8230;. Full of sound and helpful admonition, and is
+sure to assist in smoothing the rough ways of life wherever it
+be read and heeded."&mdash;<i>Pittsburg Times.</i></small></p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table class="sm" style="margin : auto" border="0" cellpadding="1" summary="prices">
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">12mo, heavy enameled paper</td><td align="right">$0.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">Presentation Edition, dark brown cloth&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">1.00</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h3>THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF NOD.</h3>
+
+<p><small>A collection of poems, songs, stories, and allegories dealing
+with child life. The work is profusely illustrated with dainty
+line engravings and photographs from life.</small></p>
+
+<p><small>"The delight of the nursery; the foremost baby's book in
+the world."&mdash;<i>N. O. Picayune.</i></small></p>
+<div class="center">
+<table class="sm" style="margin : auto" border="0" cellpadding="0" summary="prices">
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top">Quarto, sage green cloth&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">$1.00</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="narrow" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table class="sm" border="0" style="background-color: #E6E6FA; margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4" summary="Amendments">
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">
+		<div class="center">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE</div>
+
+<p class="noindent" style="background-color: #E6E6FA">Contemporary spellings have been retained even
+when inconsistent. A small number of obvious typographical errors have been
+corrected, and missing punctuation has been silently added. The list of additional
+works by the author has been moved to the end.<br />
+<br />
+The following additional changes have been made; they can be identified
+in the body of the text by a grey dotted underline:</p>
+</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+	 <td valign="top">I seemed too dear, too peaceful</td>
+	 <td valign="top"><i>It</i> seemed too dear, too peaceful</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+	 <td valign="top">do a thing that its</td>
+	 <td valign="top">do a thing that <i>is</i></td>
+ </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+	 <td valign="top">three tittle escapades</td>
+	 <td valign="top">three <i>little</i> escapades</td>
+ </tr>
+
+<tr>
+  <td>"you gave me a fright," she she said </td>
+	<td>"you gave me a fright," <i>she</i> said </td>
+</tr>
+
+ <tr>
+	 <td valign="top">waiting, with her eyes on Elinora, sign</td>
+	 <td valign="top">waiting, with her eyes on <i>Elinor, for a</i> sign</td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Marriage of Elinor, by Margaret Oliphant
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Marriage of Elinor, by Margaret Oliphant
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Marriage of Elinor
+
+Author: Margaret Oliphant
+
+Release Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #28637]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR
+
+
+BY
+
+MRS. OLIPHANT
+
+
+CHICAGO
+W. B. CONKEY COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1891,
+BY
+UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY
+
+[_All rights reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+John Tatham, barrister-at-law, received one summer morning as he sat at
+breakfast the following letter. It was written in what was once known
+distinctively as a lady's hand, in pointed characters, very fine and
+delicate, and was to this effect:--
+
+
+"DEAR JOHN, Have you heard from Elinor of her new prospects and
+intentions? I suppose she must have written to you on the subject. Do
+you know anything of the man?... You know how hard it is to convince her
+against her will of anything, and also how poorly gifted I am with the
+power of convincing any one. And I don't know him, therefore can speak
+with no authority. If you can do anything to clear things up, come and
+do so. I am very anxious and more than doubtful; but her heart seems set
+upon it.
+
+"Your affect.
+"M. S. D."
+
+
+Mr. Tatham was a well-built and vigorous man of five-and-thirty, with
+health, good behaviour, and well-being in every line of his cheerful
+countenance and every close curl of his brown hair. His hair was very
+curly, and helped to give him the cheerful look which was one of his
+chief characteristics. Nevertheless, when these innocent seeming words,
+"Do you know the man?" which was more certainly demonstrative of
+certain facts than had those facts been stated in the fullest detail,
+met his eye, Mr. Tatham paused and laid down the letter with a start.
+His ruddy colour paled for the moment, and he felt something which was
+like the push or poke of a blunt but heavy weapon somewhere in the
+regions of the heart. For the moment he felt that he could not read any
+more. "Do you know the man?" He did not even ask what man in the
+momentary sickness of his heart. Then he said to himself, almost
+angrily, "Well!" and took up the letter again and read to the end.
+
+Well! of course it was a thing that he knew might happen any day, and
+which he had expected to happen for the last four or five years. It was
+nothing to him one way or another. Nothing could be more absurd than
+that a hearty and strong young man in the full tide of his life and with
+a good breakfast before him should receive a shock from that innocent
+little letter as if he had been a sentimental woman. But the fact is
+that he pushed his plate away with an exclamation of disgust and a
+feeling that everything was bad and uneatable. He drank his tea, though
+that also became suddenly bad too, full of tannin, like tea that has
+stood too long, a thing about which John was very particular. He had
+been half an hour later than usual this morning consequent on having
+been an hour or two later than usual last night. These things have their
+reward, and that very speedily; but as for the letter, what could that
+have to do with the bad toasting of the bacon and the tannin in the tea?
+"Do you know the man?" There was a sort of covert insult, too, in the
+phraseology, as if no explanation was needed, as if he must know by
+instinct what she meant--he who knew nothing about it, who did not know
+there was a man at all!
+
+After a while he began to smile rather cynically to himself. He had got
+up from the breakfast table, where everything was so bad, and had gone
+to look out of one of the windows of his pleasant sitting-room. It was
+in one of the wider ways of the Temple, and looked out upon various
+houses with a pleasant misty light upon the redness of their old
+brickwork, and a stretch of green grass and trees, which were scanty in
+foliage, yet suited very well with the bright morning sun, which was not
+particularly warm, but looked as if it were a good deal for effect and
+not so very much for use. That thought floated across his mind with
+others, and was of the same cynical complexion. It was very well for the
+sun to shine, making the glistening poplars and plane-trees glow, and
+warming all the mellow redness of the old houses, but what did he mean
+by it? No warmth to speak of, only a fictitious gleam--a thing got up
+for effect. And so was the affectionateness of woman--meaning nothing,
+only an effect of warmth and geniality, nothing beyond that. As a matter
+of fact, he reminded himself after a while that he had never wanted
+anything beyond, neither asked for it, nor wished it. He had no desire
+to change the conditions of his life: women never rested till they had
+done so, manufacturing a new event, whatever it might be, pleased even
+when they were not pleased, to have a novelty to announce. That, no
+doubt, was the state of mind in which the lady who called herself his
+aunt was: pleased to have something to tell him, to fire off her big
+guns in his face, even though she was not at all pleased with the event
+itself. But John Tatham, on the other hand, had desired nothing to
+happen; things were very well as they were. He liked to have a place
+where he could run down from Saturday to Monday whenever he pleased, and
+where his visit was always a cheerful event for the womankind. He had
+liked to take them all the news, to carry the picture-papers, quite a
+load; to take down a new book for Elinor; to taste doubtfully his aunt's
+wine, and tell her she had better let him choose it for her. It was a
+very pleasant state of affairs: he wanted no change; not, certainly,
+above everything, the intrusion of a stranger whose very existence had
+been unknown to him until he was thus asked cynically, almost brutally,
+"Do you know the man?"
+
+The hour came when John had to assume the costume of that order of
+workers whom a persistent popular joke nicknames the "Devil's Own:"--that
+is, he had to put on gown and wig and go off to the courts, where he was
+envied of all the briefless as a man who for his age had a great deal to
+do. He "devilled" for Mr. Asstewt, the great Chancery man, which was the
+most excellent beginning: and he was getting into a little practice of
+his own which was not to be sneezed at. But he did not find himself in a
+satisfactory frame of mind to-day. He found himself asking the judge,
+"Do you know anything of the man?" when it was his special business so
+to bewilder that potentate with elaborate arguments that he should not
+have time to consider whether he had ever heard of the particular man
+before him. Thus it was evident that Mr. Tatham was completely _hors de
+son assiette_, as the French say; upset and "out of it," according to
+the equally vivid imagination of the English manufacturer of slang. John
+Tatham was a very capable young lawyer on ordinary occasions, and it was
+all the more remarkable that he should have been so confused in his mind
+to-day.
+
+When he went back to his chambers in the evening, which was not until it
+was time to dress for dinner, he saw a bulky letter lying on his table,
+but avoided it as if it had been an overdue bill. He was engaged to
+dine out, and had not much time: yet all the way, as he drove along the
+streets, just as sunset was over and a subduing shade came over the
+light, and that half-holiday look that comes with evening--he kept
+thinking of the fat letter upon his table. Do you know anything of
+the man? That would no longer be the refrain of his correspondent,
+but some absurd strain of devotion and admiration of the man whom John
+knew nothing of, not even his name. He wondered as he went along in his
+hansom, and even between the courses at dinner, while he listened with
+a smile, but without hearing a word, to what the lady next him was
+saying--what she would tell him about this man? That he was everything
+that was delightful, no doubt; handsome, of course; probably clever; and
+that she was fond of him, confound the fellow! Elinor! to think that she
+should come to that--a girl like her--to tell him, as if she was saying
+that she had caught a cold or received a present, that she was in love
+with a man! Good heavens! when one had thought her so much above
+anything of that kind--a woman, above all women that ever were.
+
+"Not so much as that," John said to himself as he walked home. He always
+preferred to walk home in the evening, and he was not going to change
+his habit now out of any curiosity about Elinor's letter. Oh, not so
+much as that! not above all women, or better than the rest, perhaps--but
+different. He could not quite explain to himself how, except that he
+had always known her to be Elinor and not another, which was a quite
+sufficient explanation. And now it appeared that she was not different,
+although she would still profess to be Elinor--a curious puzzle, which
+his brain in its excited state was scarcely able to tackle. His thoughts
+got somewhat confused and broken as he approached his chambers. He was
+so near the letter now--a few minutes and he would no longer need to
+wonder or speculate about it, but would know exactly what she said. He
+turned and stood for a minute or so at the Temple gates, looking out
+upon the busy Strand. It was still as lovely as a summer night could be
+overhead, but down here it was--well, it was London, which is another
+thing. The usual crowd was streaming by, coming into bright light as it
+streamed past a brilliant shop window, then in the shade for another
+moment, and emerging again. The faces that were suddenly lit up as they
+passed--some handsome faces, pale in the light; some with heads hung
+down, either in bad health or bad humour; some full of cares and troubles,
+others airy and gay--caught his attention. Did any of them all know
+anything of this man, he wondered--knowing how absurd a question it was.
+Had any of them written to-day a letter full of explanations, of a
+matter that could not be explained? There were faces with far more
+tragic meaning in them than could be so easily explained as that--the
+faces of men, alas! and women too, who were going to destruction as fast
+as their hurrying feet could carry them; or else were languidly drifting
+no one knew where--out of life altogether, out of all that was good in
+life. John Tatham knew this very well too, and had it in him to do
+anything a man could to stop the wanderers in their downward career. But
+to-night he was thinking of none of these things. He was only wondering
+how she would explain it, how she could explain it, what she would say;
+and lingering to prolong his suspense, not to know too soon what it was.
+
+At last, however, as there is no delay but must come to an end one time
+or another, he found himself at last in his room, in his smoking-coat
+and slippers, divested of his stiff collar--at his ease, the windows
+open upon the quiet of the Temple Gardens, a little fresh air breathing
+in. He had taken all this trouble to secure ease for himself, to put
+off a little the reading of the letter. Now the moment had come when
+it would be absurd to delay any longer. It was so natural to see her
+familiar handwriting--not a lady's hand, angular and pointed, like her
+mother's, but the handwriting of her generation, which looks as if it
+were full of character, until one perceives that it _is_ the writing of
+the generation, and all the girls and boys write much the same. He took
+time for this reflection still as he tore open the envelope. There were
+two sheets very well filled, and written in at the corners, so that no
+available spot was lost. "My dear old John," were the first words he
+saw. He put down the letter and thought over the address. Well, she had
+always called him so. He was old John when he was fourteen, to little
+Elinor. They had always known each other like that--like brother and
+sister. But not particularly like brother and sister--like cousins twice
+removed, which is a more interesting tie in some particulars. And now
+for the letter.
+
+
+"MY DEAR OLD JOHN: I want to tell you myself of a great thing that has
+happened to me--the very greatest thing that could happen in one's
+life. Oh, John, dear old John, I feel as if I had nobody else I could
+open my heart to; for mamma--well, mamma is mamma, a dear mother and a
+good one; but you know she has her own ways of thinking----"
+
+
+He put down the letter again with a rueful little laugh. "And have not I
+my own ways of thinking, too?" he said to himself.
+
+
+"Jack dear," continued the letter, "you must give me your sympathy, all
+your sympathy. You never were in love, I suppose (oh, what an odious
+way that is of putting it! but it spares one's feelings a little, for
+even in writing it is too tremendous a thing to say quite gravely and
+seriously, as one feels it). Dear John, I know you never were in love,
+or you would have told me; but still----"
+
+
+"Oh," he said to himself, with the merest suspicion of a little quiver
+in his lip, which might, of course, have been a laugh, but, on the other
+hand, might have been something else, "I never was--or I would have told
+her--That's the way she looks at it." Then he took up the letter again.
+
+
+"Because--I see nothing but persecution before me. It was only a week
+ago that it happened, and we wanted to keep it quiet for a time; but
+things get out in spite of all one can do--things of that sort, at
+least. And, oh, dear Jack, fancy! I have got three letters already, all
+warning me against him; raking up trifling things that have occurred
+long ago, long before he met me, and holding them up before me like
+scarecrows--telling me he is not worthy of me, and that I will be
+wretched if I marry him, and other dreadful lies like that, which
+show me quite plainly that they neither know him nor me, and that they
+haven't eyes to see what he really is, nor minds to understand. But
+though I see the folly of it and the wickedness of it, mamma does not.
+She is ready to take other people's words; indeed, there is this to be
+said for her, that she does not know him yet, and therefore cannot be
+expected to be ready to take his own word before all. Dear Jack, my
+heart is so full, and I have so much to tell you, and such perfect
+confidence in your sympathy, and also in your insight and capacity to
+see through all the lies and wicked stories which I foresee are going to
+be poured upon us like a flood that--I don't know how to begin, I have
+so many things to say. I know it is the heart of the season, and that
+you are asked out every night in the week, and are so popular everywhere;
+but if you could but come down from Saturday to Monday, and let me tell
+you everything and show you his picture, and read you parts of his
+letters, I know you would see how false and wrong it all is, and help me
+to face it out with all those horrid people, and to bring round mamma.
+You know her dreadful way of never giving an opinion, but just saying a
+great deal worse, and leaving you to your own responsibility, which
+nearly drives me mad even in little things--so you may suppose what it
+does in this. Of course, she must see him, which is all I want, for I
+know after she has had a half-hour's conversation with him that she will
+be like me and will not believe a word--not one word. Therefore, Jack
+dear, come, oh, come! I have always turned to you in my difficulties,
+since ever I have known what it was to have a difficulty, and you have
+done everything for me. I never remember any trouble I ever had but you
+found some means of clearing it away. Therefore my whole hope is in you.
+I know it is hard to give up all your parties and things; but it would
+only be two nights, after all--Saturday and Sunday. Oh, do come, do
+come, if you ever cared the least little bit for your poor cousin! Come,
+oh, come, dear old John!
+
+"Your affect.
+"E------."
+
+
+"Is that all?" he said to himself; but it was not all, for there
+followed a postscript all about the gifts and graces of the unknown
+lover, and how he was the victim of circumstances, and how, while other
+men might steal the horse, he dared not look over the wall, and other
+convincing pleadings such as these, till John's head began to go round.
+When he had got through this postscript John Tatham folded the letter
+and put it away. He had a smile on his face, but he had the air of a man
+who had been beaten about the head and was confused with the hurry and
+storm of the blows. She had always turned to him in all her difficulties,
+that was true: and he had always stood by her, and often, in the
+freemasonry of youth, had thought her right and vindicated her capacity
+to judge for herself. He had been called often on this errand, and he
+had never refused to obey. For Elinor was very wilful, she had always
+been wilful--"a rosebud set about with wilful thorns, But sweet as
+English air could make her, she." He had come to her aid many a time.
+But he had never thought to be called upon by her in such a way as this.
+He folded the letter up carefully and put it in a drawer. Usually
+when he had a letter from Elinor he put it into his pocket, for the
+satisfaction of reading it over again: for she had a fantastic way of
+writing, adding little postscripts which escaped the eye at first, and
+which it was pleasant to find out afterwards. But with this letter he
+did not do so. He put it in a drawer of his writing-table, so that he
+might find it again when necessary, but he did not put it in his breast
+pocket. And then he sat for some time doing nothing, looking before him,
+with his legs stretched out and his hand beating a little tattoo upon
+the table. "Well: well? well!" That was about what he said to himself,
+but it meant a great deal: it meant a vague but great disappointment, a
+sort of blank and vacuum expressed by the first of these words--and then
+it meant a question of great importance and many divisions. How could it
+ever have come to anything? Am I a man to marry? What could I have done,
+just getting into practice, just getting a few pounds to spend for
+myself? And then came the conclusion. Since I can't do anything else
+for her; since she's done it for herself--shall I be a beast and not
+help her, because it puts my own nose out of joint? Not a bit of it!
+The reader must remember that in venturing to reflect a young man's
+sentiments a dignified style is scarcely possible; they express
+themselves sometimes with much force in their private moments, but not
+as Dr. Johnson would have approved, or with any sense of elegance; and
+one must try to be truthful to nature. He knew very well that Elinor was
+not responsible for his disappointment, and even he was aware that if
+she had been so foolish as to fix her hopes upon him, it would probably
+have been she who would have been disappointed, and left in the lurch.
+But still----
+
+John had gone through an interminable amount of thinking, and a good
+deal of soda-water (with or without, how should I know, some other
+moderate ingredient), and a cigar or two--not to speak of certain hours
+when he ought to have been in bed to keep his head clear for the cases
+of to-morrow: when it suddenly flashed upon him all at once that he was
+not a step further on than when he had received Mrs. Dennistoun's letter
+in the morning, for Elinor, though she had said so much about him, had
+given no indication who her lover was. Who was the man?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+It was a blustering afternoon when John, with his bag in his hand, set
+out from the station at Hurrymere for Mrs. Dennistoun's cottage. Why
+that station should have had "mere" in its name I have never been able
+to divine, for there is no water to be seen for miles, scarcely so much
+as a duckpond: but, perhaps, there are two meanings to the words. It was
+a steep walk up a succession of slopes, and the name of the one upon
+which the cottage stood was Windyhill not an encouraging title on such
+a day, but true enough to the character of the place. The cottage lay,
+however, at the head of a combe or shelving irregular valley, just
+sheltered from the winds on a little platform of its own, and commanding
+a view which was delightful in its long sweeping distance, and varied
+enough to be called picturesque, especially by those who were familiar
+with nothing higher than the swelling slopes of the Surrey hills. It was
+wild, little cultivated, save in the emerald green of the bottom, a
+few fields which lay where a stream ought to have been. Nowadays there
+are red-roofed houses peeping out at every corner, but at that period
+fashion had not even heard of Hurrymere, and, save for a farm-house or
+two, a village alehouse and posting-house at a corner of the high-road,
+and one or two great houses within the circuit of six or seven miles,
+retired within their trees and parks, there were few habitations. Mrs.
+Dennistoun's cottage was red-roofed like the rest, but much subdued by
+lichens, and its walls were covered by climbing plants, so that it
+struck no bold note upon the wild landscape, yet was visible afar off in
+glimpses, from the much-winding road, for a mile or two before it could
+be come at. There was, indeed, a nearer way, necessitating a sharp
+scramble, but when John came just in sight of the house his heart failed
+him a little, and, notwithstanding that his bag had come to feel very
+heavy by this time, he deliberately chose the longer round to gain a
+little time--as we all do sometimes, when we are most anxious to be
+at our journey's end, and hear what has to be told us. It looked very
+peaceful seated in that fold of the hill, no tossing of trees about it,
+though a little higher up the slim oaks and beeches of the copse were
+flinging themselves about against the grey sky in a kind of agonised
+appeal. John liked the sound of the wind sweeping over the hills, rending
+the trees, and filling the horizon as with a crowd of shadows in pain,
+twisting and bending with every fresh sweep of the breeze. Sometimes
+such sounds and sights give a relief to the mind. He liked it better
+than if all had been undisturbed, lying in afternoon quiet as might have
+been expected at the crown of the year--but the winds had always to be
+taken into account at Windyhill.
+
+When he came in sight of the gate, John was aware of some one waiting
+for him, walking up and down the sandy road into which it opened. Her
+face was turned the other way, and she evidently looked for him by way
+of the combe, the scrambling steep road which he had avoided in despite:
+for why should he scramble and make himself hot in order to hear ten
+minutes sooner what he did not wish to hear at all? She turned round
+suddenly as he knocked his foot against a stone upon the rough, but
+otherwise noiseless road, presenting a countenance flushed with sudden
+relief and pleasure to John's remorseful eye. "Oh, there you are!" she
+said; "I am so glad. I thought you could not be coming. You might have
+been here a quarter of an hour ago by the short road."
+
+"I did not think there was any hurry," said John, ungraciously. "The
+wind is enough to carry one off one's feet; though, to be sure, it's
+quiet enough here."
+
+"It's always quiet here," she said, reading his face with her eyes after
+the manner of women, and wondering what the harassed look meant that was
+so unusual in John's cheerful face. She jumped at the idea that he was
+tired, that his bag was heavy, that he had been beaten about by the wind
+till he had lost his temper, always a possible thing to happen to a man.
+Elinor flung herself upon the bag and tried to take possession of it.
+"Why didn't you get a boy at the station to carry it? Let me carry it,"
+she said.
+
+"That is so likely," said John, with a hard laugh, shifting it to his
+other hand.
+
+Elinor caught his arm with both her hands, and looked up with wistful
+eyes into his face. "Oh, John, you are angry," she said.
+
+"Nonsense. I am tired, buffeting about with this wind." Here the
+gardener and man-of-all-work about the cottage came up and took the bag,
+which John parted with with angry reluctance, as if it had been a sort
+of weapon of offence. After it was gone there was nothing for it but to
+walk quietly to the house through the flowers with that girl hanging on
+his arm, begging a hundred pardons with her eyes. The folly of it! as
+if she had not a right to do as she pleased, or he would try to prevent
+her; but finally, the soft, silent apology of that clinging, and the
+look full of petitions touched his surly heart. "Well--Nelly," he said,
+with involuntary softening.
+
+"Oh, if you call me that I am not afraid!" she cried, with an instant
+upleaping of pleasure and confidence in her changeable face, which (John
+tried to say to himself) was not really pretty at all, only so full of
+expression, changing with every breath of feeling. The eyes, which had
+only been brown a moment before, leaped up into globes of light, yet
+not too dazzling, with some liquid medium to soften their shining. Even
+though you know that a girl is in love with another man, that she thinks
+of you no more than of the old gardener who has just hobbled round the
+corner, it is pleasant to be able to change the whole aspect of affairs
+to her and make her light up like that, solely by a little unwilling
+softening of your gruff and surly tone.
+
+"You know, John," she said, holding his arm tight with her two hands,
+"that nobody ever calls me Nelly--except you."
+
+"Possibly I shall call you Nelly no longer. Why? Why, because that
+fellow will object."
+
+"That fellow! Oh, _he_!" Elinor's face grew very red all over, from the
+chin, which almost touched John's arm, to the forehead, bent back a
+little over those eyes suffused with light which were intent upon all
+the changes of John's face. This one was, like the landscape, swept by
+all the vicissitudes of sun and shade. It was radiant now with the
+unexpected splendour of the sudden gleam.
+
+"Oh, John, John, I have so much to say to you! He will object to
+nothing. He knows very well you are like my brother--almost more than my
+brother--for you could help it, John. You almost chose me for your
+friend, which a brother would not. He says, 'Get him to be our friend
+and all will be well!'"
+
+_He_ had not said this, but Elinor had said it to him, and he had
+assented, which was almost the same--in the way of reckoning of a girl,
+at least.
+
+"He is very kind, I am sure," said John, gulping down something which
+had almost made him throw off Elinor's arm, and fling away from her in
+indignation. Her brother----!! But there was no use making any row, he
+said to himself. If anything were to be done for her he must put up with
+all that. There had suddenly come upon John, he knew not how, as he
+scanned her anxious face, a conviction that the man was a scamp, from
+whom at all hazards she should be free.
+
+Said Elinor, unsuspecting, "That is just what he is, John! I knew you
+would divine his character at once. You can't think how kind he is--kind
+to everybody. He never judges anyone, or throws a stone, or makes an
+insinuation." ("Probably because he knows he cannot bear investigation
+himself," John said, in his heart.) "That was the thing that took my
+heart first. Everybody is so censorious--always something to say against
+their neighbours; he, never a word."
+
+"That's a very good quality," said John, reluctantly, "if it doesn't
+mean confounding good with bad, and thinking nothing matters."
+
+Elinor gave him a grieved, reproachful look, and loosened the clasping
+of her hands. "It is not like you to imagine that, John!"
+
+"Well, what is a man to say? Don't you see, if you do nothing but blow
+his trumpet, the only thing left for me to do is to insinuate something
+against him? I don't know the man from Adam. He may be an angel, for
+anything I can say."
+
+"No; I do not pretend he is that," said Elinor, with impartiality. "He
+has his faults, like others, but they are _nice_ faults. He doesn't know
+how to take care of his money (but he hasn't got very much, which makes
+it the less matter), and he is sometimes taken in about his friends.
+Anybody almost that appeals to his kindness is treated like a friend,
+which makes precise people think----but, of course, I don't share that
+opinion in the very least."
+
+("A very wasteful beggar, with a disreputable set," was John's practical
+comment within himself upon this speech.)
+
+"And he doesn't know how to curry favour with people who can help him
+on; so that though he has been for years promised something, it never
+turns up. Oh, I know his faults very well indeed," said Elinor; "but a
+woman can do so much to make up for faults like that. We're naturally
+saving, you know, and we always keep those unnecessary friends that were
+made before our time at a distance; and it's part of our nature to coax
+a patron--that is what Mariamne says."
+
+"Mariamne?" said John.
+
+"His sister, who first introduced him to me; and I am very fond of
+her, so you need not say anything against her, John. I know she
+is--fashionable, but that's no harm."
+
+"Mariamne," he repeated; "it is a very uncommon name. You don't mean
+Lady Mariamne Prestwich, do you? and not--not----Elinor! not Phil
+Compton, for goodness' sake? Don't tell me he's the man?"
+
+Elinor's hands dropped from his arm. She drew herself up until she
+seemed to tower over him. "And why should I say it is not Mr. Compton,"
+she asked, with a scarlet flush of anger, so different from that rosy
+red of love and happiness, covering her face.
+
+"Phil Compton! the _dis_-Honourable Phil! Why, Elinor! you cannot mean
+it! you must not mean it!" he cried.
+
+Elinor said not a word. She turned from him with a look of pathetic
+reproach but with the air of a queen, and walked into the house, he
+following in a ferment of wrath and trouble, yet humbled and miserable
+more than words could say. Oh, the flowery, peaceful house! jasmine and
+rose overleaping each other upon the porch, honeysuckle scenting the
+air, all manner of feminine contrivances to continue the greenness and
+the sweetness into the little bright hall, into the open drawing-room,
+where flowers stood on every table amid the hundred pretty trifles of a
+woman's house. There was no one in this room where she led him, and then
+turned round confronting him, taller than he had ever seen her before,
+pale, with her nostrils dilating and her lips trembling. "I never
+thought it possible that you of all people in the world, you, John--my
+stand-by since ever I was a baby--my---- Oh! what a horrid thing it is
+to be a woman," cried Elinor, stamping her foot, "to be ready to cry for
+everything!--you, John! that I always put my trust in--that you should
+turn against me--and at the very first word!"
+
+"Elinor," he said, "my dear girl! not against you, not against you, for
+all the world!"
+
+"And what is _me_?" she said, with that sudden turning of the tables and
+high scorn of her previous argument which is common with women; "do I
+care what you do to _me_? Oh, nothing, nothing! I am of no account, you
+can trample me down under your feet if you like. But what I will not
+bear," she said, clenching her hands, "is injustice to him: that I will
+not bear, neither from you, Cousin John, who are only my distant cousin,
+after all, and have no right to thrust your advice upon me--or from any
+one in the world."
+
+"What you say is quite true, Elinor, I am only a distant cousin--after
+all: but----"
+
+"Oh, no, no," she cried, flying to him, seizing once more his arm with
+her clinging hands, "I did not mean that--you know I did not mean that,
+my more than brother, my good, good John, whom I have trusted all my
+life!"
+
+And then the poor girl broke out into passionate weeping with her head
+upon his shoulder, as she might have leant upon the handy trunk of a
+tree, or on the nearest door or window, as John Tatham said in his
+heart. He soothed her as best he could, and put her in a chair and stood
+with his hand upon the back of it, looking down upon her as the fit of
+crying wore itself out. Poor little girl! he had seen her cry often
+enough before. A girl cries for anything, for a thorn in her finger,
+for a twist of her foot. He had seen her cry and laugh, and dash the
+tears out of her eyes on such occasions, oh! often and often: there was
+that time when he rushed out of the bushes unexpectedly and frightened
+her pony, and she fell among the grass and vowed, sobbing and laughing,
+it was her fault! and once when she was a little tot, not old enough for
+boy's play, when she fell upon her little nose and cut it and disfigured
+herself, and held up that wounded little knob of a feature to have it
+kissed and made well. Oh, why did he think of that now! the little thing
+all trust and simple confidence! There was that time too when she jumped
+up to get a gun and shoot the tramps who had hurt somebody, if John
+would but give her his hand! These things came rushing into his mind as
+he stood watching Elinor cry, with his hand upon the back of her chair.
+
+She wanted John's hand now when she was going forth to far greater
+dangers. Oh, poor little Nelly! poor little thing! but he could not put
+her on his shoulder and carry her out to face the foe now.
+
+She jumped up suddenly while he was thinking, with the tears still wet
+upon her cheeks, but the paroxysm mastered, and the light of her eyes
+coming out doubly bright like the sun from the clouds. "We poor women,"
+she said with a laugh, "are so badly off, we are so handicapped, as you
+call it! We can't help crying like fools! We can't help caring for what
+other people think, trying to conciliate and bring them round to approve
+us--when we ought to stand by our own conscience and judgment, and sense
+of what is right, like independent beings."
+
+"If that means taking your own way, Elinor, whatever any one may say to
+you, I think women do it at least as much as men."
+
+"No, it does not mean taking our own way," she cried, "and if you do not
+understand any better than that, why should I---- But you do understand
+better, John," she said, her countenance again softening: "you know I
+want, above everything in the world, that you should approve of me and
+see that I am right. That is what I want! I will do what I think right;
+but, oh, if I could only have you with me in doing it, and know that you
+saw with me that it was the best, the only thing to do! Happiness lies
+in that, not in having one's own way."
+
+"My dear Elinor," he said, "isn't that asking a great deal? To prevent
+you from doing what you think right is in nobody's power. You are of
+age, and I am sure my aunt will force nothing; but how can we change our
+opinions, our convictions, our entire points of view? There is nobody in
+the world I would do so much for as you, Elinor: but I cannot do that,
+even for you."
+
+The hot tears were dried from her cheeks, the passion was over. She
+looked at him, her efforts to gain him at an end, on the equal footing
+of an independent individual agreeing to differ, and as strong in her
+own view as he could be.
+
+"There is one thing you can do for me," she said. "Mamma knows nothing
+about--fashionable gossip. She is not acquainted with the wicked things
+that are said. If she disapproves it is only because---- Oh, I suppose
+because one's mother always disapproves a thing that is done without
+her, that she has no hand in, what she calls pledging one's self to a
+stranger, and not knowing his antecedents, his circumstances, and so
+forth! But she hasn't any definite ground for it as you--think you have,
+judging in the uncharitable way of the world--not remembering that if we
+love one another the more there is against him the more need he has of
+me! But all I have to ask of you, John, is not to prejudice my mother. I
+know you can do it if you please--a hint would be enough, an uncertain
+word, even hesitating when you answer a question--that would be quite
+enough! John, if you put things into her head----"
+
+"You ask most extraordinary things of me," said John, turning to bay.
+"To tell her lies about a man whom everybody knows--to pretend I think
+one thing when I think quite another. Not to say that my duty is to
+inform her exactly what things are said, so that she may judge for
+herself, not let her go forth in ignorance--that is my plain duty,
+Elinor."
+
+"But you won't do it; oh, you won't do it!" she said. "Oh, John, for
+the sake of all the time that you have been so good to Nelly--your own
+little Nelly, nobody else's! Remember that I and everybody who loves
+him know these stories to be lies--and don't, don't put things into my
+mother's head! Let her judge for herself--don't, don't prejudice her,
+John. It can be no one's duty to repeat malicious stories when there is
+no possibility of proving or disproving them. Don't make her think----
+Oh, mamma! we couldn't think where you had gone to. Yes, here is John."
+
+"So I perceive," said Mrs. Dennistoun. It was getting towards evening,
+and the room was not very light. She could not distinguish their looks
+or the agitation that scarcely could have been hidden but for the dusk.
+"You seem to have been having a very animated conversation. I heard your
+voices all along the garden walk. Let me have the benefit of it, if
+there is anything to tell."
+
+"You know well enough, mamma, what we must have been talking about,"
+said Elinor, turning half angrily away.
+
+"To be sure," said the mother, "I ought to have known. There is nothing
+so interesting as that sort of thing. I thought, however, you would
+probably have put it off a little, Elinor."
+
+"Put it off a little--when it is the thing that concerns us more than
+anything else in the world!"
+
+"That is true," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a sigh. "Did you walk all the
+way, John? I meant to have sent the pony-cart for you, but the man was
+too late. It is a nice evening though, and coming out of town it is a
+good thing for you to have a good walk."
+
+"Yes, I like it more than anything," said John, "but the evening is not
+so very fine. The wind is high, and I shouldn't wonder if we had rain."
+
+"The wind is always high here," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "We don't have our
+view for nothing; but the sky is quite clear in the west, and all the
+clouds blowing away. I don't think we shall have more than a shower."
+
+Elinor stood listening to this talk with restrained impatience, as if
+waiting for the moment when they should come to something worth talking
+about. Then she gave herself a sort of shake--half weary, half
+indignant--and left the room. There was a moment's silence, until her
+quick step was heard going to the other end of the house and up-stairs,
+and the shutting of a door.
+
+"Oh, John, I am very uneasy, very uneasy," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "I
+scarcely thought she would have begun to you about it at once; but then
+I am doing the very same. We can't think of anything else. I am not
+going to worry you before dinner, for you must be tired with your walk,
+and want to refresh yourself before we enter upon that weary, weary
+business. But my heart misgives me dreadfully about it all. If I only
+had gone with her! It was not for want of an invitation, but just my
+laziness. I could not be troubled to leave my own house."
+
+"I don't see what difference it would have made had you been with her,
+aunt."
+
+"Oh, I should have seen the man: and been able to judge what he was and
+his motive, John."
+
+"Elinor is not rich. He could scarcely have had an interested motive."
+
+"There is some comfort in that. I have said that to myself again and
+again. He could not have an interested motive. But, oh! I am uneasy!
+There is the dressing-bell. I will not keep you any longer, John; but
+in the evening, or to-morrow, when we can get a quiet moment----"
+
+The dusk, was now pervading all the house--that summer dusk which
+there is a natural prejudice everywhere against cutting short by
+lights. He could not see her face, nor she his, as they went out of the
+drawing-room together and along the long passage, which led by several
+arched doorways to the stairs. John had a room on the ground floor which
+was kept for gentlemen visitors, and in which the candles were twinkling
+on the dressing-table. He was more than ever thankful as he caught a
+glimpse of himself in the vague reflected world of the mirror, with its
+lights standing up reflected too, like inquisitors spying upon him, that
+there had not been light enough to show how he was looking: for though
+he was both a lawyer and a man of the world, John Tatham had not been
+able to keep the trouble which his interview with Elinor had caused him
+out of his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The drawing-room of the cottage was large and low, and had that _faux
+air_ of being old-fashioned which is dear to the hearts of superior
+people generally. Mrs. Dennistoun and her daughter scarcely belonged to
+that class, yet they were, as ladies of leisure with a little taste for
+the arts are bound to be, touched by all the fancies of their time,
+which was just beginning to adore Queen Anne. There was still, however,
+a mixture of luxury with the square settees and spindle-legged cabinets
+which were "the fashion:" and partly because that was also "the fashion,"
+and partly because on Windyhill even a July evening was sometimes a
+little chill, or looked so by reason of the great darkness of the
+silent, little-inhabited country outside--there was a log burning on the
+fire-dogs (the newest thing in furnishing in those days though now so
+common) on the hearth. The log burned as little as possible, being,
+perhaps, not quite so thoroughly dry and serviceable as it would have
+been in its proper period, and made a faint hissing sound in the silence
+as it burned, and diffused its pungent odour through the house. The bow
+window was open behind its white curtains, and it was there that the
+little party gathered out of reach of the unnecessary heat and the
+smoke. There was a low sofa on either side of this recess, and in the
+centre the French window opened into the garden, where all the scents
+were balmy in the stillness which had fallen upon the night.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun was tall and slim, a woman with a presence, and sat with
+a sort of dignity on her side of the window, with a little table beside
+her covered with her little requirements, the properties, so to speak,
+without which she was never known to be--a book for moments when there
+was nothing else to interest her, a case for work should there arise
+any necessity for putting in a stitch in time, a bottle of salts should
+she or any one else become suddenly faint, a paper cutter in cases of
+emergency, and finally, for mere ornament, two roses, a red and a white,
+in one of those tall old-fashioned glasses which are so pretty for
+flowers. I do wrong to dismiss the roses with such vulgar qualifications
+as white and red--the one was a _Souvenir de Malmaison_, the other a
+_General_ ---- something or other. If you spoke to Mrs. Dennistoun
+about her flowers she said, "Oh, the Malmaison," or "Oh, the General
+So-and-so." Rose was only the family name, but happily, as we all know,
+under the other appellation they smelt just as sweet. Mrs. Dennistoun
+kept up all this little state because she had been used to do so;
+because it was part of a lady's accoutrements, so to speak. She had also
+a cushion, which was necessary, if not for comfort, yet for her sense of
+being fully equipped, placed behind her back when she sat down. But with
+all this she was not a formal or prim person. She was a woman who had
+not produced a great deal of effect in life; one of those who are not
+accustomed to have their advice taken, or to find that their opinion has
+much weight upon others. Perhaps it was because Elinor resembled her
+father that this peculiarity which had affected all Mrs. Dennistoun's
+married life should have continued into a sphere where she ought to have
+been paramount. But she was with her daughter as she had been with her
+husband, a person of an ineffective character, taking refuge from the
+sensation of being unable to influence those about her whose wills were
+stronger than her own, by relinquishing authority, and in her most
+decided moments offering an opinion only, no more. This was not because
+she was really undecided, for on the contrary she knew her own mind well
+enough; but it had become a matter of habit with her to insist upon no
+opinion, knowing, as she did, how little chance she had of imposing her
+opinion upon the stronger wills about her. She had two other children
+older than Elinor: one, the eldest of all, married in India, a woman
+with many children of her own, practically altogether severed from
+the maternal nest; the other an adventurous son, who was generally
+understood to be at the ends of the earth, but seldom or never had any
+more definite address. This lady had naturally gone through many pangs
+and anxieties on behalf of these children, who had dropped away from her
+side into the unknown; but it belonged to her character to have said
+very little about this, so that she was generally supposed to take
+things very easily, and other mothers were apt to admire the composure
+of Mrs. Dennistoun, whose son might be being murdered by savages at any
+moment, for anything she knew--or minded, apparently. "Now it would have
+driven _me_ out of my senses!" the other ladies said. Mrs. Dennistoun
+perhaps did not feel the back so well fitted to the burden as
+appeared--but she kept her own sentiments on this subject entirely to
+herself.
+
+(I may say too--but this, the young reader may skip without
+disadvantage--by way of explanation of a peculiarity which has lately
+been much remarked as characteristic of those records of human history
+contemptuously called fiction, _i.e._, the unimportance, or ill-report,
+or unjust disapproval of the mother in records of this description--that
+it is almost impossible to maintain her due rank and character in a
+piece of history, which has to be kept within certain limits--and where
+her daughter the heroine must have the first place. To lessen _her_
+pre-eminence by dwelling at length upon the mother, unless that mother
+is a fool, or a termagant, or something thoroughly contrasting with the
+beauty and virtues of the daughter--would in most cases be a mistake in
+art. For one thing the necessary incidents are wanting, for I strongly
+object, and so I think do most people, to mothers who fall in love, or
+think of marriage, or any such vanity in their own person, and unless
+she is to interfere mischievously with the young lady's prospects, or
+take more or less the part of the villain, how is she to be permitted
+any importance at all? For there cannot be two suns in one sphere, or
+two centres to one world. Thus the mother has to be sacrificed to the
+daughter: which is a parable; or else it is the other way, which is
+against all the principles and prepossessions of life.)
+
+Elinor did not sit up like her mother. She had flung herself upon the
+opposite sofa, with her arms flung behind her head, supporting it with
+her fingers half buried in the twists of her hair. She was not tall
+like Mrs. Dennistoun, and there was far more vivid colour than had ever
+been the mother's in her brown eyes and bright complexion, which was
+milk-white and rose-red after an old-fashioned rule of colour, too crude
+perhaps for modern artistic taste. Sometimes these delightful tints go
+with a placid soul which never varies, but in Elinor's case there was a
+demon in the hazel of the eyes, not dark enough for placidity, all fire
+at the best of times, and ready in a moment to burst into flame. She
+it was who had to be in the forefront of the interest, and not her
+mother, though for metaphysical, or what I suppose should now be
+called psychological interests, the elder lady was probably the most
+interesting of the two. Elinor beat her foot upon the carpet, out of
+sheer impatience, while John lingered alone in the dining-room. What did
+he stay there for? When there are several men together, and they drink
+wine, the thing is comprehensible; but one man alone who takes his
+claret with his dinner, and cares for nothing more, why should he stay
+behind when there was so much to say to him, and not one minute too
+much time till Monday morning, should the house be given up to talk not
+only by day but by night? But it was no use beating one's foot, for John
+did not come.
+
+"You spoke to your cousin, Elinor, before dinner?" her mother said.
+
+"Oh, yes, I spoke to him before dinner. What did he come here for but
+that? I sent for him on purpose, you know, mamma, to hear what he would
+say."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+This most natural question produced a small convulsion once more on
+Elinor's side. She loosed the hands that had been supporting her head
+and flung them out in front of her. "Oh, mamma, how can you be so
+exasperating! What did he say? What was he likely to say? If the beggar
+maid that married King Cophetua had a family it would have been exactly
+the same thing--though in that case surely the advantage was all on the
+gentleman's side."
+
+"We know none of the particulars in that case," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+calmly. "I have always thought it quite possible that the beggar maid
+was a princess of an old dynasty and King Cophetua a _parvenu_. But in
+your case, Elinor----"
+
+"You know just as little," said the girl, impetuously.
+
+"That is what I say. I don't know the man who has possessed himself of
+my child's fancy and heart. I want to know more about him. I want----"
+
+"For goodness' sake, whatever you want, don't be sentimental, mamma!"
+
+"Was I sentimental? I didn't mean it. He has got your heart, my dear,
+whatever words may be used."
+
+"Yes--and for ever!" said the girl, turning round upon herself. "I know
+you think I don't know my own mind; but there will never be any change
+in me. Oh, what does John mean, sitting all by himself in that stuffy
+room? He has had time to smoke a hundred cigarettes!"
+
+"Elinor, you must not forget it is rather hard upon John to be brought
+down to settle your difficulties for you. What do you want with him?
+Only that he should advise you to do what you have settled upon doing.
+If he took the other side, how much attention would you give him? You
+must be reasonable, my dear."
+
+"I would give him every attention," said Elinor, "if he said what was
+reasonable. You don't think mere blind opposition is reasonable, I hope,
+mamma. To say Don't, merely, without saying why, what reason is there in
+that?"
+
+"My dear, when you argue I am lost. I am not clever at making out my
+ground. Mine is not mere blind opposition, or indeed opposition at all.
+You have been always trained to use your own faculties, and I have never
+made any stand against you."
+
+"Why not? why not?" said the girl, springing to her feet. "That is just
+the dreadful, dreadful part of it! Why don't you say straight out what
+I am to do and keep to it, and not tell me I must make use of my own
+faculties? When I do, you put on a face and object. Either don't object,
+or tell me point-blank what I am to do."
+
+"Do you think for one moment if I did, you would obey me, Elinor?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know what I might do in that case, for it will never
+happen. You will never take that responsibility. For my part, if you
+locked me up in my room and kept me on bread and water I should think
+_that_ reasonable; but not this kind of letting I dare not wait upon I
+would, saying I am to exercise my own faculties, and then hesitating and
+finding fault."
+
+"I daresay, my dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with great tolerance, "that
+this may be provoking to your impatient mind: but you must put yourself
+in my place a little, as I try to put myself in yours. I have never seen
+Mr. Compton. It is probable, or at least quite possible, that if I knew
+him I might look upon him with your eyes----"
+
+"Probable! Possible! What words to use! when all my happiness, all my
+life, everything I care for is in it: and my own mother thinks it just
+possible that she might be able to tolerate the man that--the man
+who----"
+
+She flung herself down on her seat again, panting and excited. "Did you
+wear out Adelaide like that," she cried, "before she married, papa and
+you----"
+
+"Adelaide was very different, Elinor. She married _salon les regles_ a
+man whom we all knew. There was no trouble about it. Your father was
+the one who was impatient then. He thought it too well arranged, too
+commonplace and satisfactory. You may believe he did not object to that
+in words, but he laughed at them and it worried him. It has done very
+well on the whole," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a faint sigh.
+
+"You say that--and then you sigh. There is always a little reserve. You
+are never wholly satisfied."
+
+"One seldom is in this world," said Mrs. Dennistoun, this time with a
+soft laugh. "This world is not very satisfactory. One makes the best one
+can of it."
+
+"And that is just what I hate to hear," said Elinor, "what I have always
+heard. Oh, yes, when you don't say it you mean it, mamma. One can read
+it in the turn of your head. You put up with things. You think perhaps
+they might have been worse. In every way that's your philosophy. And
+it's killing, killing to all life! I would rather far you said out,
+'Adelaide's husband is a prig and I hate him.'"
+
+"There is only one drawback, that it would not be true. I don't in the
+least hate him. I am glad I was not called upon to marry him myself, I
+don't think I should have liked it. But he makes Adelaide a very good
+husband, and she is quite happy with him--as far as I know."
+
+"The same thing again--never more. I wonder, I wonder after I have been
+married a dozen years what you will say of me?"
+
+"I wonder, too: if we could but know that it would solve the question,"
+the mother said. Elinor looked at her with a provoked and impatient air,
+which softened off after a moment--partly because she heard the door of
+the dining-room open--into a smile.
+
+"I try you in every way," she said, half laughing. "I do everything to
+beguile you into a pleasanter speech. I thought you must at least have
+said then that you hoped you would have nothing to say but happiness.
+No! you are not to be caught, however one tries, mamma."
+
+John came in at this moment, not without a whiff about him of the
+cigarette over which he had lingered so. It relieved him to see the
+two ladies seated opposite each other in the bow window, and to hear
+something like a laugh in the air. Perhaps they were discussing other
+things, and not this momentous marriage question, in which certainly no
+laughter was.
+
+"You have your usual fire," he said, "but the wind has quite gone down,
+and I am sure it is not wanted to-night."
+
+"It looks cheerful always, John."
+
+"Which is the reason, I suppose, why you carefully place yourself out of
+sight of it--one of the prejudices of English life."
+
+And then he came forward into the recess of the window, which was partly
+separated from the room by a table with flowers on it, and a great bush
+in a pot, of delicate maiden-hair fern. It was perhaps significant,
+though he did not mean it for any demonstration of partisanship, that
+he sat down on Elinor's side. Both the ladies felt it so instinctively,
+although, on the contrary, had the truth been known, all John's real
+agreement was with the mother; but in such a conjuncture it is not truth
+but personal sympathy that carries the day. "You are almost in the dark
+here," he said.
+
+"Neither of us is doing anything. One is lazy on a summer night."
+
+"There is a great deal more in it than that," said Elinor, in a voice
+which faltered a little. "You talk about summer nights, and the weather,
+and all manner of indifferent things, but you know all the time there
+is but one real subject to talk of, and that we are all thinking of
+that."
+
+"That is my line, aunt," said John. "Elinor is right. We might sit
+and make conversation, but of course this is the only subject we are
+thinking of. It's very kind of you to take me into the consultation. Of
+course I am in a kind of way the nearest in relation, and the only man
+in the family--except my father--and I know a little about law, and all
+that. Now let me hear formally, as if I knew nothing about it (and, in
+fact, I know very little), what the question is. Elinor has met someone
+who--who has proposed to her--not to put too fine a point upon it," said
+John, with a smile that was somewhat ghastly--"and she has accepted him.
+Congratulations are understood, but here there arises a hitch."
+
+"There arises no hitch. Mamma is dissatisfied (which mamma generally is)
+chiefly because she does not know Mr. Compton; and some wretched old
+woman, who doesn't know him either, has written to her--to her and also
+to me--telling us a pack of lies," said Elinor, indignantly, "to which I
+do not give the least credence for a moment--not for a moment!"
+
+"That's all very well for you," said John, "it's quite simple; but for
+us, Elinor--that is, for your mother and me, as you are good enough to
+allow me to have a say in the matter--it's not so simple. We feel, you
+know, that, like Caesar's wife, our Elinor's--husband"--he could not help
+making a grimace as he said that word, but no one saw or suspected
+it--"should be above suspicion."
+
+"That is exactly what I feel, John."
+
+"Well, we must do something about it, don't you see? Probably it will be
+as easy as possible for him to clear himself." (The dis-Honourable Phil!
+Good heavens! to think it was a man branded with such a name that was to
+marry Elinor! For a moment he was silenced by the thought, as if some
+one had given him a blow.)
+
+"To clear himself!" said Elinor. "And do you think I will permit him to
+be asked to clear himself? Do you think I will allow him to believe for
+a moment that _I_ believed anything against him? Do you think I will
+take the word of a spiteful old woman?"
+
+"Old women are not always spiteful, and they are sometimes right."
+John put out his hand to prevent Mrs. Dennistoun from speaking, which,
+indeed, she had no intention of doing. "I don't mean so, of course, in
+Mr. Compton's case--and I don't know what has been said."
+
+"Things that are very uncomfortable--very inconsistent with a happy life
+and a comfortable establishment," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"Oh, if you could only hear yourself, mamma! You are not generally a
+Philistine, I must say that for you; but if you only heard the tone
+in which you said 'comfortable establishment!' the most conventional
+match-making in existence could not have done it better; and as for
+what has been said, there has nothing been said but what is said about
+everybody--what, probably, would be said of you yourself, John, for you
+play whist sometimes, I hear, and often billiards, at the club."
+
+A half-audible "God forbid!" had come from John's lips when she said,
+"What would probably be said of yourself"--audible that is to Elinor,
+not to the mother. She sprang up as this murmur came to her ear: "Oh, if
+you are going to prejudge the case, there is nothing for me to say!"
+
+"I should be very sorry to prejudge the case, or to judge it all," said
+John. "I am too closely interested to be judicial. Let somebody who
+knows nothing about it be your judge. Let the accusations be submitted--to
+your Rector, say; he's a sensible man enough, and knows the world. He
+won't be scared by a rubber at the club, or that sort of thing. Let him
+inquire, and then your mind will be at rest."
+
+"There is only one difficulty, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "Mr. Hudson
+would be the best man in the world, only for one thing--that it is from
+his sister and his wife that the warning came."
+
+"Oh!" said John. This fact seemed to take him aback in the most
+ludicrous way. He sat and gazed at them, and had not another word to
+say. Perhaps the fact that he himself who suggested the inquiry was
+still better informed of the true state of the case, and of the truth of
+the accusation, than were those to whom he might have submitted it, gave
+him a sense of the hopelessness and also absurdity of the attempt more
+than anything else could have done.
+
+"And that proves, if there was nothing else," said Elinor, "how false
+it is: for how could Mrs. Hudson and Mary Dale know? They are not
+fashionable people, they are not in society. How could they or any one
+like them know anything of Phil"--she stopped quickly, drew herself up,
+and added--"of Mr. Compton, I mean?"
+
+"They might not know, but they might state their authority," Mrs.
+Dennistoun said; "and if the Rector cannot be used to help us, surely,
+John, you are a man of the world, you are not like a woman, unacquainted
+with evidence. Why should not you do it, though you are, as you kindly
+say, an interested party?"
+
+"He shall not do it. I forbid him to do it. If he takes in hand anything
+of the kind he must say good-by to me."
+
+"You hear?" said John; "but I could not do it in any case, my dear
+Elinor. I am too near. I never could see this thing all round. Why not
+your lawyer, old Lynch, a decent old fellow----"
+
+"I will tell him the same," cried Elinor; "I will never speak to him
+again."
+
+"My dear," said her mother, "you will give everybody the idea that you
+don't want to know the truth."
+
+"I know the truth already," said Elinor, rising with great dignity. "Do
+you think that any slander would for a moment shake my faith in you--or
+you? You don't deserve it, John, for you turn against me--you that I
+thought were going to take my part; but do you think if all the people
+in London set up one story that I would believe it against you? And how
+should I against _him_?" she added, with an emphasis upon the word, as
+expressing something immeasurably more to be loved and trusted than
+either mother or cousin, by which, after having raised John up to a sort
+of heaven of gratified affection, she let him down again to the ground
+like a stone. Oh, yes! trusted in with perfect faith, nothing believed
+against him, whom she had known all her life--but yet not to be mentioned
+in the same breath with the ineffable trust she reposed in the man she
+loved--whom she did not know at all. The first made John's countenance
+beam with emotion and pleasure, the second brought a cold shade over his
+face. For a moment he could scarcely speak.
+
+"She bribes us," he said at last, forcing a smile. "She flatters us, but
+only to let us drop again, Mrs. Dennistoun; it is as good as saying,
+'What are we to _him_?'"
+
+"They all do so," said the elder lady, calmly; "I am used to it."
+
+"But, perhaps, I am not quite--used to it," said John, with something in
+his voice which made them both look at him--Elinor only for a moment,
+carelessly, before she swept away--Mrs. Dennistoun with a more warmly
+awakened sensation, as if she had made some discovery. "Ah!" she said,
+with a tone of pain. But Elinor did not wait for any further disclosures.
+She waved her hand, and went off with her head high, carrying, as she
+felt, the honours of war. They might plot, indeed, behind her back, and
+try to invent some tribunal before which her future husband might be
+arraigned; but John, at least, would say nothing to make things worse.
+John would be true to her--he would not injure Phil Compton. Elinor,
+perhaps, guessed a little of what John was thinking, and felt, though
+she could scarcely have told how, that it would be a point of honour
+with him not to betray her love.
+
+He sat with Mrs. Dennistoun in partial silence for some time after
+this. He felt as if he had been partially discovered--partially, and yet
+more would be discovered than there was to discover; for if either of
+them believed that he was in love with Elinor, they were mistaken, he
+said to himself. He had been annoyed by her engagement, but he had never
+come to the point of asking her that question in his own person. No, nor
+would not, he said to himself--certainly would not--not even to save her
+from the clutches of this gambler and adventurer. No; they might think
+what they liked, but this was the case. He never should have done
+it--never would have exposed himself to refusal--never besought this
+high-tempered girl to have the control of his life. Poor Nelly all the
+same! poor little thing! To think she had so little judgment as to
+ignore what might have been a great deal better, and to pin her faith to
+the dis-Honourable Phil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+In the morning John accompanied Elinor to church. Mrs. Dennistoun had
+found an excuse for not going, which I am sorry to say was a way she
+had. She expressed (and felt) much sorrow for it herself, saying, which
+was quite true, that not to go was a great distress to her, and put the
+household out, and was a custom she did not approve of. But somehow
+it had grown upon her. She regretted this, but did it, saying that
+everybody was illogical, and that when Elinor had some one to go with
+she thought herself justified at her age in this little indulgence.
+Neither Elinor nor John objected to the arrangement. There are things
+that can be said in a walk while both parties are in motion, and when it
+is not necessary to face each other and to be subjected each to the
+other's examination of feature and expression. It is easier in this way
+to say many things, to ask questions which might be embarrassing, to
+receive the fire of an examination which it might be otherwise difficult
+to meet. Thus the two had not walked above half the way to church,
+which was on the other edge of the combe, and stood, a lovely old
+place--but not the trim and restored and well-decorated edifice it is
+nowadays--tinkling its little bells into the sweet moorland air, amid
+such a hum of innumerable bees as seemed to make the very sunshine a
+vehicle for sound--before John began to perceive that he was being
+ingeniously driven to revelations which he had never intended, by a
+process for which he was not at all prepared. She who had been so
+indignant last night and determined not to allow a word to be said
+against the immaculate honour of the man she loved, was now--was it
+possible?--straining all her faculties to obtain from him, whom she
+would not permit to be Phil Compton's judge, such unguarded admissions
+as would enlighten her as to what Phil Compton was accused of. It was
+some time before John perceived her aim; he did not even grasp the idea
+at first that this girl whose whole heart was set upon marrying Phil
+Compton, and defying for his sake every prophecy of evil and all the
+teachings of prudence, did not indeed at all know what it was which Phil
+had been supposed to have done. Had she been a girl in society she could
+scarcely have avoided some glimmerings of knowledge. She would have
+heard an unguarded word here and there, a broken phrase, an expression
+of scorn or dislike, she might even have heard that most unforgettable
+of nicknames, the dis-Honourable Phil. But Elinor, who was not in
+society, heard none of these things. She had been warned in the first
+fervour of her betrothal that he was not a man she ought to marry, but
+why? nobody had told her; how was she to know?
+
+"You don't like Lady Mariamne, John?"
+
+"It matters very little whether I like her or not: we don't meet once in
+a year."
+
+"It will matter if you are to be in a kind of way connected. What has
+she ever done that you shouldn't like her? She is very nice at home;
+she has three nice little children. It's quite pretty to see her with
+them."
+
+"Ah, I daresay; it's pretty to see a tiger with her cubs, I don't
+doubt."
+
+"What do you mean, John? What has she ever done?"
+
+"I cannot tell you, Elinor; nothing perhaps. She does not take my fancy:
+that's all."
+
+"That's not all; you could never be so unjust and so absurd. How
+dreadful you good people are! Pretending to mean kindness," she cried,
+"you put the mark of your dislike upon people, and then you won't say
+why. What have _they_ done?"
+
+It was this "they" that put John upon his guard. Hitherto she had only
+been asking about the sister, who did not matter so very much. If a man
+was to be judged by his sister! but "they" gave him a new light.
+
+"Can't you understand, Elinor," he said, "that without doing anything
+that can be built upon, a woman may set herself in a position of enmity
+to the world, her hand against every one, and every one's hand against
+her?"
+
+"I know that well enough--generally because she does not comply with
+every conventional rule, but does and thinks what commends itself to
+her; I do that myself--so far as I can with mamma behind me."
+
+"You! the question has nothing to do with you."
+
+"Why not with me as much as with another of my family?" said Elinor,
+throwing back her head.
+
+He turned round upon her with something like a snort of indignation: she
+to be compared--but Elinor met his eyes with scornful composure and
+defiance, and John was obliged to calm himself. "There's no analogy,"
+he said; "Lady Mariamne is an old campaigner. She's up to everything.
+Besides, a sister-in-law--if it comes to that--is not a very near
+relation. No one will judge you by her." He would not be led into any
+discussion of the other, whose name, alas! Elinor intended to bear.
+
+"If it comes to that. Perhaps you think," said Elinor, with a smile of
+fine scorn, "that you will prevent it ever coming to that?"
+
+"Oh, no," he said, "I'm very humble; I don't think much of my own powers
+in that way: nothing that I can do will affect it, if Providence doesn't
+take it in hand."
+
+"You really think it's a big enough thing to invoke Providence about?"
+
+"If Providence looks after the sparrows as we are told," said John, "it
+certainly may be expected to step in to save a nice girl like you,
+Nelly, from--from connections you'll soon get to hate--and--and a shady
+man!"
+
+She turned upon him with sparkling eyes in a sudden blaze of indignation.
+"How dare you! how dare you!"
+
+"I dare a great deal more than that to save you. You must hear me,
+Nelly: they're all badly spoken of, not one, but all. They are a shady
+lot--excuse a man's way of talking. I don't know what other words to
+use--partly from misfortune, but more from---- Nelly, Nelly, how could
+you, a high-minded, well-brought-up girl like you, tolerate that?"
+
+She turned upon him again, breathing hard with restrained rage and
+desperation; evidently she was at a loss for words to convey her
+indignant wrath: and at last in sheer inability to express the vehemence
+of her feelings she fastened on one word and repeated "well-brought-up!"
+in accents of scorn.
+
+"Yes," said John, "my aunt and you may not always understand each other,
+but she's proved her case to every fair mind by yourself, Elinor. A girl
+could not be better brought up than you've been: and you could not put
+up with it, not unless you changed your nature as well as your name."
+
+"With what?" she said, "with what?" They had gone up and down the
+sloping sides of the combe, through the rustling copse, sometimes where
+there was a path, sometimes where there was none, treading over the
+big bushes of ling and the bell-heather, all bursting into bloom, past
+groups of primeval firs and seedling beeches, self-sown, over little
+hillocks and hollows formed of rocks or big old roots of trees covered
+with the close glittering green foliage and dark blue clusters of the
+dewberry, with the hum of bees filling the air, the twittering of the
+birds, the sound of the church bells--nothing more like the heart of
+summer, more peaceful, genial, happy than that brooding calm of nature
+amid all the harmonious sounds, could be.
+
+But as Elinor put this impatient question, her countenance all ablaze
+with anger and vehemence and resolution, yet with a gleam of anxiety in
+the puckers of her forehead and the eyes which shone from beneath them,
+they stepped out upon the road by which other groups were passing, all
+bound towards the centre of the church and its tinkling bells. Elinor
+stopped, and drew a longer panting breath, and gave him a look of
+fierce reproach, as if this too were his fault: and then she smoothed
+her ruffled plumes, after the manner of women, and replied to the
+Sunday-morning salutations, with the smiles and nods of use and wont.
+She knew everybody, both the rich and the poor, or rather I should say
+the well-off and the less-well-off, for there were neither rich nor
+poor, formally speaking, on Windyhill. John did not find it so easy to
+put his emotions in his pocket. He cast an admiring glance upon her as
+with heightened colour and a little panting of the breath, but no other
+sign of disturbance, she made her inquiries after this one's mother and
+that one's child. It was wonderful to him to see how the storm was got
+under in a moment. An occasional glance aside at himself from the corner
+of her eye, a sort of dart of defiance as if to bid him remember that
+she was not done with him, was shot at John from time to time over the
+heads of the innocent country people in whom she pretended to be so much
+interested. Pretended!--was it pretence, or was the one as real as the
+other? He heard her promising to come to-morrow to see an invalid, to
+send certain articles as soon as she got home, to look up certain books.
+Would she do so? or was all this a mere veil to cover the other which
+engaged all her soul?
+
+And then there came the service--that soothing routine of familiar
+prayers, which the lips of men and women absorbed in the violence and
+urgency of life murmur over almost without knowing, with now and then an
+awakening to something that touches their own aspirations, to something
+that offers or that asks for help. "Because there is none other that
+fighteth for us but only Thou, O God." That seems to the careless soul
+such a _non sequitur_, as if peace was asked for, only because there
+was none other to fight; but to the man heavily laden, what a cry out
+of the depths! Because there is none other--all resources gone, all
+possibilities: but one that fighteth for us, standing fast, always the
+champion of the perplexed, the overborne, the weak. John was a little
+careless in this respect, as so many young men are. He thought most of
+the music when he joined the fashionable throng in the Temple Church.
+But there was no music to speak of at Windyhill. There was more sound of
+the bees outside, and the birds and the sighing bass of the fir-trees
+than of anything more carefully concerted. The organ was played with a
+curious drone in it, almost like that of the primitive bagpipe. But
+there was that one phrase, a strong strain of human appeal, enough to
+lift the world, nay, to let itself go straight to the blue heavens:
+"Because there is none other that fighteth for us but only Thou, O God."
+
+Mr. Hudson preached his little sermon like a discord in the midst. What
+should he have preached it for, that little sermon, which was only
+composed because he could not help himself, which was about nothing in
+heaven or earth? John gave it a sort of partial attention because he
+could not help it, partly in wonder to think how a sensible man like Mr.
+Hudson could account to himself for such strange little interruption of
+the natural sequence of high human emotion. What theory had he in his
+mind? This was a question John was fond of putting to himself, with
+perhaps an idea peculiar to a lawyer, that every man must be thinking
+what he is about, and be able to produce a clear reason, and, as it
+were, some theory of the meaning of his own actions--which everybody
+must know is nonsense. For the Rector of course preached just because it
+was in his day's work, and the people would have been much surprised,
+though possibly much relieved, had he not done so--feeling that to
+listen was in the day's work too, and to be gone through doggedly as a
+duty. John thought how much better it would be to have some man who
+could preach now and then when he had something to say, instead of
+troubling the Rector, who, good man, had nothing. But it is not to be
+supposed that he was thinking this consecutively while the morning
+went on. It flitted through his mind from time to time among his many
+thinkings about the Compton family and Elinor; poor Nelly, standing upon
+the edge of that precipice and the helplessness of every one to save
+her, and the great refrain like the peal of an organ going through
+everything, "None other that fighteth for us but only Thou, O God."
+Surely, surely to prevent this sacrifice He would interfere.
+
+She turned to him the moment they were out of the church doors with
+that same look of eager defiance yet demand, and as soon as they left
+the road, the first step into the copse, putting out her hand to
+call his attention: "You said I could not put up with it, a girl so
+well-brought-up as I am. What is it a well-brought-up girl can't put
+up with? A disorderly house, late hours, and so forth, hateful to the
+well-brought-up? What is it, what is it, John?"
+
+"Have you been thinking of that all through the morning prayers?" he
+said.
+
+"Yes, I have been thinking about it. What did you expect me to think
+about? Is there anything else so important? Mr. Hudson's sermon,
+perhaps, which I have heard before, which I suppose _you_ listened to,"
+she said, with a troubled laugh.
+
+"I did a little, wondering how a good man like that could go on doing
+it; and there were other things----" John did not like to say what it
+was which was still throbbing through the air to him, and through his
+own being.
+
+"Nothing that is of so much moment to me: come back, John, to the
+well-brought-up girl."
+
+"You think that's a poor sort of description, Elinor; so it is. You are
+of course a great deal more than that. Still it's what one can turn to
+most easily. You don't know what life is in a sort of fast house, where
+there is nothing thought of but amusement or where it's a constant round
+of race meetings, yachting, steeplechases--I don't know if men still
+ride steeplechases--I mean that sort of thing: Monte Carlo in the winter:
+betting all the year round--if not on one thing then on another;
+expedients to raise money, for money's always wanted. You don't
+know--how can you know?--what goes on in a fast life."
+
+"Don't you see, John," she cried, eagerly, "that all that, if put in a
+different way not to their prejudice, if put in the right way would
+sound delightful? There is no harm in these things at all. Betting's not
+a sin in the Bible any more than races are. Don't you see it's only the
+abuse of them that's wrong? One might ruin one's health, I believe, with
+tea, which is the most righteous thing! I should like above all things a
+yacht, say in the Mediterranean, and to go to Monte Carlo, which is a
+beautiful place, and where there is the best music in the world, besides
+the gambling. I should like even to see the gambling once in a way,
+for the fun of the thing. You don't frighten me at all. I have been a
+fortnight at Lady Mariamne's, and the continual 'go' was delightful;
+there was never a dull moment. As for expedients to raise money,
+_there_----"
+
+"To be sure--old Prestwich is as rich as Croesus--or was," said John,
+with significance, "but you are not going to live with Lady Mariamne, I
+suppose."
+
+"Oh, John!" she cried, "oh, John!" suddenly seizing him by the arm,
+clasping her hands on it in the pretty way of earnestness she had,
+though one hand held her parasol, which was inconvenient. The soft face
+was suffused with rosy colour, so different from the angry red, the
+flush of love and tenderness--her eyes swam in liquid light, looking up
+with mingled happiness and entreaty to John's face. "Fancy what he says,
+that he will not object to come here for half the year to let me be with
+my mother! Remember what he is, a man of fashion, and fond of the world,
+and of going out and all that. He has consented to come, nay, he almost
+offered to come for six months in the year to be with mamma."
+
+"Good heavens," cried John to himself, "he must indeed be down on his
+luck!" but what he said was, "Does your mother know of this, Elinor?"
+
+"I have not told her yet. I have reserved it to hear first what you had
+to say: and so far as I can make out you have nothing at all to say,
+only general things, disapproval in the general. What should you say if
+I told you that he disapproves too? He said himself that there had been
+too much of all that--that he had backed something--isn't that what you
+say?--backed it at odds, and stood to win what he calls a pot of money.
+But after that was decided--for he said he could not be off bets that
+were made--never any more. Now that I know you have nothing more to say
+my heart is free, and I can tell you. He has never really liked that
+sort of life, but was led into it when he was very young. And now as
+soon as--we are together, you know"--she looked so bright, so sweet in
+the happiness of her love, that John could have flung her from his arms,
+and felt that she insulted him by that clinging hold--"he means to turn
+entirely to serious things, and to go into politics, John."
+
+"Oh, he is going into politics!"
+
+"Of course, on the people's side--to do everything for them--Home Rule,
+and all that is best: to see that they are heard in Parliament, and have
+their wants attended to, instead of jobs and corruption everywhere. So
+you will see, John, that if he has been fast, and gone a little too
+far, and been very much mixed up in the Turf, and all that, it was only
+in the exuberance of youth, liking the fun of it, as I feel I should
+myself. But that now, now all that is to be changed when he steps into
+settled, responsible life. I should not have told you if you had
+repeated the lies that people say. But as you did not, but only found
+fault with him for being fast----"
+
+"Then you have heard--what people say?" He shifted his arm a little,
+so that she instinctively perceived that the affectionate clasp of her
+hands was no longer agreeable to him, and his face seemed suddenly to
+have become a blank page, absolutely devoid of all expression. He kicked
+vigorously at one of the hillocks he had stumbled against, as if he
+thought he could dislodge it and get it out of his way.
+
+"Mariamne told me there was a lot of lies--that people said--I am so
+glad, John, oh! so thankful, that you have not repeated any of them;
+for now I can feel you are my own good John, as you always were, not a
+slanderer of any one, and we can go on being fond of each other like
+brother and sister. I have told him you have been the best of brothers
+to me."
+
+"Oh," said John, without a sign of wonder or admiration in him, with a
+dead blank in his face.
+
+"And what do you think he said? 'Then I know he must be a capital
+fellow, Ne----'"
+
+"Not Nelly," said poor John, with a foolish pang that seemed to rend his
+heart. Oh, if that scamp, that cheat, that low betting, card-playing
+rascal were but here! he would capital-fellow him. To take not herself
+only, but the dear pet name that she had said was only John's----
+
+"He says Nell sometimes, John. Oh, not Nelly--Nelly is for you only. I
+would never let him call me that. But they are all for short names,
+one syllable--he is Phil, and Mariamne, well at home they call her
+Jew--horrible, isn't it?--because she was called after some Jewess; but
+somehow it seems queer when you see her, so fair and frizzy, like
+anything but a Jew."
+
+"So I have got one letter to myself," said John. "I don't know that I
+think that worth very much, however. And so far as I can see, you seem
+to think everything very fine--the bets, perhaps, and the rows and all."
+
+"Well they are, you know," said Elinor, with a laugh, "to a little
+country mouse like me that has never seen anything. There is always
+something going on, and their slang way of speaking is certainly very
+amusing if it is not at all dignified, and they have such droll ways of
+looking at things. All so entirely different! Don't you know, John,
+sometimes in one's life one longs for something to be quite different. A
+complete change, anything new."
+
+"If that is what you long for, no doubt you will get it, Elinor."
+
+"Well!" she cried, "I have had the other for three-and-twenty years,
+long enough to have exhausted it, don't you think? but I don't mean
+to throw it over, oh, no! Coming back to mamma makes the arrangement
+perfect. Probably in the end it is the old life, the life I was brought
+up in that I shall like best in the long run. That is one thing of being
+well brought up. Phil will laugh till he cries when I tell him of your
+description of me as a well-brought-up girl."
+
+John set his teeth as he walked or rather stumbled along by her side,
+catching in the roots of the trees as he had never done before, and
+swearing under his breath. Her flutter of talk running on, delighted,
+full of laughter and softness, as if he had fully declared his
+satisfaction and was interested in every detail, kept John in a state
+of suppressed fury which made his countenance dark, and almost took the
+sight from his eyes. He did not know how to escape from that false
+position, nor did she give him time, she had so much to say. Mrs.
+Dennistoun looked anxiously at the pair as they came up through the
+copse to the level of the cottage. There were no enclosures in that
+primitive place. From the copse you came straight into the garden with
+its banks of flowers. She was seated near the cottage door in a corner
+sheltered from the sun, with a number of books about her. But I don't
+think she had read anything except some portions of the lessons in the
+morning service. She had been sitting with her eyes vaguely fixed upon
+the horizon and her hands clasped in her lap, and a heavy shadow like an
+overhanging cloud upon her mind. But when she heard Elinor's voice
+approaching so gay and tuneful her heart rose a little. John evidently
+could have had nothing very bad to say. Elinor had been satisfied
+with the morning. Mrs. Dennistoun had expected to see them come back
+estranged and silent. The conclusion she drew was entirely satisfactory.
+After all John must have been moved solely by general disapproval, which
+is so very different from the dreadful hints and warnings that might
+mean any criminality. Elinor was talking to him as freely as she had
+done before this spectre rose. It must, Mrs. Dennistoun concluded, be
+all right.
+
+It was not till he was going away that she had an opportunity of talking
+with him alone. Her satisfaction, it must be allowed, had been a little
+subdued by John's demeanour during the afternoon and evening. But Mrs.
+Dennistoun had said to herself that there might be other ways of
+accounting for this. She had long had a fancy that John was more
+interested in Elinor than he had confessed himself to be. It had been
+her conviction that as soon as he felt it warrantable, as soon as he
+was sufficiently well-established, and his practice secured, he would
+probably declare himself, with, she feared, no particular issue so far
+as Elinor was concerned. And perhaps he was disappointed, poor fellow,
+which was a very natural explanation of his glum looks. But at breakfast
+on Monday Elinor announced her intention of driving her cousin to the
+station, and went out to see that the pony was harnessed, an operation
+which took some time, for the pony was out in the field and had to be
+caught, and the man of all work, who had a hundred affairs to look
+after, had to be caught too to perform this duty; which sometimes,
+however, Elinor performed herself, but always with some expenditure of
+time. Mrs. Dennistoun seized the opportunity, plunging at once into the
+all-important subject.
+
+"You seemed to get on all right together yesterday, John, so I suppose
+you found that after all there was not very much to say."
+
+"I was not allowed to say----anything. You mean----"
+
+"Oh, John, John, do you mean to tell me after all----"
+
+"Aunt Ellen," he said, "stop it if you can; if there is any means in the
+world by which you can stop it, do so. I can't bring accusations against
+the man, for I couldn't prove them. I only know what everybody knows. He
+is not a man fit for Elinor to marry. He is not fit to touch the tie of
+her shoe."
+
+"Oh, don't trouble me with your superlatives, John. Elinor is a good
+girl and a clever girl, but not a lady of romance. Is there anything
+really against him? Tell me, for goodness' sake! Even with these few
+words you have made me very unhappy," Mrs. Dennistoun said, in a half
+resentful tone.
+
+"I can't help it," said the unfortunate man, "I can't bring accusations,
+as I tell you. He is simply a scamp--that is all I know."
+
+"A scamp!" said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a look of alarm. "But then that is
+a word that has so many meanings. A scamp may be only a careless fellow,
+nice in his way. That is not enough to break off a marriage for. And,
+John, as you have said so much, you must say more."
+
+"I have no more to say, that's all I know. Inquire what the Hudsons have
+heard. Stop it if you can."
+
+"Oh, dear, dear, here is Elinor back already," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The next time that John's presence was required at the cottage was for
+the signing of the very simple settlements; which, as there was nothing
+or next to nothing in the power of the man to settle upon his wife,
+were easy enough. He met Mr. Lynch, who was Mrs. Dennistoun's "man of
+business," and a sharp London solicitor, who was for the husband.
+Elinor's fortune was five thousand pounds, no more, not counting her
+expectations from him, which were left out of the question. It was a
+very small matter altogether, and one which the smart solicitor who was
+in Mr. Compton's interest spoke of with a certain contempt, as who
+should say he was not in the habit of being disturbed and brought to the
+country for any such trifle. It was now August--not a time when any man
+was supposed to be available for matters like these. Mr. Lynch was just
+about starting for his annual holiday, but came, at no small personal
+inconvenience, to do his duty by the poor girl whom he had known all his
+life. John and he travelled to the cottage together, and their aspect
+was not cheerful. "Did you ever hear," said Mr. Lynch, "such a piece of
+folly as this--a man with no character at all? This is what it is to
+leave a girl in the sole care of her mother. What does a woman know
+about such things?"
+
+"I don't think it was her mother's fault," said John, anxious to do
+justice all round. "Elinor is very head-strong, and when she has made up
+her mind to a thing----"
+
+"A bit of a girl!" said Mr. Lynch, contemptuously. He was an old bachelor
+and knew nothing about the subject, as the reader will perceive. "Her
+mother ought never to have permitted it for a moment. She should have
+put down her foot: and then Miss Elinor would soon have come to reason.
+What I wonder is the ruffian's own motives? for it can't be a little bit
+of money like that. Five thousand's a mere mouthful to such a man as he
+is. He'll get rid of it all in a week."
+
+"It must be tied up as tight as possible," said John.
+
+Here Mr. Lynch faltered a little. "She has got an idea into her head,
+with the intention, I don't doubt, of defrauding herself if she can. He
+has got some investment for it, it appears. He is on the board of some
+company--a pretty board to take in such a fellow? But the Honourable is
+always something, I suppose."
+
+John did not say the _dis_-Honourable, though it trembled on the edge of
+his tongue. "But you will not permit that?" he said.
+
+"No, no; we will not permit it," said Mr. Lynch, with an emphasis on the
+negative which sounded like failing resolution.
+
+"That would be giving the lamb to the wolf with a vengeance."
+
+"Exactly what I said; exactly what I said. I am very glad, Mr. Tatham,
+that you take the same view."
+
+"There is but one view to be taken," said John. "He must not have the
+slightest power over her money. It must be tied up as tight as the law
+can do it; not that I think it of the least consequence," he added. "Of
+course, he will get it all from her one way or another. Law's but a poor
+barrier against a determined man."
+
+"I'm glad you see that too," said Mr. Lynch, "and you might say a
+determined woman: for she has set her mind on this, and we'll have a
+nice business with her, I can see."
+
+"A bit of a girl!" said John, with a laugh, echoing the previous
+sentiment.
+
+"That's very true," said the old lawyer; "and still I think her
+mother--but I don't put any great confidence in my own power to resist
+Elinor. Poor little thing, I've known her since she was _that_ high;
+indeed, I may say I knew her before she was born. And you are a
+relation, Mr. Tatham?"
+
+"Third or fourth cousin."
+
+"But still, more intimate than a person unconnected with them, and able
+to speak your mind more freely. I wonder now that you never said
+anything. But in family matters sometimes one is very reluctant to
+interfere."
+
+"I said everything I could say, not to offend them mortally; but I could
+only tell them the common talk of society. I told my aunt he was a
+scamp: but after the first shock I am not sure that she thought that was
+any such bad thing. It depended upon the sense you put upon the word,
+she said."
+
+"Oh, women, women!" said Mr. Lynch. "That's their way--a reformed rake
+makes the best husband. It's an old-fashioned sentiment, but it's in the
+background of their minds, a sort of tradition that they can't shake
+off--or else the poor fellow has had so many disadvantages, and they
+think they can make it all right. It's partly ignorance and partly
+vanity. But they are all the same, and their ways in the matter of
+marriage are not to be made out."
+
+"You have a great deal of experience."
+
+"Experience--oh, don't speak of it!" said the old gentleman. "A man has
+a certain idea of the value of money, however great a fool he may be,
+but the women----"
+
+"And yet they are said to stick to money, and to be respectful of it
+beyond anything but a miser. I have myself remarked----"
+
+"In small matters," said Mr. Lynch, "in detail--sixpences to railway
+porters and that sort of thing--so people say at least. But a sum of
+money on paper has no effect on a woman, she will sign it away with a
+wave of her hand. It doesn't touch their imagination. Five pounds in her
+pocket is far more than five thousand on paper, to Elinor, for instance.
+I wish," cried the old gentleman, with a little spitefulness, "that this
+Married Women's Property Bill would push on and get itself made law. It
+would save us a great deal of trouble, and perhaps convince the world at
+the last how little able they are to be trusted with property. A nice
+mess they will make of it, and plenty of employment for young
+solicitors," he said, rubbing his hands.
+
+For this was before that important bill was passed, which has not had
+(like so many other bills) the disastrous consequences which Mr. Lynch
+foresaw.
+
+They were met at the station by the pony carriage, and at the door by
+Elinor herself, who came flying out to meet them. She seized Mr. Lynch
+by both arms, for he was a little old man, and she was bigger than he
+was.
+
+"Now you will remember what I said," she cried in his ear, yet not so
+low but that John heard it too.
+
+"You are a little witch; you mustn't insist upon anything so foolish.
+Leave all that to me, my dear," said Mr. Lynch. "What do you know about
+business? You must leave it to me and the other gentleman, who I suppose
+is here, or coming."
+
+"He is here, but I don't care for him. I care only for you. There are
+such advantages: and I do know a great deal about business; and," she
+said, with her mouth close to the old lawyer's ear, "it will please Phil
+so much if I show my confidence in him, and in the things with which he
+has to do."
+
+"It will not please him so much if the thing bursts, and you are left
+without a penny, my dear."
+
+Elinor laughed. "I don't suppose he will mind a bit: he cares nothing
+for money. But I do," she said. "You know you always say women love
+acquisition. I want good interest, and of course with Phil on it, it
+must be safe for me."
+
+"Oh, that makes it like the Bank of England, you think! but I don't
+share your confidence, my pretty Elinor. I'm an old fellow. No Phil in
+the world has any charm for me. You must trust me to do what I feel is
+best for you. And Mr. Tatham here is quite of my opinion."
+
+"Oh, John! he is sure to be against me," said Elinor, with an angry
+glimmer in her eyes. She had not as yet taken any notice of him while
+she welcomed with such warmth his old companion. And John had stood by
+offering no greeting, with his bag in his hand. But when she said this
+the quick feeling girl was seized with compunction. She turned from Mr.
+Lynch and held out both her hands to her cousin. "John, I didn't mean
+that; it is only that I am excited and cross. And don't, oh, don't go
+against me," she cried.
+
+"I never did, and never will, Elinor," he said gravely. Then he asked,
+after a moment, "Is Mr. Compton here?"
+
+"No; how could he be here? Three gentlemen in the cottage is enough to
+overwhelm us already. Mr. Sharp, fortunately, can't stay," she added,
+lowering her voice; "he has to be driven back to the station to catch
+the last express. And it is August," she said with a laugh; "you forget
+the 15th. Now, could Phil be anywhere but where there is grouse? You
+shall have some to dinner to-night that fell by his gun. That should
+mollify you, for I am sure you never got grouse at the cottage before
+in August. Mamma would as soon think of buying manna for you to eat."
+
+"I think it would have been more respectful, Elinor, if he had been
+here. What is grouse to you?"
+
+"Then I don't think anything of the kind," cried Elinor. "He is much
+better away. And I assure you, John, I never mean to put myself in
+competition with the grouse."
+
+The old lawyer had gone into the drawing-room, where Mrs. Dennistoun was
+holding parley with Mr. Sharp. Elinor and John were standing alone in
+the half light of the summer evening, the sun down, the depths of the
+combe below falling into faint mist, but the sunset-tinted clouds still
+floating like a vapour made of roses upon the clearness of the blue
+above. "Come and take a turn through the copse," said John. "They don't
+want either of us indoors."
+
+She went with a momentary reluctance and a glance back at the bow-window
+of the drawing-room, from which the sound of voices issued. "Don't you
+think I should be there to keep them up to the mark?" she said, half
+laughing. And then, "Well, yes--as you are going to Switzerland too. I
+think you might have stayed and seen me married after all, and made
+acquaintance with Phil."
+
+"I thought I should have met him here to-day, Elinor."
+
+"Now, how could you? You know the accommodation of the cottage just as
+well as I do. We have two spare rooms, and no more."
+
+"You could have sent me out somewhere to sleep. That has been done
+before now."
+
+"Oh, John, how persistent you are, and worrying! When I tell you that
+Phil is shooting, as everybody of his kind is--do you think I want him
+to give up all the habits of his life? He is not like us: we adapt
+ourselves: but these people parcel out their time as if they were in a
+trade, don't you know? So long in London, so long abroad, and in the
+Highlands for the grouse, and somewhere else for the partridges, or they
+would die."
+
+"I think he might have departed from that routine once in a way, Elinor,
+for you."
+
+"I tell you again, John, I shall never put myself in competition"--Elinor
+stopped abruptly, with perhaps, he thought, a little glimmer of
+indignation in her eyes. "I hate women who do that sort of thing," she
+cried. "'Give up your cigar--or me,' as I've heard girls say. Such an
+unworthy thing! When one accepts a man one accepts him as he stands,
+with all his habits. What should I think of him if he said, 'Give up
+your tea--or me!' I should laugh in his face and throw him overboard
+without a pause."
+
+"You would never look at tea again as long as you lived if he did not
+like it; I suppose that is what you mean, Elinor?"
+
+"Perhaps if I found that out, afterwards; but to be given the choice
+beforehand, never! After all, you don't half know me, John."
+
+"Perhaps not," he said, gravely. They had left the garden behind in
+its blaze of flowers, and strayed off into the subdued twilight of the
+copse, where everything was in a half tone of greenness and shadow and
+waning light. "There are always new lights arising on a many-sided
+creature like you--and that makes one think. Do you know you are not at
+all the person to take a great disappointment quietly, if that should
+happen to come to you in your life?"
+
+"A great disappointment?" she said, looking up at him with a wondering
+glance. Then he thought the colour paled a little in her face. "No," she
+said, "I don't suppose I should take it quietly. Who does?"
+
+"Oh, many people--people with less determination and more patience than
+you. You are not very patient by nature, Elinor."
+
+"I never said I was."
+
+"And though no one would give up more generously, as a voluntary matter,
+you could not bear being made a nonentity of, or put in a secondary
+place."
+
+"I should not like it, I suppose."
+
+"You would give everything, flinging it away; but to have all your
+sacrifices taken for granted, your tastes made of no account----"
+
+There was no doubt now that she had grown pale. "May I ask what all
+these investigations into my character mean? I never was so anatomized
+before."
+
+"It was only to say that you are not a good subject for this kind of
+experiment, Elinor. I don't see you putting up with things, making the
+best of everything, submitting to have your sense of right and wrong
+outraged perhaps. Some women would not be much disturbed by that. They
+would put off the responsibility and feel it their duty to accept
+whatever was put before them. But you--it would be a different matter
+with you."
+
+"I should hope so, if I was ever exposed to such dangers. But now may
+I know what you are driving at, John, for you have some meaning in what
+you say!"
+
+He took her hand and drew it through his arm. He was in more moved than
+he wished to show. "Only this, Elinor,"--he said.
+
+"Oh, John, will you never call me Nelly any more?"
+
+"Only this, Nelly, my little Nelly, never mine again--and that never was
+mine, except in my silly thought. Only this: that if you have the least
+doubt, the smallest flutter of an uncertainty, just enough to make you
+hold your breath for a moment, oh, my dear girl, stop! Don't go on with
+it; pause until you can make sure."
+
+"John!" she forced her arm from his with an indignant movement. "Oh, how
+do you dare to say it?" she said. "Doubt of Mr. Compton! Uncertainty
+about Phil!" She laughed out, and the echo seemed to ring into all the
+recesses of the trees. "I would be much more ready to doubt myself," she
+said.
+
+"Doubt yourself; that is what I mean. Think if you are not deceiving
+yourself. I don't think you are so very sure as you believe you are,
+Nelly. You don't feel so certain----"
+
+"Do you know that you are insulting me, John? You say as much as that I
+am a fool carried away by a momentary enthusiasm, with no real love, no
+true feeling in me, tempted, perhaps, as Mrs. Hudson thinks, by the
+Honourable!" Her lip quivered, and the fading colour came back in a rush
+to her face. "It is hard enough to have a woman like that think it, who
+ought to know better, who has always known me--but you, John!"
+
+"You may be sure, Elinor, that I did not put it on that ground."
+
+"No, perhaps: but on ground not much more respectful to me--perhaps that
+I have been fascinated by a handsome man, which is not considered
+derogatory. Oh, John, a girl does not give herself away on an argument
+like that. I may be hasty and self-willed and impatient, as you say; but
+when you--love!" Her face flushed like a rose, so that even in the grey
+of the evening it shone out like one of the clouds full of sunset that
+still lingered on the sky. A few quick tears followed, the natural
+consequence of her emotion. And then she turned to him with the ineffable
+condescension of one farther advanced in life stooping sweetly to his
+ignorance. "You have not yet come to the moment in your experience when
+you can understand that, dear John."
+
+Oh, the insight and the ignorance, the knowledge and the absence of all
+perception! He, too, laughed out, as she had done, with a sense of the
+intolerable ridicule and folly and mistake. "Perhaps that's how it is,"
+he said.
+
+Elinor looked at him gravely, in an elder-sisterly, profoundly-investigating
+way, and then she took his arm quietly and turned towards home. "I shall
+forget what you have said, and you will forget that you ever said it;
+and now we will go home, John, and be just the same dear friends as
+before."
+
+"Will you promise me," he said, "that whatever happens, without pride,
+or recollection of what I've been so foolish as to say, in any need
+or emergency, or whenever you want anything, or if you should be in
+trouble--trouble comes to everybody in this life--you will remember what
+you have said just now, and send for your cousin John?"
+
+Her whole face beamed out in one smile, she clasped her other hand
+round his arm; "I should have done it without being asked, without ever
+doubting for a moment, because it was the most natural thing in the
+world. Whom should I turn to else if not to my dear old---- But call me
+Nelly, John."
+
+"Dear little Nelly!" he said with faltering voice, "then that is a
+bargain."
+
+She held up her cheek to him, and he kissed it solemnly in the shadow of
+the little young oak that fluttered its leaves wistfully in the breeze
+that was getting up--and then very soberly, saying little, they walked
+back to the cottage. He was going abroad for his vacation, not saying to
+himself even that he preferred not to be present at the wedding, but
+resigning himself to the necessity, for it was not to be till the middle
+of September, and it would be breaking up his holiday had he to come
+back at that time. So this little interview was a leave-taking as well
+as a solemn engagement for all the risks and dangers of life. The pain
+in it, after that very sharp moment in the copse, was softened down into
+a sadness not unsweet, as they came silently together from out of the
+shadow into the quiet hemisphere of sky and space, which was over the
+little centre of the cottage with its human glimmer of fire and lights.
+The sky was unusually clear, and among those soft, rose-tinted clouds of
+the sunset, which were no clouds at all, had risen a young crescent of a
+moon, just about to disappear, too, in the short course of one of her
+earliest nights. They lingered for a moment before they went indoors.
+The depth of the combe was filled with the growing darkness, but the
+ridges above were still light and softly edged with the silver of the
+moon, and the distant road, like a long, white line, came conspicuously
+into sight, winding for a little way along the hill-top unsheltered,
+before it plunged into the shadow of the trees--the road that led into
+the world, by which they should both depart presently to stray into such
+different ways.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The drawing-room after dinner always looked cheerful. Perhaps the fact
+that it was a sort of little oasis in the desert, and that the light
+from those windows shone into three counties, made the interior more
+cosy and bright. (There are houses now upon every knoll, and the wind
+cannot blow on Windyhill for the quantity of obstructions it meets
+with.) There was the usual log burning on the hearth, and the party in
+general kept away from it, for the night was warm. Only Mr. Sharp, the
+London lawyer, was equal to bearing the heat. He stood with his back to
+it, and his long legs showing against the glow behind, a sharp-nosed,
+long man in black, who had immediately suggested Mephistopheles to
+Elinor, even though he was on the Compton side. He had taken his coffee
+after dinner, and now he stood over the fire slowly sipping a cup of
+tea. There was a look of acquisitiveness about him which suggested an
+inclination to appropriate anything from the unnecessary heat of the
+fire to the equally unnecessary tea. But Mr. Sharp had been on the
+winning side. He had demonstrated the superior sense of making the
+money--which was not large enough sum to settle--of real use to the
+young pair by an investment which would increase Mr. Compton's
+importance in his company, besides producing very good dividends--much
+better dividends than would be possible if it were treated in the
+old-fashioned way by trustees. This was how the bride wished it, which
+was the most telling of arguments: and surely, to insure good interest
+and an increase of capital to her, through her husband's hands, was
+better than to secure some beggarly hundred and fifty pounds a year for
+her portion, though without any risks at all.
+
+Mr. Sharp had also taken great pains to point out that there were only
+three brothers--one an invalid and the other two soldiers--between Mr.
+Phil and the title, and that even to be the Honourable Mrs. Compton was
+something for a young lady, who was, if he might venture to say so,
+nobody--not to say a word against her charms. Lord St. Serf was hourly
+getting an old man, and the chances that his client might step over a
+hecatomb of dead relations to the height of fortune was a thing quite
+worth taking into account. It was a much better argument, however, to
+return to the analogy of other poor young people, where the bride's
+little fortune would be put into the husband's business, and thus
+their joint advantage considered. Mr. Sharp, at the same time, did not
+hesitate to express politely his opinion that to call him down to the
+country for a discussion which could have been carried on much better
+in one or other of their respective offices was a most uncalled for
+proceeding, especially as even now the other side was wavering, and
+would not consent to conclude matters, and make the signatures that were
+necessary at once. Mr. Lynch, it must be allowed, was of the same
+opinion too.
+
+"Your country is a little bleak at night," said Mr. Sharp, partially
+mollified by a good dinner, but beginning to remember unpleasantly the
+cold drive in a rattletrap of a little rustic pony carriage over the
+hills and hollows. "Do you really remain here all the year? How wonderful!
+Not even a glimpse of the world in summer, or a little escape from the
+chills in winter? How brave of you! What patience and powers of
+endurance must be cultivated in that way!"
+
+"One would think Windyhill was Siberia at least," said Mrs. Dennistoun,
+laughing; "we do not give ourselves credit for all these fine
+qualities."
+
+"Some people are heroes--or heroines--without knowing it," said Mr.
+Sharp, with a bow.
+
+"And yet," said the mother, with a little indignation, "there was some
+talk of Mr. Compton doing me the honour to share my hermitage for a part
+of the year."
+
+"Mr. Compton! my dear lady! Mr. Compton would die of it in a week," said
+Mr. Sharp.
+
+"I am quite well aware of it," said Mrs. Dennistoun; and she added,
+after a pause, "so should I."
+
+"What a change it will be for your daughter," said Mr. Sharp. "She will
+see everything that is worth seeing. More in a month than she would see
+here in a dozen years. Trust Mr. Compton for knowing all that's worth
+going after. They have all an instinct for life that is quite remarkable.
+There's Lady Mariamne, who has society at her feet, and the old lord is
+a most remarkable old gentleman. Your daughter, Mrs. Dennistoun, is a
+very fortunate young lady. She has my best congratulations, I am sure."
+
+"Sharp," said Mr. Lynch from the background, "you had better be thinking
+of starting, if you want to catch that train."
+
+"I'll see if the pony is there," said John.
+
+Mr. Sharp put down his teacup with precipitation. "Is it as late as
+that?" he cried.
