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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34777-8.txt b/34777-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2103883 --- /dev/null +++ b/34777-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7287 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Lame Dog's Diary, by S. Macnaughtan + +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: A Lame Dog's Diary + +Author: S. Macnaughtan + +Release Date: February 3, 2011 [EBook #34777] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LAME DOG'S DIARY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: "But, Hugo dear," she said, "why did you not tell me +long ago?"] + + + + +A LAME DOG'S DIARY + + +S. Macnaughtan + + + + +Thomas Nelson and Sons, + +London, Edinburgh, and New York + +1908 + + + + +A LAME DOG'S DIARY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Perhaps curiosity has never been more keen, nor mystery more baffling, +than has been the case during the last few weeks. There have been "a +few friends to tea" at almost every house in the village to see if in +this way any reasonable conclusions can be arrived at, and even +Palestrina is satisfied with the number of people who have taken the +trouble to walk up the hill and chat by my sofa in the afternoons. But +although each lady who has called has remarked that she is in the +secret, but at present is not at liberty to say anything about it, we +are inclined to think that this is vain boasting, or at least selfish +reticence. + +The two Miss Traceys have announced to almost every caller at their +little cottage during the last two years that they intend to build. + +We have all been naturally a good deal impressed by this statement, and +although it was never plainly said what the structure was to be, we had +had for a long time a notion of a detached house on the Common. And +surely enough the foundation-stone was laid last year by Miss Ruby +Tracey with some ceremony, and the first turf of the garden was cut by +Miss Tracey, and only last month the whole of the Fern Cottage +furniture was removed in a van to Fairview, as the new house is +called--the handsomer pieces placed upon the outside of the van, and +the commoner and least creditable of the bedroom furniture within. +Every one was at his or her window on the day that the Miss Traceys' +furniture, with the best cabinet and the inlaid card-table duly +displayed, was driven in state by the driver of the station omnibus +through the town. A rumour got abroad that even more beautiful things +were concealed from view inside the van, and the Miss Traceys satisfied +their consciences by saying, "We did not spread the rumour, and we +shall not contradict it." + +But the mystery concerns the furniture in quite a secondary sort of +way, and it is only important as being the means of giving rise to the +much-discussed rumour in the town. For mark, the drawing-room +furniture was taken at once and stored in a spare bedroom, and the +drawing-room was left unfurnished. This fact might have remained in +obscurity, for in winter time, at least, it is not unusual for ladies +to receive guests in the dining-room with an apology, the drawing-room +being a cold sitting-room during the frost. But Mrs. Lovekin, the lady +who acts as co-hostess at every entertainment in our neighbourhood, +handing about her friends' cakes and tea, and taking, we are inclined +to think, too much upon herself, did, in a moment of expansion, offer +to show the Traceys' house to the Blinds, who happened to call there on +the day when she was paying her respects to Miss Tracey. Mrs. Lovekin +always removes her bonnet and cloak in every house, and this helps the +suggestion that she is in some sort a hostess everywhere. + +Palestrina, who was also calling on the Miss Traceys, gave me a full, +true, and particular account of the affair the same evening. + +"Mind the wet paint," Mrs. Lovekin called from the dining-room window +to the Miss Blinds as they came in at the gate, "and I'll open the +door," she remarked, as she sailed out into the passage to greet the +sisters. Miss Ruby Tracey would rather have done this politeness +herself, in order that she might hear the flattering remarks which +people were wont to make about the hall paper. It is so well known +that she and her sister keep three servants that they never have any +hesitation in going to the door themselves. Whereas the Miss Blinds, +who have only one domestic, would seem hardly to know where their front +door is situated. + +"What an elegant paper!" exclaimed Miss Lydia Blind, stopping awestruck +in the little hall. Miss Lydia would, one knows, have something kind +to say if she went to pay a call at a Kaffir hut. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Lovekin in a proprietary sort of way; "it is one of +Moseley's which Smithson got down in his book of patterns. The blue +paint is what they call 'eggshell'--quite a new shade. Come this way +and have a cup of tea." + +"I am sure it is all very simple," said Miss Tracey, in a disparaging +manner that showed her good breeding, as they sat down in the +dining-room. "How do you like the new carpet, Miss Belinda?" + +"Glory, glory, glory!" said Miss Belinda; "glory, glory, glory!" + +"Show Miss Lydia the new footstools, Ruby dear," said Miss Tracey; "I +am sure she would like to see them." For we all believe--or like to +believe--that to praise our property must be Miss Lydia's highest +pleasure. + +Mrs. Lovekin seized the opportunity to act as tea-maker to the party. +She poured cream and sugar into the cups with the remark that there was +no one in Stowel whose tastes in these respects she did not know, and +she handed a plate of cake to Miss Belinda, saying,-- + +"There, my dear, you sit comfortable and eat that." + +"Glory, glory, glory!" said Miss Belinda. + +The Miss Traceys had tea dispensed to them by the same hand, and +accepted it with that slight sense of bewilderment which Mrs. Lovekin +sometimes makes us feel when she looks after us in our own houses; and +Miss Lydia Blind distributed her thanks equally between her and the +Miss Traceys. + +Nothing was talked of that afternoon but the new house--its sunny +aspect and its roomy cupboards in particular commanding the heartiest +commendation. Presently the ladies were taken to see all over it, with +the exception of one of the spare bedrooms and the drawing-room. They +knew these rooms existed, because Miss Tracey paused at the door of +each, and said lightly, "This is the drawing-room," and "This is +another spare bedroom;" and although, as my sister confided to me, they +would have given much to see the interior of the rooms, they could not +do so, of course, uninvited. + +They paused to admire something at every turn, even saying generously, +but playfully, that there were many of Miss Tracey's possessions which +they positively coveted for themselves. The Miss Traceys smilingly +repudiated their felicitations, while Mrs. Lovekin accepted them and +announced the price of everything. She became quite breathless, +hurrying upstairs, while she exhibited stair-rods and carpets, and with +shortened breath apostrophized them as being "real brass" or "the best +Brussels at five-and-threepence." No one is vulgar in Stowel, but Mrs. +Lovekin is, we fear, not genteel. + +At the close of the visit, Mrs. Lovekin again ushered the visitors into +the hall, and opening, "by the merest accident," as she afterwards +said--without, however, gaining any credence for her statement--opening +by the merest accident the door of the drawing-room, she peeped in. + +The drawing-room was void of furniture. The wild thought came into +Mrs. Lovekin's mind--had the Traceys overbuilt themselves, and had the +furniture, which had been carried so proudly through the town on the +top of the furniture-van, been sold to pay expenses? The suggestion +was immediately put aside. The Miss Traceys' comfortable means were so +well known that such an explanation could not be seriously contemplated +for a moment. No; putting two and two together, a closed spare bedroom +and an empty drawing-room, and bringing a woman's instinct to bear upon +the question, it all pointed to one thing--the Miss Traceys were going +to give a party, probably an evening party, in honour of the new house, +and the drawing-room furniture was being stored for safety in the spare +bedroom until the rout was over. Doubtless the first rumour of the +Miss Traceys' party was meanly come by, but it was none the less +engrossing, all the same. Miss Lydia hoped that no one would believe +for a moment that she was in any way connected with the fraudulent +intrusion that had been made into Miss Tracey's secret, and Miss Tracey +said,-- + +"I have known Mary Anne Lovekin for thirty years"--this was +understating the case, but numbers are not exactly stated as we grow +older--"but I never would have believed that she could have done such a +thing." + +"Bad butter," said Miss Belinda, shaking her head in an emphatic +fashion; "bad butter, bad butter!" + +"I do not want to judge people," said Miss Tracey; "but there was a +want of delicacy about opening a closed door which I for one cannot +forgive." The Miss Traceys' good-breeding is proverbial in Stowel, and +it was felt that her uncompromising attitude could not but be excused +when it was a matter of her most honourable sensibilities having been +outraged. + +"_I_ shall not say what I think," said Miss Ruby. + +We often find that when Miss Ruby cannot transcend what her sister has +said, she has a way of hinting darkly at a possible brilliance of +utterance which for some reason she refrains from making. + +"Bad butter!" said Miss Belinda; "bad, bad butter!" + +Many years ago Miss Belinda Blind, who was then a beautiful young +woman, was thrown from a pony carriage. The result of the fall was an +injury to the spine, and she was smitten with a paralytic stroke which +deprived her of all power of speech. She was dumb for some years, and +then two phrases came back to her stammering tongue, "glory," and "bad +butter." She understands perfectly what is said to her, but she has no +means of replying, save in this very limited vocabulary. And, +strangely enough, these words can only be made to correspond with Miss +Belinda's feelings. However polite her intentions may be, if at heart +she disapproves she can only utter her two words of opprobrium. When a +sermon displeases her she sits in her pew muttering softly, and her +lips show by their movement the words she is repeating; while a +particularly good cup of tea will evoke from her the extravagant +phrase, "Glory, glory, glory!" + +"Certainly," I said to Miss Lydia on the day succeeding the famous +visit to the Traceys, "Mrs. Lovekin's information, if so it may be +called, has been wrongly come by, and yet so frail is human nature one +cannot help speculating upon it." + +"That is what is so sad," said Miss Lydia; "one almost feels as though +sharing in Mrs. Lovekin's deceit by dwelling upon her information, and +yet one's mind seems incapable of even partially forgetting such an +announcement." + +Perhaps some suggestion of what was forming the topic of conversation +in the town may have reached the Miss Traceys, and hastened their +disclosure of the mystery. For very shortly afterwards, one morning +when a flood of April sunshine had called us out of doors to wander on +the damp paths of the garden, and watch bursting buds and listen to the +song of birds in a very rural and delightful fashion, we were informed +by a servant who tripped out in a white cap and apron, quite dazzling +in the sunshine, that the Miss Traceys were within. + +I appealed to my sister to furnish me with a means of escape. But she +replied: "I am afraid they have seen you. Besides, you know I like you +to see people." We went indoors, and Miss Ruby apologized for the +untimely hour at which she and her sister had come, but explained it by +saying, "We wanted to find you alone." And then we knew that the +mystery was about to be solved. + +"You are the first to hear about it," said Miss Tracey in a manner +which was distinctly flattering. The Miss Traceys sit very erect on +their chairs, and when they come to call I always apologize for having +my leg up on the sofa. + +"The fact is," Miss Tracey went on, "that we knew that we could rely +upon your good sense and judgment in a matter which is exercising us +very seriously at present." + +"It is a delicate subject, of course," said Miss Ruby, "but one which +we feel certain we may confide to you." + +"We always look upon Mr. Hugo as a man of the world," said Miss Tracey, +"although he is such an invalid, and we rely upon the sound judgment of +you both." + +Well, to state the subject without further preamble--but of course it +must be understood that everything spoken this morning was to be in +strict confidence--would we consider that they, the Miss Traceys, were +sufficiently chaperoned if their brother the Vicar were present at the +dance, and promised not to leave until the last gentleman had quitted +the house? + +I do not like to overstate a lady's age, and it is with the utmost +diffidence that I suggest that Miss Ruby Tracey, the younger of the two +sisters, may be on the other side of forty. + +"You see, we have not only our own good name to consider," said Miss +Tracey, "but the memory of our dear and ever-respected father must, we +feel, be our guide in this matter, and we cannot decide how he would +have wished us to act. If our brother were married it would simplify +matters very much." + +"You would have had your invitation before now," said Miss Ruby, "if we +had been able to come to a decision, but without advice we felt that +was impossible. I am sure," she went on, giving her mantle a little +nervous composing touch, and glancing aside as though hardly liking to +face any eye directly--"I am sure the things one hears of unmarried +women doing nowadays ... but of course one would not like to be classed +with that sort of person." + +Palestrina was the first of us who spoke. + +"I think," she said gravely, "that as you are so well known here, +nothing could be said." + +"You really think so?" said Miss Ruby. + +But Miss Tracey still demurred. She said: "But it is the fact of our +being so well known here that really constitutes my chief uneasiness. +We often feel," she added with a sigh, "that in another place we could +have more liberty." + +"I assure you," said Miss Ruby, in a tone of playful confession, "that +when we go to visit our cousins in London we are really quite +shockingly frivolous. I do not know what it is about London; one +always seems to throw off all restraint." + +"I think you are giving a wrong impression, dear," said Miss Tracey. +"There was nothing in the whole of our conduct in London which would +not bear repetition in Stowel. Only, in a place like this, one feels +one must often explain one's actions, lest they should give rise to +misrepresentations; whereas in London, although behaving, I hope, in a +manner just as circumspect, one feels that no apology or explanation is +needed." + +"There is a sort of cheerful privacy about London," said the other +sister, "which I find it hard to explain, but which is nevertheless +enjoyable." + +To say that there is a dull publicity about the country, was too +obvious a retort. + +"I think we went out every evening when we were in West Kensington," +said Miss Tracey. + +"Counting church in the evening," said Miss Ruby. + +"Still, those evening services in London almost count as going out," +said Miss Tracey; "I mean, they are so lively. I often blame myself +for not being able to look upon them more in the light of a religious +exercise. I find it as difficult to worship in a strange pew as to +sleep comfortably in a strange bed." + +The Miss Traceys' morning call lasted until one o'clock, and even then, +as they themselves said, rising and shaking out their poplin skirts, +there was much left undiscussed which they would still have liked to +talk over with us. The ball supper, as they called it, was to be +cooked at home, and to consist of nothing which could not be "eaten in +the hand." + +Claret-cup was, to use Miss Tracey's own figure of speech, to be +"flowing" the whole evening, both in the dining-room with the +sandwiches and cakes, and on a tray placed in a recess behind the hall +door. + +"Gentlemen always seem so thirsty," said Miss Tracey, making the remark +as though speaking of some animal of strange habits which she had +considered with the bars of its cage securely fixed between herself and +it at the Zoo. + +"We have bought six bottles of Essence of Claret-cup," said the younger +sister, "which we have seen very highly recommended in advertisements; +and although it says that three tablespoonfuls will make a quart of the +cup, we thought of putting four, and so having it good." + +"As regards the music," went on Miss Tracey, "we have come, I think, to +a very happy decision. A friend of ours knows a blind man who plays +the piano for dances, and by employing him we feel that we shall be +giving remunerative work to a very deserving person, as well as +ensuring for ourselves a really choice selection of the most +fashionable waltzes. Ruby pronounces the floor perfect," said Miss +Tracey, glancing admiringly at her younger sister's still neat figure +and nimble feet; "she has been practising upon it several times----" + +"With the blinds down, dear," amended Miss Ruby, simpering a little. +"We understand," she continued, "that some chalk sprinkled over the +boards before dancing begins is beneficial. You should have known +Stowel in the old days, when there was a county ball every winter at +the Three Jolly Postboys--such a name!" continued Miss Ruby, who was in +that curiously excited state when smiles and even giggles come easily. + +"Now remember," said Miss Tracey to Palestrina, as she took leave of +her, "you must come and help with the decorations on the morning of the +dance. You can rest in the afternoon, so as to look your best and +rosiest in the evening." + +In Stowel it is ingenuously admitted that a young lady should try and +look her best when gentlemen are to be present, and rosy cheeks are +still in vogue. + +The Miss Traceys' drawing-room is not a very large room, even when +empty of furniture, but it certainly had a most festive appearance when +we drove up to the famous house-warming. Every curtain was looped with +evergreens, and every fireplace was piled with ivy, while two large +flags, which were referred to several times as "a display of bunting," +festooned the little staircase. Several friends in the village had +lent their white-capped maids for the occasion, and these ran against +each other in the little linoleum passage in a state of great +excitement, and called each other "dear" in an exuberance of affection +which relieved their fluttered feelings. + +A palm had been ordered from London and placed triumphantly in a +corner--the palm had been kept as a surprise for us all. In the course +of the evening it was quite a common thing to hear some girl ask her +partner if he had seen The Palm; and if the reply was in the negative, +the couple made a journey to the hall to look at it. + +And here I must note a curious trait in the conversation prevalent in +our select circle at Stowel. We all speak in capitals. The definite +article is generally preferred to the "a" or "an" which points out a +common noun; and so infectious is the habit, that when writing, for +instance, of the Jamiesons, I find myself referring to The Family, with +a capital, quite in a royal way, so perspicuously are capital letters +suggested by their manner of speech. In the same way, the Taylors' +uncle is never referred to by any of us except as The Uncle, and I feel +sure that I should be doing the Traceys' plant an injustice if I did +not write it down The Palm. + +This, however, is a digression. + +The calmness of the Miss Traceys was almost overdone. They stood at +the door of their drawing-room, each holding a small bouquet in her +hand, and they greeted their guests as though nothing could be more +natural than to give a dance, or to stand beneath a doorway draped with +white lace curtains, and with a background of dissipated-looking +polished boards and evergreens. The elder Miss Tracey, who is tall, +was statuesque and dignified; the younger lady was conversational and +natural almost to the point of artificiality--so determined was Miss +Ruby to repudiate any hint of arrogance this evening. And it may be +said of both sisters that they were strikingly well-bred and +unembarrassed. Those who had seen them in all the flutter of +preparations during the day--washing china and glass, issuing packets +of candles from their store cupboard below the stairs, and jingling +large bunches of keys--could admire these outward symbols of ease, and +appreciate the self-restraint that they involved. + +I do not remember before, at any dance, seeing so many old young +ladies, or so few and such very juvenile young men. The elderly young +ladies smiled the whole time, while their boy partners looked +preternaturally grave and solemn. They appeared to be shyly conscious +of their shirt collars, and these, I fancy, must have been made after +some exaggerated pattern which I cannot now recall; I only remember +that they appeared to be uncomfortably high and somewhat conspicuous, +and that they gave one the idea of being the wearers' first high +collars. + +The Vicar, who had promised to come at eight o'clock so that there +should be no mistake about his being in the house from first to last of +the dance, and who had been sent for in a panic at a quarter past +eight, acted conscientiously throughout the entire entertainment. He +began by inviting Mrs. Fielden to dance, and afterwards he asked every +lady in turn according to her rank, and I do not think that during the +entire evening his feet can have failed to respond to a single bar of +the music. The blind musician was a little late in arriving, and we +all sat round the drawing-room with our backs to the new blue wallpaper +and longed for home. No one dared to offer to play a waltz, in case it +should be considered an affront at a party where etiquette was so +conspicuous, and where the peculiar Stowel air of mystery pervaded +everything. + +The Jamiesons arrived, a party of nine, in the station omnibus, and +chatted in the hearty, unaffected manner peculiar to themselves, waving +little fans to and fro in the chilly air of the new drawing-room, and +putting an end to the solemn silence which had distinguished the first +half-hour of the party. Each of the sisters wore a black dress +relieved by a touch of colour, and carried a fan. Their bright eyes +shone benignly behind their several pairs of pince-nez; and as they +shook hands with an air of delight with every single person in the room +when they entered, their arrival caused quite a pleasant stir. + +Mrs. Lovekin had already, in her character of co-hostess, begun to +distribute the Essence of Claret-cup that, diluted with water, formed +the staple beverage of the evening and was placed on a small table +behind the hall-door. There was rather a curious sediment left at the +bottom of the glasses, and the flavour of cucumber suggested vaguely to +one that the refreshment might be claret-cup. Very young men in split +white kid gloves drank a good deal of it. + +At last the blind musician was led solemnly across the room, and took +up his position at the piano. He always left off playing before a +figure of a quadrille or lancers was finished, and then the dancers +clapped their hands to make him continue, and the elderly young ladies +smiled more than ever. At the second or third waltz my sister was in +the proud position of being claimed in turn by the Vicar as his +partner; and the position, besides being prominent, was such an +enviable one that Palestrina, who is not more given to humility than +other good-looking young women of her age, was carried away by popular +feeling so far as to remark in a tone of gratitude that this was very +kind of him. + +He replied, "I have made up my mind to sacrifice myself for the night;" +and one realized that a lofty position and a prominent place in the +world may carry with them sufficient humiliations to keep one meek. + +The conscientious Vicar did not allow his partner to sit down once +throughout the entire waltz, and I think the blind musician played at +greater length than usual. I began to wonder if her partner regarded +my excellent Palestrina as a sort of Sandow exerciser, and whether he +was trying to get some healthy gymnastics, if not amusement, out of +their dance together. + +"There!" he said at last, placing her on a chair beside me as a +fulfilled duty; and feeling that she was expected to say "Thank you," +Palestrina meekly said it. + +"I have only danced once in the last twenty years," said the Vicar, +"and that was with some choir boys." And the next moment the blind man +began to play again, and he was footing it with conscientious energy +with Miss Lydia Blind. + +Young ladies who had sat long with their empty programmes in their +hands now began to dance with each other with an air of overdone +merriment, protesting that they did not know how to act gentleman, but +declaring with emphasis that it was just as amusing to dance with a +girl-friend as with a man. + +The music, as usual, failed before the end of each figure of the dance, +and the curate, who wore a pair of very smart shoe-buckles, remarked to +me that the lancers was a dance that created much diversion, and I +replied that they were too amusing for anything. + +The Jamiesons' youngest brother, who is in a shipping-office in London, +had come down to Stowel especially for this occasion. Once, some years +ago, Kennie, as he is called, made a voyage in one of the shipping +company's large steamers to South America. He landed at Buenos Ayres +armed to the teeth, and walked about the pavement of that +highly-civilized town, with its wooden pavements and plate-glass shop +windows, in a sombrero and poncho, and with terrible weapons stuck in +his belt. At the end of a week he returned in the same ship in which +he had made the outward voyage, and since then he has had tales to tell +of those wild regions with which any of the stories in the _Boys' Own +Paper_ are tame in comparison. In his dress and general appearance he +even now suggests a pirate king. His tales of adventure are always +accompanied by explanatory gestures and demonstrations, and it is not +unusual to see Kennie stand up in the midst of an admiring circle of +friends and make some fierce sabre-cuts in the air. He was dressed +with a red cummerbund round his waist, and he drew attention to it by +an apology to every one of his partners for having it on. "One gets +into the habit of dressing like this out there," he said in a tone of +excuse. The Pirate Boy was in great demand at the dance. + +Pretty Mrs. Fielden, who had driven over from Stanby, beautifully +dressed as usual, and slightly amused, ordered her carriage early, and +had merely come to oblige those quaint old dears, the Miss Traceys. + +Even at the house-warming Mrs. Fielden would have considered it quite +impossible to sit out a dance. She brought an elderly Colonel with +her, and she conducted him into a corner behind The Palm, and talked to +him there till it was her turn to dance with the Vicar. Had it not +been Mrs. Fielden, whose position placed her above criticism, the +breath of envy might have whispered that it was hardly fair that one +couple should occupy the favourite sitting-out place--two drawing-room +chairs beneath The Palm--to the exclusion of others. But Mrs. Fielden +being whom she was, the young ladies of Stowel were content to pass and +repass the coveted chairs and to whisper admiringly, "How exquisite she +is looking to-night!" + +"Is there anything of me left?" she said to me, looking cool and +unruffled when her dance with the Vicar was over. She had only made +one short turn of the room with him, and her beautiful dress and her +hair were quite undisturbed. + +"You haven't danced half so conscientiously as his other partners +have," I said. + +"I wanted to talk about the parish," said Mrs. Fielden, "so I stopped. +I think I should like to go and get cool somewhere." + +"I will take you to sit under The Palm again, as Colonel Jardine did," +I replied, "and you shall laugh at all the broad backs and flat feet of +our country neighbours, and hear everybody say as they pass how +beautiful you are." + +Mrs. Fielden turned her head towards me as if to speak, and I had a +sudden vivid conviction that she would have told me I was rude had I +not been a cripple with one leg. + +We sat under The Palm. Mrs. Fielden never rushes into a conversation. +Presently she said,-- + +"Why do you come to this sort of thing? It can't amuse you." + +"You told me the other day," I said, "that I ought to cultivate a small +mind and small interests." + +"Did I?" said Mrs. Fielden lightly. "If I think one thing one day, I +generally think quite differently a day or two after. To-night, for +instance, I think it is a mistake for you to lean against the Miss +Traceys' new blue walls and watch us dance." + +"I'm not sure that it isn't better than sitting at home and reading how +well my old regiment is doing in South Africa. Besides, you know, I am +writing a diary." + +"Are you?" said Mrs. Fielden. + +"You advised it," I said. + +"Did I?" + +When Mrs. Fielden is provoking she always looks ten times prettier than +she does at other times. + +"A good many people in this little place," I said, "have made up their +minds to 'do the work that's nearest' and to help 'a lame dog over +stiles.' I think I should be rather a brute if I didn't respond to +their good intentions." + +"I don't think they need invent stiles, though!" said Mrs. Fielden +quickly; "wood-carving, and beating brass, and playing the zither----" + +"I do not play the zither," I said. + +"--are not stiles. They are making a sort of obstacle race of your +life." + +"Since I have begun to write the diary," I said, "I've been able to +excuse myself attempting these things, even when tools are kindly +brought to me. And, so far, no one has so absolutely forgotten that +there is a lingering spark of manhood in me as to suggest that I should +crochet or do cross-stitch." + +"You know I am going to help to write the diary," said Mrs. Fielden, +"only I'm afraid I shall have to go to all their tea-parties, shan't I, +to get copy?" + +"You will certainly have to go," I said. + +"I'm dreadfully bored to-night; aren't you?" she said confidentially, +and in a certain radiant fashion as distant as the Poles from boredom. +"No one can really enjoy this sort of thing, do you think? It's like +being poor, or anything disagreeable of that sort. People think they +ought to pretend to like it, but they don't." + +"I wish I could entertain you better," I said sulkily; "but I'm afraid +I never was the least bit amusing." + +Mrs. Fielden relapsed into one of her odd little silences, and I +determined I would not ask her what she was thinking about. + +Presently Colonel Jardine joined us, and she said to him: "Please see +if you can get my carriage; it must be five o'clock in the morning at +least." And the next moment I was made to feel the egotism of +imagining I had been punished, when she bade me a charming +"good-night." She smiled congratulations on her hostesses on the +success of the party, and pleaded the long drive to Stanby as an excuse +for leaving early. The Colonel wrapped her in a long, beautiful cloak +of some pale coloured velvet and fur--a sumptuous garment at which +young ladies in shawls looked admiringly--and Mrs. Fielden slipped it +on negligently, and got into her brougham. + +"Oh, how tired I am!" she said. + +"It was pretty deadly," said the Colonel. "Did you taste the +claret-cup?" he added, making a grimace in the dark. + +"Oh, I found it excellent," said Mrs. Fielden quickly. + +Margaret Jamieson now took her place at the piano, to enable the blind +man to go and have some supper; but, having had it, he slept so +peacefully that no one could bear to disturb him, so between them the +young ladies shared his duties till the close of the evening. + +Palestrina had suggested, as a little occupation for me, that I should +write out programmes for the dance, and I had done so. Surely +programmes were never so little needed before! Every grown man had +left the assembly long before twelve o'clock struck, the feebleness of +the excuses for departing thus early being only equalled by the gravity +with which they were made. Even the lawyer, who we thought would have +remained faithful to the end, pleaded that since he ricked his knee he +is obliged to have plenty of rest. The Pirate Boy had had some bitter +words with the lawyer at a previous stage in the evening about the way +in which the lancers should be danced, and had muttered darkly, "I +won't make a disturbance in a lady's house, but I have seen a fellow +called out for less." He considered that the lawyer was running away, +unable to bear his cold, keen eye upon him during the next lancers, and +he watched him depart, standing at the head of the tiny staircase, +beneath the display of bunting, with his arms folded in a Napoleonic +attitude. + +All good things come to an end, and even the Vicar of Stowel must have +felt that there are limits to the most conscientious energy. And +girls, dancing with each other, learn perhaps that the merriment caused +by acting as a man is not altogether lasting; while elderly young +ladies, although agreed in smiling to the very end, must be aware how +fixed in expression such a smile may become towards the end of a long +evening. + +Good-nights were said, and carriages were called up with a good deal of +unnecessary shouting, while the Pirate Boy insisted upon going to the +heads of the least restive horses and soothing them in a way which he +said he had learned from those Gaucho fellows out there. + +I have never been able to tell what the Miss Traceys thought about +their dance. If they were disappointed, the world was not allowed to +probe that tender spot. Possibly they were satisfied with its success; +the proprietary instinct of admiration applies to entertainments as +well as to tangible possessions. But that satisfaction, if it existed, +was modestly veiled--the house-warming was less discussed by them than +by any one else. Miss Ruby spoke rather wistfully one day about simple +pleasures being the best and safest after all, and she alluded with a +sigh to the time which must come some day when she would be no longer +young. Miss Tracey drew herself up and said: "A woman is only as old +as she looks, my dear," and glanced admiringly at her sister. + +The diluted Essence of Claret-cup was bottled, and formed a nice light +luncheon wine at the Miss Tracey's for many weeks afterwards. The +furniture was brought down from the spare bedroom by the maids, who +walked the heavier pieces in front of them with a curious tip-toeing +movement of the castors of the several easy-chairs. The art tiles in +the grate were cleared of their faded burden of evergreens, and The +Palm was carried into the bay-window, where it could be seen from the +road. + +I drove over to see Mrs. Fielden and to ask her if she thought I had +been a sulky brute at the dance. + +"Were you?" said Mrs. Fielden, lifting her pretty dark eyebrows; "I +forget." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Palestrina and I live in the country, and whenever we are dull or sad, +like the sailors in Mr. Gilbert's poem, we decide that our +neighbourhood is too deadly uninteresting, and then we go and see the +Jamiesons. They are our nearest neighbours, as they are also amongst +our greatest friends, and the walk to their house is a distance that I +am able to manage. I believe that our visits to the Jamiesons are most +often determined by the state of the weather. If we have passed a long +wet day indoors I feel that it is going to be a Jamieson day, and I +know that my sister will say to me after tea, "Suppose we go over and +see the Jamiesons;" and she generally adds that it is much better than +settling down for the evening at five o'clock in the afternoon. + +I do not think that Palestrina was so sociable a young woman, nor did +she see so much of her neighbours, before I came home an invalid from +South Africa--I got hit in the legs at Magersfontein, and had the left +one taken off in the hospital at Wynberg--but she believes, no doubt +rightly, that the variety that one gets by seeing one's fellow-men is +good for a poor lame dog who lies on a sofa by the fire the greater +part of the day, wishing he could grow another leg or feel fit again. + +Acting upon this unalterable conviction of my sister, we drive about in +the afternoon and see people, and they come and see me and suggest +occupations for me. In Lent I had a more than usual number of callers, +which says much for the piety of the place, as well as for the goodness +of heart of its inhabitants. + +There is a slight coolness between what is known as the "County" and +the Jamiesons, and their name is never mentioned without the +accompanying piece of information, "You know, old Jamieson married his +cook!" To be more exact, Mrs. Jamieson was a small farmer's daughter, +and Captain Jamieson fell in love with her when, having left the army, +he went to learn practical farming at old Higgins's, and he loved her +faithfully to the day of his death. She is a stout, elderly woman who +speaks very little, but upon whom an immense amount of affection seems +to be lavished by her family of five daughters and two sons. And it +has sometimes seemed to my sister and me that her good qualities are of +a lasting and passive sort, which exist in large measure in the hearts +of those who bestow this boundless affection. Mrs. Jamieson's form of +introducing herself to any one she meets consists in giving an account +of the last illness and death of her husband. There is hardly a +poultice which was placed upon that poor man which her friends have not +heard about. And when she has finished, in her flat, sad voice, giving +every detail of his last disorder, Mrs. Jamieson's conversation is at +an end. She has learned, no doubt unconsciously, to gauge the +characters of new acquaintances by the degree of interest which they +evince in Captain Jamieson's demise. It is Mrs. Jamieson's test of +their true worth. + +Of the other sorrow which saddened a nature that perhaps was never very +gay, Mrs. Jamieson rarely speaks. Possibly because she thinks of it +more than of anything else in the world. Among her eight children +there was only one who appeared to his mother to combine all perfection +in himself. He was killed by an accident in his engineering works +seven years ago, and although his friends will, perhaps, only remember +him as a stout young fellow who sang sea-songs with a distended chest, +his mother buried her heart with him in his grave, and even the voice +of strangers is lowered as they say, "She lost a son once." + +The late Captain Jamieson, a kindly, shrewd man and a Scotchman withal, +was agent to Mrs. Fielden, widow of the late member for Stanby, and +when he died his income perished with him, and The Family of +Jamieson--a large one, as has been told--were thankful enough to +subsist on their mother's inheritance of some four or five hundred a +year, bequeathed to her by the member of the non-illustrious house of +Higgins, late farmer deceased. It is a hospitable house, for all its +narrow means, and there live not, I believe, a warmer-hearted or more +generous family than these good Jamiesons. The girls are energetic, +bright, and honest; their slender purses are at the disposal of every +scoundrel in the parish; and their time, as well as their boundless +energy, is devoted to the relief of suffering or to the betterment of +mankind. + +Mrs. Fielden is of the opinion that nothing gives one a more perfect +feeling of rest than going to Belmont, as the Jamiesons' little house +is called, and watching them work. She calls it the "Rest Cure." +Every one of the five sisters, except Maud, who is the beauty of the +family, wears spectacles, and behind these their bright, intelligent +small eyes glint with kindness and brisk energy. The worst feature of +this excellent family is their habit of all talking at the same time, +in a certain emphatic fashion which renders it difficult to catch what +each individual is saying, and this is especially the case when three +of the sisters are driving sewing-machines simultaneously. They have a +genius for buying remnants of woollen goods at a small price, and +converting them into garments for the poor; and their first question +often is, as they hold a piece of flannel or serge triumphantly aloft, +"What do you think I gave for that?" Palestrina always names at least +twice the sum that has purchased the goods, and has thereby gained a +character for being dreadfully extravagant but sympathetic. + +"I do not believe," I said to Palestrina the other day, "that these +good Jamiesons have a thought beyond making other people happy." + +"That and getting married are the sole objects of their existence," +said Palestrina. + +"It is very odd," I said, "that women so devoid of what might be called +sentiment are yet so bent upon this very thing." + +"Eliza told me to-day," said Palestrina, "that as Kate has not +mentioned one single man in her letters home, they cannot help thinking +that there is something in it." + +The Jamiesons have the same vigorous, energetic ideas about matrimony +that they have about everything else, and almost their sole grievance, +naïvely expressed, is that Maud, "who gets them all"--meaning, I +believe, offers of marriage--is the only one of the family who is +unable to make up her mind clearly on this momentous question. + +"We should not mind," say the conclave of sisters during one of the +numerous family discussions on this subject, "even if she does get all +the admirers--for of course she is the pretty one--if only she would +accept one of them. But she always gets undecided and silly as soon as +they come to the point." + +It should be observed in passing that the different stages of +development in love affairs are shrewdly noted and commented upon by +the Jamiesons. The first evidence of a man's preference is that he "is +struck;" and the second, when he begins to visit at the house, is known +as "hovering." An inquiry after Maud's health will sometimes elicit +the unexpected reply that another admirer is hovering at present. The +third stage is reached when the lover is said to be "dangling;" and the +final triumph, when Maud has received a proposal, is noted as having +"come to the point." + +If Maud's triumphs are watched with small sighs of envy by her sisters, +they are a source of nothing but gratification to them to retail to the +outside world. There is a strict account kept of Maud's "conquests" in +the letters sent to relatives, and the evening's post will sometimes +contain the startling announcement that Maud has had a fourth in one +year. + +"Of course, you know how fond we all are of each other," said Eliza +Jamieson to me one day with one of those unexpected confidences which +the effeminacy of sickness seems to warrant, if not actually to invite, +"but we can't help thinking that, humanly speaking, we should all have +a better chance if only Maud would marry. No one would wish her to +marry without love, but we fear she is looking for perfection, and +_that_ she will never get; and it was really absurd of her to be so +upset when she discovered, after nearly getting engaged to Mr. Reddy, +that he wore a wig. After all, a man may be a good Christian in spite +of having no hair." + +"That is undoubtedly a fact," I said warmly. + +"And Mr. Reddy had excellent prospects," said Eliza, "although perhaps +nothing very tangible at present. Then there was Albert Gore, to whom, +one must admit, Maud gave every encouragement, and we had begun to +think it quite hopeful; but just at the end she discovered that she +could not care for any one called Albert, which was too silly." + +"She might have called him Bertie," I suggested. + +"Yes," said Eliza eagerly; "and you see, none of us hope or expect to +marry a man who has not some of these little drawbacks, so I really do +not see why Maud should expect it." + +Five matrimonial alliances in one house are, perhaps, not easily +arranged in a quiet country neighbourhood, yet there is always a +hopeful tone about these family discussions, and it is very common to +hear the Miss Jamiesons relate at length what they intend to do when +they are married. + +And there is yet another maiden to be arranged for in the little house; +Mettie is the Jamiesons' cousin who lives with them, and I believe that +what appeals to me most strongly in this unknown provincial family is +their kindness to the little shrunken, tiresome cousin who shares their +home. Mettie is like some strange little bright bird, utterly devoid +of intelligence, and yet with the alertness of a sparrow. Her beady +eyes are a-twinkle in a restless sort of way all day long, and her +large thin nose has always the appearance of having the skin stretched +unpleasantly tightly across it. The good Jamiesons never seem to be +ruffled by her presence among them, and this forbearance certainly +commands one's respect. Mettie travesties the Jamiesons in every +particular. She has adopted their matrimonial views with interest, and +she utters little platitudes upon the subject with quite a surprising +air of sapience. One avoids being left alone with Mettie whenever it +is possible to do so, for, gentle creature though she is, her remarks +are so singularly devoid of interest that one is often puzzled to +understand why they are made. Yet I see one or other of the Jamiesons +walk to the village with her every day--her little steps pattering +beside their giant strides, while the bird-like tongue chirps gaily all +the way. + +Every one in our little neighbourhood walks into the village every day; +it is our daily dissipation; and frivolous persons have been known to +go twice or three times. On days when Palestrina thinks that I am +getting moped she steals the contents of my tobacco-jar, and then says, +without blushing, that she has discovered that my tobacco is all +finished, and that we had better walk into the village together and get +some more. When I am in a grumpy mood, I reply: "It's all right, thank +you; I have plenty upstairs." But it generally ends in my taking the +walk with my sister. + +Our house is pleasantly situated where, by peeping through a tangle of +shrubs and trees, we can see the lazy traffic of the highroad that +leads to the village. Strangers pause outside the screen of evergreens +sometimes and peep between the branches to see the quaint gables of the +old house. Its walls have turned to a soft yellow colour with old age, +and its beams are of oak, gray with exposure to the storms of many +winters. + +"This old hall of yours is much too dark," Mrs. Fielden said, when she +came to call the other day muffled up in velvet and fur. She lighted +the dull afternoon by something that is radiant and holiday-like about +her, and left us envying her for being so pretty and so young and gay. +"Oh, I know," she said in her whimsical way, "that it is Jacobean and +early Tudor and all sorts of delightful things, but it isn't very +cheerful, you know. I'm so glad it is near the road; I think if I +built a house I should like it to be in Mansion House Square, or inside +a railway station. Don't you love spending a night at a station hotel? +I always ask for a room overlooking the platform, for I like the +feeling of having the trains running past me all night. I love your +house really," she said, "only I'm afraid it preaches peace and +resignation and all those things which I consider so wrong." + +Since I have been laid up I have been recommended to carve wood, to +beat brass, to stuff sofa-cushions, and to play the zither; but these +things do not amuse me much. It was Mrs. Fielden who suggested that I +should write a diary. + +"You must grumble," she said, raising her pretty eyebrows in the +affected way she has. "It wouldn't be human if you didn't; so why not +write a diary, and have a real good grumble on paper every night before +you go to bed. Of course, if I were in your place I should grumble all +day instead, and go to sleep at night. But I'm not the least bit a +resigned person. If anything hurts me I scream at once; and if there +is anything I don't like doing I leave it alone. Palestrina," she said +to my sister, "don't let him be patient; it's so bad for him." + +Palestrina smiled, and said she was afraid it was very dull for me +sometimes. + +"But if one is impatient enough, one can't be dull," said Mrs. Fielden. +"It's like being cross----" + +"I am constitutionally dull," I said. "I used to be known as the +dullest man in my regiment." + +"You studied philosophy, didn't you?" said Mrs. Fielden. "That must be +so depressing." + +I was much struck by this suggestion. "I dare say you are quite +right," I said, "although I had not seen it in that light before. But +I'm afraid it has not made me very patient, nor given me a great mind." + +"Of course, what you want just now," said Mrs. Fielden gravely, "is a +little mind. You must lie here on your sofa, and take a vivid interest +in what all the old ladies say when they come to call on Palestrina. +And you must know the price of Mrs. Taylor's last new hat, and how much +the Traceys spend on their washing-bill, and you must put it all down +in your diary. I'll come over and help you sometimes, and write all +the wicked bits for you, only I'm afraid no one ever is wicked down +here. + +"Good-bye," she said, holding out the smallest, prettiest, most +useless-looking little hand in the world. "And please," she added +earnestly, "get all this oak painted white, and hang some nice muslin +curtains in the windows." + +Kindly folk in Stowel are always ingenuously surprised at any one's +caring to live in the country; and although it is but a mile from here +to the vestry hall, and much less by the fields, they often question us +whether we do not feel lonely at night-time, and they are of the +opinion that we should be better in "town." They frequently speak of +going into the country for change of air, or on Bank Holidays; but +considering that the last house in the village--and, like the City of +Zoar, it is but a little one--is built amongst fields, it might be +imagined that these rural retreats could readily be found without the +trouble of hiring the four-wheeled dog-cart from the inn, or of taking +a journey by train. Yet an expedition into the country is often talked +of as being a change, and friends and relations living outside the town +are considered a little bit behindhand in their views of +things--"old-feshioned" they call it in Stowel--and these country +cousins are visited with just a touch of kindly condescension by the +dwellers in a flower-bordered, tree-shadowed High Street. + +One is brought rather quaintly into immediate correspondence with the +domestic concerns of every one in Stowel, and Palestrina has been +coaching me in the etiquette of the place. It is hardly correct to do +any shopping at dinner-time, when the lady of the house, busy feeding +her family, has to be called from the inner parlour, where that family +may all be distinctly seen from the shop. Driving or walking through +Stowel at the hour thus consecrated by universal consent to gastronomy, +one might almost imagine it to be a deserted village. Even the dogs +have gone inside to get a bone; and one says, as one walks down the +empty streets, "Stowel dines." + +When a shop is closed on Thursday, which is early-closing day, one can +generally "be obliged" by ringing at the house-bell, and, under conduct +of the master of the place, may enter the darkened shop by the side +door, and be accommodated with the purchase that one requires. For the +old custom still holds of living--where it seems most natural for a +merchant to live--in the place where he does his business. There is a +pleasurable feeling of excitement even in the purchase of a pot of +Aspinall's enamel behind closed shutters, and this is mingled with a +feeling of solemnity and privilege, which I can only compare, in its +mixed effect upon me, to going behind the scenes of a theatre, or being +permitted to enter the vestry of a church. + +Any purchases except those which may be called necessaries are seldom +indulged in in our little town. A shop which contains anything but +dress and provisions has few customers, and its merchandise becomes +household fixtures. I called at the furniture shop the other day; the +place looked bare and unfamiliar to me, but I did not realize what was +amiss until my sister exclaimed, "Where is the sofa?" The sofa had +been for sale for fifteen years, and had at last been purchased. There +are other things in the shop which I think must have been there much +longer, and I believe their owner would part with them with regret, +even were a very fair profit to be obtained for them. Palestrina tells +me she ordered some fish the other day, and was met with the objection +that "I fear that piece will be too big for your fish-kettle, ma'am," +although she had never suspected that the size of her fish-kettle was a +matter known to the outside world. + +And yet Stowel prides itself more upon its reserve than upon anything +else, except perhaps its gentility. There is a distinct air of mystery +over any and every one of the smallest affairs of daily life in the +little place, and I hardly think that our neighbours would really enjoy +anything if it were "spoken about" before the proper time. There is +something of secrecy in the very air of the town. No one, I am told, +has ever been known to mention, even casually, what he or she intends +to have for dinner; and the butcher has been warned against calling +across the shop to the lady at the desk, "Two pounds of rumpsteak for +Miss Tracey," or, "One sirloin, twelve two, for the Hall." Mr. +Tomsett, who was the first butcher to introduce New Zealand mutton to +the inhabitants of Stowel, lost his custom by this vulgar habit of +assorting his joints in public. And Miss Tracey, who knew him best (he +was still something of a stranger, having been in Stowel only five +years), warned him that that was not the sort of thing we were +accustomed to. "If you must make our private concerns public in this +way," she said, "at least it cannot be necessary to mention in what +country the mutton was raised." + +It is even considered a little indelicate to remain in the post-office +when a telegram is being handed in. And parcels addressed and laid on +the counter at the grocer's, although provocative of interest, are not +even glanced at by the best people. + +On the authority of my sister, I learn that when the ladies of Stowel +do a little dusting in the morning the front blinds are pulled down. +And keen though the speculation may be as to the extent of our +neighbours' incomes, the subject is, of course, a forbidden one. Poor +though some of these neighbours are, a very kindly charity prevails in +the little town. When the elder Miss Blind was ill--as she very often +is, poor thing!--it might seem a matter of coincidence to the +uninitiated that during that week every one of her friends happened to +make a little strong soup, a portion of which was sent to the +invalid--just in case she might fancy it; while the Miss Traceys, who, +as all the world knew, had inherited a little wine from their father, +the late Vicar of the parish, sent their solitary remaining bottle of +champagne, with their compliments, to Miss Belinda. The champagne +proved flat after many a year of storage in the lower cupboard of Miss +Tracey's pantry, but the two sisters to whom it was sent, not being +familiar with the wine, did not detect its faults, and they left the +green bottle with the gilt neck casually standing about for weeks +afterwards, from an innocent desire to impress their neighbours with +its magnificence. + +Palestrina, with the good intention, I believe, of providing me with +what she calls an object for a walk, asked me to call and inquire for +Miss Blind on the day that the bottle of champagne was drawn and +sampled. Miss Lydia was in the sick-room, and Mrs. Lovekin, who had +called to inquire, was sitting in the little parlour when I entered. +"How do you do?" she said. "I suppose you have heard about Belinda and +the champagne?" + +The reproachful note in Mrs. Lovekin's voice, which seemed to tax the +invalid with ingratitude, subtly conveyed the impression that the flat +champagne had not agreed with poor Miss Belinda. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +It is a subject of burning curiosity with every woman in Stowel to know +whether it is a fact that the Taylors have taken to having late dinner +instead of supper since Mrs. Taylor's uncle was made a K.C.B. There +was something in a remark made by Miss Frances Taylor which distinctly +suggested that such a change had been effected, but Stowel, on the +whole, is inclined to discredit the rumour. A portrait of the General +has been made in London, from a photograph in uniform which Mrs. Taylor +has of him, and it has been framed, regardless of expense, by the +photographer in the High Street. Mr. Taylor at one time had thought of +having the whole thing done in London, but it had been decided by an +overwhelming majority that it would be only fair to give the commission +to provide the frame to some one in our own town; and Mr. and Mrs. +Taylor have granted a permission, which amounts to a command, that the +portrait of "Sir John" shall be placed in the window for a week before +it is sent home, so that Stowel may see it--for the Taylors, it should +be remembered, do not receive every one at their own house. + +To-day I met the younger Miss Blind--Miss Lydia, she is generally +called--at the window of the photographer's, to which she had made a +pilgrimage, as we all intended to do, to see the famous picture. +Probably she had stood there for some time, for she turned nervously +towards me, and said in a tone of apology and with something of an +effort in her speech, "I used to know him." + +"Ah!" I replied. "I suppose he has often been down to stay with the +Taylors?" + +"He has not been once in twenty years," said Lydia. I was thinking of +other things, and I do not know why it suddenly struck me that there +was a tone of regret, even of hopelessness, in Miss Lydia's voice, and +that she spoke as one speaks, perhaps, when one has waited long for +something. + +Lydia Blind is a tall woman with a slight, stooping figure. Sometimes +I have wondered if it is only her sister's constant ill-health that has +made Miss Lydia stoop a little. There is something delicately precise +about her, if so gentle a woman can fitly be described as precise. +Perhaps her voice explains her best, as a woman's voice will often do; +it is low and of a very charming quality, although broken now and then +by asthma. Each word has its proper spacing, and does not intrude upon +the next; each vowel possesses the rare characteristic of its proper +sound. I have never heard her use an out-of-the-way expression; but +her simple way of speaking has an old-fashioned gracefulness about it, +and her manner, with all its simplicity, is dignified by reason of its +perfect sincerity. Her eyes are large and gray, and set somewhat far +apart; her hair is worn in a fringe so demure and smooth, so primly +curled, that it has the appearance of plainly-brushed hair. It is Mrs. +Fielden who says that no good woman can do her hair properly, and she +wonders if St. Paul's recommendations as to plain braids has for ever +stamped the hairdresser's profession as a dangerous art. + +To-day when I met Lydia it struck me suddenly to wonder how old she is. +Perhaps something in the insolent youthfulness of the springtime +suggested the thought, or it may have been because Miss Lydia looked +tired. + +When one meets a friend in Stowel High Street, it is considered very +cold behaviour merely to bow to her. Not only do we stop and chat for +a few minutes, but it is the friendly fashion of the place for ladies +to say to each other, "Which way are you going?" and to accompany their +friend a little way along the sunny, uneven pavement, while offers to +come in and rest are generally given and accepted at the end of the +promenade. Of course it is quite unusual for gentlemen to be detained +in this way, and I am sure it cost Miss Lydia an effort to suggest to +me that I should come in and sit down for a little while, and that she +only did so because I seemed tired. Also I think that a man with a +crutch and with but one leg--and that one not very sound--is not +considered such a source of danger to ladies living alone as a strong +and hale man is supposed to be. We stopped at the little green gate in +the village street, with its red flagged pathway beyond, bordered with +spring flowers--wall-flowers, early blooming in this warm and sheltered +corner, forget-me-nots and primroses, while a brave yellow jasmine +starred with golden flowers covered the walls of the cottage. I asked +after her sister's health, and Miss Lydia begged me to come in and rest +for a few minutes; which I did, for I was horribly tired. But this was +one of Miss Belinda's bad days, and her sister, who watches every +variation in colour in the hollow cheeks and deep-set eyes of the +invalid, saw that she was unable to speak, and motioned me out of the +room. She showed me into her own little sanctum, and gave me a +cushioned chair by the window, and said: "Do wait for a few minutes and +rest. I can see that my sister wants to say something to me, but she +is always more than usually inarticulate when she is in one of these +nervous states." + +I have been thinking a good deal about old maids lately--one has time +to think about all manner of subjects when one is lying down most of +the day. Mrs. Fielden is of opinion that an old maid may have an +exaggerated sense of humour. To my mind her danger may be that she is +always rather pathetically satisfied with everything. She prefers the +front seat of a carriage and the back seat of a dog-cart, and the leg +of a chicken and a tiny bedroom. Doubtless this is a form of +self-respect. This suitability of tastes on the part of an old maid +enables her to say, as she does with almost suspicious frequency, that +she gets dreadfully spoiled wherever she goes. Adaptability to +environment is the first law of existence, and yet there may have been +times, even in the life of an old maid, when she has yearned for the +wing of a chicken. + +The little room into which Miss Lydia ushered me was plainly furnished, +but Miss Lydia says that she is always getting something pretty given +to her to add to her treasures. Her room is, indeed, rather suggestive +of a stationer's shop window, where a card with "Fancy goods in great +variety" is placed. It would not be unkind to hint of some of the +articles on the table and on the wall-brackets that they must have been +purchased more as a kindly remembrance at Christmas-time or on +birthdays than from any apparent usefulness to the recipient. There +are three twine-cases from which the scissors have long since been +abstracted by unknown dishonest persons; and there are four ornamental +thermometers, each showing its own fixed and unalterable idea +respecting the temperature of the room. A large number of unframed +sketches which children have given her are fastened to the wall by +pins, or hung on tacks whose uncertain hold bespeaks a feminine hand on +the hammer. There are several calendars, and there is quite an +uncountable collection of photograph frames, which fall over unless +they are propped against something. Most of the photographs are old +and faded, and they are nearly all of babies. Babies clothed and +unclothed; babies with bare feet and little nightshirts on; babies +sucking their thumbs; babies lying prone on fur carriage-rugs; babies +riding on their mammas' backs, or sitting on their mammas' knees; +babies crowing or crying. No one who has a baby ever fails to send +this maiden lady a photograph of it. + +Miss Lydia settled me with some cushions in my chair, and shut the +doorway leading to her bedroom beyond, where I caught sight of a +painted iron bedstead, and a small indiarubber hot-water bottle hanging +from one of its knobs. It is Miss Lydia's most cherished possession, +and she generally speaks of it reverently as "the comfort of my life." + +Poor Miss Lydia! Hers must be, I think, a lonely life, sacrificed +patiently to an invalid and almost inarticulate sister, and yet it is +the very solitude of this little chamber which is one of the few +privileges to which she lays claim. It is to this little room, with +its humble furnishings, that all her troubles are taken, and it is here +by the window that she can sit with folded hands and think perhaps of +something in life which surely poor Lydia has missed. It is here she +prays for those whose sins weigh far more heavily upon her than they do +upon themselves, and it is here that she can pause and question with +gentle faith the perplexities of life. + +Miss Lydia tells my sister that she makes a thorough examination of her +room every night before she goes to bed, to see if there is a burglar +concealed anywhere. The movable property in the tiny house is probably +not worth many pounds, as a pawnbroker appraises things, and it would +be a hardened thief that could deprive the sisters of their small +possessions; but the dread remains--the dread of burglars and the dread +of mice. Were it not for the look of the thing, she would almost +rather discover a burglar than a mouse--"for at least burglars are +human," she explains, "and one might be able to reason with them or +pray for them, but who shall control the goings of a mouse?" + +Sometimes these fears become quite a terror to Lydia Blind, and she +once said that she felt so defenceless that she thought it would be a +great comfort to have a male defender to protect her. + +It is the only unmaidenly remark she ever made, and it makes her blush +in the dark when she thinks of it. She believes every one remembers it +with as vivid a distinctness as she does, and she trembles to think +what sort of construction may have been put upon her words by +ill-natured or thoughtless persons. It is a real trouble to her; but +then all her troubles are real, and so are her bitter repentances over +perfectly imaginary sins. But she has her little room and her faded +photographs--life has its consolations. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Kate Jamieson, who is the independent member of The Family, and has +been in a situation for some years as companion to a lady at Bath, has +written home what she calls a "joint-letter" to apprise the whole of +her family at one and the same time that she is engaged to be married. +The excitement which this letter produced in the little household is +hardly possible to describe. The news arrived when the Jamiesons were +at breakfast. Perhaps I should mention, before going any further, that +the Jamiesons' only extravagance is to take in three daily papers. One +is an evening paper, which arrives at breakfast-time, and the other two +are morning publications, which arrive at the same hour. It is +customary for the members of this family each to read his own +particular paper aloud during the entire meal, the rest of the party +read their letters to each other, and there are still left several +voices to demand what you will have for breakfast, to inquire how you +have slept, and to comment upon the weather. So that from half-past +eight until nine a cross-fire of conversation is going on all the +time.... + +"I see Hearne has scored sixty-eight at cricket, not out. That's not +bad, you know. Kent ought to be looking up. The Australians are doing +well. Yorkshire might do better. Extraordinary! Here's this chap who +promised so well bowled for a duck!" This from the eldest son of the +House of Jamieson; while at precisely the same moment may be heard the +voice of Maud: "I must say I am rather astonished at the way boleros +have remained in. This is one of the prettiest designs I have seen +this year. How soon one gets accustomed to small sleeves. Well, I +cannot say I like these Chesterfield fronts." + +Mrs. Jamieson is meanwhile reading aloud the columns of births, deaths, +and marriages from beginning to end. Her limited acquaintance with the +outside world might seem to preclude her from any vivid interest in +those who must necessarily only be names to her, yet she finds +subject-matter for comment through the entire perusal of the column. +Needless to say, Mrs. Jamieson inclines to regard only the sadder +aspects of these natural occurrences, and her comments thereupon are +full of a sort of resigned melancholy. From her corner of the table +may be heard the plaintive words: "Here's a young fellow of twenty-four +taken," or, "Fourscore years, well, well, and then passed away!" While +the happier news of birth provokes her to hark back to an announcement +of a similar nature in the family, perhaps only a year ago, and to talk +of the responsibilities and the expense that the poor young couple will +have to undergo. Mettie, who spends the greater part of every day +writing letters, and whose chief joy in life is to receive them, reads +the whole of her correspondence aloud from beginning to end; while +Margaret Jamieson, behind the teapot, is letting off rapid volleys of +questions respecting individual tastes about cream and sugar, and the +Pirate Boy offers ham-and-eggs or sausages in a deep stentorian bass. + +In the midst of this confusion of noise, when only a Jamieson, whose +ear is curiously trained to it, can possibly hear what is being said, +Mrs. Jamieson bursts into tears and, in the strong Kentish dialect of +her youth, exclaims: "Here's our Kate going to be married!" + +After the first burst of delighted surprise, there is a family feeling +of apology towards Maud. That Kate should marry first is surely a +little disloyal to the beauty of Belmont, and Mrs. Jamieson goes so far +as to say: "Never mind, Maud; it will be your turn next." + +After that, they all, singly and severally, recall their +previously-expressed opinion that they knew something was up, and that +certainly Kate could not have given them a more pleasant or more +unexpected surprise. + +The letter is then read aloud, and it is so long that one is glad to +think that the absent Kate did not attempt to duplicate it, but +contented herself with the Pauline method of one general epistle. With +the Jamieson characteristic of telling everything exhaustively, Kate +writes:-- + + +"Mr. Ward is not at all bad-looking; a little hesitating in his manner, +and inclined to be untidy--you see, I am telling you everything quite +candidly--but of course I can remedy all these defects when we are +married. He has a short brown moustache, and rather a conical-shaped +head." (This is a fault that one feels Kate will not be able to +remedy, even when she has married him.) "He looks clever, though I do +not think he is, very; he is well-connected, but does not know all his +best relations. Poor, but with generous instincts"--one feels as +though a chiromancist were reading a client's palm--"well-read, but +without power of conveying intelligence to others; hair rather thin, +and (I am afraid) false teeth; very religious, but I consider this in +him more temperament than anything else. He has had a hard life, and +not always enough to eat, until his uncle died; but now he could be +quite independent if he liked, but he prefers the position which a +Government appointment gives him. + +"I hope to bring him down to stay when I return; please let him have +the south bedroom, as that is the warmest, and I do not think James is +very strong. I should like him to have a fire at night--I can arrange +that with mother, as I feel quite well off now. We are to be married +in July, and I am giving up my post here at once, so as to see +something of you all before I go away." + + +At this point the letter referred once more to Mr. Ward's personal +appearance, and the description was of so great length that when +Margaret Jamieson, who had run all the way from her home to ours to +give it to us to read, asked me breathlessly what I thought about it, I +determined to leave unread the remaining paragraphs, and to judge for +myself of the bridegroom when he should come to Belmont and we should +be invited to meet him. + +"There is one thing," said Mrs. Jamieson when, at the request of The +Family, Palestrina went to sit with her one afternoon a few weeks +later, to support her through the trying ordeal of waiting for Kate and +"James," as he is now familiarly called, to arrive; "the girls have +nothing to be ashamed of in their home." She looked with a certain +amount of pardonable pride at the clean white curtains, and we gathered +that we were meant to comment upon their early appearance. The white +curtains, Palestrina says, are not usually put up at Belmont until the +first week in May. + +"They look very handsome," I said. It was a Jamieson afternoon--very +wet, but clearing up about sundown, and Palestrina had suggested my +escorting her as far as Belmont. But the rain came down in torrents +again when I would have started to return home, and the good Jamiesons +begged me to stay, to avoid the chance of a chill, and to meet James. + +"It is the first break in the family," said Mrs. Jamieson tearfully, +"since poor Robert died. But, as James says, he hopes I am gaining a +son and not losing a daughter." From which I gathered that James was a +gentleman given to uttering rather a stale form of platitude. + +All were waiting in a state of great trepidation the arrival of the +engaged couple, and it was quite hopeless to avoid the encounter, for +the rain descended in sheets outside, and preparations for supper +seemed to be going on in the dining-room at Belmont. It was decided, +by universal consent, that only Mrs. Jamieson and Palestrina and I +should be in the drawing-room at the moment when they should enter. +The presence of strangers, it was thought, would make it easier for +James at the meeting where all were kinsfolk except himself. With +their usual consideration The Family decided that the rest of their +large number should afterwards drop in casually, two by two, and be +introduced to the new brother-in-law without ceremony. Mrs. Jamieson, +who had not left the house that day, nor for many days previously, +having been absorbed in preparations for the expected guest, was +dressed in a bonnet and her favourite jacket with the storm-collar, +which, as she explained to my sister, took away from the roundness of +her face and gave her confidence. + +Her habitual shyness, added to her fears of the unknown in the shape of +the future son-in-law, had wrought her into a sort of rigid state in +which conversation seemed impossible, and although we did our best to +divert her attention I am doubtful if she heard a word we said. + +"They should be here soon," I remarked presently. + +Mrs. Jamieson, following some line of thought of her own, remarked that +the first marriage in a family was almost like a death; and to this +mournful analogy I gave assent. + +"Kate says he is quite a gentleman," hazarded Mrs. Jamieson, still +rigid, and now white with anxiety and shyness. + +I found myself replying, without overdone brilliance, that that seemed +a good thing. + +The sands of Mrs. Jamieson's courage were running very low. "I hope he +is not one of your grandees," she said apprehensively; "I would not +like to think of Kate not being up to him. But their father was a +gentleman--the most perfect gentleman I ever knew, and I have always +that to think of. Still, a gentlemanly man is all I want for any of my +girls, with no difference between the two families." + +Sometimes in this way Mrs. Jamieson gives one an unexpected insight +into the difficulties of her life, and one feels that even her +admiration for her daughters may be tinged with a slight feeling of +being their inferior. I have heard her say, making use of a French +expression such as she hazards so courageously, that there is something +of the "_grawn dam_ about Maud;" and perhaps the loyal admiration thus +expressed may have been mingled with another sensation not so +pleasurable to the farmer's daughter. + +I endeavoured to follow the intricacies of her train of thought, but +the station omnibus had stopped at the gate, and the moment of supreme +excitement had arrived. + +Kate entered first. This was probably the crowning moment of her life. +She came in with a little air of assurance that already suggested the +married woman, and having kissed her mother she said in a proprietary +sort of way: "This is Mr. Ward, mamma." + +Mr. Ward had a curious way of walking on his toes; he came into the +room as though tip-toeing across some muddy crossing on a wet day, and +shook hands with a degree of nervousness that made even Mrs. Jamieson +appear bold. One can hardly be surprised at Kate for having mentioned +that he has a conical-shaped head, for it is of the most strange +pear-shape, and the sparse hair hangs from a ridge behind like a +fringe. He sat down and locked his knees firmly together, with his +clasped hands tightly wedged between them, while Kate made inquiries +about the rest of the family, and I plunged heavily into remarks about +the weather and the state of the roads. It was a great relief when two +of the sisters entered, in their best silk blouses, even although they +repeated exactly what I had said a moment before about the weather and +the mud. Five minutes later, according to preconceived arrangement, +two other sisters came in and were kissed by Kate, and introduced by +her to James. We had unconsciously taken up our position in two +straight lines facing James, and it is no exaggeration to say that by +this time shyness was causing great beads of perspiration to stand out +on poor James's pear-shaped head. "Surely they will spare him any more +introductions before supper," I thought; but the door had again opened, +and Mettie and the Pirate Boy entered, and some unhappy chance was +causing these last comers to comment upon the weather and the state of +the roads, and to extend the line of chairs now facing James. We began +to make feverish little remarks to each other, as though we were all +strangers, and Palestrina asked Eliza if she were fond of dancing. +George Jamieson, the eldest brother, was the last to enter the room, +and Kate said: "George, I am sure James would like to unpack before +supper;" and the unhappy James tip-toed out between the two lines of +chairs, with his eyes fixed upon the carpet. + +"_Well?_" said Kate. And as The Family was The Family of Jamieson, +that of course was a signal for each member of it to say the kindest +thing that could possibly be said for the new arrival. Margaret found +that he had kind eyes. And Eliza said: "Not intellectual, but a good +man." Eliza, it must be remarked in passing, is the intellectual +sister, with a passion for accurate information, and for looking up +facts in the "Encyclopedia Britannica." Maud found that even his +shyness was in his favour, and disliked men who made themselves at home +at once. Mettie remarked that marriage was a great risk. This is one +of poor little Mettie's platitudes, which she makes with faithful +regularity upon all occasions. The Pirate Boy preferred, perhaps, a +more robust development, and throwing out his own chest, he beat it +with a good deal of violence, and said he would like to put on the +gloves with Mr. Ward. Mrs. Jamieson could be got to say nothing but +"Poor fellow, poor fellow!" at intervals. But Gracie, the youngest +daughter, remarked that she was sure that they would all get to like +him immensely in time. + +Kate looked grateful, and spoke with her usual fine common sense. +"What I say is," she remarked, "that of course no one sees James's +faults more clearly than I do, but then I don't see why any of us +should expect perfection. We haven't much to offer: I am sure I have +neither looks, nor money, nor anything. And, after all, it's nice to +think of one of us getting married--and I was no bother about it," said +the independent Kate. "I mean, The Family had not to help, or chaperon +me, or ask James down to stay." + +The sisters assented to this in a very hearty, congratulatory sort of +way; and then, as the rain had ceased, I took my leave, but Palestrina +was persuaded to stay and have supper. Kennie offered, in a doughty +fashion, to see me home. The boy's kindness of heart constitutes him +my defender upon many occasions, and he always looks disappointed if I +do not take his arm. I do not think that the peaceful country road in +the waning twilight could be considered a dangerous one, even to a +cripple like myself; but Kennie, armed with a large stick and wearing a +curious felt hat turned up at one side, appeared a most truculent +defender, and regarded with suspicion all the pedestrians whom we met. +Did but a country cart pass us, Kennie made a movement to ward off the +danger of a collision with his arm. There is something in my helpless +condition which, quite unconsciously I believe, produces a very +valorous frame of mind in the Pirate, and he beguiled the whole of the +way home with stories of his own prowess, and of the hair-breadth +escapes which he had had. + +"I only once," he said, "had to take a human life in self-defence. +Curiously enough"--Kennie's voice deepened, and he spoke with the air +of a man who will spare a weak fellow-mortal all he can in the telling +of his tale, and he enunciated all his words with a measured calm which +was very impressive--"curiously enough, it was on the Thames +Embankment!" Kennie cleared his throat, and dropping the deep bass +voice of reminiscence, he began the history in a high-pitched tone of +narrative. "I was walking home alone one night from the City, when a +very strange, low fellow accosted me, and asked me for some money. The +man's destitute appearance appealed to me, and unfortunately I gave him +threepence. I suppose the action was about as dangerous a thing as I +could have done. It showed that I had money, and I was practically +defenceless while feeling in my pockets. The Embankment at that time +of the evening was almost deserted; I could see the shipping in the +river and the lights, and even passing cabs, but I was strangely alone, +and still the man followed me. At last, in desperation, I raised my +stick to drive him from me, and the next moment he had grappled with +me! Instantly my blood was up!" The Pirate Boy stood still in the +middle of the highroad, and went through a series of very forcible +pantomimic gestures, and with awful facial contortions, indicative of +violent exertion, he raised some imaginary object above his head and +flung it from him. "The next moment," said Kennie, "I heard a splash. +I had vanquished the man, and flung him far from me, straight from the +Thames Embankment into the river." + +I was prepared to make an exclamation, but was prevented by Kennie, who +said in a dramatic sort of way, "Wait!" and went on with his story. +"My instinct was to plunge after him, but I heard no sound, no cry, and +from that day to this that struggle by the water's edge remains as one +of the most vivid experiences of my life--in England, at least. But +the man's end remains a mystery: I can tell you nothing more of him." + +"I think I would have fished the poor wretch out," I said, and moved +onwards on our walk, our pause in the public highway having lasted a +considerable time. + +"One learns rough justice out there," said Kennie. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +Miss Taylor was really responsible for the formation of the Stowel +Reading Society, but Eliza Jamieson was her staunch supporter. Eliza +drew the line at poetry and metaphysics, "Neither of which," she said, +"I consider an exact science." + +Miss Taylor said: "But it is not a scientific course that I propose; it +is English literature in its fullest sense. I do think that Stowel is +getting behind the rest of the world in its knowledge of the best +literature, and I am sure that if a Reading Society were founded The +Uncle would be pleased to choose books and send them to us from London." + +To no one, perhaps, is the specializing definite article felt to be +more appropriate than to Sir John. It seems to distinguish him from +ordinary human beings; and it is felt to be indicative of a +considerable amount of good taste and good feeling on the part of the +Taylors to drop the General's title when conversing with their intimate +friends, and to refer to him merely as "The Uncle." When we call upon +the Taylors we always ask how The Uncle is. + +Eliza Jamieson became the Society's secretary and treasurer in one, and +she it was who in her neat hand transcribed the letter, which all had +helped to compose, to ask The Uncle what works in English literature it +would be advisable for the Reading Society to get. His reply was read +aloud at one of the first meetings, and each eulogized it in turn as +being "courtly," "gentlemanly," "manly," and "concise." It could not +but be felt, however, that as a guide to a choice of literature the +letter was disappointing:-- + + +"DEAR MADAM" (it ran), + +"I much regret that I am unable to help you in any way about your +books. I read very little myself, except the newspapers, though I +occasionally take a dip into one of my old favourites by Charles Lever. +I think a cookery-book is the most useful reading for a young lady, and +she would be best employed studying that, and not filling her head with +nonsense. This is the advice of a very old fellow, who remembers many +charming girls years ago who knew nothing about advanced culture...." + + +It was a distinct salve to the Society's feelings to note that the +letter was written on paper stamped with the address of a military +club, and instead of copying it, and making an entry of it in the +minutes of the Reading Society, it was pasted into the notebook, as it +was thought the autograph and the crest were "interesting." + +Since the foundation of the Reading Society there has followed a period +during which the young ladies of Stowel have written essays, and have +met in each other's drawing-rooms to read poetry aloud, to their own +individual satisfaction and to the torture of other ears. + +Mrs. Fielden did not join the Society, her plea being that poetry is +merely prose with the stops in the wrong places, and therefore very +fatiguing to read, and very obscure in its meaning. But Eliza has worn +us out with books of reference, and we have become so learned and so +full of culture that it is impossible to say where it will all end. My +own library has been ransacked for books--I think it is the fact of my +having a library that has made our house a sort of centre for the +Reading Society. We criticize freely all contemporary literature, and +base our preference for any book upon its "vigorous Saxon style." + +Eliza has written two reviews for the local newspaper, pointing out +some mistakes in grammar in one of the greatest novels of the day, and +this naturally makes us feel very proud of Eliza. Those of us who +plead for an easy flowing style consider that she has an almost +hypersensitive ear for errors in the use of the English accidence. A +split infinitive has heretofore hardly arrested our attention; now we +shudder at its use: while the misuse of the word to "aggravate," which +up to the present we believed in all simplicity to mean to "annoy," +causes the gravest offence when employed in the wrong sense. Books +from the circulating library have been known to be treated almost like +proof-sheets, and corrections are jotted down in pencil on the margin +of the leaves. Even the notes which ladies send to each other are +subject to revision at the hands of the recipient. Ordinary +conversation is now hardly known in Stowel, and tea-parties take the +form of discussions. The spring weather is so warm that I generally +have my long chair taken on to the lawn in the afternoons, and tea is +sometimes brought out there when the meetings of the Reading Society +are over. But tea, and even pound-cake, are thrown away upon young +ladies who partake of it absently, and to whom all things material and +mundane--these words are often used--must now be offered with a feeling +of apology. + +Major Jacobs rode over to see me this afternoon, and we had not long +enjoyed the repose of deckchairs and cigarettes under the medlar-tree, +and the songs of birds which have begun nesting very early this year, +and the quiet rumbling of heavy wagons that pass sometimes in the +highroad beyond the garden, when the Reading Society in a body joined +us from the house, and I heard my sister give directions for tea to be +brought out on to the lawn. The other day I heard Palestrina tell a +friend of hers that she nearly always contrived to have some one to +tea, or to sit with Hugo in the afternoon, and my sister's satisfaction +increases in direct proportion to the number of people who come. + +We had hardly finished tea when Frances Taylor said suddenly, yet with +the manner of one who has risen to make a speech on a platform, "Was +Coleridge a genius or a crank?" + +Eliza, assuming the deep frown of learning which is quite common +amongst us nowadays, was upon her in a moment, and said emphatically, +"How would you define a genius?" The Socratic habit of asking for a +definition is one that is always adopted during our discussions, and it +is generally demanded in the tone of voice in which one says "check" +when playing chess. Frances Taylor was quite ready for Eliza, and +said, "Genius, I think, is like some star----" + +"Analogy is not argument!" Eliza pounced upon her in the voice that +said, "I take your pawn." + +It will be noticed, I fear, that in Stowel we are not altogether +original in our arguments--many of them can be traced, alas! to the +"Encyclopædia Britannica," and they are not often the outcome of +original thought. + +Frances Taylor's king was once more in check, and she became a little +nervous and irritable. "I do not think we need go into definitions," +she said; but Eliza had gone indoors to "look it up." She returned +presently with a dictionary, walking across the lawn towards us with +its pages held close to her near-sighted eyes. "A genius," she began, +and then she glanced disparagingly at the title of the book, and said, +"according to Webster, that is--but I do not know if we ought to accept +him as a final authority--is explained as being 'a peculiar structure +of mind which is given by Nature to an individual which qualifies him +for a particular employment; a strength of mind, uncommon powers of +intellect, particularly the power of invention.' A crank," she went +on, "in its modern meaning, seems hardly to have been known to the +writer of this dictionary; the word is rendered literally, as meaning +'a bend or turn.'" + +"Then I submit," said Miss Taylor, "that Coleridge was a genius." + +Miss Tracey said in a very sprightly manner--she often astonished us by +showing a subtle turn of mind, and a graceful aptitude for epigram +which, it was believed, could only have found its proper field in those +salons which are now, alas! things of the past--"Let us write him down +a genius _and_ a crank! The two"--she advanced her daring view +bravely--"the two are often allied." She had a volume of Coleridge on +her bookshelves, and prided herself upon her appreciation--unusual in a +woman--of the "Ancient Mariner." + +"A genius in italics, and a crank followed by a mark of interrogation!" +said Eliza in a brilliant fashion; and Miss Taylor, not to be beaten in +a matter of intellect, said at once, "Did Bacon write Shakespeare's +plays?" + +Mrs. Gallup and Mr. Lee were quoted extensively. + +Miss Taylor could only suggest, with a good deal of quiet dignity, that +she could write to The Uncle and find out who is right. This of course +closes the controversy for the present. + +George Jamieson, who goes to town every day, gains advanced views from +the magazines which he reads during his dinner-hour in the City, and he +is a great assistance to the Reading Society. I contribute the use of +my library, and I have heard the members of the Reading Society say +that "women are the true leaders of the present movement, and already +their influence is being felt by the male mind." + +George brought with him the current number of the Nineteenth Century +when he came home last Friday, instead of Pearson's or the Strand, and +already there are whispers of a Magazine Club in Stowel. Miss Frances +Taylor received nothing but books on her last birthday, and Palestrina +told me a pathetic little story of how Gracie Jamieson went without a +pair of shoes to buy a copy of Browning. Perhaps the climax of culture +and learning was felt only to have been reached when Eliza introduced +the expression "Hypothesis of Purpose" into an ordinary conversation at +the conclusion of one of the meetings of the Reading Society. + +After this, as Palestrina remarked, it was quite refreshing to hear +that the curate's wife had got a new baby. It was born on Sunday, and +the anxious father spent his days bicycling wildly to and fro between +his own house and the church, hopelessly confusing his reading of the +service, and then flying back to inquire about his wife's health. Led +by him we prayed successively for fine weather and for rain, while the +Sunday-school teachers' meeting was announced for 2 a.m. on the +following Saturday, and the Coal Club notices were inextricably +confused with the banns of marriage. After each service the distracted +little man would leap on his bicycle again, and, scattering the +departing congregation with his bicycle bell, he was off down the hill +to his house. His perturbation was nothing compared with the confusion +at home, where, so far as I could make out, the bewildered household +did nothing but run up and down stairs, and madly offer each other cups +of tea. + +My sister's kind heart suggested that we should have Peggy, the eldest +child, to stay with us until her mother should be better. Is it +necessary to mention the fact that Palestrina is fat and very pretty, +and that she spoils me dreadfully? Do I want a book, I generally find +that Palestrina has written for it, almost before I had realized that +life was a wilderness without it. I have never known her out of +temper, nor anything else but placid and serene. And she has a low, +gurgling laugh, and a certain way of saying, "Oh, that will be very +nice!" to any proposal that one makes, which one must admit makes her a +very charming and a very easy person to live with. She is fond of +children, and she announced to Peggy with a beaming smile this morning +that she had a new little brother. + +Peggy went on quietly with her breakfast for some time without making +any remark; then she gave a little sigh, and said: "Mamma thought she +had enough children already, but I suppose God thought otherwise." + +Peggy has been in low spirits all day, and closely following some line +of reasoning of her own she has flatly refused to say her prayers at +bedtime. + + +Mrs. Fielden rode over to see us this morning, in her dark habit and +the neat boots which she loves to tap with her riding-crop. She came +into the dim hall like the embodiment of Spring or of Life, and sat +down in her oddly-shaped habit as though she were at home and in no +hurry to go off anywhere else. This gives a feeling of repose to a +sick man. One knew that she would probably stop to luncheon, and that +one would not have to say to her half a dozen times in the morning, +"Please don't go." + +Presently Margaret Jamieson, who had been doing the whole work of the +curate's household during the late trying time, came with the baby in +her arms to show him to Palestrina. Her manner had a charming air of +matronliness about it, and she threw back the fretted silk of the veil +that covered the face of the little creature in her arms with an air of +pride that was rather pretty to see. But Eliza, who had raced over to +our house in the usual Jamieson headlong fashion, to say something to +us on the subject of textual criticism, looked severely at the infant +through her glasses, and remarked that she had no sympathy whatever +with that sort of thing. Margaret hugged the baby closer to her, and +Mettie, who had pattered over to see us with her cousin Eliza, remarked +that children and their upbringing were doubtless among the great risks +of matrimony. + +"I am sure," said Eliza, "when one sees how happy Kate is with James, +it makes one feel that marriage is not so very great a risk after all." + +That there should be an element of sarcasm in this remark did not even +suggest itself to Eliza. + +"We should all be thankful," piped forth Mettie, who is always ready to +talk, "that it has turned out so well. Kate's courage and independence +of mind seem exactly suited to Mr. Ward. But that is what I think +about us all at Belmont; our characteristics are so different that any +gentleman coming amongst us might find something to attract him in one, +if not in the others. Margaret is our home-bird, and Eliza is so +cultured, and Kate----" + +The two Miss Jamiesons were looking very uncomfortable, and Margaret +said, "O Mettie, dear!" while Mrs. Fielden made an excuse for walking +over to the piano. There was a piece of music open upon it. "Do sing +it," she said to Palestrina. + + +THE GAY TOM-TIT. + + "A tom-tit lived in a tip-top tree, + And a mad little, bad little bird was he. + He'd bachelor tastes, but then--oh dear! + He'd a gay little way with the girls, I fear! + + "Now, a Jenny wren lived on a branch below, + And it's plain she was vain as ladies go, + For she pinched her waist and she rouged a bit. + With a sigh for the eye of that gay tom-tit. + She sighed, 'Oh my!' + She sighed, 'Ah me!' + While the tom-tit sat on his tip-top tree-tree-tree. + And she piped her eye + A bit-bit-bit + For the love of that gay tom-tit-tit-tit. + + "She saw that her rouge did not attract, + So she tried to decide how next to act: + She donned a stiff collar and fancy shirt, + And she wore, what is more, a divided skirt. + Then she bought cigarettes and a big latch-key, + And she said, 'He'll be bound to notice me!' + But she found her plan did not work one bit, + For he sneered, as I feared, did that gay tom-tit. + He sneered, 'Oh my!' + He sneered, 'Oh lor! + What on earth has she done that for-for-for?' + And he winked his eye + A bit-bit-bit, + That giddy and gay tom-tit-tit-tit. + + "'Alas! no more,' said the poor young wren, + 'Will I ape the shape of heartless men!' + So she flung cigarettes and big latch-key + With a flop from the top of the great green tree. + And she wouldn't use rouge or pinch her waist, + But she dressed to the best of a simple taste; + Then she learned to cook and sew and knit-- + 'What a pearl of a girl!' said the gay tom-tit. + Said he, 'Good day!' + Said she, 'How do?' + They were very soon friends, these two-two-two. + And I'm bound to say + In a bit-bit-bit + She married that gay tom-tit-tit-tit." + + +Thus sang Palestrina. + +"Ethically considered, my dear Palestrina," said Eliza, "that song is +distinctly unmoral." + +"Don't let us consider it ethically," said Palestrina tranquilly; and +she went over and sat in the corner of the sofa with several pillows at +her back. + +"Ethically considered," repeated Eliza, "that song, if one pursues its +teaching to a logical conclusion, can only mean that all female social +development is impossible, and that the whole reason for a woman's +existence is that she may gratify man." + +"They are really not worth it," murmured Mrs. Fielden, who was in a +frivolous mood. + +"And mark you," said Eliza, in quite the best of the Reading Society +manner: "it does not suggest that that gratification may be inspired +either by our beauty or by our intellect; indeed, it proves that such +powers are worthless to inspire it. It postulates the +hypothesis"--Eliza is really splendid--"that man is a brute whose +appreciation can only be secured by ministering to his desire for food +and suitable clothing, and that woman's whole business is to render +this creature complacent." + +"Don't you think things are much pleasanter when people _are_ +complacent?" said my sister easily. + +Eliza fixed her with strong, dark eyes. "Were I describing you in a +book," she said--one feels as though Eliza will write a book, probably +a clever one, some day--"I should describe you as a typical woman, and +therefore a pudding. A dear, tepid pudding, with a pink sauce over it. +Very sweet, no doubt, but squashy--decidedly squashy. Some day," said +Eliza triumphantly, "you will be squashed into mere pulp, and you will +not like that." + +This did not seem to be a likely end for Palestrina. Eliza continued: +"Who will deny that men are selfish?" + +"But they are also useful," said Mrs. Fielden in an ingenuous way. +"They open doors for one, don't you know, and give one the front row +when there is anything to be seen, even when one wears a big hat; and +they see one into one's carriage--oh! and lots of other useful little +things of that sort." + +"Admitted," said Eliza, "that women have certain privileges--have they +any Rights?" + +Mrs. Fielden admitted that they had not. "But," she said, "I don't +really think that that is important. The men whom one knows are always +nice to one, and I don't think it matters much what the others are." + +"Rank individualism," said Eliza. And she said it without a moment's +hesitation, which gave us a very high opinion indeed of her powers of +speech. "It is the fashion to say that each woman has only one man to +manage, and she must be a very stupid woman if she cannot manage him; +but there are thousands of women who, being weaker morally and +physically than their particular man, can do nothing with him, and it +is not fair to leave their wrongs unredressed because you are +comfortable and happy." + +"Still, you know," said Mrs. Fielden thoughtfully, "one cannot help +wishing that they could get what they want without involving us in the +question. You see, if they got their rights we should probably get +ours too, and then I'm afraid we should lose our privileges." + +"You are like the man," said I, "who could do quite well without the +necessaries of life, but he could not do without its luxuries." + +"What a nice man it must have been who said that!" exclaimed Mrs. +Fielden. "It would be quite easy to do without meat on one's table, +but it would be impossible to dine without flowers and dessert." + +It must be admitted that Eliza had the last word in the argument after +all. + +"Just so," she said; "and all life shows just this--that a woman has, +with her usual perverseness, chosen a diet of flowers and dessert with +intervals of starvation, instead of wholesome meat and pudding." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +"We shall have to ask the engaged couple to dinner," I said to +Palestrina one morning a few days later. "And I suppose one or two +more of the rest of The Family would like to be asked at the same time." + +"I never know in what quantities one ought to ask the Jamiesons," said +my sister, "nor how to make a proper selection. It seems invidious to +suggest that Kate and Eliza and Margaret should come, and not Maud and +Gracie; and yet what is one to do? The last time that you were away +from home I wrote and said, 'Will a few of you come?' And Mrs. +Jamieson, the Pirate Boy, and four sisters came." + +"One feels sure," I replied, "that the Jamiesons thought that was quite +a modest number to take advantage of your invitation. One knows that +had they been inviting some girls from a boarding-school they would +have included the entire number of pupils." + +Palestrina protested that as the meal to which our friends were to come +was dinner, it would be only reasonable to invite the same number of +ladies and gentlemen; and to this I assented. She suggested asking the +Darcey-Jacobs, whom we had not seen for a long time. + +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is a woman who always affords one considerable +inward amusement, being herself, I believe, more conspicuously devoid +of humour than any one else I have ever met. Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs has +never been known to see a joke. That she herself should appear to any +one in a humorous light would, I know, appear an inconceivable +contingency to her. She has a high Roman nose, and rather faded yellow +hair, which was her principal claim to beauty when a girl. It is even +now thick and long, and is always worn in a sort of majestic coronet on +the top of her head. Her manner is somewhat formidable and emphatic, +and the alarm which this engenders in timid or diffident persons is +increased by the habit she has of accentuating many of her remarks by a +playful but really somewhat severe rap over the knuckles of the person +she is addressing, with her fan or lorgnettes. She dresses handsomely +in expensive materials somewhat gaudy in colour, and she has an erect +carriage, of which she is very proud. Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs has a good +deal to say on the subject of the feeble-mindedness of the male sex, +and when something has been proved impossible of attainment by them she +always says, "A woman could have done it in five minutes." + +At the time of her marriage, Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs (Miss Foljambe she was +then) was a dowerless girl with two admirers, Major Jacobs and Mr. +Morgan. Not being, it would seem, a young lady of very deep +affections, her choice of a husband was decided entirely by the extent +of the worldly prospects he could offer, and the Major, being the +better match of the two, was accepted. But how cruel are the tricks +that fate will sometimes play! Not long after her marriage Mr. Morgan +not only inherited a large fortune, but shortly afterwards left this +world for a better, and Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is in the habit of +remarking, with a good deal of feeling, "If I had only chosen the other +I might have been a happy widow now!" + +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs lives in our quiet country neighbourhood during the +greater part of the year, on the distinct understanding that she +loathes every hour of it. When she goes abroad or to London she talks +quite cheerfully of having had one breath of life. So fraught with +happy successes are these pilgrimages in her brocaded satin gowns into +the outer world that she often says that were she but free she might +have the world at her feet to-morrow. And she has been known to refer +to the Major, still in the tone of cheerful resignation and with her +emphasizing tap of the fan, as "a dead weight round her neck." + +The Major himself is a guileless person, whose very simplicity causes +his wife more exquisite suffering than even a husband of keen, +vindictive temper could inflict. + +Does Mrs. Jacobs give a dinner-party, it is not unusual for the master +of the house to remark in a congratulatory tone from his end of the +table, "What has Mullens been doing to the silver, my dear? it looks +unusually bright;" while his greeting to his friends as they arrive at +his house, though distinctly cordial, often takes the form of a hearty +"I had no idea that we were going to see you to-night." As Mrs. +Darcey-Jacobs always sends some kind message from the Major in her +notes of invitation, this of course is most disconcerting, both for her +and for her guests. This year when they were in Italy a friend of ours +in the same hotel overheard a lady ask the Major if he were related to +the Darceys of Mugthorpe. "I really can't tell you," said the Major; +"the Darcey was my wife's idea." + +"Four Jamiesons," I said, "and the Darcey-Jacobs, and our two selves. +Isn't it humiliating to think that we have invariably to invite the +same two men to balance our numbers at a dinner-party? I can't help +remarking that Anthony Crawshay and Ellicomb are present at every +dinner-party in this neighbourhood, as surely as soup is on the table." + +"We might ask Mrs. Fielden," said Palestrina; "she is sure to have some +colonels with her. Besides, I love Mrs. Fielden, though people say she +is a flirt. I think most men are in love with her; some propose to +her, and some do not, but they all love her." + +"Even when she refuses to marry them?" + +"I have heard Mrs. Fielden say that an offer of marriage should be +refused artistically," said Palestrina. "She says young girls hardly +ever do it properly, and that they are brusque and brutal. I suppose +she herself has some charming way of her own of refusing men which does +not hurt their feelings. I believe," said Palestrina, "that she would +marry Sir Anthony Crawshay if he could play Bridge." + +"Anthony is an excellent fellow," I said. + +Mr. Ellicomb is a young man of High Church principles and artistic +tastes who has taken an old Tudor farmhouse in the neighbourhood, and +has furnished it very well. He waxes eloquent on the monstrous +inelegance of modern dress, and the decadence of Japanese art, and he +says he would rather sit in the dark than burn gas in his house, and he +dusts his own blue china himself. In his house it is a sign of art to +divert anything from its proper use, and to use it for another purpose +than that for which it was originally intended. Poor Ellicomb uses a +cabbage-strainer as a fern-pot, a drain-tile for an umbrella-stand, his +mother's old lace veils as antimacassars, bed-posts as palm-stands, a +linen press as a book-case, and a brass spittoon for growing lilies. +It is almost like playing at guessing riddles to go over his house with +him, and to try and discover for what purpose some of his things were +originally created. Their conversion to another use is, I am sure, a +very high form of art. + +"There are the Jamiesons," said my sister, as we sat in the hall ready +to receive our guests. + +It does not require any occult power to sit indoors and to be able to +distinguish the Jamiesons' carriage-wheels from those of the other +arrivals, for the Jamiesons have, as usual, employed the "six-fifty" +bus on its return journey from the station to set them down at our +gate. It is quite a subject of interest with our neighbours to find +themselves fellow-passengers with the young ladies, in their black +skirts and their more dressy style of bodice concealed beneath tweed +capes. And it generally gets about in Stowel circles before the +evening is over, or certainly soon after the morning shopping has +begun, that the Miss Jamiesons have been dining at such or such a +house. Even the bus conductor has a sympathetic way of handing the +young ladies into his conveyance when they are going out to dinner, and +he fetches a wisp of straw and wipes down the step if the night is wet. + +Mr. Ward piloted the independent Kate up the short carriage-drive with +quite an affectionate air of solicitude, frequently inquiring of her if +she did not feel her feet a little damp; and Kate answered cheerfully +and kindly, feeling, no doubt, that this sort of fussing was one of the +drawbacks of prospective matrimony, but that it was only right to +accept the little attentions in the spirit in which they were made. +The Pirate Boy, who followed with his sister Maud, begged her to take +his arm in a burly fashion, and fell a little distance behind. The +Pirate Boy thinks that it is etiquette to place himself at a distance +from any engaged couple, even during the shortest walk. He does so +even when he makes the untoward third in a party. On these occasions +he falls behind and puts on an air of abstraction a little overdone. +The Jacobs arrived next, and then Anthony Crawshay, who drove over in +his high dog-cart, with its flashing lamps and glittering wheels--a +very good light-running cart it is; Anthony and I used often to drive +in it together--and Ellicomb arrived in a brougham, in which we have a +shrewd suspicion that there is a foot-warmer. + +Maud began to flirt with Mr. Ellicomb directly. I have never known her +to be for long in the society of a gentleman without doing so, and her +sisters are wont to say of Maud that she certainly has her +opportunities, while the criticism of an unprejudiced observer might be +that she certainly makes them. Mr. Ellicomb, it is believed, has +written an article in one of the magazines on the reformation of men's +clothing, and it is hoped he will become a member of the Reading +Society. He ate very little at dinner, and talked in a low, cultured +voice about Church matters the whole of the evening, and uttered some +very decided views upon the subject of the celibacy of the clergy. + +"I must say," said Major Jacobs, "that I also approve of celibacy in +the Church, and I may say in the army and in the navy. If I had my +life to live over again----" + +"William!" said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs in an awful voice. + +William was about to retreat precipitately from his position, but +catching sight perhaps of a sympathetic eye turned upon him from that +good comrade of his, Anthony Crawshay, he blundered on,-- + +"If Confession, now, became more general in the English Church," he +said, "secrets confided to the clergy could hardly be kept inviolate. +A clergyman's wife might almost--well, not to put too fine a point on +it--wring from him by force the secret that had been committed to him." + +"I hope so, indeed," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs. + +"The Anglican Church," said Mr. Ellicomb, "recognizes that difficulty, +and has met it in the persons of the Fathers of the Church." + +Maud Jamieson raised soft eyes to his, and said that a woman might be a +help and a comfort to a man. + +Mr. Ellicomb seemed disposed to admit that it might be so. "I have +been in retreat at Cowley for some weeks," he said, "and the cooking +was certainly monstrous, and, would you believe it, they did not allow +one to bring one's own servant with one." There is nothing monkish +about Ellicomb, nor is his asceticism overdone. + +"I have been reading a book on sects and heresies," said Mrs. Fielden, +"and I find I belong to them all." + +Mr. Ellicomb interposed eagerly by saying, "If I had to state my own +convictions exactly, I should certainly say that I was a Manichæan, +with just a touch of Sabellianism." + +"I think," said Mrs. Fielden gravely, "that I am a Rosicrucian heretic." + +Mr. Ellicomb was interested and delighted. "I know," he said, "that +many people would think that I had not exactly stated my position. For +instance, a lady to whom I described my symptoms the other day, told me +at once that I was a Buddhist by nature and an Antinomian by education, +and I felt that in part she was right." + +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs here interposed, and gave it as her opinion +emphatically that man was a contemptible creature whatever his beliefs +might be, and that he required a woman to look after him. "To look +after him," she repeated, in a tone that said as plainly as possible, +"to keep him in order," and she tapped Mr. Ellicomb sharply on the +knuckles. + +The Pirate Boy had some brave notions about what he called The Sex, and +here plunged into a long description of how he had rescued a fair +creature out of the hands of cut-throats out there, and he illustrated +his action of saving the fair one by holding an imaginary six-shooter +to Palestrina's head in a very alarming way. He talked of man as The +Protector, and thrust his hand into his cummerbund--the action, I +suppose, being intended to show that the six-shooter had been +replaced--and glanced round the table with an air of defiance. "There +is not a man," he remarked, "I don't care who he is, if he fail in +respect to a woman when I am present, that shall not get a decanter +hurled straight at his head--straight at his head. I have said it!" +He laid his hand impetuously upon one of two heavy cut-glass bottles +that had been placed in front of me, and one trembled for the safety of +one's guests. "I remember," he said, "in one of those gambling-hells +in the Far West, where there was about as unruly a set of fellows and +cut-throats as ever I came across----" The rest of the story was so +evidently culled from the last number of the _Strand Magazine_ that it +hardly seemed rude of Palestrina to interrupt it by bowing to Mrs. +Fielden, and suggesting that they should adjourn. Maud Jamieson drew +my sister aside as they stood grouped round the fire-place in the hall +drinking their coffee, and thanked her for introducing Mr. Ellicomb to +her. "He is perfectly charming," she said. But Maud's sisters have +confided to us that this is her invariable conclusion about the last +man she has met, and it is intended as a sort of previndication of +herself. Maud, it seems, intends to flirt with every one she sees, but +if she pretends that her affections are really touched there can be no +upbraidings on the part of The Family. + +Kate Jamieson sat on the sofa, and twisted her engagement ring +complacently round her finger. She thought that Mr. Ward had carried +himself very well this evening. His quietness throughout the dinner +compared favourably with the conversation of other guests. Kate said +once to Palestrina: "He is a man that I shall feel the utmost +confidence in taking about with me everywhere." And the remark +conveyed the suggestion that Mr. Ward would always be an appendage to +Kate Jamieson. + +Anthony Crawshay is a very good fellow indeed. The most advanced and +cultured young lady will never get him to talk about metaphysics in the +crush of a ballroom, nor to concern himself about the inartistic shape +of the clothes we wear nowadays. "If I didn't like them, I shouldn't +wear them," says Anthony. He is a short, spare man, with a voice +somewhat out of proportion to his size, and the best cross-country +rider in the county. The habit he has of shouting all his remarks +seems rather pleasantly in accordance with his honest nature. Anthony +very seldom speaks of any one of whom he has not a good word to say; +but if he does mention any one whom he dislikes, he does so in a very +hearty manner, which is almost as good as many other people's praise. +He is as obstinate, as straightforward, and as good a fellow as a +country neighbour ought to be. "We have been hunting a May fox, by +Gad, Hugo," said Anthony, and he began to tell me about the run--a +thing I can hardly get any one to do nowadays. + +The Pirate Boy, upon whom the word "horse" had a rousing effect, +condemned the whole breed of English horses in one short speech. "I +assure you," he said, getting up and sawing the air with his hand, +"there are some of those wild mustangs out there which would knock +spots out of any horses in your stables." + +Thus challenged, Anthony, who was standing on the hearthrug, turned, +and stooping towards me asked, in what he intended to be a whisper, who +the young fellow was, and shouted abroad, "Rum chap that, very rum +chap!" + +By-and-by Maud Jamieson went to the piano and began to sing ballads to +Mr. Ellicomb; and we have an inward conviction--Palestrina and I--that +this evening's report to the Jamieson family will be that Mr. Ellicomb +is "struck." Major Jacobs considers himself musical because he likes +hearing the words of a song distinctly pronounced. He was charmed with +Maud's singing, and Kate encouraged the girl in a little matronly way +which she has lately assumed. She called forth Maud's best efforts by +saying, "What was the pretty Irish song you sang the other night?" or +"You haven't given us 'We'd better bide a wee' yet, dear." Maud +responded with several ballads, and wished she had some of Lord Henry +Somerset's songs with her, Mr. Ellicomb having expressed a fondness for +them. An opportunity was thus given for suggesting a call at +Belmont--Maud knows mamma will be delighted--she wished Kennie were +better at that sort of thing; the invitation to come in some afternoon +might perhaps have come more properly from a brother. + +It was very gratifying to find that Mr. Ward, fortified by dinner, +became more courageous than I have ever known him to be before. He +tip-toed almost boldly across the room, and sitting down beside my +sister began to make a series of deliberate remarks to her, mostly in +the form of interrogation: "Do you care for Scotch songs?" "Have you +ever been in Ireland?" "Do you know Wales at all?" And to these +important questions Palestrina made suitable replies. "That is _most_ +interesting," I heard her say from time to time, using the formula of +those who are bored to the extent of complete absence of mind. + +Mrs. Fielden crossed the room suddenly with a shimmer of silken skirts. +In spite of her frivolity she has a way of making herself necessary to +every party to which she goes. There used to be an old saying long ago +in Scotland that wherever The Macgregor sat was the head of the table. +Mrs. Fielden is always the centre of every party, although she has a +childish habit, which in another woman might be ascribed to shyness, of +taking the least conspicuous seat in the room. Consequently, when she +dispersed the little group that was standing or sitting about her, +applauding everything she said, and came across the room in pink satin +and roses and diamonds, and sat down beside my sofa, the action had +something regal about it, as though she had left a throne and come to +speak to me. + +"I am going to teach you to play Bridge," she said. + +"That is most kind of you." + +"I am going to carry you off to Stanby next week to give you lessons," +she went on. + +I have a strong conviction that if Mrs. Fielden were to give a beggar a +halfpenny he would probably stoop down and kiss the edge of her skirt, +or do something equally unconventional and self-abasing. She might, as +a great favour, give a courtier who had risked his life for her, her +hand to kiss. When she smiles men become foolish about her. + +"It is very kind of you to want us," I said. + +"I want Bridge," said Mrs. Fielden, and, as usual when she is going to +be provoking, she looked prettier than ever, and began to smile. + +"Any one will do to make up a rubber, I suppose?" I said. + +"Oh yes, any one," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"Consequently, my sister and I need not feel particularly distinguished +by being asked," I continued. + +"I am so glad Palestrina is coming," said Mrs. Fielden, "because +several men have written to tell me they are coming to stay, just when +my sisters-in-law are leaving, and I suppose I oughtn't to entertain a +houseful of men alone, ought I?" + +Mrs. Fielden does exactly as she pleases upon all occasions, but this +does not prevent her from pretending to have acute attacks of propriety +sometimes. + +"We will play Bridge and chaperon you with pleasure," I said. + +"I thought of drowning myself yesterday," said Mrs. Fielden, "because +it rained all day, and I had no one to amuse me, and then I thought I +would ask you to come over and play Bridge instead. When I am bored I +never can make up my mind whether I shall commit suicide, or go into a +convent, or get married. Which do you advise?" + +"I should advise you to marry," I said. "As far as I can gather, a +great source of discord and danger in our neighbourhood would be +removed if you did so." + +Mrs. Fielden said with her eyes, "Hugo, you are very cross." But being +the most good-natured woman in the world, and sharing that forbearance +which most people extend to an invalid, she smiled instead. + +"Why do you stay here when you are feeling so tired?" she said to me +presently. + +"Because," I replied, "my sister lies awake half the night and thinks I +am going to die, if I show any signs of fatigue, or go to bed early. +Besides, for us, you know, this is quite an exciting evening. We have +thought about our dinner-party for days past." + +"If you were nice," said Mrs. Fielden after a pause, "you would ask me +to come into your library and smoke." + +"Do you smoke?" + +"No," said Mrs. Fielden, "I don't." + +"I'm glad you don't," I said. + +"For years," said Mrs. Fielden, "I tried to think it was wrong, and +then I quite enjoyed smoking; but there is a certain effort involved in +trying to raise an innocent occupation to the level of a crime." + +"It is a very unfeminine habit," I said; partly because I was in a +contradictious mood, and partly because I wanted to snub Mrs. Fielden +for being so beautiful and young and charming. + +"The last man," said Mrs. Fielden gravely, "who made that remark died +shortly afterwards." + +She was gathering up my cushions and pillows as she spoke, and she +turned to my sister as she crossed the hall, and said, "We are going to +study philosophy in the library." + +The library was lit by a single lamp, and the fire burned low in the +grate; but the room was illumined suddenly by a pink dress and roses +and diamonds, and Mrs. Fielden was arranging cushions, in the very +skilful way she has, on my sofa by the fire. She handed me my +cigarette-box and matches, and spread a rug over my leg. For some +occult reason the rustling pink dress only whispered softly over the +carpet now, like a woman's hushed voice in a sick-room, and Mrs. +Fielden, by the simple act of drawing up a chair to the fire and +sitting in it, took the head of the table again, and became the centre +of the room. + +"May I really smoke," I asked, "after being such a brute as to say you +mustn't?" + +"I look upon smoking as a purely feminine habit, like drinking tea, or +having headaches, or anything of that sort," said Mrs. Fielden. "It +was simply because it was so expensive that men took to it in the first +place. Ethics should not be based upon accident, should it?" + +I handed Mrs. Fielden my cigarette-box. + +"If you are quite sure you disapprove, I will have one," she said. + +From the hall came the sound of Maud's singing. Her voice is not of +great compass, nor very strong, but it is clear and fresh, with a +tuneful cadence in it. + +"You spend nearly all your days here?" said Mrs. Fielden, looking round +the room. + +"Until the afternoon," I said; "and then Palestrina and I go for a +little walk, and at tea-time I go to the hall sofa, and she asks people +to come up and sit with me." + +"I am glad you like books," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"But really," I said, "the good folks in Stowel are all extraordinarily +kind to me, and some of the Jamiesons are up nearly every day." + +"I like the Jamiesons," said Mrs. Fielden; "they are so intelligent. +Have you ever noticed that their watches all keep exact time, and that +they tell you the hour to the very second? And they always know what +day of the month it is, and when Easter falls, and how much stuff it +takes to make a blouse." + +"You wrong Eliza Jamieson," I said; "she studies philosophy." + +"Oh," said Mrs. Fielden eagerly, "I forgot to tell you, I have begun to +study philosophy. I began last week. Will you lend me some books, +please? I want to be very wise and learned." + +"Why?" I asked. + +"I think," said Mrs. Fielden, "that it might be nice if people did not +always call one frivolous; and that if I studied philosophy----" + +"I shall not lend you any books," I said. + +"That is rather disobliging of you." + +"Because," I said, "our lives should always show a perfect equation. +If you are a frivolous person you should behave frivolously." + +"You mean _as_ I am a frivolous person," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"As you are a frivolous person," I repeated. + +"And after all," said Mrs. Fielden with a contemplative air, "how silly +philosophy is! I asked somebody the other day the meaning of a +syllogism, and really I don't think I ever heard anything quite so +foolish." + +"It is quite beneath your notice," I said. + +"I did think of asking you if I might come over sometimes and read +these musty volumes of yours." + +"You would probably find them as uninteresting as I am," I said. + +Mrs. Fielden looked as if she thought that might be possible, and did +not press the matter. + +I dislike being disloyal to my books, for they are such good friends of +mine. But a great wish came to me then to get up and do something, +instead of for ever reading the doings and the thoughts of other +people. I thought how much I should like to live again, and just for +once sleep on the veldt with the stars overhead, or longed that I could +get astride of a horse, and follow a burst of the hounds over the wet +fields in England. And so thinking I turned on the sofa and said +petulantly, "I wish Maud Jamieson would not sing that song." + +"Oh, that we two were maying," she sang, in the song that tells of love +and separation, and the longings and heartbreaks which it is much +better not to speak about, and the things which we want and cannot have. + +"I hate yearners," I said. "Why can't she sing something cheerful?" + +Mrs. Fielden rose from her chair by the fire and crossed the hearthrug, +and came and sat down on my sofa. She took my hand in hers and said: +"Poor boy! is it very hard sometimes?" + + +"Of course," said Palestrina, as we went upstairs to bed after our +guests had departed, "you are sure to feel tired. The little party has +been too much for you, I'm afraid. It was very tiresome for you having +to leave us all." + +"I felt rather a crock after dinner," I said, "and I think the hall +gets hot in the evening." + +"I wish I could make you better," said Palestrina affectionately; "it +is horrid for you being ill." + +"Every one," I said, "makes far too much fuss about health. Why, ten +officers of our regiment are buried in South Africa. I suppose half +the pensioners in Chelsea Hospital have had wounds as bad as mine, and +a cripple more or less in the world does not matter very much. Women +are kind enough to pity me. They even confide their troubles to me +sometimes, because I am a poor thing lying on a sofa. I am really +quite happy hobbling about with you, Palestrina; and when I am older, I +shall probably take an interest in the garden. There is a proper and +philosophical attitude of mind in respect of these things." + +"O Hugo," said Palestrina, "I always know you are not happy when you +begin to be philosophical." + +"Life is very easily explained without the assistance of philosophy +when everything goes all right," I replied. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Have I ever mentioned that Palestrina is engaged to be married? If I +have not done so, it is because it seems an obvious fact that all +Palestrinas are engaged to be married. Her _fiancé_, who is called +Thomas, is stationed with his regiment in Ireland. A few weeks ago he +sent her, as a token of his affection, a yellow dog with long hair. +Palestrina does not like dogs, but she is trying to love Down-Jock for +Thomas's sake. She says his name is Jock. The dog is a curious +creature, with a passion for hurling himself at those who wear clean +flannel trousers or light skirts. Thomas says he is full of +intelligence. He appears to be quite a young animal, but he can affect +the airs of extreme old age, sleeping in a basket a great part of the +day, or standing on the doorstep to bark at visitors in an asthmatical +manner, as though he would say, "I am too old and too feeble to give +chase, but while I am alive this house shall not lack a defender." At +other times he is wildly juvenile, and rolls himself over and over in +an exuberance of youthful fun. This is chiefly on Sundays, when (his +best joke) he pretends he wants to come to church with us. Sunday is +Down-Jock's happiest day in all the week. No Christian in the land +loves it more than he does. He begins his religious exercises early in +the morning by barking outside the doors of all those people who have +determined to take an extra half-hour's rest, and he continues barking +without ceasing until the sleeper awakes and gets out of bed to open +the door for him. He bustles in and wags his tail cheerfully, saying +as plainly as a dog can say it, "I am an early riser, you see--and a +teetotaler," he adds, trotting across the room to the water-jug, and +lapping full red tonguefuls of its contents. Then he stands in the +middle of the room and barks at you; runs to the door and barks at it; +barks at the servants as they go downstairs, promising--the little +tell-tale!--that their lateness shall be reported in the proper +quarter. Finally, he climbs on to the bed, and goes to sleep upon your +feet. + +During breakfast he is attentive to every one, and sits on the skirts +of those ladies who most dislike dogs, and pulls them down +uncomfortably from the waist. He watches every mouthful of food that +is eaten, and grudges it to the eater; and his eyes are saying all the +time, "How can you be so greedy?" After breakfast his most boisterous +juvenile mood begins. He jumps on every one, or rolls himself over and +over under every one's feet. He wags his tail, barks in a piercing +manner--the bark of the gay young dog--and madly rushes after imaginary +rats. All gloves and shoes become his playthings, and he frolics +blithely with the hat-brush. + +On weekdays he pleads old age as an excuse, and refuses to come +anywhere with us; but on the Sabbath morning who so ready as Down-Jock +to take his walks abroad? He flies after us to the gate, his long hair +streaming in the wind, and his short legs racing like a clockwork dog. + +Palestrina says: "Oh dear, what shall we do? Down-Jock! down, sir! +Oh, he has spoilt my dress! Good doggie, mustn't go to church! Go +home! go home! Oh, Jock, do get down!--Look, he is following us still, +and the church door is always open; he is sure to come in in the middle +of the service, and trot up to us in our pew. Do you think Thomas +would mind if I were to look as if he didn't belong to us?" + +Jock flies back with an old bone in his mouth and deposits it at +Palestrina's feet, dares her to touch it, and makes flying snatches at +her shoes when she kicks the treasure aside. + +"I must take him back," says Palestrina. "It will make me late of +course, but I must go and shut him up." + +"He won't follow you," I say. "He is quite determined to go to church." + +Palestrina lifts the heavy beast in her arms, and in an exuberance of +joy Down-Jock makes a doormat of her dress, and rubs his paws +affectionately against it and licks her hand. + +Of course he escapes presently and runs after us; that is his best and +most killing joke. Inwardly one feels he is in a state of +hardly-suppressed laughter as he tears down the road again, barking +with glee. And then he gets a sober fit, walks demurely in front of us +in the narrow field-path, changes his mind suddenly about going to +church, stops dead short, and trips us up; thinks after all he ought to +go to the morning service as an example to the servants; toddles on +again, and stops to say (with the air of extreme old age again assumed) +that, after all, he is not up to the exertion, and would have to sit +down at the Psalms, so perhaps it really would be better to stay +quietly at home. Another stop. A rapid toilet performed by scratching +his head with his hind-leg, "just in case I meet any one coming out of +church whom I know;" and then Down-Jock meets a boy friend strolling +off to the fields, and running up to him, says: "One must conform to +conventionalities, but between you and me I never had the remotest +intention of going to church." + +Down-Jock, in his moments of most restless activity, always reminds me +of a servant of ours who has occasional fits of the most intense +energy. It begins quite early in the morning, when she gets up some +hours before her usual time, and gives a sort of surprise party to the +rest of the household. These parties take place two or three times a +year, and we do not get over them for weeks afterwards. Every room in +the house is visited in turn, and delinquencies of a twelvemonth are +laid bare. During the morning cupboards are turned out in a +magisterial sort of way, and dusty corners are triumphantly displayed. +The most cherished rubbish is freely consigned to the waste-paper +baskets, and collections of all sorts are contemptuously swept away. +We hastily gather up books and precious oddments, and hurry off with +them to my den, where we take refuge till the whirlwind is past. +Curtains and tablecloths are shaken with a sort of vindictive energy at +the back-door; all windows are flung open, and rugs are rolled up, +making a sort of obstacle race in every passage and room. Down-Jock, +who never recognizes a superior in any one, is the only member of the +party who is not rendered an abject coward. He unrolls rugs, and runs +away with dusters, and snaps at the heels of the housemaid in a way +that provokes one's wonder at his temerity. My sister and I, having +locked away our most cherished possessions, generally contrive to be +out of the house as much as possible on one of these tempestuous days. +And following the line of reasoning, not of the highest order, which +suggests that if one cannot be happy one had better try and be good, +Palestrina always visits her old women at the workhouse on these days. + +"I wish," she said to me, "that you would walk into the village and +meet me on my way home. I don't think anybody is coming up to see you +this afternoon, and the house is so uncomfortable when Janet is in one +of her whirlwind moods. Come as far as the corner, and go in and sit +down at old Pettifer's if you get tired." + +"Shadrach Pettifer tells me," I said, "that his affection for you is +based on the fact that you are so like his poor old mother. Perhaps +while I am waiting at his cottage he may give me further interesting +facts about you." + +Shadey is an old man with a bent back and curious bright eyes that +gleam under a heavy thatch of eyebrow. His wife is the very thinnest +old woman that I have ever seen; her cheeks have fallen in and are so +very wrinkled that they always remind me of a toy balloon that a child +has pricked with a pin. She is always ill and never complaining. Any +expression of sympathy seems foreign to her comprehension, and the +"Poor thing!" or "I am so sorry," so eagerly accepted by more fortunate +folk, is received by her with a certain air of independence. Last +winter Mrs. Pettifer was dangerously ill with internal gout, but +expressions of condolence were always met with the rather curious +reply, "Well, you see, sir, we must have something to bring us to our +end." There is a whole world of philosophy in this. + +To-day the old couple spent the time while I waited for Palestrina in +their cottage in describing to me the last days in the life of their +tortoise, an old friend, and an animal of evidently strange and unusual +qualities. Towards the close of its life it was, on the testimony of +the Pettifers, taken with screaming fits, and, it even had to be held +down "when the high-strikes was wuss." Later it used to run round and +round as never was. And at last Shadey determined to release it from +this earthly tabernacle. He asked his friend Bridgeman, Anthony +Crawshay's head-keeper, to come round some evening and administer +poison to the unfortunate beast, and the effect of the dose was as +strange as it was unexpected. The poison was the first thing for weeks +that poor Toots the tortoise had seemed to enjoy. It seemed, to quote +again from the testimony of those most intimately acquainted with the +animal, to "put new life into Toots," and the more poison that was +administered the livelier did he become, "until he was that gay it +seemed as if he would ha' laughed at yer!" Finally, I understood that +when poison sufficient to kill two cart-horses had been given, the +afflicted animal yielded to treatment, and its shell now adorns the +kitchen dresser. + +We returned home to find the house smelling of furniture polish, and +permeated with a certain cold primness which succeeds a tidying-up, and +which can only be dispelled by a glowing fire. One by one things were +brought back to the hall, and we felt like snails creeping out in the +evening after a day of rain. Banished property strewed the tables +again, and Palestrina opened the piano and spread it with music. It +was an act of defiance, but comfortable nevertheless, to collect the +cushions which had been dotted primly about in clean muslin covers, and +to pile them all on to the sofa before the fire. But Down-Jock, who +always goes one better than any one else, contributed still more +completely to the systematized disorganization of the house. He gaily +wiped his muddy feet on clean paint, and tore blithely round after +imaginary rats wherever order reigned. Finally, in an exuberance of +joy, he made a hearty supper of Palestrina's manuscript book of music, +and barked with glee. + +And yet some people say that dogs are not intelligent! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The Uncle, Sir John, is coming to stay at the Taylors', and the town is +in something of a flutter over this event. It was hoped that the +Taylors would give a tea-party in honour of their guest, but there is a +shrewd notion abroad that no one will be allowed to see very much of +him except at a distance. The Taylors had hoped that there would be +some occasion during his visit on which The Uncle might speak in +public, and Mr. Taylor has tried, half jestingly, to induce his brother +townsfolk to arrange what he calls "something in the political line" +while the august relative is staying with him. I think we owe it to +the fact that the political meeting was found to be an impossibility +that we were asked to tea at the Taylors'. + +Invitations, instead of taking the form of a friendly note, after the +pattern of Stowel invitations in general, were conveyed on one of Mrs. +Taylor's visiting cards, with "At home, Thursday the 17th, four to +seven," upon it. "A little abrupt," ladies of Stowel were inclined to +think, but of course the Taylors are people of some importance in the +place. No one quite knew how to answer the invitation, and a good many +friendly little visits were paid on the afternoon on which it arrived, +and the mysterious card was produced from a bag or purse, with the +smiling apology, "I am sure fashions change so quickly that one hardly +knows how to keep up with them." And then ideas were exchanged as to +the reply suitable to such a form of invitation. Miss Tracey said that +she always thought that an invitation was accepted in as nearly as +possible the same manner in which it was given, and she announced that +she and her sister meant to return one of their own visiting-cards to +Mrs. Taylor, with the day and the hour named upon it, and "With +pleasure" written underneath. This was considered suitable, for the +most part; but those who still had doubts upon the subject made +elaborate efforts to meet Mrs. Taylor during the morning's shopping, +and to say to her in a friendly way, "We are coming, of course, on +Thursday. Will you excuse our writing a note, at this busy time?" + +The Miss Blinds always send their thanks for a "polite invitation" in +the old style, but on this occasion Miss Lydia was obliged to offer +regrets as well as thanks, as she had not been very well lately. She, +I suppose, was the only person in Stowel who did not accept Mrs. +Taylor's invitation. Two parties are, of course, never given on the +same day, and it would be considered eccentric to prefer staying at +home to going out. + +"I am sorry Miss Lydia cannot come," said Mr. Taylor, when the notes of +acceptance were being opened at breakfast-time; "after all, it is not +every day that people have a chance of meeting so distinguished a man +as the General." + +"Miss Lydia was never intrusive," said Mrs. Taylor. + +Mrs. Lovekin was one of those who avoided the difficulty raised by Mrs. +Taylor's unusual form of invitation by meeting her accidentally in the +baker's shop, where an assortment of cakes was being ordered for the +tea-party, and signifying her intention of coming to tea. "No need to +write, I suppose," said Mrs. Lovekin lightly, "as I have met you?" +Both Mrs. Taylor and the baker's wife thought it would have been in +better taste if Mrs. Lovekin had then withdrawn, instead of remaining +in the shop and hearing what was ordered. + +Mrs. Taylor had made up her mind at an early stage in the proceedings +that she would be very firm indeed about the matter of dispensing tea +herself in her own house. She would appropriate one teapot, and her +daughter should have the other, and not even to shake hands with a +late-arriving guest would they run the risk of letting this badge of +office fall into the hands of the co-hostess. + +"And if," said Mrs. Taylor, "I find that she is appropriating The Uncle +too much, I shall not hesitate to remove him, on the plea of +introducing him to some other and more important guests." + +It was in church on Sunday that we were first allowed to see The Uncle, +and this is only following the usual custom in Stowel. Church on +Sunday is, as it were, the public life of the town. After a death it +is customary to wait until the family has appeared in church to pay +visits of condolence--not so much to avoid intrusiveness in the first +hour of grief as from a feeling that perhaps the crape mourning will +not have arrived. In the same way, if any one moves into a new +house--a very unusual proceeding--we are made aware that the carpets +are all down, and the drawing-room curtains are hung, when the new +arrivals are seen in their pew on Sunday. This, also, is accepted as a +token that calling may now begin. Mrs. Taylor said afterwards, in +describing that first Sunday when The Uncle appeared in Stowel Church, +that her heart beat so painfully at the door that she thought she would +have been obliged to turn back. It was a triumphal progress that the +party of four made up the centre aisle to their pew, but the inward +excitement of the Taylors rendered a natural deportment difficult. +Neither Mrs. Taylor nor her daughter joined in the hymns or the +responses that Sunday morning. It is doubtful whether they heard a +word of the service. + +Sir John is a very military-looking person, with white whiskers and a +bald pink head. He sat between Mrs. and Miss Taylor, who supplied him +with hymn and prayer books in as natural a manner as they found it +possible to assume; and Mr. Taylor sat at the end of the pew with a +genial expression on his face, and a look of tempered pride, due no +doubt to the fact that the General was "one of my wife's people," and +not a blood relation of his own. + +It was a disappointment to Mr. Taylor that his own sister, Mrs. +Macdonald--widow of a Scotch gentleman, whom the Taylors always talk of +as "The Laird"--was not able to come to this family gathering. But +Mrs. Macdonald pleaded spring-cleaning as an insuperable objection to +leaving home at present. + +As Miss Taylor, Mrs. Macdonald used to be one of Stowel's central +figures, for she was a lady of considerable means and an indefatigable +housekeeper; and Mr. Macdonald was considered to have done well when he +took her as his bride to the North. + +The Sunday on which the Taylors appeared in church with The Uncle was +curiously hot for the time of year. It was very stuffy in church, and +Miss Lydia had a slight fainting attack, and had to leave before the +service was over. Following the accepted custom in Stowel, my sister +called the next day to ask how she did. But indisposition, usually a +matter of solemn pleasure with us, was overshadowed and shorn of its +interest by the presence of The Uncle amongst us. Even the Vicar +looked keenly at him from the pulpit before his sermon began, but no +one except Mrs. Lovekin was forward enough to address the august party +as they left the church. Mrs. Lovekin, who always affirmed that she +saw no difference in rank, was the very first person in Stowel to shake +hands with The Uncle. She overtook the Taylors before they had even +reached the gate of the churchyard, and was perforce introduced to +their relative, "who," Mrs. Taylor said afterwards, "was almost more +cordial than she could have wished him to be; but of course his manners +were always perfect." What annoyed every one a little in the days that +followed was that Mrs. Lovekin constantly referred to the General as if +he had been an old friend; whereas of course it was well known in what +an intrusive way her precedence had been gained. During the week, +however, we all had an opportunity of seeing Sir John, for he was +marched in triumph up and down the village street regularly twice a +day. Miss Taylor even condescended to subterfuge in the matter. For +having taken The Uncle as far as the baker's at the end of the town, +with a view to continuing the walk into the country at The Uncle's +request, she pretended to have forgotten something at the draper's, and +marched him down the street again, in the proud knowledge that all +eyes, whether from pedestrians or from the interior of shops and houses +in the High Street, were turned upon her. The tobacconist from whom +The Uncle bought some tobacco gave Miss Taylor quite a sympathetic look +as he said, "Allow me to send it for you, Sir John." And Miss Taylor +said, "Do allow him to send it, uncle! I am sure that you ought not to +carry parcels for yourself." + +On Thursday, when we went to the party, we saw at once that the Taylors +meant to make no snobbish distinction between their guests, but that +each and every one of them was to be introduced to The Uncle. + +"I am no good at this sort of thing, Mary," The Uncle said before the +party began, "and I think I will walk over and see Willie Jacobs, and +spend the afternoon with him." Mrs. Taylor turned pale at the +suggestion. "It will ruin it!" she said. "I shall feel as if I had +been acting on false pretences." And though the General remained, as +he was requested to do, he showed a most irritating tendency to slip +away, and sometimes he was not to be found at the most critical +moments. Mrs. Taylor stationed him close to herself in the +drawing-room where she received her guests. But at the very moment +when she turned round to effect an introduction between him and some +particular friend, it was discovered that the General had slipped off +to the smoking-room or the tea-room, or was wandering aimlessly about +the garden, looking at the flower-beds. + +Altogether, that most successful afternoon (and the Taylors really did +feel that it had been a success from the very highest point of view) +had still some drawbacks to it, which they regret, and always will +regret. For instance, when Miss Taylor had been dispatched into what +the Taylors call the "grounds" to see "what The Uncle is doing" +(playfully), "and tell him to come and make himself agreeable," she had +hardly departed to fulfil her mother's request when Mrs. Lovekin bore +down upon the teapot, poured out several of the most distinguished cups +of tea, and handed round macaroons as though they were her own. Last +of all, as the party was breaking up, and Mrs. Lovekin's vicarious +hospitality was therefore at an end, she was actually heard inviting +The Uncle to come and call upon her. Even the Miss Blinds, on being +told of the incident, admitted that this behaviour on Mrs. Lovekin's +part could not be called anything but forward. Miss Lydia could only +say, in a sort of sweet distress, "Perhaps she did not mean it;" but +Miss Blind shook her head vigorously, and said, "Bad butter, bad +butter, bad butter!" + +Margaret Jamieson had, of course, been helping to prepare the party, +for Margaret Jamieson always helps wherever there is anything to be +done. And Eliza, we thought, made a deep impression upon The Uncle by +her knowledge of literature, and the perfectly easy and natural way in +which, without a moment's preparation, she alluded to the "atomic +theory." + +"Ah! you are one of the Reading Society young ladies that I heard +about," said he. "Sorry I couldn't do more for you in the way of +books, but that's not in my line at all, you know. I was educated at a +Grammar School, and I never had the advantages that you young people +have nowadays." (Mrs. Taylor thought this statement unnecessary, but +reflected that great men often make allusions of this sort.) "However, +if I ever can be of any use to you--getting you an order for reading at +the British Museum, or anything of that sort--I hope you will let me +know." + +For one brief day the Jamiesons were inclined to tease Eliza about +having made a conquest, but the Taylors would not have any nonsense of +that sort for a moment. It made Mrs. Taylor quite nervous to think of +such a thing, and she remarked that that was the worst of having +distinguished people to stop with one; there was always somebody +running after them. Eliza Jamieson, we noticed, was treated with +marked coldness by the Taylors for some time afterwards, and Miss +Taylor recollected darkly that it was Eliza's suggestion, in the first +instance, that The Uncle should be consulted on the choice of books for +the Reading Society. "She may," said Miss Taylor, "have had an eye on +him from the first." + +A purely visionary affair of this sort, however, could not be +considered satisfactory or exciting, even by the Jamiesons; and the +Taylors' suspicions and anxieties were put on one side for the time +being--ousted from their place, as it were--by the very distinct and +exciting rumours which have reached us about Maud. Maud has been +staying with friends at Hampstead, and has written home in a certain +veiled way which is very provoking, but which, nevertheless, gives the +impression that another man has come to the point, and has proposed to +Maud Jamieson. Maud seems out of spirits, and has written to say that +she is returning; and this makes the sisters think that she must have +accepted her present suitor, and is coming home to shed a few natural +tears. Eliza, who walked over to tell us the news, voiced The Family's +opinion when she said: "We have quite made up our minds that if Maud +has said 'Yes,' she is to stick to it this time. She is always in a +panic directly she has accepted any one, but we know that it would be +the same whoever it was: and doubtless, unless we are firm, she will +treat this admirer just as she treated Mr. Reddy and Albert Gore and +the others. Mamma says that she will not have Maud coerced, and I am +sure no one wants to coerce her; but why should she always get to a +certain point, and then begin to have doubts? It is so +unbusiness-like." + +The very next day Maud Jamieson came to tea. She looked well dressed, +as usual, and had some pretty spring finery about her--yellow mimosa +wreathing a broad hat, and some yellow ribbons about her tasteful +dress--but her pretty face looked very white, and she fidgeted +nervously for half an hour, and then told me I was so sympathetic she +would like to ask me something. + +"I dare say," she said, "that you have heard something about Mr. Evans +from The Family?" + +I admitted that I had, and then there was a very long pause. + +"How is one to know," said Maud, "when it is the real thing?" + +Another pause. I wished with all my heart that I could have been more +helpful to this young lady in such evident distress of mind; but the +intricacies of Maud's thoughts are most difficult to follow, and I +thought it better to wait until she had given me her entire confidence. + +"Little things," said Maud, "might annoy one so much if one had always +to live with a man. For instance, I do not think I could ever truly +love a man who sniffs." + +"Our friend Mrs. Fielden says," I remarked, "that a man generally +proposes when he has a cold in his head. But I pointed out to her that +these statistics do her no credit." + +"Mr. Evans doesn't sniff," said Maud. "I was only citing that as an +example of what one might find very trying in a companion for life." + +I assented, and could only suggest hopefully the usual Jamieson remedy +that such a defect might be cured after marriage. + +"But men are so obstinate about some things," said Maud. "For +instance, suppose a man were well off and of really excellent +character, do you think it would matter much if he wore a white +watered-silk waistcoat in the evening? Would it, for instance, appear +an insuperable objection to most minds?" + +I replied that doubtless it was a serious fault, but that I did not +consider it an incurable one; and I further remarked, with what I hoped +showed a broad and liberal way of looking at things, that all men had +their idiosyncrasies. Maud admitted this, and seemed cheered by the +reflection; but she pushed the matter further, and said she would like +to know what sort of a man I should presume any one to be who wore a +white watered-silk waistcoat. + +"If you care for Mr. Evans--" I began, and regretted that one's +articulate expression is sometimes behindhand in the matter of +conveying the comprehensiveness of the inner working of one's mind---- + +"I am afraid I care for some one else," said Maud, bursting into tears. + +"Let me see you home," I said, unable to think of any but this very +doubtful method of consolation; still, it seemed unkind to let her go +home alone when she had been crying. + +On the threshold of the Jamiesons' house several of The Family were +waiting for us, and they drew me into the drawing-room, while by tacit +consent it seemed to be understood that Maud should not join in the +conclave, but should go straight upstairs and take off her hat. + +"Have you persuaded her?" said Eliza. + +"I hope you have put a little common sense into her," said Kate. + +James was admitted to family discussions now, and here remarked that he +believed that all girls were happier married. + +"Though, of course," said Mettie, "it is a great risk." + +"Did she tell you," asked Gracie, "that she cares for some one else?" + +I admitted that Maud had said something of the sort. And her family +exclaimed triumphantly that this was always Maud's plea for releasing +herself from an engagement as soon as that engagement had been made. + +Mrs. Jamieson remarked that she would not like any of the girls to feel +that they were not welcome at home, and all her affectionate daughters +kissed her in turn, or patted her hand, and said that they knew that +such a thought as wanting to get rid of one of them would never enter +her head. + +Mrs. Jamieson here left the room to seek her banished daughter and to +administer comfort, and the members of The Family conclave said that +they hoped that Mrs. Jamieson did not think that they had been unkind. + +"If it had not happened so often!" sighed Eliza. "However, as we do +not know Mr. Evans, he can't ask to come down and stay with us, as Mr. +Reddy did, so as to have an opportunity of pressing his suit." + +"He cried so much one afternoon," said Kate, turning in an explanatory +sort of way to Mr. Ward, "that I really thought I should have to send +for mamma." James looked sympathetic, and Gracie added: "We all really +felt quite relieved when he got engaged to some one else three weeks +afterwards, and we hear that they are most happy, and have got a dear +little baby." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Mrs. Fielden's motor car is still a matter of absorbing interest to the +inhabitants of Stowel. When it breaks down, as it frequently does, +there is always a crowd round it immediately. Our friends and +neighbours in the town have an ingenuous respect for anything that +costs a great deal of money, and they are quite congratulatory to any +one who has been for a drive with Mrs. Fielden, and they talk about the +motor and its owner, and who has seen it, and who has not, over their +afternoon tea. + +The motor car is a noisy, evil-smelling vehicle of somewhat rowdy +appearance, which leaves a trail behind it as of a smoking lamp. It +drew up at our door to-day, and kicked and snorted impatiently until we +were ready to get into it. The next moment, with a final angry snort +and plunge, it started down the drive and whizzed through the village +and up the hill on the other side without pausing to take breath. + +"The worst of a motor car is," said Mrs. Fielden, "that one gets +through everything so quickly. In London I get my shopping done in +about a quarter of an hour, and then I take a turn round Regent's Park, +and I find I have put away about ten minutes, so I fly down to +Richmond, and even then it is too early to go to tea anywhere. Talking +of tea--isn't everybody very hungry? I am really ravenous--and that is +the motor car's fault, too. Because one has learned to want one's +meals by the amount of business one has got through, and when one has +done a whole afternoon's work in three-quarters of an hour, one is +dying for tea, just as if it were five o'clock." + +"I have always been ravenous since I was in South Africa," said one of +Mrs. Fielden's colonels, who had driven over in the motor car to take +care of her and to bring us back. "I don't know when I shall satisfy +the pangs of hunger which I acquired on the veldt." + +"I think I shall call on Mr. Ellicomb," said Mrs. Fielden. "I believe +he has excellent afternoon teas, and he is making me an enamel box +which I should like to see." + +Ellicomb said once or twice, as we sat in his picturesque house with +its blue china and old brass work, that he only wished we had given him +warning that we were coming. We found him with an apron on, working at +his enamels; and when he had displayed this work to us, he showed us +his bookbinding, and his fretwork-carving, and his type-writing +machine. Afterwards we had tea, which Ellicomb poured very deftly into +his blue cups, having first warmed the teapot and the cups, and flicked +away one or two imaginary specks of dirt from the plates with what +appeared to be a small lace-trimmed dinner-napkin. + +Mrs. Fielden began to admire his majolica ware, of which she knows +nothing whatever, and Ellicomb took her for a tour round his rooms, and +asked her to guess the original uses of his drain-tiles and spittoons +and copper ham-pots. Afterwards we were taken into a very small +conservatory adjoining his house, where every plant was displayed to us +in turn; and we were subsequently shown his coal-cellar and his larder +and his ash-pit before we were allowed to return to the house. + +Ellicomb smiles more often than any other man I know, and he had only +one epithet to apply to his house. "It's so cosy," he said. "Isn't it +cosy?" "I do think it's a cosy little place." + +Mrs. Fielden was charmed with everything, and deprecated the idea that +she might consider the little house very small after Stanby. + +"I always think," she said, "that I should much prefer to live in a +place like this, and then the people who come to see one really would +pay one a little attention, instead of talking of nothing but the +house." + +The Colonel laughed and apologized. + +"Oh, I know I'm not half good enough for Stanby," said Mrs. Fielden, +smiling. "But I really can't help it! I was brought up in a house +with hot and cold water upstairs, and white paint, and I suppose I +never can really appreciate anything else." + +The dignity of Mrs. Fielden's surroundings has never affected her in +the very smallest degree, and I do not believe that the traditions of +the house interest her in the very least. I am quite aware that she +asked me to write out the history of Lady Hylda, for instance, simply +because it is part of her charm always to ask one to do something for +her. It is the fashion to wait upon Mrs. Fielden's behests, and it +would appear almost an unkindness to her many men friends if she did +not give them some commission to do when they go up to town. Her +manner of thanking one for a service is almost as pretty as her manner +of asking for it, and I am really not surprised that she is the most +popular woman in the country-side. + +Mr. Ellicomb said ecstatically that the dim twilight at Stanby was one +of the most impressive things he knew; and he added, with a shudder, +that he always expected to see ghosts there. + +Mrs. Fielden does not believe in ghosts except on those occasions when +she has some one very charming to defend her, and she spends her +evenings in a cheerful white boudoir in the modern part of the house. + +Having admired all the majolica plates in the house, and having +completely bewildered her host by showing an interest in him and his +possessions one minute, and complete indifference the next, Mrs. +Fielden fell into one of those little silences which are so +characteristic of her. Her silence is one of the most provoking things +about her. She has been witty and amusing the moment before, and then +relapses into silence in the most natural manner possible, and her face +takes a certain wistful look, and a man wonders how he can comfort her +or whether he has offended her. + +"I think we ought to go now," she said, coming out of this wistful +reverie like a child awaking from sleep. "Is every one ready?" + +We got into the motor car again, and sped onwards along the smooth +white road. Every turn made a picture which I suppose an artist would +love to paint. There were red-roofed cottages smothered in orchards of +plum blossom, and simple palings set across gaps in the hedges, with +gardens beyond filled with spring flowers. Now a labourer, gray-coated +and bent with age, passed by like a flash, as he tramped slowly +homewards from his work; and some school children, loitering to pick +primroses under a hedge, dropped their slates and satchels in the +ditch, and called to each other to take care, while they clung together +and shouted "Hurrah!" as we passed. + +The park gates of Stanby are lion guarded and of stone, and then a long +carriage-drive takes one up to the house. The park round the old gray +pile was starred with primroses, and ghost-like little lambs were +capering noiselessly in the fields. The scent of wallflowers was blown +to us from a great brown ribbon of them round the walls of the +lodgekeeper's house as we swung through the gates. The sheep in the +park, bleating to their young, drew away from the palings where they +had been rubbing their woolly sides, and made off to the farther corner +of the field, and Mrs. Fielden's gray pony in the paddock tossed his +heels in a vindictive fashion at us from a distance of fifty yards or +more. And the motor car drew up with a jerk at the great doors of the +house. + +Stanby is not quite so large now as it originally was, immense though +the house undoubtedly is, and only some ruins on the north side show +where the chapel used to stand. A mound within the ruin's walls marks +the resting-place of Hylda--Hylda, whose history I wrote out at the +request of Mrs. Fielden, and sent to her; but I don't suppose she has +ever read it. + +The evening of our arrival at Stanby it pleased Mrs. Fielden to put on +an old-fashioned dress of stiffest brocade, which she had found in some +old chest in the house. She wore a high comb of pearls in her dark +hair, and she looked a very regal and beautiful figure in the great +dining-hall and drawing-rooms of her house. She did not play Bridge, +as the others did, but sat on a carved high-backed chair near my sofa, +and told me many of the old stories of the house, and asked me to write +down some of them for her. + +"I sent you the story of Hylda more than a week ago," I said, "and I +don't suppose you ever read it." + +"I did read it," said Mrs. Fielden gently, "and I liked it very much." + +She had put on an unapproachable mood with her beautiful stiff brocade +gown, and the gentleness of her voice seemed to heighten rather than to +lessen her royalty. The radiance and the holiday air, which are Mrs. +Fielden's by divine right, were not dimmed to-night so much as +transformed. There was a subtle aromatic scent of dried rose-leaves +clinging to the old brocade dress, and about herself a sort of +fragrance of old-world dignity and beauty. The pearl comb in her hair +made her look taller than usual. + +A deerhound got up from his place by the fire and came and laid his +head on her lap, and some footmen in old-fashioned bright blue liveries +came in to arrange the card-tables and hand round coffee. Everything +was stately and magnificent in the house. + +"And you pretend," I said, "that you do nothing; yet probably the whole +ordering of this house devolves upon you." + +"I am quite a domestic person sometimes," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"It is rather bewildering," I said, "to find that you are everything in +turn." + +And the next morning she wore a short blue skirt, with a silver belt +round her waist, and spent the morning punting on the lake with Anthony +Crawshay. + +"I hope I look after you all properly," she said at lunch-time, in a +certain charming deprecating way she has of speaking sometimes. "There +really are punts, and horses, and motor cars, and things, if you want +them. Will you all order what you like?" + +Each man at the table then offered to take Mrs. Fielden for a ride, or +a drive, or a row, and not one of them could be quite sure that she had +refused to go with him. + +"I want to go for a turn in the garden and talk about books," she said +to me as we left the dining-room. And then I found that I was sitting +in her boudoir having coffee with her, and that every one else was +excluded from the room--how it was done I have not the slightest +idea--and that by-and-by we left it by the open French windows, and +were strolling in the garden in the spring sunshine. The garden, with +its high walls, is sheltered from every wind that blows, and there are +wide garden-seats in it painted white, and every border was bright with +early spring flowers. + +"I call this my Grove of Academe," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"Why?" + +"Because I think it has a nice classical sound; and it is here I come +with my friends and discuss metaphysics." + +"It seems to me you have a great many friends," I said. + +"I was thinking," said Mrs. Fielden thoughtfully, "of adding another to +their number." + +"I have a constitutional dislike to worshipping in crowded temples," I +said. + +Mrs. Fielden became silent. + +It would be forging a sword against themselves did men allow women to +know what a powerful weapon silence is. A soft answer turneth away +wrath, but a woman's silence makes a man's heart cry out: "My dear, did +I hurt you? Forgive me!" + +At the end of five minutes or so of silence Mrs. Fielden turned towards +me and smiled, and the garden seemed to be filled with her. There was +no room for anything else but herself and that bewildering smile she +gave me. + +"How is the diary getting on?" she said. + +"The diary," I answered, "continues to record our godly, righteous, and +sober life----" + +"Oh," said Mrs. Fielden quickly, "don't you think it is possible to be +too good sometimes? That is really what I wanted to say to you--I +brought you into the garden to ask you that." + +"It is an interesting suggestion," I remarked, "and I think we ought to +give it to Eliza Jamieson for one of her discussions." + +"I do not wish to discuss it with Eliza Jamieson," said Mrs. Fielden, +"but with you. You know there really is a great danger in becoming too +good; for although I do not think that you would grow wings, or hear +passing bells, or anything of that sort, still you might become a +little dull, might you not?" + +"I don't think it would be possible to become duller than I am," I +replied. "You have more than once told me that I am not amusing. So +long as my sister is not aware of the fact, I do not in the least mind +admitting that I find every day most horribly tedious. I suppose I +shall get accustomed to it in time, but I don't enjoy being an invalid." + +"You have watched the Jamiesons making flannel petticoats for the +poor," went on Mrs. Fielden, "and you have had the Curate to tea, and +you have been to the Taylors' party, and if it does not kill you, I am +sure you will become like people in those books which one gives as +prizes to choir-boys." + +"One so often mistakes monotony for virtue," I said. "I believe I was +beginning to think that there was almost a merit in getting accustomed +to a sofa and a crutch." + +"Oh, but it is a sin!" exclaimed Mrs. Fielden. "It is a sin to get +accustomed to anything that is disagreeable. But that is what comes of +studying philosophy!" + +"I suppose reasoning is always bad," I said humbly. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Fielden; "and it is so unnatural, too." + +"I heard a man say the other day," I said, "that solitude is always +sententious. And he pointed out that foreigners, who are never alone, +base their ethics upon conduct; but that English people, who simply do +not understand the life of the boulevards and cafés and family +affection, sit apart in the solitude of their garrets or studies, and +decide that the right or the wrong of a thing consists in what they +think about it." + +Then I recollected that this garden was the Grove of Academe, and that +it was here that Mrs. Fielden discussed metaphysics with all her +friends. "What cure do you propose?" I said shortly. + +"Why not go to London for a little while and enjoy yourselves?" said +Mrs. Fielden. "Put off the conventionalities of Stowel, as the Miss +Traceys do, and do something amusing and gay." + +"Did you ever hear of the man in the Bastille," I said, "who had been +in prison so long that when he was offered his freedom he elected to +remain where he was?" + +"But you must break out of the Bastille long before it comes to that!" +said Mrs. Fielden. "Couldn't you do something exciting? I am sure +nothing else will restore your moral tone." + +"How is it to be done?" I asked. "We must recognize the limitations of +our environment." + +"You are going to be philosophical," said Mrs. Fielden; "you are going +to quote Protagoras, or Pythagoras, or Plato, which will not convince +me in the least. Philosophy tries to make people believe that things +are exactly the reverse of what they are. I don't think that alters +the sum total of things very much. Because, by the time that you have +proved that all agreeable things are disagreeable, and all unpleasant +things are pleasant, you are in exactly the same position as you were +before. I dare say it fills up people's time to turn everything upside +down and stand everything on its head, but it is not amusing." + +"What do you want me to do?" I asked. + +"Couldn't you enjoy yourselves a little?" said Mrs. Fielden, putting on +her wistful voice. + +"As we are in the Grove of Academe, let me point out that the pursuit +of pleasure for its own sake was one of the corrupt forms of a decadent +epicureanism," I said sternly. + +"I am quite sure it was," said Mrs. Fielden, smiling; "but we were +talking about your visit to London, were we not?" + +And so I knew that the thing was settled, and I thought it very odd +that Palestrina and I had not thought of the plan before. + +"As it is getting cold," said Mrs. Fielden, "I am going to be a +peripatetic philosopher," and she rose from the seat where we were +sitting and gave me her hand to help me up, for I am still awkward with +my crutch, and then let me lean on her arm as we walked up and down the +broad gravel pathway. + +"Don't you think," she began, "that it is a great waste of opportunity +not to be wild and wicked sometimes, when one is very good?" + +"I am afraid I do not quite follow you." + +"What I mean is, what is the good of filling up years of curates and +Taylors and flannel petticoats, unless you are going to kick them all +over some day, and have a good time. You see, if you and Palestrina +were not so good you would always have to pretend to be tremendously +circumspect. But it seems such waste of goodness not to be bad +sometimes." + +"Your argument being," I said, "that an honest man may sometimes steal +a horse?" + +"Yes, that is what I mean," said Mrs. Fielden delightedly. + +"A dangerous doctrine, and one----" + +"Not Plato, please," said Mrs. Fielden. + +... It ended in our taking a flat in London for some weeks. It was a +small dwelling, with an over-dressed little drawing-room, and a red +dining-room, and a roomy cupboard for a smoking-room. + +"Remember, Palestrina," I said to my sister when we settled down, "that +we are under strict orders to live a very rapid and go-ahead life while +we are in London. Can you suggest anything very rowdy that a crippled +man with a crutch and a tendency to chills and malaria might undertake?" + +"We might give a supper-party," said Palestrina brilliantly, "and have +long-stemmed champagne-glasses, and perhaps cook something in a +chafing-dish. I was reading a novel the other day in which the bad +characters did this. I made a note of it at the time, meaning to ask +you why it should be fast to cook things in a chafing-dish or to have +long-stemmed champagne-glasses?" + +When the evening came Mrs. Fielden dined with us, and she and +Palestrina employed themselves after dinner in rehearsing how they +should behave. My sister said in her low, gurgling voice: "I think I +shall sit on the sofa with my arms spread out on the cushions on either +side of me, and I shall thump them sometimes, as the adventuress in a +play does." + +"Or you might be singing at the piano," said Mrs. Fielden, "and then +when the door opens you could toss the music aside and sail across the +room, and give your left hand to whoever comes in first, and say, 'What +a bore! you have come!' or something rude of that sort." + +Mrs. Fielden's spirit of fun inspired my quiet sister to-night, and the +two women, began masquerading in a way that was sufficiently amusing to +a sick man lying on a sofa. + +"Or you might continue playing the piano," Mrs. Fielden went on, "after +any one has been announced. I notice that that is very often done, +especially in books written by the hero himself in the first person. +'She did not leave the piano as I entered, but continued playing +softly, her white hands gliding dreamily over the keys.'" + +"I shall do my best," Palestrina answered; "and I thought of calling +all our guests by their Christian names, if only I could recollect what +they are." + +"Nicknames would be better," said Mrs. Fielden. "We ought to have +found out, I think, something about this matter before the night of the +party." + +"What shall we do till they arrive?" said Palestrina. + +"We must read newspapers and periodicals," Mrs. Fielden replied, "and +then fling them down on the carpet. There is something about seeing +newspapers on a carpet which is certainly untidy, but has a distinctly +Bacchanalian touch about it." + +"I wish I had a red tea-gown," sighed my sister. + +"Or a white one trimmed with some costly furs," said Mrs. Fielden. +"Almost any tea-gown would do." + +"One thing I will have!" she exclaimed, starting in an energetic manner +to her feet. "I'll turn all the lamps low, and cover them with +pink-paper shades. Where is the crinkly paper and some ribbon?" + +After that we sat in a rose twilight so dim that we couldn't even read +the evening newspaper. + +"I don't think they need have come quite so early," I said, as the +first ring was heard at the door-bell. + +Mrs. Fielden had insisted upon it that one actress at least should be +asked. "What is a supper-party without an actress?" she had said. And +Mrs. Travers at present acting in Mr. Pinero's new play, was the first +to arrive. + +"I wonder if you know any of our friends who are coming to-night?" said +Palestrina. "We expect Squash Bosanquet and Dickie Fenwick." +Palestrina then broke down, because we had no idea if these two men had +ever answered to these names in their lives. Also she blushed, which +spoilt it all, and Mrs. Fielden began to smile. + +Mrs. Travers came to the party in a very simple black evening gown, and +Bosanquet and Charles Fenwick came almost immediately afterwards. +Anthony Crawshay was amongst the friends whom we had invited, because, +Palestrina said, as we did not seem to know many fast people, we had +better have some one who was sporting. There was an artist whom we +considered Bohemian because he wore his hair long, but he disappointed +us by coming in goloshes. + +Altogether we were eight at supper. There was an attractive menu, and +the long-stemmed champagne-glasses were felt to be a distinct challenge +to quiet behaviour. + +Palestrina thought that if she were going to be really fast she had +better talk about divorce, and I heard her ask Anthony in a diffident +whisper if he had read any divorce cases lately. Anthony looked +startled, and in his loud voice exclaimed, "Egad! I hope _you_ +haven't!" Palestrina coloured with confusion, and I frowned heavily at +her, which made it worse. + +Mrs. Travers seemed to have taken it into her head that Palestrina was +philanthropic, and she talked a great deal about factory girls, and +Bosanquet talked about methylated ether. What it was that provoked his +remarks on this subject I cannot now recall, nor why he discussed it +without intermission almost throughout the entire evening, but I have a +distinct recollection of hearing him dinning out the phrase "methylated +ether." + +It was, I think, the dullest party that even Palestrina and I have ever +given, and I blame Mrs. Fielden for this. Mrs. Fielden refused to be +the centre of the room. She became an onlooker at the party which she +had planned, and she smiled affectionately at us both, and watched, I +think, to see how the party would go off. + +The long-stemmed champagne-glasses were hardly used. Several people +said to me jocosely, "How is South Africa?" and to this I could think +of no more suitable reply than, "It's all right." We longed for even +the Pirate Boy to make a little disturbance. Palestrina whispered to +me that she thought I might throw a piece of bread at some one, or do +something. But the action she suggested seemed to me to be in too +daring contrast to the general tone of the evening; and really, as I +murmured back to her, there seemed to be very little point in throwing +my bread at a guest who had done me no harm. + +"I wish," she said to me when we returned to the drawing-room, "that I +knew some daring little French songs. In books the girl always sings +daring little French songs, and afterwards every one begins to be +vulgar and delightful, like those people in 'The Christian.' I think +I'll light a cigarette." She did so, and choked a little, and then +wondered if Thomas would like her to smoke, and threw the cigarette +into the fire. The Bohemian, who had travelled considerably, asked for +a map, and told us of his last year's journeyings, tracing out the +route of them for us on the map with a pin. + +And Mrs. Fielden was smiling all the time. + +"I suppose," I said to my sister when the last guest had departed, and +we sat together in the pink light of the drawing-room before going to +bed--"I suppose we carry about with us an atmosphere of slowness which +it is impossible to penetrate. You are engaged to Thomas, and I am an +invalid----" + +"But in books," said Palestrina wistfully, "men talk about all sorts of +things to girls whether they happen to be engaged or not, and they ask +them to go to see galleries with them next day, or squeeze their hands. +Of course, I should hate it if they did so, but still one rather +expected it. To-night," she said regretfully, "no one talked to me of +anything but Thomas." + +"Charles Fenwick," I said, "who used to be considered amusing, has +become simply idiotic since he married. He gave me an exact account of +his little boy's sayings; he copied the way he asked for sugar, like +the chirruping of a bird. You won't believe me, I know, but he put out +his lips and chirped." + +"I remember being positively warned against him," said Palestrina, +"when I used to go to dances in London." She sighed, and added, "Do +you think Mrs. Fielden enjoyed it?" + +"I think Mrs. Fielden was distinctly amused," I replied. + +"Do you think," said Palestrina, still in a disappointed tone, "that +the men would have been more--more larky if we had been alone? Mrs. +Fielden always looks so beautiful and dresses so well that I think she +impresses people too much, and they are all trying to talk to her +instead of making a row." + +"I think we may as well go to bed," I said. + +Palestrina rose slowly, and went towards the bell to ring for my man to +help me. She lingered for a moment by my chair. "Yet books say that +men require so much keeping in order," she said sadly. "I wish people +would not write about what does not occur." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +The Jamiesons have taken lodgings in West Kensington, which they +describe as being "most central"--a phrase which I have begun to think +means inexpensive--and near a line of omnibuses. George and the Pirate +are assiduous in taking their sisters to the Play and other places of +amusement, and are showing them something of London with a zeal which +speaks much for their goodness of heart. Even Mrs. Jamieson has been +out once or twice, and although doubly tearful on the morning following +any little bit of dissipation, her family feel that the variety has +been good for her. Eliza has found that London is radio-active, hence +enjoyable. And Eliza had been only once to the Royal Institution when +she said it! Maud's engagement to the Hampstead young man has been +finally broken off, and Maud has cried so much that her family have +forgiven her. Maud explains that it is such an upset for a girl to +break off an engagement, and The Family say soothingly that she must +just try and get over it. + +"We hope," said Kate, "that next time things will arrange themselves +more happily, and at least we can all feel that Maud might have married +many times, had she wished to do so." There seems to be a strong +feeling in The Family that Maud will go on having opportunities. +Arguing from the general to the particular, they have proved, with a +sort of tribal feeling of satisfaction, that Maud is undoubtedly very +attractive to men, and that if one man likes her, why should not +another? + +Still, we all felt that we could not have sympathized immediately with +another love affair of Maud's, and it was refreshing, not to say most +pleasing and surprising, to find that since her arrival in Town, it was +Margaret who attracted the notice of a gentleman, Mr. Swinnerton by +name, a friend of George's, who brought him to supper one Sunday +evening. The Jamiesons could see at a glance that Mr. Swinnerton was +"struck," and, as he called two or three times in the following week, +Margaret made the usual Jamieson opportunity of seeing Palestrina home, +one afternoon when she had been to call, to embark in confidences about +her lover in the usual Jamieson style. Margaret was diffident, +bashful, shy, uncertain about Mr. Swinnerton's feelings for her, and +hopelessly nervous lest her family should have had their expectations +raised only to be disappointed. She implored Palestrina over and over +again to say nothing about it to them, though it has been more than +obvious to us all along how full of expectation every member of The +Family is. It was a very wet evening as Margaret and my sister left +the Jamiesons' lodgings, but she hardly seemed conscious of the +inclemency of the weather, and begged Palestrina not to think of taking +a cab, as she particularly wished to speak to her. + +"At first," she began, "I thought it must be Maud, although she has but +just broken off her engagement to Mr. Evans; still, one knows she is +the pretty one, and if any one calls often, it is generally her." + +It was a little difficult to follow Margaret's rapid, ungrammatical +speech, but Palestrina and I both knew that to the vigorous minds of +the Jamiesons there must be a direct purpose in every action, and that +therefore if Mr. Swinnerton came to call he must have a purpose, +presumably a matrimonial purpose, for paying his visits. After two or +three afternoon calls from a gentleman the Jamiesons generally ask each +other ingenuously, "Which of us is it?" It hardly seems to them +respectable that a man should continue to pay them visits unless he +means to show a preference for one of them. + +Presuming that it was not Maud he came to see, Margaret, with modest +hesitation and many blushes, asked Palestrina if she did not think it +possible that these visits might be intended for her. + +"Please do not say anything about it to the others. I always have +hoped that if ever I had a love affair it would be when I was away from +home. Do you know at all what they think about it?" + +She did not pause for a reply, but began again: "You see he has called +three times in one week, but" (hopelessly) "I am always surrounded by +The Family, and he couldn't say anything if he wanted to. Of course I +don't think it has come to anything of that sort yet; still, you know, +we could get to know each other better if there were not so many of us +always about. Maud doesn't mind a bit; she has had love affairs in +front of us all, and she does not mind talking about them in the least, +or even asking us to let her have the drawing-room to herself on +certain afternoons. But I don't feel as if I could bear to have this +discussed before anything is settled. And then we have so few +opportunities. Maud generally takes them to a distant church, and then +they have the walk home together. But I never quite know whether she +makes the suggestion about church, or if she merely thinks it would be +nice, and leaves the man to make it." + +"Maud," I remarked parenthetically to Palestrina, "has raised +love-making to a science--an exact science." + +"I hope you don't think for a moment," Margaret had gone on, "that I am +abusing Maud; you know how fond we all are of each other." + +Maud's experiences on matters matrimonial are always quoted as +precedent in the Jamieson family, and she is cited whenever anything of +the sort is afoot. Each phase in her experience is frankly discussed, +and conclusions are drawn from it; and I have heard the Jamiesons say, +"Mr. So-and-so must be in love with Miss So-and-so; he looks at her in +exactly the same way that Mr. Reddy used to look at Maud." Maud +herself, unconsciously as I believe, makes a sort of calendar of her +love affairs, and it is quite usual for her to date an event by +referring to it as having happened "in the Albert Gore days," or "when +Mr. Evans was hovering." + +Margaret's voice had not ceased from the moment they left the lodgings +together. "It is, however, no use trying to copy other people in your +love affairs," she said, "because it seems to come to every one so +differently, and then of course different people must call forth +different feelings. I don't think I could have felt for Mr. Reddy, for +instance, quite as I do now, even if he had been in love with me. You +feel so bewildered somehow." + +The walk had by this time become very rapid, and Margaret, in her +short-sighted way, knocked against all the foot-passengers whom she met +travelling in the opposite direction. Her umbrella showered raindrops +upon Palestrina, and she became so incoherent that my sister suggested +taking a cab to our flat, and talking things over quietly when they +should get there. + +It was about eleven o'clock that night when Margaret Jamieson took +leave of us, and by that time I fancy the bridesmaids' dresses had been +arranged. + +A few days later Palestrina received a note by the hand of a +messenger-boy; it bore the word "Immediate" on the cover, and had +evidently been addressed in some haste. + + +"DEAR PALESTRINA (it ran), + +"Can you possibly come to make a fourth at a concert this afternoon? +Do come, even if it should be rather inconvenient to you. I want you +so much. Mr. Swinnerton has asked mamma and me, and he has taken +tickets. They are not reserved places, so we could easily arrange to +meet at the door and sit together. Three is such an awkward number. I +fear mamma does not care for him, and that is a great grief to me. I +will tell you everything this afternoon. + +"Yours affectionately, + "MARGARET JAMIESON. + +"_P.S._--It is all going to come right, I believe, but I have had +immense difficulties. Hardly ten minutes alone with him--you know we +have only one sitting-room.--but the family have been sweet." + + +"Hugo," said Palestrina, "this is an occasion when you could give very +substantial aid to a deserving family." + +"I am sorry I am engaged this afternoon," I said, with an instinct of +self-preservation, without, however, having any definite idea of what +Palestrina might say next. + +"It is I who am engaged this afternoon," said my sister smiling, "and +you are perfectly aware of that fact. Thomas is taking me down to +Richmond to introduce me to his aunt. Besides, Hugo, you know you like +music." + +"I am very sorry, Palestrina," I said, "but it is quite impossible." + +"Margaret is the Jamieson you like best," said Palestrina, "and I hate +to think of your being here alone a whole afternoon. What were you +thinking of doing?" + +I had been thinking of going to this concert, and Palestrina guessed +it, of course.... + +I was at the door of the concert hall at two-thirty in the afternoon, +and found Mrs. Jamieson and Margaret and the young man already on the +pavement, looking as if they had stood there for a considerable time. +Mr. Swinnerton is a large, rather stupid-looking man, with a red face, +a crooked nose, and curly hair. He wore a dark blue overcoat, so thick +and strong that it reminded one of some encasement of plaster of Paris, +or of some heavy coat of mail. His hands were covered in yellow +dogskin gloves, equally unyielding, so that Mr. Swinnerton appeared +deprived of any agility of movement by his garments. Mr. Swinnerton is +in the volunteers, and has "Captain Swinnerton" printed on his cards. +He gave me the idea of seeming to think that every action of his was +some epoch-making event, and during the afternoon he frequently +referred to having seen a picture then on view at one of the galleries, +as though this were rather an up-to-date, not to say remarkable, +proceeding. Margaret seemed a good deal impressed by his manner, and +the Jamiesons had decided that he was "smart," which was a further and +quite unnecessary addition to Mr. Swinnerton's vanity, and very bad for +a gentleman of his complacent character. + +He ushered us into the Queen's Hall in an important sort of way, which +gave one the impression that the place belonged to him; and the fact +that I was making a third in a party under his guidance convinced me +that I was in some sort adding to his self-satisfaction. Mr. +Swinnerton had chosen shilling places, because, as he informed us a +great number of times, these were in the best position for hearing the +music. Mrs. Jamieson was disappointed. In her class of life a treat +is given on a more magnificent scale. + +"Shall I sit next you, Mrs. Jamieson?" I said, for I believed that this +was what I was intended to say; but Mr. Swinnerton remarked to +Margaret, "I'll go next; I like to divide myself amongst the ladies." + +Mrs. Jamieson looked uncomfortable in the small amount of space a +shilling had procured for her, and she suggested apologetically that +she would like a programme; but the music was beginning, and Mr. +Swinnerton put up his large, stiff-gloved hand like a slab, and said, +"Hush!" + +We went faithfully through the orthodox Queen's Hall concert from the +very first note to the "Ride of the Valkyries," and after every item on +the programme our host turned to us, moving his whole body in his stout +coat, and said, "Isn't that nice now?--very nice I call it!" still with +an air of ownership. + +Mrs. Jamieson slept a little; but the hardness of her seat made it an +uneasy resting-place, and it is to be feared that her mantle with the +storm-collar was too hot; but, she whispered to me in a burst of +confidence, she was unable to remove it owing to the fact that the +bodice and skirt of her dress did not correspond. + +"I always like these places," said Mr. Swinnerton again; "they are +exactly in the centre of the hall, and another thing is, they are near +the door in case of fire." + +Margaret assented sweetly. I always thought until to-day that Margaret +Jamieson was a plain woman; to-day I find she is good-looking. + +"It is ridiculous," said Mr. Swinnerton, "to see the way people throw +their money away on really inferior seats, just because they think they +are fashionable." + +Mrs. Jamieson stirred a little on her uneasy bench, and Mr. Swinnerton +said in self-defence, "Don't you agree with me, eh?" + +"I think," said Mrs. Jamieson politely, "that perhaps for a long +concert the _fotoys_ would be more comfortable." + +"Ah!" cried Mr. Swinnerton, "you want to be fashionable, I see; but +there are many of the best people who come to these seats. I know of a +Member of Parliament--I don't know him, I know of him" (we felt that +some connection with the Member had been established)--"who comes +regularly to these very places, and who declares they are the best in +the house." + +"Perhaps," said Mrs. Jamieson simply, "he had never tried the _fotoys_." + +After the concert was over, Mr. Swinnerton suggested that Margaret and +her mother should go and have tea at a bun-shop, qualifying the +suggestion with the remark, "I know you ladies can never get on without +afternoon tea." When with Mr. Swinnerton ladies are never allowed to +forget that he is a gentleman and they are ladies, and that a certain +forbearance is therefore extended to them. He offered his arm to Mrs. +Jamieson, who gathered up her skirt and umbrella in one hand, and +accepted the proffered support in some embarrassment. Margaret fell +behind with me, and whispered in a sort of excited way,-- + +"Hasn't it been lovely? Do tell me what you think--I mean about him." + +"I haven't had much chance of judging," I replied stupidly; "but he +seems all right, although perhaps his ideas are not very large." + +"Still, you mean that one could always alter that," said Margaret +quickly, with the true Jamieson optimism, as applied to the beneficial +results of matrimony. There is hardly, I believe, a defect that they +think they will not be able to eradicate in a future husband, save, +perhaps, the conical shape of Mr. Ward's head. "But I really do not +think there is anything that I would like altered," she added simply. + +"His name is Tudor," she went on. "George calls him that now, and Maud +is beginning to do so--Maud is being so kind; she says it promotes a +familiar tone which is very helpful, to call him 'Tudor'--but I can't +call him anything but Mr. Swinnerton yet." + +After tea Mr. Swinnerton asked us how we had enjoyed our entertainment, +and Margaret expressed herself in the highest terms in praise of it. +There seemed to be a lingering tendency on Mrs. Jamieson's part to +revert to the superior comfort of seven-and-sixpenny places and +armchairs, but we checked this by saying with emphasis that it was a +friendly afternoon of this kind that we really enjoyed. Mr. Swinnerton +then put the Jamiesons into an omnibus, and directed the conductor to +"let these ladies out at the top of Sloane Street," in a tone of voice +that suggested that they were to be caged and padlocked until that +place of exit was reached. He lifted his hat with a fine air to them, +and then, as I had called a hansom, he put me into it rather +elaborately, and cautioned the commissionaire at the door to "take care +of this gentleman." + +He will probably call me a South African hero next; I wish he would +keep his attentions to himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Last night we dined at the Darcey-Jacobs'. Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is +enjoying "one breath of life" at a hotel with the Major, and she has +left quite a pathetic number of visiting-cards on all her friends, so +that her short London season may be as full of gaiety as possible. +Neither of us looked forward to the dinner-party being particularly +lively, but we were a good deal amused at the turn the conversation +took during dinner. I have often thought since that a certain dumbness +which falls upon some entertainments can be dispersed if the subject of +matrimony is started, and I will class with it a discussion on food, +and personal experience at the hand of the dentist. Any of these three +subjects can be thrown, as it were, into the stagnant deep waters of a +voiceless party, and the surface will be instantly rippled with eager +conversation. + +Talk flagged a little in the private sitting-room of the hotel where +the Darcey-Jacobs gave their dinner-party. Major Jacobs, in his +guileless way, gave us an exhaustive list of the friends whom they had +invited for that evening, but who had not been able to come; and this +had a curiously depressing effect upon us all, and within ourselves we +speculated unhappily as to whether we had been asked to fill up vacant +places. + +"Why are men always allowed to blunder?" said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, +looking over her high nose at the gentleman next her, and tapping him +on the arm with her lorgnettes. + +Major Jacobs, from his end of the table, looked penitent but mystified. + +"Happy is the woman," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, "who has no men about +her." + +"I should like to have been born a widow," said a pretty girl with +beseeching blue eyes and a soft, confiding expression, who sat a little +lower down on my side of the table. And then the subject of matrimony +was in full swing. + +"Marriage is just an experience," said a shrill-voiced American widow +who sat opposite. "Every one should try it, but that is no reason why +one should not be thankful when it is over." + +"I am much interested in what you say," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, with a +certain profound air suitable to so great a subject. One felt the want +of the Jamiesons sadly during the ensuing discussion, and I almost +found myself, in the words of Mettie, making the suggestion that +marriage was a great risk. + +"Some one once said," ventured Major Darcey-Jacobs, "that choosing a +wife was like choosing a profession--it did not matter much what your +choice was, so long as you stuck to it. It was a mere figure of +speech, no doubt----" + +"I hope so, indeed," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs. + +"Marriage is the worst form of gambling," broke in an elderly +gentleman; "it should be suppressed by law. Talk about lotteries! +Talk about sweepstakes! Why, the worst you can do, if you put your +money into them, is to draw a blank. Now, this is fair play, I +consider; you either get a prize or you get nothing. But matrimony, +sir, is a swindle compared with which the Missing Word Competition +appears like a legal document beside a forged bank-note." + +If the old gentleman had a wife present she was evidently of a callous +disposition, for I saw no wrathful expression on any face. + +Mr. Ellicomb--even in London Ellicomb and Anthony Crawshay are asked to +meet us--gave it as his opinion that a woman's hand was wanted in the +home. The voice was the voice of Ellicomb, the sentiment was the +sentiment of Maud, and Palestrina and I very nearly exchanged glances. + +After this, several people began to describe at one and the same time, +in quite a breathless way, their own personal experiences of the +happiness of wedded life. + +"Of course," said Major Darcey-Jacobs, "a deal of forbearance must be +exercised if married life is to be a success." And Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs +said quickly, "I hope you do not intend to become personal, William." +To which William replied that no such intention had been his. + +Anthony said in his cheery voice, "Of course it is give and take, don't +you know, and then it is all right." + +Every one volunteered ideas on the subject--not once, but several +times. And those who applauded the happy state shouted each other down +by quoting examples of wedded bliss in such words as: "Look at +Hawkins!" "Look at Jones!" "Look at the Menteiths!" + +Quite suddenly Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs leaned across the table, smiled at +her husband, and remarked, "Look at us, William!" + +I do not think I have ever seen any one look so astonished as Major +Jacobs. "That was very pretty of Maria," he said in a low voice; "very +pretty of her, by Gad!" And we caught him looking at his wife several +times that evening with a puzzled but delighted expression on his face. + +After dinner we played Bridge. "I disapprove of the game myself," said +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, who certainly was the worst player I have ever met, +"but Mrs. Fielden likes it, and she has promised to come in in the +evening." + +Mrs. Fielden arrived at the same time as Colonel Jardine, and they +played as partners together, with me and the American widow as +opponents. Colonel Jardine wore some kind of lead ring on his finger, +which he said cured gout, and gathered up his tricks in a stiff sort of +way. He had a pet name for almost every card in the pack, and he +babbled on without once ceasing throughout the rubber. "Now we'll see +where old Mossy Face is. I think that draws the Curse of Scotland. +Kinky takes that," and so on. It was perfectly maddening, but Mrs. +Fielden seemed quite pleased. I don't suppose she ever feels +irritated. The American widow, who was my partner, was only just +learning the game. When I said to her, "May I play?" she always +replied, if she had a bad hand, "No, certainly not." And when it was +pointed out to her that she had either to say, "If you please," or "I +double," she replied, "Don't ask me if you may play, if you mean to do +it whether I like it or not." She always gave us such items of +information as "I know what I should say if it was left to me this +time," and she frequently doubled with nothing at all in her hand, +because she said she liked to play a plucky game. + +I have tried to cure Mrs. Fielden of saying "dah-monds" when she means +"diamonds," but it is quite useless. She also says (with a radiant +smile) "How tarsome!" when she has lost a rubber, although I have +pointed out to her that that is not the phonetic pronunciation of the +word. When we are all wrangling over the mistakes and misdeeds of the +last round, Mrs. Fielden looks hopelessly at us and says, "Is it any +one's deal?" And then we laugh and stop arguing. She never keeps the +score, or picks up the cards, or deals for herself, or does anything +useful. + +The American widow did not stop talking most of the time, and the +Colonel kept up his running commentary upon the cards he was playing, +and then Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs joined us to look on, and she and the +American widow plunged into a discussion on clothes, which they kept up +vigorously all the time. This necessitated a number of questions +relating to the game from the American widow, whenever she was recalled +to the fact that she was playing Bridge: "May I see that laast trick? +What's trumps? Does my hand go down on the table this time?" Mrs. +Fielden beamed kindly upon her, even when the widow had debated five +minutes which card to lead, and Colonel Jardine had begun to play the +chromatic scale of impatience up and down the table with his stiff +fingers. + +"Waal," said the American widow to Mrs. Fielden, "I think you are just +lovely, and I would like to play with you always. I believe most +people would like to kill me at Bridge. Caan't think why. Colonel +Jardine, did you play the lost chord?" + +"I know the tune," said the Colonel; "but I don't play at all." + +The American turned bewildered eyes upon Mrs. Fielden, who said, +smiling, "Colonel Jardine is practising the chromatic scale. I think +he will be a very good player some day." + +"How was I to know," said the Colonel, spluttering over his +whisky-and-soda when the American widow had left, "that she meant the +last card? That woman would drive me crazy in six weeks." + +"I liked her," said Mrs. Fielden, "and she is very pretty." + +There is a certain large-heartedness about this pretty woman of fashion +and of the world which constrains her to say something kind about every +one. With her the absent are always right, and I do not think I have +ever heard her say an unkind word about any one. At Stanby, when +people who are staying there make a newly-departed guest run the +gauntlet of criticism--not always of the kindest sort--Mrs. Fielden +says, in that royal fashion of hers which makes her approval the final +decision in all matters, "I liked him." And the departed guest's +character and reputation are safe. Her charity is boundless and quite +indiscriminate, save that she sends a trifle more rain and sunshine on +the unjust than on the just. + +"Come to lunch with me some day," she said to me in the off-hand way in +which she generally gives an invitation. "I am always at home at two +o'clock. Why not come to-morrow? You are leaving town almost +immediately, are you not?" + +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is also asked to lunch; every one is asked to lunch. +When one goes to the pretty widow's house in South Street one generally +finds a dozen people lunching with her. + +... She came into the room--late, of course--and found ten or twelve +people waiting for lunch. "I am so sorry! Do you all know each +other?" she asked of the rather constrained group of strangers making +frigid conversation to each other in the flower-filled drawing-room. +And then she began to introduce us to each other, and forgot half our +names, and we went downstairs in a buzz of conversation and laughter, +and filled with something that is odd and magnetic, which only comes +when Mrs. Fielden arrives. + +As is always the way at her lunch-parties, her carriage drives up to +the door before any one has finished coffee, and then we all say +good-bye, complaining of the rush of London. + +"I want you to drive with me this afternoon," said Mrs. Fielden, when I +with the others was saying good-bye. I think she generally singles +somebody out for a drive or a long talk, or to take her to a +picture-gallery after lunch, and it is done in a way that makes the one +thus singled out feel foolishly elated and flattered. + +"I think we are going to drive down to Richmond and see some trees and +grass, and behave in a rural sort of way this afternoon," she announced +as she seated herself in the carriage. + +"And what about all your engagements for this afternoon?" I asked. +"And the Red Book, and the visiting-list, and the shopping-list, and +the visiting-cards, which I see with you?" + +"I never keep engagements," said Mrs. Fielden; "and every one knows my +memory is so bad that they always forgive me. Some one gave me a +little notebook the other day, with my initials in silver upon it--I +can't remember who it was--and I put down in it all the tarsome things +I ought to do, and then I lost the little pocket-book." + +"If I ever find it," I said, "I shall bring it to you, and read out all +your tarsome engagements to you." + +"I didn't say 'tarsome,'" said Mrs. Fielden. + +"I suppose you are whirling through the London season," I said +presently; "and going everywhere, and having your frocks chronicled in +the magazines, and going to a great many parties?" + +"No," said Mrs. Fielden; "I have been down at Stanby." + +"I wish," I remarked, "that you did not always give one unexpected +replies. Why have you been down at Stanby? You didn't say anything +about it when I saw you last night." + +"Do you know old Miss Lydia Blind?" said Mrs. Fielden. "She is ill, +and I got rather a pathetic letter from her, so I went down to Stanby +to look after her." + +She fumbled for the pocket of her dress, raising first what seemed to +be a layer of lace, and then a number of layers of chiffon, and then, +after rustling amongst some silk to find her artfully-concealed pocket, +she produced a letter and handed it to me. + +"Am I to read it?" I said; and Mrs. Fielden nodded. + +"... One so often hears," so the letter ran, "of a case of long illness +in which the one who is strong, and who acts as nurse to the invalid, +breaks down before the end comes. To me it has always seemed to show +that the strong one's courage has failed somehow, and that, had zeal +been stronger or faith greater, she might have endured to the end...." +And, again, in a postscript: "When I was younger I was very impatient, +and I think I could not well have borne it had I known that life was to +be a waiting time. I do not say this in any discontented spirit, dear, +and I only write to you because you always understand...." And then +the letter broke off suddenly, and I handed it back to Mrs. Fielden. + +"So this is you, as Miss Lydia knows you," I said. + +"I want you to go and see her when you go back to Stowel. Will you?" +said Mrs. Fielden. "Miss Lydia is an angel, I think; the best woman +really that ever lived. Will you take her some things I am sending +her, and ask how she is when you go back?" + +We drove under the trees of Richmond Park in Mrs. Fielden's big, +luxurious carriage. She generally drives in a Victoria, and I asked +her why she had the landau out this afternoon. + +"A whim," said Mrs. Fielden. "I am full of whims." + +But of course a landau is the only carriage in which a lame man, who +has to sit with his foot up, can put it comfortably on the opposite +seat. + +We drove onwards, and she stopped the carriage to look at the view from +Richmond Hill, and the soft air blew up to us in a manner very cool and +refreshing; and then we got out and walked about for a time, and Mrs. +Fielden gave me her arm. + +"I don't really require an arm," I said, "but I like taking yours." + +"It is a very strong arm," said Mrs. Fielden; and she exclaimed +quickly, "I believe I am getting fat! My maid tells me all my dresses +want altering. I wish it was time to think about beginning to hunt +again." + +"Do you know," I said, "I always thought, till I got back to England, +that my leg had been taken off below the knee, and that I should be +able to get astride of a horse again. I never used to see it, of +course, when they dressed it; and when I counted up the things I should +be able to do, riding was always one of them. I didn't sell my horses +till just the other day." + +Mrs. Fielden did not sympathize, but one of her silences fell between +us. We did not speak again till she began to tell me an amusing story +which made us both laugh; but when she was sitting in the carriage, and +the footman was helping me in, and we were still laughing, I could have +sworn that her eyes looked larger and softer than I have ever seen them. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +It is always rather melancholy arriving at home alone, and I miss +Palestrina very much at these times, and I feel ill-disposed towards +Thomas. Down-Jock pretended not to know me, and barked furiously when +I drove up to the door, and then ran away on three legs, making +believe, as he sometimes does when he wants to appeal to one's pity, +that he is old and lame. + +It was still early in the afternoon, and the sunshine was blazing over +everything when I hobbled down the hill to inquire for Miss Lydia. The +houses in Stowel are all roofed with red tiles, and each garden has +flowering shrubs in it or beds full of bright-coloured flowers, so that +the little place has a very warm and happy look on a sunny summer day. +A great heavy horse-chestnut tree hung over the walls of the doctor's +house, and scattered fragments of pink blossom when the soft air +stirred gently. The wistaria on the post-office was in full bloom. +And the place was so full of pleasant sounds this afternoon--of singing +birds, and heavy-rolling wagons moving up the broad street, and the +laughter of children, and the soft rush of the summer wind through the +trees--that one felt that a day like this gave one a very strong +leaning in favour of the happy view that life is, after all, a good +thing. + +One had, of course, to stop and speak to several old friends, who said +they were thankful to see me back, as though a visit to London was an +expedition fraught with many dangers. + +When I reached the little cottage with the green gate, and the maid +opened the door to me, she told me that Lydia Blind had died an hour +ago. + +The staircase of the little house is directly opposite the front door. +I could not but believe that if I waited a little while Miss Lydia +would descend the stairs, as she always did, with a smile which never +failed to welcome every one. Or, if she were not within doors, that I +would only have to pass out into the little garden at the back of the +house to find her. I thought suddenly of the words of a boy I used to +know at school, who, when a young playfellow died, said between his +sobs, "It was so hard upon him dying before he had had a good time." +Certainly ever since we knew her Lydia's life had been one long +sacrifice to a witless invalid, and I couldn't help feeling that +perhaps no one would ever know the extent of her patient service. +Probably there never lived a more unselfish woman, and I cannot think +why she never married. + +She was a person who lacked worldly wisdom, and in worldly matters she +was not prosperous--she never sowed that sort of grain. It was very +touching to find that she had not even a few trinkets to leave behind, +but that one by one each had been sold to pay for something for the +invalid--a doctor's fee, or a chemist's heavy bill. She left the world +as unobtrusively as she lived in it. Her last illness was very sudden +and brief, and probably she would have been thankful that the little +household was spared any extra expense. + +The news of Lydia's death was unexpected by every one. When I turned +and left the house and was walking home again, I met Mrs. Taylor going +to inquire about her neighbour's health, with an offering of fruit in a +little basket. She begged me, in the Stowel fashion, to turn and walk +back with her, declaring that she felt so seriously upset by the news +that if I would only see her as far as her gate I should be doing her a +kindness. In the garden the General, who had run down to Stowel for a +couple of days, was reclining in a deck-chair, Indian fashion. He was +reading some cookery recipes in a number of _Truth_, and he turned to +his niece as she crossed the lawn and said, "Do you think your cook +could manage this, Mary? Select a fine pineapple----" + +"Oh, uncle," said Mrs. Taylor with a good deal of feeling, "we have had +such bad news! Our dear old friend in the village, Miss Lydia Blind, +is dead." + +"What Lydia Blind?" said the General; and Mrs. Taylor replied,-- + +"You never knew her, dear. She wasn't able to come to the party; +indeed, I think she has been ailing ever since about that time, but we +had no idea that the end was so near." + +"It can't be the Lydia Blind I used to know?" said the General. + +"Oh no, you couldn't have known her," said Mrs. Taylor with a sob; "she +was just a dear old maiden lady living in the village on very small +means." + +"She hadn't a sister called Belinda, had she?" said the General. + +Mrs. Taylor said she had, and I remembered suddenly how I had seen +Lydia Blind standing one morning in front of the General's picture in +the photographer's shop, and had heard her say, "I used to know him." + +Mrs. Taylor went indoors, and I said good-bye, but the General said to +me abruptly, "I should like to see her; will you take me there?" And +he did not speak again until we found ourselves in the little porch of +the cottage. He looked very tall standing by the low door of the +house, and an odd idea came to me that Miss Lydia would have been proud +of her afternoon caller. + +"Let me go alone," he said gruffly, when he had asked permission to go +to her room; and I waited in Lydia's morning-room, with its twine cases +and unframed sketches, and the photographs of babies. + +"I cannot see the sister," said the General irritably, when he had +rejoined me in the darkened room. "Is she still dumb, poor thing? If +ever there was a case," he went on, "of one life--and, to my mind, the +sweeter and the better life--being sacrificed to another, it is in the +case of Lydia Blind." He sat down on the little green sofa, and looked +about him with eyes that seemed to see nothing. "I never expected such +a thing," he said; "I couldn't have expected a thing like this ... I +didn't even know she lived here.... Do you remember her," he said, +"when she was very pretty? No, no, of course you wouldn't.... It +doesn't hurt you to walk a little, does it? I have lived nearly all my +life out of doors, and when anything upsets me I cannot stand being +within four walls...." + +We went out and crossed the field-path into the woods beyond. The +paths of the wood are narrow and uneven, and at first we walked in +single file, until we came to the broader road beyond the stream, and +then we walked on side by side, the General suiting his pace to my +slow, awkward gait. + +"... Did you ever know the Bazeleys at all? No, you wouldn't, of +course: that would be before your time. They had a very pretty place +in Lincolnshire--a charming place--with a veranda round the house, and +wicker-chairs with coloured cushions on them--more like an Indian house +than an English one.... Harold Bazeley was in love with Lydia too." +(I believe the General was talking more to himself than to me.) "It +was one night sitting in the veranda that I heard him begin to make +love to her for all he was worth, and I had to cut it.... Poor chap! +he came into the smoking-room that night, where I was sitting alone, +and he sat down by the table and put his head in his hands. He may +have been saying his prayers (for he was always a religious man ... he +did a lot of good for the men under him in India), and I sat with him +till it was time to go to bed. I don't know if it was any comfort to +him, but I knew from his face that Lydia must have said no, and I +thought perhaps he wouldn't like being alone.... Well, then of course +one didn't like to rush in and ask one's best friend's girl to marry +one so soon after his disappointment. One had very strict ideas about +honour in those days; I hope one has not lost them.... It is very odd +that I was never here before, until last spring. Nearly all my service +has been abroad, and I generally used to spend my leave hunting or in +London, and my niece used to come up and stay with me there.... I +didn't care much for Taylor in those days, but he really isn't a bad +sort of fellow." + +The sun began to sink behind the trees, and the General seemed to wake +from the reverie in which he had been talking to me, and said: "You +oughtn't to be out after sunset, if you have still got malaria about +you," and we began to walk slowly homewards. + +"It was just such an evening as this," he said, "when I bade her +good-bye, meaning to come back in a little while and ask her to marry +me. She was standing by the gate--fine old gates with stone pillars to +them, and the sun shone full in her eyes.... I suppose that gentle, +sweet look never left them, did it? They were closed, of course, when +I saw them just now.... She was wearing a white dress that evening, I +remember--a sort of muslin dress which I suppose would not be +fashionable now, but which looked very pretty then. It had a lot of +pink ribbons about it, and there was a great bunch of pink moss-roses +in the ribbon of her belt.... Do you know I never picture her except +as the girl who stood by the gate with the sun behind her, and the +roses in her belt. I think I lost my head a little when it came to +saying good-bye, and I began to say things which I had not meant to +say--she looked so pretty with the red sunlight upon her, and her white +muslin dress almost turned to pink in the glare.... I don't think she +was surprised, only sweeter and gentler than before, and a curious, +happy look was in her eyes. But I stopped in time, and stammered like +a fool, thinking of poor Harold Bazeley, and then I said good-bye +rather hurriedly. But I came back again to the gate where she was +still standing, and asked if I might have one of the roses in her belt. +And she gave me the whole bunch. + +"... It must have been after this that the father died and left them +very poor, and then the sister (this one, Belinda) had a stroke of +paralysis, and there was no one to look after her but Lydia.... I +wrote and proposed to her before I went to India--asked her to come +with me as my wife. But she said she could not marry while her sister +lived. It isn't as though we could have remained in England, and she +could have lived with us; but of course India would have been an +impossibility for the poor thing. We never thought in those days that +poor Belinda would live long. And then she made a sort of recovery, +but was still quite helpless, and Lydia wrote and asked me to wait for +her no longer.... I never heard that she had come to live at Stowel." + +The broad, wide village road was dim with twilight when we walked +homewards along it--The Uncle and I. The children had all gone +indoors, and the flowers in the little garden had lost their colour in +the dim light. + +As we passed by the cottage the General halted on the quiet, deserted +road and took off his hat, then he leaned over the little green paling +and drew towards him a branch of a moss-rose tree that Miss Lydia had +planted there. He plucked a bud from it and held it to his face. Then +he said gently, "They are the same sort, but they do not smell so +sweet." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Mrs. Fielden came to Stowel for the funeral, and did not return to +London again. She went to pay some visits, I believe, and afterwards +she will go to Scotland to stay with the Melfords, as she always does +in August. It was a very quiet summer. Anthony went to Ireland to +fish, and Major Jacobs went with him instead of me: Anthony and I used +to take the fishing together. Even Frances Taylor went north to stay +with Mrs. Macdonald, and the Reading Society postponed its future +meetings till the winter should come again. + +Undoubtedly Kate Jamieson's wedding was a stirring event in a very dull +time. The festivities connected with it were carried out with the +Jamiesons' usual energy and lavishness. It is possible to be lavish on +five hundred a year. That is one of the pleasing things that +kind-hearted people like the Jamiesons can prove. No one was omitted +in the list of invitations to the reception which was held on the lawn +in front of the house. And there the whole of the Jamiesons' wide +circle of friends was gathered together, forming an assembly which +surely only the censorious mind could find fault with. The +refreshments, these good Jamiesons informed us, with their ingenuous +interest in discussing detail, were prepared by Margaret, and Kate +contributed to the payment of their ingredients from her small savings. +The group of bride and bridesmaids, which was photographed at the front +door, each wearing an expression of acute distress upon her face, was +George's own idea, and was nobly paid for by him. + +It was announced at the wedding-feast--although it had been whispered +for a long time--that there was soon to be another break in the +Jamieson family. We all instantly prepared a smile of congratulation +for Maud, and some disappointment was felt when it was discovered that +the remark applied to Mrs. Jamieson's youngest son, Kennie. The Pirate +had for some time been informing his friends that the Wild West was +"calling to him," and that he had the "go fever," and that "once he had +known the perfect freedom of life out there" it was impossible to +settle down to the conventionalities of English society again. The +Pirate had obtained a post as purser on one of the ships of the company +to which he belonged, and he appeared at the wedding-breakfast in a +suit of white ducks, a gold-laced cap, and the famous cummerbund. I +have a strong suspicion that he had a revolver concealed in a +mysterious pocket, from the way his hand, in moments of excitement, +occasionally moved towards it; but fortunately the wedding-party was of +so peaceful a description that it was not necessary to produce the +weapon. + +Since the exciting news of Kennie's proposed departure for Buenos Ayres +Mettie has developed nerves and hysteria. But so limited is the power +of imagination or discrimination in the human mind, that I must +honestly confess that I never once connected her indisposition and low +spirits with the news of her cousin's departure. Mettie has added to a +certain helplessness which always distinguishes her a tendency to +tears, and to sitting alone in her bedroom and sniffing dolorously; the +big thin nose requires constant attention, and there are red rims round +poor Mettie's eyes. The Jamiesons, who trace every variation in life +to a love affair, are not long of course in coming to the right and the +sentimental--nay, from the Jamieson point of view, the only reasonable +explanation of this change in their little cousin. But Mettie has +entreated them to say nothing, and to let her suffer in silence, and +they are too loyal to betray her interesting confidences. Kennie +himself is, I believe, still unaware of the interest he is exciting in +Mettie's gentle breast, but doubtless the little woman's extreme +timidity and her clinging disposition appeal in no small measure to the +Defender of the Sex. Mettie raises meek, adoring eyes to the Pirate's +ruddy face, under the gold-laced cap, and murmurs with clasped hands: +"You will never come back to us--I know it, I feel it! You will be +murdered by some gang of cut-throats, and then what will I--I mean your +mother, do?" The Pirate plumes himself and struts, and the dangers +that his little cousin has so powerfully depicted for him make his +young heart swell. + +The village church was quite full of spectators and friends; nearly all +our acquaintances in the village wore new gowns--or apparently new +gowns--for the wedding. Mrs. Lovekin, in a black-cloth mantle with +bead-trimming, showed guests into their pews, and directed the children +at the doorway into giving a ringing cheer as the bride drove up to the +church. It was whispered by a wag that Mrs. Lovekin would like to don +a surplice and officiate at the interesting ceremony herself. There +was a party in white cotton gloves, who banged doors and shouted "Drive +on!" and it was hard to realize that this was the Jamiesons' odd man +and gardener, transformed for the occasion. He wore a large white +ribbon rosette in his button-hole, and all the morning he had been busy +erecting an archway over the gate at Belmont with Union Jacks displayed +thereon, out of consideration, as he explained, to the late Captain +Jamieson, he being military. The Miss Traceys were resplendent in +brown dresses and profuse lace neckties, securely anchored to their +chests by massive brooches; the dresses were afterwards mentioned in an +account of the wedding in the local paper, and it was cut out and +carefully kept by the Miss Traceys, who pasted the interesting news in +a small album for news-cuttings which they bought for the purpose. + +At the Jamiesons' little house there was, I understand, a wild state of +confusion and energy from a very early hour in the morning, and +looking-glasses and hand-mirrors were in great demand. The centre of +interest there, it seems, was Kate's bedroom, where the whole of The +Family congregated to give Kate a last kiss before the veil was put on, +and to wish her happiness again and again. George, who throughout the +entire proceedings made a laudable attempt to appear calm, at last told +his sister that it really was time to start, and the carriage rolled +down the hill, and Kate Jamieson alighted from it, and walked up the +aisle of the old church leaning upon her brother's arm. Eliza Jamieson +was busy with a note-book the whole time, and almost one seemed to +begin to see the wedding through her journalistic eyes. + +Our curate's wife, who is still far from strong, asked Palestrina to +look after Peggy, who expressed a wish to see the wedding, and I was +interested to find how many little games Peggy had invented for herself +by way of getting through the tedium of a service--games which, I +imagine, she had been preparing during the many services which a +curate's little girl is supposed to attend. + +"If you press your eyes to the back of your head as far as you can," +she whispered to me, "you can see green and red and blue spots, and +then open them and you can see green and red and blue spots round +father." And again: "I can say, 'We beseech Thee!' seven times over +while the choir are singing it, if we have Jackson's _Te Deum_." And +then: "Do you know what Georgie and I do, when we are sent to church +alone? We hide in the pew until no one thinks we are there, and then +we pop up in the middle of the service and begin to say the responses. +When we sit with the Sunday-school children we play at 'My husband and +your husband,' and then we each choose in turn which husband we'll have +in the congregation. You see, the first man who comes in is to be the +first child's husband, and the second the second child's, that's how we +manage; last Sunday I got the baker's boy." + +Mr. Swinnerton was at the wedding, somewhat inclined to be +consequential, as usual; but as he devoted his whole attention to +Margaret, one could not but feel that his presence was acceptable. (We +are on the tip-toe of expectation to know when Mr. Swinnerton will +"come to the point.") Margaret Jamieson looked after the needs of the +Higginses' relations, and attended to the wants of all the humbler of +the guests. + +There was still another element of interest in the marriage-party in +the person of Mr. Evans, who ran down from Hampstead for it. "If Mr. +Evans comes," Maud said, with the characteristic fine common sense of +the Jamiesons, "I want you all to understand that it is all quite over +between him and me. But what I have always thought about Mr. Evans is +this--that he is the sort of man who would like The Family, and I do +not see why he should not take a fancy to one of the other members of +it. I am quite sure his affection for me was based upon my +suitability. He often told me, for instance, that he would like a wife +who had been brought up to do things for herself, and could manage on a +small income and dress cheaply, and I am sure we can all do that. And +after all, if that is so, one of us is as suitable as another. He had +very definite ideas about a wife; but I couldn't help feeling all the +time that it was some one like ourselves that he had in his mind. He +seemed to have a great dread of any one who was too smart; and I said +to him at the time--for of course we both talked about our families a +good deal, as one does in the first stages--that we were all very +homely sort of people. I could always put myself in the background if +he seemed, for instance, to take a fancy to Gracie. And Gracie herself +has often said that she thinks she would like a man to wear a white +watered-silk waistcoat." + +Gracie looked quite pleased with the arrangement, and Mr. Evans was +asked down "as a friend." And I should here like to record--only of +course it is going too far ahead--that before the summer was over, Mr. +Evans, charmed with The Family, as Maud felt he would be, and convinced +of their suitability, had chosen Gracie from amongst the remaining Miss +Jamiesons who were still at the disposal of those who seek a wife. +Gracie's energy charmed Mr. Evans. He often said afterwards that he +believed he had got the pick of the basket after all. + +It was quite evident to me, and I believe to most of the Jamiesons' +guests, that one of the mysteries, so dear to the hearts of Stowel, was +in preparation for the wedding afternoon. Not even my sister and I had +been initiated into the secret; but Mrs. Jamieson, it must be +confessed, took away from the shock of surprise which might have been +ours, by referring during the whole afternoon to the entertainment +which was to take place later. The Jamiesons had decided that the +lawn, newly mown, was to be suddenly cleared of trestle-tables and +garden-chairs, and that a small band of musicians was to spring up +unexpectedly out of the ground, as it were, and that every one was to +know suddenly that they were in the midst of an impromptu dance. Now +Mrs. Jamieson, nervously expectant, and half fearing from the detached +manners of her daughters (so well did the Miss Jamiesons simulate their +ignorance of what was before them) that they must indeed have forgotten +about the dance, interrupted every conversation by creeping up to them +in her melancholy, quiet way, and saying, "Shall I get them to clear +away now?" + +"It's to be impromptu, mamma," entreated the Miss Jamiesons in agitated +whispers. It had been decided between them that Gracie, as the +youngest of the party, should exclaim suddenly, as if by some happy +inspiration, "I vote we dance;" and that then in a perfectly easy and +natural manner guests and entertainers alike should, with the utmost +friendliness, help to push back the tables and chairs into the lilac +bushes, and that then the musicians should be hastily summoned from the +kitchen, where they were to have tea. Before that time arrived the +unfortunate Mrs. Jamieson had, as one might say, almost skimmed the +cream off the whole thing. Her nervousness would not allow her to +rest, and in the end she had established the musicians in the three +chairs so artlessly prepared for them under the chestnut-tree; and +there they were with fiddle and concertina long before Gracie had found +an opportunity for making her impromptu suggestion. Their sudden +appearance, one could not but feel, detracted from the unprepared +effect that had been intended, and they stood waiting to begin with +quite a forlorn appearance until the Pirate, for whom the arrival of +the hour means the arrival of the man (if the Pirate is anywhere +about), called out in his loud tones, "Strike up, you fellows, and let +us have a dance!" and the very next moment the white drill suit and the +gold-laced cap of Kennie might have been seen in the middle of the +lawn. He gallantly seized Mettie round the waist and scattered the +guests by the onslaught and the fierce charge he made upon them, and +soon had cleared a space in which he footed it gaily. The Higginses, +who had been rather shy during the reception, hastened to find +partners, and warmed to the occasion at once. Young Abel Higgins, the +handsome young farmer from Dorming, said it was the pleasantest +entertainment he had ever been at. "There is no cliquism about it," he +remarked. "You just say to a girl, 'Will you dance?' and up she comes; +it doesn't matter if she's a lord's daughter!" + +Mr. Swinnerton devoted much of his attention and his conversation to me +during the afternoon. He discussed what he calls "military matters" at +great length, pointing out the mistakes of every general in South +Africa, at the same time clearly stating what Mr. Swinnerton would have +done under similar circumstances, and lamenting the inefficiency of the +War Office. Later in the afternoon, however, when he found me where, +as I hoped, I had effectually concealed myself behind a laurel bush, +Mr. Swinnerton plunged heavily into the question of marriage; and this, +as Maud would say, was surely a very hopeful sign. I was disappointed, +however, to find that his views regarding the happy state of matrimony +seemed to have been made almost entirely from one point of view, and +that point of view himself. + +"Don't you think," he began ponderously, as he seated himself beside me +after the rather heavy fatigue of dancing on a lawn to the strains of a +band that did not keep scrupulous time--"don't you think that a man +ought to see a girl in her own home before he makes up his mind?" + +I dissented on the plea of over-cautiousness, but Mr. Swinnerton did +not hear me. + +"What I think," he went on, "is that marriage is a serious undertaking +for a man, and that one ought to be very sure of one's own mind." + +I admitted the seriousness of matrimony, but thought it applied equally +to the woman. + +This remark also seemed to escape Mr. Swinnerton's attention. Indeed, +I found that what is extremely irritating about this fellow is that his +mind never diverges from his own topic; he seems quite incapable of +excursions into the thoughts and feelings of the persons he addresses, +but plods steadily on his own path, pleased to give his own views, and +quite unaffected by the differences of opinion that are offered him. +There is a legend of my childhood that records that a man once said, +"It is bitt----" and then went to sleep for a thousand years, and when +he woke up he said, "--erly cold." I am often reminded of this story +when I listen to Mr. Swinnerton's plodding conversation. + +"What I feel is," he went on--and one knew that no fatigue on the part +of the listener would be noticed by him--"what I feel is, that the man +being the head of the woman he should always choose some one who is +docile and good-tempered, and perhaps above all things a good cook. +That's the very first thing I would teach a woman--to be a good cook. +It's so important for a man to have his meals really nice and nicely +served. Don't you agree with me?" + +"It is very important," I said. + +"I am so glad you agree with me." Mr. Swinnerton occasionally remarks +on an agreeable clause in one's conversation, whereas a disagreement +never even penetrates his mind. "Of course, you fellows with your mess +and all that can scarcely realize how necessary it is that a man's wife +should be a good cook. And then she ought to be thoroughly +domesticated," went on Mr. Swinnerton's heavy voice; "a woman should +not always be wanting to go out in the evening. What I feel is that +the home should constitute the woman's happiness." + +"And cooking?" I said. + +"Yes, and cooking," said Mr. Swinnerton. "I do not want my wife to +have any money; I had much rather she had to come to me for things. I +am not greedy about money. I am comfortably off, but I think a man +should have entire control of the purse. One could knock off any +expenditure on a wife's dress, if that is the case. Ladies like a new +bonnet, and I should always give my wife a new bonnet if things had +been nice." + +I remarked that Mr. Swinnerton was very generous. + +"I know I am generous. Of course, a man gives up a great deal when he +marries, but I do not know that in the matter of expense it would cost +me more to keep a small house than to pay for lodgings." + +"It depends," I said, "what wages you give your wife. An occasional +new bonnet would not be an extravagant salary, if she turned out to be +a really good cook." + +For the first time Mr. Swinnerton seemed struck by the wisdom of my +remarks. "No, it would not," he said; "it would not. I know that I +would make a good husband," he remarked; "and I feel that I have a +future before me in the volunteers." + +Margaret joined us at this moment, and Swinnerton smiled indulgently at +her, without offering, however, to give her his seat. I do not think +that Margaret noticed this, as she did not notice any omission on Mr. +Swinnerton's part. + +"I hope you are not very tired," she said. "Your journey from London +and then this little dance must be very fatiguing, I am afraid." + +"Men don't get tired," said Mr. Swinnerton grandiosely, and he looked +towards me for applause. He did not, however, ask her to dance, and +Margaret moved away to attend to other guests. + +"She's a very nice-looking girl," said Mr. Swinnerton approvingly, "and +a well-brought-up girl, too." + +So I suppose it is still hopeful, as the Jamiesons would say. But I +pray that Margaret Jamieson will remove Mr. Swinnerton hence when she +has married him. + +Kate and Mr. Ward drove to the station in the best landau and pair of +horses from Stowel Inn. Mr. Ward was so upset from first to last by +the ceremonies and the heat that his conical-shaped head, covered with +the dew of nervous perspiration, steamed like a kettle; but his +affection for his bride and his evident delight and pride in her were +undeniable, and although resenting in his mild way the stinging shower +of rice with which he was pelted, and the usual facetious jokes that +were made on the bride and bridegroom, Mr. Ward nevertheless beamed +with good-nature all the time. + +Palestrina made me laugh when she came home in the evening. She had +been down to the village to see the Pettifers and to show them her +wedding finery, as she promised to do; for Mrs. Pettifer is ill in bed +again, and was unable to stand at the church door with the rest of the +crowd to see the wedding-party. My sister found the old lady weeping +bitterly, and for a long time she could not guess the cause of her +distress, until at last a remark of her husband's explained it. "She +do take on like that tur'ble queer," he said, "as soon as ever the +wedding-bells ring after a marriage is over." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Pettifer; "I always say to myself, 'She's got him, and +he ain't disappointed her after all.'" + +Kennie sailed for Buenos Ayres the day after the wedding, and Mettie +walked over to see us, being sent on some errand, I have no doubt, +wherein she would be more usefully employed than in getting into the +way of the staff of workers who were clearing up after yesterday's +festivities. Mettie brought over Mrs. Ward's first telegram received +that morning from Dover, and said it was too funny to think of Kate +being Mrs. Ward. "Kate Ward," she said with one of her curious little +chirruping laughs, "Kate Ward--do look at it!" And we dutifully +replied that it certainly seemed the height of drollery. + +Palestrina is not perfectly just to me when Mettie comes to call. She +always remembers something important which she has until this moment +forgotten, and with apologies to Mettie she flies off to see to it, and +I am left with our caller. And then the marriage question is in full +swing before one can prevent it. Mettie says she would never, never +allow a man to know that she cared for him, and that no nice girl +would. Did I think that if a girl never gave any evidence of her love, +and died, it would be a very pitiful end? And of course I said that +the pathos of the thing would strike one directly. + +"After death," said Mettie, "she might still be his good angel. It is +very strange," she said, "to think of becoming a being with wings. Do +you know I often wonder what those wings can be like, and I cannot +imagine them made of anything but white ostrich feathers, which I must +say would look very pretty.... I am sure it is a brave thing to part +and say nothing, but do you think that one might write?" + +It was only then, at that precise moment, that I in any way connected +Mettie's remarks with the thought of the Pirate Boy, now a purser in +the ---- Line. + +"My dear Mettie," I said, "I should certainly write to him--write +often, write affectionately, send him your photograph, work him a +housewife for his cabin, carve him a frame for your photograph. I am +delighted----" + +"Oh! but nothing is settled yet," simpered Mettie. + +It has sometimes struck me since, although one generally denies the +suggestion, that the first sentiment of love-making may emanate from +the woman's mind. But probably the Pirate will never know that it was +not his own idea that he should fall in love with Mettie. + +This evening I was looking over a lot of old letters, such as our +fathers and mothers used to keep, put away in drawers with bits of +ribbon tied round them in the days when there was more time for that +sort of thing than there is now. And I came across the following +letter, written in ink that has grown rather faded, and dated 1845. It +describes a wedding, and I have saved it from a number of other letters +which I have destroyed, to stick it into my diary as an appropriate +sort of ending to my entries for to-day. The letter is a genuine one, +and I have the original of it beside me now. + + +"MY DEAREST AUNT, + +"You wished to hear all about our doings on Thursday. Though I dare +say you have heard many editions of the affairs of that day, I take the +earliest opportunity of relating to you, as I promised, my version of +it, though how often was it wished that dear aunt and uncle had +themselves been present to illuminate the picture. We all assembled at +a quarter-past ten o'clock. The married ladies (and gentlemen, whether +they were in that happy state or not) remained in the drawing-room +till, at a given signal, the bride descended, followed by her +bridesmaids--first Emily and myself, then Anne and Jane Schofield, then +Anna and Eliza Schofield. The four first were in pink, the two last in +blue. After talking over matters a little, we entered our respective +carriages, mamma going in the first carriage, and papa and Mary +bringing up the rear. We went through the ceremony very well. Mary +responded in a perfectly clear and audible voice; but once the worthy +bride-groom faltered, and as I stood next to him could perceive he was +somewhat agitated. The ceremony of kissing being finished, we returned +from church, when numerous and costly presents were exhibited to the +eyes, and amongst them none more beautiful than my dear uncle and +aunt's. But, by way of parenthesis, mamma wishes me to ask you, as +Mary has two silver canisters, whether you would have any objection to +change the kind and elegant expression of your feeling for Mary into a +silver waiter. Knowing your kindness, we sent it by Uncle Kershaw. +Now to proceed. We descended to breakfast--a most important business, +which occupied us a considerable time--in the middle of which Uncle +Ainsworth produced a bunch of grapes, and signified his intention of +drinking Mary Schofield's health in the red juice of the grape. He +immediately expressed the juice and suited the action to the word. +Robert Arncliffe made a beautiful speech--quite a gem. We then +proceeded to dress the bride in travelling attire. Then came the +dreadful moment of parting. Mamma and papa got over it most +wonderfully; suffice it to say our sisters' tears flowed most copiously +on that day. After her departure, we took a drive to restore us to +that harmony of spirits so desirable when persons are the entertainers +of others. We drove through Hyde Park and Regent's Park in procession, +and stopped to walk in the Zoological Gardens, coveting the society of +the brute creation as well as the rational. We then returned to +dinner, which was at seven, when, to our indescribable horror, on +calling over the names of certain young ladies, we discovered their +toilet was not complete when dinner was announced. After a small +delay, however, the offenders appeared, and the business of dinner was +commenced with astonishing vigour. There is no occasion to describe to +you the manners and customs of a dinner-table, as a sameness must +naturally pervade all such employments. We ladies at length signified +our intention of leaving the gentlemen masters of the field, and Uncle +Jesse came out with us and went to bed. We proceeded to enjoy a small +quadrille, till I suppose the sound of feet called the other portion of +the community from below. After tea and a little display of musical +powers, we had another quadrille; but this did not occur till Emily was +gone. We finally separated at half-past eleven. We have heard twice +or three times from the newly-married people. They are in Bath to-day. +Will you excuse, my dear aunt, this dreadful scrawl, but I have had so +many notes to write, added to which I have sprained my right arm, which +is now pleading to be spared any further exertions. Hoping that dear +uncle and yourself, as well as dear Sarah, are well, and again begging +to be excused this unconnected epistle, With united love to all, +Believe me, + +"Your very affectionate niece, + "MARGARET M. NAYLOR. + +"MECKLENBURGH SQUARE, + _August_ 1845." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +My leg, "my best leg," as poor Beau Brummell used to say, has been +hurting rather, for the last week or two. I do not know how Palestrina +has discovered this, but the dear little woman is looking harassed and +anxious, and she is trying to inveigle me into going up to London +again, to get further advice from my doctor. She has broached the +subject in several ways. There is a play going on at present which she +would much like to see, if I will be kind enough to take her to London +for a couple of days. Or there is some shopping which she wants to do, +and she must have my advice on the subject. I believe that she does +not like to allow, even to herself, that I ought to go expressly to see +the surgeon, but she means to throw out the suggestion when we shall be +in town together, and in this way she has decided, with her usual +thoughtfulness, to spare me the anticipation of hearing that I am not +going on as well as I ought to be doing. It is, however, much too hot +to think of going up to London, so for the present none of Palestrina's +deep-laid plans have been successful. It is broiling hot weather even +down here in the country, but the mornings are cool and fresh, and, +after tossing about half the night, I generally get up and go for a +feeble sort of walk before breakfast. It is extraordinary how new and +fresh the world feels in the early morning, while the dew is still on +the grass, and the birds are singing without any fear that their +concert will be stopped or disturbed by passers-by. + +On my way home this morning I passed the Jamiesons' little house, and +was hailed to come in by the flutter of nearly a dozen dinner-napkins +waved to me from the window of the breakfast-room. It is impossible to +pass Belmont without being asked to come in, or to leave the hospitable +little house without an invitation to stay longer. Monday--this was +Monday--is what the Jamiesons call "one of our busiest mornings," and I +think that our good friends talk almost more than usual on the days on +which they are most engaged. + +As I entered the room, two of The Family had already finished +breakfast, and were busy at a side-table, driving their +sewing-machines. The whirring noise, added to the amount of talking +that was going on, had rather a bewildering effect at first. There +was, besides, the added confusion attendant upon what is known as +"getting George off." The process seems to consist of shaking George +into his City coat, brushing it, patting him on the back, telling him +how nice he looks, hoping he will get down in the middle of the week, +or at least not later than Friday afternoon, and giving him messages +and remembrances to quite half a dozen friends in London. The Family +chorus as I entered was something like this:-- + +"Cream or sugar, weak or strong?" + +"Mettie, did you get your letters?" + +"Eliza, which is your napkin-ring?" + +"Please say what you will have; I have asked you at least half a dozen +times." + +"Do you mind the window open?" + +"Does any one hear the bus?" + +"Toast or rolls?" + +"Which is your napkin-ring?" + +"Did any one hear the rain last night?" + +"You haven't said yet if you will have an egg." + +"Mother is not well, and is not coming down this morning." + +"Does any one mind if we go on with our machines?" + +Over and above this, snatches of newspaper were read, and numerous +directions were given to a very young servant as to how things should +be placed upon the table--a proceeding which usually goes on at every +one of the Jamiesons' meals. It is known as "training one of our +village girls." + +Gracie and Eliza were the two who sat at the side-table before their +whirring sewing-machines, their very spectacles nearly darting from +their heads with energy and speed. George said, "I wish one of you +girls would mend my glove before I start;" and Gracie said, "Give it to +me; I can spare five minutes off lunch-time to get this finished." + +Margaret remarked, "Mamma seems very much out of spirits to-day, and I +think one of us ought to go and play draughts with her." + +Eliza took out her watch. "I can play draughts for thirty-five +minutes," she remarked--"from eleven-five to eleven-forty--and then +Gracie must take my place, as Margaret will be baking, and I have the +soup-kitchen accounts to make up." + +"I did not anticipate draughts this morning," said poor Gracie. "I +must just get this done when I go to bed." This is the last refuge of +the overdriven, and one which is so frequently alluded to by the +Jamiesons that I often fear they deny themselves the proper amount of +sleep. + +George here kissed each of his sisters in turn, and ran upstairs to say +good-bye to his mother, while the omnibus waited at the gate. + +Maud, who was trimming hats for the whole family, and who was +surrounded by a curious medley of ribbons and finery, said: "What about +the Church Council work? I am afraid we have forgotten it." + +"That's my business," said Gracie tragically; "and I must give this +up;" and she stopped her sewing-machine, and rolled the purple cotton +pinafore into a tight ball and placed it on the table. + +"Dear Gracie," said Margaret, "could I not do it? I could get it in +between the Kaffirs and my baking." + +"I would offer to do it," said Eliza, with that affectionate +helpfulness which distinguishes The Family, "only I am so filled up +with soup." Eliza referred to her soup-kitchen accounts. + +The small servant here appeared at the door, and said that an old woman +wanted to see Miss Gracie. + +"My time! my time!" said Gracie, and went to the back door to give the +last shilling of her quarter's dress allowance to the poor woman in +distress. + +"The worst of playing draughts is," said Eliza, "that one can do +nothing else at the same time, except it be to add up accounts in one's +head. Otherwise I should have been only too glad. I tell you what I +can do, though--I can play instead of Gracie this morning, if she won't +mind my keeping the candle alight to do my Browning article after I +have gone to bed." + +Mettie always offers to help every one, but so slow is the little +woman's way of working that the energetic family of Jamieson are quite +aware that probably the business will be weeks in doing; so their +answers to Mettie's offers, given in a kindly voice, are always: "My +dear, you have got your letters to write, and your practising--we could +not do without your singing in the evening, you know." + +Mr. Evans, who was a guest in the house for a few days, was smoking his +pipe in a leisurely way in the garden, and Gracie said: "I really do +feel that I ought to give more attention to Mr. Evans, if only I had +the time for it. Could one of you run into the garden and make a few +pleasant remarks to him until I am ready?" And this Eliza did, first +glancing at her watch in the characteristic Jamieson fashion, and +coming in presently to say that she had sat "for ten solid minutes +doing nothing, and that she does wish men had more resources of their +own." + +It would have been useless to suggest that the work should stop for a +whole summer day. A child came in with some flowers as an offering to +the Miss Jamiesons, and Eliza said: "Would you mind putting them down +somewhere, my dear? I will try to get a minute to arrange them +by-and-by." And then the machines began again, and I walked on +homewards, and enjoyed a long, hot morning in the garden with a book. + +The garden was very shady and pleasant, and one thought regretfully of +the Jamiesons sitting indoors with their sewing-machines. Palestrina +came out presently in a gray dress, very soft and cool-looking, and +with a big sunshade over her head. She sat down beside me, and said in +an off-hand way, and a determination to be congratulatory which was +very suspicious: "I have got a pressing invitation for you." And she +handed me a letter from Kate Ward. + +Mrs. Ward wrote upon the almost immaculate notepaper which is affected +by brides, I have often noticed that this superfine quality of paper is +one of the first extravagances of young married life, as it is one of +the first economies of a later date, and a little judgment will soon +show how long a woman has been married by merely looking at her +notepaper. Cream-laid, with a gold address at the top, bespeaks the +early days of matrimony; and a descent through white stamping, no +stamping, Hieratica to Silurian note, marks the different stages of the +rolling years. + +Kate said (on the best Court note) that she would never forgive us if +we did not come and see her in her new home. James had been generous +in the extreme, and they had bought everything "plain but good" for the +house. And the whole expense of it had been covered by exactly the sum +of money that they had laid by for the purpose. Kate continued, "But I +will not bore you with a description of the house, for I want you to +see it for yourselves," and then entered upon the usual Jamieson +descriptive catalogue of every piece of furniture and every wallpaper +which she had purchased. + +I handed the letter back to Palestrina, who was sitting in an +exaggerated attitude of ease and indifference on the edge of my +deck-chair, and said to her, "Why leave Paradise? London will be +atrocious in this hot weather, and I believe it would be tempting +Providence to quit this garden." + +"I am afraid it will give great disappointment to Kate if we do not +go," said Palestrina, in a tone of voice which suggested that she had +been prepared for opposition, and had rehearsed her own arguments +beforehand. "After all, she lives in the suburbs, and has a garden of +her own, and we need not stay more than two or three days." + +"We shall have to do so much admiring," I said, smothering a yawn. "I +know what brides are! You, Palestrina, probably know exactly the right +thing to say about newly-laid linoleum and furniture which is plain but +good, but I never do." + +"I think I should like to go," said Palestrina, putting the matter upon +personal grounds, as I knew she would do when she had entirely made up +her mind that I must go up to London. What pressure she had brought to +bear upon Mrs. Ward to induce her to invite us to the new house I +cannot say, but some instinct told me that Kate had been warned to +write a letter which might be handed to me to read. + +I pointed out to Palestrina that, much as I should miss her at home, I +should not stand in the way of her paying a visit to her old friend. + +"I have accepted for us both from Thursday to Tuesday," said Palestrina +firmly. "Oh, by-the-bye," she said, rising and going indoors, "I just +sent a line to Dr. Fergus at the same time to say that you will look +in and see him one morning, just to see that you are going on all +right." + +"You also were up early?" I said to the diplomat, who smiled at me from +under her big umbrella without a vestige of shame at her own cunning. +"I don't think it is fair on a crippled man to get up early and send +off letters by the early post. It's a mean trick." + +"You were up half the night," said Palestrina, nodding her head at me, +"for I heard you." And she crossed the lawn and went indoors again. + +The following Thursday we took train for Clarkham. I had never stayed +in this part of the world before, till we came to visit Kate, and the +suburb where she lives seems to me to be rather a pleasant place, with +broad roads over whose walls and palings shrubs and red maples and +other trees hang invitingly. And it is so near London that a very +short run in the train takes one to Victoria Station. But the +neighbourhood is not fashionable, and I cannot help remarking the +apologetic tone in which every one we meet speaks of living here. + +The Wards' house is a very nice little place, with very new wall-papers +and very clean curtains and slippery floors, upon which art rugs slide +dangerously. There is a small garden with a lawn and a brown hawthorn +tree upon it, and there are two trim little maids who wait upon one +excellently well. Kate is a thorough good manager, and her whole +household reminds one of those pages on household management which one +sees in magazines, describing the perfect equipment of a house--its +management, and the rules to be observed by a young housekeeper. + +There is a place for everything, and Kate says her wedding-presents are +a great assistance in giving a home-like look to the house. + +Mr. Ward leaves home at half-past nine every morning, and Kate shakes +him into his coat in exactly the same way George used to be shaken into +his, and stands at the hall-door with a bright smile on her face, until +James has got into the morning bus and driven away, in a manner that is +very wifely and commendable. + +The unpretentious little household seems to be a very happy one, and +Kate was quite satisfied with the praise which Palestrina bestowed upon +everything. + +"Of course," she said, "the great drawback is that the place is so +unfashionable;" and we warmly protested against that being of the least +consequence. But Kate said with her usual common sense: "It does +matter, really. No one thinks anything of you if you live here, and +nearly every one who has enough money always leaves directly. +Still"--cheerfully--"one must expect some drawbacks, and I do think I +have been very lucky. James is goodness itself, and quite a number of +people have been to call." + +We found to our dismay that Kate, with the laudable intention of +amusing us, had accepted several invitations to what are called "the +last of the summer gaieties." There were tea-parties and +garden-parties given by her friends, to which we were expected to go; +and her very nearest neighbours, who are generally known as the "Next +Doors," actually invited us to dine. + +"This afternoon," Kate said, "is the day of the Finlaysons' +garden-party. They are frightfully rich people--ironmongers in the +City; but you never saw such greenhouses and gardens as they have got! +Do put on your best dress," she said to Palestrina, "and look nice; +people here seem to dress so smartly for this sort of thing." + +I think, indeed, it was the very grandest party to which I have ever +had an invitation. Every one seemed to sail about in a most stately +fashion, in a gown of some rich stuff, and there was such an air of +magnificence about the whole thing that one hardly dared to speak above +a whisper. There was a marquee on the lawn, with most expensive +refreshments inside, and a great many waiters handing about things on +trays. Mrs. Finlayson spoke habitually--at least at parties--in an +exalted tone of voice, which one wondered if she used when, for +instance, she was adding up accounts or saying her prayers. It was +difficult to imagine that the voice could have been intended for +private use---it was such a very public, almost a platform voice, and +the accent was most finished and aristocratic. + +The Miss Finlaysons, in exquisite blue dresses and very thin shoes, +also sailed about and shook hands with their guests in a cold, proud +way which was very effective. Young Finlayson was frankly supercilious +and condescending; and there was a schoolboy in a tall hat, who was +always alluded to as "our brother at Eton." The excellent old papa of +the firm of Finlayson and Merritt was really the most human and the +least alarming of the whole party. He seemed quite pleased when +Palestrina, in her soft gurgling way, admired his greenhouses and +peaches, and he led her back to where his lady ("wife" is too homely a +term) was standing in a throne-room attitude on the lawn, and remarked +genially, "This young lady has just been admiring our little place, +Lavinia." + +"Indeed," said my sister, "it seems to me very charming, and----" + +"Hush, hush!" said Mrs. Finlayson playfully, but with an undercurrent +of annoyance in her party voice. "I won't hear a word said in its +praise--it is just a step to the West End." + +"What is the actual distance?" I began. + +It was old Finlayson who rescued me from my dilemma, and explained that +until five years ago they had had a very tidy little 'ouse at +'ampstead, and that this present location, although so magnificent, +was, in the eyes of his lady, really a stepping-stone to further +grandeur and a more fashionable locality. + +The Next Doors were introduced to us at this party, and we were much +struck by the fact that, although they seemed appropriately lodged in a +place well suited to them, and in a society certainly not inferior to +themselves, they, too, instantly began to apologize for living at +Clarkham. + +"One feels so lost in a place like this," said Mrs. Next Door; "and +although the boys are so happy with their tennis and things on Saturday +afternoons, I cannot help feeling that it is a great drawback to the +girls to live here." + +A band began to play under the trees, and Palestrina said to me, with +one of her low laughs: "I wonder if I shall begin to sail about soon? +Isn't it funny! They all do it, and now that the band has begun I feel +that I must do it too." + +The Miss Finlaysons came up at intervals and introduced young men to +her in a spasmodic sort of way. When one least expected it, some one +in a tall hat and a long frock-coat was placed before Palestrina, and a +Miss Finlayson said quite sharply, "May I introduce--Mr. Smith----" and +then as suddenly retired. There was nothing for it but to make a +little tepid conversation to the various Mr. Smiths, and Sonnenscheins, +and Seligmanns who were in this way presented, and we noticed that +almost every one of them began his conversation by saying, "Been going +out a great deal lately? Done the Academy?" And then moved off to be +introduced to some one else. + +The young men were very supercilious and grand, and we could only +account for it, on discussing the matter afterwards, by supposing that +they thought Palestrina was a Clarkham young lady, and that this was +their way of showing their superiority to her. One or two had +certainly said to us with a dubious air, "Do you live in the Pork?" But +it was not until the quieter moments that followed the stress of this +regal party that we at all realized that this meant, Did we live in +Clarkham Park. + +Kate Ward was very agreeable and pleasant to every one, and was voted a +nobody directly, and we heard it remarked that she had "no style." I +think Kate must have overheard the remark, for she became a little +nervous towards the end of the afternoon, and presently said, "Perhaps +we ought to be going?" But young Finlayson was here suddenly introduced +to her by one of his sisters, and Kate thought it necessary to make a +few remarks before saying good-bye. She said something pretty about +his sisters, who are undoubtedly handsome girls, and Mr. Finlayson said +bitterly, "Yes, a good many so-called beauties in London would have to +shut up shop if my sisters appeared in the Row. It is a beastly shame +they have got to live down here!" + +Kate said, "But I suppose they go to town occasionally?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Finlayson; "but they ought to have their Park hacks, +and do things in style. It is a shame the governor does not take a +house in the West End." + +My sister tried to look sympathetic. + +"However," said Mr. Finlayson more hopefully, "we have taken a bit of a +shoot in Scotland this year, so I hope the girls will have some +society. Well, it is a deer forest really, and a very fine house and +grounds," amended Mr. Finlayson, with a burst of candour. + +Mrs. Finlayson sailed up, and stooped to make a few remarks about the +gaiety of the past season to us. She said that she and her daughters +were in demand everywhere, and that the other night in a West End +theatre every lorgnette in the house was turned towards their box. +"Rupert, of course, has his own chambers in St. James's, and knows +every one." + +The Miss Finlaysons shook hands, and said good-bye with their usual +lofty condescension, and each said, "Going on anywhere?" to which we +could only reply humbly that we had no further engagements for that +afternoon. + +Kate praised the party all the way home, and then said, with a burst of +feeling: "Oh, how I do wish I were a swell! I know it's wicked, but I +would snub one or two people." + +The next morning, being Sunday, we went to church, and the feeling of +equality with the rest of mankind which this gives one was very +refreshing after the magnificence and social distinctions about which +we had been learning so much during the last few days. But even in +church one may notice how superior some families in Clarkham are to +others. The pew-letting of the church seems to have been conducted on +principles other than those recommended in Holy Writ. Richer +folk--those with gold chains, for whom we learn precedence should not +be accorded--occupied the front pews, furnished with red cushions and +Prayer-Books with silver corners, while the humbler sort were +accommodated with seats under the gallery. The Finlaysons sailed in +rather late, with a rustle of their smart dresses, and kneeled to pray +on very high hassocks, their elbows just touching the book-board in +front of them, their faces inadequately covered with their +tightly-gloved hands. The Next Doors had a pew half-way up the middle +aisle. The day was hot, and the clergyman, a small devout-looking man, +very earnest and really eloquent, was guilty sometimes in moments of +excitement of dropping aitches. This of course may have been the +result of the hot weather. It was something of a shock to notice that +the little Next Doors--terrible children, of high spirits and +pugnacious dispositions--were allowed to giggle unreproved at each +omission of the aspirate on the part of the preacher. The Next Doors +overtook us on our way out of church, and two of the pugnacious +children, having dug each other with their elbows, and fought round me +for permission to walk home with me and talk about the war, threw light +upon their behaviour in church by remarking with smiling +self-satisfaction, "Papa says we ought always to giggle when Mr. Elliot +drops his aitches, to show that we know better...." Little brutes! + +We spent a lazy afternoon under the brown hawthorn tree on the little +lawn, and Thomas drove down to see Palestrina, and good Kate Ward put +forth her very best efforts to give us a sumptuous cold supper. We +found, to our surprise, that nightingales sing down here, and we sat on +the lawn till quite late listening to them. Mr. and Mrs. Ward slipped +their hands into one another's in the dark, and appeared to be most +happy and contented. + +"I am glad we came," said Palestrina that night, when Mrs. Ward had +quitted the room. "Dear old Kate!