+
+"It is the last train," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with great satisfaction.
+"And I am afraid, if you missed it, as the house is full, there would be
+nothing but a bed at the public-house to offer----"
+
+"Oh, not another word," the lawyer said: and fortunately he never knew
+how near that rising young man at the bar, John Tatham, who had every
+object in conciliating a solicitor, was to a charge of manslaughter, if
+killing an attorney can thus be called. But the feelings of the party
+were expressed only in actions of the greatest kindness. They helped him
+on with his coat, and covered him with rugs as he got in, shivering, to
+the little pony carriage. It was a beautiful night, but the wind is
+always a thing to be considered on Windyhill.
+
+"Well, that's a good thing over," said Mr. Lynch, going to the fire as
+he came in from the night air at the door and rubbing his hands.
+
+"It would have been a relief to one's feeling to have kicked that fellow
+all the way down and up the other side of the combe, and kept him warm,"
+said John, with a laugh of wrath.
+
+"It is a pity a man should have so little taste," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+Elinor still stood where she had been standing, with every feeling in
+her breast in commotion. She had not taken any part in the insidious
+kindnesses of speeding the parting guest; and now she remembered that he
+was her Phil's representative: whatever she might herself think of the
+man, how could she join in abuse of one who represented Phil?
+
+"He is no worse, I suppose, than others," she said. "He was bound to
+stand up for those in whose interest he was. Mr. Lynch would have made
+himself quite as disagreeable for me."
+
+"Not I," said the old gentleman; "for what is the good of standing up
+for you? You would throw me over on the first opportunity. You have
+taken all the force out of my sword-arm, my dear, as it is. How can I
+make myself disagreeable for those who won't stand up for themselves? I
+suppose you must have it your own way."
+
+"Yes, I suppose it will be the best," said Mrs. Dennistoun, in subdued
+tones.
+
+"It would come to about the same thing, however you settled it," said
+John.
+
+Elinor looked from one to another with eyes that began to glow. "You are
+a cheerful company," she said. "You speak as if you were arranging my
+funeral. On the whole I think I like Mr. Sharp best; for if he was
+contemptuous of me and my little bit of money, he was at all events
+cheerful about the future, and that is always something; whereas you
+all----"
+
+There was a little pause, no one responding. There was no pleasant jest,
+no bright augury for Elinor. The girl's heart rose against this gloom
+that surrounded her. "I think," she said, with an angry laugh, "that I
+had better run after Mr. Sharp and bring him back, for he had at least a
+little sympathy with me!"
+
+"Don't be too sure of that," said Mr. Lynch, "for if we think you are
+throwing yourself away, Elinor, so does he on his side. He thinks the
+Honourable Mr. Compton is going dreadfully cheap for five thousand
+pounds."
+
+"Elinor need not take any of us _au pied de la lettre_--of course we are
+all firm for our own side," said John.
+
+Elinor turned her head from one to another, growing pale and red by
+turns. There was a certain surprise in her look, as she found herself
+thus at bay. The triumph of having got the better of their opposition
+was lost in the sense of isolation with which the girl, so long the
+first object of everybody about her, felt herself thus placed alone. And
+the tears were very ready to start, but were kept back by jealous pride
+which rose to her help. Well! if they put her outside the circle she
+would remain so; if they talked to her as one no longer of them, but
+belonging to another life, so be it! Elinor determined that she would
+make no further appeal. She would not even show how much it hurt her.
+After that pale look round upon them all, she went into the corner of
+the room where the piano stood, and where there was little light. She
+was too proud to go out of the room, lest they should think she was
+going to cry. She went with a sudden, quick movement to the piano
+instead, where perhaps she might cry too, but where nobody should see.
+Poor Elinor! they had made her feel alone by their words, and she made
+herself more alone by this little instinctive withdrawal. She began to
+play softly one thing after another. She was not a great performer. Her
+little "tunes" were of the simplest--no better indeed than tunes, things
+that every musician despises: they made a little atmosphere round her, a
+voluntary hermitage which separated her as if she had been a hundred
+miles away.
+
+"I wish you could have stayed for the marriage," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"My dear lady, it would spoil my holiday--the middle of September.
+You'll have nobody except, of course, the people you have always. To
+tell the truth," John added. "I don't care tuppence for my holiday. I'd
+have come--like a shot: but I don't think I could stand it. She has
+always been such a pet of mine. I don't think I could bear it, to tell
+the truth."
+
+"I shall have to bear it, though she is more than a pet of mine," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"I know, I know! the relatives cannot be let off--especially the mother,
+who must put up with everything. I trust," said Mr. Lynch, with a sigh,
+"that it may all turn out a great deal better than we hope. Where are
+they going after the marriage?"
+
+"Some one has lent them a place--a very pretty place--on the Thames,
+where they can have boating and all that--Lord Sudbury, I think. And
+later they are going on a round of visits, to his father, Lord St. Serf,
+and to Lady Mariamne, and to his aunt, who is Countess of--something or
+other." Mrs. Dennistoun's voice was not untouched by a certain vague
+pleasure in these fine names.
+
+"Ah," said the old lawyer, nodding his head at each, "all among the
+aristocracy, I see. Well, my dear lady, I hope you will be able to find
+some satisfaction in that; it is better than to fall among--nobodies at
+least."
+
+"I hope so," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a sigh.
+
+They were speaking low, and fondly hoped that they were not heard; but
+Elinor's ears and every faculty were quickened and almost every word
+reached her. But she was too proud to take any notice. And perhaps these
+dreary anticipations, on the whole, did her good, for her heart rose
+against them, and any little possible doubts in her own mind were put
+to sudden flight by the opposition and determination which flooded her
+heart. This made her playing a little more unsteady than usual, and she
+broke down several times in the middle of a "tune;" but nobody remarked
+this: they were all fully occupied with their own thoughts.
+
+All, at least, except John, who wandered uneasily about the room, now
+studying the names of the books on the bookshelves--which he knew by
+heart, now pulling the curtain aside to look out at the moonlight, now
+pulling at the fronds of the great maidenhair in his distraction till
+the table round was scattered with little broken leaves. He wanted to
+keep out of that atmosphere of emotion which surrounded Elinor at the
+piano. But it attracted him, all the same, as the light attracts a moth.
+To get away from that, to make the severance which so soon must be a
+perfect severance, was the only true policy he knew; for what was he to
+her, and what could she be to him? He had already said everything which
+a man in his position ought to say. He took out a book at last, and sat
+down doggedly by the table to read, thus making another circle of
+atmosphere, so to speak, another globe of isolated being in the little
+room, while the two elder people talked low in the centre, conventionally
+inaudible to the girl who was playing and the young man who was reading.
+But John might as well have tried to solve some tremendous problem as to
+read that book. He too heard every word the elders were saying. He heard
+them with his own ears, and also he heard them through the ears of
+Elinor, gauging the effect which every word would have upon her. At last
+he could bear it no longer. He was driven to her side to bear a part of
+her burden, even to prevent her from hearing, which would be something.
+He resisted the impulse to throw down his book, and only placed it very
+quietly on the table, and even in a deliberate way, that there might be
+no appearance of feeling about him--and made his way by degrees, pausing
+now and then to look at a picture, though he knew them all by heart.
+Thus he arrived at last at the piano, in what he flattered himself was
+an accidental way.
+
+"Elinor, the stars are so bright over the combe, do come out. It is not
+often they are so clear."
+
+"No," she said, more with the movement of her lips than with any sound.
+
+"Why not? You can't want to play those old pieces just at this moment.
+You will have plenty of time to play them to-morrow."
+
+She said "No" again, with a little impatient movement of her hands on
+the keys and a look towards the others.
+
+"You are listening to what they are saying? Why should you? They don't
+want you to hear. Come along, Elinor. It's far better for you not to
+listen to what is not intended----"
+
+"Oh, go away, John."
+
+"I must say no in my turn. Leave the tunes till to-morrow, and come out
+with me."
+
+"I thought," she said, roused a little, "that you were fond of music,
+John."
+
+This brought John up suddenly in an unexpected way. "Oh, as for
+that,"--he said, in a dubious tone. Poor Elinor's tunes were not music
+in his sense, as she very well knew.
+
+She laughed in a forlorn way. "I know what you mean; but this is quite
+good enough for what I shall want. I am going down, you know, to a
+different level altogether. Oh, you can hear for yourself what mamma and
+Mr. Lynch are saying."
+
+"Going up you mean, Elinor. I thought them both very complaisant over
+all those titles."
+
+"Ah," she said, "they say that mocking. They think I am going down; so
+do you, too, to the land of mere fast people, people with no sense.
+Well; there is nothing but the trial will teach any of us. We shall
+see."
+
+"It is rather a dreadful risk to run, if it's only a trial, Elinor."
+
+"A trial--for you, not for me--I am not the one that thinks so, except
+so far as the tunes are concerned," she said with a laugh. "I confess so
+far as that Lady Mariamne is fond of a comic song. I don't think she
+goes any further. I shall be good enough for them in the way of music."
+
+"I should be content never to hear another note of music all my life,
+Elinor, if----"
+
+"Ah, there you begin again. Not you, John, not you! I can't bear any
+more. Neither stars, nor walks, nor listening; no more! This rather,"
+and she brought down her hands with a great crash upon the piano, making
+every one start. Then Elinor rose, having produced her effect. "I think
+it must be time to go to bed, mamma. John is talking of the stars, which
+means that he wants his cigar, and Mr. Lynch must want just to look at
+the tray in the dining-room. And you are tired by all this fuss, all
+this unnatural fuss about me, that am not worth---- Come, mother, to
+bed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The days in the cottage were full of excitement and of occupation during
+the blazing August weather, not so much indeed as is common in many
+houses in which the expectant bridegroom is always coming and going;
+though perhaps the place of that exhilarating commotion was more or
+less filled by the ever-present diversity of opinion, the excitement
+of a subdued but never-ended conflict in which one was always on the
+defensive, and the other covertly or openly attacking, or at least
+believed to be so doing, the distant and unseen object to which all
+their thoughts turned. Mrs. Dennistoun, indeed, was not always aggressive,
+her opposition was but in fits and starts. Often her feelings of pain
+and alarm were quiescent in that unfeigned and salutary interest in
+clothes and necessities of preparation which is almost always a resource
+to a woman's mind. It is wrong to undervalue this possibility which
+compensates a woman in a small degree for some of her special troubles.
+When the mother's heart was very heavy, it was often diverted a little
+by the discussion of a dinner dress, or made to forget itself for the
+moment in a question about the cut of a sleeve, or which would be most
+becoming to Elinor of two colours for a ball gown. But though Mrs.
+Dennistoun forgot often, Elinor never forgot. The dresses and "things"
+generally occupied her a great deal, but not in the form of the anodyne
+which they supplied to her mother. Her mind was always on the alert,
+looking out for those flying arrows of warfare which your true fighter
+lets fly in the most innocent conversation at the most unexpected
+moments. Elinor thus flung her shield in her mother's face a hundred
+times when that poor lady was thinking no evil, when she was altogether
+occupied by the question of frills and laces, or whether tucks or
+flounces were best, and she was startled many times by that unnecessary
+rattle of Elinor's arms. "I was not thinking of Mr. Compton," she would
+sometimes be driven to say; "he was not in my head at all. I was
+thinking of nothing more important than that walking dress, and what you
+had best wear in the afternoon when you are on those grand visits."
+
+There was one thing which occasioned a little discussion between them,
+and that was the necessary civility of asking the neighbours to inspect
+these "things" when they were finally ready. It was only the argument
+that these neighbours would be Mrs. Dennistoun's sole resource when she
+was left alone that made Elinor assent at last. Perhaps, however,
+as she walked quickly along towards the moorland Rectory, a certain
+satisfaction in showing them how little their hints had been taken,
+mingled with the reluctance to admit those people who had breathed a
+doubt upon the sacred name of Phil, to such a sign of intimacy.
+
+"I have been watching you along the side of the combe, and wondering if
+it was you such a threatening day," said Alice Hudson, coming to the
+door to meet her. "How nice of you to come, Elinor, when you must be so
+busy, and you have not been here since--I don't know how long ago!"
+
+"No, I have not been here," said Elinor with a gravity worthy the bride
+of a maligned man. "But the time is so near when I shall not be able to
+come at all that I thought it was best. Mamma wishes you to come over
+to-morrow, if you will, to see my things."
+
+"Oh!" the three ladies said together; and Mrs. Hudson came forward and
+gave Elinor a kiss. "My dear," she said, "I take it very kind you coming
+yourself to ask us. Many would not have done it after what we felt it
+our duty---- But you always had a beautiful spirit, Elinor, bearing no
+malice, and I hope with all my heart that it will have its reward."
+
+"Well, mother," said Alice, "I don't see how Elinor could do anything
+less, seeing we have been such friends all our lives as girls, she and
+I, and I am sure I have always been ready to give her patterns, or to
+show her how a thing was done. I should have been very much disappointed
+if she had not asked me to see her things."
+
+Mary Dale, who was Mrs. Hudson's sister, said nothing at all, but
+accepted the visit as in the course of nature. Mary was the one who
+really knew something about Phil Compton: but she had been against the
+remonstrance which Mrs. Hudson thought it her duty to make. What was the
+good? Miss Dale had said; and she had refrained from telling two or
+three stories about the Comptons which would have made the hair stand
+upright on the heads of the Rector and the Rectoress. She did not even
+now say that it was kind, but met Elinor in silence, as, in her position
+as the not important member of the family, it was quite becoming for her
+to do.
+
+Then the Rector came in and took her by both hands, and gave her the
+most friendly greeting. "I heard Elinor's voice, and I stopped in the
+middle of my sermon," he said. "You will remark in church on Sunday a
+jerky piece, which shows how I stopped to reflect whether it could be
+you--and then went on for another sentence, and then decided that it
+must be you. There is a big Elinor written across my sermon paper." He
+laughed, but he was a little moved, to see, after the "coolness," the
+little girl whom he had christened come back to her old friends again.
+
+"She has come to ask us to go and see her things, papa," said Mrs.
+Hudson, twinkling an eye to get rid of a suspicion of a tear.
+
+"Am I to come, too?" said the Rector; and thus the little incident of
+the reconciliation was got over, to the great content of all.
+
+Elinor reflected to herself that they were really kind people, as she
+went out again into the grey afternoon where everything was getting up
+for rain. She made up her mind she would just have time to run into the
+Hills', at the Hurst, and leave her message, and so get home before the
+storm began. The clouds lay low like a dark grey hood over the fir-trees
+and moorland shaggy tops of the downs all round. There was not a break
+anywhere in the consistent grey, and the air, always so brisk, had
+fallen still with that ominous lull that comes over everything before
+a convulsion of nature. Some birds were still hurrying home into the
+depths of the copses with a frightened straightness of flight, as if
+they were afraid they would not get back in time, and all the insects
+that are so gay with their humming and booming had disappeared under
+leaves and stones and grasses. Elinor saw a bee burrowing deep in
+the waxen trumpet of a foxglove, as if taking shelter, as she walked
+quickly past. The Hills--there were two middle-aged sisters of them,
+with an old mother, too old for such diversion as the inspection of
+wedding-clothes, in the background--would scarcely let Elinor go out
+again after they had accepted her invitation with rapture. "I was just
+wondering where I should see the new fashions," said Miss Hill, "for
+though we are not going to be married we must begin to think about our
+winter things----" "And this will be such an opportunity," said Miss
+Susan, "and so good of you to come yourself to ask us."
+
+"What has she come to ask you to," said old Mrs. Hill; "the wedding? I
+told you girls, I was sure you would not be left out. Why, I knew her
+mother before she was married. I have known them all, man and boy, for
+nearer sixty than fifty years--before her mother was born! To have left
+you out would have been ridiculous. Yes, yes, Elinor, my dear; tell your
+mother they will come--delighted! They have been thinking for the last
+fortnight what bonnets they would wear----"
+
+"Oh, mother!" and "Oh, Elinor!" said the "girls," "you must not mind
+what mother says. We know very well that you must have worlds of people
+to ask. Don't think, among all your new connections, of such little
+country mice as us. We shall always just take the same interest in you,
+dear child, whether you find you can ask us or not."
+
+"But of course you are asked," said Elinor, in _gaiete de coeur_, not
+reflecting that her mother had begun to be in despair about the number
+of people who could be entertained in the cottage dining-room, "and you
+must not talk about my new grand connections, for nobody will ever be
+like my old friends."
+
+"Dear child!" they said, and "I always knew that dear Elinor's heart was
+in the right place." But it was all that Elinor could do to get free of
+their eager affection and alarm lest she should be caught in the rain.
+Both of the ladies produced waterproofs, and one a large pair of
+goloshes to fortify her, when it was found that she would go; and they
+stood in the porch watching her as she went along into the darkening
+afternoon, without any of their covers and shelters. The Miss Hills were
+apt to cling together, after the manner of those pairs of sweet sisters
+in the "Books of Beauty" which had been the delight of their youth; they
+stood, with arms intertwined, in their porch, watching Elinor as she
+hurried home, with her light half-flying step, like the belated birds.
+"Did you hear what she said about old friends, poor little thing?" "I
+wonder if she is finding out already that her new grand connections are
+but vanity!" they said, shaking their heads. The middle-aged sisters
+looked out of the sheltered home, which perhaps they had not chosen for
+themselves, with a sort of wistful feeling, half pity, perhaps half
+envy, upon the "poor little thing" who was running out so light-hearted
+into the storm. They had long ago retired into waterproofs and goloshes,
+and had much unwillingness to wet their feet--which things are a
+parable. They went back and closed the door, only when the first flash
+of lightning dazzled them, and they remembered that an open door is
+dangerous during a thunderstorm.
+
+Elinor quickened her pace as the storm began and got home breathless
+with running, shaking off the first big drops of thunder-rain from her
+dress. But she did not think of any danger, and sat out in the porch
+watching how the darkness came down on the combe; how it was met with
+the jagged gleam of the great white flash, and how the thunderous
+explosion shook the earth. The combe, with its hill-tops on either side,
+became like the scene of a battle, great armies, invisible in the sharp
+torrents of rain, meeting each other with a fierce shock and recoil,
+with now and then a trumpet-blast, and now the gleam that lit up tree
+and copse, and anon the tremendous artillery. When the lightning came
+she caught a glimpse of the winding line of the white road leading away
+out of all this--leading into the world where she was going--and for a
+moment escaped by it, even amid the roar of all the elements: then came
+back, alighting again with a start in the familiar porch, amid all the
+surroundings of the familiar life, to feel her mother's hand upon her
+shoulder, and her mother's voice saying, "Have you got wet, my darling?
+Did you get much of it? Come in, come in from the storm!"
+
+"It is so glorious, mamma!" Mrs. Dennistoun stood for a few minutes
+looking at it, then, with a shudder, withdrew into the drawing-room. "I
+think I have seen too many storms to like it," she said. But Elinor had
+not seen too many storms. She sat and watched it, now rolling away
+towards the south, and bursting again as though one army or the other
+had got reinforcements; while the flash of the explosions and the roar
+of the guns, and the white blast of the rain, falling like a sheet from
+the leaden skies, wrapped everything in mystery. The only thing that was
+to be identified from time to time was that bit of road leading out of
+it--leading her thoughts away, as it should one day lead her eager feet,
+from all the storm and turmoil out into the bright and shining world.
+Elinor never asked herself, as she sat there, a spectator of this great
+conflict of nature, whether that one human thing, by which her swift
+thoughts traversed the storm, carried any other suggestion as of coming
+back.
+
+Perhaps it is betraying feminine counsels too much to the modest public
+to narrate how Elinor's things were all laid out for the inspection of
+the ladies of the parish, the dresses in one room, the "under things" in
+another, and in the dining-room the presents, which everybody was doubly
+curious to see, to compare their own offerings with those of other
+people, or else to note with anxious eye what was wanting, in order, if
+their present had not yet been procured, to supply the gap. How to get
+something that would look well among the others, and yet not be too
+expensive, was a problem which the country neighbours had much and
+painfully considered. The Hudsons had given Elinor a little tea-kettle
+upon a stand, which they were painfully conscious was only plated, and
+sadly afraid would not look well among all the gorgeous articles with
+which no doubt her grand new connections had loaded her. The Rector came
+himself, with his ladies to see how the kettle looked, with a great line
+of anxiety between his brows; but when they saw that the revolving
+dishes beside it, which were the gift of the wealthy Lady Mariamne, were
+plated too, and not nearly such a pretty design, their hearts went up in
+instant exhilaration, followed a moment after by such indignation as
+they could scarcely restrain. "That rich sister, the woman who married
+the Jew" (which was their very natural explanation of the lady's
+nickname), "a woman who is rolling in wealth, and who actually made up
+the match!" This was crescendo, a height of scorn impossible to describe
+upon a mere printed page. "One would have thought she would have given
+a diamond necklace or something of consequence," said Mrs. Hudson in
+her husband's ear. "Or, at least silver," said the Rector. "These
+fashionable people, though they give themselves every luxury, have
+sometimes not very much money to spend; but silver, at least, she might
+have been expected to give silver." "It is simply disgraceful," said the
+Rector's wife. "I am glad, at all events, my dear," said he, "that our
+little thing looks just as well as any." "It is one of the prettiest
+things she has got," said Mrs. Hudson, with a proud heart. Lord St. Serf
+sent an old-fashioned little ring in a much worn velvet case, and the
+elder brother, Lord Lomond, an album for photographs. The Rector's
+wife indicated these gifts to her husband with little shrugs of her
+shoulders. "If that's all the family can do!" she said: "why Alice's
+cushion, which was worked with floss silks upon satin, was a more
+creditable present than that." The Miss Hills, who as yet had not had
+an opportunity, as they said, of giving their present, roamed about,
+curious, inspecting everything. "What is the child to do with a kettle,
+a thing so difficult to pack, and requiring spirit for the lamp, and all
+that--and only plated!" the Hills said to each other. "Now, that little
+teapot of ours," said Jane to Susan, "if mother would only consent to
+it, is no use to us, and would look very handsome here." "Real silver,
+and old silver, which is so much the rage, and a thing she could use
+every day when she has her visitors for afternoon tea," said Susan to
+Jane. "It is rather small," said Miss Hill, doubtfully. "But quite
+enough for two people," said the other, forgetting that she had just
+declared that the teapot would be serviceable when Elinor had visitors.
+But that was a small matter. Elinor, however, had other things better
+than these--a necklace, worth half a year's income, from John Tatham,
+which he had pinched himself to get for her that she might hold up her
+head among those great friends; and almost all that her mother possessed
+in the way of jewellery, which was enough to make a show among these
+simple people. "Her own family at least have done Elinor justice," said
+the Rector, going again to have a look at the kettle, which was the
+chief of the display to him. Thus the visitors made their remarks. The
+Hills did nothing but stand apart and discuss their teapot and the means
+by which "mother" could be got to assent.
+
+The Rector took his cup of tea, always with a side glance at the kettle,
+and cut his cake, and made his gentle jest. "If Alick and I come over in
+the night and carry them all off you must not be surprised," he said;
+"such valuable things as these in a little poor parish are a dreadful
+temptation, and I don't suppose you have much in the way of bolts and
+bars. Alick is as nimble as a cat, he can get in at any crevice, and
+I'll bring over the box for the collections to carry off the little
+things." This harmless wit pleased the good clergyman much, and he
+repeated it to all the ladies. "I am coming over with Alick one of these
+dark nights to make a sweep of everything," he said. Mr. Hudson retired
+in the gentle laughter that followed this, feeling that he had acquitted
+himself as a man ought who is the only gentleman present, as well as the
+Rector of the parish. "I am afraid I would not be a good judge of the
+'things,'" he said, "and for anything I know there may be mysteries not
+intended for men's eyes. I like to see your pretty dresses when you are
+wearing them, but I can't judge of their effect in the gross." He was a
+man who had a pleasant wit. The ladies all agreed that the Rector was
+sure to make you laugh whatever was the occasion, and he walked home
+very briskly, pleased with the effect of the kettle, and saying to
+himself that from the moment he saw it in Mappin's window he had felt
+sure it was the very thing.
+
+The other ladies were sufficiently impressed with the number and
+splendour of Elinor's gowns. Mrs. Dennistoun explained, with a humility
+which was not, I fear, untinctured by pride, that both number and
+variety were rendered necessary by the fact that Elinor was going upon a
+series of visits among her future husband's great relations, and would
+have to be much in society and among fine people who dressed very much,
+and would expect a great deal from a bride. "Of course, in ordinary
+circumstances the half of them would have been enough: for I don't
+approve of too many dresses."
+
+"They get old-fashioned," said Mrs. Hudson, gravely, "before they are
+half worn out."
+
+"And to do them up again is quite as expensive as getting new ones, and
+not so satisfactory," said the Miss Hills.
+
+The proud mother allowed both of these drawbacks, "But what could I do?"
+she said. "I cannot have my child go away into such a different sphere
+unprovided. It is a sacrifice, but we had to make it. I wish," she said,
+looking round to see that Elinor was out of hearing, "it was the only
+sacrifice that had to be made."
+
+"Let us hope," said the Rector's wife, solemnly, "that it will all turn
+out for the best."
+
+"It will do that however it turns out," said Miss Dale, who was even
+more serious than it was incumbent on a member of a clerical household
+to be, "for we all know that troubles are sent for our advantage as well
+as blessings, and poor dear Elinor may require much discipline----"
+
+"Oh, goodness, don't talk as if the poor child was going to be
+executed," said Susan Hill.
+
+"I am not at all alarmed," said Mrs. Dennistoun. It was unwise of her
+to have left an opening for any such remark. "My Elinor has always been
+surrounded by love wherever she has been. Her future husband's family
+are already very fond of her. I am not at all alarmed on Elinor's
+account."
+
+She laid the covering wrapper over the dresses with an air of pride and
+confidence which was remembered long afterwards--as the pride that goeth
+before a fall by some, but by others with more sympathy, who guessed the
+secret workings of the mother's heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Time went on quickly enough amid all these preparations and the little
+attendant excitements of letters, congratulations, and presents which
+came in on every side. Elinor complained mildly of the fuss, but it was
+a new and far from unpleasant experience. She liked to have the packets
+brought in by the post, or the bigger boxes that arrived from the
+station, and to open them and produce out of the wadding or the saw-dust
+one pretty thing after another. At first it was altogether fresh and
+amusing, this new kind of existence, though after a while she grew
+_blasee_, as may be supposed. Lady Mariamne's present she was a little
+ashamed of: not that she cared much, but because of the look on her
+mother's face when those inferior articles were unpacked; and at the
+ring which old Lord St. Serf sent her she laughed freely.
+
+"I will put it with my own little old baby rings in this little silver
+tray, and they will all look as if they were antiques, or something
+worth looking at," said Elinor. Happily there were other people who
+endowed her more richly with rings fit for a bride to wear. The
+relations at a distance were more or less pleased with Elinor's
+prospects. A few, indeed, from different parts of the world wrote in
+the vein of Elinor's home-advisers, hoping that it was not the Mr.
+Compton who was so well known as a betting man whom she was going to
+marry; but the fact that she was marrying into a noble family, and
+would henceforward be known as the Honourable Mrs. Compton, mollified
+even these critics. Only three brothers--one a great invalid, and two
+soldiers--between him and the title. Elinor's relations promptly
+inaugurated in their imaginations a great war, in which two noble
+regiments were cut to pieces, to dispose of the two Captains Compton;
+and as for the invalid, that he would obligingly die off was a
+contingency which nobody doubted--and behold Elinor Dennistoun Lady
+St. Serf! This greatly calmed criticism among her relations, who
+were all at a distance, and whose approval or disapproval did not
+much affect her spirits anyhow. John Tatham's father, Mrs. Dennistoun's
+cousin, was of more consequence, chiefly as being John's father, but
+also a little for himself, and it was remarked that he said not a
+word against the marriage, but sent a very handsome present, and many
+congratulations--chiefly inspired (but this Elinor did not divine) by an
+unfeigned satisfaction that it was not his son who was the bridegroom.
+Mr. Tatham, senr., did not approve of early marriages for young men
+pushing their way at the bar, unless the bride was, so to speak, in the
+profession and could be of use to her husband. Even in such cases, the
+young man was better off without a wife, he was of opinion. How could he
+get up his cases properly if he had to drag about in society at the tail
+of a gay young woman? Therefore he sent Elinor a very nice present in
+gratitude to her and providence. She was a danger removed out of his
+boy's way.
+
+All this kept a cheerful little commotion about the house, and often
+kept the mother and daughter from thinking more than was good for them.
+These extraneous matters did not indeed preserve Elinor altogether from
+the consciousness that her _fiance's_ letters were very short and a
+little uncertain in their arrival, sometimes missing several days
+together, and generally written in a hurry to catch the post. But they
+kept Mrs. Dennistoun from remarking that fact, as otherwise she would
+have been sure to do. If any chill of disappointment was in Elinor's
+mind, she said to herself that men were generally bad correspondents,
+not like girls, who had nothing else to do, and other consolations of
+this kind, which to begin with beg the question, and show the beginning
+of that disenchantment which ought to be reserved at least for a later
+period. Elinor had already given up a good deal of her own ideal. She
+would not, as she said, put herself in competition with the grouse, she
+would not give him the choice between her and a cigar; but already the
+consciousness that he preferred the grouse, and even a cigar, to her
+society, had come an unwilling intruder into Elinor's mind. She would
+not allow to herself that she felt it in either case. She said to
+herself that she was proud of it, that it showed the freedom and
+strength of a man, and that love was only one of many things which
+occupied his life. She rebelled against the other deduction that "'tis
+woman's sole existence," protesting loudly (to herself) that she too had
+a hundred things to do, and did not want him always at her apron-strings
+like a tame curate. But as a matter of fact, no doubt the girl would
+have been flattered and happy had he been more with her. The time was
+coming very quickly in which they should be together always, even when
+there was grouse in hand, when his wife would be invited with him, and
+all things would be in common between them; so what did it matter for a
+few days? The marriage was fixed for the 16th of September, and that
+great date was now scarcely a fortnight off. The excitement quickened as
+everything grew towards this central point. Arrangements had to be made
+about the wedding breakfast and where the guests were to be placed. The
+Hudsons had put their spare rooms at the disposition of the Cottage,
+and so had the Hills. The bridegroom was to stay at the Rectory.
+Lady Mariamne must of course, Mrs. Dennistoun felt, be put up at the
+Cottage, where the two rooms on the ground floor--what were called the
+gentlemen's rooms--had to be prepared to receive her. It was with a
+little awe indeed that the ladies of the Cottage endeavoured, by the aid
+of Elinor's recollections, to come to an understanding of what a fine
+lady would want even for a single night. Mrs. Dennistoun's experiences
+were all old-fashioned, and of a period when even great ladies were less
+luxurious than now; and it made her a little angry to think how much
+more was required for her daughter's future sister-in-law than had been
+necessary to herself. But after all, what had herself to do with it?
+The thing was to do Elinor credit, and make the future sister-in-law
+perceive that the Cottage was no rustic establishment, but one in which
+it was known what was what, and all the requirements of the most refined
+life. Elinor's bridesmaid, Mary Tatham, was to have the spare room
+up-stairs, and some other cousins, who were what Mrs. Dennistoun called
+"quiet people," were to receive the hospitalities of the Hills, whose
+house was roomy and old-fashioned. Thus the arrangements of the crisis
+were more or less settled and everything made smooth.
+
+Elinor and her mother were seated together in the drawing-room on one of
+those evenings of which Mrs. Dennistoun desired to make the most, as
+they would be the last, but which, as they actually passed, were--if not
+occupied with discussions of how everything was to be arranged, which
+they went over again and again by instinct as a safe subject--heavy,
+almost dull, and dragged sadly over the poor ladies whose hearts were so
+full, but to whom to be separated, though it would be bitter, would also
+at the same time almost be a relief. They had been silent for some time,
+not because they had not plenty to say, but because it was so difficult
+to say it without awaking too much feeling. How could they talk of the
+future in which one of them would be away in strange places, exposed to
+the risks and vicissitudes of a new life, and one of them be left alone
+in the unbroken silence, sitting over the fire, with nothing but that
+blaze to give her any comfort? It was too much to think of, much more
+to talk about, though it need not be said that it was in the minds of
+both--with a difference, for Elinor's imagination was most employed upon
+the brilliant canvas where she herself held necessarily the first place,
+with a sketch of her mother's lonely life, giving her heart a pang, in
+the distance; while Mrs. Dennistoun could not help but see the lonely
+figure in her own foreground, against the brightness of all the
+entertainments in which Elinor should appear as a queen. They were
+sitting thus, the mother employed at some fine needlework for the
+daughter, the daughter doing little, as is usual nowadays. They had been
+talking over Lady Mariamne and her requirements again, and had come to
+an end of that subject. What a pity that it was so hard to open the door
+of their two hearts, which were so close together, so that each might
+see all the tenderness and compunction in the other; the shame and
+sorrow of the mother to grudge her child's happiness, the remorse
+and trouble of the child to be leaving that mother out in all her
+calculations for the future! How were they to do it on either side? They
+could not talk, these poor loving women, so they were mostly silent,
+saying a word or two at intervals about Mrs. Dennistoun's work (which of
+course, was for Elinor), or of Elinor's village class for sewing, which
+was to be transferred to her mother, skirting the edges of the great
+separation which could neither be dismissed nor ignored.
+
+Suddenly Elinor looked up, holding up her finger. "What was that?" she
+said. "A step upon the gravel?"
+
+"Nonsense, child. If we were to listen to all these noises of the night
+there would always be a step upon---- Oh! I think I did hear something."
+
+"It is someone coming to the door," said Elinor, rising up with that
+sudden prevision of trouble which is so seldom deceived.
+
+"Don't go, Elinor; don't go. It might be a tramp; wait at least till
+they knock at the door."
+
+"I don't think it can be a tramp, mamma. It may be a telegram. It is
+coming straight up to the door."
+
+"It will be the parcel porter from the station. He is always coming and
+going, though I never knew him so late. Pearson is in the house, you
+know. There is not any cause to be alarmed."
+
+"Alarmed!" said Elinor, with a laugh of excitement; "but I put more
+confidence in myself than in Pearson, whoever it may be."
+
+She stood listening with a face full of expectation, and Mrs. Dennistoun
+put down her work and listened too. The step advanced lightly, scattering
+the gravel, and then there was a pause as if the stranger had stopped to
+reconnoitre. Then came a knock at the window, which could only have been
+done by a tall man, and the hearts of the ladies jumped up, and then
+seemed to stop beating. To be sure, there were bolts and bars, but
+Pearson was not much good, and the house was full of valuables and very
+lonely. Mrs. Dennistoun rose up, trembling a little, and went forward to
+the window, bidding Elinor go back and keep quite quiet. But here they
+were interrupted by a voice which called from without, with another
+knock on the window, "Nell! Nell!"
+
+"It is Phil," said Elinor, flying to the door.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun sat down again and said nothing. Her heart sank in her
+breast. She did not know what she feared; perhaps that he had come to
+break off the marriage, perhaps to hurry it and carry her child away.
+There was a pause as was natural at the door, a murmur of voices, a fond
+confusion of words, which made it clear that no breach was likely, and
+presently after that interval, Elinor came back beaming, leading her
+lover. "Here is Phil," she said, in such liquid tones of happiness as
+filled her mother with mingled pleasure, gratitude, and despite. "He has
+found he had a day or two to spare, and he has rushed down here, fancy,
+with an apology for not letting us know!"
+
+"She thinks everyone is like herself, Mrs. Dennistoun, but I am aware
+that I am not such a popular personage as she thinks me, and you have
+least reason of all to approve of the man who is coming to carry her
+away."
+
+"I am glad to see you, Mr. Compton," she said, gravely, giving him her
+hand.
+
+The Hon. Philip Compton was a very tall man, with very black hair. He
+had fine but rather hawk-like features, a large nose, a complexion too
+white to be agreeable, though it added to his romantic appearance. There
+was a furtive look in his big dark eyes, which had a way of surveying
+the country, so to speak, before making a reply to any question,
+like a man whose response depended upon what he saw. He surveyed Mrs.
+Dennistoun in this way while she spoke; but then he took her hand,
+stooped his head over it, and kissed it, not without grace. "Thank you
+very much for that," he said, as if there had been some doubt on his
+mind about his reception. "I was glad enough to get the opportunity, I
+can tell you. I've brought you some birds, Mrs. Dennistoun, and I hope
+you'll give me some supper, for I'm as hungry as a hawk. And now, Nell,
+let's have a look at you," the lover said. He was troubled by no false
+modesty. As soon as he had paid the required toll of courtesy to the
+mother, who naturally ought to have at once proceeded to give orders
+about his supper, he held Elinor at arm's length before the lamp, then,
+having fully inspected her appearance, and expressed by a "Charming, by
+Jove!" his opinion of it, proceeded to demonstrations which the presence
+of the mother standing by did not moderate. There are few mothers to
+whom it would be agreeable to see their child engulfed in the arms of a
+large and strong man, and covered with his bold kisses. Mrs. Dennistoun
+was more fastidious even than most mothers, and to her this embrace was
+a sort of profanation. The Elinor who had been guarded like a flower
+from every contact--to see her gripped in his arms by this stranger,
+made her mother glow with an indignation which she knew was out of the
+question, yet felt to the bottom of her soul. Elinor was abashed before
+her mother, but she was not angry. She forced herself from his embrace,
+but her blushing countenance was full of happiness. What a revolution
+had thus taken place in a few minutes! They had been so dull sitting
+there alone; alone, though each with the other who had filled her life
+for more than twenty years; and now all was lightened, palpitating with
+life. "Be good, sir," said Elinor, pushing him into a chair as if he had
+been a great dog, "and quiet and well-behaved; and then you shall have
+some supper. But tell us first where you have come from, and what put it
+into your head to come here."
+
+"I came up direct from my brother Lomond's shooting-box. Reply No. 1.
+What put it into my head to come? Love, I suppose, and the bright eyes
+of a certain little witch called Nell. I ought to have been in Ireland
+for a sort of a farewell visit there; but when I found I could steal two
+days, you may imagine I knew very well what to do with them. Eh? Oh,
+it's mamma that frightens you, I see."
+
+"It is kind of you to give Elinor two days when you have so many other
+engagements," said Mrs. Dennistoun, turning away.
+
+But he was not in the least abashed. "Yes isn't it?" he said; "my last
+few days of freedom. I consider I deserve the prize for virtue--to cut
+short my very last rampage; and she will not as much as give me a kiss!
+I think she is ashamed before you, Mrs. Dennistoun."
+
+"It would not be surprising if she were," said Mrs. Dennistoun, gravely.
+"I am old-fashioned, as you may perceive."
+
+"Oh, you don't need to tell me that," said he; "one can see it with half
+an eye. Come here, Nell, you little coquette: or I shall tell the Jew
+you were afraid of mamma, and you will never hear an end of it as long
+as you live."
+
+"Elinor, I think you had better see, perhaps, what there is to make up
+as good a meal as possible for Mr. Compton," said her mother, sitting
+down opposite to the stranger, whose long limbs were stretched over
+half the floor, with the intention of tripping up Elinor, it seemed;
+but she glided past him and went on her way--not offended, oh, not at
+all--waving her hand to him as she avoided the very choice joke of his
+stretched-out foot.
+
+"Mr. Compton," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "you will be Elinor's husband in
+less than a fortnight."
+
+"I hope so," he said, displaying the large cavern of a yawn under his
+black moustache as he looked her in the face.
+
+"And after that I will have no right to interfere; but, in the meantime,
+this is my house, and I hope you will remember that these ways are not
+mine, and that I am too old-fashioned to like them. I prefer a little
+more respect to your betrothed."
+
+"Oh, respect," he said. "I have never found that girls like too much
+respect. But as you please. Well, look here, Nell," he said, catching
+her by the arm as she came back and swinging her towards him, "your
+mother thinks I'm too rough with you, my little dear."
+
+"Do you, mamma?" said Elinor, faltering a little; but she had the
+sweetest rose-flush on her cheeks and the moisture of joy in her eyes.
+In all her twenty-three years she had never looked as she looked now.
+Her life had been a happy one, but not like this. She had been always
+beloved, and never had known for a day what it was to be neglected; yet
+love had never appeared to her as it did now, so sweet, nor life so
+beautiful. What strange delusion! what a wonderful incomprehensible
+mistake! or so at least the mother thought, looking at her beautiful
+girl with a pang at her heart.
+
+"It is only his bad manners," said Elinor, in a voice which sounded like
+a caress. "He knows very well how to behave. He can be as nice as any
+one, and as pretty spoken, and careful not to offend. It is only
+arriving so suddenly, and not being expected--or that he has forgotten
+his nice manners to-night. Phil, do you hear what I say?"
+
+Phil made himself into the semblance of a dog, and sat up and begged
+for pardon. It was a trick which made people "shriek with laughing;"
+but Mrs. Dennistoun's gravity remained unbroken. Perhaps her extreme
+seriousness had something in it that was rather ridiculous too. It was a
+relief when he went off to his supper, attended by Elinor, and Mrs.
+Dennistoun was left alone over her fire. She had a slight sense that she
+had been absurd, as well as that Philip Compton had lacked breeding,
+which did not make her more comfortable. Was it possible that she would
+be glad when it was all over, and her child gone--her child gone, and
+with that man! Her child, her little delicately bred, finely nurtured
+girl, who had been wrapped in all the refinements of life from her
+cradle, and had never heard a rough word, never been allowed to know
+anything that would disturb her virginal calm!--yet now in a moment
+passed away beyond her mother to the unceremonious wooer who had no
+reverence for her, none of the worship her mother expected. How strange
+it was! Yet a thing that happened every day. Mrs. Dennistoun sat over
+the fire, though it was not cold, and listened to the voices and
+laughter in the next room. How happy they were to be together! She did
+not, however, dwell upon the fact that she was alone and deserted, as
+many women would have done. She knew that she would have plenty of time
+to dwell on this in the lonely days to come. What occupied her was the
+want of more than manners, of any delicate feeling in the lover who had
+seized with rude caresses upon Elinor in her mother's presence, and the
+fact that Elinor did not object, nor dislike that it should be so. That
+she should feel forlorn was no wonderful thing; that did not disturb her
+mind. It was the other matter about Elinor that pained and horrified
+her, she could not tell why; which, perhaps, was fantastic, which,
+indeed, she felt sure must be so.
+
+They were so long in the dining-room, where Compton had his supper, that
+when that was over it was time to go to bed. Still talking and laughing
+as if they could never exhaust either the fountain of talk or the mirth,
+which was probably much more sheer pleasure in their meeting than
+genuine laughter produced by any wit or _bon mot_, they came out into
+the passage, and stood by Mrs. Dennistoun and the housemaid, who had
+brought her the keys and was now fastening the hall door. A little
+calendar hung on the wall beneath the lamp, and Phil Compton walked up
+to it and with a laugh read out the date. "Sixth September," he said,
+and turned round to Elinor. "Only ten days more, Nell." The housemaid
+stooping down over the bolt blushed and laughed too under her breath in
+sympathy; but Mrs. Dennistoun turning suddenly round caught Compton's
+eye. Why had he given that keen glance about him? There was nothing to
+call for his usual survey of the company in that sentiment. He might
+have known well enough what were the feelings he was likely to call
+forth. A keen suspicion shot through her mind. Suspicion of what? She
+could not tell. There was nothing that was not most natural in his
+sudden arrival, the delightful surprise of his coming, his certainty of
+a good reception. The wonder was that he had come so little, not that he
+should come now.
+
+The next morning the visitor made himself very agreeable: his raptures
+were a little calmed. He talked over all the arrangements, and entered
+into everything with the interest of a man to whom that great day
+approaching was indeed the greatest day in his life. And it turned out
+that he had something to tell which was of practical importance. "I may
+relieve your mind about Nell's money," he said, "for I believe my
+company is going to be wound up. We'll look out for another investment
+which will pay as well and be less risky. It has been found not to be
+doing quite so well as was thought, so we're going to wind up."
+
+"I hope you have not lost anything," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"Oh, nothing to speak of," he said, carelessly.
+
+"I am not fond of speculative companies. I am glad you are done with
+it," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"And I'm glad to be done with it. I shall look out for something
+permanent and decline joint-stock companies. I thought you would like
+to know. But that is the last word I shall say about business. Come,
+Nell, I have only one day; let's spend it in the woods."
+
+Elinor, who felt that the day in the woods was far more important than
+any business, hurried to get her hat and follow him to the door. It
+chanced to her to glance at the calendar as she passed hastily out to
+where he stood awaiting her in the porch. Why that should have happened
+to anyone in the Cottage twice in the twenty-four hours is a coincidence
+which I cannot explain, but so it was. Her eye caught the little white
+plaque in passing, and perceived with surprise that it had moved up two
+numbers, and that it was the figure 8 which was marked upon it now.
+
+"We cannot have slept through a day and night," she said, laughing as
+she joined him. "The calendar says the eighth September now."
+
+"But I arrived on the sixth," he said. "Mind that, Nell, whatever
+happens. You saw it with your own eyes. It may be of consequence to
+remember."
+
+"Of what consequence could it be?" said Elinor, wondering.
+
+"One can never tell. The only thing is I arrived on the sixth--that you
+know. And, Nell, my darling, supposing any fellow should inquire too
+closely into my movements, you'll back me up, won't you, and agree in
+everything I say?"
+
+"Who should inquire into your movements? There is no one here who would
+be so impertinent, Phil."
+
+"Oh," he said, "there is never any telling how impertinent people may
+be."
+
+"And what is there in your movements that any one dare inquire about? I
+hope you are not ashamed of coming to see me."
+
+"That is just what is the saving of me, Nell. I can't explain what I
+mean now, but I will later on. Only mind you don't contradict me if we
+should meet any inquisitive person. I arrived on the sixth, and you'll
+back me like my true love in everything I say."
+
+"As far as--as I know, Phil."
+
+"Oh, we must have no conditions. You must stand by me in everything I
+say."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+This day in the copse was one that Elinor never forgot. At the moment it
+seemed to her the most blissful period of all her life. There had been
+times in which she had longed that Phil knew more and cared more for the
+objects which had always been most familiar, and told for most in her
+own existence--although it is true that at first his very ignorance,
+real or assumed, his careless way of treating all intellectual subjects,
+his indifference to books and pictures, and even nature, had amused and
+pleased her, giving a piquancy to the physical strength and enjoying
+manhood, the perpetual activity and state of doing something in which he
+was. It was not a kind of life which she had ever known before, and it
+dazzled her with its apparent freedom and fulness, the variety in it,
+the constant movement, the crowd of occupations and people. To her who
+had been used to finding a great deal of her amusement in reading, in
+sketching (not very well), in playing (tunes), and generally practising
+with very moderate success arts for which she had no individual
+enthusiasm, it had seemed like a new life to be plunged into the society
+of horses and dogs, into the active world which was made up of a round
+of amusements, race meetings, days on the river, follies of every
+conceivable kind, exercise, and air, and movement. The ignorance of all
+these people dazzled her as if it had been a new science. It had seemed
+something wonderful and piquant to Elinor to find people who knew so
+much of subjects she had never heard of, and nothing at all of those she
+had been trained to know. And then there had come a moment when she had
+begun to sigh under her breath, as it were, and wish that Phil would
+sometimes open a book, that when he took up the newspaper he would look
+at something more than the sporting news and the bits of gossip, that he
+would talk now and then of something different from the racings and the
+startings, and the odds, and the scrapes other men got into, and the
+astonishing "frocks" of the Jew--those things, so wonderful at first,
+like a new language, absurd, yet amusing, came to be a little tiresome,
+especially when scraps of them made up the bulk of the very brief
+letters which Phil scribbled to his betrothed. But during this day,
+after his unexpected arrival, the joy of seeing him suddenly, the
+pleasure of feeling that he had broken through all his engagements to
+come to her, and the fervour of his satisfaction in being with her again
+(that very fervour which shocked her mother), Elinor's first glow of
+delight in her love came fully back. And as they wandered through the
+pleasant paths of the copse, his very talk seemed somehow changed, and
+to have gained just that little mingling of perception of her tastes and
+wishes which she had desired. There was a little autumnal mist about the
+softening haze which was not decay, but only the "mellow fruitfulness"
+of the poet; and the day, notwithstanding this, was as warm as June, the
+sky blue, with only a little white puff of cloud here and there. Phil
+paused to look down the combe, with all the folds of the downs that
+wrapped it about, going off in blue outlines into the distance, and said
+it was "a jolly view"--which amused Elinor more than if he had used the
+finest language, and showed that he was beginning (she thought) to care
+a little for the things which pleased her. "And I suppose you could see
+a man coming by that bit of road."
+
+"Yes," said Elinor, "you could see a man coming--or going: but, unless
+you were to make believe very strong, like the Marchioness, you could
+not make out who the man was."
+
+"What Marchioness?" said Phil. "I didn't know you had anybody with a
+title about here. I say, Nell, it's a very jolly view, but hideously
+dull for you, my pet, to have lived so long here."
+
+"I never found it in the least dull," she said.
+
+"Why, there is nothing to do! I suppose you read books, eh? That's what
+you call amusing yourself. You ought to have made the old lady take you
+about a deal, abroad, and all over the place: but I expect you have
+never stood up for yourself a bit, Nell."
+
+"Don't call mamma the old lady, Phil. She is not old, and far prettier
+than most people I know."
+
+"Well, she should have done it for herself. Might have picked up a good
+match, eh? a father-in-law that would have left you a pot of money. You
+don't mean to say you wouldn't have liked that?"
+
+"Oh, Phil, Phil! I wish you could understand."
+
+"Well, well, I'll let the old girl alone." And then came the point at
+which Phil improved so much. "Tell me what you've been reading last," he
+said. "I should like to know what you are thinking about, even if I
+don't understand it myself. I say, Nell, who do you think that can be
+dashing so fast along the road?"
+
+"It is the people at Reddown," she said. "I know their white horses.
+They always dash along as if they were in the greatest hurry. Do you
+really want to know what I have been reading, Phil? though it is very
+little, I fear, because of the dressmakers and--all the other things."
+
+"You see," he said, "when you have lots to do you can't keep up with
+your books: which is the reason why I never pretend to read--I have no
+time."
+
+"You might find a little time. I have seen you look very much bored, and
+complain that there was nothing to do."
+
+"Never when you were there, Nell, that I'll answer for--but of course
+there are times when a fellow isn't doing anything much. What would you
+have me read? There's always the _Sporting and Dramatic_, you know, the
+_Pink 'un_, and a few more."
+
+"Oh, Phil! you don't call them literature, I hope."
+
+"I don't know much about what you call literature. There's Ruff, and
+Hoyle, and--I say, Nell, there's a dog-cart going a pace! Who can that
+be, do you suppose?"
+
+"I don't know all the dog-carts about. I should think it was some one
+coming from the station."
+
+"Oh!" he said, and made a long pause. "Driving like that, if they don't
+break their necks, they should be here in ten minutes or so."
+
+"Oh, not for twice that time--the road makes such a round--but there is
+no reason to suppose that any dog-cart from the station should be coming
+here."
+
+"Well, to return to the literature, as you call it. I suppose I shall
+have to get a lot of books for you to keep you amused--eh, Nell? even in
+the honeymoon."
+
+"We shall not have time to read very much if we are moving about all the
+time."
+
+"Not me, but you. I know what you'll do. You'll go and leave me planted,
+and run up-stairs to read your book. I've seen the Jew do it with some
+of her confounded novels that she's always wanting to turn over to me."
+
+"But there are some novels that you would like to read, Phil."
+
+"Not a bit. Why, Nell, I know far better stories of fellows in our own
+set than any novel these writing men ever can put on paper: fellows, and
+women, too--stories that would make your hair stand on end, and that
+would make you die with laughing. You can't think what lots I know. That
+cart would have been here by this time if it had been coming here, eh?"
+
+"Oh, no, not yet--the road makes such a long round. Do you expect any
+one, Phil?"
+
+"I don't quite know; there's something on at that confounded office of
+ours; everything, you know, has gone to smash. I didn't think it well to
+say too much to the old lady last night. There's been a regular row, and
+the manager's absconded, and all turns on whether they can find some
+books. I shouldn't wonder if one of the fellows came down here, if they
+find out where I am. I say, Nell, mind you back me up whatever I say."
+
+"But I can't possibly know anything about it," said Elinor, astonished.
+
+"Never mind--about dates and that--if you don't stand by me, there may
+be a fuss, and the wedding delayed. Remember that, my pet, the wedding
+delayed--that's what I want to avoid. Now, come, Nell, let's have
+another go about the books. All English, mind you. I won't buy you any
+of the French rot. They're too spicy for a little girl like you."
+
+"I don't know what you mean, Phil. I hope you don't think that I read
+nothing but novels," Elinor said.
+
+"Nothing but novels! Oh, if you go in for mathematics and that sort of
+thing, Nell! the novels are too deep for me. Don't say poetry, if you
+love me. I could stand most things from you, Nell, you little
+darling--but, Nell, if you come spouting verses all the time----"
+
+His look of horror made Elinor laugh. "You need not be afraid. I never
+spout verses," she said.
+
+"Come along this way a little, where we can see the road. All women seem
+to like poetry. There's a few fellows I don't mind myself. Ingoldsby,
+now that's something fine. We had him at school, and perhaps it was the
+contrast from one's lessons. Do you know Ingoldsby, Nell?"
+
+"A--little--I have read some----"
+
+"Ah, you like the sentimental best. There's Whyte Melville, then,
+there's always something melancholy about him--'When the old horse
+died,' and that sort of thing--makes you cry, don't you know. You all
+like that. Certainly, if that dog-cart had been coming here it must have
+come by this time."
+
+"Yes, it must have come," Elinor admitted, with a little wonder at the
+importance which he gave to this possible incident. "But there is
+another train at two if you are very anxious to see this man."
+
+"Oh, I'm not anxious to see him," said Mr. Compton, with a laugh, "but
+probably he will want to see me. No, Nell, you will not expect me to
+read poetry to you while we're away. There's quite a library at Lomond's
+place. You can amuse yourself there when I'm shooting; not that I shall
+shoot much, or anything that takes me away from my Nell. But you must
+come out with us. There is no such fun as stumping over the moors--the
+Jew has got all the turn-out for that sort of thing--short frocks and
+knickerbockers, and a duck of a little breech-loader. She thinks she's a
+great shot, poor thing, and men are civil and let her imagine that she's
+knocked over a pheasant or a hare, now and then. As for the partridges,
+she lets fly, of course, but to say she hits anything----"
+
+"I should not want to hit anything," said Elinor. "Oh, please Phil! I
+will try anything else you like, but don't make me shoot."
+
+"You little humbug! See what you'll say when you get quite clear of the
+old lady. But I don't want you to shoot, Nell. If you don't get tired
+sitting at home, with all of us out on the hill, I like to come in for
+my part and find a little duck all tidy, not blowzy and blown about by
+the wind, like the Jew with her ridiculous bag, that all the fellows
+snigger at behind her back."
+
+"You should not let any fellow laugh at your sister, Phil----"
+
+"Oh, as for that! they are all as thick with her as I am, and why should
+I interfere? But I promise you nobody shall cut a joke upon my Nell."
+
+"I should hope not, indeed," said Elinor, indignant; "but as for your
+'fellows,' Phil, as you call them, you mustn't be angry with me, but I
+don't much like those gentlemen; they are a little rude and rough. They
+shall not call me by my Christian name, or anything but my own
+formal----"
+
+"Mrs. Compton," he said, seizing her in his arms, "you little duck!
+they'll be as frightened of you as if you were fifty. But you mustn't
+spoil good company, Nell. I shall like you to keep them at a distance,
+but you mustn't go too far; and, above all, my pet, you mustn't put out
+the Jew. I calculate on being a lot there; they have a nice house and a
+good table, and all that, and Prestwich is glad of somebody to help
+about his horses. You mustn't set up any of your airs with the Jew."
+
+"I don't know what you mean by my airs, Phil."
+
+"Oh, but I do, and they're delicious, Nell: half like a little girl and
+half like a queen: but it will never do to make the Jew feel small in
+her own set. Hallo! there's some one tumbling alone over the stones on
+that precious road of yours. I believe it's that cart from the station
+after all."
+
+"No," said Elinor, "it is only one of the tradespeople. You certainly
+are anxious about those carts from the station, Phil."
+
+"Not a bit!" he said, and then, after a moment, he added, "Yes, on the
+whole, I'd much rather the man came, if he's coming while I'm here, and
+while you are with me, Nell; for I want you to stick to me, and back me
+up. They might think I ought to go after that manager fellow and spoil
+the wedding. Therefore mind you back me up."
+
+"I can't think, dear Phil, what there is for me to do. I know nothing
+about the business nor what has happened. You never told me anything,
+and how can I back you up about things I don't know?"
+
+"Oh, yes, you can," he said, "you'll soon see if the fellow comes; just
+you stand by me, whatever I say. You mayn't know--or even I may seem to
+make a mistake; but you know me if you don't know the circumstances, and
+I hope you can trust me, Nell, that it will be all right."
+
+"But----" said Elinor, confused.
+
+"Don't go on with your buts; there's a darling, don't contradict me.
+There is nothing looks so silly to strangers as a woman contradicting
+every word a fellow says. I only want you to stand by me, don't you
+know, that's all; and I'll tell you everything about it after, when
+there's time."
+
+"Tell me about it now," said Elinor; "you may be sure I shall be
+interested; there's plenty of time now."
+
+"Talk about business to you! when I've only a single day, and not half
+time enough, you little duck, to tell you what a darling you are, and
+how I count every hour till I can have you all to myself. Ah, Nell,
+Nell, if that day were only here----"
+
+And then Phil turned to those subjects and those methods which cast so
+much confusion into the mind of Mrs. Dennistoun, when practised under
+her sedate and middle-aged eyes. But Elinor, as has been said, did not
+take exactly the same view.
+
+Presently they went to luncheon, and Phil secured himself a place at
+table commanding the road. "I never knew before how jolly it was," he
+said, "though everything is jolly here. And that peep of the road must
+give you warning when any invasion is coming."
+
+"It is too far off for that," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"Oh, no, not for sharp eyes. Nell there told me who several people
+were--those white horses--the people at--where did you say, Nell?"
+
+"Reddown, mamma--the Philistines, as you call them, that are always
+dashing about the country--_nouveaux riches_, with the finest horses in
+the county."
+
+"I like the _nouveaux riches_ for that," said Phil (he did not go wrong
+in his French, which was a great consolation to Elinor), "they like to
+have the best of everything. Your poor swell has to take what he can
+get, but the _parvenu's_ the man in these days; and then there was a
+dog-cart, which she pronounced to be from the station, but which turned
+out to be the butcher, or the baker, or the candle-stick maker----"
+
+"It is really too far off to make sure of anything, except white
+horses."
+
+"Ah, there's no mistaking them. I see something sweeping along, but
+that's a country wagon, I suppose. It gives me a great deal of diversion
+to see the people on the road--which perhaps you will think a vulgar
+amusement."
+
+"Not at all," said Mrs. Dennistoun, politely, but she thought within
+herself how empty the brain must be which sought diversion from the
+distant carriages passing two miles off: to be sure across the combe,
+as the crow flies, it was not a quarter part so far as that.
+
+"Phil thinks some one may possibly come to him on business--to explain
+things," said Elinor, anxious on her part to make it clear that it was
+not out of mere vacancy that her lover had watched so closely the
+carriages on the road.
+
+"Unfortunately, there is something like a smash," he said; "they'll keep
+it out of the papers if they can, but you may see it in the papers; the
+manager has run away, and there's a question about some books. I don't
+suppose you would understand--they may come to me here about it, or they
+may wait till I go back to town."
+
+"I thought you were going to Ireland, Phil."
+
+"So I shall, probably, just for three days--to fill up the time. One
+wants to be doing something to keep one's self down. You can't keep
+quiet and behave yourself when you are going to be married in a week:
+unless you're a little chit of a girl without any feelings," he said
+with a laugh. And Elinor laughed too; while Mrs. Dennistoun sat as grave
+as a judge at the head of the table. But Phil was not daunted by her
+serious face: so long as the road was quite clear he had all the
+appearance of a perfectly easy mind.
+
+"We have been talking about literature," he said. "I am a stupid fellow,
+as perhaps you know, for that sort of thing. But Nell is to indoctrinate
+me. We mean to take a big box of books, and I'm to be made to read
+poetry and all sorts of fine things in my honeymoon."
+
+"That is a new idea," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "I thought Elinor meant to
+give up reading, on the other hand, to make things square."
+
+There was a little breath of a protest from Elinor. "Oh, mamma!" but she
+left the talk (he could do it so much better) in Compton's hand.
+
+"I expect to figure as a sort of prodigy in my family," he said; "we're
+not bookish. The Jew goes in for French novels, but I don't intend to
+let Nell touch them, so you may be easy in your mind."
+
+"I have no doubt Lady Mariamne makes a good selection," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun.
+
+"Not she! she reads whatever comes, and the more salt the better. The
+Jew is quite an emancipated person. Don't you think she'll bore you
+rather in this little house? She carries bales of rubbish with her
+wherever she goes, and her maid, and her dog, and I don't know what. If
+I were you I'd write, or better wire, and tell her there's a capital
+train from Victoria will bring her here in time for the wedding, and
+that it's a thousand pities she should disturb herself to come for the
+night."
+
+"If your sister can put up with my small accommodation, I shall of
+course be happy to have her, whatever she brings with her," Mrs.
+Dennistoun said.
+
+"Oh! it's not a question of putting up--she'd be delighted, I'm sure:
+but I think you'll find her a great bore. She is exceedingly fussy when
+she has not all her things about her. However, you must judge for
+yourself. But if you think better of it, wire a few words, and it'll be
+all right. I'm to go to the old Rectory, Nell says."
+
+"It is not a particularly old Rectory; it is a very nice, pleasant
+house. I think you will find yourself quite comfortable--you and the
+gentleman----"
+
+"Dick Bolsover, who is going to see me through it: and I daresay I
+should not sleep much, if I were in the most luxurious bed in the world.
+They say a man who is going to be hanged sleeps like a top, but I don't
+think I shall; what do you say, Nell?"
+
+"Elinor, I should think, could have no opinion on the subject," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun, pale with anger. "You will all dine here, of course.
+Some other friends are coming, and a cousin, Mr. Tatham, of Tatham's
+Cross."
+
+"Is that," said Phil, "the Cousin John?"
+
+"John, I am sorry to say, is abroad; the long vacation is the worst
+time. It is his father who is coming, and his sister, Mary Tatham, who
+is Elinor's bridesmaid--she and Miss Hudson at the Rectory."
+
+"Only two; and very sensible, instead of the train one sees, all
+thinking how best to show themselves off. Dick Bolsover is man enough to
+tackle them both. He expects some fun, I can tell you. What is there to
+be after we are gone, Nell?" He stopped and looked round with a laugh.
+"Rather close quarters for a ball," he said.
+
+"There will be no ball. You forget that when you take Elinor away I
+shall be alone. A solitary woman living in a cottage, as you remark,
+does not give balls. I am much afraid that there will be very little fun
+for your friend."
+
+"Oh, he'll amuse himself well enough; he's the sort of fellow who always
+makes himself at home. A Rectory will be great fun for him; I don't
+suppose he was ever in one before, unless perhaps when he was a boy at
+school. Yes, as you say--what a lot of trouble it will be for you to
+be sure: not as if Nell had a sister to enjoy the fun after. It's a
+thousand pities you did not decide to bring her up to town, and get
+us shuffled off there. You might have got a little house for next
+to nothing at this time of the year, and saved all the row, turning
+everything upside down in this nice little place, and troubling yourself
+with visitors and so forth. But one always thinks of that sort of thing
+too late."
+
+"I should not have adopted such an expedient in any case. Elinor must be
+married among her own people, wherever her lot may be cast afterwards.
+Everybody here has known her ever since she was born."
+
+"Ah, that's a thing ladies think of, I suppose," said Compton. He had
+stuck his glass into his eye and was gazing out of the window. "Very
+jolly view," he continued. "And what's that, Nell, raising clouds of
+dust? I haven't such quick eyes as you."
+
+"I should think it must be a circus or a menagerie, or something,
+mamma."
+
+"Very likely," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "They sometimes come this way on
+the road to Portsmouth, and give little representations in all the
+villages, to the great excitement of the country folk."
+
+"We are the country folk, and I feel quite excited," said Phil, dropping
+his glass. "Nell, if there's a representation, you and I will go
+to-night."
+
+"Oh, Phil, what----" Elinor was about to say folly: but she paused,
+seeing a look in his eye which she had already learned to know, and
+added "fun," in a voice which sounded almost like an echo of his own.
+
+"There is nothing like being out in the wilderness like this to make one
+relish a little fun, eh? I daresay you always go. The Jew is the one for
+every village fair within ten miles when she is in the country. She says
+they're better than any play. Hallo! what is that?"
+
+"It is some one coming round the gravel path."
+
+A more simple statement could not be, but it made Compton strangely
+uneasy. He rose up hastily from the table. "It is, perhaps, the man I am
+looking for. If you'll permit me, I'll go and see."
+
+He went out of the room, calling Elinor by a look and slight movement of
+his head, but when he came out into the hall was met by a trim clerical
+figure and genial countenance, the benign yet self-assured looks of the
+Rector of the Parish: none other could this smiling yet important
+personage be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+The Rector came in with his smiling and rosy face. He was, as many of
+his parishioners thought, a picture of a country clergyman. Such a
+healthy colour, as clear as a girl's, limpid blue eyes, with very light
+eyelashes and eyebrows; a nice round face, "beautifully modelled,"
+according to Miss Sarah Hill, who did a little in that way herself, and
+knew how to approve of a Higher Sculptor's work. And then the neatest
+and blackest of coats, and the whitest and stiffest of collars. Mr.
+Hudson, I need scarcely say, was not so left to himself as to permit his
+clerical character to be divined by means of a white tie. He came in, as
+was natural among country neighbours, without thinking of any bell or
+knocker on the easily opened door, and was about to peep into the
+drawing-room with "Anybody in?" upon his smiling lips, when he saw a
+gentleman approaching, picking up his hat as he advanced. Mr. Hudson
+paused a moment in uncertainty. "Mr. Compton, I am sure," he said,
+holding out both of his plump pink hands. "Ah, Elinor too! I was
+sure I could not be mistaken. And I am exceedingly glad to make your
+acquaintance." He shook Phil's hand up and down in a sort of see-saw.
+"Very glad to make your acquaintance! though you are the worst enemy
+Windyhill has had for many a day--carrying off the finest lamb in all
+the fold."
+
+"Yes, I'm a wolf, I suppose," said Phil. He went to the door and took a
+long look out while Elinor led the Rector into the drawing-room. Then
+Mr. Compton lounged in after them, with his hands in his pockets, and
+placed himself in the bow-window, where he could still see the white
+line across the combe of the distant road.
+
+"They'll think I have stolen a march upon them all, Elinor," said the
+Rector, "chancing upon Mr. Compton like this, a quite unexpected
+pleasure. I shall keep them on the tenterhooks, asking them whom they
+suppose I have met? and they will give everybody but the right person.
+What a thing for me to have been the first person to see your intended,
+my dear! and I congratulate you, Elinor," said the Rector, dropping his
+voice; "a fine handsome fellow, and such an air! You are a lucky girl--"
+he paused a little and said, with a slight hesitation, in a whisper, "so
+far as meets the eye."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Hudson, don't spoil everything," said Elinor, in the same tone.
+
+"Well, I cannot tell, can I, my dear?--the first peep I have had." He
+cleaved his throat and raised his voice. "I believe we are to have the
+pleasure of entertaining you, Mr. Compton, on a certain joyful occasion
+(joyful to you, not to us). I need not say how pleased my wife and I
+and the other members of the family will be. There are not very many of
+us--we are only five in number--my son, and my daughter, and Miss Dale,
+my wife's sister, but much younger than Mrs. Hudson--who has done us the
+pleasure of staying with us for part of the year. I think she has met
+you somewhere, or knows some of your family, or--something. She is a
+great authority on noble families. I don't know whether it is because
+she has been a good deal in society, or whether it is out of
+Debrett----"
+
+"Nell, come and tell me what this is," Compton said.
+
+"Oh, Phil! it is nothing, it is a carriage. I don't know what it is. Be
+civil to the Rector, please."
+
+"So I am, perfectly civil."
+
+"You have not answered a single word, and he has been talking to you for
+ten minutes."
+
+"Well, but he hasn't said anything that I can answer. He says Miss
+Something or other knows my family. Perhaps she does. Well, much good
+may it do her! but what can I say to that? I am sure I don't know hers.
+I didn't come here to be talked to by the Rector. Could we slip out and
+leave him with your mother? That would suit his book a great deal
+better. Come, let's go."
+
+"Oh! he is speaking to you, Phil."
+
+Compton turned round and eyed the Rector. "Yes?" he said in so marked an
+interrogative that Mr. Hudson stopped short and flushed. He had been
+talking for some time.
+
+"Oh! I was not precisely asking a question," he said, in his quiet
+tones. "I was saying that we believe and hope that another gentleman is
+coming with you--for the occasion."
+
+"Dick Bolsover," said Compton, "a son of Lord Freshfield's; perhaps Miss
+----, the lady you were talking of, may know his family too. His brother
+got a little talked of in that affair about Fille d'Or, don't you know,
+at Newmarket. But Dick is a rattling good fellow, doesn't race, and has
+no vices. He is coming to stand by me and see that all's right."
+
+"We shall be happy to see Mr. Bolsover, I am sure." The Rector rubbed
+his hands and said to himself with pleasure that two Honourables in his
+quiet house was something to think of, and that he hoped it would not
+turn the heads of the ladies, and make Alice expect--one couldn't tell
+what. And then he said, by way of changing yet continuing the subject,
+"I suppose you've been looking at the presents. Elinor must have shown
+you her presents."
+
+"By Jove, I never thought of the presents. Have you got a lot, Nell?"
+
+"She has got, if I may be allowed to answer for her, having known her
+all her life, a great many pretty things, Mr. Compton. We are not rich,
+to be sure, her old friends here. We have to content ourselves with but
+a small token of a great deal of affection; but still there are a number
+of pretty things. Elinor, what were you thinking of, my dear, not to
+show Mr. Compton the little set out which you showed us? Come, I should
+myself like to look them over again."
+
+Phil gave another long look at the distant road, and then he thrust his
+arm into Elinor's and said, "To be sure, come along, Nell. It will be
+something to do." He did not wait for the Rector to pass first, which
+Elinor thought would have been better manners, but thrust her before him
+quite regardless of the older people. "Let's see the trumpery," he said.
+
+"Don't use such a word, Phil: the Rector will be so hurt."
+
+"Oh, will he? did he work you an--antimacassar or something?"
+
+"Phil, speak low at least. No, but his daughter did; and they gave
+me----"
+
+"I know: a cardcase or a button-hook, or something. And how many
+biscuit-boxes have you got, and clocks, and that sort of thing? I advise
+you to have an auction as soon as we get away. Hallo! that's a nice
+little thing; look pretty on your pretty white neck I should say, Nell.
+Who gave you that?" He took John's necklace out of its box where it had
+lain undisturbed until now, and pulled it through his fingers. "Cost a
+pretty bit of money that, I should say. You can raise the wind on it
+when we're down on our luck, Nell."
+
+"My cousin John, whom you have heard me speak of, gave me that, Phil,"
+said Elinor, with great gravity. She thought it necessary, she could
+scarcely tell why, to make a stand for her cousin John.
+
+"Ah, I thought it was one of the disappointed ones," said Phil, flinging
+it back carelessly onto the bed of white velvet where it had been fitted
+so exactly. "That's how they show their spite; for of course I can't
+give you anything half as good as that."
+
+"There was no disappointment in the matter," said Elinor, almost angry
+with the misconceptions of her lover.
+
+"You are a nice one," said Compton, taking her by the chin, "to tell me!
+as if I didn't know the world a long sight better than you do, my little
+Nell."
+
+The Rector, who was following slowly, for he did not like to go up-stairs
+in a hurry, saw this attitude and drew back, a little scandalized.
+"Perhaps we were indiscreet to--to follow them too closely," he said,
+disconcerted. "Please to go in first, Mrs. Dennistoun--the young couple
+will not mind you."
+
+Mr. Hudson was prim; but he was rather pleased to see that "the young
+couple" were, as he said, so fond of each other. He went into the room
+under the protection of the mother--blushing a little. It reminded him,
+as he said afterwards, of his own young days; but it was only natural
+that he should walk up direct to the place where his kettle stood
+conspicuous, waiting only the spark of a match to begin to boil the
+water for the first conjugal tea. It appeared to him a beautiful
+idea as he put his head on one side and looked at it. It was like the
+inauguration of the true British fireside, the cosy privacy in which,
+after the man had done his work, the lady awaited him at home, with the
+tea-kettle steaming. A generation before Mr. Hudson there would have
+been a pair of slippers airing beside the fire. But neither of these
+preparations supply the ideal of perfect happiness now.
+
+"I say, where did you get these hideous things?" said Compton,
+approaching the table on which "the silver" was laid out. By a special
+dispensation it was Lady Mariamne's dishes which caught Phil's
+attention. "Some old grandmother, I suppose, that had 'em in the house.
+Hallo! if it isn't the Jew! Nell, you don't mean to tell me you got
+these horrors from the Jew?"
+
+"They are supposed to be--quite handsome," said Elinor, with a
+suppressed laugh. "We must not criticise. It is very kind of people to
+send presents at all. We all know it is a very severe tax--to those who
+have a great many friends----"
+
+"The stingy old miser," said Compton. "Rolling in money, and to send you
+these! By Jove! there's a neat little thing now that looks what it is;
+probably one of your nice country friends, Nell----" (It was the kettle,
+as a kind Providence decreed; and both the ladies breathed an internal
+thanksgiving.) "Shows like a little gem beside that old, thundering,
+mean-spirited Jew!"
+
+"That," said the Rector, bridling a little and pink with pleasure, "is
+our little offering: and I'm delighted to think that it should please so
+good a judge. It was chosen with great care. I saw it first myself,
+and the idea flashed upon me--quite an inspiration--that it was the
+very thing for Elinor; and when I went home I told my wife--the very
+thing--for her boudoir, should she not be seeing company--or just for
+your little teas when you are by yourselves. I could at once imagine the
+dear girl looking so pretty in one of those wonderful white garments
+that are in the next room."
+
+"Hallo!" said Compton, with a laugh, "do you show off your things in
+this abandoned way, Nell, to the killingest old cov----"
+
+She put her hand up to his mouth with a cry of dismay and laughter, but
+the Rector, with a smile and another little blush, discreetly turned his
+back. He was truly glad to see that they were so fond of each other, and
+thought it was pretty and innocent that they should not mind showing
+it--but it was a little embarrassing for an old and prim clergyman to
+look on.
+
+"What a pleasure it must be to you, my dear lady," he said when the
+young couple had gone: which took place very soon, for Phil soon grew
+tired of the presents, and he was ill at ease when there was no window
+from which he could watch the road--"what a pleasure to see them so much
+attached! Of course, family advantage and position is always of
+importance--but when you get devoted affection, too----"
+
+"I hope there is devoted affection," said Mrs. Dennistoun; "at all
+events, there is what we are all united in calling 'love,' for the
+present. He is in love with Elinor--I don't think there can be much
+doubt of that."
+
+"I did not of course know that he was here," said the Rector, with some
+hesitation. "I came with the intention of speaking--I am very sorry to
+see in the papers to-day something about that Joint-Stock Company of
+which Mr. Compton was a director. It's rather a mysterious paragraph:
+but it's something about the manager having absconded, and that some of
+the directors are said to be involved."
+
+"Do you mean my future son-in-law?" she said, turning quickly upon him.
+
+"Good heavens, no! I wouldn't for the world insinuate---- It was only
+that one felt a desire to know. Just upon the eve of a marriage
+it's--it's alarming to hear of a business the bridegroom is involved in
+being--what you may call broken up."
+
+"That was one of the things Mr. Compton came to tell us about," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun. "He said he hoped it might be kept out of the papers,
+but that some of the books have got lost or destroyed. I am afraid I
+know very little about business. But he has lost very little--nothing to
+speak of--which was all that concerned me."
+
+"To be sure," said the Rector, but in a tone not so assured as his
+words. "It is not perhaps quite a nice thing to be director of a company
+that--that collapses in this way. I fear some poor people will lose
+their money. I fear there will be things in the papers."
+
+"On what ground?" she said. "Oh, I don't deny there may be some one to
+blame; but Mr. Compton was, I suspect, only on the board for the sake of
+his name. He is not a business man. He did it, as so many do, for the
+sake of a pretence of being in something. And then, I believe, the
+directors got a little by it; they had a few hundreds a year."
+
+"To be sure," said Mr. Hudson, but still doubtfully; and then he
+brightened up. "For my part, I don't believe there is a word of truth in
+it. Since I have seen him, indeed, I have quite changed my opinion--a
+fine figure of a man, looking an aristocrat every inch of him. Such a
+contrast and complement to our dear Elinor--and so fond of her. A man
+like that would never have a hand in any sham concern. If it was really
+a bogus company, as people say, he must be one of the sufferers. That is
+quite my decided opinion; only the ladies, you know--the ladies who have
+not seen him, and who are so much more suspicious by nature (I don't
+know that you are, my dear Mrs. Dennistoun), would give me no rest. They
+thought it was my duty to interfere. But I am sure they are quite
+wrong."
+
+To think that it was the ladies of the Rector's family who were
+interfering made Mrs. Dennistoun very wroth. "Next time they have
+anything to say, you should make them come themselves," she said.
+
+"Oh, they would not do that. They say it is the clergyman's business,
+not theirs. Besides, you know, I have not time to read all the papers.
+We get the _Times_, and Mary Dale has the _Morning Post_, and another
+thing that is all about stocks and shares. She has such a head for
+business--far more than I can pretend to. She thought----"
+
+"Mr. Hudson, I fear I do not wish to know what was thought by Miss
+Dale."
+
+"Well, you are, perhaps, right, Mrs. Dennistoun. She is only a woman,
+of course, and she may make mistakes. It is astonishing, though, how
+often she is right. She has a head for business that might do for a
+Chancellor of the Exchequer. She made me sell out my shares in that Red
+Gulch--those American investments have most horrible names--just a week
+before the smash came, all from what she had read in the papers. She
+knows how to put things together, you see. So I have reason to be
+grateful to her, for my part."
+
+"And what persuaded you, here at Windyhill, a quiet clergyman, to put
+money in any Red Gulch? It is a horrible name!"
+
+"Oh, it was Mary, I suppose," said Mr. Hudson. "She is always looking
+out for new investments. She said we should all make our fortunes. We
+did not, unfortunately. But she is so clever, she got us out of it with
+only a very small loss indeed."
+
+"No doubt she is very clever. I wish, though, that she would let us know
+definitely on what ground----"
+
+"Oh, there is no ground," cried the Rector. "Now that I have seen Mr.
+Compton I am certain of it. I said to her before I left the Rectory,
+'Now, my dear Mary, I am going like a lamb to the slaughter. I have no
+reason to give if Mrs. Dennistoun should ask me, and you have no reason
+to give. And she will probably put me to the door.' If I said that
+before I started, you may fancy how much more I feel it now, when I have
+made Mr. Compton's acquaintance. A fine aristocratic face, and all the
+ease of high breeding. There are only three lives--and those not very
+good ones--between him and the title, I believe?"
+
+"Two robust brothers, and an invalid who will probably outlive them all;
+that is, I believe, the state of the case."
+
+"Dear me, what a pity!" said the Rector, "for our little Elinor would
+have made a sweet little Countess. She would grow a noble lady, like the
+one in Mr. Tennyson's poem. Well, now I must be going, and I am
+extremely glad to have been so lucky as to come in just in time. It has
+been the greatest pleasure to me to see them together--such a loving
+couple. Dear me, like what one reads about, or remembers in old days,
+not like the commonplace pairs one has to do with now."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun accompanied the Rector to the garden gate. She was half
+inclined to laugh and half to be angry, and in neither mood did Mr.
+Hudson's insinuations which he made so innocently have much effect
+upon her mind. But when she took leave of him at the gate and came
+slowly back among her brilliant flower-beds, pausing here and there
+mechanically to pick off a withered leaf or prop up the too heavy head
+of a late rose; her mind began to take another turn. She had always been
+conscious of an instinctive suspicion in respect to her daughter's
+lover. Probably only, she said to herself, because he was her daughter's
+lover, and she was jealous of the new devotion that withdrew from her so
+completely the young creature who had been so fully her own. That is a
+hard trial for a woman to undergo. It is only to be borne when she, too,
+is fascinated by her future son-in-law, as happens in some fortunate
+cases. Otherwise, a woman with an only child is an alarming critic to
+encounter. She was not fascinated at all by Phil. She was disappointed
+in Elinor, and almost thought her child not so perfect as she had
+believed, when it proved that she could be fascinated by this man. She
+disliked almost everything about him--his looks, the very air which the
+Rector thought so aristocratic, his fondness for Elinor, which was not
+reverential enough to please the mother, and his indifference, nay,
+contempt, for herself, which was not calculated to please any woman. She
+had been roused into defence of him in anger at the interference, and at
+the insinuation which had no proof; but as that anger died away, other
+thoughts came into her mind. She began to put the broken facts together
+which already had roused her to suspicion: his sudden arrival, so
+unexpected; walking from the station--a long, very long walk--carrying
+his own bag, which was a thing John Tatham did, but not like Phil
+Compton. And then she remembered, suddenly, his anxiety about the
+carriage on the distant road, his care to place himself where he could
+see it. She had thought with a little scorn that this was a proof of his
+frivolity, of the necessity of seeing people, whoever these people might
+be. But now there began to be in it something that could have a deeper
+meaning. For whom was he looking? Who might be coming? Stories she had
+heard of fugitives from justice, of swindlers taking refuge in the
+innocence of their families, came up into her mind. Could it be possible
+that Elinor's pure name could be entangled in such a guilty web as this?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+"Funny old poop!" said Compton. "And that is your Rector, Nell. I shall
+tell Dick there's rare fun to be had in that house: but not for me. I
+know what I shall be thinking of all the time I'm there. Odious little
+Nell! to interfere like this with a fellow's fun. But I say, who's that
+woman who knows me or my family?--much good may it do her, as I said
+before. Tell me, Nell, did she speak ill of me?"
+
+"Oh, Phil, how could you ask? or what would it matter if she spoke ever
+so ill?"
+
+"She did then," he said with a graver face. "Somebody was bound to do
+it. And what did she say?"
+
+"Oh, what does it matter, Phil? I don't remember; nothing of any
+consequence. We paid no attention, of course, neither mamma nor I."
+
+"That was plucky of the old girl," said Compton. "I didn't suppose you
+would give ear, my Nell. Ain't so sure about her. If I'd been your
+father, my pet, I should never have given you to Phil Compton. And
+that's the fact: I wonder if the old lady would like to reconsider the
+situation now."
+
+"Phil!" said Elinor, clinging to his arm.
+
+"Perhaps it would be best for you if you were to do so, Nell, or if she
+were to insist upon it. Eh! You don't know me, my darling, that's the
+fact. You're too good to understand us. We're all the same, from the old
+governor downwards--a bad lot. I feel a kind of remorseful over you,
+child, to-day. That rosy old bloke, though he's a snob, makes a man
+think of innocence somehow. I do believe you oughtn't to marry me,
+Nell."
+
+"Oh, Phil! what do you mean? You cannot mean what you say."
+
+"I suppose I don't, or I shouldn't say it, Nell. I shouldn't certainly,
+if I thought you were likely to take my advice. It's a kind of luxury to
+tell you we're a bad lot, and bid you throw me over, when I know all
+along you won't."
+
+"I should think not indeed," she said, clinging to him and looking up in
+his face. "Do you know what my cous--I mean a friend, said to me on that
+subject?"
+
+"You mean your cousin John, whom you are always quoting. Let's hear what
+the fellow said."
+
+"He said--that I wasn't a girl to put up with much, Phil. That I wasn't
+one of the patient kind, that I would not bear---- I don't know what it
+was I would not bear; but you see you must consider my defects, which
+you can understand well enough, whether I can understand yours or not."
+
+"That you could not put up with--that you could not bear? that meant me,
+Nell. He had been talking to you on the same subject, me and my faults.
+Why didn't you listen to him? I suppose he wanted you to have him
+instead of me."
+
+"Phil! how dare you even think of such a thing? It is not true."
+
+"Wasn't it? Then he is a greater fool than I took him for, and his
+opinion's no good. So you're a spitfire, are you? Can't put up with
+anything that doesn't suit you? I don't know that I should have found
+that out."
+
+"I am afraid though that it is true," she said, half-laughingly looking
+up at him. "Perhaps you will want to reconsider too."
+
+"If you don't want it any more than I want it, Nell---- What's that?" he
+cried hastily, changing his expression and attitude in a moment. "Is
+that one of your neighbours at the gate?"
+
+Elinor looked round, starting away a little from his side, and saw some
+one--a man she had never seen before--approaching along the path. She
+was just about to say she did not know who it was when Phil, to her
+astonishment, stepped past her, advancing to meet the newcomer. But as
+he did so he put out his hand and caught her as he passed, leading her
+along with him.
+
+"Mind what I said, and stick to me," he said, in a whisper; then--
+
+"Stanfield!" he cried with an air of perfect ease and cordiality, yet
+astonishment. "I thought it looked like you, but I could not believe my
+eyes."
+
+"Mr. Compton!" said the other. "So you are here. I have been hunting
+after you all over the place. I heard only this morning this was a
+likely spot."
+
+"A very likely spot!" said Phil. "I suppose you know the good reason I
+have for being in these parts. Elinor, this is Mr. Stanfield, who has to
+do with our company, don't you know. But I say, Stanfield, what's all
+this row in the papers? Is it true that Brown's bolted? I should have
+taken the first train to see if I could help; but my private affairs are
+most urgent just at this moment, as I suppose you know."
+
+"I wish you had come," said the other; "it would have looked well, and
+pleased the rest of the directors. There has been some queer
+business--some of the books abstracted or destroyed, we can't tell
+which, and no means of knowing how we stand."
+
+"Good Heavens!" said Phil, "to cover that fellow's retreat."
+
+"It you mean Brown, it was not he. They were all there safe enough after
+he was gone; somebody must have got in by night and made off with them,
+some one that knew all about the place; the watchman saw a light, but
+that's all. It's supposed there must have been something compromising
+others besides Brown. He could not have cheated the company to such an
+extent by himself."
+
+"Good Heavens!" cried Phil again in natural horror; "I wish I had
+followed my impulse and gone up to town straight: but it was very vague
+what was in the papers; I hoped it might not have been our place at all.
+And I say, Stanfield--who's the fellow they suspect?" Elinor had
+disengaged herself from Compton's arm; she perceived vaguely that the
+stranger paused before he replied, and that Phil, facing him with a
+certain square attitude of opposition which affected her imagination
+vaguely, though she did not understand why--was waiting with keen
+attention for his reply. She said, a little oppressed by the situation,
+"Phil, perhaps I had better go."
+
+"Don't go," he said; "there's nothing secret to say. If there's anyone
+suspected it must very soon be known."
+
+"It's difficult to say who is suspected," said the stranger, confused.
+"I don't know that there's much evidence. You've been in Scotland?"
+
+"Yes, till the other day, when I came down here to see----" He paused
+and turned upon Elinor a look which gave the girl the most curious
+incomprehensible pang. It was a look of love; but, oh! heaven, was it a
+look called up that the other man might see? He took her hand in his,
+and said lightly yet tenderly, "Let's see, what day was it? the sixth,
+wasn't it the sixth, Nell?"
+
+A flood of conflicting thoughts poured through Elinor's mind. What did
+it mean? It was yesterday, she was about to say, but something stopped
+her, something in Phil's eye--in the touch of his hand. There was
+something warning, almost threatening, in his eye. Stand by me; mind you
+don't contradict me; say what I say. All these things which he had
+repeated again and again were said once more in the look he gave her.
+"Yes," she said timidly, with a hesitation very unlike Elinor, "it was
+the sixth." She seemed to see suddenly as she said the words that
+calendar with the date hanging in the hall: the big 6 seemed to hang
+suspended in the air. It was true, though she could not tell how it
+could be so.
+
+"Oh," said Stanfield, in a tone which betrayed a little surprise, and
+something like disappointment, "the sixth? I knew you had left Scotland,
+but we did not know where you had gone."
+
+"That's not to be wondered at," said Phil, with a laugh, "for I should
+have gone to Ireland, to tell the truth; I ought to have been there now.
+I'm going to-morrow, ain't I, Nell? I had not a bit of business to be
+here. Winding up affairs in the bachelor line, don't you know; but I had
+to come on my way west to see this young lady first. It plays the deuce
+and all with one's plans when there's such a temptation in the way."
+
+"You could have gone from Scotland to Ireland," said Stanfield, gravely,
+"without coming to town at all."
+
+"Very true, old man. You speak like a book. But, as you perceive, I have
+not gone to Ireland at all; I am here. Depends upon your motive, I
+suppose, which way you go."
+
+"It is a good way roundabout," said the other, without relaxing the
+intent look on his face.
+
+"Well," said Phil, "that's as one feels. I go by Holyhead wherever I may
+be--even if I had nowhere else to go to on the way."
+
+"And Mr. Compton got here on the sixth?--this is the eighth," said the
+stranger, pointedly. He turned to Elinor, and it seemed to the girl that
+his eyes, though they were not remarkable eyes, went through and through
+her. He spoke very slowly, with a curious meaning. "But it was on the
+sixth, you say, that he got here?"
+
+That big 6 on the calendar stood out before her eyes; it seemed to cover
+all the man's figure that stood before her. Elinor's heart and mind went
+through the strangest convulsion. Was it false--was it true? What was
+she saying? What did it all mean? She repeated mechanically, "It was on
+the sixth," and then she recovered a kind of desperate courage, and
+throwing off the strange spell that seemed to be upon her, "Is there any
+reason," she asked, suddenly, with a little burst of impatience, looking
+from one to another, "why it should not be the sixth, that you repeat it
+so?"
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the stranger, visibly startled. "I did not
+mean to imply--only thought----Pray, Mr. Compton, tell the lady I had no
+intention of offending. I never supposed----"
+
+Phil's laugh, loud and clear, rang through the stillness of the afternoon.
+"He's so used to fibs, he thinks everybody's in a tale," said Phil, "but
+I can assure you he is a very good fellow, and a great friend of mine,
+and he means no harm, Nell."
+
+Elinor made Mr. Stanfield an extremely dignified bow. "I ought to have
+gone away at once, and left you to talk over your business," she said,
+turning away, and Phil did not attempt to detain her. Then the natural
+rural sense of hospitality came over Elinor. She turned back to find the
+two men looking after her, standing where she had left them. "I am
+sure," she said, "that mamma would wish me to ask the gentleman if he
+would stay to dinner--or at least come in with you, Phil, to tea."
+
+Mr. Stanfield took off his hat with anxious politeness, and exclaimed
+hastily that he must go back to town by the next train, and that the cab
+from the station was waiting to take him. And then she left them, and
+walked quietly away. She was almost out of hearing before they resumed
+their conversation; that is, she was beyond the sound, not of their
+voices, but of what they said. The murmur of the voices was still
+audible when she got to her favourite seat on the side of the copse
+looking down the combe. It was a very retired and silent place, not
+visible from either the cottage or the garden. And there Elinor took
+refuge in the quiet and hush of the declining day. She was in a great
+tremor of agitation and excitement as she sat down upon the rustic
+seat--so great a tremor that she had scarcely been able to walk steadily
+down the roughly-made steps--a tremor which had grown with every step
+she took. She did not in the least understand the transaction in which
+she had been engaged. It was something altogether strange to her
+experiences, without any precedent in her life. What was it she had been
+called upon to do? What had she said, and why had she been made to say
+it? Her heart beat so that she put her two hands upon it crossed over
+her breast to keep it down, lest it should burst away. She had the
+sensation of having been brought before some tribunal, put suddenly
+to the last shift, made to say--what, what? She was so bewildered
+that she could not tell. Was it the truth, said with the intention to
+deceive--was it----? She could not tell. There was that great numeral
+wavering in the air, stalking along with her like a ghost. 6--. She had
+read it in all innocence, they had all read it, and nobody had said it
+was wrong. No one was very careful about the date in the cottage. If it
+was right, if it was wrong, Elinor could not tell. But yet somehow she
+was conscious that the man to whom she had spoken had been deceived.
+And Phil! and Phil! what had he meant, adjuring her to stick to him, to
+stand by him, not to contradict him? Elinor's mind was in such a wild
+commotion that she could not answer these inquiries. She could not feel
+that she had one solid step of ground to place herself upon in the
+whirlwind which swept her about and about. Had she--lied? And why had he
+asked her to lie? And what, oh, what did it all mean?
+
+One thing that at last appeared to her in the chaos which seemed like
+something solid that she could grasp at was that Phil had never changed
+in his aspect. The other man had been very serious, staring at her as if
+to intimidate her, like a man who had something to find out; but Phil
+had been as careless, as indifferent, as he appeared always to be. He
+had not changed his expression. It is true there was that look in which
+there was at once an entreaty and a command--but only she had seen
+that, and perhaps it was merely the emotion, the excitement, the strange
+feeling of having to face the world for him, and say----what, what?
+Was it simply, the truth, nothing but the truth, or was it---- Again
+Elinor's mind began to whirl. It was the truth: she could see now that
+big 6 on the calendar distinct as the sunshine. And yet it was only
+yesterday--and there was 8 this morning. Had she gone through an
+intervening dream for a whole day without knowing it; or had she,
+Elinor--she who would not have done it to save her life--told--a lie for
+Phil? And why should he want her to tell a lie?
+
+Elinor got up from her seat, and stood uncertain, with a cold dew on her
+forehead, and her hands clasping and holding each other. Should she go
+back to them and say there must be some mistake--that though she had
+said the truth it was not true, that there was some mistake, some
+dreadful mistake! There was no longer any sound of voices where she was.
+The whole incident seemed to have died out. The sudden commotion of
+Phil's visit and everything connected with it had passed away. She was
+alone in the afternoon, in the hush of nature, looking over the combe,
+listening to the rustle of the trees, hearing the bees drone homeward.
+Had Phil ever been here at all? Had he watched the distant road winding
+over the slopes for some one whom he had expected to come after him all
+the time? Had he ever told her to stand by him? to say what he said, to
+back him up? Had there ever been another man standing with that big 6
+wavering between her and him like a ghost? Had all that been at all, or
+was it merely a foolish dream? And ought she to go back now, and find
+the man before he disappeared, and tell him it was all true, yet somehow
+a dreadful, dreadful mistake?
+
+Elinor sat down again abruptly on her seat, and put her handkerchief to
+her forehead and pushed back the damp clusters of her hair, turning her
+face to the wind to get a little refreshment and calm, if that were
+possible. She heard in the sunny distance behind her, where the garden
+and the peaceful house lay in the light, the clang of the gate, a sound
+which could not be mistaken. The man then had gone--if there was
+anything to rectify in what she said it certainly could not be rectified
+now--he was gone. The certainty came to her with a feeling of relief. It
+had been horrible to think of standing before the two men again and
+saying--what could she have said? She remembered now that it was not her
+assertion alone, but that it all hung together, a whole structure of
+incidents, which would be put wrong if she had said it was a mistake--a
+whole account of Phil's time, how it had been passed--which was quite
+true, which he had told them on his arrival; how he had been going to
+Ireland, and had stopped, longing for a glimpse of her, his bride,
+feeling that he must have her by him, see her once again before he came
+for her to fetch her away. He had told the ladies at the cottage the
+very same, and of course it was true. Had he not come straight from
+Scotland with his big bundle of game, the grouse and partridges which
+had already been shared with all the friends about? Was he not going off
+to Ireland to-morrow to fulfil his first intention? It was all quite
+right, quite true, hanging perfectly together--except that curious
+falling out of a day. And then again Elinor's brain swam round and
+round. Had he been two days at the cottage instead of one, as he said?
+Was it there that the mistake lay? Had she been in such a fool's
+paradise having him there, that she had not marked the passage of
+time--had it all been one hour of happiness flying like the wind? A
+blush, partly of sweet shame to think that this was possible, that she
+might have been such a happy fool as to ignore the divisions of night
+and day, and partly of stimulating hope that such might be the case, a
+wild snatch at justification of herself and him flushed over her from
+head to foot, wrapping her in warmth and delight; and then this all
+faded away again and left her as in ashes--black and cold. No!
+everything, she saw, now depended upon what she had been impelled to
+say; the whole construction, Phil's account of his time, his story of
+his doings--all would have fallen to pieces had she said otherwise.
+Body and soul, Elinor felt herself become like a machine full of
+clanging wheels and beating pistons, her heart, her pulses, her breath,
+all panting, beating, bursting. What did it mean? What did it mean? And
+then everything stood still in a horrible suspense and pause.
+
+She began to hear voices again in the distance and raised her head,
+which she had buried in her hands--voices that sounded so calmly in the
+westering sunshine, one answering another, everything softened in the
+golden outdoor light. At first as she raised herself up she thought with
+horror that it was the man, the visitor whom she had supposed to be
+gone, returning with Phil to give her the opportunity of contradicting
+herself, of bringing back that whirlwind of doubt and possibility. But
+presently her excited senses perceived that it was her mother who was
+walking calmly through the garden talking with Phil. There was not a
+tone of excitement in the quiet voices that came gradually nearer and
+nearer, till she could hear what they were saying. It was Phil who was
+speaking, while her mother now and then put in a word. Elinor did not
+wish on ordinary occasions for too many private talks between her mother
+and Phil. They rubbed each other the wrong way, they did not understand
+each other, words seemed to mean different things in their comprehension
+of them. She knew that her lover would laugh at "the old girl," which
+was a phrase which offended Elinor deeply, and Mrs. Dennistoun would
+become stiffer and stiffer, declaring that the very language of the
+younger generation had become unintelligible to her. But to hear them
+now together was a kind of anodyne to Elinor, it stayed and calmed
+her. The cold moisture dried from her forehead. She smoothed her hair
+instinctively with her hand, and put herself straight in mind as she did
+with that involuntary action in outward appearance, feeling that no sign
+of agitation, no trouble of demeanour must meet her mother's eye. And
+then the voices came so near that she could hear what they were saying.
+They were coming amicably together to her favourite retreat.
+
+"It's a very queer thing," said Phil, "if it is as they think, that
+somebody went there the night before last and cleared off the books.
+Well, not all the books, some that are supposed to contain the secret
+transactions. Deucedly cleverly done it must have been, if it was done
+at all, for nobody saw the fellow, or fellows, if there were more than
+one----"
+
+"Why do you doubt?" said Mrs. Dennistoun. "Is there any way of
+accounting for it otherwise?"
+
+"Oh, a very good way--that Brown, the manager, simply took them with
+him, as he would naturally do, if he wasn't a fool. Why should he go off
+and leave papers that would convict him, for the pleasure of involving
+other fellows, and ruining them too?"
+
+"Are there others, then, involved with him?" Oh, how calm, how
+inconceivably calm, was Mrs. Dennistoun's voice! Had she been asking the
+gardener about the slugs that eat the young plants it would have been
+more disturbed.
+
+"Well, Stanfield seemed to think so. He's a sort of head clerk, a fellow
+enormously trusted. I shouldn't wonder if he was at the bottom of it
+himself, they're so sure of him," said Phil, with a laugh. "He says
+there's a kind of suspicion of two or three. Clumsy wretches they must
+be if they let themselves be found out like that. But I don't believe
+it. I believe Brown's alone in it, and that it's him that's taken
+everything away. I believe it's far the safest way in those kind of
+dodges to be alone. You get all the swag, and you're in no danger of
+being rounded on, don't you know--till you find things are getting too
+hot, and you cut away."
+
+"I don't understand the words you use, but I think I know what you
+mean," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "How dreadful it is to think that in
+business, where honesty is the very first principle, there should be
+such terrible plots and plans as those!"
+
+"'Tis awful, isn't it?" said Phil, with a laugh that seemed to ring all
+down the combe, and came back in echoes from the opposite slope, where
+in the distance the cab from the station was seen hastening back towards
+the railway in a cloud of dust. The laugh was like a trumpet of triumph
+flung across the distance at the discomfited enemy thus going off
+drooping in the hurry of defeat. He added, "But you may imagine, even if
+I had known anything, he wouldn't have got much out of me. I didn't know
+anything, however, I'm very glad to say."
+
+"That is always the best," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a certain grave
+didactic tone. "And here is Elinor, as I thought. When one cannot find
+her anywhere else she's sure to be found here."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"Well," said Compton, placing himself beside her, "here you are, Nell;
+kind of the old lady to bring me, wasn't it? I should never have found
+you out by myself."
+
+"Has he gone, Phil?" Elinor raised her scared face from her hands, and
+gave him a piteous look.
+
+"Why, Nell! you are trembling like a leaf. Was it frightened, my pretty
+pet, for Stanny? Stanny's gone off with his tail between his legs. Not a
+bit of starch left in him. As limp a lawyer as ever you saw."
+
+"Was he a lawyer?" she said, not knowing why she said it, for it
+mattered nothing at all to Elinor what the man was.
+
+"Not exactly; and yet, I suppose, something of the kind. He is the one
+that knows about law points, and such things. But now he's as quiet as a
+lamb, thanks to you."
+
+"Phil," she cried, "what did you make me say? I don't know what I have
+done. I have done something dreadful--deceived the man, as good as told
+him a lie."
+
+"You told him the truth," said Phil, with a laugh, "in the most
+judgmatical way. You stuck to it like a--woman. There's nothing like a
+woman for sticking to a text. You didn't say a word too much. And I say,
+Nell, that little defiant bit of yours--'Was there any reason why it
+shouldn't be the sixth?' was grand. That was quite magnificent, my pet.
+I never thought you had such spirit in you."
+
+"Oh, Phil," she cried, "why did you make me say it? What was it I said?
+I don't know; I don't understand a bit. Whatever it was, I know that it
+was wrong. I deceived the man."
+
+"That's not so great a sin," he said. "I've known worse things done. Put
+an old reynard off the scent to save his prey. I don't see what's wrong
+in that, especially as the innocent chicken to be saved was your own
+poor old Phil."
+
+"Phil, Phil," she cried, "what could that man have done to you? What had
+put you in his power? You have made me lose all my innocence. I have got
+horrible things in my head. What could he have done to you that you made
+me tell a lie?"
+
+"What lie did I make you tell? be reasonable; I did arrive on the sixth,
+you know that just as well as I do. Don't you really remember the
+calendar in the hall? You saw it, Nell, as well as I."
+
+"I know, I know," she cried, putting her hands up to her eyes, "I see it
+everywhere staring at me, that big, dreadful 6. But how is it the 8th
+now? There is something in it--something I don't understand."
+
+He laughed loudly and long: one of those boisterous laughs which always
+jarred upon Elinor. "I don't in the least mind how it was," he said. "It
+was, and that's quite enough for me; and let it be for you too, Nell. I
+hope you're not going to search into the origin of things like this;
+we've quite enough to do in this world to take things as they come."
+
+"Oh, Phil! if at least I could understand--I don't understand: or if I
+had not been made to say what is so mysterious--what must be false."
+
+"Hush, Nell; how could it be false when you saw with your own eyes it
+was true? Now let us be done with this, my darling. The incident is
+terminated, as the French say. I came here as fast as I could come to
+have a good laugh with you over it, and lo! you're nearer crying. Why
+should you have Stanny on your conscience, Nell? a fellow that would
+like no better than to hang me if he could get the chance."
+
+"But Phil, Phil--oh, tell me, what could this man have done to you? Why
+are you afraid of him? Why, why have you made me tell him----"
+
+"Now, Nell, no exaggerated expression. It was a fact you told him,
+according to the best of evidence; and what he could have done to me is
+just this--he might have given me a deal of trouble, and put off our
+marriage. I should have had to go back to town, and my time would have
+been taken up with finding out about those books, and our marriage would
+have been put off; that's what he could have done."
+
+"Is that all?" cried Elinor, "was that all?"
+
+"All!" he said, with that loud laugh again; "you don't mind a bit how
+you hurt a fellow's pride, and his affections, and all that. Do you mean
+to say, you hard-hearted little coquette, that you wouldn't mind? I
+don't believe you would mind! Here am I counting the hours, and you, you
+little cold puss, you aggravating little----"
+
+"Oh, Phil, don't talk such nonsense. If we were to be separated, for a
+week or a month, what could that matter, in comparison with saying what
+wasn't----"
+
+"Hush," he said, putting his hand to her mouth. "It's not nice of you
+to take it so easily, Nell. I'd tell as many what-d'ye-call-'ems as
+you like, rather than put it off an hour. Why, feeling apart (and I
+don't think you've any feeling, you little piece of ice), think how
+inconvenient it would have been; the people all arriving; the breakfast
+all ready; the Rector with his surplice on; and no wedding! Fancy the
+Jew with all her fallals, on the old lady's hands, and your cousin
+John----"
+
+"I have told you already, Phil, my cousin John will not be there."
+
+"So much the better," he said, with a laugh, "I don't want him to be
+there--shows his sense, when his nose is put out of joint, to keep out
+of the way."
+
+"I wish you would understand," she said, with a little vexation, "that
+John is not put out of joint, as you say in that odious way. He has
+never been anything more to me, nor I to him, than we are now--like
+brother and sister."
+
+"The more fool he," said Compton, "to have the chance of a nice girl
+like you, Nell, and not to go in for it. But I don't believe a bit in
+the brother and sister dodge."
+
+"We will be just the same all our lives," cried Elinor.
+
+"Not if I know it," said Phil. "I'm an easy-going fellow in most ways,
+but you'll find I'm an old Turk about you, my little duck of a Nell. No
+amateur brother for me. If you can't get along with your old Phil,
+without other adorers----"
+
+"Phil! as if I should ever think or care whether there was another man
+in the world!"
+
+"Oh, that's going too far," he said, laughing. "I shan't mind a little
+flirtation. You may have a man or two in your train to fetch and carry,
+get your shawl for you, and call your carriage, and so forth; but no
+serious old hand, Nell--nothing to remind you that there was a time when
+you didn't know Phil Compton." His laugh died away at this point, and
+for a moment his face assumed that grave look which changed its
+character so much. "If you don't come to repent before then that you
+ever saw that fellow's ugly face, Nell----"
+
+"Phil, how could I ever repent? Nobody but you should dare to say such a
+thing to me!"
+
+"I believe that," he said. "If that old John of yours tried it on----
+Well, my pet, he is your old John. You can't change facts, even if you
+do throw the poor fellow over. Now, here's a new chance for all of them,
+Nell. I shouldn't wonder a bit if you had another crop of letters
+bidding you look before you leap. That Rectory woman, what's her name?
+that knows my family. You'll see she'll have some new story before we're
+clear of her. They'll never stop blackguarding me, I know, until you're
+Phil Compton yourself, my beauty. I wish that day was come. I'm afraid
+to go off again and leave you, Nell. They'll be putting something into
+your head, or the old lady's. Let's get it over to-morrow morning, and
+come to Ireland with me; you've never been there."
+
+"Phil, what nonsense! mamma would go out of her senses."
+
+"My pet, what does it matter? She'd come back to them again as soon as
+we were gone, and think what a botheration spared her! All the row of
+receiving people, turning the house upside down. And here I am on the
+spot. And what do you want with bridesmaids and so forth? You've got all
+your things. Suppose we walk out to church to-morrow before breakfast,
+Nell----"
+
+"Phil, you are mad, I think; and why should we do such a thing,
+scandalizing everybody? But of course you don't mean it. You are excited
+after seeing that man."
+
+"Excited about Stanny!--not such a fool; Stanny is all square, thanks
+to---- But what I want is just to take you up in my arms, like this, and
+run off with you, Nell. Why we should call the whole world to watch us
+while we take that swing off--into space."
+
+"Phil!"
+
+"So it is, for you, Nell. You don't know a bit what's going to happen.
+You don't know where I'm going to take you, and what I'm going to do
+with you, you little innocent lamb in the wolf's grip. I want to eat you
+up, straight off. I shall be afraid up to the last moment that you'll
+escape me, Nell."
+
+"I did not know that you were so fond of innocence," said Elinor, half
+afraid of her lover's vehemence, and trying to dispel his gravity with a
+laugh. "You used to say you did not believe in the _ingenue_."
+
+"I believe in you," he said, with an almost fierce pressure of her arm;
+then, after a pause, "No, I don't believe in women at all, Nell, only
+you. They're rather worse than men, which is saying a good deal. What
+would the Jew care if we were all drawn and quartered; so long as she
+had all her paraphernalia about her and got everything she wanted? For
+right-down selfishness commend me to a woman. A fellow may have gleams
+of something better about him, like me, warning you against myself."
+
+"It is a droll way of warning me against yourself to want to carry me
+off to-morrow."
+
+"It's all the same thing," he said. "I've warned you that those old hags
+are right, and I'm not good enough for you, not fit to come near you,
+Nell. But if the sacrifice is to be, let's get it over at once, don't
+let us stand and think of it. I'm capable of jilting you," he said,
+"leaving you _plante la_, all out of remorse of conscience; or else just
+catching you up in my arms, like this, and carrying you off, never to be
+seen more."
+
+"You are very alarming," said Elinor. "I don't know what you mean. You
+can be off with your bargain if you please, Phil; but you had better
+make up your mind at once, so that mamma may countermand her invitations,
+and stop Gunter from sending the cake."
+
+(It was Gunter who was the man in those days. I believe people go to
+Buszard now.)
+
+He gave her again a vehement hug, and burst into a laugh. "I might jilt
+you, Nell; such a thing is on the cards. I might leave you in the lurch
+at the church door; but when you talk of countermanding the cake, I
+can't face that situation. Society would naturally be up in arms about
+that. So you must take your chance like the other innocents. I'll eat
+you up as gently as I can, and hide my tusks as long as it's possible.
+Come on, Nell, don't let us sit here and get the mopes, and think of our
+consciences. Come and see if that show is in the village. Life's better
+than thinking, old girl."
+
+"Do you call the show in the village, life?" she said, half pleased to
+rouse him, half sorry to be thus carried away.
+
+"Every show is life," said Phil, "and everywhere that people meet is
+better than anywhere where you're alone. Mind you take in that axiom,
+Nell. It's our rule of life, you know, among the set you're marrying
+into. That's how the Jew gets on. That's how we all get on. By this time
+next year you'll be well inured into it like all the rest. That's what
+your Rector never taught you, I'll be bound; but you'll see the old
+fellow practises it whenever he has a chance. Why, there they begin,
+tootle-te-too. Come on, Nell, and don't let us lose the fun."
+
+He drew her along hastily, hurrying while the flute and the drum began
+to perform their parts. Sound spreads far in that tranquil country,
+where no railway was visible, and where the winds for the moment were
+still. It was Pan's pipes that were being played, attracting a few
+stragglers from the scattered houses. Within a hundred yards from the
+church, at the corner of four roads, stood the Bull's Head, with a
+cottage or two linked on to its long straggling front. And this was all
+that did duty for a village at Windyhill. The Rectory stood back in its
+own copse, surrounded by a growth of young birches and oak near the
+church. The Hills dwelt intermediate between the Bull's Head and the
+ecclesiastical establishment. The school and schoolmaster's house were
+behind the Bull. The show was surrounded by the children of the place,
+who looked on silent with ecstasy, while a burly showman piped his pipes
+and beat his drum. A couple of ostlers, with their shirt-sleeves rolled
+up to their shoulders, and one of them with a pail in his hand, stood
+arrested in their work. And in the front of the spectators was Alick
+Hudson, a sleepy-looking youth of twenty, who started and took his hands
+out of his pockets at sight of Elinor. Mr. Hudson himself came walking
+briskly round the corner, swinging his cane with the air of a man who
+was afraid of being too late.
+
+"Didn't I tell you?" said Compton, pressing Elinor's arm.
+
+As the tootle-te-too went on, other spectators appeared--the two Miss
+Hills, one putting on her hat, the other hastily buttoning her jacket as
+they hurried up. "Oh, you here, Elinor! What fun! We all run as if we
+were six years old. I'm going to engage the man to come round and do it
+opposite Rosebank to amuse mother. She likes it as much as any of us,
+though she doesn't see very well, poor dear, nor hear either. But we
+must always consider that the old have not many amusements," said the
+elder Miss Hill.
+
+"Though mother amuses herself wonderfully with her knitting," said Miss
+Sarah. "There's a sofa-cover on the stocks for you, Elinor."
+
+It appeared to be only at this moment that the sisters became aware of
+the presence of "the gentleman" by whom Elinor stood. They had been too
+busy with their uncompleted toilettes to observe him at first. But now
+that Miss Hill's hat was settled to her satisfaction, and the blue veil
+tied over her face as she liked it to be, and Miss Sarah had at last
+succeeded, after two false starts, in buttoning her jacket straight,
+their attention was released for other details. They both gave a glance
+over Elinor at the tall figure on the other side, and then looked at
+each other with a mutual little "Oh!" and nod of recognition. Then Miss
+Hill took the initiative as became her dignity. "I hope you are going to
+introduce us to your companion, Elinor," she said. "Oh, Mr. Compton, how
+do you do? We are delighted to make your acquaintance, I am sure. It is
+charming to have an opportunity of seeing a person of so much importance
+to us all, our dear Elinor's intended. I hope you know what a prize you
+are getting. You might have sought the whole country over and you
+wouldn't have found a girl like her. I don't know how we shall endure
+your name when you carry her away."
+
+"Except, indeed," said Miss Sarah, "that it will be Elinor's name too."
+
+"So here we all are again," said the Rector, gazing down tranquilly upon
+his flock, "not able to resist a little histrionic exhibition--and Mr.
+Compton too, fresh from the great world. I daresay our good friend Mrs.
+Basset would hand us out some chairs. No Englishman can resist Punch.
+Alick, my boy, you ought to be at your work. It will not do to neglect
+your lessons when you are so near your exam."
+
+"No Englishman, father, can resist Punch," said the lad: at which the
+two ostlers and the landlord of the Bull's Head, who was standing with
+his hands in his pockets in his own doorway, laughed loud.
+
+"Had the old fellow there," said Compton, which was the first observation
+he had made. The ladies looked at him with some horror, and Alick a
+little flustered, half pleased, half horrified, by this support, while
+the Rector laughed, but stiffly _au bout des levres_. He was not
+accustomed to be called an old fellow in his own parish.
+
+"The old fellows, as you elegantly say, Mr. Compton, have always the
+worst of it in a popular assembly. Elinor, here is a chair for you, my
+love. Another one please, Mrs. Basset, for I see Miss Dale coming up
+this way."
+
+"By Jove," said Compton, under his breath. "Elinor, here's the one that
+knows society. I hope she isn't such an old guy as the rest."
+
+"Oh, Phil, be good!" said Elinor, "or let us go away, which would be the
+best."
+
+"Not a bit," he said. "Let's see the show. I say, old man, where are you
+from last?"
+
+"Down from Guildford ways, guv'nor--awful bad trade; not taken a bob,
+s' help me, not for three days, and bed and board to get off o' that,
+me and my mate."
+
+"Well, here is a nice little party for you, my man," said the Rector,
+"it is not often you have such an audience--nor would I encourage it,
+indeed, if it were not so purely English an exhibition."
+
+"Master," said the showman, "worst of it is, nobody pays till we've done
+the show, and then they goes away, and they've got it, don't you see,
+and we can't have it back once it's in their insides, and there ain't
+nothink then, neither for my mate nor me."
+
+"Here's for you, old fellow," said Phil. He took a sovereign from his
+waistcoat pocket and chucked it with his thumbnail into the man's hand,
+who looked at it with astonished delight, tossed it into the air with a
+grin, a "thank'ee, gentleman!" and a call to his "mate" who immediately
+began the ever-exciting, ever-amusing drama. The thrill of sensation
+which ran through the little assembly at this incident was wonderful.
+The children all turned from Punch to regard with large open eyes and
+mouths the gentleman who had given a gold sovereign to the showman.
+Alick Hudson looked at him with a grin of pleasure, a blush of envy on
+his face; the Rector, with an expression of horror, slightly shaking his
+head; the Miss Hills with admiration yet dismay. "Goodness, Sarah,
+they'll never come now and do it for a shilling to amuse mother!" the
+elder of the sisters said.
+
+Miss Dale came hurrying up while still the sensation lasted. "Here is a
+chair for you, Mary," said her brother-in-law, "and the play is just
+going to begin. I can't help shaking my head when I think of it, but
+still you must hear what has just happened. Mr. Compton, let me present
+you to my sister-in-law, Miss Dale. Mr. Compton has made the widow's
+heart, nay, not the widow's, but the showman's heart to sing. He has
+presented our friend with a----"
+
+"Mind you," said Phil, from behind Elinor's shoulders, "I've paid the
+fellow only for two."
+
+At which the showman turned and winked at the Rector. To think that such
+a piece of audacity could be! A dingy fellow in a velveteen coat, with a
+spotted handkerchief round his neck, and a battered hat on his unkempt
+locks, with Pan's pipes at his mouth and a drum tied round his
+waist--winked at the Rector! Mr. Hudson fell back a step, and his very
+lips were livid with the indignity. He had to support himself on the
+back of the chair he had just given to Miss Dale.
+
+"I think we are all forgetting our different positions in this world,"
+he said.
+
+"I ain't," said the showman, "not taking no advantage through the
+gentleman's noble ways. He's a lord, he is, I don't make no doubt. And
+we're paid. Take the good of it, Guv'nor, and welcome; all them as is
+here is welcome. My mate and I are too well paid. A gentleman like that
+good gentleman, as is sweet upon a pretty young lady, and an open 'eart
+a-cause of her, I just wish we could find one at every station; don't
+you, Joe?"
+
+Joe assented, in the person of Mr. Punch, with a horrible squeak from
+within the tent.
+
+The sensations of Elinor during this episode were peculiar and full of
+mingled emotion. It is impossible to deny that she was proud of the
+effect produced by her lover. The sovereign chucked into the showman's
+hand was a cheap way of purchasing a little success, and yet it dazzled
+Elinor, and made her eyelids droop and her cheek light up with the
+glow of pleasure. Amid all the people who would search for pennies,
+or perhaps painfully and not without reluctance produce a sixpence
+to reward the humble artists, there was something in the careless
+familiarity and indifference which tossed a gold coin at them which was
+calculated to charm the youthful observer. Elinor felt the same mixture
+of pleasure and envy which had moved Alick Hudson; yet it was not envy,
+for was not he her own who did this thing which she would have liked to
+have done herself, overwhelming the poor tramps with delight? Elinor
+knew, as Alick also did, that it would never have occurred to her to do
+it. She would have been glad to be kind to the poor men, to give them a
+good meal, to speak to Basset at the Bull's Head in their favour that
+they might be taken in for the night and made comfortable, but to open
+her purse and take a real sovereign from it, a whole potential pound,
+would not have come into her head. Had such a thing been done, for
+instance, by the united subscriptions of the party, in case of some
+peculiarly touching situation, the illness of a wife, the loss of a
+child, it would have been done solemnly, the Rector calling the men up,
+making a little speech to them, telling them how all the ladies and
+gentlemen had united to make up this, and how they must be careful not
+to spend it unworthily. Elinor thought she could see the little scene,
+and the Rector improving the occasion. Whereas Phil spun the money
+through the air into the man's ready hand as if it had been a joke, a
+trick of agility. Elinor saw that everybody was much impressed with the
+incident, and her heart went forth upon a flood of satisfaction and
+content. And it was no premeditated triumph. It was so noble, so
+accidental, so entirely out of his good heart!
+
+When he hurried her home at the end of the performance, that Mrs.
+Dennistoun might not be kept waiting, the previous events of the
+afternoon, and all that happened in the copse and garden, had faded out
+of Elinor's mind. She forgot Stanfield and the 6th and everything about
+it. Her embarrassment and trouble were gone. She went in gayly and told
+her mother all about this wonderful incident. "The Rector was trying for
+a sixpence. But, mamma, Phil must not be so ready with his sovereigns,
+must he? We shall have nothing to live upon if he goes chucking
+sovereigns at every Punch and Judy he may meet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Phil Compton went off next morning by an early train, having in the
+meanwhile improved the impression of him left upon the family in
+general, and specially upon Mrs. Dennistoun, to whom he had talked with
+enthusiasm about Elinor, expressed indeed in terms unusual to her ears,
+but perhaps only more piquant on that account, which greatly conciliated
+the mother. "Don't you think," said the Honourable Phil, "because I
+speak a little free and am not one for tall talk, that I don't know
+what she is. I've got no poetry in me, but for the freest goer and the
+highest spirit, without a bit of vice in her, there never was one like
+Nell. The girls of my set, they're not worthy to tie her shoes--thing I
+most regret is taking her among a lot that are not half good enough for
+her. But you can't help your relations, can you? and you have to stick
+to them for dozens of reasons. There's the Jew, when you know her she's
+not such a bad sort--not generous, as you may see from what she's given
+Nell, the old screw: but yet in her own way she stands by a fellow, and
+we'll need it, not having just the Bank of England behind us. Her
+husband, old Prestwich, isn't bad for a man that has made his own money,
+and they've got a jolly house, always something going on."
+
+"But I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that as soon as these autumn visits
+are over you will have a house of your own."
+
+"Oh, that!" said Compton, with a wave of his hand, which left it in some
+doubt whether he was simply throwing off the suggestion, or treating it
+as a foregone conclusion of which there could be no doubt. "Nell," he
+went on, "gets on with the Jew like a house on fire--you see they don't
+clash. Nell ain't one of the mannish sort, and she doesn't flirt--at
+least not as far as I've seen----"
+
+"I should hope not, indeed," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"Oh, I'm not one of your curmudgeons. Where's the harm? But she don't,
+and there's an end of it. She keeps herself to herself, and lets the Jew
+go ahead, and think she's the attraction. And she'll please the old lord
+down to the ground. For he's an old-fashioned old coon, and likes what
+he calls _tenue_, don't you know: but the end is, there ain't one of
+them that can hold a candle to Nell. And I should not wonder a bit if
+she made a change in the lot of us. Conversion of a family by the
+influence of a pious wife, don't you know. Sort of thing that they make
+tracts out of. Capital thing, it would be," said Phil, philosophically,
+"for some of us have been going a pace----"
+
+"Mr. Compton," said Mrs. Dennistoun, solemnly, "I don't understand very
+well what you mean by these phrases. They may be much more innocent
+than they seem to a country lady's ears. But I implore you to keep my
+Elinor clear of anything that you call going the pace. It must mean
+something very unlike her, whatever it means. She has been used to a
+very quiet, orderly life. Don't hurry her off into a whirl of society,
+or among noisy gay people. Indeed I can assure you that the more you
+have her to herself the more you will be happy in her. She is the
+brightest companion, the most entertaining---- Oh, Mr. Compton!"
+
+"I think it's about time, now, mater, to call me Phil."
+
+She smiled, with the tears in her eyes, and held out her hand. "Philip,
+then," she said, "to make a little difference. Now remember what I say.
+It is only in the sacredness of her home that you will know what is in
+Elinor. One is never dull with her. She has her own opinions--her bright
+way of looking at things--as you know. It is, perhaps, a strange thing
+for a mother to say, but she will amuse you, Philip; she is such
+company. You will never be dull with Elinor: she has so much in her,
+which will come out in society, it is true, but never so brightly as
+between you two alone."
+
+This did not seem to have quite the effect upon the almost-bridegroom
+which the mother intended. "Perhaps" (she said to herself), "he was a
+little affected by the thought" (which she kept so completely out of the
+conversation) "of the loss she herself was about to undergo." At all
+events, his face was not so bright as in the vision of that sweet
+prospect held before him it ought to have been.
+
+"The fact is," he said, "she knows a great deal more than I do, or ever
+will. It's she that will be the one to look blue when she finds herself
+alone with a fool of a follow that doesn't know a book from a brick.
+That's the thing I'm most afraid---- As for society, she can have her
+pick of that," he added, brightening up, "I'll not bind her down."
+
+"You may be sure she'll prefer you to all the world."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders a little.
+
+"They say it's always a leap in the dark," he said, "for how's she to
+know the sort of fellow I am with what she sees of me here? But I
+promise you I'll do my best to take her in, and keep her in that
+delusion, for her good--making believe to be all that's virtuous: and
+perhaps not a bad way--some of it may stick. Come, mater, don't look so
+horrified. I'm not of the Cousin John sort, but there may be something
+decent in me after all."
+
+"I am sure," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that you will try to make her happy,
+Philip." She was crying by this time, which was a thing very odious to
+Phil. He took her by both hands and gave her a hearty kiss, which was a
+thing for which she was not at all prepared.
+
+"I'll do by her----" he said, with a murmur which sounded like an oath,
+"as well as I know how."
+
+Perhaps this was not the very greatest comfort to her mother, but it was
+the best she was at all likely to get from a man so entirely different
+in all ways from her own species. She had her cry out quietly while he
+went off to get his bag. The pony carriage was at the door in which
+Elinor was to drive him to the station, and a minute after Mrs.
+Dennistoun heard his voice in the hall calling to his Nell, his old
+girl, in terms which went against all the mother's prejudices of soft
+and reverent speech. To have her carefully-trained child, her Elinor,
+whom every one had praised and honoured, her maiden-princess so high
+apart from all such familiarity, addressed so, gave the old-fashioned
+lady a pang. It meant nothing but love and kindness, she said to
+herself. He reverenced Elinor as much as it was in such a man to do. He
+meant with all his heart to do by her as well as he knew how. It was as
+fantastic to object to his natural language as it would be to object to
+a Frenchman speaking French. That was his tongue, the only utterance he
+knew---- She dried her eyes and went out to the door to see them start.
+The sun was blazing over all the brilliant autumnal colours Of the
+garden, though it was still full and brilliant summer in the September
+morning, and only the asters and dahlias replacing the roses betrayed
+the turn of the season. And nothing could be more bright than the face
+of Elinor as she sat in the homely little carriage, with the reins
+gathered up in her hand. He was going away, indeed, but in a week he was
+coming back. Philip, as Mrs. Dennistoun now called him with dignity, yet
+a little beginning of affection, packed up his long limbs as well as he
+could in the small space. "I believe she'll spill us on the road," he
+said, "or bring back the shandrydan with a hole in it."
+
+"There is too much of you, Phil," said Elinor, giving the staid pony a
+quiet touch.
+
+"I should like some of those fellows to see me," he said, "joggled off
+to market like a basket of eggs; but don't smash me, Nell, on the way."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun stood on the steps looking after them, or rather,
+listening after them, for they had soon turned the corner of the house
+and were gone. She heard them jogging over the stony road, and the sound
+of their voices in the air for a long time after they were out of
+sight--the air was so still and so close, nothing in it to break the
+sound. The atmosphere was all sunshine, not a cloud upon the sky,
+scarcely a breath stirring over those hill-tops, which had almost the
+effect of a mountainous landscape, being the highest ground in all the
+visible space. Along the other side of the combe, where the road became
+visible, there were gleams of heather brilliant under the dark foliage
+of the firs. She sat down in the porch and waited to see them pass;
+there was a sorrowful background to her thoughts, but for the moment she
+was not actually sad, if perhaps a little forlorn. They had gone away
+leaving her alone, but yet in an hour or two Elinor was coming back.
+Time enough to think of the final parting. Next week Elinor would go and
+would not return. Mrs. Dennistoun held on by both hands to to-day and
+would not think of that future, near as it was. She waited in a hush of
+feeling, so near to great commotions of the heart and mind, but holding
+them at a distance in a suspense of all thought, till the shandrydan
+appeared in the opening of the road. They were thinking of her, for she
+saw a gleam of white, the waving of a handkerchief, as the little
+carriage trundled along the road, and for a moment the tears again
+blinded her eyes. But Mrs. Dennistoun was very reasonable. She got
+up from the cottage porch after the pony carriage had passed in the
+distance, with that determination to make the best of it, which is the
+inspiration of so many women's lives.
+
+And what a drive the others had through the sunshine--or at least
+Elinor! You can never tell by what shadows a man's thoughts may be
+haunted, who is a man of the world, and has had many other things to
+occupy him besides this vision of love. But the girl had no shadows. The
+parting which was before her was not near enough to harm as yet, and
+she was still able to think, in her ignorance of the world, that even
+parting was much more in appearance than in reality, and that she would
+always be running home, always going upon long visits brightening
+everything, instead of saddening. But even had she been going to the end
+of the world with her husband next week, Elinor would still have been
+happy to-day. The sunshine itself was enough to go to any one's head,
+and the pony stepped out so that Phil had the grace to be ashamed of his
+reflections upon "the old girl." They got to the station too early for
+the train, and had half an hour's stroll together, with all the railway
+porters looking on admiring. They all knew Miss Dennistoun from her
+childhood, and they were interested in her "young man."
+
+"And to think you will be in Ireland to-morrow," said Elinor, "over the
+sea, with the Channel between us--in another island!"
+
+"I don't see much that's wonderful in that," said Phil, "the boat goes
+every day."
+
+"Oh, there's nothing wonderful about the boat. Hundreds might go, and I
+shouldn't mind, but you---- It's strange to think of your going off into
+a world I don't know at all--and then coming back."
+
+"To take you off to that world you don't know, Nell; and then the time
+will come when you will know it as well as I do, and more, too; and be
+able to set me down in my proper place."
+
+"What is your proper place? Your place will always be the same. Phil,
+you've been so good to me this time; you've made everybody like you so.
+Mamma--that's the best of all. She was a little--I can't say jealous,
+that is not the right word, but uncertain and frightened--which just
+means that she did not know you, Phil; now you've condescended to let
+yourself be known."
+
+"Have I, Nell? I've had more luck than meaning if that's so."
+
+"'Tis that you've condescended to let yourself be known. A man has such
+odious pride. He likes to show himself all on the wrong side, to brave
+people's opinions--as if it was better to be liked for the badness in
+you than for the goodness in you!"
+
+"What's the goodness in me, Nell? I'd like to know, and then I can have
+it ready in other emergencies and serve it out as it is wanted."
+
+"Oh, Phil! the goodness in you is--yourself. You can't help being nice
+when you throw off those society airs. When you are talking with
+Mariamne and all that set of people----"
+
+"Why can't you call her Jew? life is too short to say all those
+syllables."
+
+"I don't like you to call her Jew. It's unkind. I don't think she
+deserves it. It's a sort of an insult."
+
+"Shut up, Nell. It's her name and that's enough. Mar-ry-am-ne! It's a
+beast of a name to begin with. And do you think any of us has got time
+to say as much as that for one woman? Oh, I suppose I'm fond of her--as
+men are of their sisters. She is not a bad sort--mean as her name, and
+never fond of parting with her money--but stands by a fellow in a kind
+of a way all the same."
+
+"I'll never call her Jew," said Elinor; "and, Phil, all this wonderful
+amount of things you have to do is simply--nothing. What do you ever
+do? It is the people who do things that have time to spare. I know
+one----"
+
+"Don't come down on me, Nell, again with that eternal Cousin John."
+
+"Phil! I never think of him till you put him into my head. I was
+thinking of a gentleman who writes----"
+
+"Rubbish, Nell! What have I to do with men that write, or you either? We
+are none of us of that sort. I do what my set do, and more--for there
+was this director business; and I should never mind a bit of work that
+was well paid, like attending Board meetings and so forth, or signing my
+name to papers."
+
+"What, without reading them, Phil?"
+
+"Don't come over a fellow with your cleverness, Nell! I am not a reader;
+but I should take good care I knew what was in the papers before I
+signed them, I can tell you. Eh! you'd like me to slave, to get you
+luxuries, you little exacting Nell."
+
+"Yes, Phil," she said, "I'd like to think you were working for our
+living. I should indeed. It seems somehow so much finer--so real a life.
+And I should work at home."
+
+"A great deal you would work," he said, laughing, "with those scraps
+of fingers! Let's hear what you would do--bits of little pictures, or
+impossible things in pincushions, or so forth--and walk out in your most
+becoming bonnet to force them down some poor shop-keeper's throat?"
+
+"Phil!" she said, "how contemptuous you are of my efforts. But I never
+thought of either sketches or pincushions. I should work at home to keep
+the house nice--to look after the servants, and guide the cook, and see
+that you had nice dinners."
+
+"And warm my slippers by the parlour fire," said Phil. "That's too
+domestic, Nell, for you and me."
+
+"But we are going to be very domestic, Phil."
+
+"Are we? Not if I knows it; yawn our heads off, and get to hate one
+another. Not for me, Nell. You'll find yourself up to the eyes in
+engagements before you know where you are. No, no, old girl, you may do
+a deal with me, but you don't make a domestic man of Phil Compton. Time
+enough for that when we've had our fling."
+
+"I don't want any fling, Phil," she said, clinging a little closer to
+his arm.
+
+"But I do, my pet, in the person of Benedick the married man. Don't you
+think I want to show all the fellows what a stunning little wife I've
+got? and all the women I used to flirt with----"
+
+"Did you use to flirt much with them, Phil?"
+
+"You didn't think I flirted with the men, did you? like you did," said
+Phil, who was not particular about his grammar. "I want to show you off
+a bit. Nell. When we go down to the governor's, there you can be as
+domestic as you like. That's the line to take with him, and pays too if
+you do it well."
+
+"Oh, don't talk as if you were always calculating for your advantage,"
+she said, "for you are not, Phil. You are not a prudent person, but a
+horrid, extravagant spendthrift; if you go on chucking sovereigns about
+as you did yesterday."
+
+"Well," he said, laughing, "wasn't it well spent? Didn't I make your
+Rector open his old eyes, and stop the mouths of the old maids? I don't
+throw away sovereigns in a general way, Nell, only when there's a
+purpose in it. But I think I did them all finely that time--had them on
+toast, eh?"
+
+"You made an impression, if that is what you mean; but I confess I
+thought you did it out of kindness, Phil."
+
+"To the Punch and Judy? catch me! Sovereigns ain't plentiful enough for
+that. You little exacting thing, ain't you pleased, when I did it to
+please you, and get you credit among your friends?"
+
+"It was very kind of you, I'm sure, Phil," she said, very soberly, "but
+I should so much rather you had not thought of that. A shilling would
+have done just as well and they would have got a bed at the Bull's
+Head, and been quite kindly treated. Is this your train coming? It's a
+little too soon, I think."
+
+"Thanks for the compliment, Nell. It is really late," he said, looking
+at his watch, "but the time flies, don't it, pet, when you and I are
+together? Here, you fellow, put my bag in a smoking carriage. And now,
+you darling, we've got to part; only for a little time, Nell."
+
+"Only for a week," she said, with a smile and a tear.
+
+"Not so long--a rush along the rail, a blow on the sea, and then back
+again; I shall only be a day over there, and then--bless you, Nell.
+Good-bye--take care of yourself, my little duck: take care of yourself
+for me."
+
+"Good-bye," said Elinor, with a little quiver of her lip. A parting at a
+roadside station is a very abrupt affair. The train stops, the passenger
+is shoved in, there is a clanging of the doors, and in a moment it is
+gone. She had scarcely realized that the hour had come before he was
+whirled off from her, and the swinging line of carriages disappeared
+round the next curve. She stood looking vaguely after it till the old
+porter came up, who had known her ever since she was a child.
+
+"Beg your pardon, miss, but the pony is a-waiting," he said. And then he
+uttered his sympathy in the form of a question:--"Coming back very soon,
+miss, ain't the gentleman?" he said.
+
+"Oh, yes; very soon," she said, rousing herself up.
+
+"And if I may make bold to say it, miss," said the porter, "an
+open-hearted gentleman as ever I see. There's many as gives us a
+threepenny for more than I've done for 'im. And look at what he's give
+me," he said, showing the half-crown in his hand.
+
+Did he do that from calculation to please her, ungracious girl as she
+was, who was so hard to please? But he never could have known that
+she would see it. She walked through the little station to the pony
+carriage, feeling that all the eyes of the people about were upon her.
+They were all sympathetic, all equally aware that she had just parted
+with her lover: all ready to cheer her, if she had given them an
+opportunity, by reminding her of his early return. The old porter
+followed her out, and assisted at her ascent into the pony carriage. He
+said, solemnly, "And an 'andsome gentleman, miss, as ever I see," as he
+fastened the apron over her feet. She gave him a friendly nod as she
+drove away.
+
+How dreadful it is to be so sensitive, to receive a wound so easily!
+Elinor was vexed more than she could say by her lover's denial of the
+reckless generosity with which she had credited him. To think that he
+had done it in order to produce the effect which had given her so
+distinct a sensation of pleasure changed that effect into absolute
+pain. And yet in the fantastic susceptibility of her nature, there was
+something in old Judkin's half-crown which soothed her again. A shilling
+would have been generous, Elinor said to herself, with a feminine
+appreciation of the difference of small things as well as great, whereas
+half-a-crown was lavish--ergo, he gave the sovereign also out of natural
+prodigality, as she had hoped, not out of calculation as he said. She
+drove soberly home, thinking over all these things in a mood very
+different from that triumphant happiness with which she started from
+the cottage with Phil by her side. The sunshine was still as bright,
+but it had taken an air of routine and commonplace to Elinor. It had
+come to be only the common day, not the glory and freshness of the
+morning. She felt herself, as she had never done before, on the edge of
+a world unknown, where everything would be new to her, where--it was
+possible--that which awaited her might not be unmixed happiness, might
+even be the reverse. It is seldom that a girl on the eve of marriage
+either thinks this or acknowledges to herself that she thinks it. Elinor
+did so involuntarily, without thinking upon her thought. Perhaps it
+would not be unmixed happiness. Strange clouds seemed to hang upon the
+horizon, ready to roll up in tragic darkness and gloom. Oh, no, not
+tragic, only commonplace, she said to herself; opaqueness, not
+blackness. But yet it was ominous and lowering, that distant sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+The days of the last week hurried along like the grains of sand out of
+an hour-glass when they are nearly gone. It is true that almost
+everything was done--a few little bits of stitching, a few things still
+to be "got up" alone remaining, a handkerchief to mark with Elinor's
+name, a bit of lace to arrange, just enough to keep up a possibility
+of something to do for Mrs. Dennistoun in the blank of all other
+possibilities--for to interest herself or to occupy herself about
+anything that should be wanted beyond that awful limit of the
+wedding-day was of course out of the question. Life seemed to stop there
+for the mother, as it was virtually to begin for the child; though
+indeed to Elinor also, notwithstanding her love, it was visible more in
+the light of a point at which all the known and certain ended, and where
+the unknown and almost inconceivable began. The curious thing was that
+this barrier which was placed across life for them both, got somehow
+between them in those last days which should have been the most tender
+climax of their intercourse. They had a thousand things to say to each
+other, but they said very little. In the evening after dinner, whether
+they went out into the garden together to watch the setting of the young
+moon, or whether they sat together in that room which had witnessed all
+Elinor's commencements of life, free to talk as no one else in the world
+could ever talk to either of them, they said very little to each other,
+and what they said was of the most commonplace kind. "It is a lovely
+night; how clear one can see the road on the other side of the combe!"
+"And what a bright star that is close to the moon! I wish I knew a
+little more about the stars." "They are just as beautiful," Mrs.
+Dennistoun would say, "as if you knew everything about them, Elinor."
+"Are you cold, mamma? I am sure I can see you shiver. Shall I run and
+get you a shawl?" "It is a little chilly: but perhaps it will be as well
+to go in now," the mother said. And then indoors: "Do you think you will
+like this lace made up as a jabot, Elinor?" "You are giving me all your
+pretty things, though you know you understand lace much better than I
+do." "Oh, that doesn't matter," Mrs. Dennistoun said hurriedly; "that is
+a taste which comes with time. You will like it as well as I do when you
+are as old as I am." "You are not so dreadfully old, mamma." "No, that's
+the worst of it," Mrs. Dennistoun would say, and then break out into a
+laugh. "Look at the shadow that handkerchief makes--how fantastic it
+is!" she cried. She neither cared for the moon, nor for the quaintness
+of the shadows, nor for the lace which she was pulling into dainty folds
+to show its delicate pattern--for none of all these things, but for her
+only child, who was going from her, and to whom she had a hundred, and
+yet a hundred, things to say: but none of them ever came from her lips.
+
+"Mary Dale has not seen your things, Elinor: she asked if she might come
+to-morrow."
+
+"I think we might have had to-morrow to ourselves, mamma--the last day
+all by ourselves before those people begin to arrive."
+
+"Yes, I think so too; but it is difficult to say no, and as she was not
+here when the others came---- She is the greatest critic in the parish.
+She will have so much to say."
+
+"I daresay it may be fun," said Elinor, brightening up a little, "and
+of course anyhow Alice must have come to talk about her dress. I am
+tired of those bride's-maids' dresses; they are really of so little
+consequence." Elinor was not vain, to speak of, but she thought it
+improbable that when she was there any one would look much at the
+bride's-maids' dresses. For one thing, to be sure, the bride is always
+the central figure, and there were but two bride's-maids, which
+diminished the interest; and then--well, it had to be allowed at the end
+of all, that, though her closest friends, neither Alice Hudson nor Mary
+Tatham were, to look at, very interesting girls.
+
+"They are of great consequence to them," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with the
+faintest smile.
+
+"I didn't mean that, of course," said Elinor, with a blush; "only I
+never should have worried about my own dress, which after all is the
+most important, as Alice does about hers."
+
+"Which nobody will look at," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"I did not say that: but to tell the truth, it is a pity for the girls
+that the men will not quite be, just of their world, you know. Oh,
+mamma, you know it is not that I think anything of that, but I am sorry
+for Alice and Mary. Mr. Bolsover and the other gentlemen will not take
+that trouble which country neighbours, or--or John's friends from the
+Temple might have done."
+
+"Why do you speak of John's friends from the Temple, Elinor?"
+
+"Mamma! for no reason at all. Why should I? They were the only other men
+I could think of."
+
+"Elinor, did John ever give you any reason to think----"
+
+"Mamma," cried Elinor again, with double vehemence, her countenance all
+ablaze, "of course he never did! how could you think such foolish
+things?"
+
+"Well, my dear," said her mother, "I am very glad he did not; it will
+prevent any embarrassment between him and you--for I must always
+believe----"
+
+"Don't, please, oh, don't! it would make me miserable; it would take all
+my happiness away."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun said nothing, but she sighed--a very small, infinitesimal
+sigh--and there was a moment's silence, during which perhaps that sigh
+pervaded the atmosphere with a sort of breath of what might have been.
+After a moment she spoke again:
+
+"I hope you have not packed up your ornaments yet, Elinor. You must
+leave them to the very last, for Mary would like to see that beautiful
+necklace. What do you think you shall wear on the day?"
+
+"Nothing," said Elinor, promptly. She was about to add, "I have nothing
+good enough," but paused in time.
+
+"Not my little star? It would look very well, my darling, to fix your
+veil on. The diamonds are very good, though perhaps a little
+old-fashioned; you might get them reset. But--your father gave it me
+like that."
+
+"I would not change it a bit, mamma, for anything in the world."
+
+"Thanks, my dearest. I thought that was how you would feel about it. It
+is not very big, of course, but it really is very good."
+
+"Then I will wear it, mamma, if it will please you, but nothing else."
+
+"It would please me: it would be like having something from your father.
+I think we had less idea of ornaments in my day. I cannot tell you how
+proud I was of my diamond star. I should like to put it in for you
+myself, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, mamma!" This was the nearest point they had come to that outburst
+of two full hearts which both of them would have called breaking down.
+Mrs. Dennistoun saw it and was frightened. She thought it would be
+betraying to Elinor what she wished her never to know, the unspeakable
+desolation to which she was looking forward when her child was taken
+from her. Elinor's exclamation, too, was a protest against the imminent
+breaking down. They both came back with a hurry, with a panting breath,
+to safer ground.
+
+"Yes, that's what I regret," she said. "Mr. Bolsover and Harry Compton
+will laugh a little at the Rectory. They will not be so--nice as young
+men of their own kind."
+
+"The Rectory people are just as well born as any of us, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, precisely, mamma: I know that; but we too---- It is what they call
+a different _monde_. I don't think it is half so nice a _monde_," said
+the girl, feeling that she had gone further than she intended to do;
+"but you know, mamma----"
+
+"I know, Elinor: but I scarcely expected from you----"
+
+"Oh," cried Elinor again, in exasperation, "if you think that I share
+that feeling! I think it odious, I think their _monde_ is vulgar, nasty,
+miserable! I think----"
+
+"Don't go too far the other way, Elinor. Your husband will be of it, and
+you must learn to like it. You think, perhaps, all that is new to me?"
+
+"No," said Elinor, her bright eyes, all the brighter for tears, falling
+before her mother's look. "I know, of course, that you have seen--all
+kinds----"
+
+But she faltered a little, for she did not believe that her mother was
+acquainted with Phil's circle and their wonderful ways.
+
+"They will be civil enough," she went on, hurriedly, "and as everybody
+chaffs so much nowadays they will, perhaps, never be found out. But I
+don't like it for my friends."
+
+"They will chaff me also, no doubt," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"Oh, _you_, mamma! they are not such fools as that," cried poor Elinor;
+but in her own mind she did not feel confident that there was any such
+limitation to their folly. Mrs. Dennistoun laughed a little to herself,
+which was, perhaps, more alarming than that other moment when she was
+almost ready to cry.
+
+"You had better wear Lord St. Serf's ring," she said, after a moment,
+with a tone of faint derision which Elinor knew.
+
+"You might as well tell me," cried the bride, "to wear Lady Mariamne's
+revolving dishes. No, I will wear nothing, nothing but your star."
+
+"You have got nothing half so nice," said the mother. Oh yes, it was a
+little revenge upon those people who were taking her daughter from her,
+and who thought themselves at liberty to jeer at all her friends: but as
+was perhaps inevitable it touched Elinor a little too. She restrained
+herself from some retort with a sense of extreme and almost indignant
+self-control: though what retort Elinor could have made I cannot tell.
+It was much "nicer" than anything else she had. None of Phil Compton's
+great friends, who were not of the same _monde_ as the people at
+Windyhill, had offered his bride anything to compare with the diamonds
+which her father had given to her mother before she was born. And Elinor
+was quite aware of the truth of what her mother said. But she would have
+liked to make a retort--to say something smart and piquant and witty in
+return.
+
+And thus the evening was lost, the evening in which there was so much to
+say, one of the three only, no more, that were left.
+
+Miss Dale came next day to see "the things," and was very amiable: but
+the only thing in this visit which affected Elinor's mind was a curious
+little unexpected assault this lady made upon her when she was going
+away. Elinor had gone out with her to the porch, according to the
+courteous usage of the house. But when they had reached that shady
+place, from which the green combe and the blue distance were visible,
+stretching far into the soft autumnal mists of the evening, Mary Dale
+turned upon her and asked her suddenly, "What night was it that Mr.
+Compton came here?"
+
+Elinor was much startled, but she did not lose her self-possession. All
+the trouble about that date had disappeared out of her mind in the
+stress and urgency of other things. She cast back her mind with an
+effort and asked herself what the conflict and uncertainty of which she
+was dimly conscious, had been? It came back to her dimly without any of
+the pain that had been in it. "It was on the sixth," she said quietly,
+without excitement. She could scarcely recall to her mind what it was
+that had moved her so much in respect to this date only a little time
+ago.
+
+"Oh, you must be mistaken, Elinor, I saw him coming up from the station.
+It was later than that. It was, if I were to give my life for it,
+Thursday night."
+
+This was four or five nights before and a haze of uncertainty had
+fallen on all things so remote. But Elinor cast her eyes upon the
+calendar in the hall and calm possessed her breast. "It was the sixth,"
+she said with composed tones, as certain as of anything she had ever
+known in the course of her life.
+
+"Well, I suppose you must know," said Mary Dale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+"Look at that, Elinor," said Mrs. Dennistoun, next day, when she had
+read, twice over, a letter, large and emblazoned with a very big
+monogram, which Elinor, well perceiving from whom it came, had furtively
+watched the effect of from behind an exceeding small letter of her own.
+Phil was not remarkable as a correspondent: his style was that of the
+primitive mind which hopes its correspondent is well, "as this leaves
+me." He had never much more to say.
+
+"From Mariamne, mamma?"
+
+"She takes great pains to make us certain of that fact at least," Mrs.
+Dennistoun said; which indeed was very true, for the name of the writer
+was sprawled in gilt letters half over the sheet. And this was how it
+ran:--
+
+
+"DEAR MRS. DENNISTOUN,--
+
+"I have been thinking what a great pity it would be to bore you with me,
+and my maid, and all my belongings. I am so silly that I can never be
+happy without dragging a lot of things about with me--dogs, and people,
+and so forth. Going to town in September is dreadful, but it is rather
+_chic_ to do a thing that is quite out of the way, and one may perhaps
+pick up a little fun in the evening. So if you don't mind, instead of
+inflicting Fifine and Bijou and Leocadie, not to mention some people
+that might be with me, upon you, and putting your house all out
+of order, as these odious little dogs do when people are not used
+to them--I will come down by the train, which I hope arrives quite
+punctually, in time to see poor Phil turned off. I am sure you will
+be so kind as to send a carriage for me to the railway. We shall be
+probably a party of four, and I hear from Phil you are so hospitable and
+kind that I need not hesitate to bring my friends to breakfast after
+it's all over. I hope Phil will go through it like a man, and I wouldn't
+for worlds deprive him of the support of his family. Love to Nell. I am,
+
+"Yours truly,
+"MARIAMNE PRESTWICH."
+
+
+"The first name very big and the second very small," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun, as she received the letter back.
+
+"I am sure we are much obliged to her for not coming, mamma!"
+
+"Perhaps--but not for this announcement of her not coming. I don't wish
+to say anything against your new relations, Elinor----"
+
+"You need not put any restraint upon yourself in consideration of my
+feelings," said Elinor, with a flush of annoyance.
+
+And this made Mrs. Dennistoun pause. They ate their breakfast, which was
+a very light meal, in silence. It was the day before the wedding. The
+rooms down-stairs had been carefully prepared for Phil's sister. Though
+Mrs. Dennistoun was too proud to say anything about it, she had taken
+great pains to make these pretty rooms as much like a fine lady's
+chamber as had been possible. She had put up new curtains, and a Persian
+carpet, and looked out of her stores all the pretty things she could
+find to decorate the two rooms of the little apartment. She had gone in
+on the way down-stairs to take a final survey, and it seemed to her that
+they were very pretty. No picture could have been more beautiful than
+the view from the long low lattice window, in which, as in a frame, was
+set the foreground of the copse with its glimpses of ruddy heather and
+the long sweep of the heights beyond, which stretched away into the
+infinite. That at least could not be surpassed anywhere; and the Persian
+carpet was like moss under foot, and the chairs luxurious--and there was
+a collection of old china in some open shelves which would have made the
+mouth of an amateur water. Well! it was Lady Mariamne's own loss if she
+preferred the chance of picking up a little fun in the evening, to
+spending the night decorously in that pretty apartment, and making
+further acquaintance with her new sister. It was entirely, Mrs.
+Dennistoun said to herself, a matter for her own choice. But she was
+much affronted all the same.
+
+"It will be very inconvenient indeed sending a carriage for her, Elinor.
+Except the carriage that is to take you to church there is none good
+enough for this fine lady. I had concluded she would go in your uncle
+Tatham's carriage. It may be very fine to have a Lady Mariamne in one's
+party, but it is a great nuisance to have to change all one's
+arrangements at the last moment."
+
+"If you were to send the wagonette from the Bull's Head, as rough as
+possible, with two of the farm horses, she would think it _genre_, if
+not _chic_----"
+
+"I cannot put up with all this nonsense!" cried Mrs. Dennistoun, with a
+flush on her cheek. "You are just as bad as they are, Elinor, to suggest
+such a thing! I have held my own place in society wherever I have been,
+and I don't choose to be condescended to or laughed at, in fact, by any
+visitor in the world!"
+
+"Mamma! do you think any one would ever compare you with Mariamne--the
+Jew?"
+
+"Don't exasperate me with those abominable nicknames. They will give you
+one next. She is an exceedingly ill-bred and ill-mannered woman. Picking
+up a little fun in the evening! What does she mean by picking up a
+little fun----"
+
+"They will perhaps go to the theatre--a number of them; and as nobody is
+in town they will laugh very much at the kind of people, and perhaps the
+kind of play--and it will be a great joke ever after among themselves--for
+of course there will be a number of them together," said Elinor,
+disclosing her acquaintance with the habits of her new family with
+downcast eyes.
+
+"How can well-born people be so vulgar and ill-bred?" cried Mrs.
+Dennistoun. "I must say for Philip that though he is careless and not
+nearly so particular as I should like, still he is not like that. He has
+something of the politeness of the heart."
+
+Elinor did not raise her downcast eyes. Phil had been on his very good
+behaviour on the occasion of his last hurried visit, but she did not
+feel that she could answer even for Phil. "I am very glad anyhow, that
+she is not coming, mamma: at least we shall have the last night and the
+last morning to ourselves."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun shook her head. "The Tathams will be here," she said;
+"and everybody, to dinner--all the party. We must go now and see how we
+can enlarge the table. To-night's party will be the largest we have
+ever had in the cottage." She sighed a little and paused, restraining
+herself. "We shall have no quiet evening--nor morning either--again; it
+will be a bustle and a rush. You and I will never have any more quiet
+evenings, Elinor: for when you come back it will be another thing."
+
+"Oh, mother!" cried Elinor, throwing herself into her mother's arms: and
+for a moment they stood closely clasped, feeling as if their hearts
+would burst, yet very well aware, too, underneath, that any number of
+quiet evenings would be as the last, when, with hearts full of a
+thousand things to say to each other, they said almost nothing--which
+in some respects was worse than having no quiet evenings evermore.
+
+In the afternoon Phil arrived, having returned from Ireland that
+morning, and paused only to refresh himself in the chambers which he
+still retained in town. He had met all his hunting friends during
+the three days he had been away; and though he retained a gallant
+appearance, and looked, as Alice Hudson thought, "very aristocratic,"
+Mrs. Dennistoun caught with anxiety a worn-out look--the look of
+excitement, of nights without sleep, much smoke, and, perhaps, much
+wine, in his eyes. What a woman feels who has to hand over her spotless
+child, the most dear and pure thing upon earth, to a man fresh from
+those indulgences and dissipations which never seem harmless, and always
+are repellent to a woman, is not to be described. Fortunately the bride
+herself, in invincible ignorance and unconsciousness, seldom feels in
+that way. To Elinor her lover looked tired about the eyes, which was
+very well explained by his night journey, and by the agitation of the
+moment. And, indeed, she did not see very much of Phil, who had his
+friends with him--his aide-de-camp, Bolsover, and his brother Harry.
+These three gentlemen carried an atmosphere of smoke and other scents
+with them into the lavender of the Rectory, which was too amazing in
+that hemisphere for words, and talked their own talk in the midst
+of the fringe of rustics who were their hosts, with a calm which was
+extraordinary, breaking into the midst of the Rector's long-winded,
+amiable sentences, and talking to each other over Mrs. Hudson's head.
+"I say, Dick, don't you remember?" "By Jove, Phil, you are too bad!"
+sounded, with many other such expressions and reminders, over the
+Rectory party, strictly silent round their own table, trying to make a
+courteous remark now and then, but confounded, in their simple country
+good manners, by the fine gentlemen. And then there was the dinner-party
+at the cottage in the evening, to which Mr. and Mrs. Hudson were invited.
+Such a dinner-party! Old Mr. Tatham, who was a country gentleman from
+Dorsetshire, with his nice daughter, Mary Tatham, a quiet country young
+lady, accustomed, when she went into the world at all, to the serious
+young men of the Temple, and John's much-occupied friends, who had their
+own asides about cases, and what So-and-So had said in court, but were
+much too well-bred before ladies to fall into "shop;" and Mr. and Mrs.
+Hudson, who were such as we know them; and the bride's mother, a little
+anxious, but always debonair; and Elinor herself, in all the haze and
+sweet confusion of the great era which approached so closely. The three
+men made the strangest addition that can be conceived to the quiet
+guests; but things went better under the discipline of the dinner,
+especially as Sir John Huntingtower, who was a Master of the hounds
+and an old friend of the Dennistouns, was of the party, and Lady
+Huntingtower, who was an impressive person, and knew the world. This
+lady was very warm in her congratulations to Mrs. Dennistoun after
+dinner on the absence of Lady Mariamne. "I think you are the luckiest
+woman that ever was to have got clear of that dreadful creature," she
+said. "Oh, there is nothing wrong about her that I know. She goes
+everywhere with her dogs and her _cavaliers servantes_. There's safety
+in numbers, my dear. She has always two of them at least hanging about
+her to fetch and carry, and she thinks a great deal more of her dogs;
+but I can't think what you could have done with her here."
+
+"And what will my Elinor do in such a sphere?" the troubled mother
+permitted herself to say.
+
+"Oh, if that were all," said Lady Huntingtower, lifting up her fat
+hands--she was one of those who had protested against the marriage, but
+now that it had come to this point, and could not be broken off, the
+judicious woman thought it right to make the best of it--"Elinor need
+not be any the worse," she said. "Thank heaven, you are not obliged to
+be mixed up with your husband's sister. Elinor must take a line of her
+own. You should come to town yourself her first season, and help her on.
+You used to know plenty of people."
+
+"But they say," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that it is so much better to
+leave a young couple to themselves, and that a mother is always in the
+way."
+
+"If I were you I would not pay the least attention to what they say. If
+you hold back too much they will say, 'There was her own mother, knowing
+numbers of nice people, that never took the trouble to lend her a
+hand.'"
+
+"I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, turning round immediately to this other
+aspect of affairs, "that it never will be necessary for the world to
+interest itself at all in my child's affairs."
+
+"Well, of course, that is the best," Lady Huntingtower allowed, "if she
+just goes softly for a year or two till she feels her way."
+
+"But then she is so young, and so little accustomed to act for herself,"
+said the mother, with another change of flank.
+
+"Oh, Elinor has a great deal of spirit. She must just make a stand
+against the Compton set and take her own line."
+
+Mrs. Hudson and Alice and Miss Tatham were at the other end of the room
+exchanging a few criticisms under their breath, and disposed to think
+that they were neglected by their hostess for the greater personage with
+whom she was in such close conversation. And Lady Mariamne's defection
+was a great disappointment to them all. "I should like to have seen a
+fine lady quite close," said Mary (it was not, I think, usual to speak
+of "smart" people in those days), "one there could be no doubt about, a
+little fast and all that. I have seen them in town at a distance, but
+all the people we know are sure country people."
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Hudson, primly, "I don't like to hear you talk of
+any other kind. An English lady, I hope, whatever is her rank, can only
+be of one kind."
+
+"Oh, mamma, you know very well Lady Mariamne is as different from Lady
+Huntingtower as----"
+
+"Don't mention names, my dear; it is not well-bred. The one is young,
+and naturally fond of gayety; the other--well, is not quite so young,
+and stout, and all that."
+
+"Oh, that is all very well," said Alice; "but Aunt Mary says----"
+
+Miss Dale was coming in the evening, and the Miss Hills, and the curate,
+and the doctor, and various other people, who could not be asked to
+dinner, to whom it had been carefully explained (which, indeed, was a
+fact they knew) that to dine twelve people in the little dining-room
+of the cottage was a feat which was accomplished with difficulty,
+and that more was impossible. Society at Windyhill was very tolerant
+and understanding on this point, for all the dining-rooms were small,
+except, indeed, when you come to talk of such places as Huntingtower--and
+they were very glad to be permitted to have a peep at the bridegroom on
+these terms, or rather, if truth were told, of the bride, and how she
+was bearing herself so near the crisis of her fate. The bridegroom is
+seldom very interesting on such occasions. On the present occasion he
+was more interesting than usual, because he was the Honourable Philip,
+and because he had a reputation of which most people had heard something.
+There was a mixture of alarm and suspicion in respect to him which
+increased the excitement; and many remarks of varied kinds were made. "I
+think the fellow's face quite bears out his character," said the doctor
+to the Rector. "What a man to trust a nice girl to!" Mr. Hudson felt
+that as the bridegroom was living under his roof he was partially
+responsible, and discouraged this pessimistic view. "Mr. Compton has
+not, perhaps, had all the advantages one tries to secure for one's own
+son," he said, "but I have reason to believe that the things that have
+been said of him are much exaggerated." "Oh, advantages!" said the
+doctor, thinking of Alick, of whom it was his strongly expressed opinion
+that the fellow should be turned out to rough it, and not coddled up and
+spoiled at home. But while these remarks were going on, Miss Hill had
+been expressing to the curate an entirely different view. "I think he
+has a _beautiful_ face," she said with the emphasis some ladies use; "a
+little worn, perhaps, with being too much in the world, and I wish he
+had a better colour. To me he looks delicate: but what delightful
+features, Mr. Whitebands, and what an aristocratic air!"
+
+"He looks tremendously up to everything," the curate said, with a faint
+tone of envy in his voice.
+
+"Don't he just?" cried Alick Hudson. "I should think there wasn't a
+thing he couldn't do--of things that men _do_ do, don't you know," cried
+that carefully trained boy, whose style was confused, though his meaning
+was good. But probably there were almost as many opinions about Phil
+as there were people in the room. His two backers-up stood in a
+corner--half intimidated, half contemptuous of the country people.
+"Queer lot for Phil to fall among," said Dick Bolsover. "Que diable
+allait-il faire dans cette galere?" said Harry Compton, who had been
+about the world. "Oh, bosh with your French, that nobody understands,"
+said the best man.
+
+But in the meantime Phil was not there at all to be seen of men. He had
+stolen out into the garden, where there was a white vision awaiting him
+in the milky moonlight. The autumn haze had come early this season, and
+the moon was misty, veiled with white amid a jumble of soft floating
+vapours in the sky. Elinor stood among the flowers, which showed some
+strange subdued tints of colours in the flooding of the white light,
+like a bit of consolidated moonlight in her white dress. She had a white
+shawl covering her from head to foot, with a corner thrown over her
+hair. What had they to say to each other that last night? Not much;
+nothing at all that had any information in it--whispers inaudible almost
+to each other. There was something in being together for this stolen
+moment, just on the eve of their being together for always, which had a
+charm of its own. After to-night, no stealing away, no escape to the
+garden, no little conspiracy to attain a meeting--the last of all those
+delightful schemings and devices. They started when they heard a sound
+from the house, and sped along the paths into the shadow like the
+conspirators they were--but never to conspire more after this last
+enthralling time.
+
+"You're not frightened, Nell?"
+
+"No--except a little. There is one thing----"
+
+"What is it, my pet? If it's to the half of my kingdom, it shall be
+done."
+
+"Phil, we are going to be very good when we are together? don't
+laugh--to help each other?"
+
+He did laugh low, not to be heard, but long. "I shall have no
+temptation," he said, "to be anything but good, you little goose of a
+Nell," taking it for a warning of possible jealousy to come.
+
+"Oh, but I mean both of us--to help each other."
+
+"Why, Nell, I know you'll never go wrong----"
+
+She gave him a little impatient shake. "You will not understand me,
+Phil. We will try to be better than we've ever been. To be good--don't
+you know what that means?--in every way, before God."
+
+Her voice dropped very low, and he was for a moment overawed. "You mean
+going to church, Nell?"
+
+"I mean--yes, that for one thing; and many other things."
+
+"That's dropping rather strong upon a fellow," he said, "just at this
+moment, don't you think, when I must say yes to everything you say."
+
+"Oh, I don't mean it in that way; and I was not thinking of church
+particularly; but to be good, very good, true and kind, in our hearts."
+
+"You are all that already, Nell."
+
+"Oh, no, not what I mean. When there are two of us instead of one we can
+do so much more."
+
+"Well, my pet, it's for you to make out the much more. I'm quite content
+with you as you are; it's me that you want to improve, and heaven knows
+there's plenty of room for that."
+
+"No, Phil, not you more than me," she said.
+
+"We'll choose a place where the sermon's short, and we'll see about it.
+You mean little minx, to bind a man down to go to church, the night
+before his wedding day!"
+
+And then there was a sound of movement indoors, and after a little while
+the bride appeared among the guests with a little more colour than
+usual, and an anxiously explanatory description of something she had
+been obliged to do; and the confused hour flew on with much sound of
+talking and very little understanding of what was said. And then all
+the visitors streamed away group after group into the moonlight,
+disappearing like ghosts under the shadow of the trees. Finally, the
+Rectory party went too, the three mild ladies surrounded by an exciting
+circle of cigars; for Alick, of course, had broken all bonds, and even
+the Rector accepted that rare indulgence. Alice Hudson half deplored,
+half exulted for years after in the scent that would cling round one
+particular evening dress. Five gentlemen, all with cigars, and papa as
+bad as any of them! There had never been such an extraordinary
+experience in her life.
+
+And then the Tathams, too, withdrew, and the mother and daughter stood
+alone on their own hearth. Oh, so much, so much as there was to say! but
+how were they to say it?--the last moment, which was so precious and so
+intolerable--the moment that would never come again.
+
+"You were a long time with Philip, Elinor, in the garden. I think all
+your old friends ---- the last night."
+
+"I wanted to say something to him, mamma, that I had never had the
+courage to say."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun had been looking dully into the dim mirror over the
+mantelpiece. She turned half round to her daughter with an inquiring
+look.
+
+"Oh, mamma, I wanted to say to him that we must be good! We're so happy.
+God is so kind to us; and you--if you suppose I don't think of you! It
+was to say to him--building our house upon all this, God's mercy and
+your loss, and all--that we are doubly, doubly bound to serve--and to
+love--and to be good people before God; and like you, mother, like you!"
+
+"My darling!" Mrs. Dennistoun said. And that was all. She asked no
+questions as to how it was to be done, or what he replied. Elinor had
+broken down hysterically, and sobbed out the words one at a time, as
+they would come through the choking in her throat. Needless to say that
+she ended in her mother's arms, her head upon the bosom which had nursed
+her, her slight weight dependent upon the supporter and protector of
+all her life.
+
+That was the last evening. There remained the last morning to come; and
+after that--what? The great sea of an unknown life, a new pilot, and a
+ship untried.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+And now the last morning had come.
+
+The morning of a wedding-day is a flying and precarious moment which
+seems at once as if it never would end, and as if it were a hurried
+preliminary interval in which the necessary preparations never could be
+done. Elinor was not allowed to come down-stairs to help, as she felt it
+would be natural to do. It was Mary Tatham who arranged the flowers on
+the table, and helped Dennistoun to superintend everything. All the
+women in the house, though they were so busy, were devoted at every
+spare moment to the service of Elinor. They brought her simple breakfast
+up-stairs, one maid carrying the tray and another the teapot, that each
+might have their share. The cook, though she was overwhelmed with work,
+had made some cakes for breakfast, such us Elinor liked. "Most like as
+we'll never have her no more--to mind," she said. The gardener sent up
+an untidy bundle of white flowers. And Mrs. Dennistoun came herself to
+pour out the tea. "As if I had been ill, or had turned into a baby
+again," Elinor said. But there was not much said. Mary Tatham was there
+for one thing, and for another and the most important they had said all
+they had to say; the rest which remained could not be said. The wedding
+was to be at a quarter to twelve, in order to give Lady Mariamne time to
+come from town. It was not the fashion then to delay marriages to the
+afternoon, which no doubt would have been much more convenient for
+her ladyship; but the best that could be done was done. Mr. Tatham's
+carriage, which he had brought with him to grace the ceremony, was
+despatched to the station to meet Lady Mariamne, while he, good man,
+had to get to church as he could in one of the flys. And then came the
+important moment, when the dressing of the bride had to be begun. The
+wedding-breakfast was not yet all set out in perfect order, and there
+were many things to do. Yet every woman in the house had a little share
+in the dressing of the bride. They all came to see how it fitted when
+the wedding-dress was put on. It fitted like a glove! The long glossy
+folds of the satin were a wonder to see. Cook stood just within the door
+in a white apron, and wept, and could not say a word to Miss Elinor; but
+the younger maids sent forth a murmur of admiration. And the Missis they
+thought was almost as beautiful as the bride, though her satin was grey.
+Mrs. Dennistoun herself threw the veil over her child's head, and put in
+the diamond star, the old-fashioned ornament, which had been her
+husband's present to herself. And then again she had meant to say
+something to Elinor--a last word--but the word would not come. They were
+both of them glad that somebody should be there all the time, that they
+should not be left alone. And after that the strange, hurried,
+everlasting morning was over, and the carriage was at the door.
+
+Then again it was a relief that old Mr. Tatham had missed his proper
+place in the fly, and had to go on the front seat with the bride and her
+mother. It was far better so. If they had been left even for ten minutes
+alone, who could have answered that one or the other would not have
+cried, and discomposed the bouquet and the veil? It seemed a great
+danger and responsibility over when they arrived at last safely at the
+church door. Lady Mariamne was just then arriving from the station. She
+drew up before them in poor Mr. Tatham's carriage, keeping them back.
+Harry Compton and Mr. Bolsover sprang to the carriage window to talk to
+her, and there was a loud explosion of mirth and laughter in the midst
+of the village people, and the children with their baskets of flowers
+who were already gathered. Lady Mariamne's voice burst out so shrill
+that it overmastered the church bells. "Here I am," she cried, "out in
+the wilderness. And Algy has come with me to take care of me. And how
+are you, dear boys; and how is poor Phil?" "Phil is all ready to be
+turned off, with the halter round his neck," said Dick Bolsover; and
+Harry Compton said, "Hurry up, hurry up, Jew, the bride is behind you,
+waiting to get out." "She must wait, then," said Lady Mariamne, and
+there came leisurely out of the carriage, first, her ladyship's
+companion, by name, Algy, a tall person with an eye-glass, then a little
+pug, which was carefully handed into his arms, and then lightly jumping
+down to the ground, a little figure in black--in black of all things in
+the world! a sight that curdled the blood of the village people, and
+of Mrs. Hudson, who had walked across from the Rectory in a gown of
+pigeon's-breast silk which scattered prismatic reflections as she
+walked. In black! Mrs. Hudson bethought herself that she had a white
+China crape shawl in her cupboard, and wondered if she could offer it to
+conceal this ill omened gown. But if Lady Mariamne's dress was dark, she
+herself was fair enough, with an endless fluff of light hair under her
+little black lace bonnet. Her gloves were off, and her hands were white
+and glistening with rings. "Give me my puggy darling," she said in her
+loud, shrill tone. "I can go nowhere, can I, pet, without my little
+pug!"
+
+"A Jew and a pug, both in church. It is enough," said her brother, "to
+get the poor parson into trouble with his bishop."
+
+"Oh, the bishop's a great friend of mine," said the lady; "he will say
+nothing to me, not if I put Pug in a surplice and make him lead the
+choir." At this speech there was a great laugh of the assembled party,
+which stood in the centre of the path, while Mr. Tatham's carriage edged
+away, and the others made efforts to get forward. The noise of their
+talk disturbed the curious abstraction in which Elinor had been going
+through the morning hours. Mariamne's jarring voice seemed louder than
+the bells. Was this the first voice sent out to greet her by the new
+life which was about to begin? She glanced at her mother, and then
+at old Uncle Tatham, who sat immovable, prevented by decorum from
+apostrophising the coachman who was not his own, but fuming inwardly at
+the interruption. Mrs. Dennistoun did not move at all, but her daughter
+knew very well what was meant by that look straight before her, in which
+her mother seemed to ignore all obstacles in the way.
+
+"I got here very well," Lady Mariamne went on; "we started in the middle
+of the night, of course, before the lamps were out. Wasn't it good of
+Algy to get himself out of bed at such an unearthly hour! But he snapped
+at Puggy as we came down, which was a sign he felt it. Why aren't you
+with the poor victim at the altar, you boys?"
+
+"Phil will be in blue funk," said Harry; "go in and stand by your man,
+Dick: the Jew has enough with two fellows to see her into her place."
+
+The bride's carriage by this time pushed forward, making Lady Mariamne
+start in confusion. "Oh! look here; they have splashed my pretty
+toilette, and upset my nerves," she cried, springing back into her
+supporter's arms.
+
+That gentleman regarded the stain of the damp gravel on the lady's skirt
+through his eye-glass with deep but helpless anxiety. "It's a pity for
+the pretty frock!" he said with much seriousness. And the group gathered
+round and gazed in dismay, as if they expected it to disappear of
+itself--until Mrs. Hudson bustled up. "It will rub off; it will not make
+any mark. If one of you gentlemen will lend me a handkerchief," she
+said. And Algy and Harry and Dick Bolsover, not to speak of Lady
+Mariamne herself, watched with great gravity while the gravel was swept
+off. "I make no doubt," said the Rector's wife, "that I have the
+pleasure of speaking to Lady Mariamne: and I don't doubt that black is
+the fashion and your dress is beautiful: but if you would just throw on
+a white shawl for the sake of the wedding--it's so unlucky to come in
+black----"
+
+"A white shawl!" said Lady Mariamne in dismay.
+
+"The Jew in a white shawl!" echoed the others with a burst of laughter
+which rang into the church itself and made Phil before the altar, alone
+and very anxious, ask himself what was up.
+
+"It's China crape, I assure you, and very nice," Mrs. Hudson said.
+
+Lady Mariamne gave the good Samaritan a stony stare, and took Algy's arm
+and sailed into the church before the Rector's wife, without a word
+said; while all the women from the village looked at each other and
+said, "Well, I never!" under their breath.
+
+"Let me give you my arm, Mrs. Hudson," said Harry Compton, "and please
+pardon me that I did not introduce my sister to you. She is dreadfully
+shy, don't you know, and never does speak to anyone when she has not
+been introduced."
+
+"My observation was a very simple one," said Mrs. Hudson, very angry,
+yet pleased to lean upon an Honourable arm.
+
+"My dear lady!" cried the good-natured Harry, "the Jew never wore a
+shawl in her life----"
+
+And all this time the organ had been pealing, the white vision passing
+up the aisle, the simple villagers chanting forth their song about the
+breath that breathed o'er Eden. Alas! Eden had not much to do with it,
+except perhaps in the trembling heart of the white maiden roused out of
+her virginal dream by the jarring voices of the new life. The laughter
+outside was a dreadful offence to all the people, great and small, who
+had collected to see Elinor married.
+
+"What could you expect? It's that woman whom they call the Jew,"
+whispered Lady Huntingtower to her next neighbour.
+
+"She should be put into the stocks," said Sir John, scarcely under his
+breath, which, to be sure, was also an interruption to the decorum of
+the place.
+
+And then there ensued a pause broken by the voice, a little lugubrious
+in tone, of the Rector within the altar rails, and the tremulous answers
+of the pair outside. The audience held its breath to hear Elinor make
+her responses, and faltered off into suppressed weeping as the low tones
+ceased. Sir John Huntingtower, who was very tall and big, and stood out
+like a pillar among the ladies round, kept nodding his head all the time
+she spoke, nodding as you might do in forced assent to any dreadful vow.
+Poor little thing, poor little thing, he was saying in his heart. His
+face was more like the face of a man at a funeral than a man at a
+wedding. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord"--he might have been
+nodding assent to that instead of to Elinor's low-spoken vow. Phil
+Compton's voice, to tell the truth, was even more tremulous than
+Elinor's. To investigate the thoughts of a bridegroom would be too much
+curiosity at such a moment. But I think if the secrets of the hearts
+could be revealed, Phil for a moment was sorry for poor little Elinor
+too.
+
+And then the solemnity was all over in a moment, and the flutter of
+voices and congratulations began.
+
+I do not mean to follow the proceedings through all the routine of the
+wedding-day. Attempts were made on the part of the bridegroom's party
+to get Lady Mariamne dismissed by the next train, an endeavour into
+which Harry Compton threw himself--for he was always a good-hearted
+fellow--with his whole soul. But the Jew declared that she was dying of
+hunger, and whatever sort of place it was, must have something to eat; a
+remark which naturally endeared her still more to Mrs. Dennistoun, who
+was waiting by the door of Mr. Tatham's carriage, which that anxious old
+gentleman had managed to recover control of, till her ladyship had taken
+her place. Her ladyship stared with undisguised amazement when she was
+followed into the carriage by the bride's mother, and when the neat
+little old gentleman took his seat opposite. "But where is Algy? I want
+Algy," she cried, in dismay. "Absolutely I can't go without Algy, who
+came to take care of me."
+
+"You will be perfectly safe, my dear lady, with Mrs. Dennistoun and me.
+The gentlemen will walk," said Mr. Tatham, waving his hand to the
+coachman.
+
+And thus it was that the forlorn lady found herself without her cavalier
+and without her pug, absolutely stranded among savages, notwithstanding
+her strong protest almost carried the length of tears. She was thus
+carried off in a state of consternation to the cottage over the rough
+road, where the wheels went with a din and lurch over the stones, and
+dug deep into the sand, eliciting a succession of little shrieks from
+her oppressed bosom. "I shall be shaken all to bits," she said, grasping
+the arm of the old gentleman to steady herself. Mr. Tatham was not
+displeased to be the champion of a lady of title. He assured her in
+dulcet tones that his springs were very good and his horses very
+sure--"though it is not a very nice road."
+
+"Oh, it is a dreadful road!" said Lady Mariamne.
+
+But in due time they did arrive at the cottage, where her ladyship could
+not wait for the gathering of the company, but demanded at once
+something to eat. "I can't really go another moment without food. I must
+have something or I shall die. Phil, come here this instant and get me
+something. They have brought me off at the risk of my life, and there's
+nobody to attend to me. Don't stand spooning there," cried Lady Mariamne,
+"but do what I tell you. Do you think I should ever have put myself into
+this position but for you?"
+
+"You would never have been asked here if they had consulted me. I knew
+what a nuisance you'd be. Here, get this lady something to eat, old
+man," said the bridegroom, tapping Mr. Tatham on the back, who did,
+indeed, look rather like a waiter from that point of view.
+
+"I shall have to help myself," said the lady in despair. And she sat
+down at the elaborate table in the bride's place and began to hack at
+the chicken. The gentlemen coming in at the moment roared again with
+laughter over the Jew's impatience; but it was not regarded with the
+same admiration by the rest of the guests.
+
+These little incidents, perhaps, helped to wile away the weary hours
+until it was time for the bridal pair to depart. Mrs. Dennistoun was so
+angry that it kept up a little fire, so to speak, in her heart when the
+light of her house was extinguished. Lady Mariamne, standing in the
+porch with a bag full of rice to throw, kept up the spirit of the
+mistress of the house, which otherwise might, perhaps, have failed her
+altogether at that inconceivable moment; for though she had been looking
+forward to it for months it was inconceivable when it came, as death is
+inconceivable. Elinor going away!--not on a visit, or to be back in a
+week, or a month, or a year--going away for ever! ending, as might be
+said, when she put her foot on the step of the carriage. Her mother
+stood by and looked on with that cruel conviction that overtakes all
+at the last. Up to this moment had it not seemed as if the course of
+affairs was unreal, as if something must happen to prevent it? Perhaps
+the world will end to-night, as the lover says in the "Last Ride." But
+now here was the end: nothing had happened, the world was swinging on in
+space in its old careless way, and Elinor was going--going away for ever
+and ever. Oh, to come back, perhaps--there was nothing against that--but
+never the same Elinor. The mother stood looking, with her hand over her
+eyes to shield them from the sun. Those eyes were quite dry, and she
+stood firm and upright by the carriage door. She was not "breaking down"
+or "giving way," as everybody feared. She was "bearing up," as everybody
+was relieved to see. And in a moment it was all over, and there was
+nothing before her eyes--no carriage, no Elinor. She was so dazed that
+she stood still, looking with that strange kind of smile for a full
+minute after there was nothing to smile at, only the vacant air and the
+prospect of the combe, coming in in a sickly haze which existed only in
+her eyes.
+
+But, by good luck, there was Lady Mariamne behind, and the fire of
+indignation giving a red flicker upon the desolate hearth.
+
+"I caught Phil on the nose," said that lady, in great triumph; "spoilt
+his beauty for him for to-day. But let's hope she won't mind. She thinks
+him beautiful, the little goose. Oh, my Puggy-wuggy, did that cruel Algy
+pull your little, dear tail, you darling? Come to oos own mammy, now
+those silly wedding people are away."
+
+"Your little dog, I presume, is of a very rare sort," said Mr. Tatham,
+to be civil. He had proposed the bride and bridegroom's health in a most
+appropriate speech, and he felt that he had deserved well of his kind,
+which made him more amiable even than usual. "Your ladyship's little
+dog," he added, after a moment, as she did not take any notice, "I
+presume, is of a rare kind?"
+
+Lady Mariamne gave him a look, or rather a stare. "Is Puggy of a rare
+sort?" she said over her shoulder, to one of the attendant tribe.
+
+"Don't be such a duffer, Jew! You know as well as any one what breed
+he's of," Harry Compton said.
+
+"Oh, I forgot," said the fine lady. She was standing full in front of
+the entrance, keeping Mrs. Dennistoun in the full sun outside. "I hope
+there's a train very soon," she said. "Did you look, Algy, as I told
+you? If it hadn't been that Phil would have killed me I should have gone
+now. It would have been such fun to have spied upon the turtle doves!"
+
+The men thought it would have been rare fun with obedient delight, but
+that Phil would have cut up rough, and made a scene. At this Lady
+Mariamne held up her finger, and made a portentous face.
+
+"Oh, you naughty, naughty boy," she cried, "telling tales out of
+school."
+
+"Perhaps, my dear lady," said Mr. Tatham, quietly, "you would let Mrs.
+Dennistoun pass."
+
+"Oh!" said Lady Mariamne, and stared at him again for half a minute;
+then she turned and stared at the tall lady in grey satin. "Anybody can
+pass," she said: "I'm not so very big."
+
+"That is quite true--quite true. There is plenty of room," said the
+little gentleman, holding out his hand to his cousin.
+
+"My dear John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "I am sure you will be kind enough
+to lend your carriage again to Lady Mariamne, who is in a hurry to get
+away. There is another train, which stops at Downforth station, in half
+an hour, and there will just be time to get there, if you will order it
+at once. I told your man to be in readiness: and it would be a thousand
+pities to lose this train, for there is not another for an hour."
+
+"By Jove, Jew! there's a slap in the face for you," said, in an audible
+whisper, one of the train, who had been standing in front of all the
+friends, blocking out the view. As for Lady Mariamne, she stared more
+straight than ever into Mrs. Dennistoun's eyes, but for the moment did
+not seem to find anything to say. She was left in the hall with her band
+while the mistress of the house went into the drawing-room, followed by
+all the country ladies, who had not lost a word, and who were already
+whispering to each other over that terrible betrayal about the temper of
+Phil.
+
+"Cut up rough! Oh! poor little Elinor, poor little Elinor!" the ladies
+said to each other under their breath.
+
+"I am not at all surprised. It is not any news to me. You could see it
+in his eyes," said Miss Mary Dale. And then they all were silent to
+listen to the renewed laughter that came bursting from the hall. Mrs.
+Hudson questioned her husband afterwards as to what it was that made
+everybody laugh, but the Rector had not much to say. "I really could
+not tell you, my dear," he said. "I don't remember anything that was
+said--but it seemed funny somehow, and as they all laughed one had to
+laugh too."
+
+The great lady came in, however, dragged by her brother to say good-by.
+"It has all gone off very well, I am sure, and Nell looked very nice,
+and did you great credit," she said, putting out her hand. "And it's
+very kind of you to take so much trouble to get us off by the first
+train."
+
+"Oh, it is no trouble," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"Shouldn't you like to say good-by to Puggy-muggy?" said Lady Mariamne,
+touching the little black nose upon her arm. "He enjoyed that _pate_ so
+much. He really never has _foie gras_ at home: but he doesn't at all
+mind if you would like to give him a little kiss just here."
+
+"Good-by, Lady Mariamne," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with one of the curtseys
+of the old school. But there was another gust of laughter as Lady
+Mariamne was placed in the carriage, and a shrill little trumpet gave
+forth the satisfaction of the departing guest at having "got a rise out
+of the old girl." The gentlemen heaped themselves into Mr. Tatham's
+carriage, and swept off along with her, all but civil Harry, who
+waited to make their apologies, and to put up along with his own Dick
+Bolsover's "things." And thus the bridegroom's party, the new associates
+of Elinor, the great family into which the Honourable Mrs. Phil Compton
+had been so lucky as to marry, to the great excitement of all the country
+round, departed and was seen no more. Harry, who was civil, walked home
+with the Hudsons when all was over, and said the best he could for the
+Jew and her friends. "You see, she has been regularly spoiled: and
+then when a girl's so dreadful shy, as often as not it sounds like
+impudence." "Dear me, I should never have thought Lady Mariamne was
+shy," the gentle Rector said. "That's just how it is," said Harry. He
+went over again in the darkening to take his leave of Mrs. Dennistoun.
+He found her sitting out in the garden before the open door, looking
+down the misty walk. The light had gone out of the skies, but the usual
+cheerful lights had not yet appeared in the house, where the hum of a
+great occasion still reigned. The Tathams were at the Rectory, and Mrs.
+Dennistoun was alone. Harry Compton had a good heart, and though he
+could not conceive the possibility of a woman not being glad to have
+married her daughter, the loneliness and darkness touched him a little
+in contrast with the gayety of the previous night. "You must think us a
+dreadful noisy lot," he said, "and as if my sister had no sense. But
+it's only the Jew's way. She's made like that--and at bottom she's not
+at all a bad sort."
+
+"Are you going away?" was all the answer that Mrs. Dennistoun made.
+
+"Oh, yes, and we shall be a good riddance," said Harry; "but please
+don't think any worse of us than you can help---- Phil--well, he's got a
+great deal of good in him--he has indeed, and she'll bring it all out."
+
+It was very good of Harry Compton. He had a little choking in his throat
+as he walked back. "Blest if I ever thought of it in that light before,"
+he said to himself.
+
+But I doubt if what he said, however well meant, brought much comfort to
+Mrs. Dennistoun's heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Thus Elinor Dennistoun disappeared from Windyhill and was no more seen.
+There are many ways in which a marriage is almost like a death,
+especially when the marriage is that of an only child. The young go
+away, the old remain. There is all the dreary routine of the solitary
+life unbrightened by that companionship which is all the world to the
+one who is left behind. So little--only the happy going away into
+brighter scenes of one whose happiness was the whole thought of that
+dreary survivor at the chimney corner--and yet so much. And if that
+survivor is a woman she has to smile and tell her neighbours of the
+bride's happiness, and how great the comfort to herself that her
+Elinor's life is assured, and her own ending is now of no particular
+importance to her daughter; if it is a man, he is allowed to lament,
+which is a curious paradox, but one of the many current in this world.
+Mrs. Dennistoun had to put a very brave face upon it all the more
+because of the known unsatisfactoriness of Elinor's husband: and she had
+to go on with her life, and sit down at her solitary meals, and invent
+lonely occupations for herself, and read and read, till her brains were
+often dazed by the multiplicity of the words, which lost their meaning
+as she turned over page by page. To sit alone in the house, without
+a sound audible, except perhaps the movement of the servants going
+up-stairs or down to minister to the wants, about which she felt she
+cared nothing whether they were ministered to or not, of their solitary
+mistress, where a little while ago there used to be the rhythm of the
+one quick step, the sound of the one gay voice which made the world a
+warm inhabited place to Mrs. Dennistoun--this was more dismal than words
+could say. To be sure, there were some extraordinary and delightful
+differences; there were the almost daily letters, which afforded the
+lonely mother all the pleasure that life could give; and there was
+always the prospect, or at least possibility and hope, of seeing her
+child again. Those two particulars, it need scarcely be said, make a
+difference which is practically infinite: but yet for Mrs. Dennistoun,
+sitting alone all the day and night, walking alone, reading alone,
+with little to do that was of the slightest consequence, not even the
+reading--for what did it matter to her dreary, lonely consciousness
+whether she kept afloat of general literature or improved her mind
+or not? this separation by marriage was dreadfully like the dreary
+separation by death, and in one respect it was almost worse; for death,
+if it reaches our very hearts, takes away at least the gnawing pangs of
+anxiety. He or she who is gone that way is well; never more can trouble
+touch them, their feet cannot err nor their hearts ache; while who can
+tell what troubles and miseries may be befalling, out there in the
+unknown, the child who has embarked upon the troubled sea of mortal
+life?
+
+And it may be imagined with what anxious eyes those letters, which made
+all the difference, were read; how the gradually changing tone in them
+was noted as it came in, slowly but also surely. Sometimes they got
+to be very hurried, and then Mrs. Dennistoun saw as in a glass the
+impatient husband waiting, wondering what she could constantly find
+to say to her mother; sometimes they were long and detailed, and
+that meant, as would appear perhaps by a phrase slurred over in the
+postscript, that Phil had gone away somewhere. There was never a
+complaint in them, never a word that could be twisted into a complaint:
+but the anxious mother read between the lines innumerable things, not
+half of them true. There is perhaps never a half true of what anxiety
+may imagine: but then the half that is true!
+
+John Tatham was very faithful to her during that winter. As soon as he
+came back from Switzerland, at the end of the long vacation, he went
+down to see her, feeling the difference in the house beyond anything he
+had imagined, feeling as if he were stepping into some darkened outer
+chamber of the grave: but with a cheerful face and eager but confident
+interest in "the news from Elinor." "Of course she is enjoying herself
+immensely," he said, and Mrs. Dennistoun was able to reply with a smile
+that was a little wistful, that yes, Elinor was enjoying herself
+immensely. "She seems very happy, and everything is new to her and
+bright," she said. They were both very glad that Elinor was happy, and
+they were very cheerful themselves. Mrs. Dennistoun truly cheered by his
+visit and by the necessity for looking after everything that John might
+be comfortable, and the pleasure of seeing his face opposite to her at
+table. "You can't think what it is to see you there; sitting down to
+dinner is the most horrible farce when one is alone." "Poor aunt!" John
+Tatham said: and nobody would believe how many Saturdays and Sundays he
+gave up to her during the long winter. Somehow he himself did not care
+to go anywhere else. In Elinor's time he had gone about freely enough,
+liking a little variety in his Saturday to Mondays, though always
+happiest when he went to Windyhill: but now somehow the other houses
+seemed to pall upon him. He liked best to go down to that melancholy
+house which his presence made more or less bright, where there was an
+endless talk of Elinor, where she was, what she was doing, and what was
+to be her next move, and, at last, when she was coming to town. Mrs.
+Dennistoun did not say, as she did at first, "when she is coming home."
+That possibility seemed to slip away somehow, and no one suggested it.
+When she was coming to town, that was what they said between themselves.
+She had spent the spring on the Riviera, a great part of it at Monte
+Carlo, and her letters were full of the beauty of the place; but she
+said less and less about people, and more and more about the sea and the
+mountains, and the glorious road which gave at every turn a new and
+beautiful vision of the hills and the sea. It was a little like a
+guide-book, they sometimes felt, but neither said it; but at last it
+became certain that in the month of May she was coming to town.
+
+More than that, oh, more than that! One evening in May, when it was fine
+but a little chilly, when Mrs. Dennistoun was walking wistfully in her
+garden, looking at the moon shining in the west, and wondering if her
+child had arrived in England, and whether she was coming to a house of
+her own, or a lodging, or to be a visitor in some one else's house,
+details which Elinor had not given--her ear was suddenly caught by the
+distant rumbling of wheels, heavy wheels, the fly from the station
+certainly. Mrs. Dennistoun had no expectation of what it could be, no
+sort of hope: and yet a woman has always a sort of hope when her child
+lives and everything is possible. The fly seemed to stop, not coming up
+the little cottage drive; but by and by, when she had almost given up
+hoping, there came a rush of flying feet, and a cry of joy, and Elinor
+was in her mother's arms. Elinor! yes, it was herself, no vision, no
+shadow such as had many a time come into Mrs. Dennistoun's dreams, but
+herself in flesh and blood, the dear familiar figure, the face which,
+between the twilight and those ridiculous tears which come when one is
+too happy, could scarcely be seen at all. "Elinor, Elinor! it is you, my
+darling!" "Yes, mother, it is me, really me. I could not write, because
+I did not know till the last minute whether I could get away."