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +On Monday I went to see Dr. Fergus about my leg, and did not get a very +good report of it. + +We returned from Clarkham on one of the hottest days I ever remember, +and found Mrs. Fielden waiting for us in the hall. + +"Every one seems to have come over to hear about your London visit," +said Mrs. Fielden lightly, "for I found Mr. Ellicomb and Maud Jamieson +here when I came in." + +She began pouring out tea for us both as she spoke, and she signalled +something to Palestrina, who replied as she stooped down to cut some +cake, "Another operation--yes, four or five weeks in bed at least." + +"I sent Maud and Mr. Ellicomb home together," said Mrs. Fielden, +smiling. "He, poor man, is in a great state of mental perturbation, +for it seems that he has heard that in South Africa pigs are fed upon +arum lilies, and that so delicate is the flesh of the pork thus +produced that some flower-growers in the Channel Isles are cultivating +arum lilies for the purpose of feeding pigs, and to produce the same +delicious pork. He was so agitated that he got up from his chair and +walked up and down the room, repeating over and over again, 'Arum-fed +pork! Monstrous, monstrous!' I really did not know how to comfort +him, so I sent him home with Maud Jamieson, which seemed to please him +very much." + +"And you," I said, "following the Jamieson train of thought, have been +saying to yourself ever since, 'Is there anything in it?'" + +"She certainly had a soothing effect upon him," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"Then," said I, "the second stage has been reached. When all the +Jamiesons are married, I think I shall feel that romance is over." + +"I know they have been to tea at the farm," said Mrs. Fielden, "because +Mr. Ellicomb talked so much about his blue china, and Maud said a +woman's hand was needed in the house." + +"I wonder," I said, "what will be the special objection that Maud will +raise when she becomes engaged to Mr. Ellicomb? He is not called +Albert; he does not wear a white watered-silk waistcoat; his hair is +certainly his own; and his mother is dead, so it cannot be said that he +too closely resembles her." + +One of the objections raised by Maud to a candidate for her hand, was +that he was far too like his mother--a really delightful woman--but +Maud declared, with tears, that she could never really look up to a man +who was so like his mamma. + +"At present," said Mrs. Fielden, "the blue china seems to be all in his +favour; but one cannot feel sure that it will not be an obstacle later +on, or Mr. Ellicomb's High Church principles, perhaps, may prove a +deterrent to her ideas of perfect happiness." + +"I wish," said Palestrina, "that Margaret's affairs were more settled. +This summer has been a trying one for her." + +"Oh, I forgot to tell you," said Mrs. Fielden, "that that was one of +Maud's reasons for coming over to see you. She told me that Mr. +Swinnerton is coming to pay them a visit. He has written, it seems, to +make the offer himself, and Maud says she thinks it will be all right +now." + +Mrs. Fielden was in one of her most light-hearted moods. After the +heat of the day there came a delightful coolness, and she stayed +chatting till nearly dinner-time, and then decided that she would +remain to dinner if we should ask her to do so. + +"I have three dear old sisters-in-law staying with me," said Mrs. +Fielden, "and they will doubtless drag all the ponds for my body." + +"Won't they be anxious about you?" asked Palestrina. + +"Perhaps," said Mrs. Fielden, raising her pretty eyebrows in the old +affected way; "but then they will appreciate me so much more when I +come back to them from the grave." + +We sat out on the lawn after dinner till it was quite dark, and only +Mrs. Fielden's white dress was visible in the gloom. For some reason +best known to herself she put off her wilful mood out there in the +gloom of the garden. She was not regal, not even amusing, only +charming and full of a lovely kindness. Half the conversation between +her and Palestrina began with the words, "Do you remember?" as they +recalled old jokes and stories. Then her ever-present gaiety broke out +again, and she laughed and said: "I believe I am becoming reminiscent. +Why doesn't some one sit upon me, or tell me they will order the +carriage for me if I really must go? But it is heavenly here in the +cool--and in heaven, you know, we shall probably all be reminiscent." + +Ten o'clock struck from the tower of the church down below in the +village, and Mrs. Fielden said that now she really must go, or she +would find the sisters-in-law saying a Requiem Mass for her; and +Palestrina went indoors to order the carriage. + +"To-morrow," I said, "I am going to have my last dissipation. I am +going to the Traceys' tea-party." + +"I am certainly going too," said Mrs. Fielden. "I believe I am getting +as gay as the Miss Traceys themselves, though I can't help remarking +that no one who goes to these tea-parties ever seems to be amused when +they get there." + +"Judging from my own standard of what I find amusing," I said, "I +should be inclined to say that Stowel never enjoys itself +extravagantly. Our neighbours never refuse invitations to even the +smallest party; but the pleasure that they get from them, if it exists +at all, is carefully concealed." + +"I have felt that myself," said Mrs. Fielden. "I really don't begin to +enjoy them till I get home." + +"I believe you always enjoy yourself," I said resentfully. + +After a little time Mrs. Fielden said wistfully, "You don't think there +is only a certain amount of happiness in the world, do you, Hugo? And +that if one person gets a great deal, it means that another will get +less?" + +She asks one questions in this way sometimes, as though one were a +superior being who could dispel her perplexities for her. + +"Probably," I said, "you know ten thousand times more about the subject +than I do. You are happy, and I philosophize about it. Tell me which +of us is most fitted to give a lecture on the subject?" + +I thought Mrs. Fielden was going to say something after that, for she +stretched out her hand in a certain impulsive way she has got, and gave +mine just one moment's friendly pressure in the dark. And then +Palestrina came back to say the carriage was at the door, and Mrs. +Fielden said "Good-night." + + +I remember two things about the Miss Traceys' party--first, that Mrs. +Fielden was not there, for one of the old sisters-in-law was ill +suddenly, and she could not leave her; and the other thing I remember +about it is that it was the last occasion on which I ever saw Margaret +Jamieson look pretty. + +There have been some strange innovations in tea-parties ever since Mrs. +Taylor gave hers to meet The Uncle, and sent out visiting-cards instead +of notes. Instead of having tea in the dining-room, all sitting round +the table, as used to be the custom, it seems that dressing-tables are +often brought down from upstairs and extended across the window. These +are covered with white tablecloths, and behind them two maids stand and +wait. The dressing-tables are called the "buffet," and both tea and +coffee are provided, suggesting the elegance and savour of London +refreshments. This is distinctly pleasing, though it is felt that a +single cup of tea drunk while standing has not got the comfort of +former old-fashioned days. Miss Belinda lives on at the little cottage +with the green gate; and through the kindness of the General a lady has +been found to wait upon her, and take her out to these small gaieties +which she loves, and she sits shaking her poor, weak head, and +muttering, "Glory, glory, glory!" It does not occur to her to stay at +home during her period of mourning, and it is acknowledged on all sides +that she does not miss Lydia much. The General has not come to stay +with the Taylors again. In a long letter which he wrote to me after he +left he said he would probably never come back to the place, and at the +same time he thanked me in courteous, old-fashioned phraseology for +being with him through what he called "one of the dark days that come +sometimes." He would never see Miss Belinda, in spite of the many kind +things he did for her; and I always feel that he resented the poor +creature's long illness and weak, silly ways--which was only natural, +no doubt. + +The Vicar was present at his sisters' tea-party, "although," as Miss +Ruby explained to me, "it is not as though this were an evening +entertainment. My sister and I often give these little routs without +him. Still, a gentleman is always something of an ornament at a party." + +There were seven Jamiesons present, and two of them, Margaret and Maud, +offered, in their usual friendly way, to walk home with Palestrina and +me. Maud, one feels sure, engaged Palestrina in confidences directly; +and Margaret whispered in a shy way to me, "Do you mind coming round by +the post-office? I am expecting a letter." So we walked round by the +High Street, and Margaret told me that Tudor had had to give up his +visit to them, but that he was writing. + +So we went into the post-office, and Margaret had her letter handed to +her across the counter by the post-mistress, upon whom she bestowed a +radiant smile. When we got outside she opened it and read it without a +word; and then, quite suddenly, she gave a cry as though some one had +struck her, and she handed the letter to me, and said, "Oh, Hugo, read +it!" And I read:-- + + +"I am sure you will be surprised when I tell you that I am going to be +married; it will explain to you why it was that I was unable to fulfil +my promise to come to see you. But sudden though my engagement to Miss +Lloyd has been--very sudden, much more sudden indeed than I ever felt +that such a serious step as marriage would be undertaken by me--I +cannot but feel that it is for my happiness. Some day I hope you will +make Miss Lloyd's acquaintance; she is staying with my mother just now, +and she is already a great favourite. I cannot but feel that having +seen so much of you and of your family last summer, and during your +stay in London, that I may have raised expectations which I find myself +unable to fulfil; but I am quite sure that a man's first duty is to +himself in these matters, and that he should not undertake matrimony +until he is thoroughly convinced it is for his happiness. Had I not +met Miss Lloyd, I may say that my intentions to you were of the most +serious nature, and I know that I have the power in me to make any girl +happy. We shall live with my mother for the first year, and then I +hope to settle somewhere near London, where it will be nice for me to +get into the fresh air after my work in the City. + +"Yours very truly, + "TUDOR SWINNERTON. + +"_P.S._--Miss Lloyd and I are to be married next month in St. Luke's +Church, quite near here." + + +I handed the letter back to Margaret, and we never spoke the whole way +home. And that was the last day I ever saw Margaret Jamieson look +pretty. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +After the operation on my leg, I was laid up for a long time, and when +I got about again, Palestrina and Thomas were married. Thomas has +lately come into his kingdom in the shape of a lordly castle in +Scotland, and for the life of me I can't say whether or not Palestrina +hastened her wedding because the doctor ordered me to the North. If it +was so, my sister's plans were frustrated by the fact that Thomas's +ancient Scottish seat was pronounced uninhabitable by a sanitary +surveyor, just as we proposed entering it under garlanded archways and +mottoes on red cotton. Our old friend Mrs. Macdonald, hearing of our +dilemma, very kindly invited us to stay with her while Palestrina and +Thomas looked about for some little house that would take us in till +their own place should be ready. The finding of the little house +occupied some days, owing to the powers of imagination displayed by +people when describing their property. One lady, to whom Palestrina +wrote to ask if her house were to be let, replied, "Yes, madam; this +dear, delightful, pretty house is to let;" and she pointed out in a +letter, some four pages long, all the advantages that would accrue to +us if we took it, ending up with the suggestion, subtly conveyed, that +by taking the house we should be turning her into the street, but that +she would bear this indignity in consideration of receiving ten guineas +a week. + +Palestrina went to see it, and returned in the evening, almost in +tears, to say that the house was a semi-detached villa, and that she +had found the week's washing spread out on the front lawn. + +Thomas said that the railway companies ought to pay a percentage on all +misleading advertisements which induce people to make these useless +journeys. + +The following day they returned from another fruitless expedition, +having been to see a very small house owned by the widow of a +sea-captain, with a strong Scottish accent. I have often noticed that +the seafaring man's one idea of well-invested capital is house +property--perhaps he alone knows how precarious is the life of the sea. +And I shall like to meet the sailor who has invested his money in a +shipping concern. The widow's house was so very small that it was +almost impossible to believe that it contained the ten bedrooms as +advertised in my sister's well-worn house-list. So small indeed were +the rooms, that Palestrina said she felt sure that they must have been +originally intended for cupboards. Nevertheless, the rent of the house +was very high, and my sister ventured gently to hint this to the lady +of the house--the sea-captain's widow with the strong Scottish accent. + +"Of course, it is a very nice house," she said politely; "but the rent +is a little more than we thought of paying for a house of this size." + +"I ken it's mair than the hoose is worth," said the old dame; "but, ye +see, I'm that fond o' money--aye, I'm fearfu' fond o' money." + +Palestrina and Thomas spent most of their days in their search for a +suitable house, and Mrs. Macdonald spends the greater part of her life +house-keeping, so I was rather bored. What it actually is that +occupies my hostess during the hours she spends in the back regions of +her house I have never been able to discover. But the fact remains +that we have to get up unusually early in the morning to allow time for +Mrs. Macdonald's absorbing occupation. An old-fashioned Scotswoman of +my acquaintance used to refuse all invitations to leave the house on +Thursdays, because, as she explained, "I keep Thursdays for my creestal +and my napery." The rest of her week, however, was comparatively free. +At Mrs. Macdonald's, housekeeping is never over. And so systematic are +the rules and regulations of the house, so many and so various are the +lady's keys, that one finds one's self wondering if the rules of a +prison or a workhouse can be more strict. The _Times_ newspaper +arrives every evening after dinner; by lunch-time next day it is locked +away in a cabinet, so that if one has not read the news by two o'clock, +one must ask Mrs. Macdonald for the keys; this she does quite +good-naturedly, but I have never discovered why old newspapers should +be kept with so much care. On Saturdays an old man from the village +comes in to do a little extra tidying-up in the garden. At nine +o'clock precisely, Mrs. Macdonald is on the doorstep of her house, with +a cup of tea in her hand, and a brisk, kindly greeting for John, and +she stands over the old man while he drinks his tea, and then returns +with the empty cup to the house. + +Tuesday is the day on which her drawing-room is cleaned. At half-past +nine precisely on Monday evenings Mrs. Macdonald says, "Monday, you +know, is our early-closing night;" and she fetches you a candle and +dispatches you to bed. Mrs. Macdonald and her housemaid--there seem to +be plenty of servants to do the work of the house--walk the whole of +the drawing-room furniture into the hall, Mrs. Macdonald loops up the +curtains herself, and covers some appalling pictures and the +mantelpiece ornaments with dust-sheets. At ten o'clock she removes a +pair of housemaid's gloves, and an apron which she has donned for the +occasion, and says, "There! that's all ready for Tuesday's cleaning;" +and she briskly bids her housemaid good-night. + +On Tuesdays we are not allowed to enter the drawing-room all day, and +on Wednesdays the same restrictions are placed upon the dining-room. +Indeed, on no day in the week is the whole of the house available, and +upon no morning of the week has Mrs. Macdonald a spare moment to +herself. After breakfast, when Palestrina and Thomas have gone, she +conducts me to the morning-room, and placing the _Scotsman_ (the +_Scotsman_ is used for lighting the fires, and is formally handed to +the housemaid at six o'clock in the evening) by my chair, she says, "I +hope you will be all right," and shuts the door upon me. During the +morning she pops her head in from time to time, like an attentive guard +who has been told to look after a lady on a journey, and nodding +briskly from the door, she asks, "Are you all right? Sure you would +not like milk or anything?" and then disappears again. With a little +stretch of imagination one can almost believe that the green flag has +been raised to the engine-driver, and that the train is moving off. At +lunch-time she is so busy giving directions to her servants that she +hardly ever hears what one says, and the most interesting piece of news +is met with the somewhat irrelevant reply, "The bread-sauce, please, +Jane, and then the cauliflower." Turning to one, she explains, "I +always train my servants myself.... What were you saying just now?" + +"I saw in the newspaper this morning," I repeat, "that H.M.S. ---- has +foundered with all hands." + +"In the middle of the table, if you please," says Mrs. Macdonald; "and +then the coffee with the crystallized sugar--not the brown--and open +the drawing-room windows when you have finished tidying there.... What +were you saying? How sad these things are!" + +The house is charmingly situated, with a most beautiful view over river +and hills; but I really think my preoccupied friend hardly ever has +time to look out of the window, and that to her the interior of a +store-cupboard with neatly-filled shelves is more beautiful than +anything which the realms of Nature can offer. + +When Palestrina is present Mrs. Macdonald gives her recipes for making +puddings and for taking stains out of carpets, and she advises her +about spring-cleanings and the proper sifting of ashes at the back +door. Mrs. Macdonald was brought up in the old days, when a young +lady's training and education were frankly admitted to be a training +for her as a wife. She belonged to the period when a girl with a taste +for music was encouraged to practise "so that some day you may be able +to play to your husband in the evenings, my dear," and was advised to +be an early riser so that the house might be comfortable and in order +when her husband should descend to breakfast. And now that that +husband, having been duly administered to, is dead, Mrs. Macdonald's +homely talents, once the means to an end, have resolved themselves into +an end, a finality of effort. Mrs. Macdonald was brought up to be a +housekeeper, and she remains a housekeeper, and jam-pots and +preserving-pans form the boundary line of her life and the limit of her +horizon. + +Eliza Jamieson would probably tell us that even though Mrs. Macdonald's +soups and preserves are excellent, these culinary efforts should not be +the highest things required of a wife by her husband, and that +therefore they are not a wife's highest duty, even during the time that +her husband remains with her. And she would probably point out that +servants and weekly bills, and an endeavour to render this creature +complacent, have ruined many a woman's life. And I laugh as I think of +Palestrina's rejoinder, "But then it is so much pleasanter when they +are complacent." + +One certainly imagined that the late Mr. Macdonald must have been well +looked after during his life, and it was something of a shock to me to +hear the account of his death, from the lodgekeeper's wife, one +afternoon when she had come in to help with the cleaning, and was +arranging my dressing-table for me. The rest of my bedroom furniture +was then standing in the passage, and I had found my cap in one of the +spare bedrooms, and all the boots of the house in the hall. + +"He was a rale decent gentleman," said Mrs. Gemmil, "and awfy patient +with the cleaning. But I am sure whiles I was sorry for him. He was +shuftit and shuftit, and never knew in the morn whichna bed in the +hoose he would be sleeping in at nicht. And we a' ken that it was the +spring-cleaning, when he was pit to sleep ower the stables, that was, +under Providence, the death o' him. He had aye to cross ower in the +wat at nicht-time, and he juist took a pair o' cauld feet, and they +settled on his lungs." + +The day following my chat with Mrs. Gemmil was the day Palestrina found +a house such as she had been looking for all along. The day was +Saturday. Overnight she had announced her intention of being away all +day, and Mrs. Macdonald had said delightedly that that would suit her +admirably. "I do like the servants to have the entire day for the +passages on Saturday," she remarked. + +Even when the day dawned wet and cloudy, Palestrina had not the courage +to suggest that she should stay at home, and thereby interfere with the +cleaning of the passages. + +The house she had found seemed to be everything that was desirable, and +Palestrina returned in an elated frame of mind. "It is far away from +everything," she said, "except the village people and the minister, and +the 'big hoose,' as they call it, which some English bodies have rented +for the autumn." + +"It can't be far from the Melfords," said Thomas, pulling out a map. +"Yes, I thought so; they are just the other side of the loch." + +"We 'mussed the connaketion' on our way back," said Palestrina; "and I +do believe there's nothing a Scottish porter enjoys telling one so much +as this." + +"I hope I am not unduly disparaging the railway system of my native +land," said Thomas, "when I say that if you go by steamer and by train +it is the remark that usually greets one, and it is always made in a +tone of humorous satisfaction." And Thomas, with an exaggerated +Scottish accent, which he does uncommonly well, began to tell me of +their adventures. "We had a rush for the train," he said, "and I told +an elderly Scot, who couldn't have hurried if he had had a mad bull +behind him, to run and get us two first-class tickets. He walked +slowly down the platform, muttering, 'Furrst, furrst,' and then he +opened the door of a third-class carriage and shoved us in, saying, +'Ye've no occasion to travel furrst when there's plenty of room in the +thurrds.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +To get to the house one takes a steamer to the head of the loch, and +from there old Hughie drives one in the coach, and deposits one at the +cross-roads where the turf, short and green, is cut into the shape of a +heart. On this green heart, in the old days, the girls and men of the +glen were married. They stood side by side on the upper part of the +heart, which is indented, and the minister stood at the point and +wedded the pair. Here one leaves the coach, and a "machine" must take +one on to the little house. A red creeper grows up its white walls, +and from the terrace in front of the house one looks down upon the +little Presbyterian church and the village, and these in their turn +look on to the loch and the hills on the other side. + +The people in the village afford one a good deal of amusement, but we +have observed that the conversation is always about theology or the +Royal Family. There is one story of the late Queen and the crown of +Scotland which I have heard repeated many times with the utmost gravity +in the Highlands. + +"A gran' wumman," say the old villagers, "but we were no gaein' tae gie +her the croon o' Scotland. Na, na. She would hae liked fine tae hev +gotten it, but we were no gaein' tae gie her the croon o' Scotland. +Ye'll mind when she went tae Scotland, it was the foremost thing that +she spiered tae see. And when they showed it tae her, 'I would like +fine tae pit it on ma heid,' said she. But they said '_No_.' And syne +she says, 'Wad ye no let me haud it in ma haund?' But they say '_No_.' +'Weel,' she says, 'juist haud it aboon ma heid, and let me staun' +underneath it.' But they said, '_No_.'" + +The villagers formed our only society until Evan Sinclair's tenants, +who were known as "the folk at the big hoose," came to call upon us. +It was very difficult indeed, and for some time we could hardly believe +that these were the Finlaysons whom we had met at Clarkham, and who, we +now remembered, had told us that they were going to take a place in +Scotland. The change in the Finlaysons is startling and complete. It +has taken them exactly two months to become Highlanders, and it is not +too much to affirm that now the whole family may be said to reek of +tartan. Only Mrs. Finlayson is unaffected by her life in the +Highlands, although she says that she knows it is fashionable to be +Scottish. "And so written up as it is at present," she adds; "and all +the best people taking the deer-moors. Papa and the girls think all +the world of Scotland. But no one can say it is comfortable, I'm sure." + +The Finlaysons have a piper, and young Mr. Finlayson wears a kilt, and +I think they are, without exception, the most strenuous supporters of +Scottish customs I have ever met. The young ladies, who had always +been associated in our mind with silk dresses and thin shoes, came to +call clad in the very shortest and roughest tweed skirts that I have +ever seen; and old Mr. Finlayson, whose mother was a Robinson, has +discovered that that is pretty much the same as being a Robertson, and +that therefore, in some mysterious way, he is entitled to wear the +Macdonald tartan. They asked us to tea in a very polite and friendly +way, and the old rooms were shown off to us with a good deal of pride. +The architecture of the house seemed to throw a reflected glory on Mr. +Finlayson. + +"Pure Early Scottish," he said, pointing to the tall narrow windows +with their shelving ledges. + +"So dangerous," said Mrs. Finlayson, "for the servants cleaning the +windows." + +The drawing-room vases were all filled with heather, and the room smelt +of damp dog and herrings. The Miss Finlaysons came in to tea in thick +skirts and brogues, and they wore tartan tam-o'-shanters very +becomingly placed upon their heads, and affixed to their hair with +ornamental bonnet-pins. They ate cake with damp red hands, and seemed +to pride themselves upon the fish-scales which still clung to their +skirts, and imparted the rather unpleasant odour which I noticed in the +room. Young Finlayson in his kilt showed a great expanse of red knee, +and told tales of remarks made to him by the boatmen, which he +considered equal to anything in Ian Maclaren's books. + +Mrs. Finlayson took us out after tea to see the garden and tennis-court +and the game-larder. "I always like a walled garden," she said; "it is +so stylish." Mr. Finlayson found a reflected glory even in the loch +and the hills, and he waved his fat hand towards them, and said: "We +are able to do you a nice bit of view here, aren't we?" + +"I tell papa," said Mrs. Finlayson, "that he will ruin the girls for +anything else after this. The only thing we regret is the want of +society. However, a few of the best people round about have called, +and we are giving quite an informal little dinner-party to-morrow +night." + +Mrs. Finlayson then invited us to dinner, and when we hesitated, on the +plea that we should have one or two friends with us, Mrs. Finlayson, in +the most hospitable manner possible, said that she always had a +"profusion on their own table," so there was nothing for it but to +accept her invitation. + +The dinner was one of those rather purposeless feasts which are given +in the country, and the Finlaysons' neighbours who had been bidden to +it bore upon their faces the peculiarly homeless look which one +observes in the expressions of one's men friends especially, when they +go out to a rural dinner--the look that says as plainly as possible +that they are moving about in worlds not realized nor found +particularly comfortable, and that they would infinitely prefer their +own armchairs at home. + +The minister took Palestrina in to dinner, and occupied himself +throughout the evening by putting the most searching questions to her +of an inquisitive nature. He asked how many servants we had, whether +we were satisfied with our cook, where we came from, and why we had +come. And he did it all with such keen interest and intelligence that +Palestrina admitted that she really had felt flattered rather than +provoked. His friend Evan Sinclair, who, having let his house to the +Finlaysons, is living on a little farm close by, contradicted +everything that the minister said, and the two quarrelled the whole +evening. + +Old Tyne Drum, who lives a good many miles away, but who with his wife +had already been to call upon us, brewed himself the very largest +glasses of whisky-toddy that I have ever seen, even on a big night at +mess, and he proposed healths and drank the steaming mixture throughout +dinner in a very commendable national spirit. His piper, who stood +behind his chair, refused at last to pour out any further libations, +and I heard him mutter to himself, "Ye'll no need tae say that Sandy +Macnichol ever helpit ye tae the deil." + +Young Finlayson is always very jocose upon the subject of whisky, as +befits his ideas about the Highlands; and even the Misses Finlayson, in +their faithful loyalty to all things Scottish, were quite pleased with +Tyne Drum's performance, and would have scorned to look as though a +whisky-drinking laird was a novelty to them. + +Mrs. Finlayson told Thomas, in a very severe manner, and in her +platform voice which I always find so impressive, that she considered +intemperance a sin, but that that was what came of all this nonsense +about Scotland. She gave him quite a lecture upon the subject, as +though he, being Scottish born, was responsible for the old laird's +backsliding. + +When the unfortunate old gentleman came into the drawing-room to join +the ladies and sat down next him, Mrs. Finlayson looked at Thomas as +though she thought he was in some sort to blame for this behaviour. + +Tyne Drum dropped heavily on to the ottoman, and I heard him say, "Do +you know my wife?" + +"Yes," replied Thomas. "I have met her several times since we came to +the cottage." + +"Hoo old should ye think she was?" (Tyne Drum is always broadly Doric +in his speech.) Thomas calculated that the lady must be a long way the +wrong side of sixty, and humbly suggested that she might perhaps be +forty-five. + +"Presairve us!" said the Laird. "This lad here says my wife is +forty-five!" He began to sob bitterly, and, putting his handkerchief +to his eyes, cried, "My pretty wee Jeannie, my bonnie wee wife, wha +daurs tae say ye was forty-five!" + +Thomas was so sorry for him and for what he had done that he did his +best to cheer him up by telling him that what he had meant to say was +twenty-five; but Tyne Drum was inconsolable, and went to sleep with the +tear-drops on his cheeks. + +When we got home in the evening Palestrina said, "We are far behind the +Finlaysons in all things Scottish. I shall buy a Harris tweed skirt, +and you and Thomas must buy something too." So we drove down in the +coach to the ferry on a very wet and windy day to cross over to the +"toon." + +Our place on the coach was shared with a Scot, who was the most +truculent defender of the Free Kirk I have ever met. He argued every +single point of his creed, and became quite abusive at last, as he +denounced the "Established" and all who belong to it. + +The wind was high as we drove in the coach, and the rain fell heavily +once or twice, but the voice of the gentleman rose higher and higher as +the rain descended. Hughie, the coachman, chided him with no stint of +words, and at every burst of eloquence on the passenger's part he +remarked, "Anither worrd, and I'll pit ye in the ditch!" + +This method of treating the argumentative passenger suggested the +possibility of the coach being overturned in order to punish him, and +Palestrina grew alarmed. + +"I do hope," she said to Hughie, "that you will remember that we are +not all Wee Frees, and that therefore we do not all require the same +treatment meted out to us." + +The guard at the back of the coach here showed his head over the pile +of boxes covered with tarpaulin on the roof, and called out, "Pit him +inside the coach wi' Mrs. Macfadyen, and she'll sort him! She'll gie +him the Gaelic!" + +Hughie chuckled and remarked, "Ay, she's the gran' wumman wi' her +tongue!" And during the rest of the drive his threats to the eloquent +passenger took the form of, "Anither worrd, and I'll pit ye in wi' Mrs. +Macfadyen!" + +There was a marked improvement in our friend's behaviour after this. +He was in great difficulties when he came to get into the ferry-boat. +It was easy enough to throw his first leg over the side while holding +on by a thole-pin, but the balance required to convey the remaining +limb into the boat was quite out of his power. And having made one or +two ineffectual hops on the beach with the shore-loving member, he +turned to the boatmen, and said gravely,-- + +"Lift in my leg, Angus! Juist gie me a hand wi' ma last leg!" + +Palestrina chose the tweed for our coats and her skirt, and then we +walked up to the Castle and called on the Melfords, who told us that +Mrs. Fielden was coming to stay with them. They sang her praises, as +most people do; she has heaps of friends. Then Palestrina did some +shopping at the "flesher's" and the baker's, and we went down to the +ferry again--a boy behind us laden with queer-looking parcels +containing provisions, and Alloa yarn to knit into stockings, and +paper-bags with ginger-bread cakes in them. When we got in and sat +down under the brown sail of the heavy boat, the two sailors remained +in their places, and did not show the least sign of getting under way. +Thomas said to the elder of the two men, a fine old fellow with a face +such as one connects with stories of the Covenanters,-- + +"Why don't you get off?" + +And the old man replied unmoved, "I'm waiting for the Lord." + +Palestrina, who is sympathetic in every matter, put on an expression of +deep religious feeling, and we thought of the Irvingites, and wished +that we had Eliza Jamieson with us "to look it up." As far as we knew, +the Irvingites wait to perform every action until inspired to perform +it. We had heard that in the smallest matter, such as beginning to eat +their dinner, they will wait until this inspiration, as I suppose one +must call it, is given to them. The question then arose, how long +would it be before we would be likely to get under way? The two +sailors sat on without moving, and the elder of them cut a wedge of +tobacco and was filling his pipe, preparing to smoke. We wondered if +the Irvingites often waited for an inspiration in this contented way. +The big red-funnelled steamer from Greenock was, meanwhile, preparing +to depart. It had poured its daily output of tourists for their +half-hour's run in the town, which time they employ in buying mementoes +of the place, and we had hurried down to the sailing-boat to escape +this influx. + +Thomas endeavoured to assist inspiration by saying it didn't seem much +use waiting any longer, and that as time was getting on, did not our +friend (the gray-bearded Covenanter) think that it was time to be +moving? The Covenanter wrinkled up his nose, which already was a good +deal wrinkled, and gazed upwards at the sail, or, as we interpreted it, +to Heaven. Palestrina pressed Thomas's hand, and said gently, "Don't +urge him, dear; we shall get off in time." And the younger sailor +said, "We are waiting for the Lord." So we knew that they were both +Irvingites, and the only scepticism that intruded itself upon us was +this: Suppose inspiration never came, how should we get home? + +The steamer now began to move away from the pier, with a great churning +and hissing of water, and seething white foam fizzing round the staples +of the pier. A band began to play on board, and the paddles broke the +water with a fine sweep. Two youngsters on shore, to whom "the +stimmer" is a daily excitement, then called out in shrill, high voices, +"There's the Lord! She's aff!" + +The _Lord of the Isles_ had moved off on her return journey to +Greenock, and the notes on Scottish religion which Palestrina was +carefully preparing were hastily destroyed. The _Lord_ had departed, +and we sailed across the loch without waiting any longer. + +When we got home, we found the minister awaiting us in the +drawing-room, he having suggested that as we were not at home, he had +better stay till our return. I found out, in the course of +conversation, that he is a distant relation of old Captain +Jamieson--the Jamiesons' father--so we had quite a long talk about our +friends. The minister is one of those Scots whose national +characteristics are always stronger than individual character. Take +away his nationality from him, and Mr. Macorquodale would be nothing at +all. His qualities being entirely Scottish, it is only logical to +assume that if Mr. Macorquodale were not Scottish, he would be +non-existent. + +Palestrina came out on to the little terrace where we were sitting, and +I explained to her that the minister was a cousin of the Jamiesons. + +"How interesting!" said Palestrina in her usual kind way. + +"Why?" said the minister. He has sandy hair and very round gray eyes, +and looks like a football player. + +"Oh, I don't know," said my sister; "it's always interesting, isn't it, +to find that people are related?" + +"Every one must have some relations," said Mr. Macorquodale; "and if my +choice had been given me, I do not think I should have chosen those +five gurrls." + +"We like them so much," Palestrina said, smiling. + +"Is that the truth?" said Mr. Macorquodale; and she replied firmly that +it was. + +"Um umph!" he said, as though considering a perfectly new problem, and +then added: "Well, each man to his taste. How many of them have got +husbands?" + +I replied that Kate was married and Gracie engaged. + +"Gracie?" said the minister simply. "Was that the one with a nose like +a scone?" + +We considered Grade's nose silently for a moment, and then admitted +that perhaps the simile was not unjust. + +"How did she get him?" said the minister presently. + +The minister has a curious way of eating, which fascinates one to look +at, while all the time there is a distinct feeling that an accident may +happen at any moment. When tea was brought out he accepted some, and +filled his mouth very full of cookie, stowing into it nearly a whole +one at a time, and then raised his tea-cup to his lips. He persists in +keeping his spoon in his cup as he drinks, and he prevents it from +tumbling out by holding it with his thumb. A long draught of tea is +then partaken of with a gurgling sound, and the minister swallows +audibly. It is almost impossible to prevent one's self watching this +process of eating and drinking during the whole of tea-time. For it +seems so uncertain whether the spoon will remain in its place, and the +cookie and the tea. + +The minister is a very young man, with the pugnacity of an Edinburgh +High School boy, and with the awful truthfulness which distinguishes +his nation, but which is accentuated in such an alarming degree in a +minister of the Kirk. + +"I sent Kate a scent-bottle when she married," he remarked. "I won it +at a bazaar for sixpence, so it was not expensive. I don't disapprove +of raffles," he added, although he had not been asked for this piece of +information--"that is, if ladies do not cheat over it, as they often +do." Palestrina bristled at the insinuation, and the minister consoled +her by saying: "Women sin in such wee ways--that's what I can't +understand about them. However," he said, "I have never known a woman +steal a thing yet that a man has not reaped some benefit by it. I can +quote authority for my views from Adam and Eve downwards, to the +newspapers of yesterday. I am engaged to be married myself, and I find +the subject of feminine ethics absorbing. Good-bye," he said +presently; "I hope you will not be disappointed with the clothes I hear +you've ordered." + +Alas! the tweed coat and skirt in which my sister hoped to rival the +Miss Finlaysons proved an utter misfit, and she drove round the loch on +the following day to take the garments back. Palestrina had prepared a +severe reprimand for the tailor, but the old man took the wind out of +her sails by stopping in amazement at the first word of annoyance which +she uttered, and standing in the middle of the little fitting-room, +with a yellow tape measure round his neck, and a piece of chalk in his +hand, he shook his gray beard at us with something of apostolic +fervour, and thus addressed us:-- + +"I'm amazed at ye! Do ye ever consider the system of planets, and that +this world is one of the lesser points of light in space, and that even +here there are countless millions of human beings, full of great +resolves and high purposes. Get outside yourselves, ladies and +gentlemen, and realize in the magnitude of the universe, and the +immeasurable majesty of the planetary system, how small a thing is the +ill-fit of a jacket." + +We felt much humbled, Palestrina and I. And it was only when we were +driving home afterwards that it even dimly suggested itself to us that +we had right on our side at all. "After all," Palestrina said, "the +coats did not fit; I really do not think he need have lectured us so +severely." + +At the time, however, I confess that our feelings were distinctly +apologetic. + +One wonders how a tailor who advanced the planetary system as a reproof +to complaining customers would get on in London, and one realizes that +English people have a great deal still to learn. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +When Mrs. Fielden came to stay at the Melfords we saw a good deal of +her. Their yacht used to steam up in the early morning, and they would +take us off for a day's cruise on the loch or for a trip round to Oban. +Mrs. Fielden used to sit on deck with a big red umbrella over her head +and a white yachting gown on, and seemed serenely unconscious that she +was looking very pretty and very smart. My sister tells me she never +feels badly dressed till she meets Mrs. Fielden. + +The Melfords have very pleasant people stopping with them always, and +there are very jolly little parties on board their yacht. Mrs. +Fielden, however, is in her most provoking and wilful mood. Every day +it is the same thing--laughter and smiles for every one. But she has +absolutely no heart. All the beautiful, kindly things she does are +only the whim of the moment. They bespeak a generous nature, as easily +moved to tears as to laughter; but she loves every one a little, and +probably has no depth of affection or constancy in her. Lately, she +has added another provoking habit to the many she already possesses. +She exaggerates her pretence of having no memory, and indeed it may be +she has not any. + +When I left home, rather a wreck as regards health, and drove to the +station in Mrs. Fielden's luxurious carriage, it was her hand that +piled the cushions, as no one else can, behind me. And the last thing +I saw was her smile as she waved her hand to me from my own door. + +Last week, when we met again at the Melfords', she nodded to me in a +little indifferent sort of way. She sat under a big cedar-tree on one +of the lawns, and laughed, and talked a sort of brilliant nonsense the +whole afternoon. + +By-and-by I said to her--probably clumsily, certainly at the wrong +time--"I never half thanked you for being so good to me when I was +ill;" for she had come in like some radiant vision, day after day, in +her beautiful summer gowns and rose-garlanded hats, and had sat by my +couch, reading to me sometimes, talking to me at others in a voice as +gentle as a dove's. Why will she not allow one to admire her? One +only wants to do so humbly and at a distance. It was so pleasant up +here in the Highlands, with the dear memory of those long days to look +back upon. But Mrs. Fielden ruthlessly robbed me and sent me away +empty the very first day of our meeting. + +"Was I kind to you? I don't believe I was, really. If I was, I'm sure +I forget all about it. Let me see, how long were you ill? It can't +have been a bit amusing for you," and so on, laughing at my dull face +and serious ways. + +And this has gone on for a whole week. At the Melfords' parties she +selects, quite indiscriminately, and in a royal way which she has, this +man or that to be her escort or her companion. Now it is a mere boy +whom she bewilders with a few of her radiant smiles, and now one of her +elderly colonels whom she reduces to a state of abject admiration in a +few hours. One man goes fishing with her, and another rows her on the +loch. A third, hearing that Mrs. Fielden's life will be a blank if she +does not possess a certain rare fern which may be found sometimes on +the hillsides of Scotland, spends a whole day scrambling about looking +for it, and returns triumphant in the evening. Mrs. Fielden has +forgotten that she ever wanted it. When we sulk she does not notice +it. When her colonels offer her their fatuous admiration she goes to +sleep, and then, waking up, is so very, very sorry. "But you can't +have amused me properly," she says, "or I should have stayed awake." +When any one tries by avoiding her to show displeasure, Mrs. Fielden is +oblivious of the fact. And when the penitence and boredom which +immediately ensue when one has deprived Mrs. Fielden of one's company +have led to ending the one-sided quarrel with an apology, it is only to +find that Mrs. Fielden has been blissfully unconscious of one's +absence. Summer and the air of the Highlands seem to be in her veins. +Her happiness, like the quality of mercy, is twice blessed, making her, +through her talent for enjoyment, diffuse something beautiful and gay +about her. + +After all, why should she care? Life was evidently made to give her +pleasure. Why should a woman always be blamed for being loved? Mrs. +Fielden's charm is of the irresponsible sort. To live and to be lovely +are all one ought to demand of her, and at least she is without vanity. +She seems to be entirely unconscious of the admiration she receives, or +perhaps she is simply indifferent to it. + +The Melfords adore her, and allow her to see it. They say no one knows +her as they do. Probably we all feel that. This is one of Mrs. +Fielden's most maddening charms. We have all found something in her +that seems to belong to ourselves alone. + +Lately I have discovered that she loves to wander up the hillside by +herself, and listen to the plover's solitary cry, and sit in the +sunshine with no companion near her. And one wonders why so frivolous +a woman should care for this, and why when she comes back amongst us +again her eyes should wear the wistful look which covers them like a +veil sometimes. + +When she left the Melfords' Palestrina asked her to come and stay with +us; and rather to my surprise, Mrs. Fielden came. It seems to me she +must find us a very dull lot after the Melfords' cheery house-parties. +She arrived late one afternoon in the yacht, and the whole party came +up to dine with us before returning to the castle. The little house +was taxed to its utmost capacity, even to provide teacups for our +guests. But the Melfords have a happy knack of seeming to find +pleasure in everything. Mrs. Fielden's gaiety was infectious, and her +lightheartedness knocked all one's serious world to pieces, while her +beauty seemed almost extravagant in the plain setting of the little +house. + +She began to give us some of her experiences in Scotland. "Do you +know," she said, putting on a charming gravity and lifting her eyebrows +in a provoking, childish way, "that every single person in Scotland +gets up at five o'clock in the morning? and all the coaches and +excursions start at daybreak, and when you want to hit off what they +call a 'connection' anywhere, you have to get up in the middle of the +night?" + +"I am afraid you had a horribly early start to join the yacht the other +day," said Lord Melford, "but it was the only way we could manage to +get to the Oban Gathering in time." + +"I was there before you," said Mrs. Fielden; "and I had to rouse up the +people at the inn to take me in and give me breakfast. Even they were +not up at that hour! But after ringing twice, such a nice boots came +and opened the door to me, and brought me some breakfast." + +"The gathering was very good this year," said Lord Melford. "Why +didn't some of you come? By-the-bye, your friend Mrs. Macdonald was +there. Indeed, it was she who insisted on taking Mrs. Fielden to the +Gaelic concert." + +"Gaelic is rather an alarming language," said Mrs. Fielden. "I always +feel as if I were being sworn at when I hear it." + +One of Mrs. Fielden's admirers who had reached the savage and sarcastic +stage here interposed, and said: "Poor Mrs. Fielden! I saw you at the +concert. How did you manage to sit throughout a whole evening between +Mrs. Macdonald and a wall?" + +"Mrs. Macdonald is quite a dear!" said Mrs. Fielden. (Whom, in the +name of Fortune, would Mrs. Fielden not find charming?) + +"I don't know what you and Mrs. Macdonald can have found to talk +about," said Palestrina, laughing. + +"We discussed the training of servants most of the time," said Mrs. +Fielden simply. + +Every one laughed; and my sister, with a recollection of our visit to +Mrs. Macdonald, said at once, "Did she give you any useful household +recipes?" + +"It is very odd that you should have asked me that," said Mrs. Fielden. +"Do you know, that the whole of to-day I have been puzzling over a +letter which I received this morning? I did not know the handwriting, +and it was merely headed, 'Two recipes for boiling a ham, as +requested.' Now, I cannot really have asked Mrs. Macdonald for recipes +for boiling a ham, can I?" + +We thought it highly probable that she had done so, and had done it, +too, with an air of profound interest; and I think we said this, which +Mrs. Fielden did not mind in the least. + +"There is something rather horrible, don't you think so," she said, "in +knowing how a thing is cooked?" + +The minister, who is assiduous in calling, walked up after tea with his +friend Evan Sinclair; and as we were already far too large a party for +dinner, we asked them to stay too. + +Mr. Macorquodale has frequently described himself to us as a grand +preacher. He and Evan Sinclair live quite close to each other, and +they are friends whose affection is rooted and maintained in warfare. +For the minister and Sinclair to meet is one strenuous contest as to +who shall have the last word. Politeness is not a strong motive with +either of them--indeed, one would imagine that from the first it has +been ruled out of place. The friendship and the warfare began at the +Edinburgh High School years ago, and both the friendship and the +warfare have lasted without intermission ever since. They meet every +day, and often twice a day; they fish together, and in the winter they +spend every evening with each other. Scottish people seem to have a +sneaking liking for those who dislike them, and a certain pity mingled +with contempt for those who show them favour and affection. The +friendship of Evan and the minister is based upon feelings of the most +respectful admiration for their mutual antipathy. + +To keep alive this laudable and self-respecting warfare is the highest +effort of genius of both Mr. Sinclair and the Reverend Alexander. To +foster it they apply themselves to what they call "plain speaking" +whenever they meet, and they conceal as much as possible from each +other every single good quality that they possess. + +The minister, who is a big man, always talks of Evan as "Wee Sinkler," +and sneers at "heritors;" and Evan invariably addresses Macorquodale as +"Taurbarrels," a name which he considers appropriate to the minister's +black clothes and portly figure. + +"The minister," said Evan, when he had walked up the hill to see us, +"has been reading Josephus. We shall have some erudite learning from +the pulpit for the next Sunday or two." + +The minister was announced a moment later, and, before taking the +trouble to shake hands with us, he looked Evan Sinclair over from top +to toe, and remarked, "Ye're very attentive in calling upon ladies." + +"I was just talking about your fine preaching," said Evan. + +"I admit my gift," said the minister; "but I fear that I very often +preach to a deaf adder which stops its ears." He nodded triumphantly +at us, and it then occurred to him to shake hands. + +Evan said at once that he got a better sleep in kirk on Sundays than he +got during the whole of the week. + +"Evan Sinclair," said the minister, "if I find you sleeping under me +I'll denounce you from my pulpit, as a minister has the right to do." + +"And we'll settle it in the graveyard afterwards," said Evan dryly. +"And ye're not in very good training, my man." + +Palestrina broke in gently to discuss a theological point which had +puzzled us for several Sundays. On each Lord's Day as it came round we +had prayed that we might become "a little beatle to the Lord." +Doubtless the simile is a beautiful one, but its immediate bearing upon +our needs was not too grossly evident. And it seemed almost dangerous +to those who believe in the efficacy of prayer to put up this petition +in its literal sense. We had decided for some time past that we should +ask Mr. Macorquodale what it was exactly for which we made petition, +when we prayed that we might become "a little beatle to the Lord." + +"Similes," said Palestrina in her serious way, "are beautiful +sometimes, but we can't quite understand one of the references that you +make in your prayers on Sundays." + +"We have prayed so fervently," said Mrs. Fielden, "without perhaps +entirely understanding the portent of the petition, that we might +become 'a little beatle to the Lord.'" + +The thing was out now, and our curiosity, we hoped, would be gratified. +There was a pause which suggested that our hearers were puzzled, and +then Mr. Sinclair put a large pocket-handkerchief into his mouth and +roared with laughter, and Mr. Macorquodale turned to my sister, who was +trembling now, and remarked in an awful voice that he wondered that we +didn't understand plain English. + +Of course she apologized, and an explanation came afterwards from Evan +Sinclair, who told us that the minister's prayer was that we--the +church--might become a little Bethel, and that Beethel was his Doric +pronunciation of the word. + +It began to rain on Sunday, as it often does in Scotland--Nature itself +seems to put on a more serious expression on the Sabbath--and it +continued raining for four whole days. The rain came down steadily and +mercilessly, shutting out the view of the hills, and turning the whole +landscape into a big damp gray blanket. "I suppose," said Mrs. +Fielden, who is never affected by bad weather, "that we shall all get +very cross and quarrel with each other if the rain continues much +longer." + +"I think I shall write a number of unnecessary letters to absent +friends," said Palestrina. "And Mr. Ellicomb and Sir Anthony Crawshay +will arrive to-morrow, and we must tell them to amuse us." + +It was a disappointment to find that Mr. Ellicomb's nerves and temper +were seriously affected by the weather, and in moments of extreme +depression his low spirits vented themselves in a rabid abuse of the +Presbyterian Kirk. I cannot understand why Ellicomb should elect to +wear a brown velvet shooting-jacket, and a pale-green tie, and neat +boots laced half-way up his legs, in Scotland. He went to the village +church in the rain on Sunday, and he has not been the same man since. + +"Don't call it a church!" he cried as we went homewards up the hill, +where the road was a watercourse and each tree poured down moisture. +He seemed to think that he had done his soul an irreparable injury by +entering a Presbyterian kirk. + +Anthony said, "Oh! don't be an ass, Ellicomb." But even on Monday +morning poor Ellicomb was still suffering from the weather and the +effects of his churchgoing. + +"Can he be in love?" said Palestrina; "and if so, as the Jamiesons +would say, which is it?" + +Palestrina is prettier than ever since her marriage. She still says, +"Oh, that will be delightful!" to whatever Thomas and I suggest, and +she never seems to have any occupation except to be with us when we +want her, and to accede to everything we say, which of course, from a +man's point of view, is a very delightful trait in a woman. + +"I rather wonder," said Palestrina, "that I have not heard from any of +the Jamiesons lately. They are usually such good writers." + +"Depend upon it, there is a great bit of news coming," said Thomas. +"The Jamiesons always maintain a dramatic silence just before +announcing some tremendous piece of intelligence." + +Thomas had hardly spoken the words before a telegram was handed to +Palestrina, containing the following enigmatical words:--- + + +"Engaged Cuthbertson. Greatly surprised. Deeply thankful.--ELIZA." + + +This rather mysterious message was followed, later in the day, by a +letter four pages in length, and marked on the outside, for some reason +best known to Eliza, "Immediate." The letter explained more fully the +cause of Eliza's thankfulness, and who it was that was greatly +surprised. + +"If you had told me," wrote Eliza, "six weeks ago that I should now be +engaged to Mr. Cuthbertson, I should hardly have believed it. I really +had not a notion that he cared for me until he actually said the words. +Is it not too strange to think that perhaps, after all, Maud may be one +of the last of us to get married?" + +Here followed the usual descriptive catalogue, so characteristic of the +Jamiesons' letters. "Mr. Cuthbertson looks like a widower, though he +is not one." Strangely enough, I could never think of any other words, +when I came to know Mr. Cuthbertson, that described him so well as +these, and I can only account for it by saying that the man's deep +melancholy and the crape band that he habitually wore round his hat +must have given one the feeling that at some time Mr. Cuthbertson had +suffered a heavy bereavement. "I have only known him," Eliza's letter +went on, "for six weeks, but even that time has shown me his worth. He +has a very straight nose and a black beard, and his forehead is +distinctly intellectual. I met him first at Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs', +where, as you know, I had gone to stay to catalogue their library, and +to do a little typewriting for her. You know, of course, that she has +become a member of the S.R.S., and their library is a _mine of +information_. + +"At first I was afraid to say, or even to allow myself to think, he +showed me any preference, but Maud thought from the first that he was +struck, and I asked her not to appear at all until everything was +settled, for you know how attractive she is. But I really don't think +that even then I thought that there was anything serious in it." (For +an intelligent woman Eliza's letter strikes one as being strangely +lacking in concentration.) "I have just been to the meeting of the +Browning Society--our first appearance in public together--and I read +my paper on "The Real Strafford," but I could hardly keep my voice +steady all the time. I wear his own signet-ring for the present, but +we are going up to London next week, when he will buy me a hoop of +pearls. I am sure that you will be glad to hear that he is comfortably +off. When the right man comes preconceived objections to matrimony +vanish, _but it must be the right man_." + +Palestrina said that she was "thrilled" to hear of Eliza's engagement, +because an engagement was always thrilling, and she instantly went to +tell the news to Mr. Ellicomb. She told me afterwards that when she +had said that one of the Jamiesons was engaged Mr. Ellicomb became +suddenly very pale in his complexion, and exclaimed, in a most anxious +tone of voice, "Which?" + + +The cold weather has set in very suddenly, and already there is a +sprinkling of snow on some of the distant hills. The robins still sing +cheerily, but the gulls on the shore, flying over the yellow seaweed, +call to each other plaintively in the gray of the early twilight. The +heavy-winged herons stand in an attitude of serious thought for hours +on the cold rocks; then, as if suddenly making up their minds to +something, they stretch out their red legs behind them, and flop with +large wings over the waters of the loch. The red Virginian creeper has +begun to drop its leaves regretfully, after a night or two of white +frost, and the dahlias hang their heads, heavy with the moisture which +their cups contain. The sun wakes late in the mornings now, but shines +strong and warm when it does get up. Cottage lights and fires burn +cheerily o' nights, and within the cottages the old folks and the young +ones draw round the fires and speak eerily of wraiths and whaurlochs, +and some will tell of death-lights which they have seen on the lonely +shore road. The herring fishers who sail away in the early twilight +wear good stout jerseys now, and red woollen "crauvats" which the +"wumman at hame" has knitted. The _Lord_ has sailed away to Dunoon to +lay up for the winter, and the shepherds have gone away down South "to +winter the hogs." The shepherds' wives sit alone in the little +hillside cottages away up on the face of the brae, and "mak dae" with +their slender money till their men come home again. + +The old women in the village have begun their winter spinning, and the +tap, tap, tap of the treadle on the floor gives a pleasant sound as one +passes outside on the dark road. Old men tell tales of snow in the +passes in winter-time, and of death on the bleak hillsides, and some +wife, shuddering, will say, "Ay, I mind I saw his corp-licht the very +evening he was lost." And then they tell tales of fantasy and signs +and premonitions of death. + +The Finlaysons are going to wind up their very successful autumn in the +Highlands by giving what they insist upon calling a gillies' dance, +though probably the revels will mostly be indulged in by their large +retinue of English servants. Good-natured old Finlayson has more than +once said that he hopes we shall all come to the gillies' dance, and +that it will give ourselves and our guests a chance of seeing some +Highland customs. A good many of us come to Scotland most years, and +have seen gillies and pipers before, but our good-natured neighbours +certainly out-distance any one I know in their Highland sympathies. + +They invited us to dine with them before the dance should begin, and +six of us went, feeling very like the Jamiesons, and resolved that when +we got home we should never put a limit to their numbers when we send +them an invitation again. + +We talk of returning home at the end of next week, and Mrs. Fielden and +our other two guests are leaving on Monday, I believe. + +Mrs. Fielden looks much prettier in the Highlands, I think, than +anywhere else. Young Finlayson is in love with her, and I believe has +offered her his heart and the ironmongery business with it; but I think +of all her lovers Anthony Crawshay is the one she likes best. He is +the only one for whom her moods never alter, and to whom she is always +gracious and charming and sweet. Perhaps it is in a quiet, less +radiant way than that in which she treats others, but it is with an +unvarying loving-kindness which I have not seen her bestow elsewhere. +And Anthony Crawshay is a good fellow--one of the best. + +Old Mr. Finlayson actually donned a kilt for the gillies' dance; young +Finlayson also wore the national dress, and Thomas tells me that they +have sported the Macdonald tartan, and wants to know why. Old +Finlayson met us at the door of his baronial hall in a clannish, feudal +sort of way, and seizing his glengarry bonnet from his head he flung it +down upon the oak settle in the hall, and exclaimed in hearty accents, +"Welcome to the Glen." The Misses Finlayson wore sashes of royal +Stuart tartan put plaid-wise across their shoulders. Mrs. Finlayson +was dressed in a very regal manner which I cannot attempt to describe, +and her platform voice was in use throughout the entire evening. + +Ellicomb said the dance was barbaric, but Thomas enjoyed the evening +immensely, and so did Crawshay, who said in his hearty way, "The +Finlaysons did us uncommonly well," and shouted out, "Not at all bad +people, not at all bad." + +After dinner old Finlayson showed us all the pictures in the hall by +the light of a long wax taper which he held above his head, and he +pointed out the beauties of the house in a proprietary way, even to +Evan himself, to whom the place belongs. Evan Sinclair, in a shabby +green doublet, accepted all Mr. Finlayson's wildest statements about +his own house with a queer, humorous grin on his face, and submitted to +being patronized by the Miss Finlaysons, whose commercial instincts, no +doubt, caused them to despise a young man who was obliged to let his +place. + +One of the Highland axioms which the Finlaysons have accepted is that +"a man's a man for a' that," and they shook hands with every one in an +effusive way, and condescended to a queer sort of familiarity with the +boatmen and keepers about the place. The daughters of the house, with +flying tartan ribbons, swung the young gillies about in the intricate +figures of the hoolichan, and talked to them with a heartiness which +one would hardly have thought possible of the Clarkham young ladies. +The Finlaysons had a large number of English guests staying in the +house for the dance. These all made the same joke when the pipes began +to play. "Is the pig being killed?" they asked, and looked very +pleased with their own ready wit. + +Red-headed Evan Sinclair carried his old green doublet and battered +silver ornaments very well, and his neat dancing was in pleasant +contrast to the curious bounds and leaps of the Finlaysons. Old Mr. +Finlayson spent his evening strutting about in a kindly, important +fashion, and in making Athole Brose after a recipe supplied by Tyne +Drum, who superintended the brewing of it himself. + +I hope I am not fanciful when I say that the pipes when I hear them +have to me something irresistibly sad about them, and that they conjure +up many fantasies in my head which I am half ashamed to put down on +paper. They seem to me to gather up in their bitter sobbings all the +sorrows of a people who have suffered much and have said very little +about it. There is the cry in them of children dying in the lonely +glens in winter-time, when the wind howls round the clachan and the +snow fills the passes. One almost sees the little procession of +black-coated men bearing away a tiny burden from the cottage door into +the whiteness beyond, with its one heaped-up patch of brown earth on +either side of the little grave. They wail, too, of the Killing Time, +when the Covenanters were crushed but never broken under persecution; +and one seems to see the defiant gray-haired old men, with their +splendid obstinacy, unmoved by threats--not defiant, but simply +unbreakable. Thinking of the Covenanters as they pass slowly before +one to the sighing of the pipes, one wonders if it is possible to +punish by death the man who is content to die. + +The tuneful reeds sob out, too, the story of the Prince for whom so +many brave men bled, and they tell again of the days of song, and of +noble legends and deeds of daring when the nation spent its passionate +love on its King. "Come back! come back!" The desolate cry of the +times. Almost one hears it sounding across the hills, and it seems to +me that all that it is so hard to speak, so hard even to look, may +perhaps be told in music. And I think loyalty and love speak very +beautifully in the old Jacobite airs. + +Again, as Evan's piper marches up and down in the moonlight playing a +lament, the romance of life seems lost in the hardness of it, its +stress and its loss. "Hame, hame, hame!" the pipes sob forth, crying +for the homes that are sold to strangers, and for the hills and the +glens which pass away from the old hands. It is "Good-bye, good-bye," +an eternity of farewells. And still, wherever life is most difficult, +wherever comforts are fewest and work is most hard, in the distant +parts of the world are the Scottish exiles. But I know that all the +world over the sons of the heather and the mist, in however distant or +alien lands they may be, feel always, as they steer their way through +life, that there is a pole-star by which they set their compass; and +that some day, perhaps, they or their children may steer the boat to a +haven on some rocky shore, where the whaup calls shrilly on the moors +above the loch, and the heather grows strong and tough on the hillside, +and the peat reek rises almost like the incense of an evening prayer, +against a gray, soft sky in the land of the North. + +I suppose that even in a diary I have no business to mix this up with +an account of the Finlaysons' dance. + +Palestrina came up to me after conscientiously dancing reels with +Thomas, looking very pink and pretty, and thoughtful of me, as usual. + +"Don't stay longer than you feel inclined," she said. "I told them to +come for you in the dog-cart, and to wait about for you between twelve +and one." + +"I will take a turn down on the shore," I said, "and have a cigar, and +then I will come back and see how you are getting on." + +Palestrina gave me my crutch, and I went down towards the loch, which +looked like a sheet of silver in the moonlight, and I found Anthony and +Mrs. Fielden sitting on a garden bench beneath some wind-torn beeches +by the shore. To-night there was not a breath of air stirring, and +Mrs. Fielden had only thrown a light wrap round her. + +"Have you come to tell me that I am to go in and dance reels with old +Mr. Finlayson?" she said. "It is really so much pleasanter out here. +Do sit down and talk to Sir Anthony and me." + +She would never have allowed one to know that one was in the way, even +if one had interrupted a proposal of marriage. + +Anthony made room for me on the bench, and said heartily, "I am awfully +glad to see you able to sit up like this, Hugo. Why, man, you're +getting as strong as a horse!" + +"Oh. I'm all right again," I said. "I'll begin to grow a new leg +soon. And the first thing I mean to do when that happens is to dance +reels like the Finlaysons." + +"I believe I ought to be going in to supper now with Mr. Finlayson," +said Mrs. Fielden. "Does any one know what time it is? He said he +would 'conduct me to the dining-hall' at twelve o'clock." + +"It is a quarter past now," said Anthony, looking at his watch in the +moonlight. "Don't go in, Mrs. Fielden. Wait out here, and talk to +Hugo and me." + +But old Finlayson in his kilt had tracked us to our seat underneath the +beech-trees, and he took instant possession of our fair neighbour, and +told us to follow presently. He thought all the supper-tables were +full just now. + +"We shan't eat everything before you come," said hospitable old +Finlayson, walking away with his beautiful partner on his arm. + +Mrs. Fielden was dressed in white satin, with some pretty soft stuff +about her, and she wore some white heather in her hair. + +"What a good sort she is!" said Anthony in a loud voice, almost before +Mrs. Fielden was out of hearing. + +It wasn't, perhaps, the most poetical way in which he could have put +it, but one didn't want or expect Anthony to express himself poetically. + +"Utterly spoilt!" I replied, because at that moment I happened to be +feeling supremely miserable, and I did not want Anthony to know it. + +"Not a bit," he replied; "and you know that as well as I do, old chap." + +"Allow me, Anthony," I said, "to be as savage as I like; it is one of +the privileges of a cripple." + +"Oh, blow cripples!" said Anthony. "You will be shooting next autumn, +man." + +"And what will you be doing?" I said. After all, we have been pals all +our lives, and I think Anthony might tell me about it if there is +anything to tell. + +"Oh, I'll be shooting too, I suppose," said Anthony. + +We smoked for some time in silence. + +And then Anthony began, and said that he had enjoyed himself amazingly +up here in the North, and he went on to say a good word for every one. +Old Finlayson had been a brick about his shooting and deer-stalking, +and it was beastly hard luck that I hadn't been able to come too. The +minister wasn't a bad fellow, even when he was jocose; and Evan +Sinclair was one of the best; and so on. + +"What shall you be doing when you go back, Anthony?" I said, harking +back to my old question, and hoping for more information than I +actually asked for. "Are you going straight home?" + +"I'll be at the first shoot at Stanby. Shall you be there?" + +"I'm afraid not," I said. "I haven't learned to do cross-stitch yet, +and I'm sure all the women would think me a great bore, sitting about +in their morning-rooms all day. Except Mrs. Fielden, of course! Mrs. +Fielden would probably persuade me into thinking that the only thing +that made her house-party successful, or saved herself from boredom, +was the presence of a lame man in the house." + +"I don't think you are quite just about Mrs. Fielden, Hugo," said +Anthony, moving rather resentfully on the garden bench. + +"That doesn't matter much," I replied. "One voice will not be missed +from the general chorus of praise that follows Mrs. Fielden wherever +she goes." + +"No; but still----" began Anthony; and then he stopped, and we smoked +on for some time without speaking. "You see," he began at last, "she +is the best friend I ever had." He did not lower his voice, because I +suppose Anthony finds it impossible to do so, but went on steadily: +"You see, I once cared for a little cousin of hers, and she died when +she was eighteen. I don't think anybody ever knew about it, except +Mrs. Fielden. But she knows how much cut up I was, and I suppose that +is why she is so nice to me always." + +"I'm awfully sorry!" I said. + +"I never meant to speak about it," said Anthony in a brisk, cheerful +voice. "Oh, don't you bother about it, Hugo! I mean I'm awfully keen +about hunting, and I have an excellent time, only I don't suppose I +shall ever care for any one else." + +"Thanks for telling me, Tony." + +"I wouldn't have said anything about it," said Anthony, "if it hadn't +been for what you said about Mrs. Fielden. Y'see, she has been so +awfully good to me, and I don't think you quite understand all she is +really." + +"Why, man," I cried, "I love her with every bit of my heart! And I +worship her--how does one say one worships a woman?--as if she were the +sun!" + +And I think that was the very first moment that I told myself that I +loved Mrs. Fielden. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +The minister and Evan Sinclair came to say good-bye; the minister has +accepted our approaching departure with his usual philosophy. "You +would soon tire of this place in the winter-time," he said. "And even +looking at it from the other point of view, I believe that summer +visitors should not prolong their stay above a few months. I admit +that we have enjoyed your sojourn amongst us; but were you and your +sister to become residenters in the place, our intercourse would have +to be reconstructed from the foundation." The minister crossed his +legs, and, without being pressed to continue the subject, he went on: +"There is a certain conventionality, not to say forbearance, admitted +and allowed between friends with whom one's acquaintance is to be +short; but there is a basis stronger than that upon which any lengthy +friendship must be made." + +"And that basis?" I asked. + +"That basis, I take it," said the minister, "should be a +straightforward disregard for one another. I do not believe in +politeness between near neighbours; it cannot last." + +"I had hoped," said Palestrina, pouting a little, "that you would all +miss us, Mr. Macorquodale." + +"We shall miss you," said the minister quickly, but with judgment. "We +shall see the merits as well as the demerits of the case. For +instance, one of your friends cost me a sovereign for a favourite +charity of hers." + +Evan Sinclair said very kindly, blinking his fair eyelashes in a shy +way, "Well, I know I shall miss you. The place will seem very dull +with only Alexander and me left in it." + +"_I_ shall have my wife," said the minister brutally. + +"Yes," said Sinclair; "and her mother! You have kept that pretty dark +from us, Taurbarrels." + +"It is only a visit," said Mr. Macorquodale shortly. And he went on in +a truculent tone, "And I need not have her unless I want to." + +"I hear she is strict," murmured Evan. "I hope you will be allowed to +look out of the window on the Sabbath, my man." + +"I am master in my own house," said Mr. Macorquodale magnificently. + +"Believe me," said Evan, "that's a courtesy title, supported by no +valid claim, and still less precedent. A man never has been master of +his own house when there is a mistress in it. I remember when my +brother got married he had just your very ideas, and he gave his wife +the keys of the linen-press and the store-cupboard, 'But the rest of +the bunch,' he said, 'I keep to myself.' And he put them all in his +pocket. It was not six months after that," said Evan, "that I went to +stay with them, and I heard him ask my sister-in-law if she would mind +his having two pocket-handkerchiefs on Sundays." + +Palestrina and I were alone, for Ellicomb had left us a few days +before, and we hear from the Jamiesons that he is a daily visitor at +their house. Thomas and Anthony were out shooting, and Mrs. Fielden +had gone for a walk over the hills. + +"I have a thousand things to do," said Palestrina, when Evan and the +minister had departed. + +"I also have a thousand things to do," I replied. + +"Don't tire yourself," said Palestrina. "What are you going to do?" + +"I am going to re-write my diary," I said. + +"But, my dear," said Palestrina, "that would be the work of months." + +"I am only going to correct all the mistakes I have made in it," I +replied; and I took my book and a pen, and went and sat in the little +room on the ground-floor which they call my den. + +We once had an old aunt, Palestrina and I, who kept a diary all her +life, and when any of the relatives whom she mentioned in its pages +came to die, she used to go through all the back numbers of her journal +and insert affectionate epithets in front of the names of the deceased. +For instance (my aunt's existence was not marked by any thrilling +events), the entry would perhaps be as follows: "Maria was late for +breakfast this morning. In the afternoon she had her singing-lesson, +and afterwards we did some shopping, when Maria tried on her new gown." +But the amended entry after Maria's death would be, "Our darling Maria +was (a little) late for breakfast this morning; in the afternoon she +had her singing-lesson"--and here would probably be a footnote praising +Maria's voice--"afterwards we did some shopping, and"--Maria struck +out--"my sweet girl tried on her new gown." Any one's death, or even a +successful marriage of one of the family, would cause her to revise and +correct her diary in this way, and she used to fan the wet ink with a +piece of blotting-paper to make it dry black, and thus prevent +posterity from knowing that the words written over the lines were an +afterthought induced by subsequent events. + +It was manifestly an unfair way of keeping a diary. But I can claim +her example and hereditary taint as an excuse for my own dishonesty +this afternoon. I read through my diary with a sense of utter shame, +and wherever I found, for instance, that I had said that Mrs. Fielden +was frivolous, or even that she raised her eyebrows in an affected way, +I corrected the misstatement by the light of the magnificent discovery +I had made that Mrs. Fielden was faultless, and that I loved her. Oh, +the beauty of this woman and her blessed kindness! the cunning with +which she conceals her unselfishness, and her ridiculous attempts at +pretending she is frivolous or worldly. + +Alas! there were so many misstatements to correct, and so many dear +adjectives to fill in, that I was not halfway through my task before +Mrs. Fielden herself tapped at the window and looked in. + +I believe I must have grinned foolishly, but what I wanted to do was to +stretch out my arms to the beautiful vision, framed in the hectic +Virginian creeper round the window, and call out to her to come to me. + +Mrs. Fielden came in for a minute, and said with the adorable lift of +the eyebrows: "I have been educating a pair of young boots by walking +through all the bogs on the hillside. Listen, they are quite full of +water." She raised herself on her toes with a squelching sound of the +leather, and gave one of her joyous soft laughs. + +"You must change directly," I said, with an idiotic sense of +proprietorship. + +"When I have done so I think I shall come and have tea with you," said +Mrs. Fielden. And of course then I knew that she had come home early +on purpose to have tea with me, and that probably she had given up +something else which she wanted to do, in order that she might sit by +me when I was alone--because of course I have found Mrs. Fielden out +now, and exposed her hypocrisy. + +Fortunately she took nearly a quarter of an hour to change her wet +boots, and this gave me time to ask myself why I was behaving like a +raving idiot, because I had found out that Mrs. Fielden was absolutely +perfect, and that I loved her. + +It was quite the worst quarter of an hour that I have ever spent, +because in it I had time to remember that I was a crippled man with one +leg, and that Mrs. Fielden was a beautiful young woman whom of course +every one loved, and that she owned an old historical place called +Stanby, and probably--I realized this also--that she would continue to +come over and sit with a dull man and bewilder him with her beauty and +her kindness only so long as he did not allow her to know the supremely +impertinent fact that he had fallen in love with her. + +I must plead ill-health, and a certain weakness of nerve which no doubt +always follows a surgical operation, for the fact that I turned round +and put my face in the pillows for a moment and groaned. + +Mrs. Fielden came in in my favourite pale-blue gown which she sometimes +wears when she changes her frock at tea-time. She came and took a seat +beside me, and as she never hurriedly plunges into a conversation we +sat silent for a time. The afternoon was darkening now, and the light +of a blazing fire leaped and played upon her pale-blue dress, and +turned her brown hair to a sort of red-gold. + +Mrs. Fielden thinks she is the only person in the world who can make up +a fire. And she is perfectly right. She arranged the logs with a long +brass poker, shifting them here and there, while her dear face glowed +in the light of the fire. She is not a luxurious woman, in spite of +being surrounded always by luxury. For instance, she stands and walks +in a very erect way, and I have never seen her stuff a lot of sofa +cushions at her back in a chair, nor lounge on a sofa. Her glorious, +buoyant health seems to exempt her from need of support or ease, and +her figure is too pretty for lounging. + +When she had finished arranging the logs she put down the poker and +looked at me with that dear kindliness of hers, and said in her pretty +voice, "What have you been doing with yourself this afternoon?" + +"The minister and Evan Sinclair came up to say good-bye," I said. + +"And since then?" + +I took my diary, which still lay on my knee, and hid it under the sofa +cushions. + +"Since then," I said, "I have been correcting--that is, writing my +diary." + +"Oh, the diary!" exclaimed Mrs. Fielden delightedly. "I had forgotten +about that!" + +"No, you hadn't," I said to myself. "It is only part of your wilful, +uncomprehendable, untranslatable charm that makes you pretend sometimes +that you have no memory. As a matter of fact, you knew from the first +that it would be a relief to an egotistical grumbler to get rid of his +spleen sometimes on blue ruled essay paper, and so you set him a task +to do, and you have often wondered since how he is getting on with it. + +"I think I must see the diary," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"That you certainly shall not," I said; and I pushed the book still +farther under the sofa cushions--just as if it was necessary to fight +with Mrs. Fielden for anything, or any use either! + +"I thought you promised," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"If I did I have changed my mind," I said firmly. + +"You know you mean all the time to let me see it," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"I know I do not mean to let you see it for even a minute of time," I +replied. + +One of Mrs. Fielden's special odd little silences fell between us. +"No," I said to myself. "I will _not_ say I am sorry. I will _not_ +say I have been a brute, I will _not_ feel a desire to comfort her, +even if her eyes have the wistful look in them." + +Mrs. Fielden sat still and looked into the fire. + +What unexpected thing will she do next, I wonder? Will she suddenly +burst out laughing, or will she turn and take every bit of manhood out +of me by smiling? Or shall I find, when I turn and look at her face, +simply that she has gone to sleep? + +Good heavens! What if she should be crying? + +In an agony of compunction I turned and looked at her; and Mrs. Fielden +not only smiled, but held out her hand for the book.... I rummaged +underneath the sofa cushions, and passed it over to her. She bent +forward till the firelight from the blazing logs fell full on the open +page, and she read every one of those corrected lines. She saw where I +had once put "affected" I had now put "beautiful," and for "frivolous" +I put a "lovely gaiety," and she read till she came to the last +correction of all. I had run a line through the words "Mrs. Fielden +came to sit with me," and had written over it, "My darling came to see +me----" + +Then Mrs. Fielden closed the book, and left her chair where she had +been sitting. She crossed the hearthrug quite slowly till she reached +my sofa. And then she kneeled down and took both my hands in her dear +strong ones, and looked at me with misty blue eyes, like wet +forget-me-nots. "But, Hugo dear," she said, "why did you not tell me +long ago?" + + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + _UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_ + + + BY Miss MACNAUGHTAN. + THE FORTUNE OF CHRISTINA M'NAB. + + + THE DUENNA OF A GENIUS. M. E. Francis. + OWD BOB. Alfred Ollivant. + EIGHT DAYS. R. E. Forrest. + LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET. Miss Braddon. + THE OCTOPUS. Frank Norris. + THE PIT. Frank Norris. + MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE, Etc. Booth Tarkington. + WOODSIDE FARM. Mrs. W. K. Clifford. + WHITE FANG. Jack London. + THE PRINCESS PASSES. C. N. & A. M. Williamson. + THE MAN FROM AMERICA. Mrs. H. de la Pasture. + SIR JOHN CONSTANTINE. "Q" + INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. A. and E. Castle. + IF YOUTH BUT KNEW! A. and E. Castle. + MATTHEW AUSTIN. W. E. Norris. + HIS GRACE. W. E. Norris. + THE AMERICAN PRISONER. Eden Phillpotts. + THE HOSTS OF THE LORD. Mrs. F. A. Steel. + THE LADY OF THE BARGE. W. W. Jacobs. + THE GOD IN THE CAR. Anthony Hope. + QUISANTE. Anthony Hope. + THE INTRUSIONS OF PEGGY. Anthony Hope. + THE KING'S MIRROR. Anthony Hope. + THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE. Sir G. Parker. + AN ADVENTURER OF THE NORTH. Sir G. Parker. + THE BATTLE OF THE STRONG. Sir G. Parker. + MARRIAGE OF WILLIAM ASHE. Mrs. Humphry Ward + HISTORY OF DAVID GRIEVE. Mrs. Humphry Ward. + ROBERT ELSMERE. Mrs. Humphry Ward. + CLEMENTINA. A. E. W. Mason. + THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne. + THE WAGES OF SIN. Lucas Malet. + +_Etc., Etc._ + +_NELSON'S LIBRARY._ + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Lame Dog's Diary, by S. 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Macnaughtan +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +P.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +P.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +P.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +P.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 50%; + text-align: center } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +H4.h4center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Lame Dog's Diary, by S. Macnaughtan + +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: A Lame Dog's Diary + +Author: S. Macnaughtan + +Release Date: February 3, 2011 [EBook #34777] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LAME DOG'S DIARY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT=""But, Hugo dear," she said, "why did you not tell me long ago?"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="351" HEIGHT="551"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 351px"> +"But, Hugo dear," she said, "why did you not tell me long ago?" +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t1"> +A LAME DOG'S DIARY +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +S. Macnaughtan +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +Thomas Nelson and Sons, +<BR> +London, Edinburgh, and New York +<BR> +1908 +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +A LAME DOG'S DIARY. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I. +</H3> + +<P> +Perhaps curiosity has never been more keen, nor mystery more baffling, +than has been the case during the last few weeks. There have been "a +few friends to tea" at almost every house in the village to see if in +this way any reasonable conclusions can be arrived at, and even +Palestrina is satisfied with the number of people who have taken the +trouble to walk up the hill and chat by my sofa in the afternoons. But +although each lady who has called has remarked that she is in the +secret, but at present is not at liberty to say anything about it, we +are inclined to think that this is vain boasting, or at least selfish +reticence. +</P> + +<P> +The two Miss Traceys have announced to almost every caller at their +little cottage during the last two years that they intend to build. +</P> + +<P> +We have all been naturally a good deal impressed by this statement, and +although it was never plainly said what the structure was to be, we had +had for a long time a notion of a detached house on the Common. And +surely enough the foundation-stone was laid last year by Miss Ruby +Tracey with some ceremony, and the first turf of the garden was cut by +Miss Tracey, and only last month the whole of the Fern Cottage +furniture was removed in a van to Fairview, as the new house is +called—the handsomer pieces placed upon the outside of the van, and +the commoner and least creditable of the bedroom furniture within. +Every one was at his or her window on the day that the Miss Traceys' +furniture, with the best cabinet and the inlaid card-table duly +displayed, was driven in state by the driver of the station omnibus +through the town. A rumour got abroad that even more beautiful things +were concealed from view inside the van, and the Miss Traceys satisfied +their consciences by saying, "We did not spread the rumour, and we +shall not contradict it." +</P> + +<P> +But the mystery concerns the furniture in quite a secondary sort of +way, and it is only important as being the means of giving rise to the +much-discussed rumour in the town. For mark, the drawing-room +furniture was taken at once and stored in a spare bedroom, and the +drawing-room was left unfurnished. This fact might have remained in +obscurity, for in winter time, at least, it is not unusual for ladies +to receive guests in the dining-room with an apology, the drawing-room +being a cold sitting-room during the frost. But Mrs. Lovekin, the lady +who acts as co-hostess at every entertainment in our neighbourhood, +handing about her friends' cakes and tea, and taking, we are inclined +to think, too much upon herself, did, in a moment of expansion, offer +to show the Traceys' house to the Blinds, who happened to call there on +the day when she was paying her respects to Miss Tracey. Mrs. Lovekin +always removes her bonnet and cloak in every house, and this helps the +suggestion that she is in some sort a hostess everywhere. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina, who was also calling on the Miss Traceys, gave me a full, +true, and particular account of the affair the same evening. +</P> + +<P> +"Mind the wet paint," Mrs. Lovekin called from the dining-room window +to the Miss Blinds as they came in at the gate, "and I'll open the +door," she remarked, as she sailed out into the passage to greet the +sisters. Miss Ruby Tracey would rather have done this politeness +herself, in order that she might hear the flattering remarks which +people were wont to make about the hall paper. It is so well known +that she and her sister keep three servants that they never have any +hesitation in going to the door themselves. Whereas the Miss Blinds, +who have only one domestic, would seem hardly to know where their front +door is situated. +</P> + +<P> +"What an elegant paper!" exclaimed Miss Lydia Blind, stopping awestruck +in the little hall. Miss Lydia would, one knows, have something kind +to say if she went to pay a call at a Kaffir hut. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Mrs. Lovekin in a proprietary sort of way; "it is one of +Moseley's which Smithson got down in his book of patterns. The blue +paint is what they call 'eggshell'—quite a new shade. Come this way +and have a cup of tea." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure it is all very simple," said Miss Tracey, in a disparaging +manner that showed her good breeding, as they sat down in the +dining-room. "How do you like the new carpet, Miss Belinda?" +</P> + +<P> +"Glory, glory, glory!" said Miss Belinda; "glory, glory, glory!" +</P> + +<P> +"Show Miss Lydia the new footstools, Ruby dear," said Miss Tracey; "I +am sure she would like to see them." For we all believe—or like to +believe—that to praise our property must be Miss Lydia's highest +pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Lovekin seized the opportunity to act as tea-maker to the party. +She poured cream and sugar into the cups with the remark that there was +no one in Stowel whose tastes in these respects she did not know, and +she handed a plate of cake to Miss Belinda, saying,— +</P> + +<P> +"There, my dear, you sit comfortable and eat that." +</P> + +<P> +"Glory, glory, glory!" said Miss Belinda. +</P> + +<P> +The Miss Traceys had tea dispensed to them by the same hand, and +accepted it with that slight sense of bewilderment which Mrs. Lovekin +sometimes makes us feel when she looks after us in our own houses; and +Miss Lydia Blind distributed her thanks equally between her and the +Miss Traceys. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing was talked of that afternoon but the new house—its sunny +aspect and its roomy cupboards in particular commanding the heartiest +commendation. Presently the ladies were taken to see all over it, with +the exception of one of the spare bedrooms and the drawing-room. They +knew these rooms existed, because Miss Tracey paused at the door of +each, and said lightly, "This is the drawing-room," and "This is +another spare bedroom;" and although, as my sister confided to me, they +would have given much to see the interior of the rooms, they could not +do so, of course, uninvited. +</P> + +<P> +They paused to admire something at every turn, even saying generously, +but playfully, that there were many of Miss Tracey's possessions which +they positively coveted for themselves. The Miss Traceys smilingly +repudiated their felicitations, while Mrs. Lovekin accepted them and +announced the price of everything. She became quite breathless, +hurrying upstairs, while she exhibited stair-rods and carpets, and with +shortened breath apostrophized them as being "real brass" or "the best +Brussels at five-and-threepence." No one is vulgar in Stowel, but Mrs. +Lovekin is, we fear, not genteel. +</P> + +<P> +At the close of the visit, Mrs. Lovekin again ushered the visitors into +the hall, and opening, "by the merest accident," as she afterwards +said—without, however, gaining any credence for her statement—opening +by the merest accident the door of the drawing-room, she peeped in. +</P> + +<P> +The drawing-room was void of furniture. The wild thought came into +Mrs. Lovekin's mind—had the Traceys overbuilt themselves, and had the +furniture, which had been carried so proudly through the town on the +top of the furniture-van, been sold to pay expenses? The suggestion +was immediately put aside. The Miss Traceys' comfortable means were so +well known that such an explanation could not be seriously contemplated +for a moment. No; putting two and two together, a closed spare bedroom +and an empty drawing-room, and bringing a woman's instinct to bear upon +the question, it all pointed to one thing—the Miss Traceys were going +to give a party, probably an evening party, in honour of the new house, +and the drawing-room furniture was being stored for safety in the spare +bedroom until the rout was over. Doubtless the first rumour of the +Miss Traceys' party was meanly come by, but it was none the less +engrossing, all the same. Miss Lydia hoped that no one would believe +for a moment that she was in any way connected with the fraudulent +intrusion that had been made into Miss Tracey's secret, and Miss Tracey +said,— +</P> + +<P> +"I have known Mary Anne Lovekin for thirty years"—this was +understating the case, but numbers are not exactly stated as we grow +older—"but I never would have believed that she could have done such a +thing." +</P> + +<P> +"Bad butter," said Miss Belinda, shaking her head in an emphatic +fashion; "bad butter, bad butter!" +</P> + +<P> +"I do not want to judge people," said Miss Tracey; "but there was a +want of delicacy about opening a closed door which I for one cannot +forgive." The Miss Traceys' good-breeding is proverbial in Stowel, and +it was felt that her uncompromising attitude could not but be excused +when it was a matter of her most honourable sensibilities having been +outraged. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I</I> shall not say what I think," said Miss Ruby. +</P> + +<P> +We often find that when Miss Ruby cannot transcend what her sister has +said, she has a way of hinting darkly at a possible brilliance of +utterance which for some reason she refrains from making. +</P> + +<P> +"Bad butter!" said Miss Belinda; "bad, bad butter!" +</P> + +<P> +Many years ago Miss Belinda Blind, who was then a beautiful young +woman, was thrown from a pony carriage. The result of the fall was an +injury to the spine, and she was smitten with a paralytic stroke which +deprived her of all power of speech. She was dumb for some years, and +then two phrases came back to her stammering tongue, "glory," and "bad +butter." She understands perfectly what is said to her, but she has no +means of replying, save in this very limited vocabulary. And, +strangely enough, these words can only be made to correspond with Miss +Belinda's feelings. However polite her intentions may be, if at heart +she disapproves she can only utter her two words of opprobrium. When a +sermon displeases her she sits in her pew muttering softly, and her +lips show by their movement the words she is repeating; while a +particularly good cup of tea will evoke from her the extravagant +phrase, "Glory, glory, glory!" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," I said to Miss Lydia on the day succeeding the famous +visit to the Traceys, "Mrs. Lovekin's information, if so it may be +called, has been wrongly come by, and yet so frail is human nature one +cannot help speculating upon it." +</P> + +<P> +"That is what is so sad," said Miss Lydia; "one almost feels as though +sharing in Mrs. Lovekin's deceit by dwelling upon her information, and +yet one's mind seems incapable of even partially forgetting such an +announcement." +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps some suggestion of what was forming the topic of conversation +in the town may have reached the Miss Traceys, and hastened their +disclosure of the mystery. For very shortly afterwards, one morning +when a flood of April sunshine had called us out of doors to wander on +the damp paths of the garden, and watch bursting buds and listen to the +song of birds in a very rural and delightful fashion, we were informed +by a servant who tripped out in a white cap and apron, quite dazzling +in the sunshine, that the Miss Traceys were within. +</P> + +<P> +I appealed to my sister to furnish me with a means of escape. But she +replied: "I am afraid they have seen you. Besides, you know I like you +to see people." We went indoors, and Miss Ruby apologized for the +untimely hour at which she and her sister had come, but explained it by +saying, "We wanted to find you alone." And then we knew that the +mystery was about to be solved. +</P> + +<P> +"You are the first to hear about it," said Miss Tracey in a manner +which was distinctly flattering. The Miss Traceys sit very erect on +their chairs, and when they come to call I always apologize for having +my leg up on the sofa. +</P> + +<P> +"The fact is," Miss Tracey went on, "that we knew that we could rely +upon your good sense and judgment in a matter which is exercising us +very seriously at present." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a delicate subject, of course," said Miss Ruby, "but one which +we feel certain we may confide to you." +</P> + +<P> +"We always look upon Mr. Hugo as a man of the world," said Miss Tracey, +"although he is such an invalid, and we rely upon the sound judgment of +you both." +</P> + +<P> +Well, to state the subject without further preamble—but of course it +must be understood that everything spoken this morning was to be in +strict confidence—would we consider that they, the Miss Traceys, were +sufficiently chaperoned if their brother the Vicar were present at the +dance, and promised not to leave until the last gentleman had quitted +the house? +</P> + +<P> +I do not like to overstate a lady's age, and it is with the utmost +diffidence that I suggest that Miss Ruby Tracey, the younger of the two +sisters, may be on the other side of forty. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, we have not only our own good name to consider," said Miss +Tracey, "but the memory of our dear and ever-respected father must, we +feel, be our guide in this matter, and we cannot decide how he would +have wished us to act. If our brother were married it would simplify +matters very much." +</P> + +<P> +"You would have had your invitation before now," said Miss Ruby, "if we +had been able to come to a decision, but without advice we felt that +was impossible. I am sure," she went on, giving her mantle a little +nervous composing touch, and glancing aside as though hardly liking to +face any eye directly—"I am sure the things one hears of unmarried +women doing nowadays ... but of course one would not like to be classed +with that sort of person." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina was the first of us who spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I think," she said gravely, "that as you are so well known here, +nothing could be said." +</P> + +<P> +"You really think so?" said Miss Ruby. +</P> + +<P> +But Miss Tracey still demurred. She said: "But it is the fact of our +being so well known here that really constitutes my chief uneasiness. +We often feel," she added with a sigh, "that in another place we could +have more liberty." +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you," said Miss Ruby, in a tone of playful confession, "that +when we go to visit our cousins in London we are really quite +shockingly frivolous. I do not know what it is about London; one +always seems to throw off all restraint." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you are giving a wrong impression, dear," said Miss Tracey. +"There was nothing in the whole of our conduct in London which would +not bear repetition in Stowel. Only, in a place like this, one feels +one must often explain one's actions, lest they should give rise to +misrepresentations; whereas in London, although behaving, I hope, in a +manner just as circumspect, one feels that no apology or explanation is +needed." +</P> + +<P> +"There is a sort of cheerful privacy about London," said the other +sister, "which I find it hard to explain, but which is nevertheless +enjoyable." +</P> + +<P> +To say that there is a dull publicity about the country, was too +obvious a retort. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we went out every evening when we were in West Kensington," +said Miss Tracey. +</P> + +<P> +"Counting church in the evening," said Miss Ruby. +</P> + +<P> +"Still, those evening services in London almost count as going out," +said Miss Tracey; "I mean, they are so lively. I often blame myself +for not being able to look upon them more in the light of a religious +exercise. I find it as difficult to worship in a strange pew as to +sleep comfortably in a strange bed." +</P> + +<P> +The Miss Traceys' morning call lasted until one o'clock, and even then, +as they themselves said, rising and shaking out their poplin skirts, +there was much left undiscussed which they would still have liked to +talk over with us. The ball supper, as they called it, was to be +cooked at home, and to consist of nothing which could not be "eaten in +the hand." +</P> + +<P> +Claret-cup was, to use Miss Tracey's own figure of speech, to be +"flowing" the whole evening, both in the dining-room with the +sandwiches and cakes, and on a tray placed in a recess behind the hall +door. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen always seem so thirsty," said Miss Tracey, making the remark +as though speaking of some animal of strange habits which she had +considered with the bars of its cage securely fixed between herself and +it at the Zoo. +</P> + +<P> +"We have bought six bottles of Essence of Claret-cup," said the younger +sister, "which we have seen very highly recommended in advertisements; +and although it says that three tablespoonfuls will make a quart of the +cup, we thought of putting four, and so having it good." +</P> + +<P> +"As regards the music," went on Miss Tracey, "we have come, I think, to +a very happy decision. A friend of ours knows a blind man who plays +the piano for dances, and by employing him we feel that we shall be +giving remunerative work to a very deserving person, as well as +ensuring for ourselves a really choice selection of the most +fashionable waltzes. Ruby pronounces the floor perfect," said Miss +Tracey, glancing admiringly at her younger sister's still neat figure +and nimble feet; "she has been practising upon it several times——" +</P> + +<P> +"With the blinds down, dear," amended Miss Ruby, simpering a little. +"We understand," she continued, "that some chalk sprinkled over the +boards before dancing begins is beneficial. You should have known +Stowel in the old days, when there was a county ball every winter at +the Three Jolly Postboys—such a name!" continued Miss Ruby, who was in +that curiously excited state when smiles and even giggles come easily. +</P> + +<P> +"Now remember," said Miss Tracey to Palestrina, as she took leave of +her, "you must come and help with the decorations on the morning of the +dance. You can rest in the afternoon, so as to look your best and +rosiest in the evening." +</P> + +<P> +In Stowel it is ingenuously admitted that a young lady should try and +look her best when gentlemen are to be present, and rosy cheeks are +still in vogue. +</P> + +<P> +The Miss Traceys' drawing-room is not a very large room, even when +empty of furniture, but it certainly had a most festive appearance when +we drove up to the famous house-warming. Every curtain was looped with +evergreens, and every fireplace was piled with ivy, while two large +flags, which were referred to several times as "a display of bunting," +festooned the little staircase. Several friends in the village had +lent their white-capped maids for the occasion, and these ran against +each other in the little linoleum passage in a state of great +excitement, and called each other "dear" in an exuberance of affection +which relieved their fluttered feelings. +</P> + +<P> +A palm had been ordered from London and placed triumphantly in a +corner—the palm had been kept as a surprise for us all. In the course +of the evening it was quite a common thing to hear some girl ask her +partner if he had seen The Palm; and if the reply was in the negative, +the couple made a journey to the hall to look at it. +</P> + +<P> +And here I must note a curious trait in the conversation prevalent in +our select circle at Stowel. We all speak in capitals. The definite +article is generally preferred to the "a" or "an" which points out a +common noun; and so infectious is the habit, that when writing, for +instance, of the Jamiesons, I find myself referring to The Family, with +a capital, quite in a royal way, so perspicuously are capital letters +suggested by their manner of speech. In the same way, the Taylors' +uncle is never referred to by any of us except as The Uncle, and I feel +sure that I should be doing the Traceys' plant an injustice if I did +not write it down The Palm. +</P> + +<P> +This, however, is a digression. +</P> + +<P> +The calmness of the Miss Traceys was almost overdone. They stood at +the door of their drawing-room, each holding a small bouquet in her +hand, and they greeted their guests as though nothing could be more +natural than to give a dance, or to stand beneath a doorway draped with +white lace curtains, and with a background of dissipated-looking +polished boards and evergreens. The elder Miss Tracey, who is tall, +was statuesque and dignified; the younger lady was conversational and +natural almost to the point of artificiality—so determined was Miss +Ruby to repudiate any hint of arrogance this evening. And it may be +said of both sisters that they were strikingly well-bred and +unembarrassed. Those who had seen them in all the flutter of +preparations during the day—washing china and glass, issuing packets +of candles from their store cupboard below the stairs, and jingling +large bunches of keys—could admire these outward symbols of ease, and +appreciate the self-restraint that they involved. +</P> + +<P> +I do not remember before, at any dance, seeing so many old young +ladies, or so few and such very juvenile young men. The elderly young +ladies smiled the whole time, while their boy partners looked +preternaturally grave and solemn. They appeared to be shyly conscious +of their shirt collars, and these, I fancy, must have been made after +some exaggerated pattern which I cannot now recall; I only remember +that they appeared to be uncomfortably high and somewhat conspicuous, +and that they gave one the idea of being the wearers' first high +collars. +</P> + +<P> +The Vicar, who had promised to come at eight o'clock so that there +should be no mistake about his being in the house from first to last of +the dance, and who had been sent for in a panic at a quarter past +eight, acted conscientiously throughout the entire entertainment. He +began by inviting Mrs. Fielden to dance, and afterwards he asked every +lady in turn according to her rank, and I do not think that during the +entire evening his feet can have failed to respond to a single bar of +the music. The blind musician was a little late in arriving, and we +all sat round the drawing-room with our backs to the new blue wallpaper +and longed for home. No one dared to offer to play a waltz, in case it +should be considered an affront at a party where etiquette was so +conspicuous, and where the peculiar Stowel air of mystery pervaded +everything. +</P> + +<P> +The Jamiesons arrived, a party of nine, in the station omnibus, and +chatted in the hearty, unaffected manner peculiar to themselves, waving +little fans to and fro in the chilly air of the new drawing-room, and +putting an end to the solemn silence which had distinguished the first +half-hour of the party. Each of the sisters wore a black dress +relieved by a touch of colour, and carried a fan. Their bright eyes +shone benignly behind their several pairs of pince-nez; and as they +shook hands with an air of delight with every single person in the room +when they entered, their arrival caused quite a pleasant stir. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Lovekin had already, in her character of co-hostess, begun to +distribute the Essence of Claret-cup that, diluted with water, formed +the staple beverage of the evening and was placed on a small table +behind the hall-door. There was rather a curious sediment left at the +bottom of the glasses, and the flavour of cucumber suggested vaguely to +one that the refreshment might be claret-cup. Very young men in split +white kid gloves drank a good deal of it. +</P> + +<P> +At last the blind musician was led solemnly across the room, and took +up his position at the piano. He always left off playing before a +figure of a quadrille or lancers was finished, and then the dancers +clapped their hands to make him continue, and the elderly young ladies +smiled more than ever. At the second or third waltz my sister was in +the proud position of being claimed in turn by the Vicar as his +partner; and the position, besides being prominent, was such an +enviable one that Palestrina, who is not more given to humility than +other good-looking young women of her age, was carried away by popular +feeling so far as to remark in a tone of gratitude that this was very +kind of him. +</P> + +<P> +He replied, "I have made up my mind to sacrifice myself for the night;" +and one realized that a lofty position and a prominent place in the +world may carry with them sufficient humiliations to keep one meek. +</P> + +<P> +The conscientious Vicar did not allow his partner to sit down once +throughout the entire waltz, and I think the blind musician played at +greater length than usual. I began to wonder if her partner regarded +my excellent Palestrina as a sort of Sandow exerciser, and whether he +was trying to get some healthy gymnastics, if not amusement, out of +their dance together. +</P> + +<P> +"There!" he said at last, placing her on a chair beside me as a +fulfilled duty; and feeling that she was expected to say "Thank you," +Palestrina meekly said it. +</P> + +<P> +"I have only danced once in the last twenty years," said the Vicar, +"and that was with some choir boys." And the next moment the blind man +began to play again, and he was footing it with conscientious energy +with Miss Lydia Blind. +</P> + +<P> +Young ladies who had sat long with their empty programmes in their +hands now began to dance with each other with an air of overdone +merriment, protesting that they did not know how to act gentleman, but +declaring with emphasis that it was just as amusing to dance with a +girl-friend as with a man. +</P> + +<P> +The music, as usual, failed before the end of each figure of the dance, +and the curate, who wore a pair of very smart shoe-buckles, remarked to +me that the lancers was a dance that created much diversion, and I +replied that they were too amusing for anything. +</P> + +<P> +The Jamiesons' youngest brother, who is in a shipping-office in London, +had come down to Stowel especially for this occasion. Once, some years +ago, Kennie, as he is called, made a voyage in one of the shipping +company's large steamers to South America. He landed at Buenos Ayres +armed to the teeth, and walked about the pavement of that +highly-civilized town, with its wooden pavements and plate-glass shop +windows, in a sombrero and poncho, and with terrible weapons stuck in +his belt. At the end of a week he returned in the same ship in which +he had made the outward voyage, and since then he has had tales to tell +of those wild regions with which any of the stories in the <I>Boys' Own +Paper</I> are tame in comparison. In his dress and general appearance he +even now suggests a pirate king. His tales of adventure are always +accompanied by explanatory gestures and demonstrations, and it is not +unusual to see Kennie stand up in the midst of an admiring circle of +friends and make some fierce sabre-cuts in the air. He was dressed +with a red cummerbund round his waist, and he drew attention to it by +an apology to every one of his partners for having it on. "One gets +into the habit of dressing like this out there," he said in a tone of +excuse. The Pirate Boy was in great demand at the dance. +</P> + +<P> +Pretty Mrs. Fielden, who had driven over from Stanby, beautifully +dressed as usual, and slightly amused, ordered her carriage early, and +had merely come to oblige those quaint old dears, the Miss Traceys. +</P> + +<P> +Even at the house-warming Mrs. Fielden would have considered it quite +impossible to sit out a dance. She brought an elderly Colonel with +her, and she conducted him into a corner behind The Palm, and talked to +him there till it was her turn to dance with the Vicar. Had it not +been Mrs. Fielden, whose position placed her above criticism, the +breath of envy might have whispered that it was hardly fair that one +couple should occupy the favourite sitting-out place—two drawing-room +chairs beneath The Palm—to the exclusion of others. But Mrs. Fielden +being whom she was, the young ladies of Stowel were content to pass and +repass the coveted chairs and to whisper admiringly, "How exquisite she +is looking to-night!" +</P> + +<P> +"Is there anything of me left?" she said to me, looking cool and +unruffled when her dance with the Vicar was over. She had only made +one short turn of the room with him, and her beautiful dress and her +hair were quite undisturbed. +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't danced half so conscientiously as his other partners +have," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I wanted to talk about the parish," said Mrs. Fielden, "so I stopped. +I think I should like to go and get cool somewhere." +</P> + +<P> +"I will take you to sit under The Palm again, as Colonel Jardine did," +I replied, "and you shall laugh at all the broad backs and flat feet of +our country neighbours, and hear everybody say as they pass how +beautiful you are." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden turned her head towards me as if to speak, and I had a +sudden vivid conviction that she would have told me I was rude had I +not been a cripple with one leg. +</P> + +<P> +We sat under The Palm. Mrs. Fielden never rushes into a conversation. +Presently she said,— +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you come to this sort of thing? It can't amuse you." +</P> + +<P> +"You told me the other day," I said, "that I ought to cultivate a small +mind and small interests." +</P> + +<P> +"Did I?" said Mrs. Fielden lightly. "If I think one thing one day, I +generally think quite differently a day or two after. To-night, for +instance, I think it is a mistake for you to lean against the Miss +Traceys' new blue walls and watch us dance." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not sure that it isn't better than sitting at home and reading how +well my old regiment is doing in South Africa. Besides, you know, I am +writing a diary." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you?" said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"You advised it," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Did I?" +</P> + +<P> +When Mrs. Fielden is provoking she always looks ten times prettier than +she does at other times. +</P> + +<P> +"A good many people in this little place," I said, "have made up their +minds to 'do the work that's nearest' and to help 'a lame dog over +stiles.' I think I should be rather a brute if I didn't respond to +their good intentions." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think they need invent stiles, though!" said Mrs. Fielden +quickly; "wood-carving, and beating brass, and playing the zither——" +</P> + +<P> +"I do not play the zither," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"—are not stiles. They are making a sort of obstacle race of your +life." +</P> + +<P> +"Since I have begun to write the diary," I said, "I've been able to +excuse myself attempting these things, even when tools are kindly +brought to me. And, so far, no one has so absolutely forgotten that +there is a lingering spark of manhood in me as to suggest that I should +crochet or do cross-stitch." +</P> + +<P> +"You know I am going to help to write the diary," said Mrs. Fielden, +"only I'm afraid I shall have to go to all their tea-parties, shan't I, +to get copy?" +</P> + +<P> +"You will certainly have to go," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm dreadfully bored to-night; aren't you?" she said confidentially, +and in a certain radiant fashion as distant as the Poles from boredom. +"No one can really enjoy this sort of thing, do you think? It's like +being poor, or anything disagreeable of that sort. People think they +ought to pretend to like it, but they don't." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I could entertain you better," I said sulkily; "but I'm afraid +I never was the least bit amusing." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden relapsed into one of her odd little silences, and I +determined I would not ask her what she was thinking about. +</P> + +<P> +Presently Colonel Jardine joined us, and she said to him: "Please see +if you can get my carriage; it must be five o'clock in the morning at +least." And the next moment I was made to feel the egotism of +imagining I had been punished, when she bade me a charming +"good-night." She smiled congratulations on her hostesses on the +success of the party, and pleaded the long drive to Stanby as an excuse +for leaving early. The Colonel wrapped her in a long, beautiful cloak +of some pale coloured velvet and fur—a sumptuous garment at which +young ladies in shawls looked admiringly—and Mrs. Fielden slipped it +on negligently, and got into her brougham. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how tired I am!" she said. +</P> + +<P> +"It was pretty deadly," said the Colonel. "Did you taste the +claret-cup?" he added, making a grimace in the dark. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I found it excellent," said Mrs. Fielden quickly. +</P> + +<P> +Margaret Jamieson now took her place at the piano, to enable the blind +man to go and have some supper; but, having had it, he slept so +peacefully that no one could bear to disturb him, so between them the +young ladies shared his duties till the close of the evening. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina had suggested, as a little occupation for me, that I should +write out programmes for the dance, and I had done so. Surely +programmes were never so little needed before! Every grown man had +left the assembly long before twelve o'clock struck, the feebleness of +the excuses for departing thus early being only equalled by the gravity +with which they were made. Even the lawyer, who we thought would have +remained faithful to the end, pleaded that since he ricked his knee he +is obliged to have plenty of rest. The Pirate Boy had had some bitter +words with the lawyer at a previous stage in the evening about the way +in which the lancers should be danced, and had muttered darkly, "I +won't make a disturbance in a lady's house, but I have seen a fellow +called out for less." He considered that the lawyer was running away, +unable to bear his cold, keen eye upon him during the next lancers, and +he watched him depart, standing at the head of the tiny staircase, +beneath the display of bunting, with his arms folded in a Napoleonic +attitude. +</P> + +<P> +All good things come to an end, and even the Vicar of Stowel must have +felt that there are limits to the most conscientious energy. And +girls, dancing with each other, learn perhaps that the merriment caused +by acting as a man is not altogether lasting; while elderly young +ladies, although agreed in smiling to the very end, must be aware how +fixed in expression such a smile may become towards the end of a long +evening. +</P> + +<P> +Good-nights were said, and carriages were called up with a good deal of +unnecessary shouting, while the Pirate Boy insisted upon going to the +heads of the least restive horses and soothing them in a way which he +said he had learned from those Gaucho fellows out there. +</P> + +<P> +I have never been able to tell what the Miss Traceys thought about +their dance. If they were disappointed, the world was not allowed to +probe that tender spot. Possibly they were satisfied with its success; +the proprietary instinct of admiration applies to entertainments as +well as to tangible possessions. But that satisfaction, if it existed, +was modestly veiled—the house-warming was less discussed by them than +by any one else. Miss Ruby spoke rather wistfully one day about simple +pleasures being the best and safest after all, and she alluded with a +sigh to the time which must come some day when she would be no longer +young. Miss Tracey drew herself up and said: "A woman is only as old +as she looks, my dear," and glanced admiringly at her sister. +</P> + +<P> +The diluted Essence of Claret-cup was bottled, and formed a nice light +luncheon wine at the Miss Tracey's for many weeks afterwards. The +furniture was brought down from the spare bedroom by the maids, who +walked the heavier pieces in front of them with a curious tip-toeing +movement of the castors of the several easy-chairs. The art tiles in +the grate were cleared of their faded burden of evergreens, and The +Palm was carried into the bay-window, where it could be seen from the +road. +</P> + +<P> +I drove over to see Mrs. Fielden and to ask her if she thought I had +been a sulky brute at the dance. +</P> + +<P> +"Were you?" said Mrs. Fielden, lifting her pretty dark eyebrows; "I +forget." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II. +</H3> + +<P> +Palestrina and I live in the country, and whenever we are dull or sad, +like the sailors in Mr. Gilbert's poem, we decide that our +neighbourhood is too deadly uninteresting, and then we go and see the +Jamiesons. They are our nearest neighbours, as they are also amongst +our greatest friends, and the walk to their house is a distance that I +am able to manage. I believe that our visits to the Jamiesons are most +often determined by the state of the weather. If we have passed a long +wet day indoors I feel that it is going to be a Jamieson day, and I +know that my sister will say to me after tea, "Suppose we go over and +see the Jamiesons;" and she generally adds that it is much better than +settling down for the evening at five o'clock in the afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +I do not think that Palestrina was so sociable a young woman, nor did +she see so much of her neighbours, before I came home an invalid from +South Africa—I got hit in the legs at Magersfontein, and had the left +one taken off in the hospital at Wynberg—but she believes, no doubt +rightly, that the variety that one gets by seeing one's fellow-men is +good for a poor lame dog who lies on a sofa by the fire the greater +part of the day, wishing he could grow another leg or feel fit again. +</P> + +<P> +Acting upon this unalterable conviction of my sister, we drive about in +the afternoon and see people, and they come and see me and suggest +occupations for me. In Lent I had a more than usual number of callers, +which says much for the piety of the place, as well as for the goodness +of heart of its inhabitants. +</P> + +<P> +There is a slight coolness between what is known as the "County" and +the Jamiesons, and their name is never mentioned without the +accompanying piece of information, "You know, old Jamieson married his +cook!" To be more exact, Mrs. Jamieson was a small farmer's daughter, +and Captain Jamieson fell in love with her when, having left the army, +he went to learn practical farming at old Higgins's, and he loved her +faithfully to the day of his death. She is a stout, elderly woman who +speaks very little, but upon whom an immense amount of affection seems +to be lavished by her family of five daughters and two sons. And it +has sometimes seemed to my sister and me that her good qualities are of +a lasting and passive sort, which exist in large measure in the hearts +of those who bestow this boundless affection. Mrs. Jamieson's form of +introducing herself to any one she meets consists in giving an account +of the last illness and death of her husband. There is hardly a +poultice which was placed upon that poor man which her friends have not +heard about. And when she has finished, in her flat, sad voice, giving +every detail of his last disorder, Mrs. Jamieson's conversation is at +an end. She has learned, no doubt unconsciously, to gauge the +characters of new acquaintances by the degree of interest which they +evince in Captain Jamieson's demise. It is Mrs. Jamieson's test of +their true worth. +</P> + +<P> +Of the other sorrow which saddened a nature that perhaps was never very +gay, Mrs. Jamieson rarely speaks. Possibly because she thinks of it +more than of anything else in the world. Among her eight children +there was only one who appeared to his mother to combine all perfection +in himself. He was killed by an accident in his engineering works +seven years ago, and although his friends will, perhaps, only remember +him as a stout young fellow who sang sea-songs with a distended chest, +his mother buried her heart with him in his grave, and even the voice +of strangers is lowered as they say, "She lost a son once." +</P> + +<P> +The late Captain Jamieson, a kindly, shrewd man and a Scotchman withal, +was agent to Mrs. Fielden, widow of the late member for Stanby, and +when he died his income perished with him, and The Family of +Jamieson—a large one, as has been told—were thankful enough to +subsist on their mother's inheritance of some four or five hundred a +year, bequeathed to her by the member of the non-illustrious house of +Higgins, late farmer deceased. It is a hospitable house, for all its +narrow means, and there live not, I believe, a warmer-hearted or more +generous family than these good Jamiesons. The girls are energetic, +bright, and honest; their slender purses are at the disposal of every +scoundrel in the parish; and their time, as well as their boundless +energy, is devoted to the relief of suffering or to the betterment of +mankind. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden is of the opinion that nothing gives one a more perfect +feeling of rest than going to Belmont, as the Jamiesons' little house +is called, and watching them work. She calls it the "Rest Cure." +Every one of the five sisters, except Maud, who is the beauty of the +family, wears spectacles, and behind these their bright, intelligent +small eyes glint with kindness and brisk energy. The worst feature of +this excellent family is their habit of all talking at the same time, +in a certain emphatic fashion which renders it difficult to catch what +each individual is saying, and this is especially the case when three +of the sisters are driving sewing-machines simultaneously. They have a +genius for buying remnants of woollen goods at a small price, and +converting them into garments for the poor; and their first question +often is, as they hold a piece of flannel or serge triumphantly aloft, +"What do you think I gave for that?" Palestrina always names at least +twice the sum that has purchased the goods, and has thereby gained a +character for being dreadfully extravagant but sympathetic. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not believe," I said to Palestrina the other day, "that these +good Jamiesons have a thought beyond making other people happy." +</P> + +<P> +"That and getting married are the sole objects of their existence," +said Palestrina. +</P> + +<P> +"It is very odd," I said, "that women so devoid of what might be called +sentiment are yet so bent upon this very thing." +</P> + +<P> +"Eliza told me to-day," said Palestrina, "that as Kate has not +mentioned one single man in her letters home, they cannot help thinking +that there is something in it." +</P> + +<P> +The Jamiesons have the same vigorous, energetic ideas about matrimony +that they have about everything else, and almost their sole grievance, +naïvely expressed, is that Maud, "who gets them all"—meaning, I +believe, offers of marriage—is the only one of the family who is +unable to make up her mind clearly on this momentous question. +</P> + +<P> +"We should not mind," say the conclave of sisters during one of the +numerous family discussions on this subject, "even if she does get all +the admirers—for of course she is the pretty one—if only she would +accept one of them. But she always gets undecided and silly as soon as +they come to the point." +</P> + +<P> +It should be observed in passing that the different stages of +development in love affairs are shrewdly noted and commented upon by +the Jamiesons. The first evidence of a man's preference is that he "is +struck;" and the second, when he begins to visit at the house, is known +as "hovering." An inquiry after Maud's health will sometimes elicit +the unexpected reply that another admirer is hovering at present. The +third stage is reached when the lover is said to be "dangling;" and the +final triumph, when Maud has received a proposal, is noted as having +"come to the point." +</P> + +<P> +If Maud's triumphs are watched with small sighs of envy by her sisters, +they are a source of nothing but gratification to them to retail to the +outside world. There is a strict account kept of Maud's "conquests" in +the letters sent to relatives, and the evening's post will sometimes +contain the startling announcement that Maud has had a fourth in one +year. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, you know how fond we all are of each other," said Eliza +Jamieson to me one day with one of those unexpected confidences which +the effeminacy of sickness seems to warrant, if not actually to invite, +"but we can't help thinking that, humanly speaking, we should all have +a better chance if only Maud would marry. No one would wish her to +marry without love, but we fear she is looking for perfection, and +<I>that</I> she will never get; and it was really absurd of her to be so +upset when she discovered, after nearly getting engaged to Mr. Reddy, +that he wore a wig. After all, a man may be a good Christian in spite +of having no hair." +</P> + +<P> +"That is undoubtedly a fact," I said warmly. +</P> + +<P> +"And Mr. Reddy had excellent prospects," said Eliza, "although perhaps +nothing very tangible at present. Then there was Albert Gore, to whom, +one must admit, Maud gave every encouragement, and we had begun to +think it quite hopeful; but just at the end she discovered that she +could not care for any one called Albert, which was too silly." +</P> + +<P> +"She might have called him Bertie," I suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Eliza eagerly; "and you see, none of us hope or expect to +marry a man who has not some of these little drawbacks, so I really do +not see why Maud should expect it." +</P> + +<P> +Five matrimonial alliances in one house are, perhaps, not easily +arranged in a quiet country neighbourhood, yet there is always a +hopeful tone about these family discussions, and it is very common to +hear the Miss Jamiesons relate at length what they intend to do when +they are married. +</P> + +<P> +And there is yet another maiden to be arranged for in the little house; +Mettie is the Jamiesons' cousin who lives with them, and I believe that +what appeals to me most strongly in this unknown provincial family is +their kindness to the little shrunken, tiresome cousin who shares their +home. Mettie is like some strange little bright bird, utterly devoid +of intelligence, and yet with the alertness of a sparrow. Her beady +eyes are a-twinkle in a restless sort of way all day long, and her +large thin nose has always the appearance of having the skin stretched +unpleasantly tightly across it. The good Jamiesons never seem to be +ruffled by her presence among them, and this forbearance certainly +commands one's respect. Mettie travesties the Jamiesons in every +particular. She has adopted their matrimonial views with interest, and +she utters little platitudes upon the subject with quite a surprising +air of sapience. One avoids being left alone with Mettie whenever it +is possible to do so, for, gentle creature though she is, her remarks +are so singularly devoid of interest that one is often puzzled to +understand why they are made. Yet I see one or other of the Jamiesons +walk to the village with her every day—her little steps pattering +beside their giant strides, while the bird-like tongue chirps gaily all +the way. +</P> + +<P> +Every one in our little neighbourhood walks into the village every day; +it is our daily dissipation; and frivolous persons have been known to +go twice or three times. On days when Palestrina thinks that I am +getting moped she steals the contents of my tobacco-jar, and then says, +without blushing, that she has discovered that my tobacco is all +finished, and that we had better walk into the village together and get +some more. When I am in a grumpy mood, I reply: "It's all right, thank +you; I have plenty upstairs." But it generally ends in my taking the +walk with my sister. +</P> + +<P> +Our house is pleasantly situated where, by peeping through a tangle of +shrubs and trees, we can see the lazy traffic of the highroad that +leads to the village. Strangers pause outside the screen of evergreens +sometimes and peep between the branches to see the quaint gables of the +old house. Its walls have turned to a soft yellow colour with old age, +and its beams are of oak, gray with exposure to the storms of many +winters. +</P> + +<P> +"This old hall of yours is much too dark," Mrs. Fielden said, when she +came to call the other day muffled up in velvet and fur. She lighted +the dull afternoon by something that is radiant and holiday-like about +her, and left us envying her for being so pretty and so young and gay. +"Oh, I know," she said in her whimsical way, "that it is Jacobean and +early Tudor and all sorts of delightful things, but it isn't very +cheerful, you know. I'm so glad it is near the road; I think if I +built a house I should like it to be in Mansion House Square, or inside +a railway station. Don't you love spending a night at a station hotel? +I always ask for a room overlooking the platform, for I like the +feeling of having the trains running past me all night. I love your +house really," she said, "only I'm afraid it preaches peace and +resignation and all those things which I consider so wrong." +</P> + +<P> +Since I have been laid up I have been recommended to carve wood, to +beat brass, to stuff sofa-cushions, and to play the zither; but these +things do not amuse me much. It was Mrs. Fielden who suggested that I +should write a diary. +</P> + +<P> +"You must grumble," she said, raising her pretty eyebrows in the +affected way she has. "It wouldn't be human if you didn't; so why not +write a diary, and have a real good grumble on paper every night before +you go to bed. Of course, if I were in your place I should grumble all +day instead, and go to sleep at night. But I'm not the least bit a +resigned person. If anything hurts me I scream at once; and if there +is anything I don't like doing I leave it alone. Palestrina," she said +to my sister, "don't let him be patient; it's so bad for him." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina smiled, and said she was afraid it was very dull for me +sometimes. +</P> + +<P> +"But if one is impatient enough, one can't be dull," said Mrs. Fielden. +"It's like being cross——" +</P> + +<P> +"I am constitutionally dull," I said. "I used to be known as the +dullest man in my regiment." +</P> + +<P> +"You studied philosophy, didn't you?" said Mrs. Fielden. "That must be +so depressing." +</P> + +<P> +I was much struck by this suggestion. "I dare say you are quite +right," I said, "although I had not seen it in that light before. But +I'm afraid it has not made me very patient, nor given me a great mind." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, what you want just now," said Mrs. Fielden gravely, "is a +little mind. You must lie here on your sofa, and take a vivid interest +in what all the old ladies say when they come to call on Palestrina. +And you must know the price of Mrs. Taylor's last new hat, and how much +the Traceys spend on their washing-bill, and you must put it all down +in your diary. I'll come over and help you sometimes, and write all +the wicked bits for you, only I'm afraid no one ever is wicked down +here. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye," she said, holding out the smallest, prettiest, most +useless-looking little hand in the world. "And please," she added +earnestly, "get all this oak painted white, and hang some nice muslin +curtains in the windows." +</P> + +<P> +Kindly folk in Stowel are always ingenuously surprised at any one's +caring to live in the country; and although it is but a mile from here +to the vestry hall, and much less by the fields, they often question us +whether we do not feel lonely at night-time, and they are of the +opinion that we should be better in "town." They frequently speak of +going into the country for change of air, or on Bank Holidays; but +considering that the last house in the village—and, like the City of +Zoar, it is but a little one—is built amongst fields, it might be +imagined that these rural retreats could readily be found without the +trouble of hiring the four-wheeled dog-cart from the inn, or of taking +a journey by train. Yet an expedition into the country is often talked +of as being a change, and friends and relations living outside the town +are considered a little bit behindhand in their views of +things—"old-feshioned" they call it in Stowel—and these country +cousins are visited with just a touch of kindly condescension by the +dwellers in a flower-bordered, tree-shadowed High Street. +</P> + +<P> +One is brought rather quaintly into immediate correspondence with the +domestic concerns of every one in Stowel, and Palestrina has been +coaching me in the etiquette of the place. It is hardly correct to do +any shopping at dinner-time, when the lady of the house, busy feeding +her family, has to be called from the inner parlour, where that family +may all be distinctly seen from the shop. Driving or walking through +Stowel at the hour thus consecrated by universal consent to gastronomy, +one might almost imagine it to be a deserted village. Even the dogs +have gone inside to get a bone; and one says, as one walks down the +empty streets, "Stowel dines." +</P> + +<P> +When a shop is closed on Thursday, which is early-closing day, one can +generally "be obliged" by ringing at the house-bell, and, under conduct +of the master of the place, may enter the darkened shop by the side +door, and be accommodated with the purchase that one requires. For the +old custom still holds of living—where it seems most natural for a +merchant to live—in the place where he does his business. There is a +pleasurable feeling of excitement even in the purchase of a pot of +Aspinall's enamel behind closed shutters, and this is mingled with a +feeling of solemnity and privilege, which I can only compare, in its +mixed effect upon me, to going behind the scenes of a theatre, or being +permitted to enter the vestry of a church. +</P> + +<P> +Any purchases except those which may be called necessaries are seldom +indulged in in our little town. A shop which contains anything but +dress and provisions has few customers, and its merchandise becomes +household fixtures. I called at the furniture shop the other day; the +place looked bare and unfamiliar to me, but I did not realize what was +amiss until my sister exclaimed, "Where is the sofa?" The sofa had +been for sale for fifteen years, and had at last been purchased. There +are other things in the shop which I think must have been there much +longer, and I believe their owner would part with them with regret, +even were a very fair profit to be obtained for them. Palestrina tells +me she ordered some fish the other day, and was met with the objection +that "I fear that piece will be too big for your fish-kettle, ma'am," +although she had never suspected that the size of her fish-kettle was a +matter known to the outside world. +</P> + +<P> +And yet Stowel prides itself more upon its reserve than upon anything +else, except perhaps its gentility. There is a distinct air of mystery +over any and every one of the smallest affairs of daily life in the +little place, and I hardly think that our neighbours would really enjoy +anything if it were "spoken about" before the proper time. There is +something of secrecy in the very air of the town. No one, I am told, +has ever been known to mention, even casually, what he or she intends +to have for dinner; and the butcher has been warned against calling +across the shop to the lady at the desk, "Two pounds of rumpsteak for +Miss Tracey," or, "One sirloin, twelve two, for the Hall." Mr. +Tomsett, who was the first butcher to introduce New Zealand mutton to +the inhabitants of Stowel, lost his custom by this vulgar habit of +assorting his joints in public. And Miss Tracey, who knew him best (he +was still something of a stranger, having been in Stowel only five +years), warned him that that was not the sort of thing we were +accustomed to. "If you must make our private concerns public in this +way," she said, "at least it cannot be necessary to mention in what +country the mutton was raised." +</P> + +<P> +It is even considered a little indelicate to remain in the post-office +when a telegram is being handed in. And parcels addressed and laid on +the counter at the grocer's, although provocative of interest, are not +even glanced at by the best people. +</P> + +<P> +On the authority of my sister, I learn that when the ladies of Stowel +do a little dusting in the morning the front blinds are pulled down. +And keen though the speculation may be as to the extent of our +neighbours' incomes, the subject is, of course, a forbidden one. Poor +though some of these neighbours are, a very kindly charity prevails in +the little town. When the elder Miss Blind was ill—as she very often +is, poor thing!—it might seem a matter of coincidence to the +uninitiated that during that week every one of her friends happened to +make a little strong soup, a portion of which was sent to the +invalid—just in case she might fancy it; while the Miss Traceys, who, +as all the world knew, had inherited a little wine from their father, +the late Vicar of the parish, sent their solitary remaining bottle of +champagne, with their compliments, to Miss Belinda. The champagne +proved flat after many a year of storage in the lower cupboard of Miss +Tracey's pantry, but the two sisters to whom it was sent, not being +familiar with the wine, did not detect its faults, and they left the +green bottle with the gilt neck casually standing about for weeks +afterwards, from an innocent desire to impress their neighbours with +its magnificence. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina, with the good intention, I believe, of providing me with +what she calls an object for a walk, asked me to call and inquire for +Miss Blind on the day that the bottle of champagne was drawn and +sampled. Miss Lydia was in the sick-room, and Mrs. Lovekin, who had +called to inquire, was sitting in the little parlour when I entered. +"How do you do?" she said. "I suppose you have heard about Belinda and +the champagne?" +</P> + +<P> +The reproachful note in Mrs. Lovekin's voice, which seemed to tax the +invalid with ingratitude, subtly conveyed the impression that the flat +champagne had not agreed with poor Miss Belinda. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III. +</H3> + +<P> +It is a subject of burning curiosity with every woman in Stowel to know +whether it is a fact that the Taylors have taken to having late dinner +instead of supper since Mrs. Taylor's uncle was made a K.C.B. There +was something in a remark made by Miss Frances Taylor which distinctly +suggested that such a change had been effected, but Stowel, on the +whole, is inclined to discredit the rumour. A portrait of the General +has been made in London, from a photograph in uniform which Mrs. Taylor +has of him, and it has been framed, regardless of expense, by the +photographer in the High Street. Mr. Taylor at one time had thought of +having the whole thing done in London, but it had been decided by an +overwhelming majority that it would be only fair to give the commission +to provide the frame to some one in our own town; and Mr. and Mrs. +Taylor have granted a permission, which amounts to a command, that the +portrait of "Sir John" shall be placed in the window for a week before +it is sent home, so that Stowel may see it—for the Taylors, it should +be remembered, do not receive every one at their own house. +</P> + +<P> +To-day I met the younger Miss Blind—Miss Lydia, she is generally +called—at the window of the photographer's, to which she had made a +pilgrimage, as we all intended to do, to see the famous picture. +Probably she had stood there for some time, for she turned nervously +towards me, and said in a tone of apology and with something of an +effort in her speech, "I used to know him." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" I replied. "I suppose he has often been down to stay with the +Taylors?" +</P> + +<P> +"He has not been once in twenty years," said Lydia. I was thinking of +other things, and I do not know why it suddenly struck me that there +was a tone of regret, even of hopelessness, in Miss Lydia's voice, and +that she spoke as one speaks, perhaps, when one has waited long for +something. +</P> + +<P> +Lydia Blind is a tall woman with a slight, stooping figure. Sometimes +I have wondered if it is only her sister's constant ill-health that has +made Miss Lydia stoop a little. There is something delicately precise +about her, if so gentle a woman can fitly be described as precise. +Perhaps her voice explains her best, as a woman's voice will often do; +it is low and of a very charming quality, although broken now and then +by asthma. Each word has its proper spacing, and does not intrude upon +the next; each vowel possesses the rare characteristic of its proper +sound. I have never heard her use an out-of-the-way expression; but +her simple way of speaking has an old-fashioned gracefulness about it, +and her manner, with all its simplicity, is dignified by reason of its +perfect sincerity. Her eyes are large and gray, and set somewhat far +apart; her hair is worn in a fringe so demure and smooth, so primly +curled, that it has the appearance of plainly-brushed hair. It is Mrs. +Fielden who says that no good woman can do her hair properly, and she +wonders if St. Paul's recommendations as to plain braids has for ever +stamped the hairdresser's profession as a dangerous art. +</P> + +<P> +To-day when I met Lydia it struck me suddenly to wonder how old she is. +Perhaps something in the insolent youthfulness of the springtime +suggested the thought, or it may have been because Miss Lydia looked +tired. +</P> + +<P> +When one meets a friend in Stowel High Street, it is considered very +cold behaviour merely to bow to her. Not only do we stop and chat for +a few minutes, but it is the friendly fashion of the place for ladies +to say to each other, "Which way are you going?" and to accompany their +friend a little way along the sunny, uneven pavement, while offers to +come in and rest are generally given and accepted at the end of the +promenade. Of course it is quite unusual for gentlemen to be detained +in this way, and I am sure it cost Miss Lydia an effort to suggest to +me that I should come in and sit down for a little while, and that she +only did so because I seemed tired. Also I think that a man with a +crutch and with but one leg—and that one not very sound—is not +considered such a source of danger to ladies living alone as a strong +and hale man is supposed to be. We stopped at the little green gate in +the village street, with its red flagged pathway beyond, bordered with +spring flowers—wall-flowers, early blooming in this warm and sheltered +corner, forget-me-nots and primroses, while a brave yellow jasmine +starred with golden flowers covered the walls of the cottage. I asked +after her sister's health, and Miss Lydia begged me to come in and rest +for a few minutes; which I did, for I was horribly tired. But this was +one of Miss Belinda's bad days, and her sister, who watches every +variation in colour in the hollow cheeks and deep-set eyes of the +invalid, saw that she was unable to speak, and motioned me out of the +room. She showed me into her own little sanctum, and gave me a +cushioned chair by the window, and said: "Do wait for a few minutes and +rest. I can see that my sister wants to say something to me, but she +is always more than usually inarticulate when she is in one of these +nervous states." +</P> + +<P> +I have been thinking a good deal about old maids lately—one has time +to think about all manner of subjects when one is lying down most of +the day. Mrs. Fielden is of opinion that an old maid may have an +exaggerated sense of humour. To my mind her danger may be that she is +always rather pathetically satisfied with everything. She prefers the +front seat of a carriage and the back seat of a dog-cart, and the leg +of a chicken and a tiny bedroom. Doubtless this is a form of +self-respect. This suitability of tastes on the part of an old maid +enables her to say, as she does with almost suspicious frequency, that +she gets dreadfully spoiled wherever she goes. Adaptability to +environment is the first law of existence, and yet there may have been +times, even in the life of an old maid, when she has yearned for the +wing of a chicken. +</P> + +<P> +The little room into which Miss Lydia ushered me was plainly furnished, +but Miss Lydia says that she is always getting something pretty given +to her to add to her treasures. Her room is, indeed, rather suggestive +of a stationer's shop window, where a card with "Fancy goods in great +variety" is placed. It would not be unkind to hint of some of the +articles on the table and on the wall-brackets that they must have been +purchased more as a kindly remembrance at Christmas-time or on +birthdays than from any apparent usefulness to the recipient. There +are three twine-cases from which the scissors have long since been +abstracted by unknown dishonest persons; and there are four ornamental +thermometers, each showing its own fixed and unalterable idea +respecting the temperature of the room. A large number of unframed +sketches which children have given her are fastened to the wall by +pins, or hung on tacks whose uncertain hold bespeaks a feminine hand on +the hammer. There are several calendars, and there is quite an +uncountable collection of photograph frames, which fall over unless +they are propped against something. Most of the photographs are old +and faded, and they are nearly all of babies. Babies clothed and +unclothed; babies with bare feet and little nightshirts on; babies +sucking their thumbs; babies lying prone on fur carriage-rugs; babies +riding on their mammas' backs, or sitting on their mammas' knees; +babies crowing or crying. No one who has a baby ever fails to send +this maiden lady a photograph of it. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Lydia settled me with some cushions in my chair, and shut the +doorway leading to her bedroom beyond, where I caught sight of a +painted iron bedstead, and a small indiarubber hot-water bottle hanging +from one of its knobs. It is Miss Lydia's most cherished possession, +and she generally speaks of it reverently as "the comfort of my life." +</P> + +<P> +Poor Miss Lydia! Hers must be, I think, a lonely life, sacrificed +patiently to an invalid and almost inarticulate sister, and yet it is +the very solitude of this little chamber which is one of the few +privileges to which she lays claim. It is to this little room, with +its humble furnishings, that all her troubles are taken, and it is here +by the window that she can sit with folded hands and think perhaps of +something in life which surely poor Lydia has missed. It is here she +prays for those whose sins weigh far more heavily upon her than they do +upon themselves, and it is here that she can pause and question with +gentle faith the perplexities of life. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Lydia tells my sister that she makes a thorough examination of her +room every night before she goes to bed, to see if there is a burglar +concealed anywhere. The movable property in the tiny house is probably +not worth many pounds, as a pawnbroker appraises things, and it would +be a hardened thief that could deprive the sisters of their small +possessions; but the dread remains—the dread of burglars and the dread +of mice. Were it not for the look of the thing, she would almost +rather discover a burglar than a mouse—"for at least burglars are +human," she explains, "and one might be able to reason with them or +pray for them, but who shall control the goings of a mouse?" +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes these fears become quite a terror to Lydia Blind, and she +once said that she felt so defenceless that she thought it would be a +great comfort to have a male defender to protect her. +</P> + +<P> +It is the only unmaidenly remark she ever made, and it makes her blush +in the dark when she thinks of it. She believes every one remembers it +with as vivid a distinctness as she does, and she trembles to think +what sort of construction may have been put upon her words by +ill-natured or thoughtless persons. It is a real trouble to her; but +then all her troubles are real, and so are her bitter repentances over +perfectly imaginary sins. But she has her little room and her faded +photographs—life has its consolations. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV. +</H3> + +<P> +Kate Jamieson, who is the independent member of The Family, and has +been in a situation for some years as companion to a lady at Bath, has +written home what she calls a "joint-letter" to apprise the whole of +her family at one and the same time that she is engaged to be married. +The excitement which this letter produced in the little household is +hardly possible to describe. The news arrived when the Jamiesons were +at breakfast. Perhaps I should mention, before going any further, that +the Jamiesons' only extravagance is to take in three daily papers. One +is an evening paper, which arrives at breakfast-time, and the other two +are morning publications, which arrive at the same hour. It is +customary for the members of this family each to read his own +particular paper aloud during the entire meal, the rest of the party +read their letters to each other, and there are still left several +voices to demand what you will have for breakfast, to inquire how you +have slept, and to comment upon the weather. So that from half-past +eight until nine a cross-fire of conversation is going on all the +time.... +</P> + +<P> +"I see Hearne has scored sixty-eight at cricket, not out. That's not +bad, you know. Kent ought to be looking up. The Australians are doing +well. Yorkshire might do better. Extraordinary! Here's this chap who +promised so well bowled for a duck!" This from the eldest son of the +House of Jamieson; while at precisely the same moment may be heard the +voice of Maud: "I must say I am rather astonished at the way boleros +have remained in. This is one of the prettiest designs I have seen +this year. How soon one gets accustomed to small sleeves. Well, I +cannot say I like these Chesterfield fronts." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Jamieson is meanwhile reading aloud the columns of births, deaths, +and marriages from beginning to end. Her limited acquaintance with the +outside world might seem to preclude her from any vivid interest in +those who must necessarily only be names to her, yet she finds +subject-matter for comment through the entire perusal of the column. +Needless to say, Mrs. Jamieson inclines to regard only the sadder +aspects of these natural occurrences, and her comments thereupon are +full of a sort of resigned melancholy. From her corner of the table +may be heard the plaintive words: "Here's a young fellow of twenty-four +taken," or, "Fourscore years, well, well, and then passed away!" While +the happier news of birth provokes her to hark back to an announcement +of a similar nature in the family, perhaps only a year ago, and to talk +of the responsibilities and the expense that the poor young couple will +have to undergo. Mettie, who spends the greater part of every day +writing letters, and whose chief joy in life is to receive them, reads +the whole of her correspondence aloud from beginning to end; while +Margaret Jamieson, behind the teapot, is letting off rapid volleys of +questions respecting individual tastes about cream and sugar, and the +Pirate Boy offers ham-and-eggs or sausages in a deep stentorian bass. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of this confusion of noise, when only a Jamieson, whose +ear is curiously trained to it, can possibly hear what is being said, +Mrs. Jamieson bursts into tears and, in the strong Kentish dialect of +her youth, exclaims: "Here's our Kate going to be married!" +</P> + +<P> +After the first burst of delighted surprise, there is a family feeling +of apology towards Maud. That Kate should marry first is surely a +little disloyal to the beauty of Belmont, and Mrs. Jamieson goes so far +as to say: "Never mind, Maud; it will be your turn next." +</P> + +<P> +After that, they all, singly and severally, recall their +previously-expressed opinion that they knew something was up, and that +certainly Kate could not have given them a more pleasant or more +unexpected surprise. +</P> + +<P> +The letter is then read aloud, and it is so long that one is glad to +think that the absent Kate did not attempt to duplicate it, but +contented herself with the Pauline method of one general epistle. With +the Jamieson characteristic of telling everything exhaustively, Kate +writes:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Mr. Ward is not at all bad-looking; a little hesitating in his manner, +and inclined to be untidy—you see, I am telling you everything quite +candidly—but of course I can remedy all these defects when we are +married. He has a short brown moustache, and rather a conical-shaped +head." (This is a fault that one feels Kate will not be able to +remedy, even when she has married him.) "He looks clever, though I do +not think he is, very; he is well-connected, but does not know all his +best relations. Poor, but with generous instincts"—one feels as +though a chiromancist were reading a client's palm—"well-read, but +without power of conveying intelligence to others; hair rather thin, +and (I am afraid) false teeth; very religious, but I consider this in +him more temperament than anything else. He has had a hard life, and +not always enough to eat, until his uncle died; but now he could be +quite independent if he liked, but he prefers the position which a +Government appointment gives him. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope to bring him down to stay when I return; please let him have +the south bedroom, as that is the warmest, and I do not think James is +very strong. I should like him to have a fire at night—I can arrange +that with mother, as I feel quite well off now. We are to be married +in July, and I am giving up my post here at once, so as to see +something of you all before I go away." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At this point the letter referred once more to Mr. Ward's personal +appearance, and the description was of so great length that when +Margaret Jamieson, who had run all the way from her home to ours to +give it to us to read, asked me breathlessly what I thought about it, I +determined to leave unread the remaining paragraphs, and to judge for +myself of the bridegroom when he should come to Belmont and we should +be invited to meet him. +</P> + +<P> +"There is one thing," said Mrs. Jamieson when, at the request of The +Family, Palestrina went to sit with her one afternoon a few weeks +later, to support her through the trying ordeal of waiting for Kate and +"James," as he is now familiarly called, to arrive; "the girls have +nothing to be ashamed of in their home." She looked with a certain +amount of pardonable pride at the clean white curtains, and we gathered +that we were meant to comment upon their early appearance. The white +curtains, Palestrina says, are not usually put up at Belmont until the +first week in May. +</P> + +<P> +"They look very handsome," I said. It was a Jamieson afternoon—very +wet, but clearing up about sundown, and Palestrina had suggested my +escorting her as far as Belmont. But the rain came down in torrents +again when I would have started to return home, and the good Jamiesons +begged me to stay, to avoid the chance of a chill, and to meet James. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the first break in the family," said Mrs. Jamieson tearfully, +"since poor Robert died. But, as James says, he hopes I am gaining a +son and not losing a daughter." From which I gathered that James was a +gentleman given to uttering rather a stale form of platitude. +</P> + +<P> +All were waiting in a state of great trepidation the arrival of the +engaged couple, and it was quite hopeless to avoid the encounter, for +the rain descended in sheets outside, and preparations for supper +seemed to be going on in the dining-room at Belmont. It was decided, +by universal consent, that only Mrs. Jamieson and Palestrina and I +should be in the drawing-room at the moment when they should enter. +The presence of strangers, it was thought, would make it easier for +James at the meeting where all were kinsfolk except himself. With +their usual consideration The Family decided that the rest of their +large number should afterwards drop in casually, two by two, and be +introduced to the new brother-in-law without ceremony. Mrs. Jamieson, +who had not left the house that day, nor for many days previously, +having been absorbed in preparations for the expected guest, was +dressed in a bonnet and her favourite jacket with the storm-collar, +which, as she explained to my sister, took away from the roundness of +her face and gave her confidence. +</P> + +<P> +Her habitual shyness, added to her fears of the unknown in the shape of +the future son-in-law, had wrought her into a sort of rigid state in +which conversation seemed impossible, and although we did our best to +divert her attention I am doubtful if she heard a word we said. +</P> + +<P> +"They should be here soon," I remarked presently. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Jamieson, following some line of thought of her own, remarked that +the first marriage in a family was almost like a death; and to this +mournful analogy I gave assent. +</P> + +<P> +"Kate says he is quite a gentleman," hazarded Mrs. Jamieson, still +rigid, and now white with anxiety and shyness. +</P> + +<P> +I found myself replying, without overdone brilliance, that that seemed +a good thing. +</P> + +<P> +The sands of Mrs. Jamieson's courage were running very low. "I hope he +is not one of your grandees," she said apprehensively; "I would not +like to think of Kate not being up to him. But their father was a +gentleman—the most perfect gentleman I ever knew, and I have always +that to think of. Still, a gentlemanly man is all I want for any of my +girls, with no difference between the two families." +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes in this way Mrs. Jamieson gives one an unexpected insight +into the difficulties of her life, and one feels that even her +admiration for her daughters may be tinged with a slight feeling of +being their inferior. I have heard her say, making use of a French +expression such as she hazards so courageously, that there is something +of the "<I>grawn dam</I> about Maud;" and perhaps the loyal admiration thus +expressed may have been mingled with another sensation not so +pleasurable to the farmer's daughter. +</P> + +<P> +I endeavoured to follow the intricacies of her train of thought, but +the station omnibus had stopped at the gate, and the moment of supreme +excitement had arrived. +</P> + +<P> +Kate entered first. This was probably the crowning moment of her life. +She came in with a little air of assurance that already suggested the +married woman, and having kissed her mother she said in a proprietary +sort of way: "This is Mr. Ward, mamma." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Ward had a curious way of walking on his toes; he came into the +room as though tip-toeing across some muddy crossing on a wet day, and +shook hands with a degree of nervousness that made even Mrs. Jamieson +appear bold. One can hardly be surprised at Kate for having mentioned +that he has a conical-shaped head, for it is of the most strange +pear-shape, and the sparse hair hangs from a ridge behind like a +fringe. He sat down and locked his knees firmly together, with his +clasped hands tightly wedged between them, while Kate made inquiries +about the rest of the family, and I plunged heavily into remarks about +the weather and the state of the roads. It was a great relief when two +of the sisters entered, in their best silk blouses, even although they +repeated exactly what I had said a moment before about the weather and +the mud. Five minutes later, according to preconceived arrangement, +two other sisters came in and were kissed by Kate, and introduced by +her to James. We had unconsciously taken up our position in two +straight lines facing James, and it is no exaggeration to say that by +this time shyness was causing great beads of perspiration to stand out +on poor James's pear-shaped head. "Surely they will spare him any more +introductions before supper," I thought; but the door had again opened, +and Mettie and the Pirate Boy entered, and some unhappy chance was +causing these last comers to comment upon the weather and the state of +the roads, and to extend the line of chairs now facing James. We began +to make feverish little remarks to each other, as though we were all +strangers, and Palestrina asked Eliza if she were fond of dancing. +George Jamieson, the eldest brother, was the last to enter the room, +and Kate said: "George, I am sure James would like to unpack before +supper;" and the unhappy James tip-toed out between the two lines of +chairs, with his eyes fixed upon the carpet. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Well?</I>" said Kate. And as The Family was The Family of Jamieson, +that of course was a signal for each member of it to say the kindest +thing that could possibly be said for the new arrival. Margaret found +that he had kind eyes. And Eliza said: "Not intellectual, but a good +man." Eliza, it must be remarked in passing, is the intellectual +sister, with a passion for accurate information, and for looking up +facts in the "Encyclopedia Britannica." Maud found that even his +shyness was in his favour, and disliked men who made themselves at home +at once. Mettie remarked that marriage was a great risk. This is one +of poor little Mettie's platitudes, which she makes with faithful +regularity upon all occasions. The Pirate Boy preferred, perhaps, a +more robust development, and throwing out his own chest, he beat it +with a good deal of violence, and said he would like to put on the +gloves with Mr. Ward. Mrs. Jamieson could be got to say nothing but +"Poor fellow, poor fellow!" at intervals. But Gracie, the youngest +daughter, remarked that she was sure that they would all get to like +him immensely in time. +</P> + +<P> +Kate looked grateful, and spoke with her usual fine common sense. +"What I say is," she remarked, "that of course no one sees James's +faults more clearly than I do, but then I don't see why any of us +should expect perfection. We haven't much to offer: I am sure I have +neither looks, nor money, nor anything. And, after all, it's nice to +think of one of us getting married—and I was no bother about it," said +the independent Kate. "I mean, The Family had not to help, or chaperon +me, or ask James down to stay." +</P> + +<P> +The sisters assented to this in a very hearty, congratulatory sort of +way; and then, as the rain had ceased, I took my leave, but Palestrina +was persuaded to stay and have supper. Kennie offered, in a doughty +fashion, to see me home. The boy's kindness of heart constitutes him +my defender upon many occasions, and he always looks disappointed if I +do not take his arm. I do not think that the peaceful country road in +the waning twilight could be considered a dangerous one, even to a +cripple like myself; but Kennie, armed with a large stick and wearing a +curious felt hat turned up at one side, appeared a most truculent +defender, and regarded with suspicion all the pedestrians whom we met. +Did but a country cart pass us, Kennie made a movement to ward off the +danger of a collision with his arm. There is something in my helpless +condition which, quite unconsciously I believe, produces a very +valorous frame of mind in the Pirate, and he beguiled the whole of the +way home with stories of his own prowess, and of the hair-breadth +escapes which he had had. +</P> + +<P> +"I only once," he said, "had to take a human life in self-defence. +Curiously enough"—Kennie's voice deepened, and he spoke with the air +of a man who will spare a weak fellow-mortal all he can in the telling +of his tale, and he enunciated all his words with a measured calm which +was very impressive—"curiously enough, it was on the Thames +Embankment!" Kennie cleared his throat, and dropping the deep bass +voice of reminiscence, he began the history in a high-pitched tone of +narrative. "I was walking home alone one night from the City, when a +very strange, low fellow accosted me, and asked me for some money. The +man's destitute appearance appealed to me, and unfortunately I gave him +threepence. I suppose the action was about as dangerous a thing as I +could have done. It showed that I had money, and I was practically +defenceless while feeling in my pockets. The Embankment at that time +of the evening was almost deserted; I could see the shipping in the +river and the lights, and even passing cabs, but I was strangely alone, +and still the man followed me. At last, in desperation, I raised my +stick to drive him from me, and the next moment he had grappled with +me! Instantly my blood was up!" The Pirate Boy stood still in the +middle of the highroad, and went through a series of very forcible +pantomimic gestures, and with awful facial contortions, indicative of +violent exertion, he raised some imaginary object above his head and +flung it from him. "The next moment," said Kennie, "I heard a splash. +I had vanquished the man, and flung him far from me, straight from the +Thames Embankment into the river." +</P> + +<P> +I was prepared to make an exclamation, but was prevented by Kennie, who +said in a dramatic sort of way, "Wait!" and went on with his story. +"My instinct was to plunge after him, but I heard no sound, no cry, and +from that day to this that struggle by the water's edge remains as one +of the most vivid experiences of my life—in England, at least. But +the man's end remains a mystery: I can tell you nothing more of him." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I would have fished the poor wretch out," I said, and moved +onwards on our walk, our pause in the public highway having lasted a +considerable time. +</P> + +<P> +"One learns rough justice out there," said Kennie. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V. +</H3> + +<P> +Miss Taylor was really responsible for the formation of the Stowel +Reading Society, but Eliza Jamieson was her staunch supporter. Eliza +drew the line at poetry and metaphysics, "Neither of which," she said, +"I consider an exact science." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Taylor said: "But it is not a scientific course that I propose; it +is English literature in its fullest sense. I do think that Stowel is +getting behind the rest of the world in its knowledge of the best +literature, and I am sure that if a Reading Society were founded The +Uncle would be pleased to choose books and send them to us from London." +</P> + +<P> +To no one, perhaps, is the specializing definite article felt to be +more appropriate than to Sir John. It seems to distinguish him from +ordinary human beings; and it is felt to be indicative of a +considerable amount of good taste and good feeling on the part of the +Taylors to drop the General's title when conversing with their intimate +friends, and to refer to him merely as "The Uncle." When we call upon +the Taylors we always ask how The Uncle is. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza Jamieson became the Society's secretary and treasurer in one, and +she it was who in her neat hand transcribed the letter, which all had +helped to compose, to ask The Uncle what works in English literature it +would be advisable for the Reading Society to get. His reply was read +aloud at one of the first meetings, and each eulogized it in turn as +being "courtly," "gentlemanly," "manly," and "concise." It could not +but be felt, however, that as a guide to a choice of literature the +letter was disappointing:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"DEAR MADAM" (it ran), +</P> + +<P> +"I much regret that I am unable to help you in any way about your +books. I read very little myself, except the newspapers, though I +occasionally take a dip into one of my old favourites by Charles Lever. +I think a cookery-book is the most useful reading for a young lady, and +she would be best employed studying that, and not filling her head with +nonsense. This is the advice of a very old fellow, who remembers many +charming girls years ago who knew nothing about advanced culture...." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was a distinct salve to the Society's feelings to note that the +letter was written on paper stamped with the address of a military +club, and instead of copying it, and making an entry of it in the +minutes of the Reading Society, it was pasted into the notebook, as it +was thought the autograph and the crest were "interesting." +</P> + +<P> +Since the foundation of the Reading Society there has followed a period +during which the young ladies of Stowel have written essays, and have +met in each other's drawing-rooms to read poetry aloud, to their own +individual satisfaction and to the torture of other ears. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden did not join the Society, her plea being that poetry is +merely prose with the stops in the wrong places, and therefore very +fatiguing to read, and very obscure in its meaning. But Eliza has worn +us out with books of reference, and we have become so learned and so +full of culture that it is impossible to say where it will all end. My +own library has been ransacked for books—I think it is the fact of my +having a library that has made our house a sort of centre for the +Reading Society. We criticize freely all contemporary literature, and +base our preference for any book upon its "vigorous Saxon style." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza has written two reviews for the local newspaper, pointing out +some mistakes in grammar in one of the greatest novels of the day, and +this naturally makes us feel very proud of Eliza. Those of us who +plead for an easy flowing style consider that she has an almost +hypersensitive ear for errors in the use of the English accidence. A +split infinitive has heretofore hardly arrested our attention; now we +shudder at its use: while the misuse of the word to "aggravate," which +up to the present we believed in all simplicity to mean to "annoy," +causes the gravest offence when employed in the wrong sense. Books +from the circulating library have been known to be treated almost like +proof-sheets, and corrections are jotted down in pencil on the margin +of the leaves. Even the notes which ladies send to each other are +subject to revision at the hands of the recipient. Ordinary +conversation is now hardly known in Stowel, and tea-parties take the +form of discussions. The spring weather is so warm that I generally +have my long chair taken on to the lawn in the afternoons, and tea is +sometimes brought out there when the meetings of the Reading Society +are over. But tea, and even pound-cake, are thrown away upon young +ladies who partake of it absently, and to whom all things material and +mundane—these words are often used—must now be offered with a feeling +of apology. +</P> + +<P> +Major Jacobs rode over to see me this afternoon, and we had not long +enjoyed the repose of deckchairs and cigarettes under the medlar-tree, +and the songs of birds which have begun nesting very early this year, +and the quiet rumbling of heavy wagons that pass sometimes in the +highroad beyond the garden, when the Reading Society in a body joined +us from the house, and I heard my sister give directions for tea to be +brought out on to the lawn. The other day I heard Palestrina tell a +friend of hers that she nearly always contrived to have some one to +tea, or to sit with Hugo in the afternoon, and my sister's satisfaction +increases in direct proportion to the number of people who come. +</P> + +<P> +We had hardly finished tea when Frances Taylor said suddenly, yet with +the manner of one who has risen to make a speech on a platform, "Was +Coleridge a genius or a crank?" +</P> + +<P> +Eliza, assuming the deep frown of learning which is quite common +amongst us nowadays, was upon her in a moment, and said emphatically, +"How would you define a genius?" The Socratic habit of asking for a +definition is one that is always adopted during our discussions, and it +is generally demanded in the tone of voice in which one says "check" +when playing chess. Frances Taylor was quite ready for Eliza, and +said, "Genius, I think, is like some star——" +</P> + +<P> +"Analogy is not argument!" Eliza pounced upon her in the voice that +said, "I take your pawn." +</P> + +<P> +It will be noticed, I fear, that in Stowel we are not altogether +original in our arguments—many of them can be traced, alas! to the +"Encyclopædia Britannica," and they are not often the outcome of +original thought. +</P> + +<P> +Frances Taylor's king was once more in check, and she became a little +nervous and irritable. "I do not think we need go into definitions," +she said; but Eliza had gone indoors to "look it up." She returned +presently with a dictionary, walking across the lawn towards us with +its pages held close to her near-sighted eyes. "A genius," she began, +and then she glanced disparagingly at the title of the book, and said, +"according to Webster, that is—but I do not know if we ought to accept +him as a final authority—is explained as being 'a peculiar structure +of mind which is given by Nature to an individual which qualifies him +for a particular employment; a strength of mind, uncommon powers of +intellect, particularly the power of invention.' A crank," she went +on, "in its modern meaning, seems hardly to have been known to the +writer of this dictionary; the word is rendered literally, as meaning +'a bend or turn.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Then I submit," said Miss Taylor, "that Coleridge was a genius." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Tracey said in a very sprightly manner—she often astonished us by +showing a subtle turn of mind, and a graceful aptitude for epigram +which, it was believed, could only have found its proper field in those +salons which are now, alas! things of the past—"Let us write him down +a genius <I>and</I> a crank! The two"—she advanced her daring view +bravely—"the two are often allied." She had a volume of Coleridge on +her bookshelves, and prided herself upon her appreciation—unusual in a +woman—of the "Ancient Mariner." +</P> + +<P> +"A genius in italics, and a crank followed by a mark of interrogation!" +said Eliza in a brilliant fashion; and Miss Taylor, not to be beaten in +a matter of intellect, said at once, "Did Bacon write Shakespeare's +plays?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Gallup and Mr. Lee were quoted extensively. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Taylor could only suggest, with a good deal of quiet dignity, that +she could write to The Uncle and find out who is right. This of course +closes the controversy for the present. +</P> + +<P> +George Jamieson, who goes to town every day, gains advanced views from +the magazines which he reads during his dinner-hour in the City, and he +is a great assistance to the Reading Society. I contribute the use of +my library, and I have heard the members of the Reading Society say +that "women are the true leaders of the present movement, and already +their influence is being felt by the male mind." +</P> + +<P> +George brought with him the current number of the Nineteenth Century +when he came home last Friday, instead of Pearson's or the Strand, and +already there are whispers of a Magazine Club in Stowel. Miss Frances +Taylor received nothing but books on her last birthday, and Palestrina +told me a pathetic little story of how Gracie Jamieson went without a +pair of shoes to buy a copy of Browning. Perhaps the climax of culture +and learning was felt only to have been reached when Eliza introduced +the expression "Hypothesis of Purpose" into an ordinary conversation at +the conclusion of one of the meetings of the Reading Society. +</P> + +<P> +After this, as Palestrina remarked, it was quite refreshing to hear +that the curate's wife had got a new baby. It was born on Sunday, and +the anxious father spent his days bicycling wildly to and fro between +his own house and the church, hopelessly confusing his reading of the +service, and then flying back to inquire about his wife's health. Led +by him we prayed successively for fine weather and for rain, while the +Sunday-school teachers' meeting was announced for 2 a.m. on the +following Saturday, and the Coal Club notices were inextricably +confused with the banns of marriage. After each service the distracted +little man would leap on his bicycle again, and, scattering the +departing congregation with his bicycle bell, he was off down the hill +to his house. His perturbation was nothing compared with the confusion +at home, where, so far as I could make out, the bewildered household +did nothing but run up and down stairs, and madly offer each other cups +of tea. +</P> + +<P> +My sister's kind heart suggested that we should have Peggy, the eldest +child, to stay with us until her mother should be better. Is it +necessary to mention the fact that Palestrina is fat and very pretty, +and that she spoils me dreadfully? Do I want a book, I generally find +that Palestrina has written for it, almost before I had realized that +life was a wilderness without it. I have never known her out of +temper, nor anything else but placid and serene. And she has a low, +gurgling laugh, and a certain way of saying, "Oh, that will be very +nice!" to any proposal that one makes, which one must admit makes her a +very charming and a very easy person to live with. She is fond of +children, and she announced to Peggy with a beaming smile this morning +that she had a new little brother. +</P> + +<P> +Peggy went on quietly with her breakfast for some time without making +any remark; then she gave a little sigh, and said: "Mamma thought she +had enough children already, but I suppose God thought otherwise." +</P> + +<P> +Peggy has been in low spirits all day, and closely following some line +of reasoning of her own she has flatly refused to say her prayers at +bedtime. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden rode over to see us this morning, in her dark habit and +the neat boots which she loves to tap with her riding-crop. She came +into the dim hall like the embodiment of Spring or of Life, and sat +down in her oddly-shaped habit as though she were at home and in no +hurry to go off anywhere else. This gives a feeling of repose to a +sick man. One knew that she would probably stop to luncheon, and that +one would not have to say to her half a dozen times in the morning, +"Please don't go." +</P> + +<P> +Presently Margaret Jamieson, who had been doing the whole work of the +curate's household during the late trying time, came with the baby in +her arms to show him to Palestrina. Her manner had a charming air of +matronliness about it, and she threw back the fretted silk of the veil +that covered the face of the little creature in her arms with an air of +pride that was rather pretty to see. But Eliza, who had raced over to +our house in the usual Jamieson headlong fashion, to say something to +us on the subject of textual criticism, looked severely at the infant +through her glasses, and remarked that she had no sympathy whatever +with that sort of thing. Margaret hugged the baby closer to her, and +Mettie, who had pattered over to see us with her cousin Eliza, remarked +that children and their upbringing were doubtless among the great risks +of matrimony. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure," said Eliza, "when one sees how happy Kate is with James, +it makes one feel that marriage is not so very great a risk after all." +</P> + +<P> +That there should be an element of sarcasm in this remark did not even +suggest itself to Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"We should all be thankful," piped forth Mettie, who is always ready to +talk, "that it has turned out so well. Kate's courage and independence +of mind seem exactly suited to Mr. Ward. But that is what I think +about us all at Belmont; our characteristics are so different that any +gentleman coming amongst us might find something to attract him in one, +if not in the others. Margaret is our home-bird, and Eliza is so +cultured, and Kate——" +</P> + +<P> +The two Miss Jamiesons were looking very uncomfortable, and Margaret +said, "O Mettie, dear!" while Mrs. Fielden made an excuse for walking +over to the piano. There was a piece of music open upon it. "Do sing +it," she said to Palestrina. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +THE GAY TOM-TIT. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"A tom-tit lived in a tip-top tree,<BR> +And a mad little, bad little bird was he.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">He'd bachelor tastes, but then—oh dear!</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">He'd a gay little way with the girls, I fear!</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Now, a Jenny wren lived on a branch below,<BR> +And it's plain she was vain as ladies go,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">For she pinched her waist and she rouged a bit.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">With a sigh for the eye of that gay tom-tit.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">She sighed, 'Oh my!'</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">She sighed, 'Ah me!'</SPAN><BR> +While the tom-tit sat on his tip-top tree-tree-tree.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">And she piped her eye</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">A bit-bit-bit</SPAN><BR> +For the love of that gay tom-tit-tit-tit.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"She saw that her rouge did not attract,<BR> +So she tried to decide how next to act:<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">She donned a stiff collar and fancy shirt,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">And she wore, what is more, a divided skirt.</SPAN><BR> +Then she bought cigarettes and a big latch-key,<BR> +And she said, 'He'll be bound to notice me!'<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">But she found her plan did not work one bit,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">For he sneered, as I feared, did that gay tom-tit.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">He sneered, 'Oh my!'</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">He sneered, 'Oh lor!</SPAN><BR> +What on earth has she done that for-for-for?'<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">And he winked his eye</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">A bit-bit-bit,</SPAN><BR> +That giddy and gay tom-tit-tit-tit.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"'Alas! no more,' said the poor young wren,<BR> +'Will I ape the shape of heartless men!'<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">So she flung cigarettes and big latch-key</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">With a flop from the top of the great green tree.</SPAN><BR> +And she wouldn't use rouge or pinch her waist,<BR> +But she dressed to the best of a simple taste;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Then she learned to cook and sew and knit—</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">'What a pearl of a girl!' said the gay tom-tit.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">Said he, 'Good day!'</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">Said she, 'How do?'</SPAN><BR> +They were very soon friends, these two-two-two.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">And I'm bound to say</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">In a bit-bit-bit</SPAN><BR> +She married that gay tom-tit-tit-tit."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Thus sang Palestrina. +</P> + +<P> +"Ethically considered, my dear Palestrina," said Eliza, "that song is +distinctly unmoral." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let us consider it ethically," said Palestrina tranquilly; and +she went over and sat in the corner of the sofa with several pillows at +her back. +</P> + +<P> +"Ethically considered," repeated Eliza, "that song, if one pursues its +teaching to a logical conclusion, can only mean that all female social +development is impossible, and that the whole reason for a woman's +existence is that she may gratify man." +</P> + +<P> +"They are really not worth it," murmured Mrs. Fielden, who was in a +frivolous mood. +</P> + +<P> +"And mark you," said Eliza, in quite the best of the Reading Society +manner: "it does not suggest that that gratification may be inspired +either by our beauty or by our intellect; indeed, it proves that such +powers are worthless to inspire it. It postulates the +hypothesis"—Eliza is really splendid—"that man is a brute whose +appreciation can only be secured by ministering to his desire for food +and suitable clothing, and that woman's whole business is to render +this creature complacent." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think things are much pleasanter when people <I>are</I> +complacent?" said my sister easily. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza fixed her with strong, dark eyes. "Were I describing you in a +book," she said—one feels as though Eliza will write a book, probably +a clever one, some day—"I should describe you as a typical woman, and +therefore a pudding. A dear, tepid pudding, with a pink sauce over it. +Very sweet, no doubt, but squashy—decidedly squashy. Some day," said +Eliza triumphantly, "you will be squashed into mere pulp, and you will +not like that." +</P> + +<P> +This did not seem to be a likely end for Palestrina. Eliza continued: +"Who will deny that men are selfish?" +</P> + +<P> +"But they are also useful," said Mrs. Fielden in an ingenuous way. +"They open doors for one, don't you know, and give one the front row +when there is anything to be seen, even when one wears a big hat; and +they see one into one's carriage—oh! and lots of other useful little +things of that sort." +</P> + +<P> +"Admitted," said Eliza, "that women have certain privileges—have they +any Rights?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden admitted that they had not. "But," she said, "I don't +really think that that is important. The men whom one knows are always +nice to one, and I don't think it matters much what the others are." +</P> + +<P> +"Rank individualism," said Eliza. And she said it without a moment's +hesitation, which gave us a very high opinion indeed of her powers of +speech. "It is the fashion to say that each woman has only one man to +manage, and she must be a very stupid woman if she cannot manage him; +but there are thousands of women who, being weaker morally and +physically than their particular man, can do nothing with him, and it +is not fair to leave their wrongs unredressed because you are +comfortable and happy." +</P> + +<P> +"Still, you know," said Mrs. Fielden thoughtfully, "one cannot help +wishing that they could get what they want without involving us in the +question. You see, if they got their rights we should probably get +ours too, and then I'm afraid we should lose our privileges." +</P> + +<P> +"You are like the man," said I, "who could do quite well without the +necessaries of life, but he could not do without its luxuries." +</P> + +<P> +"What a nice man it must have been who said that!" exclaimed Mrs. +Fielden. "It would be quite easy to do without meat on one's table, +but it would be impossible to dine without flowers and dessert." +</P> + +<P> +It must be admitted that Eliza had the last word in the argument after +all. +</P> + +<P> +"Just so," she said; "and all life shows just this—that a woman has, +with her usual perverseness, chosen a diet of flowers and dessert with +intervals of starvation, instead of wholesome meat and pudding." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI. +</H3> + +<P> +"We shall have to ask the engaged couple to dinner," I said to +Palestrina one morning a few days later. "And I suppose one or two +more of the rest of The Family would like to be asked at the same time." +</P> + +<P> +"I never know in what quantities one ought to ask the Jamiesons," said +my sister, "nor how to make a proper selection. It seems invidious to +suggest that Kate and Eliza and Margaret should come, and not Maud and +Gracie; and yet what is one to do? The last time that you were away +from home I wrote and said, 'Will a few of you come?' And Mrs. +Jamieson, the Pirate Boy, and four sisters came." +</P> + +<P> +"One feels sure," I replied, "that the Jamiesons thought that was quite +a modest number to take advantage of your invitation. One knows that +had they been inviting some girls from a boarding-school they would +have included the entire number of pupils." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina protested that as the meal to which our friends were to come +was dinner, it would be only reasonable to invite the same number of +ladies and gentlemen; and to this I assented. She suggested asking the +Darcey-Jacobs, whom we had not seen for a long time. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is a woman who always affords one considerable +inward amusement, being herself, I believe, more conspicuously devoid +of humour than any one else I have ever met. Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs has +never been known to see a joke. That she herself should appear to any +one in a humorous light would, I know, appear an inconceivable +contingency to her. She has a high Roman nose, and rather faded yellow +hair, which was her principal claim to beauty when a girl. It is even +now thick and long, and is always worn in a sort of majestic coronet on +the top of her head. Her manner is somewhat formidable and emphatic, +and the alarm which this engenders in timid or diffident persons is +increased by the habit she has of accentuating many of her remarks by a +playful but really somewhat severe rap over the knuckles of the person +she is addressing, with her fan or lorgnettes. She dresses handsomely +in expensive materials somewhat gaudy in colour, and she has an erect +carriage, of which she is very proud. Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs has a good +deal to say on the subject of the feeble-mindedness of the male sex, +and when something has been proved impossible of attainment by them she +always says, "A woman could have done it in five minutes." +</P> + +<P> +At the time of her marriage, Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs (Miss Foljambe she was +then) was a dowerless girl with two admirers, Major Jacobs and Mr. +Morgan. Not being, it would seem, a young lady of very deep +affections, her choice of a husband was decided entirely by the extent +of the worldly prospects he could offer, and the Major, being the +better match of the two, was accepted. But how cruel are the tricks +that fate will sometimes play! Not long after her marriage Mr. Morgan +not only inherited a large fortune, but shortly afterwards left this +world for a better, and Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is in the habit of +remarking, with a good deal of feeling, "If I had only chosen the other +I might have been a happy widow now!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs lives in our quiet country neighbourhood during the +greater part of the year, on the distinct understanding that she +loathes every hour of it. When she goes abroad or to London she talks +quite cheerfully of having had one breath of life. So fraught with +happy successes are these pilgrimages in her brocaded satin gowns into +the outer world that she often says that were she but free she might +have the world at her feet to-morrow. And she has been known to refer +to the Major, still in the tone of cheerful resignation and with her +emphasizing tap of the fan, as "a dead weight round her neck." +</P> + +<P> +The Major himself is a guileless person, whose very simplicity causes +his wife more exquisite suffering than even a husband of keen, +vindictive temper could inflict. +</P> + +<P> +Does Mrs. Jacobs give a dinner-party, it is not unusual for the master +of the house to remark in a congratulatory tone from his end of the +table, "What has Mullens been doing to the silver, my dear? it looks +unusually bright;" while his greeting to his friends as they arrive at +his house, though distinctly cordial, often takes the form of a hearty +"I had no idea that we were going to see you to-night." As Mrs. +Darcey-Jacobs always sends some kind message from the Major in her +notes of invitation, this of course is most disconcerting, both for her +and for her guests. This year when they were in Italy a friend of ours +in the same hotel overheard a lady ask the Major if he were related to +the Darceys of Mugthorpe. "I really can't tell you," said the Major; +"the Darcey was my wife's idea." +</P> + +<P> +"Four Jamiesons," I said, "and the Darcey-Jacobs, and our two selves. +Isn't it humiliating to think that we have invariably to invite the +same two men to balance our numbers at a dinner-party? I can't help +remarking that Anthony Crawshay and Ellicomb are present at every +dinner-party in this neighbourhood, as surely as soup is on the table." +</P> + +<P> +"We might ask Mrs. Fielden," said Palestrina; "she is sure to have some +colonels with her. Besides, I love Mrs. Fielden, though people say she +is a flirt. I think most men are in love with her; some propose to +her, and some do not, but they all love her." +</P> + +<P> +"Even when she refuses to marry them?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard Mrs. Fielden say that an offer of marriage should be +refused artistically," said Palestrina. "She says young girls hardly +ever do it properly, and that they are brusque and brutal. I suppose +she herself has some charming way of her own of refusing men which does +not hurt their feelings. I believe," said Palestrina, "that she would +marry Sir Anthony Crawshay if he could play Bridge." +</P> + +<P> +"Anthony is an excellent fellow," I said. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Ellicomb is a young man of High Church principles and artistic +tastes who has taken an old Tudor farmhouse in the neighbourhood, and +has furnished it very well. He waxes eloquent on the monstrous +inelegance of modern dress, and the decadence of Japanese art, and he +says he would rather sit in the dark than burn gas in his house, and he +dusts his own blue china himself. In his house it is a sign of art to +divert anything from its proper use, and to use it for another purpose +than that for which it was originally intended. Poor Ellicomb uses a +cabbage-strainer as a fern-pot, a drain-tile for an umbrella-stand, his +mother's old lace veils as antimacassars, bed-posts as palm-stands, a +linen press as a book-case, and a brass spittoon for growing lilies. +It is almost like playing at guessing riddles to go over his house with +him, and to try and discover for what purpose some of his things were +originally created. Their conversion to another use is, I am sure, a +very high form of art. +</P> + +<P> +"There are the Jamiesons," said my sister, as we sat in the hall ready +to receive our guests. +</P> + +<P> +It does not require any occult power to sit indoors and to be able to +distinguish the Jamiesons' carriage-wheels from those of the other +arrivals, for the Jamiesons have, as usual, employed the "six-fifty" +bus on its return journey from the station to set them down at our +gate. It is quite a subject of interest with our neighbours to find +themselves fellow-passengers with the young ladies, in their black +skirts and their more dressy style of bodice concealed beneath tweed +capes. And it generally gets about in Stowel circles before the +evening is over, or certainly soon after the morning shopping has +begun, that the Miss Jamiesons have been dining at such or such a +house. Even the bus conductor has a sympathetic way of handing the +young ladies into his conveyance when they are going out to dinner, and +he fetches a wisp of straw and wipes down the step if the night is wet. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Ward piloted the independent Kate up the short carriage-drive with +quite an affectionate air of solicitude, frequently inquiring of her if +she did not feel her feet a little damp; and Kate answered cheerfully +and kindly, feeling, no doubt, that this sort of fussing was one of the +drawbacks of prospective matrimony, but that it was only right to +accept the little attentions in the spirit in which they were made. +The Pirate Boy, who followed with his sister Maud, begged her to take +his arm in a burly fashion, and fell a little distance behind. The +Pirate Boy thinks that it is etiquette to place himself at a distance +from any engaged couple, even during the shortest walk. He does so +even when he makes the untoward third in a party. On these occasions +he falls behind and puts on an air of abstraction a little overdone. +The Jacobs arrived next, and then Anthony Crawshay, who drove over in +his high dog-cart, with its flashing lamps and glittering wheels—a +very good light-running cart it is; Anthony and I used often to drive +in it together—and Ellicomb arrived in a brougham, in which we have a +shrewd suspicion that there is a foot-warmer. +</P> + +<P> +Maud began to flirt with Mr. Ellicomb directly. I have never known her +to be for long in the society of a gentleman without doing so, and her +sisters are wont to say of Maud that she certainly has her +opportunities, while the criticism of an unprejudiced observer might be +that she certainly makes them. Mr. Ellicomb, it is believed, has +written an article in one of the magazines on the reformation of men's +clothing, and it is hoped he will become a member of the Reading +Society. He ate very little at dinner, and talked in a low, cultured +voice about Church matters the whole of the evening, and uttered some +very decided views upon the subject of the celibacy of the clergy. +</P> + +<P> +"I must say," said Major Jacobs, "that I also approve of celibacy in +the Church, and I may say in the army and in the navy. If I had my +life to live over again——" +</P> + +<P> +"William!" said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs in an awful voice. +</P> + +<P> +William was about to retreat precipitately from his position, but +catching sight perhaps of a sympathetic eye turned upon him from that +good comrade of his, Anthony Crawshay, he blundered on,— +</P> + +<P> +"If Confession, now, became more general in the English Church," he +said, "secrets confided to the clergy could hardly be kept inviolate. +A clergyman's wife might almost—well, not to put too fine a point on +it—wring from him by force the secret that had been committed to him." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so, indeed," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs. +</P> + +<P> +"The Anglican Church," said Mr. Ellicomb, "recognizes that difficulty, +and has met it in the persons of the Fathers of the Church." +</P> + +<P> +Maud Jamieson raised soft eyes to his, and said that a woman might be a +help and a comfort to a man. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Ellicomb seemed disposed to admit that it might be so. "I have +been in retreat at Cowley for some weeks," he said, "and the cooking +was certainly monstrous, and, would you believe it, they did not allow +one to bring one's own servant with one." There is nothing monkish +about Ellicomb, nor is his asceticism overdone. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been reading a book on sects and heresies," said Mrs. Fielden, +"and I find I belong to them all." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Ellicomb interposed eagerly by saying, "If I had to state my own +convictions exactly, I should certainly say that I was a Manichæan, +with just a touch of Sabellianism." +</P> + +<P> +"I think," said Mrs. Fielden gravely, "that I am a Rosicrucian heretic." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Ellicomb was interested and delighted. "I know," he said, "that +many people would think that I had not exactly stated my position. For +instance, a lady to whom I described my symptoms the other day, told me +at once that I was a Buddhist by nature and an Antinomian by education, +and I felt that in part she was right." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs here interposed, and gave it as her opinion +emphatically that man was a contemptible creature whatever his beliefs +might be, and that he required a woman to look after him. "To look +after him," she repeated, in a tone that said as plainly as possible, +"to keep him in order," and she tapped Mr. Ellicomb sharply on the +knuckles. +</P> + +<P> +The Pirate Boy had some brave notions about what he called The Sex, and +here plunged into a long description of how he had rescued a fair +creature out of the hands of cut-throats out there, and he illustrated +his action of saving the fair one by holding an imaginary six-shooter +to Palestrina's head in a very alarming way. He talked of man as The +Protector, and thrust his hand into his cummerbund—the action, I +suppose, being intended to show that the six-shooter had been +replaced—and glanced round the table with an air of defiance. "There +is not a man," he remarked, "I don't care who he is, if he fail in +respect to a woman when I am present, that shall not get a decanter +hurled straight at his head—straight at his head. I have said it!" +He laid his hand impetuously upon one of two heavy cut-glass bottles +that had been placed in front of me, and one trembled for the safety of +one's guests. "I remember," he said, "in one of those gambling-hells +in the Far West, where there was about as unruly a set of fellows and +cut-throats as ever I came across——" The rest of the story was so +evidently culled from the last number of the <I>Strand Magazine</I> that it +hardly seemed rude of Palestrina to interrupt it by bowing to Mrs. +Fielden, and suggesting that they should adjourn. Maud Jamieson drew +my sister aside as they stood grouped round the fire-place in the hall +drinking their coffee, and thanked her for introducing Mr. Ellicomb to +her. "He is perfectly charming," she said. But Maud's sisters have +confided to us that this is her invariable conclusion about the last +man she has met, and it is intended as a sort of previndication of +herself. Maud, it seems, intends to flirt with every one she sees, but +if she pretends that her affections are really touched there can be no +upbraidings on the part of The Family. +</P> + +<P> +Kate Jamieson sat on the sofa, and twisted her engagement ring +complacently round her finger. She thought that Mr. Ward had carried +himself very well this evening. His quietness throughout the dinner +compared favourably with the conversation of other guests. Kate said +once to Palestrina: "He is a man that I shall feel the utmost +confidence in taking about with me everywhere." And the remark +conveyed the suggestion that Mr. Ward would always be an appendage to +Kate Jamieson. +</P> + +<P> +Anthony Crawshay is a very good fellow indeed. The most advanced and +cultured young lady will never get him to talk about metaphysics in the +crush of a ballroom, nor to concern himself about the inartistic shape +of the clothes we wear nowadays. "If I didn't like them, I shouldn't +wear them," says Anthony. He is a short, spare man, with a voice +somewhat out of proportion to his size, and the best cross-country +rider in the county. The habit he has of shouting all his remarks +seems rather pleasantly in accordance with his honest nature. Anthony +very seldom speaks of any one of whom he has not a good word to say; +but if he does mention any one whom he dislikes, he does so in a very +hearty manner, which is almost as good as many other people's praise. +He is as obstinate, as straightforward, and as good a fellow as a +country neighbour ought to be. "We have been hunting a May fox, by +Gad, Hugo," said Anthony, and he began to tell me about the run—a +thing I can hardly get any one to do nowadays. +</P> + +<P> +The Pirate Boy, upon whom the word "horse" had a rousing effect, +condemned the whole breed of English horses in one short speech. "I +assure you," he said, getting up and sawing the air with his hand, +"there are some of those wild mustangs out there which would knock +spots out of any horses in your stables." +</P> + +<P> +Thus challenged, Anthony, who was standing on the hearthrug, turned, +and stooping towards me asked, in what he intended to be a whisper, who +the young fellow was, and shouted abroad, "Rum chap that, very rum +chap!" +</P> + +<P> +By-and-by Maud Jamieson went to the piano and began to sing ballads to +Mr. Ellicomb; and we have an inward conviction—Palestrina and I—that +this evening's report to the Jamieson family will be that Mr. Ellicomb +is "struck." Major Jacobs considers himself musical because he likes +hearing the words of a song distinctly pronounced. He was charmed with +Maud's singing, and Kate encouraged the girl in a little matronly way +which she has lately assumed. She called forth Maud's best efforts by +saying, "What was the pretty Irish song you sang the other night?" or +"You haven't given us 'We'd better bide a wee' yet, dear." Maud +responded with several ballads, and wished she had some of Lord Henry +Somerset's songs with her, Mr. Ellicomb having expressed a fondness for +them. An opportunity was thus given for suggesting a call at +Belmont—Maud knows mamma will be delighted—she wished Kennie were +better at that sort of thing; the invitation to come in some afternoon +might perhaps have come more properly from a brother. +</P> + +<P> +It was very gratifying to find that Mr. Ward, fortified by dinner, +became more courageous than I have ever known him to be before. He +tip-toed almost boldly across the room, and sitting down beside my +sister began to make a series of deliberate remarks to her, mostly in +the form of interrogation: "Do you care for Scotch songs?" "Have you +ever been in Ireland?" "Do you know Wales at all?" And to these +important questions Palestrina made suitable replies. "That is <I>most</I> +interesting," I heard her say from time to time, using the formula of +those who are bored to the extent of complete absence of mind. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden crossed the room suddenly with a shimmer of silken skirts. +In spite of her frivolity she has a way of making herself necessary to +every party to which she goes. There used to be an old saying long ago +in Scotland that wherever The Macgregor sat was the head of the table. +Mrs. Fielden is always the centre of every party, although she has a +childish habit, which in another woman might be ascribed to shyness, of +taking the least conspicuous seat in the room. Consequently, when she +dispersed the little group that was standing or sitting about her, +applauding everything she said, and came across the room in pink satin +and roses and diamonds, and sat down beside my sofa, the action had +something regal about it, as though she had left a throne and come to +speak to me. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to teach you to play Bridge," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"That is most kind of you." +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to carry you off to Stanby next week to give you lessons," +she went on. +</P> + +<P> +I have a strong conviction that if Mrs. Fielden were to give a beggar a +halfpenny he would probably stoop down and kiss the edge of her skirt, +or do something equally unconventional and self-abasing. She might, as +a great favour, give a courtier who had risked his life for her, her +hand to kiss. When she smiles men become foolish about her. +</P> + +<P> +"It is very kind of you to want us," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I want Bridge," said Mrs. Fielden, and, as usual when she is going to +be provoking, she looked prettier than ever, and began to smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Any one will do to make up a rubber, I suppose?" I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, any one," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"Consequently, my sister and I need not feel particularly distinguished +by being asked," I continued. +</P> + +<P> +"I am so glad Palestrina is coming," said Mrs. Fielden, "because +several men have written to tell me they are coming to stay, just when +my sisters-in-law are leaving, and I suppose I oughtn't to entertain a +houseful of men alone, ought I?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden does exactly as she pleases upon all occasions, but this +does not prevent her from pretending to have acute attacks of propriety +sometimes. +</P> + +<P> +"We will play Bridge and chaperon you with pleasure," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought of drowning myself yesterday," said Mrs. Fielden, "because +it rained all day, and I had no one to amuse me, and then I thought I +would ask you to come over and play Bridge instead. When I am bored I +never can make up my mind whether I shall commit suicide, or go into a +convent, or get married. Which do you advise?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should advise you to marry," I said. "As far as I can gather, a +great source of discord and danger in our neighbourhood would be +removed if you did so." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden said with her eyes, "Hugo, you are very cross." But being +the most good-natured woman in the world, and sharing that forbearance +which most people extend to an invalid, she smiled instead. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you stay here when you are feeling so tired?" she said to me +presently. +</P> + +<P> +"Because," I replied, "my sister lies awake half the night and thinks I +am going to die, if I show any signs of fatigue, or go to bed early. +Besides, for us, you know, this is quite an exciting evening. We have +thought about our dinner-party for days past." +</P> + +<P> +"If you were nice," said Mrs. Fielden after a pause, "you would ask me +to come into your library and smoke." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you smoke?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Mrs. Fielden, "I don't." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad you don't," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"For years," said Mrs. Fielden, "I tried to think it was wrong, and +then I quite enjoyed smoking; but there is a certain effort involved in +trying to raise an innocent occupation to the level of a crime." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a very unfeminine habit," I said; partly because I was in a +contradictious mood, and partly because I wanted to snub Mrs. Fielden +for being so beautiful and young and charming. +</P> + +<P> +"The last man," said Mrs. Fielden gravely, "who made that remark died +shortly afterwards." +</P> + +<P> +She was gathering up my cushions and pillows as she spoke, and she +turned to my sister as she crossed the hall, and said, "We are going to +study philosophy in the library." +</P> + +<P> +The library was lit by a single lamp, and the fire burned low in the +grate; but the room was illumined suddenly by a pink dress and roses +and diamonds, and Mrs. Fielden was arranging cushions, in the very +skilful way she has, on my sofa by the fire. She handed me my +cigarette-box and matches, and spread a rug over my leg. For some +occult reason the rustling pink dress only whispered softly over the +carpet now, like a woman's hushed voice in a sick-room, and Mrs. +Fielden, by the simple act of drawing up a chair to the fire and +sitting in it, took the head of the table again, and became the centre +of the room. +</P> + +<P> +"May I really smoke," I asked, "after being such a brute as to say you +mustn't?" +</P> + +<P> +"I look upon smoking as a purely feminine habit, like drinking tea, or +having headaches, or anything of that sort," said Mrs. Fielden. "It +was simply because it was so expensive that men took to it in the first +place. Ethics should not be based upon accident, should it?" +</P> + +<P> +I handed Mrs. Fielden my cigarette-box. +</P> + +<P> +"If you are quite sure you disapprove, I will have one," she said. +</P> + +<P> +From the hall came the sound of Maud's singing. Her voice is not of +great compass, nor very strong, but it is clear and fresh, with a +tuneful cadence in it. +</P> + +<P> +"You spend nearly all your days here?" said Mrs. Fielden, looking round +the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Until the afternoon," I said; "and then Palestrina and I go for a +little walk, and at tea-time I go to the hall sofa, and she asks people +to come up and sit with me." +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad you like books," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"But really," I said, "the good folks in Stowel are all extraordinarily +kind to me, and some of the Jamiesons are up nearly every day." +</P> + +<P> +"I like the Jamiesons," said Mrs. Fielden; "they are so intelligent. +Have you ever noticed that their watches all keep exact time, and that +they tell you the hour to the very second? And they always know what +day of the month it is, and when Easter falls, and how much stuff it +takes to make a blouse." +</P> + +<P> +"You wrong Eliza Jamieson," I said; "she studies philosophy." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Mrs. Fielden eagerly, "I forgot to tell you, I have begun to +study philosophy. I began last week. Will you lend me some books, +please? I want to be very wise and learned." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I think," said Mrs. Fielden, "that it might be nice if people did not +always call one frivolous; and that if I studied philosophy——" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not lend you any books," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"That is rather disobliging of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Because," I said, "our lives should always show a perfect equation. +If you are a frivolous person you should behave frivolously." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean <I>as</I> I am a frivolous person," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"As you are a frivolous person," I repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"And after all," said Mrs. Fielden with a contemplative air, "how silly +philosophy is! I asked somebody the other day the meaning of a +syllogism, and really I don't think I ever heard anything quite so +foolish." +</P> + +<P> +"It is quite beneath your notice," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I did think of asking you if I might come over sometimes and read +these musty volumes of yours." +</P> + +<P> +"You would probably find them as uninteresting as I am," I said. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden looked as if she thought that might be possible, and did +not press the matter. +</P> + +<P> +I dislike being disloyal to my books, for they are such good friends of +mine. But a great wish came to me then to get up and do something, +instead of for ever reading the doings and the thoughts of other +people. I thought how much I should like to live again, and just for +once sleep on the veldt with the stars overhead, or longed that I could +get astride of a horse, and follow a burst of the hounds over the wet +fields in England. And so thinking I turned on the sofa and said +petulantly, "I wish Maud Jamieson would not sing that song." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that we two were maying," she sang, in the song that tells of love +and separation, and the longings and heartbreaks which it is much +better not to speak about, and the things which we want and cannot have. +</P> + +<P> +"I hate yearners," I said. "Why can't she sing something cheerful?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden rose from her chair by the fire and crossed the hearthrug, +and came and sat down on my sofa. She took my hand in hers and said: +"Poor boy! is it very hard sometimes?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Of course," said Palestrina, as we went upstairs to bed after our +guests had departed, "you are sure to feel tired. The little party has +been too much for you, I'm afraid. It was very tiresome for you having +to leave us all." +</P> + +<P> +"I felt rather a crock after dinner," I said, "and I think the hall +gets hot in the evening." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I could make you better," said Palestrina affectionately; "it +is horrid for you being ill." +</P> + +<P> +"Every one," I said, "makes far too much fuss about health. Why, ten +officers of our regiment are buried in South Africa. I suppose half +the pensioners in Chelsea Hospital have had wounds as bad as mine, and +a cripple more or less in the world does not matter very much. Women +are kind enough to pity me. They even confide their troubles to me +sometimes, because I am a poor thing lying on a sofa. I am really +quite happy hobbling about with you, Palestrina; and when I am older, I +shall probably take an interest in the garden. There is a proper and +philosophical attitude of mind in respect of these things." +</P> + +<P> +"O Hugo," said Palestrina, "I always know you are not happy when you +begin to be philosophical." +</P> + +<P> +"Life is very easily explained without the assistance of philosophy +when everything goes all right," I replied. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII. +</H3> + +<P> +Have I ever mentioned that Palestrina is engaged to be married? If I +have not done so, it is because it seems an obvious fact that all +Palestrinas are engaged to be married. Her <I>fiancé</I>, who is called +Thomas, is stationed with his regiment in Ireland. A few weeks ago he +sent her, as a token of his affection, a yellow dog with long hair. +Palestrina does not like dogs, but she is trying to love Down-Jock for +Thomas's sake. She says his name is Jock. The dog is a curious +creature, with a passion for hurling himself at those who wear clean +flannel trousers or light skirts. Thomas says he is full of +intelligence. He appears to be quite a young animal, but he can affect +the airs of extreme old age, sleeping in a basket a great part of the +day, or standing on the doorstep to bark at visitors in an asthmatical +manner, as though he would say, "I am too old and too feeble to give +chase, but while I am alive this house shall not lack a defender." At +other times he is wildly juvenile, and rolls himself over and over in +an exuberance of youthful fun. This is chiefly on Sundays, when (his +best joke) he pretends he wants to come to church with us. Sunday is +Down-Jock's happiest day in all the week. No Christian in the land +loves it more than he does. He begins his religious exercises early in +the morning by barking outside the doors of all those people who have +determined to take an extra half-hour's rest, and he continues barking +without ceasing until the sleeper awakes and gets out of bed to open +the door for him. He bustles in and wags his tail cheerfully, saying +as plainly as a dog can say it, "I am an early riser, you see—and a +teetotaler," he adds, trotting across the room to the water-jug, and +lapping full red tonguefuls of its contents. Then he stands in the +middle of the room and barks at you; runs to the door and barks at it; +barks at the servants as they go downstairs, promising—the little +tell-tale!—that their lateness shall be reported in the proper +quarter. Finally, he climbs on to the bed, and goes to sleep upon your +feet. +</P> + +<P> +During breakfast he is attentive to every one, and sits on the skirts +of those ladies who most dislike dogs, and pulls them down +uncomfortably from the waist. He watches every mouthful of food that +is eaten, and grudges it to the eater; and his eyes are saying all the +time, "How can you be so greedy?" After breakfast his most boisterous +juvenile mood begins. He jumps on every one, or rolls himself over and +over under every one's feet. He wags his tail, barks in a piercing +manner—the bark of the gay young dog—and madly rushes after imaginary +rats. All gloves and shoes become his playthings, and he frolics +blithely with the hat-brush. +</P> + +<P> +On weekdays he pleads old age as an excuse, and refuses to come +anywhere with us; but on the Sabbath morning who so ready as Down-Jock +to take his walks abroad? He flies after us to the gate, his long hair +streaming in the wind, and his short legs racing like a clockwork dog. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina says: "Oh dear, what shall we do? Down-Jock! down, sir! +Oh, he has spoilt my dress! Good doggie, mustn't go to church! Go +home! go home! Oh, Jock, do get down!—Look, he is following us still, +and the church door is always open; he is sure to come in in the middle +of the service, and trot up to us in our pew. Do you think Thomas +would mind if I were to look as if he didn't belong to us?" +</P> + +<P> +Jock flies back with an old bone in his mouth and deposits it at +Palestrina's feet, dares her to touch it, and makes flying snatches at +her shoes when she kicks the treasure aside. +</P> + +<P> +"I must take him back," says Palestrina. "It will make me late of +course, but I must go and shut him up." +</P> + +<P> +"He won't follow you," I say. "He is quite determined to go to church." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina lifts the heavy beast in her arms, and in an exuberance of +joy Down-Jock makes a doormat of her dress, and rubs his paws +affectionately against it and licks her hand. +</P> + +<P> +Of course he escapes presently and runs after us; that is his best and +most killing joke. Inwardly one feels he is in a state of +hardly-suppressed laughter as he tears down the road again, barking +with glee. And then he gets a sober fit, walks demurely in front of us +in the narrow field-path, changes his mind suddenly about going to +church, stops dead short, and trips us up; thinks after all he ought to +go to the morning service as an example to the servants; toddles on +again, and stops to say (with the air of extreme old age again assumed) +that, after all, he is not up to the exertion, and would have to sit +down at the Psalms, so perhaps it really would be better to stay +quietly at home. Another stop. A rapid toilet performed by scratching +his head with his hind-leg, "just in case I meet any one coming out of +church whom I know;" and then Down-Jock meets a boy friend strolling +off to the fields, and running up to him, says: "One must conform to +conventionalities, but between you and me I never had the remotest +intention of going to church." +</P> + +<P> +Down-Jock, in his moments of most restless activity, always reminds me +of a servant of ours who has occasional fits of the most intense +energy. It begins quite early in the morning, when she gets up some +hours before her usual time, and gives a sort of surprise party to the +rest of the household. These parties take place two or three times a +year, and we do not get over them for weeks afterwards. Every room in +the house is visited in turn, and delinquencies of a twelvemonth are +laid bare. During the morning cupboards are turned out in a +magisterial sort of way, and dusty corners are triumphantly displayed. +The most cherished rubbish is freely consigned to the waste-paper +baskets, and collections of all sorts are contemptuously swept away. +We hastily gather up books and precious oddments, and hurry off with +them to my den, where we take refuge till the whirlwind is past. +Curtains and tablecloths are shaken with a sort of vindictive energy at +the back-door; all windows are flung open, and rugs are rolled up, +making a sort of obstacle race in every passage and room. Down-Jock, +who never recognizes a superior in any one, is the only member of the +party who is not rendered an abject coward. He unrolls rugs, and runs +away with dusters, and snaps at the heels of the housemaid in a way +that provokes one's wonder at his temerity. My sister and I, having +locked away our most cherished possessions, generally contrive to be +out of the house as much as possible on one of these tempestuous days. +And following the line of reasoning, not of the highest order, which +suggests that if one cannot be happy one had better try and be good, +Palestrina always visits her old women at the workhouse on these days. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish," she said to me, "that you would walk into the village and +meet me on my way home. I don't think anybody is coming up to see you +this afternoon, and the house is so uncomfortable when Janet is in one +of her whirlwind moods. Come as far as the corner, and go in and sit +down at old Pettifer's if you get tired." +</P> + +<P> +"Shadrach Pettifer tells me," I said, "that his affection for you is +based on the fact that you are so like his poor old mother. Perhaps +while I am waiting at his cottage he may give me further interesting +facts about you." +</P> + +<P> +Shadey is an old man with a bent back and curious bright eyes that +gleam under a heavy thatch of eyebrow. His wife is the very thinnest +old woman that I have ever seen; her cheeks have fallen in and are so +very wrinkled that they always remind me of a toy balloon that a child +has pricked with a pin. She is always ill and never complaining. Any +expression of sympathy seems foreign to her comprehension, and the +"Poor thing!" or "I am so sorry," so eagerly accepted by more fortunate +folk, is received by her with a certain air of independence. Last +winter Mrs. Pettifer was dangerously ill with internal gout, but +expressions of condolence were always met with the rather curious +reply, "Well, you see, sir, we must have something to bring us to our +end." There is a whole world of philosophy in this. +</P> + +<P> +To-day the old couple spent the time while I waited for Palestrina in +their cottage in describing to me the last days in the life of their +tortoise, an old friend, and an animal of evidently strange and unusual +qualities. Towards the close of its life it was, on the testimony of +the Pettifers, taken with screaming fits, and, it even had to be held +down "when the high-strikes was wuss." Later it used to run round and +round as never was. And at last Shadey determined to release it from +this earthly tabernacle. He asked his friend Bridgeman, Anthony +Crawshay's head-keeper, to come round some evening and administer +poison to the unfortunate beast, and the effect of the dose was as +strange as it was unexpected. The poison was the first thing for weeks +that poor Toots the tortoise had seemed to enjoy. It seemed, to quote +again from the testimony of those most intimately acquainted with the +animal, to "put new life into Toots," and the more poison that was +administered the livelier did he become, "until he was that gay it +seemed as if he would ha' laughed at yer!" Finally, I understood that +when poison sufficient to kill two cart-horses had been given, the +afflicted animal yielded to treatment, and its shell now adorns the +kitchen dresser. +</P> + +<P> +We returned home to find the house smelling of furniture polish, and +permeated with a certain cold primness which succeeds a tidying-up, and +which can only be dispelled by a glowing fire. One by one things were +brought back to the hall, and we felt like snails creeping out in the +evening after a day of rain. Banished property strewed the tables +again, and Palestrina opened the piano and spread it with music. It +was an act of defiance, but comfortable nevertheless, to collect the +cushions which had been dotted primly about in clean muslin covers, and +to pile them all on to the sofa before the fire. But Down-Jock, who +always goes one better than any one else, contributed still more +completely to the systematized disorganization of the house. He gaily +wiped his muddy feet on clean paint, and tore blithely round after +imaginary rats wherever order reigned. Finally, in an exuberance of +joy, he made a hearty supper of Palestrina's manuscript book of music, +and barked with glee. +</P> + +<P> +And yet some people say that dogs are not intelligent! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII. +</H3> + +<P> +The Uncle, Sir John, is coming to stay at the Taylors', and the town is +in something of a flutter over this event. It was hoped that the +Taylors would give a tea-party in honour of their guest, but there is a +shrewd notion abroad that no one will be allowed to see very much of +him except at a distance. The Taylors had hoped that there would be +some occasion during his visit on which The Uncle might speak in +public, and Mr. Taylor has tried, half jestingly, to induce his brother +townsfolk to arrange what he calls "something in the political line" +while the august relative is staying with him. I think we owe it to +the fact that the political meeting was found to be an impossibility +that we were asked to tea at the Taylors'. +</P> + +<P> +Invitations, instead of taking the form of a friendly note, after the +pattern of Stowel invitations in general, were conveyed on one of Mrs. +Taylor's visiting cards, with "At home, Thursday the 17th, four to +seven," upon it. "A little abrupt," ladies of Stowel were inclined to +think, but of course the Taylors are people of some importance in the +place. No one quite knew how to answer the invitation, and a good many +friendly little visits were paid on the afternoon on which it arrived, +and the mysterious card was produced from a bag or purse, with the +smiling apology, "I am sure fashions change so quickly that one hardly +knows how to keep up with them." And then ideas were exchanged as to +the reply suitable to such a form of invitation. Miss Tracey said that +she always thought that an invitation was accepted in as nearly as +possible the same manner in which it was given, and she announced that +she and her sister meant to return one of their own visiting-cards to +Mrs. Taylor, with the day and the hour named upon it, and "With +pleasure" written underneath. This was considered suitable, for the +most part; but those who still had doubts upon the subject made +elaborate efforts to meet Mrs. Taylor during the morning's shopping, +and to say to her in a friendly way, "We are coming, of course, on +Thursday. Will you excuse our writing a note, at this busy time?" +</P> + +<P> +The Miss Blinds always send their thanks for a "polite invitation" in +the old style, but on this occasion Miss Lydia was obliged to offer +regrets as well as thanks, as she had not been very well lately. She, +I suppose, was the only person in Stowel who did not accept Mrs. +Taylor's invitation. Two parties are, of course, never given on the +same day, and it would be considered eccentric to prefer staying at +home to going out. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry Miss Lydia cannot come," said Mr. Taylor, when the notes of +acceptance were being opened at breakfast-time; "after all, it is not +every day that people have a chance of meeting so distinguished a man +as the General." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Lydia was never intrusive," said Mrs. Taylor. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Lovekin was one of those who avoided the difficulty raised by Mrs. +Taylor's unusual form of invitation by meeting her accidentally in the +baker's shop, where an assortment of cakes was being ordered for the +tea-party, and signifying her intention of coming to tea. "No need to +write, I suppose," said Mrs. Lovekin lightly, "as I have met you?" +Both Mrs. Taylor and the baker's wife thought it would have been in +better taste if Mrs. Lovekin had then withdrawn, instead of remaining +in the shop and hearing what was ordered. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Taylor had made up her mind at an early stage in the proceedings +that she would be very firm indeed about the matter of dispensing tea +herself in her own house. She would appropriate one teapot, and her +daughter should have the other, and not even to shake hands with a +late-arriving guest would they run the risk of letting this badge of +office fall into the hands of the co-hostess. +</P> + +<P> +"And if," said Mrs. Taylor, "I find that she is appropriating The Uncle +too much, I shall not hesitate to remove him, on the plea of +introducing him to some other and more important guests." +</P> + +<P> +It was in church on Sunday that we were first allowed to see The Uncle, +and this is only following the usual custom in Stowel. Church on +Sunday is, as it were, the public life of the town. After a death it +is customary to wait until the family has appeared in church to pay +visits of condolence—not so much to avoid intrusiveness in the first +hour of grief as from a feeling that perhaps the crape mourning will +not have arrived. In the same way, if any one moves into a new +house—a very unusual proceeding—we are made aware that the carpets +are all down, and the drawing-room curtains are hung, when the new +arrivals are seen in their pew on Sunday. This, also, is accepted as a +token that calling may now begin. Mrs. Taylor said afterwards, in +describing that first Sunday when The Uncle appeared in Stowel Church, +that her heart beat so painfully at the door that she thought she would +have been obliged to turn back. It was a triumphal progress that the +party of four made up the centre aisle to their pew, but the inward +excitement of the Taylors rendered a natural deportment difficult. +Neither Mrs. Taylor nor her daughter joined in the hymns or the +responses that Sunday morning. It is doubtful whether they heard a +word of the service. +</P> + +<P> +Sir John is a very military-looking person, with white whiskers and a +bald pink head. He sat between Mrs. and Miss Taylor, who supplied him +with hymn and prayer books in as natural a manner as they found it +possible to assume; and Mr. Taylor sat at the end of the pew with a +genial expression on his face, and a look of tempered pride, due no +doubt to the fact that the General was "one of my wife's people," and +not a blood relation of his own. +</P> + +<P> +It was a disappointment to Mr. Taylor that his own sister, Mrs. +Macdonald—widow of a Scotch gentleman, whom the Taylors always talk of +as "The Laird"—was not able to come to this family gathering. But +Mrs. Macdonald pleaded spring-cleaning as an insuperable objection to +leaving home at present. +</P> + +<P> +As Miss Taylor, Mrs. Macdonald used to be one of Stowel's central +figures, for she was a lady of considerable means and an indefatigable +housekeeper; and Mr. Macdonald was considered to have done well when he +took her as his bride to the North. +</P> + +<P> +The Sunday on which the Taylors appeared in church with The Uncle was +curiously hot for the time of year. It was very stuffy in church, and +Miss Lydia had a slight fainting attack, and had to leave before the +service was over. Following the accepted custom in Stowel, my sister +called the next day to ask how she did. But indisposition, usually a +matter of solemn pleasure with us, was overshadowed and shorn of its +interest by the presence of The Uncle amongst us. Even the Vicar +looked keenly at him from the pulpit before his sermon began, but no +one except Mrs. Lovekin was forward enough to address the august party +as they left the church. Mrs. Lovekin, who always affirmed that she +saw no difference in rank, was the very first person in Stowel to shake +hands with The Uncle. She overtook the Taylors before they had even +reached the gate of the churchyard, and was perforce introduced to +their relative, "who," Mrs. Taylor said afterwards, "was almost more +cordial than she could have wished him to be; but of course his manners +were always perfect." What annoyed every one a little in the days that +followed was that Mrs. Lovekin constantly referred to the General as if +he had been an old friend; whereas of course it was well known in what +an intrusive way her precedence had been gained. During the week, +however, we all had an opportunity of seeing Sir John, for he was +marched in triumph up and down the village street regularly twice a +day. Miss Taylor even condescended to subterfuge in the matter. For +having taken The Uncle as far as the baker's at the end of the town, +with a view to continuing the walk into the country at The Uncle's +request, she pretended to have forgotten something at the draper's, and +marched him down the street again, in the proud knowledge that all +eyes, whether from pedestrians or from the interior of shops and houses +in the High Street, were turned upon her. The tobacconist from whom +The Uncle bought some tobacco gave Miss Taylor quite a sympathetic look +as he said, "Allow me to send it for you, Sir John." And Miss Taylor +said, "Do allow him to send it, uncle! I am sure that you ought not to +carry parcels for yourself." +</P> + +<P> +On Thursday, when we went to the party, we saw at once that the Taylors +meant to make no snobbish distinction between their guests, but that +each and every one of them was to be introduced to The Uncle. +</P> + +<P> +"I am no good at this sort of thing, Mary," The Uncle said before the +party began, "and I think I will walk over and see Willie Jacobs, and +spend the afternoon with him." Mrs. Taylor turned pale at the +suggestion. "It will ruin it!" she said. "I shall feel as if I had +been acting on false pretences." And though the General remained, as +he was requested to do, he showed a most irritating tendency to slip +away, and sometimes he was not to be found at the most critical +moments. Mrs. Taylor stationed him close to herself in the +drawing-room where she received her guests. But at the very moment +when she turned round to effect an introduction between him and some +particular friend, it was discovered that the General had slipped off +to the smoking-room or the tea-room, or was wandering aimlessly about +the garden, looking at the flower-beds. +</P> + +<P> +Altogether, that most successful afternoon (and the Taylors really did +feel that it had been a success from the very highest point of view) +had still some drawbacks to it, which they regret, and always will +regret. For instance, when Miss Taylor had been dispatched into what +the Taylors call the "grounds" to see "what The Uncle is doing" +(playfully), "and tell him to come and make himself agreeable," she had +hardly departed to fulfil her mother's request when Mrs. Lovekin bore +down upon the teapot, poured out several of the most distinguished cups +of tea, and handed round macaroons as though they were her own. Last +of all, as the party was breaking up, and Mrs. Lovekin's vicarious +hospitality was therefore at an end, she was actually heard inviting +The Uncle to come and call upon her. Even the Miss Blinds, on being +told of the incident, admitted that this behaviour on Mrs. Lovekin's +part could not be called anything but forward. Miss Lydia could only +say, in a sort of sweet distress, "Perhaps she did not mean it;" but +Miss Blind shook her head vigorously, and said, "Bad butter, bad +butter, bad butter!" +</P> + +<P> +Margaret Jamieson had, of course, been helping to prepare the party, +for Margaret Jamieson always helps wherever there is anything to be +done. And Eliza, we thought, made a deep impression upon The Uncle by +her knowledge of literature, and the perfectly easy and natural way in +which, without a moment's preparation, she alluded to the "atomic +theory." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! you are one of the Reading Society young ladies that I heard +about," said he. "Sorry I couldn't do more for you in the way of +books, but that's not in my line at all, you know. I was educated at a +Grammar School, and I never had the advantages that you young people +have nowadays." (Mrs. Taylor thought this statement unnecessary, but +reflected that great men often make allusions of this sort.) "However, +if I ever can be of any use to you—getting you an order for reading at +the British Museum, or anything of that sort—I hope you will let me +know." +</P> + +<P> +For one brief day the Jamiesons were inclined to tease Eliza about +having made a conquest, but the Taylors would not have any nonsense of +that sort for a moment. It made Mrs. Taylor quite nervous to think of +such a thing, and she remarked that that was the worst of having +distinguished people to stop with one; there was always somebody +running after them. Eliza Jamieson, we noticed, was treated with +marked coldness by the Taylors for some time afterwards, and Miss +Taylor recollected darkly that it was Eliza's suggestion, in the first +instance, that The Uncle should be consulted on the choice of books for +the Reading Society. "She may," said Miss Taylor, "have had an eye on +him from the first." +</P> + +<P> +A purely visionary affair of this sort, however, could not be +considered satisfactory or exciting, even by the Jamiesons; and the +Taylors' suspicions and anxieties were put on one side for the time +being—ousted from their place, as it were—by the very distinct and +exciting rumours which have reached us about Maud. Maud has been +staying with friends at Hampstead, and has written home in a certain +veiled way which is very provoking, but which, nevertheless, gives the +impression that another man has come to the point, and has proposed to +Maud Jamieson. Maud seems out of spirits, and has written to say that +she is returning; and this makes the sisters think that she must have +accepted her present suitor, and is coming home to shed a few natural +tears. Eliza, who walked over to tell us the news, voiced The Family's +opinion when she said: "We have quite made up our minds that if Maud +has said 'Yes,' she is to stick to it this time. She is always in a +panic directly she has accepted any one, but we know that it would be +the same whoever it was: and doubtless, unless we are firm, she will +treat this admirer just as she treated Mr. Reddy and Albert Gore and +the others. Mamma says that she will not have Maud coerced, and I am +sure no one wants to coerce her; but why should she always get to a +certain point, and then begin to have doubts? It is so +unbusiness-like." +</P> + +<P> +The very next day Maud Jamieson came to tea. She looked well dressed, +as usual, and had some pretty spring finery about her—yellow mimosa +wreathing a broad hat, and some yellow ribbons about her tasteful +dress—but her pretty face looked very white, and she fidgeted +nervously for half an hour, and then told me I was so sympathetic she +would like to ask me something. +</P> + +<P> +"I dare say," she said, "that you have heard something about Mr. Evans +from The Family?" +</P> + +<P> +I admitted that I had, and then there was a very long pause. +</P> + +<P> +"How is one to know," said Maud, "when it is the real thing?" +</P> + +<P> +Another pause. I wished with all my heart that I could have been more +helpful to this young lady in such evident distress of mind; but the +intricacies of Maud's thoughts are most difficult to follow, and I +thought it better to wait until she had given me her entire confidence. +</P> + +<P> +"Little things," said Maud, "might annoy one so much if one had always +to live with a man. For instance, I do not think I could ever truly +love a man who sniffs." +</P> + +<P> +"Our friend Mrs. Fielden says," I remarked, "that a man generally +proposes when he has a cold in his head. But I pointed out to her that +these statistics do her no credit." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Evans doesn't sniff," said Maud. "I was only citing that as an +example of what one might find very trying in a companion for life." +</P> + +<P> +I assented, and could only suggest hopefully the usual Jamieson remedy +that such a defect might be cured after marriage. +</P> + +<P> +"But men are so obstinate about some things," said Maud. "For +instance, suppose a man were well off and of really excellent +character, do you think it would matter much if he wore a white +watered-silk waistcoat in the evening? Would it, for instance, appear +an insuperable objection to most minds?" +</P> + +<P> +I replied that doubtless it was a serious fault, but that I did not +consider it an incurable one; and I further remarked, with what I hoped +showed a broad and liberal way of looking at things, that all men had +their idiosyncrasies. Maud admitted this, and seemed cheered by the +reflection; but she pushed the matter further, and said she would like +to know what sort of a man I should presume any one to be who wore a +white watered-silk waistcoat. +</P> + +<P> +"If you care for Mr. Evans—" I began, and regretted that one's +articulate expression is sometimes behindhand in the matter of +conveying the comprehensiveness of the inner working of one's mind—— +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid I care for some one else," said Maud, bursting into tears. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me see you home," I said, unable to think of any but this very +doubtful method of consolation; still, it seemed unkind to let her go +home alone when she had been crying. +</P> + +<P> +On the threshold of the Jamiesons' house several of The Family were +waiting for us, and they drew me into the drawing-room, while by tacit +consent it seemed to be understood that Maud should not join in the +conclave, but should go straight upstairs and take off her hat. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you persuaded her?" said Eliza. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you have put a little common sense into her," said Kate. +</P> + +<P> +James was admitted to family discussions now, and here remarked that he +believed that all girls were happier married. +</P> + +<P> +"Though, of course," said Mettie, "it is a great risk." +</P> + +<P> +"Did she tell you," asked Gracie, "that she cares for some one else?" +</P> + +<P> +I admitted that Maud had said something of the sort. And her family +exclaimed triumphantly that this was always Maud's plea for releasing +herself from an engagement as soon as that engagement had been made. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Jamieson remarked that she would not like any of the girls to feel +that they were not welcome at home, and all her affectionate daughters +kissed her in turn, or patted her hand, and said that they knew that +such a thought as wanting to get rid of one of them would never enter +her head. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Jamieson here left the room to seek her banished daughter and to +administer comfort, and the members of The Family conclave said that +they hoped that Mrs. Jamieson did not think that they had been unkind. +</P> + +<P> +"If it had not happened so often!" sighed Eliza. "However, as we do +not know Mr. Evans, he can't ask to come down and stay with us, as Mr. +Reddy did, so as to have an opportunity of pressing his suit." +</P> + +<P> +"He cried so much one afternoon," said Kate, turning in an explanatory +sort of way to Mr. Ward, "that I really thought I should have to send +for mamma." James looked sympathetic, and Gracie added: "We all really +felt quite relieved when he got engaged to some one else three weeks +afterwards, and we hear that they are most happy, and have got a dear +little baby." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX. +</H3> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden's motor car is still a matter of absorbing interest to the +inhabitants of Stowel. When it breaks down, as it frequently does, +there is always a crowd round it immediately. Our friends and +neighbours in the town have an ingenuous respect for anything that +costs a great deal of money, and they are quite congratulatory to any +one who has been for a drive with Mrs. Fielden, and they talk about the +motor and its owner, and who has seen it, and who has not, over their +afternoon tea. +</P> + +<P> +The motor car is a noisy, evil-smelling vehicle of somewhat rowdy +appearance, which leaves a trail behind it as of a smoking lamp. It +drew up at our door to-day, and kicked and snorted impatiently until we +were ready to get into it. The next moment, with a final angry snort +and plunge, it started down the drive and whizzed through the village +and up the hill on the other side without pausing to take breath. +</P> + +<P> +"The worst of a motor car is," said Mrs. Fielden, "that one gets +through everything so quickly. In London I get my shopping done in +about a quarter of an hour, and then I take a turn round Regent's Park, +and I find I have put away about ten minutes, so I fly down to +Richmond, and even then it is too early to go to tea anywhere. Talking +of tea—isn't everybody very hungry? I am really ravenous—and that is +the motor car's fault, too. Because one has learned to want one's +meals by the amount of business one has got through, and when one has +done a whole afternoon's work in three-quarters of an hour, one is +dying for tea, just as if it were five o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +"I have always been ravenous since I was in South Africa," said one of +Mrs. Fielden's colonels, who had driven over in the motor car to take +care of her and to bring us back. "I don't know when I shall satisfy +the pangs of hunger which I acquired on the veldt." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I shall call on Mr. Ellicomb," said Mrs. Fielden. "I believe +he has excellent afternoon teas, and he is making me an enamel box +which I should like to see." +</P> + +<P> +Ellicomb said once or twice, as we sat in his picturesque house with +its blue china and old brass work, that he only wished we had given him +warning that we were coming. We found him with an apron on, working at +his enamels; and when he had displayed this work to us, he showed us +his bookbinding, and his fretwork-carving, and his type-writing +machine. Afterwards we had tea, which Ellicomb poured very deftly into +his blue cups, having first warmed the teapot and the cups, and flicked +away one or two imaginary specks of dirt from the plates with what +appeared to be a small lace-trimmed dinner-napkin. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden began to admire his majolica ware, of which she knows +nothing whatever, and Ellicomb took her for a tour round his rooms, and +asked her to guess the original uses of his drain-tiles and spittoons +and copper ham-pots. Afterwards we were taken into a very small +conservatory adjoining his house, where every plant was displayed to us +in turn; and we were subsequently shown his coal-cellar and his larder +and his ash-pit before we were allowed to return to the house. +</P> + +<P> +Ellicomb smiles more often than any other man I know, and he had only +one epithet to apply to his house. "It's so cosy," he said. "Isn't it +cosy?" "I do think it's a cosy little place." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden was charmed with everything, and deprecated the idea that +she might consider the little house very small after Stanby. +</P> + +<P> +"I always think," she said, "that I should much prefer to live in a +place like this, and then the people who come to see one really would +pay one a little attention, instead of talking of nothing but the +house." +</P> + +<P> +The Colonel laughed and apologized. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I know I'm not half good enough for Stanby," said Mrs. Fielden, +smiling. "But I really can't help it! I was brought up in a house +with hot and cold water upstairs, and white paint, and I suppose I +never can really appreciate anything else." +</P> + +<P> +The dignity of Mrs. Fielden's surroundings has never affected her in +the very smallest degree, and I do not believe that the traditions of +the house interest her in the very least. I am quite aware that she +asked me to write out the history of Lady Hylda, for instance, simply +because it is part of her charm always to ask one to do something for +her. It is the fashion to wait upon Mrs. Fielden's behests, and it +would appear almost an unkindness to her many men friends if she did +not give them some commission to do when they go up to town. Her +manner of thanking one for a service is almost as pretty as her manner +of asking for it, and I am really not surprised that she is the most +popular woman in the country-side. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Ellicomb said ecstatically that the dim twilight at Stanby was one +of the most impressive things he knew; and he added, with a shudder, +that he always expected to see ghosts there. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden does not believe in ghosts except on those occasions when +she has some one very charming to defend her, and she spends her +evenings in a cheerful white boudoir in the modern part of the house. +</P> + +<P> +Having admired all the majolica plates in the house, and having +completely bewildered her host by showing an interest in him and his +possessions one minute, and complete indifference the next, Mrs. +Fielden fell into one of those little silences which are so +characteristic of her. Her silence is one of the most provoking things +about her. She has been witty and amusing the moment before, and then +relapses into silence in the most natural manner possible, and her face +takes a certain wistful look, and a man wonders how he can comfort her +or whether he has offended her. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we ought to go now," she said, coming out of this wistful +reverie like a child awaking from sleep. "Is every one ready?" +</P> + +<P> +We got into the motor car again, and sped onwards along the smooth +white road. Every turn made a picture which I suppose an artist would +love to paint. There were red-roofed cottages smothered in orchards of +plum blossom, and simple palings set across gaps in the hedges, with +gardens beyond filled with spring flowers. Now a labourer, gray-coated +and bent with age, passed by like a flash, as he tramped slowly +homewards from his work; and some school children, loitering to pick +primroses under a hedge, dropped their slates and satchels in the +ditch, and called to each other to take care, while they clung together +and shouted "Hurrah!" as we passed. +</P> + +<P> +The park gates of Stanby are lion guarded and of stone, and then a long +carriage-drive takes one up to the house. The park round the old gray +pile was starred with primroses, and ghost-like little lambs were +capering noiselessly in the fields. The scent of wallflowers was blown +to us from a great brown ribbon of them round the walls of the +lodgekeeper's house as we swung through the gates. The sheep in the +park, bleating to their young, drew away from the palings where they +had been rubbing their woolly sides, and made off to the farther corner +of the field, and Mrs. Fielden's gray pony in the paddock tossed his +heels in a vindictive fashion at us from a distance of fifty yards or +more. And the motor car drew up with a jerk at the great doors of the +house. +</P> + +<P> +Stanby is not quite so large now as it originally was, immense though +the house undoubtedly is, and only some ruins on the north side show +where the chapel used to stand. A mound within the ruin's walls marks +the resting-place of Hylda—Hylda, whose history I wrote out at the +request of Mrs. Fielden, and sent to her; but I don't suppose she has +ever read it. +</P> + +<P> +The evening of our arrival at Stanby it pleased Mrs. Fielden to put on +an old-fashioned dress of stiffest brocade, which she had found in some +old chest in the house. She wore a high comb of pearls in her dark +hair, and she looked a very regal and beautiful figure in the great +dining-hall and drawing-rooms of her house. She did not play Bridge, +as the others did, but sat on a carved high-backed chair near my sofa, +and told me many of the old stories of the house, and asked me to write +down some of them for her. +</P> + +<P> +"I sent you the story of Hylda more than a week ago," I said, "and I +don't suppose you ever read it." +</P> + +<P> +"I did read it," said Mrs. Fielden gently, "and I liked it very much." +</P> + +<P> +She had put on an unapproachable mood with her beautiful stiff brocade +gown, and the gentleness of her voice seemed to heighten rather than to +lessen her royalty. The radiance and the holiday air, which are Mrs. +Fielden's by divine right, were not dimmed to-night so much as +transformed. There was a subtle aromatic scent of dried rose-leaves +clinging to the old brocade dress, and about herself a sort of +fragrance of old-world dignity and beauty. The pearl comb in her hair +made her look taller than usual. +</P> + +<P> +A deerhound got up from his place by the fire and came and laid his +head on her lap, and some footmen in old-fashioned bright blue liveries +came in to arrange the card-tables and hand round coffee. Everything +was stately and magnificent in the house. +</P> + +<P> +"And you pretend," I said, "that you do nothing; yet probably the whole +ordering of this house devolves upon you." +</P> + +<P> +"I am quite a domestic person sometimes," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"It is rather bewildering," I said, "to find that you are everything in +turn." +</P> + +<P> +And the next morning she wore a short blue skirt, with a silver belt +round her waist, and spent the morning punting on the lake with Anthony +Crawshay. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope I look after you all properly," she said at lunch-time, in a +certain charming deprecating way she has of speaking sometimes. "There +really are punts, and horses, and motor cars, and things, if you want +them. Will you all order what you like?" +</P> + +<P> +Each man at the table then offered to take Mrs. Fielden for a ride, or +a drive, or a row, and not one of them could be quite sure that she had +refused to go with him. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to go for a turn in the garden and talk about books," she said +to me as we left the dining-room. And then I found that I was sitting +in her boudoir having coffee with her, and that every one else was +excluded from the room—how it was done I have not the slightest +idea—and that by-and-by we left it by the open French windows, and +were strolling in the garden in the spring sunshine. The garden, with +its high walls, is sheltered from every wind that blows, and there are +wide garden-seats in it painted white, and every border was bright with +early spring flowers. +</P> + +<P> +"I call this my Grove of Academe," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because I think it has a nice classical sound; and it is here I come +with my friends and discuss metaphysics." +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me you have a great many friends," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I was thinking," said Mrs. Fielden thoughtfully, "of adding another to +their number." +</P> + +<P> +"I have a constitutional dislike to worshipping in crowded temples," I +said. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden became silent. +</P> + +<P> +It would be forging a sword against themselves did men allow women to +know what a powerful weapon silence is. A soft answer turneth away +wrath, but a woman's silence makes a man's heart cry out: "My dear, did +I hurt you? Forgive me!" +</P> + +<P> +At the end of five minutes or so of silence Mrs. Fielden turned towards +me and smiled, and the garden seemed to be filled with her. There was +no room for anything else but herself and that bewildering smile she +gave me. +</P> + +<P> +"How is the diary getting on?" she said. +</P> + +<P> +"The diary," I answered, "continues to record our godly, righteous, and +sober life——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Mrs. Fielden quickly, "don't you think it is possible to be +too good sometimes? That is really what I wanted to say to you—I +brought you into the garden to ask you that." +</P> + +<P> +"It is an interesting suggestion," I remarked, "and I think we ought to +give it to Eliza Jamieson for one of her discussions." +</P> + +<P> +"I do not wish to discuss it with Eliza Jamieson," said Mrs. Fielden, +"but with you. You know there really is a great danger in becoming too +good; for although I do not think that you would grow wings, or hear +passing bells, or anything of that sort, still you might become a +little dull, might you not?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think it would be possible to become duller than I am," I +replied. "You have more than once told me that I am not amusing. So +long as my sister is not aware of the fact, I do not in the least mind +admitting that I find every day most horribly tedious. I suppose I +shall get accustomed to it in time, but I don't enjoy being an invalid." +</P> + +<P> +"You have watched the Jamiesons making flannel petticoats for the +poor," went on Mrs. Fielden, "and you have had the Curate to tea, and +you have been to the Taylors' party, and if it does not kill you, I am +sure you will become like people in those books which one gives as +prizes to choir-boys." +</P> + +<P> +"One so often mistakes monotony for virtue," I said. "I believe I was +beginning to think that there was almost a merit in getting accustomed +to a sofa and a crutch." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but it is a sin!" exclaimed Mrs. Fielden. "It is a sin to get +accustomed to anything that is disagreeable. But that is what comes of +studying philosophy!" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose reasoning is always bad," I said humbly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Mrs. Fielden; "and it is so unnatural, too." +</P> + +<P> +"I heard a man say the other day," I said, "that solitude is always +sententious. And he pointed out that foreigners, who are never alone, +base their ethics upon conduct; but that English people, who simply do +not understand the life of the boulevards and cafés and family +affection, sit apart in the solitude of their garrets or studies, and +decide that the right or the wrong of a thing consists in what they +think about it." +</P> + +<P> +Then I recollected that this garden was the Grove of Academe, and that +it was here that Mrs. Fielden discussed metaphysics with all her +friends. "What cure do you propose?" I said shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not go to London for a little while and enjoy yourselves?" said +Mrs. Fielden. "Put off the conventionalities of Stowel, as the Miss +Traceys do, and do something amusing and gay." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever hear of the man in the Bastille," I said, "who had been +in prison so long that when he was offered his freedom he elected to +remain where he was?" +</P> + +<P> +"But you must break out of the Bastille long before it comes to that!" +said Mrs. Fielden. "Couldn't you do something exciting? I am sure +nothing else will restore your moral tone." +</P> + +<P> +"How is it to be done?" I asked. "We must recognize the limitations of +our environment." +</P> + +<P> +"You are going to be philosophical," said Mrs. Fielden; "you are going +to quote Protagoras, or Pythagoras, or Plato, which will not convince +me in the least. Philosophy tries to make people believe that things +are exactly the reverse of what they are. I don't think that alters +the sum total of things very much. Because, by the time that you have +proved that all agreeable things are disagreeable, and all unpleasant +things are pleasant, you are in exactly the same position as you were +before. I dare say it fills up people's time to turn everything upside +down and stand everything on its head, but it is not amusing." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want me to do?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't you enjoy yourselves a little?" said Mrs. Fielden, putting on +her wistful voice. +</P> + +<P> +"As we are in the Grove of Academe, let me point out that the pursuit +of pleasure for its own sake was one of the corrupt forms of a decadent +epicureanism," I said sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"I am quite sure it was," said Mrs. Fielden, smiling; "but we were +talking about your visit to London, were we not?" +</P> + +<P> +And so I knew that the thing was settled, and I thought it very odd +that Palestrina and I had not thought of the plan before. +</P> + +<P> +"As it is getting cold," said Mrs. Fielden, "I am going to be a +peripatetic philosopher," and she rose from the seat where we were +sitting and gave me her hand to help me up, for I am still awkward with +my crutch, and then let me lean on her arm as we walked up and down the +broad gravel pathway. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think," she began, "that it is a great waste of opportunity +not to be wild and wicked sometimes, when one is very good?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid I do not quite follow you." +</P> + +<P> +"What I mean is, what is the good of filling up years of curates and +Taylors and flannel petticoats, unless you are going to kick them all +over some day, and have a good time. You see, if you and Palestrina +were not so good you would always have to pretend to be tremendously +circumspect. But it seems such waste of goodness not to be bad +sometimes." +</P> + +<P> +"Your argument being," I said, "that an honest man may sometimes steal +a horse?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that is what I mean," said Mrs. Fielden delightedly. +</P> + +<P> +"A dangerous doctrine, and one——" +</P> + +<P> +"Not Plato, please," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +... It ended in our taking a flat in London for some weeks. It was a +small dwelling, with an over-dressed little drawing-room, and a red +dining-room, and a roomy cupboard for a smoking-room. +</P> + +<P> +"Remember, Palestrina," I said to my sister when we settled down, "that +we are under strict orders to live a very rapid and go-ahead life while +we are in London. Can you suggest anything very rowdy that a crippled +man with a crutch and a tendency to chills and malaria might undertake?" +</P> + +<P> +"We might give a supper-party," said Palestrina brilliantly, "and have +long-stemmed champagne-glasses, and perhaps cook something in a +chafing-dish. I was reading a novel the other day in which the bad +characters did this. I made a note of it at the time, meaning to ask +you why it should be fast to cook things in a chafing-dish or to have +long-stemmed champagne-glasses?" +</P> + +<P> +When the evening came Mrs. Fielden dined with us, and she and +Palestrina employed themselves after dinner in rehearsing how they +should behave. My sister said in her low, gurgling voice: "I think I +shall sit on the sofa with my arms spread out on the cushions on either +side of me, and I shall thump them sometimes, as the adventuress in a +play does." +</P> + +<P> +"Or you might be singing at the piano," said Mrs. Fielden, "and then +when the door opens you could toss the music aside and sail across the +room, and give your left hand to whoever comes in first, and say, 'What +a bore! you have come!' or something rude of that sort." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden's spirit of fun inspired my quiet sister to-night, and the +two women, began masquerading in a way that was sufficiently amusing to +a sick man lying on a sofa. +</P> + +<P> +"Or you might continue playing the piano," Mrs. Fielden went on, "after +any one has been announced. I notice that that is very often done, +especially in books written by the hero himself in the first person. +'She did not leave the piano as I entered, but continued playing +softly, her white hands gliding dreamily over the keys.'" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall do my best," Palestrina answered; "and I thought of calling +all our guests by their Christian names, if only I could recollect what +they are." +</P> + +<P> +"Nicknames would be better," said Mrs. Fielden. "We ought to have +found out, I think, something about this matter before the night of the +party." +</P> + +<P> +"What shall we do till they arrive?" said Palestrina. +</P> + +<P> +"We must read newspapers and periodicals," Mrs. Fielden replied, "and +then fling them down on the carpet. There is something about seeing +newspapers on a carpet which is certainly untidy, but has a distinctly +Bacchanalian touch about it." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I had a red tea-gown," sighed my sister. +</P> + +<P> +"Or a white one trimmed with some costly furs," said Mrs. Fielden. +"Almost any tea-gown would do." +</P> + +<P> +"One thing I will have!" she exclaimed, starting in an energetic manner +to her feet. "I'll turn all the lamps low, and cover them with +pink-paper shades. Where is the crinkly paper and some ribbon?" +</P> + +<P> +After that we sat in a rose twilight so dim that we couldn't even read +the evening newspaper. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think they need have come quite so early," I said, as the +first ring was heard at the door-bell. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden had insisted upon it that one actress at least should be +asked. "What is a supper-party without an actress?" she had said. And +Mrs. Travers at present acting in Mr. Pinero's new play, was the first +to arrive. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if you know any of our friends who are coming to-night?" said +Palestrina. "We expect Squash Bosanquet and Dickie Fenwick." +Palestrina then broke down, because we had no idea if these two men had +ever answered to these names in their lives. Also she blushed, which +spoilt it all, and Mrs. Fielden began to smile. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Travers came to the party in a very simple black evening gown, and +Bosanquet and Charles Fenwick came almost immediately afterwards. +Anthony Crawshay was amongst the friends whom we had invited, because, +Palestrina said, as we did not seem to know many fast people, we had +better have some one who was sporting. There was an artist whom we +considered Bohemian because he wore his hair long, but he disappointed +us by coming in goloshes. +</P> + +<P> +Altogether we were eight at supper. There was an attractive menu, and +the long-stemmed champagne-glasses were felt to be a distinct challenge +to quiet behaviour. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina thought that if she were going to be really fast she had +better talk about divorce, and I heard her ask Anthony in a diffident +whisper if he had read any divorce cases lately. Anthony looked +startled, and in his loud voice exclaimed, "Egad! I hope <I>you</I> +haven't!" Palestrina coloured with confusion, and I frowned heavily at +her, which made it worse. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Travers seemed to have taken it into her head that Palestrina was +philanthropic, and she talked a great deal about factory girls, and +Bosanquet talked about methylated ether. What it was that provoked his +remarks on this subject I cannot now recall, nor why he discussed it +without intermission almost throughout the entire evening, but I have a +distinct recollection of hearing him dinning out the phrase "methylated +ether." +</P> + +<P> +It was, I think, the dullest party that even Palestrina and I have ever +given, and I blame Mrs. Fielden for this. Mrs. Fielden refused to be +the centre of the room. She became an onlooker at the party which she +had planned, and she smiled affectionately at us both, and watched, I +think, to see how the party would go off. +</P> + +<P> +The long-stemmed champagne-glasses were hardly used. Several people +said to me jocosely, "How is South Africa?" and to this I could think +of no more suitable reply than, "It's all right." We longed for even +the Pirate Boy to make a little disturbance. Palestrina whispered to +me that she thought I might throw a piece of bread at some one, or do +something. But the action she suggested seemed to me to be in too +daring contrast to the general tone of the evening; and really, as I +murmured back to her, there seemed to be very little point in throwing +my bread at a guest who had done me no harm. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish," she said to me when we returned to the drawing-room, "that I +knew some daring little French songs. In books the girl always sings +daring little French songs, and afterwards every one begins to be +vulgar and delightful, like those people in 'The Christian.' I think +I'll light a cigarette." She did so, and choked a little, and then +wondered if Thomas would like her to smoke, and threw the cigarette +into the fire. The Bohemian, who had travelled considerably, asked for +a map, and told us of his last year's journeyings, tracing out the +route of them for us on the map with a pin. +</P> + +<P> +And Mrs. Fielden was smiling all the time. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose," I said to my sister when the last guest had departed, and +we sat together in the pink light of the drawing-room before going to +bed—"I suppose we carry about with us an atmosphere of slowness which +it is impossible to penetrate. You are engaged to Thomas, and I am an +invalid——" +</P> + +<P> +"But in books," said Palestrina wistfully, "men talk about all sorts of +things to girls whether they happen to be engaged or not, and they ask +them to go to see galleries with them next day, or squeeze their hands. +Of course, I should hate it if they did so, but still one rather +expected it. To-night," she said regretfully, "no one talked to me of +anything but Thomas." +</P> + +<P> +"Charles Fenwick," I said, "who used to be considered amusing, has +become simply idiotic since he married. He gave me an exact account of +his little boy's sayings; he copied the way he asked for sugar, like +the chirruping of a bird. You won't believe me, I know, but he put out +his lips and chirped." +</P> + +<P> +"I remember being positively warned against him," said Palestrina, +"when I used to go to dances in London." She sighed, and added, "Do +you think Mrs. Fielden enjoyed it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think Mrs. Fielden was distinctly amused," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think," said Palestrina, still in a disappointed tone, "that +the men would have been more—more larky if we had been alone? Mrs. +Fielden always looks so beautiful and dresses so well that I think she +impresses people too much, and they are all trying to talk to her +instead of making a row." +</P> + +<P> +"I think we may as well go to bed," I said. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina rose slowly, and went towards the bell to ring for my man to +help me. She lingered for a moment by my chair. "Yet books say that +men require so much keeping in order," she said sadly. "I wish people +would not write about what does not occur." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X. +</H3> + +<P> +The Jamiesons have taken lodgings in West Kensington, which they +describe as being "most central"—a phrase which I have begun to think +means inexpensive—and near a line of omnibuses. George and the Pirate +are assiduous in taking their sisters to the Play and other places of +amusement, and are showing them something of London with a zeal which +speaks much for their goodness of heart. Even Mrs. Jamieson has been +out once or twice, and although doubly tearful on the morning following +any little bit of dissipation, her family feel that the variety has +been good for her. Eliza has found that London is radio-active, hence +enjoyable. And Eliza had been only once to the Royal Institution when +she said it! Maud's engagement to the Hampstead young man has been +finally broken off, and Maud has cried so much that her family have +forgiven her. Maud explains that it is such an upset for a girl to +break off an engagement, and The Family say soothingly that she must +just try and get over it. +</P> + +<P> +"We hope," said Kate, "that next time things will arrange themselves +more happily, and at least we can all feel that Maud might have married +many times, had she wished to do so." There seems to be a strong +feeling in The Family that Maud will go on having opportunities. +Arguing from the general to the particular, they have proved, with a +sort of tribal feeling of satisfaction, that Maud is undoubtedly very +attractive to men, and that if one man likes her, why should not +another? +</P> + +<P> +Still, we all felt that we could not have sympathized immediately with +another love affair of Maud's, and it was refreshing, not to say most +pleasing and surprising, to find that since her arrival in Town, it was +Margaret who attracted the notice of a gentleman, Mr. Swinnerton by +name, a friend of George's, who brought him to supper one Sunday +evening. The Jamiesons could see at a glance that Mr. Swinnerton was +"struck," and, as he called two or three times in the following week, +Margaret made the usual Jamieson opportunity of seeing Palestrina home, +one afternoon when she had been to call, to embark in confidences about +her lover in the usual Jamieson style. Margaret was diffident, +bashful, shy, uncertain about Mr. Swinnerton's feelings for her, and +hopelessly nervous lest her family should have had their expectations +raised only to be disappointed. She implored Palestrina over and over +again to say nothing about it to them, though it has been more than +obvious to us all along how full of expectation every member of The +Family is. It was a very wet evening as Margaret and my sister left +the Jamiesons' lodgings, but she hardly seemed conscious of the +inclemency of the weather, and begged Palestrina not to think of taking +a cab, as she particularly wished to speak to her. +</P> + +<P> +"At first," she began, "I thought it must be Maud, although she has but +just broken off her engagement to Mr. Evans; still, one knows she is +the pretty one, and if any one calls often, it is generally her." +</P> + +<P> +It was a little difficult to follow Margaret's rapid, ungrammatical +speech, but Palestrina and I both knew that to the vigorous minds of +the Jamiesons there must be a direct purpose in every action, and that +therefore if Mr. Swinnerton came to call he must have a purpose, +presumably a matrimonial purpose, for paying his visits. After two or +three afternoon calls from a gentleman the Jamiesons generally ask each +other ingenuously, "Which of us is it?" It hardly seems to them +respectable that a man should continue to pay them visits unless he +means to show a preference for one of them. +</P> + +<P> +Presuming that it was not Maud he came to see, Margaret, with modest +hesitation and many blushes, asked Palestrina if she did not think it +possible that these visits might be intended for her. +</P> + +<P> +"Please do not say anything about it to the others. I always have +hoped that if ever I had a love affair it would be when I was away from +home. Do you know at all what they think about it?" +</P> + +<P> +She did not pause for a reply, but began again: "You see he has called +three times in one week, but" (hopelessly) "I am always surrounded by +The Family, and he couldn't say anything if he wanted to. Of course I +don't think it has come to anything of that sort yet; still, you know, +we could get to know each other better if there were not so many of us +always about. Maud doesn't mind a bit; she has had love affairs in +front of us all, and she does not mind talking about them in the least, +or even asking us to let her have the drawing-room to herself on +certain afternoons. But I don't feel as if I could bear to have this +discussed before anything is settled. And then we have so few +opportunities. Maud generally takes them to a distant church, and then +they have the walk home together. But I never quite know whether she +makes the suggestion about church, or if she merely thinks it would be +nice, and leaves the man to make it." +</P> + +<P> +"Maud," I remarked parenthetically to Palestrina, "has raised +love-making to a science—an exact science." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you don't think for a moment," Margaret had gone on, "that I am +abusing Maud; you know how fond we all are of each other." +</P> + +<P> +Maud's experiences on matters matrimonial are always quoted as +precedent in the Jamieson family, and she is cited whenever anything of +the sort is afoot. Each phase in her experience is frankly discussed, +and conclusions are drawn from it; and I have heard the Jamiesons say, +"Mr. So-and-so must be in love with Miss So-and-so; he looks at her in +exactly the same way that Mr. Reddy used to look at Maud." Maud +herself, unconsciously as I believe, makes a sort of calendar of her +love affairs, and it is quite usual for her to date an event by +referring to it as having happened "in the Albert Gore days," or "when +Mr. Evans was hovering." +</P> + +<P> +Margaret's voice had not ceased from the moment they left the lodgings +together. "It is, however, no use trying to copy other people in your +love affairs," she said, "because it seems to come to every one so +differently, and then of course different people must call forth +different feelings. I don't think I could have felt for Mr. Reddy, for +instance, quite as I do now, even if he had been in love with me. You +feel so bewildered somehow." +</P> + +<P> +The walk had by this time become very rapid, and Margaret, in her +short-sighted way, knocked against all the foot-passengers whom she met +travelling in the opposite direction. Her umbrella showered raindrops +upon Palestrina, and she became so incoherent that my sister suggested +taking a cab to our flat, and talking things over quietly when they +should get there. +</P> + +<P> +It was about eleven o'clock that night when Margaret Jamieson took +leave of us, and by that time I fancy the bridesmaids' dresses had been +arranged. +</P> + +<P> +A few days later Palestrina received a note by the hand of a +messenger-boy; it bore the word "Immediate" on the cover, and had +evidently been addressed in some haste. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"DEAR PALESTRINA (it ran), +</P> + +<P> +"Can you possibly come to make a fourth at a concert this afternoon? +Do come, even if it should be rather inconvenient to you. I want you +so much. Mr. Swinnerton has asked mamma and me, and he has taken +tickets. They are not reserved places, so we could easily arrange to +meet at the door and sit together. Three is such an awkward number. I +fear mamma does not care for him, and that is a great grief to me. I +will tell you everything this afternoon. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Yours affectionately,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">"MARGARET JAMIESON.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +"<I>P.S.</I>—It is all going to come right, I believe, but I have had +immense difficulties. Hardly ten minutes alone with him—you know we +have only one sitting-room.—but the family have been sweet." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Hugo," said Palestrina, "this is an occasion when you could give very +substantial aid to a deserving family." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry I am engaged this afternoon," I said, with an instinct of +self-preservation, without, however, having any definite idea of what +Palestrina might say next. +</P> + +<P> +"It is I who am engaged this afternoon," said my sister smiling, "and +you are perfectly aware of that fact. Thomas is taking me down to +Richmond to introduce me to his aunt. Besides, Hugo, you know you like +music." +</P> + +<P> +"I am very sorry, Palestrina," I said, "but it is quite impossible." +</P> + +<P> +"Margaret is the Jamieson you like best," said Palestrina, "and I hate +to think of your being here alone a whole afternoon. What were you +thinking of doing?" +</P> + +<P> +I had been thinking of going to this concert, and Palestrina guessed +it, of course.... +</P> + +<P> +I was at the door of the concert hall at two-thirty in the afternoon, +and found Mrs. Jamieson and Margaret and the young man already on the +pavement, looking as if they had stood there for a considerable time. +Mr. Swinnerton is a large, rather stupid-looking man, with a red face, +a crooked nose, and curly hair. He wore a dark blue overcoat, so thick +and strong that it reminded one of some encasement of plaster of Paris, +or of some heavy coat of mail. His hands were covered in yellow +dogskin gloves, equally unyielding, so that Mr. Swinnerton appeared +deprived of any agility of movement by his garments. Mr. Swinnerton is +in the volunteers, and has "Captain Swinnerton" printed on his cards. +He gave me the idea of seeming to think that every action of his was +some epoch-making event, and during the afternoon he frequently +referred to having seen a picture then on view at one of the galleries, +as though this were rather an up-to-date, not to say remarkable, +proceeding. Margaret seemed a good deal impressed by his manner, and +the Jamiesons had decided that he was "smart," which was a further and +quite unnecessary addition to Mr. Swinnerton's vanity, and very bad for +a gentleman of his complacent character. +</P> + +<P> +He ushered us into the Queen's Hall in an important sort of way, which +gave one the impression that the place belonged to him; and the fact +that I was making a third in a party under his guidance convinced me +that I was in some sort adding to his self-satisfaction. Mr. +Swinnerton had chosen shilling places, because, as he informed us a +great number of times, these were in the best position for hearing the +music. Mrs. Jamieson was disappointed. In her class of life a treat +is given on a more magnificent scale. +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I sit next you, Mrs. Jamieson?" I said, for I believed that this +was what I was intended to say; but Mr. Swinnerton remarked to +Margaret, "I'll go next; I like to divide myself amongst the ladies." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Jamieson looked uncomfortable in the small amount of space a +shilling had procured for her, and she suggested apologetically that +she would like a programme; but the music was beginning, and Mr. +Swinnerton put up his large, stiff-gloved hand like a slab, and said, +"Hush!" +</P> + +<P> +We went faithfully through the orthodox Queen's Hall concert from the +very first note to the "Ride of the Valkyries," and after every item on +the programme our host turned to us, moving his whole body in his stout +coat, and said, "Isn't that nice now?—very nice I call it!" still with +an air of ownership. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Jamieson slept a little; but the hardness of her seat made it an +uneasy resting-place, and it is to be feared that her mantle with the +storm-collar was too hot; but, she whispered to me in a burst of +confidence, she was unable to remove it owing to the fact that the +bodice and skirt of her dress did not correspond. +</P> + +<P> +"I always like these places," said Mr. Swinnerton again; "they are +exactly in the centre of the hall, and another thing is, they are near +the door in case of fire." +</P> + +<P> +Margaret assented sweetly. I always thought until to-day that Margaret +Jamieson was a plain woman; to-day I find she is good-looking. +</P> + +<P> +"It is ridiculous," said Mr. Swinnerton, "to see the way people throw +their money away on really inferior seats, just because they think they +are fashionable." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Jamieson stirred a little on her uneasy bench, and Mr. Swinnerton +said in self-defence, "Don't you agree with me, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think," said Mrs. Jamieson politely, "that perhaps for a long +concert the <I>fotoys</I> would be more comfortable." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" cried Mr. Swinnerton, "you want to be fashionable, I see; but +there are many of the best people who come to these seats. I know of a +Member of Parliament—I don't know him, I know of him" (we felt that +some connection with the Member had been established)—"who comes +regularly to these very places, and who declares they are the best in +the house." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps," said Mrs. Jamieson simply, "he had never tried the <I>fotoys</I>." +</P> + +<P> +After the concert was over, Mr. Swinnerton suggested that Margaret and +her mother should go and have tea at a bun-shop, qualifying the +suggestion with the remark, "I know you ladies can never get on without +afternoon tea." When with Mr. Swinnerton ladies are never allowed to +forget that he is a gentleman and they are ladies, and that a certain +forbearance is therefore extended to them. He offered his arm to Mrs. +Jamieson, who gathered up her skirt and umbrella in one hand, and +accepted the proffered support in some embarrassment. Margaret fell +behind with me, and whispered in a sort of excited way,— +</P> + +<P> +"Hasn't it been lovely? Do tell me what you think—I mean about him." +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't had much chance of judging," I replied stupidly; "but he +seems all right, although perhaps his ideas are not very large." +</P> + +<P> +"Still, you mean that one could always alter that," said Margaret +quickly, with the true Jamieson optimism, as applied to the beneficial +results of matrimony. There is hardly, I believe, a defect that they +think they will not be able to eradicate in a future husband, save, +perhaps, the conical shape of Mr. Ward's head. "But I really do not +think there is anything that I would like altered," she added simply. +</P> + +<P> +"His name is Tudor," she went on. "George calls him that now, and Maud +is beginning to do so—Maud is being so kind; she says it promotes a +familiar tone which is very helpful, to call him 'Tudor'—but I can't +call him anything but Mr. Swinnerton yet." +</P> + +<P> +After tea Mr. Swinnerton asked us how we had enjoyed our entertainment, +and Margaret expressed herself in the highest terms in praise of it. +There seemed to be a lingering tendency on Mrs. Jamieson's part to +revert to the superior comfort of seven-and-sixpenny places and +armchairs, but we checked this by saying with emphasis that it was a +friendly afternoon of this kind that we really enjoyed. Mr. Swinnerton +then put the Jamiesons into an omnibus, and directed the conductor to +"let these ladies out at the top of Sloane Street," in a tone of voice +that suggested that they were to be caged and padlocked until that +place of exit was reached. He lifted his hat with a fine air to them, +and then, as I had called a hansom, he put me into it rather +elaborately, and cautioned the commissionaire at the door to "take care +of this gentleman." +</P> + +<P> +He will probably call me a South African hero next; I wish he would +keep his attentions to himself. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI. +</H3> + +<P> +Last night we dined at the Darcey-Jacobs'. Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is +enjoying "one breath of life" at a hotel with the Major, and she has +left quite a pathetic number of visiting-cards on all her friends, so +that her short London season may be as full of gaiety as possible. +Neither of us looked forward to the dinner-party being particularly +lively, but we were a good deal amused at the turn the conversation +took during dinner. I have often thought since that a certain dumbness +which falls upon some entertainments can be dispersed if the subject of +matrimony is started, and I will class with it a discussion on food, +and personal experience at the hand of the dentist. Any of these three +subjects can be thrown, as it were, into the stagnant deep waters of a +voiceless party, and the surface will be instantly rippled with eager +conversation. +</P> + +<P> +Talk flagged a little in the private sitting-room of the hotel where +the Darcey-Jacobs gave their dinner-party. Major Jacobs, in his +guileless way, gave us an exhaustive list of the friends whom they had +invited for that evening, but who had not been able to come; and this +had a curiously depressing effect upon us all, and within ourselves we +speculated unhappily as to whether we had been asked to fill up vacant +places. +</P> + +<P> +"Why are men always allowed to blunder?" said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, +looking over her high nose at the gentleman next her, and tapping him +on the arm with her lorgnettes. +</P> + +<P> +Major Jacobs, from his end of the table, looked penitent but mystified. +</P> + +<P> +"Happy is the woman," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, "who has no men about +her." +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to have been born a widow," said a pretty girl with +beseeching blue eyes and a soft, confiding expression, who sat a little +lower down on my side of the table. And then the subject of matrimony +was in full swing. +</P> + +<P> +"Marriage is just an experience," said a shrill-voiced American widow +who sat opposite. "Every one should try it, but that is no reason why +one should not be thankful when it is over." +</P> + +<P> +"I am much interested in what you say," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, with a +certain profound air suitable to so great a subject. One felt the want +of the Jamiesons sadly during the ensuing discussion, and I almost +found myself, in the words of Mettie, making the suggestion that +marriage was a great risk. +</P> + +<P> +"Some one once said," ventured Major Darcey-Jacobs, "that choosing a +wife was like choosing a profession—it did not matter much what your +choice was, so long as you stuck to it. It was a mere figure of +speech, no doubt——" +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so, indeed," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs. +</P> + +<P> +"Marriage is the worst form of gambling," broke in an elderly +gentleman; "it should be suppressed by law. Talk about lotteries! +Talk about sweepstakes! Why, the worst you can do, if you put your +money into them, is to draw a blank. Now, this is fair play, I +consider; you either get a prize or you get nothing. But matrimony, +sir, is a swindle compared with which the Missing Word Competition +appears like a legal document beside a forged bank-note." +</P> + +<P> +If the old gentleman had a wife present she was evidently of a callous +disposition, for I saw no wrathful expression on any face. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Ellicomb—even in London Ellicomb and Anthony Crawshay are asked to +meet us—gave it as his opinion that a woman's hand was wanted in the +home. The voice was the voice of Ellicomb, the sentiment was the +sentiment of Maud, and Palestrina and I very nearly exchanged glances. +</P> + +<P> +After this, several people began to describe at one and the same time, +in quite a breathless way, their own personal experiences of the +happiness of wedded life. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," said Major Darcey-Jacobs, "a deal of forbearance must be +exercised if married life is to be a success." And Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs +said quickly, "I hope you do not intend to become personal, William." +To which William replied that no such intention had been his. +</P> + +<P> +Anthony said in his cheery voice, "Of course it is give and take, don't +you know, and then it is all right." +</P> + +<P> +Every one volunteered ideas on the subject—not once, but several +times. And those who applauded the happy state shouted each other down +by quoting examples of wedded bliss in such words as: "Look at +Hawkins!" "Look at Jones!" "Look at the Menteiths!" +</P> + +<P> +Quite suddenly Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs leaned across the table, smiled at +her husband, and remarked, "Look at us, William!" +</P> + +<P> +I do not think I have ever seen any one look so astonished as Major +Jacobs. "That was very pretty of Maria," he said in a low voice; "very +pretty of her, by Gad!" And we caught him looking at his wife several +times that evening with a puzzled but delighted expression on his face. +</P> + +<P> +After dinner we played Bridge. "I disapprove of the game myself," said +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, who certainly was the worst player I have ever met, +"but Mrs. Fielden likes it, and she has promised to come in in the +evening." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden arrived at the same time as Colonel Jardine, and they +played as partners together, with me and the American widow as +opponents. Colonel Jardine wore some kind of lead ring on his finger, +which he said cured gout, and gathered up his tricks in a stiff sort of +way. He had a pet name for almost every card in the pack, and he +babbled on without once ceasing throughout the rubber. "Now we'll see +where old Mossy Face is. I think that draws the Curse of Scotland. +Kinky takes that," and so on. It was perfectly maddening, but Mrs. +Fielden seemed quite pleased. I don't suppose she ever feels +irritated. The American widow, who was my partner, was only just +learning the game. When I said to her, "May I play?" she always +replied, if she had a bad hand, "No, certainly not." And when it was +pointed out to her that she had either to say, "If you please," or "I +double," she replied, "Don't ask me if you may play, if you mean to do +it whether I like it or not." She always gave us such items of +information as "I know what I should say if it was left to me this +time," and she frequently doubled with nothing at all in her hand, +because she said she liked to play a plucky game. +</P> + +<P> +I have tried to cure Mrs. Fielden of saying "dah-monds" when she means +"diamonds," but it is quite useless. She also says (with a radiant +smile) "How tarsome!" when she has lost a rubber, although I have +pointed out to her that that is not the phonetic pronunciation of the +word. When we are all wrangling over the mistakes and misdeeds of the +last round, Mrs. Fielden looks hopelessly at us and says, "Is it any +one's deal?" And then we laugh and stop arguing. She never keeps the +score, or picks up the cards, or deals for herself, or does anything +useful. +</P> + +<P> +The American widow did not stop talking most of the time, and the +Colonel kept up his running commentary upon the cards he was playing, +and then Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs joined us to look on, and she and the +American widow plunged into a discussion on clothes, which they kept up +vigorously all the time. This necessitated a number of questions +relating to the game from the American widow, whenever she was recalled +to the fact that she was playing Bridge: "May I see that laast trick? +What's trumps? Does my hand go down on the table this time?" Mrs. +Fielden beamed kindly upon her, even when the widow had debated five +minutes which card to lead, and Colonel Jardine had begun to play the +chromatic scale of impatience up and down the table with his stiff +fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"Waal," said the American widow to Mrs. Fielden, "I think you are just +lovely, and I would like to play with you always. I believe most +people would like to kill me at Bridge. Caan't think why. Colonel +Jardine, did you play the lost chord?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know the tune," said the Colonel; "but I don't play at all." +</P> + +<P> +The American turned bewildered eyes upon Mrs. Fielden, who said, +smiling, "Colonel Jardine is practising the chromatic scale. I think +he will be a very good player some day." +</P> + +<P> +"How was I to know," said the Colonel, spluttering over his +whisky-and-soda when the American widow had left, "that she meant the +last card? That woman would drive me crazy in six weeks." +</P> + +<P> +"I liked her," said Mrs. Fielden, "and she is very pretty." +</P> + +<P> +There is a certain large-heartedness about this pretty woman of fashion +and of the world which constrains her to say something kind about every +one. With her the absent are always right, and I do not think I have +ever heard her say an unkind word about any one. At Stanby, when +people who are staying there make a newly-departed guest run the +gauntlet of criticism—not always of the kindest sort—Mrs. Fielden +says, in that royal fashion of hers which makes her approval the final +decision in all matters, "I liked him." And the departed guest's +character and reputation are safe. Her charity is boundless and quite +indiscriminate, save that she sends a trifle more rain and sunshine on +the unjust than on the just. +</P> + +<P> +"Come to lunch with me some day," she said to me in the off-hand way in +which she generally gives an invitation. "I am always at home at two +o'clock. Why not come to-morrow? You are leaving town almost +immediately, are you not?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is also asked to lunch; every one is asked to lunch. +When one goes to the pretty widow's house in South Street one generally +finds a dozen people lunching with her. +</P> + +<P> +... She came into the room—late, of course—and found ten or twelve +people waiting for lunch. "I am so sorry! Do you all know each +other?" she asked of the rather constrained group of strangers making +frigid conversation to each other in the flower-filled drawing-room. +And then she began to introduce us to each other, and forgot half our +names, and we went downstairs in a buzz of conversation and laughter, +and filled with something that is odd and magnetic, which only comes +when Mrs. Fielden arrives. +</P> + +<P> +As is always the way at her lunch-parties, her carriage drives up to +the door before any one has finished coffee, and then we all say +good-bye, complaining of the rush of London. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to drive with me this afternoon," said Mrs. Fielden, when I +with the others was saying good-bye. I think she generally singles +somebody out for a drive or a long talk, or to take her to a +picture-gallery after lunch, and it is done in a way that makes the one +thus singled out feel foolishly elated and flattered. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we are going to drive down to Richmond and see some trees and +grass, and behave in a rural sort of way this afternoon," she announced +as she seated herself in the carriage. +</P> + +<P> +"And what about all your engagements for this afternoon?" I asked. +"And the Red Book, and the visiting-list, and the shopping-list, and +the visiting-cards, which I see with you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I never keep engagements," said Mrs. Fielden; "and every one knows my +memory is so bad that they always forgive me. Some one gave me a +little notebook the other day, with my initials in silver upon it—I +can't remember who it was—and I put down in it all the tarsome things +I ought to do, and then I lost the little pocket-book." +</P> + +<P> +"If I ever find it," I said, "I shall bring it to you, and read out all +your tarsome engagements to you." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't say 'tarsome,'" said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you are whirling through the London season," I said +presently; "and going everywhere, and having your frocks chronicled in +the magazines, and going to a great many parties?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Mrs. Fielden; "I have been down at Stanby." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish," I remarked, "that you did not always give one unexpected +replies. Why have you been down at Stanby? You didn't say anything +about it when I saw you last night." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know old Miss Lydia Blind?" said Mrs. Fielden. "She is ill, +and I got rather a pathetic letter from her, so I went down to Stanby +to look after her." +</P> + +<P> +She fumbled for the pocket of her dress, raising first what seemed to +be a layer of lace, and then a number of layers of chiffon, and then, +after rustling amongst some silk to find her artfully-concealed pocket, +she produced a letter and handed it to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Am I to read it?" I said; and Mrs. Fielden nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"... One so often hears," so the letter ran, "of a case of long illness +in which the one who is strong, and who acts as nurse to the invalid, +breaks down before the end comes. To me it has always seemed to show +that the strong one's courage has failed somehow, and that, had zeal +been stronger or faith greater, she might have endured to the end...." +And, again, in a postscript: "When I was younger I was very impatient, +and I think I could not well have borne it had I known that life was to +be a waiting time. I do not say this in any discontented spirit, dear, +and I only write to you because you always understand...." And then +the letter broke off suddenly, and I handed it back to Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"So this is you, as Miss Lydia knows you," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to go and see her when you go back to Stowel. Will you?" +said Mrs. Fielden. "Miss Lydia is an angel, I think; the best woman +really that ever lived. Will you take her some things I am sending +her, and ask how she is when you go back?" +</P> + +<P> +We drove under the trees of Richmond Park in Mrs. Fielden's big, +luxurious carriage. She generally drives in a Victoria, and I asked +her why she had the landau out this afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +"A whim," said Mrs. Fielden. "I am full of whims." +</P> + +<P> +But of course a landau is the only carriage in which a lame man, who +has to sit with his foot up, can put it comfortably on the opposite +seat. +</P> + +<P> +We drove onwards, and she stopped the carriage to look at the view from +Richmond Hill, and the soft air blew up to us in a manner very cool and +refreshing; and then we got out and walked about for a time, and Mrs. +Fielden gave me her arm. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't really require an arm," I said, "but I like taking yours." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a very strong arm," said Mrs. Fielden; and she exclaimed +quickly, "I believe I am getting fat! My maid tells me all my dresses +want altering. I wish it was time to think about beginning to hunt +again." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know," I said, "I always thought, till I got back to England, +that my leg had been taken off below the knee, and that I should be +able to get astride of a horse again. I never used to see it, of +course, when they dressed it; and when I counted up the things I should +be able to do, riding was always one of them. I didn't sell my horses +till just the other day." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden did not sympathize, but one of her silences fell between +us. We did not speak again till she began to tell me an amusing story +which made us both laugh; but when she was sitting in the carriage, and +the footman was helping me in, and we were still laughing, I could have +sworn that her eyes looked larger and softer than I have ever seen them. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII. +</H3> + +<P> +It is always rather melancholy arriving at home alone, and I miss +Palestrina very much at these times, and I feel ill-disposed towards +Thomas. Down-Jock pretended not to know me, and barked furiously when +I drove up to the door, and then ran away on three legs, making +believe, as he sometimes does when he wants to appeal to one's pity, +that he is old and lame. +</P> + +<P> +It was still early in the afternoon, and the sunshine was blazing over +everything when I hobbled down the hill to inquire for Miss Lydia. The +houses in Stowel are all roofed with red tiles, and each garden has +flowering shrubs in it or beds full of bright-coloured flowers, so that +the little place has a very warm and happy look on a sunny summer day. +A great heavy horse-chestnut tree hung over the walls of the doctor's +house, and scattered fragments of pink blossom when the soft air +stirred gently. The wistaria on the post-office was in full bloom. +And the place was so full of pleasant sounds this afternoon—of singing +birds, and heavy-rolling wagons moving up the broad street, and the +laughter of children, and the soft rush of the summer wind through the +trees—that one felt that a day like this gave one a very strong +leaning in favour of the happy view that life is, after all, a good +thing. +</P> + +<P> +One had, of course, to stop and speak to several old friends, who said +they were thankful to see me back, as though a visit to London was an +expedition fraught with many dangers. +</P> + +<P> +When I reached the little cottage with the green gate, and the maid +opened the door to me, she told me that Lydia Blind had died an hour +ago. +</P> + +<P> +The staircase of the little house is directly opposite the front door. +I could not but believe that if I waited a little while Miss Lydia +would descend the stairs, as she always did, with a smile which never +failed to welcome every one. Or, if she were not within doors, that I +would only have to pass out into the little garden at the back of the +house to find her. I thought suddenly of the words of a boy I used to +know at school, who, when a young playfellow died, said between his +sobs, "It was so hard upon him dying before he had had a good time." +Certainly ever since we knew her Lydia's life had been one long +sacrifice to a witless invalid, and I couldn't help feeling that +perhaps no one would ever know the extent of her patient service. +Probably there never lived a more unselfish woman, and I cannot think +why she never married. +</P> + +<P> +She was a person who lacked worldly wisdom, and in worldly matters she +was not prosperous—she never sowed that sort of grain. It was very +touching to find that she had not even a few trinkets to leave behind, +but that one by one each had been sold to pay for something for the +invalid—a doctor's fee, or a chemist's heavy bill. She left the world +as unobtrusively as she lived in it. Her last illness was very sudden +and brief, and probably she would have been thankful that the little +household was spared any extra expense. +</P> + +<P> +The news of Lydia's death was unexpected by every one. When I turned +and left the house and was walking home again, I met Mrs. Taylor going +to inquire about her neighbour's health, with an offering of fruit in a +little basket. She begged me, in the Stowel fashion, to turn and walk +back with her, declaring that she felt so seriously upset by the news +that if I would only see her as far as her gate I should be doing her a +kindness. In the garden the General, who had run down to Stowel for a +couple of days, was reclining in a deck-chair, Indian fashion. He was +reading some cookery recipes in a number of <I>Truth</I>, and he turned to +his niece as she crossed the lawn and said, "Do you think your cook +could manage this, Mary? Select a fine pineapple——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, uncle," said Mrs. Taylor with a good deal of feeling, "we have had +such bad news! Our dear old friend in the village, Miss Lydia Blind, +is dead." +</P> + +<P> +"What Lydia Blind?" said the General; and Mrs. Taylor replied,— +</P> + +<P> +"You never knew her, dear. She wasn't able to come to the party; +indeed, I think she has been ailing ever since about that time, but we +had no idea that the end was so near." +</P> + +<P> +"It can't be the Lydia Blind I used to know?" said the General. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, you couldn't have known her," said Mrs. Taylor with a sob; "she +was just a dear old maiden lady living in the village on very small +means." +</P> + +<P> +"She hadn't a sister called Belinda, had she?" said the General. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Taylor said she had, and I remembered suddenly how I had seen +Lydia Blind standing one morning in front of the General's picture in +the photographer's shop, and had heard her say, "I used to know him." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Taylor went indoors, and I said good-bye, but the General said to +me abruptly, "I should like to see her; will you take me there?" And +he did not speak again until we found ourselves in the little porch of +the cottage. He looked very tall standing by the low door of the +house, and an odd idea came to me that Miss Lydia would have been proud +of her afternoon caller. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me go alone," he said gruffly, when he had asked permission to go +to her room; and I waited in Lydia's morning-room, with its twine cases +and unframed sketches, and the photographs of babies. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot see the sister," said the General irritably, when he had +rejoined me in the darkened room. "Is she still dumb, poor thing? If +ever there was a case," he went on, "of one life—and, to my mind, the +sweeter and the better life—being sacrificed to another, it is in the +case of Lydia Blind." He sat down on the little green sofa, and looked +about him with eyes that seemed to see nothing. "I never expected such +a thing," he said; "I couldn't have expected a thing like this ... I +didn't even know she lived here.... Do you remember her," he said, +"when she was very pretty? No, no, of course you wouldn't.... It +doesn't hurt you to walk a little, does it? I have lived nearly all my +life out of doors, and when anything upsets me I cannot stand being +within four walls...." +</P> + +<P> +We went out and crossed the field-path into the woods beyond. The +paths of the wood are narrow and uneven, and at first we walked in +single file, until we came to the broader road beyond the stream, and +then we walked on side by side, the General suiting his pace to my +slow, awkward gait. +</P> + +<P> +"... Did you ever know the Bazeleys at all? No, you wouldn't, of +course: that would be before your time. They had a very pretty place +in Lincolnshire—a charming place—with a veranda round the house, and +wicker-chairs with coloured cushions on them—more like an Indian house +than an English one.... Harold Bazeley was in love with Lydia too." +(I believe the General was talking more to himself than to me.) "It +was one night sitting in the veranda that I heard him begin to make +love to her for all he was worth, and I had to cut it.... Poor chap! +he came into the smoking-room that night, where I was sitting alone, +and he sat down by the table and put his head in his hands. He may +have been saying his prayers (for he was always a religious man ... he +did a lot of good for the men under him in India), and I sat with him +till it was time to go to bed. I don't know if it was any comfort to +him, but I knew from his face that Lydia must have said no, and I +thought perhaps he wouldn't like being alone.... Well, then of course +one didn't like to rush in and ask one's best friend's girl to marry +one so soon after his disappointment. One had very strict ideas about +honour in those days; I hope one has not lost them.... It is very odd +that I was never here before, until last spring. Nearly all my service +has been abroad, and I generally used to spend my leave hunting or in +London, and my niece used to come up and stay with me there.... I +didn't care much for Taylor in those days, but he really isn't a bad +sort of fellow." +</P> + +<P> +The sun began to sink behind the trees, and the General seemed to wake +from the reverie in which he had been talking to me, and said: "You +oughtn't to be out after sunset, if you have still got malaria about +you," and we began to walk slowly homewards. +</P> + +<P> +"It was just such an evening as this," he said, "when I bade her +good-bye, meaning to come back in a little while and ask her to marry +me. She was standing by the gate—fine old gates with stone pillars to +them, and the sun shone full in her eyes.... I suppose that gentle, +sweet look never left them, did it? They were closed, of course, when +I saw them just now.... She was wearing a white dress that evening, I +remember—a sort of muslin dress which I suppose would not be +fashionable now, but which looked very pretty then. It had a lot of +pink ribbons about it, and there was a great bunch of pink moss-roses +in the ribbon of her belt.... Do you know I never picture her except +as the girl who stood by the gate with the sun behind her, and the +roses in her belt. I think I lost my head a little when it came to +saying good-bye, and I began to say things which I had not meant to +say—she looked so pretty with the red sunlight upon her, and her white +muslin dress almost turned to pink in the glare.... I don't think she +was surprised, only sweeter and gentler than before, and a curious, +happy look was in her eyes. But I stopped in time, and stammered like +a fool, thinking of poor Harold Bazeley, and then I said good-bye +rather hurriedly. But I came back again to the gate where she was +still standing, and asked if I might have one of the roses in her belt. +And she gave me the whole bunch. +</P> + +<P> +"... It must have been after this that the father died and left them +very poor, and then the sister (this one, Belinda) had a stroke of +paralysis, and there was no one to look after her but Lydia.... I +wrote and proposed to her before I went to India—asked her to come +with me as my wife. But she said she could not marry while her sister +lived. It isn't as though we could have remained in England, and she +could have lived with us; but of course India would have been an +impossibility for the poor thing. We never thought in those days that +poor Belinda would live long. And then she made a sort of recovery, +but was still quite helpless, and Lydia wrote and asked me to wait for +her no longer.... I never heard that she had come to live at Stowel." +</P> + +<P> +The broad, wide village road was dim with twilight when we walked +homewards along it—The Uncle and I. The children had all gone +indoors, and the flowers in the little garden had lost their colour in +the dim light. +</P> + +<P> +As we passed by the cottage the General halted on the quiet, deserted +road and took off his hat, then he leaned over the little green paling +and drew towards him a branch of a moss-rose tree that Miss Lydia had +planted there. He plucked a bud from it and held it to his face. Then +he said gently, "They are the same sort, but they do not smell so +sweet." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII. +</H3> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden came to Stowel for the funeral, and did not return to +London again. She went to pay some visits, I believe, and afterwards +she will go to Scotland to stay with the Melfords, as she always does +in August. It was a very quiet summer. Anthony went to Ireland to +fish, and Major Jacobs went with him instead of me: Anthony and I used +to take the fishing together. Even Frances Taylor went north to stay +with Mrs. Macdonald, and the Reading Society postponed its future +meetings till the winter should come again. +</P> + +<P> +Undoubtedly Kate Jamieson's wedding was a stirring event in a very dull +time. The festivities connected with it were carried out with the +Jamiesons' usual energy and lavishness. It is possible to be lavish on +five hundred a year. That is one of the pleasing things that +kind-hearted people like the Jamiesons can prove. No one was omitted +in the list of invitations to the reception which was held on the lawn +in front of the house. And there the whole of the Jamiesons' wide +circle of friends was gathered together, forming an assembly which +surely only the censorious mind could find fault with. The +refreshments, these good Jamiesons informed us, with their ingenuous +interest in discussing detail, were prepared by Margaret, and Kate +contributed to the payment of their ingredients from her small savings. +The group of bride and bridesmaids, which was photographed at the front +door, each wearing an expression of acute distress upon her face, was +George's own idea, and was nobly paid for by him. +</P> + +<P> +It was announced at the wedding-feast—although it had been whispered +for a long time—that there was soon to be another break in the +Jamieson family. We all instantly prepared a smile of congratulation +for Maud, and some disappointment was felt when it was discovered that +the remark applied to Mrs. Jamieson's youngest son, Kennie. The Pirate +had for some time been informing his friends that the Wild West was +"calling to him," and that he had the "go fever," and that "once he had +known the perfect freedom of life out there" it was impossible to +settle down to the conventionalities of English society again. The +Pirate had obtained a post as purser on one of the ships of the company +to which he belonged, and he appeared at the wedding-breakfast in a +suit of white ducks, a gold-laced cap, and the famous cummerbund. I +have a strong suspicion that he had a revolver concealed in a +mysterious pocket, from the way his hand, in moments of excitement, +occasionally moved towards it; but fortunately the wedding-party was of +so peaceful a description that it was not necessary to produce the +weapon. +</P> + +<P> +Since the exciting news of Kennie's proposed departure for Buenos Ayres +Mettie has developed nerves and hysteria. But so limited is the power +of imagination or discrimination in the human mind, that I must +honestly confess that I never once connected her indisposition and low +spirits with the news of her cousin's departure. Mettie has added to a +certain helplessness which always distinguishes her a tendency to +tears, and to sitting alone in her bedroom and sniffing dolorously; the +big thin nose requires constant attention, and there are red rims round +poor Mettie's eyes. The Jamiesons, who trace every variation in life +to a love affair, are not long of course in coming to the right and the +sentimental—nay, from the Jamieson point of view, the only reasonable +explanation of this change in their little cousin. But Mettie has +entreated them to say nothing, and to let her suffer in silence, and +they are too loyal to betray her interesting confidences. Kennie +himself is, I believe, still unaware of the interest he is exciting in +Mettie's gentle breast, but doubtless the little woman's extreme +timidity and her clinging disposition appeal in no small measure to the +Defender of the Sex. Mettie raises meek, adoring eyes to the Pirate's +ruddy face, under the gold-laced cap, and murmurs with clasped hands: +"You will never come back to us—I know it, I feel it! You will be +murdered by some gang of cut-throats, and then what will I—I mean your +mother, do?" The Pirate plumes himself and struts, and the dangers +that his little cousin has so powerfully depicted for him make his +young heart swell. +</P> + +<P> +The village church was quite full of spectators and friends; nearly all +our acquaintances in the village wore new gowns—or apparently new +gowns—for the wedding. Mrs. Lovekin, in a black-cloth mantle with +bead-trimming, showed guests into their pews, and directed the children +at the doorway into giving a ringing cheer as the bride drove up to the +church. It was whispered by a wag that Mrs. Lovekin would like to don +a surplice and officiate at the interesting ceremony herself. There +was a party in white cotton gloves, who banged doors and shouted "Drive +on!" and it was hard to realize that this was the Jamiesons' odd man +and gardener, transformed for the occasion. He wore a large white +ribbon rosette in his button-hole, and all the morning he had been busy +erecting an archway over the gate at Belmont with Union Jacks displayed +thereon, out of consideration, as he explained, to the late Captain +Jamieson, he being military. The Miss Traceys were resplendent in +brown dresses and profuse lace neckties, securely anchored to their +chests by massive brooches; the dresses were afterwards mentioned in an +account of the wedding in the local paper, and it was cut out and +carefully kept by the Miss Traceys, who pasted the interesting news in +a small album for news-cuttings which they bought for the purpose. +</P> + +<P> +At the Jamiesons' little house there was, I understand, a wild state of +confusion and energy from a very early hour in the morning, and +looking-glasses and hand-mirrors were in great demand. The centre of +interest there, it seems, was Kate's bedroom, where the whole of The +Family congregated to give Kate a last kiss before the veil was put on, +and to wish her happiness again and again. George, who throughout the +entire proceedings made a laudable attempt to appear calm, at last told +his sister that it really was time to start, and the carriage rolled +down the hill, and Kate Jamieson alighted from it, and walked up the +aisle of the old church leaning upon her brother's arm. Eliza Jamieson +was busy with a note-book the whole time, and almost one seemed to +begin to see the wedding through her journalistic eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Our curate's wife, who is still far from strong, asked Palestrina to +look after Peggy, who expressed a wish to see the wedding, and I was +interested to find how many little games Peggy had invented for herself +by way of getting through the tedium of a service—games which, I +imagine, she had been preparing during the many services which a +curate's little girl is supposed to attend. +</P> + +<P> +"If you press your eyes to the back of your head as far as you can," +she whispered to me, "you can see green and red and blue spots, and +then open them and you can see green and red and blue spots round +father." And again: "I can say, 'We beseech Thee!' seven times over +while the choir are singing it, if we have Jackson's <I>Te Deum</I>." And +then: "Do you know what Georgie and I do, when we are sent to church +alone? We hide in the pew until no one thinks we are there, and then +we pop up in the middle of the service and begin to say the responses. +When we sit with the Sunday-school children we play at 'My husband and +your husband,' and then we each choose in turn which husband we'll have +in the congregation. You see, the first man who comes in is to be the +first child's husband, and the second the second child's, that's how we +manage; last Sunday I got the baker's boy." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Swinnerton was at the wedding, somewhat inclined to be +consequential, as usual; but as he devoted his whole attention to +Margaret, one could not but feel that his presence was acceptable. (We +are on the tip-toe of expectation to know when Mr. Swinnerton will +"come to the point.") Margaret Jamieson looked after the needs of the +Higginses' relations, and attended to the wants of all the humbler of +the guests. +</P> + +<P> +There was still another element of interest in the marriage-party in +the person of Mr. Evans, who ran down from Hampstead for it. "If Mr. +Evans comes," Maud said, with the characteristic fine common sense of +the Jamiesons, "I want you all to understand that it is all quite over +between him and me. But what I have always thought about Mr. Evans is +this—that he is the sort of man who would like The Family, and I do +not see why he should not take a fancy to one of the other members of +it. I am quite sure his affection for me was based upon my +suitability. He often told me, for instance, that he would like a wife +who had been brought up to do things for herself, and could manage on a +small income and dress cheaply, and I am sure we can all do that. And +after all, if that is so, one of us is as suitable as another. He had +very definite ideas about a wife; but I couldn't help feeling all the +time that it was some one like ourselves that he had in his mind. He +seemed to have a great dread of any one who was too smart; and I said +to him at the time—for of course we both talked about our families a +good deal, as one does in the first stages—that we were all very +homely sort of people. I could always put myself in the background if +he seemed, for instance, to take a fancy to Gracie. And Gracie herself +has often said that she thinks she would like a man to wear a white +watered-silk waistcoat." +</P> + +<P> +Gracie looked quite pleased with the arrangement, and Mr. Evans was +asked down "as a friend." And I should here like to record—only of +course it is going too far ahead—that before the summer was over, Mr. +Evans, charmed with The Family, as Maud felt he would be, and convinced +of their suitability, had chosen Gracie from amongst the remaining Miss +Jamiesons who were still at the disposal of those who seek a wife. +Gracie's energy charmed Mr. Evans. He often said afterwards that he +believed he had got the pick of the basket after all. +</P> + +<P> +It was quite evident to me, and I believe to most of the Jamiesons' +guests, that one of the mysteries, so dear to the hearts of Stowel, was +in preparation for the wedding afternoon. Not even my sister and I had +been initiated into the secret; but Mrs. Jamieson, it must be +confessed, took away from the shock of surprise which might have been +ours, by referring during the whole afternoon to the entertainment +which was to take place later. The Jamiesons had decided that the +lawn, newly mown, was to be suddenly cleared of trestle-tables and +garden-chairs, and that a small band of musicians was to spring up +unexpectedly out of the ground, as it were, and that every one was to +know suddenly that they were in the midst of an impromptu dance. Now +Mrs. Jamieson, nervously expectant, and half fearing from the detached +manners of her daughters (so well did the Miss Jamiesons simulate their +ignorance of what was before them) that they must indeed have forgotten +about the dance, interrupted every conversation by creeping up to them +in her melancholy, quiet way, and saying, "Shall I get them to clear +away now?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's to be impromptu, mamma," entreated the Miss Jamiesons in agitated +whispers. It had been decided between them that Gracie, as the +youngest of the party, should exclaim suddenly, as if by some happy +inspiration, "I vote we dance;" and that then in a perfectly easy and +natural manner guests and entertainers alike should, with the utmost +friendliness, help to push back the tables and chairs into the lilac +bushes, and that then the musicians should be hastily summoned from the +kitchen, where they were to have tea. Before that time arrived the +unfortunate Mrs. Jamieson had, as one might say, almost skimmed the +cream off the whole thing. Her nervousness would not allow her to +rest, and in the end she had established the musicians in the three +chairs so artlessly prepared for them under the chestnut-tree; and +there they were with fiddle and concertina long before Gracie had found +an opportunity for making her impromptu suggestion. Their sudden +appearance, one could not but feel, detracted from the unprepared +effect that had been intended, and they stood waiting to begin with +quite a forlorn appearance until the Pirate, for whom the arrival of +the hour means the arrival of the man (if the Pirate is anywhere +about), called out in his loud tones, "Strike up, you fellows, and let +us have a dance!" and the very next moment the white drill suit and the +gold-laced cap of Kennie might have been seen in the middle of the +lawn. He gallantly seized Mettie round the waist and scattered the +guests by the onslaught and the fierce charge he made upon them, and +soon had cleared a space in which he footed it gaily. The Higginses, +who had been rather shy during the reception, hastened to find +partners, and warmed to the occasion at once. Young Abel Higgins, the +handsome young farmer from Dorming, said it was the pleasantest +entertainment he had ever been at. "There is no cliquism about it," he +remarked. "You just say to a girl, 'Will you dance?' and up she comes; +it doesn't matter if she's a lord's daughter!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Swinnerton devoted much of his attention and his conversation to me +during the afternoon. He discussed what he calls "military matters" at +great length, pointing out the mistakes of every general in South +Africa, at the same time clearly stating what Mr. Swinnerton would have +done under similar circumstances, and lamenting the inefficiency of the +War Office. Later in the afternoon, however, when he found me where, +as I hoped, I had effectually concealed myself behind a laurel bush, +Mr. Swinnerton plunged heavily into the question of marriage; and this, +as Maud would say, was surely a very hopeful sign. I was disappointed, +however, to find that his views regarding the happy state of matrimony +seemed to have been made almost entirely from one point of view, and +that point of view himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think," he began ponderously, as he seated himself beside me +after the rather heavy fatigue of dancing on a lawn to the strains of a +band that did not keep scrupulous time—"don't you think that a man +ought to see a girl in her own home before he makes up his mind?" +</P> + +<P> +I dissented on the plea of over-cautiousness, but Mr. Swinnerton did +not hear me. +</P> + +<P> +"What I think," he went on, "is that marriage is a serious undertaking +for a man, and that one ought to be very sure of one's own mind." +</P> + +<P> +I admitted the seriousness of matrimony, but thought it applied equally +to the woman. +</P> + +<P> +This remark also seemed to escape Mr. Swinnerton's attention. Indeed, +I found that what is extremely irritating about this fellow is that his +mind never diverges from his own topic; he seems quite incapable of +excursions into the thoughts and feelings of the persons he addresses, +but plods steadily on his own path, pleased to give his own views, and +quite unaffected by the differences of opinion that are offered him. +There is a legend of my childhood that records that a man once said, +"It is bitt——" and then went to sleep for a thousand years, and when +he woke up he said, "—erly cold." I am often reminded of this story +when I listen to Mr. Swinnerton's plodding conversation. +</P> + +<P> +"What I feel is," he went on—and one knew that no fatigue on the part +of the listener would be noticed by him—"what I feel is, that the man +being the head of the woman he should always choose some one who is +docile and good-tempered, and perhaps above all things a good cook. +That's the very first thing I would teach a woman—to be a good cook. +It's so important for a man to have his meals really nice and nicely +served. Don't you agree with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is very important," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I am so glad you agree with me." Mr. Swinnerton occasionally remarks +on an agreeable clause in one's conversation, whereas a disagreement +never even penetrates his mind. "Of course, you fellows with your mess +and all that can scarcely realize how necessary it is that a man's wife +should be a good cook. And then she ought to be thoroughly +domesticated," went on Mr. Swinnerton's heavy voice; "a woman should +not always be wanting to go out in the evening. What I feel is that +the home should constitute the woman's happiness." +</P> + +<P> +"And cooking?" I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and cooking," said Mr. Swinnerton. "I do not want my wife to +have any money; I had much rather she had to come to me for things. I +am not greedy about money. I am comfortably off, but I think a man +should have entire control of the purse. One could knock off any +expenditure on a wife's dress, if that is the case. Ladies like a new +bonnet, and I should always give my wife a new bonnet if things had +been nice." +</P> + +<P> +I remarked that Mr. Swinnerton was very generous. +</P> + +<P> +"I know I am generous. Of course, a man gives up a great deal when he +marries, but I do not know that in the matter of expense it would cost +me more to keep a small house than to pay for lodgings." +</P> + +<P> +"It depends," I said, "what wages you give your wife. An occasional +new bonnet would not be an extravagant salary, if she turned out to be +a really good cook." +</P> + +<P> +For the first time Mr. Swinnerton seemed struck by the wisdom of my +remarks. "No, it would not," he said; "it would not. I know that I +would make a good husband," he remarked; "and I feel that I have a +future before me in the volunteers." +</P> + +<P> +Margaret joined us at this moment, and Swinnerton smiled indulgently at +her, without offering, however, to give her his seat. I do not think +that Margaret noticed this, as she did not notice any omission on Mr. +Swinnerton's part. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you are not very tired," she said. "Your journey from London +and then this little dance must be very fatiguing, I am afraid." +</P> + +<P> +"Men don't get tired," said Mr. Swinnerton grandiosely, and he looked +towards me for applause. He did not, however, ask her to dance, and +Margaret moved away to attend to other guests. +</P> + +<P> +"She's a very nice-looking girl," said Mr. Swinnerton approvingly, "and +a well-brought-up girl, too." +</P> + +<P> +So I suppose it is still hopeful, as the Jamiesons would say. But I +pray that Margaret Jamieson will remove Mr. Swinnerton hence when she +has married him. +</P> + +<P> +Kate and Mr. Ward drove to the station in the best landau and pair of +horses from Stowel Inn. Mr. Ward was so upset from first to last by +the ceremonies and the heat that his conical-shaped head, covered with +the dew of nervous perspiration, steamed like a kettle; but his +affection for his bride and his evident delight and pride in her were +undeniable, and although resenting in his mild way the stinging shower +of rice with which he was pelted, and the usual facetious jokes that +were made on the bride and bridegroom, Mr. Ward nevertheless beamed +with good-nature all the time. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina made me laugh when she came home in the evening. She had +been down to the village to see the Pettifers and to show them her +wedding finery, as she promised to do; for Mrs. Pettifer is ill in bed +again, and was unable to stand at the church door with the rest of the +crowd to see the wedding-party. My sister found the old lady weeping +bitterly, and for a long time she could not guess the cause of her +distress, until at last a remark of her husband's explained it. "She +do take on like that tur'ble queer," he said, "as soon as ever the +wedding-bells ring after a marriage is over." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Mrs. Pettifer; "I always say to myself, 'She's got him, and +he ain't disappointed her after all.'" +</P> + +<P> +Kennie sailed for Buenos Ayres the day after the wedding, and Mettie +walked over to see us, being sent on some errand, I have no doubt, +wherein she would be more usefully employed than in getting into the +way of the staff of workers who were clearing up after yesterday's +festivities. Mettie brought over Mrs. Ward's first telegram received +that morning from Dover, and said it was too funny to think of Kate +being Mrs. Ward. "Kate Ward," she said with one of her curious little +chirruping laughs, "Kate Ward—do look at it!" And we dutifully +replied that it certainly seemed the height of drollery. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina is not perfectly just to me when Mettie comes to call. She +always remembers something important which she has until this moment +forgotten, and with apologies to Mettie she flies off to see to it, and +I am left with our caller. And then the marriage question is in full +swing before one can prevent it. Mettie says she would never, never +allow a man to know that she cared for him, and that no nice girl +would. Did I think that if a girl never gave any evidence of her love, +and died, it would be a very pitiful end? And of course I said that +the pathos of the thing would strike one directly. +</P> + +<P> +"After death," said Mettie, "she might still be his good angel. It is +very strange," she said, "to think of becoming a being with wings. Do +you know I often wonder what those wings can be like, and I cannot +imagine them made of anything but white ostrich feathers, which I must +say would look very pretty.... I am sure it is a brave thing to part +and say nothing, but do you think that one might write?" +</P> + +<P> +It was only then, at that precise moment, that I in any way connected +Mettie's remarks with the thought of the Pirate Boy, now a purser in +the —— Line. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Mettie," I said, "I should certainly write to him—write +often, write affectionately, send him your photograph, work him a +housewife for his cabin, carve him a frame for your photograph. I am +delighted——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! but nothing is settled yet," simpered Mettie. +</P> + +<P> +It has sometimes struck me since, although one generally denies the +suggestion, that the first sentiment of love-making may emanate from +the woman's mind. But probably the Pirate will never know that it was +not his own idea that he should fall in love with Mettie. +</P> + +<P> +This evening I was looking over a lot of old letters, such as our +fathers and mothers used to keep, put away in drawers with bits of +ribbon tied round them in the days when there was more time for that +sort of thing than there is now. And I came across the following +letter, written in ink that has grown rather faded, and dated 1845. It +describes a wedding, and I have saved it from a number of other letters +which I have destroyed, to stick it into my diary as an appropriate +sort of ending to my entries for to-day. The letter is a genuine one, +and I have the original of it beside me now. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"MY DEAREST AUNT, +</P> + +<P> +"You wished to hear all about our doings on Thursday. Though I dare +say you have heard many editions of the affairs of that day, I take the +earliest opportunity of relating to you, as I promised, my version of +it, though how often was it wished that dear aunt and uncle had +themselves been present to illuminate the picture. We all assembled at +a quarter-past ten o'clock. The married ladies (and gentlemen, whether +they were in that happy state or not) remained in the drawing-room +till, at a given signal, the bride descended, followed by her +bridesmaids—first Emily and myself, then Anne and Jane Schofield, then +Anna and Eliza Schofield. The four first were in pink, the two last in +blue. After talking over matters a little, we entered our respective +carriages, mamma going in the first carriage, and papa and Mary +bringing up the rear. We went through the ceremony very well. Mary +responded in a perfectly clear and audible voice; but once the worthy +bride-groom faltered, and as I stood next to him could perceive he was +somewhat agitated. The ceremony of kissing being finished, we returned +from church, when numerous and costly presents were exhibited to the +eyes, and amongst them none more beautiful than my dear uncle and +aunt's. But, by way of parenthesis, mamma wishes me to ask you, as +Mary has two silver canisters, whether you would have any objection to +change the kind and elegant expression of your feeling for Mary into a +silver waiter. Knowing your kindness, we sent it by Uncle Kershaw. +Now to proceed. We descended to breakfast—a most important business, +which occupied us a considerable time—in the middle of which Uncle +Ainsworth produced a bunch of grapes, and signified his intention of +drinking Mary Schofield's health in the red juice of the grape. He +immediately expressed the juice and suited the action to the word. +Robert Arncliffe made a beautiful speech—quite a gem. We then +proceeded to dress the bride in travelling attire. Then came the +dreadful moment of parting. Mamma and papa got over it most +wonderfully; suffice it to say our sisters' tears flowed most copiously +on that day. After her departure, we took a drive to restore us to +that harmony of spirits so desirable when persons are the entertainers +of others. We drove through Hyde Park and Regent's Park in procession, +and stopped to walk in the Zoological Gardens, coveting the society of +the brute creation as well as the rational. We then returned to +dinner, which was at seven, when, to our indescribable horror, on +calling over the names of certain young ladies, we discovered their +toilet was not complete when dinner was announced. After a small +delay, however, the offenders appeared, and the business of dinner was +commenced with astonishing vigour. There is no occasion to describe to +you the manners and customs of a dinner-table, as a sameness must +naturally pervade all such employments. We ladies at length signified +our intention of leaving the gentlemen masters of the field, and Uncle +Jesse came out with us and went to bed. We proceeded to enjoy a small +quadrille, till I suppose the sound of feet called the other portion of +the community from below. After tea and a little display of musical +powers, we had another quadrille; but this did not occur till Emily was +gone. We finally separated at half-past eleven. We have heard twice +or three times from the newly-married people. They are in Bath to-day. +Will you excuse, my dear aunt, this dreadful scrawl, but I have had so +many notes to write, added to which I have sprained my right arm, which +is now pleading to be spared any further exertions. Hoping that dear +uncle and yourself, as well as dear Sarah, are well, and again begging +to be excused this unconnected epistle, With united love to all, +Believe me, +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Your very affectionate niece,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">"MARGARET M. NAYLOR.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"MECKLENBURGH SQUARE,<BR> + <I>August</I> 1845."<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV. +</H3> + +<P> +My leg, "my best leg," as poor Beau Brummell used to say, has been +hurting rather, for the last week or two. I do not know how Palestrina +has discovered this, but the dear little woman is looking harassed and +anxious, and she is trying to inveigle me into going up to London +again, to get further advice from my doctor. She has broached the +subject in several ways. There is a play going on at present which she +would much like to see, if I will be kind enough to take her to London +for a couple of days. Or there is some shopping which she wants to do, +and she must have my advice on the subject. I believe that she does +not like to allow, even to herself, that I ought to go expressly to see +the surgeon, but she means to throw out the suggestion when we shall be +in town together, and in this way she has decided, with her usual +thoughtfulness, to spare me the anticipation of hearing that I am not +going on as well as I ought to be doing. It is, however, much too hot +to think of going up to London, so for the present none of Palestrina's +deep-laid plans have been successful. It is broiling hot weather even +down here in the country, but the mornings are cool and fresh, and, +after tossing about half the night, I generally get up and go for a +feeble sort of walk before breakfast. It is extraordinary how new and +fresh the world feels in the early morning, while the dew is still on +the grass, and the birds are singing without any fear that their +concert will be stopped or disturbed by passers-by. +</P> + +<P> +On my way home this morning I passed the Jamiesons' little house, and +was hailed to come in by the flutter of nearly a dozen dinner-napkins +waved to me from the window of the breakfast-room. It is impossible to +pass Belmont without being asked to come in, or to leave the hospitable +little house without an invitation to stay longer. Monday—this was +Monday—is what the Jamiesons call "one of our busiest mornings," and I +think that our good friends talk almost more than usual on the days on +which they are most engaged. +</P> + +<P> +As I entered the room, two of The Family had already finished +breakfast, and were busy at a side-table, driving their +sewing-machines. The whirring noise, added to the amount of talking +that was going on, had rather a bewildering effect at first. There +was, besides, the added confusion attendant upon what is known as +"getting George off." The process seems to consist of shaking George +into his City coat, brushing it, patting him on the back, telling him +how nice he looks, hoping he will get down in the middle of the week, +or at least not later than Friday afternoon, and giving him messages +and remembrances to quite half a dozen friends in London. The Family +chorus as I entered was something like this:— +</P> + +<P> +"Cream or sugar, weak or strong?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mettie, did you get your letters?" +</P> + +<P> +"Eliza, which is your napkin-ring?" +</P> + +<P> +"Please say what you will have; I have asked you at least half a dozen +times." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mind the window open?" +</P> + +<P> +"Does any one hear the bus?" +</P> + +<P> +"Toast or rolls?" +</P> + +<P> +"Which is your napkin-ring?" +</P> + +<P> +"Did any one hear the rain last night?" +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't said yet if you will have an egg." +</P> + +<P> +"Mother is not well, and is not coming down this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Does any one mind if we go on with our machines?" +</P> + +<P> +Over and above this, snatches of newspaper were read, and numerous +directions were given to a very young servant as to how things should +be placed upon the table—a proceeding which usually goes on at every +one of the Jamiesons' meals. It is known as "training one of our +village girls." +</P> + +<P> +Gracie and Eliza were the two who sat at the side-table before their +whirring sewing-machines, their very spectacles nearly darting from +their heads with energy and speed. George said, "I wish one of you +girls would mend my glove before I start;" and Gracie said, "Give it to +me; I can spare five minutes off lunch-time to get this finished." +</P> + +<P> +Margaret remarked, "Mamma seems very much out of spirits to-day, and I +think one of us ought to go and play draughts with her." +</P> + +<P> +Eliza took out her watch. "I can play draughts for thirty-five +minutes," she remarked—"from eleven-five to eleven-forty—and then +Gracie must take my place, as Margaret will be baking, and I have the +soup-kitchen accounts to make up." +</P> + +<P> +"I did not anticipate draughts this morning," said poor Gracie. "I +must just get this done when I go to bed." This is the last refuge of +the overdriven, and one which is so frequently alluded to by the +Jamiesons that I often fear they deny themselves the proper amount of +sleep. +</P> + +<P> +George here kissed each of his sisters in turn, and ran upstairs to say +good-bye to his mother, while the omnibus waited at the gate. +</P> + +<P> +Maud, who was trimming hats for the whole family, and who was +surrounded by a curious medley of ribbons and finery, said: "What about +the Church Council work? I am afraid we have forgotten it." +</P> + +<P> +"That's my business," said Gracie tragically; "and I must give this +up;" and she stopped her sewing-machine, and rolled the purple cotton +pinafore into a tight ball and placed it on the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Gracie," said Margaret, "could I not do it? I could get it in +between the Kaffirs and my baking." +</P> + +<P> +"I would offer to do it," said Eliza, with that affectionate +helpfulness which distinguishes The Family, "only I am so filled up +with soup." Eliza referred to her soup-kitchen accounts. +</P> + +<P> +The small servant here appeared at the door, and said that an old woman +wanted to see Miss Gracie. +</P> + +<P> +"My time! my time!" said Gracie, and went to the back door to give the +last shilling of her quarter's dress allowance to the poor woman in +distress. +</P> + +<P> +"The worst of playing draughts is," said Eliza, "that one can do +nothing else at the same time, except it be to add up accounts in one's +head. Otherwise I should have been only too glad. I tell you what I +can do, though—I can play instead of Gracie this morning, if she won't +mind my keeping the candle alight to do my Browning article after I +have gone to bed." +</P> + +<P> +Mettie always offers to help every one, but so slow is the little +woman's way of working that the energetic family of Jamieson are quite +aware that probably the business will be weeks in doing; so their +answers to Mettie's offers, given in a kindly voice, are always: "My +dear, you have got your letters to write, and your practising—we could +not do without your singing in the evening, you know." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Evans, who was a guest in the house for a few days, was smoking his +pipe in a leisurely way in the garden, and Gracie said: "I really do +feel that I ought to give more attention to Mr. Evans, if only I had +the time for it. Could one of you run into the garden and make a few +pleasant remarks to him until I am ready?" And this Eliza did, first +glancing at her watch in the characteristic Jamieson fashion, and +coming in presently to say that she had sat "for ten solid minutes +doing nothing, and that she does wish men had more resources of their +own." +</P> + +<P> +It would have been useless to suggest that the work should stop for a +whole summer day. A child came in with some flowers as an offering to +the Miss Jamiesons, and Eliza said: "Would you mind putting them down +somewhere, my dear? I will try to get a minute to arrange them +by-and-by." And then the machines began again, and I walked on +homewards, and enjoyed a long, hot morning in the garden with a book. +</P> + +<P> +The garden was very shady and pleasant, and one thought regretfully of +the Jamiesons sitting indoors with their sewing-machines. Palestrina +came out presently in a gray dress, very soft and cool-looking, and +with a big sunshade over her head. She sat down beside me, and said in +an off-hand way, and a determination to be congratulatory which was +very suspicious: "I have got a pressing invitation for you." And she +handed me a letter from Kate Ward. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Ward wrote upon the almost immaculate notepaper which is affected +by brides, I have often noticed that this superfine quality of paper is +one of the first extravagances of young married life, as it is one of +the first economies of a later date, and a little judgment will soon +show how long a woman has been married by merely looking at her +notepaper. Cream-laid, with a gold address at the top, bespeaks the +early days of matrimony; and a descent through white stamping, no +stamping, Hieratica to Silurian note, marks the different stages of the +rolling years. +</P> + +<P> +Kate said (on the best Court note) that she would never forgive us if +we did not come and see her in her new home. James had been generous +in the extreme, and they had bought everything "plain but good" for the +house. And the whole expense of it had been covered by exactly the sum +of money that they had laid by for the purpose. Kate continued, "But I +will not bore you with a description of the house, for I want you to +see it for yourselves," and then entered upon the usual Jamieson +descriptive catalogue of every piece of furniture and every wallpaper +which she had purchased. +</P> + +<P> +I handed the letter back to Palestrina, who was sitting in an +exaggerated attitude of ease and indifference on the edge of my +deck-chair, and said to her, "Why leave Paradise? London will be +atrocious in this hot weather, and I believe it would be tempting +Providence to quit this garden." +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid it will give great disappointment to Kate if we do not +go," said Palestrina, in a tone of voice which suggested that she had +been prepared for opposition, and had rehearsed her own arguments +beforehand. "After all, she lives in the suburbs, and has a garden of +her own, and we need not stay more than two or three days." +</P> + +<P> +"We shall have to do so much admiring," I said, smothering a yawn. "I +know what brides are! You, Palestrina, probably know exactly the right +thing to say about newly-laid linoleum and furniture which is plain but +good, but I never do." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I should like to go," said Palestrina, putting the matter upon +personal grounds, as I knew she would do when she had entirely made up +her mind that I must go up to London. What pressure she had brought to +bear upon Mrs. Ward to induce her to invite us to the new house I +cannot say, but some instinct told me that Kate had been warned to +write a letter which might be handed to me to read. +</P> + +<P> +I pointed out to Palestrina that, much as I should miss her at home, I +should not stand in the way of her paying a visit to her old friend. +</P> + +<P> +"I have accepted for us both from Thursday to Tuesday," said Palestrina +firmly. "Oh, by-the-bye," she said, rising and going indoors, "I just +sent a line to Dr. Fergus at the same time to say that you will look +in and see him one morning, just to see that you are going on all +right." +</P> + +<P> +"You also were up early?" I said to the diplomat, who smiled at me from +under her big umbrella without a vestige of shame at her own cunning. +"I don't think it is fair on a crippled man to get up early and send +off letters by the early post. It's a mean trick." +</P> + +<P> +"You were up half the night," said Palestrina, nodding her head at me, +"for I heard you." And she crossed the lawn and went indoors again. +</P> + +<P> +The following Thursday we took train for Clarkham. I had never stayed +in this part of the world before, till we came to visit Kate, and the +suburb where she lives seems to me to be rather a pleasant place, with +broad roads over whose walls and palings shrubs and red maples and +other trees hang invitingly. And it is so near London that a very +short run in the train takes one to Victoria Station. But the +neighbourhood is not fashionable, and I cannot help remarking the +apologetic tone in which every one we meet speaks of living here. +</P> + +<P> +The Wards' house is a very nice little place, with very new wall-papers +and very clean curtains and slippery floors, upon which art rugs slide +dangerously. There is a small garden with a lawn and a brown hawthorn +tree upon it, and there are two trim little maids who wait upon one +excellently well. Kate is a thorough good manager, and her whole +household reminds one of those pages on household management which one +sees in magazines, describing the perfect equipment of a house—its +management, and the rules to be observed by a young housekeeper. +</P> + +<P> +There is a place for everything, and Kate says her wedding-presents are +a great assistance in giving a home-like look to the house. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Ward leaves home at half-past nine every morning, and Kate shakes +him into his coat in exactly the same way George used to be shaken into +his, and stands at the hall-door with a bright smile on her face, until +James has got into the morning bus and driven away, in a manner that is +very wifely and commendable. +</P> + +<P> +The unpretentious little household seems to be a very happy one, and +Kate was quite satisfied with the praise which Palestrina bestowed upon +everything. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," she said, "the great drawback is that the place is so +unfashionable;" and we warmly protested against that being of the least +consequence. But Kate said with her usual common sense: "It does +matter, really. No one thinks anything of you if you live here, and +nearly every one who has enough money always leaves directly. +Still"—cheerfully—"one must expect some drawbacks, and I do think I +have been very lucky. James is goodness itself, and quite a number of +people have been to call." +</P> + +<P> +We found to our dismay that Kate, with the laudable intention of +amusing us, had accepted several invitations to what are called "the +last of the summer gaieties." There were tea-parties and +garden-parties given by her friends, to which we were expected to go; +and her very nearest neighbours, who are generally known as the "Next +Doors," actually invited us to dine. +</P> + +<P> +"This afternoon," Kate said, "is the day of the Finlaysons' +garden-party. They are frightfully rich people—ironmongers in the +City; but you never saw such greenhouses and gardens as they have got! +Do put on your best dress," she said to Palestrina, "and look nice; +people here seem to dress so smartly for this sort of thing." +</P> + +<P> +I think, indeed, it was the very grandest party to which I have ever +had an invitation. Every one seemed to sail about in a most stately +fashion, in a gown of some rich stuff, and there was such an air of +magnificence about the whole thing that one hardly dared to speak above +a whisper. There was a marquee on the lawn, with most expensive +refreshments inside, and a great many waiters handing about things on +trays. Mrs. Finlayson spoke habitually—at least at parties—in an +exalted tone of voice, which one wondered if she used when, for +instance, she was adding up accounts or saying her prayers. It was +difficult to imagine that the voice could have been intended for +private use—-it was such a very public, almost a platform voice, and +the accent was most finished and aristocratic. +</P> + +<P> +The Miss Finlaysons, in exquisite blue dresses and very thin shoes, +also sailed about and shook hands with their guests in a cold, proud +way which was very effective. Young Finlayson was frankly supercilious +and condescending; and there was a schoolboy in a tall hat, who was +always alluded to as "our brother at Eton." The excellent old papa of +the firm of Finlayson and Merritt was really the most human and the +least alarming of the whole party. He seemed quite pleased when +Palestrina, in her soft gurgling way, admired his greenhouses and +peaches, and he led her back to where his lady ("wife" is too homely a +term) was standing in a throne-room attitude on the lawn, and remarked +genially, "This young lady has just been admiring our little place, +Lavinia." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed," said my sister, "it seems to me very charming, and——" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush, hush!" said Mrs. Finlayson playfully, but with an undercurrent +of annoyance in her party voice. "I won't hear a word said in its +praise—it is just a step to the West End." +</P> + +<P> +"What is the actual distance?" I began. +</P> + +<P> +It was old Finlayson who rescued me from my dilemma, and explained that +until five years ago they had had a very tidy little 'ouse at +'ampstead, and that this present location, although so magnificent, +was, in the eyes of his lady, really a stepping-stone to further +grandeur and a more fashionable locality. +</P> + +<P> +The Next Doors were introduced to us at this party, and we were much +struck by the fact that, although they seemed appropriately lodged in a +place well suited to them, and in a society certainly not inferior to +themselves, they, too, instantly began to apologize for living at +Clarkham. +</P> + +<P> +"One feels so lost in a place like this," said Mrs. Next Door; "and +although the boys are so happy with their tennis and things on Saturday +afternoons, I cannot help feeling that it is a great drawback to the +girls to live here." +</P> + +<P> +A band began to play under the trees, and Palestrina said to me, with +one of her low laughs: "I wonder if I shall begin to sail about soon? +Isn't it funny! They all do it, and now that the band has begun I feel +that I must do it too." +</P> + +<P> +The Miss Finlaysons came up at intervals and introduced young men to +her in a spasmodic sort of way. When one least expected it, some one +in a tall hat and a long frock-coat was placed before Palestrina, and a +Miss Finlayson said quite sharply, "May I introduce—Mr. Smith——" and +then as suddenly retired. There was nothing for it but to make a +little tepid conversation to the various Mr. Smiths, and Sonnenscheins, +and Seligmanns who were in this way presented, and we noticed that +almost every one of them began his conversation by saying, "Been going +out a great deal lately? Done the Academy?" And then moved off to be +introduced to some one else. +</P> + +<P> +The young men were very supercilious and grand, and we could only +account for it, on discussing the matter afterwards, by supposing that +they thought Palestrina was a Clarkham young lady, and that this was +their way of showing their superiority to her. One or two had +certainly said to us with a dubious air, "Do you live in the Pork?" But +it was not until the quieter moments that followed the stress of this +regal party that we at all realized that this meant, Did we live in +Clarkham Park. +</P> + +<P> +Kate Ward was very agreeable and pleasant to every one, and was voted a +nobody directly, and we heard it remarked that she had "no style." I +think Kate must have overheard the remark, for she became a little +nervous towards the end of the afternoon, and presently said, "Perhaps +we ought to be going?" But young Finlayson was here suddenly introduced +to her by one of his sisters, and Kate thought it necessary to make a +few remarks before saying good-bye. She said something pretty about +his sisters, who are undoubtedly handsome girls, and Mr. Finlayson said +bitterly, "Yes, a good many so-called beauties in London would have to +shut up shop if my sisters appeared in the Row. It is a beastly shame +they have got to live down here!" +</P> + +<P> +Kate said, "But I suppose they go to town occasionally?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Mr. Finlayson; "but they ought to have their Park hacks, +and do things in style. It is a shame the governor does not take a +house in the West End." +</P> + +<P> +My sister tried to look sympathetic. +</P> + +<P> +"However," said Mr. Finlayson more hopefully, "we have taken a bit of a +shoot in Scotland this year, so I hope the girls will have some +society. Well, it is a deer forest really, and a very fine house and +grounds," amended Mr. Finlayson, with a burst of candour. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Finlayson sailed up, and stooped to make a few remarks about the +gaiety of the past season to us. She said that she and her daughters +were in demand everywhere, and that the other night in a West End +theatre every lorgnette in the house was turned towards their box. +"Rupert, of course, has his own chambers in St. James's, and knows +every one." +</P> + +<P> +The Miss Finlaysons shook hands, and said good-bye with their usual +lofty condescension, and each said, "Going on anywhere?" to which we +could only reply humbly that we had no further engagements for that +afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Kate praised the party all the way home, and then said, with a burst of +feeling: "Oh, how I do wish I were a swell! I know it's wicked, but I +would snub one or two people." +</P> + +<P> +The next morning, being Sunday, we went to church, and the feeling of +equality with the rest of mankind which this gives one was very +refreshing after the magnificence and social distinctions about which +we had been learning so much during the last few days. But even in +church one may notice how superior some families in Clarkham are to +others. The pew-letting of the church seems to have been conducted on +principles other than those recommended in Holy Writ. Richer +folk—those with gold chains, for whom we learn precedence should not +be accorded—occupied the front pews, furnished with red cushions and +Prayer-Books with silver corners, while the humbler sort were +accommodated with seats under the gallery. The Finlaysons sailed in +rather late, with a rustle of their smart dresses, and kneeled to pray +on very high hassocks, their elbows just touching the book-board in +front of them, their faces inadequately covered with their +tightly-gloved hands. The Next Doors had a pew half-way up the middle +aisle. The day was hot, and the clergyman, a small devout-looking man, +very earnest and really eloquent, was guilty sometimes in moments of +excitement of dropping aitches. This of course may have been the +result of the hot weather. It was something of a shock to notice that +the little Next Doors—terrible children, of high spirits and +pugnacious dispositions—were allowed to giggle unreproved at each +omission of the aspirate on the part of the preacher. The Next Doors +overtook us on our way out of church, and two of the pugnacious +children, having dug each other with their elbows, and fought round me +for permission to walk home with me and talk about the war, threw light +upon their behaviour in church by remarking with smiling +self-satisfaction, "Papa says we ought always to giggle when Mr. Elliot +drops his aitches, to show that we know better...." Little brutes! +</P> + +<P> +We spent a lazy afternoon under the brown hawthorn tree on the little +lawn, and Thomas drove down to see Palestrina, and good Kate Ward put +forth her very best efforts to give us a sumptuous cold supper. We +found, to our surprise, that nightingales sing down here, and we sat on +the lawn till quite late listening to them. Mr. and Mrs. Ward slipped +their hands into one another's in the dark, and appeared to be most +happy and contented. +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad we came," said Palestrina that night, when Mrs. Ward had +quitted the room. "Dear old Kate!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV. +</H3> + +<P> +On Monday I went to see Dr. Fergus about my leg, and did not get a very +good report of it. +</P> + +<P> +We returned from Clarkham on one of the hottest days I ever remember, +and found Mrs. Fielden waiting for us in the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Every one seems to have come over to hear about your London visit," +said Mrs. Fielden lightly, "for I found Mr. Ellicomb and Maud Jamieson +here when I came in." +</P> + +<P> +She began pouring out tea for us both as she spoke, and she signalled +something to Palestrina, who replied as she stooped down to cut some +cake, "Another operation—yes, four or five weeks in bed at least." +</P> + +<P> +"I sent Maud and Mr. Ellicomb home together," said Mrs. Fielden, +smiling. "He, poor man, is in a great state of mental perturbation, +for it seems that he has heard that in South Africa pigs are fed upon +arum lilies, and that so delicate is the flesh of the pork thus +produced that some flower-growers in the Channel Isles are cultivating +arum lilies for the purpose of feeding pigs, and to produce the same +delicious pork. He was so agitated that he got up from his chair and +walked up and down the room, repeating over and over again, 'Arum-fed +pork! Monstrous, monstrous!' I really did not know how to comfort +him, so I sent him home with Maud Jamieson, which seemed to please him +very much." +</P> + +<P> +"And you," I said, "following the Jamieson train of thought, have been +saying to yourself ever since, 'Is there anything in it?'" +</P> + +<P> +"She certainly had a soothing effect upon him," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," said I, "the second stage has been reached. When all the +Jamiesons are married, I think I shall feel that romance is over." +</P> + +<P> +"I know they have been to tea at the farm," said Mrs. Fielden, "because +Mr. Ellicomb talked so much about his blue china, and Maud said a +woman's hand was needed in the house." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder," I said, "what will be the special objection that Maud will +raise when she becomes engaged to Mr. Ellicomb? He is not called +Albert; he does not wear a white watered-silk waistcoat; his hair is +certainly his own; and his mother is dead, so it cannot be said that he +too closely resembles her." +</P> + +<P> +One of the objections raised by Maud to a candidate for her hand, was +that he was far too like his mother—a really delightful woman—but +Maud declared, with tears, that she could never really look up to a man +who was so like his mamma. +</P> + +<P> +"At present," said Mrs. Fielden, "the blue china seems to be all in his +favour; but one cannot feel sure that it will not be an obstacle later +on, or Mr. Ellicomb's High Church principles, perhaps, may prove a +deterrent to her ideas of perfect happiness." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish," said Palestrina, "that Margaret's affairs were more settled. +This summer has been a trying one for her." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I forgot to tell you," said Mrs. Fielden, "that that was one of +Maud's reasons for coming over to see you. She told me that Mr. +Swinnerton is coming to pay them a visit. He has written, it seems, to +make the offer himself, and Maud says she thinks it will be all right +now." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden was in one of her most light-hearted moods. After the +heat of the day there came a delightful coolness, and she stayed +chatting till nearly dinner-time, and then decided that she would +remain to dinner if we should ask her to do so. +</P> + +<P> +"I have three dear old sisters-in-law staying with me," said Mrs. +Fielden, "and they will doubtless drag all the ponds for my body." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't they be anxious about you?" asked Palestrina. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps," said Mrs. Fielden, raising her pretty eyebrows in the old +affected way; "but then they will appreciate me so much more when I +come back to them from the grave." +</P> + +<P> +We sat out on the lawn after dinner till it was quite dark, and only +Mrs. Fielden's white dress was visible in the gloom. For some reason +best known to herself she put off her wilful mood out there in the +gloom of the garden. She was not regal, not even amusing, only +charming and full of a lovely kindness. Half the conversation between +her and Palestrina began with the words, "Do you remember?" as they +recalled old jokes and stories. Then her ever-present gaiety broke out +again, and she laughed and said: "I believe I am becoming reminiscent. +Why doesn't some one sit upon me, or tell me they will order the +carriage for me if I really must go? But it is heavenly here in the +cool—and in heaven, you know, we shall probably all be reminiscent." +</P> + +<P> +Ten o'clock struck from the tower of the church down below in the +village, and Mrs. Fielden said that now she really must go, or she +would find the sisters-in-law saying a Requiem Mass for her; and +Palestrina went indoors to order the carriage. +</P> + +<P> +"To-morrow," I said, "I am going to have my last dissipation. I am +going to the Traceys' tea-party." +</P> + +<P> +"I am certainly going too," said Mrs. Fielden. "I believe I am getting +as gay as the Miss Traceys themselves, though I can't help remarking +that no one who goes to these tea-parties ever seems to be amused when +they get there." +</P> + +<P> +"Judging from my own standard of what I find amusing," I said, "I +should be inclined to say that Stowel never enjoys itself +extravagantly. Our neighbours never refuse invitations to even the +smallest party; but the pleasure that they get from them, if it exists +at all, is carefully concealed." +</P> + +<P> +"I have felt that myself," said Mrs. Fielden. "I really don't begin to +enjoy them till I get home." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you always enjoy yourself," I said resentfully. +</P> + +<P> +After a little time Mrs. Fielden said wistfully, "You don't think there +is only a certain amount of happiness in the world, do you, Hugo? And +that if one person gets a great deal, it means that another will get +less?" +</P> + +<P> +She asks one questions in this way sometimes, as though one were a +superior being who could dispel her perplexities for her. +</P> + +<P> +"Probably," I said, "you know ten thousand times more about the subject +than I do. You are happy, and I philosophize about it. Tell me which +of us is most fitted to give a lecture on the subject?" +</P> + +<P> +I thought Mrs. Fielden was going to say something after that, for she +stretched out her hand in a certain impulsive way she has got, and gave +mine just one moment's friendly pressure in the dark. And then +Palestrina came back to say the carriage was at the door, and Mrs. +Fielden said "Good-night." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I remember two things about the Miss Traceys' party—first, that Mrs. +Fielden was not there, for one of the old sisters-in-law was ill +suddenly, and she could not leave her; and the other thing I remember +about it is that it was the last occasion on which I ever saw Margaret +Jamieson look pretty. +</P> + +<P> +There have been some strange innovations in tea-parties ever since Mrs. +Taylor gave hers to meet The Uncle, and sent out visiting-cards instead +of notes. Instead of having tea in the dining-room, all sitting round +the table, as used to be the custom, it seems that dressing-tables are +often brought down from upstairs and extended across the window. These +are covered with white tablecloths, and behind them two maids stand and +wait. The dressing-tables are called the "buffet," and both tea and +coffee are provided, suggesting the elegance and savour of London +refreshments. This is distinctly pleasing, though it is felt that a +single cup of tea drunk while standing has not got the comfort of +former old-fashioned days. Miss Belinda lives on at the little cottage +with the green gate; and through the kindness of the General a lady has +been found to wait upon her, and take her out to these small gaieties +which she loves, and she sits shaking her poor, weak head, and +muttering, "Glory, glory, glory!" It does not occur to her to stay at +home during her period of mourning, and it is acknowledged on all sides +that she does not miss Lydia much. The General has not come to stay +with the Taylors again. In a long letter which he wrote to me after he +left he said he would probably never come back to the place, and at the +same time he thanked me in courteous, old-fashioned phraseology for +being with him through what he called "one of the dark days that come +sometimes." He would never see Miss Belinda, in spite of the many kind +things he did for her; and I always feel that he resented the poor +creature's long illness and weak, silly ways—which was only natural, +no doubt. +</P> + +<P> +The Vicar was present at his sisters' tea-party, "although," as Miss +Ruby explained to me, "it is not as though this were an evening +entertainment. My sister and I often give these little routs without +him. Still, a gentleman is always something of an ornament at a party." +</P> + +<P> +There were seven Jamiesons present, and two of them, Margaret and Maud, +offered, in their usual friendly way, to walk home with Palestrina and +me. Maud, one feels sure, engaged Palestrina in confidences directly; +and Margaret whispered in a shy way to me, "Do you mind coming round by +the post-office? I am expecting a letter." So we walked round by the +High Street, and Margaret told me that Tudor had had to give up his +visit to them, but that he was writing. +</P> + +<P> +So we went into the post-office, and Margaret had her letter handed to +her across the counter by the post-mistress, upon whom she bestowed a +radiant smile. When we got outside she opened it and read it without a +word; and then, quite suddenly, she gave a cry as though some one had +struck her, and she handed the letter to me, and said, "Oh, Hugo, read +it!" And I read:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"I am sure you will be surprised when I tell you that I am going to be +married; it will explain to you why it was that I was unable to fulfil +my promise to come to see you. But sudden though my engagement to Miss +Lloyd has been—very sudden, much more sudden indeed than I ever felt +that such a serious step as marriage would be undertaken by me—I +cannot but feel that it is for my happiness. Some day I hope you will +make Miss Lloyd's acquaintance; she is staying with my mother just now, +and she is already a great favourite. I cannot but feel that having +seen so much of you and of your family last summer, and during your +stay in London, that I may have raised expectations which I find myself +unable to fulfil; but I am quite sure that a man's first duty is to +himself in these matters, and that he should not undertake matrimony +until he is thoroughly convinced it is for his happiness. Had I not +met Miss Lloyd, I may say that my intentions to you were of the most +serious nature, and I know that I have the power in me to make any girl +happy. We shall live with my mother for the first year, and then I +hope to settle somewhere near London, where it will be nice for me to +get into the fresh air after my work in the City. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Yours very truly,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">"TUDOR SWINNERTON.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +"<I>P.S.</I>—Miss Lloyd and I are to be married next month in St. Luke's +Church, quite near here." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I handed the letter back to Margaret, and we never spoke the whole way +home. And that was the last day I ever saw Margaret Jamieson look +pretty. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI. +</H3> + +<P> +After the operation on my leg, I was laid up for a long time, and when +I got about again, Palestrina and Thomas were married. Thomas has +lately come into his kingdom in the shape of a lordly castle in +Scotland, and for the life of me I can't say whether or not Palestrina +hastened her wedding because the doctor ordered me to the North. If it +was so, my sister's plans were frustrated by the fact that Thomas's +ancient Scottish seat was pronounced uninhabitable by a sanitary +surveyor, just as we proposed entering it under garlanded archways and +mottoes on red cotton. Our old friend Mrs. Macdonald, hearing of our +dilemma, very kindly invited us to stay with her while Palestrina and +Thomas looked about for some little house that would take us in till +their own place should be ready. The finding of the little house +occupied some days, owing to the powers of imagination displayed by +people when describing their property. One lady, to whom Palestrina +wrote to ask if her house were to be let, replied, "Yes, madam; this +dear, delightful, pretty house is to let;" and she pointed out in a +letter, some four pages long, all the advantages that would accrue to +us if we took it, ending up with the suggestion, subtly conveyed, that +by taking the house we should be turning her into the street, but that +she would bear this indignity in consideration of receiving ten guineas +a week. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina went to see it, and returned in the evening, almost in +tears, to say that the house was a semi-detached villa, and that she +had found the week's washing spread out on the front lawn. +</P> + +<P> +Thomas said that the railway companies ought to pay a percentage on all +misleading advertisements which induce people to make these useless +journeys. +</P> + +<P> +The following day they returned from another fruitless expedition, +having been to see a very small house owned by the widow of a +sea-captain, with a strong Scottish accent. I have often noticed that +the seafaring man's one idea of well-invested capital is house +property—perhaps he alone knows how precarious is the life of the sea. +And I shall like to meet the sailor who has invested his money in a +shipping concern. The widow's house was so very small that it was +almost impossible to believe that it contained the ten bedrooms as +advertised in my sister's well-worn house-list. So small indeed were +the rooms, that Palestrina said she felt sure that they must have been +originally intended for cupboards. Nevertheless, the rent of the house +was very high, and my sister ventured gently to hint this to the lady +of the house—the sea-captain's widow with the strong Scottish accent. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, it is a very nice house," she said politely; "but the rent +is a little more than we thought of paying for a house of this size." +</P> + +<P> +"I ken it's mair than the hoose is worth," said the old dame; "but, ye +see, I'm that fond o' money—aye, I'm fearfu' fond o' money." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina and Thomas spent most of their days in their search for a +suitable house, and Mrs. Macdonald spends the greater part of her life +house-keeping, so I was rather bored. What it actually is that +occupies my hostess during the hours she spends in the back regions of +her house I have never been able to discover. But the fact remains +that we have to get up unusually early in the morning to allow time for +Mrs. Macdonald's absorbing occupation. An old-fashioned Scotswoman of +my acquaintance used to refuse all invitations to leave the house on +Thursdays, because, as she explained, "I keep Thursdays for my creestal +and my napery." The rest of her week, however, was comparatively free. +At Mrs. Macdonald's, housekeeping is never over. And so systematic are +the rules and regulations of the house, so many and so various are the +lady's keys, that one finds one's self wondering if the rules of a +prison or a workhouse can be more strict. The <I>Times</I> newspaper +arrives every evening after dinner; by lunch-time next day it is locked +away in a cabinet, so that if one has not read the news by two o'clock, +one must ask Mrs. Macdonald for the keys; this she does quite +good-naturedly, but I have never discovered why old newspapers should +be kept with so much care. On Saturdays an old man from the village +comes in to do a little extra tidying-up in the garden. At nine +o'clock precisely, Mrs. Macdonald is on the doorstep of her house, with +a cup of tea in her hand, and a brisk, kindly greeting for John, and +she stands over the old man while he drinks his tea, and then returns +with the empty cup to the house. +</P> + +<P> +Tuesday is the day on which her drawing-room is cleaned. At half-past +nine precisely on Monday evenings Mrs. Macdonald says, "Monday, you +know, is our early-closing night;" and she fetches you a candle and +dispatches you to bed. Mrs. Macdonald and her housemaid—there seem to +be plenty of servants to do the work of the house—walk the whole of +the drawing-room furniture into the hall, Mrs. Macdonald loops up the +curtains herself, and covers some appalling pictures and the +mantelpiece ornaments with dust-sheets. At ten o'clock she removes a +pair of housemaid's gloves, and an apron which she has donned for the +occasion, and says, "There! that's all ready for Tuesday's cleaning;" +and she briskly bids her housemaid good-night. +</P> + +<P> +On Tuesdays we are not allowed to enter the drawing-room all day, and +on Wednesdays the same restrictions are placed upon the dining-room. +Indeed, on no day in the week is the whole of the house available, and +upon no morning of the week has Mrs. Macdonald a spare moment to +herself. After breakfast, when Palestrina and Thomas have gone, she +conducts me to the morning-room, and placing the <I>Scotsman</I> (the +<I>Scotsman</I> is used for lighting the fires, and is formally handed to +the housemaid at six o'clock in the evening) by my chair, she says, "I +hope you will be all right," and shuts the door upon me. During the +morning she pops her head in from time to time, like an attentive guard +who has been told to look after a lady on a journey, and nodding +briskly from the door, she asks, "Are you all right? Sure you would +not like milk or anything?" and then disappears again. With a little +stretch of imagination one can almost believe that the green flag has +been raised to the engine-driver, and that the train is moving off. At +lunch-time she is so busy giving directions to her servants that she +hardly ever hears what one says, and the most interesting piece of news +is met with the somewhat irrelevant reply, "The bread-sauce, please, +Jane, and then the cauliflower." Turning to one, she explains, "I +always train my servants myself.... What were you saying just now?" +</P> + +<P> +"I saw in the newspaper this morning," I repeat, "that H.M.S. —— has +foundered with all hands." +</P> + +<P> +"In the middle of the table, if you please," says Mrs. Macdonald; "and +then the coffee with the crystallized sugar—not the brown—and open +the drawing-room windows when you have finished tidying there.... What +were you saying? How sad these things are!" +</P> + +<P> +The house is charmingly situated, with a most beautiful view over river +and hills; but I really think my preoccupied friend hardly ever has +time to look out of the window, and that to her the interior of a +store-cupboard with neatly-filled shelves is more beautiful than +anything which the realms of Nature can offer. +</P> + +<P> +When Palestrina is present Mrs. Macdonald gives her recipes for making +puddings and for taking stains out of carpets, and she advises her +about spring-cleanings and the proper sifting of ashes at the back +door. Mrs. Macdonald was brought up in the old days, when a young +lady's training and education were frankly admitted to be a training +for her as a wife. She belonged to the period when a girl with a taste +for music was encouraged to practise "so that some day you may be able +to play to your husband in the evenings, my dear," and was advised to +be an early riser so that the house might be comfortable and in order +when her husband should descend to breakfast. And now that that +husband, having been duly administered to, is dead, Mrs. Macdonald's +homely talents, once the means to an end, have resolved themselves into +an end, a finality of effort. Mrs. Macdonald was brought up to be a +housekeeper, and she remains a housekeeper, and jam-pots and +preserving-pans form the boundary line of her life and the limit of her +horizon. +</P> + +<P> +Eliza Jamieson would probably tell us that even though Mrs. Macdonald's +soups and preserves are excellent, these culinary efforts should not be +the highest things required of a wife by her husband, and that +therefore they are not a wife's highest duty, even during the time that +her husband remains with her. And she would probably point out that +servants and weekly bills, and an endeavour to render this creature +complacent, have ruined many a woman's life. And I laugh as I think of +Palestrina's rejoinder, "But then it is so much pleasanter when they +are complacent." +</P> + +<P> +One certainly imagined that the late Mr. Macdonald must have been well +looked after during his life, and it was something of a shock to me to +hear the account of his death, from the lodgekeeper's wife, one +afternoon when she had come in to help with the cleaning, and was +arranging my dressing-table for me. The rest of my bedroom furniture +was then standing in the passage, and I had found my cap in one of the +spare bedrooms, and all the boots of the house in the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"He was a rale decent gentleman," said Mrs. Gemmil, "and awfy patient +with the cleaning. But I am sure whiles I was sorry for him. He was +shuftit and shuftit, and never knew in the morn whichna bed in the +hoose he would be sleeping in at nicht. And we a' ken that it was the +spring-cleaning, when he was pit to sleep ower the stables, that was, +under Providence, the death o' him. He had aye to cross ower in the +wat at nicht-time, and he juist took a pair o' cauld feet, and they +settled on his lungs." +</P> + +<P> +The day following my chat with Mrs. Gemmil was the day Palestrina found +a house such as she had been looking for all along. The day was +Saturday. Overnight she had announced her intention of being away all +day, and Mrs. Macdonald had said delightedly that that would suit her +admirably. "I do like the servants to have the entire day for the +passages on Saturday," she remarked. +</P> + +<P> +Even when the day dawned wet and cloudy, Palestrina had not the courage +to suggest that she should stay at home, and thereby interfere with the +cleaning of the passages. +</P> + +<P> +The house she had found seemed to be everything that was desirable, and +Palestrina returned in an elated frame of mind. "It is far away from +everything," she said, "except the village people and the minister, and +the 'big hoose,' as they call it, which some English bodies have rented +for the autumn." +</P> + +<P> +"It can't be far from the Melfords," said Thomas, pulling out a map. +"Yes, I thought so; they are just the other side of the loch." +</P> + +<P> +"We 'mussed the connaketion' on our way back," said Palestrina; "and I +do believe there's nothing a Scottish porter enjoys telling one so much +as this." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope I am not unduly disparaging the railway system of my native +land," said Thomas, "when I say that if you go by steamer and by train +it is the remark that usually greets one, and it is always made in a +tone of humorous satisfaction." And Thomas, with an exaggerated +Scottish accent, which he does uncommonly well, began to tell me of +their adventures. "We had a rush for the train," he said, "and I told +an elderly Scot, who couldn't have hurried if he had had a mad bull +behind him, to run and get us two first-class tickets. He walked +slowly down the platform, muttering, 'Furrst, furrst,' and then he +opened the door of a third-class carriage and shoved us in, saying, +'Ye've no occasion to travel furrst when there's plenty of room in the +thurrds.'" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII. +</H3> + +<P> +To get to the house one takes a steamer to the head of the loch, and +from there old Hughie drives one in the coach, and deposits one at the +cross-roads where the turf, short and green, is cut into the shape of a +heart. On this green heart, in the old days, the girls and men of the +glen were married. They stood side by side on the upper part of the +heart, which is indented, and the minister stood at the point and +wedded the pair. Here one leaves the coach, and a "machine" must take +one on to the little house. A red creeper grows up its white walls, +and from the terrace in front of the house one looks down upon the +little Presbyterian church and the village, and these in their turn +look on to the loch and the hills on the other side. +</P> + +<P> +The people in the village afford one a good deal of amusement, but we +have observed that the conversation is always about theology or the +Royal Family. There is one story of the late Queen and the crown of +Scotland which I have heard repeated many times with the utmost gravity +in the Highlands. +</P> + +<P> +"A gran' wumman," say the old villagers, "but we were no gaein' tae gie +her the croon o' Scotland. Na, na. She would hae liked fine tae hev +gotten it, but we were no gaein' tae gie her the croon o' Scotland. +Ye'll mind when she went tae Scotland, it was the foremost thing that +she spiered tae see. And when they showed it tae her, 'I would like +fine tae pit it on ma heid,' said she. But they said '<I>No</I>.' And syne +she says, 'Wad ye no let me haud it in ma haund?' But they say '<I>No</I>.' +'Weel,' she says, 'juist haud it aboon ma heid, and let me staun' +underneath it.' But they said, '<I>No</I>.'" +</P> + +<P> +The villagers formed our only society until Evan Sinclair's tenants, +who were known as "the folk at the big hoose," came to call upon us. +It was very difficult indeed, and for some time we could hardly believe +that these were the Finlaysons whom we had met at Clarkham, and who, we +now remembered, had told us that they were going to take a place in +Scotland. The change in the Finlaysons is startling and complete. It +has taken them exactly two months to become Highlanders, and it is not +too much to affirm that now the whole family may be said to reek of +tartan. Only Mrs. Finlayson is unaffected by her life in the +Highlands, although she says that she knows it is fashionable to be +Scottish. "And so written up as it is at present," she adds; "and all +the best people taking the deer-moors. Papa and the girls think all +the world of Scotland. But no one can say it is comfortable, I'm sure." +</P> + +<P> +The Finlaysons have a piper, and young Mr. Finlayson wears a kilt, and +I think they are, without exception, the most strenuous supporters of +Scottish customs I have ever met. The young ladies, who had always +been associated in our mind with silk dresses and thin shoes, came to +call clad in the very shortest and roughest tweed skirts that I have +ever seen; and old Mr. Finlayson, whose mother was a Robinson, has +discovered that that is pretty much the same as being a Robertson, and +that therefore, in some mysterious way, he is entitled to wear the +Macdonald tartan. They asked us to tea in a very polite and friendly +way, and the old rooms were shown off to us with a good deal of pride. +The architecture of the house seemed to throw a reflected glory on Mr. +Finlayson. +</P> + +<P> +"Pure Early Scottish," he said, pointing to the tall narrow windows +with their shelving ledges. +</P> + +<P> +"So dangerous," said Mrs. Finlayson, "for the servants cleaning the +windows." +</P> + +<P> +The drawing-room vases were all filled with heather, and the room smelt +of damp dog and herrings. The Miss Finlaysons came in to tea in thick +skirts and brogues, and they wore tartan tam-o'-shanters very +becomingly placed upon their heads, and affixed to their hair with +ornamental bonnet-pins. They ate cake with damp red hands, and seemed +to pride themselves upon the fish-scales which still clung to their +skirts, and imparted the rather unpleasant odour which I noticed in the +room. Young Finlayson in his kilt showed a great expanse of red knee, +and told tales of remarks made to him by the boatmen, which he +considered equal to anything in Ian Maclaren's books. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Finlayson took us out after tea to see the garden and tennis-court +and the game-larder. "I always like a walled garden," she said; "it is +so stylish." Mr. Finlayson found a reflected glory even in the loch +and the hills, and he waved his fat hand towards them, and said: "We +are able to do you a nice bit of view here, aren't we?" +</P> + +<P> +"I tell papa," said Mrs. Finlayson, "that he will ruin the girls for +anything else after this. The only thing we regret is the want of +society. However, a few of the best people round about have called, +and we are giving quite an informal little dinner-party to-morrow +night." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Finlayson then invited us to dinner, and when we hesitated, on the +plea that we should have one or two friends with us, Mrs. Finlayson, in +the most hospitable manner possible, said that she always had a +"profusion on their own table," so there was nothing for it but to +accept her invitation. +</P> + +<P> +The dinner was one of those rather purposeless feasts which are given +in the country, and the Finlaysons' neighbours who had been bidden to +it bore upon their faces the peculiarly homeless look which one +observes in the expressions of one's men friends especially, when they +go out to a rural dinner—the look that says as plainly as possible +that they are moving about in worlds not realized nor found +particularly comfortable, and that they would infinitely prefer their +own armchairs at home. +</P> + +<P> +The minister took Palestrina in to dinner, and occupied himself +throughout the evening by putting the most searching questions to her +of an inquisitive nature. He asked how many servants we had, whether +we were satisfied with our cook, where we came from, and why we had +come. And he did it all with such keen interest and intelligence that +Palestrina admitted that she really had felt flattered rather than +provoked. His friend Evan Sinclair, who, having let his house to the +Finlaysons, is living on a little farm close by, contradicted +everything that the minister said, and the two quarrelled the whole +evening. +</P> + +<P> +Old Tyne Drum, who lives a good many miles away, but who with his wife +had already been to call upon us, brewed himself the very largest +glasses of whisky-toddy that I have ever seen, even on a big night at +mess, and he proposed healths and drank the steaming mixture throughout +dinner in a very commendable national spirit. His piper, who stood +behind his chair, refused at last to pour out any further libations, +and I heard him mutter to himself, "Ye'll no need tae say that Sandy +Macnichol ever helpit ye tae the deil." +</P> + +<P> +Young Finlayson is always very jocose upon the subject of whisky, as +befits his ideas about the Highlands; and even the Misses Finlayson, in +their faithful loyalty to all things Scottish, were quite pleased with +Tyne Drum's performance, and would have scorned to look as though a +whisky-drinking laird was a novelty to them. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Finlayson told Thomas, in a very severe manner, and in her +platform voice which I always find so impressive, that she considered +intemperance a sin, but that that was what came of all this nonsense +about Scotland. She gave him quite a lecture upon the subject, as +though he, being Scottish born, was responsible for the old laird's +backsliding. +</P> + +<P> +When the unfortunate old gentleman came into the drawing-room to join +the ladies and sat down next him, Mrs. Finlayson looked at Thomas as +though she thought he was in some sort to blame for this behaviour. +</P> + +<P> +Tyne Drum dropped heavily on to the ottoman, and I heard him say, "Do +you know my wife?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied Thomas. "I have met her several times since we came to +the cottage." +</P> + +<P> +"Hoo old should ye think she was?" (Tyne Drum is always broadly Doric +in his speech.) Thomas calculated that the lady must be a long way the +wrong side of sixty, and humbly suggested that she might perhaps be +forty-five. +</P> + +<P> +"Presairve us!" said the Laird. "This lad here says my wife is +forty-five!" He began to sob bitterly, and, putting his handkerchief +to his eyes, cried, "My pretty wee Jeannie, my bonnie wee wife, wha +daurs tae say ye was forty-five!" +</P> + +<P> +Thomas was so sorry for him and for what he had done that he did his +best to cheer him up by telling him that what he had meant to say was +twenty-five; but Tyne Drum was inconsolable, and went to sleep with the +tear-drops on his cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +When we got home in the evening Palestrina said, "We are far behind the +Finlaysons in all things Scottish. I shall buy a Harris tweed skirt, +and you and Thomas must buy something too." So we drove down in the +coach to the ferry on a very wet and windy day to cross over to the +"toon." +</P> + +<P> +Our place on the coach was shared with a Scot, who was the most +truculent defender of the Free Kirk I have ever met. He argued every +single point of his creed, and became quite abusive at last, as he +denounced the "Established" and all who belong to it. +</P> + +<P> +The wind was high as we drove in the coach, and the rain fell heavily +once or twice, but the voice of the gentleman rose higher and higher as +the rain descended. Hughie, the coachman, chided him with no stint of +words, and at every burst of eloquence on the passenger's part he +remarked, "Anither worrd, and I'll pit ye in the ditch!" +</P> + +<P> +This method of treating the argumentative passenger suggested the +possibility of the coach being overturned in order to punish him, and +Palestrina grew alarmed. +</P> + +<P> +"I do hope," she said to Hughie, "that you will remember that we are +not all Wee Frees, and that therefore we do not all require the same +treatment meted out to us." +</P> + +<P> +The guard at the back of the coach here showed his head over the pile +of boxes covered with tarpaulin on the roof, and called out, "Pit him +inside the coach wi' Mrs. Macfadyen, and she'll sort him! She'll gie +him the Gaelic!" +</P> + +<P> +Hughie chuckled and remarked, "Ay, she's the gran' wumman wi' her +tongue!" And during the rest of the drive his threats to the eloquent +passenger took the form of, "Anither worrd, and I'll pit ye in wi' Mrs. +Macfadyen!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a marked improvement in our friend's behaviour after this. +He was in great difficulties when he came to get into the ferry-boat. +It was easy enough to throw his first leg over the side while holding +on by a thole-pin, but the balance required to convey the remaining +limb into the boat was quite out of his power. And having made one or +two ineffectual hops on the beach with the shore-loving member, he +turned to the boatmen, and said gravely,— +</P> + +<P> +"Lift in my leg, Angus! Juist gie me a hand wi' ma last leg!" +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina chose the tweed for our coats and her skirt, and then we +walked up to the Castle and called on the Melfords, who told us that +Mrs. Fielden was coming to stay with them. They sang her praises, as +most people do; she has heaps of friends. Then Palestrina did some +shopping at the "flesher's" and the baker's, and we went down to the +ferry again—a boy behind us laden with queer-looking parcels +containing provisions, and Alloa yarn to knit into stockings, and +paper-bags with ginger-bread cakes in them. When we got in and sat +down under the brown sail of the heavy boat, the two sailors remained +in their places, and did not show the least sign of getting under way. +Thomas said to the elder of the two men, a fine old fellow with a face +such as one connects with stories of the Covenanters,— +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you get off?" +</P> + +<P> +And the old man replied unmoved, "I'm waiting for the Lord." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina, who is sympathetic in every matter, put on an expression of +deep religious feeling, and we thought of the Irvingites, and wished +that we had Eliza Jamieson with us "to look it up." As far as we knew, +the Irvingites wait to perform every action until inspired to perform +it. We had heard that in the smallest matter, such as beginning to eat +their dinner, they will wait until this inspiration, as I suppose one +must call it, is given to them. The question then arose, how long +would it be before we would be likely to get under way? The two +sailors sat on without moving, and the elder of them cut a wedge of +tobacco and was filling his pipe, preparing to smoke. We wondered if +the Irvingites often waited for an inspiration in this contented way. +The big red-funnelled steamer from Greenock was, meanwhile, preparing +to depart. It had poured its daily output of tourists for their +half-hour's run in the town, which time they employ in buying mementoes +of the place, and we had hurried down to the sailing-boat to escape +this influx. +</P> + +<P> +Thomas endeavoured to assist inspiration by saying it didn't seem much +use waiting any longer, and that as time was getting on, did not our +friend (the gray-bearded Covenanter) think that it was time to be +moving? The Covenanter wrinkled up his nose, which already was a good +deal wrinkled, and gazed upwards at the sail, or, as we interpreted it, +to Heaven. Palestrina pressed Thomas's hand, and said gently, "Don't +urge him, dear; we shall get off in time." And the younger sailor +said, "We are waiting for the Lord." So we knew that they were both +Irvingites, and the only scepticism that intruded itself upon us was +this: Suppose inspiration never came, how should we get home? +</P> + +<P> +The steamer now began to move away from the pier, with a great churning +and hissing of water, and seething white foam fizzing round the staples +of the pier. A band began to play on board, and the paddles broke the +water with a fine sweep. Two youngsters on shore, to whom "the +stimmer" is a daily excitement, then called out in shrill, high voices, +"There's the Lord! She's aff!" +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Lord of the Isles</I> had moved off on her return journey to +Greenock, and the notes on Scottish religion which Palestrina was +carefully preparing were hastily destroyed. The <I>Lord</I> had departed, +and we sailed across the loch without waiting any longer. +</P> + +<P> +When we got home, we found the minister awaiting us in the +drawing-room, he having suggested that as we were not at home, he had +better stay till our return. I found out, in the course of +conversation, that he is a distant relation of old Captain +Jamieson—the Jamiesons' father—so we had quite a long talk about our +friends. The minister is one of those Scots whose national +characteristics are always stronger than individual character. Take +away his nationality from him, and Mr. Macorquodale would be nothing at +all. His qualities being entirely Scottish, it is only logical to +assume that if Mr. Macorquodale were not Scottish, he would be +non-existent. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina came out on to the little terrace where we were sitting, and +I explained to her that the minister was a cousin of the Jamiesons. +</P> + +<P> +"How interesting!" said Palestrina in her usual kind way. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" said the minister. He has sandy hair and very round gray eyes, +and looks like a football player. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't know," said my sister; "it's always interesting, isn't it, +to find that people are related?" +</P> + +<P> +"Every one must have some relations," said Mr. Macorquodale; "and if my +choice had been given me, I do not think I should have chosen those +five gurrls." +</P> + +<P> +"We like them so much," Palestrina said, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that the truth?" said Mr. Macorquodale; and she replied firmly that +it was. +</P> + +<P> +"Um umph!" he said, as though considering a perfectly new problem, and +then added: "Well, each man to his taste. How many of them have got +husbands?" +</P> + +<P> +I replied that Kate was married and Gracie engaged. +</P> + +<P> +"Gracie?" said the minister simply. "Was that the one with a nose like +a scone?" +</P> + +<P> +We considered Grade's nose silently for a moment, and then admitted +that perhaps the simile was not unjust. +</P> + +<P> +"How did she get him?" said the minister presently. +</P> + +<P> +The minister has a curious way of eating, which fascinates one to look +at, while all the time there is a distinct feeling that an accident may +happen at any moment. When tea was brought out he accepted some, and +filled his mouth very full of cookie, stowing into it nearly a whole +one at a time, and then raised his tea-cup to his lips. He persists in +keeping his spoon in his cup as he drinks, and he prevents it from +tumbling out by holding it with his thumb. A long draught of tea is +then partaken of with a gurgling sound, and the minister swallows +audibly. It is almost impossible to prevent one's self watching this +process of eating and drinking during the whole of tea-time. For it +seems so uncertain whether the spoon will remain in its place, and the +cookie and the tea. +</P> + +<P> +The minister is a very young man, with the pugnacity of an Edinburgh +High School boy, and with the awful truthfulness which distinguishes +his nation, but which is accentuated in such an alarming degree in a +minister of the Kirk. +</P> + +<P> +"I sent Kate a scent-bottle when she married," he remarked. "I won it +at a bazaar for sixpence, so it was not expensive. I don't disapprove +of raffles," he added, although he had not been asked for this piece of +information—"that is, if ladies do not cheat over it, as they often +do." Palestrina bristled at the insinuation, and the minister consoled +her by saying: "Women sin in such wee ways—that's what I can't +understand about them. However," he said, "I have never known a woman +steal a thing yet that a man has not reaped some benefit by it. I can +quote authority for my views from Adam and Eve downwards, to the +newspapers of yesterday. I am engaged to be married myself, and I find +the subject of feminine ethics absorbing. Good-bye," he said +presently; "I hope you will not be disappointed with the clothes I hear +you've ordered." +</P> + +<P> +Alas! the tweed coat and skirt in which my sister hoped to rival the +Miss Finlaysons proved an utter misfit, and she drove round the loch on +the following day to take the garments back. Palestrina had prepared a +severe reprimand for the tailor, but the old man took the wind out of +her sails by stopping in amazement at the first word of annoyance which +she uttered, and standing in the middle of the little fitting-room, +with a yellow tape measure round his neck, and a piece of chalk in his +hand, he shook his gray beard at us with something of apostolic +fervour, and thus addressed us:— +</P> + +<P> +"I'm amazed at ye! Do ye ever consider the system of planets, and that +this world is one of the lesser points of light in space, and that even +here there are countless millions of human beings, full of great +resolves and high purposes. Get outside yourselves, ladies and +gentlemen, and realize in the magnitude of the universe, and the +immeasurable majesty of the planetary system, how small a thing is the +ill-fit of a jacket." +</P> + +<P> +We felt much humbled, Palestrina and I. And it was only when we were +driving home afterwards that it even dimly suggested itself to us that +we had right on our side at all. "After all," Palestrina said, "the +coats did not fit; I really do not think he need have lectured us so +severely." +</P> + +<P> +At the time, however, I confess that our feelings were distinctly +apologetic. +</P> + +<P> +One wonders how a tailor who advanced the planetary system as a reproof +to complaining customers would get on in London, and one realizes that +English people have a great deal still to learn. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII. +</H3> + +<P> +When Mrs. Fielden came to stay at the Melfords we saw a good deal of +her. Their yacht used to steam up in the early morning, and they would +take us off for a day's cruise on the loch or for a trip round to Oban. +Mrs. Fielden used to sit on deck with a big red umbrella over her head +and a white yachting gown on, and seemed serenely unconscious that she +was looking very pretty and very smart. My sister tells me she never +feels badly dressed till she meets Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +The Melfords have very pleasant people stopping with them always, and +there are very jolly little parties on board their yacht. Mrs. +Fielden, however, is in her most provoking and wilful mood. Every day +it is the same thing—laughter and smiles for every one. But she has +absolutely no heart. All the beautiful, kindly things she does are +only the whim of the moment. They bespeak a generous nature, as easily +moved to tears as to laughter; but she loves every one a little, and +probably has no depth of affection or constancy in her. Lately, she +has added another provoking habit to the many she already possesses. +She exaggerates her pretence of having no memory, and indeed it may be +she has not any. +</P> + +<P> +When I left home, rather a wreck as regards health, and drove to the +station in Mrs. Fielden's luxurious carriage, it was her hand that +piled the cushions, as no one else can, behind me. And the last thing +I saw was her smile as she waved her hand to me from my own door. +</P> + +<P> +Last week, when we met again at the Melfords', she nodded to me in a +little indifferent sort of way. She sat under a big cedar-tree on one +of the lawns, and laughed, and talked a sort of brilliant nonsense the +whole afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +By-and-by I said to her—probably clumsily, certainly at the wrong +time—"I never half thanked you for being so good to me when I was +ill;" for she had come in like some radiant vision, day after day, in +her beautiful summer gowns and rose-garlanded hats, and had sat by my +couch, reading to me sometimes, talking to me at others in a voice as +gentle as a dove's. Why will she not allow one to admire her? One +only wants to do so humbly and at a distance. It was so pleasant up +here in the Highlands, with the dear memory of those long days to look +back upon. But Mrs. Fielden ruthlessly robbed me and sent me away +empty the very first day of our meeting. +</P> + +<P> +"Was I kind to you? I don't believe I was, really. If I was, I'm sure +I forget all about it. Let me see, how long were you ill? It can't +have been a bit amusing for you," and so on, laughing at my dull face +and serious ways. +</P> + +<P> +And this has gone on for a whole week. At the Melfords' parties she +selects, quite indiscriminately, and in a royal way which she has, this +man or that to be her escort or her companion. Now it is a mere boy +whom she bewilders with a few of her radiant smiles, and now one of her +elderly colonels whom she reduces to a state of abject admiration in a +few hours. One man goes fishing with her, and another rows her on the +loch. A third, hearing that Mrs. Fielden's life will be a blank if she +does not possess a certain rare fern which may be found sometimes on +the hillsides of Scotland, spends a whole day scrambling about looking +for it, and returns triumphant in the evening. Mrs. Fielden has +forgotten that she ever wanted it. When we sulk she does not notice +it. When her colonels offer her their fatuous admiration she goes to +sleep, and then, waking up, is so very, very sorry. "But you can't +have amused me properly," she says, "or I should have stayed awake." +When any one tries by avoiding her to show displeasure, Mrs. Fielden is +oblivious of the fact. And when the penitence and boredom which +immediately ensue when one has deprived Mrs. Fielden of one's company +have led to ending the one-sided quarrel with an apology, it is only to +find that Mrs. Fielden has been blissfully unconscious of one's +absence. Summer and the air of the Highlands seem to be in her veins. +Her happiness, like the quality of mercy, is twice blessed, making her, +through her talent for enjoyment, diffuse something beautiful and gay +about her. +</P> + +<P> +After all, why should she care? Life was evidently made to give her +pleasure. Why should a woman always be blamed for being loved? Mrs. +Fielden's charm is of the irresponsible sort. To live and to be lovely +are all one ought to demand of her, and at least she is without vanity. +She seems to be entirely unconscious of the admiration she receives, or +perhaps she is simply indifferent to it. +</P> + +<P> +The Melfords adore her, and allow her to see it. They say no one knows +her as they do. Probably we all feel that. This is one of Mrs. +Fielden's most maddening charms. We have all found something in her +that seems to belong to ourselves alone. +</P> + +<P> +Lately I have discovered that she loves to wander up the hillside by +herself, and listen to the plover's solitary cry, and sit in the +sunshine with no companion near her. And one wonders why so frivolous +a woman should care for this, and why when she comes back amongst us +again her eyes should wear the wistful look which covers them like a +veil sometimes. +</P> + +<P> +When she left the Melfords' Palestrina asked her to come and stay with +us; and rather to my surprise, Mrs. Fielden came. It seems to me she +must find us a very dull lot after the Melfords' cheery house-parties. +She arrived late one afternoon in the yacht, and the whole party came +up to dine with us before returning to the castle. The little house +was taxed to its utmost capacity, even to provide teacups for our +guests. But the Melfords have a happy knack of seeming to find +pleasure in everything. Mrs. Fielden's gaiety was infectious, and her +lightheartedness knocked all one's serious world to pieces, while her +beauty seemed almost extravagant in the plain setting of the little +house. +</P> + +<P> +She began to give us some of her experiences in Scotland. "Do you +know," she said, putting on a charming gravity and lifting her eyebrows +in a provoking, childish way, "that every single person in Scotland +gets up at five o'clock in the morning? and all the coaches and +excursions start at daybreak, and when you want to hit off what they +call a 'connection' anywhere, you have to get up in the middle of the +night?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid you had a horribly early start to join the yacht the other +day," said Lord Melford, "but it was the only way we could manage to +get to the Oban Gathering in time." +</P> + +<P> +"I was there before you," said Mrs. Fielden; "and I had to rouse up the +people at the inn to take me in and give me breakfast. Even they were +not up at that hour! But after ringing twice, such a nice boots came +and opened the door to me, and brought me some breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +"The gathering was very good this year," said Lord Melford. "Why +didn't some of you come? By-the-bye, your friend Mrs. Macdonald was +there. Indeed, it was she who insisted on taking Mrs. Fielden to the +Gaelic concert." +</P> + +<P> +"Gaelic is rather an alarming language," said Mrs. Fielden. "I always +feel as if I were being sworn at when I hear it." +</P> + +<P> +One of Mrs. Fielden's admirers who had reached the savage and sarcastic +stage here interposed, and said: "Poor Mrs. Fielden! I saw you at the +concert. How did you manage to sit throughout a whole evening between +Mrs. Macdonald and a wall?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Macdonald is quite a dear!" said Mrs. Fielden. (Whom, in the +name of Fortune, would Mrs. Fielden not find charming?) +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you and Mrs. Macdonald can have found to talk +about," said Palestrina, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"We discussed the training of servants most of the time," said Mrs. +Fielden simply. +</P> + +<P> +Every one laughed; and my sister, with a recollection of our visit to +Mrs. Macdonald, said at once, "Did she give you any useful household +recipes?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is very odd that you should have asked me that," said Mrs. Fielden. +"Do you know, that the whole of to-day I have been puzzling over a +letter which I received this morning? I did not know the handwriting, +and it was merely headed, 'Two recipes for boiling a ham, as +requested.' Now, I cannot really have asked Mrs. Macdonald for recipes +for boiling a ham, can I?" +</P> + +<P> +We thought it highly probable that she had done so, and had done it, +too, with an air of profound interest; and I think we said this, which +Mrs. Fielden did not mind in the least. +</P> + +<P> +"There is something rather horrible, don't you think so," she said, "in +knowing how a thing is cooked?" +</P> + +<P> +The minister, who is assiduous in calling, walked up after tea with his +friend Evan Sinclair; and as we were already far too large a party for +dinner, we asked them to stay too. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Macorquodale has frequently described himself to us as a grand +preacher. He and Evan Sinclair live quite close to each other, and +they are friends whose affection is rooted and maintained in warfare. +For the minister and Sinclair to meet is one strenuous contest as to +who shall have the last word. Politeness is not a strong motive with +either of them—indeed, one would imagine that from the first it has +been ruled out of place. The friendship and the warfare began at the +Edinburgh High School years ago, and both the friendship and the +warfare have lasted without intermission ever since. They meet every +day, and often twice a day; they fish together, and in the winter they +spend every evening with each other. Scottish people seem to have a +sneaking liking for those who dislike them, and a certain pity mingled +with contempt for those who show them favour and affection. The +friendship of Evan and the minister is based upon feelings of the most +respectful admiration for their mutual antipathy. +</P> + +<P> +To keep alive this laudable and self-respecting warfare is the highest +effort of genius of both Mr. Sinclair and the Reverend Alexander. To +foster it they apply themselves to what they call "plain speaking" +whenever they meet, and they conceal as much as possible from each +other every single good quality that they possess. +</P> + +<P> +The minister, who is a big man, always talks of Evan as "Wee Sinkler," +and sneers at "heritors;" and Evan invariably addresses Macorquodale as +"Taurbarrels," a name which he considers appropriate to the minister's +black clothes and portly figure. +</P> + +<P> +"The minister," said Evan, when he had walked up the hill to see us, +"has been reading Josephus. We shall have some erudite learning from +the pulpit for the next Sunday or two." +</P> + +<P> +The minister was announced a moment later, and, before taking the +trouble to shake hands with us, he looked Evan Sinclair over from top +to toe, and remarked, "Ye're very attentive in calling upon ladies." +</P> + +<P> +"I was just talking about your fine preaching," said Evan. +</P> + +<P> +"I admit my gift," said the minister; "but I fear that I very often +preach to a deaf adder which stops its ears." He nodded triumphantly +at us, and it then occurred to him to shake hands. +</P> + +<P> +Evan said at once that he got a better sleep in kirk on Sundays than he +got during the whole of the week. +</P> + +<P> +"Evan Sinclair," said the minister, "if I find you sleeping under me +I'll denounce you from my pulpit, as a minister has the right to do." +</P> + +<P> +"And we'll settle it in the graveyard afterwards," said Evan dryly. +"And ye're not in very good training, my man." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina broke in gently to discuss a theological point which had +puzzled us for several Sundays. On each Lord's Day as it came round we +had prayed that we might become "a little beatle to the Lord." +Doubtless the simile is a beautiful one, but its immediate bearing upon +our needs was not too grossly evident. And it seemed almost dangerous +to those who believe in the efficacy of prayer to put up this petition +in its literal sense. We had decided for some time past that we should +ask Mr. Macorquodale what it was exactly for which we made petition, +when we prayed that we might become "a little beatle to the Lord." +</P> + +<P> +"Similes," said Palestrina in her serious way, "are beautiful +sometimes, but we can't quite understand one of the references that you +make in your prayers on Sundays." +</P> + +<P> +"We have prayed so fervently," said Mrs. Fielden, "without perhaps +entirely understanding the portent of the petition, that we might +become 'a little beatle to the Lord.'" +</P> + +<P> +The thing was out now, and our curiosity, we hoped, would be gratified. +There was a pause which suggested that our hearers were puzzled, and +then Mr. Sinclair put a large pocket-handkerchief into his mouth and +roared with laughter, and Mr. Macorquodale turned to my sister, who was +trembling now, and remarked in an awful voice that he wondered that we +didn't understand plain English. +</P> + +<P> +Of course she apologized, and an explanation came afterwards from Evan +Sinclair, who told us that the minister's prayer was that we—the +church—might become a little Bethel, and that Beethel was his Doric +pronunciation of the word. +</P> + +<P> +It began to rain on Sunday, as it often does in Scotland—Nature itself +seems to put on a more serious expression on the Sabbath—and it +continued raining for four whole days. The rain came down steadily and +mercilessly, shutting out the view of the hills, and turning the whole +landscape into a big damp gray blanket. "I suppose," said Mrs. +Fielden, who is never affected by bad weather, "that we shall all get +very cross and quarrel with each other if the rain continues much +longer." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I shall write a number of unnecessary letters to absent +friends," said Palestrina. "And Mr. Ellicomb and Sir Anthony Crawshay +will arrive to-morrow, and we must tell them to amuse us." +</P> + +<P> +It was a disappointment to find that Mr. Ellicomb's nerves and temper +were seriously affected by the weather, and in moments of extreme +depression his low spirits vented themselves in a rabid abuse of the +Presbyterian Kirk. I cannot understand why Ellicomb should elect to +wear a brown velvet shooting-jacket, and a pale-green tie, and neat +boots laced half-way up his legs, in Scotland. He went to the village +church in the rain on Sunday, and he has not been the same man since. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't call it a church!" he cried as we went homewards up the hill, +where the road was a watercourse and each tree poured down moisture. +He seemed to think that he had done his soul an irreparable injury by +entering a Presbyterian kirk. +</P> + +<P> +Anthony said, "Oh! don't be an ass, Ellicomb." But even on Monday +morning poor Ellicomb was still suffering from the weather and the +effects of his churchgoing. +</P> + +<P> +"Can he be in love?" said Palestrina; "and if so, as the Jamiesons +would say, which is it?" +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina is prettier than ever since her marriage. She still says, +"Oh, that will be delightful!" to whatever Thomas and I suggest, and +she never seems to have any occupation except to be with us when we +want her, and to accede to everything we say, which of course, from a +man's point of view, is a very delightful trait in a woman. +</P> + +<P> +"I rather wonder," said Palestrina, "that I have not heard from any of +the Jamiesons lately. They are usually such good writers." +</P> + +<P> +"Depend upon it, there is a great bit of news coming," said Thomas. +"The Jamiesons always maintain a dramatic silence just before +announcing some tremendous piece of intelligence." +</P> + +<P> +Thomas had hardly spoken the words before a telegram was handed to +Palestrina, containing the following enigmatical words:—- +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Engaged Cuthbertson. Greatly surprised. Deeply thankful.—ELIZA." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This rather mysterious message was followed, later in the day, by a +letter four pages in length, and marked on the outside, for some reason +best known to Eliza, "Immediate." The letter explained more fully the +cause of Eliza's thankfulness, and who it was that was greatly +surprised. +</P> + +<P> +"If you had told me," wrote Eliza, "six weeks ago that I should now be +engaged to Mr. Cuthbertson, I should hardly have believed it. I really +had not a notion that he cared for me until he actually said the words. +Is it not too strange to think that perhaps, after all, Maud may be one +of the last of us to get married?" +</P> + +<P> +Here followed the usual descriptive catalogue, so characteristic of the +Jamiesons' letters. "Mr. Cuthbertson looks like a widower, though he +is not one." Strangely enough, I could never think of any other words, +when I came to know Mr. Cuthbertson, that described him so well as +these, and I can only account for it by saying that the man's deep +melancholy and the crape band that he habitually wore round his hat +must have given one the feeling that at some time Mr. Cuthbertson had +suffered a heavy bereavement. "I have only known him," Eliza's letter +went on, "for six weeks, but even that time has shown me his worth. He +has a very straight nose and a black beard, and his forehead is +distinctly intellectual. I met him first at Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs', +where, as you know, I had gone to stay to catalogue their library, and +to do a little typewriting for her. You know, of course, that she has +become a member of the S.R.S., and their library is a <I>mine of +information</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"At first I was afraid to say, or even to allow myself to think, he +showed me any preference, but Maud thought from the first that he was +struck, and I asked her not to appear at all until everything was +settled, for you know how attractive she is. But I really don't think +that even then I thought that there was anything serious in it." (For +an intelligent woman Eliza's letter strikes one as being strangely +lacking in concentration.) "I have just been to the meeting of the +Browning Society—our first appearance in public together—and I read +my paper on "The Real Strafford," but I could hardly keep my voice +steady all the time. I wear his own signet-ring for the present, but +we are going up to London next week, when he will buy me a hoop of +pearls. I am sure that you will be glad to hear that he is comfortably +off. When the right man comes preconceived objections to matrimony +vanish, <I>but it must be the right man</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina said that she was "thrilled" to hear of Eliza's engagement, +because an engagement was always thrilling, and she instantly went to +tell the news to Mr. Ellicomb. She told me afterwards that when she +had said that one of the Jamiesons was engaged Mr. Ellicomb became +suddenly very pale in his complexion, and exclaimed, in a most anxious +tone of voice, "Which?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The cold weather has set in very suddenly, and already there is a +sprinkling of snow on some of the distant hills. The robins still sing +cheerily, but the gulls on the shore, flying over the yellow seaweed, +call to each other plaintively in the gray of the early twilight. The +heavy-winged herons stand in an attitude of serious thought for hours +on the cold rocks; then, as if suddenly making up their minds to +something, they stretch out their red legs behind them, and flop with +large wings over the waters of the loch. The red Virginian creeper has +begun to drop its leaves regretfully, after a night or two of white +frost, and the dahlias hang their heads, heavy with the moisture which +their cups contain. The sun wakes late in the mornings now, but shines +strong and warm when it does get up. Cottage lights and fires burn +cheerily o' nights, and within the cottages the old folks and the young +ones draw round the fires and speak eerily of wraiths and whaurlochs, +and some will tell of death-lights which they have seen on the lonely +shore road. The herring fishers who sail away in the early twilight +wear good stout jerseys now, and red woollen "crauvats" which the +"wumman at hame" has knitted. The <I>Lord</I> has sailed away to Dunoon to +lay up for the winter, and the shepherds have gone away down South "to +winter the hogs." The shepherds' wives sit alone in the little +hillside cottages away up on the face of the brae, and "mak dae" with +their slender money till their men come home again. +</P> + +<P> +The old women in the village have begun their winter spinning, and the +tap, tap, tap of the treadle on the floor gives a pleasant sound as one +passes outside on the dark road. Old men tell tales of snow in the +passes in winter-time, and of death on the bleak hillsides, and some +wife, shuddering, will say, "Ay, I mind I saw his corp-licht the very +evening he was lost." And then they tell tales of fantasy and signs +and premonitions of death. +</P> + +<P> +The Finlaysons are going to wind up their very successful autumn in the +Highlands by giving what they insist upon calling a gillies' dance, +though probably the revels will mostly be indulged in by their large +retinue of English servants. Good-natured old Finlayson has more than +once said that he hopes we shall all come to the gillies' dance, and +that it will give ourselves and our guests a chance of seeing some +Highland customs. A good many of us come to Scotland most years, and +have seen gillies and pipers before, but our good-natured neighbours +certainly out-distance any one I know in their Highland sympathies. +</P> + +<P> +They invited us to dine with them before the dance should begin, and +six of us went, feeling very like the Jamiesons, and resolved that when +we got home we should never put a limit to their numbers when we send +them an invitation again. +</P> + +<P> +We talk of returning home at the end of next week, and Mrs. Fielden and +our other two guests are leaving on Monday, I believe. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden looks much prettier in the Highlands, I think, than +anywhere else. Young Finlayson is in love with her, and I believe has +offered her his heart and the ironmongery business with it; but I think +of all her lovers Anthony Crawshay is the one she likes best. He is +the only one for whom her moods never alter, and to whom she is always +gracious and charming and sweet. Perhaps it is in a quiet, less +radiant way than that in which she treats others, but it is with an +unvarying loving-kindness which I have not seen her bestow elsewhere. +And Anthony Crawshay is a good fellow—one of the best. +</P> + +<P> +Old Mr. Finlayson actually donned a kilt for the gillies' dance; young +Finlayson also wore the national dress, and Thomas tells me that they +have sported the Macdonald tartan, and wants to know why. Old +Finlayson met us at the door of his baronial hall in a clannish, feudal +sort of way, and seizing his glengarry bonnet from his head he flung it +down upon the oak settle in the hall, and exclaimed in hearty accents, +"Welcome to the Glen." The Misses Finlayson wore sashes of royal +Stuart tartan put plaid-wise across their shoulders. Mrs. Finlayson +was dressed in a very regal manner which I cannot attempt to describe, +and her platform voice was in use throughout the entire evening. +</P> + +<P> +Ellicomb said the dance was barbaric, but Thomas enjoyed the evening +immensely, and so did Crawshay, who said in his hearty way, "The +Finlaysons did us uncommonly well," and shouted out, "Not at all bad +people, not at all bad." +</P> + +<P> +After dinner old Finlayson showed us all the pictures in the hall by +the light of a long wax taper which he held above his head, and he +pointed out the beauties of the house in a proprietary way, even to +Evan himself, to whom the place belongs. Evan Sinclair, in a shabby +green doublet, accepted all Mr. Finlayson's wildest statements about +his own house with a queer, humorous grin on his face, and submitted to +being patronized by the Miss Finlaysons, whose commercial instincts, no +doubt, caused them to despise a young man who was obliged to let his +place. +</P> + +<P> +One of the Highland axioms which the Finlaysons have accepted is that +"a man's a man for a' that," and they shook hands with every one in an +effusive way, and condescended to a queer sort of familiarity with the +boatmen and keepers about the place. The daughters of the house, with +flying tartan ribbons, swung the young gillies about in the intricate +figures of the hoolichan, and talked to them with a heartiness which +one would hardly have thought possible of the Clarkham young ladies. +The Finlaysons had a large number of English guests staying in the +house for the dance. These all made the same joke when the pipes began +to play. "Is the pig being killed?" they asked, and looked very +pleased with their own ready wit. +</P> + +<P> +Red-headed Evan Sinclair carried his old green doublet and battered +silver ornaments very well, and his neat dancing was in pleasant +contrast to the curious bounds and leaps of the Finlaysons. Old Mr. +Finlayson spent his evening strutting about in a kindly, important +fashion, and in making Athole Brose after a recipe supplied by Tyne +Drum, who superintended the brewing of it himself. +</P> + +<P> +I hope I am not fanciful when I say that the pipes when I hear them +have to me something irresistibly sad about them, and that they conjure +up many fantasies in my head which I am half ashamed to put down on +paper. They seem to me to gather up in their bitter sobbings all the +sorrows of a people who have suffered much and have said very little +about it. There is the cry in them of children dying in the lonely +glens in winter-time, when the wind howls round the clachan and the +snow fills the passes. One almost sees the little procession of +black-coated men bearing away a tiny burden from the cottage door into +the whiteness beyond, with its one heaped-up patch of brown earth on +either side of the little grave. They wail, too, of the Killing Time, +when the Covenanters were crushed but never broken under persecution; +and one seems to see the defiant gray-haired old men, with their +splendid obstinacy, unmoved by threats—not defiant, but simply +unbreakable. Thinking of the Covenanters as they pass slowly before +one to the sighing of the pipes, one wonders if it is possible to +punish by death the man who is content to die. +</P> + +<P> +The tuneful reeds sob out, too, the story of the Prince for whom so +many brave men bled, and they tell again of the days of song, and of +noble legends and deeds of daring when the nation spent its passionate +love on its King. "Come back! come back!" The desolate cry of the +times. Almost one hears it sounding across the hills, and it seems to +me that all that it is so hard to speak, so hard even to look, may +perhaps be told in music. And I think loyalty and love speak very +beautifully in the old Jacobite airs. +</P> + +<P> +Again, as Evan's piper marches up and down in the moonlight playing a +lament, the romance of life seems lost in the hardness of it, its +stress and its loss. "Hame, hame, hame!" the pipes sob forth, crying +for the homes that are sold to strangers, and for the hills and the +glens which pass away from the old hands. It is "Good-bye, good-bye," +an eternity of farewells. And still, wherever life is most difficult, +wherever comforts are fewest and work is most hard, in the distant +parts of the world are the Scottish exiles. But I know that all the +world over the sons of the heather and the mist, in however distant or +alien lands they may be, feel always, as they steer their way through +life, that there is a pole-star by which they set their compass; and +that some day, perhaps, they or their children may steer the boat to a +haven on some rocky shore, where the whaup calls shrilly on the moors +above the loch, and the heather grows strong and tough on the hillside, +and the peat reek rises almost like the incense of an evening prayer, +against a gray, soft sky in the land of the North. +</P> + +<P> +I suppose that even in a diary I have no business to mix this up with +an account of the Finlaysons' dance. +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina came up to me after conscientiously dancing reels with +Thomas, looking very pink and pretty, and thoughtful of me, as usual. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't stay longer than you feel inclined," she said. "I told them to +come for you in the dog-cart, and to wait about for you between twelve +and one." +</P> + +<P> +"I will take a turn down on the shore," I said, "and have a cigar, and +then I will come back and see how you are getting on." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina gave me my crutch, and I went down towards the loch, which +looked like a sheet of silver in the moonlight, and I found Anthony and +Mrs. Fielden sitting on a garden bench beneath some wind-torn beeches +by the shore. To-night there was not a breath of air stirring, and +Mrs. Fielden had only thrown a light wrap round her. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you come to tell me that I am to go in and dance reels with old +Mr. Finlayson?" she said. "It is really so much pleasanter out here. +Do sit down and talk to Sir Anthony and me." +</P> + +<P> +She would never have allowed one to know that one was in the way, even +if one had interrupted a proposal of marriage. +</P> + +<P> +Anthony made room for me on the bench, and said heartily, "I am awfully +glad to see you able to sit up like this, Hugo. Why, man, you're +getting as strong as a horse!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh. I'm all right again," I said. "I'll begin to grow a new leg +soon. And the first thing I mean to do when that happens is to dance +reels like the Finlaysons." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I ought to be going in to supper now with Mr. Finlayson," +said Mrs. Fielden. "Does any one know what time it is? He said he +would 'conduct me to the dining-hall' at twelve o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a quarter past now," said Anthony, looking at his watch in the +moonlight. "Don't go in, Mrs. Fielden. Wait out here, and talk to +Hugo and me." +</P> + +<P> +But old Finlayson in his kilt had tracked us to our seat underneath the +beech-trees, and he took instant possession of our fair neighbour, and +told us to follow presently. He thought all the supper-tables were +full just now. +</P> + +<P> +"We shan't eat everything before you come," said hospitable old +Finlayson, walking away with his beautiful partner on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden was dressed in white satin, with some pretty soft stuff +about her, and she wore some white heather in her hair. +</P> + +<P> +"What a good sort she is!" said Anthony in a loud voice, almost before +Mrs. Fielden was out of hearing. +</P> + +<P> +It wasn't, perhaps, the most poetical way in which he could have put +it, but one didn't want or expect Anthony to express himself poetically. +</P> + +<P> +"Utterly spoilt!" I replied, because at that moment I happened to be +feeling supremely miserable, and I did not want Anthony to know it. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit," he replied; "and you know that as well as I do, old chap." +</P> + +<P> +"Allow me, Anthony," I said, "to be as savage as I like; it is one of +the privileges of a cripple." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, blow cripples!" said Anthony. "You will be shooting next autumn, +man." +</P> + +<P> +"And what will you be doing?" I said. After all, we have been pals all +our lives, and I think Anthony might tell me about it if there is +anything to tell. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'll be shooting too, I suppose," said Anthony. +</P> + +<P> +We smoked for some time in silence. +</P> + +<P> +And then Anthony began, and said that he had enjoyed himself amazingly +up here in the North, and he went on to say a good word for every one. +Old Finlayson had been a brick about his shooting and deer-stalking, +and it was beastly hard luck that I hadn't been able to come too. The +minister wasn't a bad fellow, even when he was jocose; and Evan +Sinclair was one of the best; and so on. +</P> + +<P> +"What shall you be doing when you go back, Anthony?" I said, harking +back to my old question, and hoping for more information than I +actually asked for. "Are you going straight home?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be at the first shoot at Stanby. Shall you be there?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid not," I said. "I haven't learned to do cross-stitch yet, +and I'm sure all the women would think me a great bore, sitting about +in their morning-rooms all day. Except Mrs. Fielden, of course! Mrs. +Fielden would probably persuade me into thinking that the only thing +that made her house-party successful, or saved herself from boredom, +was the presence of a lame man in the house." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think you are quite just about Mrs. Fielden, Hugo," said +Anthony, moving rather resentfully on the garden bench. +</P> + +<P> +"That doesn't matter much," I replied. "One voice will not be missed +from the general chorus of praise that follows Mrs. Fielden wherever +she goes." +</P> + +<P> +"No; but still——" began Anthony; and then he stopped, and we smoked +on for some time without speaking. "You see," he began at last, "she +is the best friend I ever had." He did not lower his voice, because I +suppose Anthony finds it impossible to do so, but went on steadily: +"You see, I once cared for a little cousin of hers, and she died when +she was eighteen. I don't think anybody ever knew about it, except +Mrs. Fielden. But she knows how much cut up I was, and I suppose that +is why she is so nice to me always." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm awfully sorry!" I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I never meant to speak about it," said Anthony in a brisk, cheerful +voice. "Oh, don't you bother about it, Hugo! I mean I'm awfully keen +about hunting, and I have an excellent time, only I don't suppose I +shall ever care for any one else." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks for telling me, Tony." +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't have said anything about it," said Anthony, "if it hadn't +been for what you said about Mrs. Fielden. Y'see, she has been so +awfully good to me, and I don't think you quite understand all she is +really." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, man," I cried, "I love her with every bit of my heart! And I +worship her—how does one say one worships a woman?—as if she were the +sun!" +</P> + +<P> +And I think that was the very first moment that I told myself that I +loved Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX. +</H3> + +<P> +The minister and Evan Sinclair came to say good-bye; the minister has +accepted our approaching departure with his usual philosophy. "You +would soon tire of this place in the winter-time," he said. "And even +looking at it from the other point of view, I believe that summer +visitors should not prolong their stay above a few months. I admit +that we have enjoyed your sojourn amongst us; but were you and your +sister to become residenters in the place, our intercourse would have +to be reconstructed from the foundation." The minister crossed his +legs, and, without being pressed to continue the subject, he went on: +"There is a certain conventionality, not to say forbearance, admitted +and allowed between friends with whom one's acquaintance is to be +short; but there is a basis stronger than that upon which any lengthy +friendship must be made." +</P> + +<P> +"And that basis?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"That basis, I take it," said the minister, "should be a +straightforward disregard for one another. I do not believe in +politeness between near neighbours; it cannot last." +</P> + +<P> +"I had hoped," said Palestrina, pouting a little, "that you would all +miss us, Mr. Macorquodale." +</P> + +<P> +"We shall miss you," said the minister quickly, but with judgment. "We +shall see the merits as well as the demerits of the case. For +instance, one of your friends cost me a sovereign for a favourite +charity of hers." +</P> + +<P> +Evan Sinclair said very kindly, blinking his fair eyelashes in a shy +way, "Well, I know I shall miss you. The place will seem very dull +with only Alexander and me left in it." +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I</I> shall have my wife," said the minister brutally. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Sinclair; "and her mother! You have kept that pretty dark +from us, Taurbarrels." +</P> + +<P> +"It is only a visit," said Mr. Macorquodale shortly. And he went on in +a truculent tone, "And I need not have her unless I want to." +</P> + +<P> +"I hear she is strict," murmured Evan. "I hope you will be allowed to +look out of the window on the Sabbath, my man." +</P> + +<P> +"I am master in my own house," said Mr. Macorquodale magnificently. +</P> + +<P> +"Believe me," said Evan, "that's a courtesy title, supported by no +valid claim, and still less precedent. A man never has been master of +his own house when there is a mistress in it. I remember when my +brother got married he had just your very ideas, and he gave his wife +the keys of the linen-press and the store-cupboard, 'But the rest of +the bunch,' he said, 'I keep to myself.' And he put them all in his +pocket. It was not six months after that," said Evan, "that I went to +stay with them, and I heard him ask my sister-in-law if she would mind +his having two pocket-handkerchiefs on Sundays." +</P> + +<P> +Palestrina and I were alone, for Ellicomb had left us a few days +before, and we hear from the Jamiesons that he is a daily visitor at +their house. Thomas and Anthony were out shooting, and Mrs. Fielden +had gone for a walk over the hills. +</P> + +<P> +"I have a thousand things to do," said Palestrina, when Evan and the +minister had departed. +</P> + +<P> +"I also have a thousand things to do," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't tire yourself," said Palestrina. "What are you going to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to re-write my diary," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"But, my dear," said Palestrina, "that would be the work of months." +</P> + +<P> +"I am only going to correct all the mistakes I have made in it," I +replied; and I took my book and a pen, and went and sat in the little +room on the ground-floor which they call my den. +</P> + +<P> +We once had an old aunt, Palestrina and I, who kept a diary all her +life, and when any of the relatives whom she mentioned in its pages +came to die, she used to go through all the back numbers of her journal +and insert affectionate epithets in front of the names of the deceased. +For instance (my aunt's existence was not marked by any thrilling +events), the entry would perhaps be as follows: "Maria was late for +breakfast this morning. In the afternoon she had her singing-lesson, +and afterwards we did some shopping, when Maria tried on her new gown." +But the amended entry after Maria's death would be, "Our darling Maria +was (a little) late for breakfast this morning; in the afternoon she +had her singing-lesson"—and here would probably be a footnote praising +Maria's voice—"afterwards we did some shopping, and"—Maria struck +out—"my sweet girl tried on her new gown." Any one's death, or even a +successful marriage of one of the family, would cause her to revise and +correct her diary in this way, and she used to fan the wet ink with a +piece of blotting-paper to make it dry black, and thus prevent +posterity from knowing that the words written over the lines were an +afterthought induced by subsequent events. +</P> + +<P> +It was manifestly an unfair way of keeping a diary. But I can claim +her example and hereditary taint as an excuse for my own dishonesty +this afternoon. I read through my diary with a sense of utter shame, +and wherever I found, for instance, that I had said that Mrs. Fielden +was frivolous, or even that she raised her eyebrows in an affected way, +I corrected the misstatement by the light of the magnificent discovery +I had made that Mrs. Fielden was faultless, and that I loved her. Oh, +the beauty of this woman and her blessed kindness! the cunning with +which she conceals her unselfishness, and her ridiculous attempts at +pretending she is frivolous or worldly. +</P> + +<P> +Alas! there were so many misstatements to correct, and so many dear +adjectives to fill in, that I was not halfway through my task before +Mrs. Fielden herself tapped at the window and looked in. +</P> + +<P> +I believe I must have grinned foolishly, but what I wanted to do was to +stretch out my arms to the beautiful vision, framed in the hectic +Virginian creeper round the window, and call out to her to come to me. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden came in for a minute, and said with the adorable lift of +the eyebrows: "I have been educating a pair of young boots by walking +through all the bogs on the hillside. Listen, they are quite full of +water." She raised herself on her toes with a squelching sound of the +leather, and gave one of her joyous soft laughs. +</P> + +<P> +"You must change directly," I said, with an idiotic sense of +proprietorship. +</P> + +<P> +"When I have done so I think I shall come and have tea with you," said +Mrs. Fielden. And of course then I knew that she had come home early +on purpose to have tea with me, and that probably she had given up +something else which she wanted to do, in order that she might sit by +me when I was alone—because of course I have found Mrs. Fielden out +now, and exposed her hypocrisy. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately she took nearly a quarter of an hour to change her wet +boots, and this gave me time to ask myself why I was behaving like a +raving idiot, because I had found out that Mrs. Fielden was absolutely +perfect, and that I loved her. +</P> + +<P> +It was quite the worst quarter of an hour that I have ever spent, +because in it I had time to remember that I was a crippled man with one +leg, and that Mrs. Fielden was a beautiful young woman whom of course +every one loved, and that she owned an old historical place called +Stanby, and probably—I realized this also—that she would continue to +come over and sit with a dull man and bewilder him with her beauty and +her kindness only so long as he did not allow her to know the supremely +impertinent fact that he had fallen in love with her. +</P> + +<P> +I must plead ill-health, and a certain weakness of nerve which no doubt +always follows a surgical operation, for the fact that I turned round +and put my face in the pillows for a moment and groaned. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden came in in my favourite pale-blue gown which she sometimes +wears when she changes her frock at tea-time. She came and took a seat +beside me, and as she never hurriedly plunges into a conversation we +sat silent for a time. The afternoon was darkening now, and the light +of a blazing fire leaped and played upon her pale-blue dress, and +turned her brown hair to a sort of red-gold. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden thinks she is the only person in the world who can make up +a fire. And she is perfectly right. She arranged the logs with a long +brass poker, shifting them here and there, while her dear face glowed +in the light of the fire. She is not a luxurious woman, in spite of +being surrounded always by luxury. For instance, she stands and walks +in a very erect way, and I have never seen her stuff a lot of sofa +cushions at her back in a chair, nor lounge on a sofa. Her glorious, +buoyant health seems to exempt her from need of support or ease, and +her figure is too pretty for lounging. +</P> + +<P> +When she had finished arranging the logs she put down the poker and +looked at me with that dear kindliness of hers, and said in her pretty +voice, "What have you been doing with yourself this afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +"The minister and Evan Sinclair came up to say good-bye," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"And since then?" +</P> + +<P> +I took my diary, which still lay on my knee, and hid it under the sofa +cushions. +</P> + +<P> +"Since then," I said, "I have been correcting—that is, writing my +diary." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the diary!" exclaimed Mrs. Fielden delightedly. "I had forgotten +about that!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, you hadn't," I said to myself. "It is only part of your wilful, +uncomprehendable, untranslatable charm that makes you pretend sometimes +that you have no memory. As a matter of fact, you knew from the first +that it would be a relief to an egotistical grumbler to get rid of his +spleen sometimes on blue ruled essay paper, and so you set him a task +to do, and you have often wondered since how he is getting on with it. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I must see the diary," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"That you certainly shall not," I said; and I pushed the book still +farther under the sofa cushions—just as if it was necessary to fight +with Mrs. Fielden for anything, or any use either! +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you promised," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"If I did I have changed my mind," I said firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"You know you mean all the time to let me see it," said Mrs. Fielden. +</P> + +<P> +"I know I do not mean to let you see it for even a minute of time," I +replied. +</P> + +<P> +One of Mrs. Fielden's special odd little silences fell between us. +"No," I said to myself. "I will <I>not</I> say I am sorry. I will <I>not</I> +say I have been a brute, I will <I>not</I> feel a desire to comfort her, +even if her eyes have the wistful look in them." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fielden sat still and looked into the fire. +</P> + +<P> +What unexpected thing will she do next, I wonder? Will she suddenly +burst out laughing, or will she turn and take every bit of manhood out +of me by smiling? Or shall I find, when I turn and look at her face, +simply that she has gone to sleep? +</P> + +<P> +Good heavens! What if she should be crying? +</P> + +<P> +In an agony of compunction I turned and looked at her; and Mrs. Fielden +not only smiled, but held out her hand for the book.... I rummaged +underneath the sofa cushions, and passed it over to her. She bent +forward till the firelight from the blazing logs fell full on the open +page, and she read every one of those corrected lines. She saw where I +had once put "affected" I had now put "beautiful," and for "frivolous" +I put a "lovely gaiety," and she read till she came to the last +correction of all. I had run a line through the words "Mrs. Fielden +came to sit with me," and had written over it, "My darling came to see +me——" +</P> + +<P> +Then Mrs. Fielden closed the book, and left her chair where she had +been sitting. She crossed the hearthrug quite slowly till she reached +my sofa. And then she kneeled down and took both my hands in her dear +strong ones, and looked at me with misty blue eyes, like wet +forget-me-nots. "But, Hugo dear," she said, "why did you not tell me +long ago?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> + +<P CLASS="t2"> + <I>UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +BY Miss MACNAUGHTAN.<BR> +<BR> +THE FORTUNE OF CHRISTINA M'NAB.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<PRE STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +THE DUENNA OF A GENIUS. M. E. Francis. +OWD BOB. Alfred Ollivant. +EIGHT DAYS. R. E. Forrest. +LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET. Miss Braddon. +THE OCTOPUS. Frank Norris. +THE PIT. Frank Norris. +MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE, Etc. Booth Tarkington. +WOODSIDE FARM. Mrs. W. K. Clifford. +WHITE FANG. Jack London. +THE PRINCESS PASSES. C. N. & A. M. Williamson. +THE MAN FROM AMERICA. Mrs. H. de la Pasture. +SIR JOHN CONSTANTINE. "Q" +INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. A. and E. Castle. +IF YOUTH BUT KNEW! A. and E. Castle. +MATTHEW AUSTIN. W. E. Norris. +HIS GRACE. W. E. Norris. +THE AMERICAN PRISONER. Eden Phillpotts. +THE HOSTS OF THE LORD. Mrs. F. A. Steel. +THE LADY OF THE BARGE. W. W. Jacobs. +THE GOD IN THE CAR. Anthony Hope. +QUISANTE. Anthony Hope. +THE INTRUSIONS OF PEGGY. Anthony Hope. +THE KING'S MIRROR. Anthony Hope. +THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE. Sir G. Parker. +AN ADVENTURER OF THE NORTH. Sir G. Parker. +THE BATTLE OF THE STRONG. Sir G. Parker. +MARRIAGE OF WILLIAM ASHE. Mrs. Humphry Ward +HISTORY OF DAVID GRIEVE. Mrs. Humphry Ward. +ROBERT ELSMERE. Mrs. Humphry Ward. +CLEMENTINA. A. E. W. Mason. +THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne. +THE WAGES OF SIN. Lucas Malet. +</PRE> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<I>Etc., Etc.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +<I>NELSON'S LIBRARY.</I> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Lame Dog's Diary, by S. 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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: A Lame Dog's Diary + +Author: S. Macnaughtan + +Release Date: February 3, 2011 [EBook #34777] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LAME DOG'S DIARY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: "But, Hugo dear," she said, "why did you not tell me +long ago?"] + + + + +A LAME DOG'S DIARY + + +S. Macnaughtan + + + + +Thomas Nelson and Sons, + +London, Edinburgh, and New York + +1908 + + + + +A LAME DOG'S DIARY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Perhaps curiosity has never been more keen, nor mystery more baffling, +than has been the case during the last few weeks. There have been "a +few friends to tea" at almost every house in the village to see if in +this way any reasonable conclusions can be arrived at, and even +Palestrina is satisfied with the number of people who have taken the +trouble to walk up the hill and chat by my sofa in the afternoons. But +although each lady who has called has remarked that she is in the +secret, but at present is not at liberty to say anything about it, we +are inclined to think that this is vain boasting, or at least selfish +reticence. + +The two Miss Traceys have announced to almost every caller at their +little cottage during the last two years that they intend to build. + +We have all been naturally a good deal impressed by this statement, and +although it was never plainly said what the structure was to be, we had +had for a long time a notion of a detached house on the Common. And +surely enough the foundation-stone was laid last year by Miss Ruby +Tracey with some ceremony, and the first turf of the garden was cut by +Miss Tracey, and only last month the whole of the Fern Cottage +furniture was removed in a van to Fairview, as the new house is +called--the handsomer pieces placed upon the outside of the van, and +the commoner and least creditable of the bedroom furniture within. +Every one was at his or her window on the day that the Miss Traceys' +furniture, with the best cabinet and the inlaid card-table duly +displayed, was driven in state by the driver of the station omnibus +through the town. A rumour got abroad that even more beautiful things +were concealed from view inside the van, and the Miss Traceys satisfied +their consciences by saying, "We did not spread the rumour, and we +shall not contradict it." + +But the mystery concerns the furniture in quite a secondary sort of +way, and it is only important as being the means of giving rise to the +much-discussed rumour in the town. For mark, the drawing-room +furniture was taken at once and stored in a spare bedroom, and the +drawing-room was left unfurnished. This fact might have remained in +obscurity, for in winter time, at least, it is not unusual for ladies +to receive guests in the dining-room with an apology, the drawing-room +being a cold sitting-room during the frost. But Mrs. Lovekin, the lady +who acts as co-hostess at every entertainment in our neighbourhood, +handing about her friends' cakes and tea, and taking, we are inclined +to think, too much upon herself, did, in a moment of expansion, offer +to show the Traceys' house to the Blinds, who happened to call there on +the day when she was paying her respects to Miss Tracey. Mrs. Lovekin +always removes her bonnet and cloak in every house, and this helps the +suggestion that she is in some sort a hostess everywhere. + +Palestrina, who was also calling on the Miss Traceys, gave me a full, +true, and particular account of the affair the same evening. + +"Mind the wet paint," Mrs. Lovekin called from the dining-room window +to the Miss Blinds as they came in at the gate, "and I'll open the +door," she remarked, as she sailed out into the passage to greet the +sisters. Miss Ruby Tracey would rather have done this politeness +herself, in order that she might hear the flattering remarks which +people were wont to make about the hall paper. It is so well known +that she and her sister keep three servants that they never have any +hesitation in going to the door themselves. Whereas the Miss Blinds, +who have only one domestic, would seem hardly to know where their front +door is situated. + +"What an elegant paper!" exclaimed Miss Lydia Blind, stopping awestruck +in the little hall. Miss Lydia would, one knows, have something kind +to say if she went to pay a call at a Kaffir hut. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Lovekin in a proprietary sort of way; "it is one of +Moseley's which Smithson got down in his book of patterns. The blue +paint is what they call 'eggshell'--quite a new shade. Come this way +and have a cup of tea." + +"I am sure it is all very simple," said Miss Tracey, in a disparaging +manner that showed her good breeding, as they sat down in the +dining-room. "How do you like the new carpet, Miss Belinda?" + +"Glory, glory, glory!" said Miss Belinda; "glory, glory, glory!" + +"Show Miss Lydia the new footstools, Ruby dear," said Miss Tracey; "I +am sure she would like to see them." For we all believe--or like to +believe--that to praise our property must be Miss Lydia's highest +pleasure. + +Mrs. Lovekin seized the opportunity to act as tea-maker to the party. +She poured cream and sugar into the cups with the remark that there was +no one in Stowel whose tastes in these respects she did not know, and +she handed a plate of cake to Miss Belinda, saying,-- + +"There, my dear, you sit comfortable and eat that." + +"Glory, glory, glory!" said Miss Belinda. + +The Miss Traceys had tea dispensed to them by the same hand, and +accepted it with that slight sense of bewilderment which Mrs. Lovekin +sometimes makes us feel when she looks after us in our own houses; and +Miss Lydia Blind distributed her thanks equally between her and the +Miss Traceys. + +Nothing was talked of that afternoon but the new house--its sunny +aspect and its roomy cupboards in particular commanding the heartiest +commendation. Presently the ladies were taken to see all over it, with +the exception of one of the spare bedrooms and the drawing-room. They +knew these rooms existed, because Miss Tracey paused at the door of +each, and said lightly, "This is the drawing-room," and "This is +another spare bedroom;" and although, as my sister confided to me, they +would have given much to see the interior of the rooms, they could not +do so, of course, uninvited. + +They paused to admire something at every turn, even saying generously, +but playfully, that there were many of Miss Tracey's possessions which +they positively coveted for themselves. The Miss Traceys smilingly +repudiated their felicitations, while Mrs. Lovekin accepted them and +announced the price of everything. She became quite breathless, +hurrying upstairs, while she exhibited stair-rods and carpets, and with +shortened breath apostrophized them as being "real brass" or "the best +Brussels at five-and-threepence." No one is vulgar in Stowel, but Mrs. +Lovekin is, we fear, not genteel. + +At the close of the visit, Mrs. Lovekin again ushered the visitors into +the hall, and opening, "by the merest accident," as she afterwards +said--without, however, gaining any credence for her statement--opening +by the merest accident the door of the drawing-room, she peeped in. + +The drawing-room was void of furniture. The wild thought came into +Mrs. Lovekin's mind--had the Traceys overbuilt themselves, and had the +furniture, which had been carried so proudly through the town on the +top of the furniture-van, been sold to pay expenses? The suggestion +was immediately put aside. The Miss Traceys' comfortable means were so +well known that such an explanation could not be seriously contemplated +for a moment. No; putting two and two together, a closed spare bedroom +and an empty drawing-room, and bringing a woman's instinct to bear upon +the question, it all pointed to one thing--the Miss Traceys were going +to give a party, probably an evening party, in honour of the new house, +and the drawing-room furniture was being stored for safety in the spare +bedroom until the rout was over. Doubtless the first rumour of the +Miss Traceys' party was meanly come by, but it was none the less +engrossing, all the same. Miss Lydia hoped that no one would believe +for a moment that she was in any way connected with the fraudulent +intrusion that had been made into Miss Tracey's secret, and Miss Tracey +said,-- + +"I have known Mary Anne Lovekin for thirty years"--this was +understating the case, but numbers are not exactly stated as we grow +older--"but I never would have believed that she could have done such a +thing." + +"Bad butter," said Miss Belinda, shaking her head in an emphatic +fashion; "bad butter, bad butter!" + +"I do not want to judge people," said Miss Tracey; "but there was a +want of delicacy about opening a closed door which I for one cannot +forgive." The Miss Traceys' good-breeding is proverbial in Stowel, and +it was felt that her uncompromising attitude could not but be excused +when it was a matter of her most honourable sensibilities having been +outraged. + +"_I_ shall not say what I think," said Miss Ruby. + +We often find that when Miss Ruby cannot transcend what her sister has +said, she has a way of hinting darkly at a possible brilliance of +utterance which for some reason she refrains from making. + +"Bad butter!" said Miss Belinda; "bad, bad butter!" + +Many years ago Miss Belinda Blind, who was then a beautiful young +woman, was thrown from a pony carriage. The result of the fall was an +injury to the spine, and she was smitten with a paralytic stroke which +deprived her of all power of speech. She was dumb for some years, and +then two phrases came back to her stammering tongue, "glory," and "bad +butter." She understands perfectly what is said to her, but she has no +means of replying, save in this very limited vocabulary. And, +strangely enough, these words can only be made to correspond with Miss +Belinda's feelings. However polite her intentions may be, if at heart +she disapproves she can only utter her two words of opprobrium. When a +sermon displeases her she sits in her pew muttering softly, and her +lips show by their movement the words she is repeating; while a +particularly good cup of tea will evoke from her the extravagant +phrase, "Glory, glory, glory!" + +"Certainly," I said to Miss Lydia on the day succeeding the famous +visit to the Traceys, "Mrs. Lovekin's information, if so it may be +called, has been wrongly come by, and yet so frail is human nature one +cannot help speculating upon it." + +"That is what is so sad," said Miss Lydia; "one almost feels as though +sharing in Mrs. Lovekin's deceit by dwelling upon her information, and +yet one's mind seems incapable of even partially forgetting such an +announcement." + +Perhaps some suggestion of what was forming the topic of conversation +in the town may have reached the Miss Traceys, and hastened their +disclosure of the mystery. For very shortly afterwards, one morning +when a flood of April sunshine had called us out of doors to wander on +the damp paths of the garden, and watch bursting buds and listen to the +song of birds in a very rural and delightful fashion, we were informed +by a servant who tripped out in a white cap and apron, quite dazzling +in the sunshine, that the Miss Traceys were within. + +I appealed to my sister to furnish me with a means of escape. But she +replied: "I am afraid they have seen you. Besides, you know I like you +to see people." We went indoors, and Miss Ruby apologized for the +untimely hour at which she and her sister had come, but explained it by +saying, "We wanted to find you alone." And then we knew that the +mystery was about to be solved. + +"You are the first to hear about it," said Miss Tracey in a manner +which was distinctly flattering. The Miss Traceys sit very erect on +their chairs, and when they come to call I always apologize for having +my leg up on the sofa. + +"The fact is," Miss Tracey went on, "that we knew that we could rely +upon your good sense and judgment in a matter which is exercising us +very seriously at present." + +"It is a delicate subject, of course," said Miss Ruby, "but one which +we feel certain we may confide to you." + +"We always look upon Mr. Hugo as a man of the world," said Miss Tracey, +"although he is such an invalid, and we rely upon the sound judgment of +you both." + +Well, to state the subject without further preamble--but of course it +must be understood that everything spoken this morning was to be in +strict confidence--would we consider that they, the Miss Traceys, were +sufficiently chaperoned if their brother the Vicar were present at the +dance, and promised not to leave until the last gentleman had quitted +the house? + +I do not like to overstate a lady's age, and it is with the utmost +diffidence that I suggest that Miss Ruby Tracey, the younger of the two +sisters, may be on the other side of forty. + +"You see, we have not only our own good name to consider," said Miss +Tracey, "but the memory of our dear and ever-respected father must, we +feel, be our guide in this matter, and we cannot decide how he would +have wished us to act. If our brother were married it would simplify +matters very much." + +"You would have had your invitation before now," said Miss Ruby, "if we +had been able to come to a decision, but without advice we felt that +was impossible. I am sure," she went on, giving her mantle a little +nervous composing touch, and glancing aside as though hardly liking to +face any eye directly--"I am sure the things one hears of unmarried +women doing nowadays ... but of course one would not like to be classed +with that sort of person." + +Palestrina was the first of us who spoke. + +"I think," she said gravely, "that as you are so well known here, +nothing could be said." + +"You really think so?" said Miss Ruby. + +But Miss Tracey still demurred. She said: "But it is the fact of our +being so well known here that really constitutes my chief uneasiness. +We often feel," she added with a sigh, "that in another place we could +have more liberty." + +"I assure you," said Miss Ruby, in a tone of playful confession, "that +when we go to visit our cousins in London we are really quite +shockingly frivolous. I do not know what it is about London; one +always seems to throw off all restraint." + +"I think you are giving a wrong impression, dear," said Miss Tracey. +"There was nothing in the whole of our conduct in London which would +not bear repetition in Stowel. Only, in a place like this, one feels +one must often explain one's actions, lest they should give rise to +misrepresentations; whereas in London, although behaving, I hope, in a +manner just as circumspect, one feels that no apology or explanation is +needed." + +"There is a sort of cheerful privacy about London," said the other +sister, "which I find it hard to explain, but which is nevertheless +enjoyable." + +To say that there is a dull publicity about the country, was too +obvious a retort. + +"I think we went out every evening when we were in West Kensington," +said Miss Tracey. + +"Counting church in the evening," said Miss Ruby. + +"Still, those evening services in London almost count as going out," +said Miss Tracey; "I mean, they are so lively. I often blame myself +for not being able to look upon them more in the light of a religious +exercise. I find it as difficult to worship in a strange pew as to +sleep comfortably in a strange bed." + +The Miss Traceys' morning call lasted until one o'clock, and even then, +as they themselves said, rising and shaking out their poplin skirts, +there was much left undiscussed which they would still have liked to +talk over with us. The ball supper, as they called it, was to be +cooked at home, and to consist of nothing which could not be "eaten in +the hand." + +Claret-cup was, to use Miss Tracey's own figure of speech, to be +"flowing" the whole evening, both in the dining-room with the +sandwiches and cakes, and on a tray placed in a recess behind the hall +door. + +"Gentlemen always seem so thirsty," said Miss Tracey, making the remark +as though speaking of some animal of strange habits which she had +considered with the bars of its cage securely fixed between herself and +it at the Zoo. + +"We have bought six bottles of Essence of Claret-cup," said the younger +sister, "which we have seen very highly recommended in advertisements; +and although it says that three tablespoonfuls will make a quart of the +cup, we thought of putting four, and so having it good." + +"As regards the music," went on Miss Tracey, "we have come, I think, to +a very happy decision. A friend of ours knows a blind man who plays +the piano for dances, and by employing him we feel that we shall be +giving remunerative work to a very deserving person, as well as +ensuring for ourselves a really choice selection of the most +fashionable waltzes. Ruby pronounces the floor perfect," said Miss +Tracey, glancing admiringly at her younger sister's still neat figure +and nimble feet; "she has been practising upon it several times----" + +"With the blinds down, dear," amended Miss Ruby, simpering a little. +"We understand," she continued, "that some chalk sprinkled over the +boards before dancing begins is beneficial. You should have known +Stowel in the old days, when there was a county ball every winter at +the Three Jolly Postboys--such a name!" continued Miss Ruby, who was in +that curiously excited state when smiles and even giggles come easily. + +"Now remember," said Miss Tracey to Palestrina, as she took leave of +her, "you must come and help with the decorations on the morning of the +dance. You can rest in the afternoon, so as to look your best and +rosiest in the evening." + +In Stowel it is ingenuously admitted that a young lady should try and +look her best when gentlemen are to be present, and rosy cheeks are +still in vogue. + +The Miss Traceys' drawing-room is not a very large room, even when +empty of furniture, but it certainly had a most festive appearance when +we drove up to the famous house-warming. Every curtain was looped with +evergreens, and every fireplace was piled with ivy, while two large +flags, which were referred to several times as "a display of bunting," +festooned the little staircase. Several friends in the village had +lent their white-capped maids for the occasion, and these ran against +each other in the little linoleum passage in a state of great +excitement, and called each other "dear" in an exuberance of affection +which relieved their fluttered feelings. + +A palm had been ordered from London and placed triumphantly in a +corner--the palm had been kept as a surprise for us all. In the course +of the evening it was quite a common thing to hear some girl ask her +partner if he had seen The Palm; and if the reply was in the negative, +the couple made a journey to the hall to look at it. + +And here I must note a curious trait in the conversation prevalent in +our select circle at Stowel. We all speak in capitals. The definite +article is generally preferred to the "a" or "an" which points out a +common noun; and so infectious is the habit, that when writing, for +instance, of the Jamiesons, I find myself referring to The Family, with +a capital, quite in a royal way, so perspicuously are capital letters +suggested by their manner of speech. In the same way, the Taylors' +uncle is never referred to by any of us except as The Uncle, and I feel +sure that I should be doing the Traceys' plant an injustice if I did +not write it down The Palm. + +This, however, is a digression. + +The calmness of the Miss Traceys was almost overdone. They stood at +the door of their drawing-room, each holding a small bouquet in her +hand, and they greeted their guests as though nothing could be more +natural than to give a dance, or to stand beneath a doorway draped with +white lace curtains, and with a background of dissipated-looking +polished boards and evergreens. The elder Miss Tracey, who is tall, +was statuesque and dignified; the younger lady was conversational and +natural almost to the point of artificiality--so determined was Miss +Ruby to repudiate any hint of arrogance this evening. And it may be +said of both sisters that they were strikingly well-bred and +unembarrassed. Those who had seen them in all the flutter of +preparations during the day--washing china and glass, issuing packets +of candles from their store cupboard below the stairs, and jingling +large bunches of keys--could admire these outward symbols of ease, and +appreciate the self-restraint that they involved. + +I do not remember before, at any dance, seeing so many old young +ladies, or so few and such very juvenile young men. The elderly young +ladies smiled the whole time, while their boy partners looked +preternaturally grave and solemn. They appeared to be shyly conscious +of their shirt collars, and these, I fancy, must have been made after +some exaggerated pattern which I cannot now recall; I only remember +that they appeared to be uncomfortably high and somewhat conspicuous, +and that they gave one the idea of being the wearers' first high +collars. + +The Vicar, who had promised to come at eight o'clock so that there +should be no mistake about his being in the house from first to last of +the dance, and who had been sent for in a panic at a quarter past +eight, acted conscientiously throughout the entire entertainment. He +began by inviting Mrs. Fielden to dance, and afterwards he asked every +lady in turn according to her rank, and I do not think that during the +entire evening his feet can have failed to respond to a single bar of +the music. The blind musician was a little late in arriving, and we +all sat round the drawing-room with our backs to the new blue wallpaper +and longed for home. No one dared to offer to play a waltz, in case it +should be considered an affront at a party where etiquette was so +conspicuous, and where the peculiar Stowel air of mystery pervaded +everything. + +The Jamiesons arrived, a party of nine, in the station omnibus, and +chatted in the hearty, unaffected manner peculiar to themselves, waving +little fans to and fro in the chilly air of the new drawing-room, and +putting an end to the solemn silence which had distinguished the first +half-hour of the party. Each of the sisters wore a black dress +relieved by a touch of colour, and carried a fan. Their bright eyes +shone benignly behind their several pairs of pince-nez; and as they +shook hands with an air of delight with every single person in the room +when they entered, their arrival caused quite a pleasant stir. + +Mrs. Lovekin had already, in her character of co-hostess, begun to +distribute the Essence of Claret-cup that, diluted with water, formed +the staple beverage of the evening and was placed on a small table +behind the hall-door. There was rather a curious sediment left at the +bottom of the glasses, and the flavour of cucumber suggested vaguely to +one that the refreshment might be claret-cup. Very young men in split +white kid gloves drank a good deal of it. + +At last the blind musician was led solemnly across the room, and took +up his position at the piano. He always left off playing before a +figure of a quadrille or lancers was finished, and then the dancers +clapped their hands to make him continue, and the elderly young ladies +smiled more than ever. At the second or third waltz my sister was in +the proud position of being claimed in turn by the Vicar as his +partner; and the position, besides being prominent, was such an +enviable one that Palestrina, who is not more given to humility than +other good-looking young women of her age, was carried away by popular +feeling so far as to remark in a tone of gratitude that this was very +kind of him. + +He replied, "I have made up my mind to sacrifice myself for the night;" +and one realized that a lofty position and a prominent place in the +world may carry with them sufficient humiliations to keep one meek. + +The conscientious Vicar did not allow his partner to sit down once +throughout the entire waltz, and I think the blind musician played at +greater length than usual. I began to wonder if her partner regarded +my excellent Palestrina as a sort of Sandow exerciser, and whether he +was trying to get some healthy gymnastics, if not amusement, out of +their dance together. + +"There!" he said at last, placing her on a chair beside me as a +fulfilled duty; and feeling that she was expected to say "Thank you," +Palestrina meekly said it. + +"I have only danced once in the last twenty years," said the Vicar, +"and that was with some choir boys." And the next moment the blind man +began to play again, and he was footing it with conscientious energy +with Miss Lydia Blind. + +Young ladies who had sat long with their empty programmes in their +hands now began to dance with each other with an air of overdone +merriment, protesting that they did not know how to act gentleman, but +declaring with emphasis that it was just as amusing to dance with a +girl-friend as with a man. + +The music, as usual, failed before the end of each figure of the dance, +and the curate, who wore a pair of very smart shoe-buckles, remarked to +me that the lancers was a dance that created much diversion, and I +replied that they were too amusing for anything. + +The Jamiesons' youngest brother, who is in a shipping-office in London, +had come down to Stowel especially for this occasion. Once, some years +ago, Kennie, as he is called, made a voyage in one of the shipping +company's large steamers to South America. He landed at Buenos Ayres +armed to the teeth, and walked about the pavement of that +highly-civilized town, with its wooden pavements and plate-glass shop +windows, in a sombrero and poncho, and with terrible weapons stuck in +his belt. At the end of a week he returned in the same ship in which +he had made the outward voyage, and since then he has had tales to tell +of those wild regions with which any of the stories in the _Boys' Own +Paper_ are tame in comparison. In his dress and general appearance he +even now suggests a pirate king. His tales of adventure are always +accompanied by explanatory gestures and demonstrations, and it is not +unusual to see Kennie stand up in the midst of an admiring circle of +friends and make some fierce sabre-cuts in the air. He was dressed +with a red cummerbund round his waist, and he drew attention to it by +an apology to every one of his partners for having it on. "One gets +into the habit of dressing like this out there," he said in a tone of +excuse. The Pirate Boy was in great demand at the dance. + +Pretty Mrs. Fielden, who had driven over from Stanby, beautifully +dressed as usual, and slightly amused, ordered her carriage early, and +had merely come to oblige those quaint old dears, the Miss Traceys. + +Even at the house-warming Mrs. Fielden would have considered it quite +impossible to sit out a dance. She brought an elderly Colonel with +her, and she conducted him into a corner behind The Palm, and talked to +him there till it was her turn to dance with the Vicar. Had it not +been Mrs. Fielden, whose position placed her above criticism, the +breath of envy might have whispered that it was hardly fair that one +couple should occupy the favourite sitting-out place--two drawing-room +chairs beneath The Palm--to the exclusion of others. But Mrs. Fielden +being whom she was, the young ladies of Stowel were content to pass and +repass the coveted chairs and to whisper admiringly, "How exquisite she +is looking to-night!" + +"Is there anything of me left?" she said to me, looking cool and +unruffled when her dance with the Vicar was over. She had only made +one short turn of the room with him, and her beautiful dress and her +hair were quite undisturbed. + +"You haven't danced half so conscientiously as his other partners +have," I said. + +"I wanted to talk about the parish," said Mrs. Fielden, "so I stopped. +I think I should like to go and get cool somewhere." + +"I will take you to sit under The Palm again, as Colonel Jardine did," +I replied, "and you shall laugh at all the broad backs and flat feet of +our country neighbours, and hear everybody say as they pass how +beautiful you are." + +Mrs. Fielden turned her head towards me as if to speak, and I had a +sudden vivid conviction that she would have told me I was rude had I +not been a cripple with one leg. + +We sat under The Palm. Mrs. Fielden never rushes into a conversation. +Presently she said,-- + +"Why do you come to this sort of thing? It can't amuse you." + +"You told me the other day," I said, "that I ought to cultivate a small +mind and small interests." + +"Did I?" said Mrs. Fielden lightly. "If I think one thing one day, I +generally think quite differently a day or two after. To-night, for +instance, I think it is a mistake for you to lean against the Miss +Traceys' new blue walls and watch us dance." + +"I'm not sure that it isn't better than sitting at home and reading how +well my old regiment is doing in South Africa. Besides, you know, I am +writing a diary." + +"Are you?" said Mrs. Fielden. + +"You advised it," I said. + +"Did I?" + +When Mrs. Fielden is provoking she always looks ten times prettier than +she does at other times. + +"A good many people in this little place," I said, "have made up their +minds to 'do the work that's nearest' and to help 'a lame dog over +stiles.' I think I should be rather a brute if I didn't respond to +their good intentions." + +"I don't think they need invent stiles, though!" said Mrs. Fielden +quickly; "wood-carving, and beating brass, and playing the zither----" + +"I do not play the zither," I said. + +"--are not stiles. They are making a sort of obstacle race of your +life." + +"Since I have begun to write the diary," I said, "I've been able to +excuse myself attempting these things, even when tools are kindly +brought to me. And, so far, no one has so absolutely forgotten that +there is a lingering spark of manhood in me as to suggest that I should +crochet or do cross-stitch." + +"You know I am going to help to write the diary," said Mrs. Fielden, +"only I'm afraid I shall have to go to all their tea-parties, shan't I, +to get copy?" + +"You will certainly have to go," I said. + +"I'm dreadfully bored to-night; aren't you?" she said confidentially, +and in a certain radiant fashion as distant as the Poles from boredom. +"No one can really enjoy this sort of thing, do you think? It's like +being poor, or anything disagreeable of that sort. People think they +ought to pretend to like it, but they don't." + +"I wish I could entertain you better," I said sulkily; "but I'm afraid +I never was the least bit amusing." + +Mrs. Fielden relapsed into one of her odd little silences, and I +determined I would not ask her what she was thinking about. + +Presently Colonel Jardine joined us, and she said to him: "Please see +if you can get my carriage; it must be five o'clock in the morning at +least." And the next moment I was made to feel the egotism of +imagining I had been punished, when she bade me a charming +"good-night." She smiled congratulations on her hostesses on the +success of the party, and pleaded the long drive to Stanby as an excuse +for leaving early. The Colonel wrapped her in a long, beautiful cloak +of some pale coloured velvet and fur--a sumptuous garment at which +young ladies in shawls looked admiringly--and Mrs. Fielden slipped it +on negligently, and got into her brougham. + +"Oh, how tired I am!" she said. + +"It was pretty deadly," said the Colonel. "Did you taste the +claret-cup?" he added, making a grimace in the dark. + +"Oh, I found it excellent," said Mrs. Fielden quickly. + +Margaret Jamieson now took her place at the piano, to enable the blind +man to go and have some supper; but, having had it, he slept so +peacefully that no one could bear to disturb him, so between them the +young ladies shared his duties till the close of the evening. + +Palestrina had suggested, as a little occupation for me, that I should +write out programmes for the dance, and I had done so. Surely +programmes were never so little needed before! Every grown man had +left the assembly long before twelve o'clock struck, the feebleness of +the excuses for departing thus early being only equalled by the gravity +with which they were made. Even the lawyer, who we thought would have +remained faithful to the end, pleaded that since he ricked his knee he +is obliged to have plenty of rest. The Pirate Boy had had some bitter +words with the lawyer at a previous stage in the evening about the way +in which the lancers should be danced, and had muttered darkly, "I +won't make a disturbance in a lady's house, but I have seen a fellow +called out for less." He considered that the lawyer was running away, +unable to bear his cold, keen eye upon him during the next lancers, and +he watched him depart, standing at the head of the tiny staircase, +beneath the display of bunting, with his arms folded in a Napoleonic +attitude. + +All good things come to an end, and even the Vicar of Stowel must have +felt that there are limits to the most conscientious energy. And +girls, dancing with each other, learn perhaps that the merriment caused +by acting as a man is not altogether lasting; while elderly young +ladies, although agreed in smiling to the very end, must be aware how +fixed in expression such a smile may become towards the end of a long +evening. + +Good-nights were said, and carriages were called up with a good deal of +unnecessary shouting, while the Pirate Boy insisted upon going to the +heads of the least restive horses and soothing them in a way which he +said he had learned from those Gaucho fellows out there. + +I have never been able to tell what the Miss Traceys thought about +their dance. If they were disappointed, the world was not allowed to +probe that tender spot. Possibly they were satisfied with its success; +the proprietary instinct of admiration applies to entertainments as +well as to tangible possessions. But that satisfaction, if it existed, +was modestly veiled--the house-warming was less discussed by them than +by any one else. Miss Ruby spoke rather wistfully one day about simple +pleasures being the best and safest after all, and she alluded with a +sigh to the time which must come some day when she would be no longer +young. Miss Tracey drew herself up and said: "A woman is only as old +as she looks, my dear," and glanced admiringly at her sister. + +The diluted Essence of Claret-cup was bottled, and formed a nice light +luncheon wine at the Miss Tracey's for many weeks afterwards. The +furniture was brought down from the spare bedroom by the maids, who +walked the heavier pieces in front of them with a curious tip-toeing +movement of the castors of the several easy-chairs. The art tiles in +the grate were cleared of their faded burden of evergreens, and The +Palm was carried into the bay-window, where it could be seen from the +road. + +I drove over to see Mrs. Fielden and to ask her if she thought I had +been a sulky brute at the dance. + +"Were you?" said Mrs. Fielden, lifting her pretty dark eyebrows; "I +forget." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Palestrina and I live in the country, and whenever we are dull or sad, +like the sailors in Mr. Gilbert's poem, we decide that our +neighbourhood is too deadly uninteresting, and then we go and see the +Jamiesons. They are our nearest neighbours, as they are also amongst +our greatest friends, and the walk to their house is a distance that I +am able to manage. I believe that our visits to the Jamiesons are most +often determined by the state of the weather. If we have passed a long +wet day indoors I feel that it is going to be a Jamieson day, and I +know that my sister will say to me after tea, "Suppose we go over and +see the Jamiesons;" and she generally adds that it is much better than +settling down for the evening at five o'clock in the afternoon. + +I do not think that Palestrina was so sociable a young woman, nor did +she see so much of her neighbours, before I came home an invalid from +South Africa--I got hit in the legs at Magersfontein, and had the left +one taken off in the hospital at Wynberg--but she believes, no doubt +rightly, that the variety that one gets by seeing one's fellow-men is +good for a poor lame dog who lies on a sofa by the fire the greater +part of the day, wishing he could grow another leg or feel fit again. + +Acting upon this unalterable conviction of my sister, we drive about in +the afternoon and see people, and they come and see me and suggest +occupations for me. In Lent I had a more than usual number of callers, +which says much for the piety of the place, as well as for the goodness +of heart of its inhabitants. + +There is a slight coolness between what is known as the "County" and +the Jamiesons, and their name is never mentioned without the +accompanying piece of information, "You know, old Jamieson married his +cook!" To be more exact, Mrs. Jamieson was a small farmer's daughter, +and Captain Jamieson fell in love with her when, having left the army, +he went to learn practical farming at old Higgins's, and he loved her +faithfully to the day of his death. She is a stout, elderly woman who +speaks very little, but upon whom an immense amount of affection seems +to be lavished by her family of five daughters and two sons. And it +has sometimes seemed to my sister and me that her good qualities are of +a lasting and passive sort, which exist in large measure in the hearts +of those who bestow this boundless affection. Mrs. Jamieson's form of +introducing herself to any one she meets consists in giving an account +of the last illness and death of her husband. There is hardly a +poultice which was placed upon that poor man which her friends have not +heard about. And when she has finished, in her flat, sad voice, giving +every detail of his last disorder, Mrs. Jamieson's conversation is at +an end. She has learned, no doubt unconsciously, to gauge the +characters of new acquaintances by the degree of interest which they +evince in Captain Jamieson's demise. It is Mrs. Jamieson's test of +their true worth. + +Of the other sorrow which saddened a nature that perhaps was never very +gay, Mrs. Jamieson rarely speaks. Possibly because she thinks of it +more than of anything else in the world. Among her eight children +there was only one who appeared to his mother to combine all perfection +in himself. He was killed by an accident in his engineering works +seven years ago, and although his friends will, perhaps, only remember +him as a stout young fellow who sang sea-songs with a distended chest, +his mother buried her heart with him in his grave, and even the voice +of strangers is lowered as they say, "She lost a son once." + +The late Captain Jamieson, a kindly, shrewd man and a Scotchman withal, +was agent to Mrs. Fielden, widow of the late member for Stanby, and +when he died his income perished with him, and The Family of +Jamieson--a large one, as has been told--were thankful enough to +subsist on their mother's inheritance of some four or five hundred a +year, bequeathed to her by the member of the non-illustrious house of +Higgins, late farmer deceased. It is a hospitable house, for all its +narrow means, and there live not, I believe, a warmer-hearted or more +generous family than these good Jamiesons. The girls are energetic, +bright, and honest; their slender purses are at the disposal of every +scoundrel in the parish; and their time, as well as their boundless +energy, is devoted to the relief of suffering or to the betterment of +mankind. + +Mrs. Fielden is of the opinion that nothing gives one a more perfect +feeling of rest than going to Belmont, as the Jamiesons' little house +is called, and watching them work. She calls it the "Rest Cure." +Every one of the five sisters, except Maud, who is the beauty of the +family, wears spectacles, and behind these their bright, intelligent +small eyes glint with kindness and brisk energy. The worst feature of +this excellent family is their habit of all talking at the same time, +in a certain emphatic fashion which renders it difficult to catch what +each individual is saying, and this is especially the case when three +of the sisters are driving sewing-machines simultaneously. They have a +genius for buying remnants of woollen goods at a small price, and +converting them into garments for the poor; and their first question +often is, as they hold a piece of flannel or serge triumphantly aloft, +"What do you think I gave for that?" Palestrina always names at least +twice the sum that has purchased the goods, and has thereby gained a +character for being dreadfully extravagant but sympathetic. + +"I do not believe," I said to Palestrina the other day, "that these +good Jamiesons have a thought beyond making other people happy." + +"That and getting married are the sole objects of their existence," +said Palestrina. + +"It is very odd," I said, "that women so devoid of what might be called +sentiment are yet so bent upon this very thing." + +"Eliza told me to-day," said Palestrina, "that as Kate has not +mentioned one single man in her letters home, they cannot help thinking +that there is something in it." + +The Jamiesons have the same vigorous, energetic ideas about matrimony +that they have about everything else, and almost their sole grievance, +naively expressed, is that Maud, "who gets them all"--meaning, I +believe, offers of marriage--is the only one of the family who is +unable to make up her mind clearly on this momentous question. + +"We should not mind," say the conclave of sisters during one of the +numerous family discussions on this subject, "even if she does get all +the admirers--for of course she is the pretty one--if only she would +accept one of them. But she always gets undecided and silly as soon as +they come to the point." + +It should be observed in passing that the different stages of +development in love affairs are shrewdly noted and commented upon by +the Jamiesons. The first evidence of a man's preference is that he "is +struck;" and the second, when he begins to visit at the house, is known +as "hovering." An inquiry after Maud's health will sometimes elicit +the unexpected reply that another admirer is hovering at present. The +third stage is reached when the lover is said to be "dangling;" and the +final triumph, when Maud has received a proposal, is noted as having +"come to the point." + +If Maud's triumphs are watched with small sighs of envy by her sisters, +they are a source of nothing but gratification to them to retail to the +outside world. There is a strict account kept of Maud's "conquests" in +the letters sent to relatives, and the evening's post will sometimes +contain the startling announcement that Maud has had a fourth in one +year. + +"Of course, you know how fond we all are of each other," said Eliza +Jamieson to me one day with one of those unexpected confidences which +the effeminacy of sickness seems to warrant, if not actually to invite, +"but we can't help thinking that, humanly speaking, we should all have +a better chance if only Maud would marry. No one would wish her to +marry without love, but we fear she is looking for perfection, and +_that_ she will never get; and it was really absurd of her to be so +upset when she discovered, after nearly getting engaged to Mr. Reddy, +that he wore a wig. After all, a man may be a good Christian in spite +of having no hair." + +"That is undoubtedly a fact," I said warmly. + +"And Mr. Reddy had excellent prospects," said Eliza, "although perhaps +nothing very tangible at present. Then there was Albert Gore, to whom, +one must admit, Maud gave every encouragement, and we had begun to +think it quite hopeful; but just at the end she discovered that she +could not care for any one called Albert, which was too silly." + +"She might have called him Bertie," I suggested. + +"Yes," said Eliza eagerly; "and you see, none of us hope or expect to +marry a man who has not some of these little drawbacks, so I really do +not see why Maud should expect it." + +Five matrimonial alliances in one house are, perhaps, not easily +arranged in a quiet country neighbourhood, yet there is always a +hopeful tone about these family discussions, and it is very common to +hear the Miss Jamiesons relate at length what they intend to do when +they are married. + +And there is yet another maiden to be arranged for in the little house; +Mettie is the Jamiesons' cousin who lives with them, and I believe that +what appeals to me most strongly in this unknown provincial family is +their kindness to the little shrunken, tiresome cousin who shares their +home. Mettie is like some strange little bright bird, utterly devoid +of intelligence, and yet with the alertness of a sparrow. Her beady +eyes are a-twinkle in a restless sort of way all day long, and her +large thin nose has always the appearance of having the skin stretched +unpleasantly tightly across it. The good Jamiesons never seem to be +ruffled by her presence among them, and this forbearance certainly +commands one's respect. Mettie travesties the Jamiesons in every +particular. She has adopted their matrimonial views with interest, and +she utters little platitudes upon the subject with quite a surprising +air of sapience. One avoids being left alone with Mettie whenever it +is possible to do so, for, gentle creature though she is, her remarks +are so singularly devoid of interest that one is often puzzled to +understand why they are made. Yet I see one or other of the Jamiesons +walk to the village with her every day--her little steps pattering +beside their giant strides, while the bird-like tongue chirps gaily all +the way. + +Every one in our little neighbourhood walks into the village every day; +it is our daily dissipation; and frivolous persons have been known to +go twice or three times. On days when Palestrina thinks that I am +getting moped she steals the contents of my tobacco-jar, and then says, +without blushing, that she has discovered that my tobacco is all +finished, and that we had better walk into the village together and get +some more. When I am in a grumpy mood, I reply: "It's all right, thank +you; I have plenty upstairs." But it generally ends in my taking the +walk with my sister. + +Our house is pleasantly situated where, by peeping through a tangle of +shrubs and trees, we can see the lazy traffic of the highroad that +leads to the village. Strangers pause outside the screen of evergreens +sometimes and peep between the branches to see the quaint gables of the +old house. Its walls have turned to a soft yellow colour with old age, +and its beams are of oak, gray with exposure to the storms of many +winters. + +"This old hall of yours is much too dark," Mrs. Fielden said, when she +came to call the other day muffled up in velvet and fur. She lighted +the dull afternoon by something that is radiant and holiday-like about +her, and left us envying her for being so pretty and so young and gay. +"Oh, I know," she said in her whimsical way, "that it is Jacobean and +early Tudor and all sorts of delightful things, but it isn't very +cheerful, you know. I'm so glad it is near the road; I think if I +built a house I should like it to be in Mansion House Square, or inside +a railway station. Don't you love spending a night at a station hotel? +I always ask for a room overlooking the platform, for I like the +feeling of having the trains running past me all night. I love your +house really," she said, "only I'm afraid it preaches peace and +resignation and all those things which I consider so wrong." + +Since I have been laid up I have been recommended to carve wood, to +beat brass, to stuff sofa-cushions, and to play the zither; but these +things do not amuse me much. It was Mrs. Fielden who suggested that I +should write a diary. + +"You must grumble," she said, raising her pretty eyebrows in the +affected way she has. "It wouldn't be human if you didn't; so why not +write a diary, and have a real good grumble on paper every night before +you go to bed. Of course, if I were in your place I should grumble all +day instead, and go to sleep at night. But I'm not the least bit a +resigned person. If anything hurts me I scream at once; and if there +is anything I don't like doing I leave it alone. Palestrina," she said +to my sister, "don't let him be patient; it's so bad for him." + +Palestrina smiled, and said she was afraid it was very dull for me +sometimes. + +"But if one is impatient enough, one can't be dull," said Mrs. Fielden. +"It's like being cross----" + +"I am constitutionally dull," I said. "I used to be known as the +dullest man in my regiment." + +"You studied philosophy, didn't you?" said Mrs. Fielden. "That must be +so depressing." + +I was much struck by this suggestion. "I dare say you are quite +right," I said, "although I had not seen it in that light before. But +I'm afraid it has not made me very patient, nor given me a great mind." + +"Of course, what you want just now," said Mrs. Fielden gravely, "is a +little mind. You must lie here on your sofa, and take a vivid interest +in what all the old ladies say when they come to call on Palestrina. +And you must know the price of Mrs. Taylor's last new hat, and how much +the Traceys spend on their washing-bill, and you must put it all down +in your diary. I'll come over and help you sometimes, and write all +the wicked bits for you, only I'm afraid no one ever is wicked down +here. + +"Good-bye," she said, holding out the smallest, prettiest, most +useless-looking little hand in the world. "And please," she added +earnestly, "get all this oak painted white, and hang some nice muslin +curtains in the windows." + +Kindly folk in Stowel are always ingenuously surprised at any one's +caring to live in the country; and although it is but a mile from here +to the vestry hall, and much less by the fields, they often question us +whether we do not feel lonely at night-time, and they are of the +opinion that we should be better in "town." They frequently speak of +going into the country for change of air, or on Bank Holidays; but +considering that the last house in the village--and, like the City of +Zoar, it is but a little one--is built amongst fields, it might be +imagined that these rural retreats could readily be found without the +trouble of hiring the four-wheeled dog-cart from the inn, or of taking +a journey by train. Yet an expedition into the country is often talked +of as being a change, and friends and relations living outside the town +are considered a little bit behindhand in their views of +things--"old-feshioned" they call it in Stowel--and these country +cousins are visited with just a touch of kindly condescension by the +dwellers in a flower-bordered, tree-shadowed High Street. + +One is brought rather quaintly into immediate correspondence with the +domestic concerns of every one in Stowel, and Palestrina has been +coaching me in the etiquette of the place. It is hardly correct to do +any shopping at dinner-time, when the lady of the house, busy feeding +her family, has to be called from the inner parlour, where that family +may all be distinctly seen from the shop. Driving or walking through +Stowel at the hour thus consecrated by universal consent to gastronomy, +one might almost imagine it to be a deserted village. Even the dogs +have gone inside to get a bone; and one says, as one walks down the +empty streets, "Stowel dines." + +When a shop is closed on Thursday, which is early-closing day, one can +generally "be obliged" by ringing at the house-bell, and, under conduct +of the master of the place, may enter the darkened shop by the side +door, and be accommodated with the purchase that one requires. For the +old custom still holds of living--where it seems most natural for a +merchant to live--in the place where he does his business. There is a +pleasurable feeling of excitement even in the purchase of a pot of +Aspinall's enamel behind closed shutters, and this is mingled with a +feeling of solemnity and privilege, which I can only compare, in its +mixed effect upon me, to going behind the scenes of a theatre, or being +permitted to enter the vestry of a church. + +Any purchases except those which may be called necessaries are seldom +indulged in in our little town. A shop which contains anything but +dress and provisions has few customers, and its merchandise becomes +household fixtures. I called at the furniture shop the other day; the +place looked bare and unfamiliar to me, but I did not realize what was +amiss until my sister exclaimed, "Where is the sofa?" The sofa had +been for sale for fifteen years, and had at last been purchased. There +are other things in the shop which I think must have been there much +longer, and I believe their owner would part with them with regret, +even were a very fair profit to be obtained for them. Palestrina tells +me she ordered some fish the other day, and was met with the objection +that "I fear that piece will be too big for your fish-kettle, ma'am," +although she had never suspected that the size of her fish-kettle was a +matter known to the outside world. + +And yet Stowel prides itself more upon its reserve than upon anything +else, except perhaps its gentility. There is a distinct air of mystery +over any and every one of the smallest affairs of daily life in the +little place, and I hardly think that our neighbours would really enjoy +anything if it were "spoken about" before the proper time. There is +something of secrecy in the very air of the town. No one, I am told, +has ever been known to mention, even casually, what he or she intends +to have for dinner; and the butcher has been warned against calling +across the shop to the lady at the desk, "Two pounds of rumpsteak for +Miss Tracey," or, "One sirloin, twelve two, for the Hall." Mr. +Tomsett, who was the first butcher to introduce New Zealand mutton to +the inhabitants of Stowel, lost his custom by this vulgar habit of +assorting his joints in public. And Miss Tracey, who knew him best (he +was still something of a stranger, having been in Stowel only five +years), warned him that that was not the sort of thing we were +accustomed to. "If you must make our private concerns public in this +way," she said, "at least it cannot be necessary to mention in what +country the mutton was raised." + +It is even considered a little indelicate to remain in the post-office +when a telegram is being handed in. And parcels addressed and laid on +the counter at the grocer's, although provocative of interest, are not +even glanced at by the best people. + +On the authority of my sister, I learn that when the ladies of Stowel +do a little dusting in the morning the front blinds are pulled down. +And keen though the speculation may be as to the extent of our +neighbours' incomes, the subject is, of course, a forbidden one. Poor +though some of these neighbours are, a very kindly charity prevails in +the little town. When the elder Miss Blind was ill--as she very often +is, poor thing!--it might seem a matter of coincidence to the +uninitiated that during that week every one of her friends happened to +make a little strong soup, a portion of which was sent to the +invalid--just in case she might fancy it; while the Miss Traceys, who, +as all the world knew, had inherited a little wine from their father, +the late Vicar of the parish, sent their solitary remaining bottle of +champagne, with their compliments, to Miss Belinda. The champagne +proved flat after many a year of storage in the lower cupboard of Miss +Tracey's pantry, but the two sisters to whom it was sent, not being +familiar with the wine, did not detect its faults, and they left the +green bottle with the gilt neck casually standing about for weeks +afterwards, from an innocent desire to impress their neighbours with +its magnificence. + +Palestrina, with the good intention, I believe, of providing me with +what she calls an object for a walk, asked me to call and inquire for +Miss Blind on the day that the bottle of champagne was drawn and +sampled. Miss Lydia was in the sick-room, and Mrs. Lovekin, who had +called to inquire, was sitting in the little parlour when I entered. +"How do you do?" she said. "I suppose you have heard about Belinda and +the champagne?" + +The reproachful note in Mrs. Lovekin's voice, which seemed to tax the +invalid with ingratitude, subtly conveyed the impression that the flat +champagne had not agreed with poor Miss Belinda. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +It is a subject of burning curiosity with every woman in Stowel to know +whether it is a fact that the Taylors have taken to having late dinner +instead of supper since Mrs. Taylor's uncle was made a K.C.B. There +was something in a remark made by Miss Frances Taylor which distinctly +suggested that such a change had been effected, but Stowel, on the +whole, is inclined to discredit the rumour. A portrait of the General +has been made in London, from a photograph in uniform which Mrs. Taylor +has of him, and it has been framed, regardless of expense, by the +photographer in the High Street. Mr. Taylor at one time had thought of +having the whole thing done in London, but it had been decided by an +overwhelming majority that it would be only fair to give the commission +to provide the frame to some one in our own town; and Mr. and Mrs. +Taylor have granted a permission, which amounts to a command, that the +portrait of "Sir John" shall be placed in the window for a week before +it is sent home, so that Stowel may see it--for the Taylors, it should +be remembered, do not receive every one at their own house. + +To-day I met the younger Miss Blind--Miss Lydia, she is generally +called--at the window of the photographer's, to which she had made a +pilgrimage, as we all intended to do, to see the famous picture. +Probably she had stood there for some time, for she turned nervously +towards me, and said in a tone of apology and with something of an +effort in her speech, "I used to know him." + +"Ah!" I replied. "I suppose he has often been down to stay with the +Taylors?" + +"He has not been once in twenty years," said Lydia. I was thinking of +other things, and I do not know why it suddenly struck me that there +was a tone of regret, even of hopelessness, in Miss Lydia's voice, and +that she spoke as one speaks, perhaps, when one has waited long for +something. + +Lydia Blind is a tall woman with a slight, stooping figure. Sometimes +I have wondered if it is only her sister's constant ill-health that has +made Miss Lydia stoop a little. There is something delicately precise +about her, if so gentle a woman can fitly be described as precise. +Perhaps her voice explains her best, as a woman's voice will often do; +it is low and of a very charming quality, although broken now and then +by asthma. Each word has its proper spacing, and does not intrude upon +the next; each vowel possesses the rare characteristic of its proper +sound. I have never heard her use an out-of-the-way expression; but +her simple way of speaking has an old-fashioned gracefulness about it, +and her manner, with all its simplicity, is dignified by reason of its +perfect sincerity. Her eyes are large and gray, and set somewhat far +apart; her hair is worn in a fringe so demure and smooth, so primly +curled, that it has the appearance of plainly-brushed hair. It is Mrs. +Fielden who says that no good woman can do her hair properly, and she +wonders if St. Paul's recommendations as to plain braids has for ever +stamped the hairdresser's profession as a dangerous art. + +To-day when I met Lydia it struck me suddenly to wonder how old she is. +Perhaps something in the insolent youthfulness of the springtime +suggested the thought, or it may have been because Miss Lydia looked +tired. + +When one meets a friend in Stowel High Street, it is considered very +cold behaviour merely to bow to her. Not only do we stop and chat for +a few minutes, but it is the friendly fashion of the place for ladies +to say to each other, "Which way are you going?" and to accompany their +friend a little way along the sunny, uneven pavement, while offers to +come in and rest are generally given and accepted at the end of the +promenade. Of course it is quite unusual for gentlemen to be detained +in this way, and I am sure it cost Miss Lydia an effort to suggest to +me that I should come in and sit down for a little while, and that she +only did so because I seemed tired. Also I think that a man with a +crutch and with but one leg--and that one not very sound--is not +considered such a source of danger to ladies living alone as a strong +and hale man is supposed to be. We stopped at the little green gate in +the village street, with its red flagged pathway beyond, bordered with +spring flowers--wall-flowers, early blooming in this warm and sheltered +corner, forget-me-nots and primroses, while a brave yellow jasmine +starred with golden flowers covered the walls of the cottage. I asked +after her sister's health, and Miss Lydia begged me to come in and rest +for a few minutes; which I did, for I was horribly tired. But this was +one of Miss Belinda's bad days, and her sister, who watches every +variation in colour in the hollow cheeks and deep-set eyes of the +invalid, saw that she was unable to speak, and motioned me out of the +room. She showed me into her own little sanctum, and gave me a +cushioned chair by the window, and said: "Do wait for a few minutes and +rest. I can see that my sister wants to say something to me, but she +is always more than usually inarticulate when she is in one of these +nervous states." + +I have been thinking a good deal about old maids lately--one has time +to think about all manner of subjects when one is lying down most of +the day. Mrs. Fielden is of opinion that an old maid may have an +exaggerated sense of humour. To my mind her danger may be that she is +always rather pathetically satisfied with everything. She prefers the +front seat of a carriage and the back seat of a dog-cart, and the leg +of a chicken and a tiny bedroom. Doubtless this is a form of +self-respect. This suitability of tastes on the part of an old maid +enables her to say, as she does with almost suspicious frequency, that +she gets dreadfully spoiled wherever she goes. Adaptability to +environment is the first law of existence, and yet there may have been +times, even in the life of an old maid, when she has yearned for the +wing of a chicken. + +The little room into which Miss Lydia ushered me was plainly furnished, +but Miss Lydia says that she is always getting something pretty given +to her to add to her treasures. Her room is, indeed, rather suggestive +of a stationer's shop window, where a card with "Fancy goods in great +variety" is placed. It would not be unkind to hint of some of the +articles on the table and on the wall-brackets that they must have been +purchased more as a kindly remembrance at Christmas-time or on +birthdays than from any apparent usefulness to the recipient. There +are three twine-cases from which the scissors have long since been +abstracted by unknown dishonest persons; and there are four ornamental +thermometers, each showing its own fixed and unalterable idea +respecting the temperature of the room. A large number of unframed +sketches which children have given her are fastened to the wall by +pins, or hung on tacks whose uncertain hold bespeaks a feminine hand on +the hammer. There are several calendars, and there is quite an +uncountable collection of photograph frames, which fall over unless +they are propped against something. Most of the photographs are old +and faded, and they are nearly all of babies. Babies clothed and +unclothed; babies with bare feet and little nightshirts on; babies +sucking their thumbs; babies lying prone on fur carriage-rugs; babies +riding on their mammas' backs, or sitting on their mammas' knees; +babies crowing or crying. No one who has a baby ever fails to send +this maiden lady a photograph of it. + +Miss Lydia settled me with some cushions in my chair, and shut the +doorway leading to her bedroom beyond, where I caught sight of a +painted iron bedstead, and a small indiarubber hot-water bottle hanging +from one of its knobs. It is Miss Lydia's most cherished possession, +and she generally speaks of it reverently as "the comfort of my life." + +Poor Miss Lydia! Hers must be, I think, a lonely life, sacrificed +patiently to an invalid and almost inarticulate sister, and yet it is +the very solitude of this little chamber which is one of the few +privileges to which she lays claim. It is to this little room, with +its humble furnishings, that all her troubles are taken, and it is here +by the window that she can sit with folded hands and think perhaps of +something in life which surely poor Lydia has missed. It is here she +prays for those whose sins weigh far more heavily upon her than they do +upon themselves, and it is here that she can pause and question with +gentle faith the perplexities of life. + +Miss Lydia tells my sister that she makes a thorough examination of her +room every night before she goes to bed, to see if there is a burglar +concealed anywhere. The movable property in the tiny house is probably +not worth many pounds, as a pawnbroker appraises things, and it would +be a hardened thief that could deprive the sisters of their small +possessions; but the dread remains--the dread of burglars and the dread +of mice. Were it not for the look of the thing, she would almost +rather discover a burglar than a mouse--"for at least burglars are +human," she explains, "and one might be able to reason with them or +pray for them, but who shall control the goings of a mouse?" + +Sometimes these fears become quite a terror to Lydia Blind, and she +once said that she felt so defenceless that she thought it would be a +great comfort to have a male defender to protect her. + +It is the only unmaidenly remark she ever made, and it makes her blush +in the dark when she thinks of it. She believes every one remembers it +with as vivid a distinctness as she does, and she trembles to think +what sort of construction may have been put upon her words by +ill-natured or thoughtless persons. It is a real trouble to her; but +then all her troubles are real, and so are her bitter repentances over +perfectly imaginary sins. But she has her little room and her faded +photographs--life has its consolations. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Kate Jamieson, who is the independent member of The Family, and has +been in a situation for some years as companion to a lady at Bath, has +written home what she calls a "joint-letter" to apprise the whole of +her family at one and the same time that she is engaged to be married. +The excitement which this letter produced in the little household is +hardly possible to describe. The news arrived when the Jamiesons were +at breakfast. Perhaps I should mention, before going any further, that +the Jamiesons' only extravagance is to take in three daily papers. One +is an evening paper, which arrives at breakfast-time, and the other two +are morning publications, which arrive at the same hour. It is +customary for the members of this family each to read his own +particular paper aloud during the entire meal, the rest of the party +read their letters to each other, and there are still left several +voices to demand what you will have for breakfast, to inquire how you +have slept, and to comment upon the weather. So that from half-past +eight until nine a cross-fire of conversation is going on all the +time.... + +"I see Hearne has scored sixty-eight at cricket, not out. That's not +bad, you know. Kent ought to be looking up. The Australians are doing +well. Yorkshire might do better. Extraordinary! Here's this chap who +promised so well bowled for a duck!" This from the eldest son of the +House of Jamieson; while at precisely the same moment may be heard the +voice of Maud: "I must say I am rather astonished at the way boleros +have remained in. This is one of the prettiest designs I have seen +this year. How soon one gets accustomed to small sleeves. Well, I +cannot say I like these Chesterfield fronts." + +Mrs. Jamieson is meanwhile reading aloud the columns of births, deaths, +and marriages from beginning to end. Her limited acquaintance with the +outside world might seem to preclude her from any vivid interest in +those who must necessarily only be names to her, yet she finds +subject-matter for comment through the entire perusal of the column. +Needless to say, Mrs. Jamieson inclines to regard only the sadder +aspects of these natural occurrences, and her comments thereupon are +full of a sort of resigned melancholy. From her corner of the table +may be heard the plaintive words: "Here's a young fellow of twenty-four +taken," or, "Fourscore years, well, well, and then passed away!" While +the happier news of birth provokes her to hark back to an announcement +of a similar nature in the family, perhaps only a year ago, and to talk +of the responsibilities and the expense that the poor young couple will +have to undergo. Mettie, who spends the greater part of every day +writing letters, and whose chief joy in life is to receive them, reads +the whole of her correspondence aloud from beginning to end; while +Margaret Jamieson, behind the teapot, is letting off rapid volleys of +questions respecting individual tastes about cream and sugar, and the +Pirate Boy offers ham-and-eggs or sausages in a deep stentorian bass. + +In the midst of this confusion of noise, when only a Jamieson, whose +ear is curiously trained to it, can possibly hear what is being said, +Mrs. Jamieson bursts into tears and, in the strong Kentish dialect of +her youth, exclaims: "Here's our Kate going to be married!" + +After the first burst of delighted surprise, there is a family feeling +of apology towards Maud. That Kate should marry first is surely a +little disloyal to the beauty of Belmont, and Mrs. Jamieson goes so far +as to say: "Never mind, Maud; it will be your turn next." + +After that, they all, singly and severally, recall their +previously-expressed opinion that they knew something was up, and that +certainly Kate could not have given them a more pleasant or more +unexpected surprise. + +The letter is then read aloud, and it is so long that one is glad to +think that the absent Kate did not attempt to duplicate it, but +contented herself with the Pauline method of one general epistle. With +the Jamieson characteristic of telling everything exhaustively, Kate +writes:-- + + +"Mr. Ward is not at all bad-looking; a little hesitating in his manner, +and inclined to be untidy--you see, I am telling you everything quite +candidly--but of course I can remedy all these defects when we are +married. He has a short brown moustache, and rather a conical-shaped +head." (This is a fault that one feels Kate will not be able to +remedy, even when she has married him.) "He looks clever, though I do +not think he is, very; he is well-connected, but does not know all his +best relations. Poor, but with generous instincts"--one feels as +though a chiromancist were reading a client's palm--"well-read, but +without power of conveying intelligence to others; hair rather thin, +and (I am afraid) false teeth; very religious, but I consider this in +him more temperament than anything else. He has had a hard life, and +not always enough to eat, until his uncle died; but now he could be +quite independent if he liked, but he prefers the position which a +Government appointment gives him. + +"I hope to bring him down to stay when I return; please let him have +the south bedroom, as that is the warmest, and I do not think James is +very strong. I should like him to have a fire at night--I can arrange +that with mother, as I feel quite well off now. We are to be married +in July, and I am giving up my post here at once, so as to see +something of you all before I go away." + + +At this point the letter referred once more to Mr. Ward's personal +appearance, and the description was of so great length that when +Margaret Jamieson, who had run all the way from her home to ours to +give it to us to read, asked me breathlessly what I thought about it, I +determined to leave unread the remaining paragraphs, and to judge for +myself of the bridegroom when he should come to Belmont and we should +be invited to meet him. + +"There is one thing," said Mrs. Jamieson when, at the request of The +Family, Palestrina went to sit with her one afternoon a few weeks +later, to support her through the trying ordeal of waiting for Kate and +"James," as he is now familiarly called, to arrive; "the girls have +nothing to be ashamed of in their home." She looked with a certain +amount of pardonable pride at the clean white curtains, and we gathered +that we were meant to comment upon their early appearance. The white +curtains, Palestrina says, are not usually put up at Belmont until the +first week in May. + +"They look very handsome," I said. It was a Jamieson afternoon--very +wet, but clearing up about sundown, and Palestrina had suggested my +escorting her as far as Belmont. But the rain came down in torrents +again when I would have started to return home, and the good Jamiesons +begged me to stay, to avoid the chance of a chill, and to meet James. + +"It is the first break in the family," said Mrs. Jamieson tearfully, +"since poor Robert died. But, as James says, he hopes I am gaining a +son and not losing a daughter." From which I gathered that James was a +gentleman given to uttering rather a stale form of platitude. + +All were waiting in a state of great trepidation the arrival of the +engaged couple, and it was quite hopeless to avoid the encounter, for +the rain descended in sheets outside, and preparations for supper +seemed to be going on in the dining-room at Belmont. It was decided, +by universal consent, that only Mrs. Jamieson and Palestrina and I +should be in the drawing-room at the moment when they should enter. +The presence of strangers, it was thought, would make it easier for +James at the meeting where all were kinsfolk except himself. With +their usual consideration The Family decided that the rest of their +large number should afterwards drop in casually, two by two, and be +introduced to the new brother-in-law without ceremony. Mrs. Jamieson, +who had not left the house that day, nor for many days previously, +having been absorbed in preparations for the expected guest, was +dressed in a bonnet and her favourite jacket with the storm-collar, +which, as she explained to my sister, took away from the roundness of +her face and gave her confidence. + +Her habitual shyness, added to her fears of the unknown in the shape of +the future son-in-law, had wrought her into a sort of rigid state in +which conversation seemed impossible, and although we did our best to +divert her attention I am doubtful if she heard a word we said. + +"They should be here soon," I remarked presently. + +Mrs. Jamieson, following some line of thought of her own, remarked that +the first marriage in a family was almost like a death; and to this +mournful analogy I gave assent. + +"Kate says he is quite a gentleman," hazarded Mrs. Jamieson, still +rigid, and now white with anxiety and shyness. + +I found myself replying, without overdone brilliance, that that seemed +a good thing. + +The sands of Mrs. Jamieson's courage were running very low. "I hope he +is not one of your grandees," she said apprehensively; "I would not +like to think of Kate not being up to him. But their father was a +gentleman--the most perfect gentleman I ever knew, and I have always +that to think of. Still, a gentlemanly man is all I want for any of my +girls, with no difference between the two families." + +Sometimes in this way Mrs. Jamieson gives one an unexpected insight +into the difficulties of her life, and one feels that even her +admiration for her daughters may be tinged with a slight feeling of +being their inferior. I have heard her say, making use of a French +expression such as she hazards so courageously, that there is something +of the "_grawn dam_ about Maud;" and perhaps the loyal admiration thus +expressed may have been mingled with another sensation not so +pleasurable to the farmer's daughter. + +I endeavoured to follow the intricacies of her train of thought, but +the station omnibus had stopped at the gate, and the moment of supreme +excitement had arrived. + +Kate entered first. This was probably the crowning moment of her life. +She came in with a little air of assurance that already suggested the +married woman, and having kissed her mother she said in a proprietary +sort of way: "This is Mr. Ward, mamma." + +Mr. Ward had a curious way of walking on his toes; he came into the +room as though tip-toeing across some muddy crossing on a wet day, and +shook hands with a degree of nervousness that made even Mrs. Jamieson +appear bold. One can hardly be surprised at Kate for having mentioned +that he has a conical-shaped head, for it is of the most strange +pear-shape, and the sparse hair hangs from a ridge behind like a +fringe. He sat down and locked his knees firmly together, with his +clasped hands tightly wedged between them, while Kate made inquiries +about the rest of the family, and I plunged heavily into remarks about +the weather and the state of the roads. It was a great relief when two +of the sisters entered, in their best silk blouses, even although they +repeated exactly what I had said a moment before about the weather and +the mud. Five minutes later, according to preconceived arrangement, +two other sisters came in and were kissed by Kate, and introduced by +her to James. We had unconsciously taken up our position in two +straight lines facing James, and it is no exaggeration to say that by +this time shyness was causing great beads of perspiration to stand out +on poor James's pear-shaped head. "Surely they will spare him any more +introductions before supper," I thought; but the door had again opened, +and Mettie and the Pirate Boy entered, and some unhappy chance was +causing these last comers to comment upon the weather and the state of +the roads, and to extend the line of chairs now facing James. We began +to make feverish little remarks to each other, as though we were all +strangers, and Palestrina asked Eliza if she were fond of dancing. +George Jamieson, the eldest brother, was the last to enter the room, +and Kate said: "George, I am sure James would like to unpack before +supper;" and the unhappy James tip-toed out between the two lines of +chairs, with his eyes fixed upon the carpet. + +"_Well?_" said Kate. And as The Family was The Family of Jamieson, +that of course was a signal for each member of it to say the kindest +thing that could possibly be said for the new arrival. Margaret found +that he had kind eyes. And Eliza said: "Not intellectual, but a good +man." Eliza, it must be remarked in passing, is the intellectual +sister, with a passion for accurate information, and for looking up +facts in the "Encyclopedia Britannica." Maud found that even his +shyness was in his favour, and disliked men who made themselves at home +at once. Mettie remarked that marriage was a great risk. This is one +of poor little Mettie's platitudes, which she makes with faithful +regularity upon all occasions. The Pirate Boy preferred, perhaps, a +more robust development, and throwing out his own chest, he beat it +with a good deal of violence, and said he would like to put on the +gloves with Mr. Ward. Mrs. Jamieson could be got to say nothing but +"Poor fellow, poor fellow!" at intervals. But Gracie, the youngest +daughter, remarked that she was sure that they would all get to like +him immensely in time. + +Kate looked grateful, and spoke with her usual fine common sense. +"What I say is," she remarked, "that of course no one sees James's +faults more clearly than I do, but then I don't see why any of us +should expect perfection. We haven't much to offer: I am sure I have +neither looks, nor money, nor anything. And, after all, it's nice to +think of one of us getting married--and I was no bother about it," said +the independent Kate. "I mean, The Family had not to help, or chaperon +me, or ask James down to stay." + +The sisters assented to this in a very hearty, congratulatory sort of +way; and then, as the rain had ceased, I took my leave, but Palestrina +was persuaded to stay and have supper. Kennie offered, in a doughty +fashion, to see me home. The boy's kindness of heart constitutes him +my defender upon many occasions, and he always looks disappointed if I +do not take his arm. I do not think that the peaceful country road in +the waning twilight could be considered a dangerous one, even to a +cripple like myself; but Kennie, armed with a large stick and wearing a +curious felt hat turned up at one side, appeared a most truculent +defender, and regarded with suspicion all the pedestrians whom we met. +Did but a country cart pass us, Kennie made a movement to ward off the +danger of a collision with his arm. There is something in my helpless +condition which, quite unconsciously I believe, produces a very +valorous frame of mind in the Pirate, and he beguiled the whole of the +way home with stories of his own prowess, and of the hair-breadth +escapes which he had had. + +"I only once," he said, "had to take a human life in self-defence. +Curiously enough"--Kennie's voice deepened, and he spoke with the air +of a man who will spare a weak fellow-mortal all he can in the telling +of his tale, and he enunciated all his words with a measured calm which +was very impressive--"curiously enough, it was on the Thames +Embankment!" Kennie cleared his throat, and dropping the deep bass +voice of reminiscence, he began the history in a high-pitched tone of +narrative. "I was walking home alone one night from the City, when a +very strange, low fellow accosted me, and asked me for some money. The +man's destitute appearance appealed to me, and unfortunately I gave him +threepence. I suppose the action was about as dangerous a thing as I +could have done. It showed that I had money, and I was practically +defenceless while feeling in my pockets. The Embankment at that time +of the evening was almost deserted; I could see the shipping in the +river and the lights, and even passing cabs, but I was strangely alone, +and still the man followed me. At last, in desperation, I raised my +stick to drive him from me, and the next moment he had grappled with +me! Instantly my blood was up!" The Pirate Boy stood still in the +middle of the highroad, and went through a series of very forcible +pantomimic gestures, and with awful facial contortions, indicative of +violent exertion, he raised some imaginary object above his head and +flung it from him. "The next moment," said Kennie, "I heard a splash. +I had vanquished the man, and flung him far from me, straight from the +Thames Embankment into the river." + +I was prepared to make an exclamation, but was prevented by Kennie, who +said in a dramatic sort of way, "Wait!" and went on with his story. +"My instinct was to plunge after him, but I heard no sound, no cry, and +from that day to this that struggle by the water's edge remains as one +of the most vivid experiences of my life--in England, at least. But +the man's end remains a mystery: I can tell you nothing more of him." + +"I think I would have fished the poor wretch out," I said, and moved +onwards on our walk, our pause in the public highway having lasted a +considerable time. + +"One learns rough justice out there," said Kennie. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +Miss Taylor was really responsible for the formation of the Stowel +Reading Society, but Eliza Jamieson was her staunch supporter. Eliza +drew the line at poetry and metaphysics, "Neither of which," she said, +"I consider an exact science." + +Miss Taylor said: "But it is not a scientific course that I propose; it +is English literature in its fullest sense. I do think that Stowel is +getting behind the rest of the world in its knowledge of the best +literature, and I am sure that if a Reading Society were founded The +Uncle would be pleased to choose books and send them to us from London." + +To no one, perhaps, is the specializing definite article felt to be +more appropriate than to Sir John. It seems to distinguish him from +ordinary human beings; and it is felt to be indicative of a +considerable amount of good taste and good feeling on the part of the +Taylors to drop the General's title when conversing with their intimate +friends, and to refer to him merely as "The Uncle." When we call upon +the Taylors we always ask how The Uncle is. + +Eliza Jamieson became the Society's secretary and treasurer in one, and +she it was who in her neat hand transcribed the letter, which all had +helped to compose, to ask The Uncle what works in English literature it +would be advisable for the Reading Society to get. His reply was read +aloud at one of the first meetings, and each eulogized it in turn as +being "courtly," "gentlemanly," "manly," and "concise." It could not +but be felt, however, that as a guide to a choice of literature the +letter was disappointing:-- + + +"DEAR MADAM" (it ran), + +"I much regret that I am unable to help you in any way about your +books. I read very little myself, except the newspapers, though I +occasionally take a dip into one of my old favourites by Charles Lever. +I think a cookery-book is the most useful reading for a young lady, and +she would be best employed studying that, and not filling her head with +nonsense. This is the advice of a very old fellow, who remembers many +charming girls years ago who knew nothing about advanced culture...." + + +It was a distinct salve to the Society's feelings to note that the +letter was written on paper stamped with the address of a military +club, and instead of copying it, and making an entry of it in the +minutes of the Reading Society, it was pasted into the notebook, as it +was thought the autograph and the crest were "interesting." + +Since the foundation of the Reading Society there has followed a period +during which the young ladies of Stowel have written essays, and have +met in each other's drawing-rooms to read poetry aloud, to their own +individual satisfaction and to the torture of other ears. + +Mrs. Fielden did not join the Society, her plea being that poetry is +merely prose with the stops in the wrong places, and therefore very +fatiguing to read, and very obscure in its meaning. But Eliza has worn +us out with books of reference, and we have become so learned and so +full of culture that it is impossible to say where it will all end. My +own library has been ransacked for books--I think it is the fact of my +having a library that has made our house a sort of centre for the +Reading Society. We criticize freely all contemporary literature, and +base our preference for any book upon its "vigorous Saxon style." + +Eliza has written two reviews for the local newspaper, pointing out +some mistakes in grammar in one of the greatest novels of the day, and +this naturally makes us feel very proud of Eliza. Those of us who +plead for an easy flowing style consider that she has an almost +hypersensitive ear for errors in the use of the English accidence. A +split infinitive has heretofore hardly arrested our attention; now we +shudder at its use: while the misuse of the word to "aggravate," which +up to the present we believed in all simplicity to mean to "annoy," +causes the gravest offence when employed in the wrong sense. Books +from the circulating library have been known to be treated almost like +proof-sheets, and corrections are jotted down in pencil on the margin +of the leaves. Even the notes which ladies send to each other are +subject to revision at the hands of the recipient. Ordinary +conversation is now hardly known in Stowel, and tea-parties take the +form of discussions. The spring weather is so warm that I generally +have my long chair taken on to the lawn in the afternoons, and tea is +sometimes brought out there when the meetings of the Reading Society +are over. But tea, and even pound-cake, are thrown away upon young +ladies who partake of it absently, and to whom all things material and +mundane--these words are often used--must now be offered with a feeling +of apology. + +Major Jacobs rode over to see me this afternoon, and we had not long +enjoyed the repose of deckchairs and cigarettes under the medlar-tree, +and the songs of birds which have begun nesting very early this year, +and the quiet rumbling of heavy wagons that pass sometimes in the +highroad beyond the garden, when the Reading Society in a body joined +us from the house, and I heard my sister give directions for tea to be +brought out on to the lawn. The other day I heard Palestrina tell a +friend of hers that she nearly always contrived to have some one to +tea, or to sit with Hugo in the afternoon, and my sister's satisfaction +increases in direct proportion to the number of people who come. + +We had hardly finished tea when Frances Taylor said suddenly, yet with +the manner of one who has risen to make a speech on a platform, "Was +Coleridge a genius or a crank?" + +Eliza, assuming the deep frown of learning which is quite common +amongst us nowadays, was upon her in a moment, and said emphatically, +"How would you define a genius?" The Socratic habit of asking for a +definition is one that is always adopted during our discussions, and it +is generally demanded in the tone of voice in which one says "check" +when playing chess. Frances Taylor was quite ready for Eliza, and +said, "Genius, I think, is like some star----" + +"Analogy is not argument!" Eliza pounced upon her in the voice that +said, "I take your pawn." + +It will be noticed, I fear, that in Stowel we are not altogether +original in our arguments--many of them can be traced, alas! to the +"Encyclopaedia Britannica," and they are not often the outcome of +original thought. + +Frances Taylor's king was once more in check, and she became a little +nervous and irritable. "I do not think we need go into definitions," +she said; but Eliza had gone indoors to "look it up." She returned +presently with a dictionary, walking across the lawn towards us with +its pages held close to her near-sighted eyes. "A genius," she began, +and then she glanced disparagingly at the title of the book, and said, +"according to Webster, that is--but I do not know if we ought to accept +him as a final authority--is explained as being 'a peculiar structure +of mind which is given by Nature to an individual which qualifies him +for a particular employment; a strength of mind, uncommon powers of +intellect, particularly the power of invention.' A crank," she went +on, "in its modern meaning, seems hardly to have been known to the +writer of this dictionary; the word is rendered literally, as meaning +'a bend or turn.'" + +"Then I submit," said Miss Taylor, "that Coleridge was a genius." + +Miss Tracey said in a very sprightly manner--she often astonished us by +showing a subtle turn of mind, and a graceful aptitude for epigram +which, it was believed, could only have found its proper field in those +salons which are now, alas! things of the past--"Let us write him down +a genius _and_ a crank! The two"--she advanced her daring view +bravely--"the two are often allied." She had a volume of Coleridge on +her bookshelves, and prided herself upon her appreciation--unusual in a +woman--of the "Ancient Mariner." + +"A genius in italics, and a crank followed by a mark of interrogation!" +said Eliza in a brilliant fashion; and Miss Taylor, not to be beaten in +a matter of intellect, said at once, "Did Bacon write Shakespeare's +plays?" + +Mrs. Gallup and Mr. Lee were quoted extensively. + +Miss Taylor could only suggest, with a good deal of quiet dignity, that +she could write to The Uncle and find out who is right. This of course +closes the controversy for the present. + +George Jamieson, who goes to town every day, gains advanced views from +the magazines which he reads during his dinner-hour in the City, and he +is a great assistance to the Reading Society. I contribute the use of +my library, and I have heard the members of the Reading Society say +that "women are the true leaders of the present movement, and already +their influence is being felt by the male mind." + +George brought with him the current number of the Nineteenth Century +when he came home last Friday, instead of Pearson's or the Strand, and +already there are whispers of a Magazine Club in Stowel. Miss Frances +Taylor received nothing but books on her last birthday, and Palestrina +told me a pathetic little story of how Gracie Jamieson went without a +pair of shoes to buy a copy of Browning. Perhaps the climax of culture +and learning was felt only to have been reached when Eliza introduced +the expression "Hypothesis of Purpose" into an ordinary conversation at +the conclusion of one of the meetings of the Reading Society. + +After this, as Palestrina remarked, it was quite refreshing to hear +that the curate's wife had got a new baby. It was born on Sunday, and +the anxious father spent his days bicycling wildly to and fro between +his own house and the church, hopelessly confusing his reading of the +service, and then flying back to inquire about his wife's health. Led +by him we prayed successively for fine weather and for rain, while the +Sunday-school teachers' meeting was announced for 2 a.m. on the +following Saturday, and the Coal Club notices were inextricably +confused with the banns of marriage. After each service the distracted +little man would leap on his bicycle again, and, scattering the +departing congregation with his bicycle bell, he was off down the hill +to his house. His perturbation was nothing compared with the confusion +at home, where, so far as I could make out, the bewildered household +did nothing but run up and down stairs, and madly offer each other cups +of tea. + +My sister's kind heart suggested that we should have Peggy, the eldest +child, to stay with us until her mother should be better. Is it +necessary to mention the fact that Palestrina is fat and very pretty, +and that she spoils me dreadfully? Do I want a book, I generally find +that Palestrina has written for it, almost before I had realized that +life was a wilderness without it. I have never known her out of +temper, nor anything else but placid and serene. And she has a low, +gurgling laugh, and a certain way of saying, "Oh, that will be very +nice!" to any proposal that one makes, which one must admit makes her a +very charming and a very easy person to live with. She is fond of +children, and she announced to Peggy with a beaming smile this morning +that she had a new little brother. + +Peggy went on quietly with her breakfast for some time without making +any remark; then she gave a little sigh, and said: "Mamma thought she +had enough children already, but I suppose God thought otherwise." + +Peggy has been in low spirits all day, and closely following some line +of reasoning of her own she has flatly refused to say her prayers at +bedtime. + + +Mrs. Fielden rode over to see us this morning, in her dark habit and +the neat boots which she loves to tap with her riding-crop. She came +into the dim hall like the embodiment of Spring or of Life, and sat +down in her oddly-shaped habit as though she were at home and in no +hurry to go off anywhere else. This gives a feeling of repose to a +sick man. One knew that she would probably stop to luncheon, and that +one would not have to say to her half a dozen times in the morning, +"Please don't go." + +Presently Margaret Jamieson, who had been doing the whole work of the +curate's household during the late trying time, came with the baby in +her arms to show him to Palestrina. Her manner had a charming air of +matronliness about it, and she threw back the fretted silk of the veil +that covered the face of the little creature in her arms with an air of +pride that was rather pretty to see. But Eliza, who had raced over to +our house in the usual Jamieson headlong fashion, to say something to +us on the subject of textual criticism, looked severely at the infant +through her glasses, and remarked that she had no sympathy whatever +with that sort of thing. Margaret hugged the baby closer to her, and +Mettie, who had pattered over to see us with her cousin Eliza, remarked +that children and their upbringing were doubtless among the great risks +of matrimony. + +"I am sure," said Eliza, "when one sees how happy Kate is with James, +it makes one feel that marriage is not so very great a risk after all." + +That there should be an element of sarcasm in this remark did not even +suggest itself to Eliza. + +"We should all be thankful," piped forth Mettie, who is always ready to +talk, "that it has turned out so well. Kate's courage and independence +of mind seem exactly suited to Mr. Ward. But that is what I think +about us all at Belmont; our characteristics are so different that any +gentleman coming amongst us might find something to attract him in one, +if not in the others. Margaret is our home-bird, and Eliza is so +cultured, and Kate----" + +The two Miss Jamiesons were looking very uncomfortable, and Margaret +said, "O Mettie, dear!" while Mrs. Fielden made an excuse for walking +over to the piano. There was a piece of music open upon it. "Do sing +it," she said to Palestrina. + + +THE GAY TOM-TIT. + + "A tom-tit lived in a tip-top tree, + And a mad little, bad little bird was he. + He'd bachelor tastes, but then--oh dear! + He'd a gay little way with the girls, I fear! + + "Now, a Jenny wren lived on a branch below, + And it's plain she was vain as ladies go, + For she pinched her waist and she rouged a bit. + With a sigh for the eye of that gay tom-tit. + She sighed, 'Oh my!' + She sighed, 'Ah me!' + While the tom-tit sat on his tip-top tree-tree-tree. + And she piped her eye + A bit-bit-bit + For the love of that gay tom-tit-tit-tit. + + "She saw that her rouge did not attract, + So she tried to decide how next to act: + She donned a stiff collar and fancy shirt, + And she wore, what is more, a divided skirt. + Then she bought cigarettes and a big latch-key, + And she said, 'He'll be bound to notice me!' + But she found her plan did not work one bit, + For he sneered, as I feared, did that gay tom-tit. + He sneered, 'Oh my!' + He sneered, 'Oh lor! + What on earth has she done that for-for-for?' + And he winked his eye + A bit-bit-bit, + That giddy and gay tom-tit-tit-tit. + + "'Alas! no more,' said the poor young wren, + 'Will I ape the shape of heartless men!' + So she flung cigarettes and big latch-key + With a flop from the top of the great green tree. + And she wouldn't use rouge or pinch her waist, + But she dressed to the best of a simple taste; + Then she learned to cook and sew and knit-- + 'What a pearl of a girl!' said the gay tom-tit. + Said he, 'Good day!' + Said she, 'How do?' + They were very soon friends, these two-two-two. + And I'm bound to say + In a bit-bit-bit + She married that gay tom-tit-tit-tit." + + +Thus sang Palestrina. + +"Ethically considered, my dear Palestrina," said Eliza, "that song is +distinctly unmoral." + +"Don't let us consider it ethically," said Palestrina tranquilly; and +she went over and sat in the corner of the sofa with several pillows at +her back. + +"Ethically considered," repeated Eliza, "that song, if one pursues its +teaching to a logical conclusion, can only mean that all female social +development is impossible, and that the whole reason for a woman's +existence is that she may gratify man." + +"They are really not worth it," murmured Mrs. Fielden, who was in a +frivolous mood. + +"And mark you," said Eliza, in quite the best of the Reading Society +manner: "it does not suggest that that gratification may be inspired +either by our beauty or by our intellect; indeed, it proves that such +powers are worthless to inspire it. It postulates the +hypothesis"--Eliza is really splendid--"that man is a brute whose +appreciation can only be secured by ministering to his desire for food +and suitable clothing, and that woman's whole business is to render +this creature complacent." + +"Don't you think things are much pleasanter when people _are_ +complacent?" said my sister easily. + +Eliza fixed her with strong, dark eyes. "Were I describing you in a +book," she said--one feels as though Eliza will write a book, probably +a clever one, some day--"I should describe you as a typical woman, and +therefore a pudding. A dear, tepid pudding, with a pink sauce over it. +Very sweet, no doubt, but squashy--decidedly squashy. Some day," said +Eliza triumphantly, "you will be squashed into mere pulp, and you will +not like that." + +This did not seem to be a likely end for Palestrina. Eliza continued: +"Who will deny that men are selfish?" + +"But they are also useful," said Mrs. Fielden in an ingenuous way. +"They open doors for one, don't you know, and give one the front row +when there is anything to be seen, even when one wears a big hat; and +they see one into one's carriage--oh! and lots of other useful little +things of that sort." + +"Admitted," said Eliza, "that women have certain privileges--have they +any Rights?" + +Mrs. Fielden admitted that they had not. "But," she said, "I don't +really think that that is important. The men whom one knows are always +nice to one, and I don't think it matters much what the others are." + +"Rank individualism," said Eliza. And she said it without a moment's +hesitation, which gave us a very high opinion indeed of her powers of +speech. "It is the fashion to say that each woman has only one man to +manage, and she must be a very stupid woman if she cannot manage him; +but there are thousands of women who, being weaker morally and +physically than their particular man, can do nothing with him, and it +is not fair to leave their wrongs unredressed because you are +comfortable and happy." + +"Still, you know," said Mrs. Fielden thoughtfully, "one cannot help +wishing that they could get what they want without involving us in the +question. You see, if they got their rights we should probably get +ours too, and then I'm afraid we should lose our privileges." + +"You are like the man," said I, "who could do quite well without the +necessaries of life, but he could not do without its luxuries." + +"What a nice man it must have been who said that!" exclaimed Mrs. +Fielden. "It would be quite easy to do without meat on one's table, +but it would be impossible to dine without flowers and dessert." + +It must be admitted that Eliza had the last word in the argument after +all. + +"Just so," she said; "and all life shows just this--that a woman has, +with her usual perverseness, chosen a diet of flowers and dessert with +intervals of starvation, instead of wholesome meat and pudding." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +"We shall have to ask the engaged couple to dinner," I said to +Palestrina one morning a few days later. "And I suppose one or two +more of the rest of The Family would like to be asked at the same time." + +"I never know in what quantities one ought to ask the Jamiesons," said +my sister, "nor how to make a proper selection. It seems invidious to +suggest that Kate and Eliza and Margaret should come, and not Maud and +Gracie; and yet what is one to do? The last time that you were away +from home I wrote and said, 'Will a few of you come?' And Mrs. +Jamieson, the Pirate Boy, and four sisters came." + +"One feels sure," I replied, "that the Jamiesons thought that was quite +a modest number to take advantage of your invitation. One knows that +had they been inviting some girls from a boarding-school they would +have included the entire number of pupils." + +Palestrina protested that as the meal to which our friends were to come +was dinner, it would be only reasonable to invite the same number of +ladies and gentlemen; and to this I assented. She suggested asking the +Darcey-Jacobs, whom we had not seen for a long time. + +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is a woman who always affords one considerable +inward amusement, being herself, I believe, more conspicuously devoid +of humour than any one else I have ever met. Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs has +never been known to see a joke. That she herself should appear to any +one in a humorous light would, I know, appear an inconceivable +contingency to her. She has a high Roman nose, and rather faded yellow +hair, which was her principal claim to beauty when a girl. It is even +now thick and long, and is always worn in a sort of majestic coronet on +the top of her head. Her manner is somewhat formidable and emphatic, +and the alarm which this engenders in timid or diffident persons is +increased by the habit she has of accentuating many of her remarks by a +playful but really somewhat severe rap over the knuckles of the person +she is addressing, with her fan or lorgnettes. She dresses handsomely +in expensive materials somewhat gaudy in colour, and she has an erect +carriage, of which she is very proud. Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs has a good +deal to say on the subject of the feeble-mindedness of the male sex, +and when something has been proved impossible of attainment by them she +always says, "A woman could have done it in five minutes." + +At the time of her marriage, Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs (Miss Foljambe she was +then) was a dowerless girl with two admirers, Major Jacobs and Mr. +Morgan. Not being, it would seem, a young lady of very deep +affections, her choice of a husband was decided entirely by the extent +of the worldly prospects he could offer, and the Major, being the +better match of the two, was accepted. But how cruel are the tricks +that fate will sometimes play! Not long after her marriage Mr. Morgan +not only inherited a large fortune, but shortly afterwards left this +world for a better, and Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is in the habit of +remarking, with a good deal of feeling, "If I had only chosen the other +I might have been a happy widow now!" + +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs lives in our quiet country neighbourhood during the +greater part of the year, on the distinct understanding that she +loathes every hour of it. When she goes abroad or to London she talks +quite cheerfully of having had one breath of life. So fraught with +happy successes are these pilgrimages in her brocaded satin gowns into +the outer world that she often says that were she but free she might +have the world at her feet to-morrow. And she has been known to refer +to the Major, still in the tone of cheerful resignation and with her +emphasizing tap of the fan, as "a dead weight round her neck." + +The Major himself is a guileless person, whose very simplicity causes +his wife more exquisite suffering than even a husband of keen, +vindictive temper could inflict. + +Does Mrs. Jacobs give a dinner-party, it is not unusual for the master +of the house to remark in a congratulatory tone from his end of the +table, "What has Mullens been doing to the silver, my dear? it looks +unusually bright;" while his greeting to his friends as they arrive at +his house, though distinctly cordial, often takes the form of a hearty +"I had no idea that we were going to see you to-night." As Mrs. +Darcey-Jacobs always sends some kind message from the Major in her +notes of invitation, this of course is most disconcerting, both for her +and for her guests. This year when they were in Italy a friend of ours +in the same hotel overheard a lady ask the Major if he were related to +the Darceys of Mugthorpe. "I really can't tell you," said the Major; +"the Darcey was my wife's idea." + +"Four Jamiesons," I said, "and the Darcey-Jacobs, and our two selves. +Isn't it humiliating to think that we have invariably to invite the +same two men to balance our numbers at a dinner-party? I can't help +remarking that Anthony Crawshay and Ellicomb are present at every +dinner-party in this neighbourhood, as surely as soup is on the table." + +"We might ask Mrs. Fielden," said Palestrina; "she is sure to have some +colonels with her. Besides, I love Mrs. Fielden, though people say she +is a flirt. I think most men are in love with her; some propose to +her, and some do not, but they all love her." + +"Even when she refuses to marry them?" + +"I have heard Mrs. Fielden say that an offer of marriage should be +refused artistically," said Palestrina. "She says young girls hardly +ever do it properly, and that they are brusque and brutal. I suppose +she herself has some charming way of her own of refusing men which does +not hurt their feelings. I believe," said Palestrina, "that she would +marry Sir Anthony Crawshay if he could play Bridge." + +"Anthony is an excellent fellow," I said. + +Mr. Ellicomb is a young man of High Church principles and artistic +tastes who has taken an old Tudor farmhouse in the neighbourhood, and +has furnished it very well. He waxes eloquent on the monstrous +inelegance of modern dress, and the decadence of Japanese art, and he +says he would rather sit in the dark than burn gas in his house, and he +dusts his own blue china himself. In his house it is a sign of art to +divert anything from its proper use, and to use it for another purpose +than that for which it was originally intended. Poor Ellicomb uses a +cabbage-strainer as a fern-pot, a drain-tile for an umbrella-stand, his +mother's old lace veils as antimacassars, bed-posts as palm-stands, a +linen press as a book-case, and a brass spittoon for growing lilies. +It is almost like playing at guessing riddles to go over his house with +him, and to try and discover for what purpose some of his things were +originally created. Their conversion to another use is, I am sure, a +very high form of art. + +"There are the Jamiesons," said my sister, as we sat in the hall ready +to receive our guests. + +It does not require any occult power to sit indoors and to be able to +distinguish the Jamiesons' carriage-wheels from those of the other +arrivals, for the Jamiesons have, as usual, employed the "six-fifty" +bus on its return journey from the station to set them down at our +gate. It is quite a subject of interest with our neighbours to find +themselves fellow-passengers with the young ladies, in their black +skirts and their more dressy style of bodice concealed beneath tweed +capes. And it generally gets about in Stowel circles before the +evening is over, or certainly soon after the morning shopping has +begun, that the Miss Jamiesons have been dining at such or such a +house. Even the bus conductor has a sympathetic way of handing the +young ladies into his conveyance when they are going out to dinner, and +he fetches a wisp of straw and wipes down the step if the night is wet. + +Mr. Ward piloted the independent Kate up the short carriage-drive with +quite an affectionate air of solicitude, frequently inquiring of her if +she did not feel her feet a little damp; and Kate answered cheerfully +and kindly, feeling, no doubt, that this sort of fussing was one of the +drawbacks of prospective matrimony, but that it was only right to +accept the little attentions in the spirit in which they were made. +The Pirate Boy, who followed with his sister Maud, begged her to take +his arm in a burly fashion, and fell a little distance behind. The +Pirate Boy thinks that it is etiquette to place himself at a distance +from any engaged couple, even during the shortest walk. He does so +even when he makes the untoward third in a party. On these occasions +he falls behind and puts on an air of abstraction a little overdone. +The Jacobs arrived next, and then Anthony Crawshay, who drove over in +his high dog-cart, with its flashing lamps and glittering wheels--a +very good light-running cart it is; Anthony and I used often to drive +in it together--and Ellicomb arrived in a brougham, in which we have a +shrewd suspicion that there is a foot-warmer. + +Maud began to flirt with Mr. Ellicomb directly. I have never known her +to be for long in the society of a gentleman without doing so, and her +sisters are wont to say of Maud that she certainly has her +opportunities, while the criticism of an unprejudiced observer might be +that she certainly makes them. Mr. Ellicomb, it is believed, has +written an article in one of the magazines on the reformation of men's +clothing, and it is hoped he will become a member of the Reading +Society. He ate very little at dinner, and talked in a low, cultured +voice about Church matters the whole of the evening, and uttered some +very decided views upon the subject of the celibacy of the clergy. + +"I must say," said Major Jacobs, "that I also approve of celibacy in +the Church, and I may say in the army and in the navy. If I had my +life to live over again----" + +"William!" said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs in an awful voice. + +William was about to retreat precipitately from his position, but +catching sight perhaps of a sympathetic eye turned upon him from that +good comrade of his, Anthony Crawshay, he blundered on,-- + +"If Confession, now, became more general in the English Church," he +said, "secrets confided to the clergy could hardly be kept inviolate. +A clergyman's wife might almost--well, not to put too fine a point on +it--wring from him by force the secret that had been committed to him." + +"I hope so, indeed," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs. + +"The Anglican Church," said Mr. Ellicomb, "recognizes that difficulty, +and has met it in the persons of the Fathers of the Church." + +Maud Jamieson raised soft eyes to his, and said that a woman might be a +help and a comfort to a man. + +Mr. Ellicomb seemed disposed to admit that it might be so. "I have +been in retreat at Cowley for some weeks," he said, "and the cooking +was certainly monstrous, and, would you believe it, they did not allow +one to bring one's own servant with one." There is nothing monkish +about Ellicomb, nor is his asceticism overdone. + +"I have been reading a book on sects and heresies," said Mrs. Fielden, +"and I find I belong to them all." + +Mr. Ellicomb interposed eagerly by saying, "If I had to state my own +convictions exactly, I should certainly say that I was a Manichaean, +with just a touch of Sabellianism." + +"I think," said Mrs. Fielden gravely, "that I am a Rosicrucian heretic." + +Mr. Ellicomb was interested and delighted. "I know," he said, "that +many people would think that I had not exactly stated my position. For +instance, a lady to whom I described my symptoms the other day, told me +at once that I was a Buddhist by nature and an Antinomian by education, +and I felt that in part she was right." + +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs here interposed, and gave it as her opinion +emphatically that man was a contemptible creature whatever his beliefs +might be, and that he required a woman to look after him. "To look +after him," she repeated, in a tone that said as plainly as possible, +"to keep him in order," and she tapped Mr. Ellicomb sharply on the +knuckles. + +The Pirate Boy had some brave notions about what he called The Sex, and +here plunged into a long description of how he had rescued a fair +creature out of the hands of cut-throats out there, and he illustrated +his action of saving the fair one by holding an imaginary six-shooter +to Palestrina's head in a very alarming way. He talked of man as The +Protector, and thrust his hand into his cummerbund--the action, I +suppose, being intended to show that the six-shooter had been +replaced--and glanced round the table with an air of defiance. "There +is not a man," he remarked, "I don't care who he is, if he fail in +respect to a woman when I am present, that shall not get a decanter +hurled straight at his head--straight at his head. I have said it!" +He laid his hand impetuously upon one of two heavy cut-glass bottles +that had been placed in front of me, and one trembled for the safety of +one's guests. "I remember," he said, "in one of those gambling-hells +in the Far West, where there was about as unruly a set of fellows and +cut-throats as ever I came across----" The rest of the story was so +evidently culled from the last number of the _Strand Magazine_ that it +hardly seemed rude of Palestrina to interrupt it by bowing to Mrs. +Fielden, and suggesting that they should adjourn. Maud Jamieson drew +my sister aside as they stood grouped round the fire-place in the hall +drinking their coffee, and thanked her for introducing Mr. Ellicomb to +her. "He is perfectly charming," she said. But Maud's sisters have +confided to us that this is her invariable conclusion about the last +man she has met, and it is intended as a sort of previndication of +herself. Maud, it seems, intends to flirt with every one she sees, but +if she pretends that her affections are really touched there can be no +upbraidings on the part of The Family. + +Kate Jamieson sat on the sofa, and twisted her engagement ring +complacently round her finger. She thought that Mr. Ward had carried +himself very well this evening. His quietness throughout the dinner +compared favourably with the conversation of other guests. Kate said +once to Palestrina: "He is a man that I shall feel the utmost +confidence in taking about with me everywhere." And the remark +conveyed the suggestion that Mr. Ward would always be an appendage to +Kate Jamieson. + +Anthony Crawshay is a very good fellow indeed. The most advanced and +cultured young lady will never get him to talk about metaphysics in the +crush of a ballroom, nor to concern himself about the inartistic shape +of the clothes we wear nowadays. "If I didn't like them, I shouldn't +wear them," says Anthony. He is a short, spare man, with a voice +somewhat out of proportion to his size, and the best cross-country +rider in the county. The habit he has of shouting all his remarks +seems rather pleasantly in accordance with his honest nature. Anthony +very seldom speaks of any one of whom he has not a good word to say; +but if he does mention any one whom he dislikes, he does so in a very +hearty manner, which is almost as good as many other people's praise. +He is as obstinate, as straightforward, and as good a fellow as a +country neighbour ought to be. "We have been hunting a May fox, by +Gad, Hugo," said Anthony, and he began to tell me about the run--a +thing I can hardly get any one to do nowadays. + +The Pirate Boy, upon whom the word "horse" had a rousing effect, +condemned the whole breed of English horses in one short speech. "I +assure you," he said, getting up and sawing the air with his hand, +"there are some of those wild mustangs out there which would knock +spots out of any horses in your stables." + +Thus challenged, Anthony, who was standing on the hearthrug, turned, +and stooping towards me asked, in what he intended to be a whisper, who +the young fellow was, and shouted abroad, "Rum chap that, very rum +chap!" + +By-and-by Maud Jamieson went to the piano and began to sing ballads to +Mr. Ellicomb; and we have an inward conviction--Palestrina and I--that +this evening's report to the Jamieson family will be that Mr. Ellicomb +is "struck." Major Jacobs considers himself musical because he likes +hearing the words of a song distinctly pronounced. He was charmed with +Maud's singing, and Kate encouraged the girl in a little matronly way +which she has lately assumed. She called forth Maud's best efforts by +saying, "What was the pretty Irish song you sang the other night?" or +"You haven't given us 'We'd better bide a wee' yet, dear." Maud +responded with several ballads, and wished she had some of Lord Henry +Somerset's songs with her, Mr. Ellicomb having expressed a fondness for +them. An opportunity was thus given for suggesting a call at +Belmont--Maud knows mamma will be delighted--she wished Kennie were +better at that sort of thing; the invitation to come in some afternoon +might perhaps have come more properly from a brother. + +It was very gratifying to find that Mr. Ward, fortified by dinner, +became more courageous than I have ever known him to be before. He +tip-toed almost boldly across the room, and sitting down beside my +sister began to make a series of deliberate remarks to her, mostly in +the form of interrogation: "Do you care for Scotch songs?" "Have you +ever been in Ireland?" "Do you know Wales at all?" And to these +important questions Palestrina made suitable replies. "That is _most_ +interesting," I heard her say from time to time, using the formula of +those who are bored to the extent of complete absence of mind. + +Mrs. Fielden crossed the room suddenly with a shimmer of silken skirts. +In spite of her frivolity she has a way of making herself necessary to +every party to which she goes. There used to be an old saying long ago +in Scotland that wherever The Macgregor sat was the head of the table. +Mrs. Fielden is always the centre of every party, although she has a +childish habit, which in another woman might be ascribed to shyness, of +taking the least conspicuous seat in the room. Consequently, when she +dispersed the little group that was standing or sitting about her, +applauding everything she said, and came across the room in pink satin +and roses and diamonds, and sat down beside my sofa, the action had +something regal about it, as though she had left a throne and come to +speak to me. + +"I am going to teach you to play Bridge," she said. + +"That is most kind of you." + +"I am going to carry you off to Stanby next week to give you lessons," +she went on. + +I have a strong conviction that if Mrs. Fielden were to give a beggar a +halfpenny he would probably stoop down and kiss the edge of her skirt, +or do something equally unconventional and self-abasing. She might, as +a great favour, give a courtier who had risked his life for her, her +hand to kiss. When she smiles men become foolish about her. + +"It is very kind of you to want us," I said. + +"I want Bridge," said Mrs. Fielden, and, as usual when she is going to +be provoking, she looked prettier than ever, and began to smile. + +"Any one will do to make up a rubber, I suppose?" I said. + +"Oh yes, any one," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"Consequently, my sister and I need not feel particularly distinguished +by being asked," I continued. + +"I am so glad Palestrina is coming," said Mrs. Fielden, "because +several men have written to tell me they are coming to stay, just when +my sisters-in-law are leaving, and I suppose I oughtn't to entertain a +houseful of men alone, ought I?" + +Mrs. Fielden does exactly as she pleases upon all occasions, but this +does not prevent her from pretending to have acute attacks of propriety +sometimes. + +"We will play Bridge and chaperon you with pleasure," I said. + +"I thought of drowning myself yesterday," said Mrs. Fielden, "because +it rained all day, and I had no one to amuse me, and then I thought I +would ask you to come over and play Bridge instead. When I am bored I +never can make up my mind whether I shall commit suicide, or go into a +convent, or get married. Which do you advise?" + +"I should advise you to marry," I said. "As far as I can gather, a +great source of discord and danger in our neighbourhood would be +removed if you did so." + +Mrs. Fielden said with her eyes, "Hugo, you are very cross." But being +the most good-natured woman in the world, and sharing that forbearance +which most people extend to an invalid, she smiled instead. + +"Why do you stay here when you are feeling so tired?" she said to me +presently. + +"Because," I replied, "my sister lies awake half the night and thinks I +am going to die, if I show any signs of fatigue, or go to bed early. +Besides, for us, you know, this is quite an exciting evening. We have +thought about our dinner-party for days past." + +"If you were nice," said Mrs. Fielden after a pause, "you would ask me +to come into your library and smoke." + +"Do you smoke?" + +"No," said Mrs. Fielden, "I don't." + +"I'm glad you don't," I said. + +"For years," said Mrs. Fielden, "I tried to think it was wrong, and +then I quite enjoyed smoking; but there is a certain effort involved in +trying to raise an innocent occupation to the level of a crime." + +"It is a very unfeminine habit," I said; partly because I was in a +contradictious mood, and partly because I wanted to snub Mrs. Fielden +for being so beautiful and young and charming. + +"The last man," said Mrs. Fielden gravely, "who made that remark died +shortly afterwards." + +She was gathering up my cushions and pillows as she spoke, and she +turned to my sister as she crossed the hall, and said, "We are going to +study philosophy in the library." + +The library was lit by a single lamp, and the fire burned low in the +grate; but the room was illumined suddenly by a pink dress and roses +and diamonds, and Mrs. Fielden was arranging cushions, in the very +skilful way she has, on my sofa by the fire. She handed me my +cigarette-box and matches, and spread a rug over my leg. For some +occult reason the rustling pink dress only whispered softly over the +carpet now, like a woman's hushed voice in a sick-room, and Mrs. +Fielden, by the simple act of drawing up a chair to the fire and +sitting in it, took the head of the table again, and became the centre +of the room. + +"May I really smoke," I asked, "after being such a brute as to say you +mustn't?" + +"I look upon smoking as a purely feminine habit, like drinking tea, or +having headaches, or anything of that sort," said Mrs. Fielden. "It +was simply because it was so expensive that men took to it in the first +place. Ethics should not be based upon accident, should it?" + +I handed Mrs. Fielden my cigarette-box. + +"If you are quite sure you disapprove, I will have one," she said. + +From the hall came the sound of Maud's singing. Her voice is not of +great compass, nor very strong, but it is clear and fresh, with a +tuneful cadence in it. + +"You spend nearly all your days here?" said Mrs. Fielden, looking round +the room. + +"Until the afternoon," I said; "and then Palestrina and I go for a +little walk, and at tea-time I go to the hall sofa, and she asks people +to come up and sit with me." + +"I am glad you like books," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"But really," I said, "the good folks in Stowel are all extraordinarily +kind to me, and some of the Jamiesons are up nearly every day." + +"I like the Jamiesons," said Mrs. Fielden; "they are so intelligent. +Have you ever noticed that their watches all keep exact time, and that +they tell you the hour to the very second? And they always know what +day of the month it is, and when Easter falls, and how much stuff it +takes to make a blouse." + +"You wrong Eliza Jamieson," I said; "she studies philosophy." + +"Oh," said Mrs. Fielden eagerly, "I forgot to tell you, I have begun to +study philosophy. I began last week. Will you lend me some books, +please? I want to be very wise and learned." + +"Why?" I asked. + +"I think," said Mrs. Fielden, "that it might be nice if people did not +always call one frivolous; and that if I studied philosophy----" + +"I shall not lend you any books," I said. + +"That is rather disobliging of you." + +"Because," I said, "our lives should always show a perfect equation. +If you are a frivolous person you should behave frivolously." + +"You mean _as_ I am a frivolous person," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"As you are a frivolous person," I repeated. + +"And after all," said Mrs. Fielden with a contemplative air, "how silly +philosophy is! I asked somebody the other day the meaning of a +syllogism, and really I don't think I ever heard anything quite so +foolish." + +"It is quite beneath your notice," I said. + +"I did think of asking you if I might come over sometimes and read +these musty volumes of yours." + +"You would probably find them as uninteresting as I am," I said. + +Mrs. Fielden looked as if she thought that might be possible, and did +not press the matter. + +I dislike being disloyal to my books, for they are such good friends of +mine. But a great wish came to me then to get up and do something, +instead of for ever reading the doings and the thoughts of other +people. I thought how much I should like to live again, and just for +once sleep on the veldt with the stars overhead, or longed that I could +get astride of a horse, and follow a burst of the hounds over the wet +fields in England. And so thinking I turned on the sofa and said +petulantly, "I wish Maud Jamieson would not sing that song." + +"Oh, that we two were maying," she sang, in the song that tells of love +and separation, and the longings and heartbreaks which it is much +better not to speak about, and the things which we want and cannot have. + +"I hate yearners," I said. "Why can't she sing something cheerful?" + +Mrs. Fielden rose from her chair by the fire and crossed the hearthrug, +and came and sat down on my sofa. She took my hand in hers and said: +"Poor boy! is it very hard sometimes?" + + +"Of course," said Palestrina, as we went upstairs to bed after our +guests had departed, "you are sure to feel tired. The little party has +been too much for you, I'm afraid. It was very tiresome for you having +to leave us all." + +"I felt rather a crock after dinner," I said, "and I think the hall +gets hot in the evening." + +"I wish I could make you better," said Palestrina affectionately; "it +is horrid for you being ill." + +"Every one," I said, "makes far too much fuss about health. Why, ten +officers of our regiment are buried in South Africa. I suppose half +the pensioners in Chelsea Hospital have had wounds as bad as mine, and +a cripple more or less in the world does not matter very much. Women +are kind enough to pity me. They even confide their troubles to me +sometimes, because I am a poor thing lying on a sofa. I am really +quite happy hobbling about with you, Palestrina; and when I am older, I +shall probably take an interest in the garden. There is a proper and +philosophical attitude of mind in respect of these things." + +"O Hugo," said Palestrina, "I always know you are not happy when you +begin to be philosophical." + +"Life is very easily explained without the assistance of philosophy +when everything goes all right," I replied. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Have I ever mentioned that Palestrina is engaged to be married? If I +have not done so, it is because it seems an obvious fact that all +Palestrinas are engaged to be married. Her _fiance_, who is called +Thomas, is stationed with his regiment in Ireland. A few weeks ago he +sent her, as a token of his affection, a yellow dog with long hair. +Palestrina does not like dogs, but she is trying to love Down-Jock for +Thomas's sake. She says his name is Jock. The dog is a curious +creature, with a passion for hurling himself at those who wear clean +flannel trousers or light skirts. Thomas says he is full of +intelligence. He appears to be quite a young animal, but he can affect +the airs of extreme old age, sleeping in a basket a great part of the +day, or standing on the doorstep to bark at visitors in an asthmatical +manner, as though he would say, "I am too old and too feeble to give +chase, but while I am alive this house shall not lack a defender." At +other times he is wildly juvenile, and rolls himself over and over in +an exuberance of youthful fun. This is chiefly on Sundays, when (his +best joke) he pretends he wants to come to church with us. Sunday is +Down-Jock's happiest day in all the week. No Christian in the land +loves it more than he does. He begins his religious exercises early in +the morning by barking outside the doors of all those people who have +determined to take an extra half-hour's rest, and he continues barking +without ceasing until the sleeper awakes and gets out of bed to open +the door for him. He bustles in and wags his tail cheerfully, saying +as plainly as a dog can say it, "I am an early riser, you see--and a +teetotaler," he adds, trotting across the room to the water-jug, and +lapping full red tonguefuls of its contents. Then he stands in the +middle of the room and barks at you; runs to the door and barks at it; +barks at the servants as they go downstairs, promising--the little +tell-tale!--that their lateness shall be reported in the proper +quarter. Finally, he climbs on to the bed, and goes to sleep upon your +feet. + +During breakfast he is attentive to every one, and sits on the skirts +of those ladies who most dislike dogs, and pulls them down +uncomfortably from the waist. He watches every mouthful of food that +is eaten, and grudges it to the eater; and his eyes are saying all the +time, "How can you be so greedy?" After breakfast his most boisterous +juvenile mood begins. He jumps on every one, or rolls himself over and +over under every one's feet. He wags his tail, barks in a piercing +manner--the bark of the gay young dog--and madly rushes after imaginary +rats. All gloves and shoes become his playthings, and he frolics +blithely with the hat-brush. + +On weekdays he pleads old age as an excuse, and refuses to come +anywhere with us; but on the Sabbath morning who so ready as Down-Jock +to take his walks abroad? He flies after us to the gate, his long hair +streaming in the wind, and his short legs racing like a clockwork dog. + +Palestrina says: "Oh dear, what shall we do? Down-Jock! down, sir! +Oh, he has spoilt my dress! Good doggie, mustn't go to church! Go +home! go home! Oh, Jock, do get down!--Look, he is following us still, +and the church door is always open; he is sure to come in in the middle +of the service, and trot up to us in our pew. Do you think Thomas +would mind if I were to look as if he didn't belong to us?" + +Jock flies back with an old bone in his mouth and deposits it at +Palestrina's feet, dares her to touch it, and makes flying snatches at +her shoes when she kicks the treasure aside. + +"I must take him back," says Palestrina. "It will make me late of +course, but I must go and shut him up." + +"He won't follow you," I say. "He is quite determined to go to church." + +Palestrina lifts the heavy beast in her arms, and in an exuberance of +joy Down-Jock makes a doormat of her dress, and rubs his paws +affectionately against it and licks her hand. + +Of course he escapes presently and runs after us; that is his best and +most killing joke. Inwardly one feels he is in a state of +hardly-suppressed laughter as he tears down the road again, barking +with glee. And then he gets a sober fit, walks demurely in front of us +in the narrow field-path, changes his mind suddenly about going to +church, stops dead short, and trips us up; thinks after all he ought to +go to the morning service as an example to the servants; toddles on +again, and stops to say (with the air of extreme old age again assumed) +that, after all, he is not up to the exertion, and would have to sit +down at the Psalms, so perhaps it really would be better to stay +quietly at home. Another stop. A rapid toilet performed by scratching +his head with his hind-leg, "just in case I meet any one coming out of +church whom I know;" and then Down-Jock meets a boy friend strolling +off to the fields, and running up to him, says: "One must conform to +conventionalities, but between you and me I never had the remotest +intention of going to church." + +Down-Jock, in his moments of most restless activity, always reminds me +of a servant of ours who has occasional fits of the most intense +energy. It begins quite early in the morning, when she gets up some +hours before her usual time, and gives a sort of surprise party to the +rest of the household. These parties take place two or three times a +year, and we do not get over them for weeks afterwards. Every room in +the house is visited in turn, and delinquencies of a twelvemonth are +laid bare. During the morning cupboards are turned out in a +magisterial sort of way, and dusty corners are triumphantly displayed. +The most cherished rubbish is freely consigned to the waste-paper +baskets, and collections of all sorts are contemptuously swept away. +We hastily gather up books and precious oddments, and hurry off with +them to my den, where we take refuge till the whirlwind is past. +Curtains and tablecloths are shaken with a sort of vindictive energy at +the back-door; all windows are flung open, and rugs are rolled up, +making a sort of obstacle race in every passage and room. Down-Jock, +who never recognizes a superior in any one, is the only member of the +party who is not rendered an abject coward. He unrolls rugs, and runs +away with dusters, and snaps at the heels of the housemaid in a way +that provokes one's wonder at his temerity. My sister and I, having +locked away our most cherished possessions, generally contrive to be +out of the house as much as possible on one of these tempestuous days. +And following the line of reasoning, not of the highest order, which +suggests that if one cannot be happy one had better try and be good, +Palestrina always visits her old women at the workhouse on these days. + +"I wish," she said to me, "that you would walk into the village and +meet me on my way home. I don't think anybody is coming up to see you +this afternoon, and the house is so uncomfortable when Janet is in one +of her whirlwind moods. Come as far as the corner, and go in and sit +down at old Pettifer's if you get tired." + +"Shadrach Pettifer tells me," I said, "that his affection for you is +based on the fact that you are so like his poor old mother. Perhaps +while I am waiting at his cottage he may give me further interesting +facts about you." + +Shadey is an old man with a bent back and curious bright eyes that +gleam under a heavy thatch of eyebrow. His wife is the very thinnest +old woman that I have ever seen; her cheeks have fallen in and are so +very wrinkled that they always remind me of a toy balloon that a child +has pricked with a pin. She is always ill and never complaining. Any +expression of sympathy seems foreign to her comprehension, and the +"Poor thing!" or "I am so sorry," so eagerly accepted by more fortunate +folk, is received by her with a certain air of independence. Last +winter Mrs. Pettifer was dangerously ill with internal gout, but +expressions of condolence were always met with the rather curious +reply, "Well, you see, sir, we must have something to bring us to our +end." There is a whole world of philosophy in this. + +To-day the old couple spent the time while I waited for Palestrina in +their cottage in describing to me the last days in the life of their +tortoise, an old friend, and an animal of evidently strange and unusual +qualities. Towards the close of its life it was, on the testimony of +the Pettifers, taken with screaming fits, and, it even had to be held +down "when the high-strikes was wuss." Later it used to run round and +round as never was. And at last Shadey determined to release it from +this earthly tabernacle. He asked his friend Bridgeman, Anthony +Crawshay's head-keeper, to come round some evening and administer +poison to the unfortunate beast, and the effect of the dose was as +strange as it was unexpected. The poison was the first thing for weeks +that poor Toots the tortoise had seemed to enjoy. It seemed, to quote +again from the testimony of those most intimately acquainted with the +animal, to "put new life into Toots," and the more poison that was +administered the livelier did he become, "until he was that gay it +seemed as if he would ha' laughed at yer!" Finally, I understood that +when poison sufficient to kill two cart-horses had been given, the +afflicted animal yielded to treatment, and its shell now adorns the +kitchen dresser. + +We returned home to find the house smelling of furniture polish, and +permeated with a certain cold primness which succeeds a tidying-up, and +which can only be dispelled by a glowing fire. One by one things were +brought back to the hall, and we felt like snails creeping out in the +evening after a day of rain. Banished property strewed the tables +again, and Palestrina opened the piano and spread it with music. It +was an act of defiance, but comfortable nevertheless, to collect the +cushions which had been dotted primly about in clean muslin covers, and +to pile them all on to the sofa before the fire. But Down-Jock, who +always goes one better than any one else, contributed still more +completely to the systematized disorganization of the house. He gaily +wiped his muddy feet on clean paint, and tore blithely round after +imaginary rats wherever order reigned. Finally, in an exuberance of +joy, he made a hearty supper of Palestrina's manuscript book of music, +and barked with glee. + +And yet some people say that dogs are not intelligent! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The Uncle, Sir John, is coming to stay at the Taylors', and the town is +in something of a flutter over this event. It was hoped that the +Taylors would give a tea-party in honour of their guest, but there is a +shrewd notion abroad that no one will be allowed to see very much of +him except at a distance. The Taylors had hoped that there would be +some occasion during his visit on which The Uncle might speak in +public, and Mr. Taylor has tried, half jestingly, to induce his brother +townsfolk to arrange what he calls "something in the political line" +while the august relative is staying with him. I think we owe it to +the fact that the political meeting was found to be an impossibility +that we were asked to tea at the Taylors'. + +Invitations, instead of taking the form of a friendly note, after the +pattern of Stowel invitations in general, were conveyed on one of Mrs. +Taylor's visiting cards, with "At home, Thursday the 17th, four to +seven," upon it. "A little abrupt," ladies of Stowel were inclined to +think, but of course the Taylors are people of some importance in the +place. No one quite knew how to answer the invitation, and a good many +friendly little visits were paid on the afternoon on which it arrived, +and the mysterious card was produced from a bag or purse, with the +smiling apology, "I am sure fashions change so quickly that one hardly +knows how to keep up with them." And then ideas were exchanged as to +the reply suitable to such a form of invitation. Miss Tracey said that +she always thought that an invitation was accepted in as nearly as +possible the same manner in which it was given, and she announced that +she and her sister meant to return one of their own visiting-cards to +Mrs. Taylor, with the day and the hour named upon it, and "With +pleasure" written underneath. This was considered suitable, for the +most part; but those who still had doubts upon the subject made +elaborate efforts to meet Mrs. Taylor during the morning's shopping, +and to say to her in a friendly way, "We are coming, of course, on +Thursday. Will you excuse our writing a note, at this busy time?" + +The Miss Blinds always send their thanks for a "polite invitation" in +the old style, but on this occasion Miss Lydia was obliged to offer +regrets as well as thanks, as she had not been very well lately. She, +I suppose, was the only person in Stowel who did not accept Mrs. +Taylor's invitation. Two parties are, of course, never given on the +same day, and it would be considered eccentric to prefer staying at +home to going out. + +"I am sorry Miss Lydia cannot come," said Mr. Taylor, when the notes of +acceptance were being opened at breakfast-time; "after all, it is not +every day that people have a chance of meeting so distinguished a man +as the General." + +"Miss Lydia was never intrusive," said Mrs. Taylor. + +Mrs. Lovekin was one of those who avoided the difficulty raised by Mrs. +Taylor's unusual form of invitation by meeting her accidentally in the +baker's shop, where an assortment of cakes was being ordered for the +tea-party, and signifying her intention of coming to tea. "No need to +write, I suppose," said Mrs. Lovekin lightly, "as I have met you?" +Both Mrs. Taylor and the baker's wife thought it would have been in +better taste if Mrs. Lovekin had then withdrawn, instead of remaining +in the shop and hearing what was ordered. + +Mrs. Taylor had made up her mind at an early stage in the proceedings +that she would be very firm indeed about the matter of dispensing tea +herself in her own house. She would appropriate one teapot, and her +daughter should have the other, and not even to shake hands with a +late-arriving guest would they run the risk of letting this badge of +office fall into the hands of the co-hostess. + +"And if," said Mrs. Taylor, "I find that she is appropriating The Uncle +too much, I shall not hesitate to remove him, on the plea of +introducing him to some other and more important guests." + +It was in church on Sunday that we were first allowed to see The Uncle, +and this is only following the usual custom in Stowel. Church on +Sunday is, as it were, the public life of the town. After a death it +is customary to wait until the family has appeared in church to pay +visits of condolence--not so much to avoid intrusiveness in the first +hour of grief as from a feeling that perhaps the crape mourning will +not have arrived. In the same way, if any one moves into a new +house--a very unusual proceeding--we are made aware that the carpets +are all down, and the drawing-room curtains are hung, when the new +arrivals are seen in their pew on Sunday. This, also, is accepted as a +token that calling may now begin. Mrs. Taylor said afterwards, in +describing that first Sunday when The Uncle appeared in Stowel Church, +that her heart beat so painfully at the door that she thought she would +have been obliged to turn back. It was a triumphal progress that the +party of four made up the centre aisle to their pew, but the inward +excitement of the Taylors rendered a natural deportment difficult. +Neither Mrs. Taylor nor her daughter joined in the hymns or the +responses that Sunday morning. It is doubtful whether they heard a +word of the service. + +Sir John is a very military-looking person, with white whiskers and a +bald pink head. He sat between Mrs. and Miss Taylor, who supplied him +with hymn and prayer books in as natural a manner as they found it +possible to assume; and Mr. Taylor sat at the end of the pew with a +genial expression on his face, and a look of tempered pride, due no +doubt to the fact that the General was "one of my wife's people," and +not a blood relation of his own. + +It was a disappointment to Mr. Taylor that his own sister, Mrs. +Macdonald--widow of a Scotch gentleman, whom the Taylors always talk of +as "The Laird"--was not able to come to this family gathering. But +Mrs. Macdonald pleaded spring-cleaning as an insuperable objection to +leaving home at present. + +As Miss Taylor, Mrs. Macdonald used to be one of Stowel's central +figures, for she was a lady of considerable means and an indefatigable +housekeeper; and Mr. Macdonald was considered to have done well when he +took her as his bride to the North. + +The Sunday on which the Taylors appeared in church with The Uncle was +curiously hot for the time of year. It was very stuffy in church, and +Miss Lydia had a slight fainting attack, and had to leave before the +service was over. Following the accepted custom in Stowel, my sister +called the next day to ask how she did. But indisposition, usually a +matter of solemn pleasure with us, was overshadowed and shorn of its +interest by the presence of The Uncle amongst us. Even the Vicar +looked keenly at him from the pulpit before his sermon began, but no +one except Mrs. Lovekin was forward enough to address the august party +as they left the church. Mrs. Lovekin, who always affirmed that she +saw no difference in rank, was the very first person in Stowel to shake +hands with The Uncle. She overtook the Taylors before they had even +reached the gate of the churchyard, and was perforce introduced to +their relative, "who," Mrs. Taylor said afterwards, "was almost more +cordial than she could have wished him to be; but of course his manners +were always perfect." What annoyed every one a little in the days that +followed was that Mrs. Lovekin constantly referred to the General as if +he had been an old friend; whereas of course it was well known in what +an intrusive way her precedence had been gained. During the week, +however, we all had an opportunity of seeing Sir John, for he was +marched in triumph up and down the village street regularly twice a +day. Miss Taylor even condescended to subterfuge in the matter. For +having taken The Uncle as far as the baker's at the end of the town, +with a view to continuing the walk into the country at The Uncle's +request, she pretended to have forgotten something at the draper's, and +marched him down the street again, in the proud knowledge that all +eyes, whether from pedestrians or from the interior of shops and houses +in the High Street, were turned upon her. The tobacconist from whom +The Uncle bought some tobacco gave Miss Taylor quite a sympathetic look +as he said, "Allow me to send it for you, Sir John." And Miss Taylor +said, "Do allow him to send it, uncle! I am sure that you ought not to +carry parcels for yourself." + +On Thursday, when we went to the party, we saw at once that the Taylors +meant to make no snobbish distinction between their guests, but that +each and every one of them was to be introduced to The Uncle. + +"I am no good at this sort of thing, Mary," The Uncle said before the +party began, "and I think I will walk over and see Willie Jacobs, and +spend the afternoon with him." Mrs. Taylor turned pale at the +suggestion. "It will ruin it!" she said. "I shall feel as if I had +been acting on false pretences." And though the General remained, as +he was requested to do, he showed a most irritating tendency to slip +away, and sometimes he was not to be found at the most critical +moments. Mrs. Taylor stationed him close to herself in the +drawing-room where she received her guests. But at the very moment +when she turned round to effect an introduction between him and some +particular friend, it was discovered that the General had slipped off +to the smoking-room or the tea-room, or was wandering aimlessly about +the garden, looking at the flower-beds. + +Altogether, that most successful afternoon (and the Taylors really did +feel that it had been a success from the very highest point of view) +had still some drawbacks to it, which they regret, and always will +regret. For instance, when Miss Taylor had been dispatched into what +the Taylors call the "grounds" to see "what The Uncle is doing" +(playfully), "and tell him to come and make himself agreeable," she had +hardly departed to fulfil her mother's request when Mrs. Lovekin bore +down upon the teapot, poured out several of the most distinguished cups +of tea, and handed round macaroons as though they were her own. Last +of all, as the party was breaking up, and Mrs. Lovekin's vicarious +hospitality was therefore at an end, she was actually heard inviting +The Uncle to come and call upon her. Even the Miss Blinds, on being +told of the incident, admitted that this behaviour on Mrs. Lovekin's +part could not be called anything but forward. Miss Lydia could only +say, in a sort of sweet distress, "Perhaps she did not mean it;" but +Miss Blind shook her head vigorously, and said, "Bad butter, bad +butter, bad butter!" + +Margaret Jamieson had, of course, been helping to prepare the party, +for Margaret Jamieson always helps wherever there is anything to be +done. And Eliza, we thought, made a deep impression upon The Uncle by +her knowledge of literature, and the perfectly easy and natural way in +which, without a moment's preparation, she alluded to the "atomic +theory." + +"Ah! you are one of the Reading Society young ladies that I heard +about," said he. "Sorry I couldn't do more for you in the way of +books, but that's not in my line at all, you know. I was educated at a +Grammar School, and I never had the advantages that you young people +have nowadays." (Mrs. Taylor thought this statement unnecessary, but +reflected that great men often make allusions of this sort.) "However, +if I ever can be of any use to you--getting you an order for reading at +the British Museum, or anything of that sort--I hope you will let me +know." + +For one brief day the Jamiesons were inclined to tease Eliza about +having made a conquest, but the Taylors would not have any nonsense of +that sort for a moment. It made Mrs. Taylor quite nervous to think of +such a thing, and she remarked that that was the worst of having +distinguished people to stop with one; there was always somebody +running after them. Eliza Jamieson, we noticed, was treated with +marked coldness by the Taylors for some time afterwards, and Miss +Taylor recollected darkly that it was Eliza's suggestion, in the first +instance, that The Uncle should be consulted on the choice of books for +the Reading Society. "She may," said Miss Taylor, "have had an eye on +him from the first." + +A purely visionary affair of this sort, however, could not be +considered satisfactory or exciting, even by the Jamiesons; and the +Taylors' suspicions and anxieties were put on one side for the time +being--ousted from their place, as it were--by the very distinct and +exciting rumours which have reached us about Maud. Maud has been +staying with friends at Hampstead, and has written home in a certain +veiled way which is very provoking, but which, nevertheless, gives the +impression that another man has come to the point, and has proposed to +Maud Jamieson. Maud seems out of spirits, and has written to say that +she is returning; and this makes the sisters think that she must have +accepted her present suitor, and is coming home to shed a few natural +tears. Eliza, who walked over to tell us the news, voiced The Family's +opinion when she said: "We have quite made up our minds that if Maud +has said 'Yes,' she is to stick to it this time. She is always in a +panic directly she has accepted any one, but we know that it would be +the same whoever it was: and doubtless, unless we are firm, she will +treat this admirer just as she treated Mr. Reddy and Albert Gore and +the others. Mamma says that she will not have Maud coerced, and I am +sure no one wants to coerce her; but why should she always get to a +certain point, and then begin to have doubts? It is so +unbusiness-like." + +The very next day Maud Jamieson came to tea. She looked well dressed, +as usual, and had some pretty spring finery about her--yellow mimosa +wreathing a broad hat, and some yellow ribbons about her tasteful +dress--but her pretty face looked very white, and she fidgeted +nervously for half an hour, and then told me I was so sympathetic she +would like to ask me something. + +"I dare say," she said, "that you have heard something about Mr. Evans +from The Family?" + +I admitted that I had, and then there was a very long pause. + +"How is one to know," said Maud, "when it is the real thing?" + +Another pause. I wished with all my heart that I could have been more +helpful to this young lady in such evident distress of mind; but the +intricacies of Maud's thoughts are most difficult to follow, and I +thought it better to wait until she had given me her entire confidence. + +"Little things," said Maud, "might annoy one so much if one had always +to live with a man. For instance, I do not think I could ever truly +love a man who sniffs." + +"Our friend Mrs. Fielden says," I remarked, "that a man generally +proposes when he has a cold in his head. But I pointed out to her that +these statistics do her no credit." + +"Mr. Evans doesn't sniff," said Maud. "I was only citing that as an +example of what one might find very trying in a companion for life." + +I assented, and could only suggest hopefully the usual Jamieson remedy +that such a defect might be cured after marriage. + +"But men are so obstinate about some things," said Maud. "For +instance, suppose a man were well off and of really excellent +character, do you think it would matter much if he wore a white +watered-silk waistcoat in the evening? Would it, for instance, appear +an insuperable objection to most minds?" + +I replied that doubtless it was a serious fault, but that I did not +consider it an incurable one; and I further remarked, with what I hoped +showed a broad and liberal way of looking at things, that all men had +their idiosyncrasies. Maud admitted this, and seemed cheered by the +reflection; but she pushed the matter further, and said she would like +to know what sort of a man I should presume any one to be who wore a +white watered-silk waistcoat. + +"If you care for Mr. Evans--" I began, and regretted that one's +articulate expression is sometimes behindhand in the matter of +conveying the comprehensiveness of the inner working of one's mind---- + +"I am afraid I care for some one else," said Maud, bursting into tears. + +"Let me see you home," I said, unable to think of any but this very +doubtful method of consolation; still, it seemed unkind to let her go +home alone when she had been crying. + +On the threshold of the Jamiesons' house several of The Family were +waiting for us, and they drew me into the drawing-room, while by tacit +consent it seemed to be understood that Maud should not join in the +conclave, but should go straight upstairs and take off her hat. + +"Have you persuaded her?" said Eliza. + +"I hope you have put a little common sense into her," said Kate. + +James was admitted to family discussions now, and here remarked that he +believed that all girls were happier married. + +"Though, of course," said Mettie, "it is a great risk." + +"Did she tell you," asked Gracie, "that she cares for some one else?" + +I admitted that Maud had said something of the sort. And her family +exclaimed triumphantly that this was always Maud's plea for releasing +herself from an engagement as soon as that engagement had been made. + +Mrs. Jamieson remarked that she would not like any of the girls to feel +that they were not welcome at home, and all her affectionate daughters +kissed her in turn, or patted her hand, and said that they knew that +such a thought as wanting to get rid of one of them would never enter +her head. + +Mrs. Jamieson here left the room to seek her banished daughter and to +administer comfort, and the members of The Family conclave said that +they hoped that Mrs. Jamieson did not think that they had been unkind. + +"If it had not happened so often!" sighed Eliza. "However, as we do +not know Mr. Evans, he can't ask to come down and stay with us, as Mr. +Reddy did, so as to have an opportunity of pressing his suit." + +"He cried so much one afternoon," said Kate, turning in an explanatory +sort of way to Mr. Ward, "that I really thought I should have to send +for mamma." James looked sympathetic, and Gracie added: "We all really +felt quite relieved when he got engaged to some one else three weeks +afterwards, and we hear that they are most happy, and have got a dear +little baby." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Mrs. Fielden's motor car is still a matter of absorbing interest to the +inhabitants of Stowel. When it breaks down, as it frequently does, +there is always a crowd round it immediately. Our friends and +neighbours in the town have an ingenuous respect for anything that +costs a great deal of money, and they are quite congratulatory to any +one who has been for a drive with Mrs. Fielden, and they talk about the +motor and its owner, and who has seen it, and who has not, over their +afternoon tea. + +The motor car is a noisy, evil-smelling vehicle of somewhat rowdy +appearance, which leaves a trail behind it as of a smoking lamp. It +drew up at our door to-day, and kicked and snorted impatiently until we +were ready to get into it. The next moment, with a final angry snort +and plunge, it started down the drive and whizzed through the village +and up the hill on the other side without pausing to take breath. + +"The worst of a motor car is," said Mrs. Fielden, "that one gets +through everything so quickly. In London I get my shopping done in +about a quarter of an hour, and then I take a turn round Regent's Park, +and I find I have put away about ten minutes, so I fly down to +Richmond, and even then it is too early to go to tea anywhere. Talking +of tea--isn't everybody very hungry? I am really ravenous--and that is +the motor car's fault, too. Because one has learned to want one's +meals by the amount of business one has got through, and when one has +done a whole afternoon's work in three-quarters of an hour, one is +dying for tea, just as if it were five o'clock." + +"I have always been ravenous since I was in South Africa," said one of +Mrs. Fielden's colonels, who had driven over in the motor car to take +care of her and to bring us back. "I don't know when I shall satisfy +the pangs of hunger which I acquired on the veldt." + +"I think I shall call on Mr. Ellicomb," said Mrs. Fielden. "I believe +he has excellent afternoon teas, and he is making me an enamel box +which I should like to see." + +Ellicomb said once or twice, as we sat in his picturesque house with +its blue china and old brass work, that he only wished we had given him +warning that we were coming. We found him with an apron on, working at +his enamels; and when he had displayed this work to us, he showed us +his bookbinding, and his fretwork-carving, and his type-writing +machine. Afterwards we had tea, which Ellicomb poured very deftly into +his blue cups, having first warmed the teapot and the cups, and flicked +away one or two imaginary specks of dirt from the plates with what +appeared to be a small lace-trimmed dinner-napkin. + +Mrs. Fielden began to admire his majolica ware, of which she knows +nothing whatever, and Ellicomb took her for a tour round his rooms, and +asked her to guess the original uses of his drain-tiles and spittoons +and copper ham-pots. Afterwards we were taken into a very small +conservatory adjoining his house, where every plant was displayed to us +in turn; and we were subsequently shown his coal-cellar and his larder +and his ash-pit before we were allowed to return to the house. + +Ellicomb smiles more often than any other man I know, and he had only +one epithet to apply to his house. "It's so cosy," he said. "Isn't it +cosy?" "I do think it's a cosy little place." + +Mrs. Fielden was charmed with everything, and deprecated the idea that +she might consider the little house very small after Stanby. + +"I always think," she said, "that I should much prefer to live in a +place like this, and then the people who come to see one really would +pay one a little attention, instead of talking of nothing but the +house." + +The Colonel laughed and apologized. + +"Oh, I know I'm not half good enough for Stanby," said Mrs. Fielden, +smiling. "But I really can't help it! I was brought up in a house +with hot and cold water upstairs, and white paint, and I suppose I +never can really appreciate anything else." + +The dignity of Mrs. Fielden's surroundings has never affected her in +the very smallest degree, and I do not believe that the traditions of +the house interest her in the very least. I am quite aware that she +asked me to write out the history of Lady Hylda, for instance, simply +because it is part of her charm always to ask one to do something for +her. It is the fashion to wait upon Mrs. Fielden's behests, and it +would appear almost an unkindness to her many men friends if she did +not give them some commission to do when they go up to town. Her +manner of thanking one for a service is almost as pretty as her manner +of asking for it, and I am really not surprised that she is the most +popular woman in the country-side. + +Mr. Ellicomb said ecstatically that the dim twilight at Stanby was one +of the most impressive things he knew; and he added, with a shudder, +that he always expected to see ghosts there. + +Mrs. Fielden does not believe in ghosts except on those occasions when +she has some one very charming to defend her, and she spends her +evenings in a cheerful white boudoir in the modern part of the house. + +Having admired all the majolica plates in the house, and having +completely bewildered her host by showing an interest in him and his +possessions one minute, and complete indifference the next, Mrs. +Fielden fell into one of those little silences which are so +characteristic of her. Her silence is one of the most provoking things +about her. She has been witty and amusing the moment before, and then +relapses into silence in the most natural manner possible, and her face +takes a certain wistful look, and a man wonders how he can comfort her +or whether he has offended her. + +"I think we ought to go now," she said, coming out of this wistful +reverie like a child awaking from sleep. "Is every one ready?" + +We got into the motor car again, and sped onwards along the smooth +white road. Every turn made a picture which I suppose an artist would +love to paint. There were red-roofed cottages smothered in orchards of +plum blossom, and simple palings set across gaps in the hedges, with +gardens beyond filled with spring flowers. Now a labourer, gray-coated +and bent with age, passed by like a flash, as he tramped slowly +homewards from his work; and some school children, loitering to pick +primroses under a hedge, dropped their slates and satchels in the +ditch, and called to each other to take care, while they clung together +and shouted "Hurrah!" as we passed. + +The park gates of Stanby are lion guarded and of stone, and then a long +carriage-drive takes one up to the house. The park round the old gray +pile was starred with primroses, and ghost-like little lambs were +capering noiselessly in the fields. The scent of wallflowers was blown +to us from a great brown ribbon of them round the walls of the +lodgekeeper's house as we swung through the gates. The sheep in the +park, bleating to their young, drew away from the palings where they +had been rubbing their woolly sides, and made off to the farther corner +of the field, and Mrs. Fielden's gray pony in the paddock tossed his +heels in a vindictive fashion at us from a distance of fifty yards or +more. And the motor car drew up with a jerk at the great doors of the +house. + +Stanby is not quite so large now as it originally was, immense though +the house undoubtedly is, and only some ruins on the north side show +where the chapel used to stand. A mound within the ruin's walls marks +the resting-place of Hylda--Hylda, whose history I wrote out at the +request of Mrs. Fielden, and sent to her; but I don't suppose she has +ever read it. + +The evening of our arrival at Stanby it pleased Mrs. Fielden to put on +an old-fashioned dress of stiffest brocade, which she had found in some +old chest in the house. She wore a high comb of pearls in her dark +hair, and she looked a very regal and beautiful figure in the great +dining-hall and drawing-rooms of her house. She did not play Bridge, +as the others did, but sat on a carved high-backed chair near my sofa, +and told me many of the old stories of the house, and asked me to write +down some of them for her. + +"I sent you the story of Hylda more than a week ago," I said, "and I +don't suppose you ever read it." + +"I did read it," said Mrs. Fielden gently, "and I liked it very much." + +She had put on an unapproachable mood with her beautiful stiff brocade +gown, and the gentleness of her voice seemed to heighten rather than to +lessen her royalty. The radiance and the holiday air, which are Mrs. +Fielden's by divine right, were not dimmed to-night so much as +transformed. There was a subtle aromatic scent of dried rose-leaves +clinging to the old brocade dress, and about herself a sort of +fragrance of old-world dignity and beauty. The pearl comb in her hair +made her look taller than usual. + +A deerhound got up from his place by the fire and came and laid his +head on her lap, and some footmen in old-fashioned bright blue liveries +came in to arrange the card-tables and hand round coffee. Everything +was stately and magnificent in the house. + +"And you pretend," I said, "that you do nothing; yet probably the whole +ordering of this house devolves upon you." + +"I am quite a domestic person sometimes," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"It is rather bewildering," I said, "to find that you are everything in +turn." + +And the next morning she wore a short blue skirt, with a silver belt +round her waist, and spent the morning punting on the lake with Anthony +Crawshay. + +"I hope I look after you all properly," she said at lunch-time, in a +certain charming deprecating way she has of speaking sometimes. "There +really are punts, and horses, and motor cars, and things, if you want +them. Will you all order what you like?" + +Each man at the table then offered to take Mrs. Fielden for a ride, or +a drive, or a row, and not one of them could be quite sure that she had +refused to go with him. + +"I want to go for a turn in the garden and talk about books," she said +to me as we left the dining-room. And then I found that I was sitting +in her boudoir having coffee with her, and that every one else was +excluded from the room--how it was done I have not the slightest +idea--and that by-and-by we left it by the open French windows, and +were strolling in the garden in the spring sunshine. The garden, with +its high walls, is sheltered from every wind that blows, and there are +wide garden-seats in it painted white, and every border was bright with +early spring flowers. + +"I call this my Grove of Academe," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"Why?" + +"Because I think it has a nice classical sound; and it is here I come +with my friends and discuss metaphysics." + +"It seems to me you have a great many friends," I said. + +"I was thinking," said Mrs. Fielden thoughtfully, "of adding another to +their number." + +"I have a constitutional dislike to worshipping in crowded temples," I +said. + +Mrs. Fielden became silent. + +It would be forging a sword against themselves did men allow women to +know what a powerful weapon silence is. A soft answer turneth away +wrath, but a woman's silence makes a man's heart cry out: "My dear, did +I hurt you? Forgive me!" + +At the end of five minutes or so of silence Mrs. Fielden turned towards +me and smiled, and the garden seemed to be filled with her. There was +no room for anything else but herself and that bewildering smile she +gave me. + +"How is the diary getting on?" she said. + +"The diary," I answered, "continues to record our godly, righteous, and +sober life----" + +"Oh," said Mrs. Fielden quickly, "don't you think it is possible to be +too good sometimes? That is really what I wanted to say to you--I +brought you into the garden to ask you that." + +"It is an interesting suggestion," I remarked, "and I think we ought to +give it to Eliza Jamieson for one of her discussions." + +"I do not wish to discuss it with Eliza Jamieson," said Mrs. Fielden, +"but with you. You know there really is a great danger in becoming too +good; for although I do not think that you would grow wings, or hear +passing bells, or anything of that sort, still you might become a +little dull, might you not?" + +"I don't think it would be possible to become duller than I am," I +replied. "You have more than once told me that I am not amusing. So +long as my sister is not aware of the fact, I do not in the least mind +admitting that I find every day most horribly tedious. I suppose I +shall get accustomed to it in time, but I don't enjoy being an invalid." + +"You have watched the Jamiesons making flannel petticoats for the +poor," went on Mrs. Fielden, "and you have had the Curate to tea, and +you have been to the Taylors' party, and if it does not kill you, I am +sure you will become like people in those books which one gives as +prizes to choir-boys." + +"One so often mistakes monotony for virtue," I said. "I believe I was +beginning to think that there was almost a merit in getting accustomed +to a sofa and a crutch." + +"Oh, but it is a sin!" exclaimed Mrs. Fielden. "It is a sin to get +accustomed to anything that is disagreeable. But that is what comes of +studying philosophy!" + +"I suppose reasoning is always bad," I said humbly. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Fielden; "and it is so unnatural, too." + +"I heard a man say the other day," I said, "that solitude is always +sententious. And he pointed out that foreigners, who are never alone, +base their ethics upon conduct; but that English people, who simply do +not understand the life of the boulevards and cafes and family +affection, sit apart in the solitude of their garrets or studies, and +decide that the right or the wrong of a thing consists in what they +think about it." + +Then I recollected that this garden was the Grove of Academe, and that +it was here that Mrs. Fielden discussed metaphysics with all her +friends. "What cure do you propose?" I said shortly. + +"Why not go to London for a little while and enjoy yourselves?" said +Mrs. Fielden. "Put off the conventionalities of Stowel, as the Miss +Traceys do, and do something amusing and gay." + +"Did you ever hear of the man in the Bastille," I said, "who had been +in prison so long that when he was offered his freedom he elected to +remain where he was?" + +"But you must break out of the Bastille long before it comes to that!" +said Mrs. Fielden. "Couldn't you do something exciting? I am sure +nothing else will restore your moral tone." + +"How is it to be done?" I asked. "We must recognize the limitations of +our environment." + +"You are going to be philosophical," said Mrs. Fielden; "you are going +to quote Protagoras, or Pythagoras, or Plato, which will not convince +me in the least. Philosophy tries to make people believe that things +are exactly the reverse of what they are. I don't think that alters +the sum total of things very much. Because, by the time that you have +proved that all agreeable things are disagreeable, and all unpleasant +things are pleasant, you are in exactly the same position as you were +before. I dare say it fills up people's time to turn everything upside +down and stand everything on its head, but it is not amusing." + +"What do you want me to do?" I asked. + +"Couldn't you enjoy yourselves a little?" said Mrs. Fielden, putting on +her wistful voice. + +"As we are in the Grove of Academe, let me point out that the pursuit +of pleasure for its own sake was one of the corrupt forms of a decadent +epicureanism," I said sternly. + +"I am quite sure it was," said Mrs. Fielden, smiling; "but we were +talking about your visit to London, were we not?" + +And so I knew that the thing was settled, and I thought it very odd +that Palestrina and I had not thought of the plan before. + +"As it is getting cold," said Mrs. Fielden, "I am going to be a +peripatetic philosopher," and she rose from the seat where we were +sitting and gave me her hand to help me up, for I am still awkward with +my crutch, and then let me lean on her arm as we walked up and down the +broad gravel pathway. + +"Don't you think," she began, "that it is a great waste of opportunity +not to be wild and wicked sometimes, when one is very good?" + +"I am afraid I do not quite follow you." + +"What I mean is, what is the good of filling up years of curates and +Taylors and flannel petticoats, unless you are going to kick them all +over some day, and have a good time. You see, if you and Palestrina +were not so good you would always have to pretend to be tremendously +circumspect. But it seems such waste of goodness not to be bad +sometimes." + +"Your argument being," I said, "that an honest man may sometimes steal +a horse?" + +"Yes, that is what I mean," said Mrs. Fielden delightedly. + +"A dangerous doctrine, and one----" + +"Not Plato, please," said Mrs. Fielden. + +... It ended in our taking a flat in London for some weeks. It was a +small dwelling, with an over-dressed little drawing-room, and a red +dining-room, and a roomy cupboard for a smoking-room. + +"Remember, Palestrina," I said to my sister when we settled down, "that +we are under strict orders to live a very rapid and go-ahead life while +we are in London. Can you suggest anything very rowdy that a crippled +man with a crutch and a tendency to chills and malaria might undertake?" + +"We might give a supper-party," said Palestrina brilliantly, "and have +long-stemmed champagne-glasses, and perhaps cook something in a +chafing-dish. I was reading a novel the other day in which the bad +characters did this. I made a note of it at the time, meaning to ask +you why it should be fast to cook things in a chafing-dish or to have +long-stemmed champagne-glasses?" + +When the evening came Mrs. Fielden dined with us, and she and +Palestrina employed themselves after dinner in rehearsing how they +should behave. My sister said in her low, gurgling voice: "I think I +shall sit on the sofa with my arms spread out on the cushions on either +side of me, and I shall thump them sometimes, as the adventuress in a +play does." + +"Or you might be singing at the piano," said Mrs. Fielden, "and then +when the door opens you could toss the music aside and sail across the +room, and give your left hand to whoever comes in first, and say, 'What +a bore! you have come!' or something rude of that sort." + +Mrs. Fielden's spirit of fun inspired my quiet sister to-night, and the +two women, began masquerading in a way that was sufficiently amusing to +a sick man lying on a sofa. + +"Or you might continue playing the piano," Mrs. Fielden went on, "after +any one has been announced. I notice that that is very often done, +especially in books written by the hero himself in the first person. +'She did not leave the piano as I entered, but continued playing +softly, her white hands gliding dreamily over the keys.'" + +"I shall do my best," Palestrina answered; "and I thought of calling +all our guests by their Christian names, if only I could recollect what +they are." + +"Nicknames would be better," said Mrs. Fielden. "We ought to have +found out, I think, something about this matter before the night of the +party." + +"What shall we do till they arrive?" said Palestrina. + +"We must read newspapers and periodicals," Mrs. Fielden replied, "and +then fling them down on the carpet. There is something about seeing +newspapers on a carpet which is certainly untidy, but has a distinctly +Bacchanalian touch about it." + +"I wish I had a red tea-gown," sighed my sister. + +"Or a white one trimmed with some costly furs," said Mrs. Fielden. +"Almost any tea-gown would do." + +"One thing I will have!" she exclaimed, starting in an energetic manner +to her feet. "I'll turn all the lamps low, and cover them with +pink-paper shades. Where is the crinkly paper and some ribbon?" + +After that we sat in a rose twilight so dim that we couldn't even read +the evening newspaper. + +"I don't think they need have come quite so early," I said, as the +first ring was heard at the door-bell. + +Mrs. Fielden had insisted upon it that one actress at least should be +asked. "What is a supper-party without an actress?" she had said. And +Mrs. Travers at present acting in Mr. Pinero's new play, was the first +to arrive. + +"I wonder if you know any of our friends who are coming to-night?" said +Palestrina. "We expect Squash Bosanquet and Dickie Fenwick." +Palestrina then broke down, because we had no idea if these two men had +ever answered to these names in their lives. Also she blushed, which +spoilt it all, and Mrs. Fielden began to smile. + +Mrs. Travers came to the party in a very simple black evening gown, and +Bosanquet and Charles Fenwick came almost immediately afterwards. +Anthony Crawshay was amongst the friends whom we had invited, because, +Palestrina said, as we did not seem to know many fast people, we had +better have some one who was sporting. There was an artist whom we +considered Bohemian because he wore his hair long, but he disappointed +us by coming in goloshes. + +Altogether we were eight at supper. There was an attractive menu, and +the long-stemmed champagne-glasses were felt to be a distinct challenge +to quiet behaviour. + +Palestrina thought that if she were going to be really fast she had +better talk about divorce, and I heard her ask Anthony in a diffident +whisper if he had read any divorce cases lately. Anthony looked +startled, and in his loud voice exclaimed, "Egad! I hope _you_ +haven't!" Palestrina coloured with confusion, and I frowned heavily at +her, which made it worse. + +Mrs. Travers seemed to have taken it into her head that Palestrina was +philanthropic, and she talked a great deal about factory girls, and +Bosanquet talked about methylated ether. What it was that provoked his +remarks on this subject I cannot now recall, nor why he discussed it +without intermission almost throughout the entire evening, but I have a +distinct recollection of hearing him dinning out the phrase "methylated +ether." + +It was, I think, the dullest party that even Palestrina and I have ever +given, and I blame Mrs. Fielden for this. Mrs. Fielden refused to be +the centre of the room. She became an onlooker at the party which she +had planned, and she smiled affectionately at us both, and watched, I +think, to see how the party would go off. + +The long-stemmed champagne-glasses were hardly used. Several people +said to me jocosely, "How is South Africa?" and to this I could think +of no more suitable reply than, "It's all right." We longed for even +the Pirate Boy to make a little disturbance. Palestrina whispered to +me that she thought I might throw a piece of bread at some one, or do +something. But the action she suggested seemed to me to be in too +daring contrast to the general tone of the evening; and really, as I +murmured back to her, there seemed to be very little point in throwing +my bread at a guest who had done me no harm. + +"I wish," she said to me when we returned to the drawing-room, "that I +knew some daring little French songs. In books the girl always sings +daring little French songs, and afterwards every one begins to be +vulgar and delightful, like those people in 'The Christian.' I think +I'll light a cigarette." She did so, and choked a little, and then +wondered if Thomas would like her to smoke, and threw the cigarette +into the fire. The Bohemian, who had travelled considerably, asked for +a map, and told us of his last year's journeyings, tracing out the +route of them for us on the map with a pin. + +And Mrs. Fielden was smiling all the time. + +"I suppose," I said to my sister when the last guest had departed, and +we sat together in the pink light of the drawing-room before going to +bed--"I suppose we carry about with us an atmosphere of slowness which +it is impossible to penetrate. You are engaged to Thomas, and I am an +invalid----" + +"But in books," said Palestrina wistfully, "men talk about all sorts of +things to girls whether they happen to be engaged or not, and they ask +them to go to see galleries with them next day, or squeeze their hands. +Of course, I should hate it if they did so, but still one rather +expected it. To-night," she said regretfully, "no one talked to me of +anything but Thomas." + +"Charles Fenwick," I said, "who used to be considered amusing, has +become simply idiotic since he married. He gave me an exact account of +his little boy's sayings; he copied the way he asked for sugar, like +the chirruping of a bird. You won't believe me, I know, but he put out +his lips and chirped." + +"I remember being positively warned against him," said Palestrina, +"when I used to go to dances in London." She sighed, and added, "Do +you think Mrs. Fielden enjoyed it?" + +"I think Mrs. Fielden was distinctly amused," I replied. + +"Do you think," said Palestrina, still in a disappointed tone, "that +the men would have been more--more larky if we had been alone? Mrs. +Fielden always looks so beautiful and dresses so well that I think she +impresses people too much, and they are all trying to talk to her +instead of making a row." + +"I think we may as well go to bed," I said. + +Palestrina rose slowly, and went towards the bell to ring for my man to +help me. She lingered for a moment by my chair. "Yet books say that +men require so much keeping in order," she said sadly. "I wish people +would not write about what does not occur." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +The Jamiesons have taken lodgings in West Kensington, which they +describe as being "most central"--a phrase which I have begun to think +means inexpensive--and near a line of omnibuses. George and the Pirate +are assiduous in taking their sisters to the Play and other places of +amusement, and are showing them something of London with a zeal which +speaks much for their goodness of heart. Even Mrs. Jamieson has been +out once or twice, and although doubly tearful on the morning following +any little bit of dissipation, her family feel that the variety has +been good for her. Eliza has found that London is radio-active, hence +enjoyable. And Eliza had been only once to the Royal Institution when +she said it! Maud's engagement to the Hampstead young man has been +finally broken off, and Maud has cried so much that her family have +forgiven her. Maud explains that it is such an upset for a girl to +break off an engagement, and The Family say soothingly that she must +just try and get over it. + +"We hope," said Kate, "that next time things will arrange themselves +more happily, and at least we can all feel that Maud might have married +many times, had she wished to do so." There seems to be a strong +feeling in The Family that Maud will go on having opportunities. +Arguing from the general to the particular, they have proved, with a +sort of tribal feeling of satisfaction, that Maud is undoubtedly very +attractive to men, and that if one man likes her, why should not +another? + +Still, we all felt that we could not have sympathized immediately with +another love affair of Maud's, and it was refreshing, not to say most +pleasing and surprising, to find that since her arrival in Town, it was +Margaret who attracted the notice of a gentleman, Mr. Swinnerton by +name, a friend of George's, who brought him to supper one Sunday +evening. The Jamiesons could see at a glance that Mr. Swinnerton was +"struck," and, as he called two or three times in the following week, +Margaret made the usual Jamieson opportunity of seeing Palestrina home, +one afternoon when she had been to call, to embark in confidences about +her lover in the usual Jamieson style. Margaret was diffident, +bashful, shy, uncertain about Mr. Swinnerton's feelings for her, and +hopelessly nervous lest her family should have had their expectations +raised only to be disappointed. She implored Palestrina over and over +again to say nothing about it to them, though it has been more than +obvious to us all along how full of expectation every member of The +Family is. It was a very wet evening as Margaret and my sister left +the Jamiesons' lodgings, but she hardly seemed conscious of the +inclemency of the weather, and begged Palestrina not to think of taking +a cab, as she particularly wished to speak to her. + +"At first," she began, "I thought it must be Maud, although she has but +just broken off her engagement to Mr. Evans; still, one knows she is +the pretty one, and if any one calls often, it is generally her." + +It was a little difficult to follow Margaret's rapid, ungrammatical +speech, but Palestrina and I both knew that to the vigorous minds of +the Jamiesons there must be a direct purpose in every action, and that +therefore if Mr. Swinnerton came to call he must have a purpose, +presumably a matrimonial purpose, for paying his visits. After two or +three afternoon calls from a gentleman the Jamiesons generally ask each +other ingenuously, "Which of us is it?" It hardly seems to them +respectable that a man should continue to pay them visits unless he +means to show a preference for one of them. + +Presuming that it was not Maud he came to see, Margaret, with modest +hesitation and many blushes, asked Palestrina if she did not think it +possible that these visits might be intended for her. + +"Please do not say anything about it to the others. I always have +hoped that if ever I had a love affair it would be when I was away from +home. Do you know at all what they think about it?" + +She did not pause for a reply, but began again: "You see he has called +three times in one week, but" (hopelessly) "I am always surrounded by +The Family, and he couldn't say anything if he wanted to. Of course I +don't think it has come to anything of that sort yet; still, you know, +we could get to know each other better if there were not so many of us +always about. Maud doesn't mind a bit; she has had love affairs in +front of us all, and she does not mind talking about them in the least, +or even asking us to let her have the drawing-room to herself on +certain afternoons. But I don't feel as if I could bear to have this +discussed before anything is settled. And then we have so few +opportunities. Maud generally takes them to a distant church, and then +they have the walk home together. But I never quite know whether she +makes the suggestion about church, or if she merely thinks it would be +nice, and leaves the man to make it." + +"Maud," I remarked parenthetically to Palestrina, "has raised +love-making to a science--an exact science." + +"I hope you don't think for a moment," Margaret had gone on, "that I am +abusing Maud; you know how fond we all are of each other." + +Maud's experiences on matters matrimonial are always quoted as +precedent in the Jamieson family, and she is cited whenever anything of +the sort is afoot. Each phase in her experience is frankly discussed, +and conclusions are drawn from it; and I have heard the Jamiesons say, +"Mr. So-and-so must be in love with Miss So-and-so; he looks at her in +exactly the same way that Mr. Reddy used to look at Maud." Maud +herself, unconsciously as I believe, makes a sort of calendar of her +love affairs, and it is quite usual for her to date an event by +referring to it as having happened "in the Albert Gore days," or "when +Mr. Evans was hovering." + +Margaret's voice had not ceased from the moment they left the lodgings +together. "It is, however, no use trying to copy other people in your +love affairs," she said, "because it seems to come to every one so +differently, and then of course different people must call forth +different feelings. I don't think I could have felt for Mr. Reddy, for +instance, quite as I do now, even if he had been in love with me. You +feel so bewildered somehow." + +The walk had by this time become very rapid, and Margaret, in her +short-sighted way, knocked against all the foot-passengers whom she met +travelling in the opposite direction. Her umbrella showered raindrops +upon Palestrina, and she became so incoherent that my sister suggested +taking a cab to our flat, and talking things over quietly when they +should get there. + +It was about eleven o'clock that night when Margaret Jamieson took +leave of us, and by that time I fancy the bridesmaids' dresses had been +arranged. + +A few days later Palestrina received a note by the hand of a +messenger-boy; it bore the word "Immediate" on the cover, and had +evidently been addressed in some haste. + + +"DEAR PALESTRINA (it ran), + +"Can you possibly come to make a fourth at a concert this afternoon? +Do come, even if it should be rather inconvenient to you. I want you +so much. Mr. Swinnerton has asked mamma and me, and he has taken +tickets. They are not reserved places, so we could easily arrange to +meet at the door and sit together. Three is such an awkward number. I +fear mamma does not care for him, and that is a great grief to me. I +will tell you everything this afternoon. + +"Yours affectionately, + "MARGARET JAMIESON. + +"_P.S._--It is all going to come right, I believe, but I have had +immense difficulties. Hardly ten minutes alone with him--you know we +have only one sitting-room.--but the family have been sweet." + + +"Hugo," said Palestrina, "this is an occasion when you could give very +substantial aid to a deserving family." + +"I am sorry I am engaged this afternoon," I said, with an instinct of +self-preservation, without, however, having any definite idea of what +Palestrina might say next. + +"It is I who am engaged this afternoon," said my sister smiling, "and +you are perfectly aware of that fact. Thomas is taking me down to +Richmond to introduce me to his aunt. Besides, Hugo, you know you like +music." + +"I am very sorry, Palestrina," I said, "but it is quite impossible." + +"Margaret is the Jamieson you like best," said Palestrina, "and I hate +to think of your being here alone a whole afternoon. What were you +thinking of doing?" + +I had been thinking of going to this concert, and Palestrina guessed +it, of course.... + +I was at the door of the concert hall at two-thirty in the afternoon, +and found Mrs. Jamieson and Margaret and the young man already on the +pavement, looking as if they had stood there for a considerable time. +Mr. Swinnerton is a large, rather stupid-looking man, with a red face, +a crooked nose, and curly hair. He wore a dark blue overcoat, so thick +and strong that it reminded one of some encasement of plaster of Paris, +or of some heavy coat of mail. His hands were covered in yellow +dogskin gloves, equally unyielding, so that Mr. Swinnerton appeared +deprived of any agility of movement by his garments. Mr. Swinnerton is +in the volunteers, and has "Captain Swinnerton" printed on his cards. +He gave me the idea of seeming to think that every action of his was +some epoch-making event, and during the afternoon he frequently +referred to having seen a picture then on view at one of the galleries, +as though this were rather an up-to-date, not to say remarkable, +proceeding. Margaret seemed a good deal impressed by his manner, and +the Jamiesons had decided that he was "smart," which was a further and +quite unnecessary addition to Mr. Swinnerton's vanity, and very bad for +a gentleman of his complacent character. + +He ushered us into the Queen's Hall in an important sort of way, which +gave one the impression that the place belonged to him; and the fact +that I was making a third in a party under his guidance convinced me +that I was in some sort adding to his self-satisfaction. Mr. +Swinnerton had chosen shilling places, because, as he informed us a +great number of times, these were in the best position for hearing the +music. Mrs. Jamieson was disappointed. In her class of life a treat +is given on a more magnificent scale. + +"Shall I sit next you, Mrs. Jamieson?" I said, for I believed that this +was what I was intended to say; but Mr. Swinnerton remarked to +Margaret, "I'll go next; I like to divide myself amongst the ladies." + +Mrs. Jamieson looked uncomfortable in the small amount of space a +shilling had procured for her, and she suggested apologetically that +she would like a programme; but the music was beginning, and Mr. +Swinnerton put up his large, stiff-gloved hand like a slab, and said, +"Hush!" + +We went faithfully through the orthodox Queen's Hall concert from the +very first note to the "Ride of the Valkyries," and after every item on +the programme our host turned to us, moving his whole body in his stout +coat, and said, "Isn't that nice now?--very nice I call it!" still with +an air of ownership. + +Mrs. Jamieson slept a little; but the hardness of her seat made it an +uneasy resting-place, and it is to be feared that her mantle with the +storm-collar was too hot; but, she whispered to me in a burst of +confidence, she was unable to remove it owing to the fact that the +bodice and skirt of her dress did not correspond. + +"I always like these places," said Mr. Swinnerton again; "they are +exactly in the centre of the hall, and another thing is, they are near +the door in case of fire." + +Margaret assented sweetly. I always thought until to-day that Margaret +Jamieson was a plain woman; to-day I find she is good-looking. + +"It is ridiculous," said Mr. Swinnerton, "to see the way people throw +their money away on really inferior seats, just because they think they +are fashionable." + +Mrs. Jamieson stirred a little on her uneasy bench, and Mr. Swinnerton +said in self-defence, "Don't you agree with me, eh?" + +"I think," said Mrs. Jamieson politely, "that perhaps for a long +concert the _fotoys_ would be more comfortable." + +"Ah!" cried Mr. Swinnerton, "you want to be fashionable, I see; but +there are many of the best people who come to these seats. I know of a +Member of Parliament--I don't know him, I know of him" (we felt that +some connection with the Member had been established)--"who comes +regularly to these very places, and who declares they are the best in +the house." + +"Perhaps," said Mrs. Jamieson simply, "he had never tried the _fotoys_." + +After the concert was over, Mr. Swinnerton suggested that Margaret and +her mother should go and have tea at a bun-shop, qualifying the +suggestion with the remark, "I know you ladies can never get on without +afternoon tea." When with Mr. Swinnerton ladies are never allowed to +forget that he is a gentleman and they are ladies, and that a certain +forbearance is therefore extended to them. He offered his arm to Mrs. +Jamieson, who gathered up her skirt and umbrella in one hand, and +accepted the proffered support in some embarrassment. Margaret fell +behind with me, and whispered in a sort of excited way,-- + +"Hasn't it been lovely? Do tell me what you think--I mean about him." + +"I haven't had much chance of judging," I replied stupidly; "but he +seems all right, although perhaps his ideas are not very large." + +"Still, you mean that one could always alter that," said Margaret +quickly, with the true Jamieson optimism, as applied to the beneficial +results of matrimony. There is hardly, I believe, a defect that they +think they will not be able to eradicate in a future husband, save, +perhaps, the conical shape of Mr. Ward's head. "But I really do not +think there is anything that I would like altered," she added simply. + +"His name is Tudor," she went on. "George calls him that now, and Maud +is beginning to do so--Maud is being so kind; she says it promotes a +familiar tone which is very helpful, to call him 'Tudor'--but I can't +call him anything but Mr. Swinnerton yet." + +After tea Mr. Swinnerton asked us how we had enjoyed our entertainment, +and Margaret expressed herself in the highest terms in praise of it. +There seemed to be a lingering tendency on Mrs. Jamieson's part to +revert to the superior comfort of seven-and-sixpenny places and +armchairs, but we checked this by saying with emphasis that it was a +friendly afternoon of this kind that we really enjoyed. Mr. Swinnerton +then put the Jamiesons into an omnibus, and directed the conductor to +"let these ladies out at the top of Sloane Street," in a tone of voice +that suggested that they were to be caged and padlocked until that +place of exit was reached. He lifted his hat with a fine air to them, +and then, as I had called a hansom, he put me into it rather +elaborately, and cautioned the commissionaire at the door to "take care +of this gentleman." + +He will probably call me a South African hero next; I wish he would +keep his attentions to himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Last night we dined at the Darcey-Jacobs'. Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is +enjoying "one breath of life" at a hotel with the Major, and she has +left quite a pathetic number of visiting-cards on all her friends, so +that her short London season may be as full of gaiety as possible. +Neither of us looked forward to the dinner-party being particularly +lively, but we were a good deal amused at the turn the conversation +took during dinner. I have often thought since that a certain dumbness +which falls upon some entertainments can be dispersed if the subject of +matrimony is started, and I will class with it a discussion on food, +and personal experience at the hand of the dentist. Any of these three +subjects can be thrown, as it were, into the stagnant deep waters of a +voiceless party, and the surface will be instantly rippled with eager +conversation. + +Talk flagged a little in the private sitting-room of the hotel where +the Darcey-Jacobs gave their dinner-party. Major Jacobs, in his +guileless way, gave us an exhaustive list of the friends whom they had +invited for that evening, but who had not been able to come; and this +had a curiously depressing effect upon us all, and within ourselves we +speculated unhappily as to whether we had been asked to fill up vacant +places. + +"Why are men always allowed to blunder?" said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, +looking over her high nose at the gentleman next her, and tapping him +on the arm with her lorgnettes. + +Major Jacobs, from his end of the table, looked penitent but mystified. + +"Happy is the woman," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, "who has no men about +her." + +"I should like to have been born a widow," said a pretty girl with +beseeching blue eyes and a soft, confiding expression, who sat a little +lower down on my side of the table. And then the subject of matrimony +was in full swing. + +"Marriage is just an experience," said a shrill-voiced American widow +who sat opposite. "Every one should try it, but that is no reason why +one should not be thankful when it is over." + +"I am much interested in what you say," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, with a +certain profound air suitable to so great a subject. One felt the want +of the Jamiesons sadly during the ensuing discussion, and I almost +found myself, in the words of Mettie, making the suggestion that +marriage was a great risk. + +"Some one once said," ventured Major Darcey-Jacobs, "that choosing a +wife was like choosing a profession--it did not matter much what your +choice was, so long as you stuck to it. It was a mere figure of +speech, no doubt----" + +"I hope so, indeed," said Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs. + +"Marriage is the worst form of gambling," broke in an elderly +gentleman; "it should be suppressed by law. Talk about lotteries! +Talk about sweepstakes! Why, the worst you can do, if you put your +money into them, is to draw a blank. Now, this is fair play, I +consider; you either get a prize or you get nothing. But matrimony, +sir, is a swindle compared with which the Missing Word Competition +appears like a legal document beside a forged bank-note." + +If the old gentleman had a wife present she was evidently of a callous +disposition, for I saw no wrathful expression on any face. + +Mr. Ellicomb--even in London Ellicomb and Anthony Crawshay are asked to +meet us--gave it as his opinion that a woman's hand was wanted in the +home. The voice was the voice of Ellicomb, the sentiment was the +sentiment of Maud, and Palestrina and I very nearly exchanged glances. + +After this, several people began to describe at one and the same time, +in quite a breathless way, their own personal experiences of the +happiness of wedded life. + +"Of course," said Major Darcey-Jacobs, "a deal of forbearance must be +exercised if married life is to be a success." And Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs +said quickly, "I hope you do not intend to become personal, William." +To which William replied that no such intention had been his. + +Anthony said in his cheery voice, "Of course it is give and take, don't +you know, and then it is all right." + +Every one volunteered ideas on the subject--not once, but several +times. And those who applauded the happy state shouted each other down +by quoting examples of wedded bliss in such words as: "Look at +Hawkins!" "Look at Jones!" "Look at the Menteiths!" + +Quite suddenly Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs leaned across the table, smiled at +her husband, and remarked, "Look at us, William!" + +I do not think I have ever seen any one look so astonished as Major +Jacobs. "That was very pretty of Maria," he said in a low voice; "very +pretty of her, by Gad!" And we caught him looking at his wife several +times that evening with a puzzled but delighted expression on his face. + +After dinner we played Bridge. "I disapprove of the game myself," said +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs, who certainly was the worst player I have ever met, +"but Mrs. Fielden likes it, and she has promised to come in in the +evening." + +Mrs. Fielden arrived at the same time as Colonel Jardine, and they +played as partners together, with me and the American widow as +opponents. Colonel Jardine wore some kind of lead ring on his finger, +which he said cured gout, and gathered up his tricks in a stiff sort of +way. He had a pet name for almost every card in the pack, and he +babbled on without once ceasing throughout the rubber. "Now we'll see +where old Mossy Face is. I think that draws the Curse of Scotland. +Kinky takes that," and so on. It was perfectly maddening, but Mrs. +Fielden seemed quite pleased. I don't suppose she ever feels +irritated. The American widow, who was my partner, was only just +learning the game. When I said to her, "May I play?" she always +replied, if she had a bad hand, "No, certainly not." And when it was +pointed out to her that she had either to say, "If you please," or "I +double," she replied, "Don't ask me if you may play, if you mean to do +it whether I like it or not." She always gave us such items of +information as "I know what I should say if it was left to me this +time," and she frequently doubled with nothing at all in her hand, +because she said she liked to play a plucky game. + +I have tried to cure Mrs. Fielden of saying "dah-monds" when she means +"diamonds," but it is quite useless. She also says (with a radiant +smile) "How tarsome!" when she has lost a rubber, although I have +pointed out to her that that is not the phonetic pronunciation of the +word. When we are all wrangling over the mistakes and misdeeds of the +last round, Mrs. Fielden looks hopelessly at us and says, "Is it any +one's deal?" And then we laugh and stop arguing. She never keeps the +score, or picks up the cards, or deals for herself, or does anything +useful. + +The American widow did not stop talking most of the time, and the +Colonel kept up his running commentary upon the cards he was playing, +and then Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs joined us to look on, and she and the +American widow plunged into a discussion on clothes, which they kept up +vigorously all the time. This necessitated a number of questions +relating to the game from the American widow, whenever she was recalled +to the fact that she was playing Bridge: "May I see that laast trick? +What's trumps? Does my hand go down on the table this time?" Mrs. +Fielden beamed kindly upon her, even when the widow had debated five +minutes which card to lead, and Colonel Jardine had begun to play the +chromatic scale of impatience up and down the table with his stiff +fingers. + +"Waal," said the American widow to Mrs. Fielden, "I think you are just +lovely, and I would like to play with you always. I believe most +people would like to kill me at Bridge. Caan't think why. Colonel +Jardine, did you play the lost chord?" + +"I know the tune," said the Colonel; "but I don't play at all." + +The American turned bewildered eyes upon Mrs. Fielden, who said, +smiling, "Colonel Jardine is practising the chromatic scale. I think +he will be a very good player some day." + +"How was I to know," said the Colonel, spluttering over his +whisky-and-soda when the American widow had left, "that she meant the +last card? That woman would drive me crazy in six weeks." + +"I liked her," said Mrs. Fielden, "and she is very pretty." + +There is a certain large-heartedness about this pretty woman of fashion +and of the world which constrains her to say something kind about every +one. With her the absent are always right, and I do not think I have +ever heard her say an unkind word about any one. At Stanby, when +people who are staying there make a newly-departed guest run the +gauntlet of criticism--not always of the kindest sort--Mrs. Fielden +says, in that royal fashion of hers which makes her approval the final +decision in all matters, "I liked him." And the departed guest's +character and reputation are safe. Her charity is boundless and quite +indiscriminate, save that she sends a trifle more rain and sunshine on +the unjust than on the just. + +"Come to lunch with me some day," she said to me in the off-hand way in +which she generally gives an invitation. "I am always at home at two +o'clock. Why not come to-morrow? You are leaving town almost +immediately, are you not?" + +Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs is also asked to lunch; every one is asked to lunch. +When one goes to the pretty widow's house in South Street one generally +finds a dozen people lunching with her. + +... She came into the room--late, of course--and found ten or twelve +people waiting for lunch. "I am so sorry! Do you all know each +other?" she asked of the rather constrained group of strangers making +frigid conversation to each other in the flower-filled drawing-room. +And then she began to introduce us to each other, and forgot half our +names, and we went downstairs in a buzz of conversation and laughter, +and filled with something that is odd and magnetic, which only comes +when Mrs. Fielden arrives. + +As is always the way at her lunch-parties, her carriage drives up to +the door before any one has finished coffee, and then we all say +good-bye, complaining of the rush of London. + +"I want you to drive with me this afternoon," said Mrs. Fielden, when I +with the others was saying good-bye. I think she generally singles +somebody out for a drive or a long talk, or to take her to a +picture-gallery after lunch, and it is done in a way that makes the one +thus singled out feel foolishly elated and flattered. + +"I think we are going to drive down to Richmond and see some trees and +grass, and behave in a rural sort of way this afternoon," she announced +as she seated herself in the carriage. + +"And what about all your engagements for this afternoon?" I asked. +"And the Red Book, and the visiting-list, and the shopping-list, and +the visiting-cards, which I see with you?" + +"I never keep engagements," said Mrs. Fielden; "and every one knows my +memory is so bad that they always forgive me. Some one gave me a +little notebook the other day, with my initials in silver upon it--I +can't remember who it was--and I put down in it all the tarsome things +I ought to do, and then I lost the little pocket-book." + +"If I ever find it," I said, "I shall bring it to you, and read out all +your tarsome engagements to you." + +"I didn't say 'tarsome,'" said Mrs. Fielden. + +"I suppose you are whirling through the London season," I said +presently; "and going everywhere, and having your frocks chronicled in +the magazines, and going to a great many parties?" + +"No," said Mrs. Fielden; "I have been down at Stanby." + +"I wish," I remarked, "that you did not always give one unexpected +replies. Why have you been down at Stanby? You didn't say anything +about it when I saw you last night." + +"Do you know old Miss Lydia Blind?" said Mrs. Fielden. "She is ill, +and I got rather a pathetic letter from her, so I went down to Stanby +to look after her." + +She fumbled for the pocket of her dress, raising first what seemed to +be a layer of lace, and then a number of layers of chiffon, and then, +after rustling amongst some silk to find her artfully-concealed pocket, +she produced a letter and handed it to me. + +"Am I to read it?" I said; and Mrs. Fielden nodded. + +"... One so often hears," so the letter ran, "of a case of long illness +in which the one who is strong, and who acts as nurse to the invalid, +breaks down before the end comes. To me it has always seemed to show +that the strong one's courage has failed somehow, and that, had zeal +been stronger or faith greater, she might have endured to the end...." +And, again, in a postscript: "When I was younger I was very impatient, +and I think I could not well have borne it had I known that life was to +be a waiting time. I do not say this in any discontented spirit, dear, +and I only write to you because you always understand...." And then +the letter broke off suddenly, and I handed it back to Mrs. Fielden. + +"So this is you, as Miss Lydia knows you," I said. + +"I want you to go and see her when you go back to Stowel. Will you?" +said Mrs. Fielden. "Miss Lydia is an angel, I think; the best woman +really that ever lived. Will you take her some things I am sending +her, and ask how she is when you go back?" + +We drove under the trees of Richmond Park in Mrs. Fielden's big, +luxurious carriage. She generally drives in a Victoria, and I asked +her why she had the landau out this afternoon. + +"A whim," said Mrs. Fielden. "I am full of whims." + +But of course a landau is the only carriage in which a lame man, who +has to sit with his foot up, can put it comfortably on the opposite +seat. + +We drove onwards, and she stopped the carriage to look at the view from +Richmond Hill, and the soft air blew up to us in a manner very cool and +refreshing; and then we got out and walked about for a time, and Mrs. +Fielden gave me her arm. + +"I don't really require an arm," I said, "but I like taking yours." + +"It is a very strong arm," said Mrs. Fielden; and she exclaimed +quickly, "I believe I am getting fat! My maid tells me all my dresses +want altering. I wish it was time to think about beginning to hunt +again." + +"Do you know," I said, "I always thought, till I got back to England, +that my leg had been taken off below the knee, and that I should be +able to get astride of a horse again. I never used to see it, of +course, when they dressed it; and when I counted up the things I should +be able to do, riding was always one of them. I didn't sell my horses +till just the other day." + +Mrs. Fielden did not sympathize, but one of her silences fell between +us. We did not speak again till she began to tell me an amusing story +which made us both laugh; but when she was sitting in the carriage, and +the footman was helping me in, and we were still laughing, I could have +sworn that her eyes looked larger and softer than I have ever seen them. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +It is always rather melancholy arriving at home alone, and I miss +Palestrina very much at these times, and I feel ill-disposed towards +Thomas. Down-Jock pretended not to know me, and barked furiously when +I drove up to the door, and then ran away on three legs, making +believe, as he sometimes does when he wants to appeal to one's pity, +that he is old and lame. + +It was still early in the afternoon, and the sunshine was blazing over +everything when I hobbled down the hill to inquire for Miss Lydia. The +houses in Stowel are all roofed with red tiles, and each garden has +flowering shrubs in it or beds full of bright-coloured flowers, so that +the little place has a very warm and happy look on a sunny summer day. +A great heavy horse-chestnut tree hung over the walls of the doctor's +house, and scattered fragments of pink blossom when the soft air +stirred gently. The wistaria on the post-office was in full bloom. +And the place was so full of pleasant sounds this afternoon--of singing +birds, and heavy-rolling wagons moving up the broad street, and the +laughter of children, and the soft rush of the summer wind through the +trees--that one felt that a day like this gave one a very strong +leaning in favour of the happy view that life is, after all, a good +thing. + +One had, of course, to stop and speak to several old friends, who said +they were thankful to see me back, as though a visit to London was an +expedition fraught with many dangers. + +When I reached the little cottage with the green gate, and the maid +opened the door to me, she told me that Lydia Blind had died an hour +ago. + +The staircase of the little house is directly opposite the front door. +I could not but believe that if I waited a little while Miss Lydia +would descend the stairs, as she always did, with a smile which never +failed to welcome every one. Or, if she were not within doors, that I +would only have to pass out into the little garden at the back of the +house to find her. I thought suddenly of the words of a boy I used to +know at school, who, when a young playfellow died, said between his +sobs, "It was so hard upon him dying before he had had a good time." +Certainly ever since we knew her Lydia's life had been one long +sacrifice to a witless invalid, and I couldn't help feeling that +perhaps no one would ever know the extent of her patient service. +Probably there never lived a more unselfish woman, and I cannot think +why she never married. + +She was a person who lacked worldly wisdom, and in worldly matters she +was not prosperous--she never sowed that sort of grain. It was very +touching to find that she had not even a few trinkets to leave behind, +but that one by one each had been sold to pay for something for the +invalid--a doctor's fee, or a chemist's heavy bill. She left the world +as unobtrusively as she lived in it. Her last illness was very sudden +and brief, and probably she would have been thankful that the little +household was spared any extra expense. + +The news of Lydia's death was unexpected by every one. When I turned +and left the house and was walking home again, I met Mrs. Taylor going +to inquire about her neighbour's health, with an offering of fruit in a +little basket. She begged me, in the Stowel fashion, to turn and walk +back with her, declaring that she felt so seriously upset by the news +that if I would only see her as far as her gate I should be doing her a +kindness. In the garden the General, who had run down to Stowel for a +couple of days, was reclining in a deck-chair, Indian fashion. He was +reading some cookery recipes in a number of _Truth_, and he turned to +his niece as she crossed the lawn and said, "Do you think your cook +could manage this, Mary? Select a fine pineapple----" + +"Oh, uncle," said Mrs. Taylor with a good deal of feeling, "we have had +such bad news! Our dear old friend in the village, Miss Lydia Blind, +is dead." + +"What Lydia Blind?" said the General; and Mrs. Taylor replied,-- + +"You never knew her, dear. She wasn't able to come to the party; +indeed, I think she has been ailing ever since about that time, but we +had no idea that the end was so near." + +"It can't be the Lydia Blind I used to know?" said the General. + +"Oh no, you couldn't have known her," said Mrs. Taylor with a sob; "she +was just a dear old maiden lady living in the village on very small +means." + +"She hadn't a sister called Belinda, had she?" said the General. + +Mrs. Taylor said she had, and I remembered suddenly how I had seen +Lydia Blind standing one morning in front of the General's picture in +the photographer's shop, and had heard her say, "I used to know him." + +Mrs. Taylor went indoors, and I said good-bye, but the General said to +me abruptly, "I should like to see her; will you take me there?" And +he did not speak again until we found ourselves in the little porch of +the cottage. He looked very tall standing by the low door of the +house, and an odd idea came to me that Miss Lydia would have been proud +of her afternoon caller. + +"Let me go alone," he said gruffly, when he had asked permission to go +to her room; and I waited in Lydia's morning-room, with its twine cases +and unframed sketches, and the photographs of babies. + +"I cannot see the sister," said the General irritably, when he had +rejoined me in the darkened room. "Is she still dumb, poor thing? If +ever there was a case," he went on, "of one life--and, to my mind, the +sweeter and the better life--being sacrificed to another, it is in the +case of Lydia Blind." He sat down on the little green sofa, and looked +about him with eyes that seemed to see nothing. "I never expected such +a thing," he said; "I couldn't have expected a thing like this ... I +didn't even know she lived here.... Do you remember her," he said, +"when she was very pretty? No, no, of course you wouldn't.... It +doesn't hurt you to walk a little, does it? I have lived nearly all my +life out of doors, and when anything upsets me I cannot stand being +within four walls...." + +We went out and crossed the field-path into the woods beyond. The +paths of the wood are narrow and uneven, and at first we walked in +single file, until we came to the broader road beyond the stream, and +then we walked on side by side, the General suiting his pace to my +slow, awkward gait. + +"... Did you ever know the Bazeleys at all? No, you wouldn't, of +course: that would be before your time. They had a very pretty place +in Lincolnshire--a charming place--with a veranda round the house, and +wicker-chairs with coloured cushions on them--more like an Indian house +than an English one.... Harold Bazeley was in love with Lydia too." +(I believe the General was talking more to himself than to me.) "It +was one night sitting in the veranda that I heard him begin to make +love to her for all he was worth, and I had to cut it.... Poor chap! +he came into the smoking-room that night, where I was sitting alone, +and he sat down by the table and put his head in his hands. He may +have been saying his prayers (for he was always a religious man ... he +did a lot of good for the men under him in India), and I sat with him +till it was time to go to bed. I don't know if it was any comfort to +him, but I knew from his face that Lydia must have said no, and I +thought perhaps he wouldn't like being alone.... Well, then of course +one didn't like to rush in and ask one's best friend's girl to marry +one so soon after his disappointment. One had very strict ideas about +honour in those days; I hope one has not lost them.... It is very odd +that I was never here before, until last spring. Nearly all my service +has been abroad, and I generally used to spend my leave hunting or in +London, and my niece used to come up and stay with me there.... I +didn't care much for Taylor in those days, but he really isn't a bad +sort of fellow." + +The sun began to sink behind the trees, and the General seemed to wake +from the reverie in which he had been talking to me, and said: "You +oughtn't to be out after sunset, if you have still got malaria about +you," and we began to walk slowly homewards. + +"It was just such an evening as this," he said, "when I bade her +good-bye, meaning to come back in a little while and ask her to marry +me. She was standing by the gate--fine old gates with stone pillars to +them, and the sun shone full in her eyes.... I suppose that gentle, +sweet look never left them, did it? They were closed, of course, when +I saw them just now.... She was wearing a white dress that evening, I +remember--a sort of muslin dress which I suppose would not be +fashionable now, but which looked very pretty then. It had a lot of +pink ribbons about it, and there was a great bunch of pink moss-roses +in the ribbon of her belt.... Do you know I never picture her except +as the girl who stood by the gate with the sun behind her, and the +roses in her belt. I think I lost my head a little when it came to +saying good-bye, and I began to say things which I had not meant to +say--she looked so pretty with the red sunlight upon her, and her white +muslin dress almost turned to pink in the glare.... I don't think she +was surprised, only sweeter and gentler than before, and a curious, +happy look was in her eyes. But I stopped in time, and stammered like +a fool, thinking of poor Harold Bazeley, and then I said good-bye +rather hurriedly. But I came back again to the gate where she was +still standing, and asked if I might have one of the roses in her belt. +And she gave me the whole bunch. + +"... It must have been after this that the father died and left them +very poor, and then the sister (this one, Belinda) had a stroke of +paralysis, and there was no one to look after her but Lydia.... I +wrote and proposed to her before I went to India--asked her to come +with me as my wife. But she said she could not marry while her sister +lived. It isn't as though we could have remained in England, and she +could have lived with us; but of course India would have been an +impossibility for the poor thing. We never thought in those days that +poor Belinda would live long. And then she made a sort of recovery, +but was still quite helpless, and Lydia wrote and asked me to wait for +her no longer.... I never heard that she had come to live at Stowel." + +The broad, wide village road was dim with twilight when we walked +homewards along it--The Uncle and I. The children had all gone +indoors, and the flowers in the little garden had lost their colour in +the dim light. + +As we passed by the cottage the General halted on the quiet, deserted +road and took off his hat, then he leaned over the little green paling +and drew towards him a branch of a moss-rose tree that Miss Lydia had +planted there. He plucked a bud from it and held it to his face. Then +he said gently, "They are the same sort, but they do not smell so +sweet." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Mrs. Fielden came to Stowel for the funeral, and did not return to +London again. She went to pay some visits, I believe, and afterwards +she will go to Scotland to stay with the Melfords, as she always does +in August. It was a very quiet summer. Anthony went to Ireland to +fish, and Major Jacobs went with him instead of me: Anthony and I used +to take the fishing together. Even Frances Taylor went north to stay +with Mrs. Macdonald, and the Reading Society postponed its future +meetings till the winter should come again. + +Undoubtedly Kate Jamieson's wedding was a stirring event in a very dull +time. The festivities connected with it were carried out with the +Jamiesons' usual energy and lavishness. It is possible to be lavish on +five hundred a year. That is one of the pleasing things that +kind-hearted people like the Jamiesons can prove. No one was omitted +in the list of invitations to the reception which was held on the lawn +in front of the house. And there the whole of the Jamiesons' wide +circle of friends was gathered together, forming an assembly which +surely only the censorious mind could find fault with. The +refreshments, these good Jamiesons informed us, with their ingenuous +interest in discussing detail, were prepared by Margaret, and Kate +contributed to the payment of their ingredients from her small savings. +The group of bride and bridesmaids, which was photographed at the front +door, each wearing an expression of acute distress upon her face, was +George's own idea, and was nobly paid for by him. + +It was announced at the wedding-feast--although it had been whispered +for a long time--that there was soon to be another break in the +Jamieson family. We all instantly prepared a smile of congratulation +for Maud, and some disappointment was felt when it was discovered that +the remark applied to Mrs. Jamieson's youngest son, Kennie. The Pirate +had for some time been informing his friends that the Wild West was +"calling to him," and that he had the "go fever," and that "once he had +known the perfect freedom of life out there" it was impossible to +settle down to the conventionalities of English society again. The +Pirate had obtained a post as purser on one of the ships of the company +to which he belonged, and he appeared at the wedding-breakfast in a +suit of white ducks, a gold-laced cap, and the famous cummerbund. I +have a strong suspicion that he had a revolver concealed in a +mysterious pocket, from the way his hand, in moments of excitement, +occasionally moved towards it; but fortunately the wedding-party was of +so peaceful a description that it was not necessary to produce the +weapon. + +Since the exciting news of Kennie's proposed departure for Buenos Ayres +Mettie has developed nerves and hysteria. But so limited is the power +of imagination or discrimination in the human mind, that I must +honestly confess that I never once connected her indisposition and low +spirits with the news of her cousin's departure. Mettie has added to a +certain helplessness which always distinguishes her a tendency to +tears, and to sitting alone in her bedroom and sniffing dolorously; the +big thin nose requires constant attention, and there are red rims round +poor Mettie's eyes. The Jamiesons, who trace every variation in life +to a love affair, are not long of course in coming to the right and the +sentimental--nay, from the Jamieson point of view, the only reasonable +explanation of this change in their little cousin. But Mettie has +entreated them to say nothing, and to let her suffer in silence, and +they are too loyal to betray her interesting confidences. Kennie +himself is, I believe, still unaware of the interest he is exciting in +Mettie's gentle breast, but doubtless the little woman's extreme +timidity and her clinging disposition appeal in no small measure to the +Defender of the Sex. Mettie raises meek, adoring eyes to the Pirate's +ruddy face, under the gold-laced cap, and murmurs with clasped hands: +"You will never come back to us--I know it, I feel it! You will be +murdered by some gang of cut-throats, and then what will I--I mean your +mother, do?" The Pirate plumes himself and struts, and the dangers +that his little cousin has so powerfully depicted for him make his +young heart swell. + +The village church was quite full of spectators and friends; nearly all +our acquaintances in the village wore new gowns--or apparently new +gowns--for the wedding. Mrs. Lovekin, in a black-cloth mantle with +bead-trimming, showed guests into their pews, and directed the children +at the doorway into giving a ringing cheer as the bride drove up to the +church. It was whispered by a wag that Mrs. Lovekin would like to don +a surplice and officiate at the interesting ceremony herself. There +was a party in white cotton gloves, who banged doors and shouted "Drive +on!" and it was hard to realize that this was the Jamiesons' odd man +and gardener, transformed for the occasion. He wore a large white +ribbon rosette in his button-hole, and all the morning he had been busy +erecting an archway over the gate at Belmont with Union Jacks displayed +thereon, out of consideration, as he explained, to the late Captain +Jamieson, he being military. The Miss Traceys were resplendent in +brown dresses and profuse lace neckties, securely anchored to their +chests by massive brooches; the dresses were afterwards mentioned in an +account of the wedding in the local paper, and it was cut out and +carefully kept by the Miss Traceys, who pasted the interesting news in +a small album for news-cuttings which they bought for the purpose. + +At the Jamiesons' little house there was, I understand, a wild state of +confusion and energy from a very early hour in the morning, and +looking-glasses and hand-mirrors were in great demand. The centre of +interest there, it seems, was Kate's bedroom, where the whole of The +Family congregated to give Kate a last kiss before the veil was put on, +and to wish her happiness again and again. George, who throughout the +entire proceedings made a laudable attempt to appear calm, at last told +his sister that it really was time to start, and the carriage rolled +down the hill, and Kate Jamieson alighted from it, and walked up the +aisle of the old church leaning upon her brother's arm. Eliza Jamieson +was busy with a note-book the whole time, and almost one seemed to +begin to see the wedding through her journalistic eyes. + +Our curate's wife, who is still far from strong, asked Palestrina to +look after Peggy, who expressed a wish to see the wedding, and I was +interested to find how many little games Peggy had invented for herself +by way of getting through the tedium of a service--games which, I +imagine, she had been preparing during the many services which a +curate's little girl is supposed to attend. + +"If you press your eyes to the back of your head as far as you can," +she whispered to me, "you can see green and red and blue spots, and +then open them and you can see green and red and blue spots round +father." And again: "I can say, 'We beseech Thee!' seven times over +while the choir are singing it, if we have Jackson's _Te Deum_." And +then: "Do you know what Georgie and I do, when we are sent to church +alone? We hide in the pew until no one thinks we are there, and then +we pop up in the middle of the service and begin to say the responses. +When we sit with the Sunday-school children we play at 'My husband and +your husband,' and then we each choose in turn which husband we'll have +in the congregation. You see, the first man who comes in is to be the +first child's husband, and the second the second child's, that's how we +manage; last Sunday I got the baker's boy." + +Mr. Swinnerton was at the wedding, somewhat inclined to be +consequential, as usual; but as he devoted his whole attention to +Margaret, one could not but feel that his presence was acceptable. (We +are on the tip-toe of expectation to know when Mr. Swinnerton will +"come to the point.") Margaret Jamieson looked after the needs of the +Higginses' relations, and attended to the wants of all the humbler of +the guests. + +There was still another element of interest in the marriage-party in +the person of Mr. Evans, who ran down from Hampstead for it. "If Mr. +Evans comes," Maud said, with the characteristic fine common sense of +the Jamiesons, "I want you all to understand that it is all quite over +between him and me. But what I have always thought about Mr. Evans is +this--that he is the sort of man who would like The Family, and I do +not see why he should not take a fancy to one of the other members of +it. I am quite sure his affection for me was based upon my +suitability. He often told me, for instance, that he would like a wife +who had been brought up to do things for herself, and could manage on a +small income and dress cheaply, and I am sure we can all do that. And +after all, if that is so, one of us is as suitable as another. He had +very definite ideas about a wife; but I couldn't help feeling all the +time that it was some one like ourselves that he had in his mind. He +seemed to have a great dread of any one who was too smart; and I said +to him at the time--for of course we both talked about our families a +good deal, as one does in the first stages--that we were all very +homely sort of people. I could always put myself in the background if +he seemed, for instance, to take a fancy to Gracie. And Gracie herself +has often said that she thinks she would like a man to wear a white +watered-silk waistcoat." + +Gracie looked quite pleased with the arrangement, and Mr. Evans was +asked down "as a friend." And I should here like to record--only of +course it is going too far ahead--that before the summer was over, Mr. +Evans, charmed with The Family, as Maud felt he would be, and convinced +of their suitability, had chosen Gracie from amongst the remaining Miss +Jamiesons who were still at the disposal of those who seek a wife. +Gracie's energy charmed Mr. Evans. He often said afterwards that he +believed he had got the pick of the basket after all. + +It was quite evident to me, and I believe to most of the Jamiesons' +guests, that one of the mysteries, so dear to the hearts of Stowel, was +in preparation for the wedding afternoon. Not even my sister and I had +been initiated into the secret; but Mrs. Jamieson, it must be +confessed, took away from the shock of surprise which might have been +ours, by referring during the whole afternoon to the entertainment +which was to take place later. The Jamiesons had decided that the +lawn, newly mown, was to be suddenly cleared of trestle-tables and +garden-chairs, and that a small band of musicians was to spring up +unexpectedly out of the ground, as it were, and that every one was to +know suddenly that they were in the midst of an impromptu dance. Now +Mrs. Jamieson, nervously expectant, and half fearing from the detached +manners of her daughters (so well did the Miss Jamiesons simulate their +ignorance of what was before them) that they must indeed have forgotten +about the dance, interrupted every conversation by creeping up to them +in her melancholy, quiet way, and saying, "Shall I get them to clear +away now?" + +"It's to be impromptu, mamma," entreated the Miss Jamiesons in agitated +whispers. It had been decided between them that Gracie, as the +youngest of the party, should exclaim suddenly, as if by some happy +inspiration, "I vote we dance;" and that then in a perfectly easy and +natural manner guests and entertainers alike should, with the utmost +friendliness, help to push back the tables and chairs into the lilac +bushes, and that then the musicians should be hastily summoned from the +kitchen, where they were to have tea. Before that time arrived the +unfortunate Mrs. Jamieson had, as one might say, almost skimmed the +cream off the whole thing. Her nervousness would not allow her to +rest, and in the end she had established the musicians in the three +chairs so artlessly prepared for them under the chestnut-tree; and +there they were with fiddle and concertina long before Gracie had found +an opportunity for making her impromptu suggestion. Their sudden +appearance, one could not but feel, detracted from the unprepared +effect that had been intended, and they stood waiting to begin with +quite a forlorn appearance until the Pirate, for whom the arrival of +the hour means the arrival of the man (if the Pirate is anywhere +about), called out in his loud tones, "Strike up, you fellows, and let +us have a dance!" and the very next moment the white drill suit and the +gold-laced cap of Kennie might have been seen in the middle of the +lawn. He gallantly seized Mettie round the waist and scattered the +guests by the onslaught and the fierce charge he made upon them, and +soon had cleared a space in which he footed it gaily. The Higginses, +who had been rather shy during the reception, hastened to find +partners, and warmed to the occasion at once. Young Abel Higgins, the +handsome young farmer from Dorming, said it was the pleasantest +entertainment he had ever been at. "There is no cliquism about it," he +remarked. "You just say to a girl, 'Will you dance?' and up she comes; +it doesn't matter if she's a lord's daughter!" + +Mr. Swinnerton devoted much of his attention and his conversation to me +during the afternoon. He discussed what he calls "military matters" at +great length, pointing out the mistakes of every general in South +Africa, at the same time clearly stating what Mr. Swinnerton would have +done under similar circumstances, and lamenting the inefficiency of the +War Office. Later in the afternoon, however, when he found me where, +as I hoped, I had effectually concealed myself behind a laurel bush, +Mr. Swinnerton plunged heavily into the question of marriage; and this, +as Maud would say, was surely a very hopeful sign. I was disappointed, +however, to find that his views regarding the happy state of matrimony +seemed to have been made almost entirely from one point of view, and +that point of view himself. + +"Don't you think," he began ponderously, as he seated himself beside me +after the rather heavy fatigue of dancing on a lawn to the strains of a +band that did not keep scrupulous time--"don't you think that a man +ought to see a girl in her own home before he makes up his mind?" + +I dissented on the plea of over-cautiousness, but Mr. Swinnerton did +not hear me. + +"What I think," he went on, "is that marriage is a serious undertaking +for a man, and that one ought to be very sure of one's own mind." + +I admitted the seriousness of matrimony, but thought it applied equally +to the woman. + +This remark also seemed to escape Mr. Swinnerton's attention. Indeed, +I found that what is extremely irritating about this fellow is that his +mind never diverges from his own topic; he seems quite incapable of +excursions into the thoughts and feelings of the persons he addresses, +but plods steadily on his own path, pleased to give his own views, and +quite unaffected by the differences of opinion that are offered him. +There is a legend of my childhood that records that a man once said, +"It is bitt----" and then went to sleep for a thousand years, and when +he woke up he said, "--erly cold." I am often reminded of this story +when I listen to Mr. Swinnerton's plodding conversation. + +"What I feel is," he went on--and one knew that no fatigue on the part +of the listener would be noticed by him--"what I feel is, that the man +being the head of the woman he should always choose some one who is +docile and good-tempered, and perhaps above all things a good cook. +That's the very first thing I would teach a woman--to be a good cook. +It's so important for a man to have his meals really nice and nicely +served. Don't you agree with me?" + +"It is very important," I said. + +"I am so glad you agree with me." Mr. Swinnerton occasionally remarks +on an agreeable clause in one's conversation, whereas a disagreement +never even penetrates his mind. "Of course, you fellows with your mess +and all that can scarcely realize how necessary it is that a man's wife +should be a good cook. And then she ought to be thoroughly +domesticated," went on Mr. Swinnerton's heavy voice; "a woman should +not always be wanting to go out in the evening. What I feel is that +the home should constitute the woman's happiness." + +"And cooking?" I said. + +"Yes, and cooking," said Mr. Swinnerton. "I do not want my wife to +have any money; I had much rather she had to come to me for things. I +am not greedy about money. I am comfortably off, but I think a man +should have entire control of the purse. One could knock off any +expenditure on a wife's dress, if that is the case. Ladies like a new +bonnet, and I should always give my wife a new bonnet if things had +been nice." + +I remarked that Mr. Swinnerton was very generous. + +"I know I am generous. Of course, a man gives up a great deal when he +marries, but I do not know that in the matter of expense it would cost +me more to keep a small house than to pay for lodgings." + +"It depends," I said, "what wages you give your wife. An occasional +new bonnet would not be an extravagant salary, if she turned out to be +a really good cook." + +For the first time Mr. Swinnerton seemed struck by the wisdom of my +remarks. "No, it would not," he said; "it would not. I know that I +would make a good husband," he remarked; "and I feel that I have a +future before me in the volunteers." + +Margaret joined us at this moment, and Swinnerton smiled indulgently at +her, without offering, however, to give her his seat. I do not think +that Margaret noticed this, as she did not notice any omission on Mr. +Swinnerton's part. + +"I hope you are not very tired," she said. "Your journey from London +and then this little dance must be very fatiguing, I am afraid." + +"Men don't get tired," said Mr. Swinnerton grandiosely, and he looked +towards me for applause. He did not, however, ask her to dance, and +Margaret moved away to attend to other guests. + +"She's a very nice-looking girl," said Mr. Swinnerton approvingly, "and +a well-brought-up girl, too." + +So I suppose it is still hopeful, as the Jamiesons would say. But I +pray that Margaret Jamieson will remove Mr. Swinnerton hence when she +has married him. + +Kate and Mr. Ward drove to the station in the best landau and pair of +horses from Stowel Inn. Mr. Ward was so upset from first to last by +the ceremonies and the heat that his conical-shaped head, covered with +the dew of nervous perspiration, steamed like a kettle; but his +affection for his bride and his evident delight and pride in her were +undeniable, and although resenting in his mild way the stinging shower +of rice with which he was pelted, and the usual facetious jokes that +were made on the bride and bridegroom, Mr. Ward nevertheless beamed +with good-nature all the time. + +Palestrina made me laugh when she came home in the evening. She had +been down to the village to see the Pettifers and to show them her +wedding finery, as she promised to do; for Mrs. Pettifer is ill in bed +again, and was unable to stand at the church door with the rest of the +crowd to see the wedding-party. My sister found the old lady weeping +bitterly, and for a long time she could not guess the cause of her +distress, until at last a remark of her husband's explained it. "She +do take on like that tur'ble queer," he said, "as soon as ever the +wedding-bells ring after a marriage is over." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Pettifer; "I always say to myself, 'She's got him, and +he ain't disappointed her after all.'" + +Kennie sailed for Buenos Ayres the day after the wedding, and Mettie +walked over to see us, being sent on some errand, I have no doubt, +wherein she would be more usefully employed than in getting into the +way of the staff of workers who were clearing up after yesterday's +festivities. Mettie brought over Mrs. Ward's first telegram received +that morning from Dover, and said it was too funny to think of Kate +being Mrs. Ward. "Kate Ward," she said with one of her curious little +chirruping laughs, "Kate Ward--do look at it!" And we dutifully +replied that it certainly seemed the height of drollery. + +Palestrina is not perfectly just to me when Mettie comes to call. She +always remembers something important which she has until this moment +forgotten, and with apologies to Mettie she flies off to see to it, and +I am left with our caller. And then the marriage question is in full +swing before one can prevent it. Mettie says she would never, never +allow a man to know that she cared for him, and that no nice girl +would. Did I think that if a girl never gave any evidence of her love, +and died, it would be a very pitiful end? And of course I said that +the pathos of the thing would strike one directly. + +"After death," said Mettie, "she might still be his good angel. It is +very strange," she said, "to think of becoming a being with wings. Do +you know I often wonder what those wings can be like, and I cannot +imagine them made of anything but white ostrich feathers, which I must +say would look very pretty.... I am sure it is a brave thing to part +and say nothing, but do you think that one might write?" + +It was only then, at that precise moment, that I in any way connected +Mettie's remarks with the thought of the Pirate Boy, now a purser in +the ---- Line. + +"My dear Mettie," I said, "I should certainly write to him--write +often, write affectionately, send him your photograph, work him a +housewife for his cabin, carve him a frame for your photograph. I am +delighted----" + +"Oh! but nothing is settled yet," simpered Mettie. + +It has sometimes struck me since, although one generally denies the +suggestion, that the first sentiment of love-making may emanate from +the woman's mind. But probably the Pirate will never know that it was +not his own idea that he should fall in love with Mettie. + +This evening I was looking over a lot of old letters, such as our +fathers and mothers used to keep, put away in drawers with bits of +ribbon tied round them in the days when there was more time for that +sort of thing than there is now. And I came across the following +letter, written in ink that has grown rather faded, and dated 1845. It +describes a wedding, and I have saved it from a number of other letters +which I have destroyed, to stick it into my diary as an appropriate +sort of ending to my entries for to-day. The letter is a genuine one, +and I have the original of it beside me now. + + +"MY DEAREST AUNT, + +"You wished to hear all about our doings on Thursday. Though I dare +say you have heard many editions of the affairs of that day, I take the +earliest opportunity of relating to you, as I promised, my version of +it, though how often was it wished that dear aunt and uncle had +themselves been present to illuminate the picture. We all assembled at +a quarter-past ten o'clock. The married ladies (and gentlemen, whether +they were in that happy state or not) remained in the drawing-room +till, at a given signal, the bride descended, followed by her +bridesmaids--first Emily and myself, then Anne and Jane Schofield, then +Anna and Eliza Schofield. The four first were in pink, the two last in +blue. After talking over matters a little, we entered our respective +carriages, mamma going in the first carriage, and papa and Mary +bringing up the rear. We went through the ceremony very well. Mary +responded in a perfectly clear and audible voice; but once the worthy +bride-groom faltered, and as I stood next to him could perceive he was +somewhat agitated. The ceremony of kissing being finished, we returned +from church, when numerous and costly presents were exhibited to the +eyes, and amongst them none more beautiful than my dear uncle and +aunt's. But, by way of parenthesis, mamma wishes me to ask you, as +Mary has two silver canisters, whether you would have any objection to +change the kind and elegant expression of your feeling for Mary into a +silver waiter. Knowing your kindness, we sent it by Uncle Kershaw. +Now to proceed. We descended to breakfast--a most important business, +which occupied us a considerable time--in the middle of which Uncle +Ainsworth produced a bunch of grapes, and signified his intention of +drinking Mary Schofield's health in the red juice of the grape. He +immediately expressed the juice and suited the action to the word. +Robert Arncliffe made a beautiful speech--quite a gem. We then +proceeded to dress the bride in travelling attire. Then came the +dreadful moment of parting. Mamma and papa got over it most +wonderfully; suffice it to say our sisters' tears flowed most copiously +on that day. After her departure, we took a drive to restore us to +that harmony of spirits so desirable when persons are the entertainers +of others. We drove through Hyde Park and Regent's Park in procession, +and stopped to walk in the Zoological Gardens, coveting the society of +the brute creation as well as the rational. We then returned to +dinner, which was at seven, when, to our indescribable horror, on +calling over the names of certain young ladies, we discovered their +toilet was not complete when dinner was announced. After a small +delay, however, the offenders appeared, and the business of dinner was +commenced with astonishing vigour. There is no occasion to describe to +you the manners and customs of a dinner-table, as a sameness must +naturally pervade all such employments. We ladies at length signified +our intention of leaving the gentlemen masters of the field, and Uncle +Jesse came out with us and went to bed. We proceeded to enjoy a small +quadrille, till I suppose the sound of feet called the other portion of +the community from below. After tea and a little display of musical +powers, we had another quadrille; but this did not occur till Emily was +gone. We finally separated at half-past eleven. We have heard twice +or three times from the newly-married people. They are in Bath to-day. +Will you excuse, my dear aunt, this dreadful scrawl, but I have had so +many notes to write, added to which I have sprained my right arm, which +is now pleading to be spared any further exertions. Hoping that dear +uncle and yourself, as well as dear Sarah, are well, and again begging +to be excused this unconnected epistle, With united love to all, +Believe me, + +"Your very affectionate niece, + "MARGARET M. NAYLOR. + +"MECKLENBURGH SQUARE, + _August_ 1845." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +My leg, "my best leg," as poor Beau Brummell used to say, has been +hurting rather, for the last week or two. I do not know how Palestrina +has discovered this, but the dear little woman is looking harassed and +anxious, and she is trying to inveigle me into going up to London +again, to get further advice from my doctor. She has broached the +subject in several ways. There is a play going on at present which she +would much like to see, if I will be kind enough to take her to London +for a couple of days. Or there is some shopping which she wants to do, +and she must have my advice on the subject. I believe that she does +not like to allow, even to herself, that I ought to go expressly to see +the surgeon, but she means to throw out the suggestion when we shall be +in town together, and in this way she has decided, with her usual +thoughtfulness, to spare me the anticipation of hearing that I am not +going on as well as I ought to be doing. It is, however, much too hot +to think of going up to London, so for the present none of Palestrina's +deep-laid plans have been successful. It is broiling hot weather even +down here in the country, but the mornings are cool and fresh, and, +after tossing about half the night, I generally get up and go for a +feeble sort of walk before breakfast. It is extraordinary how new and +fresh the world feels in the early morning, while the dew is still on +the grass, and the birds are singing without any fear that their +concert will be stopped or disturbed by passers-by. + +On my way home this morning I passed the Jamiesons' little house, and +was hailed to come in by the flutter of nearly a dozen dinner-napkins +waved to me from the window of the breakfast-room. It is impossible to +pass Belmont without being asked to come in, or to leave the hospitable +little house without an invitation to stay longer. Monday--this was +Monday--is what the Jamiesons call "one of our busiest mornings," and I +think that our good friends talk almost more than usual on the days on +which they are most engaged. + +As I entered the room, two of The Family had already finished +breakfast, and were busy at a side-table, driving their +sewing-machines. The whirring noise, added to the amount of talking +that was going on, had rather a bewildering effect at first. There +was, besides, the added confusion attendant upon what is known as +"getting George off." The process seems to consist of shaking George +into his City coat, brushing it, patting him on the back, telling him +how nice he looks, hoping he will get down in the middle of the week, +or at least not later than Friday afternoon, and giving him messages +and remembrances to quite half a dozen friends in London. The Family +chorus as I entered was something like this:-- + +"Cream or sugar, weak or strong?" + +"Mettie, did you get your letters?" + +"Eliza, which is your napkin-ring?" + +"Please say what you will have; I have asked you at least half a dozen +times." + +"Do you mind the window open?" + +"Does any one hear the bus?" + +"Toast or rolls?" + +"Which is your napkin-ring?" + +"Did any one hear the rain last night?" + +"You haven't said yet if you will have an egg." + +"Mother is not well, and is not coming down this morning." + +"Does any one mind if we go on with our machines?" + +Over and above this, snatches of newspaper were read, and numerous +directions were given to a very young servant as to how things should +be placed upon the table--a proceeding which usually goes on at every +one of the Jamiesons' meals. It is known as "training one of our +village girls." + +Gracie and Eliza were the two who sat at the side-table before their +whirring sewing-machines, their very spectacles nearly darting from +their heads with energy and speed. George said, "I wish one of you +girls would mend my glove before I start;" and Gracie said, "Give it to +me; I can spare five minutes off lunch-time to get this finished." + +Margaret remarked, "Mamma seems very much out of spirits to-day, and I +think one of us ought to go and play draughts with her." + +Eliza took out her watch. "I can play draughts for thirty-five +minutes," she remarked--"from eleven-five to eleven-forty--and then +Gracie must take my place, as Margaret will be baking, and I have the +soup-kitchen accounts to make up." + +"I did not anticipate draughts this morning," said poor Gracie. "I +must just get this done when I go to bed." This is the last refuge of +the overdriven, and one which is so frequently alluded to by the +Jamiesons that I often fear they deny themselves the proper amount of +sleep. + +George here kissed each of his sisters in turn, and ran upstairs to say +good-bye to his mother, while the omnibus waited at the gate. + +Maud, who was trimming hats for the whole family, and who was +surrounded by a curious medley of ribbons and finery, said: "What about +the Church Council work? I am afraid we have forgotten it." + +"That's my business," said Gracie tragically; "and I must give this +up;" and she stopped her sewing-machine, and rolled the purple cotton +pinafore into a tight ball and placed it on the table. + +"Dear Gracie," said Margaret, "could I not do it? I could get it in +between the Kaffirs and my baking." + +"I would offer to do it," said Eliza, with that affectionate +helpfulness which distinguishes The Family, "only I am so filled up +with soup." Eliza referred to her soup-kitchen accounts. + +The small servant here appeared at the door, and said that an old woman +wanted to see Miss Gracie. + +"My time! my time!" said Gracie, and went to the back door to give the +last shilling of her quarter's dress allowance to the poor woman in +distress. + +"The worst of playing draughts is," said Eliza, "that one can do +nothing else at the same time, except it be to add up accounts in one's +head. Otherwise I should have been only too glad. I tell you what I +can do, though--I can play instead of Gracie this morning, if she won't +mind my keeping the candle alight to do my Browning article after I +have gone to bed." + +Mettie always offers to help every one, but so slow is the little +woman's way of working that the energetic family of Jamieson are quite +aware that probably the business will be weeks in doing; so their +answers to Mettie's offers, given in a kindly voice, are always: "My +dear, you have got your letters to write, and your practising--we could +not do without your singing in the evening, you know." + +Mr. Evans, who was a guest in the house for a few days, was smoking his +pipe in a leisurely way in the garden, and Gracie said: "I really do +feel that I ought to give more attention to Mr. Evans, if only I had +the time for it. Could one of you run into the garden and make a few +pleasant remarks to him until I am ready?" And this Eliza did, first +glancing at her watch in the characteristic Jamieson fashion, and +coming in presently to say that she had sat "for ten solid minutes +doing nothing, and that she does wish men had more resources of their +own." + +It would have been useless to suggest that the work should stop for a +whole summer day. A child came in with some flowers as an offering to +the Miss Jamiesons, and Eliza said: "Would you mind putting them down +somewhere, my dear? I will try to get a minute to arrange them +by-and-by." And then the machines began again, and I walked on +homewards, and enjoyed a long, hot morning in the garden with a book. + +The garden was very shady and pleasant, and one thought regretfully of +the Jamiesons sitting indoors with their sewing-machines. Palestrina +came out presently in a gray dress, very soft and cool-looking, and +with a big sunshade over her head. She sat down beside me, and said in +an off-hand way, and a determination to be congratulatory which was +very suspicious: "I have got a pressing invitation for you." And she +handed me a letter from Kate Ward. + +Mrs. Ward wrote upon the almost immaculate notepaper which is affected +by brides, I have often noticed that this superfine quality of paper is +one of the first extravagances of young married life, as it is one of +the first economies of a later date, and a little judgment will soon +show how long a woman has been married by merely looking at her +notepaper. Cream-laid, with a gold address at the top, bespeaks the +early days of matrimony; and a descent through white stamping, no +stamping, Hieratica to Silurian note, marks the different stages of the +rolling years. + +Kate said (on the best Court note) that she would never forgive us if +we did not come and see her in her new home. James had been generous +in the extreme, and they had bought everything "plain but good" for the +house. And the whole expense of it had been covered by exactly the sum +of money that they had laid by for the purpose. Kate continued, "But I +will not bore you with a description of the house, for I want you to +see it for yourselves," and then entered upon the usual Jamieson +descriptive catalogue of every piece of furniture and every wallpaper +which she had purchased. + +I handed the letter back to Palestrina, who was sitting in an +exaggerated attitude of ease and indifference on the edge of my +deck-chair, and said to her, "Why leave Paradise? London will be +atrocious in this hot weather, and I believe it would be tempting +Providence to quit this garden." + +"I am afraid it will give great disappointment to Kate if we do not +go," said Palestrina, in a tone of voice which suggested that she had +been prepared for opposition, and had rehearsed her own arguments +beforehand. "After all, she lives in the suburbs, and has a garden of +her own, and we need not stay more than two or three days." + +"We shall have to do so much admiring," I said, smothering a yawn. "I +know what brides are! You, Palestrina, probably know exactly the right +thing to say about newly-laid linoleum and furniture which is plain but +good, but I never do." + +"I think I should like to go," said Palestrina, putting the matter upon +personal grounds, as I knew she would do when she had entirely made up +her mind that I must go up to London. What pressure she had brought to +bear upon Mrs. Ward to induce her to invite us to the new house I +cannot say, but some instinct told me that Kate had been warned to +write a letter which might be handed to me to read. + +I pointed out to Palestrina that, much as I should miss her at home, I +should not stand in the way of her paying a visit to her old friend. + +"I have accepted for us both from Thursday to Tuesday," said Palestrina +firmly. "Oh, by-the-bye," she said, rising and going indoors, "I just +sent a line to Dr. Fergus at the same time to say that you will look +in and see him one morning, just to see that you are going on all +right." + +"You also were up early?" I said to the diplomat, who smiled at me from +under her big umbrella without a vestige of shame at her own cunning. +"I don't think it is fair on a crippled man to get up early and send +off letters by the early post. It's a mean trick." + +"You were up half the night," said Palestrina, nodding her head at me, +"for I heard you." And she crossed the lawn and went indoors again. + +The following Thursday we took train for Clarkham. I had never stayed +in this part of the world before, till we came to visit Kate, and the +suburb where she lives seems to me to be rather a pleasant place, with +broad roads over whose walls and palings shrubs and red maples and +other trees hang invitingly. And it is so near London that a very +short run in the train takes one to Victoria Station. But the +neighbourhood is not fashionable, and I cannot help remarking the +apologetic tone in which every one we meet speaks of living here. + +The Wards' house is a very nice little place, with very new wall-papers +and very clean curtains and slippery floors, upon which art rugs slide +dangerously. There is a small garden with a lawn and a brown hawthorn +tree upon it, and there are two trim little maids who wait upon one +excellently well. Kate is a thorough good manager, and her whole +household reminds one of those pages on household management which one +sees in magazines, describing the perfect equipment of a house--its +management, and the rules to be observed by a young housekeeper. + +There is a place for everything, and Kate says her wedding-presents are +a great assistance in giving a home-like look to the house. + +Mr. Ward leaves home at half-past nine every morning, and Kate shakes +him into his coat in exactly the same way George used to be shaken into +his, and stands at the hall-door with a bright smile on her face, until +James has got into the morning bus and driven away, in a manner that is +very wifely and commendable. + +The unpretentious little household seems to be a very happy one, and +Kate was quite satisfied with the praise which Palestrina bestowed upon +everything. + +"Of course," she said, "the great drawback is that the place is so +unfashionable;" and we warmly protested against that being of the least +consequence. But Kate said with her usual common sense: "It does +matter, really. No one thinks anything of you if you live here, and +nearly every one who has enough money always leaves directly. +Still"--cheerfully--"one must expect some drawbacks, and I do think I +have been very lucky. James is goodness itself, and quite a number of +people have been to call." + +We found to our dismay that Kate, with the laudable intention of +amusing us, had accepted several invitations to what are called "the +last of the summer gaieties." There were tea-parties and +garden-parties given by her friends, to which we were expected to go; +and her very nearest neighbours, who are generally known as the "Next +Doors," actually invited us to dine. + +"This afternoon," Kate said, "is the day of the Finlaysons' +garden-party. They are frightfully rich people--ironmongers in the +City; but you never saw such greenhouses and gardens as they have got! +Do put on your best dress," she said to Palestrina, "and look nice; +people here seem to dress so smartly for this sort of thing." + +I think, indeed, it was the very grandest party to which I have ever +had an invitation. Every one seemed to sail about in a most stately +fashion, in a gown of some rich stuff, and there was such an air of +magnificence about the whole thing that one hardly dared to speak above +a whisper. There was a marquee on the lawn, with most expensive +refreshments inside, and a great many waiters handing about things on +trays. Mrs. Finlayson spoke habitually--at least at parties--in an +exalted tone of voice, which one wondered if she used when, for +instance, she was adding up accounts or saying her prayers. It was +difficult to imagine that the voice could have been intended for +private use---it was such a very public, almost a platform voice, and +the accent was most finished and aristocratic. + +The Miss Finlaysons, in exquisite blue dresses and very thin shoes, +also sailed about and shook hands with their guests in a cold, proud +way which was very effective. Young Finlayson was frankly supercilious +and condescending; and there was a schoolboy in a tall hat, who was +always alluded to as "our brother at Eton." The excellent old papa of +the firm of Finlayson and Merritt was really the most human and the +least alarming of the whole party. He seemed quite pleased when +Palestrina, in her soft gurgling way, admired his greenhouses and +peaches, and he led her back to where his lady ("wife" is too homely a +term) was standing in a throne-room attitude on the lawn, and remarked +genially, "This young lady has just been admiring our little place, +Lavinia." + +"Indeed," said my sister, "it seems to me very charming, and----" + +"Hush, hush!" said Mrs. Finlayson playfully, but with an undercurrent +of annoyance in her party voice. "I won't hear a word said in its +praise--it is just a step to the West End." + +"What is the actual distance?" I began. + +It was old Finlayson who rescued me from my dilemma, and explained that +until five years ago they had had a very tidy little 'ouse at +'ampstead, and that this present location, although so magnificent, +was, in the eyes of his lady, really a stepping-stone to further +grandeur and a more fashionable locality. + +The Next Doors were introduced to us at this party, and we were much +struck by the fact that, although they seemed appropriately lodged in a +place well suited to them, and in a society certainly not inferior to +themselves, they, too, instantly began to apologize for living at +Clarkham. + +"One feels so lost in a place like this," said Mrs. Next Door; "and +although the boys are so happy with their tennis and things on Saturday +afternoons, I cannot help feeling that it is a great drawback to the +girls to live here." + +A band began to play under the trees, and Palestrina said to me, with +one of her low laughs: "I wonder if I shall begin to sail about soon? +Isn't it funny! They all do it, and now that the band has begun I feel +that I must do it too." + +The Miss Finlaysons came up at intervals and introduced young men to +her in a spasmodic sort of way. When one least expected it, some one +in a tall hat and a long frock-coat was placed before Palestrina, and a +Miss Finlayson said quite sharply, "May I introduce--Mr. Smith----" and +then as suddenly retired. There was nothing for it but to make a +little tepid conversation to the various Mr. Smiths, and Sonnenscheins, +and Seligmanns who were in this way presented, and we noticed that +almost every one of them began his conversation by saying, "Been going +out a great deal lately? Done the Academy?" And then moved off to be +introduced to some one else. + +The young men were very supercilious and grand, and we could only +account for it, on discussing the matter afterwards, by supposing that +they thought Palestrina was a Clarkham young lady, and that this was +their way of showing their superiority to her. One or two had +certainly said to us with a dubious air, "Do you live in the Pork?" But +it was not until the quieter moments that followed the stress of this +regal party that we at all realized that this meant, Did we live in +Clarkham Park. + +Kate Ward was very agreeable and pleasant to every one, and was voted a +nobody directly, and we heard it remarked that she had "no style." I +think Kate must have overheard the remark, for she became a little +nervous towards the end of the afternoon, and presently said, "Perhaps +we ought to be going?" But young Finlayson was here suddenly introduced +to her by one of his sisters, and Kate thought it necessary to make a +few remarks before saying good-bye. She said something pretty about +his sisters, who are undoubtedly handsome girls, and Mr. Finlayson said +bitterly, "Yes, a good many so-called beauties in London would have to +shut up shop if my sisters appeared in the Row. It is a beastly shame +they have got to live down here!" + +Kate said, "But I suppose they go to town occasionally?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Finlayson; "but they ought to have their Park hacks, +and do things in style. It is a shame the governor does not take a +house in the West End." + +My sister tried to look sympathetic. + +"However," said Mr. Finlayson more hopefully, "we have taken a bit of a +shoot in Scotland this year, so I hope the girls will have some +society. Well, it is a deer forest really, and a very fine house and +grounds," amended Mr. Finlayson, with a burst of candour. + +Mrs. Finlayson sailed up, and stooped to make a few remarks about the +gaiety of the past season to us. She said that she and her daughters +were in demand everywhere, and that the other night in a West End +theatre every lorgnette in the house was turned towards their box. +"Rupert, of course, has his own chambers in St. James's, and knows +every one." + +The Miss Finlaysons shook hands, and said good-bye with their usual +lofty condescension, and each said, "Going on anywhere?" to which we +could only reply humbly that we had no further engagements for that +afternoon. + +Kate praised the party all the way home, and then said, with a burst of +feeling: "Oh, how I do wish I were a swell! I know it's wicked, but I +would snub one or two people." + +The next morning, being Sunday, we went to church, and the feeling of +equality with the rest of mankind which this gives one was very +refreshing after the magnificence and social distinctions about which +we had been learning so much during the last few days. But even in +church one may notice how superior some families in Clarkham are to +others. The pew-letting of the church seems to have been conducted on +principles other than those recommended in Holy Writ. Richer +folk--those with gold chains, for whom we learn precedence should not +be accorded--occupied the front pews, furnished with red cushions and +Prayer-Books with silver corners, while the humbler sort were +accommodated with seats under the gallery. The Finlaysons sailed in +rather late, with a rustle of their smart dresses, and kneeled to pray +on very high hassocks, their elbows just touching the book-board in +front of them, their faces inadequately covered with their +tightly-gloved hands. The Next Doors had a pew half-way up the middle +aisle. The day was hot, and the clergyman, a small devout-looking man, +very earnest and really eloquent, was guilty sometimes in moments of +excitement of dropping aitches. This of course may have been the +result of the hot weather. It was something of a shock to notice that +the little Next Doors--terrible children, of high spirits and +pugnacious dispositions--were allowed to giggle unreproved at each +omission of the aspirate on the part of the preacher. The Next Doors +overtook us on our way out of church, and two of the pugnacious +children, having dug each other with their elbows, and fought round me +for permission to walk home with me and talk about the war, threw light +upon their behaviour in church by remarking with smiling +self-satisfaction, "Papa says we ought always to giggle when Mr. Elliot +drops his aitches, to show that we know better...." Little brutes! + +We spent a lazy afternoon under the brown hawthorn tree on the little +lawn, and Thomas drove down to see Palestrina, and good Kate Ward put +forth her very best efforts to give us a sumptuous cold supper. We +found, to our surprise, that nightingales sing down here, and we sat on +the lawn till quite late listening to them. Mr. and Mrs. Ward slipped +their hands into one another's in the dark, and appeared to be most +happy and contented. + +"I am glad we came," said Palestrina that night, when Mrs. Ward had +quitted the room. "Dear old Kate!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +On Monday I went to see Dr. Fergus about my leg, and did not get a very +good report of it. + +We returned from Clarkham on one of the hottest days I ever remember, +and found Mrs. Fielden waiting for us in the hall. + +"Every one seems to have come over to hear about your London visit," +said Mrs. Fielden lightly, "for I found Mr. Ellicomb and Maud Jamieson +here when I came in." + +She began pouring out tea for us both as she spoke, and she signalled +something to Palestrina, who replied as she stooped down to cut some +cake, "Another operation--yes, four or five weeks in bed at least." + +"I sent Maud and Mr. Ellicomb home together," said Mrs. Fielden, +smiling. "He, poor man, is in a great state of mental perturbation, +for it seems that he has heard that in South Africa pigs are fed upon +arum lilies, and that so delicate is the flesh of the pork thus +produced that some flower-growers in the Channel Isles are cultivating +arum lilies for the purpose of feeding pigs, and to produce the same +delicious pork. He was so agitated that he got up from his chair and +walked up and down the room, repeating over and over again, 'Arum-fed +pork! Monstrous, monstrous!' I really did not know how to comfort +him, so I sent him home with Maud Jamieson, which seemed to please him +very much." + +"And you," I said, "following the Jamieson train of thought, have been +saying to yourself ever since, 'Is there anything in it?'" + +"She certainly had a soothing effect upon him," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"Then," said I, "the second stage has been reached. When all the +Jamiesons are married, I think I shall feel that romance is over." + +"I know they have been to tea at the farm," said Mrs. Fielden, "because +Mr. Ellicomb talked so much about his blue china, and Maud said a +woman's hand was needed in the house." + +"I wonder," I said, "what will be the special objection that Maud will +raise when she becomes engaged to Mr. Ellicomb? He is not called +Albert; he does not wear a white watered-silk waistcoat; his hair is +certainly his own; and his mother is dead, so it cannot be said that he +too closely resembles her." + +One of the objections raised by Maud to a candidate for her hand, was +that he was far too like his mother--a really delightful woman--but +Maud declared, with tears, that she could never really look up to a man +who was so like his mamma. + +"At present," said Mrs. Fielden, "the blue china seems to be all in his +favour; but one cannot feel sure that it will not be an obstacle later +on, or Mr. Ellicomb's High Church principles, perhaps, may prove a +deterrent to her ideas of perfect happiness." + +"I wish," said Palestrina, "that Margaret's affairs were more settled. +This summer has been a trying one for her." + +"Oh, I forgot to tell you," said Mrs. Fielden, "that that was one of +Maud's reasons for coming over to see you. She told me that Mr. +Swinnerton is coming to pay them a visit. He has written, it seems, to +make the offer himself, and Maud says she thinks it will be all right +now." + +Mrs. Fielden was in one of her most light-hearted moods. After the +heat of the day there came a delightful coolness, and she stayed +chatting till nearly dinner-time, and then decided that she would +remain to dinner if we should ask her to do so. + +"I have three dear old sisters-in-law staying with me," said Mrs. +Fielden, "and they will doubtless drag all the ponds for my body." + +"Won't they be anxious about you?" asked Palestrina. + +"Perhaps," said Mrs. Fielden, raising her pretty eyebrows in the old +affected way; "but then they will appreciate me so much more when I +come back to them from the grave." + +We sat out on the lawn after dinner till it was quite dark, and only +Mrs. Fielden's white dress was visible in the gloom. For some reason +best known to herself she put off her wilful mood out there in the +gloom of the garden. She was not regal, not even amusing, only +charming and full of a lovely kindness. Half the conversation between +her and Palestrina began with the words, "Do you remember?" as they +recalled old jokes and stories. Then her ever-present gaiety broke out +again, and she laughed and said: "I believe I am becoming reminiscent. +Why doesn't some one sit upon me, or tell me they will order the +carriage for me if I really must go? But it is heavenly here in the +cool--and in heaven, you know, we shall probably all be reminiscent." + +Ten o'clock struck from the tower of the church down below in the +village, and Mrs. Fielden said that now she really must go, or she +would find the sisters-in-law saying a Requiem Mass for her; and +Palestrina went indoors to order the carriage. + +"To-morrow," I said, "I am going to have my last dissipation. I am +going to the Traceys' tea-party." + +"I am certainly going too," said Mrs. Fielden. "I believe I am getting +as gay as the Miss Traceys themselves, though I can't help remarking +that no one who goes to these tea-parties ever seems to be amused when +they get there." + +"Judging from my own standard of what I find amusing," I said, "I +should be inclined to say that Stowel never enjoys itself +extravagantly. Our neighbours never refuse invitations to even the +smallest party; but the pleasure that they get from them, if it exists +at all, is carefully concealed." + +"I have felt that myself," said Mrs. Fielden. "I really don't begin to +enjoy them till I get home." + +"I believe you always enjoy yourself," I said resentfully. + +After a little time Mrs. Fielden said wistfully, "You don't think there +is only a certain amount of happiness in the world, do you, Hugo? And +that if one person gets a great deal, it means that another will get +less?" + +She asks one questions in this way sometimes, as though one were a +superior being who could dispel her perplexities for her. + +"Probably," I said, "you know ten thousand times more about the subject +than I do. You are happy, and I philosophize about it. Tell me which +of us is most fitted to give a lecture on the subject?" + +I thought Mrs. Fielden was going to say something after that, for she +stretched out her hand in a certain impulsive way she has got, and gave +mine just one moment's friendly pressure in the dark. And then +Palestrina came back to say the carriage was at the door, and Mrs. +Fielden said "Good-night." + + +I remember two things about the Miss Traceys' party--first, that Mrs. +Fielden was not there, for one of the old sisters-in-law was ill +suddenly, and she could not leave her; and the other thing I remember +about it is that it was the last occasion on which I ever saw Margaret +Jamieson look pretty. + +There have been some strange innovations in tea-parties ever since Mrs. +Taylor gave hers to meet The Uncle, and sent out visiting-cards instead +of notes. Instead of having tea in the dining-room, all sitting round +the table, as used to be the custom, it seems that dressing-tables are +often brought down from upstairs and extended across the window. These +are covered with white tablecloths, and behind them two maids stand and +wait. The dressing-tables are called the "buffet," and both tea and +coffee are provided, suggesting the elegance and savour of London +refreshments. This is distinctly pleasing, though it is felt that a +single cup of tea drunk while standing has not got the comfort of +former old-fashioned days. Miss Belinda lives on at the little cottage +with the green gate; and through the kindness of the General a lady has +been found to wait upon her, and take her out to these small gaieties +which she loves, and she sits shaking her poor, weak head, and +muttering, "Glory, glory, glory!" It does not occur to her to stay at +home during her period of mourning, and it is acknowledged on all sides +that she does not miss Lydia much. The General has not come to stay +with the Taylors again. In a long letter which he wrote to me after he +left he said he would probably never come back to the place, and at the +same time he thanked me in courteous, old-fashioned phraseology for +being with him through what he called "one of the dark days that come +sometimes." He would never see Miss Belinda, in spite of the many kind +things he did for her; and I always feel that he resented the poor +creature's long illness and weak, silly ways--which was only natural, +no doubt. + +The Vicar was present at his sisters' tea-party, "although," as Miss +Ruby explained to me, "it is not as though this were an evening +entertainment. My sister and I often give these little routs without +him. Still, a gentleman is always something of an ornament at a party." + +There were seven Jamiesons present, and two of them, Margaret and Maud, +offered, in their usual friendly way, to walk home with Palestrina and +me. Maud, one feels sure, engaged Palestrina in confidences directly; +and Margaret whispered in a shy way to me, "Do you mind coming round by +the post-office? I am expecting a letter." So we walked round by the +High Street, and Margaret told me that Tudor had had to give up his +visit to them, but that he was writing. + +So we went into the post-office, and Margaret had her letter handed to +her across the counter by the post-mistress, upon whom she bestowed a +radiant smile. When we got outside she opened it and read it without a +word; and then, quite suddenly, she gave a cry as though some one had +struck her, and she handed the letter to me, and said, "Oh, Hugo, read +it!" And I read:-- + + +"I am sure you will be surprised when I tell you that I am going to be +married; it will explain to you why it was that I was unable to fulfil +my promise to come to see you. But sudden though my engagement to Miss +Lloyd has been--very sudden, much more sudden indeed than I ever felt +that such a serious step as marriage would be undertaken by me--I +cannot but feel that it is for my happiness. Some day I hope you will +make Miss Lloyd's acquaintance; she is staying with my mother just now, +and she is already a great favourite. I cannot but feel that having +seen so much of you and of your family last summer, and during your +stay in London, that I may have raised expectations which I find myself +unable to fulfil; but I am quite sure that a man's first duty is to +himself in these matters, and that he should not undertake matrimony +until he is thoroughly convinced it is for his happiness. Had I not +met Miss Lloyd, I may say that my intentions to you were of the most +serious nature, and I know that I have the power in me to make any girl +happy. We shall live with my mother for the first year, and then I +hope to settle somewhere near London, where it will be nice for me to +get into the fresh air after my work in the City. + +"Yours very truly, + "TUDOR SWINNERTON. + +"_P.S._--Miss Lloyd and I are to be married next month in St. Luke's +Church, quite near here." + + +I handed the letter back to Margaret, and we never spoke the whole way +home. And that was the last day I ever saw Margaret Jamieson look +pretty. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +After the operation on my leg, I was laid up for a long time, and when +I got about again, Palestrina and Thomas were married. Thomas has +lately come into his kingdom in the shape of a lordly castle in +Scotland, and for the life of me I can't say whether or not Palestrina +hastened her wedding because the doctor ordered me to the North. If it +was so, my sister's plans were frustrated by the fact that Thomas's +ancient Scottish seat was pronounced uninhabitable by a sanitary +surveyor, just as we proposed entering it under garlanded archways and +mottoes on red cotton. Our old friend Mrs. Macdonald, hearing of our +dilemma, very kindly invited us to stay with her while Palestrina and +Thomas looked about for some little house that would take us in till +their own place should be ready. The finding of the little house +occupied some days, owing to the powers of imagination displayed by +people when describing their property. One lady, to whom Palestrina +wrote to ask if her house were to be let, replied, "Yes, madam; this +dear, delightful, pretty house is to let;" and she pointed out in a +letter, some four pages long, all the advantages that would accrue to +us if we took it, ending up with the suggestion, subtly conveyed, that +by taking the house we should be turning her into the street, but that +she would bear this indignity in consideration of receiving ten guineas +a week. + +Palestrina went to see it, and returned in the evening, almost in +tears, to say that the house was a semi-detached villa, and that she +had found the week's washing spread out on the front lawn. + +Thomas said that the railway companies ought to pay a percentage on all +misleading advertisements which induce people to make these useless +journeys. + +The following day they returned from another fruitless expedition, +having been to see a very small house owned by the widow of a +sea-captain, with a strong Scottish accent. I have often noticed that +the seafaring man's one idea of well-invested capital is house +property--perhaps he alone knows how precarious is the life of the sea. +And I shall like to meet the sailor who has invested his money in a +shipping concern. The widow's house was so very small that it was +almost impossible to believe that it contained the ten bedrooms as +advertised in my sister's well-worn house-list. So small indeed were +the rooms, that Palestrina said she felt sure that they must have been +originally intended for cupboards. Nevertheless, the rent of the house +was very high, and my sister ventured gently to hint this to the lady +of the house--the sea-captain's widow with the strong Scottish accent. + +"Of course, it is a very nice house," she said politely; "but the rent +is a little more than we thought of paying for a house of this size." + +"I ken it's mair than the hoose is worth," said the old dame; "but, ye +see, I'm that fond o' money--aye, I'm fearfu' fond o' money." + +Palestrina and Thomas spent most of their days in their search for a +suitable house, and Mrs. Macdonald spends the greater part of her life +house-keeping, so I was rather bored. What it actually is that +occupies my hostess during the hours she spends in the back regions of +her house I have never been able to discover. But the fact remains +that we have to get up unusually early in the morning to allow time for +Mrs. Macdonald's absorbing occupation. An old-fashioned Scotswoman of +my acquaintance used to refuse all invitations to leave the house on +Thursdays, because, as she explained, "I keep Thursdays for my creestal +and my napery." The rest of her week, however, was comparatively free. +At Mrs. Macdonald's, housekeeping is never over. And so systematic are +the rules and regulations of the house, so many and so various are the +lady's keys, that one finds one's self wondering if the rules of a +prison or a workhouse can be more strict. The _Times_ newspaper +arrives every evening after dinner; by lunch-time next day it is locked +away in a cabinet, so that if one has not read the news by two o'clock, +one must ask Mrs. Macdonald for the keys; this she does quite +good-naturedly, but I have never discovered why old newspapers should +be kept with so much care. On Saturdays an old man from the village +comes in to do a little extra tidying-up in the garden. At nine +o'clock precisely, Mrs. Macdonald is on the doorstep of her house, with +a cup of tea in her hand, and a brisk, kindly greeting for John, and +she stands over the old man while he drinks his tea, and then returns +with the empty cup to the house. + +Tuesday is the day on which her drawing-room is cleaned. At half-past +nine precisely on Monday evenings Mrs. Macdonald says, "Monday, you +know, is our early-closing night;" and she fetches you a candle and +dispatches you to bed. Mrs. Macdonald and her housemaid--there seem to +be plenty of servants to do the work of the house--walk the whole of +the drawing-room furniture into the hall, Mrs. Macdonald loops up the +curtains herself, and covers some appalling pictures and the +mantelpiece ornaments with dust-sheets. At ten o'clock she removes a +pair of housemaid's gloves, and an apron which she has donned for the +occasion, and says, "There! that's all ready for Tuesday's cleaning;" +and she briskly bids her housemaid good-night. + +On Tuesdays we are not allowed to enter the drawing-room all day, and +on Wednesdays the same restrictions are placed upon the dining-room. +Indeed, on no day in the week is the whole of the house available, and +upon no morning of the week has Mrs. Macdonald a spare moment to +herself. After breakfast, when Palestrina and Thomas have gone, she +conducts me to the morning-room, and placing the _Scotsman_ (the +_Scotsman_ is used for lighting the fires, and is formally handed to +the housemaid at six o'clock in the evening) by my chair, she says, "I +hope you will be all right," and shuts the door upon me. During the +morning she pops her head in from time to time, like an attentive guard +who has been told to look after a lady on a journey, and nodding +briskly from the door, she asks, "Are you all right? Sure you would +not like milk or anything?" and then disappears again. With a little +stretch of imagination one can almost believe that the green flag has +been raised to the engine-driver, and that the train is moving off. At +lunch-time she is so busy giving directions to her servants that she +hardly ever hears what one says, and the most interesting piece of news +is met with the somewhat irrelevant reply, "The bread-sauce, please, +Jane, and then the cauliflower." Turning to one, she explains, "I +always train my servants myself.... What were you saying just now?" + +"I saw in the newspaper this morning," I repeat, "that H.M.S. ---- has +foundered with all hands." + +"In the middle of the table, if you please," says Mrs. Macdonald; "and +then the coffee with the crystallized sugar--not the brown--and open +the drawing-room windows when you have finished tidying there.... What +were you saying? How sad these things are!" + +The house is charmingly situated, with a most beautiful view over river +and hills; but I really think my preoccupied friend hardly ever has +time to look out of the window, and that to her the interior of a +store-cupboard with neatly-filled shelves is more beautiful than +anything which the realms of Nature can offer. + +When Palestrina is present Mrs. Macdonald gives her recipes for making +puddings and for taking stains out of carpets, and she advises her +about spring-cleanings and the proper sifting of ashes at the back +door. Mrs. Macdonald was brought up in the old days, when a young +lady's training and education were frankly admitted to be a training +for her as a wife. She belonged to the period when a girl with a taste +for music was encouraged to practise "so that some day you may be able +to play to your husband in the evenings, my dear," and was advised to +be an early riser so that the house might be comfortable and in order +when her husband should descend to breakfast. And now that that +husband, having been duly administered to, is dead, Mrs. Macdonald's +homely talents, once the means to an end, have resolved themselves into +an end, a finality of effort. Mrs. Macdonald was brought up to be a +housekeeper, and she remains a housekeeper, and jam-pots and +preserving-pans form the boundary line of her life and the limit of her +horizon. + +Eliza Jamieson would probably tell us that even though Mrs. Macdonald's +soups and preserves are excellent, these culinary efforts should not be +the highest things required of a wife by her husband, and that +therefore they are not a wife's highest duty, even during the time that +her husband remains with her. And she would probably point out that +servants and weekly bills, and an endeavour to render this creature +complacent, have ruined many a woman's life. And I laugh as I think of +Palestrina's rejoinder, "But then it is so much pleasanter when they +are complacent." + +One certainly imagined that the late Mr. Macdonald must have been well +looked after during his life, and it was something of a shock to me to +hear the account of his death, from the lodgekeeper's wife, one +afternoon when she had come in to help with the cleaning, and was +arranging my dressing-table for me. The rest of my bedroom furniture +was then standing in the passage, and I had found my cap in one of the +spare bedrooms, and all the boots of the house in the hall. + +"He was a rale decent gentleman," said Mrs. Gemmil, "and awfy patient +with the cleaning. But I am sure whiles I was sorry for him. He was +shuftit and shuftit, and never knew in the morn whichna bed in the +hoose he would be sleeping in at nicht. And we a' ken that it was the +spring-cleaning, when he was pit to sleep ower the stables, that was, +under Providence, the death o' him. He had aye to cross ower in the +wat at nicht-time, and he juist took a pair o' cauld feet, and they +settled on his lungs." + +The day following my chat with Mrs. Gemmil was the day Palestrina found +a house such as she had been looking for all along. The day was +Saturday. Overnight she had announced her intention of being away all +day, and Mrs. Macdonald had said delightedly that that would suit her +admirably. "I do like the servants to have the entire day for the +passages on Saturday," she remarked. + +Even when the day dawned wet and cloudy, Palestrina had not the courage +to suggest that she should stay at home, and thereby interfere with the +cleaning of the passages. + +The house she had found seemed to be everything that was desirable, and +Palestrina returned in an elated frame of mind. "It is far away from +everything," she said, "except the village people and the minister, and +the 'big hoose,' as they call it, which some English bodies have rented +for the autumn." + +"It can't be far from the Melfords," said Thomas, pulling out a map. +"Yes, I thought so; they are just the other side of the loch." + +"We 'mussed the connaketion' on our way back," said Palestrina; "and I +do believe there's nothing a Scottish porter enjoys telling one so much +as this." + +"I hope I am not unduly disparaging the railway system of my native +land," said Thomas, "when I say that if you go by steamer and by train +it is the remark that usually greets one, and it is always made in a +tone of humorous satisfaction." And Thomas, with an exaggerated +Scottish accent, which he does uncommonly well, began to tell me of +their adventures. "We had a rush for the train," he said, "and I told +an elderly Scot, who couldn't have hurried if he had had a mad bull +behind him, to run and get us two first-class tickets. He walked +slowly down the platform, muttering, 'Furrst, furrst,' and then he +opened the door of a third-class carriage and shoved us in, saying, +'Ye've no occasion to travel furrst when there's plenty of room in the +thurrds.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +To get to the house one takes a steamer to the head of the loch, and +from there old Hughie drives one in the coach, and deposits one at the +cross-roads where the turf, short and green, is cut into the shape of a +heart. On this green heart, in the old days, the girls and men of the +glen were married. They stood side by side on the upper part of the +heart, which is indented, and the minister stood at the point and +wedded the pair. Here one leaves the coach, and a "machine" must take +one on to the little house. A red creeper grows up its white walls, +and from the terrace in front of the house one looks down upon the +little Presbyterian church and the village, and these in their turn +look on to the loch and the hills on the other side. + +The people in the village afford one a good deal of amusement, but we +have observed that the conversation is always about theology or the +Royal Family. There is one story of the late Queen and the crown of +Scotland which I have heard repeated many times with the utmost gravity +in the Highlands. + +"A gran' wumman," say the old villagers, "but we were no gaein' tae gie +her the croon o' Scotland. Na, na. She would hae liked fine tae hev +gotten it, but we were no gaein' tae gie her the croon o' Scotland. +Ye'll mind when she went tae Scotland, it was the foremost thing that +she spiered tae see. And when they showed it tae her, 'I would like +fine tae pit it on ma heid,' said she. But they said '_No_.' And syne +she says, 'Wad ye no let me haud it in ma haund?' But they say '_No_.' +'Weel,' she says, 'juist haud it aboon ma heid, and let me staun' +underneath it.' But they said, '_No_.'" + +The villagers formed our only society until Evan Sinclair's tenants, +who were known as "the folk at the big hoose," came to call upon us. +It was very difficult indeed, and for some time we could hardly believe +that these were the Finlaysons whom we had met at Clarkham, and who, we +now remembered, had told us that they were going to take a place in +Scotland. The change in the Finlaysons is startling and complete. It +has taken them exactly two months to become Highlanders, and it is not +too much to affirm that now the whole family may be said to reek of +tartan. Only Mrs. Finlayson is unaffected by her life in the +Highlands, although she says that she knows it is fashionable to be +Scottish. "And so written up as it is at present," she adds; "and all +the best people taking the deer-moors. Papa and the girls think all +the world of Scotland. But no one can say it is comfortable, I'm sure." + +The Finlaysons have a piper, and young Mr. Finlayson wears a kilt, and +I think they are, without exception, the most strenuous supporters of +Scottish customs I have ever met. The young ladies, who had always +been associated in our mind with silk dresses and thin shoes, came to +call clad in the very shortest and roughest tweed skirts that I have +ever seen; and old Mr. Finlayson, whose mother was a Robinson, has +discovered that that is pretty much the same as being a Robertson, and +that therefore, in some mysterious way, he is entitled to wear the +Macdonald tartan. They asked us to tea in a very polite and friendly +way, and the old rooms were shown off to us with a good deal of pride. +The architecture of the house seemed to throw a reflected glory on Mr. +Finlayson. + +"Pure Early Scottish," he said, pointing to the tall narrow windows +with their shelving ledges. + +"So dangerous," said Mrs. Finlayson, "for the servants cleaning the +windows." + +The drawing-room vases were all filled with heather, and the room smelt +of damp dog and herrings. The Miss Finlaysons came in to tea in thick +skirts and brogues, and they wore tartan tam-o'-shanters very +becomingly placed upon their heads, and affixed to their hair with +ornamental bonnet-pins. They ate cake with damp red hands, and seemed +to pride themselves upon the fish-scales which still clung to their +skirts, and imparted the rather unpleasant odour which I noticed in the +room. Young Finlayson in his kilt showed a great expanse of red knee, +and told tales of remarks made to him by the boatmen, which he +considered equal to anything in Ian Maclaren's books. + +Mrs. Finlayson took us out after tea to see the garden and tennis-court +and the game-larder. "I always like a walled garden," she said; "it is +so stylish." Mr. Finlayson found a reflected glory even in the loch +and the hills, and he waved his fat hand towards them, and said: "We +are able to do you a nice bit of view here, aren't we?" + +"I tell papa," said Mrs. Finlayson, "that he will ruin the girls for +anything else after this. The only thing we regret is the want of +society. However, a few of the best people round about have called, +and we are giving quite an informal little dinner-party to-morrow +night." + +Mrs. Finlayson then invited us to dinner, and when we hesitated, on the +plea that we should have one or two friends with us, Mrs. Finlayson, in +the most hospitable manner possible, said that she always had a +"profusion on their own table," so there was nothing for it but to +accept her invitation. + +The dinner was one of those rather purposeless feasts which are given +in the country, and the Finlaysons' neighbours who had been bidden to +it bore upon their faces the peculiarly homeless look which one +observes in the expressions of one's men friends especially, when they +go out to a rural dinner--the look that says as plainly as possible +that they are moving about in worlds not realized nor found +particularly comfortable, and that they would infinitely prefer their +own armchairs at home. + +The minister took Palestrina in to dinner, and occupied himself +throughout the evening by putting the most searching questions to her +of an inquisitive nature. He asked how many servants we had, whether +we were satisfied with our cook, where we came from, and why we had +come. And he did it all with such keen interest and intelligence that +Palestrina admitted that she really had felt flattered rather than +provoked. His friend Evan Sinclair, who, having let his house to the +Finlaysons, is living on a little farm close by, contradicted +everything that the minister said, and the two quarrelled the whole +evening. + +Old Tyne Drum, who lives a good many miles away, but who with his wife +had already been to call upon us, brewed himself the very largest +glasses of whisky-toddy that I have ever seen, even on a big night at +mess, and he proposed healths and drank the steaming mixture throughout +dinner in a very commendable national spirit. His piper, who stood +behind his chair, refused at last to pour out any further libations, +and I heard him mutter to himself, "Ye'll no need tae say that Sandy +Macnichol ever helpit ye tae the deil." + +Young Finlayson is always very jocose upon the subject of whisky, as +befits his ideas about the Highlands; and even the Misses Finlayson, in +their faithful loyalty to all things Scottish, were quite pleased with +Tyne Drum's performance, and would have scorned to look as though a +whisky-drinking laird was a novelty to them. + +Mrs. Finlayson told Thomas, in a very severe manner, and in her +platform voice which I always find so impressive, that she considered +intemperance a sin, but that that was what came of all this nonsense +about Scotland. She gave him quite a lecture upon the subject, as +though he, being Scottish born, was responsible for the old laird's +backsliding. + +When the unfortunate old gentleman came into the drawing-room to join +the ladies and sat down next him, Mrs. Finlayson looked at Thomas as +though she thought he was in some sort to blame for this behaviour. + +Tyne Drum dropped heavily on to the ottoman, and I heard him say, "Do +you know my wife?" + +"Yes," replied Thomas. "I have met her several times since we came to +the cottage." + +"Hoo old should ye think she was?" (Tyne Drum is always broadly Doric +in his speech.) Thomas calculated that the lady must be a long way the +wrong side of sixty, and humbly suggested that she might perhaps be +forty-five. + +"Presairve us!" said the Laird. "This lad here says my wife is +forty-five!" He began to sob bitterly, and, putting his handkerchief +to his eyes, cried, "My pretty wee Jeannie, my bonnie wee wife, wha +daurs tae say ye was forty-five!" + +Thomas was so sorry for him and for what he had done that he did his +best to cheer him up by telling him that what he had meant to say was +twenty-five; but Tyne Drum was inconsolable, and went to sleep with the +tear-drops on his cheeks. + +When we got home in the evening Palestrina said, "We are far behind the +Finlaysons in all things Scottish. I shall buy a Harris tweed skirt, +and you and Thomas must buy something too." So we drove down in the +coach to the ferry on a very wet and windy day to cross over to the +"toon." + +Our place on the coach was shared with a Scot, who was the most +truculent defender of the Free Kirk I have ever met. He argued every +single point of his creed, and became quite abusive at last, as he +denounced the "Established" and all who belong to it. + +The wind was high as we drove in the coach, and the rain fell heavily +once or twice, but the voice of the gentleman rose higher and higher as +the rain descended. Hughie, the coachman, chided him with no stint of +words, and at every burst of eloquence on the passenger's part he +remarked, "Anither worrd, and I'll pit ye in the ditch!" + +This method of treating the argumentative passenger suggested the +possibility of the coach being overturned in order to punish him, and +Palestrina grew alarmed. + +"I do hope," she said to Hughie, "that you will remember that we are +not all Wee Frees, and that therefore we do not all require the same +treatment meted out to us." + +The guard at the back of the coach here showed his head over the pile +of boxes covered with tarpaulin on the roof, and called out, "Pit him +inside the coach wi' Mrs. Macfadyen, and she'll sort him! She'll gie +him the Gaelic!" + +Hughie chuckled and remarked, "Ay, she's the gran' wumman wi' her +tongue!" And during the rest of the drive his threats to the eloquent +passenger took the form of, "Anither worrd, and I'll pit ye in wi' Mrs. +Macfadyen!" + +There was a marked improvement in our friend's behaviour after this. +He was in great difficulties when he came to get into the ferry-boat. +It was easy enough to throw his first leg over the side while holding +on by a thole-pin, but the balance required to convey the remaining +limb into the boat was quite out of his power. And having made one or +two ineffectual hops on the beach with the shore-loving member, he +turned to the boatmen, and said gravely,-- + +"Lift in my leg, Angus! Juist gie me a hand wi' ma last leg!" + +Palestrina chose the tweed for our coats and her skirt, and then we +walked up to the Castle and called on the Melfords, who told us that +Mrs. Fielden was coming to stay with them. They sang her praises, as +most people do; she has heaps of friends. Then Palestrina did some +shopping at the "flesher's" and the baker's, and we went down to the +ferry again--a boy behind us laden with queer-looking parcels +containing provisions, and Alloa yarn to knit into stockings, and +paper-bags with ginger-bread cakes in them. When we got in and sat +down under the brown sail of the heavy boat, the two sailors remained +in their places, and did not show the least sign of getting under way. +Thomas said to the elder of the two men, a fine old fellow with a face +such as one connects with stories of the Covenanters,-- + +"Why don't you get off?" + +And the old man replied unmoved, "I'm waiting for the Lord." + +Palestrina, who is sympathetic in every matter, put on an expression of +deep religious feeling, and we thought of the Irvingites, and wished +that we had Eliza Jamieson with us "to look it up." As far as we knew, +the Irvingites wait to perform every action until inspired to perform +it. We had heard that in the smallest matter, such as beginning to eat +their dinner, they will wait until this inspiration, as I suppose one +must call it, is given to them. The question then arose, how long +would it be before we would be likely to get under way? The two +sailors sat on without moving, and the elder of them cut a wedge of +tobacco and was filling his pipe, preparing to smoke. We wondered if +the Irvingites often waited for an inspiration in this contented way. +The big red-funnelled steamer from Greenock was, meanwhile, preparing +to depart. It had poured its daily output of tourists for their +half-hour's run in the town, which time they employ in buying mementoes +of the place, and we had hurried down to the sailing-boat to escape +this influx. + +Thomas endeavoured to assist inspiration by saying it didn't seem much +use waiting any longer, and that as time was getting on, did not our +friend (the gray-bearded Covenanter) think that it was time to be +moving? The Covenanter wrinkled up his nose, which already was a good +deal wrinkled, and gazed upwards at the sail, or, as we interpreted it, +to Heaven. Palestrina pressed Thomas's hand, and said gently, "Don't +urge him, dear; we shall get off in time." And the younger sailor +said, "We are waiting for the Lord." So we knew that they were both +Irvingites, and the only scepticism that intruded itself upon us was +this: Suppose inspiration never came, how should we get home? + +The steamer now began to move away from the pier, with a great churning +and hissing of water, and seething white foam fizzing round the staples +of the pier. A band began to play on board, and the paddles broke the +water with a fine sweep. Two youngsters on shore, to whom "the +stimmer" is a daily excitement, then called out in shrill, high voices, +"There's the Lord! She's aff!" + +The _Lord of the Isles_ had moved off on her return journey to +Greenock, and the notes on Scottish religion which Palestrina was +carefully preparing were hastily destroyed. The _Lord_ had departed, +and we sailed across the loch without waiting any longer. + +When we got home, we found the minister awaiting us in the +drawing-room, he having suggested that as we were not at home, he had +better stay till our return. I found out, in the course of +conversation, that he is a distant relation of old Captain +Jamieson--the Jamiesons' father--so we had quite a long talk about our +friends. The minister is one of those Scots whose national +characteristics are always stronger than individual character. Take +away his nationality from him, and Mr. Macorquodale would be nothing at +all. His qualities being entirely Scottish, it is only logical to +assume that if Mr. Macorquodale were not Scottish, he would be +non-existent. + +Palestrina came out on to the little terrace where we were sitting, and +I explained to her that the minister was a cousin of the Jamiesons. + +"How interesting!" said Palestrina in her usual kind way. + +"Why?" said the minister. He has sandy hair and very round gray eyes, +and looks like a football player. + +"Oh, I don't know," said my sister; "it's always interesting, isn't it, +to find that people are related?" + +"Every one must have some relations," said Mr. Macorquodale; "and if my +choice had been given me, I do not think I should have chosen those +five gurrls." + +"We like them so much," Palestrina said, smiling. + +"Is that the truth?" said Mr. Macorquodale; and she replied firmly that +it was. + +"Um umph!" he said, as though considering a perfectly new problem, and +then added: "Well, each man to his taste. How many of them have got +husbands?" + +I replied that Kate was married and Gracie engaged. + +"Gracie?" said the minister simply. "Was that the one with a nose like +a scone?" + +We considered Grade's nose silently for a moment, and then admitted +that perhaps the simile was not unjust. + +"How did she get him?" said the minister presently. + +The minister has a curious way of eating, which fascinates one to look +at, while all the time there is a distinct feeling that an accident may +happen at any moment. When tea was brought out he accepted some, and +filled his mouth very full of cookie, stowing into it nearly a whole +one at a time, and then raised his tea-cup to his lips. He persists in +keeping his spoon in his cup as he drinks, and he prevents it from +tumbling out by holding it with his thumb. A long draught of tea is +then partaken of with a gurgling sound, and the minister swallows +audibly. It is almost impossible to prevent one's self watching this +process of eating and drinking during the whole of tea-time. For it +seems so uncertain whether the spoon will remain in its place, and the +cookie and the tea. + +The minister is a very young man, with the pugnacity of an Edinburgh +High School boy, and with the awful truthfulness which distinguishes +his nation, but which is accentuated in such an alarming degree in a +minister of the Kirk. + +"I sent Kate a scent-bottle when she married," he remarked. "I won it +at a bazaar for sixpence, so it was not expensive. I don't disapprove +of raffles," he added, although he had not been asked for this piece of +information--"that is, if ladies do not cheat over it, as they often +do." Palestrina bristled at the insinuation, and the minister consoled +her by saying: "Women sin in such wee ways--that's what I can't +understand about them. However," he said, "I have never known a woman +steal a thing yet that a man has not reaped some benefit by it. I can +quote authority for my views from Adam and Eve downwards, to the +newspapers of yesterday. I am engaged to be married myself, and I find +the subject of feminine ethics absorbing. Good-bye," he said +presently; "I hope you will not be disappointed with the clothes I hear +you've ordered." + +Alas! the tweed coat and skirt in which my sister hoped to rival the +Miss Finlaysons proved an utter misfit, and she drove round the loch on +the following day to take the garments back. Palestrina had prepared a +severe reprimand for the tailor, but the old man took the wind out of +her sails by stopping in amazement at the first word of annoyance which +she uttered, and standing in the middle of the little fitting-room, +with a yellow tape measure round his neck, and a piece of chalk in his +hand, he shook his gray beard at us with something of apostolic +fervour, and thus addressed us:-- + +"I'm amazed at ye! Do ye ever consider the system of planets, and that +this world is one of the lesser points of light in space, and that even +here there are countless millions of human beings, full of great +resolves and high purposes. Get outside yourselves, ladies and +gentlemen, and realize in the magnitude of the universe, and the +immeasurable majesty of the planetary system, how small a thing is the +ill-fit of a jacket." + +We felt much humbled, Palestrina and I. And it was only when we were +driving home afterwards that it even dimly suggested itself to us that +we had right on our side at all. "After all," Palestrina said, "the +coats did not fit; I really do not think he need have lectured us so +severely." + +At the time, however, I confess that our feelings were distinctly +apologetic. + +One wonders how a tailor who advanced the planetary system as a reproof +to complaining customers would get on in London, and one realizes that +English people have a great deal still to learn. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +When Mrs. Fielden came to stay at the Melfords we saw a good deal of +her. Their yacht used to steam up in the early morning, and they would +take us off for a day's cruise on the loch or for a trip round to Oban. +Mrs. Fielden used to sit on deck with a big red umbrella over her head +and a white yachting gown on, and seemed serenely unconscious that she +was looking very pretty and very smart. My sister tells me she never +feels badly dressed till she meets Mrs. Fielden. + +The Melfords have very pleasant people stopping with them always, and +there are very jolly little parties on board their yacht. Mrs. +Fielden, however, is in her most provoking and wilful mood. Every day +it is the same thing--laughter and smiles for every one. But she has +absolutely no heart. All the beautiful, kindly things she does are +only the whim of the moment. They bespeak a generous nature, as easily +moved to tears as to laughter; but she loves every one a little, and +probably has no depth of affection or constancy in her. Lately, she +has added another provoking habit to the many she already possesses. +She exaggerates her pretence of having no memory, and indeed it may be +she has not any. + +When I left home, rather a wreck as regards health, and drove to the +station in Mrs. Fielden's luxurious carriage, it was her hand that +piled the cushions, as no one else can, behind me. And the last thing +I saw was her smile as she waved her hand to me from my own door. + +Last week, when we met again at the Melfords', she nodded to me in a +little indifferent sort of way. She sat under a big cedar-tree on one +of the lawns, and laughed, and talked a sort of brilliant nonsense the +whole afternoon. + +By-and-by I said to her--probably clumsily, certainly at the wrong +time--"I never half thanked you for being so good to me when I was +ill;" for she had come in like some radiant vision, day after day, in +her beautiful summer gowns and rose-garlanded hats, and had sat by my +couch, reading to me sometimes, talking to me at others in a voice as +gentle as a dove's. Why will she not allow one to admire her? One +only wants to do so humbly and at a distance. It was so pleasant up +here in the Highlands, with the dear memory of those long days to look +back upon. But Mrs. Fielden ruthlessly robbed me and sent me away +empty the very first day of our meeting. + +"Was I kind to you? I don't believe I was, really. If I was, I'm sure +I forget all about it. Let me see, how long were you ill? It can't +have been a bit amusing for you," and so on, laughing at my dull face +and serious ways. + +And this has gone on for a whole week. At the Melfords' parties she +selects, quite indiscriminately, and in a royal way which she has, this +man or that to be her escort or her companion. Now it is a mere boy +whom she bewilders with a few of her radiant smiles, and now one of her +elderly colonels whom she reduces to a state of abject admiration in a +few hours. One man goes fishing with her, and another rows her on the +loch. A third, hearing that Mrs. Fielden's life will be a blank if she +does not possess a certain rare fern which may be found sometimes on +the hillsides of Scotland, spends a whole day scrambling about looking +for it, and returns triumphant in the evening. Mrs. Fielden has +forgotten that she ever wanted it. When we sulk she does not notice +it. When her colonels offer her their fatuous admiration she goes to +sleep, and then, waking up, is so very, very sorry. "But you can't +have amused me properly," she says, "or I should have stayed awake." +When any one tries by avoiding her to show displeasure, Mrs. Fielden is +oblivious of the fact. And when the penitence and boredom which +immediately ensue when one has deprived Mrs. Fielden of one's company +have led to ending the one-sided quarrel with an apology, it is only to +find that Mrs. Fielden has been blissfully unconscious of one's +absence. Summer and the air of the Highlands seem to be in her veins. +Her happiness, like the quality of mercy, is twice blessed, making her, +through her talent for enjoyment, diffuse something beautiful and gay +about her. + +After all, why should she care? Life was evidently made to give her +pleasure. Why should a woman always be blamed for being loved? Mrs. +Fielden's charm is of the irresponsible sort. To live and to be lovely +are all one ought to demand of her, and at least she is without vanity. +She seems to be entirely unconscious of the admiration she receives, or +perhaps she is simply indifferent to it. + +The Melfords adore her, and allow her to see it. They say no one knows +her as they do. Probably we all feel that. This is one of Mrs. +Fielden's most maddening charms. We have all found something in her +that seems to belong to ourselves alone. + +Lately I have discovered that she loves to wander up the hillside by +herself, and listen to the plover's solitary cry, and sit in the +sunshine with no companion near her. And one wonders why so frivolous +a woman should care for this, and why when she comes back amongst us +again her eyes should wear the wistful look which covers them like a +veil sometimes. + +When she left the Melfords' Palestrina asked her to come and stay with +us; and rather to my surprise, Mrs. Fielden came. It seems to me she +must find us a very dull lot after the Melfords' cheery house-parties. +She arrived late one afternoon in the yacht, and the whole party came +up to dine with us before returning to the castle. The little house +was taxed to its utmost capacity, even to provide teacups for our +guests. But the Melfords have a happy knack of seeming to find +pleasure in everything. Mrs. Fielden's gaiety was infectious, and her +lightheartedness knocked all one's serious world to pieces, while her +beauty seemed almost extravagant in the plain setting of the little +house. + +She began to give us some of her experiences in Scotland. "Do you +know," she said, putting on a charming gravity and lifting her eyebrows +in a provoking, childish way, "that every single person in Scotland +gets up at five o'clock in the morning? and all the coaches and +excursions start at daybreak, and when you want to hit off what they +call a 'connection' anywhere, you have to get up in the middle of the +night?" + +"I am afraid you had a horribly early start to join the yacht the other +day," said Lord Melford, "but it was the only way we could manage to +get to the Oban Gathering in time." + +"I was there before you," said Mrs. Fielden; "and I had to rouse up the +people at the inn to take me in and give me breakfast. Even they were +not up at that hour! But after ringing twice, such a nice boots came +and opened the door to me, and brought me some breakfast." + +"The gathering was very good this year," said Lord Melford. "Why +didn't some of you come? By-the-bye, your friend Mrs. Macdonald was +there. Indeed, it was she who insisted on taking Mrs. Fielden to the +Gaelic concert." + +"Gaelic is rather an alarming language," said Mrs. Fielden. "I always +feel as if I were being sworn at when I hear it." + +One of Mrs. Fielden's admirers who had reached the savage and sarcastic +stage here interposed, and said: "Poor Mrs. Fielden! I saw you at the +concert. How did you manage to sit throughout a whole evening between +Mrs. Macdonald and a wall?" + +"Mrs. Macdonald is quite a dear!" said Mrs. Fielden. (Whom, in the +name of Fortune, would Mrs. Fielden not find charming?) + +"I don't know what you and Mrs. Macdonald can have found to talk +about," said Palestrina, laughing. + +"We discussed the training of servants most of the time," said Mrs. +Fielden simply. + +Every one laughed; and my sister, with a recollection of our visit to +Mrs. Macdonald, said at once, "Did she give you any useful household +recipes?" + +"It is very odd that you should have asked me that," said Mrs. Fielden. +"Do you know, that the whole of to-day I have been puzzling over a +letter which I received this morning? I did not know the handwriting, +and it was merely headed, 'Two recipes for boiling a ham, as +requested.' Now, I cannot really have asked Mrs. Macdonald for recipes +for boiling a ham, can I?" + +We thought it highly probable that she had done so, and had done it, +too, with an air of profound interest; and I think we said this, which +Mrs. Fielden did not mind in the least. + +"There is something rather horrible, don't you think so," she said, "in +knowing how a thing is cooked?" + +The minister, who is assiduous in calling, walked up after tea with his +friend Evan Sinclair; and as we were already far too large a party for +dinner, we asked them to stay too. + +Mr. Macorquodale has frequently described himself to us as a grand +preacher. He and Evan Sinclair live quite close to each other, and +they are friends whose affection is rooted and maintained in warfare. +For the minister and Sinclair to meet is one strenuous contest as to +who shall have the last word. Politeness is not a strong motive with +either of them--indeed, one would imagine that from the first it has +been ruled out of place. The friendship and the warfare began at the +Edinburgh High School years ago, and both the friendship and the +warfare have lasted without intermission ever since. They meet every +day, and often twice a day; they fish together, and in the winter they +spend every evening with each other. Scottish people seem to have a +sneaking liking for those who dislike them, and a certain pity mingled +with contempt for those who show them favour and affection. The +friendship of Evan and the minister is based upon feelings of the most +respectful admiration for their mutual antipathy. + +To keep alive this laudable and self-respecting warfare is the highest +effort of genius of both Mr. Sinclair and the Reverend Alexander. To +foster it they apply themselves to what they call "plain speaking" +whenever they meet, and they conceal as much as possible from each +other every single good quality that they possess. + +The minister, who is a big man, always talks of Evan as "Wee Sinkler," +and sneers at "heritors;" and Evan invariably addresses Macorquodale as +"Taurbarrels," a name which he considers appropriate to the minister's +black clothes and portly figure. + +"The minister," said Evan, when he had walked up the hill to see us, +"has been reading Josephus. We shall have some erudite learning from +the pulpit for the next Sunday or two." + +The minister was announced a moment later, and, before taking the +trouble to shake hands with us, he looked Evan Sinclair over from top +to toe, and remarked, "Ye're very attentive in calling upon ladies." + +"I was just talking about your fine preaching," said Evan. + +"I admit my gift," said the minister; "but I fear that I very often +preach to a deaf adder which stops its ears." He nodded triumphantly +at us, and it then occurred to him to shake hands. + +Evan said at once that he got a better sleep in kirk on Sundays than he +got during the whole of the week. + +"Evan Sinclair," said the minister, "if I find you sleeping under me +I'll denounce you from my pulpit, as a minister has the right to do." + +"And we'll settle it in the graveyard afterwards," said Evan dryly. +"And ye're not in very good training, my man." + +Palestrina broke in gently to discuss a theological point which had +puzzled us for several Sundays. On each Lord's Day as it came round we +had prayed that we might become "a little beatle to the Lord." +Doubtless the simile is a beautiful one, but its immediate bearing upon +our needs was not too grossly evident. And it seemed almost dangerous +to those who believe in the efficacy of prayer to put up this petition +in its literal sense. We had decided for some time past that we should +ask Mr. Macorquodale what it was exactly for which we made petition, +when we prayed that we might become "a little beatle to the Lord." + +"Similes," said Palestrina in her serious way, "are beautiful +sometimes, but we can't quite understand one of the references that you +make in your prayers on Sundays." + +"We have prayed so fervently," said Mrs. Fielden, "without perhaps +entirely understanding the portent of the petition, that we might +become 'a little beatle to the Lord.'" + +The thing was out now, and our curiosity, we hoped, would be gratified. +There was a pause which suggested that our hearers were puzzled, and +then Mr. Sinclair put a large pocket-handkerchief into his mouth and +roared with laughter, and Mr. Macorquodale turned to my sister, who was +trembling now, and remarked in an awful voice that he wondered that we +didn't understand plain English. + +Of course she apologized, and an explanation came afterwards from Evan +Sinclair, who told us that the minister's prayer was that we--the +church--might become a little Bethel, and that Beethel was his Doric +pronunciation of the word. + +It began to rain on Sunday, as it often does in Scotland--Nature itself +seems to put on a more serious expression on the Sabbath--and it +continued raining for four whole days. The rain came down steadily and +mercilessly, shutting out the view of the hills, and turning the whole +landscape into a big damp gray blanket. "I suppose," said Mrs. +Fielden, who is never affected by bad weather, "that we shall all get +very cross and quarrel with each other if the rain continues much +longer." + +"I think I shall write a number of unnecessary letters to absent +friends," said Palestrina. "And Mr. Ellicomb and Sir Anthony Crawshay +will arrive to-morrow, and we must tell them to amuse us." + +It was a disappointment to find that Mr. Ellicomb's nerves and temper +were seriously affected by the weather, and in moments of extreme +depression his low spirits vented themselves in a rabid abuse of the +Presbyterian Kirk. I cannot understand why Ellicomb should elect to +wear a brown velvet shooting-jacket, and a pale-green tie, and neat +boots laced half-way up his legs, in Scotland. He went to the village +church in the rain on Sunday, and he has not been the same man since. + +"Don't call it a church!" he cried as we went homewards up the hill, +where the road was a watercourse and each tree poured down moisture. +He seemed to think that he had done his soul an irreparable injury by +entering a Presbyterian kirk. + +Anthony said, "Oh! don't be an ass, Ellicomb." But even on Monday +morning poor Ellicomb was still suffering from the weather and the +effects of his churchgoing. + +"Can he be in love?" said Palestrina; "and if so, as the Jamiesons +would say, which is it?" + +Palestrina is prettier than ever since her marriage. She still says, +"Oh, that will be delightful!" to whatever Thomas and I suggest, and +she never seems to have any occupation except to be with us when we +want her, and to accede to everything we say, which of course, from a +man's point of view, is a very delightful trait in a woman. + +"I rather wonder," said Palestrina, "that I have not heard from any of +the Jamiesons lately. They are usually such good writers." + +"Depend upon it, there is a great bit of news coming," said Thomas. +"The Jamiesons always maintain a dramatic silence just before +announcing some tremendous piece of intelligence." + +Thomas had hardly spoken the words before a telegram was handed to +Palestrina, containing the following enigmatical words:--- + + +"Engaged Cuthbertson. Greatly surprised. Deeply thankful.--ELIZA." + + +This rather mysterious message was followed, later in the day, by a +letter four pages in length, and marked on the outside, for some reason +best known to Eliza, "Immediate." The letter explained more fully the +cause of Eliza's thankfulness, and who it was that was greatly +surprised. + +"If you had told me," wrote Eliza, "six weeks ago that I should now be +engaged to Mr. Cuthbertson, I should hardly have believed it. I really +had not a notion that he cared for me until he actually said the words. +Is it not too strange to think that perhaps, after all, Maud may be one +of the last of us to get married?" + +Here followed the usual descriptive catalogue, so characteristic of the +Jamiesons' letters. "Mr. Cuthbertson looks like a widower, though he +is not one." Strangely enough, I could never think of any other words, +when I came to know Mr. Cuthbertson, that described him so well as +these, and I can only account for it by saying that the man's deep +melancholy and the crape band that he habitually wore round his hat +must have given one the feeling that at some time Mr. Cuthbertson had +suffered a heavy bereavement. "I have only known him," Eliza's letter +went on, "for six weeks, but even that time has shown me his worth. He +has a very straight nose and a black beard, and his forehead is +distinctly intellectual. I met him first at Mrs. Darcey-Jacobs', +where, as you know, I had gone to stay to catalogue their library, and +to do a little typewriting for her. You know, of course, that she has +become a member of the S.R.S., and their library is a _mine of +information_. + +"At first I was afraid to say, or even to allow myself to think, he +showed me any preference, but Maud thought from the first that he was +struck, and I asked her not to appear at all until everything was +settled, for you know how attractive she is. But I really don't think +that even then I thought that there was anything serious in it." (For +an intelligent woman Eliza's letter strikes one as being strangely +lacking in concentration.) "I have just been to the meeting of the +Browning Society--our first appearance in public together--and I read +my paper on "The Real Strafford," but I could hardly keep my voice +steady all the time. I wear his own signet-ring for the present, but +we are going up to London next week, when he will buy me a hoop of +pearls. I am sure that you will be glad to hear that he is comfortably +off. When the right man comes preconceived objections to matrimony +vanish, _but it must be the right man_." + +Palestrina said that she was "thrilled" to hear of Eliza's engagement, +because an engagement was always thrilling, and she instantly went to +tell the news to Mr. Ellicomb. She told me afterwards that when she +had said that one of the Jamiesons was engaged Mr. Ellicomb became +suddenly very pale in his complexion, and exclaimed, in a most anxious +tone of voice, "Which?" + + +The cold weather has set in very suddenly, and already there is a +sprinkling of snow on some of the distant hills. The robins still sing +cheerily, but the gulls on the shore, flying over the yellow seaweed, +call to each other plaintively in the gray of the early twilight. The +heavy-winged herons stand in an attitude of serious thought for hours +on the cold rocks; then, as if suddenly making up their minds to +something, they stretch out their red legs behind them, and flop with +large wings over the waters of the loch. The red Virginian creeper has +begun to drop its leaves regretfully, after a night or two of white +frost, and the dahlias hang their heads, heavy with the moisture which +their cups contain. The sun wakes late in the mornings now, but shines +strong and warm when it does get up. Cottage lights and fires burn +cheerily o' nights, and within the cottages the old folks and the young +ones draw round the fires and speak eerily of wraiths and whaurlochs, +and some will tell of death-lights which they have seen on the lonely +shore road. The herring fishers who sail away in the early twilight +wear good stout jerseys now, and red woollen "crauvats" which the +"wumman at hame" has knitted. The _Lord_ has sailed away to Dunoon to +lay up for the winter, and the shepherds have gone away down South "to +winter the hogs." The shepherds' wives sit alone in the little +hillside cottages away up on the face of the brae, and "mak dae" with +their slender money till their men come home again. + +The old women in the village have begun their winter spinning, and the +tap, tap, tap of the treadle on the floor gives a pleasant sound as one +passes outside on the dark road. Old men tell tales of snow in the +passes in winter-time, and of death on the bleak hillsides, and some +wife, shuddering, will say, "Ay, I mind I saw his corp-licht the very +evening he was lost." And then they tell tales of fantasy and signs +and premonitions of death. + +The Finlaysons are going to wind up their very successful autumn in the +Highlands by giving what they insist upon calling a gillies' dance, +though probably the revels will mostly be indulged in by their large +retinue of English servants. Good-natured old Finlayson has more than +once said that he hopes we shall all come to the gillies' dance, and +that it will give ourselves and our guests a chance of seeing some +Highland customs. A good many of us come to Scotland most years, and +have seen gillies and pipers before, but our good-natured neighbours +certainly out-distance any one I know in their Highland sympathies. + +They invited us to dine with them before the dance should begin, and +six of us went, feeling very like the Jamiesons, and resolved that when +we got home we should never put a limit to their numbers when we send +them an invitation again. + +We talk of returning home at the end of next week, and Mrs. Fielden and +our other two guests are leaving on Monday, I believe. + +Mrs. Fielden looks much prettier in the Highlands, I think, than +anywhere else. Young Finlayson is in love with her, and I believe has +offered her his heart and the ironmongery business with it; but I think +of all her lovers Anthony Crawshay is the one she likes best. He is +the only one for whom her moods never alter, and to whom she is always +gracious and charming and sweet. Perhaps it is in a quiet, less +radiant way than that in which she treats others, but it is with an +unvarying loving-kindness which I have not seen her bestow elsewhere. +And Anthony Crawshay is a good fellow--one of the best. + +Old Mr. Finlayson actually donned a kilt for the gillies' dance; young +Finlayson also wore the national dress, and Thomas tells me that they +have sported the Macdonald tartan, and wants to know why. Old +Finlayson met us at the door of his baronial hall in a clannish, feudal +sort of way, and seizing his glengarry bonnet from his head he flung it +down upon the oak settle in the hall, and exclaimed in hearty accents, +"Welcome to the Glen." The Misses Finlayson wore sashes of royal +Stuart tartan put plaid-wise across their shoulders. Mrs. Finlayson +was dressed in a very regal manner which I cannot attempt to describe, +and her platform voice was in use throughout the entire evening. + +Ellicomb said the dance was barbaric, but Thomas enjoyed the evening +immensely, and so did Crawshay, who said in his hearty way, "The +Finlaysons did us uncommonly well," and shouted out, "Not at all bad +people, not at all bad." + +After dinner old Finlayson showed us all the pictures in the hall by +the light of a long wax taper which he held above his head, and he +pointed out the beauties of the house in a proprietary way, even to +Evan himself, to whom the place belongs. Evan Sinclair, in a shabby +green doublet, accepted all Mr. Finlayson's wildest statements about +his own house with a queer, humorous grin on his face, and submitted to +being patronized by the Miss Finlaysons, whose commercial instincts, no +doubt, caused them to despise a young man who was obliged to let his +place. + +One of the Highland axioms which the Finlaysons have accepted is that +"a man's a man for a' that," and they shook hands with every one in an +effusive way, and condescended to a queer sort of familiarity with the +boatmen and keepers about the place. The daughters of the house, with +flying tartan ribbons, swung the young gillies about in the intricate +figures of the hoolichan, and talked to them with a heartiness which +one would hardly have thought possible of the Clarkham young ladies. +The Finlaysons had a large number of English guests staying in the +house for the dance. These all made the same joke when the pipes began +to play. "Is the pig being killed?" they asked, and looked very +pleased with their own ready wit. + +Red-headed Evan Sinclair carried his old green doublet and battered +silver ornaments very well, and his neat dancing was in pleasant +contrast to the curious bounds and leaps of the Finlaysons. Old Mr. +Finlayson spent his evening strutting about in a kindly, important +fashion, and in making Athole Brose after a recipe supplied by Tyne +Drum, who superintended the brewing of it himself. + +I hope I am not fanciful when I say that the pipes when I hear them +have to me something irresistibly sad about them, and that they conjure +up many fantasies in my head which I am half ashamed to put down on +paper. They seem to me to gather up in their bitter sobbings all the +sorrows of a people who have suffered much and have said very little +about it. There is the cry in them of children dying in the lonely +glens in winter-time, when the wind howls round the clachan and the +snow fills the passes. One almost sees the little procession of +black-coated men bearing away a tiny burden from the cottage door into +the whiteness beyond, with its one heaped-up patch of brown earth on +either side of the little grave. They wail, too, of the Killing Time, +when the Covenanters were crushed but never broken under persecution; +and one seems to see the defiant gray-haired old men, with their +splendid obstinacy, unmoved by threats--not defiant, but simply +unbreakable. Thinking of the Covenanters as they pass slowly before +one to the sighing of the pipes, one wonders if it is possible to +punish by death the man who is content to die. + +The tuneful reeds sob out, too, the story of the Prince for whom so +many brave men bled, and they tell again of the days of song, and of +noble legends and deeds of daring when the nation spent its passionate +love on its King. "Come back! come back!" The desolate cry of the +times. Almost one hears it sounding across the hills, and it seems to +me that all that it is so hard to speak, so hard even to look, may +perhaps be told in music. And I think loyalty and love speak very +beautifully in the old Jacobite airs. + +Again, as Evan's piper marches up and down in the moonlight playing a +lament, the romance of life seems lost in the hardness of it, its +stress and its loss. "Hame, hame, hame!" the pipes sob forth, crying +for the homes that are sold to strangers, and for the hills and the +glens which pass away from the old hands. It is "Good-bye, good-bye," +an eternity of farewells. And still, wherever life is most difficult, +wherever comforts are fewest and work is most hard, in the distant +parts of the world are the Scottish exiles. But I know that all the +world over the sons of the heather and the mist, in however distant or +alien lands they may be, feel always, as they steer their way through +life, that there is a pole-star by which they set their compass; and +that some day, perhaps, they or their children may steer the boat to a +haven on some rocky shore, where the whaup calls shrilly on the moors +above the loch, and the heather grows strong and tough on the hillside, +and the peat reek rises almost like the incense of an evening prayer, +against a gray, soft sky in the land of the North. + +I suppose that even in a diary I have no business to mix this up with +an account of the Finlaysons' dance. + +Palestrina came up to me after conscientiously dancing reels with +Thomas, looking very pink and pretty, and thoughtful of me, as usual. + +"Don't stay longer than you feel inclined," she said. "I told them to +come for you in the dog-cart, and to wait about for you between twelve +and one." + +"I will take a turn down on the shore," I said, "and have a cigar, and +then I will come back and see how you are getting on." + +Palestrina gave me my crutch, and I went down towards the loch, which +looked like a sheet of silver in the moonlight, and I found Anthony and +Mrs. Fielden sitting on a garden bench beneath some wind-torn beeches +by the shore. To-night there was not a breath of air stirring, and +Mrs. Fielden had only thrown a light wrap round her. + +"Have you come to tell me that I am to go in and dance reels with old +Mr. Finlayson?" she said. "It is really so much pleasanter out here. +Do sit down and talk to Sir Anthony and me." + +She would never have allowed one to know that one was in the way, even +if one had interrupted a proposal of marriage. + +Anthony made room for me on the bench, and said heartily, "I am awfully +glad to see you able to sit up like this, Hugo. Why, man, you're +getting as strong as a horse!" + +"Oh. I'm all right again," I said. "I'll begin to grow a new leg +soon. And the first thing I mean to do when that happens is to dance +reels like the Finlaysons." + +"I believe I ought to be going in to supper now with Mr. Finlayson," +said Mrs. Fielden. "Does any one know what time it is? He said he +would 'conduct me to the dining-hall' at twelve o'clock." + +"It is a quarter past now," said Anthony, looking at his watch in the +moonlight. "Don't go in, Mrs. Fielden. Wait out here, and talk to +Hugo and me." + +But old Finlayson in his kilt had tracked us to our seat underneath the +beech-trees, and he took instant possession of our fair neighbour, and +told us to follow presently. He thought all the supper-tables were +full just now. + +"We shan't eat everything before you come," said hospitable old +Finlayson, walking away with his beautiful partner on his arm. + +Mrs. Fielden was dressed in white satin, with some pretty soft stuff +about her, and she wore some white heather in her hair. + +"What a good sort she is!" said Anthony in a loud voice, almost before +Mrs. Fielden was out of hearing. + +It wasn't, perhaps, the most poetical way in which he could have put +it, but one didn't want or expect Anthony to express himself poetically. + +"Utterly spoilt!" I replied, because at that moment I happened to be +feeling supremely miserable, and I did not want Anthony to know it. + +"Not a bit," he replied; "and you know that as well as I do, old chap." + +"Allow me, Anthony," I said, "to be as savage as I like; it is one of +the privileges of a cripple." + +"Oh, blow cripples!" said Anthony. "You will be shooting next autumn, +man." + +"And what will you be doing?" I said. After all, we have been pals all +our lives, and I think Anthony might tell me about it if there is +anything to tell. + +"Oh, I'll be shooting too, I suppose," said Anthony. + +We smoked for some time in silence. + +And then Anthony began, and said that he had enjoyed himself amazingly +up here in the North, and he went on to say a good word for every one. +Old Finlayson had been a brick about his shooting and deer-stalking, +and it was beastly hard luck that I hadn't been able to come too. The +minister wasn't a bad fellow, even when he was jocose; and Evan +Sinclair was one of the best; and so on. + +"What shall you be doing when you go back, Anthony?" I said, harking +back to my old question, and hoping for more information than I +actually asked for. "Are you going straight home?" + +"I'll be at the first shoot at Stanby. Shall you be there?" + +"I'm afraid not," I said. "I haven't learned to do cross-stitch yet, +and I'm sure all the women would think me a great bore, sitting about +in their morning-rooms all day. Except Mrs. Fielden, of course! Mrs. +Fielden would probably persuade me into thinking that the only thing +that made her house-party successful, or saved herself from boredom, +was the presence of a lame man in the house." + +"I don't think you are quite just about Mrs. Fielden, Hugo," said +Anthony, moving rather resentfully on the garden bench. + +"That doesn't matter much," I replied. "One voice will not be missed +from the general chorus of praise that follows Mrs. Fielden wherever +she goes." + +"No; but still----" began Anthony; and then he stopped, and we smoked +on for some time without speaking. "You see," he began at last, "she +is the best friend I ever had." He did not lower his voice, because I +suppose Anthony finds it impossible to do so, but went on steadily: +"You see, I once cared for a little cousin of hers, and she died when +she was eighteen. I don't think anybody ever knew about it, except +Mrs. Fielden. But she knows how much cut up I was, and I suppose that +is why she is so nice to me always." + +"I'm awfully sorry!" I said. + +"I never meant to speak about it," said Anthony in a brisk, cheerful +voice. "Oh, don't you bother about it, Hugo! I mean I'm awfully keen +about hunting, and I have an excellent time, only I don't suppose I +shall ever care for any one else." + +"Thanks for telling me, Tony." + +"I wouldn't have said anything about it," said Anthony, "if it hadn't +been for what you said about Mrs. Fielden. Y'see, she has been so +awfully good to me, and I don't think you quite understand all she is +really." + +"Why, man," I cried, "I love her with every bit of my heart! And I +worship her--how does one say one worships a woman?--as if she were the +sun!" + +And I think that was the very first moment that I told myself that I +loved Mrs. Fielden. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +The minister and Evan Sinclair came to say good-bye; the minister has +accepted our approaching departure with his usual philosophy. "You +would soon tire of this place in the winter-time," he said. "And even +looking at it from the other point of view, I believe that summer +visitors should not prolong their stay above a few months. I admit +that we have enjoyed your sojourn amongst us; but were you and your +sister to become residenters in the place, our intercourse would have +to be reconstructed from the foundation." The minister crossed his +legs, and, without being pressed to continue the subject, he went on: +"There is a certain conventionality, not to say forbearance, admitted +and allowed between friends with whom one's acquaintance is to be +short; but there is a basis stronger than that upon which any lengthy +friendship must be made." + +"And that basis?" I asked. + +"That basis, I take it," said the minister, "should be a +straightforward disregard for one another. I do not believe in +politeness between near neighbours; it cannot last." + +"I had hoped," said Palestrina, pouting a little, "that you would all +miss us, Mr. Macorquodale." + +"We shall miss you," said the minister quickly, but with judgment. "We +shall see the merits as well as the demerits of the case. For +instance, one of your friends cost me a sovereign for a favourite +charity of hers." + +Evan Sinclair said very kindly, blinking his fair eyelashes in a shy +way, "Well, I know I shall miss you. The place will seem very dull +with only Alexander and me left in it." + +"_I_ shall have my wife," said the minister brutally. + +"Yes," said Sinclair; "and her mother! You have kept that pretty dark +from us, Taurbarrels." + +"It is only a visit," said Mr. Macorquodale shortly. And he went on in +a truculent tone, "And I need not have her unless I want to." + +"I hear she is strict," murmured Evan. "I hope you will be allowed to +look out of the window on the Sabbath, my man." + +"I am master in my own house," said Mr. Macorquodale magnificently. + +"Believe me," said Evan, "that's a courtesy title, supported by no +valid claim, and still less precedent. A man never has been master of +his own house when there is a mistress in it. I remember when my +brother got married he had just your very ideas, and he gave his wife +the keys of the linen-press and the store-cupboard, 'But the rest of +the bunch,' he said, 'I keep to myself.' And he put them all in his +pocket. It was not six months after that," said Evan, "that I went to +stay with them, and I heard him ask my sister-in-law if she would mind +his having two pocket-handkerchiefs on Sundays." + +Palestrina and I were alone, for Ellicomb had left us a few days +before, and we hear from the Jamiesons that he is a daily visitor at +their house. Thomas and Anthony were out shooting, and Mrs. Fielden +had gone for a walk over the hills. + +"I have a thousand things to do," said Palestrina, when Evan and the +minister had departed. + +"I also have a thousand things to do," I replied. + +"Don't tire yourself," said Palestrina. "What are you going to do?" + +"I am going to re-write my diary," I said. + +"But, my dear," said Palestrina, "that would be the work of months." + +"I am only going to correct all the mistakes I have made in it," I +replied; and I took my book and a pen, and went and sat in the little +room on the ground-floor which they call my den. + +We once had an old aunt, Palestrina and I, who kept a diary all her +life, and when any of the relatives whom she mentioned in its pages +came to die, she used to go through all the back numbers of her journal +and insert affectionate epithets in front of the names of the deceased. +For instance (my aunt's existence was not marked by any thrilling +events), the entry would perhaps be as follows: "Maria was late for +breakfast this morning. In the afternoon she had her singing-lesson, +and afterwards we did some shopping, when Maria tried on her new gown." +But the amended entry after Maria's death would be, "Our darling Maria +was (a little) late for breakfast this morning; in the afternoon she +had her singing-lesson"--and here would probably be a footnote praising +Maria's voice--"afterwards we did some shopping, and"--Maria struck +out--"my sweet girl tried on her new gown." Any one's death, or even a +successful marriage of one of the family, would cause her to revise and +correct her diary in this way, and she used to fan the wet ink with a +piece of blotting-paper to make it dry black, and thus prevent +posterity from knowing that the words written over the lines were an +afterthought induced by subsequent events. + +It was manifestly an unfair way of keeping a diary. But I can claim +her example and hereditary taint as an excuse for my own dishonesty +this afternoon. I read through my diary with a sense of utter shame, +and wherever I found, for instance, that I had said that Mrs. Fielden +was frivolous, or even that she raised her eyebrows in an affected way, +I corrected the misstatement by the light of the magnificent discovery +I had made that Mrs. Fielden was faultless, and that I loved her. Oh, +the beauty of this woman and her blessed kindness! the cunning with +which she conceals her unselfishness, and her ridiculous attempts at +pretending she is frivolous or worldly. + +Alas! there were so many misstatements to correct, and so many dear +adjectives to fill in, that I was not halfway through my task before +Mrs. Fielden herself tapped at the window and looked in. + +I believe I must have grinned foolishly, but what I wanted to do was to +stretch out my arms to the beautiful vision, framed in the hectic +Virginian creeper round the window, and call out to her to come to me. + +Mrs. Fielden came in for a minute, and said with the adorable lift of +the eyebrows: "I have been educating a pair of young boots by walking +through all the bogs on the hillside. Listen, they are quite full of +water." She raised herself on her toes with a squelching sound of the +leather, and gave one of her joyous soft laughs. + +"You must change directly," I said, with an idiotic sense of +proprietorship. + +"When I have done so I think I shall come and have tea with you," said +Mrs. Fielden. And of course then I knew that she had come home early +on purpose to have tea with me, and that probably she had given up +something else which she wanted to do, in order that she might sit by +me when I was alone--because of course I have found Mrs. Fielden out +now, and exposed her hypocrisy. + +Fortunately she took nearly a quarter of an hour to change her wet +boots, and this gave me time to ask myself why I was behaving like a +raving idiot, because I had found out that Mrs. Fielden was absolutely +perfect, and that I loved her. + +It was quite the worst quarter of an hour that I have ever spent, +because in it I had time to remember that I was a crippled man with one +leg, and that Mrs. Fielden was a beautiful young woman whom of course +every one loved, and that she owned an old historical place called +Stanby, and probably--I realized this also--that she would continue to +come over and sit with a dull man and bewilder him with her beauty and +her kindness only so long as he did not allow her to know the supremely +impertinent fact that he had fallen in love with her. + +I must plead ill-health, and a certain weakness of nerve which no doubt +always follows a surgical operation, for the fact that I turned round +and put my face in the pillows for a moment and groaned. + +Mrs. Fielden came in in my favourite pale-blue gown which she sometimes +wears when she changes her frock at tea-time. She came and took a seat +beside me, and as she never hurriedly plunges into a conversation we +sat silent for a time. The afternoon was darkening now, and the light +of a blazing fire leaped and played upon her pale-blue dress, and +turned her brown hair to a sort of red-gold. + +Mrs. Fielden thinks she is the only person in the world who can make up +a fire. And she is perfectly right. She arranged the logs with a long +brass poker, shifting them here and there, while her dear face glowed +in the light of the fire. She is not a luxurious woman, in spite of +being surrounded always by luxury. For instance, she stands and walks +in a very erect way, and I have never seen her stuff a lot of sofa +cushions at her back in a chair, nor lounge on a sofa. Her glorious, +buoyant health seems to exempt her from need of support or ease, and +her figure is too pretty for lounging. + +When she had finished arranging the logs she put down the poker and +looked at me with that dear kindliness of hers, and said in her pretty +voice, "What have you been doing with yourself this afternoon?" + +"The minister and Evan Sinclair came up to say good-bye," I said. + +"And since then?" + +I took my diary, which still lay on my knee, and hid it under the sofa +cushions. + +"Since then," I said, "I have been correcting--that is, writing my +diary." + +"Oh, the diary!" exclaimed Mrs. Fielden delightedly. "I had forgotten +about that!" + +"No, you hadn't," I said to myself. "It is only part of your wilful, +uncomprehendable, untranslatable charm that makes you pretend sometimes +that you have no memory. As a matter of fact, you knew from the first +that it would be a relief to an egotistical grumbler to get rid of his +spleen sometimes on blue ruled essay paper, and so you set him a task +to do, and you have often wondered since how he is getting on with it. + +"I think I must see the diary," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"That you certainly shall not," I said; and I pushed the book still +farther under the sofa cushions--just as if it was necessary to fight +with Mrs. Fielden for anything, or any use either! + +"I thought you promised," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"If I did I have changed my mind," I said firmly. + +"You know you mean all the time to let me see it," said Mrs. Fielden. + +"I know I do not mean to let you see it for even a minute of time," I +replied. + +One of Mrs. Fielden's special odd little silences fell between us. +"No," I said to myself. "I will _not_ say I am sorry. I will _not_ +say I have been a brute, I will _not_ feel a desire to comfort her, +even if her eyes have the wistful look in them." + +Mrs. Fielden sat still and looked into the fire. + +What unexpected thing will she do next, I wonder? Will she suddenly +burst out laughing, or will she turn and take every bit of manhood out +of me by smiling? Or shall I find, when I turn and look at her face, +simply that she has gone to sleep? + +Good heavens! What if she should be crying? + +In an agony of compunction I turned and looked at her; and Mrs. Fielden +not only smiled, but held out her hand for the book.... I rummaged +underneath the sofa cushions, and passed it over to her. She bent +forward till the firelight from the blazing logs fell full on the open +page, and she read every one of those corrected lines. She saw where I +had once put "affected" I had now put "beautiful," and for "frivolous" +I put a "lovely gaiety," and she read till she came to the last +correction of all. I had run a line through the words "Mrs. Fielden +came to sit with me," and had written over it, "My darling came to see +me----" + +Then Mrs. Fielden closed the book, and left her chair where she had +been sitting. She crossed the hearthrug quite slowly till she reached +my sofa. And then she kneeled down and took both my hands in her dear +strong ones, and looked at me with misty blue eyes, like wet +forget-me-nots. "But, Hugo dear," she said, "why did you not tell me +long ago?" + + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + _UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_ + + + BY Miss MACNAUGHTAN. + THE FORTUNE OF CHRISTINA M'NAB. + + + THE DUENNA OF A GENIUS. M. E. Francis. + OWD BOB. Alfred Ollivant. + EIGHT DAYS. R. E. Forrest. + LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET. Miss Braddon. + THE OCTOPUS. Frank Norris. + THE PIT. Frank Norris. + MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE, Etc. Booth Tarkington. + WOODSIDE FARM. Mrs. W. K. Clifford. + WHITE FANG. Jack London. + THE PRINCESS PASSES. C. N. & A. M. Williamson. + THE MAN FROM AMERICA. Mrs. H. de la Pasture. + SIR JOHN CONSTANTINE. "Q" + INCOMPARABLE BELLAIRS. A. and E. Castle. + IF YOUTH BUT KNEW! A. and E. Castle. + MATTHEW AUSTIN. W. E. Norris. + HIS GRACE. W. E. Norris. + THE AMERICAN PRISONER. Eden Phillpotts. + THE HOSTS OF THE LORD. Mrs. F. A. Steel. + THE LADY OF THE BARGE. W. W. Jacobs. + THE GOD IN THE CAR. Anthony Hope. + QUISANTE. Anthony Hope. + THE INTRUSIONS OF PEGGY. Anthony Hope. + THE KING'S MIRROR. Anthony Hope. + THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE. Sir G. Parker. + AN ADVENTURER OF THE NORTH. Sir G. Parker. + THE BATTLE OF THE STRONG. Sir G. Parker. + MARRIAGE OF WILLIAM ASHE. Mrs. Humphry Ward + HISTORY OF DAVID GRIEVE. Mrs. Humphry Ward. + ROBERT ELSMERE. Mrs. Humphry Ward. + CLEMENTINA. A. E. W. Mason. + THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne. + THE WAGES OF SIN. Lucas Malet. + +_Etc., Etc._ + +_NELSON'S LIBRARY._ + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Lame Dog's Diary, by S. 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