+
+It may be imagined what a coming home that was. Mrs. Dennistoun, when
+she saw her daughter even by the light of the lamp, was greatly
+comforted. Elinor was looking well; she was changed in that
+indescribable way in which marriage changes (though not always) the
+happiest woman. And her appearance was changed; she was no longer the
+country young lady very well dressed and looking as well as any one
+could in her carefully made clothes. She was now a fashionable young
+woman, about whose dresses there was no question, who wore everything as
+those do who are at the fountain-head, no matter what it was she wore.
+Mrs. Dennistoun's eyes caught this difference at once, which is also
+indescribable to the uninitiated, and a sensation of pride came into her
+mind. Elinor was improved, too, in so many ways. Her mother had never
+thought of calling her anything more, even in her inmost thoughts, than
+very pretty, very sweet; but it seemed to Mrs. Dennistoun now as if
+people might use a stronger word, and call Elinor beautiful. Her face
+had gained a great deal of expression, though it was always an
+expressive face; her eyes looked deeper; her manner had a wonderful
+youthful dignity. Altogether, it was another Elinor, yet, God be
+praised, the same.
+
+It was but for one night, but that was a great deal, a night subtracted
+from the blank, a night that seemed to come out of the old times--those
+old times that had not been known to be so very happy till they were
+over and gone. Elinor had naturally a great deal to tell her mother, but
+in the glory of seeing her, of hearing her voice, of knowing that it was
+actually she who was speaking, Mrs. Dennistoun did not observe, what she
+remembered afterwards, that again it was much more of places than of
+people that Elinor talked, and that though she named Phil when there was
+any occasion for doing so, she did not babble about him as brides do, as
+if he were altogether the sun, and everything revolved round him. It is
+not a good sign, perhaps, when the husband comes down to his "proper
+place" as the representative of the other half of the world too soon.
+Elinor looked round upon her old home with a mingled smile and sigh.
+Undoubtedly it had grown smaller, perhaps even shabbier, since she went
+away: but she did not say so to her mother. She cried out how pretty it
+was, how delightful to come back to it! and that was true too. How often
+it happens in this life that there are two things quite opposed to each
+other, and yet both of them true.
+
+"John will be delighted to hear that you have come, Elinor," her mother
+said.
+
+"John, dear old John! I hope he is well and happy, and all that; and he
+comes often to see you, mother? How sweet of him! You must give him ever
+so much love from his poor Nelly. I always keep that name sacred to
+him."
+
+"But why should I give him messages as if you were not sure to meet? of
+course you will meet--often."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Elinor. She opened her eyes a little in
+surprise, and then shook her head. "I am afraid not, mamma. We are in
+two different worlds."
+
+"I assure you," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "John is a very rising man. He is
+invited everywhere."
+
+"That I don't doubt at all."
+
+"And why then shouldn't you meet?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't fancy we shall go to the same places. John has a
+profession; he has something to do. Now you know we have nothing to do."
+
+She laughed and laid a little emphasis on the _we_, by way of taking off
+the weight of the words.
+
+"I always thought it was a great pity, Elinor."
+
+"It may be a pity or not," said Elinor, "but it is, and it cannot be
+helped. We have got to make up our minds to it. I would rather Phil did
+nothing than mixed himself up with companies. Thank heaven, at present
+he is free of anything of that kind."
+
+"I hope he is free of that one at least, that he was going to invest all
+your money in, Elinor. I hope you found another investment that was
+quite steady and safe."
+
+"Oh, I suppose so," said Elinor, with some of her old petulance: "don't
+let us spoil the little time I have by talking about money, mamma!"
+
+And then it was that Mrs. Dennistoun noticed that what Elinor did talk
+of, hurrying away from this subject, were things of not the least
+importance--the olive woods on the Riviera, the wealth of flowers, the
+strange little old towns upon the hills. Surely even the money, which
+was her own and for her comfort, would be a more interesting subject
+to discuss. Perhaps Elinor herself perceived this, for she began
+immediately to ask questions about the Hudsons and Hills, and all the
+people of the parish, with much eagerness of questioning, but a flagging
+interest in the replies, as her mother soon saw. "And Mary Dale, is she
+still there?" she asked. Mrs. Dennistoun entered into a little history
+of how Mary Dale had gone away to nurse a distant cousin who had been
+ill, and finally had died and left a very comfortable little fortune to
+her kind attendant. Elinor listened with little nods and appropriate
+exclamations, but before the evening was out asked again, "And Mary
+Dale?" then hastily corrected herself with an "Oh, I remember! you told
+me." But it was perhaps safer not to question her how much she
+remembered of what she had been told.
+
+Thus there were notes of disquiet in even that delightful evening, such
+a contrast as it was to all the evenings since she had left home. Even
+when John came, what a poor substitute for Elinor! The ingratitude of
+those whose heart is set on one object made Mrs. Dennistoun thus make
+light of what had been her great consolation. He was very kind, very
+good, and oh, how glad she had been to see him through that heavy
+winter--but he was not Elinor! It was enough for Elinor to step across
+her mother's threshold to make Mrs. Dennistoun feel that there was no
+substitute for her--none: and that John was of no more consequence than
+the Rector or any habitual caller. But, at the same time, in all the
+melody of the home-coming, in the sweetness of Elinor's voice, and look,
+and kiss, in the perfection of seeing her there again in her own place,
+and listening to her dear step running up and down the no longer silent
+house, there were notes of disquiet which could not be mistaken. She was
+not unhappy, the mother thought; her eyes could not be so bright, nor
+her colour so fair unless she was happy. Trouble does not embellish, and
+Elinor was embellished. But yet--there were notes of disquiet in the
+air.
+
+Next day Mrs. Dennistoun drove her child to the railway in order not
+to lose a moment of so short a visit, and naturally, though she had
+received that unexpected visit with rapture, feeling that a whole night
+of Elinor was worth a month, a year of anybody else, yet now that Elinor
+was going she found it very short. "You'll come again soon, my darling?"
+she said, as she stood at the window of the carriage ready to say
+good-bye.
+
+"Whenever I can, mother dear, of that you may be sure; whenever I can
+get away."
+
+"I don't wish to draw you from your husband. Don't get away--come with
+Philip from Saturday to Monday. Give him my love, and tell him so. He
+shall not be bored; but Sunday is a day without engagements."
+
+"Oh, not now, mamma. There are just as many things to do on Sundays as
+on any other day."
+
+There were a great many words on Mrs. Dennistoun's lips, but she did not
+say them; all she did say was, "Well, then, Elinor--when you can get
+away."
+
+"Oh, you need not doubt me, mamma." And the train, which sometimes
+lingers so long, which some people that very day were swearing at as so
+slow, "Like all country trains," they said--that inevitable heartless
+thing got into motion, and Mrs. Dennistoun watched it till it
+disappeared; and--what was that that came over Elinor's face as she sank
+back into the corner of her carriage, not knowing her mother's anxious
+look followed her still--what was it? Oh, dreadful, dreadful life! oh,
+fruitless love and longing!--was it relief? The mother tried to get that
+look out of her mind as she drove silently and slowly home, creeping up
+hill after hill. There was no need to hurry. All that she was going to
+was an empty and silent house, where nobody awaited her. What was that
+look on Elinor's face? Relief! to have it over, to get away again,
+away from her old home and her fond mother, away to her new life. Mrs.
+Dennistoun was not a jealous mother nor unreasonable. She said to
+herself--Well! it was no doubt a trial to the child to come back--to
+come alone. All the time, perhaps, she was afraid of being too closely
+questioned, of having to confess that _he_ did not want to come, perhaps
+grudged her coming. She might be afraid that her mother would divine
+something--some hidden opposition, some dislike, perhaps, on his part.
+Poor Elinor! and when everything had passed over so well, when it was
+ended, and nothing had been between them but love and mutual
+understanding, what wonder if there came over her dear face a look of
+relief! This was how this good woman, who had seen a great many things
+in her passage through life, explained her child's look: and though she
+was sad was not angry, as many less tolerant and less far-seeing might
+have been in her place.
+
+John, that good John, to whom she had been so ungrateful, came down next
+Saturday, and to him she confided her great news, but not all of it.
+"She came down--alone?" he said.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Dennistoun, bravely; "she knew very well it was her I
+wanted to see, and not Philip. They say a great deal about mothers-in-law,
+but why shouldn't we in our turn have our fling at sons-in-law, John? It
+was not him I wanted to see: it was my own child: and Elinor understood
+that, and ran off by herself. Bless her for the thought."
+
+"I understand that," said John. He had given the mother more than one
+look as she spoke, and divined her better than she supposed. "Oh, yes, I
+can understand that. The thing I don't understand is why he let her; why
+he wasn't too proud to bring her back to you, that you might see she had
+taken no harm. If it had been I----"
+
+"Ah, but it was not you," said Mrs. Dennistoun; "you forget that. It
+never could have been you."
+
+He looked quickly at her again, and it was on his lips to ask, "Why
+could it never have been I?" but he did not; for he knew that if it had
+ever been him, it could not have been for years. He was too prudent, and
+Elinor, even if she had escaped Phil Compton, would have met some one
+else. He had no right to say, or even think, what, in the circumstances,
+he would have done. He did not make any answer, but she understood him
+as he understood her.
+
+And later in the evening she asked his advice as to what she should do.
+"I am not fond of asking advice," she said, "and I don't think there is
+another in the world I would ask it from but you. What should I do? It
+would cost me nothing to run up to town for a part of the season at
+least. I might get a little house, and be near her, where she could come
+to me when she pleased. Should I do it, or would it be wise not to do
+it? I don't want to spy upon her or to force her to tell me more than
+she wishes. John, my dear, I will tell you what I would tell no one
+else. I caught a glimpse of her dear face when the train was just going
+out of sight, and she was sinking back in her corner with a look of
+relief----"
+
+"Of relief!" he cried.
+
+"John, don't form any false impression! it was no want of love: but I
+think she was thankful to have seen me, and to have satisfied me, and
+that I had asked no questions that she could not answer--in a way."
+
+John clenched his fist, but he dared not make any gesture of disgust,
+or suggest again, "If it had been I."
+
+"Well, now," she said, "remember I am not angry--fancy being angry with
+Elinor!--and all I mean is for her benefit. Should I go? it might be a
+relief to her to run into me whenever she pleased; or should I not go?
+lest she might think I was bent on finding out more than she chose to
+tell?"
+
+"Wouldn't it be right that you should find out?"
+
+"That is just the point upon which I am doubtful. She is not unhappy,
+for she is--she is prettier than ever she was, John. A girl does not
+get like that--her eyes brighter, her colour clearer, looking--well,
+beautiful!" cried the mother, her eyes filling with bright tears, "if
+she is unhappy. But there may be things that are not quite smooth, that
+she might think it would make me unhappy to know, yet that if let alone
+might come all right. Tell me, John, what should I do?"
+
+And they sat debating thus till far on in the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun did not go up to town. There are some women who would
+have done so, seeing the other side of the subject--at all hazards; and
+perhaps they would have been right--who can tell? She did not--denying
+herself, keeping herself by main force in her solitude, not to interfere
+with the life of her child, which was drawn on lines so different from
+any of hers--and perhaps she was wrong. Who knows, except by the event,
+which is the best or the worst way in any of our human movements, which
+are so short-sighted? And twice during the season Elinor found means to
+come to the cottage for a night as she had done at first. These were
+occasions of great happiness, it need not be said--but of many thoughts
+and wonderings too. She had always an excuse for Phil. He had meant
+until the last moment to come with her--some one had turned up, quite
+unexpectedly, who had prevented him. It was a fatality; especially when
+she came down in July did she insist upon this. He had been invited
+quite suddenly to a political dinner to meet one of the Ministers from
+whom he had hopes of an appointment. "For we find that we can't go on
+enjoying ourselves for ever," she said gayly, "and Phil has made up his
+mind he must get something to do."
+
+"It is always the best way," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"I am not so very sure, mamma, when you have never been used to it. Of
+course, some people would be wretched without work. Fancy John with
+nothing to do! How he would torment his wife--if he had one. But Phil
+never does that. He is very easy to live with. He is always after
+something, and leaves me as free as if he had a day's work in an
+office."
+
+This slipped out, with a smile: but evidently after it was said Elinor
+regretted she had said it, and thought that more might be drawn from the
+admission than she intended. She added quietly, "Of course a settled
+occupation would interfere with many things. We could not go out
+together continually as we do now."
+
+Was there any way of reconciling these two statements? Mrs. Dennistoun
+tried and tried in vain to make them fit into each other: and yet no
+doubt there was some way.
+
+"And perhaps another season, mother, if Phil was in a public office--it
+seems so strange to think of Phil having an office--you might come up,
+don't you think, to town for a time? Would it be a dreadful bore to you
+to leave the country just when it is at its best? I'm afraid it would be
+a dreadful bore: but we could run about together in the mornings when he
+was busy, and go to see the pictures and things. How pleasant it would
+be!"
+
+"It would be delightful for me, Elinor. I shouldn't mind giving up the
+country, if it wouldn't interfere with your engagements, my dear."
+
+"Oh, my engagements! Much I should care for them if Phil was occupied. I
+like, of course, to be with him."
+
+"Of course," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"And it is good for him, too, I think." This was another of the little
+admissions that Elinor regretted the moment they were made. "I mean it's
+a pity, isn't it, when a man likes to have his wife with him that she
+shouldn't always be there, ready to go?"
+
+"A great pity," said Mrs. Dennistoun, and then she changed the subject.
+"I thought it required all sorts of examinations and things for a man to
+get into a public office now."
+
+"So it does for the ordinary grades, which would be far, far too much
+routine for Phil. But they say a minister always has things in his
+power. There are still posts----"
+
+"Sinecures, Elinor?"
+
+"I did not mean exactly sinecures," she said, with an embarrassed laugh,
+"though I think those must have been fine things; but posts where it is
+not merely routine, where a man may have a chance of acting for himself
+and distinguishing himself, perhaps. And to be in the service of the
+country is always better, safer, than that dreadful city. Don't you
+think so?"
+
+"I have never thought the city dreadful, Elinor. I have had many friends
+connected with the city."
+
+"Ah, but not in those horrid companies, mamma. Do you know that company
+which we just escaped, which Phil saved my money out of, when it was all
+but invested--I believe that has ruined people right and left. He got
+out of it, fortunately, just before the smash; that is, of course, he
+never had very much to do with it, he was only on the Board."
+
+"And where is your money now?"
+
+"Oh, I can answer that question this time," said Elinor, gayly. "He had
+just time to get it into another company which pays--beautifully! The
+Jew is in it, too, and the whole lot of them. Oh! I beg your pardon,
+mamma. I tried hard to call her by her proper name, but when one never
+hears any other, one can't help getting into it!"
+
+"I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that Philip was not much mixed up with
+this company if other people have been ruined, and he has escaped?"
+
+"How could that be?" said Elinor, with a sort of tremulous dignity. "You
+don't suppose for a moment that he----. But of course you don't," she
+added with a heightened colour and a momentary cloud over her eyes, "of
+course you don't. There was a dreadful manager who destroyed the books
+and then fled, so that there never could be a right winding up of the
+affairs."
+
+"I hope Philip will take great care never to have to do with anything of
+the kind again."
+
+"Oh, no, he has promised me he will not. I will not have it. He has a
+kind of ornamental directorship on this new company, just for the sake
+of his name: but he has promised me he will have nothing more to do with
+it for my peace of mind."
+
+"I wonder that they should care in the city for so small a matter as a
+peer's younger son."
+
+"Oh, do you think it a small matter, mamma? I don't mean that I care,
+but people give a good deal of weight to it, you know."
+
+"I meant only in the city, Elinor."
+
+"Oh!" Elinor said. She was half offended with her mother's indifference.
+She had found that to be the Hon. Mrs. Compton was something, or so at
+least she supposed: and she began timidly to give her mother a list of
+her engagements, which were indeed many in number, and there were some
+dazzling names among a great many with which Mrs. Dennistoun was
+unacquainted. But how could she know who were the fashionable people
+nowadays, a woman living so completely out of the world?
+
+John Tatham, for his part, went through his engagements that year with a
+constant expectation of seeing Elinor, which preoccupied him more than a
+rising young barrister going everywhere ought to have been preoccupied.
+He thought he went everywhere, and so did his family at home, especially
+his sister, Mary Tatham, who was his father's nurse and attendant, and
+never had any chance of sharing these delights. She made all the more,
+as was natural, of John's privileges and social success from the fact of
+her own seclusion, and was in the habit of saying that she believed
+there was scarcely a party in London to which John was not invited--three
+or four in a night. But it would seem with all this that there were many
+parties to which he was not invited, for the Phil Comptons (how strange
+and on the whole disgusting to think that this now meant Elinor!) also
+went everywhere, and yet they very seldom met. It was true that John
+could not expect to meet them at dinner at a Judge's or in the legal
+society in high places which was his especial sphere, and nothing could
+be more foolish than the tremor of expectation with which this very
+steady-going man would set out to every house in which the fashionable
+world met with the professional, always thinking that perhaps----But it
+was rarely, very rarely, that this perhaps came to pass. When it did it
+was amid the crowd of some prodigious reception to which people "looked
+in" for half an hour, and where on one occasion he found Elinor alone,
+with that curious dignity about her, a little tragical, which comes of
+neglect. He agreed with her mother, that he had never imagined Elinor's
+youthful prettiness could have come to anything so near beauty. There
+was a strained, wide open look in her eyes, which was half done by
+looking out for some one, and half by defying any one to think that she
+felt herself alone, or was pursuing that search with any anxiety. She
+stood exceedingly erect, silent, observing everything, yet endeavouring
+to appear as if she did not observe, altogether a singular and very
+striking figure among the fashionable crowd, in which it seemed
+everybody was chattering, smiling, gay or making believe to be gay,
+except herself. When she saw John a sudden gleam of pleasure, followed
+by a cloud of embarrassment, came over her face: but poor Elinor could
+not help being glad to see some one she knew, some one who more or less
+belonged to her; although it appeared she had the best of reasons for
+being alone. "I was to meet Phil here," she said, "but somehow I must
+have missed him." "Let us walk about a little, and we'll be sure to find
+him," said John. She was so glad to take his arm, almost to cling to
+him, to find herself with a friend. "I don't know many people here,"
+she confided to John, leaning on his arm, with the familiar sisterly
+dependence of old, "and I am so stupid about coming out by myself. It is
+because I have never been used to it. There has always been mamma, and
+then Phil; but I suppose he has been detained somewhere to-night. I
+think I never felt so lost before, among all these strange people. He
+knows everybody, of course."
+
+"But you have a lot of friends, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, yes," she said, brightly enough; "in our own set: but this is what
+Phil calls more serious than our set. I should not wonder in the least
+if he had shirked it at the last, knowing I would be sure to come."
+
+"That is just the reason why I should have thought he would not shirk
+it," said John.
+
+"Ah, that's because you're not married," said Elinor, but with a laugh
+in which there was no bitterness. "Don't you know one good of a wife is
+to do the man's social duties for him, to appear at the dull places and
+save his credit? Oh, I don't object at all; it is quite a legitimate
+division of labour. I shall get into it in time: but I am so stupid
+about coming into a room alone, and instead of looking about to see what
+people I really do know, I just stiffen into a sort of shell. I should
+never have known you if you had not come up to me, John."
+
+"You see I was looking out for you, and you were not looking out for me,
+that makes all the difference."
+
+"You were looking out for us!"
+
+"Ever since the season began I have been looking out for you,
+everywhere," said John, with a rather fierce emphasis on the pronoun,
+which, however, as everybody knows, is plural, and means two as much as
+one, though it was the reverse of this that John Tatham meant to show.
+
+"Ah!" said Elinor. "But then I am afraid our set is different, John.
+There will always be some places--like this, for instance--where I hope
+we shall meet; but our set perhaps is a little frivolous, and your set a
+little--serious, don't you see? You are professional and political, and
+all that; and Phil is--well, I don't know exactly what Phil is--more
+fashionable and frivolous, as I said. A race-going, ball-going, always
+in motion set."
+
+"Most people," said John, "go more or less to races and balls."
+
+"More or less, that makes the whole difference. We go to them all. Now
+you see the distinction, John. You go to Ascot perhaps on the cup day;
+we go all the days and all the other days, at the other places."
+
+"How knowing you have become!"
+
+"Haven't I?" she said, with a smile that was half a sigh.
+
+"But I shouldn't have thought that would have suited you, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, yes, it does," she said, and then she eyed him with something of
+the defiance that had been in her look when she was standing alone. She
+did not avoid his look as a less brave woman might have done. "I like
+the fun of it," she said.
+
+And then there was a pause, for he did not know what to reply.
+
+"We have been through all the rooms," she said at last, "and we have not
+seen a ghost of Phil. He cannot be coming now. What o'clock is it? Oh,
+just the time he will be due at---- I'm sure he can't come now. Do you
+think you could get my carriage for me? It's only a brougham that we
+hire," she said, with a smile, "but the man is such a nice, kind man. If
+he had been an old family coachman he couldn't take more care of me."
+
+"That looks as if he had to take care of you often, Elinor."
+
+"Well," she said, looking him full in the face again, "you don't suppose
+my husband goes out with me in the morning shopping? I hope he has
+something better to do."
+
+"Shouldn't you like to have your mother with you for the shopping,
+etc.?"
+
+"Ah, dearly!" then with a little quick change of manner, "another
+time--not this season, but next, if I can persuade her to come; for next
+year I hope we shall be more settled, perhaps in a house of our own, if
+Phil gets the appointment he is after."
+
+"Oh, he is after an appointment?"
+
+"Yes, John; Phil is not so lucky as to have a profession like you."
+
+This was a new way of looking at the matter, and John Tatham found
+nothing to say. It seemed to him, who had worked very hard for it, a
+little droll to describe his possession of a profession as luck. But he
+made no remark. He took Elinor down-stairs and found her brougham for
+her, and the kind old coachman on the box, who was well used to taking
+care of her, though only hired from the livery stables for the
+season--John thought the old man looked suspiciously at him, and would
+have stopped him from accompanying her, had he designed any such
+proceeding. Poor little Nelly, to be watched over by the paternal
+fly-man on the box! she who might have had---- but he stopped himself
+there, though his heart felt as heavy as a stone to see her go away
+thus, alone from the smart party where she had been doing duty for her
+husband. John could not take upon himself to finish his sentence--she
+who might have had love and care of a very different kind. No, he had
+never offered her that love and care. Had Phil Compton never come in her
+way it is possible that John Tatham might never have offered it to
+her--not, at least, for a long time. He could never have had any right
+to be a dog in the manger, neither would he venture to pretend now that
+it was her own fault if she had chosen the wrong man; was it his fault
+then, who had never put a better man within her choice? but John, who
+was no coxcomb, blushed in the dark to himself as this question flitted
+through his mind. He had no reason to suppose that Elinor would have
+been willing to change the brotherly tie between them into any other.
+Thank heaven for that brotherly tie! He would always be able to befriend
+her, to stand by her, to help her as much as any one could help a woman
+who was married, and thus outside of all ordinary succour. And as for
+that blackguard, that _dis_-Honourable Phil---- But here John, who was a
+man of just mind, paused again. For a man to let his wife go to a party
+by herself was not after all so dreadful a thing. Many men did so, and
+the women did not complain; to be sure they were generally older, more
+accustomed to manage for themselves than Elinor: but still, a man need
+not be a blackguard because he did that. So John stopped his own ready
+judgment, but still I am afraid in his heart pronounced Phil Compton's
+sentence all the same. He did not say a word about this encounter to
+Mrs. Dennistoun; at least, he did tell her that he had met Elinor at the
+So-and-So's, which, as it was one of the best houses in London, was
+pleasing to a mother to hear.
+
+"And how was she looking?" Mrs. Dennistoun cried.
+
+"She was looking--beautiful----" said John. "I don't flatter, and I
+never thought her so in the old times--but it is the only word I can
+use----"
+
+"Didn't I tell you so?" said the mother, pleased. "She is quite
+embellished and improved--therefore she must be happy."
+
+"It is certainly the very best evidence----"
+
+"Isn't it? But it so often happens otherwise, even in happy marriages. A
+girl feels strange, awkward, out of it, in her new life. Elinor must
+have entirely accustomed herself, adapted herself to it, and to them, or
+she would not look so well. That is the greatest comfort I can have."
+
+And John kept his own counsel about Elinor's majestic solitude and the
+watchful old coachman in the hired brougham. Her husband might still be
+full of love and tenderness all the same. It was a great effort of the
+natural integrity of his character to pronounce like this; but he did it
+in the interests of justice, and for Elinor's sake and her mother's said
+nothing of the circumstances at all.
+
+It may be supposed that when Elinor paid the last of her sudden visits
+at the cottage it was a heavy moment both for mother and daughter. It
+was the time when fashionable people finish the season by going to
+Goodwood--and to Goodwood Elinor was going with a party, Lady Mariamne
+and a number of the "set." She told her mother, to amuse her, of the new
+dresses she had got for this important occasion. "Phil says one may go
+in sackcloth and ashes the remainder of the year, but we must be fine
+for Goodwood," she said. "I wanted him to believe that I had too many
+clothes already, but he was inexorable. It is not often, is it, that
+one's husband is more anxious than one's self about one's dress?"
+
+"He wants you to do him credit, Elinor."
+
+"Well, mamma, there is no harm in that. But more than that--he wants me
+to look nice, for myself. He thinks me still a little shy--though I
+never was shy, was I?--and he thinks nothing gives you courage like
+feeling yourself well dressed--but he takes the greatest interest in
+everything I wear."
+
+"And where do you go after Goodwood, Elinor?"
+
+"Oh, mamma, on such a round of visits!--here and there and everywhere. I
+don't know," and the tears sprang into Elinor's eyes, "when I may see
+you again."
+
+"You are not coming back to London," said the mother, with the heart
+sinking in her breast.
+
+"Not now--they all say London is insupportable--it is one of the things
+that everybody says, and I believe that Phil will not set foot in it
+again for many months. Perhaps I might get a moment, when he is
+shooting, or something, to run back to you; but it is a long way from
+Scotland--and he must be there, you know, for the 12th. He would think
+the world was coming to an end if he did not get a shot at the grouse
+on that day."
+
+"But I thought he was looking for an appointment, Elinor?"
+
+A cloud passed over Elinor's face. "The season is over," she said, "and
+all the opportunities are exhausted--and we don't speak of that any
+more."
+
+She gave her mother a very close hug at the railway, and sat with her
+head partly out of the window watching her as she stood on the platform,
+until the train turned round the corner. No relief on her dear face now,
+but an anxious strain in her eyes to see her mother as long as possible.
+Mrs. Dennistoun, as she walked again slowly up the hills that the pony
+might not suffer, said to herself, with a chill at her heart, that she
+would rather have seen her child sinking back in the corner, pleased
+that it was over, as on the first day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+The next winter was more dreary still and solitary than the first at
+Windyhill. The first had been, though it looked so long and dreary as it
+passed, full of hope of the coming summer, which must, it seemed, bring
+Elinor back. But now Mrs. Dennistoun knew exactly what Elinor's coming
+back meant, and the prospect was less cheering. Three days in the whole
+long season--three little escapades, giving so very little hope of more
+sustained intercourse to come. Mrs. Dennistoun, going over all the
+circumstances--she had so little else to do but to go over them in her
+long solitary evenings--came to the conclusion that whatever might
+happen, she herself would go to town when summer came again. She amused
+herself with thinking how she would find a little house--quite a small
+house, as there are so many--in a good situation, where even the most
+fashionable need not be ashamed to come, and where there would be room
+enough for Elinor and her husband if they chose to establish themselves
+there. Mrs. Dennistoun was of opinion, already expressed, that if
+mothers-in-law are obnoxious to men, sons-in-law are very frequently so
+to women, which is a point of view not popularly perceived. And Philip
+Compton was not sympathetic to her in any point of view. But still she
+made up her mind to endure him, and even his family, for the sake of
+Elinor. She planned it all out--it gave a little occupation to the
+vacant time--how they should have their separate rooms and even meals if
+that turned out most convenient; how she would interfere with none of
+their ways: only to have her Elinor under her roof, to have her when the
+husband was occupied--in the evenings, if there were any evenings that
+she spent alone; in the mornings, when perhaps Phil got up late, or had
+engagements of his own; for the moment's freedom when her child should
+be free. She made up her mind that she would ask no questions, would
+never interfere with any of their habits, or oppose or put herself
+between them--only just to have a little of Elinor every day.
+
+"For it will not be the same thing this year," she said to John,
+apologetically. "They have quite settled down into each other's ways.
+Philip must see I have no intention of interfering. For the most
+obdurate opponent of mothers-in-law could not think--could he,
+John?--that I had any desire to put myself between them, or make myself
+troublesome now."
+
+"There is no telling," said John, "what such asses might think."
+
+"But Philip is not an ass; and don't you think I have behaved very well,
+and may give myself this indulgence the second year?"
+
+"I certainly think you will be quite right to come to town: but I should
+not have them to live with you, if I were you."
+
+"Shouldn't you? It might be a risk: but then I shouldn't do it unless
+there was room enough to leave them quite free. The thing I am afraid of
+is that they wouldn't accept."
+
+"Oh, Phil Compton will accept," said John, hurriedly.
+
+"Why are you so sure? I think often you know more about him than you
+ever say."
+
+"I don't know much about him, but I know that a man of uncertain income
+and not very delicate feelings is generally glad enough to have the
+expenses of the season taken off him: and even get all the more pleasure
+out of it when he has his living free."
+
+"That's not a very elevated view to take of the transaction, John."
+
+"My dear aunt, I did not think you expected anything very elevated from
+the Comptons. They are not the sort of family from which one
+expects----"
+
+"And yet it is the family that my Elinor belongs to: she is a Compton."
+
+"I did not think of that," said John, a little disconcerted. Then he
+added, "There is no very elevated standard in such matters. Want of
+money has no law: and of course there are better things involved, for he
+might be very glad that Elinor should have her mother to go out with
+her, to stand by when--a man might have other engagements."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun looked at him closely and shook her head. She was not
+very much reassured by this view of the case. "At all events I shall try
+it," she said.
+
+Quite early in the year, when she was expecting no such pleasure, she
+was rewarded for her patience by another flying visit from her child,
+who this time telegraphed to say she was coming, so that her mother
+could go and meet her at the station, and thus lose no moment of her
+visit. Elinor, however, was not in good spirits on this occasion, nor
+was she in good looks. She told her mother hurriedly that Phil had come
+up upon business; that he was very much engaged with the new company,
+getting far more into it than satisfied her. "I am terrified that
+another catastrophe may come, and that he might share the blame if
+things were to go wrong"--which was by no means a good preface for the
+mission with which it afterwards appeared Elinor herself was charged.
+
+"Phil told me to say to you, mamma, that if you were not satisfied with
+any of your investments, he could help you to a good six or seven per
+cent.----"
+
+She said this with her head turned away, gazing out of the window,
+contemplating the wintry aspect of the combe with a countenance as
+cloudy and as little cheerful as itself.
+
+There was an outcry on Mrs. Dennistoun's lips, but fortunately her
+sympathy with her child was so strong that she felt Elinor's sentiments
+almost more forcibly than her own, and she managed to answer in a quiet,
+untroubled voice.
+
+"Philip is very kind, my dear: but you know my investments are all
+settled for me and I have no will of my own. I get less interest, but
+then I have less responsibility. Don't you know I belong to the time in
+which women were not supposed to be good for anything, and consequently
+I am in the hands of my trustees."
+
+"I think he foresaw that, mother," said Elinor, still with her head
+averted and her eyes far away; "but he thought you might represent to
+the trustees that not only would it give you more money, but it would be
+better in the end for me. Oh, how I hate to have to say this to you,
+mamma!"
+
+How steadily Mrs. Dennistoun kept her countenance, though her daughter
+now flung herself upon her shoulder with uncontrollable tears!
+
+"My darling, it is quite natural you should say it. You must tell Philip
+that I fear I am powerless. I will try, but I don't think anything will
+come of it. I have been glad to be free of responsibility, and I have
+never attempted to interfere."
+
+"Mother, I am so thankful. I oughtn't to go against him, ought I? But I
+would not have you take his advice. It is so dreadful not to appear----"
+
+"My dear, you must try to think that he understands better than you do:
+men generally do: you are only a girl, and they are trained more or less
+to business."
+
+"Not Phil! not Phil!"
+
+"Well, he must have some capacity for it, some understanding, or they
+would not want him on those boards; and you cannot have, Elinor, for you
+know nothing about it. To hear you speak of per cents. makes me laugh."
+It was a somewhat forlorn kind of laugh, yet the mother executed it
+finely: and by and by the subject dropped, and Elinor was turned to talk
+of other things--other things of which there was a great deal to say,
+and over which they cried and laughed together as nature bade.
+
+In the same evening, the precious evening of which she did not like to
+waste a moment, Mrs. Dennistoun unfolded her plan for the season. "I
+feel that I know exactly the kind of house I want; it will probably be
+in some quiet insignificant place, a Chapel Street, or a Queen Street,
+or a Park Street somewhere, but in a good situation. You shall have the
+first floor all to yourself to receive your visitors, and if you think
+that Philip would prefer a separate table----"
+
+"Oh, mamma, mamma!" cried Elinor, clinging to her, kissing passionately
+her mother's cheek, which was still as soft as a child's.
+
+"It is not anything you have told me now that has put this into my head,
+my darling. I had made it all up in my own mind. Then, you know, when
+your husband is engaged with those business affairs--in the city--or
+with his own friends--you would have your mother to fall back upon,
+Elinor. I should have just the _moments perdus_, don't you see, when you
+were doing nothing else, when you were wanted for nothing else. I
+promise you, my darling, I should never be _de trop_, and would never
+interfere."
+
+"Oh, mamma, mamma!" Elinor cried again as if words failed her; and so
+they did, for she said scarcely anything more, and evaded any answer. It
+went to her mother's heart, yet she made her usual excuses for it. Poor
+child, once so ready to decide, accepting or rejecting with the
+certainty that no opposition would be made to her will, but now afraid
+to commit herself, to say anything that her husband would not approve!
+Well! Mrs. Dennistoun said to herself, many a young wife is like that,
+and yet is happy enough. It depends so much on the man. Many a man
+adores his wife and is very good to her, and yet cannot bear that she
+should seem to settle anything without consulting his whim. And Philip
+Compton had never been what might be called an easy-going man. It was
+right of Elinor to give no answer till she knew what he would like. The
+dreadful thing was that she expressed no pleasure in her mother's
+proposal, scarcely looked as if she herself would like it, which was a
+thing which did give an unquestionable wound.
+
+"Mamma," she said, as they were driving to the station, not in the pony
+carriage this time, but in the fly, for the weather was bad, "don't be
+vexed that I don't say more about your wonderful, your more than kind
+offer."
+
+"Kind is scarcely a word to use, Elinor, between you and me."
+
+"I know, I know, mamma--and I as good as refuse it, saying nothing. Oh,
+if I could tell you without telling you! I am so frightened--how can I
+say it?--that you should see things you would not approve!"
+
+"My dear, I am of one generation and you are of another. I am an old
+woman, and your husband is a young man. But what does that matter? We
+can agree to differ. I will never thrust myself into his private
+affairs, and he----"
+
+"Oh, mother, mother darling, it is not that," Elinor said. And she
+went away without any decision. But in a few days there came to Mrs.
+Dennistoun a letter from Philip himself, most nobly expressed, saying
+that Elinor had told him of her mother's kind offer, and that he
+hastened to accept it with the utmost gratitude and devotion. He had
+just been wondering, he wrote, how he was to muster all things necessary
+for Elinor, with the business engagements which were growing upon
+himself. Nobody could understand better than Nell's good mother how
+necessary it was that he should neglect no means of securing their
+position, and he had found that often he would have to leave his darling
+by herself: but this magnificent, this magnanimous offer on her part
+would make everything right. Need he say how gratefully he accepted it?
+Nell and he being on the spot would immediately begin looking out for
+the house, and when they had a list of three or four to look at he hoped
+she would come up to their rooms and select what she liked best. This
+response took away Mrs. Dennistoun's breath, for, to tell the truth, she
+had her own notions as to the house she wanted and as to the time to be
+spent in town, and would certainly have preferred to manage everything
+herself. But in this she had to yield, with thankfulness that in the
+main point she was to have her way.
+
+Did she have her way? It is very much to be doubted whether in such a
+situation of affairs it would have been possible. The house that was
+decided upon was not one which she would have chosen for herself,
+neither would she have taken it from Easter to July. She had meant a
+less expensive place and a shorter season; but after all, what did that
+matter for once if it pleased Elinor? The worst of it was that she could
+not at all satisfy herself that it pleased Elinor. It pleased Philip,
+there was no doubt, but then it had not been intended except in a very
+secondary way to please him. And when the racket of the season began
+Mrs. Dennistoun had a good deal to bear. Philip, though he was supposed
+to be a man of business and employed in the city, got up about noon,
+which was dreadful to all her orderly country habits; the whole afternoon
+through there was a perpetual tumult of visitors, who, when by chance
+she encountered them in the hall or on the stairs, looked at her
+superciliously as if she were the landlady. The man who opened the door,
+and brushed Philip Compton's clothes, and was in his service, looked
+superciliously at her too, and declined to have anything to say to "the
+visitors for down-stairs." A noise of laughter and loud talk was
+(distinctly) in her ears from noon till late at night. When Philip came
+home, always much later than his wife, he was in the habit of bringing
+men with him, whose voices rang through the house after everybody was
+in bed. To be sure, there were compensations. She had Elinor often for
+an hour or two in the morning before her husband was up. She had her in
+the evenings when they were not going out, but these were few. As for
+Philip, he never dined at home. When he had no engagements he dined at
+his club, leaving Elinor with her mother. He gave Mrs. Dennistoun very
+little of his company, and when they did meet there was in his manner
+too a sort of reflection of the superciliousness of the "smart" visitors
+and the "smart" servant. She was to him, too, in some degree the
+landlady, the old lady down-stairs. Elinor, as was natural, redoubled
+her demonstrations of affection, her excuses and sweet words to make up
+for this neglect: but all the time there was in her mother's mind that
+dreadful doubt which assails us when we have committed ourselves to one
+act or another, "Was it wise? Would it not have been better to have
+denied herself and stayed away?" So far as self-denial went, it was more
+exercised in Curzon Street than it would have been at the Cottage. For
+she had to see many things that displeased her and to say no word; to
+guess at the tears, carefully washed away from Elinor's eyes, and to ask
+no questions, and to see what she could not but feel was the violent
+career downward, the rush that must lead to a catastrophe, but make no
+sign. There was one evening when Elinor, not looking well or feeling
+well, had stayed at home, Philip having a whole long list of engagements
+in hand; men's engagements, his wife explained, a stockbroking dinner,
+an adjournment to somebody's chambers, a prolonged sitting, which meant
+play, and a great deal of wine, and other attendant circumstances into
+which she did not enter. Elinor had no engagement for that night, and
+was free to be petted and feted by her mother. She was put at her ease
+in a soft and rich dressing-gown, and the prettiest little dinner
+served, and the room filled with flowers, and everything done that used
+to be done when she was recovering from some little mock illness, some
+child's malady, just enough to show how dear above everything was the
+child to the mother, and with what tender ingenuity the mother could
+invent new delights for the child. These delights, alas! did not
+transport Elinor now as they once had done, and yet the repose was
+sweet, and the comfort of this nearest and dearest friend to lean upon
+something more than words could say.
+
+On this evening, however, in the quiet of those still hours, poor
+Elinor's heart was opened, or rather her mouth, which on most occasions
+was closed so firmly. She said suddenly, in the midst of something quite
+different, "Oh, I wish Phil was not so much engaged with those dreadful
+city men."
+
+"My dear!" said Mrs. Dennistoun, who was thinking of far other things;
+and then she said, "there surely cannot be much to fear in that respect.
+He is never in the city--he is never up, my dear, when the city men are
+doing their work."
+
+"Ah," said Elinor, "I don't think that matters; he is in with them all
+the same."
+
+"Well, Elinor, there is no reason that there should be any harm in it. I
+would much rather he had some real business in hand than be merely a
+butterfly of fashion. You must not entertain that horror of city men."
+
+"The kind he knows are different from the kind you know, mamma."
+
+"I suppose everything is different from what it was in my time: but it
+need not be any worse for that----"
+
+"Oh, mother! you are obstinate in thinking well of everything; but
+sometimes I am so frightened, I feel as if I must do something dreadful
+myself--to precipitate the ruin which nothing I can do will stop----"
+
+"Elinor, Elinor, this is far too strong language----"
+
+"Mamma, he wants me to speak to you again. He wants you to give your
+money----"
+
+"But I have told you already I cannot give it, Elinor."
+
+"Heaven be praised for that! But he will speak to you himself, he will
+perhaps try to--bully you, mamma."
+
+"Elinor!"
+
+"It is horrible, what I say; yes, it is horrible, but I want to warn
+you. He says things----"
+
+"Nothing that he can say will make me forget that he is your husband,
+Elinor."
+
+"Ah, but don't think too much of that, mamma. Think that he doesn't know
+what he is doing--poor Phil, oh, poor Phil! He is hurried on by these
+people; and then it will break up, and the poor people will be ruined,
+and they will upbraid him, and yet he will not be a whit the better. He
+does not get any of the profit. I can see it all as clear---- And there
+are so many other things."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun's heart sank in her breast, for she too knew what were
+the other things. "We must have patience," she said; "he is in his
+hey-day, full of--high spirits, and thinking everything he touches must
+go right. He will steady down in time."
+
+"Oh, I am not complaining," cried Elinor, hurriedly dashing her tears
+away; "if you were not a dreadfully good mamma, if you would grumble
+sometimes and find fault, that I might defend him! It is the sight of
+you there, seeing everything and not saying a word that is too much for
+me."
+
+"Then I will grumble, Elinor. I will even say something to him for our
+own credit. He should not come in so late--at least when he comes in he
+should come in to rest and not bring men with him to make a noise. You
+see I can find fault as much as heart could desire. I am dreadfully
+selfish. I don't mind when he goes out now and then without you, for
+then I have you; but he should not bring noisy men with him to disturb
+the house in the middle of the night. I think I will speak to him----"
+
+"No," said Elinor, with a clutch upon her mother's arm; "no, don't do
+that. He does not like to be found fault with. Unless in the case--if
+you were giving him that money, mother."
+
+"Which I cannot do: and Elinor, my darling, which I would not do if I
+could. It is all you will have to rely upon, you and----"
+
+"It would have been the only chance," said Elinor. "I don't say it would
+have been much of a chance. But he might have listened, if---- Oh, no,
+dear mother, no. I would not in my sober senses wish that you should
+give him a penny. It would do no good, but only harm. And yet if you had
+done it, you might have said---- and he might have listened to you for
+once----"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+A few days after this Philip Compton came in, in the afternoon, to the
+little room down-stairs which Mrs. Dennistoun had made into a
+sitting-room for herself. Elinor had gone out with her sister-in-law,
+and her mother was alone. It was a very rare thing indeed for Mrs.
+Dennistoun's guest--who, indeed, was to all intents and purposes the
+master of the house, and had probably quite forgotten by this time that
+he was not in reality so--to pay a visit "down-stairs." "Down-stairs"
+had a distinct meaning in the Compton vocabulary. It was spoken of with
+significance, and with a laugh, as something half hostile, half
+ridiculous. It meant a sort of absurd criticism and inspection,
+as of some old crone sitting vigilant, spying upon everything--a
+mother-in-law. Phil's cronies thought it was the most absurd weakness on
+his part to let such an intruder get footing in his house. "You will
+never get rid of her," they said. And Phil, though he was generally
+quite civil to his wife's mother (being actually and at his heart more a
+gentleman than he had the least idea he was), did not certainly in any
+way seek her society. He scarcely ever dined at home, as has been said;
+when he had not an engagement--and he had a great many engagements--he
+found that he was obliged to dine at his club on the evenings when he
+might have been free; and as this was the only meal which was supposed
+to be common, it may be perceived that Phil had little means of meeting
+his mother-in-law; and that he should come to see her of his own free
+will was unprecedented. Phil Compton had not improved since his
+marriage. His nocturnal enjoyments, the noisy parties up-stairs in the
+middle of the night, had not helped to dissipate the effect of the
+anxieties of the city, which his wife so deplored. Mrs. Dennistoun that
+very day, when she came down-stairs in the fresh summer morning to her
+early breakfast, had seen through an open door the room up-stairs which
+was appropriated to Phil, with a lamp still burning in the daylight,
+cards lying strewn about the floor, and all in that direful disorder
+which a room so occupied overnight shows in the clear eye of the day.
+The aspect of the room had given her a shock almost more startling than
+any moral certainty, as was natural to a woman used to all the decorums
+and delicacies of a well-ordered life. There is no sin in going late to
+bed, or even letting a lamp burn into the day; but the impression that
+such a sight makes even upon the careless is always greater than any
+mere apprehension by the mind of the midnight sitting, the eager game,
+the chances of loss and ruin. She had not been able to get that sight
+out of her eyes. Though on ordinary occasions she never entered Phil's
+rooms, on this she had stolen in to put out the lamp, with the sensation
+in her mind of destroying some evidence against him, which someone less
+interested than she might have used to his disadvantage. And she had
+sent up the housemaid to "do" the room, with an admonition. "I cannot
+have Mr. Compton's rooms neglected," she said. "The gentlemen is always
+so late," the housemaid said in self-defence. "I hears them let
+themselves out sometimes after we're all up down-stairs." "I don't want
+to hear anything about the gentlemen. Do your work at the proper time;
+that is all that is asked of you." Phil's servant appeared at the moment
+pulling on his coat, with the air of a man who has been up half the
+night--which, indeed, was the case, for "the gentlemen" when they came
+in had various wants that had to be supplied. "What's up now?" he said
+to the housemaid, within hearing of her mistress, casting an insolent
+look at the old lady, who belonged to "down-stairs." "She've been prying
+and spying about like they all do----" Mrs. Dennistoun had retreated
+within the shelter of her room to escape the end of this sentence, which
+still she heard, with the usual quickness of our faculties in such
+cases. She swallowed her simple breakfast with what appetite she might,
+and her stout spirit for the moment broke down before this insult which
+was ridiculous, she said to herself, from a saucy servant-man. What did
+it matter to her what Johnson did or said? But it was like the lamp
+burning in the sunshine: it gave a moral shock more sharp than many a
+thing of much more importance would have been capable of doing, and she
+had not been able to get over it all day.
+
+It may be supposed, therefore, that it was an unfortunate moment for
+Phil Compton's visit. Mrs. Dennistoun had scarcely seen them that day,
+and she was sitting by herself, somewhat sick at heart, wondering if
+anything would break the routine into which their life was falling; or
+if this was what Elinor must address herself to as its usual tenor. It
+would be better in the country, she said to herself. It was only in the
+bustle of the season, when everybody of his kind was congregated in
+town, that it would be like this. In their rounds of visits, or when the
+whole day was occupied with sport, such nocturnal sittings would be
+impossible--and she comforted herself by thinking that they would not be
+consistent with any serious business in the city such as Elinor feared.
+The one danger must push away the other. He could not gamble at night in
+that way, and gamble in the other among the stockbrokers. They were both
+ruinous, no doubt, but they could not both be carried on at the same
+time--or so, at least, this innocent woman thought. There was enough to
+be anxious and alarmed about without taking two impossible dangers into
+her mind together.
+
+And just then Phil knocked at her door. He came in smiling and gracious,
+and with that look of high breeding and _savoir faire_ which had
+conciliated her before and which she felt the influence of now, although
+she was aware how many drawbacks there were, and knew that the respect
+which her son-in-law showed was far from genuine. "I never see you to
+have a chat," he said; "I thought I would take the opportunity to-day,
+when Elinor was out. I want you to tell me how you think she is."
+
+"I think she is wonderfully well," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"_Wonderfully_ well--you mean considering--that there is too much racket
+in her life?"
+
+"Partly, I mean that--but, indeed, I meant it without condition; she is
+wonderfully well. I am surprised, often----"
+
+"It is rather a racket of a life," said Phil.
+
+"Too much, indeed--it is too much--for a woman who is beginning her
+serious life--but if you think that, it is a great thing gained, for you
+can put a stop to it, or moderate--'the pace' don't you call it?" she
+said, with a smile.
+
+"Well, yes. I suppose we could moderate the pace--but that would mean a
+great deal for me. You see, when a man's launched it isn't always so
+easy to stop. Nell, of course, if you thought she wanted it--might go to
+the country with you."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun's heart gave a leap. "Might go to the country with you!"
+It seemed a glimpse of Paradise that burst upon her. But then she shook
+her head. "You know Elinor would not leave you, Philip."
+
+"Well! she has a ridiculous partiality," he said, with a laugh, "though,
+of course, I'd make her--if it was really for her advantage," he added,
+after a moment; "you don't think I'd let that stand in her way."
+
+"In the meantime," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with hesitation, "without
+proceeding to any such stringent measures--if you could manage to be a
+little less late at night."
+
+"Oh, you listen for my coming in at night?"
+
+His face took a sombre look, as if a cloud had come over it.
+
+"I do not listen--for happily for me I have been asleep for hours. I
+generally jump up thinking the house is on fire at the sound of voices,
+which make listening quite unnecessary, Philip."
+
+"Ah, yes, the fellows are rather noisy," he said, carelessly, "but Nell
+sleeps like a top, and pays no attention--which is the best thing she
+can do."
+
+"I would not be too sure she slept like a top."
+
+"It's true; women are all hypocrites alike. You never know when you have
+them," Phil said.
+
+And then there was a pause; for she feared to say anything more lest she
+should go too far; and he for once in his life was embarrassed, and did
+not know how to begin what he had to say.
+
+"Well," he said, quickly, getting up, "I must be going. I have business
+in the city. And now that I find you're satisfied about Nell's
+health---- By the way, you never show in our rooms; though Nell spends
+every minute she has to spare here."
+
+"I am a little old perhaps for your friends, Philip, and the room is not
+too large."
+
+"Well, no," he said, "they are wretched little rooms. Good-by, then; I'm
+glad you think Nell is all right."
+
+Was this all he meant to say? There was, however, an uncertainty about
+his step, and by the time he had opened the door he came to a pause,
+half closed it again, and said, "Oh, by the bye!"
+
+"What is it?" said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+He closed the door again and came back half a step. "I almost forgot, I
+meant to tell you: if you have any money to invest, I could help you
+to---- The best thing I've heard of for many a day!"
+
+"You are very kind, Philip; but you know everything I have is in the
+hands of trustees."
+
+"Oh, bother trustees. The only thing they do is to keep your dividends
+down to the lowest amount possible and cut short your income. Come,
+you're quite old enough to judge for yourself. You might give them a
+jog. At your time of life they ought to take a hint from you."
+
+"I have never done it, Philip, and they would pay no attention to me."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, mamma. Why, except you, who has a right to be consulted
+except Nell? and if I, her husband, am your adviser----"
+
+"I know they would do nothing but mock at me."
+
+"Rubbish! I'd like to see who would mock at you. Just you send them to
+me, that is all."
+
+"Philip, will you not believe me when I say that it is impossible? I
+have never interfered. They would ask what made me think of such a thing
+now."
+
+"And you could tell them a jolly good opportunity, as safe as the bank,
+and paying six or seven per cent.--none of your fabulous risky ten or
+twelve businesses, but a solid steady---- How could it be to my interest
+to mislead you? It would be Nell who would be the loser. I should be
+simply cutting off my own head."
+
+"That is true, no doubt----"
+
+"And," he said, scarcely waiting for her reply, "Nell is really the
+person who should be consulted: for if there was loss eventually it
+would come upon her--and so upon me. I mean taking into consideration
+all the chances of the future: for it is perfectly safe for your time,
+you may be quite sure of that."
+
+No one, though he might be ninety, likes to have his time limited, and
+his heir's prospects dwelt upon as the only things of any importance,
+and Mrs. Dennistoun was a very long way from ninety. She would have
+sacrificed everything she had to make her child happy, but she did not
+like, all the same, to be set down as unimportant so far as her own
+property was concerned.
+
+"I am afraid," she said, with a slight quaver in her voice, "that my
+trustees would not take Elinor's wishes into consideration in the first
+place, nor yours either, Philip. They think of me, and I suppose that is
+really their duty. If I had anything of my own----"
+
+"Do you mean to say," he said, bluntly, "that with a good income and
+living in the country in a hole, in the most obscure way, you have
+saved nothing all these years?"
+
+"If I had," said Mrs. Dennistoun, roused by his persistent attack, "I
+should be very sorry to fling it away."
+
+"Oh, that is what you think?" he said. "Now we're at the bottom of it.
+You think that to put it in my hands would be to throw it away! I
+thought there must be something at the bottom of all this pretty
+ignorance of business and so forth. Good gracious! that may be well
+enough for a girl; but when a grandmother pretends not to know, not to
+interfere, etc., that's too much. So this is what you meant all the
+time! To put it into my hands would be throwing it away!"
+
+"I did not mean to say so, Philip--I spoke hastily, but I must remind
+you that I am not accustomed to this tone----"
+
+"Oh, no, not at all accustomed to it, you all say that--that's Nell's
+dodge--never was used to anything of the kind, never had a rough word
+said to her, and so forth and so forth."
+
+"Philip--I hope you don't say rough words to my Elinor."
+
+"Oh!" he said, "I have got you there, have I. _Your_ Elinor--no more
+yours than she is--Johnson's. She is my Nell, and what's more, she'll
+cling to me, whatever rough words I may say, or however you may coax or
+wheedle. Do you ever think when you refuse to make a sacrifice of one
+scrap of your hoards for her, that if I were not a husband in a hundred
+I might take it out of her and make her pay?"
+
+"For what?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, standing up and confronting him, her
+face pale, her head very erect--"for what would you make her pay?"
+
+He stood staring at her for a moment and then he broke out into a laugh.
+"We needn't face each other as if we were going to have a stand-up
+fight," he said. "And it wouldn't be fair, mamma, we're not equally
+matched, the knowing ones would all lay their money on you. So you won't
+take my advice about investing your spare cash? Well, if you won't you
+won't, and there's an end of it: only stand up fair and don't bother me
+with nonsense about trustees."
+
+"It is no nonsense," she said.
+
+His eyes flashed, but he controlled himself and turned away, waving his
+hand. "I'll not beat Nell for it when I come home to-night," he said.
+
+Once more Phil dined at his club that evening and Elinor with her
+mother. She was in an eager and excited state, looking anxiously in Mrs.
+Dennistoun's eyes, but it was not till late in the evening that she made
+any remark. At last, just before they parted for the night, she threw
+herself upon her mother with a little cry--"Oh, mamma, I know you are
+right, I know you are quite right. But if you could have done it, it
+would have given you an influence! I don't blame you--not for a
+moment--but it might have given you an opening to speak. It might
+have--given you a little hold on him."
+
+"My darling, my darling!" said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"No," said Elinor, "there's nothing to pity me about, nothing at
+all--Phil is always kind and good to me--but you would have had a
+standing ground. It might have given you a right to speak--about those
+dreadful, dreadful city complications, mamma."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun went to bed that night a troubled woman, and lay awake
+watching and expecting when the usual midnight tumult should arise. But
+that evening there was none. No sound but the key in the latch, the
+shutting of a door or two, and all quiet. Compunctions filled the
+mother's heart. What was the wrong if, perhaps, she could satisfy
+Elinor, perhaps get at the heart of Phil, who had a heart, though it
+was getting strangled in all those intricacies of gambling and wretched
+business. She turned over and over in her mind all that she had, and all
+that she had any power over. And she remembered a small sum she had in a
+mortgage, which was after all in her own power. No doubt it would be to
+throw the money away, which would be so much gone from the future
+provision of Elinor--but if by that means she could acquire an influence
+as Elinor said--be allowed to speak--to protest or perhaps even insist
+upon a change of course? Thinking over such a question for a whole
+sleepless night, and feeling beneath all that at least, at worst, this
+sacrifice would give pleasure to Elinor, which was really the one and
+sole motive, the only thing that could give her any warrant for such a
+proceeding--is not a process which is likely to strengthen the mind. In
+the morning, as soon as she knew he was up, which was not till late
+enough, she sent to ask if Phil would give her five minutes before he
+went out. He appeared after a while, extremely correct and _point
+device_, grave but polite. "I must ask you to excuse me," he said, "if I
+am hurried, for to-day is one of my Board days."
+
+"It was only to say, Philip--you spoke to me yesterday of money--to be
+invested."
+
+"Yes?" he said politely, without moving a muscle.
+
+"I have been thinking it all over, and I remember that there is a
+thousand pounds or two which John Tatham placed for me in a mortgage,
+and which is in my own power."
+
+"Ah!" he said, "a thousand pounds or two," with a shrug of his
+shoulders; "it is scarcely worth while, is it, changing an investment
+for so small a matter as a thousand pounds?"
+
+"If you think so, Philip--it is all I can think of that is in my own
+power."
+
+"It is really not worth the trouble," he said, "and I am in a hurry." He
+made a step towards the door and then turned round again. "Well," he
+said, "just to show there is no ill-feeling, I'll find you something,
+perhaps, to put your tuppenceha'penny in to-day."
+
+And then there was John Tatham to face after that!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+It cost Mrs. Dennistoun a struggle to yield to her daughter and her
+daughter's husband, and with her eyes open and no delusion on the
+subject to throw away her two thousand pounds. Two thousand pounds is a
+big thing to throw away. There are many people much richer than Mrs.
+Dennistoun who would have thought it a wicked thing to do, and some who
+would have quarrelled with both daughter and son-in-law rather than do
+so foolish a thing. For it was not merely making a present, so to speak,
+of the money, it was throwing it away. To have given it to Elinor would
+have been nothing, it would have been a pleasure; but in Phil's
+investment Mrs. Dennistoun had no confidence. It was throwing her money
+after Elinor's money into that hungry sea which swallows up everything
+and gives nothing again.
+
+But if that had been difficult for her, it may be imagined with what
+feelings she contemplated her necessary meeting with John Tatham. She
+knew everything he would say--more, she knew what he would look: his
+astonishment, his indignation, the amazement with which he would regard
+it. John was far from being incapable of a sacrifice. Mrs. Dennistoun,
+indeed, did him more than justice in that respect, for she believed that
+he had himself been on the eve of asking Elinor to marry him when she
+was snatched up by, oh, so much less satisfactory a man! which the
+reader knows is not quite the case, though perhaps it required quite as
+much self-denial on John's part to stand by Elinor and maintain her
+cause under her altered circumstances as if it had been the case. But
+notwithstanding this, she knew that John would be angry with what she
+had done or promised to do, and would put every possible impediment in
+her way: and when she sent for him, in order that she might carry out
+her promise, it was with a heart as sick with fright and as much
+disturbed by the idea of a scolding as ever child's was.
+
+John had been very little to the house at Curzon Street. He had dined
+two or three times with Mrs. Dennistoun alone, and once or twice Elinor
+had been of the party; but the Comptons had never any guests at that
+house, and the fact already mentioned that Philip Compton never dined at
+home made it a difficult matter for Mrs. Dennistoun to ask any but her
+oldest friends to the curious little divided house, which was neither
+hers nor theirs. Thus Cousin John had met, but no more, Elinor's
+husband, and neither of the gentlemen had shown the least desire to
+cultivate the acquaintance. John had not expressed his sentiments
+on the subject to any one, but Phil, as was natural, had been more
+demonstrative. "I don't think much of your relations, Nell," he said,
+"if that's a specimen: a prig if ever there was one--and that old sheep
+that was at the wedding, the father of him, I suppose----"
+
+"As they are my relations, Phil, you might speak of them a little more
+respectfully."
+
+"Oh, respectfully! Bless us all! I have no respect for my own, and why I
+should have for yours, my little dear, I confess I can't see. Oh, by the
+way, this is Cousin John, who I used to think by your blushing and all
+that----"
+
+"Phil, I think you are trying to make me angry. Cousin John is the best
+man in the world; but I never blushed--how ridiculous! I might as well
+have blushed to speak of my brother."
+
+"I put no confidence in brothers, unless they're real ones," said Phil;
+"but I'm glad I've seen him, Nell. I doubt after all that you're such a
+fool, when you see us together--eh?" He laughed that laugh of conscious
+superiority which, when it is not perfectly well-founded, sounds so
+fatuous to the hearer. Elinor did not look at him. She turned her head
+away and made no reply.
+
+John, on his part, as has been said, made no remark. If he had possessed
+a wife at home to whom he could have confided his sentiments, as Phil
+Compton had, it is possible that he might have said something not
+unsimilar. But then had he had a wife at home he would have been more
+indifferent to Phil, and might not have cared to criticise him at all.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun received him when he came in obedience to her call, as a
+child might do who had the power of receiving its future corrector. She
+abased herself before him, servilely choosing his favourite subjects,
+talking of what she thought would please him, of former times at the
+Cottage, of Elinor, and her great affection for Cousin John, and so
+forth. I imagine that he had a suspicion of the cause of all this
+sweetness. He looked at her suspiciously, though he allowed himself to
+be drawn into reminiscences, and to feel a half pleasure, half pain in
+the affectionate things that Elinor had said. At length, after some time
+had passed, he asked, in a pause of the conversation, "Was this all you
+wanted with me, aunt, to talk of old times?"
+
+"Wasn't it a good enough pretext for the pleasure of seeing you, John?"
+
+He laughed a little and shook his head.
+
+"An excellent pretext where none was wanted. It is very kind of you to
+think it a pleasure: but you had something also to say?"
+
+"It seems there is no deceiving you, John," she said, and with many
+hesitations and much difficulty, told him her story. She saw him begin
+to flame. She saw his eyes light up, and Mrs. Dennistoun shook in her
+chair. She was not a woman apt to be afraid, but she was frightened now.
+
+Nevertheless, when she had finished her story, John at first spoke no
+word: and when he did find a tongue it was only to say,
+
+"You want to get back the money you have on that mortgage. My dear aunt,
+why did not you tell me so at once?"
+
+"But I have just told you, John."
+
+"Well, so be it. You know it will take a little time; there are some
+formalities that must be gone through. You cannot make a demand on
+people in that way to pay you cash at once."
+
+"Oh, I thought it was so easy to get money--on such very good security
+and paying such a good adequate rate of interest."
+
+"It is easy," he said, "perfectly easy; but it wants a little time: and
+people will naturally wonder, if it is really good security and good
+interest, why you should be in such a hurry to get out of it."
+
+"But surely, to say private reasons--family reasons, that will be
+enough."
+
+"Oh, there is no occasion for giving any reason at all. You wish to do
+it; that is reason enough."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with diffidence, yet also a little
+self-assertion, "I think it is enough."
+
+"Of course, of course." But his eyes were flaming, and Mrs. Dennistoun
+would not allow herself to believe that she had got off. "And may I
+ask--not that I have any right to ask, for of course you have better
+advisers--what do you mean to put the money in, when you have got it
+back?"
+
+"Oh, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "you are implacable, though you
+pretend different. You know what I want with the money, and you
+disapprove of it, and so do I. I am going to throw it away. I know that
+just as well as you do, and I am ashamed of myself: but I am going to do
+it all the same."
+
+"You are going to give it to Elinor? I don't think there is anything to
+disapprove of in that. It is the most natural thing in the world."
+
+"If I could be sure that Elinor would get any good by it," she said.
+
+And then his face suddenly blazed up, so that the former flame in his
+eyes was nothing. He sat for a moment staring at her, and then he said,
+"Yes, if--but I suppose you take the risk." There were a great many
+things on his lips to say, but he said none of them, except hurriedly,
+"You have a motive, I suppose----"
+
+"I have a motive--as futile probably as my act--if I could by that
+means, or any other, acquire an influence----"
+
+John was very seldom, if ever, rude--it was not in his way--but at this
+moment he was so bitterly exasperated that he forgot his manners
+altogether. He burst out into a loud laugh, and then he jumped up to his
+feet and said, "Forgive me. I really have a dozen engagements. I can't
+stay. I'll see to having this business done for you as soon as possible.
+You would rather old Lynch had no hand in it? I'll get it done for you
+at once."
+
+She followed him out to the door as if they had been in the country, and
+that the flowery cottage door, with the great world of down and sky
+outside, instead of Curzon Street: longing to say something that
+would still, at the last moment, gain her John's approval, or his
+understanding at least. But she could think of nothing to say. He had
+promised to manage it all for her: he had not reproached her; and yet
+not content with that she wanted to extort a favourable word from him
+before he should go. But she could not find a word to say. He it was
+only who spoke. He asked when she was going to return home, with his
+hand upon the street door.
+
+"I don't know. I have not made any plans. The house is taken till July."
+
+"And you have enjoyed it?" he said. "It has answered?"
+
+What a cruel, cruel question to put to her! She going so unsuspectingly
+with him to the very door! Philip Compton's servant, always about when
+he was not wanted, spying about to see whom it was that "down-stairs"
+was letting out, came strolling into sight. Anyhow, whether that was the
+reason or not, she made him no reply. He caught her look--a look that
+said more than words--and turned round quickly and held out his hand. "I
+did not mean to be cruel," he said.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no--you did not mean it--you were not cruel. The
+reverse--you are always so kind. Yes, it has answered--I am more glad
+than I can tell you--that I came."
+
+He it was now that looked at her anxiously, while she smiled that
+well-worn smile which is kept for people in trouble. She went in
+afterwards and sat silent for some time, covering her face with her
+hands; in which attitude Elinor found her after her afternoon visitors
+had gone away.
+
+"What is it, mother? What is it, dear mother? Something has happened to
+vex you."
+
+"Nothing, nothing, Elinor. John Tatham has been here. He is going to do
+that little piece of business for me."
+
+"And he--has been bullying you too? poor mamma!"
+
+"On the contrary, he did not say a word. He considered it--quite
+natural."
+
+Elinor gave her mother a kiss. She had nothing to say. Neither of them
+had a word to say to the other. The thought that passed through both
+their minds was: "After all it is only two thousand pounds"--and then,
+_apres_? was Elinor's thought. And then, never more, never more! was
+what passed through Mrs. Dennistoun's mind.
+
+Phil Compton smiled upon her that day she handed him over the money. "It
+is a great pity you took the trouble," he said. "It is a pity to change
+an investment for such a bagatelle as two thousand pounds. Still, if
+you insist upon it, mamma. I suppose Nell's been bragging of the big
+interest, but you never will feel it on a scrap like this. If you would
+let me double your income for you now."
+
+"You know, Philip, I cannot. The trustees would never consent."
+
+"Bother trustees. They are the ruin of women," he said, and as he left
+the room he turned back to ask her how long she was going to stay in
+town.
+
+"How long do you stay?"
+
+"Oh, till Goodwood always," said Phil. "Nell's looking forward to it,
+and there's generally some good things just at the end when the heavy
+people have gone away; but I thought you might not care to stay so
+long."
+
+"I came not for town, but for Elinor, Philip."
+
+"Exactly so. But don't you think Elinor has shown herself quite able to
+take care of herself--not to say that she has me? It's a thousand pities
+to keep you from the country which you prefer, especially as, after all,
+Nell can be so little with you."
+
+"It would be much better for her at present, Philip, to come with me,
+and rest at home, while you go to Goodwood. For the sake of the future
+you ought to persuade her to do it."
+
+"I daresay. Try yourself to persuade her to leave me. She won't, you
+know. But why should you bore yourself to death staying on here? You
+don't like it, and nobody----"
+
+"Wants me, you mean, Philip."
+
+"I never said anything so dashed straightforward. I am not a chap of
+that kind. But what I say is, it's a shame to keep you hanging on,
+disturbed in your rest and all that sort of thing. That noisy beggar,
+Dismar, that came in with us last night must have woke you up with his
+idiotic bellowing."
+
+"It doesn't matter for me; but Elinor, Philip. It does matter for your
+wife. If her rest is broken it will react upon her in every way. I wish
+you would consent to forego those visitors in the middle of the night."
+
+He looked at her with a sort of satirical indifference. "Sorry I can't
+oblige you," he said. "When a girl's friends fork out handsomely a man
+has some reason for paying a little attention. But when there's nothing,
+or next to nothing, on her side, why of course he must pick up a little
+where he can, as much for her sake as his own."
+
+"Pick up a little!" said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't repeat what I say like that. It makes a fellow
+nervous. Yes, of course, a man that knows what he's about does pick up a
+little. About your movements, however. I advise you to take my advice
+and go back to your snug little house. It would kill me in a week, but I
+know it suits you. Why hang on for Nell? She's as well as can be, and
+there's a few things that it would be good for us to do."
+
+"Which you cannot do while I am here? Is that what you mean, Philip?"
+
+"I never saw any good in being what the French call brutal," he said, "I
+hate making a woman cry, or that sort of thing. But you're a woman of
+sense, and I'm sure you must see that a young couple like Nell and me,
+who have our way to make in the world----"
+
+"You know it was for her sake entirely that I came here."
+
+"Yes, oh, yes. To do coddling and that sort of thing--which she doesn't
+require a bit; but if I must be brutal you know there's things of much
+consequence we could do if----"
+
+"If what, Philip?"
+
+"Well," he said, turning on his heel, "if we had the house to
+ourselves."
+
+This was the influence Mrs. Dennistoun hoped to acquire by the sacrifice
+of her two thousand pounds! When he was gone, instead of covering her
+face as she had done when John left her, Mrs. Dennistoun stared into the
+vacant air for a minute and then she burst into a laugh. It was not a
+mirthful laugh, it may be supposed, or harmonious, and it startled her
+as she heard it pealing into the silence. Whether it was loud enough to
+wake Elinor up-stairs, or whether she was already close by and heard it,
+I cannot tell, but she came in with a little tap at the door and a
+smile, a somewhat anxious and forced smile, it is true, upon her face.
+
+"What is the joke?" she said. "I heard you laugh, and I thought I might
+come in and share the fun. Somehow, we don't have so much fun as we used
+to have. What is it, mamma?"
+
+"It is only a witticism of Philip's, who has been in to see me," said
+Mrs. Dennistoun. "I won't repeat it, for probably I should lose the
+point of it--you know I always did spoil a joke in repeating it. I have
+been speaking to him," she said, after a little pause, during which both
+her laugh and Elinor's smile evaporated in the most curious way, leaving
+both of them very grave--"of going away, Elinor."
+
+"Of going away!" Elinor suddenly assumed a startled look; but there is
+a difference between doing that and being really startled, which her
+mother, alas! was quite enlightened enough to see; and surely once more
+there was that mingled relief and relaxation in the lines of her face
+which Mrs. Dennistoun had seen before.
+
+"Yes, my darling," she said, "it is June, and everything at the Cottage
+will be in full beauty. And, perhaps, it would do you more good to come
+down there for a day or two when there is nothing doing than to have me
+here, which, after all, has not been of very much use to you."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, mamma. Use!--it has been of comfort unspeakable.
+But," Elinor added, hurriedly, "I see the force of all you say. To
+remain in London at this time of the year must be a far greater
+sacrifice than I have any right to ask of you, mamma."
+
+Oh, the furtive, hurried, unreal words! which were such pain and horror
+to say with the consciousness of the true sentiment lying underneath;
+which made Elinor's heart sink, yet were brought forth with a sort of
+hateful fervour, to imitate truth.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun saw it all. There are times when the understanding of
+such a woman is almost equal to those "larger other eyes" with which it
+is our fond hope those who have left us for a better country see, if
+they are permitted to see, our petty doings, knowing, better than we
+know ourselves, what excuses, what explanations, they are capable of.
+"As for the sacrifice," she said, "we will say nothing of that, Elinor.
+It is a vain thing to say that if my life would do you any pleasure--for
+you don't want to take my life, and probably the best thing I can do
+for you is to go on as long as I can. But in the meantime there's no
+question at all of sacrifice--and if you can come down now and then for
+a day, and sleep in the fresh air----"
+
+"I will, I will, mamma," said Elinor, hiding her face on her mother's
+shoulder; and they would have been something more than women if they had
+not cried together as they held each other in that embrace--in which
+there was so much more than met either eye or ear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+It was about the 10th of June when Mrs. Dennistoun left London. She had
+been in town for about five weeks, which looked like as many months, and
+it was with a mingled sense of relief, and of that feeling which is like
+death in the heart, the sense of nothing further to be done, of the end
+of opportunity, the conclusion of all power to help, which sometimes
+comes over an anxious mind, without in any respect diminishing the
+anxiety, giving it indeed a depth and pang beyond any other feeling that
+is known to the heart of man. What could she do more for her child?
+Nothing. It was her only policy to remain away, not to see, certainly
+not to remark anything that was happening, to wait if perhaps the moment
+might come when she would be of use, and to hope that perhaps that
+moment might never need to come, that by some wonderful turn of affairs
+all might yet go well. She went back to Windyhill with the promise of a
+visit "soon," Philip himself had said--in the pleasure of getting the
+house, which was her house, which she had paid for and provisioned, to
+himself for his own uses. Mrs. Dennistoun could not help hearing through
+her maid something of the festivities which were in prospect after she
+was gone, the dinners and gay receptions at which she would have been
+_de trop_. She did not wish to hear of them, but these are things that
+will make themselves known, and Mrs. Dennistoun had to face the fact
+that Elinor was more or less consenting to the certainty of her mother
+being _de trop_, which gave her a momentary pang. But after all, what
+did it matter? It was not her fault, poor child. I have known a loving
+daughter in whose mind there was a sentiment almost of relief amid her
+deep grief when her tender mother died. Could such a thing be possible?
+It was; because after then, however miserable she might be, there was no
+conflict over her, no rending of the strained heart both ways. A woman
+who has known life learns to understand and forgive a great many things;
+and Mrs. Dennistoun forgave her Elinor, her only child, for whose
+happiness she had lived, in that she was almost glad when her mother
+went away.
+
+Such things, however, do not make a lonely little house in the country
+more cheerful, or tend to make it easier to content one's self with the
+Rector's family, and the good old, simple-minded, retired people, with
+their little complaints, yet general peacefulness, and incompetence to
+understand what tragedy was. They thought on the whole their neighbour
+at the Cottage ought to be very thankful that she had got her daughter
+well, or, if not very well, at least fashionably, married, with good
+connections and all that, which are always of use in the long run. It
+was better than marrying a poor curate, which was almost the only chance
+a girl had on Windyhill.
+
+It was a little hard upon Mrs. Dennistoun, however, that she lost not
+only Elinor, but John, who had been so good about coming down when she
+was all alone at first. Of course, during the season, a young rising
+man, with engagements growing upon him every day, was very unlikely to
+have his Saturdays to Mondays free. So many people live out of town
+nowadays, or, at least, have a little house somewhere to which they go
+from Saturday to Monday, taking their friends with them. This was no
+doubt the reason why John never came; and yet the poor lady suspected
+another reason, and though she no longer laughed as she had done on
+that occasion when the Honourable Phil gave her her dismissal, a smile
+would come over her face sometimes when she reflected that with her two
+thousand pounds she had purchased the hostility of both Philip and John.
+
+John Tatham was indeed exceedingly angry with her for the weakness with
+which she had yielded to Phil Compton's arguments, though indeed he knew
+nothing of Phil Compton's arguments, nor whether they had been exercised
+at all on the woman who was first of all Elinor's mother and ready to
+sacrifice everything to her comfort. When he found that this foolish
+step on her part had been followed by her retirement from London, he was
+greatly mystified and quite unable to understand. He met Elinor some
+time after at one of those assemblies to which "everybody" goes. It was,
+I think, the soiree at the Royal Academy--where amid the persistent
+crowd in the great room there was a whirling crowd, twisting in and out
+among the others, bound for heaven knows how many other places, and
+pausing here and there on tiptoe to greet an acquaintance, at the tail
+of which, carried along by its impetus, was Elinor. She was not looking
+either well or happy, but she was responding more or less to the impulse
+of her set, exchanging greetings and banal words with dozens of people,
+and sometimes turning a wistful and weary gaze towards the pictures on
+the walls, as if she would gladly escape from the mob of her companions
+to them, or anywhere. It was no impulse of taste or artistic feeling,
+however, it is to be feared, but solely the weariness of her mind. John
+watched her for some time before he approached her. Phil was not of the
+party, which was nothing extraordinary, for little serious as that
+assembly is, it was still of much too serious a kind for Phil; but Lady
+Mariamne was there, and other ladies with whom Elinor was in the habit
+of pursuing that gregarious hunt after pleasure which carries the train
+of votaries along at so breakneck a pace, and with so little time to
+enjoy the pleasure they are pursuing. When he saw indications that the
+stream was setting backwards to the entrance, again to separate and
+take its various ways to other entertainments, he broke into the throng
+and called Elinor's attention to himself. For a moment she smiled with
+genuine pleasure at the sight of him, but then changed her aspect almost
+imperceptibly. "Oh, John!" she said with that smile: but immediately
+looked towards Lady Mariamne, as if undecided what to do.
+
+"You need not look--as if I would try to detain you, Elinor."
+
+"Do you think I am afraid of your detaining me? I thought I should be
+sure to meet you to-night, and was on the outlook. How is it that we
+never see you now?"
+
+He refused the natural retort that she had never asked to see him, and
+only said, with a smile, "I hear my aunt is gone."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you only came for her? That is an unkind
+speech. Yes, she has gone. It was cruel to keep her in town for the best
+part of the year."
+
+"But she intended to stay till July, Elinor."
+
+"Did she? I think you are mistaken, John. She intended to watch over
+me--dear mamma, she thinks too much of me--but when she saw that I was
+quite well----"
+
+"You don't look to me so extraordinarily well."
+
+"Don't I? I must be a fraud then. Nobody could be stronger. I'm going to
+a multitude of places to-night. Wherever my Hebrew leader goes I go,"
+said Elinor, with a laugh. "I have given myself up for to-night, and she
+is never satisfied with less than a dozen."
+
+"Ten minutes to each."
+
+"Oh, half an hour at least: and with having our carriage found for us at
+every place, and the risk of getting into a _queue_, and all the delays
+of coming and going, it cannot be much less than three-quarters of an
+hour. This is the third. I think three more will weary even the Jew."
+
+"You are with Lady Mariamne then, Elinor?"
+
+"Yes--oh, you need not make that face. She is as good as the rest, and
+pretends to nothing, at least. I have no carriage, you know, and Phil
+took fright at my dear old fly. He thought a hired brougham was not good
+when I was alone."
+
+"That was quite true. Nevertheless, I should like above all things to
+keep you here a little longer to look at some of the pictures, and take
+you home in a hansom after."
+
+She laughed. "Oh, so should I--fancy, I have not seen the pictures, not
+at all. We came in a mob to the private view; and then one day I was
+coming with mamma, but was stopped by something, and now---- Always
+people, people--nothing else. 'Did you see So-and-so? There's some one
+bowing to you, Nell. Be sure you speak a word to the Thises or the
+Thats'--while I don't care for one of them. But I fear the hansom would
+not do, John."
+
+"It would have done very well in the old days. Your mother would not
+have been displeased."
+
+"The old days are gone and will never return," she said, half sad, half
+smiling, shaking her head. "So far as I can see, nothing ever returns.
+You have your day, and if you do not make the best of that----"
+
+She stopped, shaking her head again with a laugh, and there were various
+ways in which that speech might be interpreted. John for one knew a
+sense of it which he believed had never entered Elinor's head. He too
+might have had his day and let it slip. "So you are making the most of
+yours," he said. "I hear that you are very gay."
+
+Elinor coloured high under his look. "I don't know who can have told you
+that. We have had a few little dinners since mamma left us, chiefly
+Phil's business friends. I would not have them while she was with
+us--that is to say, to be honest," cried Elinor, "while we were with
+her: which of course was the real state of the case. I myself don't like
+those people, John, but they would have been insupportable to mamma. It
+was for her sake----"
+
+"I understand," he said.
+
+"Oh, but you must not say 'I understand' with that air of knowing a
+great deal more than there is to understand," she said, with heat.
+"Mamma said it would do me much more good to go--home for a night now
+and then and sleep in the fresh air than for her to stay; and though I
+think she is a little insane on the subject of my health, still it was
+certainly better than that she should stay here, making herself
+wretched, her rest broken, and all that. You know we keep such late
+hours."
+
+"I should not have thought she would have minded that."
+
+"But what would you have thought of me if I did not mind it for her?
+There, John, do you see they are all going? Ah, the pictures! I wish I
+could have stayed with you and gone round the rooms. But it must not be
+to-night. Come and see me!" she said, turning round to him with a smile,
+and holding out her hand.
+
+"I would gladly, Elinor--but should not I find myself in the way of your
+fine friends like----"
+
+He had not the heart to finish the sentence when he met her eyes
+brimming full of tears.
+
+"Not my fine friends, but my coarse friends," she said; "not friends at
+all, our worst enemies, I am sure."
+
+"Nell!" cried Lady Mariamne, in her shrill voice.
+
+"You will come and see me, John?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "and in the meantime I will take you down-stairs, let
+your companions think as they please."
+
+It proved when he did so that John had to escort both ladies to the
+carriage, which it was not very easy to find, no other cavalier being at
+hand for the moment; and that Lady Mariamne invited him to accompany
+them to their next stage. "You know the Durfords, of course. You are
+going there? What luck for us, Nell! Jump in, Mr. Tatham, we will take
+you on."
+
+"Unfortunately Lady Durford has not taken the trouble to invite me,"
+said John.
+
+"What does that matter? Jump in, all the same, she'll be delighted to
+see you, and as for not asking you, when you are with me and Nell----"
+
+But John turned a deaf ear to this siren's song.
+
+He went to Curzon Street a little while after to call, as he had been
+invited to do, and went late to avoid the bustle of the tea-table, and
+the usual rabble of that no longer intimate but wildly gregarious house.
+And he was not without his reward. Perhaps a habit he had lately formed
+of passing by Curzon Street in the late afternoon, when he was on his
+way to his club, after work was over, had something to do with his
+choice of this hour. He found Elinor, as he had hoped, alone. She was
+sitting so close to the window that her white dress mingled with the
+white curtains, so that he did not at first perceive her, and so much
+abstracted in her own thoughts that she did not pay any attention to the
+servant's hurried murmur of his name at the door. When she felt rather
+than saw that there was some one in the room, Elinor jumped up with a
+shock of alarm that seemed unnecessary in her own drawing-room; then
+seeing who it was, was so much and so suddenly moved that she shed a few
+tears in some sudden revulsion of feeling as she said, "Oh, it is you,
+John!"
+
+"Yes," he said, "but I am very sorry to see you so nervous."
+
+"Oh, it's nothing. I was always nervous"--which indeed was the purest
+invention, for Elinor Dennistoun had not known what nerves meant. "I
+mean I was always startled by any sudden entrance--in this way," she
+cried, and very gravely asked him to be seated, with a curious
+assumption of dignity. Her demeanour altogether was incomprehensible to
+John.
+
+"I hope," he said, "you were not displeased with me, Elinor, for going
+off the other night. I should have been too happy, you know, to go with
+you anywhere; but Lady Mariamne is more than I can stand."
+
+"I was very glad you did not come," she said with a sigh; then smiling
+faintly, "But you were ungrateful, for Mariamne formed a most favourable
+opinion of you. She said, 'Why didn't you tell me, Nell, you had a
+cousin so presentable as that?'"
+
+"I am deeply obliged, Elinor; but it seems that what was a compliment to
+me personally involved something the reverse for your other relations."
+
+"It is one of their jokes," said Elinor, with a voice that faltered a
+little, "to represent my relations as--not in a complimentary way. I am
+supposed not to mind, and it's all a joke, or so they tell me; but it is
+not a joke I like," she said, with a flash from her eyes.
+
+"All families have jokes of that description," said John; "but tell me,
+Nelly, are you really going down to the cottage, to your mother?"
+
+Her eyes thanked him with a gleam of pleasure for the old familiar name,
+and then the light went out of them. "I don't know," she said, abruptly.
+"Phil was to come; if he will not, I think I will not either. But I will
+say nothing till I make sure."
+
+"Of course your first duty is to him," said John; "but a day now or a
+day then interferes with nothing, and the country would be good for you,
+Elinor. Doesn't your husband see it? You are not looking like yourself."
+
+"Not like myself? I might easily look better than myself. I wish I
+could. I am not so bigoted about myself."
+
+"Your friends are, however," he said: "no one who cares for you wants to
+change you, even for another Elinor. Come, you are nervous altogether
+to-night, not like yourself, as I told you. You always so courageous and
+bright! This depressed state is not one of your moods. London is too
+much for you, my little Nelly."
+
+"Your little Nellie has gone away somewhere John. I doubt if she'll ever
+come back. Yes, London is rather too much for me, I think. It's such a
+racket, as Phil says. But then he's used to it, you know. He was brought
+up to it, whereas I--I think I hate a racket, John--and they all like it
+so. They prefer never having a moment to themselves. I daresay one
+would end by being just the same. It keeps you from thinking, that is
+one very good thing."
+
+"You used not to think so, Elinor."
+
+"No," she said, "not at the Cottage among the flowers, where nothing
+ever happened from one year's end to another. I should die of it now in
+a week--at least if not I, those who belong to me. So on the whole
+perhaps London is the safest--unless Phil will go."
+
+"I can only hope you will be able to persuade him," said John, rising to
+go away, "for whatever you may think, you are a country bird, and you
+want the fresh air."
+
+"Are you going, John? Well, perhaps it is better. Good-by. Don't trouble
+your mind about me whether I go or stay."
+
+"Do you mean I am not to come again, Elinor?"
+
+"Oh, why should I mean that?" she said. "You are so hard upon me in your
+thoughts;" but she did not say that he was wrong, and John went out from
+the door saying to himself that he would not go again. He saw through
+the open door of the dining-room that the table was prepared sumptuously
+for a dinner-party. It was shining with silver and crystal, the silver
+Mrs. Dennistoun's old service, which she had brought up with her from
+Windyhill, and which as a matter of convenience she had left behind with
+her daughter. Would it ever, he wondered, see Windyhill again?
+
+He went on to his club, and there some one began to amuse him with an
+account of Lady Durford's ball, to which Lady Mariamne had wished to
+take him. "Are not those Comptons relations of yours, Tatham?" he said.
+
+"Connections," said John, "by marriage."
+
+"I'm very glad that's all. They are a queer lot. Phil Compton you
+know--the dis-Honourable Phil, as he used to be called--but I hear he's
+turned over a new leaf----"
+
+"What of him?" said John.
+
+"Oh, nothing much: only that he was flirting desperately all the evening
+with a Mrs. Harris, an American widow. I believe he came with her--and
+his own wife there--much younger, much prettier, a beautiful young
+creature--looking on with astonishment. You could see her eyes growing
+bigger and bigger. If it had not been kind of amusing to a looker-on, it
+would be the most pitiful sight in the world."
+
+"I advise you not to let yourself be amused by such trifles," said John
+Tatham, with a look of fire and flame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+As a matter of fact, Elinor did not go to the Cottage for the fresh air
+or anything else. She made one hurried run in the afternoon to bid her
+mother good-by, alone, which was not a visit, but the mere pretence of a
+visit, hurried and breathless, in which there was no time to talk of
+anything. She gave Mrs. Dennistoun an account of the usual lists of
+visits that her husband and she were to make in the autumn, which the
+mother, with the usual instinct of mothers, thought too much. "You will
+wear yourself to death, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, no," she said, "it is not that sort of thing that wears one to
+death. I shall--enjoy it, I suppose, as other people do----"
+
+"I don't know about enjoyment, Elinor, but I am sure it would be much
+better for you to come and stay here quietly with me."
+
+"Oh, don't talk to me of any paradises, mamma. We are in the working-day
+world, and we must make out our life as we can."
+
+"But you might let Philip go by himself and come and stay quietly here
+for a little, for the sake of your health, Elinor."
+
+"Not for the world, not for the world," she cried. "I cannot leave
+Phil:" and then with a laugh that was full of a nervous thrill, "You
+are always thinking of my health, mamma, when my health is perfect:
+better, far better, than almost anybody's. The most of them have
+headaches and that sort of thing, and they stay in bed for a day or two
+constantly, but I never need anything of the kind."
+
+"My darling, it would not be leaving Philip to take, say, a single
+week's rest."
+
+"While he went off without me I should not know where," she said,
+sullenly; then gave her mother a guilty look and laughed again. "No,
+no, mamma; he would not like it. A man does not like his wife to be an
+incapable, to have to leave him and be nursed up by her mother. Besides,
+it is to the country we are going, you know, to Scotland, the finest
+air; better even, if that were possible, than Windyhill."
+
+This was all that was said, and there was indeed time for little more;
+for as the visit was unexpected the Hudsons, by bad luck, appeared to
+take tea with Mrs. Dennistoun by way of cheering her in her loneliness,
+and were of course enchanted to see Elinor, and to hear, as Mrs. Hudson
+said, of all her doings in the great world. "We always look out for your
+name at all the parties. It gives one quite an interest in fashionable
+life," said the Rector's wife, nodding her head, "and Alice was eager to
+hear what the last month's novelties were in the fashions, and if Elinor
+had any nice new patterns, especially for under-things. But what should
+you want with new under-things, with such a trousseau as you had?" she
+added, regretfully. Elinor in fact was quite taken from her mother for
+that hour. Was it not, perhaps, better so? Her mother herself was half
+inclined to think that it was, though with an ache in her heart, and
+there could be no doubt that Elinor herself was thankful that it so
+happened. When there are many questions on one side that must be asked,
+and very little answer possible on the other, is it a good thing when
+the foolish outside world breaks in with its _banal_ interest and
+prevents this dangerous interchange?
+
+So short time did Elinor stay that she had kept the fly waiting which
+brought her from the station: and she took leave of her mother with a
+sort of determination, not allowing it even to be suggested that she
+should accompany her. "I like to bid you good-by here," she said, "at
+our own door, where you have always come all my life to see me off, even
+when I was only going to tea at the Rectory. Good-by, good-by, mother
+dear." She drove off waving her hand, and Mrs. Dennistoun sat out in the
+garden a long time till she saw the fly go round the turn of the road,
+the white line which came suddenly in sight from among the trees and as
+suddenly disappeared again round the side of the hill. Elinor waved her
+handkerchief from the window and her mother answered--and then she was
+gone like a dream, and the loneliness closed down more overwhelming than
+ever before.
+
+Elinor was at Goodwood, her name in all the society papers, and even a
+description of one of her dresses, which delighted and made proud the
+whole population of Windyhill. The paper which contained it, and which,
+I believe, belonged originally to Miss Dale, passed from hand to hand
+through almost the entire community; the servants getting it at last,
+and handing it round among the humbler friends, who read it, half a
+dozen women together round a cottage door, wiping their hands upon their
+aprons before they would touch the paper, with many an exclamation and
+admiring outcry. And then her name appeared among the lists of smart
+people who were going to the North--now here, now there--in company with
+many other fine names. It gave the Windyhill people a great deal of
+amusement, and if Mrs. Dennistoun did not quite share this feeling it
+was a thing for which her friends blamed her gently. "For only think
+what a fine thing for Elinor to go everywhere among the best people, and
+see life like that!" "My dear friend," said the Rector, "you know we
+cannot hope to keep our children always with us. They must go out into
+the world while we old birds stay at home; and we must not--we really
+must not--grudge them their good times, as the Americans say." It was
+more wonderful than words could tell to Mrs. Dennistoun that it should
+be imagined she was grudging Elinor her "good time!"
+
+The autumn went on, with those occasional public means of following her
+footsteps which, indeed, made even John Tatham--who was not in an
+ordinary way addicted to the _Morning Post_, being after his fashion a
+Liberal in politics and far from aristocratical in his sentiments
+generally--study that paper, and also other papers less worthy: and
+with, of course, many letters from Elinor, which gave more trustworthy
+accounts of her proceedings. These letters, however, were far less long,
+far less detailed, than they had once been; often written in a hurry,
+and short, containing notes of where she was going, and of a continual
+change of address, rather than of anything that could be called
+information about herself. John, I think, went only once to the Cottage
+during the interval which followed. He went abroad as usual in
+the Long Vacation, and then he had this on his mind--that he had
+half-surreptitiously obtained a new light upon the position of Elinor,
+which he had every desire to keep from her mother; for Mrs. Dennistoun,
+though she felt that her child was not happy, attributed that to
+any reason rather than a failure in her husband's love. Elinor's
+hot rejection of the very idea of leaving Phil, her dislike of any
+suggestion to that effect, even for a week, even for a day, seemed to
+her mother a proof that her husband, at all events, remained as dear to
+her as ever; and John would rather have cut his tongue out than betray
+any chance rumour he heard--and he heard many--to this effect. He was of
+opinion, indeed, that in London, and especially at a London club, not
+only is everything known that is to be known, but much is known that has
+never existed, and never will exist if not blown into being by those
+whose office it is to invent the grief to come; therefore he thought it
+wisest to keep away, lest by any chance something might drop from him
+which would awaken a new crowd of disquietudes in Mrs. Dennistoun's
+heart. Another incident, even more disquieting than gossip, had indeed
+occurred to John. It had happened to him to meet Lady Mariamne at a
+great _omnium gatherum_ of a country house, where all sorts of people
+were invited, and where that lady claimed his acquaintance as one
+of the least alarming of the grave "set." She not only claimed his
+acquaintance, but set up a sort of friendship on the ground of his
+relationship to Elinor, and in an unoccupied moment after dinner one day
+poured a great many confidences into his ear.
+
+"Isn't it such a pity," she said, "that Phil and she do not get on? Oh,
+they did at first, like a house on fire! And if she had only minded her
+ways they might still have been as thick---- But these little country
+girls, however they may disguise it at first, they all turn like that.
+The horridest little puritan! Phil does no more than a hundred men--than
+almost all men do: amuse himself with anything that throws itself in his
+way, don't you know. And sometimes, perhaps, he does go rather far. I
+think myself he sometimes goes a little too far--for good taste you
+know, and that sort of thing."
+
+It was more amazing to hear Lady Mariamne talk of good taste than
+anything that had ever come in John Tatham's way before, but he was too
+horribly, desperately interested to see the fun.
+
+"She will go following him about wherever he goes. She oughtn't to do
+that, don't you know. She should let him take his swing, and the chances
+are it will bring him back all right. I've told her so a dozen times,
+but she pays no attention to me. You're a great pal of hers. Why don't
+you give her a hint? Phil's not the sort of man to be kept in order like
+that. She ought to give him his head."
+
+"I'm afraid," said John, "it's not a matter in which I can interfere."
+
+"Well, some of her friends should, anyhow, and teach her a little sense.
+You're a cautious man, I see," said Lady Mariamne. "You think it's too
+delicate to advise a woman who thinks herself an injured wife. I didn't
+say to console her, mind you," she said with a shriek of a laugh.
+
+It may be supposed that after this John was still more unwilling to go
+to the Cottage, to run the risk of betraying himself. He did write to
+Elinor, telling her that he had heard of her from her sister-in-law; but
+when he tried to take Lady Mariamne's advice and "give her a hint,"
+John felt his lips sealed. How could he breathe a word even of such a
+suspicion to Elinor? How could he let her know that he thought such a
+thing possible?--or presume to advise her, to take her condition for
+granted? It was impossible. He ended by some aimless wish that he might
+meet her at the Cottage for Christmas; "you and Mr. Compton," he
+said--whom he did not wish to meet, the last person in the world: and of
+whom there was no question that he should go to the Cottage at Christmas
+or any other time. But what could John do or say? To suggest to her that
+he thought her an injured wife was beyond his power.
+
+It was somewhere about Christmas--just before--in that dread moment for
+the lonely and those who are in sorrow and distress, when all the rest
+of the world is preparing for that family festival, or pretending to
+prepare, that John Tatham was told one morning in his chambers that a
+lady wanted to see him. He was occupied, as it happened, with a client
+for whom he had stayed in town longer than he had intended to stay, and
+he paid little more attention than to direct his clerk to ask the lady
+what her business was, or if she could wait. The client was long-winded,
+and lingered, but John's mind was not free enough nor his imagination
+lively enough to rouse much curiosity in him in respect to the lady who
+was waiting. It was only when she was ushered in by his clerk, as the
+other went away, and putting up her veil showed the pale and anxious
+countenance of Mrs. Dennistoun, that the shock as of sudden calamity
+reached him. "Aunt!" he cried, springing from his chair.
+
+"Yes, John--I couldn't come anywhere but here--you will feel for me more
+than any one."
+
+"Elinor?" he said.
+
+Her lips were dry, she spoke with a little difficulty, but she nodded
+her head and held out to him a telegram which was in her hand. It was
+dated from a remote part of Scotland, far in the north. "Ill--come
+instantly," was all it said.
+
+"And I cannot get away till night," cried Mrs. Dennistoun, with a burst
+of subdued sobbing. "I can't start till night."
+
+"Is this all? What was your last news?"
+
+"Nothing, but that they had gone there--to somebody's shooting-box,
+which was lent them, I believe--at the end of the world. I wrote to beg
+her to come to me. She is--near a moment--of great anxiety. Oh, John,
+support me: let me not break down."
+
+"You will not," he said; "you are wanted; you must keep all your wits
+about you. What were they doing there at this time of the year?"
+
+"They have been visiting about--they were invited to Dunorban for
+Christmas, but she persuaded Philip, so she said, to take this little
+house. I think he was to join the party while she--I cannot tell you
+what was the arrangement. She has written very vaguely for some time.
+She ought to have been with me--I told her so--but she has always said
+she could not leave Philip."
+
+Could not leave Philip! The mother, fortunately, had no idea why this
+determination was. "I went so far as to write to Philip," she said, "to
+ask him if she might not come to me, or, at least begging him to bring
+her to town, or somewhere where she could have proper attention. He
+answered me very briefly that he wished her to go, but she would not: as
+he had told me before I left town--that was all. It seemed to fret
+him--he must have known that it was not a fit place for her, in a
+stranger's house, and so far away. And to think I cannot even get away
+till late to-night!"
+
+John had to comfort her as well as he could, to make her eat something,
+to see that she had all the comforts possible for her night journey.
+"You were always like her brother," the poor lady said, finding at last
+relief in tears. And then he went with her to the train, and found her a
+comfortable carriage, and placed her in it with all the solaces his mind
+could think of. A sleeping-carriage on the Scotch lines is not such a
+ghastly pretence of comfort as those on the Continent. The solaces John
+brought her--the quantities of newspapers, the picture papers and
+others, rugs and shawls innumerable--all that he possessed in the shape
+of wraps, besides those which she had with her. What more could a man
+do? If she had been young he would have bought her sugar-plums. All that
+they meant were the dumb anxieties of his own breast, and the vague
+longing to do something, anything that would be a help to her on her
+desolate way.
+
+"You will send me a word, aunt, as soon as you get there?"
+
+"Oh, at once, John."
+
+"You will tell me how she is--say as much as you can--no three words,
+like that. I shall not leave town till I hear."
+
+"Oh, John, why should this keep you from your family? I could telegraph
+there as easily as here."
+
+He made a gesture almost of anger. "Do you think I am likely to put
+myself out of the way--not to be ready if you should want me?"
+
+How should she want him?--a mother summoned to her daughter at such a
+moment--but she did not say so to trouble him more: for John had got to
+that maddening point of anxiety when nothing but doing something, or at
+least keeping ready to do something, flattering yourself that there must
+be something to do, affords any balm to the soul.
+
+He saw her away by that night train, crowded with people going
+home--people noisy with gayety, escaping from their daily cares to the
+family meeting, the father's house, all the associations of pleasure
+and warmth and consolation--cold, but happy, in their third-class
+compartments--not wrapped up in every conceivable solace as she was, yet
+no one, perhaps, so heavy-hearted. He watched for the last glimpse of
+her face just as the train plunged into the darkness, and saw her smile
+and wave her hand to him; then he, too, plunged into the darkness like
+the train. He walked and walked through the solitary streets not knowing
+where he was going, unable to rest. Had he ever been, as people say, in
+love with Elinor? He could not tell--he had never betrayed it by word or
+look if he had. He had never taken any step to draw her near him, to
+persuade her to be his and not another's; on the contrary, he had
+avoided everything that could lead to that. Neither could he say, "She
+was as my sister," which his relationship might have warranted him in
+doing. It was neither the one nor the other--she was not his love nor
+his sister--she was simply Elinor; and perhaps she was dying; perhaps
+the news he would receive next day would be the worst that the heart
+can hear. He walked and walked through those dreary, semi-respectable
+streets of London, the quiet, the sordid, the dismal, mile after mile,
+and street after street, till half the night was over and he was tired
+out, and might have a hope of rest.
+
+But for three whole days--days which he could not reckon, which seemed
+of the length of years--during which he remained closeted in his
+chambers, the whole world having, as it seemed, melted away around him,
+leaving him alone, he did not have a word. He did not go home, feeling
+that he must be on the spot, whatever happened. Finally, when he was
+almost mad, on the morning of the third day, he received the following
+telegram: "Saved--as by a miracle; doing well. Child--a boy."
+
+"Child--a boy!" Good heavens! what did he want with that? it seemed an
+insult to him to tell him. What did he care for the child, if it was
+a boy or not?--the wretched, undesirable brat of such parentage, born
+to perpetuate a name which was dishonoured. Altogether the telegram,
+as so many telegrams, but lighted fresh fires of anxiety in his mind.
+"Saved--as by a miracle!" Then he had been right in the dreadful fancies
+that had gone through his mind. He had passed by Death in the dark; and
+was it now sure that the miracle would last, that the danger would have
+passed away?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+It was not till nearly three weeks after this that John received another
+brief dispatch. "At home: come and see us." He had indeed got a short
+letter or two in the interval, saying almost nothing--a brief report
+of Elinor's health, and of the baby, against whom he had taken an
+unreasoning disgust and repugnance. "Little beast!" he said to himself,
+passing over that part of the bulletin: for the letters were scarcely
+more than bulletins, without a word about the circumstances which
+surrounded her. A shooting lodge in Ross-shire in the middle of the
+winter! What a place for a delicate woman! John was well enough aware
+that many elements of comfort were possible even in such a place; but he
+shut his eyes, as was natural, to anything that went against his own
+point of view.
+
+And now this telegram from Windyhill--"At home: come and see us"--_us_.
+Was it a mistake of the telegraph people?--of course they must make
+mistakes. They had no doubt taken the _me_ in Mrs. Dennistoun's angular
+writing for _us_--or was it possible---- John had no peace in his mind
+until he had so managed matters that he could go and see. There was no
+very pressing business in the middle of January, when people had hardly
+yet recovered the idleness of Christmas. He started one windy afternoon,
+when everything was grey, and arrived at Hurrymere station in the dim
+twilight, still ruddy with tints of sunset. He was in a very contradictory
+frame of mind, so that though his heart jumped to see Mrs. Dennistoun
+awaiting him on the platform, there mingled in his satisfaction in
+seeing her and hearing what she had to tell so much sooner, a perverse
+conviction of cold and discomfort in the long drive up in the pony
+carriage which he felt sure was before him. He was mistaken, however, on
+this point, for the first thing she said was, "I have secured the fly,
+John. Old Pearson will take your luggage. I have so much to tell you."
+There was an air of excitement in her face, but not that air of subdued
+and silent depression which comes with solitude. She was evidently full
+of the report she had to make; but yet the first thing she did when she
+was ensconced in the fly with John beside her was to cover her face with
+her hands, and subside into her corner in a silent passion of tears.
+
+"For mercy's sake tell me what is the matter. What has happened? Is
+Elinor ill?"
+
+He had almost asked is Elinor dead?
+
+She uncovered her face, which had suddenly lighted up with a strange
+gleam of joy underneath the tears. "John, Elinor is here," she said.
+
+"Here?"
+
+"At home--safe. I have brought her back--and the child."
+
+"Confound the child!" John said in his excitement. "Brought her back!
+What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, John, it is a long story. I have a hundred things to tell you, and
+to ask your advice upon; but the main thing is that she is here. I have
+brought her away from him. She will go back no more."
+
+"She has left her husband?" he said, with a momentary flicker of
+exultation in his dismay. But the dismay, to do him justice, was the
+strongest. He looked at his companion almost sternly. "Things," he said,
+"must have been very serious to justify that."
+
+"They were more than serious--they had become impossible," Mrs.
+Dennistoun said.
+
+And she told him her story, which was a long one. She had arrived to
+find Elinor alone in the little solitary lodge in the midst of the
+wilds, not without attention indeed or comfort, but alone, her husband
+absent. She had been very ill, and he had been at the neighbouring
+castle, where a great party was assembled, and where, the mother
+discovered at last, there was--the woman who had made Elinor's life a
+burden to her. "I don't know with what truth. I don't know whether there
+is what people call any harm in it. It is possible he is only amusing
+himself. I can't tell. But it has made Elinor miserable this whole
+autumn through, that and a multitude of other things. She would not let
+me send for him when I got there. It had gone so far as that. She said
+that the whole business disgusted him, that he had lost all interest in
+her, that to hear it was over might be a relief to him, but nothing
+more. Her heart has turned altogether against him, John, in every way.
+There have been a hundred things. You think I am almost wickedly glad to
+have her home. And so I am. I cannot deny it. To have her here even in
+her trouble makes all the difference to me. But I am not so careless as
+you think. I can look beyond to other things. I shrink as much as you do
+from such a collapse of her life. I don't want her to give up her duty,
+and now that there is the additional bond of the child----"
+
+"Oh, for heaven's sake," said John, "leave the child out of it! I want
+to hear nothing of the child!"
+
+"That is one chief point, however, that we want your advice about, John.
+A man, I suppose, does not understand it; but her baby is everything to
+Elinor: and I suppose--unless he can really be proved as guilty as she
+thinks--he could take the child away."
+
+John smiled to himself a little bitterly: this was why he was sent for
+in such a hurry, not for the sake of his society, or from any affection
+for him, but that he might tell them what steps to take to secure them
+in possession of the child. He said nothing for some time, nor did Mrs.
+Dennistoun, whose disappointment in the coldness of his response was
+considerable, and who waited in vain for him to speak. At length she
+said, almost tremblingly, "I am afraid you disapprove very much of the
+whole business, John."
+
+"I hope it has not been done rashly," he said. "The husband's mere
+absence, though heartless as--as I should have expected of the
+fellow--would yet not be reason enough to satisfy any--court."
+
+"Any court! You don't think she means to bring him before any court? She
+wants only to be left alone. We ask nothing from him, not a penny, not
+any money--surely, surely no revenge--only not to be molested. There
+shall not be a word said on our side, if he will but let her alone."
+
+John shook his head. "It all depends upon the view the man takes of it,"
+he said.
+
+Now this was very cold comfort to Mrs. Dennistoun, who had by this time
+become very secure in her position, feeling herself entirely justified
+in all that she had done. "The man," she said, "the man is not the
+sufferer: and surely the woman has some claim to be heard."
+
+"Every claim," said John. "That is not what I was thinking of. It is
+this: if the man has a leg to stand upon, he will show fight. If he
+hasn't--why that will make the whole difference, and probably Elinor's
+position will be quite safe. But you yourself say----"
+
+"John, don't throw back upon me what I myself said. I said that perhaps
+things were not so bad as she believed. In my experience I have found
+that folly, and playing with everything that is right is more common
+than absolute wrong--and men like Philip Compton are made up of levity
+and disregard of everything that is serious."
+
+"In that case," said John, "if you are right, he will not let her go."
+
+"Oh, John! oh, John! don't make me wish that he may be a worse man than
+I think. He could not force her to go back to him, feeling as she does."
+
+"Nobody can force a woman to do that; but he could perhaps make her
+position untenable; he would, perhaps, take away the child."
+
+"John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, in alarm, "if you tell her that, she will
+fly off with him to the end of the world. She will die before she will
+part with the child."
+
+"I suppose that's how women are made," said John, not yet cured of his
+personal offence.
+
+"Yes," she said, "that's how women are made."
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, coming to himself; "but you know, aunt, a
+man may be pardoned for not understanding that supreme fascination of
+the baby who cares no more for one than another, poor little animal, so
+long as it gets its food and is warm enough. We must await and see what
+the man will do."
+
+"Is that the best?--is there nothing we can do to defend ourselves in
+the meantime--to make any sort of barricade against him?"
+
+"We must wait and see what he is going to do," said John; and they went
+over and over the question, again and again, as they climbed the hills.
+It grew quite dark as they drove along, and when they came out upon the
+open part of the road, from which the Cottage was visible, they both
+looked out across the combe to the lights in the windows with an
+involuntary movement. The Cottage was transformed; instead of the one
+lonely lighted window which had indicated to John in former visits where
+Mrs. Dennistoun sat alone, there was now a twinkle from various points,
+a glow of firelight, a sensation of warmth, and company. Mrs. Dennistoun
+looked out upon it and her face shone. It was not a happy thing that
+Elinor should have made shipwreck of her life, should have left her
+husband and sought refuge in her mother's house. But how could it be
+otherwise than happy that Elinor was there--Elinor and the other little
+creature who was something more than Elinor, herself and yet another?
+As for John, he looked at it too, with an interest which stopped all
+arguments on the cause of it. She was there--wrong, perhaps, impatient;
+too quick to fly as she had been too quick to go--but still Elinor all
+the same, whether she was right or wrong.
+
+The cab arrived soberly at the door, where Pearson with the pony
+carriage, coming by the shorter way with the luggage, had just arrived
+also. Mrs. Dennistoun said, hurriedly, "You will find Elinor in the
+drawing-room, John," and herself went hastily through the house and up
+the stairs. She was going to the baby! John guessed this with a smile of
+astonishment and half contempt. How strange it was! There could not be
+a more sad position than that in which, in their rashness, these two
+women had placed themselves; and yet the mother, a woman of experience,
+who ought to have known better, got out of the carriage like a girl,
+without waiting to be helped or attended to, and went up-stairs like
+the wind, forgetting everything else for that child--that child, the
+inheritor of Phil Compton's name and very likely of his qualities--fated
+from his birth (most likely) to bring trouble to everybody connected
+with him! And yet Elinor was of less interest to her mother. What
+strange caprices of nature! what extraordinary freaks of womankind!
+
+The Cottage down-stairs was warm and bright with firelight and
+lamplight, and in the great chair by the fire was reclining, lying back
+with her book laid on her lap and her face full of eager attention to
+the sounds outside, a pale young woman, surrounded by cushions and warm
+wraps and everything an invalid could require, who raised to him eyes
+more large and shining than he had ever seen before, suffused with a dew
+of pain and pleasure and eager welcome. Elinor, was it Elinor? He had
+never seen her in any way like an invalid before--never knew her to
+be ill, or weak, or unable to walk out to the door and meet him or
+anyone she cared for. The sight of her ailing, weak, with those large
+glistening eyes, enlarged by feebleness, went to his very heart.
+Fortunately he did not in any way connect this enfeebled state with the
+phenomenon up-stairs, which was best for all parties. He hurried up to
+her, taking her thin hands into his own.
+
+"Elinor! my poor little Nelly--can this be you!"
+
+The water that was in her eyes rolled over in two great tears; a brief
+convulsion went over her face. "Yes, John," she said, almost in a
+whisper. "Strange as it may seem, this is all that is left of me."
+
+He sat down beside her and for a moment neither of them spoke. Pity,
+tenderness, wrath, surged up together in John's breast; pity, tender
+compassion, most strong of all. Poor little thing; this was how she had
+come back to her home; her heart broken, her wings broken, as it were;
+all her soaring and swiftness and energy gone. He could scarcely look
+upon her for the pity that overflowed his heart. But underneath lay
+wrath, not only against the man who had brought her to such a pass, but
+against herself too.
+
+"John," she said, after a while, "do you remember saying to me that I
+was not one to bear, to put up with things, to take the consequences if
+I tried a dangerous experiment and failed?"
+
+"Did I ever say anything so silly and so cruel?"
+
+"Oh, no, no; it was neither silly nor unkind, but quite, quite true. I
+have thought of it so often. I used to think of it to stir up my pride,
+to remind myself that I ought to try to be better than my nature, not to
+allow you to be a true prophet. But it was so, and I couldn't change it.
+You can see you were right, John, for I have not been like a strong
+woman, able to endure; I have only been able to run away."
+
+"My poor little Nelly!"
+
+"Don't pity me," she said, the tears running over again. "I am too well
+off; I am too well taken care of. A prodigal should not be made so much
+of as I am."
+
+"Don't call yourself a prodigal, Nelly! Perhaps things may not be as bad
+as they appear. At least, it is but the first fall--the greatest athlete
+gets many before he can stand against the world."
+
+"I'll never be an athlete, John. Besides, I'm a woman, you know, and a
+fall of any kind is fatal to a woman, especially anything of this kind.
+No, I know very well it's all over; I shall never hold up my head again.
+But that's not the question--the question is, to be safe and as free as
+can be. Mamma takes me in, you know, just as if nothing had happened.
+She is quite willing to take the burden of me on her shoulders--and of
+baby. She has told you that there are two of me, now, John--my baby, as
+well as myself."
+
+John could only nod an assent; he could not speak.
+
+"It's a wonderful thing to come out of a wreck with a treasure in one's
+arms; everything going to pieces behind one; the rafters coming down,
+the walls falling in and yet one's treasure in one's arms. Oh, I had not
+the heart or the strength to come out of the tumbling house. My mother
+did it all, dragged me out, wrapped me up in love and kindness, carried
+me away. I don't want you to think I was good for anything. I should
+just have lain there and died. One thing, I did not mind dying at all--I
+had quite made up my mind. That would not have been so disgraceful as
+running away."
+
+"There is nothing that is disgraceful," said John, "for heaven's sake
+don't say so, Nelly. It is unfortunate--beyond words--but that is all.
+Nobody can think that you are in any way disgraced. And if you are
+allowed just to stay quietly here in your natural home, I suppose you
+desire nothing more."
+
+"What should I desire more, John? You don't suppose I should like to go
+and live in the world again, and go into society and all that? I have
+had about enough of society. Oh, I want nothing but to be quiet and
+unmolested, and bring up my baby. They could not take my baby from me,
+John?"
+
+"I do not think so," he said, with a grave face.
+
+"You do not--think so? Then you are not _sure_? My mother says dreadful
+things, but I cannot believe them. They would never take an infant from
+its mother to give it to--to give it to--a man--who could do nothing,
+nothing for it. What could a man do with a young child? a man always on
+the move, who has no settled home, who has no idea what an infant wants?
+John, I know law is inhuman, but surely, surely not so inhuman as that."
+
+"My dear Nelly," he said, "the law, you know, which, as you say, is
+often inhuman, recognizes the child as belonging to the father. He is
+responsible for it. For instance, they never could come upon you for its
+maintenance or education, or anything of that kind, until it had been
+proved that the father----"
+
+"May I ask," said Elinor, with uplifted head, "of what or of whom you
+are talking when you say _it_?"
+
+It was all John could do not to burst into a peal of aggrieved and
+indignant laughter. He who had been brought from town, from his own
+comforts such as they were, to be consulted about this brat, this child
+which belonged to the dis-Honourable Phil; and Elinor, _Elinor_, of all
+people in the world, threw up her head and confronted him with disdain
+because he called the brat it, and not him or her, whichever it was.
+John recollected well enough that sentence at which he had been so
+indignant in the telegram--"child, a boy "--but he affected to himself
+not to know what it was for the indulgence of a little contumely: and
+the reward he had got was contumely upon his own head. But when he
+looked at Elinor's pale face, the eyes so much larger than they ought
+to be, with tears welling out unawares, dried up for a moment by
+indignation or quick hasty temper, the temper which made her sweeter
+words all the more sweet he had always thought--then rising again
+unawares under the heavy lids, the lips so ready to quiver, the pathetic
+lines about the mouth: when he looked at all these John's heart smote
+him. He would have called the child anything, if there had been a sex
+superior to him the baby should have it. And what was there that man
+could do that he would not do for the deliverance of the mother and the
+child?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+It cannot be said that this evening at the Cottage was an agreeable one.
+To think that Elinor should be there, and yet that there should be so
+little pleasure in the fact that the old party, which had once been so
+happy together, should be together again, was bewildering. And yet there
+was one member of it who was happy with a shamefaced unacknowledged joy.
+To think that that which made her child miserable should make her happy
+was a dreadful thought to Mrs. Dennistoun, and yet how could she help
+it? Elinor was there, and the baby was there, the new unthought-of
+creature which had brought with it a new anxiety, a rush of new thoughts
+and wishes. Already everything else in the mind of Elinor's mother began
+to yield to the desire to retain these two--the new mother and the
+child. But she did not avow this desire. She was mostly silent,
+taking little part in the discussion, which was indeed a very curious
+discussion, since Elinor, debating the question how she was to abandon
+her husband and defend herself against him, never mentioned his name.
+
+She did not come in to dinner, which Mrs. Dennistoun and John Tatham ate
+solemnly alone, saying but little, trying to talk upon indifferent
+topics, with that very wretched result which is usual when people at one
+of the great crises of life have to make conversation for each other
+while servants are about and the restraints of common life are around
+them. Whether it is the terrible flood of grief which has to be barred
+and kept within bounds so that the functions of life may not altogether
+be swept away, or the sharper but warmer pang of anxiety, that which
+cuts like a serpent's tooth, yet is not altogether beyond the reach of
+hope, what poor pretences these are at interest in ordinary subjects;
+what miserable gropings after something that can furnish a thread of
+conversation just enough to keep the intercourse of life going! These
+two were not more successful than others in this dismal pursuit. Mrs.
+Dennistoun found a moment when the meal was over before she left John,
+poor pretence! to his wine. "Remember that she will not mention his
+name; nothing must be said about him," she said. "How can we discuss him
+and what he is likely to do without speaking of him?" said John, with a
+little scorn. "I don't know," replied the poor lady. "But you will find
+that she will not have his name mentioned. You must try and humour her.
+Poor Elinor! For I know that you are sorry for her, John."
+
+Sorry for her! He sat over his glass of mild claret in the little
+dining-room that had once been so bright; even now it was the cosiest
+little room, the curtains all drawn, shutting out the cold wind, which
+in January searches out every crevice, the firelight blazing fitfully,
+bringing out all the pretty warm decorations, the gleam of silver on the
+side-board, the pictures on the wall, the mirror over the mantelpiece.
+There was nothing wanted under that roof to make it the very home of
+domestic warmth and comfort. And yet--sorry for Elinor! That was not
+the word. His heart was sore for her, torn away from all her moorings,
+drifting back a wreck to the little youthful home, where all had been so
+tranquil and so sweet. John had nothing in him of that petty sentiment
+which derives satisfaction from a calamity it has foreseen, nor had he
+even an old lover's thrill of almost pleasure in the downfall of the
+clay idol that has been preferred to his gold. His pain for Elinor, the
+constriction in his heart at thought of her position, were unmixed with
+any baser feeling. Sorry for her! He would have given all he possessed
+to restore her happiness--not in his way, but in the way she had chosen,
+even, last abnegation of all, to make the man worthy of her who had
+never been worthy. Even his own indignation and wrath against that
+man were subservient in John's honest breast to the desire of somehow
+finding that it might be possible to whitewash him, nay to reform him,
+to make him as near as possible something which she could tolerate for
+life. I doubt if a woman, notwithstanding the much more ready power of
+sacrifice which women possess, could have so fully desired this renewal
+and amendment as John did. It was scarcely too much to say that he hated
+Phil Compton: yet he would have given the half of his substance at this
+moment to make Phil Compton a good man; nay, even to make him a passable
+man--to rehabilitate him in his wife's eyes.
+
+John stayed a long time over "his wine," the mild glass of claret (or
+perhaps it was Burgundy) which was all that was offered him--partly to
+think the matter over, but also partly perhaps because he heard certain
+faint gurglings, and the passage of certain steps, active and full of
+energy, past the door of the room within which he sat, going now to the
+drawing-room, now up-stairs, from which he divined that the new inmate
+of the house was at present in possession of the drawing-room, and of
+all attention there. He smiled at himself for his hostility to the
+child, which, of course, was entirely innocent of all blame. Here the
+man was inferior to the woman in comprehension and sympathy; for he not
+only could not understand how they could possibly obtain solace in their
+trouble from this unconscious little creature, but he was angry and
+scornful of them for doing so. Phil Compton's brat, no doubt the germ of
+a thousand troubles to come, but besides that a nothing, a being without
+love or thought, or even consciousness, a mere little animal feeding
+and sleeping--and yet the idol and object of all the thoughts of two
+intelligent women, capable of so much better things! This irritated John
+and disgusted him in the midst of all his anxious thoughts, and his
+profound compassion and deliberations how best to help: and it was
+not till the passage of certain feeble sounds outside his door, which
+proceeded audibly up-stairs, little bleatings in which, if they had come
+from a lamb, or even a puppy, John would have been interested, assured
+him that the small enemy had disappeared--that he finally rose and
+proceeded to "join the ladies," as if he had been holding a little
+private debauch all by himself.
+
+There was a little fragrance and air of the visitor still in the room, a
+little disturbance of the usual arrangements, a surreptitious, quite
+unjustifiable look as of pleasure in Elinor's eyes, which were less
+expanded, and if as liquid as ever, more softly bright than before.
+Something white actually lay on the sofa, a small garment which Mrs.
+Dennistoun whisked away. They were conscious of John's critical eye
+upon them, and received him with a warmth of conciliatory welcome which
+betrayed that consciousness. Mrs. Dennistoun drew a chair for him to
+the other side of the fire. She took her own place in the middle at the
+table with a large piece of white knitting, to which she gave her whole
+attention, and thus the deliberation began.
+
+"Elinor wants to know, John, what you think we ought to do--to make
+quite sure--that there will be no risk, about the baby."
+
+"I must know more of the details of the question before I can give any
+advice," said John.
+
+"John," said Elinor, raising herself in her chair, "here are all the
+details that are necessary. I have come away. I have come home, finding
+that life was impossible there. That is the whole matter. It may be,
+probably it is, my own fault. It is simply that life became impossible.
+You know you said that I was not one to endure, to put up with things. I
+scoffed at you then, for I did not expect to have anything to put up
+with; but you were quite right, and life had become impossible--that is
+all there is any need to say."
+
+"To me, yes," said John, "but not enough, Elinor, if it ever has to come
+within the reach of the law."
+
+"But why should it come within the reach of the law? You, John, you are
+a lawyer; you know the rights of everything. I thought you might have
+arranged it all. Couldn't you try to make a kind of a bargain? What
+bargain? Oh, am I a lawyer, do I know? But you, John, who have it all at
+your fingers' ends, who know what can be done and what can't be done,
+and the rights that one has and that another has! Dear John! if you were
+to try, don't you think that you could settle it all, simply as between
+people who don't want any exposure, any struggle, but only to be quiet
+and to be let alone?"
+
+"Elinor, I don't know what I could do with so little information as I
+have. To know that you found your life impossible is enough for me. But
+you know most people are right in their own eyes. If we have some one
+opposed to us who thinks, for instance, that the fault was yours?"
+
+"Well," she cried, eagerly, "I am willing to accept that: say that the
+fault was mine! You could confirm it, that it was likely to be mine. You
+could tell them what an impatient person I was, and that you said I
+was not one to try an experiment, for I never, never could put up with
+anything. John, you could be a witness as well as an advocate. You could
+prove that you always expected--and that I am quite, quite willing to
+allow that it was I----"
+
+"Elinor, if I could only make you understand what I mean! I am told that
+I am not to mention any names?"
+
+"No, no names, no names! What is the good? We both know very well what
+we mean."
+
+"But I don't know very well what you mean. Don't you see that if it is
+your fault--if the other party is innocent--there can be no reason in
+the world why he should consent to renounce his rights. It is not a mere
+matter of feeling. There is right in it one way or another--either on
+your side or else on the other side; and if it is on the other side, why
+should a man give up what belongs to him, why should he renounce what
+is--most dear to him?"
+
+"Oh, John, John, John!" she made this appeal and outcry, clasping her
+hands together with a mixture of supplication and impatience. Then
+turning to her mother--"Oh, tell him," she cried, "tell him!"--always
+clasping those impatient yet beseeching hands.
+
+"You see, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "Elinor knows that the right
+is on her side: but she will consent to say nothing about it to any
+one--to give herself out as the offender rather--that is to say, as an
+ill-disciplined person that cannot put up with anything, as you seem to
+have said."
+
+John laughed with vexation, yet a kind of amusement. "I never said it
+nor thought it: still if it pleases her to think so---- The wiser thing
+if this separation is final----"
+
+"If it is final!" Elinor cried. She raised herself up again in her
+chair, and contemplated the unfortunate John with a sort of tragic
+superiority. "Do you think that of me," she said, "that I would take
+such a step as this and that it should not be final? Is dying final?
+Could one do such a thing as this and change?"
+
+"Such things have been done," said John. "Elinor, forgive me. I must say
+it--it is all your life that is in the balance, and another life. There
+is this infant to be struggled over, perhaps rent in two by those who
+should have united to take care of him--and it's a boy, I hear. There's
+his name and his after-life to think of--a child without a father,
+perhaps the heir of a family to which he will not belong. Elinor--tell
+her, aunt, you understand: is it my wish to hand her back to--to---- No,
+I'll speak no names. But you know I disliked it always, opposed it always.
+It is not out of any favour to--to the other side. But she ought to take
+all these things into account. Her own position, and the position in the
+future of the child----"
+
+Elinor had crushed her fan with her hands, and Mrs. Dennistoun let the
+knitting with which she had gone on in spite of all fall at last in her
+lap. There was a little pause. John Tatham's voice itself had began to
+falter, or rather swelled in sound as when a stream swells in flood.
+
+"I do not go into the question about women and what they ought to put up
+with," said John, resuming. "There's many things that law can do nothing
+for--and nature in many ways makes it harder for women, I acknowledge.
+We cannot change that. Think what her position will be--neither a wife
+nor with the freedom of a widow; and the boy, bearing the name of one he
+must almost be taught to think badly of--for one of them must be in the
+wrong----"
+
+"He shall never, never hear that name; he shall know nothing, he shall
+be free of every bond; his mind shall never be cramped or twisted or
+troubled by any--man--if I live."
+
+This Elinor said, lifting her pale face from her hands with eyes that
+flashed and shone with a blaze of excitement and weakness.
+
+"There already," said John, "is a tremendous condition--if you live! Who
+can make sure that they will live? We must all die--some sooner, some
+later--and you wearing yourself out with excitement, that never were
+strong; you exposing your heart, the weakest organ----"
+
+"John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, grasping him by the arm, "you are talking
+nonsense, you don't know what you are saying. My darling! she was never
+weak nor had a feeble heart, nor--anything! She will live to bring up
+_his_ children, her baby's children, upon her knees."
+
+"And what would it matter?" said Elinor--looking at him with clear eyes,
+from which the tears had disappeared in the shock of this unlooked-for
+suggestion--"suppose I have no more strength than that, suppose I were
+to die? you shall be his guardian, John, bring him up a good man; and
+his Heavenly Father will take care of him. I am not afraid."
+
+A man had better not deal with such subjects between two women. What
+with Mrs. Dennistoun's indignant protest and Elinor's lofty submission,
+John was at his wits' end. "I did not mean to carry things to such a
+bitter end as that," he said. "You want to force me into a corner and
+make me say things I never meant. The question is serious enough without
+that."
+
+There was again a little pause, and then Elinor, with one of those
+changes which are so perplexing to sober-minded people, suddenly turned
+to him, holding out both her hands.
+
+"John--we'll leave that in God's hands whatever is to happen to me. But
+in the meantime, while I am living--and perhaps my life depends upon
+being quiet and having a little peace and rest. It is not that I care
+very much for my life," said Elinor, with that clear, open-eyed look,
+like the sky after rain--"I am shipwrecked, John, as you say--but my
+mother does, and it's of--some--consequence--to baby; and if it depends
+upon whether I am left alone, you are too good a friend to leave me in
+the lurch. And you said--one night--whatever happened I was to send for
+you."
+
+John sprang up from his seat, dropping the hands which he had taken into
+his own. She was like Queen Katherine, "about to weep," and her breast
+strained with the sobbing effort to keep it down.
+
+"For God's sake," he cried, "don't play upon our hearts like this! I
+will do anything--everything--whatever you choose to tell me. Aunt,
+don't let her cry, don't let her go on like that. Why, good heavens!" he
+cried, bursting himself into a kind of big sob, "won't it be bad for
+that little brat of a baby or something if she keeps going on in this
+way?"
+
+Thus John Tatham surrendered at discretion. What could he do more? A
+man cannot be played upon like an instrument without giving out sounds
+of which he will, perhaps, be ashamed. And this woman appealing to
+him--this girl--looking like the little Elinor he remembered, younger
+and softer in her weakness and trouble than she had been in her beauty
+and pride--was the creature after all, though she would never know it,
+whom he loved best in the world. He had wanted to save her, in the
+one worldly way of saving her, from open shipwreck, for her own sake,
+against every prejudice and prepossession of his mind. But if she would
+not have that, why it was his business to save her as she wished, to do
+for her whatever she wanted; to act as her agent, her champion, whatever
+she pleased.
+
+He was sent away presently, and accepted his dismissal with thankfulness,
+to smoke his cigar. This is one amusing thing in a feminine household. A
+man is supposed to want all manner of little indulgences and not to be
+able to do without them. He is carefully left alone over "his wine"--the
+aforesaid glass of claret; and ways and means are provided for him to
+smoke his cigar, whether he wishes it or not. He had often laughed at
+these regulations of his careful relatives, but he was rather glad of
+them to-night. "I am going to get Elinor to bed," said Mrs. Dennistoun.
+"It has, perhaps, been a little too much for her: but when you have
+finished your cigar, John, if you will come back to the drawing-room for
+a few minutes you will find me here."
+
+John did not smoke any cigar. It is all very well to be soothed and
+consoled by tobacco in your own room, at your own ease: but when you are
+put into a lady's dining-room, where everything is nice, and where the
+curtains will probably smell of smoke next morning: and when your mind
+is exercised beyond even the power of the body to keep still, that is
+not a time to enjoy such calm and composing delights. But he walked
+about the room in which he was shut up like a wild beast in his cage,
+sometimes with long strides from wall to wall, sometimes going round,
+with that abstract trick of his, staring at the pictures, as if he did
+not know every picture in the place by heart. He forgot that he was to
+go back to the drawing-room again after Elinor had been taken to bed,
+and it was only after having waited for him a long time that Mrs.
+Dennistoun came, almost timidly, knocking at her own dining-room door,
+afraid to disturb her visitor in the evening rites which she believed in
+so devoutly. She did go in, however, and they stood together over the
+fire for a few minutes, he staring down upon the glow at his feet, she
+contemplating fitfully, unconsciously, her own pale face and his in the
+dim mirror on the mantelpiece. They talked in low tones about Elinor and
+her health, and her determination which nothing would change.
+
+"Of course I will do it," said John; "anything--whatever she may require
+of me--there are no two words about that. There is only one thing: I
+will not compromise her by taking any initiative. Let us wait and see
+what they are going to do----"
+
+"But, John, might it not be better to disarm him by making overtures?
+anything, I would do anything if he would but let her remain
+unmolested--and the baby."
+
+"Do you mean money?" he said.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun gave him an abashed look, deprecatory and wistful, but
+did not make any reply.
+
+"Phil Compton is a cad, and a brute, and a scamp of the first water,"
+said John, glad of some way to get rid of his excitement; "but I do not
+think that even he would sell his wife and his child for money. I
+wouldn't do him so much discredit as that."
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, John," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+John left the Cottage next morning with the full conduct of the affairs
+of the family placed in his hands. The ladies were both a little
+doubtful if his plan was the best--they were still frightened for what
+might happen, and kept up a watch, as John perceived, fearing every
+step that approached, trembling at every shadow. They remembered many
+stories, such as rush to the minds of persons in trouble, of similar
+cases, of the machinations of the bad father whose only object was to
+overcome and break down his wife, and who stole his child away to let it
+languish and die. There are some circumstances in which people forget
+all the shades of character, and take it for granted that a man who can
+go wrong in one matter will act like a very demon in all. This was
+doubly strong in Mrs. Dennistoun, a woman full of toleration and
+experience; but the issues were so momentous to her, and the possible
+results so terrible, that she lost her accustomed good sense. It was
+more natural, perhaps, that Elinor, who was weak in health and still
+full of the arbitrariness of youth, should entertain this fear--without
+considering that Phil was the very last man in the world to burden
+himself with an infant of the most helpless age--which seemed to John
+an almost quite unreasonable one. Almost--for, of course, he too was
+compelled to allow, when driven into a corner, that there was nothing
+that an exasperated man might not do. Elinor had come down early to see
+her cousin before he left the house, bringing with her in her arms the
+little bundle of muslin and flannel upon the safety of which her very
+life seemed to depend. John looked at it, and at the small pink face and
+unconscious flickering hands that formed the small centre to all those
+wrappings, with a curious mixture of pity and repugnance. It was like
+any other blind new-born kitten or puppy, he thought, but not so
+amusing--no, it was not blind, to be sure. At one moment, without any
+warning, it suddenly opened a pair of eyes, which by a lively exercise
+of fancy might be supposed like Elinor's, and seemed to look him in the
+face, which startled him very much, with a curious notification of the
+fact that the thing was not a kitten or a puppy. But then a little
+quiver came over the small countenance, and the attendant said it was
+"the wind." Perhaps the opening of the eyes was the wind too, or some
+other automatic effect. He would not hold out his finger to be clasped
+tight by the little flickering fist, as Elinor would have had him. He
+would none of those follies; he turned away from it not to allow himself
+to be moved by the effect, quite a meretricious one, of the baby in the
+young mother's arms. That was all poetry, sentiment, the trick of the
+painter, who had found the combination beautiful. Such ideas belonged,
+indeed, to the conventional-sacred, and he had never felt any profane
+resistance of mind against the San Sisto picture or any of its kind.
+But Phil Compton's brat was a very different thing. What did it matter
+what became of it? If it were not for Elinor's perverse feeling on
+the subject, and that perfectly imbecile prostration of her mother,
+a sensible woman who ought to have known better, before the little
+creature, he would himself have been rather grateful to Phil Compton for
+taking it away. But when he saw the look of terror upon Elinor's face
+when an unexpected step came to the door, when he saw her turn and fly,
+wrapping the child in her arms, on her very heart as it seemed, bending
+over it, covering it so that it disappeared altogether in her embrace,
+John's heart was a little touched. It was only a hawking tramp with pins
+and needles, who came by mistake to the hall door, but her panic and
+anguish of alarm were a spectacle which he could not get out of his
+eyes.
+
+"You see, she never feels safe for a moment. It will be hard to persuade
+her that that man, though I've seen him about the roads for years, is
+not an emissary--or a spy--to find out if she is here."
+
+"I am sure it is quite an unnecessary panic," said John. "In the first
+place, Phil Compton's the last man to burden himself with a child; in
+the second, he's not a brute nor a monster."
+
+"You called him a brute last night, John."
+
+"I did not mean in that way. I don't mean to stand by any rash word that
+may be forced from me in a moment of irritation. Aunt, get her to give
+over that. She'll torture herself to death for nothing. He'll not try to
+take the child away--not just now, at all events, not while it is a
+mere---- Bring her to her senses on that point. You surely can do that?"
+
+"If I was quite sure of being in my own," Mrs. Dennistoun said, with a
+forlorn smile. "I am as much frightened as she is, John. And, remember,
+if there is anything to be done--anything----"
+
+"There is nothing but a little common sense wanted," said John. But as
+he drove away from the door, and saw the hawker with the needles still
+about, the ladies had so infected him that it was all he could do to
+restrain an inclination to take the vagrant by the collar and throw him
+down the combe.
+
+"Who's that fellow hanging about?" he said to Pearson, who was driving
+him; "and what does he want here?"
+
+"Bless you, sir! that's Joe," Pearson said. "He's after no harm. He's
+honest enough as long as there ain't nothing much in his way; and he's
+waiting for the pieces as cook gives him once a week when he comes his
+rounds. There's no harm in poor Joe."
+
+"I suppose not, since you say so," said John; "but you know the ladies
+are rather nervous, Pearson. You must keep a look-out that no
+suspicious-looking person hangs about the house."
+
+"Bless us! Mr. John," said Pearson, "what are they nervous about?--the
+baby? But nobody wants to steal a baby, bless your soul!"
+
+"I quite agree with you," said John, much relieved (though he considered
+Pearson an old fool, in a general way) to have his own opinion confirmed.
+"But, all the same, I wish you would be doubly particular not to admit
+anybody you don't know; and if any man should appear to bother them send
+for me on the moment. Do you hear?"
+
+"What do you call any man, sir?" said Pearson, smartly. He had ideas of
+his own, though he might be a fool.
+
+"I mean what I say," said John, more sharply still. "Any one that
+molests or alarms them. Send me off a telegram at once--'You're wanted!'
+That will be quite enough. But don't go with it to the office yourself;
+send somebody--there's always your boy about the place--and keep about
+like a dragon yourself."
+
+"I'll do my best, sir," said Pearson, "though I don't know what a dragon
+is, except it's the one in the Bible; and that's not a thing anybody
+would want about the place."
+
+It was a comfort to John, after all his troubles, to be able to laugh,
+which he did with a heartiness which surprised Pearson, who was quite
+unaware that he had made any joke.
+
+These fears, however, which were imposed upon him by the contagion
+of the terrors of the others, soon passed from John's mind. He was
+convinced that Phil Compton would take no such step; and that, however
+much he might wish his wife to return, the possession of the baby was
+not a thing which he would struggle over. It cannot be denied, however,
+that he was anxious, and eagerly inspected his letters in the morning,
+and looked out for telegrams during the day. Fortunately, however, no
+evil tidings came. Mrs. Dennistoun reported unbroken peace in the
+Cottage and increasing strength on the part of Elinor; and, in a
+parenthesis with a sort of apology, of the baby. Nobody had come near
+them to trouble them. Elinor had received no letters. The tie between
+her and her husband seemed to be cut as with a knife. "We cannot of
+course," she said, "expect this tranquillity to last."
+
+And it came to be a very curious thought with John, as week after week
+passed, whether it was to last--whether Phil Compton, who had never been
+supposed wanting in courage, intended to let his wife and child drop
+off from him as if they had never been. This seemed a thing impossible
+to conceive: but John said to himself with much internal contempt that
+he knew nothing of the workings of the mind of such a man, and that it
+might for aught he knew be a common incident in life with the Phil
+Comptons thus to shake off their belongings when they got tired of them.
+The fool! the booby! to get tired of Elinor! That rumour which flies
+about the world so strangely and communicates information about
+everybody to the vacant ear, to be retailed to those whom it may
+concern, provided him, as the days went by, with many particulars which
+he had not been able to obtain from Elinor. Phil, it appeared, had gone
+to Glenorban--the great house to which he had been invited--alone, with
+an excuse for his wife, whose state of health was not appropriate to a
+large party, and had stayed there spending Christmas with a brilliant
+houseful of guests, among whom was the American lady who had captivated
+him. Phil had paid one visit to the lodge to see Elinor, by her mother's
+summons, at the crisis of her illness, but had not hesitated to go away
+again when informed that the crisis was over. Mrs. Dennistoun never told
+what had passed between them on that occasion, but the gossips of the
+club were credibly informed that she had bullied and stormed at Phil,
+after the fashion of mothers-in-law, till she had driven him away. Upon
+which he had returned to his party and flirted with Mrs. Harris more
+than ever. John discovered also that the party having dispersed some
+time ago, Phil had gone abroad. Whether in ignorance of his wife's
+flight or not he could not discover; but it was almost impossible to
+believe that he would have gone to Monte Carlo without finding out
+something about Elinor--how and where she was. But whether this was the
+cause of his utter silence, or whether it was the habit of men of his
+class to treat such tremendous incidents in domestic life with levity,
+John Tatham could not make out. He was congratulating himself, however,
+upon keeping perfectly quiet, and leaving the conduct of the matter to
+the other party, when the silence was disturbed in what seemed to him
+the most curious way.
+
+One afternoon when he returned from the court he was aware, when he
+entered the outer office in which his clerk abode, of what he described
+afterwards as a smell fit to knock you down. It would have been
+described more appropriately in a French novel as the special perfume,
+subtle and exquisite, by which a beautiful woman may be recognised
+wherever she goes. It was, indeed, neither more nor less than the
+particular scent used by Lady Mariamne, who came forward with a sweep
+and rustle of her draperies, and the most ingratiating of her smiles.
+
+"It appears to be fated that I am to wait for you," she said. "How do
+you do, Mr. Tatham? Take me out of this horrible dirty place. I am quite
+sure you have some nice rooms in there." She pointed as she spoke to
+the inner door, and moved towards it with the air of a person who knew
+where she was going, and was fully purposed to be admitted. John said
+afterwards, that to think of this woman's abominable scent being left in
+his room in which he lived (though he also received his clients in it)
+was almost more than he could bear. But, in the meantime, he could do
+nothing but open the door to her, and offer her his most comfortable
+chair.
+
+She seated herself with all those little tricks of movement which are
+also part of the stock-in-trade of the pretty woman. Lady Mariamne's
+prettiness was not of a kind which had the slightest effect upon John,
+but still it was a kind which received credit in society, being the
+product of a great deal of pains and care and exquisite arrangement and
+combination. She threw her fur cloak back a little, arranged the strings
+of her bonnet under her chin, which threw up the daintiness and rosiness
+of a complexion about which there were many questions among her closest
+friends. She shook up, with what had often been commented upon as the
+prettiest gesture, the bracelets from her wrists. She arranged the veil,
+which just came over the tip of her delicate nose, she put out her foot
+as if searching for a footstool--which John made haste to supply, though
+he remained unaffected otherwise by all these pretty preliminaries.
+
+"Sit down, Mr. Tatham," then said Lady Mariamne. "It makes me wretchedly
+uncomfortable, as if you were some dreadful man waiting to be paid or
+something, to see you standing there."
+
+Though John's first impulse was that of wrath to be thus requested to
+sit down in his own chambers, the position was amusing as well as
+disagreeable, and he laughed and drew a chair towards his writing-table,
+which was as crowded and untidy as the writing-table of a busy man
+usually is, and placed himself in an attitude of attention, though
+without asking any question.
+
+"Well," said Lady Mariamne, slowly drawing off her glove; "you know, of
+course, why I have come, Mr. Tatham--to talk over with you, as a man who
+knows the world, this deplorable business. You see it has come about
+exactly as I said. I knew what would happen: and though I am not one of
+those people who always insist upon being proved right, you remember
+what I said----"
+
+"I remember that you said something--to which, perhaps, had I thought I
+should have been called upon to give evidence as to its correctness--I
+should have paid more attention, Lady Mariamne."
+
+"How rude you are!" she said, with her whole interest concentrated upon
+the slow removal of her glove. Then she smoothed a little, softly, the
+pretty hand which was thus uncovered, and said, "How red one's hands
+get in this weather," and then laughed. "You don't mean to tell me, Mr.
+Tatham," she said, suddenly raising her eyes to his, "that, considering
+what a very particular person we were discussing, you can't remember
+what I said?"
+
+John was obliged to confess that he remembered more or less the gist of
+her discourse, and Lady Mariamne nodded her head many times in
+acceptance of his confession.
+
+"Well," she said, "you see what it has come to. An open scandal, a
+separation, and everything broken up. For one thing, I knew if she did
+not give him his head a little that's what would happen. I don't believe
+he cares a brass farthing for that other woman. She makes fun of
+everybody, and that amused him. And it amused him to put Nell in a
+state--that as much as anything. Why couldn't she see that and learn to
+_prendre son parti_ like other people? She was free to say, 'You go your
+way and I'll go mine:' the most of us do that sooner or later: but to
+make a vulgar open rupture, and go off--like this."
+
+"I fail to see the vulgarity in it," said John.
+
+"Oh, of course; everything she does is perfect to you. But just think,
+if it had been your own case--followed about and bullied by a jealous
+woman, in a state of health that of itself disgusts a man----"
+
+"Lady Mariamne, you must pardon me if I refuse to listen to anything
+more of this kind," said John, starting to his feet.
+
+"Oh, I warn you, you'll be compelled to listen to a great deal more if
+you're her agent as I hear! Phil will find means of compelling you to
+hear if you don't like to take your information from me."
+
+"I should like to know how Mr. Phil Compton will succeed in compelling
+me--to anything I don't choose to do."
+
+"You think, perhaps, because there's no duelling in this country he
+can't do anything. But there is, all the same. He would shame you into
+it--he could say you were--sheltering yourself----"
+
+"I am not a man to fight duels," said John, very angry, but smiling, "in
+any circumstances, even were such a thing not utterly ridiculous; but
+even a fighting man might feel that to put himself on a level with the
+dis-Hon----"
+
+He stopped himself as he said it. How mean it was--to a
+woman!--descending to their own methods. But Lady Mariamne was too quick
+for him.
+
+"Oh," she said; "so you've heard of that, a nickname that no
+gentleman----" then she too paused and looked at him, with a momentary
+flush. He was going to apologize abjectly, when with a slight laugh she
+turned the subject aside.
+
+"Pretty fools we are, both of us, to talk such nonsense. I didn't come
+here carrying Phil on my shoulders, to spring at your throat if you
+expressed your opinion. Look here--tell me, don't let us go beating
+about the bush, Mr. Tatham--I suppose you have seen Nell?"
+
+"I know my cousin's mind, at least," he said.
+
+"Well, then, just tell me as between friends--there's no need we should
+quarrel because they have done so. Tell me this, is she going to get up
+a divorce case----"
+
+"A divorce----!"
+
+"Because," said Lady Mariamne, "she'll find it precious difficult to
+prove anything. I know she will. She may prove the flirting and so
+forth--but what's that? You can tell her from me, it wants somebody far
+better up to things than she is to prove anything. I warn her as a
+friend she'll not get much good by that move."
+
+"I am not aware," said John, "whether Mrs. Compton has made up her mind
+about the further steps----"
+
+"Then just you advise her not," cried Lady Mariamne. "It doesn't matter
+to me: I shall be none the worse whatever she does: but if you are her
+true friend you will advise her not. She might tell what she thinks, but
+that's no proof. Mr. Tatham, I know you have great influence with Nell."
+
+"Not in a matter like this," said John, with great gravity. "Of course
+she alone can be the judge."
+
+"What nonsense you talk, you men! Of course she is not the least the
+judge, and of course she will be guided by you."
+
+"You may be sure she shall have the best advice that I can give," John
+said with a bow.
+
+"You want me to go, I see," said Lady Mariamne; "you are dreadfully
+rude, standing up all the time to show me I had better go." Hereupon she
+recommenced her little _manege_, drawing on her glove, letting her
+bracelets drop again, fastening the fur round her throat. "Well, Mr.
+Tatham," she said, "I hope you mean to have the civility to see after my
+carriage. I can't go roaming about hailing it as if it were a hansom
+cab--in this queer place."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+John went down to Windyhill that evening. His appearance alarmed the
+little household more than words could say. As he was admitted at once
+by the servants, delighted to see him, he walked in suddenly into the
+midst of a truly domestic scene. The baby lay on Elinor's knee in the
+midst of a mass of white wrappings, kicking out a pair of pink little
+legs in the front of the fire. Elinor herself was seated on a very low
+chair, and illuminated by the cheerful blaze, which threw a glare upon
+her countenance, and called out unthought-of lights in her hair, there
+was no appearance in her looks of anxiety or trouble. She was altogether
+given up to the baby and the joy of its new life. The little kicking
+limbs, the pleasure of the little creature in the warmth, the curling
+of its rosy little toes in the agreeable sensation of the heat, were
+more to Elinor and to her mother, who was kneeling beside her on the
+hearth-rug, than the most refined and lofty pleasures in the world. The
+most lofty of us have to come down to those primitive sources of bliss,
+if we are happy enough to have them placed in our way. The greatest poet
+by her side, the music of the spheres sounding in her ear, would not
+have made Elinor forget her troubles like the stretching out towards the
+fire of those little pink toes.
+
+When the door opened, and the voice and step of a man--dreaded
+sounds--were audible, a thrill of terror ran over this little group.
+Mrs. Dennistoun sprang to her feet and placed herself between the
+intruder and the young mother, while Elinor gathered up, covering him
+all over, so that he disappeared altogether, her child in her arms.
+
+"It is John," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "God be thanked, it is only John."
+
+But Elinor, quite overcome by the shock, burst suddenly into tears, to
+which the baby responded by a vigorous cry, not at all relishing the
+sudden huddling up among its shawls to which it had been subjected. It
+may be supposed what an effect this cloudy side of the happiness, which
+he had not been able to deny to himself made a very pretty scene, had
+upon John. He said, not without a little offence, "I am sure I beg your
+pardon humbly. I'll go away."
+
+Elinor turned round her head, smiling through her tears. "It was only
+that you gave me a fright," she said. "I am quite right again; don't,
+oh, don't go away! unless you object to the sight of baby, and to hear
+him cry; but he'll not cry now, any more than his silly mother. Mamma,
+make John sit down and tell us--Oh, I am sure he has something to tell
+us--Perhaps I took comfort too soon; but the very sight of John is a
+protection and a strength," she said, holding out her hand to him. This
+sudden change of front reduced John, who had been perhaps disposed for a
+moment to stand on his dignity, to utter subjection. He neither said nor
+even thought a word against the baby, who was presently unfolded again,
+and turned once more the toes of comfort towards the fire. He did not
+approach too near, feeling that he had no particular share in the scene,
+and indeed cut an almost absurd figure in the midst of that group, but
+sat behind, contemplating it from a little distance against the fire.
+The evening had grown dark by this time, but the two women, absorbed
+by their worship, had wanted no light. It had happened to John by an
+extreme piece of luck to catch the express train almost as soon as Lady
+Mariamne had left him, and to reach the station at Hurrymere before the
+February day was done.
+
+"You have something to tell us, John--good news or bad?" Mrs. Dennistoun
+said.
+
+"Good; or I should not have come like this unannounced," he said. "The
+post is quick enough for bad. I think you may be quite at your ease
+about the child--no claim will be made on the child. Elinor, I think,
+will not be disturbed if--she means to take no steps on her side."
+
+"What steps?" said Mrs. Dennistoun. Elinor turned her head to look at
+him anxiously over the back of her chair.
+
+"I have had a visit this afternoon," he said.
+
+"From--" Elinor drew a long hurried breath. She said no name, but it was
+evident that one was on her lips--a name she never meant to pronounce
+more, but to which her whole being thrilled still even when it was
+unspoken. She looked at him full of eagerness to hear yet with a hand
+uplifted, as if to forbid any utterance.
+
+"From Lady Mariamne."
+
+How her countenance fell! She turned round again, and bent over her
+baby. It was a pang of acute disappointment, he could not but see, that
+went through her, though she would not have allowed him to say that
+name. Strange inconsistency! it ran over John too with a sense of keen
+indignation, as if he had taken from her an electric touch.
+
+"----Whose object in coming to me was to ascertain whether you intended
+to bring a suit for--divorce."
+
+A cry rang through the room. Elinor turned upon him for a moment a face
+blazing with hot and painful colour. The lamp had been brought in, and
+he saw the fierce blush and look of horror. Then she turned round and
+buried it in her hands.
+
+"Divorce!" said Mrs. Dennistoun. "Elinor----! To drag her private
+affairs before the world. Oh, John, John, that could not be. You would
+not wish that to be."
+
+"I!" he cried with a laugh of tuneless mirth. "Is it likely that I would
+wish to drag Elinor before the world?"
+
+Elinor did not say anything, but withdrew one hand from her burning
+cheek and put it into his. These women treated John as if he were a man
+of wood. What he might be feeling, or if he were feeling anything, did
+not enter their minds.
+
+"It was like her," said Elinor after a time in a low hurried voice, "to
+think of that. She is the only one who would think of it. As if I had
+ever thought or dreamed----"
+
+"It is possible, however," he said, "that it might be reasonable enough.
+I don't speak to Elinor," who had let go his hand hastily, "but to you,
+aunt. If it is altogether final, as she says, to be released would
+perhaps be better, from a bond that was no bond."
+
+"John, John, would you have her add shame to pain?"
+
+"The shame would not be to her, aunt."
+
+"The shame is to every one concerned--to every one! My Elinor's name,
+her dear name, dragged through all that mud! She a party, perhaps, to
+revelations--Oh, never, never! We would bear anything rather."
+
+"This of course," said John, "is perhaps a still more bitter punishment
+for the other side."
+
+She looked round at him again. Looking up with a look of pale horror,
+her eyelids in agonised curves over her eyes, her mouth quivering. "What
+did you say, John?"
+
+"I said it might be a more bitter punishment still for--the other side."
+
+Elinor lifted up her baby to her breast, raising herself with a new
+dignity, with her head high. "I meant no punishment," she said, "I want
+none. I have left--what killed me--behind me; many things, not one only.
+I have brought my boy away that he may never--never-- But if it would be
+better that--another should be free--"
+
+"I will never give my consent to it, Elinor."
+
+"Nor I with my own mind; but if it is vindictive--if it is revenge,
+mother! I am not alone to think of myself. If it were better for ----
+that he should be free; speak to John about it and tell me. I cannot,
+cannot discuss it. I will leave it all to John and you. It will kill me!
+but what does that matter?--it is not revenge that I seek."
+
+She turned with the baby pressed to her breast and walked away, her
+every movement showing the strain and excitement of her soul.
+
+"Why did you do this, John, without at least consulting me? You have
+thrown a new trouble into her mind. She will never, never do this
+thing--nor would I permit it. There are some things in which I must take
+a part. I could not forbid her marriage; God grant that I had had the
+strength to do it--but this I will forbid, to expose her to the whole
+world, when everything we have done has been with the idea of concealing
+what had happened. Never, never. I will never consent to it, John."
+
+"I had no intention of proposing such a step; but the other side--as we
+are bound to call him--are frightened about it. And when I saw her look
+up, so young still, so sweet, with all her life before her, and thought
+how she must spend it--alone; with no expanding, no development, in this
+cottage or somewhere else, a life shipwrecked, a being so capable, so
+full of possibilities--lost."
+
+"I have spent my life in this cottage," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "My
+husband died when I was thirty--my life was over, and still I was young;
+but I had Elinor. There were some who pitied me too, but their pity was
+uncalled for. Elinor will live like her mother, she has her boy."
+
+"But it is different; you cannot but see the difference."
+
+"Yes, I see it--it is different; but not so different that my Elinor's
+name should be placarded about the streets and put in all the
+newspapers. Oh, never, never, John. If the man suffers, it is his fault.
+She will suffer, and it is not her fault; but I will not, to release
+him, drag my child before the world."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun was so much excited that she began to pace about the
+room, she who was usually so sober and self restrained. She had borne
+much, but this she was unable even to contemplate with calm. For once in
+her life she had arrived at something which she would not bear. John
+felt his own position very strange sitting looking on as a spectator,
+while this woman, usually so self-controlled, showed her impatience of
+circumstances and fate. It was ruefully comic that this should be, so to
+speak, his doing, though he was the last in the world to desire any
+exposure of Elinor, or to have any sympathy with those who sought
+justice for themselves or revenge on others at such a cost.
+
+"I was rash perhaps to speak as I did," he said; "I had no intention of
+doing it when I came. It was a mere impulse, seeing Elinor: but you must
+know that I agree with you perfectly. I see that Elinor's lot is fixed
+anyhow. I believe that no decree of a court would make any difference to
+her, and she would not change the name that is the child's name. All
+that I recognise. And one thing more, that neither you nor Elinor has
+recognised. They--he is afraid of any proceedings--I suppose I may
+mention him to you. It's rather absurd, don't you think, speaking of a
+fellow of that sort, or rather, not speaking of him at all, as if his
+name was sacred? He is afraid of proceedings--whatever may be the
+cause."
+
+"John, can't you understand that she cannot bear to speak of him, a man
+she so fought for, against us all? And now her eyes are opened, she is
+undeceived, she knows him all through and through, more, far more, than
+we do. She opened her mind to me once, and only once. It was not _that_
+alone; oh, no, no. There are things that rankle more than that, something
+he did before they were married, and made her help him to conceal.
+Something dishon--I can't say the word, John."
+
+"Oh," said John, grimly, "you need not mind me."
+
+"Well, the woman--I blush to have to speak to you even of such a
+thing--the woman, John, was not the worst. She almost might, I think,
+have forgiven that. It was one thing after another, and that, that first
+business the worst of all. She found it out somehow, and he had made her
+take a part--I can't tell what. She would never open her lips on the
+subject again. Only that once it all burst forth. Oh, divorce! What
+would that do to her, besides the shame? You understand some things,
+John," said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a smile, "though you are a man. She
+would never do anything to give herself a name different from her
+child's."
+
+"Yes," said John, with a laugh, "I think I understand a thing or two,
+though, as you say, my dear aunt, I am only a man. However, it is
+just as well I am that imperfect creature, to take care of you. It
+understands the tactics of the wicked better than you do. And now you
+must persuade Elinor and persuade yourself of what I came here on
+purpose to tell you--not to disturb you, as I have been so unfortunate
+as to do. You are perfectly safe from him. I will not let the enemy know
+your sentiments, or how decided you are on the subject. I will perhaps,
+if you will let me, crack the whip a little over their heads, and keep
+them in a pleasing uncertainty. But as long as he is afraid that she
+will take proceedings against him, he will take none, you may be sure,
+against her. So you may throw aside all your precautions and be happy
+over your treasure in your own way."
+
+"Thank God for what you say, John; you take a weight off my heart. But
+happy--how can you speak of being happy after such a catastrophe?"
+
+"I thought I came in upon a very happy little scene. It might be only
+pretence, but it looked uncommonly like the real thing."
+
+"You mean the baby, John, the dear infant that knows no harm. He does
+take off our thoughts a little, and enable us to bear----"
+
+"Oh, aunt, don't be a hypocrite; that was never a fault of yours.
+Confess that with all your misery about Elinor you are happy to have her
+here and her child--notwithstanding everything--happy as you have not
+been for many a day."
+
+She sat down by him and gave him her hand. "John, to be a man you have
+wonderful insight, and it's I who am a very, very imperfect creature.
+You don't think worse of me to be glad to have her, even though it is
+purchased by such misery and trouble? God knows," cried the poor lady,
+drying her eyes, "that I would give her up to-morrow, and with joy, and
+consent never to see her again, if that would be for her happiness.
+John! I've not thrust myself upon them, have I, nor done anything
+against him, nor said a word? But now that she is here, and the baby,
+and all to myself--which I never hoped--would I not be an ungrateful
+woman if I did not thank God for it, John?"
+
+"You are an excellent special pleader, aunt," he said, with a laugh, "as
+most women whom I have known are: and I agree with you in everything.
+You behaved to them, while it was _them_, angelically: you effaced
+yourself, and I fully believe you never said a word against him. Also, I
+believe that if circumstances changed, if anything happened to make her
+see that she could go back to him----"
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun started in spite of herself, and pressed her hands
+together, with a half sob of dismay.
+
+"I don't think it likely, but if it were so, you would sacrifice
+yourself again--I haven't a doubt of it. Why, then, set up this piece of
+humbug to me who know you so well, and pretend that you are not very
+happy for the moment? You are, and you have a good right to be: and I
+say enjoy it, my dear aunt; take all the good of it, you will have no
+trouble from him."
+
+"You think so, you really think so, John?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it: and you must persuade Elinor. Don't think I am
+making light of the situation: you'll have plenty to trouble you no
+doubt, when that little shaver grows up----"
+
+"John!"
+
+"Well, he is a little shaver (whatever that may mean I'm sure I don't
+know), if he were a little prince. When he grows up you will have your
+business laid out for you, and I don't envy you the clearing up----"
+
+"John don't speak as if a time would come when you would not stand by
+us. I mean stand by Elinor."
+
+"Your first phrase was much the best. I will stand by you both as a
+matter of course."
+
+"You must consider I shall be an old woman then; and who knows if I may
+live to see the poor little darling grow up?"
+
+"The poor little darling may never grow up, and none of us may live to
+see it. One prediction is as good as another: but I think better things
+of you, aunt, than that you would go and die and desert Elinor, unless
+'so be as you couldn't help it,' as Pearson says. But, however, in the
+meantime, dying of anybody is not in the question, and I hope both you
+and she will take as much pleasure out of the baby and be as happy as
+circumstances will allow. And I'll tell Pearson that there is no need
+for him to act the dragon--either the Bible one, whom he did not think
+you would like to have about the house, or any other--for the danger is
+over. Trust me at least for that."
+
+"I trust you for everything, John; but," added Mrs. Dennistoun, "I
+wouldn't say anything to Pearson. If you've told him to be a dragon, let
+him be a dragon still. I am sure you are right, and I will tell Elinor
+so, and comfort her heart; but we may as well keep a good look out, and
+our eyes about us, all the same."
+
+"They are sure I am right, but think it better to go on as if I
+were wrong," John said to himself as he went to dress for dinner.
+And while he went through this ceremony, he had a great many
+thoughts--half-impatient, half-tender--of the wonderful ways of women
+which are so amazing to men in general, as the ways of men are amazing
+to women, and will be so, no doubt, as long as the world goes on. The
+strange mixture of the wise and the foolish, the altogether heroic,
+and the involuntarily fictitious, struck his keen perception with
+a humourous understanding, and amusement, and sympathy. That Mrs.
+Dennistoun should pose a little as a sufferer while she was unmitigatedly
+happy in the possession of Elinor and the child, and be abashed when
+she was forced to confess how ecstatic was the fearful joy which she
+snatched in the midst of danger, was strange enough. But that Elinor,
+at this dreadful crisis of her life, when every bond was rent asunder,
+and all that is ordinarily called happiness wrecked for ever, should be
+moved to the kind of rapture he had seen in her face by the reaching out
+and curling in of those little pink toes in the warm light of the fire,
+was inconceivable--a thing that was not in any philosophy. She had made
+shipwreck of her life. She had torn the man whom she loved out of her
+heart, and fled from his neglect and treachery--a fugitive to her
+mother's house. And yet as she sat before the fire with this little
+infant cooing in the warmth--like a puppy or a little pig, or any
+other little animal you can suggest--this was the thought of the
+irreverent man--there was a look of almost more than common happiness,
+of blessedness, in her face. Who can fathom these things? They were at
+least beyond the knowledge, though not the sympathy, of this very rising
+member of the bar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Thus there came a sort of settling down and composure of affairs. Phil
+Compton and all belonging to him disappeared from the scene, and Elinor
+returned to all the habits of her old life--all the habits, with one
+extraordinary and incalculable addition which changed all these habits.
+The baby--so inconsiderable a little creature, not able to show a
+feeling, or express a thought, or make even a tremulous step from one
+pair of loving arms to another--an altogether helpless little bundle,
+but nevertheless one who had already altered the existence of the
+cottage and its inhabitants, and made life a totally different thing for
+them. Can I tell how this was done? No doubt for the wisest objects, to
+guard the sacred seed of the race as mere duty could never guard it,
+rendering it the one thing most precious in the world to those to whom
+it is confided--at least to most of them. When that love fails, then is
+the deepest abyss of misery reached. I do not say that Elinor was happy
+in this dreadful breaking up of her life, or that her heart did
+not go back, with those relentings which are the worst part of every
+disruption, to the man who had broken her heart and unsettled her
+nature. The remembrance of him in his better moments would flash upon
+her, and bear every resentment away. Dreadful thoughts of how she might
+herself have done otherwise, have rendered their mutual life better,
+would come over her; and next moment recollections still more terrible
+of what he had done and said, the scorn she had borne, the insults, the
+neglect, and worse of all the complicity he had forced upon her, by
+which he had made her guilty when she knew and feared nothing--when
+these thoughts overcame her, as they did twenty times in a day, for it
+is the worst of such troubles that they will not be settled by one
+struggle, but come back and back, beginning over again at the same
+point, after we have wrestled through them, and have thought that we had
+come to a close--when these thoughts, I say, overcame her, she would
+rush to the room in which the baby held his throne, and press him to the
+heart which was beating so hotly, till it grew calm. And in the midst of
+all to sit down by the fire with the little atom of humanity in her lap,
+and see it spread and stretch its rosy limbs, would suffice to bring
+again to her face that beatitude which had filled John Tatham with
+wonder unspeakable. She took the baby and laid him on her heart to take
+the pain away: and so after a minute or two there was no more question
+of pain, but of happiness, and delicious play, and the raptures of
+motherhood. How strange were these things! She could not understand it
+herself, and fortunately did not try, but accepted that solace provided
+by God. As for Mrs. Dennistoun, she made no longer any pretences to
+herself, but allowed herself, as John had advised, to take her
+blessedness frankly without hypocrisy. When Elinor's dear face was
+veiled by misery her mother was sympathetically miserable, but at all
+other moments her heart sang for joy. She had her child again, and she
+had her child's child, an endless occupation, amusement, and delight.
+All this might come to an end--who can tell when?--but for the moment
+her house was no more lonely, the requirements of her being were
+satisfied. She had her Elinor--what more was to be said? And yet there
+was more to be said, for in addition there was the boy.
+
+This was very well so far as the interior of the house and of their
+living was concerned, but very soon other difficulties arose. It had
+been Mrs. Dennistoun's desire, when she returned home, to communicate
+some modified version of what had happened to the neighbours around. She
+had thought it would not only be wise, but easier for themselves, that
+their position should be understood in the little parish society which,
+if it did not know authoritatively, would certainly inquire and
+investigate and divine, with the result of perhaps believing more than
+the truth, perhaps setting up an entirely fictitious explanation which
+it would be impossible to set aside, and very hard to bear. It is the
+worst of knowing a number of people intimately, and being known by them
+from the time your children were in their cradles, that every domestic
+incident requires some sort of explanation to this close little circle
+of spectators. But Elinor, who had not the experience of her mother in
+such matters, nor the knowledge of life, made a strenuous opposition to
+this. She would not have anything said. It was better, she thought, to
+leave it to their imagination, if they chose to interfere with their
+neighbours' concerns and imagine anything. "But why should they occupy
+themselves about us? And they have no imaginations," she said, with a
+contempt of her neighbours which is natural to young people, though very
+unjustifiable. "But, my darling," Mrs. Dennistoun would say, "the
+position is so strange. There are not many young women who--And there
+must be some way of accounting for it. Let us just tell them----"
+
+"For heaven's sake, mamma, tell them nothing! I have come to pay you
+a long visit after my neglect of you for these two years, which, of
+course, they know well enough. What more do they want to know? It is a
+very good reason: and while baby is so young of course it is far better
+for him to be in a settled home, where he can be properly attended to,
+than moving about. Isn't that enough?"
+
+"Well, Elinor; at least you will let me say as much as that----"
+
+"Oh, they can surely make it out for themselves. What is the use of
+always talking a matter over, to lead to a little more, and a little
+more, till the appetite for gossip is satisfied? Surely, in our
+circumstances, least said is soonest mended," Elinor said, with that air
+of superior understanding which almost always resides in persons of the
+younger generation. Mrs. Dennistoun said no more to her, but she did
+take advantage of the explanation thus suggested. She informed the
+anxious circle at the Rectory that Elinor had come to her on a long
+visit, "partly for me, and partly for the baby," she said, with one
+of those smiles which are either the height of duplicity or the most
+pathetic evidence of self-control, according as you choose to regard
+them. "She thinks she has neglected her mother, though I am sure I have
+never blamed her; and she thinks--of which there can be no doubt--that
+to carry an infant of that age moving about from place to place is the
+worst thing in the world; and that I am very thankful she should think
+so, I need not say."
+
+"It is very nice for you, dear Mrs. Dennistoun," Mrs. Hudson said.
+
+"And a good thing for Elinor," said Alice, "for she is looking very
+poorly. I have always heard that fashionable life took a great deal out
+of you if you are not quite brought up to it. I am sure I couldn't
+stand it," the young lady said with fervour, who had never had that
+painful delight in her power.
+
+"That is all very well," said the Rector, rubbing his hands, "but what
+does Mr. Compton say to it? I don't want to say a word against your
+arrangements, my dear lady, but you know there must be some one on the
+husband's side. Now, I am on the husband's side, and I am sorry for the
+poor young man. I hope he is going to join his wife. I hope, excuse me
+for saying it, that Elinor--though we are all so delighted to see
+her--will not forsake him, for too long."
+
+And then Mrs. Dennistoun felt herself compelled to embroider a little
+upon her theme.
+
+"He has to be a great deal abroad during this year," she said; "he has a
+great many things to do. Elinor does not know when he will be--home.
+That is one reason----"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure," the Rector said, rubbing his hands still
+more, and coming to her aid just as she was breaking down. "Something
+diplomatic, of course. Well, we must not inquire into the secrets of the
+State. But what an ease to his mind, my dear lady, to think that his
+wife and child will be safe with you while he's away!"
+
+Mary Dale not being present could not of course say anything. She was a
+person who was always dreadfully well informed. It was a comfort
+unspeakable that at this moment she was away!
+
+This explanation made the spring pass quietly enough, but not without
+many questions that brought the blood to Elinor's face. When she was
+asked by some one, for the first time, "When do you expect Mr. Compton,
+Elinor?" the sudden wild flush of colour which flooded her countenance
+startled the questioner as much as the question did herself. "Oh, I beg
+your pardon!" said the injudicious but perfectly innocent seeker for
+information. I fear that Elinor fell upon her mother after this, and
+demanded to know what she had said. But as Mrs. Dennistoun was innocent
+of anything but having said that Philip was abroad, there was no
+satisfaction to be got out of that. Some time after, one of the Miss
+Hills congratulated Elinor, having seen in the papers that Mr. Compton
+was returning to town for the season. "I suppose, dear Elinor, we shan't
+have you with us much longer," this lady said. And then it became known
+at the Cottage that Mary Dale was returning to the Rectory. This was the
+last aggravation, and Elinor, who had now recovered her strength and
+energy, and temper along with it, received the news with an outburst of
+impatience which frightened her mother. "You may as well go through the
+parish and ring the bell, and tell everybody everything," she said.
+"Mary Dale will have heard all, and a great deal more than all; she will
+come with her budget, and pour it out far and wide; she will report
+scenes that never took place: and quarrels, and all that--that woman
+insinuated to John--and she will be surrounded with people who will
+shake their heads, and sink their voices when we come in and say, 'Poor
+Elinor!' I cannot bear it, I cannot bear it," she cried.
+
+"My darling! that was bound to come sooner or later. We must set our
+faces like a rock, and look as if we were unaware of anything----"
+
+"I cannot look as if I were unaware. I cannot meet all their cruel eyes.
+I can see, now, the smile on Mary Dale's face, that will say, 'I told
+you so.' I shall hear her say it even when I am in my room, with the
+combe between. I know exactly how she will say it--'If Elinor had
+listened to me----'"
+
+"Elinor," said poor Mrs. Dennistoun, "I cannot contradict you, dear. It
+will be so--but none of them are cruel, not even Mary Dale. They will
+make their remarks--who could help it? we should ourselves if it were
+some one else's case: but they will not be cruel--don't think so--they
+will be full of sympathy----"
+
+"Which is a great deal worse," Elinor said, in her unreason; "the one
+might be borne, but the other I will not endure. Sympathy, yes! They
+will all be sorry for me--they will say they knew how it would be. Oh, I
+know I have not profited as I ought by what has happened to me. I am
+unsubdued. I am as impatient and as proud as ever. It is quite true, but
+it cannot be mended. It is more than I can bear."
+
+"My darling," said her mother, again. "We all say that in our trouble,
+and yet we know that we have got to bear it all the same. It is
+intolerable--one says that a thousand times--and yet it has to be put up
+with. All the time that we have been flattering ourselves that nobody
+took any notice it has been a delusion, Elinor. How could it be
+otherwise? We must set our faces----"
+
+"Not I, mamma!" she said. "Not I! I must go away----"
+
+"Go away? Elinor!"
+
+"Among strangers; where nobody has heard of me before--where nobody can
+make any remark. To live like this, among a crowd of people who think
+they ought to know everything that one is doing--who are nothing to you,
+and yet whom you stand in awe of and must explain everything to!--it is
+this that is intolerable. I cannot, cannot bear it. Mother, I will take
+my baby, and I will go away----"
+
+"Where?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, with all the colour fading out of her
+face. What panic had taken her I cannot tell. She grew pale to her lips,
+and the words were almost inaudible which she breathed forth. I think
+she thought for a moment that Elinor's heart had turned, that she was
+going back to her husband to find refuge with him from the strife of
+tongues which she could not encounter alone. All the blood went back
+upon the mother's heart--yet she set herself to suppress all emotion,
+and if this should be so, not to oppose it--for was it not the thing of
+all others to be desired--the thing which everybody would approve, the
+reuniting of those whom God had put together? Though it might be death
+to her, not a word of opposition would she say.
+
+"Where? how can I tell where--anywhere, anywhere out of the world,"
+cried Elinor, in the boiling tide of her impatience and wretchedness,
+"where nobody ever heard of us before, where there will be no one to
+ask, no one to require a reason, where we should be free to move when we
+please and do as we please. Let me go, mother. It seemed too dear, too
+peaceful to come home, but now home itself has become intolerable. I
+will take my baby and I will go--to the farthest point the railway can
+take me to--with no servant to betray me, not even an address. Mother,
+let me go away and be lost; let me be as if I had never been."
+
+"And me--am I to remain to bear the brunt behind?"
+
+"And you--mamma! Oh, I am the most unworthy creature. I don't deserve to
+have you, I that am always giving you pain. Why should I unroot you from
+your place where you have lived so long--from your flowers, and your
+landscape, and your pretty rooms that were always a comfort to think of
+in that horrible time when I was away? I always liked to think of you
+here, happy and quiet, in the place you had chosen."
+
+"Flowers and landscapes are pretty things," said Mrs. Dennistoun, whose
+colour had begun to come again a little, "but they don't make up for
+one's children. We must not do anything rashly, Elinor; but if what you
+mean is really that you will go away to a strange place among
+strangers----"
+
+"What else could I mean?" Elinor said, and then she in her turn grew
+pale. "If you thought I could mean that I would go--back----"
+
+"Oh, my darling, my darling! God knows if we are right or wrong--I not
+to advise you so, or you not to take my advice. Elinor, it is my duty,
+and I will say it though it were to break my heart. There only could you
+avoid this strife of tongues. John spoke the truth. He said, as the
+boy grew up we should have--many troubles. I have known women endure
+everything that their children might grow up in a natural situation,
+in their proper sphere. Think of this--I am saying it against my own
+interest, against my own heart. But think of it, Elinor. Whatever you
+might have to bear, you would be in your natural place."
+
+Elinor received this agitated address standing up, holding her head
+high, her nostrils expanded, her lips apart. "Have you quite done,
+mother?" she said.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun made an appealing movement with her hands, and sank,
+without any power to add a word, into a chair.
+
+"I am glad you said it against your heart. Now you must feel that your
+conscience is clear. Mother, if I had to wander the world from place to
+place, without even a spot of ground on which to rest my foot, I would
+never, never do what you say. What! take my child to grow up in that
+tainted air; give him up to be taught such things as they teach! Never,
+never, never! His natural place, did you say? I would rather the slums
+of London were his natural place. He would have some chance there! If I
+could bear it for myself, yet I could not for him--for him most of all.
+I will take him up in my arms. Thank God, I am strong now and can carry
+him--and go away--among strangers, I don't care where--where there can
+be no questions and no remarks."
+
+"But not without me, Elinor!"
+
+"Oh, mother, mother! What a child I am to you, to rend your heart as I
+have done, and now to tear you out of your house and home!"
+
+"My home is where my children are," Mrs. Dennistoun said: and then she
+made a little pause. "But we must think it over, Elinor. Such a step as
+this must not be taken rashly. We will ask John to come down and advise
+us. My dear----"
+
+"No, mother, not John or any one. I will go first if you like and find a
+place, and you will join me after. That woman" (it was poor Mary Dale,
+who was indeed full of information, but meant no harm) "is coming
+directly. I will not wait here to see her, or their faces after she has
+told them all the lies she will have heard. I am not going to take
+advice from any one. Let me alone, mother. I must, I must go away."
+
+"But not by yourself, Elinor," Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+This was how it happened that John Tatham, who had meant to go down to
+the Cottage the very next Saturday to see how things were going, was
+driven into a kind of stupefaction one morning in May by a letter which
+reached him from the North, a letter conveying news so unexpected and
+sudden, so unlike anything that had seemed possible, that he laid it
+down, when it was half read, with a gasp of astonishment, unable to
+believe his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+It was Mrs. Dennistoun whose letter brought John Tatham such dismay. It
+was dated Lakeside, Waterdale, Penrith--an address with which he had no
+associations whatever, and which he gazed at blankly for a moment before
+he attempted to read the letter, not knowing how to connect it with the
+well-known writing which was as familiar as the common day.
+
+
+"You will wonder to see this address," she wrote. "You will wonder still
+more, dear John, when I tell you we have come here for good. I have left
+the Cottage in an agent's hands with the hope of letting it. Windyhill
+is such a healthy place that I hope somebody will soon be found to take
+it. You know Elinor would not let me make any explanation. And the
+constant questions and allusions to _his_ movements which people had
+seen in the papers, and so forth, had got on her nerves, poor child. You
+can understand how easily this might come about. At last she got that
+she could not bear it longer. Mary Dale, who always lives half the year
+with her sister at the Rectory, was coming back. You know it was she who
+brought the first tale about him, and she knows, I think, all the gossip
+that ever was got up about any one. Poor Elinor--though I don't believe
+Mary had any bad meaning; and it would, alas! have been for all our good
+had we listened to what she said--Elinor cannot bear her; and when she
+heard she was coming, she declared she would take her baby and go away.
+I tried to bring her to reason, but I could not. Naturally it was she
+who convinced me--you know the process, John. Indeed, in many things I
+can see it is the best thing we could do. I am not supremely attached to
+Windyhill. The Cottage had got to be very homelike after living in it so
+long, but home is where those are whom one loves. And to live among one
+set of people for so many years, if it has great advantages, has at the
+same time very great disadvantages too. You can't keep anything to
+yourself. You must explain every step you take, and everything that
+happens to you. This is a lovely country, a little cold as yet, and a
+little damp perhaps, being so near the lake--but the mountains are
+beautiful, and the air delicious. Elinor is out all the day long, and
+baby grows like a flower. You must come and see us as soon as ever you
+can. That is one dreadful drawback, that we shall not have you running
+up and down from Saturday to Monday: and I am afraid you will be vexed
+with us that we did not take your advice first--you, who have always
+been our adviser. But Elinor would not hear a word of any advice. I
+think she was afraid you would disapprove: and it would have been worse
+to fly in your face if you had disapproved than to come away without
+consulting you: and you know how impetuous she is. At all events the die
+is cast. Write kindly to her; don't say anything to vex her. You can let
+yourself out, if you are very angry, upon me.
+
+"One thing more. She desires that if you write you should address her as
+_Mrs. Compton_ only, no Honourable. That might attract attention, and
+what we desire is to escape notice altogether, which I am sure is a
+thing you will thoroughly understand, now that we have transplanted
+ourselves so completely. Dear John, form the most favourable idea you
+can of this sudden step, and come and see us as soon as it is possible.
+
+"Yours affectly.,
+"M. D."
+
+
+To say that John was thunderstruck by this letter is to describe his
+sensations mildly, for he was for a time bitterly angry, wounded,
+disappointed, disturbed to the bottom of his soul; but perhaps if truth
+were told it could scarcely be said that he disapproved. He thought it
+over, which he naturally did all that day, to the great detriment of his
+work, first with a sort of rage against Elinor and her impetuosity,
+which presently shaded down into understanding of her feelings, and
+ended in a sense that he might have known it from the first, and that
+really no other conclusion was possible. He came gradually to acquiesce
+in the step the ladies had taken. To have to explain everything to the
+Hudsons, and Hills, and Mary Dales, to open up your most sacred heart in
+order that they might be able to form a theory sufficient for their
+outside purposes of your motives and methods, or, what was perhaps worse
+still--to know that they were on the watch, guessing what you did not
+tell them, putting things together, explaining this and that in their
+own way--would have been intolerable. "That is the good of having
+attached friends," John exclaimed to himself, very unjustly: for it is
+human nature that is to blame, if there is any blame attaching to an
+exercise of ingenuity so inevitable. As a matter of fact, when Miss Dale
+brought the true or something like the true account to Windyhill, the
+warmth of the sympathy for Elinor, the wrath of the whole community with
+her unworthy husband, was almost impassioned. Had she been there it
+would not have been possible for those good people altogether to conceal
+from her how sorry and how indignant they were; even perhaps there might
+have been some who could not have kept out of their eyes, who must have
+betrayed in some word or shake of the head the "I told you so" which is
+so dear to human nature. But how was it possible that they could remain
+uninterested, unaffected by the trouble in the midst of them, or even
+appear to be so? John, like Elinor, threw a fiery dart of impatience at
+the country neighbours, not allowing that everywhere in the greatest
+town, in the most cosmopolitan community, this would have been the
+same.
+
+"The chattering gossips!" he said, as if a club would not have been a
+great deal worse, as if indeed his own club, vaguely conscious of a
+connection by marriage between him and the dis-Honourable Phil, had not
+discussed it all, behind his back, long ago.
+
+But on the whole John was forced not to disapprove. To say that he went
+the length of approving would be too much, and to deny that he launched
+forth a tremendous letter upon Mrs. Dennistoun, who always bore the
+brunt, is more than my conscience would permit. He did do this, throwing
+out, as the French say, fire and flame, but a few days after followed it
+up by a much milder letter (need I say this was addressed to Elinor?),
+allowing that he understood their motives, and that perhaps, from their
+own point of view, they were not so very much to blame. "You will find
+it very damp, very cold, very different from Windyhill," he said, with a
+sort of savage satisfaction. But as it happened to be unusually good
+weather among the lakes when his letter came, this dart did not do much
+harm. And that John felt the revolution in his habits consequent upon
+this move very much, it would be futile to deny. To have nowhere to go
+to freely when he pleased from Saturday to Monday (he had at least a
+score of places, but none like the Cottage) made a wonderful difference
+in his life. But perhaps when he came to think of it soberly, as he did
+so often in the brilliant Saturday afternoons of early summer, when the
+sunshine on the trees made his heart a little sick with the idea that he
+had, as he said to himself, nowhere to go to, he was not sure that the
+difference was not on the whole to his advantage. A man perhaps should
+not have it in his power to enjoy, in the most fraternal intimacy, the
+society of another man's wife whenever he pleased, even if to her he
+was, as he knew, of as little importance (notwithstanding that she was,
+as she would have said, so fond of John) as the postman, say, or any
+other secondary (yet sufficiently interesting) figure in the country
+neighbourhood. John knew in his heart of hearts that this was not a
+good thing nor a wholesome thing for him. He was not a man, as has been
+said, who would ever have hurried events, or insisted upon appropriating
+a woman, even when he loved her, and securing her as his very own. He
+would always have been able to put that off, to subordinate it to the
+necessity of getting on in the world, and securing his position: and he
+was by no means sure when he questioned his own heart (which was a thing
+he did seldom, knowing, like a wise man, that that shifty subject
+often made queer revelations, and was not at all an easy object to
+cross-examine), that the intercourse which he had again dropped into
+with Elinor was not on the whole as much as he required. There was no
+doubt that it kept him alive from one period to another; kept his heart
+moderately light and his mind wonderfully contented--as nothing else had
+ever done. He looked forward to his fortnightly or monthly visit to the
+Cottage (sometimes one, and sometimes the other; he never indulged
+himself so far as to go every week), and it gave him happiness enough
+to tide over all the dull moments between: and if anything came in
+his way and detained him even from his usual to a later train, he was
+ridiculously, absurdly angry. What right had he to feel so in respect to
+another man's wife? What right had he to watch the child--the child whom
+he disliked so much to begin with--developing its baby faculties with an
+interest he was half ashamed of, but which went on increasing? Another
+man's wife and another man's child. He saw now that it was not a
+wholesome thing for him, and he could never have given it up had they
+remained. It had become too much a part of his living; should he not be
+glad therefore that they had taken it into their own hands, and gone
+away? When it suddenly occurred to John, however, that this perhaps had
+some share in the ladies' hasty decision, that Mrs. Dennistoun perhaps
+(all that was objectionable was attributed to this poor lady) had been
+so abominably clear-sighted, so odiously presuming as to have suspected
+this, his sudden blaze of anger was _foudroyant_. Perhaps she had
+settled upon it for his sake, to take temptation out of his way. John
+could scarcely contain himself when this view of the case flashed upon
+him, although he was quite aware for himself that though it was a bitter
+wrench, yet it was perhaps good for him that Elinor should go away.
+
+It was probably this wave of fierce and, as we are aware, quite
+unreasonable anger rushing over him that produced the change which
+everybody saw in John's life about this time. It was about the beginning
+of the season when people's enjoyments begin to multiply, and for the
+first time in his life John plunged into society like a very novice. He
+went everywhere. By this time he had made a great start in life, had
+been brought into note in one or two important cases, and was, as
+everybody knew, a young man very well thought of, and likely to do great
+things at the bar; so that he was free of many houses, and had so many
+invitations for his Sundays that he could well afford to be indifferent
+to the loss of such a humble house as the Cottage at Windyhill. Perhaps
+he wanted to persuade himself that this was the case, and that there
+really was nothing to regret. And it is certain that he did visit a
+great deal during that season at one house where there were two or three
+agreeable daughters; the house, indeed, of Sir John Gaythorne, who was
+Solicitor-General at that time, and a man who had always looked upon
+John Tatham with a favourable eye. The Gaythornes had a house near
+Dorking, where they often went from Saturday to Monday with a few choice
+_convives_, and "picknicked," as they themselves said, but it was a
+picknicking of a highly comfortable sort. John went down with them the
+very Saturday after he received that letter--the Saturday on which he
+had intended to go to Windyhill. And the party was very gay. To compare
+it for a moment with the humdrum family at the Cottage would have been
+absurd. The Gaythornes prided themselves on always having pleasant
+people with them, and they had several remarkably pleasant people
+that day, among whom John himself was welcomed by most persons; and
+the family themselves were lively and agreeable to a high degree. A
+distinguished father, a very nice mother, and three charming girls, up
+to everything and who knew everybody; who had read or skimmed all the
+new books of any importance, and had seen all the new pictures; who
+could talk of serious things as well as they could talk nonsense, and
+who were good girls to boot, looking after the poor, and visiting at
+hospitals, in the intervals of their gaieties, as was then the highest
+fashion in town. I do not for a moment mean to imply that the Miss
+Gaythornes did their good work because it was the fashion: but the fact
+that it is the fashion has liberated many girls, and allowed them to
+carry out their natural wishes in that way, who otherwise would have
+been restrained and hampered by parents and friends, who would have
+upbraided them with making themselves remarkable, if in a former
+generation they had attempted to go to Whitechapel or St. Thomas's with
+any active intentions. And Elinor had never done anything of this kind,
+any more than she had pursued music almost as a profession, which was
+what Helena Gaythorne had done; or learned to draw, like Maud (who once
+had a little thing in the Royal Academy); or studied the Classics,
+like Gertrude. John thought of her little tunes as he listened to Miss
+Gaythorne's performance, and almost laughed out at the comparison. He
+was very fond of music, and Miss Gaythorne's playing was something which
+the most cultivated audience might have been glad to listen to. He was
+ashamed to confess to himself that he liked the "tunes" best. No, he
+would not confess it even to himself; but when he stood behind the
+performer listening, it occurred to him that he was capable of walking
+all the miles of hill and hollow which divided the one place from the
+other, only for the inane satisfaction of seeing that baby spread on
+Elinor's lap, or hearing her play to him one of her "tunes."
+
+He went with the Gaythornes to their country-place twice in the month of
+June, and dined at the house several times, and was invited on other
+occasions, becoming, in short, one of the _habitues_ when there was
+anything going on in the house--till people began to ask, which was it?
+It was thought generally that Helena was the attraction, for John was
+known to be a musical man, always to be found where specially good music
+was going. Some friends of the family had even gone so far as to say
+among themselves what a good thing it was that dear Helena's lot was
+likely to be cast with one who would appreciate her gift. "It generally
+happens in these cases that a girl marries somebody who does not know
+one note from another," they said to each other. When, all at once, John
+flagged in his visits; went no more to Dorking; and finally ceased to be
+more assiduous or more remarked than the other young men who were on
+terms of partial intimacy at the Gaythorne house. He had, indeed, tried
+very hard to make himself fall in love with one of Sir John's girls. It
+would have been an excellent connection, and the man might think himself
+fortunate who secured any one of the three for his wife. Proceeding from
+his certainty on these points, and also a general liking for their
+company, John had gone into it with a settled purpose, determined to
+fall in love if he could: but he found that the thing was not to be
+done. It was a pity; but it could not be helped. He was in a condition
+now when it would no longer be rash to marry, and he knew now that there
+was the makings of a domestic man in him. He never could have believed
+that he would take an interest in the sprawling of the baby upon its
+mother's knee, and he allowed to himself that it might be sweet to have
+that scene taking place in a house of his own. Ah! but the baby would
+have to be Elinor's. It must be Elinor who should sit on that low
+chair with the firelight on her face. And that was impossible. Helena
+Gaythorne was an exceedingly nice girl, and he wished her every
+success in life (which she attained some time after by marrying Lord
+Ballinasloe, the eldest son of the Earl of Athenree, a marriage which
+everybody approved), but he could not persuade himself to be in love
+with her, though with the best will in the world.
+
+During this time he did not correspond much with his relations in the
+country. He had, indeed, some letters to answer from his father, in
+which the interrogatories were very difficult: "Where has Mary
+Dennistoun gone? What's become of Elinor and her baby? Has that
+fashionable fellow of a husband deserted her? What's the meaning of the
+move altogether?" And, "Mind you keep yourself out of it," his father
+wrote. John had great trouble in wording his replies so as to convey as
+little information as possible. "I believe Aunt Mary has got a house
+somewhere in the North, probably to suit Elinor, who would be able to be
+more with her if she were in that neighbourhood." (It must be confessed
+that he thought this really clever as a way of getting over the question.)
+"As for Compton, I know very little about him. He was never a man much
+in my way." Mr. Tatham's household saw nothing remarkable in these
+replies; upon which, however, they built an explanation, such as it was,
+of the other circumstances. They concluded that it must be in order to
+be near Elinor that Mrs. Dennistoun had gone to the North, and that it
+was a very good thing that Elinor's husband was not a man who was in
+John's way. "A scamp, if I ever saw one!" Mr. Tatham said. "But what's
+that Jack says about Gaythorne? Mary, I remember Gaythorne years ago; a
+capital friend for a young man. I'm glad your brother's making such nice
+friends for himself; far better than mooning about that wretched little
+cottage with Mary Dennistoun and her girl."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+It happened thus that it was not till the second autumn after the
+settlement of the ladies in Waterdale, when all the questions had died
+out, and there was no more talk of them, except on occasions when a
+sudden recollection cropped up among their friends at Windyhill, that
+John Tatham paid them his first visit. He had been very conscientious
+in his proposed bestowal of himself. Perhaps it is scarcely quite
+complimentary to a woman when she is made choice of by a man who is
+consciously to himself "on the outlook," thinking that he ought to
+marry, and investigating all the suitable persons about with an eye to
+finding one who will answer his requirements. This sensible way of
+approaching the subject of matrimony does not somehow commend itself to
+our insular notions. It is the right way in every country except our
+own, but it has a cold-blooded look to the Anglo-Saxon; and a girl is
+not flattered (though perhaps she ought to be) by being the subject of
+this sensible choice. "As if I were a housekeeper or a cook!" she is apt
+to say, and is far better pleased to be fallen in love with in the most
+rash and irresponsible way than to be thus selected from the crowd:
+though that, everybody must allow, after due comparison and inspection,
+is by far the greater compliment. John having arrived at the conclusion
+that it would be better for him in many ways to marry, and specially
+in the way of Elinor, fortifying him for ever from all possible
+complications, and making it possible for him to regard her evermore
+with the placid feelings of a brother, which was, he expected, to be the
+consequence--worked at the matter really with great pertinacity and
+consistency. He kept his eyes open upon the whole generation of girls
+whom he met with in society. When he went abroad during the long
+vacation (instead of going to Lakeside, as he was invited to do), he
+directed his steps rather to the fashionable resorts, where families
+disport themselves at the foot of the mountains, than to the Alpine
+heights where he had generally found a more robust amusement. And
+wherever he went he bent his attention on the fairer portion of the
+creation, the girls who fill all the hotels with the flutter of their
+fresh toilettes and the babble of their pleasant voices. It was very
+mean and poor of him, seeing he was a mountaineer himself--but still it
+must be recorded that the only young ladies he systematically neglected
+were those in very short petticoats, with very sunburnt faces and nails
+in their boots, who ought to have been most congenial to him as sharing
+his own tastes. It is said, I don't know with what truth, that at Ouch,
+or Interlachen, or some other of the most mundane and banal resorts of
+the tourists, he came upon one girl who he thought might make him a
+suitable wife: and that, though with much moderation and prudence, he
+more or less followed her party for some time, meeting them over and
+over again, with expressions of astonishment, round the most well-known
+corners, and persisting for a considerable time in this quest. But
+whether he ever came the length of proposing at all, or whether the
+young lady was engaged beforehand, or if she thought the prospect of
+making a suitable wife not good enough, I cannot say, and I doubt
+whether any one knows--except, of course, the parties immediately
+concerned. It is very clear, at all events, that it came to nothing.
+John did not altogether give it up, I fancy, for he went a great deal
+into society still, especially in that _avant saison_, which people who
+live in London declare to be the most enjoyable, and when it is supposed
+you can enjoy the best of company at your ease without the hurry and
+rush of the summer crowd. He would have been very glad, thankful,
+indeed, if he could have fallen in love. How absurd to think that any
+silly boy can do it, to whom it is probably nothing but a disadvantage
+and the silliest of pastimes, and that he, a reasonable man with a good
+income, and arrived at a time of life when it is becoming and rational
+to marry, could not do it, let him try as he would! There was something
+ludicrous in it, when you came to think, as well as something very
+depressing. Mothers who wanted a good position for their daughters
+divined him, and many of them were exceedingly civil to John, this man
+in search of a wife; and many of the young ladies themselves divined
+him, and with the half indignation, half mockery, appropriate to the
+situation, were some of them not unaverse to profit by it, and
+accordingly turned to him their worst side in the self-consciousness
+produced by that knowledge. And thus the second year turned round
+towards the wane, and John was farther from success than ever.
+
+He said to himself then that it was clear he was not a marrying man. He
+liked the society of ladies well enough, but not in that way. He was
+not made for falling in love. He might very well, he was aware, have
+dispensed with the tradition, and found an excellent wife, who would not
+at all have insisted upon it from her side. But he had his prejudices,
+and could not do this. Love he insisted upon, and love would not come.
+Accordingly, when the second season was over he gave up both the quest
+and the idea, and resolved to think of marrying no more, which was a
+sensible relief to him. For indeed he was exceedingly comfortable as he
+was; his chambers were excellent, and he did not think that any street
+or square in Belgravia would have reconciled him to giving up the
+Temple. He had excellent servants, a man and his wife, who took the
+greatest care of him. He had settled into a life which was arranged as
+he liked, with much freedom, and yet an agreeable routine which John
+was too wise to despise. He relinquished the idea of marrying then and
+there. To be sure there is never any prophesying what may happen. A
+little laughing gipsy of a girl may banish such a resolution out of a
+man's mind in the twinkling of an eye, at any moment. But short of such
+accidents as that, and he smiled at the idea of anything of the kind, he
+quite made up his mind on this point with a great sensation of relief.
+
+It is curious how determined the mind of the English public at least is
+on this subject--that the man or woman who does not marry (especially
+the woman, by-the-bye) has an unhappy life, and that a story which does
+not end in a wedding is no story at all, or at least ends badly, as
+people say. It happened to myself on one occasion to put together in a
+book the story of some friends of mine, in which this was the case. They
+were young, they were hopeful, they had all life before them, but they
+did not marry. And when the last chapter came to the consciousness of
+the publisher he struck, with the courage of a true Briton, not ashamed
+of his principles, and refused to pay. He said it was no story at
+all--so beautiful is marriage in the eyes of our countrymen. I hope,
+however, that nobody will think any harm of John Tatham because he
+concluded, after considerable and patient trial, that he was not a
+marrying man. There is no harm in that. A great number of those Catholic
+priests whom it was the habit in my youth to commiserate deeply, as if
+they were vowed to the worst martyrdom, live very happy lives in their
+celibacy and prefer it, as John Tatham did. It will be apparent to the
+reader that he really preferred it to Elinor, while Elinor was in his
+power. And though afterwards it gave a comfort and grace to his life to
+think that it was his faithful but subdued love for Elinor which made
+him a bachelor all his days, I am by no means certain that this was
+true. Perhaps he never would have made up his mind had she remained
+always within his reach. Certain it is that he was relieved when he
+found that to give up the idea of marriage was the best thing for him.
+He adopted the conclusion with pleasure. His next brother had already
+married, though he was younger than John; but then he was a clergyman,
+which is a profession naturally tending to that sort of thing. There
+was, however, no kind of necessity laid upon him to provide for the
+continuance of the race. And he was a happy man.
+
+By what sequence of ideas it was that he considered himself justified,
+having come to this conclusion, in immediately paying his long-promised
+visit to Lakeside, is a question which I need not enter into, and indeed
+do not feel entirely able to cope with. It suited him, perhaps, as
+he had been so long a time in Switzerland last year: and he had an
+invitation to the far north for the grouse, which he thought it would be
+pleasant to accept. Going to Scotland or coming from it, Waterdale of
+course lies full in the way. He took it last on his way home, which was
+more convenient, and arrived there in the latter part of September,
+when the hills were golden with the yellow bracken. The Cumberland hills
+are a little cold, in my opinion, without the heather, which clothes
+with such a flush of life and brightness our hills in the north. The
+greenness is chilly in the frequent rain; one feels how sodden and
+slippery it is--a moisture which does not belong to the heather: but
+when the brackens have all turned, and the slopes reflect themselves in
+the tranquil water like hills of gold, then the landscape reaches its
+perfect point. Lakeside was a white house standing out on a small
+projection at the head of the lake, commanding the group of hills above
+and part of the winding body of water below, in which all these golden
+reflections lay. A little steamer passed across the reflected glory, and
+came to a stop not a hundred yards from the gate of the house. It was a
+scene as unlike as could be conceived to the Cottage at Windyhill: the
+trees were all glorious in colour; yellow birches like trees made of
+light, oaks all red and fiery, chestnuts and elms and beeches in a
+hundred hues. The house was white, with a sort of broad verandah round,
+supported on pillars, furnishing a sheltered walk below and a broad
+balcony above, which gave it a character of more importance than perhaps
+its real size warranted. When John approached there ran out to meet him
+into the wide gravel drive before the door a little figure upon two
+sturdy legs, calling out, in inarticulate shoutings, something that
+sounded a little like his own name. It was, "'tle John! 'tle John!"
+made into a sort of song by the baby, nearly two years old, and "very
+forward," as everybody assured the stranger, for his age. Uncle John!
+his place was thus determined at once by that little potentate and
+master of the house. Behind the child came Elinor, no longer pale and
+languid as he had seen her last, but matured into vigorous beauty,
+bright-eyed, a little sober, as might have become maturer years than
+hers. Perhaps there was something in the style of her dress that
+favoured the idea, not of age indeed, but of matronly years, and beyond
+those which Elinor counted. She was dressed in black, of the simplest
+description, not of distinctive character like a widow's, yet something
+like what an ideal widow beyond fashion or conventionalities of woe
+might wear. It seemed to give John the key-note of the character she had
+assumed in this new sphere.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun, who had not changed in the least, stood in the open
+door. They gave him a welcome such as John had not had, he said to
+himself, since he had seen them before. They were unfeignedly glad to
+see him, not wounded (which, to think of afterwards, wounded him a
+little) that he had not come sooner, but delighted that he was here now.
+Even when he went home it was not usual to John to be met at the door in
+this way by all his belongings. His sister might come running down the
+stairs when she heard the dog-cart draw up, but that was all. And Mary's
+eagerness to see him was generally tempered by the advice she had to
+give, to say that or not to say this, because of papa. But in the
+present case it was the sight of himself which was delightful to all,
+and, above all, though the child could have no reason for it, to the
+little shouting excited boy. "'Tle John! 'tle John!" What was Uncle John
+to him? yet his little voice filled the room with shouts of joy.
+
+"What does he know about me, the little beggar, that he makes such a
+noise in my honour?" said John, touched in spite of himself. "But I
+suppose anything is good enough for a cry at that age."
+
+"Come," said Elinor, "you are not to be contemptuous of my boy any
+longer. You called him _it_ when he was a baby."
+
+"And what is he now?" said John, whose heart was affected by strange
+emotions, he, the man who had just decided (with relief) that he was not
+a marrying man. There came over him a curious wave of sensation which he
+had no right to. If he had had a right to it, if he had been coming home
+to those who belonged to him, not distantly in the way of cousinship,
+but by a dearer right, what sensations his would have been! But sitting
+at the corner of the fire (which is very necessary in Waterdale in the
+end of September) a little in the shadow, his face was not very clearly
+perceptible: though indeed had it been so the ladies would have thought
+nothing but that John's kind heart was touched, as was so natural, by
+this sight.
+
+"What is he now? Your nephew! Tell Uncle John what you are now," said
+Elinor, lifting her child on her lap; at which the child between the
+kisses which were his encouragement and reward produced, in a large
+infant voice, very treble, yet simulating hers, the statement, "Mamma's
+bhoy."
+
+"Now, Elinor," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "he has played his part
+beautifully; he has done everything you taught him. He has told you who
+he is and who Uncle John is. Let him go to his nursery now."
+
+"Come up-stairs, Pippo. Mother will carry her boy," said Elinor. "They
+don't want us any more, these old people. Say good-night to Uncle John,
+and come to bed."
+
+"Dood-night, 'tle John," said the child; which, however, was not enough,
+for he tilted himself out of his mother's arms and put his rosy face and
+open mouth, sweet but damp, upon John's face. This kiss was one of the
+child's accomplishments. He himself was aware that he had been good, and
+behaved himself in every way as a child should do, as he was carried off
+crowing and jabbering in his mother's arms. He had formed a sort of
+little human bridge between them when he made that dive from Elinor's
+arms upon John's face. Ah, heaven! if it had been the other way, if the
+child and the mother had both been his!
+
+"He has grown up very sweet. You may think we are foolish, John; but you
+can't imagine what a delight that child is. Hasn't he grown up sweet?"
+
+"If you call that grown up!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know he is only a baby still; but so forward for his age,
+such a little man, taking care of his mother before he is two years
+old!"
+
+"What did I hear her call him?" John asked, and it seemed to Mrs.
+Dennistoun that there was something severe in the sound of his voice.
+
+"He had to be Philip. It is a pretty name, though we may have reason to
+mourn the day--and belongs to his family. We must not forget that he
+belongs to a known family, however he may have suffered by it."
+
+"Then you intend the child to know about his family? I am glad to hear
+it," said John, though his voice perhaps was not so sweet as his words.
+
+"Oh, John, that is quite another thing! to know about his family--at
+two! He has his mother--and me to take care of them both, and what does
+he want more?"
+
+"But he will not always be two," said John, the first moment almost of
+his arrival, before he had seen the house, or said a word about the
+lake, or anything. She was so disappointed and cast down that she made
+him no reply.
+
+"I am a wretched croaker," he said, after a moment, "I know. I ought
+after all this time to try to make myself more agreeable; but you must
+pardon me if this was the first thing that came into my mind. Elinor is
+looking a great deal better than when I saw her last."
+
+"Isn't she! another creature. I don't say that I am satisfied, John. Who
+would be satisfied in such a position of affairs? but while the child is
+so very young nothing matters very much. And she is quite happy. I do
+think she is quite happy. And so well--this country suits them both
+perfectly. Though there is a good deal of rain, they are both out every
+day. And little Pippo thrives, as you see, like a flower."
+
+"That is a very fantastic name to give the child."
+
+"How critical you are, John! perhaps it is, but what does it matter at
+his age? any name does for a baby. Why, you yourself, as grave as you
+are now----"
+
+"Don't, aunt," said John. "It is a grave matter enough as it appears to
+me."
+
+"Not for the present; not for the present, John."
+
+"Perhaps not for the present: if you prefer to put off all the
+difficulties till they grow up and crush you. Have there been any
+overtures, all this time, from--the other side?"
+
+"Dear John, don't overwhelm me all in a moment, in the first pleasure of
+seeing you, both with the troubles that are behind and the troubles that
+are in front of us," the poor lady said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+The weather was fine, which was by no means always a certainty at
+Waterdale, and Elinor had become a great pedestrian, and was ready to
+accompany John in his walks, which were long and varied. It was rather a
+curious test to which to subject himself after the long time he had been
+away, and the other tests through which he had gone. Never had he been
+so entirely the companion of Elinor, never before had they spent so many
+hours together without other society. At Windyhill, indeed, their
+interviews had been quite unrestrained, but then Elinor had many friends
+and interests in the parish and outside of it, visits to pay and duties
+to perform. Now she had her child, which occupied her mornings and
+evenings, but left her free for hours of rambling among the hills, for
+long walks, from which she came back blooming with the fresh air and
+breezes which had blown her about, ruffling her hair, and stirring up
+her spirits and thoughts. Sometimes when there has been heavy and
+premature suffering there occurs thus in the young another spring-time,
+an almost childhood of natural, it may be said superficial pleasure--the
+power of being amused, and of enjoying every simple satisfaction without
+any _arriere pensee_ like a child. She had recovered her strength and
+vigour in the mountain air--and in that freedom of being unknown, with
+no look ever directed to her which reminded her of the past, no question
+which brought back her troubles, had blossomed out into that fine
+youthful maturity of twenty-six, which has already an advantage over the
+earlier girlhood, the perfection of the woman grown. Elinor had thought
+of many things and understood many things, which she had still regarded
+with the high assumptions of ignorance three or four years ago. And poor
+John, who had tried so hard to find himself a mate that suited him, who
+had studied so many girls more beautiful, more accomplished than Elinor,
+in the hope of goading himself, so to speak, into love, and had not
+succeeded--and who had felt so strongly that another man's wife must not
+occupy so much of his thoughts, nor another man's child give him an
+unwilling pleasure which was almost fatherly--poor John felt himself
+placed in a position more trying than any he had known before, more
+difficult to steer his way through. He had never had so much of her
+company, and she did not conceal the pleasure it was to her to have some
+one to walk with, to talk with, who understood what she said and what
+she did not say, and was in that unpurchasable sympathy with herself
+which is not to be got by beauty, or by will, or even by love itself,
+but comes by nature. Elinor felt this with simple pleasure. Without any
+complicating suspicion, she said, "What a brother John is! I always felt
+him so, but now more than ever." "You have been, so to speak, brought up
+together," said Mrs. Dennistoun, whose mind was by no means so easy on
+the subject. "That is the reason, I suppose," said Elinor, with happy
+looks.
+
+But poor John said nothing of this kind. What he felt was that he might
+have spared himself the trouble of all those researches of his; that to
+roam about looking for a young lady whom he might--not devour, but learn
+to love, was pains as unnecessary as ever man took. He still hugged
+himself, however, over the thought that in no circumstances would he
+have been a marrying man; that if Elinor had been free he would have
+found plenty of reasons why they should remain on their present terms
+and go no farther. As it was clear that they must remain on their
+present terms, and could go no farther, it was certainly better that he
+should cherish that thought.
+
+And curiously enough, though they heard so little from the outside
+world, they had heard just so much as this, that John's assiduities to
+the Miss Gaythornes (which the reader may remember was the first of all
+his attempts, and quite antiquated in his recollection) had occasioned
+remarks, and he had not been many evenings at Lakeside before he was
+questioned on the subject. Had it been true, or had he changed his mind
+or had the lady----? It vexed him that there was not the least little
+opposition or despite in their tones, such as a man's female friends
+often show towards the objects of his admiration, not from any feeling
+on their own part, except that most natural one, which is surprised and
+almost hurt to find that, "having known me, he could decline"--a feeling
+which, in its original expression, was not a woman's sentiment, but a
+man's, and therefore is, I suppose, common to both sides. But the ladies
+at Lakeside did not even betray this feeling. They desired to know if
+there had been anything in it--with smiles, it is true; but Mrs.
+Dennistoun at the same time expressed her regret warmly.
+
+"We were in great hopes something would come of it, John. Elinor has met
+the Gaythornes, and thought them very nice; and if there is a thing in
+the world that would give me pleasure, it would be to see you with a
+nice wife, John."
+
+"I am sure I am much obliged to you, aunt; but there really was nothing
+in it. That is, I was seized with various impulses on the subject, and
+rather agreed with you: but I never mentioned the matter to any of the
+Miss Gaythornes. They are charming girls, and I don't suppose would have
+looked at me. At the same time, I did not feel it possible to imagine
+myself in love with any of them. That's quite a long time since," he
+added with a laugh.
+
+"Then there have been others since then? Let us put him in the
+confessional, mother," cried Elinor with a laugh. "He ought not to have
+any secrets of that description from you and me."
+
+"Oh, yes, there have been others since," said John. "To tell the truth,
+I have walked round a great many nice girls asking myself whether I
+shouldn't find it very delightful to have one of them belonging to me. I
+wasn't worthy the least attractive of them all, I quite knew; but still
+I am about the same as other men. However, as I've said, I never
+mentioned the matter to any of them."
+
+"Never?" cried Mrs. Dennistoun, feeling a hesitation in his tone.
+
+He laughed a little, shamefaced: "Well, if you like, I will say hardly
+ever," he said. "There was one that might, perhaps, have taken pity upon
+me--but fortunately an old lover of hers, who was much more
+enterprising, turned up before anything decisive had been said."
+
+"Fortunately, John?"
+
+"Well, yes, I thought so. You see I am not a marrying man. I tried to
+screw myself up to the point, but it was altogether, I am afraid, as a
+matter of principle. I thought it would be a good thing, perhaps, to
+have a wife."
+
+"That was a very cold-blooded idea. No wonder you--it never came to
+anything. That is not the way to go about it," said Elinor with the
+ringing laugh of a child.
+
+And yet her way of going about it had been far from a success. How
+curious that she did not remember that!
+
+"Yes," he said, "I am quite aware that I did not go about it in the
+right way, but then that was the only way in which it presented itself
+to me; and when I had made up my mind at last that it was a failure, I
+confess it was with a certain sense of relief. I suppose I was born to
+live and die an old bachelor."
+
+"Do not be so sure of that," said Elinor. "Some day or other, in the
+most unlooked-for moment, the fairy princess will bound upon the scene,
+and the old bachelor will be lost."
+
+"We'll wait quite contentedly for that day--which I don't believe in,"
+he said.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun did not take any part in the later portion of this
+discussion; her smile was feeble at the places where Elinor laughed. She
+said seriously after this fireside conference, when he got up to prepare
+for dinner, putting her hand tenderly on his shoulder, "I wish you had
+found some one you could have loved, John."
+
+"So did I--for a time," he said, lightly. "But you see, it was not to
+be."
+
+She shook her head, standing against the firelight in the dark room, so
+that he could not see her face. "I wish," she said, "I wish--that I saw
+you with a nice wife, John."
+
+"You might wish--to see me on the woolsack, aunt."
+
+"Well--and it might come to pass. I shall see you high up--if I live
+long enough; but I wish I was as sure of the other, John."
+
+"Well," he said with a laugh, "I did my best; but there is no use in
+struggling against fate."
+
+No, indeed! how very, very little use there was. He had kept away from
+them for nearly two years; while he had done his best in the meantime to
+get a permanent tenant for his heart which should prevent any wandering
+tendencies. But he had not succeeded; and now if ever a man could be put
+in circumstances of danger it was he. If he did not appear in time for
+their walk Elinor would call him. "Aren't you coming, John?" And she
+overflowed in talk to him of everything--excepting always of that one
+dark passage in her life of which she never breathed a word. She asked
+him about his work, and about his prospects, insisting upon having
+everything explained to her--even politics, to which he had a tendency,
+not without ideas of their use in reaching the higher ranks of his
+profession. Elinor entered into all with zest and almost enthusiasm. She
+wrapped him up in her sympathy and interest. There was nothing he did
+that she did not wish to know about, did not desire to have a part in.
+A sister in this respect is, as everybody knows, often more full of
+enthusiasm than a wife, and Elinor, who was vacant of all concerns of
+her own (except the baby) was delighted to take up these subjects of
+excitement, and follow John through them, hastening after him on every
+line of indication or suggestion which he gave--nay, often with her
+lively intelligence hastening before him, making incursions into
+undiscovered countries of which he had not yet perceived the importance.
+They walked over all the country, into woods which were a little damp,
+and up hill-sides where the scramble was often difficult enough, and
+along the side of the lake--or, for a variety, went rowing across to
+the other side, or far down the gleaming water, out of sight, round
+the wooded corner which, with all its autumnal colours, blazed like
+a brilliant sentinel into the air above and the water below. Mrs.
+Dennistoun watched them, sometimes with a little trouble on her face.
+She would not say a word to throw suspicions or doubts between them.
+She would not awaken in Elinor's mind the thought that any such
+possibilities as arise between two young people free of all bonds could
+be imagined as affecting her and any man such as her cousin John. Poor
+John! if he must be the victim, the victim he must be. Elinor could
+not be disturbed that he might go free. And indeed, what good would it
+have done to disturb Elinor? It would but have brought consciousness,
+embarrassment, and a sense of danger where no such sense was. She was
+trebly protected, and without a thought of anything but the calm yet
+close relations that had existed so long. He---- but he could take care
+of himself, Mrs. Dennistoun reflected in despair; he must take care of
+himself. He was a man and must understand what his own risks and perils
+were.
+
+"And do you think this plan is a success?" John asked her one day as
+they were rowing homeward up the lake. The time of his visit was drawing
+to a close; indeed it had drawn to a close several times, and been
+lengthened very unadvisedly, yet very irresistibly as he felt.
+
+Her face grew graver than usual, as with a sudden recollection of that
+shadow upon her life which Elinor so often seemed to have forgotten. "As
+much of a success," she said, "as anything of the kind is likely to be."
+
+"It suits you better than Windyhill?"
+
+"Only in being more out of the world. It is partially out of the world
+for a great part of the year; but I suppose no place is so wholly. It
+seems impossible to keep from making acquaintances."
+
+"Of course," he said, "I have noticed. You know people here already."
+
+"How can we keep from knowing people? Mamma says it is the same thing
+everywhere. If we lived up in that little house which they say is the
+highest in England--at the head of the pass--we should meet people I
+suppose even there."
+
+"Most likely," he replied; "but the same difficulties can hardly arise."
+
+"You mean we shall not know people so well as at--at home, and will not
+be compelled to give an account of ourselves whatever we do? Heaven
+knows! There is a vicarage here, and there is a squire's house: and
+there are two or three people besides who already begin to inquire if we
+are related to So-and-So, if we are the Scotch Dennistouns, or the Irish
+Comptons, or I don't know what; and whether we are going to Penrith or
+any other capital city for the winter." Elinor ended with a laugh.
+
+"So soon?" John said.
+
+"So soon--very much sooner, the first year: with mamma so friendly as
+she is and with me so silly, unable to keep myself from smiling at
+anybody who smiles at me!"
+
+"Poor Elinor!"
+
+"Oh, you may laugh; but it is a real disadvantage. I am sure there was
+not very much smile in me when we came; and yet, notwithstanding, the
+first pleasant look is enough for me, I cannot but respond; and I shall
+always be so, I suppose," she said, with a sigh.
+
+"I hope so, Elinor. It would be an evil day for all of us if you did not
+respond."
+
+"For how many, John? For my mother and--ah, you are so good, more like
+my brother than my cousin--for you, perhaps, a little; but what is it to
+anybody else in the world whether I smile or sigh? It does not matter,
+however," she said, flinging back her head; "there it is, and I can't
+help it. If you smile at me I must smile back again--and so we make
+friends; and already I get a great deal of advice about little Pippo.
+If we live here till he grows up, the same thing will happen as at the
+Cottage. We will require to account to everybody for what we do with
+him--for the school he goes to, and all he does; to explain why he has
+one kind of training or another; and, in short, all that I ran away
+from: the world wherever one goes seems to be so much the same."
+
+"The world is very much the same everywhere; and you cannot get out of
+it were you to take refuge in a cave on the hill. The best thing is
+generally to let it know all that can be known, and so save the
+multitude of guesses it always makes."
+
+Elinor looked at him for a moment with her lips pressed tightly
+together, and a light in her eyes; then she looked away across the water
+to the golden hills, and said nothing; but there was a great deal in
+that look of eager contradiction, yet forced agreement, of determination
+above all, with which right and wrong had nothing to do.
+
+"Elinor," he said, "do you mean that child to grow up here between your
+mother and you--in ignorance of all that there is in the world besides
+you two?"
+
+"That child!" she cried. "John, I think you dislike my boy; for, of
+course, it is Pippo you mean."
+
+"I wish you would not call him by that absurd name."
+
+"You are hard to please," she said, with an angry laugh. "I think it is
+a very sweet little name."
+
+"The child will not always be a baby," said John.
+
+"Oh, no: I suppose if we all live long enough he will some time be
+a--possibly disagreeable man, and punish us well for all the care we
+have spent upon him," Elinor said.
+
+"I don't want to make you angry, Elinor----"
+
+"No, I don't suppose you do. You have been very nice to me, John. You
+have neither scolded me nor given me good advice. I never expected you
+would have been so forbearing. But I have always felt you must mean to
+give me a good knock at the end."
+
+"You do me great injustice," he said, much wounded. "You know that I
+think only of what is best for you--and the child."
+
+They were approaching the shore, and Mrs. Dennistoun's white cap was
+visible in the waning light, looking out for them from the door. Elinor
+said hastily, "And the child? I don't think that you care much for the
+child."
+
+"There you are mistaken, Elinor. I did not perhaps at first: but I
+acknowledge that a little thing like that does somehow creep into one's
+heart."
+
+Her face, which had been gloomy, brightened up as if a sunbeam had
+suddenly burst upon it. "Oh, bless you, John--Uncle John; how good and
+how kind, and what a dear friend and brother you are! And I such a
+wretch, ready to quarrel with those I love best! But, John, let me keep
+quiet, let me keep still, don't make me rake up the past. He is such a
+baby, such a baby! There cannot be any question of telling him anything
+for years and years!"
+
+"I thought you were lost," said Mrs. Dennistoun, calling to them. "I
+began to think of all kinds of things that might have happened--of the
+steamboat running into you, or the boat going on a rock, or----"
+
+"You need not have had any fear when I was with John," Elinor said, with
+a smile that made him warm at once, like the sun. He knew very well,
+however, that it was only because he had made that little pleasant
+speech about her boy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+There passed after this a number of years of which I can make no record.
+The ladies remained at Lakeside, seldom moving. When they took a holiday
+now and then, it was more for the sake of the little community which,
+just as in Windyhill, had gathered round them, and which inquired,
+concerned, "Are you not going to take a little change? Don't you think,
+dear Mrs. Dennistoun, your daughter would be the better for a change? Do
+you really think that a little sea air and variety wouldn't be good for
+the boy?" Forced by these kind speeches they did go away now and then to
+unknown seaside places in the north when little Philip was still a
+child, and to quiet places abroad when he grew a boy, and it was thought
+a good thing for him to learn languages, and to be taught that there
+were other countries in the world besides England. They were absent for
+one whole winter in France and another in Germany with this motive, that
+Philip should learn these languages, which he did _tant bien que mal_
+with much assistance from his mother, who taught herself everything
+that she thought the boy should know, and shared his lessons in order
+to push him gently forward. And on the whole, he did very well in this
+particular of language, showing much aptitude, though not perhaps much
+application. I would not assert that the ladies, with an opinion very
+common among women, and also among youth in general, did not rather
+glory in the thought that he could do almost anything he liked (which
+was their opinion, and in some degree while he was very young, the
+opinion of his masters), with the appearance of doing nothing at all.
+But on the whole, his education was the most difficult matter in which
+they had yet been engaged. How was he to be educated? His birth and
+condition pointed to one of the great public schools, and Mrs. Dennistoun,
+who had made many economics in that retirement, was quite able to give
+the child what they both called the best education. But how could they
+send him to Eton or Harrow? A boy who knew nothing about his parentage
+or his family, a boy bearing a well-known name, who would be subject to
+endless questions where he came from, who he belonged to? a hundred
+things which neither in Waterdale nor in their travels had ever been
+asked of him. What the Waterdale people thought on the subject, or how
+much they knew, I should not like to inquire. There are ways of finding
+out everything, and people who possess family secrets are often
+extraordinarily deceived in respect to what is known and what is not
+known of those secrets. My own opinion is that there is scarcely such a
+thing as a secret in the world. If any moment of great revolution comes
+in your life you generally find that your neighbours are not much
+surprised. They have known it, or they have suspected it, all along, and
+it is well if they have not suspected more than the truth. So it is
+quite possible that these excellent people knew all about Elinor: but
+Elinor did not think so, which was the great thing.
+
+However, there cannot be any question that Philip's education was a very
+great difficulty. John Tatham, who paid them a visit soberly from time
+to time, but did not now come as of old, never indeed came as on that
+first occasion when he had been so happy and so undeceived. To be sure,
+as Philip grew up it was of course impossible for any one to be like
+that. From the time Pippo was five or six he went everywhere with his
+mother, her sole companion in general, and when there was a visitor
+always making a third in the party, a third who was really the first,
+for he appealed to his mother on every occasion, directed her attention
+to everything. He only learned with the greatest difficulty that it was
+possible she should find it necessary to give her attention in a greater
+degree to any one else. When she said, "You know, Pippo, I must talk to
+Uncle John," Pippo opened his great eyes, "Not than to me, mamma?"
+
+"Yes, dearest, more than to you for the moment: for he has come a long
+way to see us, and he will soon have to go away again." When this was
+first explained to him, Pippo inquired particularly when his Uncle John
+was going away, and was delighted to hear that it was to be very soon.
+However, as he grew older the boy began to take great pleasure in Uncle
+John, and hung upon his arm when they went out for their walks, and
+instead of endeavouring to monopolise his mother, turned the tables upon
+her by monopolising this the only man who belonged to him, and to whom
+he turned with the instinct of budding manhood. John too was very
+willing to be thus appropriated, and it came to pass that now and then
+Elinor was left out, or left herself out of the calculation, urging that
+the walk they were planning was too far for her, or too steep for her,
+or too something, so that the boy might have the enjoyment of the man's
+society all to himself. This changed the position in many ways, and I am
+not sure that at first it did not cost Elinor a little thus to stand
+aside and put herself out of that first place which had always been by
+all of them accorded to her. But if this was so, it was soon lost in the
+consideration of how good it was for Pippo to have a man like John to
+talk to and to influence him in every way. A man like John! That was the
+thing; not a common man, not one who might teach him the baseness, or
+the frivolity, or the falsehood of the world, but a good man, who was
+also a distinguished man, a man of the world in the best sense, knowing
+life in the best sense, and able to modify the boy's conception of what
+he was to find in the world, as women could never do.
+
+"For after all that can be said, we are not good for much on those
+points, mother," Mrs. Compton would say.
+
+"I don't know, Elinor; I doubt whether I would exchange my own ideas for
+John's," the elder lady replied.
+
+"Ah, perhaps, mother; but for Pippo his experience and his knowledge
+will do so much. A boy should not be brought up entirely with women any
+more than a girl should be with men."
+
+"I have often thought, my dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "if in God's
+providence it had been a girl instead of a boy----"
+
+"Oh!" said the younger mother, with a flush, "how can you speak--how
+could you think of any possible child but Pippo? I would not give him
+for a score of girls."
+
+"And if he had been a girl you would not have changed him for scores of
+boys," said Mrs. Dennistoun, who added after a while, with a curious
+sense of competition, and a determination to allow no inferiority, "You
+forget, Elinor, that my only child is a girl." The elder lady (whom they
+began to call the old lady) showed a great deal of spirit in defence of
+her own.
+
+But Philip was approaching fourteen, and the great question had to be
+decided now or never; where was he to be sent to school? It was
+difficult now to send him to bed to get him out of the way, he who was
+used to be the person of first importance in the house--in order that
+the others might settle what was to be his fate. And accordingly the two
+ladies came down-stairs again after the family had separated in the
+usual way, in order to have their consultation with their adviser. There
+was now a room in the house furnished as a library in order that Philip
+might have a place in which to carry on his studies, and where "the
+gentlemen" might have their talks by themselves, when there was any one
+in the house. And here they found John when they stole in one after the
+other, soft-footed, that the boy might suspect no complot. They had
+their scheme, it need not be doubted, and John had his. He pronounced at
+once for one of the great public schools, while the ladies on their part
+had heard of one in the north, an old foundation as old as Eton, where
+there was at the moment a head master who was quite exceptional, and
+where boys were winning honours in all directions. There Pippo would
+be quite safe. He was not likely to meet with anybody who would put
+awkward questions, and yet he would receive an education as good as any
+one's. "Probably better," said Elinor: "for Mr. Sage will have few
+pupils like him, and therefore will give him the more attention."
+
+"That means," said John, "that the boy will not be among his equals,
+which is of all things I know the worst for a boy."
+
+"We are not aristocrats, as you are, John. They will be more than his
+equal in one way, because many of them will be bigger and stronger than
+he, and that is what counts most among boys. Besides, we have no
+pretensions."
+
+"My dear Elinor," said John Tatham (who was by this time an exceedingly
+successful lawyer, member for his native borough, and within sight of a
+Solicitor-Generalship), "your modesty is a little out of character,
+don't you think? There can be no two opinions about what the boy is: an
+aristocrat--if you choose to use that word, every inch of him--a little
+gentleman, down to his fingers' ends."
+
+"Oh, thank you, John," cried Pippo's inconsistent mother; "that is the
+thing of all others that we hoped you would say."
+
+"And yet you are going to send him among the farmers' sons. Fine
+fellows, I grant you, but not of his kind. Have you heard," he said,
+more gravely, "that Reginald Compton died last year?"
+
+"We saw it in the papers," said Mrs. Dennistoun. Elinor said nothing,
+but turned her head away.
+
+"And neither of the others are married, or likely to marry; one of them
+is very much broken down----"
+
+"Oh, John, John, for God's sake don't say anything more!"
+
+"I must, Elinor. There is but one good life, and that in a dangerous
+climate, and with all the risks of possible fighting, between the boy
+and----"
+
+"Don't, don't, John!"
+
+"And he does not know who he is. He is ignorant of everything, even the
+fact, the great fact, which you have no right to keep from him----"
+
+"John," she cried, starting to her feet, "the boy is mine: I have a
+right to deal with him as I think best. I will not hear a word you have
+to say."
+
+"It is vain to say anything," said Mrs. Dennistoun; "she will not hear a
+word."
+
+"That is all very well, so far as she is concerned," said John, "but I
+have a part of my own to play. You give me the name of adviser and so
+forth--a man cannot be your adviser if his mouth is closed before he
+speaks. I have a right to speak, being summoned for that purpose. I tell
+you, Elinor, that you have no right to conceal from the boy who he is,
+and that his father is alive."
+
+She gave a cry as if he had struck her, and shrank away behind her
+mother, hiding her face in her hands.
+
+"I am, more or less, of your opinion, John. I have told her the same.
+While he was a baby it mattered nothing, now that he is a rational
+creature with an opinion of his own, like any one of us----"
+
+"Mother," cried Elinor, "you are unkind. Oh, you are unkind! What did it
+matter so long as he was a baby? But now he is just at the age when he
+would be--if you don't wish to drive me out of my senses altogether,
+don't say a word more to me of this kind."
+
+"Elinor," said John, "I have said nothing on the subject for many years,
+though I have thought much: and you must for once hear reason. The boy
+belongs--to his father as much as to you. I have said it! I cannot take
+it back. He belongs to the family of which he may one day be the head.
+You cannot throw away his birthright. And think, if you let him grow up
+like this, not knowing that he has a family or a--unaware whom he
+belongs to."
+
+"Have you done, John?" asked Elinor, who had made two or three efforts
+to interrupt, and had been beating her foot impatiently upon the ground.
+
+"If you ask me in that tone, I suppose I must say yes: though I have a
+great deal more that I should like to say."
+
+"Then hear me speak," cried Elinor. "Of us three at least, I am the
+only one to whom he belongs. I only have power to decide for him. And I
+say, No, no: whatever argument there may be, whatever plea you may bring
+forward, No and no, and after that No! What! at fourteen, just the age
+when anything that was said to him would tell the most; when he would
+learn a lesson the quickest, learn what I would die to keep him from!
+When he would take everything for gospel that was said to him, when the
+very charm of--of that unknown name----"
+
+She stopped for a moment to take breath, half choked by her own words.
+
+"And you ought to remember no one has ever laid claim to him. Why should
+I tell him of one that never even inquired---- No, John, no, no, no!
+A baby he might have been told, and it would have done him no harm.
+Perhaps you were right, you and mother, and I was wrong. He might have
+known it from the first, and thought very little of it, and he may know
+when he is a man, and his character is formed and he knows what things
+mean--but a boy of fourteen! Imagine the glamour there would be about
+the very name; how he would feel we must all have been unjust and
+the--the other injured. You know from yourself, John, how he clings to
+you--you who are only a cousin; he knows that, yet he insists upon Uncle
+John, the one man who belongs to him, and looks up to you, and thinks
+nothing of any of us in comparison. I like it! I like it!" cried Elinor,
+dashing the tears from her eyes. "I am not jealous: but fancy what it
+would be with the--other, the real, the---- I cannot, cannot, say the
+word; yes, the father. If it is so with you, what would it be with him?"
+
+John listened with his head bent down, leaning on his hand: every word
+went to his heart. Yes, he was nothing but a cousin, it was true. The
+boy did not belong to him, was nothing to him. If the father stepped in,
+the real father, the man of whom Philip had never heard, in all the
+glory of his natural rights and the novelty and wonder of his existence,
+how different would that be from any feeling that could be raised by a
+cousin, an uncle, with whom the boy had played all his life! No doubt it
+was true: and Phil Compton would probably charm the inexperienced boy
+with his handsome, disreputable grace, and the unknown ways of the man
+of the world. And yet, he thought to himself, there is a perspicacity
+about children which is not always present in a man. Philip had no
+precocious instincts to be tempted by his father's habits; he had the
+true sight of a boy trained amid everything that was noble and pure.
+Would it indeed be more dangerous now, when the boy was a boy, with all
+those safeguards of nature, than when he was a man? John kept his mind
+to this question with the firmness of a trained intelligence, not
+letting himself go off into other matters, or pausing to feel the sting
+that was in Elinor's words, the reminder that though he had been so
+much, he was still nothing to the family to whom he had consecrated so
+much of his life, so much now of his thoughts.
+
+"I do not think I agree with you, Elinor," he said at last. "I think it
+would have been better had he always known that his father lived, and
+who he was, and what family he belonged to; that is not to say that you
+were to thrust him into his father's arms. And I think now that, though
+we cannot redeem the past, it should be done as soon as possible, and
+that he should know before he goes to school. I think the effect will be
+less now than if the discovery bursts upon him when he is a young man,
+when he finds, perhaps, as may well be, that his position and all his
+prospects are changed in a moment, when he may be called upon without
+any preparation to assume a name and a rank of which he knows nothing."
+
+"Not a name. He has always borne his true name."
+
+"His true name may be changed at any moment, Elinor. He may become Lord
+Lomond, and the heir----"
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, growing red, "that is a chance we have
+never taken into account."
+
+"What has that to do with it?" she said. "Is his happiness and his
+honour to be put in comparison with a chance, a possibility that may
+never come true? John, for the sake of everything that is good, let him
+wait till he is a man and knows good from evil."
+
+"It is that I am thinking of, Elinor; a boy of fourteen often knows good
+from evil much better than a youth of twenty-one, which is, I suppose,
+what you call a man. My opinion is that it would be better and safer
+now."
+
+"No!" she said. "And no! I will never consent to it. If you go and
+poison my boy's mind I will never forgive you, John."
+
+"I have no right to do anything," he said; "it is of course you who must
+decide, Elinor: I advise only; and I might as well give that up," he
+added, "don't you think? for you are not to be guided by me."
+
+And she was of course supreme in everything that concerned her son.
+John, when he could do no more, knew how to be silent, and Mrs.
+Dennistoun, if not so wise in this respect, was yet more easily silenced
+than John. And Philip Compton went to the old grammar-school among the
+dales, where was the young and energetic head-master, who, as Elinor
+anticipated, found this one pupil like a pearl among the pebbles of the
+shore, and spared no pains to polish him and perfect him in every way
+known to the ambitious schoolmaster of modern times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+It is needless to say that the years which developed Elinor's child into
+a youth on the verge of manhood, had not passed by the others of the
+family without full evidence of its progress. John Tatham was no longer
+within the elastic boundaries of that conventional youth which is
+allowed to stretch so far when a man remains unmarried. He might have
+been characterized as _encore jeune_, according to the fine distinction
+of our neighbours in France, had he desired it. But he did not desire
+it. He had never altogether neglected society, having a wholesome liking
+for the company of his fellow creatures, but neither had he ever plunged
+into it as those do who must keep their places in the crowd or die.
+John had pursued the middle path, which is the most difficult. He had
+cultivated friends, not a mob of acquaintances, although as people say
+he "knew everybody," as a man who had attained his position and won his
+success could scarcely fail to do. He had succeeded indeed, not in the
+fabulous way that some men do, but in a way which most men in his
+profession looked upon as in the highest degree satisfactory. He had a
+silk gown like any dowager. He had been leading counsel in many cases
+which were now of note. He was among, not the two or three perhaps, but
+the twenty or thirty, who were at the head of his profession. If he had
+not gone further it was perhaps more from lack of ambition than from
+want of power. He had been for years in Parliament, but preferred his
+independence to the chance of office. It is impossible to tell how
+John's character and wishes might have been modified had he married and
+had children round him like other men. Had the tall boy in the north,
+the young hero of Lakeside, been his, what a difference would that
+have made in his views of life! But Philip was not his, nor Philip's
+mother--probably, as he always said to himself, from his own fault.
+This, as the reader is aware, had always been fully recognised by John
+himself. Perhaps in the old days, in those days when everything was
+possible, he had not even recognised that there was but one woman in
+the world whom he could ever wish to marry. Probably it was only
+her appropriation by another that revealed this fact to him. There
+are men like this to be found everywhere; not so hotly constituted
+as to seize for themselves what is most necessary for their personal
+happiness--possessed by so many other subjects that this seems a thing
+to be thought of by-and-by--which by-and-by is generally too late.
+
+But John Tatham was neither a disappointed nor an unhappy man. He might
+have attained a higher development and more brilliant and full life, but
+that was all; and how few men are there of whom this could not be said!
+He had become Mr. Tatham of Tatham's Cross, as well as Q.C. and M.P.,
+a county gentleman of modest but effective standing, a lawyer of high
+reputation, quite eligible either for the bench or for political
+elevation, had he cared for either, a member of Parliament with a
+distinct standing, and therefore importance of his own. There was
+probably throughout England no society in which he could have found
+himself where his position and importance would have been unknown. He
+was a man approaching fifty, who had not yet lost any of the power of
+enjoyment or begun to feel the inroads of decay, at the very height of
+life, and unconscious that the ground would shortly begin to slope
+downwards under his feet; indeed, it showed no such indication as yet,
+and probably would not do so for years. The broad plateau of middle age
+lasts often till sixty, or even beyond. There was no reason to doubt
+that for John Tatham it would last as long as for any man. His health
+was perfect, and his habits those of a man whose self had never demanded
+indulgences of the vulgar kind. He had given up with some regret, but
+years before, his chambers in the Temple: that is, he retained them as
+chambers, but lived in them no longer. He had a house in one of the
+streets about Belgrave Square, one of those little bits of awkward,
+three-cornered streets where there are some of the pleasantest houses
+of a moderate kind in London; furnished from top to bottom, the stairs,
+the comfortable quaint landings, the bits of corridor and passage,
+nothing naked or neglected about it--no cold corner; but nothing
+fantastic; not very much ornament, a few good pictures, a great deal
+of highly-polished, old-fashioned dark mahogany, with a general flavour
+of Sherraton and Chippendale: and abundance of books everywhere. John
+was able to permit himself various little indulgences on which wives
+are said to look with jealous eyes. He had a fancy for rare editions
+(in which I sympathise) and also for bindings, which seems to me a
+weakness--however, it was one which he indulged in moderation. He
+possessed in his drawing-room (which was not very much used) a beautiful
+old-fashioned harpsichord, and also he had belonging to him a fiddle
+of value untold. I ought, of course, to say violin, or rather to
+distinguish the instrument by its family name; I have no doubt it was a
+Stradivarius. But there is an affectionate humour in the fiddle which
+does not consist with fine titles. He had always been fond of music, but
+even the Stradivarius did not beguile him, in the days of which I speak,
+to play, nor perhaps was his performance worthy of it, though his taste
+was said to be excellent. It will be perceived by all this that John
+Tatham's life had many pleasures.
+
+And I am not myself sorry for him because he was not married, as many
+people will be. Perhaps it is a little doleful coming home, when there
+is never anybody looking out for you, expecting you. But then he had
+never been accustomed to look for that, and the effect might have been
+irksome rather than pleasant. His household went on velvet under the
+care of a respectable couple who had "done for" Mr. Tatham for years. He
+would not have submitted to extortion or waste, but everything was ample
+in the house; the cook by no means stinted in respect to butter or any
+of those condiments which are as necessary to good cooking as air is to
+life. Mr. Tatham would not have understood a lack of anything, or that
+what was served to him should not have been the best, supplied and
+served in the best way. Failure on such points would have so much
+surprised him that he would scarcely have known what steps to take. But
+Jervis, his butler, knew what was best as well as Mr. Tatham did, and
+was quite as little disposed to put up with any shortcoming. I say I am
+not sorry for him that he was not married--up to this time. But, as a
+matter of fact, the time does come when one becomes sorry for the
+well-to-do, highly respectable, refined, and agreeable man who has
+everything that heart can desire, except the best things in life--love,
+and the companionship of those who are his very own. When old age looms
+in sight everything is changed. But Mr. Tatham, as has been said, was
+not quite fifty, and old age seemed as far off as if it could never be.
+
+He was a man who was very good to a number of people, and spent almost
+as much money in being kind as if he had possessed extravagant children
+of his own. His sister Mary, for instance, had married a clergyman not
+very well off, and the natural result had followed. How they could have
+existed without Uncle John, much less how they could have stumbled into
+public schools, scholarships, and all the rest of it, would be difficult
+to tell, especially now in these days when a girl's schooling ought, we
+are told, to cost as much as a boy's. This latter is a grievance which
+must be apparent to the meanest capacity. Unless the girl binds herself
+by the most stringent vows _not_ to marry a poor curate or other
+penniless man the moment that you have completed her expensive education,
+I do not think she should in any case be permitted to go to Girton.
+It is all very well when the parents are rich or the girls have a
+sufficiency of their own. But to spend all that on a process which,
+instead of fructifying in other schools and colleges, or producing in
+life a highly accomplished woman, is to be lost at once and swallowed up
+in another nursery, is the most unprofitable of benefactions. This is
+what Mary Tatham's eldest girl had just done, almost before her bills at
+Newnham had been paid. A wedding present had, so to speak, been demanded
+from Uncle John at the end of the bayonet to show his satisfaction in
+the event which had taken all meaning out of his exertions for little
+Mary. He had given it indeed--in the shape not of a biscuit-box, which
+is what she would have deserved, but of a cheque--but he was not
+pleased. Neither was he pleased, as has been seen, by the proceedings of
+Elinor, who had slighted all his advice yet clung to himself in a way
+some women have. I do not know whether men expect you to be quite as
+much their friend as ever after they have rejected your counsel and
+taken their own (exactly opposite) way: but women do, and indeed I think
+expect you to be rather grateful that they have not taken amiss the
+advice which they have rejected and despised. This was Elinor's case.
+She hoped that John was ashamed of advising her to make her boy
+acquainted with his family and the fact of his father's existence, and
+that he duly appreciated the fact that she did not resent that advice;
+and then she expected from him the same attention to herself and her son
+as if the boy had been guided in his and not in her way. Thus it will be
+seen his friends and relations expected a very great deal from John.
+
+He had gone to his chambers one afternoon after he left the law courts,
+and was there very busily engaged in getting up his notes for to-morrow's
+work, when he received a visit which awakened at once echoes of the past
+and alarms for the future in John's mind. It was very early in the year,
+the end of January, and the House was not sitting, so that his public
+duties were less overwhelming than usual. His room was the same in which
+we have already seen on various occasions, and which Elinor in her
+youth, before anything had happened to make life serious for her, had
+been in the habit of calling the Star Chamber, for no reason in the
+world except that law and penalties or judgments upon herself in her
+unripe conviction, and suggestions of what ought to be done, came from
+that place to which Mrs. Dennistoun had made resort in her perplexities
+almost from the very beginning of John's reign there. Mr. Tatham had
+been detained beyond his usual time by the importance of the case for
+which he was preparing, and a clerk, very impatient to get free, yet
+obliged to simulate content, had lighted the lamp and replenished the
+fire. It had always been a comfortable room. The lamp by which John
+worked had a green shade which concentrated the light upon a table
+covered with that litter of papers in which there seemed so little
+order, yet which Mr. Tatham knew to the last scrap as if they had been
+the tidiest in the world. The long glazed book-case which filled up one
+side of the room gave a dark reflection of the light and of the leaping
+brightness of the fire. The curtains were drawn over the windows. If the
+clerk fumed in the outer rooms, here all was studious life and quiet.
+No spectator could have been otherwise than impressed by the air of
+absolute self-concentration with which the eminent lawyer gave himself
+up to his work. He was like his lamp, giving all the light in him to the
+special subject, indifferent to everything outside.
+
+"What is it, Simmons?" he said abruptly, without looking up.
+
+"A lady, sir, who says she has urgent business and must see you."
+
+"A lady--who _must_ see me." John Tatham smiled at the very ineffectual
+_must_, which meant coercion and distraction to him. "I don't see how
+she is going to accomplish that."
+
+"I told her so," said the clerk.
+
+"Well, you must tell her so again." He had scarcely lifted his head from
+his work, so that it was unnecessary to return to it when the door
+closed, and Mr. Tatham went on steadily as before.
+
+It is easy to concentrate the light of the lamp when it is duly shaded
+and no wind to blow it about, and it is easy to concentrate a man's
+attention in the absolute quiet when nothing interrupts him; but when
+there suddenly rises up a wind of talk in the room which is separated
+from him only by a door, a tempest of chattering words and laughter,
+shrill and bursting forth in something like shrieks, making the student
+start, that is altogether a different business. The lady outside, who
+evidently had multiplied herself--unless it was conceivable that the
+serious Simmons had made himself her accomplice--had taken the cleverest
+way of showing that she was not to be beat by any passive resistance of
+busy man, though not even an audible conversation with Simmons would
+have startled or disturbed his master, to whom it would have been
+apparent that his faithful vassal was thus defending his own stronghold
+and innermost retirement. But this was quite independent of Simmons, a
+discussion in two voices, one high-pitched and shrill, the other softer,
+but both absolutely unrestrained by any consciousness of being in a
+place where the chatter of strange voices is forbidden, and stillness
+and quiet a condition of being. The sound of the talk rang through Mr.
+Tatham's head as if all the city bells were ringing. One of the unseen
+ladies had a very shrill laugh, to which she gave vent freely. John
+fidgeted in his chair, raised up his eyes above the level of his
+spectacles (he wore spectacles, alas! by this time habitually when he
+worked) as if lifting a voiceless appeal to those powers who interest
+themselves in law cases to preserve him from disturbance, then made a
+manly effort to disregard the sounds that filled the air, returning with
+a shake of his head to his reading. But at the end of a long day, and in
+the dulness of the afternoon, perhaps a man is less capable than at
+other moments to fight against interruption of this kind and finally he
+threw down his papers and touched his bell. Simmons came in full of pale
+indignation, which made itself felt even beyond the circle illuminated
+by the lamp.
+
+"What can I do?" he said. "They've planted themselves by the fire, and
+there they mean to stay. 'Oh, very well, we'll wait,' they said, quite
+calm. And I make no doubt they will, having nothing else to do, till all
+is blue."
+
+Mr. Simmons had a gift of expression of which all his friends were
+flatteringly sensible, and he was very friendly and condescending to
+John, of whom he had taken care for many years.
+
+"What is to be done?" said Mr. Tatham. "Can't you do anything to get
+them away?"
+
+Simmons shook his head. "There's two of them," he said, "and they
+entertain each other, and they think it's fun to jabber like that in a
+lawyer's office. The young one says, 'What a queer place!' and the
+other, she holds forth about other times when she's been here."
+
+"Oh, she's been here other times---- Do you know her, Simmons?"
+
+"Not from Adam, Mr. Tatham--or, I should say, from Eve, as she's a
+lady. But a real lady I should say, though she don't behave herself as
+such--one of the impudent ones. They are never impudent like that," said
+Mr. Simmons, with profound observation, "unless they are real high
+or--real low."
+
+"Hum!" said John, hesitating. And then he added, "There is a young one,
+you say?"
+
+But I do not myself think, though the light-minded may imagine it to be
+so, that it was because there was a young one that John gave in. It was
+because he could do nothing else, the noise and chatter of the voices
+being entirely destructive of that undisturbed state of the atmosphere
+in which work can be done. It was not merely the sounds but the vibration
+they made in the air, breaking all its harmony and concentration. He
+tried a little longer, but was unsuccessful, and finally in despair he
+said to Simmons, "You had better show them in, and let me get done with
+them," in an angry tone.
+
+"Oh, he will see us after all," said the high-pitched voice. "So good of
+Mr. Tatham; but of course I should have waited all the same. Dolly, take
+Toto; I can't possibly get up while I have him on my knee. You can tell
+Mr. Tatham I did not send in my name to disturb him, which makes it all
+the more charitable of him to receive me; but, dear me, of course I can
+tell him that himself as he consents to see us. Dolly, don't strangle my
+poor darling! I never saw a girl that didn't know how to take up a dear
+dog before."
+
+"He's only a snappish little demon, and you spoil him so," said the
+other voice. This was attended by the sound of movement as if the party
+were getting under weigh.
+
+"My poor darling pet, it is only her jealousy: is that the way? Yes, to
+be sure it is the next room. Now, Dolly, remember this is where all the
+poor people are ruined and done for. Leave hope behind all ye who enter
+here." A little shriek of laughter ended this speech. And John, looking
+up, taking off his spectacles, and raising a little the shade of the
+lamp, saw in the doorway Lady Mariamne, altered as was inevitable by the
+strain and stress of nearly twenty years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+I do not mean to assert that John Tatham had not seen Lady Mariamne
+during these twenty years, or that her changed appearance burst upon him
+with anything like a shock. In society, when you are once a member of
+that little world within a world, everybody sees everybody else from
+time to time. He had not recognised her voice, for he was not in the
+smallest degree thinking of Lady Mariamne or of any member of her
+family, notwithstanding that they now and then did make a very marked
+appearance in his mind in respect of the important question of that
+connection which Elinor in her foolishness tried to ignore. And John was
+not at all shocked by the progress of that twenty years, as reflected in
+the appearance of this lady, who was about his own standing, a woman
+very near fifty, but who had fought strenuously against every sign of
+her age, as some women foolishly do. The result was in Lady Mariamne's
+case, as in many others, that the number of her years looked more like a
+hundred and fifty than their natural limit. A woman of her class has but
+two alternatives as she gets old. She must get stout, in which case,
+though she becomes unwieldy, she preserves something of her bloom; or
+she may grow thin, and become a spectre upon which art has to do so much
+that nature, flouted and tortured, becomes vindictive, and withdraws
+every modifying quality. Lady Mariamne had, I fear, false hair, false
+teeth, false complexion, everything that invention could do in a
+poor little human countenance intended for no such manipulation. The
+consequence was that every natural advantage (and there are some which
+age confers, as well as many that age takes away) was lost. The skin was
+parchment, the eyes were like eyes of fishes, the teeth--too white and
+too perfect--looked like the horrible things in the dentists' windows,
+which was precisely what they were. On such a woman, the very height
+of the fashion, to which she so often attaches herself with desperation,
+has an antiquated air. Everything "swears," as the French say,
+with everything else. The softness, the whiteness, the ease, the
+self-abnegation of advancing age are all so many ornaments if people
+but knew. But Lady Mariamne had none of these. She wore a warm cloak
+in her carriage, it is true, but that had dropped from her shoulders,
+leaving her in all the bound-up rigidity in which youth is trim and
+slim and elastic, as becomes it. It is true that many a woman of fifty
+is, as John Tatham was, serenely dwelling on that tableland which
+shows but little difference between thirty-five, the crown of life, and
+fifty-five; but Lady Mariamne was not one of these. She had gone "too
+fast," she would herself have allowed; "the pace" had been too much for
+such survivals. She was of the awful order of superannuated beauties of
+which Mr. Rider Haggard would in vain persuade us "She" was not one. I
+am myself convinced that "She's" thousands of years were all written on
+her fictitious complexion, and that other people saw them clearly if not
+her unfortunate lover. And Lady Mariamne had come to be of the order of
+"She." By dint of wiping out the traces of her fifty years, she had made
+herself look as if she might have been a thousand, and in this guise she
+appeared to the robust, ruddy, well-preserved man of her own age, as she
+stood, with a fantastic little giggle, calling his attention, on the
+threshold of his door.
+
+Behind Lady Mariamne was a very different figure--that of the serious
+and independent girl without any illusions, who is in so many cases the
+child of such a mother, and who is in revolt so complete from all that
+mother's traditions, so highly set on the crown of every opposite
+principle, that nature vindicates itself by the possibility that she
+may at any moment topple over and become again what her mother was. He
+would have been a bold man, however, who in the present stage would
+have prophesied any such fate for Dolly Prestwich, who between working
+at Whitechapel, attending on a ward in St. Thomas's, drawing three
+days a week in the Slade School, and other labours of equally varied
+descriptions, had her time very fully taken up, and only on special
+occasions had time to accompany her mother. She had been beguiled on
+this occasion by the family history which was concerned, and which, _fin
+de siecle_ as Dolly was, excited her curiosity almost as much as if she
+had been born in the "forties." Dolly was never unkind, sometimes indeed
+was quite the reverse, to her mother. When Mr. Tatham, with a man's
+brutal unconsciousness of what is desirable, placed a chair for Lady
+Mariamne in front of the fire, Dolly twisted it round with a dexterous
+movement so as to shield the countenance which was not adapted for any
+such illumination. For herself, Dolly cared nothing, whether it was the
+noonday sun or the blaze of a furnace that shone upon her; she defied
+them both to make her wink. As for complexion, she scorned that
+old-fashioned vanity. She had not very much, it is true. Having been
+scorched red and brown in Alpine expeditions in the autumn, she was now
+of a somewhat dry whitish-greyish hue, the result of much loss of
+cuticle and constant encounter with London fogs and smoke. She carried
+Toto--who was a shrinking, chilly Italian greyhound--in a coat,
+carelessly under one arm, and sat down beside her mother, studying the
+papers on John's table with exceedingly curious eyes. She would have
+liked to go over all his notes about his case, and form her own opinion
+on it--which she would have done, we may be sure, much more rapidly, and
+with more decision, than Mr. Tatham could do.
+
+"So here I am again, you will say," said Lady Mariamne. She had taken
+off her gloves, and was smoothing her hands, from the points of the
+fingers downwards, not, I believe, with any intention of demonstrating
+their whiteness, but solely because she had once done so, and the habit
+remained. She wore several fine rings, and her hands were still pretty,
+and--unlike the rest of her--younger than her age. They made a little
+show with their sparkling diamonds, just catching the edge of the light
+from John's shaded lamp. Her face by Dolly's help was in the shadow of
+the green shade. "You will say so, Mr. Tatham, I know: here she is
+again--without thinking how self-denying I have been, never to come,
+never to ask a single question, for all these years."
+
+"The loss is mine, Lady Mariamne," said John, gravely.
+
+"It's very pretty of you to say that, isn't it, Dolly? One's old flirts
+don't always show up so well." And here the lady gave a laugh, such as
+had once been supposed to be one of Lady Mariamne's charms, but which
+was rather like a giggle now--an antiquated giggle, which is much less
+satisfactory than the genuine article. "How I used to worry you about
+poor Phil, and that little spitfire of a Nell--and what a mess they have
+made of it! I suppose you know what changes have happened in the family,
+Mr. Tatham, since those days?"
+
+"I heard indeed, with regret, Lady Mariamne, that you had lost a
+brother----"
+
+"A brother! two!" she cried. "Isn't it extraordinary--poor Hal, that was
+the picture of health? How little one knows! He just went, don't you
+know, without any one ever thinking he would go. Regg in India was
+different--you expect that sort of thing when a man is in India. But
+poor Hal! I told you Mr. Tatham wouldn't have heard of it, Dolly, not
+being in our own set, don't you know."
+
+"It was in all the papers," said Miss Dolly.
+
+"Ah, well, you didn't notice it, I suppose: or perhaps you were away. I
+always say it is of no use being married or dying or anything else in
+September--your friends never hear of it. You will wonder that I am not
+in black, but black was always very unbecoming to me, and dark grey is
+just as good, and doesn't make one quite so ghastly. But the funny thing
+is that now Phil--who looked as if he never could be in the running,
+don't you know--is heir presumptive. Isn't it extraordinary? Two gone,
+and Phil, that lived much faster than either of them, and at one time
+kept up an awful pace, has seen them both out. And St. Serf has never
+married. He won't now, though I have been at him on the subject for
+years. He says, not if he knows it, in the horrid way men have. And I
+don't wonder much, for he has had some nasty experiences, poor fellow.
+There was Lady---- Oh, I almost forgot you were there, Dolly."
+
+"You needn't mind me," said Dolly, gravely; "I've heard just as bad."
+
+"Well," said Lady Mariamne, with a giggle, "did you ever know anything
+like those girls? They are not afraid of anything. Now, when I was a
+girl--don't you remember what an innocent dear I was, Mr. Tatham?--like
+a lamb; never suspecting that there was any naughtiness in the
+world----"
+
+John endeavoured to put on a smile, in feeble sympathy with the
+uproariousness of Lady Mariamne's laugh--but her daughter took no such
+trouble. She sat as grave as a young judge, never moving a muscle. The
+dog, however, held in her arms, and not at all comfortable, then making
+prodigious efforts to struggle on to its mistress's more commodious lap,
+burst out into a responsive bark, as shrill and not much unlike.
+
+"Darling Toto," said Lady Mariamne, "come!--it always knows what
+it's mummy means. Did you ever see such a darling little head, Mr.
+Tatham?--and the faithful pet always laughs when I laugh. What was I
+talking of?--St. Serf and his ladies. Well, it is not much wonder, you
+know, is it? for he has always been a sort of an invalid, and he will
+never marry now--and poor Hal being gone there's only Phil. Phil's been
+going a pace, Mr. Tatham; but he has had a bad illness, too, and the
+other boys going has sobered him a bit; and I do believe, _now_, that
+he'll probably mend. And there he is, you know, tied to a---- Oh, of
+course, _she_ is as right as a--as right as a--trivet, whatever that may
+be. Those sort of heartless people always are: and then there's the
+child. Is it living, Mr. Tatham?--that's what I want to know."
+
+"Philip is alive and well, Lady Mariamne, if that is what you want to
+know."
+
+"Philip!--she called him after Phil, after all! Well, that is something
+wonderful. I expected to hear he was John, or Jonathan, or something.
+Now, where is he?" said Lady Mariamne, with the most insinuating air.
+
+John burst into a short laugh. "I don't suppose you expect me to tell
+you," he said.
+
+"Why not?--you can't hide a boy that is heir to a peerage, Mr. Tatham!--it
+is impossible. Nell has done the best she could in that way. They know
+nothing about her in that awful place she was married from--of course
+you remember it--a dreadful place, enough to make one commit suicide,
+don't you know. The Cottage, or whatever they call it, is let, and
+nobody knows anything about them. I took the trouble to go there, I
+assure you, on my own hook, to see if I could find out something. Toto
+nearly died of it, didn't you, darling? Not a drop of cream to be had
+for him, the poor angel; only a little nasty skim milk. But Mr. Tatham
+has the barbarity to smile," she went on, with a shrill outcry. "Fancy,
+Toto--the cruelty to smile!"
+
+"No cream for the angel, and no information for his mistress," said
+John.
+
+"You horrid, cruel, cold-blooded man!--and you sit there at your ease,
+and will do nothing for us----"
+
+"Should you like me," said John, "to send out for cream for your dog,
+Lady Mariamne?"
+
+"Cream in the Temple?" said the lady. "What sort of a compound would it
+be, Dolly? All plaster of Paris, or stuff of that sort. Perhaps you have
+tea sometimes in these parts----"
+
+"Very seldom," said John; "but it might be obtainable if you would like
+it." He put forward his hand, but not with much alacrity, to the bell.
+
+"Mother never takes any tea," said Miss Dolly, hastily; "she only
+crumbles down cake into it for that little brute."
+
+"It is you who are a little brute, you unnatural child. Toto likes his
+tea very much--he is dying for it. But you must have patience, my pet,
+for probably it would be very bad, and the cream all stucco, or something.
+Mr. Tatham, do tell us what has become of Nell? Now, have you hidden her
+somewhere in London, St. John's Wood, and that sort of thing, don't you
+know? or where is she? Is the old woman living? and how has that boy
+been brought up? At a dame's school, or something of that sort, I
+suppose."
+
+"Mother," said Dolly, "you ought to know there are now no dame's
+schools. There's Board Schools, which is what you mean, I suppose; and
+it would be very good for him if he had been there. They would teach him
+a great deal more than was ever taught to Uncle Phil."
+
+"Teach him!" said Lady Mariamne, with another shriek. "Did I ask
+anything about teaching? Heaven forbid! Mr. Tatham knows what I mean,
+Dolly. Has he been at any decent place--or has he been where it will
+never be heard of? Eton and Harrow one knows, and the dame's schools one
+knows, but horrible Board Schools, or things, where they might say young
+Lord Lomond was brought up--oh, goodness gracious! One has to bear a
+great many things, but I could not bear that."
+
+"It does not matter much, does it, so long as he does not come within
+the range of his nearest relations?" This was from John, who was almost
+at the end of his patience. He began to put his papers back in a
+portfolio, with the intention of carrying them home with him, for his
+hour's work had been spoilt as well as his temper. "I am afraid," he
+added, "that I cannot give you any information, Lady Mariamne."
+
+"Oh, such nonsense, Mr. Tatham!--as if the heir to a peerage could be
+hid."
+
+It was not often that Lady Mariamne produced an unanswerable effect,
+but against this last sentence of hers John had absolutely nothing to
+say. He stared at her for a moment, and then he returned to his papers,
+shovelling them into the portfolio with vehemence. Fortunately, she did
+not herself see how potent was her argument. She went on diluting it
+till it lost all its power.
+
+"There is the 'Peerage,' if it was nothing else--they must have the
+right particulars for that. Why, Dolly is at full length in it, her age
+and all, poor child; and Toto, too, for anything I know. Is du in the
+'Peerage,' dear Toto, darling? And yet Toto can't succeed, nor Dolly
+either. And this year Phil will be in as heir presumptive and his
+marriage and all--and then a blank line. It's ridiculous, it's horrible,
+it's a thing that can't, can't be! Only think of all the troops of
+people, nice people, the best people, that read the 'Peerage,' Mr.
+Tatham!--and that know Phil is married, and that there is a child, and
+yet will see nothing but that blank line. Nell was always a little fool,
+and never could see things in a common-sense way. But a man ought to
+know better--and a lawyer, with chambers in the Temple! Why, people come
+and consult you on such matters--I might be coming to ask you to send
+out detectives, and that sort of thing. How do you dare to hide away
+that boy?"
+
+Lady Mariamne stamped her foot at John, but this proceeding very much
+incommoded Toto, who, disturbed in his position on her knee, got upon
+his feet and began to bark furiously, first at his mistress and then,
+following her impulse, at the gentleman opposite to her, backing against
+the lady's shoulder and setting up his little nose furiously with
+vibrations of rage against John, while stumbling upon the uncertain
+footing of the lap, volcanically shaken by the movement. The result of
+this onslaught was to send Lady Mariamne into shrieks of laughter, in
+the midst of which she half smothered Toto with mingled endearments and
+attempts at restraint, until Dolly, coming to the rescue, seized him
+summarily and snatched him away.
+
+"The darling!" cried Lady Mariamne, "he sees it, and you can't see it, a
+great big lawyer though you are. Dolly, don't throttle my angel child.
+Stands up for his family, don't he, the dear? Mr. Tatham, how can you be
+so bigoted and stubborn, when our dear little Toto---- But you always
+were the most obstinate man. Do you remember once, when I wanted to take
+you to Lady Dogberry's dance--wasn't it Lady Dogberry's?--well, it was
+Lady Somebody's--and you said you were not asked, and I said, what did
+it matter: but to make you go, and Nell was with me--we might as well
+have tried to make St. Paul's go----"
+
+"My dear Lady Mariamne," said John.
+
+She held up a finger at him with the engaging playfulness of old. "How
+can I be your dear Lady Mariamne, Mr. Tatham, when you won't do a thing
+I ask you? What, Dolly? Yes, we must go, of course, or I shall not have
+my nap before dinner. I always have a nap before dinner, for the sake of
+my complexion, don't you know--my beauty nap, they call it. Now, Mr.
+Tatham, come to me to-morrow, and you shall give Toto his cream, to show
+you bear no malice, and tell me all about the boy. Don't be an obstinate
+pig, Mr. Tatham. Now, I shall look for you--without fail. Shan't we look
+for him, Dolly?--and Toto will give you a paw and forgive you--and you
+must tell me all about the boy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+To tell her all about the boy!
+
+John Tatham shovelled his papers into his portfolio, and shut it up with
+a snap of embarrassment, a sort of confession of weakness. He pushed
+back his chair with the same sharpness, almost making a noise upon the
+old Turkey carpet, and he touched his bell so that it sounded with a
+shrill electric ping, almost like a pistol-shot. Simmons understood all
+these signs, and he was very sympathetic when he came in to take Mr.
+Tatham's last orders and help him on with his coat.
+
+"Spoilt your evening's work," said Simmons, compassionately. "I knew
+they would. Ladies never should enter a gentleman's chambers if I could
+help it. They've got nothing to do in the Temple."
+
+"You forget some men in the Temple are married, Simmons."
+
+"What does that matter?" said the clerk; "let 'em see their wives at
+home, sir. What I will maintain is that ladies have no business here."
+
+This was a little ungrateful, it must be said, for Simmons probably got
+off three-quarters of an hour earlier than he would have done had Mr.
+Tatham remained undisturbed. As it was, John had some ten minutes to
+wait before his habitual hansom drew up at the door.
+
+It was not the first time by many times that Mr. Tatham had considered
+the question which he now took with him into his hansom, and which
+occupied him more or less all the way to Halkin Street. Lady Mariamne,
+however, had put it very neatly and very conclusively when she said that
+you can't hide the heir to a peerage--more concisely at least than John
+had himself put it in his many thoughts on the subject--for, to tell the
+truth, John had never considered the boy in this aspect. That he should
+ever be the heir to a peerage had seemed one of those possibilities
+which so outrage nature, and are so very like fiction, that the sober
+mind rejects them with almost a fling of impatience. And yet how often
+they come true! He had never heard--a fact of which he felt partly
+ashamed, for it was an event of too much importance to be ignored
+by any one connected with Elinor--of Hal Compton's death. John was not
+acquainted with Hal Compton any more than he was with other men who come
+and go in society, occasionally seen, but open to no particular remark.
+A son of Lord St. Serf--the best of the lot--a Compton with very little
+against him: these were things which he had heard said and had taken
+little notice of. Hal was healthier, less objectionable, a better life
+than Phil's, and yet Hal was gone, who ought by all rights to have
+succeeded his invalid brother. It was true that the invalid brother, who
+had seen the end of two vigorous men, might also see out Phil. But that
+would make little difference in the position, unless indeed by modifying
+Elinor's feelings and removing her reluctance to make her boy known.
+John shook his head as he went on with his thoughts, and decided within
+himself that this was the very reason why Phil Compton should survive
+and become Lord St. Serf, and make the imbroglio worse, if worse were
+possible. It had not required this to make it a hideous imbroglio, the
+most foolish and wanton that ever a woman made. He wondered at himself
+when he thought of it how he had ever consented to it, ever permitted
+such a state of affairs; and yet what could he have done? He had no
+right to interfere even in the way of advice, which he had given until
+everybody was sick of him and his counsels. He could not have betrayed
+his cousin. To tell her that she was conducting her affairs very
+foolishly, laying up untold troubles for herself, was what he had done
+freely, going to the very edge of a breach. And he had no right to do
+any more. He could not force her to adopt his method, neither could he
+betray her when she took her own way. Nevertheless, there can be no
+doubt that John felt himself almost an accomplice, involved in this
+unwise folly, with a sort of responsibility for it, and almost guilt. It
+did not indeed change young Philip's moral position in any way, or
+make the discovery that he had a father living more likely to shock
+and bewilder him that this discovery should come mingled with many
+extraneous wonders. And yet these facts did alter the circumstances.
+"You cannot hide the heir to a peerage." Lady Mariamne was far, very
+far, from being a philosopher or a person of genius, and yet this which
+she had said was in reality quite unanswerable. Phil Compton might have
+been ignored for ever by his wife and child had he remained only the
+_dis_-Honourable Phil, a younger son and a nobody. But Phil Compton as
+Lord St. Serf could not be ignored. Elinor had been wise enough never to
+change her name, that is to say, she had been too proud to do so, though
+nobody knew of the existence of that prefix which was so inappropriate
+to her husband's character. But now Mrs. Compton would no longer be her
+name; and Philip, the boy at the big northern grammar-school, would be
+Lord Lomond. An unlooked-for summons like this has sometimes the power
+of turning the heads of the heirs so suddenly ennobled, but it did
+anything but convey elation to John's mind in the prospect of its effect
+upon his relations. Would she see reason _now?_ Would she be brought to
+allow that something must be done, or would she remain obdurate to the
+end of the chapter? A great impatience with Elinor filled John's mind.
+She was, as the reader knows, the only woman to John Tatham; but what
+does that matter? He did not approve of her any more on that account. He
+was even more conscious of the faults of which she was guilty. He was
+aware of her obstinacy, her determined adherence to her own way as no
+other man in the world was. Would she acknowledge now at last that she
+was wrong, and give in? I am obliged to confess that the giving in of
+Elinor was the last spectacle in heaven or earth which John Tatham could
+conceive.
+
+He went over these circumstances as he drove through all of London that
+is to some people worth calling London, on that dark January night,
+passing from the light of the busy streets into the comparative darkness
+of those in which people live, without in the least remarking where he
+was going, except in his thoughts. He had not the least intention of
+accepting the invitation of Lady Mariamne, nor did his mind dwell upon
+her or the change that age had wrought in her. But yet the Compton
+family had gained an interest in John's eyes which it did not possess
+even at the time when Elinor's marriage first brought its name into his
+thoughts. Philip--young Philip--the boy, as John called him in his own
+mind, in fond identification--was as near John's own child as anything
+ever could be in this world. He had many nephews and nieces belonging to
+him by a more authentic title, but none of these was in the least like
+Philip, whom none of all the kindred knew but himself, and who, so
+far as he was aware, had but one kinsman in the world, who was Uncle
+John. He had followed the development of the boy's mind always with a
+reference to those facts of which Philip knew nothing, which would be
+so wonderful to him when the revelation came. To John that little world
+at Lakeside--where the ladies had made an artificial existence for
+themselves, which was at the same time so natural, so sweet, so full
+of all the humanities and charities--was something like what we might
+suppose this erring world to be to some archangel great enough to see
+how everything is, not great enough to give the impulse that would put
+it right. If the great celestial intelligences are allowed to know and
+mark out perverse human ways, how much impatience with us must mingle
+with their tenderness and pity! John Tatham had little perhaps that was
+heavenly about him, but he loved Elinor and her son, and was absolutely
+free of selfishness in respect to them. Never, he was aware, could
+either woman or child be more to him than they were now. Nay, they were
+everything to him, but on their own account, not his; he desired their
+welfare absolutely, and not his own through them. Elinor was capable at
+any moment of turning upon him, of saying, if not in words, yet in
+undeniable inference, what is it to you? and the boy, though he gladly
+referred to Uncle John when Uncle John was in the way, took him with
+perfect composure as a being apart from his life. They were everything
+to him, but he was nothing to them. His whole heart was set upon their
+peace, upon their comfort and well-being, but as much apart from himself
+as if he had not been.
+
+Mr. Tatham was dining out that night, which was a good thing for him to
+distract his thoughts from this problem, which he could only torment
+himself about and could not solve; and there was an evening party at the
+same house--one of those quieter, less-frequented parties which are,
+people in London tell you, so much more agreeable than in the crowd of
+the season. It was a curious kind of coincidence that at this little
+assembly, which might have been thought not at all in her way, he met
+Lady Mariamne, accompanied by her daughter, again. It was not in her
+way, being a judge's house, where frivolity, though it had a certain
+place, was not the first element. But then when there are few things to
+choose from, people must not be too particular, and those who cannot
+have society absolutely of their own choosing, are bound, as in other
+cases of necessity, to take what they can get. And then Dolly liked to
+hear people talking of things which she did not understand. When Lady
+Mariamne saw that John Tatham was there she gave a little shriek of
+satisfaction, and rushed at him as if they had been the dearest friends
+in the world. "So delighted to see you _again_," she cried, giving
+everybody around the idea of the most intimate relationship. "It was the
+most wonderful good fortune that I got my Toto home in safety, poor
+darling; for you know, Mr. Tatham, you would not give him any tea, and
+Dolly, who is quite unnatural, pitched him into the carriage and simply
+sat upon him--sat upon him, Mr. Tatham! before I could interfere. Oh,
+you do not know half the trials a woman has to go through! And now
+please take me to have some coffee or something, and let us finish the
+conversation we were having when Dolly made me go away."
+
+John could not refuse his arm, nor his services in respect to the
+coffee, but he was mute on the subject on which his companion was bent.
+He tried to divert her attention by some questions on the subject of
+Dolly instead.
+
+"Dolly! oh, yes, she's a girl of the period, don't you know--not what a
+girl of the period used to be in _our_ day, Mr. Tatham, when those nasty
+newspaper people wrote us down. Look at her talking to those two men,
+and laying down the law. Now, we never laid down the law; we knew best
+about things in our sphere--dress, and the drawing-room, and what people
+were doing in society. But Dolly would tell you how to manage your next
+great case, Mr. Tatham, or she could give one of those doctor-men a
+wrinkle about cutting off a leg. Gracious, I should have fainted only to
+hear of such a thing! Tell me, are those doctor-men supposed to be in
+society?" Lady Mariamne cried, putting up her thin shoulder (which was
+far too like a specimen of anatomy) in the direction of a famous
+physician who was blandly smiling upon the instruction which Miss Dolly
+assuredly intended to convey.
+
+"As much as lawyer-men are in society," replied John.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Tatham, such nonsense! Lawyers have always been in society.
+What are the Attorney General and Lord Chancellor and so forth? They
+are all lawyers; but I never heard of a doctor that was in the Cabinet,
+which makes all the difference. Here is a quiet corner, where nobody can
+disturb us. Sit down; it will be for all the world like sitting out a
+dance together: and tell me about Nell and her boy."
+
+"And what if I have nothing to tell?" said John, who did not feel at all
+like sitting out a dance; but, on the contrary, was much more upright
+and perpendicular than even a queen's counsel of fifty has any need to
+be.
+
+"Oh, sit down, _please!_ I never could bear a man standing over me, as
+if he had swallowed a poker. Why did she go off and leave Phil? Where
+did she go to? I told you I went off on my own hook to that horrid place
+where they lived, and knocked up the old clergyman and the woman who
+wanted me to put on a shawl over one of the prettiest gowns I ever had.
+Fancy, the Vandal! But they knew nothing at all of her there. Where is
+Nell, Mr. Tatham? You don't pretend not to know. And the boy? Why he
+must be about eighteen--and if St. Serf were to die---- Mr. Tatham, you
+know it is quite, quite intolerable, and not to be borne! I don't know
+what steps Phil has taken. He has been awfully good--he has never said
+a word. To hear him you would think she was far too nice to be mixed up
+with a set of people like us. But now, you know, he must be got hold
+of--he must, he must! Why, he'd be Lomond if St. Serf were to die! and
+everybody would be crying out, 'Where's the heir?' After Phil there's
+the Bagley Comptons, and they would set up for being heirs presumptive,
+unless you can produce that boy."
+
+"But the boy is not mine that I should produce him," said John.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Tatham! when Nell is your relation, and always, always was
+advised by you. You may tell that to the Marines, or anybody that will
+believe it. You need not think you can take me in."
+
+"I hope not to take in anybody. If being advised by me means
+persistently declining to do what I suggest and recommend----"
+
+"Oh, then, you are of the same opinion as I am!" said Lady Mariamne.
+"Bravo! now we shall manage something. If you had been like that years
+ago when I used to go to you, don't you remember, to beg you to smooth
+things down--but you would never see it, till the smash came."
+
+"I wish," said John, not without a little bitterness, "that I could
+persuade you how little influence I have. There are some women, I
+suppose, who take advice when it is given to them; but the women whom I
+have ever had anything to do with, I am sorry to say----"
+
+"I'll promise," cried Lady Mariamne, putting her hands and rings
+together in an attitude of supplication, "to do what you tell me
+faithfully, if you'll advise me where I'll find the boy. Oh, let Nell
+alone, if you want to keep her to yourself--I sha'n't spoil sport, Mr.
+Tatham, I promise you," she cried, with her shrill laugh; "only tell me
+where I'll find the boy. What is it you want, Dolly, coming after me
+like a policeman? Don't you see I am busy? We are sitting out the dance,
+Mr. Tatham and I."
+
+Dolly did not join in her mother's laugh nor unbend in the least. "As
+there is no dancing," she said, "and everybody is going, I thought you
+would prefer to go too."
+
+"But we shall see you to-morrow, Mr. Tatham? Now, I cannot take any
+refusal. You must come, if it were only for Toto's sake; and Dolly will
+go out, I hope, on one of her great works and will not come to disturb
+us, just when I have persuaded you to speak--for you were just going
+to open your mouth. Now you know you were! Five o'clock to-morrow,
+Mr. Tatham, whatever happens. Now remember! and you are to tell me
+everything." She held up her finger to him, half threatening, half
+coaxing, and then, with a peal of laughter, yielded to Dolly, and was
+taken away.
+
+"I did not know, Tatham," said the Judge who was his host, "that you
+were on terms of such friendship with Lady Mariamne."
+
+"Nor did I," said John Tatham, with a yawn.
+
+"Queer thing this is about that old business, in which her brother was
+mixed up--haven't you heard? one of those companies that came to smash
+somewhere about twenty years ago. The manager absconded, and there was
+something queer about the books. Well, the fellow, the manager, has been
+caught at last, and there will be a trial. It's in your way--you will be
+offered a brief, no doubt, with refreshers every day, you lucky fellow.
+I have just as much trouble and no refreshers. What a fool a man is,
+Tatham, ever to change the Bar for the Bench! Don't you do it, my dear
+fellow--take a man's advice who knows."
+
+"At least I shall wait till I am asked," said John.
+
+"Oh, you will be asked sooner or later--but don't do it--take example by
+those who have gone before you," said the great functionary, shaking his
+learned head.
+
+And the Judge's wife had also a word to say. "Mr. Tatham," she said, as
+he took his leave, "I know now what I have to do when I want to secure
+Lady Mariamne--I shall ask you."
+
+"Do you often want to secure Lady Mariamne?" said John.
+
+"Oh, it is all very well to look as if you didn't care! She is, perhaps,
+a little _passee_, but still a great many people think her charming.
+Isn't there a family connection?" Lady Wigsby said, with a curiosity
+which she tried not to make too apparent, for she was acquainted with
+the ways of the profession, and knew that was the last thing likely to
+procure her the information she sought.
+
+"It cannot be called a connection. There was a marriage--which turned
+out badly."
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr. Tatham, if the question was indiscreet! I
+hear Lord St. Serf is worse again, and not likely to last long; and
+there is some strange story about a lost heir."
+
+"Good-night, Lady Wigsby," John replied.
+
+And he added, "Confound Lord St. Serf," under his breath, as he went
+down-stairs.
+
+But it was not Lord St. Serf, poor man, who had done him no harm, whom
+John wished to be confounded because at last, after many threatenings,
+he was about to be so ill-advised as to die. It was some one very
+different. It was the woman who for much more than twenty years had been
+the chief object of John Tatham's thoughts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+Things relapsed into quietness for some time after that combination
+which seemed to be directed against John's peace of mind. If I said that
+it is not unusual for the current of events to run very quietly before
+a great crisis, I should not be saying anything original, since the
+torrent's calmness ere it dash below has been remarked before now. But
+it certainly was so in this instance. John, I need scarcely say, did not
+present himself at Lady Mariamne's on the afternoon at five when he was
+expected. He wrote a very civil note to say that he was unable to come,
+and still less able to give the information her ladyship required; and,
+to tell the truth, in his alarm lest Lady Mariamne should repeat her
+invasion, Mr. Tatham was guilty of concerting with his clerk, the
+excellent Simmons, various means of eluding such a danger. And he
+exercised the greatest circumspection in regard to his own invitations,
+and went nowhere where there was the least danger of meeting her. In
+this way for a few months he had kept himself safe.
+
+It may be imagined, then, how great was his annoyance when Simmons came
+in again, very diffident, coughing behind his hand, and taking shelter
+in the shaded part of the room, with the hesitating statement that a
+lady--who would take no denial, who looked as if she knew the chambers
+as well as he did, and could hardly be kept from walking straight in--was
+waiting to see Mr. Tatham. John sprang to his feet with words which were
+not benedictions. "I thought," he said, "you ass, that you knew exactly
+what to say."
+
+"But, sir," said Simmons, "it is not the same lady--it is not at all the
+same lady. It is a lady who----"
+
+But here the question was summarily settled, for the door was pushed
+open though Simmons still held it with his hand, and a voice, which was
+more like the voice of Elinor Dennistoun at eighteen than that of Mrs.
+Compton, said quickly, "I know, John, that your door can't be shut for
+me."
+
+"Elinor!" he said, getting up from his chair.
+
+"I know," she repeated, "that there must be some mistake--that your door
+could not be shut for me."
+
+"No, of course not," he said. "It is all right, Simmons; but who
+could have thought of seeing you here? It was a contingency I never
+anticipated. When did you come? where are you staying? Is Philip with
+you?" He overwhelmed her with questions, perhaps by way of stopping her
+mouth lest she should put questions still more difficult to answer to
+himself.
+
+"Let me take breath a little," she said. "I scarcely have taken breath
+since the--thing happened which has brought me here; but I feel a little
+confidence now with the strong backing I have in you, John."
+
+"My dear Elinor," he said, "I am afraid you must not look for any strong
+backing in me."
+
+"Why?" she cried. "Have you judged it all beforehand? And do you
+know--are you quite, quite sure, John, that I cannot avoid it in any
+way, that I am obliged at all costs to appear? I would rather fly the
+country, I would rather leave Lakeside altogether and settle abroad.
+There is nothing in the world that I would not rather do."
+
+"Elinor," said John, with some sternness, "you cannot believe that I
+would oppose you in any possible thing. Your pleasure has been a law to
+me. I may have differed with you, but I have never made any difference."
+
+"John! you do not mean to say," she cried, turning pale, "that you are
+going to abandon me now?"
+
+"Of course, that is merely a figure of speech," he said. "How could I
+abandon you? But it is quite true what that woman says, and I entirely
+agree with her and not with you in this respect, that the heir to a
+peerage cannot be hid----"
+
+"The heir to a peerage!" she faltered, looking at him astonished.
+Gradually a sort of slowly growing light seemed to diffuse itself over
+her face. "The heir to a peerage, John! I don't know what you mean."
+
+"Is this not your reason for coming to town?"
+
+"There is nothing--that I know of--about the heir to a peerage. Who is
+this heir to a peerage? I don't know what you mean, but you frighten me.
+Is that a reason why I should be dragged out of my seclusion and made to
+appear in his defence? Oh, no--surely no; if he is _that_, they will let
+him off. They will not press it. I shall not be wanted. John, the more
+reason that you should stand by me----"
+
+"We are at cross-purposes, Elinor. What has brought you to London? Let
+me know on your side and then I shall understand what I have got to
+do."
+
+"_That_ has brought me to London." She handed him a piece of paper which
+John knew very well the appearance of. He understood it better than she
+did, and he was not afraid of it, which she was, but he opened it all
+the same with a great deal of surprise. It was a subpoena charging
+Elinor Compton to appear and bear testimony--in the case of the _Queen_
+versus _Brown_.
+
+"The _Queen_ versus _Brown!_ What have you got to do with such a case?
+You, Elinor, of all people in the world! Oh!" he said suddenly as a
+light, but a dim one, began to break upon him. It was the case of which
+his friend the judge had spoken, and in which he had been offered a
+retainer, as a matter of fact, shortly after that talk. He had been
+obliged to refuse, his time being already fully taken up, and he had not
+looked into the case. But now it began slowly to dawn upon him that the
+trial was that of the once absconded manager of a certain joint-stock
+company, and that this was precisely the company in which Elinor's money
+had been all but invested by her husband. It might be upon that subject
+that she had to appear.
+
+"Well," he said, "I can imagine a possible reason why you should be
+called, and yet not a good one; for it was not of course you who were
+acting, but your--husband for you. It is he that should appear, and not
+you."
+
+"Oh, John," she cried. "Oh, John!" wringing her hands. She had followed
+his looks eagerly, noticing the light that seemed to dawn over his face
+with a strange anxiety and keen interest. But John, it was evident, had
+not got the clue which she expected, and her face changed into
+impatience, disappointment, exasperation. "You have not heard anything
+about it," she said; "you don't know."
+
+"It was brought to me," he said, "but I could not take it up--no, I
+don't know--except that it's curious from the lapse of time--twenty
+years or thereabouts: that's all I know."
+
+"The question is," she said, "about a date. There were some books
+destroyed, and it is not known who did it. Suspicion fell upon one--who
+might have been guilty: but that on that day--he arrived at the house of
+the girl--whom he was going to marry: and consequently could not have
+been there----"
+
+"Elinor!"
+
+"Yes," she said, "that is what I am wanted for, John, an excellent
+reason after all these years. I must appear to--clear my husband: and
+that is how Pippo will find out that I have a husband and he a father.
+Oh, John, John! support me with your approval, and help me, oh, help me
+to go away."
+
+"Good gracious!" was all that John could say.
+
+"I should have gone first and asked you after," she cried, "for you are
+a lawyer, and I suppose you will think you must not advise any one to
+fly in the face of the law. And I don't even know whether it will be of
+any use to fly. Will they have it in the papers all the same? Will they
+put it in that his wife refused to appear on his behalf, that she had
+gone away to avoid the summons? Will it be all there for Pippo to guess
+and wonder at the name and come to me with questions, mother, who is
+this? and mother, what is that? John, can't you answer me, you that I
+came to to guide me, to tell me what I must do; have you nothing,
+nothing to say?"
+
+"I am too much bewildered to know what I am doing, Elinor. This is all
+sprung upon me like a mine: and there was plenty before."
+
+"There was nothing before," she cried, indignantly, "it was all plain
+sailing before. He knew nothing of family troubles--how should he, poor
+child, being so young? That was simple enough. And I think I see a way
+still, John. I will take him off at Easter for a trip abroad, and when
+we have started to go to Switzerland or somewhere, I will change my
+mind, and make him think of Greece or somewhere far, far away--the East
+where there will be no newspapers. Tell me when the trial will come on,
+and how long you think it will last, and I will keep him away till it is
+all over. John! you have nothing surely to say against that? Think from
+how much it will save the boy."
+
+"It is impossible, Elinor, that the boy can be saved. I never knew of
+this complication, but there are other circumstances, of which I have
+lately heard."
+
+"What can any other circumstances have to do with it, John, even if he
+must hear? I know, I know, you have always been determined upon that. Is
+that the way you would have him hear, not only that he has a father, but
+that his father was involved in--in transactions like that before ever
+he was born?"
+
+"Elinor, let us understand each other," said Mr. Tatham. "You mean that
+you have it in your power to exonerate your husband, and he has had you
+subpoenaed, knowing this?"
+
+She looked at him with a look which he could not fathom. Was it reluctance
+to save Phil Compton that was in Elinor's eyes? Was she ready to leave
+her husband to destruction when she could prevent it, in order to save
+her boy from the knowledge of his existence? John Tatham was horrified
+by the look she fixed upon him, though he could not read it. He thought
+he could read it, and read it that way, in the way of hate and deliberate
+preference of her own will to all law and justice. There could be
+no such tremendous testimony to the power of that long continued,
+absolutely-faithful, visionary love which John Tatham bore to Elinor
+than that this discovery which he thought he had made did not destroy
+it. He was greatly shocked, but it made no difference in his feelings.
+Perhaps there was more of the brotherly character in them than he
+thought. For a moment they looked at each other, and he thought he made
+this discovery--while she met his eyes with that look which she did not
+know was inscrutable, which she feared was full of self-betrayal. "I
+believe," she said, bending her head, "that that is what he thinks."
+
+"If it had been me," said John Tatham, moved out of his habitual calm,
+"I would rather be proved guilty of anything than owe my safety to such
+an expedient as that. Drag in a woman who hates me to prove my alibi as
+if she loved me! By Jove, Elinor! you women have the gift of drawing out
+everything that's worst in men."
+
+"It seems to make you hate me, John, which I don't think I have
+deserved."
+
+"Oh, no, I don't hate you. It's a consequence, I suppose, of use and
+wont. It makes little difference to me----"
+
+She gave him another look which he did not understand--a wistful look,
+appealing to something, he did not know what--to his ridiculous
+partiality, he thought, and that stubborn domestic affection to which it
+was of so little importance what she did, as long as she was Elinor; and
+then she said with a woman's soft, endless pertinacity, "Then you think
+I may go?"
+
+He sprang from his seat with that impatient despair which is equally
+characteristic of the man. "Go!" he said, "when you are called upon by
+law to vindicate a man's character, and that man your husband! I ought
+not to be surprised at anything with my experience, but, Elinor, you
+take away my breath."
+
+She only smiled, giving him once more that look of appeal.
+
+"How can you think of it?" he said. "The subpoena is enough to keep any
+reasonable being, besides the other motive. You must not budge. I should
+feel my own character involved, as well as yours, if after consulting me
+on the subject you were guilty of an evasion after all."
+
+"It would not be your fault, John."
+
+"Elinor! you are mad--it must not be done," he cried. "Don't defy me, I
+am capable of informing upon you, and having you stopped--by force--if
+you do not give this idea up."
+
+"By force!" she said, with her nostril dilating. "I shall go, of course,
+if I am threatened."
+
+"Then Philip must not go. Do you know what has happened in the family to
+which he belongs, and must belong, whether you like it or not? Do you
+know--that the boy may be Lord Lomond before the week is out? that his
+uncle is dying, and that your husband is the heir?"
+
+She turned round upon him slowly, fixing her eyes upon his, with simple
+astonishment and no more in her look. Her mind, so absorbed in other
+thoughts, hardly took in what he could mean.
+
+"Have you not heard this, Elinor?"
+
+"But there is Hal," she said, "Hal--the other brother--who comes first."
+
+"Hal is dead, and the one in India is dead, and Lord St. Serf is dying.
+The boy is the heir. You must not, you cannot, take him away. It is
+impossible, Elinor, it is against all nature and justice. You have had
+him for all these years; his father has a right to his heir."
+
+"Oh, John!" she cried, in a bitter note of reproach, "oh, John, John!"
+
+"Well," he cried, "is not what I tell you the truth? Would Philip give
+it up if it were offered to him? He is almost a man--let him judge for
+himself."
+
+"Oh, John, John! when you know that the object of my life has been to
+keep him from knowing--to shut that chapter of my life altogether; to
+bring him up apart from all evil influences, from all instructions----"
+
+"And from his birthright, Elinor?"
+
+She stopped, giving him another sudden look, the natural language
+of a woman brought to bay. She drew a long breath in impatience and
+desperation, not knowing what to reply; for what could she reply? His
+birthright! to be Lord Lomond, Lord St. Serf, the head of the house.
+What was that? Far, far better Philip Dennistoun, of Lakeside, the heir
+of his mother and his grandmother, two stainless women, with enough
+for everything that was honest and of good report, enough to permit
+him to be an unworldly scholar, a lover of art, a traveller, any
+play-profession that he chose if he did not incline to graver work. Ah!
+but she had not been so wise as that, she had not brought him up as
+Philip Dennistoun. He was Philip Compton, she had not been bold enough
+to change his name. She stood at bay, surrounded as it were by her
+enemies, and confronted John Tatham, who had been her constant companion
+and defender, as if all that was hostile to her, all that was against
+her peace was embodied in him.
+
+"I must go a little further, Elinor," said John, "though God knows that
+to add to your pain is the last thing in the world I wish. You have
+been left unmolested for a very long time, and we have all thought your
+retreat was unknown. I confess it has surprised me, for my experience
+has always been that everything is known. But you have been subpoenaed
+for this trial, therefore, my dear girl, we must give up that idea.
+Everybody, that is virtually everybody, all that are of any consequence,
+know where you are and all you are about now."
+
+She sank into a chair, still keeping her eyes upon him, as if it were
+possible that he might take some advantage of her if she withdrew them;
+then, still not knowing what to reply, seized at the last words because
+they were the last, and had little to do with the main issue. "All about
+me?" she said faintly, as if there had been something else besides the
+place of her refuge to conceal.
+
+"You know what I mean, Elinor. The moment that your home is known all is
+known. That Philip lives and is well, a promising boy; that you have
+brought him up to do honour to any title or any position."
+
+He could not help saying this, and partly in the testimony to her,
+partly for love of the boy, John Tatham's voice faltered a little and
+the water came into his eyes.
+
+"Ah, John! you say that!" she cried, as if it had been an admission
+forced from him against his will.
+
+"What could I say otherwise? Elinor, because I don't approve of all your
+proceedings, because I don't think you have been wise in one respect, is
+that to say that I do not understand and know _you?_ I am not such a
+fool or a formalist as you give me credit for being. You have made him
+all that the fondest and proudest could desire. You have done far
+better for him, I do not doubt for a moment, than---- But, my dear
+cousin, my dear girl, my poor Nellie----"
+
+"Yes, John?"
+
+He paused a moment, and then he said, "Right is right, and justice is
+justice at the end of all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+When Elinor received the official document which had so extraordinary an
+effect upon her life, and overturned in a moment all the fabric of
+domestic quiet and security which she had been building up for years, it
+was outside the tranquil walls of the house at Lakeside, in the garden
+which lay between it and the high-road, opening upon that not very
+much-frequented road by a pair of somewhat imposing gates, which gave
+the little establishment an air of more pretension than it really
+possessed. Some fine trees shrouded the little avenue, and Elinor was
+standing under one of them, stooping over a little nest of primroses at
+its roots, from which the yellow buds were peeping forth, when she heard
+behind her the sound of a vehicle at the gates, and the quick leap to
+the ground of someone who opened them. Then there was a pause; the
+carriage, whatever it was, did not come farther, and presently she
+herself, a little curious, turned round to see a man approaching her,
+whom she did not know. A dog-cart driven by another, whose face she
+recognized, waited in the road while the stranger came forward. "You are
+Mrs. Compton, ma'am?" he said. A swift thrill of alarm, she could
+scarcely tell why, ran over Elinor from head to foot. She had been
+settled for nearly eighteen years at Lakeside. What could happen to
+frighten her now? but it tingled to her very fingers' ends. And then he
+said something to her which she scarcely understood, but which sent that
+tingle to her very heart and brain, and gave her the suspicious looking
+blue paper which he held in his hand. It all passed in a moment of time
+to her dazed yet excited consciousness. The early primrose which she had
+gathered had not had time to droop in her grasp, though she crushed the
+stalk unconsciously in her fingers, before the gates were closed again,
+the sound of the departing wheels growing faint on the road, and she
+herself standing like one paralyzed with that thing in her hand. A
+subpoena!--what was a subpoena? She knew as little, perhaps less, than
+the children in the parish school, who began to troop along the road in
+their resounding clogs at their dinner hour. The sound of this awoke her
+a little to a frightened sense that she had better put this document out
+of sight, at least until she could manage to understand it. And then she
+sped swiftly away past the pretty white house lying in the sunshine,
+with all its doors and windows open, to the little wood behind, where it
+would be possible to think and find out at her leisure what this was. It
+was a small wood and a public path ran through it; but where the public
+was so limited as at Lakeside this scarcely impaired the privacy of the
+inhabitants, at least in the morning, when everybody in the parish was
+at work. Elinor hurried past the house that her mother might not see
+her, and climbed the woody hillock to a spot which was peculiarly her
+own, and where a seat had been placed for her special use. It was a
+little mount of vision from which she could look out, up and down, at
+the long winding line of the lake cleaving the green slopes, and away to
+the rugged and solemn peaks among which lay, in his mountain fastnesses,
+Helvellyn, with his hoary brethren crowding round him. Elinor had
+watched the changes of many a north-country day, full of endless
+vicissitudes, of flying clouds and gleams of sunshine, from that seat,
+and had hoped and tried to believe that nothing, save these vicissitudes
+of nature, would ever again disturb her. Had she really believed that?
+Her heart thumping against her breast, and the pulses of her brain
+beating loud in her ears, answered "No." She had never believed it--she
+had known, notwithstanding all her obstinacy, and indignant opposition
+to all who warned her, that some day or other her home must be broken
+up, and the storm burst upon her. But even such a conviction, desperately
+fought against and resisted, is a very different matter from the awful
+sense of certainty that it has come, _now_----
+
+The trees were thick enough to conceal her from any passer-by on the
+path, the young half-unfolded foliage of the birches fluttered over her
+head, while a solid fir or two stood, grim guardians, yet catching
+pathetic airs from every passing wind to soothe her. But Elinor neither
+heard nor saw lake, mountain, nor sunshine, nor spring breezes, but only
+the bit of paper in her hand, and the uncomprehended words she had heard
+when it was given to her. It was not long, however, before she perceived
+and knew exactly what it meant. It was a subpoena in the case of "The
+Queen _versus_ Brown," to attend and give evidence on a certain day in
+May, in London. It was for a few minutes a mystery to her as great as it
+was alarming, notwithstanding the swift and certain mental conviction
+she had that it concerned infallibly the one secret and mystery of
+her life. But as she sat there pondering, those strange strays of
+recollection that come to the mind, of things unnoted, yet unconsciously
+stored by memory, drew gradually about her, piecing out the threads of
+conviction. She remembered to have heard her mother read, among the many
+scraps which Mrs. Dennistoun loved to read out when the newspaper
+arrived, something about a man who had absconded, whose name was Brown,
+who had brought ruin on many, and had at length, after a number of
+years, ventured back to England and had been caught. It was one of the
+weaknesses of Mrs. Dennistoun's advancing years to like these bits
+of news, though there might be little interest in them to so quiet
+a household; and her daughter was wont to listen with a very vague
+attention, noting but a word now and then, answering vaguely the lively
+remarks her mother would make on the subjects. In this case even she had
+paid no attention; and yet, the moment that strong keynote had been
+struck, which vibrated through her whole being, this echo suddenly woke
+up and resounded as if it had been thundered in her ears--"Brown!" She
+began to remember bit by bit--and yet what had she to do with Brown?
+He had not defrauded her; she had never seen him; she knew nothing
+about his delinquencies. Then there came another note faintly out
+of the distance of the years: her husband's image, I need not say,
+had come suddenly into her sight with the first burst of this new
+event. His voice seemed to be in the air saying half-forgotten things.
+What had he to do with this man? Oh, she knew very well there was
+something--something! which she would have given her life not to
+recollect; which she knew in another moment would flash completely upon
+her as she tried not to remember it. And then suddenly her working mind
+caught another string which was not that; which was a relief to that for
+the moment. Brown!--who was it that had talked of Brown?--and the books
+that were destroyed--and the----and the----day that Phil Compton arrived
+at Windyhill?
+
+Elinor rose up from her seat with a gasp. She put her arm round the
+rough stem of the fir-tree to support herself, but it shook with her
+though there was no wind, only the softest of morning airs. She saw
+before her a scene very different from this--the flowery garden at the
+cottage with the copse and the sandy road beyond, and the man whom Phil
+had expected, whom he had been so anxious to see--and his fingers
+catching hers, keeping her by him, and the questions to which she had
+replied. Twenty years! What a long time it is! time enough for a boy to
+grow into almost a man who had not been born or thought of--and yet what
+a moment, what a nothing! Her mind flashed from that scene in the garden
+to the little hall in the cottage, the maid stooping down fastening the
+bolt of the door, the calendar hanging on the wall with the big 6
+showing so visible, so obtrusive, forcing itself as it were on the
+notice of all. "Only ten days, Nell!" And the maid's glance upwards of
+shy sympathy, and the blank of Mrs. Dennistoun's face, and his look. Oh,
+that look of his! which was true and yet so false; which meant so much
+besides, and yet surely, surely meant love too!
+
+The young fir-tree creaked and swayed in Elinor's grip. She unloosed it
+as if the slim thing had cried under the pressure, and sat down again.
+She had nothing to grasp at, nothing. Oh, her life had not been without
+support! Her mother--how extraordinary had been her good fortune to have
+her mother to fall back upon when she was shipwrecked in her life--to
+have a home, a shelter, a perpetual protector and champion, who, whether
+she approved or disapproved, would forsake her never. And then the boy,
+God bless him! who might quiver like the little fir if she flung herself
+upon him, but who, she knew, would stand as true. Oh, God forbid, God
+forbid that he should ever know! Oh, God help her, God help her! how was
+she to keep it from his knowledge? Elinor flung herself down upon the
+mossy knoll in her despair as this came pouring into her mind a flood of
+horrible light, of unimaginable bitterness. He must not know, he must
+not know; and yet how was it to be kept from his knowledge? It was a
+public thing; it could not be hid. It would be in all the papers, his
+father's name: and the boy did not know he had a father living. And his
+mother's evidence on behalf of her husband; and the boy thought she had
+no husband.
+
+This was what had been said to her again and again and again. Sometime
+the boy must know--and she had pushed it from her angrily, indignantly
+asking why should he know? though in the bottom of her own heart she too
+was aware that it was the delusion of a fool, and that the time must
+come---- But how could she ever have thought that it would come like
+this, that the boy would discover his father through the summons of his
+mother to a public court to defend her husband from a criminal
+accusation? Oh, life that pardons nothing! Oh, severe, unchanging
+heaven!--that this should be the way!
+
+And then there came into Elinor's mind wild thoughts of flight. She
+was not a woman whose nature it was to endure. When things became
+intolerable to her she fled from them, as the reader knows; escaped,
+shutting her ears to all advice and her heart to all thoughts except
+that life had become intolerable, and that she could bear it no longer.
+It is not easy to hold the balance even in such matters. Had Elinor
+fulfilled what would appear to many her first duty, and stood by Phil
+through neglect, ill-treatment, and misery, as she had vowed, for
+better, for worse, she would by this time have been not only a wretched
+but a deteriorated woman, and her son most probably would have been
+injured both in his moral and intellectual being. What she had done was
+not the abstract duty of her marriage vow, but it had been better--had
+it not been better for them both? In such a question who is to be the
+judge? And now again there came surging up into Elinor's veins the
+impulse of flight. To take the boy and fly. She could take him where he
+wished most to go, to the scenes of that literature and history of which
+his schoolboy head was full, to the happiest ideal wandering, his mother
+and he, two companions almost better than lovers. How his eyes would
+brighten at the thought! among the summer seas, the golden islands, the
+ideal countries--away from all the trouble and cares, all the burdens of
+the past, all the fears of the future! Why should she be held by that
+villainous paper and obey that dreadful summons? Why allow all her
+precautions, all the fabric of her life to fall in a moment? Why pour
+upon the boy the horror of that revelation, when everything she had done
+and planned all his life had been to keep it from him? In the sudden
+energy of that new possibility of escape Elinor rose up again from the
+prostration of despair. She saw once more the line of shining water at
+her feet full of heavenly splendour, the mountain tops sunning
+themselves in the morning light, the peace and the beauty that was over
+all. And there was nothing needed but a long journey, which would be
+delightful, full of pleasure and refreshment, to secure her peace to
+her, and to save her boy.
+
+When she had calmed herself with this new project, which, the moment it
+took form in her mind seemed of itself, without reference to the cause,
+the most delightful project in the world and full of pleasure--Elinor
+smoothed back her hair, put her garden hat, which had got a little out
+of order, straight, and took her way again towards the house. Her heart
+had already escaped from the shock and horror and was beating softly,
+exhausted yet refreshed, in her bosom. She felt almost like a child who
+had sobbed all its troubles out, or like a convalescent recovering from
+a brief but violent illness, and pathetically happy in the cessation of
+pain. She went along quietly, slowly, by the woodland path among the
+trees full of the sweetness of the morning which seemed to have come
+back to her. Should she say anything about it to her mother, or only by
+degrees announce to her the plan she had begun to form for Pippo's
+pleasure, the long delightful ramble which would come between his
+school-time and the university? She had almost decided that she would do
+this when she went into the house; but she had not been half an hour
+with her mother when her intention became untenable, for the good reason
+that she had already told Mrs. Dennistoun of the new incident. They were
+not in the habit of keeping secrets from each other, and in that case
+there is nothing in the world so difficult. It requires training to keep
+one's affairs to one's self in the constant presence of those who are
+our nearest and dearest. Some people may be capable of this effort of
+self-control, but Elinor was not. She had showed that alarming paper to
+her mother with a partial return of her own terror at the sight of it
+before she knew. And I need not say that for a short time Mrs.
+Dennistoun was overwhelmed by that natural horror too.
+
+"But," she said, "what do you know, what can you tell about this Mr.
+Brown, Elinor? You never saw him in your life."
+
+"I think I know what it means," said Elinor, with a sudden dark glow
+of colour, which faded instantly, leaving her quite pale. She added
+hurriedly, "There were some books destroyed. I cannot tell you the
+rights of the story. It is too dreadful altogether, but--another was
+exculpated by the date of the day he arrived at Windyhill. This must be
+the reason I am called."
+
+"The date he arrived--before your marriage, Elinor? But then they might
+call me, and you need not appear."
+
+"Not for the world, mother!" cried Elinor. The colour rose again and
+faded. "Besides, you do not remember."
+
+"Oh, I could make it out," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "It was when he came
+from Scotland, and went off in the evening next day. I don't at this
+moment remember what the day was, but I could make it out. It was about
+a fortnight before, it was----"
+
+"Do you remember, mother, the little calendar in the hall, and what it
+marked, and what he said?"
+
+"I remember, of course, perfectly well the little calendar in the hall.
+You gave it me at Christmas, and it was always out of order, and never
+kept right. But I could make it out without that."
+
+"You must not think of it for a moment," cried Elinor, with a shudder.
+There had been so many things to think of that it had scarcely occurred
+to her what it was to which she had to bear witness. She told her mother
+hurriedly the story of that incident, and then she added, without stopping
+to take breath, "But I will not appear. I cannot appear. We must keep it
+out of the papers, at every cost. Mother, do not think it dreadful of
+me. I will run away with Pippo; far away, if you will not be anxious.
+This is just his chance between school and college. I will take him to
+Greece."
+
+"To Greece, Elinor?" Mrs. Dennistoun cried, with almost a shriek.
+
+"Mother, dear, it is not so very far away."
+
+"I am not thinking how far away it is, Elinor. And leave his father's
+reputation to suffer? Leave him perhaps to be ruined--by a false
+charge?"
+
+"Oh, mother," cried Elinor, starting to her feet. She was quite
+unprepared for such remonstrance.
+
+"My dear, I have not opposed you; though there have been many things I
+have scarcely approved of. But, Elinor, this must not be. Run away from
+the law? Allow another to suffer when you can clear him? Elinor, Elinor,
+this must not be--unless I can go and be his witness in your place. I
+might do that," said Mrs. Dennistoun, seriously. She paused a moment,
+and then she said, "But I think you are wrong about the sixth. He stayed
+only one night, and the night he went away was the night that Alick
+Hudson--who was going up for his examination. I can make it out exactly,
+if you will give me a little time to think it over. My poor child! that
+you should have this to disturb your peace. But I will go, Elinor. I can
+clear him as well as you."
+
+Elinor stood up before her, pallid as a ghost. "For God's sake, mother,
+not another word," she said, with a dreadful solemnity. "The burden is
+mine, and I must bear it. Let us not say a word more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+I will not confuse the reader with a description of all Elinor's
+thoughts during the slow progress of that afternoon and evening, which
+were as the slow passing of a year to her impatient spirit. She
+took the usual afternoon walk with her mother soberly, as became Mrs.
+Dennistoun's increasing years, and then she made a pretext of some
+errands in the village to occupy her until dark, or rather to leave
+her free to twist the thread of her own thoughts as she went along the
+silent country road. Her thoughts varied in the afternoon from those
+which had seized upon her with such vulture's claws in the morning; but
+they were not less overwhelming in that respect. Her mother's suggestion
+that _she_ and not Elinor should be the witness of that date, and then
+her ponderings as to that date, her slow certainty that she could make
+it out, or puzzle it out, as Elinor in her impatience said, which was
+the last of all things to be desired--had stung the daughter into a new
+and miserable realization of what it was that was demanded of her, which
+nobody could do but she. What was it that would be demanded of her? To
+stand up in the face of God and man and swear to tell the truth, and
+tell--a lie: or else let the man who had been her husband, the love of
+her youth, the father of her boy, sink into an abyss of shame. She
+thought rapidly, knowing nothing, that surely there could be no
+punishment for him, even if it were proved, at the long interval of
+twenty years. But, shame--there would be shame. Nothing could save him
+from that. Shame which would descend more or less to his son. And then
+Elinor reflected, with hot moisture coming out upon her forehead against
+the cold breeze of the spring night, on what would be asked of her.
+Oh, no doubt, it would be cleverly done! She would be asked if she
+remembered his visit, and why she remembered it. She would be led on
+carefully to tell the story of the calendar in the hall, and of how it
+was but ten days before her marriage--the last hurried, unexpected visit
+of the lover before he came as a bridegroom to take her away. It would
+be all true, every word, and yet it would be a lie. And standing up
+there in that public place, she would be made to repeat it, as she had
+done in the flowery garden, in the sunshine, twenty years ago--then
+dazed and bewildered, not knowing what she did, and with something of
+the blind confidence of youth and love in saying what she was told to
+say; but now with clearer insight, with a horrible certainty of the
+falsehood of that true story, and the object with which it was required
+of her. Happily for herself, Elinor did not think of the ordeal of
+cross-examination through which witnesses have to pass. She would not,
+I think, have feared that if the instinct of combativeness had been
+roused in her: her quick wit and ready spirit would not have failed in
+defending herself, and in maintaining the accuracy of the fact to which
+she had to bear witness. It was herself, and not an opposing counsel,
+that was alarming to Elinor. But I have promised that the reader should
+not be compelled to go through all the trouble and torment of her
+thoughts.
+
+Dinner, with the respect which is necessary for the servant who waits,
+whether that may be a solemn butler with his myrmidons, or a little
+maid--always makes a pause in household communications; but when the
+ladies were established afterwards by the pleasant fireside which had
+been their centre of life for so many years, and with the cheerful lamp
+on the table between them which had lighted so many cheerful talks,
+readings, discussions, and consultations, the new subject of anxiety and
+interest immediately came forth again. It was Mrs. Dennistoun who spoke
+first. She had grown older, as we all do; she wore spectacles as she
+worked, and often a white shawl on her shoulders, and was--as sometimes
+her daughter felt, with shame of herself to remark it--a little slower
+in speech, a little more pertinacious and insistent, not perhaps
+perceiving with such quick sympathy the changes and fluctuations of
+other minds, and whether it was advisable or not to follow a subject to
+the bitter end. She said, looking up from her knitting, with a little
+rhetorical movement of her hand which Elinor feared, and which showed
+that she felt herself on assured and certain ground:
+
+"My dear, I have been thinking. I have made it out day by day. God knows
+there were plenty of landmarks in it to keep any one from forgetting. I
+can now make out certainly the day--of which we were speaking; and if
+you will give me your attention for a minute or two, Elinor, you will
+see that whatever the calendar said--which I never noticed, for it was
+as often wrong as right--you are making a mis----"
+
+"Oh, for Heaven's sake, mother," cried Elinor, "don't let us talk of
+that any more!"
+
+"I have no desire to talk of it, my dear child; but for what you said
+I should never---- But of course we must take some action about this
+thing--this paper you have got. And it seems to me that the best thing
+would be to write to John, and see whether he could not manage to get it
+transferred from you to me. I can't see what difficulty there could be
+about that."
+
+"I would not have it for the world, mother! And what good would it do?
+The great thing in it, the dreadful thing, would be unchanged. Whether
+you appear or me, Pippo would be made to know, all the same, what it has
+been our joint object to conceal from him all his life."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun did not say anything, but she would not have been mortal
+if she had not, very slightly, but yet very visibly to keen eyes, shaken
+her head.
+
+"I know what you mean," said Elinor, vehemently, "that it has been I,
+and not we, whose object has been to conceal it from him. Oh, yes, I
+know you are right; but at least you consented to it, you have helped in
+it, it is your doing as well as mine."
+
+"Elinor, Elinor!" cried her mother, who, having always protested, was
+not prepared for this accusation.
+
+"Is there any advantage to be got," said Elinor, like an injured and
+indignant champion of the right, "in opening up the whole question over
+again now?"
+
+What could poor Mrs. Dennistoun do? She was confounded, as she often had
+been before, by those swift and sudden tactics. She gave a glance up at
+her daughter over her spectacles, but she said nothing. Argument, she
+knew by long experience, was difficult to keep up with such an opponent.
+
+"But John is an idea," said Elinor. "I don't know why I should not have
+thought of him. He may suggest something that could be done."
+
+"I thought of him, of course, at once," said Mrs. Dennistoun, not able
+to refrain from that small piece of self-assertion. "It is not a time
+that it would be easy for him to leave town; but at least you could
+write and lay your difficulties before him, and suggest----"
+
+"Oh, you may be sure, mother," cried Elinor, "I know what I have to
+say."
+
+"I never doubted it, my dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, gently.
+
+And then there was a little pause. They sat and worked, the elder lady
+stumbling a little over her knitting, her thoughts being so much engaged;
+the younger one plying a flying needle, the passion and impetus of her
+thoughts lending only additional swiftness and vigour to everything she
+did. And for ten minutes or more there was nothing to be heard in the
+room but the little drop of ashes from the fire, the sudden burst of a
+little gas-flame from the coals, the rustle of Elinor's arm as it moved.
+The cat sat with her tail curled round her before the fire, the image of
+dignified repose, winking at the flames. The two human inhabitants, save
+for the movements of their hands, might have been in wax, they were so
+still. Suddenly, however, the quietness was broken by an energetic
+movement. Elinor threw her work down on the table and rose from her
+chair. She went to the window and drew the curtain aside, and looked
+out upon the night. She shut it carefully again, and going to the
+writing-table, struck a match and lighted the candles there, and sat
+down and began, or appeared to begin, to write. Then she rose quickly
+again and returned to the table at which Mrs. Dennistoun was still
+seated, knitting on, but watching every movement of her restless
+companion. "Mother," she said, "I can't write, I have far too much to
+say. I will run up to town to-morrow myself and see John."
+
+"To town, Elinor, by yourself? My dear, you forget it is not an hour's
+journey, as it was to Windyhill."
+
+"I know that very well, mother. But even the journey will be an
+advantage. The movement will do me good, and I can tell John much better
+than I could write. Who could write about a complicated business like
+this? He will understand me when he sees me at half a word; whereas in
+writing one can never explain. Don't oppose me, please, mother! I feel
+that to do something, to get myself in motion, is the only thing for me
+now."
+
+"I will not oppose you, Elinor. I have done so, perhaps, too little, my
+dear; but we will not speak of that. No doubt, as you say, you will
+understand each other better if you tell him the circumstances face to
+face. But, oh, my dear child, do nothing rash! Be guided by John; he is
+a prudent adviser. The only thing is that he, no more than I, has ever
+been able to resist you, Elinor, if you had set your heart upon any
+course. Oh, my dear, don't go to John with a foregone conclusion. Hear
+first what he has to say!"
+
+Elinor came behind her mother with one of those quick returns of
+affectionate impulse which were natural to her, and put her arms
+suddenly round Mrs. Dennistoun. "You have always been far too good to
+me, mamma," she said, kissing her tenderly, "both John and you."
+
+And next morning she carried out her swiftly conceived intention and
+went to town, as the reader is aware. A long railway journey is
+sometimes soothing to one distracted with agitation and trouble. The
+quiet and the noise, which serves as a kind of accompaniment, half
+silencing, half promoting too active thought; the forced abstraction
+and silence, and semi-imprisonment of mind and body, which are equally
+restless, but which in that enclosure are bound to self-restraint,
+exercise, in spite of all struggles of the subject, a subduing effect.
+And it was a strange thing that in the seclusion of the railway
+compartment in which she travelled alone there came for the first time
+to Elinor a softening thought, the sudden sensation of a feeling, of
+which she had not been sensible for years, towards the man whose name
+she bore. It occurred to her quite suddenly, she could not tell how, as
+if some one invisible had thrown that reflection into her mind (and I
+confess that I am of opinion they do: those who are around us, who are
+unseen, darting into our souls thoughts which do not originate with us,
+thoughts not always of good, blasphemies as well as blessings)--it
+occurred to her, I say, coming into her mind like an arrow, that after
+all she had not been so well hidden as she thought all these years,
+seeing that she had been found at once without difficulty, it appeared,
+when she was wanted. Did this mean that he had known where she was all
+the time--known, but never made any attempt to disturb her quiet? The
+thought startled her very much, revealing to her a momentary glimpse of
+something that looked like magnanimity, like consideration and generous
+self-restraint. Could these things be? He could have hurt her very much
+had he pleased, even during the time she had remained at Windyhill, when
+certainly he knew where she was: and he had not done so. He might have
+taken her child from her: at least he might have made her life miserable
+with fears of losing her child: and he had not done so. If indeed it was
+true that he had known where she was all the time and had never done
+anything to disturb her, what did that mean? This thought gave Elinor
+perhaps the first sense of self-reproach and guilt that she had ever
+known towards this man, who was her husband, yet whom she had not seen
+for more than eighteen years.
+
+And then there was another thing. After that interval he was not afraid
+to put himself into her hands--to trust to her loyalty for his
+salvation. He knew that she could betray him--and he knew equally well
+that she would not do so, notwithstanding the eighteen years of
+estrangement and mutual wrong that lay between. It did not matter that
+the loyalty he felt sure of would be a false loyalty, an upholding of
+what was not true. He would think little of that, as likely as not he
+had forgotten all about that. He would know that her testimony would
+clear him, and he would not think of anything else; and even did he
+think of it the fact of a woman making a little mis-statement like that
+would never have affected Philip. But the strange thing was that he had
+no fear she would revenge herself by standing up against him--no doubt
+of her response to his appeal; he was as ready to put his fate in her
+hands as if she had been the most devoted of wives--his constant
+companion and champion. This had the most curious effect upon her mind,
+almost greater than the other. She had shown no faith in him, but he had
+faith in her. Reckless and guilty as he was, he had not doubted her. He
+had put it in her power to convict him not only of the worst accusation
+that was brought against him, but of a monstrous trick to prove his
+_alibi_, and a cruel wrong to her compelling her to uphold that as true.
+She was able to expose him, if she chose, as no one else could do; but
+he had not been afraid of that. This second thought, which burst upon
+Elinor without any volition of her own, had the most curious effect
+upon her. She abstained carefully, anxiously, from allowing herself
+to be drawn into making any conclusion from these darts of unintended
+thoughts. But they moved her in spite of herself. They made her think of
+him, which she had for a long time abstained from doing. She had shut
+her heart for years from any recollection of her husband, trying to
+ignore his existence in thought as well as in fact. And she had
+succeeded for a long time in doing this. But now in a moment all her
+precautions were thrown to the winds. He came into her memory with a
+sudden rush for which she was no way responsible, breaking all the
+barriers she had put up against him: that he should have known where she
+was all this time, and never disturbed her, respected her solitude all
+these years--that when the moment of need came he should, without a word
+to conciliate her, without an explanation or an apology, have put his
+fate into her hands---- To the reader who understands I need not say
+more of the effect upon the mind of Elinor, hasty, generous, impatient
+as she was of these two strange facts. There are many in the world who
+would have given quite a different explanation--who would have made out
+of the fact that he had not disturbed her only the explanation that
+Phil Compton was tired of his wife and glad to get rid of her at any
+price: and who would have seen in his appeal to her now only audacity
+combined with the conviction that she would not compromise herself by
+saying anything more than she could help about him. I need not say which
+of these interpretations would have been the true one. But the first
+will understand and not the other what it was that for the first time
+for eighteen years awakened a struggle and controversy which she could
+not ignore, and vainly endeavoured to overcome, in Elinor's heart.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+Elinor had not been three days gone, indeed her mother had but just
+received a hurried note announcing her arrival in London, when as she
+sat alone in the house which had become so silent, Mrs. Dennistoun
+suddenly became aware of a rising of sound of the most jubilant, almost
+riotous description. It began by the barking of Yarrow, the old colley,
+who was fond of lying at the gate watching in a philosophic way of his
+own the mild traffic of the country road, the children trooping by to
+school, who hung about him in clusters, with lavish offerings of crust
+and scraps of biscuit, and all the leisurely country _flaneurs_ whom the
+good dog despised, not thinking that he himself did nothing but _flaner_
+at his own door in the sun. A bark from Yarrow was no small thing in
+the stillness of the spring afternoon, and little Urisk, the terrier,
+who lay wrapt in dreams at Mrs. Dennistoun's feet, heard where he lay
+entranced in the folds of sleep and cocked up an eager ear and uttered a
+subdued interrogation under his breath. The next thing was no bark, but
+a shriek of joy from Yarrow, such as could mean nothing in the world but
+"Philip!" or Pippo, which was what no doubt the dogs called him between
+following their mistress. Urisk heard and understood. He made but one
+spring from the footstool on which he lay and flung himself against the
+door. Mrs. Dennistoun sat for a moment and listened, much disturbed.
+When some troublous incident occurs in the deep quiet of domestic life
+how often is it followed by another, and her heart turned a little sick.
+She was not comforted even by the fact that Urisk was waggling not his
+tail only, but his whole little form in convulsions of joy, barking,
+crying aloud for the door to open, to let him forth. By this time all
+the friendly dogs about had taken up the sound out of sympathy with
+Yarrow's yells of delight--and into this came the clang of the gate,
+the sound of wheels, an outcry in a human voice, that of Barbara, the
+maid--and then a young shout that rang through the air--"Where's my
+mother, Barbara, where's granny?" Philip, it may be imagined, did not
+wait for any answer, but came in headlong. Yarrow leaping after him,
+Urisk springing into the air to meet him--himself in too great a hurry
+to heed either, flinging himself upon the astonished lady who rose to
+meet him, with a sudden kiss, and a "Where's my mother, granny?" of
+eager greeting.
+
+"Pippo! Good gracious, boy, what's brought you home now?"
+
+"Nothing but good news," he said, "so good I thought I must come. I've
+got it, granny: where _is_ my mother----"
+
+"You've got it?" she said, so full of other thoughts that she could not
+recollect what it was he meant. Pippo thought, as Elinor sometimes
+thought, that his granny was getting slow of understanding--not so
+bright as she used to be in her mind.
+
+"Oh, granny, you've been dozing: the scholarship! I've got it--I thought
+you would know the moment you heard me at the door----"
+
+"My dear boy," she said, putting her arms about him, while the tall boy
+stood for the homage done to him--the kiss of congratulation. "You have
+got the scholarship! notwithstanding Howard and Musgrave and the hard
+fight there was to be----"
+
+Pippo nodded, with a bright face of pleasure. "But," he said--"I can't
+say I'm sorry I've got it, granny--but I wish there had been another for
+Musgrave: for he worked harder than I did, and he wanted so to win. But
+so did I, for that matter. And where is my mother all this time?"
+
+"How delighted she will be: and what a comfort to her just now when she
+is upset and troubled! My dear, it'll be a dreadful disappointment to
+you: your mother is in London. She had to hurry off the day before
+yesterday--on business."
+
+"In London!" cried Pippo. His countenance fell: he was so much
+disappointed that for a moment, big boy as he was, he looked ready to
+cry. He had come in bursting with his news, expecting a reception almost
+as tumultuous as that given him by the dogs outside. And he found only
+his grandmother, who forgot what it was he was "in for"--and no mother
+at all!
+
+"It is a disappointment, Pippo--and it will be such a disappointment to
+her not to hear it from your own lips: but you must telegraph at once,
+and that will be next best. She has some worrying business--things that
+she hates to look after--and this will give her a little heart."
+
+"What a bore!" said Pippo, with his crest down and the light gone out of
+him. He gave himself up to the dogs who had been jumping about him,
+biding their time. "Yarrow knew," he said, laughing, to get the water
+out of his eyes. "He gave me a cheer whenever he saw me, dear old
+fellow--and little Risky too----"
+
+"And only granny forgot," said Mrs. Dennistoun; "that was very hard upon
+you, Pippo; my thoughts were all with your mother. And I couldn't think
+how you could get back at this time----"
+
+"Well," said the boy, "my work's over, you know. There's nothing for a
+fellow to do after he's got the scholarship. I needn't go back at
+all--unless you and my mother wish it. I've--in a sort of a way, done
+everything that I can do. Don't laugh at me, granny!"
+
+"Laugh at you, my boy! It is likely I should laugh at you. Don't you
+know I am as proud of you as your mother herself can be? I am glad and
+proud," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "for I am glad for her as well as for you.
+Now, Pippo, you want something to eat."
+
+The boy looked up with a laugh. "Yes, granny," he said, "you always
+divine that sort of thing. I do."
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun did not occupy her mind with any thought of that little
+unintentional and grateful jibe--that she always divined that sort of
+thing. Among the other great patiences of her life she had learnt to
+know that the mother and son, loving and tender as they were, had put
+her back unconsciously into the proper place of the old woman--always
+consulted, always thought of, never left out; but divining chiefly _that
+sort of thing_, the actual needs, the more apparent thoughts of those
+about her. She knew it, but she did not dwell upon it--sometimes it
+made her smile, but it scarcely hurt her, and never made her bitter,
+she comprehended it all so well. Meanwhile Pippo, left alone, devoted
+himself to the dogs for a minute or two, making them almost too happy.
+Then, at the very climax of riotous enjoyment, cast them off with a
+sudden, "Down, Yarrow!" which took all the curl in a moment out of the
+noble tail with which Yarrow was sweeping all the unconsidered trifles
+off Mrs. Dennistoun's work-table. The young autocrat walked to the
+window as he shook off his adoring vassal, and stared out for a little
+with his hands deeply dug into his pockets. And then a new idea came
+into Pippo's head; the most brilliant new idea, which restored at once
+the light to his eyes and elevation to his crest. He said nothing of
+this, however, till he had done justice to the excellent luncheon, while
+his grandmother, seated beside him in the dining-room with her knitting,
+looked on with pride and pleasure and saw him eat. This was a thing,
+they were all of accord, which she always thoroughly understood.
+
+"You will run out now and telegraph to your mother. She is in the old
+rooms in Ebury Street, Pippo."
+
+"Yes, granny; don't you think now a fellow of my age, having done pretty
+well and all that, might be trusted to--make a little expedition out of
+his own head?"
+
+"My dear! you have always been trusted, Pippo, you know. I can't
+remember when your mother or I either have shown any want of trust----"
+
+"Oh, it's not that," said Pippo, confused. "I know I've had lots,
+lots--far more than most fellows--of my own way. It was not that
+exactly. I meant without consulting any one, just to do a thing out of
+my own head."
+
+"I have no doubt it will be quite a right thing, Pippo; but I should
+know better if you were to tell me."
+
+"That would scarcely be doing it out of my own head, would it, granny?
+But I can't keep a thing to myself; now Musgrave can, you know; that's
+the great difference. I suppose it is having nobody but my mother and
+you, who always spoil me, that has made me that I can't keep a secret."
+
+"It is something about making it up to Musgrave for not winning the
+scholarship?"
+
+Philip grew red all over with a burning blush of shame. "What a beast I
+am!" he said. "You will scarcely believe me, but I had forgotten
+that--though I do wish I could. I do wish there was any way----No,
+granny, it was all about myself."
+
+"Well, my dear?" she said, in her benignant, all-indulgent grandmother's
+voice.
+
+"It is no use going beating about the bush," he said. "Granny, I'm not
+going to telegraph to mamma. I'll run up to London by the night mail."
+
+"Pippo!"
+
+"Well, it isn't so extraordinary; naturally I should like to tell her
+better than to write. It didn't quite come off, my telling it to you,
+did it? but my mother will be excited about it--and then it will be a
+surprise seeing me at all--and then if she is worried by business it
+will be a good thing to have me to stand by her. And--why there are a
+hundred reasons, granny, as you must see. And then I should like it
+above all."
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Dennistoun, trembling a little. She had time during
+this long speech to collect herself, to get over the first shock, but
+her nerves still vibrated. "In ordinary circumstances, I should think it
+an excellent plan. And you have worked well for it, and won your
+holiday; and your mother always enjoys wandering about town with you.
+Still, Pippo----"
+
+"Now what can there be against it?" the boy said, with the same spark of
+fire coming into his blue eyes which had often been seen in Elinor's
+hazel ones. He was like the Comptons, a refined image of his father,
+with the blue eyes and very dark hair which had once made Phil Compton
+irresistible. Pippo had the habit, I am sorry to say, of being a little
+impatient with his grandmother. Her objections seemed old-world and
+obsolete at the first glance.
+
+"The chief thing against it is that I don't think your mother--would
+wish it, Pippo."
+
+"Mamma--think me a bore, perhaps!" the lad cried, with a laugh of almost
+scornful amusement at this ridiculous idea.
+
+"She would never, of course, think you a bore in any circumstances--but
+she will be very much confined--she could not take you with her
+to--lawyers' offices. She will scarcely have any time to herself."
+
+"What is this mysterious business, granny?"
+
+"Indeed, Pippo, I can scarcely tell you. It is something connected with
+old times--that she wishes to have settled and done with. I did not
+inquire very closely; neither, I think, should you. You know your poor
+mother has had troubles in her life----"
+
+"Has she?" said Pippo, with wide open eyes. "I have never seen any. I
+think, perhaps, don't you know, granny, ladies--make mountains of
+molehills--or so at least people say----"
+
+"Do they?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, with a laugh. "So you have begun to
+learn that sort of thing already, Pippo, even here at the end of the
+world!"
+
+Pippo was a little mortified by her laugh, and a little ashamed of what
+he had said. It is very tempting at eighteen to put on a man's
+superiority, yet he was conscious that it was perhaps a little
+ungenerous, he who owed all that he was and had to these two ladies; but
+naturally he was the more angry because of this.
+
+"I suppose," he said, "that what is in every book that ever was written
+is likely to be true! But that has nothing to do with the question. I
+won't do anything against you if you forbid me absolutely, granny; but
+short of that I will go----"
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun looked at the boy with all the heat in him of his first
+burst of independence. It is only wise to compute the forces opposed to
+one before one launches a command which one may not have force to ensure
+obedience to. He said that he would not disobey her "absolutely" with
+his lips; but his eyes expressed a less dutiful sentiment. She had no
+mind to be beaten in such a struggle. Elinor had complained of her
+mother in her youth that she was too reasonable, too unwilling to
+command, too reluctant to assume the responsibility of an act; and it
+was not to be supposed that she had mended of this, in all the experience
+she had had of her impatient daughter, and under the influence of so
+many additional years. She looked at Philip, and concluded that he would
+at least find some way of eluding her authority if she exercised it, and
+it did not consist with her dignity to be either "absolutely" or
+partially disobeyed.
+
+"You forget," she said, "that I have never taken such authority upon me
+since you were a child. I will not forbid you to do what you have set
+your heart upon. I can only say, Philip, that I don't think your mother
+would wish you to go----"
+
+"If that's all, granny," said the boy, "I think I can take my mother
+into my own hands. But why do you call me Philip? You never call me that
+but when you are angry."
+
+"Was I ever angry?" she said, with a smile; "but if we are to consider
+you a man, looking down upon women, and taking your movements upon your
+own responsibility, my dear, it would be ridiculous that you should be
+little Pippo any more."
+
+"Not little Pippo," he said, with a boyish, complacent laugh, rising up
+to his full height. A young man nearly six feet high, with a scholarship
+in his pocket, how is he to be expected to take the law from his old
+grandmother as to what he is to do?
+
+And young Philip did go to town triumphantly by the night mail. He had
+never done such a thing before, and his sense of manly independence, of
+daring, almost of adventure, was more delightful than words could say.
+There was not even any one, except the man who had driven him into
+Penrith, to see him away, he who was generally accompanied to the last
+minute by precautions, and admonitions, and farewells. To feel himself
+dart away into the night with nobody to look back to on the platform,
+no gaze, half smiling, half tearful, to follow him, was of itself an
+emancipation to Pippo. He was a good boy and no rebel against the double
+maternal bond which had lain so lightly yet so closely upon him all his
+life. It was only for a year or two that he had suspected that this was
+unusual, or even imagined that for a growing man the sway of two ladies,
+and even their devotion, might make others smile. Perhaps he had been a
+little more particular in his notions, in his manners, in his fastidious
+dislike to dirt and careless habits, than was common in the somewhat
+rough north country school which had so risen in scholastic note under
+the last head master, but which was very far from the refinements of
+Eton. And lately it had begun to dawn upon him that a mother and a
+grandmother to watch over him and care for him in everything might be
+perhaps a little absurd for a young man of his advanced age. Thus his
+escapade, which was against the will of his elder guardian, and without
+the knowledge of his mother--which was entirely his own act, and on
+his own responsibility, went to Philip's head, and gave him a sort of
+intoxication of pleasure. That his mother should be displeased, really
+displeased, should not want him--incredible thought! never entered into
+his mind save as an accountable delusion of granny's. His mother not
+want him! All the arguments in the world would never have got that into
+young Pippo's head.
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun waking up in the middle of the night to think of the boy
+rushing on through the dark on his adventurous way, recollected only
+then with much confusion and pain that she ought to have telegraphed to
+Elinor, who might be so engaged as to make it very embarrassing for her
+in her strange circumstances to see Pippo--that the boy was coming. In
+her agitation she had forgotten this precaution. Was it perhaps true, as
+the young ones thought, that she was getting a little slower in her
+movements, a little dulled in her thoughts?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+John Tatham had in vain attempted to persuade Elinor to come to his
+house, to dine there in comfort--he was going out himself--so that
+at least in this time of excitement and trouble she might have the
+careful service and admirable comfort of his well-managed house. Elinor
+preferred her favourite lodgings and a cup of tea to all the luxuries of
+Halkin Street. And she was fit for no more consultations that night. She
+had many, many things to think of, and some new which as yet she barely
+comprehended. The rooms in Ebury Street were small, and they were more
+or less dingy, as such rooms are; but they were comfortable enough, and
+had as much of home to Elinor as repeated visits there with all her
+belongings could give them. The room in which she slept was next to
+that in which her boy had usually slept. That was enough to make it
+no strange place. And I need not say that it became the scene of many
+discussions during the few days that followed. The papers by this time
+were full of the strange trial which was coming on: the romance of
+commercial life and ruin--the guilty man who had been absent so long,
+enjoying his ill-gotten gains, and who now was dragged back into the
+light to give an account of himself--and of other guilt perhaps less
+black than his own, yet dreadful enough to hear of. The story of the
+destroyed books was a most remarkable and picturesque incident in the
+narrative. The leading papers looked up their own account of the facts
+given at the time, and pointed out how evidently justified by the new
+facts made known to the public was the theory they had themselves given
+forth. As these theories, however, were very different, and as all
+claimed to be right, perhaps the conclusion was less certain than
+this announcement gave warrant to believe. But each and all promised
+"revelations" of the most surprising kind--involving some of the highest
+aristocracy, the democratic papers said--bringing to light an exciting
+story of the private relations between husband and wife, said those of
+society, and revealing a piquant chapter of social history hushed up at
+the time. It was a modest print indeed that contented itself with the
+statement that its readers would find a romance of real life involved in
+the trial which was about to take place. Elinor did not, fortunately,
+see all these comments. The _Times_ and the _Morning Post_ were
+dignified and reticent, and she did not read, and was indeed scarcely
+cognisant of the existence of most of the others. But the faintest
+reference to the trial was enough, it need hardly be said, to make the
+blood boil in her veins.
+
+It was a curious thing in her state of mind, and with the feelings she
+had towards her husband's family, that one of the first things she did
+on establishing herself in her Ebury Street rooms, was to look for an
+old "Peerage" which had lain for several years she remembered on a
+certain shelf. Genteel lodgings in Ebury Street which did not possess
+somewhere an old "Peerage" would be out of the world indeed. She found
+it in the same corner as of old, where she had noted it so often and
+avoided it as if it had been a serpent; but now the first thing she did,
+as soon as her tray was brought her, and all necessary explanations
+given, and the door shut, was to take the book furtively from its place,
+almost as if she were afraid of what she should see. What a list there
+was of sons of Lord St. Serf! some she had never known, who died young:
+and Reginald in India, and Hal, who was so kind--what a good laugh
+he had, she remembered, not a joyless cackle like Mariamne's, a good
+natural laugh, and a kind light in his eyes: and he had been kind. She
+could remember ever so many things, nothings, things that made a little
+difference in the dull, dull cloudy sky of a neglected wife. Poor Hal!
+and he too was gone, and St. Serf dying, and---- Pippo the heir!--Pippo
+was perhaps, for any thing she knew, Lord Lomond now.
+
+To say that this did not startle Elinor, did not make her heart beat,
+did not open new complications and vistas in life, would be a thing
+impossible. Pippo Lord Lomond! Pippo, whom she had feared to expose to
+his father's influence, whom she had kept apart, who did not know
+anything about himself except that he was her son--had she kept and
+guarded the boy thus in the very obscurity of life, in the stillest
+and most protected circumstances, only to plunge him suddenly at last,
+without preparation, without warning, into the fiery furnace of
+temptation, into a region where he might pardonably (perhaps) put
+himself beyond her influence, beyond her guidance? Poor Elinor! and yet
+she was not wholly to be pitied either. For her heart was fired by the
+thought of her boy's elevation in spite of herself. It did not occur to
+her that such an elevation for him meant something also for her. That
+view of the case she did not take into consideration for a moment. Nay,
+she did not think of it. But that Pippo should be Lord Lomond went
+through her like an arrow--like an arrow that gave a wound, acute and
+sharp, yet no pain, if such a thing could be said. That he should
+discover his father had been the danger before her all his life, but if
+he must find out that he had a father that was a way in which it might
+not be all pain. I do not pretend that she was very clear in all these
+thoughts. Indeed, she was not clear at all. John Tatham, knowing but one
+side, had begun to think vaguely of Elinor what Elinor thought of her
+mother, that her mind was not quite as of old, not so bright nor so
+vivid, not so clear in coming to a conclusion; had he known everything
+he might not have been so sure even on that point. But then had he known
+everything that Elinor knew, and been aware of what it was which Elinor
+had been summoned by all the force of old fidelity and the honour of
+her name to do, John would have been too much horrified to have been
+able to form an opinion. No, poor Elinor was not at all clear in her
+thoughts--less clear than ever after these revelations--the way before
+her seemed dark in whatever way she looked at it, complications were
+round her on every side. She had instinctively, without a word said,
+given up that idea of flight. Who was it that said the heir to a peerage
+could not be hid? John had said it, she remembered, and John was always
+right. If she was to take him away to the uttermost end of the earth,
+they would seek him out and find him. And then there was--his father,
+who had known all the time, had known and never disturbed her----No
+wonder that poor Elinor's thoughts were mixed and complicated. She
+walked up and down the room, not thinking, but letting crowds and
+flights of thoughts like birds fly through her mind; no longer clear
+indeed as she had been wont to be, no longer coming to sudden, sharp
+conclusions, admitting possibilities of which Elinor once upon a time
+would never have thought.
+
+And day by day as he saw her, John Tatham understood her less and less.
+He did not know what she meant, what she was going to do, what were her
+sentiments towards her husband, what were her intentions towards her
+son. He had found out a great deal about the case, merely as a case, and
+it began to be clear to him where Elinor's part came in. Elinor Compton
+could not have appeared on her husband's behalf, and whether there might
+not arise a question whether, being now his wife, her evidence could be
+taken on what had happened before she was his wife, was by no means
+sure--"Why didn't they call your mother?" John said, as Mrs. Dennistoun
+also had said--but he did not at all understand, how could he? the dismay
+that came over Elinor, and the "Not for the world," which came from her
+lips. He had come in to see her in the morning as he went down to his
+chambers, on the very morning when Pippo, quite unexpected and also not
+at all desired, was arriving at Euston Square.
+
+"It would have been much better," he said, "in every way if they had
+called your mother--who of course must know exactly what you know,
+Elinor, in respect to this matter----"
+
+"No," said Elinor with dry lips. "She knows nothing. She--calculates
+back by little incidents--she does not remember: I--do----"
+
+"That's natural, I suppose," said John, with an impatient sigh and a
+half-angry look. "Still--my aunt----"
+
+"Would do no good at all: you may believe me, John. Don't let us speak
+of this any more. I know what has to be done: my mother would twist
+herself up among her calculations--about Alick Hudson's examination and
+I know not what. Whereas I--there is nothing, nothing more to be said. I
+thought I could escape, and it is your doing if I now see that I cannot
+escape. I can but hope that Providence will protect my boy. He is at
+school, where they have little time for reading the papers. He may never
+even see--or at least if he does he may think it is another
+Compton--some one whom he never heard of----"
+
+"And how if he becomes Lord Lomond, as I said, before the secret is
+out?"
+
+"Oh, John," cried Elinor, wringing her hands--"don't, don't torment me
+with that idea now--let only this be past and then: Oh, I see, I see--I
+am not a fool--I perceive that I cannot hide him as you say if that
+happens. But oh, John, for pity's sake let this be over first! Let us
+not hurry everything on at the same time. He is at school. What do
+schoolboys care for the newspapers, especially for trials in the law
+courts? Oh, let this be over first! A boy at school--and he need never
+know----"
+
+It was at this moment that a hansom drew up, and a rattling peal came at
+the door. Hansoms are not rare in Ebury Street, and how can one tell in
+these small houses if the peal is at one's door or the next? Elinor
+was not disturbed. She paid no attention. She expected no one, she was
+afraid of nothing new for the present. Surely, surely, as she said,
+there was enough for the present. It did not seem possible that any new
+incident should come now.
+
+"I do not want to torment you, Elinor--you may imagine I would be the
+last--I would only save you if I could from what must be---- What! what?
+who's this?--PHILIP! the boy!"
+
+The door had burst open with an eager, impatient hand upon it, and there
+stood upon the threshold, in all the mingled excitement and fatigue of
+his night journey, pale, sleep in his eyes, yet happy expectation,
+exultation, the certainty of open arms to receive him, and cries of
+delight--the boy. He stood for a second looking into the strange yet
+familiar room. John Tatham had sprung to his feet and stood startled,
+hesitating, while young Philip's eyes, noting him with a glance, flashed
+past him to the other more important, more beloved, the mother whom he
+had expected to rush towards him with an outcry of joy.
+
+And Elinor sat still in her chair, struck dumb, grown pale like a ghost,
+her eyes wide open, her lips apart. The sight of the boy, her beloved
+child, her pride and delight, was as a horrible spectacle to Elinor. She
+stared at him like one horrified, and neither moved nor spoke.
+
+"Elinor!" cried John, terrified, "there's nothing wrong. Don't you see
+it's Philip? Boy, what do you mean by giving her such a fright? She's
+fainting, I believe."
+
+"I--give her a fright!" cried, half in anguish, half in indignation, the
+astonished boy.
+
+"No, I'm not fainting. Pippo! there's nothing wrong--at home?" Elinor
+cried, holding out her hand to him--coming to herself, which meant only
+awakening to the horror of a danger far more present than she had ever
+dreamt, and to the sudden sight not of her boy, but of that Nemesis
+which she had so carefully prepared for herself, and which had been
+awaiting her for years. She was not afraid of anything wrong at home.
+It was the first shield she could find in the shock which had almost
+paralysed her, to conceal her terror and distress at the sight of him
+from the astonished, disappointed, mortified, and angry boy.
+
+"I thought," he said, "you would have been glad to see me, mother! No,
+there's nothing wrong at home."
+
+"Thank heaven for that!" cried Elinor, feeling herself more and more a
+hypocrite as she recovered from the shock. "Pippo, I was saying this
+moment that you were at school. The words were scarcely off my lips--and
+then to see you in a moment, standing there."
+
+"I thought," he repeated again, trembling with the disappointment and
+mortification, wounded in his cheerful, confident affection, and in his
+young pride, the monarch of all he surveyed--"I thought you would have
+been pleased to see me, mother!"
+
+"Of course," said John, cheerfully, "your mother is glad to see you: and
+so am I, you impetuous boy, though you don't take the trouble of shaking
+hands with me. He wants to be kissed and coddled, Elinor, and I must be
+off to my chambers. But I should like to know first what's up, boy?
+You've got something to say."
+
+"Pippo, what is it, my dearest? You did give me a great fright, and I am
+still nervous a little. Tell me, Pippo; something has brought you--your
+uncle John is right. I can see it in your eyes. You've got something to
+tell me!"
+
+The tired and excited boy looked from one to another, two faces both
+full of a veiled but intense anxiety, looking at him as if what they
+expected was no good news. He burst out into a big, hoarse laugh, the
+only way to keep himself from crying. "You don't even seem to remember
+anything about it," he cried, flinging himself down in the nearest
+chair; "and for my part I don't care any longer whether any one knows or
+not."
+
+And Elinor, whose thoughts were on such different things--whose whole
+mind was absorbed in the question of what he could have heard about
+the trial, about his father, about the new and strange future before
+him--gazed at him with eyes that seemed hollowed out all round with
+devouring anxiety. "What is it?" she said, "what is it? For God's sake
+tell me! What have you heard?"
+
+It goes against all prejudices to imagine that John Tatham, a man who
+never had had a child, an old bachelor not too tolerant of youth, should
+have divined the boy better than his mother. But he did, perhaps because
+he was a lawyer, and accustomed to investigate the human countenance and
+eye. He saw that Philip was full of something of his own, immediately
+interesting to himself; and he cast about quickly in his mind what it
+could be. Not that the boy was heir to a peerage: he would never have
+come like _this_ to announce _that_: but something that Philip was
+cruelly disappointed his mother did not remember. This passed through
+John's mind like a flash, though it takes a long time to describe. "Ah,"
+he said, "I begin to divine. Was not there something about
+a--scholarship?"
+
+"Pippo!" cried Elinor, lighting up great lamps of relief, of sudden ease
+and quick coming joy, in her brightened eyes and face. "My boy! you've
+won your battle! You've got it, you've got it, Pippo! And your foolish,
+stupid mother that thought for a moment you could rush to her like this
+with anything but good news!"
+
+It took a few moments to soothe Pippo down, and mend his wounded
+feelings. "I began to think nobody cared," he said, "and that made me
+that I didn't care myself. I'd rather Musgrave had got it, if it had not
+been to please you all. And you never seemed so much as to
+remember--only Uncle John!" he added after a moment, with a half scorn
+which made John laugh at the never-failing candour of youth.
+
+"Only the least important of all," he said. "It was atrocious of the
+ladies, Philip. Shake hands, my boy, I owe you five pounds for the
+scholarship. And now I'll take myself off, which will please you most of
+all."
+
+He went down-stairs laughing to himself all the way, but got suddenly
+quite grave as he stepped outside--whether because he remembered that it
+does not become a Q.C. and M.P. to laugh in the street, or for other
+causes, it does not become us to attempt to say.
+
+And Elinor meanwhile made it up to her boy amply, and while her heart
+ached with the question what to do with him, how to dispose of him during
+those dreadful following days, behaved herself as if her head too was
+half turned with joy and exultation, only tempered by the regret that
+Musgrave, who had worked so hard, could not have got the scholarship
+too.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+Elinor made much of her boy during that day and the following days, to
+take away the sense of disappointment which even after the first great
+mortification was got over still haunted young Philip's mind. It
+surprised him beyond measure to find that she did not wish to go out
+with him, indeed in so far as was possible avoided it altogether, save
+for a hurried drive to a few places, during which she kept her veil
+down and sheltered herself with an umbrella in the most ridiculous way.
+"Are you afraid of your complexion, mother?" the boy asked of her with
+disdain. "It looks like it," she said, but with a laugh that was full of
+embarrassment, "though it is a little late in the day." Elinor was
+perhaps better aware than Pippo was that she had a complexion which a
+girl might have envied, and was still as fresh as a rose, notwithstanding
+that she was a year or two over forty; but I need not say it was not of
+her complexion she was thinking. She had been careful to choose her time
+on previous visits to London so as to risk as little as possible the
+chance of meeting her husband. But now there was no doubt that he was in
+town, and not the least that if he met her anywhere with Pippo, her
+secret, so far as it had ever been a secret, would be in his hands. Even
+when John took the boy out it was with a beating heart that his mother
+saw him go, for John was too well known to make any secret possible
+about his movements, or who it was who was with him. Perhaps it was for
+this reason that John desired to take him out, and even cut short his
+day's work on one or two occasions to act as cicerone to Philip. He took
+him to the House, to the great excitement and delight of the boy, who
+only wished that the entertainment could have been made complete by a
+speech from Uncle John, which was a point in which his guide, philosopher,
+and friend, though in every other way so complaisant, did not humour
+Pippo. On one occasion during the first week they had an encounter which
+made John's middle-aged pulses move a little quicker. When they were
+walking along through Hyde Park, having strolled that way in the fading
+of the May afternoon, when the carriages were still promenading up and
+down, before they returned to Halkin Street to dinner, where Elinor
+awaited them--it happened to Mr. Tatham to meet the roving eyes of
+Lady Mariamne, who lay back languidly in her carriage, wrapped in a
+fur cloak, and shivering in the chill of the evening. She was not
+particularly interested in anything or any person whom she had seen,
+and was a little cross and desirous of getting home. But when she saw
+John she roused up immediately, and gave a sign to Dolly, who sat by
+her, to pull the check-string. "Mr. Tatham!" she cried, in her shrill
+voice. Lady Mariamne was not one of the people who object to hear
+their voice in public or are reluctant to make their wishes known to
+everybody. She felt herself to be of the cast in which everybody is
+interested, and that the public liked to know whom she honoured with her
+acquaintance. "Mr. Tatham! are you going to carry your rudeness so far
+as not to seem to know me? Oh, come here this moment, you impertinent
+man!"
+
+"Can I be of any use to you, Lady Mariamne?" said John, gravely, at the
+carriage door.
+
+"Oh, dear no; you can't be of any use. What should I have those men for
+if I wanted you to be of use? Come and talk a moment, that's all; or get
+into the carriage and I'll take you anywhere. Dolly and I have driven
+round and round, and we have not seen a creature we cared to see. Yes!
+there was a darling, darling little Maltese terrier, with white silk
+curls hanging over his eyes, on an odious woman's lap; but I cannot
+expect you to find that angel for me. Mr. Tatham, who is that tall boy?"
+
+"Pippo," said John, quickly (though probably he had never in his life
+before used that name, which he disapproved of angrily, as people often
+do of a childish name which does not please them), "go on. I'll come
+after you directly. The boy is a cousin of mine, Lady Mariamne, just
+from school."
+
+"Mr. Tatham, I am quite sure it is Nell's boy. Call after him. What's
+his name? Bring him back! John Thomas, run after that young gentleman,
+and say with my compliments----"
+
+"Nothing," said John, stopping the footman with a lifted hand and a
+still more emphatic look. "He is hastening home to--an engagement. And
+it's evident I had better go too--for your little friend there is
+showing his teeth."
+
+"The darling!" said Lady Mariamne, "did it show its little pearls at the
+wicked man that will not do what its mummy says? Dolly, can't you jump
+down and run after that boy? I am sure it is your Uncle Philip's boy."
+
+"He is out of sight, mother," said Miss Dolly, calmly.
+
+"You are the most dreadful, wicked, unkind people, all of you. Show its
+little teeth, then, darling! Oo's the only one that has any feeling. Mr.
+Tatham, do tell me something about this trial. What is going to be
+done? Phil is mixed up in it. I know he is. Can they do anything to
+anybody--after all this time? They can't make you pay up, I know, after
+a certain time. Oh, couldn't it all be hushed up and stopped and kept
+out of the newspapers? I hate the newspapers, always chuckling over
+every new discovery. But this cannot be called a new discovery. If it's
+true it's old, as old as the old beginning of the world. Don't you think
+somebody could get at the newspaper men and have it hushed up?"
+
+"I doubt if you could get hold of all of them, their name is legion,"
+said John.
+
+"Oh, I don't care what their name is. If you will help me, Mr. Tatham,
+we could get hold of most of them--won't you? You know, don't you, poor
+St. Serf is so bad; it may be over any day--and then only think what a
+complication! Dolly, turn your head the other way; look at that silly
+young Huntsfield capering about to catch your eye. I don't want you to
+hear what I have got to say."
+
+"I don't in the least way want to hear what you have got to say, dear
+mamma," said Dolly.
+
+"That would have made me listen to every word," said Lady Mariamne;
+"but girls are more queer nowadays than anything that ever was. Mr.
+Tatham"--she put her hand upon his, which was on the carriage door, and
+bent her perfumed, powdered face towards him--"for goodness' sake--think
+how awkward it would be--a man just succeeding to a title and that sort
+of thing put in all the papers about him. Do, do stop it, or try
+something to stop it, for goodness' sake!"
+
+"I assure you," said John, "I can do nothing to stop it. I am as
+powerless as you are."
+
+"Oh, I don't say that I am powerless," said Lady Mariamne, with her
+shrill laugh. "One has one's little ways of influence." Then she put her
+hand again upon John with a sudden grip. "Mr. Tatham," she said, "tell
+me, in confidence, was that Phil's boy?"
+
+"I have told you, Lady Mariamne, it is a nephew of mine."
+
+"A nephew--oh, I know what kind of a nephew--_a la mode de Bretagne_!"
+
+She turned her head to the other side, where her daughter was gazing
+calmly in front of her.
+
+"Dolly! I was sure of it," she cried, "don't you hear? Dolly, don't you
+hear?"
+
+"Which, mamma?" said Dolly, gravely; "of course I could not help hearing
+it all. Which part was I to notice? about the newspapers or about the
+boy?"
+
+Lady Mariamne appealed to earth and heaven with the loud cackle of her
+laugh. "He can't deny it," she said; "he as good as owns it. I am
+certain that's the boy that will be Lomond."
+
+"Uncle St. Serf is not dead yet," said Dolly, reprovingly.
+
+"Poor Serf!--but he's so very bad," said Lady Mariamne, "that it's
+almost the same thing. Mr. Tatham, can't we take you anywhere? I'm so
+glad I've seen Nell's boy. Can't we drive you home? Perhaps you've got
+Nell there too?"
+
+John stood back from the carriage door, just in time to escape the start
+of the horses as the remorseless string was touched and the footman
+clambered up into his seat. Lady Mariamne's smile went off her face, and
+she had forgotten all about it, to judge from appearances, before he had
+got himself in motion again. And a little farther on, behind the next
+tree, he found young Philip waiting, full of curiosity and questions.
+
+"Who was that lady, Uncle John? Was she asking about me? I thought I
+heard her call. I had half a mind to run back and say 'Here I am.'"
+
+"It was much better that you didn't do anything of the kind. Never pay
+any attention when you think you hear a fine lady calling you, Philip.
+It is better not to hear the Siren's call."
+
+"When they're elderly Sirens like that!" said the boy, with a laugh.
+"But I say, Uncle John, if you won't tell me who the lady is, who is the
+girl? She has a pair of eyes!--not like Sirens though--eyes that go
+through you--like--like a pair of lancets."
+
+"A surgical operation in fact: and I shouldn't wonder if she meant
+to be a doctor," said John. "The mother has done nothing all her life,
+therefore the daughter means to do much. It is the natural reaction of
+the generations. But I never noticed that Miss Dolly had any eyes--to
+speak of," said the highly indifferent middle-aged man.
+
+The boy flushed with a sense of indignation. "Perhaps you think the old
+lady's were finer?" he said.
+
+"I never admired the old lady, as you call her," said John, shortly; and
+then he turned Philip's attention to something, possibly with the easily
+satisfied conviction of a spectator that the boy thought of it no more.
+
+"We met my Lady Mariamne in the park," he said to Elinor when they sat
+at dinner an hour later at that bachelor table in Halkin Street, where
+everything was so exquisitely cared for. It was like Elinor, but most
+unlike the place in which she found herself, that she started so violently
+as to shake the whole table, crying out in a tone of consternation,
+"John!" as if he did not know very well what he might venture to say,
+or as if he had any intention of betraying her to her son.
+
+"She was very anxious," he said, perhaps playing a little with her
+excitement, "to have Philip presented to her: but I sent him on--that is
+to say, I thought I sent him on. The fellow went no farther than to the
+next tree, where he stood and watched Miss Dolly, not feeling any
+interest in the old lady, as he said."
+
+"Well, Uncle John--did you expect me to look at the old lady? You are
+not so fond of old ladies yourself."
+
+"And who is Miss Dolly?" said Elinor, trying to conceal the beating of
+her heart and the quiver on her lips with a smile; and then she added,
+with a little catch of her breath, "Oh, yes, I remember there was a
+little girl."
+
+"You will be surprised to hear that we are by way of being great
+friends. Her ladyship visits me in my chambers----"
+
+Again Elinor uttered that startled cry, "John!" but she tried this time
+to cover it with a tremulous laugh. "Are you becoming a flirt in your
+old age?"
+
+"It appears so," said John. And then he added, "That aphorism, which
+struck you as it struck me, Elinor, by its good sense--about the heir to
+a peerage--is really her production, and not mine."
+
+"Miss Dolly's? And what was the aphorism, Uncle John?" cried Philip.
+
+"No, it was not Miss Dolly's, my young man. It was the mother's, and so
+of course does not interest you any more."
+
+It did not as a matter of fact: the old lady was supremely indifferent
+to Pippo; but as he looked up saying something else which did not bear
+upon the subject, it occurred to the boy, as it will sometimes occur by
+the merest chance to a young observer, to notice his mother. She caught
+his eye somehow in the most accidental way; and Pippo was too well
+acquainted with her looks not to perceive that there was a thrill in
+every line of her countenance, a slight nervous tremble in her hands
+and entire person, such as was in no way to be accounted for (he thought)
+by anything that had been said or done. There was nothing surely to
+disquiet her in dining at Uncle John's, the three alone, not even one
+other guest to fill up the vacant side of the table. Philip had himself
+thought that Uncle John might have asked some one to meet them. He should
+have remembered that he himself, Philip, was now of an age to dine out,
+and see a little society, and go into the world. But what in the name
+of all that was wonderful was there in this entertainment to agitate his
+mother? And John Tatham had a look--which Philip did not understand--the
+look of a man who was successful in argument, who was almost crushing an
+opponent. It was as if a duel had been going on between them, and the
+man was the victor, which, as was natural, immediately threw Philip
+violently on the other side.
+
+"You're not well, mother," he said.
+
+"Do you think not, Pippo? Well, perhaps you are right. London is too
+much for me. I am a country bird," said Elinor, with smiling yet
+trembling lips.
+
+"You shall not go to the theatre if you are not up to it," said the boy
+in his imperious way.
+
+She gave him an affectionate look, and then she looked across the table
+at John. What did that look mean? There was a faint smile in it: and
+there was a great deal which Philip did not understand, things understood
+by Uncle John--who was after all what you might call an outsider, no
+more--and not by him, her son! Could anything be so monstrous? Philip
+blazed up with sudden fire.
+
+"No," said John Tatham; "I think Philip's right. We'll take her home to
+be coddled by her maid, and we'll go off, two wild young fellows, to the
+play by ourselves."
+
+"No," said Philip, "I'll leave her to be coddled by no maid. I can take
+care of my mother myself."
+
+"My dear boy," said Elinor, "I want no coddling. But I doubt whether I
+could stand the play. I like you to go with Uncle John."
+
+And then it began to dawn upon Philip that his mother had never meant
+to be of the party, and that this was what had been settled all along.
+He was more angry; more wounded and hurt in his spirit than he had of
+course the least occasion to be. He was of opinion that his mother
+had never had any secrets from him, that she had taken him into her
+confidence since he was a small boy, even things that Granny did not
+know! And here all at once there was rising between them a cloud, a
+mist, which there was no reason for. If he had done anything to make him
+less worthy he would have understood; had there been a bad report from
+school, had he failed in his work and disappointed her, there might have
+been some reason for it. But he had done nothing of the kind! Never
+before had he been so deserving of confidence; he had got his scholarship,
+he had finished the first phase of his education in triumph, and
+fulfilled all her expectations. And now just at this point of all
+others, just when he was most fit to understand, most worthy of trust,
+she turned from him. His heart swelled as if it would burst, with anger
+first, almost too strong to be repressed, and with that sense of injured
+merit which is of all things the most hard to bear. It is hard enough
+even when one is aware one deserves no better. But to be conscious of
+your worth and to feel that you are not appreciated, that is indeed too
+much for any one. There was not even the satisfaction of giving up the
+play which he had looked forward to, making a sacrifice of it to his
+mother, in which there would have been a severe pleasure. But she did
+not want him! She preferred that he should leave her by herself to be
+coddled by her maid, as Uncle John (vulgarly) said. Or perhaps was there
+somebody else coming, some old friend whom he knew nothing of, somebody,
+some one or other like that old witch in the carriage whom Pippo was not
+meant to know?
+
+It ended, however, in the carrying out of the plan settled beforehand by
+those old conspirators. The old conspirators do generally manage to
+carry out their plans for the management of rebellious youth, however
+injured the latter may feel. Pippo wound himself up in solemn dignity
+and silence when he understood that it was ordained that he should
+proceed to the play with John Tatham. And the pair had got half way to
+Drury Lane--or it may have been the Lyceum, or the Haymarket, or any of
+half-a-dozen other theatres, for here exact information fails--before he
+condescended to open his lips for more than Yes or No. But Philip's
+gloom did not survive the raising of the curtain, and he had forgotten
+all offences and had taken his companion into favour again, and was
+talking to Uncle John between the acts with all the excitement of a
+country youth to whom a play still was the greatest of novelties and
+delights, when he suddenly saw a change come over John Tatham's
+countenance and a slight bow of recognition directed towards a box,
+which made Philip turn round and look too. And there was the old witch
+of the carriage, and, what was more interesting, the girl with the keen
+eyes, who looked out suddenly from the shade of the draperies, and fixed
+upon Philip--Philip himself--a look which startled that young hero much.
+Nor was this all; for later in the evening, after another act of the
+play, some one else appeared in the same box, and fixed the dark and
+impassive stare of a long pair of opera-glasses upon Philip. It amused
+him at first, and afterwards it half frightened him, and finally made
+him very angry. The gazer was a man, of whom, however, Philip could make
+nothing out but his white shirt front and his tall stature, and the long
+black tubes of the opera-glass. Was it at him the man was looking, or
+perhaps at Uncle John? But the boy thought it on the whole unlikely that
+anybody should stare in that way at anything so little out of the
+ordinary as Uncle John.
+
+"I say," he said, in the next interval, "who is that fellow staring at
+us out of your old lady's box?"
+
+"Staring at the ladies behind us, you mean," said John. "Pippo, do you
+think we could make a rush for it the moment the play's over? I've got
+something to look over when I get home. Are you game to be out the very
+first before the curtain's down?"
+
+"Certainly I'm game," said Philip, delighted, "if you wish it, Uncle
+John."
+
+"Yes, I wish it," said the other, and he put his hand on the boy's
+shoulder as the act finished and the characters of the piece drew
+together for the final tableau. And the pair managed it triumphantly,
+and were the very first to get out at the head of the crowd, to Philip's
+immense amusement and John Tatham's great relief. The elder hurried the
+younger into the first hansom, all in the twinkling of an eye: and then
+for the first time his gravity relaxed. Philip took it all for a great
+joke till they reached Ebury Street. But when his companion left him,
+and he had time to think of it, he began to ask himself why?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+I will not say that Philip's sleep was broken by this question, but it
+undoubtedly recurred to his mind the first thing in the morning when he
+jumped out of bed very late for breakfast, and the events of the past
+night and the lateness of the hour at which he got to rest came back
+upon him as excuses in the first place for his tardiness. And then,
+which was remarkable, it was not the scene in the play in which he had
+been most interested which came to his mind, but a vision of that box
+and the man standing in front of it staring at him through the black
+tubes of the opera-glass which came before Philip like a picture. Uncle
+John had said it was at the ladies behind, but the boy felt sure it was
+no lady behind, but himself, on whom that stare was fixed. Who would
+care to stare so at him? It faintly gleamed across his thoughts that it
+might be some one who had heard of the scholarship, but he dismissed
+that thought instantly with a blush. It also gleamed upon him with
+equal vagueness like a momentary but entirely futile light, consciously
+derived from story books, and of which he was much ashamed, that the
+inexplicable attention given to himself might have something to do with
+the girl who had such keen eyes. Philip blushed fiery red at this
+involuntary thought, and chased it from his mind like a mad dog; but he
+could not put away the picture of the box, the girl putting aside the
+curtain to look at him, and the opera-glass fixed upon his face. And
+then why was Uncle John in such a hurry to get away? It had seemed a
+capital joke at that moment, but when he came to think of it, it was
+rather strange that a man who might be Solicitor-General to-morrow if
+he liked, and probably Lord Chancellor in a few years, should make a
+schoolboy rush from the stalls of a theatre with the object of being
+first out. Philip disapproved of so undignified a step on the part of
+his elderly relation. And he saw now in the serious morning that Uncle
+John was very unlikely to have done it for fun. What, then, did it mean?
+
+He came down full of these thoughts, and rather ashamed of being late,
+wondering whether his mother would have waited for him (which would have
+annoyed him), or if she would have finished her breakfast (which would
+have annoyed him still more). Happily for Elinor, she had hit the golden
+mean, and was pouring out for herself a second cup of coffee (but Philip
+was not aware it was the second) when the boy appeared. She was quite
+restored to her usual serenity and freshness, and as eager to know how
+he had enjoyed himself as she always was. He gave her a brief sketch of
+the play and of what pleased him in it as in duty bound. "But," he
+added, "what interested me almost more was that we had a sort of
+a--little play of our own."
+
+"What?" she cried, with a startled look in her eyes. One thing that
+puzzled him was that she was so very easily startled, which it seemed to
+Philip had never been the case before.
+
+"Well," he said, "the lady was there whom Uncle John met in the
+park--and the girl with her--and I believe the little dog. She made all
+sorts of signs to him, but he took scarcely any notice. But that's not
+all, mother----"
+
+"It's a good deal, Pippo----"
+
+"Is it? Why do you speak in that choked voice, mother? I suppose it is
+just one of his society acquaintances. But the thing was that before
+the last act somebody else came forward to the front of the box, and
+fixed--I was going to say his eyes, I mean his opera-glasses upon us."
+
+Philip had meant to say upon me--but he had produced already so great
+an effect on his mother's face that he moderated instinctively the point
+of this description. "And stared at us," he added, "all the rest of the
+time, paying not the least attention to anything that was going on.
+It's a queer sensation," he went on, with a laugh, "to feel that black
+mysterious-looking thing like the eyes of some monster with no speculation
+in them, fixed upon you. Now, I want you to tell me---- What's the
+matter, mother?"
+
+"Nothing, Pippo; nothing," said Elinor, faintly, stooping to lift up a
+book she had let fall. "Go on with your story. I am very much
+interested; and then, my dear?"
+
+"Mother," cried Philip, "I don't know what has come over you, or over
+me. There's something going on I can't understand. You never used to
+have any secrets from me. I was always in your confidence--wasn't I,
+mother?"
+
+It was not a book she had let fall, but a ring that she had dropped from
+her finger, and which had to be followed over the carpet. It made her
+red and flushed when she half raised her head to say, "Yes, Pippo--you
+know--I have always told you----"
+
+Philip did not remark that what his mother said was nothing after all.
+He got up to help her to look for her ring, and put his arm round her
+waist as she knelt on the floor.
+
+"Yes, mamma," he said, tenderly, protectingly, "I do know: but
+something's changed; either it's in me that makes you feel you can't
+trust me--or else it is in you. And I don't know which would be worst."
+
+"There is no change," she said, after a moment, for she could not help
+the ring being found, and immediately when his quick, young eyes came
+to the search: but she did not look him in the face. "There is no
+change, dear. There is only some worrying business which involves a
+great many troubles of my old life before you were born. You shall
+hear--everything--in a little while: but I cannot enter into it all at
+this moment. It is full of complications and--secrets that belong to
+other people. Pippo, you must promise me to wait patiently, and to
+believe--to believe--always the best you can--of your mother."
+
+The boy laughed as he raised her up, still holding her with his arm.
+"Believe the best I can! Well, I don't think that will be a great
+effort, mother. Only to think that you can't trust me as you always have
+done makes me wretched. We've been such friends, haven't we, mamma?
+I've always told you everything, or at least everything except just the
+nonsense at school: and you've told me everything. And if we are going
+to be different now----"
+
+"You've told me everything!" the boy was as sure of it as that he was
+born. She had to hold by him to support herself, and it cost her a
+strong effort to restrain the shiver that ran through her. "We are not
+going to be different," she said, "as soon as we leave London--or
+before--you shall know everything about this business of mine, Pippo.
+Will that satisfy you? In the meantime it is not pleasant business,
+dear; and you must bear with me if I am abstracted sometimes, and
+occupied, and cross."
+
+"But, mother," said Philip, bending over her with that young celestial
+foolish look of gravity and good advice with which a neophyte will
+sometimes address the much-experienced and heavily-laden pilgrim, "don't
+you think it would be easier if it was all open between us, and I took
+my share? If it is other people's secrets I would not betray them, you
+know that."
+
+Unfortunately Elinor here murmured, scarcely knowing what words came
+from her lips, "That is what John says."
+
+"John," said the boy, furious with the quick rage of injured tenderness
+and pride, "Uncle John! and you tell him more, him, an outsider, than
+you tell me!"
+
+He let her go then, which was a great relief to Elinor, for she could
+command herself better when he was a little farther off, and could not
+feel the thrill that was in her, and the thumping of her heart.
+
+"You must remember, Pippo," she said, "what I have told you, that my
+present very disagreeable, very painful business is about things that
+happened before you were born, which John knew everything about. He was
+my adviser then, as far as I would take any advice, which I am afraid
+never was much, Pippo," she said; "never, alas! all my life. Granny will
+tell you that. But John, always the kindest friend and the best brother
+in the world, did everything he could. And it would have been better for
+us all if I had taken his advice instead of always, I fear, always my
+own way."
+
+Strangely enough this cheered Pippo and swept the cloud from his face.
+"I'm glad you didn't take anybody's advice, mother. I shouldn't have
+liked it. I've more faith in you than anybody. Well, then, now about
+this man. What man in the world--I really mean in the world, in what is
+called society, for that is the kind of people they were--could have
+such a curiosity about--me?"
+
+She had resumed her seat, and her face was turned away from him. Also
+the exquisite tone of complacency and innocent self-appreciation with
+which Philip expressed this wonder helped her a little to surmount the
+situation. Elinor could have laughed had her heart been only a trifle
+less burdened. She said: "Are you sure it was at you?"
+
+"Uncle John said something about ladies behind us, but I am sure it was
+no ladies behind. It might, of course," the boy added, cautiously, "have
+been _him_, you know. I suppose Uncle John's a personage, isn't he? But
+after all, you know, hang it, mother, it isn't easy to believe that a
+fellow like that would stare so at Uncle John."
+
+"Poor John! It is true there is not much novelty about him," said
+Elinor, with a tremble in her voice, which, if it was half agitation,
+was yet a little laughter too: for there are scarcely any circumstances,
+however painful, in which those who are that way moved by nature are
+quite able to quench the unconquerable laugh. She added, with a falter
+in which there was no laughter, "and what--was the--fellow like?"
+
+"All that I could see was that he was a tall man. I saw his large
+shirt-front and his black evening clothes, and something like grey hair
+above those two big, black goggles----"
+
+"Grey hair!" Elinor said, with a low suppressed cry.
+
+"He never took them away from his eyes for a moment, so of course I
+could not see his face, or anything much except that he was more than
+common tall--like myself," Pippo said, with a little air of pleased
+vanity in the comparison.
+
+Like himself! She did not make any remark. It is very doubtful whether
+she could have done so. There came before her so many visions of the
+past, and such a vague, confused, bewildering future, of which she could
+form no definite idea what it would be. Was it with a pang that she
+foresaw that drawing towards another influence: that mingled instinct,
+curiosity, perhaps admiration and wonder, which already seemed to move
+her boy's unconscious mind? Elinor did not even know whether that would
+hurt her at all. Even now there seemed a curious pungent sense of
+half-pleasure in the pain. Like himself! So he was. And if it should be
+that it was his father, who for hours had stood there, not taking his
+eyes off the boy (for hours her imagination said, though Pippo had not
+said so), his father who had known where she was and never disturbed
+her, never interfered with her; the man who had summoned her to perform
+her martyrdom for him, never doubting--Phil, with grey hair! To say what
+mingled feelings swept through Elinor's mind, with all these elements in
+them, is beyond my power. She saw him with his face concealed, standing
+up unconscious of the crowded place and of the mimic life on the stage,
+his eyes fixed upon his son whom he had never seen before. Where was
+there any drama in which there was a scene like this? His son, his
+only child, the heir! Unconsciously even to herself that fact had some
+influence, no doubt, on Elinor's thoughts. And it would be impossible to
+say how much influence had that unexpected subduing touch of the grey
+hair: and the strange change in the scene altogether. The foolish,
+noisy, "fast" woman, with her _tourbillon_ of men and dogs about her,
+turned into the old lady of Pippo's careless remark, with her daughter
+beside her far more important than she: and the tall figure in the front
+of the box, with grey hair----
+
+Young Philip had not the faintest light or guidance in the discovery of
+his mother's thoughts. He was much more easy and comfortable now that
+there had been an explanation between them, though it was one of those
+explanations which explained nothing. He even forgave Uncle John for
+knowing more than he did, moved thereto by the consolatory thought that
+John's advice had never been taken, and that his mother had always
+followed her own way. This was an incalculable comfort to Pippo's mind,
+and gave him composure to wait calmly for the clearing up of the
+mystery, and the restoration of that perfect confidence between his
+mother and himself which he was so firmly convinced had existed all his
+life. He was a great deal happier after, and gave her an excellent
+account of the play, which he had managed to see quite satisfactorily,
+notwithstanding the other "little play of our own" which ran through
+everything. At Philip's age one can see two things at once well enough.
+I knew a boy who at one and the same moment got the benefit of (1st)
+his own story book, which he read lying at full length before the fire,
+half buried in the fur of a great rug; and (2nd) of the novel which was
+being read out over his head for the benefit of the other members of
+the family--or at least he strenuously asserted he did, and indeed
+proved himself acquainted with both. Philip in the same way had taken
+in everything in the play, even while his soul was intent upon the
+opera-glass in the box. He had not missed anything of either. He gave an
+account of the first, from which the drama might have been written down
+had fate destroyed it: and had noticed the _minauderies_ of the heroine,
+and the eager determination not to be second to her in anything which
+distinguished the first gentleman, as if he had nothing else in his
+mind: while all the time he had been under the fascination of the two
+black eyeholes _braques_ upon him, the mysterious gaze as of a ghost
+from eyes which he never saw.
+
+This occupied some part of the forenoon, and Philip was happy. But when
+he had completed his tale and began to feel the necessity of going out,
+and remembered that he had nowhere to go and nothing to do, the prospect
+was not alluring. He tried very hard to persuade his mother to go out
+with him, but this was a risk from which Elinor shrank. She shrank, too,
+from his proposal at last to go out to the park by himself.
+
+"To the Row. I sha'n't know the people except those who are in _Punch_
+every week, and I shall envy the fellows riding--but at least it will be
+something to see."
+
+"I wish you would not go to the Row, Pippo."
+
+"Why, mother? Doesn't everybody go? And you never were here at this time
+of the year before."
+
+"No," she said, with a long breath of despair. No; of all times of the
+year this was the one in which she had never risked him in London. And,
+oh! that he had been anywhere in the world except London now!
+
+Philip, who had been watching her countenance with great interest,
+here patted her on the shoulder with condescending, almost paternal,
+kindness. "Don't you be frightened, mother. I'll not get into any
+mischief. I'll neither be rode over, nor robbed, nor run away. I'll
+take as great care of myself as if you had been there."
+
+"I'm not afraid that you will be ridden over or robbed," she said,
+forcing a smile; "but there is one thing, Pippo. Don't talk to anybody
+whom you--don't know. Don't let yourself be drawn into---- If you should
+meet, for instance, that lady--who was in the theatre last night."
+
+"Yes, mother?"
+
+"Don't let her make acquaintance with you; don't speak to her, nor the
+girl, nor any one that may be with her. At the risk even of being
+uncivil----"
+
+"Why, mother," he said, elevating his eyebrows, "how could I be uncivil
+to a lady?"
+
+"Because I tell you," she cried, "because you must--because I shall sit
+here in terror counting every moment till you come back, if you don't
+promise me this."
+
+He looked at her with the most wondering countenance, half disapproving,
+half pitying. Was she going mad? what was happening to her? was she
+after all, though his mother, no better than the jealous foolish women
+in books, who endeavoured at all costs to separate their children from
+every influence but their own? How could Pippo think such things of his
+mother? and yet what else could he think?
+
+"I had better," he said, "if that is how you feel, mother, not go to the
+Row at all."
+
+"Much better, much better!" she cried. "I'll tell you what we'll do,
+Pippo--you have never been to see--the Tower." She had run over all the
+most far-off and unlikely places in her mind, and this occurred to her
+as the most impossible of all to attract any visitor of whom she could
+be afraid. "I have changed my mind," she added. "Well have a hansom, and
+I will go with you to see the Tower."
+
+"So long as you go with me," said Pippo, "I don't care where I go."
+
+And they set out almost joyfully as in their old happy expeditions of
+old, for that long drive through London in the hansom. And yet the boy
+was only lulled for the moment, and in his heart was more and more
+perplexed what his mother could mean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+
+Fortune was favourable to Elinor that day. At the Tower, where she duly
+went over everything that was to be seen with Pippo, conscious all the
+time of his keen observance of her through all that he was doing, and
+even through his interest in what he saw--and feeling for the first time
+in her life that there was between her boy and her something that he
+felt, something that was not explained by anything she had said, and
+that awaited the dreadful moment when everything would have to be
+told--at the Tower, as I say, they met some friends from the north, the
+rector of the parish, who had come up with his son to see town, and was
+naturally taking his boy, as Elinor took hers, to see all that was not
+town, in the usual sense of the word. They were going to Woolwich and
+Greenwich next day, and with a pang of mingled trouble and relief in her
+mind Elinor contrived to engage Pippo to accompany them. On the second
+day I think they were to go to St. Katherine's Docks, or the Isle of
+Dogs, or some other equally important and interesting sight--far better
+no doubt for the two youths than to frequent such places as the Row, and
+gaze at the stream of gaiety and luxury which they could not join. Pippo
+in ordinary circumstances would have been delighted to see Woolwich and
+the docks--but it was so evident to him that his mother was anxiously
+desirous to dispose of him so, that his satisfaction was much lessened.
+The boy, however, was magnanimous enough to consent without any appearance
+of reluctance. In the many thoughts which filled his mind Philip showed
+his fine nature, by having already come to consent to the possibility
+that his mother might have business of her own into which he had no
+right to enter unless at her own time and with her full consent. It
+cost him an effort, I allow, to come to that: but yet he did so, and
+resolved, a little pride helping him, to inquire no more, and if possible
+to wonder or be offended no more, but to wait the time she had promised,
+when the old rule of perfect confidence should be re-established between
+them. The old rule! if Pippo had but known! nothing yet had given
+Elinor such a sense of guilt as his conviction that she had told him
+everything, that there had been no secrets between them during all the
+happy life that was past.
+
+How entirely relieved Elinor was when he started to join his friends
+next morning it would be impossible to put into words. She watched all
+his lingering movements before he went with eyes in which she tried to
+quench the impatience, and look only with the fond admiration and
+interest she felt upon all his little preparations, his dawning sense of
+what was becoming in apparel, the flower in his coat, the carefully
+rolled umbrella, the hat brushed to the most exquisite smoothness, the
+handkerchief just peeping from his breast-pocket. It is always a
+revelation to a woman to find that these details occupy as much of a
+young man's attention as her own toilette occupies hers; and that he is
+as tremulously alive to "what is worn" in many small particulars that
+never catch her eye, as she is to details which entirely escape him. She
+smiles at him as he does at her, each in that conscious superiority to
+the other, which is on the whole an indulgent sentiment. Underneath all
+her anxiety to see him go, to get rid of him (was that the dreadful
+truth in this terrible crisis of her affairs?), she felt the amusement
+of the boy's little coquetries, and the mother's admiration of his fresh
+looks, his youthful brightness, his air of distinction; how different
+from the Rector's boy, who was a nice fellow enough, and a credit to his
+rectory, and whose mother, I do not doubt, felt in his ruddy good looks
+something much superior in robustness, and strength, and manhood to the
+too-tall and too-slight golden youth of the ladies at Lakeside! It even
+flitted across Elinor's mind to give him within herself the title that
+was to be his, everybody said--Lord Lomond! And then she asked herself
+indignantly what honour it could add to her spotless boy to have such a
+vain distinction; a name that had been soiled by so much ignoble use?
+Elinor had prided herself all her life on an indifference to, almost a
+contempt for, the distinctions of rank: and that it should occur to her
+to think of that title as an embellishment to Pippo--nay, to think
+furtively, without her own knowledge, so to speak, that Pippo looked
+every inch a lord and heir to a peerage, was an involuntary weakness
+almost incredible. She blushed for herself as she realised it:--a
+peerage which had meant so little that was excellent--a name connected
+with so many undesirable precedents: still I suppose when it is his own
+even the veriest democrat is conscious at least of the picturesqueness,
+the superiority, as a mode of distinguishing one man from another, of
+anything that can in the remotest sense be called a historical name.
+
+When Pippo was out of sight Elinor turned from the window with a sigh,
+and came back to the dark chamber of her own life, full at this moment
+of all the gathered blackness of the past and of the future. She put her
+hands over her eyes, and sank down upon a seat, as if to shut out from
+herself all that was before her. But shut it out as she might, there it
+was--the horrible court with the judgment-seat, the rows of faces bent
+upon her, the silence through which her own voice must rise alone,
+saying--what? What was it she was called there to say? Oh, how little
+they knew who suggested that her mother should have been called instead
+of her, with all her minute old-fashioned calculations and exact memory,
+who even now, when all was over, would probably convict Elinor of a
+mistake! Even at that penalty what would not she give to have it over,
+the thing said, the event done with, whatever it might bring after it!
+And it could now be only a very short time till the moment of the
+ordeal would come, when she should stand up in the face of her country,
+before the solemn judge on his bench, before all the gaping, wondering
+people--before, oh! thought most dreadful of all, which we would not,
+could not, contemplate--before one who knew everything, and say---- She
+picked herself up trembling as it were, and uncovered her eyes, and
+protested to herself that she would say nothing that was not true.
+Nothing that was not true! She would tell her story--so well remembered,
+so often conned; that story that had been put into her lips twenty years
+ago which she had repeated then confused, not knowing how it was that
+what was a simple fact should nevertheless not be true. Alas! she knew
+that very well now, and yet would have to repeat it before God and the
+world. But thinking would make it no better--thinking could only make it
+worse. She sprang up again, and began to occupy herself with something
+she had to do: the less it was thought over the better: for now the
+trial had begun, and her ordeal would soon be done too. If only the boy
+could be occupied, kept away--if only she could be left alone to do what
+she had to do! That he should be there was the last aggravation of which
+her fate was capable; there in idleness, reading the papers in the
+morning, which was a thing she had so lately calculated a boy at school
+was unlikely to do; and what so likely as that his eye would be caught
+by his own name in the report of the trial, which would be an exciting
+trial and fully reported--a trial which interested society. The boy
+would see his own name: she could almost hear him cry out, looking up
+from his breakfast, "Hallo, mother! here's something about a Philip
+Compton!" And all the questions that would follow--"Is he the same
+Comptons that we are? What Comptons do we belong to? You never told
+me anything about my family. Is this man any relation, I wonder?
+Both surname and Christian name the same. It's strange if there is no
+connection!" She could almost hear the words he would say--all that
+and more--and what should she reply?
+
+"I have only one thing to say, Elinor," said John, to whom in her
+desperation she turned again, as she always did, disturbing him, poor
+man, in his chambers as he was collecting his notes and his thoughts
+in the afternoon after his work was over: "it is the same as I have
+always said; even now make a clean breast of it to the boy. Tell him
+everything; better that he should hear it from your own lips than that
+it should burst upon him as a discovery. He has but to meet Lady
+Mariamne in the park, the most likely thing in the world----"
+
+"No, John," cried Elinor, "no; the Marshalls are here, our Rector from
+Lakeside, and he is taking his boy to see all the sights. I have got
+Pippo to go with them. They are going to Woolwich to-day, and afterwards
+to quite a long list of things--oh, entirely out of everybody's way."
+
+Her little look of uneasy triumph and satisfaction made John smile. She
+was not half so sure as she tried to look; but, all the same, had a little
+pride, a little pleasure in her own management, and in the happy chance
+of the Marshalls being in London, which was a thing that could not have
+been planned, an intervention of Providence. He could not refuse to
+smile--partly with her, partly at her simplicity--but, all the same, he
+shook his head.
+
+"The only way in which there is any safety--the only chance of preserving
+him from a shock, a painful shock, Elinor, that may upset him for
+life----"
+
+"How do you mean, upset him for life?"
+
+"By showing him that his mother, whom he believes in like heaven, has
+deceived him since ever he was born."
+
+She covered her face with her hands, and burst into a sobbing cry. "Oh,
+John, you don't know how true that is! He said to me only yesterday,
+'You have always told me everything, mother. There has never been any
+secret between us.' Oh! John, John, only think of having that said to
+me, and knowing what I know!"
+
+"Well, Elinor; believe me, my dear, there is but one thing to do. The
+boy is a good boy, full of love and kindness."
+
+"Oh, isn't he, John? the best boy, the dearest----"
+
+"And adores his mother, as a boy should," John got up from his chair and
+walked about the room for a little, and then he came behind her and put
+his hand on her shoulder. "Tell him, Elinor: my dear Nelly, as if I had
+never said a word on the subject before, I beseech you tell him, trust
+him fully, even now, at the eleventh hour."
+
+She raised her head with a quivering, wistful smile. "The moment the
+trial is over, the moment it is over! I give you my word, John."
+
+"Do not wait till it is over, do it now; to-night when he comes home."
+
+She began to tremble so that John Tatham was alarmed--and kept looking
+at him with an imploring look, her lips quivering and every line in her
+countenance. "Oh, not to-night. Spare me to-night! After the trial;
+after my part of it. At least--after--after--oh, give me till to-morrow
+to think of it!"
+
+"My dear Elinor, I count for nothing in it. I am not your judge; I am
+your partisan, you know, whatever you do. But I am sure it will be the
+better done, and even the easier done, the sooner you do it."
+
+"I will--I will: at the very latest the day after I have done my part at
+the trial. Is not that enough to think of at one time, for a poor woman
+who has never stood up before the public in all her life, never had a
+question put to her? Oh, John! oh, John!"
+
+"Elinor, Elinor! you are too sensible a woman to make a fuss about a
+simple duty like this."
+
+"There speaks the man who has stood before the world all his life, and
+is not afraid of any public," she said, with a tremulous laugh. But she
+had won her moment's delay, and thus was victorious after a fashion, as
+it was her habit to be.
+
+I do not know that young Philip much amused himself at Woolwich that
+day. He did and he did not. He could not help being interested in
+all he saw, and he liked the Marshalls well enough, and in ordinary
+circumstances would have entered very heartily into any sight-seeing.
+But he kept thinking all the time what his mother was doing, and
+wondering over the mysterious business which was to be explained to him
+sooner or later, and which he had so magnanimously promised to wait for
+the revelation of, and entertain no suspicions about in the meantime.
+The worst of such magnanimity is that it is subject to dreadful failings
+of the heart in its time of waiting--never giving in, indeed, but yet
+feeling the pressure whenever there is a moment to think. This matter
+mixed itself up so with all Philip saw that he never in after life
+saw a great cannon, or a pyramid of balls (which is not, to be sure, an
+every-day sight) without a vague sensation of trouble, as of something
+lying behind which was concealed from him, and which he would scarcely
+endure to have concealed. When he left his friends in the evening,
+however, it was with another engagement for to-morrow, and several
+to-morrows after, and great jubilation on the part of both father and
+son, as to their good luck in meeting, and having his companionship in
+their pleasures. And, in fact, these pleasures were carried on for
+several days, always with the faint bitter in them to Philip, of that
+consciousness that his mother was pleased to be rid of him, glad to see
+his back turned, the most novel, extraordinary sensation to the boy.
+And it must also be confessed that he kept a very keen eye on all the
+passing carriages, always hoping to see that one in which the witch,
+as he called her, and the girl with the keen eyes were--for he had not
+picked up the name of Lady Mariamne, keen as his young ears were, and
+though John had mentioned it in his presence, partly, perhaps, because
+it was so very unlikely a name. As for the man with the opera-glasses,
+he had not seen his face at all, and therefore could not hope to
+recognise him. And yet he felt a little thrill run through him when any
+tall man with grey hair passed in the street. He almost thought he could
+have known the tall slim figure with a certain swaying movement in it,
+which was not like anybody else. I need not say, however, that even had
+these indications been stronger, Woolwich and the Isle of Dogs were
+unlikely places in which to meet Lady Mariamne, or any gentleman likely
+to be in attendance on her. In Whitechapel, indeed, had he but known, he
+might have met Miss Dolly: but then in Whitechapel there were no
+sights which virtuous youth is led to see. And Philip's man with the
+opera-glass was, during these days, using that aid to vision in a very
+different place, and had neither leisure nor inclination to move vaguely
+about the world.
+
+For three days this went on successfully enough: young Philip Compton
+and Ralph Marshall saw enough to last them all the rest of their lives,
+and there was no limit to the satisfaction of the good country clergyman,
+who felt that he never could have succeeded so completely in improving
+his son's mind, instead of delivering him over to the frivolous amusements
+of town, if it had not been for the companionship of Philip, who made
+Ralph feel that it was all right, and that he was not being victimised
+for nothing. But on the fourth day a hitch occurred. John Tatham had
+been made to give all sorts of orders and admissions for the party
+to see every nook and corner of the Temple, much to Elinor's alarm,
+who felt that place was too near to be safe; but she was herself in
+circumstances too urgent to permit her dwelling upon it. She had left
+the house on that particular morning long before Philip was ready, and
+every anxiety was dulled in her mind for the moment by the overwhelming
+sense of the crisis arrived. She went to his room before he had left it,
+and gave him a kiss, and told him that she might be detained for a long
+time; that she did know exactly at what hour she should return. She
+was very pale, paler than he had ever seen her, and her manner had a
+suppressed agitation in it which startled Philip; but she managed to
+smile as she assured him she was quite well, and that there was nothing
+troubling her. "Nothing, nothing that has to do with us--a little
+disturbed for a friend--but that will be all over," she said, "to-night,
+I hope." Philip made a leisurely breakfast after she was gone, and it
+happened to him that morning for the first time as he was alone to make
+a study of the papers. And the consequence was that he said to himself
+really those words which his mother in imagination had so often heard
+him say, "Hallo! Philip Compton, my name! I wonder if he is any relation.
+I wonder if we have anything to do with those St. Serf Comptons." Then
+he reflected, but vaguely, that he did not know to what Comptons he
+belonged, nor even what county he came from, to tell the truth. And then
+it was time to hurry over his breakfast, to swallow his cup of tea, to
+snatch up his hat and gloves, and to rush off to meet his friends. But
+on that day Philip was unlucky. When he got to the place of meeting he
+found nothing but a telegram from Ralph, announcing that his father was
+so knocked up with his previous exertions that they were obliged to take
+a quiet day. And thus Philip was left in the Temple, of all places in
+the world, on the day when his mother was to appear in the law-courts
+close by--on the day of all others when if she could have sent him for
+twenty-four hours to the end of the earth she would have done so--on the
+day when so terrible was the stress and strain upon herself that for
+once in the world even Pippo had gone as completely out of her mind as
+if he had not been.
+
+The boy looked about him for awhile, and reflected what to do, and
+then he started out into the Strand, conscientiously waiting for the
+Marshalls before he should visit the Temple and all its historical ways;
+and then he was amused and excited by seeing a barrister or two in wig
+and gown pass by; and then he thought of the trial in the newspapers,
+in which somebody who, like himself, was called Philip Compton, was
+involved. Philip was still lingering, wondering if he could get into the
+court, a little shy of trying, but gradually growing eager, thinking at
+least that he would try and get a sight of the wonderful grand building,
+still so new, when he suddenly saw Simmons, his uncle John's clerk,
+passing through the quadrangle of the law-courts. Here was his chance.
+He rushed forward and caught the clerk by the arm, who was in a great
+hurry, as everybody seemed to be. "Oh, Simmons, can you get me into that
+Brown trial?" cried Philip. "Brown!" Simmons said. "Mr. Tatham is not on
+in that." "Oh, never mind about Mr. Tatham," said the boy. "Can't you
+get me in? I have never seen a trial, and I take an interest in that."
+"I advise you," said Simmons, "to wait for one that your uncle's in."
+"Can't you get me in?" said Philip, impatiently: and this touched the
+pride of Simmons, who had many friends, if not in high places, yet in
+low.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+
+Philip had never been in a court of law before. I am almost as ignorant
+as he was, yet I cannot imagine anything more deeply interesting than
+to find one's self suddenly one of a crowded assembly trying more or
+less--for is not the public but a larger jury, sometimes contradicting
+the verdict of the other, and when it does so almost invariably winning
+the cause?--a fellow-creature, following out the traces of his crime or
+his innocence, looking on while a human drama is unrolled, often far
+more interesting than any dramatic representation of life. He was
+confused for the moment by the crowd, by the new and unusual spectacle,
+by the bewilderment of seeing for the first time what he had so often
+heard of, the judge on the bench, the wigged barristers below, the one
+who was speaking, so different from any other public speaker Philip had
+ever heard, addressing not the assembly, but the smaller circle round
+him, interrupted by other voices: the accused in his place and the
+witness--standing there more distinctly at the bar than the culprit
+was--bearing his testimony before earth and heaven, with the fate
+of another hanging on his words. The boy was so full of the novel
+sight--which yet he had heard of so often that he could identify every
+part of it, and soon perceived the scope of what was going on--that he
+did not at first listen, so full was he of the interest of what he saw.
+The imperturbable judge, grave, letting no emotion appear on his face;
+the jury, just the reverse, showing how this and that piece of evidence
+affected them; the barristers who were engaged, so keenly alive to
+everything, starting up now and then when the witness swerved from the
+subject, when the opposition proposed a leading question, or one that
+was irrelevant to the issue; the others who were not "in it," as Simmons
+said, so indifferent; and then the spectators who had places about or
+near the central interest. Philip saw, with a sudden leap of his heart,
+the ladies of the theatre and park, the witch and the girl with the keen
+eyes, in a conspicuous place; the old lady, as he called her, full of
+movement and gesture, making signs to others near her, keeping up an
+interrupted whispering, the girl at her side as impassive as the judge
+himself. And then Pippo's roving eye caught a figure seated among the
+barristers with an opera-glass, which made his heart jump still more.
+Was that the man? He had, at the moment Philip perceived him, his
+opera-glass in his hand: a tall man leaning back with a look of
+interest, very conspicuous among the wigged heads about him, with grey
+hair in a mass on his forehead as if it had grown thin and had been
+coaxed to cover some denuded place, and a face which it seemed to Philip
+he had seen before, a face worn--was it with study, was it with trouble?
+Pippo knew of no other ways in which the eyes could be so hollowed out,
+and the lines so deeply drawn. A man, perhaps, hard worn with life and
+labor and sorrow. A strange sympathy sprang up in the boy's mind: he was
+sure he knew the face. It was a face full of records, though young
+Philip could not read them--the face, he thought, of a man who had had
+much to bear. Was it the same man who had fixed so strange a gaze upon
+himself at the theatre? And what interest could this man have in the
+trial that was going on?
+
+The accused at the bar was certainly not of a kind to arouse the
+interest which sprang into being at sight of this worn and noble hero.
+He had the air of a comfortable man of business, a man evidently well
+off, surprised at once and indignant to find himself there, sometimes
+bursting with eagerness to explain, sometimes leaning back with an air
+of affected contempt--not a good man in trouble, as Philip would have
+liked to think him, nor a criminal fully conscious of what might be
+awaiting him; but a man of the first respectability, indignant and
+incredulous that anything should be brought against him. Philip felt
+himself able to take no interest whatever in Mr. Brown.
+
+It was not till he had gone through all these surprises and observations
+that he began to note what was being said. Philip was not learned in the
+procedure of the law, nor did he know anything about the case; but it
+became vaguely apparent to him after awhile that the immediate question
+concerned the destruction of the books of a joint-stock company, of
+which Brown was the manager, an important point which the prosecution
+had some difficulty in bringing home to him. After it had been proved
+that the books had been destroyed, and that so far as was known it
+was to Brown's interest alone to destroy them, the evidence as to what
+had been seen on the evening on which this took place suddenly took a
+new turn, and seemed to introduce a new actor on the scene. Some one
+had been seen to enter the office in the twilight who could not be
+identified with Brown; whom, indeed, even Philip, with his boyish
+interest in the novelty of the proceedings, vaguely perceived to be
+another man. The action of the piece, so to speak (for it was like a
+play to Philip), changed and wavered here--and he began to be sensible
+of the character of the different players in it. The counsel for the
+prosecution was a well-known and eminent barrister, one of the most
+noted of the time, a man before whom witnesses trembled, and even the
+Bench itself was sometimes known to quail. That this was the case on the
+present occasion Philip vaguely perceived. There were points continually
+arising which the opposing counsel made objections to, appealing to the
+judge; but it rarely failed that the stronger side, which was that of
+the prosecution, won the day. The imperious accuser, whose resources of
+precedent and argument seemed boundless, carried everything with a
+high hand. The boy, of course, was not aware of the weakness of the
+representative of the majesty of the law, nor the inferiority, in force
+and skill, of the defence; but he gradually came to a practical
+perception of how the matter stood.
+
+Philip listened with growing interest, sometimes amused, sometimes
+indignant, as the remorseless prosecutor ploughed his way through the
+witnesses, whom he bullied into admissions that they were certain of
+nothing, and that in the dusk of that far-off evening, the man whom they
+had sworn at the time to be quite unlike him, might in reality have been
+Brown. Philip got greatly interested in this question. He took up the
+opposite side himself with much heat, feeling as sure as if he had been
+there that it was not Brown: and he was delighted in his excitement,
+when there stood up one man who would not be bullied, a man who had the
+air of a respectable clerk of the lower class, and who held his own. He
+had been an office boy, the son apparently of the housekeeper in charge
+of the premises referred to when the incident occurred, and the gist of
+his evidence was that the prisoner at the bar--so awful a personage once
+to the little office boy, so curtly discussed now as Brown--had left the
+office at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 6th of September, and had
+not appeared again.
+
+"A different gentleman altogether came in the evening, a much taller
+man, with a large moustache."
+
+"Where was it that you saw this man?"
+
+"Slipping in at the side door of the office as if he didn't want to be
+seen."
+
+"Was that a door which was generally open, or used by the public?"
+
+"Never, sir; but none of the doors were used at that time of night."
+
+"And how, then, could any one get admittance there?"
+
+"Only those that had private keys; the directors had their private
+keys."
+
+"Then your conclusion was that it was a director, and that he had a
+right to be there?"
+
+"I knew it was a director, sir, because I knew the gentleman," the
+witness said.
+
+"You say it was late in the evening of the 6th of September. Was it
+daylight at the time?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir; nearly dark--a sort of a half light."
+
+"Did the person you saw go in openly, or make any attempt at concealment?"
+
+"He had a light coat on, like the coats gentlemen wear when they go to
+the theatre, and something muffled round his throat, and his hat pulled
+down over his face."
+
+"Like a person who wished to conceal himself?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the witness.
+
+"And how, then, if he was muffled about the throat, and his hat pulled
+over his face, in the half light late in the evening, could you see that
+he had a large moustache?"
+
+The witness stood and stared with his mouth open, and made no reply.
+
+The counsel, with a louder voice and those intonations of contemptuous
+insinuation which are calculated to make a man feel that he is convicted
+of the basest perjury, and is being held up to the reprobation of the
+world, repeated the question, "How could you see that he had a large
+moustache?"
+
+"I saw it," said the witness, hotly, "because I knew the gentleman."
+
+"And how did you know the gentleman? You thought you recognised the
+gentleman, and therefore, though you could not possibly perceive it, you
+saw his moustache? I fear that is not an answer that will satisfy the
+jury."
+
+"I submit," said the counsel for the defence, "that it is very evident
+what the witness means. He recognised a man with whose appearance he was
+perfectly familiar."
+
+"I saw him," said the witness, "as clear as I see you, sir."
+
+"What! in the dark, late on a September night, with a coat collar up to
+his ears, and a hat pulled down over his face! You see my learned friend
+in broad daylight, and with the full advantage of standing opposite
+to him and studying his looks at your leisure. You might as well say
+because you know the gentleman that you could see his half was dark and
+abundant under his wig."
+
+At this a laugh ran through the court, at which Philip, listening, was
+furiously indignant, as it interrupted the course of the investigation.
+It was through the sound of this laugh that he heard the witness demand
+loudly, "How could I be mistaken, when I saw Mr. Compton every day?"
+
+Mr. Compton! Philip's heart began to beat like the hammers of a
+steam-engine. Was this, then, the real issue? And who was Mr. Compton?
+He could not have told how it was that he somehow identified the man
+whom the witness had seen, or had not seen, with the man who had the
+opera-glass, and who had fixed a dreadful blank stare upon the other in
+the witness-box during a great part of this discussion. Was it he who
+was on his trial, and not Brown? And who was he? And where was it that
+Philip had known and grown familiar with that face, which, so far as he
+could remember, he had never seen before, but which belonged to the man
+who bore his own name?
+
+When the counsel for the prosecution had turned the unfortunate witness
+outside in, and proved that he knew nothing and had seen nobody: and
+that, besides, he was a man totally unworthy of credit, who had lied
+from his cradle, and whose own mother and friends put no trust in him,
+the court adjourned for lunch. But Philip forgot that he required any
+lunch. His mind was filled with echoes of that name. He began to feel a
+strange certainty that it was the same man who had fixed him with the
+same gaze in the theatre. Who was Mr. Compton, and what was he? The
+question took the boy's breath away.
+
+He sat through the interval, finding a place where he could see better,
+through the kind offices of the usher to whom Simmons had commended him,
+and waiting with impatience till the trial should be resumed. Nobody
+remarked the boy among the crowd of the ordinary public, many of whom
+remained, as he did, to see it out, Philip cared nothing about Brown:
+all that he wanted to know was about this namesake of his--this Compton,
+this other man, who was not Brown. If it was the man with the opera-glass,
+he was not so much excited as his young namesake, for he went to
+luncheon with the rest; while the boy remained counting the minutes,
+eager to begin the story, the drama, again. The impression left,
+however, on Philip's impartial mind was that the last witness, though
+driven and badgered out of what wits he had by the examination, had
+really seen a man whom he perfectly knew, his recognition of whom was
+not really affected either by the twilight or the disguise.
+
+The thrill of interest which he felt running through all his veins as
+the court filled again was like, but stronger than, the interest with
+which he had ever seen the curtain rise in the theatre. His heart beat:
+he felt as if in some sort it was his own fate that was going to be
+decided: all his prepossessions were in favour of that other accused,
+yet not openly accused, person who was not Brown; and yet he felt almost
+as sure as if he had been there that the office boy of twenty years ago
+had seen that man stealing in at the side door.
+
+Young Philip did not catch the name of the next witness who was called;
+such a thing will happen sometimes even with the quickest ear at a
+moment when every whisper is important. If he had heard he would
+probably have thought that he was deceived by his excitement, impossible
+as it was that such a name should have anything to do with this or any
+other trial. The shock therefore was unbroken when, watching with all
+the absorbed interest of a spectator at the most exciting play, the boy
+saw a lady come slowly forward into the witness-box. Philip had the
+same strange sense of knowing who it was that he had felt the previous
+witness to have in respect to the man whom he could not see, but yet had
+infallibly recognised: but he said to himself, No! it was not possible!
+No! it was not possible! She came forward slowly, put up the veil that
+had covered her face, and grasped the bar before her to support herself;
+and then the boy sprang to his feet, in the terrible shock which
+electrified him from head to feet! His movements, and the stifled cry
+he uttered, made a little commotion in the crowd, and called forth the
+cry of "Silence in the court." His neighbours around him hustled him
+back into his place, where he sank down incapable indeed of movement,
+knowing that he could not go and pluck her from that place--could not
+rush to her side, could do nothing but sit there and gasp and gaze
+at his mother. His mother, in such a place! in such a case! with
+which--surely, surely--she could have nothing to do. Elinor Compton, at
+the time referred to Elinor Dennistoun, of Windyhill, in Surrey--there
+was no doubt about the name now. And Philip had time enough to
+identify everything, name and person, for there rose a vague surging
+of contention about the first questions put to her, which were not
+evidence, according to the counsel on the other side, which he felt with
+fury was done on purpose to prolong the agony. During this time she
+stood immovable, holding on by the rail before her, her eyes fixed upon
+it, perfectly pale, like marble, and as still. Among all the moving,
+rustling, palpitating crowd, and the sharp volleys of the lawyers'
+voices, and even the contradictory opinions elicited from the harassed
+judge himself--to look at that figure standing there, which scarcely
+seemed to breathe, had the most extraordinary effect. For a time Philip
+was like her, scarcely breathing, holding on in an unconscious sympathy
+to the back of the seat before him, his eyes wide open, fixed upon her.
+But as his nerves began to accustom themselves to that extraordinary,
+inconceivable sight, the other particulars of the scene came out of
+the mist, and grew apparent to him in a lurid light that did not seem
+the light of day. He saw the eager looks at her of the ladies in the
+privileged places, the whispers that were exchanged among them. He saw
+underneath the witness-box, almost within reach of her, John Tatham,
+with an anxious look on his face. And then he saw, what was the most
+extraordinary of all, the man--who had been the centre of his interest
+till now--the man whose name was Philip Compton, like his own; he who
+fixed the last witness with the stare of his opera-glass, who had kept
+it in perpetual use. He had put it down now on the table before him, his
+arms were folded on his breast, and his head bent. Philip thought he
+detected now and then a furtive look under his brows at the motionless
+witness awaiting through the storm of words the moment when her turn
+would come; but though he had leant forward all the time, following
+every point of the proceedings with interest, he now drew back, effaced
+himself, retired as it were from the scene. What was there between these
+two? Was there any link between them? What was the drama about to be
+played out before Pippo's innocent and ignorant eyes? At last the storm
+and wrangling seemed to come to an end, and there came out low but clear
+the sound of her voice. It seemed only now, when he heard his mother
+speak, that he was certified that so inconceivable a thing as that she
+should be here was a matter of fact: his mother here! Philip fixed his
+whole being upon her--eyes, thoughts, absorbed attention, he scarcely
+seemed to breathe except through her. Could she see him, he wondered,
+through all that crowd? But then he perceived that she saw nothing with
+those eyes that looked steadily in front of her, not turning a glance
+either to the right or left.
+
+For some time Philip was baffled completely by the questions put, which
+were those to which the counsel on the other side objected as not
+evidence, and which seemed, even to the boy's inexperienced mind, to be
+mere play upon the subject, attempts to connect her in some way with the
+question as to Brown's guilt or innocence. Something in the appearance,
+at this stage, of a lady so unlike the other witnesses, seemed to
+exercise a certain strange effect, however, quickening everybody's
+interest, and when the examining counsel approached the question of the
+date which had already been shown to be so momentous, all interruptions
+were silenced, and the court in general, like Philip, held its breath.
+There were many there expecting what are called in the newspapers
+"revelations:" the defence was taken by surprise, and did not know what
+new piece of evidence was about to be produced: and even the examining
+counsel was, for such a man, subdued a little by the other complicating
+threads of the web among which he had to pick his way.
+
+"You recollect," he said in his most soothing tones; "the evening of the
+6th September, 1863?"
+
+She bowed her head in reply. And then as if that was sparing herself too
+much, added a low "Yes."
+
+"As I am instructed, you were not then married, but engaged to Mr.
+Philip Compton. Is that so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"One of the directors of the company of which the defendant was
+manager?"
+
+"I believe so."
+
+"I am sorry to have to enter upon matters so private: but there was some
+question, I believe, about an investment to be made of a portion of your
+fortune in the hands of this company?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You received a visit from Mr. Compton on the subject on the day I have
+mentioned."
+
+The witness made a slight movement and pause: then answered as before,
+but more firmly, "Yes:" she added, "not on this subject," in a lower
+tone.
+
+"You can recollect, more or less exactly, the time of his arrival?"
+
+"Yes. It was in the evening, after dinner; in the darkening before the
+lamps were lit."
+
+"Were you looking for him on that night?"
+
+"No; it was an unexpected visit. He was going to Ireland, and paused on
+his way through town to come down to Windyhill."
+
+"You have particular reasons for remembering the date, which make it
+impossible that there could be any mistake?"
+
+"No; there could be no mistake."
+
+"You will perhaps inform the court, Mrs. Compton, why your memory is so
+exact on this point."
+
+Once more she hesitated for a moment, and then replied--
+
+"It was exactly ten days before my marriage."
+
+"I think that will do, Mrs. Compton. I will trouble you no further," the
+counsel said.
+
+The hubbub which sprang up upon this seemed to Philip for the moment as
+if it were directed against his mother, which, of course, was not the
+case, but intended to express the indignant surprise of the defence at
+the elaborate examination of a witness who had nothing to say on the
+main subject.
+
+The leader on the other side, however, though taken by surprise, and
+denouncing the trick which his learned brother had played upon the court
+by producing evidence which had really nothing to do with the matter,
+announced his intention to put a further question or two to Mrs.
+Compton. Young Philip in the crowd started again from his seat with the
+feeling that he would like to fly at that man's throat.
+
+"Twenty years is a long time," he said, "and it is difficult to be sure
+of any circumstance at such a distance. Perhaps the witness will kindly
+inform us what were the circumstances which fixed this, no doubt one of
+many visits, on her mind?"
+
+Elinor turned for the first time to the side from which the question
+came with a little movement of that impatience which was habitual to
+her, which three persons in that crowd recognised in a moment as
+characteristic. One of these was John Tatham, who had brought her to the
+court, and kept near that she might feel that she was not alone; the
+other was her son, of whose presence there nobody knew; the third, sat
+with his eyes cast down, and his arms folded on his breast, not looking
+at her, yet seeing every movement she made.
+
+"It was a very simple circumstance," she said with the added spirit of
+that impetuous impulse: but then the hasty movement failed her, and she
+came back to herself and to a consciousness of the scene in which she
+stood. A sort of tremulous shiver came into her voice. She paused and
+then resumed, "There was a calendar hanging in the hall; it caught Mr.
+Compton's eye, and he pointed it out to me. It marked the 6th. He said,
+'Just ten days----'"
+
+Here her voice stopped altogether. She could say no more. And there was
+an answering pause throughout the whole crowded court, a holding of the
+general breath, the response to a note of passion seldom struck in such
+a place. Even in the cross-examination there was a pause.
+
+"Till when? What was the other date referred to?"
+
+"The sixteenth of September," she said in a voice that was scarcely
+audible to the crowd. She added still more low so that the judge curved
+his hand over his ear to hear her, "Our wedding-day."
+
+"I regret to enter into private matters, Mrs. Compton, but I believe it
+is not a secret that your married life came to a--more rapid conclusion
+than could have been augured from such a beginning. May I ask what your
+reasons were for----"
+
+But here the other counsel sprang to his feet, and the contention arose
+again. Such a question was not clearly permissible. And the prosecution
+was perfectly satisfied with the evidence. It narrowed the question by
+the production of this clear and unquestionable testimony--the gentleman
+whom it had been attempted to involve being thus placed out of the
+question, and all the statements of the previous witness about the
+moustache which he could not see, etc., set aside.
+
+Philip, it may be supposed, paid little attention to this further
+discussion. His eyes and thoughts were fixed upon his mother, who for a
+minute or two stood motionless through it, as pale as ever, but with her
+head a little thrown back, facing, though not looking at, the circling
+lines of faces. Had she seen anything she must have seen the tall boy
+standing up as pale as she, following her movements with an unconscious
+repetition which was more than sympathy, never taking his gaze from her
+face.
+
+And then presently her place was empty, and she was gone.
+
+Philip was not aware how the discussion of the lawyers ended, but only
+that in a moment there was vacancy where his mother had been standing,
+and his gaze seemed thrown back to him by the blank where she had been.
+He was left in the midst of the crowd, which, after that one keen
+sensation, fell back upon the real trial with interest much less keen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+
+Philip did not know how long he remained, almost paralysed, in the
+court, dazed in his mind, incapable of movement. He was in the centre of
+a long row of people, and to make his way out was difficult. He felt
+that the noise would call attention to him, and that he might be somehow
+identified--identified, as what? He did not know--his head was not clear
+enough to give any reason. When he came more to himself, and his eyes
+regained a little their power of vision, it seemed to him that everybody
+had stolen away. There was the judge, indeed, still sitting imperturbable,
+the jury restless in their box, the lawyers going on with their eternal
+quarrel over a bewildered witness, all puppets carrying on some
+unintelligible, wearisome, automaton process, contending, contending for
+ever about nothing. But all that had secured Philip's attention was
+gone. John Tatham's head was no longer visible under the witness-box;
+the ladies had disappeared from their elevated seats; the man with the
+opera-glass was gone. They were all gone, and the empty husks of a
+question which only concerned the comfort and life of the commonplace
+culprit in the dock were being turned over and over like chaff by
+the wind. And yet it was some time before poor young Pippo, shy of
+attracting attention, feeling some subtle change even in himself which
+he did not understand, afraid to have people look at him and divine him,
+knowing more of him perhaps than he himself knew, could make up his mind
+to move. He might have remained there till the court broke up but for
+the movement of some one beside him, who gathered up his hat and
+umbrella, and with some commotion pushed his way between the rows
+of seats. Philip followed, thankful of the opportunity, and, as it
+happened, the sensation of the day being over, many others followed too,
+and thus he got out into the curious, wondering daylight, which seemed
+to look him in the face, as if this Philip had never been seen by it
+before. That was the impression given him--that when he first came out
+the atmosphere quivered round him with a strange novelty, as if he were
+some other being, some one without a name, new to the world, new to
+himself. He did not seem sure that he would know his way home, and yet
+he did not call a passing hansom, as he would have done yesterday, with
+a schoolboy's pleasure in assuming a man's careless, easy ways. It is a
+long way from the Law Courts to Ebury Street, but it seemed a kind of
+satisfaction to be in motion, to walk on along the crowded streets. And,
+as a matter of fact, Philip did lose his way, and got himself entangled
+in a web of narrow streets and monotonous little openings, all so like
+each other that it took him a long time to extricate himself and find
+again the thread of a locality known to him. He did not know what he was
+to do when he got in. Should he find her there, in the little dingy
+drawing-room as usual, with the tea on the table? Would she receive him
+with her usual smile, and ask where he had been and what he had seen,
+and if the Musgraves had enjoyed it, exactly as if nothing had happened?
+Even this wonder was faint in Philip's mind, for the chief wonder to him
+was himself, and to find out how he had changed since the morning--what
+he was now, who he was? what were the relations to him of other people,
+of that other Philip Compton who had been seated in the court with the
+opera-glass, who had arrived at Windyhill to visit Elinor Dennistoun on
+the 6th of September, 1863, twenty years ago? Who was that man? and what
+was he, himself Philip Compton, of Lakeside, named Pippo, whom his
+mother had never once in all his life called by his real name?
+
+To his great wonder, and yet almost relief, Philip found that his mother
+had not yet returned when he got to Ebury Street. "Mrs. Compton said as
+she would very likely be late. Can I get you some tea, sir? or, perhaps
+you haven't had your lunch? you're looking tired and worrited," said the
+landlady, who had known Pippo all his life. He consented to have tea,
+partly to fill up the time, and went up languidly to the deserted room,
+which looked so miserable and desert a place without her who put a soul
+into it and made it home. He did not know what to do with himself,
+poor boy, but sat down vacantly, and stared into empty space, seeing,
+wherever he turned, the rows of faces, the ladies making signs to each
+other, the red robes of the judge, the lawyers contending, and that
+motionless pale figure in the witness-box. He shut his eyes and saw the
+whole scene, then opened them again, and still saw it--the dingy walls
+disappearing, the greyness of the afternoon giving a depth and distance
+to the limited space. Should he always carry it about with him wherever
+he went, the vision of that court, the shock of that revelation? And yet
+he did not yet know what the revelation was; the confusion in his mind
+was too great, and the dust and mist that rose up about him as all the
+old building of his life crumbled and fell away.
+
+"I'm sure as it's that nasty trial, sir, as has been turning your mamma
+all out of her usual ways," said the landlady, appearing with her tray.
+
+"Oh, the trial! Did you know about the trial?" said Philip.
+
+"Not, Mr. Pippo, as ever she mentioned it to me. Mrs. Compton is a lady
+as isn't that confidential, though always an affable lady, and not a bit
+proud; but when you've known folks for years and years, and take an
+interest, and put this and that together---- Dear, dear, I hope as you
+don't think it's taking a liberty. It's more kindness nor curiosity, and
+I hope as you won't mention it to your mamma."
+
+Pippo shook his head and waved his hand, at once to satisfy the woman
+and dismiss her if possible; but this was not so easy to do.
+
+"And Lord St. Serf so bad, sir," she said. "Lord, to think that before
+we know where we are there may be such changes, and new names, and no
+knowing what to say! But it's best not to talk of it till it comes to
+pass, for there's many a slip between the cup and the lip, and there's
+no saying what will happen with a man that's been a-dying for years and
+years."
+
+What did the woman mean? He got rid of her at length, chiefly by dint of
+making no reply: and then, to tell the truth, Pippo's eye had been
+caught by the pile of sandwiches which the kind woman, pitying his tired
+looks, had brought up with the tea. He was ashamed of himself for being
+hungry in such a dreadful emergency as this, but he was so, and could
+not help it, though nothing would have made him confess so much, or even
+touch the sandwiches till she had gone away. He pretended to ignore them
+till the door was shut after her, but could not help vividly remembering
+that he had eaten nothing since the morning. The sandwiches did him a
+little good in his mind as well as in his body. He got rid of the vision
+of the faces and of the red figure on the bench. He began to believe
+that when he saw her she would tell him. Had she not said so? That after
+awhile he should hear everything, and that all should be as it was
+before? All as it was before--in the time when she told him everything,
+even things that Granny did not know. But she had never told him this,
+and the other day she had told him that it was other people's secrets,
+not her own, that she was keeping from him. "Other people's secrets"--the
+secrets of the man who was Philip Compton, who went to Windyhill on the
+6th of September, ten days before Elinor Dennistoun's marriage day.
+"What Philip Compton? Who was he? What had he to do with her? What, oh,
+what," Pippo said to himself, "has he to do with me?" After all, that
+was the most tremendous question. The others, or anything that had
+happened twenty years ago, were nothing to that.
+
+Meanwhile Elinor, of all places in the world, was in John Tatham's
+chambers, to which he had taken her to rest. I cannot tell how Mr.
+Tatham, a man so much occupied, managed to subtract from all he had to
+do almost a whole day to see his cousin through the trial, and stand by
+her, sparing her all the lesser annoyances which surround and exaggerate
+such a great fact. He had brought her out into the fresh air, feeling
+that movement was the best thing for her, and instead of taking her home
+in the carriage which was waiting, had made her walk with him, supported
+on his arm, on which she hung in a sort of suspended life, across the
+street to the Temple, hoping thus to bring her back, by the necessity of
+exertion, to herself. And indeed she was almost more restored to herself
+by this remedy than John Tatham had expected or hoped. For though he
+placed her in the great easy-chair, in which her slender person was
+engulfed and supported, expecting her to rest there and lie motionless,
+perhaps even to faint, as women are supposed to do when it is particularly
+inconvenient and uncomfortable, Elinor had not been there two minutes
+before she rose up again and began to walk about the room, with an
+aspect so unlike that of an exhausted and perhaps fainting woman, that
+even John, used as he was to her capricious ways, was confounded.
+Instead of being subdued and thankful that it was over, and this
+dreadful crisis in her life accomplished, Elinor walked up and down,
+wringing her hands, moaning and murmuring to herself; what was it she
+was saying? "God forgive me! God forgive me!" over and over and over,
+unconscious apparently that she was not alone, that any one heard or
+observed her. No doubt there is in all our actions, the very best, much
+for God to forgive; mingled motives, imperfect deeds, thoughts full of
+alloy and selfishness; but in what her conscience could accuse her
+now he could not understand. She might be to blame in respect to her
+husband, though he was very loth to allow the possibility; but in this
+act of her life, which had been so great a strain upon her, it was
+surely without any selfishness, for his interest only, not for her own.
+And yet John had never seen such a fervour of penitence, so strong a
+consciousness of evil done. He went up to her and laid his hand upon her
+arm.
+
+"Elinor, you are worn out. You have done too much. Will you try and rest
+a little here, or shall I take you home?"
+
+She started violently when he touched her. "What was I saying?" she
+said.
+
+"It does not matter what you were saying. Sit down and rest. You will
+wear yourself out. Don't think any more. Take this and rest a little,
+and then I will take you home."
+
+"It is easy to say so," she said, with a faint smile. "Don't think! Is
+it possible to stop thinking at one's pleasure?"
+
+"Yes," said John, "quite possible; we must all do it or we should die.
+And now your trial's over, Nelly, for goodness' sake exert yourself and
+throw it off. You have done your duty."
+
+"My duty! do you think that was my duty? Oh, John, there are so many
+ways to look at it."
+
+"Only one way, when you have a man's safety in your hands."
+
+"Only one way--when one has a man's safety--his honour, honour! Do you
+think a woman is justified in whatever she does, to save that?"
+
+"I don't understand you, Elinor; in anything you have done, or could do,
+certainly you are justified. My dear Nelly, sit down and take this. And
+then I will take you home."
+
+She took the wine from his hand and swallowed a little of it; and then
+looking up into his face with the faint smile which she put on when she
+expected to be blamed, and intended to deprecate and disarm him, as she
+had done so often: "I don't know," she said, "that I am so anxious to
+get home, John. You were to take Pippo to dine with you, and to the
+House to-night."
+
+"So I was," he said. "We did not know what day you would be called. It
+is a great nuisance, but if you think the boy would be disappointed not
+to go----"
+
+"He would be much, much disappointed. The first chance he has had of
+hearing a debate."
+
+"He would be much better at home, taking care of you."
+
+"As if I wanted taking care of! or as if the boy, who has always been
+the object of everybody's care himself, would be the proper person to do
+it! If he had been a girl, perhaps--but it is a little late at this time
+of day to wish for that now."
+
+"You were to tell him everything to-night, Elinor."
+
+"Oh, I was to tell him! Do you think I have not had enough for one day?
+enough to wear me out body and soul? You have just been telling me so,
+John."
+
+He shook his head. "You know," he said, "and I know, that in any case
+you will have it your own way, Elinor; but you have promised to tell
+him."
+
+"John, you are unkind. You take advantage of me being here, and so
+broken down, to say that I will have my own way. Has this been my own
+way at all? I would have fled if I could, and taken the boy far, far
+away from it all; but you would not let me. Yes, yes, I have promised.
+But I am tired to death. How could I look him in the face and tell
+him----" She hid her face suddenly in her hands with a moan.
+
+"It will be in the papers to-morrow morning, Elinor."
+
+"Well! I will tell him to-morrow morning," she said.
+
+John shook his head again; but it was done behind her, where she could
+not see the movement. He had more pity of her than words could say. When
+she covered her face with her hands in that most pathetic of attitudes,
+there was nothing that he would not have forgiven her. What was to
+become of her now? Her position through all these years had never been
+so dangerous, in John's opinion, never so sad, as now. Philip Compton
+had been there looking on while she put his accusers to silence, at what
+cost to herself John only began dimly to guess--to divine, to forbid
+himself to inquire. The fellow had been there all the time. He had
+the grace not to look at her, not to distract her with the sight of
+him--probably for his own sake, John thought bitterly, that she might
+not risk breaking down. But he was there, and knew where she was to be
+found. And he had seen the boy, and had cared enough to fix his gaze
+upon him, that gaze which John had found intolerable at the theatre. And
+he was on the eve of becoming Lord St. Serf, and Pippo his heir. What
+was to be the issue of these complications? What was to happen to her
+who had hid the boy so long, who certainly could hide him no more?
+
+He took her home to Ebury Street shortly after, where Philip, weary of
+waiting, and having made a meal he much wanted off the sandwiches, had
+gone out again in his restlessness and unhappiness. Elinor, who had
+become paler and paler as the carriage approached Ebury Street, and who
+by the time she reached the house looked really as if at last she must
+swoon, her heart choking her, her breathing quick and feverish, had
+taken hold of John to support herself, clutching at his arm, when she
+was told that Philip was out. She came to herself instantly on the
+strength of that news. "Tell him when he comes in to make haste," she
+said, "for Mr. Tatham is waiting for him. As for me I am fit for nothing
+but bed. I have had a very tiring day."
+
+"You do look tired, ma'am," said the sympathetic landlady. "I'll run up
+and put your room ready, and then I'll make you a nice cup of tea."
+
+John Tatham thought that, notwithstanding her exhaustion, her anxiety,
+all the realities of troubles present and to come that were in her mind
+and in her way, there was a flash something like triumph in Elinor's
+eyes. "Tell Pippo," she said, "he can come up and say good-night to me
+before he goes. I am good for nothing but my bed. If I can sleep I shall
+be able for all that is before me to-morrow." The triumph was quenched,
+however, if there had been triumph, when she gave him her hand, with a
+wistful smile, and a sigh that filled that to-morrow with the terror and
+the trouble that must be in it, did she do what she said. John went up
+to the little drawing-room to wait for Pippo, with a heavy heart. It
+seemed to him that never had Elinor been in so much danger. She had
+exposed herself to the chance of losing the allegiance of her son: she
+was at the mercy of her husband, that husband whom she had renounced,
+yet whom she had not refused to save, whose call she had obeyed to help
+him, though she had thrown off all the bonds of love and duty towards
+him. She had not had the strength either way to be consistent, to carry
+out one steady policy. It was cruel of John to say this, for but for him
+and his remonstrances Elinor would, or might have, fled, and avoided
+this last ordeal. But he had not done so, and now here she was in the
+middle of her life, her frail ship of safety driven about among the
+rocks, dependent upon the magnanimity of the husband from whom she had
+fled, and the child whom she had deceived.
+
+"Your mother is very tired, Philip," he said, when the boy appeared. "I
+was to tell you to go up and bid her good-night before you went out; for
+it will probably be late before you get back, if you think you are game
+to sit out the debate."
+
+"I will sit it out," said Philip, with no laughter in his eye, with
+an almost solemn air, as if announcing a grave resolution. He went
+up-stairs, not three steps at a time, as was his wont, but soberly,
+as if his years had been forty instead of eighteen. And he showed no
+surprise to find the room darkened, though Elinor was a woman who loved
+the light. He gave his mother a kiss and smoothed her pillow with a
+tender touch of pity. "Is your head very bad?" he said.
+
+"It is only that I am dreadfully tired, Pippo. I hope I shall sleep: and
+it will help me to think you are happy with Uncle John."
+
+"Then I shall try to be happy with Uncle John," he said, with a sort of
+smile. "Good-night, mother; I hope you'll be better to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, yes," she said. "To-morrow is always a new day."
+
+He seemed in the half light to nod his head, and then to shake it, as
+one that assents, but doubts--having many troubled thoughts and
+questions in his mind. But Pippo did not at all expect to be happy with
+Uncle John.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+
+It cannot be said that Uncle John was very happy with Philip, but that
+was a thing the others did not take into account. John Tatham was doing
+for the boy as much as a man could do. A great debate was expected that
+evening, in which many eminent persons were to speak, and Mr. Tatham
+gave Philip a hasty dinner in the House so that he should lose nothing,
+and he found him a corner in the distinguished strangers' gallery,
+telling him with a smile that he expected him hereafter to prove his
+title to such a place. But Philip's smile in return was very unlike the
+flush of pleasure that would have lighted it up only yesterday. John
+felt that the boy was not at all the delightful young companion, full of
+interest in everything, that he had been. Perhaps he was on his good
+behaviour, on his dignity, bent upon showing how much of a man he was
+and how little influenced by passing sentiments, as some boys do. Anyhow
+it was certain that he was much less agreeable in his self-subdued
+condition. But John was fortunately much interested in the discussion,
+in which, indeed, he took himself a slight part, and, save for a passing
+wonder and the disappointment of the moment, did not occupy himself so
+very much with Pippo. When he looked into the corner, however, in a lull
+of the debate, when one of those fools who rush in at unguarded moments,
+when the Speaker chances to look their way, had managed to get upon his
+foolish feet to the despair of all around, the experienced man of the
+world received a curious shock from the sight of young Philip's intense
+gravity, and the self-absorbed, unconscious look he wore. The boy had
+the look of hearing nothing, seeing nothing that was around him, of
+being lost in thoughts of his own, thoughts far too serious and troubled
+for his age. Had he discovered something? What did he know? This was the
+instinctive question that rose in John's mind, and not an amused
+anticipation of Pippo's original boyish view of the question and the
+speakers, such as had delighted him on the boy's previous visits to the
+House. And indeed Philip's attention was little fixed upon the debate.
+He tried hard to bring it back, to keep it there, to get the question
+into his mind, but in spite of himself his thoughts flew back to the
+other public assembly in which he had sat unnoticed that day: till
+gradually the aspect of things changed to him, the Speaker became the
+judge, the wigged secretaries the pleaders, and he almost expected to
+see that sudden apparition, that sight that had plucked him out of his
+careless life of boyhood and trust, the sight of his mother standing
+before the world on trial for her life. Oh, no, no, not on trial at all!
+he was aware of that: a harmless witness, doing only good. The judge
+could have nothing but polite regard for her, the jury admiration and
+thanks for the clear testimony which took a weight from their shoulders.
+But before her son she was on her trial, her trial for more than
+life--and he who said with so much assurance that his mother had no
+secrets from him! until the moment arrived, without any warning, in the
+midst of his security, which proved that everything had been secret, and
+that all was mystery--all mystery! and nothing sure in life.
+
+It crossed Philip's mind more than once to question John Tatham upon
+this dreadful discovery of his--John, who was a relation, who had been
+the universal referee of the household as long as he could remember,
+Uncle John must know. But there were two things which held him back:
+first, the recollection of his own disdainful offence at the suggestion
+that Uncle John, an outsider, could know more than he did of the family
+concerns; and partly from the proud determination to ask no questions,
+to seek no information that was not freely given to him. He made up his
+mind to this while he looked out from his corner upon the lighted House,
+seeing men move up and down, and voices going on, and the sound of
+restless members coming and going, while the business of the country
+went on. It was far more important than any private affairs that could
+be passing in an individual brain, and Philip knew with what high-handed
+certainty he would have put down the idea that to himself at his age
+there could be anything private half so exciting, half so full of
+interest, as a debate on the policy of the country which might carry
+with it the highest issues. But conviction comes readily on such
+subjects when the personal interest comes which carries every other
+away. It was while a minister was speaking, and everything hanging on
+his words, that the boy made up his mind finally that he would ask no
+questions. He would ignore that scene in the Law Courts, as if it had
+not been. He would say nothing, try to look as if nothing had passed,
+and wait to see if any explanation would come.
+
+It was not, perhaps, then to be wondered at if John found him a much
+less interesting companion than ever before, as they walked home
+together in the small hours of the night. Mr. Tatham's own speech had
+been short, but he had the agreeable consciousness that it had been an
+effective one, and he was prepared to find the boy excited by it, and
+full of applause and satisfaction. But Philip did not say a word about
+the speech. He was only a boy, and it may be supposed that any applause
+from him would have had little importance for the famous lawyer--the
+highly-esteemed member who kept his independence, and whose speeches
+always secured the attention of the House, and carried weight as among
+the few utterances which concerned the real import of a question and not
+its mere party meaning. But John was hurt more than he could have thought
+possible by Philip's silence. He even tried to lead the conversation
+artfully to that point in the debate, thinking perhaps the boy was shy
+of speaking on the subject--but with no effect. It was exceedingly
+strange. Had he been deceived in Philip? had the boy really no interest
+in subjects of an elevated description? or was he ill? or what was the
+matter with him? It troubled John to let him go on alone from Halkin
+Street to his lodging, with a vague sense that something might happen.
+But that was, of course, too absurd. "Tell your mother I'll come round
+in the afternoon to-morrow, as soon as I am free," he said, holding
+Philip's hand. And then he added, paternally, still holding that hand,
+"Go to bed at once, boy. You've had a tiring day."
+
+"Yes--I suppose so," said Philip, drawing his hand away.
+
+"I hope you haven't done too much," said John, still lingering. "You're
+too young for politics--and to sit up so late. I was wrong to keep you
+out of bed."
+
+"I hope I'm not such a child as that," said Philip, with a half-smile:
+and then he went away, and John Tatham, with an anxious heart, closed
+behind him his own door. If it were not for Elinor and her boy what a
+life free of anxiety John would have had! Never any need to think with
+solicitude of anything outside that peaceful door, no trouble with other
+people's feelings, with investigations what this or that look or word
+meant. But perhaps it was Elinor and her boy, after all (none of his!
+thinking of him as an outsider, having nothing to do with their most
+intimate circle of confidence and natural defence), who, by means of
+that very anxiety, kept alive the higher principles of humanity in John
+Tatham's heart.
+
+Philip went home, walking quickly through the silent streets. They were
+very silent at that advanced hour, yet not so completely but that there
+was a woman who came up to the boy at the corner. Philip neither knew
+nor desired to know what she said. He thought nothing about her one way
+or another. He took a shilling out of his pocket and threw it to her as
+he passed--walking on with the quick, elastic step which the sudden
+acquaintance he had made with care had not been able to subdue. He saw
+that there was still a faint light in his mother's window when he
+reached the house, but he would not disturb her. How little would he
+have thought of disturbing her on any other occasion! "Are you asleep,
+mother?" he would have said, looking in; and the time had never been
+when Elinor was asleep. She had always heard him, always replied,
+always been delighted to hear the account of what he had been doing,
+and how he had enjoyed himself. But not to-night. With a heart full of
+longing, yet of a sick revolt against the sight of her, he went past her
+door to his room. He did not want to see her, and yet--oh, if she had
+only called to him, if she had but said a word!
+
+Elinor for her part was not asleep. She had slept a little while she was
+sure that Philip was safely disposed of and herself secured from all
+interruption; but when the time came for his return she slept no longer,
+and had been lying for a long time holding her breath, listening to
+every sound, when she heard his key in the latch and his foot on the
+stair. Would he come in as he always did? or would he remember her
+complaint of being tired, a complaint she so seldom made? It was as a
+blow to Elinor when she heard his step go on past her door: and yet she
+was glad. Had he come in there was a desperate thought in her mind that
+she would call him to her bedside and in the dark, with his hand in
+hers, tell him--all that there was to tell. But it was again a relief
+when he passed on, and she felt that she was spared for an hour or two,
+spared for the new day, which perhaps would give her courage. It was an
+endless night, long hours of dark, and then longer hours of morning
+light, too early for anything, while still nobody in the house was
+stirring. She had scarcely slept at all during that long age of weary
+and terrible thought. For it was not as if she had but one thing to
+think of. When her mind turned, like her restless body, from one side to
+another, it was only to a change of pain. What was it she had said,
+standing up before earth and heaven, and calling God to witness that
+what she said was true? It had been true, and yet she knew that it was
+not, and that she had saved her husband's honour at the cost of her own.
+Oh, not in those serious and awful watches of the night can such a
+defence be accepted as that the letter of her testimony was true! She
+did not attempt to defend herself. She only tried to turn to another
+thought that might be less bitter: and then she was confronted by the
+confession that she must make to her boy. She must tell him that she had
+deceived him all his life, hid from him what he ought to have known,
+separated him from his father and his family, kept him in ignorance,
+despite all that had been said to her, despite every argument. And when
+Elinor in her misery fled from that thought, what was there else to
+think of? There was her husband, Pippo's father, from whom he could no
+longer be kept. If she had thought herself justified in stealing her
+child away out of fear of the influence that father might have upon him,
+how would it be now when they must be restored to each other, at an age
+much more dangerous for the boy than in childhood, and with all the
+attractions of mystery and novelty and the sense that his father had
+been wronged! When she escaped from that, the most terrible thought of
+all, feeling her brain whirl and her heart burn as she imagined her
+child turning from the mother who had deceived him to the father who had
+been deprived of him, her mind went off to that father himself, from
+whom she had fled, whom she had judged and condemned, but who had repaid
+her by no persecution, no interference, no pursuit, but an acceptance of
+her verdict, never molesting her, leaving her safe in the possession
+of her boy. Perhaps there were other ways in which Phil Compton's
+magnanimity have been looked at, in which it would have shown in less
+favourable colours. But Elinor was not ready to take that view. Her
+tower of justice and truth and honour had crumbled over her head. She
+was standing among her ruins, feeling that nothing was left to her,
+nothing upon which she could build herself a structure of self-defence.
+All was wrong; a series of mistakes and failures, to say no worse. She
+had driven on ever wilful all through, escaping from every pang she
+could avoid, throwing off every yoke that she did not choose to bear:
+until now here she stood to face all that she had fled from, unable to
+elude them more, meeting them as so many ghosts in her way. Oh, how true
+it was what John had said to her so long, so long ago--that she was not
+one who would bear, who if she were disappointed and wronged could
+endure and surmount her trouble by patience! Oh, no, no! She had been
+one who had put up with nothing, who had taken her own way. And now she
+was surrounded on every side by the difficulties she had thrust away
+from her, but which now could be thrust away no more.
+
+It may be imagined what the night was which Elinor spent sleepless,
+struggling one after another with these thoughts, finding no comfort
+anywhere wherever she turned. She had not been without many a struggle
+even in the most quiet of the years that had passed--in one long dream
+of peace as it seemed now; but never as now had she been met wherever
+she turned by another and another lion in the way. She got up very
+early, with a feeling that movement had something lulling and soothing
+in it, and that to lie there a prey to all these thoughts was like lying
+on the rack--to the great surprise of the kind landlady, who came
+stealing into her room with the inevitable cup of tea, and whose inquiry
+how the poor lady was, was taken out of her mouth by the unexpected
+apparition of the supposed invalid, fully dressed, moving about the
+room, with all the air of having been up for hours. Elinor asked, with a
+sudden precaution, that the newspapers might be brought up to her, not
+so much for her own satisfaction--for it made her heart sick to think
+of reading over in dreadful print, as would be done that morning at
+millions of breakfast-tables, her own words: perhaps with comments on
+herself and her history, which might fall into Pippo's hands, and be
+read by him before he knew: which was a sudden spur to herself and
+evidence of the dread necessity of letting him know that story from her
+own lips, which had not occurred to her before. She glanced over the
+report with a sickening sense that all the privacy of sheltered life and
+honourable silence was torn off from her, and that she was exposed as on
+a pillory to the stare and the remarks of the world, and crushed the
+paper away like a noxious thing into a drawer where the boy at least
+would never find it. Vain thought! as if there was but one paper in the
+world, as if he could not find it at every street corner, thrust into
+his hand even as he walked along; but at all events for the moment he
+would not see it, and she would have time--time to tell him before that
+revelation could come in his way. She went down-stairs, with what a
+tremor in her and sinking of her heart it would be impossible to say. To
+have to condemn herself to her only child; to humble herself before him,
+her boy, who thought there was no one like his mother; to let him know
+that he had been deceived all his life, he who thought she had always
+told him everything. Oh, poor mother! and oh, poor boy!
+
+She was still sitting by the breakfast-table, waiting, in a chill fever,
+if such a thing can be, for Philip, when a thing occurred which no one
+could have thought of, and yet which was the most natural thing in the
+world--which came upon Elinor like a thunderbolt, shattering all her
+plans again just at the moment when, after so much shrinking and delay,
+she had at last made up her mind to the one thing that must be done at
+once. The sound of the driving up of a cab to the door made her go to
+the window to look out, without producing any expectation in her mind:
+for people were coming and going in Ebury Street all day long. She saw,
+however, a box which she recognised upon the cab, and then the door was
+opened and Mrs. Dennistoun stepped out. Her mother! the wonder was not
+that she came now, but that she had not come much sooner. No letters for
+several days, her child and her child's child in town, and trouble in
+the air! Mrs. Dennistoun had borne it as long as she could, but there
+had come a moment when she could bear it no longer, and she too had
+followed Pippo's example and taken the night mail. Elinor stood
+motionless at the window, and saw her mother arrive, and did not feel
+capable of going to meet her, or of telling whether it was some dreadful
+aggravation of evil, or an interposition of Providence to save her for
+another hour at least from the ordeal before her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+
+Mrs. Dennistoun had a great deal to say about herself and the motives
+which had at the last been too much for her, which had forced her to
+come after her children at a moment's notice, feeling that she could
+bear the uncertainty about them no longer; and it was a thing so unusual
+with her to have much to say about herself that there was certainly
+something apologetic, something self-defensive in this unaccustomed
+outburst. Perhaps she had begun to feel a little the unconscious
+criticism that gathers round the elder person in a house, the inclination
+involuntarily--which every one would repudiate, yet which nevertheless
+is true--to attribute to her a want of perception, perhaps--oh, not
+unkindly!--a little blunting of the faculties, a suggestion quite
+unintentional that she is not what she once was. She explained herself
+so distinctly that there was no doubt there was some self-defence in it.
+"I had not had a letter for three days."
+
+And Elinor was far more humble than her wont. "I know, mother: I felt as
+if it were impossible to write--till it was over----"
+
+"My darling! I thought at last I must come and stand by you. I felt that
+I ought to have seen that all the time--that you should have had your
+mother by your side to give you countenance."
+
+"I had John with me, mother."
+
+"Then it is over!" Mrs. Dennistoun cried.
+
+And at that moment Pippo, very late, pale, and with eyes which were red
+with sleeplessness, and perhaps with tears, came in. Elinor gave her
+mother a quick look, almost of blame, and then turned to the boy. She
+did not mean it, and yet Mrs. Dennistoun felt as if the suggestion, "He
+might never have known had you not called out like that," was in her
+daughter's eyes.
+
+"Pippo!" she said. "Why, Elinor! what have you been doing to the boy?"
+
+"He does not look well," said Elinor, suddenly waking up to that anxiety
+which had been always so easily roused in respect to Pippo. "He was very
+late last night. He was at the House with John," she added, involuntarily,
+with an apology to her mother for the neglect which had extended to
+Pippo too.
+
+"There is nothing the matter with me," he said, with a touch of
+sullenness in his tone.
+
+The two women looked at each other with all the vague trouble in their
+eyes suddenly concentrated upon young Philip, but they said nothing
+more, as he sat down at table and began to play with the breakfast, for
+which he had evidently no appetite. No one had ever seen that sullen
+look in Pippo's face before. He bent his head over the table as if he
+were intent upon the food which choked him when he tried to eat, and
+which he loathed the very sight of--and did not say a word. They had
+certainly not been very light-hearted before, but the sight of the boy
+thus obscured and changed made all the misery more evident. There was
+always a possibility of over-riding the storm so long as all was well
+with Pippo: but his changed countenance veiled the very sun in the
+skies.
+
+"You don't seem surprised to see me here," his grandmother said.
+
+"Oh!--no, I am not surprised. I wonder you did not come sooner. Have you
+been travelling all night?" he said.
+
+"Just as you did, Pippo. I drove into Penrith last night and caught the
+mail train. I was seized with a panic about you, and felt that I must
+see for myself."
+
+"It is not the first time you have taken a panic about us, mother," said
+Elinor, forcing a smile.
+
+"No; but it is almost the first time I have acted upon it," said Mrs.
+Dennistoun, with that faint instinct of self-defence; "but I think you
+must have needed me more than usual to keep you in order. You must have
+been going out too much, keeping late hours. You are pale enough,
+Elinor, but Pippo--Pippo has suffered still more."
+
+"I tell you," said Philip, raising his shoulders and stooping his head
+over the table, "granny, that there is nothing the matter with me."
+
+And he took no part in the conversation as they went on talking, of any
+subjects but those that were most near their hearts. They had, indeed,
+no thoughts at all to spare but those that were occupied with the
+situation, and with this new feature in it, Pippo's worn and troubled
+looks, yet had to talk of something, of nothing, while the meal went on,
+which was no meal at all for any of them. When it was over at last Pippo
+rose abruptly from the table.
+
+"Are you going out?" Elinor said, alarmed, rising too. "Have you any
+engagement with the Marshalls for to-day?"
+
+"I don't know," Philip said; "Mr. Marshall was ill yesterday. I didn't
+see them. I'm not going out. I am going to my room."
+
+"You've got a headache, Pippo!"
+
+"Nothing of the kind! I tell you there is nothing the matter with me.
+I'm only going to my room."
+
+Elinor put her hands on his arm. "Pippo, I have something to say to you
+before you go out. Will you promise to let me know before you go out? I
+don't want to keep you back from anything, but I have something that I
+must say."
+
+He did not ask with his usual interest what it was. He showed no
+curiosity; on the contrary, he drew his arm out of her hold almost
+rudely. "Of course," he said, "I will come in here before I go out. I
+have no intention of going out now."
+
+And thus he left them, and went with a heavy step, oh, how different
+from Pippo's flying foot: so that they could count every step,
+up-stairs.
+
+"What is the matter, what is the matter, Elinor?"
+
+"I know nothing," she said; "nothing! He was like himself yesterday
+morning, full of life. Unless he is ill, I cannot understand it. But,
+mother, I have to tell him--everything to-day."
+
+"God grant it may not be too late, Elinor!" Mrs. Dennistoun said.
+
+"Too late? How can it be too late? Yes; perhaps you are right, John and
+you. He ought to have known from the beginning; he ought to have been
+told when he was a child. I acknowledge that I was wrong; but it is no
+use," she said, wiping away some fiery tears, "to go back upon that
+now."
+
+"John could not have told him anything?" Mrs. Dennistoun said,
+doubtfully.
+
+"John! my best friend, who has always stood by me. Oh, never, never. How
+little you know him, mother! He has been imploring me every day, almost
+upon his knees, to tell Pippo everything; and I promised to do it as
+soon as the time was come. And then last night I was so glad to think
+that he was engaged with John, and I so worn out, not fit for anything.
+And then this morning----"
+
+"Then--this morning I arrived, just when I would have been better away!"
+
+"Don't say that, mother. It is always, always well you should be with
+your children. And, oh, if I had but taken your advice years and years
+ago!"
+
+How easy it is to wish this when fate overtakes us, when the thing so
+long postponed, so long pushed away from us, has to be done at last!
+There is, I fear, no repentance in it, only the intolerable sense that
+the painful act might have been over long ago, and the soul free now of
+a burden which is so terrible to bear.
+
+Philip did not leave his room all the morning. His mother, overwhelmed
+now by the new anxiety about his health, which had no part in her
+thoughts before, went to his door and knocked several times, always with
+the intention of going in, of insisting upon the removal of all
+barriers, and of telling her story, the story which now was as fire in
+her veins and had to be told. But he had locked his door, and only
+answered from within that he was reading--getting up something that he
+had forgotten--and begged her to leave him undisturbed till lunch. Poor
+Elinor! Her story was, as I have said, like fire in her veins; but
+when the moment came, and a little more delay, an hour, a morning was
+possible, she accepted it like a boon from heaven, though she knew very
+well all the same that it was but prolonging the agony, and that to get
+it accomplished--to get it over--was the only thing to desire. She
+tried to arrange her thoughts, to think how she was to tell it, in the
+hurrying yet flying minutes when she sat alone, listening now and then
+to Philip's movements over her head, for he was not still as a boy
+should be who was reading, but moved about his room, with a nervous
+restlessness that seemed almost equal to her own. Mrs. Dennistoun, to
+leave her daughter free for the conversation that ought to take place
+between Elinor and her son, had gone to lie down, and lay in Elinor's
+room, next door to the boy, listening to every sound, and hoping, hoping
+that they would get it over before she went down-stairs again. She did
+not believe that Philip would stand out against his mother, whom he
+loved. Oh, if they could but get it over, that explanation--if the boy
+but knew! But it was apparent enough, when she came down to luncheon,
+where Elinor awaited her, pale and anxious, and where Philip followed,
+so unlike himself, that no explanation had yet taken place between them.
+And the luncheon was as miserable a pretence at a meal as the breakfast
+had been--worse as a repetition, yet better in so far that poor Pippo,
+with his boyish wholesome appetite, was by this time too hungry to be
+restrained even by the unusual burden of his unhappiness, and ate
+heartily, although he was bitterly ashamed of so doing: which perhaps
+made him a little better, and certainly did a great deal of good to the
+ladies, who thus were convinced that whatever the matter might be, he
+was not ill at least. He was about to return up-stairs after luncheon
+was over, but Elinor caught him by the arm: "You are not going to your
+room again, Pippo?"
+
+"I--have not finished my reading," he said.
+
+"I have a claim before your reading. I have a great deal to say to you,
+and I cannot put it off any longer. It must be said----"
+
+"As you please, mother," he replied, with an air of endurance. And he
+opened the door for her and followed her up to the drawing-room, the
+three generations going one before the other, the anxious grandmother
+first, full of sympathy for both; the mother trembling in every limb,
+feeling the great crisis of her life before her; the boy with his heart
+seared, half bitter, half contemptuous of the explanation which he had
+forestalled, which came too late. Mrs. Dennistoun turned and kissed
+first one and then the other with quivering lips. "Oh, Pippo, be kind
+to your mother; she never will have such need of your kindness again in
+all your life." The boy could almost have struck her for this advice.
+It raised a kind of savage passion in him to be told to be kind to his
+mother--kind to her, when he had held her above all beings on the earth,
+and prided himself all his life upon his devotion to her! What Mrs.
+Dennistoun said to Elinor I cannot tell, but she clasped her hands and
+gave her an imploring look, which was almost as bitterly taken as her
+appeal to Philip. It besought her to tell everything, to hide nothing;
+and what was Elinor's meaning but to tell everything, to lay bare her
+heart?
+
+But once more at this moment an interruption--the most wonderful and
+unthought-of of all interruptions--came. I suppose it must have been
+announced by the usual summons at the street-door, and that in their
+agitation they had not heard it. But all that I know is, that when Mrs.
+Dennistoun turned to leave the mother and son to their conversation,
+which was so full of fate, the door of the drawing-room opened almost
+upon her as she was about to go out, and with a little demonstration and
+pride, as of a name which it was a distinction even to be permitted
+to say, of a visitor whose arrival could not be but an honour and
+delightful surprise, the husband of the landlady--the man of the house,
+once a butler of the highest pretensions, now only condescending to
+serve his lodgers when the occasion was dignified--swept into the room,
+noiseless and solemn, holding open the door, and announced "Lord St.
+Serf." Mrs. Dennistoun fell back as if she had met a ghost; and Elinor,
+too, drew back a step, becoming as pale as if she had been the ghost her
+mother saw. The gasp of the long breath they both drew made a sound in
+the room where the very air seemed to tingle; and young Philip, raising
+his head, saw, coming in, the man whom he had seen in court--the man who
+had gazed at him in the theatre, the man of the opera-glass. But was
+this then not the Philip Compton for whom Elinor Dennistoun had stood
+forth, and borne witness before all the world?
+
+He came in and stood without a word, waiting for a moment till the
+servant was gone and the door closed; and then he advanced with a step,
+the very assurance and quickness of which showed his hesitation and
+uncertainty. He did not hold out his hands--much less his arms--to her.
+"Nell?" he said, as if he had been asking a question, "Nell?"
+
+She seemed to open her lips to speak, but brought forth no sound; and
+then Mrs. Dennistoun came in with the grave voice of every day, "Will
+you sit down?"
+
+He looked round at her, perceiving her for the first time. "Ah," he
+said, "mamma! how good that you are here. It is a little droll though,
+don't you think, when a man comes into the bosom of his family after
+an absence of eighteen years, that the only thing that is said to him
+should be, 'Will you sit down?' Better that, however, a great deal, than
+'Will you go away?'"
+
+He sat down as she invited him, with a short laugh. He was perfectly
+composed in manner. Looking round him with curious eyes, "Was this one
+of the places," he said, "Nell, that we stayed in in the old times?"
+
+She answered "No" under her breath, her paleness suddenly giving way
+to a hot flush of feverish agitation. And then she took refuge in a
+vacant chair, unable to support herself, and he sat too, and the party
+looked--but for that agitation in Elinor's face, which she could not
+master--as if the ladies were receiving and he paying a morning call.
+The other two, however, did not sit down. Young Philip, confused and
+excited, went away to the second room, the little back drawing-room of
+the little London house, which can never be made to look anything but
+an anteroom--never a habitable place--and went to the window, and stood
+there as if he were looking out, though the window was of coloured
+glass, and there was nothing to be seen. Mrs. Dennistoun stood with her
+hand upon the back of a chair, her heart beating too, and yet the most
+collected of them all, waiting, with her eyes on Elinor, for a sign to
+know her will, whether she should go or stay. It was the visitor who was
+the first to speak.
+
+"Let me beg you," he said, with a little impatience in his voice, "to
+sit down too. It is evident that Nell's reception of me is not likely to
+be so warm as to make it unpleasant for a third party. There was a
+fourth party in the room a minute ago, if my eyes did not deceive me.
+Ah!"--his glance went rapidly to where Philip's tall boyish figure, with
+his back turned, was visible against the further window--"that's all
+right," he said, "now I presume everybody's here."
+
+"Had we expected your visit," said Mrs. Dennistoun, faltering, after a
+moment, as Elinor did not speak, "we should have been--better prepared
+to receive you, Mr. Compton."
+
+"That's not spoken with your usual cleverness," he said, with a laugh.
+"You used to be a great deal too clever for me, you and Nell too. But if
+she did not expect to see me, I don't know what she thought I was made
+of--everything that is bad, I suppose: and yet you know I could have
+worried your life out of you if I had liked, Nell."
+
+She turned to him for the first time, and, putting her hands together,
+said almost inaudibly, "I know--I know. I have thought of that, and I am
+not ungrateful."
+
+"Grateful! Well, perhaps you have not much call for that, poor little
+woman. I don't doubt I behaved like a brute, and you were quite right in
+doing what you did; but you've taken it out of me since, Nell, all the
+same."
+
+Then there was again a silence, broken only by the labouring, which she
+could not quite conceal, of her breath.
+
+"You wouldn't believe me," he resumed after a moment, "if I were to set
+up a sentimental pose, like a sort of a disconsolate widower, eh, would
+you? Of course it was a position that was not without its advantages. I
+was not much made for a family man, and both in the way of expense and
+in--other ways, it suited me well enough. Nobody could expect me to
+marry them or their daughters, don't you see, when they knew I had a
+wife alive? So I was allowed my little amusements. You never went in for
+that kind of thing, Nell? Don't snap me up. You know I told you I never
+was against a little flirtation. It makes a woman more tolerant, in my
+opinion, just to know how to amuse herself a little. But Nell was never
+one of that kind----"
+
+"I hope not, indeed," said Mrs. Dennistoun, to whom he had turned, with
+indignation.
+
+"I don't see where the emphasis comes in. She was one that a man could
+be as sure of as of Westminster Abbey. The heart of her husband rests
+upon her--isn't that what the fellow in the Bible says, or words to that
+effect? Nell was always a kind of a Bible to me. And you may say that
+in that case to think of her amusing herself! But you will allow she
+always did take everything too much _au grand serieux_. No? to be sure,
+you'll allow nothing. But still that was the truth. However, I'll allow
+something if you won't. I'm past my first youth. Oh, you, not a bit of
+it! You're just as fresh and as pretty, by George! as ever you were.
+When I saw you stand up in that court yesterday looking as if--not a
+week had passed since I saw you last, by Jove! Nell---- And how you were
+hating it, poor old girl, and had come out straining your poor little
+conscience, and saying what you didn't want to say--for the sake of a
+worthless fellow like me----"
+
+A sob came out of Elinor's breast, and something half inaudible besides,
+like a name.
+
+"I can tell you this," he said, turning to Mrs. Dennistoun again, "I
+couldn't look at her. I'm an unlikely brute for that sort of thing, but
+if I had looked at her I should have cried. I daresay you don't believe
+me. Never mind, but it's true."
+
+"I do believe you," said the mother, very low.
+
+"Thank you," he said, with a laugh. "I have always said for a
+mother-in-law you were the least difficult to get on with I ever saw. Do
+you remember giving me that money to make ducks and drakes of? It was
+awfully silly of you. You didn't deserve to be trusted with money to
+throw it away like that, but still I have not forgotten it. Well! I came
+to thank you for yesterday, Nell. And there are things, you know, that
+we must talk over. You never gave up your name. That was like your
+pluck. But you will have to change it now. It was indecent of me to have
+myself announced like that and poor old St. Serf not in his grave yet.
+But I daresay you didn't pay any attention. You are Lady St. Serf
+now, my dear. You don't mind, I know, but it's a change not without
+importance. Well, who is that fellow behind there, standing in the
+window? I think you ought to present him to me. Or I'll present him to
+you instead. I saw him in the theatre, by Jove! with that fellow Tatham,
+that cousin John of yours that I never could bear, smirking and smiling
+at him as if it were _his_ son! but _I_ saw the boy then for the first
+time. Nell, I tell you there are some things in which you have taken it
+well out of me----"
+
+"Mr. Compton," she said, labouring to speak. "Lord St. Serf. Oh, Phil,
+Phil!----"
+
+"Ah," he said, with a start, "do you remember at last? the garden at
+that poky old cottage with all the flowers, and the days when you looked
+out for wild Phil Compton that all the world warned you against? And
+here I am an old fogey, without either wife or child, and Tatham taking
+my boy about and Nell never looking me in the face."
+
+Philip, at the window looking out at nothing through the
+hideous-coloured glass, had heard every word, with wonder, with horror,
+with consternation, with dreadful disappointment and sinking of the
+heart. For indeed he had a high ideal of a father, the highest, such as
+fatherless boys form in their ignorance. And every word made it more
+sure that this was his father, this man who had so caught his eyes and
+filled him with such a fever of interest. But to hear Phil Compton talk
+had brought the boy's soaring imagination down, down to the dust. He had
+not been prepared for anything like this. Some tragic rending asunder he
+could have believed in, some wild and strange mystery. But this man of
+careless speech, of chaff and slang, so little noble, so little serious,
+so far from tragic! The disappointment had been too sudden and dreadful
+to leave him with any ears for those tones that went to his mother's
+heart. He had no pity or sense of the pathos that was in them. He stood
+in his young absolutism disgusted, miserable. This man his father!--this
+man! so talking, so thinking. Young Philip stood with his back to the
+group, more miserable than words could say. He heard some movement
+behind, but he was too sick of heart to think what it was, until suddenly
+he felt a hand on his shoulder, and most unwillingly suffered himself to
+be turned round to meet his father's eyes. He gave one glance up at the
+face, which he did not now feel was worn with study and care--which
+now that he saw it near was full of lines and wrinkles which meant
+something else, and which even the emotion in it, emotion of a kind
+which Pippo did not understand, hidden by a laugh, did not make more
+prepossessing--and then he stood with his eyes cast down, not caring to
+see it again.
+
+The elder Philip Compton had, I think, though he was, as he said, an
+unlikely subject for that mood, tears in his eyes--and he had no
+inclination to see anything that was painful in the face of his son,
+whose look he had never read, whose voice he had never heard, till now.
+He held the boy with his hands on his shoulders, with a grasp more full
+perhaps of the tender strain of love (though he did not know him) than
+ever he had laid upon any human form before. The boy's looks were not
+only satisfactory to him, but filled his own heart with an unaccustomed
+spring of pride and delight--his stature, his complexion, his features,
+making up as it were the most wonderful compliment, the utmost sweetness
+of flattery that he had ever known. For the boy was himself over again,
+not like his mother, like the unworthy father whom he had never seen.
+It took him some time to master the sudden rush of this emotion which
+almost overwhelmed him: and then he drew the boy's arm through his own
+and led him back to where the two ladies sat, Elinor still too much
+agitated for speech. "I said I'd present my son to you, Nell--if you
+wouldn't present him to me," he said, with a break in his voice which
+sounded like a chuckle to that son's angry ears. "I don't know what you
+call the fellow--but he's big enough to have a name of his own, and he's
+Lomond from this day."
+
+Pippo did not know what was meant by those words: but he drew his arm
+from his father's and went and stood behind Elinor's chair, forgetting
+in a moment all grievances against her, taking her side with an energy
+impossible to put into words, clinging to his mother as he had done when
+he was a little child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+
+It was while this conversation was going on that John Tatham, anxious
+and troubled about many things, knocked at the door in Ebury Street.
+He was anxious to know how the explanations had got accomplished, how
+the boy took it, how Elinor had borne the strain upon her of such a
+revelation. Well as he knew Elinor, he still thought, as is generally
+thought in circumstances so painful, that a great crisis, a great mental
+effort, would make her ill. He wanted to know how she was, he wanted to
+know how Pippo had borne it, what the boy thought. It had glanced across
+him that young Philip might be excited by so wonderful a new thing,
+and form some false impression of his father (whom doubtless she would
+represent under the best light, taking blame upon herself, not to
+destroy the boy's ideal), and be eager to know him--which was a thing,
+John felt, which would be very difficult to bear.
+
+The door was opened to him not by good Mrs. Jones, the kind landlady,
+but by the magnificent Jones himself, who rarely appeared. John said
+"Mrs. Compton?" as a matter of course, and was about to pass in, in his
+usual familiar way. But something in the man's air made him pause. He
+looked at Jones again, who was bursting with importance. "Perhaps she's
+engaged?" he said.
+
+"I think, sir," said John, "that her ladyship is engaged--his lordship
+is with her ladyship up-stairs."
+
+"His--what?" John Tatham cried.
+
+"His lordship, Mr. Tatham. I know, sir, as the title is not usually
+assumed till after the funeral; but in the very 'ouse where her ladyship
+is residing for the moment, there's allowances to be made. Naturally
+we're a little excited over it, being, if I may make so bold as to say
+so, a sort of 'umble friends, and long patronized by her ladyship, and
+young Lord Lomond too."
+
+"Young Lord Lomond too!" John Tatham stood for a moment and stared at
+Mr. Jones; and then he laughed out, and turned his back and walked away.
+
+Young Lord Lomond too! The boy! who had been more like John's boy than
+anything else, but now tricked out in a new name, a new position, his
+father's heir. Oh, yes, it was John himself who had insisted on that
+only a few days ago! "The heir to a peerage can't be hid." It was he
+that had quoted this as an aphorism worthy of a social sage. But when
+the moment came and the boy was taken from him, and introduced into
+that other sphere, by the side of that man who had once been the
+_dis_-Honourable Phil! Good heavens, what changes life is capable
+of! What wrongs, what cruelties, what cuttings-off, what twists and
+alterations of every sane thought and thing! John Tatham was a sensible
+man as well as an eminent lawyer, and knew that between Elinor's son,
+who was Phil Compton's son, and himself, there was no external link at
+all--nothing but affection and habit, and the ever-strengthening link
+that had been twisted closer and closer with the progress of these
+years; but nothing real, the merest shadow of relationship, a cousin,
+who could count how often removed? And it was he who had insisted,
+forced upon Elinor the necessity of making his father known to Philip,
+of informing him of his real position. Nobody had interfered in this
+respect but John. He had made himself a weariness to her by insisting,
+never giving over, blaming her hourly for her delay. And yet now, when
+the thing he had so worked for, so constantly urged, was done----!
+
+He smiled grimly to himself as he walked away: they were all together,
+the lordship and the ladyship, young Lord Lomond too!--and Phil Compton,
+whitewashed, a peer of the realm, and still, the scoundrel! a handsome
+fellow enough: with an air about him, a man who might still dazzle a
+youngster unaccustomed to the world. He had re-entered the bosom of his
+family, and doubtless was weeping upon Philip's neck, and bandying about
+that name of "Nell" which had always seemed to John an insult--an insult
+to himself. And in that moment of bitterness John did not know how she
+would take it, what effect it would produce upon her. Perhaps the very
+sight of the fellow who had once won her heart, the lover of her youth,
+with whom John had never for a moment put himself in competition,
+notwithstanding the bitter wonder in his heart that Elinor--Elinor of
+all people!--could ever have loved such a man. Yet she had loved him,
+and the sight of him again after so many years, what effect might it
+not produce? As he walked away, it was the idea of a happy family that
+came into John Tatham's mind--mutual forgiveness, mutual return to
+the old traditions which are the most endearing of all; expansions,
+confessions, recollections, and lives of reunion. Something more than
+a prodigal's return, the return of a sinner bringing a coronet in his
+hand, bringing distinction, a place and position enough to dazzle any
+boy, enough to make a woman forgive. And was not this what John wished
+above all things, every advancement for the boy, and an assured place in
+the world, as well as every happiness that might be possible--happiness!
+yet it was possible she might think it so--for Elinor? Yes, this was
+what he had wished for, been ready to make any sacrifice to secure.
+In the sudden shock Mr. Tatham thought of the only other person who
+perhaps--yet only perhaps--might feel a little as he did--the mother,
+Mrs. Dennistoun, upon whom he thought all this would come like a
+thunder-clap, not knowing that she was up-stairs in the family party,
+among the lordships and the ladyship too.
+
+He went home and into his handsome library, and shut the door upon
+himself, to have it out there--or rather to occupy himself in some more
+sensible way and shut this foolish subject out of his mind. It occurred
+to him, however, when he sat down that the best thing to do would be
+to write an account of it all to Mrs. Dennistoun, who doubtless in the
+excitement would have a long time to wait for news of this great change.
+He drew his blotting-book towards him with this object, and opened it,
+and dipped his pen in the ink, and wrote "My dear Aunt;" but he did not
+get much further. He raised his head, thinking how to introduce his
+narrative, for which she would in all likelihood be wholly unprepared,
+and in so doing looked round upon his book-cases, on one shelf of which
+the reflection of a ray of afternoon sunshine caught in the old Louis
+Treize mirror over the mantelpiece was throwing a shaft of light. He got
+up to make sure that it was only a reflection, nothing that would harm
+the binding of a particular volume upon which he set great store--though
+of course he knew very well that it could only be a reflection, no
+impertinent reality of sunshine being permitted to penetrate there. And
+then he paused a little to draw his hand lovingly over the line of
+choice books--very choice--worth a little fortune, which he laughed at
+himself a little for being proud of, fully knowing that what was inside
+them (which generally is the cream of a book, as of a letter, according
+to Tony Lumpkin) was in many cases worth nothing at all. And then John
+went and stood upon the hearth-rug, and looked round him upon this the
+heart of his domain. It was a noble library, any man might have been
+proud of it. He asked himself whether it did not suit him better, with
+all the comforts and luxuries beyond it, than if he had been like other
+men, with an entirely different centre of life up-stairs in the empty
+drawing-room, and the burden upon him of setting out children, boys and
+girls, upon the world.
+
+When a man asks himself this question, however complacent may be the
+reply, it betrays perhaps a doubt whether the assurance he has is so
+very sure after all; and he returned to his letter to Mrs. Dennistoun,
+which would be quite easy to write if it were only once well begun. But
+he had not written above a few words, having spent some time in his
+previous reflections, when he paused again at the sound of a tumultuous
+summons at the street-door. As may be well supposed, his servant took
+more time than usual to answer it, resenting a noise so out of character
+with the house, during which John listened half-angrily, fearing, yet
+wishing for, a diversion. And then his own door burst open, not, I need
+not say, by any intervention of legitimate hands, but by the sudden rush
+of Philip, who seemed to come in in a whirl of long limbs and eager eyes,
+flinging himself into a chair and fixing his gaze across the corner of
+the table upon his astonished yet expectant friend. "Oh, Uncle John!"
+the boy cried, and had not breath to say any more.
+
+John put forth his hand across the table, and grasped the young flexible
+warm hand that wanted something to hold. "Well, my boy," he said.
+
+"I suppose you know," said Philip. "I have nothing to tell you, though
+it is all so strange to me."
+
+"I know--nothing about what interests me most at present--yourself,
+Pippo, and what has happened to you."
+
+John had always made a great stand against that particular name, but
+several times had used it of late, not knowing why.
+
+"I don't know what you thought of me last night," said the boy, "I was
+so miserable. May I tell you everything, Uncle John?"
+
+What balm that question was! He clasped Pippo's hand in his own, but
+scarcely could answer to bid him go on.
+
+"It was unnecessary, all she wanted to tell me. I fought it off all the
+morning. I was there yesterday in the court and heard it all."
+
+"In the court! At the trial?"
+
+"I had no meaning in it," said Philip. "I went by chance, as people say,
+because the Marshalls had not turned up. I got Simmons to get me into
+the court. I had always wanted to see a trial. And there I saw my mother
+stand up--my mother, that I never could bear the wind to blow on,
+standing up there alone with all these people staring at her to be
+tried--for her life."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Philip," said John Tatham, dropping his hand; "tried!
+she was only a witness. And she was not alone. I was there to take care
+of her."
+
+"I saw you--but what was that? She was alone all the same; and for me,
+it was she who was on her trial. What did I know about any other? I
+heard it, every word."
+
+"Poor boy!"
+
+"So what was the use of making herself miserable to tell me? She tried
+to all this morning, and I fought it off. I was miserable enough. Why
+should I be made more miserable to hear her perhaps excusing herself to
+me? But at last she had driven me into a corner, angry as I was--Uncle
+John, I was angry, furious, with my mother--fancy! with my mother."
+
+John did not say anything, but he nodded his head in assent. How well he
+understood it all!
+
+"And just then, at that moment, he came. I am angry with her no more.
+I know whatever happened she was right. Angry with her, my poor dear,
+dearest mother! Whatever happened she was right. It was best that she
+should not tell me. I am on her side all through--all through! Do you
+hear me, Uncle John! I have seen you look as if you blamed her. Don't
+again while I am there. Whatever she has done it has been the right
+thing all through!"
+
+"Pippo," said John, with a little quivering about the mouth, "give me
+your hand again, old fellow, you're my own boy."
+
+"Nobody shall so much as look as if they blamed her," cried the boy,
+"while I am alive!"
+
+Oh, how near he was to crying, and how resolute not to break down,
+though something got into his throat and almost choked him, and his eyes
+were so full that it was a miracle they did not brim over. Excitement,
+distress, pain, the first touch of human misery he had ever known almost
+overmastered Philip. He got up and walked about the room, and talked and
+talked. He who had never concealed anything, who had never had anything
+to conceal. And for four-and-twenty hours he had been silent with a
+great secret upon his soul. John was too wise to check the outpouring.
+He listened to everything, assented, soothed, imperceptibly led him to
+gentler thoughts.
+
+"And what does he mean," cried the boy at last, "with his new name? I
+shall have no name but my own, the one my mother gave me. I am Philip
+Compton, and nothing else. What right has he, the first time he ever saw
+me, to put upon me another name?"
+
+"What name?"
+
+"He called me Lomond--or something like that," said young Philip: and
+then there came a sort of stillness over his excitement, a lull in the
+storm. Some vague idea what it meant came all at once into the boy's
+mind: and a thrill of curiosity, of another kind of excitement, of
+rising thoughts which he did not hardly understand, struggled up through
+the other zone of passion. He was half ashamed, having just poured forth
+all his feelings, to show that there was something else, something
+that was no longer indignation, nor anger, nor the shock of discovery,
+something that had a tremor perhaps of pleasure in it, behind. But John
+was far too experienced a man not to read the boy through and through.
+He liked him better in the first phase, but this was natural too.
+
+"It happens very strangely," he said, "that all these things should
+come upon you at once: but it is well you should know now all about it.
+Lomond is the second title of the Comptons, Earls of St. Serf. Haven't I
+heard you ask what Comptons you belonged to, Philip? It has all happened
+within a day or two. Your father was only Philip Compton yesterday at
+the trial, and a poor man. Now he is Lord St. Serf, if not rich, at
+least no longer poor. Everything has changed for you--your position,
+your importance in the world. The last Lord Lomond bore the name
+creditably enough. I hope you will make it shine." He took the boy by
+the hand and grasped it heartily again. "I am thankful for it," said
+John. "I would rather you were Lord Lomond than----"
+
+"What! Uncle John?"
+
+"Steady, boy. I was going to say Philip Compton's son; but Lord St. Serf
+is another man."
+
+There was a long pause in the room where John Tatham's life was centred
+among his books. He had so much to do with all this business, and yet so
+little. It would pass away with all its tumults, and he after being
+absorbed by it for a moment would be left alone to his own thoughts and
+his own unbroken line of existence. So much the better! It is not good
+for any man to be swept up and put down again at the will of others in
+matters in which he has no share. As for Philip, he was silent chiefly
+to realise this great thing that had come upon him. He, Lord Lomond,
+a peer's son, who was only Pippo of Lakeside like any other lad in
+the parish, and not half so important at school as Musgrave, who did not
+get that scholarship. What the school would say! the tempest that would
+arise! They would ask a holiday, and the head master would grant it.
+Compton a lord! Philip could hear the roar and rustle among the boys,
+the scornful incredulity, the asseverations of those who knew it was
+true. And a flush that was pleasure had come over his musing face. It
+would have been strange if in the wonder of it there had not been some
+pleasure too.
+
+He had begun to tolerate his father before many days were over, to
+cease to be indignant and angry that he was not the ideal father of his
+dreams. That was not Lord St. Serf's fault, who was not at all aware
+of his son's dreams, and had never had an ideal in his life. But John
+Tatham was right in saying that Lord St. Serf was another man. The shock
+of a new responsibility, of a position to occupy and duties to fulfil,
+were things that might not have much moved the dis-Honourable Phil two
+years before. But he was fifty, and beginning to feel himself an old
+fogey, as he confessed. And his son overawed Lord St. Serf. His son, who
+was so like him, yet had the mother's quick, impetuous eyes, so rapid to
+see through everything, so disdainful of folly, so keen in perception.
+He was afraid to bring upon himself one of those lightning flashes from
+the eyes of his boy, and doubly afraid to introduce his son anywhere, to
+show him anything that might bring upon him the reproach of doing harm
+to Pippo. His house, which had been very decent and orderly in the late
+Lord St. Serf's time, became almost prim in the terror Phil had lest
+they should say that it was bad for the boy.
+
+As for Lady St. Serf, it was popularly reported that the reason why she
+almost invariably lived in the country was her health, which kept her
+out of society--a report, I need not say, absolutely rejected by society
+itself, which knew all the circumstances better than you or I do: but
+which sufficed for the outsiders who knew nothing. When Elinor did
+appear upon great occasions, which she consented to do, her matured
+beauty gave the fullest contradiction to the pretext on which she
+continued to live her own life. But old Lord St. Serf, who got old
+so long before he need to have done, with perhaps the same sort of
+constitutional weakness which had carried off all his brothers before
+their time, or perhaps because he had too much abused a constitution
+which was not weak--grew more and more fond in his latter days of the
+country too, and kept appearing at Lakeside so often that at last the
+ladies removed much nearer town, to the country-house of the St. Serfs,
+which had not been occupied for ages, where they presented at last
+the appearance of a united family; and where "Lomond" (who would have
+thought it very strange now to be addressed by any other name) brought
+his friends, and was not ill-pleased to hear his father discourse, in a
+way which sometimes still offended the home-bred Pippo, but which the
+other young men found very amusing. It was not in the way of morals,
+however, that Lord St. Serf ever offended. The fear of Elinor kept him
+as blameless as any good-natured preacher of the endless theme, that
+all is vanity, could do.
+
+These family arrangements, however, and the modified happiness obtained
+by their means, were still all in the future, when John Tatham, a little
+afraid of the encounter, yet anxious to have it over, went to Ebury Street
+the day after these occurrences, to see Elinor for the first time under
+her new character as Lady St. Serf. He found her in a languor and
+exhaustion much unlike Elinor, doing nothing, not even a book near,
+lying back in her chair, fallen upon herself, as the French say. Some of
+those words that mean nothing passed between them, and then she said,
+"John, did Pippo tell you that he had been there?"
+
+He nodded his head, finding nothing to say.
+
+"Without any warning, to see his mother stand up before all the world to
+be tried--for her life."
+
+"Elinor," said John, "you are as fantastic as the boy."
+
+"I was--being tried for my life--before him as the judge. And he has
+acquitted me; but, oh, I wonder, I wonder if he would have done so had
+he known all that I know?"
+
+"I do so," said John, "perhaps a little more used to the laws of
+evidence than Pippo."
+
+"Ah, you!" she said, giving him her hand, with a look which John did
+not know how to take, whether as the fullest expression of trust, or an
+affectionate disdain of the man in whose partial judgment no justice
+was. And then she asked a question which threw perhaps the greatest
+perplexity he had ever known into John Tatham's life. "When you tell a
+fact--that is true: with the intention to deceive: John, you that know
+the laws of evidence, is that a lie?"
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+ BY THE SAME AUTHOR IN UNIFORM STYLE
+
+ MARRIAGE OF ELINOR
+ WHITELADIES
+ THE MAKERS OF VENICE
+
+ CHICAGO
+ W. B. CONKEY COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+ We are the Sole Publishers of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's Books
+
+
+ The Poetical and Prose Works of
+
+ _ELLA WHEELER WILCOX_
+
+ Mrs. Wilcox's writings have been the inspiration of many young men and
+ women. Her hopeful, practical, masterful views of life give the reader
+ new courage in the very reading and are a wholesome spur to flagging
+ effort. Words of truth so vital that they live in the reader's memory
+ and cause him to think--to his own betterment and the lasting improvement
+ of his own work in the world, in whatever line it lies--flow from this
+ talented woman's pen.
+
+
+ MAURINE
+
+ Is a love story told in exquisite verse. "An ideal poem about as true
+ and lovable a woman as ever poet created." It has repeatedly been
+ compared with Owen Meredith's _Lucile_. In point of human interest it
+ excels that noted story.
+
+ "Maurine" is issued in an _edition de luxe_, where the more important
+ incidents of the story are portrayed by means of photographic studies
+ from life.
+
+ Presentation Edition, 12mo, olive green cloth                $1.00
+ De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top                       1.50
+ New Illustrated Edition, extra cloth, gold top                1.50
+ De Luxe New Illustrated Edition, white vellum, gold top       2.00
+
+
+ POEMS OF POWER.
+
+ New and revised edition. This beautiful volume contains more than _one
+ hundred new poems_, displaying this popular poet's well-known taste,
+ cultivation, and originality. The author says: "The final word in the
+ title of the volume refers to the Divine power in every human being,
+ the recognition of which is the secret of all success and happiness.
+ It is this idea which many of the verses endeavor to inculcate and
+ to illustrate."
+
+ "The lines of Mrs. Wilcox show both sweetness and strength."--_Chicago
+ American_. "Ella Wheeler Wilcox has a strong grip upon the affections of
+ thousands all over the world. Her productions are read to-day just as
+ eagerly as they were when her fame was new, no other divinity having yet
+ risen to take her place."--_Chicago Record-Herald._
+
+
+ Presentation Edition, 12mo, dark blue cloth                  $1.00
+ De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top                       1.50
+
+
+ THREE WOMEN. A STORY IN VERSE.
+
+ "THREE WOMEN is the best thing I have ever done."--_Ella Wheeler
+ Wilcox._
+
+ This marvelous dramatic poem will compel instant praise because it
+ touches every note in the scale of human emotion. It is intensely
+ interesting, and will be read with sincere relish and admiration.
+
+ Presentation Edition, 12mo, light red cloth                  $1.00
+ De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top                       1.50
+
+
+ AN ERRING WOMAN'S LOVE.
+
+ There is always a fascination in Mrs. Wilcox's verse, but in these
+ beautiful examples of her genius she shows a wonderful knowledge of the
+ human heart.
+
+ "Ella Wheeler Wilcox has impressed many thousands of people with the
+ extreme beauty of her philosophy and the exceeding usefulness of her
+ point of view."--_Boston Globe._
+
+ "Mrs. Wilcox stands at the head of feminine writers, and her verses and
+ essays are more widely copied and read than those of any other American
+ literary woman."--_New York World._ "Power and pathos characterize this
+ magnificent poem. A deep understanding of life and an intense sympathy
+ are beautifully expressed."--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+ Presentation Edition, 12mo, light brown cloth                $1.00
+ De Luxe Edition, white vellum, gold top                       1.50
+
+
+ MEN, WOMEN AND EMOTIONS.
+
+ A skilful analysis of social habits, customs, and follies. A
+ common-sense view of life from its varied standpoints, ... full of
+ sage advice.
+
+ "These essays tend to meet difficulties that arise in almost every
+ life.... Full of sound and helpful admonition, and is sure to assist
+ in smoothing the rough ways of life wherever it be read and
+ heeded."--_Pittsburg Times._
+
+ 12mo, heavy enameled paper                                   $0.50
+ Presentation Edition, dark brown cloth                        1.00
+
+
+ THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF NOD.
+
+ A collection of poems, songs, stories, and allegories dealing with child
+ life. The work is profusely illustrated with dainty line engravings and
+ photographs from life.
+
+ "The delight of the nursery; the foremost baby's book in the
+ world."--_N. O. Picayune._
+
+ Quarto, sage green cloth                                     $1.00
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+Contemporary spellings have been retained even when inconsistent. A
+small number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected, and
+missing punctuation has been silently added. The list of additional
+works by the author has been moved to the end.
+
+The following additional changes have been made:
+
+I seemed too dear                       _It_ seemed too dear
+
+do a thing that its                     do a thing that _is_
+
+three tittle escapades                  three _little_ escapades
+
+"you gave me a fright,"                 "you gave me a fright,"
+she she said                            _she_ said
+
+waiting, with her eyes                  waiting, with her eyes
+on Elinora, sign                        on Elinor, for a sign
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Marriage of Elinor, by Margaret Oliphant
+
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